Zelenka sat at a bench in the makeshift lab. He sifted through the contents of McKay's backpack. He felt like was violating the other man's privacy, but they needed to know exactly what he had found on the planet. They were trying to work from Ford and Beckett's descriptions, but the young man was not a scientist and had been injured and Beckett had been much more focused on keep the injured Canadian alive than what the machinery around him was doing.

He pulled out the wrappers of several power bars and made a face, dropping them into the wastebasket. There were times that the Canadian was such a slob. He knew the man was hypoglycemic, as if anyone who was around him for more than five minutes didn't know that, but still—He shook his head and kept digging. He pushed around several more unopened power bars and a couple MREs before he found the man's notebook and the small portable scanner they had discovered. The notebook was stained and torn and he shook dirt from it. He frowned at the smudges on the scanner and wiped his finger across one of the rust colored marks and it rubbed off easily. He sniffed it and it had a faintly metallic smell and then it hit him.

Blood.

McKay's blood.

He set the scanner down gently and just stared at it.

He had stopped by the infirmary shortly after he had heard they had returned and McKay, Ford and Sheppard had been injured. He had not been prepared for the state of things when he got there. McKay—

He sighed and pushed his glasses up on his nose. He picked the scanner up and began to access the logs, but he couldn't stop thinking about the other scientist. Rodney lay down in the infirmary hooked up a ventilator looking much more like a corpse than the very alive, irritating, infuriating friend he was. He sighed. It just made everything so much more real. Yes, they were millions upon millions of light years from Earth, in a completely different galaxy, on a different planet than they had been born on. Yes, they had already been through more life and death crisis than most people would in several lifetimes, but it had never been this, real, just how far from home they were. Rodney was one of them. He was a scientist. He wasn't one of the military men. Yes, this was just a horrible accident, but things like that didn't happen to physicists!

He slipped his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. A friend. When did he start thinking about McKay as a friend? They had always been rivals. Even back in Russia working on the naquada generator technology, they had rarely crossed paths, but they had spared via memo for quite a while before finally meeting here. Rodney was brilliant, egotistical, overbearing, foul tempered and insecure, but brilliant. The only thing that kept him from being completely unbearable was his quick acerbic wit. He did have a good sense of humor. He also had an appalling childhood, which also explained a good deal about his personality problems.

He started working at making sense of the readings McKay had recorded and the hasty, jumbled notes he had taken. There defiantly was some kind of power source there, but it did not look powerful enough to be a ZPM, but still significant enough to be of interest. He checked the length of the log and was surprised by the size. It must have been running the entire time after Rodney had falling into the cavern. He quickly scanned through them until he got to the portion where Doctor Beckett had activated the chamber in which Major Sheppard had found him and Rodney.

He plugged a cable in between the device and his laptop and started downloading the information for more detailed analysis. He started the download when Doctor Weir's voice came across the intercom. "Doctor Zelenka?"

He crossed over to it and touched the control. "Zelenka here."

"Doctor, could you report to the control room."

He frowned. "I just started on the analysis of the information from Doctor McKay's scanner."

"It can wait. We need you up here right now."

He sighed and then answered. "On my way."

He took a moment to check the download and then hurried out of the room and through the corridors to the control room. He found Sheppard there with Weir and Groden. The Major looked pale and his arm tucked into a sling.

Weir had a serious look on her face. "Good, Doctor Zelenka, you're here. Major Sheppard is going to need you to go back with him to the Relarn's planet."

"Me?" he responded in shock and then cleared his throat. "Why me? I mean, what is it that you need me to do?"

"Beckett had to turn the Relarn's defense grid off so we could get everyone back in the puddle jumper," Sheppard explained. "We need to get that puppy back up and running so we don't leave those people defenseless to the Wraith."

Zelenka nodded. "I will need to finish going over the reading Rodney took before I'll be ready."

Weir nodded. "You'll have twenty-four hours before you'll be leaving."

"But—"Sheppard started but Weir cut him off.

"Doctor Beckett's orders. You were shot."

"Yeah, but I'm fine now. Just a flesh wound," he said, nodding toward his injured arm.

"A flesh wound or not, this is Doctor Beckett's call and not mine."

The Major gave a dramatic sigh and then looked over at Zelenka. "You've never been on a 'gate mission before, have you?"

He shook his head. "Technically, well, actually, no."

Sheppard sighed. "We'll get you p to speed," he told him.

"Doctor Weir," a voice said over the intercom.

Weir moved to the main consol and answered, "Yes, Carson."

"You wanted me to let you know when Rodney started to wake up."