Two weeks earlier...
"There you are," Major Sheppard snapped. "What the hell took you so long?"
"Sorry!" Rodney said as he jogged down the steps and joined his teammates in front of the Stargate. "I was just..."
"Forget it," Sheppard cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. We're already ten minutes late."
Rodney glared at him. "Well, if you didn't want to hear it, then why did you ask?"
Sheppard rolled his eyes and signalled for whoever was in the control room to start dialling the gate.
"Good luck, Major," Elizabeth called down from the balcony. "Try not to get into any trouble this time, huh? We need this alliance."
Sheppard turned to her with a wry smile and gave a casual salute. Then he turned towards Rodney. "I think she was aiming that last comment at you," he said, slapping Rodney in the stomach with the back of his hand.
"Me?" Rodney said in indignation. "What did I do?"
"Nothing," Sheppard returned. "Let's keep it that way, shall we?"
Rodney scowled at him as Sheppard sauntered towards the active Stargate. He stood rooted to the spot as Ford and Teyla followed their commander through, taking a moment to look up at Elizabeth.
She was still standing there on the balcony watching them leave, and she seemed puzzled by his hesitation. She shrugged and opened her hands as though she were asking him what was taking him so long.
Rodney couldn't tell whether Sheppard had been right about her last comment or not, so he just shook his head, lifted his hand in a brief wave, and then headed into the event horizon.
"God, you even took your sweet time coming through the gate," Sheppard greeted him on the other side. "What's up with you today?"
"What's up with you?" Rodney snapped right back at him. "You've been on my back all day!"
"Dr. McKay!" Teyla stepped in, resting her hand lightly on his chest. "Major Sheppard, please. Stop this fighting, or the people of this planet will have a poor impression of us before you have even met them."
"She's right," Sheppard said. "Best behaviour, folks. Rodney... that means keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking, okay?"
Rodney opened his mouth to protest, but at Sheppard's cocked eyebrow he snapped it shut again. He'd wait until they got back to Atlantis before he voiced his annoyance at the major's attitude. Hopefully Elizabeth would be on his side. This was no way to treat your resident astrophysicist.
The rest of the team started walking ahead of him as they made their way to the town about half a kilometre away. Once Sheppard was out of earshot, Rodney muttered angrily, "Want me to keep my mouth shut? Maybe that's just what I'll do." That would be sure to shock him.
They walked along in complete silence for a few minutes, until they finally came upon a group of the planet's inhabitants. When they turned to look at the newcomers, Sheppard raised his hand in greeting. "Hi!" he called to them. "We're here to trade. Don't suppose you folks could point us in the right direction, could you?"
Rodney rolled his eyes. There was one road. What direction did he think was the wrong one?
The townspeople looked confused for a moment, but then one of the men turned and pointed down the path towards the town.
"Right," Sheppard said with a grateful nod. "Thank you." He turned towards his teammates and gestured ahead. "Shall we?"
Rodney had to bite his tongue to keep from saying anything, but he took comfort in the fact that Ford and Teyla were giving the major weird looks, too.
After a few paces, it was Lt. Ford who finally spoke. "This may sound like a dumb question, but... what exactly do we know about these people besides that they're traders? I mean, after what just happened with the Genii..."
Sheppard winced. "You had to bring them up, didn't you?"
Ford shrugged. "It's a fair point, isn't it?"
"Yes, Lieutenant, it is," Sheppard replied. "Which is exactly why we're all gonna keep our eyes open at all times, understood?"
"I do not believe the Decarians would do anyone harm," Teyla said.
"Well, that's what you thought about the Genii, wasn't it?"
Sheppard seemed to regret the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, but Rodney could see that it was too late. Teyla looked away and kept a guarded expression on her face, but he could tell that the comment had upset her.
He was just about ready to throttle the major, but he somehow managed to restrain himself.
It didn't take them long to reach the town after that. Once they entered the gates, they found themselves caught up in a bustling crowd that reminded Rodney of the rush on Boxing Day for all the sales. Through the masses of people, they saw tents and booths set up nearby. This was the marketplace the Athosians had told them so much about.
"Alright, everybody stick together," Sheppard said. "Teyla, lead the way."
Rodney looked around in curiosity as they walked along, taking in all of the people and their various wares in case any of them had anything that could be of use to them. Some of the food looked pretty good, but other than that he didn't see anything that interested him.
Until they rounded a corner and found themselves walking down the technology aisle.
Rodney's mouth fell open as he tried to look at everything all at once. He didn't know what half of these devices were supposed to be, but God was he ever dying to find out.
"My God, these look like phasers!" he cried, rushing over to one of the stalls and carefully picking up one of the handheld weapons.
"Are you sure you should be touching that?" Sheppard asked. "Don't kill anybody with it."
Rodney shot him a black look. As hard as he was trying to remain silent, he finally couldn't help but let loose. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry, Major. You're right. It's not like I've ever held a weapon or a piece of alien technology before. What was I thinking?"
"Mackush is the man we have come to see," Teyla said, once again acting as peacemaker between the two of them. "We can ask him if he will allow us to take some back with us."
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Sheppard said, forcing a smile. He swiped a hand across his forehead and then gestured back to the road. "Lead on."
They started on their way down the street again, but barely got ten paces before Rodney's eyes just about bulged right out of his head. "Oh my God!" he exclaimed. "Is that a power converter?"
"Here we go again," he heard Sheppard mumble. "Rodney, stay with us or get left behind."
Rodney didn't answer. He didn't fully believe that they would actually leave without him, but even if they did, he didn't care. He'd much rather be out here than sitting inside negotiating for the entire day. Without a word, he went over to the booth and started examining the technology.
The man behind the booth ambled over to him, unabashedly looking him over from head to toe. "You are not from any of the worlds in our confederation," he said.
"No, we're not," Rodney replied. "We're actually here to negotiate with your leaders about that. Is this a thermionic power converter?"
"A what?"
Rodney sighed. He should have known the guy wouldn't understand Earth's scientific terms. "A device that converts heat into energy?"
The man nodded slowly. "It might be."
Rodney had to hold himself back from dancing a jig on the spot. "How much power does one of these devices generate?"
"Much," the man said, showing no emotion whatsoever despite the obvious excitement of his potential customer. "Enough to power a large ship for many, many cycles."
Rodney grinned. One of these itty bitty devices could give them more power than a naquadah reactor? Wait until Elizabeth heard about this. "Well, my friend, it looks like you're going to be the answer to our prayers," he said.
The man scowled and snatched the device away from Rodney. "I am not your friend," he said in a rather nasty tone. "Even if you are invited to join the confederation, I still will not be selling this technology to you."
"Why not?"
"I created this device. I decide to whom I pass it along. That is all I will say to you. Good day."
Rodney gaped in confusion as the man took his things off of the table and retreated into his tent. "Hey!" he called. "Do you know how many lives something like that could save if you just let me look at the blueprints? Come on, it's not like I'm asking you to give it to me for free. We'd give you whatever you wanted in return... within reason."
Not a sound or a movement from the tent.
Rodney sighed and turned around, only to find that he'd attracted quite a crowd. A couple dozen of the townspeople had gathered around the booth, staring at the stranger with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion in their eyes.
Suddenly, Rodney wished he'd stayed close to the others.