Disclaimer see Chapter 1


Sergeant Bates, his team, Elizabeth and Carson were assembled in the briefing room by 5 in the morning. Carson had contacted Elizabeth, as she had requested, as soon as he had gotten the Gate address from John. Carson was impatient with the progress of the meeting. The sooner they got a team to the planet that was the last known location of Rodney, the better. But Elizabeth had other concerns.

"There is no question that this will be a rescue mission, but just because our initial contact with this so far unknown race was under unfortunate circumstance, we still have to first try a diplomatic solution. In fact we might not have another choice. If Dr. McKay has been taken to their home world, we will be vastly outnumbered."

"Any diplomatic mission should still have adequate military back-up in case contact is not received well." Bates suggested.

"Of course. That's what you and your team will be providing on this mission. I will be accompanying you. We are intending to enter into diplomatic relations with a new people, I should be there."

"With all due respect. The encounter of Major Sheppard's team with these people has shown them to be hostile. I think my team should go alone at first and assess the situation, if all seems safe, you can join us and do the negotiating."

Carson listened, the back and forth between Elizabeth and Bates felt like a waste of time to him. Time that Rodney might not have.

"We are just wasting time here. I agree with Sergeant Bates. I spoke with Major Sheppard and from what he told me, I don't think there is a friendly solution to this. But every minute we stay here and debate this, is a minute more that Rodney is in the hands of some aliens." Carson hadn't meant to speak up so forcefully, but he hadn't been able to hold back in his frustration. His nerves were frayed. It was getting to him, he knew that.

Everyone looked at him, taken aback.


This time, Rodney woke up and felt disoriented. He opened his eyes, but the blackness remained. The now familiar feeling of fear spread through him. He could move, but he couldn't see. Although he didn't see, he guessed that he was back in his cell. The bed he had woken up on had a fairly soft mattress and he was fairly certain that he was alone in the room. Considering his last memory before he had passed out from unbearable pain, he didn't feel too bad. His brain had a certain fuzzy quality to it that he attributed to being drugged. His head hurt and he felt a bit sick. Feeling something wet on this side of his face, he raise a hand and explored the source of the wetness. The entire left side of his face was encrusted with something dried. A sticky wet substance, which he suspected was blood, oozed from his left temple which also happened to be the origin of his headache. Not surprisingly this was where the pain had begun the previous day. It struck Rodney that he had no idea how much time had passed and, he had yet to experience a normal circadian rhythm. Instead, his captors kept drugging him into unconsciousness.

They hadn't served him a single meal so far, but he didn't feel hungry and by his estimate he had been there two days already. He should have noticed the lack of food already. His blood sugar should have crashed by now. But if the aliens kept feeding him while he was out, via IV, then there was no telling how long he had been out, he realized. His hopes sank. Days could have passed without him knowing. Atlantis could have written him off as dead already. Escape on his own seemed impossible. He couldn't even see. Rodney sighed and let himself fall back on the bed.


The cold wind hit him like a slap in the face. Bates had told Carson that it was according to the MALP it was going to be chilly on the planet, but he hadn't realized just how cold it was going to be. He had only taken a few steps from the Gate and already he could feel the biting cold seep through his considerable layers of clothing.

The planet was a frozen wasteland. They had taken the jumper through the gate. Scanning for any signs of civilization, they located a single dome-like building. Markham had set down the Jumper at a safe distance from the massive grey dome. Now they were all heavily armed, including Carson and Elizabeth who had insisted to come along.

The dome looked even bigger and more impenetrable once they stood in front of it. If their approach had been detected, and it probably had been, there was no response so far. Now the team was only a few meters from the dome and had yet to spot anything that resembled an entrance of any sort. The smooth walls of the dome stretched far without any sign of a window or a door. Clearly Carson wasn't the only one thinking that so far, the mission had been pretty futile.

"Well, that's different. At least nobody is shooting at us. Devan, Young, Markham, Stackhouse, spread out. If they missed as much as a spot of point, I want to know about it." Bates ordered. "Still sure you want to make contact with those people, Dr. Weir. They don't seem to be the welcoming sort."

"If we can get Rodney back peacefully…" She didn't end the sentence. They had been over this already in the briefing. She knew the sergeant didn't believe there was a friendly solution to this and she was getting less and less convinced by the minute.

Bates was just about to reply when the trio disappeared in a bright glow of white light.


The scene was now frighteningly familiar. Rodney woke once again to darkness. He didn't remember passing out before. This time, the ground beneath him was hard and cold. Stone, not metal and he could move. Carefully, he sat up and started to feel around when the darkness started to lift. First it was just a weak ray of blue light above him, then the ray started to brighten until the room was filled with an eerie blue glow. The room was bare, except with a Stargate on the far wall. Rodney didn't trust his eyes at first, but then got to his feet and carefully approached it. He shivered and could swear that he had just felt a gust of icy wind rush past himself. There was no wind in closed room. But when he looked up, he was suddenly standing under the black night sky, a scatter of stars far above. Beyond the Gate a seemingly endless dark grey plane stretched into the darkness. Rodney stopped, confused and frightened. This wasn't real. This had to be some kind of trick. He rubbed his head. The pain was back in full force, radiating from his temple all through his head.

"Rodney, there you are! We have been looking for you!" Rodney heard John's voice carry through the distance and turned around.

Aiden, Teyla and John were standing there, walking towards him.

A sharp pain lanced through Rodney's head and for a moment all went black again. Then he was back outside in the night. His team mates were standing next to him now and he felt a warm blanket over his shoulders.

"Let's go, who knows when they are going to be back." Ford urged. McKay wondered whether they were the alien that he held him prisoner. But why had they let him go. Or did they just want to make him believe that they let him go. This wasn't real, he reminded himself, shaking off the blanket. He immediately missed the warmth, but resisted the urge to pick it back up and didn't take it when Teyla held it out, offering it to him.

The group started to move towards to Gate, but he didn't budge.

"What wrong Rodney? We are going home, back to Atlantis. It's all right." John reassured him, reaching out a hand to grab his arm. Rodney shook him off.

"No." He was going to be sick, if he didn't pass out from the pain in his head before that. He grabbed his head with both hands, not even noticing the gesture. The night sky flickered again and the ceiling of the blue light room became visible for several moments, before the illusion was re-established. Nothing had been real, he was still all alone. Rodney sank to his feet and closed his eyes.


For a moment Carson thought he was going to be sick, something he desperately wanted to avoid in front of Elizabeth and Bates. But even as he thought of the embarrassment, the dizziness faded fast and the ground beneath his feet solidified. He opened his eyes and found himself in new surroundings. Instead of standing in front of the concrete fortress, he and his companions stood in what resembled a gym, just it was all painted in blinding white. Walls, floor, ceiling. Everything was white.

"Is everyone all right?"

"Yes, I'm okay." Elizabeth replied.

"Our weapons are gone."

"Oh." He hadn't noticed until Bates mentioned it. He wasn't used to walking around armed. He would never understand how Rodney could do it.

A shrill, definitely non-human voice coming from somewhere above their heads halted their conversation. It spoke in a mixture of chirps and short shrieks. Then there was a pause. Maybe they were supposed to say something. Elizabeth tried anyways.

"We don't understand you. We have come in peace."

The voice from above returned immediately. Elizabeth's attempt at making conversation with the aliens hadn't been received well it seemed. This time the voice was even shriller, the shrieks came at a higher pitch, sounding much more unpleasant before. Elizabeth scowled. She had read Daniel Jackson's reports. When he did something like that, it usually worked. But then, he had never gotten chirped at as far as she recalled. The voice fell silent again, but this time, she kept her mouth shut.

They were being manhandled down an equally white and brightly lit corridor. Their hosts had let them stew for about an hour before three lizardfish-human goons had appeared and roughly dragged them off. Carson was scared. When he had pressed to come along on the rescue mission his main motive had to be to help Rodney in case he needed medical attention. He hadn't given too much thought to the dangers of the mission. Sure, he knew that they were heading into hostile territory, but thinking about it was quite different to actually being dragged off to an uncertain fate by creepy aliens.

Suddenly a gunshot went off and the grip on his arm vanished. Instantly, Carson dove for the floor. Four more shots followed, mixed with thuds, shrieks and a cry.

Carson looked up and saw four aliens on the floor, obviously dead. Bates was also down, a signed patch in the chest area on his uniform.

As Carson rolled over knelt down next to Bates and felt for a pulse, the sergeant already started stirring and opened his eyes.

"Doctor?" he said weakling, seeming a bit confused.

"You have been shot. Can you get up?"

"Shot! I don't feel like I was hit." Bates was confused but scrambled to get to his feet was Beckett's help. Carson thought it best to keep Bates' gun for the moment.

"We have to hurry." Carson urged the still confused man. "Down that corridor." He decided randomly. The alien structure was like a maze, with corridors going off in all directions. God help them if they ever wanted to find their way out again.

Bates shot a look at the three dead aliens and the blood on his and Elizabeth's clothes, but thought better than to ask question. He followed Carson and Elizabeth down the corridor. They turned a corner when Bates' radio came to life.

"It's Lieutenant Devan, sir. We found a tunnel entrance. There was a force field, but Markham managed to disable it. Markham and I are coming in now. How is your situation?"

Bates didn't quite know what to say, he was still trying to piece together what had gone down in the corridor. Carson took over. "Be careful. We were attacked by a few of the aliens and had to return fire."

The creature had been pointing his gun at Elizabeth. Carson didn't have a choice but to fire. He was amazed that his first shot hit the alien square in the chest, spattering black blood on the immaculate white walls. He stared down at the body, lowering the gun, his hand already starting to shake. Bates, even though still affected by having been wounded earlier, was a practical man, he rushed towards it corpse and searched the pockets of his coat, producing what looked like a key card.

"We don't have time, doctor." He took the gun from Carson and grabbed him by the shoulder. "We have to hurry; I'm surprised nobody has found us yet. Those must be some sort of cells." He pointed to the numerous doors that lined both sides of the corridor that the alien had come from. Each door had a small window. The three hurried down the corridor, glancing into every cell looking for the one that held Rodney.

Three quarters down the way, Elizabeth found him. She waved the men over. With the key card, the door opened silently.

Rodney was sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his knees. His head shot up at their entrance, but instead of joy, they only saw horror and fear on his face.

TBC