CHAPTER FOUR: WELL, WE FOUND THIS FROZEN GUY . . .

"Anything more?" Elizabeth glanced at the information scrolling across Peter Grodin's computer screen. Much of the text was in Ancient, and while some of the combinations of symbols looked familiar – one couldn't avoid them if one worked in the city – there were others that seemed strange.

"We've put them through every decoder program we have, and still we haven't been able to make much sense of it," Grodin replied. "I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps it isn't at least partially encoded."

"You mean like some sort of scrambled message?" The thought was intriguing. "But why only scramble a portion – most especially the most important sections?"

"Earth governments and corporations do it all the time?" Grodin offered.

"Good point." Elizabeth agreed. "So, aside from the fact that the message was meant for Atlantis, we don't know anything – not even if the scrambling was intentional."

"That's the size of it."

"Well, keep at –"

The sudden activation of the gate and the resulting alarms cut Elizabeth off mid-sentence. This is beginning to be a bit of a habit she thought as one of the other control room techs declared an unscheduled activation. The warning was followed by the appearance of the imploding water effect and then the shield snapped into place.

"Atlantis, this is Jumper One. We have a medical emergency," McKay's urgent voice echoed into the control room.

"Lower the shield," Elizabeth immediately ordered, her frown the only outward sign of worry. She then moved toward a console and activated an outgoing communication. "Rodney? Where's Major Sheppard?"

"Long story," McKay spat back. "No time to discuss it right now. Just have Beckett on standby in the jumper bay. Tell him to prepare for symptoms of shock, maybe malnutrition. We--"

Shock? Malnutrition? "Dr. McKay, what's going on? Is Major Sheppard the one that's injured?"

"No, he –"

"Flight, this is Jumper One," Sheppard's voice ricocheted into the room, cracking with static. "We're going to be following Jumper Two in."

Elizabeth did a mental double-take. There were no other teams out in jumpers; all of the ships were accounted for. But before she could respond, McKay's voice sounded again.

"What? What do you mean you're Jumper One? How can you be Jumper One when my jumper is entering the gate before yours?"

"Because I'm always Jumper One," Sheppard shot back.

"What? Like you're the president or something?"

"Exactly," Sheppard agreed.

"Gentlemen, focus," Elizabeth cut in warningly. "Now, I need to know who is injured and I need to verify that there are indeed two complete, individual, jumpers coming through the gate."

McKay spoke first. "Well, that's relative as there's some assembly required. But yes, essentially, there are two jumpers – one of which is coming through the gate. Now."

A typical Rodney response. Elizabeth closed her eyes and rubbed at a temple. "Good, that's one question down. Now, Major Sheppard, who's injured?"

Her question was followed by several long moments of silence. She could almost picture the look of discomfort on Sheppard's face and that was more troubling than the few facts she had. Sheppard's reluctant voice sounded just as Jumper One . . . two . . . whichever appeared through the event horizon and began it's automated climb upward toward the bay.

"Well, we found this frozen guy . . . ."

Despite the number of bizarre situations they'd experienced since arriving in the Pegasus galaxy, Elizabeth still found she was having difficulty wrapping her mind around the major's statement. "Say again?"

"I'm no medical doctor," McKay's voice arrived again, "But the term 'frozen' is probably something of a mis-statement. He was more in a state of suspended animation – a lot like you, actually. Well, the alternate you. You know from when –"

"She knows what you're talking about." Sheppard's jumper had appeared through the Stargate as well and the static remained a part of his communication. As it began its ascent into the bay, she switched off the console and traded the more public communication for the privacy of an earpiece radio.

"Dr. Beckett and his team are on the way," Peter informed her. "He's requesting that the team stay in the jumpers until he arrives."

"Good idea. You're all to remain in the jumpers once you're docked." She relayed Peter's message as she headed out of the control center. She didn't intend to actually enter the bay until Beckett cleared it, but she could get close and have a word with the doctor once she was there.

"We're being quarantined?" Rodney sounded disbelieving and his response all but drowned out the sound of displeasure from Sheppard. "Why? If we'd brought some deadly contaminate back, the city would have certainly caught it. We did just come from an obviously Ancient constructed outpost, after all. The place was a sterile as a clean room."

"We can't be sure of that, Rodney." Elizabeth tried to smooth his ruffled feathers. "Carson is just trying to do his job."

"Well, he needs to hurry up at it because this guy isn't looking so good - not that he was at any time before in our limited acquaintance, mind you. It's just that I'd hate for him to oh, you know, expire right here in the jumper bay while we wait for medical science to catch a clue."

"Dr. McKay, calm down." Elizabeth tried again.

"Do you have any idea what we could have here? It's quite likely that this man is an Ancient. He's been frozen for who—"

"Suspended. . . ." Sheppard put in helpfully over the link.

There was the barest pause before Rodney continued. ". . . suspended, for who knows how long – but certainly much longer than we've been around. We need to talk to him, discover what he can tell us about the city, learn what he knows about that outpost. The number of ways that his knowledge could –"

"Rodney, I get all of that. But we still have to exercise caution." She reached the outer area of the jumper bay right behind Beckett and his team. They were kitted out in full contamination gear.

"Right you are, lass," the Scotsman's seemingly disembodied voice said from behind the clear mask. "And I knew Rodney wouldn't be too thrilled with the idea. Now, you stay out here and let me team get to work."

"Dr. McKay," Carson's voice joined their radio group. "Where's our patient?"

"Does this mean I dare to open the ramp?" Rodney asked with dripping sarcasm.

"Tis necessary if we're to come in, now isn't it?" Carson replied.

Elizabeth listened in as Rodney started in on Beckett with the same arguments he'd used on her. Within minutes McKay had dragged the medical doctor over to his way of thinking. She entered the docking bay just as the med team was wheeling their way out.

The blonde-haired man in the mobile isolation unit drew her attention. He was wrapped in blankets, an oxygen mask had been placed over his face and it looked as if someone had already put an IV in.

"How's he doing?" She moved alongside Beckett to ask.

"Difficult to tell." The answer, thrown back over his shoulder was distracted and rushed. "I'll know more after I examine him."

"Keep me advised," she told him.

"Aye." And Atlantis' newest inhabitant and the med-team were gone.

With the smallest of sighs, she turned back toward the two newly docked jumpers. The team was starting to straggle out. The new jumper, though identical to the others in the bay, caught her attention by virtue of its having been settled in one of the typically empty spaces. The hatch was closed.

She looked around, confused. "Where's Major Sheppard?"

"He was in the . . . ." McKay's response died away when he looked toward the new jumper. With a perturbed expression, he tapped at his radio.

Inside the jumper, Sheppard stared uncomprehendingly at the image that flashed across the screen. He reached for the manual ramp release again and still nothing.

"Major, please feel free to come out any time now." Rodney's voice sounded in his ear. "We are no longer under quarantine, in case you missed the memo."

"I got it," Sheppard replied, unable to keep annoyance out of his tone. "Unfortunately, the ramp controls aren't working. I think there's something wrong with this jumper."

"It passed the diagnostics with flying colors. Did you try the secondary cockpit release?"

John turned in his chair and tried to aforementioned switch. "Of course I did." He hit it again. "Twice."

"And you're getting no response at all?" Rodney asked, a small amount of unease entering his voice.

"Not unless you count the weird display that's showing up on the viewer. I don't remember asking it to come on."

"What does it say?" Rodney questioned.

"Sorry – left my Ancient to English dictionary in my other jacket."

"Right. Well, did you try blowing the hatch?"

"Well, that would have been my third guess, but you might want to stand back out of the way."

There was some minor shuffling, then, "All clear."

John moved closer to the rear door and lifted the release. He wasn't entirely comfortable with blowing the back door off of a 10,000 year old shuttle, but he was even less comfortable with being stuck inside of one.

"Blowing the hatch," he announced before pulling down the lever. There was a half second of silence, and then the inside of the jumper went completely dark, followed by the ominous sound of something winding down.