In my head, this was a light little action/adventure. Then it all went a bit dark.

Dobré ráno¹ - Good Morning

oOo

Chapter 2a

Major Sheppard woke from a disconcerting dream. Something about a Wraith dart, a parallel universe, and a squid on a motorbike. Hmm, the squid bit was out of place somehow.

He opened his eyes and gazed up at the unfamiliar ceiling. Oh crap.

Rolling out of bed with a groan, he thought back over the previous evening. After seeing Rodney safely back to his rooms Sheppard had stayed up with Zelenka, going through everything that had happened on M3H – 136 and drinking something that tasted like paint-stripper.

Sleeping in Colonel Sheppard's quarters had been out of the question. It seemed almost incestuous. Rodney had earlier offered him a bed for the night but Sheppard had declined, with thanks. He had put the man through enough without imposing on him. So he had ended up in a spare room; one within staggering distance.

Now it was morning and time to find a way home.

After a hurried wash and brush up, the Major made his way to the mess hall, expecting to find McKay already there.

Walking in through the doors, Sheppard noticed several familiar faces, and many more that were unfamiliar. Word had obviously spread and the nods and smiles were friendly but curious.

Elizabeth and Dr Zelenka were seated together, busy in discussion, and John served himself breakfast before joining them.

"Dobré ráno¹, John." Zelenka glanced up at the Major as he put down his tray and took a seat.

"Good morning, Major Sheppard. We were just discussing your little predicament." Elizabeth's welcoming smile lit up her face. "It reminded me of a situation that SG1 once encountered. I remember reading the reports, but the details escape me. In brief, Dr Daniel Jackson found what he called a 'Quantum Mirror' on P3X- 233 which allowed passage to other universes..."

Zelenka interrupted, "Yes, I am currently working on theory that the Gate itself became a variety of 'Quantum Mirror'." He grinned happily. "It is most intriguing problem. We have, of course, sent a team back to M3H - 136 and are certain that the Colonel did enter the gate in this reality. We are hoping that you and he have swapped places. If he has been transported to a random universe, our task will be significantly harder."

"From what Rodney has said, it would be virtually impossible." Elizabeth shot a reproachful look at Zelenka.

"Yes, but Rodney is pessimist." Zelenka's grin continued, although Weir was genuinely concerned.

Sheppard swallowed a mouthful of strong black coffee. That reminded him, "How is Rodney this morning?"

"He's fine Major, thank you for your concern." Weir replied. "He's checking over a selection of ancient devices which we hope may have some similarities with the 'Quantum Mirror'."

"Is there anything I can do?" Sheppard asked, praying that no-one suggested that he spend the day staring at a computer screen. His head ached abominably and the black coffee wasn't helping at all. What was that moonshine of Zelenka's made from anyway?

Elizabeth looked at Radek who gave a brief nod. "Well John," She said, "We were hoping that you could spend some time helping Rodney; assuming that you have the ancient gene."

Sheppard breathed a sigh of relief. A few hours initialising ancient doohickies would give his head time to clear. Providing they didn't require too much concentration. "Sounds great."

Sheppard had come to the conclusion that scientist's labs reflected their personalities. In his Atlantis, McKay's workplace was strewn with partly dismantled devices hooked up to numerous diagnostic tools. Give Rodney a piece of equipment and he had to know how it worked; now, everything, all at once, in a sort of organised chaos. Here, it was organised without the chaos. Each ancient object was neatly labelled ready to be investigated one at a time.

McKay stood at a bench frowning intently at a small device attached to a laptop via a cat's cradle of wires. Totally absorbed, he failed to notice Sheppard standing in the doorway.

Music played quietly in the background. Jazz again, but more upbeat. Mmm, nice. Sheppard listened for several minutes to the interweaving melodies, resolving to take a copy back with him. As the piece ended, he knocked gently on the door jamb.

McKay looked up from his work and smiled. "Hi John. Have you been sent to keep me company?"

"Dr Weir thought that you might welcome some help activating these gadgets." Sheppard entered the room and walked over to McKay. The scientist waved a hand at a bench containing a collection of devices, most of which were covered with small sticky labels. Sheppard picked up the nearest and read 'power boost? - use with care.' "But I see that you are doing fine without me."

"These didn't need initialising, but that group could do with the magic touch." McKay indicated around two dozen items further down the bench. Most of them were small black boxes, with no obvious buttons or switches.

"Having trouble with these?" John put down what was possibly a 'power boost' and picked up a small hand-held black box. He turned it over wondering what it did and immediately ancient writing scrolled across the top surface. He passed it to Rodney.

"I don't have the ATA gene." Rodney said, with some regret. "Carson refuses to give me the treatment. He's worried about how it would react with the meds." He peered at the tiny writing and started making notes on a jotter. "I've been working for some time on the properties of the Atlantis gate. We discovered quite early on that it was designed to accommodate extra crystals."

"To allow for the eighth symbol." Sheppard picked up another box and concentrated on activating it. His headache was starting to clear but his mouth was still dry; he looked around the room for coffee. Damn, wrong Rodney.

McKay responded enthusiastically, "Yeah, but not only that. All of these objects appear to be prototypes designed to be incorporated into the gate control. For example, this little fellow here seems to be a modification for the DHD; it allows you to dial your own address. God knows why. Dr Zelenka's hoping that one of them produces the 'Quantum Mirror' effect." He took the latest box from the Major's hand and placed it on the bench.

"What makes him think that?" Sheppard noticed that Rodney was obviously not prepared to stick his neck out on this one.

"If it is possible to create a Quantum Wormhole using the gate, and it obviously is, then it's likely that the ancients knew about it. If they did, they would have investigated a method of controlling the phenomenon. If they built some kind of device to do that, then it's here ... somewhere." His sweeping gesture incorporated not only the items on the benches, but the whole of Atlantis.

Sheppard's face fell; there were an awful lot of 'ifs' in there. McKay saw the expression and put his arm around the Major's shoulder. "Don't worry, John. If it's here, we'll find it ... eventually."

The next few hours settled into a routine. Major Sheppard initialised a device and handed it over to McKay, who then hooked it up to various bits of apparatus, and made copious notes on the jotter, before finally writing out a sticky label and moving on to the next item on the bench.

Lunch was a large plate of turkey sandwiches, brought in by a young female lab assistant, who smiled demurely at McKay before leaving the room. Sheppard picked up a sandwich and took a bite. It tasted like fresh meat, not the reconstituted stuff he was used to. Did that mean that they were breeding turkeys here on Atlantis? If so, he wondered if he could take a few eggs back to start his own turkey farm.

It was no good, after a morning alternating between concentration and boredom, John was starting to loose it. He cast about for a general topic of conversation as they ate.

"So, how did you meet Kate?"

McKay seemed surprised at the question, but answered readily. "Pure luck really. She was dating my shrink."

Sheppard took another bite of his sandwich as Rodney continued.

"One afternoon I realised that my life was a mess, so I put the cat out, ran a bath, found myself a good, sharp knife and lay down in the warm water. Then for some reason I decided to call my therapist, probably to tell him what a lousy job he'd done, but he was out and Kate picked up. She listened to me; kept me talking until the paramedics arrived. The old lady next door had found my cat scratching to be let in. She knew I was home; she'd heard me running the bath, but when she couldn't get an answer she called an ambulance. She thought I'd had another heart attack. I nearly gave her one when they found me."

Crap. Not such a good subject then.

"I wouldn't have blamed Kate if she'd run a mile after that, but she didn't. I mean, what would you do if someone rang you up and slit their wrists at you?"

How the hell do you respond to that?

"That's it!" Rodney's cry broke the painful silence. His melancholy changing instantly to excitement. "It's been nagging at me. Why would you ever want to dial your own gate?"

Sheppard was taken totally by surprise by the unexpected change in direction. "That would be..."

Rodney wasn't listening. "It must allow you to open a wormhole between two identical gate addresses. It doesn't allow us to create a Quantum wormhole, but at least if we do, you can..."

"Phone home?"

"Exactly."

The afternoon passed more quickly. McKay, realising that he had seriously disturbed the Major, tried to keep up a conversation. The problem was that when he was concentrating, he spoke in technobabble.

"Of course, when you get back to your Atlantis, you'll have to avoid meeting yourself, unless you're prepared to risk a temporal entropic cascade failure at the cellular level." Rodney said absently, as he delicately hooked an object about the size of a shoe box up to his laptop.

"Ah, if only it were that simple." Sheppard deadpanned.

"Huh?"

The more Major Sheppard talked with this Rodney McKay, the more he missed his own version. McKay would have appreciated the joke but snapped something back, straight-faced. It was fun sometimes to just rile him; wind him up, take out the key, sit back and enjoy the ride. That was not an option here. He felt like he was walking on eggshells. He could do serious damage to this Rodney with a misplaced word. His McKay was indestructible.

"Good God! I don't believe it. This is it!" John's head snapped up at McKay's shout.

"What?"

"Look!" McKay pointed triumphantly at the laptop screen. "A Quantum wormhole; well, a virtual one at least." John caught the excitement and hurried over to stare at the screen, expecting to see the familiar twisting wormhole. But all it showed was a column of numbers.

"Are you sure?" He couldn't keep the doubt from his voice.

"I'll have to run it passed Peter and Dr Zelenka, but yeah, pretty sure." McKay slapped Sheppard's shoulder, a grin plastered across his face. "Hey John; looks like you're going home."

Within half an hour, Elizabeth's office contained Grodin, Zelenka, Sheppard, McKay and Dr Weir herself. The shoe box sized 'Quantum Interface' was linked to Rodney's laptop and the three scientists were huddled around the screen.

"Yes, but if it always overloads as soon as it is initiated..." McKay began.

"Surely, that doesn't matter, as long as the Quantum wormhole has been established..." Grodin interrupted, pressing a key.

"Ah, now look! It has failed again." Zelenka slapped Grodin's hand away from the keyboard.

"Gentlemen." Dr Weir's voice held a note of command. "If we could all take a seat." She waited until the three men settled down. "Now, Radek, what can you tell me?"

Zelenka stood up and turned the laptop to face Elizabeth. "As I surmised, the Ancients were aware of the Quantum phenomenon and produced this," He gestured the box, "To take advantage of it."

Dr Weir peered at the computer screen, her eyes narrowed. "Let's just suppose that all I see is a column of numbers."

"It allows the creation of a Quantum wormhole using the mechanism of the Stargate." Zelenka continued. "With this attached to the control panel, and the modified DHD installed, we need only dial Atlantis gate address to open a link to Major Sheppard's world!" He grinned happily and patted the laptop.

"But I thought that there were a multitude of alternate worlds." Weir was used to Zelenka's endless optimism, and needed to be reassured to her own satisfaction. "How can you be sure of connecting to the correct one?"

"That is where we struck lucky." Peter Grodin's grin mirrored Zelenka's. "The link has already been established, we just need to re-connect the wormhole"

"There is a problem, however." Rodney offered apologetically. "Each time we run the simulation, the Interface overloads. So we will only get one chance at this before burning out the circuits."

"Can you fix the problem?" Dr Weir asked. "I'd like to at least try a dry run before we ask Major Sheppard to risk himself on this venture."

Grodin replied. "Possibly, but it could take several weeks and we are rapidly running out of time. As the two realities inevitably diverge, the link weakens and our chance of establishing a wormhole will be lost."

"A thought occurs." Sheppard joined in the discussion. "Assuming that this works, how do you get Colonel Sheppard back?"

"Don't worry Major, we have not forgotten him." Zelenka responded. "Dr Jackson's Quantum Mirror worked both ways. We have no reason to believe that this Quantum wormhole does not. Once home, you will have a maximum of 38 minutes to return our John Sheppard through the gate."

Sheppard nodded sagely, "While avoiding a temporal entropic cascade failure at the cellular level, I assume" He took great delight at the look on all four faces.

Elizabeth smiled and took back control. "So, we need to do this as soon as possible, right?" She looked around the room at the nodding scientists. "OK. Rodney, how long will it take you to install these devices into the gate control?"

"With help from Peter, within the hour."

"Off you go then." As Grodin and McKay left the room, Elizabeth turned to Sheppard. "Well Major, if you are happy with this, you could be home soon. The final decision to go will be yours."

Less than an hour later, Major Sheppard found himself standing before the Stargate, ready to transmit his IDC. Behind him in the control room, McKay was making the last checks on the connections between the Interface and the gate controls. He felt uneasy; there seemed to be several circuits in the device that did not connect to the gate, but none of the simulations had indicated their purpose.

Now, the modified DHD was in place and all that was left was to dial out – or in; back to the Atlantis gate.

Dr Weir entered to control room and took up a position between McKay and Grodin.

A soft humming came from the Interface seated on the dialling console.

"I think that we're all ready now, Rodney. Please dial Atlantis."

McKay punched in the first symbol. The humming increased slightly in volume and the box itself began to vibrate. Rodney unconsciously placed his left had on the top of the box to steady it as he continued to dial.

All eyes were on the gate as the last chevron encoded. Elizabeth found that she was holding her breath as Rodney reached over the console and pressed the control to engage the wormhole.

But, instead of the usual sound of the gate activating, there came the noise of a body slumping to the ground.

Elizabeth was the first to react. Kneeling beside the fallen man, she gently turned him over. The blue lips told her all that she needed to know as she frantically felt his neck for a pulse.

"Medical emergency!" Her voice sounded harsh in her own ears. "I need a crash team in the control room, now!"

Without waiting for a reply, she began CPR on Rodney's still form.