Spoiler – SG1 Season 1 "Solitudes"
Chapter 2b
"This is very similar to a situation encountered by SG1 on P4A - 771. A huge blast of energy, in this case the discharge from the Wraith dart, causing an established wormhole to divert to the nearest available Stargate. On Earth, this was in Antarctica, but here, the 'nearest' gate was in another reality." Rodney McKay paced around his lab as he summarised his findings to Colonel Sheppard and Dr Zelenka. His ever-present laptop lay open on a bench, surrounded by partially disassembled pieces of equipment, note pads and empty coffee mugs.
"That's it?" Sheppard snapped back. "No discussion, no debate, just 'McKay says and it must be so'?"
"It's the only logical conclusion, Colonel!" McKay's angry reply raised the temperature in the room by several degrees.
Zelenka held up his hands in surrender. McKay and Sheppard had been arguing non-stop from the moment they had met this morning. At first it had been amusing to watch the two of them bristling like angry tomcats, but enough was enough.
"Colonel Sheppard, I suggest that we leave Dr McKay to his work." Zelenka realised that the only option was to separate them, before they came to blows. He knew that Major Sheppard had often jokingly threatened to shoot McKay. That was unlikely to happen here, partly because the Colonel was not armed, but a fist fight between this pair was a real possibility.
"Yes, please go." McKay turned his back on the two men and started typing into his laptop.
Unaccustomed to being 'dismissed' by a civilian, Sheppard fumed as he stalked out of McKay's lab.
"How can anyone work with that arrogant bastard?" He demanded of Zelenka as soon as they were out of the room.
Zelenka felt compelled to defend his colleague. "McKay's not that bad when you get to know him." He wondered if he should have had his fingers crossed when he said that.
"Really?" Sarcasm or genuine disbelief, it was difficult to tell, the anger masked everything.
"Not ... that bad." Zelenka removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been a trying morning. "Please remember, Colonel, that McKay is also having hard time with this situation. His friend is missing, and he is trying to get him back."
"Your Sheppard is friends with that?" Sheppard gestured back towards the lab.
Zelenka considered the question before replying, reflectively. "Very close friends, by all appearances. They have been through a lot together."
Zelenka's thoughtful tone broke through Sheppard's anger. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. "I'm sorry. I just look at that man and see my Rodney McKay. It's hard to believe that they're the same person."
"They are not. We are all the result of our experiences. Rodney McKay is no exception." He grinned up at Sheppard, "Come on, Colonel, let us go and see how Teyla is feeling today."
Alone in his lab, Rodney accessed the ancient database and resumed his research. He found it hard to concentrate and reached absently for the beaker of coffee that always seemed to be to hand these days. That man, who looked so much like the Major, had provoked him in a way that he had believed impossible, now. What was it about him that was so infuriating? Zelenka obviously didn't have a problem dealing with him, so why should he? Granted, the Major could be annoying when he wanted to, but maybe that was the problem; Major Sheppard knew when he was pushing McKay's buttons. It had become almost a game between them. Sheppard pushed, McKay pushed back and, somehow, it was fun. This John Sheppard wasn't playing right.
McKay grinned to himself as that last thought crossed his mind. 'I don't like him, he's not playing right!' What was he, seven years old?
Back to the problem in hand. A preliminary search of the ancient database had revealed nothing of interest, but, since only a fraction had so far been deciphered, that didn't mean that there was nothing of interest to be revealed.
McKay grimaced as he took a mouthful of tepid coffee and settled down for some serious study.
Several hours later, Colonel Sheppard and Dr Zelenka were in Zelenka's lab when they received a call from Dr Weir, asking them to attend a briefing in her office immediately.
Sheppard's meeting with Teyla in the infirmary had not gone according to plan. He had been charming; she had been polite but distant. There was no spark there and Sheppard had got angry. Then Teyla had got angry; then Dr Beckett had got angry and thrown Sheppard and Zelenka out.
And now he had just spent an immensely boring day in Zelenka's lab, watching him working on his laptop. There had been a brief moment when Zelenka had discovered an entry in the ancient database which seemed to imply that whatever had happened, had happened at least once before. And somehow this meant that Colonel and Major Sheppard had most likely swapped places rather than both ending up in random universes. But, as Radek tried to explain the physics, Sheppard's brain just switched off.
He could never understand how a field worker like Zelenka could get so involved in the mind-numbing tedium of research.
Sheppard was starting to hate this place. He took a sheet of paper from the table and began to fold it. Back in his own Atlantis, he would be out now, doing something. A second sheet of paper, meticulously creased. On a mission or piloting a Jumper, or even exploring the city if he got too bored. A third sheet, the creases perfect. Here, he had nothing to do and it galled. When he felt like this at home, the solution was simple. A few hours in Rodney's company would leave him calm and relaxed. It had suddenly struck him as odd that he could sit doing nothing while Rodney worked and that was relaxing, but sitting here while Zelenka worked was maddening.
Finally, finally, Radek looked up from his laptop and appeared astonished to see Sheppard, seated at the table surrounded by paper darts.
Dr Weir was talking animatedly to Grodin and McKay as Sheppard and Zelenka entered her office.
A device about the size of a shoe box lay on the table, connected to McKay's laptop by a network of coloured wires. A smaller hand-held sat beside it.
"...So, how do we re-establish the Quantum wormhole?..." Dr Weir's question trailed off as she noticed the two men walk in. "Colonel, Doctor, please be seated. Colonel Sheppard, I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that we may have found a way to return you home."
"To answer your question, Elizabeth, "McKay responded, "When Major Carter dialled the Colorado gate from Antarctica, the gate attempted to connect but couldn't; it got a 'busy signal'. With this little gadget," He pointed to the hand-held, "You can dial out to an identical gate address." He smiled to himself. "I've been wondering for a while why you would ever want to."
Sheppard dragged up a chair and sat facing Weir. Zelenka, meanwhile, positioned himself behind Grodin and began studying Grodin's computer screen over his shoulder.
"So you can get me home?" Colonel Sheppard addressed the question to Dr Weir, but it was Rodney who replied.
"Yes. I have discovered that the ancients were working on a method of travelling between realities." An enthusiastic grin brought his face to life. "It's fascinating actually. They appear to have been experimenting with wormholes which connected not only through space, but between different dimensions." His hands twisted in an approximation of a wormhole's coils. "It seems that they came close to perfecting the procedure before something led them to abandon their research." Frowning at his laptop he tapped a few keys. "There is still a great deal to decipher, but I am sure that, given time, I can complete their work." He frowned again and began more intense typing.
"I'm sorry, Rodney," Peter Grodin said, in a manner that suggested that he was continuing an earlier conversation, "But I don't think that we have that long to make the attempt. Every moment that we wait, the realities may be moving further apart."
"Or they might not be. Look, this isn't just a case of trial and error, Peter. We will almost certainly only get the one shot at a connection." McKay responded in an exasperated tone.
"Will you please tell me what the hell you are talking about?" Sheppard's explosive question caused all eyes to turn to him.
"I'm sorry, Colonel." Elizabeth's soothing voice was the first to reply. "Rodney, would you explain from the top please?"
McKay stood and adopted a lecturing attitude, arms folded across his chest. "As I said before, the ancients were researching into travel between realities and had succeeded in creating this," He reached over to indicate the box connected to his laptop. "A sort of 'Quantum Interface'. Its purpose is to link into the Stargate control and allow the creation of a wormhole to a parallel universe. Now, the difficulty seems to lie in the initial connection, once that is established actually maintaining a wormhole should be relatively easy." He smiled, "Luckily for us, the connection to Colonel Sheppard's universe via the Stargate has already been made."
"But," Peter Grodin interrupted. "The longer Colonel Sheppard is here, the more likely it is that the two realities will drift out of alignment with each other, until, eventually, the link will be broken. Once that happens, finding the correct one again will be nigh on impossible."
"The problem is," Continued McKay, as if Grodin hadn't spoken. "That this 'Quantum Interface' appears to be a prototype. I have run a number of simulations and each one results in the overloading of the device." He turned to Dr Weir. "Elizabeth, with this Interface I am certain that we can return Colonel Sheppard to his own World, but there is absolutely no guarantee that we will retrieve the Major." Dr Weir's look of shock indicated that she had not considered this possibility.
Rodney persisted, "I need more time to replicate this device, so that Colonel Sheppard can take a duplicate back with him for use on his Stargate."
"How long will you need?" Elizabeth leaned forward and peered at the box with its complex arrangement of connections.
"Two weeks, three at most."
"That's too long." Grodin insisted, gesturing towards the screen of his own laptop. "If my calculations are correct, in less than 48 hours the link between realities will be too weak to maintain a wormhole. Besides, it is extremely likely that such a device already exists in Colonel Sheppard's Atlantis."
"Are you prepared to risk losing the Major on that assumption?" Although the words were softly spoken McKay's anger was palpable, as he rounded on the English scientist, who stared back wide-eyed in surprise.
"Gentlemen." Dr Weir's conciliatory tone broke the following silence. "Thank you both for your efforts. Rodney, I'm sorry, but if Peter is right, we must make the attempt as soon as possible, and hope for the best." She turned to Sheppard who had been quiet throughout this exchange. He had been astonished at the level of emotion that McKay had shown. He only hoped that his own team were as concerned about him. "Colonel," Weir continued. "We will make the attempt as soon as Dr McKay has connected the devices to the Stargate."
Less than an hour later, Colonel 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 his simulations had indicated their purpose.
Now, the hand-held was in place and all that was left was to dial out – or in; back to the Atlantis gate.
Down in the Gateroom, Elizabeth Weir walked towards Sheppard, who stood staring at the gate.
"Colonel, I'd like to say goodbye, and wish you luck. I hope that you get home safely." She smiled and shook him warmly by the hand.
"If I do, I promise to do everything I can to get your Major back to you." Sheppard replied. "Please say goodbye to Radek and McKay for me. And tell Rodney that I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For being me."
She nodded, not really understanding. Then turned and climbed the stairs back to the crowded control room where she stood 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 a startled cry from McKay. Elizabeth turned in surprise. Rodney was hunched over the console, his hand pressed hard against his chest, and a look of shocked pain in his eyes.
"Rodney?" Elizabeth hunkered down beside him. "Rodney?" There was no response, just the sound of laboured breathing. "Medical emergency!" Her voice sounded harsh in her own ears. "I need a medical team in the control room, now!"
Without waiting for a reply, she took his wrist and felt the weak, erratic pulse.