Chapter 3a and 3b

Major Sheppard turned at Elizabeth's shout and took the stairs to the control room two at a time. He fought his way through the packed room, roughly forcing aside unresisting scientists until he reached the front of the hushed crowd.

Elizabeth was kneeling beside McKay, stooped over; counting aloud.

"...Two...three...four...five." She leaned forward and pinched McKay's nose, breathing sharply into his open mouth.

Sheppard dropped to his knees beside Dr Weir. Looking down at McKay's grey face he assessed the situation immediately.

"You breathe." He ordered Elizabeth as he began compressions. "One...two...three...four..." He felt a hand on his shoulder and forcibly shrugged it off.

"Get out of the way, Major." The clipped English voice meant nothing to Sheppard as he continued the rhythmic compressions. "Sheppard! Move, now!" He turned in anger to confront the interfering newcomer and, instantly, Dr Beckett pushed him aside.

"Get everyone out of this room; we need space." Beckett ordered as his team expertly deployed around McKay's body.

Sheppard stood and turned on the milling crowd. "You heard the man, out!" Within seconds the room began to clear, leaving John and Elizabeth to watch helplessly as Dr Singh began lubricating a portable defibrillator, ready for use.

"Three...four...five. Dr Singh, charge to 200. One...two...three...four...five. OK, are we ready? Stand clear..." Beckett turned to take the paddles from the Asian doctor.

"Dr Beckett, wait; I have a pulse!" A Doctor who Sheppard did not recognise held up her hand to prevent Beckett from operating the machine.

Beckett dropped the paddles and put his ear to McKay's chest. Seconds passed in silence as Beckett held his breath and listened. "It's weak, but holding. OK. Get him to the infirmary, ASAP."

As the medical team lifted McKay onto a gurney, Dr Beckett turned to Sheppard and Weir.

"I'll need to know exactly what happened."

"All I can imagine is that he got an electric shock from the Interface." Elizabeth looked at Sheppard who shrugged. He had been in the Gateroom at the time of the incident. "I'll get Grodin and Zelenka onto it as soon as possible and let you know."

Colonel Sheppard reacted without thought. Instantly alert for danger, he raced towards the control room; the crowd of scientists parting before him as he stormed through.

Dr Weir crouched beside McKay, his grey face was drenched with sweat but his body shivered as if suffering from intense cold.

"Rodney? Rodney, can you hear me?" Dr Weir sought acknowledgment in McKay's pain-filled eyes. "Rodney?"

A curt nod of the head sent a murmur of relief through those close enough to see.

"Rodney, listen to me. You're gonna be fine. Carson's on his way." Elizabeth turned her head to glare into the crowd. Where was Beckett? It seemed like hours since she had sent for him, not just a few seconds. Spotting Sheppard as he forced his way forward she called out, "Colonel, get these people out of here."

"You heard; this isn't a side-show. Move it!" The scientists dispersed with many backward glances and expressions of concern, until the control room had cleared, leaving only John and Elizabeth, who was still beside McKay, holding on tightly to his hand.

Dr Beckett entered the room at a run, trailing behind him Peter Grodin, who was providing details of the emergency. "...just keeled over. He may have received a jolt from the Interface. You can smell the electrical burn-out from here."

Beckett rushed to McKay and stood over him. "Rodney, look at me. Look at me!" He waited until McKay's head rose and blue eyes focussed on his own. "Good lad, now give me your hand."

As Beckett spoke, McKay felt as though something snapped inside his chest. The burning agony subsided to leave behind it a dull ache. His ragged breathing eased and his terror-filled mind began to clear. He tried to lift his hand to Beckett, but something was holding it back.

"Erm, Elizabeth?" God, was that his voice? It sounded as weak as a kitten. Clearing his throat he tried again. "Elizabeth, that...that's hurting now."

She released his hand hurriedly and gave an embarrassed grin as the rest of the medical team moved in.

Once convinced that McKay was in no immediate danger, Dr Beckett signalled for a stretcher. McKay started trembling again, but this time Beckett recognised the onset of shock. "It's OK Rodney; you'll be my guest in the infirmary for a while. Do you want your usual bed?"

As the medical team hurried Rodney from the control room Dr Weir began to follow. Beckett restrained her with a gentle hand on her arm.

"No Elizabeth, you can't come just yet a while. Give us some time to get him settled in. I promise that I'll call you as soon as he is up to receiving visitors." Dr Beckett smiled to take the sting from his words. "The most help you can give me now is to find out exactly what happened here."

Left in the control room, Colonel Sheppard, Dr Weir and Peter Grodin began to examine the accident that resulted in McKay's collapse.

"Peter, what went wrong?" Dr Weir demanded.

Grodin accessed his computer, linking it directly to the Ancient mainframe. "Nothing went wrong. According to these readings, it worked. We have established a stable link with Colonel Sheppard's world." Grodin looked over the balcony, perplexed, at the inactive Stargate. "There was a massive power spike when the link was created and there is still a large energy output maintaining it; but it seems to have bypassed the gate mechanism entirely."

"So where is the wormhole connected?" Colonel Sheppard enquired, checking the dialling console. All controls had reset and the gate was powered down.

"There isn't a wormhole." Peter replied. He switched to a plan of Atlantis and ran a short program. "This end of the connection is currently moving." He zoomed in on a section of the city. "Towards the infirmary."

"Disengage the Interface. Break the connection." Elizabeth ordered as the significance of Peter's statement sank in.

Grodin shook his head as he double-checked his readings. "I'm sorry Elizabeth, but the Interface is no longer engaged; the initial power surge caused it to overload. The link is now pulling power directly from Rodney, at an alarming rate."

"Then shut the damn thing off!" Sheppard snarled at the Englishman.

"There's no way to do that, Colonel." Peter explained apologetically, "If it had connected through the Stargate, as expected, then closing the gate down would have severed that connection, but I'm afraid that this link will just keep on drawing energy until there is no energy left for it to draw."

"You mean it will drain him until he dies?" Dr Weir asked incredulously.

"I'm afraid so. And, at the rate that the link is consuming power, that can only be a matter of days."

"There's no reason why he hasn't woken." Dr Beckett sat in his office adjoining the infirmary, in conference with Weir, Sheppard and Zelenka. "His condition has been stabilised and he's in no physical pain. All indications are that he could come round at any time. Kate has been talking to him but there hasn't been the slightest response."

"Isn't there anything you can give him?" Dr Weir looked through the open door at McKay, lying still as death.

"Of course, but I'm loath to force the issue before he's ready. That could do considerably more harm than good. Something is going on inside his head and until he decides otherwise, I'm going to let him sleep."

Dr Beckett had finally deemed that Rodney was able to receive visitors. Elizabeth and John had arrived just in time to sit with him as he finished a second helping of lunch.

"You know, I really like hospital food." He explained around a mouthful of 'chicken' stew. "And I'm absolutely starving. Carson explained that this link is drawing energy from me, but it doesn't feel too bad." He pushed his empty plate across the over-bed table and started picking at the grapes that Elizabeth had brought. Elizabeth always brought him grapes when he was in the infirmary and he had never got round to asking her where they came from. It was just one of the many mysteries of Atlantis, he decided.

"Let's hope it stays that way." It took Rodney a second to realise that Dr Weir was responding to his comment about the link. He must be more tired than he thought. Picking up his glass he took a sip, hoping that it would wake him up, but the cold water just chilled him. A good, hot mug of coffee was what he needed.

"It's a shame we can't use it." Sheppard saw Rodney's puzzled look. "The link; it's a shame that we can't use it. If we could find out what my people are doing, we could co-ordinate our efforts."

Instantly McKay was enthusiastic. "It's worth a try, Colonel. I'll see what I can do." He closed his eyes and concentrated on the link. In his head he could see a blue 'wormhole' which connected him to someone else. The mind was familiar, up to a point, but there was no activity.

"He's unconscious. He wants to be unconscious; he doesn't want to wake up. God, this man's mind is a mess. There are walls, blocks everywhere. If I can just..."

"McKay!" Sheppard spoke sharply. "McKay, leave it, you don't want to do that."

"It's alright Colonel, I'll put them back when I've finished, he'll never know. I...Oh god!"

"Rodney?" Elizabeth's voice was getting fainter, further away, and...

He was in a room. A dark room. Not pitch black. There was just enough light to see the things that were in there with him. See their eyes, their teeth, their sharp, sharp claws. They were waiting, on the edge of his vision. Waiting for him to make the wrong move, say the wrong thing. Then they would have him. So much easier, so much safer to just stay still, say nothing. Don't try to do anything, because if he didn't try, he couldn't fail and they so wanted him to fail. And there was no exit, no way out. No way out but one. That way out was always there. They would welcome him making that decision at any time. But the exit was locked and he needed something to open it. A knife. A good, sharp knife. Then he could leave the room. Go where they couldn't follow. And never, ever come back.

"Rodney!" Elizabeth's voice was getting louder, closer. She was holding on to his hand again, so tightly that it hurt; really, really hurt. A sharp pain across his palm. He tried to pull his arm away but it wouldn't move an inch.

Rodney looked up. It wasn't Elizabeth beside him, it was Sheppard.

"Colonel?"

"Yes McKay?" The voice was tight, controlled.

"Er, you can let go of my arm now." Sheppard looked down at McKay's hand.

"First, you let go."

Rodney followed John's gaze. On the table were the remains of the water glass. The largest piece was grasped tightly in his hand, like a knife. Rodney opened his fingers and let the sticky shard fall to the bed. He tried moving his other arm but it too was being held, no restrained, by Dr Beckett.

McKay stared at his bloody palm. "Ow."

"You two had better go now." Dr Beckett's firm voice allowed for no argument, and John and Elizabeth rose to leave. "OK Rodney, I want to irrigate that hand, and you may be needing stitches."

As the day wore on the energy drain on McKay began to take hold. Twice he called for more blankets as his core temperature fell until finally Dr Beckett set up an IV of warm glucose. A succession of visitors were informed that the normal ban on outside food had been relaxed and, by the time that Peter Grodin arrived to update Rodney on the progress that he and Zelenka had made, a coffee-machine had been set up on the bedside table.

"I'm afraid that the Interface is totally unsalvageable". Grodin explained regretfully. "Too many circuits were burnt out. Given a few weeks we could probably build another one though." He continued more brightly.

"I'm not sure that's an option, Peter."

Grodin's face fell, but he attempted to keep McKay optimistic. "Come on Rodney, don't give up. You might outlive us all."

"Wait!" McKay sat up excitedly as an idea formed. "Peter, what would happen if I were to die? Just for a moment? Would that break the link? Because if it would, we could..."

"I'm sorry, Rodney, but we've already thought of that. It doesn't matter if you are alive or not. You are just a power source. If you die, then the residual energy in your body will just continue to drain. When all the energy is gone, then the link will break, but not before."

McKay's head dropped back to the pillow. He suddenly felt utterly wretched. He was hungry, which was not unusual; he was freezing cold, which was just about bearable; and his mind was filling with a thick fog. God, if he was this bad, what must the other McKay be like? Another thought occurred; a very disturbing thought.

"Peter, what would happen if the other Dr McKay died?" The look on Grodin's face told Rodney that this had also been discussed, and that the answer was not good.

"We're not sure." Grodin began.

"Peter!" It took an effort to put that much force behind the word. The next two were just a whisper. "Tell me."

Grodin looked down at his hands. "We think" he stressed, "That the connection is such that, if he died, so would you."

After Grodin left, Rodney started to doze. There seemed little else he could do. Except, maybe...

A pair of pale blue eyes snapped open. They scanned around and focussed on Sheppard. A wide smile spread across the grey face. "Thank god, it worked!"

"Rodney, you're awake!" Sheppard looked around for Dr Beckett but McKay's hand caught his own as he turned. IV tubes shaking at the violent movement.

"Major! It's me; I need to talk to you urgently."

The voice sounded wrong in Sheppard's ears. No, on second thoughts, it sounded right. "McKay?"

"Yes, Major."

"My McKay?"

"Yes, I think that we have established that. Now please listen; I have very little time. Tell Dr Beckett, that he must keep this body alive."

"He's doing his best." Sheppard felt such relief that he fell into his usual banter with Rodney, but McKay was not playing along.

"Yes, but it isn't just his life that's in danger. I have to go, this isn't easy. On either of us. Major, it's good to see that you are OK. Oh, and you can tell them that the Colonel is fine too. Now remember, tell Dr Beckett; don't let him die"

Rodney had found his red fleece that had last seen use in Antarctica. Under it he wore two jackets and a long-sleeved shirt and was now merely perishingly cold. In his good hand he cradled a beaker of hot coffee, laced with five sugars. He suspected that Carson had slipped something else into it as well. Not alcohol though, because that would be...would be... would be a bad thing. He hoped that it was something to help him concentrate because he had never felt so exhausted and he needed to think.

He needed to think because he was Rodney McKay and no-one else was going to get him out of this. He needed to think.

Someone was talking, a long way off. Zelem... no Zelenka.

"We use the hand-held device to dial Atlantis from here and hope that we get a viable wormhole." Zelenka was explaining to the team. Sheppard and Weir sat at the conference table, reading through Zelenka's simplified notes, while Grodin checked his calculations on a laptop. Dr Beckett had allowed Rodney to attend under protest, but admitted that there was no point keeping him in the infirmary. McKay's condition was deteriorating and nothing he tried was helping.

"What good will that do?" Rodney was finding it hard to follow Zelenka's reasoning. "If we dial the Atlantis address, the best we can hope for is a wormhole back here, and that will probably be unstable."

"Yes. Then you step through the gate." Zelenka replied patiently. This was the second time that he had explained his idea but he was prepared to keep going until McKay understood it. "The Quantum link takes path of least resistance and discharges through the wormhole. Then we have a Quantum wormhole to Colonel Sheppard's Atlantis as originally planned!"

"You want me to step into a probably unstable wormhole while mentally linked to someone in another universe?" That didn't sound like a very good idea, but he had got nothing better.

"Yes."

"And you think that this will work?"

"In theory, yes."

"In theory?" Rodney was pleased with that outburst. It sounded just like his old self. Although he had never felt as old as he did now.

Zelenka smiled, "I'm sorry, Rodney, but two days ago we had never even imagined a Quantum Wormhole. All of this is still pure conjecture."

"If you are correct, will it break my link with the other McKay?"

"In theo..."

"And if it doesn't?" Rodney lowered his head onto the table, resigned acceptance the only emotion in his voice.

"If it doesn't Rodney, then you will either end up back here being drained of energy until you die, or you will be somewhere else undergoing the same process." Zelenka replied wearily. "I never said that it was a perfect plan, but is the only one we have."

One look at McKay told Elizabeth that there was no time to investigate other options. "OK gentleman. I want a MALP prepared for a dry run as soon as possible. If we are sure that we can produce a stable, safe wormhole back here, then we will redial later today and hope for the best.

"Realistically, Radek, what are the chances of this working?" Dr Weir collared the Czech as the others left the briefing room to prepare the MALP.

Zelenka shrugged expressively. "Honestly, I don't know. The most probable scenario is that we will not be able to engage a wormhole at all. If we do, and if it is stable, then creating a Quantum wormhole when Rodney goes through the gate is actually quite likely. But whether will that sever his connection with the other McKay is a total unknown. Overall though, I would estimate slightly less than 2 percent chance of success.

Dr Beckett was in his lab when word came that the dry run had actually worked. A MALP had entered the wormhole and immediately reappeared back through the gate. The wormhole would be left running for as long as possible while data was collected and studied. Reluctantly, he loaded up a hypodermic with some of the more dubious stimulants. Back home he could be struck off just for considering this but they needed Rodney to be alert over the next few hours. They needed his input analysing the data before they re-established the wormhole and he stepped through the gate.

Carson found McKay in the Gateroom, sitting wearily on the MALP and watching the event horizon as it shimmered. Diagnostic devices were still hooked up to the gate and readings were being relayed back to the mainframe.

"Hi Rodney. How are you feeling?" Beckett asked quietly. McKay's eyes were sunken and red-rimmed and his constant shivering was causing the MALP to rattle and shake.

There was no reply, but Carson hadn't really expected one. He took McKay's cold hand and awkwardly pushed up the layers of sleeves. Wiping down the area, he sank the needle home.

Rodney didn't know if he was imagining it, but he thought that he felt something hot moving up inside his arm, like a fire in his vein. As the drugs reached his brain they pushed aside the thick fog. Why hadn't Beckett given him this hours ago? There was so much to do. Instantly he started assessing the plan and immediately saw a major flaw. There was no way of transmitting an IDC until he had already entered the wormhole. The shield would be raised and he would arrive to be laminated one molecule thick on the wormhole side.

There was only one way to get the shield lowered and, with his brain racing, he closed his eyes and tried it.

Rodney opened his eyes. Nearby monitors gave reassuring pings and hums. Sitting next to the bed was Dr Weir, her eyes closed, lines of worry etched deeply on her face.

"Elizabeth?" His voice cracked. "Dr Weir?"

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of her name. "Rodney! You're aw..."

"There isn't time. I'm not him, I'm me. The real...the other McKay. You must lower the shield!"

"Rodney?" Her brows furrowed. "I don't..."

"You must lower the shield! I'm going to try to open the Quantum wormhole, but you must lower the..."

A steady beeping from the nearest monitor suddenly changed into a shrill alarm.

No, don't let him die, not now. "Please Elizabeth, lower th..."

Back in the Gateroom, McKay felt a searing agony in his chest. He pushed himself up from the MALP and staggered the few paces to the gate, to fall through the event horizon.