Chapter 10
He slept for two days straight, probably with a little help from Dr. Beckett's medicine cabinet. The third day, he woke to his team by his bed. They were doing fine. That had been one of his first coherent concerns. Then he thanked them profusely. He remembered seeing them for that second, keeping him linked to reality during the whole delightful ordeal.
Their visions had ceased immediately and they could only remember bits and pieces. Rodney explained that the Pavilion made copies of their experiences, memories and knowledge and downloaded that. After a few blank stares, he exasperatedly explained that nothing should be missing in the 'ol' noggin'. Satisfied, Beckett had released them to a day or two of light duty. Sheppard, on the other hand, was to be a guest for a few days.
When he finally got to sleep for the first time without assistance from a spiked IV, the dreams he had were his own. The crazy kind, where you know your dreaming, but it is feasible that an elephant can live in the Gate room. Or, you still live in your childhood home and use the Stargate in the living room to travel to planet P-who-the-hell-knows as a banker. The simple act of going to sleep and waking up was a relief.
The vividness of the memories was fading. And that is what they were- memories. They were not an all consuming experience anymore. Some were completely gone until he got a sense of deja vu. A team member would say or do something; then it would come back and just as quickly fade. He was coping though; his self-awareness and individuality intact. The moment of lucidity was to be thanked for that. Although, he figured Heightmeyer was going to be doing a happy dance waiting for his sessions.
Today was day four. He lazily gazed at his visitor and tried to share his enthusiasm for the discoveries on the planet. Although Rodney had not been back to Parcini, he was listing all of them at a blistering speed.
"We have reinitialized two more of the Pavilions. One is an arts center. The anthropologists are drooling on everything. We had to mop the place up after the first day. The other one well, we think it was for engineering. It has an obtuse name, the Pavilion of Creation. Hopefully, the secrets of the ZPM might be hidden there, if we could only be so lucky. Unfortunately, some of the Pavilions have been destroyed by nature- tectonic shifts, land slides and what not. The Ancients were good but not omnipotent. At least not yet. Can't always foresee a river changing course and submerging an entire complex."
Sheppard smiled understandingly at him. Walk a mile and all that.
He had seen some of Rodney's childhood- none too happy. They were some of the memories that had stayed with him. His parents were bores and afraid of the gifted pain in the ass they had spawned. His enthusiasm for everything scientific was misunderstood by them. Sheppard had a better grasp now. In fact, he had a better grasp of what made the others on his team tick.
"…the information, medical knowledge and all of it - outstanding really. Kind of thought we might find one of those grab your head and download everything Ancient kiosks. No such luck, which is probably a good thing."
Sheppard studied him; he could not see him take a breath. The man was a…machine.
"Carson and the Archive are really getting along. She hasn't asked for him to meet the parents, but I'm sure that's next. I've never seen him voluntarily sit in a chair with such gusto. The Archival Pavilion and the Pavilion of Acquirement were the voices of the learning center. The only ones that interact with the user that way. We have to interact with the other Pavilions the old fashioned way: read, read and more reading."
Rodney paused, finally. "She saved us you know. The harpy wasn't going to release us. Even with your heroic and soul baring try. The Pavilion was too far gone. Some sort of corruption from Matriarch Scilla and 10,000 years of alone time. She was supposed to wait for you to specify what information to download and access only that. I even hate to use this word for a computer, but it was over excited. That's why it dragged all of us along for the ride. Then senorita psychopath finds out that Teyla has her Wraith voodoo power and you had a hickey session with a bug. Not totally sure why that would turn its switch to kill. We'll have to do more research. Lucky us, we have a whole learning center at our disposal. Just to be on the safe side, Carson is going to recheck your readings from the Health Pavilion for any clues."
Rodney looked at him waiting for an answer, when none came he trundled on.
"So anyway, while the Archive was linked to her sister, she determined she was too dangerous. The reaction to your warm fuzzy Chaya moment helped to convince the Archive to deactivate her sister."
He had let them in on his ill-fated try to appease the Pavilion at an informal bedside debriefing. He was way too emotionally, physically and mentally drained to go anywhere; so they came to him. Nothing like letting everyone know how foolish you feel, again.
Rodney continued, "Miko actually had to make a decision on her own. The Archive still needed permission to stop her sister. Personally, I think she made the right decision. My need for self-preservation would not have it any other way. Apparently, all that info taken from us never transferred and was lost with the crash. Which is one less thing to worry about."
McKay let a smile spread across his face. "Should have seen Ford's face when he found out that "save" did not release us. I mean really; how could it?"
Sheppard nodded sagely. He had had a sneaking suspicion when he was not released immediately.
McKay rolled on. "I got a chance to look at the readings from the Health Pavilion. You were basically brain dead. That…that thing pretty much tried to boil your brain inside your skull. Good thing the Archive stopped it in time or well…"
Sheppard cringed making Rodney shift subjects quickly.
"Too much information, I know, I know. Moving on, moving on. We found out what powers the complex. It's not a ZPM. Ancient U. is run by geothermic power. Definitely want to find out how they accomplished that efficiently."
Rodney was starting to get nervous as John quietly watched him.
"Well, just thought I would say hi. Ford and Teyla will be by later. I think Weir is still avoiding you. She seems to conveniently visit while you're sleeping." He smirked.
"You're looking better though. The rings under your eyes look like your American half-dollar as opposed to those old fashioned dollars you were sporting yesterday. Not talking the Susan B or the Sacagawea, you know the really large ones."
John raised both eyebrows. "Where on earth did you come up with an analogy like that? Dollars?"
"After all I have just said; that is the only question you have?"
"Well yeah. So?" John shifted in the bed to get a better look at Rodney.
Rodney rolled his eyes. "You were worrying me; you didn't say anything. I thought you might have regressed. It was all I could think of."
"Well then, that answers that." Sheppard scooted down in his bed. "Thanks Rodney…for everything."
McKay looked confused. "Whatever, I'll see you later. OK?"
Sheppard smiled and decided to go check on how the elephant was doing.
And oh yeah, Weir was gonna pay.
THE END
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. It was a neat exercise. Please go ahead and review.