Chapter 2- Big Bang Theory

Major Sheppard was leading the team over the terrain of M8X-468 at 1100 hours in the overwhelming heat. Damn, he couldn't remember what this type of terrain was called, it wasn't a desert where you sunk up to heels in sand like in Afghanistan, but it was dry and sandy.

The grass was spotty and barely clinging to the surface. More like the dry African savannah than anything… oh crap did that mean lions? Up ahead there were some ruins, and that was exactly where they were going, of course.

He could hear Ford and Teyla chatting behind him about something to do with Athosian culture, when he glanced behind him he could tell they were still surveying the planet, so it wasn't a problem.

One voice he didn't hear was McKay's. It was surprising to John that McKay wasn't complaining about the heat, the hike, or anything at all. McKay was directly behind him, looking at the portable detector and looking up to see how far they had progressed every few seconds, eager to get there.

He seemed to have changed since breakfast. That morning Rodney looked absolutely beat, but when John mentioned it, he blew it off and said that he did actually go to sleep last night, and he himself was wondering why he was so tired. John knew something wasn't right, but he just couldn't place it, and it was beginning to scare him.

Now McKay was focused, and saying the bare minimum in answering any question that was thrown his way.

They finally approached the ruins at the top of a low hill. The roof had long since disappeared and so had most of the walls separating what once were rooms. There were a few carved columns strewn on the floor, and one still standing. The floor had large, matte cerulean tiles, about two feet square, in a brick like design. It must have beautiful when it was new.

Ford and Teyla stayed outside to keep watch as McKay and Sheppard continued in.

McKay immediately ran up to the standing column and ran his fingers gingerly over the writing, reading it carefully. He then stepped back and looked around the whole place with his eyes, and bent down and read the writings on the fallen columns.

"So, what do you think this place is?" John asked as he tapped the one standing column with his P90. When no answer came he asked, "McKay?" and yelled "Hey McKay!"

McKay turned his head, "Oh it is…was a house."

John could have sworn he saw a tear in McKay's eye. "Anything of value?"

"Actually…possibly…" He walked into the adjoining room, pulling a long knife from a before-unseen holster, startling John a little who didn't know Rodney carried a knife like that around.

He followed Rodney and saw him counting the number of tiles on the floor until he came to the one in the dead center of the room and then crouched down and began to pry the tile up with his knife.

"Need help?" John asked.

"Yes, here, take a hold of this part."

John also crouched down and put his hands under where McKay had lifted the large and extremely heavy tile up and they both moved it off to the side. Beneath it was an open space that went under the immediately surrounding tiles.

As he shined his flashlight down into the hole, he asked McKay, "How did you know this was here?"

He was peering down the hole, "It was written on the columns. There's a ladder, so let's go exploring."

There indeed was a ladder attached to one of the adjacent tiles.

John keyed his radio, "Ford, we found something. Keep watch."

"Yes sir."

Rodney was already making his way down into the underground chamber, and once he was down the ladder called up to John, "It's safe, Major. Feel free to come down anytime now."

He said that last comment so much like the usual McKay, Major Sheppard forgot for a moment about the earlier strange behavior, even him voluntarily going first into an unexplored underground cavern.

John climbed down the ladder, his boots causing the metal rungs to sound with each step. He landed on the floor, which also was tiled with the blue stone. He looked around shining his flashlight in the small chamber; it couldn't have been any larger than seven feet by seven feet.

Rodney was holding his own flashlight in his mouth, bent over what could be called a large suitcase, one of four. He undid the latch and opened it. "Major, you're never going to believe this."

"What is it McKay?" He walked over and stood next to him.

"Crystals. There should be more in the other three cases. I can't believe that after all these years, they are still intact… it's…it's incredible…"

"What are they doing here? I thought this was a house."

"The house belonged to one of the architects of Atlantis. At least now we have some replacement parts." Rodney closed the case and stood up straight.

"Let me guess, that was written on the columns too?"

"Yes, these are the only items of value here, so I suggest we get these back to Atlantis before something goes terribly wrong on this planet, like what usually happens on supposedly routine missions and Carson keeps us in the infirmary for a week while I could be doing other important things..."

He started to sound like the usual McKay… John once again keyed his radio, "Teyla, come give us a hand, we have luggage. We're in the floor of one of the rooms."

He could hear a little twinge in her voice, most likely at the 'in the floor' comment, "I'm coming Major."

Once she arrived, they formed a line, John handing Rodney the cases from the chamber, and Rodney on the ladder handing them up to Teyla. It took only a couple of minutes before the three were on their way out of the ruins, John carrying a case, Teyla carrying one, and miraculously McKay carrying two and not saying a word.

Lt. Ford turned around, "With all due respect sir, are we heading out now? It is incredibly hot." He wiped his brow, his clothes soaked in sweat, the same as the others. It had to be around 105 degrees F in the shade, and they still had the walk back to the Gate.

"Yes Lieutenant, McKay found some new toys to play with." John expected a sharp retort from McKay about them not being toys, but none came. So back to being odd…

The walk back was the same as the first, except this time the team was loaded down with the cases. Ford has insisted on taking the one from Major Sheppard, as John was walking on point.

Again McKay seemed lost is his own world, not engaging in snarky banter with John.

Xxx xxx

Peter Grodin looked at McKay like, well, he was nuts walking up to the Control Balcony, "Rodney, what are you still doing in your mission gear?"

Still? He looked at his watch, it was six o'clock in the evening, past the ending of the mission, and the debriefing for that matter. "Oh, I uh, just haven't had the chance to change." In truth, he had just changed into his mission gear thinking it was 1100 hours, and had the frightening realization that he must have blacked out again. "How's everything going here?"

"It's fine."

"Ok, keep up the good work." Rodney left the Control Balcony, fleeing to his quarters to change. He avoided everyone on the way, his mind racing with the fact that he had blacked out on a mission. That made the score blackouts: two (accounted for), memories of what occurred: none. It scared the crap out of him. The known he could handle – the Wraith, the imminent power failure, those he knew something about. But not knowing exactly what he did for eleven hours - that was something he couldn't afford to be doing. He threw his gear at the bottom of his closet and headed out of his quarters.

--

Peter Grodin had decided it would be a good idea to go see Carson, something was definitely up with the Chief Scientist. He walked up to the infirmary in a quick pace, and found Carson in his office standing and talking with Major Sheppard.

"Carson, could I talk to you for a moment?"

"Aye, what about?"

He eyed John, "It would be best in private."

"If it's about McKay, I've beat you to it."

"You have?"

Carson sounded concerned, "We're worried about him too, what have you noticed?"

"He came to the Control Balcony in full out mission gear, like he expected to be leaving in five minutes. When I questioned him about it he blew it off and actually said I was doing good work. How was he on the mission?"

"I was just telling Carson that he was well, quiet, hardly said a word the whole time. It was eerie, like he wasn't there. Same in the debriefing."

Carson threw his arms up in the air, "That's it. I'm giving him a full-check out, blood work, scans, everything. I'll find what the bloody hell is wrong with him."

As if on cue, Rodney came storming in, "There is something seriously wrong with me Carson, and I demand to know what it is!" And then he saw Peter and John standing there. "What's going on?"

"We all seem to agree something is wrong with you." John commented.

Rodney crossed his arms, "That's insulting."

The other three just rolled their eyes at him.

"Rodney, come on and I'll check you over." Carson moved out of his office and into the infirmary, walking next to Rodney and followed by Major Sheppard and Peter.

"Sit." Carson instructed Rodney who plopped himself down on one of the infirmary beds. "What do you believe is wrong with you?"

"I don't know; that's why I came here." He tapped his feet in the air; Carson gave him a 'I need to know more than that' glare. "Okay, I've been blacking out, it's happened twice."

"Are you sure they were blackouts?"

Rodney looked up at him, scared, "Positive. During the first one, Peter saw me go into the 13B lab before the mission to M3R-436, but I don't remember those four hours at all.

"The Dragon planet?"

"Yes the dragon planet, and today... today I blacked out on the mission to M8X-468 and the debriefing, so that's another seven hours."

John exclaimed, "You don't remember the mission at all!"

McKay shook his head, "No."

"Not even the spare crystals for the Control Room?" Peter asked.

"What spare crystals? We have spare crystals? That's great now we don't have to be so in edge…"

Peter cut in, "The ones you found on the planet."

Carson had been writing everything down on a chart, "I'm going to have Carolyn take some blood and I'll run a few other tests, see if I can find anything." He shot a glance at Peter and Major Sheppard, and they got the hint to leave and he would talk to them afterward.

Xxx xxx

Major Sheppard was paged to Carson's office three hours later, which he immediately ran up to, bypassing the infirmary. Carson was sitting at his desk, rubbing his head looking at lab results.

"Peter couldn't make it, what did you find?"

Carson looked up, "I'm not sure. I did every test I could think of, at Rodney's insistence," He motioned to the pile of folders on his desk, "including PET, EEG… the only thing that came back abnormal was his blood test. There's a strange chemical in his system. I have him resting in the infirmary for the night, but I didn't inform him of the chemical."

John sat down, "Where could he have got it from? It's not life threatening, is it?"

"I simply don't know what it is right now. When Carolyn took the blood sample, she found two other needle marks that I believe he didn't receive in my infirmary."

"What are you saying? He's doing this to himself?"

Carson leaned forward, "It seems that way."

John was exacerbated, "Where would he get drugs, we're not exactly down the road from the corner."

"He's a smart man, he could make something himself."

John stood up, "I can't believe we're actually discussing this! I would have noticed if there was something that serious going on with him. We're all stressed around here."

Carson stood up calmly, "I agree Major. Of course I'll inform Elizabeth, but I plan on keeping this quiet until I've determined what this chemical is and if it is even related to his blackouts. In the meantime, I want you to see if you can find out anything I could use. A source, perhaps."

"Alright, but it doesn't make sense, why would he come here demanding to be seen if he knew this was self-induced?"

"The blackouts could be a side-effect he wasn't planning on, or he could be completely innocent of everything and got this in his system from one of a number of places."

John rubbed his forehead with his fingertips, "I'll go do some snooping." He waved goodbye to Carson and made his way to Rodney's quarters. The halls were clearing out by this time and he passed few people.

He thought the door open and quickly closed it behind him. Rodney's room was as clean as it could be. There were no clothes strewn on the floor, the books were in perfect order on the shelf, notebooks and files stacked neatly on the desk next to his laptop, and wrappers from MREs and power bars safely contained in the waste can.

He was still standing by the door, taking it all in. It was an understatement to say John felt very odd being in Rodney's room, alone and not looking for him. He sighed and started the search.

After opening every drawer, searching the closet, bathroom, and under the bed, John gave up. There was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that would help Carson figure out what was going on.

Major Sheppard left and started down the hall, pondering the situation. There was something definitely wrong with Rodney, his behavior and blackouts alone proved that, and now this chemical? There wasn't even a possibility to John that Rodney had turned to injecting himself with some home-made substance to ease the stress.

He was always stressed, and there hadn't been a particularly traumatic event recently. The last major occurrence was on Chaya's planet. If this was really a drug problem, it should have started before; after Gall, Abrams, and that super Wraith; Wagner, Johnson, Peterson, Dumais, Hays … not now, not weeks later.

He turned the corner into the infirmary hallway and saw Rodney sneaking out, still in his usual clothes and not scrubs, going the other way. "McKay! Where are you going?"

But Rodney kept walking and John ran after him, "McKay, Beckett didn't release you did he? ... … McKay!"

Now John had caught up, put his hand on his shoulder, and spun him around, "Rodney, you should-"

His words were cut short as he saw a flash of a fist and the world going black.


TBC…