Chapter 5- Invasion Garin
Rodney was standing in front of the Stargate and staring at the figure of Garin Trelio before him. But it wasn't real, it couldn't be real…
"You are only supposed to be a division of my mind, not be able to control it completely!"
Suddenly, a bright orange couch appeared behind Garin, and he sat down leisurely, "I am one of what you call the Ancients." A similar couch appeared behind Rodney.
He stiffened his face, "No, that is impossible."
"Is it really? The blackouts you have been experiencing, that was me taking over, before I had full control."
"I know that already, but this is my body! Get out of it!"
"No. It took 10,000 years for someone to come along and touch that panel, and you did." Garin grinned, one arm resting on the couch's arm.
"The shock I received from the panel… 13B is your office." Rodney sat down on the second orange couch in a state of astonishment.
"Yes."
Rodney stared at Garin, "Why do this?"
"I have my reasons. That will have to suffice for now."
"That will not suffice! How did you do this, you were in the computer as a file?"
"More or less. I developed a condensed matrix program able to store a copied consciousness indefinitely. The panel, now that is real genius of my work, it's what makes copying and transference possible. The last time I used it, I set it to trigger at the slightest touch. It only takes a second for the transference."
Rodney stretched out on the couch, closed his eyes, and muttered to himself, "An Ancient has downloaded himself into my brain, taken over, and I'm the only one who knows…everyone else thinks I have a mental disorder… this sucks more than I thought…"
"It is unfortunate that I had to make it seem you have a dissociative disorder, but I had to cover up the true reason for the behavior of the past two days. It is a mistake I will not make the next time." Garin was still relaxed on his bright orange couch.
Rodney opened his eyes, "Next time?" and sat up, "I will not let you do this to someone else! I will stop you."
"I'm afraid you won't."
Rodney stood and came at Garin, but a cell dropped in around him. He stood wanting to run through the horizontal bars, but he couldn't. At least the shield wasn't on.
"So, you had a Wraith in one of these, named Steve? Interesting. We kept a Wraith that way once, but we didn't name him."
"Let me out of here." Rodney said angrily.
"No. I will be with my wife again, and no one will ever stop me. The other 'Ancients' couldn't, and you and your people won't either. I have come too far, crossed too many lines to simply stop."
"Your wife is also stored in the computer…"
"Yes."
Rodney thought that maybe he could convince Garin to leave, "What you're doing is essentially murder! Taking over people's bodies, taking their lives from them. How are you going to be happy with that bearing over you?"
"It's nothing new to me." Garin stood up, "Well, this was fun but I have to get some rest. It's been a long day."
"You are not going anywhere Garin!"
"Oh but I am. Goodbye until next time." He waved and vanished, as did Rodney's cell.
He was left alone in this version of the Gateroom, empty but for him and the two ridiculously out of place orange couches. He eyed the room, it was a stunning recreation of the real world, if it wasn't for Garin's magic tricks it would seem real to Rodney. At least he knew he wasn't crazy, but this was worse, this was an invasion of his mind, and body. What was Garin doing with his body… walking around acting like him. Ancients were supposed to be good, but all societies have their black sheep.
He wondered if the whole city was recreated by Garin Trelio, or just this particular room. Rodney walked by the door that led to the hallway and took a breath, not knowing what was behind the door. He thought it open and his mouth dropped. There was nothing, nothing but empty white space. He gingerly touched outside with his foot and felt that there was some sort of ground.
Rodney stepped out completely and looked around at the whiteness. It was downright creepy, and he turned back into the Gateroom, at least it was something. His eyes were immediately drawn to the orange couches sitting there, reminding him of the situation.
Xxx xxx
He woke up on the couch, not knowing what time it was, or even if time existed in this world Garin had created out of his mind. It all had to be a delusion… some sort of dream. This couldn't really be happening. He had been sleeping… was he because his body was?
"Good morning. Oh and this is really happening, I'm sure you have questions. It is your right to receive answers."
Rodney sat up and looked at Dr. Garin Trelio, "You! Alright, questions…what have you been doing walking around in my body anyway?"
Garin sat down on the opposing orange couch, "The first time I made the compound."
"Which does what? Because they all thought I was drugging myself, which was completely absurd."
"It suppressed your mind enough to allow me to assert control. I gave you the first dose that night when you thought you were sleeping. Imagine my surprise the next day when I realized your mission was to the planet I built a home on, so naturally that day I went on the mission, retrieved the crystals I hid there, sat through that awful debriefing, and administered the second dose. That night, once I took control in the infirmary, I encountered Sheppard in the hallway, dealt with him, and gave the last dose."
During this explanation, Rodney grew angrier and angrier at this incredible intrusion of his life and body. His fists clenched, he moved to the edge of the couch, and tried to think of a plan to reassert control of his own body.
Garin tilted his head, "You can't kill me. I would stop you before you even got close. And besides, this form is a mere projection."
Suddenly Rodney found himself being jerked into the back of the couch and had what looked like leather straps across his chest, keeping him in place. He glared at Garin, "Why are you doing this? Your time to live ended thousands of years ago! We are here now."
"Because I was robbed of my life, so was my wife. We will have another chance."
"Robbed how?" Rodney snarked, he hated half-assed answers.
"A Wraith stole her life, mine along with it, but I copied her consciousness before she died and planned to... resurrect her in another body."
Rodney scoffed, "The others couldn't have cared for that."
"They called it murder, but they are the ones that turned me into a murderer."
Rodney could sense a deep sadness running through this man's comments, but then again, he was also a mad scientist and stole his body so he wasn't about to feel sorry for him. "What are you talking about, they turned you into a murderer?"
"That's not important here. Next question."
He was still strapped into the couch, "Carson should have been able to detect you with the EEG."
Garin grinned, "That he would have if I didn't hide within your own readings. You forget I am a genius and Beckett had a primitive machine. Well, that's all I have time for. I have an appointment with the beautiful Dr. Kate Heightmeyer." Once again Garin vanished as did Rodney's restraints.
Rodney didn't like how Garin's face changed as he said Kate's name. He banged his head on the back of the couch and ran his fingers through his hair out of frustration. He was trapped in this room and there was nothing he could do about it… except maybe the Gate. It was worth a shot. He got up and jogged up the Ancient staircase to the Ancients' version of a DHD and dialed Earth.
The Gate lit up like usual, the light circling around and stopping at the chevrons. One…two.. three… Rodney kept watching, it seemed too real… six… seven…eight… the Gate activated with a swoosh.
He thought he might as well go down and check it out, even if it was only in his head. Maybe on the other side would be his mind's recreation of the SGC, a change of scenery wouldn't hurt.
Rodney jogged back down the stairs, passed the orange couches, and stopped in front of the event horizon. He waved his hand through it and it jiggled like a real event horizon. He stepped through.
He emerged on the other side of the event horizon, literally. He was just behind the Gate.
Rodney scoffed at himself, "Of course what the hell was I thinking. I can't even go to the rest of the city…" The Gate shut down and he looked through it and up to the Control Balcony to the large visual screen. Something was on it.
Again he passed the couches and ran up the stairs. On the screen was what looked like a video playback. Kate was sitting in a chair in front of him in that room she held her sessions in. It dawned on him, Garin was showing him what he saw. This was happening at this moment.
Kate was saying something, but there was no sound and Rodney couldn't read lips. Her eyes were looking straight out from the screen, right at him, it was creepy, but of course what she saw was only his blue eyes. She stopped talking and Rodney assumed Garin was responding to a question. The image on the screen shifted with every head movement Garin made.
Kate said something else and Rodney could have sworn she said his name. Garin twitched the head a little, to simulate the switch of personalities.
"Oh come on Kate! You have to know it's not me!" Rodney was standing, his left arm folded across his chest, and touching his chin with his right hand.
He continued watching through his own eyes that were controlled by someone else and thought this must be what it's like to be a Goa'uld host. Unable to do anything, trapped in your own mind. Rodney didn't know how much he could take of this.
Her lips moved again, and she looked down at her notes. The picture changed perspective as Garin stood up and turned to leave.
---
Major Sheppard had been waiting out in the hall by Heightmeyer's office for Rodney McKay as he had the job of keeping him busy for the day. But he volunteered for it, so he didn't mind. Since Rodney had the day off from work, John had something planned that Rodney kept avoiding.
He saw the figure of McKay stepping out of the office, "How'd it go?"
"Not as bad as working with Kavanagh, but it's close." All Garin had were memories of the man and he didn't like him. If he had a man like that on his team thousands of years ago, Garin thought he would have thrown him off one of the balconies.
Rodney saw John for a moment, and Garin's gaze turned down the hallway, they were walking side by side.
"It's necessary if you want to go back to working with all the other geeks."
"Yea, I thought I'd just peek in the lab and check how the projects are progressing."
John reminded who he thought was Rodney, "You're not stepping a foot in there, Doctor's orders. Two of them."
Garin continued to attempt and act like Rodney, "Well, what am I supposed to do all day? And as much as I'm sure you're having fun babysitting me, don't you have somewhere to be?"
Rodney saw on them on the screen walking into the transporter, John pressing a familiar coordinate, and smiled at what was in store for Garin. "Ha… let's see how you like this!"
"What are you referring to, Dr. McKay?"
Rodney jumped a little at the Garin's voice echoing in his world, "You can read my mind, you figure it out."
John smiled as they stepped out, "Well, I thought we should take the opportunity to get in some long evaded training."
Garin looked at him as he was accessing Rodney's memories, "Training? No I don't think that's a good idea, let's just go up to the mess hall and grab something to eat." He stopped walking, but John dragged him along.
"Oh come on McKay, you can't get out of this one. There's no excuse you can come up with." John thought the gymnasium door open to reveal Teyla already waiting with the staff/sticks and a duffel bag strewn in the corner. John had informed her and Lt. Ford of the situation, them all being team members.
"You two are late." She kindly criticized.
"McKay's appointment with Heightmeyer ran long." John pulled 'McKay' fully in the room.
"Hi Rodney, how are the sessions progressing?"
Garin gave his best snarky impression of Rodney, "Fabulous."
"You just had to be a scientist that goes off-world didn't you, McKay?"
Rodney laughed at Garin being so uncomfortable, "Then why don't you just get out of my body!" He screamed as he continued to stand and watch the screen.
"That won't be happening."
Teyla threw Garin a staff and smiled, "Have you been practicing or spending all your time in that lab of yours?"
"Well, I… you know with all the responsibilities I have, and being on the team, I don't have much free time to practice."
"I didn't think so. We should begin." Teyla took a stance and John moved off to the side and sat down on the bench by the window.
John watched as Teyla gently sparred with 'McKay' and routinely beat him in every move. He studied 'McKay's' techniques and could have sworn they were different somehow, still like how a scientist would fight, but just unlike what he had seen before out of Rodney.
Rodney was really enjoying this, "Get him, Teyla! Hit him again!"
"Silence Dr. McKay or I'll turn the show off. I could also just leave you in a constant state of black outs." Garin's voice echoed in Rodney's mind.
As much as he hated being told what to do, Rodney thought not being able to see would make this horrible experience much worse. He hissed, "Fine, Garin."
The match continued for a few minutes, and ended with Garin sprawled on the ground with Teyla's foot on his chest. She helped him up, "You should continue to practice if you want to be successful in a fight with a Wraith."
"I know, I know." Garin dusted off his pants as Lt. Ford walked in.
John looked up, "Hey Lieutenant, care to join us?"
"Yea, I thought that since you all were down here, I might as well join the fun, sir."
Garin snipped in Rodney's voice, "What is this, team bonding day?" "Damn McKay, can't people just leave you alone?"
He curtly scoffed, "Welcome to my life." Rodney could swear he heard Garin grumble at that comment.
TBC…
