Part 4

As he stepped up to follow the British Lieutenant through the gate, Sheppard paused and frowned. Puzzled, he turned to Teyla at his side, and asked. "Did you just hear someone shouting?"

Teyla listened, but shook her head as her sharp ears heard nothing more than the natural sounds around her. "No, Major."

Suddenly Sheppard set off at a run back towards the cave. As he reached the mouth he stopped and flicked on the flashlight of his P-90. Shining the light through the entrance, he manoeuvred the weapon to penetrate between the layers of debris. As Teyla arrived behind him he called into the wreckage. "McKay? Rodney?"

Unseen, Rodney burst from the cave and skidded to a halt beside them.

Nothing moved inside the room, but, in the flashlight's beam, the glint of metal on the floor near the entrance caught Sheppard's eye.

"Teyla, shine a light over here."

Teyla stepped up to the entrance as Sheppard cautiously squirmed through the wreckage and into the cave.

"Careful, Major!" Teyla kept the light steady as she watched Sheppard inch his way forward. He had made hardly any headway into the room when a cracking sound from above caused him to freeze and a shower of small debris fell around him.

"It's no use, Teyla, I can't get any further in." Twisting his body, Sheppard managed to snag the metal object with his foot and pull it towards himself. Picking it up, he backtracked his way to the entrance.

Teyla stepped aside to allow him out through the doorway and looked down at the device in his hands, "What have you found, Major?"

"It's one of those spheres that hit Rodney." Sheppard turned the broken object over in his hands. "Looks like most of it is here. Maybe Zelenka can work out what it did."

Xx oOo xX

"No no no no no. Radek, put that down. It's the piece to the left that's important."

McKay watched with rising frustration as Dr Zelenka worked his way through the broken device. As soon as Zelenka had started to dismantle the sphere, McKay had realised why he had found it so familiar. It showed remarkable similarities with Wraith technology that they had studied, although with several subtle differences, as though someone had taken a Wraith device and adapted it to suit their own requirements. It separated the mind from the body, that much he had figured out back on the planet, but it appeared that the mind was intended to be stored in the sphere rather than lead an independent existence. Meanwhile, the body was put into stasis until the mind was restored. It would explain not only what had happened to him, but how the Wraith could hibernate for centuries and why they didn't trigger a lifesigns detector. McKay didn't know why the mind needed to be kept separate - possibly there was some difficulty with reviving a body with the mind inside - but it was actually quite an elegant solution to a problem.

"Dr Zelenka, I need you over here." McKay and Zelenka both looked up as a tall, pony-tailed man walked arrogantly into Zelenka's lab.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Kavanagh." McKay couldn't contain an indignant outburst. "Who died and made you the boss?" Oh, right. McKay saw that the power plays to be the next chief scientist had begun, and, although Kavanagh would have been McKay's last choice, he might believe that, if he took control now, he would get the position by default. Not that Elizabeth would allow that to happen. She would give the job to Zelenka but Kavanagh was too egotistic to see that.

"I'm sorry, Dr Kavanagh, but I am working on something for Major Sheppard." Zelenka did little to disguise his irritation at the interruption, nor his dislike for the man who had invaded his lab.

"What's that?" Kavanagh walked over to the bench and picked up one of the fragments of the sphere. "You're working on that device from M3X-925? What's the point? It's not like we're ever going back there. The only thing of interest on the whole planet was that cave, and, thanks to McKay, it's now buried under half a mountainside."

Zelenka, non too gently, took the fragment from Kavanagh's hands, his eyes flashing with annoyance. "Major Sheppard wants to know exactly what happened there."

"We know what happened." Kavanagh stepped back and folded his arms across his chest haughtily. "McKay touched something he didn't understand and it killed him. That's what happened. Now, I'm just as sorry about that as you are," Zelenka and McKay snorted in unison at the blatant lie, "but wasting your time trying to find a way that this wasn't McKay's own fault isn't going to help save the rest of us from the Wraith."

"I'm sorry, Dr Kavanagh, but I have work to do." Contemptuously turning his back on the taller man, Zelenka replaced the sphere fragment on his bench. "Now, if you would like to explain to Major Sheppard why you are preventing me from doing it, please be my guest."

"Enjoy it while you can, doctor." Kavanagh made the title sound almost like an insult. "With McKay gone, there are likely to be a few changes around here." With that, Kavanagh stalked from Zelenka's lab and into the corridor.

McKay thought that he recognised most of Zelenka's muttered Czech words as ones that had been directed at his own back on occasion; but the venom with which they were delivered added a whole new dimension. He smirked at the departing Kavanagh. "Well said, Radek, I couldn't have put it better myself."

Zelenka and McKay turned their attentions back to the fragments on the bench in front of them. Unheard, McKay sighed in exasperation. "No, Radek. The piece on the left." Moments later, without realising it, Zelenka was even more alone in his lab.

Xx oOo xX

Seated in his office, Carson Beckett closed his files and logged off from his laptop. He had been almost glad of the flurry of minor accidents that had occurred since his return from M3X-925. They had managed to keep him occupied, kept his mind on his job of healing the injured, curing the sick and postponing the inevitable for as long as possible.

He had just finished writing up his case-notes for the most serious injury (a couple of cracked ribs, the result of an over-enthusiastic self-defence class run by Sgt Bates) before getting ready to hand over his shift to Dr Singh and return to his own quarters. Not that he was ever really off duty, but he knew that today there would be an unspoken agreement among his staff that he was not to be disturbed, for any reason.

He glanced across at the bottle on his desk. The only other person who knew ... who had known about it, was Rodney, who had seen it when Beckett had been searching his desk drawers for something a couple of months back. Rodney had feigned shock at the discovery, but had promised, with a grin, not to tell anyone else on the understanding that Beckett shared it with him alone when they finally found a ZPM. It wasn't that alcohol was actually banned on Atlantis, but a bottle of 15 year old Glenmorangie would have found a lot of takers when it was eventually broached.

Picking up the bottle almost reverently Beckett made for the door, and walked straight into Sheppard who had entered unnoticed.

"Carson, do you have a minute?" Sheppard's voice was gentle but firm and Beckett felt a flash of irritation at the resolute look on the other man's face. He had heard of Sheppard's apparent claim to have seen Rodney on Atlantis, and his subsequent return to the planet. Bloody hell, the man was a terrier. Didn't he know when it was time to let go?

"Actually, Major," he began archly, then felt the heavy weight of the bottle in his hand. Was his way of dealing with this any better than Sheppard's? Probably not.

"To tell the truth," He continued in a softer voice. "I was just away to my room with a bottle of whisky to get ratted." He smiled sadly at Sheppard's raised eyebrow. "You're welcome to join me. Unless you had something else in mind?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass this time." Sheppard smiled back. "Dr Zelenka thinks that he has found something. Care to listen in?"

Intrigued, Dr Beckett replaced the malt in his bottom drawer and closed it carefully before following Sheppard from the room.

Xx oOo xX

TBC