Chapter 2 – I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

The team all dropped their gear where they stood and looked at each other in disbelief. The man named Janus stopped a few feet from the team with a questioning look on his face.

"It seems, Janus, that we are from your future." Sheppard started with the truth.

"Are you certain?" Janus looked as if he doubted the Colonel.

"As certain as I can be without seeing star charts from our future compared with your current star positions." Rodney had that conceited and downright snotty tone to his voice.

"How far into the future?" Janus asked.

Mel looked at her watch and sighed. "Approximately ten thousand years."

"How can that be?"

"Something caused the wormhole we had established to our Atlantis to dislodge and come to your Atlantis." Rodney explained as if he was talking down to a child.

"A solar flare," Mel added with a look of surprise on her face.

"What?" Rodney was confused by her answer.

"A number of years ago, SG-1 was sent back to 1969 because of a solar flare. That's also how they got back." Mel was trying to recollect the precise details of the mission reports she had read and the stories that Daniel, Jack, and Sam had told her about their sojourn to the past.

"And didn't they overshoot their present and have to get sent back by a future Cassandra?" Rodney answered smugly.

Mel shot Rodney an evil look. "Yes, but that's not the point. They found a solution and got back. And we are here on a past Atlantis with people who created the whole Stargate system."

Rodney smiled suddenly. "You may have something there! Janus, do you know if there has been any solar flare activity in the last few minutes?"

"There has been no solar flare activity for the last cycle." Janus wished he could be more helpful, but these people were unusual.

Rodney's jaw dropped, and after a minute of incredulity, turned to Mel. "So now what, oh master oceanographer and aficionado of past SG-1 reports?"

"And here I thought that you were the brilliant astrophysicist? Rodney, I was only throwing an idea on the table, which is more than you have done in the last five minutes!" Mel's voice raised in volume until the last word was practically a scream.

"Melody, I am sure that Doctor McKay is thinking of a plan like he always does." Teyla lightly touched Mel on her back as she tried to calm the scientist down.

Mel turned toward Teyla with tears running down her face. "I am sure Rodney's doing his best, but I have to get back to Atlantis right now."

"What are you in such a hurry to get home for? I am sure that Radek can handle a few days without billing and cooing with you," Rodney was only partially aware of Mel's actual distress during his little tirade.

Mel's face crumpled even more as she began to sob. Teyla and Sheppard both shot withering looks toward Rodney as they tried to calm the now hysterical Doctor Hayden. After a minute, Mel started to calm and then she turned toward the bane of her husband's sanity (and who ironically was her husband's best friend). "I am in a hurry to get home to Radek because if we want to try this month, it has to happen NOW."

Rodney turned around once, and then turned back to Mel with a look of complete cluelessness on his face. "What are you talking about, Mel?"

Mel finished mopping up her face with the tissue Teyla had given her before answering. "Radek and I are trying to get pregnant again, Rodney."

Rodney looked like he wanted to say something, but chose not to and instead, crossed over to Mel and gave her a long hug. "That's great news."

Mel got a little teary again. "And this put a slight wrinkle in our schedule."

"I hate to break this up, but my superiors are insisting on some information from you." Janus looked confused by the group in front of him.

"Certainly. Lead away." Sheppard relinquished control to the Lantean.