"Rodney! Lights are out and doors won't open all over the ship." Sheppard asked after Teyla, Ronon and he manually forced the door open and entered the dimly lit bridge twenty minutes later. Only emergency lighting seemed to be working here. "What the hell is going on?"

McKay, Park and Crosby turned from the console they had been hunched over. Hughes popped up from under another one nearby.

"No-one said you could stop working!" McKay glared at Park and the technicians as he walked over to his team. His tone changed when he spoke to them. "Systems are going down all over the ship. We had to jury-rig almost everything to just get her here."

"Col. Sheppard?" Dr. Zelenka was only mildly concerned as he watched the computer screen with Elizabeth. The Orion was in a geosynchronous orbit approximately a thousand miles above Atlantis.

The Colonel was concerned about the low level of static in the signal. "This is Sheppard."

"John?" It was Elizabeth's voice this time. There wasn't quite enough static to mask her fear. "Is Rodney with you?"

"What's up?"

McKay broke in. "What do you want? I'm busy here."

Zelenka closed his eyes for a moment. "You need to stabilize the shields, Rodney. The CME is a lot closer than we thought. It will reach your position within minutes."

"What?" McKay almost shouted. "You could have told me a little sooner!"

----------

McKay spun around and looked out of the windows that wrapped around the forward area of the bridge. The ship was turned so that they were facing away from the sun. Only the star-studded blackness of space could be seen. He stared for a long moment then back at Sheppard.

"We have to get out of here."

Sheppard took a step toward McKay. "What about the shields? You said…"

"The shields are unstable. They could go down any second." The astrophysicist hurried to one of the consoles. "Look, the leading edge of the CME must have already reached us. That's why everything is going offline. Even the sensors aren't working. We have to go now."

Ronon looked around the bridge. "Won't the ship protect us?"

"Haven't you been listening? CMEs are dangerous. Without the shields, the ship is vulnerable to all kinds of mayhem from the billions of tons of charged particles coming at us at more than a million miles per hour. Without the shield, we are vulnerable to those same particles." McKay rushed over to the door. "What part of 'we have to go now' don't you understand?"

"Yes, all the Jumpers have shield capable of withstanding the CME now. We'll be safe…" Crosby edged toward the still open door just as Franks, Johnson and Yamato walked in.

"Wait!" Sheppard looked out at the black. Other than the system malfunctions, there was no perceptible indication of the death that was speeding at them. He turned back. "We don't have time to get to the Jumpers and we can't leave the Orion. What about the hyperdrive?"

McKay stared at him, realizing Sheppard was right. He snapped his fingers several times and walked over to a different console. "Maybe. Just maybe. Park!"

"The hyperdrive?" Teyla asked in confusion. "How will that help?"

"Just like the volcano on Taranis, we only need to get out of the way. We only need to open a hyperspace window for a second." McKay began to tap on his datapad as Park keyed the controls on the console. He turned the datapad off in disgust and set it down. "Crosby, Yamato, see if you can keep the shields up. The rest of you, get the inertial dampers online. And turn off our gear. It's just getting fried."

"Is there enough power to open a hyperspace window, Rodney?" Sheppard hopped up and sat on the captain's chair.

"I hope so." McKay didn't take the time to turn around to answer. "Now, be quiet and let me work."

"Elizabeth, did you hear that?" Sheppard's brow furrowed as he looked from McKay to the window.

"Yes,…heard you. …. luck." Her transmission was breaking up.

"See you soon." Sheppard looked around the bridge. "Lieutenant, what's your location?"

"Engineering, Sir, with Adamsen and Gilbert. Dixon and Smith are here, too." Antonio responded.

"Okay." Sheppard glanced at his watch. "Sgt. Wong?"

"In the auxiliary control room, Col. Sheppard. I have James and Steiner here. Prentice, Franks and Yamato, too, Sir." The young man's signal was full of static.

"Good. All of you stay put and brace yourselves. This could get rough. We are going to try a hyperspace jump and the inertial dampeners are unreliable. Radios off. We'll come for you when it's safe."

"Copy …, Sir." Antonio response was broken by static.

Wong replied as well. "Yes, Sir."

Sheppard nodded at the others on the bridge and they all switched off their radios. It was useless having them on, and McKay was right. All Earth based equipment was being fried by the charged particles of the storm that was upon them.

Ronon and Teyla went to the window to wait. After watching McKay and the others for a moment, Sheppard carefully hobbled over to join them. They looked down at the planet. Towering auroral curtains shimmered below them. They watched in silence for several minutes, frequently glancing back at the men working at the consoles.

"Okay, kids, get ready. And, brace yourselves." McKay pressed a couple of the control keys and scanned the screen above the console. He glanced at Sheppard. "The hyperspace window will open in sixty seconds, but the inertial dampeners will be marginal at best. Stay low and…hell, cross your fingers."

Everyone scrambled to wedge themselves into a spot that might offer them some amount of protection. When McKay turned around again only Sheppard was still standing. The astrophysicist nodded, touched a symbol on the console and sat on the chair. One hand held the datapad to his chest and the other clutched the edge of the console. Sheppard sat in the chair at helm control. He leaned forward and gripped the edge.

Then, the universe seemed to lurch.

----------

Ronon slowly opened his eyes to near darkness. A reddish glow illuminated the bridge. Little more than vague outlines were visible. He heard moaning nearby and crawled towards it. One of the technicians, it looked like Hughes, lay under a console. He was semiconscious, and Ronon thought the man's left leg was bent at an unnatural angle below the knee.

Movement to his left caught Ronon's attention. "Sheppard? Are you okay?"

"What the hell…?" The Colonel slowly rolled to a sitting position then stood up. He leaned against the wall where he had been thrown. "I think so. You?"

"A few bruises, that's all."

"What about the others? Teyla? Rodney?" Sheppard pulled a flashlight out of his vest and turned it on. He pushed away from the wall and began to check the unconscious bodies littered around the bridge.

"Sheppard." Ronon stood up. "It's Crosby. He's dead."

"Damn. Are you sure?" Sheppard limped over. When he saw the technician, it was very clear the man was dead. Crosby's eyes stared sightlessly and his head was tilted at an ugly angle on a broken neck. The Colonel turned and looked out of the window. "Rodney?"

They heard a groan come from under one of the consoles. "Ow! Help!"

"Find Teyla and see if she's alright." The Colonel gave Ronon his flashlight and, using the edge of the console for support, headed for McKay. He slowly squatted down. The astrophysicist was wedged between a chair and console. "Rodney? Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay!" McKay struggled to extricate himself. "I've been tossed around, bruised. I could…"

"Are you injured?" Sheppard's brusque tone stopped the complaining.

McKay eased himself out and pulled himself onto the chair. He began to feel his arms and legs for injury. "Well, I don't know. I might have a concussion, which could be serious."

"Rodney." Sheppard peered at him in the dimness. He spun the chair and pointed out of the window. "Where the hell are we?"

McKay opened his mouth and closed it again, speechless. He saw the faint red light was coming from outside, not emergency lighting. He stood up and walked to the window, oblivious to the people around him. After staring out for several seconds he turned back to Sheppard.

"Where are we?"

----------

"We're not getting anything, Dr. Weir. Their comms may be down because of the storm." The technician at the communications console shook her head. "I'm sorry."

Elizabeth looked out through the doors to the sky beyond the balcony. It had been more than four hours since they lost contact with the Orion. The planet was turning into night-time and she could see the aurora dance out over the water. She turned back to the technician. "Thank you. Please keep trying. Let me know if you hear anything at all."

Zelenka glanced up from the computer in front on him. He cleared his throat quietly. "Elizabeth?"

"Yes, Radek?" She moved to stand beside him. "Is there anything on the scanners?"

He quickly checked the screen for the twentieth time. "No, nothing. We've been going over the data from just before communications went dead. It appears they were able to open a hyperspace in the instant the worst part of the storm hit."

"Thank God. How far could they have gone?" Sensing a 'but', she was only half relieved at the news.

Zelenka shrugged. "We really don't know. We are still experiencing the effects of the CME. The last of it won't pass us for a couple of hours. It is possible the scanners just can't see them yet."

"What happened?" She stared at the screen, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The physicist chewed on his lower lip at the moment. "Well, we're not sure…"

"What do you think happened?"

"As I said, it looks like they opened the hyperspace window just as a very intense part of the CME hit. We think the energy from the charged particles may have, how to put it, turbocharged the jump. We have no idea how far they might have gone. The Orion could be thousands light years away or just outside this solar system."

"Once the effects from the CME have dissipated, will you be able to find it?" She looked at him.

Zelenka shrugged again. "I honestly don't know, Elizabeth. We know the shields were unstable. It's likely the charged knocked out all of the ship's systems, at least for a while. If the Orion is dead in the water, so to speak, she will be difficult to detect unless she close by."

Elizabeth frowned. "What if life support is offline? How long will they have?"

"Well, it is a very large ship. They will have oxygen for quite some time, weeks even." He thought for a moment. "It's the cold I'm concerned about."

"What do you mean?"

"Space is very cold." Zelenka paused again. "Or, very hot if they are too close to a star, come to think of it. Anyway, if life support is down, they cannot regulate temperature. It could drop more than one degree Celsius per hour. They would have just a few days, if that, before they would freeze to death."

She looked back at the screen, thinking. "What about the Jumpers? They have two Jumpers."

"True. But, unless they were very lucky, they will not be near a planet with a Stargate. And, they have almost twenty people in two small Jumpers." He left the rest unsaid.

She nodded. "Thank you, Radek. Please let me know as soon as you find them."

"Of course." Zelenka responded. She turned to walk towards her office and he went back to the computer, muttering in Czech.

----------

The corridor leading from the bridge became progressively darker until it was blacker than any night imaginable. Sheppard used his flashlight to show the way and the wall as support. He had spent too much time on the leg with the not so small hole and the injured muscles were burning.

"It'd be a hell of a lot easier if Rodney could get the lights on." He complained. Suddenly, low level lights came up. He grinned at Ronon. "Speak of the devil…"

Ronon frowned at the reference. "What?"

"The devil's this evil…Oh, never mind." Sheppard exhaled heavily as he stopped at one of the between-deck's ladder and waved Ronon downwards. As he swung onto the ladder, the lights dimmed to nothing.

"Hey!" Ronon protested above him.

"Damn." Sheppard mumbled to himself. He didn't smiled when, almost immediately, the lights came on again.

----------

The Colonel limped back onto the bridge with Ronon, who carried a large first aid kit. Gilbert, Yamato and Adamsen followed. Sergeants Wong and Steiner and Cpl. Smith brought up the rear with a stretcher. Dr. Gilbert and his technicians went straight to McKay.

"You were right, Rodney. These are working." Gilbert handed McKay one of the two data pads he carried.

"How's it going, Rodney?" Sheppard asked as he entered.

"Everything here is still dead. But, at least we aren't completely blind now." The astrophysicist was focused on the datapad brought from the Jumpers. He quickly glanced around. "Where are the others?"

"In the Jumper bay. Prentice and Antonio are injured." The Colonel held his hand up when Park and Yamato whirled around. "Nothing serious. We're going to move Hughes down there, too."

"Why? Is there a problem?" Park asked.

"It's just a precaution. If we have to get out of here in a hurry I don't want to have to move them later. The Jumpers have power and, as far as I can tell, all systems." Sheppard leaned on a console. "I have Dixon trying to raise Atlantis and keeping an eye on the scanners for any Wraith ships."

"Good idea." McKay snapped his fingers. "What about navigation? Did you happen to think to try to see where we are?"

"Yes, I did. And, we're nowhere near Kansas anymore. That, whatever it is, is between us and home." Sheppard pointed at the window. He grabbed onto one of the consoles to support himself. He watched Ronon and the three Marines kneel next to the unconscious Hughes and Teyla, who was sitting next to him.

Teyla was leaning back against the console, eyes shut. Ronon set the kit on the floor and opened it as Wong, Steiner and Smith went to Hughes. His broken leg was splinted with Sheppard's cane. Steiner quickly checked him over then they moved him to the stretcher.

"How you doing?" Ronon squatted next to the young Athosian. He studied her face closely before carefully turning her head to check a nasty bump on the left side. He found a cold pack in the first aid kit and gently placed it on the bump.

"Better. The dizziness has subsided." She stiffened when the cold touched her head. She glanced up at him. "I am well enough to help."

"Stay there. Everything's under control." Sheppard said to her as he limped over to McKay. "Rodney, do you have any idea when you might get anything working?"

"No, I do not. Like I said, the controls here are dead. I don't know why, exactly. Right now, we're just drifting and I don't know if there is anything we can about it." McKay was already short tempered with frustration. He stopped. "Wait. What do you mean 'nowhere near'?"

"It looks like we traveled about twelve thousand light years. Can you do anything else here?"

"No, I was just waiting for you to get back." He turned to the others. "Pack it up. We're going back to engineering. Johnson, Franks. Go with them to the Jumpers. See if you can get a real fix on our position and boost our radio signal."

"Can you use the Jumpers to…?" Teyla began to ask. She had been listening to McKay rant for well over an hour while waiting for Sheppard and Ronon to return.

McKay shook his head. "Nice idea under more normal circumstances, but no. We have no operational controls and the Jumpers don't have the ability to open a hyperspace window."

"What about the beacon?" Sgt. Steiner asked without looking up. "Wouldn't Atlantis be able to find us from that?"

Park answered. "No, we disabled it at Taranis so that the Wraith wouldn't spot her."

"Can we use the cloaking device in the Jumpers?" Sheppard glanced out of the window again. "If we get the power back up, we could be visible to the Wraith again."

"We'll see what we can do, Sir." Johnson nodded.

Park walked over to look at Hughes. He was obviously worried as he talked quietly with Steiner. "How is he, Sergeant?"

"I've only got first responder training, Sir." Steiner finished packing up the first aid kit and stood up with it. "He has a concussion and broken tibia and fibula of the right leg. I'm not sure, but I don't think has any internal injuries. His vitals look stable."

Park just frowned.

"I think he'll be okay, Sir, as long as we get him to Atlantis soon." Steiner next turned to Teyla. She quickly pulled a penlight from the first aid kit and checked the goose-egg on the young Athosian's head then flicked the light several times across her eyes.

"How do you feel? Any dizziness? Nausea? Sleepiness?" Steiner asked gently.

"I was a little dizzy when I woke up, but not since." Teyla was careful not to shake her head. It hurt too much. "I have not experienced any nausea, nor am I sleepy."

"I bet you have a doozy of a headache, though. Right? I'll give you something for it once we get back to the Jumpers." Steiner squeezed Teyla's arm. "Don't worry, they'll just help the pain. But, if you experience any…"

"I will tell you immediately. Thank you." Teyla nodded.

Steiner stood up again spoke to Sheppard. "Sir, I think we're ready to head for the Jumper bay."

"Okay." Sheppard watched Wong and Smith lift the stretcher. "Ronon?"

"I'll help them." Ronon nodded towards Teyla.

"Teyla, go with them." Sheppard caught the motion. "I want you to help keep an eye on things."

She thought for a moment, knowing that he wanted her there so that the only person with any medical training could keep an eye on her. But, realizing it was the right thing to do, she agreed. Her head was throbbing enough to make her grateful for the rest.

"Johnson. We'll be in the auxiliary control room or engineering. Let us know if anything shows up on the sensors or if you get through on the radio." McKay frowned as he looked around the bridge.

"What about Crosby, Sir?" Franks looked down at the dead technician in the corridor as he walked through doorway. He glanced at the body bag Steiner had given him. The military certainly came prepared. Wherever they went, body bags were part of the gear that accompanied them. That was not the way he would like to live, he thought as he knelt down and began to unfold the bag.

"We can take him with us." Johnson walked through the door and squatted down to help his friend.

"Rodney, wait a minute." Sheppard hung back as everyone started to leave the bridge. He turned to the window as McKay walked over.

"We really don't have time to…"

The Colonel glanced at him. "Any ideas about that?"

McKay's mouth compressed as he studied the object. "I think it's a nebula of some sort, probably emission. We're not in it, but we're damn close. Close in astronomical terms, that is."

"I gathered that from the HUD on the Jumper. Are we in any danger from it?" Sheppard stared at the glowing mass that filled the entire view. As he looked around, he saw that there was much more to it than he had seen earlier. Under normal circumstances, it might have been breathtaking to look at. Just not today.

"I don't think so. We are actually many billions of miles away. It's just so big that we seem to be in it." McKay was surprisingly calm considering their situation. His histrionics had come early and been brief. "Before you ask, I seriously doubt that Atlantis will be able to locate us. Since the beacon is disabled and we have no major systems, we're virtually invisible to long range scanners. Even the Daedalus would have trouble finding the Orion unless she was right on top of us. Do you think they're looking for us?"

"They will, but she was about half a day in the opposite direction. And, I doubt they're going to know our exact heading or how far we came. We need to assume we're on our own." Sheppard twisted to look for the edge of the nebula. McKay was right, it was big. "Why is everything down?"

"I'm not sure." McKay threw up his free hand. "Until the lights came up, I didn't even know we had any power left."

"What about comms?" Sheppard began limping to the door.

"No. Even if we had comms, though, I doubt we'd get a signal through that. Look, we've been going through every inch of this ship for weeks to ensure something like this wouldn't happen if the Wraith attacked. All of the systems were unstable. This ship got an overload of epic proportions from the CME. Even with the Ancient technology, who knows what was fried." McKay winced as he hurried to catch up. He could see the Colonel's leg was giving him grief, but was not letting it slow him down. "I really am sorry about shooting you."

"I know, Rodney, but that's not going to get you out of training with Mahoney." Sheppard slapped his friend on the back.

The astrophysicist hung his head and whimpered.

When they got to the first ladder, he turned to McKay. "Why are we still alive?"

The astrophysicist frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"The CME. Why didn't the radiation kill us?"

"We must have had some shielding when it hit. There's still no guarantee that we had enough. We won't know for sure until Beckett checks us out." McKay paused. "Or, we die from radiation poisoning."

As he started down the ladder, McKay glanced back down the corridor leading to the bridge. The lights dimmed and went out behind them.

"You know, all ship's controls are dead. I didn't get the lights to work."

Sheppard followed. "I know."

The astrophysicist glanced back again. "We have plenty of air, but it's going to get really cold really fast. We need life support soon to have any hope of surviving."

Sheppard stopped at one of the ladders and pointed down. "I know that, too."

----------

"Have you found any way to determine their heading?" Elizabeth hovered next to Zelenka. She had been in and out of her office almost every fifteen minutes for several hours.

The scientist shook his head slowly. "There was so much noise from the CME, we've only been able to narrow it down to an area more than nine degrees in diameter. Couple that with the fact that we have no idea how far they traveled, and it is a very large area of space to search."

"Yes, yes it is." Her voice was barely a whisper. "If we send the Daedalus along a center line of that area…?"

This time, Zelenka nodded. "We could do that. They can run a spiral search pattern and stop at regular intervals to scan for the Orion. They might get lucky, but it would take a lifetime to complete a thorough search."

Elizabeth suddenly turned to the screen. "What about the Wraith?"

Zelenka held up one hand. "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about them. If we're right about the Orion losing power, the Wraith would have just as much trouble finding them as we are. It would be just like the Aurora, pretty much invisible until her systems or the beacon came online. I'm sure the shields will be a priority for them. We haven't picked up the beacon yet, so the Wraith would have to stumble over her."

"Thank you, Radek." She nodded and squeezed his arm before going back to her office.