"They're all settled in." Ronon squatted next to Sheppard. He pulled his long coat closer around him. His breath was beginning to create little puffs of steam in the air. There was a noticeable drop in the temperature each hour. "Steiner says everyone is stable. She thinks they'll be okay, but Hughes and Antonio need to get to the infirmary as soon as possible."

The Colonel had decided to sit on the floor, out of the way of McKay and his team as they worked furiously to bring systems back online. He was able to stretch out his legs, and the floor had a little more residual heat. His arms were folded over his chest as he continued to watch them get nowhere. It had been several hours, and McKay's patience was disappearing as quickly as the heat.

"Yeah. At least they can keep warm. How's Teyla?" Sheppard glanced sideways only when Ronon sat next to him. He smiled when he saw Ronon's reaction to the warm floor.

"Not happy to be stuck with the others in the Jumpers, but apart from a headache, she seems to be okay. Steiner is watching her." The Satedan looked at Sheppard's leg then leaned forward a fraction to see his face. "What about you? How are you doing?"

"Hurts like hell, but I'll…" Sheppard froze for a couple of seconds. "...survive."

"What?" Ronon frowned.

"Nothing."

They both watched in silence as panels were pulled apart and their contents investigated. It was a slow, laborious process with only two working datapads and probes. McKay held on to his datapad as if it were a life preserver, but the other was shared amongst the rest of the group.

McKay suddenly yelled at everyone and no one. "I told you to leave the sublight engines alone for now! We're so far away from Atlantis it would take forever to get home. We need the controls for life support, shields, the hyperdrive, inertial dampeners, sub-space radio and navigation. Everything else can wait."

The scurrying began anew.

After a while, one of the technicians whirled around. "Hey! Life support! Thanks to whoever did it. And, please tell me how you did it, 'cause I don't see anything online here."

The men working around the consoles and panels looked at each other to see who was responsible and what had been done to make it happen. They all shrugged and shook their heads. They turned as one to McKay, who had stopped to pull an energy bar from his coat pocket to eat.

He glared back and waved the bar around. "Controls? Power? Hyperdrive?"

A few minutes later, McKay walked over to the observers, and squatted down. He looked from Sheppard to Ronon and back again. He was obviously worried. "I don't know if we're going to be able to find exactly where the damage is, much less how to fix it, unless we either get some kind of power back into the control systems."

Ronon frowned in confusion. "What about the life support and the lights?"

"The controls here are as dead as the bridge." McKay tilted his head in Sheppard's direction. "I believe the fresh air and warm breezes are courtesy of the Colonel here."

Ronon threw a mildly reproachful look at Sheppard. "What took you so long?"

"Yes, what took so long?" McKay shivered.

Sheppard didn't answer immediately. He thought for a long moment then lifted a hand and shrugged. He seemed uncertain. "It's almost like the ship is, I don't know, unconscious."

"Excuse me? What do you mean, unconscious? Like an automatic shutdown? If it had shut down, we would have been able to bring it back up. There's nothing." McKay's voice was beginning to rise. The cold and long hours of getting nowhere were showing. He was not used to failing. He waved at the datapad in his hand and around the engineering room they were working in. "Nothing."

"Rodney. Stop. Take a deep breath." Sheppard kept his own voice calm.

McKay stared at him for several seconds then took two deep breaths.

"Okay." Sheppard absentmindedly rubbed his leg as he thought. "What have you found out?"

McKay shook his head. "That's just it, nothing. I don't think the problem is that the Orion doesn't have the power needed. Witness lights and life support. We just can't control it. We have no way of telling the ship what to do. Even if the Jumpers had enough energy, which they don't, we can't use them."

"Oh, God." Park's voice was flat. He backed away from an open panel on the far side of room.

"What? What is it?" McKay hurried over to him as Ronon helped Sheppard stand up.

Park turned the datapad so that McKay could see the screen. McKay used his own datapad and touched the probe to several crystals. He repeated the process then turned to Sheppard and Ronon. He seemed to deflate even more.

"What's wrong?" Ronon tried to peek at the datapad.

"There's nothing I can do." McKay pointed at the open panel. It was crowded with several rows of crystals. He touched the probe to one of them and tilted datapad for a better view. The screen showed a complex graphic with an almost flat layer running through a three dimensional surface graph that occupied half of the screen. The other half displayed numbers beginning with a decimal point followed by a varying number of zeros.

Sheppard frowned at it then looked up at McKay. "What am I looking at here?"

McKay pressed the probe on another crystal and they saw the graphs changed instantly. The surface graph bubbled with activity and the numbers grew exponentially in magnitude. He pointed at the dead crystal and several others near it. They were slightly opaque compared to those around them.

"This area acts like a…a…power switch. The CME hit just as we powered up all the systems we had online, shields, hyperdrive, inertial dampeners, all of them. Even the lights and life support. The ability to tell the ship to draw power for all of the systems runs through here. It was already less than a fifty-fifty chance that everything would hold together." He paused and shook his head.

"Back-ups? Redundancies?" The Colonel asked.

McKay looked around the room then shook his head again. "These were the redundancies. The main pathways were damaged in the battle that grounded the Orion in the first place."

"Why weren't they repaired before now?" Sheppard raised an eyebrow.

"There is no repair. These are fried. The massive amount of energy from the CME literally burned these out. We've been searching the ship and Atlantis for replacements. Finding exact duplicates isn't easy." McKay exhaled heavily. "Good news is that we have found a large cache of what I think are spare parts for systems here and on Atlantis. We just haven't been able to see if any of them are the right ones. Now that we know what we're looking for, it'll be much easier to find them."

"And?" Sheppard prompted.

"They're on Atlantis." The astrophysicist shrugged. He looked at Sheppard and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Good new is that everything else we've checked seems to be okay. Bad news is, without these…"

Sheppard frowned back at him. "We're stuck."

"How do we get back to Atlantis?" Ronon said quietly as he stared at the crystals.

McKay continued to scrutinize Sheppard. "That may depend entirely on the Colonel."

"Excuse me?" Sheppard raised an eyebrow.

"I can't do anything here without those crystals. The light switch is essentially broken." McKay was a little surprised at his own lack of panic.

Sheppard looked at him with skepticism. "Rodney, you can fix anything."

"Not this time." McKay shook his head.

"There has to be replacements somewhere on this ship." Sheppard looked around the large room. "What about…"

"This ship has been through a war. They ran out of replacements. We've done a pretty thorough survey of the ship." McKay looked at the open panel again. "It's amazing the Ancients even got her to Taranis in one piece. Without the proper equipment, it could take us weeks, even months, to find appropriate replacements on board, if they exist."

"So, what next?" Park said as he hovered nearby with the others.

"Look, I would love to save the day again, but I can't. Not without those crystals." McKay nodded at Sheppard. "It's up to you."

----------

"Atlantis, this is the Daedalus." Col. Caldwell's voice came over the comms. The ship was approaching the planet. "Do you have any further news of the Orion?"

"No, Colonel. We have nothing on either short or long range scanners, or communications, but we are still experiencing some of the effects of the CME. The only information we have is the rough estimate of their heading." Elizabeth stood next to Zelenka in Gate operations. They looked at the computer screen that was unchanged from the first time she had seen it so many hours earlier.

"That's quite a big piece of space to search, Dr. Weir." She could hear the skepticism in Caldwell's voice.

"I know, but we may get lucky."

"I hope so, Doctor. We'll start our search pattern shortly." He paused for a second. "We'll check in every two hours unless we find something. Daedalus out."

"Thank you, Colonel. Good luck." She nodded at Zelenka and returned to her office.

----------

"I still don't understand why you can't just turn everything on. You've already got the lights and life support running." McKay almost hissed at Sheppard. He waved at the lights in the corridor that came on and went off as they, Ronon and Adamsen walked towards the Jumper bay. He was frustrated at the Colonel's lack of haste and concern.

"This is different, Rodney." Sheppard stopped and turned on the astrophysicist. "Remember on the Aurora, when we had to think hard to get out of the virtual reality?"

"Environment, virtual environment." McKay corrected him.

"Whatever. Remember it took extra effort?" Sheppard began to limp off again.

"Yes."

"Well, the Orion's systems are virtually asleep. It takes a little more than 'there's no place like home' to wake them up. And, they aren't staying on by themselves."

"Really?" The astrophysicist stopped mid-stride then rushed to catch up. He suddenly realized that Sheppard was activating the lights and life support from moment to moment.

"I don't think the Ancients envisioned needing to jump start one of their ships like this. It's gonna take a little more time."

McKay persisted as the group entered the Jumper bay. "We've been stuck here for almost twenty-four hours. Shouldn't you be someplace quiet so you can concentrate?"

"Shut up, Rodney. It's hard to think with your constant nagging." Sheppard was beginning to loose patience with his friend. He stepped onto the ramp of his Jumper. "Teyla? How's it going?"

"We are well enough, Colonel. Dr. Hughes and Lt. Antonio are resting comfortably. As you know, none of the other injuries are serious." Teyla walked out of the Jumper. "Sgt. Steiner has been taking very good care of us."

"And, you?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I am feeling much better, thank you." She bowed her head once.

He looked around. The Jumpers were only about ten feet apart. The body bag was just visible on the far side of the second Jumper. Hughes and Antonio were asleep on padding between them. Steiner, who had been kneeling next to Hughes, got up and walked over.

"Sir." She spoke quietly.

Sheppard looked at the sleeping men. "How are they doing?"

"Not too bad, Colonel. Mr. Hughes is in some pain. The Lieutenant has a broken collar bone and, from the looks of it, a broken ankle. I've given them both something to ease the pain and help them sleep." She sighed. "I'll be much happier, though, when we get back to Atlantis, Sir."

"Me, too. How about the others?"

"Teyla probably has a mild concussion, but I don't think it's serious. I think Dixon has a sprained wrist. Otherwise, mostly bumps and bruises, Sir."

He smiled at her. "Good work, Sergeant."

"Thank you, Sir." She watched him hobble up the ramp. "How about you, Sir? You should let me take a look at your leg."

"Nah, I'm fine. That's just where McKay shot me a couple of days ago." He stepped into the Jumper. Wong and Dixon were in the cockpit, watching the HUD.

"It was an accident!" They heard the astrophysicist yell from inside the second Jumper.

Steiner looked at Sheppard in confusion. The Colonel nodded and shrugged. "Thanks. I'm okay. It's just sore as hell."

He used the webbing in the Jumper to take some of his weight as he made his way through to the cockpit. Dixon and Wong made to stand up. "At east. See anything interesting so far?"

"No, Sir, nothing." Dixon rested right hand on the ATA sensor. The left was wrapped in an Ace bandage. "The range on these things is good, but we're just too far from Atlantis to get through that nebula."

Sheppard sat in the chair behind the pilot's seat as McKay joined them and sat behind the second seat. Teyla and Ronon stood in the hatchway to the rear compartment. They all studied the HUD. The image showed the Orion in the center of large starscape. The nebula occupied about twenty percent of the image.

"How are Franks and Johnson coming with the cloaking device?" Sheppard glanced at McKay.

"They're still working on it."

"Can we use the stasis pods?"

"We haven't had a chance to run diagnostics yet, Colonel, so we don't know if the pods are operational." Park said from behind Teyla. "Why?"

"Well, we have to try it. I need a way into the ship." Sheppard answered as he reached forward and pulled Dixon's hand from the ATA sensor. The perspective on the HUD wavered then changed. The image swung to bring the Orion close to one corner and Atlantis on the opposite corner. All eyes watched the image then turned to the Colonel. "I'll bring up navigation first. You'll have to lay in the course."

McKay tapped on his datapad. "Okay. You'll test the inertial dampeners?"

"Yeah." Sheppard read the distance measurements on the HUD. "Rodney, we came a long way in a short time."

"Yes, yes, yes. I noticed that." McKay glanced at the HUD then went back to tapping on the datapad. "It was probably an energy surge from the CME. It kind of turbocharged the hyperspace jump."

"Will we have enough power to get back to Atlantis?" Teyla asked.

McKay shook his head, but kept working on the datapad. "I don't know. No matter what, it will take at least eight hours to get back. I think we should just get past that nebula and try to raise Atlantis. They can send the Daedalus to get us."

"Why not just keep going all the way, Dr. McKay?" Dixon looked from the HUD to McKay.

"Well, because we probably won't have the power to…"

"Wait, Rodney." Sheppard interrupted. "Could a wide-open naquada generator give us a big enough boost to get home?"

McKay held up his hand for silence and tapped on his datapad for several seconds. "It might help. We have one already tied into the drives as backup power, but I can't guarantee it won't go critical and explode."

Park cleared his throat. "We brought up a second generator yesterday."

Oh, thanks for keeping me informed!" McKay scowled at Park then snapped his fingers three times and started to quickly tap on his datapad again. Everyone knew better than to speak until he did again. After a minute or two, he looked up and around at the expectant faces in the Jumper. "What?"

Sheppard sighed. "We were just waiting for the verdict, Rodney. Is it doable?"

The astrophysicist looked back down at the datapad for a few seconds. "Possibly. We can tie the second generator directly into Orion's hyperdrive, too. We will need to bring the generators to the point of overload to get…Maybe, just maybe."

As he turned the chair to get up, Teyla, Ronon and the others that had crowded in the rear of the Jumper moved to get out of his way. McKay stopped and turned back to Sheppard.

"The timing's critical and it means you're going to be in the pod for at least eight hours. Are you going to be able to do this?" He almost whispered, uneasiness in his voice.

Sheppard knew better than to hesitate with McKay. "Do you have a better suggestion?"

McKay shook his head and walked out of the Jumper. "Park, Gilbert, Adamsen! Get the naquada generator and get to the engine room. We need to…"

The three scientists were already headed for the hatch, carrying equipment and talking animatedly as they disappeared.

----------

"Sorry, did I wake you?" McKay had only a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, and that was on purpose. He knew the hours of bringing up and maintaining the systems they were using must be taking their toll on the Colonel, even though it didn't look like it. Stretched out in the stasis pod, he appeared entirely too relaxed.

"Just laying here, thinking." Sheppard swung himself up to sit on the edge of the pod. Activating the stasis pod had not been difficult, and improved his ability to work with the Orion's systems. But, it had been a long day and the few minutes of sleep he had been able to snatch here and there throughout the day were not enough. His head buzzed with fatigue. One would think lying around for hours would be less tiring.

The astrophysicist groaned as he sat on the low stool next to the pod. He peered closely at Sheppard. "You were asleep!"

"I was multi-tasking." Sheppard gave him a 'so sue me' look. "Is everything ready?"

"Not quite, but it won't be long." McKay avoided looking at him by tapping on his datapad. "How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"It's a gift. How long?"

McKay kept tapping. "Almost there. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Is everyone in the Jumpers?" Sheppard carefully stood up and swayed a little. Ronon reached out to steady him. "Thanks."

"Yes, everyone except us." Teyla answered.

"Are you sure you want to try getting all the way back?" McKay frowned. "If we can just make it to the other side of the nebula, I'm sure we could raise Atlantis."

The Colonel sat down again. "Rodney, we are already visible to any scan looking in our direction. We're going to be easier to detect once all the systems come online. The chances of the Wraith spotting us increases the longer we are here. We can stay put, or go part way and hope the Daedalus finds us first, or we try to get all the way home."

"Yes, yes. I know. But, we don't know if you'll be able to bring everything online at the same time to even do this, much less keep them on for hours." McKay lowered his datapad and looked at Sheppard. "We don't know what this could do to you."

Sheppard raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. "Why, Rodney! You care!"

McKay blushed and fumbled with the datapad for a moment. "Well, yes. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." Sheppard smiled.

McKay checked some figures on his datapad. He turned it so that Sheppard could see the screen. It showed an image of the galaxy and the course between their current position and Atlantis. He pressed an icon and several rows of data appeared across the bottom.

"Okay, this is the course we've set." McKay looked at Sheppard. "Remember, bring up the inertial dampeners first, then navigation and last, the hyperdrive. Everything is programmed."

"I know, Rodney." Sheppard winced when he swung his legs back onto the base. He shifted down and made himself comfortable.

"Yes, yes. I just want to go over it again." The astrophysicist swallowed nervously. "The hyperspace window will open sixty seconds after the drive comes online. Now, the naquada generators can't duplicate the burst of energy that brought us here, but we might get close. You know, there is a good chance the generators will go critical and explode."

"Well, it'd be quick." Ronon said dryly.

"Obviously." McKay said flatly. He looked back at Sheppard. "The generators are only going to supplement the ship's power. They will be completely depleted after no more than four, four and a half, hours at this level. If you can maintain the window for the whole time, we may, just may, get most of the way there. These generators aren't designed for this kind of output, and I'm fairly certain that the hyperdrive was not intended to have one supercharged jump, much less two. I'm not sure what will happen."

"Most of the way there?" Ronon frowned. "How far?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know. We have only an outside chance of this working at all! I'm doing everything I can, given the circumstances." McKay was defensive. "I just said there is no way we can duplicate the energy levels of the CME, so it is going to take longer to get back to Atlantis."

"Rodney." Teyla tried to stop him.

He glared at her and Ronon. "I don't know what you expect from me. I'm doing my best!"

Sheppard spoke this time. "Rodney! We know. No-one is saying anything different."

McKay pouted for a few seconds. "Well, I'm under a lot of pressure."

"We know, Rodney." Teyla used her best conciliatory tone. He nodded.

"Okay. All of you get back to the Jumpers." Sheppard looked up at them. "Teyla, you go with Rodney in Jumper One. Ronon, I want you in Jumper Six with Park and Gilbert. Keep Dixon with you. He can fly it if necessary."

"Someone should stay here with you." Teyla glanced from him to McKay and Ronon.

"No. If anything goes wrong, I want you all in the Jumpers. There's nothing you can do, anyway." Sheppard cut off any argument. He focused on setting the alarm on his watch to avoid looking at them. "And, I want you to stay in the Jumpers until the lights come on again or I tell you otherwise."

"Why?"

"Just do it!" For the first time, an edge appeared in Sheppard's voice.

"Okay, okay!" McKay saw his expression and stopped. "Fine. We need some time to get back down there."

"Fifteen minutes enough?"

McKay glanced at the datapad and nodded.

Sheppard thought for a moment. "I'll need to lose the lights and life support to do this. I'll start the sequence thirty seconds after lights out. Okay?"

"Thirty seconds after lights out." McKay repeated nervously.

"Right. Get going."

"Right." McKay hesitated. "Are you sure…?"

"Yes, Rodney, I'm sure. Now go. I'll see you later."

"Good luck, John." Teyla smiled.

"Yeah, good luck." Ronon shook his head once. He and Teyla turned to walk away.

McKay frowned at Sheppard, nodded then hurried to follow them.

----------

Sheppard waited for the minutes to pass. It seemed to take hours, but when the alarm on his wrist buzzed softly, he wasn't ready. The lights went out, casting him in absolute darkness. He watched the glowing second hand sweep around the dial, waiting a full two minutes. He wanted to be sure they had gotten back to the Jumpers. It would also give McKay time to panic and calm down again. He smiled at the thought.

Holding life support and lights on for twenty four hours had been fairly easy, but wearing. The major functions were more difficult to bring online. They required intense concentration to activate and stabilize. And, he'd done that only one at a time for short periods. The pod gave some assistance, but not a lot. This was not going to be fun. He took a deep breath and closed the pod.

----------

The Jumper bay was dark, illuminated only by the low light coming through the Jumpers' window. McKay peered at the heads up display. The readouts held steady at zero, indicating that no ship's systems were powered up. He checked the time again. "He's late."

"Rodney, Col. Sheppard probably just wanted to give us a little extra time to get back." Teyla quietly tried to reassure the astrophysicist. He mumbled about all of the things that could and would go wrong all the way back to the Jumpers. He tried to turn back twice and needed to be pulled along

"Something's wrong. Sheppard said thirty seconds. It's been more than thirty seconds." McKay turned to stare at Teyla. "I told him…"

"Rodney." Johnson said from the pilot's seat. "Look at the HUD."

McKay spun the chair around. The display was changing rapidly, showing the systems powering up. First the inertial dampeners then navigation initialized. The readings wavered briefly before stabilizing. Everyone held their breath as the hyperdrive came online. "Hold on!"

----------

There was no virtual environment this time. It was as black as the corridor and so quiet he could hear his heart beat. Sheppard was working blindly, by touch. Earlier, he had only needed to prod functions one at a time. Now, he had to wake the great ship from a troubled sleep and ask her to do something she shouldn't be asked to do. He hoped she had it in her.

----------

McKay gripped the Jumper's console for dear life, but the shift into hyperspace was much smoother than anticipated. After several seconds, he opened one eye and looked at the HUD. Yes, the Orion was in hyperspace and still in one piece. He opened the other eye and read the numbers again.

"Hey, it's working! Sheppard opened a hyperspace window. He has navigation and the inertial dampeners up, and…hmm, even the shields." McKay smiled when he glanced back at the others. All eyes were on the HUD so he turned back again. He tapped his radio. "Gilbert?"

Gilbert replied. "Are we really in hyperspace?"

"Yes, yes, we are really in hyperspace." McKay rolled his eyes. "Look, the naquada generators will last long enough to get us less than two-thirds of the way back to Atlantis. I want you to scan for any other ships. Let me know if you see anything at all."

"Are you thinking the Wraith my have seen us?" McKay could hear voices mumbling behind Gilbert.

"No. Just keep the HUD on external scanners and let me know if you see anything."

"Will do."

"Shouldn't we check on Sheppard?" Ronon asked.

"No." McKay shook his head at Teyla as well as he spoke. "There's too much of a risk of distracting him. I seriously doubt we'll get a second chance at this."

Teyla nodded in agreement. "Rodney is right. We cannot chance disturbing Col. Sheppard. We should do as he asked and stay in the Jumpers."