Chapter 7: ONE problem solved…

A/N: The moment you've all been waiting for: THE EXPLANATION! I'm soooooo sorry for the long wait! I've been kinda busy for the last few weeks, but I'll probably get back on track with the writing soon! Hope my techno jargon isn't too confusing/wrong. I'm not very good at writing it. As long as you get the gist…


"McKay," Sheppard said into the jumper radio.

"Yes?" McKay replied. Even through the radio, Sheppard could detect the irascible tone still in McKay's voice. "Is anyone there?"

"No. But it's the weirdest thing…"

"What?" Now Rodney was interested.

"There's nothing here."

"This has been established, Major," came McKay's bored reply.

"No, I mean absolutely nothing. It's like the Athosians were never here at all."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "I need to check something. I'll meet you back in the gate room," he said quickly.

"Wait, McKay" But it was useless. Rodney had already gone off to see whatever it was he had to see. Sheppard sighed, wondering what in the world the scientist had come up with now.


"C'mon," McKay ordered the second Sheppard set foot in the gate room.

"Geez. Urgent much?" Sheppard said.

Rodney was already walking off. "If, I'm right, then we need to be," he called over his shoulder.

With a few strides, Sheppard caught up quickly to McKay. "So what's the theory this time?"

They arrived at the infirmary and the door whooshed open. Gesturing inside, McKay asked, "What's wrong with this picture?"

Sheppard looked in. Something definitely was missing…"None of the stuff we brought is here," he realized.

"Exactly." McKay crossed his arms across his chest, his mouth a grim slash.

"So the technology bandits came in the middle of the night and took all of the Earth equipment?"

McKay rolled his eyes. He'd obviously forgotten the Major's ability to connect the dots when it came to science. "Of course not. We've already established that no one could possibly"

"Get on with it."

"Yes. I believe that somehow, someway, we've traveled back in time."

Sheppard paused. "Back in time," he repeated skeptically.

"Yes, that's right."

"What is it with you and time conspiracies?"

This drew a scowl from Rodney. "Can you come up with and other explanation for the missing equipment than technology bandits?"

Sheppard shook his head. "No, I can't, but I have trouble accepting the fact that we've traveled back in time."

"Why? It's perfectly logical?" McKay defended his point.

Perfectly logical? Sheppard thought skeptically. Apparently, he and Rodney didn't share the same definition of 'perfectly logical.' "If we've traveled back in time, why isn't Atlantis underwater? And why haven't we noticed mysteriously vanishing technology before now? And how does this explain why we're the only ones gone?"

McKay fidgeted a little. "Well, I'll admit I haven't worked out all the kinks yet, but-"

Sheppard cut him off. "This really sounds like you just took it from a 'Twilight Zone' episode or something."

"'Outer Limits,' actually," McKay muttered.

"What?"

"'The Outer Limits'. It happened on 'The Outer Limits.'"

"See? See, that's why this can't possibly be true, it's based on an 'Outer Limits' episode," Sheppard argued.

"First off, that's flawed logic if I ever heard it, and secondly I haven't heard you make any astoundingly enlightening contributions!" McKay snapped back.

"'Astoundingly enlightening?' As if time travel is 'astoundingly enlightening!'"

"Do you want me to prove it to you? Or are you too busy blowing around hot air and wasting time which, if I'm right, we don't have!"

"Alright, then prove it! Give me one iota of evidence other than the disappearing technology, which doesn't show anything!"

"Okay, then, I will!" McKay promptly switched into 'lecture-ramble mode' and began his long explanation. "Time is not a straight line."

Sheppard promptly interrupted. "Okay, stop right there. What the hell are you talking about?"

McKay scoffed. "You wanted the proof, here's the proof. Now let me talk. Anyways, time is rather like water in a tube– if you tilt it the right way, it'll go back and forth. Now do you understand?" he added peevishly.

"Okay, fine,"

"Now, normally time flows forward. Well, duh. Anyway, if we keep with the water in a tube model, normal time would be a consistent flow downhill. It is possible for the flow of time to be reversed; instead the water flows uphill."

"Uphill?"

"Would you quit interrupting! Yes, uphill. Obviously, this doesn't happen normally. Something needs to happen to disrupt the fabric of time-space and reverse the flow."

"Like?"

"Rips in the"

Sheppard cut McKay off. "Okay, I am sick of hearing about rips in the space time continuum. Get to the point."

"That…was…the point."

"So that's it," Sheppard stated flatly.

McKay thought for a second, and then nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"We have been sucked through a tear in space-time."

"Yeah, that's the way it looks."

"So just how did this tear occur?"

"I…uh, er" McKay stuttered.

"Space-time doesn't just rip."

"That it doesn't."

"You don't know do you?" John asked pointedly.

"No. Not, really, no," Rodney admitted quietly.

Sheppard let out a giant sigh. "You gave me that whole explanation and it still doesn't prove anything."

"Yes, it"

"You simply restated physics theories. You have no evidence to back it up," the major said forcefully, getting pissed.

McKay threw Sheppard a venomous glare. "I could prove it if we had the time to"

"You are saying that on the assumption that you are right!"

"Of course I'm right! How could this not be right! We already know time travel is possible! Remember, the Dr. Weir from another reality?"

"For one thing, the other Dr. Weir had a time machine, not a so-called time rip.And why is all the stuff gone now and not earlier?" John asked

"Time rip, time machine, they both do the same thing! I can think of three ways off the top of my head to prove I'm right!" Rodney snarled.

"If you're right—if being the key word—then how are we going to get time back to where it normally is?"

"Well, theoretically, once time stops going backward it will reverse itself and then we'd be back where time normally is."

"'Theoretically?'"

"Considering this has never happened before, theoretically is the best I can give you. But as long as we don't do anything that changes the timeline, we should be fine in that regard."

"Then what's the problem? Why don't you go prove that you're right? Because I know you'd jump at the chance to!"

"Because they all take a lot of time," McKay huffed. "And time is not something we have, as I stated earlier!"

"If we've gone back in time, then how could we not have any of it?" Sheppard countered. "It seems to me we'd have quite a bit of time."

"No, no we don't! I'm not entirely sure how much time we do have, but it's probably not enough!"

"Would you quit being so goddamned obtuse and just give me some straight answers?" Sheppard snapped, getting sick of McKay's beating around the bush.

"I don't think we've stopped traveling back in time yet."

"What makes you" Sheppard began to argue.

McKay cut him off mid-sentence. "The disappearing stuff. See? See, I have thought this out! If we had stopped traveling back, it would have disappeared a long time ago."

"Alright, point taken. But how does that make us not have any time? It seems to me that we'd have even more. What's the big problem?" Sheppard asked with a shrug. "We'll get back fine and all we have to do is wait it out. What's so urgent?"

"I'm not worried about time getting back. I'm worried about how far back we will go," McKay grimly replied.

"What, do you think we'll travel far enough back to the Wraith attack on Atlantis?"

"No, no, not at all. We know that the city's shield holds and the Wraith can't get by," McKay irritably replied, as if the answer should have been completely obvious.

"Then what the hell are you so upset about!"

"I'm afraid we may go as far back as the plague that nearly wiped out the ancients. And if that happens, since we both have the ATA gene, we're both vulnerable to it."