Chapter 15: A Long Wait for a Short Result


Previously on "Anybody Home?"…

…Our heroes Rodney and John were trapped in a space-time warp that's making them go backwards in time. To avoid the Ancient Plague, they must retrieve the personal shields, use them, and get out of the way so they don't change the space-time continuum and screw over their future. Then the author suffered a horrible bout of writers' block, for which she is incredibly sorry but has no explanation for. She hopes the three people who still read the thing will forgiver her, because she has more chapters planned!


It had taken the scientist about ten minutes to remember which lab in the city he'd found the shield, and to realize that they were walking in the opposite direction of that room. It had taken a further twenty minutes to get to that lab. By this point, Sheppard was getting rather antsy about how close they were cutting it to the time when the plague hit Atlantis. McKay, however, seemed to be more concerned about other things.

Rodney picked the shield device up with his middle and forefinger as if it were some sort of dead thing and stared at it for a few seconds. He went to put it on his chest, but hesitated. Turning to Sheppard, he pleadingly asked, "Do you really think we need these? I mean, given a choice between death by plague and death by starvation, I'd much rather--"

"McKay," John growled.

"Fine," Rodney sighed. Again, he went to put it on, but again he hesitated. "Y'know, I still don't think this idea is very--"

"McKay," Sheppard said with a frightening forced calm, "We have approximately ten minutes until we have to be completely in the clear of the city for us to get back to our own reality safely. I don't know about you, but I would rather not be caught in some sort of time paradox or something. Now, would you please put the damned shield on."

"All right then!" the scientist snapped. He placed the shield on his chest and was instantly surrounded by a green flash of light. He glared malevolently up at the major. "I hope you're happy now. If I die of starvation or dehydration because of this thing, you're the first person I'm coming back to haunt," he vowed.

"Well, if you caught the plague because you didn't wear that thing, you'd come back to haunt me anyways, so I'm willing to take that chance," John shrugged.

"True," Rodney admitted reluctantly. He moodily stared at the device, then looked up at the major, and asked pointedly, "Okay, so now what?" McKay accompanied this statement with a shrug and a palpable air of irritation. When Sheppard remained silent in response to the question, he let out a low sigh, and elaborated, "So we're protected against the virus, but that still doesn't mean we're safe from changing the timeline. How do you propose we fix that, if you're the one with all the plans?"

John grinned. "Well, I've got an idea about that too…"


"You've got to be kidding me," McKay gaped. "The roof of the jumper bay?" He shook his head incredulously.

"Well, why not?" Sheppard shrugged. "You've been saying that we can't change anything, and that's probably the most out of the way place to be."

"When I said, 'out of the way,' I meant 'safe.' The roof of the jumper bay is most definitively 'not safe,'" Rodney snapped, making finger quotes around the appropriate phrases.

"If you're worried about the Wraith attack on Atlantis, we've got the personal shields to protect us, along with the city's shield," the major pointed out, a tad smugly. It was a rare occasion when he considered everything before McKay had, and he would not pass up the opportunity to rub it in the scientist's face.

Rodney spluttered for a second, apparently not too happy about being outsmarted by Sheppard for pretty much this entire escapade. "Shields will save us from being killed in an explosion or something, yes, but they won't save us if we fall off into the ocean!" He crossed his arms belligerently. "Besides, we would have to wait until the city rises to the surface first, and then it would be near impossible to get on the roof without being noticed."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes and pointed at McKay for emphasis. "See, now there's something that's been bugging me," he stated. "Since we're traveling backwards in time, everything is happening in reverse order that it originally happened, right?"

The scientist rolled his eyes and looked skyward at the inane question. "Yes."

"So does that mean we will actually see everything happening backwards?"

He scoffed. "No, it would be more like…" He proceeded to think of an appropriate analogy, but realized that the major was (again) correct, and grudgingly admitted, "Yes, I suppose so." He really would have to take control of this situation soon; Sheppard was getting too smart for his own good.

"And would they be able to see us?"

McKay graced this with yet another eye roll. Again with the insipid questions. How could someone with that little common sense be the one who was coming up with all the ideas today? "Yes, of course they would. That's the crux of the problem. Since we can interact with the environment, we can inadvertently cause a--"

"Yeah, yeah, time paradox, space-time continuum, end of the universe, all that lovely stuff," Sheppard listed sarcastically.

Rodney looked to the sky at Sheppard's response, his expression clearly reading, Why do I even bother? If the major already knew the answers to his own damn questions, why was he even asking them in the first place? It was a waste of precious time that they couldn't afford. "Look, I'm not going to continue this conversation, the point is that this half-baked roof idea is plain and simply not going to work."

"Just because the city is underwater doesn't mean we can't go out there. We know the shield holds until we arrive in the city some 10,000 odd years from now, so it's safe to go out there."

"Major, if we are not somewhere very secluded in less than ten minutes, we have no idea how badly we could screw the future up."

"All the more reason to go now," the major countered lightly.

"Plans like this take time, Sheppard," McKay hissed, "They take time and organization, and you can't just run off and try this on a whim. We have no idea the risks--"

John flashed his most disarming smile and drawled, "I've already got it all worked out."

Rodney's rant came to a screeching halt. He cleared his throat awkwardly, and after a short pause, stated, "You do…?" in a mixture of disbelief and embarrassment.

Sheppard nodded, thoroughly enjoying the scientist's squirming.

The scientist cleared his throat again, too shocked to be angry at his defeat. "Well…I suppose…we should get going then."

John raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Let's."


A/N: Thanks to atlantean for the kick in the rear to keep writing, and (as always) to Seanait for the "Previously on…" section and for proofreading this chap to make sure I hadn't written myself into any plotholes! And to those three people who still enjoy reading and reviewing the story, you all rock!