11: Downtime
The infirmary was quiet, the few beds present empty save one. Teal'c sat up in this one, dressed in the typical blue patient's gown, heartrate monitor and the like connected to him. It beeped steadily, his condition stable. He had a few small dressings about his face, there to help close up the small cuts and gashes he had sustained during his ordeal on Chulak. It had been a good twelve hours since he had been brought into Stargate Command, and during that time he had taken some much needed rest.
Daniel had done much the same, sleeping for about six hours before getting back on duty. At the moment, those duties were mostly in the realm of writing reports and digging into his never-ending research into whatever topics happened to be of some relevance to recent missions. That could be Calsharan history, or makalvari culture, or even what little they knew of the ancient enemy, the so-called 'Void Demons' who they had crossed paths with months before, on Sanctuary. For the time being, however, Daniel had decided to spend time with his old friend. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to Teal'c's bed, offering the large and ageing Jaffa a smile.
"So, how are you feeling?" Daniel met his gaze, one eyebrow cocked in curiosity. The mission to Chulak had been chaotic and tiring, and Daniel had relished in cleaning himself up and getting some sleep after his return. Now though, at roughly ten o'clock in the morning, he would have to return to the reality of it all. There was a war being fought out there and their allies were suffering because of it. And so far, it seemed only SG-1 had attempted to help those allies in the fight.
"I will recover, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c stated this matter-of-factly, seemingly unconcerned with his overall wellbeing. "I would prefer to return to Chulak."
"Oh, I know you'd like that, but you got roughed up pretty bad back there. You have to stay here a while, as a precaution. And that's coming from the doctor, not me." Daniel paused for a moment, looking up when a young nurse walked into the room. She offered the pair a warm smile before she crossed the room and started to change the sheets on the nearby bed.
"I cannot remain here while my people die under Calsharan oppression."
"How do you think I feel? We're here, safe and sound while our allies are getting stomped. I want to fight this fight as much as you do, but we have to be smart about it. No use charging headlong into the fray. We need a plan, and so far I haven't been able to come up with any."
Teal'c was straight-faced, as he so often was, yet Daniel detected an underlying frustration. Chulak was his world, his home. People had died to rescue him and now he was here, far and away and safe from the fighting, whilst more of his people fought and died. For a Jaffa like Teal'c, that was beyond frustrating. Even so, he was in no state to fight. Not for the time being, given the injuries he had sustained and the tretonin deprivation. It was a wonder he had even been able to walk when they had found him in the dungeon.
"How have things been here?" Teal'c asked him. "I have heard rumour of something else, 'Demons' of a kind. Colonel Sheppard mentioned them in passing, and the alien, Aithris, also spoke of them."
"Yeah, that's complicated." Daniel did not feel like getting into it now. "I'll tell you everything later. It's a long and depressing story." It had been nearly a year since he had seen Teal'c last, prior to the rescue mission. When he thought of it now, he realised that a year ago things had not been so complicated. No Calsharan war, for one, and no lingering threat of an ancient bunch of space 'Demons' to contend with.
"And you, Daniel Jackson? How have you been?"
"I've been fine," Daniel replied, nodding his head. "I mean, as fine as I can be, considering. I could have used your help these past eighteen months."
Teal'c quirked an eyebrow in that familiar way of his.
"You missed out on a lot. A bunch of aliens shot up the SGC last year, that was memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Two of our team members went back in time a thousand years to become messianic war heroes, so again, certainly noteworthy. Also, I watched nearly an entire species get annihilated. Aithris' people, that is. Again, all worth noting, but not because of anything positive." Daniel gave the Jaffa a sardonic smile. "In actual fact, Teal'c, you're probably lucky you missed out on all that."
"Your life has become complicated, Daniel Jackson?"
"Ever since I got involved here again. You know, part of me actually missed it. I'd say that's the more thrill-seeking, less rational part of me. Getting shot at every other week does have a certain excitement to it. Not a healthy excitement, but an excitement nonetheless."
Teal'c listened carefully, betraying no emotion. He then narrowed his eyes, giving Daniel what he could only surmise was an expression of grave concern.
"I do not understand how you can sleep soundly at night, Daniel Jackson, after everything you have experienced."
Daniel shrugged his shoulders. What could he say to that, really?
"Funnily enough, I sleep like a baby most nights. There is this ache in my back that's been waking me up sometimes…"
Jonas Quinn had spent days in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex without once emerging into the open air. He knew that this was not entirely healthy, that burying himself in his work was hardly the right way to go about things, and yet he could not stop himself. Sifting through the archives, digging up items that had been forgotten by most; it felt like archaeology, in a way. He was amazed at the sheer volume of files to be found down here, in the bowels of the SGC. The humans of Earth were sticklers for paperwork, filing everything in some form, doing so in both physical and electronic formats. It was in the old archives section that Jonas was now, sorting through items that were yet to be transferred to computer. He figured that in such files, he was likely to find something of note that most other people here would be completely unaware of. After all, what better way to bury something troubling than in physical form in a cellar somewhere? No chance of it being hacked that way.
Jonas did not know what he was looking for. He kept on searching, sifting through box after box of archived files. He could not shake the feeling that what he was after was in here somewhere, and it was these gut instincts that he had learned to rely on for the past twenty years. They had helped him in the past, particularly during the Ori occupation of Langara. Even more recently, when he had encountered that creature back home whilst in Captain Kav'rak's company. It was as if an unknown hand guided him, although he knew that to be fanciful, even for someone who had seen the kinds of things he had seen. He simply operated on keen senses, the kind that took in every detail with a finesse and thoroughness most humans could not match.
It was in a forgotten and unmarked box that he found a file of some interest. It dated back several years, so it was not a particularly old item. However, the front was marked with a red stamp: DO NOT SCAN OR COPY. This one was strictly physical, no digital duplicates made. Jonas recognized one of the words on the face of it, if only because he knew it from previous mission files.
Since returning to the SGC, he had perused every mission file that had been made since his departure twenty years previously. That included every mission carried out from the SGC and every mission conducted on Atlantis. As such, the term 'Project Arcturus' stood out to him, as did the name of one of those involved: Doctor Rodney McKay. It seemed that McKay had never really stopped looking into that experiment, despite the disastrous failure it had been.
This file was interesting, for the simple fact that it contained a rambling report from McKay himself. Jonas found himself intrigued. He had never met the man, although he had learned enough about him through the mission reports to know that he was very good at what he did. However, the report in the file read like the ravings of a madman, talking of a 'breakthrough' and 'outside interference' that seemed to suggest that people were after him. And then, practically in mid-sentence, the report ended. And there, attached to the report, was a note signed by an 'R.W': Keep this one out of the usual channels.
Jonas knew he had found what he had been looking for, even if he had not been sure of just what that had been in the first place. McKay spoke of independent research and attempts made to petition the IOA and Homeworld Command to allow him back on Atlantis, attempts that had been rebuffed multiple times. This was information already mentioned in other files, however in this one, there was a new item that contradicted what Jonas thought he already knew of the matter.
Other parts of the report written by McKay spoke of threatening phone calls and apparent stalkers, shadowy figures tailing him wherever he went. Of a conspiracy at the highest levels that involved, it seemed, everyone from the President right down to the telephone linesman who came by to fix the line outside of his home. Indeed, it was not the kind of report one could take entirely seriously, and the man seemed to forego proper punctuation after a point. It was the writing of someone on the edge, and this thought only intrigued Jonas further. He needed to get this to the others, for it was worth looking into. Someone had buried it down here, for good reason it seemed. The only question was, just what could that reason be?
Jonas emerged from the archive room for the first time in several hours. He tucked the file in one arm, his eyes squinting in the harsh lights present in the corridor outside. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in a concave mirror at the end of the corridor, noticing that his stubble had become significantly thicker and more unruly. He needed a shave, if only to help make himself look a little younger.
Daniel was coming out of the infirmary when Jonas almost bumped into him. Stopping himself, Jonas gave the man a victorious smile.
"I think I've done it, Daniel," Jonas said. Daniel stopped before him, frowning with some obvious confusion etched on his face.
"Ah, done what?" They remained out in the corridor, the odd airman or support staff member milling by on their own business.
"I found it. Something worth looking into." He handed Daniel the dog-eared file. Daniel looked at it, his confusion morphing into mild curiosity, before he opened it and skimmed the contents. Jonas waited a minute, allowing Daniel to take in the finding proper.
"This is worth looking into?" Daniel did not sound convinced.
"The last report submitted by Doctor Rodney McKay," Jonas said.
"Yes, I can tell." Daniel's eyes flitted back up to Jonas. "He kept pushing to return to Atlantis. He wanted to continue his research into what he called 'Trinity' energy, or Project Arcturus."
"Trinity?"
"Named after the first atomic bomb detonation in 1945, in New Mexico. McKay was hoping he'd change the world. This is after his first foray into this line of research saw him destroy three-quarters of a solar system." With one finger, Daniel pushed his glasses a little further up the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how this is supposed to help us, Jonas."
"It's his last report."
"Do you know why it was his last one?"
Jonas shook his head. Such a reason had not been mentioned in anything he had read.
"It's because he was considered too unhinged, too obsessed. And then he disappeared without a trace." Daniel shook his head. "Maybe that meant he was telling the truth, or maybe he finally fell off the deep end? I don't know, but I could never find out what had actually become of him. I mean, this is an interesting find, but I still don't know how it can help us."
"Read further," Jonas said. Daniel did as he was told, quickly reading through the whole report. His eyes widened a little when he came to the end of it, and his doubting expression faded.
"That can't be right," Daniel said. He glanced at the date on the report. "This was seven years ago."
"You know better than I do, you dig around the past enough you'll find something relevant to the present. I believe it when he claims he was being watched and followed. He went back to Atlantis, Daniel. And he came back having seen something he wished he had not."
"I didn't know he was allowed to go back there."
"He wasn't there for long. Four months, five. And then he's saying that someone or something was stalking him. That he made a breakthrough but destroyed the research. That was why they sent him home, because he destroyed his own research."
"McKay would never have done that." Daniel sounded certain of this. Jonas figured that Daniel would know better, given that he had actually known McKay in person. All Jonas had to go on was what he had gleamed of the man from the various mission reports, all second-hand sources.
"With all the strangeness going on, I think that maybe this is worth looking into. I got the same feeling I had when I saw that thing on Langara." Jonas could remember that night vividly, even if he still did not entirely understand what he had seen. He did know that something sinister had been speaking to the Kelownan Prime Minister, and it had been about as 'demonic'-looking as one could get.
"And this is the only copy?" Daniel held up the dog-eared, dusty file. Jonas nodded in the affirmative.
"No others exist."
Daniel flicked the note attached to the report. The handwriting was familiar to him, yet he did not need to think too hard to determine who it was referring to. The initials made it all too clear.
"Jonas, I think you and I need to have a talk with Richard Woolsey. Right now."
The familiar alert bell sounded as the stargate whirred into life, its inner wheel creaking audibly, smoke hissing from the hydraulics that kept it in place. The embarkation room was fairly empty, for it was a departure and not an arrival that was currently occurring. That departure was in the form of SG-1's one Nomad member, dressed in distinctly non-military attire that was comprised of grey pants and a long, grey jacket that had been patched up in several places. Aithris' own wear, the jacket being an item he had kept with him for years now, its light grey tones complementing his blue skin well. Slung over one shoulder was a very human backpack, and he waited at the base of the ramp as the stargate went through its motions.
He had some time off. Unless, of course, some grave emergency occurred. Then he would be called back, but for now he sought to take full advantage of the couple of days he had to himself. He waited patiently whilst one chevron locked after another, finding the dialling sequence here in the SGC to be interminably slow. As the fifth chevron locked, Aithris became aware of hurried footsteps sounding from a door behind him. He spun around, surprised to see Natalia behind him. She was in a plain black top and green fatigue pants, and she eyed him with a curious expression.
"Where are you going?" She asked him.
"To New Sanctuary." Calling the place 'New Sanctuary' implied that it was anything like the previous Sanctuary. Where the original 'Sanctuary' had been a vast city home to millions of his people, containing within it the sum of all his people's history and culture and knowledge, this 'New Sanctuary' was little more than a village on some far away world home to about twenty thousand of his kind. It was a far cry from where his people had been prior, and it was a stark reminder of the losses they had all suffered.
"For how long?"
"A couple of days. However long I can." The stargate activated then, casting the pair in its familiar shimmering blue glow. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"You were going to leave without saying goodbye?" Whether she was hurt by this, Aithris could not tell. If anything, it appeared that she was being coy about it. "You should have told me. The General's granted the whole team a few days leave after what happened on Chulak."
"Are you suggesting you wish to accompany me?"
Natalia nodded her head, offering him a smile.
"There would be little for you to do there," he said.
"There is not much for me to do here," she countered. "I'll travel light. Just give me a minute and I'll fetch my bag."
Aithris considered this for a moment. He found her intention to accompany him unusual, but welcoming. Besides, Natalia had the good sense not to get in the way or otherwise pry into affairs she was not supposed to. She wanted to come with him, Aithris figured, simply to be with him. She had told him before that most of her friends and family were in Russia, which left her without anyone real close to spend time with save the people on her team. Not only that, but she no doubt wanted to satisfy her curiosity about the new Nomad settlement and see how Aithris and his kind lived now.
"There will be work to be done, Natalia," Aithris said. "The settlement is constantly expanding."
"I do not mind hard work, Aith," Natalia replied. "And I'll be happy to help. So, will you have me?" The way she watched him then, eyes narrowed somewhat, mouth quirked into a smirk; it was the kind of look that suggested that she would accept no other answer than the one she wanted. Aithris could see no harm in her accompanying him, and so he nodded his head.
"Get your things, Sergeant. Just be quick about it."
Natalia nodded her head eagerly, before she darted back out into the corridor, disappearing from view for a minute as she went to gather her things. She probably had most of them already packed, having decided on this trip well before Aithris had actually seen to his own departure. She hurried back with a bag over one shoulder, and she joined Aithris on the gantry, the wormhole swirling before them.
"If at any time you wish to leave, let me know," Aithris said.
"Do not worry about me." She stopped alongside him, still wearing her smile from before. Aithris found himself looking at her with a little more intensity that he had been earlier, caught by the energy this woman presented, the way she always seemed ready to face any challenge or unknown no matter the circumstances. He had concluded some time ago that she was a striking and admirable woman, carrying with her a certain beauty that was tempered with the rough signifiers brought on by her chosen occupation: the callused fingers, from years spent roughing it out in the field; the somewhat tanned complexion, from spending so much time outdoors; even the odd small scar, particularly on her fingers and the backs of her hands, where the odd slip-up with a tool or misplaced movement had left her with a cut or a scrape.
She must have noticed the way he was staring at her and was about to say something before Aithris turned his head and stepped on through the stargate. Natalia sighed, more from amusement than from annoyance, and followed him through.
It had been some time since anyone had asked Richard Woolsey about what had become of Doctor Rodney McKay, and so he was surprised when Daniel barged into his office and laid the old file out in front of him. Jonas lingered at the doorway, content to allow Daniel to ask the questions here, given that he knew Woolsey (and McKay, for that matter) much more than he did. The Langaran was simply glad to be of some help, even if it was only in some small way that could very well get them nowhere new. Even so, that was certainly preferable to sitting back and allowing not only the Calsharans, but the 'Void Demons' make the first move against them.
Woolsey had an office not far from the General's own. It was small, a modest workspace but for Woolsey it was adequate. He was seated at his desk, dressed in his usual black business attire, glasses on as he regarded the laptop computer in front of him. He looked up as Daniel and Jonas entered, and before he had a chance to greet either of them, he saw right away that something had Daniel very concerned.
"Doctor Jackson, is there something wrong?" Woolsey's voice trailed off somewhat as soon as Daniel put the file down on the desk before him. Despite the familiarity, he found himself still a little confused as to what the actual issue was.
"What's going on here, Woolsey?" Daniel asked. Judging from his exasperated tone, he had become worked up, moving into one of the more demanding demeanours he often adopted when he felt there to be some injustice or dangerous secrets in play. Woolsey looked down at the file, a simple manila one at that, fronted with the SGC's logo and the usual 'TOP SECRET' stamps one expected on such an item. He saw the note in his handwriting on the front, the one that warned against copying it either physically or digitally.
"I was told, more than once, that Doctor McKay was never allowed to return to Atlantis," Daniel said. "He tried again and again, but he was barred each time. That once the Wraith threat was neutralised, people like him and Colonel Sheppard were sent back to Earth."
"Yes, that is what happened, more or less. Mind you, I did not have any say in that. In fact, I was not involved with the expedition at that point." This was all old news, to the both of them. Some time after the Wraith had attempted to attack Earth and Atlantis had been parked in San Francisco Bay, another expedition was launched that had seen Atlantis return to the Pegasus Galaxy with a few of its key personnel, mixed up with new talent. The Wraith threat had been contained and the expedition had wound down gradually, before only a skeleton crew had been left behind. Funds were shifted into other, more pertinent projects, much in the same way the SGC had seen a large portion of its money diverted elsewhere. Of course, fortunes for the SGC had been reversed over the past year and a half. As for Atlantis, not even Woolsey knew the full extent of what was going on over in that city.
"That report was dug out of the archives," Daniel explained. "It's from Doctor McKay. He makes it pretty clear he went back to Atlantis, after that second expedition."
"Does it?" Woolsey leaned back in his chair. He emitted a sigh, one hand rubbing at his eyes under his glasses. All this sitting around working at a computer screen could be tough on the eyes.
"It also mentions a whole lot else."
"Yes, I know, Daniel. I've read it." Woolsey nodded his head. "Why? What do you think it all means? Because to me, it reads like the work of an eccentric man who finally went off the deep-end."
"You don't believe it?" Daniel had to admit, he did not necessarily take it all at face value. However, he also knew better than to dismiss it entirely, especially as he had seen far too much craziness in his life that made McKay's report look tame in comparison.
"I don't know what to believe. McKay came to me because to him, I was one of the few people he felt he could trust. He had been sent back to Earth after some kind of incident, I was never made privy to the details. He thought people were after him. I tried looking into it myself, but I was stonewalled at every turn."
"So, you just filed it all away?" Daniel did sound at least a little outraged. He looked about ready to start yelling, and Woolsey did not feel like enduring any raised voices right now.
"Yes and no." Woolsey had been expecting a quiet afternoon. It seemed that he had been mistaken there. "I kept up my own investigation into his claims for as long as I could. I found nothing conclusive, but I did discover that things had been done to make sure Doctor McKay would never work for the SGC or on Atlantis ever again. It didn't matter so much at that point, because he withdrew himself from the program. Not something a man like him would do with any ease."
"Someone was stalking him."
"He told me as much." Woolsey nodded his head in acknowledgment. "And I believed him. Again, I tried to help him. I wanted to get others involved, like Colonel Sheppard, but McKay wanted his friends to stay out of it. He was convinced that they were safer out of the loop. I suspect that someone was working against Doctor McKay. I can't prove it, but it's a clear possibility. As for his claims of stalkers and conspirators, they can't be proved. I helped him where I could, and that was all I could do. He has carried on his own investigations, I believe. I don't know if he's still doing them now, or he's…" He trailed off. His suspicions as to what had become of McKay were apparent in the worried grimace he gave.
"You think he went crazy?"
"I think something pushed him over the edge," Woolsey stated. "What you found there was the last report he ever submitted, before he left the program. It was at his request that I keep it out of the system, bury it as a hard copy. It's been seven years since he last communicated with me." McKay had disappeared, dropping out of the public eye and the eye of the stargate program. A genius in his field, someone who had wanted nothing more than to make some form of world-changing discovery, and yet he had gone ahead and left it all behind. Even Daniel was taken aback by this revelation, and Woolsey himself had tried for years to make sense of it.
"What relevance does this have to now?" Woolsey asked, meeting Daniel's gaze. The rising outrage had faded from the archaeologist's face and was now replaced with a much more thoughtful look.
"I don't know, Richard." Daniel shrugged his shoulders. "I thought it might be something to look into, and I still want to, but unless you can tell me where to find Rodney McKay, then I suppose we're back to square one."
"You think he could help us?" Woolsey raised his brows.
"Well…" Daniel thought about his answer for a moment. McKay was a hard man to get along with, or he had been when Daniel had known him. From the sound of it, he had changed. Probably not for the better, though. Did Daniel really want to deal with that kind of headache?
"I say it's worth looking into," Jonas said, and he stepped further into the room. Daniel and Woolsey turned to him as he spoke. "I mean, I have a good feeling about this. Ignoring it could be a mistake, I think."
"You could have mentioned this to us," Daniel said, and he directed this to Woolsey. The IOA man frowned at the insinuation offered, as if insulted.
"Mention it? Why? What relevance does it have?" Woolsey felt his own annoyance spike then. "For years, Daniel, I have done everything in my power to help this program and the people who are a part of it. McKay came to me, in confidence, for assistance with what he was dealing with. I offered the help I could, before he went his own way. You have to understand, in my line of work there are a lot of things you find yourself simply unable to do. I am not as high up on the hierarchy as you seem to think I am. If I was any higher, then people like Darren McClintock would never have been placed in the SGC."
Mention of the previous IOA liaison to the SGC only made Daniel wince. Not because he had cared for the man, in fact it had been the opposite. It was because McClintock had been their first indication that there were some very serious powers at work here on Earth, powers who sought to undermine the stargate program at every turn whilst funding their own projects, such as the construction of the Broadsword. That battle-station had been intended for much more nefarious uses, Daniel was sure of this. It was some irony to have it sent back in time as the means to defeat a powerful enemy, thereby putting it to some actual honourable use.
"I have always been honest with you and others here," Woolsey continued. "Even brutally honest, if I need to be. I am telling you the truth about this, about McKay and everything else."
"Do you know where he is?" Daniel's mind was made then, on his course of action. Woolsey considered the question for a moment, thinking back to that day seven years ago when a very disturbed Rodney McKay had met him in the car park of IOA headquarters. Not in his office, but in the car park. 'Too many hidden eyes and ears in the office', or so McKay had said.
"I have a set of coordinates, but they're seven years out-of-date," Woolsey said. "He did not depart without leaving behind some method of finding him. I am curious, though. How much help do you think he can be?"
"You saw the report, Richard. He was working on Project Arcturus when he was pulled out of Atlantis. Maybe he discovered something he shouldn't have?" The suggestion was clear, and Woolsey's mouth became a grim line. They all knew there was a conspiracy in place on Earth, the same conspiracy that had seen the Broadsword constructed and the stargate program lose its funding until recently. Woolsey knew then that he and Daniel had much the same suspicion: that perhaps McKay had fallen into the sights of the same powers-behind-the-scenes? And, if so, what did he know of them?
"There's another thing, Richard." Daniel met the man's gaze firmly. "Is Atlantis still in Pegasus?"
"I always assumed so."
"But do you know for sure?"
It was this question that caused Woolsey pause, for the simple fact that he did not know for sure. He had never looked into it too deeply, so caught up in his work here on Earth that the concerns of the Pegasus galaxy were well out of his mind. Thinking of it now, he found himself struggling to remember anything he had seen or heard that would suggest that the Ancient city of Atlantis was still where it should have been. The implications were worrying, and the frightening way in which Daniel was watching him suggested that he was thinking much along the same lines.
