Absorbed

Author: Obsessive Freak

Rating: T - Just in case

Summary: When Atlantis' flag team discovers a strange device on a planet, it starts to have a strange effect on one of them. Pretty blue lights and whumping to follow.

Characters: McKay centric, but everyone is invited! (Set sometime in season 2 after Epiphany)

Spoilers: As far as I know none at the moment, but I'll give you a heads up if that changes.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or any other things related to Stargate Atlantis. They are property of MGM and… others that I don't know off the top of my head. Just thought I might borrow them all for a while for a bit of fun.

A/N: Ok so I have to be honest. This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction ever! So hopefully I am not completely terrible at it. You'll have to let me know what you think. I'm really, really new at this, so please be gentle. That said, I'm looking for any constructive criticism, to help me out. This chapter has not been seen by anyone other than me, so all mistakes are mine. Hopefully there's not many. If people think what I have done so far is any good, I'll look into 'investing' in one for the following chapters. Kinda nervous about posting this though, so I wanted to see what people thought first

A/N: This chapter has now been updated and seen by my beta. Thankyou so much Jess, you are a saint! Hope I haven't caused too much hair. Having said that, I still cringe at this chapter, but it does get better.

--------------------------------- Absorbed Chapter 1

"Come on McKay, pick up the pace a little would ya!" Yelled a very irritated Sheppard, looking back towards the grumbling scientist. The team had been walking for close to 20 minutes now through the light bush land of M4G-739. What was supposed to be a routine sweep over an apparent abandoned world, proved to be more interesting when Dr McKay picked up significant power readings in the jumper emanating from somewhere below. Busting with excitement McKay had set off into the trees, closely followed by the rest of his team. The walk seemed to be going quite peaceful, with McKay deep in concentration, focusing on his data pad. This was up until about 5 minutes ago when the scientist's mood had taken a change for the worse. Obviously their lack of progress was getting to him, as he fell behind and resorted to his usual forms of whining and unfortunately for the others, things didn't seem to be improving…

"Yeah okay! You don't have to go so fast!" The snappy scientist replied, tripping over an exposed tree root, making him grunt in frustration.

"You're the one who keeps reminding us that we only have a couple of hours to do this." Sheppard sighed to himself. He was actually enjoying the hike through the trees. The landscape wasn't as green as the other planets he had visited and the vegetation was quite different, but he couldn't help being fascinated by the glow that seemed to radiating from the trees. Unfortunately there was just something about Rodney's continuous complaints that seemed to suck all the beauty out of everything.

"Yes, yes I know that!" Sneered Rodney cutting into his thoughts. "Yet knowing this, you still managed to park the jumper, as far away as you can! I mean what was the matter with that clearing up there?" He asked, pointing up ahead to a large patch of empty land

"And over there. And what about that one we passed 10 minutes ago? That would have been fine too! I swear you just do it to annoy me."

He shot Sheppard an angry questioning look.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied, turning towards Teyla and Ronon to share a mischievous smirk.

"Hey I saw that!" All the others could do was keep walking, well aware that an increase in complaints was now inevitable. Even so, Sheppard could not help concluding to himself that it all worth it. A further five minutes later, he was beginning to re-evaluate this decision, as the doctor's rambling continued in greater speed and in growing volume.

Deciding to risk further wrath, Teyla spoke up in an attempt to change the subject. "How far away do you believe we are now Dr McKay?" To her relief, this seemed to do the trick momentarily, as the man fell deep into thought, looking down to further study the data in front of him.

"I don't really know. The reading was coming from an area about 3 miles up from one of the large clearings we didn't land in!" He replied, tone growing as he shot Sheppard another sour look.

"Alright, alright that's enough."

"Yeah but if you'd just…"

"Rodney" He said cutting in "How far away are we?"

Shooting Sheppard another look, he sighed before begrudgingly looking down at his data pad again.

"Not too far I'm guessing. The energy readings are coming clearer, so we're definitely on the right track. In fact I think this might be the clearing I was just referring too ."

"Good so it should just be up the road then" replied Sheppard with a smug look, doing his best to irritate his friend.

"If by 'up the road' you mean 3 miles!"

Teyla simply rolled her eyes at the two's banter and looked towards Ronon, who was breaking twigs off a nearby tree as he slowly walked past. She couldn't quite understand why the colonel went out of the way to get the scientist wound up. Things would be a lot easier and more peaceful if the two would just keep their mouths shut.

"I mean come on look at it! It's about the half the size of a football oval, you definitely could have parked here! No trouble at all!" he said, voice continuing to grow.

"I didn't want to risk it." Replied Sheppard

"Didn't want to risk it! Yeah but… wait a minute…" Something had caught the scientists attention, as he stopped in his path, to look at his data pad.

"What?" Replied Ronon, as the rest of the group stopped a little further ahead.

"It's bigger…" He said looking up at them in astonishment.

"What is?" Replied Sheppard. All jokes and torments now forgotten.

"The field"

"The energy field?" Asked Teyla taking a step forward to take a look over his shoulder.

"No the landing field!" he replied, getting angry again. "According to this, the area here is substantially larger to the one where we parked!"

Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla stood there for a second, just looking at him in disbelief. He can't be serious right? Raising his eyebrow in the way that only Sheppard can, he turned to the other two standing either side of him. Sharing a look, the three of them turned around and proceeded to head off again, leaving the aggravated doctor behind.

"Explain that to me huh!"

"Come on Rodney" Sheppard called out to him

"No! No no no nonono no! I want to know why you are constantly doing things just to spite me!" His voice rising, as the others disappeared just ahead of him.

"Come on McKay, we're leaving. You're just wasting time!" Came Sheppard's voice in the distance.

"Oh Yeah! And what has all this unnecessary walking been, Huh!" He yelled back, as he set off after them.

"It's called 'exercise'!"

"Is it just me, or are the trees around here looking a little different?" Sheppard asked as the four of them continued to walk towards the unknown power source.

"It's not just you" Replied Ronon. Sheppard couldn't help but smiling. That's why he liked Ronon. Direct and straight to the point. No cryptic or sarcastic responses like the ones he usually got from McKay and the other scientists back on Atlantis.

"The vegetation does seem to have changed." Added Teyla

"Yeah, it may have something to do with the residual radiation being admitted from the energy field." Stated McKay, looking down to his data pad.

This brought Sheppard's attention back to the question at hand. See this was what he was talking about. McKay can be such a know it all sometimes, but it was still interesting. "Really?"

"I don't really know, either way we should find out soon." Ok maybe he had spoken too soon

"According to these readings, the device is just up ahead… In fact, just in there" he said pointing to what looked like the entrance of a cave. Scrap that, he really IS a know it all

As the four approached the gapping entrance to the cave, they couldn't help notice the excitement return to their favourite resident genius. Who knew that an Astrophysicist could move that fast? In particular one who claimed only minutes ago that he couldn't walk anymore. That was forgotten now as he skipped forward, the other three close behind. It wasn't long until they all reached the threshold and saw McKay's enthusiasm wash away once again as he peered into the pitch black darkness up ahead.

"Well this looks promising," said Sheppard as he edged in towards McKay for a better look

"How do you figure that?" Asked McKay, quite baffled. Only in Sheppard's World can 'small, dark, damp space' be translated into 'something promising'

"Well usually when we come across a dark confined space, emitting an energy reading, we find something really cool."

Rodney thought about this for a moment, and although he would never admit it, the colonel had a good point.

"Looks dark"

"Yes! Thankyou for that Ronon!" McKay hissed, throwing the runner his best 'you are an idiot look'

"Your welcome" The runner grumbled, sharing a humoured grin with Sheppard, who had just pulled out his life signs detector.

"Reading nothing here" he informed the group as he packed it away, this time pulling out his P-90. Switching on the light, he took a small hesitant step forward to take a quick scan of the immediate area in front of him. "Looks clear…" he reported, taking a step back.

"You didn't sound that confident" McKay noted, with a more than slight hint of fear and nervousness in his voice.

Sheppard looked back towards his team, and noticed that Teyla too seemed to be giving him a questioning look.

"You picked up on that huh? Well the truth is I can't really see that far in, it's too dark." He really did try, but just couldn't help smile at the panicked look Rodney flashed him. "Look it should be fine, we'll just take it slow. If we see anything 'problematic'…" he said shooting his friend a look "…we'll just turn back around." Despite his best efforts at being reassuring, Rodney still didn't seem too convinced.

"Ok then, if you don't want to come in that's fine, I'm sure we can find the power source without you." He said turning back towards the entrance with agrin on his face. Wait for it, wait for it…

"Ohhh No no no! There is no way in hell I'm going to let you go in there fiddling around with an unknown power source. Your likely to blow us all up!"

Bingo! This was too easy "So I guess that means your coming in then?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? Go ahead Oh fearless leader. Do your thing. Lead the way!" Rodney said in his best sarcastic tone, trying to disguise the nerves still evident in his voice. Sheppard merely grinned at him before heading back towards the cave, giving orders for both Teyla and Ronon to stay put, and keep a look out. As the two entered the darkness of the cave, Sheppard could not help but notice Rodney's breathing increase the further in they went. The light from the P-90 did little to illuminate the path in front of them, and John could feel Rodney tense up behind him, as the entrance slowly faded, and the darkness eventually consumed them. As the two continued on, McKay did his best to keep his nerves under control, trying not to think about how small the cave was, but ultimately failing.

"What was that?" McKay whispered in a panic as he stopped and franticly looked around him.

"What was what? Sheppard asked, turning to face the wide eyed scientist.

"SSSShhhhhhhhhh! There it is again, do you hear it?"

Sheppard strained his ears for a few seconds, but still nothing. He was just planning something clever and sarcastic to say to mock the man, when he heard it. A low grumble noise.

"There! There! Did you hear that!"

"Yeah I heard it" He answered, pulling his P-90 up ready to use if necessary.

"I thought you said there was no life signs in here!" McKay squeaked, all attempts at keeping his composure totally gone as he moved a few steps backwards, reaching for his 9mm.

"There wasn't!" He hissed back at him, as another low grumble filtered through the narrow passageway growing in volume.

"Wait! I think that's coming from the cave" squeaked McKay once more. "I don't think it's very stable in here." He continued on, taking a few more steps backwards.

"Yeah I think your right." The colonel replied as another rumble erupted. "Ok lets get out of here…" Rodney didn't need to be told twice, already moving back the way the two had come, when an ear splitting crack echoed through the narrow passageway causing both men to freeze. The cracking continued as Rodney swirled around, just in time to see the colonel disappear, swallowed by the earth on the cave floor.

"SHEPPARD!"

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A/N: So what do you think? Any good? Should I continue? Please leave your thoughts, if I don't hear from anyone I'm going to assume that people think it's crap. Anyway if you're still with me, thanks for reading.