When Lieutenant Colonel David James opened his eyes next, he had a pounding headache and was momentarily uncertain where he was.
"How are you feeling, Colonel?"
He squinted through his aching head, looking up at the woman who had just entered the room he was in. Praius, his mind told him.
"Where am I?"
She smiled, and rested her hand lightly on his head. Colonel James felt the ache in his head ebb to nothing.
"You are with friends, never fear."
He frowned, trying to remember what he was doing. It seemed there was something serious he was supposed to be taking care of, but he couldn't get his mind to focus on it. He couldn't seem to focus on anything.
"I need to see my men…"
She nodded.
"Of course. They are waiting for you."
"What-"
Before he could think of what he was going to ask, she smiled again, and he lost the train of thought once more.
"Come, Colonel," Praius told him, helping him regain his feet. "You need to eat."
James nodded, suddenly feeling ravenous.
"Thanks."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"This thing really is amazing…"
Sam looked over at her father and nodded.
"Yeah. They definitely knew what they were doing, didn't they?"
"I wonder how it stores so much power?" Jacob asked, holding the ZPM they were getting ready to connect to the ring device they'd rewired.
"It is a subspace storage device," Thor said. "The Ancients were adept at such manipulations."
"Why aren't you guys?" Jack asked.
He was sitting in the doorway between the bridge and the ring room, idly messing with one of the strings on his vest. It was better than doing nothing – which was what he had been doing. Daniel was working on his Ancients notes and Teal'c wasn't much of a conversationalist at the best of times.
"The Asgard took another path with our technology."
He didn't say anything else about it, and the humans had the feeling that there had been a specific reason the Asgard hadn't followed the Ancients with their technology. Maybe the Ancients had kept that knowledge a secret – even from their allies? The Asgard didn't know how to build Stargates, for that matter, although they knew a lot about them.
"We're about ready to connect the couplings," Sam said, changing the subject.
"But we won't do it until we hit Earth's orbit," Jacob added.
"And the cloak thing is ready?" jack asked.
"Yeah. We could be cloaked right now if we needed to be."
"How much longer Teal'c?"
"Nine hours."
Jack sighed.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"I can't find anything…"
Ian looked over at McKay, frustrated. Not because of McKay, though. He was having the same problem, after all. Once he'd bandaged himself up – as well as he could, anyways – he'd limped over to one of the other consoles to run the same search McKay was. And even though he could read the files a lot easier than the astrophysicist could, he wasn't having any luck finding anything with other gate addresses on it. Either the files were locked someplace he didn't know about, or they'd been erased. Ian suspected it was the former.
The Ancients would have wanted to protect their allies in the off chance that Atlantis had become overcome somehow, and would possible have buried the information under layers of security to keep those enemies from having access to their allies.
Ian was brilliant, and he spoke and read the language, but he wasn't a computer programmer – and never claimed to be. McKay knew more about computers – probably a lot more, Ian was sure – but he was hampered by his ignorance in the Ancient's language. Neither of them could find what they were looking for – for different reasons.
"Damn it…"
"I'm sure I can figure it out," Rodney said, wincing as he moved his arm to reach for another console. "But it'll take weeks – maybe even more. And we don't-"
"We don't have that kind of time…" Ian finished.
"Probably not." McKay looked over at him, torn between his own frustration at being thwarted by the computers and validation at seeing the know-it-all kid finally seeming to be uncertain what to do. "So what do you want to do?"
Ian frowned, and bit his lower lip, thinking. They couldn't go anywhere without a point of origin, and it wasn't something the Gateships would supply.
"Damn it."
"Yes, swearing is all well and good," McKay said, sarcastically, "but it's not going to help us figure out the point of origin – or help us get back-"
"Shut up, McKay."
Ian looked down at the Stargate, scowling. There was no way he could guess the point of origin. There were too many possibilities. Then something caught his eye. Something sitting to the side of the ring. Something that definitely didn't belong there. At least, not as far as Ian's memories told him.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing.
McKay followed his glance.
"What? Where?"
"To the left of the ring."
"Where?"
"Jesus, McKay… on the floor. Right by the Stargate."
"I don't see…" And then he did. "What is that?"
"Go find out."
"What? Me? Why me?"
"Because you shot me, and I can't take the stairs as well as you can."
McKay scowled.
"It was an accide-"
"Just go see what it is, McKay."
"What if it's a trap?"
"I'll cover you from up here," Ian said, pulling out his Glock.
McKay sighed, but stood up.
"You do understand that you need me, right?"
"Just go."
The astrophysicist grumbled, but he went over to the stairs and headed down them slowly, practically inching his way down, step by step.
"It looks like a book…" he said, looking over his shoulder at Ian.
Ian nodded, watching intently for any sign of a threat to McKay. The control room was completely empty, though, and as silent as a tomb.
"It is a book…" McKay said, looking down at the thing when he reached it. "Oh my God…" he knelt down beside it, and picked it up.
"What?" Ian asked, curiously.
"You're never going to believe this!"
He turned and pelted up the staircase, taking them two at a time and as animated as Ian had ever seen him. Ian put his Glock away and took the book when McKay handed it to him, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"You're right. I don't believe it…"
"Pyramids and Our Past…" McKay read, looking at the book in the New Yorker's hand. "By Doctor Daniel Jackson…"