THE NIGHT OF THE TIME TRAVEL PORTAL

By Andamogirl

CHAPTER SEVEN

Two days later in the time travel portal room

Dr. Carson Beckett placed a friendly hand on Artemus Gordon's shoulder. "I know that you won't remember me saying this to you, but take care of yourself. And no physical exercise whatsoever for the next couple of weeks, alright? You're still in recovery, and it will take some time, and mind your ankle, it's still fragile."

Artie smiled. "I promise." They shook hands.

Carson then shook Jim's hand and said, "Take care, James. Go back safely." Then he took a step back, replaced by Rodney and John.

John shook Jim's hand. "It was a pleasure. If you were living in my time, I would have recruited you in my team, immediately, Jim."

Jim smiled. "Thanks for the compliment, John. It was a pleasure too." Then he looked at Rodney they shook hands too. "So long Rodney. Take care."

Rodney nodded and moved in front of Artemus. They both exchanged a large smile and hugged for a long moment. When they parted, tears rolled on their faces.

Rodney was the first to speak, "It was a pleasure to know you Artemus, it's so rare to meet someone as intelligent and as interesting as me, I mean a genius. Because you are a genius, my friend. You're much ahead of your time."

Artie blushed with pleasure. "Thank you, Rodney. I return the compliment." He looked at John and added, "Take care, John and take care of Rodney too."

Rodney took the device sitting on a cart, and verified the settings one last time. "You won't feel a thing, but lose consciousness." He glanced at Radek standing beside the control command of the time portal. The image of cavalry soldiers was frozen in the centre of the huge device. "Everything's okay Radek?" the other scientist nodded. "Good!"

He placed a device like a headband on Artemus's head and gave a sad smile. "Adieu Artemus. I will miss you, a lot." Then he pressed the single button on the front, and there was a faint buzz. Artie closed his eyes and his knees buckled. Jim caught him before he fell, and gently eased him down onto the floor.

Rodney did the same thing with Jim and caught him in his arms before he collapsed to the floor. Then John and he moved the two men to the spot where they had been enveloped in the energy beam. Rodney and John looked at the 19th century men a last time.

Radek activated the portal. A stream of blue ribbon-light flowed down from the ceiling and enveloped the two agents. They vanished…

… and materialized a few seconds later in the middle of the Wanderer's ruined stable car, frightening the two horses.

WWW

Later in the Wanderer

James West regained consciousness first. He immediately propped himself on his elbows and looked around him, disoriented and confused. "What the hell?..." He heard a moan he immediately recognized. Pulling himself into a sitting position, he turned and saw his partner sprawled on his back on the floor, slowly coming around. He moved towards him, noticing the dead bodies lying around them, and frowning, puzzled, he shook the other man's shoulder. "Artie! Wake up! Come on buddy!"

Slowly, very slowly, Artemus Gordon opened his eyes and touched his aching chest. "Jim? What am I doing lying on the floor?"

Jim sighed. "That's a good question Artie, I don't know the answer. I just woke up two minutes ago. Apparently, there was an explosion here, as the stable car is almost destroyed and we have one dead body in the rolling cell killed by a piece of wood coming from the door, or what's left of it… and one, two, three, four bodies here with gunshots wounds. I suppose we've been attacked by bandits who wanted to free the man in the cell, we defended ourselves – pretty well – and we lost consciousness… probably stunned by the force of the explosion, and we have a memory loss. I'm not injured, you?"

The older agent painfully sat and opened his shirt – discovering with great surprise a large bandage wrapped around his chest. "I am… but it's not recent. The pain is dull." He furrowed his brow. "I don't remember being injured and going in a hospital, but that's probably because of the memory loss – let's hope it's temporary." He stood up and winced, his ankle being sore. "Ow! I sprained my ankle too – Ah! I remember that! I fell off my horse when one of the counterfeiters jumped on me and rolled down into a small ravine! I was lucky to be alive."

Jim nodded. "I remember that too."

They moved towards the large opening where the sliding door of the stable car had ben and discovered other bodies lying in the dust. Jim nodded. "That was a hell of a gunfight."

They left the train and spotted more corpses all around the Wanderer. Once inside the parlor car the two men saw that half of the windows had been broken by bullet impacts – the bullets being embedded in the wooden panels.

Noticing a piece of paper on the table Artie said, "I counted two dozen bodies. Well, we defended ourselves pretty well."

Jim nodded. "And we don't have a single injury – that's the first! What's that?"

Artie read the note. "It's a message from Colonel Richmond in your writing. Apparently, we had to escort Graham Ellison, the number one of the West Coast syndicate to Washington where he would have been tried for the murder of Governor Robert Williams and his secretary. Hmm..." He nodded. "I know now the identity of the man lying dead in the rolling cell."

Jim picked up the pieces of glass spread on the sofa, put them on the table and sat down. "Those bodies outside belong to his men. They wanted to free him – and kill us in the process."

Artemus nodded. "Yeah, and they failed. Ellison won't be hanged. He was killed by a piece of wood coming from the door of the stable car."

Jim moved towards the telegraph key. "I'm going to send a message to Colonel Richmond. Our assignment is dead."

Artie nodded. "Literally."

WWW

Atlantis

Mess hall

Ronon and Teyla sat in front of John, eating a salad alone at an isolated table. The Satedan grabbed the Colonel's dessert, a chocolate cake, and started devouring it.

Sheppard groaned. "Don't tell me, they don't have chocolate cake anymore." Ronon nodded. "Next time, come early."

Teyla looked at Rodney sitting three tables away with Zelenka. The Canadian looked immensely tired and was unhealthily pale. The two scientists had a couple of running laptops sitting on the table in front of them. She noticed that McKay hadn't touched his food – something very unusual. "Rodney's not eating," she said frowning in concern.

The Colonel followed her gaze and nodded. "No, and he's not sleeping anymore, and not socializing either. He's like a hibernating bear. Don't worry, he's like that each time he's totally focused on something very important – like his ZPM power generator. He's close to building it, I heard. That's good news. We could soon go back to the Pegasus Galaxy."

Ronon nodded and started eating his team mate's French fries. "There's that and there's something else: he's unhappy," he stated. "He misses Artemus Gordon. He had bonded with him." He grabbed Sheppard's water bottle and added, "He knows that Gordon is gone, dead, he's sad and he's hurting."

Sheppard sighed. "We can't use the time portal again. It's too dangerous. The room has been sealed. What's the solution?"

Teyla smiled. "You'll find one, John, you always do." She stood up and left, followed by Ronon still holding the bottle of water.

John looked again at Rodney, swallowing coffee from his mug. "Okay, I'm going to find a way to cheer you up buddy."

WWW

Four days later, in the main lab

Sheppard sat a mug of fresh coffee and a piece of cake with candied fruits on the desk, next to Rodney's personal laptop. "Here, I thought you'd need some energy."

McKay looked up at his best friend, rubbing his red and puffy eyes. "Hmm? Oh, thanks." Then he took a sip of the bitter and burning beverage, eyes focused on the latest simulation. He was absorbed again by his complex calculus.

Sighing, John suddenly swung Rodney round on his rolling chair and reaching out, lifted the other man's stubbled chin. He said, "Look at me and forget your work for a moment."

Rodney glared. "What do you want? I'm busy! That's the last simulation! I'm on the verge of building my ZPM power generator."

Placing a comforting hand on McKay's shoulder, Sheppard said, "I know that you miss Artemus terribly, Rodney; but I can't bring him back."

Rodney paled and lowered his eyes. "I know." He felt tears well up and swallowed hard. "I can't explain it John… I felt a strong connection with him. It wasn't like between you and me… We have a brotherly relationship. With him it was more like… a strong friendship between two people having much in common, two geniuses. We bonded. And now he's gone, he's dead. I've lost him."

Sheppard nodded. "As I said, I can't bring Artemus back, but what about meeting his great grandson? I'm sure that the two of you will bond too and be best buddies."

He gestured towards the man waiting in the corridor. "Come in, Major."

Rodney opened his eyes wide and gaped in total surprise when he saw an officer looking exactly like Artemus Gordon move towards him. "Oh, my!" he breathed.

Sheppard smiled broadly. "Rodney, this is Major Robert A. Gordon, USACE, United States Army Corps of Engineers. He's working – he was working - for the United States Army Engineer Research and Development Laboratory. He's been transferred here. You will have to work together many times."

Major Gordon smiled and reached out. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. McKay. Colonel Sheppard has told me many fantastic stories about you."

Still stunned, Rodney shook the other man's hand. "He did? Oh! And all of them are true… So, you have been transferred here? You're the new chief of the combat engineers?"

The officer nodded. "Yes, exactly, thanks to Colonel Sheppard here. He came to see me in Fort Belvoir and talked to me about the Stargate program and Atlantis."

Sheppard nodded. "Major Cowley has retired and needed to be replaced. I read the Major's file searching for a qualified replacement and found the perfect candidate to the post, Major Robert Artemus Gordon. General O'Neill approved my choice."

Rodney and John exchanged a long look. Finally, the physicist mouthed "thank you" to his team mate for what he had done for him.

John smiled. "You're welcome, buddy."

WWW

In the Wanderer

Washington railroad yard

Holding his gloves and hat, Jim West entered the lab, finding his partner leaning on his desk, drawing schematics on a piece of paper. He sighed. "I knew I would find you here. Artie, it's time to leave. I don't want to be late at the President's reception and nor do you."

The older man nodded, drawing at top speed. "I know, I know. Give me just a few seconds… I had a strange dream a few hours ago when I was taking a nap in the sofa - about an automatic firearm, black, compact; with a magazine on top… it was associated with a number, 90." He frowned, puzzled. "I don't know why." He quickened his pencil strokes. "I'm drawing the things I saw that are still in my mind before they disappear… I'll modify my own automatic firearm by adding in those new ideas, I think." He finally placed the pen on the table and met his partner's eye. "Voilà, I'm ready. Let's head to the White House."

Smiling, Jim headed towards the corridor. "Speaking of strange dreams, I had one last night," he said to his best friend. You and I were on board a ship – a ship flying amongst the stars, a spaceship flying above the Earth. The planet was so big, so blue Artie…"

THE END