A/N – Wow, thanks for all the reviews! This is quite a long chapter, but hopefully some of your questions will now be answered…

Chapter 5 – Project 117

"Oh, my honour guard's finally arrived," Rodney said as John came into the infirmary.

John ignored the comment as he went over to the scientist, who was now back in his uniform and waiting impatiently. "Where have you been all day, McKay?"

"Right here. Getting bashed about and attacked by crazy people. For me it was only a couple of minutes though. Seems the device can not only freeze time, but speed it up."

John whistled quietly as they stepped out into the corridor, "Does it do anything else?"

Rodney paused for a moment and his eyes darted about as he looked down at the floor, "What like slow time down and make it go backwards? No, at least not yet." He rubbed his belly absently and rolled one of his shoulders as his expression drifted down into a brood.

John took hold of Rodney's uninjured shoulder and asked in concern, "Who attacked you and why?"

Rodney grimaced and glanced up at John's face. "Two people; both clearly insane. One says things that don't make any sense and the other didn't say anything at all as he came at me with a… with a," Rodney gulped, "spike."

John baulked and took Rodney's upper arm in a firm grasp. "Come with me."

"What… where?"

"The armoury. I can't protect you if you go out of phase again."

"Oh, uh, okay."

Rodney continued to rub his abdomen as they left the transporter and approached the armoury. As they walked into the room, John noticed and asked, "When was the last time you ate anything?"

Rodney frowned and lowered his hand. "I don't know. Yesterday, I think. A powerbar around lunchtime."

John's eyebrows shot up, "I know Keller had you on a drip, but that's an awfully long time for you to go without any proper food."

"Yes. I wonder why I've not gone into hypoglycaemic shock yet? I don't even feel hungry." He rubbed his eyes and frowned, "Or tired."

John shrugged and said, "Well, you did sleep for quite a while in the infirmary last night."

"I know! At least ten hours. Probably longer as I don't know how long time had been frozen before I woke up with this." He waved his bandaged hand in front of himself.

John grabbed one of the tac vests hanging on a rack and handed it to Rodney, who quickly put it on and zipped it up. McKay then clipped on a belt and thigh holster and John handed him a sidearm.

John rounded on him after he had finished packing extra ammo and powerbars into his vest and said quickly, "Now, I don't want you going all heroic on me, Rodney. You see these people again; you try to get away from them. Do you understand?"

Rodney lifted his chin and folded his arms over the bulky pockets of his tac vest. "Run away? But I'm the only one who can see them. I'm not that much of a coward, Sheppard."

John gave him an exasperated smile and said, "I know. But if you get hurt while time is frozen or you're out of phase; we won't be able to get to you now, will we?"

"Oh," Rodney's indignant face fell very quickly in realisation.

John shrugged, "I'll escort you to the lab and get the Mess Hall to send down some food."

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"Why aren't we going to Janus' Lab?" Rodney asked as he approached the main science lab with John.

"It's off limits after what happened. Mr Woolsey said it's too dangerous until you've decoded all of Janus' research.

"Oh, okay." Rodney looked at John as they walked down the corridor and asked, "Anyway, what's been going on since I disappeared?"

John shrugged, "We spent all day looking for you. A few of the scientists helped and Zelenka's got everyone else working on that code and the database, but I don't think he's having a lot of luck."

Raised voices, one speaking in Czech, wafted down the corridor towards the two men and John waved his hand in front of himself to indicate the now audible evidence of what he had just said.

John waited by the door like a sentry as McKay entered the lab and Zelenka saw him. The Czech instantly stopped speaking to the female scientist in front of him and went over to McKay.

"Ah, Rodney. We have been looking for you all day. What happened?"

Rodney told him about how time had sped up and Radek nodded, "Very interesting. We have found nothing in database about time travel or the necklaces."

Rodney coughed and muttered, "It's an Ancient device."

Zelenka walked over to a nearby laptop with Rodney. McKay was surprised by the number of scientists in the lab, all intent on helping him. There were about fifteen of them crammed into the room. Some spoke, others typed and rubbed their foreheads in exasperation. The woman who had been arguing with Radek was studying some equations on a large whiteboard and tapping a marker pen rapidly against her palm.

Rodney asked, "What about Janus' database?" He shoved another scientist out of their seat so that he could sit down next to Radek. The man huffed angrily but did not say anything.

"I have others double checking it now. I think what we need is in the encoded part we cannot access."

A marine entered the room and John pointed over at McKay. The man deposited a tray of food from the Mess Hall next to him and quickly exited. Rodney absently picked at the food but did not eat any as pulled up the laptop and changed the screen to show the code.

"Ugh," he sighed at the nonsensical data and shovelled a mouthful of casserole in his mouth. He chewed it slowly and swallowed. He frowned and pushed the tray away.

"Rodney, what is it?" Radek asked in worry at McKay's strange behaviour.

"I don't know. I just don't feel hungry. Maybe it's the device doing something to me."

John was looking across the room in concern, but he did not intervene. He hoped Rodney's friend had it under control, so he waited.

"You must eat, Rodney. Especially now; you are no good to us if you faint again."

Rodney scowled and muttered angrily under his breath, "I collapsed, twice. The second time from massive blood loss."

"A nose bleed?" Zelenka said incredulously. He quickly continued as McKay glared at him, "Alright, well it is up to you, it is your health. Anyway, you have more details about device now, so hopefully we can crack this code."

Rodney moved his angry expression from Radek to the laptop and scanned across the lines of code as he had done for far too many hours of his life already. He shook his head and changed to the database they had already decoded.

He typed in 'Solian' and 'Rorkan,' hit enter and went back to the code while he waited. He looked at the individual characters and tried to see any kind of pattern. There was a mixture of Wraith, Ancient and Gate symbols in amongst the usual programming code.

After a few minutes, John went over to Rodney and peered over his shoulder. "Aren't you going to eat that, McKay?"

Radek pushed up his glasses and leant forwards to study his laptop intently as he said, "I tried, Colonel, he is a stubborn…" he trailed off into Czech and John grinned at him.

Rodney looked at the tray indifferently and shrugged, "I already said I'm not hungry."

"Do I have to drag you back to see Keller again, McKay?"

"No, uh, I'll try again. Hang on a moment."

The screen blipped to indicate his search was finished and he swapped the display again. "Oh, a match in the database!" His voice was filled with unexpected glee at the result and he quickly read through the information.

Radek frowned in confusion, "Match for what?"

"Great, completely useless." Rodney leant back in his seat, raised his hands up and slapped them down onto his legs. "What is it with the Ancients, even Janus, leaving us absolutely no information about anything, as usual?! The people I saw when I phased out of time; Rorkan and Solian, all it says is 'Project 117.' That explains the seven and the eleven. But what about the stars, rings and Wraith?"

"What are you talking about?" Radek asked.

"I'm cross referencing all mentions of 'Project 117' in the rest of the database. I thought Solian's ramblings were a by-product of his insanity after being stalked by Rorkan, but maybe there was more meaning behind them after all."

John shared a puzzled look with Radek as Rodney studied the results of his new search. "Okay, only six mentions of the project. All of them just names and all with no more data than this 'Project 117.' This is hopeless! What was Janus doing with all these people?"

John frowned and said, "Solian? Can't you just phase again and ask him?"

"Oh yes, and while I'm at it should I find a way to charge a ZedPM using only my willpower?" Rodney snapped sarcastically, "Because I had so much control over this metal band choking me before."

"Well, you could really concentrate and then maybe…"

"No, Colonel, it won't work. You said so yourself that it was my gene playing up that made the device attach so quickly and securely."

Radek asked, "The others, do they have device also?"

Rodney's new sarcastic comment got stuck in the back of his throat and instead he muttered, "Yes."

John smirked and patted McKay's back, "Then it's not your gene. If these guys are Ancients…"

"They are," Rodney butted in.

"…then it's not your fault you can't get it off."

"Oh, that's reassuring. Not even real, live Ancients can remove it. I'm totally screwed aren't I?"

John waved him off and said, "Just think; probably the only way to remove the device is to decode that database. The only way to do that is to speak to Solian. And yes, you do need to phase in order to meet up with him again."

Radek muttered, "I wonder why that is…"

John kept saying his loop of logical thinking into Rodney's ear and McKay closed the laptop in front of him, picked it up and hugged it against his chest over the tac vest. He closed his eyes tightly in concentration…

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Rodney felt the now familiar, but still horribly unsettling sensation of tingling spreading out across his whole body. He felt it move down his arms and legs into his fingers and toes as absolute silence descended once more.

He opened his eyes and looked around the lab. He was still sitting in his seat, but everyone else was frozen in place. He glanced down at his watch in curiosity and raised his eyebrows in surprise as it continued to tick. "Some kind of proximity effect?" He mumbled to himself.

He pushed his seat away from the desk clumsily to avoid hitting John or Radek and stumbled slightly as he stood. He accidentally toppled the chair and his eyes widened when it left contact with him and hung in the air halfway down to the ground. It defied gravity in the impossible tilt where it was now stuck.

Rodney slipped the laptop into the empty pocket on the back of his tac vest as he knew he would need both hands free to defend himself if he had another run in with Rorkan.

He suddenly felt terribly dizzy and grabbed the edge of the desk to steady himself as he swayed. He looked down at the food he had not eaten, but this did not feel like hunger and a new stabbing pain in his temples made him bend over and clutch his head as he whimpered.

Rodney breathed heavily through gritted teeth and found he could not think or remember what he was doing at all. He lost all awareness and succumb to the agony. He fell down onto the floor and continued to clutch his head as he rocked a little. Soon it was too much for Rodney and he became still as he passed out and his hands fell down limply.

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A cold hand pawing at his face woke Rodney up. He muttered, "Get off me!" before he even opened his eyes.

"I thought Rorkan had you that last time. You need to move. He is coming again."

Rodney snapped his eyes open and looked up at Solian. "What? Why am I still here? I thought I'd phase back into normal time after collapsing."

Solian smiled at him humourlessly and said in a singsong fashion, "No, no. You will never get back to them now."

Rodney rubbed his temples as the headache had only slightly receded. It still hurt him, but made thinking just about possible. "You mean, if I keep this thing on for too long, I'll get stuck out of phase forever?"

Solian gazed down at him blankly and then shrugged, "The eleventh Wraith."

Rodney glanced at him in exasperation and rolled over to stand up. He steeled himself for the inevitable head rush which was to follow and would probably send him crashing back to the floor unconscious. He pushed himself up very slowly and closed his eyes as his head throbbed.

Rodney felt a hand gripping his shoulder and opened his tightly shut eyes to look at his unlikely saviour. Solian was grinning at him as he rested his hand on Rodney to keep him upright. McKay muttered, "Um, thanks."

Solian nodded and let go when Rodney had his balance back.

McKay looked down at his watch and opened his mouth in shock. It took him a few seconds to figure out what day it was. The clock had kept ticking all the while he had been out of phase. The proximity to his body and the band around his neck had drawn it with him into the place where he now was. It showed 10am, but the day after Rodney had collapsed.

"Oh, I've been out for more than twelve hours!" He panicked and patted down his tac vest and took out a powerbar. "No wonder I collapsed, I haven't eaten anything for nearly two days!"

Rodney hastily tore off the wrapper and then stopped and frowned, "I haven't drunk any water either, since… since the infirmary. But that was twenty-four hours ago and I'm not thirsty either."

Solian looked back at him sadly and said, "In the void; no sleep, no food, no rest. Only forever."

Rodney glanced at the powerbar in his hand and chewed off a piece anyway and swallowed. He felt no hunger and it was like eating cardboard to him. He frowned, but finished the bar with great difficulty and pulled a water bottle out of his tac vest. He swigged a few mouthfuls before replacing it back in the pocket.

He grimaced as he ate and thought about his predicament. He asked Solian, "No rest? Then why did I collapse?"

Solian shrugged and said, "Too long ago for me."

Rodney frowned, "How long have you been here? Do you remember a man named Janus?"

Solian looked away at one of the walls where a scientist was frozen in the middle of a wild hand gesture with another person in front of him. He rolled the name around his mouth, "Janus. J-Janus? Oh… eleven seven!"

"So you do remember something. That means you've been here for ten thousand years," Rodney remembered the frozen time and added, "at least…" He wanted to add, "No wonder you and Rorkan are both crazy," but he held his tongue.

Rodney unhooked the laptop on his back and kept a tight grip on it to keep it from phasing back into normal time. He opened it up and spun it around to show Solian. He leant the screen against his chest and curled his fingers under the keyboard to give Solian access. "We're having some trouble decoding some research Janus left behind. Think you could take a look at it for us?"

Solian narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but walked over, stood in front of McKay and peered down at the screen. He tapped a few of the keys experimentally and Rodney sighed in relief as the buttons depressed and responded to the other man's touch.

His typing sped up and he frowned at the screen while he worked. Rodney hoped he was decoding the data, but his upside down and obstructed view of the screen meant that he could not see exactly what Solian was doing.

He mumbled, "Wraith. Seven stars. Rings. Eleven," under his breath a few times and then suddenly stopped typing and looked at the door to the lab in fear.

Rodney followed his gaze and jumped a little when he saw Rorkan's leering face peering back at them. McKay said, "Oh, it's you again! I'm ready this time."

Rodney closed the laptop and slipped it back into the pocket on his tac vest. He unholstered his sidearm and pointed it at Rorkan who was waving the spike at him threateningly as his eyes danced with the flames of madness.

Rodney stood between Solian and Rorkan and called out in a squeaky voice, "Leave him alone!"

Rorkan advanced on McKay in a normal manner this time and Rodney was surprised as he walked rather than jumped unnervingly through space at him. He angled the tip of the spike at Rodney's chest and continued to move slowly forwards.

"Don't come any closer or I'll shoot you, I swear!" Rodney cried in panic at the approaching figure. He increased the pressure on the trigger and felt a sweat breaking out on his brow as his hands tremored slightly in fear.

Rorkan stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes as if calculating whether Rodney was going to carry out his threat. He decided not and dashed forwards. Rodney shouted and turned his face to the side at the same time as he fired.

Rorkan blinked out of existence for a fraction of a second and reappeared unharmed at Rodney's side. McKay yelped in shock and spun around to back away from Rorkan. He held the gun up and Solian muttered from the other side of the room, "Won't work. Won't work. Need a stick."

Rodney continued to step backwards closer to where Rorkan had been a moment ago. He suddenly felt a searing pain across the back of his arm and gritted his teeth. "What the hell was that?"

He kept his gun pointed at Rorkan as he advanced. He was probably thinking that he could win no matter what McKay did, so did not really bother to hurry. McKay turned his head slightly to see what had hurt him. It took him a few seconds to find it, but he eventually saw a tiny piece of metal floating in mid air. "Oh, my bullet!"

McKay quickly connected the unmoving bullet with Solian's ramblings, holstered his gun and drew the knife from his belt instead.

He muttered, "Where's Teyla when you need her? I'm useless at hand to hand."

Rorkan stopped for a moment and eyed the blade McKay was now brandishing. He tilted his head a little as if asking a question, then ran forwards at McKay with the spike held out in front of him.

Rodney rapidly staggered backwards and tried to spin around sideways to avoid the jabbing point of the weapon. He was only partially successful and the spike stabbed a hole in the side of his tac vest. He cried out and clutched his scraped side as Rorkan pulled the weapon out of the vest where it had become entangled.

McKay sent an attack Rorkan's way, but he quickly phased out and reappeared behind Rodney. He drew the spike up as he prepared to plunge it into the scientist's back.

McKay muttered, "That's not fair!" He spun around and caught a glimpse of the spike coming towards him. Rodney allowed his legs to crumple and he rolled out of the way in a move he had picked up during his limited training sessions with his teammates. As he went past Rorkan on the floor he slashed his knife across one of the man's shins.

Rorkan drew in a sharp breath, but uttered no other sound as his leg bled onto the dark rags that barely covered him. He aimed a savage kick at McKay, but it missed as Rodney rolled over onto all fours and stood up with a grunt of pain.

Rorkan bared his teeth at Rodney like an animal and phased again. He reappeared and disappeared many times around the lab and McKay continued to curl a hand against the cut on his side as he followed the man as best he could. He shook in fear and soon was so disorientated he expected to feel the spike lance through his body at any moment.

Rorkan seemed to be toying with him and Rodney's eyes settled on Sheppard as he stood frozen in time. He wished with all his might that John would unfreeze and help to defend him against the madman.

Rodney then noticed that Solian was gone. Whether he had the same phasing abilities as Rorkan or had just run out while McKay was fighting for his life, he did not know.

Rodney cried out as Rorkan appeared directly in front of him and flashed the spike down towards him again for a fatal blow.

The room suddenly tipped and spun around Rodney momentarily and sounds crashed down against him as they started again. There was a loud echoing gunshot bang as the bullet continued on its path when it unfroze in time. It slammed into some machinery on one side of the room in a shower of sparks.

A nearby chair finally obeyed gravity and fell over with a loud clatter.

Rodney continued to hold the bloody knife out in front of him and it visibly wavered in the air as his hand shook. He kept his arm across his abdomen and pressed his free hand firmly against his side as he gazed blearily around the room.

Everyone had stopped working and talking and they were all looking at him in shock and confusion, like he was a ghost. Only John came over to him and grasped his wrist as he took the knife.

He studied McKay's pale, sweaty and shocked face and heard the rapid pants of air Rodney was drawing in. He quickly tapped his radio and said, "Medical team to the science labs."

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TBC