To help make up for the overall ANGST, here is another chapter! Because the only thing better than angst is LOTS of angst!
And I just wanted to clear something up ... I'm getting the impression from the responses to the story that some readers think this is actually how I see Season Two. GOOD LORD NO. This universe diverged from ours at about the time of the Siege. Obviously everyone sees things a little differently, and there's no real right or wrong to it, but in canon, all that I see between the characters in Season Two is a closer friendship than in Season One. In a way, this story started out as kind of an answer to the opposing point of view, because I got to wondering, "What would it be like if they really WEREN'T friends in Season Two? How might things happen differently if they didn't have that friendship holding them together?"
In any case, several things should come clear in this chapter.
Chapter Four: Neighbors
As planets went, Doranda was just as bleak and miserable as McKay remembered from the last time they'd been there. Low, slate-colored clouds sent a dull rain pattering across the ruins as Lorne landed the jumper outside the main complex of buildings.
When they'd closed up shop after Collins' death, they had powered down the research facility, but left it ready to come back up at a moment's notice. McKay flipped switches and watched with satisfaction as the consoles sprang to life again. Zelenka really should be here, but he was offworld with Sheppard's team -- his second mission since the team had been cleared for duty again.
Lorne and his men paced around the room, glancing nervously at the consoles. Lorne, after all, had been present for the experiment that killed Collins, since Sheppard hadn't accompanied them on that trip; the Major had firsthand reason to be wary of Arcturus. "Everything in the green, Doc?"
"Everything's peachy," Rodney muttered, distracted as he checked the readouts. He frowned. Something wasn't adding up here.
"Doc?"
"The auxiliary power is lower than it should be." Scowling now, he began calling up log files. "Either there's something draining power, or the facility was brought online while we were gone, and then put back into standby mode."
"Wraith?" Lorne asked, looking around.
"Wraith," McKay scoffed. "That's you grunts' answer for everything."
"So it's not Wraith?"
"What, am I psychic now? I don't know if it's Wraith or not! And I'll never find out if you don't let me work."
The log files showed clearly that someone had been in the facility while they'd been gone. Several times, in fact. He couldn't tell more about it than that, though. If the facility had a security system, they'd never found it. There hadn't seemed to be any reason to look for one; the gate was in orbit, and the Wraith left this planet alone, since there was no food for them here. Doranda was uninhabited; they'd scanned from orbit, and scanned again before landing today.
Of course, there were ways of fooling life sensors ...
Just as the thought crossed his mind, one of the Marines came running full-tilt into the room. "Major! You need to have a look at this."
Lorne frowned and followed the man out of the room, with McKay bringing up the rear. They climbed a set of stairs to a balcony looking down over the ruined city. The Marine pointed, but he didn't really have to. It was pretty obvious what he was pointing at.
There was another ship in the city.
They hadn't seen it, flying over, because it was under the cover of a leaning, ruined building, but from this angle it could be seen clearly. It was of a completely different design than either the Wraith darts or the puddlejumpers -- a long, sleek, glossy blue shape that reminded Rodney of a speedboat. It looked as if it had once been beautiful, although now it was old and battered, with scorch marks and repaired places on its hull.
McKay tore his eyes away from the ship to check his scanner. Widening it out to its broadest range, he shook his head. "No life signs, but there is a very faint power reading from the ship. It might be running some kind of shield that blocks our sensors."
"You are correct."
The voice was low, male and completely unfamiliar. As it spoke, several soldiers stepped into view, surrounding them on the balcony.
McKay's first thought was Crap, Genii! -- but then he realized that these people weren't Genii. They were tall and dark, with long braided hair on both the men and the women. They wore loose BDU-style clothing of a rough brown fabric, with heavy jackets over that, and their weapons were slender and pointed -- obviously designed to fire energy, not projectiles.
"Drop your weapons and equipment, please." The speaker was an older man, about Caldwell's age, with a gray-streaked beard and a firm, military bearing. A woman hovered behind him. Unlike the others, she wasn't armed, but she carried a small device in her hands and all her attention was fixed on it.
McKay looked down at the LSD, then up at them, then down at the scanner again. It still showed just the five of them -- himself plus Lorne's team. "That's not possible," he began, then pointed at the woman. "Hey, you're jamming us, aren't you? What's that you've got there? It looks Ancient --"
"I said, drop your weapons!" the older man snapped. He nodded to a younger woman holding a gun, and she fired at one of the Marines as Lorne began to shout a warning. Red light stabbed from the pointed tip of her gun. The Marine screamed and fell, convulsing, his P90 dropping from his fingers and skittering across the floor of the balcony.
"Son of a bitch!" Lorne snapped, kneeling next to his man. The Marine writhed and then went limp, twitching. "Harrison -- talk to me. Harrison? Brian?"
"On this setting, the first shot will only cause pain, incapacitating him. Further shots will kill him. Now, drop your weapons."
Teeth clenched, Lorne nodded to the rest of his men, who laid down their guns. Rodney belatedly realized that this probably meant him too, and struggled with his P90 for a moment before getting it off over his head.
"Equipment too," the man ordered, nodding to McKay's scanner. "Larissa, take that. You might be able to use it."
McKay snorted. "Hardly," he sneered as the woman darted forward. "It takes a special gene that you don't have -- or ... maybe you do," he finished lamely, when she took it out of his hand and the screen continued to glow.
The woman's dark eyes went very wide. "You have the mark of the Ancestors, like me," she breathed, looking from the LSD's glowing screen to Rodney's face.
"Step away from him, Larissa," the older man told her, and she reluctantly took a few steps backward.
The strangers confiscated their guns and packs, and lined them up, sitting, in the middle of the floor. The Marine who had been stunned appeared to be recovering, though he still trembled and leaned weakly against Lorne.
"This is extremely rude," Rodney informed his captors, glaring up at them.
"McKay," Lorne muttered, "shut up."
A smile twitched at the edge of the commander's lips. "If armed strangers invaded your world, what would you do ... McKay? Now, Larissa's going to scan you with something that'll tell us who and what you are, and if you check out, then maybe we can talk."
"What do you mean, who and what -- hey, wait a minute, are you saying you're Dorandan? Ow!" Larissa had just jabbed him in the arm with a device that resembled a voltmeter with a needle on one end. "You didn't say it was going to hurt," he muttered, rubbing his arm. "Hey, is that thing sanitary?"
"Don't worry, I only need a tiny sample." She studied the results and then repeated the process down the line. "They all have the Ancestors' mark, Seng," she told the older man. "But otherwise they are human, not truly of the Ancestors. And there is no Wraithsign among them at all."
"Five of you, all with the Ancestors' mark? How extraordinary." The older man, Seng, jerked his head at his men, who withdrew respectfully. "You may get up, and come downstairs. We'll talk."
------
It turned out that these people were, indeed, Dorandan, although not originally. According to Seng, their ancestors had come through the Stargate several generations ago, fleeing a culling that had left their homeworld barren.
"We were very highly advanced, my people," Seng told them. They were gathered in a long room downstairs in the facility; it might once have served as an Ancient conference room. As a good-faith gesture, their gear and weapons had been returned to them, although Larissa still eyed McKay's scanner longingly.
"There were many among us in those days who had the Ancestors' mark, as I do now," Larissa explained. "Our world had many of the Ancestors' machines, and we learned to repair and use them. The Wraith tried to destroy us, but there was a great battle and we won, destroying two of their hiveships in the process." She smiled, almost wolfishly. "It was a great victory for our people, and the Wraith feared us. We hoped they would leave us alone. Instead, they sent those with the Wraithsign among us."
"Wraithsign?" Lorne asked.
"Spies." Seng fingered his gun as he talked. "Just as Larissa's line have the Ancestors' mark, those who bear the Wraithsign have the Wraith mark in them. They can speak to the hiveships with their minds, and they can also be controlled."
"Wraith DNA," Rodney said, excited. "Like Tey--" He snapped his mouth shut at Lorne's warning glare.
"Like whom?" Seng asked.
McKay waved a hand at him. "Nevermind, go on. We've also, um, met people who have Wraith DNA -- your Wraithsign. Continue, don't mind me."
After a moment, Larissa picked up the story again. "There is probably no need to tell you what happened, then, if you have experience with Wraithsign traitors. They sabotaged our weapons, betrayed our secrets to the Wraith, and left us helpless against the next culling. Of our great world, all that remained were a handful of survivors who fled through the gate in what ships we could salvage. We found Doranda a dead world, as the old stories claimed, but the next one in the system turned out to be able to support life, and we have lived there ever since. The Wraith believe this system to be uninhabited, so they do not bother us."
McKay nodded slowly. "We scanned for life signs on Doranda, but didn't try any of the planets without a Stargate."
"We were aware when you came," Seng said. "There is always a small garrison stationed here on Doranda, to guard against the Wraith in case they ever find us."
Larissa frowned reproachfully at him. "And, primarily, to explore Doranda and glean technology that can help us survive. Life on our new homeworld is very hard, and there are not many of us. Anything that we can find here may mean the difference between life and death when the next long-cold comes."
McKay recognized the familiar signs of the same military-civilian divide that plagued Atlantis. Seng's solders were stationed here to guard against Wraith, but they were also supposed to guard Larissa and her scientists ... and didn't seem thrilled about it. "We didn't see your life signs here."
Larissa smiled and reached up to her shoulder, touching a small round object pinned to her jacket that looked purely ornamental. "This was one of our greatest finds in the ruins. We can --"
"Larissa." Seng spoke sharply, glaring at her. "I do not know if it's in our best interests to tell the strangers everything."
She glared back. "They're clearly as advanced as we are, Captain Seng, and maybe they know things that can help us. The long cold is only one turn away."
"Long cold?" Lorne asked.
Larissa's brow wrinkled. "Doranda's sun is dying, Major. There are severe heat fluctuations that affect our world very badly. We have learned to predict the cold cycles, but it is still very difficult for us to deal with. In geological time, it will be millions of years before this system is completely uninhabitable, but in the short term, we barely manage to cling to life on our world. We come to this world in the hopes of finding technology that will enable us to increase our crop yields during the cold times, or perhaps even stabilize the sun's energy output, if that is possible."
McKay raised a hand to indicate the facility around them. "But you never explored this? I'd think this'd be the first place you'd come! When we got here, though, it looked like nobody'd been in here in millennia."
"We had actually declared this part of the ruins off-limits," Larissa admitted. "Several other areas are designated that way, too. In our early explorations, we found all the bodies here, and clear evidence of a technology that we did not understand. It seemed prudent to avoid the more dangerous areas until we had explored the rest. And there are many ruined cities on this world. The idea of investigating this place had never even occurred to me until I saw your ships coming and going from here, half a turn ago."
"Ha! And the irony of it all is that the solution to your problems was right here under your nose the whole time."
"What?" Larissa asked, her eyes widening, while Lorne gave McKay a curious look.
"There's a power source upstairs, probably capable of keeping your entire planet running during the cold season." McKay pointed over their heads. "Good thing you and your little gang of alchemists never tried to power it up, because you'd probably have killed yourselves just like the Ancients did, but we've solved the problems of running the thing without creating lethal doses of radiation -- well, mostly solved the problem, but I think we're pretty much there."
Larissa's eyes had gone so huge that the whites showed all the way around them. She exchanged a stunned glance with Seng. "And you can make this work?"
McKay laughed. "That's exactly what we came here to do."
------
"There are people on Doranda?"
"Believe me, Elizabeth, we're as surprised as you are." Rodney leaned back in his chair. Elizabeth regarded him across her desk, looking tired and unenthusiastic.
"And they don't have a problem with you continuing your experiments?"
McKay laughed in disbelief. "A problem with it? Elizabeth, they're welcoming us with open arms!" Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, considering Larissa's cautious optimism and Seng's fairly open suspicion. Still, the idea of unlimited power had been a very easy sell. "Larissa -- she's the head of what I might loosely term their 'scientists' -- has pretty much given us an all-clear and offered any help that we need. If they can really do everything they've promised, it might cut the time to build the bridge in half."
Elizabeth drew a deep breath and let it out again. "You're sure it's safe, Rodney? We aren't going to have another Collins incident?"
"For the last time, Elizabeth, of course it's safe. Cross my heart, and all of that. What do you think I'm going to do, blow up the planet?"
"I certainly hope not."
"Of course not. We've resolved the problem that killed Collins; that's what the bridge is designed to fix. We flip the switch, the lights come on, and we're heroes on Doranda and on Earth."
"I just hope it's that simple, Rodney. I really, really hope so."
------
Of course it wasn't that simple. But the problems that they encountered were relatively easy ones to resolve, especially with the willing cooperation of the Dorandans.
The Dorandan settlement turned out to be even smaller than Larissa and Seng had implied -- only a few hundred people on a rocky, barren world that was only marginally more hospitable than Doranda itself. Still, in the centuries since fleeing their original homeworld, the Dorandans had clung tenaciously to the knowledge they had brought with them. Scientists were revered, and although the small settlement had no formal leader, Larissa and Seng seemed to share a leader's duties between them.
Seng remained cool about Arcturus, but Larissa offered her help willingly, bringing in the rest of her leading scientists and helping the Atlanteans search for useful raw materials from the ruined city. In McKay's opinion, the scientific knowledge of the Dorandans still left a lot to be desired, but Larissa turned out to be bright and quick-learning, and she already had a working knowledge of written Ancient that surpassed anyone on Atlantis besides McKay and Weir.
While Larissa and McKay got along well, relations between the Dorandans and the Atlanteans overall were strained. It was obvious that Seng did not trust them -- there were always a couple of armed Dorandan guards hanging around whenever Larissa and her scientists came to help -- but it was equally obvious that the lack of trust went both ways. Three weeks into the construction of the bridge, the Dorandans still had not been offered their own IDC or the gate address of Atlantis. Since they had their own spaceships and were at least potentially capable of retrieving addresses from the spacegate, Elizabeth asked the science teams not to dial directly to Atlantis from the Doranda system, instead gating to the Alpha site and from there to Atlantis.
"You know, this would be a lot easier if we could just quit this cloak-and-dagger stuff," McKay complained as he reported in from the Alpha site. It was raining softly, a light mist settling on the metal skin of the jumper. "I mean, we've been working side-by-side with these people for weeks and Larissa keeps asking me when she's going to get to see the city of the 'Ancestors'. How much point is there --"
"How many times have we been betrayed, Rodney?"
"Okay, point. But if they were going to try something, wouldn't they have done it by now? Besides, they've got a lot more to lose than we do. It's true that we stand to gain a lot from getting the Arcturus project up and running, but we're talking about the survival of their people here!"
"Speaking of which, have they allowed you to visit their settlement yet?"
McKay heaved a sigh. Trust Elizabeth to pick at the one thing that still bothered him, too. "No, but I haven't really tried, either. I mean, we are working, you know. There's not exactly time for sightseeing."
"It's the lack of trust that concerns me more."
He threw up his hands in the air, forgetting that she couldn't see him over the radio. "So they don't like outsiders, big deal! Their whole civilization was destroyed by these 'Wraithsign' people; I can see how something like that could make a person a bit suspicious."
"And they still insist on scanning every new person we send for Wraith DNA."
He sighed again. "Yes, yes, they do. But it's hardly a problem. The only person on Atlantis with Wraith DNA is Teyla, and we've all agreed that Teyla stays home, so what they don't know won't hurt them. As far as the settlement goes, we've confirmed from orbit that the life sign readings on their world check out with what they've told us about their people."
"But we know they can conceal life signs, Rodney. And they still haven't told you how they do that, have they?"
He rolled his eyes, again forgetting that body language was wasted on her. "It's hardly a secret; it's a device that Larissa wears. True, she hasn't let me take a look at it, but we haven't let them near the jumpers, either."
"Which brings me back to the overall lack of trust."
"You know what? Forget it. You guys can play spies all you like. I just want to finish this project before I die of old age. Speaking of which, Sheppard needs to stop hogging Zelenka. I need him here for a couple of days."
"He's currently offworld, but when he gets back, I'll send him your way for a while."
"Offworld? Again? Now where is he?"
"He's investigating the Ancient ship with his team and the Daedalus."
McKay froze with his hand resting on the DHD. "Ancient ship? What Ancient ship?"
"The Aurora. Rodney, we've been sending you reports; haven't you been reading them? I know Zelenka sent you a detailed report on the Aurora data, and I also sent along a formal request to have Radek offworld for a couple of days investigating the ship, and you signed off on it."
He really needed to stop signing things without reading them. "Why didn't anyone tell me? And why are you sending Zelenka? I should be there!"
Elizabeth's tone became very patient. "We did tell you; Zelenka is there because you authorized him to be there; and Rodney, you can't assign him to field work and then pull him every time that he finds something you want to look at. You can't have it both ways."
"I'm not doing that," he muttered, feeling heat rise in his face. "I just -- damn it, Elizabeth, an Ancient ship! One of their ships! Do you know what kind of valuable information could be on it? Radek doesn't have the experience!"
"He's been going out in the field for almost a month now. He's got a lot more experience than you think, Rodney."
The tidal wave of jealousy and resentment that swept through McKay left him shaken and shocked. He liked Zelenka, he trusted Zelenka ... and still, at that moment, he had an overwhelming urge to chuck the man out an airlock. Because he should be there, and he bitterly resented Zelenka for going in his place.
Damn it, Rodney, you made your choice.
"When he gets back, I want him on Doranda," he said stiffly.
"I think we can manage that."
------
It had been a useless, wasted trip -- a journey through hyperspace only to spend less than half an hour on the Aurora, frantically searching for anything that might be helpful in the fight against the Wraith, before the Daedalus had been forced to blow it up to keep it out of Wraith hands. Zelenka was still haunted by the memory of all those bodies, sealed in their stasis pods. He knew that all of those people had been beyond help for many years, but it still felt as if his team had left them to die.
He also couldn't shake the feeling that if Rodney had been there, he would have been able to get at least some information from the ship's computers. In the time he'd had, Zelenka had not been able to get past the tight security on the ship's database and logs in order to download any of it. There were obviously access codes, probably known only the to the ship's officers, but it wasn't as if they had any way of asking them, and he hadn't been able to find a back door in.
"Ain't your fault, Doc."
Zelenka looked up at Ronon in surprise. He hadn't realized that his state of mind was so obvious. "I am fine."
Ronon just patted him roughly on the shoulder, as the white light caught them and beamed them into the gateroom.
The first thing he heard was, "Radek!"
Great. The last person he wanted to see was charging down the gateroom steps in full-on bull-in-a-china-shop mode. "Caldwell's transmission said he blew up the Ancient ship. Blew up the ship! What is wrong with you people? Why didn't you stop him?"
Beside him, Zelenka was aware of Sheppard going tense. Perhaps unconsciously, Teyla and Ronon moved closer in, presenting a united front -- the team joining together against a common adversary. It felt strange to Zelenka to be included in that, a part of something greater than himself. Strange ... but nice.
Confronted by their unity, McKay came to an abrupt halt, faltering in his tirade. The quick flash of pain in his eyes was swiftly masked by anger. "Damn it, Radek, I can't believe that you didn't even consult with me before charging off to explore the find of the decade! You may be in the field but I'm still your superior --"
"I sent you a report days ago, Rodney," Zelenka said quietly. "We also spoke briefly before I left for mission. You are so wrapped up in Arcturus project that you are rubber-stamping everything and paying no attention to what people tell you."
McKay stuttered briefly and then managed to swing his tirade in a different direction. "And that's another thing -- you're running around offworld when we're about to fire up the project and I need you on Doranda. And you know that -- you've seen the project timeline --"
Sheppard steered Zelenka past McKay with a hand on his arm. "It's been a hell of a day, Rodney, and we don't have time for this. We're due for a briefing with Elizabeth, and then I need a shower and some sleep."
McKay ignored Sheppard, as if he hadn't spoken. "Get back here, Radek! We aren't finished!"
Radek stopped, swinging around; in nearly two years, obeying that voice had become instinctual. Sheppard, halfway up the stairs, had stopped too, turning around. Zelenka felt suddenly like a tasty morsel pinned between two angry dogs. This had nothing to do with himself and Rodney, he realized, and everything to do with Rodney and the Colonel. He didn't want to be in this position; he just desperately wanted to be anywhere else. As he floundered for something to say, he heard Sheppard speak from the steps above him. "Didn't I just say we were done here, McKay?"
Rodney's glare swept them all with withering fury. "Yeah," he said. "I guess we are." And he turned and stalked out of the gateroom.
Later, after a long shower and a meal in the cafeteria with his team, Zelenka cautiously approached the labs. He slunk in expecting wrath, but instead, McKay was cool and efficient. He wanted Radek on Doranda in the morning. He'd need this, and this, and this completed before then. Dismissed.
It was so different from Radek's usual conversations with Rodney that he was left in shock -- he just agreed, numbly, and began to complete Rodney's "to do" list without arguing. When he looked up, McKay had left and he was alone in the lab.
He'd been on the receiving end of McKay's anger often enough, but this ... this was something different. Something cold, and hard. Professional jealousy? He knew McKay wasn't above that. But as he teased it around in his mind, he realized that it was much simpler and more personal than that.
Rodney had assigned Radek to Sheppard's team. And as terrified as Radek had been at first, he'd come to enjoy it -- and, he thought, to fit in. He remembered the way that Sheppard's team had interacted over the last few months before Rodney had quit: the strain, the coolness, the palpable sense of tension. With Zelenka in the mix, the team worked together much more smoothly, and he thought it must be visible to everyone ... especially Rodney.
Sheppard was still distant. He wasn't unfriendly, but Radek didn't think the Colonel would ever be close to him -- or to anyone, probably. However, they had begun to find a comfortable working relationship. They didn't joke in the field, the way that Zelenka remembered Rodney and Sheppard used to do. But they could work together efficiently and smoothly.
Radek fit with the team in a way that Rodney no longer could. And, he thought with a heavy heart, Rodney would probably never forgive him for it.
He'd gained a team ... but lost a friend.
------
"Okay! Fleischman, you've got the radiation monitors? You calibrated those last night, right? Greta -- Girda -- damn it, what is that woman's name -- you there, put those in the -- damn it, that's fragile! Be careful, you ham-handed idiot!"
Sheppard sat back in Jumper One's pilot seat and let the activity in the jumper bay flow around him. He couldn't help smiling a little. There was something oddly pleasant and comforting about listening to McKay ranting at his underlings.
Even after all that had happened, it still sounded like home.
Of course, he hardly ever saw Rodney these days, and when they were in the same room, they couldn't seem to pass a civil word, beyond the bare minimum necessary to get through the staff meetings. After the Aurora mission briefing, Elizabeth had taken Sheppard aside. "John, I heard Rodney in the gateroom today ..."
"I imagine everyone heard him."
"I'm very serious about this, John. The two of you have to be able to work together, for Atlantis's sake."
It had been a while since he'd talked to Elizabeth one-on-one. In fact, the last time he could specifically remember was when she'd come to see him in his quarters while he was, not to put too fine a point on it, turning into a giant bug. There had been some brief, awkward infirmary visits -- she'd bring him a book, or something he needed from his quarters, and they'd fumble through some uncomfortable pleasantries before she retreated again. After that, well ... things had been busy, between dealing with all the innumerable duties that had piled up during his Gregor Samsa period, and trying to prepare Zelenka for field work. He just hadn't had time for relaxing.
Looking at Elizabeth now, he could see fine lines around her mouth that he didn't remember. There were blue shadows under her eyes. She looked strained and tired, and much older than the last time he'd seen her. And maybe that was why he didn't argue, didn't try to protest that it was Rodney's fault and not his.
"I'll try," was all he said.
So here he was, in the pilot's seat, preparing to fly to Doranda and watch the scientists flip some switches before going home. They'd have no shortage of security; Lorne's team and Sgt. Bradbury's team would both be there, as well as a couple of personal guards for Elizabeth. Sheppard didn't care what anyone said -- he didn't trust the Dorandans any farther than he could throw them. And the entire command crew was going to be on Doranda during the test: Elizabeth, himself and Rodney, plus Zelenka who was basically the science department's second-in-command and a member of his team.
He understood that they couldn't take Teyla because of her Wraith DNA, but he'd argued with Elizabeth about having Ronon along, finally backing down when she pointed out that the big Satedan was still a loose cannon and very prone to overreact to minor slights. This was a sensitive diplomatic situation and she did. Not. Want. Ronon. There.
He had to admit, privately, that she was right. But he didn't like it.
McKay's nonstop ranting came closer and finally plunked into the co-pilot's seat next to him. "-- and tell Dr. Vogel to forget looking for the damn mice, that's what the lab techs are for. We're leaving as soon as the GAH!"
He'd just turned and noticed Sheppard sitting next to him.
"No, I wasn't talking to you, obviously. Leaving in exactly one minute and anyone who's not on board is staying behind. McKay out." He slapped the radio and then gave Sheppard one of his familiar disgruntled looks. "Why are you here? I was expecting Lorne."
Sheppard just shrugged. "Needed another pilot. I was available."
McKay eyed him suspiciously. "You haven't been back to Doranda since the initial survey."
"Well, maybe it's time I saw what was so important."
The scientist stared at him for a moment longer, then hmph'd and activated his radio again, haranguing someone else for being late.
It was more than one minute, but less than five, before the three jumpers lifted off and gated through to the Doranda system. As they came in low over the ruined city, Sheppard realized that he'd unconsciously tensed up, the way that the body braces for an impact. It was as if he expected something bad to happen.
Zelenka had spent quite a bit of time that morning at breakfast trying to convince him that they'd covered every possible contingency. "I would not say it is impossible for something to go wrong, Colonel, but it is very unlikely. And you know that I am not -- that I do not make such assertions lightly."
I am not Rodney, he'd almost said.
Beyond his initial comments, McKay hadn't said a word to Sheppard since they had lifted off from Atlantis. Casting a quick sideways glance at the scientist, Sheppard saw that he was engrossed in his laptop, going through some kind of checklist on the screen.
It was so familiar, so comfortable, having Rodney there in the co-pilot's seat, just like old times. He had to fight off the temptation to crack some kind of stupid joke just to get Rodney wound up. But this wasn't the time or the place, and the scientist on his team now was Zelenka.
This was temporary.
The Dorandans were already in the control room of the Arcturus facility when the Atlanteans entered. There were just two of them today, a tall and attractive woman who must be Larissa, and an older, bearded man that Sheppard presumed was Seng. Larissa smiled brilliantly upon seeing Rodney, but her smile faltered as the others entered the room.
"You have brought more people than I expected," she said.
Elizabeth extended a hand. "Hello, Larissa. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Weir. We've spoke over the radio, but never in person. It's a pleasure to meet you at last."
Larissa smiled, a bit uncertainly, and accepted the hand awkwardly. "It is an honor to meet you, as well. You understand that we will need to scan you and each of your new people for Wraithsign?"
Weir just nodded. "I've been told. Please, go ahead."
Larissa tapped a handheld object, about the size of a paperback book, against Weir's upper arm, and nodded as she examined the screen. "Thank you. I apologize; it is just a formality."
"I understand." Rubbing a hand against her arm, Elizabeth watched with intense eyes as Larissa went to each of the Marines in Bradbury's team, tapping the device against their arms. Then it was Sheppard's turn.
"Hi. I don't believe we've met. I'm John Sheppard, the military commander of Atlantis."
"It is an honor, Colonel." She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd seen, but she was certainly striking, with almond-shaped eyes and long hair done up in many tiny braids that had been arranged in an elaborate coiffure on top of her head. One shoulder of her bulky brown jacket was decorated with an egg-shaped object that Sheppard would have taken for an ornament or some sort of rank insignia, if McKay hadn't tipped him off that these people used an Ancient device to scramble life signs readings.
It was one of the many things he didn't trust about them. The jacket was another; it looked positively made for hiding concealed weapons.
The device touched his arm and he felt a quick sting. Larissa looked at the display and her eyes widened, just a bit. Then her face became calm again. "He's clean," she told Seng.
Sheppard offered her his most charming smile and then looked past her at McKay. He frowned to see Rodney staring at him with an "Oh shit" look on his face.
"What's the matter with you?"
McKay opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, glanced at Larissa, and waved his hand dismissively. "Tell you later," he said, and turned to ask Zelenka a question about particle flow control.
Sheppard frowned after him, but McKay was already off in scientist happyland and Larissa looked to be joining him there, so he wandered over to Seng. "Hi. Colonel Sheppard. Military commander of Atlantis."
Seng gave him a direct stare from under lowered brows. "Captain Seng. Commander of the Dorandan Defensive Guard."
Sheppard leaned against the nearest console and assessed the man with a quick glance. About Caldwell's age, but very fit; despite the age difference, Sheppard wouldn't want to tangle with him. One of those long energy weapons he'd read about in Lorne's report was strapped in a holster on the soldier's back; another, pistol-shaped one rested at his hip. Well, Sheppard had his P90 and Beretta, so he supposed that made them even.
"So, you on scientist babysitting detail, too?" He offered a grin. Seng didn't grin back.
"This is very important to my people, Colonel. We take it very seriously." His stare got a little more intense on the "very seriously" part, and then he strolled off.
"Friendly sort," Sheppard muttered. He wandered over to see what the scientists were doing.
McKay and Zelenka were arguing over some minor point of the power feedback protocols. There was a hard edge to their raised voices that Sheppard couldn't remember hearing from their arguments before. Deciding that he didn't want to get involved, he went to the viewport that looked into the generator chamber.
It was incredibly different than the last time he'd seen it. Rather than sitting alone in an empty room, the core module had been wrapped in a series of what looked to Sheppard like alternator armatures. There were other things too -- protrusions where there had been only smooth walls, fat bundles of wires running to the armatures, and more.
He drifted off to prop up a wall and stay out of the way. Elizabeth was feigning polite interest in the various displays that Larissa seemed eager to show her. Every once in a while, the Dorandan scientist glanced in Sheppard's direction. One time, their eyes met and he offered her a smile. She smiled back, a bit too quick and bright, and then looked away.
Maybe she thinks you're attractive, he thought hopefully.
Boredom began to set in. He scratched surreptitiously at his healing forearm. Carson said the mark from Ellia's attack would fade in time, and it did seem to be slowly going away, but it still itched like a mother.
His fingers paused in mid-scratch as a very unpleasant thought occurred to him. Was it possible that enough of the Iratus alterations remained for his DNA to show up on Larissa's scanner as Wraith?
Ridiculous, he told himself, utterly ridiculous. For one thing, she would surely have said something if she got an anomalous reading ... wouldn't she? He couldn't imagine that she would allow a suspected spy to hang around during the testing of an extremely powerful weapon.
On the other hand, he asked himself what he would do if someone came to visit Atlantis and their scans turned up something weird and suspicious about their genetic makeup. It was possible that they'd just lock up the person or send them back through the gate. But ... it was also possible that they'd do nothing and simply allow the person to go about their daily business -- with a guard quietly tailing them.
He threw a glance at Seng and saw that the man's intense gray eyes were fixed on him.
Ridiculous. Carson had assured him that his DNA was ... what had he said? Mostly normal.
How normal was "mostly"?
And how sensitive were the Dorandans' scanners?
"Okay, people!" McKay announced to the room. "All lights are green. We're going to start bringing up the power, very slowly. You all know where you're supposed to be. On my mark ... three, two, one ... mark."
A deep, low thrumming began. Sheppard could feel it through the soles of his feet. He hadn't been there when Collins had died, but he still felt his body tensing. He'd read the report from Lorne's team. He knew how fast it had changed on them.
"Five percent power and holding steady," McKay reported. "Containment field is holding. All lights are green."
Zelenka looked up from his boards. "No radiation. The bridge is working."
"Power up to ten percent."
The thrumming increased. Sheppard could feel it in his teeth now.
"Ten percent and ... containment holding steady."
Several people in the room let out sighs of relief. Sheppard's eyes flicked to Larissa and he saw that she was staring at the ruddy glow visible through the containment chamber's small viewport, her eyes wide and excited. Captain Seng was doing the same. His sense of unease flickered again.
"-- weapon, Colonel?"
Sheppard realized that McKay was talking to him. "What?"
The scientist rolled his eyes and sighed. "I said, we need someone with the gene to do a test shot with the weapon. Care to blow something up?"
He couldn't help himself; a little-kid grin slipped out at the whole idea -- I get to fire a big space gun! -- and for just an instant, the corners of Rodney's mouth quirked up too. Then the grin vanished, as if McKay had remembered where he was and who he was with.
It had been so easy once, that back-and-forth between them.
The sense of fun had evaporated. Sheppard stepped up to the console that McKay indicated. It was simple to use, just like the targeting system in the jumpers. "What do you want me to shoot at?"
McKay sighed impatiently. "It doesn't matter. Any piece of debris will do."
He chose a derelict Wraith dart, and told the weapon, Destroy that thing.
It did.
The screens showed him a simultaneous simulation of the blue beam streaking up from the gun atop the facility, and the target evaporating into the darkness of space. "Wow," he whispered. "Cool."
McKay was silent for a moment, staring over his shoulder at the display, which now showed one less blip. Then he spun on Zelenka. "Well? Anything?"
"Not even a single dip in power. Containment field holding." The Czech scientist looked up, and a grin broke across his face. "I think we've done it."
There was a moment of stunned silence, and then jubilation broke out across the room. Larissa flung her arms around Rodney and squeezed him, to his obvious embarrassment and dismay. All around the room, people were laughing and shaking hands. Something struck Sheppard as odd about the scene, but it took him a moment to place it. For just that one moment, there was a total lack of boundaries between military and civilian. There was an excited female scientist hugging Lorne, and next to them, one of Lorne's team shaking hands with another of the scientists. Around the room, the scene was repeated. Then people slowly began to come back to themselves, to remember their places, to retreat to their own kind.
We really have lost a lot, haven't we? Sheppard thought in amazement.
Elizabeth beckoned him from across the room. When he was close enough, she said, "Sorry to cut out on you, but it looks as if everything's running smoothly and I have a massive stack of reports with my name on them back at home. Rodney's so excited right now that I don't think he'd notice if I took a swan dive from the top of the building."
Sheppard shrugged. "Now that the big moment is over, I doubt if there's much to see here for us non-science types."
"Are you coming back also?"
He'd been planning on it. He was just going to come for the button-pushing, and then head back to Atlantis, leaving Lorne's team for security. But unease continued to nag at him. He didn't want to leave while the Dorandans were still in the facility.
"Nah, I think I'll stick around for a little while. You might want to get back to your paperwork, but I make a habit of avoiding mine."
She smiled. "Not lately, thank God. I'm actually very impressed, John; you've had every single report and requisition in on time lately, and with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, too."
"Hey, yet another reason for some downtime. I've earned it."
Elizabeth looked around at the gray walls. "Well, if you want to take your vacation time here ... who am I to stop you. See you back on Atlantis."
She left with Bradbury's team and, as it turned out, most of the extraneous scientists. Soon the only people left in the facility were McKay, Zelenka, Lorne's team, and Sheppard. And, of course, the Dorandans.
"Skeleton crew?" Sheppard inquired, wandering over to McKay.
Handwave. "It's not as if there's anything to do here; we're just running along at ten percent power. Right now, I need people back on Atlantis, crunching numbers. We collected a huge amount of data during the initial firing-up and that test shot, and I need those analyzed yesterday to make sure everything is running as smoothly as it looks and that we're not, oh, tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time, or something."
"Is that possible?"
McKay just gave him the "are you an idiot?" look, and went back to studying his readouts. Sheppard looked around for the Dorandans. Larissa was looking over some printouts with Zelenka. Captain Seng had vanished.
Sheppard moseyed over to Lorne.
"Hey, Major."
"Hey, sir."
"You didn't happen to see where Seng went, did you?"
"No, sir. Sorry." Lorne straightened, and his hand slipped down to his P90. "Is there a problem?"
"I really, really hope not, but I'd kinda like to know where he went, if you catch my drift."
"Can't blame you for that, sir. Any specific orders?"
"Not really, no ... just take your men and poke around outside a little bit. I'd be particularly interested to know if we have any other company hiding anywhere. We've scanned for lifesigns, but I hear they can conceal theirs."
Lorne's mouth twisted. "You hear right, sir."
"Be careful, Major, and check in frequently."
"Yes, sir."
Lorne's team left, and Sheppard went to check on the scientists again. "Everything still good?"
"Are you planning to ask every five minutes?" McKay demanded.
"You'll have to excuse me if the words 'hole in the fabric of space-time' make me a bit nervous, Rodney."
McKay drew his head back and glared.
"So," Zelenka interrupted nervously. "Anyone up for some food?"
The four of them sat in a circle on the floor and shared MREs. Larissa nudged at her food curiously, and then dug into without a complaint. She was, Sheppard couldn't help noticing, sitting as far away from him as she could get without being conspicuous about it.
She'd definitely seen something she didn't like on her scanner.
He saw that Rodney was looking at her, also, with a speculative sort of expression. And Sheppard had opened his mouth to say something, when one of the consoles began to beep.
The four of them were on their feet in an instant, scattering the remains of their meal. McKay, Zelenka and Larissa all clustered around the offending console, staring at the displays.
McKay pointed at something. "Well, that's--"
"Highly anomalous," Zelenka finished.
"What is?" Sheppard demanded. "If we're about to blow up, I'd really like to know."
McKay gave him an exasperated look. "We're not about to blow up. At least ... I don't think so."
"You wouldn't believe how much less than comforting that is, Rodney."
Once again, Zelenka spoke quickly in an attempt to head off an argument in the making. "We are simply seeing some odd readings. The energy in the containment field spiked, and it should not have done that."
Sheppard looked back and forth between them. They didn't appear as alarmed as he thought they ought to be if the universe was about to collapse. "Is this the sort of spike that happens right before we all die?"
"I certainly hope not," Rodney said, and then was interrupted by a loud gasp from Larissa.
She was pointing across the room with one hand over her mouth.
They all looked.
Over by the wall where Lorne's team had been standing earlier, there was a -- darkness. Sheppard could think of no other way to describe it. It reminded him vaguely of the energy creature that they'd unwittingly freed on Atlantis: a shadow with nothing to cast it, a scrap of night set loose in the daytime.
"Rodney," Sheppard said in a low voice, "what the hell is that?"
McKay was staring wildly at his readouts. His voice rose and cracked with terror. "It's something that shouldn't exist!"
"Like, say -- a hole in the fabric of fucking space-time?"
"Mmmaybe?" McKay offered in a tiny voice. Larissa made a small, terrified squeaking sound.
Then there was a ... shudder. Sheppard couldn't explain it any other way. Things shivered around them, through them. And the darkness changed, so rapidly he couldn't follow it with his eyes -- it collapsed in on itself, coalesced and was gone.
Leaving someone standing in the room.
Sheppard's eyes told him what his brain couldn't quite accept. The person standing across the room from them, swaying and staring at them with wild blue eyes, was Rodney McKay -- a terrified-looking Rodney McKay, wearing something which was most definitely not an Atlantis scientist's uniform.
He stood for a moment, swaying, staring, his mouth open as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite find the words. Then he managed to say, "Oh, I -- you -- oh no, not again ..." right before he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
For a moment, nobody moved. Zelenka was, surprisingly, the first to start reacting again: he ran across the floor and knelt beside the man who looked so much like McKay, and reached out a nervous hand to nudge at his shoulder. "Rodney?" he asked shakily.
This seemed to snap Rodney -- the real Rodney -- out of his paralysis. "Clearly he's not me. I'm me. Standing right here. He's someone else."
"About that fabric of space-time thing, McKay ..."
Rodney pressed his hands against his temples. "Please don't say alternate universe. Don't say it. Please."
"Is such a thing even possible?" Larissa asked.
"As it happens, yes, yes it is. The SGC has ended up with alternate versions of themselves on multiple occasions." McKay heaved a sigh, and took one final nervous look at the board full of displays, all of which were reading comfortably green once again. "I'm telling you, we'd better not end up with a doppelganger of me every time we fire up this thing, that's all I have to say ..."
His voice cracked, but just a trifle. Considering the circumstances, Sheppard thought that they all were doing a remarkable job of staying calm. His own fingers twitched on his P90.
The three of them crossed the room and stood over the unconscious alt-Rodney. There was no doubt about it: definitely McKay, or at least, a McKay. Zelenka had slipped out of his jacket and wadded it up under alt-Rodney's head.
"His pulse is strong," Zelenka said. "I do not know why he fainted. Shock from his journey, perhaps, from wherever he has come."
"Passed out," McKay murmured stiffly. "Not fainted."
Larissa knelt down beside the unconscious man. "He does look like you. That is very, very strange." She plucked very lightly at the alt-Rodney's sleeve. "This is not the color that your scientists wear, though."
McKay crouched cautiously, his curiosity overcoming his obvious wariness. He glanced down at his own, science-yellow uniform. The other Rodney was wearing command blue, Elizabeth's color. "Maybe in his Atlantis, he's in charge of the expedition."
Sheppard's lips twitched in spite of himself. A sarcastic comment hovered on his tongue, but he bit it back, and the smile faded. This wasn't a time for jokes. "We oughta have Carson take a look at him. Think we should take him back, or bring Carson here?"
McKay spun on him, his eyes wide and startled. "You want to take him to Atlantis?"
"Why not?"
"Colonel! We haven't got a clue who or what he is! He could have diseases! He could explode!"
Sheppard sighed. "Elizabeth can make that decision. We at least need to let her know what's going on. Go use the DHD in one of the jumpers to dial the gate and call her."
"What, me?"
"Does everything have to be a goddamn fight with you, McKay?"
Rodney frowned at him. Sheppard wondered if it was just his imagination that McKay looked as tired as he, himself, felt. The past few months had been hellish on all of them, and things just didn't seem to be getting any easier.
Before McKay could respond, their radios crackled.
"Dr. McKay, Dr. Zelenka, this is Lorne. Is Colonel Sheppard in there with you?"
They all looked at each other, and Sheppard touched his radio. "This is Sheppard. I'm here. Why?"
There was a brief pause before Lorne answered. "Because you're out here too, sir. Only ... you're dead."
----
TBC