Five minutes later, Rodney and Elizabeth hurried into the room. "What just happened here?" asked Elizabeth. Throughout the week, there had been minor problems with the new discoveries, but nothing this extreme.
Zelenka put his hands up in defense. "I told him that the machine wouldn't be ready to use for months."
"What exactly does this thing do?" she asked, studying the consoles suspiciously. She really did not need to have her second in command mysteriously vanish. Rubbing her forehead, she sighed. A headache was definitely starting.
"From the information we have gathered it's some kind of device that will allow a person to become three times as strong," Radek answered.
Elizabeth looked confused. "Why would the Ancients want something like that? It hardly seems like that would be something they would be interested in."
"It was probably another miserably failed attempt for the Ancients to defeat the Wraith," said Rodney sarcastically.
Radek nodded. "That's what we were thinking --" He was interrupted by the machine humming loudly.
Rodney tapped his tablet. "We're getting that same energy spike again."
The three circles lit up for several seconds and then turned off abruptly. John looked from his position and winced. It couldn't be good if Rodney and Elizabeth were there. Based on the look of shock on their face, whatever happened had to have been horrible.
"So, what did I miss?" he asked, thinking the best thing he could do is act normal. That was odd, he thought, his voice didn't sound the same; maybe it was due to his increased strength.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed motion on the platform. When he turned to look to see what it was, he did a double take. There were two other John Sheppards on the platform. Each of them were shooting an amazed look at one another.
"I guess the machine didn't work the way it was suppose to," said three John Sheppards at the same time.
Elizabeth shot a look to Rodney.
"I have no idea what happened. Maybe if I was down here instead of Tweedledum over there, we wouldn't be in this mess," Rodney complained.
Just as Radek opened his mouth, one of the Johns hopped down and stepped in front of Rodney. "Listen, McKay, he didn't know what I was doing so just lay off, k?" He turned to Elizabeth and smiled sheepishly. "You know what they say about boys and their toys."
She closed her eyes and counted to ten. There was no reason to yell at him; the damage had been done. "Rodney, you and Radek work on a way of fixing this. John…all of you, come with me."
The one from the middle stepped down. "Where are we going?"
"To see Carson. We need to make sure you are all really John Sheppard," said Weir in a tone that left no room for argument.
The three men nodded simultaneously. It made everyone in the room a little dizzy. The last John jumped off the platform. He walked to the Sheppard closest to Elizabeth. "You know, I have to say that I am definitely one good looking man," he commented, making his way down the corridor.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrow. "I have a feeling this is going to be a very interesting ordeal."
Glances bombarded them as they made their way to the infirmary. No one had the courage to approach the four of them to ask what had happened.
Just as they were about to load into the transporter, they heard Teyla's voice. "Colonel?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.
Elizabeth forced a smile. "It seems that the Colonel just couldn't keep his hands off a new machine Dr. Zelenka found."
"Hey, I didn't touch anything!" came the answer from all three men simultaneously.
Teyla's eyebrow went up. "Really?"
One of the three stepped a little closer to her. "It wasn't my fault."
"Then how did this happen, Colonel?" she asked with a slight tease in her voice.
"Come on," another Sheppard called. "The sooner we see Carson, the quicker we can get this figured out."
John nodded to Teyla. "Come on, you can keep us company."
The other Sheppard leaned to Elizabeth. "Not that your pissed off look isn't pleasant or anything."
Teyla looked at Weir who nodded. "All right," she said slowly.
John smiled and led her into the transporter with his hand on her back. When she looked at him questioningly, he said, "Just trying to be a gentleman."
When the five of them walked into the infirmary, Carson's jaw dropped. "Should I even ask what happened?"
"No," Elizabeth answered as each of the Sheppards took a seat on a bed. "We need to make sure all of these men are really John Sheppard as soon as possible. Run whatever tests you need to."
The Scot nodded. "Aye, it will take a wee bit of time, I'm afraid."
"All right. I'll post some Marines here," she said.
Sheppard jumped up. "There's no need for that!"
"Yes, there is," one of his counterparts answered. "We don't know what happened to us. No reason to not play it safe."
Grudgingly, he sat down. Carson stood in front of him. "I'll get these tests done as soon as I can, I promise." He turned to Elizabeth. "We may want to have Dr. Heightmeyer up here. She can run some psychological tests, if necessary."
Weir nodded. "Sounds good. How long do you need, Carson?"
"A couple of hours at least," he answered.
"Ok, I'll send Kate and the marines up here. I'm going to go down and see if Rodney's been able to figure anything out." She looked at each of the colonels. "Don't make his job any harder."
"I will make sure that the colonels are on their best behavior," Teyla assured her.
"Thank you," she said as she left the infirmary.