Thanks for all the review people, now here is the next chapter.

Chapter 3

"Have you found anything yet?" asked Ronon gruffly. He wasn't one to worry, but Sheppard was his friend, it had been Sheppard who had allowed Ronon to have the luxury of friends, since he wasn't a runner anymore.

"No, and will everyone stop asking, I will let you all know when I have" McKay bit back. He was also worried but an angry Ronon wasn't a good thing, he thought that Ronon already knew that he was blaming himself, well technically it had been his fault, maybe, Ronon thought this as well McKay thought dejectedly.

"It will not help to get angry at each other" Teyla spoke calmly, ever the voice of reason. Ronon looked at her and shrugged, McKay went back to studying his tablet. He couldn't see any sign of Sheppard's jumper; it wasn't where it was meant to be. They had been looking for 4 hours, not a sign of him, he hadn't passed them on the way so where was he. McKay increased the power to the sensors.

"I think I have something" McKay practically shouted. Both Teyla and Ronon looked up, hope shining in Teyla's eyes, Ronon's held determination to find his friend.

"What is it?" asked Teyla.

"Well it's the signal from the jumper…" he stopped as he read the tablet; a crestfallen look crossed his face.

"McKay!" Ronon didn't like the look worn by the scientist. McKay jumped at the sound of his name, he didn't want to tell them but he had to.

"Erm…well…it seems that his jumper is almost out of power and we're two hours away, I have no idea how long the power is going to last-" he stuttered.

"Don't count him out yet McKay" Ronon stated matter-of-factly. Ronon's tone put an end to further conversations of the defeatist attitude type.

"Right... I'll…I'll try him on the radio maybe, he can tell us what is going on" McKay went about adjusting controls within the ship and called to Sheppard. After waiting for a few minutes and getting no response he stated to panic, he was about to speak when he caught a glare from Ronon, Teyla sensing trouble spoke.

"Maybe, he is just out of range" though silently she knew that there was something wrong if John couldn't answer the radio. Maybe it had broken, or maybe he was seriously injured. She didn't show her worry, knowing that it would only make McKay panic more.

"Yeah, maybe" came McKay's soft reply barely audible. He deflated at the thought that because he hadn't double checked the jumper before Sheppard went out, that he may have lost one of his good friends.

x-X-x

Sheppard drifted back to consciousness, hoping he had been rescued already. No such luck, he wondered if his friends had started to look for him yet. He had missed he scheduled radio checks, a few of them to be precise. He could only hope that they had sent someone when he had missed the first, but if that were true then they would have found him by now. Unless, he cursed at the thought that he had gone off course, he looked outwards to the stars. Hang on the planet he was surveying had been a little blob when he had first had trouble with the jumper, where was it now? He thought gloomily, he must have drifted.

He fumbled around the dim lighted jumper, looking for the table he had held before he fell unconscious, as he stretched to reach it the pain in his side returned with full force. He grabbed his side in effort to stop the pain, after a few deep breaths he was able to force the pain down to a manageable level. He opened his eyes to look at the wound causing the most trouble. Damn he thought, one of the control crystals were imbedded just under his ribs on his right side, knowing that he shouldn't remove it he left it until Carson could fix him. For the moment he needed to concentrate on getting the jumper working again, or at least the communications working.

He moved to get up, he needed to get the co-pilot control to asses the damage and fix it. The movement was stopped by his knees collapsing underneath him, he landed awkwardly back in his seat, he fought the urge to cry out at the crystal imbedded its self deeper into him, his breathing became laboured as he fought down the nausea building up. He wasn't going to be sick inside a enclosed space. He regain he equilibrium and continued with the task at hand, this time he swayed dangerously but remained upright.

Upon reached the co-pilot's seat he rested for a moment, not wanting to admit that it had taken all his energy to get there, knowing he would need to get back to the pilots seat to retrieve the table he had left, stupid John, you shouda taken it with you he thought. That is when he realised how cold it actually was, he wrapped his arms around himself in attempt to fight it off but it didn't help. Using his arms only caused more pain, they had been cut up pretty badly when the console had blown up, they had a few small and few bigger pieces in them, around some of the larger pieces, crimson blood trickled slowly out and on to his uniform and the floor on the jumper. McKay was going to killed him for messing up another jumper, he chuckled at the thought then stopped as the shard of crystal moved and sent fiery pain signals up and down his nerve endings. He needed help now, he needed get to work.

An hour later…

Sheppard had been tinkering for the better part of an hour and had finally made some progress, it had been slow progress though, his mind kept on drifting, his vision greying if he so much as move an awkward way. He was feeling weaker and weaker by the second, his fingers had become numb from the cold, it had seeped into his every fibre, causing him to shiver. He had the feeling that he was in shock but couldn't worry about that now he needed to let someone know that he was still alive and still waiting to be found. He believed that he had gotten the communications back up, now, all he needed do is get back to the tablet in the pilot's chair.

The second journey across the width of the ship was more painful than the first, he stumbled, jarring his body, sending waves of pain rushing through him, the chair looked so far away, he stumbled some more and managed to deposit himself on the sturdy chair, he couldn't help the strangled cry that escaped his mouth. He really needed help now. He forced himself to remain conscious for the few minutes it would take to call for help. He looked at the tablet he had grabbed before resting and saw that the communications were back up, he silently cheered. He also saw that he had about 50 minutes worth of power left, was anyone close enough to help him? He pressed the button for the radio.

"This is Lt Col. Sheppard is anyone out there" with his call for help sent he drifted to sleep for a few minutes, he would try again when he was a little more alert.

Little did he know that his friends had been monitoring the radio and had heard the message, they would get there in an hour, but was it enough time?

TBC

So now we have got back to the start of the story sort of, this is the scene before, maybe now the actual rescue can start. Please read and review.