Life in Binary

by Athaeth

The chance to go to another galaxy is just too tempting for the Wizard Saviour. At least he can't say his life is dull. Not when he is living on a mythical flying city and being chased by life-sucking aliens. Just another day in the life of Harry.No slash

4. Chapter 4

Harry woke up in darkness. He blinked a few times to clear his bleary eyes and allowed them to adjust to the dim light available to him. He was confused for only a few moments and tried to work out why he had woken up in the first place when a quiet beeping caught his attention.

Looking around in the minimal light available, Harry's eye was caught by a flashing on his laptop screen to accompany the annoying sound. Harry had set an alarm the night before so he would wake up in time to meet his friends for their scheduled run. Harry stumbled off the sofa he had been sleeping on and shut down the persistent reminder. Once the irritating noise had gone, he stretched his muscles to get rid of any cramps. Harry had to admit that he was pleasantly surprised – the sofa had actually been quite comfortable, despite its appearance.

A few minutes later and Harry's computers were running a quick diagnostic in preparation for Harry's work later that day and he was wearing his trainers, jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. Harry ran a hand through his hair to try and make it presentable, but gave up when he realised that it never had and never would behave.

"Hey." Nate's soft voice sounded behind him as Harry made his way through the nearly empty corridors to the balcony that they had all agreed to meet on to start their morning run. Nate was rubbing sleep from his eyes and grinning at Harry's hair.

"Oh shut up." Harry grumbled as Nate opened his mouth to make some kind of witty comment, like he had many times on Earth. Harry saw Daniel and Zack were already waiting for them on the balcony as they approached and raised his hand in greeting.

"Hey." Zack nodded his greeting. "How was your nice sofa last night?"

Harry gave a small smirk and began to warm up and stretch. "It was nice and comfy thanks. How was the barracks?"

Daniel scowled and looked over at Nate. "It was like sleeping next to a lawn mower. I swear, not one of us managed to sleep thanks to Nate. I seriously hope that the rooms are sound proof or that I'm as far from your room as possible." They all snickered as Nate glared daggers at Daniel and protested that it wasn't his fault and he couldn't do anything about it.

Harry finished up his warm up and began to slowly jog off the balcony and down the empty corridors. He heard the others stop arguing and follow him through the winding and elegant corridors. Harry had a chance to look around the currently explored area of the magnificent city and couldn't help but be impressed. Harry may have seen some of the most beautiful buildings that the magical world had to offer, but this was completely different. The entire design was literally so alien compared to everything he had ever seen and it ensured that he would never forget that he was in an entirely new galaxy in an advanced city.

The longer they jogged the more they woke up and the busier the corridors also became as people began to wake up and go about their daily tasks and business. Harry looked back at his companions and saw Daniel gesturing towards the corridor leading to the canteen. Harry nodded and veered off to the side. He slowed his pace and soon found himself in the canteen. Glancing at his watch, Harry saw that he didn't have too long left before his meeting with Weir.

"I'm just gonna grab a drink and something to eat, then I have to go shower and change for my meeting."

Zack was also glancing at his watch. "Yeah, I've got patrol in a bit."

Nate had slipped away whilst they were talking and had grabbed a tray of fruit, energy bars and bottles of water. "Here you go."

Harry grabbed a bottle of water, an apple and a strawberry energy bar. "Do you mind if we head towards my lab? I've really got to shower and change soon or I'm going to be late." Harry smiled as they nodded and swiftly left the canteen. His lab wasn't that far away, but they had to duck around lots of Atlantis personnel and Athosians as the crowds all made their way towards breakfast.

Harry had finished his food by the time they got back to his lab and was just polishing off his water as he entered the access code to his lab on the panel. He quickly glanced around as saw that his system had finished the diagnostics and was ready for him to use. He disconnected his tablet and shoved it into his trusty backpack. Ignoring his companions for the time being, Harry quickly folded his blanket and shoved it and his pillow into a handy cupboard that he had found in the wall last night. He rifled through his military issue trunk and pulled out his clothing for the day and a towel and headed towards the bathroom, telling the others to make themselves at home.

Following what was possibly both the best and quickest shower of his life, Harry quickly changed and exited the bathroom. Harry saw that Zack and Nate were lounging on his couch. Glancing around, Harry scowled when he saw that Daniel was playing around with one of his laptops.

"Sorry." Daniel pulled his hands back as though he had been burnt, a sheepish grin on his face. "I just wanted to see what it is you do. But it is all way above my intelligence level."

Harry rolled his eyes, tucking his running clothes into his trunk. "Please, you marines like us all to think you are stupid. But I know better – the best the world has to offer has been sent here, so I know you are all smarter than your average soldier. You can't trick me." Harry grinned.

"Yeah, well." Daniel rubbed his neck in mild embarrassment. It was one of the reasons that Harry liked this group of marines – they were modest about their talents and there wasn't an ounce of arrogance in them. It was refreshing for Harry to be around when he had been fighting against the most self-worshipping and arrogant enemy in the history of the magical community. Which was saying something considering that most wizards Harry had met were at least bordering on self-indulgent conceit. Daniel cleared his throat. "Can we use your shower? It would be quicker than waiting for any of the others and we won't be assigned rooms until later today."

Harry grabbed his backpack and threw it over his shoulder. "Sure, as long as you don't play with my equipment again. You guys can work out among yourselves who gets to go first. I'll see you all in the sparring room after dinner."

Harry left the room when they nodded in confirmation and smiled as he heard them argue about who should get to shower first and then finally resort to rock paper scissors. Harry was still softly smiling as he got to Weir's office in the control room. Due to the War, it had been so long since Harry had made any new friends. It was difficult at first for him to form any kind of connections with people. Harry had distanced himself easily from others, the etiquette that had been ingrained helping immensely. But now that the War was over and Harry was in a whole new galaxy, he felt it was time to move on. It would take time, but Harry felt he was starting a new life here.

"Good morning, Elizabeth." Harry entered the office and sat in the empty chair in front of the desk. He pulled his tablet out of his backpack and shoved the bag under his chair.

"Good morning Harry." Weir smiled at Harry and took a sip of her coffee. "I saw you earlier this morning, jogging with some of the marines."

Harry glanced up, a neutral expression on his face. It was a harmless comment, but Harry had learnt to read people well and could see that behind the innocent comment that Elizabeth was fishing for information. Harry knew that she only wanted what was best for him and everyone on the expedition, but it was difficult to give any personal information freely for him.

Harry took a breath and answered, deciding that he had to try to be more open about neutral and harmless things. It wasn't as though he was revealing the existence of his people to her. Harry was finding it difficult to keep his magic use to a bare minimum whilst on Atlantis – he was a being of magic and to not use it felt like not using his hands sometimes. However, it was paramount that the secret of his peoples' existence be kept, unless he had permission to reveal it from an international committee.

"Yes, I run and exercise with them. We met in Antarctica and had a schedule there that we are trying to maintain here."

Weir nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "That's good. I know it is early to be thinking about this, but whilst on Earth we established strict guidelines. All civilian scientists were required to pass a physical evaluation test, but that is not enough to be allowed offworld. I know Major Sheppard is planning some evaluations and training sessions for all the scientists. I guess that passing those won't be a problem for you."

Harry shook his head. "I think it will be a long time before I get offworld. I may not have any problems passing the evaluations, but it is going to take us a while to get settled in here. Even then it will be mostly stuff brought back through the gate that I will be studying."

"Don't count on it going like that. Trust me; it never goes as you planned out here in the universe." Weir took another sip of her coffee. "So, how is everything going? Are we close to being set up yet?"

Harry rested his tablet on the edge of the desk and flipped through a few different files and programmes. "I've almost got all the computers networked. I'm just waiting for a few of the labs to be completely set up and then a few of the marines to come to me to get their laptops set up. But mostly, we are all connected. I've got my lab set up and everything ready to go."

"You move fast." Weir commented, slightly surprised.

Harry pulled up another programme as he answered. "Yeah, well, it's what I'm here to do after all. And I've not exactly had much else to do anyway – we are in another galaxy." Harry finally opened the right programme. "And whilst I had some time last night before I went to bed, I've wrote a quick programme to help Peter with the personal quarters allocation. I've already sent it to his laptop. All he needs to do is enter the Athosians as groups that want to be roomed together and then select the rooms that have been cleared and authorised. All the Atlantis personnel have already been entered. Once he has entered all the rooms to be used and the groups, the programme will randomly assign the rooms based on their size and the size of the group. So, the biggest group sharing rooms will get assigned the biggest room available."

Weir just blinked, shocked for a moment. "That's really useful. I know Peter was worried about making sure everyone got a room allocated and that everyone would be fairly allocated enough space. I'm sure he will be very grateful to you."

Harry shifted in his seat. "I'm glad that I could help. Unless you need anything else, I'll leave you to your meeting with Peter and get to work in the control room." Harry saw Elizabeth nod and rose from his seat, snagging his bag in his hand on the way up. Elizabeth stood also and left her room through the other door.

---

Harry smiled at Radek as he handed Harry a steel mug of tea from the tray he was carrying, glad that the Czech scientist had remembered that Harry hated coffee. Harry took a sip of the scalding brew and took a moment to savour it. He had been working for a few hours now and was glad of the minor reprieve. Ancient code was scrolling rapidly across the screen of his tablet.

Clutching his mug tightly so he didn't spill any hot tea onto his tablet or the laptop mounted on the console in front of him, he rubbed his eyes with his other hand and focussed once again on his task. They had spent the better part of the last few hours setting up the security on their own system and making sure that they were integrated with the ancient systems and were giving out the right readings. They were running into a few issues and were slowly managing to resolve them.

Taking a break before he started to work through another layer of ancient coding, Harry looked around at all the others working diligently in the control room and frowned. He saw Radek glower at his laptop and conversing rapidly with the scientist next to him, gesturing to his laptop and the ancient console screen in turn. Marines were moving back and forth throughout the gateroom and control room. Harry couldn't see their snarky Canadian department head though.

Harry shook his head and was about to continue with his ancient coding, when he saw the illusive physicist in question bounding up the stairs from the gateroom with the Airforce Major, and the now military commanding officer on Atlantis, John Sheppard. Harry smirked at the childlike glee on both men's faces and went back to work. Harry would have thought it impossible for such a super-intelligent and grumpy man to regress in age and get so excited, but he had seen Rodney when he got his hands on some new and fascinating piece of technology. It was like he was a twelve year old boy again.

Harry was just immersing himself in his work once again, when he heard McKay's excited voice and a loud crashing. He looked up and saw that Rodney was lying on the floor of the gateroom, having gone over the balcony, and Sheppard was looking over the railing with a wide smirk. Harry stood up in shock, all thoughts of work forced out of his brain. He dashed to out of the control room and bounded down the stairs two at a time and gracefully skidded to a holt just as Rodney was picking himself up and Elizabeth came rushing over, Peter close by her side.

"I'm fine!" Rodney was grinning like a big kid on Christmas morning. He saw Elizabeth's expression and was quick to explain himself. "Look, Beckett's gene therapy worked. I was able to activate this. It's a, um, personal shield: acts like a protective skin. And it must have inertial dampening properties because I didn't feel a thing!"

Rodney gestured wildly behind him at the high balcony and his grin got wider. Harry was busy inspecting the glowing device stuck to Rodney's chest. Shields were nothing new to Harry. The magical shield that Harry could create perfectly after years of it being a life-saving essential when on the frontline of a war absorbed all forms of energy thrown at it, including kinetic energy. Harry wondered if the personal shield created by the device worn by Rodney only stopped a limited amount or only some forms of energy. Magical shields were only limited by how talented the wizard creating it was.

"Watch this." Rodney's eager voice broke into Harry's contemplation. Rodney looked directly at Peter. "Hit me."

Before Harry could even utter a warning in how much of a stupid idea it would be, Peter aimed and threw his fist towards Rodney's face without any kind of hesitation. A green force shield appeared and flared before Peter's fist could connect. With a cry of pain, Peter pulled his fist back and cradled it to his chest, glaring at the Athosian children laughing nearby.

Rodney threw a dark look at the British tech still holding his hand close. "You didn't have to swing so hard," Rodney's voice had a superior edge. "And notice he didn't even hesitate."

Harry rolled his eyes and saw Elizabeth doing the same, but more subtly. Her voice was incredulous. "I'm still trying to work how you think it was a good idea to test this device by having someone throw you off a balcony."

McKay grinned widely and gestured to Sheppard. "Oh, that isn't the first thing we tried."

Sheppard shot him a look, a gleeful grin plastered across his features. "I shot him." Sheppard must have seen the looks he was receiving because his smirk faded slightly. "In the leg!" His voice was defensive.

Harry took a step closer to the Canadian, ignoring his crowing and arguing with Elizabeth about he was invulnerable and how she was just jealous. The device was still glowing a steady green, but the circuitry was all inside, so Harry couldn't deduce how it worked. Being able to stop a bullet was useful. Being a wizard, Harry could create a powerful shield that he knew could stop a whole barrage of bullet. The real problem was having fast enough reactions and instincts to get the shield fully formed before the bullets hit.

Harry was still studying the device, when a hand passed in front of his vision and tried to grab the device. He zoned back into the conversation and saw that both Rodney and Sheppard were trying to remove the device but couldn't. Harry wasn't sure why at least Rodney couldn't reach the device to take it off. He wasn't about to get too worried about it though. If anyone could solve the problem, it would be the genius Canadian. Harry may have only been working with him for a short time, but it was enough to convince him that he had never met anyone more intelligent (or snarky) than Rodney. Sometimes, when Rodney was buried in his work, Harry suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia and sadness. He reminded Harry so much of Hermione, especially when he got a glint in his eye after discovering some important or interesting fact.

Harry missed Hermione so much. He missed all his friends that he lost during the War. But being in the lost city of Atlantis in a whole other galaxy made Harry think about his surrogate sister. Hermione would have loved being here, learning new things and being surrounded by people who were just like her. People with a passion for learning new and wonderful things that changed the way they would look at life forever. It was Hermione that Harry thanked in his mind for bringing him here. If not for her gift of that first laptop, Harry would never have discovered his talent and been invited on this expedition.

Hermione had been with Harry right until the end. The final battle, in all its clichéd glory, had been when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts personally. He normally sent his minions to do his violent and bloody bidding. But Hogwarts was the pinnacle of the War, and Voldemort wanted to be victorious himself. But Voldemort had been unprepared for just how organised the Resistance was. Despite the preparation in both sides, many people had died that day. Harry had finally killed Voldemort, and then he went in search of his friends. Those friends that had survived to fight in the final battle had died. There were few survivors that would call a true friend.

Harry pulled his thoughts from the past and concentrated on the present day situation. He smirked as he watched Peter wander down to the infirmary with Rodney trailing after him, complaining loudly the entire way. Harry followed Elizabeth and Sheppard up the stairs to the control room and shared a smirk with Radek as he settled himself back into his seat and went back to the work that he had abandoned after Rodney's swan dive off the balcony.

He had been working for ten minutes when he finally had the interface programme that he was working on bug free and connected to the Ancient systems. He made sure it was all running ok on the laptop and stood up. He grabbed his tablet and tucking it into the crook of his arm so it was secure, turned to Radek.

"I'm done with the interface programme for the power consumption readings. I'm going to head down to the infirmary to see Peter. I didn't get a chance to talk him through the room allocation programme I sent him."

Radek glanced up from the tech's laptop he was peering at, no doubt dealing with a problem the tech had in a much kinder and quieter way than Rodney would have if he had been overseeing the work and nodded. "Yes, go. I have everything in control here. I will radio if I need anything."

Harry trotted down the stairs, bounding two steps at a time. He dodged around the marines, scientists and Athosians as he navigated the corridors and steps down to the infirmary. He smiled slightly and nodded as he saw Zack hurry after a few of the biologists that he had been assigned to help. Zack smiled back, although it was a slight grimace as Harry nodded his head towards the biologists chatting loudly and happily in front of the marine. Harry's grin got wider and Zack glared at him until Harry was around the corner and out of sight.

Harry had just silently entered the infirmary, his face carefully neutral once again, when he saw Rodney pouring coffee down his front. He was about to ask if McKay had finally lost it to be pouring his precious coffee away, when he saw the green shield flaring. No coffee seemed to be breaching the shield and Harry's quick mind immediately saw the issue. Rodney wasn't gulping the coffee like there was no tomorrow because the shield was blocking him from drinking the liquid.

"That's great!" Harry winced at the annoyance and snark in Rodney's tone. Nothing good had ever come from that tone.

"This may be more serious than I suspected." Carson had a guilty look on his face as he gently finished bandaging Peter's hand.

"Why, thank you! I'm hungry already. What am I going to do? If I don't get this stupid thing off, I'll be dead by the end of the day."

"Relax. You can live three or four days without water." Carson's guilty look subsided slightly as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm talking about food!"

"Well, you found some Ancient text with the device. What did it say about taking it off?"

"Oh yeah, there were some explicit instructions which I chose to completely ignore!" Rodney's voice was sarcastic.

Harry chose that moment to step further into the room and make his presence known. He nodded to all three men and stopped by a bed opposite all three of them. Gracefully pulling himself up, he settled onto the bed and gently rested his tablet next to him. He eyed Rodney even as he addressed the others. "I've come to see how Peter is and to discuss the programme I sent to him earlier this morning." Peter lifted his hand up, showing how it was wrapped up and got down from his perch on the bed. Harry looked Rodney up and down again. "And just a thought, but a lot of Ancient tech seems to require some kind of mental control."

"Just shut up. I'm thinking." Rodney closed his eyes tightly and scrunched his face up in concentration. Harry's gaze flicked between Rodney's pinched face and the still dimly lit device. The room was unnaturally silent for a few moments.

Peter was the first to break the silence. He looked at Carson. "Is there any chance that the gene therapy isn't permanent?"

"It's possible." Carson's tone was unconvincing and did nothing to reassure any of them.

"I'm a dead man." Rodney's eyes were still closed and his tone was pathetic.

Harry bounded off the bed and rolled his eyes at the melodramatic physicist. He grabbed his tablet and tucked it under his arm. Rodney opened his eyes when he heard Harry's feet connect with the floor and watched as he made his way towards the door, closely followed by Peter. He stopped at the door and turned to face his department head.

"You have that meeting with Elizabeth and Major Sheppard right now, so I'll see you after that in the control room."

Harry marched out of the infirmary and quickly made his way towards the control room. When they were half way there, he turned to Peter. "Did you receive that programme that I uploaded to your laptop?"

Peter nodded. "Yes. It will be very helpful. Thank you. I was worried about making sure that everyone would be allocated a large enough room with a fair amount of space. Once I have been to this meeting and programmed which rooms have been cleared for use, then I can allocate rooms. I have already entered all the Athosian groups."

Harry shrugged. "That's good. So we should all have rooms by tonight?"

"Yes." By now they had reached the control room and paused by the bustling group of scientists. "The programme will only take a few minutes once I have entered the rooms to be allocated. I will send the listings and maps to everyone's laptop and send a few marines around the Athosians to let them know which rooms they have. You should be in your room in a few hours."

Harry grabbed his backpack from under the console he had been working on earlier and carefully shoved his tablet inside. Zipping it up, he replied to Peter. "I'm looking forward to that. The sofa in my office is nice and comfy, but talk about taking my work home with me – or not leaving work, in fact." Harry swung his bag over his shoulder. "I'm gonna grab something to eat from the mess, and I'll see you back here in a bit after your meeting with Elizabeth about the space allocation."

By the time Harry got down to the mess, the main lunch time crowd had already been through and the kitchen staff had already cleared the tables off. Harry dodged around the tables and chairs that were uniformly arranged in the room and headed towards the tables where the platters of food were waiting so you could serve yourself. He frowned when he saw that he had missed out on most of his preferred foods.

"Hey, Harry."

Harry turned and saw that one of the marines was waving him over. Lieutenant Matt Barlow was one of the kitchen staff on Atlantis and was tasked with keeping both the military and civilian staff happy. It was his, and his kitchen colleagues', duty to make sure the food was rationed properly. And to make sure that any local produce they procured – which they would need to do soon – was used to make creative and satisfying dishes.

Matt came towards where Harry was stood next to a cleared and empty table. He slid a tray onto the table and Harry looked down at it. There was a wrapped sandwich on it (which Harry discovered was tuna upon closer inspection), a steel mug of tea and a chocolate muffin. Harry looked up and saw Matt watching him expectantly.

"I saw that all the vegetarian options were going and I saved you some. And I know how much you Englishmen like your tea. That," Matt's voice held an edge of humour. "and I've seen you with anything that contains sugar."

Harry gave Matt a grin and took a sip of the tea, relishing it. Matt sure knew how to make the perfect brew. Harry had met Matt when he was at the SGC, and then found out that they were both going to Atlantis. The first time they had met, Harry had been trying to find a vegetarian option out of the leftovers from the dinner service hours before. Because the SGC ran on strange hours due to all the offworld travel, there was always at least one member of the kitchen staff around. Harry had been scowling at the options, when Matt had come over and asked if he could help him with anything. Harry had thanked him and told him about being vegetarian, and from that day on Matt had made sure that he saved food for Harry.

"Thanks. I probably would have been stuck with an energy bar or, God forbid, an MRE if you hadn't saved this for me." Harry grabbed the sandwich and quickly devoured half of it, washing it down with his tea. "How is everything going here?"

"Good." Matt sat himself down in a chair and took a drink of his coffee. "That programme that you set us up with before leaving Earth is great. It really helps keep track of supplies as we use or gain them." Matt grabbed a thermos jug full of tea and topped up Harry's mug.

Harry finished off his sandwich and checked his watch. "I've got to go. I've got a meeting in the control room in a few minutes. I'd better get up there." Harry raised his mug of tea in thanks and grabbed his chocolate muffin.

Harry made it back to the control room just as Elizabeth and the rest of the requested staff were starting to assemble. Harry took his seat next to Peter at the laptop next to the main console and balanced his tea as he pulled his tablet out of his bag. Harry pulled up the required programme and nodded to Peter that he could start.

Peter pulled up the self destruct program that had been designed, written and checked more times than Harry could count back on Earth. It was tied into the network, but was one of the most secure programmes on the entire system. It was connected to the naquadah generators so that they would explode once the self-destruct programme reached the end of its countdown.

Harry was finding it difficult to balance his tea, muffin and tablet, so he set his mug down on the flat surface at the back of the console so he didn't accidently knock it over. He put his muffin next to the mug and pulled his tablet closer to himself, so it was balanced against both his lap and the console.

Seeing that everyone who was required was now hovering behind him and Harry, Peter began talking as he entered the correct codes that he had set and memorised earlier. "The self destruct system requires two separate codes. Now each code is unique, and everyone here will be required to memorise their code."

"Well, don't bother giving me one." Peter gave Rodney a dark look and Rodney's expression became sheepish. "Sorry."

Harry rolled his eyes at Rodney's melodramatic antics and, reaching over and grabbing his mug, took a sip of the scalding liquid. Tapping away with just his left hand, Harry pulled up the activation program and gestured to the screen. "Peter and I went over the entire programme with the techs on Earth. We know it inside out and are just waiting to enter your individual codes. You can set them to be whatever you want, as long as you can recite it without thinking about it."

Elizabeth nodded and looked around at everyone gathered together around the console. "As far as we know, this is the only Stargate in the Pegasus galaxy which is capable of dialling Earth, which would make it the last line of defence against the Wraith. If they're going to attack - which we must consider a very real threat - we simply cannot let them gain control of this complex."

"If both codes are properly entered, the naquadah generator will overload. It will take thirty seconds." Peter gestured vaguely to the screen before him.

"You sure it'll do enough damage?" The marine that spoke was young, Harry guessed at no older than his mid-twenties. He had a sceptical look on his face as he raised an eyebrow at the two English men. Harry was about to answer, when Rodney got there first, annoyed that someone was questioning his handpicked department.

"Ever seen a twenty kiloton nuclear explosion?" Rodney's tone was derisive and annoyed. Harry had to hide a smirk, amused when the marine actually looked cowed by the Canadian. Harry had seen many a marine shrinking like a toddler caught with his hand in the cookie jar after a tongue-lashing from one Dr Rodney McKay.

"I have." Harry's gaze flicked towards the new head of the military forces on Atlantis. Harry hadn't actually personally interacted with the Major yet. He didn't exactly have much reason to. But from what he had heard, even the most rigid and staunchest supporters of the late Colonel Sumner couldn't deny that he was a good leader.

Seeing the looks he was receiving, Sheppard shrugged dismissively. "Not up close. Look, I think we should tell Teyla what's going on here."

"At this moment we still don't know if it was one of the Athosians who tipped off your arrival to their planet."

"I trust Teyla."

"So do I. But Teyla trusts her people. If we tell her, she'll want to tell them, and I need more time to get to know them." Elizabeth looked at Sheppard intensely, looking for confirmation that the pilot would do as she was requesting. Harry saw him hesitate for a moment before giving a small nod. Elizabeth seemed to let out a breath that she didn't even seem to notice that she had been holding. "Okay. So, Harry is going to be here and I need you all to enter your code for him."

Harry handed his tablet to Elizabeth with one hand and watched silently as she entered her own code. The tablet gave a small beep to indicate that the code had been accepted and locked in. Elizabeth handed the tablet to next person behind her and wandered off, giving Harry a nod and smile. Harry silently drank his tea, watching as the staff entered their codes one after the other. The tablet was finally passed over to Major Sheppard, who thoughtfully starred at the screen, seeming to try and decide what code he should enter.

Leaving the Major to decide, Harry turned to the British man next to him and found him rising to his feet. Raising an eyebrow in question at him, Harry set down his mug on the flat back of the console.

"The room allocation programme finished earlier – I've already sent all the information to the civilian staff and a couple of marines have already let all the military know where their rooms are. I just need to grab a few marines assigned to help me and let all the Athosians know where we have roomed them."

"Great, I've been looking forward to seeing where everyone will be placed. I'll check my allocation later and then go unpack when I get a chance. See you later." Harry watched at Peter marched away from the control room, his laptop tucked under his arm. His attention was brought back to the attention of the Airforce pilot next to him by a beeping sound and his tablet being waved in his direction.

Harry's face was carefully neutral as he accepted his tablet back, making sure that none of the annoyance he felt at the careless treatment of his equipment shown on his face. But Sheppard must have realised why his face became blank so suddenly and gave a sheepish smile.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to shake it about so much. I'm done entering my code now, thanks."

Harry was saved from having to make any kind of reply to the slightly expectant look on the Major's face by a hand reaching into his peripheral vision. Turning his head, he saw Nate stood behind the console, his hand trying to stealthily grab the muffin perched there. Harry's hand darted out seeker-fast and slapped Nate's grabbing fingers.

"Ow! Jesus Harry, did you have to hit so hard?" Nate pulled his hand back and shook his hand, trying to alleviate the sting. "And how the hell do you move so fast?"

Harry smirked at Nate, who glared back. Harry was just wondering how long it would take the marine to realised his CO was watching them with a smirk on his face, when Nate suddenly straightened up with a serious look on his face.

"Sir!"

"At ease." Sheppard gave a nod to both men and then walked away.

"Thanks for warning me he was right there Harry."

Harry's smirk widened as he reached over and pulled his muffin out of Nate's reach. "It serves you right for being such a cake thief. What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now."

Nate scowled at Harry and crossed his arms over his chest. "You can be so mean sometimes." Seeing that his words were only making Harry's grin become wider, he dropped the annoyed act. "I've come to make sure that you will be coming to train with us tonight. And to see what room you have been allocated."

Harry pulled up the room allocation listing that Peter had sent to his tablet and studied the map that was tagged with a mixture of scientist, marine and Athosian names. He quickly saw that Zack was down the end of the same corridor that his room was on, but Daniel and Nate were only a few rooms apart on the next level down from where his was. He turned his tablet around so that Nate could see the screen.

"I'm near Zack." Harry pointed out his room, allowing Nate to study it for a few more minutes. "And I will be able to meet you all in a couple of hours, after I've unpacked all my stuff in my room. That ok?"

Nate nodded, already turning around to leave. "That's fine. We've all had the last hour to unpack, so we're done. See you in the sparring room next to the gym."

---

Harry set his box of personal belongings on the floor, feeling the door close softly behind him. He had collected the trunk from his lab, which was only a few floors above his room. He was glad that his room wasn't too far away from his personal lab because he knew he was going to be spending a lot of time in his lab once they started exploring other planets and the rest of the city.

Looking around his room, Harry couldn't help but being surprised. The universe seemed to enjoying giving Harry bad luck and he had fully expected to be given the smallest and most cramped room available. But Harry had to admit that this time, the universe seemed to be making up for all the crap that fate had thrown at Harry over the years.

The room wasn't exceptionally large, but it was bigger than the room that Harry had had at the Dursleys'. It was slightly smaller than the dorm that Harry had spent five and a half years in at Hogwarts, but this room was all Harry's and he didn't have to share it with four other people. There was a slightly-larger-than-single bed on the left of the room which had small cabinets next to it and shelves above the bed, all in the strange metal that Atlantis seemed to be made of.

On the opposite side of the room, a metal desk was pushed against the wall with a padded chair tucked under it. There were more shelves above the desk. On the far side of the wall, next to the desk, two doors were closed side by side. Upon inspection, Harry found that one was a closet and the other opened into a good size bathroom.

But the best thing about the room by far that made up for its bareness was the window lined wall looking out onto the city. When Harry approached, he was delighted and surprised to find that the window in the middle was actually a glass door that opened out onto a small personal balcony. It was just starting to get dark, with the sun hanging low on the horizon, and the lights of the magnificent city were beginning to come on all over the many towers buildings of Atlantis.

After spending a few peaceful moments on the balcony, Harry sat himself down on the edge and managed to dangle his legs over the edge by fitting his legs under the lowest railing. He leaned forward with his arms crossed on top of the railings and rested his chin softly on his arms. A glint of metal caught his eye and he turned his head minutely to consider a ring on his middle right finger.

The ring was made of platinum and had intricate engravings all the way around it, leading to a square stone set into the band right in the middle. The stone looked like it was a black diamond, but it was actually a magically created stone. The entire ring was a custom piece made specifically for Harry. The magical community around the entire planet on Earth was going through a social and technological revolution. Part of that was moving into the future with how magic was cast.

Harry could cast wandless magic after years of training with some of the most powerful and knowledgeable wizards that the Resistance had to offer, but he still liked using a focus to cast everyday spells. Wands were awkward and very noticeable, which went against the Resistance's goal of better integration into the modern muggle world. The problem was finally solved when master wand makers and magical jewellers collaborated and it was decided as an entire community that rings would replace wands. Each ring was designed and created so it fit the person and their magic perfectly. No two were alike, although they all had the same symbol incorporated on the design. It was an international symbol that wizards had been using for centuries to help indentify each other.

All new wizards that were getting their first wand now got a ring made for them instead and some wizards had replaced their existing wands with the new rings. However, Harry – like almost all wizards – was attached to his wand and was loath to give it up. The ring makers had solved this problem by magically creating a compartment on the inside of the ring that was bigger on the inside. The wand was placed inside for safekeeping and the hole was sealed flawlessly. The rings were subtle, modern and much harder wearing than the old wooden wands. Multiple spells and enchantments were placed on the ring so that it was unbreakable and so it couldn't be removed by anyone except the person it was created for.

Harry pulled his mind out of its contemplative state and stood up. Thinking about his magic had made him realise just how much he missed using it. When he worked at the Pentagon, Harry had enjoyed using his magic for simple everyday things when at home. But once he started working on the expedition, he was incredibly limited when he could safely use his magic. He couldn't reveal the existence of magic or his people to anyone on the expedition without the permission of the international confederation of wizards.

Harry looked down at the long distance to the ocean below the central tower. He glanced behind him to make sure his door was closed firmly and then looked out over the sea once more. He cast a quick disillusionment spell so no one would pay attention to him. Without a further thought, Harry climbed up over the railing and allowed himself to drop.

He allowed himself to fall a few metres before forcing himself to change into his animagus form. It had been unsurprising when he had found out his form was a black eagle, although he didn't know that his animal form would still retain his bright emerald eyes. But, as McGonagall had said, an animagus form always reflected the most defining part of the person, which in Harry's case was his intensely coloured eyes.

Acutely aware that he didn't have as much time as he would like because anyone could come looking for him at any moment, Harry did a quick circuit of the many towers of the city, admiring the magnificent structure. He felt incredibly free, the stresses of both the day and the accumulation of all the stress that he hadn't yet managed to release from the War, just falling away for the short time that he was flexing his wings and gliding around the glistening towers and over the dark water.

Harry cast out his magic as he approached his balcony, making sure that he sensed no other presences in his room as he landed and swiftly transformed back to human form. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself from the high and adrenaline rush of flying. Smiling widely, Harry began to tidy his few possessions away.

The first thing Harry did was find a discreet panel to connect to so he could access power. He found it behind one of the tables next to the bed and thanked his continuing good look as he played around with the crystals, finally connecting his manmade crystal and wires to the Ancient system. Grabbing his backpack by the entrance, he pulled out a stand for his tablet and set it all up on the bedside table so that he could charge his tablet overnight and it would be in easy reach if he needed it quickly.

Harry got all his clothes put away in the closet, fitting the military issue box that held his personal belongings at the bottom. Having already emptied out the box, Harry took his diary (the one that was a gift from Elizabeth) and placed it on the other bedside table, shoving a few pens he had snagged on his way from his office next to it. Bounding over to the desk, Harry set up a spare laptop from his lap, finding another access panel to the crystal system so he could power the laptop. Once he was sure it was charging properly, he connected it to the wireless network he had spent so long setting up and then connected the external hard drive of music, movies and TV programmes that the science staff had given him for his birthday.

Harry looked around his room, trying to see what he had left to do. He glanced back at the bed and saw a small pile of stuff on it that had been there when he entered the room. Harry inspected what was placed there and found that it toiletries, towels and bed linen. Harry quickly shoved the toiletries on the shelves arranged around a mirror in the bathroom and put the towels on a railing he saw next to the shower. Entering the main room once again, Harry quickly and efficiently put the linen on the bed and arranged his pillow and blankets so it was neat and tidy.

Harry was just closing the door to the balcony and was closing the thin net-like curtains that were hung in the room, when his radio crackled and Elizabeth's voice sounded.

"I'm sorry to disturb you Harry, but I was wondering if you had time at some point this afternoon, would you check the screen in the secondary conference room?"

Harry tapped his radio as he waved his hand over the door lock. The door swished open almost silently. "No problem, Elizabeth. I'll head over now. It shouldn't take too long to sort it out."

Harry was already in the control room by the time Elizabeth relayed her thanks to him, so he wished her a good evening and entered the smaller conference room, the doors opening automatically for him before he got to them. Seeing the room empty, Harry walked around the square Ancient couches placed in front of the manmade screen on a stand in the centre of the room. He wandered around the back of the screen, occasionally reaching around to turn it on and check the screen.

It only took him a few minutes to find the problem and correct it. He was just switching the screen off and stepping around the screen, when he heard Rodney's voice coming towards him. Harry looked up and saw Rodney, Sheppard, the Athosian leader Teyla and a young Lieutenant called Ford, if Harry remembered correctly. He nodded at the others and addressed a still-cranky looking Rodney.

"You're in luck, Rodney, if you've come to use the screen. I've just got it fixed."

Rodney didn't answer and just nodded grumpily, so Ford took it upon himself to verbally answer Harry "Thanks. Major Sheppard is just about to show us a recording of a football game that he has if you wanted to stay."

Harry was confused for a moment, before realising that they were going to be watching an American football game. "Thank you for the offer, Lieutenant Ford, but I'm already running late for a meeting with some of my friends. Please, enjoy your game and let me know if you have any problems with the screen."

"Hey, you're going to be setting up a recreation room aren't you?" Rodney seemed to finally want to join the conversation.

Harry paused at the doorway and turned back to find four sets of eyes looking at him. "Yes. The room has been assigned now and the marines have pillaged dozens of sofas from somewhere. I've just got to get the screen hooked up to the power, attach the laptop and connect that to network so it can access the movies I have. Peter and Elizabeth have already planned what nights to have movie nights and what order we are going to play the films in." Harry gave a small smirk. "If I hadn't actually met General O'Neill, I would question how we managed to requisition such a large screen when space was a problem for this expedition."

"Yeah, well, you have met O'Neill, so you know what he is like." Rodney muttered in a surly tone.

Harry subtly glanced at his watch. "I really must go. I'm running quite late." Harry exited the room once he got an affirmative nod from Rodney.

---

"So, your room ok?"

Harry paused in his stretching, considering the marine before him. "Its good. I lucked out on the random allocation – I've got a mini balcony."

Nate gave a low whistle. "Nice. I've got a great view, but a balcony would be amazing."

Harry finished up his stretching and moved so he was stood in the centre of the sparring room. The room was brightly lit by artificial lights, but it had large stained glass windows that Harry knew would look impressive in the bright daylight. The floor was comprised of a strange pale wood-like material that felt like it was sprung when Harry bounced and rocked on the balls of his bare feet as he tested it.

Zack and Daniel finished up with their own warm-ups, closely followed by Nate. "So," Zack's voice was excited, looking forward to working off some of the excess energy everyone seemed to have had since arriving on Atlantis. "we gonna rotate around partners like normal?"

"Just watch Harry's injury." Daniel ignored Harry's scowl aimed at him. "No aiming for his head until it is all healed over."

Nate smirked suddenly. "Yeah, we should watch it. We don't want to have our hands melt or something because of Harry's strange blood."

Harry's scowl deepened as they all laughed at Nate's joke. "Oh, I'm gonna kick your arse for that." Nate's laughter faltered slightly when he saw the glare Harry was giving him.

It took Harry only a short time to floor all three of the marines, despite the intense training they had all received during their service time. But Harry had been doing intense martial arts training everyday for over two years during the War. The Resistance had allies from across the world as the secret War spread throughout the continents, and comrades came from all over to represent their forces in their home country. Various people practiced different kinds of martial arts and fighting styles and they took to practicing together. After a short while, Harry found himself learning a whole range of martial arts. He found it was a great way to vent his stress and he found it strangely relaxing.

"God, I think you may have bruised my ribs."

Harry took a swig out of his bottle of water and didn't reply to Zack's grousing. Daniel pulled himself to his feet and helped Zack stand up, grinning as Zack carefully held an arm protectively over his ribs and muttered his displeasure.

Nate grabbed his own water from his bag and leaned against the wall next to where Harry was perched on the minimally cushioned ledge in front of the tall windows. "Stop whining Zack. If you can't handle the training, you only need to tell us. We will go easy on you."

Zack glared at Nate. "I can handle it. I don't need you to 'go easy' on me. I'm a black belt in karate I'll have you know."

"Ok." Harry stood up and shoved the water bottle back in his bag and shoved it over his shoulder. He pulled his socks and trainers on and stood up, stretching his tired muscles. "Let's go to dinner before all of it is eaten."

Harry bound out the room, still feeling the buzz of energy he got after a good workout, particularly when he had managed to work all his stress and anxiety off. The mess hall wasn't empty, but the main rush had already had dinner and gone off to do a late shift of work or find something to do with their free time. Harry smiled at Matt as he got the vegetarian option and sat himself down at an empty table.

Nate and Zack were quick to join Harry at his table, but Daniel took a long time trying to decide what he wanted for dinner. Harry had never met anyone who was so fussy when it came to what he ate. Harry may be limited in what he could choose, because he couldn't bring himself to eat meat. Daniel's fussiness was a far cry from Ron, who would eat anything put in front of him.

Harry pulled his mind from his Hogwarts school memories, a small smile on his face, when he heard Carson's voice. Looking up, Harry saw that the Scottish doctor was placing his tray opposite Harry and was nodding to the marines around the table. Daniel chose that moment to bound over and sat himself next to the physician.

"How has your day been, lad?"

Harry took a bite of his pasta and smiled at Carson. "It's been ok. We managed to get a fair bit done in the control room today and are ahead of schedule so far. How's the infirmary? Got it all organised now?"

Carson carefully cut his chicken. "It's been good. All of my staff have been great and we've managed to get all of our equipment arranged and all of the stock sorted away into the supply rooms. I will admit that it has been a little bit boring really. I almost wish for a patient."

Harry grimaced slightly and lightly touched the small bandaged stuck over his cut. He had always been a fast healer and he had no doubt that it would be closed up completely in another day or two. But the plaster stuck to his forehead was still annoying and he found it difficult to not fiddle with it. "I'm sure that you will have patients soon enough. Some of the lab techs we have seem to be abnormally clumsy."

Carson smirked. "Aye. Some of them seem to have a nervous disposition, especially around Rodney."

"With the way Dr McKay is, I'm surprised more people don't have some form of nervous problem." Daniel snickered along with the other two marines.

"I wouldn't let comments like that get back to Rodney. I know for a fact that he can be vindictive." Carson cautioned.

Harry gave them a dark smile that made them paused in their laughter. "And don't forget the fact that he controls the entire city's systems, including environmental controls."

Carson laughed the scared look on the marines' faces as they looked around, trying to see if anyone had overheard them that would tell the snarky Canadian what they had said. "So, you lads just been doing some exercise?"

Harry glanced down at his sweats and t-shirt. "We were doing some sparring actually. You gotta practice to keep martial arts skills sharp."

Carson glanced at Harry's white bandaged head. "I hope you weren't working out too hard."

"Don't worry Doc, we didn't take any head shots." Zack swallowed the last of his chicken and salad. "Harry may have been injured, but that didn't stop him from beating us. Not bad for a science geek."

Harry scowled as everyone laughed. He finished up his food, said goodnight to everyone and headed to bed. He had no doubt that tomorrow would be a busy. Everyday was a busy day on Atlantis, and Harry had no doubt it would only get more exciting once regular offworld exploration and trade missions were scheduled.

---

Harry was drifting in darkness, completely and utterly relaxed. He took deep breaths, in and out, letting his thoughts just drift in and out of his brain and trying to keep it clear. A light breeze ruffled his unruly black locks, but he barely notices. Going deeper into himself, he sought out the brightness he knew was a mental representation of his magical core. It wasn't real, but it helped the control of magic if it were imagined as a physical object to be used and controlled, almost as if it were another limb.

Harry was just sinking into the glowing ball of his magic when a chirping noise broke into his consciousness. He would normally block out all the surrounding noises and distractions in order to gain total isolation and peace, but he had decided that on an alien city floating on an ocean in another galaxy, he would have to maintain some kind of alertness.

Harry sighed and opened his eyes as the chirping sound continued. He slowly rose to his feet and entered his room, softly closing the door to the balcony behind him. Aware that he was dressed in a pair of pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt, he arranged his face into a blank expression and silently opened the door to his room. Stood outside, looking anxiously up and down the corridor were two Athosians.

"Can I help you Teyla?" Harry saw the woman's eyes focus on him and glanced behind her to see that the other Athosian was a tall man on crutches, but Harry didn't know his name.

"I am most sorry to disturb you. I hope you were not sleeping." Teyla's voice was worried.

Seeing that the woman was not outside his room on a whim and that her anxiety was not limited to him possibly being annoyed that she had disturbed him, Harry took a step forward. "Is everything alright?"

"Jinto, Halling's son, is missing. We were wondering if you might have seen him?"

Harry looked between the two. "I'm sorry. I have not left my room since I got back from dinner and have spent my time meditating out on my personal balcony. I have not seen him."

Teyla looked downcast and Halling was beginning to look distraught. Harry opened his mouth to apologise once again that he couldn't be any more help when his radio crackled and Rodney's grumpy voice sounded in his ear.

"Harry, I need you to get to the control room. One of the Athosian kids is missing."

Harry tapped his radio. "Yeah, I'm just outside my room with Teyla and Halling now. I'm currently in my nightwear, so give me a few minutes to get changed and I'll be right up."

Rodney's voice was snarky. He was no doubt really starting to feel the loss of caffeine and was seemingly coming down hard. "Yeah, well I don't care what you are wearing. Just get up here."

Harry rolled his eyes, used to Rodney's grouchy behaviour and words. He turned to Teyla and Halling. "I really need to get up to the control room to help with this situation."

"We understand. Thank you." Teyla bowed her head and moved on down the corridor, Halling hobbling quickly after her.

Harry closed his door and rushed to his closet, pulling the first set of clothing he could find. It took him only moments, but he was wearing a pair of jeans and his wormhole xtreme fan t-shirt. Looking down, Harry contemplated that it wasn't his first choice of clothes for this situation, but he was officially off duty anyway, so who cared? He grabbed his converse and pulled them on with a pair of clean socks.

Grabbing his tablet and virtually jogging out of his room, Harry contemplated that it was starting to seem like there was no such thing as 'off duty' on Atlantis, and that everyone would just have to deal with him being in civilian and non-uniform clothing whenever a crisis hit in the middle of the night. They had only been here a few days, and Harry was already imagining his free time dwindling down to virtually nothing.

"What do you need me to do Rodney?" Harry gracefully halted next to the Canadian physicist, who barely spared his choice of clothing a glance.

"I want you to run a diagnostic on the sensors. There were a few fluctuations earlier and we need to know exactly what we have to work with right now."

Harry quickly seated himself in front of one of the side consoles in the control room and accessed the power distribution and monitoring system and the latest sensor readings. He was just pulling up the data from the entire day about the different naquadah generators and the sensor readout when Elizabeth passed in front of his console, heading for Rodney.

"Can we use the sensors to locate him?" Elizabeth's voice was anxious and worried, Harry noted as he loaded the relevant results from the diagnostic onto his tablet.

"We don't have nearly enough power to activate the whole city at one time." Rodney grimaced at his own answer. The data loaded onto his tablet, Harry stood and moved over so he was stood with Elizabeth and Rodney behind the console Peter was working on.

Seeing Elizabeth's disappointed look, Peter tried to offer more information that Rodney had given. "Even if we could, the sensors don't distinguish-" Peter paused, looking around as the lights flickered for a few moments. "individuals."

"For all we know, there could be shielded areas or, uh, malfunctioning sensors." Harry frowned and rechecked his data on the tablet clutched in his hands as the light flickered ominously again. "Harry, pull the energy distribution map up on the main screen." Harry selected the most recent data and shown it on the main screen, nodding to Rodney. "We are getting a pretty strange energy reading in one of the unexplored areas across the city." Rodney pointed out a flashing room indicated on the map as having energy fluctuations outside the normally acceptable range.

Elizabeth frowned, deep in thought for a moment, before turning to Rodney and Harry. "Activate the communications system."

Rodney pushed a short sequence of crystal button on the console, accessing the internal communication system. He nodded to Elizabeth and took a step back from the console. "Done."

"Jinto? This is Doctor Weir. If you can hear me, please respond. Jinto? If you're lost; if you can't ..."

Harry frowned as his tablet beeped and flashed a warning. He prodded the screen impatiently and glared as a new readout of the city's power consumption was brought to the front of the screen. He was about to tell Rodney that there was a huge fluctuation in the power when all of the main consoles went dark and the central lighting dimmed to emergency lighting only.

"We've lost power."

Harry rolled his eyes and resisted making a sarcastic comment to Peter about stating the obvious. Keeping his face blank and his tone neutral, he brought everyone's attention to his tablet.

"There have been power fluctuations for the last few hours, but what just happened was really strange. It's like there was a sudden massive drain on one or more of the generators, which shut down as part of their emergency protocols."

"We've still got lights." Rodney leaned closer to Harry as he looked at the readings on the brightly lit screen of the tablet. Harry was still feeling the effects of using his magic after so long of non-use and spending time meditating to connect to the part of himself that could instinctually manipulate and bend the energy around him to his will. Because of this, Harry could feel the energy of the field that surrounded Rodney, emanating from the glowing device attached to his chest. Harry was pulled from his contemplation when the screens and consoles flared back into life. Looking up, Harry saw Peter had manually turned them back on from the main console.

"Don't know why that happened." Peter leaned back from the console, confusion written across his face. Confusion turned to shock when the energy shield protecting the Stargate activated, casting a soft glow in the dim gateroom. Everyone in the control room and down in the gateroom turned and stared at the gate, before Elizabeth turned and stared at Peter. Peter raised his hands in self defence.

"That wasn't me!"

Before anyone could utter another word, the shield deactivated as suddenly as it had turned on. Rodney raised his hands also to show it wasn't him. He had a mild look of disbelief on his face as he traded looks with Elizabeth. Glancing at Peter to make sure that he was still stood away from the console, Rodney and Elizabeth turned as one to look at Harry.

"Come on, you seriously think I would mess around like that? I know how much energy that shield wastes. I'm not about to pull a stupid prank like this, especially not whilst a kid is missing."

"No, no, of course not Harry. We are just trying to work out what is going on." Elizabeth's voice was slightly sheepish and apologetic. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Harry never found out what she was going to say. A mechanical noise sounded as everyone turned as one to see that a random gate address had been lit up on the Stargate and that the inner ring was starting to spin. Elizabeth gaped in shock, before turning to the scientists stood next to her. "Shut it down. Now."

Both Peter and Rodney rushed forward to the dialling console, but Rodney got there first and whacked the shutdown button.

"What the hell is going on?" Harry looked over and saw a controlled Elizabeth, but he could tell she was starting to become incredibly worried but she didn't want everyone to know.

"I don't know." Rodney's tone was frustrated.

"Nothing like this has happened before."

"We've only been here for a couple of days. This stuff is pretty old. It's that, or there really are ghosts." Rodney glared at Peter, seeming to have decided which of his 'minions' would face the brunt of his annoyance and frustration.

Harry was saved from hearing any kind of argument between the Canadian and the British man when the lights went out again. Harry frowned in the dark and checked his tablet once again. "It's not just the control room that has lost power this time. The entire central tower has gone dark."

"Can you get it back up and running?"

Harry shared a glance with Rodney, but his reply was interrupted when his radio crackled into life. It was the general channel being used and could be heard by everyone wearing a radio. It was decided before they left Earth that they would have different radio channels for various different things and then have a general channel for messages to everyone.

"Control Room, this is Sheppard. Lights just went out."

"Major, we're experiencing some technical malfunctions." Elizabeth paused and looked at Rodney, Peter and Harry all bent over the central console with their laptops and tablets. "We are working to sort it all out."

Harry looked up as Elizabeth came over to them after talking to Sheppard over the radio. Because it was a general, all-purpose channel, it broadcast to everyone's radio and everyone could hear the conversations over it. Harry had heard Elizabeth reassure the Major that they would be able to sort the problem out as soon as possible.

"So, any ideas on how to fix this?" Elizabeth's tone was both hopeful and assured that they would be able to do it. Harry leaned back against the console so he could grip his tablet more securely and continued going over the readings. Seeing that they were starting to increase and level out, he accessed the manual power distribution system. A few moments later and the lights burst into life.

"Good job."

Harry shook his head. "I've only turned the lights back on. We still have not idea why they went off in the first place."

"It could have something to do with the interfaces between our naquadah generators and the city. Or that or the way we isolated certain systems could be causing erroneous operations in the Ancient programming." Rodney had a thoughtful look on his face as he waved an energy bar around. Harry shook his head at the sight – Rodney was keeping that damn bar on him at all times just in case the shield came off and he could stuff his face with food once more.

"I'll run a diagnostic on the power flow."

Harry snapped back to attention. "I've already run diagnostics. However, I'm just the computer guy – the actual science of how all this stuff works and how the power is generated is beyond me."

"Don't sell yourself short Harry. I've seen the IQ test results in your file from the Pentagon." Harry looked away in embarrassment, his face carefully neutral. He wasn't used to receiving praise for something like his intelligence. Praise and reverence for being a good soldier and saviour, but not for something that actually meant something to him. Elizabeth, knowing that Harry didn't like to discuss personal stuff in public, turned to Rodney. "I wouldn't have thought you believed in ghosts."

"I never used to, then I heard about things called Wraiths that can suck the life out of you with their hands. What the hell is that?" Rodney waved his hand around for a moment to emphasis his point.

Harry heard a voice calling Elizabeth from the top of the gateroom stairs. Elizabeth turned and gave the Athosians waiting there a tight smile. "Teyla. I'll be right there." She turned her head to look at the three men before her. "Do what you can."

Rodney ran a hand through his short hair. "Right."

Harry took a seat on one of the chairs that had been dragged over to the console that Peter was now sat behind. Rodney sighed and threw himself into the last empty seat on the other side of the console. Harry observed him for a moment. He was confident that no matter what the problem was, Rodney would pull some crazy solution out of the bag. Harry had seen his intelligence and genius first hand whilst at the base in Antarctica and the SGC. And he had heard enough stories about Rodney from his time at Area 51 and in Russia to know that he may annoy people, but he had their grudging respect for some of the stuff he had done.

"So, first we encounter space vampires and now the city is revolting against us. Could this week get any worst?"

Rodney and Peter both gave Harry dark looks. "Don't say that. You'll jinx us."

Rodney gave a distinctly sarcastic smirk and a derisive snort and was about to reply with what would have been no doubt a snarky and cutting response, when Elizabeth came back into the control room.

"One of the Athosians saw a 'shadow'. Although Teyla says that she senses no wraith, we still need to be cautious. We should assume that there has been a possible wraith incursion on Atlantis."

"See, I told you that you would jinx it."

Elizabeth looked from Englishman to Canadian to Englishman, confusion written across her face.

"Harry was wondering how it could get worst and apparently jinxed us. Now we see how it could get worst."

"Yeah, space vampires running around Atlantis, just waiting to pounce out of the shadows and suck the life out of us." Harry muttered before smiling brightly. "Oh well. Let's get to work then."

---

Harry stifled a yawn and hid it behind his hand. It was the early hours of the morning and Harry was longing to go to bed. He had now been away almost 24 hours, considering that he had got up to go jogging yesterday morning. Of course, it didn't even come close some of the periods of time during the War when Harry had been awake for days at a time. But they had used stimulating potions during most extreme times and Harry had at least had the opportunity to do some meditation.

"Hey." Harry turned around at the sound and saw that Lieutenant Barlow was stood behind him holding a tray of mugs. "I know everyone up here is working hard to solve the current problem. So, I've brought you all some drinks and snacks."

Harry accepted the mug of strong tea and took a grateful sip. "Thanks Matt. I really needed this."

Matt passed the tray to another marine behind him, who started to distribute the hot drinks to the scientists and techs in the control room. Harry looked over Matt's shoulder and saw Rodney glare murderously at the marine as he moved onto the next person with the tray. Matt swung a large backpack off his shoulder and dug around inside it. He pulled out a bottle of water, and energy bar and bar of chocolate.

"Here you go. This should keep you going for a while. I'm going to set up a table in the mess with quick and high energy snacks if you need anything else. I better get on and make sure everyone here gets something. We're all counting on you lot to save the day." Matt gave Harry a wink and slipped him a second chocolate bar, moving away to distribute his bag of goodies to the others.

Harry was finishing off his energy bar and tea when Teyla and Elizabeth came out of her office. Teyla wandered past Harry to look over the balcony at the Stargate and Elizabeth stopped behind the console Harry was sat next to.

"How's it going?"

Rodney had come over, a glum look on his face as he clutched his ever-present energy bar. "We've been working nonstop for the last few hours, trying to find out what is going on."

"No matter what diagnostic we run, it keeps coming back to the fact that we have no idea why the system is doing this." Harry saw the look Elizabeth was giving them and hurried to explain their lack of progress. "As far as we can see, all our own systems are running normally and the tests we have run on the Ancient systems show no errors." Harry took a bite of his chocolate bar, savouring the taste and sugar rush. "I even crawled into the ridiculously small space in the main console to check our connection. It is fine."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means," Rodney huffed in frustration. "that all of the systems are running well within the acceptable range. There has to be something else, something external, which is affecting the systems."

Major Sheppard and Halling came up the stairs and entered the control room. Harry finished off his chocolate, already feeling the rush of energy it gave him, and watched at Halling hobbled over to Teyla by the windows looking down on the gateroom. Sheppard stopped his march in front of where Rodney and Elizabeth were stood next to the console Harry had set himself up on.

"I've secured access to the Control Tower and living quarters."

Elizabeth nodded in approval. Her voice was low so that it didn't carry across the room to all the working techs and scientists. "Two more Athosians reported seeing a shadow."

"Now, I don't get that. That means the Wraith would be here." Sheppard's normally easy going expression was marred by a frown.

"You don't think so?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think they want to scare us. When they decide to come, they're going to start blowing the crap out of this place with their ships."

"So what, the Athosians are just seeing things?"

"Well, like Teyla said, it's a scary place for them."

"Not just for them." Rodney muttered.

Harry grinned. "What, is the great Dr Rodney McKay scared of the big, dark, abandoned city? You think a ghost is going to jump out at you?"

Rodney scowled. "No! I'm more worried that a 'space vampire', as you have named them, will jump out, grope me and sucking out my life."

Harry's smirk deepened and he shook his head. Teyla came over and interrupted before anyone else could rib Rodney. She nodded to the three men and turned to Elizabeth, indicating to Halling by her side.

"Halling wishes to speak with Jinto."

Elizabeth looked at Halling for a moment, but seeing the determined look in his eyes and sensing the slightly desperate air about him, she nodded. "Please."

Halling hobbled around Harry where he was sat at the console and Rodney leaned over and rapidly tapped the correct sequence of buttons to access the communications system. They had spent hours working on the systems, and Harry was sure any one of them could select the correct sequence in their sleep.

Rodney pressed the final crystal button and turned to the tall Athosian man. "Go ahead."

"Jinto. If you can hear me, I'm not angry. I just want to know that you are safe. So if you are lost or hurt, stay where you are. Make some noise if you can. We will find you." Halling carefully leaned the crutches against the console and raised his joined hands up above his head and closed his eyes. "Pere lume tempo e teri."

"Is that Latin?" Sheppard muttered to Elizabeth, voice low so that it didn't carry across the room, but Harry was close enough hear him.

Elizabeth blinked and listened more closely to Halling's words. "It's Ancient."

Harry tilted his head and concentrated on the words. He took a moment to translate it. "Fathers of light of the everlasting temple." Seeing everyone turn to stare at him, he shrugged self-consciously. "I learnt to read and write Ancient before I even started to work at the base on Antarctica. But Dr Jackson spent some time teaching me to speak Ancient."

Elizabeth nodded. "Whilst we have managed to teach a small number of people to read Ancient, it is a difficult language to learn how to speak. Harry is a genius with patterns and picked up the written language very fast, so it was decided by Dr Jackson that he should be taught to speak Ancient as well. He learnt it remarkably fast."

Harry kept his expression blank to hide his embarrassment. He was saved from replying to the expectant looks by Teyla's explanation of Halling's words.

"It is a prayer to the Ancestors."

Halling opened his eyes and raised his hands higher. Harry was never one to judge others' religious beliefs, but he had read the brief file on the Ancients that was one of the required reads before the left Earth, and Harry saw that they were just like humans in many ways. Harry couldn't help but draw parallels between the Ancients and wizards. Wizards, like Ancients, were more biologically advanced than humans. But the difference between wizards and Ancients was that wizards halted their social and technological advancement at some point during the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Very few advancements were made – the most recent one was the introduction of muggle radio. Ancients embraced advancements and developments. Harry wondered where the magical world would be now if their society had been stagnant and unchangeable for the last few centuries. Harry was just glad that his people were now going through a massive and rapid revolution.

"If you are angry that we have unrightfully inhabited your great city, we humbly apologise. We mean no harm. We will leave if it is your wish. But I will not go without my son."

As Halling finished his speech and lowered his hands, the lights suddenly went out, casting the room into utter darkness. There was silence for a few moments, before it was broken was an odd thud. Harry groped around on the console behind him and found his tablet. Pressing a button on the side, the screen burst into life in a blaze of light, making Harry blink. Clearing his gaze, Harry accessed the power systems. Hedging his bets, Harry switched the primary power for the control room from generator to generator until the lights flickers back on.

Harry stood up as the lights lit up the room and headed towards where Elizabeth had wandered to. She was stood looking at Halling, who was staring at the ceiling in wonder. Harry ignored the reverent Athosian. He seriously doubted the Ancients were spending their ascended time messing around with them by flicking the lights on and off. Harry stepped around Peter and saw that Rodney was on the floor, unconscious. The thud must have been from Rodney hitting the floor.

Sheppard kneeled next to the physicist and checked him for a pulse. His worried expression mostly cleared. "He's ok." Sheppard tapped his radio." Dr Beckett, Rodney has collapsed in the control room. We need a med team."

Seeing that the Canadian was starting to come around, Elizabeth turned to the other techs and scientist hovering around the control room. "I want to know what is going on around here."

Harry nodded when Elizabeth met his gaze, an expectant look evident. He dragged his gaze from his snarky boss, who was now arguing with Carson about needing to go to the infirmary and being forced to get on the gurney, and wandered back to the main console, where Peter was setting up his laptop.

"I managed to get the lights back on by changing which generator was the primary source of power for the control room. Could you pull up the most recent readings from our generators please?"

Peter pulled up the reading quickly. Both he and Harry studied them for a moment, before frowning as one. "Are you seeing this?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that makes no sense."

"So, do you have a plan to work out what is going on?" Elizabeth had wandered over now that Rodney had finally been escorted to the infirmary by an insistent Carson and a firm Major Sheppard. "I know it is hopeful of me to assume that you have managed to get anything done in the last few minutes."

"Actually, we have accessed the power systems." Peter pulled up the readings on the main screen.

"What am I looking at here?"

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." Harry pointed out the section Elizabeth should be looking at. "The generator that is the primary source of power for the control room experienced a sudden drain of power, causing it to shut off as a safety protocol. It was offline for a few minutes whilst it was experiencing the drain, before it suddenly came back online. Right now, we have no idea why the drain happened."

"We need to go and inspect the generator. That might shed some light on what the cause of the problem is." Peter suggested.

"Right. You two get down there. Let me know what you find."

---

"Why do I have to be the one that is always climbing under the consoles?"

Peter grinned at Harry as they stood by the generator. "You are the computer expert here. So, you get the privilege of squeezing inside the console."

Harry grumbled some more, but accepted what Peter was saying. He was the expert on computers and technology on Atlantis, and so it was his job to check and maintain the connections between the Earth manmade technology and the alien Ancient technology. But that didn't mean he liked squeezing his six foot odd frame under the console. He may have been able to easily fit under a few years ago, when he was still skinny and short. But regular meals for the last few years and intense physical training had made Harry go through a growth spurt and develop lean muscles.

"Fine fine. You are right. I am being paid to do this." Harry pried open the side panel on the console and passed Peter his tablet for safekeeping. He squeezed and wiggled his way inside the console so his was half in, up to just past his shoulders. Twisting so he was on his back, Harry shifted forward so he had room to move his arms.

"It looks good here." Harry pulled at the connection before removing the interface crystal that connected the naquadah generator and the Ancient system. Holding the crystal close to his face, he inspected it. "The interface crystal looks ok. There is no damage or evident physical anomalies. Pass me my tablet, please, so that I can check it properly."

Peter passed the tablet through the small gap available and Harry shifted around to make room so he could firmly hold his tablet and see the screen. He connected the crystal interface to his tablet and ran a quick diagnostic. "The crystal is fine. We need to check the generator itself."

Harry reattached the crystal to the console, slipping it into the right slot among the array of glowing crystals. Harry manoeuvred his way past the crystals. He was just pulling himself out of the console, when his tablet slipped out of his grip. Grabbing at it automatically, Harry raised his head without thinking about it. He was not completely out of the console, however, and caught his head on the edge of the opening of the access panel. He caught his tablet, but at the cost of whacking the same area on his head that he had bashed against the console when the city rose from the depths of the ocean.

"Damn it." Harry stood carefully, shoving his tablet under his arm so he wouldn't drop it again. His head began to throb. "This city is out to kill me, I swear. I'm never normally clumsy."

Peter stepped closer, looking at Harry's head. "It's bleeding again. It hasn't come through the bandage, but it is starting to stain it. You should head up to the infirmary." Peter indicated the generator next to Harry. "I'll check the generator."

"Ok." Harry probed around the edge of the bandage and winced as the wound gave an angry throb. "I'll get it checked and see you up in the control room."

Harry left Peter checking the naquadah generator and slowly made his way to the infirmary. He was no stranger to making visits to infirmaries and hospitals. He had suffered numerous injuries when he was a child under the Dursleys' care, had spent time in the hospital wing at Hogwarts and had been injured many times during the War. But he still disliked hospitals intensely. Harry was contemplating his dislike of all things medical, when Sheppard passed him in the corridor outside the infirmary.

Harry assumed that Rodney was ok, because he knew that he and Sheppard had started some kind of strange friendship. Sheppard wouldn't leave him alone in the infirmary if there was something wrong with the cranky Canadian. Entering the room, Harry saw Carson stood next to a bed where Rodney was sat, a grumpy expression on his face. Carson was glaring at Rodney as he snarked about something or the other. Hearing footsteps coming up behind him, the Scottish doctor turned around.

"Harry." Carson smiled at him, before his eyes zeroed in on the blooded bandage on Harry's forehead. His smile turned into a frown. "What have you done to yourself now, lad?"

Harry pulled himself up onto the bed opposite Rodney and laid his tablet down at the foot end of it. "I hit my head on an access panel whilst checking one of the naquadah generators."

Carson huffed, before pulling on some rubber gloves. He carefully removed the old bandage, probing the area gently. Harry winced as his fingers skimmed over the open wound. Carson scowled down at him. "You got away with paper stitches last time, but it's opened too much this time. I'm going to have to put in a few real stitches."

Carson bustled off to get equipment to stitch Harry's head up and Harry looked over to find Rodney watching him. "You ok, Rodney?"

Rodney huffed. "I just passed out from manly hunger and low blood sugar. I need to get back to work, if the voodoo witch doctors would let me leave."

Carson came back with a steel tray of stitching equipment and laid it down on the table beside Harry's bed. "You're free to leave now Rodney." Carson rolled his eyes as Rodney bounded off the bed and out the door without a backwards glance. Harry winced when Carson numbed the area around the cut and began to prepare the needle.

"How do you keep getting in these situations? I don't remember you been treated at all when we were at the base in Antarctica or at the SGC."

Harry held his head still as Carson began to carefully stitch the wound closed. "That's because I never did have to visit the infirmary, unless it was to see if you wanted to grab some lunch or for the required physicals."

"Well, as much as I enjoy your company, Harry, I would much prefer to not see you for medical treatment for at least a long time – preferably never."

"I'll try my best Carson." Harry gave the Scot a brief grin as he finished up the stitches and stuck a small bandage over the top.

"Right, I'm done." Carson stripped off his gloves and started to clear his equipment away. "I want you back in a few days so I can check and see how it is healing. I know you aren't going to stop working because we are in the middle of a crisis, but try to take it easy at least a little bit."

"Not a problem Carson. I'll be fine."

Harry was riffling through his pockets as he bound up the stairs in front of the gate to the control room, and was rewarded with a chocolate bar. Grinning in happiness at his discovery of the sugary treat, he opened it and took a large bite. Chewing happily, he threw himself into a chair next to Peter, who looked at him questioningly.

"I'm ok." Harry answered Peter's unasked question. "But I got real stitches this time. What did you find from checking the generator?"

Peter opened his mouth to reply, when Sheppard's sounded next to the. Turning, Harry saw Sheppard, Elizabeth and Rodney, discussing the current situation. "Didn't look like the phantoms the Wraith make you see but I could see how the Athosians would be confused."

"What did it look like?" Elizabeth looked confused.

"It looked like a..." Sheppard gave a vague gesture with his hands, before looking over at Peter.

"Darkness." Peter interjected helpfully. "It surrounded the naquadah generator and started to grow, like it was feeding off the energy."

"Whoa. Hold on." Harry looked around the group in question. "What did I miss?"

"There seems to be some kind of energy cloud in the city that is affecting our power." Elizabeth's gaze moved up to Harry's head. "Peter mentioned you were injured again."

"Yeah, I hit my head and reopened the cut. Carson put some stitches in for me." Harry shrugged dismissively. "So this energy cloud was what caused the problem with the generators? It was attracted to the power?"

"Yeah, and when they shut it down, the whole ... whatever it was, it just went away."

"If this thing feeds on energy we could be in big trouble - and when I say we, I mean you because I won't actually be around for much longer." Everyone simply ignored Rodney's last comment, now used to his melodramatic comments.

"So we need to figure out exactly what it is and what to do about it." Elizabeth looked considerate. "How about shutting down the generators?"

Harry shook his head. "Not a good idea."

Rodney looked at Harry and explained to the others. "Well, uh, people also give off heat energy. But, now, granted it's negligible compared to that of the naquadah generator but, uh, you take away this thing's only other obvious source of food and ..."

"You're saying it could come after us." Elizabeth's voice was worried and slightly disbelieving.

"Well, I only know one thing for sure, and that is that flying darkness that needs energy can only be very, very bad."

"I don't know which is worst – space vampires or a floating vampire cloud." Harry muttered, chewing the last of his chocolate bar.

"OK. We keep the power on. Grodin and Harry figure out a way to detect it, and in the meantime, Major, establish a constant surveillance on all the generators. If one of them is targeted, we'll shut it down remotely and hopefully we can keep this ... thing busy until we can figure out a way to get rid of it." Elizabeth tapped her radio, accessing the internal communication system. Her voice came out of the speakers across the entire control tower. "Attention, everyone, this is Weir. For the time being, we need you all to remain in your quarters unless otherwise instructed. If you see anything out ..."

"Hello? Can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?" Elizabeth was interrupted by a child's voice over the speakers.

"Jinto?" Harry resisted rolling his eyes as Sheppard actually looked around, as though Jinto would pop out from behind a console or something.

"Major Sheppard!"

"Are you OK?" Elizabeth gave a relieved smile.

"I'm scared."

Elizabeth turned to Harry. "Can you find him?"

Harry shook his head. "Not with all the conflicting readings we are getting from fluctuations in the power systems. We can't trust any readings we do get. And we haven't got the sensors working yet."

Elizabeth sighed but nodded in understanding. "Jinto, start from the beginning. Tell us how you got to where you are."

"I was in the hall outside my quarters."

Sheppard and Rodney hurried out of the control room and down the gateroom stairs. Elizabeth made to follow them, before stopping and looking back at Peter and Harry. "Work on those sensors."

---

It had taken a while, but Harry and Peter had final managed to track the entity that was reaping havoc on their systems. They had started by accessing the maps of the control tower and isolating the area that they were occupying. It was then a matter of instructing the system to recognise their own naquadah power source instead of the standard ZPMs the Ancients used. The most difficult part was calibrating the systems to recognise and differentiate between different kinds of life forms.

Peter was currently sat at a cleared console with his laptop open before him, running the programme he and Harry had just finished perfecting. It showed the generators as blue glowing point of light. The dark entity was shown by the system to be a ball of red light moving through the hallways between the power sources.

"How's it going?"

Harry raised his head from where he was slumped over his tablet, one hand tapping away as he made sure the systems restarted with no problems as the generators were shut off and then turned back on when the entity moved on towards the next power source. In his other hand, he was clutching an almost finished sandwich. Harry couldn't for a hot meal once this damn crisis was over. He stuffed the last of his food into his mouth as Peter explained the work they had done.

"As far as we can tell, there's only one entity. Now, the bright blue spots are the active naquadah generators." Peter pointed out the floating red light as Harry moved to stand behind him with Elizabeth. "This blob is our entity. It was just a matter of calibrating the sensors. Your idea is working. So far we've been able to anticipate its approach to the active generators and shut them off remotely. Here, watch." The entity was almost at one of the generators, so Peter inputted a few commands, shutting it down. The red light hovered for a moment, before moving off in the direction of the next closest naquadah power source. "Got it running in circles."

"Good job." Elizabeth nodded. "Both of you."

"Thanks." Peter smiled at Elizabeth and Harry silently nodded in acknowledgement.

"I hope we're not making this thing mad."

Peter nodded his agreement. Harry cracked open his bottle of water. "I hope so as well. A floating cloud of angry darkness can never be a good thing." Harry glanced back at the screen. "Peter, the entity is heading straight towards a patrol."

Peter activated his comm. Radio. "Lieutenant. This is Doctor Grodin. I'm tracking the entity heading your way." Harry leaned around the other Brit and zoomed in on the area the entity was travelling through. White dots appeared, indicating two human life forms, with the red light heading directly towards them. Peter's frown deepened. "You might want to get out of the hall you're standing in."

Ford's voice came over radio. "Roger that." It was a tense few moments as they watched the white dots on the screen move down the corridors. They came to a sudden stop. "Uh, this is Ford. A bulkhead just blocked our way. There's no panel on the wall or any way to open it that we can see."

"Roger that." Peter turned to look at Harry.

"It wasn't me."

Elizabeth moved to the side and worriedly tapped her radio. "McKay?"

"We didn't touch anything. It could be the entity causing random malfunctions. The proximity to that large an energy disturbance could cause the Ancient technology to-to go haywire."

Harry picked up his tablet from where it was resting on the console and accessed the sensor readings that were currently displayed on Peter's laptop. He tracked the path of the dark entity and pointed out an alternative route for the marines to take to Elizabeth.

"Lieutenant, double back and try the door on the east side of the hall."

"This door won't open either." Ford's voice was carefully controlled, but Harry could hear the slight edge of panic. However, all the marines on the expedition were highly trained and Harry knew Ford and Stackhouse wouldn't allow their feelings overrule their logic.

"Pull open the console in the wall." Rodney's voice suddenly came over the radio.

"What next?"

"I'm not sure. What do you see?"

"Three crystals." Ford was short and to the point.

"Take out the middle one and move the top one down."

It was a tense second whilst Ford tried Rodney's tentative suggestion. "Not working."

An idea occurred to Harry. "Rodney, if the crystals were shorted out, then the safety protocols may take over and open the door."

"OK, use the middle one to bridge the two others."

"You guys sure about this?"

"Not exactly." Rodney replied at the same time as Harry said, "Nope."

Harry turned his attention back to his tablet and saw a message flash up as the circuit in the door panel shorted out. He let out a breath in relief, but seemed to be reassured too soon as screams came over the radios. He closed his eyes to calm himself as the others around him gasped in shock. He vaguely heard the marine that was with Ford, Stackhouse, call for a medical team.

"Right." Elizabeth caught hear breath and steadied herself. "We need to solve this before it escalates and more people get hurt."

"Harry." Rodney's voice was once again snarky. "I've sent some marines to escort you down to the lab. I need you to help us access the research database and translate some of the technical Ancient words that are proving to be difficult."

"Right. I'll be there soon." Harry grabbed his laptop and gathered together his backpack, ensuring all his bits and pieces of equipment that he may need were in his bag. He was just closing up his bag after stuffing in a few energy bars, chocolate bars and a bottle of water that Matt had left for them all hours ago.

"You ready to go Harry?"

Harry turned around and saw Nate, Daniel and Zack stood behind him, wearing their full kit and toting guns. Harry eyed them for a moment. "Why do I need an armed marine escort ordered to take me down to a lab?"

Nate looked serious, which was unusual for the normally jovial man. "We volunteered when Dr McKay mentioned that he wanted you down in the lab. To make sure you are ok – especially after Ford got singed by that thing."

"Ok." Harry slung his shoulder and marched down the gateroom stairs towards the newly discovered transporter. The three marines hurried to catch up and put themselves into formation so that they surrounded Harry protectively. "You guys didn't need to do this you know."

Zack glanced back at Harry from where he was taking point. "We know. But you are our friend and we wanted to be completely certain that you would be safe."

Harry merely nodded, touched that they wanted to keep him safe. It was completely unnecessary – Harry had been on the frontline as the primary target during the War and was a highly trained wizard. He didn't need marines with guns to protect him from a cloud of energy-sucking darkness. But Harry hadn't had someone, let alone a group of people, who were willing to put their life on the line for him as a person since he had become friends with Hermione and the Weasleys. There were plenty of people who would have, and still would, willingly risk their own life or even die for Lord Harold James Evan Potter-Black, the Saviour.

The ragtag group reached the transporter and crammed themselves in. Harry watched with fascination as a panel slipped open on the wall once they had all entered. Daniel rolled his eyes at Harry's excitement and chose a flashing circle that was on the other end of the city. "You can study it later Harry. Right now, you and the other eggheads need to solve our current crisis."

Harry was about to make a snarky response that would have been worthy of Rodney, when the transporter doors reopened and the said Canadian started to order Harry around before he had even stepped into the lab.

---

"Do you have the entire translation?"

Harry glanced up from his tablet to where Rodney was stood next to his chair at a research console. "Yeah, I've finished up the translation of the research that is indicated for the device. I've sent it to your tablet."

Rodney grabbed his own tablet from where he had dumped it in favour of the Ancient console a while ago and found the information Harry had sent to him. Harry continued to explain as Rodney perused the information. "The device is what you thought it was – the missing words you needed me to translate confirm it."

Rodney still had his face buried in his tablet, when the transporter doors opened and Sheppard and Elizabeth stepped out, the marines moving out of their defensive positions to allow them further into the room. They came over to the research console that Harry and Rodney had been working at for the last hour.

"Apparently it's also an elevator." Sheppard pointed over his shoulder at the transporter in glee.

"Really?" Rodney finally pulled his head out of the tablet at that piece of interesting information.

"We can stop taking the stairs everywhere."

"Oh, how nice for you all." Rodney just couldn't help the sarcasm sometimes. Harry was sure he didn't even know how snarky he was sometimes.

"What have you got?"

"Well believe it or not, Jinto didn't touch anything of any consequence other than that. It must have its own power source like the, uh, Jumpers." Rodney pointed to the device mounted next to the research console, and they all wandered over to it, except Harry, who remained seated. He merely turned around in his chair and leaned back against the console, watching as Rodney explained their findings to them. Nate, Zack and Daniel, who had been loitering near the transporter doors with nothing much to do for the last hour, edged closer in interest as Rodney's loud voice carried across the room.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's some sort of containment vessel for the energy creature."

"And Jinto released it."

"Well, it seems that way. As I suggested, the entity's what's been causing most of our technical problems. Now, it was captured for observation. The Ancients were researching ascension."

"Really?" Elizabeth looked at the device closely, the amazement obvious in her facial expression of wonder.

"What exactly is ascension?" Harry was wondering the same thing. He had, of course, read the required file on the background of the Ancient. But that file only mentioned that they had ascended, and not really explained what that had meant.

"Well at some point during their evolution the Ancients reached a... uh, an advanced stage of being where they were able to rid themselves of their physical bodies and rise to a higher plane of existence, one in which they-they live as pure energy. Well, I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is the first indication that there may have been evolutionary intervention to get there."

Harry blinked and looked at the device. From the brief file on the original occupants of Atlantis, Harry knew that some of the Ancients had mental powers, varying from healing to telekinesis. But Harry also knew that their powers weren't even close to what wizards could do. Harry wondered if his own people would soon be working towards ascension, now that they were going through a technological and social revolution. It was a mind boggling concept, and Harry had to shake his head and get back to the current crisis at hand. He focused once more and found that the conversation had moved on.

"- according to the research it is sentient but if-if you're thinking about trying to talk to it, you'd have more luck with a Great White shark. This thing is going to suck the power out of our generators and then it will kill us all."

"Alright, what do we do about it?"

"The entity's been trapped in here since before the Ancients abandoned the city."

"I know I'd be pissed."

"And hungry. The point is, this device was designed to attract it, capture it and hold it for observation. There's still a chance we may be able to get it back inside. I'm just gonna need a little more time to figure out how."

Sheppard and Weir finished up their conversation with Rodney over the device and finally left via the transporter, still discussing the entity and Ancient ascension. Rodney went over to the other side of the room to use another research console and screen. Nate pulled a seat up next to Harry and Daniel and Zack leaned against the side of the console.

"Great." Daniel's voice was dry. "A floating cloud of energy intent on sucking us all dry. Not exactly what I signed up for."

"Well, you didn't sign up for space aliens either, but they've made an appearance as well."

"How could the Ancients just leave that thing trapped here?" Nate shook his head. "That's like moving house and leaving your dog behind."

"The Ancients being bad pet owners is the least of our worries." Harry turned in his seat and started to work again. "I mean, who knows what else they have locked up in this city."

---

"Rodney, seriously, could you stop dropping crumbs on me?"

Harry swiped his hand over the screen of his tablet, slightly irritated with the Canadian physicist stood behind him. Rodney's device had fallen off about an hour ago and he was taking the opportunity to stuff his face with as much food as possible. They were currently situated in the control room, preparing to implement Rodney's plan of trying to trap the creature in the original containment device.

Rodney huffed, but otherwise ignored Harry's comment. "We ready?"

"You do realise that when we shut everything down, we're going to lose the sensors. We're not going to be able to track it." Peter and Harry had discussed this problem shortly before, but they couldn't find another way around the problem.

"We have security personnel posted around the living quarters. At least we'll have some warning. Teyla told the Athosian children that lighting a candle would help protect them." Elizabeth lit the candle with the lighter she pulled from her pocket and rested it carefully in the console, making sure the freshly melted wax didn't spill.

"And you're doing it because ...?" Rodney's voice was derisive and slightly muffled from the food he had just stuffed in.

"It's gonna get dark in here."

"Hmm." Rodney shifted the black object under his arm and pushed a button on its side, making a clicking noise and light burst from the end. Rodney waved it slightly, a triumphant sound coming from him.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Rodney's arrogant antics, but they were all used to the way the Canadian was. "OK, Major. Go ahead." Elizabeth gave Sheppard a second to turn the device on, before turning to Peter. "Now."

Peter looked at the candle in front of him on the console, before swallowing nervously. "Shutting down power."

Peter manually shut down all five generators and they all watched as the glowing blue lights shut off one by one. Once the last one disappeared from the screen, the lights in the control room shut off. The only light available came from the candle, Rodney's torch and the screens of the computers. Harry checked the energy output of the generators.

"We are completely dark."

The wait was tense and Harry could feel the nervousness coming from the people around him, washing over him in intense waves. He took a few moments in the silence to calm himself, taking deep breaths. He needed to remain calm and controlled in this situation so that they could solve it. He reopened his eyes after he had centred himself. A crinkling sound behind him had him turning in his seat. He saw that it was only Rodney opening another energy bar wrapper to cram into his mouth.

"It's coming." Sheppard's voice broke through the tense silence. "I think you're gonna need a bigger boat."

Rodney swallowed his mouthful of food and whacked his radio in irritation. "Size doesn't matter."

"That's a myth." Harry couldn't help the snort that escaped him at Sheppard's humorous reply to Rodney's serious comment. Sometimes Rodney would say things that could be interpreted the wrong way, but he was completely serious. It made it all the more entertaining when Rodney didn't even realise what he was saying.

"It'll fit. The device traps the creature in subspace. You just need to make sure it gets all the way inside the containment vessel." Rodney turned and glared at Harry, who pulled a blank expression on his face.

"Son of a bitch!" The sharp comment caused everyone in the control room to look up from what they were doing in shock. They may have only been on Atlantis a few days and the Major had only joined the expedition just before they left, but that was enough time for them to come to realise that Sheppard was an easygoing and fair leader. Him swearing needlessly was something they wouldn't have expected from him.

"What happened?" Elizabeth didn't even bother to try and hide her anxiety.

"Damned thing took one look and went away. It's a lot smarter than we thought."

Elizabeth sighed and thought for a moment. "Right. Turn the device off." She turned and looked over the gateroom toward the stained glass windows. The first rays of dawn were just starting to illuminate the room, casting multicoloured shapes on the gateroom. She turned back to her staff, who were watching silently her. "We have all been awake for hours and have been working hard. I think we should all take a quick break. Go and get something to eat, or some coffee. Or even just get some fresh air. We'll meet back here in half and hour to plan what we should do next."

Harry sat still for a few moments as everyone else cleared out of the control room, heading to different parts of the tower to do whatever it was they could do to relax for the next thirty minute before they had to get back to the stress and doom of the current crisis. He sighed and carefully put his tablet on the console and put his radio back in his ear. He had taken it out for a few minutes because it was irritating him, but he needed to replace it because if he didn't, he could guarantee that someone would need him for something urgent and not be able to contact him.

He was a few minutes behind everyone from the control room as they hurried around, trying to cram as much as they could into their thirty minute break, but Harry slowly made his way to the mess for something to eat. He didn't need anything else, other than a good hot meal. He had been awake so long, and was still full of adrenaline from the constant pressure and stress of the situation, that he was feeling wide awake and alert. Because of him dragging his feet, and it being just after sunrise, the mess was empty except for the cooks and a few marines with the early patrol duty.

"What hot food have you got this morning?" Harry moved towards the serving line where the hot food was being placed onto hotplates and spoke to one of the cooks. He stopped a careful few feet away from the hotplates, not looking at the cooked bacon, sausages and other meat dishes available.

"How about bacon on toast? That is popular with the marines and you want to get it before it goes." The young cook looked up and smiled at Harry, who shook his head.

"Harry is vegetarian, Lucas." Matt came up behind the younger man and nodded to Harry, before turning back to his fellow cook. "He is the one that designed the stock programme for us, back on Earth."

Lucas' smile got wider. He extended an arm as if to shake Harry's hand, but Matt caught it and subtly pushed it back down. Lucas looked confusedly between Matt and Harry, who decided to put him out of his misery with an explanation. Most people on the expedition had met Harry, who had briefly explained his quirks to them, and they had told most of the other people that Harry had not met yet. But there were still a few who didn't know him, or his unusual habits, yet.

"I am from an old family and have had a very traditional upbringing and education. Because of this, I was taught social etiquette that may seem strange to others. One such thing is that I don't believe in unnecessary physical contact. I apologise if I have offended you."

Lucas' smile, which had faltered, came back full force. "No, I understand. I did some travelling and backpacking before I joined the marines, so have seen lots of different cultures. And I was based at the SGC and the Alpha site for over a year before we left for Atlantis, so I respect and understand different customs and practices." Lucas looked down at the serving trays. "I've just made some porridge, if you would like that. And I have either honey or fresh fruit to go with it."

Harry bowed his head slightly and gave a small smile in thanks. "That sounds great. I will have some honey with it, please."

"Make sure to put plenty of the honey on. Harry is a fiend for anything sugary." Matt called over to Lucas as he bounded down the hotplate line to get Harry's breakfast.

Harry ignored Matt and thanked Lucas as he passed him his bowl. "Thanks. I really need to eat this and then get back to the control room. I've not got long left of my break." Harry glanced at his watch.

"We'll leave you to it then." Lucas and Matt both moved off to start serving as scientists, Athosians and marines began to flood the room. Harry found himself a nice quiet table out on the balcony to eat his breakfast in peace, watching the sun move higher in sky.

---

Harry was wondering when he would start to become sick of the sight of the control room. He had no doubt that this current situation would be the first of many crises, and he could foresee himself spending a long time in this very room that was the heart of the city of Atlantis. But he couldn't complain really. Harry knew exactly how dangerous the expedition could be and how hard he was expected to work – how they all would have to work. Elizabeth had made it abundantly clear to him before they left Earth.

"We need to know where it is right now." Elizabeth was beginning to sound frustrated and Harry couldn't help but admire her slightly. She was only just starting to show he high stress and frustration levels. Harry felt like he was only just starting to observe what a great leader she was, and had no doubt it would become more evident during their time on Atlantis.

"We'll have to turn the power on to use the sensors."

"You can't do that."

Harry took a seat at the primary control console. "What else can we do Rodney? We need to know where it is exactly so we can decide what to do next – or at least to get people out of its path so that we don't have anymore people fried like Lieutenant Ford."

"Do it - just the Operations Tower."

Peter nodded and moved to turn the power back on, but Harry was already ahead of him because he was sat at the needed console. He powered up the generator that supplied the primary power to the control and Gateroom. The lights came on around them and the consoles flared into life.

"What now?" The military commander of Atlantis had re-entered the control room whilst they were debating about turning the power back on (or rather, Rodney was debating), flanked by a few marines.

Elizabeth didn't answer the Major's question, having no firm reply to give. She studied the screen of the laptop on the console before Harry. "It's headed this way."

"Because you turned the power back on!" Rodney snarked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We can't go on like this." Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a few moments, ignoring the people in the control room staring at her as if she could pull an amazing solution out of the air. Harry looked away, knowing what it was like to be in her position, where everyone expected something from you. Elizabeth reopened her eyes and was about to say something else when Teyla's soft voice sounded from next to the windows overlooking the Gateroom.

"Do you think it wants to be here?"

"What do you mean?" Sheppard moved closer to her, a questioning look on its face.

"It's been trapped here for thousands of years, alone." Harry looked at the Athosian closely as she spoke. He could hear the hints of sadness in her voice for the creature. He found himself agreeing with Teyla's emotions. It was sad that this simple creature had been shoved in a box for thousands of year, left to starve by the Ancients.

"It's not alone any more."

"It doesn't think on that level. It thinks about eating, that's it." Rodney's voice was superior, as though he were explaining to children.

"Well, you would know!"

"Ok." Harry could see that Rodney's abrasive personality was starting to annoy the others. He stepped in before they got into a full-on verbal fight. "Now is not the time to be arguing. We need solutions, and to get them we need to work together. Please, continue Teyla."

Teyla gave Harry a sweet smile. "If we stay, it will kill us."

"Not unless we kill it first." Harry looked away so that the others wouldn't see him roll his eyes. It was a typical military suggestion – if you don't understand it, kill it. But Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for the creature trapped on Atlantis. He wasn't exactly innocent himself – he had killed during the War. But he had never gone out of his way to kill a simple creature whose only crime was being starving. He would exhaust every other possibility before he even considered something as inhumane as killing it.

"Well, I don't see how." Rodney's voice held a tone of sulkiness that the other chose to ignore.

"Then either we must go or it must. Maybe it wants to go." Teyla's reasoning seemed to make sense to the humans in the control room. It wasn't like they had many other options right now. Teyla turned back to the windows and pointed to the static gate. "If we open the Stargate ..."

---

Harry fiddled with his tablet, making sure that they diagnostic he was running for the fourth time gave the same readings and results as the last three had. He was stood next to a MALP that had been driven in my Nate and Zack and positioned in front of the Stargate. Rodney and Sheppard were stood on the other side of the MALP. A small box was resting on top of the vehicle, which Sheppard opened to reveal once of the spare naquadah generators.

"This is a bad idea." Rodney carefully removed the device from the box before Sheppard could reach over and grab it.

"You said that already." Elizabeth came down the steps and stopped beside them, watching them work.

"Well, it's worth saying again."

Rodney busied himself with calibrating the naquadah and Harry used his spare few moments to run another last minute diagnostic. Hearing quick steps behind him, he span and saw that Teyla was bounding quickly down the staircase.

"It's coming."

"An open Stargate is a huge power source. This thing is smart. It knew enough not to get trapped in the Ancient containment vessel again. How much do you think it's going to follow a naquadah generator through a wormhole?" Rodney tried to get his point across even as he turned the generator on and put it back in the box.

"You got a better idea?"

Rodney ignored him, locking the box. He turned to Harry. "Do we have a go with the remote control programme?"

"Yes." Harry tucked his tablet under his arm.

"You sure?"

Harry turned and gave Sheppard a carefully blank look. "I ran the diagnostic five times. I'm sure."

Elizabeth stepped in before Sheppard could reply. "Harry, no one is questioning your abilities. We are all just a little on edge – we have one chance at this. We have to get it right."

Harry nodded. "Of course. I'm going to head up to the control room and help Peter."

"Good luck." Harry heard Rodney hurry after him, giving his best wishes to those in the Gateroom. Once at the top of the stairs, Harry entered the control room and took a seat next to Peter at the primary control console. He saw that there was a list of gate addresses from the ancient database and a description of each planet on the laptop screen in front of the other British man.

Harry pointed out a gate address to Peter. "Is this the one you were considering?"

Peter nodded, but was interrupted from a more elaborate reply when his laptop flashed and gave a chirp in warning. "It's almost here."

"Do you have an address?" Elizabeth had appeared silently behind them.

"M4X-337. Barren wasteland."

"Dial it." Rodney began to quickly tap out the address on the crystal buttons of the DHD, only needing to consult the laptop screen for the address once. He reached the end of the short sequence and hit the final connection button. The Stargate kawhooshed and finally settled back inside the ring, glowing the typical eerie blue.

Harry looked over the console towards the Gateroom and saw that all the entrances and exits were filled with pitch black darkness. He saw Sheppard dash across to the MALP and hit a button. It gave a mechanical creak, before trundling towards the Stargate. Sheppard ran up the stairs to the control room just in time as the entity engulfed the Gateroom, enveloping the MALP.
"It's not going anywhere." Rodney's voice had risen in pitch, which Harry had come to identify as true panic setting in.

"I can't see if the M.A.L.P. got through."

"The entity could have drained the battery."

Harry moved closer to the console and began to rapidly type on the laptop secured to the top. "I'm getting no readings whatsoever. The entity must have drained all power from the MALP."

"It could be feeding off the generator, off-off the Stargate. I mean, this is disaster."

"Shut it down."

Rodney hit the central control button on the DHD and hit it harder than was actually necessary when nothing happened. Harry leaned across Peter and grabbed his tablet. Quickly using the interface that he had set up when they first arrived on the city, he attached the tablet directly to the primary console and accessed the systems. Ancient coding began to scroll across his screen and his flicked from side to side as he rapidly picked out the Ancient words that would tell him what he needed. Looking up, he shook his head when he saw Rodney staring at him. There was nothing he could do.

"I can't." Rodney's voice was quiet, but carried across the room.

"The consoles are dead." Harry looked down and saw that the consoles were dead and that his tablet had stopped displaying Ancient text, and was flashing a lost connection message. Harry ignored the panicked conversation going on around him as he tried to think of a solution to the current life-or-death situation he had managed to find himself in.

Harry took a few deep breaths and allowed his mind to become calm, blocking out the storm of emotions that were crashing around. He connected with his senses and allowed his magic to enhance them, expanding to fill the control and Gateroom. He could feel the others around him, their emotions buzzing like angry bees. He barely managed to hold in a gasp of shock when his senses probed the entity.

It was like a boiling mass of energy. Wizards abilities were not really magical in origin – Harry know knew that wizards were biologically more advanced than other humans in that they could manipulate and control different forms of energy. They couldn't create energy themselves (that was impossible according to the laws of physics), but they could transform and use energy to control their environment. Wizards now knew this thanks to science and their embracement of the modern world and technology. This being was made of pure energy and Harry could feel himself trying to connect with the rolling mass of pure energy.

Harry was considering his options – he would allow the others to discover what he was because this was a justifiable situation and he probably wouldn't survive it anyway – when Sheppard's panicked voice broke into his concentration. His eyes snapped open and he saw that Rodney was walking down the steps to the Gateroom, the green glowing device of the shield once more on his chest.

Rodney ignored the shouts and calls from his colleagues in the control room and marched straight down the last few steps into the mass of darkness. It was a tense minute whilst they all held their breath, edging towards the staircase. Harry heard many gasps of surprise and delight as the entity entered the glowing event horizon of the Stargate and disappeared, but Harry only had eyes for the prone figure on the floor of the Gateroom. He saw Sheppard run down the last few steps and grab Rodney's wrist to check his pulse, tapping his radio at the same time to demand a medical team.

"The power must have been drained by the entity." Harry saw Peter gently pick up the shield device and look at it just as Harry came to a halt next to his prone boss.

"He's not burned. He's breathing. McKay? McKay." Harry didn't think it possible for someone's voice to be both worried and relieved at the same time, but Elizabeth somehow managed it.

Harry took a step back as Rodney opened his eyes and began to ask what had happened. Rodney was already surrounded by people and Harry didn't want to add to the claustrophobic feeling now that he knew the grumpy Canadian would be alright. He watched silently as a medical team came running in, Carson close behind. It took a while, but Rodney finally agreed to get on the gurney.

Harry started up the steps to the control room, when Nate, Zack and Daniel caught up to him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply, when Elizabeth's voice called out to him. "Harry is going to do whatever he wants. We'll manage here."

"But there is so much to check and diagnostics to run…" Harry protested.

Elizabeth gave him a stern look. "You've been working for more hours than I can count. We'll manage here – look, Radek and the others have already started now. Go. I don't want to see you until tomorrow."

"Fine." Harry turned to the marines. "I'm kinda running on adrenaline right now. I was thinking of stopping by the gym or sparring room, grabbing something to eat and then sleeping until tomorrow morning. What do you guys think?"

Daniel rubbed his neck. "Well, our shift actually finished a couple of hours ago, so…"

Harry glared at them all. "Seriously guys, I don't need body guards."

Nate chuckled, leading the way out of the control room. "Oh, we know. You manage to beat the crap out of us every time we spar. But you're our friend and we protect our own."

"Ok fine." Harry rolled his eyes, even though he was touched. "But I'm still going to kick your arse this time, no matter how much you try and sweet talk me."

---

Harry entered the quiet room and tried not to disturb the sedate atmosphere present in the control room. He had fully intended to go to bed once he had finished sparring and eating a quick lunch/early dinner. It may only be early evening, but Harry fully intended to try and get in a full twelve hours of sleep before he had to once again get up early tomorrow morning for a new day of work. He just needed to get his tablet from where he had left it on one of the console in the control room.

Harry was just shoving it into his backpack, when Rodney's voice sounded next to his shoulder. "I thought Elizabeth virtually ordered you not to come back here until tomorrow."

Harry turned around and gave the Canadian a small smile. "She did. I just came to grab my tablet and then I'm going to bed and sleeping blissfully until tomorrow morning." Harry eyed the physicist, trying to see any injuries he might have. "Carson actually let you out to come back to work in the control room."

Rodney snorted. "Hell no. He doesn't even know I've escaped the infirmary yet. I just need to make sure that my minions haven't done something to destroy the city."

"He will find you gone and then track you down, you know. Carson is scary like that."

"Well, I'm a busy and important man." Rodney tapped away on his laptop for a few moments, before looking up again at Harry. His voice was unusually quiet for the normally abrasive man. "Sheppard asked me to join his gate team."

Harry blinked. He would never have seen that one coming. He knew from the ever-present rumour mills on Atlantis that Sheppard had asked Teyla to join his team, as well as Lieutenant Ford. But he would never have guessed that the military man would ask someone like Rodney to join – he assumed that another burly and trigger happy marine would be asked. Harry was glad though that Sheppard had enough sense to see that Rodney was a good and brave man deep down, once you worked your way past the arrogance and bluster.

"Congratulations." Harry gave Rodney a genuine smile and small bow of his head in acknowledgment. "You deserve it."

"Thanks, but I'm not – I mean –" Rodney stuttered for another few moments. "I mean, I've not agreed yet. I'm not sure."

Harry shook his head. "Rodney, you are a brilliant man. And we've all seen just how brave you can be. Sheppard would be lucky to have you on his team. At least give it a try. You don't have to stay on an offworld team if you don't like it."

Rodney nodded his head. "Yeah. I guess you are right. I should at least try it." A smirk appeared on Rodney's face. "And Sheppard is lucky to have me on his team. He should be honoured that I would give up my time to be a member of his team and let him use my genius."

Harry smirked and headed towards the exit that led to the personal living quarters. "That's right. He is. See you in the morning Rodney."

Harry was just leaving the room when he heard Carson's loud and very annoyed voice berating Rodney for escaping the infirmary. Harry made his way to the room, chuckling to himself in amusement. Coming to Atlantis was the best decision he had made in a long. It may have only been a few days, but it was starting to feel like home.