Chapter 2: Eighteen Hours Earlier
Elizabeth Weir raised her eyebrow and tilted her head in the direction of her Chief Science Officer. He had almost skipped into the meeting with a quirky grin and a tell-tale glint in his eyes, and judging from the animated look that was now on his face, she knew that McKay had found something interesting. Holding back a smile at how young it made him look, she instead asked, "Care to share with the rest of the class, Rodney?"
"Yeah, McKay," Sheppard drawled, leaning back in his chair. "We wanna be excited too."
"Oh, please, Sheppard," Rodney shot back. "You have enough excitement in your life already."
The Air Force man grinned and his reply of, "Yeah, excitement, adventure and really wild things," had McKay sniggering.
"Boys," Weir intoned in what she hoped was a commanding voice, although she had hard pressed to stop a smile of her own at the Douglas Adams reference. There were definitely times when she felt more like a school teacher than the leader of Atlantis. Both McKay and Sheppard were two of the most intelligent people she'd ever known, but more often than not, it was like dealing with two errant teenagers.
Satisfied that they were paying attention again, she looked over to the Canadian. "Now, Rodney, what are you trying to tell us?"
The scientist was practically bouncing in his chair with enthusiasm, and when he spoke his words came out in a rush. "You remember a couple of months ago Zelenka and I created that search programme for the Ancient database?"
The group nodded, exchanging amused looks: it had been all Rodney had talked about for a week and a half. He and Radek had created said search engine for the database in an effort to try to make looking through it easier and more efficient. Their main reason was to try and cut back on the number of hours the Science department had to spend trawling through it – to date, McKay himself had logged over six thousand hours and when that was added to the totals from the rest of his team… Elizabeth couldn't remember the exact number, but she was pretty sure that it wasn't altogether healthy.
Rodney grinned at them all smugly. "Well, it worked."
"And?" prompted John, who hadn't really expected anything less from his team-mate. He covered his sudden feeling of pride with a mock glower. "C'mon, McKay, spill it. Some of us haven't had breakfast yet."
"That's hardly my fault, Colonel," Rodney replied, giving the pilot one his trademark scowls followed by an eye roll. "You should learn to get to the mess before Ronon does."
The Satedan gave them a feral looking grin. "I was hungry."
"You know, Specialist Dex, one of these days, you and McKay are going to eat us out of house and home," Sheppard said, looking sulky. "It was waffles this morning as well."
"Yeah. They were really good too," added Ronon.
"They were rather tasty, weren't they?" Rodney said, unable to resist the opportunity for a jibe. "Especially with the maple syrup."
"Have I told you how much of a rat bastard you can be, McKay?" the Air Force man growled, rubbing his empty stomach.
"Hey, you were the one who decided to stay up most of the night, Sheppard. No one forced you to keep playing Grand Theft Auto."
"I have a reputation to maintain, buddy."
"Yeah, right. You're just in a funk because I got a better score than you."
"Gentlemen? Could we please focus?" Elizabeth shook her head, making a mental note to try and find out who had smuggled the newest stash of games into the city. It wasn't that she had a problem with the expedition members playing computer games in their down time. They were all adults and it was none of her business how they chose to spend their time off. She just wished that they'd asked her if she had a favourite.
After all, there was only so much solitaire a woman could take.
The two of them continued their argument as if she'd never even spoken. "Yeah, but that's only because you found the cheats!"
"It had nothing to do with that! I happen to have excellent hand-to-eye co-ordination."
"You know, McKay, maybe you ought to go and see Beckett."
"What for?"
"Well, you're delusional for a start…"
Sometimes, it really was like being school teacher. Either that or an intergalactic babysitter… She briefly wondered if there was any extra pay to be had for looking after two ten year olds masquerading as section heads.
Weir cleared her throat and gave them the ever dreaded 'mother' look. "Children…"
They ceased their bickering and looked so sheepish that even Teyla had a hard time trying not to laugh.
"Where was I?" asked Rodney, clearing his throat embarrassedly.
"Search engine for the database," John grunted. He was still miffed about missing out on those waffles – and, as McKay had so helpfully reminded him, the fresh batch of maple syrup that had arrived with the new supplies.
"Ah yes, of course. I decided to set up a search for power sources," he explained, bringing up a display on the wall monitor behind him. "And I found this."
The display showed a star map with a planet highlighted.
"M4R-924," Teyla read.
"What about it?" asked John, frowning.
"Apparently, there's an Ancient outpost situated there," McKay replied cryptically.
"So what? There are outposts all over the Pegasus Galaxy!"
'Man, Sheppard's a cranky bunny when he misses breakfast,' Rodney thought. Out loud, he said, "That's true, but this one's slightly different."
"Different?" asked Teyla, her curiosity piqued. "In what way?"
"For a start it supposedly has its very own cloaking system," McKay replied, "which indicates a significant power source. And there are a few other… oddities." He beamed at them then launched into a detailed speech filled with so much techno-babble it made Sheppard's head spin. He thought he caught the word 'drone', but dismissed it as a hunger induced auditory hallucination.
It was hard to keep up with the Chief Science Officer at the best of times (even though he was a maths geek himself) but when the man was this excited about something, the task became almost impossible.
"McKay," he growled warningly, cutting the physicist off as he went into a tangent about Easter bunnies for God only knew what reason. "Today would be good."
"What's your point, Rodney?" asked Weir, trying hard to be as diplomatic as possible.
McKay gave her a grin. "Don't you see, Elizabeth? According to the Ancient database, M4R-924 was where they – the Ancients, that is – were conducting experiments in vacuum energy." He raised an eyebrow and gave them a meaningful look.
That sparked a ripple of renewed interest in the gang.
"You mean as in the Zee PM kind of energy?" asked Sheppard, leaning forward in his chair.
"Possibly," Rodney agreed.
"Rodney," Elizabeth intoned, arching an eyebrow.
He sighed heavily and pointed to the display behind him. "I admit that it might be a long shot," he eventually conceded. "The entry itself was vague to say the least – just a lot of veiled hints, obscure references and so on – but if I'm right," he gave the group a small chuckle as if to say 'when am I not?', "we could have just found the lab where they first created and manufactured Zed PMs." As he spoke, his hands had never stopped moving, creating intricate patterns in the air.
Sheppard often wondered what would happen if he handcuffed the man to the table. "Whoa," he replied, raising his eyebrows. "That's just… whoa."
Rodney grinned at him, nodding. "Yeah, it's kind of cool, isn't it?"
"Hold on a minute, boys," said Elizabeth, stepping in before they became both excited and uncontrollable. "What exactly did the entry say?"
The physicist's grin faded slightly. "Basically, it stated that the outpost was designed and built purely for the purpose of energy experimentation," he told the group. "According to the obscure references I mentioned earlier, it was mainly just one Ancient…" he looked down at his laptop and grimaced, "…uh, Gemæd." He winced as he said the unfamiliar name. "Anyway, he was the one who worked there, and from the few notes of his that I was able to find, it looks like he was trying to design a suitable casing for what sounds like a ZedPM." He shrugged, looking almost apologetic. "Like I said, it's vague but entirely possible."
"Although I admit that being able to procure another Zee PM would be a huge advantage," Elizabeth said, "I'm not entirely sold on this. For all we know, the outpost could have been destroyed by the Wraith or, if it's still intact, it may have been abandoned for a reason." She aimed a rather stern and meaningful look at Rodney.
"Which is why we need to check it out," McKay countered, trying hard to shove the memory of the failed Arcturus project aside.
"What do you think, John?"
"I agree with McKay. We should take a look-see," said Sheppard, with a massive grin. He gave Elizabeth one of his best 'puppy dog' looks, all big eyes and innocence, knowing that it had never failed to win an argument. Beside him, Rodney was nodding feverously.
'Of course you agree with him,' she thought to herself. 'How could either of you resist poking around in a potentially dangerous lab?' Silently cursing herself for being un-immune to the Colonel's charms, she turned her attention to the two other members of Team Sheppard. "Teyla, Ronon? What about you? Have either of you ever been to the planet?"
The Athosian shook her head. "I have not. My people have never been there and I am unfamiliar with any of the surrounding worlds."
"Me neither," grunted Ronon, giving them an odd look. "At least, I'm pretty sure I haven't." If he was brutally honest, he'd lost track of the number of planets he'd visited over his years as a runner. "It doesn't sound familiar."
"Elizabeth, I really think we should go and take a look," interjected McKay impatiently. "And by think, what I actually mean is have to. After all, if this place is capable of doing what it's supposed to, we may be able to use it to our advantage." He gave her a lop-sided smirk. "I mean, who knows? We might even be able to make our own Zed PMs. Just think what we could do if Atlantis was fully powered!" He gave a nervous sounding chuckle as he played his last trump card, "At the very least, we might be able to salvage a couple of drones – the outpost was apparently equipped with a weapon's chair."
It worked perfectly.
Beside him, John sat up a little straighter, ignoring the eye roll aimed at him by the Canadian and the little cough that sounded oddly like 'Pavlovian!'. "That settles it then. This could give us a serious advantage," the pilot stated. "And I don't know about you, but I'm willing to get my hands on anything that could give us an edge."
"The Colonel is right," agreed Teyla. "After all, it is no longer just the Wraith who pose a threat." She looked to Ronon for confirmation, not surprised when the Satedan nodded.
"I'm with them on this one," he said quietly. "Like McKay said, even if the place doesn't work, we can still salvage spares. That's always a good thing."
"Come on, Elizabeth," McKay whined, his eyes wide and pleading. "Please. You know this is a potentially life-changing discovery."
Sheppard bit his lip trying not to laugh out loud. It seemed that Rodney had cultivated his own 'puppy dog' eyes look – that, mixed with the blatant begging, had sounded pretty effective.
Elizabeth sighed and looked at her hands for a moment. She knew that they were right – with the appearance of the Replicators, they seemed to have gained more enemies in the past few months than they could handle. That meant that having more options was a smart move. She slowly looked up and smiled at them. "Very well, you have a go. On one condition," she added as they rose from their seats. "I want to take a look at those entries for myself, Rodney."
The scientist nodded. "I'll get Simpson to send you everything."
"Thank you. Go on then," Elizabeth sighed with weary affection. "Go and find some new toys."
Team Sheppard trouped out of the conference room, chatting animatedly as they headed to gear up. Watching them go, Elizabeth tried to suppress the sudden and unexplainable cold shiver that ran down her spine.