Chapter Two

It was as if they had walked back into their own control room. A mirror image. The same militia who surrounded the gate as they entered. The same technicians at the controls. There was one major difference though; it was Rodney – Meredith McKay who was welcoming them, not her. One first glance, he was the same Rodney, but when she looked a little closer he was slightly thinner, and his hairline had receded further. She was sure Rodney's naturally competitive side would be pleased to see this.

'I presume you are your leader, Elizabeth.' He said reaching out to take her hand and kiss it.

Elizabeth looked round to her Rodney in alarm, whose own facial expression was stunned.

'Err, yes. What am I here?'

'You are our expert in Ancient. Well, you were. Our Lizzie is currently on maternity leave.' He said with a smile.

'Maternity leave?' She said, with a strained laugh.

'Yes. I'm sure she'd love to meet you later.' He said, gleefully.

'Who's the father?' Carson asked cheekily.

'Major Jonathan Sheppard. Or you, to be precise.' Meredith said, nodding in John's direction.

'Technically I'm Lieutenant Colonel back home.' John cringed.

Elizabeth turned to look at his reaction, but he was determinedly avoiding her eye.

'So you must have been promoted?' Meredith said.

'Yeah.' John replied.

'Which means you have contact with Earth?' Meredith said.

'Yes. The Daedalus was able to bring a ZPM which gave us the ability to dial home, and to contact you actually.' Rodney said.

'The Daedalus?' Meredith asked.

'A 304 ship developed by the SGC in order to make communication between us and earth possible.' Rodney explained.

'We aren't quite so lucky. We don't have a Daedalus and no means of travelling to earth at the moment. Would you like to continue this conversation in the briefing room, I'm sure we'd be more comfortable there?' Meredith said.

'Is there any way we could arrange for some food? I'm starving.' Rodney asked.

Elizabeth gave him a reprimanding look for his impertinence, but Meredith didn't seem fazed by Rodney and asked a technician to have somebody bring snacks. Rodney was staring at Meredith with seemed to be a fusion of admiration, jealousy and ardour. It must be rather bizarre for somebody who loves himself so much to actually get the opportunity to meet a more successful version of himself. To be honest, she was actually rather looking forward to the alternate version of herself to have a glimpse into what her life could have been like.

When they arrived in the briefing room, Elizabeth was surprised to see plates of sandwiches already laid out for them which Rodney eagerly reached out for at exactly the same moment as Meredith. Trying to suppress a giggle, she watched as the politely pulled their hands away and began comparing their favourite foods. Eventually, when Meredith and Rodney had finally stopped cooing over each other and were each sat with a sandwich, they sat down and were ready to begin.

'Where to begin.' Meredith said, grinning.

'The Wraith sounds like a good place.' John said.

'Why? Our research suggests that they're going to be dormant for over a hundred years yet.' Meredith shrugged.

'That sounds nice.' Sheppard commented.

'I don't understand.' Meredith said.

'We, err, accidently managed to awaken all of the Wraith in the galaxy.' John said.

'You did.' Rodney pointed out.

'How?' Meredith asked.

'When we arrived in Atlantis, we were submerged and Colonel Sumner arranged a team to go through the gate-' Elizabeth said.

'And you met the Athosians. Shortly after you began negotiations, the Wraith attacked and abducted both Colonel Sumner and a woman we – you – met called Teyla. We mounted a rescue mission, but it was too late, both had been killed. Fortunately, we were able to escape before we were detected.'

'That wasn't quite how it panned out for us. We must have got there a little earlier than you did, and we were able to save Teyla, Colonel Sumner unfortunately died, but we managed to wake the Wraith up.' John said, uncomfortably.

'And I thought we were unlucky when you said you had contact with earth.' Meredith grimaced.

'There is nothing that you have come across that could help us defeat the Wraith?' Elizabeth queried.

'We have been able to learn a lot about their physiology from the few we have come across, and we believe there may be a way to change their feeding process so they don't require human life. Progress is slow though.'

'That's bloody brilliant!' Carson said eagerly.

'You haven't been able to develop a cure with all your resources?'

Carson blushed slightly at this comment.

'Sorry, that sounded rude.' Meredith began.

'You wouldn't have apologised.' John whispered to Rodney.

'What I meant was, given that you've clearly had greater opportunity to interact with the Wraith, and help from earth, have you not been able to develop a counter-measure to the feeding process?' Meredith continued.

'We have looked at several counter-measures, but been so far been the Wraith have either overcome the measures, or the measures have resulted in human deaths.' Carson explained.

'Perhaps with the knowledge we have both collected, we'll be able to find a solution without these negative results. After we've assigned you quarters, how would you like to meet our Doctor Beckett?' Meredith asked.

'I'd love to.' Carson said, with wide-eyed excitement.

'Great. Let's get started.' Meredith said standing up.