// I have managed to make Woolsey acting like the bad guy and that was not entirely my intention sorry. Since this is set early in season five he is just a little green. I should also explain that when Carson the clone meets Woolsey here he hasn't got the memories of Woolsey from the last years because he has been working for Michael.
Chapter 6
Early night
If they had been exhausted the day before it was nothing compared to what they were now.
Sheppard sat propped up against the wall, slumbering, while Ronon tiredly paced the cave in frustration of not being able to do anything.
Teyla moved over to Rodney. She and McKay had been trying to decipher as much of the ancient text written there as they could.
"Rodney? We have to rest." The Athosian said tiredly.
"No I have almost got it."
"You will do no good in your present condition Rodney please." She reasoned.
He smiled tiredly. "This could be the key off this planet."
"I don't understand." She said softly.
"Give me a minute." His hands flew over the scanner in his hand, his mind in deep concentration.
Teyla studied him for a moment before moving over to the wall. She had seen carvings before but they hadn't been ancient, at least not made by the Ancients.
"Eureka." Rodney said exited.
John opened one eye. "Spoken like a true scientist."
"A gate." McKay said ignoring the comment.
"Eureka?" Teyla asked.
A second later both Sheppard and Ronon stood beside Rodney.
The Colonel turned to Teyla. "It's an expression made by scientists when they have made a great discovery."
She frowned.
"What is it?" Ronon asked eagerly waiting to get out of their predicament.
"This was an ancient outpost." Rodney said looking fascinated.
"I can imagine that by just looking at the place." Sheppard said ironically.
"I wasn't finished." McKay replied glaring at the colonel.
"You where saying?" John asked.
"This planet has a gate." Rodney replied annoyed.
"Best news I have had for days." Sheppard returned.
"Where is it?" Ronon asked ready to track it down.
Rodney's expression changed. "Ah…that's the bad news."
"Oh there was bad news?" Sheppard said folding his arms.
"Of what I can gather there where some sort of disaster."
"Another experiment going wrong?" Teyla asked.
"I am not sure but the gate is to be located in the great wasteland down south."
"That's it?" Ronon asked sceptically.
"I have always loved the Ancients; they are so straight forward when it comes to sharing information." Sheppard said sarcastically.
"Okay it will be dark in an hour the sun has started to set. I'll say we use a couple of hours to rest and then head out early in the morning before sunrise." The colonel said.
"John our water supplies are almost depleted and without water we will not last long out there." Teyla said.
"I know but we are out of options. Where the hell are Lorne when you need him?"
"He would just be stranded here as well." Rodney said without looking away from the wall he was studying.
Three sceptical team members turned to him forcing him to explain further. "This text was meant to tell people in the future what happened here if the ancient systems would fail."
"Fail? They where depleted hundreds of years ago." Ronon said.
"A very ancient back-up." Sheppard suggested.
"Ha ha very funny." Rodney said.
Teyla ignored their bantering. "Somehow I don't think the Ancients expected it to take this long before anyone set foot here again." She said.
John looked at Teyla then turned back to McKay taking up the previous subject. "Why would a rescue team from Atlantis do no good?"
"Because the same thing would happen to them." Rodney said taking his eyes off the wall looking at Sheppard as if he was daft.
"Would you take that from the beginning?" His eyes narrowed.
"Our Jumper wasn't malfunctioning, it was responding to an Ancient program to disconnect and shut down." He paused briefly to see their reaction.
"But I don't think it was supposed to shut down that quickly. This base was at the frontline in the war. The Ancients who arrived here was never to leave; the jumpers were powered down and used to build up this." Rodney gestured at the walls and the ruins.
"The same thing will happen to our other jumpers." Teyla concluded.
"Can't we get them working again?" Ronon wondered.
"It would take some time; time that we don't have." Rodney replied.
"Arroctys?" Teyla said silently.
"It is a myth." Ronon said.
"What is?" John asked.
Teyla looked at him. "This place; it was called Arroctys."
"You have heard of a place like this?" Rodney said sceptically.
"As Ronon said; we thought it was a myth as we thought Atlantis was. It was told a bout a great outpost where the Wraith was held at bay. But then came a meteorite so heavy that it shook the earth and the sky turned grey."
Ronon continued. "In the end the city was lost and the Ancients lost the war."
"Some of my people say it was meant to be." Teyla added.
Rodney rolled his eyes. "No offence but they weren't very enlightened."
"If there was a gate why didn't they use it?" Sheppard asked.
"They couldn't go out; the weather must have been terrible, the atmosphere wasn't breathable. Imagine the damage a giant rock can do." Rodney said sadly.
"Ironically it was their last stand." Sheppard finished.
oooooooooo
"Major Lorne I have had this discussion with Captain Brooker and I am reluctant to send another team."
"Mr. Woolsey with all due respect hasn't you learned by now that if you stick to protocols in every situation we are going to die."
"I will pretend I didn't hear that major."
"We have lost Doctor Weir and Colonel Carter lost command. This expedition cannot handle loosing Colonel Sheppard as well. Radek and I may have a clue to why they haven't reported in."
Woolsey folded his arms.
"The planet you sent them to have a restricted address in the ancient database." Major Lorne said.
"What does it mean?" Woolsey asked.
"That, we don't know but restricted addresses are usually not good." Evan replied.
"No no we scanned the planet with a jumper; there was nothing there." Richard reasoned.
"Something was down there otherwise they would be back by now. I need permission to call up a rescue team and get them out of there."
"No I will not allow it. You can't go there without knowing what you are walking into. There must be something in the database."
"Mr. Woolsey they have been there for days we can't wait any longer."
"Very well but take it easy and do nothing Colonel Sheppard wouldn't have done."
"That isn't going to pose a problem."
"I am sorry?"
"Nothing Mr. Woolsey." Lorne said as he called over the radio.
"Lieutenant Waters and Hess please report to the gate immediately we are heading out."
Some people on his team still had some recovery to do so he borrowed Lieutenant Waters from Captain Gaspari's team and added Zelenka.
oooooooooo
Carson and Jennifer rushed to the gate room. "What's going on?" Carson asked.
"Major Lorne believes Colonel Sheppard may be in trouble. We are sending a rescue team."
"That's not a minute to late." Carson said worried.
"Major Lorne." Jennifer called over the railing. "I do not like this." She warned indicating that he should rest.
He smiled at her. "I will take it easy I promise."
The doctors watched as the team headed for a jumper.
oooooooooo
It was early hours when Sheppard woke up, he guessed it was somewhere between two and three in the morning. Ronon nodded at him tiredly having had the watch.
"Come on sleeping beauty." John said moving over to the scientist.
"Knock it off Sheppard." Came an annoyed reply.
"Rodney wake up." John said with more force this time.
"What?"
"We have to go."
He turned to the Athosian. "Teyla?"
"I am ready."
Within the next 30 minutes they had reached the entrance of the ruins leaving the cave system behind.
"The wind is increasing in strength!" Rodney shouted over the noise.
Sheppard put on his sunglasses and zipped up his jacket. "Really I haven't noticed. "
oooooooooo
The infirmary was relatively quiet since most of the marines injured during the rescue had either been moved to their quarters or was just sleeping peacefully in their beds. Head nurse Marie was watching over them while Keller was on standby; Carson felt he had nothing to do.
He walked over to Keller who was sitting in his old office, well it was hers now, it felt a bit strange. But Carson wasn't angry about it he liked Keller and she was just what the expedition needed. He couldn't have wished for a better candidate to take over his job. The young doctor seemed to fit in like a hand in a glove.
"So…" Carson began what where ye about to say?
When she looked at him not getting what he asked he explained. "Back in the mess hall?" He sat down in a visiting chair.
"When I had finally managed to accept that Elizabeth would no longer be with us I tried to bury myself in work. The more I thought about me being in another galaxy the more I tried to convince myself that I should resign and return home. When I signed up for this I had no idea what to expect. The first couple of weeks didn't exactly make it any better." She gave him a faint smile and pointed across the room.
"Then one day I decided to go through your drawer."
Carson nodded, he remembered when he had put the disc there. He had been both annoyed and irritated about his friends behaviour. Why couldn't they just be reasonable when being in the infirmary? Their recovery would be so much smoother. Well of course there was Rodney who constantly complained about things and the lovely Teyla who always seemed to see the best in situations. John and Ronon? He couldn't even describe it.
"Carson?"
"Fond memories." He gave her a wicked smile.
"I hoped it wasn't a letter to your mom or something else very private. The last I expected though was a video about Colonel Shepard's team."
Carson laughed. "I saw it as my duty to warn my successor about what to come."
Jennifer chuckled. "Well it did certainly help me. I had to watch everything after coming off my shifts. I really loved your description of them and not surprisingly they are exactly they way you said they would be."
She suddenly laughed. "As I told Rodney; no need to set the records straight."
"But he tried didn't he?" Carson asked a twinkle in his eye.
"He gave up eventually." Keller admitted.
"About one week after the whole chaos of moving the city colonel Sheppard's team came back from a mission injured. Rodney thought he was about to die, John and Ronon tried to nestle their way out of the infirmary but as you said Teyla was reasonable."
Carson nodded. "She is a smart girl. Although what I have seen so far ye seem to have gotten their respect."
"I try to be consequent but sometimes it is hard. After you had been put in the stasis chamber colonel Sheppard disappeared. The moral sank, everything started to go to hell. Then all of a sudden several days later he came back; a future Rodney had sent him here from the future."
Carson frowned. "From the future? Well I suppose there is no point in being surprised around here."
"He has never told us exactly what he saw but I can see it in his eyes that everything wasn't exactly good. Anyway they went after Michael and of three teams five people came back alive."
"The building collapsed?" Carson asked
Jennifer nodded.
"I have heard about it from the marines."
Jennifer nodded again. "Colonel Sheppard was hit by a beam, he should have been in surgery or at least unconscious by the ordeal he had been through."
"Ye let him go?" It was no accusation merely a question.
"Yes." She looked down in the desk.
"I tried to say no but he is stubborn and I have been warned I know. Sometimes I think he is going on force of will only."
"Don't tell me about it." Carson snorted.
"He came back with Teyla and her little son but it cost him surgery and several weeks in bed. It is insane he should have been flat on a bed; he should have been in pain." Keller reasoned.
"He was; he just didn't allow it to show too much. John has a high threshold for pain and when that is reached I am really worried." Carson said.
"I have always hated his self sacrificing side and I have tried so many times to talk some sense into him." The Scottish doctor sighed.
"I am beginning to think all talk about that has fallen on deaf ears." Keller said.
Jennifer continued. "Then there is Ronon he is exactly the same. He refused to let anyone look at him when John was injured and he stayed with him the whole time making sure he didn't injure himself further. He didn't care about his own injuries."
"I understand Rodney delivered the baby?" Carson smiled. "I can imagine the look on his face."
"He did a great job and Teyla is alive and well. Things are actually starting to get back to normal; well as normal it can be in Pegasus." Keller returned the smile.
Carson nodded. "I just hope they will step through that gate in one piece once again."
oooooooooo
To be continued please leave a review if you like it