"What progress have you made Rodney?"
"We're doing everything we can, Elizabeth, but bending the laws of physics requires a little time. We've got our best working on it, but we have to run through a lot of variables to come up with a safe method."
"Does that mean you have an unsafe method?" Carson asked.
"Well, we still believe that we can come up with something better, but if all else fails we have something."
"What is it?"
"We would have to take them back to the compound and subject them to the same burst from the device."
"Won't that just do more damage?"
"Not if we engineer a naquada generator to overload the beam and reverse the polarity. The problem is that the naquada generator, at this power level, will be very unstable. And even with constant monitoring, there's still a high probability for error."
"Rodney, explain to me what that means."
"That means they're both dead. We even run the risk of killing them if this works."
Elizabeth stopped herself from reprimanding Rodney, she knew that guilt was the thing driving him now, as his friend deteriorated. He'd spent most of today away from his lab and playing with the kids, and somewhere in his mind he thought if he'd been working he could've stopped this. "Keep working on it Rodney, we need a viable solution. Carson, what did your scans reveal?"
"The center of their brains that controls long term memory is firing at random." He paused a moment and took in the look on Elizabeth's face. It was a sign of how stressed they both were. Carson was usually perfectly understandable in his explanations, and Weir never let her frustration show.
"It's like when you smell freshly baked bread and remember being at your grandmother's house. The memory isn't strong enough to make you believe you're there, but it's strong enough to prompt unbidden thought. Both the Colonel and Teyla are experiencing such prompts, but without any stimuli, and not quite as happy a selection of memories. Right now there's nothing we can do but pray stimulants can keep them lucid."
"Carson," Weir sighed, "I need you to be completely honest with me. What's going to happen if we don't return them to normal?"
The tension mounted n Carson's voice as he answered. "If we can't get their brain chemistry to normal, the memories will grow stronger, and they'll spend the rest of their lives trapped in their own worst memories."
"Halling has demanded that if there's nothing we can do for Teyla, he'd like her sent to be with them on the mainland. He thinks that some familiar faces, even if they're twenty years older than she remembers, will do her some good."
John saw the horror steadily overwhelm Teyla's face and he clicked off the radio. "Before you say anything, you need to know something else." John reached into his pack and pulled out the computer that she'd stolen for him. There was John's picture and his status report.
"'Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. Commander of the Atlantis military contingent.' I was a pilot, and from what I can tell, it was some twist of dumb luck that landed me here, and as a ranking military officer. Those dreams I've been having all correspond to an event in here.
"The boy who wakes me every time, his name was Aiden Ford, he was our friend. He died on a Hive ship to save me." John's voice got anxious and quick as he saw the recognition spread on Teyla's face. He needed to make it all the way through this before either of them backed out. "The Old man from my nap today, his name was Sumner, he died on our first mission out... I shot him. I killed a man. Every nightmare I've had, it belongs somewhere in this file." He clicked to the next page and showed her a picture of herself. "Read you own file Lady, find out who you are in this world."
She took the computer and scanned through for several minutes, her face falling with the proof that every nightmare was real. John leaned against the doorframe, listening for approaching sound. He knew that Atlantis would hide them, just like she had during the escape from the marines, but he wanted to be sure no Caldwell-prodded marines stumbled across them. Soon there would be a citywide manhunt for them, but Atlantis would refuse to cooperate, and so would Ronon. They'd explained the plan to him, and he knew as well as they did that this was their only option. Ronon sent Carson off to the meeting, telling him he'd have the nurse administer the sedative. They'd waited two minutes then slipped in a side room by the Jumper Bay, while Ronon gathered all the things John would need.
Teyla silently joined him at the door, and slipped the data pad into his pack. "I can feel it wearing off, Boy. We won't have enough for us both."
He summoned whatever determination he had left and threw it into his voice. "Yes we will." Teyla leaned against the door across from John and cupped his face with her hands. She forced him to look her in the eyes.
"I can't fly a jumper. I can't overload a generator. All I can do is sit and watch you fight your demons to save our lives." He stepped away and turned his back to her, hunching over his shoulders.
"We shouldn't be making any noise, someone might hear us." It was weak and he knew it.
"I can already hear him calling me, Boy- the wraith. He's been stalking us both every time we sleep, I can already hear him out here. In a few minutes he'll have taken me over, and I'll be watching him feed on my father again"
John just paced back and forth, counting the steps to cross the room, trying to block her out. "He said there were even better dreams waiting for me on the other side." She stepped in his path and made him look at her again.
"He said there are things within man that are worse than in wraith. He smiled. He said I'd get to watch more than just my father die." He braced his hands and leaned against the door, praying that Ronon would signal them. He didn't want to listen to this.
"John." He turned around leaned against the door. "You can do this." John's radio beeped three times, the signal that Ronon had everything set up. Teyla held out her hand, and John mirrored her palm, just like they'd done when they'd first woken to this world.
"I trust you. In this life, and in the other, and in all the ones to come, that will never change." He waved his free hand in front of the lock and took her hand. They paused for a moment, then ran into the bay.