"You need me for what, exactly?"
The scientist with a cigarette in his mouth and a heaping mug of coffee cocked his eyebrow at the man standing in front of him, a Colonel Jack O'Neill from the SGC. He knew the man by reputation only… he'd been working on solving a difficult equation relating to the Stargate, had seen him around the SGC a few times, and when he'd left there to work in a more private setting closer to home and simply send his results to Dr. Samantha Carter, he'd gotten permission from O'Neill to do so.
That said… Nicholas Rush had no idea why he was there now.
"We have a situation that we need an expert on… we have two there, but we could use your expertise…"
"Who's there now?" Rush asked, tapping his cigarette on the ashtray to get the ashes off the top.
"Rodney McKay and his wi-"
"You have McKay there and you need me to come too?" Rush asked incredulously, taking a gulp of his coffee.
"Nick…" Sam began to speak. "He could really use your help on this one."
"Then you go. That'd make him more happy than if I went anyhow. I'm almost onto something here … I've just about deciphered this gate address and unlocked a new destination further out than even Atlantis." He said, as Samantha shook her head.
"Nicholas, they've discovered a new race… it's so secretive to the Asgardians that they refuse to even speak to us about them. They close up and act very defensive. All we've been able to decipher is something about an ancient war… but any more info and they're more tight-lipped than Fort Knox." Sam said, making Rush lean forward in curiosity.
"Ok… you've piqued my curiosity…" he said, as O'Neill threw a file on the table in front of him.
Rush picked up the folder and glanced at it, before looking up to Samantha and Jack.
"The Olympians?"
"Yes, Kait… they called themselves the Olympians from what I can gather from these texts, although we knew that already from the briefing. To tell you the truth, this part is not my specialty, the mechanics however… I feel like a kid in a candy store… have I mentioned that this is pretty sweet lately?" Rodney jabbered on, as Kait rolled her eyes and rolled out from under a control panel.
"Yes, Rodney, you did. Multiple times." She said, as he went on.
"I mean, their mechanics are so close to the Asgardians, but you can see the variations in the circuitry. They wired everything differently… I mean even the Ancients would have had a tough time with these guys. It's insane. And the way they powered everything… those gems are more powerful but these Olympians used a source of power well beyond the Asgardians… I have no idea what the gems are for though." He said, as Kait nodded from under the control panel and finished re-wiring a few things.
"Ok, that should do it. Have you got the program typed yet? The math was… well I could do it but, you know." She said as he nodded.
"Yeah, I know, you're good but my math is better. You need more time than we have here. It's ok. You can say it." He said, shooting her a look as Teyla smirked and went back to what she was doing before.
"Say what?" Kait asked, a hand on her hip.
He was about to finish when he finished inputting the codes, the whole console flaring to life and the room glowing, text glowing all over the walls of the room.
Kait looked up at the writing around them, and blinked.
"It's Greek!"
"Yeah I'm having issues reading it too."
"No, you ding dong, look! The writing is in Greek. It's literally the Greek language from Earth!" she said, gesturing him to look up. As he looked around, he blinked and then swore lightly.
"Well, I'll be damned… it sure is!" he said, as she examined the text.
"We need to make a call."
"Oh don't even say it. It's bad enough I had to call Rush in, but if you tell me that I have to call in that stubborn, been-dead-more-times than a freaking zombie bookworm in here…"
"Rodney, either you call Sheppard or I will, but either way… we need Daniel here to translate this."
Rodney started to swear, but he grabbed his radio and began to make a call to Sheppard.
Half an hour later, the three were packed up and heading back to the gate, Kait and Rodney looking over their findings with enthusiasm.
"Kait, did you see this? The data we got from that console is amazing, once we can translate it we'll know more about these people than we do about the Asgardians."
She nodded and pulled up a file. "I'm more interested in this…" she held up a diagram of gemstones, in a list format.
"Oh yeah, definitely, I mean we could potentially power Atlantis for years with those gems." Rodney said, grinning broadly.
"Why, Doctor McKay, you're practically glowing." Kait grinned, making him roll his eyes and nudge her shoulder in amusement.
Their walk continued, as a rumble began to be heard overhead of them. The three looked up, and then gasped. A huge ship was above them, and a beam of purple light was scanning everything around them.
"I thought Elizabeth said this place was abandoned…" Rodney said to Teyla.
"It was…we've never had someone show up and we've been here twice…"
"Less talking, more moving guys…I don't want to be here when they find out we've been playing with their things." Kait said, as they began to make a run for the gate. Making their way through the ruins of the city, they ducked under an overhang just as a scanner went above them.
Kait pressed her body into the cold stone of the building behind her, trembling slightly.
"Make sure you tell Elizabeth you were right." She said to Rodney, as he grumbled.
"I knew it, something like this always happens… I knew it."
The scanning ship took off for another part of the city, and they all bolted for the gate.
As they got to the gate Rodney skidded to a halt and began to punch in the Atlantis address into the DHD. The gate flared to life with a watery rush, and they moved for it just as two beings beamed onto the planet's surface. They were stunning, and looked like utter perfection. Robed in white, trimmed in silver and gold, it made them stop for a moment to stare.
And then one of the beings raised a hand and shot fire at them, just barely licking Rodney's arm with the flames.
"AAAH! HOLY CRAP!" Rodney exclaimed as they moved into the event horizon.
As they arrived back on Atlantis, Kait began to shout. "CLOSE THE GATE! NOW!"
The gate shut down , and they could hear Elizabeth shouting for a med team to come down to the gate room. Kait quickly dropped her pack and moved to Rodney to inspect his burned arm.
"What the hell happened? Was it the Wraith?!" Elizabeth asked them, as Kait shook her head, Rodney's teeth gritting as she tentatively inspected his wounds.
"No, it wasn't… these people… they were gorgeous, definitely not Wraith." Kait said, as Teyla nodded.
"They had strange abilities as well… that is how Rodney was burned. They shot fire at him."
Elizabeth blinked in surprise. "They… shot fire? From a weapon you mean?"
"No, Dr. Weir… from their hands." Teyla said, making Elizabeth stare for a moment.
Carson and the new doctor came in, a US Doctor named Jennifer Keller, and began to check out Rodney's arm.
"Rodney, how do you always manage to get hurt?" Carson asked, making Rodney scowl.
"Well it's not like I do it on purpose like some kind of Sado-Masochist, Carson…" he said, grimacing in pain as they cut his sleeve away from the wound.
"Well, Dr. McKay, you do have a huge file in the medical records." Keller said, smirking at them. "Something about a trip to a foreign planet…"
"Which time, we've been to a lot of those." He said crossly, as Keller moved into her bag to grab ointment.
"A bio-weapons lab a year or so ago stood out to me." She said with a chuckle, making Rodney and Kait both straighten and stiffen. The trip to Sokra was still a rough topic for them, it had resulted in a lot of good, but left them with a lot of foul memories that they didn't like to relive.
Rodney stood and looked at Carson. "I'll be in the medical ward." He said shortly, moving for the door and cradling his arm. Once he had left, Carson right behind him, Keller spoke. "What's his issue? It was a virus, right?"
Kait quietly looked at her. "No, it wasn't just a virus… it almost cost us our lives." She said, as she picked up her pack and moved to follow Rodney and Carson, leaving a slightly bewildered Keller behind.
As Kait reached the medical ward, she walked in to find Carson quietly talking to Rodney, as he finished removing the cloth from Rodney's arm. Kait gasped as she saw the damage.
"I thought it was just a mild burn!" she said, noting the blistering and the charring skin on his outer layer of skin.
"Aye, initially it was, but it's acting as if it's napalm… it's still burning. I'm working on stopping the burning but so far nothing has worked. He's not in pain for whatever reason, but he's going to irreparably damage his flesh. Ancient medicine can only do so much for him right now. I can slow the process, almost to a halt, but I can't get it so that he'll begin to heal. I'm going to bandage his arm, if he begins to be in pain he will need to come back, but other than that… I mean I see no need to keep him here until I can begin to permanently heal him…" Carson said as he moved to grab some salve, bandages and gauze. "I'll need to change this once a day, and he can't get it wet until it's time to remove them because it could get very infected." He warned, beginning to cover the patch of burned skin with the ancient medicine to slow the burning to a halt, then covered it with gauze, and finally wrapped it.
After Carson finished, Rodney stood and stretched a bit, giving Kait a look once he noticed the worry on her face.
"I'm fine." He said, as she sighed.
"You're not, but I can't convince you of that… are you ok after what Princess Insensitive said?" Kait asked, as he nodded.
"Kait, I'm fine. I promise. I'm not worried about her, She didn't know. When did she arrive anyhow, the last week or so? I mean we've only been back… a day. She had no idea and probably thought she was being funny or something." He said as Kait sighed and crossed her arms.
"The burn from the fire isn't actually hurting you?"
"No, I don't know why but it's fine… aside from it getting worse. We need to get that data deciphered from that city though, there may be an answer in there."
She nodded as they both headed for the science labs, looking over the data on Kait's tablet, since his was in his pack at that point. As they walked, they heard the announcement that there was an incoming wormhole.
"That'll either be Daniel or the other guy… Rush, I think you said his name was." She said as Rodney nodded.
"Probably Jackson, Rush has been working from his home lately so O'Neill and Sam will have had to go get him from there." He said, as Kait nodded.
"Well, he knows where to find us."
And with that, the two walked even quicker to get to the science labs.