The Other Side of the Story: John's Point of View
Interlude 15: He was old ... geriatric old
The Gateroom was deserted ... there were no lights, no signs of activity and no people. It felt deserted, strange ... and very hot.
"Somebody turn up the heat?" I called out, looking around. "Hello?" I called out again when nobody answered. Deciding to check things out a bit further I walked towards the stairs to the Control Room, looking around to see if I could spot anyone. "If this is a surprise party, it's not my birthday," I quipped uncertainly, feeling the anxiety beginning to bubble under the surface.
Something was wrong, hugely wrong ... a fact made obvious by the dark and deserted Control Room I walked into at the top of the stairs. Frowning in confusion I activated my headset.
"This is Sheppard. Anyone read?"
There was no reply.
"I repeat, this is Sheppard. Anyone on this channel?"
Still nothing. What the hell was going on here? Spotting the doors leading to the outside balcony I decided to check on the external situation. Only trouble was the door didn't open automatically like it should have when I approached. Pushing it open manually took more effort that I would have expected, the reason becoming clear when I looked outside.
The light was strange, too red, and a wave of heat hit me as soon as I stepped outside. Where there should have been ocean there was only sand, as far into the distance as I could see, miles and miles of desert sand. Moving to the edge of the balcony I looked down in disbelief. The lower levels of the city were half buried in sand ... it was inconceivable. What could have happened since I'd left that morning to explain this? And where was everyone?
What the hell was I gonna do to fix this one?
Heading back inside I tried to access each of the consoles in the Control Room but very clearly there was no power.
"All right. This isn't good," I muttered when nothing worked. "The most elaborate practical joke of all time, or I'm in serious trouble here."
I didn't expect a response but I got one ... of a sort. My radio came to life with a mix of static and what sounded like a voice, garbled and indistinct. I tapped my headset immediately.
"This is Sheppard. Anyone on this frequency?"
There was another burst of static and then a familiar voice replied.
"Sheppard? Is that really you?"
"McKay," I felt the relief sweeping over me. Thank God I wasn't alone after all. I didn't know what had happened but at least Rodney was still alive and hopefully working on the problem.
"I can't believe it! It actually worked!" Rodney replied incredulously.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded impatiently. "What the hell's going on here?"
"I imagine you're a little confused right now," Rodney commented. "God! For you, like, what, five minutes has passed?"
"Rodney!" I retorted irritably, not sure what he meant but impatient to find out.
"Look, I need you to describe exactly what you're seeing," Rodney instructed in a businesslike tone. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the Control Room," I replied. "It's deserted."
"I know – is there any power?" Rodney continued. That didn't reassure me – if he was working on fixing whatever had caused all this, wouldn't he already know about the power?
"No," I looked towards the balcony again, remembering the rest of it. "Everything's dead – and, oh yeah, did I tell you the ocean's gone?"
"Sorry, what?" Rodney was confused – finally something I could help with.
"The big blue thing out the window," I explained. "It's gone. It's – it's – it's a desert – and it's about a hundred and twenty degrees in here."
"Oh, jeez, the planet must have undergone some serious climate changes," Rodney exclaimed.
"If you don't start giving me some answers pretty soon here ...," I let the implied threat stand unspoken at the end of that.
"OK, look, I understand this is hard for you," Rodney replied. "Just do me a favour and go to the Hologram Room."
"Why?" I frowned, even more confused. The city was in serious trouble and he wanted me in the Hologram Room? How was that going to help?
"Just do it. Please," Rodney begged.
Shaking my head I switched on the light on my P-90, setting out at jogging pace. It was a long trip down the back stairs and long dark corridor before I finally arrived at the Hologram Room, a bit puffed out and eager for answers. I'll admit I was more than a little disappointed that Rodney wasn't there.
"All right. I'm here," I announced to the dark and empty room.
"Well, activate the hologram projector," Rodney said like that should have been obvious.
"There's no power," I reminded him.
"It's connected to an independent power source," Rodney revealed. "Don't worry – it will work."
Stepping up to the console I waved my hand over it uncertainly, not really expecting anything to happen.
"Hey there," Rodney's voice from directly behind me had me spinning around in surprise.
Did I say bizarre? At the sight of my friend I moved that along to beyond impossible. It was Rodney, but it wasn't, at least not the one I'd left on Atlantis that morning. He was old ... geriatric old, complete with wrinkles, grey hair and an old man wardrobe topped off by of all things an old brown cardigan.
He was smiling a welcome and I was thinking Crap!, even as I acknowledged his presence. "Rodney!"
"God, it's good to see you again," Rodney said, still smiling.
"You're a hologram!" I couldn't help but point out, even though stating the obvious was usually more his gig.
"No!" Rodney retorted, taking his hands from his pockets to stare at them in pretend disbelief before laughing at his own joke. "Of course! I tapped into the city's internal sensors, so I've got eyes and ears – so to speak. You look good."
"You look, uh ...," I touched my fingers to his chest, watching them sink right through him in sick fascination, "... different."
"That's 'cause you remember me the way I was," Rodney said simply.
"What, you mean earlier today?" I retorted irritably.
"Ah, it's funny, you know?" Rodney commented self depreciatingly. "I spent the last twenty five years of my life trying to figure out how to make this work, and I never once thought what I was gonna say to you when you got here."
"You can start by telling me what the hell's going on here!" I insisted, on the edge of anger ... at a hologram for god's sake.
"Ah. Right, right," Rodney acknowledged my demand. "OK. Um, remember that mission report? SG-1 stepped through the Gate. Their wormhole accidentally intersected with a solar flare and they were sent back to 1969."
"Uh, well, vaguely," I admitted.
"Well, something similar has just happened to you," Rodney announced.
"I was sent back in time?" I looked at Rodney for confirmation. Sent back in time wasn't so bad right? SG1 had made it through that and presumably Rodney knew how they'd done it so I was set.
"Uh, no. In fact, you were sent forward into the future," Rodney explained.
The future ... just like Sabina. I guess that proved beyond doubt that future travel really was possible, even without the intervention of an Ascended being.
"How far into the future?" I asked worriedly. Given the level of change around the place and the fact that Rodney was really, really old I braced myself for an answer around the fifty year mark.
"Huh, an interesting question – and one that was not easy to figure out," Rodney shifted into classic smug McKay lecture mode. "I had to determine the exact characteristics of the solar flare in question ...,"
"Rodney!" I interrupted irritably – I didn't have time for one of his long winded explanations.
"Forty eight thousand years, give or take," Rodney cut to the chase abruptly.
Maybe I should have let him explain just a little ... the magnitude of that number had my head spinning. "This is a practical joke." God, please tell me this is a joke!
"No, I'm afraid not," Rodney admitted sadly. "Freak accident. Sorry."
"You're telling me I just travelled forty eight thousand years into the future in ten seconds?" I tried to clarify what couldn't possibly be true, no matter what he said. He was a hologram, not the real Rodney McKay which meant he could be wrong. He had to be wrong.
"I know – it is kind of cool when you think about it, isn't it?" Rodney misunderstood my reaction completely.
"Surfing a thirty foot wave in Waimei is cool," I returned, feeling myself getting worked up. "Getting married in Vegas was cool." I was all the way into anger now. "This is not cool!"
"All right, calm down," Rodney insisted, looking at me worriedly.
And that's when it hit me ... the entirety of what being so far into the future meant. Focussing all of that on him I began. "If I'm in the future, that means you're, uh ...," I trailed off, unwilling to put it into words.
"Dead," Rodney completed, not having any trouble with the concept. "Dead and buried and turned to dust a long, long time ago, along with everyone you ever knew."
"Don't give it to me gently Rodney," I thought sickly. "Just hit me right between the eyes."
"There's no way of knowing what the state of human civilisation is; whether it even still exists," Rodney continued to lay down the entire horrible truth. "I mean, we've obviously abandoned the city."
"Obviously!" I looked at him incredulously.
"There's not enough power for you to gate back to Earth, and without a MALP, going anywhere else would be far too risky," Rodney didn't react to my mood. "It is entirely possible that you are the last human being alive."
The last human alive? That was possibly the saddest thing I'd ever heard. My mind was reeling ... that was the only explanation for why it took me so long to realise something important. The holographic Rodney was the creation of my Rodney ... who'd lived a fair portion of his life beyond the right now ... and who'd hopefully transferred some kind of accounting of that life to the version standing before me.
"Sabina," I asked urgently. "Did we find Sabina?"
"In a manner of speaking," holographic Rodney replied evasively.
"In what manner of speaking?" I demanded impatiently.
"In a manner you're not going to be happy hearing," old Rodney admitted, everything in his manner sending dread streaming through me. And suddenly I didn't want to know ... I wanted to hold on to my hopes that everything had worked out ... at least for a little while longer.
"You're not doing a very good job of cheering me up here," I pointed out weakly.
"Oh, consider yourself lucky, young man," Rodney said mildly. "While I was figuring out this plan, I had no way of knowing whether the city would even survive this long."
"What – what plan?" Now that sounded more like the Rodney I knew ... and it gave me something to focus on.
"I took advantage of some progress in hologram technology to create this simulation," He chuckled at the idea – obviously that was a story in itself. "I'm able to move anywhere inside the city. I'm fully interactive, and I'm designed to mimic the exact response and appearance of the great Doctor Rodney McKay."
"Couldn't use anyone else, huh?" I quipped – that was so like Rodney, although I had to admit I'd be freaking out by now if it had been a stranger rather than Rodney's familiar form.
"Funny," Rodney chuckled again. "I'm linked to the city's main systems, but I have an independent core drive which is sealed in the foundation of one of the outer buildings – along with a Mark Twelve naqahdah generator and a couple of other key components. It's kind of like a, um, well, what do you say – like a time capsule, so to speak."
"It's really nice to have company," I acknowledged half sincerely, "but if what you're saying is true, what good does it do me?"
"Oh, trust me, I wouldn't go to all this trouble just so we could have a chat," Rodney retorted. "No, no – I'm here to bring you back." He turned and started to leave the room and then noticed I wasn't following. "Come on," he urged.
Bewildered by his strange behaviour I followed none the less. Now that I had a self contained hologram accompanying me the lights came on to light our way, switching off behind us.
"Where are we going?" I asked curiously.
"Stasis chamber," he revealed.
"Why?" I demanded ... hoping he was going to say to get someone out of there who could help me but suspecting it wouldn't be that easy.
"To buy some time," Rodney said evasively.
"Well, that really explains everything!" I complained sarcastically, tired of all the mystery.
"Theoretically, we can send you back exactly the way you got here, using the Gate, the right address and a solar flare," Rodney covered the basics of what I recalled from that SG1 file. "The only problem is, we're waiting for something very specific – a prominence with exactly the right shape, size, characteristics and relative position in space so that it will interact with the wormhole in exactly the right manner and send you back exactly the right amount of time."
"And that doesn't happen every day," I concluded.
"Exactly," Rodney confirmed.
"How long are we talking about?" The image of Carson frozen in one of those things was fresh in my mind ... in an unpleasant 'I don't want that to be me' kind of way.
"Oh, seven, eight hundred years," he estimated casually. "A thousand, tops."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," I stopped abruptly and held up a hand in protest. "That's your plan? I'm forty eight thousand years into the future and you wanna put me on ice for another thousand?"
"Tops," Rodney reiterated as if that would reassure me. It didn't and I had nothing to say ... just stood there staring at him in disbelief. "We need to be precise. If I don't get you back within two months of the moment you left, then ... it'll be too late."
"Too late for what?" I thought, not sure I wanted to find out if there was something worse than being hurled 48,000 years into the future.
Authors Note:
I'm fully aware that this chapter has more than my usual level of dialogue from the show, interspersed with my own lines. No other way to do it since all of that explanation was crucial for the rest of the episode and there was no reason for me to rewrite it. The story will branch out somewhat in the next couple of chapters. And of course there is no Sabina ... this is outside of time as far as Sabina is concerned and rest assured we'll return to her and Teyla once I've played out the Last Man scenario.
Next Up? The Other Side of the Story Chapter 16