OK, for those of you worried about John's behaviour it comes to a boiling point in this chapter.

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The briefing room was full and John couldn't help but feel out of place as he stood at the head of the table in Elizabeth's normal space. Mostly he wanted to take a step to the right, leave her seat empty for when she came back, because in his mind she was defiantly coming back. He couldn't let himself believe otherwise or he wouldn't be a fit leader for anyone. Looking to his right, Evan Lorne smiled back, his own face pulled with sadness at his lost lieutenant.

Finally, having had enough of the idle chatter John raised his voice, "alright everyone. Settle down. We have another two dead personnel and currently no way to rescue the other five who are missing." Quickly the room quieted, all the faces turning to him as he sat down and looked at Carson. "Have you finished working on the bullet I brought you?"

"Aye, we have," came Carson's broad accent, "it was defiantly the same as what Bonadan found and most certainly blood, but from what kind of organism I have no idea."

"And what made him think it could be used as power source?" Rodney asked, looking between Carson and Dr. Resh.

"Instead of haemoglobin there's another protein bound to what we would normally see as red blood cells, although in the case of this blood, they appear to all intents and purposes to be black. This alternate protein produces energy through something similar to photosynthesis except without the input of light," Dr. Resh explained, watching as Rodney and Zalenka frowned at her explanation.

"So what you're saying is you have no idea," Rodney grumbled scornfully, glaring at the woman.

"And what have you found Rodney?" John asked quickly, attempting to stop an argument.

"Well, let's see. Zalenka and I have identified the energy signature that was on that gun you found, we have also gone through the journal Dr. Weir translated and been able to follow the experiment, oh and possibly found an explanation on how people could have travelled through the city at something short of the speed of light."

"Good, feel free to share," John's voice was lacking in the patience and understanding that Elizabeth always managed.

"The energy signature we discovered seems to be resonating at a frequency that is not from this spatial plain," Zalenka began to explain, the words heavily accented. "It seems that somehow the pistol came in contact with this different zone and the frequency attached itself to the metal."

"Yes, yes," Rodney sputtered, "what he means to say is that when people disappear it's that they slip from this plain of existence to another one, possibly through a rift that can be opened and closed at will or is just fluctuating. It's this which we have been seeing as momentary power spikes throughout the city."

"There's too much consistency for this to be random fluctuations though, surely," Lorne suggested, still trying to puzzle out the science that had been thrown at him.

"I'd tend to agree Major," Rodney continued, "I think it's this that is effecting how fast the victims are moving. It is possible that when this plain interacts with our own time, everything speeds up for those who have come in contact with the specific frequency while those unaffected remain at normal speed. This frequency seems to affect how fast their molecules vibrate, therefore effecting how fast they move. Where this frequency is coming from and how it is effecting only certain people, were still working on that."

"Is it possible to recreate this power spike so we can go through and bring our people back?" Lorne asked.

"I don't know, maybe. But we have no idea where the fluctuation would take you or if we can even pass through it without moving at the speeds everyone seems to have been achieving, or if when you're deposited on the other side of this 'fluctuation' what sort of environment you'll be faced with."

"So in other words, you've got nothing," John growled, frustrated at Rodney's seeming lack of progress and inadvertently turning Rodney's words back against him.

"Oh yes, we've got nothing," Rodney sputtered sarcastically. "After days of working on a solution and ploughing through so much information in the database and completing calculations and experiments and coming up with theory after theory, we've got nothing. We may not have complete plan to serve up to the military on plate yet but at least were getting there. What have the military done? Huh. You've not stopped anyone from disappearing. You've not been able to explain how it's happening?" By the time Rodney had finished he was on his feet, his face red from yelling, his breath coming in short gasps.

"Well if you had a solution then the military could go in and rescue our people instead of waiting around." John's voice was just loud, the harsh edge to his voice making almost everyone gathered wince.

"That is enough," Teyla's raised voice was calm despite every muscle in her body being wire tight. "Yelling at each other is solving nothing and helping no one. Perhaps we should end this meeting now and return to work." Murmurs of agreement ran around the tables and one by one the scientists fled the room, desperate to be as far away as possible. John stayed where he was watching as they left and Radek pulled Rodney from the room, still complaining about the military. Beside him, Lorne shuffled his feet uncomfortably, waiting for Sheppard to dismiss him.

Teyla stayed behind, waiting for everyone to leave before she spoke to John, her voice lower. "You should not have lost your temper. Dr. Weir would not be pleased with how you are handling this situation."

"I'm not Dr. Weir though," John growled, still angry at Rodney, at everyone. "I don't know how to put up with all this scientific crap. I'm no good at waiting. I need to do something."

Sighing heavily, Teyla sat back down. "I know how much Dr. Weir means to you and how difficult it must be to have her taken away like this, but for now you must be patient John. Patient enough for Rodney to find a solution to this and to give you something you can act on. Until then you must control Atlantis the way Elizabeth would want you too, to take command and lead."

Slumping back down into his chair John groaned, running his hands through his messy hair. "I know you're right Teyla. I'm just no good at this."

"Perhaps you should begin by apologising to Dr. McKay. He will be far easier to work with if you are not at each other's throats." She watched as John nodded, the anger seeming to leave him, his muscles slackening before he stood up and left, leaving Teyla alone.

John's trip to Rodney's lab was a humbling one, his honesty apology to Rodney accepted. "We may have plan," Rodney said, as John was turning to leave, "If we can amplify the energy signature we've discovered by using the Stargate's capacitors then we may be able to hold the fluctuation open when it occurs and send our own people through, but you'd be going in blind and probably moving a lot slower than everything on the other side. If you give me some more time I may be able to stabilise the fluctuation and find a way to speed you and your team up." Nodding his thanks John left the lab with a faint hint of hope in his heart.


John watched impatiently as Rodney and his team began fixing what Rodney had called 'high conductivity metals' to the Stargate, coiling the wires around the ring like tinsel on a tree. Teyla was stood at his side, her hope to keep him and Rodney from killing each other while Lorne stood at his other, his acting second in command. He'd already told Teyla she didn't need to be here; the anger he'd felt at losing Elizabeth had morphed into acceptance of her disappearance. His only hope now was currently stood at the bottom of the stairs yelling at Zalenka.

"We have maybe five minutes before the next fluctuation and your calculations aren't ready?"

"No Rodney," came Zalenkas' frustrated reply, "I told you the calculations we worked on don't take into account the Stargate's ability to hold a charge. If the charge from this fluctuation continues to feed into the 'gate and build a sufficient static-electric charge, then the capacitors will overload. It could shatter the naquadah in the Stargate."

"No they won't, we've connected the Stargate to the grounding stations. That will allow the excess charge to dissipate safely."

"I'm telling you it won't be enough," he replied in a shout. Having rarely heard Zalenka yell Rodney was slightly surprised, only staring at him for a moment before his tablet began to bleep. Turning away from the Czech he looked up to the control room.

"We have two minutes." With one last look at the 'gate Rodney turned and began climbing the stairs to operations, Zalenka close on his heels.

John looked between the two scientists, the glimmer of hope he'd felt earlier had vanished with their argument. "What are the chances that this is going to work?"

"Ninety percent," was Rodney's confident reply, while Zalenka simultaneously mumbled "thirty-five percent at best."

Exhaling slowly John looked at the Stargate. The technicians had retreated to the corners of the room, watching and waiting for something to happen. Part of him wanted to be stood in front of the 'gate, to charge through when the fluctuation appeared and bring his missing people home, to bring Elizabeth home, the other part of him knew that was stupid. Rodney's plan might not even work; Zalenka seemed convinced it was going to blow up. "How long have we got Rodney."

"One minute to two."

Around him Stargate operations became quiet, the personnel collectively holding their breath. When Rodney's tablet bleeped John quickly cast a glance at him watching as Rodney nodded. "There's a charge beginning to build in the gate." Feeling his muscles tense John looked around him, sure he could feel someone there, quickly looking back as a dark shadow formed just behind the Stargate. Again hope built in his chest, only to be quickly extinguished as the wire wrapped around the ring quickly sparked and exploded, snapping free of the gate and slapping to the floor, the excess charge making them pop and spark like wire in water before they became still. Rodney was already punching at his tablet, reading through the data he'd received during the power spike.

"What happened?" John asked quickly, his voice holding a hint of defeat as he hurriedly added, "did we lose anyone else?"

"One person, Zeke Marshal, he works in the language division."

"OK, what about this?" he asked again, gesturing to the smoking wires and burnt equipment lying in front of the gate.

"Well, the charge must have been too much for the gate capacitors to handle. It exploded."

"Just like I said," Zalenka muttered under his breath, earning a vicious glare from Rodney.

Teyla turned to the group gathered around her, "Do you have another idea Dr. Zalenka?"

"Perhaps if we allowed the excess charge to establish a wormhole to an uninhabited planet we could draw some of the energy through the gate, away from Atlantis. It may allow us more control over the fluctuation, give us time to study it and solve the time differential."

Snapping his fingers Rodney continued his thought, "Yes. If we predetermine the address that will be dialled, we can create a grounding station like the ones here." John could do nothing but watch as the two men continued to throw ideas back and forth as they took the stairs two at time and headed out of the control room.

"I guess we leave them too it then," Lorne grumbled, looking at the mess in front of him. Turning to John he went on, "I have team clean all this up and deliver it to their labs." Again John watched as Lorne contacted the remaining members of his team and went to gather the shattered metal.

Around him the control room was still silent, waiting for their orders. Trying to hide the despair and defeat in his voice John turned to them, "OK everyone back to work."