I don't like this chapter. It doesn't seem to fit well and I can't seem to fix it. I think it's just crappy characterisation, I don't know. If you guys can work it out let me know andI'll re-write it. As always, thanks for sticking with me.

Dr. Marshall's notes were meticulous, so much so it began to freak John out a little. He couldn't find a punctuation error or a spelling mistake anywhere. In the few days that the linguist had had the journals he'd managed to translate three of the of the seven that he'd taken. However, the impeccable notes made it easier for John to read through, the first two describing little more than the building of the lab they'd discovered. Part of John wanted to give up on the journals as a lost hope, the thought of reading another only making the defeat in his heart grow. Despite that, he opened the final file. Looking at the date of the journal entry John paused, clicking back to the previous file and noting the roughly three-year jump. Apparently Dr. Marshal had been just as bored as John.

Picking up the mug beside him, he took a mouthful of lukewarm coffee and began reading. Quickly skimming through the data that seemed irrelevant, John was more than half way through the document when he stopped and reread the last line. His mind jolted at what he was reading. Skipping back a few pages he found the beginning of the entry. The word 'aperture' began to appear with increasing frequency but it was when then word 'sample' appeared that John paid closer attention to what he was reading.

After another hour, he finally felt he understood why this was happening and maybe a little closer to stopping it, to saving Elizabeth. The experiments described made John's skin crawl, the details vivid and familiar. Skipping back a few pages John reread the references to an image, with the frustrating text of, 'image to be scanned in.'

Grumbling about a half finished job he climbed to his feet and headed back down to the translation teams' lab, cursing himself for not bringing the journals back when he'd had the chance. Again he was faced by walls of dusty books and unoccupied computer terminals only this time the occupants of the room noticed him when he entered, all looking up with varying degrees of interest. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny he wove his way back across the room to Marshall's computer, quickly rifling through the books there, checking again when he didn't find it and again after that just to be sure he hadn't missed it, slumping down in the chair in defeat when it didn't magically appear. For a minute he sat there, glaring at the books surrounding him, casting glances around the room at the quiet linguists.

"Does anyone know where the books Dr. Marshall was working on have gone," he finally asked. Again everyone looked at him.

After a minute of waiting, John was about to give up hope of an answer when one of the linguists got up and handed him a small stack of books. "We tried to translate them," the young woman murmured. "We didn't get anywhere though."

Taking the books with a relieved smile, John thanked her, flicking through the covers for the one he was looking for, setting the others aside when he found it. Standing and crossing the room, he was at the door before he turned, "check Marshall's terminal. Maybe his notes will help."

John was halfway back to the control room when he found the image, his blood turning cold at the sight of it. The thought of Elizabeth being in its grip made him feel physically sick, his need to find her, to get her back, growing in his chest until he thought he might burst. As the corridors opened up into the 'gate room, John was surprised to find Rodney and Zalenka stood in front of the Stargate, the new ground rod lying there.

Rodney turned as he entered, his hand pressed against his earpiece. "Ahh. There you are. I've been trying to reach you." He paused looking from the vacant expression on Sheppard's face to the book in his hands. "What's that?"

Finally snapping his mind back to the present, he looked at Rodney, opening the book at the page he'd been on. "Look at this." Handing the book over, he watched as Rodney's face turned form interest to disgust.

"Is this what's been chasing everyone around the city?"

"Think it might be. What's going on here?" He asked quickly, gesturing to the equipment piled around the room.

"That's what I was trying to contact you about. We have picked a destination planet for the grounding rod. Now all we need to do is travel there and set it up."

John smiled properly for the first time since Elizabeth had disappeared. "Great. Where?"

Rodney frowned, glancing over at Zalenka. "Gishcar."

"No," was John's instant reply.

"Hear me out," Rodney yelped indignantly. "Gishcar is abandoned, there's no one there to be effected by our experiments, we know there are no Wraith there and we have recent terrain scans from our last trip."

"That's where all this started though," John growled in reply.

"How do you know that?"

John paused for a moment, thinking. "Conference room, thirty minutes," he said before turning away and up the stairs, contacting everyone he felt needed to be in attendance.

Within the half hour window, the conference room was full to bursting, everyone turned to face him. "Alright," John began, "McKay and Zalenka have a plan. We may also have an idea what we are facing." Turing to the screen behind him, John changed the image from the biosensor to the picture he'd scanned in. Around the room there was a collective gasp as people took the image in. The black and white sketch showing a tall figure, it's grotesquely elongated arms and legs extended out from its body, similar to Da Vinci's Vitruvian man. Detailed sketches showed close up anatomical drawings of its hands, feet and head. The sharp, curved nails measured in a unit John didn't recognise, its needle thin teeth measured the same.

"What is that thing?" Lorne asked.

"I have no idea," John replied, "Rodney set the database to search for a matching image but so far it hasn't kicked anything back."

"The skin colour matches with the blood we've found. So does its anatomy," Carson commented, all eyes turning to him and Dr. Resh. "If you look, there are no internal organs, no way to consume energy through food. It makes sense that this 'thing' would be capable of producing its own energy."

"Which is what Dr. Bonadon thought," Resh added. "It makes sense."

John exhaled, not looking forward to the rest of the explanation he'd discovered. "It's what the Ancient's thought." Again everyone looked back at him, faces expectant. "It would appear that the Ancient's discovered what they called an aperture-"

"Like a fluctuation?" Rodney interrupted, earning a glare form Sheppard.

"Yes Rodney, that's what I was saying. Anyway," he continued, his frustration beginning to grow, "the Ancient's brought one of these things through and experimented on it."

"That sounds very un-Ancienty," Rodney grumbled, earning a chorus of agreements.

"I'm not convinced it was entirely an on the books experiment," John added, "I mean think about it. The lab with in the middle of nowhere, miles from the gate."

"I have to agree with Colonel Sheppard," Teyla added, "from what we know of the Ancestors they have always seemed a peaceful race."

"Maybe it was a rogue faction, we've seen that in other species before," One of the scientists commented, earning another round of agreements.

"Either way, it seems that when this species," John continued, waving his hand at the image on the screen, "found out what this Ancient scientist was doing they got angry and put a stop to it."

"So, what?" Lorne asked, "these creatures have held a grudge for ten millennia and now they're taking their anger out on us?"

"They took it out on Gishcar first," Ronon grumbled. Rodney looked over at him, his face crumpled in confusion. "There was an empty container," he added simply, his lips curving into a half smile as Rodney began snapping his fingers.

"Someone on Gishcar must have found the lab and opened the container. These creatures must have detected the frequency it gave off and thinking they'd found the original instigators began taking it out on the people of Gishcar," he finished, slumping back into his chair.

"And when Dr. Bonadon found the lab here, and the sample. He opens it and it all begins again," Radek added.

Nodding, Rodney agreed, "exactly."

"How do we stop it?" John asked. "We can't let this go on until everyone is dead, obviously."

"Well, obviously," Rodney sneered, "There may be a way to block the fluctuation, much like we did with the personal transmitters."

"Personal transmitters?" Teyla asked.

"Ahh, right, yes, we've worked out how to speed up our personnel before they pass through the fluctuation, so that they should be moving at the same speed as people who have disappeared."

"I thought you didn't know how to stop people moving at that speed Rodney?"

"Yes, well. It turns out it is as simple as inverting the frequency," Rodney stuttered, beside him Zalenka's face cracked into a smug grin. "The same principle may work with the fluctuation, since it works at the same frequency. Once the military has brought our people back, it should be as simple as having the shield emit the same frequency to block any more attempts at opening a fluctuation."

"Great, let's get moving then. Lorne, you and your team, head to Gishcar with Zalenka, help him get the equipment set up, McKay, I need you to programme the shield and make enough of these transmitters for my team and our three missing people. Ronon, Teyla, be ready to move out when the fluctuation has stabilised. Dr. Beckett, we don't know what condition the people we bring back are going to be in, we may need a medical team on standby." Briefly looking at the faces gather, he nodded, watching as they all did the same in return. "Dismissed."