CHAPTER 134

EPISODE…..THE DAEDALUS VARIATIONS

But before that…..

Sam had already somewhat long since had their new child and the family had done a lot of things, outside of time as it were. Mostly so Avon would be more grown up in case their help was needed suddenly, and Sam couldn't go despite being called. Currently, the two were in the SGC, eating in the commissary with Teal'c, Vala and Mitchell. Daniel was suppose to have came to eat, before they were to go to another planet in a couple of hours, but the man couldn't get away from his translations and such apparently. They were just chatting when Daniel rushed in. No one, aside from the rest of SG-1, paid much attention to it since it wasn't surprising.

"Something wrong Jackson?" Mitchell asked.

"Yes, no, not really." Daniel said and then continued before they could ask which one. "Jack called me to talk about something that was brought to his attention because we now have a time machine that works in our favor and such."

"Daniel Jackson, did you hit your head on your way in?" Teal'c asked.

"Yeah, kinda read there on your forehead." Ford said.

"I smacked myself in the forehead, a couple of times because I deserved it for not thinking this before myself." Daniel said and then looked at Sam. "And I won't be surprised if you do it too Sam. Heliopolis."

Sam did smack herself in the forehead as Ford looked confused. Teal'c grunted as he realized what it was and then Mitchell snapped his fingers as he pointed at Sam and Daniel.

"I can't believe I didn't even realize that either. I blame it on being a mother with more on her mind than I use to." Carter said, still upset at herself. "Let me guess, some I.O.A. member suggested it?"

"No, actually it was Hammond who wondered it to Jack while they were talking in his office." Daniel said. "Jack also admitted he hit himself like I and you did."

"We really should go there. I never got to see it and I know the General here hasn't been there either." Mitchell said.

"You have no idea what we are talking about, do you?" Daniel asked as he saw Ford thinking.

"It's…" Carter began.

"No, no. Let me think." Ford said held up a hand. "I know you're in a hurry Daniel, to get wherever this place is, but if we haven't went back all this time now, then a few more minutes isn't going to change anything."

"Yeah, but the excitement is wearing my patience thin." Daniel said.

"The name is very familiar, but….." Ford said as he leaned back in the chair and rubbed his forehead. A couple minutes went by when he sat back up. "Sadly, I have to ask for a hint. Very sadly have to ask…."

"Ernest." Daniel, Mitchell Carter said together, surprising themselves.

"I feel like such an idiot!" Ford exclaimed as he smacked himself rather hard in the forehead, several times.

"What are we talking about?" Vala asked.

"It is a place we went to back in the early years of the SGC." Daniel said as he told her of the story of the man being sent through back in the 60's and all that happened when they went.

"But, you said the place fell apart when you left. How can we go if the gate is gone?" Vala asked.

"Time machine. We go back before Ernest was there, check things out and leave before he arrives." Daniel said.

"That way we don't interfere with the time line." Mitchell said.

"I really feel like an idiot." Ford muttered as he drooped his head. "A heel, jackass, moron, smuck…"

"Yeah, we get it. We could have found out so much more possibly by now." Carter said.

"No, the feeling is the same, yet different. There was a few web sites back home that had that name as part of link site address, and until now, I really didn't get why they named it that way." Ford muttered before leaning back again with a grimace. "And I live here and never got it till now. I should be awarded dunce of the century."

"Web site links?" Vala and Mitchell asked.

"You both have forgotten where he comes from?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, Atlantis, in the past." Mitchell said.

"What he said." Vala stated.

"No. Samantha Carter is referring to the General's past before he ended up in this universe." Teal'c said.

"Oh, right. I still have trouble grasping that sometimes." Mitchell said.

"Personally, I find the idea sick. That I, was written to be this way…." Vala began.

"Trust me Vala. When we learned it was true, even though it was hard to believe, Teal'c was about the only one that didn't want to rip into him." Carter said.

"That was the most scariest I had ever seen Daniel, Jack and Sam. At the time, I was sacred, but I wasn't going to stop them if they did kill me, though I seriously doubted it." Ford said.

"I've never heard of this." Mitchell said.

"It was kept quiet, at the time, on purpose. Basically, we had the same feelings, if not worse in some ways, as Vala did." Carter said. "All three of us had great tragedy in our lives and learning it was scripted that way on purpose…."

"Almost made Jack shoot Ford. I ended up being the one that managed to make Jack not bring one in the room." Daniel said. "But I was sorely tempted to take it and use it myself."

"I can see why. Good thing it was him instead of one of the writers and such." Mitchell said. "I don't know whether to be thankful of what has been in my life or not."

"Why do you say that Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c asked. "You're life has been better than most here."

"That's the point. The worst I can say about my life is I nearly died while you all unfortunately had things….I won't say. Let's change the subject huh…" Mitchell said.

"So, anyway, when are we going then?" Vala asked, as it was apparent she did not want to talk about the other reality thing.

"Sadly, we can't." Ford said. "Be nice too…."

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

"The T.A.R.D.I.S. has never been there." Ford stated. "And I have never been there either, plus the castle is long since gone."

"Then go back in this the SGC past, and send…." Daniel began.

"We can't. Even trying to hide the transmitter to learn the location in one of our packs or something for when we went back then, wouldn't work. We'd have to actually be there monitoring the signal coming through the gate, to learn where to go. And even then, our instruments were sensitive enough to detect the signal if we tried it. It would be too dangerous." Carter said as sadly she realized it all herself.

"Can't we go back and redial the planet…." Daniel began.

"Won't work either. Ever dial out is recorded automatically. Deleting something like that is difficult enough, but hiding the fact the gate is dialed at all, we can't do it." Carter said shaking her head. "Damn, the thought was good…"

"It is possible to dial it from another planet, right?" Mitchell asked.

"We could try." Carter said as she realized that part and perked up with Daniel and saw that Ford was thinking about it.

"In order to keep from doing damage to the past, we need to know when this Ernest went to the planet, in order to be able to go back well before he arrived." Teal'c said.

"Yeah, we'd have to do that alright." Ford muttered as he crossed his arms. "I'm remembering a lot more about that place now. Didn't the gate shake on that planet when dialed?"

"I think it did." Daniel said.

"Why? It wouldn't be….oh. Yeah, that would be a big problem and could effect the timeline greatly." Carter said.

"What?" Vala asked. "There was others there?"

"No. If the gate shakes like we believe, then using the gate would be dangerous. The place is rather unstable as it is, and by the time SG-1 finally gets there to find Ernest, the place is already falling apart fast. If we go into the past using the gate, we could end up causing more damage to the structure which would mess up the timeline." Ford said.

"Great, there went that idea." Daniel muttered as he looked crestfallen again.

"We only need to learn where the planet is, as in distance from here." Carter said. "And then, well, fly there."

"One there, we jump into the past where we won't disturb the foundation, get what we want and come back home." Mitchell said.

(A.N. I don't think they ever made a reference to the distance for the planet Ernest was on, but if they did, please tell me if I am off with what I say below.)

Sam checked it out and the news was not good.

"Well, it would be almost a three month trip from here." Carter said. "Which in many ways isn't a problem, is also a very big one."

"The T.A.R.D.I.S. can fly there manually, but like Sam said, will take a lot of time. You can bet that more than one thing will come up that will need you two, if you and your family went, since the rest of us wouldn't be able to go." Mitchell said. "In which case, you'd have to come back here and deal with whatever it was and then go back to where you left off and continue on. Seriously, I can see this three month trip dragged out to a year or more just because things come up and you're called in. And who knows what is between here and that planet."

"Yeah, a black hole would extended the time to even greater lengths since we'd need to go around it and god forbid we get near a supernova." Carter muttered.

"And we have no ship." Ford muttered. "To go faster in."

"Oh well, we can try another time when we might have a ship." Carter said. "Never know, we might get one of our own in some other universe sometime."

"I will remind you of that when you get one." Daniel stated.

THE DAEDALUS VARITATIONS

Since both Carter's retired, Woolsey and the Atlantis team decided to only call on them as a, last resort sort of thing. When Keller was infected with some strange microbe that eventually over took Keller's body and consciousness, they did think of calling them for help, but Carson was sure he'd find some way since the two weren't really medically inclined, even though he was surprised that the two had left. Since they left for family reasons, Sam being pregnant, he couldn't fault them for wanting to leave and so the Atlantis team dealt with the problem their selves, saving Keller in the end.

Then, sometime later, Ronan got captured. Sheppard felt confident they could deal with this problem themselves as well, and in the end, it did and Ronan was pretty much back to himself in no time. Ronan said he wouldn't have minded if either or both of them had came to help at the time, but was glad the rescue turned out well in the end. Really, all Ronan wanted was to spar with Ford again because he was a really good opponent and more importantly, someone he could go all out on without dealing with any consequences if he actually killed the man in the process, which he managed just once. And every time he had tried since, the best he was able to do was break Ford's arm in two places once. Beyond that, occasional hits that rarely fazed Ford unless it was in the head.

Then, when another Daedalus suddenly appeared and after Sheppards team went on it to find out what was going on, followed by them and the ship disappearing, Woolsey felt it a good idea to call them for help. They landed by the command center and came out going to his office as it was now. He quickly informed them of everything they knew up to the point the ship vanished over an hour ago.

"I'm guessing the ship probably came from another reality." Carter stated. "We won't know for sure until we scan the area, but it is the most likely solution. Unless it is our Daedalus from the future."

"Since we haven't really done a lot of time travel lately, we'll jump back and land on the ship before it leaves. If this Daedalus is from another reality, we can get home real easily." Ford said with a shrug. "If it is ours, we'll fix the future if we can."

"Are you sure you will be able to get back to this universe?" Woolsey asked with concern as the two suddenly burst out laughing. "I do not see what is funny about this situation."

"Richard, we go to other universes rather often. Sometime we know which ones, sometimes not." Ford said.

"The ones we want to go to, rarely." Carter said.

"Point is, we've traveled a lot. Even to other realities, one of which is the mostly female version of SG-1. When we end up in another reality, in this universe or dimension if want to call it that, we have always been able to make it back. Trust me, we will be able to find them and find out what is happening real quick and get them home." Ford said.

"All right then. You haven't failed to fulfill any promises so far. Bring them back as soon as you can." Woolsey said shaking their hands.

Giving the others a quick wave and saying goodbye's, they took off. It didn't take long to scan the area and find out some interesting readings before they made a quick jump back and onto the ship before it left their reality. It was only after they left he realized how stupid that question was since he did read some of the reports dealing with them going to other universes and always coming back.

"McKay, what the hell was that?" Sheppard asked while still on the bridge where a sudden flash all around them just took place.

"I have no idea, but the energy reading level has dropped back down to the way it was." Rodney said from engineering.

"Atlantis, are you reading anything unusual?" Sheppard asked.

Hearing nothing, he started to try again when a unmistakable noise filled the air. Sheppard and Teyla both turned quickly with their weapons pointed as a familiar blue box appeared behind the command chair. When the door opened and Carter came out first, they were putting their guns away or down. She was wearing a black leather jacket and a blue long sleeved shirt with black jeans and black sneakers with her gun on her hip and her hair braided in a long pony tail to the middle of her back with a small bit of her banks hanging off either side of her forehead near her eyes, but not in them.

"We made it." Carter stated as she looked back inside. "John and Teyla are right here."

"I knew we would." Ford said as he worked on the controls.

"Then why did the ship shake?" Carter asked waving a arm at him and the inside of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"Probably because I didn't set the time right and we ended up going to this other reality with them at the same time as the ship left ours. Whatever the case, we are fine, the T.A.R.D.I.S. is fine and, damn, this Daedalus has really went through some major fighting. According to these readings, this reality we are in doesn't coincide with the quantum signature of the ship. Very interesting." Ford said while looking at a readout on a holographic screen on the console.

"We should check things out then." Carter said with interest as she looked over the scan results.

"Yes." Ford said stepping out in a off blue suit, no heavy coat. His hair going down to his shoulders and his banks near his ears but none in his eyes. "Hey John, Teyla. How's life?"

"Confusing at the moment. Nice hairdo's by the way. Why are you two here and what are you going on about?" Sheppard asked.

"We are here because Woolsey called us after you never came back over an hour ago. This ship, wherever it is now, has jumped realities." Carter said while glancing around.

"Wait, you're saying we aren't in our universe anymore?" Sheppard asked.

"My son…" Teyla said with worry.

"Don't worry Teyla. You'll be able to see him soon. We can get back to our universe at any time." Carter said assuring her quickly.

"You are sure of this?" Teyla asked.

"We've been to other realities and universe before, remember?" Carter asked as Teyla nodded with relief and understanding. "Don't worry about it. I had moments when I had Sally where I knew what I asked was stupid, but didn't realize it until after I said or asked it."

"Well then, let's get the Jumper and go home." Sheppard said. "Both of them if we can."

"Why? There's no rush. Besides, we should find out what is happening here. Might learn something that helps us in our universe." Ford said glancing around. "Hmm, for a ship pretty badly damaged, she looks in good condition on the inside."

"You said we've been gone for over an hour?" Sheppard asked.

"John, time machine, get home before you left sort of ability. Remember?" Ford said while making a counter clock wise motion over his watch.

"You didn't have to be so condescending about it." Sheppard said.

"Sorry. But you can't imagine how many times I've had to tell various people the same thing, sometimes over and over again. It gets really aggravating after awhile." Ford grumbled.

"And Jack has done it lately a lot as a joke." Carter said.

"Am I hearing that Sam and Ford are here?" Rodney asked over the com.

"Yes McKay. Didn't you hear what they just said?" Sheppard asked.

"Not all of it. I'm busy checking out the systems down here. That strange energy reading is coming from a hold on Deck Nine. And according to this, it is rising. Not very fast though." Rodney said sort of worried and yet also fascinated.

"Meet us there. We'll all check it out together." Sheppard said.

"Ronan is on his way, I'm going to continue looking over the systems and see what I can find." Rodney said.

"Keep us informed." Sheppard said.

Going through the eerily quiet and somewhat dark ship, they stayed on their guard, just in case, even though no life signs or movement readings other than them were detected.

"How long has it been since we last saw you two? Last we heard, you were still pregnant." Sheppard asked.

"About two years." Carter said as they looked down a corridor before proceeding. "Avon is two, and at least being behaved instead of like some of the other stories we've heard with other kids with the terrible two stage. Sally was good too, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised with Avon."

"Congratulations, even though it is a bit late." Sheppard said.

"I would like to see them both once this is over, if that is possible." Teyla said.

"Yeah, be glad to. I wouldn't mind looking around Atlantis for awhile again. The view at night is breathtaking." Ford said as he walked casually along with no worries like the others were.

"Not to mention romantic." Carter said nudging Teyla lightly.

"I know." Teyla said with a smile that matched Sam's. "Kanaan enjoys watching the stars with me on clear nights."

"Sheppard, from what I have gathered, this ship, other than being from another reality, has a new type of drive system. I can't be sure what their original intent was, but that flash we experienced was the ship jumping into another universe. Even though the planet below us is pretty much the same planet our Atlantis is on, if there is another Atlantis and SGC in this universe, I'm not picking up any signs." Rodney said over the com lines.

"A universe jump drive. Intriguing." Ford said with extreme interest.

"You're a living jump drive." Carter muttered.

"With no ability to control where you'll end up." Sheppard stated. "That is right isn't it?"

"For the most part." Ford said. "But that just makes the trip more exciting."

"We're at the door and going in." Sheppard said as he punched the buttons on the side of the door and they entered.

"It is a jump drive, for lack of a better name. The residual radiation reading I got is very similar to the one we read back when my alternate double came from another universe." Rodney stated.

"I think more than your radiation reading is confirmation enough." Sheppard said as they found something of interest, or some bodies behind a console.

"Unfortunately, they are dead." Ford said as he knelt down feeling for a pulse on each of the bodies. "Looks like they died some time ago too. Might be able to change that, not sure yet."

"Seeing myself dead is creepy." Sheppard said. "Not to mention the rest of my team."

"I get the same feeling." Teyla said looking at herself on the floor.

"They aren't from the same universe as this ship." Carter said after running her Sonic Screwdriver over them.

"The ship must have jumped into their universe, and like your team did John, they came to investigate and ended up not figuring out how to get back home or off the ship." Ford said.

"Seeing a replicated version of myself was more than enough for me." Ronan stated as he walked away.

The bodies were bagged and then taken to the T.A.R.D.I.S., with Ford and Carter hoping they could possibly find their universe and then be able to save them. Rodney found his counterparts tablet and confirmed further that the dead team was in fact from another universe and had done exactly what their team was doing now.

"Considering how the ship was so cold when you ended up here like you said, they didn't decay. Which is good because the sight probably would have made everyone sick." Ford said as they walked back to the room on Deck 9.

"Not to mention the smell that comes with." Sheppard said.

"Their supplies must have run out and not being able to figure out any way to get home or how to make the ship go back to their universe, they…" Rodney said pausing a moment. "Perished."

"Not surprising. Teyla found the last log entry and the commander of the ship was some lady I had never seen or heard of. She spoke of the crew taking all the essential supplies and going to some planet below. When that happened, we don't know." Sheppard said. "Hopefully, we can find the answers to everything in this room where they met their unfortunate demise."

"From the looks of it, they must have zatted each other." Cater said.

"Yeah, no injuries or blood, and it would have been easier than starving to death." Sheppard said.

"We should be able to get the systems back online, hopefully." Ford said going to a console nearby as Sam and Rodney went to a few others.

"There's not a lot of power, but possibly enough." Rodney said. "Hyperdrive is gone and there is no communications other than internal working. And don't even ask for shields."

"We can use the T.A.R.D.I.S. for defense if it comes down to it. I have her programmed to activate them around the ship if any attacks or danger suddenly seems present on her sensors." Ford said.

"That will save on the power we have." Carter said.

Ronan walked up to a box on the wall that had various cable lines incased in protective tubes lining the walls. Opening the junction box, he flipped a few switches and then turned a knob. Power came back on instantly brightening the room and the rest of the ship as it went through the once off line systems.

"Thanks Ronan, nice job finding it too." Ford said as Ronan grunted a you're welcome.

"Several key systems, such as hyperdrive are offline. Weapons are almost useless. We can have sublight, possibly after some work." Carter said looking at a screen. "Can't believe how long is has been since I worked on systems like this. Bit rusty."

"Or, just more used to the T.A.R.D.I.S." Ford said.

"Hey, anyone have any idea what could be behind this door?" Ronan asked.

They all turned to look at the back of the room seeing a door that was not on their Daedalus. It opened in two parts as Ford worked a few controls on a console near the door. Before them was a room with some space to move around the circular object that reminded Ford and Sam of something akin to a warp core on Star Trek, that they said together after seeing it. Instead of a pulsing light moving up and down however, there was a large slowly spinning circle moving around in the middle of the drive that glowed with light on vertical lines, plus a few other areas that didn't move.

"That must be the alternate reality drive." Rodney muttered.

"Think you three can figure out how to control it?" Sheppard asked, getting three answers at the same time.

"Maybe." Carter said.

"Doubtful." Rodney stated.

"Yeah, no problem." Ford said.

"Which one is it?" Sheppard asked with a exasperated sigh.

"I looked over what the other McKay had and even after a few weeks, he didn't get anywhere with this." Rodney stated.

"It can't be no more complicated as the T.A.R.D.I.S. Given time, we'll figure it out to." Ford said. "Something like this is a find you don't get most of the time."

"You may have all the time in the universe Mr. Immortality, but the rest of us don't." McKay stated.

"We barely have any understanding of how you are able to get us to other universes Ford. And yes, even though us three are very good at figuring out scientific and advanced technologies, this may take a lot longer than we may have to spend time on." Carter said looking at a screen she found some information on. "Some of this I can't even really understand."

"Can't hurt to try." Ford said. "Really, if we never figure it out, we can just shut the thing down, hook the T.A.R.D.I.S. up to her and then take the ship back to our universe. Fix her up, rename her and have a new addition to our pathetically small fleet."

"I like the sound of that. Except for the pathetic part." Sheppard said nodding. "You three work on figuring out what you can and can't do while the three of us go look around the ship. Maybe we might find something important that may or may not help."

"Never know, you might find some piece of technology that we don't have in our universe." Carter said.

"Besides the obvious." Ford said waving at the jump drive. "Makes me wonder about a few things."

"Such as?" Rodney asked with both sarcasm and intrigue.

"How this drive works, in particular if it runs on the same wave length as I do when it comes to jumping universes, and if so, is there a version of me in the universe where this ship came from?" Ford asked.

"Considering we have been trying to figure out a way to harness your strange ability, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a version of you here where enough research, study and possible test were done to create this, along with Rodney's ideas." Carter said. "We never did do any intense research into it."

About an hour later, or so, Sheppard came back in finding them talking in terms he couldn't understand. Teyla and Ronan were either still eating or finishing eating in the T.A.R.D.I.S. as he came down to find out if the three geniuses had figured out anything new or at all.

"Why's the blast door closed?" Sheppard asked.

"Residual radiation." the three said.

"Oh, good idea then." Sheppard said waving a finger. "We are safe, or still safe even after being here when the door was open?"

"Yes." the three said.

"You'd have to be in here with the door open at the time of the drive activating for it to even have that radiation effect you in a more damaging way." Rodney said.

"Good to hear. So, learn anything else yet?" Sheppard asked.

"Quite a bit actually." Ford said.

"Such as?" Sheppard asked as the two Carter's waved at Rodney to explain.

"Well, for one thing, whatever reality this ship came from, that McKay was behind this drive system." Rodney said with a smug smile.

"And you know this how?" Sheppard asked.

"Mostly because of the way the programming is done. Same way I would have done it." Rodney said sort of smugly.

"Right. So, even though we can get home by using the T.A.R.D.I.S., can you throw this drive into reverse and get us home? From what I remember with the time they were with us, hooking their ship up to something takes a lot of work." Sheppard said.

"It does doesn't it? Compatibility issues vary on so many levels." Ford said crossing his arms.

"Power distribution, power adaptation, flow rate of information and power rate as well. It could take a few hours to set all that up so it works correctly, even with all the parts we have ready to make the connections." Carter said.

"There is a navigation system that was suppose to allow them to navigate to other realities to allow them to go and come back to their own, like you do in the T.A.R.D.I.S. But as we found out, their program doesn't work." Rodney said.

"If the one in your ship works, can't we use it here?" Sheppard asked.

"Doesn't work that way Sheppard, first off…" Rodney began as Sheppards face fell.

"I got this McKay." Ford said interrupting quickly. "All those times of Sam explaining things to Jack for him to turn to me for help has taught me a few things."

"Besides the fact you live in both the genius and normal world." Carter said with a small smile.

"Besides that. I'm not saying your stupid or dumb John, because it takes a very smart person to fly all those aircraft. Rodney couldn't do it because his field is different." Ford said.

"Yeah I get it. Just tell me the dumbed down version of what he was going to say." Sheppard said rolling his eyes.

"Though they make the same game, such as….wait, you're into sports. Think of whatever sport game you like that is on both the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3. Even though the same game, the programming is different enough they won't play on the other system." Ford said.

"Ah." Sheppard said getting the idea quickly.

"Plus, the programming in the T.A.R.D.I.S. is much more complex since it interacts with many other systems so, compatibility issues just get worse from there." Carter said. "She can adapt herself to many things, or so far we've seen, but to interact with anything outside her, we have to adapt them."

"So, with the question of throwing it into reverse. We can't do it because there is a program error if I understand correctly." Sheppard said.

"Somewhat. The big problem is the system they made for power generation for the device. There is no ZPM on this ship, so they managed to create a capacitor that draws power directly from subspace constantly. Very ingenious, even if I say so myself. The only problem is, the drive continues to make jumps instead of being able to go in reverse or being able to jump straight back to their own reality. The power continues to flow into the system until it reaches capacity and then the drive jumps into another universe. There's no control." Rodney said. "No stop valve either."

"If we can figure out how to create a adaptor, we might be able to use this power generation system to recharge a ZPM." Carter said as it occurred to her.

"I thought of that but didn't bring it up because it would take a long time. Even though the drive runs at near a ZPM level of energy, it is still a bit far from what a ZPM is totally capable of generating." Rodney stated. "Then again, if we looked at it close enough, we might figure out a way to control the rate at which power is drained from subspace and be able to charge a ZPM very quickly."

They turned as the console beeped at them.

"We jump again in five, four…" Rodney said.

"Teyla, Ronan, we are jumping again." Sheppard said as Rodney reached one.

They all blinked as light surrounded them and then everything was clear again.

"Where are we now?" Sheppard asked.

"I have no idea. The main systems are barely accessible from here. Given time, we can reroute everything…." Rodney began.

"Get to work on it along with this drive thing. I'm going to the bridge to take a look. Ronan, Teyla, if you're not already there, meet me on the bridge." Sheppard said walking out.

"We'll be there Sheppard." Ronan said.

They were already there when he walked in. Teyla was at a station that had a screen on the wall off to the command chairs right and she was looking at a scan of the planet that showed something was there.

"John, Atlantis is back." Teyla said.

"You know how to work this stuff?" Sheppard asked surprised.

"Yes. Major Marks was very generous to give us a demonstration of how the system works." Teyla said looking at Ronan.

"I was busy somewhere else." Ronan said.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, do you copy over?" Sheppard said from his com.

Getting nothing, he moved to the command chair and opened the com channel.

"Atlantis, this is Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" Sheppard said as he looked up at the ceiling expecting to hear from the speakers right away.

Still getting nothing he touched his earpiece.

"Hey you three, what are the odds of us randomly getting back to our universe?" Sheppard asked.

"Slim to none." Rodney stated.

"We aren't in our universe John. I did a reading with my Sonic Screwdriver and this universe doesn't have the right quantum signature." Ford said.

"Great. Why aren't they receiving our hails?" Sheppard asked.

"The external communication systems are almost completely fried Sheppard. I told you that earlier." Rodney stated. "We are lucky to even have internal communications."

"I'm detecting another ship in orbit." Teyla said as the console beeped at her.

"What kind?" Sheppard asked as he walked over worried.

"I'll see if I can bring it up." Teyla said working the buttons.

The screen changed to show some sort of triangular ship with a insignia on the side that was unfamiliar.

"You know it?" Ronan asked as Sheppard stared at the up close look of the insignia.

"Never seen it before." Sheppard said.

"Colonel, I believe the ship is powering up weapons." Teyla stated as the console beeped again.

They watched as some energy weapon that looked like fireballs were shot from the underside near the rear and rained down on the city.

"The cities shields are failing." Teyla stated.

"Hey, can any of you see if we can get any power to the Asguard beam weapons?" Sheppard asked into his radio as he took the controls near the command chair.

"Maybe, why?" Rodney asked.

"Atlantis is under attack." Sheppard stated.

"It's not our….what? Okay, fine, I'll do it General. Hang on a moment Sheppard." Rodney said.

"I'm on my way up. The T.A.R.D.I.S. should have already engaged shields." Ford said.

"I am detecting an energy field around our ship." Teyla said.

"Yeah, we got shields General." Sheppard said.

"Sheppard, you have three, maybe four shots." Rodney said.

"The hyperdrive is shot, but I was able to divert some of the power left to the weapons and what there was for the shields to them as well John, make them count." Carter said.

"Working on it." Sheppard said taking the helm.

The ship turned, though slowly because of the damage to the sublight engines. Four shots came out from under the Daedalus hitting the ship each time. On the fourth shot, the ship took a direct hit with visible damage.

"Their weapons have quit and they are damaged. I cannot tell the extent however." Teyla stated.

"We got them to stop, that's what is important." Sheppard said getting up.

"John, they are launching fighters at us." Teyla stated.

"Won't matter. They can't harm us." Ford said coming in. "Who are they?"

"I don't know. Never seen them before." Sheppard said as Ford went into his ship. "What are you going to do?"

"Scan them. We might run into them in the future, in which case, better to be prepared." Ford shouted from inside the ship.

They saw the fighter ships come at them and open fire. Though they felt no impacts, they saw the shields outside turn yellow from the impacts in their view.

"I think they are using some sort of plasma based weapons. Hard to say. Something is interfering with the scanners, which is odd in it self." Ford said stepping out.

"Are the shields going to hold?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah, no problem there. Can we still move?" Ford asked.

"Barely. What do you want to do?" Sheppard asked.

"Since the weapons are out, I want you to ram us into the ship." Ford said.

"You want me to what?" Sheppard asked thinking he heard that wrong.

"Ram us into them. The shields will hold and easily withstand the impact. Trust me. Or am I going to have to do it myself?" Ford said seriously.

"You retired. I'm technically in command here." Sheppard stated.

"John…." Ford grumbled.

"Fine, but make sure the shields aren't effected by whatever is interfering with your scanners first." Sheppard ordered.

Ford went in and then came back out ten seconds later.

"The jump drive is causing some interference with a few of the T.A.R.D.I.S. systems, but nothing that we need to worry about. The shields are not one of those systems, I swear." Ford said holding up a hand.

"I really hope we don't regret this." Sheppard said taking the station again.

The fighters continued to swarm around the ship as they continued their turn and moved towards the ship. It started to move, much slower than they were in an attempt to get out of the way.

"Their fighters are trying for our engines." Teyla stated.

"Shields still holding." Ford said from inside his ship.

"Impact in five seconds!" John stated.

The other ship, though for the most part, tried to move out of the way, and exploded as the Daedalus ripped it in half from slamming into the side of the ass end of the vessel. Several of the fighters went up in the shockwave while the rest continued to fire at them.

"How could you doubt me?" Ford asked coming out.

"There is five fighters still shooting at us." Teyla said.

"What was that spike of energy I just read?" Rodney asked.

"The enemy ship exploded when we rammed into it." Sheppard said as he was able to put the vessel back into orbit.

There was a moment of silence, in which Sheppard had Ronan take the other seat and start firing the rail guns at the fighters to get rid of them before they hopefully hadn't called for help already and also to keep them from going after Atlantis as Ford suggested they get rid of them before that happened.

"One less enemy for this universe then, who knows how many more that might come. We may have the shields to hold out, but not the power requirements to even try fighting any battles, much less continuous ramming of their vessels if they bring a fleet. We're lucky we can even move with the damage to the sublight systems as it is. The less we tax them the better." Rodney stated.

"I got it Rodney. No more moving until you have been able to do something to the engines." Sheppard said.

"Have Ford come down and help me work on them. McKay can keep working on the problems here for now." Carter said over the com.

"He's on his way." Sheppard said as he targeted one of the small crafts. "I got one!"

Two minutes later, the alien ships were destroyed with the last two doing kamikaze attacks against their shields.

"Well, that's that." Sheppard said getting up.

"At least for now." Ronan said also getting up.

"Hey guys, we jump again in ten seconds." Rodney warned.

The same flash happened and then they could see normally again.

"Teyla, you see anything we need to worry about?" Sheppard asked.

"Possibly. The shield is holding, however, the hull temperature is slowly rising." Teyla reported.

"Rising? Why would that be?" Sheppard asked as they walked up and looked out the window. "Oh, that isn't good."

Below them, a fiery hot red sun burned where a planet should have been.

"How close are we?" Sheppard asked.

"According to these readings, we are less than two million kilometers from the surface of the sun." Teyla said.

"You said the temperature is rising. How long before it becomes fatal for us?" Sheppard asked.

"I am uncertain. But I believe, if I inputted the correct information, we have a little under one day before the ship cannot take the heat no more. We will be unable to be inside the ship well before then without suffocating, or worse." Teyla said.

"Hey you two, we have a new problem." Sheppard said into his radio.

"Such as?" Carter asked.

"We jumped and are currently over a very hot sun. Teyla says we have about a day until the ship gives out and we die." Sheppard said.

"We'll jump to another universe well before that." Ford said.

"Why not just move the ship away before anything happens?" Ronan asked.

"That works." Sheppard said taking the station again only to find the controls not working. "Hey, what did you two do?"

"What do you mean?" Ford asked.

"I want to move the ship, but the system isn't responding." Sheppard said.

"We are working on it. Because of the damage, we had to shut it down for the moment." Carter said. "Give us a few minutes and we should have it back online. Hopefully better than it was before."

"I thought the shields on your ship were practically invincible." Sheppard stated.

"Just because a bullet proof vest can stop a bullet doesn't mean you won't feel the impact. The shields will keep out the radiation and most of everything else the sun puts out, but the heat it gives off can only be blocked so much. How close are we anyway?" Ford asked.

"About two million kilometers." Sheppard said.

"Wow, that's pretty close." Carter said. "Just give us a few minutes and you'll be able to move us away."

"Wonderful, the waiting game." Sheppard said sitting back. "I hate this game."

One hour later, and an almost asleep Colonel, he was roused rudely as McKay's voice came over his radio loudly in his ear.

"Thanks for the ear ache McKay!" Sheppard said sitting up.

"Where you sleeping?" Rodney asked.

"Yeah. I can't do anything so there was little else to do but wait." Sheppard said.

"Oh." Rodney said.

"What have you got?" Sheppard asked.

"Well, even though having Sam and Ford helping would have been nice, I managed to find out a few things by myself." Rodney said with a little irritability and smugness.

"Such as?" Sheppard asked.

"I went over the programming and other details about this jump drive system and I think I found a way to get us back home by reversing the system." Rodney said.

"I suggested that over an hour or so ago. And you said it wouldn't work." Sheppard said.

"No, I said it might not be possible, or something along those lines. Anyway, having all this time to go over things without worrying about getting killed any moment for once, other than being a refreshing moment, I'm pretty sure, with those two helping, we can make the ship jump back to our reality." Rodney stated.

"Did you figure out how to stop it as well? Another ship would help us in our fight against the Wraith." Sheppard said.

"No, not really. We may be able to figure it out before we get back to our universe. I don't know." Rodney said unsure.

"Then get started on both ideas. I'll let the other two know you need them." Sheppard said.

"Not really need…" Rodney began with reluctance.

"Rodney, shut up." Sheppard said hitting the controls on the command chair he was in. "You two get anything done yet?"

"We called up some time ago and Teyla said you were asleep. Since there was no threats or problems, we kept working. Sublight is at 75%." Ford said.

"Go help Rodney if you will. He thinks he can reverse the system now that he has had time to look everything over without the threat of imminent death. Also, try to figure out how to shut the system off if you can so we can keep the ship once we get home." Sheppard said.

"How long until we jump again?" Carter asked.

"Hey Rodney, any idea when we'll make another jump?" Sheppard asked switching channels.

"The system says 62%. I haven't looked at it long enough to make a good enough guess. Maybe another hour, possibly less. Why?" Rodney asked.

"The two headed to you wanted to know." Sheppard said switching over. "He's not sure but guesses an hour."

"Move the ship away from the sun then. Less taxing on the hull and my shields, though its nothing for my shields, but the hull…." Ford said.

"Yeah, I get it." Sheppard said turning off the line.

Sheppard moved the ship away until they were well out of the range of the ship taking anything but light from the sun. This also was computed far enough away that the T.A.R.D.I.S. dropped its shields.

"The shields have dropped." Teyla reported.

"General, we've lost shields." Sheppard said with worry over the com.

"Then we are probably far enough away from the sun for them not to be on. If any other danger comes up or you move us close again, they'll come back on." Ford said.

"Okay, just checking." Sheppard said with some relief.

As the system got near to jumping into the next reality, the three got the program up and running.

"Here we go." Rodney announced as the ship jumped.

Teyla did a quick scan and found they were over the planet with Atlantis below and so far, no enemy ships or ships at all within their limited scanning range. Sam continued to help Rodney with trying to figure out how to shut the system off as they knew it was going to take time for the next jump to come. Ford did a quick scan of the surrounding solar system, getting different readings because of the interference. A few minutes later and several adjustments, he got through the interference and was able to get a normal reading.

"Sensors say a ship is approaching us." Teyla stated.

"Can you tell what type?" Sheppard asked looking at the screen.

"What's going on?" Ford asked coming out of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"Teyla says we're picking up another ship…" Sheppard said.

"It's another one like before." Teyla stated.

"These guys are persistent." Sheppard said as he quickly got back at the helm.

"Shields are back up." Teyla said. "Fighters are approaching and the ship is firing on us."

"Do we have any weapons besides the rail guns?" Sheppard asked.

"No. Not enough power to fire them and the missile systems are damaged." Ford said looking at a console. "You'll have to ram the ship again. Hit any fighters in the way if you can."

"Ronan, shoot them down like before." Sheppard said as he turned the ship around.

"If any other ships come and attack, ram into them as well. Eventually, they'll get the message. I'll see if I can do anything with the missile systems here, however unlikely that will be." Ford stated while using a console at the back.

"What was that flash this time?" Rodney asked over the com.

"Another one of those ships attacked us. We have no weapons so I rammed into them." Sheppard said. "If any more ships show up, I'm going to do it again."

"That really sounds dangerous…" Rodney began.

"Would you like to have us sit here and just take hits until we leave?" Sheppard asked.

"It would be safer…." Rodney began.

"Rodney, the Atlantis below us isn't ours, but I'm sure there is a Rodney down there praying we help if they have already noticed us. If you were in their situation, wouldn't you hope however is above would help?" Ford asked.

"Fine. Just don't get us killed Sheppard." Rodney stated.

Another ship did arrive and was destroyed just as it exited hyperspace as Teyla reported the ship coming and the exit point before the ship arrived. Though the Daedalus shook, there was no damage as they passed out of the explosion.

"What the hell was that?" Sheppard asked.

"You hit the ship as it exited hyperspace and they didn't have their shields up yet. The residual effect of the hyperspace window probably was the cause of us feeling the explosion this time. Though I'm really guessing on that. Best bet is to wait till they exit, if more show up, before hitting them." Ford said.

"Got it General." Sheppard said.

No other ships came and the rest of the fighters were taken care of quickly. Finding out the jump system was only at 33%, Ford left the ship and landed on Atlantis.

"How did it go?" Sheppard asked as Ford stepped out from returning half an hour later.

"Good, to some points. Some of their history is like ours, some not. You're down there. Weir is unfortunately dead. The Replicators are gone though they lost their Daedalus two years ago during a battle. I've forgotten the name of the enemy attacking them and us, mostly because it was hard to pronounce. I gave them a load of supplies along with the specs for those weapon platforms our Atlantis has along with a few of the crystals I've made. They should be able to hold out until help from Earth arrives from the Apollo. Midway was destroyed during the Wraith attack like with us, but in our universe, K-9 was able to prevent the self destruct from activating. There is a few other things, but nothing extremely relevant. Before you ask, no one like me was there or heard of." Ford said.

"What about the enemy? Other than a name…" Sheppard asked.

"I guess it was some people or species, not really sure, that Michael came into contact with in hopes of having as allies to attack Atlantis for his plans. They backfired because Michael came back and warned them only to try and steal Teyla shortly after for the same crap we dealt with. He was killed and the, oh what was that name? Started with a S, I think. Stragen, Straden, St something I think. Anyway, they apparently are dangerous and are even formidable against the Wraith. Where they came from, they don't really know." Ford said shrugging.

"At least we have a general idea of what to look for in our universe." Sheppard said.

"Yes. So, anything new yet?" Ford asked.

"Nope. Sam and Rodney haven't gotten anything yet either." Sheppard said.

"I'll go help them then." Ford said walking out.

"I'm going back to sleep then like Ronan has." Sheppard said sitting in the command chair.

Two jumps later, and a Ronan and Sheppard bored but well rested, they were back in their universe. With the sublight working for the most part, they headed back towards the planet while still trying to figure out how to shut the system off. Though the thought of blowing it up crossed Sheppards and Ronan's mind, all three of the geniuses instantly objected saying that could cause a space time rupture that could take out the entire solar system or worse, or just do considerable damage to subspace in their area, whatever the case, blowing up the ship was a bad idea. Seeing as Sheppard moved the ship so far away from the red sun at the time, they were pretty far away from the planet.

"We've got ten minutes at most before the ship jumps again." Rodney stated from on the bridge with the rest of them.

"It's going to take that long to get to Atlantis and land this thing." Sheppard said. "Haven't you figured out any way to shut it off?"

"Not without causing possible damage to subspace. We'd really like to keep it intact to study it. Given time, we'd be able to get it to work correctly." Carter said.

"Whatever we are going to do, we need to do it quick. Or else we'll be stuck on this ship when it jumps back again. And since we know that alien ship didn't cause the damage she already has, we have no idea if the next universe will be even more dangerous." Rodney stated.

"You guys leave. Take the Jumper and go home. We'll stay with the ship for awhile and see if we can do anything." Ford said waving towards the doorway.

"Time traveling has great benefits." Carter said while patting the side of the T.A.R.D.I.S. "We'll get home at some point."

"Are you two absolutely sure…" Sheppard began.

"Yes, we are very confident. Go tell Woolsey and the others we found you, got you home, and we'll see you all sometime in the future. Near or far." Ford said waving at the door again.

"Call us the moment you get back." Sheppard stated.

They saw the Jumper leave and read the signal of Atlantis talking to the Jumper just before the ship jumped again. Several jumps later, they ended up in the universe where the other team died, but not their universe, according to the scans they took. Jumping back in time to the right moment and somewhat before it, they found the four passed out on the floor where they apparently didn't shoot themselves with a zat, but just passed out from lack of food and oxygen. Switching the bodies, which Carter felt a bit creeped out at doing, they went back into the present one minute after they had left. Even after getting the team back to better health, they were still wary of the two and the story they were told. McKay went over the information in the computers and was able to confirm for his Sheppard that the two were telling the truth. Giving over a data crystal with some important information to help them in their universe, they watched them leave in their Jumper, going back to their Atlantis. Some jumps later and a battle with the Wraith, they managed to figure out how to shut the system off without damaging it or the ship or anything else.