Chapter Two – A Team Divided

Doctor Rodney McKay involuntarily ducked, skidding to a halt in Atlantis' gate room, as a sizzling sound echoed through the unstable wormhole. He turned around, hoping to see his teammates emerge behind him.

The scientist heard Chuck's voice from above, shouting to Lorne, who was standing next to him, that he couldn't keep the wormhole open any longer.

There was a foreboding creak that drew Rodney's attention back to the gate. "Come on," he whispered.

Seconds later, Ronon and Teyla emerged from the event horizon. Rodney looked eagerly behind them, expecting Sheppard to materialise at any time, but the colonel didn't arrive. A sickening bang echoed through the gate, causing the whole construction to shudder and then the wormhole disconnected, leaving the scientist to stare at the beautifully arched windows behind the stargate.

He swallowed and felt the blood drain from his face, an expression of incomprehension creasing his features that was replaced by a look of horror as he realised what had just happened in front of him. "No," he uttered defiantly, refusing to believe what he'd just witnessed.

Teyla, hands on her knees, straightened and stared at the gate in confusion. "John," she whispered faintly.

"Where's Sheppard?" Ronon demanded, his voice finalising that their friend hadn't returned with them.

"Dial back!" Lorne commanded the gate technician, not liking the situation.

Chuck did as he was told, not hesitating a second, but as the last chevron was dialled the gate turned back into offline mode. He tried again, dialling the sequence - the stargate lit up, the symbols locked in place. He hesitated slightly and turned to the major as he called up the last symbol.

Lorne nodded grimly at him.

Chuck pressed the button, held his breath and hoped for something to happen but the stargate shut down, refusing to connect to the planet.

Down below, Rodney stood frozen to the spot. If Sheppard had been in the wormhole when it shut down there was nowhere he could be rematerialized, he would have died instantly. "No, no, no," the scientist repeated hastily. "He can't be."

"Redial!" Ronon shouted, glaring up at the control room.

Lorne appeared on the gangway to Elizabeth's former office, looking grim. "It's no use," he said cautiously.

"We leave no one behind," Ronon returned with a growl.

Lorne nodded at Chuck, wordlessly he repeated the procedure from before, needing no further encouragement. The event followed the same pattern; the stargate didn't dial out.

"I'm sorry," the stricken technician said. "I can't make a stable connection."

Rodney leapt up the stairs, Ronon and Teyla not far behind him.

"They must have done something to the gate, damaged it somehow," Rodney said tersely. "Blown it up – I don't know."

"Who?" Evan asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Travellers," Ronon explained succinctly.

"Travellers?" the major echoed curiously, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Space gypsies," Rodney added coldly, not the least amused, as he walked over to a workstation at the back of the room.

Ignoring the remark, Lorne turned to Teyla for an explanation. "Just travellers?" he questioned. "No name? No belonging?"

The Athosian sighed. "I'm afraid not, Major. They are simply travellers. They consist of people from various planets in the Pegasus galaxy. Since Wraith have culled and plundered various planets, taken millions of lives beforehand, a few settlers once decided to flee to the only place they deemed safe."

"Space," McKay clarified.

Lorne barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes.

"They've grown in number since then, people have joined them in hope for something better than living in shelters, not knowing when the Wraith will attack. The travellers rarely show themselves, they prefer to keep in the dark, managing their own business. I have only heard rumors about them," Teyla explained further.

"Basically, you think a nomadic space living people just blew the gate on P3X-667 sky high?" Lorne asked sceptically.

McKay turned around from the screen he was studying and turned to Sheppard's 2IC. "I know it seems a bit far-fetched for your inferior military mind to take in Major, but that seems to be the only explanation we have at the moment," he said sharply.

Evan nodded with a frown. "Since you left our CO at the planet…" he began, knowing that the doctor didn't really mean the harsh words.

"Yeah, let's hope so…" Rodney interrupted, riled up by the events.

Lorne decided to change tactic. "…My inferior military mind will take care of matters at hand," he countered with a smirk. "Believe me, I really want him back, his paperwork is more than I can handle."

"Space charts?" Radek Zelenka suggested, speaking up for the first time since the team had come back. The Czech had been showing Lorne the latest upgrades on the power conduits at the time of arrival.

The only one nodding and not staring at him with a blank face was Rodney.

"You're on to something Radek, but I'm faster," he replied. "I'm trying to locate the closest space gate, then I'm taking a jumper, travel there and haul Sheppard's ass back."

"Sounds good to me," Ronon added.

"Even though it's my turn to be rescued, not his," McKay mumbled.

"We're all anxious to get John back," Teyla said softly, encouraging Rodney to work faster.

Radek glanced at the numbers and Ancient search protocols displayed on the large screen in the middle of the room. "I hate to sound like a…what do you call it? Party-crasher? But P3X-667…"

He was cut short as a sudden chirping sound from the main computer indicated that a match had been found.

McKay who'd turned toward Zelenka whirled around to face the screen once again and started punching in additional commands, calling up schematics and withdrew the information necessary based on his calculations.

The screen displayed a match of the properties the scientist had asked for.

"Let's go," Ronon commanded with urgency, already heading for the jumper bay above the gate room.

"Crap," Rodney whined, causing the Satedan to stop dead in his tracks.

"What?" he growled, not liking any sort of hold up.

"It's several days away from the planet by jumper," Rodney explained, his voice sounding hollow all of a sudden as the realisation dawned on him.

"John was injured," Teyla filled in and, despite the fact that she tried to hide it, her worry shone right through in her voice.

Lorne scrunched his face, not liking what he heard. "Dial the SGC," he said curtly to the gate technician.

"Yes, sir," Chuck replied.

Teyla watched the stargate symbols lit up, one by one, until the last chevron locked into position. The Pegasus stargate quickly established a connection with the Milky Way stargate back in the Cheyenne mountain complex on Earth. It was confirmed by the blue shimmering of a puddle and Teyla was both relieved and worried at the same time. It meant that the fault was definitely at Sheppard's end.

"Sending the Iris code," Chuck informed and then nodded to Evan.

"Stargate Command, this is Atlantis," Lorne called, anxiously waiting for a reply. The tension high in the gate room.

"Atlantis?" A familiar voice drawled, almost childishly at the other end.

"General O'Neill?" Evan asked curiously.

"Is that you, Lorne?" the general wondered aloud.

"Yes, sir," the major confirmed. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you."

"Likewise, Major," he returned sarcastically. "Love the chit chat, Major but was there a point to this conversation?"

Lorne hung his head and clasped his hands behind his back, staring into the blue puddle, imagining the look on the general's face. "I've lost my CO, sir," he said casually.

"Oh," came the somewhat surprised reply.

"I need to know where the Apollo is, also I would like to speak with Colonel Carter," Evan stated.

"Well, that might be a problem," O'Neill returned cautiously. "You see I've just waved Carter off. She hitched a ride back to you with Colonel Ellis. They left 30 minutes ago".

"You've got to be kidding me," Rodney muttered at the statement. "By the way what's wrong with the video feed?"

"Is that McKay?" O'Neill asked curiously. "And no, there isn't anything wrong with it. It's down for maintenance."

"So, no help there then?" Evan returned dejectedly, ignoring the general's question and then statement to McKay.

"Sorry, Lorne. You're on your own," the former SG-1 team leader returned.

"Never here when needed," Rodney said in annoyance.

"What's that, McKay?" O'Neill piped up.

"Just thinking out loud," the Canadian scientist returned over the open channel.

"Well, in the future, don't," the general quipped; Rodney had a way of rubbing him the wrong way. "Listen, Lorne. Do I want to know how the Sheppard got lost?"

"It's…complicated, sir," came the diplomatic reply.

"With him?" O'Neill asked dryly. "Isn't it always?"

"As much as I love hearing your conversation, can we return to more important matters?" McKay questioned. "Time is of essence here."

O'Neill refrained from rolling his eyes at the snarky, demanding voice that filled the loudspeakers back at the SGC. "A shame, Major, that you didn't lose him instead," he muttered.

"Oh, ha ha," McKay returned sarcastically. "I heard that."

"As I said, I can't help you, Lorne," the general said regrettably.

"We'll figure something out," Evan assured him. "Somehow," he added dejectedly under his breath as the connection ended.

"Jumper?" Ronon asked impatiently.

Rodney turned to look at him in surprise, having forgotten the Satedan was even there in the first place. "Why…yes…of course," he mumbled.

Teyla turned to Lorne. "We'll bring him back," she said. And it was a word of promise she intended to keep.

OOOOOO

15 minutes later Jumper three had been stocked with food rations, supplies, extra medical kits and, had Keller had anything to say, she would probably have had a medic with them too.

Lorne reached up to rub his forehead wearily, letting out a deep sigh as the jumper was lowered into the gate room. He watched as the stargate lit up at the commands given from the jumper. "Safe journey," he said, watching the ancient gate ship disappear through the open wormhole.

He took a few steps forward from where he stood on the gangway to what used to be Doctor Elizabeth Weir's office and closed his fingers around the railing. Doctor Carson Beckett, Doctor Elizabeth Weir, countless marines and several scientists had once walked through the gate never to return again. He saw their faces before him; he didn't recall all the names, but he saw their faces. Too many lost souls. The loss of the warm and smiling Scottish doctor and especially Elizabeth Weir shook the expedition to the core. If Colonel Sheppard was lost too, he didn't know what would happen.

OOOOOO

To be continued

/Thank you for your feedback on the first chapter – keep it coming ;)