I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon
Who: Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, Sheppard, Beckett, Weir NPC, and Zelenka NPC
What: Exploring
Where: One of the formerly flooded sections of Atlantis
When: November 12th, 1030 Atlantis Standard Time
Rating: TBA
Status: Incomplete
With no offworld missions scheduled for that day, at least for him any way, John Sheppard decided to take the opportunity to further explore some of the formerly flooded sections of the city. Atlantis was huge and while they’d explored a good bit of it, there where still areas that were still hither too undiscovered.
For this little foray, John had decided to round up his former teammates. While his new team was fine, they were mainly put together for offworld experience and John just naturally missed his friends. Therefore, this expedition afforded the perfect opportunity for them to hang out while actually doing something useful. Hey, it made just as good of an excuse as any, and Elizabeth had given the go ahead.
Currently, John had paired off with Teyla while Ronon was keeping an eye on McKay as the scientist poked around in yet another Ancient lab. He was shining the torch of his P-90 around inside a large room, checking it out.
“I don’t know,” he was saying to Teyla. “This could work. Put a ramp over there, a half pipe in the center… It has possibilities. Though something’ll have to be done about the mildew smell,” he said in wrinkling his nose and reached up to tap his comm unit.
“McKay, how’s it going?” he asked. “Figured out what that lab’s for yet?”
((OOC: I just realised this post had a few typos and was a bit of incoherent, so I’m reposting it — hopefully it will make more sense!))
For the third time, Rodney stretched his left hand out so far around the thick column-like device to touch a button that the fingers of his right slipped away from the “on” button, and the device lost the hum of power. “Dammit! Who designed this thing? Paul Bunyan??” He glanced enviously at Ronon’s long arms. “Why couldn’t you have the gene?” he complained.
The device had an interface you were supposed to rest your eyes against. The “on” button and the buttons that activated the various actions the device could take were all on the other side of the column (and a fair distance from each other as well). For some bizarre reason, you had to be holding down the “on” button while simultaneously holding the “action” button you’d chosen — in this case, the button that said “download from subject”. (A button just below it said “upload to subject”. He could reach around to touch one button by sort of hugging the thing, but not both — he had to skew his spine a bit to reach one of them as it was.
He was trying for a fourth time when Sheppard’s voice came over the radio. he jumped a little, startled, and knocked the top of his forehead against the upper rim of the interface. “Ow!!”
“Yes and no, Colonel,” Rodney said with a touch of annoyance, rubbing his head. “It shares similarities to both the device that Colonel O’Neil and Daniel Jackson have used to download information from the Ancients to their brain and to the device Colonel Mitchell brought back that reads memories. Unfortunately, it needs two people to work it — and both people need the gene.” He gave Ronon a look as if the man didn’t have the gene on purpose, just to irritate McKay.
Ronon had been poking around the lab, picking up this or that, or just generally getting in McKay’s way. He finally grew tired of messing with the Ancestor’s tech, finding McKay’s occassional cursing and his fruitless attemps to activate a Lantean device much more amusing.
“Not my fault you were born a dwarf,” Ronon commented from his position which was leaning against a console where he could get a good view of McKay’s struggles.
When Sheppard’s voice came over the radio, startling McKay into hitting his head, Ronon put a hand over his mouth to cover a chuckle. To say he was greatly amused was an understatement.
As John listened to McKay basically complain, he shot Teyla a look and rolled his eyes. “Rodney, if you wanted some help, all you had to do was ask,” the Colonel replied with some mild teasing in his voice. “Now, would you like me to come give you hand?”
“You’d better,” Ronon said over the comm link, giving McKay a shrug in regards to the look he gave him. “If you don’t, he’s lible to hurt himself.”
McKay glared at the Neanderthal. “Yes, Colonel, if you don’t mind. And Teyla, if you could keep Bigfoot entertained, I’d appreciate it.”
Rodney went around to the other side of the column, to study the buttons again. “You can read Ancient, right?” he asked Ronon, then went on before getting a reply, “Why don’t you make yourself useful and take a gander at the pther equipment here. See if any of it looks interesting. And by interesting, I mean in a ‘Might help McKay to make ZedPM or a a weapon against the Wraith’ sort of way, not a ‘Will hurt McKay so I can laugh at him’ sort of way. Okay?” He made a shooing motion with his hand and hoped it wouldn’t take Sheppard long to get there. This device could be the singularly most significant thing they’d found: it might have the knowledge of how to make a ZedPM stored within it!
((OOC: I’m assming Ronon can based on his ability to read some of the lettering on the photos in “Coup D’Etat”, but it’s entirely possible that he was only able to read other words, not the stuff in Ancient — if there even was any ancient on them.))
“Hmmmmm… I don’t know,” John replied over the comm and gave Teyla a mischievious smile. He obviously was going to toy with McKay a little bit. “I was sorta in the middle of something. But since you asked so nicely, I think I can manage to tear myself away long enough to lend you a hand,” he said in stepping out of the room and heading down the cooridor with Teyla a few paces behind him.
Back in the lab, Ronon was still leaning against the console, not budging an inch.
“I’ve already looked. Didn’t find anything interesting,” he said in crossing his arms over his broad chest. In other words, he didn’t find anything that was interesting to him. “There’s no weapon here.”
“Oh, so glad you’re willing to grace us with your presence, Colonel,” Rodney snarked back.
At Ronon’s statement, Rodney rolled his eyes and turned to Ronon with a look that said he was was more than not amused, he was frustrated, hungry, tired, and getting a headache — combining all of those conditions never boded well for those around him. “Did we miss the part where I said look for anything that might help me build a ZedPM?” He turned back to the console and attempted to load something different than his previous attempts, but the moment he let go of the power button to look at the interface, the hum of power died again. “Your survival isn’t just dependent upon weapons, you know — although I might point out that a ZedPM would be helpful in bringing Atlantis’ weapons system online. But hey, if you’d like me to divert the power from heating the water in your quarters instead of looking for an alternate power source, I’d be only too happy to oblige.” He pounded at some buttons in irritation.
“Hey, it’s the least I can do,” John said over the comm as he continued to walk down the hall. “After all, the device won’t work without my ATA gene so you basically need me. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” he persisted in his needling of McKay.
Back in the lab, Ronon continued to observe McKay’s failed attempts to activate the Ancestor’s device.
“If there was anything that important, wouldn’t it have been in the general database?” he quiried. “And even if you did find something here, it’s not like you’d be able to make one. If you could construct the Ancestor’s technology, you wouldn’t have had Sheppard flying all over the galaxy looking for ‘Gates. You could have just made them yourself.”
“You know, he has a point,” John remarked as he entered the lab. “Why couldn’t you have just made a few ‘Gates?”
“Hey, I got it to turn on! And I could do it myself if my arms were each two inches longer!” Rodney snapped in protest. “I said it would take two people — we need my gene just as much as yours!” he added petulantly. “Besides, I’m the scientist — it’s better for us all if I can observe what’s going on with the equipment while it’s working!”
“Maybe they figured it was too important for the general database, too easy to access!” Rodney sniffed. “Maybe it’s so complex they felt they needed the information to be in download-form, so a person could understand every aspect without it taking years and years of learning.”
Rodney frowned. “I’m sure I could make a ‘Gate it, given time — I mean, I can fix them, can’t I? It shouldn’t be that much harder! But why spend the time learning how to make a ‘Gate — and then actually making it, which could take months just for one — when there are already literally thousands of unused ones out there?” Rodney retorted. “And why waste the naquadah, when it woould be put to better use in the generators? No, no, I have other things to do, like making sure life support doesn’t give out! ZedPMs are the priority — hell, even building naquadah generators are more important than learning to build ‘Gates.”
“Now I need you to work the ‘on’ button,” he said to John, “And Ronon, you put your face against the interface so I can keep my eyes on the control panel.”
((OOC: It’s not going to work when/if Ronon — or Teyla — does that, I just thought it would make more sense for Rodney to try using them first before deciding that interface needs an ATA carrier as well. In fact, he will consider called Carson or Lorne, so either we can have them both be too busy, or John can just insist he do it himself to save time. Rodney will try working both the buttons as well, but that won’t work — his gene isnt strong enough even when he can reach them both on that side of the column — so he will need John to hold the power button while he operates the control button.))
“Unlike John, it is not your ATA gene,” Teyla corrected McKay just to tease him about the gene therapy he had needed in order to operate Lantean technology. “It is Carson’s…”
Looking around the room, she leaned on the door jamb, not fully getting inside. Teyla was becoming wary of abandoned Ancients labs. From experience she had learned they could be more trouble than they were worth. But Atlantis needed all the ZedPMs they could get.
She watched McKay explain to Sheppard what to do with the contraption and shook her head in disbelief when he ordered Ronon to put his face some place.
“Rodney, are you sure this is safe?” Teyla couldn’t help but ask.
“Oh, yes, thank you for the reminder,” Rodney told Teyla sacrastically, stung by her remark. “You’ve been spending too much time with these two yahoos!” He used to be able to trust her not to tease him ….
“What? Of course it’s safe! Well, okay, O’Niell almost died from the one he used, and Jackson had Merlin to keep his brain from being overloaded the time he used one, but like I said, this isn’t exactly the same gizmo. See, there’s a download feature, like the device Mitchell used — it would download a person’s memories into the computer for examination. I figure we can test it with that, and see how the thing works — no danger of overloading anybody’s mind that way! I mean, the only reason O’Niell nearly died was because he downloaded too much information for his mind to handle. Look, we found a record of this device in the database; we just hadn’t found the device itself until today! They’ve used it many times!” And with a bit of fiddling, he’d find the information he wanted and a safe way to upload it to his own mind. He could almost feel the weight of a fully-charged ZPM in his hands already ….
“She shoots, she scores!” John couldn’t help but smirk at Teyla’s remark as she joined in on the teasing.
“That’s the best you can do?” Ronon asked in regards to McKay’s come back which actually wasn’t one at all.
John just chuckled as he walked over to the device to get a better look at. “Uh, yeah. What she said,” he seconded Teyla’s concern while giving the machine a wary look. “From what I understood from SG-1’s mission reports, that thing has a tendency to take over your brain and rewire it. I’m not so sure having Ronon sticking his head in there is such a good idea.”
“Why don’t you stick your head it, McKay. I’m not going to let someone crawl around inside my memories,” Ronon protested in refusing to cooperate.
“Take over your brain and rewire it if information needs to be dumped <iinto it maybe — although I would like to reiterate, this is not the same device as Colonel Oneill or Dr Jackson used — but all we’re doing is extracting. If you download a file that your computer can’t read, you might have to upgrade it, but if someone’s downloading from your computer to elsewhere, nothing happens to the computer, the information is just copied. The downloadee is never at risk, just the downloader,” he replied to John. “If anything, the worst that could happen is that the column might not be able to handle the data it downloads.”
“Well I would, if it weren’t for the fact that I need to actally operate the dang thing and observe what it does, and I need Shepperd’s finger on the “on” button! What about you, Teyla?”
“I have the power!” John declared in reciting He-Man as he wiggled his index finger.
“No,” he then said in making a snap decission and glanced over at Teyla. There was no need to put her through any of this, especially with her Wraith DNA. There was no way of telling what the device could do to her.
“I’ll do it. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? I’m too smart for it and the machine won’t be able to download anything, right? What do you need me to do Rodney?”
“Riiight ….” Rodney answered, wisely refraining from suggesting that even the contents of a hundred Sheppards’ brains probably wouldn’t harm the machine. “Okay, I need you to lean your face against that thing,” he said, pointing to the interface, “and then press and hold that button there,” he finished, pointing to the on button. “Or if you want, we could call Carson or Lorne in here, if you can’t reach it comfortably,” he added absently as he studied the control panel.
John shot Rodney a look from the inflection of his tone. The man didn’t come right out and say it, but the Colonel had a pretty good idea what he was thinking.
“Okay, sounds simple enough,” he said in studying the device then shot McKay another look. “I think I can handle it Rodney.”
“I think this is a bad idea,” Ronon had to state for the record.
“If Rodney says it’s safe … then it’s safe,” John replied in taking a step forward before hesitating. “You’re sure it’s safe right?” he asked McKay pointedly. “It’s not like going to grab my head or anything is it?”
“Please, that’s like asking if your laptop is safe! Are you expecting to be beheaded when you use it? I mean, this wasn’t an esperimental lab or something! I said that there’s records of this device — it was frequnetly used! I highly doubt that it would have been if it had a tendency to harm the user …”
“I’m just saying,” John protested to Rodney’s scolding, holding his hands out helplessly while his P-90 dangled from it’s sling. “From the reports I read, these things have a tendency to grab heads.”
“I still say this is a bad idea,” Ronon reitterated.
“Thanks for the pep talk coach,” John remarked dryly as he psyched himself up. They’re harmless. What could go wrong?
“Okay, here goes nothing,” he said in approaching the device in the column.
John cautiously did as instructed, placing his face against the view-finder like device and reached around with his hand to the “on” button. Pressing and holding the button down, he remarked, “Wow! Other than seeing lots of trippy psychedelic colors, nothing’s happening Rodney.”
((OOC: Grrr, I’m not getting the updates in my inbox now when you respond for some reason!!))
“That’s because I haven’t told it to do anything yet,” Rodney replied with only a little derision and a shocking amount of patience (for him, anyway). “Let’s see …” He made a few selections that, if he was right, would only download the last few minutes of John’s memory. “Now, if you start to feel funny or uncomfortable with the preocess, go ahead and just take your finger off of the botton and the whole thing should just shut off.”
And then Rodney pressed the “download” button.
Watching Sheppard put his face in the device, Teyla realised she would have prefered to have gone and done it herself. She should have spoke out, even when John answered for her in a flat ‘no’.
She glanced nervously from McKay to Ronon to Sheppard and back to McKay. Her heart was in her throat despite all of McKay’s reassurances it wasn’t dangerous. Yes, McKay had saved their hides on many occasions but sometimes the rescue had been needed due to a cascade of events he had started himself.
“John?” Teyla asked anxiously when she saw Rodney had activated the thing.
Ronon exchanged glances with Teyla. Like her, he was dubious of the device despite McKay’s reassurances. Evidentally, Sheppard had more faith in the scientist than Ronon possessed at the moment.
“Well, can you hurry this up before I start having Grateful Dead flashbacks of concerts I never attended?” John asked a little impatiently in watching the morphing colors in front of his eyes. They were beginning to take on a hypnotic quality which he assumed was how the device lured people in. And that thought in itself was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable.
He was about to take his finger off the “on” button and scrub the whole thing when McKay made his selection and the device switched into download mode. The device suddenly reaches out of the column and grabs Sheppard’s head.
Despite John letting go of the “on” button and grabbing at the machine’s “arms,” it continued to function, holding him stationary and firmly in place (a safe guard) for several moments until it released him. The “arms” retracted and John collapsed to the floor in a catatonic state.
Ronon moved instantly and was beside Sheppard on the floor checking for a pulse which to his relief he found. “I thought you said that thing was harmless,” he looked at McKay accusingly. “He trusted you.”
Rondye had already had his attention split between watching the control screen and his LSD. monitering the power levels. John’s life signs were also on the display, steady and strong, so he hadn’t been worried. He grunted in satisfation when the download completed, then blinked in surprise when the power blinked off.
“Huh? Colonel, what –” and then he heard Ronon’s accusation just as he was turning to find out why Sheppard had let go of the power button. His heart skipped a beat as he saw his friend on the floor, a glazed look in the man’s eyes. “Sheppard!!” He quickly knelt beside the man, for once ignoring the agony in his knees. “What happend??” he asked Teyla and Ronon, panic in his voice. “Is he all right?” he reached out to the man’s thorugh, and relaxed about one percent when he realised the man was stil alive at least. “John? John, wake up!” He patted the man’s hand in an attempt to wake him. “Come on, say something — anything! Let’s hear one of your oh-so-clever insults, huh? Sheppard!!“
“No!” Teyla exclaimed anxiously when the device grabbed hold of Sheppard’s head, something McKay had specifically said it would NOT do.
Rooted in place, she could only witness the Colonel fight with the arms holding him in place one instant only to let him collapse to the floor the next.
And he wasn’t moving.
Ronon was next to John in a split second, McKay finally moving his attention away from his damn computer and the Ancient console long enough to notice what had happened.
Her heart thudding hard in her chest, Teyla moved in closer.
“It grabbed him,” she said in answer to McKay’s question, her voice unusually high and snappy. “It grabbed him like you said it would not do, Rodney!”
Rodney blinked, thrown by Teyla’s anger; it took him a moment to process her words. “Wha–? No, I said it wouldn’t take his head off!”
He looked at the machine, mind racing. “I don’t understand — there’s no reason anything bad should have happened! The device never killed or mained any of the ancients who used it — not according to their records! Maybe the process is just really taxing, and they didn’t feel that was a side-effect worth mentioning …” Or maybe he’d screwed something up when he’d used the intercae. He couldn’t see how — the thing was pretty self-explanatory, and he had read the instructions a while back — but what else could have happened? Was the machine faulty? A warning sign would have been nice, but the lab hadn’t even been locked!
“Taxing?” Teyla looked pointedly at McKay before looking down at Sheppard. John wasn’t just taking a nap, that much was certain.
“Doctor Beckett should be contacted…”
“Well, apparently it did,” Ronon growled in an anger that rivaled Teyla’s. “Did you bother to check the damn thing out first before deciding someone should stick their head in it? This section of the city has been under water,” he snapped but now wasn’t the time to argue. Sheppard needed medical help.
“It’ll take too long for someone to get here,” he said to Teyla in grabbing Sheppard just under his arm and lifting the Colonel up. “Help me get him to the infirmary.”
“I did look at it first, you know! All the LSD readouts said it was working fine, no shorts, and the system’s own diagnostics came back clear! Whatever this was, there was no way to know it would happen, and no reason to expect it to! A person can die in their own bathtub, it doesn’t mean bathtubs are inherently deadly!” he snapped at Ronon.
He tapped his radio. “Carson, we’re bringing Colonel Sheppard in — he was working with an Ancient interface and collapsed. We’ll carry him through the transporters — have a gurney waiting outside the one closest to the medbay!”
“Och, lad, what did yeh do now?”
“Why do you assume that this is my fault?” Rodney snapped as he got an arm under John.
“Rodney, calm down! I was talking facetiously, to Sheppard! W’ll have a medical team standing by — Beckett out!”
“If we’re never going to take any risks at all,” Rodnmey muttered, “then we should all just find some nice, uninhabited world where the Wraith and the Ori can’t find us and just live in a freaking bubble! Oh yeah, I’m sure Sheppard would like a life like that!” Never mind that the notion held some appeal to McKay, especially right at that moment.
“Next time try testing it on yourself first!” Ronon snapped back as McKay got Sheppard’s other side and notified Beckett.
“Maybe because it was your fault,” Ronon glared at the scientist as they started carrying Sheppard towards the door. And McKay’s last comment regarding Sheppard not liking living in a bubble earned him an icy stare. He remembered all too well when the Colonel had been trapped in the time dilation bubble.
“Yah, but I’m sure that’s the perfect place for you, where it’s all nice and safe.”
John was vaguely aware of voices and that he was being moved somewhere. He tried to get his feet under him, but for all his effort, he just couldn’t make his legs move as his mind swam in a fog.
“Oh yes, because if something happened to me, there are a hundred other geniuses here to fix the city’s problems! I don’t have the luxury of playing it hard and fast with my life like you and Sheppard like to. And before you say it, no, I don’t consider Sheppard expendable either — I would never have purposefully put him at risk! I honestly thought there was less risk here than in using an electric toothbrush! Obviously something went wrong that wasn’t supposed to! I know I might give the impression of being godlike, but alas, I am not. Besides, it’a little hard to be in two places at once: I couldn’t very well use the machine and watch its reactions at the same time! So between the two of us, yes, I’m sorry, but Sheppard was the more logical choice for testing it!”
“Oh yes, because despite the fact that everything, including the LSD readings, pointed to the device working the way the Ancients said it would, amd I had no earthly reason to believe otherwise, this must be all my fault rather than either a freak accident or a glaring ommision on the part of the Ancients! What, were you a claims adjuster on Sateda?”
“I distinctly recall pointing out, on several occassions, that I am a coward, and don’t recall ever making a claim to the contrary. My point is that you’re coming dangerously close to belittling Sheppard’s decision to come here. The man knows that there’s always a risk to be had, even when we least expect it.” Now if you want to talk about the man’s penchant for misplaced trust, particularly in regards to my abilities and especially after Doranda? Be my guest.
Rodney blinked furiously for a moment, in an effort to keep the tears that certainly were not forming at bay. This was so much worse than Doranda in a way. For one, he may have just permanently injured his best friend, something whith he had mercifully avoided with Doranda. For another, he’d finally earned Sheppard’s trust back, only to prove himself unworthy again. And lastly, there had been none of his arrogance in play this time: there well and truly was nothing to indicate things were not working exactly as they were supposed to. Which meant that he had misunderstood something he’d read in the dtatabase, or the instructions on the console, had screwed up what should have been a routine job, not that he’d been overconfident. That he’d failed on a basic level, rather than in reaching above himself. If he were Elizabeth, he’d send himself packing on the Daedalus. The possibility of being sent home, leaving his friends and his home behind, sat like cement in his gut.
They reached the trasnporter, his hand shaking with adrenaline as he reached out to tap their destination.
“Godlike? Are you serious?” Ronon scoffed. “Who in their right mind would think that? Seriously? Do you think he’s godlike?” he asked in looking at Teyla then back at McKay as they dragged Sheppard between them into the transporter. “‘Cause I sure as hell don’t.”
Godlike? Teyla had quit following McKay’s ramblings after the first couple of sentences, pushing his rushed words in near falsetto voice to a corner of her mind while she worried for Sheppard instead, trying to keep her own panic at bay.
Teyla met Ronon’s gaze and shook her head slightly, hoping Ronon would drop it. She could tell Rodney was already beating himself up over this and since he was the most likely person (with Zelenka and Beckett) to help Sheppard if this was a process to be reversed, bashing him into a corner and reducing him to a ball of nerves riddled with guilt would help no one.
Yes, he was an arrogant ass, but a capable one. Despite what had just taken place…
“Just take us to Medbay, Rodney,” she said quietly, her voice conciliatory.
“Right, right,” Rodney said absently, pressing the button.
There was a flash of light; before he could blink, they were in the trasnporter closest to the infirmary, where Carson and a medical team were waiting for them. They lowered John onto the gurney.
“So what happened exactly?” Carson aske as he checked the man’s vitals. Satisfied that the Colonel was still with them for the moment — and didn’t seem in danger of becoming dearly departed anytime soon — Carson began to wheel the gurney into the infirmary, knowing the others would follow.
“We were testing a device that is supposed to download information from the brain into a computer,” Rodney began.
“What, you mean like that device Colonel Mitchell brought back to the SGC — the one someone used on him to make him thinkk he was a murderer?” Carson asked incredulousy.
Rodney sighed. “Not you too! Look, I said download“, not upload! Using that machine had no ill effect on Micthell –”"
“No ill effect!? He thought he murdered someone!”
“Because someone purposefully used the machine to manipulate him — he suffered no ill physical effects from it, and the machine’s been used a number of times since! Look, would you let me finish so you can help him??”
Carson blinked, and went back to his exam. “Yes, yes, go on.”
“So everything was working properly, according to the LSD, the description in the database, and the machine itself. But suddenly he passed out, and we haven’t been able to revive him.”
Furrowing his brow, Carson patted John’s face lightly. “Colonel Sheppard? Colonel Sheppard! Come back to us, lad.”
Ronon stepped down from the transporter platform with McKay and helped place Sheppard on the gurney. He then unclipped Sheppard’s P-90 from it’s sling and handed it to Teyla then removed Sheppard’s sidearm and tucked it in his belt. The last they needed on top of everything else was one of th med techs accidentally shooting the Colonel or themselves.
He fell in line with the procession as Beckett wheeled the gurney down the hall while McKay ran through his explanation as to what happened. But when the Doc broke in and mentioned the device made someone think they were a murder, Ronon’s ire rose.
“Murder?!” he said in grabbing McKay’s arm. “McKay, you didn’t say anything about that thing making people think they were murders,” he growled, his thoughts being how bad that would be if Sheppard woke up and believed himself to be a killer. He and Weir nearly killed everyone on Atlantis trying to kill each other when they were possessed by other beings. Ronon didn’t like the idea of having to go through that all over again, especially considering that Sheppard had led him into a trap and Weir put a slug in his gut.
Ronon let go of McKay as Beckett tried to revive the Colonel. “That’s not going to work,” he stated as he moved around to the other side and slapped Sheppard across the face with his right hand.
The response was nearly immediate. The shock of the slap brought John around and he brought up his fist and punched Carson (who presumably was on the right side). He was confused and belligerent as he bolted up right, lashing out at anyone and anything in his way.
“Colonel Sheppard?”
Teyla took a step forward (but still well out of his reach unless he launched himself at her) and called his name, trying to get his attention before he inadvertantly smashed someone else’s nose.
“John, you’re amongst friends.”
The last thing Teyla wanted to see was Sheppard forcibly restrained but if he didn’t calm down and stop swinging this was exactly what was going to happen.
“Dr. Beckett, are you alright?” Teyla asked, glancing quickly in the doctor’s direction.
“Sheppard knew about that!” Rodney protested. “And it was the guy who used the machine on Mitchell that made him think he was a murderer — he put his own memories in Mitchell’s head! This situation is totally different!” he insisted, but Ronon didn’t seem to be listening. McKay jumped at the harsh sound of Ronon’s slap to Sheppard’s face.
“Carson!” He hurried over to the doctor’s side when the man landed heavily on the floor. “Colonel, relax, it’s us!”
Carson touched his upper lip gingerly and found it split, his fingers coming away dotted lightly with blood. “Havenae seen a right hook like tha’ since my days in Edinburgh,” he remarked. “Och, I’ll be all right, though, lass,” he assured Teyla as Rodney helped him to his feet.
“Colonel Sheppard, relax, you’re safe!” he said placatingly as he slowly approached, hands up. “Yer in the infirmary. How do yeh feel, lad?”
“Whoa!” Ronon said as Sheppard started swinging, neatly stepping back and out of the way as Carson got decked. He looked over the gurney in amusement at the doctor on the floor. “Guess it was a good thing I disarmed him, huh?”
All John knew was confusion, everyone was talking at him at once and–damn, his head felt like it was going to split open. He grimaced slightly, pressing the palm of his hand to his forehead. That was until Carson began moving towards him. Snatching a pair of suture scissors off a near by tray, he held it, pointy end first at Carson.
“Safe? Safe from what? Who the hell are you people?” he demanded in looking from one person to the other, not recognizing any of them.
Rodney looked at John in horror — and not just because the man was wielding a sharp object at their doctor. “He doesn’t remember us?” he whispered. “Oh no. Oh no no no no. Download.” He started to pace, muttering to himself. “So … i-it was a cut-and-paste job, instead of a simple copying of files? But it wasn’t supposed to work that way — was it?? No, I’m sure it wasn’t — I mean, why the hell would they want to do that?!”
Too surprised to talk right away, Teyla stared at Sheppard, at his eyes totally devoided of recognition. He really, truly believed he did not know them. Any of them. How was that possible? Amnesia, obviously. Just like that. But how…
Rodney started blattering on again and Teyla turned to him, thinking about that cursed Ancient device. Of course.
“Rodney, what are you talking about? You… you ERASED his mind?” Her tone was rather calm given the circumstances but for anyone who knew Teyla, they knew that did not necessarily bode well.
“Not on purpose!!” Rodney objected, trying very hard not to throw up. “Look, the device was supposed to only download the memories of the last few minutes! The diagnostic equipment all said it was working fine — there was no reason to expect something like this, even if I had known that the machine would actually extract the information instead of just copying it! But either way, the memories should still be in the machine! We just have to take him back a-and hook him up to it again!”
“What?!” Carson said, holding his nose gingerly. “Rodney, we don’t even know what happened to him this time, much less what reversing the process could do!”
“Oh, gee, Carson, don’t you think reversing it would, I don’t know, reverse it?”
“And for all we know, each exposure to the machine could cause a side effect, no matter which proccess was done!”"
“It didn’t emit any readiation, if that’s what you’re worried about!’ Rodney pointed out.
“Oh? And yer a doctor now? What about synaptic or tissue damage? Radiation’s not the only damaging force in the bloody universe!” Carson snapped.
“The Ancients used it all the time! The database has endless logs of the device being used!”
Carson pursed his lips “Well, John’s not an Ancient, though, despite his gene. It’s always possible the machine doesn’t interact with humans in quite the same way. The Lanteans’ brain structure was a wee bit more advanced than ours.”
Rodney felt very cold suddenly. He hadn’t thought the download was invasive, but what if it was, and it overloaded the Colonel’s brain? It could very well be that the memories were lost after all — and that Sheppard would have brain damage as well!
John was becoming increasingly aggitated as he watched the people around him uneasily, moving about and arguing with each other. Plus no one seemed to be answering his questions.
“Hey!” he shouted to get their attention. “Guy with the dangerous pointy object here,” he said to draw in their focus. “Good, now that I have your attention, would you mind telling me who you are? For that matter, where the hell am I?”
Carson swallowed hard. John was his friend, and had saved him any times — he’d easily forgotten for a moment that the man was a threat, even despite being slugged in the face. The glint of sharp metal being waved in front of his face was hard to ignore, though.
“Easy, lad,” he soothed, hands up, much as he might to a horse back home. “You’re in the infirmary in Atlantis — just look around real quick-like an’ yeh’ll see that. You’ve had a wee bit of an accident. I’m Dr Beckett, an’ ah just want te make sure yer all right. These people are yer friends — none of us want te hurt ye. We’re worried about yeh. Now, if yeh wouldna mind putting that away,” he added, pointing to the scissors.
John was reticent to put away the scissors, at least just yet. Right now, they were only weapon he had.
“Friends?” he said in holding the scissors unwaveringly. “If you’re my friends, how come I don’t know any of you?” he asked suspiciously. He wasn’t exactly in a trusting mood at the moment.
Good, Doc. Keep him talking,” Ronon thought as he slowly moved in behind Sheppard.
“Do yeh even know who you are?” Carson countered. Carson resisted the urge to look at Ronon, realising what the man was going to do. Sorry about this, Sheppard, he thought to himself. “I told yeh, lad, yeh had an accident!” he went on, keeping the man distracted. “We think yer memory may have been affected. What’s the last thing yeh remember?”
“Of course I do,” John said defensively when the doctor started asking him questions. “I-I’m … My name is–,” he suddenly broke off, becoming very unsettled as he tried to think, only causing his headache to get worse.
Confusion and worry creased his brow at the sudden realization that he didn’t know who he was. “I-I don’t know,” he said in catching Teyla’s eye for a moment then looking to Carson helplessly. “I don’t know,” he repeated as the throbbing in his head increased.
John winced slightly, bringing his left hand up and pressed it against his temple, the scissor’s in his right hand wavering in letting his guard slip momentarily. Ronon nearly made his move then, but the opportunity passed too quickly.
“I just said I don’t know!” John yelled in frustration, bringing his hand back down and raising the scissors defensively again. “I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything!”
John searched Carson’s face for answers. The man had said he’d had an accident. Well, his head certainly hurt. Maybe he hit it or something. The man–what was his name?–Beckett? Yeah, Beckett had also said they were worried about him, and that they were his friends. The woman had said they were friends as well. But then why were some of them carrying weapons?
The point though was that these people, whoever the hell they were seemed to know who he was. If John was going to find out who he was and what happened to him, he was going to have trust them. He flipped the scissors over in his hand, palming the sharp end as he held them out in surrender.
“Who am I?” he nearly pleaded, feeling very lost as he looked from Carson, to Rodney, to Teyla, then to a much relieved Ronon as he took the scissors away. Ronon was just glad he didn’t have to fight Sheppard for them.
“You are Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard,” Teyla replied, her throat tight with emotion. To see Sheppard pleading like this, vulnerable, was disturbing to say the least.
“You are a pilot for United States Air Force. From Earth,” she added, unsure if any of this would mean anything to him or if it would be just too much information at once. She looked to Beckett, feeling helpless.
“We’re your team. I’m Teyla Emmagan. This is Ronon Dex, Rodney McKay and, well, you’ve already met Doctor Carson Beckett,” she said with an encouring smile.
Carson nodded comfortingly at Teyla. “If yeh don’t mind, lad, I’d like to run a few tests. The more we know, and the sooner we know it, the quicker we can help yeh.”
Rodney watched the whole exchange from the border of panic, two steps from despaire.
“I-I’m gonna investigate the equipment, see if I can’t figure out what went wrong,” he said anxiously, and moved to leave. It wasn’t like he could be of any use there.
John gave Teyla a grateful smile when she began filling in the blanks for him. “Huh, a military pilot,” he mulled over a bit unbelievingly, but then he noticed his attire; the tac vest, an empty holster, field boots, and BDUs. Okay, so that much added up.
“Really, a pilot? Cool,” his smile grew cocky as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Since you’re my team, does that mean you’re all part of my flight crew? And what is it exactly I fly?” he asked. If he needed a team, it must be pretty big.
“Yeah, sure Doc. Whatever you need,” he said to Carson. “And can you do something about this damn headache?”
“Equipment?” John turned his attention to McKay. The man appeared very nervous about something. “Did I crash land or something?” he asked. Well, that would explain why he had a headache and couldn’t remember anything. Maybe he hit his head.
As McKay tried to beat a hasty exit out of the infirmary, Elizabeth came in. “Rodney, what happened?” she asked. “I just got word something happened to John,” she said in looking over to see the person in question sitting up on a gurney. For all intents and purposes, he looked fine. However, the worried looks on Ronon and Teyla’s faces coupled with the guily look on McKay’s gave her pause for concern.
“Carson, how is he?” she queried.
“Yeah, Doc, how am I?” John seconded as he regarded the man.
“Hmmm. Well, I suppose an aspirin would be harmless enough,” Carson nodded, fetching John a pill and a cup of water for the man’s hedache.
“Er, no, no crash,” Rodney said — he’d been tempted to lie just then, but figured the others would call him on it for sure. “We were looking at some ancient technology, and it, ah … well, I don’t know exactly what it did to you, but I’m going to find out!” he promised solemnly.
“Really, I’m not even sure what happened yet,” Rodney told Weir morosely. “We found an ancient device that I’d seen refrences to in the database, one that supposedly works like that ancient device that downloaded all that info into General O’Neill’s brain? Or the one Merlin and Dr Jackson used? Only it’s something like that one Colonel Mitchell used too. So, ah, we were testing it out, and I, um, w-was downloading a few minutes of memory from Colonel Sheppard’s head, and it, ah … well, it seems to have taken more than just a few minutes. A-and I didn’t think it was going to take anything at all, just copy it — I never would have let him do it if I had known it would work that way! But all the diagnostics said the equipment was working eaxactly like it was supposed to. So now I need to study the program, and see exactly what I need to do to reverse it.” He walked out the door as he said that. Weir could yell as she wanted after he got the colonel back to normal.
“Well, he seems all right aside from the memory loss and a headache, which doesn’t surprise me, under the circumstances,” Carson said. “But ah’ll need to run some scans to know, really,” Carson said, turning to his patient. “Lie back, lad, and we’ll get started. Yeh won’t feel a thing, ah promise.”
“Thanks,” John said in taking the offered asprin and water from Carson, downing both.
However, as Rodney began explaining what happened, he wondered if maybe needed something a little stronger than asprin. Just trying to keep up with the man’s rapid fire dialog, let alone trying to understand it, just made John’s head hurt worse.
“What did he just say?” he asked.
“He activated a machine that took your memories,” Ronon answered.
That in itself was unusual as it was generally the reverse. Typically, Ronon was the one asking what McKay said and Sheppard was the one who explained it in laymen’s terms. But in this instance, Ronon was a witness as to what happened, so he was able to somewhat interpert McKay.
“He what?!” John asked looking accusingly at the astrophysicist.
“Rodney!” Weir exclaimed. “You of all people know the dangers of using Ancient technology that we don’t quite understand yet! How many times–,” she broke off, pressing her lips together in a hard line.
This was turning into Doranda all over again and Elizabeth had to reign herself in before she started yelling at Rodney in earnest. Now was not the time.
“Yes, you do that,” she said curtly as Rodney walked out of the infirmary. “And get Radek to help you!” she called after him then turned to Carson as he began reporting his initial assessment of the Colonel’s condition.
She couldn’t afford this. They couldn’t aford this. They needed Sheppard.
“Do what you need to Carson,” she said in authorizing any treatment the doctor needed to perscribe as John laid back and gave Carson a dubious look.
“Doc, no offense, but when someone promises you won’t feel anything, you usually do,” he said then frowned. How could he be so certain of that? Was he drawing on experience? If so, how could he do that if he couldn’t remember anything? “I think,” he added.
Teyla felt Weir’s anger in waves. It was rare to see or hear Elizabeth reprimand anyone publicly. McKay had truly roused the Commander of the Atlantis Expedition’s ire and Teyla felt she was equally to blame; she had let him test the device on Sheppard to begin with. She should have protested more strongly.
“I’m sure Dr. Beckett wouldn’t hurt you on purpose, Colonel,” Teyla interjected, trying to reassure Sheppard.
((OOC: Sorry for the delay — I’m waiting to hear back on whether Julie will be joining us, but I can at least work with Carson and get Radek working with McKay))
Carson just smiled and shook his head as he started the Ancient scanning device — with or without his memory, John Sheppard has the same personality, it seemed. A green light ran up and down John’s body; Carson studied the data flashing on the screen beside the bed.
“Well, the good news is, there doesnae seem ta be any permanent physical damage. There’s a bit of elevated synapse-firing in the portion of the brain that affects memory — doubtless the cause of your headache — but it’s nothing life-threatening in any way, no tumors or scar tissue, no internal bleeding. Just a wee bit of swelling where yeah bumped yer head — it may be a very light concussion. I’m even wiling ta let yeh go back to your quarters — ah think being in more comfortable and possibly familiar surroundings would do yeh some good. But if yeh get even the slightest bit dizzy or nauseated, ah want yet ta come back straight away!” He waved the Warning Finger of Doom. “If yeh want ta go anywhere besides yer quarters, I want someone with yeh at all times. And don’t overdo it! In the meantime, Teyla, Ronon, will one of yeh take him to his quarters and make sure he knows how to use everything, including his radio?”
Rodney hurried down the hall to the transporter, not caring who he nearly bowled over. When he got back to the lab, he started gathering up every peice of equipment he might prove even remotely useful. Most of his minions could sense that there was an extra element of dangers to him today, that he was a taught wire that could lethallly snap at any moment. A few newer people got on the recieving end of his fazor-sharp tongue and quickly scurried away to lick their wounds. As he finished his task, radek came into the room, having been in one of the other labs. Despite the screaming he’d done juts a moment ago, it took Rodney a moment to find his words, much less get them past the lump in his throat. “Radek, I … s-something … really terrible has happened, a-and I need your help. Please,” he added for good measure. “I don’t need more yelling — believe me, nothing could make me feel worse than I already do. I just need someoe who will focus on the problem and help me get Sheppard back to normal, and then people can yell all they want. But I don’t know much time he has left, and I’m not going to waste any more of it arguing. So just … come with me, okay?” He gathered up the equipment and awkwardly made his way out the door without waiting for an answer.
John turned his head slightly to look at Teyla, giving her a roguish smile. “Thanks, I’ll try to remember that,” he quipped since remembering things seemed to be at the root of his problem.
While he was being a bit of a smartass, that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate Teyla’s reassurances. There was something he found very calming about her presence.
When the scanner started up, John laid very still. He didn’t know what he expected to happen, but the green light wasn’t one of them.
“Whoa, very scifi,” he remarked. “Hey, you sure that McKay guy didn’t put on a pair of shades and flash something to make me forget everything?” he asked in vaguely recalling something like that. Had he seen it in a movie? He certainly hoped it was a movie.
“Yes, John, we’re certain,” Elizabeth said with some amusement.
“Good,” he said in sitting up as the scan finished. That much was a relief anyway. And according to Beckett, he was going to be fine. So, why wasn’t he reassured by that? “Soooo, I’ll get my memories back?” he asked tentatively.
“For McKay’s sake, you’d better,” Ronon muttered.
“That’s a good question Carson,” Elizabeth had to admit and it was something she was concerned about as well. “Will John’s memories return on their own?”
“Och, ah couldnae tell yeh, Elizabeth. I mean, his neural pathways will likely heal, but I …” He looked at John. “Excuse us, lad.” He took Elizabeth by the shoulder and led her out to the hall, speaking in hushed tones. “I dinnae know if the information is even still there ta be accessed! Ah’ll need to talk to Rodney about the machine he was working with. In fact, now that we’ve established the Colonel is in no immediate danger, I think it’s best I do just that — right now, if that’s okay?”
(OOC: Starting a new thread for this.)
Radek walked into the main lab, his hands shoved in his pants pockets, muttering something to himself as he mentally went over the experiment he was working on. However, the look on McKay’s face stopped him dead in his tracks. Or maybe it was just the concept of the Canadian actually asking for his help.
“Something happened to Colonel Sheppard?” he asked with concern in scrambling to keep up with McKay’s harried pace out of the lab and down the hall. Then McKay’s groveling suddenly made sense.
“Rodney, vhat did you do?”
While Beckett led Weir outside for a private word, Teyla took her cue after glancing at Ronon.
“I can show you to your quarters,” she offered Sheppard, somehow managing to not make that sentence sound awkward. “Please, follow me.”
Teyla probably wasn’t the best person to show Sheppard how everything worked in his room, but by now she had gotten acquainted with most of Earth’s technology. At least in regards to entertainment equipment and weaponry.
(OOC: I’ll repost.)
John raised both eyebrows as Carson excused himself, pulling Elizabeth along with him. If the doctor felt he had to discuss the matter in private, it couldn’t be good.
Elizabeth listened grim faced then nodded her head. “All right Carson, do what you have to. In the mean time, I’ll have Teyla follow through with your advice of having her take John back to his quarters. Maybe being around familiar surroundings will help him remember,” she said hopefully. “Keep me posted,” she added before turning to enter the room once again just as Teyla made her offer at showing the colonel around.
“Thank you Teyla,” she said in putting on her best winning smile that made John suspicious. “Dr. Beckett is going to consult with McKay about the device that caused your amnesia to devise a better course of treatment for you,” she explained to Sheppard just to let him know what they’d been talking about, although the look on his face showed he wasn’t totally convinced. “So, you’re free to go.”
“Great,” John said in swinging his legs off the gurney and hopped off. Right now, any place was better than the infirmary in his mind. “Lead the way,” he indicated to Teyla.
Ronon moved to followed but Weir stopped him.
“Ronon, I’d like you to coordinate with Major Lorne in rearranging the duty roster for the next few days.”
“Okay,” he said a bit reluctantly as he watched Teyla lead Sheppard from the room.
“What part of ‘just follow me’ do you not understand?” Rodney snapped, then stopped, screwing his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry … you’ll have to know what happened in order to help, I know.” He took a deep, shakey breath, and was about to launched into the story when he heard Carson down the hall.
“There yeh are! I was looking for yeh, lad!”
“Why, so you can yell at me more too? Can it at least wait until we get Sheppard back to normal?”
Carson sighed. “Look, lad, I’m sorry — it’s just … this isn’t exactly the first time you’ve jumped the gun on studying an ancient device. You nearly Ascended yourself to death, in case yeh forgot.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot all about that,” Rodney told Carson drolly. “I am getting really tired of having to repeat myself: what part of ‘The diagnostic equipment said it was working perfectly and I read all the damn schematics in the database before we left,’ did you miss the first time, Carson? I’d done all the preliminary work; there wasn’t anything left to do but test it out! A test had to happen at some point, and these things are always risky — I just worfully underestimated the risk this time! I mean, honestly, what else would you have had us do? Sit on all experiments forever, just on the off chance that they might not work as we expect them to, despite the descriptions the Ancients left?”
“Rodney–” Carson began, holding up his hands placatingly.
“We’d never have jumpers or shields or transporters or any of the other wondrous things you and everybody else here seems to take for granted if we had that attitude! Shall we all just sit in the lab, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for an Ancient to show up and show us how everything works? I mean, what the hell are we out here for?” Rodney spun on his heel and set off at a brisk pace. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do — unless you’re going to relieve me of duty for incompetence, Mr Retrovirus!” he shot over his shoulder.
Carson flinched. “All right, all right, you made your point, Rodney! Now would you just calm down? Maybe I can help, if you’d just tell me what happened!”
Rodney slowed. He counted to ten, trying to get his pounding heart to slow — and his tension headache to fade, though he knew that was a lost cause. “Come on, and I’ll explain on the way,” he said, starting for the closest transporter.
“Elizabeth.” Teyla nodded to Weir before showing John out with a smile she wanted reassuring. She looked over her shoulder when she heard Ronon’s name being called as she had expected him to want to stick around.
She thought it might have made things a little easier to have Ronon there with them. Some things she was sure he and Sheppard shared while she was kept out of the loop. A man thing, she suspected, though neither man had ever showed her any disrespect for being female.
Teyla caught Ronon’s gaze to let him know they would be fine but also that she would let him know if something came up and he would be needed.
“This way,” Teyla told Sheppard, heading for a transporter. As they embarked, she looked at him closely, hoping to see the spark of recognition. Something about the corridors of the city, its technology, this very transporter John had taken again and again, that would stir his memories.
As John followed Teyla out into the corridor, his steps slowed. His attention was everywhere but on Teyla at the moment as he looked around at the city of the Ancients. He got the impression that he should know this place, but to him, he was seeing it for the first time.
“Some place you’ve got here,” he said in finally looking at Teyla and had to take a few quick steps to catch up to her. “Where exactly are we?”
Radek was about to make a retort of his own when Rodney apologized.
“Yes, Rodney, it would help,” he said and that was about as far as he got into finding out exactly what happened.
Carson picked that moment to show up and Rodney launched into a tyraid that still didn’t really explain anything. While it was evident that they knew what was going on, Radek still didn’t have a clue.
“This should be interesting,” he mumbled to himself as he fell into step, following Rodney and Carson to the transport station.
“Okay, do you remember the memory device we found listed in the database? The one that is supposed to allow you to upload memories to a computer so that someone else can download them, thus negating the need for long hours studying? Well, it turns out it doesn’t copy memories so much as cut and paste! Not only that, but I had set the thing so that it would copy 5 minutes worth of memories, and it seems to have taken a lot more than that from Sheppard. Unfortunately, the readings I took at the time and the diagnostics I ran just after all said the machine was working exactly the way it was supposed to. Which it may very well not have been, but either way, this means we don’t even have a starting point in seeing what went wrong …” A cold wave of fear washed over him as he realised something. “And so the only way to figure out what went wrong is to actually use it again, and take medical readings during the process, to see what happens to the subject. Don’t worry,” he added quickly, looking at Radek. “I’ll do it this time.” He was terrified, but he was equally resigned to what needed to be done.
Teyla’s heart clenched at Sheppard’s words. It was evident he remembered nothing of this place. This place he called home.
She turned to him.
“It is your place too,” Teyla pointed out. “We are on Atlantis. The City of the Ancestors… actually, you and your people prefer to call them ‘Ancients’.”
And just then Teyla realised she might have opened a can of worms by letting slip she wasn’t of his people. The tendrils of trust here were ever so fragile. Would he believe her if she explained how the Athosians had become allies to the Atlantis Expedition or would he react to her like Sgt. Bates and others had, fear and mistrust of her and her people lacing their every word and action?
“The city is actually a large spaceship, currently floating on an ocean,” she continued, in case Sheppard hadn’t noticed her lapse. “We are on the planet Lantea, in the Pegasus Galaxy.” She stopped herself, remembering that most people on Earth didn’t have access to space travel and but a few knew of the existence of the Ring of the Ancestors.
Studying his face, Teyla feared this was probably way too much information all at once.
John took everything Teyla told him stride. When she mentioned his people, it didn’t really catch him as odd. He automatically assumed she was making a distinction between their two branches of service considering their similar yet different uniforms.
Also, and not knowing any better because he just didn’t remember, he didn’t realize it was odd to be talking about spaceships, different planets, or different galaxies. For all he knew, that was the norm. He didn’t know that not everyone even knew about any of this.
“Atlantis,” he repeated in stepping up on the transport platform beside Teyla. Well that would at least explain the Atlantis patch on he’d noticed not only on his own shoulder but on other’s as well. “Cool. Hey, does that mean I fly a spaceship?”
“Yes, I remember,” Radek said, “But we never did officially determine what the device’s purpose was. We only theorized it was for learning,” he pointed out and rolled his eyes. “Ach I nemůže mít za to opravdu ta,” he muttered then looked at McKay in alarm.
“No, Rodney. You cannot do that,” he said in laying a firm hand on the Canadian’s shoulder. “You know Dr. Weir will never approve it and…,” oh, this was so going to feed McKay’s ego, “You’re the Colonel’s best chance in figuring the device out.”
“Well, I guess the colonel is screwed, then, because I’m drawing a blank as to how the hell we’re supposed to figure out what happened without trying it again!” Rodny snapped.
“Do yeh have database access here?” Carson asked.
“What? Oh, yeah, over there,” Rodney said, pointing to a terminal.
“Well it seems ta me that you could benefit fro a doctor having a look at the data, don’cha think?”
Rodney seemed to perk up a little at that, despite his next words. “Yes, yes, you go play with your voudoo, and Radek can look over the science side of the data I collected from the test run, while I look at the schematics again. All right?” He aimed that last at Radek.
“Yes, yes, Rodney. Just tell me where I can help,” Radek said in moving over to a terminal and hooking his lap top up to it.
Activating it, he pushed his glasses back up on his nose as he began to sift through the data being displayed on the screen.
“Neuvěřitelný!” he remarked. “This is really quite interesting.”
He touched a few more controls bringing up another screen for side-by-side comparisons with the data and what the memory transfer device was supposed to do.
“Yes, it does,” Teyla replied, a smile forming at his reaction. “A small ship you christened ‘puddle jumper’.”
Selecting their destination on the transporter’s panel, Teyla added, “You can also fly helicopters.”
Teyla hadn’t seen those other than in the movies the Earthers brought back with them to Atlantis, but maybe Sheppard would remember.
“Really?” John said as he processed this information, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree. “A puddle jumper? Cool! Can I see it?” he asked with a little more enthusiasm than he intended to. Though he did think that puddle jumper was an odd name. But if he named it that, there must have been a logical reason.
“Wow, and helicopters.” Okay, so now he was impressed with himself. “Do I fly anything else?”
Rodney looked at the schematics and basically trailed the functions, from the eyepiece all the way into the core of the system, noting the purpose of each part and checking to make sure it was physically present, not to mention viable, in the device. Thing was, he started to realise, he was no doctor, so he couldn’ty fully comprehend how each piece affected or interacted with the human body. He glanced over at Carson, hoping the man would finish soon — then he would go through the whole schematics again — with the doctor, this time.
Rodney was about to start up the device, just to see how Sheppard’s memories were stored (he’d been reluctant to do so for fear of accidentally erasing them, but really, there was no avoiding looking), when Zelenka spoke aloud.
“What is?” Rodney asked, perking up. Oh, please have let the Czech have found something useful! Carson gave him a hopefully look as well.
“Apparently the device removes memories and stores them in a buffer,” Radek began to explain as he continue to study the data, “where they can be manipulated. You can either rewrite or erase whole sections. Even add false memories. A sort of reprogramming of the human mind. I seriously doubt this device was used for learning,” he looked at Rodney. “It’ll take more study to determine exactly what the device was for.”
He turned his attention back to his lap top, scrolling through some more of the data. “Oh, no. This is not good,” he commented then looked back up at McKay again. “Rodney, the buffer is only temporary. It was not designed to hold information for more than a week. If we cannot figure out how to restore Colonel Sheppard’s memories, he will loose them forever.”
Rodney let out a sigh of relief when Radek said he’d found Sheppard’s memories. He was appalled when the czech described what could then be done with those memories. “Rewrite or erase?? The more I learn about the Ancients. the more I think they were a bunch of twisted bastards! The database said that they used this device in the Akashic Library to share the teachings of mentors past with students of tomorrow.” How was I supposed to know that that they didn’t build it specifically for that! And what the hell, did they mind-wipe all their great thinkers to do it?? There has to be a way to copy and save the data, not just download it and them re-upload …”
Rodney’s skin went ice-cold when Radek revealed that the buffer could only store the data for a week. He seriouskly considered throwing up. “W …well, we’ll just have to figure out how to reset the buffer so that it will hold it longer, like … like changing the settings on an internet cache!” Except that, at this point, he would be terrified he might accidentally delete the man’s memories completely!
“I’m afraid yeh can’t do that,” Carson said from his own termional. “I’ve found a reference in the nedical records that explains the process somewhat — yeh dinae find it yerself because it wasn’t cross-referenced with the device. Damn buggers were atrocious record keepers …”
“Yes, yes, we know that — get to why we can’t lengthen the time of the buffer!”
Carson nodded apologetically. “Apparently the way the device stores memories, they degrade over time. Like Alzheimers.”
“But … but how did they store them for the Akashic Records, then??”
“The computer in the device stores the information in a fashion similar to how a human brain works, but it’s not living issue, so it’s like putting it in a dead brain. From what I can, it looks like the information was then uploaded into a new person — the Records were living people.”
Rodney stared in horror. “Oh, that’s just … disturbed!” He shook his head. “Well, okay, it doesn’t matter — we should just be able to reverse the process, right?”
“I don’t know, Rodney,” Carson said unhappily. “This device wasn’t designed for use with humans — I suspect that that’s why it took so much of Sheppard’s memory. The memory markers in the brain are a bit different between us and them — and the fact that John has such a strong ATA gene may have confused the issue as well. I suspect that the device thought he was an ancient, and allowed him to activate it, but then didn’t know what to do with his brain when it accessed it, and may not be able to put things back properly. It doesn’t help that, from what I can tell, this is an older model than the one O’Neil used, too.”
Rodney nodded, numb. Now what could they do?
“Of course.” Teyla found herself smiling once more, his reaction so like that of a young child. She hesitated. Now or later? But since the transporter had just taken them near Sheppard’s quarters…
“Let’s have a look at your quarters first and then I will take you to the jumper bay.”
Teyla invited John to step out and follow her while she thought on his other question. “I have seen you fly a Wraith dart and I believe you also fly the F-302. It’s a fighter.”
Not that Teyla was expert, but she believed, given the chance, that John Sheppard could probably fly just about anything.
“Cool!” John remarked again when Teyla offered to him to go look at this supposed spaceship he flew. Really, how cool was that? He flew a spaceship! That was pretty damn awesome in John’s book and he couldn’t wait to see the craft, although a bit disappointedly, he’d have to wait on that a bit apparently.
“Whoa,” he remarked when he suddenly transported from one place to another. It surprised him, though he tried to play it down. “Is that good?” he asked in stepping out of the station. “I mean, beaming around like that? Not that it’s not cool cause, well, it is,” he grinned.
John really didn’t know where he was or who he was for that matter, he was beginning to really like this place. And if by being himself meant flying spacships well… Cool!
Continuously looking around as he followed her down the hall, John listened to Teyla tick off what she knew he could fly. He had no idea was a dart was, but the name sounded impressive. Nor did he really know what an F-302 was, but hey, it was a fighter or so she said.
“Cool,” John said once again in using his word of choice. “So, if I’m a pilot, what does that make you Teyla?” he asked in purposefully using her name. God he hoped he had her name right. “I mean, you said you were on my team right? What do you do, other than being my, uh, friend?”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Radek readily agreed with McKay’s assessment of the Anceints having been twisted bastards. “Maybe the device was eventually developed and adapted for learning purposes, but that is not what it started out as,” he speculated and snapped his fingers as thought occured.
“The memory device used on Colonel Mitchell, wasn’t it eventually used to erase the memory of the scientist that killed his ex-wife, implanting a false memory in it’s place? Rodney, what if this device,” he pointed to the offending machine, “was it’s early predecessor, a type of criminal reform program for Ancients?”
“Abych nevěděl!” Radek exclaimed, having one of those eureka moments where suddenly everything made sense. “T-t-that might explain why the sudden division between the Ancients and the Ori!” he studdered in his excitement. “Maybe the Ori were a product of that experiment.”
“Pha, it would be just like those people Mitchell befriended to take credit for the Ancient’s work, and not tell us they used it as a basis for their technology. I should have paid closer attention to those schematics — in fact, looking at them now may not be a bad idea … ” Rodney mused.
“I suppose it might have driven some of them crazy, yes,” Carson said, “But as I understand it from conversations with Elizabeth and Dr Jackson, it was a philosophical split that divided the Ancients and the Ori – the Ancients wanted to use science to Ascended, and the Ori didn’t agree with that, preferring a spiritual path. The Ori supposedly got power-thirsty after they Ascended. You know, now that I think on it, we should be worried about those people Sheppard met in the time-dilation field — they ascended through spiritual means as well! So unless the device was indeed what ultimatley caused the Ori to go starkers, I’d be worried about Sheppard’s friends becoming the next Ori!” He shuddered.
“I don’t know and I don’t care whether the device was responsible fot the Or!” Rodney snapped. “Debating it isn’t going to get us Sheppard back. So … Carson, you go back to studying how this thing affetcs the brain, and I’ll look at the schestics of that other device and see if II can find any parallels while Radek finishes looking at the data for this one.”
“We have observed no ill effect,” Teyla replied of the transporter technology. “But Rodney would be best suited to answer your questions. That is Dr. Mckay,” she added, a movement of her head indicating the place they had just come from and where they had last seen the scientist.
Bringing Rodney McKay up actually made her wince, remembering the fact it was due to that very man that Sheppard was in this current predicament. Luckily, it didn’t appear to phase John as he carried on looking around with interest and asking more questions.
“What does it make me?” Teyla smiled and shook her head a little. This was such a bizarre situation they were in. “I guess you could say I am your guide to this galaxy.”
Wasn’t it how Sheppard himself had put it once?
“You often rely on my knowledge of different worlds for trading partners, and I am also called upon for my talents in diplomacy.”
It was strange for Teyla to find herself having to justify her presence here. She often did, wondering if she would better serve her people by being with them on the mainland.
“I find you also utilise my fighting skills on many occasions.” She smiled sweetly, guessing that the way she was dressed, Sheppard had no sense of her warrior side.
John was still twisting his head around in an attempt to see everything as they walked.
“Well, then. It sounds like you’re a pretty important person around here,” he said in glancing at her. “And I’m glad to have you on my team. Doing whatever it is that we, uh, do.”
Come to think of it… “Uh, just what is it exactly that we do? Other than flying around in spaceships that is. And how far is it to my quarters?” he asked as it seemed to be taking forever to get there. Not that he was complaining, he was just wanted to see the spaceship he flew!
“Yes, yes, Carson I know that. I’m just saying there must have been more too it than what we already know. Descention over the correct way to Ascend seems hardly the reason for such a deep divide,” Radik expounded on his theory until Rodney snapped.
“No, I suppose it isn’t,” he conceeded with a sigh and went back to studying the data on his laptop.
“Ten metres ahead, on the right,” Teyla replied with an indulgent smile. As they walked the last few steps to the Colonel’s door, Teyla started to fill the holes on what he and his team did.
“We travel through the Ring of the Ancestors to other worlds, looking for trade partners, allies and ZPMs,” Teyla summed it up in a few words.
“Here,” she said, stopping in front of a door. “This is your place.” She waited a beat for him to wave the door open but remembered he would not recall to do so. “Let me.” Luckily Teyla knew the code and let them both in.
Staying near the door, she invited John to have a look around. Maybe his personal effects would help him remember who he was.
“Ring of the Ancestors?” John inquired as he stopped if front the door. The term didn’t hold any meaning for him. “Is that the name of my spaceship?” he asked as Teyla opened the door.
He walked inside, taking in every little detail. “Not very spacious,” he remarked as he looked around.
He noted the items he found such as various models of air craft, magazines, a guitar, a skateboard, and a few other odds and ends. Nothing that really suggested much of anything to him. But one thing that did strike him odd about his personal space was that it was noticably devoid of photographs. The only real exception being of one giant picture of an older man dressed in black hanging over his bed.
“Who’s that?” he asked in studying the picture. “Is he some sort of relative of mine?”
“Err, no,” Teyla said, getting more and more uncomfortable due the mistakes she kept on making. “It is not a ship. I will show later. It may be easier to understand.”
She watched Sheppard look around, and by the look on his face she could tell he didn’t see much of who this John Sheppard was and should be.
Teyla didn’t reply to his comment about the size of the room. There wasn’t much that could be done there. Some quarters were even smaller than this, but she guessed this was not what Sheppard wanted to hear.
With a wince, Teyla eyed the man in black on the poster. “He was apparently a singer. Johnny Cash. Country music.”
If John Sheppard had his memories he would be proud that Teyla remembered all this.
“Country music? Really?” John asked. He couldn’t recall the genre and went over to a stack of CDs, going through them until he found one of that Johnny Cash dude.
Taking the CD out of the jewel box, he fiddled with a portable CD player until he figured it out and the music began to play. “Not bad,” he commented as he adjusted the volume, turning it down to a point where he could still hear the music and still have carry out a comfortable conversational tone.
“You know, you don’t have to do this,” he said in walking away from the CD player and moving to the center of the room. “The whole babysitting thing that is. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than holding my hand. I’m a big boy,” he smiled, “and I can explore on my own.”
“It is not a burden, John,” Teyla said simply, but also thinking that Elizabeth would not want Sheppard left alone in his current condition. At least, not free to roam the city.
“Would you prefer the company of another? I can send for Ronon…”
Maybe there were things Sheppard wanted to discuss, things of a male nature? She being a woman made him uncomfortable? Teyla did not know what to think. She wanted to see John Sheppard find himself again. She hoped McKay and Zelenka would be able to make it so.
“No. God no,” John backpeddled in trying to explain what he meant. “I’m just saying I don’t want to keep you from anything you need to do or would rather be doing.”
The irony was, if he’d had his memories, John would realize that having to explain himself to Teyla was normal. Right now though, he was mentally kicking himself for having offended her some how. Especially after she’d gone out of her way to be nice to him in showing him around and telling him about himself — and she seemed to know quite a lot about him.
“Ronon’s that big guy with all the hair, right?” he inquired as he moved over towards her. “No, I get the feeling he’s not the patient sort,” he smiled as he laid a friendly hand on her shoulder.
There was something very reassuring about Teyla. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but John got the impression that they had a special relationship and he wished like hell he could remember it.
“I much prefer your company,” he said in lifting his hand from Teyla’s shoulder to lightly brush her bangs from her eyes. Those big brown eyes.
Laying his hand gently to the side of her face, John hesitated for a moment in questioning his intent, but the compulsion was too strong as he bowed his head and kissed her.
“Yes…”
Teyla started to answer about whom Ronon was, wanted to add that though he looked imposing, Ronon could actually be rather patient when needed… surprisingly understanding… but John was looking at her with inscrutable eyes… liquid depths she normally found comforting and familiar had a funny spark in them she did not recognise. His hand was distracting her and when he touched her hair and then her cheek, her sense of speech vanished. It was as if she knew exactly what he was going to do next but she could not find the words or the breath to let him know he had the wrong idea.
Captive, melting despite her in the moment, Teyla was, once again, kissed by John Sheppard.
It was everything and nothing like the first time.
His mouth on hers and the warmth of his body so close sent a shiver along her spine and that was when her brain resumed its function. Both hands found his shoulders and while she could have grabbed for him, like a lover, Teyla softly but firmly pushed.
“No,” she breathed as she broke the kiss. She met his eyes… “We’re friends, but…” Then looked down, finding something incredibly interesting on the floor where their feet met. “But… not like this.”
A while later, Rodney sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes. The lines of code were starting to bleed together, and he was getting dizzy.
Carson’s doctor-radar picked up on his state with ease; the man didn;t even look at him as he said, “Rodney, go eat something. You’re not going to be able to work effectively if you get hypoglycaemic on us.”
Rodney twinged at that. He knew Carson didn’t mean anything by it, but the words reached Rodney’s ears as “We don’t need to risk you screwing things up any more than you already have.” He felt his pockest; no power bars. He was going to have to go to the mess. “All right, all right,” Rodney said, nodding reluctantly. He left the room.
On his way to the mess, he saw more than a few faces give him strange looks, some of them even glaring. He heard whispers as he passed. Great. the gossip mill had already gotten wind of what had happened. Well, he’d just have to grab the food and jet, then.
Or maybe he wouldn’t have to go to the mess at all.
He remembered the box of Twinkies he’d gotten John, as an apology over things said during the coffee disaster. John probably wasn’t in his room — Rodney could just sneak in and snag a few. He’d replace them later.
Only John was there when Rodney opened the door, not even knocking. Which wouldn’t have been so much of an issue — he and the Colonel had a habit of walking in without knocking (even if the colonel couldn’t remember that) — except that, judging by the look on Teyla’s face he was clearly interrupting something.
Rodney might be oblivious to social cues half the time, but he had a certain sixth sense when it came to the mating habits of one John Sheppard.
“Oh my god, even without you’re memory, you’re Kirk!! What, is it in your DNA??”
((OOC: Shifting left.))
John took the hint as Teyla pushed against him, taking a step back. The confusion was clearly evident on his face as he looked questioningly into her eyes. Had he done something wrong?
He really felt like a jerk, not to mention pretty ackward, when Teyla tried to explain the nature of their relationship.
“I’m sorry… I thought… I just assumed…,” he stumbled over his words as the door to his quarters abruptly opened, cutting off any apology he was going to make.
And if John wasn’t confused before in misreading Teyla’s intentions, he was surely confused now at McKay’s accusations.
“I’m Kirk? But you said my name was John,” he looked between Rodney and Teyla, realizing just how dependent he was on these people to tell him who he was. The thought that they could be lying to him hadn’t occured — until now. “Just who the hell am I and what’s really going on around here?” he demanded in taking a few more steps away from Teyla, spotting a set of golf clubs out of the corner of his eye — the only defensive weapons he could find on short notice if it came to that.
Teyla turned a murderous look on McKay. *Oh, GOOD ONE, Rodney!*
What had taken place between her and Sheppard would have to wait. As Teyla watched John step back a bit like a cornered caneta, she realised there might be some irreparable damage here. Taking a non-threatening stance, Teyla spoke in a soothing tone.
“You are John Sheppard. Rodney was only…” Teyla sighed and looked to McKay. Damned if she knew what Rodney was doing. “He was only joking.”
McKay rolled his eyes at himself when Sheppard started to freak out. really, just when he couldn’t screw up any more …. He cringed at Teyla’s anger, but didn’t argue back; she was right. He was seriously considering having Carson sew a zipper over his lips at this rate. (Well, except for the whole pain thing.)
“Look, she’s right, you are John Sheppard. ‘Kirk’ is a-a pop culture reference to a show called Star Trek — in it, there’s a captian named Kirk who is always getting involved with beautiful alien women. It’s something you have a bit of a track record of doing yourself, and when I saw you with Teyla, I … I guess I overreacted. I’m sorry, okay? Just … just relax. Go back to what you were doing. Here …” He turned, found the box he was looking for, and opened it. He took out a package of Twinkies and handed it to Sheppard, trying to keep his hand from trembling but not really succeeding. “You guys can share that or whatever.”
This storyline continues in part two and can be found here.
[...] the first part of the thread here as played on [...]
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon - second part « Tales from the Lost City Found said this on 19 May, 2008 at 11:01 pm |