SGA FIC: THE WORLD YOU KNOW 8/10 AND 9/10 [PG]

[x_erikah_x]

Almost done with the story. Last chapter will be uploaded tomorrow.

*whispers* --whump--

Title: The World You Know 8/10 and 9/10
Author: x_erikah_x
Word Count: 39,637
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen, Team, Adventure, Crossover
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Samantha Carter, Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, Teal'c and other cameos by SG1 secondary characters
Disclaimer: Stargate and related characters are a property of Metro-Goldwin-Mayer Studios Inc., no infringements of rights intended.
Spoilers: Season 5 of SGA and as far as The Ark of Truth in SG1
Summary: The team finds an Ancient lab and ends up in trouble in some strange place. Or isn't it? Crossover with SG1. Set shortly after season 5 of SGA after they somehow return to Pegasus.

Author Notes: Thanks drewandian for cheerleading and first reading for me, even though I made you wait one year for the finished version. Thanks so much sherry57 for the beta. This fis is SO much better with your help. *hugs* Thanks so much girls!

I’ll post one chapter every couple of days, maybe one a day depending on my availability. The fic is finished, complete and edited already.

Chapter 1



Chapter 8

John crashed on the floor of the darkened gate room, crying out at the explosion of pain on his side. He curled around it and grasped the right side of his chest, feeling it sticky and wet. Gasping through the pain, he took deep breaths as he squeezed his eyes. He felt movement around him and heard voices that hovered between clear and distant.

Someone was trying to peel his hands away from the wound and he forced himself to oblige. He bit his lip to suppress the groans that wanted to escape as it probed.

"John?" Teyla's voice called.

He opened his eyes and saw the blur of her shape slowly settle. "Yeah," he said breathless.

"The wound is not deep, but it is large." Her tone was controlled, but years of knowing her showed him that it also had an edge of tenseness she wasn't able to suppress. "I will attempt to bandage it."

John nodded and released a breath he was holding. He slowly scanned his surroundings and smiled briefly at the sight of the Atlantis gate room. It appeared just as he remembered it from the first time he had come through. The lights were off everywhere except for the area immediately around the gate, no doubt thanks to his and Rodney's genes.

"Rodney," he called, his voice more strained that he would have liked.

Rodney knelt down, worry seeping from his wide blue eyes.

John closed his hands to fists to stop them from shaking. "C-control room. We n-need to emerge."

He watched as Rodney nodded and scrambled to his feet. John hissed and bit his lip when his midsection flared from Teyla's attempts to remove his shirt.

"I am sorry, John. I need to separate your clothes from the wound."

He swallowed. "No problem, Teyla."

He closed his eyes and forced a deep breath as he felt the fabric being ripped from his exposed flesh. Spasms rippled through his body as his whole side felt like it was being torn from his body.

"God!" he gasped. He squeezed his eyes to prevent tears from spilling. "Teyla…"

"I am sorry, John." Her voice shook. "I am almost done."

John took a few deep breaths and nodded. The pain began to subside as Teyla finished removing his clothes from over it and he was able to open his eyes again.

"I do not think it hit any major organs," she said as she pushed his t-shirt over his chest.

"It just burned the skin," Vala added. John hadn't realized she had been beside him. "It only brushed through the side."

"Lucky me," John said as he suppressed a groan.

Teyla now had a small bag of antiseptic gauze that she had found inside her vest.

She looked into his eyes. "This may hurt a little."

John nodded and allowed her to started cleaning the edges of his wound. He widened his eyes then squeezed them close, nearly banging a fist on the gate room floor at the burning that shot from his left side. Turning his face down, he let his forehead rest on the cool floor.

"Okay, John. Now I just need to bandage it."

John breathed deep and released it slowly, enjoying the moments of controllable pain. She passed the bandage under his body and started wrapping it over his wound. She applied some pressure on it which made him gasp and flinch, but he forced himself to stay as immobile as he could.

He looked around the gate room. Shadows covered the corridors beyond it while its center was faintly illuminated. John realized the stairs were lit up all the way to the control room. The members of SG1 were going up, bewilderment in their darkened eyes. John smiled. He remembered how it had been. Rodney was nowhere to be seen, but by the way the consoles above were lighting up, John imagined where he should be. There was a tap on his back and John snapped his head around to look at Ronon.

"Hey big guy, c-can you go over... to Rodney and ask about our status?"

Ronon nodded and left, taking two steps at a time and almost knocking out Doctor Jackson that had been standing right in front of the glass window that showed the balcony, now darkened and underwater.

"They are curious about the city," Teyla said.

John looked at her. He knew she was trying to distract him, but he welcomed it. "Yeah, same way we were when we first got here." He closed his eyes and swallowed a grunt. "Remember?" He opened his eyes again.

Teyla smiled. "I remember, John. I remember you helped my people and rescued us from the Wraith." She smiled as she finished wrapping him up. "We will need to keep the wound clean and change the bandages from time to time." She searched inside her vest and pulled a pill which she gave it to him.

John nodded and knew he wouldn't be looking forward to those times, but knowing they were a necessity. He swallowed the Tylenol and closed his eyes, focusing on the comforting cold seeping from the floor. Footsteps made him force his eyes open.

"Hey," Ronon said as he knelt next to him.

"How… how we doing?"

Ronon tilted his head to the control room. "Rodney is working on deactivating the thing that keeps the city down. He says it'll only take a few minutes."

"Help me," John crooked as he tried to sit. "I want to go over to the stairs." They would be a much better place to be instead of the middle of the gate room.

Teyla looked at him and he felt she was going to refuse letting him go all the way across the room, then her face softened as she changed her mind. She held a hand across his back and under his armpits and supported his weight as he stood. He groaned and bit his lip as his side burned, his vision graying as he got upright. His weight shifted to her side and for a moment he thought he was going to collapse back down. He slowly came back to his senses as the pain subsided.

They walked together, Teyla assisting as John tried hard to focus on the floor. She let him down on the last step, allowing him to take a breath and recover from the walk. He looked up, longing to go up and be in the loop of everything. Teyla must have noticed his look.

"You shouldn't move too much."

He sighed. "C'mon, Teyla, it's not like I'm going to drop dead from climbing a few steps." He knew his voice sounded pleading, but he wasn't opposed to begging. He didn't want to be all alone down there, when everyone was above and knowing what was going on.

She smiled briefly and lowered herself to wrap an arm around his back. She was careful not to touch his wound and supported most of his weight to prevent as much moving from his side as possible. His vision whitened out for a few moments, but he quickly recovered.

They climbed the stairs one step at a time and slowly made progress. He was sweating by the time they reached the top, but he held on to her. He watched as everyone was trying to stay away from the controls. Rodney was examining the data scrolling through an Ancient screen while Carter's eyes hovered above each console before settling on the data as well.

"Wow, this is fascinating," she said. "It looks like a subroutine."

Rodney nodded. "Yeah, it's the subroutine that keeps Atlantis underwater. Took us some time to find it in our Atlantis, but now I already know where to look." Rodney's face wasn't visible from John's position, but he heard the smirk in his voice. "I'm about to deactivate it." He looked around at everyone. "Better brace yourselves, it's going to get very bumpy." He waved a hand around then lowered himself to the controls.

Teyla let John down on the lone step at the edge of the room and stood nearby while everyone else moved to stand away from the breakable consoles.

If only had they known how bumpy the way up from underwater would have been when they had first arrived, they could have avoided a lot of bruises and crashing containers. He remembered the feeling of having his stomach drop suddenly, before he even realized what had been going on.

This time, the feeling wasn't much different. There was a loud sound like a thunder and then the whole tower was rumbling with the release of the city. The consoles were trembling and the screens hanging from the ceiling were shaking. Crystals bumped over the controls and some crashed to the floor, scattering to a million pieces.

There was a general commotion of people's voices, some kneeling down and opening their arms wide. John flinched and held his bandage, wincing at the pain the continuous trembling provoked.

There was a roar and soon light was started to filter through the colorful windows of the room.

"Well, that wasn't that bad," John said.

Rodney got up from the floor and brushed his clothes. "Yes, well, the first time we didn't have the shield to hold back the water."

"Speaking of shield..." John waved outside. "We're... wasting power." He swallowed.

"Right." Rodney walked over to the console and deactivated the city's shield. "I guess we have some little power left. Not enough to dial back to Earth I imagine, but maybe a few minutes of shields if we need."

"But we can dial addresses in Pegasus, right?" John asked.

Rodney turned to him. "Oh, yeah. But I'm worried about the power levels." He frowned and unfocused for a moment. "Remember? In our reality, the Elizabeth from the alternate timeline went back in time and was responsible for Janus creating the failsafe and extending the city's power. Since that didn't happen here, I'm guessing power is very limited. We don't have any backup generator to keep the city alive if we run out."

John figured his team wouldn't stay too long, but SG1 probably would if they didn't manage to find a way back.

"Without a ZedPM, they'd probably be stuck here. Won't even be able to use the gate." Rodney waved a hand towards the other team.

John nodded.

"Well, you have ZPMs in your Atlantis," Jackson started. "Do you happen to remember where you got them?"

Rodney puffed loudly. "Yeah, from the replicators."

John pursed lips and narrowed his eyes at Rodney. Rodney shot back a half apologetic, half annoyed we're here already, we might as well tell them the whole thing' look.

"Replicators?" Mitchell asked, his tone low and a little angry. "You didn't mention anything about replicators."

"Yeah, well…" Rodney waved a nervous hand around.

"Yeah, we didn't," John glared at Rodney. "We dealt with them in our reality, but we don't know if they exist in here too."

"Uh, anyway," Rodney amended. "The Ancients created them as a weapon to deal with the Wraith. It wasn't successful because the Ancients ended up making the replicators too aggressive. They de-activated a key piece of programming and destroyed them all. Or they thought they did." Rodney sighed. "We found them and thought it was worth a try to use them, and then--"

"The point is, they had ZPMs," John interrupted. "When they found out about us, they came and attacked Atlantis. We kicked their butts, then they came and kicked ours, we went back for some more butt-kicking and in the middle of all that, we managed to steal a couple of ZPMs."

"Which, I might say, was extremely hard and unadvisable at your point in history." Rodney pointed a finger up.

"What about the Daganians?" Teyla asked. At everyone's blank looks, she completed. "Do you remember when Doctor Weir from the alternate timeline brought us addresses of worlds that had ZPMs?" She stepped forward.

"Yeah, but you don't really expect us to go all the way back to Dagan and do all that brotherhood thing all over again just to have it taken away from our hands, do you?" Rodney said condescendingly then narrowed his eyes and started snapping his fingers.

"What?" John urged Rodney who was still snapping fingers, the light bulb eyes wide open.

"The planet we were on! It was a facility used to harvest power!"

John shook his head. "So, what use would it be for them to have power over on that planet instead of here? That gate can't dial the Milky Way."

"No, it can't." Rodney smirked. "But I can take the necessary crystals to modify it. We go over and activate the machine, figure out how to make it work, we power it on, go back to our own universe and use the stored power to rig the gate and make it dial the alpha site in the Milky Way." He snapped his fingers. "All problems solved in one go!"

"What if it doesn't work?" John asked.

"Where's that positive thinking you're so fond of?" Rodney shook his head. "Anyway, between Sam and I there isn't one problem this galaxy can throw at us that we can't solve."

John looked at Carter who had an eyebrow up.

John nodded at Rodney. "Okay. Get what you need."

*****

Cam was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he had traveled to another galaxy. The trip through the gate hadn't felt any different, but still here he was, walking in the halls of the lost city of the Ancients.

Everything was smooth, gray metal with cool engravings, lots of blue and glass, some darkened crystals, and lots of big colorful windows. He had gone to Ancient ruins before, but this was different from anything he had ever come across in his years traveling through the gate. This was Atlantis, the biggest Ancient creation ever, maybe even surpassing the invention of the Stargates. This was the Ancients in their full glory.

The city had started coming to life as soon as McKay had walked up the steps but not when Cam had. McKay had lit up the right consoles and all the necessary controls. He knew exactly what he was doing. He could either activate a self-destruct or save them all from a grimly fate; it was all in his hands. Normally that would make Cam uneasy, but Sam trusted McKay for some reason and Cam trusted her. If McKay wanted to sabotage them, he could have done it under the mountain when they had been under attack.

Cam turned around and looked at the faces of each member of Sheppard's team. There was no mistake in there. They looked very different now. When they had been back on Earth they had seemed a little out of their element. Tight and suppressed. Cam had thought it was because they were in a reality strange from the one they knew, but now he could see the difference. This Atlantis was still in a different reality. It was still different from the city they knew. It was dark, dirty, broken and powered down, far away from being in its full potential. But somehow they seemed more at home here than they had ever looked back on Earth, even when they had been outside Cheyenne Mountain. The way they looked at her walls, the way they glanced at each other, the way they smiled and the way they tried to hide the smiles, it was all a testament to it. Atlantis was their home.

They would be a whole lot happier stuck in this Atlantis than back on Earth, of this Cam was certain.

This galaxy had its own set of problems, its own logic, its own people and bad guys. Cam was the one out of his element now. Now he had to worry about life sucking aliens, advanced technology problems, insufficient power generation charts, a whole new level of gate operation, Pegasus version of replicators that seemed to be hyped up on Ancient toys, not to mention the danger of tripping on a strange console and activating something that could kill them all.

At least he didn't have the gene necessary to operate most of that stuff.

Cam kept up with their chat about ZPMs and evil robots and understood why it would be a very bad idea to go after these replicators for some help. He was still trying to understand why the Ancients didn't leave any spare batteries behind in the hope of having someone find their city. They had been careful enough to sink it under the ocean and preserve it for ten thousand years, so why the hell didn't they do the courtesy of leaving a few ZPMs in plain sight as well?

Sam backed up McKay's explanation on their new plan and that was good enough for Cam to pack it up, figuratively speaking since he didn't have any packs, and wait on the sidelines until they decided to go somewhere. Sheppard wasn't walking around much, but still kept everything in check and it seemed nothing got past his eyes and ears. He ordered McKay to pack whatever was needed and all the non-scientific personnel waited from a certain distance. Well, all non-scientific personnel except Vala. She seemed to be way too curious about things and kept forcing Daniel out of his geek mode to keep her in check. Cam smiled and was absolutely not going to interfere. Soon enough, both of them vanished behind Teyla who was going to show where the Hologram Room was so they could make their inquiries to the Ancient lady.

Some while later, everyone was ordered to the level above. McKay hurried ahead while Cam and the rest of his team followed, curious to know why they were going up and above the gate room instead of down towards it. His mouth hang open when he finished the last step and saw the lights slowly come to life and show him a dozen spaceships all neatly parked, not only next to each other, but also on top of each other, going up several levels of the tower. He heard gasps and wows and whoas and it was hard to identify which were his own and which were from the rest of his team.

Cam whistled. "This is cool."

McKay entered through the back of one of the ships then looked back and yelled at them to hurry up and stop drooling. Sheppard walked past them and shook his head.

Cam forced his mouth shut and shook himself from the frozen position in the middle of the bay. He walked into the ship and saw its interior neat save for a few specks of dust.

"Uh... Are you sure you can fly it?" McKay asked from the co-pilot seat.

"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard said as he sat on the pilot chair.

"Don't you want me to--"

"It was just a scratch, McKay. Besides, I've flown puddle jumpers in way worse conditions than I am right now," Sheppard said as he started his pre-flight.

Cam would have liked to ease himself in one of those front seats (or better yet, the pilot seat), but they were all occupied by Sheppard and his team. Cam approached him and tapped his shoulder lightly from behind.

"Some ship you have here, Sheppard."

Sheppard smiled. "Best thing to fly. It reads your mind."

McKay huffed. "Yeah. It's literally in his blood."

Sheppard smirked and called a display that occupied the whole front of the windshield. On it, flashes of status of various systems came in and out, obviously obeying Sheppard's mental commands and most of it in Ancient.

"Energy levels, life support, inertial dampeners, thrusters, weapons, drones..." Sam tried to identify the readings. "A cloak? I didn't know it had one!"

"Pretty cool, huh?" Sheppard said. "Altitude check, navigational system, hull integrity... everything available at mental command and all apparently in good conditions. Looks like we picked the right jumper." Sheppard tapped a few last controls. "Okay, dial it up."

The puddle jumper, as Sheppard had called the ship, was a gate ready technology that had its own DHD. Cam remembered a version of the ship that had been found in the Milky Way, but he had never seen it in person. It really must be an amazing bird to fly.

McKay dialed the gate and soon the jumper started descending. When it came down, the puddle of the event horizon cast a blue glow to the control room and, a few seconds afterwards, they were through.

They came out in the middle of a clearing of a tropical rain forest. Sheppard took the ship up quickly to avoid the beginning of the tree line and followed north. The sky was white with clouds, a few of them darkening. Cam observed the reading display as it showed a view of the weather forecast and knew a storm was coming. In a matter of seconds they saw a small peak of white in the middle of all the green. Cam calculated the distance between the structure and the gate to be a little more than five clicks. Sheppard landed on the roof and opened the rear hatch.

"I don't need to remind people to not touch anything, do I?" McKay asked as he stood from his seat.

"I think everyone knows that, Rodney," Sheppard retorted with a groan as he also got up.

The group exited the ship and proceeded to a door at the east corner, Sheppard at point and Ronon at six. They descended a group of stairs until they got to the ground level. Sheppard didn't slow down, but held his side from time to time, mostly as he climbed down the stairs. They entered a large lab with an obviously ancient architecture that had the same features, consoles and screens as Atlantis.

"Okay, okay." McKay rubbed his hands and walked to the center of a few panels that formed a circle. "So far, so good." He extracted a small device from his vest pocket and began taking readings.

"So?" Sheppard asked after a while.

"I've got no energy readings whatsoever," McKay said distractedly while looking at the small screen. "It could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing."

Sheppard walked over closer to McKay. "Let's hope it's the first."

"Yeah." McKay bit his lips as he worked. "Okay. Last time, this console right here had all the experiment data. It collected information directly from the other consoles to display in this screen. I figure that if I turn off that connection, only for now, I'll be able to take a look at those without triggering the overload. If there is one."

Sam had also walked among the controls and was checking each of the darkened instruments. Daniel went to check the writings and Vala followed with a look Cam was almost sure meant trouble. Ronon and Teyla stopped against the wall and merely watched. Cam and Teal'c decided to join them.

"How long is this going to take?" Sheppard asked.

"Uh, I don't know, a few hours." McKay didn't look away from his screen.

"A few hours?"

"Yes, a few hours!" McKay raised his head. "I have to go through all the relevant data to make sure there isn't an overload in progress."

Sheppard sighed. "Okay." He walked over to a wall and sat down.

Cam soon discovered that McKay hadn't been kidding when he'd said a few hours. He realized that as soon as the second hour tickled by and noticed, a bit too late, that McKay had said a few hours and not a couple of hours. Everyone seemed to have ran out of things to talk about and silence hovered by. Sheppard was busy trying not to look ready to collapse, Ronon was busy looking more bored that Cam has ever been in life and Teyla was busy either fussing over Sheppard or trying not to. Then there was Teal'c busy watching everything along with Cam, Sam on the consoles drooling with McKay, Daniel was trying to figure out the Ancient words that appeared on the screen but too often got interrupted by a very bored Vala.

Cam was stifling a yawn when a loud banging on metal snapped him out of it. His head shot up, attentive to the sounds that came from the end of the corridor. Teal'c was by the door in a second, looking out at the direction of the front of the building.

"Someone is banging on the door," he reported.

Cam walked over to stand beside him. "I thought you said this planet was uninhabited."

"It is."

Cam heard shuffling of clothes and noticed Sheppard was now right behind him. Cam looked back and saw Sheppard with P90 in hand.

"We should check it out. Ronon, Teyla." Sheppard said before exiting the lab.

Cam followed behind Sheppard's team minus McKay, weapon secured as well. He signaled Teal'c to follow and for the rest of SG1 to stay put. "We'll be right back."

The corridor ended in a small windowless hall with a heavy shut door at its end. Everyone had their weapons raised and aimed at it, the banging obviously getting more violent. Sheppard looked back, bit his lip then went back to the end of the corridor. He waved a hand over some crystals on the wall then a door closed blocking the passage and leaving them closed off.

Sheppard clicked his radio. "McKay, come in." He waited a few moments for McKay's response. "I think we have company and by the noise they're making they may not be friendly." Sheppard was opening his mouth to continue, but sighed and shook his head instead. "Yes, I think that much is obvious, Rodney!" He exhaled loudly. "No, just shut all the doors. Can you do that from there?" He nodded. "Perfect, do it. Do not deactivate the force fields unless you hear it from us." Sheppard closed his eyes. "No, Rodney, our code words do not change in different universes." Sheppard clicked and closed the connection.

Cam nodded at Sheppard and raised his weapon at the door, the other men doing the same. Sheppard waved a hand over the crystal tray on the wall, making it open to expose them.

Cam felt the tension grow exponentially when to door opened. Ronon and Teal'c were twitching, hard muscles coiled and ready for action while the other people's fingers hesitated on the trigger. Cam gave one small step to the side to get a better view.

About twenty strong men stood outside, bodies covered only by a small leather skirt, angry faces painted red, black and yellow and hands holding long bows, pointy spears and tiny darts, all aiming at them. Cam glared at the closest one until he felt a pinch on his neck and crumbled down on the floor unconscious.

*****


Chapter 9

There was some jostling around him. John wasn't awake enough to place it where or why, but he wished they'd just stop and let him sleep. He moaned his displeasure and was rewarded with even more jostling that flared up his side and made him curl around himself. The pain broke through the layers of sleep, leaving him gasping for air as he was lowered to the ground.

He felt some movement around him, angry voices snarling and yelling, one of which was very familiar. Whoever they were, they distanced themselves and left the one growling. Ronon? John heard soft footsteps on dirt and soon felt small hands on him. He forced his eyelids open until a blurry shape coalesced into Teyla. He groaned in pain and breathed through the burning sensation until it subsided a notch.

"John."

"I'm fine," he murmured.

Teyla's face told him that she saw right through his words and didn't buy them. He forced himself to sit, biting his lips all the way up, choking on his grunts while Teyla attempted to help. He looked around reminding himself of their situation.

He was in a cage made of bones of various creatures, some really large and others that he recognized as human, some femurs and hip bones. There was also one group of bones outside the prison that made John shudder. It was neatly positioned in a shrine, skulls decorated with stone necklaces and ink similar to the ones the tribal men used. They were wraith skulls.

"Worshipers," Ronon rumbled as he stared at the monument.

John leaned his head back against the edge of the cage, not thinking about what it was made of, and closed his eyes.

"Okay, I don't want to sound obvious, but this is not good." Mitchell's voice came from somewhere on John's left.

John would have replied to that, but he was busy trying not to rip his head off from the fierce headache the poisoned dart had produced.

"So, any plans on how to escape this cage?" Mitchell continued.

Ronon growled in response, Teyla rose to her feet and, from the sound of her footsteps started to walk around.

"I do not know, Cameron Mitchell," Teal'c responded.

"These bones are strong," Teyla observed. "But we may be able to break one with the right effort and leverage."

"Enough for you to pass and go get our guns." Mitchell nodded.

John looked around and didn't see their weapons anywhere. He rose to his feet, clenching his left side.

"Where are our guns?" he asked.

"They were left by the cliff." Teal'c pointed north and John saw the chasm that split the forest in two, passing several meters away from their prison. "The tribesmen left through the opening in the forest and into a path that leads far away, but we may not have long."

"All right." John circled around the circular enclosure. "This spot seems the weakest." John stopped by an assembly of smaller bones pitched together by what seemed like leather. It wasn't big, only Teyla would be able to pass through.

Ronon stepped closer and began kicking the thinner of the bones, about half the size of a human femur.

The cage barely shook. John observed its design. The force of the blow was spread through intertwined connections until it reached the ground. After a few hits without success, Ronon was frustrated enough to make John almost pity the poor bone.

Maybe it wasn’t going to be that easy.

John realized that kicks didn’t usually break any bones, but without the blood and muscle to increase its resistance it shouldn’t have been that hard. He touched a long thick alien sternum that was in reach and tried to snap with his hands to test its strength. It bent far without fracturing.

"Wait, Ronon. I don’t think it’ll work this way."

Ronon stopped and looked at John, his face creasing in annoyance.

John showed what he had found out, bending the bone far to one side and the other. Some eyebrows rose.

John looked at Mitchell. "You know that experiment that kids do in school to dunk a chicken bone in vinegar?"

Mitchell stepped closer and touched the sternum. "Great. So, they’re smart."

"I do not understand." Teyla looked puzzled.

"If you dive a bone in an acid substance, it will increase its elasticity. It makes it hard to break," John explained.

Ronon growled. "So, what do we do?"

"Bones usually break when there are conflicting forces within it. Part of it telling it to go one way when another sudden force comes in and snaps it the other way, right?" John continued. "Well, what we have to do is a group effort. One twists the bone as far as it can go and someone else comes in and tries to break it with a well-placed punch."

"Fine."

Ronon grabbed both ends from the bone he had been trying to break and started twisting it. His muscles trembled with the effort of keeping the pressure for long enough for Teal’c to come in and hit it with the palm of his hand. It took a few hits and Ronon had to help by curving it in addition to twisting it. After a few attempts, a crack was heard and Ronon was holding both ends split in the middle.

They stepped back for Teyla to pass through. John glanced at her and saw her standing still, her eyes unfocused towards the sky. She snapped her head down and looked at John, wide-eyed.

"Wraith," she said in a dark tone.

All heads turned towards her.

"Crap. How many?" John asked.

She unfocused her eyes once more. "Maybe a cruiser."

"Okay, we need to hurry. You get through and get our weapons while we try to break more bones to get out of this cage," John ordered.

Teyla got moving and squeezed through the small opening, running towards the cliff afterwards. Ronon and Teal’c started working on the pieces around the breach, breaking and untangling the sections from the rest of the cage. By the time Teyla got back with their guns, Teal’c was half-way through the gap and Darts cold be heard approaching their position.

John heard the rumble of thunder. The thumps increased in rhythm, the slow drumming coming faster and faster the louder the darts got. A howl of yelling came next and a tribal chant started.

Teyla put the weapons and vests on the ground and everyone geared up as quickly as they could. The fire on John’s side reminded him of his injury when he lowered himself to pick up his items. He clipped his holster and left his vest unzipped, carrying the P90 with his hand. A dark dot soon turned to a group of dots and then to a cloud.

"C’mon, we don’t have much time!" he hurried as he walked towards Ronon who was waiting by a gap in the trees. "Know the way, big guy?"

"Yep. That drug wasn’t that potent." He grinned as he looked down at John.

John rolled his eyes and followed right behind Ronon with Teal’c taking their six. A burst of fire broke through the buzz of darts. John glanced back for long enough to see Teal’c firing towards the rear and a drone falling. At least five more took its place and started following the narrow trail. John halted his run and tapped his vest, grabbing a grenade from one of the pockets.

"Teal’c!" John shouted to be heard above the noise. When Teal’c turned around John threw the grenade which fell right on his extended hands. Teal’c gave one single nod in return. "Hurry!" John yelled at Ronon who had stopped and was firing at the flying darts.

They all followed the trail in large footsteps, John’s hand a constant presence on the side of his chest. A loud boom rocked the trees and John knew Teal’c had thrown in the grenade. He glanced behind and saw the Jaffa racing to catch up with them, no drones within sight.

"How far?" John asked Ronon in between puffs of labored breath.

"About twenty minutes."

John didn’t know if he could stand twenty minutes of running while his chest flared with each intake of air but he accelerated his pace, teeth carving his lips.

*****

"They've been gone for too long," Vala helpfully observed for the umpteenth time.

Rodney puffed in indignation. "That's just typical!" He turned around and resumed his pacing around the room. "Why can't anything work out smoothly?" He looked at Sam. "Have you tried the radio again?"

"Yes, McKay. They are still not responding. We have to finish this first. Then, if they're not back in a few hours, we'll go out to find them."

Rodney exhaled. "A few hours! They could be dead in a few hours."

He went back to the data he had been investigating. At least the work distracted him from their imminent doom. So far, everything seemed to be in perfect order, but then everything had looked fine the first time around, too. The Ancients weren't the most effective bunch when it came to keeping records, especially about failing experiments, which didn't exactly help much.

Rodney had been right about his theory. He didn't know how he could have missed it before. The Ancients had been trying to find a way to harvest more power. As if Doranda hadn't been a big enough lesson for them. However, they seemed to have learned a few things and this time it seemed like it worked fairly well. It did overload but it didn't kill the team or destroy half the planet, solar system or anything. Not that Rodney could detect anyway. The more he looked into it, the more it seemed that the energy burst had been an exception rather than the rule. Maybe the Ancients had deactivated it in the middle of a test and never got to finish the process with the war going on and everything.

Whatever the problem had been, this device didn't have any trace of it. But then, how should there be? The incident had happened in another universe. Which brought Rodney to yet another issue. How to find out their universe of origin?

"McKay?"

Maybe if he… nonono it wouldn't work. Or… he snapped his fingers several times in succession.

"I'm brilliant!"

"McKay!"

The yell snapped Rodney up.

"What! No need to shout!" he complained as he turned around to face Sam.

She shook her head. "I've calling you for minutes."

"Sorry, kinda busy here. Can't you see?"

"I think I found a way to transfer the power safely to the gate." She smiled. "All we got to do is reroute the main energy conduits using the dish at the roof. It should take power from the lab all the way to the top. Then, we use the main cables in addition to the auxiliary lines and connect all of them to the metal around the gate. We'd only have to worry about taking the gate up there." She stepped back and waved a hand towards the energy section of the console. "The main problem was to work out the type of energy that was produced. But with Daniel's help I was able to identify-- Are you listening to me?" she snapped when Rodney turned back to what he had been doing.

"I stopped when you said about the type of energy. I figured that out in my own universe." Wasn't that obvious? "Rerouting through the dish should work. Get to it while I run a diagnostics on the sensors."

"Why?" she asked puzzled.

He twirled around. "Because my genius brain came up with a way to identify our universe of origin." He grinned.

"How?"

"Well, you must know that traveling between universes generates a very specific type of energy, right?" She nodded. "Now, for a while now I've been theorizing about how to identify different universes based on the signature log. Several months ago a duplicate of one of our ships appeared in orbit around Atlantis simply out of nowhere. We went in to investigate and found out it came from another universe and had a new kind of drive designed to jump through universes and backtrack its steps in order to get back, but it didn't work. We ended up stuck in it while it jumped through reality after reality until I reversed the process and got us back home. Since then I've been going through the data I collected and putting all of that here with what the Ancients have been working on…" he beamed. "I believe that these sensors aren't ordinary ones. I think it records different energy signatures. Now, normal sensors don't pick up residual signatures left from interdimentional travels, but these were specifically designed to do so."

"If they are still working then they may know where you came from and then you can tell it how to trace a kind of a course to your universe the way you did it on that ship," she completed. "That's brilliant."

Rodney smiled. "That's what I said."

"Uh, Sam?" Daniel called from across the room. "What's that flashing?" He pointed at a light blinking a bright red on the console.

She walked over to it. "Mmm, I don't know. It's a sensor alert and it's not connected to the device. It picked up something in orbit."

"Crap," Rodney whispered.

Automatic Ancient alert picking up signals in orbit were never a good thing. Rodney hurried through the doors of the lab then up the stairs.

"McKay!" He heard Sam's voice from behind him. "Care to explain?"

He glanced back at her. "Going to the jumper to find out what's up there." He raced up to the roof and exited through the door. "If what I'm thinking is up there is up there, then we're in trouble."

He entered the jumper, Sam, Vala and Daniel right behind. He sat at the pilot's chair and powered on the sensors.

"Nononono! This can't be! How can they know we're here, it's impossible!"

"It's a ship in orbit," Sam detected from the Ancient reading.

"Yes, it is. A Wraith cruiser."

Daniel pointed at several smaller dots coming out from it. "What are those?"

"They're darts!" He fumbled with his radio. "Colonel Sheppard, do you copy?" No answer. "John, are you hearing me?" Still nothing. "Oh, this is so not good!"

Rodney decided to cloak the ship. He pressed a few commands and broadened the range of communications.

"What are you doing?" Vala asked.

Sam smiled. "We're cloaked!"

Rodney got up. "I increased the range of communications but I'll need someone to stay here and continue trying to contact our team."

"I'll do it," Daniel volunteered.

"The wraith can't find the ship and our channels are secure." He stepped closer to the console. "Just press here to speak. I'll be listening through my earpiece. I turned on the sensors manually, so it'll stay on regardless if you have the gene. These are their ships." Rodney indicated the dots at the edge of the screen moving slowly into their position. "And these are us," he showed the group of life forms at the center. "Now, the communications should work before you're able to see anyone through the sensors, so if can't reach anyone and read life forms closing in then--"

"Then they're Wraith," Daniel completed.

"Exactly. Keep me informed of our status."

Daniel nodded. "Go it."

Rodney turned to Sam. "C'mon, we got work to do. And we're under the clock."

*****

John's breath came in ragged puffs. The headache from the drug didn't help him the least. In addition to that, the bandage covering the burning laceration on his chest was beginning to be soaked in blood and each bounce from his steps made it painfully graze over the wound. He held it with a fist, but the pain slowed him down considerably.

A flash and a blast made his heart skip several beats, the energy burst hitting a tree just inches away from his body. He glanced back and saw at least five drones gaining on them, big stunners firing in pursuit. Mitchell lowered himself to evade the discharge and in his momentum almost lost his footing and fell. John accelerated his pace and gave Ronon room to fire back on their pursuers, red against blue. He heard thumps and a heavy fall, the diminishing blasts a hint that the big guy had hit a few opponents. John made sure everyone was still following and cursed when he saw even more Wraith approaching.

Forcing lungs to work through the throbbing heat of his injury was agony. Each inhale flared up raw nerve endings and the recoil of his gun was beginning to get unbearable. He knew his clip was getting to an end so he started to fire only when he had a clear chance to hit something.

John skidded sideways to evade a volley of arrows raining on them from the clearing up ahead, then halted altogether when he almost bumped into Ronon who had lost his balance and was knelt down by a tree. There was a bolt sticking out of his leg just a few inches above his heel. John grimaced as Ronon broke it around the entry and exit points, extracting the mid portion with a small grunt.

A long burst of P90 fire followed by silence and a significant lack of stunner blasts told John that there were no more wraiths behind them, but now they had to worry about the spears and arrows. They all took cover by a few larger trees, peeking from behind to pinpoint the tribesmen exact locations.

John glanced at Teyla then indicated a few positions up ahead. Ronon added a couple more around the clearing while Mitchell designated defensible positions on their side. They all nodded in agreement and proceeded to their respective spots while the attackers were reloading.

Some of the primitive men were out in the open forming two lines and fell down quickly. Others were hidden by the vegetation, coming out every once in a while to fire their volleys, always in perfect synchrony. The bows and arrows were no match for automatic machine guns and it didn't take long for the way to be clear of hostiles.

John signaled everyone to make haste to get to the other side. Darts approached them quickly, beaming rays sweeping through the grass. John fell on his back to evade one coming right across his path and it took a couple of seconds too long for his sight to register the drones that were left behind by the ray. The closest one threw itself down on top of John, feeding palm extended closing in on his chest. John held it in front of him, trying to squirm away from underneath and failing.

The drone lunged with the other hand, long fingers scratching his face, neck and chest, extracting a shout of pain when it cut through his bandage. Strength faded from his arms that shook under the strain of keeping the feeding arm away. The drone dug his nails down on John's injury, pain taking over his senses and a howl of agony cutting through the air. John's arms gave out and his chest was slammed by the feeding hand, confusion mixed with relief when no excruciating pain came and instead, the wraith huge weight crashed on top of him. John opened his eyes and saw the handle of a knife poking out of the wraith's back, Ronon huge frame blocking out the sky.

John would have blurted out a thank you, but his lungs were busy trying to catch a breath. Ronon removed the drone away and a huge intake of air flowed into John's chest. He groaned in pain, rolling to his side and curling around the fiery torment covering his side.

Ronon started moving to help John up, but John extended a hand to stop him.

"Just… give me a moment."

Shaking and taking in ragged breaths, John squeezed his eyes and took several seconds to recompose himself. He propelled himself upwards and accepted Ronon's hand to get up.

He nodded thanks. "Let's go."

They resumed their trek through the jungle to get to the lab, John now assisted by Ronon. Darts were still buzzing around the place, now shooting at them from the sky. Trees were hit around them and almost brought both of them down. They had to keep going. John didn't know how far they were from the lab, but however far it was, it was too damn far. If Ronon let go, John would go straight to the ground in a heap of exhausted bones. He did his best to keep his legs working, so far succeeding but he wouldn't be much good if they encountered more ground forces.

"---shfh--- thi---Dani------kson------copy?"

John reached for his earpiece, relieved for the sign that they were finally getting closer. "This is Sheppard, can you hear me?"

"---Yes---hear you. Where---- you?" Daniel Jackson's voice came over the static.

"We are making our way back to the lab, but we're under attack," John responded in between puffs of breath, lowering his head to escape flying splinters.

"Thank God!" Came Rodney's voice. "Where the hell are you?" he asked annoyed. "There are wraith coming!"

John almost fell and was dragged by Ronon that kept on going. "Yes, we noticed." They dived for cover from another blast.

"Are you okay?" Rodney asked in a worried voice.

John took a few moments to breathe. "Yes, peachy. We'll be there in a few moments. What's your status?"

"We have a plan to get everyone back. It should be ready in several minutes now and we're going to need you to fly the gate to the roof so I can make the adjustments to send them back to the Milky Way."

John found hard to focus on Rodney's words but nodded in understanding when they finally made it through to his brain. "Right." Fly the jumper and get the gate. Easy. "You do know that there are wraith darts zooming around everywhere, right?" The energy blasts exploding all around the background of their conversation should be a hint.

"Think you can handle them?"

"In normal circumstances yes, but with a metal ring that weights a ton under my jumper? That is going to be hinky." John puffed and held in a grunt of pain.

"Well, we don't have any choice, do we?"

"We'll be right there." John closed the channel.

The darts ran around for another pass and they took the opportunity to quicken their pace. John could barely keep up with Ronon's large strides and was helped by Teyla on his other side. With both assisting, they made it to the entrance of the lab just as the Darts were approaching again.

Vala was already waiting with the door open for them to get through and locked it behind them by changing the crystal order in such an ease that made it almost look like she had done that hundreds of times before.

Ronon placed John down against a corner and took in his appearance.

"Think you can fly?" he asked.

John just nodded while he caught his breath. A flush of lightheadedness made John shake his head and hold the wall, even though he was already sitting. Dirt rained down on them when the darts started attacking the building. Teyla started changing his dressing and John tried not to tear up when she attempted to peel the bandage from his wound. She gave up and wrapped a clean one on top.

"I'm… I'm going to need shotgun to ride with me in the jumper." Normally John wouldn't need any help, but in his condition, under attack and hoisting a gate, he probably should take someone up with him.

"I'll go," Mitchell volunteered as he stepped closer.

John took the hand he was offered and groaned his way up, walking slowly and with help. He made it to the roof, not thinking about anything other than each step, concentrating on walking and not on the pain it caused.

Daniel Jackson was waiting by the door of the jumper, half cloaked by it. He stayed outside while John went for the pilot seat and crashed down on it.

"Good luck." He heard Daniel Jackson's voice before the rear hatch shut.

The wraith ships were turning around again but couldn't see the cloaked jumper. They went in for another series of hits to the compound.

"The darts can't see us for now, but they will once we hoist the gate," John explained to Mitchell. "We can't fire while we're cloaked so when I get the gate up in the air, I'll decloak and fire drones at them."

"Anything I can do?"

"Navigation is on your right and the sensors on your left. Press that to bring up the Heads Up Display. Just keep an eye out. Most controls are locked from you because you don't have the gene."

"Yeah, that's too bad."

John chuckled. "Yeah."

They arrived at the gate without incident but John had to let out a curse when he saw it.

"Dammit!"

"It's an open wormhole," Mitchell observed.

"Yeah." John maneuvered the ship to stay on top of the gate. "They do that to prevent escape, leave it open for a full cycle then dial out again."

He wiped his sweaty brow with a shaky hand and brought up the HUD to adjust his position with the gate. When it showed they were aligned, John fired up the tow cables that hooked up to the gate with claws that gripped on the metal. A clank announced he was successful.

John slowly raised the ship and didn't feel any quiver when the gate was separated from the ground. He adjusted the weight of the ship on the inertial dampeners to make up for the extra cargo and started his way back to the lab. It didn't take long for the jumper to be noticed by the darts that broke the attack to the lab to head for them. John uncloaked and fired four drones at once, each one hitting a different dart before they could open fire.

Several more darts that had been turning around for a new wave of attacks also changed course when they spotted John. John fired three more drones then dropped several feet in the air to evade several hits before firing another three. He bent right then left, feeling the strain of the cable holding the gate, losing altitude to evade rather than increasing it and risk losing the towline. The bottom portion of the gate scraped the tree line forcing John to decrease speed and drop another foot when the darts turned around for another hit.

John quickly gained altitude while they passed overhead and fired the rest of the drones this jumper had one by one in sequence, making them fly after the darts to give the jumper time to reach the roof. The darts danced in the sky, one of them being destroyed when it was caught up. John slowed down the speed of the drones to give them a chase, driving the darts away before giving up control and blasting the last three drones out of the sky.

The HUD showed another wave of darts coming down. John aligned the jumper with the roof, calculating the space the gate needed. Teal'c, Ronon, Teyla, Daniel and Vala made a circle on the top of the building signaling John down. He started to slowly lower the ship to let the Gate down horizontally and a sudden quiver made him tighten his hands on the controls with a curse. He looked at the HUD and saw several enemy ships approaching and firing at them.

"Take cover!" Mitchell yelled through the comm.

John didn't have any more drones so he concentrated in touching down. He saw a red blast of energy cut through the sky and knew that Ronon was firing at the flying darts.

A loud bang told John the gate was finally on the roof. He released the cables and maneuvered around to land next to it in between a few shakes and flying sparks then opened the rear door to exit.

The sight made his breath catch. Several wraith drones were fighting with the team on the roof, P90 fire above the energy blasts of stunners. Ronon signaled for both of them to make a run for it while he laid some cover fire. John nodded and went for it, Mitchell right next to him. He was almost on the top of the stairs when a familiar buzz took over his senses and a welcoming blackness lured him in.

*****


Chapter 10