Flossy's Corner of Insanity
Reflections in the Dark
By Flossy
Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fan fiction, and as such is for fan enjoyment only. All recognizable characters/settings are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended, and no profit is made. I’ve only borrowed them and I am NOT promising to put them back when I’ve finished playing with them…
Summary:When the boys accidentally activate an Ancient device similar to the Quantum Mirror found by SG-1, their doubles from an alternate reality come through. Everything seems fine to begin with, but when the device is broken, John and Rodney learn that their doppelgangers may not be as benevolent as they first thought…
Central Character(s): John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, Elizabeth, Radek, Carson, Lorne.
Category (ies): Drama, Angst, H/C, friendship
Placement: Season Three, sometime after ‘McKay and Mrs Miller’
Rating: +15
Spoilers: Biggies for ‘McKay and Mrs Miller’, little references for ‘Before I Sleep’, ‘Runner’,
A/N: Again, yet another story adapted from a challenge. This one was from the Wraithbait site – I only adapted it because I don’t write Slash fic (Sorry to disappoint, kids, but even though I’ll read it, I’m not that kind of gal…). The idea was an awesome one though, so this is my Gen effort.
If y’all like it, then I might try and do a series of AU tales for Dark!Rodney and Dark!John… NO! NAUGHTY PLOT BUNNY!!!
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Chapter 1: Just Another Regular Day in Pegasus…
Of all the people in the world he could have chosen, Dr Rodney McKay would never have guessed that he’d end up best friends with an irritating, cocky air force pilot with a penchant for kamikaze heroics every now and again.
Okay, so the man was loyal, quick witted and actually put up with his rants and neuroses, but still… As much as he respected the man, there were times when Atlantis’ CO drove Rodney to the edge of what was left of his precious sanity.
If he thought that today would be any different, McKay was sadly mistaken.
“For the last time, Sheppard, it is NOT a mirror!”
Lt Col John Sheppard grinned. For the last two hours he had been trying to see if he could make Rodney snap and at last, he’d done it. “Are you positive about that?” he asked in his most innocent voice. “Cos from where I’m standing it sure looks like one to me.”
McKay let out a strangled growl. It wasn’t even as if John couldn’t understand the physics behind the object that was stood in front of them – the man was a closet maths geek after all – and Rodney shook his head. He had had to repeat himself constantly for no better reason than to apparently keep Sheppard’s head from exploding with boredom. Ever since the pair of them had found the ‘device’ two weeks ago, he’d had to explain time and time again why said object was not a mirror.
At least, not in the normal sense.
The Canadian conceded (albeit reluctantly) that the pilot did have a point – the artefact looked for all intents and purposes like an old fashioned full length mirror. It certainly wouldn’t have been out of place in a Victorian period manor or country house, with its elegantly crafted sides and shaped frame. The only differences were that the frame was not made from oak or any other exotic timber – it was a similar alloy to that of the walls and doors in Atlantis – and that the carvings were not a floral design but Ancient symbols.
As for the mirror part itself – well that was a different matter entirely.
The surface was not made of glass, despite the fact that it resembled said element. Even with Zelenka’s help, that particular fact was all that McKay had been able to determine after a series of tests. Scans and trace had determined that there was no evidence of any kind of explosive substance and X-rays had proved to be a waste of time – as soon as Carson had turned the machine on, it shorted out along with half of the lights in the city. Rodney had said something about it emitting an energy that interfered with the Earth equipment, but had been talking at a million miles an hour at the time, so John had tuned most of the explanation out.
Truth be told, all they’d been able to figure out after a lot of arguing was a long list of what the material was not – and they were no closer to discovery.
“I’m not listening,” Rodney shot back with an evil glower – or ‘death glare number 25’ as Sheppard liked to call it.
John smirked, earning an eye roll from the scientist. Rodney knew damn well that ‘McKay-baiting’, as the Air Force man was wont to calling it, was one of Sheppard’s all-time favourite methods of stress relief and today was no exception. “When do you ever?”
“Shut up.” Not his finest comeback, but efficient and to the point.
“I’m just saying…”
“La, la, la, not listening.” McKay stuck his fingers in his ears and hummed part of a Chopin piano study loudly.
From what he could see, it took all of Sheppard’s self control not to burst out laughing. Instead, he nudged his team-mate in the ribs with an elbow. “Found anything out yet?”
Still scowling, Rodney ceased his impression of his four year old niece, Madison, and sighed. “Not yet. Radek’s still looking through the Ancient database, but so far…”
“No luck?”
“No luck.” He returned his attention to the laptop in front of him. He had set up a scanner to try and glean more information, but it was proving to be as frustrating as everything else to do with the artefact. The infernal machine kept insisting that the material didn’t exist.
‘To paraphrase the Colonel, bullshit,’ Rodney thought. The Ancients may have been advanced but he doubted that even they could invent elements out of thin air.
“So if it’s not a normal mirror, what is it?”
McKay continued typing, not looking up. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s the Ancient version of a Quantum Mirror.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sheppard’s forehead crease in confusion for a second before the alarm bells apparently decided to sound. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You mean the thing that sent Daniel Jackson to an alternate reality? The one that was sent to Area 51 for study?” He thought for a moment and then added, “And didn’t an alternate version of Carter come through it?”
“How the hell did you know that?” Rodney asked, raising his head to give his team-mate an incredulous look.
“What?” asked John, looking genuinely affronted. “I do actually read SG-1’s old mission reports you know.”
“Then you should know how dangerous the Quantum Mirror was!” McKay snapped. “So, no touching that! The last thing we want is to end up in a parallel universe where the Goa’uld, Wraith or Replicators are in control!”
“Look, it’s been two weeks!” John moaned. “Two weeks, and you still don’t know what this thing actually does!”
“That’s not only untrue, but woefully inaccurate,” Rodney shot back, eyeing his coffee cup with disdain. He glanced at the carafe in the corner and growled when he saw it was empty. That meant he’d have to go next door to steal (or rather ‘borrow without asking’) some of Zelenka’s.
“But…”
“For the last time, Sheppard, no! It’s a simple enough word that I’m sure even one of your dumber jarheads can understand!”
“I know what the word means, Rodney,” Sheppard sighed.
Rodney ploughed on, mainly to try and irritate the pilot. “An interjection used to indicate a negative response in order to refuse, deny or disagree with something – or in this case, some one.”
John gave the physicist another one of his well cultivated innocent looks… and was met with a glower that could melt ice. “Aw, c’mon, Rodney! What harm could it do? It’s just a mirror.”
Unfortunately, that just set McKay off on a colossal rant.
“Did you even listen to what I just said? Am I speaking Genii or something? The last time I checked, no means no! As in never, under any circumstances whatsoever! And don’t even think about giving me the puppy dog look! It has never and will never work.” Rodney counted to ten under his breath, trying to resist the urge to cause bodily harm to the pilot. He reasoned that if he went all ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ on Sheppard’s ass, he’d only have to clean up the blood.
His eyes narrowed dangerously and the next words he spoke came out in a low, menacing growl – a nifty trick that he’d picked up from Ronon. “I mean it, Sheppard. I know what you and your genes are like. Stay well away from it, d’you hear me? And no thinking ‘on’ or anything equally stupid!”
“Okay, okay, McKay!” the Colonel said, taking a step back with his hands raised. “I get it. Mirror bad, no touching.” He waited for a moment before asking, “Why don’t you turn it on?” The question was deliberate jibe: John already knew why that would be an incredibly stupid thing to do.
“Have you forgotten what happened last time?!”
Sheppard bit back a grin. ‘Last time’ was about three months ago when Rodney activated a different artefact without trying to find out more first. It had taken the scientist the better part of two weeks to get his voice back. “I’ll never forget,” he baited. “No moaning, no ranting, no terrorising your staff… Hell, it was two weeks of pure bliss.”
“You think you’re so funny…”
“Hey, I don’t think, I am.”
The Canadian gave him one of his patented death glares. “I’m going to get some coffee,” he stated, picking up his mug. “In fact, I’ll rephrase that. I’m going next door for a couple of minutes. Don’t touch anything.”
“As if I would,” John said, doing his best impression of wounded and put-upon.
“Yeah, and I once met a Wraith called Bambi,” Rodney snorted. “I mean it, Colonel. Do. Not. Touch. Anything. Until. I. Get. Back.” He punctuated every word with a small poke to John’s chest.
“Okay, already! Jeez, Rodney, you’re such an old woman!” Sheppard held his hands up in compliance and backed away from the work bench.
Apparently satisfied, McKay raised an eyebrow then nodded and trotted out of the lab in search of caffeine.
As soon as the doors slid closed, John stepped closer to the ‘not-mirror’. Although he would never admit it out loud, he was intrigued – the machine was stunning in every sense of the word and he found it hard to comply with McKay’s order. As much as it rattled him that Rodney refused to activate the damn thing, he understood his friend’s reluctance. McKay had only lost his voice, but it could have been much worse. Even that had been pretty scary – somehow ‘silent Rodney’ was far more intimidating than ‘bellowing Rodney’ and by the end of the two weeks, John had decided that he preferred the second.
“Hey! I told you not to touch anything!” Rodney yelled, stepping back into the lab, hot coffee in his hands.
“I wasn’t!” John protested, hastily taking several steps back. “I only looked at it!”
McKay rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the computer, fully convinced that the words of warning had gone in one ear and out the other without so much as a courtesy call on John’s woefully neglected brain.
Still, the Colonel was giving him the ‘I’m really interested and think this is cool’ look, so Rodney forgave his friend and elaborated. “It seems to be different to the Milky Way version of the Quantum Mirror, you know.”
“Really?” John asked, suddenly curious. “How so?”
“Well for a start, the Quantum Mirror that Jackson stumbled across lead to a variety of alternate realities. That much was proved when Sam’s double came through with an alternate Major Kowalski. This one doesn’t do that...”
“So what’s it for then?” John cut in impatiently.
“Just listen to me for more than thirty seconds at a time! As I was saying, this… ‘mirror’, for lack of a better word, only seems to go to one reality.”
Sheppard stared at his reflection intently. “What’s the point in that? I mean, I admit it’d be cool to see how different things are in another dimension, but why only one?”
“That’s the question.” Rodney typed away on his laptop. “As soon as I’ve finished the translations of the inscriptions, I should be able to answer it, but until then, your guess is as good as mine.”
He continued to half watch Sheppard as he worked – Rule number one from the Geek’s Survival Guide was to always keep an eye on your Goon… at all times. The moment you looked away, McKay could guarantee that they would end up doing something incredibly stupid.
John’s attention returned to the reflection in the mirror. He looked up at his hair and fiddled with it for a couple of minutes, nodding as he achieved the desired ‘just got out of bed’ look that he claimed had been eluding him all morning.
Personally, Rodney thought he’d have done a better job if he’d stuck a finger in a live socket. The results would have been the same. Without realising what John was doing, McKay continued to type, oblivious to the up and coming disaster that was about to happen.
Unfortunately, he completely failed to notice that the surface of the ‘not-glass’ was rippling slightly – and that John had leaned in closer to take a look.
He also missed the fact that his team-mate’s reflection seemed to be changing.
“Uh, Rodney…?”
“Busy.”
“I really think you should look at this…”
Rodney’s head snapped up just in time to see John’s fingers brush the suddenly shimmering surface. He jumped to his feet and ran across to his insane and possibly suicidal friend, intent on pulling him away. “No!”
The warning came too late – the mirror hummed with an ear-splittingly shrill tone and a bright flash filled the lab. The resulting shock wave threw them both to the floor.
When their eyes began working again, they were convinced that either they were both hallucinating or they’d finally flipped.
In front of them were another Sheppard and McKay.
Chapter 2: You Look Awfully Familiar…
“No, no, no,” Rodney whimpered, scooting backwards. “Not again!”
“Easy, Answer Man,” John hissed, dragging them both to their feet as he turned to the doubles.
‘Man, we are talking PERFECT copies here,’ he thought, staring dazedly at the new arrivals. Every tiny detail was exact, from… Other… Rodney’s crooked grin and the way John’s duplicate had the same pointed ears that had made his life a misery since The Lord of the Rings movies had come out.
Although, the pilot decided, he had the better hair. “Uh...”
The John double grinned. “Hi.”
“Uh…”
‘Smooth, Sheppard, real smooth,’ the Colonel’s internal McKay crowed, making him grimace. For some reason, his mouth decided to go on strike and he could only gape unceremoniously at their new friends. Luckily, it seemed that McKay was suffering from the same problem.
“Wow, you’re a chatty pair, aren’t you?” Other-John said with a lazy grin. “What do you think, Rodney?”
McKay’s double scowled at him. “I told you not to mess around with it, Sheppard!” he whined in true Rodney fashion. “Do you have any idea of the damage this could have caused?”
“You worry too much, genius,” John’s copy replied, waving a hand airily.
“Uh, sorry, but I, uh, that-that is, we, uh,” Rodney stammered. Yep, he was definitely having the same problem as John, but at least he’d gotten more than a confused grunt past his throat.
“Sorry!” John’s double said, extending a hand. “Introductions. I’m Lt Col John Sheppard and my friend here is Dr Rodney McKay.”
“But we figured you kinda knew that already,” Rodney number two sighed.
“You’re us,” McKay squeaked, as his fingers were gripped tightly in the handshake.
Other-Rodney nodded. “Yeah,” he said slowly, as if talking to an idiot. “Well, not exactly, but unless you have multiple PhDs, you probably wouldn’t understand.”
“Well, whaddaya know?” John said, grinning slightly. He placed a hand on Rodney’s shoulder to prevent him from lunging at his alternate.
To be honest, Sheppard was feeling more than a bit freaked and almost punch drunk, but he’d finally managed to form a coherent sentence. At least they wouldn’t think he was a gormless, brain dead idiot.
“That’s just… weird,” Rodney muttered. “So you’re a scientist then?” he asked, pointing at his copy.
The man nodded. “Head of the Science Department actually! If it weren’t for me, the good Colonel here would have been blown up, eaten, mangled, shot, stabbed and so on and so forth a million times by now.” He scowled at Other-John. “And despite his worrying love for C4 and an overblown hero complex, I don’t want to have to re-train yet another military grunt. It took me long enough with this one.”
“This is definitely weird,” Sheppard muttered, staring intently at his duplicate. “I’m Lt Col John Sheppard, and this is Dr Rodney McKay.”
“Really?” asked Other-Rodney excitedly. “That’s incredible!”
“Sheppard, this is amazing! Of all the universes this thing could’ve hooked up to, it found one where…”
“Geeks,” the two Johns muttered fondly. Sheppard nearly dope slapped himself for mentally adding ‘jinx!’ at the end.
“We’re almost identical!” the McKays said at the same time.
As John regarded the two interlopers, he found that he had to agree with them. Other-Rodney was stocky like his McKay, but it was more from muscle than padding. He seemed to have a laid-back, confident air about him, not unlike Rod, that was both relaxing and unnerving in equal measure. Despite that, he could still see the skittishness, as if he was frightened that something horrible was about to jump out and eat them all in seconds. Looking down, he noted that both of them carried thigh holster with a 9mm securely tucked away.
His own duplicate wasn’t pudgy, but wasn’t as lean or wiry as John was, and there were definite flecks of grey in the dark hair. There was something about the two of them that unnerved him. For a moment, John thought he’d caught a flicker of something in Other-John’s eyes, but dismissed it as the remnants of his mild freak out.
The boys stood staring at their doubles for a few moments – their uniforms were slightly different, better fitted, and far more battle scarred… which Sheppard found worrying. Both were sporting all black, with heavy duty combat boots and a black jacket completing the look. ‘No blue science shirt?’ John wondered to himself.
“I hate to say this, but I’m going to have to take your weapons,” he eventually said out loud.
“Why?” asked Other-John, tensing, his hand hovering over the holster.
“Security protocol,” Sheppard explained quickly, ignoring the slightly baffled look that his Rodney sent him. It wasn’t as if he could tell them that they were a security threat, was it? Besides, if McKay’s copy wanted to get into it, John was pretty sure that he’d lose. He looked like he could handle himself and the Air Force man knew from the rare hand-to-hand sessions he’d had with his McKay that he could pack a mean right hook when he felt like it.
Plus, there was something about his own double that made John uneasy. “I’m sure you have something similar back… back home,” he added, hoping for a truce of sorts.
Other-John narrowed his eyes and for a moment, looked like he was going to decline, but a quick nudge from Other-Rodney and he sighed and relaxed his stance slightly.
“Please, Colonel,” Other-Rodney said, “just do what the man wants. I don’t think we’re in any danger.” He handed the gun to Sheppard as if to demonstrate then gave up his data pad. In turn, John passed it to Rodney.
“Since when did you become a military expert, McKay?” Other-John snapped.
“Sheppard, please,” Rodney’s copy said, his blue eyes almost begging.
“Fine, if it’ll stop your whining.” He un-holstered the pistol and handed it to John.
“Thanks,” Sheppard said, engaging the safety and tucking it into the back of his pants. “It’s just temporary.” But he could tell that his copy didn’t believe that any more than he did.
The doubles looked around the room that the four of them were stood in. “This is unbelievable!” Other-Rodney exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement. “It’s an almost perfect copy of MY lab!”
“You’re an astrophysicist then?” asked McKay. Glancing over at him, John could see his natural curiosity taking over from the anxiety and all out panic.
Other-Rodney nodded smugly. “The best.”
“Smartest man in two galaxies, or so he likes to tell me regularly,” Other-John said in a bored voice, although Sheppard noted that the corners of his lips were quirking up slightly.
“That’s what our Rodney says,” he replied, patting McKay’s back.
“I can’t help it if it’s the truth,” McKay muttered petulantly.
“So you realise what this means?” asked Other-Rodney.
McKay nodded. “We’ll have to compare findings. I assume you’ve found a similar device on your side.”
“Yes. I theorised that it was similar to a Quantum Mirror, but it only seemed to go one way.”
“What about entropic cascade failure?” asked McKay.
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem…”
“Whoa!” John and his mirror image said, holding up their hands.
“First things first, we all need to get down to the infirmary,” John stated, reaching for his ear-piece.
Paling slightly, Other-Rodney moved to McKay’s side. “Uh, listen, I know that there’s going to be some differences and all, but is… is Carson…”
“McKay!” Other-John barked. “Enough.”
“What?” asked McKay, momentarily confused at the vicious tone.
Sheppard looked between the two new arrivals. There was definitely something going on there, but he was damned if he could put his finger on it. The way McKay’s copy seemed to give into Other-John was not only unnerving but just plain wrong.
“Is he still alive here, then?” Rodney number two asked in a low voice. “I mean, he isn’t…?”
John turned to study him and saw that the man’s eyes were bloodshot and he had a haunted look about him.
In a moment of rarely seen compassion, McKay patted the scientist on his shoulder – and boy, John thought, did that look weird. “No, our Carson’s fine,” he replied.
John could see the man trembling slightly under Rodney’s fingertips and wondered what had happened in their universe. He glanced over to his copy, who shared the worried look and moved closer. Then he heard a voice on the other end of the radio and moved away to discuss the details.
“Colonel, did you hear that?” asked Other-Rodney, looking to his team-mate.
Other-John looked up sharply. For a brief moment, there was an odd look on his face – was it disbelief, unease or relief? – before the professional mask slammed back in place. “Yeah, Rodney, I heard,” he said softly.
“Okay, guys, let’s go,” John said, having completed the conversation over the radio. “I’ve got Lorne and a couple of the guys on their way.”
“Escorts, huh?” asked Other-John, wandering over to him. “Don’t trust us yet?”
“Well, I… I mean it’s…”
Other-John grinned and patted Sheppard on the back. “’S okay, buddy. I’d do the same. Can’t be too careful.”
John nodded gratefully, thrown by hearing his usual phrase. “Uh, shall we?” He motioned to the doors and the four of them stepped out.
Chapter 3: Infirmary Blues
“I don’t bloody believe it!” Carson muttered as John, Rodney and two men who seemed to be exact copies of his friends wandered in with Major Lorne and two other Marines.
“Hi, doc,” Sheppard said, giving the Scotsman a cheeky grin and a wave. “We’ve made some new friends.”
For the love of everything holy…
“Aye, lad, I can see that.” He let out a sigh and herded the quartet towards a row of empty beds – or cots, as most of the expedition had taken to calling them – and motioned for them to sit. “Rodney?” he asked. “What gadget did you mess around with this time?”
Rodney looked hurt at the gentle accusation. “I didn’t do anything!” he protested, raising a hand to point at John. “It was his fault!”
“McKay!” John snapped, glowering at the physicist. “It was an accident! Christ!”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Beckett closed his eyes for a moment, wondering what he’d done to warrant having two toddlers as best friends. Perhaps he’d been a mass murderer in another life. “Thank you, Major,” he said, turning to Lorne. “I can handle this from here.”
“You sure, doc?” Evan asked Carson, looking at John and Rodney’s doubles with an uncertain frown.
“Aye, son,” the physician replied, patting him on the shoulder. He knew that Lorne felt uneasy about leaving a civilian with two people he’d never met before, but the fact that they had walked in voluntarily eased Beckett’s nerves. Besides, he reasoned, he had John there if things became ugly and even Rodney could put up one hell of a fight. “As you were.”
“Call me if you need anything,” he said. “Sir?”
“Yeah, Lorne, you can go. Thanks.” John waved him away.
Beckett stood for a moment and looked at the men in front of him. It was almost as if someone had put up a mirror in the middle of the ward. He couldn’t help but notice the way the new arrivals were staring at him – he was a doctor, and knew what the signs and symptoms of shock were, but this was different. “Marie?” he called to one of his nurses, “could you come and assist me, love?”
After learning what had happened – and Carson couldn’t even begin to describe how barmy it was hearing John and Rodney in stereo – he started the exam. With Marie’s assistance, he took a blood sample from all of them and examined his John and Rodney for signs of head trauma from their fall.
John was fine, but Rodney had bumped his over-sized noggin on the corner of the table as he fell and had a mild concussion. After assuring him that he wasn’t about to die of a cerebral oedema, blood clot to the brain or anything else, he seemed to be mollified and accepted the Tylenol the Scotsman gave him for the nasty headache he denied having.
Carson knew him far too well, and he had yet to learn that the doctor could read him like an open book. Scolding him gently, he moved to the alternate Sheppard and McKay and found that there wasn’t a mark on them. Apparently, they’d simply been pulled through the infernal device and had managed to stay on their feet. They were a bit stiff and sore in places, but he put that down to the unnatural forces that had been exerted on them. Sometimes, he marvelled at what the human body could cope with.
The preliminary checks complete, Beckett decided to move them all to the isolation room to be on the safe side – and to avoid drawing in an audience. Once again, the daft sods had touched something they shouldn’t have and if he was honest with himself, he was starting to wonder if he should attach kiddie harnesses to the pair of them. When they got together, it was like an open invitation for the horsemen of the Apocalypse to show up. When John and Rodney were in close proximity to an Ancient device, Armageddon was almost inevitable.
They were worse than children.
Rodney’s copy had been more than a bit anxious in the ward, and now he was in isolation, Carson could see that he was pretty spooked. He sat at the top of his bed wearing scrubs, hugging his knees nervously.
“Are you okay, lad?” Beckett asked softly. “Are you in any pain?”
Other-Rodney shook his head mutely, still staring at the Scotsman in something akin to disbelief. It was starting to feel more than a bit unnerving.
Other-John scooted across to his team-mate and put an arm around the scientist’s shoulders. “It’s okay, doc. Rodney doesn’t like hospitals much.”
“Aye, I’d gathered that,” Beckett replied.
“Carson?” Rodney called from behind them. “Can I have a word?”
“I’ll be right back. Try and relax, son. I’ll not hurt you, I promise.” Carson turned to McKay and Sheppard and wandered over to them.
“He… Rodney… said that in their reality, you… well, their Carson Beckett…” Rodney began.
“He’s trying to say that your double isn’t around any more,” John cut in. “At least, they hinted that.”
“I see,” Carson replied, understanding the other Rodney’s reaction. “Thanks, boys.” He observed them critically. They didn’t seem to be in any distress or pain other than a couple of bruises from their close encounter with the lab floor and Rodney’s wee concussion, and there were no obvious signs of shock, but he knew them far too well.
John Sheppard would happily insist that a life-threatening injury was just a scratch right up to the point where he passed out from the blood loss and Rodney, despite appearances, was just as bad if not worse. He’d moan and whine about something as tiny as a paper cut, but the minute anything was actually wrong, he’d claim he was fine. It was only when he got quiet that Beckett started to worry.
“How are you two feeling?” he asked, looking over the monitors.
“Fine,” Sheppard said. “Is this really necessary?”
“Aye, son, it is. Rodney? How’s the headache?”
“It’s fine, Carson. I’m good.”
Both of them gave him an incredulous stare.
“What?” McKay asked.
“That’s a first,” John said, grinning softly.
“I’m fine, okay?” said McKay hotly.
“Okay, Rodney, take it easy.”
The physicist sighed and looked at the floor. “I’m just… I don’t know… I think I’m worried about him.”
“Who?” Carson asked. “Your double?”
There was a nod and a quiet, “And Sheppard.”
“I’m fine, McKay.”
“Not you! Other you!”
Sheppard looked surprised and Beckett couldn’t blame him – McKay putting someone else’s feelings before his own? Unheard of. Actually, Carson thought, that was unfair to Rodney. He knew damn well that the Canadian did care about people, more than he’d admit, and he could tell McKay was worried.
“You didn’t see them in the lab,” Rodney continued, unaware of the stares from his friends. “When they found out you were still here, they…” He shook his head, his voice growing uncharacteristically soft. “It must have been bad for them.”
John reached out and patted Rodney’s shoulder. “Yeah, buddy.”
They all looked over to the two new arrivals. Rodney’s copy was rocking slightly, still grasping his knees in a death grip while John’s double had thrown an arm over his shoulder, whispering in his ear to try and calm the man. Carson sighed again and moved back to them.
“I can give him something to help,” he said to Other-John. “A mild sedative perhaps? It would help him to relax.”
“He’ll be fine,” Other-John said, reaching up to gently smoothing his companion’s hair like an older brother would. “Like I said, he doesn’t like hospitals.”
“Listen, son, I know you don’t want to talk about it and if you really don’t want to answer you don’t have to…”
“You wanna know what happened to our Beckett?” asked John’s duplicate.
Carson nodded. He knew it was morbid and bloody creepy, but he had an almost perverse need to know all the gory details. It was not unlike watching a car crash – he knew he shouldn’t be looking but he just couldn’t help himself. “Like I said, you don’t have to answer if it’s too much.”
Other-John thought for a moment then looked back at the doctor with a grim sense of determination that wouldn’t have been out of place on his Sheppard’s face. “There was a siege at the end of our first year on Atlantis,” he said in a quiet voice. “One of the Athosians we rescued turned out to be an informant for a couple of hives. They were passing on information for three months before we found out. By the time we did, it was already too late. We were over-run with Wraith. I tried to save him, but…” his voice cracked slightly. “I got to him too late.”
“He… they… they fed on him,” Other-Rodney finished in a quiet whisper. He looked at his friend. “It wasn’t your fault, Colonel.”
John’s twin just shrugged, obviously unconvinced. “Maybe one day I’ll believe that.” He looked back at Beckett and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Carson.”
Carson felt strange. Knowing that there was another Carson Beckett in another dimension was one thing, but finding out that he’d died… That was a whole new ball game. “Okay, lads. Are you sure you both feel alright? No pain anywhere?” He trailed off and gave them a slightly helpless look. In his defence, it wasn’t every day that a person could just step through a mirror into another universe, and he honestly had no idea what kind of trauma that could cause to a human body. He’d read some of Janet Fraser’s old reports about the Quantum Mirror, and knew about entropic cascade failure – nasty and painful – but both Rodneys didn’t seem overly worried about it.
He spent a couple of moments just staring at them. He knew that they were obviously different people to his friends, but there was something about them he couldn’t put his finger on. Their closeness wasn’t that dissimilar to that of his Rodney and John, but there was something slightly out of kilter about the way they interacted with each other. It was almost as if they were… lying? Putting on an act?
Carson cursed silently and scolded himself. It was shock, pure and simple, and he was reading far too much into it. “I can give you some muscle relaxants if…”
“No!” Other-John replied sharply, making Beckett jump slightly. His face softened and he looked sheepish. “No, doc, we’re fine. It’s been a crazy day.”
“Well, I can see you’ve been through a lot,” Carson replied, trying to shake off his slightly paranoid feelings. “I want to keep you overnight just to make sure, but as far as the scans and blood work go, you’re clean.”
“We can do that,” Other-John said.
“Will you be alright?” he asked Rodney’s copy. Keeping a patient with an obvious phobia of hospitals was never pleasant and he hated doing it, but the last thing he wanted was for some unseen complication or hidden illness to emerge. He couldn’t risk an outbreak of something, especially not a trans-universal disease.
Trans-universal? Carson decided that he was spending far too much of his free time with Radek and Rodney. Bloody scientists.
Other-Rodney nodded. “Are the others staying with us?” he asked in a tiny voice, looking over to Sheppard and McKay.
“Those two pig-headed fools, you mean?” Carson asked, his smile mischievous.
Other-Rodney nodded and Beckett couldn’t help but find his request odd. Shaking his head, he put it down to a combination of shock and his obvious phobia and let it rest. “Aye, lad, they’re both staying.” He gave them a no-nonsense stare and tilted his head to one side. “If you need anything just press the call button. And if you change your mind about the sedative, you’ve only got to ask. I mean it, son. I’ll not stand around and watch someone suffering if there’s something I can do to help.”
The two doppelgangers relaxed visibly and as Carson completed the last of his checks, the four of them settled in for the night.
Chapter 4: Timelines
“I don’t believe it.”
Elizabeth Weir unknowingly echoed Carson’s words as she took in the sight in front of her. She shook her head as she looked at McKay and Sheppard’s doubles, trying to suppress the urge to gasp out loud. Having her own versions was bad enough, but now there was double the trouble…
Still, John and Rodney had been adamant that their doppelgangers weren’t a threat and the leader of Atlantis believed them. How could she not? They were two of the people that she trusted with her life and if they said it was okay, then she was in agreement.
John was less insistent than Rodney, but as Chief Military Officer, he had to be suspicious – and frankly, the dark haired woman would have been worried if he wasn’t. Their doppelgangers didn’t seem threatening, though, so she decided to go with the flow for the time being.
“It’s complicated, I admit, but I think we’ve managed to work it out,” said McKay, looking to his counterpart, who nodded.
“The research I was doing back in my reality suggested that the mirror was an Ancient device used as an early attempt at Ascension,” Other-Rodney explained. “It allowed them to see how differently their lives might have panned out if they had chosen different paths so to speak.”
“But why only one dimension?” asked Sheppard. “I mean, why not make it show you twenty or a hundred?”
Rodney held up a finger and grinned smugly. “Because they didn’t have enough power.”
“What are you saying?” Elizabeth asked, with a gentle frown.
“Basically, the Ancients would have needed a massive power source to create a stable wormhole to more than one dimension,” McKay explained. “According to our calculations, in order to access a range of multi-verses, they’d need the equivalent of at least thirty Zed PMs just to power it for five minutes.”
“But only having one alternate reality wasn’t such a drain on the power,” Other-Rodney added. “My version of Radek and I were able to determine that the mirror on our side had an inbuilt power source, one that is capable of establishing a safe link to said alternate reality.”
“Does our version have this internal power source?” Weir asked, knowing full well that they were currently running off the Naquadah generators. “And why did it activate?”
“Yes, Elizabeth,” Rodney replied patiently. “There’s no drain to our power.” He looked away, obviously still feeling guilty about draining their ZPM when Rod returned to his own universe. Elizabeth winced at his expression: she hadn’t meant for her words to be cutting. “As for the activating…” he sent his John a dirty look.
Both of the Johns looked sheepish. “That might have been our fault,” said Sheppard.
“See, in my reality, I’m a natural carrier of the ATA gene,” Other-John explained, “and it’s the strongest out of anyone else on the base. Rodney told me a hundred times not to touch the damn thing, but I couldn’t help it.” He smiled.
Elizabeth had to remind herself that it wasn’t her John sat directly in front of her chair. He was so different and yet the same that it was just too bizarre. Other-John was as charming as Sheppard and as for Rodney’s double… He looked handsome, much like Rod had been. Mentally scolding herself for being so easily distracted from the matter at hand, she hastily cleared her throat and glanced over to Sheppard. “And I suppose that you happened to touch it at the same time?”
Sheppard nodded. “Yeah. Talk about a coincidence!” But his light, joking tone didn’t match the flash of suspicion in his eyes.
“What about entropic cascade failure?” she asked. Like John and Carson, Elizabeth had read the old SG-1 reports and knew that this could turn into a potentially fatal situation.
“We don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” said Rodney.
“Because the mirror is of Ancient design, it can only be used by ATA carriers,” Other-Rodney clarified. “Even though my gene is artificial, I’m still able to operate the Ancient technology just as well as Colonel Sheppard.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Other-John, frowning.
“Well,” said McKay, turning to John’s alternate self, “basically, it means that you’ve got a get out of jail free card.”
“How so?” asked Sheppard.
“We don’t really have all the details yet,” said Other-Rodney, looking at Sheppard, “but we think that the ATA gene makes us immune to the effects of entropic cascade failure.” He glanced back at McKay when the rest of the group gave them blank looks.
“Think about it. What good would it be to see an alternate version of your life if you could only spend a limited amount of time there? How could you learn from your mistakes or realise that you’d already made them?” asked McKay. “The Ancients built fail safes into virtually everything they created, so it makes sense that the mirror has one too.”
“You know, Rodney, it does in a weird kind of way,” said Sheppard.
“So what now?” asked his double.
“Well, I don’t see why you and Dr McKay shouldn’t stay for a while,” Elizabeth said, and noticed that the two of them exchanged a guilty look. “After all, we might all learn a few useful things.” She turned to Sheppard. “Can you arrange some sleeping quarters for our guests?”
“No problem,” John replied, getting to his feet.
“God, what I wouldn’t give for a decent sleep,” Other-John said. “No offence, but those infirmary beds are like sleeping on concrete. Guess some things are the same no matter what reality you’re in.”
Sheppard laughed. “I know what you mean.”
“Uh, actually, Colonel, would it be alright with you if I had a look at Dr McKay’s findings?” asked Other-Rodney. “I’m pretty sure we won’t suffer any ill effects, but I’d like to be sure.”
Other-John waved his hand. “Sure, McKay, have a blast. Just go easy on the coffee, okay?”
“I’ll go see about those quarters,” said John, seeing the look on Weir’s face. It was obvious that she wanted to find out more about their doppelgangers reality and he knew without asking. John had a knack for that. He smiled and left the conference room.
Rodney and his counterpart were deep in conversation, only to be interrupted by the sound of a throat being cleared. “Rodney,” Elizabeth asked, “can you give us a moment?”
The Canadian looked confused for a moment, but then nodded as he realised her intentions. Elizabeth bit back a sigh. The man was still a puzzle. How could someone with the social skills of a five year old pick up on subtle signals? She put it down to his being a genius – and having made a tight circle of friends who could give him lessons.
“I’ll be in the lab,” he said as he stood up and headed to the door. “When you’re done, one of the marines will escort you down.”
Once he had gone, Elizabeth looked at the two new comers – and they really were exact replicas. “Carson said you didn’t sleep too well last night,” she said softly, trying to broach the subject as gently as possible.
Other-Rodney smiled nervously. “I, uh, I don’t do so well in hospitals,” he admitted. “They… they freak me out.”
She returned the smile. “I know what you mean. Look, if there’s anything we can do…”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to occupy my mind. And a strong cup of coffee or three wouldn’t hurt,” he added.
She tried hard to ignore just how McKay-esque those comments had sounded.
“I take it this is the part where you ask questions?” asked Other-John, who had slouched down in his chair.
Weir nodded – the way he was sitting was almost the exact same as her John and it took her a moment to remember that the men in front of her were not her colleagues. “I’m afraid so,” she replied. “You see, it’s not every day that we get to meet alternate versions of ourselves.” She gave them a rueful smile, remembering the old version of herself that they’d found in stasis during their first year on Atlantis. “Well, for some of us at least…”
“Dr McKay told us about the bridge experiment and ‘Rod’,” Rodney’s double said. “And we’ve had some experience ourselves.”
“Really?” she asked, wondering why she felt so surprised.
“Really,” John’s duplicate confirmed. “I used to be based at the SGC. I was with Dr Jackson when he found the Quantum Mirror and met another copy of myself.”
“And about seven months ago, we discovered an older version of Lt Ford.”
Elizabeth was speechless. The slight differences were just mind-blowing and she found herself curious to know more.
“What do you want to know?” Other-John asked abruptly, pulling her from her thoughts.
“How about you start at the beginning?”
The two men looked at each other and Other-John let out a long sigh. “We’re part of an expedition that went to Atlantis two and a half years ago. I’m the Head of the Military and McKay is our Chief Scientist – but I guess you already figured that. When we arrived, we found the city submerged and the last Zed PM was busted.”
“Technically, it wasn’t ‘busted’, Sheppard,” Other-Rodney cut in. “It was nearing maximum entropy. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever, McKay,” Other-John replied, waving a hand dismissively. “The point was, we were screwed. In desperation, we sent out a small group to try and make contact with the inhabitants of a planet that was in the list of Gate addresses from the database.”
“The Athosians?” Elizabeth asked.
Other-John nodded, looking pale. “Yeah. Everything was going fine, and I made friends with an Athosian called Teyla, but something happened and the Wraith showed up. They killed most of my men.” His face darkened and he stared into the distance, unseeing. “Fed on them, butchered anyone who was in the way. Myself, Teyla and one of my Lieutenants got out, along with a handful of the Athosians, but my commanding officer, Col Sumner wasn’t so lucky.”
Weir sat in shocked silence. The events were at the same time similar and different, and it was starting to make her head spin.
She was beginning to regret asking.
“The party returned and the city rose – some kind of failsafe,” Other-Rodney continued. “Quite remarkable, really.”
“Anyways, we managed to get settled and started trading with some of the contacts Teyla had.”
“What about the Wraith?”
“They’d all woken up already. They’d been awake for about a month before we showed up and decided to stay that way once they found out about us.” Other-John shifted uncomfortably. “We think that they extracted information about Earth from the soldiers that they fed on.”
“Carson said that you mentioned something about the siege?”
Other-Rodney nodded, looking gaunt. “Like the Colonel said last night, we were set up.”
“By one of the Athosians.”
John’s counterpart looked sick. “Teyla,” he said quietly. “She had this ability to sense the Wraith. We thought it would be handy, you know? Like an early warning system, but…”
“We didn’t know she could communicate with them until it was too late,” Rodney’s copy finished in a hollow voice.
Elizabeth didn’t know what to say. The thought that Teyla could do something like that was hard to swallow and she felt physically ill.
She just hoped that there wouldn’t be any feelings of animosity when they met their Teyla.
“That’s when we lost Carson,” Other-Rodney continued in a quiet, pained voice. “We lost a lot of people. Carson, Peter…” He looked up at the expedition leader, his blue eyes full of regret. “And our Elizabeth.”
“But we survived,” John’s double said, staring intently at his team-mate. “That’s what matters.”
“Yeah, Sheppard, but we won’t for much longer…”
“What do you mean?” Weir asked, frowning.
“Our Zed PM is failing,” Other-Rodney replied. “We’ve been scouting for a new one for months now, but with no luck.”
“You won’t be able to power the shield?”
They nodded. “Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but…” Other-Rodney picked distractedly at the sleeve of his jacket. “…Six months ago, we had to submerge the city.”
“The Wraith found out we hadn’t destroyed the city in the siege and sent a couple of hives to take us out,” Other-John continued. “The Prometheus was destroyed in an ambush and all we could do was sink the city.”
“The water meant that the intensity of their weapons was diffused somewhat. Unfortunately, it’s been eating up power far too quickly.”
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said. “But I don’t see how we can help.”
“You don’t have to,” said John’s double. “We’re not here to beg. It was just a fluke.”
“We thought that we could use the mirror’s power source to top up our Zed PM,” his team-mate continued. “But it didn’t work.”
“And you ended up in our universe,” Weir finished, understanding.
The two men looked at each other. “Precisely,” Other-Rodney said. He shifted uncomfortably and the guilty look from earlier returned. “But that’s only the start of the problem.”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Rodney neglected to tell me at the time that the trip was…” Other-John trailed off, looking anxious and Elizabeth immediately felt uneasy.
“One-way,” Rodney’s copy finished quietly. “Unless we can figure out how to reverse the process, we’ll be stuck here.”
Click here for Part 2
By Flossy
Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fan fiction, and as such is for fan enjoyment only. All recognizable characters/settings are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended, and no profit is made. I’ve only borrowed them and I am NOT promising to put them back when I’ve finished playing with them…
Summary:When the boys accidentally activate an Ancient device similar to the Quantum Mirror found by SG-1, their doubles from an alternate reality come through. Everything seems fine to begin with, but when the device is broken, John and Rodney learn that their doppelgangers may not be as benevolent as they first thought…
Central Character(s): John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, Elizabeth, Radek, Carson, Lorne.
Category (ies): Drama, Angst, H/C, friendship
Placement: Season Three, sometime after ‘McKay and Mrs Miller’
Rating: +15
Spoilers: Biggies for ‘McKay and Mrs Miller’, little references for ‘Before I Sleep’, ‘Runner’,
A/N: Again, yet another story adapted from a challenge. This one was from the Wraithbait site – I only adapted it because I don’t write Slash fic (Sorry to disappoint, kids, but even though I’ll read it, I’m not that kind of gal…). The idea was an awesome one though, so this is my Gen effort.
If y’all like it, then I might try and do a series of AU tales for Dark!Rodney and Dark!John… NO! NAUGHTY PLOT BUNNY!!!
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Chapter 1: Just Another Regular Day in Pegasus…
Of all the people in the world he could have chosen, Dr Rodney McKay would never have guessed that he’d end up best friends with an irritating, cocky air force pilot with a penchant for kamikaze heroics every now and again.
Okay, so the man was loyal, quick witted and actually put up with his rants and neuroses, but still… As much as he respected the man, there were times when Atlantis’ CO drove Rodney to the edge of what was left of his precious sanity.
If he thought that today would be any different, McKay was sadly mistaken.
“For the last time, Sheppard, it is NOT a mirror!”
Lt Col John Sheppard grinned. For the last two hours he had been trying to see if he could make Rodney snap and at last, he’d done it. “Are you positive about that?” he asked in his most innocent voice. “Cos from where I’m standing it sure looks like one to me.”
McKay let out a strangled growl. It wasn’t even as if John couldn’t understand the physics behind the object that was stood in front of them – the man was a closet maths geek after all – and Rodney shook his head. He had had to repeat himself constantly for no better reason than to apparently keep Sheppard’s head from exploding with boredom. Ever since the pair of them had found the ‘device’ two weeks ago, he’d had to explain time and time again why said object was not a mirror.
At least, not in the normal sense.
The Canadian conceded (albeit reluctantly) that the pilot did have a point – the artefact looked for all intents and purposes like an old fashioned full length mirror. It certainly wouldn’t have been out of place in a Victorian period manor or country house, with its elegantly crafted sides and shaped frame. The only differences were that the frame was not made from oak or any other exotic timber – it was a similar alloy to that of the walls and doors in Atlantis – and that the carvings were not a floral design but Ancient symbols.
As for the mirror part itself – well that was a different matter entirely.
The surface was not made of glass, despite the fact that it resembled said element. Even with Zelenka’s help, that particular fact was all that McKay had been able to determine after a series of tests. Scans and trace had determined that there was no evidence of any kind of explosive substance and X-rays had proved to be a waste of time – as soon as Carson had turned the machine on, it shorted out along with half of the lights in the city. Rodney had said something about it emitting an energy that interfered with the Earth equipment, but had been talking at a million miles an hour at the time, so John had tuned most of the explanation out.
Truth be told, all they’d been able to figure out after a lot of arguing was a long list of what the material was not – and they were no closer to discovery.
“I’m not listening,” Rodney shot back with an evil glower – or ‘death glare number 25’ as Sheppard liked to call it.
John smirked, earning an eye roll from the scientist. Rodney knew damn well that ‘McKay-baiting’, as the Air Force man was wont to calling it, was one of Sheppard’s all-time favourite methods of stress relief and today was no exception. “When do you ever?”
“Shut up.” Not his finest comeback, but efficient and to the point.
“I’m just saying…”
“La, la, la, not listening.” McKay stuck his fingers in his ears and hummed part of a Chopin piano study loudly.
From what he could see, it took all of Sheppard’s self control not to burst out laughing. Instead, he nudged his team-mate in the ribs with an elbow. “Found anything out yet?”
Still scowling, Rodney ceased his impression of his four year old niece, Madison, and sighed. “Not yet. Radek’s still looking through the Ancient database, but so far…”
“No luck?”
“No luck.” He returned his attention to the laptop in front of him. He had set up a scanner to try and glean more information, but it was proving to be as frustrating as everything else to do with the artefact. The infernal machine kept insisting that the material didn’t exist.
‘To paraphrase the Colonel, bullshit,’ Rodney thought. The Ancients may have been advanced but he doubted that even they could invent elements out of thin air.
“So if it’s not a normal mirror, what is it?”
McKay continued typing, not looking up. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s the Ancient version of a Quantum Mirror.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sheppard’s forehead crease in confusion for a second before the alarm bells apparently decided to sound. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You mean the thing that sent Daniel Jackson to an alternate reality? The one that was sent to Area 51 for study?” He thought for a moment and then added, “And didn’t an alternate version of Carter come through it?”
“How the hell did you know that?” Rodney asked, raising his head to give his team-mate an incredulous look.
“What?” asked John, looking genuinely affronted. “I do actually read SG-1’s old mission reports you know.”
“Then you should know how dangerous the Quantum Mirror was!” McKay snapped. “So, no touching that! The last thing we want is to end up in a parallel universe where the Goa’uld, Wraith or Replicators are in control!”
“Look, it’s been two weeks!” John moaned. “Two weeks, and you still don’t know what this thing actually does!”
“That’s not only untrue, but woefully inaccurate,” Rodney shot back, eyeing his coffee cup with disdain. He glanced at the carafe in the corner and growled when he saw it was empty. That meant he’d have to go next door to steal (or rather ‘borrow without asking’) some of Zelenka’s.
“But…”
“For the last time, Sheppard, no! It’s a simple enough word that I’m sure even one of your dumber jarheads can understand!”
“I know what the word means, Rodney,” Sheppard sighed.
Rodney ploughed on, mainly to try and irritate the pilot. “An interjection used to indicate a negative response in order to refuse, deny or disagree with something – or in this case, some one.”
John gave the physicist another one of his well cultivated innocent looks… and was met with a glower that could melt ice. “Aw, c’mon, Rodney! What harm could it do? It’s just a mirror.”
Unfortunately, that just set McKay off on a colossal rant.
“Did you even listen to what I just said? Am I speaking Genii or something? The last time I checked, no means no! As in never, under any circumstances whatsoever! And don’t even think about giving me the puppy dog look! It has never and will never work.” Rodney counted to ten under his breath, trying to resist the urge to cause bodily harm to the pilot. He reasoned that if he went all ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ on Sheppard’s ass, he’d only have to clean up the blood.
His eyes narrowed dangerously and the next words he spoke came out in a low, menacing growl – a nifty trick that he’d picked up from Ronon. “I mean it, Sheppard. I know what you and your genes are like. Stay well away from it, d’you hear me? And no thinking ‘on’ or anything equally stupid!”
“Okay, okay, McKay!” the Colonel said, taking a step back with his hands raised. “I get it. Mirror bad, no touching.” He waited for a moment before asking, “Why don’t you turn it on?” The question was deliberate jibe: John already knew why that would be an incredibly stupid thing to do.
“Have you forgotten what happened last time?!”
Sheppard bit back a grin. ‘Last time’ was about three months ago when Rodney activated a different artefact without trying to find out more first. It had taken the scientist the better part of two weeks to get his voice back. “I’ll never forget,” he baited. “No moaning, no ranting, no terrorising your staff… Hell, it was two weeks of pure bliss.”
“You think you’re so funny…”
“Hey, I don’t think, I am.”
The Canadian gave him one of his patented death glares. “I’m going to get some coffee,” he stated, picking up his mug. “In fact, I’ll rephrase that. I’m going next door for a couple of minutes. Don’t touch anything.”
“As if I would,” John said, doing his best impression of wounded and put-upon.
“Yeah, and I once met a Wraith called Bambi,” Rodney snorted. “I mean it, Colonel. Do. Not. Touch. Anything. Until. I. Get. Back.” He punctuated every word with a small poke to John’s chest.
“Okay, already! Jeez, Rodney, you’re such an old woman!” Sheppard held his hands up in compliance and backed away from the work bench.
Apparently satisfied, McKay raised an eyebrow then nodded and trotted out of the lab in search of caffeine.
As soon as the doors slid closed, John stepped closer to the ‘not-mirror’. Although he would never admit it out loud, he was intrigued – the machine was stunning in every sense of the word and he found it hard to comply with McKay’s order. As much as it rattled him that Rodney refused to activate the damn thing, he understood his friend’s reluctance. McKay had only lost his voice, but it could have been much worse. Even that had been pretty scary – somehow ‘silent Rodney’ was far more intimidating than ‘bellowing Rodney’ and by the end of the two weeks, John had decided that he preferred the second.
“Hey! I told you not to touch anything!” Rodney yelled, stepping back into the lab, hot coffee in his hands.
“I wasn’t!” John protested, hastily taking several steps back. “I only looked at it!”
McKay rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the computer, fully convinced that the words of warning had gone in one ear and out the other without so much as a courtesy call on John’s woefully neglected brain.
Still, the Colonel was giving him the ‘I’m really interested and think this is cool’ look, so Rodney forgave his friend and elaborated. “It seems to be different to the Milky Way version of the Quantum Mirror, you know.”
“Really?” John asked, suddenly curious. “How so?”
“Well for a start, the Quantum Mirror that Jackson stumbled across lead to a variety of alternate realities. That much was proved when Sam’s double came through with an alternate Major Kowalski. This one doesn’t do that...”
“So what’s it for then?” John cut in impatiently.
“Just listen to me for more than thirty seconds at a time! As I was saying, this… ‘mirror’, for lack of a better word, only seems to go to one reality.”
Sheppard stared at his reflection intently. “What’s the point in that? I mean, I admit it’d be cool to see how different things are in another dimension, but why only one?”
“That’s the question.” Rodney typed away on his laptop. “As soon as I’ve finished the translations of the inscriptions, I should be able to answer it, but until then, your guess is as good as mine.”
He continued to half watch Sheppard as he worked – Rule number one from the Geek’s Survival Guide was to always keep an eye on your Goon… at all times. The moment you looked away, McKay could guarantee that they would end up doing something incredibly stupid.
John’s attention returned to the reflection in the mirror. He looked up at his hair and fiddled with it for a couple of minutes, nodding as he achieved the desired ‘just got out of bed’ look that he claimed had been eluding him all morning.
Personally, Rodney thought he’d have done a better job if he’d stuck a finger in a live socket. The results would have been the same. Without realising what John was doing, McKay continued to type, oblivious to the up and coming disaster that was about to happen.
Unfortunately, he completely failed to notice that the surface of the ‘not-glass’ was rippling slightly – and that John had leaned in closer to take a look.
He also missed the fact that his team-mate’s reflection seemed to be changing.
“Uh, Rodney…?”
“Busy.”
“I really think you should look at this…”
Rodney’s head snapped up just in time to see John’s fingers brush the suddenly shimmering surface. He jumped to his feet and ran across to his insane and possibly suicidal friend, intent on pulling him away. “No!”
The warning came too late – the mirror hummed with an ear-splittingly shrill tone and a bright flash filled the lab. The resulting shock wave threw them both to the floor.
When their eyes began working again, they were convinced that either they were both hallucinating or they’d finally flipped.
In front of them were another Sheppard and McKay.
Chapter 2: You Look Awfully Familiar…
“No, no, no,” Rodney whimpered, scooting backwards. “Not again!”
“Easy, Answer Man,” John hissed, dragging them both to their feet as he turned to the doubles.
‘Man, we are talking PERFECT copies here,’ he thought, staring dazedly at the new arrivals. Every tiny detail was exact, from… Other… Rodney’s crooked grin and the way John’s duplicate had the same pointed ears that had made his life a misery since The Lord of the Rings movies had come out.
Although, the pilot decided, he had the better hair. “Uh...”
The John double grinned. “Hi.”
“Uh…”
‘Smooth, Sheppard, real smooth,’ the Colonel’s internal McKay crowed, making him grimace. For some reason, his mouth decided to go on strike and he could only gape unceremoniously at their new friends. Luckily, it seemed that McKay was suffering from the same problem.
“Wow, you’re a chatty pair, aren’t you?” Other-John said with a lazy grin. “What do you think, Rodney?”
McKay’s double scowled at him. “I told you not to mess around with it, Sheppard!” he whined in true Rodney fashion. “Do you have any idea of the damage this could have caused?”
“You worry too much, genius,” John’s copy replied, waving a hand airily.
“Uh, sorry, but I, uh, that-that is, we, uh,” Rodney stammered. Yep, he was definitely having the same problem as John, but at least he’d gotten more than a confused grunt past his throat.
“Sorry!” John’s double said, extending a hand. “Introductions. I’m Lt Col John Sheppard and my friend here is Dr Rodney McKay.”
“But we figured you kinda knew that already,” Rodney number two sighed.
“You’re us,” McKay squeaked, as his fingers were gripped tightly in the handshake.
Other-Rodney nodded. “Yeah,” he said slowly, as if talking to an idiot. “Well, not exactly, but unless you have multiple PhDs, you probably wouldn’t understand.”
“Well, whaddaya know?” John said, grinning slightly. He placed a hand on Rodney’s shoulder to prevent him from lunging at his alternate.
To be honest, Sheppard was feeling more than a bit freaked and almost punch drunk, but he’d finally managed to form a coherent sentence. At least they wouldn’t think he was a gormless, brain dead idiot.
“That’s just… weird,” Rodney muttered. “So you’re a scientist then?” he asked, pointing at his copy.
The man nodded. “Head of the Science Department actually! If it weren’t for me, the good Colonel here would have been blown up, eaten, mangled, shot, stabbed and so on and so forth a million times by now.” He scowled at Other-John. “And despite his worrying love for C4 and an overblown hero complex, I don’t want to have to re-train yet another military grunt. It took me long enough with this one.”
“This is definitely weird,” Sheppard muttered, staring intently at his duplicate. “I’m Lt Col John Sheppard, and this is Dr Rodney McKay.”
“Really?” asked Other-Rodney excitedly. “That’s incredible!”
“Sheppard, this is amazing! Of all the universes this thing could’ve hooked up to, it found one where…”
“Geeks,” the two Johns muttered fondly. Sheppard nearly dope slapped himself for mentally adding ‘jinx!’ at the end.
“We’re almost identical!” the McKays said at the same time.
As John regarded the two interlopers, he found that he had to agree with them. Other-Rodney was stocky like his McKay, but it was more from muscle than padding. He seemed to have a laid-back, confident air about him, not unlike Rod, that was both relaxing and unnerving in equal measure. Despite that, he could still see the skittishness, as if he was frightened that something horrible was about to jump out and eat them all in seconds. Looking down, he noted that both of them carried thigh holster with a 9mm securely tucked away.
His own duplicate wasn’t pudgy, but wasn’t as lean or wiry as John was, and there were definite flecks of grey in the dark hair. There was something about the two of them that unnerved him. For a moment, John thought he’d caught a flicker of something in Other-John’s eyes, but dismissed it as the remnants of his mild freak out.
The boys stood staring at their doubles for a few moments – their uniforms were slightly different, better fitted, and far more battle scarred… which Sheppard found worrying. Both were sporting all black, with heavy duty combat boots and a black jacket completing the look. ‘No blue science shirt?’ John wondered to himself.
“I hate to say this, but I’m going to have to take your weapons,” he eventually said out loud.
“Why?” asked Other-John, tensing, his hand hovering over the holster.
“Security protocol,” Sheppard explained quickly, ignoring the slightly baffled look that his Rodney sent him. It wasn’t as if he could tell them that they were a security threat, was it? Besides, if McKay’s copy wanted to get into it, John was pretty sure that he’d lose. He looked like he could handle himself and the Air Force man knew from the rare hand-to-hand sessions he’d had with his McKay that he could pack a mean right hook when he felt like it.
Plus, there was something about his own double that made John uneasy. “I’m sure you have something similar back… back home,” he added, hoping for a truce of sorts.
Other-John narrowed his eyes and for a moment, looked like he was going to decline, but a quick nudge from Other-Rodney and he sighed and relaxed his stance slightly.
“Please, Colonel,” Other-Rodney said, “just do what the man wants. I don’t think we’re in any danger.” He handed the gun to Sheppard as if to demonstrate then gave up his data pad. In turn, John passed it to Rodney.
“Since when did you become a military expert, McKay?” Other-John snapped.
“Sheppard, please,” Rodney’s copy said, his blue eyes almost begging.
“Fine, if it’ll stop your whining.” He un-holstered the pistol and handed it to John.
“Thanks,” Sheppard said, engaging the safety and tucking it into the back of his pants. “It’s just temporary.” But he could tell that his copy didn’t believe that any more than he did.
The doubles looked around the room that the four of them were stood in. “This is unbelievable!” Other-Rodney exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement. “It’s an almost perfect copy of MY lab!”
“You’re an astrophysicist then?” asked McKay. Glancing over at him, John could see his natural curiosity taking over from the anxiety and all out panic.
Other-Rodney nodded smugly. “The best.”
“Smartest man in two galaxies, or so he likes to tell me regularly,” Other-John said in a bored voice, although Sheppard noted that the corners of his lips were quirking up slightly.
“That’s what our Rodney says,” he replied, patting McKay’s back.
“I can’t help it if it’s the truth,” McKay muttered petulantly.
“So you realise what this means?” asked Other-Rodney.
McKay nodded. “We’ll have to compare findings. I assume you’ve found a similar device on your side.”
“Yes. I theorised that it was similar to a Quantum Mirror, but it only seemed to go one way.”
“What about entropic cascade failure?” asked McKay.
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem…”
“Whoa!” John and his mirror image said, holding up their hands.
“First things first, we all need to get down to the infirmary,” John stated, reaching for his ear-piece.
Paling slightly, Other-Rodney moved to McKay’s side. “Uh, listen, I know that there’s going to be some differences and all, but is… is Carson…”
“McKay!” Other-John barked. “Enough.”
“What?” asked McKay, momentarily confused at the vicious tone.
Sheppard looked between the two new arrivals. There was definitely something going on there, but he was damned if he could put his finger on it. The way McKay’s copy seemed to give into Other-John was not only unnerving but just plain wrong.
“Is he still alive here, then?” Rodney number two asked in a low voice. “I mean, he isn’t…?”
John turned to study him and saw that the man’s eyes were bloodshot and he had a haunted look about him.
In a moment of rarely seen compassion, McKay patted the scientist on his shoulder – and boy, John thought, did that look weird. “No, our Carson’s fine,” he replied.
John could see the man trembling slightly under Rodney’s fingertips and wondered what had happened in their universe. He glanced over to his copy, who shared the worried look and moved closer. Then he heard a voice on the other end of the radio and moved away to discuss the details.
“Colonel, did you hear that?” asked Other-Rodney, looking to his team-mate.
Other-John looked up sharply. For a brief moment, there was an odd look on his face – was it disbelief, unease or relief? – before the professional mask slammed back in place. “Yeah, Rodney, I heard,” he said softly.
“Okay, guys, let’s go,” John said, having completed the conversation over the radio. “I’ve got Lorne and a couple of the guys on their way.”
“Escorts, huh?” asked Other-John, wandering over to him. “Don’t trust us yet?”
“Well, I… I mean it’s…”
Other-John grinned and patted Sheppard on the back. “’S okay, buddy. I’d do the same. Can’t be too careful.”
John nodded gratefully, thrown by hearing his usual phrase. “Uh, shall we?” He motioned to the doors and the four of them stepped out.
Chapter 3: Infirmary Blues
“I don’t bloody believe it!” Carson muttered as John, Rodney and two men who seemed to be exact copies of his friends wandered in with Major Lorne and two other Marines.
“Hi, doc,” Sheppard said, giving the Scotsman a cheeky grin and a wave. “We’ve made some new friends.”
For the love of everything holy…
“Aye, lad, I can see that.” He let out a sigh and herded the quartet towards a row of empty beds – or cots, as most of the expedition had taken to calling them – and motioned for them to sit. “Rodney?” he asked. “What gadget did you mess around with this time?”
Rodney looked hurt at the gentle accusation. “I didn’t do anything!” he protested, raising a hand to point at John. “It was his fault!”
“McKay!” John snapped, glowering at the physicist. “It was an accident! Christ!”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Beckett closed his eyes for a moment, wondering what he’d done to warrant having two toddlers as best friends. Perhaps he’d been a mass murderer in another life. “Thank you, Major,” he said, turning to Lorne. “I can handle this from here.”
“You sure, doc?” Evan asked Carson, looking at John and Rodney’s doubles with an uncertain frown.
“Aye, son,” the physician replied, patting him on the shoulder. He knew that Lorne felt uneasy about leaving a civilian with two people he’d never met before, but the fact that they had walked in voluntarily eased Beckett’s nerves. Besides, he reasoned, he had John there if things became ugly and even Rodney could put up one hell of a fight. “As you were.”
“Call me if you need anything,” he said. “Sir?”
“Yeah, Lorne, you can go. Thanks.” John waved him away.
Beckett stood for a moment and looked at the men in front of him. It was almost as if someone had put up a mirror in the middle of the ward. He couldn’t help but notice the way the new arrivals were staring at him – he was a doctor, and knew what the signs and symptoms of shock were, but this was different. “Marie?” he called to one of his nurses, “could you come and assist me, love?”
After learning what had happened – and Carson couldn’t even begin to describe how barmy it was hearing John and Rodney in stereo – he started the exam. With Marie’s assistance, he took a blood sample from all of them and examined his John and Rodney for signs of head trauma from their fall.
John was fine, but Rodney had bumped his over-sized noggin on the corner of the table as he fell and had a mild concussion. After assuring him that he wasn’t about to die of a cerebral oedema, blood clot to the brain or anything else, he seemed to be mollified and accepted the Tylenol the Scotsman gave him for the nasty headache he denied having.
Carson knew him far too well, and he had yet to learn that the doctor could read him like an open book. Scolding him gently, he moved to the alternate Sheppard and McKay and found that there wasn’t a mark on them. Apparently, they’d simply been pulled through the infernal device and had managed to stay on their feet. They were a bit stiff and sore in places, but he put that down to the unnatural forces that had been exerted on them. Sometimes, he marvelled at what the human body could cope with.
The preliminary checks complete, Beckett decided to move them all to the isolation room to be on the safe side – and to avoid drawing in an audience. Once again, the daft sods had touched something they shouldn’t have and if he was honest with himself, he was starting to wonder if he should attach kiddie harnesses to the pair of them. When they got together, it was like an open invitation for the horsemen of the Apocalypse to show up. When John and Rodney were in close proximity to an Ancient device, Armageddon was almost inevitable.
They were worse than children.
Rodney’s copy had been more than a bit anxious in the ward, and now he was in isolation, Carson could see that he was pretty spooked. He sat at the top of his bed wearing scrubs, hugging his knees nervously.
“Are you okay, lad?” Beckett asked softly. “Are you in any pain?”
Other-Rodney shook his head mutely, still staring at the Scotsman in something akin to disbelief. It was starting to feel more than a bit unnerving.
Other-John scooted across to his team-mate and put an arm around the scientist’s shoulders. “It’s okay, doc. Rodney doesn’t like hospitals much.”
“Aye, I’d gathered that,” Beckett replied.
“Carson?” Rodney called from behind them. “Can I have a word?”
“I’ll be right back. Try and relax, son. I’ll not hurt you, I promise.” Carson turned to McKay and Sheppard and wandered over to them.
“He… Rodney… said that in their reality, you… well, their Carson Beckett…” Rodney began.
“He’s trying to say that your double isn’t around any more,” John cut in. “At least, they hinted that.”
“I see,” Carson replied, understanding the other Rodney’s reaction. “Thanks, boys.” He observed them critically. They didn’t seem to be in any distress or pain other than a couple of bruises from their close encounter with the lab floor and Rodney’s wee concussion, and there were no obvious signs of shock, but he knew them far too well.
John Sheppard would happily insist that a life-threatening injury was just a scratch right up to the point where he passed out from the blood loss and Rodney, despite appearances, was just as bad if not worse. He’d moan and whine about something as tiny as a paper cut, but the minute anything was actually wrong, he’d claim he was fine. It was only when he got quiet that Beckett started to worry.
“How are you two feeling?” he asked, looking over the monitors.
“Fine,” Sheppard said. “Is this really necessary?”
“Aye, son, it is. Rodney? How’s the headache?”
“It’s fine, Carson. I’m good.”
Both of them gave him an incredulous stare.
“What?” McKay asked.
“That’s a first,” John said, grinning softly.
“I’m fine, okay?” said McKay hotly.
“Okay, Rodney, take it easy.”
The physicist sighed and looked at the floor. “I’m just… I don’t know… I think I’m worried about him.”
“Who?” Carson asked. “Your double?”
There was a nod and a quiet, “And Sheppard.”
“I’m fine, McKay.”
“Not you! Other you!”
Sheppard looked surprised and Beckett couldn’t blame him – McKay putting someone else’s feelings before his own? Unheard of. Actually, Carson thought, that was unfair to Rodney. He knew damn well that the Canadian did care about people, more than he’d admit, and he could tell McKay was worried.
“You didn’t see them in the lab,” Rodney continued, unaware of the stares from his friends. “When they found out you were still here, they…” He shook his head, his voice growing uncharacteristically soft. “It must have been bad for them.”
John reached out and patted Rodney’s shoulder. “Yeah, buddy.”
They all looked over to the two new arrivals. Rodney’s copy was rocking slightly, still grasping his knees in a death grip while John’s double had thrown an arm over his shoulder, whispering in his ear to try and calm the man. Carson sighed again and moved back to them.
“I can give him something to help,” he said to Other-John. “A mild sedative perhaps? It would help him to relax.”
“He’ll be fine,” Other-John said, reaching up to gently smoothing his companion’s hair like an older brother would. “Like I said, he doesn’t like hospitals.”
“Listen, son, I know you don’t want to talk about it and if you really don’t want to answer you don’t have to…”
“You wanna know what happened to our Beckett?” asked John’s duplicate.
Carson nodded. He knew it was morbid and bloody creepy, but he had an almost perverse need to know all the gory details. It was not unlike watching a car crash – he knew he shouldn’t be looking but he just couldn’t help himself. “Like I said, you don’t have to answer if it’s too much.”
Other-John thought for a moment then looked back at the doctor with a grim sense of determination that wouldn’t have been out of place on his Sheppard’s face. “There was a siege at the end of our first year on Atlantis,” he said in a quiet voice. “One of the Athosians we rescued turned out to be an informant for a couple of hives. They were passing on information for three months before we found out. By the time we did, it was already too late. We were over-run with Wraith. I tried to save him, but…” his voice cracked slightly. “I got to him too late.”
“He… they… they fed on him,” Other-Rodney finished in a quiet whisper. He looked at his friend. “It wasn’t your fault, Colonel.”
John’s twin just shrugged, obviously unconvinced. “Maybe one day I’ll believe that.” He looked back at Beckett and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Carson.”
Carson felt strange. Knowing that there was another Carson Beckett in another dimension was one thing, but finding out that he’d died… That was a whole new ball game. “Okay, lads. Are you sure you both feel alright? No pain anywhere?” He trailed off and gave them a slightly helpless look. In his defence, it wasn’t every day that a person could just step through a mirror into another universe, and he honestly had no idea what kind of trauma that could cause to a human body. He’d read some of Janet Fraser’s old reports about the Quantum Mirror, and knew about entropic cascade failure – nasty and painful – but both Rodneys didn’t seem overly worried about it.
He spent a couple of moments just staring at them. He knew that they were obviously different people to his friends, but there was something about them he couldn’t put his finger on. Their closeness wasn’t that dissimilar to that of his Rodney and John, but there was something slightly out of kilter about the way they interacted with each other. It was almost as if they were… lying? Putting on an act?
Carson cursed silently and scolded himself. It was shock, pure and simple, and he was reading far too much into it. “I can give you some muscle relaxants if…”
“No!” Other-John replied sharply, making Beckett jump slightly. His face softened and he looked sheepish. “No, doc, we’re fine. It’s been a crazy day.”
“Well, I can see you’ve been through a lot,” Carson replied, trying to shake off his slightly paranoid feelings. “I want to keep you overnight just to make sure, but as far as the scans and blood work go, you’re clean.”
“We can do that,” Other-John said.
“Will you be alright?” he asked Rodney’s copy. Keeping a patient with an obvious phobia of hospitals was never pleasant and he hated doing it, but the last thing he wanted was for some unseen complication or hidden illness to emerge. He couldn’t risk an outbreak of something, especially not a trans-universal disease.
Trans-universal? Carson decided that he was spending far too much of his free time with Radek and Rodney. Bloody scientists.
Other-Rodney nodded. “Are the others staying with us?” he asked in a tiny voice, looking over to Sheppard and McKay.
“Those two pig-headed fools, you mean?” Carson asked, his smile mischievous.
Other-Rodney nodded and Beckett couldn’t help but find his request odd. Shaking his head, he put it down to a combination of shock and his obvious phobia and let it rest. “Aye, lad, they’re both staying.” He gave them a no-nonsense stare and tilted his head to one side. “If you need anything just press the call button. And if you change your mind about the sedative, you’ve only got to ask. I mean it, son. I’ll not stand around and watch someone suffering if there’s something I can do to help.”
The two doppelgangers relaxed visibly and as Carson completed the last of his checks, the four of them settled in for the night.
Chapter 4: Timelines
“I don’t believe it.”
Elizabeth Weir unknowingly echoed Carson’s words as she took in the sight in front of her. She shook her head as she looked at McKay and Sheppard’s doubles, trying to suppress the urge to gasp out loud. Having her own versions was bad enough, but now there was double the trouble…
Still, John and Rodney had been adamant that their doppelgangers weren’t a threat and the leader of Atlantis believed them. How could she not? They were two of the people that she trusted with her life and if they said it was okay, then she was in agreement.
John was less insistent than Rodney, but as Chief Military Officer, he had to be suspicious – and frankly, the dark haired woman would have been worried if he wasn’t. Their doppelgangers didn’t seem threatening, though, so she decided to go with the flow for the time being.
“It’s complicated, I admit, but I think we’ve managed to work it out,” said McKay, looking to his counterpart, who nodded.
“The research I was doing back in my reality suggested that the mirror was an Ancient device used as an early attempt at Ascension,” Other-Rodney explained. “It allowed them to see how differently their lives might have panned out if they had chosen different paths so to speak.”
“But why only one dimension?” asked Sheppard. “I mean, why not make it show you twenty or a hundred?”
Rodney held up a finger and grinned smugly. “Because they didn’t have enough power.”
“What are you saying?” Elizabeth asked, with a gentle frown.
“Basically, the Ancients would have needed a massive power source to create a stable wormhole to more than one dimension,” McKay explained. “According to our calculations, in order to access a range of multi-verses, they’d need the equivalent of at least thirty Zed PMs just to power it for five minutes.”
“But only having one alternate reality wasn’t such a drain on the power,” Other-Rodney added. “My version of Radek and I were able to determine that the mirror on our side had an inbuilt power source, one that is capable of establishing a safe link to said alternate reality.”
“Does our version have this internal power source?” Weir asked, knowing full well that they were currently running off the Naquadah generators. “And why did it activate?”
“Yes, Elizabeth,” Rodney replied patiently. “There’s no drain to our power.” He looked away, obviously still feeling guilty about draining their ZPM when Rod returned to his own universe. Elizabeth winced at his expression: she hadn’t meant for her words to be cutting. “As for the activating…” he sent his John a dirty look.
Both of the Johns looked sheepish. “That might have been our fault,” said Sheppard.
“See, in my reality, I’m a natural carrier of the ATA gene,” Other-John explained, “and it’s the strongest out of anyone else on the base. Rodney told me a hundred times not to touch the damn thing, but I couldn’t help it.” He smiled.
Elizabeth had to remind herself that it wasn’t her John sat directly in front of her chair. He was so different and yet the same that it was just too bizarre. Other-John was as charming as Sheppard and as for Rodney’s double… He looked handsome, much like Rod had been. Mentally scolding herself for being so easily distracted from the matter at hand, she hastily cleared her throat and glanced over to Sheppard. “And I suppose that you happened to touch it at the same time?”
Sheppard nodded. “Yeah. Talk about a coincidence!” But his light, joking tone didn’t match the flash of suspicion in his eyes.
“What about entropic cascade failure?” she asked. Like John and Carson, Elizabeth had read the old SG-1 reports and knew that this could turn into a potentially fatal situation.
“We don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” said Rodney.
“Because the mirror is of Ancient design, it can only be used by ATA carriers,” Other-Rodney clarified. “Even though my gene is artificial, I’m still able to operate the Ancient technology just as well as Colonel Sheppard.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Other-John, frowning.
“Well,” said McKay, turning to John’s alternate self, “basically, it means that you’ve got a get out of jail free card.”
“How so?” asked Sheppard.
“We don’t really have all the details yet,” said Other-Rodney, looking at Sheppard, “but we think that the ATA gene makes us immune to the effects of entropic cascade failure.” He glanced back at McKay when the rest of the group gave them blank looks.
“Think about it. What good would it be to see an alternate version of your life if you could only spend a limited amount of time there? How could you learn from your mistakes or realise that you’d already made them?” asked McKay. “The Ancients built fail safes into virtually everything they created, so it makes sense that the mirror has one too.”
“You know, Rodney, it does in a weird kind of way,” said Sheppard.
“So what now?” asked his double.
“Well, I don’t see why you and Dr McKay shouldn’t stay for a while,” Elizabeth said, and noticed that the two of them exchanged a guilty look. “After all, we might all learn a few useful things.” She turned to Sheppard. “Can you arrange some sleeping quarters for our guests?”
“No problem,” John replied, getting to his feet.
“God, what I wouldn’t give for a decent sleep,” Other-John said. “No offence, but those infirmary beds are like sleeping on concrete. Guess some things are the same no matter what reality you’re in.”
Sheppard laughed. “I know what you mean.”
“Uh, actually, Colonel, would it be alright with you if I had a look at Dr McKay’s findings?” asked Other-Rodney. “I’m pretty sure we won’t suffer any ill effects, but I’d like to be sure.”
Other-John waved his hand. “Sure, McKay, have a blast. Just go easy on the coffee, okay?”
“I’ll go see about those quarters,” said John, seeing the look on Weir’s face. It was obvious that she wanted to find out more about their doppelgangers reality and he knew without asking. John had a knack for that. He smiled and left the conference room.
Rodney and his counterpart were deep in conversation, only to be interrupted by the sound of a throat being cleared. “Rodney,” Elizabeth asked, “can you give us a moment?”
The Canadian looked confused for a moment, but then nodded as he realised her intentions. Elizabeth bit back a sigh. The man was still a puzzle. How could someone with the social skills of a five year old pick up on subtle signals? She put it down to his being a genius – and having made a tight circle of friends who could give him lessons.
“I’ll be in the lab,” he said as he stood up and headed to the door. “When you’re done, one of the marines will escort you down.”
Once he had gone, Elizabeth looked at the two new comers – and they really were exact replicas. “Carson said you didn’t sleep too well last night,” she said softly, trying to broach the subject as gently as possible.
Other-Rodney smiled nervously. “I, uh, I don’t do so well in hospitals,” he admitted. “They… they freak me out.”
She returned the smile. “I know what you mean. Look, if there’s anything we can do…”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to occupy my mind. And a strong cup of coffee or three wouldn’t hurt,” he added.
She tried hard to ignore just how McKay-esque those comments had sounded.
“I take it this is the part where you ask questions?” asked Other-John, who had slouched down in his chair.
Weir nodded – the way he was sitting was almost the exact same as her John and it took her a moment to remember that the men in front of her were not her colleagues. “I’m afraid so,” she replied. “You see, it’s not every day that we get to meet alternate versions of ourselves.” She gave them a rueful smile, remembering the old version of herself that they’d found in stasis during their first year on Atlantis. “Well, for some of us at least…”
“Dr McKay told us about the bridge experiment and ‘Rod’,” Rodney’s double said. “And we’ve had some experience ourselves.”
“Really?” she asked, wondering why she felt so surprised.
“Really,” John’s duplicate confirmed. “I used to be based at the SGC. I was with Dr Jackson when he found the Quantum Mirror and met another copy of myself.”
“And about seven months ago, we discovered an older version of Lt Ford.”
Elizabeth was speechless. The slight differences were just mind-blowing and she found herself curious to know more.
“What do you want to know?” Other-John asked abruptly, pulling her from her thoughts.
“How about you start at the beginning?”
The two men looked at each other and Other-John let out a long sigh. “We’re part of an expedition that went to Atlantis two and a half years ago. I’m the Head of the Military and McKay is our Chief Scientist – but I guess you already figured that. When we arrived, we found the city submerged and the last Zed PM was busted.”
“Technically, it wasn’t ‘busted’, Sheppard,” Other-Rodney cut in. “It was nearing maximum entropy. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever, McKay,” Other-John replied, waving a hand dismissively. “The point was, we were screwed. In desperation, we sent out a small group to try and make contact with the inhabitants of a planet that was in the list of Gate addresses from the database.”
“The Athosians?” Elizabeth asked.
Other-John nodded, looking pale. “Yeah. Everything was going fine, and I made friends with an Athosian called Teyla, but something happened and the Wraith showed up. They killed most of my men.” His face darkened and he stared into the distance, unseeing. “Fed on them, butchered anyone who was in the way. Myself, Teyla and one of my Lieutenants got out, along with a handful of the Athosians, but my commanding officer, Col Sumner wasn’t so lucky.”
Weir sat in shocked silence. The events were at the same time similar and different, and it was starting to make her head spin.
She was beginning to regret asking.
“The party returned and the city rose – some kind of failsafe,” Other-Rodney continued. “Quite remarkable, really.”
“Anyways, we managed to get settled and started trading with some of the contacts Teyla had.”
“What about the Wraith?”
“They’d all woken up already. They’d been awake for about a month before we showed up and decided to stay that way once they found out about us.” Other-John shifted uncomfortably. “We think that they extracted information about Earth from the soldiers that they fed on.”
“Carson said that you mentioned something about the siege?”
Other-Rodney nodded, looking gaunt. “Like the Colonel said last night, we were set up.”
“By one of the Athosians.”
John’s counterpart looked sick. “Teyla,” he said quietly. “She had this ability to sense the Wraith. We thought it would be handy, you know? Like an early warning system, but…”
“We didn’t know she could communicate with them until it was too late,” Rodney’s copy finished in a hollow voice.
Elizabeth didn’t know what to say. The thought that Teyla could do something like that was hard to swallow and she felt physically ill.
She just hoped that there wouldn’t be any feelings of animosity when they met their Teyla.
“That’s when we lost Carson,” Other-Rodney continued in a quiet, pained voice. “We lost a lot of people. Carson, Peter…” He looked up at the expedition leader, his blue eyes full of regret. “And our Elizabeth.”
“But we survived,” John’s double said, staring intently at his team-mate. “That’s what matters.”
“Yeah, Sheppard, but we won’t for much longer…”
“What do you mean?” Weir asked, frowning.
“Our Zed PM is failing,” Other-Rodney replied. “We’ve been scouting for a new one for months now, but with no luck.”
“You won’t be able to power the shield?”
They nodded. “Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but…” Other-Rodney picked distractedly at the sleeve of his jacket. “…Six months ago, we had to submerge the city.”
“The Wraith found out we hadn’t destroyed the city in the siege and sent a couple of hives to take us out,” Other-John continued. “The Prometheus was destroyed in an ambush and all we could do was sink the city.”
“The water meant that the intensity of their weapons was diffused somewhat. Unfortunately, it’s been eating up power far too quickly.”
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said. “But I don’t see how we can help.”
“You don’t have to,” said John’s double. “We’re not here to beg. It was just a fluke.”
“We thought that we could use the mirror’s power source to top up our Zed PM,” his team-mate continued. “But it didn’t work.”
“And you ended up in our universe,” Weir finished, understanding.
The two men looked at each other. “Precisely,” Other-Rodney said. He shifted uncomfortably and the guilty look from earlier returned. “But that’s only the start of the problem.”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Rodney neglected to tell me at the time that the trip was…” Other-John trailed off, looking anxious and Elizabeth immediately felt uneasy.
“One-way,” Rodney’s copy finished quietly. “Unless we can figure out how to reverse the process, we’ll be stuck here.”
Click here for Part 2
