"I'm reading one life sign," Rodney reported, "On the other side of the structure. She must be waiting for us at the far end of this corridor."
They started down the passage. It ran straight for a little distance, then took an angle to the left, then back, but Trishen was right, it was obviously heading through to the inner side of the building and the Mirror platform. There were blocky pillars along the walls, but only a few of the white lights set into them were lit, and there was a constant whistle of escaping air. "Looks like the Wraith came through here," John said, shining his light up into some twisted metal girders. Smaller passages led off into other parts of the building, some open and dark, others closed off by blast doors.
"Or the Mirror itself," Rodney said, eyeing the damage thoughtfully. "A severe discharge could have caused those impacts that look like energy weapon scars."
Teyla frowned. "I just realized. Trishen did not mention the Wraith." She threw a pensive look at John. "Perhaps there are none in her reality."
John shrugged a little dubiously. "Maybe. You'd think she would have asked about it otherwise." If John was trapped in another reality, he thought that would have been pretty high on his list of questions.
"We may be looking at the best possible scenario, that the Ancients were able to discover a reality with an uninhabited Pegasus," Rodney reminded them, sounding testy. "I did say that was a possibility."
"Yeah, but then why aren't they still there?" John felt compelled to point out. "She said we were descended from a common ancestor that had left freaky advanced technology scattered everywhere. That sounds just like here."
"Not being psychic, I won't know until I ask her," Rodney retorted. "The Ancients could have been wiped out by the same plague that hit the Milky Way. Or only a small group may have managed to go through the Mirror in the first place." He waved the life signs detector. "Obviously, they planned this installation to accommodate a massive evacuation, but if they were cut off by the Wraith advance, only the people working here and anyone left on the base moon may have managed to make it through."
"To succeed, only to die anyway," Teyla said quietly. "It is a bleak fate."
Rodney tapped the detector against his hand, his eyes on the intriguing gaps in the wall where machinery had been attached. "True, but they did manage to seed the human race in the new reality. That was obviously very important to them, considering how often they spread their genetic wealth around." He checked the life signs detector again, and his voice betrayed a little nervousness. "We're nearly there."
"Yes, there is light ahead," Teyla added, her eyes on the end of the corridor.
Ahead, as the passage angled again, John saw dim natural light, and a moment later he could see the large square doorway opening out into the Mirror platform. Trishen, still in her EVA suit, stood just inside it. Behind her John could see the stone platform stretching out to the big silvery wall of the Mirror's frame. "She's holding something," he said, low-voiced. She had a round dark object in her arms.
"We're holding things," Rodney said, tense and impatient.
"Yes, and a lot of the things we're holding are guns," John told him, exasperated.
"It does not look like a weapon," Teyla pointed out softly. Then she admitted, "Unless it is an explosive of some kind. But that seems unlikely."
John thought it was unlikely too, unless Trishen was a suicide bomber, but it still made him uneasy. He signaled the others to halt about ten long paces from her. Even at this distance, her helmet didn't reveal much. The faceplate wasn't as reflective here in the dimmer light, and he could almost see the outline of her forehead and eyes, though the lower part was still opaque. The thing she was holding looked like a black metal soccer ball, except the bottom seemed to be flattened slightly. He lifted a hand in greeting, and said, amiably, "Hi. What you got there?"
Trishen juggled the thing a little, caught between returning the greeting and answering the question. "It's a data display device. I thought I could show you some of the readings from the anomalies that occurred when I tried to send the probe through." She sat down awkwardly, placing the thing on the dusty metal floor. She made a vague gesture. "We can go out onto the platform for a closer look at the Mirror if you like, but if we're out here for any length of time we should stay inside the structure, for the shielding." She touched the device and something slid open in the top. Suddenly a glittering haze of color burst out of it.
John and Teyla both flinched backward, jerking up their weapons. Then John saw it was actually a holographic display, showing the three-dimensional figures that were the Ancient equivalents of charts and graphs. Teyla threw him an abashed look; John didn't exactly feel like an expert intergalactic explorer at the moment either. Trishen was staring up at them, startled at their recoil. She said hurriedly, "It is only a three-dimensional display-"
Rodney stepped forward, giving John and Teyla an exasperated look. "Yes, they have actually seen a hologram before, they're just-Never mind. I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, she's Teyla Emmagan, he's Colonel Sheppard." He eased forward, staring intently at the glittering column and digging a camera out of his vest. "You use the Ancient system for numbers and symbols?"
"Yes." Trishen looked uncertainly from John and Teyla to Rodney, then evidently decided to talk to the rational person. "For this type of data, it's the best method. You use them as well?"
"To a certain extent." Rodney moved closer, crouching to get a better look. "This is just a recording device." He showed her the camera, then nodded toward the figures suspended in the display. "This one is the progression of energy signatures? That was directly after you deployed the probe? Can you bring up the sequence that you took when your ship was drawn through the Mirror? You did record that, right?"
"Oh, oh, yes, this is my initial reading." Sounding relieved, Trishen leaned forward, placing her gloved hands on the surface of the device. John motioned for Teyla to stay in position where she could cover them and moved up beside Rodney. Trishen was manipulating the device in some way John couldn't quite see, and more figures blossomed in the display. She said, "And as you can see the variation with the singularity's later signatures is pronounced."
"Yes, the instability is starting to grow and extend across the lower right quadrant," Rodney muttered, shifting a little closer. He set the camera aside to get his tablet out, and rapidly brought up a series of files. "What were your figures for the accretion surface?"
After that it got a little over John's head. Rodney and Trishen talked numbers and quantum singularities in perfect accord long enough that John signaled Teyla to relax. She lowered the P-90 and came to stand next to him.
Then Rodney said, "Hold it, hold it, I need to check something." He sat back, keying his radio. "Zelenka. Zelenka. Radek, answer the damn-" He looked up at John in sudden anxiety. "Why aren't they answering?"
John lifted a brow. "What does radio silence mean, Rodney?"
Rodney glared. "Oh, for the-Tell him he can talk, then!"
John said, "Go ahead, Dr. Zelenka." He had had his radio open the entire time so the others could listen in.
"I am here, Rodney," Zelenka said in their headsets, sounding perfectly composed. "You need to reference the data the jumper managed to gather before the disruption?"
Rodney pushed to his feet with a grimace and walked away a few paces, presumably to berate Zelenka in relative privacy.
Trishen looked from John to Teyla, as if not quite sure which one of them to talk to, and asked uncertainly, "Do you live in this system, or did you come here to research the Mirror, as we did in my reality? I didn't think there was anyone else on this moon. I listened for communications traffic and flew around the circumference in my shuttle, but I saw nothing except these ruins."