"Yes, yes, on the other side of the Mirror!" Rodney crouched down, shouldering Zelenka aside to get to the laptop keyboard, typing frantically. "The phase is-"
"Inverted!" Zelenka clapped a hand to his forehead. "Ali, we are fools!"
"Yes, exactly!" Rodney nodded urgently, still typing. "Well, not me, but you, yes. We've never had a chance for data collection during an active Quantum Mirror activation. Obviously, as the accretion surface prepares for the transition, it inverts the phase. Kusanagi, are you getting this?"
Sounding relieved, Miko's voice replied, "Yes, Dr. McKay, I'm running my figures again now!"
John prompted, "Rodney, still need an ETA."
Rodney pushed to his feet, giving John a harried grimace as he turned to the console. "We've got it. Just let me-Radek, dammit-"
"Enter the numbers, here, here!" Radek stood up, holding the laptop so Rodney could see the screen.
"Colonel," Teyla said in John's headset. "The Wraith scout ship is within range again and the darts are coming back in this direction."
"Crap," John muttered. The Wraith had to be wondering why the Mirror was being so damn active, and they must suspect that someone was messing with it. The darts were coming back to sweep the open areas for any signs of activity. He said, "Copy that, Teyla. Ronon, fall back to the jumper. Zelenka, you too, get out of here."
Zelenka hesitated, and Rodney waved him off. "I've got it, go on!"
Zelenka nodded tensely, jammed the tablet under his arm and grabbed his laptop. He headed for the door and John followed him, watching until he reached Teyla at the jumper's ramp. They both disappeared as they stepped through the cloak and John went back to the control room. "Rodney, now would be good-"
Rodney shook his head, the reflected blue glow of the consoles' screens giving his face an unhealthy cast. "The system's accepting my commands now, I have to make these last adjustments." He touched his headset again, saying, "Trishen, your sensors should detect the change in the accretion surface when the Mirror becomes safe to activate. When that happens-"
Sounding more confident, Trishen's voice replied, "Yes, I lower the shuttle over the surface. I'm ready."
Rodney cut the channel. "Oh, that's good. I'm glad everyone's ready to go," he muttered, still hitting touchpads. "Unfortunately the giant Quantum Mirror decided not to follow our schedule-"
John debated just dragging him away from the console. "Rodney, there's no time now, we can come back when the scout ship's out of range-"
"We can't wait, the hiveship could get here any moment-"
"Then we forget this and blow up the pulse array!"
"That's not helping!" Rodney shouted. He gave John a look that combined impatience and desperation. "Two minutes, that's all, just two minutes! Look, just go, I'll pull the crystals out of the door, they're not going to know I'm here-"
"Rodney, I'm not leaving you here alone!" John yelled, then he realized the reason they were shouting at each other was that the dull roar from the Mirror had gradually grown louder. It was resonating through the stone now, like the building was one giant soundboard. "Are you doing that?" he asked.
"No!" Rodney stared at the console. The Ancient display was flashing symbols that John knew meant "danger." Data, graphs, and images were scrolling through it too rapidly to read. "That has to be a discharge but it's not registering-The system can't even recognize what's happening. It's as if something else is controlling it." Rodney backed away from the console, swallowing nervously. "I think we need to get out of here."
"Oh, you think?" John said incredulously, and they both turned to run.
As they reached the door, the roar of sound escalated suddenly into an ear-piercing blast and the stone underfoot rippled, sending them both staggering sideways. John caught himself on the wall, then caught Rodney, keeping them both upright. It felt like the entire giant structure of stone and metal had turned into jelly. Rodney knotted a fist in John's shirt and pointed. John looked up and saw a silvery haze filling the air above the Mirror platform, extending upward until it vanished from sight high in the upper atmosphere. He could see two darts caught in it, tumbling helplessly in slow motion, as if the air was solidifying around them. Crap, John thought, staring, I think we broke the giant Quantum Mirror He pushed away from the wall, hauling Rodney with him, and ran toward the invisible jumper.
The stone jolting underfoot made it hard to move in a straight line. Just as John was thinking that now would be a really bad time to overshoot the ramp, Ronon appeared so suddenly in front of them that John slammed into his chest.
Ronon grabbed them both and fell backward. John tumbled through the cloak, landing heavily on the ramp between Rodney and Ronon as the jumper snapped into visibility around them. Teyla and Zelenka stood over them, both looking horrified, and Teyla dodged forward to hit the control to raise the ramp. Everyone was trying to talk but the noise was still so intense John could barely hear anything over it. He scrambled up, staggering to his feet and lunging for the cockpit.
Miko pushed out of the pilot's chair, gesturing helplessly to the HUD. The screens were flashing random diagnostics, distorted readings, static. John dropped into the chair, checking the board. Comm was dead, sensors were going crazy. The building was shaking so hard he could feel the jumper starting to bounce. If Trishen's shuttle was still in the air, it was caught in that field, whatever it was. Oh yeah, this is not good.
John knew the instant the ramp shut because the shielding dropped the sound to a bearable level. Rodney stumbled up beside him, catching hold of the co-pilot's seat to steady himself. He stared out the port in horror. "Can we lift off?"
"Good question." John could feel the jumper's resistance through the control yoke. The only thing that did seem to work was the terrain sensors, and they were showing a pressure build-up on the outside of the hull; the shaking had to be climbing the Richter scale to an apocalyptic level. Stay on the ground and be crushed, lift off and break apart, John thought. Six of one, half dozen of the other If the building collapsed under them… He would rather be in the air. His radio was dead so he raised his voice to yell, "Don't take off your breathing units! Find a seat and strap in!"
"Oh God," Rodney said thickly, dropping into the copilot's seat and hastily buckling the straps. John looked back to see the others taking seats on the rear cabin benches, reaching for the safety straps.
The next instant the jumper lurched forward as if something had snatched it off the roof. John slammed back in the seat, the force a solid punch right to his chest. The Mirror platform filled the port as the jumper was sucked down toward it.
The next slam was forward into the port, and the world went silver, then black.
Chapter nine
Carson found Major Lorne in the Daedalus' mess. The long compartment was mostly empty, with only a few off-duty crew members having coffee or early dinners. Carson took a seat across the table from Lorne, admitting, "I keep wanting to ask you if there's been any word, but that's not likely in hyperspace, is it?"
Lorne shook his head, and didn't have to check his watch. He had the air of a man who had been watching the clock for so long he had an intimate awareness of the passage of minutes and seconds. "Not for another half hour or so. That's still our projected arrival time."
Carson tasted his coffee and winced. It was terrible, but unfortunately, the tea was worse. He had been clock-watching himself, in between reading the reports about the previous Quantum Mirror incidents. He had a better understanding now of just what Rodney and the others might have gotten themselves into. He was still hoping that in the time the Daedalus had been underway, Sheppard's team would have found their way back through the Stargate on the base moon. Colonel Caldwell might not be happy about the wasted trip, but then Colonel Caldwell can lump it, he thought.