"Nobody will hold you responsible," Dr. Weir said gently. "If we had a choice, we wouldn't have asked you to do this. Thank you."
The reply was another grunt.
Radek supposed he should have anticipated it, because he'd witnessed the effects of the stimulator before. It still was startling. A shudder that set the cot to rattle racked Rodney's body, then his eyes snapped open and he dumbly blinked at the canvas ceiling above.
"Hng," he said. Which could have meant anything, but knowing McKay it probably translated as a none too polite request for coffee and carbohydrates.
"Who are you?" asked John Sheppard.
With something of an effort, Rodney focused on him. "Huh?"
"Who are you?"
"My God, it actually worked," said McKay, and that grimace might have been a smile. "Nice to see you, Colonel. Is my acne that bad?"
It clearly was the last reply Colonel Sheppard had expected. "Come again? Your what?"
Ronon grinned. "Don't worry, McKay. You look your age again. No boils "
"Zits!"
"Do I want to know?" Sheppard asked darkly.
"No," said Rodney and Ronon, at the same moment, offered, "He was sixteen in his timeline."
"Like Ikaros," Dr. Weir whispered, frowning.
"Which brings me back to the original question," said the Colonel, who must have been thinking along the same lines. "Who are you?"
"Dr. Rodney McKay of Earth and various other benighted places." With a pained sigh, Rodney settled back into the pillow. "I love it when people are being willfully obtuse…" He opened one eye and peered at Sheppard. "Who in God's name did you think I was? Your teenage look-alike? Admittedly he's making a nuisance of himself, but he generally asks my permission before taking over."
"Generally." While he sounded less than convinced, Sheppard seemed willing to accept Rodney's assertion, at least for the time being. "Look, we're a bit pressed for time here. We need to get back before Charybdis slams the door on us for good. Any suggestions?"
"Don't bother," came a voice from the entrance. "You're not leaving."
Radek spun around, found himself face to face with Selena. Behind her he could see at least twelve more people, including the technicians, grim determination showing in their eyes.
"We have discussed it, and we will not allow you to activate the Stargate again," she said.
Oh, wonderful. You'd think he might have earned himself a timeline not populated by Luddite zealots, but obviously that was too much to ask for… The issue was academic, of course, because he was fresh out of suggestions to offer to John Sheppard or anyone else. Unless they brought him at least one new double or the double's remains, Rodney had no idea of how to persuade the Stargate to work. And, going by that less than joyous last trip, he wasn't even sure he wanted to try.
"We cannot." The woman looked as obdurate as flint. "As a matter of fact, we've decided to destroy it."
Ha! What did he say`? Luddite zealots!
"Selena." Zelenka risked a step forward. "Selena, there is no other way. You must-"
"You've made your feelings quite clear, Radek. And you've made your choice. Let's spare us all the repetition."
Zelenka seemed to crumple and that scarily old face of his crinkled into a stricken expression, beyond hopelessness or hurt. Dear God, the woman was… what? His lover? Ew… a little mature for that.
Who's the zealot now? She's his wife. What did you expect him to do? Live like a monkfor thirty years just because he was dumped here?
"Who asked you?" Rodney inquired under his breath.
"Please, Selena?" Elizabeth's features were set in that conciliatory diplomatic mode Rodney hardly ever saw directed at himself. "Please, you have to believe that we never meant to-"
The old woman cut her off mercilessly. "We know you didn't mean us any harm. Not at first. But now you do. You"-she stabbed a finger at Weir-"you seek to protect your people. You consider it your duty. Well, it's my duty too. I will protect my people by any means necessary. If that entails sacrificing five… six"-a glare at Zelenka-"in order to save the population of an entire planet, so be it."
You couldn't dispute the math. So much for diplomacy…
" Zatraceny!" Radek seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion. When he lapsed into his mother tongue he usually was impatient or pissed or both. "The planet is dying, Selena! You're sacrificing a galaxy, possibly a universe, to save a corpse!"
"That's your theory! A theory!"
"It's not a theory. It's a fact."
Rodney heard his own voice say it, felt his mouth form the words, and thoroughly resented the sensation. If he'd been able to, he'd have screamed. Son of a bitch!
I'm sorry, Ikaros offered, feeling at least somewhat guilty. I believe you have a saying: desperate times call for desperate measures.
"How would you know?" snapped Selena. "You've spent even less time here than the rest of them!"
"I know because I'm the one responsible. I caused this. I caused you to exist."
"Ikaros!" John Sheppard looked furious, as well he might. "Rodney said-"
"Yes. I heard him, and I apologize for this. But you have to trust me."
"I'd rather trust Rodney around the latest untried Ancient super-gun," hissed Sheppard.
A little uncalled-for, if you asked Rodney, but nobody did and even if they had he couldn't have answered.
"Bring him back, Ikaros!"
"In a moment. I promise, I-"
"Who are you, Ikaros or Rodney or whatever your name is? And what gives you the right to take our lives?" Selena moved another step forward, and the mob she'd roused was thronging in behind her, smelling of murder. Some of them were armed, all of them were outraged. If the tension rose another notch you could forget about cutting it with a knife. It would shred the canvas walls and roof of the tent.
"She's right!" one of the men behind Selena shouted. "He's already admitted to causing this, so I say we punish him accordingly."
Yep, here we go. Rodney had a nasty sense of deja vu all over again and began to wonder where they'd stashed their cage. Why couldn't the kid just keep his big mouth shut?
As I said, I'll oblige you in a minute. If you want to get back, you have to let me do this. Now stop distracting me! Ikaros snapped.
Aloud he said, "You can punish me. You can kill me. But in doing so, you'll merely harm an innocent man. What's more, you'll rob yourselves of any chance to set this right. And if you don't set it right, you will indeed destroy an entire galaxy."
The response consisted of grumbles, low and menacing and disbelieving, and they closed in another foot or so.
Ikaros tried a new tack. Intrepid little twerp… "I'm of your blood, from the same roots as you, we're of the same people"-that raised a few eyebrows-"and I did what I did out of the same desire that drives you now; I wanted to save my people. I also wanted revenge. So much so that I failed to look beyond the obvious."
His audience was listening now. So was the Atlantis team. So was Rodney, when it came to that.
"For as long as we could remember, my people-your people-had a powerful enemy," Ikaros continued. "The Wraith. Beings no longer human that stole men and women and children and fed on their life force. One day they stole my family, and that day I promised myself that, as soon as I was able to, I would destroy them. So I studied and learned, as fast and as much as I could, and I built a device capable of altering history itself, of eradicating the Wraith and every trace of their existence throughout the millennia, because, in the version of history I created, the Wraith never had evolved.
"I thought it was a safe plan, you see? How couldn't it be? All I'd done was take the Wraith out of the equation. I didn't think it would affect the rest of history. But of course it did. Because the Wraith were part of our history, yours and mine. The Wraith were the whetstone that honed our instinct to survive, our thirst for learning, our skill at defending ourselves and, ultimately, our determination to be better than they.