Fic: Chase the Morning {13/37}
Part Three: Echoes Resound
Chapter One: Lost
Date: August 21, 5 A.I. [2005]
Location: Atlantis Base, Colorado
Radek was starting to get worried. It was forty-five minutes after Jess said that she’d meet him for lunch, and it wasn’t like her to be late. Abandoning the table he’d been sitting at in the mess hall, he made his way towards the Engineering Labs, figuring that Jess must’ve gotten so deep into a project that she’d lost track of the time. That didn’t make sense, though, since Anora was very good about keeping Jess aware of what was going on, even if she wasn’t in control of their body at the time.
He stepped out of the transporter and into chaos. The hallways around the Engineering labs were full of people rushing here and there, and there was a cacophony of sounds coming from the Main Lab. Radek dodged a few overenthusiastic scientists and managed to get into the Main Lab, where Rodney was snapping at a small gaggle of people.
‘Rodney, what is going on?’ Radek asked, having to raise his voice to be heard over the babble.
Rodney turned and then surged forwards, grabbing Radek by the wrist and pulling him over to where a large matte black cube lay gently smoking on one of the tables.
‘This,’ Rodney said with a sour twist to his mouth. ‘Is what Connor was working on. Miko! Get over here and tell Zelenka what you saw.’
Miko Kusanagi, a petite Japanese scientist who Radek knew worked with Jess on occasion, came forwards, looking as if she were about to break down in tears. ‘I was working on the other side of the lab when there was a big bang,’ she began, her voice trembling. ‘I turned around to see what was happening, and saw Doctor Connor working with this device. Before I could ask what had caused the noise, she disappeared in a flash of light. One second she was here, the next-’ Miko trailed off, looking miserable.
‘We’ll find out what happened, don’t worry.’ Radek told her with more surety than he actually felt. ‘What was the device supposed to do, anyways?’
‘We don’t know,’ Rodney said. ‘That’s why she was supposed to run a diagnostic on the damn thing.’
Radek looked down at the device and sighed. The melted remains of a diagnostic clip were just visible on the black surface, a short length of wire hanging from them. ‘So we don’t know what happened to her?’ he asked, his voice quiet.
‘No,’ Rodney said, and in an uncharacteristic gesture of comfort, put his hand on Radek’s shoulder. ‘but we will.’
Radek nodded and turned away from the table, his mind blank of any true thought. He had switched into autopilot mode, going about the rest of his day’s duties with just enough speed and precision to get them done. When he returned to his quarters at the end of the day, he flopped down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering just where Jess and Anora were, and if they were even alive.
Three weeks later, Radek was working on a complex simulation when Rodney came in, looking as if he was trying to restrain his excitement. Radek looked up from his work, his hands pausing on the keyboard of his computer.
‘Is everything alright, Rodney?’ he asked politely, watching Rodney shift from foot to foot as he stood there.
‘We think we know what happened.’ Rodney blurted, his hands fluttering in front of him as he spoke. ‘Remember that Quantum Mirror that SG-1 said they found a few years ago?’
‘You think that device is something similar?’
Rodney nodded. ‘I think the Ancients were looking to make it more compact- after all, dragging around a six-foot-tall mirror isn’t exactly practical, now is it? Anyways, we think it probably got activated when Jess was trying to get the diagnostic lead put in properly, and it shifted her to an alternate reality.’
‘Okay, but how do we get her home?’ Radek asked, getting to his feet. Rodney’s face fell.
‘I don’t know, but I’m sure we can figure something out.’ He said, a determined look on his face. ‘Now, Kavanagh, of all people, has come up with what we think is the remote for the ARC-’
‘ARC?’ Radek raised an eyebrow.
‘Alternate Reality Cube.’ Rodney explained with a wave of his hand. ‘Anyways, if we can get it working again, we can flip through the different realities without actually going to them. According to some records we found in the Database, it’s supposed to show a preview of the reality before you go there, rather like the Mirror. If we can find the right reality, we can get Jess back.’
‘And how are we supposed to do that?’
‘A video message.’ Rodney said, a smug smile on his face. ‘We send it through, just to get their attention, and then we switch to live feed if everything goes right. If there’s any danger, we can just flip to the next reality. Once we get Jess back, we can destroy the device, or at the very least, throw it in the ocean or a deep body of water. That way, if anyone does try to get through, they won’t get very far.’
Radek considered this. It was actually quite a good plan, even with the flaws that he could see in it.
‘Alright,’ he said, nodding briskly. ‘What do we have to do?’
Rodney grinned and pulled him out of the lab, heading towards the nearest transporter and talking a mile a minute, his hands illustrating his speech.