"What are you talking about?" "I'm telling you, she's hiding him from me." " She's not hiding him." " Oh, yeah?" "Every time I go to see him, she tells me that he's just settled down." " Can you blame her?" "You dropped him." " I did not drop him, he jumped." " Jumped?" " Well, he wiggled out of my arms." "I said I was sorry." "Besides, how much damage could I possibly have done?" "He fell, like, maybe two feet." "Stuff like that happens all the time." "I mean, I was dropped, like, a dozen times when I was a kid." "Well, that explains a lot." "Why do you even care?" "You don't even like kids." "It's the principle of the thing." "Everyone else gets to hold him, why shouldn't I?" "Colonel, we've got a new contact." "Looks like a ship." " How far out?" " It's in orbit." " Well, how come we didn't detect it?" " I don't know." "We didn't even detect a hyperspace window." "It just appeared out of nowhere." "Hang on a second, we're getting IFF." "It's the Daedalus." "The Daedalus?" "How can that be?" "They're on their way back to Earth." "Well, they were." "Or they were supposed to be." "Open up a channel." "Daedalus, this is Atlantis, please come in." "Daedalus, please respond." " They're not going to answer." " Why not?" "Because I'm not reading any lifesigns." "What are you telling me, Rodney?" "This thing flew here by itself?" "I don't know how they got here, but there's no one on board." "At least, no one alive." "Colonel, we just got confirmation from Stargate Command." "The Daedalus is in the Milky Way, on course and on schedule." "They expect to reach Earth within two days." "Understood." "So that's not the Daedalus, then?" "Well, not unless it can be in two places at once." "Perhaps the Apollo or one of your other ships..." "They wouldn't be sending Daedalus IFF." "Plus, it doesn't explain how they got here, or why we're not picking up lifesign readings." "All right, I'm taking us in for a closer look." "Wow, you see that?" "Yeah, some scorch marks." "You think weaponsfire?" "Wherever she's been, she's been through some pretty hard times." " What's that?" " I'm picking up an energy reading." " It's coming from the ship." " Is it dangerous?" "I don't think so, but I have no idea what's causing it." "Can you get the bay doors open?" "If the ship's command systems are as familiar as the rest of it, it shouldn't be a problem." "No F-302s, but there's a Jumper." "You sure there's no one else inside?" "As far as I can tell." "All right, we're going in." "Why is it so cold in here?" "The ship's operating on emergency power." "Look, some of the systems were barely registering." " Except for the whole weird energy thing." " That's right." "Can you do something about it?" "It's freezing in here." "Oh, sure, I just have to get to engineering." "You and Ronon are together." "Teyla, you and I are going to check out the bridge." "Radio me if you find anything." "No bodies in here." "Colonel..." "It's the Daedalus, all right." "McKay, is that you?" "Of course it was me." "Who else would it be?" "You think we've got a ghost on board or something?" "Will you please not touch anything?" "What's our status?" "I've restored basic power to most of the ship." "It should be warming up any second now." "Good." "Check on that energy reading." "Try to figure out what it is, all right?" "I'm on it." "Colonel, ship's log, last entry." "Preparations are almost complete." "We've beamed down the last of our supplies and any equipment we think might be useful." "I'll be taking the last of the F-302s down myself." "Of course, we haven't had time to do a proper survey of the planet's surface, but it seems habitable enough." "Plenty of fresh water, arable soil not that different from our own..." "I realize our chance of rescue is slim, but it's become obvious that we no longer have a choice." "This is Colonel Sobel, commander of the Da edalus, signing off." " Do you recognize her?" " I've never seen her before in my life." "Well, it appears as if they abandoned ship." "Yeah." "The question is, why?" "I'll check previous entries." "Man, this ship has been through the wringer." "No hyperdrive, subspace communications are all damaged beyond repair, the shields are virtually depleted..." "What is it?" "It's the energy reading." "It's spiking." " Sheppard, come in." "Go ahead." "Something's happening." "The energy reading, it's going off the chart." " Do something." "Turn it off." " I don't know how." "Look, it's not coming from any of the main systems." "LORNE ON RADIO:" "Colonel Sheppard, this is Atlantis." "We're picking up some kind of power surge coming from the ship." "Yeah, we noticed it." "We're trying to check it out ourselves." "The levels are still rising." "Colonel, should we send another Jumper to assist?" "Stand by." "All right, that's our cue to leave." "Everyone, back in the Jumper." " McKay, what the hell was that?" " I have no idea, but the energy reading's gone back down the way it was." "Atlantis, you reading anything unusual?" "Atlantis, come in." "Atlantis, do you read?" "Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" "Daedalus, this is Atlantis, please respond." " What the hell's going on?" "I don't know." "One moment they were there, and the next minute, they were gone." "Rodney?" "I'm having problems with communications." "Can't reach Atlantis." "Wait a second." "That can't be right." "What?" "I'm not seeing the city on any of my screens." "What are you talking about?" "I just did a sensor sweep, and there's nothing down there but ocean." "Well, maybe they cloaked." "Well, they wouldn't have done that without telling us." "Well, I don't know, maybe there's a Wraith ship in the area." "I'm not reading anything." "Are we certain it's the same planet?" "Perhaps the energy burst shifted our position." "No, according to our instruments, we haven't moved at all." "What do you want me to believe, Rodney?" "That Atlantis just disappeared?" "Look, I don't know." "Just give me a second, I'll figure it out, all right?" "In the meantime, I've managed to localize the energy reading." "It's coming from a hold on Deck 9." "All right, keep trying to reach Atlantis." "We'll check it out." "Sheppard, I think I've got something." "It's the residual radiation from the flash." "It's similar to what happens when you open a hyperspace window, but different enough that the sensors wouldn't have picked it up automatically." "What the hell does that mean?" "I think we're looking at a new kind of drive." "I thought you said we didn't go anywhere." "We didn't." "At least not according to the ship's navigational systems." "So, a malfunctioning drive?" "Maybe." "Just hang on." "Oh, my God, Sheppard..." "Stand by, Rodney." "No, you don't understand, I know what it is." "Look, the residual radiation, it's exactly what we recorded when my double arrived on Atlantis from an alternate reality." "I can't believe I didn't see this before." "Sheppard, hey." "It's a drive, all right, but it didn't move us through space." "I think it's moved us into a parallel universe." "That would explain a lot of things." "How long have they been dead for?" "This place was like a meat locker." "They could've been preserved like this for months." "They look just like us." "That's because they are us, the alternate reality versions of us." "I feel like someone just walked over my grave." "Take it easy." "Everything's fine." " Oh, no, no, no, this is very bad." " What?" "Look, this tablet belonged to the other McKay." "They weren't part of the original crew." "They came here just like us." "Look, a ship appeared in orbit over their Atlantis." "They came to check it out." "That would explain the other Jumper in the bay." "The ship jumped to another reality and they were stuck, they couldn't get back." "Look, eventually their supplies ran out, and they..." "All right, all right, mystery solved." "Let's move on." "No, don't you realize what this means?" "They were us, and they failed." "Well, they're not us." "We're still alive." "Let's go." "The answer's in here somewhere." "Can you power up the systems?" "Yeah, just hold on." "All right..." "All right, that's a start." "What's behind here?" "That's a good question." "I'm guessing that's our alternate reality drive." "Can you figure out how to control it?" "Offhand, I'd say no." "That's what the other McKay was trying to do, and he had weeks." "Rodney..." "Fine." "I'll start with his research." "It'll at least give us a head start." "Yeah, that's better." "We're going to go look for supplies." "What, you don't think the other us wouldn't have already tried that?" "Get to work." "Did you find anything?" "Not unless you know a way to cook this." "Then perhaps we should consider going down to the planet to collect supplies." "Sheppard says it's too risky." "The drive could kick in and the ship could take off without us." "Then we'd be stuck here." "The others that we found, do you think their lives were very similar to ours?" "Who cares?" "How can you say that?" "We've seen our doubles before." "Replicator-manufactured copies." "These were real people, with real lives." "I can't help but wondering who might still be waiting for her back on her Atlantis." "Do you mean, did she also have a son?" "The thought had crossed my mind." "Look, you know," "I've heard McKay talk about this stuff before, and supposedly, there's a million different realities out there, with every possible variation, which also means there's a million different Torrens." "You going to worry about every one of them?" "No." "It's difficult enough worrying about one." "I'll bet it is." "Come on." "Why is the blast door closed?" " Hello?" "Residual radiation?" " Oh, right." "Have you made any progress?" " As a matter of fact, yes, we have." " "We"?" "Me and the other McKay, who, unsurprisingly, is a genius." "Not only that, but it looks like the drive was created by yet another McKay from the original reality." "What makes you say that?" "Well, there's a certain elegance to the design that I recognize." "I'm sure that's what the crew was saying when they abandoned ship." "Well, admittedly there are problems, but it is still a monumental achievement." "All right." "So, what do we do?" "Can we just throw this thing in reverse?" "Yeah, it's a little more complicated than that." "The first problem is navigation." "They've developed a coordinate system to identify the various realities and allow them to get back, but obviously that didn't work." "Obviously." " That's not what bothers me." " Well, do you know, it kind of bothers me." "It's power generation." "I mean, jumping from one reality to another requires massive amounts of power." "We're talking ZPM levels here." "Obviously, they didn't have one of those rattling around, so they created a capacitor that's constantly drawing power from subspace." "And it looks like it's almost charged." "Is this your long-winded way of telling me you just can't turn it off?" "Think of it like a tap pouring water into a bucket." "When the bucket is full, the drive engages, except this particular tap has no valve." "That seems like a pretty serious design flaw, don't you think?" "Exactly." "Which leads me to believe they were tampering with it in a vain attempt to generate more power." "As they got further and further from their own reality," "I guess they figured they'd need it to get back." "And here we go." "Okay." "Where are we?" "Don't look at me." "I haven't had time to route the main systems to these control panels." "I'm flying blind down here." " Ronon, Teyla, meet me at the bridge." "On our way." " Keep it up, Rodney." " Hmm." "Colonel, Atlantis is back." "I'm picking them up on the sensors." "You know how to work this stuff?" "The last time the Daedalus was in orbit, Major Marks generously offered to give both of us some preliminary training." " I was busy." " Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in." "Atlantis, do you read?" "Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in." "Maybe they already have a Sheppard." "Rodney, what are the odds of us randomly jumping back into our own reality?" "I'd say slim to none." "I'm detecting another ship in orbit." "What kind?" "I'll see if I can pull it up on screen." "I don't recognize it." "What's that?" "You know it?" " No." "Colonel, I believe the ship is powering weapons." " What's our shield status?" " Minimal." "It's firing on Atlantis." "The city's shields are failing." "Rodney, do we have enough juice to power up the Asgard beam?" "Maybe." "I mean, you might be able to get a couple of shots off." "Why?" "There's some alien ship attacking Atlantis." " So?" " What do you mean, "So?" It's Atlantis!" "It's not our Atlantis." "We have no idea who's down there." "Look, we should just stay out of it." "If we do not intervene, the city will be destroyed." "Yeah, we need help." "My gut tells me we're better off going with the people on that planet than whoever's on that ship." "I hope you're right." " Yeah, well, me too." "The ship's been damaged." "It's stopped firing." "Hopefully, we took out its main weapons." "Wait, something's happening." "They're launching fighters." "Ronon..." "You should've took Marks up when you had the chance." "Now you're going to have to learn fast." "Railgun targeting systems." "Button's on the right." "Control, radar, tracking and target acquisition, use the red button to fire." " What the hell was that?" "We're under attack." "Any chance of getting that hyperdrive back online?" "No, it's completely shot!" "I already told you that!" "Great." "There's too many of them." "I can't do this." "Keep trying!" "We've lost sublight." "We have a hull breach." "We're venting atmosphere." "I don't know what to do." "Seal off damaged areas." "We should be okay for the moment." "I wouldn't be so sure about that." "Sheppard, I have an idea!" "Let's hear it." "I've set up a few protocols that should increase the efficiency of the alternate reality drive." "If I enable them, we might be able to jump sooner." "And what?" "What, jump to the next universe?" "Exactly!" "But ifl do this, I can't undo it!" "I mean, we'll just start jumping faster and faster!" "Do it." " It worked." " Where are we?" "We have a problem." "Temperature in the hull is rising rapidly." "What the hell is this?" "According to these readings, we're less than two million kilometers from the surface of the sun." "I thought we always jumped to the same place in every reality." "As did I." "Hull temperature is approaching critical." " If we do not restore shields..." " We're going to burn." "Are you sure about this?" "Well, we're not imagining it, Rodney." "All right." "Well, let me transfer the sensors down to the station." "Then at least I can..." "Oh." "You're definitely not imagining that." " Thanks for the vote of confidence." "I don't understand it." "We always jump to the same relative position in space." " Unless..." "Unless what?" "You said when you went to the future, you saw our sun expanding into a red giant, remember?" "What are you saying, we're jumping through time now?" "No, no, no, no, no, but maybe what eventually happens in our reality is happening in this one, only much sooner." "Look, we didn't go to the sun." "The sun came to us." "So how does this help us?" "I don't know." "I just..." "I found it interesting." "What's interesting, Rodney, is a way out of this without getting fried, like getting the sublight back on so we can get the hell out of here." "Actually, I think our best bet is just to transfer as much power as we can to the shields, and ride it out till the next jump." "When does that happen?" "Well, the time the capacitor takes to charge is different now that I've enacted those new protocols." "You know..." "I have no idea." "You're not exactly selling the plan, Rodney." "I have no idea how long it would take me to fix the sublights either!" "Look, I've got to run a diagnostic, but theoretically, transferring power to the shields should be relatively easy." "All right, what do we do?" "All right, the first thing I need you to do is head down to engineering." "Let's go." "All right, we're here." "What do we do?" "I need you to kill all power to non-essential decks, which means you're going to have to access the main administrative interface." "That should bring up a list of all available override commands." "Got it." "Okay." "So choose the command for life support." "You're going to have to designate the decks one by one." " I think that's all of them." "Damn it." "That didn't buy us nearly as much power as I would have thought." " Well, there's got to be something else." " Right..." "All right, look, the ship has auxiliary power modules for most of the main systems." "Most likely they're depleted, but ifnot, well, it might buy us a little more juice." "Well, there you go." "What the hell was that?" "Was it gunfire?" "Where's Ronon?" "Keep working." "Stay focused, Rodney." " Tell me what to do next." " All right." " You okay?" " Yeah." "Where the hell did he come from?" "Check it out." "It's the same symbol that was on the alien ship." "How'd he get onboard?" "You know, they crashed into us, penetrated our hull, remember?" " You think he did it on purpose?" " That's a good question." "Hey." "Let me try that." "That's it." "That's all of them." "I must go help Colonel Sheppard and Ronon." " Good luck, Rodney." "No, no, no, it's not enough!" " What do you mean?" " Without sublights, our orbit is decaying, which means more radiation slamming into the shields." "The alternate reality drive is only charged to 70%, which means it'll never make 100 before the shields fail." "Well, what do we do?" "We have no more power." "Just give me a second." "Rodney, Colonel Sheppard and Ronon are under attack." "All right, I got it, I got it." "Drop the shields." " What?" " Drop the shields." "I will transfer all available power to the drive." "Hopefully, it'll be enough to induce a jump." " Hopefully?" " It is our only option, and every second we argue about it is less of a chance it's going to work!" "Very well." "Dropping shields." "Hull temperature is passing critical." "Okay, transferring power to the drive now." " Oh." "No, no, no, no." "What is it?" "It's not enough." "It's only 98%!" "Rodney, the hull is beginning to deteriorate." "Come on, come on!" "That's it!" "Sheppard, we're jumping!" "Nice work, Rodney." "Uh, you may want to hold off on the congratulations." "Now what?" "I think I've overtaxed the drive." "Look, it's not completely blown, but we've only got a handful of jumps before it's burned out." "All right, then what happens?" "If we haven't found our way back by then, we will be stranded forever." "What happened to the planet?" "Rodney believes that in this reality, it was destroyed by an impact, possibly millions of years ago." "All that remains is this asteroid field." "All right, I think I got something." "In fact, it was staring me in the face the whole time." "I was just too busy trying to avoid imminent death" " to notice it." " What are you talking about?" "See, my mistake was focusing on the navigation system." "I should've known that was never going to work." "So what, then?" "So, in a spectacular feat of multi-dimensional mathematics," "I have discovered a way to send the ship back along the path it's previously traveled, bypassing the navigation system altogether." "Wait a minute." "You're talking about putting this thing in reverse?" " Exactly." " I just suggested that two hours ago." "And naturally, I dismissed it out of hand, but then I realized that including the original designer, not one, but two versions of myself have failed to make this thing work." "I had to think not like me." "In fact, I had to think like the opposite of me, and it doesn't get much more opposite than you." "I'll take that as a compliment." " So can we get back or not?" " Well, not directly." "It's impossible to calculate the relative position of our original starting point from where we are now, but we can retrace our steps, passing through each reality in turn until we reach the right one." "Well, there's a slight problem, Rodney." "We barely got out of those realities alive." "If we do not restore the shields, the radiation from the red giant will kill us." "Not necessarily." "Look, we know that the ship carries its momentum in real space from one reality to the next." "Now, we may not have sublight engines, but we do have maneuvering thrusters." "You know, one long continuous burn along the right trajectory from now until the next jump should be enough to allow us to establish a higher, more stable orbit around the sun." "So the radiation will not affect us?" "I wouldn't go that far, but, still, it'd be not quite as deadly?" "Okay." "That's it." "Course is already plotted." "What about those alien dudes?" "They know we're the ones that shot at them." " Maybe they'll be gone." "I wouldn't count on it." "I mean, time is passing at the same rate in each of the realities, which means..." "Well, which means, it hasn't been that long." "To get past those aliens, we're going to need sublight engines, and I'm going to need to fix them in time." "Wait, but you said you don't even know what's wrong with those." "Well, I haven't had a chance to check it out." "I'm sorry I can't do 10 things at once." "I've already told you, the drive is going to burn out, soon." "We have to do something." "Who's to say the next reality won't be even worse?" "All right, all the modifications to the drive are in place." "Here we go." "It worked." "You did it, Rodney." "All right, I'm going to head up to engineering, get to work on the sublights." "What's our status?" "Hull temperature is rising, but not as rapidly as it did before." "I think we'll be okay." "So much for the frying pan." "Let's hope we make it through the fire." "How is it coming?" " Hmm?" "It's not good." "The main systems are completely fried." "I'm going to have to do a full bypass." " Can I be of assistance?" " I doubt it." "Okay..." "Oh, jeez!" "What the..." "Thanks." "Perhaps a separate diagnostic of the auxiliary system might be useful." "Uh, sure." "I wanted to thank you, Rodney." "For what?" "For not giving up." "Oh, I know what this is." "It's your first mission back." "Look, I am not about to let it be your last, okay?" "Oh, no, that's what I was afraid of." "What is it?" " Well, the drive's charging a lot faster now." "Sheppard!" "Looks like the next jump's going to happen a lot sooner than we thought." "How's it coming with the sublight engine?" "I'm going to need a few minutes." " Do we have a few more minutes?" " I doubt it." "All right, let's split railgun positions." "I'll take forward, you take aft." "You really think that's going to make a difference?" "Without shields, probably not, but we don't have much of a choice." "Where's the alien ship?" "I'm not sure." "Well, maybe they left." "No such luck." "They're right behind us." "We got fighters closing in on our position." "How's it going down there?" "Look, just give me a second!" "Rodney..." "Okay, try it now." "That's it, I've got it!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Sheppard..." "How we doing?" "They're gaining on us." "Can you get us more speed?" "There's not a chance!" "Look, I've barely got this thing working as it is!" "If we tax it any more, we're going to blow the whole system!" "All right, well, then we've got a real problem." "They're in weapons range." " Return fire." " I'm trying." "Easy, Chewie, those buttons are your friends." " Just keep trying." " I'm trying!" "That's it, sublights are gone for good this time!" " What the hell was that?" " F-302s." "It's Atlantis." "What's happening?" "Looks like we're getting some help from some friends." "Guess we bet on the right side after all." "Daedalus, this is Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard." "Do you read?" "Daedalus, do you read?" "Yeah, Daedalus." "This is Daedalus." "Come in." "Who..." "Who is this?" "It's a long story." "Well, whoever you are, you saved our asses when you took out their main weapons." "Figured the least we could do is return the fa vor." "Much appreciated." "Sheppard..." "Oh, crap." "Sorry about that." "One of them got through." "Nice shooting, though." "Thanks." "All right, looks like that's the last of them." "So..." "So, what happens now?" "Well, we go our own ways." "Just like that?" "Pretty much." "Well, the thing is, we do have a few questions." "See, the Daedalus we know was destroyed two years ago in a battle with the Replicators." "Sorry to hear that, but this isn't exactly our Daedalus, we're just borrowing it for a while." "Okay, I have no idea what that means." "Like I said, it's a long story." "All right, Daedalus, good luck." "Thank you, Colonel, and one last thing, it's been a pleasure." "You're obviously a man of great integrity and a dedicated commander and a very skilled pilot." "Well, that's funny." "I was going to say the same to you." "All right." "The alien ship's gone." "I'm reading a planet with no energy signatures." "It's the first reality we jumped to." "One more, and we're home." "Let's get down to the hangar bay." "All right." "I got shot!" " I thought we got them all." " Apparently not." "Think there's any more of them?" "I'm not waiting around to find out." "Move, move, move!" "The explosion's caused a hull breach." "Whole sections have been de-pressurized, including the hangar bay!" "And we just lost the Jumpers!" "Our stop is coming up, Rodney." "It's time to get off this train." "Look, there's no way off." "Once we jump into our own reality," "Atlantis will detect us and they will send help." "We broke orbit to get away from the fighters, remember?" "Look, we carry our momentum and relative position in space from one reality to the next, which means by the time we next jump, we're going to be, like, half a million kilometers out." "They're never going to get to us in time!" "We got C4, I say we wait till we get back and then we'll blow the drive." "That could work, or it could tear a hole in the space-time continuum not only killing us, but destroying the entire solar system!" "Well, we better think of something fast." "Another contact just appeared on our screens." "Is it the Daedalus?" "They're too far out for us to get IFF." "Try subspace." "Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" "Colonel Sheppard, this is Major Lorne, do you read?" " Was there a hyperspace window?" " No, sir." "They just appeared out of nowhere." "Well, it's got to be them." "Alert Mr. Woolsey." "Doc, you're with me." "Let's go, come on." "All right, we should be within radio range." "Colonel Sheppard, come in." "Dr. McKay, this is Major Lorne." "Do you read?" "No, there's too much interference." "I'm picking up some kind of energy reading." "It's spiking." "What the hell just happened?" " They disappeared." " What are you talking about?" "Well, they're just gone." "Oh, wait a minute." "I'm picking up four lifesigns." "Okay, where?" "Dead ahead." "Colonel Sheppard, is that you?" "Major, nice of you to stop by." "Kind ofhard to get a cab in this neighborhood." "Yes, sir." "How many jumps you think that drive has left in it before it burns out?" "Half a dozen, tops." "Then it'll be completely inert." "Good." "I'd hate to think of somebody else getting trapped inside that thing like we did." "Actually, you know, I've been thinking about that." "Now, true, the navigation system was flawed to start, but the basic principles of the drive are fundamentally sound..." " Forget it, Rodney." " I've saved the relevant data." "Minor adjustments, and I should be able" " to have this thing up and running..." " Like I said, forget it." "Hey, look who's here." "How's your shoulder, Rodney?" "It's pretty bad, but, you know, better, thanks." "Is it well enough to hold him?" "Really?" " Don't drop him." " Thank you." "Hey there, little guy." " I think he likes me." "It suits you." "You think so?" "I think you'll make an excellent father someday." "I've seen a lot of scary things in my time, but that thought scares me the most." " Do you want to..." " I think so." "Yeah." "There you go." "Watch out, they wiggle." "Right."