"That, yes. And my ship is damaged. I know how to repair it, but I need materials. I was trying to scavenge supplies from the ruin and-It caused the security system to activate." She sounded deeply embarrassed. "I apologize for that. When the monitors came on, I saw you. I tried to turn it off, but I'd apparently removed a necessary component from that console. By the time I replaced it and regained control of the system, you were outside. I went to my ship and tried to call you on my communications system, then took the shuttle out to look for you. When I saw your ship, I was so relieved."
Rodney leaned over John's shoulder suddenly, cutting off the comm mic for the cockpit. He said, "That explains everything we found on the first level. Some of the doors must have been open, letting in the native plant and animal life. When she arrived, she must have activated the automatic systems, and the building sealed itself and pressurized. And that means-"
"She has the Ancient gene," John finished, lifting a brow.
Rodney switched on the mic again, saying briskly, "Hello, Dr. Rodney McKay speaking. I'm a scientist with experience with this technology. Can you tell me what indication you saw that the Mirror wasn't forming a stable connection to your reality?"
"Yes." The voice sounded more certain. "Yes, my instruments show that the Mirror is experiencing periodic energy fluctuations, like the one that occurred just a little while ago. I've tried sending transmissions through, and then a probe with a recorded message, but I received no response, and from the energy discharge I believe the probe was destroyed."
"You realize the Mirror may not be set to the same destination," Rodney told her. "Finding your reality again could be problematic, to put it mildly."
"Oh, but in my reality, our research suggests that the instability was preventing the Mirror from switching destinations, even when it was shut down and reactivated. That's why I believe that if I could just activate it successfully, I could go home."
Rodney frowned, throwing a look back at Zelenka. Zelenka shrugged, mouthing the words, "It's a possibility.
"I know that," Rodney mouthed back, glaring irritably. He said aloud, "Right, yes. I'd have to take a look at your readings."
"Will you do that?" she asked anxiously. "Look at my data? My equipment is in my ship, which is in the open portion of the ruin, near the Mirror; this is only a shuttle unit." She hesitated, then said timidly, "Will you help me?"
Chapter four
Everybody looked at John. He took a deep breath. Well, here goes, he thought. "What's your name?"
The answer came immediately, "I am Trishen, of the line of Frenya."
"Trishen, give us a couple of minutes to talk it over." John cut the channel.
Everybody started talking at once, which John had expected. Rodney out shouted them all with, "This is an incredible opportunity! We've taken far, far more stupid chances than this-" The environmental control display interrupted, informing them that the compartment had repressurized. John switched his breathing set off, pulling his mask down as the others followed suit. Rodney, by force of will and more practice, got his mask off faster and continued, "-and we can't pass this up because of your military paranoia-"
"Rodney!" John lifted his brows. "I didn't say I was against it."
"— and pointless suspicion in cases where-Oh." Rodney flung his hands in the air, deflating.
"Besides," Miko quickly added in the gap while Rodney was trying to switch gears, "If she shares her data with us, it will be much easier to discover how to shut down the Mirror." She looked around at their expressions, startled. She added hastily, "Oh, no, I meant after we help her to get back to her reality."
"Yes, we must find some way to help her, whatever we do," Radek said, shaking his head. "It would be a terrible thing, trapped here and cut off from her companions. There are many days when I'm not happy to be here myself, I can't think what it would be like-" He made a vague gesture. "Alone."
"I agree," Teyla said, leaning forward in her chair, her face intent. "I can only think how we would feel if it was one of us trapped in their reality, and we had no means of retrieving her."
That one had crossed John's mind, too.
Rodney made an abrupt gesture. "This is what it comes down to. From what we found, it takes the Ancient gene to get into the upper control areas of the installation, and she's apparently been researching Ancient technology in her reality. She could even be more closely related to the Ancients than we are, and an exchange of data with her could give us the missing pieces to puzzles we've just barely begun to discover."
John leaned sideways to see Ronon, who was propped in the cabin hatch. "Ronon. What do you think?"
Ronon looked away, his mouth twisted, though he seemed more uneasy than cynical. "It sounds like a woman. It could be a trap, but…" He shrugged uncomfortably.
Teyla added, "But if she meant us harm, it would have made more sense to act when we were caught in the open.
Ronon nodded. John interpreted that as meaning that Ronon would like to be suspicious but just couldn't see his way clear to it. That pretty much summed up how John felt.
Rodney folded his arms. "Humanitarian consider ations aside, if the Mirror is now too dangerously unstable to operate and she can't go back, that leaves us the opportunity to invite her back to Atlantis." He lifted his chin. "Her and her spaceship."
"I admit, that occurred to me also." Radek scratched his head ruefully. "It would be terrible thing for her, but not necessarily for us. And she has already been here for more than a day as measured by this moon's orbit. If there was a possibility she would experience entropic cascade failure, it would already have happened."
Ronon stirred, frowning. "What's that?"
Radek turned to him, explaining, "If more than one copy of the same person exists simultaneously in one reality, the newcomer experiences a quantum instability that causes massive cellular disruption throughout the entire body." He winced. "You become fuzzy, it's painful and terrible."
Ronon eyed him skeptically. "That doesn't make sense.
"Nothing involving Quantum Mirrors makes sense," Rodney said in annoyance. He looked at John and demanded, "Are we going to do this?"
"Yeah." John let out his breath. It was still a risk, but the fact remained that they didn't have a single reason to believe this woman wasn't exactly who and what she said she was. And Teyla had pegged it; he couldn't help thinking how he would feel if they lost someone through the Mirror, knowing he or she was right on the other side and unable to do a damn thing about it. And if they couldn't get Trishen back home, talking her into returning to Atlantis with them was a hell of a lot better option than leaving her sitting out here with no idea where the nearest inhabited world was. "We're going to do this." He glanced at his watch, and the HUD helpfully popped up a diagram of the planetary system, with the current positions of the gas giant and the base moon. "The planet's blocking a direct transmission back to base camp. We're going to have to bounce a signal off one of those other moons.
Rodney nodded sharply, his face caught between relief, triumph, and trepidation. "I'll make a data packet to update them on our situation. We should get an answer in a few minutes."
"Right." John turned his chair back to the console, and keyed on the comm channel. He said, "Trishen? We're going to help you."
There was a little negotiation first.
According to Trishen, her ship and the little shuttle's shielding had been specifically adjusted to deal with the Mirror's discharges. Both had been specially designed research vessels, developed after the other Eidolon ships had suffered near misses similar to the one that had almost taken out the jumper. She asked if they wanted to move the jumper into the installation's inner ring, next to her base ship. "That would be a big no," John told her. Rodney was making emphatic boom gestures and mouthing the words "quantum instability." John added, "The instability interferes too much with our ship's systems. We need it to stay on this side of the installation." The reason he didn't give her was that while he didn't think she was lying to them, he didn't see any reason to be stupid about this, either. "Do you know if there's a direct passage from the outside through to the Mirror?"