Stargate Atlantis: Emerald Isle

Chapter 1 - Blame

Dr Rodney McKay stepped through the gate and onto yet another new world with a weary sigh. They had emerged onto a rocky clifftop at the end of a promontory, the gate at right angles to the sea. He looked down across the broad curve of the bay below, noting the yellow-stained soil and plumes of smoke denoting volcanic activity, and then further into the distance where green lowlands met the misty blue hills. Jurassic Park meets the Emerald Isle, he thought, but didn't say. Nobody joked any more; things had gone too far for that.

He took out his laptop and wandered away from the gate, in search of a suitable rock to rest on while he worked. He could see Dr Gauthier, the geologist, eagerly taking samples and surveying the deep fissures in the clifftop, as if someone had cut straight into it with a giant saw. Further inland the rock gave way to short, springy turf, which sloped up to meet purple-flowered heather. Teyla stood amongst the heather, keeping watch, Ronon at the edge of the cliff, kept an eye out to seaward.

Sheppard stood by the gate, P90 in hand, eyes alert as always, but expression guarded, inscrutable.

Rodney sat down on a rock, opened his laptop and began studying the confusing readings from his surroundings. Some intermittent seismic activity; not surprising given the obviously volcanic area. He found the data scrolling in front of him blurring as he thought over the last few months; the events that had led to the breakdown of his team. He had sent his request for a transfer this morning; didn't know why he hadn't done it earlier.

It began with the death of a scientist. Dr Alison Treadwell had returned with Atlantis to the Pegasus Galaxy after its sojourn on earth and quickly established herself as a valuable member of Dr McKay's department. Rodney himself came to value her and treat her with a good deal more courtesy than the rest of his scientists, due in part to the firm logic of her reasoning and whip-quick grasp of the ins and outs of any new technology that came her way, but mostly because when confronted with her head of department at his arrogant, self-important worst, she neither backed down, dissolved into tears, nor responded in kind; she simply acknowledged his point of view and then calmly restated her case, often with a small, firm-but-friendly smile. The rush of wind leaving Rodney's sails was almost tangible. The department became a much more peaceful environment; the other scientists regarded Alison as a kind of snake-charmer, her small but purposeful presence guaranteeing a quick resolution to any altercation with the mercurial head scientist.

And then came the mission to PX8-584; and the Katirians with their misguided attempts at nuclear fusion; and the reactor, pushed to its limits and beyond by the impatience and arrogance of government officials. Rodney recalled the shocked faces when he told them their reactor was heading for meltdown, that they'd doomed themselves along with their people, that they'd built their facility in such a way that he couldn't access the circuits that might allow for a safe dispersal of power.

Then Sheppard, studying the reactor plans had suggested that someone small might be able to force themselves into the inner workings of the reactor; somebody with the expertise to effect a miracle. Rodney remembered, for the thousandth time, the crushing inevitability of it all. The tiny crawl-space, through which even Dr Treadwell's petite frame would barely fit, the mounting urgency of the situation, the way Colonel Sheppard's eyes had met Alison's.

"Can you do it?" he'd said. Can you sacrifice yourself and save these people? he'd meant.

Her reply, determined, decisive: "Yes."

He'd nodded, one quick nod, jaw tight, knowing what it meant.

And then she was gone. And she'd done it; she'd diverted the power and the crisis, exposing herself in the process to radioactive steam and sprays of super-heated coolant. She had given her life for others. They couldn't even retrieve her body until the reactor cooled down; and when they did... Rodney couldn't recognise that thing as his colleague, his friend.