by Martha Wells
John bolted inside, hitting the switch to close the ramp. He went immediately to the cockpit, saying, "I'm in the jumper. You guys okay?"
"What? What happened?" Rodney shouted into his headset. "What was it? Human, alien, what?"
"We are fine," Teyla answered, sounding relieved. "What did you see?"
"The hatch opened, somebody stepped out." The jumper was already powering up as John dropped into the pilot's seat. The HUD flashed on, showing him the energy signatures and relative position of the alien ship. He saw with relief that as far as the jumper could tell, it was the only other ship in the area. And the sensors were only reading one life sign, but the handheld detector hadn't read anything, and this one might only be registering because the person-alien-whatever was standing in the hatch. Though something about the tentative way it had peeked out had suggested that it was alone. John wasn't going to count on that, though. "He's wearing an EVA suit and helmet; he mostly looked human, but I couldn't tell." He hesitated, then dropped the cloak. The ship obviously had instruments that could see through it, and he wanted to try to keep this whole thing at the cordial level it had started out on.
"You were communicating with it, you could have asked if it was human," Rodney pointed out in exasperation.
"Well, yeah, but that seemed kind of rude. Get ready, I'll be there in a minute."
He lifted the jumper up to a low hover, then took it through a decorously slow turn and back toward the pit. The sensors informed him the ground was stable, confirming that there was some kind of stone construction buried under the dirt. He set her down close to the edge of the steps and opened the ramp. It was going to take the jumper some time to re-pressurize, so he rapidly changed out his own air bottle, then loaded a pack with spares. He carried it down to the shaft and lowered it with the rope. And since there was no point in doing it the hard way again, he got the collapsible chain-link ladder out, secured it to the ramp, and dropped it down the shaft.
Teyla came up first, moving immediately to the edge of the pit to keep watch. "He is still standing in the hatchway, watching us," she reported quietly as John gave Rodney a hand up out of the shaft.
"Good," Rodney said, heading toward Teyla and ducking to keep his head down. "If there's only one of them in that thing, then no one is inside powering up weapons."
John had thought of that too, but they were still at their most vulnerable right now. Leaning down to help Miko over the edge of the shaft, John said, "Rodney, just get in the damn jumper."
Radek made it to the top, sweating and nervous, with an impassive Ronon right behind him. John sent Radek into the jumper after Miko, and he and Ronon hurriedly dragged the ladder up. Getting everybody into the jumper and closing the ramp didn't make him feel any more secure.
As the jumper re-pressurized the compartment, John dropped his pack and went forward to the cockpit. The others were already crowded inside, looking out the port at the other ship, Miko in the shotgun seat with Teyla and Zelenka standing behind her, craning to see. John moved Rodney out of the way so he could sit down in the pilot's seat, and Ronon ducked in, standing in the hatchway. They had a good view of the other ship, still sitting quietly in the sand near the jumper's previous position. The occupant had vanished.
"He went inside when you closed the ramp," Miko reported, flushed with excitement. She was holding one of the video cameras, aiming out the port. John was glad somebody had remembered to take DV of the ship.
The HUD was cycling through different sensor screens and Rodney shook his head, his mouth twisted. "We're not getting much data. I don't think it's an energy shield that's blocking us. It seems to be the material of the hull itself."
John nodded decisively. He could sympathize with the jumper; he had nothing at the moment either. "Right. So what are our options here?"
"Should we not go outside and try to speak to the pilot again?" Teyla said, studying the ship intently, her brows drawn together. "He does not seem hostile."
"Not yet," Ronon contributed grimly.
John wasn't exactly an optimist about this, but he couldn't side with Ronon on that one. "No, I don't think he's hostile. Unless he was faking. ..I think he was scared."
"We could run away," Radek offered. Everyone turned to look at him. He shrugged eloquently. "I just wanted to put it on the table, I'm not saying we should do it."
Rodney gave him a withering look. "You know, this is why I don't bring you along on these things-" He stopped suddenly and snapped his fingers. "Wait, we're being very stupid."
`° We?"' John asked him pointedly.
Rodney sat down in the other jump seat, opening the laptop and its interface into the jumper's systems. "Well, all right, you. He's probably trying to contact us right now, that's why he went back into his ship."
"Ah." Zelenka made an annoyed gesture. "You are right."
John frowned. "But the jumper should pick that up automatically."
Intent on the interface, Rodney huffed in exasperation. "No, because its comm system has been adjusted to scan our frequencies and the range the Wraith use. If he's broadcasting in a different range, which he probably is-" He went still, his face transfixed, one hand going to his headset. "It's there. This is... It's an Ancient frequency." He tapped the keypad hurriedly and the transmission filled the cockpit.
It was the light hesitant voice John had heard earlier, still tinny and now distorted by bursts of static. "...of the Eidolon ship.. .hear me? Are you there?"
"Interference from the Mirror is causing the disruptions," Zelenka whispered.
"Did he say Eidolon?" John glanced back at Teyla and Ronon. "Anybody heard that before?"
"Never," Teyla said, frustrated. "And I could not tell if he is saying he is the Eidolon ship, or he thinks we are." Ronon shook his head, shrugging.
John chewed his lower lip, eyeing the controls. "Yeah, I didn't get that either."
Rodney was making frantic motions at John. "Will you answer him?"
"Okay, okay." John opened the channel, cleared his throat, and said, "We're here. Sorry about that. Uh, we... forgot that we didn't have the radio on."
Rodney glared and said furiously, "Excuse me! You're making us sound like idiots. What are you going to tell him next, that we startle easily because things try to eat us a lot-"
John glared back. "Do you want to do this? Then shut up.
"Dr. McKay, Colonel!" Miko pointed urgently at the comm readout. "He can hear us."
Crap, John thought, staring at the comm panel.
The voice corrected carefully, "I'm female."
"Oh." Miko bit her lip in embarrassment. "Sorry."
John mouthed the words, "Everybody, quiet. Especially Rodney." He said aloud, "Sorry about that, again. We're peaceful explorers, and, uh-" They weren't telling anyone that they were from Atlantis anymore, hoping to keep from spreading the information that the city hadn't self-destructed. Necessary, but it had made quite a hole in the standard "we come in peace, let's not try to kill each other" speech. Trying to get some idea whether he was talking to a human or not, he said, "We've never seen a ship like yours before. Is Eidolon the planet you come from?"
"No, I'm not from ...here." There was a static-filled hesitation, then the voice blurted, "I came to this plane of existence through the Quantum Mirror."
There was a collective gasp from the others and Rodney pounded on the back of John's chair. "Okay," John said slowly, stalling. The first question that occurred to him was "was that really a good idea?" but he managed to keep that one to himself. He said, "Why?" Though if she was the scout for an invasion force, she probably wouldn't come out and say so.
"I was with my line studying the-" There was another burst of static and John thought he heard "...no alien races but I believe that...." more static, then "...common ancestor."
Rodney was now doing some kind of little dance behind him. John said carefully, "Say again? What was that last part?"
There was an edge of desperation in the voice. "I said,
I believe we share a common ancestor. We call them the Creators. They originated much of our technology, including many things we still do not understand fully, like the Mirror." Holy crap, John thought. If that's true He was aware of Miko bouncing in her seat, Teyla lifting her brows in astonishment and Rodney and Radek having some sort of fervent sign language "I told you so" thing. The voice was continuing, "I didn't intend to come here. I was col lecting data from the Mirror. There is a similar complex around it in my reality, a ruin of the Creators' civilization, and my research-" static fuzzed out a few words "-exploring it. The Mirror activated suddenly and my ship was pulled through. I tried to return, but the Mirror on this side seems to be more damaged, more unstable." There was another hesitation. "I am alone here and...I need help."
"Oh, yeah, apparently you have to watch that. Quantum Mirrors suck people in suddenly." John looked up to see even Teyla making urgent "get on with it" motions. "What kind of help do you need? Besides, obviously, you'd like to get back home."
"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. J
"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
verybody 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.
Rodn
ey 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?"
"Yes, it's on the far side of the structure. I found it when I was looking for anything I could scavenge for my repairs. It's a large doorway, perhaps meant to accommodate ground vehicles. There's a fairly direct passage through it to the Mirror platform, though that section of the installation seems more damaged, and isn't holding pressure." She hesitated, then offered, "If you would like to follow me in your ship, I can go back in that direction and show it to you."
"That would be fine," John told her.
He cut the comm channel, and Teyla frowned worriedly, saying, "I think she has realized we are somewhat distrustful."
Rodney leaned forward, watching as the conch shellshaped shuttle lifted off in a cloud of swirling dust. "Yes, well, she should have picked up on that when our first reaction to seeing an alien spacecraft was to fling ourselves down a twenty-foot drop."