Disclaimer - "Stargate" and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment.
Rating – T
Set – After 'The Lost Tribe'
Summary – What if you could control time? What if something never ended or changed because it could be frozen in time forever? Dr Rodney McKay is about to find out the hard way…

Chapter 1 – Ever Onwards

Rodney sat at the desk in Janus' Lab on Atlantis and frowned tiredly down at the laptop in front of him. Lines of indecipherable code rolled up the screen and made his eyes glaze over. He shook his head and willed his focus back.

Radek was sitting next to him and tutted in frustration as he adjusted his glasses before squinting down at his own laptop.

It had been several weeks since the lab had been discovered and there were still many files so heavily encrypted that all of Atlantis' scientists were having trouble accessing the data. McKay took it as a personal insult to his intelligence that the files were so difficult to decode. Zelenka had decided to help after Rodney had yelled at him for no apparent reason for the umpteenth time in as many days. McKay was constantly on edge and all the other scientists now turned around or fled the room when they saw him coming.

Two junior scientists were scurrying around the room behind their boss and there was a sudden loud clatter which made Rodney jump. He spun around and called out to them in a foul and mighty temper, "Would you quit that! Some of us are trying to concentrate over here and you two wrecking the place really isn't helping." He sighed angrily and frowned at one of the men as he hastily crouched down and gathered up the equipment he had dropped.

Rodney grimaced and clenched one of his hands into a tight fist. He could feel his blood pressure rising through the roof. He shouted at them again, "What is that you've broken anyway? The stuff in here is fragile. You may have destroyed something that could defeat the Wraith or… or reveal the secrets of making Zed PMs!" He waved his hands about to illustrate his annoyance more forcefully.

The scientist had just finished gathering the scattered gear and straightened up next to his companion. They both glared back at McKay, while Rodney felt his hands shaking in fury and frustration.

Radek was peering over at Rodney in exasperation. He raised his eyebrows and muttered, "Perhaps you should lock everyone out so that you are the first to get your hands on all of the technology?"

Rodney spun back around in his chair and grimaced at the impossible task taunting him on the laptop. He scrubbed a hand over his forehead and left a wide red mark. He then rubbed his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Stupid, useless, running around in circles…"

Radek looked at him in sympathy as the two junior scientists took the opportunity to flee the room while McKay was no longer paying them any attention. Before they left, one slammed a small box down on the table next to Rodney with an unpleasant smile.

Zelenka blinked at his laptop and then glanced up at Rodney again who seemed to be teetering on the brink of another major explosion even worse than the one he had had a moment ago. Radek was not very keen to be on the receiving end when McKay finally flipped, as he was now the only one within firing range. He got up and kept his distance as he said, "This is very taxing on the patience. Perhaps we should take a break?"

Rodney scowled and bunched his fist again until his knuckles turned a ghostly white. His other hand rested idly on the keys of the laptop. He scrunched his face up in disgust and spoke through gritted teeth, "You can go if you want, but I'm staying here until this is decoded."

Radek shrugged, "Suit yourself," and walked out of the room leaving Rodney alone in his mood.

Rodney grimaced at the screen still taunting him and tapped a few keys to see more of the code. He rolled his eyes and closed them, but he could still see the text imprinted against his eyelids. No escape.

He huffed angrily and folded his arms across his chest and took some deep breaths to try and calm himself down. What was Janus hiding? Why had he made it so damned difficult to access the information?

He felt his heart rate beginning to slow down to a more manageable level and cracked his eyes open to look at the screen again. He had run it through every single decryption matrix he had and knew that Radek had done the same just to be sure. That angered him as well. Did the Czech scientist think that Rodney was losing his edge? Rodney felt the fire of his temper flaring up again and struggled to quash it as it kindled his mind into more angry thoughts. Who did he think he was? Going over all of Rodney's work to check whether it was any good?

Rodney felt a growl building up in the back of his throat, but he swallowed it and willed himself to calm down. Radek was probably right, he was heading for a one way trip to the infirmary the way he was going. Working non-stop for hours on end late into the night and starting the same grind early every morning in the false hope that he would finally have a flash of inspiration.

The motivation had usually evaporated by about midmorning and the rest of the day was nothing but a massive frustration to him.

Rodney's stomach grumbled at him and he rubbed his hand on it to try and soothe the hungry ache he suddenly felt. He had no idea how long it had been since he ate anything and glanced down at his watch.

It was 7pm. He frowned and sifted through his memory, trying to recall his last meal. He vaguely remembered breakfast, but he had eaten that on the run. Not pausing to sit, just grabbing something from the stand and absently chewing it as he made his way back down to the lab to continue the torment of pouring over the unbreakable code.

He also had a dim memory of a powerbar being forcefully pressed into his hand by Zelenka at some point during the day.

He swayed a little in his seat and gripped the edge of the desk to remain upright. He cursed himself for his current lapse in concentration and stopped thinking about food and hunched over his laptop. He did not even notice as someone glided silently through the cloaked wall which marked the entrance to the lab and walked over to hover behind him.

"Hey, McKay, what're you up to down here on your own?"

Rodney jumped and nearly fell off his stool at the voice behind him. He was only saved by the steadying hand quickly planted firmly on his shoulder. He grumbled, "Sheppard, what do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

John moved around to Rodney's side and kept his hand on his friend's shoulder as he looked down at him in concern, "What, I'm not allowed to visit you now?"

McKay kept his eyes on the screen as it continued to flicker tantalising but unreadable data back and him and he muttered, "Make it sound like I'm ill…"

McKay suddenly narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked, "Did Zelenka send you?"

John lifted the palm of one of his hands up in defence and said, "No, actually I came on my own."

"Why?"

"Look, Rodney, we're all worried about you…"

"Really?" He asked in a disbelieving snarl.

"Yes, we are. None of us have seen you in the Mess Hall for days. You're always shut away down here and well, uh, I have had some reports about you…" His voice trailed off guiltily at the end.

Rodney frowned as his temper flared again and his heart sped up at the sick feeling in the howling pit of his empty belly. "Who's been telling on me? Better not have been that moron Harvey…"

John shook his head and replied, "Actually, there've been quite a few."

Rodney scowled and ground his teeth together at his disloyal subordinates. Who were they to speak about him behind his back?

John pressed his lips together in a grim line and let go of Rodney's shoulder. He walked across the room and picked up Zelenka's abandoned stool, carried it over and sat down next to Rodney.

He sighed quietly and clasped his hands together on the table as he looked sidelong at McKay. He said, "Maybe you should take a break, walk around the block to clear your head…"

"My head is perfectly clear, that's the problem!" Rodney retorted.

John raised an eyebrow and ploughed onwards, "…get something to eat, because you're right, you do look really ill and worn out."

"Oh, thank you for your medical opinion, Dr Sheppard! Do you want to take my blood pressure too, because I'm pretty sure it would break your equipment it's gone so high!"

"McKay!" John reached over shook the scientist sharply by his upper arm, "What the hell's gotten into you?"

Rodney grimaced and furrowed his brow as John maintained his bruising grip around his arm. "I… I'm just tired and fed up. Sorry," he finished sadly.

John softened his expression a little and released McKay's arm. "I can tell that whatever you're working on isn't doing you any favours. Maybe you should focus on something else for now?"

Rodney sighed dejectedly and very reluctantly reached up and closed the screen down on his laptop. He continued to gaze at the table and still could not meet John's eyes.

"What about this?"

Rodney frowned and shot John a puzzled look. "What?"

John was looking at the container left behind by the scientists while they were rapidly fleeing from McKay's wrath.

Rodney waved his hand at the container and said, "Dr Butterfingers and his able assistant were fiddling with that earlier. Whatever it is it's probably broken now!"

John picked up the container and shook it under Rodney's nose. The object inside rattled around and to McKay it sounded like a death knell. "No no no, stop! It might not be broken!"

John put the container down and said, "Now, that's more like it."

Rodney gazed at the object and frowned in annoyance, "It just looks like a metal panel from one of the walls." He narrowed his eyes in concentration, "No marks visible. Not sure what kind of a joke this is. Why are we now suddenly interested in wall panels? The standards really have slipped around here."

He sighed in disgust and picked up the metal, intending to take it and locate his incompetent colleagues so that he could rant at them for cataloguing something that was not even an artefact.

Suddenly the metal shifted in his grip and became hot. He yelped in fright and relaxed his hand to drop it, but it clung to his skin.

He stood up and shook his hand violently to try and get rid of it, but is stayed stuck fast. John also got up and watched in worry.

Rodney felt panic gripping him and pulled at the metal with his other hand, but it was firmly glued. He soon stopped tugging and turned his hand over to study the metal. It was completely smooth and as he watched it melted into a liquid and glided over his skin. He shivered violently as he felt it slide up his arm, across his chest and then settle around his neck.

He reached up his hands and tried to get his fingers underneath the metal as it formed a tight circle around his neck. He gasped, "Get it off me!" in helpless fear to John, who was still hovering uncertainly nearby,

John reached up and tapped his radio, but before Rodney heard anything he was falling and felt strong hands grab him under the arms before he hit the ground.

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TBC