STARGATE ATLANTIS: Dead End Read Online Free Page A

we’ll be fine. Ronon might have a problem standing up to it, but I’m sure McKay’ll show him the way.”
    Teyla smiled, and looked over at the Satedan, who remained impassive. McKay just rolled his eyes.
    “Seriously, we’ve got to remember why we’re here,” continued Sheppard. “If we’re gonna turn down missions because they look borderline, then we may as well head back to the clubhouse for good. There’s something weird about that place, or the Ancients wouldn’t have rigged up their magic back-door to it.”
    “Something
weird?
That’s your reason to go?” asked Weir.
    “Well, I’m not best qualified on the science stuff. But yeah, that’s about the size of it. Rodney’ll give you the technical side.”
    All eyes turned to McKay. He looked uncomfortable.
    “Look, I don’t like cold. Or hot, come to think of it. But especially not cold. And I get chilblains easy,” he said. “But we could certainly use a way to travel around without relying on the
Daedalus
. If there’s new gate tech working here, then I’m not going to sleep well until I know how it works. If we can crack it, we could even get the backup link to Earth you’ve been trying to get me to build since we got here. So that’s a reason for checking it out. Not that I’m keen on going myself. I’d be happy to monitor things from here, really I would. But we can’t just ignore it.”
    Sheppard turned back to Weir. “You heard the man,” he said. “Now we’ve got two reasons for going. It’s weird, and it’s useful.”
    Weir turned to the other members. “Teyla?”
    “I agree with Dr McKay,” the Athosian said. “The Ancestors have spoken. If they had come back to Lantea, they would have completed whatever it was they were doing there. There was urgency in their message. We cannot ignore it.”
    “Ronon?”
    The Satedan shrugged. “I’m up for it,” he said in his usual expansive way.
    Sheppard grinned, feeling things going his way. “You’re gonna have to find a reason for us
not
to do this, Elizabeth,” he said. “There’s a case for a recon, and that’s really our job.”
    Weir looked at him for a few moments, evidently weighing up her options. “I still don’t like it,” she said, at last. “There’s way too much we don’t know.”
    Still she paused. The team waited, saying nothing.
    “But I’m mindful of the Ancients’ message,” she said at last. “They felt it was important, and we have to take that seriously. So take the Jumper — that’ll give you some protection. We’re breaking new ground here and I want you all back safely.”
    Sheppard nodded. “Agreed,” he said. “No unnecessary risks.”
    Decision made. Now he’d just have to ensure that something useful came out of it.
     
    McKay picked at his collar nervously. The Jumper was fully loaded, the bulkheads stuffed with cold-weather gear. Like the rest of the team, he was decked out in ECWCS versions of their standard fatigues. In Atlantis’s controlled atmosphere they felt close and restrictive, but he knew they’d be needed as soon as they emerged from the other end of the wormhole. It was little comfort. He didn’t like the cold any more than he liked the heat, or the damp, or the dry.
    He still wasn’t sure he’d made the right choice in coming. It was either him or Zelenka, and the battle between his natural fear of the unknown and the chance of his colleague discovering something about the Ancients he didn’t know had been close. In the end, his thirst for knowledge had won. But only just. Now the nerves had returned and he felt terrible.
    Up in the cockpit, Sheppard ran through the final pre-flight checks, the translucent screens of the Ancient head-up display floating before him. Teyla sat in the co-pilot’s seat, Ronon next to McKay in the rear compartment. He seemed to take up all the spare space.
    “This damn thing’s too tight!” Rodney mumbled, trying to pull the insulated fabric from his neck.
    “Don’t pull