[center][h2][b]The Resurgence - The Labs[/b][/h2][/center]
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McKay sat at his terminal in the makeshift lab aboard the [i]Resurgence[/i]. He wasn’t too fond of it, but it was deemed as a kind of ‘neutral’ space where individuals from the different ships could come together to do work. The problem was that most of these ships had engineers and technicians and not actual scientists. Sure there was the Blathriin-Va, and it’s race of highly evolved egotistical maniacs however they didn’t seem as willing to play ball as everyone else was. Even they seemed to be relatively stupified with their current predicament. Typically when he had a problem to face like this, as much as he hated to admit it he had a team of people.

It helped to have people to bounce his ideas off after all. He looked between the monitors he had set up, why this station had been assigned was ridiculous. The computer systems in this universe were shocking, convincing a Goa’uld Mothership to play Call of Duty would have been easier than convincing the ship to run simulations on their predicament. In the end he had determined with very little doubt that they had been brought here by an outside force, the lack of any form of consistency in their respective departures supported that theory, as did the energy signatures that each vessel radiated. Even now it could still be faintly detected on their Asgard Sensors. Right now Rodney was the only scientist in the lab, all the others had returned back to their ships or their quarters. Ronon yawned loudly in the corner, while Rodney merely shot him a look of distaste Teyla actually threw something at him, jolting him awake.

“Perhaps if you are bored, you can find something better to do with your time?” 

“Like what? There’s nothing to do here. There’s no raid planned, no drills, no training. Besides-” He gave a sideglance at McKay who just scoffed.

“We’ve been here seven days Ronon. They even let us put some of our computers into their ship-” He indicated the terminal he was currently sat at. “-If they were bad guys, they would have acted by now.

Teyla put a hand on Ronons shoulder as he was about to retort. “Perhaps I can remain behind to guard Rodney and his work, and you can go spar with some of the local troopers or try out their weapons, which would be a valuable use of our time in order to gather information. Which would also give you something to do.” Ronon grunted as he stood up.

“Call me if you need me.”

The door opened as he left, and he squeezed past the engineer from the Solonis. McKay looked up at the man. He had to guess he was from either of the newcomers, as he was human and wearing a uniform he didn’t recognise. “Scientist?”

Sinclair barely turned in response to McKay’s question. It took him a few moments to realise that McKay was actually talking to [i]him[/i], as he was no scientist. “Oh, me?” Sinclair responds as he finally turned himself away from the screen he was examining. The way he spoke made him sound offended, but that was not the case - he was taking being called a scientist as a joke. He planted his back against the wall now behind him, barely missing the display. His eyes examined McKay with some interest. “I’m no Scientist. I think up the solution and then get my hands dirty making it work, not sit on my butt on a chair and let other people do the dirty work for me. Lieutenant-Commander Robert Sinclair, at your service.”


McKay scoffed. “Doctor Rodney McKay, expert in wormhole physics, Asgard and Ancient technology. Member of an away team and responsible for saving, oh. I don’t know how many lives as I am thrust into situations where I need to save the day with very little time to do so.” He turned away from the ‘Commander’. He was so typical military, didn’t care about the scientists until he needed them. How did he think his engines were developed? By a scientist. Now he had to admit he had taken on a more active role since joining Atlantis, but even then there was no element of a scientist doing nothing while someone else did the work for them. “If I may be so bold then Robert, what are you doing here in the lab if you don’t hold high regards to scientists? After all, I’m trying to figure out a way to get back to where we’re supposed to be, which requires an understanding of theoretical physics.” He offered the engineer a smug look as Teyla just rolled her eyes.

Sinclair gave a hearty chuckle at that. Doctor McKay was a feisty one, he’d give him that. “Alright, my good doctor, why do [i]you[/i] think I’m here?” It was a rhetorical question, and Sinclair was asking it purely because he had already answered it. The doctor was clearly so high and mighty in his head that he had missed out on the easy answer. “I think up solutions, not just make them. And to make them, I need to be at the place where the solutions are thought up. Let’s say you think yourself up a little, I don’t know, atomic-powered Asgardian dooda, who do you think is going to have to build that for you? This man right here, and others like him.” The engineer thumped a fist against his chest to emphasise his point.

McKay laughed again, Teyla rising to keep an eye between the two men. “Yes, I suppose once I’ve built it there would need to be someone able to maintain it, after all I’m not able to always be on call. Without a solid understanding of theoretical physics, wormhole theory and a number of other sciences too long to list I don’t see why you need too-”

Teyla at this point stood up. “Perhaps you both have use, and merit.” She turned to Robert. “Though, should you be seated at the negotiations later then I recommend your first move be not to insult someone-”

Rodney chimed in. “Exactly, what gives-” She then turned her attention back to Rodney.

“-Though you of all people Rodney know the value of others in helping solve these problems. After all, we have Engineers on Atlantis.”

“Yes, we have Engineers but a lot of the scientists, myself included, know how to [i]build[/i] the things we’re designing. It’s the whole point in having us there. I’d like to see mister engineer over there build technology able to harness energy from our own spacetime, stop a nano-virus from killing everyone, figure out how to create an artificial wormhole without the unstable vortex or a myriad of things we’re expected to do on a daily basis.” McKay was staring daggers at the man by now. “After all, the moment you have a problem who is it you go to? A scientist. Scientists may be useless in your universe buddy, but you’re not in your universe anymore.”

Sinclair was starting to get frustrated with McKay. He was no longer leaning on the wall, instead stood upright with his arms folded, a scolding glare focused on the doctor. Slipping an arm out from it’s folded position, he waved it at the room around them. “You see all this, [i]doctor[/i]? Maybe a long, long time ago, some monkey came up with the composition of metals for the deck plating, the hull plating, even the screens on the wall, but you know who built a ship like this? An engineer with his cold, hard hands. Maybe you designed a wormhole container, a magnet to suck in energy from space, or thought up the tech for some incubator that artificially generates chicken for us to feed on, but you know who shoved the hull plates together, who made the plating by pouring some hot metals together in a shitty smeltery, and who formed the ship we stand in now? An engineer. I’d like to see your big-headed ass try to make a ship. Not design it, not sit on some cushy chair with a display in front of you tapping away at some plans, but getting a set of tools and trying to figure out where the hell you start assembling the gigantic jigsaw before you. If it weren’t for someone like me, you’d be standing in the emptiness of space, not a nice, warm room.”

Teyla rolled her eyes as she sat down. Neither was really better than the other in this scenario. McKay stood up now, leaning on the table infront of him. “Have you listened I’ve just said? I’ve had a hand in building ships. I’ve built life support systems, weapons arrays, scanners. Without scientists like [i]me[/i] you wouldn’t have a nice warm room aboard a spaceship. You’d be standing on the ground looking up at the stars wondering how you would get there.” He gritted his teeth. “I appreciate the work of an engineer, I do but the fact that you come in here with [i]accusations[/i] of me doing nothing but sitting on my backside while other people do the work is ridiculous. As soon as I come up with a working theory to get us home you can be sure you won’t be building it. [i]I[/i] will. Now is there something you need? Or are you just here to test my patience? Because frankly I have more important things to be doing. If you want to insult someones skills and intelligence go back to your own ship.”

“Oh really?” Sinclair says, taking a step closer to McKay. “First off, you’re the one that wanted to speak to [i]me[/i], not the other way around. Second off, you’re the one that first started blabbering about how you needed an understanding of theoretical physics to be in this lab, and how you save oh so many lives. You instigated this whole argument, and you’re going to pin it on me? Oh no, you don’t get away with that. You’re the one in the wrong here, and I ain’t going home with my tail tucked between my legs,” Sinclair growls. In an impressive bout of self control, the engineer spun with great speed back to the display he had been looking at before, and went back to examining what was on the screen, though noticeable more furious than he had been before.

Rodney stood up and picked up his tablet to storm out however Teyla stood directly in front of him. Rodney rolled his eyes at her but she continued to speak. “Rodney, sit down.” She walked over to Sinclair and tapped him on the shoulder. “While it is true that Doctor McKay was out of line, you yourself are not without blame for you insulted his profession first. Perhaps it is best to concede your differences should you be looking to create a solution to this problem?” She looked between the two of them. “If you are both as smart as you say you are then you should have no problem doing so.”

Rodney sighed as he sent something to the screen Sinclair was working at from his tablet. “I’ve actually been working on this. It’s a, well. I guess you could consider it a probe. I’m working on miniaturising an Asgard hyperdrive in order to make it hyperspace capable as well as dialling the sensors up to eleven. My hope is to make it strong enough to detect any energy signatures that match our own. Frankly, I don’t know how to get us back, but if all suspicions are correct and something dragged us here then that technology has to be out in the Galaxy somewhere and we simply need to find it.”

Sinclair remained staring at his screen for a few moments after Teyla had tapped him on the shoulder, but finally, he nodded his head. “Fine. We’re both wrong for fighting eachother. Things got as heated as a reactor without proper coolant, but if we can at least work with eachother. Yes, fine.” He offered a nod of his head in thanks to Teyla, but only a shrug of his shoulders at Rodney. Spinning back around to his screen and bringing up the file that was sent from Rodney, he studied it for a few moments before yet again having to turn around. He noted to himself that perhaps he should bring a tablet of his own next time he came to the labs.

“In my eyes, whatever dragged us here, because I’m certain that something did, may not even be in this galaxy, or heck, in this universe. Whatever it was could be intergalactic or interuniversal, and reside in-between even the void and existence,” Sinclair explains. He tapped his chin with a finger.

McKay shook his head. “No no, that doesn’t make any sense.” He threw up the data of the various ships arrival. “Look. With the exception of yourself, the ‘Egg Carrier’ and UNSC ship whatever its name is. We all ended up in the same region of space going from not being [i]in[/i] space. The deviation of our arrival points could be justified by your vessels travelling via FTL means during the moment of transfer. We weren’t randomly thrown here, we were placed and that indicates an intelligence behind it, intergalactic doesn’t make sense as from what we gather from the crew here while this universe has some differences to their own there aren’t extra-galactic threats. They don’t exist, and if that was the cause why would we be placed near the middle of the Galaxy?” He brought up a galactic map. “From what we’ve been able to determine there is a faint reading similar to that radiating from our vessels here-” He highlighted a planet labelled Coruscant. “-So far we’ve been unable to determine what it is, but for all we know it’s another ship or person. Sending probes near that system could provide us valuable information on our position here.”

“That doesn’t mean whatever dragged us here isn’t both inside and outside of the galaxy. Think of a ship entering a warp gate, if that makes sense to you. If a ship is halfway inside the warp gate and halfway outside, is the ship truly inside or outside of where the warp gate is? Do you say that the ship has left, or the ship is still there?” Sinclair says, tilting his head. “Now, an intelligence being behind dragging us here I can agree with. But it’s [i]how[/i] it dragged us here that I’m concerned with. Not just because it managed to pull us all from so far away, but because, if the data I’ve been provided with is correct, it pulls us from different timelines. I believe that happened with the ‘Zerg’ ship and the ‘Terran’ ship, if I’m recalling those names correctly. It pulls us from a far distance away, or, or perhaps as well as, from different timelines, or perhaps [i]alternative[/i] timelines. Here’s another question for you: What happens if we [i]leave[/i]? Will we get pulled back here? If so, then that supports the fact there may be an intelligence behind it, but it also means that we’re targets. If it’s intelligent, then it [i]knows[/i] it’s pulling us here, to a place we don’t belong. And that means that someone knows we’re here, and someone planned this.”

“Well, considering I’m not familiar with whatever warp gate you’re referencing, as would the ship be existent on the other side at all until it had all passed through? If not that seems like a potential failure on the technology.” Rodney noticed Teylas raised eyebrow and shook his head in order to focus on the more pressing issues. “That’s why I’m trying to design this probe to detect energy signatures that indicate interuniversal travel. Once we find the source of the intelligence that dragged us here we can figure out what it wants, and find a way back.” He pointed at all the work that had been done throughout the lab. “This is all a moot point-” He brought up the image of the probe again. “-This is a way of tracking down the disturbance so we can talk to it. Figure out what we’re supposed to do, either do it or find a way out of doing it and head home. I’m not a subscriber to this whole ‘we’re here to topple the Empire’ methodology that’s going around. From what I’ve gathered from this ship and it’s database the Empire gets toppled anyway, and they don’t have the technology to bring us here on their ship I doubt anything else flying around as a predecessor does.”

He sighed as his watch beeped. He looked at it and sighed. “Well, the meetings starting soon. Guess we better get ready to talk some more about what we’re going to do as a group.”

“Us being here might even change the Empire being toppled. Maybe with us being here, it doesn’t get toppled because we’ve interrupted something. Either way, I’m with you, I don’t care. I want to get back to my own home universe, not muddle around in this one’s issues. My home is at war, and I want to fight my war, not theirs. I can’t speak for the rest of my ship’s crew, though. Particularly not those higher in rank than me,” Sinclair explains. He wasn’t too happy about a meeting starting soon, he would rather step out of it and work on something practical rather than debate for the rest of the day on their next action. He could probably get out of it by just being quiet the whole time. “You’re right about the meeting. Let’s hope something worthwhile is discussed, yeah?”

McKay shrugged. “I’ve got a stronger feeling we’re not going to be called on until they have a problem they need to be solved, only for them to be annoyed when we don’t have an instant answer to all the problems they have going on.”

Sinclair laughed at that, turning back to his screen. “At least we can both agree on that.”