Dr. Rodney McKay tapped his foot impatiently against the stone floor of the temple, resisting the urge to throw his flash light at the incompetent scientist in front of him, "Oh, will you just move and let me do it?!"

"Look...this isn’t your forte. And snapping and yelling at me isn't going to make this go any faster." Dr. Casey Page said as he stood up, adjusting his glasses and tugging on his shirt, "This is an ageless artifact encased in stone. It's going to take some time to remove without damaging it, sir."

"I don't care how 'ageless' it is! The energy readings on the life signs detector are off the charts, and I need to get a good look at it, otherwise..."

"If I don't go slowly and carefully here, the only way you'll be looking at it, will be through a magnifying glass after it shatters into a billion pieces. It's extremely delicate, and extremely old, so I suggest you go outside and wait!"

Rodney glared, both angry and proud that the young scientists outburst sounded so similar to his, before spinning around and marching out of the temple with a clenched jaw and veins bulging out of his neck. He hated being undermined, but more so, he hated being told to wait. Waiting wasn't something that Rodney McKay did, especially when he was being told to wait on something that could possibly hold more power than a Zero Point Module.

"What's wrong, McKay, someone take your last bran muffin?" Colonel John Sheppard strode up, toying with his P-90 as he sat down on a nearby tree stump. Teyla wasn't too far behind, a teasing smirk playing on her face as she waited for the verbal fight that she was sure was about to go down.

"No, for your information, I'm in the process of possibly changing the fate of Atlantis, and the entire Universe, as we speak!" Rodney retorted with a cocky grin.

"And you're doing that by standing eerily close to a pile of animal crap?"

"What?" Rodney looked down and gagged as he hopped away, "No, that's not what I mean!"

"Well, what do you mean?"

Rodney shook his head, "Look, it's not my fault I'm out here not doing my job. Dr. Page in there is insisting I wait on his delicate retrieval of something that could possibly make the ZPM look like an Energizer battery."

Sheppard's eyebrows flew up as he stared at Rodney, "You mean something that would keep going and going and going...and still keep going?"

"Exactly." Rodney shook his head, "I mean, it's possible! I won't know for sure until I get it back to Atlantis, but right now...the odds are looking really good. I mean really good."

Sheppard eyed Rodney incredulously. He'd seen the look on Rodney's face a dozen times before. It was the look he got when he really believed in something, when he really felt that something was going to work. When he really believed he was right. But then again, Rodney always believed he was right.

Finally, after several moments of intense staring and trying to decipher whether Rodney's enthusiasm was believable, Sheppard stood up and sighed, "Well, in that case, I'll go check on Dr. Page's progress."

"Yeah, you do that." Rodney crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly and leaned against a tree. Sheppard raised an eyebrow, "You're not coming?"

"No."

"Ah...ego war. Got it." Sheppard shook his head and walked past Rodney into the temple.

Rodney shook his head, sighing as he looked up at Teyla, "So, how was the perimeter search?"

Teyla raised an eyebrow, "It was...fine, Dr. McKay. Why the sudden interest?"

"I dunno, just..." He shrugged casually, "Makin' conversation."

"Uh-huh." She eyed him curiously.

"I had...a lot of coffee." He cleared his throat nervously, "I'm gonna go see what...Ronon's doing." He nodded and walked away. Teyla laughed softly and shook her head, taking a seat on the tree stump that Sheppard once occupied.

"How's it going on here?" Sheppard asked as he strode into the temple. Dr. Page looked up and acknowledged the colonel with a nod of his head, "Fine, Colonel. I'm almost done. More than half of the crystal is out of the stone, and completely undamaged."

"Really?"

"Yes, sir. It's beautiful. Come take a look."

Sheppard stepped over the equipment, nearly stumbling into the rock wall as he made his way over to where Dr. Page was standing. He kneeled down, his eyes glued to the emerald green crystal that stuck out of the hideous stone. The crystal was nearly the size of a ZPM, with flecks of silver dancing in the center if the light shone on it just right.

"Wow." Sheppard whispered, bringing his hand up to lightly trace the edge with his fingertips, "Hey, what are those?"

"Hm?" Casey stepped forward, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose to get a better look, "What's what?"

"Those!" Sheppard pointed to the silver runes engraved near the edge, "What do they mean?"

"I...I have no idea, sir. Those weren't there five minutes ago."

"What?" Sheppard scoffed, "That's impossible."

"No, I swear! I can prove it--it's completely documented on my camera."

"How the hell...?" Sheppard's voice trailed off as he softly traced the engravings. He could've sworn they glowed a brighter silver the more he touched them. "So Doc, what do you think they....?"

A flash of light exploded out of nowhere, sending both the Colonel and Dr. Page flying backwards and colliding with the opposite wall. They fell to the ground, unconscious. The light emanating from the crystal slowly evaporated, and a shadow passed over the cave for a split second.