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Chapter One
Even though she knew what the answer was going to be, Sam still had to ask the question. "So, Rodney, have you been able to fix the problem with the transport system?"
"I'm working on it."
"What sub-system is creating the problem?"
"I haven't been able to isolate the source of the problem yet."
"Fix it, McKay," was Ronon's not too subtle advice. "I'm sick of having to walk everywhere. This is a big city."
"Yes, well, I'll get right on it, since I have nothing else to do," he sniped back.
"Gentlemen, please," Sam said in an effort to regain control of the meeting. "I've called in an expert to help us fix the transport problem. According to the morning data burst from Earth, he should be arriving sometime this morning.
"Who is this expert?" McKay asked.
"Someone I worked with at the SGC a few times. He's never met a computer system he couldn't figure out."
"Well, the Atlantis computer system is a bit more complicated than anything your expert is likely to have seen before. Besides, I know these systems better than anyone."
"And yet you still haven't fixed the problem or even been able to isolate the problem." Sam couldn't resist the easy shot at McKay – he was, after all, really getting on her nerves.
"He's a fast learner," Sam countered. "He also spent a lot of time working with Thor a few years ago."
"Just who is this 'expert'? Where did he go to school?"
"Rodney, I don't have all the answers. When he gets here, I suggest you ask him yourself. And by the way, I expect everyone to give him your full cooperation. I want to get this problem fixed as much as the rest of you do. I'm afraid we've all gotten a little spoiled by the transport system.
"Now, if there are no other issues, this meeting is adjourned." As they were rising from the table to head off to whatever was next on their agendas, everyone heard Chuck's voice come over the Ancient equivalent of a PA system announcing, "Incoming wormhole."
As they had become accustomed to doing over the years, everyone dashed to the nearby Control Room to see who was coming in.
Sheppard asked, "What teams are off-world?"
"None, sir. We have three scheduled to go out today but no one is off-base at the moment."
"Shield up?"
"Of course, sir. We have an IDC coming through. It's Earth!"
"Lower the shield and send an all-clear response."
"Yes, ma'am," Chuck answered.
"I can't wait to meet your 'expert'," McKay tossed in, feeling that his abilities were being challenged.
A single individual stepped through the gate and stood in the gate room as the gate disengaged. The man who stood in front of the gate was barely a man. He looked at first glance to be about 20 years old with basic blond boy-next-door good looks. He was dressed in baggy jeans and an old t-shirt with a book bag tossed over his shoulder, looking more like someone headed off to school rather than traveling inter-galactically.
Sam smiled when she saw their new arrival. "Zack, welcome to Atlantis!"
She moved down the stairs to greet their visitor who stood looking up at her with a huge smile on his face. When she reached him they hugged.
"Sam! It's so good to see you," he said with a smile on his face.
"You, too. It's been too long."
"How was your trip?"
"Cool! I've never been through that thing before."
"Really? You've never been off-world?"
"Nope. They keep geeks like me pretty busy on Earth."
Sam turned to her assembled people and said, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Zack Swan. He's here to help us with our transporter issues." She then proceeded to introduce her people to the young man.
McKay, never a shy man, interrupted Sam Carter with a blunt question. "Sam. What is this? You said we were getting an expert. He's just a kid!"
"Let me assure you that there is no one on Earth who understands these systems better than Zack. I've seen him work magic with systems that had me baffled."
"But he's just a kid!"
Sheppard couldn't resist the opportunity. "No Rodney, you're just getting older so more people appear young to you. Think of it this way: You're probably old enough to be his father."
"I am not!" he responded indignantly.
"Enough," Sam said, interrupting the start of a McKay tirade. "Let's go up to my office and explain the problem."
Sam and the others headed up the stairs leaving McKay and Zack standing together. Zack raised his voice as if he was speaking to a hard of hearing person and said, "Need some help getting up the stairs old man?"
"Why are you shouting?"
"All old people have trouble hearing. Just thought I'd help you out McCoy. Come on."
"The name is McKay, not McCoy."
"Whatever. I'm going upstairs."
"Kid! Where did you get your PhD?"
"Don't have one. I have life experience. Better than any degree."
He left McKay standing on the gate room floor sputtering. Chuck sat at his terminal one level up chuckling at the exchange between the two. Sheppard caught Chuck's eye and smiled. Chuck said softly, "Oh, this is gonna be good."
Chapter Two
With glares at McKay to keep his sputtering to a minimum, Sam outlined the transporter problem the base was experiencing. Zack followed her every word, staring in an admiring way. When she finished with her brief outline of the problem, Sam asked Zack, "So, do you think you can help us?"
"Anything for you, Sam."
"Good God," McKay muttered.
"Did you say something McKay?"
"No, nothing."
"Good. Keep it that way," she ordered.
"Anything for you, Sam," he said mocking the young man.
Sam and Zack stood and started out of the room. As they passed McKay, Zack wacked McKay's leg and said, "Come on McClintock, we've got work to do."
"It's McKay, junior!"
"Whatever."
Sam set Zack up at a terminal in the Control Room and showed him how to get into the transporter system. She started to explain a few things but he shushed her and started reading through screens of code faster than seemed possible. "Ingenious," he muttered at one point before reading a couple more screens. "Ok. Go away everybody and let the genius work his magic."
McKay muttered to Sheppard, "Have you ever seen an ego like this guy's?"
"Not since I first met you, Rodney."
"Very funny." Directing his comments to Zack he said, "You better not mess up my system, genius, or you'll answer to me."
"Go away," was Zack's only response.
Sam returned to her office while McKay and Sheppard left the Control Room. Sam had planned to spend the morning reviewing data from an off-world mission earlier in the week to an Ancient outpost. She had barely started that task, having been distracted by a few e-mails, when Zack popped his head in her door.
"Sam, want to go for a trip?"
"Actually, I've got some work to do. And I thought you were going to start going through the transporter system."
"Sam," he said, speaking more slowly, "would you like to take a trip with me?"
"Ok," she said, still not fully grasping what Zack meant but picking up on his insistence.
He led Sam to the nearest transporter, stepped inside and selected a distant part of the city. Much to her surprise, the door opened and they exited exactly at their intended destination.
Sam's eyes went wide with astonishment.
"I know. Cool, huh?" Zack said.
He directed the transporter to take them back to their original point of departure, arriving seconds later.
"How did you do that?"
"It's simple, really. You see you just tell this panel where you want to go and …"
"Zack! You know what I mean! This system has been off-line for weeks. No one here – well, Rodney – knew what was wrong. Nobody – well, Rodney – knew how to fix it. You sat down at the terminal and what, twenty minutes later, you've got the system working flawlessly? That's what I'm talking about."
"Nothing to it."
"Zack, how did you do it?"
"It was really very simple. The code is really elegant – whoever wrote it was super smart. The problem was in the gravitational constant. When the city was moved from its original planet to this new one the sensor system that detected the gravitational field of the planet was damaged. The system was still working with the old planet gravitational measurements. Those standards don't hold true here anymore so it threw the whole system out of whack.
"When I checked, I found that this planet has a wobble so that the gravity of the planet changes throughout the year. It was pure luck that the system stayed working as long as it did. Also, someone who didn't know what the hell they were doing had gone into the program and wrote some really stupid sub-routines that sent the system into an endless loop.
"Once I got all that crap removed and fixed the constant problem it was back in operation."
"You are amazing!"
"Like I said, anything for you, Sam."
She leaned forward and planted a big kiss on his cheek, making Zack excited and embarrassed all at the same time.
"I hope you don't have plans for lunch – I'm buying!"
"You're on."
"But first, I need to make an announcement to the city telling everyone the transporters are back. You are going to make a lot of people really happy."
With the simple touch of a button on a console in the Control Room, Sam Carter addressed the entire population of Atlantis. "Attention all Atlantis personnel. It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the transporter system is now back online and operational once again. My sincere thanks to our visitor from Earth who got us back online in record time." Sam and Zack could hear cheers rising all around them.
Just moments later Sheppard reappeared from somewhere, high fived Zack and said, "Way to go, Zack! Nice work!"
"Thanks, John. It was easy. Next time make it more of a challenge."
"Rodney wrestled with this malfunction for weeks without getting anywhere …"
"He did actually get somewhere – he made it worse, assuming he's the one who wrote the junk code I found."
Before Sheppard could say anything, though, McKay came rushing into the Control Room. "Ok, junior genius, what did you do?"
"I fixed the problem and also fixed your mistake, grandpa, that's what I did."
"What did you do?"
"Rodney!" Sam said, "Behave!"
"I am behaving!"
"Badly," Sheppard added.
"This is me – take it or leave it. Now what did you do?"
"There were two problems: someone who didn't know what the hell they were doing had written some junk code that sent the system into an endless error loop, and the gravitational constant was incorrect." He explained his findings and solution to McKay as he had to Sam just moments earlier.
"That was going to be the next thing I checked."
Zack and John both said simultaneously, "Yeah, right!"
"What? I was!"
"Whatever you say, McDonald."
"McKay!"
"Whatever."
Jumping in before the two butted heads any hard than they already were, John said, "Good job, Zack. Good job. If you're ever looking for a job, we could use someone with your skills around here."
"Hey! You've got me!" McKay protested.
"Yes, Rodney, we've got you. But isn't it nice to have the transporters back?"
"I'll let you know after I test them."
"My God, grandpa, where did you get that ego?"
"You're a good one to talk!"
"What? I don't have an ego – I'm just always right!"
Sam returned to the conversation, completely distracting Zack, "Hi, Sam."
"I don't believe this kid," McKay complained. "He's about to start humping her leg!"
"Hey, McCory! Let me know when you're going to test the transporters. I can arrange it so they dump you at the most distant point of the city and then refuse to bring you back."
"You wouldn't!"
"Try me, grandpa."
"Boys, boys," Sam chastised. "The transporters are back. I'm happy. Let's go eat lunch and celebrate."
Never one to go without getting the last word, McKay added, "And the name's McKay, genius."
"I know what your name is. Don't get your nipples in a knot."
Putting his arm around Zack's shoulder, Sheppard asked, "So Zack, how long are you staying? I hope you don't have to rush away. Stay a couple of weeks. Let me show you our beautiful city."
"I'd love to, John."
"I don't believe it," McKay complained. "They've bonded."
"Come on Rodney, let's get lunch."
"Anything for you, Sam."