"Good morning," Ford said as Rodney stepped outside. "They've got stuff to eat!"

"I doubt they ran out after just one party," Rodney groused as he looked around. "Water?"

Ford pointed to a low table set up nearby that held two pails and a shallow bowl. "Fresh water and used," He explained. "It's cold, but they only use it for washing up. I think formal baths are a weekly thing."

"They usually are," Rodney concurred as he set his ditty bag down on the table. The water was indeed cold, but it was the chill of river water instead of the shocking frigidity of a well or a deep spring. He quickly washed his hands and face before deciding he'd rather have water he'd drawn himself for brushing his teeth. As he was about to pack up again, a small cup of water appeared by his elbow.

"I figured you might want that," Ford said, grinning. "I didn't want to brush my teeth with the common water either."

Shortly thereafter, Rodney was seated around one of the village's communal fires, snacking on freshly made bits of bread and drinking a stronger, less sweet version of the previous night's drink. Ford had joined him, but as neither of their Athosian translators was awake yet, both men were limited to the few words and gesticulations they'd picked up the night before. It was enough to get them fed, but they were otherwise left alone as the village slowly woke up and began its day.

"When are we supposed to be at the 'gate to get the medical team?" Rodney inquired after he and Ford had finished their breakfast.

Ford looked at his watch. "0800 hours, which means we should kick everybody else out of bed. I think this is the first time I've been up before the Major, you know. He's usually the first one awake."

"There's a first time for everything. Why don't you rouse the troops? I'm going to take a look around," Rodney replied as he stood.

"Ok, but don't go off to that temple yet; you know we're supposed to go as a team," Ford cautioned as he headed for their guest house. Rodney nodded absently and started poking around. He doubted that they'd be able to trade for much more than access to the temple, since the Cuvoui, as the locals called themselves, weren't much more than subsistence farmers. They obviously did well enough--no one looked starved and they had plenty for their unexpected visitors--but their crops and domesticated animals just weren't that prolific. Last night, the village leaders indicated that they were the only group of people living there, so if other humans were populating the planet, they weren't very close by.

When the rest of the team finally gathered in the village, Rodney joined them just in time to catch up to the half that were going to meet the medical team. Ford, Mauke, and several soldiers stayed behind, as the Cuvoui thought that the team was leaving--and they weren't quite ready for their guests to go.

"Dr. McKay," Teyla said quietly as they walked away from the village, "Something that was mentioned this morning concerns me."

Rodney fell back to walk beside Teyla. "They're planning to attack us?"

"No, nothing like that," She replied. "I think that they are unable to operate the stargate, however. One of the elders mentioned them not having our magical powers, which is why they were concerned that we might leave so quickly."

Rodney was immediately worried. "But we've been able to communicate through the 'gate," He said. "What if it won't dial back to Atlantis?"

"Then we'll tell Atlantis to dial here," John said over his shoulder. "We'll check it out when we reach the 'gate. Maybe there's something wrong with the dialing device on this side of the 'gate."

The walk to the 'gate was uneventful, other than the fact that everyone got wet shoes and ankles from the dew collected on the fluffy grass. They arrived a few minutes before the scheduled time, so Rodney began inspecting the dialing controls. "The panel activates," He said, checking out the symbols as they glowed dimly. "Huh," He murmured as John and Teyla joined him. "Major? Does Thacker have the gene?"

"Thacker!" John called out to the Marine who was guarding the perimeter of the 'gate area. "Get over here."

"Do you suspect something?" Teyla asked as she watched Rodney frown thoughtfully.

"Not really," Rodney admitted with a shrug. "But one thing we've learned on Atlantis is that most--but not all--Ancient technology requires the ATA gene. We usually foist stuff off on the Major or some other gene-possessed person if a gene-deprived person can't activate it."

"Major?" Private Thacker said as he arrived at the 'gate.

"Do you have the gene?" John asked.

The private looked sheepish. "No sir. Dr. Beckett tried, but the therapy didn't work."

"Good," Rodney declared. He reached over and deactivated the control panel. "Come here and turn this on."

Thacker glanced at John, who nodded him over. The young man placed his hands on the control panel where Rodney indicated--and nothing happened. "Ok," Rodney murmured, waving the man away. "John, you try it."

"Why me? It turned on for you," John said as he turned on the panel. The thing immediately lit up, so he removed his hands and stepped back.

"Yes, but everything that needs the gene to activate responds better to you," Rodney said matter-of-factly. "What's curious is that this particular stargate requires the gene. None of the others do--not even the one on Atlantis."

"Who would have made it that way?" Teyla asked Rodney. "If no one in the village can activate the gate, then that means that no one on the planet possesses the gene."

"And no future generations would have it either," Rodney added. "It does explain why they were so excited about visitors--they only get them when someone comes through; they can't go visiting themselves. And, if visitors don't have the gene, they're stuck here."

"None of their guests seem to have donated the gene to the population," John mentioned as well. "Still doesn't tell us why or who set the control panel to require the ATA gene."

"It would have to be the Ancients," Rodney reasoned. "This looks like original spec equipment and there's no proof that any civilization in the galaxy has mastered Ancient tech."

"Would that not mean, then, that the Ancients intended this planet to be inaccessible to all but themselves?" Teyla inquired. "If so, why make it possible to come to the planet, but not necessarily be able to leave?"

"Well, anyone could come in," John said, "But unless they had an ATA gene person in the group, they weren't leaving. It is weird, though. We haven't seen anything dangerous here."

"Maybe it's in the temple," Rodney reasoned. "Or maybe it's a random thing. I'll tell Dr. Weir about it when the medical team gets here and see if they can dig up anything in the city's database."

John called Atlantis and the 'gate opened, quickly expelling a small team of doctors. While John and Teyla fully briefed Dr. Beckett and his crew about the local population, Rodney informed Dr. Weir about the quirks of the planet's stargate.

"Ok," John said as the now-larger group began to walk towards the village, "Whatever you do, don't get separated from someone with the gene. We haven't found anything threatening here, but the 'gate won't dial unless you've got it."

"Alright," Carson murmured. "What will we be trading for, then?"

"The village healers are interested in learning from your doctors," Teyla replied. "They will provide in trade seeds from their stores."

"They don't produce enough food to have much left over for trading," Rodney explained. "And, they're letting us go visit their holy temple, which is probably an Ancient site."

"They threw a good party, so it's probably a fair deal," John finished. "You'll like them; they're pretty laid-back."

Indeed, the Cuvoui were a relaxed people; the newly arrived medical team was greeted warmly but without enormous fanfare, much as the original team had been the day before. With Teyla and Mauke translating, Carson and his doctors soon found themselves surrounded by the village's healers, as well as a few patients.

Rodney watched quietly as Carson delegated tasks to the various members of his team. "It doesn't look like you've got all that much to do," He commented as Carson took a brief break.

Carson grinned. "Me? Not really," He replied. "My people do have practical specialties, Rodney, and all doctors have basic training in most areas of medicine. One of us can teach sterilization as well as the next."

"But you're not volunteering yourself to describe sanitary childbirth, I see," Rodney retorted. Carson grimaced and then chuckled.

"No, I'm not," He admitted. "Dr. Salas is more than capable of doing that, and from the looks of things the midwives are happy to be speaking to her about it."

"If there's not that much to do, why don't you come with us to the temple?" Rodney offered. "You've never been to one of the off world Ancient sites before, and you never know--somebody might step into a gopher hole and sprain an ankle."

Carson laughed at Rodney's silly rationalization. "Yes, a morning walk in a 'peppery apple grove', as John describes it, would be lovely, Dr. McKay."

Rodney rolled his eyes in his usual fashion and ushered Carson away. "Well then, let us collect Major Sheppard and the others. I'm bored here."

It appeared that Lieutenant Ford was bored as well, because he volunteered himself and Teyla as the rest of the temple-exploring team. John briefly protested, as that meant that the most experienced people would be isolated in one group, but Ford argued that the village team was left with a translator in Mauke, another Athosian and three soldiers with off world experience, and a host of doctors.

"Besides," Rodney reminded John, "You've already briefed them on how to dial back, to not get separated and to check in with Atlantis frequently. We're walking through an orchard to an old building, Major, not going on a cross-country trek through a war zone." There was a brief argument when John and Rodney insisted that Carson take a P90, but the doctor finally agreed to do so as it was protocol. He slung the weapon awkwardly across his shoulder and joined the group, trying to ignore the new weight.

The walk was, as promised, quite pleasant; the orchards sat in between rolling hills and shallow valleys. After about half an hour the group, led by a couple of village elders, turned left into a short valley. A few minutes later they emerged on the other side.

"Oh, wow," Rodney whispered under his breath.

"That's really big," Ford remarked, in awe of the impressive structure before them. The temple was indeed very big--wider and longer than any Ancient structure they'd located off world so far, although not particularly tall. It might have been four or five stories in height and had a vaguely ziggurat-like appearance.

"I thought the Ancients used that metal stuff," Major Sheppard commented as they drew closer to the temple. "This looks like stone."

The village elders stopped walking and said something to Teyla. "They say that we should not go into the temple unless we are confident in our purity. The impure are forbidden to enter."

"Yes, and if I recall correctly, our purity is inside us and only the temple knows it for sure," Rodney said dryly. "Are we going to get in trouble if we go in?"

Teyla asked the elders while Rodney nudged Carson towards the nearest temple wall. "What do you think you're doing?" Carson hissed. "We don't know if we can go in!"

"We're looking at the wall," Rodney said. "Not even touching it until they say we can. They told me they were bringing me to see it, Carson, which means looking is ok. So, look."

Rodney left off talking and began examining the building itself. The construction was some sort of hard stone not unlike granite, heavily carved with sweeping curves and angles. "You know, this really doesn't look Ancient," Rodney admitted as he studied the building.

"Ya think?" John muttered. "It's nice enough, I guess."

"The elders say that they cannot keep you from entering the temple, but that they urge great caution," Teyla said. "They are very superstitious regarding their holy site, it would appear."

Rodney straightened from where he'd been peering at a carving and rejoined the main group. Carson followed along, a little worried and a little curious and a lot excited to be tagging along on such an excursion. Whether they found anything useful or not, the trip was already a success to him. Working in his lab was exciting in its own way, but this was far more like movie-style adventuring than was the study of the effects of local flora on his team's allergies.

"Do we go in, or not?" Ford asked as he bounced from foot to foot. "Risk the curse?"

"They never mentioned a curse," Rodney snapped. "And we should definitely go in. It's a big stone building and we have done this before. We developed the protocols; when no danger is apparent we explore things like weird temples on strange planets."

"I'm game," John admitted, while Carson and Teyla nodded their assent. John radioed back to the other team that they were going to explore the temple while the elders, with some scared-sounding words to Teyla, took a great many steps back and huddled under some nearby trees.

"I hate superstition," Rodney muttered as the team walked to the shallow archway that held the entrance to the temple. At first the entrance looked open, but when they stepped into the shadows and John lit his flashlight, they saw a set of doors recessed into the arch. With a quick glance at John for reassurance, Ford placed his hands on the doors and pushed.

The doors didn't budge. "Okay," Ford murmured. "Plan B?"

Rodney smirked and nudged Ford out of the way. "Carson, grab the other door at this recess," He said, indicating one of a set of grooves that ran along either side of the crevice between the two doors. "And pull back towards the wall."

As Rodney had so obviously suspected, the doors slid open and into the wall. As they moved a rush of cool, stale are rushed out. "They don't come in here very often, do they?" Ford commented as John turned the flashlight beam to the space revealed by the doors. "It smells kinda nasty."

"It's been closed up a while," Rodney said impatiently. "And it's not that dark, not really. I'm not seeing anything odd on this meter," He added, looking at the screen of a small device. Rodney was right; the narrow hallway that stood before them was shaded but not particularly dark, simply darker than the bright sun outside. Rodney could see that the walls were carved much like the exterior of the temple and went far higher than he would've expected--all the way up if he wasn't mistaken. Shadows and light filtered through the walls, making him suspect there were many more hallways and windows lurking in the interior.

"Looks safe enough," John said cautiously as the group moved inside, peering up and down the walls as they walked. Their footsteps echoed softly, muted by a layer of soft dust coating the floor. A few yards down the hallway, Rodney paused as they encountered an opening in the wall.

"It's dark," He said, reaching for his flashlight. "And smells a bit foul." When he shone his light inside, however, all he found were more ornately inscribed walls stretching upwards. "Nothing new, though. Whatever this place is, it's not Ancient."

"Human?" Carson inquired, running the fingers of one hand along a carving in the main hallway. "The carving is so smooth, so precise. It looks like a language."

"That's because it probably is," Rodney said. "It's not symmetrical enough to be a decorative application, but you can see replication," He lectured, turning away from the room to point at various figures on the walls. "There and there, you see the same design. I've counted several dozen repeated figures so far, interlaced along the inside and outside of the temple."

"Fascinating but strangely useless," John murmured quietly. A scratchy noise--the sound of something being dragged or pushed--niggled his ear. "Did you hear that?"

"Yes," Teyla said, spinning around. "The doors have been shut."

"Uh oh," Ford hummed nervously. "Did you see a lock on those doors? I didn't see a lock."

John cued his radio, but heard nothing. "The walls are interfering with radio contact," He announced, although the others had figured it out from his expression. "I think we should go now."

They moved as a group towards the door, Ford and Teyla in the lead, when a high-pitched shriek shattered the silence around them.

Rodney, Carson and John froze as Ford and Teyla howled and twisted, their bodies contorting as they fell to the ground. Carson unstuck himself first and sprang forward the few feet separating him from his teammates and crouched down beside them. "Dear god," He whispered when he saw what had happened to them. Beside him came John and Rodney, both men gasping.

"What the..." Rodney murmured, not comprehending what his eyes were seeing. Teyla and Ford looked old--very old, like octogenarians. "How?"

Ford grimaced, obviously in considerable pain. "Cold. Felt like dry ice. Then..."

"Pain," Teyla added in a raspy voice. She tried to shift herself, but when she moved a bone in her arm snapped audibly. Carson immediately reached for her, cradling her upper body and taking the weight off her arm.

"We've got to get them out of here," Carson said as he examined Teyla's fractured arm. "Whatever did this pushed their bodies too far, too fast. They're fragile as china."

John stood up and walked to the doors. He yanked and tugged on one, but it wouldn't budge, not even a little. He let go of it and inspected the handholds, as well as the space between the doors--or what used to be a space between the doors. "There's no door here," He said flatly. "This isn't a door anymore; it's just wall." Indeed, the carvings now crept from the doors to the wall, the stone smooth without any recessions for the doors to slide into.

Rodney moved to join him when he shivered, responding to the sensation of cold before it registered in his conscious mind. He didn't hesitate to grab Carson by the arm and heave him backwards, sending both of them hurtling into John.

Carson yelled out, but Teyla was already falling. Before she hit the ground, a momentary distortion rippled through the air across both her and Ford. This time, the other men saw what was happening, since they could see more than their friends' backs. Ford and Teyla were frozen in place, but that didn't mean nothing was going on. Their wrinkled, aged skin seemed to ripple and flow, the color shifting and becoming more vibrant.

The entire event lasted only a second, but when it was over, Ford and Teyla looked normal--more or less. Once they started moving on their own, Rodney went back to them, followed by Carson and John. Upon closer inspection, both of their injured friends looked like they used to--but still in serious pain.

"Ok, that hurt a lot too," Ford muttered, wiping one hand over his face. "But feeling bad and young is better than bad and old."

"Teyla, your arm," Carson said, reaching for the young woman. She lifted her arm up, which appeared to be unbroken.

"It is fine," Teyla said, her voice subdued. "You said the door will not open."

John helped Teyla stand, while Rodney assisted Ford. "Actually, there isn't a door any longer," Carson said, staring at the wall.

The rest of the team turned around and stared with him at what was now a wall lacking any indentation for the formerly present doors. "This is very, very bad," John said, mostly to himself.

"I hadn't noticed," Rodney said, even as the scraping sound John had heard earlier returned, this time much louder. "What's making that noise?"

"The walls," Ford said. "They're moving. Look," He pointed at the far end of the hallway, which was sliding closer to them.

John looked quickly up and down the hall. "Us, wall, random cold bad things," He muttered. "The room Rodney found, now!"

Rodney wrapped an arm around Ford's back while John assisted Teyla. Carson led them into the small side room--its opening hadn't disappeared. He flicked on his torch and flicked it around the room, stopping at the doorway. They watched as a group while the moving wall engulfed the door. The stone seemed to flow almost liquidly, morphing into a solid sheet that was then invaded with the ubiquitous carvings. "We're trapped," Carson whispered as the wall settled into place.

"Or not," Rodney yelped, turning to watch the left-hand wall begin to move. This time a seam formed just right of the middle of the wall, deepening and widening until finally the two halves split apart. They slid in opposite directions until there was an eight foot gap between them.

"Well, we're not trapped anymore," Ford said, moving away from Rodney's support.

They approached the new opening, peering around the edges and into a large chamber. Columns sprang from the floors and grew upwards, curving into arches and buttresses. Another wall shot out in front of them, cutting off their view. "Does this happen in every temple you visit?" Carson inquired as they glanced left and right. Behind them the wall solidified, blocking them from the room they'd just exited.

John and Rodney glanced at each other. "No, this is new," Rodney admitted. "Okay, we have moving walls with a strange language on them, randomly occurring temporal anomalies and no obvious exit. There have to be windows or some other source of light, but I don't see them at the moment."

"And all that means what?" Ford asked. "Left or right?"

"Right," Sheppard replied, urging them forward.

"It's a riddle," Rodney summarized. "A giant, moving puzzle box."

"With teeth," John muttered. As they walked, Rodney trailed his hands along the carvings, his fingers dipping into the crevices. "You make anything of those?" John asked. "Like how to get out of here?"

"Do you have any idea how long it took a host of experts to decipher even a few words of Ancient?" Rodney huffed. "And they were linguists. I'm a physicist, Major. Unless this script suddenly transforms itself into identifiable mathematic symbols, I have no idea what it's saying."

Carson, who had fallen slightly behind, sped up as a wall slid into place behind him. Another one cropped up in front of them, but a third fell away to the right. Once again they had access to the great hall they'd glimpsed earlier and they walked into it quickly, before another wall could block their path.

"Ok, I can see windows," Ford exclaimed, pointing across the hall. "And man are they tall" He walked towards them only to trip and fall over something on the floor. Ford's hands came up to catch his weight and he twisted, rolling sideways to confront what had tripped him. "Oh, um...Major?" He squeaked, his voice breaking. "Dead person!"

Carson came forward while Ford stood up and stepped away from the corpse. "Not recently," Carson announced. "Mummified."

Indeed, the body was long-dead; skin stretched tightly over desiccated tissue and bone. Its clothing was ornate, though faded and dry-rotted. "Human, or Ancient maybe," Rodney guessed. "There's no way to tell, not without functional equipment." He tried one of his sensors, but it still wasn't working. "I guess this is one of the impure ones."

"Not funny," John said through clenched teeth. "Ok, this place has gotten old surprisingly fast. Rodney, you said it's a puzzle, so run with that. How do we solve it?"

Rodney said the first thing that came to mind. "Labyrinth. Get to the center."

"I thought we were in the center," Ford said, gesturing at the columns--only to see them disappear as a series of walls flowed up from the floor, out from the columns and came twisting down from above. The body they'd found was swept up in the changes, vanishing behind another wall as they scurried to stay together and unharmed by the rapidly changing architecture.

"Not anymore," Teyla muttered. "It has been designed to make us keep moving. If we stay in one place too long..."

"The walls get vicious," Ford concluded for her. "Although those temporal things haven't hit again, which is--

A wide, cold swath of air brushed past, sending each person running. Hallways abounded this time and the group found themselves split up. John and Carson dived into one entranceway while Teyla and Ford took another. Rodney ended up crouched around a corner, opposite a pair of adjoining doors. The cold presence didn't dissipate, however; it seemed to hover in the hallway, making the air ripple slightly.

"I thought those things just passed by!" John said loudly, testing to see if the disturbance interfered with sound. It didn't and his voice echoed along the hall.

"This one didn't," Rodney pointed out. "But hey, at least you're not bumping into me every two steps," He sniped. "Splitting up isn't a good idea here."

"Then don't go anywhere," John replied harshly--just before a wall grew out from between the doors opposite Rodney and cut him off from the rest of the group. "Well, fuck," He murmured under his breath. "Rodney!" He shouted, hoping the man could hear him. "Try not to get yourself killed. We'll come find you."

"Your confidence is so very heartening!" Rodney shouted back, his voice faint. "And I think I'm going to run away from the temporal disturbance currently stalking me down this infernal hallway. I'll get back to you on that staying put thing."

Teyla's eyes widened as she listened to the muted sounds of Rodney's footsteps as the man ran down an unseen hallway. They heard a sickening thud, followed by a muffled curse. "I hate corpses!" Rodney screamed. "Especially squishy ones," He added shakily. "Guys? Safer now. Come find me."

John looked over at Carson, then across to Ford and Teyla. "Okay, Teyla and Ford, you stay there--or as close as possible. Carson and I are going to try to track down Rodney."

Ford nodded, while Teyla watched the air ripple in front of them. "Major, I believe the building may be able to sense us, or what we are feeling. It appears to respond to us."

"Maybe," John conceded. "Just in case, don't think about any of us getting hurt," He said as he and Carson turned away.

"We've got three rooms and a left-turning hallway," Carson said, quickly scoping out their options. "And nothing obviously shimmering in front of us."

"We can take the hallway, or go into a room and wait for it to change," John summed up. "Or we can take the first door we come to and avoid getting hit by the wall coming up behind us!" The two men ran into the first door on their right, ducking in just as the hallway behind them filled with stone. The room was dim, barely lit by indirect light from above. Carson looked up, thinking he'd see the endless ceilings of before. Instead, he saw stone, spreading in carved swoops and whorls perhaps a hundred meters up.

"We're trapped," John said, looking dimly at the absence of doorways. "Until something happens."

Carson nodded in acknowledgment, still looking around the room. He reached out and touched the wall, surprised at the smoothness of the stone. It wasn't warm, not exactly, but nor was it as cool as he'd have expected. It had a slight sheen, reminding him of soapstone. A quick grope confirmed his suspicion that the surface was too smooth and shallowly carved to be easily climbable.

Since he was still touching, Carson got to feel firsthand what the walls felt like when they moved. He jumped back as stone flowed like water--moving but still very solid--underneath his hand. "John," He called, nearly knocking the Major over as he backed up. A doorway appeared, leading to a hallway that seemed to curve sharply to the right.

John led the way, watching warily for shifting air or moving walls as they walked quickly through the hallway. "Rodney?" He shouted, as loudly as he could.

"You sound closer," Rodney shouted back. "But I've got a problem."

"What problem?" Carson screamed, even more worried--if such a thing were possible.

"Temporal disturbance, moving wall, that kind of thing," Rodney replied frantically. The sound of something hard striking stone rang out, followed by a pained shout.

"Rodney!" John shouted, both himself and Carson running through the hall now. It shifted abruptly in front of them and they stopped, unsure of whether to go straight or right.

"Hurry up," Rodney pleaded, his voice very sharp and clear, though off slightly. They turned right, towards the sound of his voice. The next door they found on their left opened into a large room, one full of square pillars. John, in the lead, stopped suddenly when he saw the telltale glimmer of a temporal disturbance in front of him. Carson slammed into his back and then came around to stand next to him. Both men got goosebumps as the cold air brushed against them, almost-but-not-quite touching.

"Rodney?" Carson said, not shouting this time. "Is this the room?"

"In the back left corner," Rodney said tightly. "About four feet off the floor."

"Off the floor?" John asked, confused. "There's a shelf?"

Rodney grunted and they heard the sound of shuffling. "No, there's not much space between the pillars and the walls. I'm wedged between them, off the floor. The temporal disturbance is below me. And around me. I can't move."

Carson looked carefully at the room before them. Indeed, the rippling air wasn't cloaking the entire room, but rather it branched out--near the top of the walls in some places but along the floor in others. "We could dodge the thing," Carson suggested to John. "But if it's trapping him in, how are we going to get to him?"

John looked around the room and let himself think absurdly about adventure movies. "How far apart are these columns?"

Carson studied the one next to him. "Two feet, perhaps. Why?"

"And about ten feet high," John surmised. "Climb them and walk across the tops to where he is. He's gotten four feet up, so he can make it a little farther. The temporal disturbance doesn't reach the tops of the columns."

Indeed it didn't, Carson saw. "And how are we going to climb them?" He asked curiously. John unstrapped his P90 and handed it to Carson. The weapon's strap was made of thick, flat nylon and adjusted with a slide.

John finished his makeshift climbing equipment and reclaimed his weapon, attaching it to his vest with a spare fastener. "Well?" He said, indicating Carson's own weapon. Carson fumbled with it, never really at ease with guns. He'd only agreed to carry it on Rodney's insistence, and only when told it was necessary precaution for the unthinkable.

"You do know I've never done this kind of thing," Carson told John as he watched the man start ascending one of the columns. All around them echoed the sounds of scraping and sweeping. Even overhead, stone shifted and groaned, but for the moment the room they occupied was stationary. "And what if they start moving while we're up there?"

"Carson, get over here," Rodney growled. "If they start moving, jump down or something. I'm getting tired and it's going to take me longer to work my way up than it is for you to get over here!"

"You heard the man," John said. "Just go steady and use the wall behind you for support. It's not that hard, just tedious."

Carson mimicked John's technique and slowly inchwormed his way upwards, wedged between the column and the wall. He and John were using the two columns closest to the door, back from where the temporal disturbance started. Upward progress was slow, as the stone wasn't given to friction. When he thought he might slip, Carson pressed out with his legs and tightened the strap around the column, freezing him in place.

John reached the top first, sitting on the wall behind him briefly before clambering on top of the column he'd used. A few bloody streaks remained on the wall below him, remnants of the effort he'd put forth in his climbing. He quickly leaped across to another column and reached Carson, who was similarly bloodied, in time to help him up. The columns were about a foot square, so they couldn't stand on the same one safely. Occupying adjoining columns, the two men looked out upon the temple from a new perspective.

"Fuck me blind," Carson whispered. A few of the walls stretched higher than they could see, while others were shorter than the ones they'd just scaled. What looked like stairways snaked and slid this way and that. They hadn't encountered those yet, but they did exist. Walls seemed to appear out of midair, or drop from the ceiling. Entire sections of rooms and hallways climbed one wall, as though they could be traversed in direct violation of gravity. Turning around, they saw the elusive windows, although they moved like every other feature of the place. Both men quickly reattached their P90s to their straps and slung them over their shoulders once again.

John pointed to the ever-shifting walls. "If there's a pattern, it's probably too complicated for me to see, but I think that's getting closer," He said. Carson nodded and they started across the room, carefully step-leaping from column to column until they reached Rodney.

The scientist had almost reached the top, although it was obvious the effort had taken a lot out of him. He'd been narrowly pinned, unable to move horizontally at all due to the disturbance below. Carson balanced one foot on the wall and helped John hoist the man up until Rodney stood, panting and with a bloody contusion on his jaw, perched on the column he'd been wedged against.

"Where are Teyla and Ford?" Rodney asked. "And damn," He added, getting a glimpse of the temple from this new height.

Carson and John looked at each other, realizing for the first time that in their haste to find Rodney, they'd failed to call out for their other two team members. "Ford!" John shouted. "Teyla!"

Silence greeted them.

"Not to panic or anything," Rodney said, tugging on John's arm. "But this room? I think it's about to disappear." Sure enough, the far end of the room was already melting away--but a glance below showed the temporal disturbance still present.

"That way," Carson said, pointing to a seemingly unmoving stretch of wall. They moved as quickly as they could over the top of the wall, which was considerably thicker than the columns. About twenty feet after passing the column room, however, the wall below them shuddered.

"Shit," John exclaimed as the wall literally slid out from under them. They fell to their knees, hands grappling for purchase as the wall split and twisted. Rodney and John tumbled to the right, while Carson fell left, sliding down to the dusty floor.