Chapter 1 - Rising
„Jenny, you have been my first medical emergency since we arrived in Atlantis and you stayed my first priority ever since. " Carson said.
Confused the young woman looked at the doctor. And then he said the words that she wanted to hear him say since the first moment she had laid eyes on him.
A lot of incidents earlier
"Dr Beckett should be proud he's genetically advanced." Dr Weir said referring to Carson's fear of sitting in the Ancient chair. She and Dr McKay continued arguing while a young woman named Jenny Keehily was barely noticing the two of them. She was walking through the Antarctica Stargate Base trying to leave every technical device of the thousands that seemed to be here unharmed. With her jaw hanging wide open she watched a man examining a thing that either looked like a giant fish with tentacles or a… well, a giant alien sperm. What she didn't know then was that the thing was an Ancient drone.
But what she did know was that the man who just passed her by had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. He was saying something about a "waste of time" and that apparently the ugly looking chair in the middle of the igloo base wasn't working.
How could a chair NOT work? Was there something more to it then just the uncomfortably looking prospect of sitting on it? Most of the time Jenny didn't even know what she was doing here. Probably, that happens when a foreign country asks for your help because they happened to come across your medical data that seemed to be some sort of special. She didn't even bother to think about how the Americans got hold of her German blood tests after all.
Somehow, the weird looking and even faster talking Dr McKay had forced Mr Blue Eyes back on the chair again. Since he wasn't looking very comfortable, Jenny supposed that her assumption about the chair was right. He even looked kind of scared. Eavesdropping brought her his name: Dr Carson Beckett. He was a medical doctor, not like Dr McKay. Most of the names of the personnel she did know because people shouted them somewhere and the designated person then ran to that spot.
Dr Beckett now had closed his eyes and was seemingly concentrating on something. Suddenly the chair he was sitting on fell backward and illuminated as did the sperm-thing. Unfortunately, it did more than that. It all happened so fast, Jenny couldn't even see how. The thing flew off, something exploded and she had to duck to avoid being hit. People were thrown down and started screaming. She had no idea what was happening.
Dr Weir ran to the chair and Dr Beckett and Jenny heard him saying: "I told you I was the wrong person." That was the first time she noticed his cute Scottish accent. But that thought vanished immediately because it was instantaneously replaced by the feeling that something was wrong. Of course the explosion and the people's following precipitance was indication enough that something was off, but there was something else – a feeling in her gut.
"Concentrate on shutting that weapon down before it hurts someone!" Dr Weir said and Jenny could see Dr Beckett trying. Somehow she knew that his efforts weren't enough. His self-doubts were abstracting his major goal – to stop the drone. On a sudden impulse Jenny ran to him and knelt in front of the chair. Automatically her hands hovered of Dr Beckett's hands, their fingers entwined over the armrests of the Ancient chair and her eyelids closed. Immediately, she could feel so many things at once – the chair, the drone's position and in some way Dr Beckett's mind and his fear.
Later, when she was told what happened at that moment, people would say she didn't move her lips. But somehow she communicated to Dr Beckett to calm down.
He hadn't even noticed her approach on him. He just heard a woman's voice in his mind. "Focus on the drone. Focus on its power source. Turn it off.", the female voice told him. It was pleasant to not be alone in this situation anymore. In front of his mental eye Carson could even see where he had to disable the drone. And then he knew that he had done it. The weapon was turned off. Relief flooded through him and he opened his eyes. "I think I did it."
"Major Shepard has reported the drone appears to have been incapacitated." one of the military staff reported. Dr Beckett sighed and his "Holy crap!" seemed to say it all.
But then he noticed the young woman kneeling in front of him, their fingers entwined.
Relieved, she had also opened her eyes and smiled at Dr Beckett. But then Jenny's eyelids fluttered shut again and the world went black for her. Her fingers slipped out between Dr Beckett's and she fell unconsciously to the side and on the ground.
Wondering what she was doing in front of him but being first and foremost alarmed by her fall, Dr Beckett's medical routine kicked in and he jumped out of the chair to check on her vitals. Yelling for a stretcher he had a finger on her throat to find out that she had a very low pulse.
All that and the following moments all happened without Jenny's awareness. (10:00)
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