Title: Outbreak of the Ancients

Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and its characters do not belong to me; I am just borrowing them, and promise to put everything back when I am done. Dr. Kyte Randall is my creation.

Spoilers: Up through "Aurora," for season 2, references to "The Gift" and "Hotzone" from season 1.

Pairings: McKay/Brown, Shep/Weir, Beckett/OC

Rating: T for some serious whumping

A/N: Ok, RL is being quite nice – a three-day weekend (Happy Veteran's Day in the USA) with little work to do. Time to write! Dr. Kyte Randall is my character from a few stories, although she won't be quite such a dominant character in this series. I am trying to work on a sequel to "Value of an Inheritance," though, for those interested. This story idea just hit me and I knew I had to write it.

Summary: The crew of Atlantis knew that the Wraith had scientists studying human genetics and molecular biology. They just didn't know the extent of it.

Chapter 1

"Hey Dr. Randall, catch!" The petite scientist whipped her head around to see a small black missile hurling her direction. A panicked look momentarily crossed her face as she tried to juggle a coffee mug and laptop to one hand catch the offending item with the other.

"Nice, thinking of starting a Zen rock garden," she called to Dr. McKay as she finger the polished stone.

"Ha, Ha. SGA-4 brought it back from a survey mission. They found it among some ruins with Ancient writing. I thought it might be some sort of artifact," snarked back Rodney.

"I hate to break it to you, Rodney, but to paraphrase Freud, 'sometimes a rock is just a rock," laughed Colonel Sheppard as Dr. Randall tossed the object back to him. "Just because it was near some Ancient writing, doesn't make it an artifact."

"So, nothing," glared Dr. McKay, grabbing the rock back. She nodded.

"Nothing from anyone else?" asked Dr. Randall. Sheppard and McKay both shook their heads. "I hate to break it to you, but I think the Colonel's right, although it does look like some of the artifacts we've seen. If two natural ATA genes and a manufactured gene can't activate something, maybe it's just a rock. " She paused a minute. "Well, if I'm done here, I need to get back to work. Will I see you later, Colonel?"

"I'm going to skip the run tonight, you and Ronon are getting just a little too competitive, besides I've got a stack of mission reports to review. Dinner?

"Probably. Actually Ronon's upset, I've been ducking out on him lately, too. Dr. Zelenka and Dr. Fitzgerald have both been keeping me busy. I think I managed to miss breakfast and lunch yesterday and today. I think dinner was a powerbar last night." She looked at the coffee mug in her hand. "Sleep is a caffeine substitute." She shrugged.

"Don't let Carson hear that, you know his mother hen tendencies, " grimaced Sheppard. "I'm surprised he hasn't hunted you down yet."

"He's busy with a few projects of his own. Besides, since we've started dating, he's not my doctor, you know conflict of interest."

"Well, in that case, I'll let Dr. Biro know," lectured Sheppard.

"Colonel. Pot. Kettle. Black."

"See you at dinner, that's an order."

Dr. Randall looked at the coffee mug and laptop, then back at the Colonel, deciding that it wasn't worth the time to argue, she wasn't even military. She nodded and headed back down the hall, breaking into a graceful run. Sheppard shook his head, then headed off in an opposite direction. McKay turned back to the artifact to run a few more tests.

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A few hours later, Colonel Sheppard picked up his tray and looked around for a place to sit. He didn't feel much like eating, but figured teasing Rodney about the 'artifact' might be worth a few laughs. To his surprise, the Canadian was picking at his food, even though the cafeteria's special that night was one of his favorites. "You haven't seen Kyte around, have you?"

Rodney shook his head as he rolled his peas around. "There's Ronon, maybe he knows."

"No," growled Ronon. "She promised me we'd go running today, after I told her I set up one of the upper decks as an obstacle course. She said she was looking forward a change in routine."

"Not like Dr. Randall to break a promise," nodded Sheppard. "Carson," he added, "You haven't seen Kyte?"

"No, I haven't seen the lass in a few days. I know we've both been pretty busy,"

"Well, I took over your role and ordered her to come to dinner. She's been skipping meals and sleep." Carson nodded in appreciation, then tried the radio.

"She's not answering. Dr. Fitzgerald said she went to her quarters to nap an hour ago. I'll go make sure she's ok," physician winning out over boyfriend. "Actually come to think of it, both of you look a little feverish, and obviously have lost your appetites, which really has me concerned. I'll see you in the infirmary."

Both men groaned, but realized neither felt well. Maybe the flu was going around. That was a reasonable explanation, wasn't it?

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"Kyte?" called Carson, trying the door chime. He waited a moment then hit the medical override. The lights were out, and he noticed the figure cocooned in the bed, under a pile of blankets and quilts. He touched her forehead, she was burning up. "Kyte?"

"Five more minutes, ok Da? They'll cancel school for all this snow, right?" she moaned, clearly feverish and delusional.

Carson, noticed Ronon standing in the doorway. "I need to get her to the infirmary, can you carry her?" Ronon nodded, scooping up the scientist and her quilts as if he was collecting laundry.

In the infirmary, Carson was momentarily pleased to see McKay and Sheppard had followed orders and were already in scrubs, and having vitals checked. Neither was putting up much resistance, which worried him. He nodded to another doctor to do the same for Kyte, then left to check on Sheppard and McKay. A few minutes later, he had the summaries, none of which were good. All were suffering from high fevers, and flu-like symptoms, McKay seemed be in the best shape of the three. IV fluids and anti-virals seemed to be helping at least maintain their present conditions, but he was worried. How had the three of them, who had barely any contact in the past few days come down with something? Why wasn't anyone else affected. He shook his head and walked to his office to try and reconstruct their activities the past few days.

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Carson started, when he realized that someone was trying to contact him on the radio. "You'd better get to Dr. Weir's office, there's something you need to see," said one of the linguists. She sounded scared.

"Dr. Weir was pacing in her office, when he entered. She didn't look too happy. News that had to be delivered at this time of night could not be good, nor resolved easily, judging from the pot of coffee already brewing. Dr. Baker, the linguist he had spoken to stood in a corner, hands jammed into jacket pockets. Another archaeology type perched on a couch. Both looked exhausted. Major Lorne stood at attention, and for a moment Dr. Beckett wondered where Sheppard and McKay were, then realized the absurdity of that thought.

"We'd better start," said Dr. Weir quietly.

"We finished translating the text from the site SGA-4 found. At first we thought it was Ancient, then realized there were two sets of text, written by two different individuals. The majority of it appears to be gibberish, someone trying to write Ancient," started Dr. Baker.

"Upon closer examination, we think the writer was really Wraith," added Dr. Timmons.

"So, someone was trying to fake something Ancient?" asked Dr. Weir. "Why?"

"To fool someone, we're not sure," put in Dr. Baker awkwardly. "They also brought back what appeared to be an Ancient artifact. Dr. McKay, Colonel Sheppard, and Dr. Randall all handled it, trying to activate it. Nothing happened." Everyone in the office was silent for a few moments. Why would the Wraith stage such an elaborate fake Ancient site, complete with an artifact? They were devious and deliberate in their actions, but this didn't appear to be their usual method of operation. Dr. Weir passed out mugs of coffee.

"Oh hell, not nothing," swore Carson, the coffee forcing neurons to fire. "Get me the names of everyone who handled the artifact, especially if they have the ATA gene." Puzzled looks met his. "All three people who handled the artifact, are now lying in the infirmary, seriously ill. It's not an Ancient artifact; it's something the Wraith designed. If you can't kill with missiles, try germ warfare. We know they were studying human genetics and molecular biology. Who says they couldn't have designed a virus to kill Ancients?"

TBC