"So what does it do?"
"That is what I'm trying to find out, obviously."
"No need to be a jerk Rodney."
"No need to waste my time with stupid questions then, Radek."
"Boys." Teyla pressed her fingers to her forehead, anticipating yet another headache from having to babysit these 'men' from bickering. Again.
"He started it."
"And I'll finish it if you two don't figure it out soon."
"Ronon." Teyla sighed again. "I have enough on my hands without you pressing matters."
"Got it!" Rodney turned and grinned at his comrades like a cat who got the cream. Funnily enough, no one seemed to reflect his mood.
They had been combing once again through Atlantis' systems for new areas of the city to awaken and explore, which had led them to this 23rd level laboratory, straight above the gate room, puddle jumper bay, and several other levels already explored. However the door had been locked with some sort of elaborate gem device in the middle of the door. Rodney referred to this as an ancient version of a padlock that needed a specific combination of wave frequencies to open. That was the easy, albeit time consuming part. What Zalenka and McKay were arguing about was the meaning of the translation above the door. "It should open momentarily."
"To the observatory."
"No, Radek, it is not an observatory." Rodney rose to his feet and pointed to the mural above the door. "It clearly says that the research carried out in this lab was the way 'forward' for all species. That clearly indicates that their ascension research is in here."
"No Rodney, it says the way outward and onward."
"Same difference."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it-"
"Enough!" Teyla yelled, almost snarling when she realised she had lost her temper before Ronon had. Not a good sign. "Can you open it Rodney?"
"Well...yes I can now. I-"
"Then please." Teyla nodded to the door. "Do so."
Rodney gulped nervously, chuckled in his throat and opened the door.
After 5 hours of listening McKay and Zalenka arguing was enough to make any same person mad. Teyla simply hoped whatever they find would be worth the pounding in her temples. After all, since John was off elsewhere (conveniently) she was in charge.
The doors swished open, causing a massive cloud of dust to erupt out the doorway and into the group's faces. After the initial spluttering and waving of hands, the dust settled once again and they pressed into the room. Teyla and Ronon took point, the scientists in the middle and the two extra detail at their six. After they declared the coast was clear, Rodney practically dived onto the control consol in the room. It was after all a laboratory, but as of yet the subject that was being studied here was unknown. Rodney's competitive need to be right was evident from the furious pace his fingers were tapping over his table interface.
"Surely we have explored all of Atlantis now, right?"
"Well, we are told about 45% of the city has been explored and cleared now."
"Hell no." Ronon grumbled. "And why isn't Sheppard here?"
"I do not know. Perhaps we shall ask the good colonel when we see him next."
"You can count on that." Ronon pursed his lips, brushing more dust off his coat. "And he can clean my coat too." Teyla chuckled, lazily looking around the room as the two smartest men in the city practically drooled over their tablets. In the years she had known Rodney, he always looked like an excited little boy when he found something new in Atlantis to play with.
"Dear God..."
"We were both wrong Rodney."
"But this is-"
"So much better."
"Yes I was about to say-"
"We should get Beckett up here."
"On it." Rodney looked over to the rest of the search team to see confused faces. "We found something-"
"Amazing!" Zalenka was practically dancing around the consol.
"Yes, I was about-to-say-that."
"What have you found? And why do you need Beckett?" Teyla folded her arms and regarded the hyperactive men before her.
"Well...he could probably explain this much better than we could."
"The ancients were researching-"
"-an alternate food source for the Wraith." Rodney chipped in, determined to get the last word in.
"...a way to infiltrate the Wraith, you mean?" Rodney then mirrored his friends' confused faces, turned on Zalenka, and marched over to him.
"That is not what the tablet says."
"Yes it does."
"NO, it DOESN'T. Really Zalenka I'm starting to think you can't even read ancient!" they were toe to toe again and about to release another onslaught of educated threats again, when thankfully they were stopped.
"Boys!" Teyla's headache was growing. "I'll call Dr Beckett for...whatever you need him for. You keep working."
"Will do."
Teyla and Ronon shared a look as the 'boys' began squabbling again, and she pressed in the talk button on her radio.
"Can Dr Beckett come to the 23rd level Laboratory in the central tower please."
"Ay I can Teyla. What would it be a'bout?"
"...Rodney and Radek can explain that better than I can."
"I see. I'll be there in a tick then."
"Teyla out."
"What exactly do you need me for?" Carlson had been stood there for an hour and hadn't been addressed by anyone.
"Shhh!" Carlson sighed and turned his frustrations to Teyla.
"Teyla, I could be doin' important work in my lab on the wraith DNA we extracted on our last-"
"I could also be doing other things right now. However..."
"That's it." Ronon barged forward, grabbed Zalenka by his shoulder, pulled him off the consol and dropped him down in front of the group. "What-are-we-still-doing-here?"
"Well-"
"We found the last project the ancients were working on." Rodney finally peeled away from the main consol, and pressed his headset. "Sam, you are going to want to get up here and see what we found in this lab. And bring Sheppard with you."
"Seriously?!" Ronan released a very shaken Zalenka. "Why don't you call up half of Atlantis up here? Then keep them waiting whilst you call the other half?"
"Ronon. Be calm. I'm sure Rodney isn't keeping us in suspense in the name of theatrics. Right Rodney?"
"Y-yes. Of c-course not."
"Alright Rodney, Radek. Why am I up here? What is so amazing that you've called us up here?" Sam shared a sceptic look with John Sheppard. They'd heard that Rodney and Radek had an 'amazing' discovery that required their 'urgent' attention. John wagered that it was a new toy that would improve power consumption or temperature regulation. Sam voted a power source. They both agreed it could have waited till the morning.
"This."
Rodney and Zalenka shared a look, and entered commands into the main consol. A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, causing everyone stood near the middle of the room quiet understandably jump out of their skins.
"Rodney?!" Ronon was one of those people.
"Sorry. Just bear with us."
The golden floating image looked like a waterfall of ancient writing on the left and right sides, with what looked like a molecule floating and twisting in the middle.
"That looks like...but that's..."
"Colonel?" John asked, noticing that Sam's mouth had opened wide as well. "Something good up there?"
"It is, isn't it?" Rodney looked like he was going to spit out a rainbow at any moment. Ronon on the other hand...
"Someone please explain why I have been stood here for 7 hours now?!"
"That molecule in the middle of the screen looks to be a combination of wraith receptor proteins, catalytic protein groups and some components I don't recognise...but I can guess what they're for." Beckett turned to Sam, who took that as her cue to elaborate.
"If my Ancient is correct, the text describes a group of scientists who were working apart from the other Ancients. Not a rebel group, but an alternative solution group."
"They were looking for another answer to the 'wraith problem' other than fighting them or running away." Rodney again grinned.
"And they were close before they had to leave the city...but..." Sam moved to look at the other side of the hologram. "...their project was cancelled. They needed-"
"A test subject." Zalenka grinned.
"What for?" John stood a very exhausted and testy Ronon and Teyla. He was also permanently on edge when the words 'test subject' were used...
"They were experimenting with Wraith tissue...analysing-oh gods." Samantha Carter put her hands over her mouth, and only continued when she realised that no one else had gotten to the same part of the text as her. "The ancients had taken the remains of humans that the Wraith had fed on and analysed exactly what the Wraith needed to sustain themselves. They carried out experiments on humans after that...then the high council intervened." She read a little more. "Turns out they hadn't informed the council of that part of their research and had the plug pulled on their research project. But-"
"Not before they made this." Rodney pulled a white sheet off a large machine in the corner of the room. It looked like an enormous ancient version of a vending machine. There were tubes connecting different parts of the machine together, and a dull yellow fluid was actively flowing through the tubes and the machine. "The ancients had finished their research enough to make an alternate food source for the Wraith. A synthetic food source!"
"From experimenting on humans." Teyla looked horrified. "The ancients experimented-on humans?"
"It would appear so." Sam stepped through the hologram, which deactivated, and she stopped next to the new device. "And this would replace their need to feed on humans?"
"It makes a pouch of this fluid which contains that molecule that was displayed earlier, and the pouch is as permeable as human skin so a Wraith's normal feeding mechanism works. Sam. Power packs Sam. This-" Rodney pointed at the machine. "-eliminates the Wraith's need to feed on humans."
"There's a catch." Sam looked from Rodney to Zalenka, who was the more forthcoming with shortfalls in their discoveries. "If there wasn't, the ancients would have given this discovery to the wraith to save their lives, and the lives of the humans in this galaxy. Why didn't they?"
"Like you read earlier, they needed a test subject to prove it worked. They couldn't get a Wraith to try it on as they were already under siege at that point."
"Yes Zalenka, which only means that they didn't get chance to try it. But their research says that this worked."
"Theoretically." Zalenka added. This in turn earned a glare and a half from his eager college. "Not...proven. And besides, that wasn't all they were doing in this lab."
"Oh?" John cocked his head to one side, and shared a concerned look with Sam and the others. "What else were the ancients that experimented on humans, experimenting with?"
"It's not as relevant as the power packs."
"Really?" John stepped further into the scene, trying to get his head round this. "You've already named them?"
"Well-yes."
"Focus people." Sam brought the attention back to Zalenka. "And you've found they did what?"
"They created this." Zalenka skipped to the opposite side of the room and pressed a series of buttons on the wall. Four pods lowered from the ceiling and 'plugged' into the walls. They looked like stasis pods, but there were all manners of different tubes and wires suspended from the roofs of the pods. "I bet you can't guess what they are."
"Stasis pods." John chirped up, looking glad to have moved away from the human goo bags. That is what they were after all. A liquid form of everything the Wraith feed off a human for. It made him shudder with the thought of how the Ancients figured out that one.
"Wrong." Rodney rolled his eyes, as if it was obvious.
"Rodney." Zalenka pouted.
"Alright, have your moment. Che." Rodney tutted, and made a show of jumping down 'off his pedestal' to the same level as everyone else to listen to what his utterly wrong colleague had to say.
Once he had everyone's attention, Zalenka cleared his throat and began again.
"What tactic do we humans back on Earth have at our disposal, which the Ancients didn't with the Wraith?" it took a few moments, before Rodney lost his patience.
"Espionage. The Ancients would stand out on a Hive Ship."
"Yes...Rodney...until they created this device."
"And it does what exactly?" Carlson didn't like the look of all those wires and tubes inside the pod. They were obviously designed for injecting 'something' into whoever occupied the pods.
"It turns you into a Wraith."
"What?!" The Group were outraged and took a huge step backwards.
"Why the hell would the Ancients want to become Wraiths for any reason?" Sam was getting more and more disturbed the longer she was in this lab. She was learning some truths about their idolised ancients that didn't exactly sit well with her.
"It was designed so that they would be able to infiltrate the Wraith, and get intel, cause havoc, etcetera."
"But to become a Wraith... Such a transformation would be extensive and permanent." Carlson gulped, still staring at those wires. "And it would be a total transformation. With their anatomy being changed as well. They would be a perfect Wraith."
"Well they wouldn't be a very good spy if they didn't pull off the right look." John was getting that sinking feeling when something else popped into his head. "Wait...a perfect Wraith would mean they would have the same 'dietary needs', right?"
"Which is why this project was also scrapped." Rodney chirped up. "Which is why I said this wasn't a 'useful' discovery. I don't exactly see anyone volunteering to become a damn Wraith, Zalenka."
"This project was obviously designed to go hand in hand with the power pack project. Like you said, the Ancients wouldn't become a Wraith only to have to feed on humans anyway. They would use the power packs."
"But as the power pack project was shot down due to its inhuman origins and lack of a living Wraith to prove its effectiveness, by proxy the Wraith Spy project was also packed up."
"Heh, Wraith Spy project. Good one Sam." John chuckled, and looked to the very disturbed and exhausted room. Other than Zalenka and McKay of course. They looked like it was Christmas morning, and they were arguing who's present is cooler. "So let me ask the obvious question. How are these projects useful to us?"
"Hello? Power packs? Instead of dead humans? How is that not an obvious monumental discovery?" Rodney rolled his eyes, clearly feeling his discovery was underappreciated.
"Never been tested. And we're fresh out of Wraith prisoners." John quipped, looking to Zalenka.
"The data on this project has extensive information on Wraith physiology, similarities and differences between their system compatibilities and ours, and of course their research on how they feed."
"True, I could do with having a look at that." Dr Beckett walked over to Zalenka's tablet. "May I?"
"Oh course Doctor."
"Hay! The feeding research was due to the ancient research team collaborating on both these projects, not just the spy project."
"Rodney, you don't look pretty when you're jealous." John grinned, making the Canadian huff to himself sulkily.
"I'm not." Rodney took a deep breath. "I am not Jealous. I am simply astounded that no one sees that the power packs will save millions of lives. More than studying the Wraith Physiology."
"I agree if we can prove it works." Beckett added, not looking away from the tablet. "Zalenka can you have this transferred to my lab?" Zalenka nodded, and eagerly got to work.
"I'll get a power pack sent to your lab for testing, yes?" Rodney tried not to sound desperate. "erm, Dr Beckett?"
"The chemical formula seems sound Rodney. It needs testing on a Wraith."
"Then Sheppard can call Todd."
The entire room stopped what they were doing, saying, thinking, and stared at Rodney.
"Sorry, Rodney." John seemed about to have Rodney arrested and sent to the medical bay. And from the look on Beckett's face, he may have agreed with that decision. "Did you seriously just say that I pick up the phone, call Todd, the Wraith who on every occasion we have been thrust into working with, and I use the term 'working with' very loosely, ask him to drop what he's doing, pop over to Atlantis to try yet another experimental drug that will mean he no longer needs to feed on humans, despite the last drug he stole from us pretty much damn near killed him, his men, and his ship, and did I mention us as we were aboard that ship at the time?" he stalked towards Rodney, making the man contemplate running and hiding. "Every time we have worked with that guy we have nearly all been killed and screwed over, and not always in that order! Have I mentioned how I feel about that guy?! Like I'm holding a live grenade and I'm just waiting for it to blow up in my face! Absolutely not!"
John panted after his rant, and Rodney looked to have lost a lot of his bravado, a few inches of height, and some of the colour from his skin.
"...but."
"Out of the question!"
"Well actually Colonel."
"Seriously?" John rounded on the commander, about to check her temperature and have her shipped off to the infirmary as well.
"Colonel, Rodney is right. If we can supplement the Wraith's need to feed on humans, we would save millions of lives. There would no longer be a reason for the Wraith to cull humans."
"Oh Dear God." John could feel a headache coming his way. In the form of a 6ft 8 Wraith who's allegiance wasn't to the Wraith, or the Atlantis expedition. It was to himself. "I am seriously going to regret this. And when I do." John looked right at Rodney's internally shaking form. He pointed at him, and let Rodney fill in the rest.