Elizabeth Weir knew she was going to have an interesting day as soon as Carson Beckett brushed passed her, uttering a brief, "Excuse me, Dr. Weir" before racing off to hide in his safe little infirmary. Rodney McKay started to storm after him but stopped when he noticed Elizabeth. He motioned angrily after the Scotsman and glared at her.
"He's not even trying!" he complained. Weir looked at him with her wide green eyes.
"But he's the one who discovered the gene this technology responds to." She said. "I've been trying to get him to sit in the chair for weeks."
"Yeah, well, he said he wished he never had it." McKay said, sounding disgusted that such an unwilling man should receive such a prestigious gift. Weir blinked in surprise.
"Really?" she asked, though it was difficult to tell if she was really that surprised or if she was just humoring the man. McKay seemed to go for the former, though he probably wouldn't have known if she had just been humoring him.
"I know, can you believe that?" McKay asked incredulously. Weir felt a smile twitch her lips and she couldn't help but tease her friend.
"We could always test you a third time, Rodney." She said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Rodney mocked silent laughter.
"That's very funny." He said, obviously not amused. Weir felt a fleeting sense of remorse for brining up the subject. Funny or not, Rodney had been crushed when he discovered that he, of all people, did not possess the gene. The first time he had refused to believe it and after a rather amusing verbal attack of the chair he had gone off to do a few more tests before trying again. The second time he had stomped off without a word to anyone, a look of utter defeat etched upon his face. No one had gone after him at first, knowing that catching McKay in one of his moods was like kicking an angry bear in the nose. But Weir went after him. She had learned, after nearly three months of living in a secluded Antarctic base with the man, that he often kept his temper in check with her. She didn't know why, but she figured it was a sort of mutual response to one another. For some reason they simply understood one another and so McKay had told her, rather sulkily, that he was damned displeased that Beckett the voodoo doctor got the gene but not him, the one man who actually needed to have it. After a while his displeasure had faded away, but Elizabeth knew that it still stung.
Trying to turn the subject away from Rodney and back onto the matter at hand, Elizabeth turned away from the man and stepped up onto the platform upon which the chair was perched.
"We've only found a handful of people who are genetically compatible with the Ancient technology and despite your heroic efforts to interface ours with theirs," she saw McKay perk up a bit at the praise, "we need every one of them to sit in this chair—including Doctor Beckett."
Rodney rolled his eyes and motioned at the piece of furniture.
"What am I supposed to do? He's afraid of the thing." He said, making it sound as if Beckett were being a silly child for fearing a machine that had destroyed an entire alien armada. Weir smiled and stepped behind the chair, looking down at it as if it was the sleeping bear.
"This chair controls the most powerful weapons known to humankind. I'm afraid of the thing." She said, laughing slightly. She saw McKay relax slightly—he always did when she laughed. In a way Elizabeth found it flattering.
"But every time someone sits in it," she continued, stepping back down to McKay's level, "we learn something new about the Ancients who built this outpost. Doctor Beckett should be proud he's genetically advanced."
Weir winced inwardly as soon as the words left her mouth. She saw McKay's expression darken.
"It's not more advanced." He said shortly. "It—it's a random characteristic."
"This really bothers you, this whole gene thing, huh?" Elizabeth asked softly. Rodney glared at her, but she could see the hurt in his eyes. Immediately it was replaced by his usual sarcasm.
"Oh, clearly I am overcome with envy." He snapped. Weir smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted as Daniel Jackson, the only member of SG-1 currently assigned to the Antarctic base, skidded around a corner. He looked up at them.
"Ah, just the people I needed to see." He said breathlessly, and immediately turned around and went back in the direction he had come. Elizabeth and Rodney looked at each other, sharing a glance that said what the hell was that all about? As if he heard their unspoken question, Daniel reappeared again. The look on his face was a mix of irritation at having to come back and sheepishness for the very same reason. He cleared his throat and motioned for the two of them to follow.
"Come with me." He said belatedly before disappearing around the corner again. Shrugging, Rodney and Elizabeth followed. Daniel led them into a makeshift tent lab where there were a number of tables, computers and other equipment set up for taking readings and what not. As usual Elizabeth tended to ignore it—this was McKay's field and she didn't even pretend to understand what half of the blinking, beeping lights meant. Instead she turned her attention to the whiteboard that Daniel stepped in front of. Scribbled at the top of the board were six gate symbols, each labeled with a number, in chronological order, from one to six. The archeologist had begun talking before he had even stopped moving.
"We've gotten closer and closer to finding the location of the Lost City, but it turns out we've been looking in the wrong place all along." Daniel said before he had even reached the board. Stepping up to it now he picked up a stray marker. He continued on, speaking in what had become known around the base as Jackson's teaching mode. "Now, recently we determined a seventh symbol."
Weir nodded as Daniel drew the symbol for Earth at the end of the six-symbol sequence, forming a complete address.
"The point of origin," she said in understanding, "Earth."
Jackson smiled and looked as if he was about ready to launch into a lengthy explanation. Instead he cut himself off and simply used his pen to emphasize his next set of words.
"That's not it." He said, sounding almost proud of himself.
"Then your address must be incorrect." Rodney said, pointing out what he thought was obvious. But Daniel was becoming increasingly more and more excited.
"Not incorrect… incomplete." He corrected McKay. He turned back to the whiteboard and drew in an eighth symbol between the sixth and the seventh. He labeled it seven while over the Earth symbol he wrote an eight. A smile spread slowly over Weir's face.
"What are you saying, Doctor Jackson?" she asked slowly, as if unwilling to believe what she was hearing—and seeing.
"It's an eight symbol address." Daniel said, turning back to Elizabeth and Rodney. His blue eyes were wide with enthusiasm behind his wire-rimmed glasses. "What we've been looking for may be farther away than we ever imagined, but it's not out of reach."
"Atlantis!" Rodney breathed and Weir smiled when she heard the thrill creeping into the snarky Canadian's voice.
"Atlantis." Daniel agreed. "I think we can go there."
Elizabeth felt like jumping up and down. She felt like throwing her arms around Daniel's neck. She felt like screaming and laughing at the top of her lungs and leaping up onto the table and dancing around in circles. She felt like running out into the outpost shrieking, "Atlantis! Atlantis! We've found Atlantis!"
But seeing as each scenario was less professional than the last, Elizabeth had to settle for a broad smile. It made her feel better when she looked over at Rodney and saw a goofy grin stretching across his entire face. And it wasn't the normal, thin-lipped lopsided smile, either. This was a full-blown "I'm really, really happy" grin. And that only made Elizabeth's smile broaden.
"Are you… sure, Doctor Jackson?" Elizabeth asked slowly. Daniel's grin almost matched McKay's.
"I'm sure. We're sure." Daniel said, as always referring to a team instead of just himself.
"Oh, God." McKay said suddenly, looking as if he had just been punched in the face. Elizabeth looked at him in alarm.
"Rodney?" she asked worriedly. McKay looked at her with a look of fierce determination.
"If we're going to Atlantis," he said, "then I've got to get Beckett to sit in that chair."
Immediately he whirled around and hurried out of the tent. Elizabeth sighed and smiled briefly at Daniel.
"Thank you, Daniel." She breathed. He grinned and nodded after her as she turned and ran out after Rodney.
Weir had to keep herself from shouting after McKay, but she did allow herself a brisk walk as she trotted after him. She finally caught up with him and grabbed his arm, hauling him to a stop. He whirled around to face her and they found themselves nearly nose to nose. McKay didn't seem to notice.
"Elizabeth, we need him to sit in that damn chair!" he shouted and Elizabeth flinched backwards in surprise. McKay sighed and visibly tried to reign himself in. He clenched his fists and huffed in frustration. "Look, he's the only one we have who hasn't sat in that stupid chair and if we are… are going off to some lost city then we damn well need to know now if he's going to be of any use at all."
"Rodney, I agree that we need him to sit in the chair. But we can't force him."
McKay grinned and started to back away. He waggled a finger at her.
"Oh, yes I can." He said and turned away. Elizabeth sighed heavily and realized that no matter what she did she wasn't going to be able to save Carson now.
"Look, we've been through this. I'm not your man!" Beckett shouted as Rodney herded him towards the chair.
"Keep moving." The scientist snapped irritably.
"I'm a doctor—a medical doctor." Beckett said, almost begging for Rodney to understand his fear of the chair. Rodney refused.
"There is nothing to be afraid of." He said, weary of the grown man's childish whining. Little did he know that he often came across as much the same.
"You don't understand." Beckett cried as Rodney pushed him into the chair room. "I break things like this."
"This device has survived for millions of years intact, it will survive you." McKay said and he shoved Beckett onto the platform. "Not sit down, close your eyes and concentrate."
Beckett sighed in irritation and sat down heavily in the chair. He slapped his hands onto the jelly-like pads and closed his eyes. A heartbeat later he snapped them open.
"Again nothing." He said and started to rise. McKay shoved him back into the chair.
"This time," McKay said in seemingly complete ignorance of Beckett's attempted flight, "just try to imagine an image of where we are in the solar system."
"Ach." Beckett huffed and he closed his eyes. He remained still for several seconds before speaking again. "I think I feel something."
McKay looked up from his Powerbook, a look of surprise and happiness flashing across his ocean-blue eyes. A moment later it disappeared when Beckett told him that it was probably lunch related.
"Shut up." McKay snapped. "And concentrate."
Beckett glared at him with a look that said, when I get out of this chair I am going to use your guts for my sewing thread and stitch shut the wounds I will pummel into your head. McKay ignored him, as usual, and Beckett sighed heavily. He closed his eyes and a moment later the chair suddenly glowed into life, reclining beneath a shocked and terrified Scottish doctor. McKay looked at the chair in amazement, but a moment later the mood was crushed when he heard a strange whirring sound coming from the outlying room. Looking out toward where Peter Grodin had been studying a recently discovered abandoned drone, he saw the weapon spring to life, soaring off the table and crashing into a variety of expensive equipment before shooting up the elevator shaft. Even from where he was he could hear Elizabeth shouting to be brought back down to the bottom level immediately.
"What did I do?" Beckett groaned, his blue eyes wide in alarm.
Moments later Elizabeth rushed into the room, Daniel close behind her. She looked at Beckett, who stared at her with his deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.
"I told you I was th' wrong person!" he cried. Elizabeth looked at McKay and he glared back, unwilling to admit that forcing the man into the chair may not have been such a good idea. Instead he turned his attentions to a computer panel set up near the chair where he could monitor the power of the chair and, evidently, the rogue drone as well.
"It doesn't matter now." He said, speaking to Elizabeth as much as to Carson. "Just do something!"
"Like what?" Carson hollered in alarm. Elizabeth stepped up to the chair and leaned over to face him. She spoke to him a soothing voice, knowing that the doctor would not respond well to Rodney's shouting.
"Carson, concentrate on shutting that weapon down before it hurts someone." Elizabeth said softly. Beckett looked at her, then squeezed his eyes shut. He sat like that for many long minutes and they could see his eyes moving rapidly beneath his lids as if he were dreaming. He was rigid in the chair and his breathing was rapid and shallow. Daniel, Rodney and Elizabeth stood silently watching him with pent up breath, unwilling to speak for fear that they would break the doctor's concentration.
Elizabeth jumped in surprise when Beckett's eyes suddenly snapped open again.
"I think I did it!" he gasped in amazement. Not long after the words left his mouth Lieutenant Aidan Ford hurried up to Elizabeth.
"Major Sheppard is reporting the drone appears to have been incapacitated." Elizabeth almost laughed in relief and she saw McKay slump against the computer consol with the same emotion. Behind her Daniel sighed heavily. Aidan continued calmly, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "General O'Neill's helicopter is unharmed and on its way again… Seven minutes out."
"Thank God." Elizabeth sighed, casting a glare in McKay's direction. He avoided eye contact.
"Holy Crap." Beckett groaned. A moment later he was on his feet and off the platform. He stepped up to Rodney and glared down at him.
"Never again!" he shouted and stomped away. McKay glanced at Elizabeth and he felt heat rushing into his face.
"Right." He sighed nonchalantly. "Not too bad, huh?"