The Origin of a Legend

Chapter 1

Summary: Set after the events of Epiphany and Critical Mass. A continuation of the 'Inheritance' series. Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Randall have to deal with a few implications of the ATA gene.

By all appearances, he was just Colonel John Sheppard, out for an early morning jog. If someone had been paying more attention to his route, they would have noticed he was headed into one of the deeper portions of the city, where sensors worked intermittently. A good place to hide, especially when one heard that SGA-4 had just found a new cache of Ancient devices, and Dr. McKay was looking forward to discovering what they did. Sheppard sighed and entered a small room he'd found a year before. He paused for a moment, seeing the petite figure sitting cross-legged on one of the chairs. "Dr. Randall. Kyte. I assume you heard about SGA-4's discovery?" He grinned sheepishly as he saw her start and look up from her reading. Obviously she hadn't heard him enter.

"No, it's my day off and I thought I'd make it a real day off," she stretched and indicated her attire: jeans with a knee ripped out, t-shirt topped with a faded corduroy shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbow. "New Ancient devices? I guess you know who will be looking for a few volunteers. I assume you're hiding out?"

"Hopefully." He sank gratefully into another chair. The artificial light well made this room pleasant, despite its location deep in the city. "Any chance you think he'll pester Carson for awhile?

"Probably not, although I haven't talked to Carson much lately. He's got some new project he's devoting increasing hours to. Face it Colonel, you're still at the top of the list for activating things." Kyte shrugged.

"Yeah, and you're a close second." Her modified gene wasn't quite as strong as his, but she possessed a level of concentration that compensated for the shortcoming. "Plus you can absorb data, which I can't quite like you. I think they found a couple data storage devices, Rodney will probably want you to take a look at." He saw her darken at his comment. "Nothing like the repository we found on the planet. No fear of overload." Kyte might have had the ATA gene, but she also had an additional sequence with it, that allowed her to access and recall limited amounts of data. The current theory among some of the residents was that the Ancients realized that the humans on earth were just different enough from them that they might not have been able to access all the technology, hence someone engineered her family line to allow that capability. "I'm sorry that your trip to Earth got canceled," he started again.

"I think I can understand. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. It's more than a little scary knowing the Trust was infiltrated by the goa'uld and Caldwell was one of them. I don't want to think about what they could have access to, what they could have found out. The splinter group of the Trust I dealt with, were pretty well connected, with very deep pockets. Their lab was better equipped than half a dozen universities. What they want they get or buy or steal." Kyte shuddered as finished. Her ATA gene had initially attracted their attention and led to her getting kidnapped and finding herself in Pegasus on a hunt for Ancient technology. When she'd arrived in Atlantis, by pure luck, she'd initially left out a few things, like how they'd tried to find out her capabilities. Stargate Command decided her presence needed to remain classified. Not what you want to hear when you come from a close-knit family, and can't let people know what happened to you, or even that you're alive.

"So planning to hide out the whole day?" he asked moving to a safer topic, deciding not to ask if recent events had rekindled nightmares. The answer was probably yes, but she'd never admit to it. He could understand people keeping things to themselves, since he himself was a master of the craft.

"Yep. Brought coffee and a couple sandwiches," she toed a small pack at her feet.

"Turkey? I missed those at the cloister. Don't get wrong the food was good, but the things you miss…" he trailed off as he saw the scientist nodding. "Actually haven't seen you that much, since I returned. I guess there's been a lot of excitement." He shook his head as he realized how crazy that sounded. What had been six months was only a few hours on Atlantis.

She was silent for a few minutes. "What they said to you, while you were in the portal about talents, do you think mankind in general will get there or just a select few? I mean is this our next evolution?" she started to explain, as she noticed shadows in the hall.

"Colonel Sheppard. Dr. Randall. Nice to find both of you." Both people in question grimaced at a very excited and relived looking Rodney McKay. "I've got a few new discoveries to test, and having both of you will make things go faster, and increase some probabilities of something working. Now if we can just head back to my lab, he turned and started back down the hallway, then jogged back when he realized he wasn't being followed.

"It's supposed to be my day off. In my book, that means I am nowhere near a lab for twenty-four hours. I get to do fun things, like think about doing my nails and if I should cut my hair," Kyte tried to explain. The physicist only scowled at her. "Okay, okay, I'm coming," she muttered shooting the colonel a 'misery loves company' look.

"You might show some excitement, Sheppard. We might just find a new weapon against the Wraith. Plus, we think we discovered a small stockpile of drones," Rodney scolded, a teacher lecturing some reluctant pupils.

"Up for some target practice? You haven't gotten much time to directly interface with the city, Kyte," interrupted Sheppard, brightening slightly.

"Sure," she replied quietly, successfully hiding a small wince. Connecting with Atlantis herself was a new addition to her growing list of concerns. She lacked the initial ease Sheppard had with the city, and it was getting more and more difficult to maintain the link. It all had to o with what happened P3X-064. They'd found a database on the planet, and unfortunately, in order to fully access it , one had to be an Ancient. Kyte's sequence had provided a bridge of sorts and allowed for a partial 'rewiring' to save her and Dr. McKay's life, but it hadn't been without consequences for her. She supposed it was analogous to fiddling with a pair of rabbit ears – better reception on one channel does not necessarily equal the same for another. The 'rewiring' left her with a diminishing ability to connect with the city. Kyte hadn't mentioned it to anyone, although Atlantis herself was aware of the problem, and even knew how to correct it. Kyte just didn't like the solution – allow the city to resurrect one of the old labs and use the equipment to rewrite part of her DNA related to the ATA gene and her additional sequence, changing some of her neural pathways as a result. She supposed it was only a matter of time before Atlantis brought this to either the Colonel or Carson's attention. For now she was content to ignore the problem, and deal with the resulting headaches anytime she had to work intensely with any Ancient technology. She'd been a lab animal once, and as much as she knew on some level this was different, she was terrified. The tipping point had come when a week ago with the whole situation with Caldwell and the potential destruction of Atlantis. The city had isolated her and a few others with the ATA gene in various sections of the city, sealing them off behind heavy doors. Cut off and unaware of the real situation, she'd panicked, thinking one of her nightmares came true and the Trust had found her again.

"Do you mind making coffee," Rodney interrupted her thoughts and she realized they were back in one of the labs, half a dozen small objects carefully laid out on a table. She hoped nobody noticed her hand was shaking as she filled the carafe with water and scooped out coffee. When she turned back to the table, she noticed that Rodney had found the thermos in her pack and was sloshing coffee into his mug. She guessed Colonel Sheppard would be appropriating at least one of the turkey sandwiches if Rodney didn't let them head to the mess hall for meals, since he lived on powerbars. She groaned. It was going to be a long day.

Twelve hours and several pots of coffee later, Rodney was willing to let them leave, upset that his latest haul had only resulted in as Colonel Sheppard called it, "a souped up life signs detector." Kyte had to admit it was pretty cool, it not only showed life signs, but also provided a good architectural or elavational survey. So not only could you see who was around you, but relatively where and what was between two people. She was sure there'd be a couple groups fighting over it. New toys always had that result. "Don't forget, target practice tomorrow," reminded Colonel Sheppard. Is it worth the risk to invite Carson," he half-joked, knowing the Scotsman's record. Rodney groaned. "Hey speaking of Carson, are you ok?" he asked seeing Dr. Randall kneading her neck and temples.

"Just tired and a bit of a headache," she responded. So that was the truth. Ok, maybe she was lying about the intensity, but she didn't want to spend the night in the infirmary, even if it meant catching a glimpse of Carson. "I just need some sleep."

"I'll let Elizabeth know what we found today and what we've got planned for tomorrow. Someone else who can manage the chair is always a good thing," muttered Rodney not looking up from his keyboard.

"A couple hundred more drones would be a good thing as well," added Sheppard. "I'll see both of you tomorrow."

"Good night," Dr. Randall called, heading off to her own quarters. By the time she had gotten ready for bed, she was so tired she felt she might actually get more than a few hours. Four hors later, though, she sat bolt upright from a nightmare, crying out. After she calmed down, she glanced at her alarm then tossed and turned for awhile. Finding sleep elusive, she sighed and pulled on running gear. Maybe she could wear herself out again and catch another few hours. The halls of Atlantis were deserted at this hour and she knew she could jog without too much attention. At least that's what she originally thought as she spotted Colonel Sheppard, also out for a run. She tried ducking down another corridor, but he caught sight of her.

"Can't sleep?" he half-scolded.

For a brief moment, she wanted to tell him everything. After all, he'd found out about the Stargate program pretty suddenly, and carrying the ATA gene had kick-started one ongoing chain of events. "The situation with Caldwell and the Trust brought back some old nightmares. They'll pass eventually." She settled for part of the truth.

"You know there are people you can talk to," he lectured,

"That's pretty funny coming from you."

"I know, but your situation is pretty unique. You had your world turned upside down with no explanation…"

"And went through some pretty bad stuff. Sorry, but I don't feel the need to share," Kyte snapped, then softened when she saw the 'kicked puppy dog' look Sheppard was infamous for. "They'll fade. Until then I can survive on less sleep and more coffee. I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine. Really." She didn't want to think too much about how she would deal with the morning's situation.

TBC