A/N: This story is a birthday present for my good friend and Beta buddy, ladygris.
Hehe! It is a very sneaky writer who gets the birthday girl to help make her own present.
Many, many good wishes for your very special day!
~Sandy
Atlantis Awaits
Chapter 2
Crisis
In Operations, Woolsey was called from his office when two of the techs passed out as well as several of the omnipresent guards. And just as Radek had, he realized immediately that they were all carriers of the ATA gene. Knowing that the Infirmary would be too busy to come to them, he ordered the injured to be taken there then helped Amelia carry Kevin Chang.
~~O~~
Radek waited while Jennifer conferred with her staff. "You're not wrong. The Infirmary is filled to capacity with ATAs. Most of them were brought in by friends and co-workers. Whatever it is that's affecting them seems to have acted on the gene. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Not wanting to cause a panic and moving as far from the others as possible, Radek lowered his voice. "I have my suspicions as to the cause. My team will research and get back to you."
"We need to send teams out to check on the ATAs that haven't been brought in yet. They could have been alone when this happened." A medical team arrived on her last words swarming around John, Rodney, Chuck and the others. That they had not regained consciousness was very troubling.
"Of course. Zelenka out." Once he saw that his friends would be well taken care of, Radek conversed quietly with his staff. A blonde scientist from Germany nodded, and as Radek ran from the room, she turned to the console entering commands. Seconds later, the two ZPMs they'd just installed rose out of their outlets. Just as before, the lights flickered but this time they stayed dim, just as they'd been before the installation.
~~O~~
Her conversation with Radek over with, Jennifer contacted Operations to have them send search parties to check on the ATAs who were unaccounted for. Luckily there were only three who hadn't been brought in as yet.
Doing her best to ignore the fact that the man she loved was one of the affected, Jennifer moved through the Infirmary stopping at every bed to see how each patient was doing before moving on to the next. When she'd done all that she could for the others, she made one last stop at John's bed before going to Rodney's side.
Just like John, Chuck, Stackhouse and a few others, he was in a coma. Out of habit she checked his vitals and IV then pulled a chair up to his bedside, taking his hand. Thankful that none of them had to be on a ventilator, she mentally went over everything she knew about ATA and how it worked with the Ancient technology.
Her mind sorted and filed the information, reordering and reclassifying until it began to take on an entirely new form. But before she could bring it into focus, exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep holding Rodney's hand.
An hour later, Cedric touched her on the shoulder to let her know that Mr. Woolsey had called a staff meeting he promised would be short. Taking her tablet from the bedside table, she connected it to the network and updated the files on all the ATAs. The last three had been located and taken to the auxiliary Infirmary on level twenty-six. The weakest ATAs of the group, they were awake but disoriented.
~~O~~
Their faces grim, Jennifer and Radek took turns describing to the rest of senior staff what had transpired during the abortive attempt to empower the city. When they finished talking, the room fell silent. Woolsey didn't have any questions as he'd already been briefed.
"Why?" As usual, Ronon didn't waste words.
Jennifer looked down at her hands twisted together in front of her. The urge to chew on her thumbnail was almost more than she could withstand but she managed. "We're still working on it. But with the exception of Dr. Beckett, Major Lorne, Major Teldy, Dr. Porter and Lieutenant Coughlin, nearly all the ATAs are either unconscious or in a coma. A few are awake though only just."
Teyla looked from one face to another already knowing the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Which of the affected are in a coma?"
"Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay, Sergeant Campbell, Sergeant Stackhouse, and four others. The rest have been treated as much as we're able. Those that have awakened are being kept sedated for the time being. Their headaches have gone away but they're not fit for duty. They remain confused and disoriented."
Radek touched Jennifer on the arm in sympathy. He knew how difficult it was for her to see the man she loved and so many of her friends in pain. "We still have much work to do to be able to say with complete certainty. However, as one who was present at the time, I do not think it's a stretch of the imagination to say that the activation of the ZPMs was the cause."
"It was if the city being at full power after thousands of years overwhelmed their nervous systems causing them to just shut down."
Radek consulted his tablet. "Until we have gotten to the bottom of this situation and it is resolved, I recommend that the teams that are offworld not return. Dr. Beckett must be informed as well."
Jennifer nodded. "I agree. Majors Lorne and Teldy are the fourth and fifth strongest ATAs. We…"
"Dr. Keller to the Infirmary stat! Dr. Keller!"
Jennifer tapped her headset as she went out the door not bothering to excuse herself or wait to be dismissed. "This is Keller. On my way!"
~~O~~
"…and we're just finding this out now?" Evan had kept his cool all the while Radek had been reporting on the recent events and explaining why his team had to remain on the planet indefinitely.
"I am sorry, Major Lorne. We had no idea that this would happen when the city regained full power and are working as fast as possible on a solution but it will take time."
Woolsey's voice came through next. "We're gathering supplies for your team as well as Major Teldy's, and will be sending them through shortly. Tents, clothing, food, blankets and so forth."
"Thanks, sir. Could you also send a deck of cards? I'd rather not sit here telling ghost stories all night."
He could hear the amusement in their leader's voice. "I'm sure we can come up with something, Major. Atlantis out."
The wormhole shut down as Evan turned to his teammates. "We'll camp here for the night."
Dr. Sullivan cleared his throat. "Why don't we just go back to the village, Evan?"
"If it lasts more than just a night or two, I'll take that under consideration. For now, let's stay close to the Stargate just in case." Evan let out a longsuffering breath of air. "It gets chilly at night so Harry, you and Reed gather wood for a fire while Coughlin and I dig a fire pit."
Sometime later, the Stargate activated again. A MALP trundled through the event horizon coming to a stop in front of the DHD. "Coughlin, you and I are on KP tonight. Reed and Sullivan in the morning. If we're still here after lunch, we'll work out a schedule. Guard shifts of two hours each through the night. Me, Coughlin, Reed, Sullivan then me again."
"Sir?" Reed motioned him over to the probe pointing to a panel on the front. A note was stuck to it. Open me. Sh!
"Open it."
Crouching, Reed did as ordered, turning to grin up at him when he saw what was inside. "Sir, there's beer in here."
Evan squatted next to his teammate letting his P-90 hang from its strap and together they pulled out eight cans of ice cold beer. Whoever their benefactor was, he or she wanted to remain anonymous and to make sure all of their butts were covered. The empty cans could be crushed and stashed in their backpacks to be tossed in with the other recyclables when they returned home. He rolled his eyes to the sky. "Somebody up there likes us."
~~O~~
Jennifer entered the Infirmary at a fast jog. "What's happening now?"
Amanda drew her attention to a sleeping African-American woman. She'd been changed out of her uniform into a hospital gown. "Valerie Briggs from Botany. She's had a TIA. We've done a CT scan and a carotid ultrasound as well as all the standard tests plus a few non-standard ones." They moved over to a nearby workstation where Amanda pulled up the test results.
"Looks like she's going to be okay." Jennifer scrolled through the scans and tests shaking her head. "She'll have to be sent back to Earth though."
"I've recommended that she be removed from the Stargate program. The risk of this happening again is too great. Any more stress like she encountered today or when we went through that asteroid field…"
"Agreed. She is not going to like it."
Amanda shrugged. "Unless we can eliminate her ATA gene, I don't see the situation changing any time soon."
"Yeah." Jennifer looked by turns startled and contemplative. Without excusing herself or telling her friend what was on her mind, she headed to the lab.
"Where are you going?" But Jennifer just kept on walking. Amanda sighed. "She is getting more and more like McKay every day."
~~O~~
The two women worked side by side, hours spent hunched over their workstations stopping only to use the facilities and get something to drink. Jennifer had finally let Amanda in on her little idea. She hadn't meant to exclude her in the beginning. It was more her wanting to get to the computer as quickly as possible.
Jennifer sat back, rubbed her eyes and yawned. Nothing was making any sense and that meant it was time for her to get some rest. "We're not making any headway on this, Amanda. We need Carson."
The other woman looked up, a wry smile on her pretty face. "I wasn't going to mention it if you didn't."
With a listless upturn of her mouth, the CMO slid off her chair, stretched, took off her lab coat and replaced it with her jacket. "I'll go have a word with Mr. Woolsey then send Carson what we have. See if he comes up with anything or sees something we missed."
"Want me to do it?"
"I'll go. Call Cedric and Joval. Have them take over then go get some sleep. I'll be right behind you after I've checked on Rodney."
"Okay. Thanks."
~~O~~
The door to the one room shack that was Carson's living quarters creaked as it opened and again as it closed. He dropped wearily onto the thin mattress that made up his bed, rubbing a hand through his hair then used the fingers of that same hand to rub his eyes as he yawned. In his other hand he carried his computer tablet with the research Jennifer had sent him regarding the ATAs though he hadn't had a chance to look at it yet.
He'd gotten very little sleep over the past two weeks and it was beginning to take its toll. Several of the villagers who appeared to have a natural immunity to the illness had been kind enough to help out in the makeshift clinic, but the number of sick still far outnumbered the healthy though that was starting to change.
Some of the very old and those with compromised immune systems due to pre-existing conditions were the only deaths. And though he counted them as failures, he also knew they couldn't have been prevented with the level of medical technology he'd brought with him.
Kicking off his shoes and not bothering to get undressed, he lay down with a groan, resting the tablet upright on his chest. He reached under the mattress and pulled out the photo of Alison and himself at Rodney's birthday party. They were sitting on a loveseat, his arm around her shoulders looking into her eyes, a happy smile on her face to match his. She had just told him she loved him and he'd echoed the words back to her. If the person who'd taken the photo had waited another few seconds, they'd have gotten one of them kissing.
The words on the tablet in front of him blurred and within just a few minutes he was sound asleep, the tablet sliding to the side and onto the floor, the photo still held in one hand.
~~O~~
Radek looked up as Jennifer, Amanda and Woolsey entered his lab. When he'd called them, his voice had held a note of excitement and now they could see it in his face.
"Thank you for coming so quickly." He pushed his glasses up from where they slid down his nose. Tapping at the computer, he brought up code that had the other three stumped though his grin seemed to indicate it was the Holy Grail. The amount of information it contained was enormous as it scrolled across the monitor.
"That's very nice, Radek but what does it mean?"
"Oh, sorry. These are programs that were taking up precious space and power that was needed for other more important things when we first arrived on Atlantis. As they were unneeded at that time, Rodney sequestered them from the rest of the programming. I, uh, discovered them quite by accident and…" He saw their expressions change to annoyance. Tapping a few keys caused the scrolling data to stop and a specific area to begin flashing. "This is a safety protocol that is meant to protect the Ancients from…the easiest way to explain it is to say that when the city is fully powered it 'talks' to anyone who has the gene.
"However, it comes at a price. For those with the strongest ATA, it speaks too loudly overwhelming the central nervous system. With time, one can build a tolerance. The city has not had full power in many millennia and suddenly it was given all that it would ever need to run anything and everything within its walls. And I do mean everything. We will need to send out teams to shut down many labs and systems that do not need to be on."
"All off duty medical personnel to the Infirmary stat! Doctors Keller and Cole to the Infirmary stat!"
The women exchanged a look of alarm as they hurried to the transporter.
~~O~~
When Jennifer and Amanda arrived, the Infirmary was filled with organized chaos as off duty medical staff streamed into the area dressed in a variety of clothing, mostly pajamas or workout clothes. Cedric and Joval shouted orders, moving from bed to bed and demanding answers. Cedric spotted the women and rushed to give his report.
"…and except for Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay and Dr. Briggs, all of the ATAs have had a seizure though just one, thank God. Sergeants Campbell and Stackhouse were the first then one by one the others followed. It doesn't matter if the gene is natural or acquired through the therapy and we have no idea why the others didn't.
"We've brought the portable scanning equipment in to complete MRIs and CT scans but it's going to take a while."
"Thanks, Cedric." The dark-skinned doctor nodded and returned to work with Jennifer and Amanda pitching in.
In the back of everyone's mind only one question stood out. Why not John, Rodney or Valerie Briggs?
TBC
