30 minutes later, Hannah had managed to get partial power in the room, enough for McKay to hook into the database to do a search and turn the lights on. The others had joined them in the room broken glass was cautiously swept to a corner. They were all working on getting answers.
"That's all we are going to get, anymore and we'll fry the circuits and possibly me" Hannah said as she closed the panel on the power conduit.
"It's enough" McKay told her, Hannah got to her feet and stood opposite the group and McKay. He had come to the conclusion she was definitely infected, since she was perspiring more and looking visibly sick even though Wagner and Johnson hadn't shown those symptoms. But alas those in the room tended to believe him so she stood alone on the other side of the broken tubes.
"Any number of these smashed and open containers could have released the virus that killed Johnson and Wagner." Zelenka commented.
"And how would something like that survive for all these years?" Ford asked he looked more panicked than before, Hannah wished he'd pull it together and at least pretend it wasn't the end of the world. At least Sergeant Markham and Stackhouse were keeping a calm façade. Hannah just didn't care enough to panic, if she was going to die it would be on her terms. She wasn't going to give into hysteria it wasn't worth making her headache worse.
"Viruses can remain dormant for long periods." Dr Dumais, she pushed her dark brunette fringe to the side, it seemed to be her coping mechanism as she did it frequently in the last few minutes.
"I'm hoping the answer will be found in the database. Okay, I think that we have to—" Zelenka approached McKay who had his laptop interfaced with the lab console to the side. McKay waved a dismissive hand at the Czech scientist.
"Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Doesn't appear to be networked in with the rest of the Ancient systems. In fact, if you look, it only contains information about the experiments that took place in this room." he pressed his ear piece "Weir, it's McKay." he said.
"Go ahead, Rodney." Weir answered.
"Where's Beckett?" McKay asked, he looked at Hannah with a worried expression Hannah would have been surprised by his concern if it wasn't his own self preservation, if she was dying then he was next. The thoughts were written on his face.
"On his way. It takes some time to load a whole medical team into suits." Weir replied
"Well, we seem to have stumbled across something that I find…a little troubling " McKay said turning his back to Hannah.
"That's not what I wanted to hear" Weir said with a worried voice.
"I think we may have found an Ancient viral lab. Wagner and Johnson must have been exposed here. Now, it'd take weeks to sift through all this data, and there's no way of knowing whether the Ancients were just studying the viruses or actively creating them. Either way, the storm has done quite a number on this place, and I've got—" McKay stopped talking when Dumais stiffened and began to shake, she looked terrified and looked at Hannah as if she were possessed with an evil spirit or something.
"Dumais. Dumais? Dumais!" McKay shouted at the woman she grabbed Hays a structural engineer by the shirt.
"Can't you see it?" she asked him he pulled back from her.
"Dr Dumais" Hannah said, Dumais came around the table and started pulling at Hannah's clothing.
"It's all over you!" she said to Hannah she started swatting her clothes. Hannah grabbed the woman's hands and she squirmed repeating it was all over her. Hannah had no idea what she was talking about.
"Dumais! Dumais" McKay tried again. Dumais was unreachable, Hannah's head swoon from the exertion. Others came to her assistance and pulled Dumais off of her. Hannah stumbled back and clutched her head. Dumais struggled against those restraining her.
"It's all over you!" she ranted "They're all over you. They're all over you!" she was terrified and overtaken, she started screaming in utter terror.
Hannah straightened and watched as Dumais clutched her head and to the floor convulsing, and then she stopped blood trickled out of her ears and nose. Zelenka bent down and felt for a pulse, they waited after a second Zelenka shook his head, Dumais was dead.
"Tell Beckett to pick up the pace. I've just lost another member of my team." McKay shouted into his radio. Zelenka closed Dumais's eyes, and stood up, Hannah looked away as she was sure her brain was going to escape her head.
"We're missing someone" she said, Ford looked around the group.
"What?" McKay asked her, he looked around doing a quick head count himself.
"Peterson" Ford said.
"Yes, okay, I think we have him. He's trying to make his way back. It should be okay. Grodin is locking all the doors in the hallway and killing power to the entire section." Weir replied after McKay updated the Weir on their errant scientist.
"You need to send someone to stop him " Hannah said on her ear piece she winced as her head continued its steady pounding..
"It's under control," Wier said
"No, Elizabeth, it's not under control. He knows almost as much about Ancient technology as I do. At the very most, what you're doing will just slow him down." McKay said.
Sergeant Stackhouse came into the room. "Dr Beckett is here" he said, behind him, a number of people in Hazmat suits came into the room with equipment. They set up in the corner and Hannah had Stackhouse show two of the doctors where the first bodies were.
Beckett stepped forward "Who is showing symptoms?" he asked. McKay pointed at Hannah, Beckett beckoned Hannah over, Hannah moved to the side of the room away from the others.
"How you feeling lass?" he asked her,
"Like typhoid Mary" Hannah joked, Beckett gave her a weak smile before she continued "I have killer headache. Which I doubt is related to whatever this bug is" Hannah finished with a pained smile.
"Possibly, what are you doing down here anyway? you should be off duty for another two days" he told her. Hannah gave a shrug as she covered her forehead with her hand.
"I know, but we are undermanned with the flu going round" Hannah told him, he gave her a chastising look.
"You and I are going to have a long-"
"Doc, before you start… I really don't need a lecture about working too hard right now, you need to focus on the majority not me" she told him. She rubbed her forehead, she felt drained, Beckett sighed reluctantly and nodded.
"Ok, well we'll schedule it for say tomorrow 2pm. That work for you?" he asked her innocently. Hannah shot him a dark look which made him smile "But right now we'll get some fluids into you and you will take it easy" he told her.
"I'll do my best… when this is over" Hannah said she unzipped her TAC vest and Jacket pulled them off, and offered her arm. Her body was shaky from the lack of food and concussion. He gave her the chastising look again, Hannah knew it was out of concern. She was sure when Beckett had kids in the future between her and Sheppard he'd have that look down to a fine art. Hell it made her feel bad to the point she felt like she should lie on the ground right then and there to make him happy which meant it was working.
"Don't worry about me" she told him.
"Someone has to" He told her with a smile. Hannah returned the smile and squeezed his hand.
"Thanks. So you going to stab me with the needles" Hannah said holding out her arm. And looked away closed her eyes. She hated watching the needles go into her arm the rest she was fine with. Beckett laughed and got to work, he took her blood pressure and took blood samples. Before he put in an IV and hooked it up to a stand for her.
"Ok you can put your jacket back on, now no strenuous activity or I'll make you have a one week mandatory stay in my infirmary" Beckett told her
"Didn't know you liked me that much" Hannah said dryly with a smile, he shook his head and shooed her away.
Hannah pulled the stand with her and moved to side out of the way. She leaned against the far wall out of the way and had a hand over her eyes as Beckett and his team worked, taking blood samples and checking the rest of the group. Ford came over and stood beside Hannah. He had just finished his check up with Beckett.
"So we need to talk" Ford said to her
"Right now Sir?" Hannah asked,
"Yes stand to attention" he told her, Hannah moved sluggishly and stood to attention as best she could. She felt like passing out as her head throbbed. Her eyes were barely open.
"I know we are in a pretty bad situation here but I don't appreciate the way you undermined me earlier" Ford told her, she blinked at him and tried to refrain from showing the disbelief at him dressing her down now of all times.
"Sorry Sir but I felt it was necessary at the time" Hannah said in a low voice.
"Excuse me?" he snapped at her.
"Ford, your face is like an open book to me and everyone in the room. You're a senior officer-"
"Oh thank you but I don't need to be reminded" he said angrily interrupting her; she pinched the bridge of her noise.
"It seems you do, every time Sheppard isn't around you turn into a bucket case" Hannah told him.
"Lieutenant" Ford said raising his voice it caught attention of a few people in the room but they soon turned away.
Hannah took a deep breath trying to keep the last shred of patience she had left. "You are a superior officer and as such you are supposed uphold some standard of decorum as an example for the others-"
"Enough" he said cutting off, Hannah pursed her lips and looked away for a moment.
Ford's mouth flattened into a thin line, there was so much he wanted to say but couldn't probably because he wanted to shout at her. He shook his head and walked away. Hannah exhaled slowly; she had made an enemy instead of her point.
She turned her attention to the room and watched Beckett complete his examination of McKay, McKay was impatient and snapping at Beckett it was clear McKay was thinking he was going to die. He pulled the pressure cuff of off his arm and moved over to stand next to Zelenka who was working on the laptop.
"I'm going to see what I can get from the database. Let me know what the autopsy shows up." McKay told Beckett.
"All right." Beckett said to McKay gently.
"Oh, and tell your pathologists to start with their heads." McKay told Beckett, Hannah watched as Beckett walked away.
McKay stepped back from Zelenka his eyes glazed like he was seeing something. Zelenka looked up and noticed the change in McKay's demeanour. After a second McKay shrugged anxiously and picked up the laptop and continued to work.
Hannah pushed off the wall and dragged her IV stand with her as she walked down the hallway following the Hazmat suits as they moved the dead bodies into the room next to the lab where the living patients were and had set up a make shift autopsy room with construction lights flooding the room with light.
She cringed slightly as the bodies were placed indelicately on the tables. Hannah watched as they started the autopsy. She moved to stand next to Beckett and tapped on the head of his suit he turned and looked at her.
"You're supposed to be taking it easy" he chastised her.
"I am" Hannah told him, he was about to argue with her when the doctor in the makeshift Autopsy room radioed.
"Dr. Beckett? I have the preliminary autopsy results on the first two victims, sir." She told him.
"Anything of interest?" he asked her, the doctor smiled excitedly at them.
"They both 4died of a ruptured saccular brain aneurysm, which, in and of itself, isn't all that remarkable. I mean, sure, the chances of two people standing next to each other and dying of it is statistically improbable, yes, but it's not the smoking gun we were hoping for, because I know you said—"
"Get to the good part, Dr. Biro." Beckett said cutting Biro off, her face fell slightly.
"Sorry, sir. What's truly interesting is that both ruptures happened in exactly the same place, right above the visual cortex." Biro said still smiling.
"And the third one? Dumais?" Beckett asked
"Just getting to her now, sir. I'll let you know" Biro said.
"She did say, "brain aneurysm," right?" McKay asked Hannah and Beckett turned to McKay who was at the door. He obviously overheard the preliminary report.
"That's right." Beckett told him
"That's the best news I've heard all day. Let me show you something." McKay said to them, they followed McKay as he returned to the Lab where he proceeded to show them an entry on his laptop that he pulled from the database in the room.
"I haven't read the entire entry because it's incredibly long, but this looks like our guy. Six-hour hibernation, recurring visions, and, best of all, so I've left it to last—brain haemorrhage or aneurysms." McKay told them
"That definitely sounds familiar." Hannah commented, she held on to her IV stand to keep herself standing straight as she sagged. The fluids were helping her but she was still weak on her feet. She knew if she sat down it would be for the last time.
"Yeah. Maybe there's something in here about how to" McKay stopped mid sentence and held his hands up covering his face "No!" he shouted in fear. He cowered for a moment and then recovered. Hannah and Beckett looked at him with concern.
"Sorry." McKay said, Hannah offered her hand, he didn't take it and got to his feet on his own.
"Rodney?" Beckett asked he looked at McKay with concern.
"I've been seeing things" McKay admitted he looked scared.
"Since when?" Beckett asked.
"About an hour. First you think it's just your eyes playing tricks on you but eventually—"
"They get worse." Dr Hays said.
"You, too?" McKay said to him, in slight relief someone understood what he was going through. Dr Hays nodded.
"They come right at you." Hays said.
"It's like a…ghost." McKay said they looked at each other knowing the pain. Hannah exchanged looks with Beckett who was equally concerned. "What about you?" Beckett asked Hannah. She shrugged and shook her head.
"Nothing, though I head butted a console so maybe my brain is mashed in that area" Hannah joked.
"You think it's funny to crack a joke?" McKay asked angrily.
"I'm trying to diffuse the tension in the room" Hannah told him with a small smile, McKay was going to snap at her but Zelenka stepped into the circle that had formed.
"I've been going over the survey schedule. Johnson and Wagner started off on their own, but then crossed paths with Dumais an hour later." Zelenka said looking at the tablet computer.
"Dumais died almost exactly an hour after Johnson and Wagner. Who did they meet up with next?" McKay asked Zelenka, he tapped on the screen and looked up.
"My greater concern is who Dumais met up with next." Zelenka said with a note of dread.
"Dumais? Who did she run into?" Beckett asked, Zelenka looked down then back at McKay and Hannah. McKay gave a sigh and closed his eyes.
"Me. She ran into Hays… then Lieutenant O'Neill and me. We're next." McKay said he had a look of panic mixed with acceptance like it was his luck to have so much bad luck. Hannah's brows drew together in confusion.
"But I haven't had any visions…" Hannah said
"Well it could be something about your physiology is different to theirs" Beckett suggested her. Beckett realized his slip of the tongue and looked at Hannah apologetically.
McKay looked confused "How is she different from any of us?" McKay asked.
"I'm beautiful and unique snowflake" Hannah told him dryly. McKay gave her a withering look.
"ha ha very funny" He told her.
"No really, or it could be I'm more Zen than you are" she said just to rile him up, McKay took the bait and Beckett walked away coming back with heart monitors while McKay told her exactly what he was thinking.
"You are just like everyone else! You aren't special in the slightest... in fact I think you're just plain" McKay told her, Hannah feigned a shocked expression.
"Moi? Plain that's mean" she said pretending to be hurt. Beckett attached leads from the heart monitor to McKay's chest. Then connected Hays to another heart monitor saving Hannah for last.
"Is this really necessary? I am about to die of a brain aneurysm. How does being attached to a heart monitor help?" McKay asked him, Beckett turned to Hannah and hooked her up on the heart monitors.
"Well if you die like the others, we'll have a better idea of how." He told McKay he winked at Hannah and turned the machines on, Hannah noted her resting heart rate and compared it McKay's with hers.
"At that point, I will cease to care." McKay told Beckett.
"There are a lot of other people that live in the city, man." Ford said panicked now. It was a shared emotion in the room with the other scientist who had idle hands.
"Yes, the living!" McKay said, he turned and noted Hannah's amused expression "What can you possibly find amusing right now?" he asked her, she pointed to the monitors.
"I'm calmer than you" Hannah commented, put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes exhaling. Her heart beat began to rise.
"46 beats per minute 50.. Carson" McKay said his voice was filled with concern believing she was about to meet her maker like Dumais.
"Lieutenant?" McKay asked her. Hannah felt her stomach flip and the sure feeling she was going to be sick as a wave of nausea hit her.
"Hannah?" Beckett called she felt his gloved hand on her arm and she exhaled slowly as the nausea passed. Her heart monitor slowed back to her original resting rate.
"I'm good I-" she didn't finish her sentence as she was interrupted by the radio.
"Dr. Beckett?" Biro asked on the radio.
"Any progress, Dr. Biro?" Beckett asked.
"Just finished Dumais' autopsy. Would it surprise you to learn she died of a ruptured brain aneurysm above the visual cortex, sir?" Biro asked
"No, it wouldn't. Thank you, Doctor." Beckett said.
"Didn't think so" Biro replied.
"You know, the position of the rupture could explain the visions. Swelling in that area before the breakage could absolutely account for the hallucinations." Beckett suggested
"Look, I'm no MD, but wouldn't brain swelling on the visual cortex just mean that we experience washes of colour or weird visual anomalies?" McKay said to him sceptically.
"It would depend on the person." Beckett said looking at Hannah.
"Yeah, that's my point. All of our visions are so similar. If they're the result of arterial swelling, wouldn't the visions we experience be more random?" McKay argued.
"Most likely." Beckett said.
"Yeah, well, the things we're seeing are pretty damn identical!" McKay told him "Well except her, since she claims to see nothing"
"She is the cat's mother. I have a name" Hannah said to McKay folding her arms. McKay waved a dismissive hand at her comment.
"And you think it might have something to do with the nature of the—" Beckett started ignoring Hannah's comment as well as he was on the same train of thought McKay was on.
"There's a good chance—" McKay said cutting him off but didn't finish as Hays started to panic he slapped his hands out in front of him, obviously hallucinating.
"No…no!" Hays screamed.
"Hays, it's not real. Remember, it's not real." McKay told the scientist but the man continued to scream.
"No! No. They're coming right at us! Can't you see them?" He pleaded, Hannah watched as the medical staff struggled to keep Hays from thrashing.
"His heart rate's spiked, but aside from that—" Beckett said as he read Hay's heart monitor readout.
"Don't say "fine!" He's not fine. Do something!" McKay told Beckett, Beckett turned to McKay and Hannah.
"There's nothing to do." Beckett told him. Hays grew silent and still. His heart monitor flat lined. The med team pulled Hays onto his back, Beckett moved in and started CPR.
"One, two three, four five… One, two three, four, five." Beckett counted he continued another round. Beckett looked at McKay and Hannah. Hannah sat on a container that sat by the all with her head in her hands.
"Stop. It's not his heart. Just…stop." McKay told them defeated, the team stopped, and moved the body out of the room. Hannah looked up and ran her hands through her hair.
"How are you feeling?" Ford asked, Hannah looked up and saw Ford was asking McKay. McKay was wide eyed and scared looking at Ford.
"I'm…I'm… Listen, I have a sister. We're not close. I don't even know how you'd find her—" McKay started his tone was slightly pleading.
"Don't talk like that." Ford told him, cutting him off.
"She's the only family I really have, so someone should tell her what happened… And make it sound good, okay? Tell her I died saving someone…kids. I died saving kids, a bunch of them… And, Zelenka I've got some theories on looping the power in the gate to charge a dummy ZPM. It probably won't work, but you should have someone look at it, because it might lead somewhere else." McKay continued.
"We'll look at it together." Zelenka told him.
"You seriously have to stop interrupting my last thoughts. I mean, this is important stuff you need to hear. Now…if you're here for more than a year, I've left some notes on how to roll blackouts to effectively maintain your power requirements, and-and-and… Oh! Tell everyone that I was inches away from a theory of unification, but the notes, they were lost when I died saving the…" he stopped losing his train of thought.
"Kids" Hannah offered as she sat back and closed her eyes, with McKay making his scene no one was really looking her way. She appreciated it even if it was unnecessary.
"Yeah." He said despondent he turned to Hannah "And you are not plain, you're beautiful, intelligent and frankly taken for granted around here"
"Lucky I have so many witnesses to that statement" Hannah told him with a wry smile.
McKay looked around the room for several seconds waiting for the evitable death he thought was coming. Hannah looked sceptically around the room as everyone waited for him to start screaming. But he didn't, he remained very much alive. After a few more seconds McKay looked confused and a little disappointed.
"Okay? I should be dead now." McKay said, Beckett came toward him and looked at his heart monitor.
"You ran into Dumais at the same time?" Becket asked him he nodded
"After me, who by the way I'm alive if anyone actually cares" she added tongue in cheek.
"Then, you both should be dead." Beckett told them.
"What can I say I'm lucky" Hannah said smugly "Can I go now?" she asked Beckett shot her a look and she stayed as she was seated on the container. She didn't want Beckett to up her mandatory stay any longer than a week.
"Oh, God." McKay smiled "I'm still here" he said relieved.
"Yes, you are." Ford said hope written on his face it was soon squashed by Zelenka.
"Interesting." Zelenka said as he looked at McKay curiously.
"Interesting?" McKay asked annoyed.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but—" Beckett started
"Why?" Hannah asked, from her seat on the crates.
"Exactly" Beckett said.
"Well, I don't care." McKay said giddy with relief "I mean, I really don't care." He told them.
SGASGASGASGASGASGASGASGA