The Times Have Changed-Chapter 4-Is she a Goa'uld?
"Goa'uld? The girl's a Goa'uld?" McKay sputtered at the meeting.
"No, Rodney. She only has the proteins that are left over by the symbiote," Beckett tried to reassure the Canadian.
"What's a Goa'uld?" Ronon, ever ready for a fight, asked the group assembled.
"Remember when I told you about those aliens that look like snakes and live in people's heads? Well, that's what a Goa'uld is," Sheppard explained.
"Don't forget that the Tok'ra are similar; they're just not evil," Lorne added, still a bit grateful for the assistance the "good" symbiotic aliens had provided when he and the rest of the expedition had been recalled and he had been assigned to his old SG team and the mission they had been on turned ugly. Out of everyone assembled, only he, Elizabeth, McKay, and Charlie had ever come across a Goa'uld "project" and McKay was the only one that had never come face-to-face with one or the "evil" symbiotic aliens.
"That's true, but we have no way of knowing if it was a Goa'uld or a Tok'ra-"
"Or if she's the descendent of a host," Charlie interrupted Beckett. She quickly added "Sorry, Doc."
The group turned to the young captain. "What do you mean 'if she's the descendent of a host'?" Bates asked her.
"Well, on my first mission with the SGC, Dr. Jackson and I were on a mission with another SG team when they found a village full of people that had been descended from both the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld. They could activate Goa'uld technologies and a few of them had the same proteins that continue to show up for three generations after a person stops being a host. It was difficult to tell through scientific tests which individuals were the descendents and which had actually been hosts. The only way we could find out what category to put them into was to ask them questions that only a host would know."
Everyone was silent for a moment while McKay and Beckett both searched through the records they had been given by the SGC to find the events that the captain had spoken of.
"She's right," Beckett spoke as he looked up from his computer. "Dr. Lam states that the only way they could determine if some of the individuals had actually been hosts or not was to get the Tok'ra to ask those they weren't sure about questions that only a host would know."
"Dr. Jackson also added that the children and grandchildren of hosts retained the genetic memory that symbiote queens give to their offspring," Rodney stated as he, too, looked up from his computer.
"So, what do we do? Wait until she wakes up and then ask her questions?"
"That's about all we can do. Dismissed," Elizabeth said and soon everyone was collecting laptops and notebooks and pushing in chairs before they left the room.
Where the hell am I? the mysterious young woman in the infirmary asked herself as she slowly woke up. And why the hell does my head feel like someone landed a plane on it? As she struggled to sit up, her groan alerted the nurse on duty that the only patient they currently had was awake. She quickly called Dr. Beckett before going to see how the woman was. the mysterious young woman in the infirmary asked herself as she slowly woke up. As she struggled to sit up, her groan alerted the nurse on duty that the only patient they currently had was awake. She quickly called Dr. Beckett before going to see how the woman was.
"How are you feeling?" Nurse Jenny Thomas asked the woman struggling to sit up in bed. She quickly moved to lift the top half of the bed so that the woman could sit up and when she was sitting up, Jenny gave her a cup of water to drink.
"Thanks. I've been better. Who are you and where the hell am I?" she asked Jenny.
Thankfully, Jenny didn't have to answer as her boss, Dr. Carson Beckett, had just walked in and was approaching the bed. "Thank you, Jenny. I'm Dr. Carson Beckett and you're in Atlantis. Can you tell me your name and what you remember?"
The woman nodded before answering. "Dr. Cassandra Frasier. Last thing I remember is going through the Stargate on Earth before I woke up here."
Getting over his shock, Carson checked Dr. Frasier's vitals. "Can you tell me the date, Cassandra? I'm just checking for concussion," he added quickly.
"Thursday, April 12, 2018," she answered. The Scotsman nodded as he made a note in his data pad.
"Alright; think you're up for some food?" at her hungry nod, Carson called down to the kitchen and asked the chief on duty if something substantial could be sent up to the infirmary for his patient.
A few hours later, the city's senior staff was once again sitting in the conference room, listening as Dr. Beckett told them about his patient.
"Are you sure she's Cassie Frasier? I mean, Cassie's only 24; she's still working on her master's," McKay said after Carson had finished speaking.
"I tested her DNA against the sample that we have on file from the SGC. I'm 100 sure that the woman in my infirmary is Cassandra Frasier."
"Yeah, but, a doctor? Rodney's right, she's still in grad school. How could she be a doctor?" Lorne asked.
"She could have traveled back in time," Zelenka said. "The Stargate has sent people through time before. And Carson did say that she thought that the year was 2018. It's not too farfetched."
"Yes, but that was because of a solar flare in the Milky Way. She somehow started out at the SGC seven years from now and ended up in Pegasus. I don't believe it. She doesn't even look like the Cassie we know! Her hair's too short!" Cassie had just left the week before after spending the last two months in Atlantis.
"People do get their hair cut, McKay," Charlie said.
"Yes, but how do you explain the Goa'uld proteins in her DNA?" he asked the group assembled.
"That's an easy one. I had Dr. Bakker run the tests again. What we initially thought to be the proteins left behind by a Goa'uld, which is in fact what they were, were proteins that had been introduced to her system by the Goa'uld Nirti when she was a child."
"That does explain most of our questions," Elizabeth said.
"It does?" Sheppard and Rodney both asked.
"Yes, gentlemen," she answered. "Dismissed." People once again gathered their things and filed out. "Carson, a moment please," Elizabeth called to her CMO.
"Yes, love? What can I do for you?" he sat back down.
"I'd like to speak with Dr. Frasier later, if that's all right with you."
"Yes, Elizabeth; that's fine. Come by at 1730." He got up to left, flashing her a smile before disappearing in the direction that led to the infirmary.
"Thank you."
Okay, so that was chapter 4. What'd you think?
