CHAPTER 4- THE HOLY GRAIL
It was Elizabeth who picked up the paper she had tossed to the floor and John who, after casting a hard glance at Todd, left the room and ran after Jennifer. She had stopped once she got into the hallway and was resting her forehead against the wall, and felt John's hand as it settled gently on her shoulder.
"Hey... Jen. What the hell's the matter? I've never seen you so worked up! Ancient gene... wraith... Crap! I'm feeling just a little bit out of my comfort zone here."
"You're feeling out of YOUR comfort zone John... Jesus! Do you know what this means? Do you have any idea?"
The hand that rested lightly on her shoulder, now began a light massage, feeling the tension that had begun to build. He took both her shoulders then, and turned her, making her look him in the eye.
"Seriously Jen, I get that this is huge, I really do - but I need the full story, all the information laid out. Not just a random announcement, then hysterics." He put up a hand to stop her as she looked set to begin yelling at him. "And that Jen, is exactly what I mean. This isn't like you – you're normally rational, hell... how many times have you put me in my place for going into a situation without thinking it through – then ending up in your damn infirmary needing you to fix me up?"
She didn't answer straight away, looking down slightly and he placed a finger under her chin to tilt her face back up, waiting for an answer. "Jen, you know I'm right... hmmm?"
Her reply when it came was heated. "Ok Mr Cool Calm and Collected... exactly what would you have done? Marched in there with guns blazing, demanding your answers...? At least I had the good sense to leave my guns behind!"
At that he did manage to look slightly abashed. It was true that she had hit a nerve with that one, but his role at present, was head of security and she had compromised that security by rushing headlong down to confront the wraith with her findings, instead of waiting until morning and requesting a meeting with himself and Elizabeth.
"Ok Jen - it's still a little tender time wise for us to be clear headed about what you have found. I for one, need caffeine, and lots of it and you need to calm down a little, perhaps some sleep as you obviously did not get much of that during this somewhat short night. Go to bed... we'll deal with this in the morning, the real morning. And stay away from your wraith for now..."
My wraith thought Jennifer. Yes.. he is my wraith.. and oh, so much more...
She took John's advice, knowing it was in her best interest that the suggestion had been made, and attempted to sleep for a couple of hours. She was once again plagued by visions and a set of eyes that saw altogether too much whenever they looked at her and in aggravation she gave up, going instead outside on her private balcony to look down on the dark water, letting the breeze blow some of the cobwebs from her mind. And waited until morning came, the edges of the sky lightening as sunrise became a vague possibility, bringing the dawn of a new day, the beginning of the end of that long night where everything changed.
John, Elizabeth, Rodney and Teyla were waiting in the conference room when she arrived. Elizabeth's eyes narrowed as she took in the darkened circles under the young doctor's eyes, and flicking a glance at John, he shrugged slightly. She was a big girl, he could advise, but she would do what she needed to do. The same as anyone else in this room would do.
Rodney was pacing rather than sitting, possessing nervous energy that could not often be satisfactorily contained. He had only received this summons out of courtesy being chief scientist for the mission, and now sat abruply when Jennifer entered, tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk in front of him.
"So Jennifer.. wraith DNA, ancient gene... hodgepodge of genetic bubbling pot - what are we looking at here?" Rodney's scientific field of expertise was physics, astrophysics to be precise and he sometimes became impatient with what he considered, the less exacting science of biology, a fact that often had Jennifer and himself coming head to head in an effort to get their respective points across. She looked at him crossly now, not in the mood for his theatrics or his lack of respect for her scientific field and something in her eyes must have gotten through to Rodney, because he promptly shut his mouth and flicked his gaze downward toward his coffee cup, wisely chosing silence over battle.
Jennifer took a deep breath, feeling a little like a bug under a microscope. "I'm not sure how much Elizabeth was told you.." She paused then, catching John's eye and seeing him nod in encouragement, took another breath. "As you all know, the ancient database shows very little information about wraith physiology. We know that they did commence extensive testing at one point and these tests did not ever appear to be completed. This has always been a source of confusion to us - unless the testing had been interupted and they had genuinely been unable to complete it before the city was submerged."
She paused, this time to connect her computer to a holographic interface that allowed for the data that she had stored to show in 4D format, hovering over the top of the circular conference table. Three individuals were shown, above each was listed, Earth human, Ancient and Wraith and a small table beside showed percentages. The percentage bar beside the wraith and the ancient were the same, with a much smaller bar shown beside the earth human.
"These percentages represent the amount of ancient or ATA gene that is naturally found in each of these three examples. You will see notably, that earth humans have a very low concentration of the ATA gene, it is not naturally occurring in the bulk of the population, and only found in a measurable amount in certain humans - Colonel Sheppard notably being one of them. You will see also, the high percentage, found in ancients - this is understandable, the gene is afterall naturally occurring in their genetic makeup, although we do know also, that some of these held higher concentrates than others. What I discovered through testing the Wraith DNA and blood work, is that our wraith"...my wraith...she thought protectively "contains ancient or ATA gene as well, in as high a concentrate as is found in the ancients themselves."
Rodney's natural impatience started to show through again. "So Jennifer, conclusion please. Are you saying that it is likely that the wraith and ancient's evolved from the same original gene?"
Jennifer brought up another picture on her screen allowing the hologram to change to reflect her new input. This showed a series of time lapsed pictures...human to wraith and back to human and smiled a rather grim smile when she heard the collective gasp around the table.
"Yes Rodney, the same gene, the same beginning. We know that they evolved from an Irratis bug and the poison from the bug slowly mutated the human form to the creature that we see today. I suggest that this be taken back one step further. I surmise that this was an actual experiment performed by the ancients, an experiment that went horribly wrong. That is why the data is incomplete and inconclusive. There was likely an original group of scientists who performed these experiments and it was kept from the general population, findings, the real findings, were kept hidden."
Elizabeth sat back in her chair feeling a little sickened by what she had heard. "So they create, through an incorrectly performed experiment, an enemy that eventually had the strength to defeat them? The arrogance is staggering. The testing, it was to find out where they had gone wrong, to undo what they had done... but they didn't complete it in time. Full circle, hunted by the hunters." She looked sharply at Jennifer now, noting the gleam that had entered her eyes. "You have an idea as to what the changes occurring in our wraith are, don't you..."
"A glimmer Elizabeth... still a glimmer, but let's just say I may be able to increase it's radius. I need to go down and see him, spend time with him and I know the tests I need to do. I also know that he will help me, likely he either holds the answers we all seek , or is open to finding these answers himself. We brought him here for a reason, and that was to help us understand everything we can about our enemy. What if, he is not the enemy?"
She got up and shut down her computer, needing to leave, talk had made her head begin to ache and she felt the need to return, to see him. She felt edgy, feeling the strutiny of the others in the room and feeling just a little transparent as her resolve became twofold. Yes, she thought I need to see him.