What on Earth – Chapter 10
Sorry for the delay everyone, here is chapter 10, hope you enjoy this little visit to Atlantis.
Daniel and Teal'c stepped through the gate on Atlantis, much to the surprise of the personnel there, who had merely been informed by the SGC that there was a delegation en route from Earth. The new commander of the city, Richard Woolsey, moved down the stairs and walked through the waiting group of SF's to greet his visitors, keen to show that he was the one who should be in charge. He took up a position in front of Colonel Shepard making sure that everyone in the room was aware of his position.
That lasted until Teal'c spoke before Woolsey even had the chance to open his mouth. "We are not in need of your assistance. We require an audience with Dr Keller, Colonel Shepard and Dr McKay."
John, who had spent the last twelve hours reeling from the fact that Colonel Carter was no longer his commander and that this non-military schmuck, as General O'Neill would say, was now his boss, took one look at Woolsey's face and decided to make the most of this welcome interruption.
He cleared his throat and deliberately took a step in front of Woolsey to address the visitors. Then quite nonchalantly spoke with lazy authority, "Sure, Teal'c, Daniel. We'll meet in the main room. I'll page Rodney and Jennifer. You want to speak to anyone else?"
"No, not at the moment, anyway. Thanks, John," Daniel replied, easily reading the tension in the room and very happy to back John against Richard Woolsey. Then, completely ignoring the now Commander of Atlantis, he and Teal'c followed the Colonel up to the control area where Shepard had a tech page the others.
The trio made their way through the corridors of Atlantis silently. Once they'd entered the main room and sat down, they only had to wait a few moments before Rodney arrived, followed almost immediately by Jennifer.
Rodney flamboyantly entered the room, arms waving to attract attention to himself "I was called and… oh, I see we have visitors," He deflated quickly clearly disappointed that he was not needed to save the day on this particular occasion.
"Hey, McKay, good to see you," Daniel said, deadpan, in response to Rodney's over the top entrance and then underwhelming view of the guests.
The group waited for Jennifer to sit down and then there was an uncomfortable silence. Daniel was about to speak when Jennifer pre-empted him, "Are Colonel Carter and her baby well?"
"Yes, both doing well and had a restful night…. but they're why we're here," Daniel replied.
Jennifer nodded, unsure what else to say.
"How did Landry take the news?" John asked, having obviously been aware of the whole situation.
"Quite well, considering it looked for a while like she'd had a relationship with someone under her command," Daniel responded carefully, watching to see the reaction his statement got.
"Now, just wait a minute," McKay blustered. "Colonel Carter would never, ever do something like that and you should be ashamed of yourselves for thinking it!" He was almost livid in defence of the person who had held a special place in his heart.
"I don't think it, McKay, I'm saying that the General thought it." Daniel relaxed, he had got the reaction he expected, no one here believed that to be true. He turned his attention from the scientist to the other Atlantis personnel, it was time to use their intel not waste time on accusations. "Can you tell us what you know? We've confirmed that Sam's the baby's mother but she has no idea who the father is."
John leaned back and indicated for Jennifer to speak.
"When I first examined her she said the same to me about the father and, no matter how crazy it sounded, I completely believed her. We don't know anything about the father but the only thing I could say was that it wasn't an ordinary pregnancy."
"How do you mean?" Daniel asked, curious at this turn of events.
"I didn't say anything to Colonel Carter, she was too panicked about the origin of the baby and its safety, however, there's no way that the foetus was 8 months old when I first examined the Colonel. I would stake my reputation on it."
"How far along do you think she was?" Daniel asked, not totally phased at the news, he had wondered the same.
Jennifer sat back and contemplated for a moment, "Hmm,….. I would say no more than 16 weeks, but possible only 12. She had none of the physical outward symptoms of pregnancy at her first exam. Even with the position of the foetus the Colonel would be physically changing if her pregnancy was more advanced."
"You mean that in only a week the foetus had aged that rapidly?" Daniel asked.
"Possibly... but then it made no more abnormal increase from that point to the birth, I was keeping a very close eye on it."
"The child has not aged strangely since returning to the SGC," Teal'c stated.
"The Colonel went on no strange missions," John said, "And she was never alone on any planets and, to anyone here's knowledge, had no altercations with any off-world people that could have resulted in a pregnancy," he added, stuttering through the last bit and blushing at the implications.
"And we've ruled out all Atlantis personnel," Daniel added.
"I wouldn't have expected anything else," John quickly responded, a little narked that the tests had been run.
A few moments passed and all the occupants looked from one to another. "Do you have any theories about how this could have happened?" Daniel asked quietly.
Jennifer cleared her throat before putting forward her ideas. "I've thought of little else in the last two weeks. I can only see a few possible options. 1. Someone, a human male, did this to her either here or off-world. 2. I considered the idea of some other being, like the Ori or the Wraith, being involved but there's no evidence of an incursion on Atlantis. Finally… well, to be honest, I have no other option."
"Can you run me through what happened here in the weeks before the pregnancy was discovered?"
"Sure," John answered and moved to the control panel in the middle of the table. The display sprang to life. "Just select dates. It's set to Earth dates so we're looking at when?"
"Before May 1st," Jennifer answered.
"Okay, so, computer, display Atlantis activity for April this year." The files scrolled across the screen in the middle of the room. "Here we go. Beginning of the month, a standard meet and greet, no concerns, good Intel. Then a delegation came to Atlantis, again no problems. A lab accident, Rodney and his geeks tried to destroy the city." John nodded and chuckled at Rodney, who huffed. "Then, oh yeah, a really strange thing happened…"
AN: Okay okay, please don't kill me, I know that was horrible of me. So I have two more chapters left. Hope to get another one to you tomorrow. Thanks for all the support and reviews, they make me smile.