A/N: Don't worry, everything will be cleared up once Cora… yeah… it'll be cleared up.
Chapter 11- Fallen Mad Scientists
John listened to the Expedition leader's voice urging everyone to remain calm and return to their quarters, officially acknowledging the outbreak of the nanovirus. It was a necessary step as it seemed evident the whole population had been infected. Of course, the remaining original members should have known what was going on, or at least suspected, at least the ones who had been in the mess hall last time around.
As he was practically running to the Jumper Bay, John passed people in the halls looking frightened and flinching unexpectedly at their visions, with the occasional yells.
He was turning a corner when he walked right into a skeletal-faced black cloud. A more girlish scream than he would admit exploded from his mouth as he launched backwards and instinctively reached for his sidearm. The form dissipated in the air, and he straightened up, his heart racing. He drew his hand back from its position over the 9mm and activated his radio.
"Elizabeth."
"John?"
"Yeah," He continued walking, "They're getting worse."
She didn't have to think about what he was referring to, "I know. Zelenka is in the Jumper Bay loading a generator, it should be ready by the time you reach there."
"Where's Rodney?"
"He's in the infirmary getting a few stitches." She stood in her office, looking out the window that gave her a bird's eye view of the Gate. They didn't have a lot of time judging by the severity of the visions, and the only definite way they had to stop the nanovirus was the electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear explosion. The whole city was evidently infected, though why Atlantis didn't shut down like last time, they had no idea.
The only other option was to have everyone go to the EMP generator in Rodney's lab, but they didn't know how long anyone had until the virus reached the climax of its incubation period, or if the EMP could even generate a large enough pulse to stop the virus. So, they were falling to what worked last time, or risk losing half the population.
"Okay…" John drawled. "Any idea how this happened?"
"Carson checked the samples in the lab, they were completely secure, yet also active. Dr. Matthews hasn't been responding to my pages, though the scans show her in her quarters."
"Got anyone checking on her?"
"Major Lorne. I hope she's alright."
"She might have been the first infected." He shook his head as he entered the Jumper Bay, thinking about how Rodney would take it if she was killed.
--
"Are you done?"
Dr. Biro took off her gloves, "Yes. You are free to go."
"Finally." Rodney hopped off the exam table and activated his radio as he walked out, "Elizabeth?"
"Rodney." She answered, just having terminated the connection with John.
"Where do we stand?"
"John is just leaving with the Jumper now. Major Lorne is trying to reach Dr. Matthews and see if she can shed some light on this."
Panic crept into his voice, "Trying to reach her? What's wrong? Where is she?"
Elizabeth was only a little confused at his strong reaction, she knew they knew each other from college, "In her quarters according to the city's sensors."
His steps immediately shifted in the direction of Cora's room, "Well, the city hasn't done too well of a job in alerting us to the outbreak, has it?"
"About that, any ideas?"
"Not yet. Give me a few minutes. All our computers shut down?"
"Yes. We're working with only Ancient technology now."
"Good. We wouldn't want the EMP to knock our equipment out. I'll be up in the Control Room in a few minutes."
"I'll be expecting you. Weir out."
Rodney walked into a transporter, holding his arm, and within a few seconds walked out, or more like ran.
Major Lorne turned his head at the image of Rodney running towards him, "Dr. McKay, come to help?"
"Can't open the door?"
"No, and Matthews won't answer, but we know someone's in there."
Rodney stopped in front of her door and started tinkering with the crystals that manually opened it. "She locked the damn thing."
"That's evident."
Rodney shot Lorne a look as he continued working. "No response from her?"
"None." Lorne shook his head.
The door slid open with a satisfying 'whoosh', and the two men peered inside. The first thing Rodney saw was Cora on the floor, lying face down.
Rodney's eyes widened as he quickly knelt beside her, "No, no, no…" He gently turned her over and couldn't stop the gasp escaping his lips.
Lorne looked down, and saw the blood under her nose. "Damn."
A million thoughts ran through Rodney's head as he cradled Cora, knowing that the nanovirus couldn't kill her, she had the Ancient gene… but it sure as hell looked like it, the people killed by it a year ago also had blood leaking from the same orifices. He checked her pulse, and was relieved a little as he found one. He barked back to Lorne, "Get Carson down here."
"But-"
"She's alive. Get Carson now!"
Lorne stepped back and talked into his radio as Rodney brushed back the hair off Cora's face. He didn't know what was wrong with her, and it was frightening. He let his eyes wander about the foyer at all the cases sitting around, including the one with the controlling device from the Lollian planet, and it was open. On the floor within her reach, was a notebook and a pen.
His eyebrows furrowed, as he picked up the notebook and began reading the notes made in what he recognized as Cora's elliptical handwriting.
Lorne got off the radio and saw what the scientist was doing, "Anything important?"
The only answer he received was, "Oh my god." Rodney continued to whisper, "What the hell did you do?..." He activated his radio, "Colonel!"
"I'm a little busy here, Rodney."
"Stop, you don't have to overload the generator, I have a better plan."
Elizabeth's voice came through, "Which would be?"
"The controlling device."
She replied, "But there's an incredible amount of frequencies to test, we don't have the time."
"No, you don't understand. I have the correct frequency."
"How?" John looked out the Jumper's window to the city below, knowing they had to make a decision fast.
"Cora, erm.. Dr. Matthews determined it, it's in her notes." Rodney snapped his fingers to Lorne, "Bring that case over here." He pointed to it.
"When did she do that?" He asked.
"Last night from what I can tell."
Lorne brought over the case and set it by Rodney, who still had Cora's head resting in his lap.
"Is she there?"
"Unconscious." Rodney hit the symbol that opened the drive in the side of the device.
Elizabeth jumped back in, "Rodney... why do I get the feeling you're not telling us something?"
"Uh…" He started entering the frequency he read from Cora's notes, knowing he couldn't avoid it forever, "It seems like she, uh, was performing an experiment with the nanovirus. She released it into the city… on purpose."
"Oh my god." Elizabeth almost fell over.
John raised his eyebrows as he piloted the Jumper, "Why the hell would someone do that?"
"I don't know, Colonel. I'll be the first one to ask her when she wakes up. If she wakes up."
John asked, "Any idea why she's unconscious?"
"No. Carson should be up here by now and he'd better be able to tell me or..." He typed in a final instruction, listening to the buzzing sound emitted by the device, "That should be all. Those damn things should be dead now."
"John, stay up there until we can confirm that."
"Okay. I'll just cruise around a little. Enjoy the scenery."
"Rodney, what do we have here?"
He spun his head around, "Damn, Carson, take a little longer! She's breathing and everything, but she won't wake up and… I…"
Carson patted his friend's back as he knelt on one knee beside him, "We've got her now, lad."
Xxx
Elizabeth waited in the meeting room for the other three senior personnel to file in. It didn't take long to confirm the nanovirus had indeed been deactivated by the device, as the samples in the lab were no longer active, and no one was experiencing hallucinations any longer.
The situation could have been a lot worse than it had been, the only casualty seeming to be Dr. Matthews. Elizabeth couldn't wrap her head around what would drive someone to conduct such an… experiment, to risk so many lives. But all the evidence pointed to the new Expedition member.
The Colonel was the first in the room, he was rubbing his hand over his hair, causing it to become impossibly messy. With a nod he sat in his usual seat, a few chairs down from her. He was obviously lost in his own thoughts.
Another minute passed before Carson and Rodney showed up. The former was walking next to the Chief Scientist, giving the man his full attention as he squeezed his shoulder and whispered quietly. Rodney was looking down at the ground, actually not speaking.
She knew it was strange behavior for Rodney, but she thought of Dr. Matthews in the infirmary, and figured he was worried about his old friend. He must have been in shock over what she had done.
The two men took their seats and Elizabeth started the meeting.
"Gentlemen, if you're all ready."
"Aye." Carson turned from the downcast Rodney, "As you know, the nanovirus has been incapacitated."
"And Dr. Matthews?"
"Still unconscious. She is also unresponsive, her heart rate is quick and erratic, and her breathing is slow. That's all we know for now."
"Will she recover?" Elizabeth asked.
"I can't say without knowing what has caused her symptoms."
Elizabeth turned to the Chief Scientist, "Rodney, you know her the best, do you know why she would do something like this?" She gestured to Cora's notebook Rodney brought in with him.
Rodney shook his head, "No." He scratched the bandage Dr. Biro had applied to his cut, but stopped when he caught Carson glaring at him.
"Alright." She paused, "We were lucky this situation ended the way it did. I want all traces of the nanovirus destroyed permanently. I am not risking this again."
The others nodded in agreement, not wanting to think about what would have happened to half the population if the nanovirus hadn't been turned off.
She continued, "Why didn't Atlantis establish quarantine procedures?"
Rodney had remained quiet, lost in his sullen thoughts, but the chance to talk about his one refuge –work- dragged him out of his state slightly, "The only reason it sensed one before was when Peterson was the sole carrier on powered sections of the city." He flipped open Cora's notebook, "According to this, the nanovirus was distributed in a semi-active state using the ventilation system and fully activated all at once. It's possible Atlantis didn't view it as a threat because the virus already had been established in all powered areas."
"I'd think the Ancients would still want to know they had an outbreak situation."
"I would too, Colonel, but do I look like an Ancient to you? I don't know why they did half the things they did."
"Could Dr. Matthews have somehow prevented the city from going into quarantine?" Elizabeth suggested.
Rodney shook his head, "No, she's not familiar at all with the Ancient systems. This is only her fifth day here."
Elizabeth went on, "Someone who knows the systems could have helped. Though I can't imagine who would."
John shot Rodney a glance, Rodney looked back at him.
"Uh… well…" Rodney fidgeted in his seat.
Carson was going to say a word when he heard his radio activate, "Dr. Beckett, this is Kushnikov."
He announced to the others, "Excuse me," as he turned his head from them and responded, "I'm here."
"Dr. Costello was brought in a few minutes ago. Her condition is remarkably similar to Dr. Matthews.' I've put her under the same treatments."
"Who brought her in?"
"Dr. Simpson found her and paged the infirmary for a med team. I thought you should know."
"Thank you, I'll be down there in a few minutes. Beckett out." The link to the Russian doctor deactivated and Carson looked back to the others, who were looking concerned. He realized they hadn't been continuing the conversation when he was on the radio.
"Anything wrong?" Elizabeth asked.
"Dr. Costello is in the infirmary. Dr. Kushnikov has diagnosed her with the same condition as Dr. Matthews."
Rodney's eyes widened at the mention of Costello as tried to keep his gaze from meeting Elizabeth's. He knew she'd read him like a book.
"This isn't contagious is it? Or a side effect of the nanovirus we haven't encountered before?"
"It's too early to know. We'll take precautionary measures. I should be getting back."
"By all means, go ahead. Keep me informed." She had been keeping a brave face throughout this crisis, but it wasn't what she felt. On the inside, she was shaken up.
"I will."
Elizabeth didn't fail to notice the subtle looks that passed between the three men as Carson left. She got the feeling they weren't letting her in on something.
"John, Rodney, anything else?"
"I'm just going to check the logs… see it there's anything about the failed quarantine. Cora kept a detailed report, but she could have easily not put that in there." Rodney stood up and hastily left.
Now alone with Elizabeth, John spoke up, "I think we found our conspirator. Costello is best friends with Matthews."
"How do you know that?"
John gave a smile to mask the truth, "It's a long story."
She leaned forward, "I have time."
"It's not… my place to say really… Rodney told us they were friends."
"Who is included in this 'us'?"
"Beckett and Zelenka."
"I have a feeling this is a guy thing."
"Well, yeah. Nothing personal. It's just something that he felt comfortable talking to us about. I thought you should know about Costello, if anyone else is involved in this, it would be her."
Elizabeth leaned back, "And now that both of them succumb under a mystery illness."
"Those two are hiding something, as in classified by the British Government."
"Really? Let me guess, Rodney told you."
"Yeah. He said whatever it is, wasn't a good thing."
"Do you believe it could be tied to this situation?"
"Could be."
"We're on touchy ground, John. Even insinuating that the British Government encouraged Dr. Matthews' actions would lead to trouble. Let's keep this to ourselves for now. Get our facts straight. Personally, I just can't see the Brits having anything to do with this."
"It could be a rogue faction, it happened back at home before, the NID… the Trust…"
"True enough. Anything else Rodney told you about Matthews and Costello?"
"No." He answered quickly, a little too quickly.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, "Positive?"
Like he was going to let the fact that Rodney and Matthews were married slip, it wasn't his right, it wasn't his secret, "Yeah."
"Alright. I think we're done here." She pushed out her chair and began to stand.
"I should give that back to Rodney." John motioned to Cora's notebook as he also stood.
"Oh, right. Here." She handed him the spiral bound pack of paper.
"Thanks." John left, keeping his pace down to a slow walk until he was out of sight of the main hub of Atlantis- the Gate Room complex. He needed to track down his teammate, as he was worried about what was going through the man's skull. Rodney's wife was in the infirmary… granted they hadn't been together in over a decade, but still. He could tell how Rodney still felt about her and he knew how he would feel and how he had felt when someone close to him was hurt. Rodney had pulled that one a few too many times, then there was when Ford first was brought in out of the water…
Snapping out of his own thoughts, John found himself outside the main lab and immediately realized he heard two distinct voices- Canadian and Czech. Not that Rodney's accent was much different than American, except with the whole ZedPM thing and the occasional 'eh,' but he knew of quite a few Midwesterners that used 'eh' too. It took him a while to get rid of his small town speech. Not that he'd ever tell anyone he once called Minot, North Dakota, United States, North America, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy… home.
He had a few secrets of his own to keep. Not anything as juicy as having a wife, but… close enough.
He was drifting in his thoughts again until he was snapped out of it by a loud, "Colonel? What the hell are you staring out into space at?"
"Nothing. I came to give you this." He handed to notebook to Rodney who took it in the same hand as he had a tablet pc.
He barely got out a short, "Thanks," when Radek blasted out of the lab door into the hallway.
"You are the most stubborn man I have met!"
Rodney turned around, "Did you just decide that now? Took a little long for it to sink in."
"I have known for long time. You have more important things to do than look over the logs. Leave it to me, if there is anything, I will find it."
"Oh, like how you failed to get rid of mini-me properly or to fix the Jumper?" Rodney retorted.
Radek narrowed his eyes, "We all make mistakes. Even you, Mr. High and Mighty."
John broke in before the tension escalated, "Rodney, Doc…"
"What?" Rodney snipped back.
John continued, "Trouble in the Department or what?"
"Everything is fine." Rodney defended.
Radek scoffed, "If you count McKay being a pain in the horse's behind."
"You're not a fluffy bunny yourself." Rodney replied harshly.
Radek snuffled his annoyance and explained to John, "I merely offered to go over the access logs to the Ancient systems since I assumed he would want to visit Matthews, then he got all huffy."
"I can do it myself."
John's eyebrows rose, "You're not going to see your wife?"
"Wife?" Rodney crossed his arms, "Don't you mean mad scientist of a woman?"
"Don't you want to see her?"
Rodney stammered, "Well… that's not it, of course… but she… flipped out and went evil or something and uh…"
Radek said forcefully but caringly, "Just go."
"But-"
"I'll walk with you." John offered.
"Touching, but I don't need an escort, Colonel."
"I'm heading that way."
Rodney rolled his eyes, "Are you?"
John shrugged, "Sure."
"I don't believe you." Rodney handed off the tablet pc and notebook to Radek, "Any problems, you page me."
John smirked that Rodney was obviously coming, in contrast to his vocal protests.
"There won't be any." Radek headed back into the lab as John and Rodney moved down the hall.
--
"Bugger!"
"You can say that again."
Carson looked over at the tall Russian diagnostician, "I have a feeling I will."
"What do you have?" Dr. Kushnikov questioned.
Carson eyed the papers he had strewn around him and glanced at the monitor feeding back results from the multitude of test they had run. "Most of everything came back abnormal."
Kushnikov picked up a couple of reports and read over them quickly, "What the…" He looked over the rest, "This doesn't make any sense."
"I know. The set of tests for Matthews match those for Costello."
"How well?"
"As if they are simply copies of each other." Carson shook his head.
"That is too precise."
"I agree."
"The nanovirus might be somewhat responsible for this."
"That was my first thought, but they have all been incapacitated."
Kushnikov nodded, "True, but maybe the nanovirus affected something else in their systems and it led to this."
"Anything's possible with alien technology." Carson thought for a moment, "Perhaps their individual chemistries caused the nanovirus to behave in a way differing from its programming. Go after them in another way, and the effects are ongoing even with the nanovirus not working any longer."
"A protein blocker or something similar?"
"Possibly. We should get EEG readings from the both of them."
Kushnikov gestured out of the room, "I'll get the equipment."
"What? Why? What's wrong?" Rodney walked into the room the two men were brainstorming in, John trailing behind him.
Carson spoke concernedly, "We'll let you know when we know, Rodney. Would you like to see her?"
"Yeah."
"Follow me." Carson led Rodney through to another room and opened a curtain.
-
"Let go of me!" Cora screamed as men in scrubs grabbed a hold of her wrists and forced them into restraints..
"This really wouldn't be bad if you learned how to behave." Lab coat-boss calmly stated.
The men pinned her down on the gurney.
"No! This isn't right!" She attempted to writhe away like she always did, but failed.
The boss picked up a large needle from a metal tray, "Everything is right in the pursuit of science." He approached Cora's hospital-gown clad form.
She saw what he was holding, "Don't, please… I can't." She pulled her arm back as the needle came closer, but the boss' assistants kept her from breaking away.
"I wish you would be cooperative, Ms. Matthews. Don't you understand this is all to make you better?" He pushed the needle into her skin like he did so many times before, and pushed the syringe's contents into her blood system.
A tear fell from the corner of her eye, "You're not getting anywhere near succeeding."
"And how would you know that?" He put the needle back on the tray, "We know you've been breaking out of your room and into the labs. We've kept this formula from you."
"Bastards!"
"We are nearing our goals. You and Ms. Costello will be the first ones."
"What about the others?"
"They will not be involved."
"Too damaged for you?"
"You are not privy to that information." Lab-coat boss nodded to one of the scrubs.
The scrub promptly wheeled the gurney out of the white sterilized room into a hallway teeming with men and women in lab coats.
Cora hated them all, the way they looked at her as she went past. The view looking up from her means of transport was familiar… too familiar and it numbed her. It happened too many times. The other so-called doctors always looked down at her with evil interest in their eyes.
The wheels rolled over a small bump as the gurney was rolled through a doorway into its destination. The scrub left and she could hear the door lock. Like that ever stopped her before.
Within moments, she heard a friendly voice.
"Cora."
"Irene."
"Let me." Irene quickly unbuckled the restraints from Cora's wrists.
She sat up and wiped her eyes, "I'm finished with this."
"We'll get out of here."
Cora countered bitterly, "We've tried."
"Peter made it. He'll notify someone." Irene tried to be reassuring, but her bright outlook on life had long disappeared.
"They moved the compound and it's been weeks since the escape."
"We can't simply give in!"
"Why not? It doesn't matter what we do. He knows I've been sneaking into the lab and reading up on their work. They know, and they've been manipulating us with it. They're close to succeeding."
"Oh no." Irene rubbed her arm, "This latest test?"
"We'll see soon enough."
-
Rodney looked down at his wife, torn between wanting to touch her and shouting at her. In just a few days, his world had been turned upside down. Nothing made any sense. The Cora he knew would never do anything remotely as devastating as releasing a known human-killing virus. He hated the part of her that was shown in that act.
His eyes followed the IV tubing up to the hanging fluids and drug infusions, back down to where they entered the cannula in the back of her hand. He looked at the heart monitor, the waves seemed to move in a sequence that was far from normal and it was beeping in a way that didn't sound too typical.
"I'm just about to look at some blood samples. You'll be the first I tell if I find anything."
Rodney barely looked at Carson, "K."
Beckett left his friend standing at the foot of the infirmary bed and spotted John standing by the door.
"How's he taking it?"
Carson looked back at Rodney and motioned to John to move into the other room, "I honestly can't tell. He hasn't talked about it since we brought her in."
John shook his head, "Zelenka and I had to get him to come here."
"It can't be easy for him."
-
He crossed his arms lightly, feeling uncomfortable just standing there. He eyed the chair next to the bed, and walked over to it. It was a normal chair, nothing fancy. The white color somehow fit well with the Ancient style of Atlantis. He still hadn't sat down as he continued to stare at the white piece of furniture. His hand rested on the arm.
'Why' was the question on his mind. Exactly why she left, why those people (whoever they were) wanted her and the others, why she was sick, and why she released the nanovirus.
If he sat, he knew he wouldn't leave, just as Cora didn't leave his bedside so many years before. He shook of the memory of that particular week and finally sat in the chair.
He was in this all the way, 'In sickness and in health' wasn't just words.
A/N: Well, I'm sure the women didn't plan that one, eh?
Did I mention I'll be taking a stab at a Sheppard-centered fic one of these days?
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