Grace ducked back into the house at Evan's call. He stood next to the computer, looking grim and angry. Without another word, she stepped into the area he vacated and bent to survey the results blinking on the screen. This couldn't be happening. She closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. It was happening.
"Okay." She straightened and turned to the man behind her, surprised he didn't move back a step or two. She took another deep breath. "Get him in here. And then. . . ." Her voice cracked.
Lorne touched her shoulder again. How he could stand there with so much pain and death around him and still be strong for her was surprising. He met her eyes. "You're going to beat this."
"I know." But she didn't sound as confident as her words. "Just get back to that village. Find me something I can work with."
Lorne accepted that and stepped out of the house. Grace pressed her palms into the table holding the microscope and her computer. She'd already watched three children die. Now, she was going to have to watch one of her friends die. She didn't know if she could do this.
Jason slipped through the door. "Major Lorne said you wanted to see me."
"Yeah." Grace straightened and studied him. He showed no signs of the disease. Maybe, just maybe, they'd caught it early enough. "I need you to give more blood and to stay here. Major Lorne and the rest will be investigating the lab in the mountains."
Realization dawned on his face. "I've got it, don't I?"
"Yes." That one word was the hardest she'd ever spoken. Suddenly, the past and the complications he had caused for her while on Atlantis no longer mattered. "I'm sorry, Jason."
He shrugged out of his tac vest and moved toward a chair. "Where do you want me?"
"Inside." Grace pulled herself together, hiding all of her anger, frustration, and sadness under her doctor's face. "You'll stay here, in one of the cots. I want to make sure we keep Atlantis personnel separate. At least until we know what we're dealing with." She didn't add that it might not matter anymore.
Jason gave her another blood sample and then moved to look out the window. Grace watched him, thinking back to Lorne's suggestion that she take a few minutes. Right now, her hands were tied anyway. Until the team got back from the lab, there was nothing she could do. She looked at Jason. "Stay here. I'm going to change clothes. I'll be back soon."
SGA SGA SGA SGA
Lorne decided to take a Jumper to the mountain village. The path leading out of the village was too small of the Jumper, and he didn't want to risk missing something. So, after landing in the abandoned square, he and his men, minus one, slipped into the woods. The hike was easy, but they never lowered their guard. The only sounds were those of birds and insects humming.
Several clicks from the Jumper, Lorne spotted an opening in a stone wall. He held up his hand. "Ramirez, cover us. Williams, with me."
The new guy on the team followed him into the dark cavern. They switched on the lights attached to their P90s, and Lorne frowned. While the outside of the cave looked natural, a steel door led deeper into the cave. The door was open, and a security panel blinked next to it.
"Sir." Williams turned. "This looks Genii."
"Great." Lorne touched his radio. "Ramirez, we're heading deeper into the cave. There's a door here that might be easier to guard."
"Yes, sir," Ramirez replied. A moment later, he appeared and took up a position beside the door.
Lorne left him to his watch and took point. The corridor was clearly manmade, and lights had been driven into the rock wall. Only a few of them flickered menacingly ahead, lighting the tunnel at odd spots. Lorne kept his weapon ready, knowing any number of things could go wrong. He pulled his life signs detector from his vest and scowled. Nothing. The only life signs showing were those of his team.
Williams tripped over the first body. Lorne reacted to his startled voice by training the P90 on whatever had attacked. Instead, Williams nudged the guard. "Definitely Genii."
Lorne scowled. "Definitely sick with whatever disease is killing these people."
They moved further into the cave and found two more Genii guards before they found the lab. Lorne looked around, surprised that he hadn't thought of this. Keller had said that this disease was manmade. No wonder the entire planet was sick. The Genii had a way of causing mass destruction no matter where they went.
"Sir!" Williams stood at a terminal. "I found something. It's a log of some sort."
"Can you read it?"
"Some of it." Williams glared at the screen. "My Genii isn't as good as others, but I think this was the chief scientist's log. His personal observations on 'the project.'"
Lorne stared at him. "Well, does it say what 'the project' was?"
"No, sir." Williams glared some more. "Whoa."
"Whoa what?"
"I think we found the source of the disease."
"In a Genii lab?" Lorne looked around. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"What bothers me is that there's dead guards." Williams' fingers flew across the strange keyboard. "I'm going to take this with us back to the village. Maybe Dr. Edgington can make more sense out of the medical mumbo-jumbo."
"Good idea. Let's sweep this place before we go." Lorne shrugged. "There might be some sort of antidote we don't know about yet."
Williams finished working and swept the remainder of the lab. They found vials of several substances that they carefully carried back to the Jumper, but nothing else stood out to them. Once they finished their work, Lorne flew the Jumper back to Grace's command post.
She met them outside the door to her makeshift lab. "Did you find anything?"
"You could say that." Lorne held up the case where he'd carefully stored the substances found in the lab. "There's a Genii lab in a cave. I think it's where the virus came from, but I'm not sure how or why. Williams has a computer file you might find helpful. And we brought back these. They might be an antidote, or they could be the virus. I just don't know."
She nodded and tried to smile. "Thank you, Major."
"How's Miller?" He didn't want to focus on how tired she looked.
Grace's face tensed. "The fever started about an hour ago, along with the cough."
Lorne knew what she didn't say. If she wasn't able to find a cure soon, Miller, and possibly the rest of them, were going to die. Ignoring the marines around the camp and the fever-brightened eyes of the sick, he pulled her into his arms. Grace slid her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. Lorne closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle.
