Chapter 34

Carson Beckett sat staring at the lab work with unventible frustration. He wished to god that he had been wrong. That he had not uncovered what he had. But he had to follow his instincts and he was hoping they didn't lead him here. His mother had told him often to trust his instincts and as a doctor he had come to greatly rely on them. Often times though, they would lead him to places he wished he never knew.

"Still going over Dr. Jackson's test results?"

Carson turned to see Elizabeth standing in the door way to his office.

"Aye."

"You need to let this go Carson. To focus on the mission."

"Believe me Elizabeth, I want nothing more."

"On the hand, you've always had amazing instincts."

"Which is why I need you to trust them. Not just for our sakes, but for Daniel's too."

Elizabeth sighed heavily, taking a seat next to Carson.

"What have you found?"

"You're not gonna like it."

"Really? What?"

"Turns out I was right, Daniel has been compromised. Just not in the way I thought."

"What? How?"

"His blood."

"His blood?"

Carson nodded handing Elizabeth a light green folder.

"According to Daniel's medical records both his grandfather and mother suffered from a rare form of genetic anemia."

"How rare?"

"There is no clincal name for it. From what I have been able to gather, there is no other case of this dsorder outside of Daniel's family. According to the doctor who treated Daniel's mother they were able to isolate a single gene responsible for the disorder. And this is the part where it gets strange, Elizabeth. The same gene that caused this disorder in Daniel's family, is the same that allows him to adapt to Ancient technology."

"The Ancient gene is responsible for the disorder?"

"Aye and before you even ask, I looked into the medical history of all the people born with the Ancient gene, including my own, and there is no evidence of this disease in any other family."

"So its isolated to Daniel's family?"

"Yes. Oddly enough however, Daniel, although born with the gene was never diagnosed as having the disorder."

"So he doesn't have it?"

"That is where I find myself stumped. Daniel was never diagnosed with the disorder, although he has the gene. There are however, incidents that lead me to believe that he does but I am not sure."

"What do you mean?"

Walking over to the nearby desk he grabbed four red folders and placed them on the desk in front of Elizabeth.

"Although Daniel was never diagnosed with the disorder he has suffered, on at least four seperate occasions, an illness that presents the same symptoms as that found in the disorder."

"Four seperate occasions?"

"Yes. Each one, years apart. Each incident followed by some type of major milestone in his lfe. The first incident was a week before he discovered how to open the Stargate. The second a week before his Ascension. The before he opened the gate address to Atlantis. And the final incident was a week before the discovery of Avalon."

"And you're telling me that no one at the SGC found this peculiar?"

"Janet Fraiser did. However she had no correlation to connect the events and so she never voiced her suspicions."

"But you think you've found a connection?"

"Yes. Each member of Daniel's family who had this disorder were responsible for some kind of breakthrough in whatever field they entered. History. Science. Medicine. Poiltics. You name any major breakthrough in human history within the last hundred years, and you can find a member of Daniel's family involved somehow. Even in a small, indirect way."

"How come no one else has said anything about this before?"

"There's a bit of a catch to it. Everyone in Daniel's family who made a great breakthrough ended up going insane not too long after. Their participation usually got downplayed or covered up all together. Even their insanity was downplayed. Written off as exhaustion or succeumbing to the ravages of their illness."

Elizabeth stood staring at the files before her, almost as if they were pieces of a puzzle that needed to be solved.

"Its almost as if their entire lives were programmed to complete that one task and when they did they were no longer useful. Evolution found the means to remove them from the equation."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks along those lines'" Carson said as a wave of relief washed thru him.

"Why hasn't Daniel ended up like the other members of his family?"

"I think that has to do with the Ancient gene. Remember after we found out about Daniel's Ascension and the expectations we had regarding the gene?"

"We thought that because Daniel was once Ascended that he would have a genetic advantage. That wasn't the case. His gene was weaker."

"Mutated actually. Warped. Practically powerless. What if that is what is keeping Daniel sane? What if, Daniel does have the genetic advantage but for whatever reason its neutured, for lack of better terminology. What if the gene being constantly active is what caused the insanity."

"And the gene only becomes active when its needed. That sounds like a big evolutionary leap that it would behave that way."

A dour expression came across Carson's face and the realization hit her like a punch in the stomach.

"You don't think this is something that occured naturally, do you?"

"Like you said before Elizabeth. Its as if something has been programming these people to fulfill a specific task. Moving them around like pieces on a chess board."

"But who?"

"The Ascended Ancients."

"The Ascended can't get involved in the lives of the Lower Beings, they're punished for it."

"They can't become directly involved in the affairs of Lower Beings, but loopholes exist. Just look at Anubis."

"So you think that some Ascended has done something to Daniel's DNA that is supressing the gene. And then using something else to activate it when they need him to do something?"

"Which means that Daniel has always been compromised. Manipulated."

"If what you're saying is true . . ."

"How can it not be true? You think its a coincidence that Daniel Jackson opens the gate, goes to Abydos only to be roped back to Earth after his wife is taken as a host to a Goa'uld that gives birth to a child that later leads him to Oma Desala and Ascension?"

Oh, Carson. Why couldn't you have left this alone."

Before Carson could speak, Elizabeth got up from her seat and walked a short distance from him.

"You're not Elizabeth."

A flash of bright light engulfed the room and as it subsided, Carson came face to face with someone he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Chaya?"

"I'm sorry Carson," the Ascended stated as she raised her hand out in his direction.

"No, wait!"

Another bright light eminated from Chaya's hand and before Carson could do anything to stop it, darkness consumed him.

Chaya stood there momentarily taken aback, almost ashamed for what she had just done. Sensing a famillar prescence in the room, she turned to face them with guilt in her eyes.

"I have killed an innocent man."

The young boy looked to the prone figure on the floor, "He is not dead."

"His injuries are severe. Without medical attention he will not survive. Everyone is sleeping, no one will find him until morning. By then it will be too late."

"Heal him."

"I cannot. I am being watched. If I interfere with this, the people I protect will suffer."

"As you said before Chaya, people are sleeping. And sometimes, people have strange dreams."

Chaya smiled widely, "Thank you Shifu."

"No, thank you."

"For what?"

"For making me see things in a whole new perspective."

With a flash of light, Chaya disappeared. Shifu stood there momentarily watching as Carson struggle to stay alive.

"I know what you are hiding from me Morgan," he said looking up to the ceiling as if talking to an invisbile force. "And you will not get away with it."

A flash of light consumed the room and across the base John Sheppard awoke with a start. Fumbling for his radio he called for a medical team to meet him in Beckett's office. Elizabeth answered only seconds later.

"John, what's going on?"

"I'll explain it when I get there, but meet me in the infirmary."

Placing the radio back on his desk and reaching for the discarded pants that lay next to his bed, Sheppard took a second to catch his breath. Running his fingers thru his damp hair.

"What the hell is going on?"