Chapter 3: Who are these Giants?
As soon as the Giants had terminated their transmission with Woolsey, he knew that he needed to contact Ladon Radim and find out what he knew about these scavenging giants.
He walked into the control room to find Amelia on duty. "Why are you on duty Amelia? I thought that Chuck was on this shift?"
"He was supposed to be but apparently he has red spot, so I'm taking over his shift today and hopefully he'll feel much better in the morning."
"That's good to know. Can you please put me through to Ladon Radim?" Woolsey asked staring straight ahead at the gate; he was still hoping that Colonel Sheppard and his team would come home at any moment.
"Certainly Mr Woolsey," Amelia stated, while trying to contact Radim.
"I'll take it in my office thank you Amelia?"
She nodded and then he headed back to his office, he really hoped that Radim could shed some light on what was going on.
Sitting down at his desk, he opened his computer and found that Ladon Radim's face was staring back at him.
"Mr Radim it is good to see you again."
"Likewise Mr Woolsey, what can I do for you today?"
"Colonel Sheppard, Dr McKay and Ronan Dex have been taken prisoner by a couple of Giants named Solah and Kolah and they have just contacted us demanding weapons. The problem is, the codes they used are codes that we have entrusted to the Genii and unfortunately this isn't the first time that someone has used codes intrusted to you, for less than honourable motives."
Radim looked a little sheepish as he answered. "Yes I have heard of these giants, they tend to do nothing but make a loud noise and scavenge whatever they feel in valuable to them. They haven't really been much of a problem for the Genii before now. I will look into my leadership and try to ascertain how these individuals got hold of our codes and the Atlantis gate address."
Woolsey wasn't amused, his people in the hands of scavengers thanks to the Genii. "Do you know where these scavengers live most of the time?"
"They don't tend to live on any particular planet, but I can give you a list of gate addresses for the planets that they have been seen on recently."
"Thank you Mr Radim and I would hope that you will assist in whatever way you can, because they have suggested that they will start executing my people if we don't give them weapons in," Woolsey looked down at his watch to get and exact time, "three and a half hours."
"I will help wherever I can Mr Woolsey."
"Thank you Mr Radim, Goodnight."
Radim nodded his head and then the transmission cut off. Woolsey stood up and headed out the control room so see Amelia. "Mr Radim should be sending you a list of gate addresses in a few minutes, when you have then contact Major Lorne and tell him to meet me in my office?"
"Major Lorne is in the infirmary with red spot, apparently he has a pretty severe case."
Woolsey sighed, Lorne in the infirmary with red spot and Teyla looking after Torren, who also had red spot, finding Colonel Sheppard and the others wasn't going to be easy, "Send Major Teldy then?"
Woolsey left the control room before she even had a chance to respond. Once in his office he sat down in his chair and put his head in his hands, only to discover a big red spot on his forearm.
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Jennifer entered the infirmary to start her shift. It had been quiet over the last few days despite several cases of red spot being reported. It really did seem to be harmless, the worst symptom being the red itchy spots, which in most cases were only a few.
Walking into the office she shared with Carson she found him slumped over his desk. Assuming he was just asleep, she started to shake him, "Carson, wake up?
She could feel the heat radiating off him and began to worry, so she shook him a bit harder,
"Carson, wake up?"
Moaning he slowly lifted his head. Jennifer was shocked by what she saw, his face was covered in spots and his face was dripping with sweat. Looking over the rest of his body she realised that he was covered with spots from head to toe.
"Okay Carson, I think you have red spot and I think we need to get you into a bed."
Carson moaned again, "Aye Lassie, I couldn't agree more."
Ten minutes later Carson was tucked up in bed with an IV and pain medicine running through his veins, although it dulled the pain it didn't do much for the itching spots.
Carson looked up at her and Jennifer could tell he was in distress, as he spoke, "Jennifer these spots are driving me nuts, can you do something about them please?"
"If you wait a few minutes, I'll get Marie to put some calamine lotion on them."
"Has anyone else reported symptoms of the red spot as yet?" Carson asked scratching his spots.
"We've had five reported cases over the last twenty four hours and all of them have been minor. Teyla has informed me that Rodney and Colonel Sheppard are of world and she believes that they have both contracted the illness. To what extent I am not sure."
"Well keep me informed will ya luv?" Carson asked her closing his eyes.
"I will, but for now I think you should go to sleep."
"Aye Doctor, you won't get any arguments from me."
She watched as Carson closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. She really hoped that there wouldn't be too many others like Carson and that this wouldn't become an epidemic.
Just as she was sitting down in her office to do some paperwork Major Lorne came in and he did not look good, "Doc I feel terrible, is there something you can give me, so I can get back to work?"
Jennifer looked him up and down and realised that he was in the same condition as Carson. "I don't think you'll be going anywhere today. I think that the only place you'll be going is to bed in the infirmary."
"But Doc, Colonel Sheppard, Rodney, and Ronan are in the hands of scavengers and they're demanding that we hand over weapons for their release."
"I'm sorry but you're burning up, so I want you in bed right away. I will have Woolsey contact you down here and you can discuss things with him from here. That is my final offer."
Lorne sighed; "gee you drive a hard bargain Doc."
Fifteen minutes later when Lorne was settled in next to Carson and fast asleep, Jennifer contacted Woolsey.
"Keller to Woolsey, come in please?"
"Yes Dr Keller what can I do for you?"
"I have Major Lorne and Dr Beckett down here and they are both showing severe symptoms of red spot. For some reason they are the only two people that have presented with such severe symptoms. I need to check it out, but I suspect it has something to do with their ATA gene and if that is the case I fear that Colonel Sheppard will be very ill by now."
"Okay Doctor keep me informed, Woolsey out."
"Will do, Keller out."
Jennifer looked over at her sleeping patients and she could see the sweat dripping down their faces, she really hoped that they wouldn't get any worse, because after all it was only red spot.
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Kolah was walking away from the gate with Solah by his side. After speaking with the Lanteans, they had decided to talk with their contact in the Genii whose name was Jola. Jola wasn't on the Genii homeworld at the moment, so it was easy to speak with to him without arousing the suspicion of the Genii leadership.
Jola had given them an interesting peace of information about John Sheppard and it was something that had their minds scheming with the possibilities. Apparently he was able to activate the Ancestors technology and do it with ease.
They were on their way back to where they had left the Lanteans now, to convince John Sheppard to activate some of the artefacts that they had discovered. Who knows what they could discover, maybe a weapon to help them fight the Coalition of Planets.
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A loud noise awoke John from his slumber and he didn't quite know what had happened, looking around he saw that Rodney was sitting next to him and scratching at his spots, but Ronan was nowhere in sight.
"What's happening?" He asked Rodney, trying to bring his blurry eyesight into focus
"I have no idea. The last thing I knew was that Ronan was going to explore the secret passage he found."
John nodded, but immediately regrated it, when a sharp pain struck him behind the eyes. "How long has he been gone?" He asked, wanting to scratch his spots, but realising he couldn't because his good hand was bandaged.
"I have no idea. It couldn't have been long."
John was about to open his mouth when Ronan stuck his head out of the crawl space to the left.
"Hey Sheppard, how are you feeling?" Ronan asked him looking concerned.
"I feel as if I have been hit by a fast moving puddle jumper."
"Really, I actually don't feel too bad," Rodney informed him, with a smug look on his face.
"Well I'm so happy for you, "John replied sarcastically, wiping the sweat that was dripping down his face.
"Thanks Sheppard," Rodney replied not really picking up on the sarcasm.
John just rolled his eyes at Rodney and turned to Ronan, "What did you find in your explorations Chewie?"
"I followed the passage for a while and I couldn't really see a way out. I will go and have another look around in a moment, but for now I wanted to make sure that you're alright."
"Yeh I'm fine," he answered even though he felt like absolute crap. He wasn't going to let his team know that though.
He was watching Ronan walk away when he heard a sound from up above. Struggling to his feet John looked above his head to find that the trapdoor was being opened. Before he had a chance to blink he felt a stunner blast rip through his body. Just before he lost consciousness he saw Ronan and Rodney fall to the ground as well.
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Rodney awoke with a start and looked around trying to work out what had awoken him, but the only thing he saw was Ronan alongside of him, who seemed to be waking up as well.
He groaned as he tried to sit up. He was pretty sure that he had been hit with a Wraith stunner, as he still had pins and needles in his arms and legs.
"What the hell happened? "He moaned still trying to access his situation.
"Those dam giants stunned us that's what happened." Ronan mumbled in his direction.
"Yeh I got that. The question is why?" he looked around for a bit longer and then realised that something was wrong, "and what the hell have they done with Sheppard!"
Rodney was on his feet by this time and he was surveying the area, "Sheppard, where are you?" He called half a dozen times, but received now answer.
By this time Ronan was on his feet and looking around as well. He felt a nudge from the big man and when he looked at where Ronan was pointing he noticed two giants were guarding them.
One of them opened his mouth and spoke, "You will go back to Atlantis and hand a message to your leader."
"What is it?!" Ronan hissed.
"We have your military commander and we will hand him back when we finish with him, but who knows how long that will be. It may be weeks, or it may be months. We have a lot of work for him to do."
Rodney looked out of the coroner of his eye and saw that Ronan was about to protest, but he held up his hand to signal to him to remain quiet.
"Okay, but have you got the control crystals for the DHD, because we both know that it doesn't work without them?" Rodney replied sarcastically.
"We have fixed the gate, so you may now go. If we see any of your people on this planet within the next hour we will kill them automatically; no questions asked."
Rodney nodded and headed towards the gate with Ronan following closely behind him. Once the gate had been dialled Rodney sent through his IDC and once he was sure that the shield had been lowered he stepped through to deliver the message.
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John awoke something later to the feeling of being jostled, as if someone was carrying him. Opening his eyes he was annoyed to find out that he was being carried by Solah and what made matters worse was he was tied up and gagged. He tried to say something, but realised that it was impossible, because the gag had been tied tightly. The only problem was that he felt nauseous and if they didn't put him down soon he might vomit.
Laying there in his captors arms he looked around at the surroundings and it didn't take too long for him to realise that he was on a completely different planet. The planet they had just left was wooded and cold, but this planet was stifling hot with a dry arid desert, it might have been the same planet, but he suspected that he hadn't been out long enough to cross continents. Even though it was night-time the moon provided enough light to realise the truth. The Giants had moved him to a different planet and Ronan and Rodney were nowhere in sight.
He closed his eyes to try and ease the pounding in his head and the nausea in his stomach.
He had no idea how many gates he'd been through and what these people wanted him for.
All he could hope that his people were searching for him and that they would find him quickly, because he knew that for whatever reason he was becoming sicker by the minute.
TBC…