Chapter 8: A Glimmer of hope.

Teyla had just walked into his office along with Rodney and Ronan when his com activated.

"Keller to Woolsey, I have found a cure for the red spot in the ancient data base."

"How long before you can synthesise it for us to use?"

"I'm not sure, possibly twenty four hours maximum."

"Well keep me informed, Woolsey out?"

"Will do, Keller out."

Woolsey looked around his office at the worn out faces of John's team. Obviously the last mission had been a total failure, as he could see the sadness and despair written all over their faces.

"Well at least that's one piece of good news," he told them trying to put a smile on his face.

Teyla lifted her head to look at him, "and what is that Mr Woolsey."

"Dr Keller has found a cure for the red spot and she should be able to synthesise it in the next twenty four hours."

"Fat lot of good that will do Sheppard, if we can't find him." Ronan mumbled.

Woolsey sighed, he understood how frustrated these people would be feeling right now, but they really needed to continue to work to find a solution.

"Dr McKay did you manage to access the last gate addresses dialled from the DHD on FX-076 before you left the planet?" When Rodney nodded he continued on, "I suggest you all take a break, by having a meal and at least six hours sleep. I would then like you to continue to work with Zelenka to see if you can find anything that would lead us to finding Colonel Sheppard's location."

He looked around the room and found that they were just staring at him and he had no idea what they were thinking.

"You're dismissed," he told them standing up to usher them out of the room.

He watched as they slowly got up and left the room one by one and not one of them made a sound. They looked absolutely exhausted and he hoped that they would take his advice and have a rest, before they ended up in the infirmary from pure exhaustion.

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When John awoke he had no idea how long he'd slept. The last thing he remembered was sobbing uncontrollably and then drifting off to sleep. He suspected that it must have been a good few hours, because the sun was lower in the sky and the temperature had dropped slowly.

Sitting up he remembered that the control crystal for the DHD was in a million pieces, so there was no way he could use the gate to get of the planet he'd been dumped upon. His next order of business, before the sun went down was finding a water source and some shelter for the night.

Struggling to his feet he realised that the piecing pain behind his eyes was dulled for now, but his leg and wrist hurt like hell, he felt like he was on fire and was about to explode from the inside out. He realised that his breathing had become shallower again as well. He knew that he really needed to find somewhere that was safe for him to wait for rescue, but could still be easily seen.

Looking at his surroundings, he noticed that there appeared to be some caves in the distance. They should be about two hours walk, well two hours for someone not in my condition; the thought didn't bear thinking about, because he had no choice. Staying by the gate wasn't an option. He vaguely remembered being thrown through the wormhole onto the god forsaken rock, but he didn't remember how he had ended up a short distance away and if Shorty had broken the control crystals, how the hell did he get off the planet. His head was beginning to pound, so he forced himself to stop thinking and managed to get to his feet. He thought he should leave his friends a clue as to the direction he was heading, so he placed and arrow sign on the ground and then he hobbled in the direction of the caves, having no idea how long it would take and what he might find there.

He walked and stumbled over the hard desolate landscape for hours on end and every time he fell he felt like just lying on the ground and giving up. After a particularly nasty fall he did just lay there and consider giving up, he'd had enough, he was exhausted, his head was about to explode, his throat was drier than the desert surrounding him and he felt like he was on fire, the red spots covering his body were inflamed and sore, he felt as if his leg was going to break clear off in the near future and to top it all off, he knew his breathing was getting worse, because he could hear the rattle in his chest. He'd been injured or sick or had some lifeform wanting to suck the life out of him, so many times over the last few years, so maybe it was time to give up and die. He lay there aware of the encroaching darkness and finally he let it take him, maybe for the last time.

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It had been almost four hours since Jennifer had found the cure for the red spot and she was no close to synthesising the compound. She'd had to intubate Major Lorne twenty minutes ago, as well as insert a chest tube to drain the fluids of his lungs. It didn't look good for her friends if they continued to deteriorate at this rate they would only have a couple of days left.

If she couldn't find the cure in the next five hours she had decided that their only chance for survival was to take them off world, somewhere where there was not ancient technology to affect them. Rodney had hypothesised that if they were away from Atlantis the red spot wouldn't affect them as much. Their symptoms would still be quite severe, but at least they would stand a much better chance. Luckily the other ATA carriers were not in as critical condition as these two were. She did worry about John though, he had to strongest gene ever tested, but if he was away from ancient technology wherever he was at least he stood a chance.

Resting her head on the desk in front of her she decided that it was probably time to take a rest, Rodney had left her lab two hours ago announcing that he needed something to eat and a sleep, she really hoped that he had actually gone to bed and not back to his lab to work on some weird ancient experiment.

She was just drifting off to sleep when Dr Lindsey Biro entered the room, "Would you like me to take over Jennifer, so you can go and get some rest?"

Jennifer looked up at the woman with a grateful look in her eyes, "yes that would be great thanks. Is Dr Cole on duty in the infirmary?"

"Yes she's been there for the last two hours and she promises that if Carson or Even get any worse she will contact you straight away."

She smiled at the woman looking down at her; Lindsey Biro had really become an integral part of the team over the last few years, despite the fact that she could be rather loud and excitable at times.

Standing up she stretched her limbs and headed for her quarters for a good six hours sleep. She knew that her infirmary and the research for a cure were in good hands, because of the excellent team she and Carson had developed over many years.

It didn't take her long to reach her room and once she was in bed she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

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John slowly became aware to a drip, drip, drip sound. What the hell is that, he wondered trying to open his eyes, why am I wet and why is there water in my face were his next thoughts. Once his eyes were open it didn't take him long to realise that it was night time and raining heavily and he was drenched, so his first inclination was to open his mouth and drink as much water as he could, but then he remembered what Carson would say about these situations, 'drink slowly, so that you don't vomit half of what you drink back up again.' Sighing he slowed his drinking down, so that he only took a few sips at a time.

For about the next twenty minutes it rained steadily and then as suddenly as it had started it stopped. He wondered if he should go on, or should he rest here until morning, but thinking about it he knew that it was probably better to travel at night then during the day. The moon was out and casting an eerie glow across the bleak landscape, so there was enough light for him to see by. His condition hadn't changed much and a when a few minutes later he started coughing he knew that his breathing was becoming worse. He coughed until he thought he was going to cough up a lung. Eventually the coughing subsided, but he knew he was in trouble, because he could hear a deep rattle coming from his chest every time he took a breath.

Struggling to his feet and finding his walking stick he continued on towards the caves that he had seen earlier. His body felt much cooler, but he knew that it wouldn't last long. Looking up to the horizon he could see the first rays of the sun dawning to greet the new day and then it would be hotter than hell again.

He kept walking for who knows how long and as the sun rose he could feel the temperature heating up again. Finally he made it to the caves and to his delight he noticed a small stream flowing just at the cave's entrance. He knew that it would probably dry up before too long, so he fell to the ground alongside of it and used his good hand to scoop some water into his mouth, it tasted pretty disgusting, but it looked clean enough. Trying to get on his feet again he felt an agonising sharp pain shoot through his broken leg and then he fell to the ground hard. He lay there on his back for a few minutes trying to breathe through the pain. Finally when the pain had dulled a little he looked down and realised that the bone had actually snapped in half and it had pierced his skin. He flopped on his back again and just lay there not really knowing what to do next.

He closed his eyes and tried to stay still hoping it would block out the unbearable pain that wracked his entire body, but it didn't really work because a few seconds later he rolled on his side and started gagging. It didn't take long before he'd lost his entire stomach contents, which lead to a coughing fit. Finally when the coughing had subsided, he wiped his mouth and realised that he had coughed up blood and he knew that wasn't a good sign

Laying on his back and looking up at the sky he decided that he couldn't go on, he'd had enough, so he closed his eyes and let the darkness claim him yet again.

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Jennifer wandered back into her lab after four hours sleep, she felt much better and ready to continue with her research. She was greeted, by Dr Biro shouting in a loud voice," I've done it, I've done it."

Jennifer patted the woman on the shoulder, "slow down take a deep breath and tell me what you've done?"

"I've managed to synthesise the cure for the red spot."

"Great how much have you managed to synthesise?" Jennifer asked her sensing a glimmer of hope for the first time in days.

"Enough for Dr Beckett and Major Lorne."

"Have you run it through any simulations as yet?" Jennifer asked hopefully.

"No I'm just about to do that now."

"Well let's do it together then?' Jennifer suggested sitting down in a chair next to her colleague.

It wasn't long before they both had their heads down and were looking at computers, running the simulations that they hoped would give them the desired result, for everyone's

sake.

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Woolsey was sitting in his office doing a stack of paperwork, he had no idea why the SGC and the IOA loved paperwork so much, but they did and it meant that most of his job consisted of doing paperwork. It had been six hours since he'd sent Colonel Sheppard's team off for a rest and he wished that he'd taken his own advice at that point, because now he was feeling incredibly tired and wanted to go to bed.

I'll just put my head down on my desk for a while, he thought, looking around to make sure that no-one was watching him.

His head had just hit his desk when his com activated, "Mr Woolsey its chuck here and Ladon Radim, wants to talk to you."

"Okay put him through thanks Chuck."

Lifting the lid of his computer he waited until chuck put the transmission through. It wasn't too long before Radim's face appeared on the screen, "Good evening Mr Radim, what can I do for you?"

"I have found out who gave Atlantis' gate address and the IDC codes you intrusted to us to the scavengers. Apparently I should check my advisors out more thoroughly. I have known Jola for a number of years and I never thought that he would betray me."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but have you any idea of the whereabouts of colonel Sheppard."

"Yes Jola was last seen with a scavenger named Goliath leaving a planet in a ship he stole from me, Jola landed on that planet alone and left with Goliath, I'm assuming that he went through the ancestral ring to get to the planet. I have no idea why he left by space ship though. I will send you the co-ordinates and if I can get my hands on the two of them I can interrogate them farther."

"Thank you Mr Radim I hope that the co-ordinates you have sent me are useful."

"I will let you know if I have any further information when we capture them, goodnight Mr Woolsey."

"Thankyou Mr Radim."

Woolsey closed his computer and tapped his earpiece, "Woolsey to Dr McKay."

A groggy sounding voice came from the other end of the radio, "Yes Mr Woolsey, what can I do for you?"

"We have a lead on Colonel Sheppard, please gather the rest of your team and meet me in my office in twenty minutes."

"Finally." Was the only reply he received.

He put his head down on his desk again, at least now there was a glimmer of hope that they would find Colonel Sheppard soon. He closed his eyes thinking he might have a power nap; he had twenty minutes before the others arrived after all.

TBC…