He had to grin at his woefully inadequate synopses. Each of them was so much more… brave, loyal, brilliant, steadfast, competent, trustworthy, valiant, self-sacrificing…And that, he knew, was why they worked together as a team. Because in spite of their disparate backgrounds and personalities, they had the same core values.
They were SG-1. And he knew that even if the Daniel and Teal'c were only allowed to search between regularly assigned missions… he knew that they were still searching.
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Ch 57: RGTS?
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Repetitive Gate Travel Syndrome?
Dr. Brightman winced as she looked at the diagnosis printed on the two medical charts. Working at the SGC was the posting of a lifetime for a military medical doctor. The exposure to new and exciting phenomena on a daily and weekly basis. The medical and intellectual challenges were both stimulating and exhilarating.
But Repetitive Gate Travel Syndrome?
And she sighed again. She had read over all of the recommendations and basic conclusions from the medical doctors who had worked in this facility over the years. No one had any data to support the idea that repeated travel through the Stargate caused any ill affects. And, none of the people that they'd met over the years had even hinted at such a deleterious effect. No Tokra had mentioned anything along these lines… and one would have thought that Jacob Carter, at the very least, would have made a point of letting them know of something like that… seeing as his daughter traveled through the 'Gate so frequently.
RGTS.
One of those ideas that had been proposed years ago, in the early phases of the SGC. But one of those ideas that had seemed to have been disproven as the years passed.
And now she had two possible cases of RGTS.
Or probable cases, she admitted silently.
Both Dr. Jackson and Teal'c had suffered 3 episodes of difficulty during 'Gate travel over the past seventeen days. They had described sensations similar to those experienced by novice 'Gate travelers. Disorientation, vertigo, nausea, and a general loss of the sense of stability while traversing the wormhole. Once exiting the wormhole, each man had recovered within minutes and the sensations had not returned while walking around on solid ground.
And their symptoms and reactions did not occur with each transit of the wormhole. Of twelve one-way trips, they had only had three 'bad trips'. Twenty-five percent, the doctor calculated idly.
Her biggest objection with confirming a diagnosis of RGTS was that both men had suffered the same effects – on the same trips. The progression of something like RGTS would not explain that!
As a consequence, she and the other medical personnel had sifted through the data and statistics of the planets visited by these two men over the past several weeks. Creating spreadsheets of data such as the distances to the planets visited, the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure differences between the planets on each end of the wormhole, etc.
And they had found no striking similarities amongst the planets visited when the two men had experienced their difficulties. Nothing seemed to correlate between the three planets any better than with the other planets they had visited.
Shaking her head, she looked at the mission schedule for the two men over the past four months. The two had participated in a 'Gate travel schedule that was 3-4 times the normal rate for SGC members. If anyone was going to show the effects of RGTS, these two were the best candidates.
And earlier today, she'd been on-hand to witness the effects herself as Dr. Jackson and Teal'c had stumbled onto the 'Gateroom ramp with SG-4. Along with her medical assistants, she had hurried to the two men near the top of the ramp. A quick assessment revealed unfocused gazes and a general disorientation along with an unsteadiness indicating problems with balance. Both breathing and pulse were rapid, as if the two men had just finished hard footraces.
But in just the few minutes that she and her assistants were conducting their assessments, she watched the two men regain their balance, slowing their breathing and heart rates as their eyes focused on the people and the room around them. By the time the medical personnel were ready to trundle the men onto gurneys, the two were standing steadily and insisting that they could walk to the infirmary.
While RGTS was new to Dr. Brightman, the macho attitude of military and special forces personnel was not new to her and she simply, but firmly, insisted that the two men quietly lie down and let the medical personnel do their jobs. Both Jackson and Teal'c had initially looked mulish and unmoved by her orders, but then they shared a look and quietly acquiesced.
She and her staff had run every test and scan that they could think of. They'd added this latest planet to their growing database and spreadsheets. Nothing correlated.
Until she got more data, RGTS was all that they had.
So RGTS it was, until it could be called something else.
She walked to her office door and looked down the row of beds to where the two men were currently located. She'd insisted on a 24-hour observation period, followed by a week off. A week of no gate travel…but a week on base… where she and her staff could monitor their vitals and watch for anything that might develop.
Neither Dr. Jackson nor Teal'c had taken the medical stand-down passively. They had argued and debated the diagnosis of RGTS. But she had stood firm. And their little stumbling entrance into the 'Gateroom had firmly backed her up.
Watching the two men quietly discussing something, she thought about the SGC flagship team that was SG-1. General Jack O'Neill and Colonel Sam Carter had now been MIA for almost 4 months. And now the rest of SG-1 was officially on stand-down.
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TBC
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