Chapter 2: "What is it?"
They took only five children back with them. When they stepped out of the stargate, the children were shivering. Obviously the trip had scared them a bit. Doctor Frazier came running out to meet them.
"Are these the children you told me about?" she asked.
"Of course they are," said Jack. "Can't see any other kids around here, can you?" Then he walked off.
"Well," said the doctor, "looks like someone's in a bad mood."
"He's just upset," Daniel told her, "because we forced him to take the kids with us."
"Oh," said Sam. "And you're saying that it has nothing to do you making him think about Scarra again. Or have you forgotten that he cares about Scarra maybe even more than himself? Or that Scarra is currently possessed by a Goa'uld?"
Daniel suddenly looked very guilty, "It was the only way to get him to bring them with us. At least it was the only way I could think of."
Before they could go any further, Doctor Frazier cut in, "Could you please help me get these children to some beds? They look really tired, we should let them rest, then I'll take a look at them, one by one."
"Of course," came Teal'c's reply (he doesn't talk all that much, does he?).
Later, after Doctor Frazier had looked at all of the children, she told them of her findings, "Well, they do all have the same illness, but as much as it appears to be bacterial pneumonia, honestly, I don't think it is. We gave them strong antibiotics, in a few days, we should start seeing results. One of the things that I noticed was that these children seemed to have a lower number of natural antibodies than anyone I've seen before. This could be like that one other place you went to before where the only ones of us that were not affected took special allergy medicine. Though, in this case, it seems as though the only ones who can get this disease have a lower number of antibodies so that their number is so few that the antibodies can't cure them on their own."
"But," began General Hammond, "if you don't think that it is pneumonia, then what is it?"
"I'm not sure," replied Frazier. "I might be wrong. We'll need to wait and see if the antibiotics work before we'll know for sure."
"Then we'll wait," said Hammond. "Dismissed."
And they all left.
A few days later, as Doctor Frazier had guessed, they had results. The problem was, the children weren't getting any better. As a matter of fact, they were actually getting worse, meaning that the disease was getting stronger. Taking another blood test, the doctor noticed that the children's antibody levels were lower than before. She did not know why, but what she did know for sure, now, was that this illness was, indeed, not bacterial pneumonia, nor was it any other kind of bacterial infection. The antibiotics would have gotten rid of it regardless. It was not cancer, she had seen that before. No, it was some kind of virus, but a virus shouldn't be fatal. Nevertheless, if these kids did not get the right medicine very soon, they would not live to see their next year.