A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far, I think I'm going to have some fun with this scenario and I'm open to suggestions. References to Rising, Hotzone, The Gift. Big thanks to Dr. Dredd for letting me borrow Dr. Steven Schwartz; I really appreciate him for this scene.
Chapter 2
"Are you sure about that, Dr. Beckett? You think the Wraith would be booby trapping ruins," asked Major Lorne, trying to consider the ramifications of what the Scotsman had just said.
"More like taking advantage of the situation. I hate to admit it, but I think Carson has a plausible scenario. We know the Wraith were previously manipulating human genetics. Teyla's proof of that. Who's to say they didn't try to design a bioweapon?" said Dr. Weir, hands wrapped around her coffee mug.
"It doesn't make sense. Why would they want to kill their food source?" persisted Major Lorne.
"I don't know if this virus, if it is Wraith designed, is deadly. Simply incapacitating your foes could be enough. A sickened population isn't going to put up much resistance. That's been true since the beginning of warfare," explained Dr. Beckett. "All I know so far is I have three people who all possess some form of the ATA gene in the infirmary with something that resembles the flu, with an extremely short incubation period, which could stem from all of them handling the same artifact. It's pretty circumstantial at this point."
"Is there anything more you can add?" asked Dr. Weir, nodding to the linguist and the archeologist.
"We need to run some more tests, but we believe the newer set of text, as it were, is less than ten thousand years old. Maybe this pseudo-artifact, was deliberately left in case the Ancients came back with reinforcements or new weapons, It may be comparable to Teyla's necklace which was set to indicate the presence of Ancients," hypothesized Dr. Timmons.
"Let me get this straight. The Wraith leave a little welcome gift, in case the Ancients came back, to try and get rid of them one of way or another, be able to keep culling without interference and maybe gain access to Atlantis," summarized Major Lorne.
"Probably," answered Dr. Baker
"That's a lot of theorizing. I'd prefer some definite answers," replied Dr. Weir. She looked at Carson, "I'm guessing you have your own sets of questions and would like to return to the infirmary. Major Lorne, until we know what we're dealing with, no gate travel. We don't want to spread this virus, if that's what it is. Any survey teams are better off remaining offworld. Please keep me apprised of the situation," she turned to dismiss them and refilled her coffee mug. It was going to a long night and she didn't relish the thought of another outbreak in Atlantis.
Dr. Beckett hurried back to the infirmary and was met in the doorway by several of his staff members. He quickly filled them in on the details of the meeting and what they might be dealing with. Their tension and concern visibibly increased when he mentioned the possibility of a Wraith-engineered virus. At least there was some good news to report, fevers were still elevated, but not dangerously so, and all three were resting relatively comfortably for now. Carson started to go check on them himself, but was stopped by his 2IC, who shook his head. "Why?" Dr. Beckett asked impatiently.
"Would you think about what you just told us. Even if this virus is confined to those with the ATA gene, we have no idea how it is transmitted. You said that all three handled the artifact, but we don't know if the virus can become airborne or spread through person to person contact. We'll need to put Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay and Dr. Randall in strict isolation until we know more. We could be facing the possibility of a couple dozen people infected, yourself included. I'm going to need a blood sample from you and run a few tests, given your earlier contact with everyone. In fact I'm going to insist." Dr. Schwartz looked a little smug as he said this and gestured for a syringe and tourniquet Carson glowered, but knew Steven was being reasonable. At least Major Sheppard and Dr. McKay weren't here to witness this. Both would probably be snickering about the proverbial shoe being on the other foot. "I'll run this immediately to see if you are displaying any antibodies, although we still don't quite understand what we're up against, except as you said onset is very rapid. In the meantime, have a seat," indicateing one of the beds. Dr. Beckett suppressed the urge to throw something in frustration.