PART FOUR

'It was pretty much as I suspected,' Beckett began his report several hours later. As well as Dr Weir, Colonel Sheppard, Major Lorne, Teyla and Laranne were all present. 'As soon as Laranne had calmed down, Colonel Sheppard's mood improved considerably. I know there's no real scientific evidence to prove telepathy exists in humans, but we've seen it in Teyla and what we've got here is too much to be a coincidence. Laranne, can you tell Dr Weir what you told me earlier.'

'The Chosen do not use words to communicate the Knowledge of the ages to each other,' Laranne said. 'I do not fully understand, it is just something we do, something I have always known and done. But it should not affect other people, only the Chosen possessed the ability.'

'The scans I took of Colonel Sheppard and Laranne while they were both in the infirmary were very revealing,' Carson continued as he displayed the screen with the scan results. 'The brain activity is definitely mirrored in both of them, in fact, if you look here, and here,' he enlarged the pictures, 'you can see that Colonel Sheppard has a second pattern, but much fainter than the first, almost like an echo.'

'And it gets even better,' John glared at Laranne as he spoke. 'Dr Beckett thinks that my anger was channelled through to Laranne, who reflected it back to me so I was getting a double dose of it.'

'Exactly,' Carson confirmed.

'You're serious about this aren't you?' Elizabeth double-checked for reassurance. 'And it's not intentional?'

'No,' Laranne assured her. 'I did not know I would need to control my thoughts when I arrived - I was the last of my people with this ability for many years and had almost forgotten how to.'

'So how come everyone else gets a few pot plants and I have to go and steal a jumper?' John snapped irritably.

'The ancient gene is much stronger in you than the others. My guess is that Laranne is a descendant of the Ancients, with a few genetic modifications, and it's the ATA gene in our people that triggers the telepathic reception,' Beckett paused before continuing. 'Colonel Sheppard is also the only one whose been able to reciprocate in any way – he projected his emotions back to Laranne, but it only seems to work when they're in close proximity. Once Laranne got far enough away, the link weakened enough for her to regain some control over herself.'

'I will leave Atlantis,' Laranne spoke decidedly. 'Teyla has told me her people would welcome me.'

'Would that be far enough?' Elizabeth asked.

'It's hard to tell,' Carson considered this. 'We'll just have to give it a go and see what happens.'

'Very well,' Elizabeth decided. 'Colonel Sheppard, I'd like you and Major Lorne to work together until this has been resolved. Major, you have my authorisation to restrain Colonel Sheppard should he start to behave abnormally.'

'Is that really necessary?' John protested.

'I believe it is,' Elizabeth confirmed. 'If you don't like it, I'm afraid I'll have no option but to remove you from duty. We can't risk the security of the City if you're affected again. Major, I'd also like you to…'

Before she could complete her instructions, an alert sounded from the gate room. The room cleared within seconds, leaving Dr Beckett to hand Laranne over to one of the security personnel before he too disappeared.

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'Excuse me ma'am, Dr Weir has asked me to transport you to the mainland.' Laranne had been resting in her quarters until someone had appeared at the door. 'I'm Lt. Haines.'

'Do we go now?'

'Not immediately, Dr Weir would like to see you before you go. This way.'

They hadn't gone very far when Haines paused as he listened carefully to the chatter coming over the radio before turning back to Laranne.

'I'm very sorry,' he apologised. 'There's been a security incident and I'm needed, we'll have to postpone your trip. I'll take you back to your quarters now.'

'I understand,' Laranne assured him. A moment later she doubled over, clutching her side as she struggled to breathe through the stabbing, burning pain that was shooting through her.

'What is it?' Haines asked in alarm. 'Are you ill?'

'It is not me,' she gasped through clenched teeth. 'Colonel Sheppard is hurt. I can feel it. Ahh!' She struggled to make herself understood through the pain. 'Others are injured also, but not as severely. You have to help them.'

'I don't understand – how do you know?' Haines sounded confused.

'It is too complicated to explain, you to have to send help or he will die.' Laranne was now able to regain some control.

'Laranne? What is wrong?' A more familiar voice broke in.

'Teyla, you have to help him,' Laranne turned to her in desperation.

'Help who?'

'Colonel Sheppard. And the others. They are injured. You have to help them.'

'Where are they?' Teyla quickly grasped the urgency of the situation.

'The place where I saw Dr McKay two days ago.'

Teyla nodded and spoke rapidly into her radio even as she was making her way to the lab with Lt Haines, followed by Laranne who didn't know what else to do, and arrived there at the same time as several other units.

'Major Lorne,' Teyla hissed at the person in front of her. 'What is going on?'

'Two of the refugees we were evacuating got away from the main group, somewhere between the mess hall and the infirmary,' Lorne told her in a hushed voice. 'They're in there with Colonel Sheppard, Dr McKay and some of the other scientists. They're armed and are holding them hostage. We got a message from Colonel Sheppard just before yours but we've heard nothing from anyone in there since. Are you sure he's injured?'

'Laranne thinks so, and she says it's serious.'

'Ok, this is what we're going to do…' Lorne issued his instructions, then silently they were put into action.

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Ten minutes later it was all over. Lorne and his men had tackled the two refugees from the front while another group had entered through the rear door, using the distraction to take up their positions in the room. One of the refugees was subdued almost immediately, the second had put up a fight and it had taken four men and a number of injuries before he was also restrained.

'Well that's just great!' McKay snapped as he emerged from behind the bench where he had been hiding, holding the remains of the new ZPM. 'See what you clumsy military have achieved now?'

'Out of the way, Rodney,' Beckett pushed past him impatiently as he headed towards the injured Sheppard.

'There's no need for…' McKay began, his voice trailing off as he realised there were a number of injured men requiring attention, and that Sheppard looked to be in a very bad way.

'What's going on?' Carson asked in surprise as he took in the sight of Laranne slumped beside Sheppard. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing very slowly, showing no indication she had heard anyone else approach. 'Laranne?' He shook her by the shoulder but still received no response. Rapidly assessing the situation, he handed her over to a couple of the medics. 'There's no evidence of any injury but you need to get her to the infirmary and checked out,' he said as he turned his full attention to John, stabilising him before transporting him to the infirmary as well.

'He's crashing!' Carson yelled, racing into the infirmary. It took only seconds for the medical team to surround John with their equipment, but before anyone had chance to act Carson stopped them. 'Wait a moment, he's stabilising again. Blood pressure and pulse both improving. Ok, let's get him prepped for surgery.'

To be continued…

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