Adair wasn't surprised to find himself shuttled back to McKay's lab, but it was seeing Hermiod in a lab coat, seated between Zelenka and McKay that actually made him chuckle despite their situation.

"Well, that's a new one. How'd they get the little guy to gussy up?" he asked Sheppard.

"Rodney told him it was for sanitation reasons because some of the stuff from Atlantis might contaminate his Asgard skin."

"Oh, that's good."

"Thanks, it was my idea." Sheppard quipped with a grin as he steered Adair over to the work table the scientists were using. It was covered in papers, pieces of plastic, several laptops, and multitudes of standard issue white cafeteria coffee cups, many containing the sad remnants of their long-cold contents. "Boys, it looks like you've been busy while I was gone."

All three heads snapped up from their projects in surprise.

"Colonel Caldwell?" Hermiod asked, tipping his head in Adair's direction.

"Doc has him stable and resting."

The room grew silent at the news until Rodney spoke up, turning his laptop around for the newcomers to see. "We found your mystery nurse." Tapping a folder, an image of the blonde nurse appeared only this time she was a brunette.

Adair tugged the system across the table and peered closely at the picture. "That is the same woman."

"Of course it is," Rodney grunted while pulling up a parallel folder with a picture of the mystery nurse working in the infirmary alongside Caldwell, Adair's image was just visible at the edge of the photo.

"I'm having a real hard time knowing she tried to kill the colonel right in front of me," the Texan snarled, disgusted at himself for being taken in by a pretty face. "I want to know who she is."

"Hold your horses, Captain, and pull up a stool because our boys here found her," Sheppard said with a sardonic smile. "As well as a few other things" Taking up an empty stool for himself, he sat next to his chief scientist. "McKay, why don't you tell us what's behind barn door number one."

Rodney sat back down on his own stool and reached for his coffee cup, only to find half an inch of cold dregs. Rubbing his tired eyes and sighing, he returned his focus to his computer. After flipping through several screens, he stopped at a security image from on board the Daedalus showing the woman. "According to the Daedalus personnel reports, this is Dr. Anne Smith." His brow rose to the others, mocking the originality of the name 'Smith'. "She came on board when you picked up supplies one month prior to the trip back to Atlantis. According to her file, she is a medical officer, second class, assigned to your CMO. But when we checked with him, he never heard of her."

Adair scrubbed his face with his hands. "I don't recall ever seeing her either. How could she slip on board without anyone noticing?"

"The same way she slipped past Stargate Command," Rodney replied. "Because she doesn't really exist. When we sent her picture and file back for review, their records showed that no such person listed in the SGC database."

"I don't understand," said Adair.

"Someone reprogrammed the computers to recognize her security code. A code that had never been issued by Stargate Command, by the way. After reading the code, the computer was programmed to "forget" it after fifteen minutes. Any of the guards," Rodney snorted slightly at the simplicity of outsmarting military guards, "would have run the ident code she gave them and the computer would have automatically passed her through. During that time, she could do anything she wanted, including bypassing the security system to allow anyone else on board she wanted."

"Somebody screwed up on that one," said Sheppard.

"No doubt due to the military's extremely poor foresight..."

"Rodney," Sheppard warned.

The scientist dropped the tirade and continued with his explanation. "Fifteen minutes later, she effectively never existed. In computer logic, if she didn't exist, neither could her commands so there's no direct record of what she did, just pieces of programming code that survived because it was automatically copied into other parts of the system so the commands could be processed. Once on board, all she'd have to do is stay out of sight."

"It ain't that easy to stay out of sight for weeks, even on board a ship as big as the Daedalus," said Adair.

"Did I say it would have been easy?"

"Why stowaway at all?" Sheppard asked. "Why not just plant the bomb and leave?"

"I'm guessing they wanted someone who could adapt to changes in circumstances. Computers are great, but they only do what you tell them to do when you tell them to do it. Plus, I suspect they wanted to hijack the ship, not destroy it."

Sheppard spun the file in so he could more easily read it and frowned. "Do we know where she is now?"

Radek reached in front of the colonel and tapped a key bringing up another photo of 'Dr. Smith' standing outside along the water. "Using security footage, we tracked her to East Pier. Once she boarded Daedalus, we lost her."

"What do you mean 'you lost her'?"

The scientist took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Our feed from Daedalus was terminated."

"Okay, well we knew there was more than one person and now that she's been exposed, she'll need to go underground and someone else will have to take up the slack."

"So you think them snakes are been hiding out on my ship?"

Sheppard nodded, "Looks that way, although they clearly have access to Atlantis as well. And by now, it's a good guess that they've probably helped themselves to a few of our uniforms while they were at it."

Rodney pushed his stool back and made his way over to the empty coffee maker. When he dropped the foil packet of grounds twice in a row, Sheppard stepped over and swiped them before they fell for a third time.

"What's going on?" he whispered to the scientist.

"Would you believe I haven't been able to get a decent cup of coffee all day? Zelenka had a pot going this morning, but I didn't get more than a sip. I've either dropped it, had it knocked out of my hand, found the pot dry, or forgotten where I put it."

Sheppard chuckled over the frailties of caffeine-deprived scientists and shook his head. Giving McKay a friendly push back to the table, he started a fresh pot. "Z, you trying to get fired?" When the Czech looked over at him confused, he pointed to the pot and then Rodney, "You've only made him one? What kind of mad scientist are you?"

"I have advanced science degrees. I am not personal man servant and I do not make or drink that black tar."

"What? Take pity on him this morning?"

Radek shook his head and glared at Rodney. "It was made when I got here in morning. I assume Keiko was being her usual ingratiating self." He gave Sheppard a wink. They both knew the shy Japanese scientist had a crush on McKay, though Rodney seemed completely oblivious to the fact.

"I hate to break up the little quilting circle y'all got going here, but can we get back to the topic at hand?" Adair's easygoing spirit appeared to be slipping. "Who is trying to kill my commander and wreck my ship?"

Hermiod's dark eyes fixed on the captain. "It remains unclear as to why Colonel Caldwell has been targeted."

"So, all you fellas figured out today is that our assassin is a woman doctor?"

Rodney pursed his lips in displeasure. "We have found coded text messages that appears to be from at least three individuals, pieces of a timing device, hidden programs configured to disable the Daedalus…"

"Wait. Go back," Adair interrupted, "to the messages. What'd they say?"

Radek sifted through the loose pages on the table and laid out several in front of the others. "First one is mention of resetting of timer. After that, there are several about taking the ship, termination of Colonel Caldwell, sending message to others, change of plans, and overriding access codes."

Sheppard picked up the last page and reread it before dropping it back to the pile. "Sounds to me like they're just after the ship. Hitting Caldwell was just to get him out of the picture. When they failed, they tried again in the infirmary. That was a stupid move on their part because it put at least one of them out in the open. We need to flush them back out again because now they are dug in snug on Daedalus and will be waiting for us to make the next move."

"What do you have in mind?" Adair asked.

The coffee pot made a final hiss of completion and Rodney quickly rose, snagging his cup from the table and not even bothering to dump out what little remained from one of his previous coffee misadventures of the morning before filling it with fresh brew.

Sheppard tapped an empty mug on the table, signaling to Rodney for a refill also, before continuing. "How soon before she can fly again?" he asked Hermiod.

"Currently, the Daedalus is operational but there is still considerable damage to be repaired."

"But, they could fly it out of here if they had the chance?"

"It would be difficult, but yes."

"Then we need to get on board and stop them before they have the opportunity."

"Opportunity to do what?" Carson asked while entering the room with Teyla at his side, his own steaming cup of coffee in hand that he sat on the table in front of him. Taking up Rodney's abandoned stool, the physician completely missed the look of utter contempt aimed his way from the now seatless, and disgruntled, scientist.

"Carson, how nice of you to join us," Rodney said, setting his cup down on the table and making a point of moving the laptop from in front of his former chair to where he was now standing. He nearly knocked over his cup for the 3rd time that morning in the process. Carson helpfully slid the cups out of the way.

Sheppard hid a smile behind his hand. "How's Caldwell? Find out what happened to him?"

"Aye, if we were back home we would have totally missed it, but the equipment on Atlantis has a greater scope. He was injected with a heavy dose of epinephrine." He glanced at Adair across the table, "Good thing you were there with him, son, to catch it when it happened or he could have gone into cardiac arrest."

"But he's gonna be okay?" Adair drawled.

"That on top of an already serious injury is a setback, and will undoubtedly delay his recovery, but overall he should be fine." Picking up the closest cup and taking a sip of the hot beverage, Carson closed his eyes and savored the warmth as it slid down his throat.

Rodney, attracted by the bliss on the Scot's face, quickly followed suite, half emptying his cup in three large gulps. "Finally! Coffee!"

Carson took another sip and grimaced at the slightly bitter aftertaste. "I asked Ronon to keep an eye on the colonel, figuring the only one who could possibly get past him would be Teyla and she offered to come down here with me." He gave the Athosian a teasing glance.

"Good thinking, doc. Okay everyone, we need to break up into two teams and search the Daedalus. I'll take McKay and Beckett. Captain, you take Teyla and Zelenka. Hermiod, it's your choice as to what you want to do. Let's concentrate on engineering and the bridge. If they are going to try and fly her out of here, those are the places they'll need to head to first." Taking a quick swig from his own cup, he stood up and pushed his stool back leaving the rest of his drink on the table.

Adair seemed quite pleased to have Teyla on his team and gave her trim figure an appreciative glance as the scientists tidied up their papers in preparation to leave. Teyla caught his look and tipped her head sideways; giving the newcomer one of her patented raised brows Her expression clearly suggested that his attention might be better directed elsewhere given their current situation.

Sheppard noticed the exchange and leaned in towards Adair, speaking softly so he wouldn't be overheard. "Kick. Your. Ass." He reminded the cowboy.

"Feisty women don't scare me none, Sir," the cowboy replied out of the corner of his mouth while giving the Athosian his most winsome smile.

Teyla merely rolled her eyes in exasperation at both of them before turning to help Zelenka gather up the last of his printouts.

Rodney, meanwhile, attempted to gulp down the remainder of his own cup before Carson could snatch it from his hand as Sheppard tugged him away from the table. When the physician succeeded and shook his head as if to say 'no more', the scientist glared and was ready to snap but stopped when the Scot suddenly leaned sideways and began to sag towards the floor. Coffee quickly forgotten, Rodney reached to grab Beckett seconds before the physician's head would have connected with the unforgiving surface.

Sheppard instantly dropped beside them, paging a medical emergency to Rodney's lab. When he noticed the physician's eyes were still open, though glazed, he patted him on the cheeks. "Come on, stay with me," he ordered. "Tell me what's happening."

It was clear Carson was in serious trouble when his eyes rolled back in his head and he grew limp in Rodney's grasp.

Several med techs scurried into the room and surrounded them, leaving Sheppard to join the rest of the team standing alongside the edge of the room.

Adair watched with growing unease. "Do you think this is another attempt to stop the investigation?"

"Has to be. And whatever it was that took him down, acted fast."

"The coffee," Radek suggested as he stood back and watched the gurney carrying Beckett go past, Rodney following closely behind it.

"Perhaps, Colonel, we should also go to the infirmary?" said Teyla.

He knew she was right. "Captain, keep an eye on things in here and report to me as soon as you find anything." Sliding a pencil through the handle, he picked up Carson's mug, which had fallen to the floor when the doctor collapsed, and passed it to Zelenka for analysis.

"Will do, sir." Adair watched the officer leave the room and then joined Zelenka and Hermiod. "It looks like it's just us fellas. Let's see what we can find."

oOo

It was over two hours later before the group found themselves reassembled surrounding Carson's bed in the infirmary. The doctor was still mostly out of it although he was no longer in danger--according to what they had been told by various members of his staff. Rodney had taken up residence on the foot of the physician's bed, watching the nurses suspiciously as they moved quietly about the room full of patients. He wasn't about to give the saboteurs another chance.

After Adair did a quick check on Caldwell and found his superior asleep, he joined the rest of the team.

Carson's second in command stepped up to the bed, taking the doctor's pulse. "We gave him something to help counter act the poison after we pumped his stomach. He's going to miserable but fine in a few hours," he assured the group. "It's lucky you were with him considering the speed the poison took effect. If he had been alone when it happened…" The doctor left the sentence unfinished and waved Rodney off the bed, standing back to give them room to pass. Watching them file silently past, he nodded, "Be careful."

As they made their way out across the pier to the Daedalus, Rodney could no longer stay quiet and shook his head in disgust. "Did he say, 'be careful'? Why didn't he just paint a bull's eye on us and stick us in front of a firing squad?"

"Rodney," Sheppard warned with a jab to the scientist's ribs.

In typical McKay fashion, he'd missed the colonel's exhausted tone and snapped. "What?"

"Shut up."


The action picks back up big-time next chapter so stay tuned cowpokes!