Chapter 8: How Much More Can There Be
Isabel was sat in the briefing room; they had been there for twenty minutes while they decided what they were going to do about the risk of Ba'al finding Atlantis. Dr Weir and Colonel Shepard walked into the briefing room and took their seats. "We assessed the situation while Rodney pleaded that two certain scientists be allowed to stay and that the rest of you leave. He seems to think that you can help him with reverse engineering a wraith dart." Colonel Shepard informed them, all of the eyes in the room rolled simultaneously. "We however don't mind if you all stay as long as the Prometheus reaches us before Ba'al does. We do want Isabel to go down to the infirmary; her injury seems a lot worse than we were forewarned about." He nodded to Isabel and then looked back at the rest of the room.
"Colonel Carter, we'd like for you to go and help Dr McKay, and to shut him up. We'd then like for Isabel to join you both so we can at least work through it quickly. The sooner we finish, the sooner we'll have an edge over the wraith." Dr Weir then cut in.
"Hang on; I left one galaxy with a threat to come to a different galaxy with an equally as dangerous threat. Won't the wraith come after me too?" Isabel askes, she was a little confused. "Ba'al wanted my gift; Osiris wanted it too, what about the wraith if they find out?"
"Don't worry; the only people that know are the people in this room." Colonel Shepard informed her. Isabel still looked a bit shaky about the situation but accepted it, nodded and leaned back in her chair. Colonel Shepard noticed that the young lieutenant next to her had grabbed her hand and was holding it tightly. "Is there anything else we need to cover or can we get moving with our current plan?"
"No, I think that's everything. You'd better get going colonel before Rodney tries to hold back on the project." Doctor Weir informed the people in the room. Isabel was a little reluctant to move but Dr Weir walked over to her and sat down. "Don't worry; we have a great doctor here form the UK and the rest of the base personnel were chosen from the best in twelve different countries. You will be perfectly safe as long as you stay in Atlantis."
"Ok, I'd better get to the infirmary then." She said. Isabel was escorted by Colonel Shepard to the infirmary where she heard a man giving orders in the distance. "Is the doctor here Scottish?" Isabel asked as they walked in.
"Aye, I am. If you'd like to sit down there then I can fix that stitching." A cheery man informed her as he guided her to what appeared to be a hospital bed. As the doctor removed the bandaging around her wrist his brow furrowed and he removed the stitching carefully. "It seems that you have some sort of infection around the wound." The doctor wiped the wound down, causing Isabel to wince, and then replaced the stitching and bandaging. "You should be fine as long as you take one of these anti-biotics every day for the next two weeks. If the infection gets worse or spreads, come back to see me." The doctor gave her a white pot and smiled at her.
Ryan helped Isabel out of the hospital bed and helped her find the control room, they walked through one of the doors when it opened up and saw a balcony area. Looking over the city and its looming towers they saw the extent of what had been achieved. The city was huge and it rested on the surface of the water as if it was a leaf. "How is that possible?" Isabel asked astonished. "Yeah, it is beautiful, that's one thing that you can't deny."
"Not as beautiful as you." Ryan whispered to her. Isabel turned her head to face him and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He lips lingered for no longer than a few seconds but it felt as if it could go on forever. Ryan wrapped his arm around her waist and rested his head on top of hers.
Neither of them had realised that Daniel and Sam had seen the two of them. "Jack's going to be really happy that he won the bet." Daniel said a little peeved. He could not bear losing another bet to Jack, especially since the last one had been where Daniel would next descend.
"We'd better go and interrupt them, McKay really needs her help." Sam walked over to the young duo and placed a hand on Isabel's shoulder. Automatically Isabel nodded to Sam and then returned her focus to Ryan.
"Ryan, I need to go help Dr McKay, apparently he needs my help." She told him simply and walked away leaving the young man and Daniel on the balcony to talk things over. "Fifty bucks? Really? I wouldn't have even put that much on us. Well, the General will be happy. So, why do you keep thinking about DC? I mean, you aren't moving there are you? The General! You can't be serious. No way! He's gonna go, he knows what it would mean for the two of you."
"You'd better not talk to him about it when he gets here. You've got three weeks before he comes and kicks your ass for that." Sam laughed as they made their way to a lab in one of the far areas of the city. "McKay, here is the person you've been asking for. Isabel this is Rodney McKay, Rodney this is Isabel Hastings. By the way you should probably remember that her wormhole theory paper makes yours look like it was written in crayon, by a two year old."
"Well, Isabel. Do you know anything about propulsion systems?" Rodney asked her, he sounded a little too confident in her but didn't even let her talk. "Right over here are some of the more important parts from this wraith dart. Do you think that you'd be able to make sense of any of them?"
Isabel looked over the table and spotted something that looked like it could be an engine. "Maybe that one." She indicated the engine-like contraption and was given by Rodney a few sheets of paper. "This is all you know about it. It's a good job you've got one that seems undamaged. I'll get to work." Isabel moved over to a make shift desk, she hooked up the device to the laptop and ran a few tests for detecting different substances and forms of radiation and power. That was interesting; the device was composed mostly of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. She took a pair of forceps and a knife, she cut off a small piece of a cord that fed into the device and placed it onto a petri dish, it had obviously been severed and was a pipeline of some kind. She made her way over to a microscope and placed it under the lens. "Dr McKay, I've got something you should see."
"What is it? Is it important?" Rodney questioned. He rushed over to the microscope and stared at the girl. "Why do you need that?"
"Well, when I discovered that the device was composed of four of the most common elements in just about everything organic, I brought it over here. Look into here and tell me what you see." Isabel indicated the microscope.
"I don't have to be any doctor to figure out what that is. Sam, the ship is organic; it's composed of a series of complex cells. Isabel you need to get this up to Carson. Dr Beckett. Hurry, this could be the most important thing we've ever learnt about the wraith." Rodney called out. He was a bit too pushy when he wanted to be. Isabel retrieved several more specimens, sealed them and placed them into a small box before she made her way up out of the door. "She is one instinctive scientist."
"Rodney, that's what makes her smarter than you." Sam commented before she returned to dismantling the wraith dart.
After wandering the halls for what seemed like an hour, Isabel spotted Colonel Shepard wandering around the halls. "Colonel." She called after him, his mind filled with questions when he saw that a fifteen year old was running towards him. "I've got some of the cells from the wraith ship for Dr Beckett but I have no idea which way the infirmary is." She explained. The colonel suddenly understood and replied.
"You'd better come with me. I was sent by one of the medical staff to come and get you back to the infirmary. Dr Beckett seemed a little concerned about your wrist." The colonel informed her. They walked for another five minutes before they reached the infirmary. "Dr, I've got a present for you."
Dr Beckett appeared around the corner and sighed with relief. "What's that you're carrying?" He asked her when he saw the box in her hands.
"These are cells from a wraith dart. I was hoping that I could figure out more here than I could down in Dr McKay's lab. What did you need to see me about?" Isabel was a little confused by his sudden restarting of a train of thought that was louder than Dr Frasier's. "Do all doctors have loud thoughts?" she asked Colonel Shepard as they followed Dr Beckett to a computer.
"I took a look at your medical record and realised, the anti-biotics that I prescribed could kill you after only one dose. There are certain proteins in your blood that occur as a bi-product of your allergies. The anti-biotic would feed off of it and multiply in your system exponentially. You would die of an over dose in two days. Please tell me that you haven't taken one?" He pleaded to her.
"Did you understand any of that?" The colonel inquired of her.
"Yes I did understand what he said and no I haven't taken any yet. They're down in the lab; I was going to wait till I had to take some of my other medication before I had one." Isabel confirmed for both of the men. "I was wondering, have you ever seen anything like a wraith ship before you came to Atlantis? I think that it's an organism that grows and creates an electrical bond between each of the cells."
"No. I haven't but we should probably find out how it grows and what causes the electrical bonds before we do anything else." Dr Beckett informed her as they sat down and started to work on the pieces of wraith ship.