Crossing the Line
Chapter Ten
"Nanites."
Anna lifted her head and stared at Carson.
"Nanites?"
The Scottish doctor nodded and typed something into his laptop. "I don't know why I didn't see it before, but there it is." He looked across the table at her. "I'm sending you the data right now. Get Raja and work on it - I need to go find Rodney."
Anna tapped on her headset and slumped back down at her computer as Beckett jogged away. All right, so they were nanites; it was, admittedly, a start, but she doubted they would find out how to stop them in time to do anything. Opening the file, she tapped her earpiece again - perfect, now the radios were going wonky too -- and told Raja, the lab technician, to come help. It was too late for petit, anyway; he had died earlier that day. Half of Atlantis was down with it, and that was the strange part: it wasn't the half that everyone would have thought would have been affected. Those with the Ancient gene, whether they had acquired it naturally or artificially, had had some really bad mood swings for a while, but they were fine now; and, judging from the information Raja was sending her, nanite-free. But those without the ancient gene had, on contact with the nanites, fallen unconscious. One day later and they were still comatose -- except that now their hearts and lungs were giving out. Two dead so far, and three that Beckett said wouldn't last the night. So here they were, quarantined on Atlantis, and she had no idea what, precisely, she could do to help. As soon as Beckett had discovered that she had translated the Ancient 'lab reports' they had found on Y2G-411, he had gone downstairs, dragged her to his office and plunked her in front of a computer. The lab reports dealt with some form of nanites, it seemed, and she had consulted with Miko while translating them, and, considering Miko and most of the biologists were lying unconscious in the infirmary, they needed all the help they could get. It also helped that she had had so many of those 'chats' with the scientists; apparently her reading their textbooks paid off - wait until Lorne heard that. Also, from some reports she had helped Daniel with when she was at the SGC, she knew a little - a very rudimentary little - about some of the nanites they had encountered in the Milky Way galaxy.
Hmm, that was interesting. According to these blood reports from Cadman's physical yesterday and the ones done after she attacked Maj. Peters, the nanites had tripled in between the incidents…and then they had tripled again. It was only after she had come in contact with Lt. Alexandrovich that the nanites had disappeared. Well, it had nbeen obvious that people became infected when they walked into a room with another infected person -- but why had the nanites increased like that? From the ones they had encountered before, particularly the ones that had infected Dr. Weir, the nanites did not increase in a uniform manner; in fact, the only time she had seen any that did had been - oh, where was it? She had been studying Earth languages that had changed over time on other planets and used the mission report as a reference . . . it had been the one were General O'neill had-
Argos. That was it; Argos. That's right - the nanites were being controlled by an outside power source. But if there were a power source, then why had the nanites lain dormant before suddenly starting up? And why was there such a big discrepancy in how long some of those with the Ancient gene had been symptomatic? The ones who had started displaying mood swings first had had longer -- but far calmer -- ones, whereas those who had been infected later had had short but incredibly violent ones. It was strange, to say the least. Almost as if there had been a power surge: yeah, a steadily increasing power surge.
But that made no sense whatsoever. The last several planets visited hadn't been inhabited, and if someone had managed to plant a power source in something brought back to Atlantis, it might have been on a delay of sorts for a week or two - but Anna sincerely doubted there would be strange power fluctuations once it did turn on.
Which pointed to someone controlling said power source - if there even was one. But who? They hadn't run into a civilization capable of making pasteurized milk in months, for crying out loud. The last time they had, actually, had been on M3X-479, and that had been -- what? More than nine months ago all ready? So if someone was controlling it, how were they doing it? Maybe they had to get close to Atlantis for it to work? It didn't take a lot to power nanites, but getting even a weak signal to Atlantis would take a long time . . . Couldn't be from a ship; Rodney or Zelenka would have picked it up and -- unless it was cloaked? No, no, that couldn't be; they had just been testing some new equipment they had designed for just that purpose. . . So what could it be? Who could it be? The fact that it was attacking everyone but those with the ancient gene pointed to the Ancients themselves having created it, but the Ancients were long gone, and who would want to attack the Atlanteans when the - the Genii, maybe? No, Radon Ladim might be. . . Well, Radon, but he wasn't going to start murdering half the Atlanteans. He might be many things, but he certainly wasn't stupid.
But who else could have the access to-- Anna swiveled as Raja walked in.
"Hello - Dr. Beckett told me to come when I finished sending you the information." The technician walked to one of the computers and sat down. "He managed to stabilize Dr. Zelda - you know, the astronomer? But he doesn't know how long he can last without-"
Anna pushed back her chair and stood up. But of course! Why hadn't she seen it? Walking over, she hugged Raja and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then ran out the door.
Marcus was helping Rodney and Zelenka go over data of the last several hundred gate transmissions; they were looking for energy spikes, anomalous readings -- anything, really, that might give them a clue as to where this had come from. Dr. Weir and Col. Sheppard were going over mission reports; she and Laura had both offered to help look through medical reports to see if there was any evidence of mood swings on post-mission checkups, but Beckett had found out she was translating some Ancient biology lab reports they had found, so of course he had set her to work with him, looking for a reason why it attacked those without the ancient gene.
The bad thing about it was that the civilians were those hit hardest. The military personnel were some of the best she had ever met - the thing was that the ones who outdid themselves were sent to the SGC or to Atlantis; in this case, having the ancient gene often determined which of the two places they were sent to.
Civilian personnel, however, were chosen for their intelligence and the fields they worked in. Ending up at the SGC versus Atlantis wasn't, for them, a matter of the gene, it was a matter of where their particular specialties were better suited. For this reason, while about seventy percent of the military personnel had the gene, only thirty percent of the civilians did. It hadn't really seemed like a problem before . . . Until, of course, most of the scientists, doctors and nurses were lying unconscious in the infirmary.
So now anyone who knew the least bit about medicine, biology, or nanites was working with Beckett and Rodney, and everyone else was in the mess working with Sheppard and Caldwell. He stifled a yawn and grabbed the cup sitting next to him. Hmm, empty again. Was that -- lipstick? Oopsie, wrong cup. Well, his was empty too, so it was of little--
"Rodney!"
Ah, the lieutenant. Well, this looked promising. Maybe she--
"I found it! I found the power source!"
Marcus looked around as the 'tenant shoved her way up to them; all right, so he wasn't the only one that was confused. That was always a good sign. Then again, if Rodney was lost, it might not--
His thoughts stopped again as Anna, hopping up and down in some strange sort of victory dance, grabbed his sleeve and started tugging on it and chattering like a hyperactive squirrel.
"All right, so I knew the power source couldn't be on Atlantis because of the fluctuations, and it couldn't be on a spaceship because Radek would have caught it, so when Raja told me the bit about Dr. Zelda it hit me -- it's not being operated by anyone, it's just sitting on another planet!"
Marcus heard Zelenka cough beside him. Maybe he should say something? Calmly he placed his hand on the one still tugging at his sleeve and looked down at her.
"Power source?"
She frowned and cocked her head. "Well, the nanites are being powered by an outside source. . . I think." She blinked. "Didn't I -- didn't I mention that?"
Marcus sighed, pulled up a chair for her, and tapped his earpiece. "Dr. Weir, Col. Sheppard, I think you should come down to the mess; there's something you're going to want to hear."
"So it's not being controlled by anybody?"
Marcus walked over to Cadman and helped her struggle in to her vest; she and Major Peters had banged each other up pretty badly earlier. She had said she was fine, but Beckett hadn't had a chance to examine her and, to be quite honest, he just couldn't bring himself to trust anyone when there was an injury involved. But-- she had asked about the power source. Right.
"No, it's not. Schweinsteigger figured out that one of our teams probably picked it up accidentally. See, the power source was on a planet we visited some time ago. Since the source was nearby when that team was infected, and the closer you are the shorter the symptomatic period is, they probably didn't show any symptoms at all -- so, of course, they all probably have the ancient gene. However, when they came back through the gate, the distance between the two planets prohibited the nanites from getting any power, and they were dormant for months. But apparently the other planet's orbit brings it close to Atlantis every four months, and yesterday it got close enough that the power source reactivated the nanites, or so I understand from Rodney." He stepped back and walked into the hallway. "Last I heard they had it narrowed to two planets, and--" he paused as Sheppard's voice filtered into his ear. "Come on -- they think they've found it."