Lizzy had just seated herself upon a bed when Dr. Weir entered the room followed shortly thereafter by Dr. Beckett.
"Oh good, ye're both here." He reached for a folder on the desk as he walked over to the two women. "I got ye test results back," he nodded towards Lizzy, "and there is a little something in here I wanted both of ye to know." He looked first to Lizzy and then to Weir.
Weir crossed her arms and glanced at Lizzy who shrugged back, "Very well Carson, what is it?"
"Well, there is really no way to sugar coat it." He looked directly at Lizzy, "you're pregnant."
It was the last thing in all of the galaxy that Lizzy was expecting to hear from the good doctor. She blinked, staring at the floor, her mouth open in disbelief. The look on her face reminded Beckett of someone who had been punched in the gut, and he felt sorry for her. Weir's reaction was similar, though more confused than anything, looking first to Beckett then to Lizzy then back to the doctor.
In unison both women said,
"I'm what?"
"She's what?"
Beckett sighed. "There is no mistaking the results." He handed her a sheet from the folder, "Your HCG levels clearly indicate a pregnancy."
Lizzy shook her head, clearly confused as she took the paper to look at. "But, that doesn't add up. I haven't been with anyone since I came to Atlantis." She handed the sheet back. "Over a year ago."
Now it was Beckett's turn to look confused, "Are ye sure?"
Lizzy looked him in the eye and nodded, "Positive."
"Is there any chance the results could be wrong?" Weir inquired.
"I doubt it, I can run them again if ye would like."
"No, No, that won't be necessary, I trust you. Do you think it could be related to the lab?"
"Possibly, at this point nothing else adds up. It may be the answer."
Weir nodded, "Then I'll send John and the rest of the team to check it out, hopefully we can find some answers to this puzzle." She smiled at both of them, and patted Lizzy on the knee before leaving the room.
Lizzy had meanwhile grown quiet. Her eyes affixed on the floor with an unseeing gaze. She shook her head, "Am I really going to have a baby?" She asked herself quietly.
Beckett heard her and turned, "Aye, lass, that ye are."
"I... I'm speechless. It doesn't make sense." She looked up at him with a helpless look on her face, the unsettling feeling she had gotten from her dreams had returned.
Beckett stepped closer and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know it doesn't, I can't make heads nor tails of it either. But, if ye need anything, anything at all, just let me know, alright?"
She nodded, wearily. Her voice almost a whisper, she spoke, "I don't want a baby right now."
- - - - -
After leaving the infirmary Weir touched her radio. "Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay, could you please report to my office stat."
"Yes Ma'am," her radio crackled back.
Upon reaching her office she found both men waiting for her. She acknowledged them as she went around to seat herself behind the desk, "Thank you for coming so quickly. We've got a little problem I need you to do some digging into."
"What kind of problem?" Sheppard asked.
"Well, Dr. Dunham, who as you know was rendered unconscious by an alien device a few weeks ago, is now pregnant, mysteriously. According to her, she has not been with anyone since she came to Atlantis."
A look of confusion passed over both faces.
"But, you can't exactly become pregnant without having..." McKay's thought trailed off.
"Yeah, that's not exactly possible." Sheppard said.
"I know," Weir leaned forward. "As strange as it may sound Dr. Beckett thinks it may have something to do with the device in that lab she visited. That is why I want you both to go back to M4R-459 and find out what the heck that thing is."
- - - - -
Ronon and Teyla had decided to tag along, curious about this so called lab. Curious as well about the possibility of another advanced race in the Pegasus Galaxy. Together all four waded through the tall grass, making their way up the valley, following the same route along the river that SGA-8 had taken.
Just like Major Hughes and his team before them they had been awestruck at the imposing scenery the moment they stepped through the gate. However, thanks to the prodding of McKay, who was eager to reach the lab, they managed up make it up into the vale quicker than their predecessors.
Once inside McKay instantly went to work, lighting up panels and turning on displays. He plugged in his tablet and busily got to work.
Meanwhile the rest of the team wandered around, gazing at this and that, staying well away from "Lizzy's platform" as Sheppard so eloquently put it.
A half hour later Rodney exclaimed "Ah! Got it!"
"Got what?" Ronon called from the other side of the room as he absently watched a display.
"I finally got the tablet to interface with the systems. It's the same problem we where having back on Atlantis with trying to understand the language. It's Ancient design but modified, so the computer was trying to talk with the system like a Lantean computer, but it wasn't working. I just had to rewrite a few command codes based on what we have already learned of the Language aaaand viola! There we go!" He looked up with a smug grin on his face. "Now I can get to work!"
"All this time and you haven't gotten anything done?" Sheppard sounded a tad annoyed.
McKay waved him off, intent upon his tablet "I'm getting to the good stuff now."
Sheppard shrugged to Ronon and Teyla, the threesome wandered back outside to await McKay's prognosis. It wasn't long before he dashed outside, calling them to come see what he had found. Back inside he picked up his tablet, scrolling through pages of text he began explaining.
"Now, from what we had translated back on Atlantis from the bits of language that had been recorded both Dr. Dunham and I had wondered if this was some sort of genetics lab, but we couldn't say for sure from the limited information we had. Turns out we were right." He gestured around the room, "Apparently this is some sort of secret outpost, and whoever built it was highly skilled with manipulating DNA." He punched a few buttons on his tablet, "It looks like they were trying to create some sort of super human clone."
"You mean like that thing back on Atlantis that made people ascend?" Sheppard questioned.
"No, this is different. It's a new clone, it's not a real human being, or a modified one for that matter. They were taking different pieces of DNA and altering their makeup and then merging it together to create a new being that had super strength, was super intelligent, and probably had, well... to put it this say, super powers."
"A superhero?" Sheppard was thoroughly confused.
"What are super powers?" Teyla asked, obviously in the same boat.
"You can fly, shoot lasers out of your eyes, levitate people, that sort of thing."
"Like when you nearly ascended?" A flicker of understanding glimmered in Teyla's face.
"Yeah, pretty much." McKay mused as he went back to working on his tablet.
"But," Sheppard leaned forward. "How does that explain how Dr. Dunham got pregnant?"
McKay looked up, obviously he had forgotten about that, "Oh, well, it doesn't."
Sheppard pointed to the platform, "I'd start with that."
"Fine." He went back to his tablet, pressed a key, then paused as he read what was on the screen. "Wait a second, look a this."
"What?"
"If I'm reading this correctly then it seems like whoever these people are, they had the ability to create artificial intelligence, androids."
"You mean like Spock?" Sheppard questioned, then quickly added, "are we talking replicators here?"
"No, I doubt that. From the way this text talks it sounds like these are real living breathing humans who made this place."
Then from across the room Teyla called out, "Dr. McKay, I think you better look at this."
McKay and Sheppard moved to where she was. She was standing in a dark corner of the room. Before her was a doorway, through which lay a small room, no bigger than a closet, and at the far end was a stasis chamber. Within was a man, sleeping in hibernation. He was clothed all in black and gray, a style similar to that of the ancient wardrobe. His hair was cropped short and his facial features where strong and prominent. He wall tall and well built with an obviously muscular body, evident even under the heavy clothing.
"Who is it?" Ronon asked, breaking the silence.
"I don't know." McKay punched a few more buttons on his tablet, bringing up a new screen, "But if was a gambling man, I'd say this is one of their androids." He looked at Sheppard, "your Spock."
- - - - -
Dr. Beckett had sent her back to her room with a few sleeping pills along with orders to get some much needed sleep. What a day it had been. Lizzy eyed the shower, but her mind couldn't seem to make her body do anything at the moment. Instead she simply sat at the foot of her bed, mentally exhausted. I'm pregnant? That just can't be true. She wasn't sure what to do now, she wasn't even sure what to think for that matter.
As she sat there, her mind wandering, she was suddenly come over by an overwhelming urge to sleep. Odd, she thought, I never even took a pill. It was her last conscious thought before her head hit the pillow.
A moment later she was wide awake, snapped out of her sleep as if by a jolt of electricity. Frantic, she bolted from her room, running down the halls like the devil himself was breathing down her neck.
Breathless she dashed into Weir's office. Struggling to catch her breath she panted out. "The team... on M4R-459... they're in... danger!"