Well, I apologize a thousand times over to everyone who has been reading this. Some unexpected things got in the way and I was without a computer for a bit.
Warning – this one is a bit conversation-heavy, but at least you finally get some answers!
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Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
John Sheppard did not stir beyond that simple act of life. His eyes remained open. He didn't even blink…which was disconcerting as a nurse had to stop by every so often to administer drops to his eyes.
Sheppard did not respond to anyone's touch or voice. He did nothing at all but exist. It was disheartening to witness.
His team kept vigil by his bedside, keeping hope alive as best they could.
Elizabeth, Ronon, and Teyla sat beside Sheppard. Dr. Keller would pop in every now and then, though she was under strict orders to rest. Zelenka had joined Rodney and Dr. Row in the lab to find answers to questions they didn't want to ask.
It was as if the strands that had kept them from reaching Sheppard had never broken. There was still some unseen boundary between them and seemingly no way to breaking through.
"Has he moved?" Rodney's voice carried throughout the infirmary as the scientist walked up to Sheppard's bedside with Dr. Row following close behind. The entomologist was rather shy, avoiding eye contact and clinging to a datapad tucked under her arms.
"Not even a blink." Ronon replied dryly. His gaze remained on his leader, as if that alone would make a difference in Sheppard's current state.
"Figures. He's as lazy as they come, you hear that Sheppard?" Rodney raised his voice a little, leaning in to take in Sheppard's empty gaze. Rubbing a hand across his face in frustration, Rodney switched gears. "We think we know what the deal was with those things down there…whatdya' call 'em? Oh yes…your garden variety Pegasus Galaxy Arachnocampa."
The looks he garnered from the others caused him to roll his eyes and puff out a breath in frustration.
"Glow worms." He clarified. "Or rather, glorified glow worms that had telepathic abilities as well as an uncanny sense for the real ATA gene. Which explains why I wasn't adversely affected."
"And how did they get on Atlantis?" Elizabeth queried.
"How they arrived isn't really the point. It's the fact that they never quite evolved from their state ten thousand years ago when the Ancients had studied them. They were isolated from so many outside influences. That is the only reason we know as much about them as we do, instead of being on the wrong side of speculation we usually progress to." Dr. Row provided.
Elizabeth frowned at her avoided question. She had the distinct feeling the entomologist had better skills talking to bugs than to humans.
"But why down in that sublevel and not anywhere else on Atlantis…or the mainland for that matter? Why hasn't anyone been exposed to them before now?" Teyla questioned.
Rodney lifted a finger with eyebrows raised.
"The Ancients, we discovered, were carrying out little experiments of their own on that level, like I mentioned earlier. They failed to realize these worms were down there when they were going about setting their traps. Unfortunately for them, they found out the hard way how threatening these worms could be. Now, from what we can speculate, these worms were able to join together as a single consciousness, concentrating all of their power onto a single victim, to successfully take down said victim in a relatively short amount of time by overwhelming his or her senses. The worms would enhance the worst experiences or feelings of that victim and torment him until he perished. From what we could discern, the worms had other ways of tormenting, as we saw with Dr. Keller and the others, but what they did to Sheppard was what they were most…efficient at."
"Wait a minute…what was so different from what they experienced to what Sheppard went through?" Elizabeth questioned. From what the others had described of Sheppard's reactions throughout the ordeal it sounded quite similar to what she had witnessed of Dr. Keller, Dr. Yi, and Sergeant Andrews.
"From initial reports, it seems that they were only seeing what they feared the most. That fear paralyzed them and they were unable to regain any sort of control. Whereas with Sheppard, we believe he most likely was actually living through an altered reality that the worms created from memories in his mind." Dr. Row supplied. "Therefore, his experience went further into his psyche, perhaps irreversibly so."
"So you're saying you think Sheppard won't bounce back from this?" Rodney turned to Dr. Row with a frown.
Dr. Row raised her chin in non-defiance, but her expression was painted with guilt. She had, after all, seen how harmful the glowworms could be – to one of her own assistants no less. Never before, Rodney surmised, had the good doctor been fearful of the subjects she endeared. Perhaps now she would have a change of heart.
"You said the Ancients abandoned their work as well as the sublevel. Why was it that we were able to access it?" Teyla brought forth the puzzling question that had bothered Rodney in particular since this whole mess began.
"It was nothing more than a disconnected transporter, which was rather foolish on the Ancients' part. They must have underestimated those worms. That, or they were distracted by the war with the Wraith. Whatever the reason, when we came along, the worms picked up on Sheppard's super ATA gene and voila! They bypassed the disconnection and we found ourselves trapped in hell." Rodney surmised.
With a haunted expression, Elizabeth met Rodney's gaze.
"So sealing off that sublevel isn't really our best course of action, is it? How do you suggest we handle this?"
"For now, it's the best we can do." Dr. Row answered instead and with a genuine look of regret.
Silence fell amongst them and they resumed their vigil over the all too still colonel.
All they could do now was wait.
--tbc--