Chapter 7

"Dr. Keller?" Sam stood at her office door. "Sorry it took me so long."

"No problem, Colonel. It gave me some time to go over the results." Jennifer indicated a vacate chair. "Please."

Sam accepted the offer. "Is there a problem? Is John alright?"

"That's what I wanted to see you about. He still won't let me give him anything to help the migraine, but he is sleeping."

"Can he keep doing this?"

"I don't know, but I doubt that he'll be able to continue for much longer at the pace he's been going. The headache is much worse." She stopped and chewed her lip for a moment then swiveled the laptop on her desk so that Sam could see it. "But, that's not all of it."

Jennifer tapped a key on the laptop and an image of Sheppard's baseline scan showing the brain appeared. She moved the cursor. "This is a scan of Col. Sheppard that I ran during his physical three months ago. It's consistent with prior scans."

Sam looked at her. "I don't understand."

"I wanted you to see the difference." She pressed another key. "This is the scan I took a few days ago, before all this happened. See these areas?"

The colonel squinted at the screen. "I'm not sure."

Jennifer manipulated the image, overlaying the second on the first then moved the cursor over a couple of areas. "There is evidence of activity that doesn't seem to be normal."

"Could it just be that it doesn't show up all the time?"

She compressed her lips and shook her head then pulled up another scan. "No, I don't think so. This is the first one taken after all the systems went offline. As you can see, there is a little more synaptic activity." She added a third image then a fourth image. "This was yesterday, and three hours ago."

The dramatic difference between the images made Sam blink and lean in closer. She turned to the doctor. "What is that?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. The scans indicate use of more of the brain than is normal, for anyone. It may be the level of concentration necessary to activate the systems requires it, and the interaction of someone with the Ancient gene to the technology facilitates it." Jennifer shrugged. "I have no proof, of course."

"This looks a little like the scan you did on Davos." Sam looked back at the screen and thought about what happened to Gen. O'Neill when the Ancient library was downloaded into his brain. "Is…is this permanent?"

"It is similar to Davos' scan, to a very limited degree, as well as to what happened to Rodney when he accidentally triggered the Ancient ascension device. I'm not certain, but I don't think it's permanent. This scan is from earlier today." Jennifer closed the other images and started a video. She pointed to different areas of the picture. "It shows the activity is diminishing."

"I'm not sure I see it." Sam stared at the screen.

"It is, slowly." The doctor paused. "I think that if I had been able to run the scans as quickly as I did today, the others would show something similar. It may just be his brain is taking time to recover, so to speak, and evidence of the extraordinary activity to disappear."

Sam sat back, blowing out a long breath. This was different. "Does this happen whenever John, or anyone else, uses the Ancient technology?"

"No, not that I know of." Jennifer thought for a moment. "It would have been interesting to check him after he landed the city. That must have taken tremendous focus and control."

"Yes." Sam agreed. That not so small feat still amazed her. She suddenly asked, "Is this causing any harm?"

"Apart from the migraine, for want of a better diagnosis, I don't know. This is all new territory."

"Can he continue?" she asked again.

"That depends on the colonel. Right now, I'm going to let him sleep for as long as he can. I want to take as few chances as possible until I know more about the affects this is having on him." She shrugged apologetically. "Sorry."

Sam offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't apologize. We need to keep a close eye on this."

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Col. Carter sat back in her chair, staring at the top of her desk as she pondered the delay forced by Dr. Keller's insistence that they let John sleep. The lab was processing the latest blood work, but would not have the results for at least another hour or so. The sample from the day before showed an elevated level of the protein produced by the Ancient gene, but it wasn't a stretch to attribute it to the hours of effort he was putting in. The scans showing the unusual brain activity were, however, both troubling and intriguing.

She wholeheartedly agreed with the doctor. John was exhausted before they needed to open a wormhole to send the away team to 491. Right now, she was worried about letting him continue at all. There had to be a way around needing to use him for such extended periods of time.

"Sam?" McKay interrupted her thoughts.

She looked up. "Sorry. You were saying?"

"I asked what Keller said about Sheppard." Rodney was hoping for the extra time he wanted.

"Dr. Keller is adamant John doesn't use the chair for more than a few hours at a time. The effects are…"

"I thought she didn't have the test results back yet. It can't be that bad, can it?" He asked a little impatiently.

"Rodney. It's affecting him a lot more than he's letting on." She decided not to tell him about the scans. There was nothing to be gained until they knew more.

"What do you mean?" His brow pulled down in thought then he suddenly became alarmed. "It can't be more than a headache, can it? Is there a problem using the Ancient technology? I use it all the time. Are there side effects I don't know about?"

"No, Rodney. We don't know of any problems with normal usage." Sam needed to take a deep breath and reminded herself, McKay was himself exhausted. They all were. She doubted he understood. "It's that John has been keeping the entire city working by sheer will power alone."

"He can do this stuff in his sleep." He shook his head, but his dismissal of her comment was half-hearted, and probably more to convince himself than anyone else.

"You couldn't make it work at all, so it must be extremely stressful for the colonel." Radek reminded him.

"I could have. I just wasn't given enough time." He was indignant. "Besides, I can't do that and fix the programming. Despite what many people might think, I'm not Superman."

Zelenka's eyebrows went up ever so slightly. "No, Rodney. No-one thinks that."

"The point is," Sam brought them back to the topic at hand, "that this will take more time than we hoped. It's too risky for John to continue putting in more than twelve hours a day. You know it was very difficult for him to give us the Gate earlier."

He finally conceded her point, and exhaling noisily, said, "Alright, but this is going to take at least another day if we cut back the hours working on it."

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Sheppard woke slowly, taking some time to remember why he felt like crap. Even before opening his eyes everything was blurry. Sounds, sense of touch, everything, seemed muffled. There was an improvement from earlier, he thought to himself as he lifted his left arm to check his watch. Gone. Why do they do that? Why do they always take the watch? He carefully looked left then right for the bedside table, trying to move his head as little and as slowly as possible. The blurriness was getting better and the headache had eased somewhat, even though it still felt like his head was in a vice. It was a relief, though he might have thought that too soon. He had to try standing up first. He carefully pushed himself to a sitting position and swung his legs off the side of the bed.

"Colonel?" Dr. Keller was standing in the doorway. When she saw he was awake and intended to get up, she rushed in. "Wait. Wait."

"I'm good." He rubbed his face with both hands then blinked at her, trying to clear his vision. "What time is it? Where's my watch?"

"About five a.m." She'd let him sleep more than fifteen hours but he was still pale and unsteady. "And your watch is right here."

She kept a close eye on him as she opened the drawer in the bedside cabinet and pulled it out. He peered at it for a couple of seconds before giving up trying to focus and put it on.

"Damn it. Why didn't someone wake me up earlier?"

"Because I'm the doctor and I said not to." Jennifer smiled pleasantly at him then became serious again. "How are you feeling?"

It was tempting to lie, but John figured he probably looked like death warmed over. "Better."

"Define better." She stood in front of him to keep him from getting up.

"Aw, come on." John wasn't in the mood for this. When she didn't move, he sighed, "The headache is a lot better."

"The nausea?"

"Pretty much gone." It was actually the truth. The headache had gone from blinding, non-stop pain to tolerable, and his stomach was growling. "I'm hungry."

"That's good. I want you to get something to eat, but nothing heavy." Jennifer smiled and took a step back.

John was slightly suspicious of how quickly she relented, and decided to get out before she changed her mind. He dropped off the bed, but the sudden movement made his dizzy for a moment. Jennifer, expecting it, reached out to steady him.

"Take it easy."

"Okay, okay. I'm good." He mumbled irritably.

He didn't see her expression soften. "I know, but I want to run another scan on you. If it's clear, I'll let you go."

Twenty minutes later, Jennifer watched him leave. She'd run the scan, collected blood and urine samples, gave him more Tylenol and reluctantly sent him on his way. The scan showed her what she expected after so many hours, brain activity that was closer to normal.

While he was asleep, Jennifer asked Sam to have him beamed directly to the infirmary after each day's work. Tracking the changes was important for at least two reasons. First and foremost was concern for John's health. The second was that this was the only time anyone from the Milky Way was known to have this kind of synaptic activity without use of brain boosting Ancient technology. And, the only known human in Pegasus was Davos.

Jennifer emphasized that he should be in the chair a maximum of twelve in every 24 hours. She had a strong suspicion that he barely got the away team through the Gate. There was a very real danger of him losing control in the middle of a crucial piece of work. Even Dr. McKay would have to admit that could be disastrous and had to be avoided.

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"I know you must be very tired of sitting and doing nothing, Ronon." Teyla studied her friend's face when he said nothing. There was something in his eyes that disturbed her, but she couldn't tell what it was. She checked to make sure that the mess tables nearby were empty. "What is wrong?"

"I don't..." He shook his head sharply, but stopped and stared at the door.

She looked around to see Sheppard approaching the table. Smiling, she asked, "John, how are you?"

"Hungry." He answered as he put his tray on the table and sat down. She was pleased to see his appetite was good. He took a large bite out of a sandwich and looked her up and down. "You?"

"I am very well, thank you." She inclined her head. She wanted to repeat her question, but knew he wouldn't elaborate.

He was a little suspicious. "What are you doing up at this hour? Shouldn't you be getting more sleep?"

"I am getting plenty of sleep." She rolled her eyes towards Ronon. "I just mentioned that I would be happy to take Ronon's place for a few hours."

Sheppard frowned at her and set down his sandwich. "No. I actually don't need anyone there, despite what everyone seems to think."

"Sitting quietly would not pose a problem for me." Teyla shrugged with a resigned smile. "Dr. Keller only said that I should not be on my feet so much."

"I don't need a babysitter." He picked up his sandwich again.

"I'm not babysitting you." Ronon growled. "Carter asked me…"

He trailed off when Sheppard took another bite of food with an air of disgust.

"I am sure it is not babysitting, as you say." Teyla said gently. "Col. Carter is only concerned for your welfare, as we all are."

He swallowed and drank a mouthful of water. "I have a radio and there are a couple of squads of Marines patrolling the area. If everyone's so worried, they can swing by the chair room more often." He saw they were not convinced. "Look, buddy, I'm just saying there's nothing to do. The Apollo can beam me out any time I need it. It's just a waste of time."

Ronon folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "I've got nothing better to do."

"You can help with the defenses."

"Lorne's got it under control."

Sheppard groaned and put the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.

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"Well, it's about time." McKay huffed when he saw Sheppard climbing the stairs to the operations area with Ronon.

"Sorry I'm late. For some reason, my alarm clock didn't work." He cocked his head sideways, aiming the apology at Sam and more or less ignoring Rodney. The combination of emergency lights and bright work lights cast strange shadows around the entire space but he could see Zelenka, as well as several other people, sitting at computers and laptops, ready to work. He assumed the doctor must have let them know he was up. The few minutes he took to get to his quarters, shower then grab a bite to eat gave them time to get to their stations.

Sam half smiled at him. "Don't worry about it. We all needed some rest. How are you?"

"I'm good. Everyone ready?"

"No, we just like sitting around at dawn, doing nothing!" Rodney snapped. "Can we get on with it?"

John adjusted his radio. "Apollo, this is Sheppard. Can you beam me to the chair room, please?

They were waiting for him, too. A split second later, he and Ronon stood in from of the chair. John was resigned to having someone hovering, but still didn't like it. Without a word, he turned and sat down.

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Fingers tapped anxiously on the keyboards of laptops all around the operations area. Rodney alternately folded his arms and sighed, tapped like everyone else or huffed impatiently. As soon as the systems came up, they all began working as one. A kind of rhythm had developed during the last few days. It was a frantic, desperate rhythm, but it was moving them forward. Even the chief scientist was considerably quieter than normal. They needed just a little more time. A couple more days and this would be behind them.

"Dr. McKay? Col. Carter?" Zelenka sat back then leaned close to his laptop screen, a deep frown causing his glasses to slide down his nose. "I think we have a problem."

"Problem?" They said in unison as they swiveled their chairs to look at him. McKay went further. "What kind of problem?"

"Oh, no." The Czech started typing as fast as he could.

Sam and Rodney turned back to their computers. McKay asked, "What is it?"

"It's the…the…" Zelenka did not stop his furious typing and did not look up.

"Crap!" McKay choked out as he hunched forward. He opened his mouth to shout at him then remembered Sheppard, so he hissed. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." Radek replied, continuing to pound keys as fast as he could. "I was verifying code when it suddenly started to rewrite on its own."

Sam saw what he was working on and looked at the people working around them. "Everyone stop work. Now."

A dozen pairs of hands rose from keyboards immediately. Then a dozen pairs of eyes peered from one screen to another, trying to see what was happening. Sam swiveled back to her computer and started working.

Forty minutes later, the three of them hesitantly slowed to a stop.

"What happened?" Chuck asked. His station next to the colonel allowed him to follow some of it.

"Six hours worth of work down the drain, that's what happened!" McKay was livid. "Somewhere in the city, there is a computer some idiot forgot to unplug, and it has at least one of the viruses."

"Or, it was left just for this purpose." Sam added with deep anger in her voice. She picked up a handheld radio. "Maj. Lorne, this is Carter."

"This is Lorne, Colonel." The response was immediate.

"Did you hear?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"We're certain there's at least one computer out there we have to find. Second every able bodied person you can find. I'll ask Col. Ellis if he can spare any more personnel to assist in the search."

"Thank you, Colonel. That'd be a big help. We'll find it."

"Thank you, Major. Keep me informed." She knew that all search parties had three members, including a Marine. Many of them were too far from operations to get back quickly without the Apollo's beaming technology, and there were more than seventy teams out there. The city was huge, and the frantic search for the proverbial needle was aggravatingly slow. They needed as many people the Apollo could send.