Chapter 10

"No, definitely not," John exclaimed and Jennifer wanted to wring his neck. But then her gaze fell on his wife's face and she wanted to cry.

Elizabeth frowned slightly, a look Jennifer recognized. It was not a comforting look. Compared to that look John's anger was quite manageable. On the entire Atlantis there wasn't anyone as mule-headed as Elizabeth. Not that it ever came across as stubbornness. No, worse: Elizabeth would narrow her eyes at you and talk softly and definitely and before you know it you thought about the matter (whatever one it might be) the same way she did. It was legend how she had once convinced a very difficult Lorne and his team to return to a planet without ever saying a word.

Compared to that John was easy. At least when he turned mule-headed you could see that was what he was going for in the first place. Nobody ever doubted that he had hidden depths, but usually those depths stayed hidden. But on this matter Jennifer knew John was going to be the worst. It was just something he opposed on principle and she would have to talk really fast to convince him. She knew she could. She just wasn't sure she would be able to convince Elizabeth, and of the two the latter was the one who could speak from experience.

"Look, she is going to die if we don't try this," she began. "And believe me, it really is the only option left to us. The hematoma is just too deep for us to treat. Ad she's losing time," she added; hoping it would hurry the matter along. There were six of them gathered in the conference room around the table. At the head of the table sat Elizabeth, with John beside her. To Jennifer's left sat Duncan and Carson and to her right Sitnalta. Though they were theoretically all on the same side, it felt a lot like 'us' against 'them.'

"Our mother is going to die without it," Carson said as he gently leaned forward. "Look, we know it can be done safely. Sitnalta had promised she would use the same safeguards as she had with you," he added as he looked at Elizabeth.

"But we're still talking about using a technology that had killed even their creators in the end," Elizabeth said with narrowed eyes and in that earnest way.

"I understand it," Sitnalta informed them. "I've made it work safely before and I will make it work safely again."

"You are only one person," Elizabeth answered as she leaned forward as well. "I admit you have a lot of knowledge, but you know only as much as the Ancients programmed into Atlantis."

Next to her Sitnalta put on a sad little face and Jennifer just knew what the young woman was going to say.

"Oh, you don't trust me?" she said and Jennifer wanted to scream. That was exactly the wrong track to take right now.

"You're very cute," John answered her and he had a look of irritation. "But we're not Rodney. That trick doesn't work here," he told her and beside her the young woman slumped into her seat. Gently Jennifer put a hand on her knee to keep her from responding, but it was Duncan that ended up making the whole thing worse.

"How can you refuse?" He demanded. "Doctor Weir wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the nanites in her system. And great job you did of containing it," he continued while glaring at Elizabeth. "Both your children will also have them in their system," he added and Jennifer wanted to wring his neck. Compared to this, Sitnalta's mock-hurt had been merely an annoyance. Then he saw her expression and sat back as he suddenly must have recalled the case when the nanites had tried to make Elizabeth believe she was on earth and none of this had ever happened. "I'm sorry, I'm just worried for my mum," he lamely explained.

This time Elizabeth sat forward while glaring at Duncan and twining her fingers together on the tabletop. "And you think I'm not aware of the fact that she might die if you don't do this?" she demanded. "I just think that we first need to explore every other possible option before we attempt this transfer," she told them.

"There is no other option," Carson spoke, but Jennifer decided she had had enough of the Becketts' blundering.

"Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard," she formally began, "I would love to give you any other options, but this really is the only one. And time's running out. I know before I made the wrong call in reactivating Doctor Weir's nanites, but this time we know that we can contain it. Remember, the Asurans only beat the Ancients, because Rodney changed their base programming," she firmly but carefully reminded them. "Since then we've learned much about them." She looked at the two leaders of Atlantis. "And Sitnalta might have been born with only as much as Atlantis knows, but she has learned a great deal since then."

For a pregnant moment Jennifer thought she might have gotten through to them, but then Elizabeth frowned. "It's just too dangerous," she told them. "I know it seems hypocritical of me, seeing as I owe my life to the Asuran nanites, but the less people that come in contact with them, the better."

"But..." Duncan began, a sentiment shared by Jennifer. Elizabeth interrupted them.

"That will be all," she assured them and they knew it was a dismissal. Jennifer wanted to scream, and yet she understood. She knew Elizabeth worried about the nanites in her children and she had once confessed she would have rather died than being healed with that technology. And the past was the past: they can no longer change it. Elizabeth was here and nobody was going to kill her just to get rid of the nanites now. It was just such an unfair situation! It was not as if Mother Beckett would ever have children again or anything! Besides, there wasn't any brain damage yet in the old lady. The nanites would not have to take over some brain functions as they had in Elizabeth, thus making them impossible to deactivate. The nanites could clean up the hematoma and then be removed or zapped – okay, not zapped. Elizabeth and her unborn children were all dependent upon the nanites and a 'zap', as in a EMP, would kill all three of them.

Damn damn damn! It was just so unfair!