CHAPTER 60 – THE BIG GUNS ARRIVE

General O'Neill strode like an angry bear through the stargate and planted his feet solidly on the floor of the Atlantis gateroom.

"Sheppard! Just what the hell is going on in your part of the universe. You've lost our chief scientist to another timeline and I get this sent to me..." Jack rattled a large newspaper clipping and thrust it unceremoniously at John, who barely had time to open it out before the General was ranting again.

"And now I hear that you are holding a young child from another dimension who has some sort of ticking time bomb inside her that will likely explode if she doesn't take Gina back to her dimension? Does that about cover the highlights...hmm?"

John mentally shuddered. It had been two days since they had learnt under hypnosis the true implications of Carlie's arrival on the mainland and they had since learnt something far more terrifying. He was distracted momentarily by the newspaper clipping that he had finally managed to spread out sufficiently to flick his eyes over.

It was a half page photo showing the moon landing and underneath a smaller photo of Dr Rodney McKay, brilliant physicist responsible for repairing the damaged component on the rocket. Without thought, a smile came to John's face as he looked at the picture. Rodney had done it, achieved fame in a way that he had yearned for and he felt a sudden keen sense of loss at the hole his friend had left. He still missed him, annoying traits and all, and even given the that fact that they had barely had time to breath in the time that Rodney had been gone – there were still moments when something completely selfish and thoughtless that Rodney had said would pop into his mind.

"Sir – where did you get this?' John's mind was still on the picture and had inadvertently blanked out the other things he had said.

Distracted also now, the General replied. "It just appeared on my desk amongst a pile of my usual mail. I thought it had been sent to me – perhaps I came to it by other means... anyway, it looks like the man had the ability after all, to ensure that the future remained as it should be. Anyway... Sheppard. You're getting me off track here. The girl. Just what the hell is going on with that? I mean, if I'd wanted to spend this much time in the Pegasus galaxy, I'd have stationed myself here in Atlantis. You know how long that quarantine feels in the half way station. Not fun at all..."

"No sir, it's not." John tried to hide the smile that wanted to show itself. Even given that this was an extremely serious situation, the General had a way of exploding like a loose cannon and was incredibly easy to distract... sometimes like a young child. John imagined that he would have been hell to grow up with.

"About Carlie sir... there have been developments..."

John had briefed his security personnel later the day before and at Carson's insistence they had run more tests on her, this time he had performed a full body scan, alerted by the feelings of cold inside her stomach, the same ones that Gina had complained of. Carson had had misgivings about these feelings and wondered if they were a catalyst for something more sinister. What he had found had sickened him and he had alerted John immediately.

The Colonel had come running into the infirmary and had found Gina and Teyla standing beside the table where the scan was performed. Carlie had been given a light sedative in order to keep her completely still during the procedure, and she was almost asleep on the bed and unaware that anything was wrong. Gina had tears running down her cheeks and Teyla was comforting her.

"What is it Carson, what's wrong?" His eyes shot to the doctor after taking in Gina's distress and Carson shook his head. John reached Gina's side and gently touched her cheek, wiping away some of the tears.

"Look at this Colonel, on the screen here. See that black mass, the small one just tucked away behind the intestines here. I missed it first time around, it must have been hidden or smaller – but it's definitely visible now."

"What the hell is it Doc? Some sort of tumour?"

"Something like that Colonel, only worse. It's man made, partially organic only. It reacts like a tumour, growing and will eventually destroy the cells in her body. But it is more than that. It is in effect, a small bomb. It will be triggered remotely, in much the same way as her handlers access her mind and plant suggestions in order to get her to do their bidding. I would imagine that this is their fail safe. If the plan doesn't work, they either trigger this remotely so that she explodes and takes out quite a lot of people around her, or wait until it does the job itself. Either way, it's a lose lose situation for this wee thing here..."

John froze in shock, unable to comprehend what he was seeing and what he had heard. "Who would do this to a child. It's beyond sick Carson, it is incomprehensible. Those people are monsters. We need to do more than find a way to seal that damn rift. We need to get through and make sure that they don't do this sort of thing again on innocent people. They need to be stopped."

"Carson, what can you do? Can you remove it safely. Is it operable?" Gina's eyes were riveted to Carson's.

Hope surged in John. Now who was the one thinking with a clear head? The woman he had accused of thinking only with her emotions. Gina was right – Carson could operate. Remove the damn thing and destroy it. Give this little girl her life back.

"I'm looking into that Gina. It's in a delicate place, but unless there are any other nasty surprises down there, I think I can do it. I'll need some help though. And it will be a long procedure."

"Carson? This is what was causing the cold feeling in her stomach, the one she had complained of? I have that same feeling – does that mean I have one of those in there?" Horror shone through Gina's eyes now as she realised the implications of what she had said, then contemplated the scan machine that Carlie was now being observed under. "Does this machine emit radiation?"

Carson knew immediately why she was asking and was quick to reassure her. "No Gina, this is a MRI scan – it does not use radiation, it uses radio and magnetic waves to form images. It is perfectly safe. Colonel? I'll need to prepare for a surgery of this magnitude and will commence tomorrow morning."

"That'll give me time to inform the SGC what is going on. This is beyond our security level here. Time to bring in the big guns..."