Disclaimer: I am not a Doctor or medical healthcare professional. Although I have tried to research medical terms, they may not be one hundred percent accurate.

Chapter 9: Changes.

Terror gripped Carson's heart as he watched John go limp and fall to the ground. He wanted to approach the man, but he was afraid of what he would find if he did. After everything that John Sheppard had been through it would be disturbing for him to be killed by a psychopath in another galaxy and time. Luckily, Logo was already kneeling beside Sheppard, and he was relieved when the man nodded his head indicating that John was still alive – hopefully.

When he had entered the room Toth already had a gun to John's head and the man was clearly unhinged when he started to yell, "if I can't have him no one can." Then Sophia started to scream and sob behind John. When Toth had started to pull the trigger, Voth had knocked his hand, but obviously not quick enough because John had still been shot in the head.

It was a surprise to him, because as far as he knew Voth was on the council and held the same views as Toth.

Eventually, he came to his senses, looked around the room and realised that Sophia was still sobbing, Ronon and Lorne were keeping guard over Toth's prostrate form, Rodney was standing next to him looking as white as a sheet, and Voth was trying to comfort Sophia.

For the first time, he noticed that the room they were in was a small room with a strange chamber that looked remarkably like a stasis chamber. There was also a small bed and medical equipment – a lot more equipment than Logo had in his hospital. The walls were a drab green and the bedding on the small bed looked comfortable, so it was clear that they were trying to look after John when he wasn't in the chamber.

It seemed like hours before he moved from the spot where he was frozen, but it had probably only been a couple of minutes. He slowly approached John and knelt beside Logo and got his first look at Sheppard's injuries. There were tiny needles embedded in his forehead and temple, and they looked inflamed, but the thing that disturbed him the most was the deep gash on the side of Sheppard's head. There was a lot of blood, and the General was deeply unconscious. For the moment his pulse seemed strong if not a little fast.

He turned to look up at Sophia, who had quietened down for now, "Sophia, I'm going to need your help. General Sheppard needs immediate surgery and I need to know how to get these needles out of his forehead and temple."

Before answering him, she turned to Voth, "I want to see my daughter."

Carson had no idea what was going on and why she needed to see her daughter, but right now he needed her help. Logo had mentioned to him that she was a brilliant doctor and scientist and he knew if they were going to patch Sheppard up he needed all the help he could get.

"Your daughter is safe, and I will let you see her, but can you please help this man, "Voth replied, "I don't know if I could live with myself if he dies."

Carson was relieved when she nodded, "we have a fully functional surgical suite not far from here and plenty of technology at our disposal, so I will get something to transport General Sheppard and show you a place you can prepare for surgery."

"I'll go with her," Logo offered, "so that you can stay with him."

He nodded and took over from where Logo had been holding a bandage on the side of Sheppard's head.

A few seconds after Logo and Sophia had left, Rodney approached him, "Is…he going to…be okay?"

Before he had a chance to reply, Ronon spoke up and it was clear he wasn't happy, "he'd better be."

Carson didn't miss the intense glare that Ronon gave Voth and he thought that Ronon was remarkably restrained considering the circumstances. Five years ago, he would have flattened Voth.

Sophia and Logo returned a few minutes later with a gurney and medical supplies, so Carson very quickly shut out what was going on around him. He placed an oxygen mask over his friend's face and set up an IV. He knew that John would probably need a blood transfusion given the amount of blood that he'd lost, but he had no idea if these people had fresh supplies of blood or not.

As if reading his mind, Sophia answered the question, "don't worry we have plenty of blood donors in the city, so I am sure that we would have blood to match."

Nodding his head, he helped transfer John to the gurney and it wasn't long before he was pushing his precious cargo out of the tiny room.

oOo

Ronon watched as Rodney followed Carson out of the room and he longed to follow himself, but he knew that the political situation on Hilaring was about to change dramatically and Lorne would need his help.

He turned to Voth, who was standing behind him and staring into space, "how many others do you know who are on your side? That's assuming that you're willing to help us."

"I do not know what others are thinking, but I have been questioning my actions for some time now. I would like to make a general announcement to the city letting them know what is happening and then I want to help release all of the gene carriers from the chambers. For the moment those that are able can return to their families. The others I would like to bring to the hospitals in our part of the city."

"That sounds fine in theory Voth, "Lorne began, "But we're going to need help and what if not too many others are willing to listen to you?"

"I am sure that many others feel the same way, but we have never had to opportunity to do something about it until now."

Suddenly the lights went dim and the only conclusion that Ronon could come to was that somewhere gene carriers were being unplugged from the city, or perhaps it was the result of Sheppard being disconnected, he had no idea, but right now he didn't care.

"I'll need to contact my people as well," Lorne suggested, "perhaps we can help with some power generators."

The sound of the door opening caused Ronon to turn around and he was annoyed that five soldiers were standing in the doorway with their weapons raised.

"Gentlemen stand down!" Voth ordered, "these men are friends."

The soldier at the front looked at Toth lying on the ground and he was confused, "what happened to minister Toth?"

"It is a long story, needless to say, that I am now in control of the council, I will be announcing the city shortly. You can either listen to what I have to say, or end up in the brig with minister Toth."

The lead soldier spoke again, "I am with you, sir. I know what has been happening to the gene carriers for most of my life and I know that it is wrong. But I have felt unable to do anything about it. Until now I had no idea that anyone on the council shared my views."

"What is your name soldier?" Voth asked.

"Sgt Thaxton sir."

"Well then Sgt why don't you and your men take Toth to the brig," Voth looked at the other four men before continuing, "that's if the rest of you agree with Sgt Thaxton and me."

There was a chorus of "yes sir, "as the other men agreed.

"Get Toth out of my sight and if anyone else gives you a hard time use the stunners and put them in the brig with Toth."

"Yes sir, "Sgt Thaxton replied before helping one of his men drag Toth out the door.

"That was easy," Voth said, but Ronon didn't miss the worry in his eyes.

Ronon knew that things wouldn't be that simple from now on. For now, Voth had five soldiers on his side – that they knew of. Even if Voth could convince the council what they were doing was right, he would then have to convince the rest of the city. A civil war was brewing, and he hoped that by the time it happened, he and his friends would be long gone.

"This is only the beginning," Lorne replied, "I sense that a lot of people will not share your ideals and morals, so expect to fight for what you believe in."

Voth nodded, and took a deep breath, "well the first thing I need to do is speak to the council."

"I'll come with you," Lorne offered, "and you still have two of Sgt Thaxton's soldiers to accompany you as well."

"No, Colonel Lorne, you go with Ronon to wait for news of your friend. The waiting room for the infirmary is through that door on your left," Voth suggested pointing in the direction of a back door.

"Are you sure Voth?" Lorne asked.

"Yes, I am sure."

With that comment, Voth turned around and left the room, with Thaxton's soldiers following him. Ronon had no idea what was going on in the city, but if things were quiet now, he knew that it was the calm before the storm.

oOo

Rodney had been sitting in the infirmary waiting room alone for the last twenty minutes and he was extremely agitated and worried.

He had followed behind the medical team and Carson as they had rushed Sheppard towards the infirmary for immediate surgery. Carson had been worried, and Rodney knew it because from what he understood, Sheppard's condition was going downhill fast.

When they'd arrived in the bright cheery infirmary a nurse had ushered him out of the infirmary and into a waiting room, she had even offered to get him a meal – not that he could eat at a time like this because he was so worried about his friend.

At that moment he was taking the time to look around the waiting room and it looked like a room in one of the big city hospitals back home. There were large video screens on the walls playing some kind of Hilaring T.V shows, the carpet was a light grey, and the walls were a pale blue. There were plenty of chairs scattered about, and what appeared the be vending machines by the entrance doors.

He had no idea what time it was, but for the moment he was the only person in the room, and he wondered whether the infirmary ever had enough patients in it to fill the waiting room.

Thinking back to what had taken place in the last couple of days, he suspected that this city was about to be plunged into a civil war and he only hoped that he and his friends wouldn't be around to get caught up in it.

When they finally did leave this place, they still had the problem of finding out when and where they were and if they were able to get home. Hopefully, they would be able to find that information before they left the city and this planet.

His thoughts were interrupted when a sweet small voice spoke to him, "hello do you know where my mother is?"

He looked up straight into the eyes of a small child of about nine or ten earth years. She had long golden hair that curled around her neck and her eyes were the bluest of blue.

Just what he needed a kid to have to try and interact with. When he was back on Atlantis the only kids he had to deal with were Torren and Charin, but Sheppard or Teyla had always been close by. He had no idea whether he would ever have kids of his own or not, but Jennifer wanted four, so perhaps he needed to try and communicate with this small person.

"Umm…no, who is your mother?"

"My Mom is Dr Sophia Jalousie, and my name is Lalla."

"Well, she's in helping a friend of mine at the moment and I'm not sure how long she's going to be."

Lalla looked thoughtful as she replied, "was your friend the stranger that was in the chamber?"

"Yeah, he was."

"I am sorry that he had to go through that mister."

"You can call me Rodney, Lalla and thank you for your concern."

The child nodded her head, before sitting down beside him and looking at the TV screen on the opposite wall. He had no idea what the show was, but the kid seemed to like it, so at least she was quiet for now.

Closing his eyes Rodney decided that it was probably time to have a nap, he knew that it could take hours for Carson and the other doctors to fix Sheppard up so right now he had nothing else to do.

He was happily dozing when someone else entered the room, so he sighed as he opened his eyes. And he was surprised to see that Ronon and Lorne had entered the room.

"So, what's happening with Voth and Toth?" Rodney asked immediately.

"Voth's called a meeting of the council and Toth has been taken to the brig by some of Voth's loyal soldiers," Ronon answered loudly.

Rodney looked over at Lalla and realised that she was fast asleep. The last thing he wanted was for her to wake up now, so he placed his finger on his lips and nodded towards the sleeping child to indicate that they should speak quietly.

"McKay, who's that?" Lorne whispered.

"That's Sofia's daughter Lalla and she is waiting here to see her mother."

Ronon nodded before he continued to tell Rodney what was going on – this time it was in a whisper.

"Voth wants to announce the city once he's finished talking to the council, but he has no idea how the people are going to take it."

"Well," Lorne said in a whisper, "either the majority of people will agree with him and those that don't will either keep quiet or be rounded up quickly. Or those that don't want to follow him will stir up others and there will be a civil war. I'm personally hoping for the first option."

Whatever happened Rodney just hoped that they could leave this place quickly and they could get back to finding a way home, or maybe if things remained reasonably civil down here, he could do some research on the city's database.

Before the conversation went any further Voth appeared on the TV screen and three other men were standing beside him. Rodney assumed that they were other council members – although he had never seen them before.

By this time Lalla was awake and staring at the screen along with Ronon and Lorne.

"My fellow citizens," Voth began, "Today I have taken leadership of the city's council and along with Councillor Jerimiah, Councillor, Lax and Councillor Fontan, we promise to serve the people of this city to the best of our abilities. Our promise stands to all the peoples of our city, ancestor gene carrier and non-gene carrier alike.

Many of you do not know what has been happening to the gene carriers on and off for thousands of years and many of you do but have chosen to ignore it.

The truth is we have been using carriers like batteries to power our city. Many of you have been told that these people do it willingly and some of them do. What you don't know is that it is of great personal cost to them. Many of them are permanently injured, the most common occurrence is blindness, but for some, it costs them their lives.

As of twenty minutes ago, I have ordered that all ancestor gene carriers be disconnected from the power chambers and returned to their families. Those that need medical attention will be taken to the city's best medical facilities. I would ask that all doctors report to hospitals across the city ready for an influx of patients.

There may be some power interruptions, while we set up portable generators, so I ask you to remain calm. We will right the situation as quickly as possible.

I know that this will be a difficult time for our city, but if we can work together, we can bring about a positive future for all of our people."

Rodney watched as Voth smiled and waved before the screen went blank, "nice speech," he quipped.

"Yeah, I just hope it inspires enough people to stand up for what is right," Lorne commented.

"What about the power, I mean the last place we want the lights to go out is in the hospital?" Ronon asked.

"My Mom says the hospitals have several backup power generators," Lalla said before looking up at Lorne, "have you seen my dad and brother on the outside?"

Rodney watched as realisation dawned on Ronon.

"Is your brother's name Hannan?"

"Yes, and my dad's name is Jonan," Sophia replied with a smile that lit up her face.

Ronon smiled at the child and as always Rodney was surprised to see the big man smile.

"Yes, we saw your Dad and brother at their cabin."

"That's great I can't wait to see it," Lalla revealed with a big sigh, "I've only ever known what it's like to live in the city and before my dad was thrown out of the city we lived in a big house in the Central business district, "she turned to smile at Ronon before she continued, "what's your name?"

"My name's Ronon and this is Evan," Ronon said pointing to Lorne."

Lalla nodded and silence fell in the waiting room and Rodney found himself wondering where the food had gone that he was promised was, before he had a chance to think about it any further, Voth entered the room with one of the other councillors.

"How are things going out there?" Lorne asked before Voth had a chance to open his mouth.

"Well so far there's been little opposition, but my speech only ended fifteen minutes ago, and I haven't had a chance to go out into the streets to see what's happening as yet. My contacts in the gene carrier area of the city, have just contacted me to say that the carriers are being disconnected from the chambers, but lights are going out all over the city. The engineers are getting to work to try and set up some portable generators until we can find a more permanent solution, but I fear that won't be enough." He turned to Lorne before continuing, "I understand that you want to contact your people?"

"Yes, that would be great. I really need to let them know what is going on down here and I could probably get them to help with a generator or two."

Voth waved his hand at the door, "well if you'll follow me, Colonel Lorne, I can arrange something for you."

Lorne nodded and Rodney watched him follow Voth through the door. He had no idea how Atlantis was supposed to help these people at the moment because, over the last six months, Atlantis had been badly damaged on more than one occasion. And with the limited staff, they have been slowly trying to make repairs, but they still had a long way to go. Besides from what he understood, it was these people's ancestors that had caused Atlantis to be damaged, to begin with. Quite the paradox – if they hadn't been chased across the galaxy, by an unknown assailant, they wouldn't have gone through the anomaly and gone back in time. He guessed that if they hadn't gone through the anomaly then the unknown enemy wouldn't have either. This would mean that history in this part of space would be very different – yet here they were.

Shaking his head to try and eliminate the conundrum from his brain he closed his eyes, and it wasn't long before he fell into a troubled sleep.

He had no idea how long he's been asleep, but he awoke when someone started to shake him, "what?" He asked angrily flapping his arms around hoping that whoever it was would just leave him alone.

"Come on McKay, wake up," the voice was louder and seemed more urgent this time.

Sighing he managed to open his eyes and he was surprised to find that the waiting room which was empty when he entered was now half full. There was also a selection of food on the table, which was good because he was starving.

Looking around the room he soon realised that Colonel Lorne was with them, "how long was I out?"

It was Ronon who answered the question, "about three hours."

Suddenly he realised that Lalla was not with them, "where's Lalla."

Lorne pointed to a young couple sitting across the room and the child appeared to be fast asleep, "apparently that is her aunt and uncle. They had no idea that Lalla or her mother was still in the city until now." As if Lorne read Rodney's mind, the soldier managed to answer the question he was going to ask, "they're here waiting for news of a gene carrier who is a good friend of theirs."

"Okay, so have you managed to get in contact with Atlantis then?"

When Lorne shook his head Rodney's heart sank.

"Communications were shut down when the power grid started to go offline, so basically there are no communications in or out of the city. Voth and his loyal followers are running ragged trying to relay information to people in the city. And believe me when I say there are a lot of scared people out there. There's looting in the street, there's also a group of people trying to rise up against Voth and his council. It's chaos in the streets, but the hospitals are being protected by soldiers that are loyal to Voth."

"Great." Rodney muttered more to himself than others the others and then he spoke louder, " and all this has happened in the few hours I've been asleep?"

"Voth says that the situation has been building for years and it was only a matter of time before war broke out. Anyway, Voth gave me this data chip with all the data about the anomaly we came through. Some scientists have been studying it for the past few years. Hopefully, it will give us the answers we need."

"So, what happens now?" Ronon asked joining the conversation for the first time.

"We get the hell out of here as soon as possible," Rodney replied.

"Dr McKay's right this isn't our war, so we need to leave as quickly as possible," Lorne answered.

"You know what, "Ronon started, "I wonder what Sheppard would have to say about it."

Rodney was incredulous by the comment he'd just heard, "well Sheppard isn't in any condition to comment right now and in case you've forgotten it was these people who put him in this situation in the first place!"

Luckily no one said anything else because by this time Rodney was feeling extremely angry and the last thing he wanted to do was make a scene in such a quiet place. He knew that there wasn't much he could do right now because he didn't have a laptop with him, so he just closed his eyes and hoped that it would relieve the pounding in his head.

oOo

Carson was exhausted by the time he exited the OR. It had taken him along with Logo and Sophia's help seven hours to try and fix the General up.

He wanted nothing more than to get back to Atlantis and sleep in his quarters, but from what he understood several more gene carriers needed surgery to remove the needles from their forehead and temple. He suspected that he would be asked to help, but for now, some other doctors and nurses could carry out the procedures.

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts, "Dr Beckett would you like me to settle General Sheppard in the ICU, while you let his friends know what's happening?"

He looked up to see that Sophia was smiling at him and he wondered what was happening with her daughter.

"Wouldn't you like to go and find your daughter first?"

"Don't worry Carson, I know that my daughter is safe, so as soon as I've settled General Sheppard I will go and see her."

"Well in that case that would be great."

He took one last look at the brilliant young doctor and headed towards the waiting room. He had no idea what was going on outside the walls of this hospital, but the last he heard was that Voth had ordered that the gene carriers be disconnected from the chambers and that was seven hours ago. Clearly, it had been done since the hospital was filling up with gene carriers that needed emergency medical care.

When he walked out into the waiting room a few minutes later, he was surprised to find that the place was full of worried people. These people were obviously waiting for news on their loved ones who had been brought into the hospital in the last seven hours.

His friends were huddled in the corner fast asleep with the remains of a meal spread out in front of them – how he wished that he could have a meal right now. Perhaps when he had explained to his friends what was going on and checked on Sheppard, he could get a meal and a shower before finding a place to sleep.

He wondered if he should just let them sleep, but then he knew that they deserved to know the truth of Sheppard's condition. He was about to say something when Rodney slowly started to open his eyes. One by one the others began to open their eyes as well.

"How is he, Carson?" Rodney asked and he didn't miss the worry in his friend's eyes.

"We managed to extract the needles from his forehead and temple and we're hoping that there won't be any long-term problems. From what Sophia has told me at the moment he is blind, and we have no idea whether that is permanent or not. The gunshot wound to his head left a large gash on the side and cracked his skull. We've managed to stitch the wound up and again we're hoping there won't be any long-term problems. At the moment he is in a medically induced coma and we're monitoring him closely."

Carson saw Lorne enter the waiting room and he wondered where the man had been, surely, he would want to be waiting for news of his commanding officer.

"That's great doc, but we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

There was a look of urgency on Lorne's face, but no matter how urgent the situation was there was no way Carson was going to move his patient prematurely because it may cause more problems.

"I can't even consider moving him for another week at least."

Suddenly there the whole room started to shake, and specks of debris began to fall from the ceiling and he heard a loud bang in the distance. It wasn't deafening but it was loud enough, so Carson knew that it had to be close.

"Bloody hell what now?!" Carson exclaimed.

TBC…