He watched Hayes die, a terrifying death, "stop it!" he barked, "it's not his heart…just stop," he whispered softly.
"How are you feeling?" Ford suddenly asked as Carson moved towards him slowly. Rodney looked up at his friends and shook his head.
"I'm…I'm….I have a sister…we're not close, I don't even know where to find her…"
"Rodney," Carson began quietly.
"Don't talk like that," spoke Ford.
"She…she and my brother are the only family I have…you have to tell her….she at least deserves to know…" he mumbled, "tell her…tell her I died doing something amazing…I died….saving kids, yeah that sounds good….Zelenka I've got some theories on looping the power on the Gate to charge a dummy ZedPM. It probably won't work, but-but you should have someone look at it cause it might lead somewhere else."
"We'll look at it together."
"Look, you seriously have to stop interrupting my last thoughts. I mean, this is important stuff you need to hear." He murmured.
Carson watched as Rodney bit his lip to keep from crying or screaming, "John…" he called over his radio softly.
"I'm here," came John's voice. "Rodney?"
"Now - if you're here for more than a year, I've left some notes on how to roll blackouts to effectively maintain your power requirements and-and, oh, tell everyone that I was, I was inches away from a Theory of Unification but uh, uh, the notes, they were lost when I died saving the ..."
"Rodney, you're not going to die buddy," whispered John into his ear, but everyone could hear him.
" Yeah." Rodney paused and looked around the room, as though waiting for the scary images. "Okay. I should be dead now," he mumbled.
"You ran into Dumais at the same time?" Carson questioned as he moved towards his best friend
"Exactly the same time," Rodney said hopefully.
"Then, yes, you should be dead." Carson agreed gently, he heard a sigh in his ear and knew John was breathing again.
"Oh, God! I'm still here!" he said grinning from ear to ear.
"Yes…you are," Ford said smiling softly.
"Interesting," whispered Zelenka.
"Interesting?" Rodney murmured.
"Interesting?" echoed John.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but ..." Carson began.
"... why?" Zelenka finished
"Exactly." Beckett agreed softly.
"Well, I don't care. I mean, I really don't care!" he said grinning at Carson.
John smiled softly as he looked over at Teyla, "I'm glad you're okay McKay, now help us fix this damn problem."
"Sorry…"
The control room was a flurry of activity as various technicians used laptops to try to hack back into the mainframe. Elizabeth stood watching all the hubbub as John reported in over the radio.
"Doctor Weir?
"Yes, Major?" Weir said slightly aggravated.
"We've reached the city, but we haven't hit the city's quarantine. Are you sure it's locked you out?"
"Pretty sure. I can't even get into my office."
"Hasn't given us any trouble yet," John replied.
"Hazmat suits - they're protected," Grodin suddenly called realizing what was wrong with this picture. "The city must be capable of sensing they're in no danger...and thinks we sent personnel to assist the infected."
"If that is the case, we should make our way to the Mess Hall. I imagine everyone there will be very scared and confused," spoke Teyla firmly.
"Incubation to completion is exactly six hours. The visions are identical for all the infected, and the location of the aneurysm is the same for every single deceased." Rodney explained, he opened his laptop pressed a few keys and Carson stared at the picture
"Is that what I think it is?" Carson said eyeing his best friend.
"It's a nanovirus. One manufactured to kill humans."
"A nanovirus." Elizabeth spoke quietly.
"That's right."
"OK, let's pretend I don't know exactly what that is," Elizabeth said pausing.
"Nanotechnology - it's, uh, technology that operates on a nanite scale. It's around, uh, around a billionth of a millimeter." Explained Rodney.
"Basically, they're microscopic machines that are able to carry out very specific tasks suited for their size," finished Carson.
"It's the whole idea of being able to swallow a pill and having a million little robots go to work and cure whatever ails you," Rodney continued.
"You're all infected with microscopic machines?" Elizabeth couldn't believe this was actually happening.
"Yeah, they're no bigger than a single-celled organism - although instead of having a sole purpose of curing a disease or mending a blood vessel ..." Rodney agreed.
"... the virus is programmed to terrorise its victims by tapping into their visual cortex and then rupturing an artery in their brain ..." Carson said.
"... infecting others along the way as they can."
"There's one good thing: I doubt they can multiply. I don't know how many nanites it takes to kill a human but eventually I imagine they'll spread themselves too thin." Finished Carson.
"Could it be Wraith?" spoke Weir, trying to stay with her two favorite techno babblers.
"Major Sheppard, this is McKay."
"Obviously, what is it?"
"I could use your help at my lab."
"Alright, McKay, I'm here," John called a few moments later.
"D'you see it?"
"Is it the big thing in the middle of the room?"
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Should I pay attention to all these warnings?"
"Not today, no," Rodney replied.
"What are you gonna do?" Ford questioned.
"Well, small as they are, the nanovirus is still effectively just a machine run by a computer. The best way to knock out a computer is with an electromagnetic pulse. Thankfully, that's something we can do."
"It's working. When should I hit the discharge button?" Sheppard called through his radio.
"Okay - there should be a red overload light," Rodney returned.
"Yeah, I see it."
"Wait til it comes on, give it a good ten count, and then discharge."
"A ten count!" John was lost, there were a million warnings.
"Don't worry - I've probably been around more EMPs than anyone." Replied his brother.
"This is gonna be, uh - I'm gonna be fine, right?" John inquired.
"Well…you may never have children, but no big loss…Yes. That's a yes - you'll be fine," replied Rodney sarcastically.
"You're only gonna have thirty seconds once you release it before it explodes. You need to get as far away as you can," Rodney spoke to his brother.
"Get as far away from the nuclear blast as I can…that's good advice Rodney, thanks," John said sarcastically.
"Your welcome." Rodney paused, afraid for a moment, "John…."
"I know Rodney…I know," John replied softly, looking at his controls he took a deep breath "I'm about to release the nuke."
John rushed down to the lab, he didn't care what anyone said, he had to see for himself. The door 'whooshed' open, and Rodney stepped out of the lab. John instantly threw his arms around his brother's neck.
Rodney was stunned, but instantly curled his arms around John as well. When John finally pulled away he looked at his brother, took in every feature, as though checking to make sure he was actually okay and alive.
"If you ever do that again," joked John.
"Look who's talking," chuckled Rodney.
"I'm glad you're okay," John whispered.
"I'm glad I'm okay too," joked Rodney as his brother shoved him playfully for his smart ass response.
"Are you Okay?" Elizabeth asked a little later as John
"Yeah, just a little nuke - nothin', really."
"The naqahdah generator plan was very clever. Good work."
"Thank you. Now, I'm going to bed." John said as he began to rise.
"We need to discuss what happened earlier."
"Now?"
"That can never happen again."
"Look, I'm sorry about ...
"I understand your expertise in military matters and I agree that I should defer to those expertise in such situations."
"Thank you!"
"But you are not the one who decides what is and what is not a military situation. Now, both General O'Neill and Colonel Sumner warned me that you don't respect the proper chain of command."
"Well, sometimes I see a situation a little different than ..."
"No. Listen to me, John. Now, you endangered yourself and the lives of many others."
"Including my brother! I'm sorry Elizabeth, but I wasn't going to stand by and just watch him die, or anyone else for that matter. I do things different sometimes, because I thought it was the best course of action to take - and, by the way, I saved your ass."
"I know you did - but you have to trust me."
"I do!" John replied.
"Do you? John, I didn't want any of these people to die either, especially Rodney, I wasn't going…"
"You guys have a minute? We've been able to spend some, uh, quality time with the, uh, nanovirus samples," Rodney interrupted as he and Carson entered Elizabeth's room.
"From what we can tell, they've all been incapacitated," explained Carson.
"Well, that's good news," returned Elizabeth.
"Yes. Also, upon further investigation, I think we can rule out that they were created by the Wraith. They're different than any Wraith technology we've come across thus far," Rodney continued.
"If not the Wraith, then who made 'em?" John questioned.
"I honestly don't know - but whoever they were, let's just hope that they're not still around." Rodney finished.
"Let's hope," whispered Elizabeth.