Chapter 23: Baby Steps

SGASGA

John smiled widely. "How's your acting, Carson?"

SGASGA

"Acting?! I'm not an actor!" Carson's voice squeaking in distress. "Last play I was in, I got cast as the back end of a donkey because my college professor said that was all my acting abilities could pull off."

"He was probably just jealous of your talent," John innocently parried.

"Humbug, Colonel."

"I know you've been around Rodney enough times to know how to play this role to perfection," John encouraged with a wane version of his usual smirk.

"What role?" Carson suspiciously asked.

"Of a man having a freakout. You're going to insist that unless we get quarantine tents and hazmat suits and more medical personnel, the whole shebang, what I have will … I don't know…mutate."

"Mutate? Into what?" Carson's sputtered, feeling totally out of his element of making things up. He had never even had an imaginary friend when he grew up. "And what if they think it's easier to kill us than cure us?"

"It won't be just us, some of them too will fear what happens to me might happen to them." It was kind of a painful plan to John. Maybe why all this was hitting him a little too close to the bone, this village treating him like he was a toxic monster. Because as much as he had tried to bury the memories, he still remembered the fear in people's eyes when he was turning into a Wraith. And worst, the way he couldn't control himself, nearly strangled Elizabeth, attacked his friends. Compared to that, this dying of brain exploding seizures seemed the easy way out.

Carson protested John's scare tactics. "But I "cured" everyone that was sick, well except for your guard. Who we both know hasn't really been exposed to anything."

"She doesn't know that. We'll pull her into this, make her life hang in the balance." And didn't that feel crappy, because she's not been unkind to him in his quarantine. But this wasn't about rewarding kindness, it was about ensuring Kannar could convince his people to let Carson and the others go home after whatever fate happened to him happened, was about finding a way to shut down the 2nd gate and get the main gate back open. And if these people thought that was in their best interest to help Atlantis in that endeavor, all the better.

But Carson had assessed these villagers, not by his short time there but by the dead and injured that their attack left in their wake. "I don't know if this cold-blooded crowd would care about one of their village women dying, might sacrifice her and set a fire to this entire house we're now standing in."

A young voice offered up from a place below them, "I can be one of the infected." Then Muvar crawled out from under John's bed, a hopeful look upon his face. "I'm real good at pretending too. Got out of lessons plenty of times by pretending to be sick." He did a deep chest sounding cough to prove his acting chops.

"Great, getting shown up by a child," Carson muttered, even as he was impressed by the little guy.

Before John could voice if he approved of using the boy, the door of the house was yanked opened and a pale Rodney stood in the doorframe. "Thank God! I want to the barn thingy and you..you weren't there and I thought…" Rodney rushed words faltered on a crack as he came to John's side, coiled his hand around John's forearm like his best friend was his lifeline. Seeing the empty barn, not finding John there…he'd feared the worst. That John had left him..left them all.

"Negotiated for an upgrade on my accommodations," John quipped, felt a stab of guilt that he'd scared Rodney by not being where he expected him to be.

Instead of reacting to John's deflection, Rodney turned to Carson. "So have you determined what's making him sick? How to cure him?"

"Rodney, I've been here a bloody hour! I need more time," Carson shot back, should have been prepared for Rodney wanting miracles on demand.

"Well, lucky for you, I bought us some time," Rodney smugly declared. Then he turned back to John because he would be able to appreciate his efforts better than Carson. "I hooked up the generator, showed it worked and then shut it down. Said I boobytrapped it and only I could get it up and running, which I would do only after you were cured and well enough to travel through the stargate."

"How'd that go over with everyone?" John drawled, knew Rodney was probably lucky to not be ripped to shreds.

Rodney shifted on his feet, still reeling from the level of hostility that had been directed at him after his ramsonware tactics. "Ah…I wasn't the most loved visitor. Probably outshined you for that position but I didn't back down and Kannar got his father to see reason."

"Did we really need to up the hostility in the air?" Carson sighed, knew Sheppard and McKay were used to not being well liked wherever they went but Carson wanted to be seen as the good guy, was finding it hard to relish a bad guy role.

McKay and Sheppard said in perfect synch: "Yes."

"Did someone say hostility?" Ronon asked as he entered the house and gave a toothy smile of appreciation for whatever tactic involved his special brand of soldiering.

SGASGA

Muvar was truly a thespian, was on his way to being an Oscar winning actor. Was leaning over gasping for breath after letting out hacking coughs for a good minute or two. His aunt came to his side worriedly and more of the village circled the boy in concern.

But one new spectator wasn't buying the performance. "Great, what now?!" Kannar moaned under his breath as he pushed through bystanders to see Muvar was playing to the crowd. 'No! No! I just vowed on my life that Sheppard's sickness wouldn't affect anyone else. Now they have the kid pretending to be on death's door! I'll be lucky to not get hung by my people after all this settles down.'

Crossing to Muvar, he grabbed the boy's arm and announced to the worried crowd, "He's playacting everyone." Turned to the boy and gave him his steady, I'm serious look, "Ok Muvar, I know you enjoyed the attention but reassure everyone that you were just playing. Now!"

Muvar cut off his latest couch mid breath, eyes wild and worried as he looked at his hero. He didn't mean to upset Kannar, to do anything to disappoint him or side against him. Thought Kannar would want him to help the sick man with his plan but now he was scared he had done the wrong thing. "Kannar, I thought….I'm sorry…" he quietly begged the man for his forgiveness.

Realizing the boy thought he was angry at him, Kannar crouched down to be eye level with him. "I'm not mad, buddy. You've been a good little soldier for me but now its time for you to go home, okay." He pulled him into a hug and then sent him on his way. As Kannar stood up, he was relieved to see the crowd was dispersing, wearing relieved looks and chuckling over the young man's antics.

But Kannar was far from feeling like laughing. After a low conversation with Krata, he headed to John Sheppard's new accommodations. Entering the house, he ignored everyone but Sheppard and laid down the new law. "I just pledged my honor that no one else would get "sick" from your illness. So whatever that was with Muvar, it's over."

"Killjoy," John murmured from his position in the bed, knew by Kannar's stance that tensions were high.

"Let's not try and manipulate each other, alright. What did you need that you thought using a little boy would gain?" Kannar's displeasure thick in the small space.

"When you put it like that, it sounds sinister," John drawled but it was weakly, all this plotting wasn't very restful.

But Kannar didn't respond, stood at the foot of John's bed at a military rest pose, waiting for answers. Gave the impression that he would stand there all day if he had to.

When John seemed just as willing to see who could out wait who, Rodney huffed, "Fine. We need your people to tell us how to shut down the 2nd gate and get our main Stargate up and running again. Didn't think your people would willingly help us, if they didn't need more medical cures."

Carson piped in his own request. "And I need to talk with Atlantis, confer with them on healing Sheppard."

Appreciating the straight talk from McKay and the Atlantean Doctor, Kannar relented his closed off pose. "Allowing you to contact Atlantis, I can manage. But the gate issues…are more complicated."

"Complicated I can handle. You let me talk to your expert and together we can figure out a solution. Well mostly I'll figure it out," McKay boasted, felt silly asking these backwater simpletons for help anyway. Surely, he just needed a little nudge in the right direction.

Kannar couldn't hold back a smirk. "Yeah, it's not that easy."

"Why? Will they think they are conferring with the enemy? I think it's your job to make them see us as allies," Rodney insisted. "If they want rid of us, this goes a long way…"

But Kannar cut him off. "Fine. I'll take you to our…expert in stargates and you'll see what the problem really is. As for communicating with Atlantis, we can leave in half an hour," this he directed to Carson, who nodded in agreement.

Then Kannar stalked out of the house, McKay following on his heels. The soldier led them through the village, back through a garden and almost into the woods before he came to a stop, leaving them standing twenty five feet from a family having a meal in their backyard. "That's our "gate" expert," he announced but there was an edge to his declaration that put Rodney's hackles up.

Surveying the gathered family, Rodney asked, "Who? The lady holding the baby?"

"No, the baby."

SGASGA

Back in John's room, Rodney was still haranguing Kannar "You passed vital information onto a BABY! That's so not helpful, unless you can interpret goo and gagas!"

Kannar was unfazed by Rodney's tirade, leaned against the wall and drawled calmly, "It's not like we have control who gets the information and when. Our former gate expert was Tyler and his son died so the next in his DNA line was his grandson."

"But the baby didn't plan your invasion of Atlantis," John interjected, a hard edge to the words, remembering the lives lost in that offensive.

Kannar pushed off the wall, knew this was going to be a point of contention, always was when lives were taken in battle. "Tyler made me go with him every week trying to assess the gate to Atlantis, he was sure that it would open to us one day and we could …"

"Attack, kill Atlanteans and steal what wasn't yours.." Ronon coldly narrated.

Pressing his lips together, Kannar nodded, would do no good to deny any of that. Or state he had opposed the use of deadly force but the council had outvoted him. "That day came but Tyler had already passed and his grandson had the gate knowledge. But we didn't need more information once we opened the gate."

"Do you know why the gate opened all of a sudden?" Carson asked.

"Tyler said it would only open to us if the cloak was on the city."

"The cloak protected us from other threats but opened us up to yours," John surmised, proving his theory right. "But when you took the ZPM, the cloak went down but the 2nd gate hasn't deactivated."

Rodney provided further information. "And when we put the cloak back up, there was no change in the 2nd gate or the main gate. Which is why we needed help from your "Stargate expert."" Disgusted with the dead end that was proving to be.

John didn't want Rodney stuck on being mad at a hapless baby so he asked, even as he knew the answer, "So this baby may have all the specs for the gate in his head but that does us no good. And there are no written records?"

Kannar shook his head. "Never any need to have written records. Plus we don't have a paper factory here or a room to properly store it with the humidity of this region. "

"Just great," Rodney huffed.

Carson entered the fray. "Well, I still want to talk to Atlantis about solutions for John. Maybe they've even come up with some success on operating the gates."

Rodney snorted, "Without me? Doubtful."

SGASGA

Radek had just retrieved another Ancient cell sample through the 2nd stargate when the gate started to whoosh open. Scrambling back to the row of three soldiers still stationed there, he hit his communicator frantically. "Dr. Weir, the gate is being opened."

"I'm on my way," came her immediate response.

Radek held his breath, was reassured by the soldiers pointing their rifles at the gate but still didn't know what to expect. A full out attack? Carson returning with Sheppard? Another message only exchange?

"Atlantis, it's McKay. You reading me?"

Radek took a step toward the gate, tapping his communicator, "Rodney! It's good to hear your voice."

"Yeah, …well…same," Rodney admitted, sounding a little unlike himself, frazzled enough to be nice to Radek.

"Are you alright, Rodney?" Radek worriedly asked, didn't like to think Rodney was somewhere with a gun to his head.

"What? Yes, of course. Sheppard's the one we need to worry about," Rodney snapped back in true McKay fashion.

Radek almost sighed, yup Rodney was his usual snippy self. "About Colonel Sheppard's illness, I've made some headway on discovering its cause. You were right, the gate has abilities to heal…but it also attacks certain cells …very special cells," he vaguely reported, trying to talk in code so whoever was listening on McKay side wouldn't know all the answers.

"Special cells? What kind of …" Carson suddenly piped into the conversation.

But Rodney cut him off, figuring out the answer lightning fast. It had his heart quickening in hope. "If it attacks these cells…could it be used to …I don't know…mend them?"

"I'm working on that theory. So far, each trip though the stargate further deteriorates those cells," Radek reported.

"Each trip through the 2nd stargate?" Rodney posed, his own mind making leaps of logic.

"Any travel through any stargate speeds up the programing of the …virus," Zelenka reported the bad news using the code word of "virus" for "nanites".

"Oh crap," McKay grumbled at the implications. Knew they'd dragged John through so many gates and now knew why he'd gotten sicker and sicker with each gate passing.

"That's why John is so ill," Carson pointed out the obvious. "You said the gate targets special cells, called it a virus. But I'm not familiar with any virus that can live or be sustained within a stargate?"

McKay was already formulating his own theory of what Radek was trying to tell him without spelling it out. "Oh please tell me it's not…" but he stopped himself from saying 'nanites" out loud, conscious of the listening ears of Kannar and Krata behind him. He remembered the council had freaked out thinking that John might be a nanite carrier. 'If they knew how right they were…' he fought down a vision of them all being lined up for a nice public execution.

As much as Rodney wanted to call them backwater nobodies who were afraid of modern science, he wasn't all too sure the villagers' fear of the nanites wasn't totally justified. Even now, thinking that it had been nanites that had cured him of his illness when he gated back to Atlantis, it had his skin crawling. "Do they remain in the person who goes through the gate? Are they….are they still in me?!" And wasn't that a wonderful thought.

Radek wasn't surprised Rodney thought of his own wellbeing, but reassured, "By all my tests, they die in normal cells minutes after coming through the gate. It's only the special cells where they stay alive and continue to do damage."

Rodney realized if "special" meant Ancient cells, he had them too, had taken the ATA drug. "Special cells?! My cells are pretty darn special…"

"Not special enough," Radek cut across Roney's freakout.

"Not..special…enough," McKay repeated and it was sinking in. John's Ancient gene levels were in the stratosphere after he took the serum, were most likely almost at true Ancient levels. "But John's cells…they are…just special enough."

"I'm afraid so," Radek morosely reported.

Rodney was working on convincing himself that they were better off now armed with the facts. Nanites were scientific creations, his realm of expertise. He could save John…had to.

Then Elizabeth was there, activating her own communication. "Rodney, what's going on? How did you get the ok to contact us? How's John?"

"He's well enough to be the brainchild of this negotiation. He'll…he'll be fine. Carson and I won't accept anything less than that outcome." But then Rodney remembered more information to pass on. "Zelenka, the 2nd gate, it was only accessible when the cloak was on in Atlantis. I know the cloak is up again but maybe there is something in those parameters that are keeping it open and locking down the main gate."

"That might help us narrow down where to look for deactivation codes," Radek replied, entering that info in his computer as he spoke.

"Any of my team making any headway on John's illness? Knowing that…his special cells are targeted and by what, should help," Carson hoped they were having some success. "Can we just…shut them down?"

"Yeah, because that was so simple last time…nuclear explosion, anyone?" Rodney retorted, almost wished it were anything but nanites. The things gave him the creeps.

Elizabeth fielded that question. "We've been experimenting on shutting them down but no success yet. We do have a theory about why they exist. We think the people who created the 2nd gate used it as an escape from the Ancients. And to ensure no one followed them, they put the trap in the gate specifically for the Ancients."

"The Ancients could follow them, but they'd get sick like John," Carson surmised. "And if the people we are with now..if it was their ancestors who made the gate…Rodney, you did say Kannar's people weren't on good terms with the Ancients when they left."

"Hated each other's guts would be pretty accurate." Suddenly McKay had a eureka moment. "Maybe we've been looking for the wrong type of expert. Carson, we need a scientist in Kannar's group, not a gate expert to help John."

Carson's excited reply came back instantly, "Right, Rodney. If they can tell us how to turn off the …na…virus…"

"Let's pray that expert has learned his ABCs already," Rodney quipped.

"ABCs?" Elizabeth repeated in confusion.

"Yeah they genetically.." Rodney began before a commanding voice called out, "Say your goodbyes." Rodney came back with "Sorry, Elizabeth our time is up."

"We need a way to contact you if we discover a cure for John," she hurriedly pointed out.

"We'll try and get back here in a day or two," McKay vaguely promised.

"But.." Elizabeth protested but the wormhole closed as quickly as it had opened. She turned to Radek, but he was busy plugging calculations on his computer and heading down the hallway. "Ok then. I guess I'll head to my office.." she said to no one in particular, praying that the exchange of information meant something to Radek, McKay and Carson because it didn't meant much to her.

As the gate closed, Kannar was turning away, heading back to his ship, mind already scrambling to figure out what the Atlanteans didn't want him to know. He wasn't surprised when McKay bound to his side and started to make his demands.

"We need to talk to your resident scientist," Rodney insisted, ".. who I pray is out of diapers."

"Sure," Kannar readily agreed before he turned to McKay and made a stipulation of his own, "Right after you tell me what targeted Sheppard's "special cells" and what makes them so special to start with?"

SGASGA

TBC

SGASGA

Yikes! How far does their trust of Kannar go?!

Thanks for reading!

Have a great day!

Cheryl W.