Dr. Keller entered the medical bay prepared for another fun day, as her routine was.
"Morning Dr. Lam!" greeted Keller.
"Dr. Keller! Your just in time, can you check these two out for any damage to their brains? Apparently Ronon and Teal'c ambushed these two and they took a solid hit in their head." asked Lam.
"Sure thing. You two with me." replied Keller. She led them into the other room, gave them each a basic neurological assessment. Deciding which would go first she used the Ancient Brain Scanner.
"You have a minor concussion. Your on restricted activity for the next three days. OK your turn!" ordered Keller. She attached the brain scanner. The scanner showed no immediate damage from the blow he received, however it showed a series of small tumors around the base of the brain.
"What's your name Lieutenant?" asked Keller.
"Williams Henry ma'am" replied the Henry.
"Dr. Lam can you take a look at these results?" asked Keller.
"Doc, is something wrong?" asked Henry.
"Give me just a minute sweetie." comforted Keller.
"I have not seen anything like that." answered Lam, as she looked over the results.
"Doc?" asked Henry.
"The scanner is showing you have some small tumors around the base of your brain. We are going to have to run more tests to determine exactly what they are and how to treat you." replied Keller, "Nurse let's get Lt. Henry settled into a bed." Lt. Henry looking obviously shaken.
"Lieutenant your in the best hands in this or the Pegasus galaxies. Take a deep breath and relax. I'll tell you when it's time to get nervous, understand?" ordered Keller.
"Yes ma'am! Thank you ma'am!" replied Henry.
Dr. Keller went to the computer to begin further analysis of these tumors. She needed to know the kind of tumor, if they were cancerous, and more importantly if they were caused by exposure to anything.
Lt. Johansen entered the medical bay, "Ready Dr. Lam, we have class to teach?"
"Yes, Dr. Keller I'll be back in about an hour." replied Lam, "Dr. Beckett is available if you need him, he is over in the genetics lab."
Dr. Lam and Lt. Johansen used the transporter to reach the training pier. Twice a week she provided medical training to the recruits.
The recruits began to enter the classroom, looking like they had just come from a battle. Teal'c and Ronon entered looking refreshed.
"Good morning recruits! Today I am here to teach you about injuries from energy weapons. This is something you will encounter out in the field." explained Lam, "Some weapons have a stun setting, while others do not. The stun setting is meant to incapacitate you. However it can cause injuries, generally these are minor."
At this point Ronon, pulled his blaster and stunned a recruit, "Like that."
"That was not necessary Ronon!" shouted Lam.
"They need to see what a stun will look like and feel like." replied Ronon.
Lam shaking her head, "As you can see on this poor Captain, he has minor redness at the site of the hit, as this was moderate level stun. Higher power stuns can leave a first degree burn. In addition the strength of the blast will effect how long the person is incapacitated. Using an ammonia stick, can help revive the person quicker if they are not severely stunned."
Lam turning to Ronon and Teal'c, "If either of you try to blast any of these recruits any higher, I will personally haul you both to the medical bay for some elective surgery. Am I clear?"
"Indeed." stated Teal'c, "Recruits never underestimate a threat from a doctor, as Gen. O'Neill has described them as miniature Napoleon's." This elicited a chuckle from the recruits.
"Now strong energy blasts, can result in more serious burns or damage to your cardiovascular system. Often when someone dies from energy blast it is because it stopped their heart from the electrical shock on their system. Immediate CPR is necessary in these situations. You all have your CPR training. In less severe cases, burns. These need to be bandaged and treated with antibiotic cream as soon as possible." instructed Lam.
Dr. Lam continued the training for the next fifty minutes. Meanwhile over in the genetics lab.
Dr. Beckett was working on the DNA sequence of Tretoinlion, his name for the tretoin laced dandelion. He had managed to change the flower color from yellow to a purple, and he had worked out so that the juice, was an injectable solution, without requiring processing. However he was having a hard time making the plant taste bad. He wanted to increase the acidic taste of the plant.
"Dr. Beckett could you come to the medical bay? I need a consult." Dr. Keller came over the intercom to Beckett.
"Dr. Keller what is it?" asked Beckett.
"A patient was discovered with tumors around the base of his brain stem. Having trouble identifying it." replied Keller.
"Bring him him here to the genetics lab, we'll take a look at the DNA of it." suggested Beckett.
"OK, we'll be there shortly." replied Keller.
Ten minutes later Dr. Keller arrived with Lt. Henry.
"This is Lt. Henry, he came in this morning after receiving a head trauma at training. The brain scanner showed this. " replied Keller, as she pulled up his brain scan on the computer.
"Hello Lt. Henry sit down here." replied Beckett, moving the tretoinlion from the DNA Pod. Punching a few keys and the holographic projector showed an active scan of his Lt. Henry's brain.
"Right there, seven small tumors. Let's do a DNA sequence on one of those tumors." replied Beckett.
The projector switch to showing a strand of DNA. Beckett tapped a couple of buttons and the Ancient Database was trying to match the DNA sequence.
"Has he been off world at all?" asked Beckett.
"No I haven't." replied Henry.
"I have checked his background file and found no likely source for these tumors." replied Keller.
Database brought up a display, identifying the DNA sequence as a type of fruit from X2I-902. The database identified it as containing a chemical that could split it's DNA sequence into that of another, causing tumors. The Ancients had black listed the planet entirely.
"Have you eaten any fruit lately?" asked Dr. Keller.
"Yesterday I was in the mess hall and Lt. James had some fruit he offered me a slice it smelled wonderful." replied Henry.
"What kind of fruit was it?" asked Beckett.
"It was like an orange." replied Henry.
Beckett grabbed his radio, "Col. Davis we need to locate Lt. James immediately, he has brought a fruit from the Pegasus galaxy and it's causing tumors in those who eat it."
"Roger than Dr. Beckett, we will issue a medical lockdown." replied Col. Davis.
Over the Atlantis intercom, "Attention all personnel, we are under a medical lock down until further notice. Anyone who has seen Lt. James report his location immediately, anyone who has come in contact with any fruit from Lt. James report to the medical bay immediately."
Beckett turning to Dr. Keller, "Go take charge of the medical bay for this, find out how many are infected. I'm going to keep Lt. Henry here to find a treatment."
"Let's hope there are not many people affected." replied Keller.
"Doctor, Lt. James had an entire bag of fruit." explained Henry.
Keller hurried off. Back in the medical bay nine others who had eaten the fruit had arrived. Dr. Lam came rushing in with Lt. Johansen.
"What's going on?" asked Lam.
"Lt. Henry ate fruit that Lt. James got form somewhere, the Ancient Database identified the DNA in the tumor as that of this fruit from some planet in the Pegasus galaxy that they banned travel to, it could splice in it's DNA into whoever came in contact with it." explained Keller.
"Lt. James was given off world time to help with the relocation two days ago." explained Lt. Johansen.
"That explains how he got it. Now that means we need to have those he came into contact with to be searched looking for this fruit." explained Lam.
Gen. Landry and Col. Davis arriving, "What's going on?"
Dr. Keller took a deep breath, "Two days ago Lt. James was on an off world assignment on Corlan helping the refuges. It appears he may have gotten a bag of fruit similar to oranges and brought it back here. He gave others this fruit. It appears this fruit is in the Ancient Database, from a planet they banned travel to. This fruit can splice in it's DNA into cells, causing tumors. We need to identify anyone with contact. That also includes anyone on Corlan who had this fruit and anyone they shared it with."
"Col. Davis over see things here on Atlantis, find Lt. James. I'm going to operations we need to alert Corlan and find out what groups he had contact with, and find the source of this fruit." ordered Landry.
"Checking with security teams now, Lt. James is off duty, they are checking his quarters now." replied Davis.
"Lt. Johansen time for you to learn how to use one of these brain scanners." ordered Dr. Lam.
"Yes ma'am." replied Johansen, following Dr. Lam, as she instructed her in the setup and what to look for on the scans.
Pretty soon with the help of two nurses they had all five scanners running. The nine that had arrived in the medical bay, had grown to twenty three.
"How big of a bag was this?" asked Keller.
A recruit spoke up, "He had probably another 15 or so pieces when I saw him."
Col. Davis received a call over the radio, "Col. Davis Sir, we have found Lt. James, in his quarters he is dead sir. we have found a bag of fruit. We have sealed off the room."
"Get a hazmat team there to get his body moved to our morgue. We'll do a complete body scan to identify what caused his death." replied Keller, "Those men need to report here immediately for scans just in case."
Col. Davis, "Yes Doctor!" as he left the medical bay to make arrangements.
Gen. Landry stepped back in, "Lt. Johansen can you run the brain scanner?"
"Yes, general." replied Johansen.
"Get a scanner, a hazmat suit and meet SG-1 in the Gate room, your going to Corlan to conduct scans there." ordered Landry. Johansen grabbed a hazmat suit and a scanner to take with her.
An hour later seventeen of the twenty three showed tumors. Beckett was still investigating a treatment. Dr. Lam went to conduct the autopsy on Lt. James. A full body scan showed the cause quickly. The tumors had grown in size, until they applied enough pressure to the brain stem to separate it from the spinal column. The patients were constantly monitored for any change in size.
Dr. Beckett had brought Lt. Henry back to the medical bay, "I'm seeing about a millimeter growth every 20-30 minutes, at this rate, he has maybe six to seven hours. The ancients have no cure listed for this. In the time it took for them to discover it and the cause over a three day period they lost over forty people."
"Can we just remove them?" asked Landry.
"They are two integrated to the brain stem. We likely would kill anyone we tried." replied Keller.
"Can't you change the DNA sequence of the tumor so it would stop growing or die?" asked Davis.
"No, the DNA device changes the DNA in the entire entity. It can not change just an isolated spot." replied Beckett.
"Can't you just change everything in him to his DNA?" asked Landry.
"I already tried, the tumor returned to his DNA, after 10 minutes, I saw where the DNA from the fruit was being spliced back in. I can barely detect the chemical in his body that is causing the splicing. It targets a specific seven spots at the base of the brain stem. The chemical will keep reverting those back to the tumor every time I change the DNA. This fruit is designed to be a weapon." replied Beckett.
"What if we remove those seven spots, would it effect anything else?" asked Keller.
"I don't believe so, but we're talking about nano-meters on where we need to slice. We don't even have anything on Atlantis to let us see that small." replied Beckett.
"Yes we do, the Asgard Scanners, are extremely precise. Dr. Simpson works on the nano-meters scale with the Asgard Core she uses to build. I remember Rodney talking about the impressive work she is doing. If she can transport something into that small of an area, surely she can transport something out at that scale. Right?" asked Keller.
"Your brilliant, Heimdall did something similar to Gen. Caldwell when he was infected with a Gou'ald. We need Dr. Simpson in here now." answered Beckett.
Two hours later Dr. Simpson had just completed the procedure on Lt. Henry, waiting on Keller confirm the removal.
"Scans are showing no new growths. Now assuming he has feeling then it was a success." replied Keller.
"We have two others who a progressing, we can't wait to confirm if Lt. Henry has full neurological function." informed Beckett, "We have to perform this procedure or they will die."
Now that Dr. Simpson knew what she was doing she was able to perform the removal faster, taking thirty minutes.
"We need someone else doing this, I can't do this fast enough to save everyone." explained Simpson after her second patient.
"Who else could do this Doctor?" asked Landry.
"Novak, she is in the Pegasus Galaxy." replied Dr. Simpson. Landry left the room sending a Puddle Jumper pilot immediately to P4J-392. Midway was sent a subspace message to expedite the Puddle Jumper to Pegasus and back. Ninety minutes later Novak was back on Atlantis following Dr. Simpson's instructions helping to remove the tumors. The two of them working tirelessly into the night, removing the tumors. Beckett using the DNA device to slow down the progression of the tumor.
"Good news, Lt. Henry is showing full neurological function, and so are the others awake enough to test." informed Keller.
"Excellent news!" replied Dr. Beckett.
"Have we heard from SG-1 yet?" asked Keller.
"Not in several hours." replied Beckett.
Dr. Simpson and Novak, were on the last two patients. Dr. Lam entered, "Ok you two go get some rest, I'll handle the recovery and let you know if there is anything else. I'll send those two for rest as soon as they are done. I hope they are needed for those on Corlan."
Early the next morning, SG-1 reported back in. Mitchell was reporting, "Sir we have found the Hallonans, brought the fruit to Corlan. By the time we got to the village, it was too late sir. We lost thirty seven people. We have tested rest of the Hallonans they are negative. We have sent out teams to the other villages, but so far no reports of anyone getting the fruit in the last two days. It appears Lt. James was the last one they gave any to."
"Thank you Colonel, return when the search is complete." ordered Landry.
A week later, Dr. Jennifer Keller reported her findings on the fruit to Col. Davis.
"It appears the fruit contains an DNA sequence that splices in any attached DNA into specific cells located at the base of the brain stem, which causes them to grow uncontrollably, which results in enough pressure to sever the spinal cord from the brain system. The ancients reported loosing forty people, and we have lost thirty eight." informed Keller.
"Thank you doctor. Without your persistence, this could have been much worse." replied Davis.
"Thankfully Rodney was in the Pegasus galaxy or we would be hearing about the killer citrus." answered a tired Keller.
"Get some rest Doctor." replied Davis.
"No can do, as I have to patch up the recruits." shrugged Keller.