I stood to the side as I watched Rodney McKay trying to get Carson Beckett to sit in the ancient chair that the science team had been studying. I had come to know both of them over the course of working at the outpost here in Antarctica. The things that I learn from them are intriguing and some of the conversations that I have overheard when I am near them are very amusing.
Pulling myself from my thoughts, I looked to my right and saw Dr Weir coming into the room. Sending a small smile her way, I turned back to McKay and Beckett just in time to see Beckett getting out of the chair and walking away from Rodney.
"Carson. Get back here." Rodney called to Beckett's retreating figure.
"I could sit in that chair all bloody day long and nothing would happen. It's a waste of time. Excuse me, Doctor Weir. Sarah." Beckett pointed out before walking away.
"He's not even trying." Rodney stated as Dr Weir and I walked over to him.
"But he's the one who discovered the gene this technology responds to." Dr Weir pointed out as she looked at the chair.
"Yeah, well, he said he wished he never had it." Rodney announced.
"Really?" Both Dr Weir and I asked, surprised.
"I know; can you believe that?" McKay incredulously asked.
Dr Weir and I looked at each other and shared a smile before looking back at McKay.
"I can always test you a third time, McKay." I grinned, watching as an annoyed look appeared on his face.
"Oh, that's very funny."
Smiling at him, I turned back to the ancient chair in front of me.
"We've only found a handful of people who are genetically compatible with the Ancient technology and despite your heroic efforts to interface ours with theirs; we need every one of them to sit in this Chair, including Doctor Beckett." Dr. Weir explained, glancing at me a couple of times.
"What am I supposed to do? He's afraid of that thing." McKay replied.
"This Chair controls the most powerful weapons known to humankind. I'm afraid of the thing. But every time someone sits in it we learn something new about the Ancients who built this outpost. Doctor Beckett should be proud he's genetically advanced." Dr Weir breathed.
"It's not more advanced. It-it is a random characteristic; I mean even Sarah has the gene."
"This really bothers you, this whole gene thing, huh?" I amended.
"Oh, clearly I am overcome with envy." McKay sarcastically replied.
Suddenly, Daniel Jackson came running into the room.
"Ah, just the people I need to see." He said before turning around and walking back the way he came.
Dr Weir, McKay and I all looked at each other confused before Daniel came back into our view.
"Come with me." Was all he said before turning and head back the way he came again.
-[-]-
As we made our way towards the area where Daniel was working, he started explaining things to the three of us.
"We've gotten closer and closer to finding the location of the Lost City but it turns out we've been looking in the wrong place all along." He pointed out, walking over to a whiteboard on which six Stargate coordinates are drawn with the numbers 1-6 above them.
"Now, we thought we had a Stargate address -- six symbols representing coordinates in space that determine the location of the planet the Ancients went to after they left Antarctica. Now, recently we determined a seventh symbol." He continued, picking up a whiteboard marker and drawing a symbol on the board to the right of the other symbols.
"The point of origin, Earth." Dr Weir stated.
Ignoring what the other three people in the room were saying, I walked up to the board focusing on the symbols that Daniel had drawn on but realised that it was incomplete.
The more I focused on the symbols it was like the last symbol just came to me out of nowhere making me have to blink at the sudden realisation.
"Then your address must be incorrect." I heard McKay say bringing me back out of my thoughts.
"No, it's not incorrect. It's incomplete." I jumped in, grabbing the whiteboard marker from Daniel and drawing another symbol between the sixth and earth symbols while also numbering the new symbols 7 and 8.
"It's an eight symbol address!!" I breathed out, turning back to the others.
"Daniel's saying that what we're looking for may be further away than we ever imagined."
"But it's not out of our reach." Daniel added, smiling at me before looking back to Dr Weir and McKay.
"Atlantis!" McKay suggested.
"Atlantis,I think we can go there." Daniel finished.
YOU ARE READING
In The Genes
Fanfiction24-year-old Sarah O'Neill has had it rough. From being a young orphan to a teen runaway to a lost baby, she's never known what happiness truly is. But now, with a PhD under her belt and a brand new, off-world job, she's about to see just what life h...
