Stargate Atlantis
Season 3 - Discovery, Accomplishment, Challenge
An Alternate Universe
Written by Dani Harvey
"You know that stuff can give you cancer?" John had his eyebrows raised at McKay.
The team was sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria. Once again, Rodney had the team unwillingly bewitched by his food consumption.
"It is barely 8:00 am." Teyla sounded moderately repulsed.
"What? It's popcorn! It's basically a vegetable." McKay pleaded as he popper more pieces into his mouth.
"Sure... but it is microwave popcorn." John began to explain.
"Well obviously you have to have a little butter and salt on their for flavor! It's good though. Butter? Natural. Salt? Natural.
"It's not just butter and salt though. They put chemicals in there to make it taste like that. What's the name?" John looked across the table to Ronon and Teyla. Their blank expressions betraying their lack of knowledge.
"I believe you are thinking of diacetyl." This came from Carson as he joined the table, taking a seat next to John.
"Yes! Diacetyl! Now, you can correct me if I am wrong, Doc, but when the chemical is vaporized by the microwaves in the microwave it becomes carcinagous no?"
"Exactly, actually!" Carson smiled. "It is particularly harmful if breath them in, say when smelling the delicious aroma. It can cause some pretty terrible lung diseases." Carson took a bit of his own meal: toast with an egg sprinkled with salt and pepper.
"Okay, but how likely is, really, that that will happen to me? One in a thousand?" McKay finally paused his continual stream of popcorn from bowl to mouth.
"Well actually, back on earth, as many as 14% of new cancers are lung cancers." Carson took another bite of toast.
"That's terribly unlikely. I think I will take the 86% chance that I won't get lung cancer. With that, the stream began again.
"That is an optimistic viewpoint." Teyla pointed out.
"I think there's a condition for that." John pondered, ultimately waiting for Carson to tell him what it was.
"I think we already knew McKay had a condition." Ronon got a gentle giggle of laughter from the table with that comment.
"Well, it's not a condition so to speak." Carson finished his bite of food before continuing. "The phenomenon is known as 'optimism bias'. It is the, somewhat, misguided belief that, we, as the individual are going to find ourselves experiencing the positive outcome rather than the negative." Carson explained.
"I am not really sure I understand. You are saying that we do not think bad things happen?" Teyla questioned.
"Not exactly." Carson pushed his now empty plate to the side. "it is more like we don't believe bad things wills happen to us. For example, up to 1 in every 360 people will get in a car accident. We have a tendency to believe we won't be the 1. However, car accidents happen. Therefore, everyday someone is that one."
"Okay." Teyla agreed.
Carson could see the example did not really hit home. "Another example is surgery. Most surgeries have a chance of failure, often small, but the chance is there. Let's say going into surgery there is a 96% chance of success." Carson met the each of the group members eyes with his own. "We automatically believe we will be in the 96% percent and that the surgery will go well."
"If I get lung cancer it will more likely be from exposer to some crazy radiation from an unidentified piece of tech find on some random planet. "McKay continued to happily eat his popcorn.
"Now you are into a whole different kind of bias!" Carson laughed.
"What's that one?" John thought a moment, snapping his fingers rapidly. "An attribution error?"
"Basic attribution error, I believe." Carson knew it was, but he was trying to play it down a little.
"I think it is just the McKay bias." Ronon jumped in with another comment to get the group to snicker a little at McKay's expense. Satisfied with his contribution, Ronon began to clean his area and get up from the table.
"This has been a lovely conversation for you guys. Really glad I could be here for you guys to jokes about." McKay forced a laugh.
Ronon came behind him, hugging him tightly and rubbing his head. "You know we love you, man."
McKay rolled his eyes a little after Ronon let him go, but the group could tell he liked it.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." McKay shrugged off Ronon and got up from the table.
"I guess we will see you in a few weeks." Teyla got up and offered her arms to McKay for a hug.
"Off to build the IGSG!" John stood up as well.
"3-4 weeks, actually." McKay corrected excitedly.
"3-4 weeks." Teyla repeated with a smile.
"3-4 weeks with Samantha." Ronon teased.
"You are all children!" McKay swept up all his popcorn remnants from the table. He realized everyone was looking at him, eyebrows raised. "3-4 weeks," he finally conceded as he danced with his hips a little.
Everyone laughed again as they left the table.
Major Lorne and his team were loading supplies onto the new ancient ship when McKay got there.
The ceremony for the ship had been extravagant. Everyone had been brimming with excitement as repairs commenced on the ship. The brunt of the work was made up of cleaning the algae and coral off the hull.
McKay had spent his time studying the ships systems, but most importantly the gates. McKay discovered that the ship did not simply hold the gates, it made them. Intricate machines were able to manufacture the gates. Unfortunately, it did not appear that the ship had the current materials required to make new gates. Not matter for McKay, as there were plenty enough gates to finish the IGSG.
Based on the ship's records, it was designed to be a sort of seed ship. The ancients developed it to fly ahead, populating new galaxies with gates. The records seemed to indicate there were many other ships designed for the same purpose.
"Unfortunately, this ship never got to set out because of the war." McKay had explained to Elizabeth. "In order to shore up defenses against the Wraith the Ancients kept many of these ships here rather than sending them out to explore."
"How fast can the ship travel?" Dr. Weir asked.
"The ship uses an FTL drive. I would estimate the speed to be around 999,999 mph."
"Around." Dr. Weir laughed.
The speed of the ship was another prospect that excited Rodney. He was excited to find out just how fast it could go.
After 3 weeks of steady work on the ship it was almost ready to fly. What it was missing of course, was a name. The name of the ship according to the Ancient data base translated to Exploror. This felt a little 'on the nose' for most people. After some debate it was eventually decided that Zelenka should name the ship being as he had discovered it. At which point, he chose with ease.
"Vorota Sudno." He exclaimed proudly at the unveiling ceremony while popping open a bottle of champaign. The loud bang reverberated through the crowd and across the bridge of the ship.
There was a confused pause from everyone as Zelenka announced the name.
"Gate Ship!" Zelenka exclaimed again, translating the Russian name.
With that a wave of applause flooded the crowd. Everyone stood shoulder to shoulder glasses in the air as they toasted to the new name.
"Excellent name!" Dr. Weir exclaimed, her glass in the air as well.
As everyone toasted to the name it was quickly shortened to "The Vorota."
The ceremony finished up with snacks before everyone returned to their regular duties.
As McKay stepped onto the bridge, all signs of the previous day's festivities were gone. Now the bridge was clean, organized and set up for flight. A much different site than the dump and dark bridge that he had first stepped onto, now several weeks ago.
McKay walked up to one of the consoles. A laptop interface was set up to make it easier to control.
Before he could open up the laptop Major Lorne came onto the bridge.
"Looks pretty good, doesn't she?" Lorne's grin was from ear to ear. "Can't wait to take her up!"
"Me neither!" McKay was giddy.
Lorne started the engines and the ship came to life with a gentle vibration. Out the main view window, they could see all the people waving them off on their maiden voyage.
Teyla, Ronon and John watched the large ship take off. It slowly rose through the air rotating. Once it rose high enough its engines started to burn bright. Then, in an instant, it was gone.
"He's going to have so much fun." Teyla laughed as she turned to go back inside. They had been watching the take off from a balcony on one of the towers.
As they started walking down the hall, Carson came around the corner. "Ready to set off?" He was already dressed and packed for their mission.
Since Carson first discovered a mysterious sickness on one of the planets, it had popped up all through the system. The sickness presented as a systemic flew effecting every primary system in the body. It hit the respiratory and the gastrointestinal systems the worst. What would start as a mild cough quickly progressed to full body shut down.
All of the communities, until now, had refused any assistance from Atlantis teams.
Carson was excited to be able to start testing this sickness and begin developing a treatment.
John looked at his watch. "I believe lieutenant Harris is prepping the jumper right now. We will be leaving in 20 minutes." John could tell that that had not satisfied Carson. "Perhaps you should head down there to double check you have everything you need?"
Carson seemed appeased with that suggestion and immediately headed off to the gate room.
John looked back at Teyla and Ronon. "I think we should get ready." He chuckled a little.
This community was very similar to a lot of the others that the Atlantis team had discovered. The architecture reflected the pre-industrial revolutions states that most of the galaxy was in.
The town was a short jumper flight away from the gate. This was typical of many towns. Walking the balance of convenience distance to the gate for trade purposes while maintaining a far enough distance from the gate to save as many people as possible when the wraith attacked. Unfortunately, since the arrival of the humans from earth, those attacks have only gotten more frequent and more deadly. No distance from that gate was safe enough anymore. The Wraith weren't only culling the human population they were decimating it.
This town was quite large. John landed the jumper in a small field outside of one of the larger buildings. A single man crossed the small field and greeted the team as they departed form the jumper.
There was a slight cool breeze, enough to blow the man's unkept hair around his face. He was about 5'8", around Carson's height. He was younger though, maybe 30 years old.
He pushed the wind blow dark hair out of his face, it curled around his fingers. "I am so glad you are here Dr. Beckett." His voice betrayed his panic. "The situation is only getting worse."
"Hello Elson, I will do my best to assist you in any way that I can. This is my team, John. Teyla and Ronon." Carson slid his pack of his back and reached in. He pulled out a bleu medical mask and placed it on his face wrapping the loops around his ears. He grabbed another and offered it to Elson.
Elson hesitated, looking back at the building he had come from.
Before he could say anything Carson spoke. "I have brought enough for all of your staff."
That seemed to reassure him, and he took the mask from Carson.
"Can you show me the situation inside? I am hoping to set up a testing laboratory tent out here," Carson looked to John, effectively asking him to build the tent, then back at Elson. "If that is alright with you?"
"Of course, whatever you need." Elson started to lead Carson to the building.
"When I was here yesterday you were at 15% of your population infected, how are the numbers now?"
"Unfortunately, worse. We have almost 60% of the community showing symptoms. The school is our largest building and we are already out of space here."
As the two men entered the school Carson could see the seriousness of the situation. The classrooms and the hallways were full of patients.
"We ran out of beds pretty much immediately." Elson explained as they walked past room after room filled with sick symptomatic patients.
The sounds of coughing, gagging and vomiting filled the hallway. Carson almost felt a tangible sickness in the air. Suddenly he doubted the effectiveness of his mask.
"All of the most serious cases we have been keeping just through here." Elson opened a door at the end of the hallway.
Somehow, the situation was worse on this side of the door. All of the patients here were laying down on cots in narrow rows. People, who seemed to be functioning as nurses, traveled from bed to bed checking on each patient.
"We have lost 3 people already this morning." Elson turned away from the room and stepped back into the hall. I am at a loss doctor." Elson confessed. I am out of my depth. This was never meant to be my job."
As Elson spoke it was like a wall he had built up came crashing down. His voice started to shake, and tears filled his eyes.
Carson took a breath, his mask tightened against his face. Unfortunately, Carson could guessed what Elson was about to say. The previous day when Carson was here he had met Elson and also Elson's father, the towns mayor. He had been one of the towns first cases. When he became sick Elson took over the day to day while his father got care.
Looking at Elson, Carson knew there was no good news at the end of his next sentence.
"He passed last night." Bent down in silent anguish, as he tried to control his breathing. His body began the writhe as it struggled to bring breaths into it.
"I'm so sorry." Carson tried to offer any comfort to the young man but he knew there was nothing he could do to relieve the intense sorrow that he was feeling.
A few moments passed, which would have been silent if not for the sounds of Elson's labored breaths. Elson labored a final deep breath before he stood, seemingly composed. "Whatever you need Dr., I will do my best to get it for you, just please save these people."
"We can begin immediately. I will be mostly looking for information from you." Carson and Elson began walking back the way they had come.
Carson wanted a lot of information. Elson listened carefully as Carter asked him about the disease. Symptoms, the onset timeline, the infection rate and the death rate. Elson quickly realized he would need help to gather the information. By the time they were outside again Elson had a whole list of questions to find answers to.
"I will start on this immediately!" Elson quickly turned and went back into the school.
Carson looked towards the jumper. His team was already well under way with the tent.
On board the Vorota the crew had reached the edge of the Pegasus galaxy and the location of the first gate for the IGSG.
"Oh baby, this ship is fast!" Lorne hollered as he caressed one of the bridge consoles, rubbing it over with both hands.
McKay, although excited about the speed of the Vorota, rolled his eyes at Lorne's display.
"I'm headed down to the gate bay." He stated.
"Yea, I will come with." Lorne declared as he followed McKay off the bridge.
"I wish you wouldn't." McKay said only to himself. McKay really had no issue with Lorne, he simply wasn't capable of the caliber of conversation that McKay would prefer. He just knew Lorne would asks endless questions about how the IGSG was going to work and he would need to dumb down all the information for him.
"So, how's this gate bridge thing supposed to work exactly?"
"Only made it about ten feet.." McKay thought to himself. He tried to start explaining the mechanics in a monotone voice but his own excitement about the whole concept quickly betrayed him.
"Well, basically, we will line gates up one after the other to the midpoint of the galaxy. The gates on our side will all be from the Pegasus galaxy, on the other side they will be gates form the Milky Way galaxy.
"Why do we need both types of gates? Don't they all work the same?"
McKay struggles to hold his tongue. "We need both types of gates to circumvent the power consumption problem. To gate from Earth to Atlantis takes an astronomical amount of power, literally. Not to mention you need the extra shevron. This way, we will have both gate types at the mid-way station. When you get there, you simply walk to the Milky Way gate and dial again."
"That's amazing!" Lorne exclaimed. There was silence for a moment before Lorne spoke again, his face showing some concern. "What is stopping the Wraith from using the IGSG to get to Earth?
McKay was happy, if not surprised that Lorne asked this question. "Well that is where I come in." Somehow McKay sounded even ore arrogant than he had before. "I have designed a program, a macro, that will start the chain of gates. When you enter the Macro it instructs the gates to forward the molecular pattern all the way through the chain till the gate at the midway. There is a completely different Macro to get from the midway to Earth. The programs are virtually uncrackable. "McKay was very proud of himself.
"Wow! That's fantastic." Lorne looed excited, and in McKay's opinion, like he had actually understood. "How long will it take? To get all the way through from Atlantis to Earth I mean?"
"That is the best part! 30 minutes!"
"Wow, significant improvement from 3 weeks on the Daedalus."
"Right!" McKay replied. By the time they arrived at the gate bay McKay realized her had enjoyed the conversation slightly more than he had expected.
"We better get to work!" Lorne looed excited.
"You are just looking for another way to try and control me."
Michael was sitting in Dr. Weir's office.
"If that is the way you choose to see it, I can not change that Michael." Elizabeth was stoic in the same way she always was. Her face and demeaner refusing to betray her thoughts. "It would be my hope that speaking to Dr. Heightmeyer again would help you find piece with your situation.
"And if I refuse?" Michael hissed.
Dr. Weird leaned over her desk, folding her hands in front of her. "Based on your recent actions, it would be in your best interest to speak to her."
Elizabeth could see the distaste on Michael's face as she watched him think. E kept eye contact with her as if winning this staring contest was going to get him out of meeting with Dr. Heightmeyer.
It did not.
The tent the team had set up when they first arrived was now packed with medical equipment. To John, the full tables and shelves were just clusters of disorganization but to Dr. Beckett it they were meticulously organized.
The situation had only become more dire. The team was now wearing full personal protective equipment, or PPE as Carter called it. Masks, goggles, gowns and gloves.
Ronon looked the most uncomfortable out of the team when they first suited up, with his gown stretched tightly around his broad shoulders. Carter also had him tie his dreads back and cover them with a hair net.
"This cannot be necessary," Ronon had protested.
Carson was a little too stressed out to waste any patients on Ronon, "we do not yet understand how this disease is spreading. I need you to wear all the PPE or leave. You are no help to me if you are sick."
"How are we doing Doc?" John entered the tent he had just finished the latest count of the infected.
Carson set down his tablet roughly on the table. "I have ruled out all forms of transmission." He pulled his mask off and through it on the ground.
John was confused. He slowly pulled his own mask down and tucked it under his chin. "What does that mean?"
"It means that it is not passing from person to person."
At that moment Ronon popped his head in the tent. "Our water reserves from Atlantis are starting to run low. I am going into the town to fill the canteens from the well."
"Very well, that's a good plane. I think we will be here for a while." John nodded to Carter quickly and Ronon left the tent.
"Where do we go from here?" John asked Carter.
"More tests." Carson sighed looking down at his tablet. "But at least we know we are safe to take all of this off." Carson removed his gloves and gown, placing them in a waste bin. He prepared a tray of equipment. "I'm going to collect a new round of samples. There has to be an answer for what is causing this."
John watched as Carson left the tent. "The last couple of days have taken their tole on Carson." He thought to himself. John could tell Carson was starting to feel defeated. Almost everyone in the town was now sick. Even Elson had become ill.
The worst part was how many people were dying. Just over 30% of infected patients were dying. The deaths were not confined to an age category or gender. It just seemed to be that some people's bodies could not fight off this terrible sickness.
Teyla accompanied Ronon on the water refill mission into town. The streets were empty. Many of the town's peoples had become sick. Unfortunately, there was not enough space for everyone at the school. Instead many people were trying to care for themselves at home. Anyone who wasn't sick, which was a small number every day, were either helping at the school or staying home away from the sickness.
Ronon carried two 5-gallon water tanks in each hand and Teyla loaded up with the individual canteens. It did not take long to get to the well. It was near the center of the town in the middle of what would be the town market square.
Ronon let down a rope and began lowering a simple bucket down the well. A few moments later it splashed in the water. It took several rounds of lowing the bucket to fill all their water containers.
Back at the camp Carson had just burst out of the tent. John was standing around the side, at the jumper organizing some supplies.
"Are Ronon and Teyla back yet? With the water? Where's the water? Do not drink the water!" He yelled.
"Okay, take a breath for a second. You look like you are about to pass out." John put his hand on Carson's shoulder in an effort to help him catch his breath.
"I know what is causing the sickness!"
"What is it?" John asked, trying to keep his voice calm for Carson's sake.
"It's the Hoffan drug." Carson exclaimed.
John did not understand. The Hoffan drug had been destroyed. When the Atlantis team discovered how deadly it was to the humans that it was meant to cure, they convinced the Hoffan's to terminate the project. Their cure killed 50% of the humans that took it.
"We destroyed that drug. How could it be causing this?"
"They must had started research again. Carson began to explain, "once I stopped looking at transmission, I was able to switch my focus onto sequencing the virus. I recognized it almost immediately. It is definitely the Hoffan drug."
"Okay." John though a moment. "How did it get here?" Suddenly John understood, "the well!". He screamed.
Both Carson and John sprinted off "Ronon!" John screamed before he could see them. "Don't drink the water!"
They both rounded one of the buildings, as they did Ronon and Teyla came into their view. They were carrying the water jugs. Full water jugs.
"What is going on?" Teyla asked. Her face crinkled with confusion.
"It's the Hoffan drug!" Carson yelled. It's in the water!
"Hoffan drug?" Ronon repeated.
"I don't understand, we explained to them that the risk and the side effects were not worth it. Teyla began unloading the containers of water off her shoulders. As she did, she looked at Ronon. "The Hoffan drug is a cure for Wraith feeding. It stops the Wraith from being able to feed on the human. In fact, it actually kills the Wraith as well."
"I haven't heard anything I don't like so far." Ronon grunted. "What's the problem?"
"Well," this was Carson responding now, "only 50%, now it seems to be 70% of humans survive taking the cure. With the original iteration it also left the survivors severely immunocompromised. Even after surviving the drug many patients would go onto to have severe infections, ultimately resulting in death."
"How did the drug get here?" Teyla asked, not waiting for Ronon to respond.
"That is the part I fear the most. Every planet I have visited in the last 4 weeks that has had what I thought to be a flu breakout. I now believe they were all contaminated by the Hoffan drug." Carson explained. "I believe someone is intentionally spreading the 'cure' to all these planets.
Michael was sitting in Dr. Heightmeyer's office. Kate had prepared her office for the meeting with Michael. She had been sure to arrange the room with plenty of space left between her seat and his. Obviously, when Dr. Weird told her should be sending Michael to see her regularly again she had agreed, but she did feel nervous about it. When she had met with Michael before, her had been a human with no idea what he really was. Now he knew and was fully capable of feeding on her.
Elizabeth had given her the option for her to have guards present during her sessions with Michael. After thinking about it she ultimately chose not to. Unfortunately, she knew the counselling could never work with guards chaperoning every session. "Patient first" she had reminded herself.
As a human from earth, Kate did not have the same innate fear of the Wrath that the humans her in the Pegasus galaxy have. In fact, Michael was the only Wraith Kate had seen face to face.
Sitting across from her now, he looked quite different from the human man she had met with so many weeks ago. Obviously, there was the change from the human features he had, bright blonde hair, striking blue eyes and gently tanned skin. These features were new replaced with milky white hair, dark yellow eyes with slim vertical slit pupils. His skin was probably the mot subtle change despite it being the biggest. It was pale with a grey twinge that almost seemed transparent in some ways with his dark veins showing through.
"How have you been Michael?" Kate began.
Michael stared back at her without responding. Instead, he crossed his arms, effectively closing himself off from her.
Kate knew this was going to be difficult before she started, so his response hardly surprised her.
"Well, I would lie to start by creating the blueprint or roadmap, schematic, if you will, for our sessions together." As Kate spoke her voice gently filled the room. She took control of the space. "We are here because Dr. Weird is, worried, that you are not," she paused a moment, looking for the right words.
Before she found them, Michael spoke. "I'm not taking the retrovirus and living happily ever after?"
"Not acclimating." Kate finished her thought, but she nodded to Michael acknowledging his words.
Michael leaned forward in his chair. "Are all your prisoners forces to acclimate to their captivity in your human customs?"
"Would you rather be killed or in a prison cell?"
"I would rather be free!" Michael roared.
Kate flinched slightly, reacting to his outburst. She regretted her words. Michael refused to engage with her for the rest of the session.
Carson was not looking forward to his next conversation with Elson. He had to tell him that his town had been poisoned. His father murdered. Regardless of the Hoffans' intentions, that's what they were doing. They were murdering thousands of innocent people by forcing them to endure the 'cure'.
Since Elson had started showing symptoms, he rapidly deteriorated. He had been moved into the room Carson had visited when he first arrived. The room with the sickest individuals.
Carson pulled a chair over to the side of Elson's bed.
Elson struggled to sit up as Carson sat down. "Do you have any good news doctor?"
Carson took a breath before he began to speak. "I have determined the source of the sickness."
"That sounds like progress."
"Unfortunately, it appears that your town has unwilling subjected to an experimental drug." Carson carefully explained the Hoffan drug.
Elson's eyes glossed over before he collapsed down to the bed. Carson though he was having a coughing fit till her realized he was sobbing. "It's all my fault." Carson managed to make out.
"What do you mean mate? You didn't cause this. It was the Hoffan's."
"I did though!" His sobs became louder.
Carson leaned in in an attempt to make out Elson's words.
"I thought they were going to cure everyone. They told me it would save everyone..."
Carson was beginning to understand.
"I like them put it in the water. It was going to be a surprise for my father. Something I could finally do right." Elson broken into a sob that Carson could no longer understand, but he knew. Elson had allowed the Hoffan's to dose the town with the cure.
As Carson left the school, he wondered how many other town leaders had willingly subjected their people to the cure.
Kate was determined for this session to go better. Once again she had set up her office specifically for meeting with him, moving the chairs an extra few feet apart. Michael seemed a little more comfortable today.
Kate had not seen Michael around the city much between their sessions. The city was very quiet right now, with most of the teams off world on various missions. Kate wasn't normally a very extroverted person but even she was starting to feel a bit lonely. This made her think of Michael and how lonely and out of place he must feel on Atlantis.
"I heard you went with Teyla to see her people on the mainland." Kate began, "what is it like there?"
Michael looked at Kate a long time before he finally answered her. "Teyla's people tried to frame me and have me killed.
"Her people did, or did a few people, who were ultimately trying to do the right thing get carried away?" Kate knew this was a risk.
"Carried away?" Michael erupted. "They tried to kill me and almost killed Teyla in the process! I had to save her life. I saved her form her own people and you still won't trust me. Because I'm a Wraith."
"Do you see yourself as worthy of out trust?"
"Of course! I've proven myself again and again."
"How can we trust you if you refuse to give up the part of you that requires you to feed on us? Kill us?"
"I haven't fed on you yet."
"But you fed on Teyla when you escaped, not to mention the man you killed."
"I did not feed on Teyla."
"Right sorry, but you wanted to. You told her so yourself."
"I killed that guard because I was a prisoner! This is a war; you kill my people every day and I do not protest."
"That brings me to my next question." Kate did not pause at all, maintaining the rhythm of the conversation, "do you see yourself as a Wraith?"
Michael scoffed.
"Cause the Wraith don't. You are tainted to them."
Michael didn't answer again.
"Let me tell you how I see you. You are a life. A consciousness. You have a soul and you decisions. You experience emotions. I do not want you to die, no one on Atlantis does.
At that, Michael raised his eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe Ronon does."
Finally, a laugh from Michael.
"My point is, your choice is not limited to taking the virus or dying. The only thing limiting you is you."
McKay was in hiss element. 17 Pegasus gates were perfectly placed and ready to be used.
Construction on the Midway station had gotten underway as soon as the Vorota got there. The Daedalus arrived the day after and their crew joined the construction. Meanwhile, McKay and Samantha protected IGSG. McKay was just happy to have another intellect of his level to talk to and talk they did. Hours each day were spent debating everything from black holes to alternate universes.
The design of the Midway was fairly simple. It was basically a small space station. One central room was surrounded by a hallway with 6 rooms off of it. The whole station was shaped like an elongated octagon.
The central room was the gate room. The Pegasus gate was on one end and the Milky Way gate was on the other. The room was large enough for aa jumper to through the gate.
Samantha was particularly proud of the design of this room. It was also an air lock. The floor could open, and a jumper could fly right out of the station. There were also two docking hatches on the outside of the station to allow multiple jumpers at the Midway at once.
"It's really beautiful isn't it?" Sam asked as her and McKay stood in the center of the gate room.
McKay turned to her and stuck out his hand for her to shake.
She took it, although she did look a little confused.
"It has been a pleasure to work with you on this project."
"Thank you, Rodney, I feel the same."
After what felt like a hundred tests the were ready to use the IGSG.
"Shall we do it together?" Sam held out her hand to McKay. They were standing Infront of the Pegasus gate. The water-like wall was filling the giant circular door.
McKay took her hand. "Just one step and we will travel all the way to Atlantis. A trip that would take two weeks on a ship." With that, they stepped through.
It was a bittersweet reunion as everyone began to return to Atlantis. First McKay brought the good news of the successful completion of the IGSG. Atlantis and Earth were now only 30 minutes apart. This lifted people's spirits as they planned their visits him.
Unfortunately, the mood was brought down by the news that Carson shared as they returned home.
In the last few days in the town Carso did his best to keep the badly ill comfortable as they passed. He also did his best to educate the survivors about how to care for themselves with the negative effects to their immune system. Although Carson tried to impress upon them the seriousness of the situation many of the survivors could only focus on their immunity to the Wraith.
"Unfortunately," Carson was addressing the room. Evert one was gathered in a meeting to discuss the situation, "the spreading of this cure is going to cause a lot of problems."
"How bad can it be having people immune to the Wraith? Ronon spoke. "They are lucky if you ask me.
"Even if there were no side effects of the cure they would still be in danger." Carson explained. "The Wraith don't die immediately when they feed on a cured person. I fear the Wraith would have time to decimate entire towns once they realized the people were immune."
"Soon the Wraith will realize their food supply is getting even smaller." John added.
"Best case scenario, the Wraith begin in-fighting and take each other out." Elizabeth started.
"And, worst case scenario?" Teyla Asked.
"The Wraith factions realize Earth is the only food source not tainted and they unite in an effort to find and reach it..." John said solemnly.
A seriousness fell on the room like a wave crashing on the shore. It was imperative that the Wraith never made it to Earth.