“Thanks, Teyla,” Carter said. “Atlantis out.”
“Right,” Rodney said. “That’s very helpful.”
“Another jumper will mean more firepower if we must use it,” Teyla said.
“Yeah, and more chances that someone will get eaten by those things.” Rodney stood, stretching. “So, do we call Sheppard now?”
“We should land first, and I will contact him,” Teyla said. “Let us hope he can give us answers. In the meantime — there are MREs, are there not? And I am very hungry.”
~#~
John crouched beside the open panel under the pilot’s station, watching while the Pride’s systems engineer, a sharp-featured woman who had been introduced as Orsolya Denes, wormed her way into the tangle of crystals and jury-rigged wiring. He heard something click, detaching, and she hauled herself out again to examine a crystal under a hand-held black light.
“That one’s good,” she said, and shot John a wry smile. “Better still, it’s redundant here. If I can move it to the navigation console, we may be able to restore some of our sensors. At least enough to feel safe taking her into orbit.”
John looked past her at the tangle of wires. “You’ve done a lot of work to let you fly her without having a crew where most people have the gene.”
“We still need the people who interact with the ship to have at least the artificial gene,” Orsolya corrected. She lowered her voice. “That’s why this… mysterious disease… is such a big problem. Right now, we have three people with a functioning ATA gene.”
“That’s not going to work,” John said, in spite of himself.
Orsolya snorted. “Not so much, no. Some of the people who were sick still have some ability to connect with the ship, and Innyes — our doctor — has been experimenting with reestablishing the gene, so with a bit more work we might be able to reach orbit. But entering hyperspace is another matter, as is navigating back to the homeworld. And we can’t risk that until we have a better idea of how to stop this disease.”
It always came back to that. John nodded. Of course you couldn’t bring disease back to your planet: that had been one of the fundamental rules of space travel on Earth since the dawn of the Mercury program, and the discovery of the Stargate hadn’t changed that. “This wouldn’t be a bad place to stay if it wasn’t for those hyena-things out there.”
“Hyena?” Orsolya repeated the word as though she’d never heard anything like it.
“An animal on Earth, our homeworld, that looks little bit like these things. Only hyenas are smaller.”
”Lovely.” Orsolya reached into the opening again. “The trouble with these is that they’re relentless.”
“We noticed,” John sad. “What did you do to tick them off?”
“I wish I knew! Then I could make sure we never do it again.”
John peered over her shoulder, watching the light from her flashlight flicker over the console’s interior. “Is that another crystal you could use?”
“Where?”
John flicked on his own flashlight and aimed the beam into the console. “There.”
“Hah.” Orsolya twisted herself to reach further in. “It’s disconnected, all right…” She straightened, the new crystal in her hand, and reached for the black light. “I don’t see any cracks, either. I’m not sure this one was ever initialized, though whether that’s because it was out of the circuit or there’s something else wrong, I can’t tell.”
She held it out, and John took it, turning the narrow plaque over in his hands. It felt all right, and when he tried to poke at it with the part of his brain that was controlled by the ATA gene, he thought he saw a thread of light flicker in its depths. “I think this one’s ok.”
“Good.” Orsolya retrieved it with a smile, and pushed herself to her feet. “Let’s hope it wasn’t connected to something important that I didn’t know about.”
“Yeah.” John followed her to the sensor console, watching as she knelt to unfasten the panel. “The captain said you’d had problems with sabotage.”
“Yes.”
“Any idea who’s behind it?”
She looked up at him unsmiling. “All I can tell you for sure is who it’s not. And that’s you and the Satedan.” She sat back on her heels, exhaustion showing for the first time through her professional facade. “I — my crew was thoroughly vetted. I thought I could trust them with my life. And now…” She shook her head. “Well, I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
“You think it was one of your people?” John asked. That would at least narrow things down.
Orsolya shook her head again. “I just don’t know. I can’t rule any of them out — can’t rule out any of the crew, except maybe a couple of the boys on the gun crew, and they weren’t exactly likely candidates anyway. Do you think we like living this way? I’ve been trying to clear people, but it hasn’t worked.”
Getting the Pride back to the Genii homeworld with everybody looking over their shoulder for sabotage was going to be an extremely complicated process. John groped for something encouraging to say, and his radio buzzed. “Sheppard here.”
“John.” Teyla’s voice came through clearly. “We have spoken with Atlantis, and there is news we need to share with the captain. It’s about this disease.”
“On it,” John said, and looked at Orsolya. “That was Teyla. We need to talk to the captain.”
The compartment that served as a briefing room had been too small to begin with, and two extra people jammed everyone tightly around the oval table. It didn’t help that one of the extras was Ronon, John thought, and swallowed an inappropriate smile. “Captain,” he said, with a nod to Fredek. “With your permission, Teyla Emmagan has news from Atlantis that we need to share.”
Fredek returned the nod. “Go ahead, please, Ms. Emmagan.”
“Thank you, Captain.” In the wall-mounted screen, Teyla’s face was serene. Behind her, through the jumper’s windshield, John could see a pair of the hyena-things prowling back and forth across the beaten ground. “We contacted Atlantis to inform them — and your homeworld — that the Pride had been found, and received information in return. One of our search teams was told that while you were on Teos, the Pride’s water supply was infected with an agent that preferentially attacked and disabled the artificial and enhanced ATA genes. Our medical staff is working on an antidote, and Colonel Carter is sending another jumper with all the information that we have.”
“So,” the doctor, Innyes, said heavily, and then everyone spoke at once.
Captain Fredek pounded on the table. “Enough! In order, please. Doctor, you first.”
“This confirms what we’d already figured out,” Innyes said. “I believe it.”
“I do not.” That was the first officer, John remembered, Agosten, a big man with a neat beard that imitated Radim’s. “It’s too convenient.” He stopped, visibly controlling himself. “Not that I’m not grateful to the Lanteans for their assistance. But doesn’t it seem, as I said, entirely too convenient that someone should choose to inform the Lanteans that an attack was made on our ship? That this enemy should give the Lanteans the formula involved?”
“We have allies as well as enemies,” Orsolya said. “This separates the infection from… other problems.”
“I’m not saying that the Lanteans are lying.” Agosten looked, John thought, as though the words pained him. “But they may be being used against us. Manipulated into offering us a false solution. I am only saying we can’t take this at face value.”
“It matches everything we’ve found so far,” Innyes said stubbornly. “And if it was in the water, that would explain why decontamination doesn’t work, and why we’ve seen recurrences since we moved back onto the ship.”
“But why would they tell the Lanteans?” Agosten said again. “Unless they thought the Lanteans would approve.”
“Hang on,” John began, and Teyla spoke over him.
“They may have hoped to gain our approval, indeed, or they may have inten
ded it as an oblique threat — if they could do this to you, we should worry about what they could do to us. Or perhaps the original explanation that was given us — that the technician involved felt guilty for being involved in the attack — is the correct one. We do not know, and have not been able to ascertain. Neither changes the fact that we have told you exactly what we have learned. We are glad to share any further progress if you wish, but that is up to you.”
John leaned back, closing his mouth firmly. Teyla had things well in hand, as usual. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Ronon was grinning openly.
“Assuming the information is accurate,” Fredek said. “What steps do we need to take to deal with it?”
“Drain and replace or filter the water supply,” Innyes said. “If I can identify the compound in our reclamation system, I may be able to filter it out.”
“I can help with installation, if you’d like,” Orsolya said.
“We can’t replace our supply,” Agosten said. “Not with those things still out there.”
“Have they shown any signs of leaving?” Fredek asked, and the third man at the table shook his head.
“No, sir. Some of them seem to have moved off a kilometer or so, possibly to feed, but any activity around the ship brings them right back.”
“Then let’s see if we can create a filter,” Fredek said. “Dr. Innyes, I leave that to you. Engineer Orsolya, I want this ship ready to take orbit as soon as possible. We can also consider traveling to another system and getting clean water there.” He paused. “If worst comes to worst, we can choose a world with a Stargate and send most of the crew home that way. But we will not entirely abandon the Pride.”
“Sir,” Agosten began, and Fredek shook his head.
“That’s my final answer, First Officer. Make it happen.”
Agosten flushed, but his voice was steady. “Very good, sir.”
“Thank you all,” Fredek said, clear dismissal, and everyone rose to their feet, elbowing past each other toward the hatch. “Colonel Sheppard, Mr. Dex, a word, if you please. And with Ms. Emmagan.”
“Sure,” John said, with an uneasy smile, and Ronon stopped at his shoulder.
“If we can’t make the Pride safe for take-off, I want to send my crew back to the homeworld. Will you take them?”
John glanced at Teyla, still impassive in the screen. “I’m sure we can work something out, yeah.”
“Sometimes that’s the only way to deal with saboteurs,” Fredek said grimly.
~#~
Jumper Three had just reached the orbital gate that served the eminently forgettable world P3M-191 when the Stargate lit up. Lorne frowned at it — they hadn’t expected to hear from Atlantis for several more hours — but the jumper signaled an incoming message.
“Atlantis, this is Jumper Three.”
He could feel both Peebles and Zelenka craning their necks to see what was going on, but made himself concentrate on the image in the screen. Colonel Carter looked back at him, frowning slightly.
“Major. Some good news. Jumper One has located the Pride on P3M-271.”
Lorne heard Zelenka say something in Czech, but pretended he hadn’t. “That is good news, ma’am.”
“The bad news is that apparently they have been affected by the compound Dr. Zelenka was given.”
“So Beckett has finally figured out what it does?” Zelenka leaned further forward, heedless of protocol.
“Yeah,” Carter answered. “It’s apparently a form of gene therapy that undoes the Genii artificial ATA gene, which renders them unable to connect with the Ancient systems.”
“That’s not good,” Lorne said, in spite of himself. “Ma’am.”
“No, it’s not,” Carter said. “Colonel Sheppard reports that most of the crew has been affected, and that they don’t currently have enough people with a working ATA gene to fly the ship. We’re looking for an antidote, and their doctor is working on a way to reactivate their gene therapy once they clear their water system, but that’s going to take some time.”
“Why do I think there’s something more involved?” Zelenka murmured.
“Unfortunately, the ship is currently surrounded by local wildlife — Colonel Sheppard described them as something like giant hyenas — that’s preventing the Genii from getting fresh water. I’m sending you to provide backup.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lorne said. “P3M-271.”
“Most of the crew is still alive,” Carter said. “I’m relying on you and Colonel Sheppard to keep them that way. Atlantis out.”
“Well,” Zelenka said. “That complicates things.”
“Yeah.” Lorne frowned at his console. “Kaminsky. See what you can find out about P3M-271.”
“Yes, sir.” Kaminsky called up the Ancient database, his eyes unfocusing as he worked his way into its depths.
Lorne looked over his shoulder. “How about it, Doc, you ready to do Ancient ship repair while being chased by giant hyenas?”
“It is my most favorite sport in the entire galaxy,” Zelenka answered. “Surely they are not actually giant hyenas?”
“Probably not, Doc,” Kaminsky said, “but they don’t sound nice. The database doesn’t have much information, just a name — they called the place Baidu — and a paragraph warning about dangerous insect-like animals.”
“That doesn’t sound like a hyena,” Peebles said. “I mean, you know, not insects?”
“Insect-like animals,” Kaminsky said. “They don’t clarify what that means.”
“Giant hyenas or possibly insects,” Zelenka said. “How nice!”
“We’ll keep the shields up and the cloak on until we can figure out what we’ve got,” Lorne said. “In the meantime — dial the gate.”
They soared through the gate into night, the planet dark and featureless below them. A light blinked on Lorne’s console, steering him west around the planet’s curve, following the familiar sensor trace of Jumper One, and Lorne switched on the radio.
“Jumper One, this is Jumper Three, do you copy?”
“Jumper Three, this is Jumper One.” Teyla’s voice was as calm as ever. “We have you on our screens. Please be cautious in your approach, as we are surrounded by dangerous animals —“
“Animals that will eat you,” McKay broke in. “Did you bring the antidote?”
“Beckett’s still working on it,” Lorne answered. “But I’ve got Zelenka on board if they need help with the Pride.”
He could see the Pride on his screens now, the only large mass of metal anywhere within range. The jumper skimmed low over coarse grass, the universal drab green broken here and there with specks of bright color, scarlet and flame and rich ochre. Flowers, probably, spilling across this grassland like wildflowers across the American prairie. There were no signs of any giant hyenas, and he allowed himself to hope that Sheppard might have resolved that problem already.
That hope died as they came within sight of the Pride. At least she had made a good landing, evenly balanced on her landing struts, the hull sealed tight against the creatures that circled it. They did look like hyenas, except maybe three times the size, and with heavy front claws that looked more like a mole’s, as though they were diggers as well. Jumper One was cloaked, but the sensors showed its ghost, and Lorne brought his own machine carefully alongside, lowering it to the ground less than a meter from the other jumper’s side. Of course, with those creatures out there, it might as well have been a mile, and Lorne opened the radio again.
“Jumper One, Colonel Sheppard, this is Jumper Three. We’re landed and ready to provide support as requested.” Exactly how he was supposed to do that remained an open question, but he wasn’t going to push the issue just yet.
“Good to hear you, Major,” Sheppard said. “I’m on the Pride, with Ronon. I think you can see our little problem.”
“It looks more like a big problem, sir,” Lorne said. “Or at least a lot of problems.”
“We’re picking up almost five hundred of
them,” McKay broke in. “Rotating in and out.”
“You think they’d get bored,” Sheppard said. “But so far they’re not showing any sign of it.”
“I have Dr. Zelenka with me,” Lorne said. “But I don’t see any way to get him to you.”
“I agree,” Sheppard said. “But Captain Fredek says his people should have the Pride ready to reach orbit by tomorrow afternoon. They’ve also rigged up a filtration system that should clear this anti-ATA agent out of their emergency water supply. They’ll be short, but the plan is to dump the rest of it once they’re in space.”
“Copy that,” Lorne said. He looked down at the console, asking the jumper for a map of the surrounding area. “About their water situation — there seems to be a lake about nine klicks south of us. We could fill the jumpers’ exterior tanks, and transfer a fresh supply once we’re in orbit. It won’t be a full load, but it ought to be enough to refill their emergency reserves.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Sheppard said. “Yeah, do it, but take turns. I want a jumper here at all times, just in case we need more cover from those things.”
“Yes, sir,” Lorne said. “We can go first, Jumper One, unless you want to start?”
“We will stay with the Pride,” Teyla said.
“Roger that,” Sheppard said. “Ok, Jumper Three, you’re clear to go.”
“Copy,” Lorne said. “We won’t be long.” I hope, he added silently, and lifted the jumper, spinning it on its axis like a helicopter and heading for the lake the sensors showed to the south.
There were fewer hyena-creatures below them the further south they went, though there were still one or two in sight, and the sensors showed more in the thick grass. Their attention seemed to be focused on the ship, however, and Lorne brought the jumper down to hover a few hundred feet above the lakeshore, considering their options.
“The water looks good,” Kaminsky said. “Nice and clear.”
“Yeah.” It was clear enough that you could see all the way to the bottom in the shallows, and the deeper areas were a rich dark blue. “Can you spot anything bad on the scans?”
Stargate Atlantis #24 Page 23