Exogenesis

Chapter Nine

Rodney heard his teammates' words, but his reaction was a bit different. "Let me see if I've got this straight. Teyla and Corletti are out there in a wrecked jumper, and you're sitting in a cave?"

"We are now on the wrong side of the river," Kwesi replied. "The wind and rain are very strong, and we have minimal light to work by."

"Oh, and I've never had to save an entire city while held at gunpoint by a madman under those exact same conditions!"

"The jumper was lost in the mud-"

"So a little dirt is a problem now?" Rodney couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Rodney, be reasonable," said Elizabeth. "Let Kwesi finish."

"Nothing about this is reasonable-why should I be the exception? The man is just sitting out there while Teyla-"

Her look of exasperation stalled his protest but not his seething anger.

Kwesi's response would have sounded clipped even without the static. "I may have been understating our circumstances. This is not a little mud. It is no exaggeration to say that half a mountain has collapsed on the camp. Those of us who managed to escape are on the far side of a river now swollen to three times its normal volume. Squalls coming through have gusts of over two hundred kilometers an hour, and the rain is so violent it is difficult to breathe at times. So I am sorry, Dr. McKay, but I do not have the ability to search for the jumper-no one here does. Even if the sun were to shine bright and clear come morning, I would expect the valley to be buried and the river to be five times its normal width. We are only praying that the squalls will die down and that you also experience a break in the storm so that it will not be so dangerous for you to lend assistance. We have many injured here"-there was a break in the transmission-"…understand if that is not possible."

While Rodney had not been unsympathetic to the plight of the Athosians, the situation was entirely different now that it involved Kwesi and Teyla. His anger at the engineer abruptly morphed into worry. "Kwesi, we need you back here!" he blurted, but received only maddening static in reply.

Elizabeth stood in front of him, ever poised despite her obvious concern. "Let me worry about the mainland," she suggested. "You have to focus on your work. That's as much as you can do for now, and I'm sure you'll agree that you're singularly good at achieving impressive results under pressure"

"It does seem like I do my best work under the threat of disaster, doesn't it?" Rodney got the distinct impression that he was being handled, but he didn't have time for an abundance of indignation. "All right, give me a couple of hours to go through the files I brought back with me. After that I'm going to have to speak to everyone, and I do mean everyone, about what we need to do to get this city prepared for spaceflight"

"Woo-hoo!" yelled Lieutenant Corletti. She flashed a triumphant grin at Teyla as the puddle jumper pulled free of the grasping mud and took to the air.

"Well done, Lieutenant," Teyla acknowledged with a relieved smile. The Marine had been unable to bring the jumper's flight systems online until slamming her fist down on the control panel. "Is this a standard technique for encouraging recalcitrant equipment to operate?"

Corletti mumbled something about a Millennium Falcon before adding, "Okay, we're not as functional as I'd like. Inertial dampeners aren't responding too well. I'm having to fight every gust-and man, that wind is howling once we get any kind of height"

The view through the windshield was a jumbled mess of lightning strikes and impossibly heavy rain. The HUD, however, clearly showed Teyla the extent of the mudslide that had carried them down the mountain's face. The cascade of wet earth had stopped just short of where many life signs were clustered on the near side of the river. Though fully half of the camp had been destroyed, it appeared that no one had been injured, except- "There!"

"I see 'em, but I'm not sure how much help we're going to be. I can barely keep this thing in the air."

"We must at least try." Teyla stared in concentration at five life signs moving rapidly along the same course as the river. She felt a deep pain seize her heart as, one by one, the life signs winked out, until only two remained.

"I'm sorry, Teyla." Corletti's voice was tinged with regret. "But I'm going to have to put us down someplace until the wind lets up. I can't control it much longer."

"Can you reach this group?" She pointed to the closest life signs clustered on the near side of the river, then gripped her armrests to prevent herself from being knocked out of the seat. The jumper was, as Corletti had said, difficult to control in the storm.

"Yeah, I think so. Hang on. This could get bumpy… well, bumpier."

The atmosphere on the Daedalus was charged with a familiar tension. Crewmembers moved purposefully through the corridors, barely paying notice to the two members of Atlantis's senior staff making their way toward the bridge.

"You're sure you want to do this?" John asked.

"There's naught else I can do at the moment," Beckett replied. "I've examined the sample. Though I'm not a mineralogist, I can say that the red granules aren't really sand at all. They're more like tiny flakes of a substance that I can only assume was brought in for terraforming. Heaven knows why, since it's incredibly destructive."

"Maybe the Ancients weren't the environmentally sensitive miners we first thought."

"Perhaps not," the doctor allowed. "Under UV light, the surface of the flakes quickly degrades and develops an inert yellow crust, rendering them relatively harmless. However, once airborne, the grains abrade each other or whatever else they come into contact with, causing the flakes to fragment and exposing the caustic interior."

"So the sand lying on the ground is harmless?"

"Aye. You could pour it all over your hands and not feel a thing. But rub off the surface of the flake and you're in trouble. With millions of grains tearing into you during one of those sandstorms, the abrasiveness alone would guarantee an ugly outcome. Add the caustic component and there wouldn't be much left of you at the end."

John recalled seeing a few people who'd lost battles with sandstorms back on Earth, and remembered Vene's ruined face. "Yeah, I think I'll try to steer clear."

Arriving on the ship's bridge, they caught the tail end of Hermiod's expected complaint to Caldwell. "I do not believe it prudent to discontinue work on the hyperdrive. Nor do I have any desire to assist Dr. McKay in his misguided plans to prepare Atlantis for interstellar flight. Several million years have passed since the city was used for this purpose. If the Ancients had considered it capable of flight, do you not think they would have returned to Earth in the ship instead?"

"Well, they were under siege, for one thing." John was willing to admit that the short gray guy still weirded him out. Unlike most of the expedition, John hadn't done any time at the SGC, so in his experience, intelligent aliens usually were either humans by another name, or Wraith-which, as they had recently discovered, were sort of human. The Asgard, on the other hand, bore a disturbing resemblance to something that he'd seen once too often on the covers of supermarket tabloids.

The odd noise that came from Hermiod might have been a reply, but sounded more like something related to its-John wasn't sure if it was a he or a she-digestive tract.

Caldwell, apparently, had mastered Asgard-speak. "Hermiod is certain that he can have the Daedalus's hyperdrive repaired within a week," he explained, confirming at least that Hermiod was a `he'. "If the engineers can fabricate the necessary replacement parts. That's not going to happen if McKay commandeers all our resources."

"For a plan that is bound to fail," Hermiod added.

It wasn't a stretch to say that Rodney's ego occasionally got in the way of progress. John hadn't forgotten about the disaster on Doranda. Still, he felt compelled to stick up for his friend. "That's a little pessimistic, isn't it?"

"Colonel, my first responsibility is to my ship," Caldwell stated, his voice taking on an edge. "I've got a choice to make. I can put my resources toward Hermiod's ability to fix something that he knows well and that generally works without any problems. Or I can put them toward Dr. McKay's ability to fix something of which he has yet to acquire sufficient knowledge, only after sorting out some other planet's problems, most likely while fending off some angry Wraith."

Hermiod did his eye-blinky thing, the strangeness of which distracted John just long enough for Beckett to get a word in. "Colonel Caldwell, with all due respect, we're not here to argue Rodney's case."

Caldwell crossed his arms and looked at them expectantly. John obliged by coming right to the point. "How long would it take to get Daedalus's sublight engines, shields, and inertial dampening systems operational?"

"You're not thinking we should take the Daedalus to the nearest star system, are you? Because my great-grandkids will be in a nursing home before we reach it, even at top speed-unless we get the hyperdrive repaired."

"I was thinking of somewhere a little closer. Sending rescue jumpers to the mainland in that storm would be like sending a rowboat. But Daedalus is more like an aircraft carrier."

Eyes narrowing, Caldwell pointed out, "An aircraft carrier is still vulnerable if ninety percent of its systems are down. In order to repair the hyperdrive, we've taken the sublight engines, shields, in fact pretty much everything offline. We can't risk running power to anything that interfaces with the hyperdrive while we're in there tinkering around."

Which, John knew, was why Caldwell had been on edge. A warship existed to project strength, but the Daedalus was by no means invincible. The recent loss of her sister ship had made that all too clear. "There has to be a way to take the hyperdrive out of the circuit and put the other systems back together long enough to take a short flight to the mainland."

"That may be, but mounting a rescue mission in that condition would risk the ship in more ways than one. What if these nanites have already been let loose?" He held up a hand, forestalling John's objection. "Don't get me wrong, Colonel. I share your concern for the Athosians, but I need to consider the further ramifications of your request-not just here and now, but back on Earth. The threat of the Ori has become significantly greater, and now that we've lost the Prometheus-"

"Respectfully, sir, you're talking about theoretical benefits somewhere down the road. There are real people here who need help now."

"Careful, Sheppard. Unless my memory's failing, this is starting to look a lot like the situation that got your ass busted back on Earth."

Instinctively, John's spine went rigid. That was one decision he'd never regretted. "The life of a fellow officer was at stake," he replied, voice hardening.

"And if I were that man, or his parents, I'd be damned grateful for what you did. But the fact remains that you sacrificed a hell of a lot more in the process. You're now asking me to endanger the lives of considerably more people."

John had had his moments of deliberately antagonizing superiors, but this wasn't one of them. He could see Caldwell's point. The Daedalus was an ongoing concern with a repairable problem. All they needed was a little more time, which Rodney would likely be able to buy them with another ZPM. However, he still had one more ace to play.

Turning to Hermiod, he said, "You were asking for the engineer who designed the interface for the hyperdrive's overheat detection system?" When the Asgard blinked at him again, he took that as an affirmative. "Well, his name's Kwesi Anane." From the corner of his eye, John saw Caldwell's expression shift. "He's currently sitting in a cave on the other side of the river by the Athosian camp."

"Desperately trying to perform first aid on several badly injured Athosians," Carson put in for good measure.

The bizarre noise from the Asgard sounded louder this time. John's gaze slid to Caldwell. The older man looked slightly exasperated at his crewmember's stubbornness. "It must be nice to be so sure of yourself," he grumbled at Hermiod. In spite of the tension, John had to fight to keep a knowing smile off his face. When it came to brilliant and socially inept colleagues, he could definitely relate.

"Sir," the communications officer interrupted from across the bridge. "We have a call from Jumper Three"

"Teyla?" John took an involuntary step forward, his throat suddenly tight. He hadn't let himself think too hard about her odds of survival until now, recognizing that it would have wrecked his focus. But if there was anything to know, one way or the other, he needed to know it.

"It's Corletti, sir," came the relatively static-free response through the shipboard speakers. "Teyla's outside with Halling. She'll be here in a minute."

Thank God.

"What's your status, Lieutenant?" Caldwell requested.

"Sir, it's just after dawn, so we've finally got some light to work with. Sorry about not checking in before now, but we had a few problems for a while in there. The storm over the mountains is still looking ugly, kinda hurricane-like. It's heading away from us, though. Down here at the main camp, it's about eighty percent cloud cover, wind gusts of about forty knots, but I don't know how long our luck's going to hold on that count. The campsite itself is a full-blown disaster area. A mountain more or less fell on half of it, and the rest-most of the tents were shredded by last night's winds."

"Casualties?" John asked.

"We've made contact with the Athosians on the east side of the river, and I'm about to start ferrying them up to join Dr. Anane's group in the rocks on the west side. So far, we have several with broken limbs, just about everyone with lacerations and contusions, some severe, and a couple Teyla dug out who I'm pretty sure inhaled some mud."

Beside him, Beckett visibly stiffened. "What about Kwesi's group?" he asked.

"From what we've been able to ascertain by shouting across the river, it's about the same. I'll be over there to confirm that as soon we get everyone on board." John could hear movement in the background as Corletti spoke. "Stragglers are making their way here now that the weather is clearer. A separate landslide has blocked the path to the lakeside camp. Halling has gone downriver a ways to look for two people who fell into the water last night. We had them on the life signs detector for a while, but some of our subsystems are on the blink. There's no way I can risk flying back to Atlantis, even if the weather holds. Once we get everyone together here I'll attempt to evacuate the lakeside camp."

"Negative to that, Lieutenant," Caldwell replied. "It's too risky if the jumper is disabled."

"I understand your reluctance, Colonel Caldwell." Teyla's voice joined the conversation, allowing John to finally reassure himself that she was all right. "However, I do not see that we have much choice."

"From where I'm standing, I think staying put is a legitimate option."

"Hey, Teyla," John put in, cursing the screwy rank structure of the expedition and trying not to notice Caldwell's sharp look. This was Caldwell's ship, but the jumper and its crew were Atlantis's responsibility-John's responsibility. He'd deal with any ruffled feathers later. "How many people are in the hunting parties?"

"It is difficult to say," Teyla answered. "Colonel, please. If we have any hope of rescue, we will have a better chance if everyone is together. If a rescue is not possible, then nothing will be lost if we die in the attempt. And we will be together at the end, which is important to us all."

"Listen, sirs." Corletti's voice returned. "If nobody can come get us, we'll understand. But we'd like to know."

Caldwell was silent for a moment, and John suspected his resolve was beginning to crack. For all his pragmatism, the man clearly wanted to save as many people as possible, just as they all did.

"Colonel, I need to get to that camp," Carson put in, his tone calm but insistent. "There are injuries there that need treatment sooner rather than later, and after all I…" He didn't finish the sentence, but John could tell he was feeling some guilt, however misplaced, over what was happening.

At Caldwell's inquisitive glance, Hermiod muttered about having to reassemble something unpronounceable before the Daedalus would be airworthy. Before John could ask for clarification, the Asgard turned toward the door, speaking as he went. "We can be ready for lift-off in two hours, but I will require an additional hour after that to reinstall the necessary components to beam anyone aboard."

"Teyla, Corletti, stand by," John called. "Help's on the way."

"Be aware that this will also result in a delay in rebuilding the hyperdrive," the Asgard added matter-of-factly, "which may result in the destruction of this ship."

When Hermiod had stalked off the bridge — who knew little gray aliens could stalk? — Carson remarked, "And I thought Rodney was a mite tetchy to work with."

"You have no idea," said Caldwell under his breath. He turned to John. "I just hope for everyone's sakes that by the time we get back, you'll have bought us some time with another ZPM."

Me, too, John didn't reply.

In Atlantis's main lab, Rodney pushed his chair back and blinked rapidly to restore some moisture to his still-dry eyes. "That confirms it, then."

Glancing up from his computer, Radek concluded, "If we can obtain four charged ZPMs, then, purely from a power standpoint, we could fire Atlantis's main engines." He held up a warning finger. "But that does not necessarily mean that all systems will be operational."

Coffee cup in hand, Elizabeth arrived ahead of a train of technicians, engineers and assorted military personnel. Nodding a greeting to Radek, she said, "Rodney, are we ready for the briefing?"

"That would be exactly why I called this meeting," Rodney answered Radek, standing from the chair and giving Elizabeth a smile. "I can now say with a high degree of certainty that Atlas did not test his exogenesis machine on Polrusso."

"Then what would account for the interruption in the planet's terraforming?"

"It wasn't interrupted. It completed the process of water creation roughly two hundred years ago and is now inactive. With no Ancients around to shut it down, it's just idling."

Atlantis's leader frowned. "You mean someone simply needs to hit the off button?"

"Removing the ZPMs from the matrix would have the same effect. Which brings us to Atlas's machine, which I am now certain is still somewhere on Polrusso, possibly in one of the smaller labs where the ZPMs are located. Fortunately, when tracking the machine that's active on this planet, I had the foresight to analyze the component materials. It's a unique composite structure, so it shouldn't be too difficult to locate that same structure on Polrusso once we upload the data into a scanner."

"Sounds very promising" Elizabeth looked as pleased as Rodney felt. And with good reason. If he was right, and there was no reason to think otherwise, in a short while they should have acquired an exogenesis machine to save their planet, sufficient ZPMs to power the Starship Atlantis, taken out a hive ship, and made another planet full of surprisingly pleasant people very happy indeed. Not a bad day's work.

The new arrivals had managed to squeeze inside the relatively confined room, a fact that would normally have made Rodney edgy, but he was not about to let a little claustrophobia interfere with his mood. Explaining to them what he had in mind, he emphasized the need to bring Atlantis up to space-faring standards. "The entire city needs to be shipshape, or space-shape, whatever term you prefer. I want everything checked and rechecked: flight and life support systems, inertial dampeners, navigation systems, star charts-"

"Pegasus Galaxy or Milky Way?" someone called. The sense of excitement was palpable, even to Rodney.

"Let's not get too ambitious at the outset. Initially, we just need to maintain the integrity of the ship and know that we can find our way around without ending up in some backwater star system. On that count, we'll also need to make certain that the Stargate will continue to operate as per usual. As far as we know, the DHD automatically compensates for stellar drift, but I'd like to run several tests once we're in space to confirm that."

The murmurs in the room grew louder as various once-incredible possibilities began to take shape in everyone's minds. For once, Rodney couldn't bring himself to shush them. Atlantis in flight had been beyond their imagination, and now they were ready to make it happen. A brief daydream of a thought flitted through his mind, and he pictured the look on Sam Carter's face upon seeing the city sail into Earth's solar system.

But even ifhe believed that travel to Earth was a good idea- and he wasn't sure he did, because there was a lot to be said for continuing their mission in this galaxy-that decision was about five steps too far down the line for the time being. "I'm currently planning an incremental shutdown of the Polrusso terraforming machine," he continued, "so I should be able to send at least one ZPM back here very soon. That will allow us to test-fire one engine, just to clear two years' worth of barnacles."

"Very well done, Rodney," said Elizabeth, enthusiasm and pride lighting her eyes. "This is quite a moment for us all. Everyone, you have your instructions. Please be careful and thorough in your preparations, and report any updates or problems back to your supervisors." She spread her hands. "Let's get to it."

The group filed out like a hockey team charged up for a game, carrying with them a sense of purpose not seen since the early days of the expedition. Once the lab had cleared, Radek approached Rodney with a clipboard in hand. "With sufficient power, I am confident that the city shield will comfortably sustain the hazards of interstellar flight."

"Good, that's one thing checked off the list. In that case, you can come with me to Polrusso."

The clipboard fell to Radek's side. He peered suspiciously at his colleague. "First it was underwater. Now it is another planet?"

Rodney dismissed the reaction. "You've been off-world before. Don't tell me you're still sulking over a little face painting."

"So," Radek continued, folding his arms across the clipboard. "You need me."

Oh, no. No way was he going to start that game all over again. "Only in the sense that I need an additional pair of hands that are at least two sizes smaller than Ronon's, preferably attached to a person educated in something other than shooting things. Yours will do. I might have considered taking Kwesi, but even assuming he gets back in one piece, our illustrious military commander is currently negotiating a trade arrangement for him."

"I don't understand. Trade with who?"

"Whom."

"Is what I said. Who?"

Unwilling to explore the deep and meaningful subtleties of English grammar with the Czech, Rodney let out an exasperated sigh. "With the Daedalus c resident Asgard to recover the Athosians from the mainland."

"Ah! So you agree that the calibrations I designed for the Daedalus force field will keep it safe from nanites."

"I never said-ow!" His intake of breath prompted a sudden flare of pain. He pressed a hand to his jaw and ran his tongue experimentally across the tooth he'd chipped earlier. "I don't believe it!" Withdrawing a fragment, he demanded, "What the hell kind of shell did they drop in that bar, a bullet casing?"

Without any trace of sympathy whatsoever, Radek said, "Go see the dentist."

Suppressing the suddenurge to hyperventilate, Rodneyreplied hurriedly, "It's just a chip, barely scratched the enamel."

Radek shot him a knowing look. "I do not wish to endure your pain."

Ignoring the jibe, Rodney began packing the equipment he would need on Polrusso. "I'll get a Tylenol.. or maybe a Vicodin. Don't forget to download the analysis of Ea's machine and bring it."

"That data is on your computer."

Rodney was about to snap out a reply when Sheppard poked his head around the doorframe. "Hey. Elizabeth said you were ready to go back to Polrusso?"

"Almost," he replied, running his tongue across the damaged tooth again. Obviously he was paying the price for the military's policy of buying everything, even food, from the lowest bidder. "I need to see Carson first."

"He's on the Daedalus, headed for the mainland."

"Well, that's just great." Couldn't the man have sent one of his underlings? No matter-Rodney could still get a couple of pills from whichever voodoo specialist was currently on duty in the infirmary. Pointing to the equipment he'd stacked by the door, he told Radek on his way out, "All of that needs to come with us."

With selective hearing skills honed long ago, he ignored the scathing bilingual comment about indentured servitude that followed him into the corridor.

Teyla stepped out of the jumper and trudged through the mud to Hailing, standing by a tree whose roots hung over the newly carved riverbank. Like every piece of vegetation that remained, it had been stripped of leaves until nothing but broken kindling remained. Further down in the valley the torrent of water had spread far across the lowlands. Except for the speed at which it continued to flow, it could have been mistaken for a large brown lake. Dead animals and birds lay scattered across the ravaged ground, but of the Athosians who had fallen into the river the night before, Teyla could find no sign.

"The Ancestors do not want us here, Teyla," Hailing said by way of greeting. "We are being punished."

Teyla felt compelled to deny his words, and yet he had uttered Ea's very sentiments. "As children we idealize our parents. It is only when we grow older that we come to understand that they are both flawed and fallible." Halling went to speak, but she motioned for him to let her finish. "That does not diminish our love and respect for them. Indeed, our greater understanding allows us to judge their shortcomings, and our own, less harshly."

"Then should we no longer aspire to be worthy of them?"

Gently clasping his arm, Teyla looked up into his troubled eyes. "Not all of the Ancestors were as pure in spirit as we once believed. We should aspire to be worthy of those who were. But perhaps more importantly, we should aspire to be worthy of each other."

Taking a step towards the jumper, she added, "Come. The Daedalus will be arriving soon to evacuate everyone." When Hailing did not respond, she turned to see him staring bleakly up at the mountains. For his next question, she could provide no answer.

"I wonder how Jinto is faring."