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title: Atlantis Observed (Complete) image of John:query John rolled over in bed to stare at the ceiling. Yes, Atlantis? image of infants dying:query He sat up at that, surprised. Huh? What are you talking about, Atlantis? image of infants pulled from machine: image of infants being cleaned
by mechanical arm: image of infants being fed by mechanical device: image
of infants in distress: image of infants dying: query affirmation. image of infants dying: query John did not for the life of him understand why Atlantis was fixated on dying babies tonight. It 'said' incomprehensible things to him all the time, but this was a whole new order of weird. He rubbed his face in frustration. I don't know, Atlantis. I don't know the details of what happened to them other than they came out of a machine are were cleaned and fed by machines. pause: pause: pause: image of infants dying: query John sighed and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. He wished he understood Atlantis better. He always had this sensation that there was something just out the range of his comprehension when it spoke to him, something that he was missing. Damn. Listen, Atlantis. I. Don't. Know. Why. Is there any particular reason why you're asking me this? image of healthy infant:request He dropped his hands into his lap and cocked his head to the side. You want to know what it takes to make a baby live? Why? image of infants dying:statement John felt a chill run down his spine and settle into his stomach. He was suddenly sure that once he figured out exactly what Atlantis was trying to tell him, things were going to get ugly. "Beckett? This is Sheppard, do you read?" Carson fumbled for his radio and stuck it in his ear. "Beckett here, Colonel. What can I do for you?" He said as he sat up out of bed and began looking for his uniform. Sheppard calling this late at night usually meant it was something serious. Over the sounds of running Carson heard John say, "We have a situation in the North sector, tower 92, level 38. Meet me at the transporter nearest there with an emergency kit and... " Sheppard gulped audibly over the radio, "and some body bags. Tell Dr. Weir where we're going. I have to grab Zelenka and Rodney to help me stop this." "Colonel? Stop what? Who died?" Carson asked, completely bewildered. There were no current explorations, experiments or living quarters in that area. There shouldn't have been anyone there to get hurt. "Oh, god. Carson... babies" Sheppard's voice cracked on the last word. "Just, just shut up and get there, okay?" The radio clicked off. "Bloody fucking hell!" Carson muttered, and scrambled for his clothes. Either Sheppard had lost his mind, or Carson was about to be treated to more of the hellacious weirdness that the Pegasus galaxy specialized in. He tapped his radio and put in a call to his emergency team while putting on his pants. Once completely dressed he put in a call to Dr. Weir. "Dr. Weir this is Dr. Beckett, are you there?" “This is Weir, what's up Carson?" She sounded tired to Carson. Not a surprise this late at night. "Colonel Sheppard's got a situation in the North sector, tower 92, level 38. He asked me to pass along the info while he gathers Doctors Zelenka and McKay. I'm meeting him there." Carson said. "What situation?" Weir asked sharply. "I don't rightly know, luv, but Sheppard's in a right swivet about it. I'll tell you more when we get there." Carson rubbed his forehead. "You do that. I'll be in the Gateroom monitoring that sector. Be careful." "Thanks, Elizabeth." Carson clicked his radio off and headed out the door. * * * * * * Radek was arguing amiably with Rodney about string theory again when Colonel Sheppard burst into the lab saying, "You two, go grab your gear! There's a situation in the North sector and I may need you to break into the lab. And you'll definitely need to disable some Ancient tech once we get inside!" Radek was shocked to see the Colonel looking frantic. Rodney grabbed Sheppard by the arm and shook him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What lab? We haven't got anything going on in the North sector of the city!" The Colonel yanked himself away from Rodney and growled, "Rodney, it's not a lab we're working in! Atlantis started one of the labs up in tower 92 by itself! And we've got to shut it down! Now!" Radek broke in. "What? How? How did you find this out, Colonel?" Sheppard repeated, "How did..", stopped, and then flung his arms out in frustration. "I'll tell you later! We've got to go now!" "Is anybody in imminent danger of dying, Sheppard?" demanded Rodney. Radek noted that Colonel Sheppard was practically vibrating at this point. Whatever it was, it definitely had the Colonel on edge. Radek reached over to his desk and quickly packed up his laptop and tools. Sheppard gritted out through his teeth, "Yes, Rodney, death is definitely a factor here! So, get your gear and Get. Your. Ass. Moving!" Rodney groused, "Well, you should have just said that before!" while grabbing his equipment. "How can I tell if it's an emergency or not, if you don't give me the important details, like if people are going to, oh, say, die or not!" Sheppard grabbed Rodney by the jacket as soon as he'd grabbed the last of his things and shoved him through the door, Rodney protesting his mistreatment at top volume. Radek smiled grimly at the two, noting how even in a crisis they resembled a comedy duo, and followed after them.
John shoved Rodney to the side and scrambled towards the still living infant, towing Carson in his wake by the arm. Carson wrenched free of his grip and dove for the baby, shouting, "I've got the wee one! Get control of this lab, now!". John veered over to a side wall and slammed his hands down on some controls. Panels in the wall slid open to reveal what appeared to be a bank of a dozen artificial wombs. Five were still active and in use, containing fetuses in varying stages of development. John looked over his shoulder at Rodney with pleading eyes and said, "Rodney, can you disable everything but these?" Rodney shook free of his paralysis, grabbed Radek by the wrist and ran for the main control console in the center of the room. He threw Radek towards the controls shouting, "Tell me what you've got up top, I'll pop the panel below!" as he slid into the base of the control console knees first. He spared himself a bare wince, knowing that that was going to hurt later on when the adrenaline wore off, and wrenched open the panel. It looked like there were two separate power control areas. That was a good sign he might be able to shut off everything but the active baby-making machines. He's just needed Radek to figure out which was which, and quickly. Radek had linked his laptop into the console and was tapping madly. "Rodney, there are two power controls to this facility." "Yes, yes, I know that! Tell me which one I can cut off without becoming a mad scientist baby-killer, will you?" Rodney snarled. Sometimes everyone around him was just so slow. He dug around inside the controls to see what else it could tell him by the way it was organized. Radek continued, ignoring Rodney's rudeness. "The gestational units are on a protected circuit which also has two failsafe backups according to the controls here. The rest of the facility appears to run on an ordinary circuit." As soon as Radek said that, Rodney knew which one was which and started yanking crystals at a furious rate. He didn't stop until he'd completely disassembled all the controls not pertaining to the gestational units. It wasn't until he'd sat back on his heels and smelled the first faint whiff of rotting flesh that he realized that he'd also deactivated the stasis shields as well. He shut his eyes and gulped convulsively. Don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up, he chanted to himself. "Rodney, are we done here?" John asked him, his tone the oddest Rodney had ever heard from the man. "Yes, we're done. I'll send a team up here latter to investigate what happened and do a thorough check on the active units, but the lab shouldn't generate anymore babies until we find out just how it started to in the first place." Rodney said in a raw voice, gulping down nausea again. Don't throw up, don't throw up. He heard Carson say, "The wee one seems okay physically. He canna be a more than a day or two old at the most." as the infant's screams sputtered out into hiccupping whimpers. Rodney turned towards the sound and opened his eyes to see Carson cradling the infant, gently bouncing from side to side. "I've called the rest of my team in to pick up the bodies. I'll have Dr. Biro start her examinations of them later, but for now I'm taking the wee one to the infirmary for a more thorough check up." Radek lifted his head up from where he'd dropped it on the console and rubbed his eyes. "Are you going to run DNA test on him?" he asked wearily. Carson looked down at the baby. "Aye. Maybe it will help answer the question of why this lab started producing infants in the first place." He looked at the dead infants. "I'll be testing them all, actually." The rest of Carson's team came in and started the process of bagging the dead bodies. Carson looked at John, Radek and Rodney and said, "There's rather a lot of people in here at the moment. Why don't you lot come with me so my team can do their job?" Rodney swallowed again against the bile rising in his throat. Don't throw up. He nodded at Carson, as did John and Radek. Both of them looked ill as well. At least he was in good company when it came to rebelliously roiling stomachs. Carson commented to him later that he was surprised that Rodney had made it to the infirmary before he threw up. John hadn't lasted past the door to the lab. * * * * * * "Thank you for your reports on what you've found so far in the baby lab, gentlemen." Dr Weir said crisply to the four men seated around the conference table in front of her. "However, I still have one question that hasn't been answered in any of your reports. Exactly how did what was happening in the lab come to our attention in the first place? That area of the city is completely unused by us and the last time anyone in the expedition was in that area was during the initial survey of the area well over a year and a half ago." Weir shot her eyes straight to John and raised an eyebrow at him. She had a suspicion and was waiting for John to confirm or deny it. John shifted uneasily under her gaze, and dropped his eyes into his lap. "The city alerted me to the situation." he said finally. "Atlantis did? How? Atlantis can talk to you and you never told me?" Rodney spluttered, lurching forward in his chair to glare at John. John shot to his feet and jabbed a finger at Rodney, shouting. "Because I don't call playing charades with an alien cross between someone's mad aunt Ethel and an a computer talking, Rodney! I spend half the time telling Atlantis I have no fucking idea what it's saying!" "Gentlemen! Focus!" Weir snapped. "John, please sit down." she continued in a gentler tone, and watched him until he reluctantly returned to his seat. He seemed pretty skittish about the whole thing, but she needed to know more. "How exactly did the city manage to inform you of the lab?" John slumped a little more in his chair, picked up a tablet stylus and started to fiddle with it, looking at no one. "I was in bed trying to fall asleep when Atlantis sent what I guess you would call a compressed image of all the infants dying with a some kind of, of tag notifier that let me know the image was a question. After a rousing game of twenty questions that lasted the better part of an hour, I'd finally figured out what had happened, that Atlantis was asking for assistance in saving the remaining infants, and where the lab was." Zelenka leaned in with interest. "Colonel, you're saying that the city speaks to you by sending imagery to your brain?" John shrugged with one shoulder, still not meeting anyone's eye. "Yeah, kinda. It's pretty hard to translate. And there's always a buzz over top of it, like a dog whistle. I know it's there, but I can't hear it." Rodney turned to Carson and asked, "How about you? Do you have Atlantis trying to talk to you, too?" Weir noted that Carson grimaced the way he always did in reference to him and Ancient technology interacting before he said, "I've gotten that unhearable buzz the Colonel mentioned once or twice. No images though, Rodney." Rodney huffed angrily and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. Weir was amused that he wasn't mollified by the fact that it appeared to be difficult or impossible to understand anything Atlantis might be saying for even the strongest gene carriers. She decided to give Rodney a gentle reality check to hopefully spare John and Carson some of his wrath and said, "Well, that's not a surprise. After all, neither of you are actually Ancients. We do know that the Ancients used more of their brain capacity than we humans currently do. Perhaps that has an effect on our ability to communicate with the city." Rodney huffed again more thoughtfully and his body loosened up in his chair. She then turned again to John and asked "Just for the sake of completeness here, is there anything else you've been able to pick up from the city concerning the lab, John?" He dropped the stylus on the table, leaned on one arm of his chair, put his forehead in the palm of his hand and sighed. "Nothing at the moment, Elizabeth." She looked at him for a second. He was clearly at the end of his rope at the moment. Weir was reminded again that John was a relative newcomer to the Stargate program compared to everyone else and still tended to be a bit more weirded out by things. His casual front made her forget that at times. "Well, gentlemen, I think that will be all for now. Rodney, Carson, let me know what you find in your investigations of the lab and the infant, will you?" "Yes, yes I will." said Rodney, already on his way out the door, Zelenka trailing closely after him. "Yes, Dr. Weir." said Carson as he stood slowly. He looked over to John and asked concernedly, "Colonel, are you still feeling peaky?" John straightened up abruptly. "What? Oh. No, Carson I'm fine. I'm just tired. It's been a long day." Carson reached over and patted John on the shoulder. "That it has, son. Go get some rest. The baby is being cooed over by all the nurses so you don't need to worry about anything else tonight." John slumped a little and nodded. "Okay doc. See you in the morning." Carson left, and after a moment, John got up and started for the door. "Sleep well, John." said Weir, knowing that he probably wouldn't. He looked at her over his shoulder and gave a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You too." And then he was out the door. Weir spent the rest of the night staring at her ceiling wondering what they were going to do if the baby turned out to be an Ancient. The next afternoon John sat in a corner of the infirmary, staring at nothing, desperately trying to think of nothing. The preliminary DNA results that Carson had produced on all the infants had left both him and Rodney speechless, and the information Zelenka had managed to pull out of the lab database's security files about how it had occured had appalled everyone and made John deeply worried. Rodney sat across from him staring at the infant sleeping wrapped in a blanket in his lap with a look on his face like he couldn't even decide what to think. He'd been that way for the last five minutes at least. It was creeping John out to see Rodney's brain completely shut down in the face of the news. Carson stood next to them, watching at them both with a concerned expression on his face. image of John: query What? John thought back viciously at Atlantis. He wasn't sure if he could cope with the city anymore, not after this. image of dead infants: query Fuck. Atlantis was going to keep after him until it got its answer. Fine. He just hoped that Carson had one for him to give. John roused himself reluctantly out of his blankness and asked, "How did the other babies die, Carson?" "Lack of human contact. They pined to death. Just like that experiment." Rodney interrupted in a monotone, still staring at the sleeping baby. John shot a look at Rodney and the baby. At their baby. What the hell was Atlantis thinking? He'd never thought he'd get to be a father, least of all in conjunction with an aggravating astrophysicist who also happened to be another guy. No matter how fond of Rodney he'd become, this was nuts. His stomach clenched in distress. "Oh, aye." said Carson, "I remember reading about that one. It does explain the results of the autopsies so far." He looked down into his teacup and sloshed around the dregs. John looked at him narrowly. "What experiment? Somebody did an experiment on how to make a baby pine to death?" John felt ready to throw up again. He couldn't believe that this was happening to him. Just what kind of shit karma did he have, anyway? "Calm down, Colonel." Carson said gently, looking back up out of his teacup."It wasn't supposed to be that kind of experiment. Back in the late 1800's or early 1900's, I forget when exactly, some English gentleman decided to test a hypothesis that a group of infants would grow up to develop their own language if not interfered with by adults. He gathered together some orphaned babies and had nurses feed them and change their nappies but not interact with them otherwise. All the wee ones died on him, much to his surprise." Carson set down his teacup on a nearby table and crossed his arms. "Later experiments done by scientists with monkeys proved that infants need a lot of physical contact and interaction in order to thrive. Without it they become depressed and eventually refuse food and die of starvation and dehydration." John dropped his head back with a clunk against the wall and shut his eyes. There you have it, Atlantis. Your precious babies that you whipped up out of my and Rodney's DNA died because they needed human contact, you overgrown Cylon toaster. You're not human. You killed them because you're a goddamned machine. image of sorrowful looking Ancient female superimposed over image of rain trailing outer hull: statement Oh, sure, fine, be sorry now! John snarled mentally. He was beyond angry and well into insanely livid at this point and he knew it. If it were possible to kill the city at this point he would have done it gladly and with his bare hands. You weren't sorry to steal the DNA from both of us! You weren't sorry to mess with our minds so we wouldn't remember it! You weren't sorry when those six babies died due to your... image of weeping Miko superimposed over image of rain pounding against outer hull: statement The connection he had with the city flickered uncertainly for the first time since John had arrived on Atlantis. Quit your crying. I'm not buying it. You should have at least told me when the first baby got sick. John screwed his eyes more tightly shut to keep any incipient tears from leaking out. pause: pause: affirmation. pause: image of weeping Miko superimposed over image of rain pounding against outer hull: statement Shut the fuck up and get the hell out of my head. John thought wearily. He'd be damned if he'd let the city cry on his shoulder when he was drowning in a sea full of his own unshed tears. John swallowed convulsively a couple of times and finally got himself under control. He opened his eyes and looked back into Rodney's lap where their newborn son lay. At least they had gotten to this one in time. It was cold comfort. After looking at John and Rodney a little while longer, Carson picked up his teacup, said, "If you two need me for anything, let me know. I've got to get back to work. Take as long as you need with the wee one." then left. Rodney nodded slightly and finally, hesitantly, stroked the baby's face with a single finger. "Sheppard?" Rodney said quietly. John gulped. Rodney actually using an indoor voice. He hated it. "Yeah, Rodney?" "What are we going to do about the babies in the gestational units? They're due to come out, approximately one a month for the next five or so months according to Zelenka." Rodney paused for a moment and then said, "I'm not sure how prepared we are to be the fathers of not quite sextuplets." John sighed and looked into Rodney's uncertain face. "I don't know, Rodney. I just don't know. We've known that we're fathers of each other's child for, what, 20 minutes? I still haven't wrapped my mind around that, much less the fact that we've got five more on the way." "My brain is refusing to go there too." Rodney replied. "I don't know whether to feel awed or violated. I've always wanted a family, but not, not like this." Rodney stopped and then looked dismayed. "That's not to say that I don't appreciate your genes. You aren't an idiot and you're reasonably attractive and you've got the ATA gene which is good..." Despite his inner misery at Atlantis' betrayal, John found himself grinning at Rodney. The man was just so funny. Rodney caught the grin and stopped mid-sentance. "I'm babbling, aren't I?" John's grin deepened a little more. "Yep." Rodney sighed and looked back down at the baby. "I just expected the mother of my baby to have blond hair and boobs, not a brown cowlick attack and a gun." John chuckled despite himself. "Yeah, and I never expected the mother of my child to have male pattern baldness, Rodney." Rodney looked at him narrowly. "Very funny, Sheppard." "Please, Rodney. I'm the father of your child. Call me John." John said teasingly. Rodney opened his mouth to deliver a blistering retort when the baby decided to stretch and yawn in his lap. He looked down at the baby instead, getting an unreadable expression on his face. He once again stroked the baby's face with a finger as it blinked contentedly up at him. John's smiled faded as he watched Rodney and his stomach clenched again. Finally Rodney said, "You know, we really ought to give the baby a name. I'd prefer to not have to call my son 'Hey You' for the next 80 years." John's stomach unclenched a little at that. He didn't know why, but he was comforted by Rodney's comparatively easy acceptance of their baby. It made the rest of this insanity bearable. "You got a point. Got any ideas?" Better to think of small things like this rather than the whole huge issue of what the hell they were going to do with six babies and a city that was apparently insane and stalking him and Rodney. * * * * * * * Dammit, why had he agreed to a best two out of three game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide which of them got top billing on the last name for little Nathan? He should have demanded they decide it by IQ rating. Rodney was still sulking after John left when Teyla and Ronon came walking in to the infirmary. "Hey," Rodney said, sitting up a little straighter. "I thought you two weren't due back from that trading mission till tomorrow." Teyla smiled at him and bent down to look at the baby. "We were able to conclude our business early. I have heard that you and Colonel Sheppard have received some interesting news." She smiled at him again while she reached out to gently stroke Nathan's head. "You have the most amazing talent for understatement, Teyla." Rodney replied with a wry look. "Two men becoming the genetic parents of six babies in five months time should at least be worth a 'shocking' if not 'freaky' news rating." The panic that had been bubbling underneath the numbness finally surfaced and Rodney covered his face with his hands and moaned, "Oh god. I'm so screwed. I suck at kids. I'll ruin them for life." Teyla rubbed Rodney's shoulder comfortingly. "I'm sure you will rise to the challenge, Rodney." Rodney moved his hands away from his face and gave her a grateful, if disbelieving look. Ronon rumbled from his corner of the room. "Don't drop them on their heads and they'll be fine." Rodney laughed nervously. "Right. That shouldn't be too hard seeing as how I'm terrified to pick Nathan up." He stared at his son, looking sublimely unconcerned in his lap. Dammit, there should have been a nurturing female in this equation to make sure he didn't screw up. Wait a minute. "Teyla, do you know about raising kids?" Rodney looked at her hopefully. Teyla smiled back. "I have not had any children of my own, Doctor McKay, but I have watched over others children often. I would be honored to assist you and Colonel Sheppard." "Me too." Ronon added. Rodney stared at him, stupefied. Dex shrugged. "I was the oldest of twelve. Helped out a lot." Well, Xena and a Wookie wasn't exactly the blond motherly type he'd been planning on, but beggars couldn't be choosers at this moment. "Thank you." Rodney said feelingly. Ronon walked over and knelt down in front of Rodney as Teyla sat down in the chair next him. "First lesson," Ronon rumbled, "how to pick up and hold a baby. Watch." Ronon reached out and placed one hand under Nathan's head and the other under his body. "Support the head when it's this young. The neck isn't strong enough yet." He lifted Nathan up and pulled the baby to his chest. "Slide this arm around so it always supports the head, use the other arm to slide the baby up." Ronon slowly pulled Nathan into a cradled hug to demonstrate. Rodney gulped as his tiny son became even more miniscule looking in those enormous arms. Ronon slowly reversed the motions and placed Nathan back in Rodney's lap. "You try." Rodney gulped again and did his best to mimic Ronon's movements, awkwardly picking up Nathan and fumbling him into the crook of his arm. Nathan cooed and melted bonelessly into his arms. Rodney's heart skipped a beat and not caring if he looked like an idiot for once in his life, leaned down and brushed a kiss onto Nathan's forehead. Ronon smiled at him and patted Rodney on the knee. "You'll do fine." Teyla wrapped an arm around Rodney's shoulders and said, "Ronon is right. You will do well as a parent." Rodney smiled nervously at both of them. Maybe they were right. He was
a genius, he'd figure out a way. Stupid people raised children all the
time. Surely with his brainpower he'd learn to do a better job than they
did. Rodney let his breath out slowly. Yeah, he could do this. Next |
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