Exogenesis Read online

  "Carson, hey." John lowered his voice. "We know. Believe me, we understand. No harm done."

  "No harm done, Colonel?" Through the radio, Beckett's voice fractured. "Oh, God, you have no idea."

  Elizabeth caught John's eye before speaking to the rest of the group. "Major, Teyla, Ronon-thank you. Hurry back."

  The infirmary appeared to be in the eye of the hurricane when Elizabeth entered. The medical staff had treated Radek, Mueller, Stackhouse, and Alderman with practiced efficiency and given them beds in the main bay. Now they prepared for the arrival of their chief physician.

  "What's the word?" she asked Dr. Martinez, inclining her head toward the recovering team members.

  "Dr. Zelenka's ankle is bruised but it will be fine. The abrupt change of air pressure in their inner ears-twice-caused their eardrums to rupture. They may experience mild headaches and perhaps some hearing loss for a while, but they should all heal quite well over the next few weeks," the doctor stated. "Nothing permanent so long as they don't plan any more deep sea diving."

  "So, no swimming lessons," Radek commented from his bed. "I am truly crushed." He accepted an ice pack from one of the nurses and applied it to his leg.

  "You should've seen Colonel Sheppard come screaming toward us in that jumper, ma'am." Sergeant Alderman was grinning.

  Apparently it didn't take long for Marines to convert mortal danger into adrenaline. Elizabeth dreaded telling them that when it came to danger, their day wasn't nearly over. "I'm just glad to see you all in one piece," she replied. "Get some sleep while you can.,,

  "Dr. Weir." Radek motioned her toward him. His face told her that he was under no illusions about their situation. "It is important that you know-Dr. Beckett did not disobey you. When you told us to abandon the pod, he stepped away. The end opened by itself I have been thinking. I believe there may have been a preprogrammed signal, perhaps when a viable atmosphere and host were detected."

  It hardly mattered anymore, but Elizabeth appreciated the knowledge. "Thank you," she said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. "Rest up. I expect we're going to need your help very soon."

  here was no question in Teyla's mind that Dr. Beckett was once again in control of his body. She might not have been quite so trusting had she not seen Colonel Sheppard similarly convulse when Thalen had died within him. The stunned, anguished look now etched on the doctor's face made many things clear.

  Teyla's own experiences in the brief moments when her mind had been under the control of a Wraith had been... deeply disturbing. Although she had some comprehension of what Dr. Beckett had endured, she at least had not been forced to sit idly by while the mind that had taken temporary possession of her body had caused harm to others.

  Ronon was not nearly as confident that Ea had truly gone from Dr. Beckett. Teyla could hardly blame him. The Satedan had not long been released from the infirmary after recovering from the wound inflicted by Phoebus. During the jumper's flight back to Atlantis, Ronon silently sat in the rear bay with his weapon trained on Dr. Beckett. The fact that the doctor's hands were deeply lacerated did not seem to diminish his status as a threat.

  The craft settled into the jumper bay. Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard strode toward them, a pair of medical personnel following with a gurney. Dr. Beckett began to speak before the hatch was fully open, issuing a variation on the same apology he'd been attempting to convey since they had retrieved him from the ledge. "I'm so sorry. I don't understand-"

  "Still not your fault, Doc." The Colonel gave a curt, approving nod to Teyla and Ronon. "Can you tell us anything about what Ea did?"

  The medics settled Beckett on the gurney and moved in the direction of the infirmary. Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard fell into step beside them, and, with barely a glance exchanged, Teyla and Ronon chose to follow.

  "It was all so tangled," Beckett was saying. "Just a constant stream of images. On one hand, I could comprehend what she felt and what she wanted, but on the other... it almost seemed like a foreign language. I don't know if it was because she was anAncient, or because the technology she used was beyond my knowledge-or because her trauma was so crippling." His words tripped over each other in his attempt to explain. "The only thing of which I'm absolutely certain is the intended consequence of her actions"

  If Teyla still possessed any vestige of her former belief in the Ancestors' unwavering virtue, by now it had been severely tarnished.

  The group moved through the doorway into the infirmary, and Dr. Martinez came across to join them. Beckett shook his head, eyes wide and searching. "I just wish-"

  Seeing his obvious distress, Dr. Weir laid a gentle hand on his arm. She looked briefly at Sheppard before speaking. "We understand, Carson. Completely. Unfortunately, you're the only resource we have to help us stop whatever Ea has set in motion, so we'll need you to try to be as specific as possible."

  "How are those hands feeling?" the other doctor asked, reaching for the field dressing that Teyla had helped apply.

  "Not hurting at all, which is something to be grateful for, I suppose," Beckett replied absently, still preoccupied with larger matters. He did look down when the dressing was removed, though, and reacted with surprise-as did Teyla. The deep wounds that Ea had inflicted in her desperate work appeared almost healed.

  Rodney came barreling through the door then, datapad in hand. "Got the entire science department working on the fastest database search in recorded history," he reported, pulling up short next to the huddle of people near Dr. Beckett. "Of course, it'd be simpler to get as much information on the machine as we can from Ea's memories. Uh, is it me, or is there more blood on those bandages than the corresponding injuries would suggest?"

  "The wounds from the fall have vanished as well." Teyla stepped around the gurney to view the area of Dr. Beckett's neck that had been badly abraded.

  A brush of metal against leather signaled that Ronon once more had drawn his weapon. "How do we know he's not still being controlled?"

  Nearly everyone took an immediate step back from the gurney. Strangely, Rodney was the only one to hold his ground. "That's easy enough to confirm. All we have to do is check his EEG."

  The infirmary fell into an awkward silence while medical personnel set up the machine. It took only a few moments to ascertain that Dr. Beckett alone inhabited his body, allowing everyone to breathe more easily. Ronon holstered his weapon, his face as inscrutable as ever.

  "What can you tell us, Carson?" Dr. Weir asked.

  Beckett sighed. "At the end, the most recognizable feeling was one of remorse. More than that, it was a crushing sense of guilt. I think she felt as though surviving all this time only to witness her own death, after having endured the loss of her son and her love-indeed, her entire civilization-it was some form of punishment from those who had Ascended."

  "The Ancient equivalent of divine retribution," Sheppard suggested.

  "It was the only explanation she could find for why she had been made to suffer so badly." The doctor closed his eyes and shook his head in sympathy. "The terrible pain that poor woman went through drove her actions, I'm certain."

  "Not that I'm entirely devoid of compassion," Rodney broke in, "but all of this is markedly less helpful than, say, details about exactly what Ea did. Right now we have a machine intent on God knows what drilling through the planet's crust. I'll need to know everything you can remember if I'm going to find a way to stop it-since it seems a safe assumption that we will need to stop it "

  "That's never going to happen, Rodney." Beckett shifted to sit more upright. "It's an exogenesis machine"

  The word was not familiar to Teyla, but comprehension must have struck Rodney immediately. "Okay, that's a problem," he said, turning huge eyes toward them. "Ea doesn't mean to destroy just the city. She means to destroy the entire planet!"

  "Hang on a minute," Colonel Sheppard demanded. "How did we go from blowing up a city to blowing up an entire planet?"

  "Can you please for one minute tear your focu
s away from blowing up things? Exogenesis!" The scientist's hands moved fitfully as he no doubt searched for the best way to simplify his explanation.

  Nodding, Dr. Beckett explained, "Exogenesis, or panspermia, essentially proposes that life was brought to Earth from elsewhere, which, as we now know, is an entirely feasible theory."

  "By the Ancients," said Dr. Weir. "But there's already life on Atlantis."

  "Yes, of course," retorted Rodney. "Except, what if you had a machine that imposed a completely different biosphere over one that's preexistent?"

  "You get a teenaged Spock?" the Colonel suggested. The odd comment in no way eased Teyla's deepening concern.

  Rodney scowled at Sheppard. "No! Well, yes, but over a considerably longer time frame. It makes sense that the Ancients had a machine that could terraform planets. It would certainly explain the preponderance of Earth-type planets in both galaxies. Oddly enough, I've always wondered why so many bear a remarkable resemblance to British Columbia "

  "The Gadmeer." Dr. Weir spotted the Colonel's blank look and explained. "Several years ago SG-1 encountered a race that used a terraforming device to burn the surface of a planet, destroying its ecosystem before seeding it with life forms suited to their needs. If that's what Ea has in mind-"

  "Then we have time to come up with countermeasures?" Even as Sheppard said it, his expression indicated that he doubted they would be so fortunate.

  "Unlikely. For one thing, the Gadmeer weren't nearly as advanced as Ancients," Rodney said. "And while I have no idea how the Ancients terraformed planets, I think it's safe to assume that it would be considerably more efficient-and by that I mean making absolutely certain that none of the original biosphere remained intact."

  "Carson?" Dr. Weir directed her gaze to the doctor.

  "Forgive me if this isn't terribly thorough, but as far as I can tell, the terraforming process normally took around ten thousand years"

  "Ten thousand?" Colonel Sheppard stared at him.

  "The Ancients were extremely long-lived," Teyla reminded them all.

  "And as near as we can tell, they flew here in Atlantis several million years ago," Dr. Weir added.

  Ronon hooked his fingers into his belt. "So we've got nothing to worry about, right?"

  "On the contrary," Beckett continued, his face creasing in concern. "In order to undertake their terraforming projects, machines powered by several ZPMs were placed in numerous strategic positions across a planet. Each world was allowed, even encouraged, to evolve a unique biota with the sole proviso that all such planets would ultimately sustain human life."

  "Several ZPMs?" From his bed a short distance away, Dr. Zelenka joined the discussion. "Clearly the amount of power needed to accomplish a planet-wide transformation would be massive, but how-"

  "That's what Atlas, Ea's husband, had been working on. To get away from relying on ZPMs, he'd experimented with a prototype device that incorporated a design feature used on some planets to control weather. Apparently he, or one of his predecessors, had invented such a device in the past"

  "We've seen climate-controlling technology before," Dr. Weir said, sliding into a chair between Beckett and Zelenka's beds. "There's an SGC file about a similar machine found on a planet called Madrona. It was stolen by Colonel Mayboume's group and briefly used to manipulate Earth's weather a few years ago."

  "I knew all that El Nino stuff sounded fishy," Sheppard commented under his breath.

  Uncomprehending, Teyla dismissed the comment as yet another reference unique to Earth's culture. She did not, however, dismiss the implications for this world.

  "I don't know how complex that version was," said Beckett, "but Atlas's exogenesis machine could be set to run different programs, depending on the preexisting conditions of the planet in question. He'd hoped to someday use the machine in other galaxies, allowing the Ancients to escape the Wraith and build new worlds quickly, without the ten-millennium delay."

  "And by quickly, you mean how long?"

  If it were possible, Carson's face fell even further. "A week. Less under the right circumstances."

  Teyla's profound shock was echoed by words of dismay from the others, while Dr. Beckett continued to speak. "Atlas wanted to test the device on a planet already sanctioned for terraforming, but because Janus had assisted him during its development, the head of the Atlantis Council, Moros, considered it too dangerous. The Council forbade the test, and Atlas secretly defied them."

  "Why, oh why, am I not surprised?" Rodney cast his gaze toward the ceiling.

  The doctor rubbed a now-unmarked hand over his face. "Along with Ea and a team of his research associates, Atlas quietly slipped away to a suitable planet, one that had already undergone the initial terraforming process. The Wraith arrived soon after and blocked their access to the Stargate. Many of his team, including his and Ea's son, were killed, and the remainder terribly injured. Those who made it out alive escaped in a transport ship. Only a handful of them survived the Wraith blockade to reach Atlantis, but by then the inhabitants of the city had all left for Earth. Someone -Moros, presumably-had configured the city's force field to keep out all ships. The only option remaining to the last of Atlas's team was to use the stasis pods."

  "Okay, so that explains how they got to be where we found them." Nervous energy radiated from Rodney as he paced the room. "What we need to know is what configuration Ea used on the machine when she set it to destroy this planet."

  The earlier loss of blood had made Beckett pale, but now he looked positively ill. "All of the above," he answered quietly.

  Rodney spun in mid-step, nearly losing his balance. "What you do mean, all of the above?"

  "I'm not absolutely certain-it could just be that Ea's emotions were the focal point of her attention-but I get the impression that she'd never grasped the subtleties of the machine, so she set it to run in consecutive, open-ended programs. It will burrow into the planet's crust and set up a chemical reaction designed to release huge quantities of aerosols and water into the atmosphere. That program was designed for planets that didn't have water or air. Since this world already has both, the effect will be a deluge on the mainland the likes of which would terrify Noah himself"

  Teyla inhaled sharply.

  "Okay, that could be worse," Rodney said thoughtfully. "We thought this was a water world when we first arrived, anyway."

  "And what of the Athosian settlement?" Teyla demanded. So much had been invested in this planet, both materially and emotionally, by her people since their arrival many months ago. To see another home destroyed-

  "We'll evacuate them, obviously. It's not like it would be the first time." The scientist's hand flicked back and forth in a dismissive gesture. "The real concern is what else Ea programmed."

  "Nanites," Beckett said simply.

  The room stilled. Rodney and Zelenka traded glances filled with as much dread as Teyla had ever witnessed from them. She could hardly blame them. The chaos that had occurred the last time the miniature machines had been let loose upon the city was something Teyla did not wish to see repeated.

  "These are not at all like the virus we encountered last year," Beckett added quickly. "For terraforming purposes they normally disassemble complex compounds into their elemental parts and rebuild a suitable environment for human habitation."

  "And if a stable environment already exists?"

  "Like I said, that's what normally occurs. In this case, from what I can understand, I'm fairly certain the beasties will just keep going indefinitely."

  The color fled from Rodney's face. "Gray goo"

  Sheppard's jaw flexed. "I'm guessing I really don't want to know what that means."

  "A microscopic version of a replicator plague, except that they won't restrict themselves to inorganic matter. Instead, the entire planet, and by that I mean every single living thing on it right down to the smallest virus, will be turned into an amorphous mass of... gray goo."

  The Colonel stared at him for several tense se
conds before replying slowly, "Okay, so we have to stop it."

  Beckett dropped his head to his chest, and his shoulders slumped in a way that was deeply alarming. Teyla had never seen such a look of irrevocable defeat in the doctor. "We can't. Ea was certain of that." Hopelessness choked his voice. "We'll have to abandon Atlantis."

  This grim pronouncement brought Dr. Weir to her feet. "There must be some way to stop that machine," she insisted. "We killed the nanovirus with an EM pulse. Why wouldn't that work this time?"

  "Because it's Ancient-designed technology, much like all the equipment that was unaffected by our EM pulse in that situation." Rodney had been scribbling furiously on his datapad. Now he stopped and looked up. "If the entire terraforming process is designed to be completed in a week or less, production of nanites could have been initiated the moment that thing was switched on. We have to seal off Atlantis with a force field immediately. Even as we speak, we're running the risk of a nanite hitching a ride on an upper wind and making its way over here. If that happens-if even one of those damned things gets inside the city-we're dead."

  "That's part of the reason the Atlantean Council forbade the experiment," Beckett said. "I get the sense that they'd had a number of negative experiences with nanites in the past, because the bloody things are so difficult to control and contain. If a single nanite managed to get off-world via the Stargate, the entire galaxy could be consumed. But I think we've got a bit of time yet before that becomes a critical factor. A day or two, perhaps."

  "Excuse me?" Rodney was adamant. "Based on your many minutes of expertise with this technology, you're willing to take that risk?"

  A strange expression crossed Dr. Beckett's face, as if he were attempting to harness an elusive memory, but it rapidly faded, and the trepidation that had been mounting in Teyla's mind now blossomed into stark fear. "We must bring my people to Atlantis before the shield is raised," she said, the words an open plea.

  She couldn't be sure that the scientists had even heard her. "If we can selectively calibrate the jumpers' shields, we can do the same for the city's," Dr. Zelenka suggested. "Keep unwanted particles from getting through."