Exogenesis

Chapter Thirteen

Consciousness returned slowly, many of its usual signs jumbled or missing. He heard nothing and saw only blackness. There was no pain, which was strange because he had a distinct recollection of an extremely unpleasant toothache. A few seconds passed before other memories coalesced in his mind: the sandstorm closing in on him with a predatory howl-

Heart racing, Rodney jerked halfway off the bed. His bandaged hands were numb and failed to support him, but someone was immediately there, easing him back down into soft pillows. A gentle hand stroked his forehead, and a soothing, melodic voice broke through the hazy panic that had begun to set in. "Rest and do not fear. You are safe."

The human body, Carson had told him on several occasions, cannot remember pain. Well, Carson was full of it. The pain Rodney had recently endured would be imprinted on his psyche for all time. He was certain he'd felt his eyeballs burst, felt the skin being ripped away from his face. He remembered terror and agony and… And yet he was here, his skin whole and warm under the nurse's touch. She smelled of honey and jasmine, and the comfort she offered felt so incredibly pure. He found his pulse slowing and the memory of that shocking trauma fading. The drugs, no doubt. "Is Carson here?"

"I do not know of Carson."

All right, not a nurse. He was sure he would have remembered such a voice if he'd ever heard it on Atlantis. For some reason that didn't bother Rodney as much as he might have expected.

"You are in my home on Polrusso," the voice continued. "I am called Turpi."

Forgetting the bandages, Rodney lifted a hand to his eyes, and succeeded in knocking bound fingers clumsily against his face. "Why is it so dark?"

The woman — Turpi-caught his hand and lowered it to his chest. "Your eyesight will recover," she assured him, holding his arm in a loose grasp while her other hand still lay against his face. "But the damage was great, and it will take time for you to heal. You must leave the bandages in place for several days. If you remove them too soon you will lose your sight permanently."

"Permanently?" He should have been monumentally freaked out by that warning. Somehow, he wasn't. Which was worrying in itself, but even that argument failed to take root, and he found himself simply… accepting.

"Lie still. You have much healing yet to do "

"Wait." He wasn't sure why he'd said that. She'd made no move to step away, but even the idea of her leaving frightened him. Probably because you can't see, genius. "The others-the people traveling with me. Where are they?"

"I know of no others. They may still be in the village near the Stargate "

"We're not there now?"

"We live in a different village. It is some distance away."

Turpi's hand moved up and down his arm. The motion was soothing, but unusually dulled. "Why can't I feel my hands?" The flood of panic that he knew he should be experiencing refused, for whatever reason, to make itself known.

"Like much of your body they were badly burned. Your clothes and whatever possessions you had were taken by the sand. My father found you struggling and wrapped you in robes to protect you. He could not see the path to the cliff-dwellers' village, so he took you inland away from the storm."

As she spoke an image became sharper in his mind. He recalled a rider in swirling black robes, face shielded from the sand and hidden from view. The rider had been astride a white animal-a stallion, maybe, although it seemed to feature some traits that he'd seen in the llama-like village animals. The whole thing had a very Lawrence of Arabia feel to it, and although the image wasn't entirely clear, it reassured him nonetheless. If he'd seen this man-and he knew he had-then his eyes couldn't have been destroyed after all.

But he'd known that already, hadn't he? Turpi had promised that he'd regain his sight, and he knew on an instinctual level that he could trust her word. Her presence calmed him immeasurably, her hand on his cheek as soft as a newborn's. "We will get word to your friends when the storm abates. Rest, and heal. All will be right."

And it would. He remembered the crisis on Atlantis, but it seemed remote. They would be all right without him for a while longer. Secure, Rodney slid back into sleep.

When Carson first heard the discussion between Zelenka's and Teyla's jumpers over the com, he considered taking his earpiece out. He wasn't sure he could bear yet another loss if the shield modification failed. Looking across the crowded infirmary, he found Sheppard listening intently. A couple of hours of rest and medication had allowed the Colonel to sit up with only minor dizziness, and now he was fully focused on his teammate's plight.

Many of the woundedAthosians and sand victims who filled the infirmary were stealing occasional glances in Sheppard's direction, realizing that something important was going on. Changing tack, Carson went over to Atlantis's military commander. "Colonel."

He had to repeat the call before Sheppard glanced up. Carson mentally slapped himself. Of course Sheppard would have the earpiece in his undamaged ear, leaving him with only limited ability to hear the room around him. "Colonel, I think everyone would like to know what's happening with the jumper," Carson said, careful to enunciate. "It will have a large effect on our actions once the nanites reach the city"

Sheppard considered for a moment, then touched his earpiece. "Elizabeth, can you put this on the citywide channel?"

A second later, Carson heard the com chatter echoing from the PA system rather than through his earpiece. The Athosians notice ably straightened upon hearing Teyla's voice over the speakers, and Sheppard nodded, taking his earpiece out. "Good call, Doc"

Lieutenant Corletti was the first to report on the jumper's surroundings. "Well, um, it's dark. And gray."

"That's it?" asked Elizabeth.

With a faint smirk, Sheppard commented, "Rodney would have her head on a platter for that one."

Carson tried to smile in response, but couldn't quite manage it. Though he believed there was almost no chance that Rodney could still be alive, it was a viewpoint the Colonel evidently didn't share, and Carson feared that acceptance would not come easily if no evidence of Rodney's fate was ever found.

"Now that the inertial dampeners are functioning again, I have no sense of our passage forward," Teyla added, "no motion at all. Beyond our shield it is just… gray."

"Can you send me another material analysis?" Zelenka asked from inside Jumper Two, about to depart for Polrusso. Several seconds passed before he replied, "Good. Dr. Weir, were they transmitted to the control room as well?"

"They were. Can you recalibrate the city shield to match that of Jumper Three?"

"I am sending you the procedure now. This is all that will be necessary to let Jumper Three through, and it will minimize the amount of energy required to maintain the city shield until the ZPMs from Polrusso are available."

"We're on it," said Elizabeth. "Good luck, Jumper Two. Be safe."

Carson watched Sheppard's expression flatten slightly as the sound of the 'gate activation signaled the departure of Zelenka and Lome. "They're big boys and girls," he reassured the Colonel. "You can afford to let them out to play without your supervision every once in a while" From the way Sheppard's eyes went cold, it became clear that the comment was a gross miscalculation. "Too soon?"

Sheppard suddenly appeared to find the far wall worthy of study. "Just a little."

An apology on his lips, Carson was interrupted by another report from Teyla. "We are now free of the gray, and have set a course for Atlantis."

The Athosians scattered throughout the infirmary reacted with noticeable relief. "We're very glad to hear it, Jumper Three," said Elizabeth. "How does the situation look out there?"

"The sky is no longer as clear as it was a short while ago. There appear to be more storm clouds gathering, though they look different… an unnatural hue. I believe-"

"The goo's airborne," Corletti announced shortly.

Sheppard immediately looked to Carson. "Were we expecting that?"

"Once the concentration of nanites reaches a certain mass, some of them go into a kind of dormant mode." Carson's lack of surprise came as something of a surprise in itself. "They're light enough to be blown up into the atmosphere, where they form the nuclei of further rain droplets "

"They don't break down the water?"

"Apparently not-that must be why I'm thinking of them as going dormant. Stealth, if you prefer. They stop duplicating and follow the atmospheric depression cells created by the first wave of storms. The lower air pressure allows the nanite-seeded clouds to rise higher in the atmosphere, and thus travel further and faster around the planet. Once they rain down on land, ice caps and large bodies of water, the nanites change mode again, re-initiating the replicating sequence. It's quite fascinating, actually, similar to the way some viruses-dengue for instance-hitchhike on macrophage cells to disperse inside the human body."

Shaking his head gingerly, Sheppard said, "You go into a whole other mode yourself when you're talking about this stuff. You know that, right?"

"May I have everyone's attention, please?" Elizabeth's voice on the citywide channel quieted the room. "We've completed our recalibration of Atlantis's shield, which will allow us to stretch our power reserves and give us more time. However, as yet we cannot afford to divert enough power to the Stargate to dial Earth. It's also an unfortunate reality that the repairs to the Daedalus hyperdrive will not be complete before the city's power supply is exhausted. We are hopeful, of course, that Dr. Zelenka's team will return soon with at least one more ZPM to augment our shield. Even so, I've decided to proceed with the evacuation of non-essential personnel and equipment to the Alpha site. Please report to your department heads for further instructions."

The faint click that ended the transmission seemed inordinately loud to Carson. "So this is to be the way Atlantis ends, after millions of years," he murmured.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow. "With all due respect to your former hitchhiker, Doc, the city's still here, and we simple humans do have our moments."

Teyla's voice sounded in Carson's earpiece again. "Dr. Beckett, are you still on your radio?"

"Aye, Teyla, I'm here. Do you have any injured among your group?"

"Several people were hurt while fleeing the storms. Earlier it seemed a secondary concern, but now that we are able to return to Atlantis, we will gladly accept any available medical attention."

"We'll be waiting in the jumper bay for you." Carson turned to see Sheppard easing himself upright. "And who told you getting up was a good idea, Colonel?"

"You've got wounded coming in, and you're running short on beds as it is," Sheppard replied reasonably, placing one cautious foot on the floor and then the other. Experimentally, he lifted his supporting hand off the bed and only swayed for an instant before straightening. "The coeds are keeping the vertigo and the headache under control. You said yourself that there wasn't much else to be done. The Athosians on that jumper need your help a lot more than I do."

The Colonel was clearly not at full strength, and the hard set of his jaw bothered Carson in a way he couldn't pinpoint. It made little sense, though, to keep the man in the infirmary when there was no treatment available to give him back what he'd lost. Feeling another pang of remorse, Carson gave in. "Off to your quarters with you, then. Stay off your feet as much as possible, and no sudden movement. Assuming the world hasn't gone to hell in the meantime, come back in eight hours so I can reassess the inflammation and the medication levels."

Sheppard was headed for the door almost before the instructions were given, tossing a halfhearted wave over his shoulder. "I'm quite serious about your staying off your feet," Carson called after him, but he couldn't be sure that he'd been heard. Shaking his head, he went to round up a team to greet the wounded from Jumper Three.