Exogenesis

Chapter Four

There 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 focus 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 seconds 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."

Rodney was already shaking his head. "Won't work. The nanites will ultimately consist of so many diverse components that even allowing in air could be dangerous. From this point on we must consider the planet's atmosphere as hostile as the vacuum of space. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can come inside." He whirled toward Dr. Weir, a barely perceptible tremor running through his arm and down to the datapad. "You have to let me activate the shield immediately and begin plans for evacuation ASAP. We can't maintain the shield at full strength indefinitely."

Dr. Weir studied him, looking as surprised by his vehemence as Teyla felt. On the occasion of their first meeting, Teyla had found Rodney McKay to be overly excitable and prone to pessimism, but, in time, both her view and his behavior had shifted somewhat. They had yet to encounter a technological obstacle that he could not overcome, and in spite of appearances he never hesitated to do whatever was necessary to salvage the best possible outcome from a crisis. This state of instantaneous near-panic seemed an overreac tion, even for him.

"Time out," Sheppard said, folding his arms. "Let's assume for the moment that we can bring the Athosians to Atlantis before starting the evacuation." Hope flowed through Teyla, and she sent the Colonel a glance of tentative gratitude, choosing not to see Rodney's resigned headshake. "What's the status of the Daedalus?"

Dr. Weir pressed her lips together before replying. "According to Hermiod, it will take upwards of two weeks working with, in his words, Atlantis's `limited' facilities to get the hyperdrive back online."

"They're lucky thatAtlantis even has the necessary equipment," Rodney retorted. "Catastrophic material failure can be ugly even in an air-breathing engine, and in-flight fires are entirely too exciting for my taste. There's no way the Daedalus could have limped back to Earth or even effected repairs in space given the amount of damage that was done. I'm surprised they managed to land without incident."

"Hermiod confirmed that the problem doesn't lie with the Asgard technology but with the components manufactured on Earth," Dr. Weir told them. "Apparently our manufacturing processes aren't quite as flawless as one might hope, and the engine design is unforgiving of even the slightest imperfections."

From his bed, Dr. Zelenka muttered something uncomplimentary-sounding about Russian-made titanium parts.

"The temperature cycling of prolonged hyperdrive use caused metal fatigue," Rodney explained curtly. "Over time, hairline cracks propagated in some rather critical locations. Apparently it's time to start considering more frequent inspections on some of our hyperdrive components. One might also point out that it would have been prudent to put said components in more accessible locations, since our techs aren't quite as small and flexible as the Asgard, but that's hardly pertinent now. In any case, the main engines will be completely offline until we can machine the replacement parts and get them installed."

Dr. Weir nodded. "When I bring Colonel Caldwell up to speed, I'll see if that time can be cut down."

"Yes, do that." Rodney started toward the door. "I recommend a period of days rather than a week." Motioning absently for Sheppard to follow, he added, "I need to take a look at the first pod you recovered. Hopefully that will tell us something more about what specifically we're dealing with."

"Wait, Rodney," Dr. Weir cautioned. "Atlas might be dead, but we can't afford to spring any other booby traps that might be left in that pod. I'll have it taken to a quarantined area. Meanwhile, I'd like you to get me an update on exactly what Ea's machine is doing."

The group disbanded. Teyla called after Dr. Weir, stopping her in the corridor before she could rush off to initiate contingency planning. "What of my people?" Teyla asked again, her voice becoming more insistent.

The city's leader looked at her with such empathy that Teyla's blood chilled. "I'm sorry, Teyla, but as it stands there's very little we can do without risking Atlantis. Bringing anyone back from the mainland would pose too great a threat of infection."

Dr. Weir's expression implored her to understand. Teyla did, but understanding did nothing to relieve the growing ache that had settled in her chest.

"That wasn't what I was hoping to hear, Colonel Caldwell." Elizabeth sat back in her office chair and rubbed a hand across her forehead in a vain attempt to alleviate the throbbing.

"I'm not too fond of the idea myself," replied the commander of the Daedalus. "Unfortunately our resources are limited by our remote location. Even with three shifts working around the clock there's simply no way to accelerate the repairs by more than a couple of days. Do you have any idea what sort of time frame we're looking at?"

"Carson can't be sure, but a week, perhaps less, for complete terraforming. I imagine that environmental conditions will have deteriorated rapidly long before then, and we can only guess exactly what the impact will be "

Caldwell gazed through her office window at the silent 'gate for a moment before speaking again. "Our options range from lousy to awful," he said. "Daedalus won't be hyperdrive-capable anytime soon, and not at all if we can't access the engineering workshops and labs on Atlantis. The idea of abandoning my ship is fairly repugnant, and when Hermiod learned that something resembling a miniature replicator plague was about to be unleashed-the word `displeased' doesn't even come close to covering it. I don't like anything about what I'm going to say here, but I agree with Dr. McKay's recommendation that we begin immediate evacuation to the Alpha site."

And there it was, as unavoidable as death and taxes. Elizabeth's fingers tightened around the arm of her chair. "I was holding out hope that it wouldn't come to that."

"Hope's a useful thing," Caldwell remarked. "But right now we'd be better served to deal with our reality." Eyes narrowing pensively, he glanced outside to where Rodney was seated at a workstation, tracking the machine while Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon stood watching. "What exactly is this exogenesis device doing right now?"

Elizabeth stood and led Caldwell out of her office. She was about to put the question to Rodney when one of the duty techs tapped his earpiece, turned, and signaled her. "Dr. Weir, we just received a report from Dr. Anane at the Athosian camp."

Rodney's head snapped around. "What? What's he doing out there?"

The news surprised and concerned Elizabeth. Kwesi Anane and a handful of his fellow engineers had been on the mainland, helping the Athosians implement an irrigation system that he'd developed in his home country. She glanced at Teyla and Ronon. "The hydrology team didn't come back with you this morning?"

Ronon shrugged. "Most of them, yeah. But Anane said he had some tasks left"

That complicated matters further. Signaling to the tech to patch them through, Elizabeth lifted a hand to her earpiece. "Dr. Anane, what's your status?"

"There is a peculiar cloud buildup occurring inland from the Athosian village," the Ghanaian engineer reported. "I have seen a similar formation only once before on this planet, and that was prior to the storm last year."

No further description was necessary. That storm occupied a singular place in the short history of the Atlantis expedition. "I can rig up a camera to show you," he continued, "but it will take a few minutes."

"Please do so, Kwesi. Thank you." Tom, Elizabeth met the gaze of her military advisor, who looked equally apprehensive. She'd already been reconsidering her decision regarding the Athosians. It seemed that, too often, Teyla's people had borne the brunt of problems brought about by the Earth team's actions. Despite Rodney's resolve, she'd contemplated rescinding the quarantine, and now with Kwesi still on the mainland-

"Getting back to my earlier question," Caldwell said, interrupting her thoughts. "Can you pinpoint exactly where this machine is now and how long we've got before we run into trouble?"

Rodney's fingers skipped across the keyboard in front of him to bring up a map of the mainland. "Carson's description of the exogenesis device suggests that, with no ZPM to provide power, the machine instead derives energy from the heat in the asthenosphere-the hot mantle beneath the planet's crust," he said. "Makes sense. It's a virtually limitless source of power and could easily sustain a planet-wide operation."

Caldwell arched an eyebrow. "What if we attempt to blow up the machine?"

"And here we go again with the standard military solution to every problem." Rodney's bearing clearly demonstrated his impatience with the Daedalus's commander. "Need I remind you that this thing was built to direct a complete molecular restructuring of an entire world while powering itself from the radioactive decay that melts rocks`? Somehow I don't think nuking it will help."

"You haven't answered my second question, Doctor." Caldwell replied levelly. "How long?"

"Where am I supposed to glean that information? I don't exactly have a wide range of experience with planets being terraformed." After a moment under Caldwell's impassive gaze, Rodney conceded, "Carson's one-week estimate may not have been completely off the mark. Although we've noticed some chemical and geophysical anomalies that could explain the formation of the storm, we haven't detected any change in the molecular structure of the surrounding rock, so it doesn't appear to have begun manufacturing nanites as yet."

Teyla's head snapped around, and her eyes bored into Elizabeth's. "Then by all means we should evacuate the Athosians," Elizabeth said firmly. "I think it's a risk worth taking." She anticipated an argument from Caldwell, but the Colonel nodded, while Teyla took a deep breath and bowed her head in gratitude.

"Dr. Weir," came Kwesi's voice over the radio, nearly shouting to overcome the increasing noise of the wind. "I'm sending the images now."

Rodney opened the file on his screen, and his jaw slackened. "Oh, boy."

Looking over his shoulder, Elizabeth was confronted with another terrible reality. The time stamp on the pictures showed that they had been taken thirty seconds apart, displaying the growing speed of the storm. Any rescue jumpers they sent might be able to land, but there would be little chance of evacuating the entire Athosian settlement before it struck.

"This is incredible," Kwesi shouted. "The winds are already approaching gale force. The Athosians are attempting to prepare-"

The signal abruptly cut off, leaving an agonizing silence in its wake. "Kwesi will know what to do," Rodney asserted. "Back in Ghana he designed the water distribution system for an entire group of villages and implemented it practically from scratch as part of his dissertation. He'll get them through it "

"Dr. Weir, I must be there."

Elizabeth shifted her gaze from Rodney to Teyla, whose expression had tightened. "I'll ask for volunteers to assist in evacuations, but as it stands, I'm not certain that any of you will even be able to land." Her eyes moved to John, knowing they all shared her thought. "We need to find a way to stop that machine. Soon."