Sending Teal’c the equipment and material he needed and helping him take care of the Adjoan woman took longer than she liked, but at last it was done. As the wormhole to Adjo collapsed, Janet turned to Walter. “Okay. I need to speak to the general. Now.”
The sergeant cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. “Sorry, Doctor Fraiser. No can do. I’m under strict orders that he not be disturbed unless the planet’s on the brink of invasion or implosion. Pentagon closed session, remember?”
She banged her fist on his console. “Walter, I don’t care if he’s dancing the
pasa doble
with the President, I
have
to speak with him. If it makes life any easier for you, consider this my declaration of a Code Red medical emergency.
Now get him on the phone
.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said smartly.
Listening to him work his magic Janet could only smile a little, and wonder. In the way things often morphed without anyone realizing it, Walter Harriman had slowly but surely assumed the secondary role of General Hammond’s personal aide. Low-key and eerily, sometimes superhumanly efficient, things just… got done.
If he ever decides to retire the SGC will be in trouble.
He was arguing now, politely but relentlessly, with some drone at the Pentagon.
For God’s sake, moron, just say yes!
“That’s great, ma’am,” said Walter. “Doctor Fraiser is standing by. Thank you. Yes ma’am, I know. But I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t urgent.”
“You got through to Hammond?” she said, stepping closer.
His answer was to hand her the phone.
“General Hammond?” she asked, her heart pounding.
“
Doctor Fraiser? Major Linton
,” said a clipped female voice.
“
General Hammond is being reached. Please hold
.”
“Yes. Yes. I’m holding,” she replied.
Hurry up, Ge
neral, hurry up, hurry up
.
“
Hammond
,” said a welcome, familiar voice in her ear. “
This had better be good, Doctor. I’m not here to take the Arlington tour
.”
“No, sir. I know. I’m sorry. We have a medical emergency on Adjo, General. I’ve put the base on a Code Red medical alert.”
“
SG-1
?”
“Their status is yet to be determined, sir. The only casualty I can confirm is a young Adjoan woman, but according to Teal’c SG-1 have been in contact with her. She’s definitely suffering from a disease. Pathogen unknown, extent of contamination unknown, but my preliminary observations suggest — ”
“
Your what
?” demanded Hammond. “
Doctor Fraiser
— ”
“Via MALP, sir,” she said quickly. “But I would like to set up an isolation unit and bring the patient — ”
“
Out of the question
,
D
octor
,” said Hammond. “
And you know better than to ask
.”
That stung. “Sir, we can’t do nothing,” she said. “I need to know what we’re dealing with. Even if SG-1 aren’t affected there are people on Adjo who might need our help.”
“
I’m aware of the humanitari
an implications, Doctor. You say you’ve spoken to Teal’c?”
“Yes, sir. He came back to the SGC with some raw naquadah for testing. When he returned to Adjo he found the patient and — ”
“
He’s been on the base? Is it compromised
?”
“No, sir. He was only here briefly, and we were notified of the
medical emergency within minutes of his departure. Everyone he came into contact with has been through decon, the air filtration system has switched up to level 5 and we’re testing the filters for contamination now. Medical staff are on alert, of course, but I’m confident we’re not in danger.”
“And you have no idea if the rest of SG-1 is affected?”
“Not yet, sir. No.”
“But they could be.”
“It’s possible. Yes.”
“And even if they’re not…”
“Yes, sir. Until we get a clear picture of what’s happening, they’re stuck on Adjo.”
“
Damn
.” Hammond exhaled sharply.
“You say Teal’c brought
back some naquadah? So the mission’s a success?
”
Right now she could care less about the damned mission. “Apparently, sir. General Hammond, Major Carter is already medically compromised. She had an accident, suffered a concussion. If there is some kind of contagious illness on Adjo and she’s exposed — ”
“Doctor, I understand your position but for now Major Carter
stays where
she is. Understood?”
She’d known he’d say that, and still it hurt. “Yes, sir.”
“
Right now, Doctor, all you can do is care for this
Adjoan woman within the constraints of procedure. Inform Teal’c his highest priority is making contact with O’Neill and confi
rming that the team remains uncompromised. Once their status has been established we’ll look at rendering assistance to any sick Adjoans
.”
“And if SG-1
is
compromised, General?”
A short silence.
“Then, Doctor, we’ll have a problem, won’t we?”
She was grasping the phone receiver so hard the plastic was in danger of cracking. “Yes, sir.”
“
I’m sorry, Doctor Fraiser
,” Hammond said, more kindly. “
I know this goes against the grain for you. It doesn’t sit too well with me, either, but we have to main
tain the base’s integrity. I’m not prepared to tempt fate again
.”
Well, no. Not when tempting it with SG-11, four months ago, had come close to wiping out Cheyenne Mountain and potentially Colorado. For starters. “No, sir. Of course not.”
“
I’ve got to go.
I’ve kept the Joint Chiefs waiting long enough.
I’ll check in with you for an update before boarding the transport home
.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Frustrated, she hung up the phone then turned to Walter. “Dial up Adjo, Sergeant. I need to talk to Teal’c.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Walter, subdued, and did as he was told.
“How’s the patient, Teal’c?” she asked, once contact was established.
“
She appears to have lapsed into a stupor
,” said Teal’c. “
Her breathing is shallow and her pulse is weak. I fear Lotar is d
ying, Doctor Fraiser. Under the circumstances can I not bring her
— ”
“I’m sorry, Teal’c,” she said, pain like a tight fist in her chest. “General Hammond wants you to locate SG-1 as a matter of urgency.”
“
Yes, Doctor. But what of Lotar
?”
Yes indeed, what of poor young Lotar? “To be honest, I’m not sure what I could do for her even if I had her in the infirmary. Antiviral drugs are specific to a handful of certain Earth viruses only. There’s a remote possibility that if I can identify the relevant pathogen I could maybe try synthesizing a treatment but realistically, that’s more science fiction than science. At the end of the day her own immune system might be the only thing that can save her.”
“I understand. But I cannot leave her here, alone and suffering
.”
“Then you’ll have to take her with you, Teal’c. Carry her back to the village. Is that even possible?”
“It is possible
,” Teal’c said, after a short silence.
But only just, she was betting.
Damn
. “Teal’c, you’re absolutely certain your symbiote will protect you?”
“
I have no reason to think it will not
.”
“That’s something. But listen, you can’t take Lotar into the village. You’ll have to leave her well beyond its limits. I have no way of knowing what the window of contagion is with this disease or even how it spreads. She could be safe to be around, or she could be a Typhoid Mary. Don’t take any chances. Is that clear?”
“
Yes, Doctor Fraiser
.”
“I’m going to see what the geniuses around here can rig up by way of a radio signal enhancer. Something that’ll let us reach you through an open wormhole. We can’t not be in contact, that’s insane.”
“
I agree. And I wish you good luck
.”
“Right back at you, Teal’c. Fraiser out.”
“What next?” said Walter, as he disengaged the wormhole.
She thought for a moment, finger tapping her lips. “Okay,” she said at last. “How many teams do we have offworld?”
“Four.”
“Contact them. Let them know that unless they have their own emergency they’re to stay put and not contact us until further notice. SG-1 needs to be able to dial in without delay, and vice versa.”
Walter nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, ma’am. Ma’am, I’ve got an idea. If we could rig up some kind of transmitter on a UAV and — ”
She held up a hand. “Sounds great. You get on that, Walter. I’ll be in my lab. Let me know as soon as you’ve got something.”
We can’t not have decent communications with Adjo. We just can’t. It’s bad enough I’m stuck here instead of being where I can do the suffering some good. But if I can’t even talk throu
gh some basic medical treatment
…
She wasn’t going to think about it. Thinking about the fact that there were sick people on Adjo whom she wasn’t able to help was the short road to a major migraine.
Please God, let this Lotar be a one-off casualty. Please d
on’t let this turn into another disaster
.
But given their recent run of bad luck, she had the worst possible feeling she was asking too much.
Daniel sat cross-legged on the goat-nibbled grass of Mennufer’s village square, surrounded by a crowd of children and young adults. There were even a few adults hovering on the fringes, abandoning their daily tasks so they might listen to the strange man tell his fantastic stories in the sunshine. Every face was eagerly turned to his, every eye was opened wide with wonder. Having abandoned the idea of telling them some ancient Egyptian folktales — Ra tended to feature in them far too often — he’d opted for a definitely left of center but strangely relevant — sort of — Hans Christian Andersen story.
It didn’t matter that the villagers of Mennufer had never seen an ocean. It didn’t matter that they’d never heard of merfolk, or princes, or bold sailing boats. They were humans. They understood love, longing, the desire for something more. They understood that wanting more usually meant giving up some of what you have… and sometimes even meant becoming somebody new altogether.
They understood that dreams didn’t come for free.
When the story was finished they patted their hands on their knees to show him how much he’d entertained them. Pleased, he glanced over at Sam to see what she made of their reactions. She was sitting in the shade of the nearest mud brick building, one knee drawn up to her chest, fingers laced and chin resting on the back of her hands.
She didn’t look well.
Was it just yesterday’s unfortunate tumble down the valley side or something more? She’d stopped sneezing, which was good, but even so she’d suffered two more nosebleeds. The second one had taken ages to stop. And she didn’t look
right
.
Jack should’ve m
ade her go back to Earth with Teal’c. Janet needs to check her out, because either she’s caught some weird Adjoan bug or she hurt herself worse yesterday than she wants us to know.
And if that weren’t unsettling enough he wasn’t entirely certain things were completely copasetic with the Adjoans, either. Not the little ones — they were giggling and carefree. But the older children, the young adults, and their seniors… beneath
their good-natured cheer he thought they were uneasy. Mennufer
felt like it was holding its breath. He’d noticed the difference in them straight away. As though literally overnight some dark shadow had touched the village.