Apparently taking a break from the tea had been a smart move. If Daniel had been drinking during that last statement, the resultant spit-take would have been spectacular. "You think I'm one of the Annunaki?" Granted, the idea wasn't as farfetched as it could have been, particularly given his role in orchestrating the destruction of the Ori via the supergate. In fact, Baqir's explanation had come alarmingly close to the overall intergalactic picture. It was probably useless by this point, but Daniel made a last vague attempt to play dumb. "I'm sorry. I think you've got the wrong guy. I only came to Iraq to do some research on the Babylonian goddess, Ninlil."
An indulgent smile made it clear that Baqir wasn't fooled. "There is no need for deception, Dr. Jackson. Although you do not carry the blood of the Annunaki, what in your language you call the Ancients, you nevertheless carry the aura of one who has abandoned his mortal body and then returned. I can sense this trait. The ability was given to us by Ninlil when she charged us with our sacred duty."
Okay, then. Regardless of Daniel's actual Ascension status, maybe this wasn't a completely disastrous turn of events. "I see," he offered lamely, trying to give himself a moment to think. If these people really did form some secret group or sect and saw themselves as carrying out the instructions of Ninlil…
Baqir's eyes shifted to a point somewhere across the room. Daniel turned in his chair. Emerging from the shadows was a woman wearing a dark chador. Her eyes were hard to make out in the flickering light, but his first instinct, to stand, was rewarded with a raised hand. Still searching for her eyes within the shadows cast by the scarf, he failed to notice her exceptionally long, spidery fingers until she swept the garment back off her head. She was already directly in front of him before he had fully taken in her long burgundy hair and delicate, pallid features.
With a sudden jolt of recognition, he leaped back. "Whoa, wait-"All his instincts primed him to flee, but he succeeded only in knocking over his chair before her other hand reached out and latched onto his chest.
Chapter eighteen
It was difficult to tell exactly when the debriefing had run off the rails. Negotiating was Elizabeth's bailiwick; nevertheless, she didn't enjoy playing referee between two of her own people. The intent of the meeting had been for Rodney, Radek, and Dr. Geisler to present their MIM-316 findings to the group of scientists that had been assembled to support the investigation. Instead, not long after Geisler had begun his account, Rodney had started a running commentary of his own, and it was clear his assessment of the mission was markedly different from his colleague's. More important, however, was the brutally judgmental attitude with which he delivered it. It was true that Rodney had never suffered fools politely, but Geisler was nobody's fool.
While Elizabeth didn't want to rake her chief scientist over the coals in front of his staff, her tolerance had limits. "Rodney, you'll have to forgive me for not being as familiar with dinosaur physiology as you are. If you don't mind, I'd like to hear what Dr. Geisler-"
"Elizabeth, the man is romanticizing them past the point of all reason. First and foremost, the dinosaurs' intelligence-although classifying their unique skill set as 'intelligence' is debatable-was obviously augmented by the Ancients."
Geisler bristled. "Such a callous and, frankly, ignorant dismissal of a remarkable evolutionary-"
"Did you just call me ignorant? Are you delusional or just oblivious?"
"Rodney!" Elizabeth shoved her chair back. "Everyone, please excuse us for a moment. Rodney, with me." She strode toward one of the louvered doors without waiting to see if he would follow.
Fortunately, he did. Once they were out of the briefing room and inside her office, she shut the door and rounded on him. "Did Geisler wrong you in some monumental way to deserve that? Those people aren't graduate students for you to terrorize. What the hell were you trying to prove in there?"
"People are being killed on Earth," Rodney fired back, unrepentant. "We don't have time to wax poetic about lost worlds."
"I agree that time is an issue." She folded her arms. "Stay here. I'll continue the meeting and call you when your input is needed."
"Excuse me?" He jumped on the perceived slight, though not in quite the way she'd anticipated. "Oh, I see. This is the new norm. I was excluded from the initial briefing with Carson about the iratus gene prevalence in humans, and now it continues."
"Is that what all this has been about? You're taking that omission as a personal affront?" Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the first twinges of a tension headache. She'd probably have to go through this scene with John, too. Assigning him to work with Agent Larance rather than join his team on MIM-316 hadn't been her idea, but her dealings with the IOA had armed her with enough situational awareness to know that this was not a decision she could safely protest. Nonetheless, when Elizabeth hadn't instantly leapt to John's defense in the SGC jumper bay, the fleeting glance he'd given her had said plenty. As inscrutable as he often was, she recognized wounded pride when she saw it.
She could appreciate both men's feelings on the matter, up to a point. However.-..
Elizabeth stepped nose-to-nose with Rodney. "You need to accept the fact that not everything on this expedition can revolve around you," she said, her tone blunt. "There simply aren't enough hours in the day for you to be the chief scientist of this expedition, a full-time researcher running your own lab, and a full-time member of a gate team. Therefore, occasionally things take place on this expedition without your supervision or approval. Somewhere along the line you have to delegate and trust that your people know their jobs. At the moment, I personally would like to understand what happened on 316 from all perspectives, not just that of the person who speaks the loudest. So what will it be'? Can you find it within yourself to give your fellow scientists and teammates the respect they deserve, or do you need to stay here and sulk for a while, thereby missing yet more pertinent information that you can use to support an argument bordering on paranoia?"
She'd never seen Rodney honestly furious with her on a personal level, and she half expected to get her first demonstration of it right now. When he instead remained focused on the original offense, she realized she couldn't have been more wrong.
"There's no reason why Carson shouldn't have informed me," he insisted. "Officially or otherwise. It's not as if he never had an opportunity. How many times did we have lunch together?"
The supposed protest continued, but Elizabeth barely heard it, preoccupied with a dawning realization of just what all this was truly about. The relentless pace of the expedition was an inescapable reality. When they suffered a loss, there was never enough time to mourn properly, to come to grips with it on their own terms. They were simply thrown headfirst into the next crisis. At one time or another, the strain took its toll on all of them.
More than anyone else, Rodney had had a true peer in Carson. In addition to the sense of isolation he likely felt now, the iratus research must be reminding him on a regular basis that his friend hadn't confided in him about absolutely everything.
"…all it would have taken is an off-duty moment-"
"Rodney, you're never off duty," Elizabeth said, softening her tone.
As much as she sympathized with him, she couldn't be his armchair therapist. Not while her own conscience was weighed down with the task of telling her people that some of their friends or family might be among those who had been cruelly murdered on Earth. There were a number of Lilith cult victims who didn't fit the pattern that began at Wormhole X-treme, and Agent Larance had speculated that the Stargate program itself had been the link. Rather than spend a substantial amount of time on background checks, it had made more sense to question the Antarctic and Atlantis expeditions about the list of known victims.