"Doc, it's okay," John hurried to tell him. "Zelenka and Stackhouse and the others are all fine. It's not your fault."
The reassurance didn't seem to ease Beckett's burden. "I wanted so badly to stop her, and I don't know why I couldn't-"
"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."
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 "