“Is it a pretty day out?” Eva asked, making conversation. She reached over to push the button for her and the door slid open when she reached for it.
Keller looked around. “Did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Open the door like that.” Keller motioned her in and put her lunch down on the desk. “Did you do that?”
Eva eyed the door panel suspiciously. “Doesn’t it work that way?”
Keller shook her head. “It’s not an automatic door. It’s manual operation unless you have the ATA gene.” She looked at Eva, her head to the side. “Have you had bloodwork done?”
“Just the basics,” Eva said. “ATA gene?”
“Has this happened to you before? Lights going on? Water at the right temperature, that kind of thing?”
“Aren’t the lights automatic?” Eva asked. “I mean, yes. They go on all the time. I thought it was just how the city was.”
Keller’s face changed to a smile. “Congratulations, Dr. Robinson! You have the ATA gene. I’ll need to run a blood sample to be sure, but it looks like you’ve joined an elite club.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you haven’t been with us long you haven’t heard it before. I’m not sure how thorough the hiring briefings were.”
Eva smiled ruefully. “Thorough. Thousands of pages. I’m afraid I haven’t gotten through everything in three weeks. What is the ATA gene and what does that have to do with the lights?”
Jennifer Keller sat down at her desk, motioning Eva to take the visitor’s chair. “The Ancients, the people who built this place, coded most of the functions to their own genetic code. It makes sense as a security measure, certainly. If someone captured the technology they wouldn’t be able to use it. Fortunately for us, after the last of the Ancients evacuated to Earth they mixed to a certain extent with the human population there. Roughly 4 per cent of humans from Earth have the ATA gene naturally expressed. It’s recessive, and therefore rare.” She shrugged. “Most people don’t know they have it, because they never encounter any Ancient technology.”
“You’re saying I have this Ancient gene?” Eva glanced around the curved emerald ceiling of the office. “That I’m descended from the people who built Atlantis?”
Keller nodded. “You and Dr. Beckett and Dr. Kusanagi and Colonel Sheppard, and a handful of other people. We only have eight people on the expedition currently with a naturally expressed ATA gene. There are more who have successfully used Dr. Beckett’s gene therapy to activate an ATA recessive that they’re carrying, and can utilize Ancient technology to a limited degree, but the naturally expressed ATA gene tends to be stronger and easier for people to learn to use. If you have it, consider yourself very lucky.” Keller picked up her orange juice. “At least until people want you to come turn things on all day. Carson complains all the time that he’s the human light switch.”
Eva searched for words. “Do you have this…gene?”
“No.” Keller’s mouth pinched. “And apparently I don’t carry it as a recessive either, since the gene therapy didn’t work on me. It can’t activate what you don’t have.”
“That must be inconvenient,” Eva said.
“Tell me about it. I can’t get half the Ancient medical equipment to work. I have to get Marie to do things since the gene therapy worked on her.” Keller shook her head. “Dr. Beckett can use everything, of course”
“That must be challenging.”
Keller took a drink of her orange juice. “Dr. Beckett is much more qualified for this job than I am. But as far as the ATA gene goes, the person you’ll want to talk to is Colonel Sheppard. I’ll drop him an email and let him know you’ve got the gene. He has the strongest affinity for Atlantis’ systems, so he can best show you how to use it.” She looked away, frowning at her computer screen. “If we’re able to go back, it would be really useful to have someone else on the medical staff with the gene.”
“I’m just a contract employee while you’re here,” Eva said. “To help with transition issues. Besides, didn’t the IOA decide that Atlantis was remaining on Earth?”
Keller didn’t lift her eyes from the screen. “I hope that’s not final,” she said.
“We have systems green,” Radek Zelenka said, peering at the display on his laptop.
Dashing between the city’s screen display and his own, Rodney snapped into his headset, “Carter?”
“We have main power online.” Sam Carter’s voice came over the radio from where she was in the substructural auxiliary power control center. “But I’m getting some fluctuations in E23 and E24.”
“I am seeing those too,” Radek said.
“Those shouldn’t affect the hyperdrive,” Rodney said. “Those are to the atmosphere scrubbers, which we don’t need when we’re parked in California. Ignore them. Sam? Are you reading power to the hyperdrive initiators?”
“I have green on navigation,” Radek said. He frowned. “But I’m not getting an active signal between the hyperdrive initiators and the Chair.”
“Forget the Chair,” Rodney directed. “One thing at a time. Sam? Do we have power to the initiators?”
“We have power to the initiators.” Sam’s voice was crisp. “I’m reading full on one through three. Four is only at 40 per cent.”
“The east pier.” Radek shook his head with a few select swear words in Czech. “Will we ever get that thing fixed?”
“If you hadn’t gotten it shot up,” Rodney began.
“I was not flying, in case you do not remember,” Radek snapped. “That was Carson, and if you have a problem you should take it to him.”
The door to Woolsey’s office opened and he came to stand gravely beside Rodney’s terminal. “Shut it down.”
“What?” Rodney said sharply. “There’s no possible danger of overload. We’re testing the repaired power conduits to make sure that we’ve fixed all the breaks and we’re actually getting power to the hyperdrive.”
“I’m still reading inactive connections from the initiators to the Chair,” Sam said on the radio.
“Shut it down.” Woolsey’s quiet voice carried.
With a glance at Rodney, Radek moved the indicators down.
“Why?” Rodney pulled himself up, towering over Woolsey even with his modest height.
“The IOA has suspended all repairs and systems testing indefinitely.” Woolsey lifted his chin. “Other than routine maintenance of vital systems, we are to shut down all additional work, pending a full review.”
“I’m not reading any power down here,” Sam said on the radio. “Radek, I have a full drop off.”
“Colonel Carter, I’ve shut the test down,” Woolsey said into the radio. “And you might want to come up here.”
“Why in the hell would they do that?” Rodney demanded. “We have things we have to get done! We can’t sit around for months while they review everything! We need to get these systems operable again.”
“The IOA does not agree,” Woolsey said stiffly. “Atlantis is staying on Earth, and therefore the hyperdrive repairs are academic. Especially when they consider the ‘potential hazards of working haphazardly on alien systems.’”
Radek swore softly under his breath, his glasses trembling on the end of his nose.
“Working haphazardly on alien systems?” Rodney shouted. “What do they think we’ve been doing for the last five years? I’m not going to blow up the city fixing a damn power conduit!” Rodney cupped his headset. “Carter! Tell him!”