Trial Without Error - 3
Title: Trial Without Error
Author: Soledad
For disclaimer, rating, etc. see the secondary index page.
Author's notes:
Re: Bates’ team. The names of the guys are from me. For the descriptions I frame-freezed the scene in one of the episodes where they were coming in hot and composed the team that way. The same is true for the Contol Room personnel, save Eddie Wong who’s named after the actor who played him.
CHAPTER 3 - TAKING EVIDENCE
Sergeant Michael Eugene Bates had witnessed quite a few JAG trials during his career - he’d even given testimony at a few of them - so he thought he knew what to expect. After all, how different could this one be?
As it turned out, he couldn’t have been more mistaken.
It seemed that the experts who’d put the Atlantis Charta together had given special attention to legal matters. They particularly made sure that the court of Atlantis wouldn’t simply follow American practice. There were, for example, no civilian jurymen to begin with, just the highly educated and trained lawyers and law clerks who’d been sent to the expedition. The authors of the Charta apparently hadn’t wanted people who didn’t have any experience with law enforcing to make eventually wrong decisions, based on emotions or on the rhetorics of the attorneys.
The courtroom - originally a large gathering place of unknown purpose - was very simple. There were only four tables, borrowed from the Mess Hall, as they didn’t have proper desks for such occasions. In the middle, facing the entrance, sat Kirkitadze with his recording clerk, a lovely young Latino woman who happened to be one Gunnery Sergeant Galindez’ four sisters. She’d been a paralegal law clerk back home and was also a fishing guide. That and his relation to the Gunny got her chosen for the expedition as Kirkitadze’s aide.
Major Vogel, also wearing the traditional black robe instead of his dress uniform, sat with Dr. Weir - who was the private plaintiff, something that had been adopted from German legal practice - on Kirkitadze’s right. As always, she looked spotless in her crème-coloured, elegant suit, and supremely collected. She was a seasoned diplomat, after all.
On the judge’s left were two small tables. At one of those sat Bates himself with Petty Officer Tiner, who was wearing his dress uniform and looked about twelve again. At the other table sat Major Sheppard, also in dress blues - and without legal support, since he’d previously refused it.
Save from the Gate technicians on duty and a minimum of security guards, practically the entire Atlantis was present. Bates noticed his men sitting opposite him in the first row, building a united front against the rest of the world, looking grim and determined. McKinney’s solid bulk seemed immobile like a rock; just his short-cropped black hair was bristling nervously. Rickman, who looked like some starving geek (but could fire a grenade launcher while running for his life), had a pained expression on his narrow face. His thinning hair was immaculately combed, as if looking respectable could help his commanding officer. Toussaint was completely unfazed, as always, but his hands were clenched into a tight fist, so that his knuckles stood out grey. Bosco Teague, called “Boss” among his fellow Marines, was sitting calmly, like some ebony Buddha (he was so dark-skinned that both Bates and Toussaint seemed pale in comparison), his clean-shaven skull gleaming in the artificial light.
Only Yamato didn’t give any sign of nervousness, and Bates briefly envied the young man for it. Perhaps it was a Zen thing. Perhaps they’d all been wrong to laugh at Yamato’s arcane techniques that included yoga and meditation on a daily basis.
Although not a constant member of Bates’ team, Dr. Simpson sat next to the Marines, perhaps to provide moral support. Bates was a bit surprised by the presence of doctors Corrigan and Kavanagh while the members of Sheppard’s team were absent, just like a great many other scientists and soldiers. But then he remembered that those would be heard as witnesses, so they couldn’t be there just yet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The first witness called by the court was Lieutenant Ford. He seemed extremely nervous, which was understandable, considering that he had to make testimony against his own commanding officer, and - what was even worse for him - against an experienced and highly respected Marine Sergeant whom he saw as a friend. Not that his testimony could really harm either Sheppard or Bates. He’d been trapped in the infected section of the city, waiting for his immediate and brutal death at the time when Major Sheppard started his personal little rebellion against civilian authority, but he knew the situation well enough to realize that he could say nigh to nothing in their defence.
Bates abruptly realized that he wasn’t in Kansas anymore (figuratively speaking) when the court didn’t immediately make Ford swear on the Bible in good old US-fashion. They simply reminded the young man that as a witness he had to tell the truth and that he had the right to refuse in answer if by answering would charge him or an immediate relative with any crime. They checked his personal data, too, and then Major Vogel started to ask his questions.
“Lieutenant Ford,” he began, “can you give us an overall picture of the events? Be as specific as possible, please.”
“Well, sir, a group of engineers was checking out one of the piers of Atlantis after the flooding caused by the hurricane,” Ford replied.
“Which one?” Vogel asked, for the protocol, not because he wouldn’t already know.
“Erm… the South Pier, sir,” Ford said. “The corridors of that area were quite dark, so they al had torches, and doctors McKay and Zelenka had their laptops with them.”
“Who else was in this particular group?” Vogel asked. Ford thought about that for a moment.
“Dr. Hays,” he said, “Dr. Petersen and a rifle team of Marines, including myself. The other three were Sherman, Reed and Coffman. Another rifle team went with the other group, with doctors Johnson, Wagner and Dumais,” He swallowed hard. All the scientists he’d mentioned, with the exception of McKay and Zelenka, were dead by now… and their death had been a shockingly swift one.
“All right,” Vogel said, giving him a moment to collect himself. “Continue, please.”
“The geeks… I mean, the scientists,” Ford corrected himself hastily, “were done with the investigation. Dr. Weir contacted Dr. McKay to ask him about the status of that section, and Dr. McKay reported in that the pier was generally OK. So we were just about to meet Dr. Dumais’ team when Dr. Zelenka noticed that doctors Wagner and Johnson were missing. So we went to look for them.”
He hesitated for e moment before continuing, but that moment was enough for an experienced courtroom shark like Vogel to become suspicious.
“Lieutenant, what are you not telling us?” he asked in a deceivingly friendly voice.
“It’s… personal… and not important,” Ford replied defensively.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Sevarion Kirkitadze intervened calmly. “Answer the question, Lieutenant.”
“Well,” Ford seemed embarrassed, “Doctors McKay and Zelenka had been playing Prime/Not Prime, just for fun… what geeks see as fun anyway. They wanted me to participate, but I… I’m not as good at maths as they are, and they, well, made fun of me. Or so I thought anyway. I lost my temper and was… quite rude to Dr. Zelenka. And he… he seemed stunned, almost frightened, for some reason. And when we turned back to look for the missing people, Dr. Hays took me aside and promised me to break my nose, should I speak to Dr. Zelenka in that manner again.”
For a moment, there was stunned silence in the courtroom. Only a man with a death wish would provoke a highly trained Marine that way.
“That’s… suicidal,” Teague commented from the first row, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Major Vogel shook his head. “Not necessarily. Dr. Hays used to be a middle-weight boxing champion, and he still trained regularly in the gym. He was also a close friend of Dr. Zelenka’s. I don’t doubt that he could have broken Lieutenant Ford’s nose, had he’d put his mind to it - or that he would have done it, if sufficiently provoked. The man wasn’t easily intimidated. All right, Lieutenant, continue.”
“Shortly thereafter, we heard Dr. Wagner’s voice through the radio,” Ford said. “He sounded terrified.”
“Be specific, Lieutenant,” Vogel ordered. “What exactly did Dr. Wagner say?”
“He asked for a back-up,” Ford replied. “He told us they were coming.”
“They?” Vogel repeated. “Who were they?”
Ford shrugged. “I have no idea, sir. His visions… the same as the others had later, I guess. Fortunately, I never came to see them myself, or else I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Lieutenant,” Vogel reminded him. “Tell us about the next events. How did you find Dr. Wagner?”
“I asked Dr. Z… I mean, Dr. Zelenka, where the others might be. He checked his lifesigns detector and pointed out the way for us. We rushed down the corridor and found doctors Wagner and Johnson,” Ford explained with military precision. “Dr. Wagner was lying on the floor and didn’t move. Dr. Johnson was sitting on the floor, against the wall, with her legs drawn up and her head down on her knees. Dr. McKay hurried over to her and asked if she was OK.”
“Was Dr. Wagner already dead at that time?” Kirkitadze asked, checking the security records that were running on his clerk’s laptop.
Ford nodded. “Yes, sir. I checked his pulse myself - there wasn’t one.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Kirkitadze typed something on his own laptop. “Please, continue.”
Ford obeyed. “Dr. Johnson was crying and told Dr. McKay that they got him - I mean, Dr. Wagner. Then she began to scream hysterically, fighting something only she could see… and then she dropped to the floor and was dead.”
“Just like that?” Vogel asked, raising an eyebrow. Ford nodded.
“Yes, sir. I couldn’t see everything, of course, it was really dark there, and doctors Hays and Zelenka were handling her. But Dr. Z checked her pulse and said she was dead.”
“How much later was this than Dr. Wagner’s death?” Vogel asked.
“A couple of minutes, tops, sir,” Ford replied. “Dr. McKay asked for a quarantine team then, and Dr. Z recommended a… a level four quarantine, I think.”
“You think?” Vogel frowned.
Ford shrugged. “I’m not sure, sir. I don’t know too much about medical emergencies, and frankly, I was scared. In any case, Dr. Beckett promised to get down a hazmat team to us and to inform Dr. Weir.”
“Did Dr. Becker tell you to stay where you were?” Vogel asked.
Ford nodded. “Yes, sir. Dr. Petersen was against staying - everyone could see that he was scared sh… I mean, he was frightened very much, sir. He wanted to leave the group when Dr. McKay told us to follow him, but Private Coffman hindered him, so he came with us, in the end.”
“Where were you going from there?” Vogel asked.
“Dr. McKay wanted to retract Johnson and Wagner’s steps to figure out where and how they might got infected,” Ford explained.
Vogel frowned again. “Why that?”
“I think he hoped that detecting the source would help Dr. B find a cure,” Ford said vaguely. “Needless to say that Dr. Petersen disagreed very much, but it’s practically impossible to stop McKay when he’s on the roll. So we went back to the section doctors Johnson and Wagner had been exploring and found some kind of lab. Its door was half-open, we could barely squeeze ourselves through the opening.”
“What do you mean with ‘we’?” Vogel interrupted.
Ford pulled a face, “Well, Dr. McKay refused to go in there alone, so I had to go with him. It was dark, and broken glass crunched under our feet. McKay had Dr. Z’s torch and so we could see a long central table with some large glass jars standing on it. Several of them were broken, and that seemed to make McKay worried.”
“Because he suspected that whatever killed doctors Johnson and Wagner must have come from those smashed containers?” Vogel asked.
Ford nodded. “Dr, Dumais and Dr. Z agreed with him. They discussed the lab and how it wasn’t networked in with the rest of the Ancient systems… I didn’t really understand all of it. It’s hard to follow when McKay and Dr. Z start finishing each other’s sentences.”
That statement caused repressed amusement in the courtroom. McKay and Zelenka’s famous, rapid-fire discussions, completely unfathomable for anyone else, had already become something of a legend in Atlantis. Highly educated scientists had a hard time to keep up with those two - how could a young officer with a simple college degree hope to do the same?
“I understand,” Vogel, too, suppressed a smile. “What happened then?”
Ford swallowed hard. “Then… then Dr. Dumais began to scream and tried to brush something off Dr. Petersen. McKay and Dr, Z tried to pull her off. Then she clutched her head, moaned and began to convulse.” He swallowed again. “There was blood coming from her nose, mouth and ears - and she became very still, all of a sudden. Dr. Z checked her pulse, then looked at McKay and shook his head. And that was when I realized that Dr. Petersen had slipped away while we’d been distracted.”
Vogel asked a few more questions, but it became clear that Ford didn’t know much about the events concerning the chasing of Dr. Petersen through that section. He’d been apparently preoccupied with his own imminent death. In a way, it was understandable. Marines were trained to fight visible enemies. Viruses that killed one through visions weren’t exactly their field of expertise. Not even after all that Ford had already seen and experienced during his time with the SGC.
So Kirkitadze released Ford and called in the Marines who’d been assigned to the scientists, one after another. Not that the men could have told them anything new, as they weren’t really involved into the whole interaction, having secured their respective teams from the rear all the time. But Kirkitadze was nothing if not thorough. He questioned Coffman, Reed, Sherman and the others, and only when he was assured that hey wouldn’t be able to tell him anything of true importance, released them and called for Dr. Zelenka.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To everyone’s surprise, Zelenka was wearing civilian clothes - a rather plain-looking brown suit with a blue shirt and a black tie - instead of his Atlantis uniform. He looked sombre but sufficiently collected. He confirmed Ford’s testimony up to the point where they’d found Johnson and Wagner, but he could give more details about Johnson’s death.
“When we got there, she was crying,” he remembered. “She kept telling us they got him. Was speaking of Wagner, I think. Then she looked up and stared in terror over Rodney’s… Dr. McKay’s shoulder. Was looking directly at me but seeing something else, I guess. Then she scrambled to her feet and started to back away.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing hard. Kirkitadze was watching him intently but didn’t press. The man needed to get over his shock first. Finally, Zelenka opened his eyes again and continued in a strangely flat, even voice.
“Dr. Johnson was flailing at something only she could see. She screamed that they were everywhere… tried to fight them off. Paul,” he swallowed convulsively by mentioning his now-dead best friend, “I mean Dr. Hays and I tried to calm her down, but it was no use. She kept fighting… until her legs buckled under her. Paul and I lowered her to floor. She clutched at head and screamed… and screamed, for seconds, and then… then she went limp. I brushed hair away from her face to see if she’d injured herself and put my fingers on her neck to find pulse. I couldn’t. Blood was coming from her nose and mouth, just like by Wagner. She was gone.” He paused and added sorrowfully, “She was young so very young. She had entire life before her. Is terrible loss for us all.”
“Indeed it is,” Major Vogel agreed. “I understand that it was you who recommended a Level Four quarantine?”
Zelenka nodded. “Is standard procedure during outbreak of unknown epidemics: contain infection till we know what we’re dealing with. We all have been trained how to act in such situations.”
“In Dr. Petersen’s case that training seems to have been in vain,” Sheppard commented sarcastically. Kirkitadze gave him a disapproving look.
“It’s not your turn yet, Major Sheppard,” he said. “You’ll have the chance to question the witness later. Dr. Zelenka, do you want to add anything to this part of your testimony?”
“Yes, Your Honour,” Zelenka answered. “Before anyone starts accusing Dr. Petersen for what’s happened, I wish to remind everyone that Willem Petersen was good and decent man; and excellent scientist. It’s true that he ‘lost it’ in dangerous situation, as Americans like to say. He acted like moron. But he was terrified… too terrified to think straight. Had Sergeant Bates not released the lock on gym, though, section would have remained cut off from power. That would have slowed Petersen’s progress enough for him to die in some empty room alone, without spreading nanovirus and endangering many other people.”
“Objection,” Petty Officer Tiner said calmly. “Speculation from the side of the witness.”
“No, Petty Officer,” Zelenka answered; “is scientifically sound estimate.”
“We’re not trying to put the blame on anyone yet, Dr. Zelenka,” Kirkitadze said. “We’re just trying to check out all the facts. Please, continue; and tell us every detail you can remember. We don’t know yet what might prove important.”
Zelenka nodded and shared his personal memories about the finding of the ancient lab and Dr. Dumais’ fast and brutal death.
“Have you found the database of the lab?” Vogel asked. Zelenka nodded.
“Yes, yes, yes. It was strange, though… it only contained information about experiments that took place in that particular lab Of course, we didn’t have time to go through all the data; Dr. Beckett’s team would be working on that for weeks to come. But at least we knew where Johnson and Wagner were infected… and incubation time could be calculated.”
After this, he described Dr. Dumais’ death in gruelling detail, and how they’d realized that Petersen was gone. As it turned out, although he had been equipped with a headset, he hadn’t heard much from the clash between Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard, simply because he hadn’t been listening.
“I was going over the survey schedule,” he explained. “Johnson and Wagner had originally started off on their own, and they crossed paths with Dumais an hour later. Accordingly, Dumais died an hour later than the other tow. And I realized that after meeting with Johnson and Wagner, Dumais met up with Hays… and Rodney. At the time I’ve figured out this, they’ve already had visions for about an hour.”
“How did Dr. McKay react to this discovery?” Vogel asked.
“We’re talking about Rodney, Major,” Sheppard answered sarcastically before Zelenka could. “How, do you thin, he reacted? He was completely hysterical, of course.”
“He was…worried,” Zelenka corrected quietly, giving Sheppard a decidedly unfriendly look, “and he had good reason to be. After all, Dr. Hays died before our eyes, just as swiftly, only an hour after Dr. Dumais had. And there was absolutely nothing anyone could have done.”
“I thought Dr. Beckett’s team was working on the problem?” Petty Officer Tiner said.
“They were,” Zelenka replied, “but they were running against time. A six-hour-incubation is very short one.”
“Short indeed,” Vogel nodded. “But do continue, Dr. Zelenka. What happened after Dr. Hays’ death?”
Zelenka grinned unexpectedly. “Rodney was sharing last thoughts with us. Was very dramatic. Then he paused and looked around room, waiting for deadly visions to start. Then he turned around… slowly, very slowly…. Stared at ceiling… still nothing happened. And that was how we realized that virus doesn’t kill people with Ancient gene.”
“Which wasn’t much of a help for you, personally, though,” Vogel added.
“Ne,” Zelenka admitted. “At that time, both Lieutenant Ford and me had about an hour left - or less. I’m afraid we weren’t much help for Rodney - or anyone else - during that time. I certainly wasn’t. All I could think of was clock, tickling down seconds in my head.”
“That’s understandable,” Kirkitadze, not a gene carrier himself, nodded in compassion. “Can you tell us anything else of importance?”
“I don’t believe so,” Zelenka answered. “Dr. Beckett’s people were bothering me with thermometers and heart monitors and other things, so half the time I didn’t even wear my headset. And I was shaken,” he added quietly. “Dr. Hays was a good friend of mine. Losing him so suddenly… was very hard for me.”
“Losing a friend always is; especially here where there are so few of us,” Kirkitadze said. Then he looked at Vogel and at Tiner. “Any more questions?”
“I have one,” Sheppard said. “I’d like to know how Petersen managed to slip away from your group unnoticed.”
Zelenka turned to him, and when he answered, his tone was sharp, and for the first time downright hostile.
“We were focusing on problem, Major,” he said. “Keeping people where they belong is your job. Had your men paid attention, poor Willem couldn’t have slipped away. Had you not disobeyed Dr. Weir’s orders, Willem could never have reached Mess Hall. It’s that simple, so don’t you start directing blame at us.”
Everyone was a bit taken aback by the ferocity of his answer - well, everyone save his fellow engineers who’d seen him stand up to an irate McKay regularly. Compared with that, John Sheppard was a belligerent tomcat.
“Ms Galindez, delete the last paragraph, including Major Sheppard’s question,” Kirkitadze instructed the law clerk. “Dr. Zelenka, thank you for your help. Please, take a seat among the spectators,” he added dryly. “The court will hear Teyla now, daughter of Tagan, from the local Athosian tribe.”
“Her full name is Teyla Emmagan, Your Honour,” Sheppard supplied helpfully. Kirkitadze gave him a long-suffering look.
“Major Sheppard,” he said patiently, “could it possibly have escaped your notice that Emmagan is a title among the Athosians - and the title of the tribal leader at that - not a surname?”
“She still has the right to be addressed with that name,” Sheppard, who was, of course, well aware aforementioned fact, said stubbornly. “She’s still the leader of the Athosians.”
“That’s not exactly correct,” Kirkitadze replied. “You prefer to introduce her to other people using a title she’s not entitled to wear any longer.”
“She’s not… what?” Sheppard frowned. Kirkitadze raised an eyebrow.
“She’s no longer the leader of her tribe,” he explained. “Halling is the Emmagan; has been ever since the others followed him to the mainland. You want to make me believe that you haven’t known that?”
Sheppard shrugged. “We never talk about such things,” he said uncomfortably.
“It seems that your inability to listen to other people is extended to many areas of your life, Major,” Vogel said pointedly.
“None of which is your business,” Sheppard riposted, “Major.”
“In this particular case and in this particular area, actually, it is,” Vogel replied calmly. Then he looked at Galindez who was standing at the door. “Gunny, call the witness in.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I was teaching Major Sheppard the use of fighting sticks,” Teyla said, aiming her serene smile at Major Vogel. “We have been training every day since he began to learn this art. He could be really good at it - given enough time - but he is not practicing enough.”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re discussing here,” Sheppard interrupted. “Besides, I wouldn’t have a rat’s chance against her anyway.”
“That is probably true,” Teyla agreed placidly. “In any case, we have just finished our training when Dr. Weir announced the self-regulated quarantine and ordered everyone to stay where they were.”
“How did Major Sheppard react?” Vogel asked.
“He was… impatient,” Teyla replied slowly. “He had not brought his radio, so he took mine and started arguing with Dr. Weir. He wanted to go to the Control Room, at any costs. He did not like it that Dr. Weir had consulted Sergeant Bates about the situation instead of him because he had been off radio. But for the time being he agreed to stay in the gym until further notice.”
Kirkitadze leaned forward in his chair. “When did he change his mind?”
“When he heard that Dr. Petersen had escaped and was on his way to the Control Room,” Teyla answered. “He wanted us to get out of the gym and stop Dr. Petersen, even though Dr. Weir was against it. He decided that he had to protect Dr. Weir from being effected.”
“Did Dr. Weir unmistakably forbid him to leave the gym?” Vogel asked.
“Yes,” Teyla said. “Dr. Weir asked Dr. Grodin to seal the gym; which he did. But Major Sheppard ordered Sergeant Bates to unlock the doors.”
“Did Dr. Weir order Sergeant Bates to stand down?” Vogel continued.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. I could hear it clearly through the radio. A few seconds later, though, the doors opened.”
Tiner raised a hand. “So you can’t directly confirm that it was Sergeant Bates who’d opened the doors, am I correct?”
“I have not seen him doing it, if that is what you are asking,” Teyla answered precisely. “But at the same time, I heard him apologize to Dr. Weir, who said that it did not really matter anymore, since it was already done.”
“Bates just carried out his orders,” Sheppard said impatiently.
“That might be so,” Teyla replied, “but you had no right to undermine Dr. Weir’s authority in front of Sergeant Bates. I have told you so much then, but you were not listening. Unfortunately, you are rarely willing to do so, Major.”
“My place in the chain of command is above Bates, and I can order him to do whatever I find has to be done,” Sheppard snapped.
“Perhaps,” Teyla said, “but you do not stand above Dr. Weir. You had no right to force Sergeant Bates to act against her orders. Or else we would not have this trial right now.”
Sheppard seemed as if he’d give a sharp answer at that, but Kirkitadze was faster.
“Where did you go when the gym doors opened?” he asked.
“To the medical lab, to put on hazmat suits,” Teyla said. “Then Major Sheppard asked Dr. Weir about Dr. Petersen’s location.”
“Did she give him the information?”
“Not at once - she was probably really angry, and rightly so - but she did. We headed out to find Dr. Petersen then.”
“Did you find him?” Vogel asked. Teyla nodded.
“Yes. Major Sheppard tried to reason with him, but Dr. Petersen was clearly not thinking straight. He promised to go back to the medlab, but when he saw an open transporter, he ran for it. Major Sheppard fired at him with the P90, repeatedly, but could not stop him, although he was injured. We learned later that he transported into the Mess Hall. When we tried to follow him, a citywide alarm started to sound, and the transporters would not work. The city had already taken over and locked down the infected areas. Fortunately, the doors were still opening for us, since we were wearing the hazmat suits.”
“Where did you go from there,” Vogel asked.
“To the Mess Hall,” Teyla replied. “It was my suggestion, actually. I thought people there would be very scared and confused. When we arrived there, Dr. Petersen was already dead, and people panicked. I stayed with them and tried to calm them down, while Major Sheppard was called away by Dr. McKay.”
There were several more questions, but Teyla couldn’t tell anything else that would be related to Bates and Sheppard’s case. So he was released, and Kirkitadze announced that he would now question the personnel of the Control Room.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The first person called in was Peter Grodin. The normally so calm and friendly scientist seemed still incredibly angry at both Sheppard and Bates. So angry, in fact, that it took him considerable effort to remain civil. It was an understandable reaction. As the Technical Director of Atlantis, Grodin was Dr. Weir’s right-hand-man and confidant in all practical matters; just as Kirkitadze was her aide in legal matters. Together with the head of the science department, the chief of the medical department and the highest-ranking military officer, they were the governing body of Atlantis. The chief of security stood only one step lower in the chain of command. As a civilian member of the ruling body, Grodin was entitled to be angry about Bates and Sheppard’s actions.
“It’s a known fact that the Ancients suffered from a plague,” he explained, after having confirmed Ford and Zelenka’s testimony about the initiation of the Level Four quarantine. The medical department of the SGC had a very… unpleasant encounter with the virus two years ago, when they found that frozen Ancient woman in Antarctica - and they were absolutely helpless against it. So yes, I agreed with Dr. McKay and Dr. Zelenka that if their team had somehow stumbled upon it and become infected, we needed to take every precaution to prevent an outbreak. Even if it meant sacrificing the people on the South Pier. Otherwise we’d have risked a citywide infection and the death of everyone in Atlantis.”
“I assume Major Sheppard didn’t agree with that,” Kirkitadze said.
Grodin shrugged. “He wanted someone to go to the gym and get him a hazmat suit. Dr. Weir explained him that everyone in hazmat was busy configuring the lab to deal with the virus and to prevent an outbreak. It seemed at that moment that the major actually might listen, this time. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.”
“Please, elaborate,” Kirkitadze said.
“Dr. Weir and Sergeant Bates were following Dr. Petersen’s movements via lifesigns detector,” Grodin explained. “They realized that he was trying to make his way back to the Control Room. In the meantime, I was locking all the doors in the hallway and killing power to the entire section.”
“Could that have stopped Dr. Petersen?” Vogel asked.
Grodin shook his head. “Ultimately? No. As Dr. McKay admitted himself, Petersen was an excellent engineer who knew almost as much about Ancient technology as Rodney did. But if we could have kept the transporters offline, it had bought us enough time to trap him somewhere on his way, instead of allowing him to stumble into a room full of people - like the Mess Hall.”
“Rodney said all you’d have been able to do was slowing him down,” Sheppard said, his annoyance evident.
“That is, sadly, quite true,” Grodin agreed. “But that would have been enough for a security team to reach him. I was almost done with limiting the door controls.”
“That wasn’t good enough!” Sheppard interrupted. “Someone needed to go out there and stop him.”
“And you think you were the only one capable of doing that,” Grodin said sarcastically. “Well, Major, let me tell you that we’d already had two security teams moving in on Petersen’s position - both of them considerably closer than you. Without your little riot act, we could have contained the situation before Petersen reached the Control Room.”
“You can’t be sure of that!” Sheppard declared.
“Perhaps,” Grodin said coldly. “But I can be sure in another thing: that your selfish and stupid action endangered the entire city.”
“Ms Galindez, delete the last paragraph,” Kirkitadze ordered. “Dr. Grodin, please try to control yourself. We need a testimony here, no private accusations. That’s Major Vogel’s job, not yours.”
“I’m sorry,” Grodin restrained himself with visible effort.
“I understand that you were a direct witness of what happened in the Control Room?” Petty Officer Tiner asked.
Grodin nodded. “Yes. I was near Dr. Weir, rearranging the crystal plates in the console controlling the hallway doors. Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard were arguing - the major wanted out of the gym to hunt Dr. Petersen down personally. He wasn’t listening, so Dr. Weir ordered me to seal the gym.”
“Did you?” Vogel asked.
“Of course,” Grodin replied. “We all knew Major Sheppard’s… spontaneous nature by then,” he added wryly. “Precautions were in order. Of course, we couldn’t take into consideration that Sergeant Bates would turn against the colony leader in favour of his commanding officer.”
“Sergeant Bates only followed orders,” Tiner said.
Grodin rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Don’t give me that crap, Petty Officer! I’m not a soldier, but even I know that if an officer acts against the expressed wishes of the civilian government he’s sworn to serve, his underlings aren’t supposed to follow his orders - or else we could declare this a military dictature and be done with playing democracy.”
“You’re exaggerating Dr. Grodin,” Tiner said. “I don’t think that Major Sheppard was planning to take over Atlantis.”
“Of course not,” Grodin agreed. “He just thought he knew everything better than others and wasn’t willing to wait until people who were better suited to deal with a medical situation did their jobs. He undermined the authority of the civilian leadership, which would have been a dangerous example, even if he’d been right. Which he was not.”
“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve saved your collective asses in the end,” Sheppard said.
“You haven’t done anything a half-decent pilot couldn’t have done,” Grodin riposted. “It was your fault that Petersen escaped via transporter into the Mess Hall, where the pathogen was almost instantly detected by the automated systems, and the city initiated a lockdown. Without us being locked out of the Atlantis mainframe, people in hazmat suits could have dragged an EMP generator down to the South Pier - as the transporters would work for them - and destroy the nanovirus in the system of the infected people right there. Which also means that we wouldn’t have to blow up a naquadah generator to achieve the same result, cutting our power supply even shorter. So no, Major, I truly cannot see any reason for you to be so proud of yourself.”
That shut Sheppard up, at least for the time being. Kirkitadze asked a few more questions about the failed effort with the EMP generator and the final solution, and then he released Grodin.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Next, the court heard the testimonies of the Control Room personnel on duty during the crisis. Technician Mette-Marit Sorenson, Sergeant Jenny Hagiwara, Tobias Moretti and Eddie Wong confirmed Grodin’s testimony about the conflict between Sheppard, Bates and Dr. Weir, but had little to add. So, having dealt with that end of the chain, Kirkitadze could finally turn to the major players and called Dr. Carolyn Biro first.
The chief pathologist of Atlantis - a thin, blonde woman in her forties - was an almost disturbingly cheerful person, considering her main job (she was also the resident xenobiologist, who enjoyed a great deal to examine dead alien life). Actually, she was the only professional pathologist of the expedition, although the other medical doctors were also capable of performing autopsies, of course. Dr. Biro seemed to like her work very much, and while she did have the tendency to babble when excited about some morbidly fascinating discovery, she could give very accurate reports about said discoveries.
“Al victims died of a ruptured secular brain aneurysm,” she explained matter-of-factly, “which, in itself, wouldn’t be all that remarkable - despite the statistical improbability, of course. The truly interesting part was that all those ruptures happened in exactly the same place: right above the visual cortex.”
“Which caused the identical visions, I understand?” Vogel asked.
Dr. Biro nodded. “Yes. And that fact made Carson… I mean, Dr. Beckett… and Dr. McKay realise that we were dealing with a nanovirus, manufactured to kill humans.”
That was all she could tell, having been too busy with all the autopsies to care what was going on anywhere else, so Kirkitadze released her and called Dr. Beckett.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The head physician of Atlantis looked very, very tired - and vaguely guilty, which, in Bates’ opinion, made no sense. There was nothing Dr. Beckett could have done against a nanovirus that had spread so fast and killed so quickly. There simply hadn’t been enough time for medical counter-measures. But again, Bates knew the good doctor well enough to realize that for Beckett, every death on his watch was his fault. It was probably a doctor thing… as long as the doctor in question was a civilian. Medical officers, like the late Dr. Fraiser at SGC tended to see things more realistically.
Dr. Beckett told the court basically the same things the others had before - just with more details in that obscure medical jargon only his own staff would be able to understand.
“Rodney… Dr. McKay asked for a containment team after Wagner and Johnson had died,” he explained. “Radek… Dr. Zelenka recommended a Level Four quarantine until we knew what we were dealin’ with. My team and I got to the hazmat gear and headed down to the South Pier. Unfortunately, it took some time to load the whole team into suits, so when we finally got down there, Rodney had found the Ancient viral lab… and Dr. Dumais was already dead.”
He paused unhappily, very obviously blaming himself for being late. Dr. Weir sighed and shook her head. Knowing Carson, it would take time for him to get over the most recent tragedy. And he’d just begun to recover from the trauma the events on Hoff had given him…
Kirkitadze must have thought the same because he spoke to Beckett in a calm, reassuring manner.
“Dr. Beckett, was there any way you could have gotten down to the South Pier any faster?” he asked. Beckett shook his head.
“I dinnae think so. You need to be careful with hazmat suits. They’re easily torn, as poor Teyla had to learn the hard way.”
“Assuming you had reached the South Pier, say, half an hour earlier, would that have made any difference?” Kirkitadze continued. Again, Beckett shook his head mutely. The lawyer shrugged. “In that case, I don’t see why you should blame yourself for the outcome. So please, go on and tell us what you and your staff did after reaching the pier.”
“I had them set up a small field station near the viral lab,” Beckett answered. “Dr. Biro started the autopsies, while the others checked the vitals of the infected people in the adjoining room.”
“Did you hear anything of what was happening in the Control Room?” Kirkitadze asked.
“Nay,” Beckett said. “I was on a permanent connection with Dr. Biro, exclusively. Plus, Rodney had called me back to the Ancient lab. He found the description of a virus in the Ancient database - it seemed like the one we were dealin’ with. The symptoms were exactly the same. Six hour hibernation, recurrin’ visions and brain haemorrhage or aneurysms.”
“But you were not yet aware of the fact that it was a nanovirus, were you?” Kirkitadze asked. Beckett shook his head.
“Nay, we still thought we were fightin’ a living organism. Then Rodney started havin’ visions, and it turned out Dr. Hays had been havin’ them for an hour, too, and we realized they were next - and everyone panicked a wee bit.”
“Could you do anything for them?” Vogel inquired. Beckett shrugged.
“Well, we hooked them up to heart and blood pressure monitors, but as Rodney pointed out, it couldn’t really help them. The best we could hope for was to collect s many data as possible - for the other people’s sake.”
He paused again, guilt and incurable grief written clearly in his kind, open face. No one dared to urge him to continue.
“This is the worst thing that could happen to a healer,” he finally whispered. “To watch people die, knowin’ he cannae do a thing to help. When it started with Dr. Hays… it was so… so fast, and to see the terror in his eyes… and just stand there, watchin’, completely helpless…”
“I’m told you didn’t just stand there, doctor,” Vogel corrected. “You were administering CPR when his heart stopped, weren’t you?”
Beckett shrugged wearily. “ER reflexes are hard to break…. Comes with the field. But Rodney was right. It was pointless. It wasn’t his heart.”
He recalled McKay’s “last words” in the same manner as Zelenka had done, and then described the discovery that the pathogen was a nanovirus and that it only killed humans without the ATA gene in minute detail.
“Can you tell us what exactly a nanovirus is?” Vogel asked. “Preferably in terms that we might actually understand?”
Becker nodded. “Aye. It’s an artificial virus c created by the use of nanotechnology. Nanites are, basically, microscopic machines, programmed to carry out very specific tasks suited for their size. Usually, they’re no bigger than a single-celled organism and have a sole purpose, like curing a disease or mending a blood vessel. In theory, anyway. Our own research in this area is still in a very early phase.”
“Those nanites, though, were fairly advanced, weren’t they?” Vogel asked.
“Aye, that they were,” Beckett agreed. “And they were programmed to terrorize the victims by tapping into their visual cortex and then rupturing an artery in their brain.”
“How many of those nanites are necessary to kill a human?” Kirkitadze asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Beckett admitted. “This technology is so far beyond us I cannae even make an educated guess. At least they’re unable to multiply; and that is a good thing.”
“So, theoretically, they’d have spread themselves too thin to do any more harm, given enough time?” Kirkitadze tried to clarify. Beckett nodded.
“Aye, that would be a possibility - in theory,” he said. “I’m just afraid there wouldnae be anyone left to confirm the results.”
“Did you find out who created the virus in the first place?” Kirkitadze asked. Beckett shook his head.
“Not yet, But we’re gonna studyin’ the database in the next weeks. Maybe we can find somethin’ eventually.”
“I see.” Kirkitadze looked at the attorneys. “Any more questions?”
Both Tiner and Vogel shook their heads. Sheppard, however, turned to Beckett.
“Doc, if the Ancient gene would protect people from this virus, why didn’t you just start giving gene shots everyone?”
“Because it wouldnae help them!” Beckett snapped, reaching the end of his patience. “It takes a minimum of four hours for the gene to become active, and people down there didnae have four hours! Besides, the therapy is only effective in forty-eight per cent of the recipients - it didnae take by Radek or by Hays - and we could see that only an active gene means protection. Or else Hays, Dumais and the others wouldnae be dead now.”
“We all understand the problem, Dr. Beckett,” Kirkitadze said, shooting Sheppard a warning look. “Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Beckett shook his head tiredly. “Very well. You’re released. Please, be seated somewhere. The court will hear Dr. McKay now.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Although he had barely anything new to tell, Rodney McKay’s testimony turned out the longest - and, to be honest, the most entertaining - of all witnesses. He gave an extremely detailed report of the events from his unique point of view, generously peppered with technobabble only Dr. Zelenka - and partially Dr. Grodin - was likely to understand. He explained the specifics behind the first attempt with the EMP generator, comparing it with another failed attempt two years earlier at the SGC, and he listed up many arguments why the attempt was a good idea, despite the failure, in both cases.
He was also practically the only person who could say anything in Sheppard’s defence, stating that Petersen had to be stopped, and that Grodin’s efforts to lock the man our might not have been enough. Which didn’t mean, however, that it had to be Sheppard, transporting over from the opposite side of the city, to hunt the man down, he added pointedly. Finally, he calculated for Kirkitadze what the loss of a naquadah generator could mean, considering the already existing power shortage. It wasn’t an optimistic estimate, even for Rodney, who generally tended to expect the worst, in any given situation.
When he finally collapsed on a chair, everyone was a bit glassy-eyed in the courtroom. Even Kirkitadze blinked several time, perhaps to clear his mind from the information overload, and then he turned to the left, where the defendants were sitting.
“Major Sheppard, Sergeant Bates,” he said. “You’ve heard the testimony of the witnesses. Do you still believe that you’ve done the right thing?”
“We’ve done the only possible thing to save the city,” Sheppard answered promptly. “In a similar situation, I’d do the same thing.”
“I have little doubt about that,” Kirkitadze replied dryly. “Bud do you believe it was really your decision to make? Don’t you think you should have listened to Dr. Weir?”
Sheppard shrugged. “She tends to make a decision early and gets locked into it. That’s her problem.”
Dr. Weir’s face revealed nothing, but her eyes grew ice cold at that. She mentally abandoned all hope that she might still save a working relationship with Sheppard.
“I see,” Kirkitadze said neutrally. “What about you, Sergeant Bates? Do you also think that you’ve acted correctly when you opted to follow Major Sheppard’s orders instead of Dr. Weir’s?”
For a long time, Bates didn’t reply, clearly struggling with himself.
“No,” he finally said in a heavy voice. “I’ve reacted instinctively… and I made a mistake. A mistake that could have killed all those people in the Mess Hall. I had no right to override Dr. Weir’s orders on the Major’s behalf. I thought back then that I was doing the right thing. I have come to understand that I was wrong.”
He could see the disbelief and hurt on Sheppard’s face, and he felt like shit by it. But he knew he couldn’t have answered differently. Truth was truth, after all.
For visuals: Sevarion Kirkitadze
Chapter 4 - Consequences
Author: Soledad
For disclaimer, rating, etc. see the secondary index page.
Author's notes:
Re: Bates’ team. The names of the guys are from me. For the descriptions I frame-freezed the scene in one of the episodes where they were coming in hot and composed the team that way. The same is true for the Contol Room personnel, save Eddie Wong who’s named after the actor who played him.
CHAPTER 3 - TAKING EVIDENCE
Sergeant Michael Eugene Bates had witnessed quite a few JAG trials during his career - he’d even given testimony at a few of them - so he thought he knew what to expect. After all, how different could this one be?
As it turned out, he couldn’t have been more mistaken.
It seemed that the experts who’d put the Atlantis Charta together had given special attention to legal matters. They particularly made sure that the court of Atlantis wouldn’t simply follow American practice. There were, for example, no civilian jurymen to begin with, just the highly educated and trained lawyers and law clerks who’d been sent to the expedition. The authors of the Charta apparently hadn’t wanted people who didn’t have any experience with law enforcing to make eventually wrong decisions, based on emotions or on the rhetorics of the attorneys.
The courtroom - originally a large gathering place of unknown purpose - was very simple. There were only four tables, borrowed from the Mess Hall, as they didn’t have proper desks for such occasions. In the middle, facing the entrance, sat Kirkitadze with his recording clerk, a lovely young Latino woman who happened to be one Gunnery Sergeant Galindez’ four sisters. She’d been a paralegal law clerk back home and was also a fishing guide. That and his relation to the Gunny got her chosen for the expedition as Kirkitadze’s aide.
Major Vogel, also wearing the traditional black robe instead of his dress uniform, sat with Dr. Weir - who was the private plaintiff, something that had been adopted from German legal practice - on Kirkitadze’s right. As always, she looked spotless in her crème-coloured, elegant suit, and supremely collected. She was a seasoned diplomat, after all.
On the judge’s left were two small tables. At one of those sat Bates himself with Petty Officer Tiner, who was wearing his dress uniform and looked about twelve again. At the other table sat Major Sheppard, also in dress blues - and without legal support, since he’d previously refused it.
Save from the Gate technicians on duty and a minimum of security guards, practically the entire Atlantis was present. Bates noticed his men sitting opposite him in the first row, building a united front against the rest of the world, looking grim and determined. McKinney’s solid bulk seemed immobile like a rock; just his short-cropped black hair was bristling nervously. Rickman, who looked like some starving geek (but could fire a grenade launcher while running for his life), had a pained expression on his narrow face. His thinning hair was immaculately combed, as if looking respectable could help his commanding officer. Toussaint was completely unfazed, as always, but his hands were clenched into a tight fist, so that his knuckles stood out grey. Bosco Teague, called “Boss” among his fellow Marines, was sitting calmly, like some ebony Buddha (he was so dark-skinned that both Bates and Toussaint seemed pale in comparison), his clean-shaven skull gleaming in the artificial light.
Only Yamato didn’t give any sign of nervousness, and Bates briefly envied the young man for it. Perhaps it was a Zen thing. Perhaps they’d all been wrong to laugh at Yamato’s arcane techniques that included yoga and meditation on a daily basis.
Although not a constant member of Bates’ team, Dr. Simpson sat next to the Marines, perhaps to provide moral support. Bates was a bit surprised by the presence of doctors Corrigan and Kavanagh while the members of Sheppard’s team were absent, just like a great many other scientists and soldiers. But then he remembered that those would be heard as witnesses, so they couldn’t be there just yet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The first witness called by the court was Lieutenant Ford. He seemed extremely nervous, which was understandable, considering that he had to make testimony against his own commanding officer, and - what was even worse for him - against an experienced and highly respected Marine Sergeant whom he saw as a friend. Not that his testimony could really harm either Sheppard or Bates. He’d been trapped in the infected section of the city, waiting for his immediate and brutal death at the time when Major Sheppard started his personal little rebellion against civilian authority, but he knew the situation well enough to realize that he could say nigh to nothing in their defence.
Bates abruptly realized that he wasn’t in Kansas anymore (figuratively speaking) when the court didn’t immediately make Ford swear on the Bible in good old US-fashion. They simply reminded the young man that as a witness he had to tell the truth and that he had the right to refuse in answer if by answering would charge him or an immediate relative with any crime. They checked his personal data, too, and then Major Vogel started to ask his questions.
“Lieutenant Ford,” he began, “can you give us an overall picture of the events? Be as specific as possible, please.”
“Well, sir, a group of engineers was checking out one of the piers of Atlantis after the flooding caused by the hurricane,” Ford replied.
“Which one?” Vogel asked, for the protocol, not because he wouldn’t already know.
“Erm… the South Pier, sir,” Ford said. “The corridors of that area were quite dark, so they al had torches, and doctors McKay and Zelenka had their laptops with them.”
“Who else was in this particular group?” Vogel asked. Ford thought about that for a moment.
“Dr. Hays,” he said, “Dr. Petersen and a rifle team of Marines, including myself. The other three were Sherman, Reed and Coffman. Another rifle team went with the other group, with doctors Johnson, Wagner and Dumais,” He swallowed hard. All the scientists he’d mentioned, with the exception of McKay and Zelenka, were dead by now… and their death had been a shockingly swift one.
“All right,” Vogel said, giving him a moment to collect himself. “Continue, please.”
“The geeks… I mean, the scientists,” Ford corrected himself hastily, “were done with the investigation. Dr. Weir contacted Dr. McKay to ask him about the status of that section, and Dr. McKay reported in that the pier was generally OK. So we were just about to meet Dr. Dumais’ team when Dr. Zelenka noticed that doctors Wagner and Johnson were missing. So we went to look for them.”
He hesitated for e moment before continuing, but that moment was enough for an experienced courtroom shark like Vogel to become suspicious.
“Lieutenant, what are you not telling us?” he asked in a deceivingly friendly voice.
“It’s… personal… and not important,” Ford replied defensively.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Sevarion Kirkitadze intervened calmly. “Answer the question, Lieutenant.”
“Well,” Ford seemed embarrassed, “Doctors McKay and Zelenka had been playing Prime/Not Prime, just for fun… what geeks see as fun anyway. They wanted me to participate, but I… I’m not as good at maths as they are, and they, well, made fun of me. Or so I thought anyway. I lost my temper and was… quite rude to Dr. Zelenka. And he… he seemed stunned, almost frightened, for some reason. And when we turned back to look for the missing people, Dr. Hays took me aside and promised me to break my nose, should I speak to Dr. Zelenka in that manner again.”
For a moment, there was stunned silence in the courtroom. Only a man with a death wish would provoke a highly trained Marine that way.
“That’s… suicidal,” Teague commented from the first row, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Major Vogel shook his head. “Not necessarily. Dr. Hays used to be a middle-weight boxing champion, and he still trained regularly in the gym. He was also a close friend of Dr. Zelenka’s. I don’t doubt that he could have broken Lieutenant Ford’s nose, had he’d put his mind to it - or that he would have done it, if sufficiently provoked. The man wasn’t easily intimidated. All right, Lieutenant, continue.”
“Shortly thereafter, we heard Dr. Wagner’s voice through the radio,” Ford said. “He sounded terrified.”
“Be specific, Lieutenant,” Vogel ordered. “What exactly did Dr. Wagner say?”
“He asked for a back-up,” Ford replied. “He told us they were coming.”
“They?” Vogel repeated. “Who were they?”
Ford shrugged. “I have no idea, sir. His visions… the same as the others had later, I guess. Fortunately, I never came to see them myself, or else I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Lieutenant,” Vogel reminded him. “Tell us about the next events. How did you find Dr. Wagner?”
“I asked Dr. Z… I mean, Dr. Zelenka, where the others might be. He checked his lifesigns detector and pointed out the way for us. We rushed down the corridor and found doctors Wagner and Johnson,” Ford explained with military precision. “Dr. Wagner was lying on the floor and didn’t move. Dr. Johnson was sitting on the floor, against the wall, with her legs drawn up and her head down on her knees. Dr. McKay hurried over to her and asked if she was OK.”
“Was Dr. Wagner already dead at that time?” Kirkitadze asked, checking the security records that were running on his clerk’s laptop.
Ford nodded. “Yes, sir. I checked his pulse myself - there wasn’t one.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Kirkitadze typed something on his own laptop. “Please, continue.”
Ford obeyed. “Dr. Johnson was crying and told Dr. McKay that they got him - I mean, Dr. Wagner. Then she began to scream hysterically, fighting something only she could see… and then she dropped to the floor and was dead.”
“Just like that?” Vogel asked, raising an eyebrow. Ford nodded.
“Yes, sir. I couldn’t see everything, of course, it was really dark there, and doctors Hays and Zelenka were handling her. But Dr. Z checked her pulse and said she was dead.”
“How much later was this than Dr. Wagner’s death?” Vogel asked.
“A couple of minutes, tops, sir,” Ford replied. “Dr. McKay asked for a quarantine team then, and Dr. Z recommended a… a level four quarantine, I think.”
“You think?” Vogel frowned.
Ford shrugged. “I’m not sure, sir. I don’t know too much about medical emergencies, and frankly, I was scared. In any case, Dr. Beckett promised to get down a hazmat team to us and to inform Dr. Weir.”
“Did Dr. Becker tell you to stay where you were?” Vogel asked.
Ford nodded. “Yes, sir. Dr. Petersen was against staying - everyone could see that he was scared sh… I mean, he was frightened very much, sir. He wanted to leave the group when Dr. McKay told us to follow him, but Private Coffman hindered him, so he came with us, in the end.”
“Where were you going from there?” Vogel asked.
“Dr. McKay wanted to retract Johnson and Wagner’s steps to figure out where and how they might got infected,” Ford explained.
Vogel frowned again. “Why that?”
“I think he hoped that detecting the source would help Dr. B find a cure,” Ford said vaguely. “Needless to say that Dr. Petersen disagreed very much, but it’s practically impossible to stop McKay when he’s on the roll. So we went back to the section doctors Johnson and Wagner had been exploring and found some kind of lab. Its door was half-open, we could barely squeeze ourselves through the opening.”
“What do you mean with ‘we’?” Vogel interrupted.
Ford pulled a face, “Well, Dr. McKay refused to go in there alone, so I had to go with him. It was dark, and broken glass crunched under our feet. McKay had Dr. Z’s torch and so we could see a long central table with some large glass jars standing on it. Several of them were broken, and that seemed to make McKay worried.”
“Because he suspected that whatever killed doctors Johnson and Wagner must have come from those smashed containers?” Vogel asked.
Ford nodded. “Dr, Dumais and Dr. Z agreed with him. They discussed the lab and how it wasn’t networked in with the rest of the Ancient systems… I didn’t really understand all of it. It’s hard to follow when McKay and Dr. Z start finishing each other’s sentences.”
That statement caused repressed amusement in the courtroom. McKay and Zelenka’s famous, rapid-fire discussions, completely unfathomable for anyone else, had already become something of a legend in Atlantis. Highly educated scientists had a hard time to keep up with those two - how could a young officer with a simple college degree hope to do the same?
“I understand,” Vogel, too, suppressed a smile. “What happened then?”
Ford swallowed hard. “Then… then Dr. Dumais began to scream and tried to brush something off Dr. Petersen. McKay and Dr, Z tried to pull her off. Then she clutched her head, moaned and began to convulse.” He swallowed again. “There was blood coming from her nose, mouth and ears - and she became very still, all of a sudden. Dr. Z checked her pulse, then looked at McKay and shook his head. And that was when I realized that Dr. Petersen had slipped away while we’d been distracted.”
Vogel asked a few more questions, but it became clear that Ford didn’t know much about the events concerning the chasing of Dr. Petersen through that section. He’d been apparently preoccupied with his own imminent death. In a way, it was understandable. Marines were trained to fight visible enemies. Viruses that killed one through visions weren’t exactly their field of expertise. Not even after all that Ford had already seen and experienced during his time with the SGC.
So Kirkitadze released Ford and called in the Marines who’d been assigned to the scientists, one after another. Not that the men could have told them anything new, as they weren’t really involved into the whole interaction, having secured their respective teams from the rear all the time. But Kirkitadze was nothing if not thorough. He questioned Coffman, Reed, Sherman and the others, and only when he was assured that hey wouldn’t be able to tell him anything of true importance, released them and called for Dr. Zelenka.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To everyone’s surprise, Zelenka was wearing civilian clothes - a rather plain-looking brown suit with a blue shirt and a black tie - instead of his Atlantis uniform. He looked sombre but sufficiently collected. He confirmed Ford’s testimony up to the point where they’d found Johnson and Wagner, but he could give more details about Johnson’s death.
“When we got there, she was crying,” he remembered. “She kept telling us they got him. Was speaking of Wagner, I think. Then she looked up and stared in terror over Rodney’s… Dr. McKay’s shoulder. Was looking directly at me but seeing something else, I guess. Then she scrambled to her feet and started to back away.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing hard. Kirkitadze was watching him intently but didn’t press. The man needed to get over his shock first. Finally, Zelenka opened his eyes again and continued in a strangely flat, even voice.
“Dr. Johnson was flailing at something only she could see. She screamed that they were everywhere… tried to fight them off. Paul,” he swallowed convulsively by mentioning his now-dead best friend, “I mean Dr. Hays and I tried to calm her down, but it was no use. She kept fighting… until her legs buckled under her. Paul and I lowered her to floor. She clutched at head and screamed… and screamed, for seconds, and then… then she went limp. I brushed hair away from her face to see if she’d injured herself and put my fingers on her neck to find pulse. I couldn’t. Blood was coming from her nose and mouth, just like by Wagner. She was gone.” He paused and added sorrowfully, “She was young so very young. She had entire life before her. Is terrible loss for us all.”
“Indeed it is,” Major Vogel agreed. “I understand that it was you who recommended a Level Four quarantine?”
Zelenka nodded. “Is standard procedure during outbreak of unknown epidemics: contain infection till we know what we’re dealing with. We all have been trained how to act in such situations.”
“In Dr. Petersen’s case that training seems to have been in vain,” Sheppard commented sarcastically. Kirkitadze gave him a disapproving look.
“It’s not your turn yet, Major Sheppard,” he said. “You’ll have the chance to question the witness later. Dr. Zelenka, do you want to add anything to this part of your testimony?”
“Yes, Your Honour,” Zelenka answered. “Before anyone starts accusing Dr. Petersen for what’s happened, I wish to remind everyone that Willem Petersen was good and decent man; and excellent scientist. It’s true that he ‘lost it’ in dangerous situation, as Americans like to say. He acted like moron. But he was terrified… too terrified to think straight. Had Sergeant Bates not released the lock on gym, though, section would have remained cut off from power. That would have slowed Petersen’s progress enough for him to die in some empty room alone, without spreading nanovirus and endangering many other people.”
“Objection,” Petty Officer Tiner said calmly. “Speculation from the side of the witness.”
“No, Petty Officer,” Zelenka answered; “is scientifically sound estimate.”
“We’re not trying to put the blame on anyone yet, Dr. Zelenka,” Kirkitadze said. “We’re just trying to check out all the facts. Please, continue; and tell us every detail you can remember. We don’t know yet what might prove important.”
Zelenka nodded and shared his personal memories about the finding of the ancient lab and Dr. Dumais’ fast and brutal death.
“Have you found the database of the lab?” Vogel asked. Zelenka nodded.
“Yes, yes, yes. It was strange, though… it only contained information about experiments that took place in that particular lab Of course, we didn’t have time to go through all the data; Dr. Beckett’s team would be working on that for weeks to come. But at least we knew where Johnson and Wagner were infected… and incubation time could be calculated.”
After this, he described Dr. Dumais’ death in gruelling detail, and how they’d realized that Petersen was gone. As it turned out, although he had been equipped with a headset, he hadn’t heard much from the clash between Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard, simply because he hadn’t been listening.
“I was going over the survey schedule,” he explained. “Johnson and Wagner had originally started off on their own, and they crossed paths with Dumais an hour later. Accordingly, Dumais died an hour later than the other tow. And I realized that after meeting with Johnson and Wagner, Dumais met up with Hays… and Rodney. At the time I’ve figured out this, they’ve already had visions for about an hour.”
“How did Dr. McKay react to this discovery?” Vogel asked.
“We’re talking about Rodney, Major,” Sheppard answered sarcastically before Zelenka could. “How, do you thin, he reacted? He was completely hysterical, of course.”
“He was…worried,” Zelenka corrected quietly, giving Sheppard a decidedly unfriendly look, “and he had good reason to be. After all, Dr. Hays died before our eyes, just as swiftly, only an hour after Dr. Dumais had. And there was absolutely nothing anyone could have done.”
“I thought Dr. Beckett’s team was working on the problem?” Petty Officer Tiner said.
“They were,” Zelenka replied, “but they were running against time. A six-hour-incubation is very short one.”
“Short indeed,” Vogel nodded. “But do continue, Dr. Zelenka. What happened after Dr. Hays’ death?”
Zelenka grinned unexpectedly. “Rodney was sharing last thoughts with us. Was very dramatic. Then he paused and looked around room, waiting for deadly visions to start. Then he turned around… slowly, very slowly…. Stared at ceiling… still nothing happened. And that was how we realized that virus doesn’t kill people with Ancient gene.”
“Which wasn’t much of a help for you, personally, though,” Vogel added.
“Ne,” Zelenka admitted. “At that time, both Lieutenant Ford and me had about an hour left - or less. I’m afraid we weren’t much help for Rodney - or anyone else - during that time. I certainly wasn’t. All I could think of was clock, tickling down seconds in my head.”
“That’s understandable,” Kirkitadze, not a gene carrier himself, nodded in compassion. “Can you tell us anything else of importance?”
“I don’t believe so,” Zelenka answered. “Dr. Beckett’s people were bothering me with thermometers and heart monitors and other things, so half the time I didn’t even wear my headset. And I was shaken,” he added quietly. “Dr. Hays was a good friend of mine. Losing him so suddenly… was very hard for me.”
“Losing a friend always is; especially here where there are so few of us,” Kirkitadze said. Then he looked at Vogel and at Tiner. “Any more questions?”
“I have one,” Sheppard said. “I’d like to know how Petersen managed to slip away from your group unnoticed.”
Zelenka turned to him, and when he answered, his tone was sharp, and for the first time downright hostile.
“We were focusing on problem, Major,” he said. “Keeping people where they belong is your job. Had your men paid attention, poor Willem couldn’t have slipped away. Had you not disobeyed Dr. Weir’s orders, Willem could never have reached Mess Hall. It’s that simple, so don’t you start directing blame at us.”
Everyone was a bit taken aback by the ferocity of his answer - well, everyone save his fellow engineers who’d seen him stand up to an irate McKay regularly. Compared with that, John Sheppard was a belligerent tomcat.
“Ms Galindez, delete the last paragraph, including Major Sheppard’s question,” Kirkitadze instructed the law clerk. “Dr. Zelenka, thank you for your help. Please, take a seat among the spectators,” he added dryly. “The court will hear Teyla now, daughter of Tagan, from the local Athosian tribe.”
“Her full name is Teyla Emmagan, Your Honour,” Sheppard supplied helpfully. Kirkitadze gave him a long-suffering look.
“Major Sheppard,” he said patiently, “could it possibly have escaped your notice that Emmagan is a title among the Athosians - and the title of the tribal leader at that - not a surname?”
“She still has the right to be addressed with that name,” Sheppard, who was, of course, well aware aforementioned fact, said stubbornly. “She’s still the leader of the Athosians.”
“That’s not exactly correct,” Kirkitadze replied. “You prefer to introduce her to other people using a title she’s not entitled to wear any longer.”
“She’s not… what?” Sheppard frowned. Kirkitadze raised an eyebrow.
“She’s no longer the leader of her tribe,” he explained. “Halling is the Emmagan; has been ever since the others followed him to the mainland. You want to make me believe that you haven’t known that?”
Sheppard shrugged. “We never talk about such things,” he said uncomfortably.
“It seems that your inability to listen to other people is extended to many areas of your life, Major,” Vogel said pointedly.
“None of which is your business,” Sheppard riposted, “Major.”
“In this particular case and in this particular area, actually, it is,” Vogel replied calmly. Then he looked at Galindez who was standing at the door. “Gunny, call the witness in.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I was teaching Major Sheppard the use of fighting sticks,” Teyla said, aiming her serene smile at Major Vogel. “We have been training every day since he began to learn this art. He could be really good at it - given enough time - but he is not practicing enough.”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re discussing here,” Sheppard interrupted. “Besides, I wouldn’t have a rat’s chance against her anyway.”
“That is probably true,” Teyla agreed placidly. “In any case, we have just finished our training when Dr. Weir announced the self-regulated quarantine and ordered everyone to stay where they were.”
“How did Major Sheppard react?” Vogel asked.
“He was… impatient,” Teyla replied slowly. “He had not brought his radio, so he took mine and started arguing with Dr. Weir. He wanted to go to the Control Room, at any costs. He did not like it that Dr. Weir had consulted Sergeant Bates about the situation instead of him because he had been off radio. But for the time being he agreed to stay in the gym until further notice.”
Kirkitadze leaned forward in his chair. “When did he change his mind?”
“When he heard that Dr. Petersen had escaped and was on his way to the Control Room,” Teyla answered. “He wanted us to get out of the gym and stop Dr. Petersen, even though Dr. Weir was against it. He decided that he had to protect Dr. Weir from being effected.”
“Did Dr. Weir unmistakably forbid him to leave the gym?” Vogel asked.
“Yes,” Teyla said. “Dr. Weir asked Dr. Grodin to seal the gym; which he did. But Major Sheppard ordered Sergeant Bates to unlock the doors.”
“Did Dr. Weir order Sergeant Bates to stand down?” Vogel continued.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. I could hear it clearly through the radio. A few seconds later, though, the doors opened.”
Tiner raised a hand. “So you can’t directly confirm that it was Sergeant Bates who’d opened the doors, am I correct?”
“I have not seen him doing it, if that is what you are asking,” Teyla answered precisely. “But at the same time, I heard him apologize to Dr. Weir, who said that it did not really matter anymore, since it was already done.”
“Bates just carried out his orders,” Sheppard said impatiently.
“That might be so,” Teyla replied, “but you had no right to undermine Dr. Weir’s authority in front of Sergeant Bates. I have told you so much then, but you were not listening. Unfortunately, you are rarely willing to do so, Major.”
“My place in the chain of command is above Bates, and I can order him to do whatever I find has to be done,” Sheppard snapped.
“Perhaps,” Teyla said, “but you do not stand above Dr. Weir. You had no right to force Sergeant Bates to act against her orders. Or else we would not have this trial right now.”
Sheppard seemed as if he’d give a sharp answer at that, but Kirkitadze was faster.
“Where did you go when the gym doors opened?” he asked.
“To the medical lab, to put on hazmat suits,” Teyla said. “Then Major Sheppard asked Dr. Weir about Dr. Petersen’s location.”
“Did she give him the information?”
“Not at once - she was probably really angry, and rightly so - but she did. We headed out to find Dr. Petersen then.”
“Did you find him?” Vogel asked. Teyla nodded.
“Yes. Major Sheppard tried to reason with him, but Dr. Petersen was clearly not thinking straight. He promised to go back to the medlab, but when he saw an open transporter, he ran for it. Major Sheppard fired at him with the P90, repeatedly, but could not stop him, although he was injured. We learned later that he transported into the Mess Hall. When we tried to follow him, a citywide alarm started to sound, and the transporters would not work. The city had already taken over and locked down the infected areas. Fortunately, the doors were still opening for us, since we were wearing the hazmat suits.”
“Where did you go from there,” Vogel asked.
“To the Mess Hall,” Teyla replied. “It was my suggestion, actually. I thought people there would be very scared and confused. When we arrived there, Dr. Petersen was already dead, and people panicked. I stayed with them and tried to calm them down, while Major Sheppard was called away by Dr. McKay.”
There were several more questions, but Teyla couldn’t tell anything else that would be related to Bates and Sheppard’s case. So he was released, and Kirkitadze announced that he would now question the personnel of the Control Room.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The first person called in was Peter Grodin. The normally so calm and friendly scientist seemed still incredibly angry at both Sheppard and Bates. So angry, in fact, that it took him considerable effort to remain civil. It was an understandable reaction. As the Technical Director of Atlantis, Grodin was Dr. Weir’s right-hand-man and confidant in all practical matters; just as Kirkitadze was her aide in legal matters. Together with the head of the science department, the chief of the medical department and the highest-ranking military officer, they were the governing body of Atlantis. The chief of security stood only one step lower in the chain of command. As a civilian member of the ruling body, Grodin was entitled to be angry about Bates and Sheppard’s actions.
“It’s a known fact that the Ancients suffered from a plague,” he explained, after having confirmed Ford and Zelenka’s testimony about the initiation of the Level Four quarantine. The medical department of the SGC had a very… unpleasant encounter with the virus two years ago, when they found that frozen Ancient woman in Antarctica - and they were absolutely helpless against it. So yes, I agreed with Dr. McKay and Dr. Zelenka that if their team had somehow stumbled upon it and become infected, we needed to take every precaution to prevent an outbreak. Even if it meant sacrificing the people on the South Pier. Otherwise we’d have risked a citywide infection and the death of everyone in Atlantis.”
“I assume Major Sheppard didn’t agree with that,” Kirkitadze said.
Grodin shrugged. “He wanted someone to go to the gym and get him a hazmat suit. Dr. Weir explained him that everyone in hazmat was busy configuring the lab to deal with the virus and to prevent an outbreak. It seemed at that moment that the major actually might listen, this time. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.”
“Please, elaborate,” Kirkitadze said.
“Dr. Weir and Sergeant Bates were following Dr. Petersen’s movements via lifesigns detector,” Grodin explained. “They realized that he was trying to make his way back to the Control Room. In the meantime, I was locking all the doors in the hallway and killing power to the entire section.”
“Could that have stopped Dr. Petersen?” Vogel asked.
Grodin shook his head. “Ultimately? No. As Dr. McKay admitted himself, Petersen was an excellent engineer who knew almost as much about Ancient technology as Rodney did. But if we could have kept the transporters offline, it had bought us enough time to trap him somewhere on his way, instead of allowing him to stumble into a room full of people - like the Mess Hall.”
“Rodney said all you’d have been able to do was slowing him down,” Sheppard said, his annoyance evident.
“That is, sadly, quite true,” Grodin agreed. “But that would have been enough for a security team to reach him. I was almost done with limiting the door controls.”
“That wasn’t good enough!” Sheppard interrupted. “Someone needed to go out there and stop him.”
“And you think you were the only one capable of doing that,” Grodin said sarcastically. “Well, Major, let me tell you that we’d already had two security teams moving in on Petersen’s position - both of them considerably closer than you. Without your little riot act, we could have contained the situation before Petersen reached the Control Room.”
“You can’t be sure of that!” Sheppard declared.
“Perhaps,” Grodin said coldly. “But I can be sure in another thing: that your selfish and stupid action endangered the entire city.”
“Ms Galindez, delete the last paragraph,” Kirkitadze ordered. “Dr. Grodin, please try to control yourself. We need a testimony here, no private accusations. That’s Major Vogel’s job, not yours.”
“I’m sorry,” Grodin restrained himself with visible effort.
“I understand that you were a direct witness of what happened in the Control Room?” Petty Officer Tiner asked.
Grodin nodded. “Yes. I was near Dr. Weir, rearranging the crystal plates in the console controlling the hallway doors. Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard were arguing - the major wanted out of the gym to hunt Dr. Petersen down personally. He wasn’t listening, so Dr. Weir ordered me to seal the gym.”
“Did you?” Vogel asked.
“Of course,” Grodin replied. “We all knew Major Sheppard’s… spontaneous nature by then,” he added wryly. “Precautions were in order. Of course, we couldn’t take into consideration that Sergeant Bates would turn against the colony leader in favour of his commanding officer.”
“Sergeant Bates only followed orders,” Tiner said.
Grodin rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Don’t give me that crap, Petty Officer! I’m not a soldier, but even I know that if an officer acts against the expressed wishes of the civilian government he’s sworn to serve, his underlings aren’t supposed to follow his orders - or else we could declare this a military dictature and be done with playing democracy.”
“You’re exaggerating Dr. Grodin,” Tiner said. “I don’t think that Major Sheppard was planning to take over Atlantis.”
“Of course not,” Grodin agreed. “He just thought he knew everything better than others and wasn’t willing to wait until people who were better suited to deal with a medical situation did their jobs. He undermined the authority of the civilian leadership, which would have been a dangerous example, even if he’d been right. Which he was not.”
“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve saved your collective asses in the end,” Sheppard said.
“You haven’t done anything a half-decent pilot couldn’t have done,” Grodin riposted. “It was your fault that Petersen escaped via transporter into the Mess Hall, where the pathogen was almost instantly detected by the automated systems, and the city initiated a lockdown. Without us being locked out of the Atlantis mainframe, people in hazmat suits could have dragged an EMP generator down to the South Pier - as the transporters would work for them - and destroy the nanovirus in the system of the infected people right there. Which also means that we wouldn’t have to blow up a naquadah generator to achieve the same result, cutting our power supply even shorter. So no, Major, I truly cannot see any reason for you to be so proud of yourself.”
That shut Sheppard up, at least for the time being. Kirkitadze asked a few more questions about the failed effort with the EMP generator and the final solution, and then he released Grodin.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Next, the court heard the testimonies of the Control Room personnel on duty during the crisis. Technician Mette-Marit Sorenson, Sergeant Jenny Hagiwara, Tobias Moretti and Eddie Wong confirmed Grodin’s testimony about the conflict between Sheppard, Bates and Dr. Weir, but had little to add. So, having dealt with that end of the chain, Kirkitadze could finally turn to the major players and called Dr. Carolyn Biro first.
The chief pathologist of Atlantis - a thin, blonde woman in her forties - was an almost disturbingly cheerful person, considering her main job (she was also the resident xenobiologist, who enjoyed a great deal to examine dead alien life). Actually, she was the only professional pathologist of the expedition, although the other medical doctors were also capable of performing autopsies, of course. Dr. Biro seemed to like her work very much, and while she did have the tendency to babble when excited about some morbidly fascinating discovery, she could give very accurate reports about said discoveries.
“Al victims died of a ruptured secular brain aneurysm,” she explained matter-of-factly, “which, in itself, wouldn’t be all that remarkable - despite the statistical improbability, of course. The truly interesting part was that all those ruptures happened in exactly the same place: right above the visual cortex.”
“Which caused the identical visions, I understand?” Vogel asked.
Dr. Biro nodded. “Yes. And that fact made Carson… I mean, Dr. Beckett… and Dr. McKay realise that we were dealing with a nanovirus, manufactured to kill humans.”
That was all she could tell, having been too busy with all the autopsies to care what was going on anywhere else, so Kirkitadze released her and called Dr. Beckett.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The head physician of Atlantis looked very, very tired - and vaguely guilty, which, in Bates’ opinion, made no sense. There was nothing Dr. Beckett could have done against a nanovirus that had spread so fast and killed so quickly. There simply hadn’t been enough time for medical counter-measures. But again, Bates knew the good doctor well enough to realize that for Beckett, every death on his watch was his fault. It was probably a doctor thing… as long as the doctor in question was a civilian. Medical officers, like the late Dr. Fraiser at SGC tended to see things more realistically.
Dr. Beckett told the court basically the same things the others had before - just with more details in that obscure medical jargon only his own staff would be able to understand.
“Rodney… Dr. McKay asked for a containment team after Wagner and Johnson had died,” he explained. “Radek… Dr. Zelenka recommended a Level Four quarantine until we knew what we were dealin’ with. My team and I got to the hazmat gear and headed down to the South Pier. Unfortunately, it took some time to load the whole team into suits, so when we finally got down there, Rodney had found the Ancient viral lab… and Dr. Dumais was already dead.”
He paused unhappily, very obviously blaming himself for being late. Dr. Weir sighed and shook her head. Knowing Carson, it would take time for him to get over the most recent tragedy. And he’d just begun to recover from the trauma the events on Hoff had given him…
Kirkitadze must have thought the same because he spoke to Beckett in a calm, reassuring manner.
“Dr. Beckett, was there any way you could have gotten down to the South Pier any faster?” he asked. Beckett shook his head.
“I dinnae think so. You need to be careful with hazmat suits. They’re easily torn, as poor Teyla had to learn the hard way.”
“Assuming you had reached the South Pier, say, half an hour earlier, would that have made any difference?” Kirkitadze continued. Again, Beckett shook his head mutely. The lawyer shrugged. “In that case, I don’t see why you should blame yourself for the outcome. So please, go on and tell us what you and your staff did after reaching the pier.”
“I had them set up a small field station near the viral lab,” Beckett answered. “Dr. Biro started the autopsies, while the others checked the vitals of the infected people in the adjoining room.”
“Did you hear anything of what was happening in the Control Room?” Kirkitadze asked.
“Nay,” Beckett said. “I was on a permanent connection with Dr. Biro, exclusively. Plus, Rodney had called me back to the Ancient lab. He found the description of a virus in the Ancient database - it seemed like the one we were dealin’ with. The symptoms were exactly the same. Six hour hibernation, recurrin’ visions and brain haemorrhage or aneurysms.”
“But you were not yet aware of the fact that it was a nanovirus, were you?” Kirkitadze asked. Beckett shook his head.
“Nay, we still thought we were fightin’ a living organism. Then Rodney started havin’ visions, and it turned out Dr. Hays had been havin’ them for an hour, too, and we realized they were next - and everyone panicked a wee bit.”
“Could you do anything for them?” Vogel inquired. Beckett shrugged.
“Well, we hooked them up to heart and blood pressure monitors, but as Rodney pointed out, it couldn’t really help them. The best we could hope for was to collect s many data as possible - for the other people’s sake.”
He paused again, guilt and incurable grief written clearly in his kind, open face. No one dared to urge him to continue.
“This is the worst thing that could happen to a healer,” he finally whispered. “To watch people die, knowin’ he cannae do a thing to help. When it started with Dr. Hays… it was so… so fast, and to see the terror in his eyes… and just stand there, watchin’, completely helpless…”
“I’m told you didn’t just stand there, doctor,” Vogel corrected. “You were administering CPR when his heart stopped, weren’t you?”
Beckett shrugged wearily. “ER reflexes are hard to break…. Comes with the field. But Rodney was right. It was pointless. It wasn’t his heart.”
He recalled McKay’s “last words” in the same manner as Zelenka had done, and then described the discovery that the pathogen was a nanovirus and that it only killed humans without the ATA gene in minute detail.
“Can you tell us what exactly a nanovirus is?” Vogel asked. “Preferably in terms that we might actually understand?”
Becker nodded. “Aye. It’s an artificial virus c created by the use of nanotechnology. Nanites are, basically, microscopic machines, programmed to carry out very specific tasks suited for their size. Usually, they’re no bigger than a single-celled organism and have a sole purpose, like curing a disease or mending a blood vessel. In theory, anyway. Our own research in this area is still in a very early phase.”
“Those nanites, though, were fairly advanced, weren’t they?” Vogel asked.
“Aye, that they were,” Beckett agreed. “And they were programmed to terrorize the victims by tapping into their visual cortex and then rupturing an artery in their brain.”
“How many of those nanites are necessary to kill a human?” Kirkitadze asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Beckett admitted. “This technology is so far beyond us I cannae even make an educated guess. At least they’re unable to multiply; and that is a good thing.”
“So, theoretically, they’d have spread themselves too thin to do any more harm, given enough time?” Kirkitadze tried to clarify. Beckett nodded.
“Aye, that would be a possibility - in theory,” he said. “I’m just afraid there wouldnae be anyone left to confirm the results.”
“Did you find out who created the virus in the first place?” Kirkitadze asked. Beckett shook his head.
“Not yet, But we’re gonna studyin’ the database in the next weeks. Maybe we can find somethin’ eventually.”
“I see.” Kirkitadze looked at the attorneys. “Any more questions?”
Both Tiner and Vogel shook their heads. Sheppard, however, turned to Beckett.
“Doc, if the Ancient gene would protect people from this virus, why didn’t you just start giving gene shots everyone?”
“Because it wouldnae help them!” Beckett snapped, reaching the end of his patience. “It takes a minimum of four hours for the gene to become active, and people down there didnae have four hours! Besides, the therapy is only effective in forty-eight per cent of the recipients - it didnae take by Radek or by Hays - and we could see that only an active gene means protection. Or else Hays, Dumais and the others wouldnae be dead now.”
“We all understand the problem, Dr. Beckett,” Kirkitadze said, shooting Sheppard a warning look. “Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Beckett shook his head tiredly. “Very well. You’re released. Please, be seated somewhere. The court will hear Dr. McKay now.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Although he had barely anything new to tell, Rodney McKay’s testimony turned out the longest - and, to be honest, the most entertaining - of all witnesses. He gave an extremely detailed report of the events from his unique point of view, generously peppered with technobabble only Dr. Zelenka - and partially Dr. Grodin - was likely to understand. He explained the specifics behind the first attempt with the EMP generator, comparing it with another failed attempt two years earlier at the SGC, and he listed up many arguments why the attempt was a good idea, despite the failure, in both cases.
He was also practically the only person who could say anything in Sheppard’s defence, stating that Petersen had to be stopped, and that Grodin’s efforts to lock the man our might not have been enough. Which didn’t mean, however, that it had to be Sheppard, transporting over from the opposite side of the city, to hunt the man down, he added pointedly. Finally, he calculated for Kirkitadze what the loss of a naquadah generator could mean, considering the already existing power shortage. It wasn’t an optimistic estimate, even for Rodney, who generally tended to expect the worst, in any given situation.
When he finally collapsed on a chair, everyone was a bit glassy-eyed in the courtroom. Even Kirkitadze blinked several time, perhaps to clear his mind from the information overload, and then he turned to the left, where the defendants were sitting.
“Major Sheppard, Sergeant Bates,” he said. “You’ve heard the testimony of the witnesses. Do you still believe that you’ve done the right thing?”
“We’ve done the only possible thing to save the city,” Sheppard answered promptly. “In a similar situation, I’d do the same thing.”
“I have little doubt about that,” Kirkitadze replied dryly. “Bud do you believe it was really your decision to make? Don’t you think you should have listened to Dr. Weir?”
Sheppard shrugged. “She tends to make a decision early and gets locked into it. That’s her problem.”
Dr. Weir’s face revealed nothing, but her eyes grew ice cold at that. She mentally abandoned all hope that she might still save a working relationship with Sheppard.
“I see,” Kirkitadze said neutrally. “What about you, Sergeant Bates? Do you also think that you’ve acted correctly when you opted to follow Major Sheppard’s orders instead of Dr. Weir’s?”
For a long time, Bates didn’t reply, clearly struggling with himself.
“No,” he finally said in a heavy voice. “I’ve reacted instinctively… and I made a mistake. A mistake that could have killed all those people in the Mess Hall. I had no right to override Dr. Weir’s orders on the Major’s behalf. I thought back then that I was doing the right thing. I have come to understand that I was wrong.”
He could see the disbelief and hurt on Sheppard’s face, and he felt like shit by it. But he knew he couldn’t have answered differently. Truth was truth, after all.
For visuals: Sevarion Kirkitadze
Chapter 4 - Consequences