Caldwell was with her, hand ready at her elbow in case she stumbled on the ice, but Jeannie moved as though she didn’t see him, striding across the pier toward the nearest tower. At his side, Woolsey squared his shoulders, one hand rising briefly as though he wanted to adjust the tie he wasn’t wearing, and John plastered a smile on his own face as the doors slid open. He exchanged salutes with Caldwell, seeing in memory Rodney’s outraged stare when he and Caldwell and Carter had greeted each other formally. Seriously? he’d said, looking from colonel to colonel, and John bit his lip to keep from flinching.
“Mrs. Miller,” Woolsey said. “We are very grateful you are here.”
She was looking tired, John thought, tired and a little pale. That might be the twelve days in hyperspace, or it might be because she knew the chances of finding Rodney alive were dwindling by the hour.
“Is there any news?” she asked, and John saw Woolsey flinch.
Jeannie saw it, too, and her face changed. “Is he dead? You have to tell me — ”
“He’s alive,” John said, quickly, and she looked from him to Woolsey and back.
“What’s the catch?”
“It’s not entirely good news,” Woolsey said. “There have been — developments — since you left Earth.” His look included Caldwell, whose mouth tightened. “I know it’s been a long trip, but I assumed you would want to hear the news immediately.”
Jeannie managed a wry smile. “Mr. Woolsey, I’ve had nothing to do for the last two weeks but sit in a metal box and worry. It’ll be a relief to know what I’m worrying about.”
Caldwell looked momentarily annoyed by the ‘metal box’ comment, but he had more sense than to say anything. “I’m assuming that has something to do with why we don’t have our usual landing spot? And Hammond being under repairs?”
“Yes,” Woolsey said, shortly. “The Hammond was damaged in combat with the Wraith. I’ll have all the details for you — ”
John hung back to be sure that someone had taken charge of Jeannie’s bag, and found himself at her side as they made their way down the corridor. “Thanks for coming,” he said, and she reached out impulsively to squeeze his arm.
“It’s good to see you. I feel like I can finally do something.”
“Radek thinks you can be a big help,” John said.
“God, I hope so,” Jeannie said. “Is it — really bad?”
“We’ll get him back,” John said, and knew he sounded grim.
Woolsey had chosen to hold the meeting in a different room, one with a view of the city’s north side, where they could see the crews working on the Hammond in the thickening light and the soft chains of light that draped the towers. Predictably, Caldwell went to the window to look down at the other ship, assessing the visible damage, and John saw him raise an eyebrow. Probably at the missing shield emitter, he thought, it was the most obvious problem, and carefully didn’t look himself. Instead, he poured himself a cup of coffee — Jeannie shook her head at his offer, found tea instead — and took his place at the big table. Keller and Beckett were both there, and Zelenka, and a moment later the door slid open to admit Sam Carter.
“Sorry,” she said, to the table at large, and seated herself next to Zelenka.
“Very well,” Woolsey said. “As I said earlier, there have been — developments — since Daedalus left Earth. We have positive information that Rodney McKay is still alive. We received intelligence pinpointing his location, and incidentally giving us the chance to ambush Queen Death’s primary hive, and mounted a rescue operation. Our team was successful in surprising Death, and in doing significant damage to her ship, but unfortunately our information was incomplete, and the team was confronted with an unexpected development. Dr. McKay was alive, but uncooperative. He — he had been transformed into a Wraith.”
“What?” Jeannie’s voice rose sharply.
“I’m sorry,” Woolsey said.
“It’s impossible,” Jeannie said. She looked around the table, settled on John. “Isn’t it?”
John shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”
“Dr. Keller and Dr. Becket have a possible explanation,” Woolsey said. “If you would, Dr. Keller?”
And that wasn’t fair, either, John thought. It wasn’t fair to make Rodney’s girlfriend explain to Rodney’s sister just what had happened to someone they both loved — it was Beckett’s retrovirus, probably; let him do it.
Keller took a breath. “Yes. I’m afraid it is possible. At least in theory.” She looked down at her notes. “Four years ago, Dr. Beckett developed a retrovirus that was intended to deactivate the Iratus bug DNA that we believe makes the Wraith what they are. It was partially successful, but the transformed patient — we call him Michael because it doesn’t seem as though the Wraith have individual names — escaped and was in contact with a number of different hives before he was killed. We think it’s very possible that some hive could have gotten the idea to try a similar procedure on humans.”
That was a pretty narrow summary, John thought. It left out a whole lot of awkward parts, like some disastrous deals with the Wraith, and Michael trying to create his own new species when the Wraith rejected him as tainted. It left out kidnapping Teyla when she was pregnant with Torren, and the horrible possible future that only Rodney’s stubbornness managed to avert, not to mention the last terrifying attack on Atlantis —
Caldwell said, “You mean the Wraith can actually turn a human being into one of them?”
“It’s not that unlikely,” Keller said. “The Wraith are actually related to humans — their genetic material is a mix of human DNA and DNA from the Iratus bug. And they are very skilled biologists. Essentially, all they would need to do is introduce the Iratus bug DNA into Rodney’s system.” To her credit, her voice didn’t shake at all on the last words.
Beckett cleared his throat. “We’ve already seen the result of Iratus bug DNA on Colonel Sheppard.”
I knew somebody would mention that, John thought. Caldwell gave him a look, and he met the other man’s stare guilelessly. “It turned me blue. And scaly.”
“What would be the point of this experiment on McKay?” Caldwell asked, after a moment.
“We believe that the Wraith want Dr. McKay’s cooperation,” Woolsey said. “Our intelligence suggests that Queen Death wants to claim the Milky Way as her new feeding ground.”
“That’s not exactly new information,” Caldwell said.
“No,” Carter said, “but the method is new. And if McKay does cooperate — he’s very good. And he knows Atlantis’s systems inside and out.”
“Excuse me,” Jeannie said. “What — what exactly do you want me to do here?”
There was a note in her voice that made John wince and bite his lip, but Woolsey regarded her gravely. “I asked for your help finding the places where Dr. McKay has rewritten our codes to give him unauthorized access to our systems here. And to help rewrite our current programs to make sure he cannot gain access in any other way. That has not changed.”
“Dammit!” Jeannie looked like she wanted to throw something. She glared at each of them in turn, fixing finally on John. “And while I’m doing this, is there some kind of plan to find Meredith? To get him back? Do any of you people know whether or not he can be changed back — if he’s even really himself any more? If that’s even what they’ve done? Or will I have some weird alien — monster — instead of a brother? Or are you just planning to kill him the next time you find him?”