Carter was suddenly aware that McKay and Sheppard were watching her intently. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you,” she replied, keeping her tone neutral.
A space had been cleared for Keller’s equipment in the middle of the sick lodge, and in short order she had set up a folding table and all the immunobiology gear she could get through the Stargate. Kullid hovered nearby, both nervous and fascinated by the advanced technology; he was paging through a data pad filled with microscopic images of the Asgard nanites. “At last we know the face of the sickness,” he had said, when she told him what they were up against. He had grasped the idea of the nanites quickly.
If anything, the lodge’s population had grown since she had been here last, doubtless from new arrivals who had succumbed to the malaise after the en masse returning from Fenrir’s ship. Keller scowled. How could a life form that was supposedly so advanced do something so callous to another intelligent being? The doctor had admittedly seen such behavior — too much of it, to be true — among her own species, but on some level she’d been hoping that out here in the wider universe, maybe things went a little differently. She felt slightly disappointed at her own naiveté.
“Doctor?” One of the nurses she’d enlisted from Atlantis approached, a rack of sample tubes in her hand. “We’re ready to start the next series.”
“Go ahead, Cathy,” she told her. “You know what to do.” Keller crossed to where Ronon was propped up on a low bed. The Satedan had taken a wooden stool from somewhere and was using it like a table. He had a dozen weapons spread out on the makeshift platform, and was cleaning them with a stained oilcloth.
“This is a hospital, not an armory,” she told him.
He didn’t look up at her. “Gotta have something to keep me occupied. Unless of course you want to sign off on me, let me go.” Ronon seemed to have regained his focus after returning from the alien ship.
Keller folded her arms over her chest. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” came the reply, and with it a stifled cough. Dex grimaced.
“You’re the worst liar in the world,” she retorted. “I can’t help you if you don’t help me.”
Finally he looked at her. “I don’t need help. I’ve dealt with worse than this, come back from it.” He put down the knife he was cleaning and Keller saw the slight tremor in his hand as he tried to hide it. “It’s the air in this place, it’s making me sick just being here.”
She lowered her voice. “Don’t try to sell me that tough guy stuff, because I’m not buying it. You’re staying here until I say you’re fit, and not before. So deal with it.”
That got her a flash of annoyance. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, sure,” she retorted, “I’m really enjoying watching people get sicker and sicker while I run up one blind alley after another looking for some cure that may not even exist.” The heat in her words surprised her, and Ronon as well.
After a long moment, he looked away. “Send me back to Atlantis, then. Check me out there. It’s gotta be easier than shipping all this kit to Heruun.” He nodded at the equipment table.
“It’s too risky. I’m not certain how the nanite markers will react to gate travel. It could disrupt them. I don’t want to take the chance that someone will come through the wormhole and drop dead in the gate room.”
“I’m used to risk,” said Ronon. “It’s what makes me a soldier.”
She eyed him. “Well, I’m used to caution, and that’s what makes me a doctor.” Keller sighed. “Sorry, Ronon, but for now you’re stuck here.”
There was a moment of open, hard anger on his face, a dart of fury that he had nowhere to direct; but then it faded and his lips thinned. “Guess so.”
Voices filtered in from outside the sick lodge, raised tones full of laughter and relief. “At least someone is having a better day than I am,” said the Satedan.
“They are celebrating the Returned,” said Laaro. The boy approached, carrying an Atlantis holdall that was far too heavy for him. He had insisted on helping Keller set up the temporary lab, and had taken it upon himself to trail around after her, observing everything she did. “Where should I put this, Jennifer?” He grunted as the bag threatened to fall from his fingers.
“Give it to the nurse,” she told him, and he dutifully obeyed.
Kullid patted the boy on the shoulder as he walked away. “Celebrations,” he mused. “Such things never reach within these walls. But perhaps it is for the better.”
“How’s that?” Keller asked.
“Elder Takkol called another festival day only because he had no choice. Your people convinced the Aegis to bring back all the Taken, but he has to make it seem as if it were his doing, otherwise he is weakened by this turn of events.”
“Politics,” Ronon grunted sourly, and returned to his weapons.
“What the elders do affects us all,” Kullid said glumly.
“All that matters for now is that there won’t be any more abductions,” said Keller, moving back to the table. “Heruun can sleep soundly from now on. No more Giants, no more Taken and Returned.”
“If only that meant the end of our problems,” said Kullid. “You and I are healers, Jennifer, and it is our way to look for the good among the ill…”
She smiled slightly. “You sound like my mom. She said I always had to find the sunny side of things, no matter how grim.”
Kullid shared a warm smile. “She sounds like a wise woman.”
“She was.” Keller looked away. “She’s been gone a while now.”
He touched her arm. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
Jennifer’s smile returned. “It’s okay.”
“Your mother was right,” Kullid continued. “Both of us strive to help others find the strength within to deal with whatever has struck them down. But there are some sicknesses that come from outside the body. Some things that cannot be cured. At least, not by mere humans like us…”
“What do you mean?”
“The virus of fear. Takkol knows it well. He knows that the fear of the Aegis cannot vanish overnight. Something must fill the void.”
“You think the protection that the Asgard…” She halted, correcting herself. “The Aegis gave this planet is going to end, is that it? Because we intervened?”
“Some believe so. That is why Takkol tries to soothe them with another false celebration. But he cannot stop them from wondering what will happen next. And Soonir does not help matters with his rhetoric.”
“Soonir?” Keller recalled the look on the rebel leader’s face the last time she had seen the man. “He’s in the settlement?”
“It is possible, he has hiding places everywhere. I have heard that he is rallying his supporters to have Takkol’s rank and status taken from him. Without the Aegis to back his rule, the senior elder is weak.” He gave a solemn nod. “Some say it is only a matter of time before the Wraith return.”
Keller shook her head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Can you be sure? You have crossed their paths, yes?” Kullid seemed suddenly eager to hear more.
She nodded. “That’s one way to describe it.”
Kullid’s voice dropped to a hush. “I have heard it said they have the power of life and death in the palm of their hand. The mastery of the energy of the body itself.”
“They’re predators,” she told him. “Believe me, you don’t ever want to be face to face with one of them.”
“I would imagine so,” he replied carefully. “But without the Aegis, that may not be our choice to make.”
Keller wanted to give him an answer, but she had no assurances to give him. The young man’s dark face softened, answering her silently.
“Doctor?”
Jennifer turned to find Major Lorne standing in the doorway. “Is something wrong?”
“No, ma’am. Colonel Carter asked me to come get you. She’s assembling the senior staff for a meeting at Jaaya’s lodge.”
Keller nodded at the radio on the table. “She could have just called me.”