Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis is not mine; the following work of fanfiction is for fan enjoyment only. No profit is being made (sigh).

Epidemic

By Kerr Avon

1. Toys-R-Us

Carson Beckett was a happy man. Whistling, he carefully measured five drops of the reagent into the blood sample from Halling. As deceitful as the Genii had been, they did have a point; the humans from this galaxy were much more likely to have the Ancient gene than the ones from Earth. Initially he had tested Teyla, who was negative for the gene, but one person was hardly a representative sample. It had only taken a few hours to collect and label blood samples from the nearby transplanted Athosian village, and now he was happily testing them for the gene. If they were lucky, there might be several people as potentially adept at using the Ancient technology as Major Sheppard. He would no doubt be relieved to be free from some of the, "Hey Major, touch this" calls that he fielded day and night. While the gene therapy had worked to a limited extent, no one yet treated had developed Sheppard's instinctive control or intuitive divination of the function of a given device.

"I have to see Beckett."

Carson sighed as he gently set down his sample. The voice in the hallway was that of Rodney McKay, the most persistent bed of neuroses on Atlantis. 'He must be back from that planet...what was it...Velanos. Oh well. Should have known that the quiet wouldn't last.' The astrophysicist didn't know the meaning of the word 'no', and when he wanted to see Dr. Beckett, he would. There was no use fighting it, so the physician thought he might as well get it over with. Just then Rodney burst into the room.

Beckett sighed and closed his eyes, not turning around. "What is it this time? Appendicitis? Ulcers? Brain tumor? Exotic parasites?" Beckett was really not in the mood for their resident hypochondriac. Resignedly, he thought, 'Of course, even hypochondriacs get sick and die of something...eventually'

"No, no, no! That's not it at..." Beckett's words finally sunk in. "Do you think I might have a brain tumor?" McKay transformed from bubbly to concerned in a matter of seconds.

'Me and my big mouth.' "No, Rodney, I was being facetious." He sighed again and turned around, pasting a fake smile on his face. "What can I do for you today?"

McKay himself produced a Cheshire-cat grin. "No, Carson, today the question is 'What can I do for you?'" He strode up and punctuated his remark by poking a finger into the physician's chest.

'Oh joy, GAMES. What did I ever do to deserve this?' Carson groaned inwardly to himself, but externally managed to maintain his forced smile. "All right, then: what can you do for me?"

McKay rocked heel-to-toe in anticipation, like a child at Christmas who can hardly wait for his non-smoking mother to unwrap the ashtray he made her. "Come with me; I'll explain on the way."

Beckett thought longingly of his research, but realized that it would wait more patiently than Rodney would. "Give me a second." He carefully stored his reagents and turned off his equipment, then followed the excited astrophysicist.

"Grodin and I found a cache of maps of this facility in one of the Ancient computers this morning, and began comparing them to the areas we've explored. The maps were unlabelled, so we set about labeling them ourselves. That's when we noticed it."

Beckett rolled his eyes; the games were continuing. "Noticed what, McKay?" he ground out.

"The space. The rather large empty space surrounding three sides of the Jumper Bay." He drew a circle with his hands. "The ancients clearly wanted it easily accessible, but concealed from casual observers. Our hypothesis is that it was a later renovation, after the war against the Wraith had come to Atlantis. Unless you actually measured the inside and the outside of the bay, you wouldn't have a clue it was there."

Beckett was getting annoyed. "What was there, Rodney?"

This time McKay ignored him, continuing as if he hadn't been interrupted. As they entered the bay, he strode up to the wall on the far right. "We've been by this entrance a million times and no one ever suspected its existence."

"What is it?!?" Beckett was tired of guessing; this had better be worth his time...

McKay widened his eyes, all innocence. "Why, the Ancient's medical facility, of course." Slapping a hand to an almost-invisible panel, he grabbed the doctor and hauled him inside.

Beckett's jaw dropped. It was incredible. A curved ward about 14 feet wide arched in both directions, clearly hugging the contours of the Jumper Bay. The room they entered appeared to be an intake area. A row of beds with overhead diagnostic machines lined the outer wall, while the inner had a series of desks and work areas. On either side of the room were sliding glass doors similar to the ones that went to the balconies. He reverently touched the nearest bunk, and was rewarded with the diagnostics instantly lighting up. He realized with awe that he understood what each of the readouts meant, as if his brain were being directly informed. Pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, pH, water content percentage...it was all there. "This is...amazing," he finally managed to stammer.

McKay looked slightly confused, however. "That's funny. It didn't do that for Grodin or me. In fact, it didn't light up at all." His eyes narrowed as something occurred to him. "Let me run a theory by you..."

"Sure, anything." Carson replied distractedly. He felt like a child on his first visit to Toys-R-Us. He headed towards the next section.

"In Antarctica, you required a great deal of effort to get the weapons controller to respond, and tremendous concentration to activate and subsequently deactivate the missile. Yet Sheppard, a soldier, did so without even knowing anything about the device. Now we find a repository of medical equipment, and it's lighting up for you, a physician, like the New York skyline."

Beckett had wandered through the doors. This room appeared to be filled with diagnostic scanning equipment that was too large to be readily mobile. He reached for the nearest device, this time on the inner wall, which obligingly lit up as brightly as the diagnostic beds in the previous room. "This appears to do virtual endoscopy..." he muttered after a moment.

McKay watched as the physician moved on to the next instrument. "This is a viral scanner..." he murmured, "and look, it can produce a recommended treatment regimen!" He examined the machine more closely. "It can be used for patients here or at remote locations. See? You can either have the patient lie down on the gantry," he gestured to the attached table-like projection, "Or you can insert a blood sample here." He pointed to a slot on the front console.

McKay stared on thoughtfully as the diagnostic machines lit up under Beckett's respectful touch. "My theory is that you couldn't activate the machine in Antarctica because it was a weapon; your entire persona is devoted to saving lives, not taking them. This medical bay matches your personal priorities...Your raison d'etre" He paused. "I wonder if Sheppard could activate these as easily as you do..."

"Come over here a minute." Carson snagged Rodney before the scientist could object and forcibly laid him on a bed next to his 'viral scanner'.

"Now hold on..." McKay began to object.

Beckett flashed Rodney a crooked but preoccupied grin as he stared at the monitor over the astrophysicist's head. "Just think of this as payback for making me sit in 'that chair'..." He touched a button on the control panel before McKay could open his mouth.

A fluorescent blue line suddenly appeared and, beginning horizontally at Rodney's feet and worked its way slowly up to the top of his scalp. Beckett examined the readout raptly as McKay jumped up, offended. "Hey, that hurt you know."

Carson just grunted "Uh-huh" as his eyes lit up with delight. He pointed to the monitor. "See here? This says that you're clear of any significant virus, but that you're about to have some impressive allergic reactions to some flower pollens wafting in from the mainland."

"What?! Where do you see that?" McKay came around the machine to stare incredulous at the monitor Beckett pointed at.

"Right here, don't you see?

Rodney got snidely defensive. "No, I don't actually. All I see is random numbers and lines.'

Beckett blinked and turned his attention to McKay. "Really?"

McKay nodded in irritation. "Yes, really."

Beckett shrugged. "Maybe it just makes sense to me, given my background. Look, even you can see that this is where you insert the blood samples when you don't want to have to analyze the whole person's body!" He pointed out the previous slot on the control console.

Rodney decided to leave before the doctor started drawing blood. "Well, I'll just leave you to it, shall I. Eh? Perhaps I'll go tell Weir that we've found a new home for our infirmary."

"Sure, sure..." Beckett had wandered off to the next machine. As Rodney slid the door shut on his way out, he caught another "Would you look at this?" coming from the physician; "It's a completely open MRI - how did they do that? Where are the coils?" He shook his head and started towards the control center.

It took only a few days to move all the Earth-origin medical equipment to its new home. The new infirmary appeared to be compartmentalized; beyond the scanning room was a patient care ward, and beyond that was more oversized diagnostic equipment. Next came what appeared to be an ICU, followed by even more complex evaluating machines. The next chamber required manual activation to open the door, and could only be opened from outside the room. Beckett discovered this by becoming trapped in it for almost an hour before someone came looking for him.

"It's an isolation room," he concluded in satisfaction. "That way the occupants can only be released once the doctor has cleared them." Afterwards they located a separate entrance so the other patient care areas wouldn't be exposed to those isolated to get to quarantine.

The move to the new area went comparatively smoothly. The whole base pitched in, as everyone either had a vested interest in making certain that their infirmary was top-notch or simply liked Dr. Beckett. Even McKay was seen by reputable observers hauling a box or two. Within the week both daily sick-call and post-mission health screens were being performed in the Ancient infirmary immediately adjacent to the Jumper bay.

TBC...