Chapter III

Carson stood at John's bedside, looking down below the messy mop of dark hair as hazel eyes slowly opened. John took a slow, lazy glance around the large room and closed his eyes again. Taking a breath, he spoke, “This is not where I remember falling asleep....”

“You were late for duty. Ronon found you.”

The pilot look up at the other man tiredly, not really awake enough to truly comprehend what the doctor was saying, “How long was I out?”

“It's been seven hours since we found you. Longer, I'd assume since you didn't report to duty or answer your radio.”

“I had a re-match with Ronon this morning....”

“Glad you didn't forget.” Carson moved to the side as Weir and the remainder of Sheppard's team entered and came up to his bedside. John focused on the speaker, Ronon sported a small grin – but that wasn't the only thing John had noticed, “Been having fun without me, I see?” The vests that both Rodney and Teyla wore hadn't gotten past him. Rodney looked down at his hands, still slightly covered in moss. He raised one to show Sheppard, “If you call 'fun' digging around in alien moss,” he dropped his hand back to his side, “Sure.”

John nodded, a bit more aware of his surroundings now. “We went back to 566, to check out the energy field.”

“You really think that thing did something to me when Ronon walked through it no problem?”
“Well, you did pass out afterwards.”

“I already had the headache of the century.”

“Headaches are one thing, but passing out from them--”

Carson finally decided to intervene, “Rodney's right. Headache or no, the coincidence is too great.”

“Alright,” John conceded, “When you put it that way...” He laid his head back and closed his eyes against the harsh lights – it was funny, he didn't remember the lights being that bright before....

“Before you fall asleep Colonel,” Carson started, and grabbed a mirror – which by some stroke of luck happened to be close-by. John opened his eyes reluctantly and looked at Carson as he handed him the reflective metal. “The cut over your eye from last night.”

John took the mirror in hand and held it up. He frowned at his reflection as he focused on the spot where there used to be a cut over his left eyebrow. He blinked once, not quite sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. The cut was no more, not even a scab or scar was left. Like it never happened. Logic told him that couldn't possibly be right, reason told him otherwise. His mind worked to figure out a solution that wouldn't end in a relapse of the retro-Vitus or tiny little robots running around in his veins. What he came up with was so simple, it was laughable.

He had slept for a lot longer than 7 hours. More like a whole week or more. But that wasn't right either... was it? His colleges, his friends wouldn't lie to him... would they? No. Of course not. “What is going on?” He was fully awake now, if not a bit panicked. It was impossible for a human to heal from a cut, even a small one in just over 7 hours. He knew that. He'd had his fair share of cuts and scrapes to know that. He sat up a small bit, looking between each of the five faces; none of them looked like they knew more than him.

“We don't know, John.” His gaze settled on Elizabeth, and he saw the truth in her eyes. They really had no idea what was happening to him. And he felt fear trickle into his heart and down to settle in his gut in the form of butterflys. He looked down, unsure of what to say or do. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up at Carson. “We'll figure this out, son.”

All John could do is nod mutely.

SGASGASGASGA

A5Z- AA7

The four man team emerged from the even horizon of the Stargate. Major Lorne scanned the area, “You know,” the Major got his team's attention – which was made up of Lieutenant Malcom Lorenzo, Captain Matthew Davies and Doctor Benjamin Thomas, “It's nearly 17:00 hours in Atlantis, but it's... what? Early morning here?” One of his team members spoke up, “Maybe this planet's on the other side of the sun.” Lorne looked at the young blond- haired man, “Actually, Lieutenant,” he looked back at the seemingly never- ending grass plain, “It might be.”

Lorne walked down the steps of the rise the Stargate was set in, and stopped four feet away as he waited for his team to catch up. “If were were in the same solar system as Atlantis.” Evan looked around, not much to look at, but that didn't stop the action. “Okay, now. There's supposed to be an Ancient outpost on this planet, let's find it and be back before supper.” Lieutenant Lorenzo pulled his LSD out of pocket in his vest and activated it. “There's a very strong energy signal coming from,” he looked at scanner then towards a cluster of trees to North- west of the team, he took a finger and pointed towards the small forest, “over there.” Major Lorne started in that direction, “Okay, let's go. Looks like we have a long walk ahead of us....”

SGASGASGASGA

Carson Beckett walked over to the bed were his most recent patient lie sleeping. He walked up the monitor that showed John's brain waves. He noticed that they were more active when he was asleep. Normally they were less active during sleep. This had some interest to Carson, but he still had no search parameters to input into the city's database. The doctor looked down at John's face, glad to see that he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. After assuring himself that all was well for now, he walked back to his office, fully intent on spending some time sifting through the database. Maybe he'd get lucky and find something before he died of old age....

30 minutes later.

Carson rubbed his eyes, strained from the laptop's screen. He didn't expect to find anything in only 30 minutes, but he had to try anyway. He leaned back in his chair not sure how to narrow down the search from a few million results to at least a few thousand. A four number figure he could deal with; a seven figure number was just strait daunting. He could think of no parameters to search by, nothing.

Carson's musings were interrupted by a voice calling his name. He stood from his desk as he recognized it as one of the nurses. “Yes?”

She stood by John's bedside, “I came to give him his evening meal. He won't wake, Doctor.”

Carson needed no further words to move him into action, “Alright, thank ya, love.” He checked the Colonel, the connections for the monitors, his heart rate and respiration. Removing the stethoscope from his ears, he put it around his neck and sighed. He reached up and activated his radio, "Dr. Weir, this is Dr. Beckett." He listened to her response, and then spoke regretfully, “I'm afraid the Colonel has slipped into another coma.”

SGASGASGASGA

A5Z- AA7

After over a half hour of walking, and 20 minutes of the only scientist in his team complaining about the blisters on his feet, Lorne was more than relieved to have finally reached their destination. Had the trip been any longer, he would have shot the man with a stunner and packed him back to the gate. He looked around, in retrospect, the small 'forest' was not all that spectacular. Just a large circle of trees with a small clearing and a large man-sized rock jutting out of the grassy ground dead center. “Alright, make it quick. There's gotta be something here....”

Lorenzo pried out his hand held scanner, while Ben – the team's scientist, wandered around towards the central rock. He touched the rock and looked back over to Lorne, “The energy seems to be coming from here, but I can't tell for sure.”

“A rock?”

“May not be just a rock, sir.” Lorenzo ventured forward towards the rock. Lorne wasn't so sure, “Careful Lieutenant.”

Lorenzo kept moving, “Yes, Sir.” He held his own scanner to the slab as he stopped in front of it. He reached a hand out and the face of the stone shimmered. All members backed away and raised their weapons at it.

“What the--” he looked at Ben and Lorenzo, “What is that?”

“No idea...” Mal offered.

“Must be activated by the ATA Gene.” Ben said. The three men all looked at Malcom, who shrugged and pointed to Lorne, “He has it, too.”

Evan jumped to his own defense, “Yeah, but I didn't go near it.” He looked between the men, “Look, let's just find out what it is.”

“That may not be so hard....” Matthew looked back at the slab, “Could just ask them.”

Weapons were raised once again as it was known to all that there were two beings standing there that were not there moments before.

Lorne studied the two new-comers with a critical eye, “Yeah....”

TBC

A/N: chapter 3 wordcount, according to Msword: 1597