Dark Secrets Ch 3
If you're still reading, I thank you from the bottom of my hearts.... Um.. I mean, heart. In no way am I admitting that I may be a Time-Lord.. Hmm Maybe I need to hop in my TARDIS and go back and try to erase a few memories.... haha
Chapter 3
Caught up in his own thoughts, Adam completely bypassed his trip to the infirmary. Instead, he made his way to the mess hall. Again, there were stares. But Adam didn’t notice, or rather, he didn’t care. Quite frankly, he was getting tired of the looks. Of course he could understand the concern from Dr. Beckett, Col. Sheppard, and Dr. Weir. Even Teyla’s concern was appreciated. But everyone else was staring at him like he was horribly disfigured. And when someone came up to him, they treated him like he was going to break. Continuing to disregard the looks he was getting, Adam picked up a cup of coffee and proceeded to take a seat on the outdoor dining area, overlooking one of Atlantis’s piers. Focusing on the ocean in the distance, the events of the day began to drift out of his mind. Even the clatter behind him began to fade away. All that was left were the buildings in the foreground, which began to blur as Adam continued to stare at the ocean.
After about thirty minutes, Rodney came into the mess hall. After getting a meal tray, he noticed Adam sitting alone outside. Realizing that he hasn’t been to see Stackhouse since the incident, Rodney decided to go over and join him. As Rodney walked up beside him, Adam didn’t seem to notice him. However, Rodney did notice that Adam was sketching what appeared to be a Stargate address. Deciding to break the ice, Rodney tried a joke.
“Is that the address of a girlfriend we don’t know about?” Rodney was a little disappointed when he didn’t get a reaction at first but then noticed the blank look on Adam’s face. “Sergeant?” When he still didn’t get a response, Rodney placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Sergeant?”
Snapping back to reality, Adam nearly knocked over his cup whenever Rodney put his hand on his shoulder. “Dr. McKay. I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were there.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to being ignored,” He said, sitting down, “especially by women.”
Adam couldn’t help but grin at McKay’s addition to his statement. “Sorry, I wasn’t purposely ignoring you. It’s just…” Adam didn’t finish his sentence before Rodney cut in.
“I know. I understand. How long have you been in here?”
“Just a few minutes.” Adam told him, not realizing how much time had actually passed since he had arrived.
“So you’re the kind of guy who drinks cold coffee?” Rodney asked while beginning to eat.
“I’m sorry?” Adam asked, confusion painted on his face.
“Your coffee doesn’t exactly look like it’s hot. I’m the kind of guy who likes coffee hot, myself.” Picking up his cup and sticking a finger in it, Adam realized that McKay was right. His coffee was cold.
“I don’t understand. I’ve only been here for…” Adam trailed off when he looked at his watch and noticed that he had been in the mess hall longer than he had originally thought. Frustrated, Adam leaned forward, propping his arms on the table and put his hands over his face. “I have got to get over this problem with time lags that I have.”
“I can only imagine what you’re going through.” Rodney told him. Trying to change the subject, Rodney returned his attention to the glyphs Adam had sketched on the napkin in front of him. “Do you mind I look at that gate address?”
“I’m sorry?” Adam asked looking up, not really knowing what he was talking about.
“The Stargate address you drew on the paper towel in front of you.” Rodney told him, motioning towards the napkin with his fork.
Glancing down, Adam’s look of confusion only grew when he saw the symbols that he unknowingly drew. Not really understanding why he had drawn them, Adam immediately passed them over to Rodney. Giving them the once over, Rodney seemed like he recognized the symbols.
“Hmm. Have you been in the control room lately?” Rodney asked, looking up from the paper.
“Not since I talked with Dr. Weir this morning. Why?”
“Just curious to see if you’ve seen any addresses that might have subconsciously stuck with you. And just to let you know, from the information that we were able to recover, I think we were able to narrow down a few thousand gate addresses to a few hundred that might give us an origination point for the um… you know, the attack.”
“You said from the information that you were able to recover. What exactly did you mean by that?” Adam asked, still trying to figure out where the gate address came from.
“Yeah, that beam thing, or what ever it was, somehow managed to scramble the computers.” Rodney started to tell him in between bites. “We’re slowly learning more about what happened. But we’re still a long way from really knowing what happened.”
Leaning back in his chair, Adam began to think, suddenly realizing that he had forgotten about going by the infirmary.
“Are you okay?” Rodney asked him, noticing the look on his face.
“Yeah,” Adam began with a slight smile. “I just realized that I was on my way to the infirmary before I stopped by here. But, I got distracted and came straight here.”
“Well, hopefully it wasn’t really anything important.” Rodney said before sticking the fork back in his mouth.”
“Not really. But I think I should head there while I still have it on my mind.”
“Good idea.” Rodney told him, and then added, “have fun.” Getting up, Adam gave McKay a smile and a nod, then headed back inside and made his way to the door back into the main corridor. As he was walking in the direction of the infirmary, Adam began to feel a slight pain in his head. Shrugging it off, he continued his way to see Dr. Beckett. However, along the way, the pain seemed to be increasing. About a third of the way there, the pain was still getting worse, along with his vision starting to become blurry. The good thing was that the door to the infirmary was twenty feet right in front of him. The pain had gotten so bad that he didn’t hear Teyla come up behind him.
“Sergeant Stackhouse, are you alright?” she asked, standing next to him. Adam noticed that Teyla was in her workout attire and that her left hand was in a makeshift splint.
“My head feels like it’s about to explode. It might be a side effect of the pills Dr. Beckett gave me.” He told her, then indicated toward her hand, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I just sprained my wrist while training with Lieutenant Langford.” She told him, using a smile to try to convince him. Although he had a valid excuse, Teyla was worried that Adam was suffering from more than just side effects of some medicines. Her feelings were confirmed when Adam partially stumbled, then used the wall to help stabilize himself. Suddenly, the pain Adam was feeling increased ten fold, causing him completely loose his footing. Bracing his back against the wall, Adam slid down until he was on the floor. Instantly Teyla was by his side. “Sergeant Stackhouse!” Teyla became increasingly worried when she noticed the Adam had begun to bleed from his nose. Turning her head towards the infirmary door, she began to call for help. “Dr. Beckett! Come quickly!” When the door opened and Carson swiftly rushed out, Teyla turned her attention back to Adam. As Carson joined her by his side, Adam’s vision blurred, then his eyes rolled back into his head. He could hear Teyla and Dr. Beckett and for a moment, he could also see them. When his vision returned, they were there for a second and then they faded away. As their forms disappeared, others quickly began to fill the hallway, scurrying around as if trying to stop someone or something. But they were not the people who belonged to the Atlantis expedition but were the original inhabitants of the city. All of a sudden, there was a violent tremor throughout the corridor, possibly the whole city. Those that were around him continued to move as though he wasn’t even there. Three people suddenly stopped in front of him and began to speak to each other with great urgency.
“The Wraith have begun another siege on the city. Where is Mirac?” the first asked the other two.
“He managed to elude us as the attacks began. We don’t know where he is.” One of the others said.
“He must be restrained immediately,” the third began, “If he escapes and makes contact with the Wraith, the information he stole will be lost forever.” But before the three could make any other moves, they were suddenly immobilized by what appeared to be a Wraith stunner. Glancing in the direction the blasts came from, Adam saw a man in his mid to late thirties holding the weapon. By the look on his face, this must be Mirac, the one the three Atlanteans were talking about. As Mirac began walking towards Adam, the voice of Dr. Beckett began to fill his ears.
“Stackhouse, can you hear me?” The voice was distant at first but began to grow louder. As Mirac neared, he began to fade, along with the three he had stunned, and Dr. Beckett, Teyla and another nurse began to appear. “Sergeant, are you alright?” As reality snapped back to the present, Adam felt a towel under his nose, but not really sure why. With everything back to normal, Adam’s eyes once again rolled back and his head fell limp. “Help me get him in the infirmary.” Carson ordered when he noticed that Adam had passed out. Gently grabbing him by his arms, they carefully lifted Adam up and began to pull him into the infirmary where they laid him on a nearby bed. Grabbing a pen light, Carson shown the light into Adam’s eyes, checking the ocular responses. “Sergeant?” Carson asked once again. This time, he got a response.
“What’s goin’ on?” Adam asked groggily as he tried to open his eyes and sit up. Gently pushing him back against the bed Carson then turned to Teyla.
“I’d like to know that too?”
Instantly offering her explanation of what had happened, Teyla told him of the events that had just occurred. “I was on my way to see you when I came across Sergeant Stackhouse,” she began. “He was complaining of a headache. I believed him to be coming to see you as well, but before he got here, he collapsed.” Before any of them could say anything further, there was another response from Adam.
“Did you see them?” he asked, still not fully coherent. Confused, both Carson and Teyla went to Adam’s side. Stepping aside to let the nurse check Adam’s vitals, Carson leaned closer to Adam.
“See who, son?” Carson asked him, still not sure what he was talking about.
“The Atlanteans. They were in the hall.”
“Sergeant, there was no one in the hall except for us.” Teyla told him. With his senses more aware than previously, Adam sat up, despite the protests of the nurse.
“That’s impossible. There were standing in front of me just like you are now.”
“Could it have not been the headache you were experiencing causing your vision to be unreliable?” Teyla asked him. Shaking his head no, Teyla turned to Carson. “Can it possibly be the medicine he is taking?”
“Headache and nosebleed, yes. Although it shouldn’t have caused them to be that severe. However, it still wouldn’t explain what he saw.” With a look of worry and concern, Teyla glanced over at Adam, who once again was lying back on the bed, holding the towel under his nose.
Nearly an hour and a half later, Teyla was sitting with Adam on his bed in his quarters, accompanying him to make sure he made it safely. Still disheveled over the events that happened earlier, Adam was trying to sorts through his thoughts. Lifting his head out of his hands he looked to Teyla, who was watching him with concern.
“I know what I saw.”
“I’m not doubting you. It’s just that you’ve experienced a great deal lately. Plus, with your recovery, you’ve been under a lot of stress.” Giving her a smile Adam sighed and leaned his head back against the wall.
“Not to mention the eagerness to go back on duty.” Smiling, Teyla shifted on the bed so she was sitting directly in front of him. “But it’s not just what happened today outside the infirmary. Ever since I woke up, I’ve been hearing things, more recently seeing things. Even when I sleep, my dreams get kind of weird. Do you think I’m crazy?”
Caught off guard by the question, Teyla didn’t really know what to say. Quickly thinking, she told him the first thing that came to her. “No. Not at all. I just think that you haven’t fully rested and believe that what you saw was just your mind coping.”
Not really buying it, Adam just smiled at her. “Thanks. But I still think people think I’m going crazy. Hell, I think I’m going crazy.”
“I don’t believe anyone thinks you’re crazy. However, I would recommend talking to Dr. Heightmeyer. She could probably help you more than I have. I know she was able to help me with understanding my ability to connect with the Wraith.” Letting what Teyla had just sink in a bit, Adam began to consider it. After everything that had happened, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. “I should go. You need your rest.”
“Thank you, ma’am. For everything.”
“You’re quite welcome, sergeant.” With a nod and a small smile, Teyla got up and left. Sliding down, Adam stared at the ceiling in his quarters, trying to drag up enough courage to make his way to see Dr. Heightmeyer.
Sitting at her desk in her office, Elizabeth was talking with John and Carson. Having been informed of what had happened, both were becoming increasingly worried.
“I don’t know what to think.” Carson told them. “Of course the medications I gave him could cause the headaches and nosebleeds, however not that serious. But it’s his hallucinations that have me worried the most.”
“Well I can hardly say I blame him.” John said, looking from Carson to Elizabeth. “Kid’s been through a lot. Most people wouldn’t have gotten this far after experiencing something like that.”
“Stackhouse nearly died. Even though we’ve been here for a while, this place is still pretty creepy at times. Those two factors together could make a crazy person worse. But I believe there’s more to it than what meets the eye.” Elizabeth told them.
“What exactly do you mean?” John asked her. Before she could answer, Teyla entered from the doors at the rear of Elizabeth’s office.
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?”
“No, Teyla, please, come in.” Elizabeth told her, motioning towards the small couch.
“How’s Stackhouse?” John asked her, turning in his chair to face her.
“Resting. But he believes that he is going crazy and that everyone else believes so also.”
“Poor kid.” John said, looking around at everyone in the room.
“I mentioned to him that he should consider consulting Dr. Heightmeyer.”
“Good thinking, Teyla.” Elizabeth said, leaning back in her chair. Leaning forward, Carson began to get up.
“I need to get back to the infirmary. I’ll run some more tests later to make sure that everything is alright with Stackhouse.” Nodding to them, Carson began walking the catwalk, nearly getting run over by Rodney on his way to see Elizabeth.
“Oh good, you’re all here.” He said, noticing that John and Teyla were in her office as well.
“Rodney what’s wrong?” Elizabeth asked him, once again leaning forward in her chair.
“Well, we’ve managed to narrow down a list of possible origin addresses for the attack to a half a dozen. Just thought you’d like to know.”
“Finally.” John said. Noticing the look of aggravation on Rodney’s face, John quickly added to his statement. “No offense Rodney. I just meant that we’re finally getting somewhere.” A little more satisfied, Rodney’s expression softened a little. Getting up they all headed to the control room over to one of the technicians at the console to the far end of the room.
“Pull up the list.” Rodney told the young lady working the controls. Typing a few commands into her laptop, the screen that she had was brought up on the plasma screen they had placed above the console. After a few seconds, a list of six addresses appeared on the screen. Looking at the screen, they each gave it the once over. However, Rodney was the only one with a different expression at the others. “Huh. That’s weird.”
“What?” John asked, not sure what he meant. Reaching into his pocket, Rodney pulled out a paper towel.
“Rodney, this is the wrong time for you to go into one of your eating frenzies.” Elizabeth told him, not quite sure why he was getting the napkin in the first place.
“Hah, hah. This address is the same as one on the list.” He told her, handing the paper towel to her. Taking it from him, Elizabeth, with John looking over her shoulder, examined the piece of paper.
“Where did you get this?” John asked, while Elizabeth was still comparing the addresses.
“Sergeant Stackhouse.”
“What?” Elizabeth asked him, looking up at him with confusion on her face.
“Well, when I went into the mess hall, he was sitting in there. When I went over to see how he was doing, he was spaced out, drawing that.” He told them, indicating to the napkin. Still confused, John, Elizabeth and Teyla were immediately distracted by the beeping of the laptop that the technician was working with.
“Ma’am,” the young female, Jamison, began, “I’ve checked that address with the gate control log, the sensor log matches with both the address and when the phenomena occurred.” The tech told them, turning around to face them. Not really sure what to think, the confusion on their faces just continued to grow.
Making his way through the corridors, Adam was doing everything he could to keep himself from turning around and going back to his quarters. Admitting to himself that he was extremely nervous, Adam justified the visit as a way to return to duty as quickly as possible.
‘So what if people think I’m crazy.’ he thought to himself, ‘Lots of people visit psychiatrists. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m nuts or something.’
Finally reaching the door to Dr. Heightmeyer’s office, Adam worked up what bit of courage he hadn’t already used in getting there to open the door. Inside, Kate Heightmeyer was sitting at her desk filling out some kind of papers. Noticing that she didn’t see him come in, Adam was torn whether or not to turn and run or make his way into her office. Beginning to go with his instincts and leave, Adam was stopped when Kate looked up from her desk and look at him.
“Sergeant. What can I do for you?” She asked him, putting her work aside and getting up and walking towards him.
“I was um, wondering if you had the time, do you think I could talk to you?” he told her, the nervousness clear in his voice. “Teyla recommended that I should come to see you. She said that you could possibly help me.”
“Of course.” She told him, motioning towards the chairs at the window and reaching for a note pad on her desk. Still reluctant, Adam moved over and took a seat in the chair closest to the window. “How are you feeling?”
“Confused, tired, good. In all honesty, I really don’t know.” He said to her leaning back as far as he could in the chair.
“What exactly is going through your mind, sergeant?”
“Please, call me Adam.”
“Okay, Adam. What’s wrong?”
Sighing, Adam tried to explain what he was feeling. “I’m not sure. I think I’m going crazy. I know everyone else thinks so, even though they deny it.”
“Why do you think you’re crazy?”
“I’ve been hearing things, seeing them too. At first, I thought it was just my imagination running wild, but it started happening more frequently.”
“That’s natural after facing a traumatic experience. In passing, I heard about what happened earlier.”
Closing his eyes, embarrassed, Adam leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands, he sighed. “The whole base probably heard about that by now and thinks I’ve gone crazy.”
“Tell me about what you saw. But start from when this first started happening.”
“Well,” Adam began, once again leaning back in the chair. “When I first woke up from, well, the incident that first night, I thought I heard someone in the infirmary. It was just mumbling at first so I couldn’t make it out. Then, when Colonel Sheppard took me to my quarters, I thought I saw someone in the corridor out of the corner of my eye. That would have been natural except for when I looked, there wasn’t anybody there.”
Taking a few notes, Kate looked up at him. “Go on.”
“This morning after I took a shower, I thought I heard talking in my quarters. Dr. Weir wanted to talk to me so I went to see her. Nothing happened while I was with her but on my way to see Dr. Beckett, I saw someone in the halls that looked like he didn’t belong. When I turned where he turned, he was gone. I didn’t know what to think of that.”
“What do you mean?” she asked him, not quite sure of what he was saying.
“He was only a few seconds ahead me and the nearest door was meters away. He couldn’t have made it, even running. After that, I was in the mess hall, and then Dr. McKay showed up. Apparently, I had been in the mess hall longer than I had thought. If it weren’t for Dr. McKay, I wouldn’t have even noticed what I was doing.”
“What exactly were you doing?” Kate asked him, still making notes.
“Drawing a gate address. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve never seen it before and I didn’t see any being displayed in the control room when I was there.”
“Why do you think being in the control room would have had anything to do with it?”
“Something Dr. McKay had said about it sticking with me subconsciously.”
Smiling to herself, Kate continued to make a few notes. “After that is when you went to the infirmary, correct?”
“Yes ma’am. That’s when things went from bad to worse.”
“Tell me about what you saw.”
“I was in Atlantis, but not now. It was when the ancients were still here. There were three of them. One looked like he was in a high position by the way he was dressed. The other two seemed to be guards. The city was under attack by the Wraith and they were looking for someone named Mirac. Apparently he was working with the Wraith, although I wouldn’t know why. Suddenly, they were hit by a stunner and this guy walked out of the shadows towards them. I assumed that this was the Mirac person they were talking about.”
“What happened next?”
“Everything faded and Dr. Beckett and Teyla were back in front of me.”
“Adam, I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t really know why you would be seeing that. But what I can tell you is that you’re possibly suffering from a mild case of Post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s normal after someone goes through something as distressful as you went through.”
“But what can I do to try to make it stop?”
“Lets try this. Lean back and close your eyes.” Not really sure why but wanting to do whatever to get over this feeling, Adam did as he was told. “Now clear your mind. Focus on nothing. Slowly, take deep breaths. Try to relax and just let your mind wonder.” After a minute of silence, Kate spoke up again. “Whenever you feel tense just try going through that exercise.” Actually calm, Adam’s peace did not last long. Suddenly there was laughter filling the room. His senses immediately on high alert, Adam quickly glanced up began looking around the room. Adam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Right in front of him, in the very same room, was Mirac, the person from his vision.
“I can’t believe how pathetic you are.” Unable to understand what was happening, Adam just positioned himself farther back in the chair, trying to get away from whatever Mirac was.
Kate happened to notice Adam’s actions. Glancing to where he was looking, she didn’t see anything. Looking back at Adam, she could see the fear in his eyes. “Adam? Adam, what’s wrong?”
“He’s right there. Right in front of me.”
Looking again, Kate still didn’t see anything. Turing back to Adam, Kate got up and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Adam, look at me. There’s no one there.” Glancing to Kate, he could see that she didn’t see what he saw. Looking back, Mirac was gone.
“He was there. I know I wasn’t imagining it.”
“Who was there?”
“The guy from my vision, Mirac.” Adam told her, the sweat forming on his forehead as a sign of fear.
“Adam, there was no one here but us.” Sitting back down, Kate hook his hands into her own and tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I think you’ve been through enough and tonight is just making things worse. Try going back to your quarters and resting. Maybe you’ll feel better. Then come back and see me tomorrow.”
Still clearly disheveled, Adam wiped his forehead with his sleeve, nodded and made his way to the door.
“I’m sorry.” He told her, barely audible.
“For what?”
“For what just happened. I know I looked, and probably sounded, like an idiot.”
“No. No don’t apologize. It’s normal for some to react differently in times of great stress. But just get some rest. Come back when you feel better.” With his back still to Kate, Adam just nodded, opened the door and made his way back to his quarters.
Extremely concerned and worried, Kate gathered her notes and set out to find Dr. Weir. Making her way to the transporter, Kate touched screen on the indicator for the transporter in the Control tower. After the brief flash, Kate turned in the direction of the control room. She didn’t have to go far to find Weir. Nearing the control room, Elizabeth turned the corner into the hall where Kate was walking.
“Dr. Weir.” Glancing over, Elizabeth saw Kate.
“Dr. Heightmeyer. How are you?” She asked, pausing to let Kate catch up with her.
“I’m fine. However, it’s Sergeant Stackhouse I’m worried about.” Motioning for them to continue, they made their way to the stairs that led up to the control room. Climbing the stairs into the control room, they made their way over towards Elizabeth’s office.
“Yes. Teyla told us that she recommended to him that he should talk to you.”
“I’m really worried about him. He started hallucinating during our session. He mentioned someone named Mirac.”
“Hold on. Mirac.”
“Ring a bell, does it?”
“Well we found the address for the planet where that beam thing came from.” Elizabeth told her. “Strangely, there was an attachment file of sorts with the address. It talked about someone named Mirac. We’re still looking over the file though.” Reaching her office, Elizabeth went to her desk and pulled up the file on her laptop, while Kate took a seat in one of the other chairs.
“Would this be the same address that Sergeant Stackhouse was drawing?”
“He mentioned that, did he?”
“Yeah.” Turning the laptop towards her, Kate leaned forward and began to look over the file, which had partially been translated from ancient. Before she could get very far into the translation, Rodney came across the catwalk and into the office.
“Rodney, what have you got?” Elizabeth asked him.
“We’ve uh, identified the energy signature of the beam.”
“Good job.”
“It’s not anything we’ve encountered here in Pegasus. But we have seen it before.”
“Really? Where?”
“On Earth. Or rather later on Earth. When General O’Neill, who at the time was a colonel, encountered the first repository. Teams later went to retrieve the device and take it back to Area 51 for research. From the notes I saw, a miniscule energy signature was discovered. Now I had a copy of the research and just out of curiosity, I compared them. They were a perfect match.”
“Could that explain what’s been happening to Stackhouse?” Kate asked, looking to Rodney for answers.
“Probably, but I don’t know.”
“We need to have Carson run some more tests. See if there is anything serious happening to Stackhouse.”
“You mean more serious than nearly getting killed?” Rodney asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Not really sure what to think, Elizabeth looked at Kate, who then looked to the computer screen. Even though another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, they were still nowhere near solving the complete picture.
Chapter 4
Chapter 3
Caught up in his own thoughts, Adam completely bypassed his trip to the infirmary. Instead, he made his way to the mess hall. Again, there were stares. But Adam didn’t notice, or rather, he didn’t care. Quite frankly, he was getting tired of the looks. Of course he could understand the concern from Dr. Beckett, Col. Sheppard, and Dr. Weir. Even Teyla’s concern was appreciated. But everyone else was staring at him like he was horribly disfigured. And when someone came up to him, they treated him like he was going to break. Continuing to disregard the looks he was getting, Adam picked up a cup of coffee and proceeded to take a seat on the outdoor dining area, overlooking one of Atlantis’s piers. Focusing on the ocean in the distance, the events of the day began to drift out of his mind. Even the clatter behind him began to fade away. All that was left were the buildings in the foreground, which began to blur as Adam continued to stare at the ocean.
After about thirty minutes, Rodney came into the mess hall. After getting a meal tray, he noticed Adam sitting alone outside. Realizing that he hasn’t been to see Stackhouse since the incident, Rodney decided to go over and join him. As Rodney walked up beside him, Adam didn’t seem to notice him. However, Rodney did notice that Adam was sketching what appeared to be a Stargate address. Deciding to break the ice, Rodney tried a joke.
“Is that the address of a girlfriend we don’t know about?” Rodney was a little disappointed when he didn’t get a reaction at first but then noticed the blank look on Adam’s face. “Sergeant?” When he still didn’t get a response, Rodney placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Sergeant?”
Snapping back to reality, Adam nearly knocked over his cup whenever Rodney put his hand on his shoulder. “Dr. McKay. I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were there.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to being ignored,” He said, sitting down, “especially by women.”
Adam couldn’t help but grin at McKay’s addition to his statement. “Sorry, I wasn’t purposely ignoring you. It’s just…” Adam didn’t finish his sentence before Rodney cut in.
“I know. I understand. How long have you been in here?”
“Just a few minutes.” Adam told him, not realizing how much time had actually passed since he had arrived.
“So you’re the kind of guy who drinks cold coffee?” Rodney asked while beginning to eat.
“I’m sorry?” Adam asked, confusion painted on his face.
“Your coffee doesn’t exactly look like it’s hot. I’m the kind of guy who likes coffee hot, myself.” Picking up his cup and sticking a finger in it, Adam realized that McKay was right. His coffee was cold.
“I don’t understand. I’ve only been here for…” Adam trailed off when he looked at his watch and noticed that he had been in the mess hall longer than he had originally thought. Frustrated, Adam leaned forward, propping his arms on the table and put his hands over his face. “I have got to get over this problem with time lags that I have.”
“I can only imagine what you’re going through.” Rodney told him. Trying to change the subject, Rodney returned his attention to the glyphs Adam had sketched on the napkin in front of him. “Do you mind I look at that gate address?”
“I’m sorry?” Adam asked looking up, not really knowing what he was talking about.
“The Stargate address you drew on the paper towel in front of you.” Rodney told him, motioning towards the napkin with his fork.
Glancing down, Adam’s look of confusion only grew when he saw the symbols that he unknowingly drew. Not really understanding why he had drawn them, Adam immediately passed them over to Rodney. Giving them the once over, Rodney seemed like he recognized the symbols.
“Hmm. Have you been in the control room lately?” Rodney asked, looking up from the paper.
“Not since I talked with Dr. Weir this morning. Why?”
“Just curious to see if you’ve seen any addresses that might have subconsciously stuck with you. And just to let you know, from the information that we were able to recover, I think we were able to narrow down a few thousand gate addresses to a few hundred that might give us an origination point for the um… you know, the attack.”
“You said from the information that you were able to recover. What exactly did you mean by that?” Adam asked, still trying to figure out where the gate address came from.
“Yeah, that beam thing, or what ever it was, somehow managed to scramble the computers.” Rodney started to tell him in between bites. “We’re slowly learning more about what happened. But we’re still a long way from really knowing what happened.”
Leaning back in his chair, Adam began to think, suddenly realizing that he had forgotten about going by the infirmary.
“Are you okay?” Rodney asked him, noticing the look on his face.
“Yeah,” Adam began with a slight smile. “I just realized that I was on my way to the infirmary before I stopped by here. But, I got distracted and came straight here.”
“Well, hopefully it wasn’t really anything important.” Rodney said before sticking the fork back in his mouth.”
“Not really. But I think I should head there while I still have it on my mind.”
“Good idea.” Rodney told him, and then added, “have fun.” Getting up, Adam gave McKay a smile and a nod, then headed back inside and made his way to the door back into the main corridor. As he was walking in the direction of the infirmary, Adam began to feel a slight pain in his head. Shrugging it off, he continued his way to see Dr. Beckett. However, along the way, the pain seemed to be increasing. About a third of the way there, the pain was still getting worse, along with his vision starting to become blurry. The good thing was that the door to the infirmary was twenty feet right in front of him. The pain had gotten so bad that he didn’t hear Teyla come up behind him.
“Sergeant Stackhouse, are you alright?” she asked, standing next to him. Adam noticed that Teyla was in her workout attire and that her left hand was in a makeshift splint.
“My head feels like it’s about to explode. It might be a side effect of the pills Dr. Beckett gave me.” He told her, then indicated toward her hand, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I just sprained my wrist while training with Lieutenant Langford.” She told him, using a smile to try to convince him. Although he had a valid excuse, Teyla was worried that Adam was suffering from more than just side effects of some medicines. Her feelings were confirmed when Adam partially stumbled, then used the wall to help stabilize himself. Suddenly, the pain Adam was feeling increased ten fold, causing him completely loose his footing. Bracing his back against the wall, Adam slid down until he was on the floor. Instantly Teyla was by his side. “Sergeant Stackhouse!” Teyla became increasingly worried when she noticed the Adam had begun to bleed from his nose. Turning her head towards the infirmary door, she began to call for help. “Dr. Beckett! Come quickly!” When the door opened and Carson swiftly rushed out, Teyla turned her attention back to Adam. As Carson joined her by his side, Adam’s vision blurred, then his eyes rolled back into his head. He could hear Teyla and Dr. Beckett and for a moment, he could also see them. When his vision returned, they were there for a second and then they faded away. As their forms disappeared, others quickly began to fill the hallway, scurrying around as if trying to stop someone or something. But they were not the people who belonged to the Atlantis expedition but were the original inhabitants of the city. All of a sudden, there was a violent tremor throughout the corridor, possibly the whole city. Those that were around him continued to move as though he wasn’t even there. Three people suddenly stopped in front of him and began to speak to each other with great urgency.
“The Wraith have begun another siege on the city. Where is Mirac?” the first asked the other two.
“He managed to elude us as the attacks began. We don’t know where he is.” One of the others said.
“He must be restrained immediately,” the third began, “If he escapes and makes contact with the Wraith, the information he stole will be lost forever.” But before the three could make any other moves, they were suddenly immobilized by what appeared to be a Wraith stunner. Glancing in the direction the blasts came from, Adam saw a man in his mid to late thirties holding the weapon. By the look on his face, this must be Mirac, the one the three Atlanteans were talking about. As Mirac began walking towards Adam, the voice of Dr. Beckett began to fill his ears.
“Stackhouse, can you hear me?” The voice was distant at first but began to grow louder. As Mirac neared, he began to fade, along with the three he had stunned, and Dr. Beckett, Teyla and another nurse began to appear. “Sergeant, are you alright?” As reality snapped back to the present, Adam felt a towel under his nose, but not really sure why. With everything back to normal, Adam’s eyes once again rolled back and his head fell limp. “Help me get him in the infirmary.” Carson ordered when he noticed that Adam had passed out. Gently grabbing him by his arms, they carefully lifted Adam up and began to pull him into the infirmary where they laid him on a nearby bed. Grabbing a pen light, Carson shown the light into Adam’s eyes, checking the ocular responses. “Sergeant?” Carson asked once again. This time, he got a response.
“What’s goin’ on?” Adam asked groggily as he tried to open his eyes and sit up. Gently pushing him back against the bed Carson then turned to Teyla.
“I’d like to know that too?”
Instantly offering her explanation of what had happened, Teyla told him of the events that had just occurred. “I was on my way to see you when I came across Sergeant Stackhouse,” she began. “He was complaining of a headache. I believed him to be coming to see you as well, but before he got here, he collapsed.” Before any of them could say anything further, there was another response from Adam.
“Did you see them?” he asked, still not fully coherent. Confused, both Carson and Teyla went to Adam’s side. Stepping aside to let the nurse check Adam’s vitals, Carson leaned closer to Adam.
“See who, son?” Carson asked him, still not sure what he was talking about.
“The Atlanteans. They were in the hall.”
“Sergeant, there was no one in the hall except for us.” Teyla told him. With his senses more aware than previously, Adam sat up, despite the protests of the nurse.
“That’s impossible. There were standing in front of me just like you are now.”
“Could it have not been the headache you were experiencing causing your vision to be unreliable?” Teyla asked him. Shaking his head no, Teyla turned to Carson. “Can it possibly be the medicine he is taking?”
“Headache and nosebleed, yes. Although it shouldn’t have caused them to be that severe. However, it still wouldn’t explain what he saw.” With a look of worry and concern, Teyla glanced over at Adam, who once again was lying back on the bed, holding the towel under his nose.
Nearly an hour and a half later, Teyla was sitting with Adam on his bed in his quarters, accompanying him to make sure he made it safely. Still disheveled over the events that happened earlier, Adam was trying to sorts through his thoughts. Lifting his head out of his hands he looked to Teyla, who was watching him with concern.
“I know what I saw.”
“I’m not doubting you. It’s just that you’ve experienced a great deal lately. Plus, with your recovery, you’ve been under a lot of stress.” Giving her a smile Adam sighed and leaned his head back against the wall.
“Not to mention the eagerness to go back on duty.” Smiling, Teyla shifted on the bed so she was sitting directly in front of him. “But it’s not just what happened today outside the infirmary. Ever since I woke up, I’ve been hearing things, more recently seeing things. Even when I sleep, my dreams get kind of weird. Do you think I’m crazy?”
Caught off guard by the question, Teyla didn’t really know what to say. Quickly thinking, she told him the first thing that came to her. “No. Not at all. I just think that you haven’t fully rested and believe that what you saw was just your mind coping.”
Not really buying it, Adam just smiled at her. “Thanks. But I still think people think I’m going crazy. Hell, I think I’m going crazy.”
“I don’t believe anyone thinks you’re crazy. However, I would recommend talking to Dr. Heightmeyer. She could probably help you more than I have. I know she was able to help me with understanding my ability to connect with the Wraith.” Letting what Teyla had just sink in a bit, Adam began to consider it. After everything that had happened, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. “I should go. You need your rest.”
“Thank you, ma’am. For everything.”
“You’re quite welcome, sergeant.” With a nod and a small smile, Teyla got up and left. Sliding down, Adam stared at the ceiling in his quarters, trying to drag up enough courage to make his way to see Dr. Heightmeyer.
Sitting at her desk in her office, Elizabeth was talking with John and Carson. Having been informed of what had happened, both were becoming increasingly worried.
“I don’t know what to think.” Carson told them. “Of course the medications I gave him could cause the headaches and nosebleeds, however not that serious. But it’s his hallucinations that have me worried the most.”
“Well I can hardly say I blame him.” John said, looking from Carson to Elizabeth. “Kid’s been through a lot. Most people wouldn’t have gotten this far after experiencing something like that.”
“Stackhouse nearly died. Even though we’ve been here for a while, this place is still pretty creepy at times. Those two factors together could make a crazy person worse. But I believe there’s more to it than what meets the eye.” Elizabeth told them.
“What exactly do you mean?” John asked her. Before she could answer, Teyla entered from the doors at the rear of Elizabeth’s office.
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?”
“No, Teyla, please, come in.” Elizabeth told her, motioning towards the small couch.
“How’s Stackhouse?” John asked her, turning in his chair to face her.
“Resting. But he believes that he is going crazy and that everyone else believes so also.”
“Poor kid.” John said, looking around at everyone in the room.
“I mentioned to him that he should consider consulting Dr. Heightmeyer.”
“Good thinking, Teyla.” Elizabeth said, leaning back in her chair. Leaning forward, Carson began to get up.
“I need to get back to the infirmary. I’ll run some more tests later to make sure that everything is alright with Stackhouse.” Nodding to them, Carson began walking the catwalk, nearly getting run over by Rodney on his way to see Elizabeth.
“Oh good, you’re all here.” He said, noticing that John and Teyla were in her office as well.
“Rodney what’s wrong?” Elizabeth asked him, once again leaning forward in her chair.
“Well, we’ve managed to narrow down a list of possible origin addresses for the attack to a half a dozen. Just thought you’d like to know.”
“Finally.” John said. Noticing the look of aggravation on Rodney’s face, John quickly added to his statement. “No offense Rodney. I just meant that we’re finally getting somewhere.” A little more satisfied, Rodney’s expression softened a little. Getting up they all headed to the control room over to one of the technicians at the console to the far end of the room.
“Pull up the list.” Rodney told the young lady working the controls. Typing a few commands into her laptop, the screen that she had was brought up on the plasma screen they had placed above the console. After a few seconds, a list of six addresses appeared on the screen. Looking at the screen, they each gave it the once over. However, Rodney was the only one with a different expression at the others. “Huh. That’s weird.”
“What?” John asked, not sure what he meant. Reaching into his pocket, Rodney pulled out a paper towel.
“Rodney, this is the wrong time for you to go into one of your eating frenzies.” Elizabeth told him, not quite sure why he was getting the napkin in the first place.
“Hah, hah. This address is the same as one on the list.” He told her, handing the paper towel to her. Taking it from him, Elizabeth, with John looking over her shoulder, examined the piece of paper.
“Where did you get this?” John asked, while Elizabeth was still comparing the addresses.
“Sergeant Stackhouse.”
“What?” Elizabeth asked him, looking up at him with confusion on her face.
“Well, when I went into the mess hall, he was sitting in there. When I went over to see how he was doing, he was spaced out, drawing that.” He told them, indicating to the napkin. Still confused, John, Elizabeth and Teyla were immediately distracted by the beeping of the laptop that the technician was working with.
“Ma’am,” the young female, Jamison, began, “I’ve checked that address with the gate control log, the sensor log matches with both the address and when the phenomena occurred.” The tech told them, turning around to face them. Not really sure what to think, the confusion on their faces just continued to grow.
Making his way through the corridors, Adam was doing everything he could to keep himself from turning around and going back to his quarters. Admitting to himself that he was extremely nervous, Adam justified the visit as a way to return to duty as quickly as possible.
‘So what if people think I’m crazy.’ he thought to himself, ‘Lots of people visit psychiatrists. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m nuts or something.’
Finally reaching the door to Dr. Heightmeyer’s office, Adam worked up what bit of courage he hadn’t already used in getting there to open the door. Inside, Kate Heightmeyer was sitting at her desk filling out some kind of papers. Noticing that she didn’t see him come in, Adam was torn whether or not to turn and run or make his way into her office. Beginning to go with his instincts and leave, Adam was stopped when Kate looked up from her desk and look at him.
“Sergeant. What can I do for you?” She asked him, putting her work aside and getting up and walking towards him.
“I was um, wondering if you had the time, do you think I could talk to you?” he told her, the nervousness clear in his voice. “Teyla recommended that I should come to see you. She said that you could possibly help me.”
“Of course.” She told him, motioning towards the chairs at the window and reaching for a note pad on her desk. Still reluctant, Adam moved over and took a seat in the chair closest to the window. “How are you feeling?”
“Confused, tired, good. In all honesty, I really don’t know.” He said to her leaning back as far as he could in the chair.
“What exactly is going through your mind, sergeant?”
“Please, call me Adam.”
“Okay, Adam. What’s wrong?”
Sighing, Adam tried to explain what he was feeling. “I’m not sure. I think I’m going crazy. I know everyone else thinks so, even though they deny it.”
“Why do you think you’re crazy?”
“I’ve been hearing things, seeing them too. At first, I thought it was just my imagination running wild, but it started happening more frequently.”
“That’s natural after facing a traumatic experience. In passing, I heard about what happened earlier.”
Closing his eyes, embarrassed, Adam leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands, he sighed. “The whole base probably heard about that by now and thinks I’ve gone crazy.”
“Tell me about what you saw. But start from when this first started happening.”
“Well,” Adam began, once again leaning back in the chair. “When I first woke up from, well, the incident that first night, I thought I heard someone in the infirmary. It was just mumbling at first so I couldn’t make it out. Then, when Colonel Sheppard took me to my quarters, I thought I saw someone in the corridor out of the corner of my eye. That would have been natural except for when I looked, there wasn’t anybody there.”
Taking a few notes, Kate looked up at him. “Go on.”
“This morning after I took a shower, I thought I heard talking in my quarters. Dr. Weir wanted to talk to me so I went to see her. Nothing happened while I was with her but on my way to see Dr. Beckett, I saw someone in the halls that looked like he didn’t belong. When I turned where he turned, he was gone. I didn’t know what to think of that.”
“What do you mean?” she asked him, not quite sure of what he was saying.
“He was only a few seconds ahead me and the nearest door was meters away. He couldn’t have made it, even running. After that, I was in the mess hall, and then Dr. McKay showed up. Apparently, I had been in the mess hall longer than I had thought. If it weren’t for Dr. McKay, I wouldn’t have even noticed what I was doing.”
“What exactly were you doing?” Kate asked him, still making notes.
“Drawing a gate address. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve never seen it before and I didn’t see any being displayed in the control room when I was there.”
“Why do you think being in the control room would have had anything to do with it?”
“Something Dr. McKay had said about it sticking with me subconsciously.”
Smiling to herself, Kate continued to make a few notes. “After that is when you went to the infirmary, correct?”
“Yes ma’am. That’s when things went from bad to worse.”
“Tell me about what you saw.”
“I was in Atlantis, but not now. It was when the ancients were still here. There were three of them. One looked like he was in a high position by the way he was dressed. The other two seemed to be guards. The city was under attack by the Wraith and they were looking for someone named Mirac. Apparently he was working with the Wraith, although I wouldn’t know why. Suddenly, they were hit by a stunner and this guy walked out of the shadows towards them. I assumed that this was the Mirac person they were talking about.”
“What happened next?”
“Everything faded and Dr. Beckett and Teyla were back in front of me.”
“Adam, I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t really know why you would be seeing that. But what I can tell you is that you’re possibly suffering from a mild case of Post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s normal after someone goes through something as distressful as you went through.”
“But what can I do to try to make it stop?”
“Lets try this. Lean back and close your eyes.” Not really sure why but wanting to do whatever to get over this feeling, Adam did as he was told. “Now clear your mind. Focus on nothing. Slowly, take deep breaths. Try to relax and just let your mind wonder.” After a minute of silence, Kate spoke up again. “Whenever you feel tense just try going through that exercise.” Actually calm, Adam’s peace did not last long. Suddenly there was laughter filling the room. His senses immediately on high alert, Adam quickly glanced up began looking around the room. Adam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Right in front of him, in the very same room, was Mirac, the person from his vision.
“I can’t believe how pathetic you are.” Unable to understand what was happening, Adam just positioned himself farther back in the chair, trying to get away from whatever Mirac was.
Kate happened to notice Adam’s actions. Glancing to where he was looking, she didn’t see anything. Looking back at Adam, she could see the fear in his eyes. “Adam? Adam, what’s wrong?”
“He’s right there. Right in front of me.”
Looking again, Kate still didn’t see anything. Turing back to Adam, Kate got up and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Adam, look at me. There’s no one there.” Glancing to Kate, he could see that she didn’t see what he saw. Looking back, Mirac was gone.
“He was there. I know I wasn’t imagining it.”
“Who was there?”
“The guy from my vision, Mirac.” Adam told her, the sweat forming on his forehead as a sign of fear.
“Adam, there was no one here but us.” Sitting back down, Kate hook his hands into her own and tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I think you’ve been through enough and tonight is just making things worse. Try going back to your quarters and resting. Maybe you’ll feel better. Then come back and see me tomorrow.”
Still clearly disheveled, Adam wiped his forehead with his sleeve, nodded and made his way to the door.
“I’m sorry.” He told her, barely audible.
“For what?”
“For what just happened. I know I looked, and probably sounded, like an idiot.”
“No. No don’t apologize. It’s normal for some to react differently in times of great stress. But just get some rest. Come back when you feel better.” With his back still to Kate, Adam just nodded, opened the door and made his way back to his quarters.
Extremely concerned and worried, Kate gathered her notes and set out to find Dr. Weir. Making her way to the transporter, Kate touched screen on the indicator for the transporter in the Control tower. After the brief flash, Kate turned in the direction of the control room. She didn’t have to go far to find Weir. Nearing the control room, Elizabeth turned the corner into the hall where Kate was walking.
“Dr. Weir.” Glancing over, Elizabeth saw Kate.
“Dr. Heightmeyer. How are you?” She asked, pausing to let Kate catch up with her.
“I’m fine. However, it’s Sergeant Stackhouse I’m worried about.” Motioning for them to continue, they made their way to the stairs that led up to the control room. Climbing the stairs into the control room, they made their way over towards Elizabeth’s office.
“Yes. Teyla told us that she recommended to him that he should talk to you.”
“I’m really worried about him. He started hallucinating during our session. He mentioned someone named Mirac.”
“Hold on. Mirac.”
“Ring a bell, does it?”
“Well we found the address for the planet where that beam thing came from.” Elizabeth told her. “Strangely, there was an attachment file of sorts with the address. It talked about someone named Mirac. We’re still looking over the file though.” Reaching her office, Elizabeth went to her desk and pulled up the file on her laptop, while Kate took a seat in one of the other chairs.
“Would this be the same address that Sergeant Stackhouse was drawing?”
“He mentioned that, did he?”
“Yeah.” Turning the laptop towards her, Kate leaned forward and began to look over the file, which had partially been translated from ancient. Before she could get very far into the translation, Rodney came across the catwalk and into the office.
“Rodney, what have you got?” Elizabeth asked him.
“We’ve uh, identified the energy signature of the beam.”
“Good job.”
“It’s not anything we’ve encountered here in Pegasus. But we have seen it before.”
“Really? Where?”
“On Earth. Or rather later on Earth. When General O’Neill, who at the time was a colonel, encountered the first repository. Teams later went to retrieve the device and take it back to Area 51 for research. From the notes I saw, a miniscule energy signature was discovered. Now I had a copy of the research and just out of curiosity, I compared them. They were a perfect match.”
“Could that explain what’s been happening to Stackhouse?” Kate asked, looking to Rodney for answers.
“Probably, but I don’t know.”
“We need to have Carson run some more tests. See if there is anything serious happening to Stackhouse.”
“You mean more serious than nearly getting killed?” Rodney asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Not really sure what to think, Elizabeth looked at Kate, who then looked to the computer screen. Even though another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, they were still nowhere near solving the complete picture.
Chapter 4