Fic: Dreams of Convenience
Mar. 10th, 2007 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityTeaser
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
CHAPTER FOUR
“I don’t think this is a coincidence,” Kate said, pulling her pajama top over her head. She sat down on the side of the bed.
“Proc u vsech usudy ze ne obemknout lide kteri nemuzeme zastavit stroje? Could I perhaps get some sleep?” Radek pretended annoyance, but looked at her affectionately.
She smiled and let him draw her into his arms. “You’re really not curious at all?”
“Muj drahy zenska, you have long hair and the part of you that is not your legs is your brain. Do you think I think of anything while you are here?”
She giggled, very much aware of how red her face must be. He smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
“Talk to Elizabeth in the morning.” He kissed her again and she didn’t disagree.
------
Carson hadn’t arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy equipped to deal with epidemics. He knew they existed, of course, and his limited experience at the SGC before traveling through the ‘Gate had warned him that anything could happen, but there was something about standing in a room full of dying people that he wasn’t prepared to accept. He dealt with life at its simplest, with DNA and genetics. He should be able to tweak something and fix this, but there was nothing he could do.
This disease was particularly nasty. It was a wasting disease that ate at muscle tissue and inflamed the nervous system. Those affected became weaker and weaker, and pain management became increasingly difficult. Their minds remained intact, completely aware of their failing, pain-wracked bodies.
Patient Zero was a young woman. Carson still didn’t know how she’d been infected, but she was the farthest along and her prognosis was not good. He had moved her to a private room when her pain became unmanageable as much for her privacy as to keep the others from seeing her fate.
She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn’t scream or moan; she hadn’t been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.
But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person’s life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.
And there was nothing he could do.
------
Elizabeth forced herself to stop looking at the screen. The latest riddle was based on theoretical physics and music, neither of which were her forte, but the puzzle was addictive and she was having trouble pulling herself away. She’d already instructed Carson to draw up schedules for people: there was more to do than puzzles and her people had a tendency to forget about things like food and sleep when they were busy. But still, it called.
She looked up and saw Kate Heightmeyer standing awkwardly in her doorway. She was used to that--the instinct to knock was hard to overcome--and waved the woman inside.
“Dr. Weir, are you busy?” Kate’s measured voice was polite as always, even more so perhaps, as she was in an unfamiliar arena.
“Not at the moment – it’s all numbers right now.” Elizabeth made a face. “Sit down, please.”
“I know you said you wanted reports from Department Heads, and Dr. Beckett is the head of my department, but I wanted to bring this directly to you first.” Kate sat and interlaced her fingers nervously. This wasn’t exactly protocol.
“All right. What have you got?” Hardly anything that happened on Atlantis was protocol.
“It’s…you’ll have to excuse me, Dr. Weir. I am stepping carefully around patient confidentiality to tell you this.”
“I understand.” Elizabeth nodded. “Take the time you need.”
Kate took a deep breath: “People are having dreams. Strangely lucid, consistently repetitive, very unusual dreams.”
Elizabeth sat forward, her face betraying no more than typical interest.
“Radek, Dr. Zelenka spoke about them first,” Kate continued. She looked up sharply and backtracked, “He said I could tell you. We spoke in a…non-professional capacity.”
“It’s hard to keep secrets in this city,” Elizabeth pointed out.
“True enough.” Kate smiled and recovered. “I spoke with several others in session and currently, I have ten patients, plus Radek, who have had these dreams.”
“Are they all the same?” Elizabeth asked. Her tone was starting to give her away.
“No. They are markedly different. I haven’t had the time to go into detail yet, but so far I have found one commonality: they were all in the lab when that flash went off.”
Elizabeth sat back, no longer even attempting to control her face.
“What are you dreaming, Elizabeth?”
“There’s…a girl,” Elizabeth began. The words started slowly, but then came with ease. “We’re in Cape Town, the ghetto. My train is passing through, and I see her out the window.”
“Why are you in Cape Town?”
“My father sent me. It was the summer after high school and he wanted me to see the world.” Elizabeth smiled at the memory. “I was going to be a doctor. Everyone always told me that I was smart and I should be a doctor, so I was. But I saw her that day. I saw how she lived. How so many people lived.”
“What did you do?”
“I got off the train and found a telephone. I called my dad and told him to phone Brown and tell them that I was switching into Political Science and that when I was done at Brown, I was going to save the world.”
Elizabeth’s computer beeped, jolting her out of her memory.
“A riddle’s been solved,” she said, looking down. “Dr. Selis, this time. I’m glad his mother made him stick out his piano lessons.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Kate said, standing up.
“Kate, a moment please,” Elizabeth said. “You have something here. I want you to interview everyone who was in that room. Full details of their dreams. Everyone will then report to Dr. Beckett for a CAT scan. If this thing is in our heads, I want to know exactly where and how. Keep is as quiet as you can for now.”
“Dr. Weir, I can’t tell you anyone else’s dream.”
“I realize that,” Elizabeth said, not unkindly. “What I hope is that you will see a pattern and determine the next step we need to take.”
“Some of my patients are high profile,” Kate said reluctantly. “I know they don’t like talking to me.”
“For this, you outrank every member of the expedition,” Elizabeth said encouragingly, “even Rodney. I think this is your part of the Riddle, Dr. Heightmeyer, the part that only you can play.”
Elizabeth’s computer beeped again. The new question had been translated.
“Begin as soon as you can,” Elizabeth ordered. “If you need anything, it’s yours.”
“Yes ma’am.” Kate stood and left the office, brain still spinning at the unprecedented amount of authority and responsibility she had just been given.
Kate wasn’t used to being at the centre of things on Atlantis. Her job was on the edge, away from the troubles and rampant catastrophes that her colleagues dealt with. This at least was something more familiar to her, but the scale on which she was expected to work was new and she wasn’t entirely sure she could do it.
She looked back and saw Elizabeth focused on her laptop, already processing the newest problem. Kate didn’t know what the riddle was, but she knew that someone on Atlantis would have the expertise to solve it. This was all about playing your strengths and asking for help when you needed it. Dr. Heightmeyer squared her shoulders and walked out of the Control Room, ready to take her place in the game.
------
AN: Heightmeyer/Zelenka is just too much fun to pass up. And Czech turns out to be really cool! If, you know, terribly translated.
Chapter Five
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
CHAPTER FOUR
“I don’t think this is a coincidence,” Kate said, pulling her pajama top over her head. She sat down on the side of the bed.
“Proc u vsech usudy ze ne obemknout lide kteri nemuzeme zastavit stroje? Could I perhaps get some sleep?” Radek pretended annoyance, but looked at her affectionately.
She smiled and let him draw her into his arms. “You’re really not curious at all?”
“Muj drahy zenska, you have long hair and the part of you that is not your legs is your brain. Do you think I think of anything while you are here?”
She giggled, very much aware of how red her face must be. He smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
“Talk to Elizabeth in the morning.” He kissed her again and she didn’t disagree.
------
Carson hadn’t arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy equipped to deal with epidemics. He knew they existed, of course, and his limited experience at the SGC before traveling through the ‘Gate had warned him that anything could happen, but there was something about standing in a room full of dying people that he wasn’t prepared to accept. He dealt with life at its simplest, with DNA and genetics. He should be able to tweak something and fix this, but there was nothing he could do.
This disease was particularly nasty. It was a wasting disease that ate at muscle tissue and inflamed the nervous system. Those affected became weaker and weaker, and pain management became increasingly difficult. Their minds remained intact, completely aware of their failing, pain-wracked bodies.
Patient Zero was a young woman. Carson still didn’t know how she’d been infected, but she was the farthest along and her prognosis was not good. He had moved her to a private room when her pain became unmanageable as much for her privacy as to keep the others from seeing her fate.
She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn’t scream or moan; she hadn’t been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.
But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person’s life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.
And there was nothing he could do.
------
Elizabeth forced herself to stop looking at the screen. The latest riddle was based on theoretical physics and music, neither of which were her forte, but the puzzle was addictive and she was having trouble pulling herself away. She’d already instructed Carson to draw up schedules for people: there was more to do than puzzles and her people had a tendency to forget about things like food and sleep when they were busy. But still, it called.
She looked up and saw Kate Heightmeyer standing awkwardly in her doorway. She was used to that--the instinct to knock was hard to overcome--and waved the woman inside.
“Dr. Weir, are you busy?” Kate’s measured voice was polite as always, even more so perhaps, as she was in an unfamiliar arena.
“Not at the moment – it’s all numbers right now.” Elizabeth made a face. “Sit down, please.”
“I know you said you wanted reports from Department Heads, and Dr. Beckett is the head of my department, but I wanted to bring this directly to you first.” Kate sat and interlaced her fingers nervously. This wasn’t exactly protocol.
“All right. What have you got?” Hardly anything that happened on Atlantis was protocol.
“It’s…you’ll have to excuse me, Dr. Weir. I am stepping carefully around patient confidentiality to tell you this.”
“I understand.” Elizabeth nodded. “Take the time you need.”
Kate took a deep breath: “People are having dreams. Strangely lucid, consistently repetitive, very unusual dreams.”
Elizabeth sat forward, her face betraying no more than typical interest.
“Radek, Dr. Zelenka spoke about them first,” Kate continued. She looked up sharply and backtracked, “He said I could tell you. We spoke in a…non-professional capacity.”
“It’s hard to keep secrets in this city,” Elizabeth pointed out.
“True enough.” Kate smiled and recovered. “I spoke with several others in session and currently, I have ten patients, plus Radek, who have had these dreams.”
“Are they all the same?” Elizabeth asked. Her tone was starting to give her away.
“No. They are markedly different. I haven’t had the time to go into detail yet, but so far I have found one commonality: they were all in the lab when that flash went off.”
Elizabeth sat back, no longer even attempting to control her face.
“What are you dreaming, Elizabeth?”
“There’s…a girl,” Elizabeth began. The words started slowly, but then came with ease. “We’re in Cape Town, the ghetto. My train is passing through, and I see her out the window.”
“Why are you in Cape Town?”
“My father sent me. It was the summer after high school and he wanted me to see the world.” Elizabeth smiled at the memory. “I was going to be a doctor. Everyone always told me that I was smart and I should be a doctor, so I was. But I saw her that day. I saw how she lived. How so many people lived.”
“What did you do?”
“I got off the train and found a telephone. I called my dad and told him to phone Brown and tell them that I was switching into Political Science and that when I was done at Brown, I was going to save the world.”
Elizabeth’s computer beeped, jolting her out of her memory.
“A riddle’s been solved,” she said, looking down. “Dr. Selis, this time. I’m glad his mother made him stick out his piano lessons.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Kate said, standing up.
“Kate, a moment please,” Elizabeth said. “You have something here. I want you to interview everyone who was in that room. Full details of their dreams. Everyone will then report to Dr. Beckett for a CAT scan. If this thing is in our heads, I want to know exactly where and how. Keep is as quiet as you can for now.”
“Dr. Weir, I can’t tell you anyone else’s dream.”
“I realize that,” Elizabeth said, not unkindly. “What I hope is that you will see a pattern and determine the next step we need to take.”
“Some of my patients are high profile,” Kate said reluctantly. “I know they don’t like talking to me.”
“For this, you outrank every member of the expedition,” Elizabeth said encouragingly, “even Rodney. I think this is your part of the Riddle, Dr. Heightmeyer, the part that only you can play.”
Elizabeth’s computer beeped again. The new question had been translated.
“Begin as soon as you can,” Elizabeth ordered. “If you need anything, it’s yours.”
“Yes ma’am.” Kate stood and left the office, brain still spinning at the unprecedented amount of authority and responsibility she had just been given.
Kate wasn’t used to being at the centre of things on Atlantis. Her job was on the edge, away from the troubles and rampant catastrophes that her colleagues dealt with. This at least was something more familiar to her, but the scale on which she was expected to work was new and she wasn’t entirely sure she could do it.
She looked back and saw Elizabeth focused on her laptop, already processing the newest problem. Kate didn’t know what the riddle was, but she knew that someone on Atlantis would have the expertise to solve it. This was all about playing your strengths and asking for help when you needed it. Dr. Heightmeyer squared her shoulders and walked out of the Control Room, ready to take her place in the game.
------
AN: Heightmeyer/Zelenka is just too much fun to pass up. And Czech turns out to be really cool! If, you know, terribly translated.
Chapter Five
