Melissa Scott: Allegiance

“Let’s take stock,” Dick Woolsey said, looking across the conference table at the weary team. No one looked very happy, but then they didn’t have much reason to. He wasn’t expecting much good news.

Everyone at the table had believed that the raid to recapture Dr. McKay from the Wraith would succeed. Instead, not only had the mission failed, with the Hammond sustaining serious damage in the process, but Colonel Sheppard’s team had come face to face with McKay, and made the grim discovery that he had somehow been transformed beyond recognition.

“What’s our present situation?” he prompted when no one seemed eager to speak up.

Dr. Zelenka, Colonel Sheppard, and Colonel Carter exchanged glances. He didn’t think any of them were dying for the chance to report first.

“Not great,” Sheppard said finally. He looked like he’d recovered fully from the series of stun blasts that had left him confined to the infirmary the day before, although he hadn’t apparently managed to shave. “Rodney’s still in the hands of the enemy. We’re not sure what they did to him, but he looks like a Wraith, and he wasn’t acting like he remembered he was on our side.”

“We have some theories,” Dr. Keller said, glancing at Dr. Beckett beside her. If so, they’d been up early developing them. Dick had called the meeting as early in the morning as he’d thought was reasonable, given that people did need to eat and sleep.

He wasn’t sure Dr. Beckett had taken the opportunity to do either. “Aye,” he said without enthusiasm. “Go on and tell them all about it.”

“We’ve been working for some time on a retrovirus we originally hoped could physically transform Wraith into humans,” Dr. Keller said. “That didn’t exactly work out as well as we hoped. We’ve since moved on to trying to find a way to give the Wraith a more human-like metabolism that would allow adult Wraith to survive on normal food rather than feeding on humans.”

“We know that,” Teyla said, with a smile that was encouraging but not particularly patient.

“Sorry,” Dr. Keller said. “Just trying to get everyone up to speed, here.”

“Which those of us who haven’t been here for a while appreciate,” Carter said.

Jennifer nodded and went on quickly. “It seems pretty likely that the Wraith have found a way to reverse engineer one of the versions of the retrovirus that we tested on live subjects. They’ve created a way to transform humans into Wraith.”

“As Michael did with his hybrids,” Teyla said.

“Something like that,” Jennifer said. “But he was trying to create an intermediate form between humans and Wraith. Here…” She looked across the table at Sheppard and his team. “From everything everyone’s said, Rodney didn’t look much like any of the hybrids.”

“He was Wraith,” Teyla said. “If I had not known his face, I would not have believed he was anything else.”

“He had a Wraith feeding hand,” Ronon said.

“That would be necessary for a complete transformation,” Dr. Keller said. “Of course, it could be cosmetic. We’ve faked that ourselves. It would be nice if it is.”

Dick frowned. “And if it’s not?”

“Then he probably has the ability to feed on humans. And he may not remember why that would be bad.”

Sheppard broke the silence that settled around the table. “But that’s not going to happen, because we’re going to get him back. Right?”

“That’s the idea,” Dick said. He was on his third cup of coffee, but it wasn’t making up for not having had much sleep. “The problem is, he doesn’t remember that we’re trying to rescue him.”

“That could be a side effect of whatever process they used on him,” Dr. Keller said. “Our first version of the retrovirus produced complete amnesia as long as the dose was kept at a high enough level. Which, when you think about it, may actually be a good thing for us.”

Ronon gave her a look. “How is that good?”

Dr. Keller shrugged. “If he was afraid of you when you tried to rescue him because he didn’t remember who you were, then he might not remember his access codes for the computer.”

“Or where this planet is located,” Sheppard said. “Or the location of Earth. Or how ships using Ancient technology can penetrate our shields. Or — ”

“I get the picture,” Dick said.

“We are already working on securing the computer system,” Zelenka said. “There are many ways Rodney could access the system officially, and we have already found numerous back doors. We will keep working.”

“I’d be happy to help if you could use another pair of eyes,” Carter said. “We dealt with a lot of security problems when I was at the SGC.”

“Yes, please,” Zelenka said before Dick could say that they were grateful for the offer and would take it under consideration. It probably didn’t matter at this point. Any tension between himself and Carter over her help being needed in Atlantis would be beside the point if McKay effectively handed Atlantis over to the Wraith.

“Sure,” Carter said. “After the meeting, why don’t you show me what you’ve been doing?”

Zelenka nodded. “It would help if you could also read Rodney’s mind.”

“I don’t know about that,” Carter said. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

“As we are speaking of reading Rodney’s mind,” Teyla said, a little reluctantly. “Things happened very quickly, but I believe I was able to sense Rodney’s presence as if he were a Wraith. I might be able to make contact with him if I were close enough.”

“Something to keep in mind when we’re at a point where another rescue attempt is practical,” Dick said. “At the moment, though, we have no idea where Death’s hive ship went after the Hammond entered hyperspace.”

“We have no clue,” Carter said. “I don’t expect they’re still sitting around at the repair facility waiting for us to come back, though.”

“I think that’s a little much to hope for,” Sheppard said. “We can check back with the Genii, see if they’ve come up with anything.”

“I’ll get in contact with Radim,” Dick said. “In the meantime, I want our first priority to be securing the computer system. If the Wraith can lower our shields, or lower the iris, there’s nothing to keep them from dropping a nuclear bomb on us at any time.”

Carter and Sheppard exchanged glances.

“They probably won’t do that,” Carter said.

“We’ve got a ZPM,” Sheppard said, in answer to Dick’s questioning look. “And lots of tasty people for them to snack on. Blowing us up is probably plan B.”

“I don’t think I like plan A any better,” he said. “Assuming it’s invading Atlantis and taking us all prisoner to feed on later.”

Radek shifted restlessly in his seat. “You know, the longer we are sitting here talking, the longer we are not working on computer security.”

“Go,” Dick said. “Colonel Carter, any assistance you can provide would be appreciated.”

“It’s my pleasure,” she said. “I’ve got time right now while we’re repairing the damage to the Hammond’s shield emitters. By the time that’s done and I can take the Hammond back out, Jeannie Miller will be here to assist Dr. Zelenka.”

“She is coming out aboard Daedalus ,” Zelenka said. “I wish she could have come through the Stargate, but apparently that was not possible to arrange.”

As Dick was the one who hadn’t been able to arrange it, he felt it was worth pointing out why. “Since the Wraith destroyed the ZPM installed in the weapons chair at Area 51, Earth’s only ZPM is aboard Odyssey,” Dick said. “The Odyssey is on a deep-space mission, and even if it had been possible to recall it, it would take nearly as long to reach Earth as Daedalus will to reach Atlantis.”