Futura Memoratia

Chapter 10 inventio (discovery)

Coffee, coffee and more coffee was going to be the order of the day today.  After her late-night adventure with McKay, Emily had lain awake for hours, leaving precious few for rest.  She felt groggy as she pulled her laptop closer, preparing to write a report for McKay and Weir about the somatic fertility device.

The keys clattered under her fingertips.  She tried to write a dispassionate, professional report, but her mind kept wandering.  First of all—McKay—what the hell?  He hadn’t wanted anything to do with her, nothing whatsoever, for weeks.  Then, yesterday, he turned up for no apparent reason, twice.  Twice?  The first visit had been baffling enough, but somewhat plausible—though she was sure he could have sent that shield down with anyone and he clearly wasn’t the type to apologize.  The second visit. . . had seemed more like a social call, but she didn’t have a clue what it might mean.  

She quietly heaved with perverse chuckles.  They had nearly performed an immaculate conception right there in the lab—when what she really wanted to do with him was far from a cold, sterile lab experiment.

And that wasn’t all.  She was already feeling nervous about using the gate later in the day, the pointy edges of the blister pack in her pocket reminding her she may not have anything to fear from the gate this time.  Then there was the event itself.  She wasn’t sure if Carson meant the invitation to be a date or just a friendly get together.  It sounded like there might be many people going, so that sounded more like a friend-thing.  But. . . the way he’d been talking the week before sounded a lot more like date-talk. 

As the day went on, anxiety kept slowly creeping up and it got harder to keep her mind on task.  Finally she had to admit she wasn’t going to get much accomplished for the day and went over to the Ancient console that interfaced with the database.  Most people used the search feature to find things in the database, but there was also an extensive menu system that was interesting to browse, not unlike the internet, and she decided to try to distract herself by delving into it to see what interesting things she might find.

She read a bit about Ancient history and the history of the war with the Wraith, which was fascinating, but not the light reading she was hoping for.  She read a bit about the Ancient scientist Janus and his frequent reprimands for unauthorized experiments that the other Ancients deemed too risky.  He was of particular interest to Dr. Jackson, she remembered.  She ought to send him this entry.

Then she stumbled on a section about the Stargate itself and she clicked on that out of curiosity to see what might be there.  The menu listed subheadings for topics like maps of the galaxy where Stargates were located, science and wormhole technology, composition of the materials used to manufacture a gate, control crystal specifications, anatomy and physiology of persons and objects utilizing the gate.  She clicked on the last one.  

Another long list of subheadings came up which included the physics of demolecularization and its effects on physiology.  She clicked through several more subdirectories, most of which were too technical for her to truly understand without further intensive study, so she started to back out of it to look for something else to read, but suddenly something stood out.  At the bottom of a list it said simply, “Wormhole travel sensation and illness.”  Tension thrummed through her as she clicked on it.

She couldn’t believe her eyes as she read the first few paragraphs.  A riot of emotions bubbled up and crashed over her.  It was a cogent description of her experience with the gate.  She could have written it herself.  She turned, casting around.  She had to show this to someone.  Her lab was empty.  Where had Neumann and Graden gone off to?  She didn’t even finish reading the entry.  She couldn’t contain herself.  She wanted to shout it from the top of the central tower.  She left the lab, practically skipping, to find Radek.  But when she got to the main science lab, no one was there either.  She frowned, confused, wondering where everyone went.  She was reaching for her radio when she heard a metallic grating sound coming from the other side of the lab.  She walked over and found McKay behind a bench on his knees working on a large device.