Chapter Text
Carson looked around the new infirmary.
He was impressed. The space allocated to the infirmary was significantly larger than they’d had at the Atlantis Outpost; it comprised a suite of several rooms on each of three levels. The construction of some of the rooms – five contiguous negative air pressure rooms, each with an ensuite bathroom complete with hands-free toilet, hand-washing station, and shower – suggested that this section may have been used by the Ancients for their own hospitals, or clinics, or whatever their term was for a medical center.
The expedition’s medical staff had already made significant progress in clearing out the rooms. Not only that – they’d furnished and stocked two examination rooms, one room to serve as an operating theatre until a proper facility, with proper equipment, could be completed, and three private rooms for patients who required hospitalization.
Fortunately, there hadn’t been a single medical emergency to address – only a few minor injuries.
Carson fervently hoped their luck would hold, at least until they had the facility up and running.
The likelihood that their luck would hold was slim. Reconnaissance was potentially dangerous work – and there was no way to know what was happening with the team currently searching for power sources or, alternatively, a place to live, should the city need to be evacuated until Rodney, Grodin, Zelenka, Cooper, and their team secured the supply of power to run the city – including the forcefield.
Carson wished some of the equipment would be removed. A number of alien devices had been set up in several of the rooms. Some had been left as they were; other, smaller devices had been set aside.
That was a task Carson had been pleased to delegate, once he realized that just touching some of the devices without even trying to think about activating them was enough to activate them.
Fortunately, they’d not been difficult to deactivate – but Carson didn’t want to deal with any more Ancient technology than he absolutely had to.
He especially didn’t want to accidentally activate anything.
Not again.
So far, he’d not actually hurt anyone – and so far on Atlantis, he also hadn’t broken anything.
That was a state of events he hoped would continue.
All of a sudden, the room started vibrating.
Carson ran to the closest of the patients’ rooms and looked out the window.
The city was moving!
“Of course it can move. It’s a ship, after all,” he said. He stood at the window, and watched.
The light brightened as the city-ship rose up through the water.
And then the window emerged from beneath the water.
Carson blinked at the bright sunlight, unfiltered by ocean, and smiled.
He liked the ocean, and the underwater view was beautiful, and impressive – but he really would prefer to visit underwater locales, rather than live there – especially with an unreliable power source for the forcefield.
A forcefield they didn’t need now – at least not to keep out the water.
Now, they could start to get to know the planet - and see what it was like outside the city.
Eventually, Rodney and his team would figure out a way to power the Stargate so they could return to Earth.
“That can wait,” Carson said. “It's time to get to know Atlantis - and its planet - first.”