~ Prologue ~
"Sierra Golf Alpha – One Three, this is home base. Please respond."
Stephanie growled. It was difficult enough to keep hidden. Radio chatter wasn't going to help the situation any. She shifted slightly to grab hold of the radio on her vest.
"Home base this is Sierra Golf Alpha – One Three." She whispered. "With all due respect command, radio silence is difficult to maintain when people talk." The irritation in her voice was clear. The chatter turned to static for a moment before a response was made.
"What's your situation, Lieutenant?" The voice on the other end was clipped. She couldn't help wondering if that man was ever in a good mood.
"Recon intell was wrong, sir. There's primitive life and..."she paused as a limb snapped to her left. A moment later a face appeared in the brush and she let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"And what, Lieutenant?"
"Dinosaurs, sir."
"Dinosaurs?"
She nearly laughed. It was understandable how anyone not in her position could find it difficult to believe. Hell, she probably wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it all for herself. "Yes, sir. Big, ugly dinosaurs. They, and the humanoid lifeforms, seem to possess limited intelligence, but their base instincts are extremely keen."
"Not to strange, seeing as how their survival depends on their abilities to hunt down and kill each other." A third voice entered the conversation.
She grinned, shaking her head slightly. "Wow."
"Wow what?"
"Nothing."
"Stephanie."
"Yeah?"
"Wow what?"
"Nothing. As always, I'm just so surprised by the level of your skills in deductive reasoning and stating the obvious."
"Oh, shut up."
"Children. Can we please get back to the issue at hand?"
"Of course, sir."
"Good. Do we need to send back-up?"
"Negative, command. Its too dangerous to risk sending another team through. We're going to fall back to the treeline nearest the gate, and wait for nightfall. It should be fairly easy to dial out under cover of darkness."
"Agreed. You have twelve hours, Lieutenant. After that, I'm sending Alpha team through to retrieve you."
"Copy that command. McKay out." She closed her eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the tree she'd been using as cover. After a moment, she grabbed her radio again and gave the signal to fall back. As she made her way through the thick underbrush, she let her mind wander a bit.
She had never thought she'd enjoy being team leader. She'd never really considered herself the type for the position. Everyone, not just her, had figured Torren for the spot. In hindsight, he was better for it anyways. He was older, stronger, faster, and a much better fighter than she was.
"Stephanie? It's Nero. Come in?"
"Yeah, Nero? I'm here. What's up?"
"Kat and I are at the treeline. Sun should be setting in the next two hours or so."
"Alright. Just stay put. Torren, where are you?"
"Roughly point five clicks off your right flank."
"Okay, good. Torren and I will be there in about five minutes. Barring the likely chance of an encounter, in which case, be ready to dial the gate."
"Copy that. We'll be right here, just...waiting."
Stephanie skirted a clearing, noticing several smaller dinosaurs huddled about something she was fairly certain she didn't want to know what it had been. She moved quickly, staying as low as possible. She was ready to get back home. As much as she enjoyed going off world, she also enjoyed sleeping in a warm bed. She was brought from her thoughts as the ground moved up to meet her. She managed to regain her footing before falling completely, but it was already to late. She took off in a dead run as the creatures looked up, catching her scent.
"Nero! Dial the gate and send the IDC through. Kat, be ready to give cover fire. Torren, I need you now, buddy. I got a pack of 'em on my six and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to shake them." She ran full out in the direction of the stargate, pulling her P-90 up as she went and turning to fire off a short burst. The familiar sound of P-90 fire coming from her right was a relief to her. He had been closer than he had said. Under normal circumstances, she would have gotten angry and told him off, but they weren't exactly under normal circumstances. She could just make out Kat's form in the trees a few yard ahead, P-90 raised and ready to fire. Oh, she loved that girl. Always ready to fight, always ready to kill.
"Come on!" Stephanie yelled to Torren as she pulled her P-90 up again, letting off a short burst towards the underbrush as he moved past her.
She was composed, stoic really, on the outside, but underneath she was seething. They had been told that the planet was uninhabited, and that the only life they should expect to see would be plant life. She was going to kill the team that had done recon for the tropical planet as soon as she stepped back through the gate.
"Nero?"
"Gate is active." was the brisk response, sounding from somewhere behind her. She let off another round before turning once more and rushing past her other two teammates to take up another position several yards closer to the gate. As the others fired, she reloaded, tossing the empty cartridge to the ground. As the other two fell back, she let off a single, long round and ran backwards towards the now activated gate. Taking one last look around, she turned and ran full on through the Event Horizon. Yes, killing the morons responsible would certainly make her feel much better.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Unauthorized incoming wormhole." Chuck said over the intercom, as a siren began to sound and lights flashed. "Receiving IDC."
"Who is it?" Woolsey asked as he entered the control room from his office. There was never a dull day in the Pegasus Galaxy.
"It's...SGA-13? Do we have a 13, sir?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Lower the Iris."
"Lowering the Iris."
As the translucent force field fell from the Event Horizon, four bodies flew into the Gate Room, stumbling and tripping in their haste. As Stephanie stood, having tumbled to the floor upon arrival, she could tell something was wrong. Her fears were confirmed as Mr. Woolsey, and several familiar looking people walked down the steps, and close to a dozen Marines trained their P-90s on them.
Realization struck a moment later, as a medical team came up the ramp, another familiar face at the lead. She couldn't suppress the groan that formed on her lips as she closed her hazel eyes. She felt the others looking at her, searching her for the answers as to why no one seemed to know who they were and why they had guns pointed at them. She shot them a lopsided grin, near identical to that of her father.
"We are so dead when we get home."
"Stephanie?"
"Yeah, Kat?"
"What's going on?"
"I think we hit a flare."
"As in 'Solar Flare'?"
Stephanie nodded. She couldn't find the words to tell her team that, while they were technically home, they were so very far away from everything they knew.
"I don't...what's that mean?" The deep voice of Torren came from her left, and she caught a glimpse of a body shifting.
"It means, we've either gone forward in time, or, the more likely of the two seeing as how not a single damn person here seems to know who we are, backwards in time."
"Oh."
"Yeah. My thoughts exactly."
Their semi-private conversation was interrupted there as the people they knew as their parents came closer.
"Who are you people, exactly?" John Sheppard asked as he looked them all over. They wore the standard BDUs and carried P-90s, but with everything that had happened since their arrival in the Pegasus Galaxy, he was hesitant to blindly accept anything, even if it was his own mind telling it to him.
Stephanie smiled softly at him and took a step forward, placing herself at the front of the team. She may not have wanted the job as leader of the team, but she did take it seriously. She rested her arms on the stock of her gun as she let it hang from her vest.
"I'm Stephanie Elizabeth McKay. This is Katriessa Valarie Dex," She pointed to her right. Green eyes glinted beneath thick lashes and short, shaggy dirty-blonde hair. She tilted her head in acknowledgment and resumed looking around. Stephanie motioned to the black haired young man behind her, "That's Nero Aiden Sheppard, and this strong, silent man-boy to my left would be Torren John Emmagan. We're SGA-13."
"Really?" All of the adults shared a look, a mixture of shock, disbelief and concern. "I think we should go somewhere a bit more...private."
"Yes," Woolsey stepped in. "It would seem there is much to discuss."
He turned and headed back up the stairs. Everyone followed him in silence, still trying to come to terms with what had just happened. They followed him through the control room and into his office, the door closing softly behind Nero as the last to enter the room. Stephanie just knew this was going to take a while. Things like this always did.