This is a story some may recognise from CD. I'm uploading it here and editing it as I go.
When a power surge hits the Stargate, his team makes it back to Atlantis, but the wormhole disengages and the traveller is lost...
Shots rang out, the muted shriek of energy weapons hurtling through the air and thudding into the undergrowth, sending up sprays of damaged leaves and dirt. Sheppard's team had definitely picked the wrong planet this time. Add to that two additions until Leonard's team was back up and running and this was a hell of a time for unknown natives to get irritable.
'C'mon, McKay!' Sheppard bent mid-stride, grabbing Rodney by the scruff of his jacket and pulling him up as the scientist scrambled to his feet. Behind them more shots embedded into the dirt at their heels and he picked up the pace, aware of McKay cradling his right arm, sweating with both the effort of running and the pain jarring the break.
Ahead of them, Ronan ran with Harrison and Cartwright. Teyla was back on Atlantis, a series of Athosian ceremonies taking her time away and with the extra bodies, it hadn't mattered. Now though, he wished he had an extra gun on their side. About four hundred yards away lay the Stargate, empty and silent. Waiting.
Cartwright reached it first, slinging her weapon and trusting her team-mates to cover her back whilst she punched symbols. The wormhole established with a watery rush and she straightened, tapping in the code that would drop the shield and allow them back into the safety of Atlantis.
The counter-signal bounced back and Cartwright waved her team-mates forward, running to the 'Gate to crouch in the shadows beside it. Taking aim at the shadowy figures behind McKay and Sheppard, she started firing in short staccato bursts. She could barely see the enemy, but she didn't have to, she just had to lay down covering fire for her team-mates.
Sheppard was limping, badly enough that Smith could only imagine he'd taken a round. McKay was stumbling and briefly she wondered if she should head back to help, he looked like he might go down any second but the Colonel's voice was already reaching her ears over the sound of fire, ordering his team through the 'Gate.
He was always the last through, a lesson hard-learned, or so Cartwright, new to the Expedition, had heard. He never left a team-mate behind, that was his mantra. But the the disgruntled rumour mill whispered that he'd abandoned the previous Expedition's leader to the Replicators, leaving her in their torturous hands and escaping with his own skin intact.
But from what Cartwright had seen, Sheppard lived by that personal code, and she couldn't reconcile the idea that he had left someone behind to save himself. Dr Weir had become something of a legend to the ears of the new recruits. She had watched over Atlantis for ten thousand years, or at least, her alternate reality self had done. She had saved the entire Expedition from drowning when the shields failed. She had handed herself over to the Asurans so her team could escape with a ZPM and save Atlantis, lost in the space with no power and no hope.
People still talked about her, in one way of another. It wasn't all positive, but most of it was and Cartwright wasn't inclined to like the sources that spoke ill words in the first place, let alone believe their extensive complaints. Sheppard was the source of most of their ire, but she found that hard to believe too, especially in light of a recent incident offworld. It happened almost in passing, but she remembered it clearly.
They were sitting round a campfire near some ruins, babysitting an archaeology team and McKay had been talking about Daniel Jackson, lamenting that the civilian scientist of the infamous SG1 hadn't been there to examine the ruins. The conversation had moved on to old friends, and gone round the fire, drawing stories from all quarters until it had come back to Rodney and he had spoken of a woman, one who had sacrificed much to save her people. A person of intellect, wisdom and unwavering courage. The kind of thing that made up legends it seemed until Teyla had interrupted him.
'You are mistaken Rodney. It was Pierson, not Elizabeth who suggested that course of action.'
'C'mon Teyla, she's gone now, the least we can do is make her a legend. She damn near was one too.'
'Still, it is not proper to lie, even of the dead.'
'Yeah, but-'
It was then Sheppard spoke up, he hadn't said a word the whole way through Rodney's little story, his mouth set, his eyes trained on the flames. Cartwright was watching him when he spoke, and she saw the flicker of anguish that momentarily touched his features before he shoved it aside and replaced it with a carefully neutral expression though his words were grim.
'Teyla's right, Rodney, Lis'beth wouldn't have wanted to be known as anything other than she was. Let it go.'
'But-'
'Drop it,' Sheppard had told him, without glancing his way. Teyla had reached over, laying a hand on Rodney's arm and he had subsided with an unusually grave look. Teyla and Ronan had exchanged a glance, something unspoken passing between them.
One thing was for sure, the memory of Weir's death, though it was almost two years ago, was still a touchy subject for Sheppard and obviously offlimits outside the team. It made her wonder what had really happened that day.
Harrison was backing up, laying down cover fire as Ronan ran back and grabbed McKay from Sheppard, leaving him to carry his own weight instead of two on his wounded leg. He glanced back once but Sheppard waved him on. 'Go, go!' he shouted above the sound of fire and tearing undergrowth.
Ronan jerked his chin curtly at Cartwright and Harrison, ordering them through the 'Gate. He and McKay were barely twenty feet away, the Colonel lagging behind, turning to aim staccato bursts of fire at their pursuers. Another shot hit the 'Gate and Ronan fixed her with a brief glare. The scientist was cradling one arm, his weapon slung. The angle was bad, a break for sure and she briefly wondered how he'd kept going. Ronan didn't watch to see she obeyed orders, he let go of McKay and turned, firing on the enemies, releasing her and Harrison from guard duty.
Backing up, not letting up on the rate of fire until the last second, Cartwright backed across the threshold, right after Harrison and McKay. The ride was rough, and she felt like throwing up as she fell back onto the smooth cold floor of Atlantis' Gateroom, gasping a breath into burning lungs. Behind her medics were already swarming but McKay refused to leave until the last two stepped through. Ronan came first, the jerky ride through the wormhole leaving him swaying slightly, but he kept moving backwards, waiting for the Colonel to follow.
The event horizon flickered, almost as if the 'Gate were losing power. Sparks flew and electricity arced, wrapping itself around the 'Gate.
'Back! Everyone get back!' It was McKay, but they were already retreating, drawing back instinctively. The 'Gate itself shuddered, shaking the floor and the walls around them. Cartwright tried to stagger to her feet, feeling her arm caught in an iron grip as Ronan backed up, dragging her with him.
The wormhole stuttered, a steady whine filled the room and, for a moment, everyone in the vicinity held their collective breaths.
And then the system blew. With a series of muffled explosions the event horizon disappeared and the wormhole collapsed. No other traveller crossed the threshold, and in the horrified silence that followed, a single thought ran through the minds of all those gathered nearby.
Sheppard was gone.