Inexplicable Circumstances 1: The Beginning
Chapter 1: Awakening
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Let me say that again, NOTHING! The characters belong to their respective creators and I am not, I repeat NOT making any money by writing this. If I create an original character in a later chapter, I will own that but otherwise I own NADA!
A/N: Fans of my work, newcomers, people who hate my guts, prepare to read the craziest thing I have ever written. I'm hoping that this will be the first crossover fanfic that I actually finish. It promises to be an epic. It has a little something for everyone. I ask that anyone who reads this please leave a review, even if it's just a comment to say that you weren't that fond of the idea. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.
He felt a warm breeze blowing across his face. He wasn't quite awake enough to recognize that the sensation was all wrong. He had gone to sleep on one of the hard cots in the crib at the station house, not on the soft grass on which he now lay prone.
Elliot Stabler slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the canopy of tree branches that seemed to go on forever above him. The early morning light that shone through them illuminated his surroundings.
He rolled over and found his partner, Olivia Benson, sleeping soundly beside him on the ground. His mind finally registered the surroundings as being wrong and he sat bolt upright. He grabbed his partner and shook her gently in an attempt to wake her "Liv," he whispered loudly.
"What is it?" she mumbled as she shifted positions without opening her eyes. Finding she was not lying on a cot as she had been when she had fallen asleep, she opened her eyes and stared wildly around her in utter confusion. Her eyes locked with those of her partner "Where are we?" she asked, trying not to sound as shaken as she felt.
"I have no idea," Elliot whispered as he let his eyes drift closed for a second. He opened them again when he sensed Olivia moving closer to him. She gazed past him with an odd look in her eyes.
"I don't think we're here alone," she murmured, placing a hand on her partner's arm.
The two detectives were sitting beneath a row of trees that bordered an open field. Elliot turned so that his line of sight followed Olivia's. The field was scattered with bodies. Some of them were starting to move.
Elliot reached for his weapon but found it wasn't there. He looked at Olivia and knew instantly that she too was unarmed.
Suddenly the relative quiet of their surroundings was shattered by the sound of an infant crying.
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Torren was crying, Teyla rolled onto her side and slowly opened her eyes. It was at that point that she realized where she was. The field in which she lay was a far cry from her quarters on Atlantis. Kanon was not lying beside her as he had been when she had fallen asleep after giving Torren his two in the morning feeding.
She sat up and quickly realized that she did not know where her son was. She could hear him crying but she could not find him anywhere. The field was full of others beginning to wake. It did not take Teyla long to find a familiar face.
"Ronon!" she yelled as she ran to her friend whom she spotted only about fifty feet away "Ronon, what is happening?"
"I don't know," Ronon Dex answered as he took in Teyla's terrified countenance.
"Torren," Teyla began frantically "I can't find Torren, have you seen him?"
Ronon shook his head. He had heard the baby crying but he hadn't known that it was Torren. He still wasn't sure but he didn't dare doubt Teyla's maternal instincts in this matter "Let's go find him," Ronon tried to find the direction the cry was coming from.
"The others, are they here as well?" Teyla asked as she followed Ronon in search of her infant son.
"I haven't seen them," Ronon told her. A few moments later he was stopped dead in his tracks.
"What is it?" Teyla came to a stop beside him and finally saw what he saw.
Dr. Keller and Dr. McKay sat before them. They seemed to be having a conversation with a man and woman in uniforms that neither Ronon nor Teyla recognized. Dr. Keller was holding the screaming Torren against her shoulder.
Teyla ran to the other woman and sank down beside her. She let out a loud sigh of relief "Thank goodness."
Jennifer Keller turned to her friend and handed the baby to his mother "There's your mommy," she cooed to the little boy. Torren seemed to calm almost immediately once he was in his mother's arms.
Ronon remained standing, staring at the strangers "What's going on?" he asked the group in general, hoping for some answers.
"Well," Rodney McKay was the first to speak up "We… aren't exactly sure yet."
"Who are these guys?" Ronon asked as he moved closer to Teyla, standing behind her protectively.
"Captain Kathryn Janeway," the woman in uniform rose and extended her hand to Ronon "Of the starship Voyager. And this," she indicated the man beside her who stood as well "Is Ensign Harry Kim."
Teyla smiled as she rose so that she was standing in front of Ronon "I am Teyla Emmagan and this is Ronon Dex," she stepped aside, so that she stood beside Ronon instead of in front of him "And this," she grinned at the baby in her arms "Is my son Torren." Teyla had a feeling that these people were trustworthy.
"It's good to meet you," Janeway's smile faded slowly "It seems that my crew and I are in the same predicament as you and the others of your team," she and Ensign Kim returned to sitting as did Teyla and eventually Ronon. "Dr. McKay had been hypothesizing on how we all came to be here."
"As I was saying…" Rodney picked up where he had left off when Torren had begun crying.
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"Where the hell am I?" Captain Jean-Luc Picard murmured as he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. He was in a field, that much he was certain of. But he had fallen asleep in his quarters onboard the Enterprise.
He stood up and surveyed his surroundings. There were several other people around, lying in the middle of the field or at the edge of the forest that surrounded it. He spotted a man walking in his direction and moved to meet up with him.
"Hello," Picard called out to the man "Could you tell me where we are?"
"I wish I knew," the other man said simply as he stopped feet from where Picard stood. The man kept looking around as if he were searching for someone in the crowd.
"What's your name?" Picard asked, sizing up the bespectacled man.
"Daniel Jackson," the man answered simply. It appeared that he was regarding Picard somewhat suspiciously "And you?"
"Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the USS Enterprise," Picard replied.
Daniel and Picard turned in the direction of rustling grass and saw a small group of people walking towards them. Recognition spread across both men's faces. The group of three women and two men came to a stop when they had reached the place where Picard and Daniel stood.
"Daniel!" the woman with long dark hair flung herself at him "I was wondering where you'd gotten off too."
"You weren't worried about me, were you Vala?" Daniel asked teasingly.
"Me? Worried?" Vala pulled away from him with an expression of indignation on her face "The only thing I was worried about was that you wouldn't be around to pay for dinner tomorrow night."
Daniel chuckled "Good to see you too," he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
"Daniel!" Vala shouted in a chastising voice as she swatted him, none-to-playfully on the arm.
A woman in uniform, wearing a blue lab coat approached Picard "Jean-Luc, what's going on?"
"I don't know Beverly," Picard answered, he turned to the man in the gold uniform who had accompanied Beverly Crusher and the others to this corner of the field "Data, do you have any idea where we could be."
"It appears to be a field Captain," the android Data replied "Approximately five hundred meters by one thousand meters, surrounded by forest on all sides-"
"Thank you Data," Picard held up a hand, silencing the android "The real question is how we got here."
"I have no idea Sir," Data said simply.
Beverly turned to the rest of the small group "Jean-Luc, this is General Jack O'Neill, Colonel Samantha Carter and Vala Mal Doran," she introduced their new acquaintances.
Picard nodded and extended his hand towards the group "I suppose we're all in the same predicament together." He stated.
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Olivia and Elliot walked side by side. They had been able to locate a familiar face in the crowd in the form of Captain Donald Cragen. They had also met up with two women with very odd names. The first one, a blond, referred to herself as Seven of Nine. The second, a brunette, introduced herself as 99.
The group walked in silence; that is until a woman in pigtails literally ran into them. "Oops," the young woman said quickly as she helped 99 off the ground after nearly running her over.
"What's your hurry?" Elliot asked.
"I'm looking for someone," the woman said quickly. She made wild gestures with her hands as she tried to describe not one but several individuals she was searching for.
"Slow down," Olivia instructed, stepping forward and laying a hand on the other woman's arm "I'm sure we can find them together," she forced the woman to focus on her and got her to calm down "What's your name?" Olivia asked after a little while.
"Abby," the woman said perkily "Abby Sciuto."
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Sarah Mackenzie, known to her friends as Mac, found herself deep in discussion with a man who referred to himself as Maxwell Smart. She was beginning to question the man's sanity by the third time that he had removed his shoe and attempted to talk into it.
She spotted a group of people and tried to get Max's attention. "Maybe we should ask them for help?" she suggested.
Max turned and eyed the group for a second "I don't think so," he shook his head "You see Colonel, we don't know who are the good guys and the bad guys here-" he was cut off by someone in the group bolting forward towards him.
"Max!" 99 screamed in delight as she wrapped her arms around him "I was worried," she buried her face in his chest.
"Its okay 99," Max said softly as he ran his hand up and down her back.
"Mac!" a man called as he and another small group of people made their way over to them.
"Harm," Sarah breathed a sigh of relief "Where the hell have you been. And where are we anyway?"
"No one has any idea," Harm told her. He turned to the rest of his group "Mac, you remember Agent Gibbs?" he paused then pointed to the others in the group in turn "This is Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David," he turned to the other three people "And this is Colonel John Sheppard, Drs. Elizabeth Weir and Carson Beckett," he paused to take a breath.
"Does anyone have any idea how we got here?" Mac asked. She like many of the others had simply woken up in the field, having only remembered going to sleep in more familiar surroundings the night before.
Harm shook his head but Gibbs spoke up, after Abby had released her grip on him and moved on to hugging Tony. "I was in my house and the next thing I knew I was here," it was rare for the hardened Marine turned NCIS Agent to sound so lacking in confidence but this situation was beyond anything he had ever dealt with before.
"That's exactly how it happened with us," 99 put in "We were sitting on the couch in our apartment and all of a sudden we'd both just vanished," she said in awe, still holding tight to her husband.
"How do we get home?" Elliot asked. It was hard for him not to think about his five children at that moment, he was afraid that he might never see them again.
The group simply shook their heads in dismay. Not one of them seemed to have an answer but they all desperately hoped that someone else would.
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As the sun moved through the sky, smaller groups became bigger groups and stragglers found their places. Agent Timothy McGee and Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola located their co-workers and the same questions of "Where are we?" and "How do we get out of here?" made their way throughout the group yet again.
William Riker, Neelix and Worf found Deanna Troi, Ensign Samantha Wildman and her daughter Naomi and the small group joined up with Captain Picard and Daniel Jackson's group. Guinan found all of them soon after that. Not even Guinan had the slightest bit of insight into what was going on. Geordi LaForge found himself walking beside Teyla as he followed Captain Janeway. And Teal'c along with Colonel Mitchell eventually joined up with the rest of SG1
Eventually all the groups had forged into one. After everyone was properly introduced, the group attempted to assess their situation. Jack O'Neill, as the highest ranking military officer there, had been put in charge. It had been a decision that the Starfleet Captains along with O'Neill had come to when it was clear that someone needed to take charge of the unruly crowd.
"Everyone listen up!" Jack commanded as he stood in the middle of the semi circle the others had formed "Does anyone have any weapons?!" a steady murmur of "no" rose from the group with the exception of a few people who stepped forward, holding pocket knives.
"That's just perfect," Jack muttered. There was almost certainly some hostile force at work here and they'd all been rendered virtually defenseless.
Jack took a deep breath and continued "For the moment, our priorities should be getting food, water and some kind of shelter for ourselves!"
"What about getting the hell out of here?!" Ronon yelled from the crowd.
"It's getting dark!" Jack informed them all of the obvious "I'll lead a group into the woods tomorrow morning to try to figure out where we are and the best way of getting out of here! We don't know what's out there!" He scanned the faces of the assembled men and women "Now, let's get to work!"
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"Does this look edible to you?" Elliot asked, holding out a round brown thing to Olivia.
"What is that?" Olivia asked, wrinkling her nose. It sure didn't look appetizing.
"I found it on one of the trees," Elliot told her. He waved in Colonel Carter's direction, beckoning her over.
Sam, who had been put in charge of getting food came over and inspected the brown ball that Elliot offered to her "I wish I knew what planet we were on," she muttered. Knowing their location would help her a lot. She remembered small brown fruit like that from a few of them. The problem was that on some planets it was poisonous and on other planets it was safe to eat. She shrugged and took the object from Elliot's hand, there was only one way to be sure. She took a small bite.
It tasted like honey and had the consistency of a ripe apple. She sighed in relief. It was not only one of the ones that was safe to eat but it was one of the more appetizing safe to eat variety. She nodded to Elliot "Grab as many of them as you can find," she instructed as she turned away. Though the fruit was edible, a new problem had just revealed itself.
She ran to where Jack stood, talking with Sheppard, Ronon, Teal'c, McKay and Teyla. She could feel the adrenaline pumping. They couldn't afford to wait until morning "Sir!" she nearly shrieked "I think I know where we are!"
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"The settlement was exactly where you said it would be," Riker said, still stunned by the sight he had come upon.
Sam nodded "We have to find the Gate and move out tonight." She stated.
"I don't understand," Olivia began "What could have done this?"
"They're called the Wraith," Colonel Sheppard explained "And it would be in our best interest if we got out of here before they pick up our life signs and come after us."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Lieutenant Tom Paris stood to his feet "We don't have a ship."
"We don't need a ship," Sam said loudly so as to get Tom's attention. When he had seated himself again she continued "It's called a Stargate. We can use it to travel to planets without a ship and much faster. We'll all go through this planet's gate to somewhere safe."
"Where exactly?" Rodney asked in a near panicked voice "We don't have any radios Sam. They'll never lower the shield on Atlantis unless we can identify ourselves."
The word Atlantis began to be repeated through the crowd in utter awe and confusion. "What exactly is going on here?" Cragen asked, stepping forward. He didn't like this uncertainty. He was used to criminals and paperwork, sure the cases were tough to deal with sometimes but at least they didn't involve aliens that could suck the life out of you with there hands, or traveling to other planets.
Cragen was not the only one who didn't like what seemed to be going on. Several people, including Gibbs, Tony, Munch and Max became vocal about their disapproval and began to question the trustworthiness of the people around them.
Teyla stepped forward, holding Torren close to her "That's enough!" she yelled into the crowd. In the single moment in which all the arguing had been silenced, she took her chance and continued speaking "What other plan do we have?! If you stay here, the Wraith will find you and they will feed upon you!" she tried to keep her voice even "Going through the Stargate is our best hope! Perhaps we will find weapons or ships, but it is far better than staying here and waiting to die!"
There was a moment of silence before Elliot stepped forward "I'm in," he said quietly. Without the means to fight off the Wraith, they were finished. He looked beside him where Olivia stood. It was the best chance they had.
"So am I," Gibbs stepped forward, followed by his team.
"So am I," Max stepped forward only to trip over a tree branch and land flat on his face. He picked himself up, brushed himself off and repeated in a much softer tone full of humility "So am I."
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"I don't see the point in this," Rodney was pacing as Sam stood beside the DHD "Are you planning to shout through the wormhole and hope that they'll hear you?" he asked incredulously.
"McKay!" Sam screamed "First of all, calm down and shut up!
"Calm down?!" he asked "We could be attacked by Wraith at any minute and oh yeah, somehow we're in this with a bunch of people that are even more lost than we are and you want me to calm down?!"
"No," Sam amended "I want you to shut up. The calming down was a suggestion. And secondly, we're not going to Atlantis, at least not yet."
"Well, where are we going then?" Rodney asked as he tried to catch his breath from all the excited yelling he had been doing.
"I'm trying to figure that out," Sam shot back.
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"Makes you almost want to be back in New York chasing down rapists and murderers," Olivia remarked as she pocketed a few of the strange brown fruit and turned to Elliot.
He nodded "I'm still half expecting to wake up in the crib and to be back at my desk doing paperwork."
"I know," Olivia sighed "But this isn't a dream."
"Damn right," Elliot replied "It's a nightmare."
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"It's been a long time," John Sheppard murmured as he stood beside Elizabeth Weir.
"Not so long that I don't remember how to walk through the Stargate John," Elizabeth commented with a half smile. It had been over a year since she had set foot in the Pegasus Galaxy. After Rodney had programmed the nanites in her body to repair her injuries with her own organic tissue she had been relieved of her command on Atlantis and sent back to earth to recover mentally. She had still been on earth the night before, wondering if she'd ever see Atlantis again and counting the days until John's next leave when he would come to see her.
"I know that," John chuckled a bit "Are you up to this?" he asked quietly.
"Do I have a choice?" Elizabeth asked.
John shook his head and closed his eyes "I guess not," he leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips "You know I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
"I know," Elizabeth leaned in to him.
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"This is amazing," Picard breathed as he stared at the Stargate "You mean to say that once we step through this, we'll be on another planet?"
"If I can think of one to go to where we won't frighten the locals with all of us showing up at once," Sam replied, wracking her brain for the answer.
Teyla stepped forward "I believe my people would not be overwhelmed by such a large group of people arriving at once. If I go first, I can explain the situation to them."
Sam nodded, feeling stupid for not thinking of New Athos sooner. "Get everyone together," she said to Picard, Teyla, McKay and Keller, who were the people closest to her "We'll leave right away," from New Athos, they would be able to contact Atlantis as well, she smiled as she began to dial up the planet.
"Everyone, get ready to leave!" Picard called as he made his way through the crowd. Daniel, Jack and Cam kept the group far enough from the Gate that none of them would be injured by it's activation.
"Okay," Sam called as she pressed the last symbol.
The Gate came to life and the crowd murmured in awe.
"Don't stare!" Jack called "Just walk on through!"
"Remember to keep walking when you get to the otherside!" Daniel added. One by one, two by two and three by three, people began filing through the Gate.
"Are you ready for this?" Elliot asked as he and Olivia stood at the event horizon.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Olivia replied, reaching down and taking Elliot's hand as they stepped into the wormhole.