Disclaimer: I don't own them. I (sadly) make no profit out of this.

A/N: This fic is basically a series of diary entries from a new recruit going to Atlantis. Please let me know what you think of it! Thanks to Jedi and Gekko for betaing!

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Dear Diary,

I've always heard that's they way you should keep a diary: as if you're talking, or in this case writing, to a real person. So I guess that's what I'm going to do. My name is Captain Sally Jones by the way. I'm 31 years old, I love dogs, snowboarding and reading. That's me in a nutshell. It seems only fair that you know who I am since I'm going to write about everything that's going to happen in my future on Atlantis.

Wow. Atlantis. Who would have thought that I'd ever write that I'm going to Atlantis, the lost city, sunken to the bottom of the ocean? I'm not much of a writer on the best of occasions, but I figured that this would be worth writing about. Who knows, maybe when 'gatetravel' (that's what my CO called it) won't be a secret anymore, this will be published. Ha, like that would ever happen, dream on girl! Then again, I'd never thought I'd go to Atlantis either. As you can see/hear/read, (what the hell do diaries do?!) I'm still completely amazed by the going to Atlantis fact. I'd like to yell it off the rooftops, but then I'd probably get shot (or maybe taking to the loony bin). Well, maybe not shot, but let's just say the military top involved would not be happy. My CO would have my ass if I did.

Speaking of my CO (or should it be writing? See, I'm hopeless when it comes to this!). Anyway. My CO. He is hot! Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard is pretty tall, lean but muscled, has a tan and the man's hair is so very cool. It stands to all ends, almost looks like he just crawled out of bed. Combine that with his lazy posture and drawl, and you'd think he's completely unfit for the military. Except that according to every, and I mean every, Atlantis veteran, he's the best CO you can wish for. I will have to see about that, but I'll have plenty of time to observe and learn, both on Atlantis and onboard the Daedalus. That's the spaceship that makes supply runs to Atlantis.

I should probably explain why I am going to Atlantis in the first place. Until about a week ago, I was based in Egypt. I was ordered to escort a couple of archeologists and scientists to some pyramids (and yes, I was wondering why the military was involved in that). Anyway, one of them, Daniel Jackson, asked me to help him carry some heavy looking device. Of course I helped, but the second I touched the thing, it started glowing! I let it go again because it startled me and I was getting ready to apologize for whatever I'd done when the guy looked up to me and exclaimed "you have the gene!" I actually looked around if he really meant me and not somebody else. That must have been quite comical to see.

To make a long story short (or at least not as long): a long, long time ago there were these people called the Ancients (original!). They built these stargates all over the Milky way galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy too since that's where they originate from. These stargates enable you to travel from one planet to another in less than a minute! After quite some other time, the Ancients left our humble galaxy to go back to Pegasus, to Atlantis their home. There they joined the Ancients who'd stayed behind to fight the Wraith. Sheppard says they are life-sucking aliens with a really smelly breath. Anyway, the Ancients lost the war from the Wraith, sank their home into the depths of the ocean and fled to earth. There they started families, had kids and all that. Now, 10,000 years later, their bloodline has thinned a lot and only a few people are able to operate Ancient technology, because you need to have some part of them in your blood. Quite smart really, keeps the enemy from using your own stuff against you. And apparently I'm one of their descendants who can use it! Cool!

Now Atlantis is above sea level again and the Wraith are awake again, culling worlds. They started to hibernate after they'd beaten the Ancients, I guess there wasn't much else for them to do. So they're awake again, and we're fighting them. Déja-vu or what?! Only now, they're not our only enemies out there: there's also the Genii and the Replicators (very humanly looking robots) and many others. It's quite dangerous out there.

You might wonder why the hell I've agreed to go there. Yeah, well, I've asked myself that question a lot too lately. The answer's simple really: I like an adventure.

Well, this is it for my very first entry. I'm leaving for Stargate Command (SGC) in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado in two hours and I still have to pack. And phone mom…