CHAPTER 1 - FROM WHENCE SHE CAME
"Unscheduled offworld activation." The sirens had begun to sound in the gate room just as Ronan and John were heading down to the mess for a late dinner and knowing that there were no current offworld missions in place, they detoured slightly so that their path took them into the control room.
"Expecting someone Rodney?" John quirked an eyebrow at Rodney, who sat at one of the terminals with an enormous plate of food in front of him, one hand carelessly picking up chips and tracking them to his mouth with little regard for the mess he was making, eyes glued onto the computer screen in front of him.
"No Sheppard, and there's no IDC coming through either. Elizabeth?" Rodney turned as she entered the control room. Elizabeth thought quickly. Although they were not expecting either the return of any teams, nor a communication of any sort, they did not want to discourage other planets from attempting to communicate with them. But not without appropriate security measures in place.
"John? Get extra marines in the gate room on security. Rodney, lower the shield as soon as we have that extra security in place. Let's see whose coming to call!"
John, Ronan and Elizabeth moved down to the gate room just as the extra marines took their places in a semi circle around the shimmering event horizon. Elizabeth held her breath slightly as they waited for whatever was to come through, and it was a long, somewhat tense four minutes before a bundle rolled through and came to a stop just meters away from where they were standing. Elizabeth took the time to quickly call up to the control room. "Lower the shields and close the gate."
As the event horizon slipped away and the gate was once again silent, John stepped closer to the bundle, the marines standing vigilant, weapons ready.
"Crap, it's a girl! And I think she's hurt." He clicked his ear comm. "Carson, we have a medical emergency in the gate room. Send down a team right away please."
He crouched down beside her and Ronan hovered uncertainly behind him. "How can you tell amongst all that dirt...?"
John, always ready with a slice of sometimes inappropriate humour, returned "Ahh Ronan, something to do with certain parts of her anatomy being on display, just a little... if you get what I mean." and smiled as he saw Ronan redden slightly.
He crouched down beside her and pushed back the fall of long, thick hair that covered her face, allowing full view of those anatomy parts that he had just spoken of. She had been loosely wrapped in a blanket and this had obviously come undone in the tumultous trip through the stargate and he could see quite clearly that she had nothing on underneath. Shrugging off his own BDU jacket, he gently laid it over her to give her some measure of privcy, while they waited for Carson and a medical team to arrive. Pushing back her long hair away from her face, he noted the layer of dirt and grime that covered her, and could see some bruising on her body under the dirt. Gently he stroked her face. "Hey there... and where in the hell did you come from?" he said quietly. She did not waken and John looked up to see Carson entering the gate room with a medical assistant and a gurney.
"Who on earth is this wee mite?" Carson was beside John immediately, noting the jacket he had used to cover her a little. Pulling it back he saw that she was unclothed and he reached back on the gurney for an extra blanket. "Here Colonel, see if you can cover her a little better with this."
John took back his own jacket, and pulled away the grimy small blanket that had been covering her as she had travelled through the gate, quickly and gently replacing it with the newer one, fortunately it was larger and managed to cover her more appropriately.
"Want me to move her onto the gurney Doc." John readied himself to place his arms underneath her.
Carson halted him. "Just give me a moment Colonel. I just want to look over her quickly first, before we move her and make sure there are no obvious spinal or neck injuries. John kept his eyes on her face as Carson ran his hands gently down the length of her body, and called to his assistant for a neck and spinal brace to attach as a precaution. He could see beneath the layer of grime that her bone structure was exquisite, impossibly high cheekbones down to a slightly pointed chin that held a rather fetching dimple. Her lips were beautifully formed and he imagined that when she got cleaned up she would be an extremely beautiful woman.
Carson's voice broke into his own observations. "Ok Colonel, you can move her now, but carefully lad." He got his hands underneath her and gently lifted her into his arms and there was no weight there at all and as one arm flopped slightly to the side before Carson could pick it up to place gently on her stomach, he saw the thinness of her wrist and the extremely delicate bone structure.
"What have we got here Colonel? Do you know where she came from?" Carson began wheeling the gurney to the infirmary and both John and Ronan fell into place beside him. "No idea Doc. The gate activation was unscheduled and she came through alone, unconcious, just as you saw her. Wherever she came from, she's not been treated well, I mean hell, she's naked, filthy and extremely thin. But as to who she is and why she was sent here... I imagine we'll have to wait until she wakes up to find that one out."
"Tell you what Colonel – you and Ronan go and have your dinner, it'll give us a chance to get her cleaned up and let me check her over. Swing back to the infirmary when you've finished. Maybe we'll be able to get our answers then."
John nodded, but paused briefly to activate his ear comm. "Rodney? Can you do some checking for me. Can you find out which planet she came from – would that be stored in the incoming addresses of the gate?" Waiting for his reply, he looked up at Ronan. "Ok Rodney, let me know as soon as you have something. Ronan? Let's go eat!"
