Whack!
"Hell of a shot, Colonel," Major Evan Lorne said as the golf ball arced through the air. It landed with a tiny splash in the Pacific, between two of Atlantis's piers. He and Colonel John Sheppard, along with the remaining six team leaders that hadn't been deactivated, waited on Mr. Robert Woolsey. He'd called them in two days before their leave was to end. All other teams had been disbanded while world governments and I.O.A. decided how to deal with the sudden arrival of the ancient city of Atlantis.
Atlantis defeated the wraith super-hive almost two months before, landing in the Golden Strait about three miles west of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge. The I.O.A. and several of the world governments butted heads about how to handle the city's unexpected arrival. A few governments wanted it sent back to Pegasus, thinking it would draw unwanted attention to Earth. Most wanted the invaluable weapons platform to remain, especially the American government. But where it should stay quickly became a hot-button issue that ground all stargate use to a halt.
The only thing the body of the I.O.A. could agree on was it couldn't stay in San Francisco's Golden Strait interfering with the shipping lanes. Since it landed in American waters, the U.S. military unilaterally decided to move it to Coronado Naval Base in San Diego. The move enraged many governments, especially the Chinese and Russians, but there was little they could do about it. With no sign of returning the stargate to work in the foreseeable future, both the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and Atlantis had been reduced to skeleton crews of just over a couple dozen maintenance and security personnel in each.
"I told you, call me John when we're not on duty," Col. Sheppard said with a smile as he offered the club to Major Anne Teldy. "And it's all in the wrist."
"Technically, we are on duty," said Major Teldy as she took the club. She bent to place her golf ball on a tee and eyed the distant beach of the Silver Strand Training Complex as if she could drive her ball the necessary four miles. "We were activated the minute Mr. Woolsey called us in for this meeting."
"I'm supposed to be watching the Stanford game with the woman from apartment 2-B right now," Sheppard said. "So, as far as I'm concerned, unless the world's under attack I'm still off duty." The colonel hesitated. "Wait… we're not under attack, are we?
"I don't think so, sir… I mean, John," said Lorne. The two men noticed the dark look from Major Teldy who was paused in her back swing and eyeing them for silence. They shrugged apologetically and she turned her attention back to the ball.
Whack!
The golf ball arced higher than John's had, and would have fallen shorter except it caught a cross wind. Ripping suddenly right, it fell diagonally and bounced near a team of technicians working on one of the piers. The techs hadn't seen it, but must have heard its sudden impact on the pier. All six heads whipped around searching for the mysterious sound before hearing it splash into the water.
"Maybe we should wait until we're on end of a pier to drive anymore," Teldy said hiding the club behind her back as they looked out over the unsuspecting techs.
"That's the sixth crew I've seen working since I arrived," John said as the officers gathered at the edge of the tower's precipice and gazed down at the again feverishly working team. "I thought Atlantis is supposed to have a skeleton crew."
"Quite correct, Colonel Sheppard," said a familiar voice behind them. They turned to see Mr. Woolsey standing in the open doorway. "But, for perhaps the first time ever, both the government and the I.O.A. see eye to eye." Woolsey walked to the edge and looked out over the piers of Atlantis and California beyond. "Both Atlantis and Stargate Command will be running at full capacity in two days. As the leader of Atlantis, it's my responsibility to ensure that we'll be fully functional in that time. Which is why I've called you all here. As I understand, only Lt. Colonel Sheppard and Major Teldy still have active teams. The rest of you all had your teams disbanded, yes?"
He was answered by nodding heads.
"Then, while the rest of you check the personnel files to choose your teams, Colonel Sheppard, Major Teldy and I will begin the selection process for the final four team leaders. While I'd normally chose the team leaders myself, I'll need your assistance to choose the best leaders in the time allowed. The I.O.A. insists on an initial 12 active teams on the Atlantis Expedition. More will come in time."
"Wait a minute," John said in confusion. "The selection process for a team leader alone can take weeks. Activating a full team will take almost a month because the time it takes for the leader to pick their crew. We can't do it in two days."
"And what about Stargate Command?" Teldy asked. "Are they being shut down completely? You can't run two stargates on one planet. One will take precedence over the other, and a Pegasus gate will always override an Earth gate." Mr. Woolsey motioned for them to follow him back into Atlantis's main tower.
"The U.S. government has been paying exorbitant amounts of money to the Russians for use of their gate, and the Russians regularly threaten to pull the use of their gate to leverage more out of us," Woolsey continued. "Worse than that the cost to power the gate is almost as inordinate. But, as Atlantis has three almost fully powered ZPMs, we returned the gate to the Russians. The Atlantis gate will be dominant so, even if the Russians try to use their gate, any returning wormholes will automatically connect to our gate. Their gate will be essentially useless. And when you consider the fact that a wraith kamikaze attack destroyed the Antarctic chair, Atlantis now has the only resource capable of controlling the drones that defend this planet."
"So, are we being combined with Stargate Command?" Lorne asked.
"That was the original idea," Woolsey said. "But the I.O.A. put too many restrictions on the Air Force. So the SGC is moving off world. They'll be operating out of the Alpha Site and connecting through us for logistical support and communications. The military has been moving resources to the Alpha Site almost constantly for the last two weeks."
"What about our allies back in the Pegasus Galaxy?" Major Lorne asked.
"Even with the flight from Pegasus and ensuing battle with the Wraith Super-hive, our ZPMs have more than enough power to connect with the Pegasus galaxy. Ronon, Teyla, and select personnel have been on New Athos for weeks negotiating to build our Pegasus Alpha Site there. Now that everything's fallen into place, we were finally given the go-ahead to build the teams."
"Then why the press for time?" Col. Sheppard asked, his eyes narrowed.
"Some Lucian Alliance and goa'uld hold outs have begun causing intolerable problems here, and there are still wraith wreaking havoc in Pegasus," Woolsey said. "If any more of the wraith happen to find or already know the coordinates of Earth… well, we have responsibilities in both galaxies that can no longer wait."
Woolsey stopped in front of the large conference room and turned to the group. "Those who have to choose their teams will work in here. Each of you will be pulling from the same pool of candidates, so it's first come first serve. Colonel Sheppard and Major Teldy, please come with me."
Mr. Woolsey walked several doors further to a smaller conference room. Inside, there were three tablets waiting on a small table.
"We have almost one hundred candidates to choose from, but as they will need time to choose their own team members, we'll have only four hours to come to a consensus. Please begin and remember, alacrity is essential."
Sheppard and Teldy cast doubtful glances at each other before sitting at the table with Woolsey. The first thing Colonel Sheppard did was go through the names looking for anything that would jump out at him. And one name did.
"Here's one," he said. "Colonel Adhir Khatri. He was one of a handful of Indian Ghorkas who were gathering intelligence while I was in Afghanistan."
"I didn't think India was a part of that conflict," Teldy said.
"Officially, they're weren't. I think they were there as a favor for someone."
"I'll add his name to the short list," Woolsey said after glancing at the man's file on his own tablet. The trio had only began looking over the files again when a voice sounded on the Atlantis intercom.
"Mr. Woolsey to the gate-room immediately."
Sensing strain in the woman's voice, Sheppard and Teldy stood as well but Woolsey waved them back down.
"I'm sure it's nothing too important. Please continue the search for candidates. I'll be back as soon as possible." He hurried out the door leaving the two Air Force officers alone in the sparse room.
"And I was hoping for something to break the monotony," Teldy said casting a sidelong smirk at Sheppard.
"After five years of stress from the wraith and replicators, I'm actually enjoying the down-time," the colonel replied with his own grin. "But I really was looking forward to the Stanford game. You don't suppose we could get it on the monitor, do you?" he asked, his eye narrowing at the Atlantis wall monitor.
"I'm sure someone could do it, but not me. McKay for sure. What's he up to?"
"Introducing Dr. Keller to his sister in Vancouver. He's been there for the last week, calling about every six hours to complain about one thing or another," he said, then his grin deepened. "It probably doesn't help that I taught her kids the trick of scaring him with a lemon." Teldy gave a giggle. "How are Dusty and Dr… ah… Perkins?"
"Porter, John, and they're good," she replied. "Porter's visiting family in Pennsylvania, and Dusty's taking a four week desert survival course in Fort Bliss. She's been there for almost three weeks now."
"So after years of constant combat and threat of death, her first instinct is to fight through one of the military's most difficult survival programs in one of the most difficult environments possible?" Sheppard asked in amazement.
"I know," Teldy said nodding. "Sometimes that woman scares me."
"She scares me all the time," Sheppard added and the pair chuckled before going back to silently searching for candidates. The silence was short, however, shattered by Woolsey's voice over the city intercom.
"Sheppard, Teldy, and Lorne, report to the jumper bay immediately!"
