Triumphant Return
Chapter 1: The Letter
It was a quiet, uneventful day at Stargate Command inside the Cheyenne Mountain complex in Colorado. On the elevator down from the surface where he had collected the minimal amount of mail that arrived to the base on a weekly basis rather than daily, Sergeant Walter Harriman was sifting through the envelopes to decide which ones needed to be taken to General Landry's office and which weren't important. As he was doing this, one particular envelope caught his attention because of the writing on the front. Instead of a specific recipient the envelope read: Important: To be delivered on the Daedalus to Atlantis as soon as possible.
"Now this is strange. Either we have a serious breach of security or something is definitely not right here." Harriman thought to himself as he got off of the elevator at Level 28 and headed immediately for the General's office.
General Hank Landry was seated at his desk going through the latest batch of mission reports when a soft knock on his door drew his attention. When he saw Harriman standing there, he raised his head and beckoned the other man inside.
"What can I do for you, Chief?" Landry asked as Harriman closed the door and regarded him worriedly.
"Sir, I think we may have a security leak. Either that or something else is very off. Look at this envelope that came in this week's mail drop. It doesn't make sense to me."
"What the hell? Who in the world would even know about Atlantis much less want to send a letter there?" Landry asked.
"Exactly what I thought. So what are we going to do?"
"Well, I'm going to have this analyzed to make sure there is no explosive material inside or outside of the envelope and then I'm going to let Colonel Caldwell deliver the letter to Atlantis with instructions to Dr. Weir to update us in her status report next week letting us know exactly what this is about."
"I'll take this down to the lab, sir."
"Thank you, Chief. Tell them to report to me as soon as they're finished with their analyses."
"Yes, sir."
Two hours later, Dr. Bill Lee, the head scientist of the SGC, walked into General Landry's office with a preliminary report of the analysis his team had done on the envelope.
"So tell me what you've found, Doctor." Landry ordered.
"Well, sir, we subjected this envelope and its contents, whatever they are, to every kind of scientific test that I know of and there are no signs of explosives or anything else remotely dangerous. As far as I can tell this letter or whatever is perfectly safe to send to Atlantis." Lee reported with an air of confidence that didn't open a chance to second guess.
"Thank you, Dr. Lee. You're dismissed. I'll take it from here." As soon as he was alone in his office, General Landry turned the envelope over in his hands for a moment before heading down to the control room.
"Chief, open me a channel to Colonel Caldwell."
"Yes, sir. Connection established."
"What can I do for you, General?" Caldwell's rough voice came through the speakers to Harriman's right.
"We're ready for you to beam up the latest batch of supplies for the Atlantis expedition. There's a letter that's on top of the boxes and I want you to take possession of it and when you get to Atlantis, take it personally to Dr. Weir and make sure she gets the instructions that I sent with it."
"Yes, sir. I'll see to it as soon as we touch down in Atlantis, General. Caldwell out." Caldwell cut the transmission and turned to his second-in-command.
"Head us toward Atlantis. Best possible speed. I'll be in the cargo bay for a moment."
"Yes, sir."
As the Daedalus made its hyperspace journey to Atlantis, elsewhere in a small house in a Scottish town, someone was hoping that the letter got to its intended recipient. From the man looking out the window at the hills outside, a familiar voice was heard.
"I really hope that my letter gets to Atlantis. I don't doubt that when they read it, it will lead them here and when they do, they are going to be in for a might big surprise. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they see who sent that letter. Aye, it will be a shock."