Day 2- Just another day at the office
John Sheppard actually had an office, which was mostly unused because he preferred to talk to people in other more casual environments. This time though, he decided he needed the formality to talk to their latest recruit. Don West was in his opinion, the type of officer who was not suited to his casual style of command, he needed to follow military discipline or he'd become difficult. So he sat in the uncomfortable chair and waited until Major West arrived.
The Major was 20 minutes early and had obviously taken care with his uniform. Though he had missed one little detail, a wedding ring still adorned his finger. Rings were not strickly part of the uniform, but John decided he was not going to enforce that rule. If the Major chose to wear his wedding ring, then that was fine.
"Good Afternoon Major West", Sheppard greeted. "Good afternoon sir", responded Major West. John's first impression was that the Major made eye contact but the more he studied the man the more he realized that he just gave the impression of looking at him. He was actually looking at the wall directly over his shoulder. The Major also seemed uneasy. Now there were many reasons for that, he could be thinking about his encounter with Ronon, or worrying that he was about to get told off for destroying a jumper ,then again it could simply be him he was uncomfortable with.
John had studied the Major's record and found that generally he did have a good working relationship with subordinates. It was his commanding officers that found him difficult and often abrasive. So perhaps he was just worried he was going to say the wrong thing.
"Sit down Major", Sheppard deciding that getting him to relax might help.
The Major sat though he still looked tense. "I have a few follow up reports for you Major ,from yesterday. "Dr McKay is studying the remains of the alien bug that infected Jumper 13. He seems very excited about what's left of the creature, though is disappointed that the holes you shot in the thing prevent an indepth analysis. "If he gives you any attitude, just ignore him. I really hate alien bugs of all types, so you did the galaxy a favour", John told him. "As for jumper 13, they may be able to repair the damage caused by both the creature and your weapon". Tell me Major why did you chose to shoot holes in the console, rather than just pull all the parts out".
Don had been feeling apprehensive about this meeting. Sometimes no matter how he tried, he always seemed to annoy those he served under. Sheppard had the power to make his time in Atlantis very difficult. He did not sound angry now though with a fair dose of curiosity in his voice, so Don decided it was safe to tell him the truth, "the jumper pissed me off sir." Was it his imagination of did the Colonel actually smile at that comment.
"Well it was your call to make and it was absolutely the right one", Sheppard reasurred him. Still the Major looked past him at the wall. What would it take for him to actually look him in the eyes. He made no comment though, just keeping his voice tone even, "Major Lorne told you that I was dealing with an offworld emergency yesterday", Sheppard confirmed. 'Yes, Sir', Don replied. He was feeling a little more at ease now. Colonel Sheppard seemed a lot more relaxed that many of his previous CO's.
"It was wraith related Major. It looks like they are planning something very important". Now the Colonel's manner had changed and Don found himself feeling his nerves rise again. "I would like to get you into action as soon as possible". John took a moment to look over at the younger man and notice the nerves, "I realise that you may feel out of your depth Major, that is why I want you to have intensive training before we take you into combat. Ronon may not be trained by our military but he has had years of experience dealing with the wraith. He knows how to survive and those are the sort of techniques I want him to teach you. I did order him not to put you back in the infirmary but just be warned he does hit hard", Sheppard thought he should be honest, sugar coating things would achieve nothing. "After you have finished with Ronon McKay would like to work with you". "Just to advise you that he is better with equipment than people." So thats your schedule for today".
He was going to be busy. Don did not really expect that Ronon would give him any sort of break. All he saw was a hot shot young Major who was just a test pilot before he came to this galaxy. "I thought Ronon would be the type to hit hard Sir", Don told Sheppard."McKay will try my patience I guess". He did not say anything else . Of course he had this big knot of anxiety resting in the pit of his stomach right now. But that would not change anything. He either had to choose to fight or run away. If he did run they would come after him and he'd probably end up in a cell. Not a great thought. He had already chosen this battle but it still terrified him. Just shooting the enemy was something he could understand and do well. But he was here to use another form of combat, his mutant ATA gene. He could read the minds of the wraith and if necessary control them as well. When he locked his mind with theirs he could feel the pain of their victims. That was not something that was easy to get used to feeling. He could not look John Sheppard in the eye and let him see his weakness, the wall did not care what he was hiding.
"Ronon uses rooms just a few corridors away. You can look at the map for directions", Sheppard told him calmly. John suspected the Major was nervous but he was not comfortable enough with him to admit to that. He hoped that would change in time. "I will be given a report on how it went and we can work forward from that Major", Sheppard concluded. "Yes sir. I won't need the map, I already have the layout of the base committed to memory", Don told him. He had just studied the map once and memorized everything. That was something he was good at. As for the rest, well he could not run or hide so better just submit to his fate.
"Dismissed Major", Sheppard stated. "Yes sir", Don replied. He already knew that saluting was not necessary on the base so he had not offered his CO one. His exit though was conducted in the proper miltary standard that he remembered. Running was defintely not an acceptable way of leaving his CO's office.
"Well that went okay", John Sheppard told himself. He had not had any problems with Major West yet. "He might not at first but it will come", the ominous words of one of Wests former CO's stuck in his head. Was the Major going to prove to be a problem. Sheppard really was not sure.
"Hey Ronon, Major West, is on his way to you". Remember don't injure him too much",John told his friend through the comm lines. '"You are being soft on him Sheppard", Ronon grunted, "I give him six months if that". He's not a soldier". "Then you help make him one", Sheppard told him. 'He is going to help fight the wraith and that is something you have in common". "Yeah", Ronon replied. He broke off the communication after that one word. Ronon was not very communicative at times. He was not here for that reason though. Sheppard hoped he would not accidently hurt the Major. Rodney hoped that the Major was still functioning enough after his encounter to be of use for his tests. Sheppard sighed, the Major's first day on duty had not ended well and this one was shaping up to go the same way.
In the training room Ronon moved away from the communication console and circled one of the bases young Lieutenant's with two wicked looking knives in his hands. Their blades shone in the lighting of the room. The young man in front of him just had one knife and held it in a way that told Ronon he had fought like this before. Before the officer could even launch an attack Ronon surged forward and hit him hard with the flat part of his knife. The young officer went down on his knees and Ronon grabbed his knife hand and pulled it back behind him wrenching his shoulder and causing a spike of pain to run down the arm. Then he squeezed the hand until the officer grunted in pain and dropped his knife. Ronon held one of his knives to the man's throat. "I would now cut your throat", he said in a cold voice, "and leave you to die". "You are too slow Lieutenant ". Ronon had not released the officers hand. "Do better next time", Ronon stated before he finally released his grip. The young Lt. rubbed his hand and felt his face burn with shame. He thought he was a good fighter and this man had rendered him useless in just seconds. Without looking at the others in the room the young Lieutenant went over to the side and hid his face away.
"Next", Ronon requested, ignoring the behaviour of the young officer. It was better to be embarrassed that dead he thought.
Don arrived in the room a few minutes later and watched as Ronon punched a young officer right in the face. His nose was bleeding as he fell to the floor. He then held a knife to his throat ,close enough so that that blade could be felt digging into the skin. "You are dead too", Ronon proclaimed. "None of you show much promise. The wraith will win this war if you fight like that".
He looked up and saw Don West watching him. "You are next Major", he stated.
Don noted that 4 young officers looked his way. He felt a drip of sweat snake down his face. Ronon beckoned him forward and Don moved from the small waiting room closer to the larger main room. Before he could reach the room, the door came sliding shut, blocking his access to Ronon. While that was a relief Don imagined that was not supposed to happen. He turned to look over at the other officers, they shrugged at him. Seconds later the whole room went dark as the lights turned off as well.
John Sheppard had finshed some paper work and was going to talk to Rodney in his laboratory when he discovered that his office door would not open. When he went to find out the problem all the lights in his office went dark. he almost hit his leg into the edge of the chair. Pulling the small torch from a pocket in his uniform he managed to get to the comm panel, "Control room, what's going on, I am trapped in my office", he asked.
Elizabeth Weir was also in her office and quicky moved out into the main control room. "Is there a problem", she asked. The Lieutenant on duty looked at the reading. "There are sections of the base that have suddenly lost power", he reported. "Do we know the cause", Elizabeth asked worriedly.
"Checking", was all the response she got. "Rodney we could use you up here", Elizabeth activated the communications, knowing exactly who was the best person to figure out problems like these.
Rodney found his door would not open either when he tried to leave. He hurriedly pulled a section of the wall open so he could override the door controls. An arch of current suddenly rose up ,flashing over the panels within and giving him a jolt. "Ouch", he stated as he pulled his fingers back. That was strange there was no power to the door, but there was still activity in the panel. It looked like some sort of defensive mechanism was operating . He would have to think of a way to override that. "It looks like I have the same problem Elizabeth. I also just got jolted when I tried to correct the issue". Rodney glared at the door. " The power loss seemed to be confined to my door only, so it is contained for the moment. It may worsen later if we do not find the cause. I would contact all the affected areas to see whether something has happened to trigger the problem", Rodney advised. He swallowed and added, "I did not touch anything".
Elizabeth contacted John next, "is there anything happening there that could have lead to this issue", she asked. "No", John replied, "same boring stuff here". "Okay thanks Sheppard and don't try to solve the problem yourself Rodney just got zapped. Not lethal but enough to hurt", Elizabeth added. "Acknowledged, Sheppard stated, he was not messing with the technology anyway. He could still help by asking a few questions.`"Where did this issue start".
That they could determine by looking at the time each area suffered the problem. Elizabeth soon found that the first door to close was in the training ground. "Can you scan that area and see if there are any issues", she asked. That scan came back negative, if there was a problem it was not showing up on sensors. So she had to figure out what was happening by other means. Common factors often helped determine causes for problems. She started by looking at the list of personal listed in that area and comparing them to those who had been in the training ground , in Sheppard's office and with McKay. One person had been in two of those locations and was due to visit the third later that afternoon, Major Donald West.
Elizabeth swallowed, 'power outages, that sounded familiar. ""Are these issues like those that happened to jumper 13", she asked. "Actually very similar", control stated nervously."Jumper 13 just had minor power losses in the beginning as well. "Surely that creature could not have migrated into our main systems. McKay said the jumpers environment was ideal for its growth process, but the base was not ", Elizabeth remarked.
"He gave us a program to identify the creature Doctor Weir and I will run it through our systems now", Lieutenant Pascal, who was the controller for the operation room remarked.
Elizabeth held her breath. If by some chance Rodney was wrong and their systems had been infected by this alien bug they had a very serious problem on their hands. "Nothing found within our systems Doctor, so the problem must be a different one", came back a reassuring result 5 minutes later.
"So its not in our systems but what about Major West himself. Is it possible he was infected somehow ", she asked. Since Dr Beckett was the one who could answer that question, she contacted him. He reassured her, 'no Elizabeth, that alien creature could not use a human host. "Perhaps there is some other sort of anomaly."
"If there is it does not show on our sensors", Elizabeth told him. She contacted Ronon next. "Is there anything there that could have caused this problem", she asked. Ronan had to use a small torch to find the communications console as the room was completely dark. The air was also oppressive which might indicate that it was not cycling properly. There was nothing obvious wrong though. "No problem here Dr Weir", he confirmed.
At least communications still worked Elizabeth reflected..
The only area left that might have an issue was the smaller room where several officers awaited their turn at training with Ronon. "Major West are there any issues there that could be causing power problems", Elizabeth asked.
Don looked around the room with his own torch but could not see any issue, "no ma'am", he replied. "Hmm then we have an unspecified problem that is causing power to suddenly cut out", Elizabeth stated. "Isn't that what happened to jumper 13", Don asked. "Yes but we have already conducted scans and can find no trace of the same creature that infected the jumper. There has to be another cause", Elizabeth remarked.
It was getting warm in the small waiting room as the 5 officers wandered around shining their torches over everything.
Elizabeth had everything re checked and scanned without finding the cause. 'If this goes on it could be serious, none of the occupants have access to food or water", Lt. Pascal remarked.
That made her feel a little nervous, "could it be some type of attack', she asked. "Hmm, well it is only affecting certain areas, though Colonel Sheppard is one of those who is trapped ,as is Dr Mckay, both are heads of their departments. I guess it could be some type of passive attack. Something more serious may follow. "We could send some engineers to cut through the doors. It will take time, but it will get them out", Pascal stated."Of course it won't fix the problem, but it will give us time to search for the issue without worrying about the occupants of the rooms affected".
"Yes that is a good idea, Elizabeth contacted the engineering department and told them the problem. "There are similarities to what happened with Jumper 13, the chief engineer told her. "I know but we have already scanned for the alien insect that infected that jumper and found nothing. We would like your team to cut through the doors, starting with Colonel Sheppard, unless you have another idea", Elizabeth added. "Not an idea really but a problem that also has to do with power. I know you said that what happened to jumper 13 is not related but I have this mystery and was going to contact Dr McKay", the engineer told Weir.
Elizabeth had learn to follow up on things, even when they seemed unrelated. "What was your problem, she asked. "Well Ma'am, the overload on jumper 13 should have been irreversible. McKay stated that large burst of power was what the alien creature needed to complete its metamorphosis. So why did the jumper suddenly just lose power".
Now that was an interesting question because it could relate to what was happening now. Did the jumper have a second issue that they had not identified, that was not affecting them. Elizabeth needed to talk to the only man that could answer that question, Major Donald West. She connected Rodney and John into the line so they could here what the Major had to say.
"We are looking into this sudden loss of power. It is similar to what happened to your jumper just before it was about to explode. Did anything unusual happen at that time", Elizabeth asked. Don frowned, "no, nothing Doctor Weir. I did expect the engines to explode so it was a relief when they just cut out". I bet thought Rodney. "So you did not do anything other than shooting holes in the jumper", he asked. "Well I swore at it ", Don stated.
That was of course understandable as well and was not something that they would even factor into what was happening. But John Sheppard knew this was not the first time Don West had sworn at a jumper and had something happen. "Can you tell me precisely what you did say, he asked. Don thought that was a strange question but forged ahead with, "I said it was the worst piece of junk I had ever flown and that it should just stop the overload and prove me wrong". A few seconds later the engines switched off".
Rodney McKay tapped his fingers on his desk. "that is quite a coincidence", he remarked. He was of course a scientist and did not really believe things just happened like that. There was always a reason.
"The very first time you flew a jumper you told it to fly and it did", Sheppard remarked, "now we have one that you ask not to overload and that happened as well." Has this got anything to do with his mutant ATA gene".
Mckay had already been thinking along those lines. "We know his ATA is different in some aspects, so why not others as well". He thought some more. He was in danger the first time", so that could be the trigger. Of course his abilities with the wraith also have a defensive element." Yet he is not in danger now". There was one good theory just shot to bits.
"Maybe he thinks he is", Sheppard told them. Ronan, myself and Rodney all have a role in placing him in danger"."Although that has happened before the effect could be cumulative ".Yes but he is trapped as well", Elizabeth stated. "You mean he is safe don't you. That is what sealing those doors did, it prevented myself ,Ronon or you Sheppard from putting him in danger again. So if this theory is right he should be able to open the doors", McKay stated. He felt excited, Major West had some sort of link to ancient technology that meant he could control it as well.
Sheppard contacted Major West again, "tell the door in front of you to open Major", he requested. Don almost laughed, surely it was not that simple, "open please", he asked the door. It stubbornly stayed shut. "Well that does not work", he told Sheppard.
"Did you really want it to open Major," Rodney challenged," think about it in your mind, think peaceful thoughts of being safe and warm, then ask again". Don thought of a beautiful deserted beach then requested again, "open please". The door in front of him opened. He stood there looking at it while the other officers all filed out. Don cast a look over his shoulder at the door to Ronon's training ground, it was still closed. "Can you come to my office please", Colonel Sheppard requested.
Don made his way to the Colonels office, his nerves were rising. It was obvious that somehow he had caused these problems. Now Sheppard was going to chew him out. He found another firmly closed door in his path. Picturing the beach in his head again he requested for the door to open. It was a lot harder this time as he was nervous about Sheppard's reaction. Finally after 20 minutes of thinking peaceful thoughts the door opened. Colonel Sheppard got up from his desk to come out to him.
Now the floor looked very nice thought Don as he studied it carefully, again avoiding eye contact with Sheppard. What could be worse that actually locking his CO and others in a room. "Don", the use of his first name out of Sheppard's mouth was shocking. He found himself raising his eyes from the floor to the Colonel's face. "Your ATA gene is trying to keep you safe", Sheppard told him."You would have died in that jumper explosion had the Ancient technology not detected your danger and powered down the jumper". Today your gene also thought you were in danger and acted accordingly".
"I am sorry sir, I did not lock you and the others in on purpose", Don told him. "Of course you didn't Major", Sheppard stated. "This is just what happens when you try to cut corners and throw someone in the deep end without a life preserver." The ancient technology in the base is warning us that is not going to work".We will have to try a different approach". Sheppard actually grinned at him, "you know that Ronon was going to test your defensive techniques, well you have just shown him your best move. He is trapped in his room and can't do a thing to you".
Don had been expecting to get into trouble and found it difficult to comprehend why Sheppard was not yelling at him. It was because Sheppard had realised that his approach had been wrong in the beginning. If he had gone for a casual meeting place this morning instead of his office this may not have happened. Donald West did not need a strict commanding officer, he needed a mentor, guide and perhaps even friend. He had to get the perceived threat level down a bit and make the Major feel more comfortable first."Major I can help you", Sheppard stated. "So I am going to cancel the training with Ronon. You can start with me first".
"You are going to have to see McKay though and learn how to control that gene. This newest ability has some possibilities. For now though I think you need lots of safe thoughts to let both Rodney and Ronon out of their rooms". Don grimaced, he knew that might be a little more difficult, he was the least comfortable with those particular members of the team. He was going to get them out, that he vowed. Then he would just live by "everyday a new beginning" and hope things got a little easier.