Vague Explanations

Nixie, Attie, and Julia were lead to a room they had guessed was the elder man's office. It was a relatively bare room with a few chairs before a desk. The girls sat in the chairs with the older gentleman leaning against his desk in front of them, the shorter man and the woman from the other room standing behind him, the taller man standing behind the women, blocking the door.

"So where are you ladies from?" asked the older man.

"Earth…" answered Julia.

"Earth? How did you get here?" he sounded surprised at her answer.

"A stone circle in the middle of the woods." Nixie said simply.

The door opened abruptly and another man walked in.

"Sorry I'm late. What I miss?" the newest man said with a light smile at the girls.

"Nice of you to join us McKay." Said the blue-eyed man sarcastically.

"Well I was busy." Said McKay defensively. "So who do we have here?"

"This is Attie, Nixie, and Julia," said the elder man, "of Earth."

"Earth? How'd you get here?" McKay asked the girls.

"Apparently they found a stone circle in the woods."

"Julia touched a big rock that kind of looked like a podium and it lit up these glass crystals," started Attie suddenly finding her voice. She had turned to face McKay who still stood by the door, but had turned back at finding the darker man still glaring uncomfortably.

"And Attie started to touch them," continued Nixie with a pointed tone when Attie had gone silent after looking behind them. She guessed that the man who had to be well over six foot had still been glaring at her. Attie had never been the bravest around people they had just met.

"Attie? Is that short for anything?" asked McKay.

"Atlanta," Attie started to turn to face him but quickly turned back to the others, feeling his glare still on her. "It's kind of a family tradition to name a baby girl Atlanta." She continued nervously. She was trying to stay calm, to keep her breathing under control, her body from shaking, and most importantly the panic she felt from showing on her face. She was always a nervous person so it came to no surprise that she was just short of a panic attack after falling into a mysterious tunnel and falling out in a room filled with heavily armed marines in uniform; though she guessed that very few people, if anyone could remain completely in such a situation. She looked over at Julia and Nixie who sat to her right and managed a small smile. When she thought about it, the thing that terrified her most was probably the tall, tan, muscular man that now stood behind her. Even though she couldn't see him, she could feel his dark glare borrowing into the back of her skull. The look terrified her to a point where she was afraid to move; it seemed to warn that if she did make a wrong move, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

"What were you doing in the woods anyway?" the more attractive man asked.

"We were looking for this location; it's said to have been passed down from generation to generation in my family." Attie said and started to reach for the note in her pocket. She froze as she heard the man behind her draw his gun.

"Ronon!" the woman from behind the desk called raising her eyebrows in an almost silent order. Attie nodded at the woman appreciatively and continued to reach into her pocket, pausing for a moment before slowly retrieving the small piece of paper and handing it to the older man. He looked at it for a moment, and handed to McKay who came forth to take it before turning back to the man apparently named Ronon.

"So know that you know who we are," Julia said breaking an uncomfortable silence, "Can we ask you some questions?"

"I suppose that's fair." Said the older man against the desk.

Almost at once the girls' asked some of the questions that were bothering them, but none of them seemed to dare to ask the real questions one their mind.

"Where are we?" asked Julia, though what she really wanted to know was why if the good-looking man was single because he had been giving her hidden smiles since she had fallen through the circle.

"Who are you guys?" asked Nixie, who desperately needed a bathroom but was too embarrassed to ask.

"And how did we get here?" asked Attie, however she really wanted to ask why the tall man named Ronon so obviously wanted her dead.

The others looked at in surprise not expecting such an organized reply

"Right," said the eldest man regrouping quickly. "My name Mr. Woolsey; this is Lieutenant Colonel John Shepard and Teyla Emmagan," they nodded at use of their names each with a small smile. "That is Dr. Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex." He continued nodding to the men in the back. The girl's turned around to see McKay smile, but Ronon's expression didn't change.

"You came through a Stargate; a kind of portal we use to travel from world to world. We thought there was only one on Earth but your arrival shows evidence to the contrary." Mr. Woolsey explained.

"Unless it's a different Earth…" McKay started looking into space thoughtfully snapping his fingers once.

"Well share with the class." prodded Shepard in a condescending tone.

Julia smiled at John's remark.

"Think about it, we have encountered parallel universes before, it's not that big of a stretch. I mean I know for a fact that there is no way that there were woods at this spot. Of course, it does leave the question of how they got to our reality…" shared McKay before again being lost in his own thoughts.

"And why is that? That there can't possibly be woods there?" asked Shepard, not completely successful in his attempt to not show his annoyance at McKay's sudden silence.

"Because, this spot," said Rodney excitedly, "is in the middle of the ocean."

"Alright, hold up," Attie stood, ignoring Ronon's reaching for his gun again as he was quickly told to put it down from a hand gesture from John. She was aggravated by the fact that they were talking about them as if they weren't in the room. They were talking about portals and alternate realties while three women only in their 20's sat frozen in fear after being tossed from the middle of the woods into a large room filled with guns. "Right now, I'm very confused, and before I get totally lost, I'd just like one simple question answered. Where the hell are we?"

They all looked from one face to another, clearly not sure how to answer. Finally, Teyla straitened her back and did her best to answer her.

"You are in the city of Atlantis; in the Pegasus galaxy," she answered as gently as she could. Attie's eyes went wide as her face went pale and she fell back into her seat, her head spinning. "It must not be an easy thing to hear, but it is true. I'm sure Rodney will find an explanation and eventually a way home for you." She paused looking at Rodney, waiting for him to agree; she continued after a brief grumble of agreement as he again fell into his thoughts. "But for the time being, we ask that you trust us."

Attie glanced behind her at McKay, who she doubted was even really paying attention anymore, and Ronon whose glare was still as strong as it had been when they had first fallen through.

After a moment of looking at each other in what a seemed a silent conversation, they stood slowly both in hope of not alarming Ronon and because they were still slightly lightheaded after the complicated news that they had just received.

"Okay," Julia spoke first, "What do you need from us?"

"Any additional knowledge you have, but first, if you don't mind, we'd like to take some blood samples to be on the safe side," answered Woolsey.

"Lead the way." Added Nixie.