Chapter two
Timeline: S4 of SGA, between Lifeline and Reunion. My impression is that several weeks passed between these two episodes while the IOA made their decision about the new leader of the expedition. So, on that note, Colonel Sheppard is in-charge.
Chapter Two
"Jumper one to flight, we're on New Athos," Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard said dryly he flew the ship over the landscape. This was the first time a jumper had traveled through the Atlantis gate to New Athos since both Atlantis and the Athosian's home had been relocated.
"Roger that Jumper one," Chuck replied from the control room.
Sheppard circled back toward the gate and looked at Dr. McKay sitting in the passenger seat. The man was totally engrossed in his laptop. Sheppard cleared his throat and gave Rodney a glare.
"What?" McKay exclaimed looking at Sheppard with a perplexed expression on his face.
"Dial…the… gate," Sheppard replied slowly enunciating every word.
"Why didn't you just say so?" McKay replied reaching over to the DHD.
"Why did I have to? It's not like we're over here for dinner and a show!" Sheppard growled under his breath. "If you were paying attention…."
"Excuse me if I have some scientific data to calculate!" Rodney snapped back at him as he slammed his hand down on the last symbol. "You act like my job isn't important …. Well let me tell you buddy … just remember that the next time … ow!" Rodney squeezed his hand and shook it out. He grimaced in pain which garnered another stern stare from Sheppard. Before either could say another word, the jumper was hovering in the gate room.
"Are we home yet?" Sheppard said as the ship returned to the hanger bay under auto pilot.
"Ah," McKay shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Could we just do one more?" he looked over at John and caught the tail end of another dirty stare. "With the new orbital gate?"
"I thought we agreed that we weren't going to be playing around with that gate unless absolutely necessary!" John growled tersely.
"Yes I did agree to do that," Rodney replied. "But, but, but since we deployed it we never really tested it with a jumper and I, for one, would certainly be really annoyed if I was in a jumper that needed to go somewhere and then found out that it wasn't working."
John blew a puff of air out of his mouth. "Fine," he replied flatly. Running a test on the thing would probably be a good idea, if for no other reason that to make sure that Rodney had the new address set correctly. "Jumper One to flight, we're going to run a test on the orbital gate. Dial it up and clear the gate room for launch."
"Gate room is clear Colonel," replied Chuck over the radio.
John activated the auto pilot and waited as the ship dropped through the launch doors into the gate room. When the jumper was lined up, they shot through the gate and emerged in space between the third and fourth moon.
"Jumper one to flight, we're in space," Sheppard said with a voice that droned on with a thick hint of boredom.
"Could you say that with a little more enthusiasm?" mocked Rodney from the passenger's seat. "For someone that likes to play in aircraft, you certainly aren't acting like you're having any fun."
"That's because I'm not having fun! I have a crap load of paperwork that I have to get done and transmit back to the IOA by tomorrow afternoon," Sheppard grumbled sighing heavily. "I can't have any fun until …. until the IOA names a director of the expedition."
"So you don't want the position?" Rodney prodded carefully.
"No I don't want the damn position! I can deal with it on a temporary basis but I hate desk jobs! I'd rather be in the field with my team doing the dirty work," Sheppard said as he piloted the jumper around the moon.
"Oh that's great! I mean … I'm sorry to hear that you don't want it," Rodney babbled excitedly. "I personally think that it should be a scientist anyway … it is a scientific expedition."
"Yeah, whatever," Sheppard replied not really hearing whatever he said. They flew in silence for a few minutes while Sheppard looped around the moon and then flew the jumper back toward the gate. "Dial the gate."
"Dial gate Rodney, fix the problem Rodney, figure out a solution Rodney," McKay muttered under his breath. "Can't anyone just ask nicely? Geezus!"
"Dial the gate, please." Sheppard repeated emphasizing the please. He rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath at McKay.
"Fine! Alright," McKay said reaching over to start the dialing sequence. The jumper flew around from the blind side of the moon just as the gate activated. Both McKay and Sheppard looked out the windshield in disbelief. "Whoa whoa whoa! What's coming through?"
Sheppard cloaked the ship immediately and reduced speed. He looked at the DHD which only had half the symbols punched in. "You sure you didn't do that?" Sheppard asked him.
"No I didn't do that! The gate should have been shut down. I haven't even finished the dialing sequence!"
"Something's coming through!" Sheppard snapped as the two men watched as a ship double the size of the jumper and nearly three times as long tumbled through the aperture. Considering the height of the ship, it barely cleared the circumference of the gate.
"What the hell?" Sheppard muttered as the ship rolled end over end a couple of times and then drifted powerless a few hundred meters from the gate. Sheppard flew the jumper over to get a closer look at it.
"It looks like a dolphin," McKay muttered as they flew up to it.
"I was thinking more like a marlin," Sheppard said playing devils advocate with McKay. "Where the hell did it come from? There aren't any worlds in Pegasus that have, much less could build, a ship like that."
Sheppard and McKay stared at the vessel in awe as the jumper slowly crept over it. Two engine nacelles were contained in what appeared to be the forward section. A dorsal fin stretched across the top and was channeled for aerodynamics. Located in the aft section were four exhaust ports. Sheppard pointed to scorching just below them on the ventral panels.
"Looks like weapon fire," he muttered as they orbited the ship.
"If that's weapons fire, then what this?" McKay asked pointing to a huge dent on the dorsal fin.
"Collision?" Sheppard said shrugging his shoulders. "Whatever hit them looks like it knocked that valance loose, which was probably a good thing otherwise they would have never made it through the gate." Sheppard cued up the HUD array on the jumper and scanned the interior for life signs.
"I'm reading eleven life signs on board," he muttered looking at the screen. "Oxygen atmosphere…"
"Human?" McKay asked tentatively interrupting the Colonel.
"What you think they're Martians?" Sheppard scowled. "Jumper One to flight."
"Flight go ahead."
"An unidentified vessel has come through the orbital gate and is adrift. I'm reading human bio-signs on board that are weak. I need a security team, a couple of medics, and Zelenka up here on the double in two jumpers. Do not have them come through the gate, McKay needs to access the memory core to determine where this ship came from."
"Roger that Colonel."
"Okay, if I was a docking port where would I be?" Sheppard muttered to himself as he flew the jumper around the ship again.
"Docking port?" McKay blurted out. "You're not thinking of boarding that thing before the security team gets here are you?"
"That's exactly what we're going to do," John replied. He located two docking ports and a small bay of some type on the ventral side of the ship. Two additional ports were located near the center on both the starboard and port sides. Sheppard decloaked the jumper and then maneuvered it into place under the alien vessel.
"We?" Rodney exclaimed. "What if they're hostile? They might have weapons that we haven't seen before!" Rodney tapped a couple of keys on his laptop and then looked up at the sensor display again. When he heard the thunk of the two ships making contact with each other at the docking port he looked at Sheppard with a bewildered expression on his face. "Wait, wait, wait, I'm reading a temporal displacement emanating from the ship!"
"A what?"
"A temporal displacement!" Rodney snapped back in his usual I have to be loud to explain this correctly voice. "Meaning the ship is out of sync with our timeline!" He pointed at his laptop and waved his hands at the other ship to make his point.
John furrowed his brow and stared at McKay with a quizzical expression on his face. "What does being out of temporal sync have to do with our lending aide to the crew?"
"Ah, nothing …. unless the ship powers up and takes off while we're on board," Rodney replied with a sing-songy snotty voice.
"Are you reading any power signatures?" Sheppard asked standing up from his seat. He reached in to the seat pocket behind his chair and pulled out his P-90. He clipped the gun to his flack jacket and leaned over the seat to pull a life-sign detector from its storage compartment next to his seat.
"No, it's adrift," McKay replied plainly.
"Good, then there's no chance of it taking off now is there?" Sheppard replied. He turned and walked to the aft section of the jumper stuffing the LSD in his breast pocket of his vest. He stepped up on the bench seat and grabbed the airlock control, turning the locking mechanism to the open position. The airlock engaged and Sheppard waited for a moment while the space between the two ships pressurized. When the ready light activated on the panel, Sheppard pushed the hatch opened. Before climbing through it, he looked back at McKay still sitting in the passenger seat in the cockpit. "Are you coming?"
"Oh, you're really going over there?" Rodney asked with a panicked expression on his face.
"Yes Rodney, grab the med kit and get your ass through the hatch!" Sheppard growled as he turned and crawled through the airlock.
"Fine!" McKay replied practically running to the aft section of the jumper. He pulled to med kit over his shoulder and scrambled through the hatch following his commanding officer. Once through, he ran right into the back of Sheppard who was standing inside the alien ship staring at a computer panel. "What? Why are you stopped? You were in such a hurry to get over here!"
"This panel is in English," Sheppard mumbled touching the screen. He poked a few buttons and brought up a ship schematic. "Looks like the ship is on emergency power." Sheppard turned his head and peered down the darkened corridor. "Emergency lighting is on."
"Maybe its not really English," McKay rambled not paying attention to what the Colonel was saying. "It might be telekinesis or a hologram," McKay began to ramble.
"Rodney!" Sheppard yelled at him and pointed to the panel.
Rodney looked at the panel and noticed the wording on the screen. "It's English, big whoop!" he repeated. He shook his head and looked at Sheppard. "Look they're obviously from a different time parallel."
"Time parallel?" Sheppard repeated with a confused expression on his face.
Rodney scowled in frustration. "Remember when that other me showed up a couple of years ago …when we were testing that…" he paused waving his hand around to find the right word for their experiment.
"You mean the cooler you?" Sheppard said jokingly.
Rodney ignored the comment and continued to explain. "He came from an alternate universe. The temporal displacement of the ship means it too came from a different universe."
"In a galaxy just like Pegasus, but in an alternate time line," Sheppard said to show McKay that he understood what he was trying to say. He did understand, but was still questioning it. This ship seems a little too advanced for a galaxy containing the Wraith. Maybe the Wraith has been annihilated in their timeline, Sheppard thought turning to head down the corridor. He glanced back at the schematic and then brought his P-90 in a defensive position in his right hand and the life-signs detector in his left.
"Where are you going?" McKay asked
"This way," Sheppard said motioning toward the forward section. "According to the map crew quarters and Engineering are on this deck. I'm reading three bio-signatures down here." Sheppard continued down the corridor past a number of unmarked doors until the life signs detector started to flash. He stopped in front of an interior door and shoved the device into his pocket. "There's someone in this room," he remarked illuminating the door jam with the flashlight from the P-90. He noticed a panel on the wall next to the door and pointed the P-90 at it. "Can you do something with that?" he asked Rodney motioning at the door.
"Besides shoot it?" Rodney asked nervously. "Sure Rodney fix this," he mumbled as he pulled the cover off the panel and squinted in at the wiring. "There's nothing too rocket science about this," he said holding two of the wires together until they sparked and the door partially slide open.
John pushed it the rest of the way and found a human male lying on the floor in middle of the room. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He surveyed the room with the light. "Crew quarters," he muttered as he held the light on the bunk bed along the wall. He watched Rodney step over the man and check for a pulse and breathing.
"He's alive at least," Rodney said waving the flashlight over the man's head. "There's a pretty big knot on his forehead." McKay waved the flashlight at the bed and back to the male. "Looks like he was sleeping on the top bunk, probably hit his head when the ship rolled over."
"There's nothing we can do for him. Come on, we have others to check on," Sheppard said motioning toward the door. He pulled the life signs detector out of his pocket and the inclined his head toward the right. "This way," he mumbled heading down the hall. They walked for less than a minute until they came up to a hatch marked: Engineering. He looked at Rodney. "Do you want the honors?"
"For what?"
"Get the first look at alien technology," Sheppard replied with arched eyebrows baiting his friend. "Did you get a look at the nacelle? The engine on this thing must be huge to power that." Sheppard took a step toward the door before McKay cut him off.
"I'll go first," McKay said blocking the Colonel with his arm. "You don't know how to open the door anyway." Rodney disabled the locking mechanism on the control and pushed the door open. Sheppard stood back and politely waited with a huge smirk on his face.
Major Mackenzie struggled to open her eyes. She was groggy and felt sleep tugging at her, teasing her relentlessly to let the darkness take over her thoughts. She took several breaths and forced her eyes open.
"I don't have time for this!" she muttered through her gritted teeth as she pushed her body up from the floor. "Have to protect …. my team," she growled wincing in pain as she put weight on her left arm. "Ouch! Dammit! Ya bitch!" she moaned as she pulled herself into a kneeling position.
Kirstin looked over at Mayweather lying next to her and felt tears well up in her eyes. For a moment she flashed back to the crush she had on him when they served on Enterprise. The flirtations were fun and alluring at first but turned to awkwardness after they had encountered the other Enterprise and discovered their temporal counterparts had gotten married and had three children. She shook it off as she grabbed his wrist feeling for a pulse. As she felt a weak beat in his veins, she searched the bridge for the medical tricorder.
She caught sight of it on the other side of the room by Commander T'Pol. Mackenzie grabbed the leg of her station and pulled herself into a standing position, gritting her teeth, wincing and bitching about the pain the entire time. She stumbled across the bridge, stepping over Commander Reed in the process and picked the device up off the floor. Mackenzie ran it over herself first to prove to her brain that she wasn't dying.
"Dislocated shoulder, bruising, minor cuts," she mumbled reading the screen. "Kid stuff Mac… nothing worth dying over," she said aloud to no one as she turned to scan Commander Reed. "Malcolm … he's not so good," she said noticing a pool of blood coming from the back of his head. She knelt at his side and gently ran her fingers under his neck. When she pulled them out, they were covered with blood. She looked over at the captain's chair where he was last sitting and noticed the blown panel. "Yeah, he's definitely not so good," she said staring down at the tricorder. Not so good barely described the readings she was seeing. Based on the scan, Reed was near death.
"Don't let that clutter your head Mac," she reminded herself as she pushed her weight against the helm station and stood up. She turned back to Alvarez, T'Pol and Kavan and ran a quick scan on each, just to confirm they were still alive and breathing. She didn't want to know anything else as it was just noise in her head. She couldn't do anything for them anyway. Kirstin was inept in the medical care department. Anything more complicated than applying a band-aide on a paper cut was beyond her abilities. Building weapons, running tactical situations, kicking the crap out of the bad guy, thinking strategically … those were her strengths.
She made her way back across the bridge and ran the scan on Mayweather. His condition was somewhere between worse than Alvarez but not as bad as Reed. The tricorder indicated that Travis could use a dose of some medication she could barely pronounce. "Okay," she mumbled frantically searching the bridge for the med kit. She found it on the floor behind the command chair and stuck the ampoule of medication into the hypospray. "Come on Travis, I need you to wake up," she muttered stepping back over to him and running her hand down the side of his face. "Someone needs to fly this thing and you know it's not going to be me. Remember when you tried to teach me how to fly to pod on Enterprise and I ran into everything?" She pushed the hypo into the side of his neck and then waiting a second to take the scan again.
"Okay Travis, I guess that helped you somehow … but you're not awake. Frak!" she muttered getting upset and feeling a tear run down her face. "Count to ten!" she scolded herself taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a second. "Pull it together Mac! You can't help anyone if you're freaking out!"
Mackenzie shook her head, pulled herself up with the leg of the console and slid into the chair at her station. She punched a couple of keys on the panel and cursed when she realized there wasn't any power going to it. "Overloaded," she mumbled pushing the chair back and peering underneath at the wiring. She slid out of the chair and knelt on the floor, pulling the fired wiring out. After a re-routing a few connections, she crawled back into the chair and brought internal and external sensors back on line.
There was static in the display and she keyed in a few lines of code trying to clear it up. As the data came up on the display she tilted her head in confusion. "Temporal displacement?' she muttered under her breath. What the frig? she thought as she continued to struggle with the array. She felt hot and zipped the front of her jumpsuit and haphazardly pulled her hair into a knot on her head. As she fiddled around with the display and the data, the picture suddenly became crystal clear.
"Hoo …lee….crap!" she muttered slowly when the display indicated a ship was docked with Hero and they had been boarded. Sensors indicated two humanoids on the upper deck heading toward the bridge.
In a microsecond Mackenzie transformed from the panic-stricken freaked out woman to a soldier ready to defend her position. Kirstin stood from her station, jumped over Mayweather and practically ran to the aft section of the bridge. She opened the weapons locker, grabbed a phase pistol and shoved it inside her jumpsuit. She stared blindly at the other weapons and then picked up a couple of stun grenades and stuck them into a utility pocket in her right pant leg. She eyeballed the phase rifle, but decided against it remembering with her dislocated shoulder she could barely move her left arm.
Kirstin walked back to console and checked to see where the boarding party was compared to her position. They had just cleared the medical bay, which meant they were less than twenty feet from the hallway to the bridge. Kirstin walked back to the doorway and pulled the cover off the door control. She pulled out the manual override and pushed the level down and watched as the door slid partially open.
Mackenzie put her right shoulder into the opening, shoving the door back another couple of inches and crept silently down the small corridor. As she pulled the stun grenade from her pocket, she could hear their voices echoing in the hallway. Kirstin tilted her head listening intently to their words and was slightly miffed when she realized they were speaking English.
"Please tell me that our first priority is going to be restoring power to bring the engines back on line," McKay rambled on as they left the medical bay. "I can't wait to run a diagnostic and see how the system functions as a whole."
"Your first priority after we transport the injured back to Atlantis is to run a diagnostic on the gate to figure out where this ship came from," Sheppard reiterated to the scientist who had been overly "giddy" since they left the engine room. "We're not going to touch with the ship until…."
"Why not?" McKay interrupted turning around to face the Colonel.
"Because it's not our ship Rodney," John explained plainly.
"How would they even know?" McKay argued turning back around and continuing down the hall. "We're saving their lives for kricesake!"
John scowled and shook his head. "How you would feel if someone messed around with the jumper while you were unconscious?" He looked down at the life signs detector and frowned. "I'm detecting movement ahead."
"I hardly think these people are going to care. They're human after all!" McKay rambled on oblivious to Sheppard behind him.
Sheppard heard the clank of something hitting the deck and looked down to see the blue cylinder roll past McKay's feet. It looked like one of their smoke grenades, but considering the pin was pulled, he didn't see any smoke. Fearing the worst, he dived for cover in the alcove five feet back from Rodney. "Rodney! Get down!" he yelled as he was taking cover.
"What?" Rodney began to say just as the grenade exploded.
Out of the corner of his eye, John saw a flash and then heard the bang of the device but noticed there was no explosion like a regular grenade. Despite he was several feet away from the detonation, his ears were ringing. After a second he looked down the corridor to where McKay and he had just been standing. Rodney was face down on the deck. Sheppard stood up and walked quickly to Rodney's side, rolling him over and checking for a pulse. Rodney was out cold, blood was coming from his nose and a gash on his lower lip, but his pulse was strong and beating fast. John stepped flat against the bulkhead to check the hallway in front of him with the life signs detector before going any further. When he was certain there was no movement in the corridor he stepped to the opposite bulkhead to clear the corridor to his right.
"Drop your weapon!" A female voice ordered him.
Sheppard looked down the corridor to the right and found a human female with some type of weapon pointed directly at him. She was standing less than ten feet away. Sheppard checked her out quickly. Besides being completely beautiful, her left arm was dangling at an odd angle which told him her shoulder was dislocated or even broken. He could tell she was in a considerable amount of pain by the grimace on her face. She wore two insignia pins on her lapel, the eagle, globe and anchor of the Marine Corps and a gold oak leaf indicating she held the rank of Major. Her weapon reminded him of the stunners the Wraith carried and although he was sure it was different, he didn't want to be shot with it to find out.
"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard," he called out to her in a calm voice. "Stand down Major, I'm here to help you." He remained in a defensive position and kept the P-90 leveled on her.
"Shut up!" she yelled at him. "I don't recognize you or your weapon."
"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize my weapon needed to be introduced. This," he said waving the gun back and forth. "Is a P-90 machine gun. Light weight and very versatile," he said in his signature style. "And you are?"
The woman eyed him suspiciously. "Major Kirstin Mackenzie."
"Nice to meet you Major Kirstin Mackenzie, now if you'll lower your weapon, I can …."
"What planet are you from?" Mackenzie blurted out interrupting him. She jabbed her weapon in his direction.
"Earth," Sheppard replied plainly. "And you?" He watched her bite her lip and she lowered the weapon slightly.
"Earth," she replied warily.
"Okay, we're both from Earth. Well, now that we're getting to know each other better, let me tell you a little about myself. I like football, pizza, ferris wheels," he said moving closer to her as he talked.
"Chicago," the woman muttered looking down at the floor.
"Chicago…is a great place," he said slowly nodding his head. "All my favorite things are there … Bears football, even though they haven't won a superbowl since 1985, Geno's pizza, beer," he said naming things off like he was checking off a list. While he was talking he clipped the P-90 to his flack jacket and continued to move closer to her without her realizing it. "And the ferris wheel at Navy Pier is the one of the best in the world, but you probably already know all of that right? Are you from Chicago?"
John watched the woman carefully as he talked and the second she let her guard down he jumped her. Sheppard grabbed her wrist with his left hand and braced his right arm against her chest, knocking her back against the bulkhead. When she realized she was caught, she squirmed under his grasp and let out a yelp as he pinned her against the wall. Sheppard slammed her right hand against the bulkhead a couple of times causing her to release her hold on her weapon. He heard it clatter to the floor and he kicked it out of her reach with his foot.
"You didn't answer my question," John said still pinning her against the wall.
"What question?" she asked panting and still trying to squirm out from his grasp.
John pressed his knee against her thigh and put a little pressure on his right arm holding her body against the bulkhead. Mackenzie pushed against him in protest, but he had her pinned in place. He could feel her strength beneath him and had no doubt that if she wasn't injured she could kick his ass. "Are you from Chicago?" he questioned her slowly tilting his head.
"Agh! Are you serious?" she growled looking him in the eye.
"You started it by asking the question. It's only fair that you answer mine," he said holding her gaze. Their faces were just inches from each other and up close she was even more beautiful than she was at ten feet. It took all John's will not to lean over and kiss her.
"Yes. Well, no….not the city," Kirstin muttered as she stopped trying to break free and looked him in the eye. "I grew up in Lake Forest, just north of the city."
"Oh, the Bears training facility is there and Will Cartright," John replied matter of factly. He lowered his voice and held her gaze.
"Will Cartright?" Mackenzie questioned him furrowing her brow.
"Legendary player and coach of the Chicago Bulls," John said looking down at her. "You do know the Chicago Bulls, don't you?" he questioned her suddenly remembering Rodney's ramblings about the temporal difference. Hope they still play basketball in her time-line.
"I know basketball," she muttered and rolling her eyes.
John kept his guard up as he felt her body relax. He pulled her wrist toward her chest and changed arms holding her in place. "Well, now that we've been properly introduced Major Kirstin Mackenzie," he said pulling the 9 mm out of his holster. "Turn around, keep your hand on the bulkhead and spread your legs," he said flatly with no amusement in his voice.
He watched her twist her lips together in frustration and slump in her stance. She turned around slowly and did as he asked. Kirstin stood still and didn't try anything as he patted her down, finding the second stun grenade in her utility pant pocket. John shoved the grenade in his jacket pocket just as the radio cracked in his ear.
"Lorne to Colonel Sheppard, we're docking now."
"Good," Sheppard replied. "I need a security detail on the double to the upper deck aft section for one pleasant but well armed female."
"Yes sir," Lorne replied. "Sergeant Garcia should be there shortly."
"Lorne, there are three injured crewmen on the lower deck. One in crew quarters midway down the corridor from the airlock and two in Engineering at the end of the hall. On the upper deck there are two in the infirmary and …"
"Five on the bridge," Mackenzie said turning to look back at him over her right shoulder.
He glanced her way and repeated what she said through the radio. "Five on the bridge, my new best friend, Major Kirstin Mackenzie, with me in the corridor and Dr. McKay."
"McKay?" Lorne repeated with a sarcastic tone. "Let me guess … another papercut?" he laughed over the radio.
"He was a victim of Major Mackenzie's aggression," Sheppard replied over the mic.
"He'll wake up in a few minutes," Mackenzie mumbled turning around. "The effect is only temporary." She tried to move her left arm, winced and cried out cradling it with her right hand.
Sheppard watched as she sunk to the floor holding her arm. "You okay Major?" he asked her with concern in his voice. He pulled two ace bandages from his utility pocket and squatted down in front of her. "Let me brace that for you so it hurts less."
"No, the crew on the bridge needs more attention than me," she muttered waving her hand in front of her face trying to stop him.
"And they'll get it in a few minutes when the medics get up here," Sheppard replied slowly holstering his gun. "Relax Major. That's an order." His words caught her attention and she nodded gritting her teeth and gasping in pain as he gently moved her left arm and began to wrap the bandage around her body, trapping her upper arm against her chest.
"I apologize Colonel, I was…."
"Defending your position, I understand," he interrupted her. "If our places were reversed, I'da done the same thing…probably worse," he said as he finished with the chest wrap. He took the second ace wrap and quickly fashioned a sling out of it to support her forearm. He finished just as the security detail came down the hall. "There, all done," he said. "How's that feel?"
"Better," she said amazed at the efficiency in which he wrapped it. The pain from her shoulder actually was subsiding now that her arm was no longer dangling out of the socket.
"Something wrong?" he asked when he saw her eyeballing the wrap.
"No," Kirstin answered with a hint of suspicion in her voice. "I haven't seen anyone wrap a dislocated shoulder like this before."
Sheppard nodded and shrugged. "Field combat," he answered. "Sometimes you need to revert back to world war two basics."
Twenty minutes later all of Hero's crew with the exception of Major Mackenzie had been moved to the jumpers and were on their way to Atlantis for treatment. Colonel Sheppard, McKay, Zelenka, Major Lorne and Mackenzie stood on the bridge discussing how to get the ship back to Atlantis.
"Couldn't we bring another jumper up here and tow it back to base?" Lorne asked resting his hands on his hips.
"It won't work," McKay replied shaking his head. "This ship is four times the size of the jumpers. The grappling hooks won't hold."
"Well, then use more jumpers," Lorne offered plainly.
"It could work if we used four," Zelenka remarked.
"Sure it could work," Rodney said loudly. "But the jumpers would have to coordinate their movements exactly ….."
Major Mackenzie exhaled loudly as she sat at her station across the room. "Why don't you just fly it to the base," she interrupted growing tired of hearing McKay's voice.
"Do you know how to fly it?" McKay asked turning around to glare at the young woman.
"Not exactly," she replied. She was completely annoyed with him and wondered how the other three could possible put up with him on a day to day basis. She looked at the weapons locker in the aft section and fantasized about throwing a stun grenade between the four men just to shut him up.
"Well great, that's nice," McKay continued on without missing a beat. "Now, unless you have something to contribute that we could actually benefit from, I suggest you just sit over there and keep quiet!" Rodney snapped running his hand across his brow. "It's the least you can do since you're responsible for my pounding headache!" He paced around the bridge trying to figure out another way to move the ship.
"McKay," Sheppard growled under his breath. He felt like he was mediating a school yard fight between the two. "Major, I could help you pilot it back to our base if you're up to it." He walked closer to Mackenzie. "I'm a pilot and haven't found a ship I couldn't fly. Would you be up to trying?"
Mackenzie was quiet for a moment as she contemplated his request. She could re-route the power to get impulse engines back on line and even transfer helm control to her station, but the thought of actually flying Hero scared the crap out of her. Kirstin had experience flying class one pods like the ones on Enterprise and the Republic, but not a ship the size of Hero. "Maybe," she finally answered him. She looked Sheppard in the eye and shot her glance from Sheppard to McKay then back to Sheppard, telling him non-verbally that she had about enough of McKay and that he should leave before she felt the urge to beat him to a pulp, even one handed.
"Okay, that's a start," Sheppard replied nodding his head. He crossed his arms at his chest and turned back toward the other men. "Rodney, why don't you and Radac take the jumper to the gate and try to access the memory core."
"Now?" McKay blurted out. "Wouldn't my time be better spent trying to re-power the ship?"
"I think Major Mackenzie, Major Lorne and I can manage that on our own," he said firmly. "It's her ship and she's familiar with the wiring."
"And it's just as important for you to try to access the memory core in the gate," Lorne added catching Mackenzie's expression. "That way you can figure out how they got here and work on a method of recreating it so we can send them back."
"Oh, yeah, right," McKay replied suddenly feeling important again. "We'll need a pilot to man the jumper while Radac and I access the core."
"You can take Sergeant Garcia," Lorne said evenly. "He's already down in the jumper and the EVA suits are loaded."
"Okay, great, fine then," McKay remarked walking toward the door to the bridge. "If you need me…."
"We'll know where to find you," Mackenzie said flatly watching him walk out of the room. When she was sure he was gone she looked back at Sheppard and Lorne. "One more second of his voice and I was going to kill him."
"We know," both Sheppard and Lorne replied in unison.
"Too bad we can't land in the jumper bay," Major Lorne commented as he watched the sensor data on the small screen in front of him. After four hours of re-routing cable and charging the power systems, Hero was finally making its way back to Atlantis. Sheppard was actually the one in the re-routed pilot's seat. Lorne stood across the bridge from him at the tactical station monitoring the sensor data. Major Mackenzie was at the communications station doing …. something to help them, at least that's what she claimed she was doing.
"Naah, it's too long," Sheppard replied adjusting their heading. "It wouldn't fit through the roof hatch."
"What about the underwater bay?" Lorne asked. "The hatch is different and the bay is bigger."
"Well, that would be great if we knew it was sea-worthy," John remarked with a chuckle. "I'd hate to fly down there and then sink, because it's a long way to the bottom and I can't hold my breath forever."
"I can hear you, ya know," Kirstin smarted off from across the room.
"Oh, you're talking to us again?" Lorne asked with a sarcastic tone. "I thought you were just over there pouting." He looked over at her and started to chuckle.
"I wasn't pouting Major," Mackenzie replied her voice laced with contempt. "I was trying to get the view screen back on line!" She slammed her hand against the console in frustration.
"Careful what you hit over there," Lorne said wincing at her. "I wouldn't want to have to wrap another body part for you."
"I'll give you something to wrap," Kirstin started in on him until Sheppard cut her off.
"Hey kids, if you can't play nice, I'll have to separate you," Sheppard remarked, verbally trying to reel the majors in. "Since we're still in space, I don't' think either of you would like the accommodations."
It was at least the twentieth time they had gone at it since McKay and Zelenka had left the ship. It started innocently enough and then spiraled out of control after Kirstin tripped over a knee knocker and twisted her ankle. Although Sheppard and Lorne weren't anywhere near her when it happened, somehow Lorne was blamed for it and then bickered began.
Normally John would have had enough of it sooner rather than later, but in this case he suspected a ruse. Mackenzie was definitely up to something. The little fights she was picking with Lorne were only to cover her frustrations because whatever she was up to wasn't going exactly to plan. Mackenzie wasn't the only person on board that knew how to re-route power to get a ship to fly. Both Sheppard and Lorne were pilots after all and knew a thing or two about electrical and computer systems.
In fact it was one of the reasons Sheppard was flying Hero back to Atlantis instead of Mackenzie. Although she didn't put up much of a fight over it, Sheppard convinced Mackenzie to allow him to pilot the ship and unlock computer access at the tactical station for Lorne to "monitor" their course. Once Lorne had open access he was able to track her movements through Hero's systems while Sheppard flew the ship to the surface under his own guidance. Lorne wasn't very clean or stealthy with his spy techniques but considering Mackenzie's emotional state he didn't need to be, her latest outburst was all the confirmation they needed.
After Sheppard's stern warning, the two fell silent for several minutes until Kirstin broke the ice. "The answer to your question is yes," Mackenzie said glaring across the bridge.
"Yes what?" Lorne asked looking at her.
"Yes the ship is sea worthy," she replied speaking in a loud slow voice. "The species that built it for us was aquatic."
"Aquatic," Lorne commented sharing a glance with Sheppard that spoke volumes between them. "So we could take it down and stow it in the lower jumper bay."
"We could," Sheppard agreed. "But I think the east pier will suffice for now," he added. "Deploy landing struts," he directed to Mackenzie across the bridge.
"Struts deployed," she confirmed flipping the switch on her panel. She braced herself as the ship settled down on the landing gear and exhaled slowly, glad to finally be on the ground.
"All passengers please return your seatbacks to the upright position and stow your tray tables," Sheppard muttered wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. "We have safely landed."
"That was…." Lorne began to say as Sheppard cut him off.
"Not fun," Sheppard finished the sentence. "Get the engines back on line and fix the damaged systems… then it would be fun, but until then…. Assign a security team to make sure no one decides to go sight seeing without my permission." He looked down at the covered corpse of Ensign Conroy and inclined his head to the right. "Get a detail up here to move the body to the morgue."
"Yes sir," Lorne replied stepping aside to call a team on the radio.
"Major Mackenzie, if you'll allow me the honors, I'll escort you to our infirmary," Sheppard said stepping across the bridge access door.
"I need to stop at my quarters first," Kirstin said biting her lip. "It's just down the hall, port side." She hopped across the bridge to where Sheppard was standing. "I need to speak to you," she said looking up at him. "Alone."
Sheppard quickly surveyed the room as he helped Major Mackenzie through the door. He was acutely aware of the weapons that were within her reach in the room. A rifle type device hung from a hook by her bed and a pistol was sitting conveniently on her desk.
"Big room," he muttered as watched her hobble around pulling clothing out of the locker beneath her bed. "Different from the ones on the lower deck."
"Officer quarters," she said looking up at him. "Not that it matters much on this mission since there are twelve of us. Only Bowyer and Schmidt had to double up."
"So you wanted to talk to me?" John asked her cutting to the chase.
"I need a favor," she said turning to look at him. She bit her lip out of habit.
"Okay," John mumbled not knowing what to expect.
"I ah….I need to use the restroom," she blurted out. "One piece… I need you to help me," she said pointing at the wrap and her jumpsuit.
"Yah…." John chuckled nervously. That wasn't quite what I was expecting, he thought looking anywhere in the room but directly at her. "Are you sure you don't want to wait until you get to the infirmary?"
"I can't hold it any longer, Colonel" she smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry."
Sheppard exhaled slowly and walked toward her. "If I'm going to be helping you undress, you better start calling me John," he said as he started to unwind the ace bandage, making quick work of unwrapping her arm and shoulder.
"Hold the sleeve and I'll pull my arm out," Mackenzie said motioning at her left arm.
"Absolutely not!" John guffawed shaking his head. "You know how much that is going to hurt? I'll cut it off," he said pulling a knife from his belt.
"No Ca… John. It will only hurt a second," Kirstin argued unzipping the jumpsuit to her waist.
"If you were in the infirmary your uniform would be cut off and you wouldn't have any say about it," he replied evenly.
"I'm not in the infirmary am I? Come on, the quicker you do it, the quicker it will be over," she said. With a little effort, she wiggled her right arm out of the sleeve of both her jumpsuit and t-shirt. She looked at Sheppard impatiently.
"I'm cutting your sleeve, Major. The decision is final," Sheppard replied firmly.
"What happened to call me John if I'm going to undress you?" Kirsten asked him with pursed lips.
"That was before you started acting irrational."
"I don't have to take orders from you, you're not in my chain of command Colonel."
"It doesn't matter what branch of the military I'm in, the last time I checked a Lieutenant Colonel outranked a Major," John replied tersely leaning over her.
"Forget it, I'll do it myself!" she yelled half walking half hopping into the latrine. She slammed the door shut behind her. After a couple of seconds Sheppard could hear her whimper and cry out in pain. "John?" she called sliding the door open.
"I take it you're ready to do it my way?" he said arching his brow at the door.
Sheppard walked into the latrine and slid his knife up the length of her sleeve slicing the fabric open. As the top of the jumpsuit fell to the floor, he grabbed the towel off the shelf and handed it to her to cover herself. Then he finished his task by cutting off her t-shirt and sports bra and helped to remove them from her body. "Anything else you need?" he asked her as his eyes trailed over her muscular back.
"You do realize you're going to have to help me get dressed," she muttered looking over her right shoulder at him.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to that," he replied sheepishly as he backed out of the small room. "I'll just ah … wait out here."
Major Mackenzie hobbled out of the latrine a moment later holding the bath towel against her chest and wearing only her standard issue blue skivvies. She found him sitting at her desk scrolling through an active computer screen.
"That was quick," he said looking over at her. He made no attempt to conceal the data he was perusing
"Not a lot to do in there," she mumbled. She glanced at the computer monitor to see what he was looking at. "I know about the temporal displacement Colonel."
John turned in the seat and rested his forearms on his thighs. "What'd'ya mean?"
"I picked it up on scanners during our flight through the nebula and it came up again right before I detected intruders … you and McKay on board. I checked our database. The last time a P-90 was used in a military operation was a hundred years ago," she replied ruefully. She hopped over to her bunk and sat down, still holding the towel to her chest. "I've reviewed the telemetry of the event that brought us here. There's no way to go back….it can't be recreated," she mumbled. "We're stuck here."
"I think it's a little premature to be making those assumptions Major," Sheppard said to her. "It's not my area of expertise," he continued when she cut him off.
"But it is mine! I can show you the telemetry. We passed through some anomaly and a bunch of worm holes and then we were hit by another ship and then …." The stress of the day finally got to her as tears began to run down her face. She stood from the bed, covering her face with her hand embarrassed to let a commanding officer see her cry. What she hadn't planned on was dropping the towel and exposing her breasts to Colonel Sheppard.
Always the gentleman, John quickly turned away from her, affording her the privacy she needed to retrieve her cover. "We're going to figure this out Major," he said calmly as he looked out the window at the city. "I already have my best people working on it."
"That dork McKay?"
John laughed and turned around tentatively making sure she had covered her chest again. "Yes. He's a little … annoying at times. But he has a PhD and he's darn good at figuring things out," he said making small talk with her in an attempt to change her mood.
"A PhD?" she retorted picking a sports bra up off the bed. "Big Whoop, so do I."
"You have a PhD?"
"In Mathematics and Physics."
"And you're in the Marines leading a strike team?"
"Specifically covert ops to retrieve POWs and other high-value targets," she smirked and shrugged her shoulder. "I used to teach eight year olds to embrace math and science."
"That's one hell of a career change," Sheppard replied amazed at her revelation. Beautiful and smart! A deadly combination, he thought gazing at her. He watched as she shook her head and a ripple of emotion cascaded over her face.
"I joined the reserves to reconnect with people my own age and then seven years ago Earth….in my time line was attacked by a ruthless enemy and I lost people I cared about. So I went active to feel like I was doing something about it."
"Did it work?" he asked walking slowly toward the bed.
"More or less," she muttered feeling another tear run down her face. John caught it with his thumb before she could drop the towel again. "Sorry," she mumbled. "Crying is a sign of weakness."
"They still teach that crap in the Marines?" John said with a smile. His hand remained cupped against the side of her face. "Crying just means you can feel and we all need feelings to survive. Good or bad." He held her gaze for a moment and then slowly there became an awkward silence between them. He let go of her face and took a step back. "Do you have a t-shirt that you don't care about?"
"What do you mean?" she asked him perplexed by his request.
"Well, when I get you to the infirmary, they're probably going to cut off any top you are wearing, so I was thinking that it would probably be best if you were wearing something you didn't really care about."
"Sure," she muttered pointing at the locker underneath her bunk. "I have a Bears t-shirt in there that will work."
"You're going to deface the Bears by having them cut off your body," John replied shaking his head pulling the t-shirt from the pile.
"Why not? They suck anyway," she said with an evil chuckle.
She turned her back to him and as he pulled the shirt over her head, she shimmied into the shirt with her right arm. Mackenzie sat on the bed while Sheppard rewrapped her arm and then helped her into her uniform camo pants. "You know, I looked you up in our data base," she said as she watched him tie her boots. "There was a Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard in my time line."
"Oh yeah?" Sheppard said not really wanting to know what happened to his counterpart.
"Yeah, in twenty oh seven," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "He retired from the Air Force as a General twenty years later."
"Well, it's good to know that someone will think highly of me in my career pursuits," Sheppard remarked watching her face.
"The twenty oh seven Earth in my universe couldn't figure out how to fly the space shuttle farther than the moon. They were sending unmanned probes to Mars and had declassified Pluto as a planet. And everybody drove gas guzzling cars."
"Well, some things haven't changed," Sheppard said helping Mackenzie to stand up. "We are still driving gas guzzling cars but we're a little more advanced in the space travel department. You ready?"
"How far do we have to walk?" she asked him before they left her room.
"It's going to be a hike," he said flatly.
She bit her lip and stared out the window of the ship. "I kinda have another stop to make."
tbc