Guess They Were Right.
Chapter Three: Isolation.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything regarding Stargate Atlantis, the characters on the show, or any ideas related to the show. I only lay claim to Major Emily Shaw, as she is of my own design.
She didn't sleep much that night, tossing and turning as she replayed the information Dr. Weir had told her about the mission over and over again in her head.
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"So these things, they literally suck the life from you?" she asked incredulously after three hours of debriefing, her brain beginning to tire and ache with all the new information.
"The wraith, they are called, and yes, so to speak. They accelerate the lifecycle of your body's cells, causing rapid aging and eventually decomposition. They suck the life force out of you, in common vernacular. But they are just one of the enemies we face in the Pegasus galaxy. Our presences there has caused quite an uproar so we're trying to diffuse the situation as quickly and easily as possible" Dr. Weir explained as she sat down, taking a long drink from her mug before speaking again.
"It's all just a lot to take in" Emily said finally, shaking her head as she did a quick run through of everything she'd just learned. Apparently there was this thing called a Stargate that could take her to different planets and even galaxies where alien life forms and even humans lived. She was going to an entire different galaxy to take on a position in charge of a team of marines where they'd be fighting creatures that could suck the very essence of her life out of her.
This was not what she'd had in mind when the colonel's had said NASA.
After a few more minutes of a brief overview of her expected duties at Atlantis, she was set back to her room to mull things over before rejoining the three of them for lunch. On her way back to her room, she felt as if her head was going to explode. So much had just been thrown at her that she was having a hard time sorting through it all. She didn't know if she could take all they were saying at face value.
That would mean blind faith, and if it's one thing Emily never did, it was leap without looking.
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"Major Shaw, welcome. How was your sleep?" Dr. Weir asked in greeting as at 0800 the next morning, Emily showed up at the briefing room ready for round two of overwhelming information.
"I was perfectly comfortable doctor, but sleep just seemed to escape me completely last night" she replied, smiling warmly at the commander who was seated at the centre of a semi circle conference table. Emily's eyes quickly swept the other people seated at the table; Colonel Sheppard, a stunning dark skinned woman with a gentle face, an annoyed looking man with what seemed to be little patience, and the scruffy, tribal looking man who'd given her shoddy directions to the mess hall last night; Ronan Dex, if she remembered correctly. She kept her eyes on his for a few seconds before taking her seat beside Dr. Weir, the doors to the meeting room closing as she sat down.
"Teyla, Dr. McKay, Ronan. I'd like you to meet Major Emily Shaw, our newest addition to our military personnel here on Atlantis. Would you like to say a bit about yourself in introduction?" Dr. Weir offered, looking pleasantly at everyone around the table. A few awkward silent seconds passed before someone spoke.
"As Dr. Weir said, I am Teyla Emmagan. I am Athosian, a race of people that are native to the Pegasus galaxy. My people once lived on a planet called New Athos until the wraith began to cull there. My people now reside on this planet, on the mainland" the pleasant dark skinned woman said in introduction, bowing her head down to Emily in acknowledgment.
About an minute passed this time before someone spoke.
"Rodney, do you have anything to say?" Dr. Weir said, giving the man to her left a pointed look as he picked at his fingernails, reclined in his chair.
"What was that? Oh, right" he said, looking up from his hand and sitting upright in the chair as he looked quickly around the room.
"My name is Dr. Rodney McKay, head of research and development here on Atlantis. I'm from Fort McMurray, Alberta and I'm allergic to citrus" he said with dripping disinterest, barely looking in her direction before going back to his fingernails.
Emily exchanged a look with Dr. Weir and watched as the commander rolled her eyes. Now, all attention turned to Ronan who was staring blankly at Emily.
"I'm Ronan Dex" he said, offering nothing else.
When it became plainly obvious that nothing else was going to be shared by anyone else, Emily decided to share a bit about herself.
"Well, uh, my name is Emily Shaw. I'm a CF-18 Fighter Pilot previously stationed with the 409 Nighthawks in Cold Lake, Alberta. There's really not much else to me than that" she said, sending a smile to everyone around the table but only receiving one back from Teyla. Even Col. Sheppard's attention was else where.
It was around this time that a faint sense of isolation, apathy, and insecurity set in. Here she was, on a planet so far from home she could literally say she wasn't even in the same galaxy as home, and despite the fact that she was sitting within a room full of people, she felt totally and utterly alone. Silence set in amongst them and the feeling in her chest grew, the quiet and social awkwardness of everyone doing nothing to help the situation.
She excused herself from the room after a minute of silence, mumbling something about a headache to Dr. Weir before rising from her chair and heading towards the door. She was halfway to her bedroom when she began cursing herself, hating her own stupidity about not realizing how bad of an idea it was for her to come here. From what Dr. Weir had told her about the mission in Atlantis, they'd been on this base for several months already. What business did she, an outsider, have with them? She didn't know how to diffuse into a social situation like this; she could tell just by the dynamics in the conference room that everyone already had tangled webs of connection with each other. Why did she ever think she'd be able to penetrate that?
She strode into her room and made her wait straight to the balcony, breathing in the fresh sea breeze as if it were the only medication she needed. After a few seconds of peace, more worry set in. What was she suppose to do? She'd just gone from being an vital resource with the 409's to a lowly outsider in just 6 weeks. Of all the scenarios she'd come up with in her head of what Atlantis would be like, she never once thought of one where she'd feel so isolate.
She couldn't have been standing there long, but before she knew it, Sheppard was at her side, standing beside her with his hands on the balcony railing, leaning forward just like she was.
Suddenly, she didn't feel so lonely anymore.
"You alright, Major?" he said eventually when they'd both finally had enough of the ocean view.
She looked over at him and gave him a friendly smile, finding it inescapably hard to look away from those stunning green eyes of his. Colonel, damn it. Stop it! She cursed to herself.
"Please, call me Emily. And yes, I'm fine" she said cordially, giving him a quasi sincere as she returned her attention to the sea.
"I know it's probably pretty tough trying to navigate your way through everything but you know, it gets easier with time. I still remember the day I got drafted for this mission. I'd been tasked with flying General O'Neill out to the Ancients Weapons platform in the Antarctic and the next thing I knew, I was walking through the Stargate" he said, adverting his eyes back out to the clear blue oceans as he spoke.
"It's just very overwhelming. How did you deal with it all?" she asked him, speaking freely even though she hadn't asked permission to.
He took a second to think before he started talking.
"I didn't really have time to deal with it. Things were pretty bad when we got here so there really was no time to sit back and think about where I was. I got to work and that very same day I became head of the military presence here on Atlantis" he said, this time turning to look at her. She could sense by the look in his eyes there was a story there, but she didn't pretty it. They'd known each other all of less than 24 hours and she knew her place.
She looked at him for a few seconds and then nodded, looking back out onto the sea.
A few seconds past, the only sound the gentle crashing of the waves as they collided with the base of the city, before he spoke.
"Tell you what. Me and my team are heading out in a few hours to go check in on a science team we have on a planet doing research about some plant thing. Why don't you join us? You know, get a feel for things" he offered, releasing his grip on the railing and standing up straight, turning to face her.
She looked at him for a few seconds and then nodded, a small smile coming to her face.
"I'd like that"
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"EVERYBODY DOWN!"
She'd barely heard his order over the rapid staccato of Atlantis' personnel's P90s and the wicked shriek of the wraith stunners. Smoke clung to the air around them all as she hit the ground, a blue bolt of energy hitting the trunk of a tree right above her in the exact spot her head had been less than two seconds prior. She flipped over in the direction of where the shot originated and aimed her gun, firing off two rounds when she saw a hideous creature with a mask for a face coming running towards her. When that didn't take it down, she fired another five and then another five. Eventually, the creature went down, black liquid pouring from its wounds like blood.
It had all happened so fast. They'd stepped through the gate less than an hour ago and now they were battling for their lives. The five of them, Sheppard, herself, Dr. McKay, Teyla, and Ronan had arrived on MA5-395 about thirty five minutes ago, and a twenty minute trek to where the science team was supposed to have been based provided ample opportunity for the other four team members to talk amiably about inside jokes and past experiences while Emily remained silent. When they'd finally arrived at the camp's coordinates, they'd barely had time to even recognize the noticeable absence of humans when a horrible screech began infiltrating their ears, putting the other four on high panic. She was about to ask what that awful noise was when she'd heard the one word she'd been dreading since she'd first heard it.
"Wraith"
The next thing she knew, Sheppard was yelling for a full retreat back to the gate, the five of them running as fast as possible to cover the distance between themselves and the gate before finally succumbing to the unavoidable battle ahead of them. The crossfire began and she fired shots into the fray, unknowing to whether or not the bullets made contact with anything as her primary focus was to find cover. Now she was on a forest floor, shots and stunner beams going off around her like a deafening opera as she took in her first kill on Atlantis. Less than 24 hours into her post, and she already had blood on her hands. Then she remembered just exactly who the Wraith were and any semblance of guilt was erased from her mind.
She flipped back over on her belly and peered through the dense bush she was laying in, noticing straight in front of her another wandering masked wraith. She didn't make the mistake of under anticipating the number of rounds needed and fired off as many shots as it took to finally bring the thing down. Slowly, she got to her feet and peered around, her eyes finding Teyla and Ronan holding ground behind two separate tree stumps about fifty yards from her. She was just about to signal one of them when she saw a cloaked creature with long white hair and pale skin phantom its way up behind Ronan. She fired directly at it and took it down with 5 bullets, Ronan looking behind him startlingly as the creature fell back. He followed the direction of the bullets to her and glared for a second before returning to battle.
She didn't really know how, but soon enough she heard Sheppard's voice calling them towards the gate, Teyla and Ronan both taking off immediately as Emily followed quickly behind. They were at the gate within a minute and ran the distance, four of them backwards running as they fired shots towards the chasing wraith, stepping through the gate and arriving at Atlantis a second later, the portal closing them off in safety.
They all took a few seconds to gain their breath, deep pants being given off by all of them as they tried to fill their lungs with air. She put her hands on her air to ease her breathing and turned around, facing the staircase leading up to the control room as the four others continued to breathe heavily.
She was just about to say something when Sheppard came over to her side, putting a hand on her shoulder and nodding once to her.
"I don't know if I already said this or not Major but...Welcome to Atlantis"
((Author's Note: Hey everyone. Thank you so much for the fantastic response! It really does mean a lot. Anyways, this was just sort of an introduction to battle chapter to set up some events I forsee occuring very soon. In response to a reader's question/comment about Emily's call sign: There is a legitamite reason as to why that's her call sign, and that too will be revealed in due course. Please keep reviewing and any comments/suggestions you guys have would be awesome! Thanks ))
