Orla palmed the door chime to Laura's quarters and waited. The door opened to reveal her friend smiling at her, "So, has the big guy got off okay?" Cadman asked making room for Orla to enter.
"Yeah, they all got away okay," Orla responded. "By the way, at this "do" tonight I'm not getting drunk like last time," Orla grimaced, remembering how Ronon had sat patiently holding her hair from her face as she was sick.
"Yeah, that was a bit full on, maybe just a bit then?" Cadman laughed.
"Are you kidding me? I'm on a hot promise when Ronon gets back tomorrow and I'm not passing that up for any amount of Vodka," Orla retorted.
"Hey, it's the likes of Teyla you have to watch, the woman can drink like a fish," Cadman imparted.
"No, Laura, Teyla can just hold her drink. Besides what about Carson?" Orla knew she was still seeing the Doctor but she was getting very cagey about what was happening.
"What about Carson?" Cadman bit back, hoping her blush wasn't obvious.
"Won't you be seeing him later?" Orla grinned at her friends blush.
"Maybe, can we change the subject now?" Laura hoped Orla would back off the subject but doubted it.
"Your best friend is here wanting to know if your gonna admit to being in love with Carson yet. Ronon thinks you're both in love with each other but too scared to do anything about it in case the IOA say anything, which they won't. Carson's non-military," Orla smiled at her friend's obvious displeasure meaning that Laura did care.
"Can we now change the subject please, as we need to pick Teyla up and head to the botany labs for the "do"," Cadman said quickly getting to her feet and heading for the door.
The two women walked on down the corridor until they reached the Athosian's quarters, palming the door chime. Teyla appeared at the door smiling at her friends, "Are we ready?" Teyla quizzed.
"Yep, I think so, we've got the gift and Vodka, what can we be missing?" Cadman replied holding the Vodka bottle in her hand.
As they headed towards the botany labs Orla stared at the gift they'd managed to get sent from Earth. It was Katie Brown's birthday, she was a good friend and after the bad year she'd had the girls wanted to make sure the gift was special. They'd gotten her a charm bracelet, the charms all being flowers small enough to be delicate but recognizable.
As they approached the botany labs they could hear female voices demanding to start the party. Cadman smiling to her self looked over to Orla saying, "Remember you're on a promise, no barfing over Ronon," and walked into the lab ignoring the shocked and confused faces of her friends.
As Colonel Sheppard neared the mainland he called out to his companions, "Any particular preference for landing?"
"Yes, somewhere safe, away from wild animals and near a Holiday Inn if you can," scoffed McKay.
"No," was all Ronon added.
"Okay, well looks like a nice place not far from here, near some trees for cover but not too far from the river over there if you fancy skinny dipping McKay," Sheppard teased.
Sheppard's comment was met by snort from McKay, "Maybe Conan here might like to thrash about in rivers, probably populated by piranhas or some life threatening toxic bacteria but I'm fine." This earned the scientist a deadly glare from the Satedan telling him to stop the remarks.
"If you hate the idea so much Rodney, why'd you come?" Sheppard tiredly spoke.
"Conan, here said you were in need of male bonding," Rodney grumbled.
"MCKAY!" Ronon roared at the man seated in front of him, Ronon didn't really care that much what name McKay called him. Orla had once explained the names to him and the ones not too insulting he'd relented on, but informed the little man that should he feel the need to call him a Neanderthal again, or even a barbarian then he'd show him just how primeval he really could be. However, Ronon felt it did the man good to be barked at every now and then, reminding him just who he was insulting.
"What? Oh right, yeah, Ronon, sorry," McKay nervously fiddled with the chair arm.
Sheppard was not unaware of the little chats Ronon had with Rodney and to be honest, sometimes, the man did try to push Ronon into a reaction that Sheppard guessed would make McKay in need of the infirmary for a few weeks. "Now, children calm down. I'm sorry you felt you had to come Rodney, I thought we'd have a night as a team. Okay minus Teyla, but that just means we won't have watch the belching or manners now. Not unless Orla's refined Ronon recently?" Sheppard smirked at the man hoping he'd see the amusing side.
"She did say I was a… what was it… Oh yeah, a regular Mary Poppins last week." Ronon shrugged still not knowing what she'd meant. He'd surprised her and cleaned their quarters, he didn't tend to do that sort of thing but he knew she was tired and the messy quarters were upsetting her. He had the time so he tidied; the look of happiness had made it worth the effort.
The two men seated near him were desperately trying not to laugh at Orla's analogy of the behemoth sitting behind them, images of Ronon with a frilly parasol singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. They lost the battle, laughed out loud making Ronon pull out a knife and clean his nails. The two men witnessing the new piece of weaponry quieted.
Dr. Radek Zelenka was examining the metal sphere, only it wasn't really metal. In fact he had no idea of its composition so he needed a diagnostic run. It was Rodney's turn but he'd been dragged to the mainland and Orla had done the last long diagnostic. Plus she was at Katie Brown's botany lab, where they were celebrating Katie's birthday.
It was an all female event apparently which had ended up being in the botany lab rather than quarters simply because the numbers were too many for Katie's quarters. Radek remembered the last all female birthday celebrations the women had ended up spilling over into the nearest corridor. It wasn't popular with the people sleeping there. So the women moved their party to the botany lab. This actually pleased the Czech a lot. The lab was about 400 yards from his lab and he was almost confident that he could radio Orla and beg a piece of cake and drink later.
He looked back at the sphere his brow furrowed, the writing was a mixture of Ancient he was sure but something else. He'd really need a linguist to sort that out but right now he needed to see what it was made of and if it was harmful. Radek put the sphere down and shuddered remembering the last unknown device that had activated. Captain Munroe had been given a heroes funeral back on Earth and a ceremonial one in Atlantis. It had taken Orla a long time to recover and if the scientist wasn't mistaken, Ronon Dex had at times since, become even more wildly protective of Orla than before.
Radek prepared the equipment he'd need to start the tests, because the device was spherical he'd need something to hold the item in place and stop it from rolling away from the work surface. He'd eventually located a metal ring with four legs which would hold the item, which was currently wedged in place by books. As Radek was organizing himself his nose started to tickle, damn sinus's he thought, it must be nearly hay fever time in the Pegasus galaxy. He used his hand to rub his irritated nose and got back to the work in front of him. As he lifted the orb and started to move towards the holder his nose really started to itch, he moved quickly to place the item down when he sneezed. The sphere landed in the holder but with a heavy thump rather than in a carefully placed movement. Radek waited with bated breath, he sighed when nothing flashed or alarms bellowed.
If Dr. Radek Zelenka had instead listened he would have actually heard the very slight ticking that was being made by the orb. Thirty seconds later a powerful sound wave boomed outwards from the machine reaching out up to 500 meters away.
Zelenka heard the wave of noise and stood completely still, thinking in his native Czech that he really didn't want to face Wraith or whatever was going to suddenly appear and attack him.
When nothing happened he was trying to decide if he should inform anyone of his faux par. Maybe he'd wait and see if anyone noticed.
The party had just started in the botany lab, huddled together Orla, Laura and Teyla spotted Dr. Jennifer Keller and beckoned her over. "Hey, Jennifer, good to see you. Get a drink and join us," Orla beamed having become friends with the doctor during her stay in the infirmary.
"Hi, thanks, I will. Teyla, Laura nice to see you," the quiet doctor smiled, glad to have some company to join. Having gotten herself a drink she rejoined the women she was starting to become friends with.
"It is good to see you Jennifer, I was worried you might not leave the infirmary tonight," Teyla said genuinely pleased to see the doctor.
"I shouldn't really, I have so much paperwork to do but Marie sent me along for an hour," Keller shyly added.
"Well, let's see if we can't persuade you to stay longer Jennifer, Orla's determined to be a good girl tonight so I need a party animal to drink with," Cadman giggled at the look of surprise and fright on Keller's face.
"What am I?" Teyla raised an eyebrow at Cadman.
"A fish," Cadman laughed watching the Athosian's confused face.
"Teyla, I think Ronon is the only person who could keep up with your drinking, and he's twice your size," Laura explained as her friend smiled proudly.
It was at that point the women in the botany lab were hit by the sound wave having travelled from the laboratory Zelenka was in. They staggered as though they'd been physically hit about their bodies with an invisible force, it left the women in the room stunned and looking at each other with a mixture of fear and utter confusion.
TBC... Please review