Chapter 4
The elevator was cramped and musty; and someone was wearing Old Spice. Katie spent the trip down between the steel wall and her father's side, continuing to watch as the levels flashed in digital red, deeper and deeper into the mountain. A man who had been waiting for them at the entrance was rattling off words that she had yet to catch. Something about "national security" and the more foreboding "military court" that would decide her fate if she was not to comply. But still, the numbers on the digital read were more interesting and she only realized that this new man was looking for an answer when Daniel swiftly nudged her shoulder. She hadn't been anywhere near paying attention and lost her balance, gripping the elevator wall with a slapping hand movement at just the last second before she could be sent tumbling into the corner.
Daniel narrowed his gaze with a raised brow as she steadied herself.
"Um, sorry, could you repeat that last part please?"
"Do you understand these rules as stated under the supervision of Colonel Davis and myself?" He was staring at her again, this time her jewelry.
Katie looked between the two men, and then to Daniel who sent her a silent message to accept through his eyes.
"Yes." She stated blankly.
The man, in a suit of all things, handed her the clipboard with the papers he had read from and a pen. Katie gripped the writing instrument tightly, allowing it to hover an inch over the 'X' marked line.
"Full legal name please."
Katie was so busy concentrating on the tiny dotted line that she didn't see the angry flash that Daniel gave the suit. The man went to protest but Daniel shook his head, silencing him.
The pen jotted off the most delicate and intricate script: Katherine Samantha Jackson.
As if the reading had been timed to the second, as soon as Katie handed the clipboard back to the man, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened.
"Follow me." The business man replied. She hadn't caught his name at the entrance, and wasn't about to ask for it.
Daniel shook his head at the man's lack of common sense. Daniel had worked in this very mountain for over a decade, he knew where they were going. And then he remembered the blonde following at his side. She had never had to make this trip before. She had only ever taken the exit.
When they got to the next elevator, Katie looked puzzled. Daniel tried to relax her with a gentle smile. "The first elevator is for the upper half of the facility. It takes this second one to get to where we're going." He explained. "It's much deeper."
"Are you trying to say you worked in Hell?" Katie replied with a hint of humor, and she could tell that Davis's two men, who were with them as well, were holding back snickers.
She could barely hear Daniel's reply as they stepped into the final leg of their journey down. "Sometimes it felt like it." Her smile faded.
After Daniel's odd remark upon entering the elevator, Katie found it best not to speak, and she quietly pondered what on earth could have possibly kept her father in the bowels of a mountain when she knew his heart truly lied in exploration and discovery. What could one possibly discover inside a mountain? Perhaps, the truth.
The elevator stopped, not at the deepest level from the looks of the button options, but close enough. The doors slid open and the man in the suit stepped out first, followed by Daniel and Katie, and finally the military officers. "Welcome, to Stargate Command."
"Stargate?" Katie mouthed towards Daniel. His face was full of nostalgia, and he gave a quick nod in reply.
"It was very nice to meet you Miss Jackson." Russell offered a hand, and Katie shook it gently in return.
"You too."
"Same here." James added and shook her hand as well. The two men then dismissed themselves.
"I need to report to the General, if you three could wait in the briefing room, he should be there shortly." The man in the suit turned swiftly on his heels and headed off to a small concrete stairwell that Katie wished she could inspect further. There were a number of people bustling around. And from the nervous energy she could feel radiating from them, something was wrong.
"The 'General'?" Daniel queried Davis.
The deep breath the man took was a fair warning to Daniel that something was about to be said that would upset his calm further. "That would be General Mitchell, Dr. Jackson."
Daniel's eyebrows rose above his glass rims before he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned in for clarification. "Cam…Mitchell?"
"One in the same."
"Paul, I think you could have mentioned this earlier." Daniel had never been keen on the military reservations about titles or names, but his turn about with this Colonel Davis made Katie back up a few steps as she studied the tension that was growing once more. But this time it was different. Something about her father was changing, right before her eyes. He wasn't quite the same somehow, as if a part of him was awakening for the first time in years.
"Well, in all honesty, he hasn't been here that long." Davis remarked before walking away. Daniel followed shortly behind. But Katie was just curious enough to head to the small concrete staircase that led up to the hustle and bustle she wanted to know more about…it looked like a hub of some sort.
But as soon as her foot began to hover over the first step, a hand grabbed her elbow. "No you don't." She rolled her eyes at her father as he put his hand on her back to have her follow Davis up a separate stairwell to a room above the one that had drawn her interest.
Now she was stuck between a very intense conversation that she was very out of the loop on. Davis was speaking over her head as Daniel came up the stairs behind her.
"How long has Mitchell been here?" Daniel pressed.
"For about a year now. He came in a few months before things heated up again."
"There's timing." Daniel grunted as they reached the top of the stairs and found themselves in a room with a large wooden table surrounded by a number of well worn leather chairs and a glass window that showed nothing but a steel wall. An office was attached to the other side of the room, but it was at an odd angle compared to where Katie stood and she could make out only the back of the man in the suit. "And he knows I'm…we're here?"
"He's the one who requested your presence."
"Both of us?" Daniel turned to Katie with an anxious fear. She seemed to be losing some of her tan already in the deep.
"No." The steeliness of the gaze from Davis's eyes and the stone tenor in his voice said enough. This General Mitchell knew Daniel, but Katie was going to be a surprise, in one way or another.
The tell tale whine of a metal door opening alerted them to the entrance of another person. The man in the suit quickly retreated back down the stairs. Before the door could shut, a man in service blues, minus the jacket, stepped out of the small office and headed towards the two men who now blocked Katie from sight.
"Jackson! What's this I hear about you having a daugh…" Mitchell stopped dead in his tracks. The last step he took gave him a clear view between Daniel and Colonel Davis, and right into the face of a tall dirty blond headed girl who stared at him with wide eyes. "Oh. My. God."
"Mitchell." Daniel greeted, but the man never even flinched in his direction.
"Is that…"
"Yes." Daniel stated boldly. "This." He reached out for Katie to summon her forward and stood behind her with a hand on each arm. "This is my daughter, Katie. Katie, I'd like you to meet Cameron Mitchell. He and I worked together for a couple of years before you were born."
"Mr. Mitchell." Katie greeted.
"General." Daniel corrected, never taking his stare off of Cam.
"Sorry." Katie whispered with a scrunched up nose.
"Daniel…" Cam's hand was raised, hovering in the air with the most bewildered stare anyone could muster. "She's supposed to be…"
"Here with me." Daniel interjected, shaking his head behind Katie whom he had obviously placed in front of him so that he could do so without arising any more suspicion.
But nevertheless, Katie could tell from the look in the man's eyes that it wasn't her unusual fashion sense that was drawing his gaze, it was her. She could feel his eyes grazing over her bone structure, her hair, and her eyes, piecing her together like a puzzle.
"Katie, are you ready to hear what it is I used to do here?"
A sigh of relief was emitted from the girl. "Yes! Please."
"Well, maybe this would make it easier." Daniel looked to Mitchell. "Could we open the window now? I think it will make things go a lot faster."
Mitchell's eyes were still wide, but he nodded in agreement. He and Daniel were going to have a very detailed conversation soon enough; without the ears that were apparently not supposed to hear. "Walter!" He barked into an ear piece that none had noticed at first. Daniel was getting used to such things quickly as the images came back to him, but Katie hadn't seen such sophisticated technology as far as she could remember. One of the hazards of growing up in forgotten lands.
"Walter's still here?" Daniel sounded surprised.
"What can I say? Man's good at his job." Mitchell replied as he tilted his head and gained a response. "Yeah, I need you to open the blast door. Let a little light into this briefing room would ya?" He nodded as if the person he was speaking to was in the room. "Thank you."
A steady growl began to grow, and the wall of steel outside the window began to move. Katie stepped towards it instinctively and Daniel followed to stand at her side. The steel soon disappeared, and Katie was left open mouthed with curiosity at the strange artifact that stood in the cavernous room below. It was surreal. So large, so strange. It was like nothing she had seen before.
"Wha…"
"That, is the Stargate." Daniel explained.
"What does it do?" Her eyes were still fixed on the device.
"Why don't you have a seat, and I'll explain it to you?" Daniel ushered her to the table, but she was reluctant to lose sight of the great ring. "I bet General Mitchell may even be able to help fill in some of the gaps…within reason." The last bit was a warning. Mitchell knew that he wasn't going to be saying much. He was okay with that for now though. At this moment he was busy studying the girl.
The description of his former life, at least what he used to do and the function of the Stargate, had taken longer than Daniel expected. Mostly because Katie kept making a face like a fish gasping for air.
"Katie?"
"Yeah?" She peeped.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Are you serious though? You've gone through that thing, to alien worlds!?"
"Well, it's not exactly on at the moment." Mitchell added. She looked at him quickly and then back to Daniel.
"Why didn't you ever say anything before?"
"I didn't know how to tell you." Daniel admitted. "There are a lot of questions that would have come up that I just wouldn't have been able to answer."
Katie shook her head. "I need to lie down."
"I think that would be a good idea." Daniel nodded to Davis. "Colonel Davis will show you to a room so you can get a nap in okay?" Katie nodded and stood, taking another good look at the 'gate. "I'll come check on you in a bit. I just need to talk to Cam for a bit." She nodded some more and followed Davis out in silence.
Daniel and Cam stared at each other for what seemed like ages.
"I thought she was dead."
"Who?" Daniel feigned innocence.
"I was told the baby died." Mitchell was angry, but open for an explanation.
"That's what everyone was supposed to have been told. Only three people know what really happened, knew. We wanted to tell you, but with everything that happened...I'm sorry Cameron, but it was impossible."
"Daniel…this is not something you can just…"
"What?" Daniel snapped.
"Damn it…Jackson." Cam got up from his seat with great haste and threw his hand on his forehead before waving it towards the stairs. "I just watched Sam Carter walk out of this room, accept the kicker is, she died eighteen years ago…giving birth; TO HER!"
A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your lovely reviews! I don't know why I came up with this one, but I did, lol.
Apparently I missed a metaphor last time, so this chapter you get two: Reviews are like friends, you can never have enough. Also, reviews are like jackets on a cool autumn night…you can live without them, but you're much happier if you don't have to. :D
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