Author's Note: Sorry that it's been so long since the last update folks! Summer turned out to be WAY busier than I had planned.
It was hard to hear much over the alarms, but Sam distinctly heard Cam mutter, "What the hell?"
Silently agreeing with the sentiment, Sam pushed her chair back from the table and quickly made her way to the intercom panel on the wall. "Colonel Carter to the bridge," she stated as she held down the button. "What is the situation?" She lifted her finger away, listening for any reply over the wail of the alarms. "Repeat," she said when none came, "this is Colonel Carter. What is going on?" Once again, there was no response. Well crap.
"Ma'am," Sergeant Peters' voice was raised to make herself heard over the noise. Sam turned to find the young woman had moved from her post by the door and was standing three paces away, her hand pressed to the radio in the pocket of her black vest. "Ma'am, the prisoner has escaped."
Of course he has, Sam thought to herself. Just when her day couldn't get any worse… Snap out of it Carter! There were times, like now, where her internal voice sounded very much like a certain Major General. You've beaten hordes of those vampires before. What's one more?
"Okay," Sam said to herself. Fortunately, this wasn't the first time that she'd been in a similar situation, and this time there were no Replicators or Ori ships to deal with. Unfortunately, there was a Wraith loose on her ship, plus two untrained civilians that she had to worry about. One step at a time, Carter, she reminded herself. Even as she was thinking it, she headed for a panel on the wall and disabled the speaker circuit. The blaring alarms silenced, she turned back to the rest of the people in the room.
"It can't be that easy to turn off the alarms," Castle stated.
"I just disabled the speakers," Sam confirmed, mentally splitting the people in front of her into groups. "The Wraith has escaped," she explained, "and has apparently managed to gain control of the ship."
"We need to get the main computer back under our control, then," Daniel spoke up.
"And get that vampire back where he belongs," Cam added.
Sam nodded. "Sergeant Peters, Vala and I will head for the computer core and get back control of the ship. Cam, Daniel, Teal'c, and Carson will go after the Wraith."
"What about us?" Castle asked, motioning to the detective and himself.
"You stay here," Cam said before Sam could answer.
The novelist began to protest, but was overridden by the detective's simple, "No." Sam smothered a smile at Cam's hiked up eyebrow. "Jones is still my suspect," Detective Beckett continued, "and I intend to see this case through to the end." Her tone brooked no argument, not that Sam would have protested. She'd reviewed the detective's file once the scope of this…experience became clear, and had come to the conclusion that if the other woman had been part of the military she would have been assigned to the Stargate program.
"Detective Beckett," Sam spoke up now, "will go with Cam's team to recapture the Wraith."
"What about-" Castle began again.
"Mr. Castle willstay here," Sam finished, giving the man her best command stare.
"I'm really, really bad at following those directions," he replied, completely unfazed.
"He is," the detective confirmed.
"Colonel?" Sam turned towards Carson. "I could use Mr. Castle's help."
Sam dearly wanted to ask the question 'to do what?' but refrained. She had learned over many years to trust the people under her command, even when they offered ideas that didn't necessarily make sense. Plus, Carson had just given her a way to defuse the problem and get everyone moving to deal with the crisis.
"Okay," she nodded in agreement. "Everyone understands what they're doing?" Nods all around. "Then let's get moving." She led the way over to a panel on the wall, opposite the still-closed and now-locked door to the corridor. Popping open the small panel, she deftly rewired a circuit within, causing a small door to open next to her. "My team will go first, then Mitchell's. Let's make this quick, folks." Without looking back, she squeezed into the crawlways that ran behind the walls and between the floors of the Hammond, crawlways that would allow her and her team to take back the ship.
The crawlways were tight and they were on the clock, so Sam merely headed for the armory one deck up from the computer room and trusted that Vala and Sergeant Peters were keeping up with her. The alarms, muted in the crawlways, were deafening once Sam opened up the panel on the appropriate floor. A quick glance showed no one nearby; given the time of day Sam suspected that most crew had been isolated at their duty stations or possibly the mess halls. Years of habit die hard, though, and Sam still took a thorough look around as she emerged from the tiny space.
The visual sweep confirmed what she'd already noted. She turned back to the hatch as the young sergeant emerged followed by Vala and… "What are you doing here?"
Richard Castle flashed a nervous grin. "It was an accident?"