"He's cute."
Laura turned around to see who Katie Brown was talking about and saw that Captain Harkness and the Doctor were directly in their field of view, "Which one?"
"The one with the long coat on."
"The Doctor?"
"No the other one...the one with the dark blue coat. "
"It's called a greatcoat, Katie, and that's Captain Harkness."
"Is he seeing anyone?"
Laura slowly shook her head, not believing she was having this kind of conversation with Katie. The rumor mill had been buzzing since they arrived, but no one seemed to know anything about them other than they were a separate team that even Doctor Weir hadn't heard of until they showed up. And to Laura if that didn't speak special ops then nothing did.
"Oh come on, admit that he's cute."
Laura cast one last glance towards the Captain and was silent. Turning around, she slightly shrugged, "I guess, but he's not my type."
Katie smiled, smug in the knowledge that she had been proven right. "What is your type then, hmm?"
Cadman felt her cheeks heat up but before she could stammer out an answer Major Lorne came up to them and said nodding his head, "There's been a change in plans Lieutenant."
"What kind of changes?" Laura asked as she stood.
"You and Brice'll be coming along with me and the Captain's team to the outpost." Evan said, as he motioned for Laura to walk with him. He knew that she'd be happy; while they had resumed missions not everyone had gotten a chance yet and most people were getting stir-crazy. Evan and Laura had been through twice but for the past few weeks had been on Atlantis so they were starting to get cabin-fever themselves.
"The outpost? I thought that there wasn't anything there."
"Apparently McKay feels otherwise; managed to convince Weir so he and Colonel Sheppard are taking a team and coming as well which is why you and Brice are going."
Laura raised an eyebrow as they walked down the hallway, "Can I ask why the sudden addition?"
"Got me…it was the Captain's suggestion."
"Idiot!"
Jack turned around just in time to see Max throw a mallet at him and moved to doge it. The object passed with inches to spare and hit the wall with a loud 'clang'. "What?" he asked as he hesitantly looked at the livid women across the room.
"I thought that just Martha and the Doctor were going!" Max snapped shooting Jack a thunderous look.
Jack realized she must have found out how he "suggested" that they all go through the 'gate with the Major and his team. Moving cautiously towards her he tried to explain, "If it was just the two of them their reaction would've given us away, I figured that with us along we can smooth things over."
Max just continued to glare at Jack, "Well you figured wrong."
Jack was confused as to why the sudden change in mood; she had been fine until the Doctor had mentioned they were going off world and then suddenly she turned into her own special Mister Hyde. Grabbing her wrist before she could leave he asked, "What's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"You tried to take off my head back there, something's up."
"Going off world with them isn't what keeping a low profile is about." Max replied as she pulled her wrist out of Jack's grip and moved towards the hallway.
"But what's the harm? Since we're posing as a special ops team its not like we're gonna be mentioned in the mission report; especially since you asked that they not talk about us to the SGC." Jack argued, still following Max. "Besides, it's too late to back out now or it'll look strange and Weir already suspects something."
She let out a frustrated sigh while realizing she wasn't going to get out of going and that she might as well play along. Gritting her teeth she said, "Fine, but only because I don't want to blow our cover."
"Good." Jack said backtracking towards the Control Panel and picking up a pair of sneakers. Tossing them to her he continued, "Put these on; heels and grass suck if you're trying to run."
Max, still mad at Jack and feeling like being difficult, stuck out her tongue at Jack while playfully throwing another tool at him which he avoided just as easily as the first with a smile on his face.
"That was amazing." Martha breathed after stepping through the Stargate. Walking down the steps sideways, she gazed up at the large structure; it had been amazing to see it for the first time before they left and couldn't help but wonder how the Ancients had built it. Before joining the others, Max had quickly filled her on the basics of what the Stargate was and how it worked but that hadn't stopped her eyes from going wide when she saw it activate. Fortunately everyone was busy with other things so they hadn't noticed her gawking and soon Doctor Weir had given them the go ahead.
"Never gets old, huh?" Lorne asked, as everyone else started coming through the 'gate.
"Feels like the first time." Martha replied as she finally tore her eyes from it and taking a look at her surroundings, which weren't any different from Earth. They could be in some forest preserve if she hadn't known better; the trees, grass, and even the sky looked like it did back in Cardiff and even London.
As they walked towards the abandoned outpost Lorne, who had taken point, tried to figure out just who the newcomers were; they were unlike any SG team he had dealt with and that intrigued him. When they had been waiting for everyone to step through the 'gate Martha had been the only one of the group to seem stunned by the towering object, Jack and the Doctor had been slightly amused, while Piper had ignored the activating wormhole all together; focusing on the hustle and bustle of the room instead.
Out of the four Piper had been the only one to wear the tac vests that the Colonel had brought up from the armory; the others saying that they didn't need them. Sheppard refused to take them off world unless they put the vests on, but the Doctor assured them that they'd be perfectly fine without them. Hearing most of the exchange, Lorne knew that the Colonel wasn't happy that he couldn't force them to wear one since they weren't part of the military or civilian contingent on Atlantis, but at the same time he could understand that while the four of them were here they were Sheppard's responsibility as well as Weir's; even if they were here unofficially.
They arrived at the entrance to the outpost and Max watched as Colonel Sheppard set up himself in the outside to wait having left Cadman and Teyla to guard the Gate.
"Mind if we take a look?" the Doctor asked as McKay and his team headed into the ruins with their equipment.
"Feel free; just take Major Lorne and Lieutenant Brice with you." John replied, he expected this to be a relatively simple mission; there was no one on the planet, the initial flyby and another one before they left had shown no life signs in the area surrounding the ruins or on the entire planet. At first they had thought it odd, since normally if there was a Stargate or a surviving outpost that there would be some kind of settlement nearby but apparently this was the exception.
"I remember this place." The Doctor commented as he walked into the main chamber of the outpost. "Been here before, when they were just building this place. Don't know why they left it; had a lot of potential."
Rodney paused and looked up at the dark-haired man with a surprised expression, "You're an Ancient?"
The Doctor looked offended while Max and Martha started giggling with amusement and Jack looked away in order to keep a straight face. "Nine hundred isn't that old." he replied tersely, as he pulled out his glasses and started to read the text on the walls. "What exactly are you trying to do here?"
"We found mention of it on Atlantis, now we're trying to figure out what they used this place for." Rodney said as he glanced at the readings on his tablet. Looking back down at the panel in front of him Rodney glanced at the tablet again before pressing a few of the stone panels. Glancing up he saw the Doctor staring at a number of the glyphs with the kind of intensity that he got sometimes when there was a particularly challenging problem.
But before Rodney had the chance to find out if the Doctor could read the script he realized that the ground was starting to shake. Pausing he looked up to see that everyone else had paused in their work and was looking around for the source of the disturbance. Glancing at his tablet McKay's eyes went wide as the readings started to go haywire, "Oh, that's not good."
Evan paused in looking around the room when something felt slightly off and glanced over to see McKay looking troubled. By this time a loud rumbling started to fill his ears and Lorne made a snap decision. "Pack it up people, we leaving." He snapped as he grabbed the edge of a panel in order to keep upright.
At once everyone started moving; closing laptops, disconnecting wires, and putting things back into the crates they had been carried in. Fortunately the people McKay had chosen to bring along had been with the Expedition since the beginning so they knew that things could go from calm to incredibly insane in a relatively short time so there wasn't much time wasted by them panicking.
Max stumbled and was headed for the ground when she felt an arm catch her. Looking up she saw that it was Evan and immediately felt her cheeks heat up. "T-t-thanks." She stammered, struggling to get her balance back.
"Don't mention it, now get out of here." Lorne said, somewhat distractedly. Most of McKay's people had left but there were a few who were still trying to pack up, "Leave the stuff, it can be replaced."
"I'm sure that we can save some of it." Max argued, knowing that while they now had the Daedalus to bring in supplies, it still took time and that it could be months until they got replacements.
Lorne looked at Piper and made another split second decision, "Fine but only what you can carry."
"Will do." Max replied heading for one of the containers, stumbling a few times as she made her way over. When she finally reached one Jack had joined her and grabbed a handle while asking, "Have you gone insane?"
"Depends on your definition of it." She shot back as they headed towards the door. Just then they all heard a cracking sound and paused looking up in time to see pieces of the ceiling start to break apart and fall towards the ground.
"Look out!" Jack yelled, yanking Max back seconds before a chunk of ceiling fell right where she had been standing. He knew that they didn't have that much time until the entire outpost collapsed and that every second counted. Somehow the others knew that as well because they all dropped the containers they were carrying and started towards the door. It was slow going because now in addition to the falling fragments the floor was starting to break up so they had to be even more aware of their surroundings so they didn't trip and fall.
Max tripped over a large crack and started to go down. Stretching her arm out she grabbed the nearest body next to her and an arm clasped around her to steady her. Looking at her savior, she saw that it was Evan. Her cheeks heating up instantly, she gave him a faint smile despite the seriousness of the situation and wondered why she was suddenly acting like a teenage school girl around him. She knew the outcome of all this; why was she letting her emotions get the best of her?
She was pulled out of these thoughts by a loud crashing and broke his gaze in time to see an avalanche of rocks fall in front of the doorway, effectively blocking it. All of them stopping, they knew that their chance for survival had just gone from slim to none.
Evan felt his heart rate increase as he stared at the pile of rubble that now covered their only means of escaping this place. But before he could figure out what to do next, he felt the floor finally breaking up. He opened his mouth in surprise and just as they were starting to descend with the stone felt Piper reaching for his arm in surprise.
Just as suddenly as the floor gave way he found himself falling and Piper losing her grip on him. Glancing down he barely had time to process that the floor was rushing towards him before everything went dark.