Disclaimer - I do not own SGA nor am I making a profit from this.
Orla looked at the building before her, it was nothing special which was good as she couldn't afford special not at London prices. She rang the doorbell stepping back to wait for a reply. The door opened to reveal a woman about Orla's age, blonde, tall, willowy and beautiful. Great thought Orla, I'm desperate for a clean place to live, a job to start and now the Gods want to rub my face in it by making my new landlady a supermodel.
"Hello, I'm Orla Grant. I've come about the flat share?" she smiled hopefully at the blonde.
"Hey, welcome I'm Carla Butler. Please come in," Carla grinned stepping back allowing Orla to enter the flat. "It's a bit pokey compared with suburbs but I'm guessing you didn't think I'd have a tennis court?" Carla giggled.
Orla instantly liked Carla, she reminded her of Laura Cadman.
"If you've no tennis court I can't stay," Orla deadpanned.
"Damn," Carla replied equally deadpanned, both women broke into a fit of laughter.
"Okay, seriously. The place is small, I'm not always tidy, not to mention I can be forgetful. However, there are no cockroaches and I'm great to have a girl's night with," Carla chuckled, "No point selling it any other way 'cos you'll just leave. You got a guy? Oh sorry, you do like men?" Carla winced as she shoved her foot further into her mouth.
"I like men yes, Carla. I'm tidy so if I stayed I'd nag, so be aware. I'm used to small places. I'm guessing you're offering me the place 'cos you know I'll never borrow your favorite jeans," Orla joked as she looked up at a chuckling Carla.
"How about a coffee and look about before you take a look at the rental agreement?" Carla asked warmly.
"Yes please, I'd love a coffee," Orla answered knowing she'd found her new home.
Dr. Kovack scanned his laptop, no new emails from home. What could Kathy be doing that she couldn't drop him a line, tell him how the girls were doing.
Kovack tried to keep calm; the worst part of being away from home was not knowing what was going on. He picked up the USB stick and slid it into his lab coat pocket. He was tired, he hated Atlantis. It was never totally quiet; he wasn't used to living about so much water never mind the lights which were always beaming.
The only place he'd found private was his quarters and that was driving him slowly insane, he missed the little things in life. Coming home kicking off your shoes, switching on the TV. Grabbing a beer from the refrigerator and settling down to watch 'House' or catch a game. Waking up next to his wife, his kids laughter he wasn't going to be able to do this much longer.
Kovack left his quarters heading for the main lab, he didn't know what the day ahead would bring but he was sure whatever Dr. McKay had for him he'd not enjoy.
Colonel John Sheppard walked toward the gym, Ronon had a class. He'd be teaching the Marines hand to hand combat. This would be the first class since the incident in the control room that Ronon was involved in. Sheppard wondered if the Satedan missed the sparring or if he was still in the mindset to lash out. He was trusting the big guy, the Marines would be arriving for their lesson within the next few minutes.
Sheppard entered the gym and immediately saw Ronon warming up. "Hey buddy, how's it going?" Sheppard casually asked.
"Sheppard," Ronon responded coolly.
"You feeling up to this? Not planning on sending all my men to visit Beckett are you?" Sheppard joked half heartedly.
"I'm fine, can't promise not to send a few," Ronon replied, his eyebrow raised and mirth flickering about his face.
"Fair enough, mind if I stay and watch?" Sheppard asked breezily.
Ronon snorted in reply, whether he minded or not he was pretty certain Sheppard wasn't going anywhere. He wanted proof he wasn't going to use the class as an excuse to maim people. He understood that.
Marines poured into gym quietly talking amongst themselves. When the last Marine finally made his way to a seat Ronon started the lesson.
Rodney sighed as he finally made his way through the emails he'd received on the laptop in the main laboratory. Now for the urgent stuff, ha, he thought I seriously don't get paid enough.
Rodney scrolled down the notifications, yep not enough hot water that's life or death. Ahh Sgt. Matthias he read marked 'Desperately Urgent'. Rodney clicked on the notification. As it opened he read the first three lines and dropped his head onto the table and proceeded to hit it repeatedly, though being Rodney not very hard. Give me strength, I'm surrounded by morons. Rodney was near to losing his mind in sheer annoyance he clicked on the reply button.
"Dear Sgt. Matthias, Thanks for your 'Desperately Urgent' notification. Please note this is for impending doom within Atlantis walls, there is nothing I can do about the penalty and interest for filing your taxes late! Send another notification like this and I'll have Ronon Dex deliver my response… in person! – Dr. Rodney McKay."
With that Mckay hit the send button, his temper growing.
Rodney was about to give up and go find a decent coffee when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a very different notification indeed. Rodney's attention was completely taken by the notification, it was from… Atlantis herself. Okay not the actual city as it were but her data base. This was not good. Rodney checked the date, yesterday he thought. If he hadn't of gone to dinner with Jennifer early he might've spotted it, he inwardly moaned.
Rodney clicked the notification open and read it carefully. He quickly opened the draws of his desk looking for a USB Memory Stick. He couldn't find one, damn it he thought. Rodney sent the notification to his other laptop, currently in his quarters. The notification sent, Rodney swiftly got to his feet and raced down the hallway toward the transporter and to his quarters for the laptop.
Rodney retrieved the laptop, he activated his radio, "Colonel Sheppard this is Dr. McKay. Where are you?"
"I'm here McKay. In the gym with Ronon, what's up?" Sheppard demanded.
"I'm not sure, but I think I should show you something… just in case," McKay sputtered breathlessly.
"Okay. Rodney… you okay? You sound… weird?" Sheppard inquired worried.
"I'm… running to you," McKay wheezed.
Sheppard instantly worried, McKay and exercise usually meant a looming disaster. "What have you done McKay?"
"It's not me Sheppard!" McKay spat back angry at the Colonel's wrongful assumption.
Minutes later a heavily panting Rodney arrived at the gym leaning on the gym's door frame for support, "Sheppard," Rodney uttered wearily.
"Okay men listen up, take five. I need Ronon. Ronon, McKay has something we need to see," Sheppard ordered firmly.
The Marines instantly headed to their seats and water bottles, Ronon joined Sheppard as they moved over to the other side of the gym and to Rodney.
"What's up Rodney?" Sheppard asked as he and Ronon sat either side of the scientist.
"You remember me telling you that I'd set up a new notification system for urgent emails? I got one, okay I got a lot but this one is actually, well maybe urgent. I think," McKay babbled away.
"And?" Ronon stated not understanding why he needed to know this.
"It's from Atlantis, her data base to be precise. That's never happened before," McKay said wondrously.
"How's that possible?" Sheppard asked surprised at Rodney's revelation.
"I programmed the data base to inform me should certain criteria be broken or intrusions detected inside and outside of Atlantis," Rodney explained.
"There's an intruder?" Ronon snapped immediately preparing himself for action.
"No, there's no intruder. I said in the event there was one. As it is someone entered into the data base and made copies of information. Big deal I know you're thinking that Sheppard well it is. They made copies of classified information we've not even released to the SGC yet," Rodney exclaimed waiting for the information to make it's impact.
"You sure it couldn't have been someone nosing about and the alarms went off sorta thing?" Sheppard gingerly asked.
"No Sheppard, someone was in the data base and deliberately copied or downloaded information on sensitive data," Rodney repeated.
"Wasn't it encrypted?" Sheppard responded.
"That's another thing, it is, to a point. Any scientist over a certain level of clearance can obtain this information. Remember we're not on Earth. Who are we gonna tell? The Wraith?" Rodney moaned.
"What level of scientist?" Ronon tersely replied.
"My assistants and higher. Rules out technicians and the like," Rodney answered.
"Is there a trail of sorts? Can you work out who was looking at the stuff, like a footprint?" Sheppard quizzically asked.
"I was about to try but I wanted to get you involved. Could turn nasty and I'm too valuable to be hit," McKay stated earning a snort from the Satedan next to him.
"Okay, well, you do your computer thing and we'll go back to hitting Marines. Let us know when you get something we can use," Sheppard informed Rodney as he got to his feet quickly followed by Ronon.
"Ermm, that might be a problem as I need to be in the lab, this laptops good but I need to use my other laptop to do a detailed scan and analysis," Rodney awkwardly smiled and looked at his shoes.
"Fine, Ronon finish up here and meet us in the lab. Rodney you're with me," Sheppard announced as he headed for the gym doors.
TBC.... Please review