Anna sat alone at a table in the commissary eating breakfast the next morning. Some lieutenants at the table next to her kept making quiet catcalls to her, thinking she was just another civilian working on their base.
She glanced over at them and raised her eyebrows.
"Is there a problem Lieutenants?" she asked.
"No, but if there was what are you gonna do about it?" one of them sneered. Colonel O'Neill saw the exchange going on as he got his own breakfast and he wandered over to them. He looked at Anna,
"Everything okay Captain?" he asked emphasizing her rank. The two lieutenants eyes widened and both got up making up excuses to go, leaving the commissary.
"Yes sir" she answered smiling at the retreating forms of the lieutenants. "Thanks" she said politely. Noticing he was still standing, she invited him to sit down. He accepted and sat down digging into his bacon and eggs.
"So where'd you come from?" Jack asked when he finally came up for a breather from his food.
"I'm not at liberty to say sir," she said rolling her eyes at the formality of her answer.
"Oh…well is there anything that you can say about where you came from?" he tried.
"No not really" she said shrugging her shoulders. They fell into a comfortable silence.
"Good morning sir, mind if I join you?" Major Carter asked walking up to their table with a plate of food and a drink.
"Sure Carter" he replied.
"Major Samantha Carter, Captain Connor" Jack introduced the two women.
"Hi" they both said simultaneously, causing both let out a small laugh.
"Freaky" Jack muttered.
"So what do you do?" Carter asked Anna ignoring Jacks comment.
"I'm an archaeologist, linguist, blah, blah, blah… nothing too interesting, how 'bout yourself?" She asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"Astrophysicist." Sam answered.
"Impressive. That must mean you're the smartest person on the base then?" Anna said smiling, testing her boundaries with her superior officer.
"Oh… no, I- "
"Yeah she is." Jack put in interrupting her. Major Carter looked flustered for a moment, but then turned her attention back to the woman across from her while beginning to eat her meal.
"Have you met Doctor Jackson yet?" Sam asked.
"Yes, he took me on a tour of the base yesterday." Sam nodded.
"Speaking of Doctor Jackson, I am supposed to meet him now, see you later" Anna addressed her superior officers.
~~~
"Daniel?" Anna called as she entered him cluttered office.
"Over here" a voice replied from behind a book shelf, "I'm just looking for something… ah ha! There it is… what can I do for you?" he asked pushing his glasses up on his nose, while holding a thick hardcover book.
"I was supposed to meet you and you were going to get me set up with what I'm supposed to do around here, remember?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Oh right, sorry I forgot, I'll show you your office and then explain how our computer system works, with all the languages and such." He said with a smile. He led her to a fairly empty office, furnished with two huge bare bookcases, a few filing cabinets and a fairly large desk, with a computer, scanner, and printer on a table beside it forming an 'L' shape.
"Guess you'll want to bring some of your own stuff in to 'decorate'" He commented.
"Yeah," she nodded. Too bad I won't be here that long if everything goes as planned though, she thought. She was beginning to like the people who worked here. It wasn't like any other military base she had been on before. For the most part the people in the SGC were almost like family and Anna found it to be nice change from the typical hard-assed bases she'd always been around.
"So, Daniel, how long have you been here?" Anna asked making conversation.
"Uh, about five years I guess, seems like longer though" he said turning on her computer and logging into the system.
"What about you?" he questioned. Turning to look at her briefly. His warm, somewhat innocent blue eyes looked into her mysterious, seemingly worldly green ones. Anna cracked a cocky smile,
"Me? I've been here about a day." She said sitting on the corner of the desk, close to Daniel, so she could see over his should to the screen as he typed some passwords in to get into the archaeology section of the files.
"Have you been around the military your whole life?" he clarified.
"Yeah, pretty much" she answered back.
"Your family in the military?" he continued to pry, turning to look at her again, this time staying turned around her waiting for an answer.
"Something like that" she answered cryptically and focussed her attention on the computer screen. "Is that it?" she asked pointing to a file that just opened on the monitor, gladly changing the subject.
"Yes, here why don't you give getting into it a try" Daniel suggested, as he closed all the files he had opened. Anna sat in the seat that Daniel vacated and she purposely clicked on an icon that was labelled SGC.
"Oops" she said innocently, "what's this program for?" she asked curiously
"It's just all SGC personnel's personal files, and it also gives the user access to security cameras around the base, but you need special passwords for it that only a select few have" he pushed his glasses up on his nose again.
"But what if people hack into it?" Anna frowned at the screen. This could be a major security breach, she thought.
"Oh, only a few people have those icons on their computers, and it's mostly those who have their own offices that can be locked."
"Oh," she replied, biting her lower lip thoughtfully.
"So why do I have it on mine?" she asked.
"I guess you have the right clearance and the 'powers that be' feel you can be trusted with that kind of information," Daniel said.
"Who else has this open to them?" she wondered out loud to him.
"Um…I think it's just General Hammond, SG1, except Teal'c because he is an alien, a couple doctors and maybe one or two other people, but that's all." Anna nodded again and Daniel frowned slightly wondering why his colleague was asking so many questions. Guess she's just thorough, he thought to him self.
"Well I'll leave you to it, I've got quite a bit of work to do" he dismissed himself.
"Coffee in the commissary in a few hours?" she called as he walked through the doorway.
"Sure" he replied, smiling kindly.
As soon as he was gone, Anna turned back to the computer and began going through each persons file, noting anything that seemed unusual or even fake as the case may be.
"Adams… Agar… Albert… Alexander…Allen…Anderson…" Anna was quickly scanning over mission reports, and personal and medical files. "…Avery… Bac- wait a minute," Anna muttered as something on Lieutenant Ryan Avery's file stuck out in her mind.
"Operation Dark Hawk?" she questioned inwardly, "Yeah I'm sure buddy, I was there, and you sure as hell weren't" she raised her eyebrows at his picture. It was one of the men that had been bothering her in the commissary earlier. Anna left her office and went to the elevators, making her way up to the surface. Telling the guard she was going out for a cigarette, she climbed to a secluded treed area on the side of the mountain and pulled out a satellite cell phone. She punched in a phone number and waited for a few rings until someone picked up.
"Hey, it's me" she said, periodically looking around to confirm she was alone.
"I thought you said no contact," the gruff voice said on the other end.
"Yeah well I need you to get a team together and come here, I want you to search, top to bottom, a Lieutenant Ryan Avery's home, and find everything you can on him okay?"
"You're the boss," replied the voice. "I'll get the boys together and we'll be there by tonight."
"Good, call me when you've got something." She turned off the phone putting it back in her pocket and ventured back down the mountain. Maybe her job wasn't going to be too hard after all.
TBC…
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