CHAPTER TWO - BE CAREFUL OUT THERE
"Be careful." Dr. Elizabeth Weir's parting words followed Jumper One as it disappeared into the event horizon once again. She repeated them again silently to herself as the rippling blue winked out and a team of scientists moved in on the MALP that remained.
When she had first learned of the possibility of leading a team of scientists to Atlantis she had been beyond thrilled – it was a dream come true. Of course, she had known that there would be risks; she had been involved in the Stargate project long enough to know that things sometimes went wrong. But out here, in the Pegasus galaxy, wrong took on a much more ominous tone. There were no powerful allies to back them up; there wasn't even a supply line to replace things that they'd previously taken for granted.
That Major Sheppard's team had found a structure that seemed to have been built by the Ancients, combined with McKay's discovery of a potential new energy source should have filled her with hope. Instead, taken along with the strange alarm, she found the situation mildly disturbing.
Grodin had uncovered a text related to the system the alarm had activated and managed to mute the audible portion of the signal. But when Jumper One had activated the gate after having been gone for less than twenty minutes, the city's systems had again reacted. She needed answers as to why, and she needed them right away.
"What's happening?" Rodney demanded impatiently from the seat directly behind Sheppard. They were on approach to the hexagonal shape and there was no response in the louvered circle in the side of the building. On Atlantis, the docking bay doors would have long since opened.
The shuttle closed a few more meters and still nothing. This was all taking far too long. Worse, Rodney was torn between potential projects and at present left to twiddle his thumbs, unable to work on any of them.
His mind flitted to the odd alarm back on Atlantis. That Grodin had discovered a text was terrific, but they'd only been able to understand one in ten of the words it contained – if they could even be called words. Someone needed to get to work translating it. Rodney knew he was the best man for the job. It was the price he paid for being the most universally necessary member of the expedition.
But, to add insult to injury, there was the matter of the photo-electric granules that he'd discovered. It had been all he could do to turn them and the MALP over to Zelenka after the jumper had set down right in front of the gate. He'd gotten in as many instructions as he could while Markham and Stackhouse had come aboard as security back up.
And now, the grand daddy of them all was what looked like a perfectly preserved Ancient outpost, and they were stuck outside of the building like a bunch of inept tomb robbers.
"Major . . . ." Rodney reminded the Air Force officer that he hadn't answered his question, nor made any progress. There was far too much to be learned for them to keep dawdling around.
"I'm working on it, McKay," Sheppard responded and made an annoyed gesture with his hands. "On Atlantis the computers took control on approach – that isn't exactly happening here."
Rodney released an exaggerated sigh. "Do I have to remind you of everything? Remember Ancient technology usually has a telepathic component."
"How could I forget?" Sheppard shot back after making a motion on the control panel with his hand. The jumper rose up and away from the surface and began a wide arc.
"What are you doing?" Rodney demanded, a sudden worrying thought entered his mind. Surely the man was going to blast their way into the docking bay. That could cause all sorts of problems. Besides, if the docking process was different from that of Atlantis, that was important information and needed to be recorded.
"I'm taking another pass if you don't mind," John replied to his question. "I want to try something a little different this time."
"Are you sure that you were thinking the right things? What are you concentrating on?" Rodney wanted to know although he had to admit that it was a rare case when Sheppard didn't beat them all hands down on managing the mental component of Ancient tech.
"It's pretty damned difficult to concentrate on anything when you keep distracting me," John shot back.
"Fine," Rodney responded, miffed that the major had a point. Holding back a burning comment, he resigned himself to observing the energy fluctuations on his hand held device.
John tried to put all else out of his mind as the jumper slowly approached the side of the building. He allowed it to continue until it was hovering within a foot of what they thought to be the entrance. The dark slate colored doors filled the view screen and remained stubbornly closed.
Open sesame, he tossed the thought toward the door irreverently. Still nothing.
But as he sat there staring at the surface, an inkling of a thought began in the back of his mind.
"Major. If you – "
John startled physically. "Rodney!" He spun toward the impatient scientist. "Would you cut that out, please!"
Rodney mumbled something under his breath and then sank back into silence.
"Thank you," John said, and blew out a breath to release pent up tension as he turned back to the viewer. The doors remained mockingly motionless. Resettled in the seat, he studied the portion of the building before them. There had to be a way in.
The location was remote, and didn't appear to have much in the way of defenses – no shield had prevented them from approaching. The only real thing in the location's favor was that it partially hid the building beneath those strange bits of moon sand, which also served to hide the base from scanning equipment. The only other security measures that he thought the Ancients might have taken, were gene related. Since only someone with the gene could fly a jumper, then logically a jumper should be allowed in. So why the hell wasn't this working?
But maybe . . . . Something tickled at the back of his mind, and he found himself allowing his eyes to drift closed. He focused mentally on the door, visualized it there in front of him. He could almost feel the cool surface against his palm. He imagined it opening at his touch just as any door on Atlantis might, only the image in his mind had a hazy, far away feel to it.
The hazy-ness began to coalesce into a filmy form. It was round-ish with a diamond shape in the middle and something that might have been . . .
"You did it!"
Ford's voice broke his concentration and his eyes flew wide. The reality of the bay doors in the process of rotating open seemed almost harsh to his corneas. He blinked and focused at the shadowy darkness beyond.
"I did do it!" John replied, astonished. The jumper began to move forward of its own accord, its lights revealing the outline of narrow walls on both sides and a more solid one dead ahead.
"Hooray for you," Rodney commented insincerely. "Now if you could share what you did, for the record?"
"I took your advice and thought good thoughts." John couldn't resist replying as the jumper began to descend into what he figured was the jumper bay proper.
"Really? Good thoughts? What good thoughts exactly?"
"Good thoughts that involved complete silence and no nagging astrophysicists."
"Ha. Very funny. See my cracking up."
John rolled his eyes. "I just visualized the doors opening and they opened," John shrugged – it was no big deal. He'd never admit to feeling a little dazed by the fact that his efforts had worked. Despite all of the systems he'd touched and concentrated on and thought at after his arrival in the Pegasus galaxy, there had been something very different about the way that bay door had responded to him.
"That's all?" Rodney asked.
"That's all." John kept his expression neutral.
"Well, that's . . . good to know." Rodney seemed disappointed.
"Don't worry, Rodney. We'll let you do the next one," John teased.
"Wow. Gee. Thanks." Rodney replied. "My heart's all a flutter." Then, without pausing for a change of thought, "Does this column seem longer than the one on Atlantis?"
A heads up display appeared before them. John couldn't be sure if it was Rodney's thought or his own that caused it. "I'd say a lot longer," John agreed after getting a look at the readings.
"So we are currently beneath the surface?" Teyla questioned.
"Way beneath the surface," John confirmed.
"I wonder why?" Rodney voiced the question thoughtfully just as the jumper seemed to clear the column and enter into what appeared to be a much smaller version of Atlantis' jumper bay. It looked to be capable of docking two jumpers. One of the bays was occupied.
"I wonder if anyone is home," John countered.
"There are no signs of life," Rodney said. "What would make you think –." He broke off just about the time John figured he looked up and out of the view screen. "Oh . . . ."
"Yeah – oh."
"I wonder if it's any different from ours," Ford put in.
"Why would it be any different?" Rodney responded.
"Well, because they left it here alone." Ford stood his ground.
"Actually that's a pretty good point," Rodney admitted. "The Atlantis gate is the only one that led back to Earth. And presumably any Ancient would have been able to fly a jumper – so why would they have left it behind?"
"Well, why don't we find out," John suggested, activating the command to open the rear hatch. All indications showed that there was breathable air outside, and they'd find no answers to any of their questions as long as they remained in the jumper.
"Markham, Stackhouse," John called as he headed toward the ramp. "Stay with the jumper." He made a small gesture toward the other vessel that was parked beside them. "Both of them. We'll maintain open radio contact and check in every twenty minutes."
"Yes sir," the two young men replied, as Sheppard and his team started toward the only exit they could see.
(to be continued tomorrow)
