Chapter III: Barks and Rants

They slowly went up the staircase; Stella remained quiet while the guys made sure the Wraith wasn't following them. She was beginning to feel dizzy, then suddenly felt cold and clammy. She looked at Lt. Ford. "Do you have something to eat?"

Ford searched his vest and took out a power bar.

Stella looked at it askance. "Don't you have something else?"

"Sorry, no." Stella thought of her stack of granola bars in her room, which tasted way better than these power bars. She mentally kicked herself for not bringing any food. Hopefully someday I'll learn.

Then she heard Sheppard. "Beggars can't be choosers." Stella decided to ignore the remark and ate the power bar without complaint. They were now on their way to the transporter in the upper level. The pain on her back had faded a bit, but still made her move like a defective robot.

John stole a secret glance at Stella while she ate. He now felt bad, if only they…no if only he hadn't acted like a child having a tantrum, they would have gotten here before she got hurt.

Ford looked at the young woman beside him, now taking notice of her appearance. She was wearing sneakers, not the usual military boots. Her pants were the standard black kind, but she wore a black tank top that had the drawing of a squirrel with really big glasses and a needle stuck in the forehead; then the message, "My mom overmedicates me."

If it weren't that she wasn't looking good, he would have joked with her about it. But at least she was alert. He had noticed that she had gotten pale, but right before he could ask her if she was ok, Stella had asked for something to eat. He noticed that after eating she was looking down, maybe spaced out, so he decided to keep the conversation going. His curiosity about what happened with the Major would have to wait. "So… why did the US government want you to be here?"

Stella looked at Ford. "I have the gene."

"But you're not military or a scientist, and you weren't working at the SGC either. How did they find out?"

Stella started massaging her lower back, "Because of my best friend."

"How so?"

"He worked at the SGC, with one of the SGC off world teams. Apparently, he liked to collect a rock from each planet he had been, sort of a personal record. And one day I was in his house, I always knew he was doing something strange in his work. Because he was a soldier, what the hell does he knows about "Deep space telemetry"? So this particular day, I was looking through his weird collection of rocks. Most of them looked like common rocks; I thought he had them for some sort of weird decoration. One of them had a inscription, it was small, but nice, so, I picked it up and it lit up like a Christmas tree."

Stella stopped. She didn't like talking about her life, so why does she has to share it with them, but Ford pressed on, "Then what happened?"

"My friend saw what happened, and he started saying that he was going to get fired. One thing led to the other and next thing I know, Dr. Weir was in my apartment talking about the Stargate, aliens, and genes. Luckily for my friend he truly believed that the thing was just a rock, so the Air Force didn't punish him."

To Stella's shock, it was Major Sheppard the one who spoke next. "But how did they knew your gene was a strong one? There are a lot of people in earth that posses the gene. Somebody else could have lit up the stone and you wouldn't be needed here."

Stella was taken aback for a second, then replied, "I know what you mean, Major. I know I'm no scientist or a respected–" Stella emphasized in that word– "soldier, but the thing is that my friend had the gene and the stone didn't work when he grabbed it. I guess you're not the only one here by pure chance."

"What makes you say that?"

Stella smiled, and replied coolly, "Because if you had never sat down in the chair, no one would have discovered you were a strong gene carrier, and you would have stayed on Earth. Doing whatever interesting thing you did before coming here. That… would have made my life much easier."

Sheppard kept quiet. Bates felt it was a smart move, because he knew that if this went any further, Stella would give him hell.

They kept walking. The transporter they had used was far, or maybe Stella didn't realize at the time that she had walked, or run through this area before. Having a Wraith following you might impair your senses.

John was now feeling confused, he had tried to shut her up, but instead he was the one who got silenced. He decided to try something different, "So, tell us…what you do here besides walking around with a camera?"

Stella stared at Sheppard for a moment, but then decided to play along. "If some scientist needs a guinea pig gene carrier, well, I'm there. I don't enjoy it so much, so I spoke with Dr. Weir. Now on top of my work I'm in charge of laundry duty."

There was a mix of reactions from the three soldiers around her, Bates smiled, Ford frowned and Sheppard almost turned around to say something, but he seemed to change his mind at the last moment. The sight amused her; Sgt. Bates of course knew, but the other two…

Ford was now staring at her. "That's not nice."

Stella chuckled, "It's not as bad as it seems. I've always liked doing laundry, it gives me time to think. Besides it's better than hanging out with the scientists. Most of them think they're all so great just because they are scientists; it makes me sick. Kavanagh in particular, I can't even work with him anymore."

Ford smiled. Now this is intriguing, the thing with the Major can wait. "Why? Can't stand him?"

For a moment Stella wondered if it was wise to answer, then replied, "I hate the bastard. But I can't work with him even if I wanted to."

Stella noticed that Ford was now smiling; he was clearly enjoying this. "Why?"

"Because he said something to me, something really nasty, so I… punched him in the face. I lost control."

They had finally arrived at near the transporter. Sheppard went in and took out the life signs detector, making sure the Wraith wasn't around. He thought about Stella and what she was talking about; that made him remember that day, that damned day when their fight started. How he had practically run towards Elizabeth's office to tell her what just happened, he was angry… well angry wasn't the word, he was screaming mad!

Of course Stella had been called to a behavior meeting with Elizabeth and Sgt. Bates, but instead of being sanctioned, Stella had come out with Elizabeth on her side and a big "Well done, Stella." He thought for a moment and realized that it was that action which had started all this. Now he was saving her, then he heard her say something about losing control with Kavanagh.

He remembered clearly the day that Sgt. Bates had informed him of the incident, and then as he walked inside the transporter he looked at Stella. "Lost control? You were a maniac."

Stella felt as if she'd been slapped across the face. "No I wasn't!"

Now the rest of the group went inside the transporter, Sheppard replied, "You tried to cut off his ponytail."

Stella now looked at Bates who was trying to avoid her gaze – he had told the Major. She would deal with him later, but now more important matters beckoned. "Well… no one calls me an arrogant bitch that should be put down to sleep, and lives to tell the tale." Ford stared at Stella as if she was going to grow claws and would start attacking everyone. Stella felt weird with the look Ford was giving her, "Don't worry Lieutenant, normally I'm not like that. I don't go punching everyone who says something about me. I can control myself. If I couldn't, I would have punched other people already; maybe more savagely." Stella stared at Sheppard, he was clearly ignoring her by now, and Bates was now giving her a 'Drop it!' look. Sheppard scoffed and placed a finger where he wanted the transport to drop them off. But nothing happened, they didn't move.

They all walked out of the transport hearing Stella saying, "I told you."