Note: This is defiantly an AU. I will admit, I sorta change around the events in "Seige" to fit my needs… I would love it if you just kinda float with me on that…wink wink

THE CALM BEFORE THE…

Once a day, just after the department head's meeting; Dr. Mckay had a… sub-department head meeting… for lack of a better term. The leaders of the different science branches (and whoever else wanted to come) gathered in the large lab next to Mckay's office. Ah… Dr. Mckay,…what is there to say about him, He's an…well… an interesting person… to say the least…

"…we need to continue packing up anything that is not absolutely essential. Major Sheppard has yet to find a new Alpha site and the moment he does I want our equipment to be ready to ship out…"

Two days, that's how long we have until the Wraith are over us. We may not have an Alpha site right now, the Wraith had found our last one, but the evacuation schedule still stood. Those who were lowest on to totem pole were the first ones to go though, along with a few military personal to secure the place. I was the first outside astronomer Dr. Weir had brought down to Antarctica. When choosing the members for the expedition, she had chosen me to lead the small Astronomy team. I was honored, and amazed. None of the astronomers on Atlantis now had ever worked at the SGC, a few had unknowingly helped them, like I did. I was surprised at Weir's choice, there were only four of us, but I was sure that others had more experience then me; she said that she rather work with me than any of the others, that I was the most grounded. So I was in the middle of the evacuation line. I had to make sure everything, person and piece of equipment in my command got though the gate before me. My command… that sounds crazy… I never thought I'd carry responsibility like this. Granted it wasn't much, there was only three people below me and I never 'pulled rank' or anything; but still, more then I ever held myself accountable for.

I know Mckay was the head of science here… but he was always off world with Sheppard and Ford. And come on, he's not exactly the… pinnacle of civility. Most people, when they had problems, went to Radek. He's just…well... easier to get along with, to but it mildly. Physicists and engineers are both odd breeds though. There was friendly rivalry among the scientists on Atlantis, physicists, engineers, astronomers, geologist, the few chemists, etc. Everyone tried to prove they were the smartest, that they're department was the best. We all called each other names, played jokes on each other. We did band together though, to pick on the "Yes, Sir's" as we called them.

Today's meeting was short; Mckay had just gotten the go ahead to try and get the weapons satellite up and running again. Barely five minutes long, there wasn't much today, we all knew what was coming and what we had to do.

"Dr. Ashta," Dr. Zeleka called over to me as the meeting ended.

"Yeah," I walked over.

"Did you figure out the mysterious readings from the long range sensors?"

That almost caught me off guard, we were facing imminent destruction and yet we scientists were still curious about the oddities of Pegasus. We've been preparing for the attack for weeks, but we didn't come here to prepare for an evacuation. "Yes, just as I thought, they aren't artificial. It comes from the combination of a star going nova and the effect it had on a close by dark nebula. The reaction it caused was what we picked up. I'm not sure why Atlantis' systems didn't recognize it? Probably because it still don't have 100 power running to it."

"Yes… well none of us do," he smiled and jogged to catch up with Mckay again, he started arguing about going to the array in place of Mckay, fat chance, Mckay was far to stubborn to give in. I glanced quickly at the computer Radek had been working on, a simulation of Atlantis breaking up. Remind me not to be here when that happens.

We didn't have much to pack up… less then other departments. I had most of the equipment packed up as soon as I heard the Wraith were coming, mostly as protection, telescopes were fragile. Otherwise, our hard drives and other computers were ready to be boxed up as soon as we get the word to leave. My department was ready.

…oooOOOooo…

My own stuff on the other hand, now that was a different story. Everything I brought with me could fit in the one bag it was brought in, but I didn't have the heart to back it all up. Waking up my personal laptop, I took my Ipod out of my pocket and plugged it in, I was very happy that the tiny speakers the computer had were much more powerful then they looked. I needed music.

I'm glad that Ipods are so small, I was able to sneak it in my pocket when we left Earth. I couldn't hide it for long, we got here and I wasn't surprised to find out there were more then a few others who had done the same thing. I raided every possible piece of music I could get my hands on. I always thought that Apple was insane for coming out with a 60G version, why in the world would anyone need it, who in the world could fill that thing with music, 50G later I wanted an even bigger one. I even got a few hundred pictures on there too, reminders of what I left behind. I need music, I can't stand silence… okay that's not true, there are a few moments that deserve silence. For the most part though, music is always good, everyone around me has gotten used to the fact that I sing to my self constantly. Once and a while I get a bit too loud, "Em…. Singing…." I don't mind, I know I'm tone deaf.

The Bob Seger play list was coming to an end when Owen and Vivian knocked on the door.

"Hey guys."

"Food," Vivian said, "Come eat…"

"Just a sec," I pressed stop on my Ipod and was out the door. Dr. Owen MacManera and Dr. Vivian Dowson were two of the other astronomers on the expedition.

The food wasn't exactly something to write home about, I didn't really mind though. It had been early morning last time I ate. I, like most everyone else, survived on coffee. The meat on the menu was something from the mainland the Athosians hunted, tasted a lot like deer. I wonder if it looked like deer before it was killed. I slapped the hunk of meat between two pieces of bread, everything was better as a sandwich. The mess hall was fairly empty, around 9pm most people were done with dinner and back to coffee.

"The whole city's quiet," I said swallowing.

"The quiet before the storm." Owen said.

"No… the storm already hit." I smiled.

"The quiet before the invasion is more like it." Vivian said, shuttering under the thought. At least I'm not the only one.

…oooOOOooo…

wait, don't give up on me yet, exciting stuff starts next chapter, action action action!… it will be posted soon, cause it's already written.