Rodney arrived in the shed. He met the senior airman who had worked with him on the ship. Wlodarczyk was her name. Excellent technician. McKay was surprised, but proud, that he remembered her name. Certainly because he hadn't made the same mistakes he had made at Warren Horizons and his other jobs. Like not paying attention to his colleagues and not making an effort to remember their names because of his arrogance. He had decided to really change this time, not to disappoint Carter again. Nobody confirmed it, but who else could have been crazy enough to recommend him for this particular project? Besides, she had seemed pleased to see him again.
Wlodarczyk, carrying a laptop and folders, was leaving the shed with the rest of the personnel. "Good luck, Doctor McKay," she said with sadness in her voice.
"Good luck to you, too, Airman Wlodarczyk." Rodney gave a soft smile, to send positive vibes despite the situation. Then, he walked to the alien ship. He found in the flight deck Ford saying a few words to the pilot. Three storage boxes were near the wall separating the two parts of the ship. Patterson was in the cargo part with four nuclear weapons.
Ford noticed McKay and tapped on the pilot's shoulder. "Time to go."
The pilot nodded. General Mitchell had assigned Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Scott as the pilot for the mission. His training had been very short, however, the man had nailed it. Not surprising, he was an experienced fighter pilot. McKay used the co-pilot seat. Scott activated the microphone and said, "Control room, Digger 1 asking permission to take off."
xxxxx
The people following the procedure were in the control room beneath the surface. Doctors Adam Brody and Bill Lee were sitting at the control panel. Behind them, General Mitchell, Captain Galvez, Samantha Carter, and Akira Sakai. With Richard Woolsey's colleague, as rigid as him and also wearing a classy suit very contrasting with the BDUs and Carter's plus Sakai's clothing. Nobody could imagine that the latter two were executives of an international company. Sakai glanced at the UN lady discreetly, a bit surprised by the outfit choice given the circumstances. Like, nasty aliens were about to shoot you and you chose to wear a classy suit with heels? Not very convenient if you need to run…
Other people were in the room, focused on other tasks. General Mitchell looked at Doctor Brody.
"All clear, general," Brody confirmed.
Mitchell nodded to Lee, who spoke into the microphone, "Digger 1, you have a go."
Mitchell approached the microphone. "On behalf of Earth, good luck, gentlemen."
xxxxx
"Thank you, sir. Good luck to you, too," Ford replied in the ship.
The doors of the shed opened. Scott made the ship exit the facility quietly. Patterson joined the group. The ship left the base. The clear blue sky appeared in front of the team. The sun was generous. Colorado Spring was beautiful. The state of Colorado was beautiful. The layer of clouds they went through was beautiful.
The crew saw a cloud of shining points moving in the sky at a great distance from them. It looked beautiful at first. The crew quickly understood that they weren't just shining points.
Earth was beautiful.
Why were they realizing how beautiful Earth was the day they may lose it?