Chapter Four:

Whole New World

Drake paced before the star gate, his TAC vest zipped up and in place. He felt ready to face anything and yet, he could only hope he wouldn't make a fool of himself. The others around him whispered to themselves; he recognized several of them. The sergeant from the debriefing who had called the colonel out was standing there, laughing without a care. Sergeant Franks wasn't it? Drake thought to himself. An idiot like that would have to be watched. He doubted anyone smart enough to call out his own CO would be smart enough to survive in a wasteland or jungle or wherever the heck they were going.

Looking around, he also recognized that stern faced guy from the office before his own meeting with the Colonel. He noticed the insignia on his collar. Captain, huh? The others standing around were a mix of sergeants, corporals, and privates.

"I see you are all ready to get underway," a voice rang out.

Each man turned and saluted as Colonel Sheppard walked towards them, black pants, black shirt, black leather jacket, and a black TAC vest covering him with black military grade boots. He looked quite cool, in Drakes own opinion. Beside the colonel was the large male native who he had figured out just recently, was named Ronon Dex and was a member of the Colonels own personal gate team. He wore nothing outside of his usual brown leather pants, tan boots, brown cotton shirt and yellow black leather coat with steel buttons around the edge. A large gun, the likes of which Drake had never seen before hung by his side and he looked completely at ease standing just slightly off to the side of the Colonel, as though that was where he had always and would always remain. Drake wondered just how close the two were, but had no time to consider this as he heard the gate activate.

"Time to move out boys. On me."

The boys followed him, heading through the gate at his command. Drake was the last through and noticed the Colonel eye the control center, receiving a small nod from the expedition leader before smiling and heading through. Drake decided to think on that moment another time. For now, he wondered what would be waiting for them on the other side.

SGA

Sheppard stepped through the gate and instantly was on the other side. The planet was just as he remembered it; green meadows, a dark forest just a few clicks ahead and beyond that, the solo mountain of this region. It truly was, at least in his own opinion, the perfect survival course grounds.

"Alright, roll call, here we go."

Each member turned to him.

"Captain Ray Stevens."

"Here, Colonel."

Sheppard studied the Captain. He had a stern face that seemed to be lined with what could only be a sort of mental exhaustion and yet, looking into the captain's eyes, John had noticed almost immediately upon meeting the man, that he had a certain strength of character. John liked that in a person, especially a soldier under his command.

"Lieutenant Drake Rook."

"Present," the voice called.

Sheppard gazed at the young lieutenant. He had found Rook to be an interesting character. He could tell from one chat with him that he was a deep thinker, no doubt questioning everything within himself and yet pursuing on the outside, what he considered the best course of action. He reminded him, in a lot of ways, of himself. Somehow the kid hid his brilliance behind a calm and uncaring façade, but Sheppard could see he was already too deeply involved to ever pull out, even if he wanted to. His mind no doubt, wanted to know everything there was to know about Atlantis and its people. He certainly would be an interesting one this trip to watch, no doubt.

He continued on with the other names. "Sergeant Don O'Connor."

An elderly man, probably in his mid to late fifties, who seemed the perfect type of person to have once been a drill sergeant and with that thought in mind, Sheppard had looked into it and sure enough, he had been. He knew the man would continue this trek until the end, pushing the others along. He just wondered how much the old man could take before he felt it was too much…

"Sergeant Adrian Franks."

Sheppard sighed. Ah, him. The man who had brought up the Sumner incident. It was no accident he had ended up on his own team. He had specifically placed him there to keep an eye on him. Anyone who would ask a question like that, obviously, had much concerning team work positivity and common sense to learn. Sheppard would be happy to teach him a lesson he won't soon forget.

"Corporals Austin Price, Allen Beard, and Samuel Johnson."

The three were interesting individuals. Price had struck Sheppard as a person with a great sense of humor, a thrill for adventure, and a somewhat lacking serious side. In other words, the man acted like a giant kid in a darn candy store. Sheppard hoped this training might help him discover his own flaws and address them.

Beard and Johnson were two who he noticed right away to be quite close. They stuck together like glue. You could hardly see one in the hall without the other and while Sheppard respected that, he wondered what would happen should one become injured or die. Would the other freeze up? Would they be unable to provide the necessary defense their other teammates would need? Sheppard chose them in order to find that out for himself.

"Private Tim Wesley."

Sheppard smirked as he watched the private nearly choke at his name being called, his eyes huge and his weapon clumsily being nearly tossed down in a hurry to salute. He felt a bit bad about startling the boy, but he wanted the others, especially Ronon, to be aware of him. The last thing they needed in a survival test such as this one, was someone unable to handle themselves and quite possibly, cause others to fail along with him. He could only imagine it, all of them climbing a hill with Wesley at the top. Suddenly Wesley loses his footing and they all fall down, just like ring-around-the-Rosie or Jack and Jill.

"Alright," he called, deciding he had wasted enough time over-analyzing his new troops, "let's head out. From here until I say, we are jogging. If I speed up, you speed up. If I slow down, you slow down. Keep up with me!"

Sheppard started out slow, at a calm even jog. Ronon jogged beside him, making very little effort to take lead. Instead, the big man seemed quite content to go about this little jot at a leisurely pace.

"Interesting bunch of warriors," Ronon mused so only Sheppard could hear him.

John nodded, glancing at the eight behind him. They were definitely something, he thought to himself.

They remained in a leisure jog until Ronon alerted Sheppard that they were a single mile from the forest ahead.

"Pick it up boys!" Sheppard shouted and began jogging faster; still not completely running, but much quicker than he had been.

Behind the two, eight men seemed to be heaving with only the little jaunt. Those who had handled it rather well, looked pretty bored if their expressions were anything to go by, but John didn't want to wipe out those who couldn't handle it so early in the game.

"Stevens, Drake, Price, Beard, Johnson. Take up Ronon's speed and keep with him."

Ronon glanced at John and Sheppard nodding, a small smirk crossing his expression. Ronon's eyes seemed to gleam as he understood what the Colonel wanted him to do. With a speed ever increasing until the native was full out running, the five behind him attempted to follow with everything they had. Those who John knew couldn't make it, were watching with obvious awe and concern.

"Franks, O'Connor, Wesley, step it up!" he shouted, picking up his own speed, though not nearly as close to the full out run that Ronon was producing from the others. John only hoped the satedan remembered they were still rookies and needed some time to get their Pegasus legs muscled and ready to go before they would be able to keep up with the likes of him, or even John for that matter.

They had a long way to go.

SGA

Ronon smirked as he slowed his pace to a leisurely jog again, glancing back at those behind him. He had to admit, he was quite impressed with the five. Johnson and Beard had chatted nearly the entire run, even at break neck speed. Ronon knew that took oxygen and the fact they were still talking to one another even now, he thought was pretty cool. Price had been surprisingly silent, but he looked almost like he had taken a leisurely walk rather than a dead run. He sauntered over to a nearby tree, hiked his feet up and laid back, his hands in his pockets as he closed his eyes and cooled off as they came to a stopping point. Drake and Stevens, the only two officers of this crew he noted to himself, were both sweaty and slightly panting, but they both had a steel in their eyes that made Ronon remember the first time he had even met Sheppard. It was a look that tugged on his own warrior heartstrings…it literally played his favorite tune.

Not even five minutes later, Sheppard showed up with the other three. Ronon had to grimace in sympathy a bit. O'Connor looked tired and hot, but despite his red face and age, Ronon had to hand it to the man, with the shake of his legs, he seemed ready to go again.

The runner glanced at Franks and barked a silent laugh. The man looked to be dying as he leaned against a tree with Wesley, both of them trying and failing to draw large amounts of oxygen into their bodies. While Ronon might have felt sympathy for Wesley, he felt none for Franks. Let that be a lesson to him, for messing with Sheppard, he thought with a slight hint of distain.

Sheppard looked to Ronon as he always did, completely unfazed and yet he took was caked in sweat. Ronon grew a bit concerned. Sheppard had been ill recently and had only just gotten over the flu before they were told about the new shipment of soldiers coming to Atlantis. While John would never admit it, Ronon knew he was still exhausted from fighting infection and fever and silently promised himself he would watch the man, whether he liked it or not.

"Let's stop here for a break. Everyone take five and get some water and if you need it, an energy bar into your system. This is the first day of this test and I don't want anyone dropping dead on me yet."

Ronon knew it to be a joke, but the others, especially those who looked nearly dead on their feet already, seemed to take him seriously as they looked slightly horrified. Ronon could only snort and knew his laugh had been heard when eight eyes turned their stony glares on him.

Not caring about the others at all, he only had eyes for Sheppard as the man tried and failed, to hide an amused grin. Ronon felt his own smile widening at the sight and moved further into the forest in case he laughed again. He doubted the men would appreciate his humor at their distress and felt perhaps, it would be wise to not instigate any hard feelings, at least not yet until this course was at a finish; one never knew what could go wrong and if they didn't like him, they likely wouldn't listen to him, even in an emergency situation.

SGA

Drake huffed as he ran behind the Colonel and the native. He could see neither were affected by their mile long trek and inwardly, he wondered just how far they would make them run until stopping to make camp for the night.

"These guys…are insane," one of the other newbies whimpered out, his breath coming in short spurts, "We just…ran... miles… do we really… need to run…this entire…forest."

Rook recognized the man as Sgt. Franks and felt his sympathetic nature taking a backwards turn. He cared little for the man's attitude in this training. Actually, he thought to himself, his attitude in anything really. Rook remained silent and ran ahead of him until he was side by side with the Captain.

Stevens glanced over at the lieutenant but didn't say a word, hoping to conserve as much oxygen as was needed for the rough terrain and unknown length of time they would be jogging. Rook seemed to be doing the same as he also said nothing, but Stevens wondered what was on the lieutenant's mind as he kept glancing at him now and again out of the corner of his eye, unaware he had been caught doing it.

Up ahead of them, Johnson and Beard, still were chatting to one another.

"I mean, dude, like I read the stories a hundred times over. To think we would actually be given this chance, to even train with the legend, is just… wow, it's amazing."

It didn't take Rook or Stevens long to figure out who the man was talking about, their eyes moving from the two towards the front of their little procession, led by the legend himself and his fearless fighter.

"I know Allen, you have only told me like, a hundred times already," Johnson sighed.

Stevens wondered where he got the extra oxygen to even sigh right now.

"Well I am just excited," Beard grinned, "I wonder if he would let me have his autograph?"

Johnson closed his eyes, shaking his head. Beard just continued to grin like an idiot. All Rook could wonder, was how they were leaping and running through this forest without tripping over things like Wesley.

Speaking of which… Rook and Stevens, as though literally thinking the same thing, both turned and glanced back at the extremely stressed private at the very back of the group. The private was obviously struggling with this run more than anyone else. Stevens sighed and started dropping back towards the end of the runner's line. Rook, noticing and realizing why, decided to do the same.

"You can make it champ," Rook encouraged through a puff of oxygen.

Stevens nodded. "You got this Private."

Wesley just closed his eyes and seemed to try and run faster, but both men knew it wouldn't last long and were contented to run near him, their own jog slowing just slightly. Franks just ignored them as he continued to run, while Johnson and Beard were oblivious to the entire thing. Price smiled, but stayed his course and O'Connor, who was just in front of them, also sent a smile of encouragement towards the lad.

At the front of the group, Ronon and Sheppard shared knowing smiles with one another as they continued on through the forest floor. Perhaps, there was hope for most of this group yet.