We made it to Atlantis right on schedule. I was rushed from the jumper bay with all my stuff and led to a room. Thankfully Atlantis over looked the ocean so there were windows in my living space now. Before leaving with Beckett to go meet with Col. Sheppard, I gently placed the picture of my team on the bedside. The other things I would deal with later.
Sheppard was just like I remembered him. He was cocky with a bit of a rebellious streak in him. I think it had to do with his hair. He greeted me warmly. Technically I outranked him because I was a full fledged Colonel and he was only a Lieutenant Colonel, but I wasn't ready to tell him that.
"Colonel" he greeted me warmly shaking my hand. I smiled back.
"Sheppard" I said. "This place is amazing" I couldn't stop looking around.
"Yes it is" Sheppard said following my eyes up to the ceiling of the gate room. "We're just about to sit down for a meeting" he said "We'll get you acquainted with every body" I followed him in a large conference room. Beckett came with us. Sitting around the table already were several people. Sheppard introduced them one by one. Dr. Weir was first, she was a strict leader who I knew briefly from her time heading the SGC. Next was Teyla Emagen a local from a planet called Athos. Third was the largest human being I'd ever seen. Sheppard said his name was Ronan Dex another local this time from a planet called Sateda his arm was in a sling and he didn't look too happy about it. Sheppard looked around.
"Where is Rodney?" he said his voice full of irritation. Just then the doors opened and a man wearing a science uniform came through carrying a sandwich. "McKay you're late" Sheppard said his eyes shooting daggers at him. McKay shot a glance in my direction.
"Who the Hell is this?" he asked taking a bite of his sandwich and pointing at me with the sandwich.
"This is Col. Darrow" Sheppard said his voice a little exasperated. "She's taking Ronan's place on the team until he gets cleared by Dr. Beckett for regular duty again. If you read the memo you'd know that."
"I'm here to save your ass Dr. McKay." I said annoyed at him slightly. I heard snickering coming from almost the entire room as I said that and McKay unconsciously put a hand to his backside.
"We all know you need that" Beckett said clapping McKay on the shoulder as Rodney sat in the chair next to him. The rest of the meeting was pretty routine. Sheppard talked about the activities of the Genii and the Wraith.
I reported for duty later that week to find out that we were going on a recon mission.
"The Athosian intel says that there's Genii some where on the planet" Sheppard said. "We sent a MALP through and didn't see anything. So we're going to go check it out, because the intel also said there's a ZMP there." I nodded.
"Who all are you taking?" I asked as we walked through the halls to the gate room.
"The team" Sheppard said "The fewer the better for right now and we can always call in backup"
We gated to the planet. It was peaceful it looked a lot like the forests back home around Cheyenne Mountain.
"I'm not reading anything" Rodney said holding the life signs detector out in front of him. "The strongest energy reading is coming from that direction." He pointed to the north.
"Let's head that way then" Sheppard said starting off.
"Hang on" McKay said "I'm picking up some life signs headed our way."
"Genii?" I asked pulling out my sidearm.
"Can't tell" Rodney said.
"Let's split up" Sheppard said "Teyla you're with me we're going to go see about those life signs. Darrow you and McKay go see if you can find the ZPM. Keep radio silence if possible." I nodded.
"C'mon McKay the faster we get there the faster we'll be done." I was practically running through the woods.
"Well I'm sorry but we can't all be Olympic track stars." He griped behind me. I slowed letting him catch up. He opened his mouth to say something and stopped as we heard voices ahead of us. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I caught a glimpse of dark green through the trees. I pulled Dr. McKay down behind a tree and checked my side arm again.
"Is it Genii?" McKay whispered peeking out behind the tree. I pulled him back in.
"Do you want to get us caught?" I whispered furiously. I could hear the voices getting closer. I clicked the radio three times. Hoping Sheppard would understand what that meant. McKay had his gun out as well. McKay dared to look out again. That was a mistake because he found himself face to face with a Genii soldier. Another one appeared at my side and grabbed for my gun but I managed to fire it off hitting him in the leg. He swore and dropped to the ground. I turned to get Rodney and get the hell out of there, but he was being held by two other Genii.
"Where is Col. Sheppard" one of them shouted pointing his gun at me. I still had my gun pointed at them as well. "Don't be stupid" he said laughing a little "We have Dr. McKay here and I don't think you want him dead" I slowly lowered my weapon. My mind was racing, this was all too familiar. As I lowered my gun the other Genii grabbed it from me. He tied my hands up and then made Dr. McKay and I walk. We head back towards the gate. I was praying that Sheppard and Teyla would be there. I wasn't that lucky there was no one at the gate when we got there. The Genii had taken my radio and guns. McKay looked scared. I tried not to let the gnawing sensation in my stomach take over. The head Genii took my radio and turned it on.
"Col. Sheppard" He said into it. "If you want your friends alive you'd better come talk to us." He released the button and I could hear static, but Sheppard didn't respond. "Col. Sheppard" the Genii repeated. Still no answer.
"Do you really think he's that stupid?" I asked hoping to distract the Genii. "There's no way Dr. McKay and I are important enough to the mission that he'd sacrifice himself." The Genii chuckled.
"Maybe you aren't that important but I know Dr. McKay already." He said smirking. I don't know why but even as I was tied up I wanted to smack that smirk right off. I instead turned to Rodney.
"You know this nutjob?" I asked kicking a rock in his general direction. McKay recovered enough to speak.
"This is Farin. He's a scientist" he put a lot of scorn into the word scientist and I think if his hands had been free he wouldn't have put air quotes around it. "He's the one who was helping with the nuclear weapons they were working on a while back" I looked at Farin. My radio squawked.
"Darrow where the hell are you?" Sheppard's voice came over the radio followed by Sheppard himself as he walked into the clearing around the gate. "Well I guess that answered my question." Sheppard said. Farin was distracted by Sheppard and I had managed to get out of my bonds. I used the cloth they'd tied me up and put it around Farin's throat holding him from behind. Sheppard and Teyla guarded the other two Genii.
"There's more of us" Farin said laughing a little "You'll never dial the gate out of here." He was right because all of a sudden there were bullets flying around the gate. I shoved Farin away from me and ran to the gate. I started dialing Atlantis. Sheppard and Teyla started covering me and McKay started whining about his hands still being tied.
"I'm sorry McKay I would untie you if I could" I shouted as I hit the last chevron. "Everybody through" I said pulling Rodney through the gate with me. We hit the Atlantis gate room floor rather hard. Sheppard started pulling us up off the floor.
"Are you okay?" he asked untying Rodney's hands. McKay nodded. "That was some fast thinking Darrow" Sheppard said. I nodded slowly.
"McKay I'm gonna kill you." I said getting angry. "Do you realize you could have gotten us killed?" I took a step nearer to him and then collapsed. Apparently I'd been shot in the arm and had lost a lot of blood.