Disclaimer: see chapter one
Bates had to say, to himself at most, that he was surprised, which was a relatively rare occurrence. They had actually asked for someone from the expedition to accompany them. At least now he had a valid reason for being with them, and getting to see where they had secluded themselves away in his own city, rather than doing some sneaky form of reconnaissance.
He walked down the stairs, after receiving the verbal go-ahead from Dr. Weir, and stood by Jet. He looked Jet in the eyes, and was even further surprised when Jet nodded at him, as though to give his silent seal of approval.
After carefully, but quickly, considering the possible meanings, he gave his own sharp nod, and then gestured with his head for Jet to lead the way.
He wanted to see how well this man did compared to his father in leading those who followed him. Hopefully he was better than Major Sheppard. It would be better for him to respect this man, who definitely outranked him, even if he didn't trust him.
He stood still as he walked through the doors, shocked by all the stares directed his way. Wait, they weren't directed at him, they were directed at the Colonel.
By the way their eyes were moving, their heads were shaking, and the gestures they made, he guessed they were communicating somehow, like how Jet had done back in the briefing room. He'd seen the Major, Dr. McKay and Dr. Weir do a similar thing, but he guessed that none of them were gifted with anything even remotely close to telepathy.
Suddenly four people broke away from the crowd, a set of male identical twins, who looked about twenty or so, a man with hair that looked like Dr. Zelenka's, and a boy who looked a lot like one of his sergeants.
They all went over to a small pile of crates, small in number but not in height. The twins lifted the top one down, and proceeded to carry it out of the room. The other two then grabbed the bottom crate, and followed behind the others.
A few of the others began to drift away from the group now, grabbing some of the smaller boxes, and leaving the same way as the other four had gone.
Soon enough, only Jet, Hex, and Shadow remained behind with Bates, who was standing now not in shock, but in slight awe, at how quickly and quietly the whole thing had gone.
Jet had stood beside him, watching the emotions cross the older man's face, but as soon as it was just the four of them, he felt it time enough to go, so that those in the briefing room could leave.
"Come on then Sarge," he spoke suddenly. "Places to go, people to see, things to do."
"Yes Sir," Bates replied, walking off.
"Bates?" Jet sharply exclaimed.
"Sir?" Bates stopped and spun around on his heel, facing the Colonel.
"First of all Bates, it wouldn't matter if I was a Lieutenant or a General, I would never ever want to be called Sir. Second of all, unless we're in the company of some of the high rankers from Earth, I never, ever, want to be addressed by my rank. And third of all," he looked around as though scanning for listeners, then lowered his voice, "How do you feel about bacon and eggs?"
"Sir?" Bates asked, questioning look upon his face.
"Bates," Jet drawled, just like his father used to drawl, 'McKay'. "What did I say?" An eyebrow raised itself.
"Sorry," Bates stated, subtly drawing himself upwards, like he used to do back on Earth when he was expecting to be reprimanded.
"Bates," Jet began, then stopped himself. "Jason," he started again, and the sergeant's eyes comically lifted. Jet turned around, and walked off slowly, pausing only when it seemed that the sergeant wasn't going to follow him, then started again when he slowly walked up beside him.
There was no way he was going to miss out on something like this, Jason thought to himself. How the Colonel had known his name, or the chance of bacon and eggs. Bacon and eggs was impossible to get in the Pegasus galaxy, unless you counted the meat they got from an off world trade agreement that Bates and his team had negotiated for, or the reconstituted eggs, which tasted absolutely nothing like eggs.
On a side note, Jason was extremely proud of himself and his team for that trade agreement, especially when compared to the fiasco that the Major went through with the Genii on, near enough, the same day.
He was brought back to attention when the four of them reached the transporter, and when the door slid opened, they all stepped inside.
Before anyone pressed a location, Hex spoke. "Do you swear not to inform anyone of the location of our base, unless there is an extreme emergency, such as a Wraith attack, Genii attack, or someone is seriously injured or presumed dead?" She spoke quietly, but nothing could hide the seriousness present in her voice.
Jason listened carefully. It seemed to be something important for them to be able to go somewhere without anyone knowing. But he presumed that they were doing it for the safety of all the children he had seen walk, sprint or run through the Stargate. Besides, they had given him a way out. But, presumed dead?
"Presumed dead?" His mouth uttered unconsciously. His eyes widened slightly the second he said it. Shit, a slight deviation in his carefully planned day, and his mouth was disconnecting with his brain.
The one whose voice sounded like Dr. Beckett spoke now. "Yes, presumed. In cases of extreme deprivation of necessary essentials, some of us are trained to place ourselves in a sort of stasis, without a chamber. It slows down our respiration severely, our heart beats at about one a minute, and our brain waves go extremely low, and are sometimes undeterminable with Terran machines."
She even spoke like Dr. Beckett. That was kinda scary. No, actually it was really scary.
"So do you?" Jet asked, his eyes scanning Jason's face. It was important that he did. It was important that they had someone to trust.
"Okay then, Sir," and at Jet's slight disapproving look, quickly changed his answer to, "Okay then, Jet." A smile beamed across Jet's face, and he turned around and faced the panel. He pulled out a side panel that Jason had never seen, let alone heard a rumour about, (and being the head of Security he heard many), swapped a few crystals around, pushed it back up, and pushed a location on the main panel.
Meanwhile, in the control room, two people simultaneously muttered, "What the hell?" even though it was in completely different languages. A flurry of keyboard clattering ensued, before Elizabeth calmly asked, "Gentlemen. Do we have a problem?"
Rodney just looked at the laptop screen for a few seconds before he muttered something under his breath.
"What was that Rodney?" Elizabeth asked, but she had a vague feeling what it was about anyway.
"I said, we've lost them. A command subroutine I've never seen before flashed up on the screen before we lost them though." Rodney explained.
"They knew we'd try to find them, even though Sergeant Bates accompanied them. Was the command Ancient or Earth based?"
"It looked like mixture of both, but many Earth languages used," came the reply from the other worker, seated at another laptop just across the way from Rodney.
"Can you decipher it?" Elizabeth asked both of them, even though she guessed only one of them would answer.
"How much time have you got, and how many linguists did we bring with us? Elizabeth, I spotted at least ten different scripts, Ancient, Chinese, Egyptian, I'm pretty sure I spotted a bit of Greek in there. The point is, they know us, and what resources we have. In about a weeks time, I might be able to give you the basics of it, but that's all." Rodney's pessimistic nature strikes again. A look of horror worked its way across his face. "Elizabeth, they'll have lived here, grown up here, with all of us. Think what they could know about us, about what each one of us can do. If they decide to lock us out of certain places or systems, there'll be nothing we can do about it."
A look of horror spread across nearly everyone faces, and Elizabeth could see people putting password locks on their computers, or even changing the codes.
"Like you said Rodney," she began abruptly, annoyed slightly with Rodney and all the others, "They know us. They know what we're like. They're trying to trust us. Obviously something severe has happened to them to come through the gate without any of us with them. So perhaps we should extend the same courtesy towards them. Besides, as you also said, they've lived here their whole lives. Think about what that could mean Rodney. They know about all the places we'll go to, about the Wraith, about everything that's in Atlantis. Hell Rodney, they might even know where we can find some ZPM's."
Smiles and looks of hope began to spring up around the room, even as looks of bashfulness crossed the faces of others who had been messing with their computers.
"Think of them as allies, Rodney. They come from us," she stated as a slight blush rose across her face, then a reciprocating one from Rodney who figured out what she had been talking about. Only those who had been in the briefing room understood, those who had been left outside just shared questioning looks with each other. Elizabeth knew though, that by tomorrow, everyone would know.
"From all of us," she continued, looking about the room. "They know why we're here, exactly what we are all fighting for. And no matter what happens, we have to remember that they truly are the children of Atlantis."
Authors Note: I tried my best, but I wasn't entirely sure how the control room scene worked out. Let me know, okay?