Wow! You guys rock with feedback, I love it! Thank you! I wanted to be quick with the update. And I hope to keep it rolling. Thanks so much!
Geeky- Thank you for the uber beta! Even though these fandoms are not well known to you... you're the best!! I knight you Dame MVC.RO the First.
KipplingCroft- Thanks for the help as well!
Disclaimer: Not mine! Well, the writings are, but the characters aren't. :D
Chapter Six- We're In Space, Shawn! Duh!
For at least two full minutes, the three occupants in the Jumper shared a blinking and staring contest.
John finally broke the silence. "Uh..." He wasn't sure what to do next.
It wasn't their fault that they were there, he quickly deduced. However, it wasn't going to be easy explaining this... to anyone.
He was rapidly configuring ways to blame everything on Colonel Caldwell. It must have been some glitch in the Asgard beaming technology on board the Daedalus, since it seemed as though every person in the room had been beamed with him. John was at least thankful that the entire warehouse hadn't been beamed, otherwise they would have had to figure out what to do with that lunatic murderer.
"Guys... you alright?"
Shawn and Gus finally pulled apart.
Gus was quick to pat down his torso. "Am I dead?"
"No, you're far from dead." Actually Gus was far from everything. At least one million light years, or so.
"What happened? One second we were in a stuffy, smelly closet. The next we're..." Shawn paused to look around. "We're...in something that looks like a really nice short bus."
Gus gasped as he looked passed John. "What is that?!"
John turned his head to look behind him. "Oh that? That's uh..."
"That looks like lightspeed," Gus stated, his eyes widening.
Gus and his sci-fi shows. Of course he'd recognize something.
Shawn laughed, "Gus, don't be silly," but then he also looked passed John and gave a quick nod while raising a brow. "No seriously, it does look like lightspeed."
"We are dead, aren't we?" Shawn finally asked John.
"No, we're not dead," John sighed. "We're... just... uh in space."
And that's when Gus and Shawn shared a good-natured laugh. They paused briefly, but then started up again when they looked at each other.
John didn't crack a smile.
Gus cleared his throat. "No. Really. Where are we?"
John rolled his eyes. He knew this was going to be harder than he thought.
"We're in outer space." Hopefully that would work.
Gus walked past John cautiously. "That's not possible..."
Shawn stared at John for a few moments. "You work for the Air Force. HA! All a farce!" He pointed at his brother for a moment. "Are you a Cylon? Gus, help me out here... that's what they're called, right? Cylons?"
"Shawn, I thought you hated Battlestar Galactica," Gus said from somwhere behind John.
He simply shrugged. "Starbuck had dreamy hair. And besides," he refocused on his brother, "what do you really do? I don't think you're telling us the whole truth."
Oh, boy. This would be tough to clarify. "I am in the Air Force. And... this is going to take a lot of explaining, and since I'm not going to knock both of you out and make you forget what you've seen so far, I'm going to let you tag along and see for yourself." John took in a breath after that. "Even if I get into trouble..."
Meanwhile, Gus had been poking around the front area of the jumper, not paying the other two any attention. Shawn finally brushed past John to join his friend, and, much to John's dismay, eventually took a seat in the colonel's chair.
He watched horrified as Shawn almost pressed something he didn't want him to touch.
"Shawn..." he warned. If John had the ancient gene, it was obvious that Shawn could have it as well.
"No worries, bro." Shawn turned and grinned at his brother, while pointing at the DHD device on the front panel. "What does this do?"
John marched over and pulled Shawn out of his chair. "You'll find out soon enough."
Gus was staring mesmerized at the blue cosmic glow of the hyperspace. "We really are in space, aren't we?" he asked dreamily.
John nodded. "Yep. Technically we're in a different galaxy."
Shawn was about to open his mouth to discredit what John had just told them, but he seemed to know that his brother was telling the honest truth.
Instead, he continued to stare out the viewing screen with his friend. "The final frontier..."
Gus snapped back to reality for a moment. "March 15, 2003, Catalina Island... I know I saw something, Shawn. And you told me it was a kite."
"Are you now saying it was an alien kite?"
"No! It was a UFO. I'm sure of it."
"Catalina Island... wasn't that for the Plein Air Painting Exhibit?"
"Yes, but that's beside the point, Shawn."
While Shawn and Gus talked over ...whatever it was they were discussing, John was alerted on screen that the coordinates had been reached.
"How can a kite have flashing lights?"
"Now it sounds like a helicopter," Shawn said with a smirk.
John took it out of hyperspace and flew to the Stargate orbiting the planet and that silenced both his brother and Gus immediately.
They stared at the blanket of stars and the giant planet before them.
"Wow..." At least one of them said.
John entered the Atlantis sequence on the dhd panel and the sizable gate before them powered up with a blue explosion.
Gus and Shawn stayed quiet as they watched in awe.
John sped through the gate and before they knew it, they were on the other side, facing the gate room of Atlantis.
Over a series seconds, Weir giving him an affirming nod and a relieved look graced her features. The area around her seemed quite busy, something was going on that was for sure.
Weir, however, did notice another person sitting in the co-pilot's seat, but John was quick to depart upward to dock the jumper.
"What... just... happened?" This time it was Shawn.
"Well," John explained, glancing his direction. "We're here. And I'm still wearing flip flops."
"Where is here?"
John ignored him.
Gus had taken a seat behind John's chair, and he watched the colonel get up and walk toward the door in the back and open it.
John looked over at the two of them. "Are you coming? Or what?"
Gus and Shawn exchanged nervous glances.
"M-maybe you can, um... leave us here, and you can take us home whenever you're done," Gus replied. He forced a toothy grin.
Shawn stood up. "Uh, I guess we're coming." He looked over at his friend. "We're boldly going where no man has gone before..."
"I don't have time for this, you guys." John took off down the ramp of the jumper and Gus and Shawn cautiously followed.
John met up with Major Lorne who happened to be waiting for him along with two marines at the entrance of the docking platform.
Lorne gave a hurried explanation after greeting Sheppard. "One wraith cruiser and plenty of darts. Not sure how they found our location, but our ZPM is running out of power. We're focusing on two alternatives; use the chair the best we can or keep the shield up. But we can't do both."
John looked grim. "Is that so?"
Lorne nodded. "Doctors McKay and Zelenka are doing the best they can with..." Lorne looked down and saw Sheppard's outfit. "Sir, why are you wearing thongs?"
"Thongs?" Sheppard gave Major Lorne a weary look.
"Oh, uh..." Major Lorne smiled sheepishly. "Where I come from, that's what we call flip flops... Uh, sorry about that."
John sighed. "I was on vacation."
"Oh that's right, I..." Lorne looked behind the colonel. "You brought friends."
John panicked. For at least a few fleeting seconds during Lorne's briefing, he had forgotten all about Gus and Shawn.
John swiveled around and saw them standing there, not knowing what to do.
At that, Sheppard turned back to face Lorne and nodded. "Yep, that would be my half-brother, Shawn, and his friend Gus." He shook his head. "It's a really long story."
"I can see that." Lorne gave a brief hello to the two. Shawn smiled and waved and Gus merely continued to stare. Lorne then added, "We don't have much time, Colonel..."
John took in a sharp breath and turned to the two behind him. "Just follow me. We can figure this out later. And don't touch anything!"
Santa Barbara Police Department -- Milky Way Galaxy-
Lassiter had had enough of the tiresome explanation from the man sitting before him.
"So, you're telling me that you have no idea where the bodies are?" Lassiter narrowed his eyes. "You were the last one to see them, weren't you?"
The man in the seat swallowed hard. "I have no idea what you're talking about..."
Juliet walked into the interrogation room and closed the door soundlessly behind her. The man looked over at her nervously while trying to keep his cool.
Lassiter acknowledged and she nodded. "Prints match everything."
He smirked at Juliet and turned back to the scum in the seat who seemed overly frightened now. "We have enough evidence to throw you away for life, Mr. Matthews. All I need is a little information. Maybe we'll go easy on you. Shawn Spencer, Burton Guster and a John Sheppard have gone missing, and you were the last to see them... " He trailed off, hoping the perpetrator would catch his drift.
Phil Matthews stared at the two cops and then refocused on Lassiter. "Look, I'll tell you whatever you want. But I swear I locked them in the janitor's closet. I didn't do anything with them!"
"O'Hara, can I speak with you for a moment..."
Juliet, who seemed slightly distraught about the entire day, walked out with Lassiter and they stood in front of the one-way glass.
"I'm concerned about Shawn and Gus," she said finally. Her face was clearly etched with worry.
"Look, I have a feeling this is all part of Spencer's 'big plan'." Lassiter made sure to use hand quotes. "I mean, c'mon they can take care of themselves. And certainly the colonel big brother of his can protect them. If our guy here got to them, I know they're still alive.. He has them somewhere."
Juliet nodded slowly in agreement and let out a small sigh. "Well, we caught Phil after he stole John Sheppard's rental car from the parking lot." She motioned to the man sitting in the chair. "In fact, he's wearing one of John's shirts. He knows more than he's telling."
"Exactly," Lassiter said as he stared at their perp. "And puce is not his color."
He noticed Juliet's down-trodden face, and he did the best he could to comfort her.. "Don't worry, O'Hara. Spencer and his friend will show up." He smiled briefly. "We've got this one in the bag."
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Michelle- Thank you!!