Chapter 7: Back to F.N.G
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
12:10 P.M
"You must have a purpose for bringing me here," Alexeyeva said to Carter.
"Of course I do," Carter replied, smiling.
The two continued down the hall, back tracking up stairs to the briefing room.
"The U.N wanted the SGC to include them for off-world activities." Carter began. "Diplomatic missions, mining operations, that sort of thing,"
"And what about the other P-5 nations?" Alexeyeva asked.
"The U.S and Russia have been operating the Stargate program for quite a while but China, France and the U.K had only begun about nine years ago,"
"Wait," Alexeyeva cut in, not believing the General's words.
"Did you say both the U.S and Russia have been operating missions through the Stargate, General?"
Carter nodded.
Alexeyeva couldn't say more as she was still stunned by shock and disbelief that her own country knew about this all along.
"Where are we going now?" Alexeyeva asked.
"I want you to meet someone," Carter replied, opening the door to her office.
Once inside, Alexeyeva and Carter found a man standing before the desk, waiting for the two to return.
"Lieutenant Colonel, this is Lieutenant General Kerrigan," Carter said, introducing the two.
"Sir," Alexeyeva replied.
"Colonel," Kerrigan said to the Russian.
"Before you go off world, leading a team-" Carter was cut off.
"Wait, wait…" Alexeyeva interrupted.
"I think you should allow the General to finish, Colonel," Kerrigan interrupted the Russian.
Alexeyeva, reluctant to let go of the argument, paused so that Carter could continue.
"Colonel, you'll be working with a new set of recruits and you will be working with them for one month, after that you'll be assigned as Commanding Officer of SG-26," She said to the Russian.
"I have spent sixteen years in service to my country, General, my record shows for it," Alexeyeva replied.
The other two, for a moment, interpreted that the Russian was referring to the visible scars on her face, but they didn't know until later that they were wrong.
"You were trained in counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, Colonel," Kerrigan replied. "Impressive, yes, but are you trained in diplomacy?" Alexeyeva hadn't said anything.
"What about encountering alien threats, foothold situations perhaps?" Silence lingered on the Colonel's lips.
"As expected," Kerrigan added. "You leave in an hour for the Training Grounds."
The Next Day…
Undisclosed Stargate Command Training Grounds, Colorado
09:30 A.M
The heat and light of the sun beaming onto her face forced her eyes to slowly open. She rotated her head completely to the left, looking at a downward angle, and found a woman, with scars across her face, doing push ups. The woman was cursing in Russian, complaining how she damned the American who made her take a training course for something she didn't need to be trained for a second time. Of course, the woman on the bed didn't understand anything the Russian was saying. After returning to her slumber, the woman felt the other slip unto the bed underneath hers.
"Mne ne nuzhna trenirovkam e-shore raz," The Russian mumbled. 'I don't need training again.'
The other woman, the one sleeping over the Russian, slipped her head upside down over the bed to have view of the woman lying on the one under hers.
"What cha sayin, ma'am?" She asked the Russian.
Alexeyeva, whose eyes were closed and arms behind her head, opened them once more to find the woman, with a smile and black hair dangling, looking at her.
"It's nothing," She replied, turning her head away.
"Would you like to talk about it?" The other woman asked.
Alexeyeva scoffed before sitting up on the bed.
"If you insist," She said to the other.
"Well," The other began. "I don't wanna make ya talk about it if you don't want to,"
Alexeyeva shrugged.
"I do not see the point in trying to avoid your question." She said, resting her arms on her knees.
"What's on your mind, ma'am?" The other woman asked.
"Being sent here makes me feel like…as Americans say: F.N.G," The Russian began. "I spent over a decade and a half serving my country with duty, pride and patriotism, earning enough experience to last two lifetimes…now you Americans think everyone needs 'retraining' for some mission on other planets."
"I'm not American, Ma'am,"
"Of course not, you're from Canada, da?"
"How do you know?"
"Your accent,"
"Wow…you're good," The other woman commented. "Few people actually realize, without me telling them, that I'm Canadian,"
Alexeyeva nodded.
"What's your name young lady?" She asked.
"Private Williams, Noa, nice to meet you…" The Canadian paused as she extended her hand to the Russian.
"Podpolkovnik Alexeyeva,"
The Canadian was confused.
"Uh…"
"Lieutenant Colonel," The Russian clarified, shaking hands with the Canadian. "Natasha Alexeyeva,"
"You can't be serious," Williams stated.
"About what,"
"You being a Lieutenant Colonel…no wonder you're so pissed being here…ma'am,"
"We should go, Private Williams," Alexeyeva said, the bed squeaked as she got off, grabbing her issued SG olive green jacket. "Wake up call should be about….."
Then a trumpet began playing the traditional American Military wake up tune.
The first day of Stargate Operations Training was nothing special, Alexeyeva noticed. She expected to see a drill instructor barking orders at her and the other three recruits. Instead, she found three people, whose patches identified them as SG-1, two men and a woman. One of the men she already met with the day earlier, Daniel Jackson. The other two, when she met them last night, Colonel Mitchell, the commanding officer of SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran, an alien who had joined the team a few years earlier.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Mitchell began. "You've been selected as the best and brightest we have at the moment,"
He then pointed at the track where the recruits were to jog for the morning.
"Four laps, then report to me for today's assignment." Mitchell finished.
The recruits saluted and then began their jog around the track. It was no surprise that the Russian took the lead in the run. During this run, Alexeyeva thought back to everything that had transpired in the last few days.
Her father always told her that fate is nothing more than a linear path in one's life. "Remember, Natasha," He once said to her when she was only thirteen.
"Everything that you do, or anyone else for that matter, is what is supposed to happen," He paused, taking a deep breath.
"Who lives and who dies, it's all part of god's plan,"
"Is that how the Soviet Union was lost," The young Natasha asked.
The look on her father's face was grim. But at the last moment, he smiled.
"The Union of the Socialist Soviet Republic was doomed from the start," He stated. "Perhaps one day you will understand how fate works,"
Perhaps fate called upon her to become something more than just a Russian solider this time around.
"All of a sudden you slow down, ma'am," A voice behind the Russian crashed her train of thoughts.
Alexeyeva looked back to find Private Williams jogging next to her. The other recruits were already ahead of the two of them.
"My apologies, Private Williams," The Russian began, deferring her response.
"I did not realize I was being distracted,"
"You seemed deep in thought," Williams added.
The Russian nodded.
"I was," She said. "You have quite a perception, young lady,"
"Yes ma'am," The Canadian replied. "I have to…especially when I'm involved with EOD,"
The Russian nearly lost her step, almost tripping. She stopped so she could swallow the information she was just given.
"Did you say," Alexeyeva began, breathless. "EOD?"
The Canadian stopped a few meters ahead of the Russian. She looked back and shrugged.
"What, Explosive Ordinance Disposal?" She asked the confused Russian.
Alexeyeva nodded, feeling sweat trickling down her cheeks. "
You can not be more than twenty-five years of age, Private." She finally said, after catching her breath.
"Twenty-one," Williams corrected.
Alexeyeva nodded again.
"I sincerely doubt you would be allowed to handle explosives," She added.
"Of course they wouldn't Ma'am," Williams replied as the two resumed their jog. "I only handle with the robot that goes in to disarm IEDs."
Then she thought for a moment.
"But there was that one time our disposal guy was shot and I had to don the suit in his place." Williams added.
Alexeyeva shook her head.
"Bosa moy," She breathed. 'Oh my god'. "And you disarmed a bomb that could have killed you?"
"Of course," Williams replied proudly. "I just don't know how a bomb disposer is gonna be useful, ya know,"
"So here's your first training scenario," Mitchell said, ten minutes later. "There's a Gou'ald explosive device inside the warehouse."
Mitchell pointed at the floor plan of the warehouse on the board.
"Your objective is to disarm it and then retrieve the device." He continued. "We don't know how many hostiles will be there or whether or not the device is armed."
Alexeyeva leaned forward in her chair. Looking to her left, she noticed Private Williams leaning back into her seat, her optimistic attitude undeterred from the briefing. To her right, Alexeyeva noticed the two other recruits, both of which were United States Marines, were paying close attention to what the man up front was saying. Yet at the same time, she realized that they were all bored as she was. Alexeyeva figured that it was perhaps because they were already trained and didn't want any more of it. She felt the same yet she continued to look interested into the practice scenario that was handed to her like she was when she was a fresh enlisted solider sixteen years earlier.