Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Atlantis

Jennifer Keller was called to the Control Room the second the off world team returned from their mission. They had come back much earlier than expected and from what she could determine, they had been attacked. Skirmishes with the Wraith were few and far between now, after the defeats they suffered at the hands of the expedition, the Asurans and Michael they had become reclusive, though recent whisperings indicated that their life sucking friends were rebuilding under a more organized structure and a single supreme commander. The expedition knew that if that was true, then they were in big trouble. As Jennifer ran through the hallways of Atlantis with a team and a stretcher she was worried that their greatest enemy was emerging once again.

As she came into the large room with her team she saw a number of people standing in front of the Gate, crowding around one figure on the floor. As she got closer she saw it was Jeannie Miller, McKay kneeling by her side telling her she would be alright. Jennifer instructed her team to get Jeannie onto the stretcher before taking a closer look at the wound, before turning to look at Jeannie "OK, you're going to be fine but there is a lot of bleeding, we're going to get you straight to the infirmary and get you fixed up as soon as possible."

Jeannie was in a great deal of pain, but she knew she would be OK. "Thanks…Thank you…" while the two women were speaking they didn't realise everyone else had gone quiet. They turned to look and noticed the Gate had deactivated. At first Keller wasn't sure why that was a bad thing considering there were enemy forces on the other side, but after skimming quickly across the group she discovered why… Sam and John hadn't made it back.

Galactica's Brig

"You're awake!" Samantha Carter awoke in a small cell, with John Sheppard sitting in the one next to her

"Yeah… what the hell happened?" She asked, confused and holding her head.

"You were shot" Sheppard replied "if you were wearing anything other than that your world gear you'd have been dead by now. When you fell you hit your head, it knocked you out. Are you feeling OK now?"

"I'll be fine… So where the hell are we?" Sam had noticed the guards at the door, seemingly ignoring them but in actual fact taking in every single word that was said between the pair. There had been four, but one had left as she woke up.

Sheppard held up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. "I really don't know. We've never met these guy before. At first I thought they could be Genii or Travellers, but they don't seem to be either. The technology is totally different." As he was talking, Sam noticed the gash above his head. John noticed she was staring. "Oh this? Yeah… you weren't the only one to get knocked out…"

Adama's Quarters

Bill Adama sat in his quarters. To one side of him were Starbuck, Apollo and Saul Tigh. To the other, Laura Roslin and Tom Zarek. Directly opposite him stood Tory Foster, a number Two model and a number Six model flanking her. The colonials weren't the only one's interested in their new guests. "So. The man claims ignorance regarding all things Cylon, and says that he is on our side…" Adama started off what he was sure would be a very interesting conversation.

"And you believe him?" Starbuck was the first to offer her thoughts, as usual. "Thos frakers killed one of our men and injured five more. Than isn't a good way to earn trust in my book."

"We fired first." Apollo was quick to reply. "As much as I hate to admit it, we could have been in the wrong. The man could be telling the truth when he said it was only self defence."

"Bull." Tigh was the next to give his opinion. "Cylons deceive, that's what they do. I should know… We haven't come across any other humans since we left the Colonies, and it's possible that Cavil and his toaster buddies have created a bunch of entirely new models in order to get the upper hand."

Tory was quick to counter. "It's possible, but I doubt it. We haven't bumped into the other models since we went through that wormhole last year. They didn't follow us through. They have no idea where we are."

"How could they? We have no idea where we are." Tom Zarek wasted no time in pointing that fact out to the Cylon woman.

"Either way, he wouldn't need these new models to gain the upper hand." Tory shot back. "He already has it, he has dozens of base ships while we're left with the nothing but the one rebel Baseship and the Galactica, which, let's face it, is long past her sell by date."

"Watch your mouth you mother fraker!" Starbuck stepped forward and was close to attacking Tory when the President spoke.

"People this is all very interesting but can we please stick to the gods damn issue? We have two people in the brig, be them human or Cylon, and I would like to hear more about that, not the current state of Galactica. Stay on topic, or get out."

The room was quiet for a moment, before Tory spoke again. "If they are Cylons, I doubt they have anything to do with Cavil. Plus, the rest of their group totally disappeared from the planet, we've been completely unable to locate them and neither have your crew, unless I'm mistaken. All we found was some strange circular artefact in the ground, and we don't see how…" the rest of her sentence was cut short as there was a knock at the bulkhead door.

Adama called out giving permission to whoever it was to enter. The door was opened, and one of the guards from the brig stepped inside.

"They're awake… Both of them."

Atlantis

General Jack O'Neill sat in the chair that had belonged to three different expedition commander over the past seven years. He impatiently tapped his fingers on the table in front of him, waiting for news to arrive. When Daniel had dialled Earth and informed General Landry that neither Carter or Sheppard had returned from the mission, O'Neill was the first person outside Stargate Command to be informed. Within fifteen minutes of finding out he was standing in front of Earth's Stargate, ready for a trip to the Pegasus Galaxy. Teal'c who had been at the SGC with Master Bra'tac, had been happy to join Jack considering one of the life of one of the most important people in the world to him was at stake.

Not long after, both had found themselves in the Control Room of the Ancient City of Atlantis. Considering it had taken him less than half an hour to get from Washington D.C to a completely different Galaxy, Jack was growing angry with the amount of time he had been sitting in that chair waiting for the information needed to come through to Atlantis. The city had fantastic sensor technology, but without a third ZPM it was still very difficult to get an in-depth scan from the other side of the galaxy.

"Oh for god's sake will those guys hurry up?!" O'Neill's outburst caused his old friend to turn and face him.

"I am sure they are working as fast as they can O'Neill. Samantha Carter and John Sheppard mean a great deal to the people of Atlantis." The reassurance caused Jack to remember that Sam wasn't just important to the SGC anymore, she was important here too. And even though John Sheppard had pissed him off a couple of times, he had to admit that he had grown pretty damn fond of him, and his insistence to do whatever he could to help his team.

Finally, the door to the room opened and Daniel stepped inside. "He's done it."

The three men walked over to McKay who was looking slightly dismayed. "There are dozen's of them…" He said. "That is a damn big fleet of ships."

"Oh, crap." Jack said as he looked at the screen.

"Some of the ships are pretty small… It's possible that not all of them are combat worthy, but we can't tell from this. From what we saw on the planet though, they didn't look that advanced.

"So do we wait for the Daedalus to get here, or can we take the Hyperion out now? I'm not too happy about the prospect of waiting another damn day before getting our people back, every minute counts here." Jack wanted to hear what McKay thought, but either way, he was going out there today.

"I suppose we could just take the Hyperion, but do some recon first, get a proper look at what we're up against?"

"Fine by me."

Galactica's Brig

Kara Thrace dismissed the guards at the door before entering the brig. Adama and Roslin hadn't sanctioned what was about to occur, but Zarek and the President had. That was good enough for her.

Samantha Carter and John Sheppard stood up as soon as the blonde haired woman entered the brig. John remembered her face well. When someone pistol whips you, it's hard to forget. "Hello again!" he said, in a rather sarcastic tone. "So, was it as good for you as it was for me?"

Kara smirked. "Shut up you Cylon son of a bitch or you'll be getting to second base with it." John had to admit, that was a pretty good way to shut him up.

"What do you want from us?" Carter asked, attempting to take a more diplomatic route than her fellow Colonel.

"I want you to lie to me. That way, I get to have a lot of fun making you tell me the truth." Starbuck stuck the key in the lock to Sam's cell and walked in, gun in her other hand. She locked the cage behind her. After making sure the door was secure, she chucked her gun through the bars, always keeping her eyes on the other woman. "Let's get this started. Do you work for Cavil?"

"I don't know who 'Cavil' is." Sam replied.

Kara smiled, she wasn't inclined believe her. "OK. So just who do you toasters work for then?"

"We don't know what you're talking…" before Sam could finish, the blonde woman smacked her across the mouth causing her to fall onto her hands and knees. Kara came up behind her and grabbed her by the hair, bringing her mouth close to her ear, telling her she knew that she was lying.

"Get off her you crazy bitch! She's telling the truth!" John tried to grab Kara through the bars but the two women were too far away from him.

"It's OK John." Sam reassured her friend, knowing exactly what she was doing. It was obvious to Sam that this woman had greatly underestimated her both mentally and physically, and that worked entirely to her own advantage.

"If you aren't a Cylon then tell me where the frak you're from!" Kara shouted in Sam's ear, not caring that she was deafening her.

"I can't give you that information!" Kara was easily angered, both Carter and Sheppard had gathered that. She smirked and took a tighter hold of Sam's hair preparing to smack her face off the hard metal ground, but before she could the other woman brought her arm up full force into her stomach, winding her.

Sam grabbed the keys from Kara's belt but was kicked backwards before she could get out of the way. The other Woman jumped for her, but Sam's fist made contact with her face before she could do anything. "That felt good." Sam got up as quickly as she could and ran for the cell door, but she noticed Kara behind her. Instead of risking the woman retrieving the keys, she chucked them into Sheppard's cell. Straight after, Kara grabbed her, chucking her to the floor.

"You fraking bitch!" Kara was about to kick the other blonde in the ribs before she heard the door open behind her. Admiral Adama and the guards all came in.

"Kara! What the frak do you think you're doing?"

Hyperion

Colonel Cameron Mitchell watched as a group of people from Atlantis beamed aboard his ship. He never would have taken this command had SG-1 still been active, but now that they weren't he felt this was the best way to do good in both the Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxies. He regularly got to see all of his ex-team mates this way, so it worked out well for him. Had he taken the other offer presented to him of forming a new SG team, he would have rarely gotten to see Sam, Daniel or Vala, what with them being millions of light-years away in an Ancient City and all…

"Colonel. How's she treating you?" Jack O'Neill asked as he appeared on the bridge.

"Just dandy, General. It's a nice change, I guess." Cameron got up out oh his command chair in order to greet his superior. "So, I take it everyone's ready to go?"

"Sure are. It's going to be me, Teal'c, Ronon, Teyla and McKay." Teal'c bowed his head when his name was mentioned, causing Cam to smile and return the gesture.

He walked slightly closer to Jack "Is McKay up to this? I thought his sister had just been shot?"

"I asked him if wanted to sit this out, but he insisted on coming." Jack reassured Mitchell, he'd wondered the same thing himself when the mission was first decided on. Keller's done everything she can and Jeannie's going to be OK, she's got her family with her. Besides, Sheppard and Carter are two of his closest friends. I think he looks at this like it's his duty."

"Hmm. Sure seems different to the McKay I knew when I first met him." Cam admired that the man had changed for the better. The job had changed him, like it had done with many others.

"Sir, we're ready to go" came the voice of the Major Ross seated at the console near the command chair. With that, Mitchell sat back down, and the group moved to the side of the bridge.

"Let's get this show on the road." With that, a hyperspace window formed in front of the Hyperion, and the ship jumped away, disappearing from its orbit of New Lantea.