Hey all, a new chapter fresh off the press. It didn't take me as long to write this one, which is surprising considering how many words it is. Before I get to the mailbag I would like to thank GateWorld and those who take the time to do the transcripts for each episode – they helped me out to no end on this chapter. Please enjoy.
To BlueDragon007, thanks very much for your review. Seeing as this story is based around the Atlantis series, I like to throw in some slightly obscure references to the other characters in the show. You have to admit it, though, McKay does have a loud mouth.
To ArianneG, all of your wishes are about to come true! Well, not exactly true, but your questions and theories will be revealed. To reassure you, I'm not going to drastically change anything. John will still become the ranking officer, and so on. I want to honor the writers by keeping it as real as I can.
To Emagen Laile, I hope the wait hasn't caused you too much stress! I'm glad you're liking it so far. Please keep reading.
To jasminesmommy, I am glad to inform you that the wait is over. To all of you, who have been hanging out for this, please be upstanding for the arrival of John Sheppard.
To neptune60, thanks very much for your review. I'm not so sure about Sierra and Lorne either, but I felt that it was the right way to take the story. I promise you that I will be keeping the pre-set characters the same, and (as much as I want to) there won't be any John/Liz ship. I have an idea on what will happen with Sierra and Mitchell, but unfortunately, you'll have to wait for that. Please enjoy.
To The City of Atlantis, I wasn't sure if that would really happen, but hey, this is sci-fi! Besides, I couldn't just send her to prison – that would make a very short story. I'm sure you already know that she's going to meet John! What kind of a person would I be if I didn't let that happen?
To Asugar, I would love to tell you more about the future moments between Sierra and Mitchell, but that would be telling. I'm really glad you liked that chapter – I really enjoyed writing it.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed – please keep them coming. Thanks again to GateWorld!
-----Chapter 7 – Rising, Part 1-----
Sierra walked through the halls of the Research Base with confidence. Lt. Ford had just radioed her from the Command Centre to inform her that a memo had arrived for her. She had been forced to abandon her barely-edible lunch and head there immediately. She nodded to one of the marines as she passed him in the hall. The sergeant's hand automatically went to his forehead in a salute, but she waved it away. She was still getting used to being the highest ranking officer on this base.
While being placed in a position of command was normally a reward for doing something worth noting, that wasn't really the case for Sierra. This was more like punishment for her. The President had definitely chosen well when deciding her fate. Sierra would rather have been demoted or sent back her classroom than be here. She sighed as another serviceman saluted her. For some people it was second nature, even desired, that they receive salutes. But Sierra hadn't joined the Air Force for the kicks of being an officer – she had joined for the flying. And until recently, she'd had the best job in the world.
The flip side of this situation was that it kept her busy. There were always reports to write, new personnel to debrief, and forms to sign. She had even had to participate in three rescues since being posted in this frigid part of the world. It was only when she was alone in her quarters that she time to think about why she had been sent here. Even now, Mitchell's pleading voice drifted into her mind. Shaking her head to clear it, she started singing the Scooby-Do song under her breath. It was something that she had always done when she was a child – a way of keeping unwanted thoughts from her mind.
She turned her focus to the stack of forms that would be waiting for her on her desk; acquisition forms for the Mess, the armory, and the Infirmary, transfer forms (at least a half dozen a week, both in and out) and what she liked to call 'permission slips'. In no time at all, her thoughts refocused.
She reached the Command Centre, which was really a tiny room at the entrance to the facility with a window where visitors had to sign in and out, and swiped her access card in the lock. Stepping inside, she moved to the monitor where her memo would be displayed. There were three others in the Command Centre, including Lt. Ford. Sanchez sat at the communications array, deep in conference with McMurdo; Hamilton stared blankly at the surveillance feeds that led to the main cavern fifty feet below them; and Ford was just looking bored as he leant back in his chair, feet up on the desk, and spinning his unloaded gun around his finger.
"I wish you wouldn't do that, Ford," Sierra said as she prodded the monitor to life. The screen slowly lit itself and showed the memo on the screen.
"It ain't loaded, ma'am," he said, holding up the cartridge in his other hand to prove it.
"I know that, lieutenant," she replied. "I just don't want it to become a 'deadly flying object'." Out of the corner of her eye, Sierra saw the young marine pout but tuck his 9mm back into its holster. She smiled to herself as she began to read the message.
It was from the SGC, specifically, from General O'Neill. It was brief, indicating his intention to visit them at the Research Base. He was intending to arrive within three days. With the weather as good as it had been for the last week, Sierra foresaw no problems with this, and sent an equally brief email back, confirming that she had received his message, and that they were looking forward to his visit.
Well, Sierra was at least. She had only spent a little bit of time with the newly-promoted general but she found that she liked him. She found him… refreshing. He definitely wasn't like any general she had ever served, but he was also a good man who would do anything for his people. That kind of trait was something that Sierra felt she could respect fervently.
"Well, boys," she said to the men all packed into the Command Centre. "Looks like we're going to have company." They all seemed to perk up at that. Sierra explained who was coming and why, and then sent a memo to everyone on the base that O'Neill was going to be arriving soon. It was then that her radio buzzed in her ear.
"Captain Sheppard," came the smooth, Scottish accent of the resident medical doctor, Carson Beckett. "Do ye have a moment?"
She touched her finger to her headset. "Be down in a sec, doc." Sierra made her way to the elevator and endured the journey down to the cavern with the infamous (well, infamous on this base, and at the SGC according to Dr. Jackson) Doctor Rodney McKay. He greeted her cautiously, still wary of her from the first day they had officially arrived. Sierra couldn't help but smile at the memory.
Dr. McKay was notoriously arrogant and therefore took personal offence to anyone that 'demoted' him to a mere civilian. On the first day of Sierra's command, McKay had been quite verbal about his opinion of the safety protocols that she had enforced upon them. Sierra had thought that her requests were quite reasonable, but McKay thought himself above such things as frost-bite and hypothermia. Sierra had to cross personal-bubble lines to get him to shut up, threatening him as lightly as she could, and with a great deal of restraint. The astrophysicist had finally gotten off his high horse, and not at all gracefully. It was soon evident to everyone that he was not a man that anyone could get on well with. He tormented his staff, tortured Beckett, and all those with the Ancient gene that Beckett himself had discovered, and was just a pain in the ass. Sierra could barely handle being in the same room as him for any length of time and was sure his ego wouldn't fit in the same state!
Finally the lift ride down was over and Sierra let him struggle with the door. When they made it out, she walked through the main cavern and headed towards Jackson's current 'office'. It wasn't much, just a hollowed out section in the passageway that was big enough to hold several thermal storage units for his books, a whiteboard and a chart of the known galaxy. She smiled as she saw Jackson hunched over a rubbing of the carvings on the west side of the cavern.
She headed past Jackson's hovel to the medical research labs, where little lights flashed and beeped at her. The place was filled with machinery and equipment, all of it serving some kind of purpose that eluded Sierra right from the day she had requested it all. Beckett sat near the far wall, head bent over his microscope, tapping absently on his tablet computer. As gently as she could she tapped him on the shoulder.
He was getting better at not jumping out of his skin; she had to give him that. At least he wasn't cussing anymore. Still, she couldn't help but smile at the relieved expression on his face when he saw that it was her.
"Oh, Sierra, love, you gave me a fright." He clutched his heart dramatically and smiled at her. "This place still gives me the creeps."
Sierra couldn't help but smile. "What's up, doc?"
He gave her a small smile before launching into his usual medical jargon. "Well, I've been looking into the research that Dr. Brightman did on your blood samples from your experience here in Antarctica a couple of months ago, and I think I may have made the connection. I think it could have something to do with your Ancient gene."
One of the first things that Carson did on their first day here was take her aside and explain to her that she was a carrier of the Ancient gene, a gene that allowed her to activate Ancient technology. He had revealed at the same time that he was also a bearer of this gene and its discoverer as well. At times (specifically when McKay was trying to force him to activate the Chair) he wished he didn't have it. Sierra had pleaded with Carson to get him to not reveal to anyone else that she had the gene. The last thing she needed was to have McKay breathing down her neck, trying to get her to activate the stupid Chair. She had enough on her plate as it was.
Carson's words brought her back to the present. "In comparing your DNA to another ATA gene bearer, I've discovered that the presence of the gene is stronger in you than any other I've tested so far. I then started wondering what could have caused you to have that sudden onset of fever all those months ago." Sierra was doing her best to look interested. "You see, it is known that the Ancients were highly evolved humans, some with incredible powers."
"Like super-hero stuff?" Sierra interrupted.
The Scotsman shrugged. "It doesn't involve shooting lasers from your eyes, if that's what you're thinking. But the ancient girl that SG-1 found not far from here possessed the ability to heal others. It's possible some could also have similar abilities, like telepathy, Extra Sensory Perception, telekinesis."
"So what does that have to do with me?"
"Well, I think that when you started getting hypothermia, while you were out in that storm, your body tried to heal itself by making it warmer."
Sierra frowned. "I nearly overheated. How can that be healing?"
Carson shrugged again. "Perhaps your body started to fix itself by turning up the heat, but couldn't turn it off again."
"Are you saying I'm a broken radiator?"
He chuckled at her analogy. "No, love, I'm not. I'm saying that it could possibly have something to do with the ATA gene. If that is the case, then maybe it's just a case of learning to control it."
Sierra contemplated this. Could it be possible that her over-concentrated genetics were responsible for the fever that nearly cooked her brain two months ago? What were the other explanations? Infection? Ruled out by the doctors. Adrenaline? She'd had adrenaline rushes before and never had she gotten a fever. She tried to think back to her childhood, trying to remember if something remotely like this had happened before. Once, she had fallen into a really, really cold lake when she was ten, but her dad had just sat her near the fireplace and she was warm again in no time. There was a time when she fell out of the tree in their back yard and swore she broke something. But when they had taken her to the doctor's her x-rays were fine. No fever then and she could have simply imagined the break. It had been right after their mom died…
Sierra sat with the doctor for another half an hour as he talked endlessly about genetics and the possible links. Carson had been her first friend on this base and she was glad for the refuge from her work. That was until Dr. Weir came looking for her, wanting to discuss General O'Neill's arrival. The diplomat had received more details on his travel plans from McMurdo.
"Also, it says here, the general's being flown out here by helicopter, so we'll have to make sure the landing pad is cleared for when he arrives. Apparently the pilot's name is Sheppard. A Major John Sheppard." Sierra's heart skipped a beat on its own volition. "Is he any relation to you?"
Sierra couldn't trust herself to speak for a moment. She had to remember to breath. She looked up at Elizabeth who was waiting expectantly for her answer.
"Kind of," she said in a weak voice. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "He's my brother… my twin brother. We haven't really seen each other for a while."
"Oh," Elizabeth said. "Then I take it you didn't know that he's been stationed at McMurdo since the beginning of the summer."
Sierra's face didn't change. "No, ma'am, I didn't." Elizabeth took in her expression and didn't seem to believe her. "Honestly, Elizabeth, I knew it was somewhere remote, but I didn't think it was here." She seemed to believe that and nodded curtly at her before heading back to the main cavern.
Sierra remained frozen in place in the middle of the hallway. John was going to be flying O'Neill from McMurdo to the Research Base. What were the chances of that? Sierra had no idea that this was the posting that John had told her about in his last message six months ago. When John had first mentioned it, Sierra had almost been sure that he was stationed in the Solomons. She knew the Air Force wouldn't send him back to the Middle East after what happened there the last time, so it was either somewhere in the Tropics, South America or Asia. Nancy had though Somalia. That was the worst part about Special Forces – even if John had wanted to tell her where he was going, he'd never be allowed to.
Sierra had considered joining the Special Forces herself when John had made his request. But it had been too soon after the war and she knew that it wasn't what she wanted to do anymore. So she took up teaching instead. As a result, John's career for the next ten years was like a secret that loomed over their heads. It drove a wedge in between them that forced them further apart with every missed call. It took a long time for it to become visible, but Sierra could feel it happening. It had also destroyed John's marriage to Nancy before it had really begun. Despite the fact that she loved him a lot, Nancy couldn't handle the fact that his job involved him going to dangerous places on secret missions, never knowing if he'd make it back alive. Sierra also had a hard time coping with that.
And so it had been nearly four whole years since Sierra had seen his face. The last time she had seen him was at a birthday part that their dad had thrown for her. John had shown up, it being his birthday too, and Dad had practically thrown him out again. Sierra had sat with him in the gutter outside while they ate the cake that she had smuggled out to him. He had really only come to tell her that he was being transferred again. She was so irrationally angry with him that she didn't even try to call him until a few months ago.
McKay brushed past her in the hallway, bumping her out of her thoughts. He reemerged a few seconds later, dragging a complaining Carson in his wake. Sierra shook her head to refocus on her job. It kept her from thinking about these sorts of things. When she had time to herself in her quarters, where there was no escape, then she would have the time to think it over a little more. Until then, she had to prepare for the general's arrival.
-----XXX-----
Sierra was organizing the clearing of the landing pad before the general was due to arrive. She was quite nervous, not for the arrival of O'Neill, but more for the possibility of seeing her brother again. So to stop herself thinking about it, she helped with the last minute things. They had just received a large shipment of supplies that had arrived a day late and had to move quickly to get them cleared and stored. She was a little ashamed to admit that she liked the part about giving orders.
Almost all of the supplies had been moved when there was a shattering of glass from the dome. Sierra looked up in time to see a blur of yellow light streak across the sky. Sierra's heart fell when she realized that it was heading in the direction of McMurdo. She barked at the personnel handling the supplies to keep moving before dashing back inside. It was pandemonium. Inside the Command Centre, Sanchez was on the radio alerting all air traffic to be on the watch for the Ancient Drone. Hamilton was flicking through the security feeds to see what was going on in the cavern. Sierra told him to stop when she saw Carson sitting in the Chair with his eyes squeezed shut. It seemed that the doctor had inadvertently activated the drone that Peter Grodan had been working on for the last few weeks.
It was then that Sierra heard John's voice over the radio. She turned to Sanchez who was listening avidly to a helicopter pilot who had encountered the blob of light.
"Break right," she heard the voice of General O'Neill order. "I said right!"
"Getting to that, sir," came that all too familiar voice.
Sierra's heart was pounding so loudly in her ears. She tapped her radio with a shaky hand. "You gotta stop it, Carson," she said softly.
"I know," he replied through gritted teeth. The radios were silent and Sierra couldn't bring herself to think the worst. John was the best chopper pilot she had ever known. She glanced back at the security feeds.
Carson's face was bunched up in concentration, sweat beginning to bead on his brow. Precious seconds passed and then his eyes opened and his face relaxed.
"I think I did it," she heard him say. Her heart rate slowed a little as she turned back to Sanchez. He was calling the inbound chopper, requesting their status.
"Well, we're still here," John answered. "Whatever that… thing was, it just dropped outta the sky. It seems to have stopped dead. We're still seven minutes out."
Sierra sighed with relief and radioed the chopper's status down to Ford, who was in the cavern. She clapped Sanchez and Hamilton on their shoulders and headed back out to the dome. Though death had been adverted, Sierra's heart still wouldn't slow. How close had she come to losing her brother? What if he had of been killed by that drone just minutes before she had a chance to see him again? Sierra didn't think she could handle that.
There were noises from above her and she looked up see the maintenance personnel already starting to remove the shattered glass panel from the dome. They were going to replace it with a normal metal plate until another sheet of glass could be flown out.
Sierra headed back outside to check how the progress of clearing the landing pad was coming. They were nearly finished. She gave them a hand and it was cleared just as the chopped appeared on the horizon. Sierra debated with herself whether she be the one to meet them, or have Ford do it as her 2IC. But she knew her duty and it had to be her that met the general when he landed.
And so she waited by the entrance. Elizabeth had requested that she bring O'Neill down to the main cavern. Apparently Jackson had found something pretty important. Her thoughts on what that could possibly be were interrupted by a blast of freezing, cold wind slamming into her from the chopper approaching the landing pad. As the rotary blades began to slow, Sierra approached the chopper. She kept her face averted from the cockpit because of the wind, but also so that she wouldn't see the look on John's face when he saw her. Though he wouldn't be able to see her face, she had no doubt that he would still recognize her.
As she walked around the front of the cockpit, she chanced a glance up at him. His face was frozen in a look of shock, his eyebrows forming into a deep frown. His eyes were behind sunglasses, and she was glad at that, so she couldn't see his expression mirrored in them. Her eyes dropped again.
Sierra moved around to O'Neill's door and waited as the general jumped out. She snapped a salute for him.
"At ease, Sheppard," he said. Sierra chanced a glance over O'Neill's shoulder to John, who hadn't moved. His head had followed her but he had made no move to exit the helicopter.
"Welcome, General," Sierra said dropping her hand. Her eyes never left John's face. O'Neill looked over his shoulder at the man in the pilot's seat.
"Oh, yeah, I believe you two know one another."
"You knew, sir?" John croaked. The general shrugged.
"Yeah." He turned back to Sierra. "Now, I hope you guys got a nice warm espresso waitin' for me."
Sierra couldn't help but smile. "That can be arranged, sir." Sierra motioned for the general to follow her and walked back around the chopper towards the base. It was then that John made his move to get out. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him struggle with the harness and the door, before stumbling slightly as he climbed out of the cockpit.
Sierra led the way to the entrance, the whole while feeling John's eyes burning holes in her back. She could sense that he was brimming with questions that demanded answers she couldn't give him, mostly due to his security clearance.
Inside the building, Sierra led them to the window in the Command Centre where they both had to sign in. She was about to guide the general to the elevator when he turned to John.
"What's your security clearance, Major?" he asked.
"Um," John said, his eyes flicking to Sierra. He had removed his sunglasses and she saw her own eyes looking back at her. "I don't think I have one, sir."
"Right," O'Neill said. "I can fix that." He turned back to Sanchez and asked him to place a call – to the Pentagon no less. The call took a few minutes to connect, and then O'Neill talked to someone who he called 'Sir'. He gave them John's name and serial number before hanging up. He turned back to John. "There you are, Major. Welcome to the club."
John's eyes flicked to hers and she could see his confusion in them. She gave him a small smile. "You'll see," she said and headed to the elevator. She couldn't help but snap into Head-of-Security mode. "Please remember that all you see here on this base is covered by the protocols of non-disclosure that your security clearance will detail," she amended. She could almost feel John's confusion building as she sent the lift to the bottom of the shaft. She could also feel O'Neill's smugness at his achievement on bringing the two of them to the same place. She struggled not to roll her eyes at him and failed. He just smirked at her.
The elevator ride was long and very uncomfortable. When it was finally over, Sierra was relieved. She had thought of a hundred different ways and circumstances where she would see John again, but this certainly wasn't on her list. She had expected hugs and kisses and good times, maybe a couple of beers, too. But this silence wasn't what she had in mind. She hoped there would be time for her to explain soon, before he had to fly the general back.
Jackson met them at the bottom. There was a little banter that Sierra had experienced once or twice.
"Warm welcome," O'Neill said sarcastically.
"Wasn't me," Jackson said in a terse tone that told Sierra that they had been working together for way too long. "So, how'd you manage to, uh…" he trailed off.
"Keep my ass from getting blown out of the sky?" O'Neill finished for him. He pointed an arm at John who had stopped beside Sierra. "The exceptional flying of Major John Sheppard. He likes it here." Sierra shot a glance at her brother, her eyebrow raised.
"Exceptional?" Jackson questioned before turning to John as well. "You like it here?" John shrugged and cast a sheepish look at Sierra. As Jackson and O'Neill headed towards the archeologist's office, the general turned back to them.
"Hey," he said to John. "Don't touch anything."
"Yes, sir," he replied, slightly bewildered as he looked around the cavern. Sierra watched him intently, waiting for his bombardment of questions. Once he had given the whole room a once over, he turned back to her.
"What are you doing here? Or more to the point, what am I doing here? And what's the deal with that 'security clearance' bull? What are you, like the Security Director, or something? What is goin' on here?"
Sierra couldn't help but smile. Sometimes he was just so predictable. Taking a deep breath and setting her hands on her hips, she started. "I am here because I was assigned here. You are here because apparently O'Neill requested you specifically to fly him out here, probably so he could play 'match-maker' and reunite siblings. The deal with the security clearance is so that you don't see something you're not supposed to see. I guess the general thinks you can handle it. Yes, I am the Head of Security on this base, so it's my job to make sure you don't leak any secrets to the wrong people. There are some organizations out there who would love the chance to exploit all of this." Sierra swept an arm to encompass the entire facility. "And as to what's going on here, you are so far over your head that you won't be able to see daylight."
John had the most bewildered look on his face as he tried to process her answers. "What the hell have you gotten yourself into?" he asked.
Sierra gave him a rueful smile. "Despite the misconceptions, John, I'd rather be here than anywhere else. You'll see what I mean about that if you stay long enough –" At that moment, Sierra's radio buzzed in her ear. It was Sanchez. She sighed. "Excuse me for a moment," she said to John.
"Ma'am, there's a radio call in from McMurdo. Something about a mix-up in the latest batch of supplies." Sierra sighed again.
"I'll be right up." She turned back to John. "Look, I gotta deal with something – can you please be careful down here? I'll be back soon." John leveled a glare at her that Sierra had sorely missed. She reentered the elevator and returned to the surface.
Trying to resolve an issue like someone's stuff-up when sending supplies was never easy. It required four different forms and a lot of details about the items that were shipped by accident. It had been nearly twenty minutes by the time Sierra got off the radio. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she let out an explosive sigh. It was days like this that she hated her job.
Finally she was done and she returned to the elevator and descended again to the cavern. On the way down she wondered where to begin in her explanation of things to John. At least he now had the right kind of security clearance. The clearance that the general had given would allow him access to all levels of the SGC. He could even get on board the Prometheus if he wanted! O'Neill must really like him if that was the case.
The elevator doors opened and Sierra saw that O'Neill, Weir, McKay, Beckett and Jackson were all gathered around the Chair. A map of the galaxy hovered over their heads. Oh boy, that meant –
And there was John, sitting in the active Chair, his eyes wide, confusion and anxiety on his face.
"What did you do?" Sierra couldn't help but shout. All heads turned to her.
"All I did was sit down," John replied, his voice sounding harassed. "What the hell is goin' on?"
Elizabeth was the one who answered, her eyes still fixed on Sierra. "It appears that you have the Ancient gene, Major," she said, her arms folded across her chest.
"That alien gene that doctor was talkin' about?" Sierra could sense a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
McKay turned back to John. "This is brilliant!" he said excitement lighting his face. "This is great – you're the first one who has been able to activate it so easily. I've gotta do a lot of tests, run a diagnostic, check the feeds – Major, can you just sit still for a moment –"
And suddenly John was out of the Chair. "Whoa," he said dancing away from it. "You are not gonna experiment on me –"
"Of course not," McKay said. "I just need you to sit –"
"Uh uh, not happening," John said, heading towards the elevator. "With all due respect, sir," he added as he passed the general, who didn't try to stop him.
"Major, wait," Elizabeth said, following him to the elevator. Sierra didn't know what she was saying to him as she was feeling uncomfortable under the scrutinizing eyes of Jackson, O'Neill and McKay.
"I'm gonna go…" Unfortunately, Sierra couldn't think of anything she could do and left the sentence hanging, taking the opportunity to make her escape. Out of the corner of her eye she saw O'Neill and Jackson exchange a glance. Sierra headed back to the elevator in time to see John's feet disappear as the lift headed back up to the surface. She soon realized she had headed the wrong direction when Elizabeth turned to face her. The diplomat's eyebrows creased into a slight frown.
"I think we should talk," she said, her voice a little icy. Sierra followed her, her heart dropping. They stepped into Jackson's hovel. "You have it, too, don't you." It wasn't exactly a question and Sierra knew exactly what 'it' was. She nodded. "You should have told me."
"I know," Sierra said. "I know it was wrong of me to hide it, but I –"
Elizabeth cut her off. "Do you know what it is you have? You have the key to unlocking the secrets that this place holds! The secrets of the Ancients." Her voice took on a mystified tone and Sierra was beginning to feel quite guilty. This expedition to Atlantis meant everything to Elizabeth. "I just don't understand why you would hide this… gift."
Sierra sighed. "You've seen the way McKay treats Carson. I really didn't need that." Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Look, I know it sounds stupid and unreasonable, but I just… don't need the extra attention right now."
"I don't understand. Is this about your court marshal trial?" Sierra shrugged, running a hand through her hair. "You do deserve to get off free, Sierra. You did what you did to save the life of a fellow officer, something very noble." Sierra winced. "It's true. And I'm glad that you aren't in prison, because we will need you in Atlantis."
Sierra looked up at her. "You mean, we found it?"
Elizabeth nodded. "We did. It's in another galaxy. And we can go there – soon."
"That's great," Sierra said. "I'm in."
The other woman smiled. "That's good to hear. Just promise me you won't keep any more secrets like this from me again." Sierra was glad to agree. Elizabeth's expression became a little more serious. "Now if only Major Sheppard was easier to convince."
"You asked him?" Elizabeth nodded. "And he said no."
Her face was grim. "Very forcefully. Do you think that you can change his mind?"
Sierra frowned. "You really want him that badly?"
"The more people on this expedition who have the Ancient gene, the more success we have of finding the city and utilizing it. You saw how easily your brother activated the Chair – if you're the same then imagine what kind of doors would open for you. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."
"Alright, alright; I already said yes, didn't I?" Elizabeth smiled. "I'll talk to him. But I can't guarantee anything. He's very stubborn when he wants to be."
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at her. "It runs in the family, I think."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
-----XXX-----
John was standing outside in the snow, next to the entrance to the facility. Sierra handed him a mug of coffee as she came to stand next to him. He took it without a look at her.
"A lot to take in, huh?" Sierra said, casually. "I remember the first time I was told about it. I thought Kerrigan had lost his mind."
"So, that's how you got into all of this, huh? Your old boss?" Sierra glanced sideways at John, who hadn't moved.
"Yep. He got me into flying alien hybrid fighter-ships until I was reassigned here."
"Yeah, why was that?" For the first time, John looked at her. His eyes were back behind his shades again.
A flash of Mitchell rose in her mind, but she quashed it before it became permanent. "You don't wanna know," she said. "Elizabeth told me she asked you to join the expedition. She said you said no."
His expression was suddenly dark. "It's all gettin' too weird for me." He handed her his untouched mug and headed back to the helicopter. She watched him go with extreme disappointment.
-----XXX-----
Sierra was pacing. It was something that the Air Force hadn't been able to order out of her. The staff sergeant on the check-in desk kept glancing at her. She ignored him and looked at her watch for what felt like the hundredth time that hour. Coincidentally, Sierra was waiting for John. She was currently back in Colorado Springs, at the checkpoint to the Mountain.
Sierra knew that John hadn't arrived yet as she had checked with the sergeant. O'Neill had charged her with making sure that her brother made it to the mountain. Apparently he had given the general a none too convincing 'yeah, whatever' at McMurdo and wasn't sure he was going to show. Sierra had called John half dozen times during the two weeks off they had been given to settle everything before they left the neighborhood. She had left him messages, none of which he had returned.
While normally, she would have been steamed about that, she knew he just needed time to come to terms with this new world. Sierra had taken time to come to get used to the fact that they weren't alone in the universe – that there was other life out there. But she wasn't as resistant to abnormal things as John had always been.
Twenty minutes later, Sierra was still waiting. There was only two hours now until they were scheduled to attempt the connection to Atlantis and he still hadn't turned up. She was running out of time. She was debating whether or not to go tell the general that he wasn't coming when the elevator doors opened.
John stepped out, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder, his lips pursed and a frown securely in place. Sierra was surprisingly glad to see him. She offered him a big smile.
"Late, as always," she said.
He lowered his head and ran a hand through his always messy hair, a trademark Sheppard action. "Yeah, traffic was a nightmare." When he looked up again he was smiling. "So," he said. "Off to see the Wizard?"
Sierra smirked. "Yeah, but we aren't going to Oz." They headed towards the elevator that would take them down to the lower levels. "So," she said, a little awkward. "Get everything finalized?"
He cleared his throat a little. "Um, yeah. I kinda haven't been around much to really start anything new, so it didn't take me long."
Sierra nodded, understanding. "Me, too. When I got stationed on the Prometheus, I already settled most of that." There was silence for a few levels. "You call Nancy?"
John growled. "Why would I?"
"She's your ex-wife, John. You don't think that she might wanna know that you're not gonna be around for a while?"
John shrugged. "It's not like there's a kid to think about."
Sierra made a sound of disgust just as the elevator opened. She shook her head and strode out ahead of him. He chased after her.
"Sierra, I'm sorry," he said when he had caught up. She didn't slow her pace. "Look, Nancy and I just aren't like that anymore. Besides, she's probably busy with her job and that Graham guy –"
"His name is Grant, John."
"Whatever, he's a lawyer and I don't like them on principle." Sierra turned to glare at him. "OK, I'm sorry; again. But I don't see the point. She doesn't have to care anymore."
Sierra stopped in the hall and turned to him. "That doesn't bother you?"
John shrugged. "Maybe a little. But I… I know that she hated me keeping secrets from her when we were married. If she asked where I was off to now, she'd hate it even more. She doesn't need to know that I'm going away again and might never be able to come back."
Sierra sighed, understanding. She looked back up at him again. "I take it you didn't call Dad or Dave, either?"
He looked away from her. "No."
Sierra nodded. "I thought not. Good thing I did, then."
John looked back at her, his eyes wide. "Don't worry," she said as she started walking again. "I didn't tell them anything you wouldn't want them to know. I told them that I'd talked to you and that you were doing OK. I said that we were both shippin' out to South Africa and they seemed to accept that."
"By 'accept', you mean 'tolerate'."
Sierra ignored him. "And I think Dad knows by now that neither one of us are going to take over the business. While he may not like what the both of us get up to, at least I take the time to make contact."
"Whoa," he said angrily, blocking her passage. "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"
Sierra leveled him with a hard gaze. "It means, that if you at least made the effort to call him once in a while, then he mightn't hate what you do so much." John shook his head, his eyes sliding to the walls. "He still loves you, John. He always will. The least you could do is try." Sierra moved past him and walked the last few feet to the Woman's locker room.
-----XXX-----
Sierra was helping Dr. Beckett pack his equipment back into its case under the ever-scrupulous gaze of Colonel Sumner. She chanced a glance up at him and found his hard eyes fixed on her. She saw his dislike for her clear in his eyes, though his expression was surprisingly neutral. She had expected this reaction to her presence on this mission.
Sierra had met Colonel Sumner before during the Gulf and knew that he was a second generation military man, his father a general and a war hero in Vietnam. Sumner was also a marine – the most ruthless branch of the military. Marines were trained to follow orders without question, obey and command, fight and die.
Sumner hadn't had a problem with her when they had last met, but Sierra knew that her circumstances had changed. The fact that Sierra had abandoned her post during battle was on her permanent record now, for everyone to see. To someone like Sumner, the fact that she hadn't gone to Leavenworth was the worst kind of blasphemy imaginable.
She managed to tear her eyes away from his and tried to concentrate on what her hands were trying to do. Carson knelt next to her to place a few more items in the box.
"This is going to be a nightmare," she whispered to him under her breath. Carson glanced at her before looking up at the colonel. His eyes dropped back to the equipment.
"I don't think he likes me much either," he whispered. Sierra couldn't help but smile. They soon had everything packed up and Sierra straightened in time to see John walk in. He moved past Sumner, picking up on the colonel's hard glare. John tried to hide his smirk as he came to stand next to Sierra.
"You all set?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah," Sierra breathed. "I take it you've noticed that Colonel Sumner's the one in charge."
John nodded as Dr. Weir marched into the Gate Room. "I think he likes us," he whispered as Elizabeth called for attention. Sierra suppressed a returning smirk as Elizabeth turned to address everyone assembled in the Gate Room.
"Alright, here we go," Elizabeth started. "We are about to try to make a connection. We have been unable to predict exactly how much power this is going to take and we may only get the one chance at this, so if we are able to achieve a stable wormhole, we're not going to risk shutting the Gate down. We'll send in the MALP robot probe, check for viability and go; everything in one shot." Elizabeth paused to look around the room. "Now, every one of you volunteered for this mission and you represent over a dozen countries. You are the world's best and brightest; and in light of the adventure we are about to embark on, you are also the bravest. I hope we all return one day having discovered a whole new realm for humanity to explore, but as all of you know, we may never be able to return home."
Sierra felt her own heart rate accelerating. Adrenaline surged through her system, making her palms sweat as the rested on her P-90. She swallowed the dryness of her throat. Never before had she faced a mission as big as this one. Never before had she been so far from home. This was another galaxy for Christ's sake! What kinds of unimaginable horrors could be lurking on the other end of the wormhole? She took a deep breath to calm herself. This was what she was trained for, after all. Next to her, John was surprisingly composed.
"I'd like to offer you all one last chance to withdraw your participation," Elizabeth continued. There was a moment where Sierra considered actually taking that on. But she knew that there was no where else she could go. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to handle teaching again, not after everything she'd seen. She considered taking Mitchell up on his request for her to stay. But there was no guarantee that she'd stay in Colorado Springs. She doubted that she'd ever be able to request her own assignment again. She'd probably end up back in Antarctica, doing John's old job. No, she'd never be able to go back to her old life. Here, this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. And the best part, John was right there next to her.
Sierra barely heard Elizabeth tell Walter to begin the dialing procedure; she was already turning to John. The colonel's voice from behind him made her freeze.
"Let me make myself clear," he said loud enough for both Sierra and John to hear. "You are not here by my choice."
Sierra saw John roll his eyes. "I'm sure you'll warm up to me once you get to know me, sir," he said, a smirk on his face. Sierra cast a significant glare at him, which he completely ignored.
"As long as you remember who's giving the orders." Sumner's glare turned to Sierra, who swallowed dryly. His eyes held a very different message for her. His gaze broke off and he moved over to where two marines clipped his pack to his vest.
John cast a smug glance at Sierra before saying, "That'd be Dr. Weir, right?" Sierra couldn't believe her ears. She elbowed him in the ribs, but he hardly felt it through the Kevlar vest. Sumner's hard gaze turned to ice.
"Are you insane?" Sierra hissed at him through her teeth. "You want to make our lives a nightmare?"
"Relax, Sierra," he whispered back.
Sierra just gazed at him in disbelief. Then she heard the colonel's voice very close, in her ear.
"You're life will be a nightmare, captain," he said softly. "If I have anything to do with it." A shiver crept down her spine. Sumner moved back to where his men were getting ready.
"Oh, crap," Sierra said to John.
John's eyebrow arched towards his hairline. "Gee, I think he like you more than me."
At that moment, the wormhole connected and the vortex punched itself from the Stargate. John flinched back beside her. She laughed lightly.
"You'll get used to that," she said as the MALP moved toward the event horizon.
"Yeah, right," she heard John whisper back. "So, you used to go through this thing?"
"Yeah," she said. "I've been through it a few times. You'll get the hang of it."
After a moment the colonel led the first team up the ramp, assumingly under an order from the Control Room, as Elizabeth reentered the Gate Room. She and Colonel Sumner moved forwards and disappeared through the event horizon. The first team followed closely behind them. Sierra and John followed Lt. Ford up the ramp and took their places, waiting for the order to proceed.
"What're my chances of survival?" he whispered to Sierra. She saw Ford's uncontained grin behind his back.
"Slim. One in three are never rematerialized." Sierra couldn't help but laugh at his barely controlled expression. "Relax, John, it's perfectly safe." Sierra could honestly admit that she missed making fun of him.
"All clear," came Sumner's report through the radio. "Looks good."
Sierra glanced up at the Control Room and waited for O'Neill's order. "Expedition team, move out."
A frown had formed between John's eyebrows. "What's it feel like?" he asked cautiously.
Sierra shared a glance with Ford before the lieutenant schooled his face into one of seriousness. "Hurt's like hell, sir." Ford's serous face held for another two seconds before he cracked a huge smile and leapt backwards through the wormhole with a 'whe-hee'.
John hesitated until Sierra put an encouraging hand on his back. She watched him take a deep breath and then plunge forward. Sierra paused at the top for a moment before glancing back at the Control Room. O'Neill gave her a gentle nod.
This was it. This was the crucible; the moment that her whole life had led up to. Every decision she had ever made had led her to this point. The ultimate test.
In the fraction of a second that she hesitated, one face rose in her mind. It was Cameron Mitchell's on the first day they met. It was what she was giving up, who she was leaving behind. And then, almost as though she was reading it at that moment, the letter she wrote to him when she left for McMurdo came to her memory, clear as day.
Cameron,
If you're reading this, then I've had leave. At the time I'm writing this, you were lying unconscious in a hospital bed. Something that's no doubt my fault. I wish that I had the courage (and the time) to tell you this in person, but I don't think that I'll be getting that. By now, you've probably heard what I did in Antarctica during the attack from Anubis, so I'm willing to bet that you are very angry with me. But I want you to know why. I did what I did that day because I care about you. A whole lot more than what's allowed. I don't know if you feel the same, but I can't risk knowing. I know that your career means a lot to you, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I was responsible for that too.
I don't know where I'll be by the time you read this, so I want you to know that it's been an honor to serve you. You were the best commanding officer I've had to date. Good luck with your recovery, and with the rest of your life.
Goodbye.
And then she plunged, head first, into a new world.
-----XXX-----
