Still own nothing. This is in the future a little, so the F-304 is of course an upgrade of the F-302.
Thanks to DaniWilder for your thoughts and encouragement, and pestering me to try to write something.
Rodney sat at his customary station in the control room, eagerly waiting for the gate to activate. There was no doubt in his mind that the chevrons around the giant sphere embedded in the floor below would soon begin to glow. He had written the macros himself, and despite the fact that they were infinitely more complex than the mini programs he'd designed for the first gate bridge, he knew they were perfect and foolproof.
"How come you waited so long to try it again, Daddy?"
Rodney looked up from the diagnostic he'd been running in a vain attempt to keep his mind off the test and found his nine year old daughter sitting in the chair beside him. He glanced at the screen before asking for some clarification. "How come I waited so long to try what?"
Teylanna motioned towards the gate with her right small hand. "The bridge, Daddy," she replied as though the subject of her query should have been obvious to her father. "The Carter/McKay Intergalactic Gate Bridge," she recited with far too much ease for one so young. "Why did you wait so long to try it again?"
Rodney swiveled his chair around so that he could face his daughter. "Actually it was called the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge." He paused as his daughter's face came dangerously close to mimicking Jennifer's whenever he corrected her. "Well it's important to be correct and precise when asking someone a question, isn't it?"
"But that's what Auntie Sam called it" Teylanna innocently informed him with a slight frown on her lips.
"She…well I…wait until," Rodney stammered comically, at least he was sure it would have been comical to anyone who might have been listening. "Okay, for the record, it was McKay/Carter. Second, the reason it's taken so long is, well, there are a lot of reasons."
Teylanna's eyes caught fire as they always did when she was ready to absorb information. She grabbed the console and pulled on it to move herself in closer to her father. "Like what, Daddy?"
Rodney couldn't help but smile proudly at her excitement. He leaned in closer to his daughter and brought up the gate system on the display screen. "It isn't easy finding the right amount of normally unused gates to make the system. It took a while find the gates and make sure their planets were uninhabited and had been for a while. Then a new station had to be built…"
"Midway," Teylanna said, and she felt bubble of pride pop in her chest when her father gave her an approving nod.
"That's right," he confirmed. "And after the trouble last time we wanted to make sure that this Midway has defensive shields and weapons. We even wanted a small fleet of F-304s aboard." He gave her a challenging look and asked, "And what does that mean?"
Teylanna thought for a moment and then took a deep breath, saying as she exhaled, "It would need shield generators, which would take up a lot of room. And the F-304s would need a hangar bay, and the ships would need pilots who would need living space." She gazed into her father's waiting eyes. "So it would have to be a lot bigger than the first Midway."
"Very good," replied Rodney. "It takes a lot of time and resources to build a space station of any size, let alone a large one a long way away from Earth and Atlantis." He checked the diagnostic and said, "The most important thing we had to do though, was create macros for the gates along the travel route that couldn't be tampered with. The macros have to be secure, which takes testing and time, time that I didn't have. I've been very busy with things around here." He reached over and touched the tip of her nose with his finger as he added with a smile, "Like you."
Teylanna's giggle was immediately drowned out by the gate activation alert and people seemed to appear out of thin air to man each and every station around them.
Rodney turned and studied the screen as the gate exploded to life. A tech informed the room at large that an IDC was being received and excitement began building within him in earnest. A moment later, he stood and watched as four people came through the gate.
Teylanna ran to the rail to see and immediately jump up and down in excitement. "Colonel Cadman!" she yelled before running towards the stairs that connected the gate room to the control room.
"Teylanna!" yelled Rodney just before she was about to bound down over the stairs. The little girl stopped and turned to look towards him. He fixed her with a stern look and said, "No running."
She nodded and then carefully walked down the stairs and towards Colonel Laura Cadman. "Hi, Colonel Cadman," Teylanna said as she approached the older woman.
"Well hello there, Tey," replied Laura with a smile as wide as it was heartfelt. She knelt down in front of the excited little girl and reached into her tac vest. "I think I have something here that belongs to you." She pulled her hand from the vest and in her hand was an Athosian doll. "Your Aunt Jeannie said you left it at her house."
"Sally!" shrieked Teylanna as she snatched the doll from Cadman's hand. She hugged the doll into her chest for a moment before launching herself at the older woman, wrapping her arms around the Marine's neck in a hug that was far too strong for a normal nine year old.
Rodney moved to the railing and watched the scene with a satisfied warmth in his chest.
"You've made her day," said Jennifer as she joined him at the rail. She cuddled into his right side and as his arm went around her shoulder she asked, "How'd you manage it?"
Rodney gave his wife a gentle yet entirely smug grunt and said, "It took hours and hours of planning, crunching numbers and putting pieces into place. It worked perfectly, of course, as I knew it would."
There was silence for a moment and then Jennifer said, "You asked Jean to give it to Laura?"
Rodney held onto his bravado for a moment and then sighed. "Jeannie sent a message telling me that she sent it to the SGC," he replied sullenly. "I knew Cadman was coming on the new bridge, so I sent her message asking her to pick it up before coming through the gate."
Jennifer leaned upward and gave her husband a gentle kiss on the cheek. "That was incredibly thoughtful and wonderful of you."
"Well, that's me isn't it?" he replied with his typical self-importance. "Thoughtful and wonderful."
Jennifer gave him the small laugh she knew he was expecting and then turned to watch Cadman pick up her daughter and walk towards the stairs. "It can be."
