Jack trotted to keep up. He sidled into the lift, dodging a passing pallet loader. Carter already leaned up against the back wall of the lift to greet the sole other passenger, a large black man with a bold golden tattoo stenciled on his forehead. She pushed her shades up on the top of her head, revealing sharp eyes that scanned him briefly before focusing on her companion. Though Jack reached his hearing towards them, her voice was too soft for Jack to pick up the guy's name. Jack picked an empty wall and adopted a similar relaxed stance, subtly stretching his spine after the long helicopter ride. The doors didn't close, though no one else approached. Jack looked at Carter and her friend to see if they were expecting anyone, but neither seemed to notice. Faced with the prospect of interrupting their conversation to ask, Jack opted for pressing the door-close button instead. Slowly, the heavy metal doors obliged.
"Hold up, man," the big guy warned behind him. "We got one more-"
"Wait!" a shout came from outside the elevator, heralding the arrival of a tall man in glasses and a denim jacket. The latecomer slid awkwardly between the closing doors, lugging a large, bulky container in his arms. He recognized Carter and her conversation partner immediately. "Oh, hey, Sam. Teal'c."
The doors closed, cutting out the din from the roof and shutting them in with the sudden silence. The stranger turned to rest against the wall opposite Jack, box sloshing ominously. Inquisitive eyes examined Jack from behind wide glasses, and narrowed slightly before realizing that Jack was someone new, and not someone he simply forgot to recognize. "Hi! I'm Daniel. Daniel Jackson."
"Jack O'Neill," Jack returned; the man seemed a little less frosty than Carter, which came as a relief. He searched for a point of conversation, as the lift descended at a snail's pace. "Whatcha got there?"
Daniel's brows lifted, as though confused, then lowered in consternation when he remembered what he held in his hands. "Oh, the box! It's a kaiju tissue sample. Very rare. I just got to San Diego a month ago, so some of my samples are still trickling in. I mean, I'm not new here, I was K-Science at this Shatterdome for years before I got loaned out to Russia to help them study the Category 2 they felled there last year."
Jack grinned at the scientist's propensity to ramble. "So what's that, a souvenir?" He looked pointedly at the box.
"Ah, no. This isn't from Koschei, it's from..." Jackson dropped off abruptly, shooting a glance towards Teal'c, who slid a meaningful look towards Carter, who in turn ignored both of them, her eyes fixed on the floor counter over the doors. "It's from another kaiju. It doesn't matter."
An awkward silence filled the space, pressing in on Jack until Teal'c stepped forwards to introduce himself.
"Hey, man, I'm Teal'c. Welcome to San Diego." He extended a broad hand to Jack, and matched it with a warm smile. "I'm the kwoon master for the Shatterdome. You'll be seeing me tomorrow to be evaluated against your copilot."
"Nice to meet you," Jack returned, shaking the man's outstretched hand. Teal'c's grin was broad and genuine; Jack instantly liked him, but the doors chose that moment to open, canceling any further opportunity for elevator chit chat. Jackson and Teal'c both moved for the door, while Carter remained firmly in place. "Guess I'll be seeing you around then."
"Absolutely. You need anything, you let me know," Teal'c affirmed.
"You'll probably see less of me," Jackson offered in lieu of a handshake. "But the door's open if you want a tour of K-Science."
"I might just take you up on that," Jack returned. "Later."
The doors closed, leaving Jack alone with the ever quiet Carter. He thought she'd looked a little more relaxed while talking with Teal'c, but now she was as rigid as ever. He considered his options, and smoothly bypassed silence. "What was all that about?" he asked. "With the sample?"
"He was trying to be considerate," came her succinct response. "Not all the personnel here likes to know there are pieces of Athos floating around Deck 10."
Jack inhaled sharply. News arrived slowly at the Academy, but word of Athos and the devastation it wrought had come the fastest. On May 1st, 2021, two Jaegers had met Athos at the miracle mile. Neither returned to base. It wasn't the first time a Jaeger had fallen to a Kaiju, but Hiroshi's Sabre had been hot off the manufacture line, the cutting edge of Jaeger technology. It's partner, Whiskey Blue, had the highest kill rate in the fleet. Its pilots were legends. Hiroshi had fallen first, unprepared for the unprecedented might of Athos. When Whiskey was disabled, the reports claimed that its remaining pilot had overloaded the reactor, and channeled the energy towards Athos. It worked, burning a hole straight through the beast's chest, but Whiskey immolated in the process. What remains the crews could retrieve were little more than a charred husk.
Athos was later reclassified as a Category 3, the first of many that later emerged. The event was known in the corps as the May Day Massacre, the key fact that had escaped Jack's realization initially, was that the event had occurred just off the shores of the San Diego Shatterdome. Both of the lost Jaegers had belonged to this very Shatterdome; many of the personnel here had likely watched the event unfold live, seen their compatriots destroyed on screen. Whispers along the coast suspected May Day marked the beginning of the decline for the Jaeger Program. When more Cat 3's poured through the Breach, and the Jaegers struggled to defeat them, global leadership had begun thinking of other solutions, until the Academy had been the ghost building he'd left that morning.
"I'm sorr-" His apology was interrupted by the buzz of the car stopping, opening doors to an unfamiliar deck.
Carter shoved off the bulkhead sharply, brushing past him. "This is our stop." His condolences weren't acknowledged in the slightest. "This way," Carter instructed, even though Jack was already following her from the lift. Around them were the sounds of work. Metal clanging, voices buzzing, and machines whirring all mingled together in the wide open space.
"Teal'c's a little young to be kwoon master, isn't he?" Jack commented, carefully steering the conversation away from Athos and May Day. He quickened his pace until he came abreast of her. "He's nice. I didn't expect that from a kwoon master." Ranger Montgomery "Mustang" Rogers, for example, had ruled the Academy kwoon with a graying beard and the assistance of the sage proverbs he'd gleaned from the martial disciplines he taught.
Carter turned her body to dodge a forklift that edged a little too close to walkway, and smoothly sidestepped an engineer whose vision was blocked by the coils of duct piping piled high in his arms. "Kwoon Masters come in all forms. He's a former pilot himself."
"Really?" Jack tried not to let his incredulity show. Carter hummed in affirmation.
"Andromeda Rex. And he was damn good at it. When he lost his copilot, he chose not to take another one. We're lucky he stuck around. He's one of the best kwoon masters we've ever had. You could learn a lot from him."
"I'm good in the kwoon," Jack protested, stung by the implied insult.
Carter cast him a sideways glance. "My observation was a comment to Teal'c's ability, not yours. You wouldn't be here if you weren't fully capable."
Now that they had cleared the main area of the bay, her long stride slowed considerably. Jack took the opportunity to look around. Though they didn't say a word now, the air around them felt tight with sound. Constant noise drummed against Jack's ears; technicians called to each other, voices clamoring over the cacophony of drilling whirs and buzzing engines. After the solitude of the Academy, the sounds of life was distracting. Gear stacked high in latched storage boxes towered along painted driving lanes, their contents noted in the alpha numeric codes stenciled on their fronts and lids. Some of the designations were familiar from his engineering classes at the Academy, but the majority were as foreign as the bodies moving around them. Turning, he walked backwards for several paces to scan the area they'd just passed. What he had originally thought was a wall now glinted as he paced backwards, but before he could investigate further, Carter called to him.
"Here," she said, raising the safety grate on another lift.
"Another elevator?" he quipped, slipping past her to duck into the space, which was significantly smaller than the ride down from the roof. Carter entered after him, letting the grate slam shut before toggling the switch to take them up.
"You're more than welcome to take the stairs next time, but you'll thank me later."
Jack was ready to thank her by the time they passed Deck 8. Eight flights of stairs wouldn't have been fun with his seabag across one shoulder, no matter how fit he was. They stopped three floors later on Deck 11 and stepped off. Without Carter's fingers on the switch, the bucket began its slow descent to its starting floor. All attempts at conversation died before Jack could start them, consumed by the sudden apprehension churning in his gut. He followed Carter along the catwalk that coursed along the inner wall of what he now realized was one of the turrets sitting on the corner of the Shatterdome. His thoughts turned to that dark glint he'd spotted on the ground; he now knew that it belonged to the Jaeger he'd be piloting. He hadn't seen much- just a dark wall tall enough for the mechanics to need a forklift to reach the top. Part of the boot, he realized.
"Here she is," Carter announced. She guided them to a small section of the catwalk that widened to accommodate either people or equipment without impeding normal traffic. It seemed unnecessary at the moment- there was no one to interrupt them as they sidled up to the rail. It overhung the main area they'd just wound their way through and from here, the chaos of lanes and boxes and people were impeccably mapped, designed for clear efficiency. Most importantly, their vantage granted them an unobstructed view of the most beautiful Jaeger Jack had ever seen. Jack's heart leapt to his throat as he stepped up to the rail, eyes glued to the magnificent sentinel standing tall before him. "This," Carter said, "is Belladonna Banshee."