The day after the excursion to close the Pegasus rift (Hellmouth) AG 1, along with Xander, Cordelia and Faith met in Elizabeth's office.
"So, the immediate priority, to determine if there was indeed a rift and close it, as been satisfied." Xander said. "Some of the things that come thru these rifts are little more then animals, themselves. But some are intelligent. They have language and culture all their own. And like I said, we've learned some of their languages and they've learned some of ours. But it doesn't stop them from wanting to eat us, any more then it stops the Wraith. So now, we go on to the next step. Our Command has scientists studying the rifts we can't close and language and cultural experts studying the languages and cultures of the creatures. We had to make closing that rift a priority because there is always the possibility that one of them could figure out how to use the Stargate. Just burying the gate on that moon or removing it might have been enough, but what if other, unsuspecting humans went there? They'd be in danger. But now that we know the Ancients were responsible for the rifts in the first place, we need to study Atlantis' database, to see what they have in there that relates to the creatures and the rifts. It'll likely be a long term project and neither you, nor our Command have anyone to spare to do the research."
"But our group does. We're going to loan you, Dawn Summers. She's 23 and she just finished a dual bachelors in ancient languages and cultures. Earlier I told AG 1, that we raised Dawn after her mother and sister died. They died nine years ago within weeks of each other. Dawn's mother, Joyce, died from a brain aneurysm after surgery to remove a brain tumor. Her sister, Buffy, was part of our group. She died helping repel an incursion. Some of the creatures had snatched Dawn. Buffy sacrificed herself to save her sister. Dawn was injured. We pulled her out of school for awhile, to recover emotionally and physically. Tara McClay, our group's therapist, has evaluated her and written a report for our Command that she's fit and can handle a long term project. She'll be here in a couple of days. Faith's going to stick around until the end of summer too, in case we run into anymore. Standing orders on Faith and Dawn are the same as on myself or Cordelia or Jesse. No blood draws or tissue samples. Any questions?"
"Yes, why do you refuse blood draws and tissue sampling?" Elizabeth asked.
"We all have anomalies. Faith because of her augmentation. Cordelia, Jesse and myself have some difference's that you're not cleared to know about. And Dawn was the result of an experiment that her mother didn't knowingly participate in. Our Command is aware of all of them and has no issues with them. But that doesn't mean that there aren't others out there that want to study those anomalies, with or without our permission. Jesse was nearly kidnapped two years ago by people from the NID wanting to do just that. Consequently, the President himself, has Classified us and our group, as protection. We have our own means of evaluating our health and as long as reports are filed and we maintain our health and those anomalies aren't a threat, it'll stay that way. Any other questions?"
There weren't and everyone went about their business. Cordelia returned to the labs to continue helping activate devices. Faith had seen something she liked and decided on a sparring session to test out Ronan. Xander and Sheppard went to play with the hoverbike for awhile, until the next scheduled off world trip. Everything was going fine. Until the hologram appeared in front of Xander again.
"Alexander Harris-Chase, I must inform you that Jesse Harris-Chase and Toran Emmagan have encountered a difficulty. An unsafe section of flooring has collapsed beneath them. I am unable to sound an alert, my sensors are malfunctioning in that sector."
"What sector?" Sheppard asked and they were informed that ii was a sector that had been damaged during a Wraith attack, they had thought it had been completely repaired. Apparently, something was missed. They both raced for Elizabeth's office to tell her. She immediately sent out several people, including Xander and Sheppard to check the area and called Rodney to help. Cordelia came with and Teyla was notified as well. Terrified of what they'd find, they hurried to the area Atlantis directed them to.
What they found was that both boys had fallen through the floor and more than a story down. They appeared to be unconscious. Hopefully, just unconscious. They immediately began checking the area and finally determined that the best bet would be to lower someone on a rope and a stretcher on a rope as well. The person lowered on the rope would move them onto the stretcher. Carson placed two neck braces on the stretcher and Sheppard was lowered down, with Xander and Faith holding the ropes. He was able to get a brace on both boys and seeing that Toran had a broken arm, moved him onto the stretcher first. He was safely lifted up and whisked away to the infirmary for a scan by Carson. Sheppard headed back down. He could see that Jesse had woken up. He was nearing him when the rope suddenly broke. It hadn't handled rubbing against sharp metal well. Sheppard felt himself falling and then stop abruptly and hang in mid air. Jesse was staring at him.
"Are you okay, Colonel?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah, I think so. Not sure how I'm doing this."
"You're not. I am. I'll lift you up, okay?" Jesse told him.
"Yeah sure, go ahead."
Jesse lifted Sheppard up to the opening and he was quickly grabbed by Ronan. Jesse climbed onto the stretcher and passed out. He was carefully lifted up as well.