“I don’t bloody want to sit in that chair, Rodney! I’ve told you that. I’m not the man for that kind of power,” Carson exclaimed.
Kimberly, Mac, and Daniel exchanged amused looks at the by now familiar interaction between Rodney and Carson. Grinning, Kimberly shook her head. “C’mon, Carson. You know we need all the data we can get on the chair, and we can’t do that without having someone who has the gene sit in it and activate the thing. Do it for science,” she teased.
Carson directed his ire in her direction. “Easy for you to say, lass. You don’t have the bloody gene so there’s no chance of you blowing up the base – or worse!”
“For the last. Time. Carson, as long as you don’t think of anything other than what I tell you to think about, you should be fine. So far, I’m pretty sure there’s a conscious mental component to this tech so just-” Rodney groused, obviously irritated that he had to depend on anyone else to do this for him.
“Fine!” Carson exploded, throwing his hands up in the air even as he moved to take a seat in the dreaded chair.
Mac chuckled, then quickly ducked his head at his friend and colleague’s glare. “Right. You’ll be fine, Carson. Just clear your mind.”
Taking a deep breath, Carson settled uneasily in his seat, closing his eyes.
Kimberly tuned out the snippy comments between Rodney and Carson as she continued to take her readings, not that there was much to see. Apparently, Carson was taking their directions of keeping a clear mind to heart. Perhaps a little too well for their purposes. Still, it allowed her to multitask. Nudging Daniel in the side, she cast him a quick grin, murmuring under her breath, “So Jack’ll be here in about half an hour or so.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened slightly, but the faint blush on his cheeks belied any real irritation. “I’m aware,” he said quietly.
Kimberly’s brows knit together as she detected the hint of aggravation and longing in those two simple words. “It’ll be okay, you know,” she said sotto voce. “You two are meant to be.” She was certain of that, even if the men in question appeared to have their doubts. She knew they both loved each other but had never acted on their feelings due to the stupid regulations. “I still say the whole fraternization thing doesn’t apply to you guys. You’re not military,” she pointed out, not for the first time.
Sighing, Daniel ran his hand through his hair, then straightened his glasses after having knocked them askew in the process. “But he is, Kim. I can’t ignore that. Not with both of us in the SGC. We’re still ‘team’.”
Giving her friend an understanding smile, she squeezed his hand. “That why you put in for the expedition?”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah. It’s getting to where it’s just too hard to be around him. I think some space would do us both good.” A sudden distant expression came over his face. One Kimberly knew all too well.
“What is it?” she prodded.
“Space,” Daniel murmured, distracted. “That’s it! Sorry, gotta go.” And with that, Daniel hurried off.
Kimberly wondered what that was about. Glancing at Mac, he merely shrugged as if to say, ‘no idea’, before going back to his readings. Carson’s, “You see? Nothing!” brought her out of her reverie. Looking over her shoulder, she blinked in amazement as Carson stormed out of the chair.
“Carson, get back here,” Rodney said tiredly.
“I can sit in that chair all bloody day long and nothing’ll happen. It’s a waste of time. Excuse me, Dr. Weir,” Carson said as he swiftly walked past her, obviously in a hurry not to get pulled back into the chair for more testing.
“Right,” Mac mumbled under his breath, eyeing Rodney warily. Turning to Kimberly, he rolled his eyes, then nodded to their instruments. “You get anything useful?”
Kimberly refocused on her work and went over her findings with Mac, only vaguely aware of Daniel coming into the room again, only to turn around again, taking Dr. Weir and Rodney with him.
Several minutes passed before Rodney returned, an objecting Carson in tow. “You don’t understand, I break things like this,” Carson tried, looking for all the world as if Rodney were taking him to the gallows rather than the Ancient chair.
“It survived for thousands of years, it’ll survive you. Now sit down, shut up, and concentrate,” Rodney said, pushing Carson into the seat.
“Here we go again,” Mac said on a sigh.
Kimberly bit her cheek to keep from laughing, especially when Carson practically attempted to leap out of the chair when nothing happened.
Rodney pushed him right back into his seat with an admonishing, “This time, imagine where we are in the solar system.”
With a heavy sigh, Carson settled back in the chair and closed his eyes, only to have them pop open in shock when the chair lit up and tilted backward. Kimberly and Mac stared at each other for a moment, then both their heads swiveled to the noise from the other room.
Shouts of, “What the hell?” and “Look out!” were quickly followed by what sounded like an explosion. Pandemonium followed as alarms went off and people tried to figure out what had happened.
“Shit,” Kimberly cursed under her breath, her eyes scanning the screen in front of her. “A drone just launched.”
“Did I do that?” Carson all but squeaked.
“Yes, yes, now shut it down!” Rodney urged.
Elizabeth and Daniel came running into the room. Elizabeth started to talk Carson through the process of calling off the drone while Daniel moved to stand next to Kimberly. Her friend looked a little green around the gills as he watched the screen with the drone’s progress. At the narrow miss with the helicopter, Daniel actually swayed a little.
Kimberly gripped his arm to get his attention. “They’ve been told to land, Daniel. They’ll be fine. Carson’s working on the drone. They’ll be fine,” she repeated.
Nodding, Daniel’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. He didn’t stir until Carson let out a sigh of relief and the confirmation came over the radio that the drone had turned off and the general was safe.
Smiling, Kimberly patted Daniel’s arm. “See? Now, how about we grab some coffee? I could use some after the excitement.” She knew she’d better keep Daniel distracted, at least until Jack arrived on base, or else the man would drive himself crazy, and it was a well-known fact that Daniel survived on coffee.
They left the others behind in search of their treasure, neither of them talking but that was okay. It would be enough for Daniel to have her there. Not until they both had a cup of the bitter liquid in hand did Kimberly speak. “So what was the revelation you had earlier?”
“Hm? Oh!” Daniel grinned. “I figured out what was wrong with the address. I know where Atlantis is.”
Eyes widening, Kimberly stared at her friend. “No way! For real?”
Nodding, Daniel took a sip, then explained about the address being an eight chevron one, not the usual seven. “It’s in another galaxy, Kim. Pegasus, to be precise. And we can go there.” Frowning slightly, he amended his statement. “Theoretically, at least. Jack still has to sign off on it, of course.”
Kimberly was filled with equal amounts of excitement and sadness. She’d been recruited for the expedition months ago, so she knew she’d be going if it ever got the go ahead. But leaving would mean saying goodbye to Daniel, possibly forever if he was right about it being in another galaxy. They’d been friends for years, ever since he’d come to her rescue during an off-world mission. It had been her first time out, and she had yet to learn the nuances of dealing with other cultures. It had led to some misunderstandings that had nearly caused her her head – and she meant that literally – until Daniel had intervened on her behalf.
As much as she knew Daniel wanted to go on the mission to Atlantis, she also knew all too well that Jack would never let him go. She sighed and hugged him awkwardly, mindful of the cups of coffee they were holding. “I’m going to miss you, Daniel,” she said quietly.
Wrapping his arm around her, he kissed the top of her head affectionately. “I know. I’ll miss you, too.”
“General O’Neill incoming,” they overheard someone say as they walked by.
Taking a deep breath, Daniel nodded, pulling himself together. “Right. C’mon.”
She walked Daniel to the elevator where he’d wait for Jack before she headed back to the chair room. Carson and Mac were discussing what had happened earlier, going over the data they’d collected. Joining them, Kimberly soon lost herself in the work until she heard someone say, “So you’re the one!”
Carson paled, presumably because of the rather intimidating man stalking toward them. Mac pulled Carson so the chair was between him and the major as he came closer. Kimberly stepped aside, unsure whether to call for help or not. The major looked pissed, and given what had happened, he had every right to be. Friendly fire was generally not considered a good thing, after all.
“Me?” Carson breathed.
“You’re the one who fired that thing at me,” the major said, glowering.
“Look, we’re doing research, working with technology that’s light-years beyond us,” Carson pleaded, indicating the chair as he continued, “and we make mistakes. I’m incredibly, incredibly sorry.”
The major followed the sweep of Carson’s arm and came to a halt, seemingly equally puzzled and intrigued. He cleared his throat. “Well, next time just be a little more careful, okay?”
The sudden change in demeanor had Kimberly’s attention and she wondered whether he’d really been as upset as he had appeared to be. Especially when he leaned into Carson and conspiratorially asked what that thing that had attacked him was. The look of confusion on the major’s face grew at Carson’s explanation, and she suddenly had the thought that while he had been ferrying the expedition members to and from the outpost, he himself had no clue what was happening here.
Carson apparently had a similar thought as he suddenly paled further. “You do have security clearance to be here?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. General O’Neill just gave it to me.” He held out his hand. “Major John Sheppard.”
“Dr. Carson Beckett. Pleased to meet you. So… you have no idea about the stargate, then?”
“The what?”
“Oh dear.” Carson glanced briefly at Mac, then Kimberly. She shrugged.
Grabbing Mac’s shoulder, she turned him neatly back to the computers and began to go over the information again, looking for any clues they might have missed before about how Carson activated the drone in the first place. She tuned Carson’s explanations to Sheppard out as best she could. She had the feeling they wouldn’t have much more time left in the outpost if Daniel got his way. Not now that he’d figured out the gate address.
Suddenly the room lit up and the computers started to spit out new information. Kimberly and Mac both looked up in shock, turning around to find the major sitting back in the chair, stiff as a rail. “Have you ever seen it do that?” she asked Mac.
“No. Never. Do you think-?”
As one, they refocused on their screens even as Carson went haring out to find Dr. Weir and Rodney. The chair was giving off massive energy readings compared to what it had before and it made Kimberly feel like Christmas had arrived early. Of course, the light display didn’t help much with that impression.
“I thought I told you not to touch anything,” Jack said at the sight of Sheppard in the chair.
“I-I just… sat down, sir,” Sheppard stammered, unmoving.
The general sighed even as Rodney moved to stand in front of Sheppard. “Major, think about where we are in the solar system.” He sounded excited, and with good reason, Kimberly thought.
Above them, a hologram of the solar system popped into existence. Kimberly couldn’t help staring at it, marveling at the detail.
“Did I do that?” Sheppard asked, sounding stunned.
“Yes, you did, now focus,” Rodney said, brusquely. “Wouldn’t want to set off another drone,” he added scathingly, scowling at Carson.
“It was an accident!” Carson explained.
“Right. Major-,” and Rodney went off on a tangent, giving the poor major rapid-fire instructions which he seemed to follow with ease.
Never before had Kimberly seen anyone interact with the chair on the level Sheppard was doing at that moment. It was as if he was one with the device. It was kind of spooky, truth be told, but also very exciting.
Spotting Dr. Weir, Kimberly beckoned her over. Quietly, she pointed at the readings scrolling over her screen. “Dr. Weir, if Atlantis is even remotely like this outpost, we have to have him on the expedition. We need someone with his abilities. The way he’s manipulating this tech, it’s… beyond anything I’ve ever seen before. Not even Peter, Miko, or Carson come even close to what he’s doing.”
Elizabeth nodded, gazing pensively at the major as he was run through his paces by Rodney. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do. Good work, Dr. Smyth.”
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