It's only just beginning: chapter 3
Title: It's only just beginning
Author: Betty (sarah_jones on lj)
Fandoms: Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Primeval, JAG, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Animorphs & Angel
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters or fandoms. I wish I did… *g* I don’t make any money with this! I’m just writing the story for fun and hope someone else will enjoy it, too.
Summary: The story starts after the Stargate Atlantis season finale. There will be new enemies and new adventures, as well as new characters from other fandoms. Old enemies and older characters will return as well.
chapter 1, chapter 2, timeline for all chapters
The next chapter is ready. I hope you like it.
If you read my Colonial Crossover fic some things might seem familiar. Ancient devices are just such a nice way to bring people to Atlantis… *g*
chapter 3:
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Day 6: Atlantis - Rodney’s lab:
John walked into Rodney’s lab, which they had temporarily turned into the head quarter for the observation of the new recruits simulations. Rodney hadn’t been pleased about it as he could be doing so much more important things, but after the scientist started protesting and whining General O’Neill had given him a direct order. John had the feeling that the General had been rather pleased with himself when he managed to make Rodney’s life a little bit more miserable. Not that John could blame him. He might have done the same himself. Annoying Rodney was a nice way to pass time.
“How are they doing so far?” John asked.
Rodney glanced up at his friend and shrugged. “As expected. Some do well, others don’t.” He honestly wasn’t that interested in the new recruits. He probably wouldn’t spend much time with them anyway. And besides, he had other stuff to do. There were still repairs that needed to be done in the city after the battle with the Wraith a few weeks ago. Then there were ancient devices he needed to check out, security measures that needed updating, … But instead he had to watch soldiers play war games and measure their shots, hits, misses, observe their techniques, etc. As if he knew much about military techniques. Well, he guessed that was why they were taping the whole thing, and why Cadman was sitting in front of the other screen. He shivered slightly. Just being in the same room with her made him feel itchy. She just had a way of getting under his skin - literally! Why did she have to come back? Well, he supposed that it was logical after the SGC was gone. He sighed, not wanting to think about that.
“Rodney is right, some recruits are really good. And some aren’t,” Laura Cadman said. One in particular wasn’t good at all. How did he make it here in the first place?
“Lieutenant Cane almost got his CO ‘killed’ a minute ago,” she added.
“Ah, that one,” John muttered, remembering the lieutenant from his sparring with Teyla.
“I can’t wait to kick him out,” he admitted.
Laura grinned. She was glad to hear that. The arrogant git had tried to chat her up during almost every break until she made it very clear to him that he was overstepping his boundaries and that he would be sent home if he even spoke a single word to her again. Not that she had that kind of authority, but the guy didn’t seem to realize that. Besides, the military didn’t like relationships, serious or casual. Flirting with her wouldn’t make a good impression.
“Good, his attempts to chat me up were getting on my nerves already,” she stated.
Rodney’s head snapped around, looking at her. “He was flirting with you?” he asked.
“Oh come on, Rodney, don’t sound so surprised. Some guys actually do like me.”
Rodney frowned and blushed a little. He hadn’t meant that no one would like to flirt with her. Of course men liked her. She was pretty after all, and not nearly as annoying as he first thought she was.
“Of course they do…,” Rodney stammered.
John chuckled slightly. Somehow being around Rodney and Cadman was always fun.
Rodney quickly turned back to his screen, trying to find something to do besides thinking about Cadman and her admirers. He somehow didn’t like the thought, which was ridiculous. He didn’t even like her. Cadman was annoying, bossy and tried to control everything - including his body while she was stuck in it. And besides that, he loved Jennifer and they were together now. Jennifer was beautiful, kind-hearted, brilliant, strong,…
Rodney’s eyes fixed on the screen. Then he pressed a few buttons, going through every camera.
“Crap.”
John's head snapped around to face Rodney. He so hated that word. Whenever someone said ‘crap’ things were going to turn real bad real soon.
“What is it?”
“Team 2 is gone,” Rodney answered. “And yes, I checked every possible corridor and room they could be in. They are nowhere near the place I last saw them in and I only looked away for a second!”
John frowned and stepped next to Rodney, looking at the screen himself.
“I don’t see them either,” Cadman called.
“They can’t just disappear. Where were they last? Are there any transporters nearby?” John asked.
Rodney pointed at a spot and shook his head. “No.”
“Crap,” John agreed. He was starting to get a bad feeling.
“Go back through the recordings to when they were last on screen.”
Before Rodney could do that a part of the wall in one of the corridors moved. He zoomed in on that camera and saw Captain Becker standing in the doorway.
“A hidden door,” John muttered. Hidden doors and secret rooms were never a good thing in Atlantis. His thoughts were confirmed when the cities alarm went off about a second later.
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Day 6: Atlantis corridor:
Jack left the conference room with a sigh of relief. He was glad that the meeting with the new IOA representatives was over. He hated meetings and the IOA always had a lot of useless suggestions to make. He considered it a waste of time to even listen to them in the first place. But he knew he had to. It was all a matter of international cooperation and trust. Jada jada ja… Well, he might not like it, but he had to try and keep everyone happy, which was why a lot of the new recruits were from other countries and he had agreed to give the Russians and Chinese whole teams. It made them get off his back and it was better than having Russians on any other team. They simply were bad luck. And he knew his clone for the very least would be happy if today was the last time he had a Russian on his team. He smirked a little and started wondering how it would be to have a younger version of himself under his command. Well, it could be amusing, as he knew exactly what would annoy him, like the Russians for example.
Jack hadn’t even made it halfway back to his new office when the alarm went off. Great, just what he needed. Why couldn’t things stay quiet for a few days at least? They had their hands full enough as it was.
He started to jog towards the control room.
“What is it?” he called when he finally made it there.
Sam stepped towards him and tapped her radio.
“Apparently one of the new recruit teams found a secret room,” she answered Jack, letting him know what John just informed her about.
“Of course they did,” Jack muttered sighing. Why wasn’t he surprised? “Let me guess, something in that room was dangerous and the recruits touched it.”
“Probably. Colonel Sheppard, Rodney and Lt. Cadman are on their way to check it out right now. We don’t have cameras in the room behind the hidden door, so we don’t really know what’s going on,” Sam answered.
“Right. So it could just be a security alarm or a malfunction,” Jack said trying to sound hopeful.
Sam smirked, looking slightly amused, but Jack knew that she didn’t really believe it. Neither did he. Why should they get lucky today?
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London 2008:
Stephen Hart stood in the room, his eyes fixed on the door, through which he could see Nick Cutter looking in. He didn’t really want to look anywhere else. He saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. He knew that it couldn’t be anything good. Probably the Smilodon, a dinosaur, one of the future predators, or anything else that was ready to eat him.
So this was it, he thought. He had faced danger so many times and always gotten away. But not this time. He was going to die in a matter of minutes, probably even seconds. There just was no way out of this. He had known it when he went into the room to lock the creatures in. He didn’t want to die, but he couldn’t let Nick do it. And there was no other way. The only possibility was to lock the room from the inside and Helen would never have done it, even though this was her mess. He frowned. How could he have been stupid enough to trust her? She had lied to him the whole time and he just didn’t see it. He guessed it served him right that he paid the price for his stupidity now.
Something came closer and jumped. Stephen instinctively moved out of the way. Death might be inevitable, but he couldn’t just give in. And even more importantly he could not let himself get eaten in the line of sight of his friend Nick Cutter.
It however didn’t take long until one of the creatures got him. Pain shot through him as claws grazed his arm. He stumbled and fell to the ground. Something was looming over him, but before it could strike another even bigger prehistoric animal jumped on it and they started to fight. This had been the plan. Get all the creatures into one room and let them fight and eat each other. Too bad he was in the middle of it all!
Something roared. Other animals moaned. And a lot of them were coming his way now. The smell of his blood was announcing him as easy prey.
His heart was pounding loudly as Stephen slowly got to his feet, trying not to make any sudden movements. He had to get away, just a few more steps. He couldn’t risk that Cutter could still see him.
Stephen made a step backwards, trying to ignore the knowledge that that could be just as deadly as stepping forward, towards the approaching Smilodon with its huge sabre-tooths.
Then there suddenly was a bright light. Stephen shielded his eyes reflexively, just as something hit him in the side and knocked him a few feet away. He groaned, holding his bleeding arm. His head and chest were hurting from the impact. For a moment he wondered if he should just stay on the ground, eyes closed. Maybe it would be better if he didn’t see it coming, whatever it was that would kill him.
But then he remembered the light. Where did it come from? Could it be an anomaly? Could he be that lucky? He opened his eyes just as shots were fired. The Smilodon was inches from him, but someone shot at it and the huge tiger turned towards the firing, obviously distracted.
Stephen blinked and pushed himself up slightly. What was going on? Who was shooting? And where the hell was he? This didn’t look like the room he was in just seconds ago, even though there were still a lot of creatures around.
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Day 6: Atlantis - team 2:
The device was emitting some sort of light waves. Judging by the blaring alarm that wasn’t a good thing.
Mac backed away from the device and then glanced at Becker. She had no clue if this was part of the simulation. Jack had warned them that anything could happen. So this could be part of the simulation. She was sure that everyone in the building could hear the alarm, but that might just be to confuse them. She could contact Colonel Sheppard over the radios they had been given, but they were told to only use them in emergency situations and Mac wasn’t willing to risk making a bad move by asking for help if nothing really bad was happening… yet. Okay, a device was emitting light waves. So what? No one was injured or dead, light wasn’t dangerous - unless it was combined with some sort of radiation. Crap, she had no idea what to do.
“Let’s move back. Leave the room.” They didn’t know what the device was for or how to shut it down. If it was really something bad that had nothing to do with the simulation someone would come soon. In the meantime her priority was to keep her team safe.
Becker moved out of the room first, his fake p-90 raised, checking for anything dangerous. “Clear,” he called. Rachel was close behind him, then the other two left the room as well. They all moved away from the room a little, then waited.
Becker looked at Colonel MacKenzie, waiting for orders on what to do next.
Mac glanced at her team members, trying to decide on what to do next, when she suddenly heard a voice over her radio.
“This is Colonel Sheppard. Colonel MacKenzie, please leave the room you are in. Don’t touch anything! I repeat, don’t touch anything! This is not part of the simulation. We’re on our way.”
Mac sighed slightly. At least she knew now that the simulation was over. It might not be a good sign that one of her team member triggered an alarm, but at least she knew the facts now and could move on from there.
“Understood, Colonel,” she answered tapping her radio. “We’re in the corridor already.”
“Good. Wait there.”
“Got it,” Rachel said. She had heard Sheppard as well.
“What do you think the device is?” she then asked the others. It had looked strange. Everything here was strange, but that device just kind of screamed ‘alien’ to her. Humans didn’t build stuff like that, did they? Not where she was from. Or at least that was what she thought. She sighed. If this actually had something to do with aliens things probably would turn bad soon. But a part of her was starting to feel excited. This really did feel right.
Becker shrugged at Rachel’s question. He had no idea. Then his eyes fell on Cane.
“Where are you going, mate?” Jason’s arm shot out and he held Cane back. The guy was actually trying to sneak back towards the room they just left; and that after they had been ordered to stay away.
“Get off me! I just want to take a look. Maybe it turned itself off already,” Cane said.
“Don’t move, Lieutenant,” Colonel MacKenzie ordered in a firm voice, not looking happy at all.
Becker understood her frustration. Cane was worse than even any of the team he had to protect while working at the Arc. He sighed. He didn’t really want to think about Connor, Abby, and the rest of them. He actually missed them. Maybe he should have just refused to come here and keep doing the job he was doing. He had tried to tell his father that he was happy where he was, that his work at the Arc was important. But his father had said that this was a matter of international importance and that he would be stupid not to go. Besides, he had pulled all kinds of strings to get his son this opportunity. How could he say no to that?
Becker pushed away his thoughts when he heard footsteps approaching. Then there suddenly was another bright light. He shielded his eyes for a moment. When the light faded and he opened his eyes again all hell broke loose.
Becker didn’t hesitate a second. The corridor was full of prehistoric animals as well as two predators. He might not have expected to see dinosaurs or future predators today, but that didn’t matter. He fired his weapon, just to realize that he was only holding a simulator gun.
“Crap!” he cursed and threw the damn thing at one of the approaching creatures. The next second gun shots erupted.
“What the hell?” Lt. Colonel John Sheppard muttered as he approached. He was expecting all kinds of weird stuff when the alarm went off, but not prehistoric animals inside of the city!
John stepped in front of the new recruits, Cadman right beside him. Firing their p-90’s they concentrated on eliminating the threat before asking any more questions. Luckily they had come the way they did or they would have been separated from the recruits by the animals. That so wouldn’t have been good as they had no real weapons to defend themselves with.
When the shots were fired the creatures started rushing off down the corridor. One huge tiger however stayed back. It was right next to a person, but looked in their direction.
John kept a close eye on the tiger while tapping his radio. “We have dangerous animals in the city. Some prehistoric as far as I can tell," he announced.
“What?” came General O’Neill’s answer. “Are you trying to tell me we have dinosaurs in the city?”
“Yes, sir! They are on the loose.”
Rodney McKay glanced over Cadman’s shoulder at the very, very big tiger. He had his gun in hand, but was too stunned to move. What was a tiger doing in Atlantis?
Becker snatched the gun from the stunned looking man and stepped next to Lt. Cadman.
“Hey,” Rodney protested, but then fell silent. It probably was better to leave the shooting to the military anyway. He had gotten better at it over the years, but he still wasn’t the best shooter.
Becker ignored the protesting man and fired the gun.
“Try not to hit the man,” John called while firing as well and ignoring General O’Neill’s voice over the radio.
“A little busy here," he replied.
The tiger was hit several times, but it still came towards them. It leaped and Becker pushed the others out of the way just in time.
The Smilodon landed a few feet away, bleeding heavily, but was still alive. It turned and faced the group of people huddled on the ground.
Rachel was a bit further away from the rest. She really hated that she didn’t have a weapon. This sucked. For a moment she wondered if she should morph. Would she be fast enough? Or would she risk exposing her big secret for nothing? The others would shoot the tiger, right? But they were all huddled together, in a mess of arms and legs and not moving fast enough. Instinctively Rachel moved forward and reached out with her hand. The tiger was looking away from her, fixated on the prey in front of him. Rachel touched the tiger and started acquiring it, which made the tiger fall into the acquiring trance and gave the others a few more moments to recover.
Shots were fired and the Smilodon finally collapsed.
John Sheppard stood up, still holding his p-90 tightly, but the tiger didn’t move anymore. It was dead.
“Where the hell did they come from?” John asked frowning.
Becker had a pretty good idea where they came from, but wasn’t sure if he should say anything. The anomaly research was still top secret after all. Besides, he hadn’t actually seen an anomaly, had he? Maybe he just made the wrong conclusions because of his previous job? There was no anomaly that would bring all those different creatures here together, was there?
John didn’t really expect an explanation. It probably had to do with something ancient. It usually did. Without another word he moved towards the secret room. The door had closed again. John placed his hand against the wall and moved forward. Once he was at the right spot the door opened. He frowned. Some sort of light waves were looming around a device.
“Rodney, get over here!”
Rodney didn’t have to be told twice.
“Check this out and turn it off!” John ordered the scientist. “Cadman, you stay with him. I’m going after the animals.”
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Mac looked after Colonel Sheppard as he walked towards the hidden room. She was still trying to process what she just saw. There was a huge tiger and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs!!! They had to be fake. High tech models, or holograms. But they bled! Jack had told them to expect anything, but she hadn’t thought he meant it like that. On the other hand Colonel Sheppard seemed to be as surprised as she was. Or well, at least he didn’t seem to have expected dinosaurs. He however seemed to recover more quickly than her.
Rachel looked down at the dead tiger. This so wasn’t a normal tiger. It was huge and surely even more deadly than Jake’s usual tiger battle morph. She quickly pushed away the thoughts of her cousin and instead looked around. She had no idea where the animals suddenly came from, especially as there were dinosaurs among them. And they definitely were dinosaurs. She knew what dinosaurs looked like. She had been in the past and even acquired and morphed dinosaurs, so she knew one when she saw it.
The dinosaurs however weren’t the only ones that suddenly appeared. There was a man as well. He was just getting up and didn’t look too well. His arm was bleeding and he seemed a little unsteady on his feet. Rachel rushed to his side quickly.
“You okay?” she asked.
Stephen was glad when a hand steadied him. He felt a little dizzy, probably hit his head when one of the creatures knocked him around. Once he stood still he started to feel a little better. His vision came back completely and his eyes focused on the woman by his side. Wow, she was beautiful! He blinked, but she was still there.
“Way better than expected,” Stephen answered and smiled. He wasn’t dead, so that was good. It actually was a miracle. He still had no idea how he got out of a locked room full of creatures from the past and future. It couldn’t have been an anomaly, could it? He would have had to go through it. And besides, anomalies appeared suddenly, but they didn’t just close again seconds later.
Mac approached the two of them. “How did you get here?” she asked, trying to find some sort of explanation for all of this.
“I honestly have no idea,” Stephen answered the dark haired woman that came closer.
Hearing voices Becker was pulled out of his thoughts. He had been looking at the huge tiger, wondering if he should tell these people what he knew. There were creatures from other times on the loose after all. If it had just been dinosaurs the military surely would be able to handle them. But there had been at least two predators among the group of creatures. They had rushed off after the dinosaurs, but they could just as well attack a human soon. Lives were at stake here. He then looked at the talking people and stepped closer. The man was bleeding and they better got him to a doctor soon, especially with animals around that loved the smell of blood.
Mac sighed. It would have been too good to be true if she got answers right away.
“Well, we better find you a doctor first,” she said and looked over to Colonel Sheppard who was giving Lt. Cadman instructions. Once he was done he held up his hand to indicate that he would be with them soon, before starting to talk over the radio.
Mac turned back to the stranger. “You want to sit down for a moment?” she asked.
Stephen shook his head, but leaned against the wall.
“I’m Lt. Colonel MacKenzie, this is Captain Berenson, Captain Becker and Lt. Colonel Sheppard.” Mac gestured at each of them. Lt Cadman and the other man had disappeared into the hidden room.
Stephen nodded and smiled slightly. “I’m …”
“Stephen Hart?” Becker asked unbelievingly as he stepped in front of the man. He had never met Stephen, but had read his file and seen pictures of him. Cutter had some in his office and some were on the fridge in the Arc. But this couldn’t be Stephen Hart, could it? He was dead! He died in a heroic act, giving his life to keep creatures from getting out and running around the city, surely killing a lot of people.
Stephen looked at the man surprised. He had never seen him before and couldn’t imagine why he knew his name.
“You know each other?” John asked stepping closer and looking from one man to the other.
“No,” Stephen answered without hesitation. “How do you know my name?” he then added.
John looked a little confused over to Becker.
“Well, I don’t actually know him,” Becker told the Colonel. “Just of him.” He turned to Stephen. “I used to work for the Arc.”
“Oh.” Stephen was surprised that he didn’t recognize him. The Arc was big, but not that big.
“Well, anyway, we need to move. There’ll be time for conversations later,” John announced. “I need to go after those ‘animals’.”
“I’ll come with you,” Becker declared quickly. “I have experience with… ‘animals’,” he said using the same word as the Colonel. He still wasn’t sure if he should tell these people about anomalies and the Arc.
“Me, too,” the other three said at the same time.
John smirked slightly. At least the new recruits were eager to help and they hadn’t freaked out at the sight of dinosaurs. It looked like they were ready for this job.
“Alright, but we’ll need more weapons. We can pick some up on the way.” He handed his gun over to Colonel MacKenzie, keeping only his p-90.
“You however are going to the infirmary,” he added looking at Stephen. The man was wounded and he didn’t know him anyway. He looked like a civilian and John definitely wouldn’t let a wounded civilian go after dangerous animals.
“I have experience with these sorts of ‘animals’, too,” Stephen protested.
“Enough,” John declared and sighed. “We don’t have time for this!”
“We are going to the infirmary first. And then look further for the animals.”
“Let’s go!”
“Wait,” Mac said with a frown.
“What?” John wanted to know, already feeling a little agitated.
“Where is Lt. Cane?”
They all looked around.
“Crap!”
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Day 6: Atlantis - control room:
Jack frowned when he heard Colonel Sheppard’s voice over the radio. He had to be kidding, right?
“What? Are you trying to tell me we have dinosaurs in the city?” Please let it be a joke, he thought. He really wasn’t in the mood for prehistoric animals! This was screaming time travel, and he hated time travel!
“Yes, sir! They are on the loose.”
“Crap,” Jack muttered, rubbing his neck. Then he glanced at Sam. “Whatever the recruits did, I’m guessing it has something to do with time travel. We need that fixed. Now!”
Sam nodded. Rodney was there already, but it wouldn’t hurt if she went there, too.
“Where exactly are you, Colonel Sheppard? I’m sending Colonel Carter to help.”
“A little busy here,” came the answer. Jack could also hear shooting. Damn, this really didn’t sound good.
“Take some men with you,” he told Sam who was already leaning over one of the consoles, trying to locate Sheppard.
“Sure.”
Jack sighed. He wanted to go with her. But as leader he was expected to stay behind and coordinate everything. He hated that and he also hated the fact that the new recruits were already in danger. They were trying to find new personnel and not get people killed before they even joined the Stargate program.
“Which team of recruits is with Sheppard?” he then asked.
“Colonel MacKenzie’s,” Sam answered while stepping away from the consoles.
Jack sighed. Of course it was her team. O’Hara would kill him if he got his niece killed before her first day of work.
“Come on, let’s go,” Sam told a few marines, then waved at him briefly before walking off.
“John, Rodney, I’m on my way,” Sam announced over the radio.
Jack looked after her, then turned around.
“Is there a way to track these animals?” he asked. A man stepped forward. He was a scientist, if Jack remembered right.
“I’ll try to figure something out,” Radek Zelenka said and went over to one of the consoles.
“We’re talking about big animals, right?”
“I guess so,” Jack answered. Little baby dinosaurs probably weren’t what Sheppard called dangerous.
A few minutes later a map of the city appeared on a big screen. “Okay, the red buttons are humans. I calibrated the system to pick up anything that is a lot bigger and heavier…”
Blue dots appeared on the screen, about a dozen of them.
“Crap, they move fast!” The simulations had been located in abandoned parts of the city. But the animals were already getting close to the inhabited parts.
“Put me on the cities communication system.”
The technician Chuck nodded and soon gave a sign that he was ready.
“This is General O’Neill. You all heard the alarm a few minutes ago. Unfortunately it was not a malfunction or part of the simulations.” As if they were ever that lucky… “We have dangerous animals in the city and a malfunctioning ancient device. All military personnel, please gather in teams and patrol the corridors. All civilians, please stay in your rooms until further notice or until military personnel come to evacuate you to safer areas. Please report all animal sightings or other unusual occurrences!”
Once he was done Jack sighed. He hoped everyone would be safe.
Soon teams started to report in. Jack stood beside Zelenka, looking at the map. They began coordinating teams towards the closest animals and gave them further information what they were dealing with.
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I hope you like this chapter. More will come soon. ;-)
poster / book cover for this chapter:
chapter 4
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