Happy Halloween!!! SGA Fic: Specter Part One by stella_pegasi
Title: SPECTER
Author: stella_pegasi
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, RC, OC
Spoilers: None…
Warnings: Minor, minor language, a bit of whump...
Het/Slash/Gen: Gen
Word count: 8212
Disclaimer: I do not own them, I would have treated them better.
Summary: Halloween is days away, and someone on Atlantis is in the ‘spirit’ of the holiday.
SPECTER
By stella_pegasi
Part One:
It was past midnight. At 0000 hours, lights across the public areas of Atlantis reverted to night mode; the crew quarters switched at 2200. Only ambient light from the control room consoles, and the dim glow emanating from the wall sconces provided any illumination to the control and gate room areas. Even the silver shimmer from the twin moons orbiting the planet was shrouded by ominous dark clouds.
Marine Sergeant Vince Canelli and three of his teammates were on graveyard gate duty. Canelli, along with the two Marine corporals and the lone airman on his squad, had drawn gate duty for the month. He was counting down the hours for the remaining two days of their duty period. Being on duty during the middle of the night didn’t bother Canelli; being bored, however, bothered him, a lot.
Liang Wu, the night gate tech, leaned over the balcony railing, holding a coffee cup. “Hey, guys, fresh pot of coffee in the conference room, and the mess just called. They’re bringing food; Colonel Sheppard ordered pizza for us tonight.”
Canelli threw Liang thumbs up, then motioned for his squad to get coffee if they wanted. He smiled as he thought about the pizza delivery. Colonel Sheppard never forgot the graveyard squads. Every so often, he had food sent to them, or he, Major Lorne or one of the other majors or captains would stop by during the wee hours to check on them. Canelli knew they weren’t checking to see if they were derelict in their duties; their CO wanted them to know they were valued. Valued enough for the Atlantis ‘brass’ to make certain they were aware of that fact, regardless of the hour.
Airman Dawson and Corporal Mendez had gone for coffee, and Corporal Hawkins was doing a perimeter check of the short hallways around the gate room. It was quiet, so quiet that Canelli could hear the quiet hum of the consoles in the control room. He was pacing around the gate when he heard another sound…a low moan. At first he thought he was imagining the deep, rattling groan, but it became more pronounced as he circled back toward the gate. He stopped abruptly, tracking the direction of the sound. He realized the deep moaning sound was coming from the stargate, directly in front of him. However, there was nothing in front of the gate. Nothing until he realized there was a faint silvery blue glow on the deck. Gazing upward, he stumbled backward quickly, away from the gate. Above him, floating in front of the stargate was a large, shimmery apparition dressed in a hooded cloak. Canelli didn’t remember much after that.
~oooBOOooo~
“You’re telling me that there is nothing wrong with Sergeant Canelli.”
“That is exactly what I am saying, John; there is nothing wrong with the sergeant.” Dr. Ross Warren sat down at his desk, tossing his notebook onto the desktop. “Carson put him through a battery of tests, including the Ancient scanner, and I put him through the wringer…grilled him pretty hard. Both of us came up with no plausible explanation, medical or psychological, as to why the sergeant says he saw a ghost.”
Sheppard sat back in one of the deep, comfortable chairs that Warren had insisted on having in his office. The base psychologist once told Sheppard he preferred his patients comfortable when he was probing their psyches. Drumming his fingers on the wide arm of the chair, Sheppard thought a minute before he replied.
“Ross, I spoke to Major Waters, his CO. Canelli’s new and he has been assigned to Waters for evaluation before we assign him to a permanent team. Waters says the kid has good instincts and temperament; and may want to assign him to his own team to fill Gonzales’s slot.”
“Isn’t that the Marine that got injured last month?”
Sheppard nodded, “Yeah. We got word a couple of days ago from the SGC. Dr. Lam says his recovery is going to be long term. If he decides not to take a medical discharge, Landry’s going to keep him at the SGC in an admin role, once he’s back to active duty. Good Marine, hated to lose him this way. By the same token, if Waters thinks highly enough of Canelli to want him to replace Gonzales, then I am inclined to believe that the sergeant saw a ghost.”
Warren pushed away from his desk, spinning his chair to face a small refrigerator in the corner, pulling out a couple of bottles of water, he tossed one to Sheppard and turned back around to face him.
“John, you aren’t serious, are you? I mean, a ghost?”
Sheppard uncapped his water and drank before he answered. “It’s Atlantis, anything’s possible around here; hell, it could be ascended Ancients for all we know.”
“Well, I haven’t been here all that long, but I’ve read all most all the mission reports. I suppose a ghost would be one of the least unusual things around here.”
Chuckling, Sheppard nodded, “That’s an understatement.”
Ross sighed, “My professional opinion is that Sergeant Vincent Canelli is perfectly sane, not delusional in any way, knows right from wrong, yada, yada, yada.”
“Can I quote you on the ‘yada, yada, yada’ part, doc?” Sheppard was grinning.
“Go, right ahead; makes as much sense as anything else.”
~oooBOOooo~
Canelli was in his quarters when Sheppard caught up with him. Major Teldy had been on call for incidents overnight, and had been suspicious of Canelli’s ‘vision’ as she called it. She had decided that Canelli was exhausted, and didn’t notify either Sheppard or Lorne about the situation. They both learned about it from the overnight logs.
Sheppard activated the chime with a thought. The door to the double room that Canelli shared with Sergeant Harrington slid open. Sgt. Harrington nodded to Sheppard, hastily retreating from the room, leaving the colonel and Canelli alone.
Canelli rose, coming to attention as his CO entered the room. Smiling, Sheppard said, “At ease, sergeant, please sit back down.” As the noticeably apprehensive Marine sat down, Sheppard sat on Harrington’s bunk.
“So, have you seen anything scary lately, sergeant?” A panicked expression crossed Canelli’s face until he realized that Sheppard was grinning. He visibly relaxed.
“Yes, sir; I saw Sergeant Johnston nearly naked when I was in the infirmary, sir. He was having his broken leg set after sparring with Ronon. That was scary.” He grinned, but appeared ready to grimace, if Sheppard failed to find humor in his comment.
Sheppard, however, chuckled heartily, as a vision of the 6’5” 250 pound Marine flickered in his head. “That image terrifies me simply thinking about it, sergeant. Now, tell me about what occurred last night.”
“Not much to tell, sir. Liang had just informed us there was a fresh pot of coffee in the conference room, and that pizza was coming. Hawkins was conducting a perimeter check. Dawson and Mendez headed upstairs for coffee, everyone within a fifteen second deployment zone if the gate should activate. The gate and control rooms were extremely quiet, until I heard a low moan. I searched for the source of the noise, and determined it was coming from the direction of the stargate. I looked, but I didn’t see anything at first, then noticed a pale blue glow on the deck.” The sergeant took a breath before he continued, “ I looked up and suspended above me, just in front of the gate was this glowy blue thing. The outline of a person, dressed in a hooded cloak, arms outstretched, with extremely large hands. The thing was thin, wispy, like I could reach right through it. The moan was definitely coming from the apparition, sir.” He stopped, evidently waiting for Sheppard to react.
“How long was this ‘apparition’ visible?” Sheppard asked.
“For approximately ten seconds after I saw it, sir. By the time I reacted, and the others came running, it had disappeared.”
Sheppard didn’t respond, which seemingly unnerved Canelli. He started stammering, “Look. sir; I'm not crazy. I know what I saw. I saw, for the sake of convenience, what I’ll call a ghost, but I saw it, sir. I didn't imagine this.”
“I believe you saw exactly what you reported, sergeant. Now we just have to determine what it was that you saw.” Sheppard rose to leave, adding, “Dr. Ross and Dr. Beckett have cleared you for active duty. So, unless you don’t feel up to it, you’re back on gate detail. You OK with that?”
Canelli smiled, “Yes, sir; thank you, sir.”
“Good, sergeant; get some rest, and if you see ‘Casper” tonight, contact me immediately.”
~oooBOOooo~
“Ghosts...you are kidding me. What kind of idiot thinks he sees ghosts on Atlantis?”
“Canelli saw something last night; whether it was a ghost or whatever, is anyone’s guess." Sheppard swallowed a mouthful of his chicken pot pie, then shoved his fork through the air toward Rodney. “Rodney, we’ve seen far more bizarre crap, since we arrived in Pegasus. That’s a fact you can’t deny. Beckett and Ross cleared Canelli to return to active duty. The sergeant is as sane as we are."
Seeing Ronon’s eyebrow raise at that comment, Sheppard shrugged, “Well, maybe that was a bad analogy. Regardless, Canelli saw something.”
“John, it is less than two days until your annual Halloween party. You told us that pranks are played during this Earth celebration. Perhaps Sgt. Canelli is simply in the ‘spirit’ of the holiday.” Teyla’s face was so serious that Sheppard suppressed the urge to laugh at her spirit reference.
“Normally, I’d think that, but this is a young man who says he wants to be a career Marine. He is not about to jeopardize his career by playing a prank while he’s on duty, especially gate duty. No, he saw something.”
“Well, he probably had some of Zelenka’s rot gut brew and was still hallucinating.” Rodney mumbled, his mouth full.
They were all laughing at Rodney, when Sheppard and McKay’s COMS activated, Richard Woolsey’s voice popped into their ears. “Colonel, Dr. McKay, please report to the Biochemistry lab. We’ve had another ghost sighting.”
~oooBOOooo~
Dr. Henry Hodes arrived on Atlantis two years before to work in Dr. Mosten's biochemistry department. The young biochemist was a quiet, nice, normal geek, who loved to play video games in his off time. However, when Sheppard and McKay arrived at the lab, Henry Hodes was clearly embarrassed.
Dr. Radek Zelenka was standing over Hodes, who was slumped in a chair, head between his knees. Zelenka was holding an emergency oxygen mask in his hand attempting to secure it to Hodes’ face. A few questionable Czech words spilled from Zelenka’s mouth as he asked Hodes to raise his head, without response from the scientist. Richard Woolsey was standing to the side, looking most uncomfortable.
“Richard, what happened?” Sheppard asked as he entered the lab.
Woolsey jumped like he had seen a ghost when he heard Sheppard’s voice. “Colonel, I…what is going on here? Dr. McKay, do you have any ideas?” Woolsey was uncharacteristically unnerved.
McKay glared at Woolsey, an expression of total disbelief evident on his face. “Why would I have any ideas about what is going on here. I’m an astrophysicist, not a ghostbuster." He threw up his hands, then plopped down on a stool next to the workbench.
Sheppard gave McKay a snarky look, then turned back to Woolsey, “Has Hodes told you what he saw?” Woolsey shook his head no.
Sheppard dragged a chair from a desk and placed it in front of the biochemist. Sitting down, he purposely kept his voice low as he asked, "Dr. Hodes, can you tell us what happened here?”
Hodes slowly reacted to the colonel’s question. “I’m sorry, colonel; I have never been so startled in my life. I am quite embarrassed; I think I passed out for a moment. I was running assays on some material collected by the botany department, and I heard this moaning noise. It sounded like it was coming from the corridor. I shrugged it off, and was setting up another set of assays when the moan returned, louder this time. So I decided to check it out. I walked into the hallway and nearly walked into this huge blue glowy figure wearing a cloak with a hood. It was quite unnerving, colonel.” Hodes shuddered, deciding a gulp of oxygen was what he needed. He snatched the mask from Zelenka’s hand and placed it over his face. While he was taking his fill of oxygen, Sheppard looked at McKay.
“McKay, do you think you could possibly humor me, and pretend to be interested in what’s happening here? Maybe you could wave the LSD around, or another of your other toys just to see if you can figure this out.”
McKay glared at Sheppard before he spoke. “Oh, yeah, something happens out of the ordinary, and automatically what do you do. You turn to the science genius to figure it out.”
“What else are you here for?” Sheppard cocked his head and put on his most charming smile. However, McKay knew the smile was really a smirk in disguise.
“OK, I’ll take some scientific readings. I am so going to win the Noble Prize with my ‘Specters in Atlantis’ paper.” He made a production of rising and heading into the corridor, pulling out his LSD as he exited the room. Sheppard smiled as McKay exited the room.
Waiting until McKay left the room, Zelenka then spoke, his accent quite pronounced, “Colonel, my lab is around corner. I heard Hodes scream, and I came to see what was happening. I saw a faint blue glow in corridor, but did not see a figure of any kind.”
Sheppard chuckled, “You didn’t want to tell me that in front of McKay, did you?”
Zelenka looked somewhat embarrassed, but nodded in agreement with Sheppard’s question. Sheppard slapped him on the shoulder, “I won’t tell. Contact me directly if you see anything else. Radek, if you would, take Dr. Hodes to the infirmary, and get him checked out.”
Radek agreed to accompany the biochemist to the infirmary and Sheppard turned to Woolsey. “Well, Richard…looks like we have a gho...” Before Sheppard could finish, a blood curdling scream came from the hallway. Sheppard ran out the door; Woolsey, reluctantly, followed.
As Woolsey stepped into the corridor, he saw McKay running after Sheppard. The colonel was moving so fast he had to grab the edge of the wall, sliding more than running around the corner toward the scream.
As Woolsey turned the corner, he saw Dr. Miko Kusanagi, a member of McKay’s science department, lying on the floor, surrounded by scattered pieces of ancient equipment. Sheppard bent down to see if she was injured. Apparently, assured that she wasn’t hurt, he helped her to her feet. She grabbed Sheppard holding on for dear life, until she spotted McKay. Pushing Sheppard sharply away, she grabbed her department head in a bear hug. McKay looked at Sheppard, pleading for assistance.
“Some help here, Sheppard”
Knowing the little scientist had a “soft spot” for McKay, Sheppard grinned. “You need to take care of your people, Rodney.” His words elicited a very pissed off look from McKay, which made Sheppard’s grin turn to a big smile.
~oooBOOooo~
The conference room was hushed, As if everyone seated at the large mahogany table thought by remaining quiet, they would hear the ghost. It was nearing midnight; eleven hours had passed since Dr. Kusanagi saw the ghost.
Sheppard was recounting the events from lunch time, starting with Dr. Hodes and then Dr. Kusanagi’s sighting. It had taken a few minutes for Kusanagi to calm down. Sheppard doing more to calm her than McKay did, but her story was similar to both Sgt. Canelli’s and Dr. Hode’s. She had just stepped into the hallway when she heard a soft groan, looking behind her, she saw a blue apparition floating above her. The description she gave matched the other two sightings.
“So, after Dr. Kusanagi’s experience, we have had how many more sightings?” Woolsey asked.
Major Lorne, who had been placed in command of the investigation, much to his noticeable chagrin, spoke up. “Sir, we have nine confirmed sightings of the blue ghost. In addition, three sightings of a new ghost…a mummy that is walking the corridors, simply appears, then disappears a few seconds later. It has, however, walked through a couple of people; Airman Coburn reported feeling a tingling feeling as it passed through.”
Woolsey turned to look at Dr. McKay, “Doctor, I asked this question earlier today. What is going on?”
McKay glanced up from his laptop, rolling his eyes. “Just call me Dr. Stantz.” Stabbing his finger into the air, he turned his attention back to his laptop screen.
“Who is Dr. Stantz? Is he a scientist who is an expert on these kinds of events?” Woolsey asked somewhat confused.
Sheppard laughed. "Dr. McKay is referring to a character from “Ghostbusters”. When Woolsey continued to appear confused, Sheppard explained further, “It’s a movie from the 1980's.” Woolsey shook his head, and Sheppard decided the director remained confused.
Rodney’s head popped up from behind his laptop, “OK, people; Zelenka and his team have been taking readings in the sighting areas. We got lucky on the last sighting. Zelenka’s team got to the site just seconds after the…uh…thing disappeared. We got some residual readings, electromagnetic in nature. And before you go and get all excited, there are other explanations for spikes in the EM field…it’s not always because there are ghosts in the area.” The cynicism in his voice was evident.
Sheppard leaned back in his chair while Rodney was talking, crossing his arms across his chest. “The readings Zelenka got, any explainable cause for them?”
McKay looked sheepish. “No, there are some electrical conduits in the area, but current flow during that timeframe was consistent. The spikes were not from that energy source.”
Woolsey pursed his lips, “Colonel. I want personnel posted in the inhabited areas of the base. Doctor, can you provide devices for them to measure any activity should one of these ‘ghosts’ appear?”
“Actually, Zelenka is placing sensors around the base to do just that. There has to be some kind of plausible explanation causing this. We simply have to find it.”
“Could somebody be projecting these, uh…ghosts, McKay.” Sheppard asked.
McKay shrugged, “We haven’t found any evidence of any projection devices or anything that would suggest they’re being projected. It’s like they appeared from thin air.”
“So they could be ghosts?” Ronon asked quietly.
McKay looked at Ronon and didn’t say anything; neither did anyone else.
~oooBOOooo~
Sheppard headed for his quarters after checking with Sgt. Canelli and his gate duty squad. He was still chuckling over Canelli’s teammates; they were merciless, calling Canelli, ‘Sgt. Casper Canelli’ every time they addressed him. He was extremely impressed by the sergeant’s patience level; he would have probably shot his own team by now.
Unconsciously sending a command to Atlantis to open his door, he walked into his quarters. He glanced around anxiously, then felt foolish when he realized he was looking for ghosts. Halloween was one of his favorite times of the year, by far his favorite holiday. However, he had never believed in ghosts and goblins. Now he was beginning to look for ethereal objects. He thought to himself, ‘You need shore leave, Captain Kirk.”
Peeling off his boots, then stripping off his BDU’s, Sheppard headed for the bathroom. Stepping into the large shower, he stood motionless as the pulsating hot water, emerging from the abundant jets scattered around the stall massaged his tense muscles. Eventually, the tension in his body eased, and he thought the water flow off and the air jets on. He basked in the blast of hot air wafting across his skin.
Forcing himself to turn off the warm air, he stepped out into the cooler bathroom air, grabbing a towel. As he began to towel-dry his hair, he thought he heard a soft groan. He stood quietly for a moment, not certain what he had heard. When the sound floated toward him again, there was no mistaking it, it was a groan, and it was coming from inside his quarters.
Sheppard rushed into his bed chamber, coming face to face with the floating blue specter. There was something familiar about the image that disturbed him. He felt as if he had seen the ghost before. It hovered in the room for a moment, groaned again, then turned, disappearing through the solid door. Sheppard swiftly thought ‘open’ and ran through the door in pursuit.
The apparition was drifting slowly down the hallway outside Sheppard’s quarters. Hearing footsteps behind him, he glanced back to see Dr. Zelenka and another scientist running toward him.
“Colonel, we were nearby; checking out another report of the ghost. The sensors near your quarters spiked, so we headed this way.”
“So, you see it, too?” Sheppard asked skeptically.
“Yes, colonel, I see it.” Radek replied as he continued to check data flowing from the sensors.
The blue apparition hovered for a short time. Then vanished instantly, leaving the men standing in the corridor. Radek cleared his throat, and spoke cautiously, “Colonel, that towel you have in your hand; you might want to wrap it around you.”
Sheppard was puzzled for a moment, then felt heat flush through his body as he realized what Radek meant. Hastily, and quite embarrassed, he wrapped the towel around his waist.
“Radek, wait here; I’ll be back in a sec.” Sheppard sheepishly retreated to his quarters to get dressed.
~oooBOOooo~
The night had been filled with ghost sightings. Sheppard and Zelenka chased ghosts through the corridors of Atlantis until daybreak. Specters of all kinds had begun to appear, the original blue specter, mummies, along with zombies and headless bodies, bodies dragging balls and chains. Sheppard was positive that he caught a glimpse of Jason scurrying around a corner.
Both he and Zelenka were tired and needed sleep. He contacted Lorne and McKay, told them to continue the search while they got some rest. McKay tried to be argumentative with him, but Sheppard just clicked off his com and headed for his quarters.
~oooBOOooo~
Sheppard awoke shortly before noon, dressed hurriedly, contacting Rodney as he rushed out of his quarters. “McKay, need a status report.”
His com cackled, “Nice of you to finally decide to join us, Zelenka’s been up for hours.”
“Probably because you woke him up. Where are you?”
“Currently, we are huddled in the conference room, hiding from ghosts.”
“On my way, Sheppard out,” as he walked down the corridor, he did a quick check. No, he didn’t forget his pants this time.
Entering the conference room, he was greeted with a group of perplexed faces. “Hey, you guys look like you’ve seen a ghost…or two.” He was grinning a tad mischievously.
“Hardee har har, colonel; we’ve been up to our noses in ghosts while you took your little nap.”
“McKay, Zelenka and I spent the entire night chasing after these ghosts." He seemed to saying the word. "The images kept appearing in crew quarters, and around the base. It was very unnerving to a lot of people.”
McKay grinned at Sheppard, a bit mischievously as well. “Are you certain they weren’t just frightened by you barreling naked out of your quarters, colonel?”
Sheppard turned to Zelenka, who dropped his head abashedly, busying himself with his laptop. “Zelenka…,” Sheppard said quietly. Zelenka, looked up, shrugged his shoulders, and buried his head in his laptop again.
Woolsey spoke, “Gentlemen, let’s get back to business. It appears that the sightings have dissipated for now. We need answers; so far, these apparitions haven’t caused any injury or damage. However, in light of the increasing number of incidents, I am concerned that it is a simply matter of time.”
“Richard, this has to be a prank. I don’t think anyone would do this maliciously.”
Woolsey nodded, “I think you’re correct, colonel. This is undoubtedly a prank, but a prank that is capable of bringing this base to a standstill. Everyone appears to be a great deal more interested in ghost watching than working.”
McKay spoke. “After reviewing the data, we can deduce that these images are appearing out of thin air, and then blinking out as quickly. Only when they are visible is there any indication of energy, but the pattern is non-descriptive. It’s like a thin picture projected into the air.”
“You have no idea how these images are being projected, Dr. McKay? Woolsey inquired.
McKay shook his head and Zelenka answered, “When the colonel and I were chasing the images last night; we discovered that the energy levels increased exponentially as the number of sightings increased. However, searching for the energy source proved fruitless. It’s as if they are appearing out of the walls.”
Sheppard leaned forward to ask a question, choosing his words carefully. “Is there anyone on the science team that you believe would be capable of creating these images, and making them appear without a trace.?”
“Are you accusing the science staff?” McKay retorted.
Sheppard scoffed “I’m not accusing anyone, yet. However, do you really think the Marines did this?”
McKay slumped back in his chair; he didn’t have a reply for the colonel's question. Sheppard didn’t press him.
End of Part One...
Specter Part Two