Event Horizon Part Three – By Ladyholder

Reading Time:
10 Minutes

Art by Starkindler

“Dr. McKay, I need you to follow me.”

Rodney looked up from his last examination of his CAD drawings of the stargate to stare at the man who was talking to him. “Who are you?”

The man gave him an impatient look before reaching out to grab his arm. “Colonel Frank Simmons. You’re coming with me.”

“You aren’t touching me,” Rodney said as he took a step back. He eyed the man and thinned his shields to get a read on the room. Radek and Miko were irritated, and Simmons was leaking greed like a foul little oil slick. Gross.

“You need to come with me,” Simmons snapped as he stepped forward.

“Why?” Rodney asked. He reached down into his core and grabbed his bond with John and tugged.

“I need the foremost expert on the stargate. That’s you, and I need you to come with me to the SGC,” Simmons said with a smarmy smile. He was acting like Rodney should be thrilled he was buttering him up, and then give in and do whatever Simmons wanted.

“Do you have a copy of the orders confirming this? I have deadlines that I have to meet that will need to be restructured with whatever this new project is,” Rodney said peevishly. He could see Miko was typing away at her computer, and while it looked like her headphones were on, he could tell that the noise-cancelling function was off.

“I don’t need actual orders, Doctor. General Landry is aware that I need an expert on the stargate, and he recommended you,” Simmons said.

“That’s nice, but I know my employment contract, Colonel, and I need orders in hand before I’m going to go anywhere,” Rodney snapped. When Simmons reached out to grab his arm, Rodney knocked the man’s hand away. “As I told you before, you aren’t touching me.”

“McKay, you…”

“What are you doing with my guide, Colonel?” John asked.

Rodney looked over at him and saw that his sentinel was breathing deeply, but he wasn’t out of breath. He looked competent and dangerous and utterly unforgiving. It was a good look on him. From the flash of amusement/fondness, his sentinel shoved down their bond; his feelings were known to his bonded.

“Guide?” Simmons asked. He glanced at Rodney and shook his head. “Landry didn’t say that he’s a guide.”

“I am a guide, and General Landry is aware,” Rodney confirmed. He tapped the small pin on his lab coat that denoted his status as a guide. “You should have a copy of the orders for me. I need to see them. Now.”

Simmons stared at him for several seconds before he reached into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out a sheaf of paper and handed it over. Rodney took the pages and carefully inspected them. They were orders, and they even mentioned John.

“Well?” John asked. He was still staring at Simmons, and Rodney could feel the bone-deep flinch that was building in the man’s core. No matter how self-assured the colonel tried to be, having an apex predator stare at him like he was prey had to be unsettling. And John was very good at making people who pissed him off feel like prey.

“The orders are legit, and they do include you,” Rodney said. He gave the paperwork to John and carefully saved his work and saved a copy of his database to a tablet so he could refer back to it. “It should take us an hour to get packed and ready to head up to the SGC.”

“We need to leave now,” Simmons insisted.

“An hour. We need to pack for this, sir,” John said softly. “Neither of us has a go bag at hand, and there are things we need to have when we travel.”

“Fine,” Simmons acceded with ill grace. “I’ll see you here in an hour.”

John held his peace until he’d gotten Rodney into their car and they were headed back to their house. “What in the hell?”

“Hold that thought, John. I need to call Daniel,” Rodney said. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed the older man. “Daniel, it’s Rodney McKay, with Johr Sheppard. I’ve got you on speaker.”

“Hey, Rodney. This is not a great time,” Daniel said. He sounded distracted and disturbed, and John didn’t want to add to his stress, but they couldn’t arrive in his alpha’s territory out of the blue.

“I figured,” Rodney said. “Look. I just got handed a set of orders that are directing me to go to the SGC with a Colonel Frank Simmons. He states that he needs an expert on exotic tech, and we’re going to be headed in your direction in an hour.”

“Fuck,” Daniel cursed. John flashed a startled look at the phone as he pulled into their driveway. “That rat bastard. Jack!”

John kept his attention on the phone as he headed for their bedroom to start packing a bag. Rodney was still downstairs dealing with the crockpot and their half-cooked dinner. He had no idea if it was going to go in the fridge or what, but it couldn’t be left for however long they’d be gone.

“What’s up?” O’Neill’s voice finally came on, and John could hear Daniel relaying what Rodney had passed him. “Right. This is an unsecure line, and we can’t get into everything, but I don’t think Simmons is on the side of the angels. However, I am going to agree that it’s good you’re coming here. I’ll let Carter know so her hackles don’t go up. Are you bringing Sheppard?”

‘Yes, sir. I’m packing for us,” John called. He knew the older man could hear him because they had tested their ranges on the phone, and the bedroom was within it. “Simmons sets off my spidey sense.”

“Oh, he sets off mine, too, Sheppard,” O’Neill said with a huff. “Don’t let your guide out of your sight.”

“Yes, sir,” John said. He zipped up their bag and swung by their bathroom to snag their grooming supplies and tuck them away. “Any other advice?”

“Don’t be an asshole,” O’Neill said dryly. He yelped slightly, and John had to think that Daniel had poked him somewhere tender, and John could sympathize with him. Rodney did the same thing. “Damn it, Daniel! Sheppard’s a captain, Carter’s a major, and McKay doesn’t have a filter, so someone has to be the nice person out of that trio, and I highly doubt it’s going to be Carter!”

“I can be nice!” Rodney protested. When John came down the stairs, he raised an eyebrow at his guide in disbelief. “I can. I admire Carter’s brains. She did a hell of a job on getting the damn thing to work, and I need to tell her that.”

“You cursed her out six ways to Sunday for everything she missed last week. Miko recorded the rant and sent it to me,” John reminded him. “Mav laughed so hard he wheezed.”

“Send that to me!” Daniel demanded. “And Sam’s a scientist. She knows that there’s stuff she missed, so she’s not going to get hot about that unless you insult her.”

“Got it,” Rodney promised. He waved at the plugged-in crockpot before placing the lids on two travel mugs. “I texted Jason, and he’s going to come over to grab the crockpot for dinner. He says thanks.”

“At least it won’t go to waste,” John said. He accepted the travel mug of coffee and waved towards the driveway. “We’re on our way back to meet up with Simmons, sir. We’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Got it. Keep flying under his radar, Captain. He’s a bastard who slimes his way through life. You’re our ace in the hole now because he wants your guide’s brains for something,” O’Neill directed.

“Yes, sir,” John confirmed before O’Neill ended the call. He said nothing as Rodney tucked their cell phone away and let his senses spread out around them as he tried to get a read on the area.

“This is going to suck, isn’t it?” Rodney asked softly.

“It is. What did you get from Simmons?” John asked. They had twenty minutes to get back to the office building, and he was going to get them there in fifteen.

“Greed. Lots and lots of greed. He’s also leaking avarice, anticipation, and a fair amount of disgust,” Rodney said softly. “Whatever we’re heading into, he’s looking forward to it.”

John grimaced. “Great.”

“Right? This is going to be so uncomfortable,” Rodney said. “Pull your senses in. You don’t want to get overloaded.”

John pulled everything in and grimaced slightly. “We’re going to try to figure out why he wants you for this, aren’t we?”

“Oh, yeah,” Rodney said. “He said something about wanting me for my expertise. I’ve been here six months, John. My only expertise is the gate!”

“We’re not going to figure it out without Simmons telling us,” John said. He pulled into the same parking space they’d left less than an hour before and shut off the car. “Let’s get this started.”

The plane Simmons had directed them to was a small Learjet. John had no idea if it was standard for a Colonel to use, but it was convenient to have. It amused him a lot to see that Rodney wasn’t impressed in the least by Simmons’ dramatic.

“Why me?” Rodney asked as they reached cruising altitude. He slowly sipped his coffee as he stared at Simmons, while he waited for him to answer his question.

“I need someone who can confirm the viability of recovering an asset from the gate,” Simmons said. “The expert at the SGC says it’s possible, but I’ve been told there’s a 48-hour window before there’s no hope.”

“That sounds plausible,” Rodney allowed. John could tell that his guide wasn’t planning on agreeing to anything the man proposed, but he was going to acknowledge the information offered. The more information they got, the better in this case. “How many hours has it been since this situation started?”

“It’s been twelve hours,” Simmons said.

“Then I have 36 hours to get the asset out of the gate,” Rodney said simply.

“Indeed,” Simmons agreed, voice slightly sour.

Rodney tapped one finger against his coffee cup. “Do you have the information on what caused the issue?”

Simmons handed over a tablet. “It will unlock with your fingerprint.”

“Thank you,” Rodney said. He pressed his thumb against the scanner on the tablet before he opened the files on it and started to read.

“Why are you here, Captain?” Simmons asked as he turned to look at John. When John looked at him, Simmons was staring at him intently, face arranged in a stern expression. He could tell that the man was trying to intimidate him and impress him with the differences in their ranks. “Is your bond with your bond so weak that you need to be at his side? Does he need you to protect him?”

John suppressed a smirk. “I’m here because where he goes, I go. And no, he doesn’t need me to protect him. But no sentinel will let their guide travel without them if they can help it.”

“I’m a Colonel in the US Air Force. I would hope that you know that your guide is safe with another officer,” Simmons said. The impression John had of the older man trying to loom got stronger, and he decided he wasn’t impressed with the act.

“Sir, it was noted in my contract with the Air Force and with Area 51 that my guide would never travel without me. This is non-negotiable,” John said with a nod. “It doesn’t matter who he’s scheduled to travel with; I go with him.”

From the frustrated look that flashed over Simmons’ face, he wasn’t happy with that boundary.

“Colonel, stop poking at my sentinel. He’s here because I want him to be, and that’s the way we set things up,” Rodney said. He glared at Simmons when the colonel opened his mouth. “Nope. Now. I have questions regarding this time limit you mentioned. Where did it come from?”

“We have a source that confirmed the time limit, but that source is not useful for this,” Simmons said with a shrug.

John could feel some alarm bells start to go off in the back of his head. That did not sound good.

“Do you have any idea of what Major Carter is planning on doing?” Rodney asked. He waved the tablet in his hand. “This doesn’t detail what her plans are.”

“No. I don’t have that information. I’m sure she’ll explain when we get to the SGC,” Simmons said.

Rodney hummed softly before he moved on to his next question. “How is the SGC keeping the gate from accepting a new wormhole?”

“I don’t know.”

“Right,” Rodney said. “Do you have other information for me that is not on this tablet?”

“No,” Simmons said.

“Right.”