Event Horizon Part Two – By Ladyholder

Reading Time:
12 Minutes

Art by Starkindler

John checked the address he’d been given and confirmed that the hangar he’d been directed to was in front of him. The outside of the hangar was bland and featureless, and he had no idea what he was getting into. He let his senses move ahead of him and found that there were two people waiting on him, and he knew only one of them.

When he pushed open the door to the hangar, he saw Colonel O’Neill standing beside the unknown party. “Sir,” John said. He tried to figure out if he needed to salute and only stood down when O’Neill waved him off. “Good morning, sir.”

“Good morning, Sheppard,” O’Neill said with a smirk. He waved at the other man. “I wanted to make sure I was here when you met your partner in this test pilot gig.”

“Thank you, sir,” John said. He turned to look at the other man and held out a hand. “Capt. John Sheppard, sentinel, call sign Watchman.”

“Lt. Commander Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick. Please call me Maverick,” the other man said. He shook John’s hand firmly. “Do you know what we’re getting into?”

“Nope,” John said. “Do you?”

“No,” Maverick said with a frown as he glanced around the empty hangar. “Where is this plane we’re going to test, Colonel?”

“It’s here,” O’Neill said with a grin. He waved his hand over his head, and John snapped his gaze up as the air above them moved.

“Holy shit,” John breathed. The plane that was drifting down towards them looked like nothing he’d ever seen on earth. “It’s VTOL capable?”

“How is it that quiet?” Maverick asked. “Is the engine on?”

“I can hear it, so yes,” John said absently. He could feel the air moving as it passed through the engine, but the breeze wasn’t as fast as he’d experienced with other VTOL-capable planes. “How?”

“We’ll get you both the plans so you can study what we’ve got going on with the F-302. We’ve got four completed prototypes that you will be testing for the next year,” O’Neill said. The F-302 settled into place in front of them, and John watched the canopy slide open. The man who hopped out… wasn’t human. When John glanced at O’Neill in question, his Alpha nodded in confirmation. “This is Teal’c. He’s a Jaffa and has been flying the Goa’uld version of these planes for more than 85 years.”

“Eighty-five years? How old are you?” Maverick asked. He glanced at Teal’c for a moment before walking over to the F-302 to start inspecting it. “And has your age impacted your reaction speed?”

“I am 102 years old, and no, I have not lost any speed,” Teal’c said evenly.

“That’s amazing,” Maverick said sincerely from his spot under one of the wings of the F-302. “Are we going to be able to see the Goa’uld version of this plane?” And maybe fly one?”

“Actually, can we fly every craft that you’ve got access to?” John asked.

When O’Neill raised an eyebrow at him, John raised one right back. “Why?” O’Neill asked after several seconds.

“Because we need to know what we’re up against, and how the enemy aircraft, the F-302, handles. Also, frankly, I want to fly as many alien aircraft as I can,” John said bluntly. When Maverick nodded along, he grinned at the colonel when he huffed at him. “So, sir? Can we please fly all the nifty planes?”

O’Neill grinned before shaking his head. “Sure, I think you can. Teal’c, do you think we can get our hands on a Tel’tak and an Al’kesh? I know there’re are about a dozen Udajeets here on base, so they can climb all over those before they try to fly them. That should give you a good start on learning how the Goa’uld think.”

“Who’s going to teach us how to fly the Udajeet?” Maverick asked. He had a small hatch open on the F-302 and was peering into the guts of the machine. “I can’t wait to get the plans for this thing so I can understand what I’m seeing.”

“Teal’c and I can show you how to fly the Udajeet, and the rest of the ships,” O’Neill promised.

“Great,” John said. He headed towards the F-302 to get his hands on the plane he was determined to fly as soon as possible. The metal was cool to the touch and didn’t feel like anything he’d ever touched before. He glanced at Maverick and grinned.

Rodney took a deep breath and pressed his thumb against the fingerprint scanner. When the status light changed to green, he pushed the door open and walked into the lab. He paused at the clear area in front of the door and looked around.

“Hello?”

There was no reply, and he let his empathy spread out around him. The building held a number of people, but the lab he was going to be sharing was utterly empty. The ones on either side of him had people in them, but the people in them were utterly mundane. “Okay then.”

Since no one was there, Rodney decided to unpack all of his office supplies and stored in his desk. The sooner he got everything in place, the sooner he could start doing science. It looked like there were two other people working in the space with him, and he wanted to go snoop, but that would be wrong, and he wasn’t going to start his employment by being an asshole.

The empty desk had a folder with his name on it, and he smiled as he flipped it open. It had all the information he needed to get started, and he hummed softly as he began to unpack. The first thing he set up was the picture he had of John, and the second was his coffee cup.

He would need to find out what kind of caffeine his officemates drank because he was willing to share the cost of the coffee supply, but he wasn’t willing to skip it. As he slotted the last pen into place in the large pen cup he’d bought for all of his whiteboard pens, he glanced around the room for the coffee machine.

Nirvana was tucked into a corner with a sink beside it. The sink had a Brita water jug sitting on the lip, and it was filled with water, ready to go. Rodney looked over the coffee pot and nodded in appreciation. The machine was set up and ready to brew; it just needed to be turned on.

A flick of his finger turned it on, and Rodney wandered back to his desk and opened the folder to read what it contained again. He wasn’t going to try to sign into his computer until it was officially time for him to start work. When the coffee pot gave a subtle ping, Rodney got up, filled his mug, and set it aside to clean the grounds out and reload the basket. Until he knew how the thing operated, he’d refrain from adding the water to the reservoir.

He had almost finished his cup when the door opened, and two people walked in. Colonel O’Neill had given him a heads-up on the people he’d be working with, so he knew who they were. But he wasn’t going to use his knowledge to take advantage of it any more than he had to. “Hello.”

“You are the new scientist?” the man asked. Rodney could place the man’s accent as Czech, and that meant he was Dr. Radek Zelenka, with degrees in Physics and Math.

“I am,” Rodney confirmed. “Dr. M. Rodney McKay. My doctorates are in Astrophysics and Sentinel Studies. I’m also a guide.”

“My doctorates are in Physics and Math. I am neither a sentinel nor a guide,” Zelenka said with a smile. “Dr. Radek Zelenka. Are you willing to shake my hand?”

“I’ll get an empathetic impression off of you if I do,” Rodney warned. When Zelenka held out his hand, Rodney took it and shook it firmly. His impression of Zelenka was that of a man who was deeply curious, with strong ethics, and accepting of people’s foibles. He let his hand go and smiled when Zelenka quirked an eyebrow at him. “You’re good people, Dr. Zelenka.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Zelenka said with a smile. He waved at the woman who had walked in with him and headed for the coffee pot. “Ah. You made coffee. Very good.”

“Pour me a cup,” the woman demanded. She held her own hand out to Rodney and raised an eyebrow at him in a challenge. “Dr. Miko Kusanagi, Applied Mathematics and Computer Sciences. I am not your work wife.”

Rodney snorted once and nodded before he took her hand. She was just as deeply curious as Zelenka, as ethical, and amused by everything. He let her hand go and smiled at her. “I don’t need a work wife, thank you, I can do my own math. You’re good people as well.”

“Excellent,” Kusanagi said with a smile. She accepted the cup of coffee that Zelenka passed her and settled at her desk. “So, what are you here for?”

“I’ve been hired to look into the stargate and how it works,” Rodney said. He held up his hand when his new coworkers opened their mouths. “I know that Major Carter worked on the stargate and managed to make it work. I read her papers on it. But we need to have a CAD drawing of the gate, not just the DHD that Colonel O’Neill did.”

“That’s going to be interesting to get,” Zelenka said.

“I know. But it is needed. I will also be mapping how the gate uses the power it’s given, what signals it sends out, and what the signals mean, and if we need to pay attention to them,” Rodney said carefully. He had no illusions that his work was going to be well received, but it was needed. Carter had done an amazing job of figuring out how the stargate worked, but now they needed to know for sure and certain. They didn’t have the option to leave stuff to chance anymore.

“Where’s your sentinel?” Kusanagi asked. She had signed in quickly, and Rodney appreciated that her monitors were angled away from his line of sight. He didn’t need to know what she was working on, and not having the distraction was a good thing.

“He’s currently being briefed on his job as a test pilot for some new plane,” Rodney said. “I expect that he’s going to be thrilled at that for the next six months.”

“It’s a very nice plane from what I know,” Zelenka offered.

“He loves to fly, so this will be good for him as well as me,” Rodney said. He took another sip of his coffee and saw he’d almost finished the cup. Time for a refill and then maybe restart the pot to brew a new pot. “How much coffee do you two drink?”

“The pot always got coffee in it while we’re in here,” Kusanagi said as he poured the last of the pot into his mug. “We buy our own coffee because we aren’t willing to drink the sludge that the base provides. This week’s my week to provide the coffee. You’ve got next week.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rodney said. He quickly rinsed out the pot before returning it to its place and filling the reservoir. A quick flick of his thumb started the brew process, and he took the time to refill the Brita before heading back to his desk.

He flipped the folder to the section detailing how to log into the system and his ID. He’d been given a generic password, and he was directed to change it immediately. The sheer laxness of the security made parts of his brain itch, but he wasn’t in a position to be able to do anything about it.

It took him only a few moments to determine what he wanted his password to be and in what language, so he quickly started typing and logged in. His email had a mass of notifications for training that he was directed to do as quickly as possible, and Rodney clicked on the first one to get started.

“Did everyone have a good first day?” John asked. He had five bowls lined up on the counter and was ladling chili into them from the crockpot. As the only couple with a house, the decision had been made that the pride was going to meet in his living room to catch up.

“I did,” Rodney confirmed. “I’ve met two of my coworkers, and they showed me where my project is located. I’ll be busy with that for at least six months. Maybe longer.”

“Base commander has the three of us watching the area you’re in, Doc,” Bates said. He had pulled the cornbread out of the oven and was slicing it into perfect squares before piling it onto plates. “So far, there’s been no pushback on us being there.”

“Gossip has it that your project has some hackles raised, Doc,” Markham said. He was setting the table while his partner in crime was pouring drinks. When John looked at him sharply, he shrugged. “I heard that the head military scientist over at the SGC isn’t happy that someone’s going behind her to work on the ‘gate.”

“I know she’s not going to be thrilled, but she’s working full time on an exploration team, squeezing science in around that, and then whatever forest fire she’s needed to help put out when the emergency arises. She doesn’t have the time to do the deep dive I’m going to be doing,” Rodney explained. “Colonel O’Neill is the one who dictated this line of research, so I’m going to run with it until I get everything down on paper.”

“I know I’d feel better if the SGC had the full plans available to them when they needed them,” John said finally.

“Which is what I’m going to say if anyone gives me any shit,” Rodney said bluntly. “I’m not trying to show anyone up, I’m just trying to make sure that they have all the information they need in case things go to hell.”

“Besides, the military likes having the full schematics for their equipment. Not having it has to make the colonel itch,” Bates said softly.

“It makes me itch, and I’m not serving there,” John huffed before he moved the filled bowls to the top of the island’s counter. “Grubs up.”

“Thank you, sir,” Stackhouse said. He grabbed two bowls and carried them over to where Markham had sat down.

“What did I tell you to call me while we’re here?” John asked.

“I know, John. But it’s weird and all,” Stackhouse protested.

“Oh, I know, Marcus. It’s weird for me too,” John said, trying to reassure the other sentinel. “Weirdly, I feel more comfortable calling your guide by his name, but that might be because he’s a guide.”

“That’s nice to know, sir,” Jason said. He was doctoring his bowl of chili quickly before handing the condiments to his sentinel.

“Eat up, everyone. We’ve got enough for each of us to have seconds in the crockpot. The second bedroom is made up, and Gene, the pullout couch has sheets,” Rodney said as he waved a hand at the ceiling.

John let the sound of his small pride wash over him. It had been a good first day. Hopefully, the good would continue. Because he didn’t want to deal with any drama if he could help it on a personal level. He was already aware that he was going to have some on a professional level. Test piloting wasn’t the safest career ever, but damn, he was looking forward to actually flying all the aircraft that the Colonel had mentioned.