Stargate Defense - season one

Chapter One

Sam took a seat at the briefing table. "I have an important mission for your team, Colonel Hughes."

"We haven't finished investigating all the Gate addresses connected to the Furlings. I'm assuming this is more important or you wouldn't be pulling us off of it."

"Yes, it is. I need you to go with Colonel Sheppard to Atlantis and brief Dr. Myers about the Lucian Alliance. They've become too big a threat and the fact that they wanted to ask you questions about Atlantis is disturbing. Atlantis needs to know what's happening and this can't be entrusted to just anyone. The three of you have had the most contact with them and I feel you can give Atlantis the best information."

"And a first hand account of exactly how nuts this Nesrin woman is," Lee added.

"Yes, Captain, and that. This will be an extended mission, it will take you almost three weeks to get to Atlantis. Spend as much time as you need in order to give the Atlantis teams the information they need. Those Furling planets will still be here when you get back. This is much more important. You leave at 1600 tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am."

"All right, dismissed." Sam left them.

"I guess we need to pack a few things," Lee said.

"Yes, we do."

Van grinned. "We get to spend time at Atlantis! This is amazing, I'll need to get a list of the archeologists and linguists assigned to Atlantis so I can talk to all of them about the discoveries they've made!" He jumped up from his seat and scurried toward General Carter's office.

Mal chuckled. "As excited as a puppy."

"As usual."

They both laughed and left the briefing room. Lee nudged him as they walked down the hallway.

"What?"

She sighed. "Are you ever going to move off of the base?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't decided where to settle yet."

"Well, Van and I would be happy to go with you to look at a few places if it's intimidating you."

"I'm not intimidated at the thought of searching for a place to live." He rolled his eyes.

"Could have fooled me, Colonel."

"I joined the Air Force straight out of high school. Since I joined up I've gone wherever I was told to go. None of it mattered to me as long as I was as far from Elias as I could get."

"So, you haven't really had a home since you joined the military?"

He shook his head. "Never felt the need for it."

"You must have one hell of a bank account, Colonel," she said with a laugh.

"Ah, see now I understand your motives, you're after my money."

"Banish the thought, Colonel, you are my superior. I would never dream of it." She winked and turned the corner to head for the elevator.

He stood there in the corridor staring after her. She was correct, in one respect, he was intimidated by the thought of finding a place to settle. It worried him, the thought of remaining in one place. His worry was that he'd settle and then things would change and he'd be forced to pull up roots and move again. It was a valid worry in his opinion because Elias was poking his nose into things looking for any excuse he could find to steal his life away. And if he knew anything about Elias it was that his brother didn't give up easily. His freshman year of high school he'd tried out for the football team. Elias found out about it and began a campaign to make certain he didn't make the team. There were rumors and innuendo. Eventually he gave up the fight, it wasn't worth it. He'd wanted to join the team simply because he thought it would be fun. It wasn't something he thought to make a career out of and in the end it wasn't worth fighting his brother over. So, as he always did, he stepped back into the shadows and allowed Elias the spotlight he so craved. As long as he didn't try to do anything that Elias might consider an attempt to overshadow him, then his brother left him alone. The moment he tried to do anything that Elias thought might swing attention Mal's way, he found a way to ruin it so he would step back, give up and Elias could be the center of attention again. For as long as he could remember he'd been deferring to Elias to keep from making waves.