Preparations: Mitchell Files 8

Author's Note: Seriously, guys, I just can't think of catchy titles. But at least it has one!

OOOOOOOO

"They don't look much like coffee beans to me…."

Melony smiled, taking the wet berry from the Marine who had just plucked it and holding it up to the sun. Well, where the sun was – although it was covered by a gray haze. It was still raining on good old A-08, and it looked as if it had been since they'd left the last time. It certainly was wet enough to have been.

Talonopolis

Whatever.

At least it's only a drizzling rain. As long as it doesn't get torrential, we'll be fine

"It's not a bean yet, Sergeant. See the seed inside? That's the part that we need. We dry that, and then roast it, and ta-da we have a coffee bean."

The Sergeant took the berry from her and nodded. Like the others who had volunteered to come help harvest the beans, he wasn't all that interested in where the coffee beans came from, as long as they made coffee once they were finished harvesting them.

"Yes, Ma'am."

She slapped his back and left him to it, standing for a moment while she watched the activities around her.

There were eight people here. Four were Marines from the security forces and the other four were scientists – one was a research scientist and the other three were from Carson Beckett's medical research team. At the moment, four were harvesting and four were being the guards – even though Melony and Kale hadn't seen any sign of anything dangerous during their initial trip, or on the next one. It never hurt to make sure, after all.

"You guys will be okay?" She asked the Lieutenant who was the ranking Marine in the detail.

He nodded, just glancing at her. He was guarding at the moment, and took it seriously enough that he was watching the bushes and the surrounding area instead of the people harvesting.

"We'll be fine."

"If I'm not back, don't keep them out after dark," Mitchell ordered. "Back to the Jumper for the night."

It was way too wet to try and set up a camp, so the Jumpers would make do as shelters during the night for those who were outside.

"Yes, Colonel."

She nodded, and looked at Carson Beckett, who had been standing near at hand, studying one of the berries. The doctor was wearing a waterproof coat – just like everyone else – and had a crutch close at hand – although he didn't need it, really. It was just in case he spent too much time on his still sore ankle and needed the extra support.

"You ready?"

He nodded, and the two of them headed for one of the Jumpers.

OOOOOO

Rodney McKay was a lot of things – and most of those things were annoying, but Mitchell had to admit that when it came to organizing, he was as good as they came. Even as she set the Jumper down in the ravine that held the opening to the lava tube that led to the lavabase – as everyone had taken to calling it – she could see that there was a steady light coming from the entrance. Which meant that he'd already managed to harness the thermal energies of the hot room and had strung lights already. Which was impressive since they'd only been there a few hours at the most.

He's been planning it for a week, Talon reminded her. He probably had it all set up in his mind how he was going to do it

True. But it's still impressive.

Talon agreed with that, especially once she and Carson started into the tube. They didn't need to carry flashlights to see where they were going, now, which made it safer. Especially for Beckett, who was limping despite his assurance that his ankle was fine.

"It's just the cold and damp," he'd told her. "It's getting into the muscles and seizing them. As soon as we get where it's warmer, it'll loosen up a bit."

Which was why he wasn't picking berries with the others, even though he'd planned to. She wanted him inside where it was warm.

And you like having him close

Since there was no hiding that from Talon, Melony hadn't even tried. She simply smiled, and watched Beckett as they walked up the slight incline of the lava tube, waiting to see if he stopped limping.

By the time they reached the main cavern – which looked even more impressive lit up than it had in the dark – Carson was limping harder, and Melony was about to tell him to go find someplace to sit down, when Rodney McKay walked up to them, smiling and looking about as smug as she'd ever seen him looking.

"Colonel Mitchell! What do you think?"

She looked around, where there were technicians swarming over her cavern, running lights and wires and lines of all sorts, looking more like ants on an Oreo than anything else, really.

"You've made a lot of progress, Doctor. I'm impressed."

The smug look increased tenfold, and McKay looked tried to look modest. And failed.

"We found where the water from the crack is draining to," he told her, gesturing for her to join him. "This was a problem we had to solve before we could run too many wires – since we don't want things to start blowing up on us because they're getting damp."

Mitchell looked up at the crack in the ceiling of the cavern – which should have been raining water down on them, and could have made the cavern completely useless to Melony for a research facility. Like McKay had said, she didn't want water dripping on things and causing them to explode as she was trying to figure out what made it tick. Especially since there was already the chance that it'd blow up, anyways.

He pointed to a very small crack at the base of the cavern floor – on the opposite side of the room from where they'd entered. Sure enough, the wall there was wet, and there was definitely a sound of running water.

"The wall seems to slant just enough that water coming from the crack up there flows only along this portion, where it then drains into this crack here."

"Where does it go from there?" Beckett asked.

McKay scowled.

"I don't know. I don't have anyone small enough to go down and find out."

Melony smiled.

"We're still looking," McKay told her, "But it's not on the top of the priorities list. Now that we know it won't overload our circuits, we'll be able to keep stringing wires."

"You're doing great, Doctor McKay."

McKay frowned.

"You know… you could call me Rodney. You call the good Doctor here Carson…"

Melony smiled, "I'm sleeping with Carson. I'd feel stupid calling him Doctor Beckett."

She saw John Sheppard entering the cavern and walked over to see what he'd found, leaving McKay staring at Carson, who was blushing brilliantly in the soft glow of the lights that were illuminating the cavern.