CHAPTER 1 – GETTING OFF ON THE WRONG FLOOR

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" The warning claxons sounded in Atlantis and Sam sighed. She was in the control room going over some figures with Rodney and glanced over at the gate technician as he made the announcement. These such occurrences, while not uncommon, did cause a stir in Atlantis. Without an IDC or personal identification code, it was simply not prudent to open the doors of Atlantis, so to speak, and as commander of the base? Opening the doors was certainly Colonel Samantha Carter's call.

"Ok Seargant... what have we got?"

"No IDC ma'am..." He looked at her hopefully, waiting on instructions as to whether to lower the shield and allow the unknown person or persons in... or simply leave it shut and let the poor smuck coming through the gate, simply disappear into a million rather painful pieces as he disintegrated on contact with the event horizon. Her call, thank goodness.

"How many teams are offworld at the moment, Seargent?" Sam moved over to the window so that she could look down into the gate room, once again marvelling at that perfect piece of technology that effectively harnessed a wormhole, allowing space to fold and one to step through the ring and the wormhole and come out the other side... somewhere else. Far, far away. She had been one of those responsible, all those years ago – to study the device and attempt to get it working. It had been discovered in Egypt in the 1930's and a team of scientists had given their hearts and their lives to allow credence to a piece of technology that was simply light years away from anything found and created by man on earth.

Created by man, being the operative expression. This device was simply part of a network of such devices, created through the milky way galaxy as a means of transportation, by an alien race known simply as the Ancient's. And now? Colonel Samantha Carter and her team of earth personnel were the inhabitants of the city of Atlantis, finally rediscovered in the Pegasus galaxy, home to the Ancients more than 10,000 years ago.

The seargent's answer brought her back from her reverie. "We have two teams offworld Colonel, but none due to report in. Shall I lower the shield?"

She thought quickly and made the decision. "Lower the shield." She then called down urgently to the marines who guarded the stargate.

"We've got company people, weapons set to stun." She spared a brief second to make sure they complied, moving in a protective semi circle around the gate and activiting her ear comm she asked Colonel Sheppard to get down to the gate room immediately.

"Seems we have unscheduled company John. Let's see whose coming to call..."

She flicked a glance around the control room, then headed down the stairs that would take her to the gate room. Tall and confident, with short blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, she commanded the base with a fair hand, having had ten years experience with SG1 team, back on earth. Her own offworld missions were too numerous to count, and she had agreed to come here to the Pegasus galaxy as a means to push herself and abilities a little more. She had accomplished on earth, all that she could.

Colonel John Sheppard came running into the gate room. Dark unruly hair, hazel eyes, ruggedly handsome face and good friend to Sam. Her second in command really – although John was the military commander and made all such decisions. She herself, was more base administrator and he left those decisions to her. Gladly.

He stepped up beside the marines, ready to welcome the guest or guests who stepped through the gate, his trusty P90 already up and pointed – the perfect welcoming companion should things go south. Sam noted that Ronon and Teyla, members of John's team, had fallen in behind him and Ronon had his energy weapon at the ready.

They were not ready for what stepped through that gate. A small built woman, long dark hair that curled riotiously around her face and about her shoulders, clad in worn denims, sneakers and a simple tank top with a camera, no – make that several cameras – slung around her neck.

And chocolate brown eyes that one could get lost in...

The click of weapons had her widening her eyes immediately. She leaned over slightly to get her breath and John could see that her face had paled and he wondered if she was a first time gate traveller. It was something that one needed to become accustomed to and that first time was worse than being on the world's fastest roller coaster that had suddenly spun out of control. You simply arrived at the other side with no comprehension as to what had just happened and feeling as though some of your body parts had chosen not to arrive intact. Definitely an experience that had to grow on you.

He motioned briefly for the marines to stand down and after a small pause, they lowered their weapons. He kept his own at more or less half mast, waiting to see what she would do. When she brought herself up to full height, which admittedly was not much, he saw the sudden fear in her eyes as she saw the weapons pointing at her, and began to turn slightly and back away, towards him and away from the soldiers.

Sam spoke, seeing the fear on her face. "I am Colonel Carter. Where have you come from? And what is your purpose here?" Frown lines appeared on Sam's face. She took in the woman's attire and the cameras around her neck and knew immediately that she was from earth.

The woman did not speak, just continued backing up slowly, and when she had put some distance between herself and the soldiers, she turned abruptly as though to run, and ran smack into the hard wall of muscle that was Colonel John Sheppard.

He banded a hand around her to steady her as much as restrain her and looked down into her face with just a little amusement. Amusement that she did not share. Feeling his arm restrain her, she panicked and began to kick and claw, causing more than one colourful oath to come out of his mouth.

"Damn it woman! Hold still, I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Let me go. You're undermining my first amendment rights. Last I checked, this is a free country!"

She squirmed and wriggled against him, causing him to huff a breath of annoyance and band his arm a little tighter.

"Lady? Just what country do you think you're in? "Cause I'm telling you... the laws out here are a little different..."

She kicked him hard in the shins, then went to knee him in the groin in response, and he felt his grip on her slip just a little. "Jesus! Come back here!" He reached for her, but she was fast and around him in seconds, heading for the door. Ronon was fast to react, the big Satedan simply brought up his energy weapon and fired it, catching her squarely in the centre of the back and brought her down immediately.

Sam turned an annoyed glance on Ronon and John exploded with another oath. "Damn it Ronon! Did you have to hit her with that? She's gonna be more than just a little pissed when she wakes up..."

"If you'd done your job Sheppard, I wouldn't have had to fire the damn weapon. You couldn't hold on to a tiny thing like that?"

"Tiny she might be, but her feet and knees were about to do some serious damage. Damn... Sam? Can you contact the SGC and find out just who the hell she is? I'll get her to the infirmary and take a bit of flack from Carson as to why I allowed a civilian to get shot by an energy weapon. You, Ronon! Can write the damn report on this one..."

He huffed a breath and bent down to where she lay on the floor. Pushing the long curling hair out of her face he acknowledged that she was quite stunning. Even with those melt in your mouth chocolate eyes shut, her warm toned skin and high cheekbones made an exceptionally beautiful face, not classically so – but in that 'hot get under your collar' sort of way. He placed his arms underneath and swung her easily into his arms. There wasn't much of her. The cameras that had been around her neck had been removed and taken away by one of the marines at Sam's instruction – hoping to see what was on them for a clue as to where she had been.

He carried her through to the infirmary and faced Carson's inevitable wrath as to why he was bringing in a woman who had been shot by one of their energy weapons. The scottish doctor had a way of making him feel like a small naughty child, and he had to resist the urge to hang his head slightly at the tirade.

"Aaah, Doc. She was trying to escape. At least, that's what it looked like. And we couldn't have her running all over the base until we know where she has come from and what she's doing here. Sam's on the blower to the SGC now, to find out who she is. Usually we get a heads up before any visitors are sent through, so must have missed the memo on this one...She had cameras around her neck, and it seems a little bit unusual... hell, a whole lot unusual – that earth would sent through a journalist or a photographer – whatever the hell she turns out to be."

"Regardless Colonel – not really a very good way to treat visitors. Shoot them first and ask questions later. I have to doubt the practicality of that mandate."

"Yeah, sorry Doc... bad call I guess. How bad is she hit? She took the blow right in the back just as she was running. Hell, she went down pretty hard."

"She'll be out for a while Colonel. And she'll have an almighty sore head as well as back, given the size of her. I suppose I should be grateful that Ronon had his weapon set to stun... hmmm?" Doctor Carson Beckett looked up a John, who felt like crawling under the bed. Of course the doctor had known that Ronon had pulled the trigger. John had deliberately not divulged who had shot her, but it was obvious to the doctor that Ronon's blood ran a little hotter than everyone else's here in Atlantis, and as he was rarely without that big energy weapon of his? Well, this misdemeanour was a little harder for John to try and cover.

"I'll go and see if Sam has had any luck in finding out who she is. Do me a favour Doc, and call me when she wakes up. I imagine I'll have a bit of grovelling to do when the mother of headaches strikes her. Damn..." He cast a lingering look at the small form that lay in the bed, cheeks now pale and long dark hair spread out over the pillow. He resisted the urge to reach out and move the long strand that had covered part of her cheek, but thrusting his hands roughly into his pockets, he huffed a breath and turned to leave, but not before he heard Carson's parting remark.

"Perhaps I should give her time to calm down before I call you?" His scottish lilt held dry amusement and he saw the Colonel pause in the doorway and saw his shoulders sag slightly. Carson resisted the urge to laugh out loud. The Colonel was like an overgrown boy sometimes. Humour always below the surface, just covering that hard military edge that honed his everyday actions. A good man, a good leader and respected throughout Atlantis and a growing reputation as more than just a little bit of a bad ass in the Pegasus galaxy. Carson gave him a bit of grief from time to time, but knew that Colonel John Sheppard wouldn't have willingly fired on a civilian,nor would he have sanctioned any of his team to do so either.

"Might be a good idea Doc... but I'd prefer to take the heat. As soon as she wakes up, ok?"

"Copy that Colonel."

John went back to the control room to find Sam still communicating with the SGC back on earth. She raised an eyebrow at John when he walked in and he pulled up a chair, eager to find out what she had learnt. Shutting down communications, she waved her hands in consternation.

"Nada, John. They know nothing. She didn't come through the SGC, and as that is the only working gate on earth... seems we have a little mystery on her hands. I've had one of the technicians begin pulling up some of the photos that were on her camera. Looks fairly innocuous – likely earth, mainly shots of water, islands – excellent photos from a technical point of view, but I don't recognise the landscape other than I'm pretty sure that they were filmed on earth. So just how the hell did she get here? Did Carson tell you how long she'd be out for?"

"He'll let me know when she wakes up... and I'll be dodging the bullet for the mother of all headaches she's gonna have. Not looking forward to that. So... did not come through the SGC... wow, that's a kicker. I look forward to hearing the explanation for that one!"

He got up to leave, needing to complete his offworld planning for the next week as he had been about to do before Sam had called him down to the gate room.

"I'll let you know after I've had a chance to talk to her. Probably best she's not bombarded at once – I'll get the story and then we'll try and piece together what happened."

Sam smiled as he left thinking that the chocolate brown eyes would not have swayed his decision to be the one to question her... no, not at all...