Work Text:
Geez, it was like being trapped in High School.
Colonel Sheppard had asked her to make sure Beckett and Porter didn’t “geek out too much.” He didn’t say anything about watching them flirt so awkwardly Dusty didn’t know whether to bust out laughing or toss her cookies.
When Teldy asked her to be on her ‘gate team, she had expected it to be pretty much bullshit free. All women, led by a fellow dyke, no men. Now here she was, up to her eyeballs in painful-to-watch hetero FLIRTING. Christ, bring on the Wraith. It was time to check the perimeter, clear her head, get the fuck OUT of here. (“I graduated from Cal Tech.” “What year?” “1996.” “Oh, you’re just a baby.” Barf.)
With a parting shot (“I’ll be back in twenty; unless I see a sock on the door knob.”), issued purely to see Ally Porter roll her eyes adorably, Mehra was out in the open air. Well, the foggy air. The foggy and very creepy air.
The distant sound of gunfire interrupted her patrol. Falling back to their base of operations, she was immediately confronted with both her charges, outside and looking around. How bright.
And, of course, she immediately had to deal with male ego bullshit. Beckett wanted to come along, as if a firefight was just the place for someone like him, by virtue of his ‘Y’ chromosome.
Dusty put on her game face. “The Colonel told me to keep you safe, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“Like hell you are!” Like Dusty had time to kick things around with a civilian right now.
“That’s an order.”
She hadn’t met up with the Colonel, Major and Captain before she heard small-arms fire back the way she had come. Shit! That had to be one of her charges.
When she found the doctor, there was a weird humanoid shaped “thing” crawling on the wall next to him, and Beckett was frozen silently in fear. It looked like a bald man, but moved in a herky-jerky fashion that was completely alien. As it circled the doctor (why didn’t it attack?) Dusty saw its face, which had thick membranes instead of eyes. The ubiquitous fog appeared to be pouring out of the creature’s neck, where it had gill-like openings. She, along with the rest of her team had read the mission reports about Michael’s Wraith hybrid experiments. This didn’t look anything like the huge vicious bugs that Sheppard’s team had escaped, nor did it look like the human/wraith hybrids. She had done a few shifts of guard duty on the mainland before Keller had come up with the cure, so she knew what the hybrids looked like. She heard Beckett’s soft “Holy crap,” before the thing started screaming its horrible croaky cry. It was definitely threatening the doctor, and she didn’t hesitate to blow it away. She hustled Beckett back to the hut but Ally was missing. She rounded on Beckett, furious. “Why the hell didn’t you stay here? I gave you a direct order.”
“I’m sorry, sergeant. I heard the gunfire and couldn’t leave you out there alone to cope with it.”
“Beckett, I am a trained combat marine. I can kill or maim in 127 different ways, and I don’t need your help. The colonel gave me an order to keep you safe, but I find you out wandering around risking your life. Now Porter is missing, too. You should have stayed put. I don’t know why you think I’m some little princess that needs protecting, but you should have saved it for Porter.”
Beckett was flushed, and looked abashed, but a noise outside stopped his reply. Something was rattling the doorknob, so Mehra stepped in front of him, raising her P-90. The door burst open, but it was Sheppard and Teldy, with a native in tow, not more blind zombie things.
Not only was Porter missing, but Captain Vega was dead. Dusty did what she was trained to do – put her feelings on the back burner. She didn’t have time for grief right now.
The search for Dr. Allison Porter was eerie, lit by the cool blue emergency lights from their packs. Dusty moved through the silent, foggy landscape, P-90 and emergency light outstretched. Another blue light appeared directly in front of her. Both it and Dusty stopped, wary. The light moved from side to side in the prearranged signal as instructed by Sheppard, and Dusty moved hers the same way. It was Sheppard, errant scientist in tow, thank God. Now all they had to do was find Major Teldy and regroup with Beckett and the native. Mehra spotted another blue light moving toward them, but it didn’t respond when she waved her light. “Major Teldy. She doesn’t see us.”
She moved confidently out, gun and light extended, but not particularly worried.
It wasn’t Teldy.
A blind face came screaming out of the fog, way too close for comfort. It was directly out of a B-movie horror script. Fortunately, she wasn’t the prom queen, or the kid in the wheelchair, and she was armed with an automatic weapon. The spike of Teldy’s emergency light protruded from the dead creature’s shoulder. It looked like the major had tangled with the monster first. She just hoped the major had made it out alive.
They got back to the hut, to find Major Teldy, but no sign of Beckett or the native, except for a few blood spots.
“All right, well, we saw twelve of those pods in the lab. I killed one back in the forest, so ...” Sheppard began.
“I tagged two -- which, incidentally, puts me in the lead,” Mehra smiled, smugly. She loved fucking with male egos, even if she didn’t fuck men.
She had to hand it to Sheppard. Not only did he take her dig about being up on points with a smirk, he actually asked for ideas. Before long, a plan had been formulated. The colonel would plant a tablet computer, programmed with an ultrasonic burst, in the well at the center of the village, while Porter, Teldy and Mehra held high positions overlooking the village square. The burst was supposed to draw the monsters in, since they hunted using sound. Using a brick of C-4 and their firearms, they would take out the remaining nine monsters. The plan seemed pretty decent, except the colonel would be most at risk in case of a snafu, since he would be on the ground near the well. From what she heard, putting himself in danger was a bit of a Sheppard trademark. She might not like it, and she might be a smartass, but Dusty did know how to follow orders.
Waiting tasted like bubblegum and boredom. The fog rolled in, accompanied by the clicking sound the creatures made. They quickly lost sight of Colonel Sheppard.
The well went up, and Dusty opened fire on the butt ugly creatures that killed Vega and maybe the colonel and Beckett, too. The dark made keeping score difficult, so she concentrated on mowing them down. “Six, seven, eight, nine, plus the three from before makes twelve,” she counted once the dust had cleared and she had regrouped with Teldy and Porter. Unfortunately, one of the bodies turned out to be alive. “OK, THAT was nine, plus three makes twelve,” she finished with a sheepish grimace, popping her gum self-consciously.
Luckily, the colonel and Beckett were down the well, safe and sound.
It had been her first Pegasus combat situation, and lived up to all her best expectations: awesome adrenaline rush, and no additional casualties. She felt a pang for Captain Vega. They had just started to jell as a team, and she really had liked the no-nonsense officer. For all her pragmatism, Vega had a wicked sense of humor. She’d had them all in stitches with her hilarious impersonation of Zelenka, including perfect Czech accent. She’d been on Atlantis a good six months longer than any of the rest of them, and had been generous in helping her team settle in.
“I’ve had enough mad science for one day,” Allison said wearily, asking to wait for the rest of them in the corridor that connected Michael’s lab to the town well. Dusty waited with her, starting to feel the letdown as the adrenaline wore off. Allison sighed deeply as she settled down on her pack to wait for the rest to return. She hadn’t returned Dusty’s smile earlier, and she looked a little worse for all of the excitement.
“We’ll be going back soon, Al. You gonna be OK?”
Porter looked up, seeming surprised at Dusty’s gentle tone. “I knew it would be weird, Dusty. I guess I just didn’t know how weird. I’m a little freaked out.”
“You kept your head, for the most part, followed orders. The plan was yours, too. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we didn’t lose any more people.”
Allison smiled ruefully, and Dusty knew she was thinking about Vega. They both sighed.
Of course, that’s when they heard the clicking sound. It was straight out of that B-movie script again – right when they were separated from the rest of the team – classic timing for the monsters to start picking them off. They managed to blow away the first couple of them before their clips ran out. The monsters were all around them; where the hell had they all come from? Back to back with Porter, she heard Ally whisper. “Remember, they hunt by sound. Keep quiet. Don’t move.”
They froze together and the monsters around them didn’t come much closer, obviously unable to find their silent prey. The colonel shouted “Porter! Mehra!” from down the corridor, and the monsters all loped off, like classic zombies courtesy of George Romero. The two teammates took a very quiet breath as they were once more left alone.
They waited for the firefight to die down, and then Mehra risked a shout for the colonel. “All clear?”
It was a huge relief to hear his answering shout. “Clear.”
Zombie data and Vega’s body in tow, the five Atlanteans hiked through the woods and scaled the cliff to the ‘gate. They were back in time for lunch. Porter had been kept in the infirmary a bit longer, her ankle being twisted and the stress of the mission still elevating her blood pressure. Teldy and Mehra sat down at a table to eat together, but neither felt much like talking. A slight cough behind them made them look up. “Mind if I join you?” Colonel Sheppard asked.
Teldy moved over to make room, and Dusty swallowed her bite of meatball sandwich. “Sorry about Vega. It’s tough to lose a member of your team. I’ve been there.”
Major Teldy’s lips tightened at the colonel’s words. “I just wish there had been something I could have done. It all happened so damn fast. One second I’m telling her to ‘stay sharp’ and the next she’s dead.”
“Try not to torture yourself, Major,” Sheppard answered. “None of this was your fault. I was pretty impressed with your team. We’ve had to deal with plenty of weird crap, but this was way up on the bizarre-o-meter. Is Porter going to be OK? She seemed pretty shook up.” There was something a little unreadable in the colonel’s expression.
Teldy stiffened slightly. “I’m sure she’ll get used to the weirdness and the danger, Colonel. You don’t have to worry about her being a liability to my team.”
“I didn’t say she was a liability. The scientists on the ‘gate teams aren’t soldiers, but they manage to save their teams’ asses a disproportionate amount of the time. McKay wasn’t exactly cool and collected when we started going out as a team.” Sheppard smiled to himself, obviously remembering something. “I wanted to tape his mouth shut a more than a couple times.” He stabbed at the green beans on his plate. “Beckett was really impressed with Porter. That tells me a lot.”
“Yeah, I could tell he was impressed with her,” Dusty said with a smirk. “I thought I was going to have to separate those two.”
“Sergeant Mehra…” Teldy’s tone was hard with disapproval.
Sheppard interrupted, with a slight smile. “Yep, he’s certainly into brains and beauty.”
“I chose my team because they were the best. Not because they’re eye candy,” Teldy bristled.
“Relax, Major. I have attractive people on my team, too. No one is about to suggest they aren’t the best at their jobs, I assure you. At least I wouldn’t want to be around when Ronon and Teyla are accused of being ‘eye candy.’ Of course, McKay would probably just be stoked if someone thought I chose him because he was hot.”
Dusty choked on her coke. “Uh, I don’t think anyone’s going to think that about McKay.” Sheppard looked at her steadily.
“Big blue eyes, broad shoulders, great ass. What’s not hot about that?’ The colonel held her eye while he took a sip of coffee.
“Uh, right, sir. Whatever you say; I guess I’m not the one to ask.” Mehra and Teldy caught each other’s eye. Their preferences were well established, but was Sheppard implying what it seemed like he was implying? Were there any straight people at the table? It’s not like she could ask, and it didn’t look like the colonel was going to tell, either, at least not directly.
“Huh,” was all the reply Teldy made to Sheppard’s question.
They ate and spoke of inconsequential things for awhile. Sheppard had been on Atlantis since the beginning, and Dusty had to restrain herself from asking too many questions about their early skirmishes with the Wraith, before they were back in contact with Earth. They were just finishing up their dessert (Teldy and Sheppard had fruit, Mehra had a pudding cup) when McKay turned up at the table, coffee and well-laden lunch tray in hand.
“Dr. Rodney McKay, this is Major Teldy and Sergeant Mehra. Major Teldy’s team is the one that discovered the latest of Michael’s labs.”
“Yes, yes, I understand there was a casualty. I’m looking forward to all of Michael’s sick little science experiments being discovered and shut down. On the bright side, Carson’s sticking around for another week. I’m sorry about Vega. She was one of the combat engineers that got Lorne and me out of the last one of Michael’s labs we encountered. Seriously, I would not be here if not for her…”
Dusty blinked. The man talked about a thousand miles an hour, shoveling food in his mouth the entire time. And Colonel Sheppard found that hot? She glanced at the expression on the base C.O.’s face out of the corner of her eye.
Huh.
Apparently so.