Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Piercing the Veil	By : trudyw000 Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > Slash - Male/Male Views: 8941 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Stargate Atlantis, I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Author's Note : Here it is, Chapter 10, sorry it's taken so long, got delayed a little longer by the recent downtime but mostly because I'm just a very slow writer. Enjoy and please review.

Chapter 10

"Who has taken a team through the Stargate?" Elizabeth asked, not having caught all of Lantia's message.

It was Jack who replied with a single word, "Sumner!"

With a last, longing look at the hilltop where the grave of her older self lay Elizabeth took a deep breath before walking resolutely onto the shuttle and requesting that Sirius pilot them back to the city. She had been feeling strangely disconnected since Sirius' revelations of the previous day, seeing herself looking so elderly and frail had been a shock to the system and it was only now, after having the opportunity to spend some time alone in silent thought that she was beginning to regain her mental equilibrium.

She hadn't authorised any gate missions, hell they hadn't even finalised the gate teams. What was Sumner playing at? The man had been behaving irrationally practically since they had arrived, waving a rocket launcher around inside the city that was to be their new home, and now this. Elizabeth resolved that as soon as they had Sumner back in the city she would have him consigned to Dr Beckett's care for a full medical workup.

A slight jolt pulled Elizabeth from her abstraction and looking out of the large viewing window at the front of the craft she realised that they were already underway, heading back to the city, the sea flashing past some forty feet beneath them. Moving forward to stand behind Sirius in the pilot seat she was somewhat surprised when Jack immediately stood, ceding his chair to her.

No-one had ever accused Jack of failing to play the game fairly, at least not justly. This morning had been one thing, basically a pleasure cruise to familiarise themselves with the little craft and to take a stroll on the mainland of their new home planet. It had been perfectly fair then to tease Elizabeth, a little retaliation for the perceived lack of support when Sumner had attacked Sirius. This was different however, now there was an ongoing incident which she needed to deal with as the civilian leader of the expedition and Jack and the others could not do otherwise than to offer their full support.

As Elizabeth settled in her seat Sirius gestured towards the console before them anticipating her first request, "Lantia, Elizabeth is here, can you tell us exactly what happened?"

"Of course Sirius" and immediately Lantia began to relate the events that followed the shuttle's departure from the city. Colonel Sumner had begun to come round as the soldiers were carrying him to the infirmary, as he realised he was being carried he had objected vehemently until the men had had no choice but to put him on his feet where he wobbled slightly but managed to remain upright. Correctly guessing that the Colonel would object equally strongly to their destination the officer in charge of the contingent of men made no mention of that and simply guided the, still slightly groggy, Colonel onwards.

It was only when they reached the infirmary doors that Sumner realised where they were heading and by that time it was too late as Lieutenant Ford hustled him through the doors calling for Dr Beckett. Knowing how undignified it would look to object now Sumner submitted with poor grace as he was directed to sit on one of the diagnostic beds whilst the Lieutenant recounted the earlier events. Whilst the Doctor examined Colonel Sumner Lantia let these events slip away from her primary consciousness.

The truth was that even her amazing processing power was being pushed to the limit. The city had been abandoned for over ten thousand years and there was a lot of maintenance that needed to be done and very little power available to do it. The one remaining ZPM powering the city was dangerously close to being drained and in order to conserve power she had been forced to switch off most of her more powerful processing modules, relying on autonomous slave systems to monitor vital services and alert in case of emergency.

And then there were the people, over a hundred of them and they all had questions about the city, the planet, the galaxy. Lantia was used to dealing with a city of thousands but most of them needed very little from her in their day to day lives. These people however wanted to know everything and they wanted to know it now! Most unnerving of all, virtually none of these people carried the blood of the Ancients. Or at least if they did it wasn't strong enough to allow them to interact mentally with Lantia, so she had to monitor other systems, manipulate hidden speakers to interact with them instead of the almost effortless mental communication she was used to.

And so it was that once Colonel Sumner was safe in the hands of the medical personnel Lantia withdrew her immediate attention from the infirmary and turned to the many other tasks requiring her time. Which was why she failed to realise what was happening until the wormhole of the stargate whooshed into being, by which time it was too late to do anything to prevent the Colonel from taking a team offworld.

Colonel Sumner had got away from the medics as quickly as possible, most of his entourage had melted away once they had got him to the infirmary, only his right hand man remained, Sergeant Bates had been with the Colonel for a long time, they made a good team, both career military and each as ruthless as the other in pursuit of their duty. Now as they hurried away from the infirmary Sumner rapped out his instructions to the other man, "gather the men, we came to Atlantis for a reason, and it's time we stopped sightseeing in a dead city and got on with our mission!"

With only a sharply rapped out "Sir!" as acknowledgement Bates smartly reversed course and headed off to collect the two men he and the Colonel had decided would round out their lead gate team. Chapman and Wright had been with the Colonel almost as long as Bates had. Coming up through basic training together they had forged a strong bond and in Colonel Sumner they had found a man they could follow wholeheartedly. A more compassionate leader might have tempered their fierce belief in the 'Might is Right' ethos, giving them a strong moral compass whilst introducing them to the concepts of tolerance and diplomacy. Sumner, a strong leader and rigid disciplinarian however had merely reinforced their worst character traits whilst stifling any flexibility in their, already restricted, mindset until now they were little more than bully boys hiding behind a thin veneer of patriotism.

Trusting Bates to find Chapman and Wright, and to collect appropriate weapons for their first gate mission in the Pegasus galaxy, Sumner strode on looking for the final ingredient for a successful gate team. Finally he spotted what he was looking for, a scrawny, slightly scruffy man with longish hair and wire-framed glasses and a taller, younger man with a slicked back ponytail, "scientists" he muttered, his distaste obvious as he spat the word. The two science types were stood in front of a darkened panel, apparently engrossed in a low voiced argument. Supremely uninterested in whatever two geeks might be arguing about Sumner marched up to them and sliced through their words with a sharp "To the gateroom!" When they didn't react quickly enough for his liking he rapped out "NOW!" before making a small concession to the fact that these were not soldiers "our mission is to explore this galaxy, to do that we need a functioning gate!"

Turning on his heel he headed straight to the gateroom without even checking to see that his two victims were following him. Exchanging a mystified look the two men hurried to catch up, falling into step behind him. On reaching their destination the Colonel stopped so abruptly that the two following him barely halted their hurrying steps in time to avoid a collision. When they didn't move quickly enough for his satisfaction he barked "Well!" with a significant look towards the silent, empty ring of the stargate and they swiftly moved to do his bidding.

Lantia had locked out the stargate and left a slave process to monitor it whilst she concentrated her attention elsewhere. Unfortunately she hadn't realised just how much experience some of the Earth scientists had with Ancient technology and more by luck than judgment Sumner had snagged two of the best to work on the gate. They quickly spotted and bypassed the monitoring process and by the time Bates arrived, heavily armed and carrying more weapons for his commanding officer, with two equally well-armed soldiers following on his heels, they were just finishing up the final diagnostics and were able to declare the gate fully functioning.

Whilst waiting for the others to complete their assigned tasks Sumner had been poring over the library of gate addresses that had been found in the consoles of the control room. Seeing his team assembled he stabbed the screen with a finger, "that one! start dialling!" A fickle fate directed his finger to the only address on the list that would possibly get a lock and before Lantia realised that her slave process had been bypassed the wormhole was established and there was nothing she could do to close it down.

As he was about to order his team through the gate Sumner was stopped by a nagging doubt that he'd long learned not to ignore. His eye settled on the two scientists who were anxiously fidgeting, obviously eager to be off doing other things and he swiftly evaluated the two men. One older, more experienced but less physically fit, the other younger, taller, looked to be in better condition, less likely to slow them down. His decision was easy and he pointed to the younger man "you're with me!" Sirius and the others in the shuttlecraft watched in horror as Lantia displayed the few moments of footage she'd captured once her attention was dragged back to the stargate and they saw Sumner grab Kavanagh by the arm and propel him before him through the event horizon.

AN: Well that's it, only a short chapter this time, please let me know what you think. Any feedback gratefully recieved.
- 9
- 10
- 11
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Piercing the Veil