Author's Chapter Notes: So, don’t blame me for not updating other things before this…kids stories are easier for me to re-attune to.
2006 ~ Atlantis Conference Room
“I think we should take them to Earth,” Caldwell spoke up. “They know things about the future that’s supposed to keep whatever happened from happening. I say we put them to good use, and get them away from here.”
Elizabeth had her hands neatly folded on the conference table listening to what everyone had to say, but she was tired of being quiet. Most of the people there had no problems with the children being there. “I’m not prepared to do that. If they want to participate in something like that, then I leave it up to them.”
“They don’t have rights, Doctor Weir. Technically they don’t even exist. They may wear flags of countries on their arms, but they don’t hold any rights of any of those respective nations,” Caldwell argued.
Teyla tilted her head studying Caldwell for a moment before speaking up, “You would force your children to do something which they do not wish?”
Caldwell turned his attention to Teyla, “As you say, they’re children. They don’t know what they want.”
“I think you’ll find that’s far from the truth, Colonel,” Kate Heightmeyer spoke up. She had interviewed a good number of the children, discussing the impacts of them being there and being with parents that weren’t their parents, not yet anyways… “Your daughter in fact, amazes me at how much she knows about life and the world. You’re very lucky to have such a well spoken and versed daughter at only seventeen. And it seems she’s even followed in your footsteps, she’s seems quite the leader even if she’s not the lead Daedalus representative.”
A smirk formed on Caldwell’s face, “You talk as if these children are ours here and now.”
“Well they are here,” Teyla spoke up again. “Why not expect them? Carson has run tests saying that they are not lying about their parentage. They were sent to Atlantis, Colonel Caldwell if you will recall. Not Earth. They were sent here for a reason.”
Caldwell grumbled quietly and leaned back in his chair. Sometimes Atlantis politics annoyed him. He liked the normal military ranking structure, in which it would be what he said and there was no other argument. Sometimes he wondered how smart having Weir as the commander of Atlantis was. It was definitely not convenient. Though he didn’t see getting any support from any of those on Atlantis besides a couple misfits, and those he couldn’t even stand.
“Perhaps they would be helpful on missions,” Rodney spoke aloud, surprising himself even at his sediment. “I mean, cuz…ya know…two heads are better than one…and all that.”
Teyla smiled, “I believe that that would prove most interesting.”
“I don’t think it would be safe,” John said frowning. What was Rodney thinking? Was he completely insane? He didn’t want to babysit… He had just gotten out of that stage since Rodney had become more gun friendly.
“I agree with Sheppard, they don’t have any field experience. Plus, they’re kids,” Ronan chimed in not wanting to look out for the kids on the mission any more than obviously Sheppard did.
Elizabeth had her hands folded in front of her, “Maybe we should talk to them… We need to find a way to bring them all into…the fold so to speak. I’m sure they’ll get bored. Perhaps they’re willing to participate in off-world missions…or they would be more comfortable on Atlantis.”
“Perhaps on the main land,” Teyla spoke up. “We could run drills…like a mission and they can be judged on how well they would perform off-world.”
“You want me to just hand over guns to the kids?” John asked surprised. “I don’t feel like being shot at.”
Teyla looked at him oddly, “You could always train them how to use them if they do not already know before you start the drills…”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Mainland
The kids had been split into ‘odd groups’ as Caitlin had commented, and been assigned to different judges. Caitlin hadn’t been so happy about leaving Lily on Atlantis, but then Lily wasn’t up to any of the running around anyways. Caitlin didn’t like being separated from her twin, Sean, though…it bugged her. Usually they worked together, but they had been mixed and mashed together. And she had been stuck with Ronan Dex. That just annoyed her.
She, John, Jeff, and Delaney were all together. Not that she would complain about them being put together normally, it just pissed her off that none of them had a choice in the matter and they expected them to meet Ronan Dex’s expectations. Why not just tell them that there was no way in hell they’d let them do anything important now? Caitlin was blatantly ignoring Ronan as he went on about safety and his rules, but when she heard him give the word, he brain snapped back.
“Go.”
Running quickly, Caitlin looked over at Delaney, caught her eye and they nodded to each other before heading off in opposite directions. John and Jeff stayed together going straight forward. The whole idea was to ‘rescue’ some dummy on the other side of the ‘enemy compound’. Ronan wanted to hear everything that went on, but as soon as they were out of sight, they all met up and exchanged their radios for their own equipment they were used to. Caitlin wasn’t the only one with a suspicion that the adults would cheat.
Jeff drew out the markers that they needed to go by and where they had to go, he knew that Caitlin hadn’t been listening. He could tell by the glazed over look she had gotten. Caitlin and Lily did it a lot, so he had already learned to decipher that look. “Okay, so I’m thinking if we stay in groups of two, and one pair scouts up ahead a bit at a time letting the others know it’s all clear, that would be the best plan,” he announced. Jeff Tripp was used to being the lead on the Daedalus and maybe that’s why he so naturally took command of the situation, plus there were no others to conflict with him.
“Sounds good,” Delaney said brightly before pulling her long blonde hair back and up and secured it into a messy bun with an elastic band. “Though, you do realize that he’s going to report us and oh are we gonna be in trouble…”
John smiled a bit sadly, “We’re making up for Lily not being here. I’m sure she’d have come up with something like this… Except there’d be an argument before we went out…”
Caitlin nodded in agreement, “And we definitely wouldn’t have been divided like they did.”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis Conference Room
“They did it on purpose,” Ronan argued.
“And it was pre-meditated,” John added quickly.
Lorne smiled, leaning back in his chair, “But they’re smart. And good shots.”
John glared over at Lorne, “You’re not helping.”
“I’d say he was.”
The group turned to the door. Elizabeth frowned, “You should be in the medical bay…resting, shouldn’t you?” she asked. Her daughter wasn’t yet strong enough, she had been checking in with Carson everyday…once or twice…and then she’d go down and visit.
Lily stepped further into the room; her eyes were dark and looked sunken in. She was paler than normal, and she only took small slow steps at a time. “I heard all about what you did…” she said quietly, weakly…tiredly. “It wasn’t fair… You can’t expect us to stay in rooms coloring in books because we’re children…”
John’s stomach started to twist. She just looked horrible, he stood up and guided her towards on of the chairs, “You should sit down.” He’d have to have a word with Carson in a while. As if on cue, Carson’s voice filled his ear piece and obviously Elizabeth’s as well. He activated his radio, “Carson, she’s up here in the conference room.” Once Carson had stopped talking, he looked over at his daughter, “Carson is not happy.”
“Neither am I,” Lily spoke up. She looked over at her mother and decided it was time to plead to her, “You made us a promise… We’re supposed to help you…so let us.”
*~*~*
TBC…
“I think we should take them to Earth,” Caldwell spoke up. “They know things about the future that’s supposed to keep whatever happened from happening. I say we put them to good use, and get them away from here.”
Elizabeth had her hands neatly folded on the conference table listening to what everyone had to say, but she was tired of being quiet. Most of the people there had no problems with the children being there. “I’m not prepared to do that. If they want to participate in something like that, then I leave it up to them.”
“They don’t have rights, Doctor Weir. Technically they don’t even exist. They may wear flags of countries on their arms, but they don’t hold any rights of any of those respective nations,” Caldwell argued.
Teyla tilted her head studying Caldwell for a moment before speaking up, “You would force your children to do something which they do not wish?”
Caldwell turned his attention to Teyla, “As you say, they’re children. They don’t know what they want.”
“I think you’ll find that’s far from the truth, Colonel,” Kate Heightmeyer spoke up. She had interviewed a good number of the children, discussing the impacts of them being there and being with parents that weren’t their parents, not yet anyways… “Your daughter in fact, amazes me at how much she knows about life and the world. You’re very lucky to have such a well spoken and versed daughter at only seventeen. And it seems she’s even followed in your footsteps, she’s seems quite the leader even if she’s not the lead Daedalus representative.”
A smirk formed on Caldwell’s face, “You talk as if these children are ours here and now.”
“Well they are here,” Teyla spoke up again. “Why not expect them? Carson has run tests saying that they are not lying about their parentage. They were sent to Atlantis, Colonel Caldwell if you will recall. Not Earth. They were sent here for a reason.”
Caldwell grumbled quietly and leaned back in his chair. Sometimes Atlantis politics annoyed him. He liked the normal military ranking structure, in which it would be what he said and there was no other argument. Sometimes he wondered how smart having Weir as the commander of Atlantis was. It was definitely not convenient. Though he didn’t see getting any support from any of those on Atlantis besides a couple misfits, and those he couldn’t even stand.
“Perhaps they would be helpful on missions,” Rodney spoke aloud, surprising himself even at his sediment. “I mean, cuz…ya know…two heads are better than one…and all that.”
Teyla smiled, “I believe that that would prove most interesting.”
“I don’t think it would be safe,” John said frowning. What was Rodney thinking? Was he completely insane? He didn’t want to babysit… He had just gotten out of that stage since Rodney had become more gun friendly.
“I agree with Sheppard, they don’t have any field experience. Plus, they’re kids,” Ronan chimed in not wanting to look out for the kids on the mission any more than obviously Sheppard did.
Elizabeth had her hands folded in front of her, “Maybe we should talk to them… We need to find a way to bring them all into…the fold so to speak. I’m sure they’ll get bored. Perhaps they’re willing to participate in off-world missions…or they would be more comfortable on Atlantis.”
“Perhaps on the main land,” Teyla spoke up. “We could run drills…like a mission and they can be judged on how well they would perform off-world.”
“You want me to just hand over guns to the kids?” John asked surprised. “I don’t feel like being shot at.”
Teyla looked at him oddly, “You could always train them how to use them if they do not already know before you start the drills…”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Mainland
The kids had been split into ‘odd groups’ as Caitlin had commented, and been assigned to different judges. Caitlin hadn’t been so happy about leaving Lily on Atlantis, but then Lily wasn’t up to any of the running around anyways. Caitlin didn’t like being separated from her twin, Sean, though…it bugged her. Usually they worked together, but they had been mixed and mashed together. And she had been stuck with Ronan Dex. That just annoyed her.
She, John, Jeff, and Delaney were all together. Not that she would complain about them being put together normally, it just pissed her off that none of them had a choice in the matter and they expected them to meet Ronan Dex’s expectations. Why not just tell them that there was no way in hell they’d let them do anything important now? Caitlin was blatantly ignoring Ronan as he went on about safety and his rules, but when she heard him give the word, he brain snapped back.
“Go.”
Running quickly, Caitlin looked over at Delaney, caught her eye and they nodded to each other before heading off in opposite directions. John and Jeff stayed together going straight forward. The whole idea was to ‘rescue’ some dummy on the other side of the ‘enemy compound’. Ronan wanted to hear everything that went on, but as soon as they were out of sight, they all met up and exchanged their radios for their own equipment they were used to. Caitlin wasn’t the only one with a suspicion that the adults would cheat.
Jeff drew out the markers that they needed to go by and where they had to go, he knew that Caitlin hadn’t been listening. He could tell by the glazed over look she had gotten. Caitlin and Lily did it a lot, so he had already learned to decipher that look. “Okay, so I’m thinking if we stay in groups of two, and one pair scouts up ahead a bit at a time letting the others know it’s all clear, that would be the best plan,” he announced. Jeff Tripp was used to being the lead on the Daedalus and maybe that’s why he so naturally took command of the situation, plus there were no others to conflict with him.
“Sounds good,” Delaney said brightly before pulling her long blonde hair back and up and secured it into a messy bun with an elastic band. “Though, you do realize that he’s going to report us and oh are we gonna be in trouble…”
John smiled a bit sadly, “We’re making up for Lily not being here. I’m sure she’d have come up with something like this… Except there’d be an argument before we went out…”
Caitlin nodded in agreement, “And we definitely wouldn’t have been divided like they did.”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis Conference Room
“They did it on purpose,” Ronan argued.
“And it was pre-meditated,” John added quickly.
Lorne smiled, leaning back in his chair, “But they’re smart. And good shots.”
John glared over at Lorne, “You’re not helping.”
“I’d say he was.”
The group turned to the door. Elizabeth frowned, “You should be in the medical bay…resting, shouldn’t you?” she asked. Her daughter wasn’t yet strong enough, she had been checking in with Carson everyday…once or twice…and then she’d go down and visit.
Lily stepped further into the room; her eyes were dark and looked sunken in. She was paler than normal, and she only took small slow steps at a time. “I heard all about what you did…” she said quietly, weakly…tiredly. “It wasn’t fair… You can’t expect us to stay in rooms coloring in books because we’re children…”
John’s stomach started to twist. She just looked horrible, he stood up and guided her towards on of the chairs, “You should sit down.” He’d have to have a word with Carson in a while. As if on cue, Carson’s voice filled his ear piece and obviously Elizabeth’s as well. He activated his radio, “Carson, she’s up here in the conference room.” Once Carson had stopped talking, he looked over at his daughter, “Carson is not happy.”
“Neither am I,” Lily spoke up. She looked over at her mother and decided it was time to plead to her, “You made us a promise… We’re supposed to help you…so let us.”
*~*~*
TBC…