Archive of Our Own

Stepping through the Stargate was an experience Karen was sure she wouldn’t ever get used to. She had been to a couple of research facilities on other planets in the six weeks since she had learned about the Stargate program, but every time she stepped through the event horizon she was again overcome by the same overwhelmed wonder as the first time.

This time, Karen didn’t step out of the gate on another planet, though. The Midway station of the gate bridge was the most unspectacular thing she had ever seen, despite her fascination with the whole concept and construction when she had learned about it. Or maybe that was just the impression she was left with because just half an hour later she stepped through the gate again and right into the most amazing place of the whole universe.

Atlantis was bright and brimming with excitement and energy. Karen had been warned about Atlantis being a special kind of experience for anyone with the ATA gene, but no one had told her the city-ship would be able to share any kind of emotions with her.

Karen stumbled a little under the onslaught of joy Atlantis welcomed her with. The lights seemed to shine brighter for just a moment, but no one in the busy gate room reacted to it. Karen wasn’t the only one who had stepped through the gate, and everyone had brought supplies with them, but thankfully no one expected Karen to do anything. She was much too distracted by her first impression of the city.

“Dr. Wilson!”

Karen blinked and found herself face to face with a Japanese woman she recognized on sight even though they had never met before. “Dr. Kusanagi. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!”

“It’s Miko, please.” She smiled brightly and rocked back on her heels. “And the pleasure is all mine. Rodney has tried to convince Sam for years to recruit you! We’ve been building all our spacecraft based on your theoretical work after all.”

Karen huffed. “So I heard. Here I was thinking the goal of my work was to convince the people with the money that it was possible and worthwhile to reach Mars, and all the while everyone was already going much farther than that!”

Miko laughed. “Not everyone. And honestly, I don’t think anyone has ever been to Mars so far. Somehow our own solar system got painfully neglected because the Stargate brought us so much further.”

Karen inclined her head. “So, I can still push forward with my campaign to go to Mars?”

“You should!” Miko said. “People reminding us of the goals we might have lost sight of are always a good thing.” She gestured in the direction of the stairs. “Medical is your first stop. I made sure you’ll be the first one to be checked out.”

“I went through a very thorough and invasive medical check in Cheyenne Mountain!” Karen protested weakly.

Miko shrugged. “Everyone who comes through the gate goes through medical, even if they come from Earth. There are things that might have been missed on Earth that could become a problem here, fast. This galaxy and ours didn’t have contact for ten thousand years. Our diseases are very different.”

“I understand.” Karen nodded, resigned. “Then let’s go. The sooner your doctor starts poking me the sooner I’ll escape them.”

“It won’t be that bad,” Miko promised.

“How long have you been working here?” Karen asked as she followed Miko up the stairs.

“I came here with the original expedition,” Miko said softly. “So, it’s been eight years, I think. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of time with as much distance as there is to Earth.”

“I guess that explains the three years or so when you didn’t publish any new papers,” Karen said.

“You noticed that?” Miko asked surprised.

Karen grinned sheepishly. “I made it a habit to follow the women in any adjoining scientific field to my own work. It helped a lot to deal with the loneliness when I was one of five women in my undergrad class and the only Black woman.”

Miko grinned. “I feel honored. I’ve been following your work, too. Obviously because it was important for my own work, of course. Rodney was delighted when we learned Sam had convinced you to come here. He was bitching the whole time they got ready to leave that he wouldn’t be here to greet you when you arrived.”

Karen raised her brows. “He could have stayed then?”

Miko rolled her eyes. “Rodney doesn’t let the General leave the city by himself. He is convinced that it always leads to chaos, though he’ll of course assure you he isn’t superstitious. So, John had to leave for a situation off-world and of course, Rodney followed him. And he’ll spend every moment they aren’t negotiating that situation they’re there to solve complaining about not being here right now.”

“I was allowed to review some of the mission files,” Karen said slowly. “I’m inclined to agree with Dr. McKay and I’m not superstitious either.”

“Rodney will love you,” Miko said.

She led Karen through a door into a set of rooms that were very clearly a medical facility even though it didn’t look much like anything Karen had ever seen on Earth. It was par for the course of what she had seen of Atlantis so far and Karen couldn’t wait for the moment she was allowed to explore the city by herself a little bit.

“Dr. Wilson, meet Dr. Wilson,” Miko said.

Karen stopped and swallowed heavily as she saw the woman Miko was waving at. Suddenly her mouth was dry and she didn’t seem to remember how to breathe. She hadn’t ever seen a more beautiful person before.

“I’m Hen,” the woman said and held out her hand to greet Karen. “I’ve been hearing the jokes about a lost family member coming here ever since people learned your name.”

“No family connection,” Karen said. “I’m sure we’d have known about that before.”

Hen grinned and gave Karen a once-over. “Definitely.”

Karen cleared her throat and scolded herself silently for getting carried away over a beautiful face. “I’m Karen. That will be much easier and less confusing than staying on any formalities. I hear I’m here to get poked at by you.”

“Ancient technology takes away a lot of the poking I learned about back on Earth while going through college. We get to do a lot of other exciting things, though.” Hen grinned and gestured in the direction of some separate rooms. “From what I’ve already heard about you, you’ll probably have a ton of questions about our gadgets here. I’ll try to answer at least some of your questions about them. The rest you’ll have to come back to Miko for.”

***

“So.” Alicia Biro leaned against the table beside Hen. “I hear our new Dr. Wilson has caught your eye.”

Hen sighed and didn’t bother to even look up at her friend and boss. “She is here to work. There is a whole ancient warship out on the pier for her to repair.”

Hen knew that Rodney and even Sam back on Earth had wanted to bring Karen Wilson into the program for a long time. There had never been a good enough reason before, until two months ago when John and Rodney had managed to bring an Ancient warship back. Rodney would love to take care of it himself, but there weren’t enough hours available for him to keep Atlantis running and repair a spaceship.

Alicia laughed. “We’re all here to work, Hen. But just as much to live. You can’t forget that.”

Hen shook her head. “Karen can go back home whenever she wants. She doesn’t have the same kind of … pressure on her to stay here as most of the rest of us do.”

“She has a similar expression of the ATA gene as John, doesn’t she?” Alicia asked.

“Yeah.” Hen leaned back and shook her head. “Everything was just as eager to work for her as it’s always been for John. It’s honestly made me relieved I’m usually not the one to treat the General. It was difficult sometimes to make it do what I wanted it to do.”

“And he hasn’t even had any kind of major injuries since you’ve been here,” Alicia said. “His promotion was finally a reason he couldn’t argue about for staying in the city more than going on missions.”

Hen shrugged. That promotion had happened just after Hen had come to Atlantis and she only knew stories of how it had been before.

“If Karen Wilson has the same kind of connection to the city as John has, I can’t see her ever leaving again,” Alicia said. “The city will have welcomed her home.”

“But she can leave,” Hen repeated. “I can’t go back to Earth. Not without risking that the Trust or anyone else will succeed this time in kidnapping Denny. I’m not risking my son like that!”

Alicia sighed. “And you think they’d be any less interested in getting Karen Wilson into their grasps?”

Hen made face. “Fair point. But still…”

“We live here, Hen,” Alicia said. “You’ve been here for nearly 18 months now. You know we all need to find a way to balance our work with a life outside that work.”

“I have a life outside of work,” Hen said with raised brows. “I have my son, I have found a lot of really great friends here.”

“But you haven’t found someone to date,” Alice said. “Or even just to casually hook up with! And now there is this shiny new person, and everyone kept saying you were both instantly infatuated with each other. Even Miko said so, and she barely partakes in any kind of gossip.”

Hen huffed. “Just drop it.”

Alicia hummed. “So, who’ll run this bet? Because you can hardly be the bookkeeper of a bet about your own personal life.”

Hen glared at her. “Stop it.”

Alicia grinned. “You know you don’t have a chance to successfully protest that. You don’t even have half a leg to stand on in that argument!”

Hen kept glaring and eventually, Alicia left her alone while laughing at herself. Hen huffed and shook her head, trying not to think about the mesmerized wonder about the Ancient technology that had made Karen’s eyes shine. She wasn’t very successful with that, just as she didn’t really manage to avoid wondering if she would ever be able to make Karen’s eyes shine like that.

***

A week after Karen Wilson’s arrival on Atlantis Hen had successfully managed to avoid her. She was busy with her life as it was, so no matter how much she couldn’t stop thinking about Karen, she didn’t have the time to add anything to her life. She could dream a little in the privacy of her bed at night, but more wouldn’t ever be there.

That was at least Hen’s conviction until Denny — all of 18 months old as he was — crashed those plans by once again proving that he could run surprisingly fast for his age. 

There were dedicated places in the city where people could spend their free time and relax. One of them was a little indoor park. The whole room was essentially one huge planter, and Hen had helped in another room like this to fill that planter with dirt from the mainland not too long ago. In the park Hen had brought Denny to on this day that whole process had been completed years ago, and there were even small trees already growing in the room. It was mostly used by people who had come to Atlantis with their children. Hen was by far not the only one who had made that decision for her child’s protection to join the Atlantis expedition that had very much become more of a colony over the past two or three years.

It was a safe place, and all the children were running along freely, playing with each other even if there was sometimes years of an age gap. Denny had found a friend here just a couple of months older them him in Harry Grant, whose mother was the head of the city’s security. So, Hen was sitting on a bench with Athena and talking while the two boys ran around and played a game Hen couldn’t follow. Until Denny ran through one of the doors leading to the rest of the city and Harry didn’t dare to follow him, instead turning to his mother to complain about his friend going where they weren’t allowed to go.

Hen was on her feet and cursing loudly as she followed Denny before Harry reached them because Atlantis herself had sent her a warning. Hen had reacted well to the gene therapy and Atlantis was protective of the children living in her structure, no matter if they had the ATA gene like Denny or if they didn’t like Harry, she just didn’t seem to be able to lock any doors they tried to pass without permission. Athena’s laughter followed Hen into the hall Denny had vanished into.

There, Hen practically ran into Karen just as she scooped up Denny who was holding up his arms expectantly in a universal gesture all little children knew no matter which planet they came from.

“And where are your parents, little man?” Karen asked. “I’m pretty sure you aren’t supposed to be running around alone.”

“I’m here!” Hen said with a deep sigh. “And it’s just me on the parent front.” She didn’t know why she blurted that out, but she felt very much that Karen needed to know there was no partner in Hen’s life.

Denny laughed and, in an attempt to pat Karen’s hair, he smashed his hand against her head. “Pretty!” he declared and then grabbed one of Karen’s braids. Hen winced a little, but Karen just moved her head when Denny pulled on the braid.

“I’m sorry, he is in that phase of pulling any hair he sees and grabbing any glasses he can get his hands on.”

Karan chuckled. “That’s quite alright. I was on my way to the mess to get some cake. But I clearly got lost somewhere.”

“Cake!” Denny shouted.

Hen laughed. “That will happen even when you’ve been here so long you think you know your way around. Sometimes even just because Atlantis prods you to go somewhere specific.”

“I heard about that,” Karen said. “General Sheppard has been very blunt with me about the effect any Ancient technology might have on me.”

“Cake, cake, cake!” Denny chanted and pulled on Karen’s braid again.

“I guess we’re getting cake, too,” Hen said with a sigh. “I’ll show you the way. Want to hitch a ride with me, Denny?”

As an answer, Denny leaned against Karen and grabbed a second braid with his free hand.

“I’m okay with carrying him,” Karen assured. “You have a very cute and polite son. Telling a lady she is pretty as an introduction is always the right choice, isn’t it?”

Hen rolled her eyes. “Not even two years old and less than thirty words to his vocabulary, but he is still already flirting unashamedly. Makes me fear for the future, honestly.”

Karen followed her when Hen turned to lead them to the mess hall. “I don’t think you have to worry about anything. Can I ask a question?”

Hen raised her brows. “Sure.”

“I’m surprised how many children there are here,” Karen said. “I’d understand children from Pegasus, but most of the children living in Atlantis seem to come from Earth.”

Hen sighed. “There are people on Earth who have very … selfish views about anything we have discovered in the universe and about our planet’s history. I’m sure you got a lecture about some of those groups once your gene status was discovered.”

“I heard about the Trust,” Karen said slowly.

Hen hummed. “They’ve been a thorn in our side for a long time. But there are others, too, even official parts of our government who have many ideas about how to use some things we’ve discovered. Money and power are everything those people care about, without any regard for the people they’d use for it.”

“Like the children?” Karen asked.

“Yes. Denny, for example. My ex-girlfriend suddenly stood in front of my door when I head been convinced she didn’t know where I had moved to after she burned our relationship. Denny was less than a week old and she pushed him in my arms, told me I was the only one she trusted to keep him safe, and then vanished. I had been working in Cheyenne Mountain for several years at that point, so I took Denny there and asked our people to find out what Eva had gotten into.”

Karen inhaled deeply.

“A week later, Eva was dead. It was staged as an overdose and no one questioned it because she’d had a history with drugs,” Hen said. “But we found out that she had fallen into with the Trust and Denny has a strong expression of the ATA gene. We are pretty sure Denny was some kind of experiment and at one point during the pregnancy Eva probably decided she didn’t want to give her child over to them.”

“That’s…”

“Yeah, exactly,” Hen said darkly. “I know Sam is still looking for more information while they try to root out the Trust. Or at least the branch of the Trust that dealt with Eva. As soon as we discovered that, Denny and I came here. I didn’t even return to my house once, came here with nothing but the things I had in the mountain at first. Others packed my stuff and shipped it here. Offically on Earth, I’ve been declared dead and there don’t exist any records of Denny at all.”

“I’m sorry,” Karen said softly.

“It is what it is,” Hen said. “And I don’t regret what I’ve done to protect Denny. Maybe things on Earth will change for the better again at one point. The SGC has some experience in bringing people back from the dead.”

That elicited a chuckle from Karen. Hen knew that every newcomer was told in detail all about Daniel Jackson’s uncanny ability to die and come back from that experience.

“Is it the same for all the children?” Karen asked.

“In some cases, the parents stumbled into something and the whole family needed to be protected so the children wouldn’t be used against the parents,” Hen said. “But overall, that’s the same right?”

“On Earth, I was told Atlantis was a military and scientific outpost,” Karen said. “But it’s pretty clear it’s more a colony.”

“We are,” Hen agreed. “But Atlantis is never called that on Earth as far as I know. It’s another safety measure. Because if anything happens on Earth and they need to evacuate, we’ll be their sanctuary.”

Karen exhaled slowly.

“More than you expected, huh?” Hen asked.

“Not exactly,” Karen said slowly. “I just hadn’t put the puzzle pieces together in the whole picture. But I see how it’s all been there since the first time I was told about the Stargate.”

Hen watched her carefully. There had been people in the past who had felt cheated for not being told the whole truth about the danger the Stargate Program posed for them personally right away. She had only heard stories about that so far, and she hoped Karen wouldn’t be one of those people.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Karen said and rolled her eyes. “You know how many women were in my undergrad class?”

“Probably less than a percent of everyone in your class,” Hen said.

Karen nodded. “And to top it off, I was the only Black woman. I’m not surprised how about ugly the world is, Hen. This here? It’s like a dream come true. Rodney McKay is the first lead scientist of any project I worked with who hasn’t questioned my competence.”

“He calls everyone imbeciles regularly,” Hen pointed out skeptically. “Or idiots. And any number of other names.”

“Exactly, he calls everyone that,” Karen said. “And to be fair, there aren’t many people able to keep up with him. I’m not able to keep up with him. I understand his work, certainly, if I have some time to think about it. But watching him and Radek is honestly mind-boggling. But while he might call us idiots, he also gives everyone a chance to explain their thoughts, even if it’s sometimes just to let us run right into the faultlines of our own arguments that he just sees. I know Rodney would never look me in the eyes and ask me if I was even competent enough to present my own fucking study that I planned and developed and led from the first to the last second.”

Hen winced. “Ouch.” The bitterness in Karen’s words made Hen wonder how often exactly she had been confronted with such a situation. It clearly had been more than once.

“Rodney has a harsh personality,” Karen said. “But that’s not the same as being disrespectful. So, working with him is great even if I’m sure he’ll drive me crazy on some days.”

Hen nodded slowly. She didn’t have much to do with Rodney outside of post-mission medicals, and most of the time she was very relieved about it.

“And Atlantis itself is a dream,” Karen continued. “I won’t regret coming here.”

***

Karen sat at the edge of a pier and watched the waves swap against the wall beneath her feet. A whole month on Atlantis and she felt more at home than she had ever before in any other place. It was a mixture of the connection she had to the city itself that still so often puzzled her, and the people she had met here.

“Are you sulking?”

Karen flinched a little when Miko suddenly stood beside her. Usually, Atlantis let her know if someone was approaching her, but the other gene carriers on the city had the ability to tell Atlantis not to do it.

“Just ruminating over the past couple of weeks,” Karen said.

“Too much?” Miko asked.

Karen huffed and rolled her eyes. “Maybe a little. But in a good way. I wish I’d had been invited here earlier. But then I read some mission reports and suddenly I wonder what I’ll do when the next big catastrophe comes around. Because I’m not sure I’ll be able to stand my ground like all of you did.”

“You will,” Miko promised and sat down beside her.

“Why are so sure about that?” Karen asked with a frown.

Miko nudged her shoulder against Karen’s. “Because you’re a pretty successful woman in science. But also, because you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t true. There are enough reports by now about the dangers of exploring the universe and I know you got to see the reports that detailed that before you were asked if you wanted to come out here.”

Karen pursed her lips. “Reading a report is different than facing a Wraith.”

“You have no idea how different yet,” Miko agreed. “But no amount of shining new technology would have brought you out here if the thought of facing off against a Wraith wouldn’t be something you feel deep down prepared for.”

“Maybe the Wraith aren’t the most scary thing out here,” Karen muttered.

Miko laughed. “Ah, but the human kind of monster can be found on Earth plenty, too. What report are you puzzling over?”

“The Genii.”

Miko sighed. “Yeah. Big assholes. But John taught them that they shouldn’t even look in the general direction of Atlantis or any of our allies in Pegasus. And since we moved Atlantis a second time, they don’t know anymore where we are.”

“The spaceship is fascinating, though,” Karen admitted. “Atlantis is, too, for that matter. Both are a lifetime of work, even if we had a hundred times the personnel to explore all of it as we have right now.”

Karen had been brought to Atlantis to learn about Ancient technology and then use that knowledge to find out how to repair an Ancient warship General Sheppard had found not too long ago. It was the kind of technology Karen hadn’t ever expected to see in her life, that she hadn’t even dreamed about could ever exist.

There was so much to learn for her, but at the same time, just as much of that knowledge seemed to come from her connection to Atlantis alone. Karen was still growing used to that connection, and the more time she spent here the more she was convinced that there was an intelligence to Atlantis they hadn’t quite recognized or discovered yet. She knew about Miko’s theory of a sentient or maybe even sapient central AI of the city that had been destroyed at one point, but Karen wondered more and more if it wasn’t just hidden and they hadn’t found it yet.

“It is a lifetime of research we are looking at,” Miko agreed. “And I’m very much looking forward to it.”

Karen grinned. “Yeah, agreed. Forget about Mars, this is so much more exciting!”

Miko shook her head. “I told you, don’t let go of your old dreams. One day you’ll get to see Mars up and close. Maybe even walk on it.”

“Maybe I have developed different dreams since coming here,” Karen said, her chin raised. “I’m sure you’re familiar with that.”

“A little,” Miko agreed.

“Speaking of,” Karen said slowly. “How does one go about dates in this place? There aren’t the usual places here I’d ask someone out to back on Earth.”

“John taught you how to fly a Puddlejumper, right?” Miko asked with a sly grin. “There is this island in a huge lagune in the south of the mainland. Hen loves that place, but we don’t get to have excursions there often.”

Karen felt her face heat up. “Hen?”

Miko laughed. “Neither of you has anyone in this city fooled. It’s a good thing you’re already thinking about asking her out, because no one will suffer through two idiots mooning after each other for years again. John and Rodney taught us all that we need to intervene in such a situation before it gets ridiculous.”

“I might be thinking about someone else!” Karen protested.

“Are you, really?”

Karen cleared her throat and then sighed. “No, of course not.”

“I’ll help you get flight time scheduled with a Puddlejumper and I’ll show you the lagune on a map,” Miko said. “Athena will happily babysit Denny for the two of you.”

“We could take Denny with us.”

“You could,” Miko agreed. “And it’s a good thing you’re planning for his inclusion, but I think the two of you need a little adult time.” She cocked her head and tapped a finger against her chin. “It will cost me a little, but I should be able to arrange flight time for you in two days.”

“You don’t need to pay anything to help me set up my date!” Karen protested.

“If you and Hen go on your first date in two days, I’ll have six people each owing me a 1 kg pack of tea of my choice with their next personal shipment,” Miko said. “I’ll make sure you’re going on that date in two days now that you asked me for help.”

“You’ve been betting on me and Hen?” Karen asked aghast. “For tea?”

“No reason to bet for money in this place.” Miko rolled her eyes. “There are things much more valuable out here. We’ve found a place to trade a very decent near-coffee with here in Pegasus that everyone is happy with except for Rodney, so all our coffee orders from Earth are dedicated to him. But we haven’t found any place that could replace the tea from Earth. So, if I bet for anything, I bet for tea!”

“On my love life?” Karen asked.

Miko watched her with sparkling eyes. “So, already talking about love, huh? Not just dating? I think I need to place some new bets fast.”

Karen huffed. She really didn’t want to get into a discussion about that. “If you want me to help you win that first bet, I’ll get 1 kg of that tea you’ll be owed.”

Miko laughed and wrapped an arm around Karen’s shoulders. “See, you know exactly how to adapt to life out here. I’ll get you your tea. And we’ll get you your woman in no time, too!”

Karen sighed and watched the waves beneath their feet with a smile. She had found a lot of things by coming here that she hadn’t thought she was missing. People she enjoyed working with and with whom she didn’t need to worry if they would steal her work. A fantastical and intriguing place to live that had made her feel like being home in a way no place before had. And maybe even a woman she would be able to build a life with.