This was going to be a bad day.
Kawalsky knew it would be the second he arrived at work this morning and discovered SG-3 was late checking in. It was just the kind of luck he had. It was SR-1’s turn on stand-by and he had been hoping there would be no missions today.
As much as he was impressed by Rosenberg’s record and her scores, she still had to prove herself in the field.
You never knew how a person would handle combat – especially combat with aliens – until it actually happened.
Kawalsky would have preferred easing her into it, as he would with any new recruit. Basic and specialist training prepared them for almost all situations. But nothing prepared a soldier for the realities of war. While only a small fraction of personnel selected weren’t able to cut it at the SGC, it always seemed to be the people you would least expect who lost it.
Which was good news for Rosenberg, because Kawalsky had some small, niggling doubts about her.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit worried about how she was going to handle all the shit she was bound to see. All right, he wasn’t worried about her reaction to aliens so much. It was her potential reaction to seeing people struck down in battle that concerned him.
Rosenberg had been with the Air Force since high school. It was safe to assume she hadn’t seen any casualties since her graduation ceremony. He wouldn’t blame her if she choked, no one would. But in this field of work… choking was not an option.
Though, to be fair, Rosenberg had never given any of him any reason to doubt her ability. If there was a recruit out there that was more earnest about their job, Kawalsky was yet to meet them. He and Jack had been watching Rosenberg since General Kerrigan gave them her file during her second year at the academy. To say she was passionate would be to say that Carter was smart.
He had to admit her passion was a little subdued today. She hadn’t taken over the search like he’d seen her do on maneuvers, but he assumed that was because she was following the chain of command. First days were always intimidating. She was still trying to find her place in the team. Or maybe it was the heat – with nerves thrown in for good measure – that made Rosenberg a little quieter than usual. Kawalsky had watched, with amusement, the novelty of her first mission wear off as they traipsed through the forest in one-hundred-plus degrees with what felt like ninety percent humidity. After six hours, she looked a little worse for wear. They all did.
This mission really bit the big one.
Especially considering what he was now seeing. He had pushed his team as far and fast as they could go. He had wanted to make it to the village where SG-3 were supposed to be as fast as possible and they had done it. They were all tired, and in desperate need of a break, but they had made damn good time.
The problem was that it was now damn good time they had wasted because the village was deserted. SR-1 was yet to finish their sweep of the place, but Kawalsky wasn’t holding his breath that they would find anything. It looked like the inhabitants had simply stopped what they were doing and vanished.
“Grogan, Rosenberg…” Kawalsky began as the two grim faced lieutenants approached him. “I order you to give me good news.”
Grogan snorted. “As much as I’d like to obey that order, sir, I can’t,” he replied. “There’s no sign of anyone, anywhere. It’s a ghost town.”
Damn. That was not what he wanted to hear.
“I didn’t find anything, either,” Hayes agreed, joining them.
The four of them had gone in different directions, searching the town, remaining in eye contact the entire time. The village was small, home to no more than fifty to a hundred people. As the original intel had described, there was no advanced technology present. It was basically just a series of small thatch huts that formed a circle around what Grogan had dubbed the ‘town center’.
Which, like the town itself, was nothing spectacular. The town center consisted of eight rectangular tables that, Kawalsky assumed, were used for their meals. Next to the tables was something akin to a barbecue. Kawalsky imagined the entire size of the place to be half a mile in diameter.
A half – empty – mile in diameter.
This didn’t make sense. There hadn’t even been any signs that anyone had lived here. Kawalsky had looked into a lot of those houses, not one had that ‘lived in’ look. It was like this city was one huge decoy. “Did anyone find signs of anything?” Kawalsky practically pleaded. “Food? Clothes? Anything that would indicate that people have been here at some time or other?” The place was empty and he meant literally. Basically it was houses and furniture. That was it.
Hayes shook his head and Grogan said, “No, sir.”
He turned his attention to Rosenberg and frowned. There was something in her expression caught his attention. She looked perplexed, but in a way that was different from Grogan and Hayes. It was an expression Kawalsky had seen before. A little over a week ago, in actual fact, during her final assessment.
He and Jack, along with Teal’c, had spent hours working out what hell they were going to put Rosenberg through for her final assessment. She had passed all the group assessment and had already secured a place in the SGC. Unlike the rest of the trainees, Kawalsky had wanted to test her one more time – individually - to decide if she was suitable for SR-1. Jack and Teal’c had just wanted to catch her out. The lieutenant had a hundred percent success rate in all her rescue maneuvers and the two members of SG-1 wanted to outsmart her.
So the three of them had set up a rescue scenario they were sure Rosenberg would not be able to complete successfully. It was a scenario that the Lieutenant was meant to believe was the real thing. And, with the help of some rebel Jaffa – who were eager for some training – they had pulled it off.
Jack had been sure Rosenberg wouldn’t be able to locate her ‘team’ with all the false trails they had left behind. Kawalsky had been sure as well… But eighteen hours, thirty-two minutes, and forty-eight seconds later Rosenberg proved them wrong.
Kawalsky really wanted to know how she did it. It shouldn’t have been possible. They had been so damn careful, so overwhelmingly thorough. Yet, she had managed once again to do the impossible. She was quite possibly the best tracker he had ever met.
And the fact that Rosenberg was wearing a similar expression on her face now made him feel a little hopeful. Rosenberg had successfully tracked people with a few leads, a dozen FALSE leads, and no leads at all. With the experience that he, Grogan, and Hayes had plus Rosenberg’s instinct for this type of scenario… The four of them should be able to come up with something.
They had to.
“Rosenberg, something on your mind?”
She looked up at him.” No… no, sir… Well, nothing that you haven’t already mentioned,” she said after some hesitation. “Like you said, it doesn’t even look like anyone has lived here.”
Yeah, and he was a little pissed about that.
“I assume that SG-3 checked in after they first made contact with the locals?” Rosenberg asked.
He nodded, wishing he had had more time to brief his team. “Twice.”
“Did they mention a second village?” Hayes wanted to know.
“No. They only mentioned the locals.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of strange?” Grogan asked.
Kawalsky’s reply was poised on his lips when Rosenberg said, “No.” The lieutenant gave him an apologetic smile before continuing. “The locals could have met SG-3 while they were making their way to the village or, more than likely, they met SG-3 as soon as they stepped through the gate.”
“Why more than likely?” Kawalsky asked with interest, noticing the passion that had been lacking in the lieutenant before had ignited in her eyes.
“I didn’t notice any tracks on the way here,” she replied, reaching for her canteen. “At first I thought we had taken a different trail to the one SG-3 used but there are no tracks here as well. Everything, including the vegetation, looks relatively untouched. The only evidence of people is the evidence we’ve left behind.”
Grogan groaned. “Please don’t tell me we came all this way for nothing?”
Kawalsky silently echoed his sentiment. They couldn’t afford to lose six hours.
“It’s not all for nothing,” she said. “I don’t think SG-3 have been here, but I think someone has. The village isn’t just untouched, it’s clean. There’s no dust on anything…”
Kawalsky smiled. This was why he had wanted Rosenberg on his team. “Someone’s been maintaining this village.”
“I don’t know why they would do this.” She gestured to the village. “Maybe this is a decoy they use for all visitors to their planet to make them think they’re not technologically advanced. Or maybe this is for our benefit.”
Kawalsky was feeling more and more uneasy about this mission as the seconds raced by, but at least Rosenberg gave him hope. “So, Rosenberg…” he began as the Lieutenant took a drink from her canteen. “Do you think you can do your magic?”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Kawalsky found himself wearing Rosenberg’s drink.
Willow stared, horrified, at her Commanding Officer. “M-magic, sir?” Just hearing that word from Kawalsky filled her with absolute fear.
Oh God! He couldn’t… He couldn’t mean what she thought he did.
“Yeah.” The major wiped water from his eyes. “You know, whatever the hell you do when you’re tracking people. I’ve seen you in action, Rosenberg…”
He meant magic, not magic. Oh… Oh God!
“Do you need a towel, sir?” Grogan asked while trying, unsuccessfully, not to laugh.
Willow didn’t bother to hide her wince.
She had just spat on her C.O.
First, Dr Jackson and now Major Kawalsky.
Was this going to be a habit for her?
Way to make a first impression. “Sir…” she began, having no idea what to say. “I’m so sorry…”
“It’s okay,” he told her as he wiped the remainder of the water from his face with his sleeve. “I needed to cool down anyway.”
Grogan snorted and even Captain Hayes seemed amused by her humiliation.
Great, just great.
Well, at least things couldn’t get worse. Oh, wait! The major had just commented on her ability to ‘track’ people… Yep, things could definitely get worse. Logically, she had known the major was aware of her record but hearing it called ‘magic’ made her worry.
Actually, what worried her was the fact that the major really thought she could track people when there was NO evidence that there had even been people here. Was that how people regarded her reputation? She was dead. So very, very dead.
And she was also the center of attention.
God damn it! First she spat on her CO and then she zoned… She was making one hell of a first impression.
“Well, Rosenberg? Is it possible to track them?”
Track them based on the state of the site? Hell, no. There was nothing here that gave any indication which direction the locals had gone, if any. “If there’s a trail, I’ll find it, sir.”
He smiled at her reply. “That’s what I wanted to hear. All right, Hayes, you and Rosenberg head over in that direction and see if you can’t find a trail in the woods.” He pointed north. “Grogan, you and I will try in over there.”
“Actually, sir…” Willow began, her mind going wild.
This was the hard part. In order to establish a connection, she needed privacy and somehow she didn’t think these guys were just going to let her go wondering into the bushes alone. In training, it had been relatively easy for her use her magic. The rest of the trainees were too worried about themselves to watch her constantly. She always managed to get a minute or two alone.
Here it was not so easy.
Her team was keeping a close eye on her. Subtly, of course. But it was close enough that she was certain they wouldn’t miss her standing still for a minute or two with her eyes closed and hands by her side.
She sighed.
It was times like these she regretted ever using her power that first time. It had been an accident, but ever since that day Willow hadn’t been able to get away with not using her power. The second her superiors had noticed her ability to track anything with uncanny speed she’d sealed her fate.
Once you did something good in the Air Force you were always expected to do it again – only better.
Willow had tried to avoid using her power a second time. She’d studied tracking and survival techniques in the hopes that she’d be able to keep one step ahead of her fellow cadets. She had enlisted the assistance of third and forth year students to help her, but she had never been fast enough. She always lost focus whenever it became apparent that someone was faster than she was.
So in the end she always used her powers.
And now she was screwed.
Using her powers in front of her team was going to be difficult. Even if she could pull it off for the first couple of missions, sooner or later someone was going to notice something and somehow she doubted these three men were going to turn a blind eye to her special talents.
Her fellow cadets at the Academy hadn’t. They never noticed her establishing a connection, but they certainly noticed the results. She never missed the strange looks they used to give her – or the whispering.
It was just blind luck that none of them could prove anything.
Even in her Special Forces training she had raised a few eyebrows, but she’d always managed to cover it. But these three men weren’t her competition, they were her team…
And that was something far more dangerous than any competitor.
The importance of team had been drilled into her right from the beginning. Colonel Michaels, during her SF training, had said that a team could become more important than blood. Although a part of her doubted she could ever get that close to these three men, there was a part of her that was scared she would. And if she did… It would be the end of her.
Had she said how screwed she was yet?
“Rosenberg?” Kawalsky prompted, telling Willow she had been silent for too long.
She mentally slapped herself. “I, um…” There was no way to say this without feeling like a complete idiot. “I need to go to the bathroom.” The flash of annoyance that crossed Kawalsky’s face made her wince, but she HAD to be alone and this was the only way she could come up with.
”Okay…” He looked around and then pointed to a tree a couple of yards away. “Behind that tree. Stay within shouting distance.”
“Yes, sir.” Willow spun around and headed to where Kawalsky had ordered.
It wasn’t the smoothest way she could have handled the situation, but beggars sure as hell couldn’t be choosers.
Kawalsky watched her disappear behind the tree uneasily.
He didn’t like her being out of his sight. Actually, he didn’t like the idea of ANY of his team being on their own. There was something about this place that made him want to turn tail and run.
“We’re going to have a hard time finding SG-3,” Hayes said, voicing Kawalsky’s thoughts.
“He’s right, sir,” Grogan agreed. “Even if Rosenberg is as good as you say, without a trail of some sort, we’re screwed.”
While locating SG-3 was his biggest concern, another a few more were slowly beginning to surface.
Why would the locals go to so much trouble to steer them along the wrong track?
And did that mean that the locals knew they were here?
There.
Relief swept over her. She had her connection. There had been a chance, terrifyingly remote though it was, that she wouldn’t be able to connect with any of the missing team. If they had been killed, then all she would have been feeling right now was nothing.
But the familiar feel of the link alleviated her fears.
There was still a chance some of them were dead, but someone was alive and that was more than enough for Willow.
Now all she had to do was convince her team to follow her.
Slowly, she opened her eyes… and then froze.
Five sets of eyes were watching her from some brush adjacent to where she was standing.
Five sets of extremely unfriendly eyes.