He was in Hell.
Initially, he figured taking this assignment was the lesser of two evils. Neither assignment held any real appeal to him, but that was the entire point. Regardless of whether or not it was the right thing to do, disobeying orders had consequences and this... This was a consequence he really could live without.
It made him wished he’d taken the assignment at McMurdo.
There was only one thing worse than knowing you weren’t going to be out there anymore, on the front line, backing up your buddies....
That was TRAINING the people who would be the ones going out there, on the front line.
Major John Sheppard stared at the group of pilots standing in front of him. All twenty of them were fresh out of the Academy, here for their specialist training. Their REAL training. They were the pilots John would train to do the things HE loved more than anything...
Things he would never do again.
No wonder that son of a bitch Colonel who put him here seemed so damned smug.
John clearly remembered what it was like to be standing where the Lieutenants were... Thinking how much he would hate to be the one who had to watch other people fly instead of him.
He felt like a has been, a failure.
Why didn’t he remember that when he’d been given his choice of punishment?
Yeah, this place wasn’t cold, but that was the only thing it had going for it.
John took a deep breath and gave the green Lieutenants the most malevolent smile he could manage. “Good morning. I’m Major John Sheppard and I’m going to teach you ladies how to fly,” he greeted them, using the same words his instructor had used all those years ago.
He wondered how the brass would react if he taught each of them EVERYTHING he knew. Not just about flying, but about staying alive and how to keep those around them alive – regardless of the cost. It would serve that Colonel – and every other Colonel who agreed with him – right. Nothing would please John more than turning the twenty men and women in front of him into ‘insubordinate assholes’... Just like he was.
Yeah, it was stupid and petty, but it would sure as hell make him feel better.
John looked down at the clipboard he was holding, scanning the list of names for of the first person he would corrupt... teach. He called out the first name that caught his attention.
“Lieutenant Rosenberg? You’re up first.”