June 13, Daedalus enroute to Atlantis
Dear John,
The excitement? Lasted the first few days. Now I just want off. Because twenty days
in a tin can, even a nicely appointed tin can, is too long. I hadn't realized how
much I'd gotten used to spending most of my time outdoors. We've been travelling for
14 days, another six to go.
I've met a few of the personnel being assigned out there with me. All of the
scientists seem to be research oriented, most of them coming from Stargate
Command at Cheyenne Mountain. I think there are something like 14 countries
represented. A lot of Chinese. The rest of the passengers are mostly Marines, with
a few Air Force mixed in.
Nice bunch, on the whole. Although from what one of those returning from leave said,
the first time they went to Atlantis it took about 3 seconds since they used a
Stargate. So not fair.
Six. More. Days.
~ Laura
- - -
June 20, Atlantis, Pegasus Galaxy.
Dear John,
I'm off the ship.
Thank god.
- - -
June 21, Atlantis, Pegasus Galaxy
Dear John,
The city is beautiful. It really is floating on the ocean, although apparently
there's a mainland the size of North America somewhere. We didn't pass it. I can't
get over how clean the air smells. It smells reminiscent of the Cape, all sea salt
and crisp sharpness with a hint of something green. I hope we don't get fish kills.
The odor of thousands of dead fish is not something to be borne. In any galaxy.
I also hope our main protein isn't seaweed, for that matter. There's only so many
months of that you can take without a break.
It's been a whirlwind since I arrived, getting settled. I've been assigned quarters
and clothing. I've had 3 different welcoming speeches. Dr. Weir, the civilian in
charge of the city, gave the general welcome. She seems like a nice lady, but I'm
reserving judgement until I've seen what kind of priorities she has. Colonel Sheppard,
our local Ranking Military Officer, went through about three iterations of "Don't go
wandering off on your own!!" and "I don't care what your background is, you will get
weapons training."
Dr. Beckett, my new boss, split his time evenly between standard "new environment,
new allergens and diseases, come in by the end of the week for vaccination" and what
seemed to be a seriously overblown "If you go off-world, practice safe sex. I don't
care who you're sleeping with." I wonder what kind of STDs they've picked up out here,
to incite that. Because we had the most thorough physicals I've ever seen before being
allowed on the Daedalus.
The new incoming medical staff also had a follow up meeting with Dr. Beckett.
Apparently they want to use my skill set as a trade item, offering my services
training local midwives in exchange for foodstuff and technology. When I'm not in
the field, I get to bone up on my trauma and general practice skills. Even with me
there are only 6 doctors on staff, and we have to cover a full shift rotation. I
start tomorrow, guided tour of the infirmary and then dealing with storage and
inventory of my supplies. I hope to God we've got latex free gloves.
~ Laura
- - -
June 30, Atlantis, Pegasus Galaxy
Dear John,
I head off-world for the first time tomorrow. I'm going to be conducting clinics
for three villages on topics like The Basic Cesarean, as well as distributing OB
kits and offering general advice. Ginyar is supposed to be about on par with 1700's
Europe, and apparently they've traded with Atlantis in the past so it's considered a
low risk mission. Which means one military per civilian. I wonder what that says
about conditions out here. I've been hearing bits and pieces from the nurses about
these "Wraith". It's possible they weren't exaggerating back on Earth. I'll have
to track down the story-telling marine from lunch and see if the local equivalent
of garlic works on them. Or anything else, for that matter.
~ Laura
- - - - - - - - - -
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