STARGATE UNIVERSE: Air Read Free Page A

refugees with sharp words and in some cases, your actual kick in the ass. By this point, a good percentage of the people coming through were airmen and jarheads, and they were trained well enough that when a motivated-looking young first lieutenant barked an order in their direction, they did what they were told, double-time.
    The civilians, though… They were utterly unready for this. Icarus was supposed to be a cushy, low-traction posting where scientists did things with boxes of blinky lights and generally had nothing more to worry about than running low on pudding in the mess hall. They just weren’t trained for everything to go from fine to FUBAR at the drop of a hat.
    So, like they told him at OCS, if in doubt, shout. Scott drew in a breath and snarled at every civilian in earshot. “Clear this area! There could still be more incoming!”
    Airmen and Marines would have moved. The civilians mostly just hesitated. They were still working off the shock of it all, and the gate journey was just one more thing on top of everything else that had happened.
    It was Ron Greer’s voice that cut through the stunned silence. “You heard him, people!” he roared, drill-sergeant loud. “Move move move !”
    That lit a fire under them, and finally the people in front of the gate began to shift away, but not quick enough.
    Greer threw him a look and Scott nodded to the stocky, dark-skinned Marine. “Where’s Colonel Young?” he asked.
    “He was right behind me,” said Greer, nodding back toward the open wormhole.
    Scott turned to the gate in time to see the last man come through; and he pitied the poor son-of-a-bitch, because the black-clad figure was buoyed on a brilliant blast of fire and smoke that crashed out of the gate behind him. The force of the discharge blew hot, charred air into the gate room, bringing with it the stink of burnt plastic, ozone and other smells that Scott didn’t want to think too much about.
    He barely had time to process all that when the Stargate gave a rattling hum and went dark. The wormhole vanished into quantum foam and all illumination in the chamber was extinguished. The screaming started a second or two after that.
    Someone shouted “Lights!” and a bright beam stabbed out of the darkness, sweeping across the room. Scott saw smoke-dirty faces caught in the sodium glare, staring out into the dark, desperate and afraid.
    More flashlights blinked on, and Scott snatched a MagLite from the grip of a nearby airman and went searching. A cold, unpleasant certainty was settling in on him, and as much as he didn’t want to confirm it, he knew he had to.
    His beam fell on the crumpled form of the last man through, and Scott’s jaw set. “Colonel?”
    Colonel Everett Young grimaced with pain and tried to lever himself off the deck without success. Scott moved closer, and tried very hard not to think about the fact that Young was the first survivor he had seen that outranked him.
    The colonel blinked owlishly and focused on the other officer. Scott’s CO looked ten years older than his normal hard-edged forties, the pain taking all the life out of him. “Where are we?” he coughed.
    Scott bent down to support the colonel’s head, holding him up so they could converse face to face. “I don’t know, sir.” Kinda hoped you’d have that answer. “Are you…?”
    Young tried to move but the effort drained him. “Lieutenant,” he began, and Scott knew what he would say next before the words left his lips. “You’re in charge.”
    He was going to argue, but the colonel put an end to that by losing consciousness. Scott cursed under his breath and settled the man back on the deck; and that was when he realized his hand was wet. He shone the flashlight on his palm and it was crimson with Young’s blood.
    In an instant he was standing and calling out. “T.J.! Get over here!” He turned and spotted her bent over an injured scientist.
    Tamara ignored the order for a moment. She took the hand