The elevator car finally stopped and the doors opened up onto Level 28. When she had been in charge of the SGC she had figured out the fastest routes from any point to the Control Room. From the surface it was faster to go to the level below the Control Room, cut through the Gateroom, and go up the stairs just outside Corridor C. It was nearly a minute faster than going through the Briefing Room and down the spiral staircase, and it was almost two minutes faster than taking the rather circuitous route through the halls.
When she entered the Gateroom the first thing she did was flick her eyes to the Stargate. She could see right through the large stone ring�it was strange, the chevrons being red instead of blue, the inner ring made to turn instead of the constellations just lighting up in turn, the metal ramp leading up to the �Gate instead of the �Gate being set into the floor of the Atlantis Gateroom�s raised platform�to the industrial walls and pipes and conduits behind, no shimmering event horizon in sight. Elizabeth breathed an internal sigh of relief�Landry would have called her, or Walter Harriman would have, if Atlantis had already made contact again�and padded across the room, walking with purpose and ignoring the looks she was getting from the SF�s in the cavernous room.
The Control Room was fairly devoid of life, another thing that was annoyingly different from Atlantis. The Control Room she was used to was always bustling, always full of people reading off of the temperamental Ancient screens or futzing with interfaces or accessing the Ancient Database since the strongest link outside of the Holo-room was in the Control Room. The Control Room on Earth, however, was a narrow space with hulking supercomputers lining the walls and three chairs, all in front of vital consoles and therefore not places to just sit unless you were using said vital consoles, and the only person who was constantly there was the ranking �Gate technician, most often newly-promoted Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman. The short technician was in his usual seat, reading a book that had obviously been through several readings as it was in a rather sad condition, and he looked up from his reading and nodded at Elizabeth as she headed for the stairs that would lead her up to Landry�s office. She figured she might as well check in with the General since there weren�t a lot of places in the SGC where one could simply wait around for something to happen. At least, there weren�t when you didn�t have an office or lab of your own to hole up in. And, as Elizabeth was very much aware of, her office wasn�t even in the same galaxy as the subterranean structure she was in.
�You look� different,� Landry observed by way of a greeting when Elizabeth appeared in the doorway to his office.
�Well I�m wearing flats,� Elizabeth replied dryly. �How long until Atlantis dials back in?�
Landry checked his watch. �Any minute now, Doctor,� he answered.
�Good,� Elizabeth said, not leaving her position in the doorway. She had seen the office Landry now occupied go through many leaders. General Hammond, whose belongings she had worked around for several days, uncomfortable being in the office that so obviously did not belong to her. Then herself, though she was hardly at the SGC long enough to establish any kind of decoration in the small room, mostly filling shelves with books and enough photographs to convince herself that she wasn�t in a dungeon twenty-six floors below the surface. Then General O�Neill, whose decoration style was much like General Hammond�s, though with some flairs that were so very Jack that the difference in the offices was as glaring as the difference in the men. And now General Landry, who hadn�t quite gotten around to moving in yet, though there was a small basketball net set up against one wall that added a curious new angle to the man seated before her.
�My daughter was grounded for a month after sneaking out to see the Bangles,� Landry commented, the random sentence breaking into Elizabeth�s office-musings.
Elizabeth frowned. �Excuse me?�
�Your shirt. When Carolyn was fourteen she snuck out of the house with a bunch of her girlfriends and hitchhiked their way to a Bangles concert. I was actually home at the time, something that didn�t happen when Carolyn was growing up. Her mother decided it would be good for me to be in charge of punishing her. That was the first time Carolyn ever told me she hated me,� Landry said. He shook his head, chuckling. �Its strange, the things you think about sometimes.�