So stay he would.
That didn�t mean he had to like it.
Elizabeth hadn�t even closed the door to her quarters when she was pulled into a meeting with General Landry, Colonel Caldwell, and several others. The good thing about the meeting was that, if Caldwell was there, then that meant that they would be able to start back to Atlantis within a few days.
However, that was the only good thing about the meeting.
To be quite honest she was feeling like she was being drawn into an ambush, and after spending most of her time back on Earth in DC she was not feeling completely ready to deal with more people with agendas of their own. One thing about the egos on Atlantis was that they were relatively balanced out by all the other egos running around, unless you encountered McKay and his galaxy-sized ego, but in DC all the egos were clashing for dominance and she had a feeling that the egos at the SGC were going to be just as bad.
�I understand the International Committee has approved a significant increase in personnel and resources for the Atlantis mission,� General Landry said.
�Now that we have a ZPM, the city can support a much larger contingent,� Elizabeth nodded. It had been a hellish time in DC, and Elizabeth had been tempted to scream in the middle of many a meeting, but in the end she and General O�Neill, who had been right there with her for every meeting and had been about two steps ahead of her in the wanting to scream feeling, had emerged victorious. And neither one had lost their composure in any of the meetings, which Elizabeth and Jack had agreed was as much a victory as anything else.
�Of course a corresponding increase in military presence would also be prudent,� Caldwell said. Just the sound of his voice made Elizabeth�s lingering happiness that she had felt as she and Jack had left the last of the meetings they had had to attend completely disappear.
Nonetheless, Elizabeth nodded, agreeing with the nearly bald man. Increased military presence was priority one, really. As much as she wanted the expedition to be completely scientific and peaceful, the truth was that they had enemies, enemies that were not going to be just science-ed away, and the thought of attempting diplomacy was, quite frankly, laughable. She hated that violence seemed to be the only answer, but even Elizabeth Weir wasn�t nearly naive enough to believe that they could just talk the Wraith out of feeding off of the human population of the Pegasus Galaxy at will. �I agree. That�s why I wanted Major Sheppard to come back with me. In fact, I brought all my senior staff back. I think it�s only fair that they participate in the selection process of the new personnel in their respective departments,� Elizabeth said pointedly. What went unsaid was that any meeting concerning the military contingent should be put on hold until John returned from Nevada so that he could have a say in what was happening in his department.
�That�s kind of what we wanted to talk to you about. In your report, you singled Major Sheppard out for a lot of credit,� Landry said.
Alarm bells were going on inside Elizabeth�s head, but she ignored them, deciding that she was just on edge after the week of meetings with people with multiple agendas that didn�t all mesh and that she was allowing her concern over the whole Simon situation to cloud her judgement. Jack had selected Landry to take over the SGC, after all, and Elizabeth knew that Jack was one hundred percent, totally and completely on her side about all matters concerning how she ran the expedition. Elizabeth firmly believed that Jack wouldn�t hire someone to run the SGC who would pull the rug out from under her at the first opportunity. �That�s right,� Elizabeth nodded.
Landry began gesturing with his coffee cup. �You were also candid enough to document several occasions on which you and the Major didn�t exactly see eye to eye. In particular, there was an incident involving an alien nanovirus in which Major Sheppard directly disobeyed one of your orders.�
Biting back a line about healthy argument from different sides leading to a more educated solution for all involved (mostly because what she and John had done during the nanovirus debacle wasn�t healthy argument so much as him getting frustrated and going against her ruling) Elizabeth fixed her gaze on General Landry. �He also saved a lot of lives that day,� Elizabeth said, the alarms getting louder and more difficult to ignore.
�The Major�s courage and ingenuity are not in question here. His ability to follow the proper chain of command is,� Landry said.
�I�m not military, General,� Elizabeth pointed out.