Disclaimer: I own nothing. Both NCIS and Stargate: Atlantis belongs to other people.
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Prologue

If someone asked her whether or not she missed being in the field, NCIS Director Jenny Sheppard would have not directly answered them because the truth was that she did sometimes miss the fieldwork. But her job as Director of NCIS was also very important, and not just because she got a lot more respect. One of the main reasons why she had joined NCIS in the first place was to help people in need of helping. And as Director, she got to do a lot of that.


Currently, Jenny was in her office with Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and a new client, Lara Morris, who had come to NCIS about her cousin, Aiden.


“When was the last time you saw your cousin?” Jenny asked Lara.


“I last saw Aiden right before he was reassigned.” Lara took a sip of her coffee.


“I have to ask, why come to us? Why not just go to you cousin’s CO?” Gibbs asked the woman.


“I did get a visit from Aiden’s CO. He said that Aiden had gone MIA, and that he hadn’t ruled Aiden as KIA, yet. That was nearly two years ago,” Lara replied. “I came here because I thought that NCIS might have some resources that the Marine’s don’t,” Lara explained. “And also because my grandfather had a bad stroke recently, and may not live all that long. Aiden’s parents died when he was very young. My grandparents took him in and brought him up; they’re very close.”


“Do you know where your cousin was assigned to?” Gibbs asked Lara, who shook her head.


“No,” She replied. “All he could tell us was there couldn’t be any mail as he was going to be in a very remote part of the world. We, that is, my grandparents and I, just assumed he was in Afghanistan or Iraq, or someplace around there.”


Jenny and Gibbs glanced at each other. She wondered what the lieutenant had gotten himself involved in where he couldn’t be contacted in, by mail or even e-mail.


“Nearly two years ago,” Lara continued, “I received a video that was from Aiden.”


“Do you still have it?” Jenny asked. Lara nodded.


“Yes,” she said. “It’s in my car. I didn’t bring it in with me ‘cause of the security and all.”


“We’re going to need to borrow it,” Gibbs said.


Lara nodded. “I figured you might need to see it.”


“What was in the video?” Gibbs inquired.


“Aiden just talked mostly about family stuff, and very little about what he was doing,” Lara answered. “But he did mention that he was worried about being attacked by a foe.”


“What is your cousin’s name?” Jenny asked Lara.


“First Lieutenant Aiden Ford.” Lara replied.
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So, how was that? Please review and let me know.

I know that Jenny Sheppard's name is spelt with 1 'P', but for the purpose of this story, I'm spelling it with 2 'P's.

Missing

It had been a slow couple of weeks for Agent Gibbs’ team at NCIS. Since they had no field cases, the agents were stuck with doing paperwork. That was what Officer Ziva David was currently doing. And it seemed that she was the only one, too. As soon as Gibbs had gotten called to the Director’s office and was out of site and earshot, Special Agents Timothy McGee and Tony DiNozzo had stopped working on the dreaded paperwork. By the sound of it, it seemed that Tony was chatting online, and McGee was playing some sort of computer game, one that he was very into, from the way he was staring at his screen, hardly even blinking.


“You two are supposed to be working, yes?” Ziva said to Tony and McGee. “If Gibbs finds out, he’ll…”


“Come on, Ziva,” Tony interrupted. “It’s been several very slow, agonizingly boring weeks here. I don’t think Gibbs will mind if we take a little break.”


Ziva snorted. Tony’s idea of a ‘little’ was not the same as everybody else’s. A little to him was like… well, it was much bigger than everyone else’s was!


“Besides, it’s like they say,” McGee added, staring intensely at his computer screen, “when the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Ziva rolled her eyes. Gibbs had only been in the Director’s office for an hour.


Ziva was just starting her work again when McGee interrupted her.


“Oh, no, no, no, no…!” McGee exclaimed, looking like he wanted to bang his head somewhere.


Tony looked over at McGee. “What now, Probie?”


“I just got the life sucked out of me,” McGee groaned, sitting back in his chair, defeated; he sighed.


Ziva sent a questioning look at Tony who returned it.


“Got your life sucked out of you, Probie?” Tony repeated, getting up to walk to McGee’s desk. Ziva followed suite. By the time Ziva got to McGee’s desk, the Game Over had just finished flashing on the screen, and the options of ‘start’ and ‘quit’ and ‘top scores’ were up. “What are you playing?”


“It’s called Wraith Wars,” McGee explained. “See, there are these alien bad guys called Wraith…”


“Who aren’t human,” Tony interrupted, looking at the picture on the box the game came in.


“Uh… right,” McGee said, and then continued, “and their only food source is us.”


“Us?” Ziva inquired. “You mean human beings?”


“Yep,” McGee nodded. “Anyway, there are different levels in the game, each level with different challenges. Sometimes your objective is to steal some Wraith information, while other times it’s to blow up their ships before they blow ours….”


“Ours?” Tony interrupted again. “You mean, like planet Earth’s ships?”


“Yep,” McGee confirmed again. “In here, Earth has one spaceship called the Prometheus.”


“That’s nice, McGee,” Gibbs said walking up to McGee’s desk. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” He asked his team.


“Uh, we were just taking a break, Boss,” Tony said, looking like he just got caught by a parent doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.


“Which we were just getting back to,” Ziva added when Gibbs continued to look at them. She gave Tony a look as if to say ‘I told you so.’ She and Tony headed back to their desks.

“You can do that later,” Gibbs stated. He clicked a button on a remote and a picture of a young Marine came up on the plasma screen.


“This is First Lieutenant Aiden Ford,” Gibbs said as Ziva, Tony, and McGee came up to face the screen. “He is officially listed as MIA, and his family wants us to find him before his grandfather dies.”


“See what you can find out about the last mission he was on,” Gibbs ordered his team. He sat down in his desk.


“On it, Boss!” Tony said, already heading back to his desk and Ziva and McGee went to theirs.

///\///\///\///\

On the balcony overlooking the room, Jenny observed Gibbs’ team as they worked. They were all typing on the computer. She gave them a small smile and walked back to her office.


Gibbs looked up in time to watch Jenny walk back into her office.

\///\///\///\

“All right. What’ve we got?” Gibbs asked some hours later. Ziva hung up her phone.

“Lt. Ford is a decorated officer,” Tony said, walking until he was in front of Gibbs’ desk. “Some of his medals include Naval Parachutist, Expert Pistol Shot and Expert Rifleman. All in all, he was- or is- an excellent officer,” Tony stopped talking to take a breath. He then continued. “I’ve been able to find out somewhat of what he’d been doing two years ago. Apparently, he was working out of Cheyenne Mountain. He started working there a couple of years prior to two years ago. Apparently, the Mountain had him stationed, for several months, in Antarctica.” Tony shuddered at the thought. “Who, in their right mind, would want to work in Antarctica?” He asked rhetorically.


“Well, actually…” McGee started, apparently not getting that it was a rhetorical question. Tony looked at him. McGee got it. “Oh, that was rhetorical.” He muttered.


“One of my contacts told me that at least a hundred of other military and scientists left about the same time Ford was reassigned.” Ziva said.


“An expedition,” Tony suggested.


“For what?” McGee added.


“That’s the million and one dollar question, McGee,” Tony said.


“These military and scientists are from other countries?” Gibbs asked as McGee reached for his ringing phone.


“Yes,” Ziva answered.


“So, and international expedition,” Tony said as McGee hung up his phone.


“Abby wants us in her lab,” McGee announced.


“What do you have, Abs?” Gibbs asked as he walked into the lab claimed by Abby Sciuto. The forensic scientist was at her usual place in front of the computer, taking a sip of her favorite drink called Caf-Pow.


“Not a whole lot,” the Gothic forensic scientist replied.


“Then why’d you call us down here?” Gibbs asked.


“Patience Gibbs,” Abby said, facing the team. “I called you down here to answer a question.” She turned back to her computer and started typing.


“What’s the question?” Tony asked, watching as Abby pulled up the video Lt. Ford had made for his family.


“Have you ever seen any architecture like this before?” Abby pointed to the walls behind Ford. The colors of the wall blue and brown. Behind Ford’s left shoulder were horizontal lights that looked like they went straight up.


“Not that I can think of,” Gibbs answered, frowning at the picture.


“Neither can I,” Abby said, facing Gibbs.


“That’s because it’s at a classified location,” came a voice from the entrance of the lab. The team turned towards the doorway to find the Director standing with an Air Force officer.


“I’m Major Paul Davis of the Air Force,” the man identified himself. “I believe you’re looking for information on Lieutenant Aiden Ford.”