kate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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write_good2009-05-10 09:43 am
kate) wrote in write_good2009-05-10 09:43 am
Entry tags:
Please help me. I cannot get this right.
Title: John the True
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kisahawklin/kate
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: John/Rodney friendship
Rating: 10+
Word count: 4104
Author's Notes: based on the fairytale Faithful John. Originally I had this idea for the Fairytale challenge atsga_flashfic but it didn't quite get done. Then lavvyan needed a pick-me-up so I dusted it off, basically rewrote the whole thing, and here it is. Problem is - it's still not working quite right. I wrote this in a hurry, and late (until 3am last night), so it might just be that I was exhausted and rushing. I'm wondering if all I really need is to expand things, that it's too rushed. But I don't think so - I feel like I have no ending, like I am missing some way to bring home the message of trust that isn't just patting the characters on the head and saying 'do better next time'. Help!
crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
concrit_my_fic, sorry for any duplication on your flists!
Despite what people thought, Atlantis didn’t speak to John until they had been there a couple of years. Apparently, Atlantis needed some help, because the day after he got his subspace transponder, a robotically smooth baritone voice said Hello, John in his head, and that was when his second belief about Atlantis was crushed. Atlantis was male. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that his final belief was shattered. Atlantis was definitely not benevolent.
When Atlantis started telling him things, they were mostly harmless, and mostly for him. Things like where the best running tracks were, living quarters that were designed for living as opposed to crouching down in (hey, built-in bathrooms – why hadn’t they thought of that?). Then the science stuff started to appear. Granted, some of it was more civil engineering, but it was clearly information meant for Rodney, or maybe Zelenka.
Whether or not he passed information on was based on how many crises Rodney was working on at the moment and how cool the science was. These days, a pleasant distraction for Rodney was more of an incentive than anything. It had been a hard couple of years.
Elizabeth was still around when he was first shown what he started to think of as 'The Time Capsule.' Atlantis whispered in his mind while he was scoping out a new route for his run with Ronon. He stopped, at Atlantis's request in front of a door somewhere in a tower on the southwest arm, and only hesitated for a second before swiping his hand over the crystals to open the door. The crystals flashed like there was some kind of power surge, but the door didn't budge.
He went to Elizabeth with the location of the room and they looked it up on the database. There was only a single line entry: Do not open until... John secretly thought of Ancient dates as stardates because the numbers made no sense to him, and anyway, they relied on a measurement of time that was different from his, so it's not like it mattered.
Elizabeth took some time to figure out the math and radioed him later that evening to say that the date was roughly seven thousand years after the Ancients left.
"So we can open it?" John said, already thinking about how Rodney would work around the stuck door.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Elizabeth said, and John rolled his eyes. This type of conversation was a lot easier over the radio. "Whatever it was took the Ancients seven thousand years to work out. I don't think we're ready for it, even if it is three thousand years past its due date."
John sighed. There was no way to know what was in there until they went in there - and Elizabeth was never going to okay it, so he needed to let it go. "Sorry, buddy," he said, patting the wall.
Atlantis seemed to quiet down after that. There wasn't any more useful information, and the voice seemed to be stubbornly silent. It wasn't gone, just not communicating any more. That creeped John out more than a little, so he did what he always did with the disturbing stuff - bury it so deep it was almost as good as forgetting.
"Colonel, I need your gene."
"Good to be appreciated, McKay," John answered. "Where are you?"
"I’m in one of the smaller towers on the southwest side of the city. Use a lifesigns detector, it’s faster."
It wasn’t until John nearly fell over because of the crippling vision that he realized where Rodney must be standing. Atlantis showed him a vision of Rodney getting the door open and something exploding in his face – and then Rodney, burned and bloody and missing an arm. By the time the vision was over, John was on his knees and panting, one hand on the wall the only thing keeping him from going down completely. He rested his face against the cool metal of the city and fought the urge to throw up.
"What can I do to stop it?" John asked, and view of the interior of the room came into view. There was a small rectangular package on top of the door crystals. Disable it with force, Atlantis said.
"Great," John said, and doubled back for some C4 and a grenade or two. He hadn’t moved ten feet when he was shown another vision. This one was of Rodney touching the console in the room and going into seizures, his face stiffening in an expression of shock, foam oozing out of his mouth in a thick, continuous stream.
John kept his feet this time, and by the time he opened his mouth ask what to do, Atlantis had already answered. Burn off the poison.
"Poison?" John asked wearily. "What the hell is in there?" Atlantis didn’t answer.
"Fine," John bitched. "Anything else to show me?" He was glad he had the wall at his back when he asked, because the vision of a hole the size of a basketball burned through the middle of Rodney was really enough to take his feet out from under him. It had been some sort of massive laser, and the look on Rodney’s face would have been comical if John couldn't smell his burnt flesh. Atlantis answered him before he even voiced his question. The machine requires the blood of the user. Three drops.
"Are you kidding?" John groaned in frustration. Explaining to Rodney that Atlantis was speaking to him was going to suck. He was sure Rodney was going to want to make him talk to the new shrink, and he didn’t like the guy. He hadn’t liked talking to Heightmeyer either, but at least she was familiar, someone who had been with them through the craziness of the early years.
You must not tell. Atlantis’s voice had gained a hard edge. He didn’t care for that at all.
"Listen, buddy," John said in his most reasonable tone of voice – which was pretty funny since he was basically talking to himself in a deserted corridor – "there is no way I can cut Rodney without explaining."
Do not tell, Atlantis reiterated, or there will be severe consequences.
"What are you going to do, huh?" If the city was really sentient, there were plenty of things it could do, turn the life support off or cut the power, but John didn’t think the city was able to do things or he wouldn’t need John.
The consequences will be yours, Atlantis warned, and before John could ask for an explanation, there was an image of himself lying stone still on the floor, eyes open and staring at nothing.
"You don’t have any power over me," John said, and just to be sure, he punched the wall. Nothing happened. He started back down the hallway to collect what he’d need to get Rodney into the time capsule safely, but before he had taken three steps, he felt a shock go through him as strong as a lightning bolt. He sank to the ground, unable to move for over a minute.
As soon as his legs worked again, he ran for the armory, because it’d been over ten minutes and Rodney hadn’t checked in, which meant he was working on getting the door open himself. He clicked on his radio.
"Rodney, don't you touch anything until I get there, do you understand me?"
"Yes, colonel. God forbid I get my hands on something first."
"I mean it, Rodney. Don't go messing around with anything."
"Fine," Rodney said with typical impatience. "Get over here already, this thing should have been popped open three millenia ago!"
It was twenty minutes after Rodney’s first radio call when John arrived with a backpack and his knife and sidearm strapped on, which Rodney glanced at but didn’t comment on.
"I can’t get to the door crystals," Rodney complained, and pushed on the cover once to illustrate. "The cover is welded shut."
"Rodney," John said, and received a shock for his trouble. Rodney looked at him with curiosity, and John shook his head. Once Rodney sniffed a new toy, John supposed, there was no stopping him. "All right." He pulled out a brick of C4 and applied it to the door crystals.
"No no no no no no!" Rodney cried. "It’ll open with your gene, I’m almost positive–"
"Back up," John said, shoving Rodney ahead of him down the corridor and out of blast range, complaining all the way.
The door wasn’t open when they came back, but there was a nice sized hole in the wall to peer through. The room looked exactly as Atlantis had shown it to him.
"Why did you do that?" Rodney cried, and John kept his mouth tightly shut. There were still two more traps in there, and he wasn’t going to risk another shock until he knew Rodney wasn’t going to die a horrible death.
"Aw, the doors didn’t open," John sing-songed. "I guess we should go."
"Are you kidding?" Rodney said, and reached into the wall where the crystals were a minute ago. "We can trip the mechanical release," he added. John watched, completely stunned, as Rodney rooted around in the wall, found a lever, and yanked. The half of the door on the side with the crystals couldn’t slide back in; it had been too damaged. The other half slid right into place though, and that was enough room for them to get through. Rodney was still talking – something about Sam researching the releases after she got stuck in the elevator with Zelenka – and John used Rodney’s distraction to grab his backpack and get into the room first. He eyed the room, made sure there weren’t any other traps Atlantis hadn't been forthcoming about, and took out a blowtorch.
He lit it up and brandished it at Rodney. "Stay back," John said, and pulled a gas mask over his face. Thank god, Rodney stepped back and watched John with big round eyes. John pointed the blowtorch at the console and burnt the crap out of it. He was indiscriminate at first, continuing to burn even after the layer of petroleum-like stuff evaporated, but he knew Rodney would only be cowed for so long, and he couldn’t afford to have Rodney come in and touch something before he got the last threat taken care of.
He turned the blowtorch off and by the time he took off the gas mask, Rodney was at his shoulder, bouncing on the balls of his feet to see. John stood up straighter, and caught Rodney’s hand when he reached out to touch the console.
"Hey – what?" Rodney started, but whatever Rodney saw on his face, it was enough to keep him quiet – at least until John pulled out his knife.
"John?" Rodney asked, and the fearful twist of his name in Rodney’s mouth made him nauseous.
"Hold still, Rodney. I need you to trust me."
Rodney set his mouth in an unpleasant line, but he said no more, and continued to watch John’s face. John was oddly touched by the faith. He made a shallow cut across the meat of Rodney’s palm, close to the thumb. It didn’t bleed right away, so he squeezed the cut to let the three drops of blood fall on the console. Rodney hissed in a breath but didn't say anything. John put pressure on the cut while he pulled out a bandage to wrap it with.
"I’m not crazy," John said, and received a shock for his trouble.
"You cut me," Rodney accused, cupping his injured hand gingerly.
"Shallowly," said John, "in a place that would give enough of blood, heal quickly, and not prevent you from working with your hands."
"Give enough blood?" Rodney asked, looking paler than usual.
John nodded, not offering any further explanation. He wondered, briefly, if he could sever his connection to Atlantis by having Keller remove his subspace transponder.
"Please identify," Atlantis’s smooth voice said, and John whipped his head around to look at the console. It had lit up and had a double helix pattern on an HUD. Rodney moved fast, the asshole, and stood looking up at the display with awe, injured hand forgotten.
"Dr. Rodney McKay," he said before John could stop him.
"Welcome, Dr. Rodney McKay," the console said, and that voice – that voice was the one in John’s head. Had it used him to bring Rodney here? What was this place?
"Don't, Rodney."
Rodney looked torn, his hands hovering over the console like birds deciding where to land. "Why not? I should get something for the blood I shed."
"Trust me, Rodney. I can't tell you why."
That got Rodney's attention, and he turned away from the console that was now flashing pictures of blueprints of something that looked too much like a ZPM for John's comfort. "Are you feeling okay?" Rodney asked. "Whatever this is, it was..." One of the images had caught Rodney's eye and he turned back toward the console. "It was a power source."
Rodney was drawn to the console like a moth to the flame, and John grabbed his arm and yanked Rodney back. "I have a bad feeling," John said.
"Oh yes, colonel, a bad feeling," Rodney said, pulling his arm out of John's grip and stepping back up to the console. "That definitely trumps a more powerful energy source than a ZPM."
"My bad feelings have saved your ass more than once, McKay," John snapped, and if he didn't know for a fact that whatever was in that machine manipulated him into getting Rodney in here, he would leave Rodney to his fate.
"In the field," Rodney threw back at him. He was already whipping through the console's directories, searching for god knew what. "We're in my territory now."
Rodney had scented a ZPM. Unless John was willing to knock Rodney unconscious and blow the room up (and while that was tempting, he's not sure he wouldn't be court martialled, or maybe sent to the funny farm for the rest of his life), he'd have to tell him the truth. John already felt the electricity building in him like a slow surge of adrenaline. Everything was tingling. He couldn't concentrate.
"Atlantis has been talking to me," John said, and the look of shock on Rodney’s face was priceless. "I know it sounds insane, but–"
The last thing John remembered was going rigid, like he always thought a seizure would feel like, and then the sudden drain of all color from the world, like the Northern Lights in reverse.
"John?" Rodney asked, slapping John's face. It didn't move. The flesh didn't jiggle, his head didn't move to the side, nothing. It was like he'd been petrified. "John?!" Rodney felt hysteria rising, along with the regret and frustration. Damn Pegasus galaxy.
He clicked on his radio. "Sam, Radek, I need you in the southwest tower immediately - I'm in building B34, first level. You won't be able to miss the door with the hole blasted in it. Dr. Keller, we need a medical team immediately."
As soon as he had their affirmatives, he turned back to John. "All right, asshole," he said, pointing at the console, "what did you do to him?"
"Please rephrase the question."
"What do you mean, rephrase it? It's a simple question. What did you do to Colonel Sheppard? He's not breathing, he's not moving, it's like he's a statue. What did you do?" Rodney tried CPR, but his chest wouldn't depress, and no air would go into his mouth.
"Please rephrase the question."
"Great," Rodney muttered, getting up and returning to the console. If he couldn't do CPR, maybe he could work on figuring out what happened and turn him back.
The console wasn't hooked into the city mainframe, so while there was a lot of data, it was relatively manageable. With Sam and Radek, they might be able to sift through it to find out what happened to John.
He found a subdirectory about the energy source that had been on the HUD earlier and started ticking through the files. It was a series of equations, each one meticulously proven or disproven, and Rodney could see exactly what this room had been used for. It was a supercomputer, used to crunch the numbers on the new and improved power source, and they had closed it up for seven thousand years to make sure it had completed all its calculations before they attempted construction of the ZPM mark two.
"Does the potential power source have anything to do with what happened to Colonel Sheppard?"
The voice didn't answer right away, and if Rodney didn't know better, he would have guessed it was stalling.
"Yes."
"In what way?"
"Please rephrase the question."
Rodney sighed heavily. Talking computers were so damn annoying. "What did the energy source have to do with Sheppard's paralysis?"
"There was an energy spike immediately prior to Colonel Sheppard's accident."
"Can you show me that on the heads-up display, please?"
The graph appeared as Sam, Radek, and Jennifer stormed the room. Rodney went to join them, explaining what had happened as Jennifer attempted to examine Sheppard.
"He's dead."
"No," Rodney said, unsure of why he knew that, but certain that he did. "If we can figure out what did this to him and how to reverse it, he'll be fine."
Jennifer shook her head, but Rodney stared her down. "He's in stasis or hibernating or petrified or something. Something in this room did this, and I'm going to find out what and undo it."
Sam looked at Jennifer and then back to Rodney, and she was the only person who could shut him down, so he was relieved when she got up to join Rodney at the console.
"Wait!" Rodney said, right before she touched it. "It needs DNA before you can work on it. Blood."
Sam's frown told him how worrisome that seemed, and he briefly wondered why he hadn't realized that earlier. She pulled a knife out of somewhere – another worrisome detail – and pricked her finger, letting the blood drop onto the console.
"Unrecognized DNA."
"What?" Rodney snapped. "It's Colonel Samantha Carter. She is capable of using this database too."
"Unrecognized DNA."
"Rodney?" Sam asked.
"Don't touch it," Rodney answered miserably. "I don't know what might happen, but Sheppard seemed to think it would be really really bad."
"Now what?" Sam asked. "Radek and I could get into the main database and try to work our way through to meet you halfway."
"No," Rodney answered, already flipping through the equations the supercomputer had solved. He answered them in his head, not even consciously working out the math, just knowing the answer as he flipped by. "This console isn't connected to the main database."
"I could try bleeding on the computer," Radek offered.
Radek's DNA was unrecognized too, and Rodney wouldn't have even bothered except he was desperate and grasping at straws. The equations were getting more complex, he had to stop and think about them before he could follow the proofs.
"Maybe we should hook it up to the main database," Sam suggested. "We could cross-reference it and..."
The lights in the room flickered.
"Show me the power distribution graph again," Rodney said, and the graph popped up into thin air in front of him. There was another power spike, and Rodney heard Sheppard's last words echo in his memory. Atlantis has been talking to me.
"You can stop pretending now," Rodney said to the room at large. He didn't like not knowing where to look. He picked the HUD, hoping some sort of visible interface would appear. "You're an AI."
The lights flickered again before it answered. "I am Variable Equation Confirmation Evolving Program. Vee Cee Pee for short."
"Fix Sheppard," Rodney ordered. He pulled his laptop to him and started typing.
"Connect me to Atlantis."
"No."
"I will kill Colonel Sheppard."
"No you won't," Rodney said, though he wasn't sure of that at all. He passed the computer to Sam and started rummaging around in Sheppard's backpack. Thank god Sheppard was such a boy scout.
Sheppard's body melted then, going from rigor mortis-like stasis to a more natural looking unconsciousness. Rodney watched Jennifer out of the corner of his eye, leaning over Sheppard and listening for heart sounds. breath sounds, any kind of sounds. "No heartbeat. I need the AED."
"I would not advise that course of action."
"On the gurney," Rodney called desperately. "Get out of here."
Sheppard's body seized up, bowing upward in a perfect arc.
"OUT!" Rodney yelled, launching himself off the floor and planting the two bricks of C4 on either side of the console. He heard the team scrambling behind him as he put the detonators in, and he turned to chase the gurney out the door.
As soon as they were clear, he set off the C4. He watched Sheppard's body settle like ripples in a pond; a strangely synchronized contrast to the sound of Rodney's dreams exploding.
John heard Rodney’s voice coming to him from far away, almost as if piped in over a loudspeaker. All he saw was white, and the brightness was blinding. He hadn't been sleeping, he didn't think – he didn't feel rested, anyway, but he was too tired to even move his head, so he slid back under, the lure of the morphine guiding his way.
John could feel his body now, stiff and weak, but there and he tried to raise his head. No luck. He opened his eyes, though, and suddenly the brightness was full of color and shape.
John trained his eyes to the side where he'd heard Rodney’s voice coming from and to his great surprise, his head turned. Rodney looked haggard. There was more grey in his hair than John remembered, and the downturn of his mouth seemed to be permanent. "Rodney," John whispered, though nothing but air came out. He swallowed deliberately, feeling his Adam’s apple bob, and tried again. "Rodney," he whispered, and this time, Rodney raised his eyes.
"John!" Rodney cried, and leaned forward to put a warm hand on John’s face. "Jesus, you’re awake. Dr. Keller! He’s awake!"
John’s strength returned surprisingly quickly. He was weak, yes, but he could move, his arms and legs obeyed him, and he started to get out of bed.
"Whoa," Rodney said, pressing a hand on his chest. "You’re not ready for that yet."
John looked down the length of his body and saw the various lines going into and out of him. He was familiar enough with catheters to know you couldn’t just pull them out like you could with IVs, so he laid back down and got Rodney to talk to him through Keller’s poking and prodding.
"Tell me what happened," John said, as Keller was asking him to squeeze her fingers and push against her hands.
"The Ancients had an idea for a new power source, but since they were at war with the Wraith, they didn't have the manpower to sit around testing all the variables involved. So they set up a supercomputer to crunch the numbers and set the timer for seven thousand years."
Jennifer looked down his throat as he said 'ahhh' and made his pupils dilate with the penlight before squeezing his arm and telling Rodney not to talk him to death.
"Apparently the Ancients don't believe in calculators. The supercomputer was equipped with an evolving program. I don't know when it became sentient, but I'd guess for a thousand years or more."
"And it talked to me because..."
"Maybe it was lonely," Rodney said. John laughed, but Rodney just smiled sadly. "It wanted to get into the Atlantis mainframe."
"I think I want my transponder removed," John said, and that got a startled laugh out of Rodney.
"Already done. Jennifer figured out that was the connection and took it out while you recuperated."
"How long have I been out?" John asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"A week," Rodney answered. "Though it felt like years."
"An eternity," John corrected.
Rodney smiled bitterly. "You're back now."
"Yeah," John said, closing his eyes. "Thanks, Rodney."
"Idiot," Rodney said fondly. "It was my fault you got into this mess. Least I could do was get you out of it."
"Yeah," John said, though he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to any more. "Next time you should listen to me."
"Yeah," Rodney said, and John smiled as he slipped under again.
Author:
kisahawklin/kateFandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: John/Rodney friendship
Rating: 10+
Word count: 4104
Author's Notes: based on the fairytale Faithful John. Originally I had this idea for the Fairytale challenge at
sga_flashfic but it didn't quite get done. Then lavvyan needed a pick-me-up so I dusted it off, basically rewrote the whole thing, and here it is. Problem is - it's still not working quite right. I wrote this in a hurry, and late (until 3am last night), so it might just be that I was exhausted and rushing. I'm wondering if all I really need is to expand things, that it's too rushed. But I don't think so - I feel like I have no ending, like I am missing some way to bring home the message of trust that isn't just patting the characters on the head and saying 'do better next time'. Help!crossposted to
concrit_my_fic, sorry for any duplication on your flists!Despite what people thought, Atlantis didn’t speak to John until they had been there a couple of years. Apparently, Atlantis needed some help, because the day after he got his subspace transponder, a robotically smooth baritone voice said Hello, John in his head, and that was when his second belief about Atlantis was crushed. Atlantis was male. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that his final belief was shattered. Atlantis was definitely not benevolent.
When Atlantis started telling him things, they were mostly harmless, and mostly for him. Things like where the best running tracks were, living quarters that were designed for living as opposed to crouching down in (hey, built-in bathrooms – why hadn’t they thought of that?). Then the science stuff started to appear. Granted, some of it was more civil engineering, but it was clearly information meant for Rodney, or maybe Zelenka.
Whether or not he passed information on was based on how many crises Rodney was working on at the moment and how cool the science was. These days, a pleasant distraction for Rodney was more of an incentive than anything. It had been a hard couple of years.
Elizabeth was still around when he was first shown what he started to think of as 'The Time Capsule.' Atlantis whispered in his mind while he was scoping out a new route for his run with Ronon. He stopped, at Atlantis's request in front of a door somewhere in a tower on the southwest arm, and only hesitated for a second before swiping his hand over the crystals to open the door. The crystals flashed like there was some kind of power surge, but the door didn't budge.
He went to Elizabeth with the location of the room and they looked it up on the database. There was only a single line entry: Do not open until... John secretly thought of Ancient dates as stardates because the numbers made no sense to him, and anyway, they relied on a measurement of time that was different from his, so it's not like it mattered.
Elizabeth took some time to figure out the math and radioed him later that evening to say that the date was roughly seven thousand years after the Ancients left.
"So we can open it?" John said, already thinking about how Rodney would work around the stuck door.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Elizabeth said, and John rolled his eyes. This type of conversation was a lot easier over the radio. "Whatever it was took the Ancients seven thousand years to work out. I don't think we're ready for it, even if it is three thousand years past its due date."
John sighed. There was no way to know what was in there until they went in there - and Elizabeth was never going to okay it, so he needed to let it go. "Sorry, buddy," he said, patting the wall.
Atlantis seemed to quiet down after that. There wasn't any more useful information, and the voice seemed to be stubbornly silent. It wasn't gone, just not communicating any more. That creeped John out more than a little, so he did what he always did with the disturbing stuff - bury it so deep it was almost as good as forgetting.
"Colonel, I need your gene."
"Good to be appreciated, McKay," John answered. "Where are you?"
"I’m in one of the smaller towers on the southwest side of the city. Use a lifesigns detector, it’s faster."
It wasn’t until John nearly fell over because of the crippling vision that he realized where Rodney must be standing. Atlantis showed him a vision of Rodney getting the door open and something exploding in his face – and then Rodney, burned and bloody and missing an arm. By the time the vision was over, John was on his knees and panting, one hand on the wall the only thing keeping him from going down completely. He rested his face against the cool metal of the city and fought the urge to throw up.
"What can I do to stop it?" John asked, and view of the interior of the room came into view. There was a small rectangular package on top of the door crystals. Disable it with force, Atlantis said.
"Great," John said, and doubled back for some C4 and a grenade or two. He hadn’t moved ten feet when he was shown another vision. This one was of Rodney touching the console in the room and going into seizures, his face stiffening in an expression of shock, foam oozing out of his mouth in a thick, continuous stream.
John kept his feet this time, and by the time he opened his mouth ask what to do, Atlantis had already answered. Burn off the poison.
"Poison?" John asked wearily. "What the hell is in there?" Atlantis didn’t answer.
"Fine," John bitched. "Anything else to show me?" He was glad he had the wall at his back when he asked, because the vision of a hole the size of a basketball burned through the middle of Rodney was really enough to take his feet out from under him. It had been some sort of massive laser, and the look on Rodney’s face would have been comical if John couldn't smell his burnt flesh. Atlantis answered him before he even voiced his question. The machine requires the blood of the user. Three drops.
"Are you kidding?" John groaned in frustration. Explaining to Rodney that Atlantis was speaking to him was going to suck. He was sure Rodney was going to want to make him talk to the new shrink, and he didn’t like the guy. He hadn’t liked talking to Heightmeyer either, but at least she was familiar, someone who had been with them through the craziness of the early years.
You must not tell. Atlantis’s voice had gained a hard edge. He didn’t care for that at all.
"Listen, buddy," John said in his most reasonable tone of voice – which was pretty funny since he was basically talking to himself in a deserted corridor – "there is no way I can cut Rodney without explaining."
Do not tell, Atlantis reiterated, or there will be severe consequences.
"What are you going to do, huh?" If the city was really sentient, there were plenty of things it could do, turn the life support off or cut the power, but John didn’t think the city was able to do things or he wouldn’t need John.
The consequences will be yours, Atlantis warned, and before John could ask for an explanation, there was an image of himself lying stone still on the floor, eyes open and staring at nothing.
"You don’t have any power over me," John said, and just to be sure, he punched the wall. Nothing happened. He started back down the hallway to collect what he’d need to get Rodney into the time capsule safely, but before he had taken three steps, he felt a shock go through him as strong as a lightning bolt. He sank to the ground, unable to move for over a minute.
As soon as his legs worked again, he ran for the armory, because it’d been over ten minutes and Rodney hadn’t checked in, which meant he was working on getting the door open himself. He clicked on his radio.
"Rodney, don't you touch anything until I get there, do you understand me?"
"Yes, colonel. God forbid I get my hands on something first."
"I mean it, Rodney. Don't go messing around with anything."
"Fine," Rodney said with typical impatience. "Get over here already, this thing should have been popped open three millenia ago!"
It was twenty minutes after Rodney’s first radio call when John arrived with a backpack and his knife and sidearm strapped on, which Rodney glanced at but didn’t comment on.
"I can’t get to the door crystals," Rodney complained, and pushed on the cover once to illustrate. "The cover is welded shut."
"Rodney," John said, and received a shock for his trouble. Rodney looked at him with curiosity, and John shook his head. Once Rodney sniffed a new toy, John supposed, there was no stopping him. "All right." He pulled out a brick of C4 and applied it to the door crystals.
"No no no no no no!" Rodney cried. "It’ll open with your gene, I’m almost positive–"
"Back up," John said, shoving Rodney ahead of him down the corridor and out of blast range, complaining all the way.
The door wasn’t open when they came back, but there was a nice sized hole in the wall to peer through. The room looked exactly as Atlantis had shown it to him.
"Why did you do that?" Rodney cried, and John kept his mouth tightly shut. There were still two more traps in there, and he wasn’t going to risk another shock until he knew Rodney wasn’t going to die a horrible death.
"Aw, the doors didn’t open," John sing-songed. "I guess we should go."
"Are you kidding?" Rodney said, and reached into the wall where the crystals were a minute ago. "We can trip the mechanical release," he added. John watched, completely stunned, as Rodney rooted around in the wall, found a lever, and yanked. The half of the door on the side with the crystals couldn’t slide back in; it had been too damaged. The other half slid right into place though, and that was enough room for them to get through. Rodney was still talking – something about Sam researching the releases after she got stuck in the elevator with Zelenka – and John used Rodney’s distraction to grab his backpack and get into the room first. He eyed the room, made sure there weren’t any other traps Atlantis hadn't been forthcoming about, and took out a blowtorch.
He lit it up and brandished it at Rodney. "Stay back," John said, and pulled a gas mask over his face. Thank god, Rodney stepped back and watched John with big round eyes. John pointed the blowtorch at the console and burnt the crap out of it. He was indiscriminate at first, continuing to burn even after the layer of petroleum-like stuff evaporated, but he knew Rodney would only be cowed for so long, and he couldn’t afford to have Rodney come in and touch something before he got the last threat taken care of.
He turned the blowtorch off and by the time he took off the gas mask, Rodney was at his shoulder, bouncing on the balls of his feet to see. John stood up straighter, and caught Rodney’s hand when he reached out to touch the console.
"Hey – what?" Rodney started, but whatever Rodney saw on his face, it was enough to keep him quiet – at least until John pulled out his knife.
"John?" Rodney asked, and the fearful twist of his name in Rodney’s mouth made him nauseous.
"Hold still, Rodney. I need you to trust me."
Rodney set his mouth in an unpleasant line, but he said no more, and continued to watch John’s face. John was oddly touched by the faith. He made a shallow cut across the meat of Rodney’s palm, close to the thumb. It didn’t bleed right away, so he squeezed the cut to let the three drops of blood fall on the console. Rodney hissed in a breath but didn't say anything. John put pressure on the cut while he pulled out a bandage to wrap it with.
"I’m not crazy," John said, and received a shock for his trouble.
"You cut me," Rodney accused, cupping his injured hand gingerly.
"Shallowly," said John, "in a place that would give enough of blood, heal quickly, and not prevent you from working with your hands."
"Give enough blood?" Rodney asked, looking paler than usual.
John nodded, not offering any further explanation. He wondered, briefly, if he could sever his connection to Atlantis by having Keller remove his subspace transponder.
"Please identify," Atlantis’s smooth voice said, and John whipped his head around to look at the console. It had lit up and had a double helix pattern on an HUD. Rodney moved fast, the asshole, and stood looking up at the display with awe, injured hand forgotten.
"Dr. Rodney McKay," he said before John could stop him.
"Welcome, Dr. Rodney McKay," the console said, and that voice – that voice was the one in John’s head. Had it used him to bring Rodney here? What was this place?
"Don't, Rodney."
Rodney looked torn, his hands hovering over the console like birds deciding where to land. "Why not? I should get something for the blood I shed."
"Trust me, Rodney. I can't tell you why."
That got Rodney's attention, and he turned away from the console that was now flashing pictures of blueprints of something that looked too much like a ZPM for John's comfort. "Are you feeling okay?" Rodney asked. "Whatever this is, it was..." One of the images had caught Rodney's eye and he turned back toward the console. "It was a power source."
Rodney was drawn to the console like a moth to the flame, and John grabbed his arm and yanked Rodney back. "I have a bad feeling," John said.
"Oh yes, colonel, a bad feeling," Rodney said, pulling his arm out of John's grip and stepping back up to the console. "That definitely trumps a more powerful energy source than a ZPM."
"My bad feelings have saved your ass more than once, McKay," John snapped, and if he didn't know for a fact that whatever was in that machine manipulated him into getting Rodney in here, he would leave Rodney to his fate.
"In the field," Rodney threw back at him. He was already whipping through the console's directories, searching for god knew what. "We're in my territory now."
Rodney had scented a ZPM. Unless John was willing to knock Rodney unconscious and blow the room up (and while that was tempting, he's not sure he wouldn't be court martialled, or maybe sent to the funny farm for the rest of his life), he'd have to tell him the truth. John already felt the electricity building in him like a slow surge of adrenaline. Everything was tingling. He couldn't concentrate.
"Atlantis has been talking to me," John said, and the look of shock on Rodney’s face was priceless. "I know it sounds insane, but–"
The last thing John remembered was going rigid, like he always thought a seizure would feel like, and then the sudden drain of all color from the world, like the Northern Lights in reverse.
"John?" Rodney asked, slapping John's face. It didn't move. The flesh didn't jiggle, his head didn't move to the side, nothing. It was like he'd been petrified. "John?!" Rodney felt hysteria rising, along with the regret and frustration. Damn Pegasus galaxy.
He clicked on his radio. "Sam, Radek, I need you in the southwest tower immediately - I'm in building B34, first level. You won't be able to miss the door with the hole blasted in it. Dr. Keller, we need a medical team immediately."
As soon as he had their affirmatives, he turned back to John. "All right, asshole," he said, pointing at the console, "what did you do to him?"
"Please rephrase the question."
"What do you mean, rephrase it? It's a simple question. What did you do to Colonel Sheppard? He's not breathing, he's not moving, it's like he's a statue. What did you do?" Rodney tried CPR, but his chest wouldn't depress, and no air would go into his mouth.
"Please rephrase the question."
"Great," Rodney muttered, getting up and returning to the console. If he couldn't do CPR, maybe he could work on figuring out what happened and turn him back.
The console wasn't hooked into the city mainframe, so while there was a lot of data, it was relatively manageable. With Sam and Radek, they might be able to sift through it to find out what happened to John.
He found a subdirectory about the energy source that had been on the HUD earlier and started ticking through the files. It was a series of equations, each one meticulously proven or disproven, and Rodney could see exactly what this room had been used for. It was a supercomputer, used to crunch the numbers on the new and improved power source, and they had closed it up for seven thousand years to make sure it had completed all its calculations before they attempted construction of the ZPM mark two.
"Does the potential power source have anything to do with what happened to Colonel Sheppard?"
The voice didn't answer right away, and if Rodney didn't know better, he would have guessed it was stalling.
"Yes."
"In what way?"
"Please rephrase the question."
Rodney sighed heavily. Talking computers were so damn annoying. "What did the energy source have to do with Sheppard's paralysis?"
"There was an energy spike immediately prior to Colonel Sheppard's accident."
"Can you show me that on the heads-up display, please?"
The graph appeared as Sam, Radek, and Jennifer stormed the room. Rodney went to join them, explaining what had happened as Jennifer attempted to examine Sheppard.
"He's dead."
"No," Rodney said, unsure of why he knew that, but certain that he did. "If we can figure out what did this to him and how to reverse it, he'll be fine."
Jennifer shook her head, but Rodney stared her down. "He's in stasis or hibernating or petrified or something. Something in this room did this, and I'm going to find out what and undo it."
Sam looked at Jennifer and then back to Rodney, and she was the only person who could shut him down, so he was relieved when she got up to join Rodney at the console.
"Wait!" Rodney said, right before she touched it. "It needs DNA before you can work on it. Blood."
Sam's frown told him how worrisome that seemed, and he briefly wondered why he hadn't realized that earlier. She pulled a knife out of somewhere – another worrisome detail – and pricked her finger, letting the blood drop onto the console.
"Unrecognized DNA."
"What?" Rodney snapped. "It's Colonel Samantha Carter. She is capable of using this database too."
"Unrecognized DNA."
"Rodney?" Sam asked.
"Don't touch it," Rodney answered miserably. "I don't know what might happen, but Sheppard seemed to think it would be really really bad."
"Now what?" Sam asked. "Radek and I could get into the main database and try to work our way through to meet you halfway."
"No," Rodney answered, already flipping through the equations the supercomputer had solved. He answered them in his head, not even consciously working out the math, just knowing the answer as he flipped by. "This console isn't connected to the main database."
"I could try bleeding on the computer," Radek offered.
Radek's DNA was unrecognized too, and Rodney wouldn't have even bothered except he was desperate and grasping at straws. The equations were getting more complex, he had to stop and think about them before he could follow the proofs.
"Maybe we should hook it up to the main database," Sam suggested. "We could cross-reference it and..."
The lights in the room flickered.
"Show me the power distribution graph again," Rodney said, and the graph popped up into thin air in front of him. There was another power spike, and Rodney heard Sheppard's last words echo in his memory. Atlantis has been talking to me.
"You can stop pretending now," Rodney said to the room at large. He didn't like not knowing where to look. He picked the HUD, hoping some sort of visible interface would appear. "You're an AI."
The lights flickered again before it answered. "I am Variable Equation Confirmation Evolving Program. Vee Cee Pee for short."
"Fix Sheppard," Rodney ordered. He pulled his laptop to him and started typing.
"Connect me to Atlantis."
"No."
"I will kill Colonel Sheppard."
"No you won't," Rodney said, though he wasn't sure of that at all. He passed the computer to Sam and started rummaging around in Sheppard's backpack. Thank god Sheppard was such a boy scout.
Sheppard's body melted then, going from rigor mortis-like stasis to a more natural looking unconsciousness. Rodney watched Jennifer out of the corner of his eye, leaning over Sheppard and listening for heart sounds. breath sounds, any kind of sounds. "No heartbeat. I need the AED."
"I would not advise that course of action."
"On the gurney," Rodney called desperately. "Get out of here."
Sheppard's body seized up, bowing upward in a perfect arc.
"OUT!" Rodney yelled, launching himself off the floor and planting the two bricks of C4 on either side of the console. He heard the team scrambling behind him as he put the detonators in, and he turned to chase the gurney out the door.
As soon as they were clear, he set off the C4. He watched Sheppard's body settle like ripples in a pond; a strangely synchronized contrast to the sound of Rodney's dreams exploding.
John heard Rodney’s voice coming to him from far away, almost as if piped in over a loudspeaker. All he saw was white, and the brightness was blinding. He hadn't been sleeping, he didn't think – he didn't feel rested, anyway, but he was too tired to even move his head, so he slid back under, the lure of the morphine guiding his way.
John could feel his body now, stiff and weak, but there and he tried to raise his head. No luck. He opened his eyes, though, and suddenly the brightness was full of color and shape.
John trained his eyes to the side where he'd heard Rodney’s voice coming from and to his great surprise, his head turned. Rodney looked haggard. There was more grey in his hair than John remembered, and the downturn of his mouth seemed to be permanent. "Rodney," John whispered, though nothing but air came out. He swallowed deliberately, feeling his Adam’s apple bob, and tried again. "Rodney," he whispered, and this time, Rodney raised his eyes.
"John!" Rodney cried, and leaned forward to put a warm hand on John’s face. "Jesus, you’re awake. Dr. Keller! He’s awake!"
John’s strength returned surprisingly quickly. He was weak, yes, but he could move, his arms and legs obeyed him, and he started to get out of bed.
"Whoa," Rodney said, pressing a hand on his chest. "You’re not ready for that yet."
John looked down the length of his body and saw the various lines going into and out of him. He was familiar enough with catheters to know you couldn’t just pull them out like you could with IVs, so he laid back down and got Rodney to talk to him through Keller’s poking and prodding.
"Tell me what happened," John said, as Keller was asking him to squeeze her fingers and push against her hands.
"The Ancients had an idea for a new power source, but since they were at war with the Wraith, they didn't have the manpower to sit around testing all the variables involved. So they set up a supercomputer to crunch the numbers and set the timer for seven thousand years."
Jennifer looked down his throat as he said 'ahhh' and made his pupils dilate with the penlight before squeezing his arm and telling Rodney not to talk him to death.
"Apparently the Ancients don't believe in calculators. The supercomputer was equipped with an evolving program. I don't know when it became sentient, but I'd guess for a thousand years or more."
"And it talked to me because..."
"Maybe it was lonely," Rodney said. John laughed, but Rodney just smiled sadly. "It wanted to get into the Atlantis mainframe."
"I think I want my transponder removed," John said, and that got a startled laugh out of Rodney.
"Already done. Jennifer figured out that was the connection and took it out while you recuperated."
"How long have I been out?" John asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"A week," Rodney answered. "Though it felt like years."
"An eternity," John corrected.
Rodney smiled bitterly. "You're back now."
"Yeah," John said, closing his eyes. "Thanks, Rodney."
"Idiot," Rodney said fondly. "It was my fault you got into this mess. Least I could do was get you out of it."
"Yeah," John said, though he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to any more. "Next time you should listen to me."
"Yeah," Rodney said, and John smiled as he slipped under again.
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I think a little bit of time in Rodney's head, before John wakes up, about the trust issue (or possibly making the last scene from Rodney's PoV if you can spare John's reactions to being hospitalized again) - might wrap it up better.
I'm not sure just how you could negotiate the idea that Rodney can trust John and still not follow his directions, because I think Rodney would always keep an analytical corner of his mind that said, "Yes, very well, John is your friend and he would not lie to you, but what if John is wrong?" That bit about the "bad feeling" is spot on.
I don't know. Maybe have them create a code word to use for when John has facts that he can't share with Rodney on threat of death or bodily harm. That's bound to come up again eventually!
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"No," Rodney said, unsure of why he knew that, but certain that he did. "If we can figure out what did this to him and how to reverse it, he'll be fine."
Jennifer shook her head, but Rodney stared her down. "He's in stasis or hibernating or petrified or something. Something in this room did this, and I'm going to find out what and undo it."
These are both Rodney speaking, right? I kept wanting to think the second is Keller.
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Then,
I think you're right (and
And that's perfect, the creating a code word. God, all this time in the Pegasus galaxy, they must have a secret language going on!
Thank you so much for helping me!
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The Turning a Cliché and Channeling the Id sections describe your story exactly. Your orgasm moment, to use Vonnegut's metaphor, is when Rodney gives up all that knowledge--Rodney catnip--for John's life.
So, I've got two thoughts. The climax of the story could use some punching up, visually and emotionally. The point from which Rodney calls out the AI, if you could ramp up the action, really make things frantic, and then culminate in the explosion, which could use some detail, that might sell the climax more.
The other thought, the POV switch in the first part interferes a bit with the rising tension. If Rodney is the one having the climactic moment, do we need to see the tension rise in him, not just John? Could the POV switch happen earlier? Have Rodney find the room, call John, show his concern and confusion at John's strange behaviour and seeming precognition. You lose the impact of the visions, but you gain a smoother tension arc. I'm not absolutely convinced myself on this point, but it might work.
Oh, and I see a complete story here. I don't think it needs to be longer, just shaped differently.
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So, this started life as entirely John POV, basically skipping the middle part. I think that didn't work for me because then, the climax moment is John realizing what he has to sacrifice to keep Rodney safe. And then I couldn't get the ending to work either, because it basically became an infodump by Rodney on the end, explaining what happened while John was laid up.
So instead of entirely switching POV, which I didn't even think about because in my mind, the story was more about John's sacrifice than Rodney's trust (
I do like the John sections, though. Do you think it would be giving the reader too much information if I switched POV right after John's visions (and maybe cut out the part about what would to happen to John if he tattled)? I could still leave Rodney confused but the reader would know why John was acting strange.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out! I really appreciate it.
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If you do show the console scene from Rodney's POV, at least from the moment John joins him at the door, then you can show Rodney not paying enough attention to John, being distracted, realizing what he's done and feeling chagrin and panic, and then they can manfully not talk about it after.
I quite like the understated ending, I don't find J&R having big emotional confessional scenes very plausible. They'll joke about things they feel deeply, but they won't talk about them.
If you show John's visions, which physically affect him and delay him and then switch to Rodney already impatient with John's delay and then carry on, yes, that would work. Having the reader know something Rodney doesn't while reading from Rodney's POV would make it better, actually. We could see Rodney making the wrong choices and know it's going to end badly. You don't need to explain the part about what happens if John tells, because we can infer that from his behaviour. The reader would then feel the sense of dread, rather than have John do that for us.
My SGA flashfic is pending a total rewrite after reading Cupidsbow's piece as well. Bless her timing. You can ask for my time anytime you like, I figure I owe you a big one.
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Yes, THIS. I had this whole long rambling ending and I was like, "what the hell are you doing - they don't talk about this stuff!" But I couldn't find a way to convey that the lesson had been learned without some big emotional (completelly OOC) moment. I think you're right, a joke could work, and I think I may just have that... Mmm, perfect, thank you!
Ah yes - that's exactly the POV timeline I was going for. John's visions, Rodney's impatience, bewilderment, then action, which, if I punch it up with more of Rodney's fear and determination in the face of that may take care of the 'distance' issue in that section, and then back to John in the infirmary. Yes.
Bless
No way, man. This is a two way street. We're even now. So if you want another set of eyes on anything, you send it my way. <3