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Title: Red Sky At Dawn - Part Six
Author: Kellifer_fic
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pegasus_b
Rating: Mild (later chapters mature)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Summary - "McKay, is this going to explode?" John asked, an eyebrow raised in consternation.
"What is that thing?" John asked, not liking Rodney's request to set up a perimeter so close to the 'gate. John felt exposed.
Rodney had a black box and was folding tripod legs out from it. When he did this he reached the top of it and folded down a screen and touchpad. He looked at it with his brows furrowed and punched a few keys, frowning more.
"This thing is what we've been working on in the labs pretty much every time we're not actually worrying about impending disaster." Rodney replied sniffily, adjusting the screen which was hard to make out in the dying light of the day they'd stepped into.
"So, the last couple of weeks then?" Teresa quipped and Rodney turned his scowl on her.
"Off and on, yes. Look, we figured defence and prior warning systems were our main priority at the moment so that's what we've been concentrating on. It's not an easy task to backwards engineer any of the Ancient devices and a whole other story to build something just from their schematics. That's what we've tried to do."
"What does it do?" Frakes poked the device with the butt of his P-90 and Rodney flapped hands at him.
"Don't do that! I don't go poking your... mines with anything do I?" Rodney snapped.
"McKay, is this going to explode?" John asked, an eyebrow raised in consternation.
"Of course not. Okay, bad analogy, but this is a delicate and experimental piece of equipment-"
"That we're field testing on a planet that we know has Wraith?" John prompted, his consternation rapidly becoming unease.
"Unfortunately Major, there is no other way to test something like this. If you'll keep your children from touching it for two seconds I might be able to get it set up properly." Rodney was glaring at Frakes who had hovered closer again, fascinated.
"Fine, Frakes, Chee, check out the tree line. We'll secure the 'gate." John ordered. He watched, reassured that although young, as soon as the two marines actually had an order to follow, they were all business. He supposed he had to stop thinking of anyone as young that was currently in Atlantis. Every single person there had been involved in taking it back from the Jaffa and then from the more recent Wraith attack. They'd lost a lot of people and had been on edge so long that John was surprised anyone could still look young.
Teyla knelt in the longer grass, passing her hands over a trampled down area. "Anything we should worry about?" John prompted.
Teyla looked at him. "Unfortunately I cannot tell if this recent activity is from our own people bringing through Ronon or Wraith passing by. I am no tracker."
John nodded, accepting that they were pretty much doing the best they could with the resources at hand. He looked at Rodney in the dying light, noting the way he moved with deft assuredness when in front of a piece of technology and smiled.
"So, what does that thing do?" he asked, grinning despite the direness of their situation when he saw Rodney's shoulders hunch down in annoyance.
xxxxxx
"He's eating."
"Everything in sight it looks like." Ensfield muttered, turning his gaze to Daniel to grin wryly. "We're rationing at the moment aren't we?"
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Give the guy a break. I think it's the first time he's eaten a decent meal in probably years."
"It's kinda like a car wreck. It's grotesque and compelling at the same time." Ensfield noted, as they watched Ronon devouring food by pretty much bringing up to his mouth anything his hands landed on.
"He's fine. A lot of cultures use their hands to eat, and we did take his knives away."
"Oh yeah?" Ensfield's eyes had hardened. "Then where did he get that from?" Ronon had pulled a large blade from somewhere and was using it to spear chunks of meat out of the stew that had been laid before him. Daniel looked to the two marines that were flanking Ronon who had both glanced nervously towards Ensfield as soon as the weapon appeared.
"You wanted him to use cutlery," Daniel shrugged, but grimaced at Ensfield's stony glare. "It's fine. I'll get it. Don't get your guys to tackle him just yet," Daniel dodged the mess hall tables until he was in front of Ronon's and indicated the chair opposite with his hand. "You mind?"
Ronon grunted and Daniel assumed it was in the affirmative. He dropped into the chair and steepled his fingers, resting his chin on top. After a while, Ronon finally slowed and his eyes travelled upwards to meet Daniel's. "What?" he growled, mouth half-full.
"I thought you gave me all of your knives." Daniel said.
Ronon grinned. "I did."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Where did you get that one from then?"
Ronon was still grinning as his eyes travelled up and over Daniel's left shoulder. Daniel turned in his chair and looked at Maddison, the taller of Ronon's personal escort. Despite his olive skin, Daniel saw the man pale when he reached behind himself and found his knife holster empty. Daniel turned back to Ronon, impressed and a little bit frightened. His face carefully neutral, he held out one hand, palm up.
"You're making the nice military types nervous," he said. "You don't need that."
"Actually, I do." Ronon indicated his plate with a wave of the knife and when Daniel looked around; he saw that the other ten or so people in the mess had all stopped what they were doing to stare. Neither Maddison nor the other escort looked like they knew what to do with themselves and Ensfield was rapidly turning an interesting shade of purple.
Daniel leaned over the table, his body a study in patience, and picked up the fork sitting next to Ronon's elbow. He held it up and tapped the tines with his fingers. "Can you use something a little less lethal?"
Ronon looked about and then shrugged, flipping the knife over and handing it hilt first like he had with the others and accepting the fork in its place.
"Fine, but I can kill someone with this too," he sighed, looking at the fork before wrapping it in a fist and recommencing his meal.
Daniel couldn't help it. He laughed.
xxxxxxx
"One hundred and thirty eight, one hundred and thirty eight, one hundred and thirty eight-"
"What are you doing?" Kavanaugh demanded, having watched Park repeating the same number over and over again like a litany for the past ten minutes. She was looking intently at the small life signs display she had up and every now and again would tap it with a finger before rubbing her forehead. She jumped when she heard Kavanaugh's voice and turned to him, anxiety clear on her features.
"We have one hundred and thirty eight people at the moment, right? All the Athosians are on the mainland?"
Kavanaugh shrugged. "How should I know?"
Park pushed away from her console and jogged the small distance to Elizabeth's office. She stood in the doorway, nervously jumping from foot to foot until Elizabeth looked up and noticed her. "You looking like that can't be good." Elizabeth noted, quirking an eyebrow. "I haven't felt any tremors."
Park waved a dismissive hand. "Ever since we found a Jaffa living in one of the towers, we were supposed to keep an eye on the Atlantis population, right?"
Elizabeth pushed out from her desk and rounded it, suddenly deeply concerned. "Ye-es."
"It might be nothing, it could be just a glitch-"
Elizabeth dropped hands onto Park's shoulders. "Since when were we lucky enough to have just a glitch?"
Park nodded, sombrely. "Still, I might be making a mistake, but we have currently one hundred and thirty eight people in Atlantis, counting the man Major Ensfield brought through and taking away the people offworld, right?"
"Yes, that's right. I'm looking for you to cut to the chase here."
"Sorry, right. The life signs detector does a sweep of the city at sporadic intervals because it would take too much power to monitor at all times, at least, that's what Rodney said since we have the long range scanners functioning at all times now-"
"Park!" Elizabeth exclaimed and the small woman in front of her blushed.
"Sorry. Anyway, ten minutes ago, the number was at one hundred and thirty eight. Five minutes ago the reading was one hundred and thirty nine. The reading just now was back to one hundred and thirty eight."
Elizabeth blinked. "That does sound like a system glitch," she allowed slowly.
"Yes, except there are still three sections of the city where we're blind, plus we don't monitor the outside."
"What do you mean?"
"Outdoor areas aren't included in the sweep of the city, just the internal. We can probably extend that but I don't know how. Whenever I see the number drop I'm not too worried, but we were over by a person and I don't know of any jumpers that have come in from the mainland."
"There haven't been."
"Well, no 'gate activity either," Park said, indicating the dormant 'gate behind them with a wave of her arm. "One of the blind sections is underwater but that still leaves-"
"The Tower and the lower west rooms," Elizabeth finished.
xxxxxxx
Kate watched Jack dig into his dinner impassively. It was their second session although she wasn't allowed to call it that, and so far he had been about as talkative as in her actual office. She scooted out from the table a little so she could cross her legs and watched Jack studiously ignore her, swinging a leg in a lazy arc thoughtfully. He had sought her out and sat down with her.
No way was she going to put up with his crap today, especially since he had managed to snag the very last lasagne MRE and she was stuck with chicken Kiev.
"If you don't start talking, I'm eating in my office, and will continue to do so. Then, if you wish to see me, it will have to be in my office and it will be therapy."
Jack looked up at her, surprised. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this," he offered.
"Oh really, I can hardly tell," Kate sighed.
"Hey, are you supposed to use sarcasm against crazy people?" Jack huffed and Kate leant elbows on the table, regarding Jack.
"You keep referring to yourself as crazy as if that's a way to justify any and all behaviour. It isn't a 'get out of jail free card', you know."
"Where's that nice, patient, 'how does that make you feel', Doctor go?"
"You worked her last nerve," Kate said and Jack leaned back in his chair, looking greatly amused.
"Okay, everything I say is confidential right?" Kate nodded and Jack took a deep breath. "I worry that I'm not crazy."
Kate raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit of an unusual concern," she allowed.
"Look, if I am bonkers then there's a chance I'll get better and this... whatever I'm doing here, isn't the real me. I guess that's why I didn't want to see you in the first place, because I was terrified that you'd slap a sane stamp on my hand and tell me that this is how I am, and will be for the rest of my life."
"Colonel, I'm not here for easy answers. You've had some fairly traumatic things happen to you in the past and well, some fairly traumatic things right now. Of course it's affected you and I can try and help you deal with those things, but ultimately, a human being isn't like gluing back together a broken toy. I can't guarantee that you'll ever be completely normal but I don't think that would be true of anyone living through something like this, including myself."
"You're saying I'm doomed?"
Kate smiled gently. "Not at all. You just have to accept help, and not just from me. There's a lot of people here who care for and could support you, if you'd let them. You're trying to protect all of us and while it's noble, it's no wonder that both you and Major Sheppard aren't dealing very well. You keep blaming yourself for things that are completely out of your control."
"Sheppard seems to be doing okay lately." Jack grumbled. He knew there'd been a lot of comparisons drawn between him and John Sheppard of late, and his strong competitive streak didn't like one bit the fact that John seemed to be well on the way to being whole again.
Kate raised an eyebrow. "It's not a race," she chided, as if reading his mind. “And I won’t be drawn into discussing someone else just to deflect attention from you.”
Jack scowled into his lasagne. “It’s eerie how you do that.”
Part Seven
Author: Kellifer_fic
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,
pegasus_bRating: Mild (later chapters mature)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Summary - "McKay, is this going to explode?" John asked, an eyebrow raised in consternation.
"What is that thing?" John asked, not liking Rodney's request to set up a perimeter so close to the 'gate. John felt exposed.
Rodney had a black box and was folding tripod legs out from it. When he did this he reached the top of it and folded down a screen and touchpad. He looked at it with his brows furrowed and punched a few keys, frowning more.
"This thing is what we've been working on in the labs pretty much every time we're not actually worrying about impending disaster." Rodney replied sniffily, adjusting the screen which was hard to make out in the dying light of the day they'd stepped into.
"So, the last couple of weeks then?" Teresa quipped and Rodney turned his scowl on her.
"Off and on, yes. Look, we figured defence and prior warning systems were our main priority at the moment so that's what we've been concentrating on. It's not an easy task to backwards engineer any of the Ancient devices and a whole other story to build something just from their schematics. That's what we've tried to do."
"What does it do?" Frakes poked the device with the butt of his P-90 and Rodney flapped hands at him.
"Don't do that! I don't go poking your... mines with anything do I?" Rodney snapped.
"McKay, is this going to explode?" John asked, an eyebrow raised in consternation.
"Of course not. Okay, bad analogy, but this is a delicate and experimental piece of equipment-"
"That we're field testing on a planet that we know has Wraith?" John prompted, his consternation rapidly becoming unease.
"Unfortunately Major, there is no other way to test something like this. If you'll keep your children from touching it for two seconds I might be able to get it set up properly." Rodney was glaring at Frakes who had hovered closer again, fascinated.
"Fine, Frakes, Chee, check out the tree line. We'll secure the 'gate." John ordered. He watched, reassured that although young, as soon as the two marines actually had an order to follow, they were all business. He supposed he had to stop thinking of anyone as young that was currently in Atlantis. Every single person there had been involved in taking it back from the Jaffa and then from the more recent Wraith attack. They'd lost a lot of people and had been on edge so long that John was surprised anyone could still look young.
Teyla knelt in the longer grass, passing her hands over a trampled down area. "Anything we should worry about?" John prompted.
Teyla looked at him. "Unfortunately I cannot tell if this recent activity is from our own people bringing through Ronon or Wraith passing by. I am no tracker."
John nodded, accepting that they were pretty much doing the best they could with the resources at hand. He looked at Rodney in the dying light, noting the way he moved with deft assuredness when in front of a piece of technology and smiled.
"So, what does that thing do?" he asked, grinning despite the direness of their situation when he saw Rodney's shoulders hunch down in annoyance.
xxxxxx
"He's eating."
"Everything in sight it looks like." Ensfield muttered, turning his gaze to Daniel to grin wryly. "We're rationing at the moment aren't we?"
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Give the guy a break. I think it's the first time he's eaten a decent meal in probably years."
"It's kinda like a car wreck. It's grotesque and compelling at the same time." Ensfield noted, as they watched Ronon devouring food by pretty much bringing up to his mouth anything his hands landed on.
"He's fine. A lot of cultures use their hands to eat, and we did take his knives away."
"Oh yeah?" Ensfield's eyes had hardened. "Then where did he get that from?" Ronon had pulled a large blade from somewhere and was using it to spear chunks of meat out of the stew that had been laid before him. Daniel looked to the two marines that were flanking Ronon who had both glanced nervously towards Ensfield as soon as the weapon appeared.
"You wanted him to use cutlery," Daniel shrugged, but grimaced at Ensfield's stony glare. "It's fine. I'll get it. Don't get your guys to tackle him just yet," Daniel dodged the mess hall tables until he was in front of Ronon's and indicated the chair opposite with his hand. "You mind?"
Ronon grunted and Daniel assumed it was in the affirmative. He dropped into the chair and steepled his fingers, resting his chin on top. After a while, Ronon finally slowed and his eyes travelled upwards to meet Daniel's. "What?" he growled, mouth half-full.
"I thought you gave me all of your knives." Daniel said.
Ronon grinned. "I did."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Where did you get that one from then?"
Ronon was still grinning as his eyes travelled up and over Daniel's left shoulder. Daniel turned in his chair and looked at Maddison, the taller of Ronon's personal escort. Despite his olive skin, Daniel saw the man pale when he reached behind himself and found his knife holster empty. Daniel turned back to Ronon, impressed and a little bit frightened. His face carefully neutral, he held out one hand, palm up.
"You're making the nice military types nervous," he said. "You don't need that."
"Actually, I do." Ronon indicated his plate with a wave of the knife and when Daniel looked around; he saw that the other ten or so people in the mess had all stopped what they were doing to stare. Neither Maddison nor the other escort looked like they knew what to do with themselves and Ensfield was rapidly turning an interesting shade of purple.
Daniel leaned over the table, his body a study in patience, and picked up the fork sitting next to Ronon's elbow. He held it up and tapped the tines with his fingers. "Can you use something a little less lethal?"
Ronon looked about and then shrugged, flipping the knife over and handing it hilt first like he had with the others and accepting the fork in its place.
"Fine, but I can kill someone with this too," he sighed, looking at the fork before wrapping it in a fist and recommencing his meal.
Daniel couldn't help it. He laughed.
xxxxxxx
"One hundred and thirty eight, one hundred and thirty eight, one hundred and thirty eight-"
"What are you doing?" Kavanaugh demanded, having watched Park repeating the same number over and over again like a litany for the past ten minutes. She was looking intently at the small life signs display she had up and every now and again would tap it with a finger before rubbing her forehead. She jumped when she heard Kavanaugh's voice and turned to him, anxiety clear on her features.
"We have one hundred and thirty eight people at the moment, right? All the Athosians are on the mainland?"
Kavanaugh shrugged. "How should I know?"
Park pushed away from her console and jogged the small distance to Elizabeth's office. She stood in the doorway, nervously jumping from foot to foot until Elizabeth looked up and noticed her. "You looking like that can't be good." Elizabeth noted, quirking an eyebrow. "I haven't felt any tremors."
Park waved a dismissive hand. "Ever since we found a Jaffa living in one of the towers, we were supposed to keep an eye on the Atlantis population, right?"
Elizabeth pushed out from her desk and rounded it, suddenly deeply concerned. "Ye-es."
"It might be nothing, it could be just a glitch-"
Elizabeth dropped hands onto Park's shoulders. "Since when were we lucky enough to have just a glitch?"
Park nodded, sombrely. "Still, I might be making a mistake, but we have currently one hundred and thirty eight people in Atlantis, counting the man Major Ensfield brought through and taking away the people offworld, right?"
"Yes, that's right. I'm looking for you to cut to the chase here."
"Sorry, right. The life signs detector does a sweep of the city at sporadic intervals because it would take too much power to monitor at all times, at least, that's what Rodney said since we have the long range scanners functioning at all times now-"
"Park!" Elizabeth exclaimed and the small woman in front of her blushed.
"Sorry. Anyway, ten minutes ago, the number was at one hundred and thirty eight. Five minutes ago the reading was one hundred and thirty nine. The reading just now was back to one hundred and thirty eight."
Elizabeth blinked. "That does sound like a system glitch," she allowed slowly.
"Yes, except there are still three sections of the city where we're blind, plus we don't monitor the outside."
"What do you mean?"
"Outdoor areas aren't included in the sweep of the city, just the internal. We can probably extend that but I don't know how. Whenever I see the number drop I'm not too worried, but we were over by a person and I don't know of any jumpers that have come in from the mainland."
"There haven't been."
"Well, no 'gate activity either," Park said, indicating the dormant 'gate behind them with a wave of her arm. "One of the blind sections is underwater but that still leaves-"
"The Tower and the lower west rooms," Elizabeth finished.
xxxxxxx
Kate watched Jack dig into his dinner impassively. It was their second session although she wasn't allowed to call it that, and so far he had been about as talkative as in her actual office. She scooted out from the table a little so she could cross her legs and watched Jack studiously ignore her, swinging a leg in a lazy arc thoughtfully. He had sought her out and sat down with her.
No way was she going to put up with his crap today, especially since he had managed to snag the very last lasagne MRE and she was stuck with chicken Kiev.
"If you don't start talking, I'm eating in my office, and will continue to do so. Then, if you wish to see me, it will have to be in my office and it will be therapy."
Jack looked up at her, surprised. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this," he offered.
"Oh really, I can hardly tell," Kate sighed.
"Hey, are you supposed to use sarcasm against crazy people?" Jack huffed and Kate leant elbows on the table, regarding Jack.
"You keep referring to yourself as crazy as if that's a way to justify any and all behaviour. It isn't a 'get out of jail free card', you know."
"Where's that nice, patient, 'how does that make you feel', Doctor go?"
"You worked her last nerve," Kate said and Jack leaned back in his chair, looking greatly amused.
"Okay, everything I say is confidential right?" Kate nodded and Jack took a deep breath. "I worry that I'm not crazy."
Kate raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit of an unusual concern," she allowed.
"Look, if I am bonkers then there's a chance I'll get better and this... whatever I'm doing here, isn't the real me. I guess that's why I didn't want to see you in the first place, because I was terrified that you'd slap a sane stamp on my hand and tell me that this is how I am, and will be for the rest of my life."
"Colonel, I'm not here for easy answers. You've had some fairly traumatic things happen to you in the past and well, some fairly traumatic things right now. Of course it's affected you and I can try and help you deal with those things, but ultimately, a human being isn't like gluing back together a broken toy. I can't guarantee that you'll ever be completely normal but I don't think that would be true of anyone living through something like this, including myself."
"You're saying I'm doomed?"
Kate smiled gently. "Not at all. You just have to accept help, and not just from me. There's a lot of people here who care for and could support you, if you'd let them. You're trying to protect all of us and while it's noble, it's no wonder that both you and Major Sheppard aren't dealing very well. You keep blaming yourself for things that are completely out of your control."
"Sheppard seems to be doing okay lately." Jack grumbled. He knew there'd been a lot of comparisons drawn between him and John Sheppard of late, and his strong competitive streak didn't like one bit the fact that John seemed to be well on the way to being whole again.
Kate raised an eyebrow. "It's not a race," she chided, as if reading his mind. “And I won’t be drawn into discussing someone else just to deflect attention from you.”
Jack scowled into his lasagne. “It’s eerie how you do that.”
Part Seven
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