Fic: Dreams of Convenience
Mar. 7th, 2007 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityTeaser
CHAPTER ONE
Seven Hours Earlier
Rodney McKay loved the sound of his own voice. This fact was well known by most members of the Atlantis expedition. What was less well known was that Rodney also enjoyed forcing large groups of people to listen to his voice. This explained, though few people in the room were aware of it, the large number of people currently crammed into Rodney’s lab for what was sure to be a very windy briefing.
John shifted his weight from foot to foot and wished, rather irrationally, that Teyla would move. She didn’t, of course, and remained as unflappable as ever. Ronon at least had the good grace to fiddle with the pommel of the knife that stuck out from beneath his bent elbow. Across the room, Carson was speaking very quietly to Cadman, but the lieutenant’s colour indicated that John was better off not knowing how they were passing the time.
Finally, Elizabeth came breezing into the lab and took her place in front of the projection monitor. She flashed John a small, completely unapologetic smile and then turned her attention to her excited science team.
“Are we all here then?” Rodney asked without looking up. He was a picture of innocence: lab-coat clad and tapping madly on his laptop.
“Yes, Rodney.” John said sarcastically, “Would you like to explain why we’re standing on top of one another in here instead of sitting comfortably in, I don’t know…the briefing room?”
“What?” Rodney clearly had not been expecting an answer. “Oh, that. Well, the colonel’s delicate constitution aside, we are down here because I have – ” Zelenka coughed “ – with some aid from my team, of course, managed to find and begin translating the Ancient Star Drive System.”
There was dead silence in the lab. Rodney bounced on the balls of his feet and looked crestfallen. The corners of Teyla’s mouth turned up ever so slightly.
“The Ancient Star Drive System,” Rodney repeated slowly. “That turns our city into a really big, much faster, much more powerful version of the Daedalus. The part that makes our city fly.”
“We know that, Rodney,” Elizabeth said calmly.
“But we didn’t know how to work it,” Rodney said, bouncing on his feet again.
“We were concerned that the power requirements would be too large.” Zelenka chimed in his usual placating tone, “But when we read the first section of the manual, we discovered that a series of naquadah generators could theoretically power the city…ship.”
“We are so not calling it that,” Rodney snapped. “Elizabeth, we can make the city fly. And we can do it with what we have. Nearly.”
There was dead silence again, but this time, the atmosphere in the room was coiled as tightly as a spring.
“Show us the program, Rodney,” Elizabeth said quietly.
“With pleasure.” Rodney grinned almost maniacally and hit a few keys on his laptop.
There was a brief, well-mannered scuffle as people jostled for a better view of the screen. Someone stepped on Cadman’s foot and she protested loudly, but then sharply cut off when Carson put his hand on her shoulder. She smirked at John, who rolled his eyes and looked back at the projector screen.
“As you can see,” Rodney began as information began scrolling across the screen, “each naquadah generator would have to be strategically placed, and the back-ups would have to have tremendous capacity, but with a few tweaks….agh! – ”
Rodney’s voice cut off sharply as a brilliantly white light shone out from the screen. All around the room, people covered their eyes with their hands trying to blot out the light, but even through both of her hands, Elizabeth could still see it. And then it was gone, as abruptly as it had appeared, and the screen was blank.
“Rodney?” Elizabeth asked, sounding concerned.
“Oh, this is not good.”
“Rodney!”
“This is not good!” Rodney’s fingers were flying across his keyboard. “Radek get Simpson in here now. Everyone else get out.”
“Rodney, what the hell is going on?” Elizabeth demanded, escalating to worried.
“The database…” Rodney was still frantically typing, “Radek, the database!”
Zelenka swore profusely in Czech, now typing furiously on his laptop as well. The two had a rapid, incomprehensible exchange of incomplete sentences and then Rodney looked around the still crowded room in consternation.
“Why are you all still here?”
“Because you haven’t told us anything yet,” John pointed out. “What is wrong with the database, McKay?”
The lights went out, plunging the room into darkness. Rodney sat back from his computer, a look of confused despair on his face. The back-up generators kicked in and the emergency lighting came on.
“Rodney?”
“It’s gone. Everything is just….gone.”
------
“What exactly did you mean by ‘gone’?” John asked after the initial hubbub had died down and he’d cleared the room.
Since the lights had come back on, Elizabeth had been inundated with situation reports. John had simply put all his people on alert and dispatched Teyla and Ronon to oversee deployment, but Elizabeth was dealing with about a hundred pissed-off scientists. John didn’t envy her the task.
“We must have triggered something in the database.” Rodney sounded like he was about to cry. “We didn’t do it last time we ran the program, but this time it just…deleted.”
“Deleted!” John spoke a great deal louder than he had intended and there was a wave of worried silence.
“Actually, Colonel Sheppard, I do not believe it is that bad.” Radek spoke up from across the room.
“What?” Rodney snapped back into action, “Give me that.”
Radek knew enough to give up his ground, but kept up his explanation, “It appears to be deeply encrypted, Colonel.”
“Can you decrypt it?” Elizabeth had finally removed her earpiece in an attempt to deal with more immediate problems.
“Of course we can,” Rodney said waspishly.
“All right everybody stop!” Elizabeth commanded. All motion in the room stilled. “Radek, can you get me city-wide?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Radek hit a few keys and then nodded.
“Attention everyone, this is Weir,” Elizabeth began. “We have encountered a glitch in the computer system. From now until Colonel Sheppard and I deem otherwise, no one is to access any computer terminal without my authorization. All ‘Gate travel is suspended and off-world teams will be redirected to the Alpha Site. Thank you, Weir out.”
“Elizabeth, I need your – ” Rodney began.
“No.” Elizabeth cut him off. “What I need now is damage assessment. You were in here for almost twenty-four hours before you scheduled the briefing, and you had a mission before that. I am ordering you to sleep while Dr. Zelenka preps an initial report. We are going to need you later.”
“As touching as that is, do you really think I can sleep now?”
“Carson!” John called, ignoring Rodney’s protests. “Make him fall asleep. Six hours.”
“Elizabeth, I – ” Carson took Rodney by the shoulder and began to drag him from the room, “Radek! Make sure your scan includes that new binomial algorithm! And why the hell isn’t Simpson here yet? And make sure you – ”
The door slid shut behind him and Radek looked at Elizabeth with some measure of trepidation.
“Six hours, Radek,” Elizabeth said, not without sympathy. “Let’s make sure we have something when he wakes up.”
------
Elizabeth Weir was exceptionally bright for an 18-year-old. She had enrolled in Biomedical Science at Brown University because she was going to be a doctor. That, she had been told by several uncles and a high school guidance counselor, was what smart, nice young women did, now that keeping a job after getting married was the social norm. She would help people and she would save lives and she hated anatomy.
For her graduation, Elizabeth’s father was sending her to South Africa. She had wanted to go to Europe, but he remained adamant that she go somewhere different. Somewhere where she might see something unexpected. She thought he meant zebras or a maybe a Zulu tribesman, but as her train slowed on its way into Cape Town, she began to see that her father had meant something else altogether.
She had never seen anything like this before. She had read about it, of course, and seen pictures in books and on the news. She knew who Nelson Mandela was and what he had done…and the price he’d paid for it, but this…this was beyond anything she had experienced before.
The couple behind her drew their blinds across the window, but Elizabeth could not tear her eyes away. She took in as many details as she could: the broken glass and jagged metal, the boys playing soccer in the dirt, the dust and the sound of so many people in far too little space. Her brain was flying, attempting to process all that she saw as the train moved past.
And then she saw the girl.
“Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth snapped her head up and found she was in her office, in Atlantis, and that it was 19 years later. John stood at her door, smirking slightly, with a file in his hands.
“Sure we don’t need Carson to send you to sleep too?”
“No, I’m fine.” Elizabeth said mechanically, still caught up in her memory.
“Because you definitely look fine.” John sat down in the chair across from her. “You look a little….not-fine.”
“I had a dream,” Elizabeth admitted. “It was something that happened a long time ago. I’d almost forgotten really, but the details were very…” She looked at him and shook her head to clear it, “What have you got, Colonel?”
“Simpson’s preliminary report.” John raised his eyebrows only slightly at her abrupt switch to formality. “She and Zelenka are done.”
“Is Rodney awake yet?”
“Zelenka went to get him. Apparently Simpson turned up something more important than damage assessment.”
“We’ll do this in the lab then,” Elizabeth said, getting up. “I am sure this won’t be so entertaining that I’ll want to do it twice.”
John nodded and held his hand out for her to precede him across the walk-way to the eerily silent control room. The city wasn’t making any noise any more, and Elizabeth found it strangely unnerving. As much as she had become accustomed to the ocean views and the constant smell of salt water, the hum of the city was omnipresent in daily operations. And now it was gone, replaced by the unsteady flickering whirr of the naquadah generators. The corridors and walls and doors were silent and every noise she and John made seemed like an unnecessary intrusion.
Elizabeth wondered what Halling would say, were he here. What he would tell them about how they had offended the Ancestors’ Mighty City this time, what message they were trying to send. She didn’t usually like to think like that; it always struck her as absurdly fatalistic. But she offered up a very quiet thought, make our city whole again, just in case.
------
Chapter Two
CHAPTER ONE
Seven Hours Earlier
Rodney McKay loved the sound of his own voice. This fact was well known by most members of the Atlantis expedition. What was less well known was that Rodney also enjoyed forcing large groups of people to listen to his voice. This explained, though few people in the room were aware of it, the large number of people currently crammed into Rodney’s lab for what was sure to be a very windy briefing.
John shifted his weight from foot to foot and wished, rather irrationally, that Teyla would move. She didn’t, of course, and remained as unflappable as ever. Ronon at least had the good grace to fiddle with the pommel of the knife that stuck out from beneath his bent elbow. Across the room, Carson was speaking very quietly to Cadman, but the lieutenant’s colour indicated that John was better off not knowing how they were passing the time.
Finally, Elizabeth came breezing into the lab and took her place in front of the projection monitor. She flashed John a small, completely unapologetic smile and then turned her attention to her excited science team.
“Are we all here then?” Rodney asked without looking up. He was a picture of innocence: lab-coat clad and tapping madly on his laptop.
“Yes, Rodney.” John said sarcastically, “Would you like to explain why we’re standing on top of one another in here instead of sitting comfortably in, I don’t know…the briefing room?”
“What?” Rodney clearly had not been expecting an answer. “Oh, that. Well, the colonel’s delicate constitution aside, we are down here because I have – ” Zelenka coughed “ – with some aid from my team, of course, managed to find and begin translating the Ancient Star Drive System.”
There was dead silence in the lab. Rodney bounced on the balls of his feet and looked crestfallen. The corners of Teyla’s mouth turned up ever so slightly.
“The Ancient Star Drive System,” Rodney repeated slowly. “That turns our city into a really big, much faster, much more powerful version of the Daedalus. The part that makes our city fly.”
“We know that, Rodney,” Elizabeth said calmly.
“But we didn’t know how to work it,” Rodney said, bouncing on his feet again.
“We were concerned that the power requirements would be too large.” Zelenka chimed in his usual placating tone, “But when we read the first section of the manual, we discovered that a series of naquadah generators could theoretically power the city…ship.”
“We are so not calling it that,” Rodney snapped. “Elizabeth, we can make the city fly. And we can do it with what we have. Nearly.”
There was dead silence again, but this time, the atmosphere in the room was coiled as tightly as a spring.
“Show us the program, Rodney,” Elizabeth said quietly.
“With pleasure.” Rodney grinned almost maniacally and hit a few keys on his laptop.
There was a brief, well-mannered scuffle as people jostled for a better view of the screen. Someone stepped on Cadman’s foot and she protested loudly, but then sharply cut off when Carson put his hand on her shoulder. She smirked at John, who rolled his eyes and looked back at the projector screen.
“As you can see,” Rodney began as information began scrolling across the screen, “each naquadah generator would have to be strategically placed, and the back-ups would have to have tremendous capacity, but with a few tweaks….agh! – ”
Rodney’s voice cut off sharply as a brilliantly white light shone out from the screen. All around the room, people covered their eyes with their hands trying to blot out the light, but even through both of her hands, Elizabeth could still see it. And then it was gone, as abruptly as it had appeared, and the screen was blank.
“Rodney?” Elizabeth asked, sounding concerned.
“Oh, this is not good.”
“Rodney!”
“This is not good!” Rodney’s fingers were flying across his keyboard. “Radek get Simpson in here now. Everyone else get out.”
“Rodney, what the hell is going on?” Elizabeth demanded, escalating to worried.
“The database…” Rodney was still frantically typing, “Radek, the database!”
Zelenka swore profusely in Czech, now typing furiously on his laptop as well. The two had a rapid, incomprehensible exchange of incomplete sentences and then Rodney looked around the still crowded room in consternation.
“Why are you all still here?”
“Because you haven’t told us anything yet,” John pointed out. “What is wrong with the database, McKay?”
The lights went out, plunging the room into darkness. Rodney sat back from his computer, a look of confused despair on his face. The back-up generators kicked in and the emergency lighting came on.
“Rodney?”
“It’s gone. Everything is just….gone.”
------
“What exactly did you mean by ‘gone’?” John asked after the initial hubbub had died down and he’d cleared the room.
Since the lights had come back on, Elizabeth had been inundated with situation reports. John had simply put all his people on alert and dispatched Teyla and Ronon to oversee deployment, but Elizabeth was dealing with about a hundred pissed-off scientists. John didn’t envy her the task.
“We must have triggered something in the database.” Rodney sounded like he was about to cry. “We didn’t do it last time we ran the program, but this time it just…deleted.”
“Deleted!” John spoke a great deal louder than he had intended and there was a wave of worried silence.
“Actually, Colonel Sheppard, I do not believe it is that bad.” Radek spoke up from across the room.
“What?” Rodney snapped back into action, “Give me that.”
Radek knew enough to give up his ground, but kept up his explanation, “It appears to be deeply encrypted, Colonel.”
“Can you decrypt it?” Elizabeth had finally removed her earpiece in an attempt to deal with more immediate problems.
“Of course we can,” Rodney said waspishly.
“All right everybody stop!” Elizabeth commanded. All motion in the room stilled. “Radek, can you get me city-wide?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Radek hit a few keys and then nodded.
“Attention everyone, this is Weir,” Elizabeth began. “We have encountered a glitch in the computer system. From now until Colonel Sheppard and I deem otherwise, no one is to access any computer terminal without my authorization. All ‘Gate travel is suspended and off-world teams will be redirected to the Alpha Site. Thank you, Weir out.”
“Elizabeth, I need your – ” Rodney began.
“No.” Elizabeth cut him off. “What I need now is damage assessment. You were in here for almost twenty-four hours before you scheduled the briefing, and you had a mission before that. I am ordering you to sleep while Dr. Zelenka preps an initial report. We are going to need you later.”
“As touching as that is, do you really think I can sleep now?”
“Carson!” John called, ignoring Rodney’s protests. “Make him fall asleep. Six hours.”
“Elizabeth, I – ” Carson took Rodney by the shoulder and began to drag him from the room, “Radek! Make sure your scan includes that new binomial algorithm! And why the hell isn’t Simpson here yet? And make sure you – ”
The door slid shut behind him and Radek looked at Elizabeth with some measure of trepidation.
“Six hours, Radek,” Elizabeth said, not without sympathy. “Let’s make sure we have something when he wakes up.”
------
Elizabeth Weir was exceptionally bright for an 18-year-old. She had enrolled in Biomedical Science at Brown University because she was going to be a doctor. That, she had been told by several uncles and a high school guidance counselor, was what smart, nice young women did, now that keeping a job after getting married was the social norm. She would help people and she would save lives and she hated anatomy.
For her graduation, Elizabeth’s father was sending her to South Africa. She had wanted to go to Europe, but he remained adamant that she go somewhere different. Somewhere where she might see something unexpected. She thought he meant zebras or a maybe a Zulu tribesman, but as her train slowed on its way into Cape Town, she began to see that her father had meant something else altogether.
She had never seen anything like this before. She had read about it, of course, and seen pictures in books and on the news. She knew who Nelson Mandela was and what he had done…and the price he’d paid for it, but this…this was beyond anything she had experienced before.
The couple behind her drew their blinds across the window, but Elizabeth could not tear her eyes away. She took in as many details as she could: the broken glass and jagged metal, the boys playing soccer in the dirt, the dust and the sound of so many people in far too little space. Her brain was flying, attempting to process all that she saw as the train moved past.
And then she saw the girl.
“Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth snapped her head up and found she was in her office, in Atlantis, and that it was 19 years later. John stood at her door, smirking slightly, with a file in his hands.
“Sure we don’t need Carson to send you to sleep too?”
“No, I’m fine.” Elizabeth said mechanically, still caught up in her memory.
“Because you definitely look fine.” John sat down in the chair across from her. “You look a little….not-fine.”
“I had a dream,” Elizabeth admitted. “It was something that happened a long time ago. I’d almost forgotten really, but the details were very…” She looked at him and shook her head to clear it, “What have you got, Colonel?”
“Simpson’s preliminary report.” John raised his eyebrows only slightly at her abrupt switch to formality. “She and Zelenka are done.”
“Is Rodney awake yet?”
“Zelenka went to get him. Apparently Simpson turned up something more important than damage assessment.”
“We’ll do this in the lab then,” Elizabeth said, getting up. “I am sure this won’t be so entertaining that I’ll want to do it twice.”
John nodded and held his hand out for her to precede him across the walk-way to the eerily silent control room. The city wasn’t making any noise any more, and Elizabeth found it strangely unnerving. As much as she had become accustomed to the ocean views and the constant smell of salt water, the hum of the city was omnipresent in daily operations. And now it was gone, replaced by the unsteady flickering whirr of the naquadah generators. The corridors and walls and doors were silent and every noise she and John made seemed like an unnecessary intrusion.
Elizabeth wondered what Halling would say, were he here. What he would tell them about how they had offended the Ancestors’ Mighty City this time, what message they were trying to send. She didn’t usually like to think like that; it always struck her as absurdly fatalistic. But she offered up a very quiet thought, make our city whole again, just in case.
------
Chapter Two
