Fic: Dreams of Convenience
Mar. 13th, 2007 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityTeaser
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
CHAPTER SIX
They gathered in the infirmary.
Carson had requisitioned all the extra cots they had, kept in storage in case of a city-wide pandemic or triage scenario, and set them out in rows. They were cramped, placed close enough to one another that it was possible to reach out and touch the person in the next bed, but Elizabeth was reluctant to spread into other rooms. She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she knew it was going to happen to her and a lot of her people, and she wanted them all to be together for it.
Kate walked up and down the centre aisle, left wide enough for the med team to get through if it were needed, offering advice and assurance to those who needed it. When Carson lay down on the last cot, Dr. Keller began to move from bed to bed, providing each potential dreamer with a fast-acting sleep aid and a cup of water. Kate stopped by Radek and took his hand. He squeezed her fingers and then released them to accept his own dose of the medication. He lay back and smiled and then began to drift off.
Carson was the last to take the pills. Kate understood his hesitation. Off all the dreams, his had been the hardest to work through. Their session had been heart-rending and Kate knew that Carson was doubting what the right choice would be in his case. Kate took Carson’s dose from Dr. Keller and sat down on the foot of his cot.
“Remember that first ethics question?” she asked. “How you all argued for hours and then finally went with an option that only half of you agreed on?”
“I am not likely to forget any part of this experience,” Carson said wryly.
“Just keep it in mind, Carson.” She handed him his meds. “There may not be a right answer. Maybe they just want to know what your answer is.”
He looked at her and smiled slightly. Then his face hardened with resolve and he swallowed the pills.
“Sleep well, Carson.”
“Aye…sleep well indeed.”
All through the room, Kate’s team members and friends fell asleep until finally only she and Dr. Keller were left conscious. They exchanged a small smile of amusement at Rodney’s prodigious snoring, and then settled in to wait.
------
Teyla stood beneath the trees, protected slightly by the overhanging branches, watching the horror unfold in front of her. The Wraith ships were everywhere, screeching overhead and sweeping up people in swathes as they tried to flee. There were also Wraith on the ground which added to the panic. These were not their usual culling tactics. They must be desperately hungry.
There were screams all around her, shouts and yells and the sharp cries of children whose night terrors have suddenly come true. Alaran stood beside her, her dark eyes wide as they took in all the terror around them. The two women had been friends since childhood and Teyla always looked forward to trade missions where she would see her friend. But this time, the Wraith had come. And now the world was ending.
“We must help!” Alaran cried, for it was her village in flames, and started towards a young woman carrying a child as she stumbled across the field in front of the forest.
“We must survive,” Teyla said, pulling her friend back into the meager shelter and hating the cold practicality in her own voice. “There is nothing we can do.”
“Then we shall feed!” The voice from beside her was no longer her friend.
“Alaran!” Teyla screamed. She tried to run for it, to find other shelter in the midst of this dreadful culling but she felt an inhumanly strong hand clamp down around her arm and hold her in place.
“Your people are weak, human.” Alaran-the-Queen leered at her.
“My people will fight you,” Teyla protested.
“And they will all die.”
“No!”
“You have nothing to fight us with except your paltry sticks.” The Queen sneered. “Do you think this gives us pause?”
“We have friends now,” Teyla said. “We are no longer alone in this fight.”
“Where are you precious friends, then? Why have they not come to save you?”
Teyla reached down her leg with her free hand and found a knife there. She wasn’t accustomed to such a long blade for close-quarters fighting, but Ronon had insisted on teaching her some of the technique. Teyla closed her eyes and remembered “The Princess Bride.”
“They saved me long ago.”
The Wraith Queen gagged as the long-bladed knife slid through her stomach and up under her rib cage. With all her strength, Teyla twisted the blade and when her right arm was freed, she used both hands. She released the pommel and stepped back, breathing hard as the Wraith Queen collapsed at her feet.
------
They won the game, of course. It was Homecoming and it was John’s senior year. He fought his way through the jubilant crowd, shaking off all his admirers and giving only half a mind to the reminders about where the party was later, looking for the girl he’d forgotten about until this morning.
He found her standing at the base of the stands, alone in a crowd as always. She looked at him and he felt like laughing. Suddenly, football meant less and he was happy anyway.
“Come to the party,” he said.
“No John,” she answered quickly.
“Ally…”
“I am not going to go stand in a barn and watch you get mobbed by your sycophants.”
“They’re not sycophants.”
“Whatever,” she said. “It was a nice game, John. I’m glad you won.”
“Please come to the party.”
“No.”
Thunder rumbled ominously behind them and it began to rain. He pulled her under the bleachers and they watched the water pour down.
“I told you it would rain.” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, suddenly a million miles away. “You did.”
“I should get going.”
John reached out and grabbed her hands. She looked at him in surprise, a puzzled smile on her face.
“Stay here.”
“And do what exactly?”
“Talk with me. I miss talking with you.” John’s heart was in his eyes. “Plus, this way you won’t get too wet.”
“It’s only water, John. I think I can handle it.”
“Probably,” he admitted.
He pulled her closer and moved his hands to her shoulders. Her face became very still. Slowly, he moved his right hand to cup her chin, his thumb ghosting across her lips before settling upon her skin. They smelled of rain and victory and Homecoming. Far away, there was a party, but under the high school bleachers John Sheppard kissed Alia Phillips.
------
Ronon picked himself up off the ground and moved his jaw around to test its tenderness. It wasn’t broken, but he was going to be eating a lot of jell-o for dinner that evening nonetheless. He arched his neck from side to side and quickly tested his arms and legs for other spots of weakness.
He didn’t find any.
Across the training room, his adversary grinned at him.
“You never give up, do you?” she said.
“Nope.”
------
She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn’t scream or moan, she hadn’t been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.
But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person’s life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.
And there was nothing he could do.
Except, of course, there was.
He had sworn to do no harm. Of all the promises Carson had made in his life, or all the promises he had ever thought of making, this was the one he would die before he betrayed.
But he wasn’t dying. And there was no way his own death could save his patient.
He sat beside her bed and dimmed the lights. Photosensitivity was one of the more controllable aspects of this disease. If they were on Earth or if they access to more advanced technology, Carson would be inducing comas right and left until he found a way to deal with this. But they weren’t on Earth and there was nothing he could do.
Except, of course, there was.
“Hello, love,” he said quietly. “Are you awake?”
She blinked several times in rapid succession.
“I know you can’t speak. But can you hear me?”
There was a tiny, painful-looking nod.
“I’ve tried everything I can think of. There is nothing I can do that will make you healthy again.”
Another tiny nod.
“You’ve heard us talking,” his voice caught. “You know what’s going happen, how you’re going to die?”
Her fingers flexed, almost as if she was reaching for him and she nodded again.
“I—” he faltered. “I could make it end, lass. You could go to sleep and never wake up again.”
She closed her eyes and two tears slipped free. He didn’t know if they were from the pain or from something else, but when she opened them again, he was struck by the strength he saw in them. This sickness had taken everything from her, everything except her soul.
“Please.” The whispered voice was stricken with pain, but the sentiment was unmistakable.
“Aye, love.” Carson’s heart broke. “Give me a moment.”
He turned away from her and took a deep breath. His hands filled the syringe of their own accord. He turned back and, barely touching her, brushed a kiss upon her forehead.
“First, do no harm.” And the needle slid home.
------
Elizabeth got off the train and looked around her. The signs were all in several different languages and there seemed to two of everything with “blanks” or “nie blanks” written above them and the smell was a great deal more earthy than any other train station she’d ever been in, but it didn’t feel too intimidating. She kept all her belongings close to her, as the travel guides had warned and looked around for the family friend who was supposed to pick her up.
Her father had warned her that traffic in Cape Town could be unpredictable and that she might have to wait a bit before her ride arrived. Elizabeth looked around for a bench or some safe-looking place in which to wait and her gaze landed upon a row of pay phones.
She didn’t really have a plan, but she found herself dialing home. It rang only once before her father picked it up.
“Elizabeth?” He sounded worried.
“Hi, Dad.” She kicked herself. Of course he was panicking. “Everything’s okay. Uh…I’m fine.”
“Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Not really, no.”
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I’m in the train station; you were right about the delay.” A plan suddenly appeared in her head. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Can it wait until morning?”
“Of course, Dad,” She laughed. “Would you call the registrar at Brown? I want to change my major.”
“To what?”
“Political science.” It felt so right. “It’s bad here. I want to make it better.”
Elizabeth couldn’t see, but her father’s face lit up in a smile and all of his weariness faded away.
“Sweetheart, you’re going to change the world.”
------
“Oh…oh this is not good,” Rodney mumbled within ten seconds of activating his screen.
“Why not?” Allison asked. “The power is flowing to the generator.”
“Which is very nice. Except for the part where it is not flowing out.” The surrounding scientists braced themselves for a tirade. “Do you have any idea what this means?”
“Yes, Rodney,” Allison replied calmly. “I have helped rig a catastrophic overload before. But two days ago, we couldn’t get the power to the generator, and now we can. One step at a time, Rodney.”
“Oh. Right.” Rodney sat down again, mollified. “One step at a time.”
Allison grinned again as the storm blew itself out and the scientists resumed their work on various simulations and calculations.
“We might get this city flying after all.”
“Rodney?” Zelenka’s voice cut in. “Rodney!”
“What is it Zelenka? We’re a little busy down here.”
“There are four Wraith hive ships on the long range detector.”
“When will they be here?”
“In fifteen minutes.”
“WHAT?”
“I am sorry, Rodney. They hid themselves somehow and have only just shown up on our scans.”
“Have they seen us?”
“I cannot imagine that they haven’t.”
“I’ll be right there.”
The next fifteen minutes passed tensely. Rodney sat in the control room with his finger hovering over the button that would change the cloak to a shield. Elizabeth had insisted that they cloak first, just to see if the Wraith could be turned away. John was in the chair room, ready to attach with their few remaining drones, but nothing was powered up yet to help the City escape detection.
“They have taken up geosynchronous orbit over the city,” Zelenka reported.
“Elizabeth, they have to know –”
“They are arming weapons!”
“Switching to shield now!” Rodney announced.
“Sheppard, this is Weir,” Elizabeth said into her comm. “You are go for launch.”
“They are opening fire!” Radek announced.
The city rocked as the first onslaught of Wraith fire hit them. A few consoles exploded.
“Rodney?” Elizabeth was starting to sound worried. “Should that be happening?”
“No!” Rodney answered. “Oh my God…they’re eating the shield.”
“What?”
“Their weapons. They’re specifically attuned to the frequency of our shield. They’re sucking the ZPM dry.”
“How long?”
“Ten minutes. Maybe.”
“Get me city-wide,” Elizabeth said. Chuck scrambled to obey. “Everyone, this is Weir. I am declaring a Code Black, repeat Code Black. All non-essential personnel report to the Gate room for immediate evacuation. This is not a drill.”
The Gate dialed and Elizabeth ordered everyone in the control room to go. Zelenka hesitated, but Rodney pushed him towards the stairs and he went. Elizabeth commed John and told him to retreat and then overrode his protests. The members of the expedition streamed into the Gate room and through the wormhole to safety.
“Elizabeth, you have to go.”
“Rodney –”
“Go! I’ll....rig an overload and be right behind you.”
“You need my code.”
“I KNOW YOUR CODE! Please, Elizabeth...just go.”
She opened her mouth but could think of nothing to say. She ran down the stairs and met John on the lower floor. He looked up and saw Rodney moving from computer to computer and then Elizabeth took his hand and pulled him through the Gate.
Rodney had finished putting his own codes in and moved on the Elizabeth’s before someone else came into the control room.
“Alison, what are you doing here?”
“I—I thought you might need help.”
“I don’t. Get out of here.”
“Which one are you activating?” Alison’s last assignment had been to rig a series of naquadah generators in various places of strategic importance throughout the city.
“All of them.”
“Rodney, you can’t do that by remote.”
“I did read your report, you know.”
The city rocked again as the Wraith broke through. Darts whizzed through the air depositing foot soldiers throughout the City.
“Dr. Sagh,” Rodney said, making eye contact “Your idea would have worked. Find another ZPM and save the universe but for now get out of the City.”
“Yes, sir.”
He waited until she was halfway across the floor before he activated the self-destruct. There was a screeching sound and the room filled with Wraith. Rodney hit the activation sequence.
5....
4....
3....
2....
1....
And then there was nothing but a brilliantly white flash.
------
Chapter Seven
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
CHAPTER SIX
They gathered in the infirmary.
Carson had requisitioned all the extra cots they had, kept in storage in case of a city-wide pandemic or triage scenario, and set them out in rows. They were cramped, placed close enough to one another that it was possible to reach out and touch the person in the next bed, but Elizabeth was reluctant to spread into other rooms. She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she knew it was going to happen to her and a lot of her people, and she wanted them all to be together for it.
Kate walked up and down the centre aisle, left wide enough for the med team to get through if it were needed, offering advice and assurance to those who needed it. When Carson lay down on the last cot, Dr. Keller began to move from bed to bed, providing each potential dreamer with a fast-acting sleep aid and a cup of water. Kate stopped by Radek and took his hand. He squeezed her fingers and then released them to accept his own dose of the medication. He lay back and smiled and then began to drift off.
Carson was the last to take the pills. Kate understood his hesitation. Off all the dreams, his had been the hardest to work through. Their session had been heart-rending and Kate knew that Carson was doubting what the right choice would be in his case. Kate took Carson’s dose from Dr. Keller and sat down on the foot of his cot.
“Remember that first ethics question?” she asked. “How you all argued for hours and then finally went with an option that only half of you agreed on?”
“I am not likely to forget any part of this experience,” Carson said wryly.
“Just keep it in mind, Carson.” She handed him his meds. “There may not be a right answer. Maybe they just want to know what your answer is.”
He looked at her and smiled slightly. Then his face hardened with resolve and he swallowed the pills.
“Sleep well, Carson.”
“Aye…sleep well indeed.”
All through the room, Kate’s team members and friends fell asleep until finally only she and Dr. Keller were left conscious. They exchanged a small smile of amusement at Rodney’s prodigious snoring, and then settled in to wait.
------
Teyla stood beneath the trees, protected slightly by the overhanging branches, watching the horror unfold in front of her. The Wraith ships were everywhere, screeching overhead and sweeping up people in swathes as they tried to flee. There were also Wraith on the ground which added to the panic. These were not their usual culling tactics. They must be desperately hungry.
There were screams all around her, shouts and yells and the sharp cries of children whose night terrors have suddenly come true. Alaran stood beside her, her dark eyes wide as they took in all the terror around them. The two women had been friends since childhood and Teyla always looked forward to trade missions where she would see her friend. But this time, the Wraith had come. And now the world was ending.
“We must help!” Alaran cried, for it was her village in flames, and started towards a young woman carrying a child as she stumbled across the field in front of the forest.
“We must survive,” Teyla said, pulling her friend back into the meager shelter and hating the cold practicality in her own voice. “There is nothing we can do.”
“Then we shall feed!” The voice from beside her was no longer her friend.
“Alaran!” Teyla screamed. She tried to run for it, to find other shelter in the midst of this dreadful culling but she felt an inhumanly strong hand clamp down around her arm and hold her in place.
“Your people are weak, human.” Alaran-the-Queen leered at her.
“My people will fight you,” Teyla protested.
“And they will all die.”
“No!”
“You have nothing to fight us with except your paltry sticks.” The Queen sneered. “Do you think this gives us pause?”
“We have friends now,” Teyla said. “We are no longer alone in this fight.”
“Where are you precious friends, then? Why have they not come to save you?”
Teyla reached down her leg with her free hand and found a knife there. She wasn’t accustomed to such a long blade for close-quarters fighting, but Ronon had insisted on teaching her some of the technique. Teyla closed her eyes and remembered “The Princess Bride.”
“They saved me long ago.”
The Wraith Queen gagged as the long-bladed knife slid through her stomach and up under her rib cage. With all her strength, Teyla twisted the blade and when her right arm was freed, she used both hands. She released the pommel and stepped back, breathing hard as the Wraith Queen collapsed at her feet.
------
They won the game, of course. It was Homecoming and it was John’s senior year. He fought his way through the jubilant crowd, shaking off all his admirers and giving only half a mind to the reminders about where the party was later, looking for the girl he’d forgotten about until this morning.
He found her standing at the base of the stands, alone in a crowd as always. She looked at him and he felt like laughing. Suddenly, football meant less and he was happy anyway.
“Come to the party,” he said.
“No John,” she answered quickly.
“Ally…”
“I am not going to go stand in a barn and watch you get mobbed by your sycophants.”
“They’re not sycophants.”
“Whatever,” she said. “It was a nice game, John. I’m glad you won.”
“Please come to the party.”
“No.”
Thunder rumbled ominously behind them and it began to rain. He pulled her under the bleachers and they watched the water pour down.
“I told you it would rain.” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, suddenly a million miles away. “You did.”
“I should get going.”
John reached out and grabbed her hands. She looked at him in surprise, a puzzled smile on her face.
“Stay here.”
“And do what exactly?”
“Talk with me. I miss talking with you.” John’s heart was in his eyes. “Plus, this way you won’t get too wet.”
“It’s only water, John. I think I can handle it.”
“Probably,” he admitted.
He pulled her closer and moved his hands to her shoulders. Her face became very still. Slowly, he moved his right hand to cup her chin, his thumb ghosting across her lips before settling upon her skin. They smelled of rain and victory and Homecoming. Far away, there was a party, but under the high school bleachers John Sheppard kissed Alia Phillips.
------
Ronon picked himself up off the ground and moved his jaw around to test its tenderness. It wasn’t broken, but he was going to be eating a lot of jell-o for dinner that evening nonetheless. He arched his neck from side to side and quickly tested his arms and legs for other spots of weakness.
He didn’t find any.
Across the training room, his adversary grinned at him.
“You never give up, do you?” she said.
“Nope.”
------
She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn’t scream or moan, she hadn’t been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.
But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person’s life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.
And there was nothing he could do.
Except, of course, there was.
He had sworn to do no harm. Of all the promises Carson had made in his life, or all the promises he had ever thought of making, this was the one he would die before he betrayed.
But he wasn’t dying. And there was no way his own death could save his patient.
He sat beside her bed and dimmed the lights. Photosensitivity was one of the more controllable aspects of this disease. If they were on Earth or if they access to more advanced technology, Carson would be inducing comas right and left until he found a way to deal with this. But they weren’t on Earth and there was nothing he could do.
Except, of course, there was.
“Hello, love,” he said quietly. “Are you awake?”
She blinked several times in rapid succession.
“I know you can’t speak. But can you hear me?”
There was a tiny, painful-looking nod.
“I’ve tried everything I can think of. There is nothing I can do that will make you healthy again.”
Another tiny nod.
“You’ve heard us talking,” his voice caught. “You know what’s going happen, how you’re going to die?”
Her fingers flexed, almost as if she was reaching for him and she nodded again.
“I—” he faltered. “I could make it end, lass. You could go to sleep and never wake up again.”
She closed her eyes and two tears slipped free. He didn’t know if they were from the pain or from something else, but when she opened them again, he was struck by the strength he saw in them. This sickness had taken everything from her, everything except her soul.
“Please.” The whispered voice was stricken with pain, but the sentiment was unmistakable.
“Aye, love.” Carson’s heart broke. “Give me a moment.”
He turned away from her and took a deep breath. His hands filled the syringe of their own accord. He turned back and, barely touching her, brushed a kiss upon her forehead.
“First, do no harm.” And the needle slid home.
------
Elizabeth got off the train and looked around her. The signs were all in several different languages and there seemed to two of everything with “blanks” or “nie blanks” written above them and the smell was a great deal more earthy than any other train station she’d ever been in, but it didn’t feel too intimidating. She kept all her belongings close to her, as the travel guides had warned and looked around for the family friend who was supposed to pick her up.
Her father had warned her that traffic in Cape Town could be unpredictable and that she might have to wait a bit before her ride arrived. Elizabeth looked around for a bench or some safe-looking place in which to wait and her gaze landed upon a row of pay phones.
She didn’t really have a plan, but she found herself dialing home. It rang only once before her father picked it up.
“Elizabeth?” He sounded worried.
“Hi, Dad.” She kicked herself. Of course he was panicking. “Everything’s okay. Uh…I’m fine.”
“Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Not really, no.”
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I’m in the train station; you were right about the delay.” A plan suddenly appeared in her head. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Can it wait until morning?”
“Of course, Dad,” She laughed. “Would you call the registrar at Brown? I want to change my major.”
“To what?”
“Political science.” It felt so right. “It’s bad here. I want to make it better.”
Elizabeth couldn’t see, but her father’s face lit up in a smile and all of his weariness faded away.
“Sweetheart, you’re going to change the world.”
------
“Oh…oh this is not good,” Rodney mumbled within ten seconds of activating his screen.
“Why not?” Allison asked. “The power is flowing to the generator.”
“Which is very nice. Except for the part where it is not flowing out.” The surrounding scientists braced themselves for a tirade. “Do you have any idea what this means?”
“Yes, Rodney,” Allison replied calmly. “I have helped rig a catastrophic overload before. But two days ago, we couldn’t get the power to the generator, and now we can. One step at a time, Rodney.”
“Oh. Right.” Rodney sat down again, mollified. “One step at a time.”
Allison grinned again as the storm blew itself out and the scientists resumed their work on various simulations and calculations.
“We might get this city flying after all.”
“Rodney?” Zelenka’s voice cut in. “Rodney!”
“What is it Zelenka? We’re a little busy down here.”
“There are four Wraith hive ships on the long range detector.”
“When will they be here?”
“In fifteen minutes.”
“WHAT?”
“I am sorry, Rodney. They hid themselves somehow and have only just shown up on our scans.”
“Have they seen us?”
“I cannot imagine that they haven’t.”
“I’ll be right there.”
The next fifteen minutes passed tensely. Rodney sat in the control room with his finger hovering over the button that would change the cloak to a shield. Elizabeth had insisted that they cloak first, just to see if the Wraith could be turned away. John was in the chair room, ready to attach with their few remaining drones, but nothing was powered up yet to help the City escape detection.
“They have taken up geosynchronous orbit over the city,” Zelenka reported.
“Elizabeth, they have to know –”
“They are arming weapons!”
“Switching to shield now!” Rodney announced.
“Sheppard, this is Weir,” Elizabeth said into her comm. “You are go for launch.”
“They are opening fire!” Radek announced.
The city rocked as the first onslaught of Wraith fire hit them. A few consoles exploded.
“Rodney?” Elizabeth was starting to sound worried. “Should that be happening?”
“No!” Rodney answered. “Oh my God…they’re eating the shield.”
“What?”
“Their weapons. They’re specifically attuned to the frequency of our shield. They’re sucking the ZPM dry.”
“How long?”
“Ten minutes. Maybe.”
“Get me city-wide,” Elizabeth said. Chuck scrambled to obey. “Everyone, this is Weir. I am declaring a Code Black, repeat Code Black. All non-essential personnel report to the Gate room for immediate evacuation. This is not a drill.”
The Gate dialed and Elizabeth ordered everyone in the control room to go. Zelenka hesitated, but Rodney pushed him towards the stairs and he went. Elizabeth commed John and told him to retreat and then overrode his protests. The members of the expedition streamed into the Gate room and through the wormhole to safety.
“Elizabeth, you have to go.”
“Rodney –”
“Go! I’ll....rig an overload and be right behind you.”
“You need my code.”
“I KNOW YOUR CODE! Please, Elizabeth...just go.”
She opened her mouth but could think of nothing to say. She ran down the stairs and met John on the lower floor. He looked up and saw Rodney moving from computer to computer and then Elizabeth took his hand and pulled him through the Gate.
Rodney had finished putting his own codes in and moved on the Elizabeth’s before someone else came into the control room.
“Alison, what are you doing here?”
“I—I thought you might need help.”
“I don’t. Get out of here.”
“Which one are you activating?” Alison’s last assignment had been to rig a series of naquadah generators in various places of strategic importance throughout the city.
“All of them.”
“Rodney, you can’t do that by remote.”
“I did read your report, you know.”
The city rocked again as the Wraith broke through. Darts whizzed through the air depositing foot soldiers throughout the City.
“Dr. Sagh,” Rodney said, making eye contact “Your idea would have worked. Find another ZPM and save the universe but for now get out of the City.”
“Yes, sir.”
He waited until she was halfway across the floor before he activated the self-destruct. There was a screeching sound and the room filled with Wraith. Rodney hit the activation sequence.
5....
4....
3....
2....
1....
And then there was nothing but a brilliantly white flash.
------
Chapter Seven
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-13 01:19 am (UTC)Can hardly wait for the next chapter.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-13 04:12 am (UTC)*regains sanity*
Wow, talk about intense. Brilliant brilliant execution. What a build-up. I'm at the edge of my seat. please hurry with the next chapter!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-13 08:58 pm (UTC)I think I like Elizabeth's best, both dream and outcome, because I always wanted to have a revelation like that, in an instant, because of something, but my grand change in life happened over about two years, and I can't pinpoint when, exactly, I changed from designing for rich people to uncovered the hidden past of the world. But at least I went that way and not backwards, because that would just suck. Of course, when I told my parents, their reaction was less "I'm so proud; you're going to change the world" and more "are you insane? you think classics is going to pay the bills?" But then, my parents are kinda like that.
You know I love you right?
I promise my review of part 7 will be much much more about the fic and less about my choices in life.
(no subject)
From: