Thunder Rolls chapter 2
I just realized that I have not posted any of Thunder Rolls here past the first chapter (embarrassed). I shall correct that. My thanks to nacinom and mysra for their beta on this series and to the ladies of the SG group for their suggestions ;)
Chapter 2 - Same Stuff, Different Day
AN: This chapter contains references to “Dog Days” by kashkow.
Generally, John liked finding new devices left behind by the Ancients. What he didn’t like was that the finding wasn’t always in his best interest. He had lost count of the times that a piece of innocuous looking Ancient technology had bit him in the ass. Rodney had been behind many of those, but sometimes it had been a villager with a grudge or a whacked-out AI with abandonment issues. All of these things had combined to make him extremely gun shy.
Take this new lab, for instance. It was in one of the recently opened areas of Atlantis itself, but the city could tell him nothing about the room’s purpose, and that worried him. Ever since the lightning strike that had enhanced his bond with the city, he had pretty much been able to avoid getting clobbered by the carelessness of the Ancients. For such an enlightened people, they had been extremely unconcerned about cleaning up after themselves and frequently left dangerous items just lying around; plus their documentation standards sucked.
Every so often though, they came across a lab that Atlantis only had minimal information about, but what they did have pointed to some kind of medical lab. That lack of information had led to where he was now. Rodney insisted on checking it out immediately, and somehow convinced Carson to come along. Maybe the Scottish doctor was bored and wanted a bit of adventure.
He had agreed to escort Carson and Rodney to check out this lab because of the unknowns and in order to escape for a bit from the wedding preparations. The wedding was in less than a month and most of the details were set, but every so often someone had a brainstorm or brain fart, depending on one’s opinion of the idea which had to be dealt with. He didn’t mind being asked his opinion, but some of the ideas were so ridiculous that they had plucked just about every nerve he had, and, since he couldn’t shoot the offenders, he decided the best thing to do was to make himself scarce.
Behind him, Carson and Rodney argued about the merits of cats versus dogs while they waited for the database to download. Carson leaned on the console while McKay held his tablet in both hands, poking it occasionally to keep it moving. Used to the bickering from the pair, John tuned them out as he scanned the room. The room was pretty bare; the console behind him and several protrusions extending from the ceiling the entirety of the room’s equipment.
As he waited on the translation, Rodney argued with Carson. “I tell you, cats are superior. They don’t have to be walked, are quiet and will curl up on your lap when it’s cold.”
Carson shook his head. “Nay, dogs are better. A dog will greet you at the door and bark to warn you if someone strange approaches and protect you if you’re being threatened.”
Rodney huffed. “Yeah, if they’ve been trained, and if the intruder doesn’t have a nice juicy steak or a bone.”
Carson thumped his hand down on the console, setting off a faint hum that neither man noticed. “Ye’re a daft bugger! I still say dogs are better.”
Rodney tossed his tablet down. “Cats are better. When was the last time a dog caught a mouse or a cricket?”
“Yer crazy. Dogs are man’s best friend. Cats are fickle - that’s why they’re associated with luck.”
Rodney laughed and planted his hand on the console for balance. The hum rose in pitch. “If dogs are so great then why is the lion considered to be King of the Beasts?”
John noticed the hum. Each time it rose, the hair on his neck stood up straighter. He turned towards Carson and Rodney. “Hey, guys, I think the two of you need to step away from that console and we all need to leave the room, quickly.”
Just as he headed to the side to chase Carson and Rodney out, there was a bright flash - everything went white. It was blinding. The pain from the flash was nothing compared to the wave of pain that followed it as his body grew hot, as if on fire. John never felt his body hit the floor; the pain consumed all conscious thought as he felt like he was melting, bones and muscles twisting and reshaping themselves. He screamed as the pain rose. When the agony finally swallowed his consciousness, he welcomed the darkness.
Rodney and Carson looked up at Sheppard just as the flash exploded. The whiteness swallowed everything except sound. The hum that neither man had noticed became pervasive, squelching all other sounds, except for one - an agonized scream, torn from a human throat. That was the last thing they heard before the darkness took them as well.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
As he slowly came awake, the first thing Rodney noticed was that he was lying on the floor. The second thing that intruded was a headache. Then it sounded as if someone was pumping a bellows near his ear. Rodney turned his head and saw Carson, out cold and breathing heavily. He carefully rolled over, taking his time in order to allow his head to settle. As he got on his knees, he realized that another piece of crappy Ancient tech had messed with them. The only thing left to discover was just how badly screwed they were. Standing, he braced himself on the edge of the console and looked around. Carson lay on the floor near his feet, but there was no sign of Sheppard.
Rodney stepped away from the console to check the corridor in case Sheppard had staggered out through the door. Before he passed out, Rodney had distinctly heard a scream, one he knew all too well as it still haunted his nightmares occasionally. As he stepped around the console, his foot encountered something yielding. He looked down and saw a huddled black form on the floor. Rodney quickly stepped back around the console and nudged Carson in the ribs with his toe. “Carson! Wake up, you witch doctor! Sheppard’s hurt and needs you!”
Mention of their friend being hurt and needing him roused Carson as much as the ungentle touch from Rodney’s boot. He grabbed Rodney’s offered hand and the pair of doctors moved around the console to check on their friend. As they stepped to his side, both men noticed that the dark mass on the floor didn’t look right. As the form moved slightly, they realized why - instead of a six foot tall, spiky haired pilot, they now had a black furred, ten foot long tiger, lying tangled in the pieces of a black uniform.
Rodney and Carson looked up, matching looks of horror on their faces. “He’s gonna kill us - we did it again.”
Rodney looked from the tiger on the floor to the man standing beside him. “We? Where do you get this we business? I’m not the person that turned him into a dog that time, or that almost turned him into a bug.”
“No, but yer hand was on that console as surely as my own was. That makes ye just as guilty.” Carson shook himself and knelt at John’s side. He carefully ran his hands through the thick fur, removing the uniform as he went. “Well, no broken bones and no bleeding, so I’m guessing he’s unconscious from the transformation. Do we still have Dr. Tao here?”
Rodney shook his head. “No. After the incident with Sheppard as a Cairn terrier, he transferred back to the SGC. We do have a team of vets on staff now though. They go to our various trade partners, checking on the health of the animals before they are slaughtered.” Rodney reached for his radio then stopped as a thought crossed his mind. “Do you want to examine him here or in the infirmary?”
“We’ll have to do it here.” Carson sighed. “I hate to say it, but I don’t have a gurney that will hold him in his current form and I don’t think the lad would appreciate us treatin’ him as cargo an’ using one o’ the pallet jacks.”
“McKay to Dr. Liang.”
“Liang here, what may I do for you?” Liang was a petite Chinese woman that could intimidate anyone with just a look.
“I need you to bring your kit and come to B5, room 14. I…we have a patient for you.”
“I will be right there. Liang out.”
Rodney walked over and sat down against a wall where he could watch Sheppard and the door. He had to admit, the Colonel made a very handsome tiger. His coat was mostly black, with dark grey and cream stripes mixed in. It was thick, reminiscent of a Siberian tiger he had seen at the Toronto Zoo. He figured that Carson’s estimate of size was correct. From nose to tail, John the tiger would be 3.35 meters long, about one meter tall at the shoulder and probably weigh in at 193 kilograms.
A noise at the door heralded the arrival of Dr. Liang. The diminutive doctor stepped in through the door, saw the tiger and stopped. “Panthera tigris altaica negra.” The Latin flowed from the doctor’s lips as she stared at the colonel.
McKay nodded. “Yes, yes. It’s…He’s a black Siberian tiger. Now would you please check Colonel Sheppard over so we can get out of here?”
Liang frowned. “Colonel Sheppard?” She looked at the great cat. “You are telling me that this cat is Colonel Sheppard?”
Beckett nodded. “Aye, he is, and no, this is not a joke.”
With that pronouncement, Liang got to work. She peeled back his eyelids, pried open his jaws to check his tongue, gums and teeth, ran her hands over each limb, checking for breaks that Carson may have missed, and even carefully prodded his belly. She ran her hands through the thick fur picked up one of his forefeet and even pressed in on the pad to extend the claws. As she performed her exam, Carson and Rodney told her what had happened. At one point, Liang pulled out a tape measure and took body measurements. She checked his temperature, a portion of the exam that Carson was glad John slept through. When Dr. Tao had tried that the time John had been turned into a dog, it had ended badly for the doctor.
Dr. Liang sat back on her heels. “Well, the Colonel is a very healthy tiger. He will also be very grumpy when he wakes and should be fed as soon as possible. From what you have told me, he will have a headache. You can give him Codeine or Ketoprofen, depending on severity.”
Carson nodded. “I have Codeine in my bag. You can give it to him when he wakes.”
Liang shook her head. “I feel it would be better coming from you. He does not know me and you have his trust.”
As she finished, John stirred, the claws flexing out from the plate-sized front paws. His jaws opened in a yawn, showing teeth as long as Rodney’s pinky finger and a tongue long enough to wrap around his hand. As the jaws closed, John’s eyes opened, displaying the human’s hazel orbs instead of a tiger’s normal pale green.
Chapter 2 - Same Stuff, Different Day
AN: This chapter contains references to “Dog Days” by kashkow.
Generally, John liked finding new devices left behind by the Ancients. What he didn’t like was that the finding wasn’t always in his best interest. He had lost count of the times that a piece of innocuous looking Ancient technology had bit him in the ass. Rodney had been behind many of those, but sometimes it had been a villager with a grudge or a whacked-out AI with abandonment issues. All of these things had combined to make him extremely gun shy.
Take this new lab, for instance. It was in one of the recently opened areas of Atlantis itself, but the city could tell him nothing about the room’s purpose, and that worried him. Ever since the lightning strike that had enhanced his bond with the city, he had pretty much been able to avoid getting clobbered by the carelessness of the Ancients. For such an enlightened people, they had been extremely unconcerned about cleaning up after themselves and frequently left dangerous items just lying around; plus their documentation standards sucked.
Every so often though, they came across a lab that Atlantis only had minimal information about, but what they did have pointed to some kind of medical lab. That lack of information had led to where he was now. Rodney insisted on checking it out immediately, and somehow convinced Carson to come along. Maybe the Scottish doctor was bored and wanted a bit of adventure.
He had agreed to escort Carson and Rodney to check out this lab because of the unknowns and in order to escape for a bit from the wedding preparations. The wedding was in less than a month and most of the details were set, but every so often someone had a brainstorm or brain fart, depending on one’s opinion of the idea which had to be dealt with. He didn’t mind being asked his opinion, but some of the ideas were so ridiculous that they had plucked just about every nerve he had, and, since he couldn’t shoot the offenders, he decided the best thing to do was to make himself scarce.
Behind him, Carson and Rodney argued about the merits of cats versus dogs while they waited for the database to download. Carson leaned on the console while McKay held his tablet in both hands, poking it occasionally to keep it moving. Used to the bickering from the pair, John tuned them out as he scanned the room. The room was pretty bare; the console behind him and several protrusions extending from the ceiling the entirety of the room’s equipment.
As he waited on the translation, Rodney argued with Carson. “I tell you, cats are superior. They don’t have to be walked, are quiet and will curl up on your lap when it’s cold.”
Carson shook his head. “Nay, dogs are better. A dog will greet you at the door and bark to warn you if someone strange approaches and protect you if you’re being threatened.”
Rodney huffed. “Yeah, if they’ve been trained, and if the intruder doesn’t have a nice juicy steak or a bone.”
Carson thumped his hand down on the console, setting off a faint hum that neither man noticed. “Ye’re a daft bugger! I still say dogs are better.”
Rodney tossed his tablet down. “Cats are better. When was the last time a dog caught a mouse or a cricket?”
“Yer crazy. Dogs are man’s best friend. Cats are fickle - that’s why they’re associated with luck.”
Rodney laughed and planted his hand on the console for balance. The hum rose in pitch. “If dogs are so great then why is the lion considered to be King of the Beasts?”
John noticed the hum. Each time it rose, the hair on his neck stood up straighter. He turned towards Carson and Rodney. “Hey, guys, I think the two of you need to step away from that console and we all need to leave the room, quickly.”
Just as he headed to the side to chase Carson and Rodney out, there was a bright flash - everything went white. It was blinding. The pain from the flash was nothing compared to the wave of pain that followed it as his body grew hot, as if on fire. John never felt his body hit the floor; the pain consumed all conscious thought as he felt like he was melting, bones and muscles twisting and reshaping themselves. He screamed as the pain rose. When the agony finally swallowed his consciousness, he welcomed the darkness.
Rodney and Carson looked up at Sheppard just as the flash exploded. The whiteness swallowed everything except sound. The hum that neither man had noticed became pervasive, squelching all other sounds, except for one - an agonized scream, torn from a human throat. That was the last thing they heard before the darkness took them as well.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
As he slowly came awake, the first thing Rodney noticed was that he was lying on the floor. The second thing that intruded was a headache. Then it sounded as if someone was pumping a bellows near his ear. Rodney turned his head and saw Carson, out cold and breathing heavily. He carefully rolled over, taking his time in order to allow his head to settle. As he got on his knees, he realized that another piece of crappy Ancient tech had messed with them. The only thing left to discover was just how badly screwed they were. Standing, he braced himself on the edge of the console and looked around. Carson lay on the floor near his feet, but there was no sign of Sheppard.
Rodney stepped away from the console to check the corridor in case Sheppard had staggered out through the door. Before he passed out, Rodney had distinctly heard a scream, one he knew all too well as it still haunted his nightmares occasionally. As he stepped around the console, his foot encountered something yielding. He looked down and saw a huddled black form on the floor. Rodney quickly stepped back around the console and nudged Carson in the ribs with his toe. “Carson! Wake up, you witch doctor! Sheppard’s hurt and needs you!”
Mention of their friend being hurt and needing him roused Carson as much as the ungentle touch from Rodney’s boot. He grabbed Rodney’s offered hand and the pair of doctors moved around the console to check on their friend. As they stepped to his side, both men noticed that the dark mass on the floor didn’t look right. As the form moved slightly, they realized why - instead of a six foot tall, spiky haired pilot, they now had a black furred, ten foot long tiger, lying tangled in the pieces of a black uniform.
Rodney and Carson looked up, matching looks of horror on their faces. “He’s gonna kill us - we did it again.”
Rodney looked from the tiger on the floor to the man standing beside him. “We? Where do you get this we business? I’m not the person that turned him into a dog that time, or that almost turned him into a bug.”
“No, but yer hand was on that console as surely as my own was. That makes ye just as guilty.” Carson shook himself and knelt at John’s side. He carefully ran his hands through the thick fur, removing the uniform as he went. “Well, no broken bones and no bleeding, so I’m guessing he’s unconscious from the transformation. Do we still have Dr. Tao here?”
Rodney shook his head. “No. After the incident with Sheppard as a Cairn terrier, he transferred back to the SGC. We do have a team of vets on staff now though. They go to our various trade partners, checking on the health of the animals before they are slaughtered.” Rodney reached for his radio then stopped as a thought crossed his mind. “Do you want to examine him here or in the infirmary?”
“We’ll have to do it here.” Carson sighed. “I hate to say it, but I don’t have a gurney that will hold him in his current form and I don’t think the lad would appreciate us treatin’ him as cargo an’ using one o’ the pallet jacks.”
“McKay to Dr. Liang.”
“Liang here, what may I do for you?” Liang was a petite Chinese woman that could intimidate anyone with just a look.
“I need you to bring your kit and come to B5, room 14. I…we have a patient for you.”
“I will be right there. Liang out.”
Rodney walked over and sat down against a wall where he could watch Sheppard and the door. He had to admit, the Colonel made a very handsome tiger. His coat was mostly black, with dark grey and cream stripes mixed in. It was thick, reminiscent of a Siberian tiger he had seen at the Toronto Zoo. He figured that Carson’s estimate of size was correct. From nose to tail, John the tiger would be 3.35 meters long, about one meter tall at the shoulder and probably weigh in at 193 kilograms.
A noise at the door heralded the arrival of Dr. Liang. The diminutive doctor stepped in through the door, saw the tiger and stopped. “Panthera tigris altaica negra.” The Latin flowed from the doctor’s lips as she stared at the colonel.
McKay nodded. “Yes, yes. It’s…He’s a black Siberian tiger. Now would you please check Colonel Sheppard over so we can get out of here?”
Liang frowned. “Colonel Sheppard?” She looked at the great cat. “You are telling me that this cat is Colonel Sheppard?”
Beckett nodded. “Aye, he is, and no, this is not a joke.”
With that pronouncement, Liang got to work. She peeled back his eyelids, pried open his jaws to check his tongue, gums and teeth, ran her hands over each limb, checking for breaks that Carson may have missed, and even carefully prodded his belly. She ran her hands through the thick fur picked up one of his forefeet and even pressed in on the pad to extend the claws. As she performed her exam, Carson and Rodney told her what had happened. At one point, Liang pulled out a tape measure and took body measurements. She checked his temperature, a portion of the exam that Carson was glad John slept through. When Dr. Tao had tried that the time John had been turned into a dog, it had ended badly for the doctor.
Dr. Liang sat back on her heels. “Well, the Colonel is a very healthy tiger. He will also be very grumpy when he wakes and should be fed as soon as possible. From what you have told me, he will have a headache. You can give him Codeine or Ketoprofen, depending on severity.”
Carson nodded. “I have Codeine in my bag. You can give it to him when he wakes.”
Liang shook her head. “I feel it would be better coming from you. He does not know me and you have his trust.”
As she finished, John stirred, the claws flexing out from the plate-sized front paws. His jaws opened in a yawn, showing teeth as long as Rodney’s pinky finger and a tongue long enough to wrap around his hand. As the jaws closed, John’s eyes opened, displaying the human’s hazel orbs instead of a tiger’s normal pale green.