(no subject)
Okay, so I figured since I'm going to be gone for a week and I'm such an awesome person and all people are inevitably going to miss me and I should do something about that. So I thought to myself, "what could possibly keep my friends happy in my absence?" The answer came to me quickly: all expenses paid vacations for themselves! Then I realized that was impossible so I shrugged and said, "Oh well they're going to have to settle for a fic."
My chihuahua barked in agreement, so it was settled.
So, yes, while I'm away here's a fic to entertain you and remind you that I exists and whatnot.
Oh, and because I'm evil and all this is part one of two. I'll post the rest of when I get back.
You knew something important was happening when you saw the reclusive Dr. Carl Newburn stomping through the hallways of Atlantis. In a city full of eccentric scientists known for the quirky personality traits that accompanied their genius minds, Dr. Newburn had managed to claim the title of oddest of the oddballs. He was brilliant, there was no doubt, and - for the few who knew of the tragedies that marred his past - he was amazing for still being able to function, let alone travel to another galaxy. He was also anti-social to the point of hermit-like reclusiveness, germ phobic to the extreme and incredibly handicapped by his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Which is why the sight of him walking down Atlantis’ corridors (timid in pace so as not to bump into any fellow hallway walkers, but looking determined nevertheless)was so shocking
The reason why Carl was making a public appearance could be explained, in detail, by the words printed in neat, black font across the pieces of paper he carried with him cradled carefully to his chest by both arms. The cause of the papers and the person who was behind the papers which made them so troubling was also a factor in Newburn’s decision to leave the comforts of his room; he couldn’t let her get away with this. The “her” was a woman who had consistently since he had met her found ways to irritate him, seemingly without realizing she was doing it: Elise-Mae Agneau. Her most recent transgression was against a subject that was very near and dear to him: bugs.
~
“So… it’s a plant bomb?” Questioned a skeptical looking red headed woman who was sitting atop the lab room’s main table’s countertop staring at the leafy thing being presented to her.
“Yeah, it’s more of an organic explosive if we’re going to get technical - think cherry bomb gone literal.” Agreed a smiling young lieutenant whose hair, based on the way it was puffing out and sticking up, was as excited at the discovery as he was.
The woman nodded, picking up the index cards that lied next to her on the table and glancing over them thoughtfully.
“And you’re sure it’ll be effective, Wallace?” She questioned, still sounding skeptical at the validity of the cabbage looking thing’s status as an explosive.
“Yeah! Well, I mean we haven’t actually tested it yet, but the Ancient database makes it really clear that these things really go boom,” he said, illustrating the extent of their explosive quality with his hands and then - upon seeing the look she was giving him - hastily added, “It works, Elise!”
“Okay, okay I believe you. And, Zach? This really is a great find.” Elise said, smiling. “If this works-”
“-It’ll work!”
“If this works,” she continued, “It’ll really help.”
“I know.” Zach suddenly became immensely engaged with scuffing the floor with his army-regulated boots.
“I’m just saying.” She shrugged. “So, your notes don’t really make this clear, how exactly does it work?”
The second lieutenant winced slightly, placing the “plant bomb” down on the table, causing Elise to hop off it. It was, despite all evidence otherwise, a bomb after all.
“Um, well about that…” He started off saying, trailing off to once again pursue his floor defacing.
“Zachary!”
“Elise!” He mimicked.
“Miss Elise?” Queried a new, hesitant voice from the lab’s doorway.
The room’s two occupants turned quickly to see who was there, and wound up gawking upon doing so. For there standing awkwardly before them was a very uncomfortable looking Carl Newburn.
“Newburn,” Elise said recovering first from the shock, “What a… lovely surprise. Do come in.”
She motioned for him to join her, a gesture that was silently repeated by Wallace. Newburn hesitated, on one hand the room was small with no exits other than the one he was currently standing in and already had two people in it - not exactly an ideal place to be in his claustrophobic opinion. On the other hand (he had different fingers, not that that has anything to do with anything) he had sought her out for a reason, and that reason was important too him. So, ignoring every anxiety-laden instinct that was screaming for him not to, he made his way into the lab room.
“Newburn, you know Zach, right?” Elise asked, and then glanced at Zach, “Wallace, you do know Newburn, right?"
“Well if we didn’t, we do now.” Zach replied cheerfully, extending out a hand towards Newburn.
“It’s nice ta’ meet you - Second Lieutenant, is it?” Newburn said, looking at Zach’s uniform and ignoring his hand, “You’ll have ta’ excuse me though, I don’t like to be touched - personal thing, no offense meant of course.”
“None taken,” Zach shrugged.
Elise shifted, looking at Newburn curiously, “So, what do you- ”
“ -Actually, I was hoping da’ I could speak ta’ you Miss Elise, if you happened ta’ have da’ time…” He started off tentatively.
A high pitched beeping sound abruptly interrupted the conversation and three sets of eyes turned looking for the source of the noise, which turned out to be a laptop. The screen of the laptop was blinking in time with the beeping, which would have been cute except for the fact that it was incredibly annoying. Zach seemed fairly pleased with it though, considering how annoying it was, as he rushed towards the computer that was seated on a table on the other side of the room.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “Certain ‘people’ have been falling asleep at their laptops, and the new sound alerting notification feature for incoming messages is supposed to have help wake these people up.”
“Certain ‘people’, hm?” Elise repeated, giving Zach a knowing look as he tapped a few keys on the laptop and calmed the machine down.
“It was only once! Twice at most!” Zach defended. “This is probably the results on the tests I had run on the plant bomb.”
“Plant bomb?” Newburn spoke up curiously.
“Yeah, Zach discovered them. They’re organically based explosives - there’s one over there,” Elise explained pointing out the aforementioned plant bomb sitting on the table directly behind them, “I’m hoping we can use them and conserve our C-4 supplies. In fact, I’m particularly hopeful that these will be effective where the C-4 hasn’t been, you know M3X-716? The one that we think has the Ancient weapons reserve, but it’s covered by the… uh, titanium anthill?”
“Yes, actually that’s what I wanted ta’ talk to you about,” Newburn said, glancing at the plant bomb behind her with a look of distaste, “I read da’ report you wrote, recommending a perusal of removing da’ anthill and Miss Elise, I mean you no insult, but you can’t do that!”
“Excuse me?” Elise said, looking at him incredulous.
“Da’ anthill; you can’t try to destroy it, it’s a valuable part of that planet’s ecosystem!” He earnestly argued his point and yet still managed to look terribly apprehensive of any response she might make to it.
“The ecosystem!” Elise repeated, this time more irritated than incredulous, “What ecosystem! They’re vaguely ant-like insects who live in a metal anthill and seem thrive on all non-organic objects for food, how could they possibly affect the planet’s ecosystem!”
Newburn seemed to gain some confidence from her annoyed statements on a subject he was an expert on. “They’re unique, Miss Elise - you said it yer self, and that makes them all da’ more so invaluable ta’ da’ planet! They wouldn’t have evolved that way if it didn’t serve them a purpose, it doesn’t work like that - survival of da’ fittest and what not-”
“-I know about Darwin’s theories on evolution, Newburn; I’m not an idiot.” Elise interrupted coolly.
He faltered slightly at this; took a deep breath before plowing on again into his plea for the sake of the ants of M3X-716,
“I meant no offense, Miss Elise, of course but you have ta’ understand why we simply can not destroy that anthill! It’s invaluable-”
“-To the planet’s ecosystem; yes, you’ve mentioned that before. So we destroy the anthill and the ants have to build another one, big deal. Surely the transition period between anthills won’t cause the non-organic population to explode, I know I’m not an expert on science like you but I’d think I’d remember if rocks bred like jackrabbits!” Elise said sarcastically.
“No big deal!” Newburn repeated, his voice raising an octave in scandalized offense, “It’s a very big deal! This is an entire species we’re talking about, Miss Elise. Destroying their home may be condemning them ta’ extinction, what you’re proposing is bug genocide!”
“Yes,” Elise replied her voice rising in volume, “Bug genocide! The life of some ants versus the possibility of discovering Ancient technology that could help stop the Wraith or get us home, what a decision.”
“You’re willing to risk definite life fer da’ possibility of weaponry? I mean no offense Miss Elise, I really don’t, but you should look in ta’ re-evaluating your ethics.” Newburn replied evenly, but his hands were curled up into fists to stop them from shaking.
“My ethics!” Elise practically hissed, “They’re bugs!”
“Ti takAya, neposrEtstvennaya a Rad Za tebyA,” Newburn grumbled in Russian.
“Et tu, tu es un petit homme qui est mauvaise. Et agacant.” Elise replied in equally disgruntled French.
Neither knew exactly what the other was saying, but both had more than enough evidence to guess that the words were less than kind.
Zach had been successfully ignoring the two bicker, his attention being fully focused on the message he had so recently (and noisily) received. It was indeed the lab results on the tests he’d had done on plant bomb that he’d been expecting, and the analysis of the results made on the thing were proving to be most interesting. They had originally assumed the explosive worked in connection with the Ancient gene - like most of the more dangerous Ancient technology did - but these results were suggesting the connection was much less exclusive. It seemed like the ability to turn the bomb on and off was simply a telepathic one, not a genetic one - a person simply had to concentrate on the goal of it exploding and it would comply. This was definitely unusual for Ancient weaponry, which tended to have multiple safeguards on them, but based on the notes and files Zach discovered with the plant bomb, the thing had been developed only months before the evacuation of the city was put into effect. The device, he hypothesized, was probably just a prototype whose creator never got a chance to include the normal safety precautions into its design.
This could work in their advantage; an ancient weapon that was noted as being highly effective that could be used by anyone would certainly take some of the strain off those with the gene - even if only a little bit. However, they didn’t know just how sensitive the telepathic link between people and the bomb was - if the plant bomb could be triggered just by a single absentminded thought… it would definitely not be good. Zach frowned as some of Elise’s angry sounding words drifted into his train of though - something about “survival at any cost” - it would be even worse if the telepathic link could be set off by just general feelings about explosions. But… that would have been really stupid of the Ancients to make it so sensitive, right? These were the people who built the Stargate; they wouldn’t create anything so potentially dangerous, he assured himself.
“Hey, hey guys?” He spoke up in the very calm voice of someone who was obviously just starting to worry. “Maybe you should cool it down a little? Please?”
Zach’s cautious plea went unheard by the two who were too engaged in their debate, which was quickly dissolving into an all out hostile argument. Elise lived for arguments like these; there was nothing she enjoyed more than fighting for what she thought, what she believed with her words. Newburn was the utter opposite, he never wanted conflict, but he couldn’t abandon his beliefs and leave them undefended either - so, unwillingly, he’d rise to the bait and argue for himself the best he could, even though it left him feeling nauseous.
“We simply cannot lower our standard simply because-” He tried to say, but was cut off by Elise’s groan.
“They’re ants! Metallic ants, they’ll probably all survive the explosion anyway, Newburn and furthermore-” Elise argued.
“-They are not ‘just ants’ Miss Elise! They’re a living, breathing species!”
“I don’t care, Newburn!” Elise shouted, “I really don’t.”
Out of the corner of his eye Carl noticed that the awful plant bomb seemed to be turning… red? Good, maybe it was rotting and they wouldn’t be able to use it. Except; except a bomb turning red? He thought about how in the animal kingdom red was a warning color. He thought about Elise’s hair. He looked at the bomb, which was quickly making its way through the shades of red, going from the soft pinks seen in the morning skies to the deep coppery colored reds found in blood and velvet theatre curtains. He noted that Elise, still off on a tirade, had her back turned to the bomb, and that the young lieutenant was once again absorbed in his work on the laptop on the other side of the room.
Ignoring every little fearful voice in his head, he acted.
Elise didn’t have time to react as Newburn suddenly pushed her to the side, didn’t have time to think as a fireball exploded in front of her, and she certainly didn’t have the time (or the ability) to get her head out of the way before it collided - hard - with the corner of the lab table.
Zach had a fleeting feeling of guilt - he should have spoken up more. Should have made sure they knew of the potential risk, even if it was just a passing worry he’d had. As the force of the explosion knocked him to the ground, Zach chided himself: look what happened.
Newburn was knocked out by the explosion, which occurred practically simultaneously with his decision to get himself and Elise out of the way, before he had time to think. So as he was tossed through the air and when - as gravity took over - he fell back onto the ground his mind was in another place. His unconscious mind, free of the restrictions of reality, took him to a space full of boxes. Some of the boxes were filled with vivid, often painful, memories of his past, the other nine tenths of them seemed to be filled with muffins. He’d heard that humans supposedly only used a tenth of their brains, but he’d never heard it proposed before that the other nine tenths were used to store breakfast pastries.
~
She awoke the same way she fell unconscious: unintentionally. Her eyes simply sprung open with no warning, suddenly subjecting her to being awake again. What she saw - crisp, clean white sheets, a white curtain surrounding her bed and hiding her from the rest of the world; the definite linen of a hospital - was enough to make her want to close her eyes again, so she did.
“Hey, you’re awake!” A voice noted - far more loudly and excitedly than she thought the event warranted - ruining any chance of her returning to a non-awake status any time soon.
Elise did what she felt was best under the circumstances and ignored the voice, closing her eyes tightly in defiance.
“Elise? Oh come on, I saw you; you’re awake!” The voice persisted.
It wasn’t until she felt someone poking her in the back that Elise gave up and rolled over in annoyance to face the annoyingly determined person, her eyes open. She was met with the sight of Zachary Wallace sitting on a bed across from her, grinning triumphantly.
“Well this a switch,” she said after a second.
“Tell me about it. I’d say it was something out of the Twilight Zone, but we’re currently in another galaxy with life sucking aliens so…” He agreed.
“Yeah. Freaky Friday-ish, maybe?” Elise suggested.
“That works,” Zach nodded and then frowned, “Not sure that it’s Friday though…”
“Zach,” she interrupted what was sure to be another rant on the lack of a set timeframe in Atlantis, “What happened?”
“Well there was this explosion…” Zach began hesitantly, “… And we were in it.”
Elise frowned at his words, her mind poking gently at her memory of what had happened; it was dark, blotchy and came to her in sick, choppy waves like the sea that surrounded Atlantis. Lumpy images jumbled themselves until they were eventually arranged into a picture of a laboratory. Thinking about the lab room made her head ache and, in the middle of it, pulsing like a migraine, was the memory of a moment’s splurge of whirling light.
“I remember,” she said with a sigh.
“Oh good,” Zach said, relieved, and then hurried to clarify, “I mean, it’s good that you can remember things and you haven’t forgotten anything. You hit your head pretty hard, and you didn’t wake up right away so…”
“How long have I been out?”
“Three days,” he said seriously, “You were pretty much in a mini-comma.”
Elise stared at him, abruptly overcome with an unwelcome feeling of fear. Three days! As Zach continued to talk she ran through a mental checklist of her body parts, gingerly testing to make sure they were all still there and unharmed. She had a slight moment of panic when she realized her left arm had something inserted in it, but a quick glance proved it to be only an IV tube. The back of her head, she realized, was bandaged with a healthy supply of gauze, but that wasn’t surprising given she had apparently had a head wound. Still, other then some soreness and a vague ache in her head she was fine. Which, while she was certainly happy with it, was surprising; how had she managed that?
“We were all really worried though. Captain Stackhouse brought you flowers, and-”
“Stackhouse brought me flowers?” Elise questioned sounding incredulous.
“Yeah,” Zach pointed to a vase on the nightstand next to the other side of her bed, “ Those. They’re orchids, I think.”
Elise eyed them dubiously, still disbelieving the identity of their sender; they were shades of white and blue and smelled faintly of cinnamon.
“Cinnamon orchids?” She questioned, eyebrow raised.
“Well we are in another galaxy,” Zach shrugged. “Technically you’re not supposed to know these are from him, but… well he gave them to that nurse, Abigail, and told her not to tell anyone.”
“Very, very bad idea,” Elise said, knowing the chatty nature of that particular nurse well.
“She told many, many people,” Zach agreed.
“So,” Elise said looking to change the subject, “What are you doing here anyways? You haven’t been sitting around waiting for me to wake up, have you?”
She smiled impishly at him, eyes gleaming in the anticipation of the teasing she’d give him if he answered yes to that.
“No,” he replied quickly, knowing that look well, “I’m a patient here, just like you.”
He held up his right arm, which now had a cast plastered to its wrist, for her to see.
“I’m fine, really, just won’t be able to go off world for another week or two - it’s only a fracture,” he continued, “I’m just trying to stay here for as long as I can, they still have pudding that they give us patients! Chocolate pudding!”
Although Zach was smiling (slightly sheepishly at his own enthusiasm for pudding) Elise couldn’t help but grimace at his injury - the memory of the explosion still fresh in her mind.
“Zach, what happened? Why did the bomb go off then?” She asked, suddenly filled with the desire to find out what had happened over the last three days.
His smile fell at her query, and he sighed.
“Do you want the scientific explanation or one that makes sense?”
She gave him a reprimanding look, “How about giving me the scientific explanation and making it make sense.”
He just shook his head at her, ruefully.
“We’re not positive what happened, not a hundred percent, but our best guess is that the combination of it sitting for ten thousands years and the fact that it didn’t exactly have perfect safeguards to begin with caused the plant bomb to enter a state we call non-linear, catastrophic structural exasperation. It’s unprotected telepathic link eroded into a such a sensitive state it responded to emotions and not concrete thought.” He explained.
“Oh,” she said. So this was her fault, then? “What was explanation that makes sense?”
Zach laughed slightly, “In the words of Tell, the plant bomb became 'fundamentally fed-up with being where it was'.”
She gave an appreciative chuckle, and then went back to thinking about the explosion. They had been lucky; she was okay, Zach was okay, and Newburn was… Newburn was, Newburn was what? She frowned, looking around for the diminutive entomologist trying to remember what had happened to him. In her mind she saw the explosion, could remember the falling of backwards, but could not recall what had happened to the man. And then it hit her, and she saw him silhouetted in the red, orange and yellow fireball of light.
“Zach,” she said, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice, “What happened to Newburn?”
See ya next week!
My chihuahua barked in agreement, so it was settled.
So, yes, while I'm away here's a fic to entertain you and remind you that I exists and whatnot.
Oh, and because I'm evil and all this is part one of two. I'll post the rest of when I get back.
You knew something important was happening when you saw the reclusive Dr. Carl Newburn stomping through the hallways of Atlantis. In a city full of eccentric scientists known for the quirky personality traits that accompanied their genius minds, Dr. Newburn had managed to claim the title of oddest of the oddballs. He was brilliant, there was no doubt, and - for the few who knew of the tragedies that marred his past - he was amazing for still being able to function, let alone travel to another galaxy. He was also anti-social to the point of hermit-like reclusiveness, germ phobic to the extreme and incredibly handicapped by his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Which is why the sight of him walking down Atlantis’ corridors (timid in pace so as not to bump into any fellow hallway walkers, but looking determined nevertheless)was so shocking
The reason why Carl was making a public appearance could be explained, in detail, by the words printed in neat, black font across the pieces of paper he carried with him cradled carefully to his chest by both arms. The cause of the papers and the person who was behind the papers which made them so troubling was also a factor in Newburn’s decision to leave the comforts of his room; he couldn’t let her get away with this. The “her” was a woman who had consistently since he had met her found ways to irritate him, seemingly without realizing she was doing it: Elise-Mae Agneau. Her most recent transgression was against a subject that was very near and dear to him: bugs.
~
“So… it’s a plant bomb?” Questioned a skeptical looking red headed woman who was sitting atop the lab room’s main table’s countertop staring at the leafy thing being presented to her.
“Yeah, it’s more of an organic explosive if we’re going to get technical - think cherry bomb gone literal.” Agreed a smiling young lieutenant whose hair, based on the way it was puffing out and sticking up, was as excited at the discovery as he was.
The woman nodded, picking up the index cards that lied next to her on the table and glancing over them thoughtfully.
“And you’re sure it’ll be effective, Wallace?” She questioned, still sounding skeptical at the validity of the cabbage looking thing’s status as an explosive.
“Yeah! Well, I mean we haven’t actually tested it yet, but the Ancient database makes it really clear that these things really go boom,” he said, illustrating the extent of their explosive quality with his hands and then - upon seeing the look she was giving him - hastily added, “It works, Elise!”
“Okay, okay I believe you. And, Zach? This really is a great find.” Elise said, smiling. “If this works-”
“-It’ll work!”
“If this works,” she continued, “It’ll really help.”
“I know.” Zach suddenly became immensely engaged with scuffing the floor with his army-regulated boots.
“I’m just saying.” She shrugged. “So, your notes don’t really make this clear, how exactly does it work?”
The second lieutenant winced slightly, placing the “plant bomb” down on the table, causing Elise to hop off it. It was, despite all evidence otherwise, a bomb after all.
“Um, well about that…” He started off saying, trailing off to once again pursue his floor defacing.
“Zachary!”
“Elise!” He mimicked.
“Miss Elise?” Queried a new, hesitant voice from the lab’s doorway.
The room’s two occupants turned quickly to see who was there, and wound up gawking upon doing so. For there standing awkwardly before them was a very uncomfortable looking Carl Newburn.
“Newburn,” Elise said recovering first from the shock, “What a… lovely surprise. Do come in.”
She motioned for him to join her, a gesture that was silently repeated by Wallace. Newburn hesitated, on one hand the room was small with no exits other than the one he was currently standing in and already had two people in it - not exactly an ideal place to be in his claustrophobic opinion. On the other hand (he had different fingers, not that that has anything to do with anything) he had sought her out for a reason, and that reason was important too him. So, ignoring every anxiety-laden instinct that was screaming for him not to, he made his way into the lab room.
“Newburn, you know Zach, right?” Elise asked, and then glanced at Zach, “Wallace, you do know Newburn, right?"
“Well if we didn’t, we do now.” Zach replied cheerfully, extending out a hand towards Newburn.
“It’s nice ta’ meet you - Second Lieutenant, is it?” Newburn said, looking at Zach’s uniform and ignoring his hand, “You’ll have ta’ excuse me though, I don’t like to be touched - personal thing, no offense meant of course.”
“None taken,” Zach shrugged.
Elise shifted, looking at Newburn curiously, “So, what do you- ”
“ -Actually, I was hoping da’ I could speak ta’ you Miss Elise, if you happened ta’ have da’ time…” He started off tentatively.
A high pitched beeping sound abruptly interrupted the conversation and three sets of eyes turned looking for the source of the noise, which turned out to be a laptop. The screen of the laptop was blinking in time with the beeping, which would have been cute except for the fact that it was incredibly annoying. Zach seemed fairly pleased with it though, considering how annoying it was, as he rushed towards the computer that was seated on a table on the other side of the room.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “Certain ‘people’ have been falling asleep at their laptops, and the new sound alerting notification feature for incoming messages is supposed to have help wake these people up.”
“Certain ‘people’, hm?” Elise repeated, giving Zach a knowing look as he tapped a few keys on the laptop and calmed the machine down.
“It was only once! Twice at most!” Zach defended. “This is probably the results on the tests I had run on the plant bomb.”
“Plant bomb?” Newburn spoke up curiously.
“Yeah, Zach discovered them. They’re organically based explosives - there’s one over there,” Elise explained pointing out the aforementioned plant bomb sitting on the table directly behind them, “I’m hoping we can use them and conserve our C-4 supplies. In fact, I’m particularly hopeful that these will be effective where the C-4 hasn’t been, you know M3X-716? The one that we think has the Ancient weapons reserve, but it’s covered by the… uh, titanium anthill?”
“Yes, actually that’s what I wanted ta’ talk to you about,” Newburn said, glancing at the plant bomb behind her with a look of distaste, “I read da’ report you wrote, recommending a perusal of removing da’ anthill and Miss Elise, I mean you no insult, but you can’t do that!”
“Excuse me?” Elise said, looking at him incredulous.
“Da’ anthill; you can’t try to destroy it, it’s a valuable part of that planet’s ecosystem!” He earnestly argued his point and yet still managed to look terribly apprehensive of any response she might make to it.
“The ecosystem!” Elise repeated, this time more irritated than incredulous, “What ecosystem! They’re vaguely ant-like insects who live in a metal anthill and seem thrive on all non-organic objects for food, how could they possibly affect the planet’s ecosystem!”
Newburn seemed to gain some confidence from her annoyed statements on a subject he was an expert on. “They’re unique, Miss Elise - you said it yer self, and that makes them all da’ more so invaluable ta’ da’ planet! They wouldn’t have evolved that way if it didn’t serve them a purpose, it doesn’t work like that - survival of da’ fittest and what not-”
“-I know about Darwin’s theories on evolution, Newburn; I’m not an idiot.” Elise interrupted coolly.
He faltered slightly at this; took a deep breath before plowing on again into his plea for the sake of the ants of M3X-716,
“I meant no offense, Miss Elise, of course but you have ta’ understand why we simply can not destroy that anthill! It’s invaluable-”
“-To the planet’s ecosystem; yes, you’ve mentioned that before. So we destroy the anthill and the ants have to build another one, big deal. Surely the transition period between anthills won’t cause the non-organic population to explode, I know I’m not an expert on science like you but I’d think I’d remember if rocks bred like jackrabbits!” Elise said sarcastically.
“No big deal!” Newburn repeated, his voice raising an octave in scandalized offense, “It’s a very big deal! This is an entire species we’re talking about, Miss Elise. Destroying their home may be condemning them ta’ extinction, what you’re proposing is bug genocide!”
“Yes,” Elise replied her voice rising in volume, “Bug genocide! The life of some ants versus the possibility of discovering Ancient technology that could help stop the Wraith or get us home, what a decision.”
“You’re willing to risk definite life fer da’ possibility of weaponry? I mean no offense Miss Elise, I really don’t, but you should look in ta’ re-evaluating your ethics.” Newburn replied evenly, but his hands were curled up into fists to stop them from shaking.
“My ethics!” Elise practically hissed, “They’re bugs!”
“Ti takAya, neposrEtstvennaya a Rad Za tebyA,” Newburn grumbled in Russian.
“Et tu, tu es un petit homme qui est mauvaise. Et agacant.” Elise replied in equally disgruntled French.
Neither knew exactly what the other was saying, but both had more than enough evidence to guess that the words were less than kind.
Zach had been successfully ignoring the two bicker, his attention being fully focused on the message he had so recently (and noisily) received. It was indeed the lab results on the tests he’d had done on plant bomb that he’d been expecting, and the analysis of the results made on the thing were proving to be most interesting. They had originally assumed the explosive worked in connection with the Ancient gene - like most of the more dangerous Ancient technology did - but these results were suggesting the connection was much less exclusive. It seemed like the ability to turn the bomb on and off was simply a telepathic one, not a genetic one - a person simply had to concentrate on the goal of it exploding and it would comply. This was definitely unusual for Ancient weaponry, which tended to have multiple safeguards on them, but based on the notes and files Zach discovered with the plant bomb, the thing had been developed only months before the evacuation of the city was put into effect. The device, he hypothesized, was probably just a prototype whose creator never got a chance to include the normal safety precautions into its design.
This could work in their advantage; an ancient weapon that was noted as being highly effective that could be used by anyone would certainly take some of the strain off those with the gene - even if only a little bit. However, they didn’t know just how sensitive the telepathic link between people and the bomb was - if the plant bomb could be triggered just by a single absentminded thought… it would definitely not be good. Zach frowned as some of Elise’s angry sounding words drifted into his train of though - something about “survival at any cost” - it would be even worse if the telepathic link could be set off by just general feelings about explosions. But… that would have been really stupid of the Ancients to make it so sensitive, right? These were the people who built the Stargate; they wouldn’t create anything so potentially dangerous, he assured himself.
“Hey, hey guys?” He spoke up in the very calm voice of someone who was obviously just starting to worry. “Maybe you should cool it down a little? Please?”
Zach’s cautious plea went unheard by the two who were too engaged in their debate, which was quickly dissolving into an all out hostile argument. Elise lived for arguments like these; there was nothing she enjoyed more than fighting for what she thought, what she believed with her words. Newburn was the utter opposite, he never wanted conflict, but he couldn’t abandon his beliefs and leave them undefended either - so, unwillingly, he’d rise to the bait and argue for himself the best he could, even though it left him feeling nauseous.
“We simply cannot lower our standard simply because-” He tried to say, but was cut off by Elise’s groan.
“They’re ants! Metallic ants, they’ll probably all survive the explosion anyway, Newburn and furthermore-” Elise argued.
“-They are not ‘just ants’ Miss Elise! They’re a living, breathing species!”
“I don’t care, Newburn!” Elise shouted, “I really don’t.”
Out of the corner of his eye Carl noticed that the awful plant bomb seemed to be turning… red? Good, maybe it was rotting and they wouldn’t be able to use it. Except; except a bomb turning red? He thought about how in the animal kingdom red was a warning color. He thought about Elise’s hair. He looked at the bomb, which was quickly making its way through the shades of red, going from the soft pinks seen in the morning skies to the deep coppery colored reds found in blood and velvet theatre curtains. He noted that Elise, still off on a tirade, had her back turned to the bomb, and that the young lieutenant was once again absorbed in his work on the laptop on the other side of the room.
Ignoring every little fearful voice in his head, he acted.
Elise didn’t have time to react as Newburn suddenly pushed her to the side, didn’t have time to think as a fireball exploded in front of her, and she certainly didn’t have the time (or the ability) to get her head out of the way before it collided - hard - with the corner of the lab table.
Zach had a fleeting feeling of guilt - he should have spoken up more. Should have made sure they knew of the potential risk, even if it was just a passing worry he’d had. As the force of the explosion knocked him to the ground, Zach chided himself: look what happened.
Newburn was knocked out by the explosion, which occurred practically simultaneously with his decision to get himself and Elise out of the way, before he had time to think. So as he was tossed through the air and when - as gravity took over - he fell back onto the ground his mind was in another place. His unconscious mind, free of the restrictions of reality, took him to a space full of boxes. Some of the boxes were filled with vivid, often painful, memories of his past, the other nine tenths of them seemed to be filled with muffins. He’d heard that humans supposedly only used a tenth of their brains, but he’d never heard it proposed before that the other nine tenths were used to store breakfast pastries.
~
She awoke the same way she fell unconscious: unintentionally. Her eyes simply sprung open with no warning, suddenly subjecting her to being awake again. What she saw - crisp, clean white sheets, a white curtain surrounding her bed and hiding her from the rest of the world; the definite linen of a hospital - was enough to make her want to close her eyes again, so she did.
“Hey, you’re awake!” A voice noted - far more loudly and excitedly than she thought the event warranted - ruining any chance of her returning to a non-awake status any time soon.
Elise did what she felt was best under the circumstances and ignored the voice, closing her eyes tightly in defiance.
“Elise? Oh come on, I saw you; you’re awake!” The voice persisted.
It wasn’t until she felt someone poking her in the back that Elise gave up and rolled over in annoyance to face the annoyingly determined person, her eyes open. She was met with the sight of Zachary Wallace sitting on a bed across from her, grinning triumphantly.
“Well this a switch,” she said after a second.
“Tell me about it. I’d say it was something out of the Twilight Zone, but we’re currently in another galaxy with life sucking aliens so…” He agreed.
“Yeah. Freaky Friday-ish, maybe?” Elise suggested.
“That works,” Zach nodded and then frowned, “Not sure that it’s Friday though…”
“Zach,” she interrupted what was sure to be another rant on the lack of a set timeframe in Atlantis, “What happened?”
“Well there was this explosion…” Zach began hesitantly, “… And we were in it.”
Elise frowned at his words, her mind poking gently at her memory of what had happened; it was dark, blotchy and came to her in sick, choppy waves like the sea that surrounded Atlantis. Lumpy images jumbled themselves until they were eventually arranged into a picture of a laboratory. Thinking about the lab room made her head ache and, in the middle of it, pulsing like a migraine, was the memory of a moment’s splurge of whirling light.
“I remember,” she said with a sigh.
“Oh good,” Zach said, relieved, and then hurried to clarify, “I mean, it’s good that you can remember things and you haven’t forgotten anything. You hit your head pretty hard, and you didn’t wake up right away so…”
“How long have I been out?”
“Three days,” he said seriously, “You were pretty much in a mini-comma.”
Elise stared at him, abruptly overcome with an unwelcome feeling of fear. Three days! As Zach continued to talk she ran through a mental checklist of her body parts, gingerly testing to make sure they were all still there and unharmed. She had a slight moment of panic when she realized her left arm had something inserted in it, but a quick glance proved it to be only an IV tube. The back of her head, she realized, was bandaged with a healthy supply of gauze, but that wasn’t surprising given she had apparently had a head wound. Still, other then some soreness and a vague ache in her head she was fine. Which, while she was certainly happy with it, was surprising; how had she managed that?
“We were all really worried though. Captain Stackhouse brought you flowers, and-”
“Stackhouse brought me flowers?” Elise questioned sounding incredulous.
“Yeah,” Zach pointed to a vase on the nightstand next to the other side of her bed, “ Those. They’re orchids, I think.”
Elise eyed them dubiously, still disbelieving the identity of their sender; they were shades of white and blue and smelled faintly of cinnamon.
“Cinnamon orchids?” She questioned, eyebrow raised.
“Well we are in another galaxy,” Zach shrugged. “Technically you’re not supposed to know these are from him, but… well he gave them to that nurse, Abigail, and told her not to tell anyone.”
“Very, very bad idea,” Elise said, knowing the chatty nature of that particular nurse well.
“She told many, many people,” Zach agreed.
“So,” Elise said looking to change the subject, “What are you doing here anyways? You haven’t been sitting around waiting for me to wake up, have you?”
She smiled impishly at him, eyes gleaming in the anticipation of the teasing she’d give him if he answered yes to that.
“No,” he replied quickly, knowing that look well, “I’m a patient here, just like you.”
He held up his right arm, which now had a cast plastered to its wrist, for her to see.
“I’m fine, really, just won’t be able to go off world for another week or two - it’s only a fracture,” he continued, “I’m just trying to stay here for as long as I can, they still have pudding that they give us patients! Chocolate pudding!”
Although Zach was smiling (slightly sheepishly at his own enthusiasm for pudding) Elise couldn’t help but grimace at his injury - the memory of the explosion still fresh in her mind.
“Zach, what happened? Why did the bomb go off then?” She asked, suddenly filled with the desire to find out what had happened over the last three days.
His smile fell at her query, and he sighed.
“Do you want the scientific explanation or one that makes sense?”
She gave him a reprimanding look, “How about giving me the scientific explanation and making it make sense.”
He just shook his head at her, ruefully.
“We’re not positive what happened, not a hundred percent, but our best guess is that the combination of it sitting for ten thousands years and the fact that it didn’t exactly have perfect safeguards to begin with caused the plant bomb to enter a state we call non-linear, catastrophic structural exasperation. It’s unprotected telepathic link eroded into a such a sensitive state it responded to emotions and not concrete thought.” He explained.
“Oh,” she said. So this was her fault, then? “What was explanation that makes sense?”
Zach laughed slightly, “In the words of Tell, the plant bomb became 'fundamentally fed-up with being where it was'.”
She gave an appreciative chuckle, and then went back to thinking about the explosion. They had been lucky; she was okay, Zach was okay, and Newburn was… Newburn was, Newburn was what? She frowned, looking around for the diminutive entomologist trying to remember what had happened to him. In her mind she saw the explosion, could remember the falling of backwards, but could not recall what had happened to the man. And then it hit her, and she saw him silhouetted in the red, orange and yellow fireball of light.
“Zach,” she said, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice, “What happened to Newburn?”
See ya next week!