"Stargate Atlantis on a Steampunk Earth" (for the Team_SGA au)
Title: Stargate Atlantis on a Steampunk Earth.
Author: Keenir.
Characters: John, Sora, Catherine.
Rating: PG. (implied PG-17 in one lone sentence)
Summary: Two scenes from a reality wherein the stargate program is based on a steampunk Earth.
Spoilers: SG1, SG:Atlantis…mostly ‘Underground’ and Earth-political eps.
Disclaimer: None of them are mine. Not even Dorothy. (Who fans may guess who she is)
Link to your piece on your LJ/site: http://rodlox.livejournal.com/109024.html
Pairing: John Sheppard/Sora.
Author’s note: I figured that, even if Earth is steampunk, that doesn’t mean the ‘gate and other worlds necessarily would be so.
Author’s note: in our history, Henry 9th is known as Henry Fitzroy. Yes, the real one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part one -
On Atlantis:
She had just told John that he had one more present, told him that just as they entered their quarters together after the birthday party down in the Atlantis Mess Hall.
Sora Sheppard nee Ptsaeris pa-Iktrice pa Olon-Meht had watched from the back of the room while John had opened his presents from all his attending friends. Gifts such as books (a gag?), games, coupons (three complimentary lessons in explosives, from Com.Cadman), a joke - no, two - and on it went. As the hour grew late, Sora’d imperceptibly shifted her weight; their people were allies, but a lifetime of training (to be cautious and ever-ready) does not dissipate in a whiff when new gears are added.
She had already by then procured a gift for John. She’d requisitioned it, been docked in pay for it, and been re-given the Sharing lecture.
And she knew he’d like it. Or at least would appreciate it.
“Sora?” John asked, “where’s the bedspread?” You’re not making a parachute, are you? John wondered, thinking maybe the book full of Leonardo DaVinci’s inventions hadn’t been as inspired a gift as he’d thought at the time.
“Here,” she answered, entering the bedroom, holding out a bedspread sheet that’d been neatly folded around a - What was that? “Unwrap it.
“Thanks,” accepting the gift from his wife. Unfolding, unwrapping, he at last attained - “Thank you,” setting the gift gun down gingerly and hugging Sora.
He knew the proper name for it, even if most in Atlantis still called it simply ‘the Geni gun.’ He’d admired Sora’s for a long while now, and she’d shown him how to fire it (but not how it worked - she didn’t want to completely break trust with her people).
Completely powderless, John had deduced of the gun. Like back on Earth, Geni guns were the product of centuries of perfecting and miniaturizing steam technology. Only even now, a small amount of powder was still required in order to incite the firing process. Geni guns didn’t even need that; once daily, suck the air out of a small chamber, and the gun didn’t need anything else - it generated its own energy blasts. Rodney had more than once complained about ‘Geni practically-perpetual motion machines.’
John had told her about his great-grandfather, who - with Ernst Watt - had tried making something very like the Geni guns…but it had been too unwieldy, too expensive, and not as battlefield-durable as even pistonguns.
“By the way,” John whispered in her ear, “there’s one more birthday tradition you should know about…”
By the time midnight struck, Sora was giggling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part two -
London, County Derry, Ireland
seat of the British Empire:
Catherine McFord boarded the decrepid ’17 Landbarge train, knowing it would take her out to the Facility in the farthest reach of the Orkney Isles. Graphologist Dorothy McShane-Ng was already seated and ready to go.
Derry had been the royal seat since the Civil War so soon after King Henry 9th’s reign had come to a close. Home to many of the greats in the sciences and mathematics; astronomy was still considered so English a pastime.
Anywhere else, and a vehicle as old as this specimen would’ve been retired as an outdated and only faintly safe anymore. But that was what made it so damnably attractive to the Inward Organizing Committee: that very hazard spelled out that nobody unauthorized would even want to get on … aside from hardcore thrillseekers - but more of them had already been recruited by the I.O.C.
On so many other worlds, humanity’s high technology were crystal-gutted machines copied, appropriated, and based upon what the goa’uld and asgard had built their own empires upon. On every other planet (minus one), mankind hadn’t advanced beyond using men and oxen as their source of horsepower.
That lone exception was Širrhu genii, the home of the Geni people.
Everywhere the stargate teams had gone, no matter who they talked to, they always had to be careful, to couch how they spoke of Earth - what technologies they had, most of all. (poor Dr. Jackson, traitor to Earth, indicted for the crime of causing the near-extermination of the Tauri).
And that brought them back to the Geni.
The geni, the only world to have achieved successful and sustainable steampower…aside from Earth. And, like Earth, Širrhu genii had used their steam to attain nuclear power, which - if it was like the reactors here - fed back and powered yet more turbines.
And there was where the problem arose. Well, a problem to some. The geni didn’t appear to have divided their society into even the loosest of tiers, much less into any sort of castes. Granted, said a few on the Privy Council and I.O.C., they’ve been living underground with inadequately-shielded reactors, so we can dismiss their shortcoming as damaged wiring.
Catherine snorted. She’d figured - and hoped the geni could confirm - that geni society had avoided or grown beyond the need for tiers. Irish > English > Scottish > Cymru-Walloon in government posts. Reform > Catholic > other > Knightling in the military and daily life.
Further thoughts were decoupled from her mind by the noisy-loud of the train’s gears ending their forwards propulsion and beginning the hair-raisingly-slow braking.
Time for the Orkney Ferry. Once the train stopped. Thankfully the bridge’d given way decades ago - she knew her nerves weren’t as strong as they’d used to be.
The facility holding the stargate, had been bought out at the start of the century, part of a royal scion’s attempt to domesticate - or at least mass-raise - heath hens and passenger pigeons. The attempt had failed, but the island was still completely encased in the facility. Plenty of room for everything that had happened there to date.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End
Author: Keenir.
Characters: John, Sora, Catherine.
Rating: PG. (implied PG-17 in one lone sentence)
Summary: Two scenes from a reality wherein the stargate program is based on a steampunk Earth.
Spoilers: SG1, SG:Atlantis…mostly ‘Underground’ and Earth-political eps.
Disclaimer: None of them are mine. Not even Dorothy. (Who fans may guess who she is)
Link to your piece on your LJ/site: http://rodlox.livejournal.com/109024.html
Pairing: John Sheppard/Sora.
Author’s note: I figured that, even if Earth is steampunk, that doesn’t mean the ‘gate and other worlds necessarily would be so.
Author’s note: in our history, Henry 9th is known as Henry Fitzroy. Yes, the real one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part one -
On Atlantis:
She had just told John that he had one more present, told him that just as they entered their quarters together after the birthday party down in the Atlantis Mess Hall.
Sora Sheppard nee Ptsaeris pa-Iktrice pa Olon-Meht had watched from the back of the room while John had opened his presents from all his attending friends. Gifts such as books (a gag?), games, coupons (three complimentary lessons in explosives, from Com.Cadman), a joke - no, two - and on it went. As the hour grew late, Sora’d imperceptibly shifted her weight; their people were allies, but a lifetime of training (to be cautious and ever-ready) does not dissipate in a whiff when new gears are added.
She had already by then procured a gift for John. She’d requisitioned it, been docked in pay for it, and been re-given the Sharing lecture.
And she knew he’d like it. Or at least would appreciate it.
“Sora?” John asked, “where’s the bedspread?” You’re not making a parachute, are you? John wondered, thinking maybe the book full of Leonardo DaVinci’s inventions hadn’t been as inspired a gift as he’d thought at the time.
“Here,” she answered, entering the bedroom, holding out a bedspread sheet that’d been neatly folded around a - What was that? “Unwrap it.
“Thanks,” accepting the gift from his wife. Unfolding, unwrapping, he at last attained - “Thank you,” setting the gift gun down gingerly and hugging Sora.
He knew the proper name for it, even if most in Atlantis still called it simply ‘the Geni gun.’ He’d admired Sora’s for a long while now, and she’d shown him how to fire it (but not how it worked - she didn’t want to completely break trust with her people).
Completely powderless, John had deduced of the gun. Like back on Earth, Geni guns were the product of centuries of perfecting and miniaturizing steam technology. Only even now, a small amount of powder was still required in order to incite the firing process. Geni guns didn’t even need that; once daily, suck the air out of a small chamber, and the gun didn’t need anything else - it generated its own energy blasts. Rodney had more than once complained about ‘Geni practically-perpetual motion machines.’
John had told her about his great-grandfather, who - with Ernst Watt - had tried making something very like the Geni guns…but it had been too unwieldy, too expensive, and not as battlefield-durable as even pistonguns.
“By the way,” John whispered in her ear, “there’s one more birthday tradition you should know about…”
By the time midnight struck, Sora was giggling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part two -
London, County Derry, Ireland
seat of the British Empire:
Catherine McFord boarded the decrepid ’17 Landbarge train, knowing it would take her out to the Facility in the farthest reach of the Orkney Isles. Graphologist Dorothy McShane-Ng was already seated and ready to go.
Derry had been the royal seat since the Civil War so soon after King Henry 9th’s reign had come to a close. Home to many of the greats in the sciences and mathematics; astronomy was still considered so English a pastime.
Anywhere else, and a vehicle as old as this specimen would’ve been retired as an outdated and only faintly safe anymore. But that was what made it so damnably attractive to the Inward Organizing Committee: that very hazard spelled out that nobody unauthorized would even want to get on … aside from hardcore thrillseekers - but more of them had already been recruited by the I.O.C.
On so many other worlds, humanity’s high technology were crystal-gutted machines copied, appropriated, and based upon what the goa’uld and asgard had built their own empires upon. On every other planet (minus one), mankind hadn’t advanced beyond using men and oxen as their source of horsepower.
That lone exception was Širrhu genii, the home of the Geni people.
Everywhere the stargate teams had gone, no matter who they talked to, they always had to be careful, to couch how they spoke of Earth - what technologies they had, most of all. (poor Dr. Jackson, traitor to Earth, indicted for the crime of causing the near-extermination of the Tauri).
And that brought them back to the Geni.
The geni, the only world to have achieved successful and sustainable steampower…aside from Earth. And, like Earth, Širrhu genii had used their steam to attain nuclear power, which - if it was like the reactors here - fed back and powered yet more turbines.
And there was where the problem arose. Well, a problem to some. The geni didn’t appear to have divided their society into even the loosest of tiers, much less into any sort of castes. Granted, said a few on the Privy Council and I.O.C., they’ve been living underground with inadequately-shielded reactors, so we can dismiss their shortcoming as damaged wiring.
Catherine snorted. She’d figured - and hoped the geni could confirm - that geni society had avoided or grown beyond the need for tiers. Irish > English > Scottish > Cymru-Walloon in government posts. Reform > Catholic > other > Knightling in the military and daily life.
Further thoughts were decoupled from her mind by the noisy-loud of the train’s gears ending their forwards propulsion and beginning the hair-raisingly-slow braking.
Time for the Orkney Ferry. Once the train stopped. Thankfully the bridge’d given way decades ago - she knew her nerves weren’t as strong as they’d used to be.
The facility holding the stargate, had been bought out at the start of the century, part of a royal scion’s attempt to domesticate - or at least mass-raise - heath hens and passenger pigeons. The attempt had failed, but the island was still completely encased in the facility. Plenty of room for everything that had happened there to date.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End