Animus (Cadman/Emmagan) [PG]
Title: Animus
Author: havocthecat
Pairing: Laura Cadman/Teyla Emmagan
Word Count: ~1,600
Summary: What happens when you're trapped between the Ascended plane and the physical one.
Author's Notes: I would love for this to be slashier, but I wrote it in a rush. I didn't know if we were going to have a default or not - we didn't, thankfully - and therefore here's an extra fic for lyssie. Er. I was going to write space pirates, but the fact that I wrote this on Halloween? Yeah, it totally affected what I wrote. Thanks to triciabyrne1978 for betareading at the very last minute.
***
"So the locals ditched the joint a couple thousand years back?" Laura held one hand over the command console of the Ancient battleship. Its memory banks were sluggish. The power cells barely responded to her ATA gene, and she was no slouch in the genetics department. "Or was it longer?"
"This planet has been abandoned since the Ancestors left our galaxy." Teyla guarded the door, her gun held ready. It was dark, but Laura had to give Teyla credit where it was due. No one was going to slip by. No one corporeal, anyway, and since the Ancients were big on not interfering, Laura didn't care about the non-corporeal.
"So ten thousand years?" Laura focused on the memory banks, pushing them to draw power from the naquadah generator they'd hooked up. A light flickered, and then Ancient text started pouring across the screen. "Gotcha."
"The laptop is set to record the data?" asked Teyla. She shifted her weight enough that Laura's head whipped around, and she frowned.
"I told you it was," she said. Laura shrugged and leaned back on a different console, one that was still dead. Not being an expert on non-incendiary Ancient tech meant she was hoping it wasn't life support. "With their hate-on for the Ancients, why haven't the Wraith blown the ship to bits?"
"None know." Teyla had a wry smile, but underneath it all, she looked uneasy. "We do not come to this place out of respect for the Ancestors."
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" asked Laura. She crossed her arms and gave Teyla a skeptical look. "Come on, babe. What gives?"
Teyla gave her a stern look, but Laura was unfazed. She just held firm and looked expectant. Plus she knew she could get away with stuff that no one else could, at least where Teyla was concerned. Her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, and Teyla sighed once, then caved. "There are stories."
Okay, Teyla caved a little. It looked like Laura was going to have to worm it out of her. "Stories? What kind of stories?"
"It is not wise to speak of them." There was a burst of static, and Teyla jumped a little, but then Rodney came on the radio to bitch about Lorne's attitude. Laura snickered, and Teyla turned her radio off with a rueful smile.
"If we shouldn't be here, then why didn't you tell Colonel Sheppard that?" asked Laura. "I mean, jeez. It was just a standard recon. We could've left, and it would've been fine. I mean, Rodney would've bitched about untold scientific discoveries left behind, but Dr. Weir would've told him to shut his face, except politely."
"I did not realize where we were until you and I had come to the bridge." Teyla glanced over at the command chair, which contains the mummified body of an Ancient. "His uniform bears the sunburst logo. We were taught that sign as a child. The planet below contains one of the Stargate addresses that we do not use."
Laura stared over at the dead guy. "He's not gonna--" She stuck her arms out and made a lurching, flaily kind of a gesture. "We can take him back to Atlantis and give him a burial. I mean, he's an Ancient, so Atlantis is his home, right?"
"His home lies below, on Obsideo," said Teyla. She shook her head. "The dead do not walk in Pegasus. There are, however, spirits." The viewscreen was dead, so no chance of checking out the planet. Laura wondered if it was worth Rodney's griping about the power drain to activate it. Nah. Not this time, at least. Mostly because Lorne would kill her if she riled Rodney up even more.
"Spirits?" asked Laura. She looked around. It was dark in here, and she was starting to wish that last night hadn't been horror movie time with Miko. Her stash of DVDs was bound to freak anyone out. "You mean like ghosts?"
"Tales have been told of those who did not want to Ascend. Some had families drawn from among the peoples of this galaxy. Others did not wish to leave their homes." Teyla moved to just inside the doorway. "Some of the Ancestors were not kind, and tore the spirits of the unwilling from their bodies. In their struggles, they became trapped between this world and the plane the Ancestors now exist in."
"Let me guess, Obsideo--" Laura tried not to shiver. She was a Marine. Marines didn't get scared by ghost stories. Not even ones that were maybe, just maybe real ghost stories. She started to edge closer to Teyla. It was a good thing she was dating the most badass woman on Atlantis.
She saw Teyla start to smile. "Come. Neither your team nor mine will arrive soon, and you know that Ronon will keep them busy so that we may have time to ourselves.
"Just waiting for the memory banks to download." Laura grabbed for Teyla's hand as she scooted next to her. The gentle squeeze was reassuring. "What makes Obsideo so fucking scary, anyway?"
"The Ancestors who lived here were pulled from their bodies while defending their families and the other people of this planet from the Wraith." Teyla bowed her head at the dead guy in the captain's chair. "It is told in the stories that some of the Wraith became trapped with the Ancestors. We honor the Ancestors for their willingness to stand with us, but the idea of a Wraith trapped, not fully Ascended, and hungering endlessly--"
"I get the picture," interrupted Laura. "Maybe we should start falling back, just in case the stories are true?"
"They are true." Teyla and Laura both started as the viewscreen came to life. It looked like it was pulling some kind of spy satellite feed from off the planet. There were ruined buildings, an Ancient city that looked almost like Atlantis, and a lot of wildlife.
"I didn't do that," said Laura, staring at it. She clicked her radio on. "Anyone do anything stupid, like power the ship up at all?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Lieutenant," she heard Rodney snap.
"What's up?" asked Sheppard. His voice was tinny and hollow.
"They did something," said Rodney. Laura could hear Lorne in the background telling him not to be an idiot.
Teyla pushed the button on her radio. "The viewscreen is active. Laura only powered the memory banks enough to download them, as you requested."
"We should leave," said Ronon. "I don't like this ship."
"I agree." Teyla glanced at the laptop's readout. "We have nearly downloaded the contents of the memory banks. We should allow the dead of this ship to rest as they wish."
The viewscreen switched into the rooms inside the Ancient city. Control tower, check. The Stargate was still in place, and one hundred percent inactive. Command chair, science labs, ZPM platform-- Laura's eyes widened as she and Teyla looked at each other.
"There's an active ZPM down there," said Laura. She clicked on her radio. "There's an Ancient city on the planet with an active ZPM. The viewscreen just showed it."
"Are you kidding me?" Rodney's voice came over the radio. "There's an active ZPM and Teyla wants us to leave? Sheppard, we have to take the jumper down to the planet. Radio the Daedalus to contact Elizabeth, and--"
An invisible hand tangled in Laura's hair and she shrieked. She struck out with her elbow, and came into contact with something almost solid, but it was like landing against a practice mat - too soft, too squishy, and it still hurt her more than whatever she was hitting. Something hit her in the center of her chest and pushed her up against the wall.
"Get it off me!" she yelled. Laura balled her hand into a fist and struck at where she guessed its head would be. Teyla was moving too, and they struck again and again until Laura could twist free.
There were voices on the radio, but Laura couldn't catch her breath to tell everyone to evacuate the hell of the ship. Teyla did it for her, as Laura ran and grabbed the laptop. A breath of air touched her cheek, and Laura collapsed, knocked to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and ran, Teyla with her, until they reached the jumper.
Two minutes later, they'd all gathered, and Colonel Sheppard was hightailing it out of the hold and heading for the Daedalus like there was no tomorrow. "Shut up, Rodney," he'd said, glaring when Rodney brought up the ZPM.
"But--" started Rodney.
"I said shut up," snarled Colonel Sheppard. Then Teyla lay one hand on Rodney's shoulder, said his name, and that was that.
"We will rendezvous with Colonel Caldwell in approximately half an hour." Teyla touched Laura on the arm and held up the first aid kit. She motioned toward the rear of the puddleumper. "Come. You are wounded."
Laura glanced down. The front of her shirt was covered with blood. Now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, she was feeling kind of "Oh, shit, I didn't notice--"
"If you had been severely wounded, I would have insisted sooner," said Teyla. She eased Laura toward the back of the jumper and pulled her tac vest off, then tugged her black t-shirt up. She paled and looked up to meet Laura's eyes.
A red slit oozed sluggishly on her chest, and she poked at the five bloody marks surrounding it. "This is bad."
"Your hair." Teyla pulled a strand of Laura's hair out, and let it fall, a few strands at a time, against Laura's shoulder. Shot through her reddish-blonde streaks were threads of silver hair.
--end--
Author: havocthecat
Pairing: Laura Cadman/Teyla Emmagan
Word Count: ~1,600
Summary: What happens when you're trapped between the Ascended plane and the physical one.
Author's Notes: I would love for this to be slashier, but I wrote it in a rush. I didn't know if we were going to have a default or not - we didn't, thankfully - and therefore here's an extra fic for lyssie. Er. I was going to write space pirates, but the fact that I wrote this on Halloween? Yeah, it totally affected what I wrote. Thanks to triciabyrne1978 for betareading at the very last minute.
***
"So the locals ditched the joint a couple thousand years back?" Laura held one hand over the command console of the Ancient battleship. Its memory banks were sluggish. The power cells barely responded to her ATA gene, and she was no slouch in the genetics department. "Or was it longer?"
"This planet has been abandoned since the Ancestors left our galaxy." Teyla guarded the door, her gun held ready. It was dark, but Laura had to give Teyla credit where it was due. No one was going to slip by. No one corporeal, anyway, and since the Ancients were big on not interfering, Laura didn't care about the non-corporeal.
"So ten thousand years?" Laura focused on the memory banks, pushing them to draw power from the naquadah generator they'd hooked up. A light flickered, and then Ancient text started pouring across the screen. "Gotcha."
"The laptop is set to record the data?" asked Teyla. She shifted her weight enough that Laura's head whipped around, and she frowned.
"I told you it was," she said. Laura shrugged and leaned back on a different console, one that was still dead. Not being an expert on non-incendiary Ancient tech meant she was hoping it wasn't life support. "With their hate-on for the Ancients, why haven't the Wraith blown the ship to bits?"
"None know." Teyla had a wry smile, but underneath it all, she looked uneasy. "We do not come to this place out of respect for the Ancestors."
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" asked Laura. She crossed her arms and gave Teyla a skeptical look. "Come on, babe. What gives?"
Teyla gave her a stern look, but Laura was unfazed. She just held firm and looked expectant. Plus she knew she could get away with stuff that no one else could, at least where Teyla was concerned. Her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, and Teyla sighed once, then caved. "There are stories."
Okay, Teyla caved a little. It looked like Laura was going to have to worm it out of her. "Stories? What kind of stories?"
"It is not wise to speak of them." There was a burst of static, and Teyla jumped a little, but then Rodney came on the radio to bitch about Lorne's attitude. Laura snickered, and Teyla turned her radio off with a rueful smile.
"If we shouldn't be here, then why didn't you tell Colonel Sheppard that?" asked Laura. "I mean, jeez. It was just a standard recon. We could've left, and it would've been fine. I mean, Rodney would've bitched about untold scientific discoveries left behind, but Dr. Weir would've told him to shut his face, except politely."
"I did not realize where we were until you and I had come to the bridge." Teyla glanced over at the command chair, which contains the mummified body of an Ancient. "His uniform bears the sunburst logo. We were taught that sign as a child. The planet below contains one of the Stargate addresses that we do not use."
Laura stared over at the dead guy. "He's not gonna--" She stuck her arms out and made a lurching, flaily kind of a gesture. "We can take him back to Atlantis and give him a burial. I mean, he's an Ancient, so Atlantis is his home, right?"
"His home lies below, on Obsideo," said Teyla. She shook her head. "The dead do not walk in Pegasus. There are, however, spirits." The viewscreen was dead, so no chance of checking out the planet. Laura wondered if it was worth Rodney's griping about the power drain to activate it. Nah. Not this time, at least. Mostly because Lorne would kill her if she riled Rodney up even more.
"Spirits?" asked Laura. She looked around. It was dark in here, and she was starting to wish that last night hadn't been horror movie time with Miko. Her stash of DVDs was bound to freak anyone out. "You mean like ghosts?"
"Tales have been told of those who did not want to Ascend. Some had families drawn from among the peoples of this galaxy. Others did not wish to leave their homes." Teyla moved to just inside the doorway. "Some of the Ancestors were not kind, and tore the spirits of the unwilling from their bodies. In their struggles, they became trapped between this world and the plane the Ancestors now exist in."
"Let me guess, Obsideo--" Laura tried not to shiver. She was a Marine. Marines didn't get scared by ghost stories. Not even ones that were maybe, just maybe real ghost stories. She started to edge closer to Teyla. It was a good thing she was dating the most badass woman on Atlantis.
She saw Teyla start to smile. "Come. Neither your team nor mine will arrive soon, and you know that Ronon will keep them busy so that we may have time to ourselves.
"Just waiting for the memory banks to download." Laura grabbed for Teyla's hand as she scooted next to her. The gentle squeeze was reassuring. "What makes Obsideo so fucking scary, anyway?"
"The Ancestors who lived here were pulled from their bodies while defending their families and the other people of this planet from the Wraith." Teyla bowed her head at the dead guy in the captain's chair. "It is told in the stories that some of the Wraith became trapped with the Ancestors. We honor the Ancestors for their willingness to stand with us, but the idea of a Wraith trapped, not fully Ascended, and hungering endlessly--"
"I get the picture," interrupted Laura. "Maybe we should start falling back, just in case the stories are true?"
"They are true." Teyla and Laura both started as the viewscreen came to life. It looked like it was pulling some kind of spy satellite feed from off the planet. There were ruined buildings, an Ancient city that looked almost like Atlantis, and a lot of wildlife.
"I didn't do that," said Laura, staring at it. She clicked her radio on. "Anyone do anything stupid, like power the ship up at all?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Lieutenant," she heard Rodney snap.
"What's up?" asked Sheppard. His voice was tinny and hollow.
"They did something," said Rodney. Laura could hear Lorne in the background telling him not to be an idiot.
Teyla pushed the button on her radio. "The viewscreen is active. Laura only powered the memory banks enough to download them, as you requested."
"We should leave," said Ronon. "I don't like this ship."
"I agree." Teyla glanced at the laptop's readout. "We have nearly downloaded the contents of the memory banks. We should allow the dead of this ship to rest as they wish."
The viewscreen switched into the rooms inside the Ancient city. Control tower, check. The Stargate was still in place, and one hundred percent inactive. Command chair, science labs, ZPM platform-- Laura's eyes widened as she and Teyla looked at each other.
"There's an active ZPM down there," said Laura. She clicked on her radio. "There's an Ancient city on the planet with an active ZPM. The viewscreen just showed it."
"Are you kidding me?" Rodney's voice came over the radio. "There's an active ZPM and Teyla wants us to leave? Sheppard, we have to take the jumper down to the planet. Radio the Daedalus to contact Elizabeth, and--"
An invisible hand tangled in Laura's hair and she shrieked. She struck out with her elbow, and came into contact with something almost solid, but it was like landing against a practice mat - too soft, too squishy, and it still hurt her more than whatever she was hitting. Something hit her in the center of her chest and pushed her up against the wall.
"Get it off me!" she yelled. Laura balled her hand into a fist and struck at where she guessed its head would be. Teyla was moving too, and they struck again and again until Laura could twist free.
There were voices on the radio, but Laura couldn't catch her breath to tell everyone to evacuate the hell of the ship. Teyla did it for her, as Laura ran and grabbed the laptop. A breath of air touched her cheek, and Laura collapsed, knocked to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and ran, Teyla with her, until they reached the jumper.
Two minutes later, they'd all gathered, and Colonel Sheppard was hightailing it out of the hold and heading for the Daedalus like there was no tomorrow. "Shut up, Rodney," he'd said, glaring when Rodney brought up the ZPM.
"But--" started Rodney.
"I said shut up," snarled Colonel Sheppard. Then Teyla lay one hand on Rodney's shoulder, said his name, and that was that.
"We will rendezvous with Colonel Caldwell in approximately half an hour." Teyla touched Laura on the arm and held up the first aid kit. She motioned toward the rear of the puddleumper. "Come. You are wounded."
Laura glanced down. The front of her shirt was covered with blood. Now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, she was feeling kind of "Oh, shit, I didn't notice--"
"If you had been severely wounded, I would have insisted sooner," said Teyla. She eased Laura toward the back of the jumper and pulled her tac vest off, then tugged her black t-shirt up. She paled and looked up to meet Laura's eyes.
A red slit oozed sluggishly on her chest, and she poked at the five bloody marks surrounding it. "This is bad."
"Your hair." Teyla pulled a strand of Laura's hair out, and let it fall, a few strands at a time, against Laura's shoulder. Shot through her reddish-blonde streaks were threads of silver hair.
--end--