Diving Through the Universe by the old briar pipe (Cake or Death challenge)
(Is this challenge still going? Like, whoa.)
Title: Diving Through the Universe
Author: the old briar pipe
Characters: Miko, Zelenka, McKay, various
Rating: G
Word Count: ~1600
A/N: Totally inspired by the Moody Blues ("The Best Way to Travel"). There are no overt pairings in here, but you can see whatever you want. Various AUs implied.
-
"It does not appear to be harmful," Zelenka is saying when Miko turns the device sideways and disappears.
-
It's not the bright green sensation of travelling through a wormhole, but deep blue with flashes of white. She breaks the surface with a gasp and opens her eyes.
She is in Atlantis.
Actually, she's still in the lab.
The lighting is dim, most of the workstation lamps off, but there is a festive atmosphere nonetheless. Mostly it consists of streamers made of colored plastic, the kind that wraps their equipment pallets from the Daedalus. Also, someone has drawn smiley faces on all the whiteboards. Someone with terrible drawing skills but much enthusiasm.
"Kusanagi!" calls Zelenka, noticing her from across the room. "Come, come, the cake will be gone, yes?"
"Cake?"
"You did not hear? No, you do not hear Rodney's voice unless he complains. Yes, cake. Many kinds." He beams as if this is a present directly from him to Miko, the secret of cake.
She moves across the lab to join him.
"-Japanese fruitcake, lemon - I believe someone bribed the cooks - a thing called pound cake, and chocolate of course-"
He stops, speechless, staring at her.
"Cake?" she asks.
"Your scars - where are...?" His eyes flicker, looking at her, not looking at her. "You are not Dr. Kusanagi?"
"I-" she whispers, because she is, even if the strange moments of blue-and-whiteness still haunt her.
"In your hand. What is?" She holds it up; his eyebrows draw down. "It does not appear-"
She claps a hand over his mouth. She doesn't know what caused the shift, but she is scientist enough to believe in superstition. Or rather, to understand that superstition is instinct's way of telling you not to be a fool.
He stares at her, her tiny hand covering almost half his face. Blushing, she lets it drop. "That is what you said before. Last time."
He nods. He understands. In one swoop, without explanation, he grasps the enormity that she has yet to face.
"What do you celebrate?" she asks, still not facing it.
"We have created ZPM," he tells her, a little of the light returning to his eyes. "Have you also-?"
"No." She shakes her head sadly, then reaches up to touch her own face. "How did I-?"
But in the act of reaching, she tips the device on its side.
-
There is a flash of Zelenka's startled face, then blue, green, splashes of white, air.
She sits down hard.
"Miko?"
Dr. McKay's voice, calling. She struggles to her feet and follows it, responding to the desperate quality without conscious thought.
She finds him behind an air-vent, sees a pair of wide, bright blue eyes through the slats. "Get me out. Hurry." His voice almost cracks.
There is a screwdriver in the third drawer she checks. It is a mere half-minute (it would have been shorter if she could have used both hands) until she is pulling at the grill while he pushes frantically with bright red hands and hisses.
She grabs his elbow and pulls him out to land on top of her.
"How did you get out?" he asks, but she has tipped the device backwards-
-
In one universe, she finds Dumais alive. It was herself who was killed by the nanovirus. She is greeted as the returning prodigal, even earning a smile from Dr. McKay before she forgets and tries to hug Dumais. The woman's expression as she spins into blue reminds her of her own reflection in the mirror until very recently.
In another, the Wraith are defeated. Another finds her walking through empty halls far beneath the ocean, dark corridors that refuse to light. Again and again the dizzying colors until she wakes once to find herself lying on an infirmary bed with concerned, half-familiar faces around her.
"Miko Kusanagi," she gasps. "Atlantis Expedition." She has no serial number to give.
"Relax," says Colonel Sumner gently. "We're not going to hurt you."
"How did you get here?" This is Simpson, eager. Dr. Keller hovers in the background and shakes her head.
"I want to go home," Miko whispers, and closes her eyes.
A few dozen times, she has stayed long enough to hear most or even all of an explanation - how they beat the Wraith, how they got the satellite to work, how to hook up the naquadah generators to do things she never thought needed to be done, how they reprogrammed the nanites. She has hoarded these things, but she cannot feel they are useful so much as they are anchors, reasons. She wants to go home. She pretends it is with a desire to help.
Every time she travels, it seems she gets further away.
She lies very still in her hospital bed and waits for these near-strangers to leave her alone. Why Zelenka and Dr. McKay are not here she does not know. She can only fear things like floods and explosions and things that go wrong, wrong, wrong, so that even the comfort of a mind that grasps instantly the enormities of her place, even that is taken from her. She has not slept, she thinks, in days.
"Pssst. Mika."
She opens her eyes.
Dr. McKay is standing by her bed, looking down at her with bright eyes. Zelenka's back is to her - he's looking out the crack in her privacy curtain - but she can tell it is him from the way his hair sticks up in the back.
"Miki," Dr. McKay says again. "That is your name, right?"
"Miko," she says.
"You're a traveller." He is not asking, merely confirming. She feels her whole body relax.
"Yes."
"From Atlantis. Another Atlantis."
"Yes."
"Is that the device?"
She looks at her hand, but carefully does not lift it. He nods, taking that for confirmation. "How do you work it?"
She explains. She starts with short sentences, a scattering of words pulled out by his crisp nods and Zelenka's darting, wide-eyed glances, but soon the whole story is spilling out - still in order, she would never insult her own or his intelligence by giving disorganized evidence - but with increasing despair until Zelenka moves across the tiny space to take her empty hand in his.
"I am Radek, and this is-"
"Dr. McKay. Yes. The head of my expedition."
Dr. McKay's eyes shine and his mouth twists up. "See there, Radek? The time will come."
"Rescue brave princess first," Zelenka says. "Plot world domination later."
"Yes, yes." Dr. McKay's hand waves away the point. "I think the solution is pretty clear. Surprising no one thought of it before. Still, since we can't test the effects in-house, I'll give you a sequence of variations to try. If none of them work, well. Find another me, I guess."
She cannot keep it in. Her laugh rings out.
Dr. McKay rolls his eyes. Zelenka puts a hand over her mouth, pursing his lips in a shushing motion. It looks oddly young on his face.
Zelenka's other hand is busy fishing in his pocket for a pen and paper, which he hands over to Dr. McKay's snapping fingers without missing a beat. "Do not be afraid," he says, as Dr. McKay scribbles frantically - Miko is glad she has years of practice deciphering his letters. She looks Zelenka in the eye and says, "I'm not."
"Here comes Keller," Dr. McKay mutters. He stuffs the piece of paper in Miko's pocket, along with the pen (to cross off variations, she realizes - and the implications of that catch her, because the Dr. McKay she knows always thinks his first idea will be right).
"One, two, three," says Zelenka, and Dr. McKay takes her other hand, the one with the device, and they lift in unison, putting her hands side by side.
"Transfer the device to your left hand without tipping it. Come on, Miko. You can do this."
She can hear footsteps. She closes her eyes and uses her thumb to slide the device, bit by bit, across the surface of these hands she once thought of as smooth, but now knows are bumpy with muscles and tendons, whirled by prints, criss-crossed by lines.
Then the device is in her left hand and Dr. Keller is throwing back the curtain, saying, "What are you two doing in-"
Miko tips the device sideways.
-
It is never that simple.
She goes backwards, through blue shading to green, still with splashes of white at the end like the inevitable bright light at the end of the tunnel, and sees faces becoming more and more familiar, more and more themselves. Dr. McKay becomes more arrogant, Zelenka more skittish. Simpson recedes until she is just another ponytail in the lab. Dumais disappears.
Miko feels more and more herself, although she is tired, bone-deep exhausted.
Almost, she overshoots. There is a moment when she has just broken the surface, is just about to dive back down again, when Zelenka's voice startles her into dropping the device.
It smashes on the floor.
She is standing there, staring at it, when his arms come around her shoulders and lift her bodily into the air.
"Miko," he says as she gasps and flails for a handhold. "Do not ever, and I repeat, ever-"
"Leave her alone, Radek," says Dr. McKay. His voice sounds a bit hoarse. "If anyone's going to yell at her, it'll be me."
"Then yell," says Zelenka.
"You know what?" Dr. McKay stalks across the lab to stare down at the fragments of the device. "I don't think I will."
"I know how to build a ZPM," Miko says quietly. It's a peace offering, like cake.
Dr. McKay's head shoots up, his blue eyes widening. "Oh, now that's-"
Zelenka whoops.
Title: Diving Through the Universe
Author: the old briar pipe
Characters: Miko, Zelenka, McKay, various
Rating: G
Word Count: ~1600
A/N: Totally inspired by the Moody Blues ("The Best Way to Travel"). There are no overt pairings in here, but you can see whatever you want. Various AUs implied.
-
"It does not appear to be harmful," Zelenka is saying when Miko turns the device sideways and disappears.
-
It's not the bright green sensation of travelling through a wormhole, but deep blue with flashes of white. She breaks the surface with a gasp and opens her eyes.
She is in Atlantis.
Actually, she's still in the lab.
The lighting is dim, most of the workstation lamps off, but there is a festive atmosphere nonetheless. Mostly it consists of streamers made of colored plastic, the kind that wraps their equipment pallets from the Daedalus. Also, someone has drawn smiley faces on all the whiteboards. Someone with terrible drawing skills but much enthusiasm.
"Kusanagi!" calls Zelenka, noticing her from across the room. "Come, come, the cake will be gone, yes?"
"Cake?"
"You did not hear? No, you do not hear Rodney's voice unless he complains. Yes, cake. Many kinds." He beams as if this is a present directly from him to Miko, the secret of cake.
She moves across the lab to join him.
"-Japanese fruitcake, lemon - I believe someone bribed the cooks - a thing called pound cake, and chocolate of course-"
He stops, speechless, staring at her.
"Cake?" she asks.
"Your scars - where are...?" His eyes flicker, looking at her, not looking at her. "You are not Dr. Kusanagi?"
"I-" she whispers, because she is, even if the strange moments of blue-and-whiteness still haunt her.
"In your hand. What is?" She holds it up; his eyebrows draw down. "It does not appear-"
She claps a hand over his mouth. She doesn't know what caused the shift, but she is scientist enough to believe in superstition. Or rather, to understand that superstition is instinct's way of telling you not to be a fool.
He stares at her, her tiny hand covering almost half his face. Blushing, she lets it drop. "That is what you said before. Last time."
He nods. He understands. In one swoop, without explanation, he grasps the enormity that she has yet to face.
"What do you celebrate?" she asks, still not facing it.
"We have created ZPM," he tells her, a little of the light returning to his eyes. "Have you also-?"
"No." She shakes her head sadly, then reaches up to touch her own face. "How did I-?"
But in the act of reaching, she tips the device on its side.
-
There is a flash of Zelenka's startled face, then blue, green, splashes of white, air.
She sits down hard.
"Miko?"
Dr. McKay's voice, calling. She struggles to her feet and follows it, responding to the desperate quality without conscious thought.
She finds him behind an air-vent, sees a pair of wide, bright blue eyes through the slats. "Get me out. Hurry." His voice almost cracks.
There is a screwdriver in the third drawer she checks. It is a mere half-minute (it would have been shorter if she could have used both hands) until she is pulling at the grill while he pushes frantically with bright red hands and hisses.
She grabs his elbow and pulls him out to land on top of her.
"How did you get out?" he asks, but she has tipped the device backwards-
-
In one universe, she finds Dumais alive. It was herself who was killed by the nanovirus. She is greeted as the returning prodigal, even earning a smile from Dr. McKay before she forgets and tries to hug Dumais. The woman's expression as she spins into blue reminds her of her own reflection in the mirror until very recently.
In another, the Wraith are defeated. Another finds her walking through empty halls far beneath the ocean, dark corridors that refuse to light. Again and again the dizzying colors until she wakes once to find herself lying on an infirmary bed with concerned, half-familiar faces around her.
"Miko Kusanagi," she gasps. "Atlantis Expedition." She has no serial number to give.
"Relax," says Colonel Sumner gently. "We're not going to hurt you."
"How did you get here?" This is Simpson, eager. Dr. Keller hovers in the background and shakes her head.
"I want to go home," Miko whispers, and closes her eyes.
A few dozen times, she has stayed long enough to hear most or even all of an explanation - how they beat the Wraith, how they got the satellite to work, how to hook up the naquadah generators to do things she never thought needed to be done, how they reprogrammed the nanites. She has hoarded these things, but she cannot feel they are useful so much as they are anchors, reasons. She wants to go home. She pretends it is with a desire to help.
Every time she travels, it seems she gets further away.
She lies very still in her hospital bed and waits for these near-strangers to leave her alone. Why Zelenka and Dr. McKay are not here she does not know. She can only fear things like floods and explosions and things that go wrong, wrong, wrong, so that even the comfort of a mind that grasps instantly the enormities of her place, even that is taken from her. She has not slept, she thinks, in days.
"Pssst. Mika."
She opens her eyes.
Dr. McKay is standing by her bed, looking down at her with bright eyes. Zelenka's back is to her - he's looking out the crack in her privacy curtain - but she can tell it is him from the way his hair sticks up in the back.
"Miki," Dr. McKay says again. "That is your name, right?"
"Miko," she says.
"You're a traveller." He is not asking, merely confirming. She feels her whole body relax.
"Yes."
"From Atlantis. Another Atlantis."
"Yes."
"Is that the device?"
She looks at her hand, but carefully does not lift it. He nods, taking that for confirmation. "How do you work it?"
She explains. She starts with short sentences, a scattering of words pulled out by his crisp nods and Zelenka's darting, wide-eyed glances, but soon the whole story is spilling out - still in order, she would never insult her own or his intelligence by giving disorganized evidence - but with increasing despair until Zelenka moves across the tiny space to take her empty hand in his.
"I am Radek, and this is-"
"Dr. McKay. Yes. The head of my expedition."
Dr. McKay's eyes shine and his mouth twists up. "See there, Radek? The time will come."
"Rescue brave princess first," Zelenka says. "Plot world domination later."
"Yes, yes." Dr. McKay's hand waves away the point. "I think the solution is pretty clear. Surprising no one thought of it before. Still, since we can't test the effects in-house, I'll give you a sequence of variations to try. If none of them work, well. Find another me, I guess."
She cannot keep it in. Her laugh rings out.
Dr. McKay rolls his eyes. Zelenka puts a hand over her mouth, pursing his lips in a shushing motion. It looks oddly young on his face.
Zelenka's other hand is busy fishing in his pocket for a pen and paper, which he hands over to Dr. McKay's snapping fingers without missing a beat. "Do not be afraid," he says, as Dr. McKay scribbles frantically - Miko is glad she has years of practice deciphering his letters. She looks Zelenka in the eye and says, "I'm not."
"Here comes Keller," Dr. McKay mutters. He stuffs the piece of paper in Miko's pocket, along with the pen (to cross off variations, she realizes - and the implications of that catch her, because the Dr. McKay she knows always thinks his first idea will be right).
"One, two, three," says Zelenka, and Dr. McKay takes her other hand, the one with the device, and they lift in unison, putting her hands side by side.
"Transfer the device to your left hand without tipping it. Come on, Miko. You can do this."
She can hear footsteps. She closes her eyes and uses her thumb to slide the device, bit by bit, across the surface of these hands she once thought of as smooth, but now knows are bumpy with muscles and tendons, whirled by prints, criss-crossed by lines.
Then the device is in her left hand and Dr. Keller is throwing back the curtain, saying, "What are you two doing in-"
Miko tips the device sideways.
-
It is never that simple.
She goes backwards, through blue shading to green, still with splashes of white at the end like the inevitable bright light at the end of the tunnel, and sees faces becoming more and more familiar, more and more themselves. Dr. McKay becomes more arrogant, Zelenka more skittish. Simpson recedes until she is just another ponytail in the lab. Dumais disappears.
Miko feels more and more herself, although she is tired, bone-deep exhausted.
Almost, she overshoots. There is a moment when she has just broken the surface, is just about to dive back down again, when Zelenka's voice startles her into dropping the device.
It smashes on the floor.
She is standing there, staring at it, when his arms come around her shoulders and lift her bodily into the air.
"Miko," he says as she gasps and flails for a handhold. "Do not ever, and I repeat, ever-"
"Leave her alone, Radek," says Dr. McKay. His voice sounds a bit hoarse. "If anyone's going to yell at her, it'll be me."
"Then yell," says Zelenka.
"You know what?" Dr. McKay stalks across the lab to stare down at the fragments of the device. "I don't think I will."
"I know how to build a ZPM," Miko says quietly. It's a peace offering, like cake.
Dr. McKay's head shoots up, his blue eyes widening. "Oh, now that's-"
Zelenka whoops.