(Leverage/SGA/SG1) The Ori Job for mistokath13
Title: The Ori Job
Author: infinimato
Fandoms: Leverage/Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1
Characters Alec Hardison, Nathan Ford, Parker, Eliot Spencer; Carter, John Sheppard, Teal'c, Teyla Emmagan
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2300
Spoilers: S9-10 for SG-1, none otherwise.
Warnings: This may offend religious people. It was not my intent. Sorry, I don't know where this idea came from. I may be insane.
Disclaimer: Stargate and Leverage belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to jaune_chat for the last minute beta
and firm beatings over the head where needed.
Summary: "Simply, Mr. Ford, we need help finding a rather unique book."
These two are just too pretty. Hardison thought, knowing that he had to check on them once they were back upstairs. The man was nearly slouched in his chair, but seemed to see everything going on in the bar. The woman next to him was equally alert but a bit more formal. Strange as they were, there was something very odd about the other two with them, as well, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
The two sitting across the table from him and Nate had introduced themselves as Samantha Carter and John Sheppard. The other two, called Teyla and Murray, sat at the table next to them with an equally
twitchy Eliot and Parker. Sophie had been called away at the last moment by an errand she refused to name.
"So, what can we do for you?" Nate asked sounding calm. Hardison caught that the two noticed Nate fidgeting with his glass.
"Simply, Mr. Ford, we need help finding a rather unique book," said Carter.
"Perhaps you should talk to a library," Nate replied. "I hear you can also find rare books on the internet these days, too."
Carter and Sheppard shared a glance, then Carter continued, "This is a very special book, Mr. Ford. It belongs to some rather difficult people. They use the book to incite acts of violence, often leading to the oppression and death of many."
Nate took a sip of his drink and put the glass back on the table. Spinning it around, he said, "The same can be said for just about any religious text on the planet."
"Hey-" Hardison started to interrupt, but then he felt Nate's hand on his knee. He looked over to see that Teyla and Murray had similarly narrowed eyes, and pondered that for a moment. He turned back just in time to see the clients share another glance.
"OK, look," said Sheppard, speaking up for the first time, "You're partly right. It is a religious text. But it's not a typical religion. Whole w-, uh, tribes are oppressed under these people.
It's one thing to want to follow a religion, but this is
enforced - you can follow the religion or they will kill you."
"And who has the book?" Nate asked.
"We're not quite sure. There's a rumour that it's in the hands of someone who collects religious items."
"And what's this book called?" Nate asked.
"The Book of Origin."
"Origin? Origin of what?" Parker asked. Nate shot her a look. Keep quiet, Hardison thought. Her and Eliot's job were to keep an eye on the pair across from them, nothing more.
"It's the text of a people called the Ori. Origin is their religion."
"Never heard of the Ori," Nate commented.
"They're trying to get a start of the religion around here," Carter said. "The few times they've tried to spread Origin here has failed, because, as you said, nobody's heard of them. So now they're threatening to start damaging buildings of other religions to get noticed."
"Now that's not right," Hardison blurted out.
"No, it's not," Carter replied, "which is why we need to get our hands on that book quickly. Rumours we've heard say they're targeting a church that has an elementary school attached. If they attack at the
wrong time, those kids could be at risk."
Sheppard added, "When you find the book, you should call us and not try to take it yourself."
"We can handle it," Nate pointed out. "That's why you came to us."
"It's not just a book," said Carter. "A normal Book of Origin is just a text. There's something special about this particular book. It can do kinda, um, strange things to people."
"I'm sure we'll be just fine," Nate said with confidence.
"We just don't want to see anyone hurt. These people can kill," Carter insisted. "Please, just call us and we'll do the actual extraction."
"You would be wise to listen to Samantha Carter," Murray said. Nate and Hardison just stared as the foursome got up and walked out.
-0-
"Colonel Samantha Carter," Hardison intoned, starting his presentation. "Highly decorated officer in the United States Air Force. Medals for saving lives and bravery, which is kinda weird given that her official post is at NORAD studying deep space telemetry. Sounds like a cover if I ever heard one."
Eliot rolled his eyes. "Not everything is a giant conspiracy, Hardison!"
"Lt Colonel John Sheppard, also US Air Force. Currently stationed at McMurdo base in Antarctica. Previously in the Gulf wars, was nearly booted out for disobeying orders, stories say he should have be a
private mopping floors-"
"Air Force doesn't have privates, Hardison!" Eliot snarled.
"You check for privates?" Parker asked him, not quite innocently.
"People," Nate said firmly. "Let's stay on track."
"Yeah," Hardison said. "Anyway, I dunno what he's doing in Antartica but he's also collecting a nice array of medals for bravery and combat and unless the penguins are heavily armed terrorists, something weird is going on. Plus these two are just way too pretty to be Air Force officers."
"Hardison has a point," Nate said, "Well, not about the pretty thing. These smell like cover stories. Plus, what is the Air Force doing looking for a religious text? Why hide who they really are when they
come talk to us?" Nate took a deep breath, the continued. "OK, what do you have on those other two, Teyla and Murray?"
"Just about nothing. Tried facial recognition, nothing. They refused drinks so we have no fingerprints. The closest I came is a story about a man who stopped a mugging a few years back. Looks kinda like
Murray but the name was different, and it said he was from some small country in Africa."
"That Murray guy has some specialized training," Eliot opined. "They all were cautious, watching us, but there's something in that guy's eyes."
"It's Teyla you have to worry about," Parker piped up. "She's the more dangerous one. She's kinda creepy." The others stared at her for a moment. If Parker finds her creepy there's definitely something odd going on, thought Hardison.
"Something about this is fishy," Eliot said. Hardison completely agreed.
"OK," Nate decided, "We're going to grab the book ourselves."
"Really? What about all the spooky death?" Parker asked.
"I think they're trying to scare us off of the book itself, and I want to know why. We're grabbing it ourselves. Now, what about this Ori religion?" Nate asked.
"Again, nothing. Google doesn't know them, Wikipedia, hell, I even searched on forums for weird religions and cults. I found nothing."
"Ok, Hardison, start researching who has collections of religious items, who might have-"
"Already done, Nate," Hardison interrupted. "I think our best bet is Paul Robinson."
"The tv preacher guy?" Parker asked. "Now he's creepy."
"Yeah," Hardison told her, "Even my Nana thought there was something odd about him."
"The question is, why doesn't the Air Force just go looking for the book itself?"
"Are you kidding?" Eliot replied, "If word got out that the US military was investigating well known religious people - especially some guy on the tv nearly every day - the media would hurt itself talking about it."
"Yeah, man, and everything gets shared on the Internet. It'd be crazy rumor central," Hardison added.
"So Hardison, what do you have on Robinson?" Nate asked.
Hardison started his presentation on the fairly well known televangelist with a penchant for collecting religious memorabilia.
-0-
In the end the easiest thing was to just ask after the book. Nate simply called and asked to see the "rare relic" that he'd heard Robinson had added to his collection. After being told brusquely that Robinson did not show his display to laymen, Nate quickly explained he was the assistant for a Reverend Hardison.
Hardison waited until Nate had disconnected before commenting that his Nana would be rolling over in her grave, rest her soul, about him pretending to be a preacher man.
But he was the one of them who could best do it. All he had to do was keep Robinson occupied while Parker grabbed the book.
-0-
He had been kept waiting for over an hour, and now that Robinson was in front of him he wanted nothing to do but bolt. Strange tattoos covered Robinson's skin, but the weirdest was how white he was. Not just pale, but white. White skin, white hair, white eyes.
"A couple more minutes," Nate's voice said in his ear. "Parker's almost got it."
"His eyes, Nate. Oh my God, his eyes!"
"There are no other Gods but the Ori," Robinson intoned. Flames suddenly appeared around him.
"It's just a magic trick. It's just a magic trick," Hardison chanted to himself, not sure whether to be awed or bolt out of the room.
"Hardison! What's going on?"
"Nothing, Nate, just a little, uh, fire, ya know, nothing odd."
"Hardison, get out of there now!" Eliot yelled.
"Has Parker-"
"He's right, Alec, get out of there!" Nate urged.
He didn't wait for Nate to tell him twice.
-0-
It was past 2 am, and the bar was long closed. They sat around one of the larger tables. Behind the bar was the book, in a simple briefcase, looking like something any bar regular might have left behind.
"Never seen a religious book glow like that," Hardison had pointed out, when it had been locked in the briefcase. "That ain't natural."
"We told you not to retrieve it yourself," Colonel Carter said, after Nate told them they had the book, and it was in a safe place.
The Air Force officers had shown up expecting to work on the plan to retrieve the book, and were not happy with this change. Murray had not joined them, but Teyla had, dressed in a leather top and skirt outfit that had Alec struggling to keep his tongue from falling out of his mouth. He glanced over to Eliot to only get a scowl in return.
"I thought you said the book was the key to stopping violence," Nate said.
"It's possible it had an effect on Robinson. He may have other ways of causing problems," Sheppard said, "and we don't want to find out what they are."
"But we have suspicions," Carter added. "We wanted to get a good look at him to find out if he's gone through any, er, changes lately."
"Yeah, about that," Hardison said, turning back to their clients. "What was with the eyes?"
Carter and Sheppard suddenly sat up straighter. "Did you actually get to see Robinson?" Carter demanded.
Hardison looked at Nate, who made a face, but then nodded. "Yeah," Hardison said quietly, "But he looked all freaky. What the hell- uh, you know, what happened to him?"
"Freaky how?" Sheppard asked.
"His face was all white, and he had these odd tattoos all over, and-"
"A staff?" Carter asked urgently. "Did he have a big staff with him?"
Eliot jumped to his feet, yelling, as the door crashed open, nearly exploding inward. Half a dozen men wearing simple black tee-shirts and pants came through the doorway followed by Robinson. Or whatever Robinson was now.
"You will return what you have stolen," Robinson intoned. "You will suffer the wrath of the true gods, the Ori, for your transgression."
"Crap," said Sam. Alec thought that was an understatement.
"Now what?" Sheppard asked her.
"It's not like I thought to bring an anti-prior device," Sam said.
"Well, there's all sorts of junk around here," John said, desperately, "Maybe you can make one?"
"Do I look like MacGyver?!" Sam retorted. "We're gonna have to figure this out on the fly."
A thought popped into Hardison's head. He heard Nate yelling at him as he bolted up the stairs.
Rummaging through a box of his things in the room Nate and the others used for storage, he grabbed the items he was looking for and ran back downstairs.
The fighting was intense. Both Eliot and Teyla had snapped a pool cue in half and were holding back most of Robinson's followers with similar stick-fighting styles. Sheppard and Carter were holding their
own. As the followers fell Robinson's staff would glow and the fallen man would get right back up. Nate, possibly wisely, was staying out of the battle and doing everything to keep Parker from jumping into the fray.
For some reason they were unable to attack Robinson. Strikes bounced right off of him. He simply stood there, healing his followers.
Hardison ran behind the bar and grabbed the briefcase, popping it open. Before anyone could react to the sudden glowing, he dropped in the Bible he'd been given at his confirmation, and on it poured a few drops from a vial of holy water he'd kept with the gift. Hardison backed away quickly as Robinson started to approach.
The Book of Origin began to glow even brighter and then burst into flames.
Robinson fainted.
The half dozen followers suddenly stopped in their tracks, clearly confused.
"He's alive," called Parker, who'd gone to check on the fallen Robinson.
Carter whipped out her cell phone.
-0-
Within minutes of her phone call, the bar had been filled with military guys. They looked more like Marines than Air Force, Eliot said in a quiet voice only he and Nate heard. They took away Robinson
and the other men, they helped clean up, then they took away the burned briefcase that had had the Book of Origin.
Carter had offered to have the door replaced, but Nate had turned her down. Alec suspected Nate was afraid of what strings might come with that.
"Can I ask something?" Hardison asked the two officers.
"You can ask," Sheppard said. "We can't guarantee an answer."
"What did the Air Force want with that book? And what really was up with Robinson? I mean, it was like he was a space alien or something."
Sheppard and Carter shared a grin. Still grinning, they left the bar.
'Deep space telemetry', my ass, Hardison thought. He was going to try to keep tabs on those two, until he figured out what they had really just done.
-END-
Prompt:
The signup said, "Leverage/Stargate Atlantis Scenario: Let's go steal a hiveship". And then it said, "I'm also familiar with Stargate SG-1 characters, so if those would be included (even if I just listed SGA)
that's perfectly great too :)." And then this fell out of my brain.
Author: infinimato
Fandoms: Leverage/Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1
Characters Alec Hardison, Nathan Ford, Parker, Eliot Spencer; Carter, John Sheppard, Teal'c, Teyla Emmagan
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2300
Spoilers: S9-10 for SG-1, none otherwise.
Warnings: This may offend religious people. It was not my intent. Sorry, I don't know where this idea came from. I may be insane.
Disclaimer: Stargate and Leverage belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to jaune_chat for the last minute beta
and firm beatings over the head where needed.
Summary: "Simply, Mr. Ford, we need help finding a rather unique book."
These two are just too pretty. Hardison thought, knowing that he had to check on them once they were back upstairs. The man was nearly slouched in his chair, but seemed to see everything going on in the bar. The woman next to him was equally alert but a bit more formal. Strange as they were, there was something very odd about the other two with them, as well, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
The two sitting across the table from him and Nate had introduced themselves as Samantha Carter and John Sheppard. The other two, called Teyla and Murray, sat at the table next to them with an equally
twitchy Eliot and Parker. Sophie had been called away at the last moment by an errand she refused to name.
"So, what can we do for you?" Nate asked sounding calm. Hardison caught that the two noticed Nate fidgeting with his glass.
"Simply, Mr. Ford, we need help finding a rather unique book," said Carter.
"Perhaps you should talk to a library," Nate replied. "I hear you can also find rare books on the internet these days, too."
Carter and Sheppard shared a glance, then Carter continued, "This is a very special book, Mr. Ford. It belongs to some rather difficult people. They use the book to incite acts of violence, often leading to the oppression and death of many."
Nate took a sip of his drink and put the glass back on the table. Spinning it around, he said, "The same can be said for just about any religious text on the planet."
"Hey-" Hardison started to interrupt, but then he felt Nate's hand on his knee. He looked over to see that Teyla and Murray had similarly narrowed eyes, and pondered that for a moment. He turned back just in time to see the clients share another glance.
"OK, look," said Sheppard, speaking up for the first time, "You're partly right. It is a religious text. But it's not a typical religion. Whole w-, uh, tribes are oppressed under these people.
It's one thing to want to follow a religion, but this is
enforced - you can follow the religion or they will kill you."
"And who has the book?" Nate asked.
"We're not quite sure. There's a rumour that it's in the hands of someone who collects religious items."
"And what's this book called?" Nate asked.
"The Book of Origin."
"Origin? Origin of what?" Parker asked. Nate shot her a look. Keep quiet, Hardison thought. Her and Eliot's job were to keep an eye on the pair across from them, nothing more.
"It's the text of a people called the Ori. Origin is their religion."
"Never heard of the Ori," Nate commented.
"They're trying to get a start of the religion around here," Carter said. "The few times they've tried to spread Origin here has failed, because, as you said, nobody's heard of them. So now they're threatening to start damaging buildings of other religions to get noticed."
"Now that's not right," Hardison blurted out.
"No, it's not," Carter replied, "which is why we need to get our hands on that book quickly. Rumours we've heard say they're targeting a church that has an elementary school attached. If they attack at the
wrong time, those kids could be at risk."
Sheppard added, "When you find the book, you should call us and not try to take it yourself."
"We can handle it," Nate pointed out. "That's why you came to us."
"It's not just a book," said Carter. "A normal Book of Origin is just a text. There's something special about this particular book. It can do kinda, um, strange things to people."
"I'm sure we'll be just fine," Nate said with confidence.
"We just don't want to see anyone hurt. These people can kill," Carter insisted. "Please, just call us and we'll do the actual extraction."
"You would be wise to listen to Samantha Carter," Murray said. Nate and Hardison just stared as the foursome got up and walked out.
-0-
"Colonel Samantha Carter," Hardison intoned, starting his presentation. "Highly decorated officer in the United States Air Force. Medals for saving lives and bravery, which is kinda weird given that her official post is at NORAD studying deep space telemetry. Sounds like a cover if I ever heard one."
Eliot rolled his eyes. "Not everything is a giant conspiracy, Hardison!"
"Lt Colonel John Sheppard, also US Air Force. Currently stationed at McMurdo base in Antarctica. Previously in the Gulf wars, was nearly booted out for disobeying orders, stories say he should have be a
private mopping floors-"
"Air Force doesn't have privates, Hardison!" Eliot snarled.
"You check for privates?" Parker asked him, not quite innocently.
"People," Nate said firmly. "Let's stay on track."
"Yeah," Hardison said. "Anyway, I dunno what he's doing in Antartica but he's also collecting a nice array of medals for bravery and combat and unless the penguins are heavily armed terrorists, something weird is going on. Plus these two are just way too pretty to be Air Force officers."
"Hardison has a point," Nate said, "Well, not about the pretty thing. These smell like cover stories. Plus, what is the Air Force doing looking for a religious text? Why hide who they really are when they
come talk to us?" Nate took a deep breath, the continued. "OK, what do you have on those other two, Teyla and Murray?"
"Just about nothing. Tried facial recognition, nothing. They refused drinks so we have no fingerprints. The closest I came is a story about a man who stopped a mugging a few years back. Looks kinda like
Murray but the name was different, and it said he was from some small country in Africa."
"That Murray guy has some specialized training," Eliot opined. "They all were cautious, watching us, but there's something in that guy's eyes."
"It's Teyla you have to worry about," Parker piped up. "She's the more dangerous one. She's kinda creepy." The others stared at her for a moment. If Parker finds her creepy there's definitely something odd going on, thought Hardison.
"Something about this is fishy," Eliot said. Hardison completely agreed.
"OK," Nate decided, "We're going to grab the book ourselves."
"Really? What about all the spooky death?" Parker asked.
"I think they're trying to scare us off of the book itself, and I want to know why. We're grabbing it ourselves. Now, what about this Ori religion?" Nate asked.
"Again, nothing. Google doesn't know them, Wikipedia, hell, I even searched on forums for weird religions and cults. I found nothing."
"Ok, Hardison, start researching who has collections of religious items, who might have-"
"Already done, Nate," Hardison interrupted. "I think our best bet is Paul Robinson."
"The tv preacher guy?" Parker asked. "Now he's creepy."
"Yeah," Hardison told her, "Even my Nana thought there was something odd about him."
"The question is, why doesn't the Air Force just go looking for the book itself?"
"Are you kidding?" Eliot replied, "If word got out that the US military was investigating well known religious people - especially some guy on the tv nearly every day - the media would hurt itself talking about it."
"Yeah, man, and everything gets shared on the Internet. It'd be crazy rumor central," Hardison added.
"So Hardison, what do you have on Robinson?" Nate asked.
Hardison started his presentation on the fairly well known televangelist with a penchant for collecting religious memorabilia.
-0-
In the end the easiest thing was to just ask after the book. Nate simply called and asked to see the "rare relic" that he'd heard Robinson had added to his collection. After being told brusquely that Robinson did not show his display to laymen, Nate quickly explained he was the assistant for a Reverend Hardison.
Hardison waited until Nate had disconnected before commenting that his Nana would be rolling over in her grave, rest her soul, about him pretending to be a preacher man.
But he was the one of them who could best do it. All he had to do was keep Robinson occupied while Parker grabbed the book.
-0-
He had been kept waiting for over an hour, and now that Robinson was in front of him he wanted nothing to do but bolt. Strange tattoos covered Robinson's skin, but the weirdest was how white he was. Not just pale, but white. White skin, white hair, white eyes.
"A couple more minutes," Nate's voice said in his ear. "Parker's almost got it."
"His eyes, Nate. Oh my God, his eyes!"
"There are no other Gods but the Ori," Robinson intoned. Flames suddenly appeared around him.
"It's just a magic trick. It's just a magic trick," Hardison chanted to himself, not sure whether to be awed or bolt out of the room.
"Hardison! What's going on?"
"Nothing, Nate, just a little, uh, fire, ya know, nothing odd."
"Hardison, get out of there now!" Eliot yelled.
"Has Parker-"
"He's right, Alec, get out of there!" Nate urged.
He didn't wait for Nate to tell him twice.
-0-
It was past 2 am, and the bar was long closed. They sat around one of the larger tables. Behind the bar was the book, in a simple briefcase, looking like something any bar regular might have left behind.
"Never seen a religious book glow like that," Hardison had pointed out, when it had been locked in the briefcase. "That ain't natural."
"We told you not to retrieve it yourself," Colonel Carter said, after Nate told them they had the book, and it was in a safe place.
The Air Force officers had shown up expecting to work on the plan to retrieve the book, and were not happy with this change. Murray had not joined them, but Teyla had, dressed in a leather top and skirt outfit that had Alec struggling to keep his tongue from falling out of his mouth. He glanced over to Eliot to only get a scowl in return.
"I thought you said the book was the key to stopping violence," Nate said.
"It's possible it had an effect on Robinson. He may have other ways of causing problems," Sheppard said, "and we don't want to find out what they are."
"But we have suspicions," Carter added. "We wanted to get a good look at him to find out if he's gone through any, er, changes lately."
"Yeah, about that," Hardison said, turning back to their clients. "What was with the eyes?"
Carter and Sheppard suddenly sat up straighter. "Did you actually get to see Robinson?" Carter demanded.
Hardison looked at Nate, who made a face, but then nodded. "Yeah," Hardison said quietly, "But he looked all freaky. What the hell- uh, you know, what happened to him?"
"Freaky how?" Sheppard asked.
"His face was all white, and he had these odd tattoos all over, and-"
"A staff?" Carter asked urgently. "Did he have a big staff with him?"
Eliot jumped to his feet, yelling, as the door crashed open, nearly exploding inward. Half a dozen men wearing simple black tee-shirts and pants came through the doorway followed by Robinson. Or whatever Robinson was now.
"You will return what you have stolen," Robinson intoned. "You will suffer the wrath of the true gods, the Ori, for your transgression."
"Crap," said Sam. Alec thought that was an understatement.
"Now what?" Sheppard asked her.
"It's not like I thought to bring an anti-prior device," Sam said.
"Well, there's all sorts of junk around here," John said, desperately, "Maybe you can make one?"
"Do I look like MacGyver?!" Sam retorted. "We're gonna have to figure this out on the fly."
A thought popped into Hardison's head. He heard Nate yelling at him as he bolted up the stairs.
Rummaging through a box of his things in the room Nate and the others used for storage, he grabbed the items he was looking for and ran back downstairs.
The fighting was intense. Both Eliot and Teyla had snapped a pool cue in half and were holding back most of Robinson's followers with similar stick-fighting styles. Sheppard and Carter were holding their
own. As the followers fell Robinson's staff would glow and the fallen man would get right back up. Nate, possibly wisely, was staying out of the battle and doing everything to keep Parker from jumping into the fray.
For some reason they were unable to attack Robinson. Strikes bounced right off of him. He simply stood there, healing his followers.
Hardison ran behind the bar and grabbed the briefcase, popping it open. Before anyone could react to the sudden glowing, he dropped in the Bible he'd been given at his confirmation, and on it poured a few drops from a vial of holy water he'd kept with the gift. Hardison backed away quickly as Robinson started to approach.
The Book of Origin began to glow even brighter and then burst into flames.
Robinson fainted.
The half dozen followers suddenly stopped in their tracks, clearly confused.
"He's alive," called Parker, who'd gone to check on the fallen Robinson.
Carter whipped out her cell phone.
-0-
Within minutes of her phone call, the bar had been filled with military guys. They looked more like Marines than Air Force, Eliot said in a quiet voice only he and Nate heard. They took away Robinson
and the other men, they helped clean up, then they took away the burned briefcase that had had the Book of Origin.
Carter had offered to have the door replaced, but Nate had turned her down. Alec suspected Nate was afraid of what strings might come with that.
"Can I ask something?" Hardison asked the two officers.
"You can ask," Sheppard said. "We can't guarantee an answer."
"What did the Air Force want with that book? And what really was up with Robinson? I mean, it was like he was a space alien or something."
Sheppard and Carter shared a grin. Still grinning, they left the bar.
'Deep space telemetry', my ass, Hardison thought. He was going to try to keep tabs on those two, until he figured out what they had really just done.
-END-
Prompt:
The signup said, "Leverage/Stargate Atlantis Scenario: Let's go steal a hiveship". And then it said, "I'm also familiar with Stargate SG-1 characters, so if those would be included (even if I just listed SGA)
that's perfectly great too :)." And then this fell out of my brain.