Fic: Hymn of the Big Wheel; SGA; Elizabeth-centric.
Hymn of the Big Wheel
'She only wished the Marines had actually made it back with the coffee.'
Author's Notes: Written for naushika for jennyo's Female Gen Ficathon. Set early S2.
The prompt was Elizabeth and Teyla get stuck together for an evening. I sadly didn't take such a literal approach to this.
<<<<
"I think that if, in the future, I have the desire to roam about when I cannot sleep I will resist the urge."
Elizabeth couldn't help it, she snorted out a laugh from where she was sitting, hunched over the command controls for the 'gateroom of Atlantis's top spire. Her tinkering wasn't any use regardless, though she'd versed herself enough in Ancient over the last year to know what the controls were saying back at her.
It was sad how much it reminded her of the time her laptop had died in the middle of a flight to Egypt. At the time she'd been unable to do much more than stare in frustration at the bright blue screen and the words 'Error: Windows cannot read from this disk.' It'd taken four days of a replacement laptop, and the entire loss of her notes on every meeting two weeks prior to that, to teach her to remember to back up her files.
Right at the moment she longed for the days of not understanding her computer properly.
"I'm sure Rodney will have this fixed shortly," she reassured Teyla, leaning back from the console and relaxing into her chair. At the moment, her tinkering would only make things worse. Instead of the gateroom being locked down perhaps the entire facility would be locked down.
"Have you already called for Dr. McKay?" her erstwhile companion asked, folding her hands neatly together in her lap. Teyla obviously knew better than to even try.
"No. The lockdown is blocking all radio signals." Of all the times for this to happen, after the computer science team had linked the expeditions' radios signals with Atlantis itself. She could picture Rodney's excited expression as he'd explained, quickly and with more words she wasn't sure about the meaning of than ones she was, that it would help maintain contact at all times and be harder to disable. Of course it would. "But the...." Now Elizabeth stopped a moment to think about the emblem that had been embedded in the Atlantis patches the two men had wore and finished with, "The Marines only went for coffee and they'll notice when they can't get back in and we can't be reached."
She hoped.
"I see." Teyla reached over and ran her hand along the darkened console, looking down through the clear glass to where the Stargate sat, quiet and quiescent, like an idol to be worshipped.
Elizabeth was certain several civilizations, in both galaxies, worshipped it as such.
"My people would be sorely disappointed to see the condition of Atlantis, Dr. Weir. Would their assistance be helpful in the general repairs that need to be done? Even the children, such as Jinto, could fulfill simple errand duties."
What would be helpful was if Rodney could focus long enough to get any of the repairs necessary done. Not that Radek and the others, especially Radek, weren't doing their absolute best but Atlantis had too few personnel to lose even one at the moment. But lost Dr. McKay they had, to withdrawal and less temperance than usual.
"I don't think that's necessary yet, Teyla. We're still not sure exactly what was damaged," she replied, only wishing the Athosians could help with this.
Teyla nodded slowly at her reply. "Simply ask and several will volunteer." Her lips quirked up a little in a small smile. "Though some may come with ulterior motives." She nodded toward the Stargate sitting in front of them.
"Thank you. And how are your people resettling? You said that they'd nearly finished moving back in when we had a chance to talk, a few days ago."
"We --" She paused slightly and Elizabeth could see, briefly, how much the shift of pronoun cost her. "They have settled in completely and resumed the work on the harvest. It is long and hard labor, I'm afraid. We planted enough to carry both of our societies and we were counting on some help promised to us during the harvest." She looked around the control room and down, toward the scorch marks on the walls. "Now that is impossible."
They both went silent at that. The death tolls had been the worst in the soldiers, though even a few of the civilians that had remained behind had been touched in different ways. One of Elizabeth's best botanists was dead. But it did leave any labor shorthanded and asking the scientists to help would have caused more trouble than it solved for anything practical to be done.
If she didn't think that she'd be more in the way than not, Elizabeth would have volunteered to help herself.
Her head drew up at the sudden, unmistakable sound of someone grappling with the outermost doors of the control room. A moment later she could hear Major Sheppard's voice, loud and half-panicked, calling through the thick material. "Elizabeth! Teyla! Are you there?"
Teyla answered first, already moving towards the door, her voice loud and echoing in the nearly empty room. "Yes, Major, we are... as well as can be expected in this situation. However, we are stuck in here."
"Yeah. We, uh, figured that out. Rodney says it'll be a bit, some... wires got crossed." A pause, then, "Yeah, yeah, I know it's not really that simple but -- Not now, Rodney. Yeah, he says it'll be, uh, an hour, maybe. Ow! Maybe two!"
"I'm sure Dr. Weir and I can manage until you and Dr. McKay are done," Teyla called back, only a touch of irony in her voice. She looked at Elizabeth evenly. "Perhaps now would be a good time to work out our trade agreements for the crops."
Elizabeth shifted, trying not to show her discomfort in her shoulders or the line of her back. Tells like that could give away entire negotiating positions and there were few people that she'd met in her career with quite the knack for reading people's movements like Teyla had.
She'd been hoping to at least have a nice, long bath before this discussion was brought up. With a sigh of want, she realized that if she'd only made it to Fran Gershlick's rooms earlier that day she could have had that. For some reason, one which Elizabeth was grateful for, Fran, a German scientist, had decided to smuggle an entire box of bubblebath onto the expedition. For friends, she was even willing to share it.
It certainly trumped the game system that Miko Kusanagi had hidden in her technical equipment, as far as Elizabeth was concerned, though she still shared the chocolate she'd smuggled to Atlantis with the Japanese scientist. If only because it always made her smile to know that the scientist Dr. McKay easily walked over the most of all his team was the one getting exactly what he'd whined about not having for months.
"My people will agree to an even distribution of the crops, proportional to population," Teyla began, settling easily in her chair with her back straight and a blank -- if interested -- expression on her face.
Elizabeth smothered another sigh and relaxed herself as she settled in for what would likely be a very challenging, if fun, negotiation. She only wished the Marines had actually made it back with the coffee.
>>>>
Thoughts? Questions? Critiques? I welcome all comments.
- Andrea.
'She only wished the Marines had actually made it back with the coffee.'
Author's Notes: Written for naushika for jennyo's Female Gen Ficathon. Set early S2.
The prompt was Elizabeth and Teyla get stuck together for an evening. I sadly didn't take such a literal approach to this.
<<<<
"I think that if, in the future, I have the desire to roam about when I cannot sleep I will resist the urge."
Elizabeth couldn't help it, she snorted out a laugh from where she was sitting, hunched over the command controls for the 'gateroom of Atlantis's top spire. Her tinkering wasn't any use regardless, though she'd versed herself enough in Ancient over the last year to know what the controls were saying back at her.
It was sad how much it reminded her of the time her laptop had died in the middle of a flight to Egypt. At the time she'd been unable to do much more than stare in frustration at the bright blue screen and the words 'Error: Windows cannot read from this disk.' It'd taken four days of a replacement laptop, and the entire loss of her notes on every meeting two weeks prior to that, to teach her to remember to back up her files.
Right at the moment she longed for the days of not understanding her computer properly.
"I'm sure Rodney will have this fixed shortly," she reassured Teyla, leaning back from the console and relaxing into her chair. At the moment, her tinkering would only make things worse. Instead of the gateroom being locked down perhaps the entire facility would be locked down.
"Have you already called for Dr. McKay?" her erstwhile companion asked, folding her hands neatly together in her lap. Teyla obviously knew better than to even try.
"No. The lockdown is blocking all radio signals." Of all the times for this to happen, after the computer science team had linked the expeditions' radios signals with Atlantis itself. She could picture Rodney's excited expression as he'd explained, quickly and with more words she wasn't sure about the meaning of than ones she was, that it would help maintain contact at all times and be harder to disable. Of course it would. "But the...." Now Elizabeth stopped a moment to think about the emblem that had been embedded in the Atlantis patches the two men had wore and finished with, "The Marines only went for coffee and they'll notice when they can't get back in and we can't be reached."
She hoped.
"I see." Teyla reached over and ran her hand along the darkened console, looking down through the clear glass to where the Stargate sat, quiet and quiescent, like an idol to be worshipped.
Elizabeth was certain several civilizations, in both galaxies, worshipped it as such.
"My people would be sorely disappointed to see the condition of Atlantis, Dr. Weir. Would their assistance be helpful in the general repairs that need to be done? Even the children, such as Jinto, could fulfill simple errand duties."
What would be helpful was if Rodney could focus long enough to get any of the repairs necessary done. Not that Radek and the others, especially Radek, weren't doing their absolute best but Atlantis had too few personnel to lose even one at the moment. But lost Dr. McKay they had, to withdrawal and less temperance than usual.
"I don't think that's necessary yet, Teyla. We're still not sure exactly what was damaged," she replied, only wishing the Athosians could help with this.
Teyla nodded slowly at her reply. "Simply ask and several will volunteer." Her lips quirked up a little in a small smile. "Though some may come with ulterior motives." She nodded toward the Stargate sitting in front of them.
"Thank you. And how are your people resettling? You said that they'd nearly finished moving back in when we had a chance to talk, a few days ago."
"We --" She paused slightly and Elizabeth could see, briefly, how much the shift of pronoun cost her. "They have settled in completely and resumed the work on the harvest. It is long and hard labor, I'm afraid. We planted enough to carry both of our societies and we were counting on some help promised to us during the harvest." She looked around the control room and down, toward the scorch marks on the walls. "Now that is impossible."
They both went silent at that. The death tolls had been the worst in the soldiers, though even a few of the civilians that had remained behind had been touched in different ways. One of Elizabeth's best botanists was dead. But it did leave any labor shorthanded and asking the scientists to help would have caused more trouble than it solved for anything practical to be done.
If she didn't think that she'd be more in the way than not, Elizabeth would have volunteered to help herself.
Her head drew up at the sudden, unmistakable sound of someone grappling with the outermost doors of the control room. A moment later she could hear Major Sheppard's voice, loud and half-panicked, calling through the thick material. "Elizabeth! Teyla! Are you there?"
Teyla answered first, already moving towards the door, her voice loud and echoing in the nearly empty room. "Yes, Major, we are... as well as can be expected in this situation. However, we are stuck in here."
"Yeah. We, uh, figured that out. Rodney says it'll be a bit, some... wires got crossed." A pause, then, "Yeah, yeah, I know it's not really that simple but -- Not now, Rodney. Yeah, he says it'll be, uh, an hour, maybe. Ow! Maybe two!"
"I'm sure Dr. Weir and I can manage until you and Dr. McKay are done," Teyla called back, only a touch of irony in her voice. She looked at Elizabeth evenly. "Perhaps now would be a good time to work out our trade agreements for the crops."
Elizabeth shifted, trying not to show her discomfort in her shoulders or the line of her back. Tells like that could give away entire negotiating positions and there were few people that she'd met in her career with quite the knack for reading people's movements like Teyla had.
She'd been hoping to at least have a nice, long bath before this discussion was brought up. With a sigh of want, she realized that if she'd only made it to Fran Gershlick's rooms earlier that day she could have had that. For some reason, one which Elizabeth was grateful for, Fran, a German scientist, had decided to smuggle an entire box of bubblebath onto the expedition. For friends, she was even willing to share it.
It certainly trumped the game system that Miko Kusanagi had hidden in her technical equipment, as far as Elizabeth was concerned, though she still shared the chocolate she'd smuggled to Atlantis with the Japanese scientist. If only because it always made her smile to know that the scientist Dr. McKay easily walked over the most of all his team was the one getting exactly what he'd whined about not having for months.
"My people will agree to an even distribution of the crops, proportional to population," Teyla began, settling easily in her chair with her back straight and a blank -- if interested -- expression on her face.
Elizabeth smothered another sigh and relaxed herself as she settled in for what would likely be a very challenging, if fun, negotiation. She only wished the Marines had actually made it back with the coffee.
>>>>
Thoughts? Questions? Critiques? I welcome all comments.
- Andrea.