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How it Goes (9 Ways Things Can Go Wrong Off-World) - Stargate: Atlantis - Gen (Sheppard's Team) - Words: 1,900
Written for the Scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes Challenge
Summary: Sometimes the missions they go on don't really further what they know about the Pegasus Galaxy. 9 Drabbles.
Content Notes: Captivity, threatening situations. PG-13
A Pair
"All in," John said after carefully assessing each of his teammates. After teaching Teyla and then Ronon poker, it had become a fairly standard way to pass time when it was too dark to safely go back to the 'gate. It had taken him a little time to learn everyone's tells, but John was fairly confident that he would be taking the pot, which included two bars of chocolate, a small knife and three packets of instant coffee. John didn't particularly need any of those things, but they were useful for trade and bribes.
They turned their cards over on the rock that was functioning as their table, a small campfire just barely enough to illuminate the cards.
"Pair of aces," John said with a pleased twitch of his lips.
Rodney broke out into a grin as he spread out his cards on the rock. "Three of a kind!"
John stared and noticed that the rest of the team was staring as well. Rodney was usually the easiest one to read, his mouth and his eyes giving away everything as he looked at his cards.
Rodney didn't notice John exchanging a glance with Teyla, too caught up in gleefully claiming the chocolate and packets of coffee.
Hair
"Sorry, buddy." John frowned as he looked around Ronon and at the door he was caught in. "I think we're going to have to cut you loose."
Teyla and Rodney were paused nearby, looking back and forth between where Ronon was caught and the corridors that they'd been escaping through. Rodney had been stopping at each door, overriding the controls as John and Ronon pried the edges of the doors open. Ronon hadn't been quite quick enough to slip all the way through the last one.
"Just do it," Ronon said, jerking his head again to confirm that he was truly stuck.
John flipped open his pocket knife and held it up to the dreads that were caught in the door. "I'll try not to completely butcher this."
"Right, Rodney commented doubtfully as he watched. "Just hurry before they catch up."
Cold
"Are you sure we can't start taking jumpers for this? Or at least winter coats?" Rodney complained as he dug around in the DHD.
"The village was supposed to be thirty minutes away, we didn't need the jumper." John shivered and tucked his fingers against his pants.
Teyla looked up at the sky, snow flakes falling rapidly against her face. "The storm came on suddenly. I have not heard of such storms here before."
Ronon just grunted, looking like a large cat who wasn't particularly comfortable in the snow.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter now, let's just get back to Atlantis," Rodney snapped as he messed pressed the cover back onto the DHD.
I Love You Like Pancakes
"What?" John asked, turning suddenly.
"No, not like pancakes. Like, crepes. With strawberries, and powdered sugar. Or like newly ground coffee, with fresh cream," Rodney rambled, smiling brightly at John.
John glanced around and saw that Teyla was staring at the walls of the cavern with a particularly serene expression and Ronon was laughing at a trickle of water that was coming down with steady drips from the ceiling. "No, the first thing that you said."
"I love you," Rodney said proudly. "Or, maybe it's like chocolate. Sweet milk chocolate, from Europe, not any of the cheap stuff."
"Why is it always me who ends up with a clear head in situations like this?" John asked, mostly rhetorically.
There was no answer, just his team members smiling as they moved around the cavern.
Your Choice
"You must decide." The man dressed in long robes inclined his head toward John.
"How about no, and you just give me my teammates and we all walk away from this," John offered, tightening his grip on his gun.
"You are required to decide which remains with us, and the one that you take with you. After you choose you will never return to this world." The man raised the hood of his robes.
"Like I said, no. I'll be taking all of my team with me, and then if you want, we'll never come back. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I'm not leaving without them." John held his weapon tighter, his finger edging closer to the trigger. He really did not want to open fire on a people who were holding spears and knives. But Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla were locked in a room somewhere in the village, and the leader seemed set on keeping some of John's people. And that was just not in the cards.
Villain
It could be worse, John supposed. They could be being held by the Wraith, trapped on a hive ship that would take them so far away that it would take months for Atlantis to find them. They could be back with the Genii, which somehow John equated in his mind as being just about as bad as being held by the Wraith. When he thought about it more closely he couldn't decide if that was because of Todd or just because Kolya was as evil as a life sucking monster.
It could definitely be worse, John shifted, his shoulders aching from where his hands had been bound behind his back. Rodney was slumped in the corner, still unconscious with a streak of blood drying down the side of his face. Teyla was kneeling, her expression impassive but the small shifts of her muscles and the way she kept tipping her head to the side meant she was worried. Ronon had fought hard and was also unconscious, only the rise and fall of his chest keeping John from giving into the panic that was slowly forming.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway and John straightened, ready to look whoever had taken them and memorize their faces. No one was allowed to do this to his team.
Green
They were walking, John didn't want to think about how many pairs of boots he'd had to break in over the past few years, through what seemed like an endless forest, on a path that only Teyla and Ronon seemed to be able to see. Rodney had given up complaining about thirty minutes ago, having fallen into a contemplative silence that indicated that his thoughts were about as far from his surroundings as Earth was from Atlantis.
"You know," Rodney began.
Teyla and John exchanged glances, Teyla's eyebrow arching as they waited for Rodney to continue.
Rodney missed the looks entirely. "I'm starting to question about the placement of Stargates, at least here in the Pegasus galaxy. I don't have a large enough sample size to work with from the Milky Way, but I'm sure after looking through mission reports we'd be able to come of with some statistics. At any rate-"
John and Teyla looked at each other again, and John was a little envious that Ronon was up ahead, making sure the path was clear.
"I believe that the Ancients may have been experimenting with terraforming. The sheer number of planets that we encounter with not only habitable atmosphere, but the uniform trees, and the fields and the sweeping plains, and the..." Rodney trailed of as he waved his hands to encompass everything that was surrounding them.
"The sheer green-ness of it all?" John asked dryly.
Rodney looked at him like he couldn't figure out if John was teasing or not. "Yes. The green-ness."
Smarter Than
"Oh, right. Because a power supply is supposed to be connected like that. Are you even sentient? How exactly did your people get past the Dark Ages anyway?"
John heard the diatribe starting from all the way across the large room and quickly excused himself from the conversation that he and Teyla had been having with the leader of the trade consortium. From where he was standing he could see the flash of silver in the lap of the man Rodney was talking to, and recognized the tensing of the muscles along his arm as someone getting ready to strike.
When he reached the table, he dropped his hand down onto Rodney's shoulder and squeezed, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to make his presence known. "Can I have a word with you?"
"I'm a little bit busy at the moment, if you don't mind," Rodney shrugged his shoulder to remove John's hand and turned back to the assortment of devices that the trader had spread across the table.
"Now." John used the tone that he could remember coming from his father when he and Dave had done something so spectacularly stupid that there was simply no arguing.
Rodney seemed to instinctually respond to the tone and stood stiffly. "If you'll excuse me."
John followed Rodney to the side of the room.
"Before you say anything, he's conning these people, this world, and probably a whole bunch of others. Fortunately I'm smarter than anyone on this world, and probably any other in this galaxy, and we can use this information to get a better trade deal with the consortium." Rodney jutted his chin triumphantly, but with a hint of defensiveness as well.
"That's why you're on my team," John said simply.
Repeat
They played cards as they camped overnight, all huddled in a small cave because of the sudden blizzard that had struck only hours earlier. John looked at the single pair he was holding and folded. Rodney finished the game with only a single chocolate bar, which he was stroking and eyeing in such a way that John glanced over at Teyla and Ronon to make sure it was just Rodney who was acting strangely.
The next day, all signs of the blizzard had vanished and Rodney explained more about his research on Ancient terraforming and how he'd been looking through the database for indications as to how they might have implemented such a wide spread transformation of potentially barren planets to green oasis'. They missed the sound of people approaching through the tightly wooded area, John falling to the ground after feeling something sting across his neck. Drugged dart of some kind, he decided as he lay on the forest floor, watching Ronon being dragged by his hair away from them.
Their capture was fairly short lived, after they regained consciousness. Rodney worked the door panel, all the while muttering about how stupid they had to be to think that this cell would hold them. As soon as they were free, they took off through the hallways, still a little stumbling with being drugged. They made it through a doorway, and took out the guards there without a thought, stripping them of their weapons.
At an intersection they paused, Rodney stopping to examine the crude computer consoles that were built into the walls. "This way," he said, the door sliding open as Rodney activated the keypad.
Rodney let out a yelp as the door opened and they were immediately surrounded by armed guards. The leader had latched onto Rodney and was holding a knife to his throat.
"Drop your weapons," he ordered. "Unless you want to lose one of your team here and now."
John's hand tightened convulsively around the gun he'd taken from one of the fallen guards and fixed his gaze on where Rodney was frozen in place with his eyes wide.
"Your choice, Colonel."
Written for the Scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes Challenge
Summary: Sometimes the missions they go on don't really further what they know about the Pegasus Galaxy. 9 Drabbles.
Content Notes: Captivity, threatening situations. PG-13
A Pair
"All in," John said after carefully assessing each of his teammates. After teaching Teyla and then Ronon poker, it had become a fairly standard way to pass time when it was too dark to safely go back to the 'gate. It had taken him a little time to learn everyone's tells, but John was fairly confident that he would be taking the pot, which included two bars of chocolate, a small knife and three packets of instant coffee. John didn't particularly need any of those things, but they were useful for trade and bribes.
They turned their cards over on the rock that was functioning as their table, a small campfire just barely enough to illuminate the cards.
"Pair of aces," John said with a pleased twitch of his lips.
Rodney broke out into a grin as he spread out his cards on the rock. "Three of a kind!"
John stared and noticed that the rest of the team was staring as well. Rodney was usually the easiest one to read, his mouth and his eyes giving away everything as he looked at his cards.
Rodney didn't notice John exchanging a glance with Teyla, too caught up in gleefully claiming the chocolate and packets of coffee.
Hair
"Sorry, buddy." John frowned as he looked around Ronon and at the door he was caught in. "I think we're going to have to cut you loose."
Teyla and Rodney were paused nearby, looking back and forth between where Ronon was caught and the corridors that they'd been escaping through. Rodney had been stopping at each door, overriding the controls as John and Ronon pried the edges of the doors open. Ronon hadn't been quite quick enough to slip all the way through the last one.
"Just do it," Ronon said, jerking his head again to confirm that he was truly stuck.
John flipped open his pocket knife and held it up to the dreads that were caught in the door. "I'll try not to completely butcher this."
"Right, Rodney commented doubtfully as he watched. "Just hurry before they catch up."
Cold
"Are you sure we can't start taking jumpers for this? Or at least winter coats?" Rodney complained as he dug around in the DHD.
"The village was supposed to be thirty minutes away, we didn't need the jumper." John shivered and tucked his fingers against his pants.
Teyla looked up at the sky, snow flakes falling rapidly against her face. "The storm came on suddenly. I have not heard of such storms here before."
Ronon just grunted, looking like a large cat who wasn't particularly comfortable in the snow.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter now, let's just get back to Atlantis," Rodney snapped as he messed pressed the cover back onto the DHD.
I Love You Like Pancakes
"What?" John asked, turning suddenly.
"No, not like pancakes. Like, crepes. With strawberries, and powdered sugar. Or like newly ground coffee, with fresh cream," Rodney rambled, smiling brightly at John.
John glanced around and saw that Teyla was staring at the walls of the cavern with a particularly serene expression and Ronon was laughing at a trickle of water that was coming down with steady drips from the ceiling. "No, the first thing that you said."
"I love you," Rodney said proudly. "Or, maybe it's like chocolate. Sweet milk chocolate, from Europe, not any of the cheap stuff."
"Why is it always me who ends up with a clear head in situations like this?" John asked, mostly rhetorically.
There was no answer, just his team members smiling as they moved around the cavern.
Your Choice
"You must decide." The man dressed in long robes inclined his head toward John.
"How about no, and you just give me my teammates and we all walk away from this," John offered, tightening his grip on his gun.
"You are required to decide which remains with us, and the one that you take with you. After you choose you will never return to this world." The man raised the hood of his robes.
"Like I said, no. I'll be taking all of my team with me, and then if you want, we'll never come back. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I'm not leaving without them." John held his weapon tighter, his finger edging closer to the trigger. He really did not want to open fire on a people who were holding spears and knives. But Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla were locked in a room somewhere in the village, and the leader seemed set on keeping some of John's people. And that was just not in the cards.
Villain
It could be worse, John supposed. They could be being held by the Wraith, trapped on a hive ship that would take them so far away that it would take months for Atlantis to find them. They could be back with the Genii, which somehow John equated in his mind as being just about as bad as being held by the Wraith. When he thought about it more closely he couldn't decide if that was because of Todd or just because Kolya was as evil as a life sucking monster.
It could definitely be worse, John shifted, his shoulders aching from where his hands had been bound behind his back. Rodney was slumped in the corner, still unconscious with a streak of blood drying down the side of his face. Teyla was kneeling, her expression impassive but the small shifts of her muscles and the way she kept tipping her head to the side meant she was worried. Ronon had fought hard and was also unconscious, only the rise and fall of his chest keeping John from giving into the panic that was slowly forming.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway and John straightened, ready to look whoever had taken them and memorize their faces. No one was allowed to do this to his team.
Green
They were walking, John didn't want to think about how many pairs of boots he'd had to break in over the past few years, through what seemed like an endless forest, on a path that only Teyla and Ronon seemed to be able to see. Rodney had given up complaining about thirty minutes ago, having fallen into a contemplative silence that indicated that his thoughts were about as far from his surroundings as Earth was from Atlantis.
"You know," Rodney began.
Teyla and John exchanged glances, Teyla's eyebrow arching as they waited for Rodney to continue.
Rodney missed the looks entirely. "I'm starting to question about the placement of Stargates, at least here in the Pegasus galaxy. I don't have a large enough sample size to work with from the Milky Way, but I'm sure after looking through mission reports we'd be able to come of with some statistics. At any rate-"
John and Teyla looked at each other again, and John was a little envious that Ronon was up ahead, making sure the path was clear.
"I believe that the Ancients may have been experimenting with terraforming. The sheer number of planets that we encounter with not only habitable atmosphere, but the uniform trees, and the fields and the sweeping plains, and the..." Rodney trailed of as he waved his hands to encompass everything that was surrounding them.
"The sheer green-ness of it all?" John asked dryly.
Rodney looked at him like he couldn't figure out if John was teasing or not. "Yes. The green-ness."
Smarter Than
"Oh, right. Because a power supply is supposed to be connected like that. Are you even sentient? How exactly did your people get past the Dark Ages anyway?"
John heard the diatribe starting from all the way across the large room and quickly excused himself from the conversation that he and Teyla had been having with the leader of the trade consortium. From where he was standing he could see the flash of silver in the lap of the man Rodney was talking to, and recognized the tensing of the muscles along his arm as someone getting ready to strike.
When he reached the table, he dropped his hand down onto Rodney's shoulder and squeezed, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to make his presence known. "Can I have a word with you?"
"I'm a little bit busy at the moment, if you don't mind," Rodney shrugged his shoulder to remove John's hand and turned back to the assortment of devices that the trader had spread across the table.
"Now." John used the tone that he could remember coming from his father when he and Dave had done something so spectacularly stupid that there was simply no arguing.
Rodney seemed to instinctually respond to the tone and stood stiffly. "If you'll excuse me."
John followed Rodney to the side of the room.
"Before you say anything, he's conning these people, this world, and probably a whole bunch of others. Fortunately I'm smarter than anyone on this world, and probably any other in this galaxy, and we can use this information to get a better trade deal with the consortium." Rodney jutted his chin triumphantly, but with a hint of defensiveness as well.
"That's why you're on my team," John said simply.
Repeat
They played cards as they camped overnight, all huddled in a small cave because of the sudden blizzard that had struck only hours earlier. John looked at the single pair he was holding and folded. Rodney finished the game with only a single chocolate bar, which he was stroking and eyeing in such a way that John glanced over at Teyla and Ronon to make sure it was just Rodney who was acting strangely.
The next day, all signs of the blizzard had vanished and Rodney explained more about his research on Ancient terraforming and how he'd been looking through the database for indications as to how they might have implemented such a wide spread transformation of potentially barren planets to green oasis'. They missed the sound of people approaching through the tightly wooded area, John falling to the ground after feeling something sting across his neck. Drugged dart of some kind, he decided as he lay on the forest floor, watching Ronon being dragged by his hair away from them.
Their capture was fairly short lived, after they regained consciousness. Rodney worked the door panel, all the while muttering about how stupid they had to be to think that this cell would hold them. As soon as they were free, they took off through the hallways, still a little stumbling with being drugged. They made it through a doorway, and took out the guards there without a thought, stripping them of their weapons.
At an intersection they paused, Rodney stopping to examine the crude computer consoles that were built into the walls. "This way," he said, the door sliding open as Rodney activated the keypad.
Rodney let out a yelp as the door opened and they were immediately surrounded by armed guards. The leader had latched onto Rodney and was holding a knife to his throat.
"Drop your weapons," he ordered. "Unless you want to lose one of your team here and now."
John's hand tightened convulsively around the gun he'd taken from one of the fallen guards and fixed his gaze on where Rodney was frozen in place with his eyes wide.
"Your choice, Colonel."
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