Hold On, Hold On, Hold On | By : LiesDee Category: Stargate: SG-1 > Stargate Atlantis Views: 3218 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters, and I'm certainly not making any money from this story. |
Author’s
Note: Thanks so much to my betareaders, Enviropony and Tallycolla. You guys
rock so hard!
Chapter
1
There was a
bowl of fruit on the floor beside him, and a display screen full of equations
on the wall opposite, but otherwise the room was empty, save for Rodney
himself.
Knotted with
vein-like tendrils and glowing with red light from within, the translucent
walls were uncomfortable to look at.
Even the warm, carapace-like floor felt wrong underneath him. Rodney really hated Wraith ships, most
especially when he was trapped inside them.
At least he wasn’t stuck in a cocoon.
Rodney did
his best to focus on the display, and tied to stay awake. Having been knocked out during his capture,
he was keenly aware of the possibility of a concussion.
He’d spent
at least an hour trying to hack into the door panel, and another trying to pry
it open with his bare hands. He told
himself that he was only resting a bit before he tried again, and he wondered
if there was anyone else from his team trapped in a similar room nearby, having
better luck. He realized that the less captives the Wraith had, the better, but it was
comforting to think that John or Ronon might be
around somewhere, ready and willing to help him escape.
The last
thing he remembered was digging through a patch of rubble at Michael’s last
research site, trying to find more information about the hive-growing
pathogen. Teyla
was back in Atlantis with newly-born Torren, or she
might have been able to warn them of any Wraith presence on the planet. As it was, Rodney had heard
the high-pitched whine of dart engines, and then... nothing.
The fruits
were alien, and possibly drugged, Rodney imagined. Still, after a long spell of staring at the
equations, he found that he’d eaten half of them quite without realizing
it. They were slightly sweet, but mostly
bland, and they didn’t make him feel any different, so he continued eating,
rationalizing that he could plan a way out of here much better on a full
stomach than an empty one. You needed
calories to think – everyone knew that.
He was
halfway through the last piece of fruit when the Wraith walked in. Spitting out his current bite, he threw the
rest of the fruit at the Wraith’s head, before launching himself up in an
attempted tackle.
The Wraith
barely flinched, but only took Rodney by the shoulders and shoved him
forcefully back onto the floor.
Nonchalantly, the Wraith wiped fruit juice from the well-aimed throw off
of a familiar star-burst pattern on its cheek.
It was Todd.
“Sit down,
Dr. McKay. I have no desire to damage
you,” said Todd.
Rodney
watched in despair as the door closed firmly behind his captor. Shakily, he stood up and crossed his arms.
“No,” he
replied peevishly. “I’ll stand.”
The Wraith
sighed. “Very well, then. Stand.”
Rodney
fidgeted, annoyed by a sudden urge to rebel against this command as well. He lifted his chin defiantly instead, looking
Todd straight in the eye, until the creepiness of the slitted
yellow stare drained his resolve, and his glare faltered.
“Do you
have any theories yet as to why you’re here?”
“I assumed
it was because you missed my sparkling personality.”
The Wraith
smiled dryly and inclined his head to the side, as though in appreciation of
Rodney’s little joke.
“Close,” he
admitted. “It was rather the lustrous
qualities of your mind that I felt were sorely missing from my little project,”
he explained, gesturing toward the display of equations.
As
susceptible to flattery as he was, Rodney enjoyed a few moments of smugness
before his brain finally registered the more significant bits of information in
that sentence.
“That? Is a project?
I thought it was graffiti!”
“The
concept is a dated one, but I’ve recently decided that it bears
revisiting.”
“If you
want my professional opinion, it’s garbage!
The conclusions are drawn from totally flawed premises. If you tried to construct something using that as a theoretical groundwork, you’d
probably just blow yourself up! So, you
know, go on ahead and knock yourself out.”
Rodney crossed his arms. “Look,
why do you even need me to tell you this?
If I recall, you’re not exactly a lightweight in the knowledge
department either, Mr. Ten-thousand-year-old-evil-scientist. Unless you’re not as smart as I thought you
were.”
“I have
supplementary evidence to support many elements of this theory, but my work has
come to an impasse. I thought a new
perspective, especially one familiar with Ancient technology, might be able to
shed some light. And I’m sure you’ll
take great pains not to blow yourself up while working on it. Unless you’re
not as brilliantly intelligent as I thought you were.”
Rodney’s
lip curled in annoyance. He wasn’t
taking the bait this time.
“I’d rather
blow myself up than help you,” Rodney stated with as much vehemence as he could
muster.
Todd stared
at Rodney in cool appraisal.
“Based on
the conclusions of this equation, Dr. McKay, what is it you think I’m trying to
build?” The Wraith asked after some
consideration.
Rodney took
a look at the display and made a few mental leaps.
“A weapon,”
he concluded, slightly puzzled. “A
Wraith weapon – I mean, one designed to attack Wraith ships.”
“And do you
think it could be adapted for use in attacking humans?”
Rodney
glanced over again. “No. Not unless humans started traveling by
hive. Why would you want to create a
weapon to destroy yourselves?”
The Wraith
spread his hands. “For the same reason
your kind has undoubtedly developed weapons to attack each other. I won’t bore you with the details of Wraith
internecine politics, Dr. McKay, but suffice it to say that such a device would
be a great advantage to someone in my situation. And I might point out that it could also be
of benefit to your species were there to be someone of high rank in Wraith
society who was… less hostile to negotiation.”
“Well that’s a firm assurance of reward.” Rodney snorted. “What if I said it would take something a
little more guaranteed to get me to help you?”
The Wraith
smiled. “I guarantee that I’ll feed on
you if you don’t agree to help.”
Rodney
winced. “Small carrot, big stick, I get
it.”
“I pride
myself on my ability to negotiate.”
“Yeah, I
bet you do.”
*~*
End of Chapter 1.
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