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emily_sheppard
Sep. 23rd, 2007 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prowler_pilotI'm not feeling so peachy at the moment, so...
The Work-in-Progress Meme! When you see this, post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around.
I'm posting all of the WIPs but the two I'm currently working on. I'd like to get at least a few of them done in the future, so I'd appreciate if you'd 'voted' for one or more of those, like in that ficathon I couldn't sign up for due to lack of time. XD
SG1, Daniel/Vala. Missing scene from 'Unending'
The nutcracker was playing again when Daniel returned to their room that night. The title of the pièce had brought about jokes and innuendoes at the beginning, but it had soon become a favourite of Vala’s, one that she listened to when she was feeling down or particularly melancholic. It took her mind off the narrowness of the ship that had become their prison and chased away the haunting thought that, someday, it would also become their grave.
Vala’s head shot up from her pillow as the bright light of the corridor poured in the semi-darkness of the room, a remnant from her old life that would probably remain ingrained in her forever. Daniel saw her squint and then relax as she recognized him, and he offered her a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry if I woke you up. I didn’t realize it was so late.” The doors closed behind him with a muffled swoosh.
She turned fully to face him, her head propped upon her hand and her hair deliciously dishevelled.
“It’s not. Teal’c has started me on that…long and heavy pole weapon him and Cam always work out with and I think I might have pushed myself a little too hard. I couldn’t keep my eyes open after dinner.” She yawned quietly as if to emphasize her words.
Daniel, just like everyone else on board, knew that physical exhaustion was the best remedy they had against insomnia. Sometimes they were blessed with dreamless nights, too. Other times it didn’t work altogether. He had lost count of all the nights he had spent awake with Vala at his side, lying in a messy tangle of limbs and sticky blankets and staring idly at the ceiling. Brains still active and fully alert long after the sweat had dried from their bodies and the musky scent of their desperate lovemaking had faded through the air recycling system.
SGA, Elizabeth/Ronon. This one has been sitting on my HD for a year and a half. It was a response to the cliché 'stranded on a planet' challenge.
“You’re injured, you need to sleep. I’ll take the first.” Her insistence, though, didn’t catch him unaware. He had learned at a young age that nowhere was a safe place, and while he was used to sleeping with one eye open, like the pinnate mammals of Kardan, he wasn’t willing to take the risk where she was concerned. And he was feeling the effects of the blood loss.
“Okay.” He stretched his legs on the sleeping bag and leaned once again against the wall with his large stunner handy in his lap. Lying down to sleep was to consider a risk. “Take this.” He offered her one of the smaller stunners. She refused, and once again, Ronon had predicted her reaction.
“I’d rather—“ Her weak protest died on her lips when he cut her off.
“You’d be useless otherwise.” His voice was hard as a diamond, his teeth bared, as he made his point. “If you are going to be seriously guarding the cave, then you’ll need it.” He shoved it rudely into her hands. He understood her reluctance in the use of violence, but not the will to put herself and her people in jeopardy in order to spare the enemy. The stubbornness of the woman matched perfectly that of her friend Sheppard.
“I’ll relieve you in a couple of hours.” He mumbled as he settled more comfortably. A voice in the back of his mind told him to justify his wanting her to carry a gun, but he decided against it. She wouldn’t get the lesson if he did.
“Fine. Goodnight.” A little taken aback by his second outburst, her voice came out thinner than she had intended.
He turned the lamp away so it wouldn’t shine in his eyes and she was left in almost total darkness, with only the rain to listen to and the cold weight of a weapon in her hands to keep her company.
Only few minutes had gone by when Ronon broke the silence, pulling Elizabeth out of her thoughts.
“You claim to be against violence, yet you go offworld surrounded by armed men. You don’t hesitate to send your men out in battle. Soldiers get killed in battle.”
“Are you telling me that if I had been able to take care of myself we wouldn’t be stranded here now? You are resenting me, is that it?”
“No. But asking your men to restrain from using lethal force could be very dangerous. And unfair, especially when you’re sitting safely in your office. Doesn’t make much sense to me.”
“I haven’t been like that in a long time, Ronon. I’ve learned my lesson. ”
“You still refuse to carry any weapon, or to terminate your enemies. That’s just as dangerous.”
“It’s because I value human life—“
“You value the life of your enemy more than that of your people.” He cut her off, his voice raising considerably. A small animal, disturbed by the commotion, flew away from a nearby tree with a screech.
Rage mounted inside her as well. “You know that’s not—“ She fell silent for a moment, her anger subsiding as she realized she might not be the real target of his anger. “Does this have something to do with what happened on your homeworld?”
The lamp was still turned away from them, and she couldn’t see his face as he shifted in the dark.
“Could be.” He sounded a little uncomfortable as he realized she had made the connection before he himself even did.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side, the gun still pointing outwards.
“Not really.”
SGA, AU, Elizabeth/Carson, Elizabeth/Janeway, Janeway/Chakotay. Set in the same universe as Folding Time and Transcendence (byvenom69).
“What?” Carson’s head snapped up from the chart he was reading and looked incredulously at his boss and the man standing half a step behind her. The commotion in the infirmary and the sounds of the battle raging on the surface had drowned most of her speech, and he wasn’t sure whether she had really made that request or he had misunderstood her words. He fervently hoped the latter.
“I want to try the gene therapy.” She repeated loudly, leaving no room for doubts. Carson sighed and replaced the chart on his desk, looking back briefly as yet another gurney was wheeled into the crowded room. A still body under a bloodstained blanket. A marine followed, holding his broken arm close to his chest.
“Why?” He asked curtly. Elizabeth had always refused to undergo the procedure to act as a neutral party during negotiations and avoid being perceived by other societies as too closely related to the Alterans. The questions flowed freely in his head, but in the last months he had learnt the precious lesson of keeping words to a minimum and act as fast as he could. It had saved their lives more often than he cared to remember.
“I’m piloting the second jumper.” That voice, rough and harsh, hadn’t belonged to the woman Carson had met more than ten years ago. The same could be said about her eyes. Cold and hard as diamonds, they didn’t show any sign of the enthusiasm and wonder that used to shine in them and that gave him and the others a reason to keep on fighting – and hoping -. War had hardened them all, but the change in her had been frighteningly tangible.
SGA, AU. John/Rodney/Elizabeth After the events of Trinity, Weir and Mckay are removed from the Atlantis expedition, and neither of them seem that keen to go bak to Earth. Sheppard comes up with an improbable solution...
“I could stay. Always theoretically speaking.”
Elizabeth cocked her head to the side, but her eyes remained stern. She was smelling his intentions, and he was sure she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I pack a bag and settle with you wherever we’re going. No one gets incriminated.” He said it fast, in one breath, as if he was trying to ignore the enormity of his words. Leaving Atlantis this way meant they could never come back to the place they’d learned to call home, and they were all painfully aware of that.
Rodney’s protest to that was energetic. “No way, you’re needed here. Two destroyed careers is bad enough a toll for one day. There’s no need for more damage, especially if it could harm your position.”
And helping them to escape, or worse, escaping himself, meant exactly that.
“There’s no other choice.”
Elizabeth swung her legs off the trunk and raised to her feet, arms crossed. “Yes, there is, and that’s Rodney and I going back to Earth. This is no time to play hero, John. As military commander of the expedition you are responsible for this city.”
John mimicked her movements and came to stand at mere inches from her, the tips of their boots touching as he tried to stare her down. “How long do you think I’ll be a military commander after you’re gone? I’ll be lucky if I’m not shipped back to Earth at the first personnel switch. They never wanted me here, Elizabeth. They fought against my promotion and my taking such an important role in Atlantis, and they yielded only because you were too stubborn even for them.”
She faltered a little, blinking. “You’re jumping to conclusions, you don’t know…”
He cut her objection before she could voice it. “I know I don’t want to work under Caldwell, and I know you don’t want to go back to Earth. Both of you.” He shot a fleeting look at Rodney behind him. “I’m willing to do this. Now it’s up to you.”
“This won’t end well.” Rodney warned.
Elizabeth’s gaze jerked to him. “It’s the only way we have to stay close to Atlantis.”
“If they find us…”
John cut him off. “They won’t. We’re the top of the best and brightest, right? They won’t waste resources on us anyway. We’re not a threat to the city.”
“Not unless I screw up another experiment.” Rodney added in a rather morose tone, drawing the other two’s attention. Neither of them had brought up the subject before, figuring he needed some time to deal with it on his own before he would be ready to talk about it with someone else. “You know what? Let’s do it. It’s not like I’ll ever get the chance to win a Nobel Prize at this point.”
John seemed to light up momentarily, but he lost his smile as soon as all the implications of what they were about to do sank in. “Does this mean that we’re in?”
Elizabeth nodded gravely, a confused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “We’re in.”
SGA, AU. John/Rodney/Elizabeth. In the early 80's, young Rodney McKay is looking for two other bikers to form a team and enter the Atlantis race. He'll find much more.
“Have you forgot your i.d, kid?” A female voice came from very near him. Engrossed as he was in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed a woman slip in the stool at his right.
Rodney rotated his wrist, watching the ice cubes twirl along the rim of the glass. “Shouldn’t you be tending to your own kids?”
“You have a sharp tongue.” She didn’t sound the least put back by his remark. If anything, she was amused. “Why didn’t you use it last night, when Wheezer was pushing you around?”
His head snapped up at the mention of his turbulent first encounter with the group of riders and his eyes met those of the woman who had so promptly come to his rescue the night before.
He hadn’t taken a good look at her back then, he had just scampered away and out of the bar as soon as he’d been free of the man’s hold, but he recognized the brown curls and the plain red bandana she wore around her wrist.
Rodney had thought that she was the man’s company for the evening, one of those girls that always buzzed around bikers, looking for free booze or some money. He’d been mistaken.
It was obvious from the way she was dressed, with a pair of faded jeans, a leather jacket and boots much like his own, and her laid-back attitude, that she was a rider herself. There was some red dust on the loose curls that reached slightly past her shoulders, the residue of a day spent on the road.
“His hands are probably sharper.” He retorted, sulking.
The woman smiled at his answer, and outstretched her hand. “I’m Elizabeth Weir.” Green eyes winked at him from under long lashes.
“Rodney McKay,” he drawled, his voice a little hoarse because of the passive smoke, and shook her hand. “Thank you for pulling me out of a bad situation.”
SGA, AU.Elizabeth Weir, newly appointed Captain of the Federation Starship Atlantis and her crew are about to embark on a mission beyond the borders of the Milky Way thanks to an experimental device designed to create artificial wormholes. My idea for last year's NaNoWriMo. I never even finished the first chapter.
“This corridor links directly to pier 6…” Elizabeth mumbled aloud, her fingers flying on her terminal’s keyboard, seeking new observation angles, and secrets she might have missed before. The virtual ship rotated alternatively on three different axis, incased in the large Cartesian grid, fluorescent green on black background. She ignored the headache that was forming between her eyes and rotated the model of another 2 degrees upward with an expert touch of her index.
She knew she was close.
The prelude of a smile drew up a corner of her mouth as she lowered her eyes to the large blueprints spread on her desk, seeking confirmation, and then the grin broke out, lighting up her face, as she found her evidence. It was there, the co-ordinates blinking back at her.
Another shortcut, from pier 5 to the Astrometrics lab.
Satisfied, she leant back into her chair as the computer downloaded the updates into her padd. She took the cup of oolong tea that was sitting on the unfolded charts and lifted it in a toast to herself.
To Elizabeth Weir, the soon-to-be Captain of the Federation Starship Atlantis and the woman who unveiled Samantha Carter’s ship-building techniques.
She drained the remnants of the lukewarm beverage and set the mug aside.
“Do you ever get tired of staring at those schematics?” A deep voice came from behind her, his amusement obvious in his tone.
Elizabeth twisted in the chair to look at the man standing in the doorframe. “Simon.” The satisfaction on her face softened into a fond smile. “I wasn’t expecting you so early.”
The man crossed the room to her desk in few long strides, and bent to kiss her gently on the lips, his large frame covering hers as he did so.
While not being overweight, Simon Wallace was heavily-built and tall enough to make her fiancée look much more petite than she actually was.
“Check your watch, it’s not as early as you think.” He said as he drew back from her. His eyes fell on the computer and the program still running on the screen. “I’ve called you several times today.”
“I was busy, and I’ve muted the phone.” There was a slight tinge of guilt in her voice as she spoke. She thought of her few personal items, already packed in her grips and sitting in her bedroom, ready to be picked up as she left her loft and her life as she had always known it, Simon included. She had never regretted or second-thought her decision to lead the interplanetary expedition to another galaxy, an exploration that, if successful, would have carved her name and her crewmembers’ in history, just next to the first space travelers. Even if the price to pay was as high as losing him.
He had taken a long leave from his job at the hospital appositely to accompany her to the Pegasus for the last month of briefings and fervid preparations before the mission officially started.
“I’m sorry.” She cocked her head to the side and reached out to place a slender hand on his arm, and squeezed gently. He didn’t look angry. In fact, he was relaxed and good-humored as she hadn’t seen him in weeks, since she’d been offered the position.
“I resigned.” He said the words off-handedly, as if he was telling her dinner was ready.
The woman’s forehead wrinkled immediately in a scowl and he had to step back when she sprang to her feet to face him. “What? But--”
“I’m coming with you.” The revelation did nothing if not deepen Elizabeth’s scowl. He pivoted on his heels, turning away from her. Maybe he should have consulted with her before giving a positive answer. He would have, if she had returned one of his calls.
The Work-in-Progress Meme! When you see this, post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around.
I'm posting all of the WIPs but the two I'm currently working on. I'd like to get at least a few of them done in the future, so I'd appreciate if you'd 'voted' for one or more of those, like in that ficathon I couldn't sign up for due to lack of time. XD
SG1, Daniel/Vala. Missing scene from 'Unending'
The nutcracker was playing again when Daniel returned to their room that night. The title of the pièce had brought about jokes and innuendoes at the beginning, but it had soon become a favourite of Vala’s, one that she listened to when she was feeling down or particularly melancholic. It took her mind off the narrowness of the ship that had become their prison and chased away the haunting thought that, someday, it would also become their grave.
Vala’s head shot up from her pillow as the bright light of the corridor poured in the semi-darkness of the room, a remnant from her old life that would probably remain ingrained in her forever. Daniel saw her squint and then relax as she recognized him, and he offered her a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry if I woke you up. I didn’t realize it was so late.” The doors closed behind him with a muffled swoosh.
She turned fully to face him, her head propped upon her hand and her hair deliciously dishevelled.
“It’s not. Teal’c has started me on that…long and heavy pole weapon him and Cam always work out with and I think I might have pushed myself a little too hard. I couldn’t keep my eyes open after dinner.” She yawned quietly as if to emphasize her words.
Daniel, just like everyone else on board, knew that physical exhaustion was the best remedy they had against insomnia. Sometimes they were blessed with dreamless nights, too. Other times it didn’t work altogether. He had lost count of all the nights he had spent awake with Vala at his side, lying in a messy tangle of limbs and sticky blankets and staring idly at the ceiling. Brains still active and fully alert long after the sweat had dried from their bodies and the musky scent of their desperate lovemaking had faded through the air recycling system.
SGA, Elizabeth/Ronon. This one has been sitting on my HD for a year and a half. It was a response to the cliché 'stranded on a planet' challenge.
“You’re injured, you need to sleep. I’ll take the first.” Her insistence, though, didn’t catch him unaware. He had learned at a young age that nowhere was a safe place, and while he was used to sleeping with one eye open, like the pinnate mammals of Kardan, he wasn’t willing to take the risk where she was concerned. And he was feeling the effects of the blood loss.
“Okay.” He stretched his legs on the sleeping bag and leaned once again against the wall with his large stunner handy in his lap. Lying down to sleep was to consider a risk. “Take this.” He offered her one of the smaller stunners. She refused, and once again, Ronon had predicted her reaction.
“I’d rather—“ Her weak protest died on her lips when he cut her off.
“You’d be useless otherwise.” His voice was hard as a diamond, his teeth bared, as he made his point. “If you are going to be seriously guarding the cave, then you’ll need it.” He shoved it rudely into her hands. He understood her reluctance in the use of violence, but not the will to put herself and her people in jeopardy in order to spare the enemy. The stubbornness of the woman matched perfectly that of her friend Sheppard.
“I’ll relieve you in a couple of hours.” He mumbled as he settled more comfortably. A voice in the back of his mind told him to justify his wanting her to carry a gun, but he decided against it. She wouldn’t get the lesson if he did.
“Fine. Goodnight.” A little taken aback by his second outburst, her voice came out thinner than she had intended.
He turned the lamp away so it wouldn’t shine in his eyes and she was left in almost total darkness, with only the rain to listen to and the cold weight of a weapon in her hands to keep her company.
Only few minutes had gone by when Ronon broke the silence, pulling Elizabeth out of her thoughts.
“You claim to be against violence, yet you go offworld surrounded by armed men. You don’t hesitate to send your men out in battle. Soldiers get killed in battle.”
“Are you telling me that if I had been able to take care of myself we wouldn’t be stranded here now? You are resenting me, is that it?”
“No. But asking your men to restrain from using lethal force could be very dangerous. And unfair, especially when you’re sitting safely in your office. Doesn’t make much sense to me.”
“I haven’t been like that in a long time, Ronon. I’ve learned my lesson. ”
“You still refuse to carry any weapon, or to terminate your enemies. That’s just as dangerous.”
“It’s because I value human life—“
“You value the life of your enemy more than that of your people.” He cut her off, his voice raising considerably. A small animal, disturbed by the commotion, flew away from a nearby tree with a screech.
Rage mounted inside her as well. “You know that’s not—“ She fell silent for a moment, her anger subsiding as she realized she might not be the real target of his anger. “Does this have something to do with what happened on your homeworld?”
The lamp was still turned away from them, and she couldn’t see his face as he shifted in the dark.
“Could be.” He sounded a little uncomfortable as he realized she had made the connection before he himself even did.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side, the gun still pointing outwards.
“Not really.”
SGA, AU, Elizabeth/Carson, Elizabeth/Janeway, Janeway/Chakotay. Set in the same universe as Folding Time and Transcendence (by
venom69).“What?” Carson’s head snapped up from the chart he was reading and looked incredulously at his boss and the man standing half a step behind her. The commotion in the infirmary and the sounds of the battle raging on the surface had drowned most of her speech, and he wasn’t sure whether she had really made that request or he had misunderstood her words. He fervently hoped the latter.
“I want to try the gene therapy.” She repeated loudly, leaving no room for doubts. Carson sighed and replaced the chart on his desk, looking back briefly as yet another gurney was wheeled into the crowded room. A still body under a bloodstained blanket. A marine followed, holding his broken arm close to his chest.
“Why?” He asked curtly. Elizabeth had always refused to undergo the procedure to act as a neutral party during negotiations and avoid being perceived by other societies as too closely related to the Alterans. The questions flowed freely in his head, but in the last months he had learnt the precious lesson of keeping words to a minimum and act as fast as he could. It had saved their lives more often than he cared to remember.
“I’m piloting the second jumper.” That voice, rough and harsh, hadn’t belonged to the woman Carson had met more than ten years ago. The same could be said about her eyes. Cold and hard as diamonds, they didn’t show any sign of the enthusiasm and wonder that used to shine in them and that gave him and the others a reason to keep on fighting – and hoping -. War had hardened them all, but the change in her had been frighteningly tangible.
SGA, AU. John/Rodney/Elizabeth After the events of Trinity, Weir and Mckay are removed from the Atlantis expedition, and neither of them seem that keen to go bak to Earth. Sheppard comes up with an improbable solution...
“I could stay. Always theoretically speaking.”
Elizabeth cocked her head to the side, but her eyes remained stern. She was smelling his intentions, and he was sure she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I pack a bag and settle with you wherever we’re going. No one gets incriminated.” He said it fast, in one breath, as if he was trying to ignore the enormity of his words. Leaving Atlantis this way meant they could never come back to the place they’d learned to call home, and they were all painfully aware of that.
Rodney’s protest to that was energetic. “No way, you’re needed here. Two destroyed careers is bad enough a toll for one day. There’s no need for more damage, especially if it could harm your position.”
And helping them to escape, or worse, escaping himself, meant exactly that.
“There’s no other choice.”
Elizabeth swung her legs off the trunk and raised to her feet, arms crossed. “Yes, there is, and that’s Rodney and I going back to Earth. This is no time to play hero, John. As military commander of the expedition you are responsible for this city.”
John mimicked her movements and came to stand at mere inches from her, the tips of their boots touching as he tried to stare her down. “How long do you think I’ll be a military commander after you’re gone? I’ll be lucky if I’m not shipped back to Earth at the first personnel switch. They never wanted me here, Elizabeth. They fought against my promotion and my taking such an important role in Atlantis, and they yielded only because you were too stubborn even for them.”
She faltered a little, blinking. “You’re jumping to conclusions, you don’t know…”
He cut her objection before she could voice it. “I know I don’t want to work under Caldwell, and I know you don’t want to go back to Earth. Both of you.” He shot a fleeting look at Rodney behind him. “I’m willing to do this. Now it’s up to you.”
“This won’t end well.” Rodney warned.
Elizabeth’s gaze jerked to him. “It’s the only way we have to stay close to Atlantis.”
“If they find us…”
John cut him off. “They won’t. We’re the top of the best and brightest, right? They won’t waste resources on us anyway. We’re not a threat to the city.”
“Not unless I screw up another experiment.” Rodney added in a rather morose tone, drawing the other two’s attention. Neither of them had brought up the subject before, figuring he needed some time to deal with it on his own before he would be ready to talk about it with someone else. “You know what? Let’s do it. It’s not like I’ll ever get the chance to win a Nobel Prize at this point.”
John seemed to light up momentarily, but he lost his smile as soon as all the implications of what they were about to do sank in. “Does this mean that we’re in?”
Elizabeth nodded gravely, a confused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “We’re in.”
SGA, AU. John/Rodney/Elizabeth. In the early 80's, young Rodney McKay is looking for two other bikers to form a team and enter the Atlantis race. He'll find much more.
“Have you forgot your i.d, kid?” A female voice came from very near him. Engrossed as he was in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed a woman slip in the stool at his right.
Rodney rotated his wrist, watching the ice cubes twirl along the rim of the glass. “Shouldn’t you be tending to your own kids?”
“You have a sharp tongue.” She didn’t sound the least put back by his remark. If anything, she was amused. “Why didn’t you use it last night, when Wheezer was pushing you around?”
His head snapped up at the mention of his turbulent first encounter with the group of riders and his eyes met those of the woman who had so promptly come to his rescue the night before.
He hadn’t taken a good look at her back then, he had just scampered away and out of the bar as soon as he’d been free of the man’s hold, but he recognized the brown curls and the plain red bandana she wore around her wrist.
Rodney had thought that she was the man’s company for the evening, one of those girls that always buzzed around bikers, looking for free booze or some money. He’d been mistaken.
It was obvious from the way she was dressed, with a pair of faded jeans, a leather jacket and boots much like his own, and her laid-back attitude, that she was a rider herself. There was some red dust on the loose curls that reached slightly past her shoulders, the residue of a day spent on the road.
“His hands are probably sharper.” He retorted, sulking.
The woman smiled at his answer, and outstretched her hand. “I’m Elizabeth Weir.” Green eyes winked at him from under long lashes.
“Rodney McKay,” he drawled, his voice a little hoarse because of the passive smoke, and shook her hand. “Thank you for pulling me out of a bad situation.”
SGA, AU.Elizabeth Weir, newly appointed Captain of the Federation Starship Atlantis and her crew are about to embark on a mission beyond the borders of the Milky Way thanks to an experimental device designed to create artificial wormholes. My idea for last year's NaNoWriMo. I never even finished the first chapter.
“This corridor links directly to pier 6…” Elizabeth mumbled aloud, her fingers flying on her terminal’s keyboard, seeking new observation angles, and secrets she might have missed before. The virtual ship rotated alternatively on three different axis, incased in the large Cartesian grid, fluorescent green on black background. She ignored the headache that was forming between her eyes and rotated the model of another 2 degrees upward with an expert touch of her index.
She knew she was close.
The prelude of a smile drew up a corner of her mouth as she lowered her eyes to the large blueprints spread on her desk, seeking confirmation, and then the grin broke out, lighting up her face, as she found her evidence. It was there, the co-ordinates blinking back at her.
Another shortcut, from pier 5 to the Astrometrics lab.
Satisfied, she leant back into her chair as the computer downloaded the updates into her padd. She took the cup of oolong tea that was sitting on the unfolded charts and lifted it in a toast to herself.
To Elizabeth Weir, the soon-to-be Captain of the Federation Starship Atlantis and the woman who unveiled Samantha Carter’s ship-building techniques.
She drained the remnants of the lukewarm beverage and set the mug aside.
“Do you ever get tired of staring at those schematics?” A deep voice came from behind her, his amusement obvious in his tone.
Elizabeth twisted in the chair to look at the man standing in the doorframe. “Simon.” The satisfaction on her face softened into a fond smile. “I wasn’t expecting you so early.”
The man crossed the room to her desk in few long strides, and bent to kiss her gently on the lips, his large frame covering hers as he did so.
While not being overweight, Simon Wallace was heavily-built and tall enough to make her fiancée look much more petite than she actually was.
“Check your watch, it’s not as early as you think.” He said as he drew back from her. His eyes fell on the computer and the program still running on the screen. “I’ve called you several times today.”
“I was busy, and I’ve muted the phone.” There was a slight tinge of guilt in her voice as she spoke. She thought of her few personal items, already packed in her grips and sitting in her bedroom, ready to be picked up as she left her loft and her life as she had always known it, Simon included. She had never regretted or second-thought her decision to lead the interplanetary expedition to another galaxy, an exploration that, if successful, would have carved her name and her crewmembers’ in history, just next to the first space travelers. Even if the price to pay was as high as losing him.
He had taken a long leave from his job at the hospital appositely to accompany her to the Pegasus for the last month of briefings and fervid preparations before the mission officially started.
“I’m sorry.” She cocked her head to the side and reached out to place a slender hand on his arm, and squeezed gently. He didn’t look angry. In fact, he was relaxed and good-humored as she hadn’t seen him in weeks, since she’d been offered the position.
“I resigned.” He said the words off-handedly, as if he was telling her dinner was ready.
The woman’s forehead wrinkled immediately in a scowl and he had to step back when she sprang to her feet to face him. “What? But--”
“I’m coming with you.” The revelation did nothing if not deepen Elizabeth’s scowl. He pivoted on his heels, turning away from her. Maybe he should have consulted with her before giving a positive answer. He would have, if she had returned one of his calls.
