Dereliction of Duty by casspeach
Jun. 27th, 2005 05:53 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
casspeach.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sga_flashficTitle: Dereliction of Duty
Author: casspeach
Rating: PG-13 (for intent)
Pairing: Not really but the rabidly slash-averse might want to avoid because of the suggestion of unachieved McKay/Kolya
Warnings: Post The Eye so spoilers for that - if anyone hasn't seen it yet
Summary: Whatever McKay said about needing Weir, Kolya didn't believe it for a moment
Author's Note: Beta'd and inspired by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
z_rayne who just kept on and on and on poking the bunny (oh okay she sent one email - my fault really but seriously have you seen the way Kolya looks at Rodney in the Eye and The Storm?)
Dereliction of Duty
Commander Acastus Kolya was a man who lived his life by certain tenets. He'd been picked out as exceptional at a young age, and sent to learn the way of the warrior, continuing a centuries-old Genii tradition with a diligence unmatched by any of his classmates. It wasn't exactly a patriotic fervour, despite his teachers' best efforts to instil that into him, but his mother had often told him and his brothers tales of the Wraith and when he'd been taken from his family to attend his training he'd kept their memories alive by continuing to tell the stories to himself. He'd felt no sorrow, once he'd passed feeling homesick, for to be chosen for warrior training was a great honour and the tears his mother had shed had been of joy and pride, not of sadness.
All of which was ancient history now. Times had changed; they had started allowing women into the training camps, even into the elite strike forces, and the recruits were allowed to retain limited contact with their families. Kolya had been in favour of such changes initially. Now he was less sure. Had Sora's ties to her father been severed as his to his family, she would not have disobeyed a direct order for the chance to avenge his death. Kolya himself had never allowed his blood to run so hot that he lost sight of the mission, and had she not been captured, he would have given her a dressing down she would never have forgotten. Even incapacitated as he was, bandaged and drugged in a hospital bed deep beneath the surface of the planet, he knew that there was no one in the entire Genii army unaware of his displeasure. Even Cowen had been reluctant to visit him and Kolya knew that they all assumed his anger was directed at the Atlanteans, or the unsuccessful strike force, or the loss of a battalion of men. Cowen, he suspected, thought he was angry at being ordered to take recruits who weren't ready into a hostile situation. He had even as close to apologised as any politician can manage, but he was wrong. They were all wrong. Commander Acastus Kolya was angry with himself.
He was angry with himself for the simple reason that he'd allowed himself to be distracted, to be indulgent, right from when he had first set eyes on Dr Rodney McKay.
His very first words to Kolya had been a sarcastic 'is that all?' in response to the Genii's demands and Kolya had been instantly captivated. How long had it really been since anyone had answered him back like that? The beauty of it had been that McKay was afraid. He was neither stupid enough nor ignorant enough that his backtalking was fearless, quite the reverse, and Kolya was as tickled by that as he was by the fact that, whatever came out of his mouth, the truth was written all over McKay's face. When he had been asked about plans, his voice had said 'I've got all sorts of plans' but his expression said 'oh God please don't ask me about the plan to save the city'. It was endearing.
It was also heady to know that he would tell everything. Even after four decades, Kolya still enjoyed a good interrogation. He liked to try and guess how long it would take a subject to collapse into verbal diarrhoea, telling anything they knew, telling and telling and telling, even past the point where what was told was useful or pertinent, just to stop the pain.
That had been his first mistake. The first Genii warrior tenet he had abandoned -never underestimate your enemy.
Even after McKay had told, in a breathy rush of information, his eyes never leaving Kolya's as though it was he who held the knife in his arm, he had remained undaunted. Now, from the tranquillity of his hospital bed, Kolya could wonder at himself, that he had tolerated the impertinence of McKay's repeated jibes, but at the time he had found it amusing, had been glad that he had not entirely broken the man's spirit. Mainly because he wanted to do that later, in privacy and his own time. He was already formulating his plans for how he would bend McKay to his bidding, and that was his second mistake. He'd abandoned the mission, however temporarily, to imagine himself back on the Genii homeworld with a scared but defiant McKay, and had failed to shoot Weir before McKay could get in his way.
Possibly that had been another example of failure to heed tenet number one. McKay just hadn't seemed the type to step in front of a gun and so Kolya had not been looking for the telltale suggestions of heroism that might have warned him. Whatever McKay said about needing Weir, Kolya didn't believe it for a moment, and he regretted that he'd not actually shown the strength of his resolve to McKay. A display of ruthlessness like that would have been useful later on, if he had to threaten the man to get what he wanted.
Then he'd made the biggest mistake of all.
He'd abandoned his command post in the control room to watch McKay fix the grounding station. Lying back against cool sheets and flying peacefully on whatever painkiller it was the doctors had him on to prevent the pain in his shoulder making him even more irritable than he was, he couldn't remember why he'd done that. It had not been a sensible decision. Better by far to have sent Sora. He would not have allowed Sheppard the opportunity to get the shield over the Stargate.
Except he had, it was exactly his decision to go with McKay that had allowed that, and he held himself responsible for the loss of men that came as a consequence. Worse yet, he was not at all sure that, given the chance over again, he would not have done the same thing. He'd have set a guard over the console that worked the shield, but he wasn't sure that he could have resisted the lure of holding McKay out over the balcony and watching his rain-soaked face for the emotions that flitted across it.
He'd not even been annoyed that very little of what passed across McKay's face was fear; it had only made him want him more. All his life he had looked for a worthy partner, someone who would not be intimidated by him, or at least not so intimidated as to become dull and uninteresting too quickly. He was not sure he would ever find McKay dull. A man who could be tortured, stand in front of a gun, irritably assure his captor that he was not brave while being held out over a raging ocean and also gripe that he was likely to catch a cold in the rain would take a long time to become bored with.
It was really only when he learned that Eidos had been killed, by his recklessness as much as Sheppard's deviousness, that he was able to put away his increasingly favourable opinion of McKay and get his mind fully back on the mission. Almost fully. He was tempted not to give Sheppard the first ten minutes he'd promised, but just to shoot Weir immediately, and spend the next twenty minutes seeing what McKay would do in order to stay alive. Except that he had recognised that as being not the most strategically viable of plans, recognised it as being what he wanted to do rather than what he needed to do. He also wasn't entirely sure McKay would react the way he hoped, and the middle of a mission was not the time to introduce unpredictable variables. He was also, much to his chagrin, beginning to want McKay's respect rather than mere fearful obedience.
Now though, lying in his hospital bed, surprised and irritated to be alive, he wished he'd taken advantage of the opportunity. No one had intrigued him like McKay in many years.
Next time they met, Kolya would be ready, and there would be a next time, whatever Cowen's opinion of the risks and benefits of going after the new inhabitants of Atlantis. As soon as Kolya was strong enough again, he would build a network of spies, and he would find Dr Rodney McKay. That would be his mission from now on, and he would not abandon it.
Author: casspeach
Rating: PG-13 (for intent)
Pairing: Not really but the rabidly slash-averse might want to avoid because of the suggestion of unachieved McKay/Kolya
Warnings: Post The Eye so spoilers for that - if anyone hasn't seen it yet
Summary: Whatever McKay said about needing Weir, Kolya didn't believe it for a moment
Author's Note: Beta'd and inspired by
z_rayne who just kept on and on and on poking the bunny (oh okay she sent one email - my fault really but seriously have you seen the way Kolya looks at Rodney in the Eye and The Storm?)Dereliction of Duty
Commander Acastus Kolya was a man who lived his life by certain tenets. He'd been picked out as exceptional at a young age, and sent to learn the way of the warrior, continuing a centuries-old Genii tradition with a diligence unmatched by any of his classmates. It wasn't exactly a patriotic fervour, despite his teachers' best efforts to instil that into him, but his mother had often told him and his brothers tales of the Wraith and when he'd been taken from his family to attend his training he'd kept their memories alive by continuing to tell the stories to himself. He'd felt no sorrow, once he'd passed feeling homesick, for to be chosen for warrior training was a great honour and the tears his mother had shed had been of joy and pride, not of sadness.
All of which was ancient history now. Times had changed; they had started allowing women into the training camps, even into the elite strike forces, and the recruits were allowed to retain limited contact with their families. Kolya had been in favour of such changes initially. Now he was less sure. Had Sora's ties to her father been severed as his to his family, she would not have disobeyed a direct order for the chance to avenge his death. Kolya himself had never allowed his blood to run so hot that he lost sight of the mission, and had she not been captured, he would have given her a dressing down she would never have forgotten. Even incapacitated as he was, bandaged and drugged in a hospital bed deep beneath the surface of the planet, he knew that there was no one in the entire Genii army unaware of his displeasure. Even Cowen had been reluctant to visit him and Kolya knew that they all assumed his anger was directed at the Atlanteans, or the unsuccessful strike force, or the loss of a battalion of men. Cowen, he suspected, thought he was angry at being ordered to take recruits who weren't ready into a hostile situation. He had even as close to apologised as any politician can manage, but he was wrong. They were all wrong. Commander Acastus Kolya was angry with himself.
He was angry with himself for the simple reason that he'd allowed himself to be distracted, to be indulgent, right from when he had first set eyes on Dr Rodney McKay.
His very first words to Kolya had been a sarcastic 'is that all?' in response to the Genii's demands and Kolya had been instantly captivated. How long had it really been since anyone had answered him back like that? The beauty of it had been that McKay was afraid. He was neither stupid enough nor ignorant enough that his backtalking was fearless, quite the reverse, and Kolya was as tickled by that as he was by the fact that, whatever came out of his mouth, the truth was written all over McKay's face. When he had been asked about plans, his voice had said 'I've got all sorts of plans' but his expression said 'oh God please don't ask me about the plan to save the city'. It was endearing.
It was also heady to know that he would tell everything. Even after four decades, Kolya still enjoyed a good interrogation. He liked to try and guess how long it would take a subject to collapse into verbal diarrhoea, telling anything they knew, telling and telling and telling, even past the point where what was told was useful or pertinent, just to stop the pain.
That had been his first mistake. The first Genii warrior tenet he had abandoned -never underestimate your enemy.
Even after McKay had told, in a breathy rush of information, his eyes never leaving Kolya's as though it was he who held the knife in his arm, he had remained undaunted. Now, from the tranquillity of his hospital bed, Kolya could wonder at himself, that he had tolerated the impertinence of McKay's repeated jibes, but at the time he had found it amusing, had been glad that he had not entirely broken the man's spirit. Mainly because he wanted to do that later, in privacy and his own time. He was already formulating his plans for how he would bend McKay to his bidding, and that was his second mistake. He'd abandoned the mission, however temporarily, to imagine himself back on the Genii homeworld with a scared but defiant McKay, and had failed to shoot Weir before McKay could get in his way.
Possibly that had been another example of failure to heed tenet number one. McKay just hadn't seemed the type to step in front of a gun and so Kolya had not been looking for the telltale suggestions of heroism that might have warned him. Whatever McKay said about needing Weir, Kolya didn't believe it for a moment, and he regretted that he'd not actually shown the strength of his resolve to McKay. A display of ruthlessness like that would have been useful later on, if he had to threaten the man to get what he wanted.
Then he'd made the biggest mistake of all.
He'd abandoned his command post in the control room to watch McKay fix the grounding station. Lying back against cool sheets and flying peacefully on whatever painkiller it was the doctors had him on to prevent the pain in his shoulder making him even more irritable than he was, he couldn't remember why he'd done that. It had not been a sensible decision. Better by far to have sent Sora. He would not have allowed Sheppard the opportunity to get the shield over the Stargate.
Except he had, it was exactly his decision to go with McKay that had allowed that, and he held himself responsible for the loss of men that came as a consequence. Worse yet, he was not at all sure that, given the chance over again, he would not have done the same thing. He'd have set a guard over the console that worked the shield, but he wasn't sure that he could have resisted the lure of holding McKay out over the balcony and watching his rain-soaked face for the emotions that flitted across it.
He'd not even been annoyed that very little of what passed across McKay's face was fear; it had only made him want him more. All his life he had looked for a worthy partner, someone who would not be intimidated by him, or at least not so intimidated as to become dull and uninteresting too quickly. He was not sure he would ever find McKay dull. A man who could be tortured, stand in front of a gun, irritably assure his captor that he was not brave while being held out over a raging ocean and also gripe that he was likely to catch a cold in the rain would take a long time to become bored with.
It was really only when he learned that Eidos had been killed, by his recklessness as much as Sheppard's deviousness, that he was able to put away his increasingly favourable opinion of McKay and get his mind fully back on the mission. Almost fully. He was tempted not to give Sheppard the first ten minutes he'd promised, but just to shoot Weir immediately, and spend the next twenty minutes seeing what McKay would do in order to stay alive. Except that he had recognised that as being not the most strategically viable of plans, recognised it as being what he wanted to do rather than what he needed to do. He also wasn't entirely sure McKay would react the way he hoped, and the middle of a mission was not the time to introduce unpredictable variables. He was also, much to his chagrin, beginning to want McKay's respect rather than mere fearful obedience.
Now though, lying in his hospital bed, surprised and irritated to be alive, he wished he'd taken advantage of the opportunity. No one had intrigued him like McKay in many years.
Next time they met, Kolya would be ready, and there would be a next time, whatever Cowen's opinion of the risks and benefits of going after the new inhabitants of Atlantis. As soon as Kolya was strong enough again, he would build a network of spies, and he would find Dr Rodney McKay. That would be his mission from now on, and he would not abandon it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 05:13 am (UTC)So, how's that viewing of "The Brotherhood" going? *pokes bunny with stick*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 05:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 05:44 am (UTC)Thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 07:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 12:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 05:48 am (UTC)Thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 12:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 06:28 pm (UTC)Also, although some of what they do is a bit moally dubious, so is some of what the Atlanteans do to them. I wonder what would have happened had it been Teyla or Ford, or God forbid, Rodney left behind instead of Tyrus. The Atlanteans also stole the data device.
If the boot was on the other foot, I don't know that the Atlanteans, with their slightly dodgy ethics of experimenting on prisoners and shooting prisoners in cold blood, would behave all that differently. It would just be that we'd be rooting for the seizure of the city to succeed instead of fail, and we'd be thinking 'how clever of Sheppard to decide to take the city instead of just the C4' - maybe.
I also think, underlying all of the interaction between the Genii and the Atlanteans is the sad fact that they should or at least could have been allies. It just struck me as kind of Tollan-esque (to steal from the SG1-verse) to arrive in a galaxy, wake up a fearful enemy that the Genii have been fighting to survive for donkey's ages and then say 'you can't have our shiny A-bomb technology because you're too something- devious, ruthless, young, whatever (yeah, I know that was the Nox not the Tollan). Kinda arrogant, imho.
This is also what I really like about the 'heroes' of sga as opposed to sg1, they just seem more human, more fallible too.
Gonna stop rambling now.
Vive le Genii!!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-01 11:51 pm (UTC)seriously, though, i think we thrive in fanfic on ambiguity, so that being reminded every once in a while that the other side has justifications as well (even if we don't agree with them), that emotions and everyday life hapens even if you find a system morally corrupt from the outside...
and i'd like even more fallibility, more cowardice, more ambiguity canonically
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-27 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 05:54 am (UTC)Thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 01:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 05:55 am (UTC)Thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 10:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:23 pm (UTC)Thanks for the squeeage
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 09:22 pm (UTC)all sorts of hotwrong and bad, in a wrong bad sort of way.Write more, please write more.It should be stopped. For the sake of the puppies. Won't someone please think ofthe hotness that is Rodney McKaythe puppies?(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 09:40 pm (UTC)So, in answer to your question, yes I will think of the puppies but they might get caught up in the bad wrongness of Kolya/McKay, lol.
Thanks for commenting (and the mental image above!)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-30 10:57 pm (UTC)"You kidnapped me."
"But I brought you a puppy."
"Kidn- aww, isn't he cute!"
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-01 12:26 pm (UTC)Although, I can totally think of a way to do this that fits with the abandonment challenge
But no.
Ficathon entry, not least because the bunny for this is huge and I would have to go without sleep until Monday to get it written.
/stream of fighting with myself consciousness
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-01 07:45 pm (UTC)*surrepticiously feeds the puppy bunny with carrots and chocolate*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-24 02:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-25 05:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-05 07:35 pm (UTC)If you want to write more Kolya/McKay I will cheerlead shamelessly.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-06 06:06 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked it. I think Kolya's an interesting villain, as are the Genii in general, and I hope they haven't really killed him off because I would so love to see him again.
Thank you