Amnesty Challenge: Home, by Zulu

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Title: The Places You Will Be From
Author: queenzulu
Challenge: Amnesty, Thirty-Eight Minutes
Summary: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
Word Count: 500
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoilers up to "Intruder"
Author's Notes: Wouldn't have gotten finished (or, probably, started) without troutkitty. My first efforts in this fandom; constructive criticism is welcome. Crossposted to my journal.




Home

*

The controls of a Black Hawk hadn't changed. John's radio crackled instructions, and he chafed under the belts holding him to his seat. He dreamed the preflight, checking gauges and switches. When he was cleared for takeoff, he opened the throttle like a green pilot on his first solo flight. The helicopter churned air, pitched forward, the rotor blades blurring. John waited for the muscle-deep memory of flying to embrace him, eager and fierce. He waited for the helicopter to welcome him, to send joy-in-movement singing through his senses. But the Black Hawk hadn't changed, and John ached for home.

*

"Wrong wrong wrong," Rodney says, "what do they dump here, toxic waste? Did Godzilla wash up and rot?"

Jeannie sniffs. "It's the Pacific."

Rodney waves disgust. Half his brain is calculating the Daedalus's load limits, three-eighths is writing rants to international science journals, but one sixteenth remembers Atlantis, clean water and sharp air. "Don't let your kids in it; I know mortal danger and the pollution--"

Jeannie catches his fingers before he snaps. "I'm glad you're here."

Yes, yes, it's been wonderful bonding, but this isn't Rodney's ocean, and the remaining sixteenth counts down by primes until he's home.

*

"I think you'll find, Colonel, that my mandate can't be dictated by the military." Elizabeth refuses to break Caldwell's gaze. Again and again, she hears her voice on tape, mourning those she's lost. "It is clear you would veto my choices for your self-importance."

"My concerns--"

She's lost so many. She poured compassion into each message, emptying herself. "I'm sorry, Colonel." She wants to close her eyes. The world shimmers before her, like an event horizon. "This briefing is over."

From the control room, she watches the Stargate ripple. Instead of missions and aliens, she sees her pathway home.

*

"It sounds as though you're doing well, Carson?"

"Is that a question, Mum?" Carson smiled as she presented him with the pot roast. "I can tell you, it is going well."

"And you're happy, are you?" She fluttered about, bringing vegetables, warm butter, thick dark bread. "Did those military boys get my woollen socks to you?"

"Yes, Mum." Carson put his fork down and laid his hand over hers. She smiled, uncertainly, but her eyes were warm. Aliens, he thought; galactic wars, nanoviruses, inoculations that killed. "I am keeping warm."

She talked of other things, and Carson thought of home.

*

Radek hunched over laptops for many hours and muttered. Raised head now and then, surprised to be not interrupted by Rodney snapping fingers and yelling insane brilliance. He reconfigured puddlejumpers, tweaked shields, but with Major Sheppard not there for testing he must shoo away unqualified pilots, all who thought they could not blow up. He woke up at desk, forgot eating, woke up at desk again, and wondered why Beckett did not drag him to messhall. Teyla forced meetings on him to settle dispute; he rolled eyes and wished for Weir.

Only when Daedalus landed, he knew Atlantis was home.

*

end

Comments

[agentotter.livejournal.com]

That was absolutely terrific. I think John and Rodney's sections were the most effective, providing a stark contrast between what they thought they might've wanted to get back to, and what they really would miss when they were gone. I liked Carson's too, but I wondered if he would've been slightly happier to be home... that guy's hard to peg, so I dunno. :D I liked the last line of Elizabeth's section, but the events there weren't as interesting to me; it would've been nice to see more of her view of the things she left behind, rather than the on-going spat with Caldwell. ;) And Radek is tooooo cute. :) This is great, I might have to go read it again. Thanks!

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Carson, I think, has more of a tie to home than most of them--other than Ford--because he has family that he loves. So, yeah, there's ambiguity there, but I think he's learned to care just as much about Atlantis. We only really got to see how he cares about people in "Poisoning the Well" because of Perna, and I think that he fell in love with his fellow Atlanteans (though far more platonically) in much the same way.

Elizabeth...I wanted to write something for her that grew out of her break up with Simon, but I really couldn't get her voice until I had her sniping at Caldwell...her characterization arose out of her facade of leadership. She was the toughest one, and I think I haven't succeeded with her yet. Well, there's only one solution to that: write Weir/Heightmeyer! Yes, okay, good plan, thank you.

Radek is amazingly cute to me in a very...hmm, a very non-sexualized way; he feels like a younger sibling to me, or a teddy bear, or someone who needs a hug; and I imagined him running out to the Daedalus and giving everyone a big group hug as soon as they got back.

And this is all very inspiring and I want to write more now.