![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jessant.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sga_flashficTitle: Telepathic Fish
Author: Jessant
Challenge: ESP Challenge
Rating: PG
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
“This must be some kind of Ancient zoo,” Rodney said, stepping into the room. The lights were slowly turning on. Displays popping up all over the place. The displays were in front of tanks filled with amber fluid. Inside the large tanks floated different creatures. Each one freakishly amazing in its own way. One had three horns with the face of a cat and the body of a fish. Another was an insect-like creature that bore a strong resemblance to the Wraith. John stepped into the room slowly, looking into each corner before relaxing.
“Except the animals are all dead.”
“Maybe this is the Ancient equivalent of putting a deer head over the mantle,” Rodney said. John just shrugged and took a closer look at one of the displays.
“Man, he’s ugly,” John said, giving an admiring whistle at the tank. In the tank floated a fish with long white eyebrows and a beard. Its face was vaguely human, in an unsettling way.
“Let’s get out of here. Who knows how much power we’re wasting,” Rodney said, quickly backtracking out of the room.
***
Rodney’s dreams began two days later. They weren’t really dreams, just impressions. Light on water. Sand. Salt. Shadow. There were very few words interspersed between these ‘thoughts’. Rodney was trying to grasp for some reason behind them. He hadn’t eaten anything too weird for a few days, so he ruled that out. The water wasn’t contaminated. The only thing that he could possibly think of was the Ancient-animal- death room that they had found. Rodney wasn’t up to trekking all the way back there, and besides he had lots of important things to do. He let it go.
***
John was the first to notice something strange about his behavior.
“Why are you standing outside my door naked?” he asked. Rodney tried to come up with a reasonable answer, but all he could think of was unfortunately, light on water, sand, salt, light, stone, shadow. Which really wasn’t useful for communicating with his friend.
John looked around, and then pulled Rodney into his room.
“Look, whatever this is, McKay, I won’t judge you. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
But he couldn’t. He just stood there naked, until John finally panicked and dragged him to the infirmary. Rodney clutched the blanket John had thrown around him and thought, warm.
***
Carson was looking at him. John was looking at him. Weir was looking at him and projecting concern all over the damned place. And he still couldn’t get out of whatever hell he was trapped in. He was underwater. The light was echoing all around him. Sound pulsing and vibrating. He could feel the other fish passing. Feel the ripples along his body. He was very old.
***
If a fish could be a scientist then this fish, taking over his mind, was one. It was infinitely curious about the new world that it found itself inhabiting. It reached out with Rodney’s hand and grabbed onto John’s arm. It couldn’t understand complex emotions. It was still trying to filter the world the same way it always had. But the fish sensed John, sensed his warmth. It moved closer to the Major, tightening its hold on his arm, while Rodney battered ineffectually at the barrier that separated him from his body.
***
Zelenka suggested brainwave modulation. They hooked him into some Ancient device and looked at the harmonics of his brain. John was understandably doubtful about the whole process, but he went along with it.
“There’s a second layer here. Over Rodney’s own brainwaves. See this line. Highly unusual,” Zelenka fiddled with the machine some more, and then poked Rodney’s shoulder. “You’re there, but you’re trapped. We can’t fix this, with this device. We need to find where this second line is coming from.”
***
Using another Ancient device, that tracked alien brainwaves, John and Zelenka were able to trace the source of the second line right back to the fish. John was finally beginning to understand why Ancient technology was so damned weird. If the Ancients had found themselves in half the predicaments his own team had found themselves in, they probably had made good use out of all of it.
“It’s alive. How can it be alive?” John asked, laying a hand on the tank in which the fish floated serenely.
“It is incredible. But how do we make it stop without killing it?”
“I don’t mean to be all Free Willy, but maybe we should just let it go. Maybe that’s all it wants,” John said.
“You are thinking like a human. This thing it does not think like us. This might not be enough.”
***
It wasn’t enough. The fish had not surrendered its hold on Rodney's mind. Zelenka was frantic. Weir was cornering as many scientists as she could to help out. In the end, John decided to take action.
“We do not know what will happen once the fish dies,” Zelenka said, hands shaking with frustration. They had both been up for the past two nights.
“I’m not going to sit around here and do nothing.”
“If you tell me this is the right thing to do, I will shoot you and feed you to the fish.”
“It’s the only option.”
John jumped into the ocean with a knife. The fish had remained around the place they had let it go. It wasn’t too hard to the corner the thing. It was old and slow and still in shock from being woken from it’s long rest in the tank. It didn’t put up much of a fight and for some reason that saddened John.
***
Rodney woke up two days later, strung out and in the infirmary. Zelenka was frowning down at him and muttering something about brainwave harmonics.
“What pseudo-science are you babbling about now?”
“You have a lot of catching up to do. We have done much in your absence.”
“I’m shocked that everything didn’t come to a grinding halt, when my brain disappeared.”
“We missed you,” was all Zelenka said.
***
“It was the right thing to do,” Rodney said to John, when he found him on the east pier, looking out over the ocean.
“I don’t know. That thing was so old. It didn’t deserve to die like that. It probably didn’t even know what it was doing.”
“It knew,” Rodney said, “In its own way. It wanted this,” he pointed between him and John, “as much as I did. I do.”
John turned around startled.
“It’s getting late. I think I’ll turn in,” Rodney said. The sun was slowly setting over the ocean. Light on water. Shadows moving across John’s face. He walked away.
Author: Jessant
Challenge: ESP Challenge
Rating: PG
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
“This must be some kind of Ancient zoo,” Rodney said, stepping into the room. The lights were slowly turning on. Displays popping up all over the place. The displays were in front of tanks filled with amber fluid. Inside the large tanks floated different creatures. Each one freakishly amazing in its own way. One had three horns with the face of a cat and the body of a fish. Another was an insect-like creature that bore a strong resemblance to the Wraith. John stepped into the room slowly, looking into each corner before relaxing.
“Except the animals are all dead.”
“Maybe this is the Ancient equivalent of putting a deer head over the mantle,” Rodney said. John just shrugged and took a closer look at one of the displays.
“Man, he’s ugly,” John said, giving an admiring whistle at the tank. In the tank floated a fish with long white eyebrows and a beard. Its face was vaguely human, in an unsettling way.
“Let’s get out of here. Who knows how much power we’re wasting,” Rodney said, quickly backtracking out of the room.
***
Rodney’s dreams began two days later. They weren’t really dreams, just impressions. Light on water. Sand. Salt. Shadow. There were very few words interspersed between these ‘thoughts’. Rodney was trying to grasp for some reason behind them. He hadn’t eaten anything too weird for a few days, so he ruled that out. The water wasn’t contaminated. The only thing that he could possibly think of was the Ancient-animal- death room that they had found. Rodney wasn’t up to trekking all the way back there, and besides he had lots of important things to do. He let it go.
***
John was the first to notice something strange about his behavior.
“Why are you standing outside my door naked?” he asked. Rodney tried to come up with a reasonable answer, but all he could think of was unfortunately, light on water, sand, salt, light, stone, shadow. Which really wasn’t useful for communicating with his friend.
John looked around, and then pulled Rodney into his room.
“Look, whatever this is, McKay, I won’t judge you. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
But he couldn’t. He just stood there naked, until John finally panicked and dragged him to the infirmary. Rodney clutched the blanket John had thrown around him and thought, warm.
***
Carson was looking at him. John was looking at him. Weir was looking at him and projecting concern all over the damned place. And he still couldn’t get out of whatever hell he was trapped in. He was underwater. The light was echoing all around him. Sound pulsing and vibrating. He could feel the other fish passing. Feel the ripples along his body. He was very old.
***
If a fish could be a scientist then this fish, taking over his mind, was one. It was infinitely curious about the new world that it found itself inhabiting. It reached out with Rodney’s hand and grabbed onto John’s arm. It couldn’t understand complex emotions. It was still trying to filter the world the same way it always had. But the fish sensed John, sensed his warmth. It moved closer to the Major, tightening its hold on his arm, while Rodney battered ineffectually at the barrier that separated him from his body.
***
Zelenka suggested brainwave modulation. They hooked him into some Ancient device and looked at the harmonics of his brain. John was understandably doubtful about the whole process, but he went along with it.
“There’s a second layer here. Over Rodney’s own brainwaves. See this line. Highly unusual,” Zelenka fiddled with the machine some more, and then poked Rodney’s shoulder. “You’re there, but you’re trapped. We can’t fix this, with this device. We need to find where this second line is coming from.”
***
Using another Ancient device, that tracked alien brainwaves, John and Zelenka were able to trace the source of the second line right back to the fish. John was finally beginning to understand why Ancient technology was so damned weird. If the Ancients had found themselves in half the predicaments his own team had found themselves in, they probably had made good use out of all of it.
“It’s alive. How can it be alive?” John asked, laying a hand on the tank in which the fish floated serenely.
“It is incredible. But how do we make it stop without killing it?”
“I don’t mean to be all Free Willy, but maybe we should just let it go. Maybe that’s all it wants,” John said.
“You are thinking like a human. This thing it does not think like us. This might not be enough.”
***
It wasn’t enough. The fish had not surrendered its hold on Rodney's mind. Zelenka was frantic. Weir was cornering as many scientists as she could to help out. In the end, John decided to take action.
“We do not know what will happen once the fish dies,” Zelenka said, hands shaking with frustration. They had both been up for the past two nights.
“I’m not going to sit around here and do nothing.”
“If you tell me this is the right thing to do, I will shoot you and feed you to the fish.”
“It’s the only option.”
John jumped into the ocean with a knife. The fish had remained around the place they had let it go. It wasn’t too hard to the corner the thing. It was old and slow and still in shock from being woken from it’s long rest in the tank. It didn’t put up much of a fight and for some reason that saddened John.
***
Rodney woke up two days later, strung out and in the infirmary. Zelenka was frowning down at him and muttering something about brainwave harmonics.
“What pseudo-science are you babbling about now?”
“You have a lot of catching up to do. We have done much in your absence.”
“I’m shocked that everything didn’t come to a grinding halt, when my brain disappeared.”
“We missed you,” was all Zelenka said.
***
“It was the right thing to do,” Rodney said to John, when he found him on the east pier, looking out over the ocean.
“I don’t know. That thing was so old. It didn’t deserve to die like that. It probably didn’t even know what it was doing.”
“It knew,” Rodney said, “In its own way. It wanted this,” he pointed between him and John, “as much as I did. I do.”
John turned around startled.
“It’s getting late. I think I’ll turn in,” Rodney said. The sun was slowly setting over the ocean. Light on water. Shadows moving across John’s face. He walked away.