Retro
Was it worth it, thought Rodney irritably. Yes, this was advanced coding that they had barely scratched the surface on but couldn't the damn wraith talk plainly?!
"Do you wish me to explain it in more simple terms Dr Mckay?"
The grating voice of the wraith snapped him from his daydreaming. It was standing there with its head to one side, eyeing him up. Probably wondering if it can get its hands free and feed on me before the marines shoot it, thought Rodney bitterly. He wished it would stop staring at him like that! It was creepy.
"Huh?"
"I was merely inquiring if you wished me to go over the coding principle in more simple terms. You appear to be struggling to keep up."
"Nope, no, you just carry on, I'm keeping up just fine," snapped Rodney. The wraith was making fun of him! He was the biggest genius in two galaxies (alongside Samantha Carter of course), and just because they currently needed the help of Sheppard's wraith to help with the replicator coding was not in any way a mark on his record. No, he was just... making use of resources, that was all.
The wraith rolled his eyes and returned to the computer screen before him.
"Now the secondary beta coding appears to no longer correlate to the replicators base code. We would have to re-correlate the primary and tertiary bases in order to-"
"No no no, that would take months and would leave the rest of the coding just sitting there. It's not a primary directive, just delete it and concentrate on the auxiliary shadow coding should-"
"It is quite necessary, without this line of coding functioning correctly the entire tertiary support cycle would shut down instantly and take the rest of the coding with it."
"Okay then, what do you suggest because we clearly can't leave it or actually do anything with it without mucking up the whole coding, which, may I remind you, is not a healthy option for any of us."
The wraith chose not to answer him (probably because he was right, 1-nil to Mckay!) and returned to staring at the monitor, hands twitching in its restraints (probably wanting to fed on him for being right). So they worked solidly for a few hours, not talking to each other; Rodney because he was obviously right and didn't need the wraith's help and the wraith because it was clearly having another one of its strops. The only sounds were the tapping of McKay's computer, the wraith growling under its breath and the sound of bored marines who are wondering how long till the end of their shift.
"How's it going?" asked Sheppard as he breezed in three hours later.
"Not good," replied Rodney, not looking up from his monitor.
"What we would require," growled the wraith eventually, "is a string sequencing pattern that would generate a staggered code module to fit into the breaks in the base coding, resulting in a complete and functioning line of code."
Sheppard seemed to think about it for a few moments. "What? Like Tetris?"
Rodney rolled his eyes and the wraith looked confused. "No. Not like Tetris. We are talking advanced level computer coding and maths, Sheppard. It is not going to be solved by a retro video game."
"What is this...Tetris?" inquired the wraith, still nonplussed.
Sheppard wiped out his mobile phone (what the heck?! How had he managed to get an iPhone?! They weren't even out yet and he, Rodney, had pre-ordered one! This was not fair! Besides, how did he get any signal?) and selected an app.
"Its a game, y'see? You have to complete the lines with the falling blocks before they reach the top of the screen. Then it's game over."
The wraith looked intently at the game. Rodney was tempted to wonder if wraith ever played computer games. Ha! A wraith version of space invaders, now that would be-
"I believe Colonel Sheppard has found the solution."
"What, seriously? You wanna base this part of the coding on Tetris?!"
"There would need to be a few modifications, certainly, but the basic principal is similar enough to our current requirements to be potentially viable."
Sheppard smiled smugly. Rodney just fumed. That part of the coding was completed, leaving several billion strands of code to go.
A short dabble for a fanfic competition, where the challenge was to write a technobabble fic. Just a fun little piece of randomness.
SGA is not mine, just borrowing. Reviews are always welcome.