"Stopping by Woods"
By December21st
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Warnings: Spoilers for "Before I Sleep"
Summary: In order to save Atlantis, she has a task to complete. Missing scene from "Before I Sleep."
A/N: The poem is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
She awoke in the Ancient laboratory, silent except for the soft hum of machinery. She breathed deeply, coughing as she tasted the stale air, and stepped out of the stasis chamber.
For a moment, she couldn't remember if this was the first time she'd awoken or the second. But she remembered the silence, and noting how long her hair had grown, and how tired she was. Then, she hadn't expected to grow old. This was the second time.
She was shuffling through the corridors in palpable silence to the nearest transporter, when she saw the window overlooking the submerged city. She paused. The spires of the city somehow reminded her of a forest, with faint light filtering down through the treetops.
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep." The sound of her own voice nearly made her jump. She continued to look out the window for a few more minutes, then continued on towards the transporter.
She pressed the panel at the back of the transporter that would take her to the power distribution center. She was so very tired. It seemed like only a few hours ago that she was young, and now she was – what, seventy? Eighty? (How many thousand years old?) Suddenly, the mere thought of walking to the power distribution center was almost more than she could imagine.
"But I have promises to keep," she reminded herself out loud, moving again towards her destination. She wouldn't let them all die for nothing. The memory of the sounds of her people drowning echoed in her mind. She could save them.
She reached the power distribution center and very carefully followed the instructions she had been given for transferring the power to the last Z.P.M. before the previous one was completely depleted. Her hands trembled in a way that worried her, but she completed her task. She was so tired, and in her condition, it was a long way back to the lab with the stasis chamber.
"And miles to go before I sleep," She had to return to the stasis chamber, she told herself. She had to find out if it worked. To tell the story of what happened to the Atlantis expedition the first time. The silence pressed down on her as she shuffled back through the dusty corridors. A dead plant she hadn't noticed before near the window only served to enhance her sense of loneliness.
She made it back to the laboratory, exhausted after the effort. She only had to reactivate the stasis chamber, and then she would start the last leg of her journey. As she had in the power distribution center, she followed her instructions methodically. She stepped into the stasis chamber. Somehow it was important to finish the poem before the stasis chamber reactivated.
"And miles to go before I sleep."