Title: Battleships
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Summary: "When you fight for your life on a weekly basis in another galaxy, John Sheppard reflected, you take moments like this very seriously..." One-shot. (Season 1)

Disclaimer: All the original stuff's mine but the really cool stuff isn't!

Battleships

He had a fleet of ships at his command, ready and waiting. Already two of them had been taken out by the other fleet that remained, equally matched, just out of sight. They were blind to each other, and all they could do was take blind shots, firing in the hope of scoring a hit. When you fight for your life on a weekly basis in another galaxy, John Sheppard reflected, you take moments like this very seriously.

Rodney McKay shattered the tense silence.

"Major – we're out of time."

Sheppard glanced at him irritably. "We're not going until this is over."

"But Weir–"

"Rodney, the sooner you're quiet the sooner this is done."

McKay hesitated. "Right, well… hurry up."

He was hovering distractingly close, but Sheppard did his best to ignore him and turned back to the screen upon which his own ships were represented. His enemy was just out of reach; he had two likely targets; which would make the kill?

He took a breath.

"There!" McKay suddenly said, jabbing a finger at the screen. "It has to be."

Sheppard glanced at the scientist before staring hard at the screen. "Are you sure?"

"Am I sure? Am I sure? Mathematical probability, Major, of course I'm sure. There has to be something there."

"Alright…" He reached towards the screen, finger slowly extending towards McKay's target. Then:

"Major!"

Sheppard's finger flinched away at the sound of Ford's voice.

"What?"

He turned his head to throw a sharp glance towards Ford and Teyla as they appeared behind him, both looking anxious.

"Is it not yet finished?" Teyla asked, approaching incredulously.

"It would be finished," Sheppard replied, "if people would stop interrupting me!"

"Time, time," McKay reminded them all in his would-be-careless voice, bouncing restlessly on the balls of his feet. Sheppard answered: "I know," and turned back to the screen. He reached back towards the co-ordinates McKay had pointed out to him, only to freeze again as Ford asked,

"That's your next target?"

"Yes," Sheppard and McKay replied at once. Rodney added: "You have a problem with that?"

Ford answered simply: "It's not going to work."

"Well I'm sorry if you don't rate my ability to predict probability ratios in three dimensional space," McKay snapped, "but it so happens that the Major does, so perhaps you could let him get on with it?"

"Hey, no offence, Doc," Ford replied. "I'm sure you're right, but – from a tactical point of view, that's a bad call."

"I think Aidan may be right," Teyla advised. "Surely it would be better to–"

Sheppard raised his right fist, not in a gesture of aggression but as the military signal for silence. They all reacted instinctively. When quiet had fallen, Sheppard slowly lowered his hand.

"As McKay keeps pointing out, we've got limited time here," he told them all. "So will you please, please let me do this. McKay, I'm sure you're right, but I've got a gut feeling and I always go with my gut feeling. Ford, Teyla, we can talk tactics later. But for now…"

He reached towards the screen again. Here it was: the deciding shot.

Elizabeth Weir's voice echoed through their earpieces. "Major Sheppard, this is Weir."

Gritting his teeth, Sheppard replied: "Go ahead."

"Am I to understand there's some kind of delay?"

Sheppard sent a scathing look around his team. "You could say that."

"We don't have time for games, Major."

"I know that, Elizabeth, but if I could just–"

"John, have you thought about the kind of example you are setting to your men, and to everyone else on this base? We have countless things to deal with here. You and your team have a mission briefing that was scheduled to start fifteen minutes ago – and you're playing Battleships?"

"It's not that simple," Sheppard began, but he knew that ultimately it would be no use. He added, lamely: "It's my favourite game." He looked around his team, who were all giving him despairing looks. "Well, it is!"

Weir continued: "Are you going to follow orders, Major, or am I going to have to ask Dr. McKay to restrict your access to the Ancient holographic imaging systems?"

McKay gave him a triumphant look. Sheppard scowled. "That won't be necessary."

"I'm glad to hear it," Weir replied. "Now can we please start our briefing?"

Smirking at his commander, Ford replied, "On our way, ma'am."

End.