For Mirth

A Town called Atlantis

There was something different about the small town, with the grand name of Atlantis. It was nestled on the northern edge of the great Canadian boreal forest and looked like any other small rural town. Houses were made predominantly from timber and sprawled outwards from the forest. Shops and businesses lined the wide main road, ready to cater to those who searched for adventure in one of the last truly wild and unspoilt wilderness left.

It wasn't the way the town looked that made it different. It was the inhabitants who dwelled there. If you asked them why they had settled in a town so far from the next so far from the next pocket of civilisation their answer would all be the same – something drew them to it.

There was John Shepherd, an American. A former air force pilot, dishonourable discharged, who had lost himself to the savagery of war in far-flung countries.

Ronan Dex, the tall, muscular and tattooed Maori, who spent seven long years chasing vengeance and still carried the scars of his failure on his body and in his soul.

There was the mysterious and beautiful Teyla Emmagan. Where she had originated from, no one knew, but she processed a flawless grace and a flare for diplomacy. She could also best Shepherd and Dex in unarmed combat, which belied the strength in her slender frame.

There were many more who the town had called. They kept their pasts to themselves, but Atlantis knew their secrets, their pain and their skills, it had called out to them and they had come. But there was one more still to arrive, before Atlantis revealed her own secrets.

His name was Rodney McKay.

He was once an arrogant man, but one who processed the genius found only once in a generation. McKay's discoveries were coveted by many and the greed of his fellow man had been the downfall of the socially inept McKay.

Atlantis called to him, a broken man now, but she had the power to heal, to once again give purpose and meaning to all under her care.

She had waited centuries; a few more days were nothing.

With thanks, as always, to Jay