The Arrogance of Good Intentions:
Chapter 1 substantially rewritten today, Feb 15, 2012. I increasingly haven't liked the original Chapter 1-I guess I was too eager to publish my first story! I hope you enjoy. If you missed the original Chapter 1-this new chapter fleshes out the skeleton of the old one and adds some new backstory, and some foreshadowing. The rest of the chapters remain the same; I just wanted to strengthen the intro and do more to grab your attention!
Reviews and feedback greatly appreciated.
Set between Season 2 and start of Season 4. My first fan fiction ANYWHERE (except inside my head). The story touches on a niggling characteristic of Stargate-SG1 and SG-Atlantis that bothers me. Inspired by that, and "Inquisition" (yes, that's Season 5, but I really like Elizabeth).
Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla and McKay stepped through the 'Gate onto M5M 228. The landscape that greeted the team was a familiar sight in the Pegasus galaxy—green, but slowly fading to the rusts and golds of fall, the sky a mix of blue and clouds, and signs of a rather large and bustling town off in the distance. The smells in the air, however, were most likely (and unfortunately?) more recognizable to Sheppard and McKay—the smells of fuel and smoke and overall 'urban-ness' replacing the more common bucolic 'pungency' of their previous explorations.
This particular world, Kalassia, had practically "jumped" out of the Ancient database during a routine review to assemble a list of worlds for future contact. It was surprisingly more advanced than most they had visited, somewhat comparable, on a modest scale, to the late 1800's on Earth and experiencing an exciting era of innovation and industrialization. Teyla's pre-mission briefing had certainly piqued their interest, especially Sheppard's and Weir's. Teyla had described an intriguing world, with the town they were approaching as its central community. Kalassia was a trading hub, and offered thriving stores, warehouse space, and a strong banking system. The town also supported itself through small-scale manufacturing. Teyla and her people held the Kalassians in good regard. Although the original Athosian homeworld had been a smaller and simpler culture, with more basic goods to trade, they had found an eager market on Kalassia for their artisan crafts and agricultural products and expertise. Teyla believed that both Atlantis and Kalassia could also offer each other needed commodities and skills.
In reality, there was a limit to Atlantis' need for foodstuffs, herbal medicines, hand-made crafts, and the like. What really got the attention of the Lanteans (and made the Science Department staff just about drool) was Kalassia's reputation for advancements in science and technology, in particular, geology, mechanical engineering and construction.
Like so many worlds, Kalassia had suffered its share of Wraith cullings. But in recent times, as their technological abilities had advanced, they had gained a considerable edge over neighboring planets. Kalassians had been able to take shelter underground in fortified natural and man-made structures during attacks. To Sheppard, this brought to mind Londoners taking refuge in the deep Tube tunnels during WWII. Kalassia's tunnels also were a safe haven for equipment and documents, guaranteeing, barring a particularly savage culling or natural disaster, a fairly permanent archive of knowledge going back decades. In the face of adversity, Kalassians knew how to persevere, rebuild and renew.
As they neared the town, Sheppard's strategizing impulses went into overdrive. (Maybe it was the nice day and the fresh air. Maybe it was the prospect of meeting people who WEREN'T living in thatched-roof houses and growing crops.) Perhaps the people of Kalassia would be willing to reach out to their neighbors and share their skills; certainly, Rodney and the Ancient database could identify planets with suitable geology, and of course there were dozens of worlds much less advanced than Kalassia. Sheppard enthusiastically made a mental note (along with a mental smirk) to discuss this first thing with Elizabeth, Rodney and Zelenka on their return home; such a collaboration would benefit many planets and thousands of people, and would undoubtedly strengthen Atlantis' overall position in Pegasus and in the growing coalition it was spearheading.
As they walked, Sheppard started to pepper McKay with questions and ideas, but soon stopped. The trip into town was a bit long; although they had cloaked the Jumper, they had "parked" some distance away so as to gradually enter the town. This had set McKay to griping and providing a detailed list of his various body parts that wished they had more closely landed. Sheppard knew better than to interrupt that tirade. He turned his thoughts back to how Kalassia could help Atlantis and vice-versa (in his over-eager mind, the actual CEMENTING of the relationship was a given...). And, it would be so invigorating to interact with people with whom they might share a somewhat even footing-intellectually and culturally. It could be so damn hard to navigate the ways of simpler worlds; his team had stumbled too many times into some disastrous situation that they (probably) couldn't have anticipated.
This was going to be a very interesting mission, Sheppard thought. But not in the way he expected. Over the next few days, he and his friends would stumble, and fall, and wonder how they could get up, dust themselves off and start again.
To be continued...