AUTHOR'S NOTES: My first longfic in Stargate: Atlantis, prompted by an old SG-1 story idea I had a long time ago but which never got finished. With many, many grateful thanks to the betas who read (L and A), to the people who constantly encourage (A, R, T, and S), and to the people who send feedback.

Sensitivity: Part One

Something Strange

A cup of coffee was Dr. Elizabeth Weir's first notification that something strange was going on in Atlantis.

It was not the coffee itself, but the fact that Dr. Rodney McKay brought it that triggered the peculiar sense that she'd somehow wandered into the Twilight Zone.

She studied Rodney over the rim of the cup, pleased that she didn't have to go out for a refill, but disturbed nevertheless. "Rodney? Is everything okay?"

He was plainly surprised at her question. "Everything's fine, Elizabeth. Why?"

Her look at the mug of coffee and then back at him made her point clear. His expression lightened with understanding. "Oh, the coffee. Well, as I was getting my own mug and I noticed that yours was also empty, it only took a minute to get some for you as well."

Elizabeth rose from her desk where she'd been looking at the food shortages projected by the mess-hall sergeants. "It's unusual for you to do something like this."

"Ah yes. Well, unusual doesn't mean it can never happen. It simply means that it's not within the usual parameters of--"

There was only one way to get his attention when he was in the middle of an explanation: talk a little louder and a little more firmly to break through the sound of his own voice. "Rodney."

For a wonder, he paused in the middle of his sentence. "Yes?"

She gave him a smile and lifted the mug towards him in a short toast. "Thank you."

His pleasure in her appreciation was amusing, to say the least. Although Elizabeth would never consider him the most suave of men in Atlantis, there was a charm to his manner that made it hard not to like him, however blunt or arrogant he could be. The smug satisfaction stayed with him all the way to the briefing room, where the rest of his team were already at their places at the table.

"...still think it's barbaric," Major John Sheppard was saying. On the other side of the room, Lieutenant Aiden Ford nodded in emphatic agreement.

"It is their custom," Teyla Emmagen replied as Elizabeth took her seat.

"And you wouldn't have minded being married off at fourteen?"

The young woman's glance flickered towards Elizabeth as she took her spot at the table. "Had I been of their people, brought up to their customs, then marriage at such an age would also have been my expectation." She turned a serene countenance upon Major Sheppard. "I was not, and so it is not."

Elizabeth could imagine how she'd have felt at being married off at fourteen. But then, as Teyla had pointed out, that wasn't her background.

"Marriage customs?"

Teyla nodded. "The Tabaasi are a farmer culture," she said. "It is their custom to marry off their daughters when they reach puberty."

"Fourteen," Sheppard said with the air of someone making a very important point. "The girl who was married while we were there was fourteen. Fourteen. The guy she was marrying was nearly twice her age."

Elizabeth kept the wince from her face. The difference between fourteen and twenty-eight was huge in terms of age, maturity, understanding... "Many cultures married their girls off young," She pointed out before taking a sip from her coffee and folding her hands on the table. "It meant more years spent being productive in terms of childbearing and housekeeping." Sheppard stared at her in disbelief, and she defended her statement. "I don't necessarily agree with it, Major, I'm saying that this is the view many cultures take."

"It's still barbaric."

"Major, you weren't sent to make value judgements on their culture, you were sent to find out if they were willing to trade with us for food." Elizabeth regarded Major Sheppard's team. "Tell me that the news is good."

As the shortage reports on her desk indicated, Atlantis was facing rations. They hadn't yet found a planet of people who were willing to trade as much food as they needed to feed the population presently living in Atlantis. Some cultures had promised surplus from their crops, but it wouldn't make much of a dent in the kind of consumption the expedition group were looking at.

Most of their other options were gone. After the planetary storm, the Athosians would have barely enough to feed their own people. Teyla had reported that the next seasons would be harsh. Elizabeth had no intention of making it harsher with the Atlantis expedition drawing on their meagre supplies as well.

This planet was one of the last ones on their list, and had been left until this late because the Athosians had not had any contact with them in several generations. Teyla didn't know why, and John had agreed with her that it was best to explore their known avenues of possibility before examining the unknown ones.

As she studied them, Elizabeth realised that she didn't need to be told that the news was good; she could see it in their poses. Relaxed, but still alert, and with the buoyant air of a team who'd gotten what they went to get.

"The news is good." John confirmed in a voice of distinct satisfaction.

"Well, if by 'good' you mean, 'they're willing to trade us food,' then, yes, the news is good," Rodney said. He had a habit of starting his more ostentatious sentences by staring off into the middle distance before he focused his gaze on the person he was speaking to. Elizabeth found it both amusing and irritating. "If by 'good' you mean, 'they don't marry their daughters off as soon as they hit puberty,' then, no, the news is not so good."

Elizabeth's mouth twitched at his pomposity and noted that Lieutenant Ford also hid a grin. Teyla's mouth curved in an open smile, but Sheppard seemed exasperated as he glared at his team-mate. "They're willing to trade us food," he said. "That's good. The other stuff...not so much."

It was a start. However, the question was whether it would be enough to keep Atlantis from rations and whether it would leave Atlantis short of yet another resource of which they had little enough. Elizabeth chose to focus on what was probably going to be the less palatable part of the bargain. "What do they want in return?"

More accurately, what had John bargained away this time in exchange for the food they needed?

It was fairly obvious that he knew exactly what she was thinking. He gave her a look that said he had her number and wasn't afraid to call her on it. "They wanted to know about Earth crops and growing techniques."

"That's all?" She lifted an eyebrow and waited for the other boot to drop.

"That's all," he said firmly.

Elizabeth had been a diplomatic negotiator for years now, and the first thing she'd learned in dealing with people was that everyone wanted something. She eyed John. "You're sure of this?"

"They're a very backwards culture," Rodney said. "Their technology is non-existent, their agricultural techniques are primitive..."

"...and their marriage customs are barbaric," Ford muttered.

"...and their marriage customs are...quirky," the scientist continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "They wouldn't know what to do with most of the technology we brought with us. Information is about the only thing we can give them that they'd have the faintest inkling of what to do with."

It was a relief to find a culture willing to take something that they could afford to give.

"Information about Earth crops and growing techniques we can manage," she said. "How much food can they provide us?"

"Lots."

"Heaps."

"Loads."

"Crates."

Teyla spoke up from her seat beside John. "They can provide us with volumes of food quite close to that which we require."

The Athosian woman's practicality was an island of relief in the midst of her team-mates' jokes and commentary. As fond as Elizabeth was of Major Sheppard's team, including Major Sheppard, there were moments when she wished for a little more seriousness and a little less comedy from them.

"Thank you, Teyla," she said. "And you didn't have to bargain away all our medical and C4 supplies to them?"

John looked marginally abashed. "It happened once."

"I believe that once is more than enough," Rodney remarked airily. "I still have all those wonderful memories of being shoved around by Commander Kolya in the freezing rain with a knife wound in my arm."

"And we still have all those wonderful memories of your complaints for days afterwards," John retorted.

"Gentlemen," Elizabeth interrupted before it could become a full-blown comedy sketch. "You're quite sure the Tabaasi are willing to trade large amounts of food with us in exchange for a little knowledge?"

"They didn't ask for anything else."

"Did they say when they would be able to deliver the first batch to us?"

"I believe their words were 'at the next full moon'," Rodney said.

Elizabeth waited. Rodney occasionally assumed his audience knew exactly what he was talking about, which John claimed was a pleasant change from assuming his audience were all idiots, but which she found more than a little tiresome when she had to ask for clarification at every turn. "Which will be...when?"

He looked astonished that she'd had to ask. "Maybe a week from now. No," he held up a hand. "Six days actually. The same time as our own full moon. Actually, it's quite rare to have a conjunction of their planetary bodies with ours. The odds of it are astronomical."

"Literally," John said with heavy irony.

"Six days?" Elizabeth was surprised. "That soon?"

It was Teyla who provided the answer. "Their growing techniques allow them to adjust their harvest according to the number of mouths they need to feed - and their farming season is year-long."

"That would be due to their latitudinal position in the hemisphere," Rodney explained. "It would be like, say, living in California. Or maybe a few degrees further south."

"When did you ever live in California?"

"I know it might be hard for you to comprehend, Major, but you don't know everything about me."

"Thank God," John muttered, just loud enough for Rodney to hear.

"Gentlemen." She waited until she had both their gazes before she continued. "I'll have Grodin schedule you to return to the Tabaasi in two days' time. I'd like to be sure that the knowledge is all that they want, and you can confirm the first delivery. The sooner we have fresh food, the better." They'd had none since the storm, living on MREs and what little could be brought back by hunting parties from the mainland.

"Could we have a party while we're at it?" The suggestion came, a little surprisingly, from Lieutenant Ford. "I mean, we haven't had a party since the Athosians first came to Atlantis." He glanced over at Teyla with a brief smile to which she faintly smiled back.

The suggestion was a good one, and Elizabeth let her appreciation of it show. "I'll speak with the mess hall sergeants. If they think it's a possibility, it would be a great morale-booster. Is there anything else?" Heads were shaken and she released them to their regular duties on the base with a smile. "Good work, then."

John followed her back to her office, keeping pace alongside her as he went. "Is everything okay?"

She regarded him with a half-amused smile. "Yes. Why?"

"Oh, you just seemed...restless. When we came back from Tabaasa," he qualified. "You were fairly short then."

At the time they'd arrived back from Tabaasa, she'd been somewhat busy fielding yet another set of complaints from Dr. Cavanaugh who, it seemed, was taking everything she did as a personal insult. As a result, her greeting had been terse and she had gone back to dealing with the gripes of the scientist in the most firm, yet polite manner that she could summon.

However, Elizabeth wouldn't have expected him to notice that.

"Dealing with some on-base situations," she said, choosing not to reveal the cause of her earlier irritation. "I'm fine now."

"So you weren't before?"

She paused on the 'bridge' between her office and the central control room. "I never said that."

"You just did."

Not in so many words, perhaps. Elizabeth shook her head. "Never mind," she told him. "Everything's fine. Really."

He didn't look as though he believed her, but he shrugged and went off in the direction of the general base.

Elizabeth stared after him a moment trying to shake the feeling that she'd just dreamed up their conversation. It was nothing she could pinpoint, only the faintest sense that something was just a little strange.

Then she put down her coffee, sat down at her desk and looked at the reports on her screen. A few minutes later, the shortage reports had been filed back in her computer's 'in-tray' to be dealt with after the other reports were done. Hopefully by the time she got around to them again, the Tabaasi would have made good on their promise of fresh foodstuffs, and the shortage reports would be redundant.

Well, she could hope anyway.

As she pulled up the next set of reports - estimates of the medical shortage that the Gennii had induced when they took the bulk of the base's medical supplies at the height of the storm - her eye fell back on the mug of coffee.

Definitely strange.

oOo

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