Title: Ancient Protocol
Rating: PG-13 - R (to be safe of course)
Warnings: M/m &F/m pairings, fetishes, and a slight sex scene that will be later AND 'much girly high school drama' to quote one of my reviewers *smile*
Disclaimer:I don't own this these characters, or the city, or even a puddle jumper! I'm not doing this for money either, just fun.
This is my first Atlantis fic so be gentle with your reviews as I'm not the best writer in the world. And please review...I like to know if I should even keep trying any more. Oh and I answer all of my reviews quickly or try to so don't be surprised if you hear from me. (If you don't want me to message you say so and I'll try to contain myself)
With that...I give you...this OOC piece of fan fiction.
"Zelenka to McKay."
Rodney jumped and his head slammed up against the bottom of the flight controls for the jumper he was working in.
"Ahh!" He hissed in pain and tapped the radio, "McKay."
"Something just popped up on the main screen in the control room."
McKay who had been rubbing the back of his head, paused, "It's not the deep space sensors again is it?"
"No…This is different. It looks like a count down of some kind."
"Right…Be right there. McKay out.
Elizabeth frowned, staring at the ticking numbers going by, "It says something about a Lantian Protocol…"
"What'd I miss?" Rodney came into the room from the stairs leading down into the control room from the jumper bay.
Radek pointed to the screen, "We were running a check on primary systems when this popped up. We can't get back into main system."
Rodney pulled over a laptop and started tapping away, "It looks like some sort of subroutine program."
Dr. Weir looked worried, "What is it?"
"Didn't I just say it looked like some sort of subroutine program? "Rodney gazed around at everyone else, who glared at him.
"Then there has to be some sort of code we can use to shut it down," Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest.
Rodney looked up from the laptop screen and pointed at the interface, "It says that this, whatever it is, initiates itself every few years while the city is occupied, so my guess would be that it has something to do with the people here or the computer systems."
"Rodney that isn't the point," she frowned at him, "we've lost control of primary systems and you don't seem worried about it!"
"Look…if it happens every few years than it shouldn't be a problem to just let it finish whatever its doing. The Ancient's aren't going to build something into their systems that could kill us all."
"So we're just supposed to wait? We don't even know what it's doing," Elizabeth was highly annoyed. "What if someone dials in? Or what if the Wraith show up and we need the cloak?"
Rodney went over and hit the shield button on the DHD and the clear glowing wall sprang into place. He hit it again and it shut off, "The DHD isn't affected. It seems that people could, if they wanted to, go off world while, whatever this is, was happening. As for the Wraith…the count down will have finished in less than 24 hours. If we need the cloak before then, I'd say we were done for any way."
"If people were able to leave the city during this, it could be something dangerous," Elizabeth eyed Rodney, trying to get him to understand things from her view.
"That's highly unlikely. For all we know this could be a scheduled mandatory vacation. A program they made that forced the Lanteans into taking a break."
John chose then come up the stairs from the gate room floor, joining them in the control room, "What's going on?"
Elizabeth glanced at him, "We're not sure but Dr. McKay thinks there's no cause to be concerned."
The colonel looked up at the Ancient computer systems screen, "If everything's ok…then why has the auto destruct been turned on? And why is it in Ancient?"
Radek and Rodney looked at each other.
"It could be possible-" the Czech started.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Rodney snapped, looking at the screen worriedly for a moment before starting to type.
"What?" Elizabeth looked at Radek.
"It could be possible that Ancients feared their city would be over taken at some point, and they would not have time to destroy it," Radek pushed his glasses up his nose.
"But if it only happened every few years…then whoever took over Atlantis would just have to get whatever they wanted from the city and leave before it exploded," Elizabeth looked to Rodney, who was typing away again.
"Only if they were after stuff," John pointed out. "If they were after the city, eventually having it blow up on them would be better then them keeping it."
"Ha!" Rodney pointed down, "The data log of the Protocol says that each time this has happened, no one has aborted it. It was allowed to be carried through."
"And the city is still standing. Maybe Ancient Database is running its own check on systems."
Rodney pointed at Radek, "Of course! The system would have to lock everyone out of the primary systems while it checked for errors."
"And this stuff is pretty advanced so…it takes awhile," John leaned against one of the other consoles.
Elizabeth sighed, still looking at the screen, not entirely reassured, "Is there any other information about the program besides the data log Rodney?"
"Elizabeth it's-"
"Rodney, please. Humor me?"
The doctor sighed and started taping away on his laptop again.
John pushed off from the console, "Well if the city isn't in danger, I'm going to go find a turkey sandwich, because I haven't had lunch yet."
Radek watched the Colonel leave and then turned to look at Elizabeth for a moment, before moving his eyes to Rodney, "Have you finished with Jumper scenarios yet?"
"No! I got called away for this, but I'm almost finished with them," he turned the laptop around toward Elizabeth. "Good news is, even if we can't run the shield or anything like that, the information part of the Database is still accessible. There's directly connected to the Protocol, but it's mentioned in other things."
"What does it say?" she picked up the laptop and started scrolling through the information.
"Well I don't know. I just found it," he gave her the look that said she was completely stupid. "But from what I can see, and my 'Ancient' is a little rusty, they used it as a passage of time," Rodney said almost amused.
"Then it must be something important," she stared at him, but he looked back at her unimpressed. "Why else would you use it for a passage of time? In ancient cultures on Earth, they would use significant events like eclipses or floods to show passages of time."
"Well the checking your highly advanced computer system for program errors is an important event," Rodney pointed back toward the stairs, "I have a jumper to finish scenarios on, so if you'll excuse me?" He left both Radek and Elizabeth, and hurried back up the stairs to the jumper bay.
She looked at Radek who had an apologetic look on his face, "He's not fun to be around when he is being –"
"Himself?" she smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder, "Thanks."
The Czech blushed at the contact, but quickly recovered, "Yes well that and when he's about to-" the man stopped talking abruptly and looked her in the eye.
"When he's about to what?" she asked, giving him a curious little grin.
"Put his life on the line or a least when he thinks he is." Radek pointed to the count down, "I will work on this too, if you would like?"
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, "You don't think Dr. McKay is right either?"
"No…I believe he is right about Ancients not putting protocol into effect that would cause damage, but I cannot help to wonder why they would build a computer system that could not be used while running system check. Especially when fighting wraith for as long as they were."
She nodded, smiling a little again, "Thanks Radek."
"No problem."
Rodney finished the last few connections to reroute power to the engines in the jumper and crawled out from under the console, pushing his data pad and tools out of the way as he stood and sat in the pilot's chair.
'ON!' he thought, screwing up his face in concentration.
When nothing happened at all he sighed, "Oh come on! I know this works."
"What works?" Carson Beckett's voice called from back end of the open jumper.
McKay's eyes flew open and he turned around, "Carson? What are you doing in the jumper bay?"
"Oh just…having a walk," the doctor nervously came into the puddle jumper and took the seat across from Rodney.
Rodney stared at him for a moment. The man was fidgety, "What is it?"
"Remember when Laura's consciousness was-"
Rodney blushed and turned away from him, "Of course. What about it?"
Carson looked down at his clasped hands, "You kissed me-"
"No!" Rodney shouted then said more quietly, "No…I don't want to talk about that. I thought we were going with pretending it never happened."
"I can't pretend it didn't Rodney," the man whispered.
The scientist turned to Carson and frowned slightly for a moment then his eyes widened, "You mean you-"
"I'm afraid so."
"Well uh…I'm very flattered but-"
"I know you're not into me Rodney, but I needed to tell you to stash it."
"To what?" Rodney really needed him to write down a list of common Scottish sayings.
"To put an end to it!"
"You…don't want me to…like you back?"
Carson gave him a sideways look, "Of course I do…but there's someone else…Colonel Sheppard a-"
The scientist paled, "You and John? He's never said a word to me about…of course he wouldn't because of the Air Force but still I-"
"Rodney I don't-"
Rodney got to his feet and quickly gathered as many tools as he could carry, "Don't worry Carson. I won't say anything about you and John to anyone."
"But Rodney-"
However, before the doctor could say another word the other man had fled the jumper.
"Oh boy…" Carson got to his feet and left the jumper only to find Major Lorne standing just outside the open back.
"Did you tell him?"
"I tried to," he looked at the young man and smiled.
The major blushed and ducked his head. He tried to talk but his voice didn't come out right so coughed to clear his throat, "You tried?"
"Aye, but now he thinks I fancy Colonel Sheppard!"
Lorne choked, "He what!"
"Don't worry. Rodney said he wouldn't say anything to anyone else, but that's not what I'm worried about," he moved in closer to the major who started blushing again.
"What are you worried about?" Lorne whispered, looking into Carson's eyes.
"What Rodney's going to say to John for not being the one to tell him," he chuckled and leaned in to kiss the man before him.
John chewed thoughtfully on his turkey sandwich as he looked out over the ocean from his chair out on the balcony of the mess. He was watching some native gulls flying over one of the piers when the stomach and crotch area of someone blocked his view. Casually he looked up and saw a flustered looking Rodney standing in front of him. He stared at the man innocently and took another bite out of his sandwich and chewed before swallowing, "Do you need something McKay?"
"Uh yes actually I," he wiped his hands on his pants, "Why didn't you-" he stopped and his face twisted slightly as if he were pained.
"Why didn't I what?" John looked down at his sandwich and took another bite.
"Tell me about Carson," he muttered, looking down at the floor.
John's eyes widened, looking around to make sure no one else was in hearing range, "I didn't think I had the right to. I left that up to him. Why does it bother you?"
"No! Uh…no…he just…I wanted you to know that he has or had…a thing for me," he blushed nervously thankful that John was eating out on the balcony and not in the mess like everyone else.
"Oh? He didn't tell me that."
"I figured as much…that's why I wanted to make sure you knew so…you know…"
The colonel eyed him, "Right. Thanks."
"So uh…we're still good right? I mean…even if Carson…" he trailed off looking worried.
"Of course Rodney!" John looked at him confused, "Why wouldn't we be? Just because Carson has a thing for you, you thought I would stop liking you?"
The scientist smiled at him, and John melted. God help him, he was in love with a weird man, "Uh…right…I guess that was kind of stupid…"
"Kinda," John nodded smiling back. He reached over beside him and held out a plate with another turkey sandwich, "I thought you might be along soon so I got an extra."
Rodney blushed and took the sandwich off the plate and started to eat it. 'Why didn't I ask you when I had the chance?' "So I was uh wondering," he took around bite of his sandwich, "I made some modifications to one of the jumpers-"
John's head snapped up, looking at him intently for the first time, "I thought you'd had enough of that?"
"Yes well…that was a rebuilt Jumper. This is a perfectly fine one. I'm running power rerouting scenarios on it to see what lasts longer and what can only be done in desperation."
"And you want me to fly you out to the Main Land and back to see if one you have works?"
"Of course it works the question is for how long and yes…I would. That is, if you're not busy of course."
John thought about the pile of paper work Caldwell had left for him on his desk from his last visit on his desk and to the count down thing going on in the control room. But then he remembered the awful feeling he had when Rodney's jumper had crash landed into the ocean the last time. How he'd almost lost him, "Right now?"
"No actually in the morning. If you're busy then too I could-"
"As long as we're back before the count down's finished, I'll fly you out there. If Elizabeth says it's ok first."
Rodney had a brief vision of everyone standing around waiting for the counter to hit zero. Then when it did, John would turn to Carson and kiss him full on the lips in front of them all.
"Yes…of course. We wouldn't want miss that," he sadly took another bite out of his sandwich.
"Good, I'll just come by your place at what, seven tomorrow morning, if Elizabeth is ok with the test of course."
"Yeah that's-"
"Colonel Sheppard?" Teyla called out from just inside the mess, "I wish to speak to you."
John looked over his shoulder at her, "What about?"
She looked at Rodney, then back at Sheppard, "I would rather speak to you alone, no offense Dr. McKay. It is a…personal matter."
"That's ok," Rodney stood up and waved his half eaten turkey sandwich at them, "we're done."
John watch Rodney's back as he left, but his eyes drifted lower. Teyla moved into his line of vision after a few seconds and stuck him with a look of amusement and annoyance, "So what did you need?"
"It is a custom among my people for the women to choose the man they wish to mate with, however they seek council from their fathers, grandfathers and leader men of the village to help them decide if the man they have chosen is the best one."
John's eyebrows shoot up, "You're asking me?"
"You are the leading man of this expedition are you not? And you are my friend. I trust your judgment and ask your council first."
"Wow," John though briefly he must have a sign on his back that said, 'Come tell me all about your relationships and relationship problems.' "So? Who's the lucky guy?"
She lowered her head and smiled, "I thought perhaps Ronon."
John stared at her a moment, then sighed and smiled. This was going to be a long conversation.