Stargate Atlantis

Like a Fish in a Barrel

storiesofdarkness

Summary: When a new military officer, Captain Ria Thompson, finds herself stuck when investigating a new room, it takes most of the higher ups to figure out how to get her out…before its too late.

Rated: G

Disclaimers: I do not own Stargate Atlantis.

Spoilers: All seasons, but most noticeably for "Echoes" and "Doppleganger". Captain Thompson arrived during "Echoes" with the Daedalus and has stayed all the way through Doppleganger. This fic takes place sometime after "Doppleganger".

Author's Notes: Completely implausible fic, I know. I wrote this one mostly for fun, as a temporary distraction from my Harry Potter fic that I'm struggling with. It's completely unbeta'd so any spelling errors/grammar errors are mine.

Captain Ria Thompson, of the United States of America, was currently sitting in the cafeteria next to Major Lorne and Major Stackhouse. Both were eating pancakes, she was enjoying eggs and sausage. The eggs weren't quite done the way she liked 'em, but they were close enough for once for her not to fuss about it. The sausage, on the other hand…

"I swear, I'm going to trade in being military and actually cook decent food," She grumbled, as she was poking at the sausage.

"To be fair, it's better than usual," Lorne offered, grinning. "So what brings you to our table, Captain?"

"Nowhere else to sit, and I don't feel like eating in my quarters," She said, and noticed how tired Lorne was. "Didn't sleep well either, huh?"

"When there's an entity that can take over your body and have you produce nightmares, we'll see how you sleep then," Lorne snipped, and she grinned.

"Nightmares don't bother me. I can generally tell what's real in nightmares," She said, shrugging.

They stared at her.

"Are you insane, Captain? Nightmares are called nightmares for a reason-because they're fucking disturbing," Stackhouse said, incredulously.

She shrugged.

"I have nightmares, I just don't let them bother me. The only one that ever bothered me was back when I was a kid. Dreamed that I had ceased to exit-there was nothing, no one, no blackness, no noise-absolutely nothing."

"How's that a nightmare? Evidentally you were still aware you were there," Lorne pointed out.

"I was surprised when I woke up," She said simply, and the two exchanged glances.

"You're right, that's…disturbing," Stackhouse admitted, shaking his head. "If you had actually ceased to exist-I wonder what brought you back?"

"Maybe an ancient?" She suggested, chuckling.

Lorne rolled his eyes, and spotted his commanding officer sitting with McKay who was arguing with Teyla about the merits of some scifi movie-Stars Wars, it looked like-and shook his head in amusement.

"Fifty says that McKay will annoy Teyla to the point she leaves before Sam comes in," Stackhouse said cheerfully.

"You're on," Lorne said, grinning. "Thompson?"

"I say she gets annoyed and leaves after Sam comes in," She offered, all of them watching. The three watched like hawks, and then-Ria beamed as Sam came in and then Teyla, ten seconds later, left in a huff.

"HA! Pay up, boys," She said, beaming as the two men groaned and put fifty dollars each on the table. She accepted the cash happily, tucking it into her pocket. "Fifty says that today we're going out to explore the city some more,"

"Yeah, don't want to loose more money to you already," Lorne said, rolling his eyes. "Sheppard's already said that my team is heading out into the deeper parts of the city today."

"Cool! I hope we find something interesting," Ria said, pleased. She was eager to get some spotlight for once, hoping against hope that maybe they might actually find a place that might've built ZPMs. Wouldn't the higher ups sit up and take notice if they did?

"Let's finish up breakfast. We can head out in a bit, once everyone's done eating. I'll fetch our resident scientist. Not our usual geek, because he's apparently on sabbatical. We get Radek for a change,"

"Which means we might actually have a good chance at discovering something," Stackhouse said thoughtfully.

The others looked like they agreed, and hurriedly began to finish eating breakfast.

"Okay," Radek said, as he was shoving more of his materials into his backpack. "I think that I am ready. Let us go,"

Ria couldn't help but grin in delight as they set off down the halls of the ancient city. The city still looked beautiful, despite the obviously flooded areas, and it smelled a little bit of salt and mold. Her nose twitched, reminding her that she didn't get along well with mold. If there was more of it, she might start sneezing, but as it was-it was uncomfortable, but bearable.

"So, how far?" Ria asked, frowning. "Just a few hallways, or are we going until we actually discover something somewhat important?"

"The latter, I hope," Lorne muttered, as they walked down the hallway. Atlantis lit up for her, as she and Lorne both had the gene. She could feel the city humming pleasantly, as though pleased that they were exploring again. She wondered what the city would look like as a person, and inwardly shrugged.

Atlantis, she thought with a small smile. Hopefully we can discover something really neat…preferably something that could help the scientists in recharging ZPMs…or perhaps some really cool atlantis tech…

A door whooshed open, startling her so that she nearly dropped her P-90 with attached flashlight.

"We didn't even see that door," Lorne objected, frowning.

"I think Atlantis was answering my thoughts about finding new tech," Ria said, moving towards it. "I wonder what's in here?"

"Well, let's see if you can get the lights on?" Lorne suggested, while Stackhouse kept close to Radek. Radek was staring at her with wide eyes, wondering how she'd managed to do such. As Colonel Sheppard says, Atlantis must like her, he mused.

Inside, there didn't seem to be anything available. She took one step forward-

And then couldn't move.

She jerked, and twisted, but found herself completely unable to move forward or backwards, and began to panic.

"Lorne-Lorne, I can't move. My feet are stuck!" She said, and Lorne looked down at her feet.

"That's because there's straps attachd to your-holy shit!"

For all the white in the room had vanished to be replaced by space, and the door behind them had snapped shut unexpectedly.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Lorne cursed viciously, holding onto her tight as she couldn't help but stare at the room in amazement.

"Lorne-Evan-calm down, I don't think we're actually in space." She reassured him, allowing him to hold her arm tight, while she obviously wasn't going anywhere. "Or, if we are…maybe there's a shield around us, somehow, holding air in?" She wondered.

"How is this a piece of really cool ancient tech?" Lorne asked, through gritted teeth.

"Well, for one thing, I think this is actually a really indepth hologram that looks and seems quite real. That's pretty damn impressive, considering that we can't even do anything close to this. If scientists can figure out how to work this, movies may never be the same again," She said, gaining a startled laugh out of him.

"I'll grant you that-can you imagine watching The Lord of the Rings like this? As though you were really there?" Lorne asked, grinning.

"Oh, hell yes!" Ria said, beaming. Then frowned. "I still can't move my feet." She noted.

The hologram ended returning to the white room, and the door opened again. She tried moving her feet, but they were stuck tight.

"Oh, come on!" She protested, starting to get uncomfortable just standing in one place for so long.

"Looks like I better call a medical team and rescue, just in case." Lorne said with a sigh. "Still…you DID find a pretty neat room, Thompson Good work."

She beamed.

It took a while before they could free her of whatever was holding her in place. Apparently, ten thousand years could make things 'sticky'. She wasn't amused by the joke that Sheppard had made, but everyone else seemed to be.

"Good thing that there wasn't any wraith or anything around, else I'd've been like a fish in the barrel," Ria offered, while McKay and Radek and a group of engineers and scientists together were working around her feet and examining the room for clues on how to get her unstuck. "Do I get credit for finding the best room in Atlantis?"

"How's this the best room in Atlantis?" McKay demanded, while not looking up from his scanner.

"Think about it-indepth holograms that could show the movie The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter so close like it did outer space…that'd be fantastic." She said, beaming.

There was a momentary silence.

"Fine," McKay said grudgingly. "You can have credit for finding one of the best rooms of Atlantis."

She beamed brightly, and then winced when something stung her.

"Ow," She said, and at that everyone looked up at her. "It feels like something just zapped my feet, kind of stung…ouch!" She protested, wincing again. She tried to move backwards, but couldn't.

"Um, this might be a problem," McKay said, and Lorne rolled his eyes.

"No shit, McKay. Ria, is it getting worse?" Lorne wondered.

"N…yes! OW!" She yelped, when a sharp stinging sensation occurred, and suddenly she fell backwards as the-whatever it was-released her from where she was standing. She fell, but didn't land on the floor as Lorne and Radek both wound up catching her.

"Here, let me look," Keller was already working on getting the boots off, with Lorne's help.

"Shouldn't you take me out to a date before seeing my pale naked skin? Even if it is just my feet?" Ria joked, wincing as they removed the socks quickly.

"Slight burns. Could be from whatever ancient device held her in place," Keller observed. "McKay?"

"Yeah, I think ten thousand years might've caused it to become damaged and inoperable, but operable enough that it allowed you to activate the hologram thingie like you asked," McKay said, frowning. "I'll have to do more work on it, but at least it wasn't damaged to the point where we'd have to get the chainsaw to cut around your feet."

Ria winced.

"Nice McKay," Lorne said, and McKay rolled his eyes.

"What? We didn't have to, I was trying to make her feel better."

"Thanks for the attempt, Dr. McKay." Ria said, as Keller had help getting her on a gurney. "Does this mean no gate activity?"

"No activity until those second degree burns heal," Keller said sternely.

"They're second degree burns? No wonder my feet feel like they're on fire," Ria muttered, wincing as one of her feet twinged. "Seriously, though it was worth it. That room is SO cool. McKay, if you manage to fix it to where you can show movies and not just space, you better let me get first crack at it!" Ria called, as they wheeled her out of the room.

Lorne grinned, feeling that-despite the unexpected complications-his team had done a good job.

And, for once, they'd actually found something noteworthy.

Following Captain Thompson and the medical team, he began making plans for which movies to play first if they managed to make the hologram work the way they wanted it to.

End