Inversion III

The Way Things Are Not

Radek warns him that it won't go down well.

Rodney isn't surprised. Nothing he says around here goes down well. Certainly not at the topmost levels of this expedition.

"Out of the question," is Sheppard's immediate response. He doesn't even wait for Elizabeth's response; doesn't look at her for any cues. He has vetoed it and so it must be.

Rodney waits for the answer with a patience he has learned in the last six months of this expedition. It doesn't come easy to him, and there are days when he comes so close to saying all the things he'd really like to say to Sheppard's face. And doesn't.

Finally, she looks up. "It's not feasible, Rodney." Her voice is soft beside the harsh negatives of the Major's words. "It requires more pilots than we have."

He stares at her. "But we've got plenty of pilots," he says. "All those people who took the ATA--"

"They've got the ATA gene," says Sheppard, flat and hard. "They're not pilots."

"They could be, if you taught them."

The other man's expression doesn't soften. "If I taught them?"

Rodney knows where this will end, but he ploughs on nevertheless. "You or one of the other pilots."

"Teach scientists to fly?"

Even in Siberia, things were never this bad. For one, the scientists were firmly in charge, and the military was a secondary presence. The way things should have been here in Atlantis.

The way things most definitely are not.

Rodney points out the obvious. "It's just aerodynamic theory, Major--"

"And instinct and co-ordination and extremely dangerous--"

"Major, which part of 'this sensor array is extremely important and could be of strategic use in defending Atlantis' didn't you understand?"

"The bit where you want to hijack my 'jumpers--"

"Your 'jumpers?"

"--to fly out to a hunk of scrap metal in the sky--"

"I'm guessing you didn't hear the words 'strategic' and 'defence' in my statement."

"--which you think you can repair - in spite of the fact that you haven't been able to repair a single other thing in this city!"

Rodney has nothing to say to that. Yes, the scientific teams have tried to get things working and largely failed. But the accusation that they haven't been able to get anything working hurts. They've gotten all the things that were back on Earth working - the chair, the drones. They've gotten the city's computer systems working - that was something.

"John." Her voice doesn't quite rein him in, but it's enough.

Rodney grits his teeth. "Look, I've told you about it in terms of our defence ability," he says with a semblance of calm. "We won't know the possibilities until we get up there!"

"And possibly lose several other pilots?"

"John!" Elizabeth turns to him. "I'm sorry, Rodney," she says. "But we can't risk any more losses."

"If we don't get these up--"

Her voice is soft, but firm. "Rodney."

He schools his expression to what he hopes is neutrality. It's probably closer to sulky thwartedness, but it's all he can manage. "This could save Atlantis."

"Or it could lose us even more personnel." She shakes her head. "No."

He has an imagination, he can guess why the pendulum has swung so firmly in favour of the military. In fact, he's more than willing to put a name to it, too.

John Sheppard.

If it wasn't for Sheppard...

He swallows down his anger and stalks away.

Radek was right.

oO fin Oo