DISCLAIMER – Stargate: Atlantis is the intellectual property of MGM/UA and associates. This is a work of fan fiction only, and I am not being compensated in any form for the creation of this piece.
A/N – drabble-and-a-half. This is Prompt #70 from BiteMeTechie's "100 Themes". I think it'll be fairly self-explanitory when you read it. This isn't set in any particular time frame and is very much a what if…? Kind of piece.
Sixty-Seven Percent
For someone used to giving one hundred percent – for someone used to having one hundred percent to give – it is a bitter pill to swallow. It's true that he still had the use of his mind and his finely-skilled hands, but in his profession, hands and mind are of little value without the guidance of sight.
The power in the device had been holding steady at sixty-seven percent, which he considered well within acceptable parameters. He never expected the power to spike. The explosion had happened so quickly he didn't have time to react. He hadn't even closed his eyes.
Rodney McKay feels the sting of irony when he thinks about that sixty-seven percent power level. Sixty-seven percent is the degree of vision loss he has suffered; two-thirds of his sight stolen by indiscriminate chance. Sixty-seven percent is what remains of the trio of hands, mind and eyes.
Sometimes sixty-seven percent is enough.
Sometimes it can be too little or too much.