Title: The Whim of Others
Author: FreeWrite
Summary: The closest comparison he can think of on earth is a 'Prisoner of War'
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Atlantis. I am not making any money out of this and probably never will.
Authors Note: I was bored at work, had a random thought and this is what happened.
Spoilers: Season 2 set after Coup de'tat
I swore when Sheppard brought me to Atlantis that these people would never know what it was like to be a slave. To live and die on the whim of others.
I swore I would never let myself live like that again, but here we are stuck on a planet with no Stargate. No way to contact or to return to Atlantis, living or dying if it comes to that on the whim of others.
According to Major Lorne technically were not slaves. He said the closest comparison he could think of on earth is a 'Prisoner of War' but he can't be sure without speaking to Dr Weir.
Dr Weir…
We know she's still alive but not much else, Parrish saw her in the distance her last week after he was taken to the infirmary.
He had sliced his hand open on a piece of equipment.
I don't care what they say. I'm here against my will. I work against my will. I live and die according to their will.
That's makes me a slave.
I don't know how long it's been since we were captured, the days are shorter here than in Atlantis. It's confusing. It was a standard trade negotiation; Dr Weir and what McKay called her 'Posse' (although never where she could hear) were going to trade for some kind of wheat. I was meeting up with some Satedan's who had relocated to the same planet so I went along with them.
We didn't know they were at war with another planet.
We were captured and taken through the gate, the people who took us went to eight different planets before putting us onto a ship and we spent the next 3 days in flight to yet another planet in that Solar System.
I knew then that there could be no rescue from Atlantis. We would have to rescue ourselves
Between the gate hopping and the flight it is unlikely that the others will ever find us. Sheppard could probably tell you the odds but that doesn't really matter now.
I should be out fighting the Wraith not tilling a field.
Several more days pass when a ripple of nervousness runs through the slaves. I don't pay much attention, but Lorne does.
He steps on my foot to get my attention, and when I look up inclines his head to the right. Looking over I see Dr Weir standing there, thinner but there.
She doesn't acknowledge us but looks over the crowd dispassionately.
I wonder if she's been brainwashed or if she's ignoring us on purpose. She starts to walk through the crowd favouring her left foot, looking the men up and down, I can tell by the set of her shoulders, the way she cocks her head that she's not really looking at them but more through them. She used to do that a lot when McKay and Zelenka got going. I nearly asked one day how she learned to sleep with her eyes open.
One by one she turns away from each of them. Feigning that they're not what she's looking for. Until she reaches me and Lorne.
Her face is blank, that is until she looks me in the eye.
'Play along' she begs.
I hope she understood my agreement.
Turning back to the people that brought her down she nods her head once and points to the two of us "Them".
The one word is spoken clearly, there is no room for argument, and she will not change her mind.
She and Teyla have that in common. No-one (except maybe McKay, he can be a little dense) would dare argue (well Sheppard when he's being an arse) when they use that tone of voice.
She's gone and we go back to work.
The next day Lorne and I are hauled up into the main complex. I guess finally get to find out what Dr Weir has chosen us for.
She'd somehow convinced them that she should be allowed to go on a trade negotiation.
We aren't told how. I'm not sure I want to know.
We are the muscle.
"Stand there and look menacing" we are told. Dr Beckett once claimed I was good at menacing.
She's still ignoring us, well I think she is, until as she's walking out of the room to board the ship she trips and falls against Lorne. Something passes between them, I don't know what but later when we are locked into a quarters he pulls out a small piece of paper.
She had slipped it into his hand earlier. Not ignoring us after all.
There was writing in a script I didn't recognise. Lorne did, he swore as he read it, it must be bad news.
I didn't have to wait long to find out what it was.
"The negotiation is with the Genii, she's hoping to be able to get a message to Laydon. She has to be careful, they don't trust her, and they'll kill her if they suspect anything"
It takes us three days to reach the planet with the gate on it. After that one step and we're on a planet both of us recognise. It was the place where Lorne and his team were captured by the Genii a few months ago.
We are taken down to the cellar and once again locked up over night. It seems they don't trust us either.
Someone wakens us before the sun rises in the morning. Food is provided and we are taken to a room, as soon as we get there the door opens and Dr Weir steps out, she's still limping slightly. She doesn't acknowledge us. It's strange because I'm used listening as she explains some aspect of Earth culture that Sheppard or McKay mentioned but didn't quite explain.
The silence is making me nervous. I can tell Lorne doesn't like it either.
We enter a large room. There is a table in the middle and people sitting on either end. She immediately goes to sit in the middle.
Pleasantries are made and she is introduced as 'Elizabeth Weir an unbiased third party known by both groups'
Were standing against the wall behind her, apparently just there for show.
I wonder if I'm being too menacing…
No such thing.
She looks over the Genii group and greets the leader.
"Please pass on my regards to Laydon, I have always been appreciative of Genii hospitality especially that of Prenum and Kolya"
I thought Kolya held her and McKay hostage when he tried to take over Atlantis.
They start talking. Dr Weir doesn't say anything, just listens. I don't know why she's there until about three hours later things start getting heated between the two groups. She calmly interjects and manages to steer the conversation away from the topic and back to where it should be, much like when Sheppard and McKay start snapping at each other.
Now I understand.
We break for a meal eventually, at one stage she catches my eye and nods her head down. I run my eyes down her body to where she's lifted her skirt slightly, there's something wrapped around her ankle and half way up her calf. The skin is red and looks infected; there are places where several needles had pierced the skin.
It's dark by the time they're finished for the day. I never knew just standing there and looking menacing could be so tiring.
As we're taken back to our room I see something out of the corner of my eye, looking around I see a person standing outside looking in through a window.
I'd recognise Teyla anywhere.
The way I figure it, they'll rescue us then send the Daedelus to the planet to pick up the rest of Lorne's team.
Sheppard will want to get Dr Weir back to Atlantis as soon as possible.
There's a small window high up in the room. We could reach it but it's too small for either of us to get through. If Dr Weir or Teyla was down here we might have been able to get them out.
It doesn't surprise me when the widow opens slightly and Sheppard peers through at us. We tell him everything we can, as well as our suspicions about that thing around Dr Weir's ankle and give him directions to where we think her room is.
The conversation is short and ends with him passing radios and pistols to us.
I don't feel so naked now that I'm armed.
It's early in the morning before he returns, neither of us really slept wanting to be alert for whatever plan he's concocting.
Teyla managed to get up to the window in Dr Weir's room but not inside it. They can't get us out without a lot of noise and there are guards posted outside both our doors so when they come to get us for the negotiation we play along go to the conference room.
Laydon doesn't want to loose his trade agreement with our captors so he can't help us in anyway that can be traced back to the Genii. Sheppard tells us things are going to go down pretty fast. We get Dr Weir out of there and into the cloaked Jumper Stackhouse has waiting outside the North end of town.
Sheppard leaves and we don't have long to wait before someone turns up with our breakfast.
We've been back in there an hour or so when our captors and the Genii start arguing again. This time Dr Weir doesn't interject but lets them yell at each other. The two of them are starting to get really angry when the door and all the windows but the ones we're in front of explode. There are people everywhere.
Lorne and I both jump forward at the same instant grabbing Dr Weir and pulling her out of the room.
We're nearing the exit of the building when she gasps and stumbles, looking down I can see something has cut her foot open and there is blood and puss pouring out of it, the last few steps she'd taken has left a bloody footprint in their wake.
Knowing she wouldn't consent to be carried, we each wrap an arm around her waist and 'help' her along. She's not a short woman but her feet still barely touched the ground.
We got out of the building and headed north. We're about halfway to the edge of town when a bullet goes over our heads.
Ignoring the shouts for us to stop, we keep going until another one just misses my ear. Lorne lets go of Doctor Weir and shoves her towards me.
"I'll hold them, get her to Beckett"
They're worried there's poison in the anklet, from what Sheppard told us it's a small transmitter built into something like the IV unit's they use in the infirmary, except this one is used to kill a person not help them.
They don't know how far the range on the transmitter is.
McKay and Beckett are waiting in the jumper.
If anyone can fix it those two can, the way Sheppard figured it McKay could block the signal while Beckett got the thing off her and Stackhouse flew them back to Atlantis.
I can hear Lorne returning fire and drawing their attention away from us. Looking down I can see Dr Weir's jaw is clenched against the pain in her foot.
We reach the outskirts of town, and Beckett immediately appears from what seems to be no-where but is really the back of a cloaked jumper.
A shout behind me as I step into the jumper causes me to turn around and see Lorne running as though every Wraith in the Galaxy is chasing him. Handing Dr Weir over to Beckett I lay down cover fire without leaving the cloaking. As soon as Lorne's feet hit the ramp it's rising and we're taking off.
I sit down on the floor in front of one of the benches and watch as Beckett starts to gently poke at her ankle.
"Is it poison?"
His head swivels around to look at me "No" his voice is tight "air" and his answer is curt.
Both Lorne and McKay swear, I don't understand what the problem is. Lorne must see the confusion in my face because he leans over and in a low voice explains the problem.
"Even the smallest bubble of air in the blood stream can cause a persons heart to stop beating and kill them."
That sounds… like a really nasty way to kill someone. I much prefer my gun.
By the time we make it back to Atlantis, Beckett has managed to stop the bleeding. McKay blocked the transmission just as we were dialling the Gate. I would rather go back to the planet and fight, after 5 weeks (that's how long McKay tells me we've been missing) I'm just itching for a good fight.
I sit down on one of the beds and wait. From behind the curtain I can hear Beckett giving orders. They'd managed to disconnect the transmitter and injection mechanism in the Jumper, but the needles were still imbedded.
"Just rip it out Carson; they weren't exactly gentle putting it in"
"Do you want permanent muscle damage then? You've had three 5 inch needles threaded through your ankle and calf for who knows how long. There's a nasty infection as well. And you just want me to rip them out?"
"Two weeks" was all she said.
Both Lorne and I cringe at the same time, we're soldiers and pain is no stranger but…
Damn, that has to hurt.
A nurse finally comes over to start checking us over. I watch while Lorne flirts with her.
I wonder if it's an Earth Soldier thing. They all seem to flirt automatically when a pretty woman turns up.
The appearance of Colonel Caldwell interrupts my thoughts on Earth flirting… stuff.
He asks about the rest of Lorne's team, we give him the Gate address and descriptions of the planet we were on. It's not much but he promises to find the rest of the team and bring them back to Atlantis.
I stop him before he leaves and ask him to give the other slaves a chance to go home.
Caldwell looked over his shoulder at me.
"They're not slaves. They're Prisoners of War"
There are a lot of things I don't understand about these people, just like there are a lot of things they can't conceive of having lived most of their lives in a Galaxy not terrorised by the Wraith.
This is one of them.
"I don't see the difference. They should get to go home… like us"