Hey everyone, Layman here. For those of you who don't know, I've handed the reigns of this story over to Hideout Writer. So I don't want you people flaming me about how you don't like the new style, or Hideout for not doing it in my style. I've given Hideout Writer full control over the story now, I'm just hosting it. Below is Hideout Wirter's A/N...
A/N: The first six chapters belong to the Layman; I'm just kick/re-starting the story. As ever, MR, SGA, and anything else may fing here that looks familiar is not my own.
Now that that's over, go read the story. And when you're done, review. There is a line of blue text at the bottom of the page. Click it, leve a review, and I might answer.
What are you still waiting for! Get going and read that story!
(Angel's POV, twenty minutes earlier.)
So Max and Fang were out somewhere, doing things that fanfiction writers call FAXness, and I was following Lieutenant Col. Sheppard to the briefing room. Nudge was with Gazzy and Iggy, mostly 'cause I used my mind control to get them to be willing to have her along. She's a great friend, and I love her like a sister, but she does not know how to shut up... Sheppard was talking about his team, "...Ronon Dex is my specialist. He specializes in killing Wraith, and anything that tries to kill me. Teyla Emmagen is kind of like a mobile ambassador; she makes the deals for Atlantis, but she's a good fighter too. Then there's Rodney McKay; he's smart, brilliant actually, but don't tell him that. He's more than likely the most concieted man I've ever met. We snark at each other, but he's good at what he does.
"I'm just the team leader; I stck my nose where it doens't belong, then depend and Ronon and Teyla to get me out of it. Sometimes, we manage to fry electronics along the way, and McKay fixes it. I also fly the Jumper when we use them on off-world missions, or when I lose a bet and get to haul scientists to the Mainland so they can pick flowers..." he subsided with a grumble. "You know, there's a lot of technology that requires the ATA gene to function. Do you know whether or not you have it?"
"What?"
"The 'Ancient Technology Activation' gene."
"I don't know; how would I find out?"
"We could take you down to the medbay and have Carson test for ATA."
"As in, with a needle? No. Is there something else I could try?"
"Why not see Carson? He's a nice guy; patched me and my team up on multiple occasions. There might be something else you could try...lemme talk to Rodney. Oh! And here we are!Angel, I present to you, the Atlantis Gate Room. This is where the 'gate is. We use it to go off-world and fight the Wraith when they don't fell like coming to us. Over there," he pointed, "we have Wier's office, and the computers that control several of the main systems. We also have the briefing room here-oh, hi Rodney, what's wrong?"
"Two demons and a live radio came into my lab. they were touching a bunch of stuff that needs not to be touched, full time distracting me, and when I told them I needed to take them to the briefing room, one of them set of a stink bomb. Now you tell me what's wrong!" So that's McKay, huh? Looks likeI may need to avoid him, or use my telepathy to keep him relatively happy.
"So," I said, drawing the word out a little, "where's the briefing room?" Without warning, I saw, in my mind, the floor plan of the Atlantis control tower. There was a blinking dot where I was standing, and a room seemed to light up on the plan. "Never mind, I already know."
"You know what?" McKay siad, interrupting the snark pattern that he and McKay were in.
"I just figured out where the briefing room is," I said. "Why, is something wrong?"
"How did you figure it out?" Sheppard asked, suddenly interested.
"I just saw it, in my mind. There was, like, this floor plan that appeared in my mind, and then the briefing room sort of lit up." Sheppard and McKay exchanged a look. "Is something wrong?" I asked again.I hadn't gone into there minds because Max kept telling me not ot unless I felt it was necessary for the continued survival of the Flock.
"No," Sheppard drew it out, "nothing's wrong, but I think you have the ATA gene." There was a mix of curiosity and wonder in his voice.
"Well, I'm going to the briefing room now." I turned, and lightly skipped up the stairs.
_/_/_/_/_/_/
"What was that about?" asked McKay.
"I asked her a little bit ago if she had the ATA gene, and she indicated that she didn't know, so I suggested that we take her down to medbay and have Carson test her for it.
"That was the dumbest thing you could have ever done!" Rodney exploded. "Didn't you read her file? She's a genetic experiment, and she hates laboratories and hospital type situations. She hates them because of her past experience with mad scientists. Don't tell that her I'm a scientist, it'll just make her stay far away from me. Although, you could have told those three that were in my lab earlier."
"She asked if there was any way to confirm if she had the gene without doing the blood tests. I told her I would talk to you about it, but it apears Atlantis has taken it out of my hands."
"Harumph." McKay wasn't impressed with how Sheppard handled it, but had determined to let it go, and see if he could get her down to his lab later.
_/_/_/_/_/_/
I walking into the briefing room and saw that Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge were all there. There was alos Dr. Wier and Teyla, and there was another guy. I'm guessing he was the 'Ronon' dude that Sheppard was talking about. There was another man there, I had not seen him yet. He looked like he was kind and cared about the people around him very much.
"Hallo," he said. Hmm, Scottish? "You must be Angel, right lass?" I nodded my head in agreement, and found a chair.
"Hello," said Dr. Wier," I don't know if you have met everybody here yet, and we still have two coming in-oh, there they are!" She gestured to LTC. Sheppard and Dr. McKay. "This is Dr. McKay, he is the-"
"I'm Atlantis' handyman. When it's broke, call me, because nobody else seems to know how to do it!"
"He has something of an attitude, but put up with him, help him if you can, and he might warm up to you. Standing next to him is LTC. John Sheppard he is the Ranking military officer; he and I share authority here in the city."
"Hi."
This is Teyla Emmagen; she was the leader of the Athosian people before she chose to stay with us.
"Welcome."
"Ronon Dex is our weapons specialist, and he also specializes in the destruction of Wraith"
[unitellegible grunt]
"And at the end of the table is Carson Beckett. He keeps the people of Atlantis relatively healthy.'
"Hallo."
It is my understanding that there are two more members of your group?" she asked.
I chuckled. "Yes, but they're unavailable. They're probably making out. Everyone in the room grinned a little as I said that. "So what do you want?"
"We want to send you guys to the Mainland with a few of our botanists to get you out of Rodney and Zelenka's hair. You could see the Mainland, have a picnic. I heard form Nate that you don't like confined spaces, right?" I nodded. "The Jumper will be leaving first thing in the morning; as soon as the Jumper leaves the tower, the back door will open so you can fly or ride at your pleasure. Will that be acceptable?"
"Yeah. I guess I'll have to tell Max about it."
"I'll do it," Iggy said matter-of-factly. He tapped his earpiece. "Max, Fang, where are you guys?"
"What is it Ig?" She didn't even bother hiding the annoyance in her voice.
"You were just making out with Fang just now, weren't you?" Iggy asked, smug as anything.
"Did you just call to get under my skin, or do you actually need something?"
"Iggy, I was wonder-Mumumuph!"
"Nudge, be quiet! Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, we were just wondering ("Do you know why Robert Pattinson is the hottest guy on Earth?" Nudge asked.) if you guys wanted to-excuse me. NO! I don't want to know why Robert Pattinson is the hottest guy on planet; go bother Angel about that."
"Humph!" Nudge muttered sulkily.
"Sorry about that, I couldn't turn off the Nudge Channel."
"Is that Max? Can I tell her? I want to tell her!"
"Urgh, tell her," Iggy muttered.
"We're going on a picnic, Max!" I said, refusing to let Iggy darken my mood.
"We are?" came Max's voice.
"Yeah, tomorrow. said we could ride on one of the Jumper things the next time it went to the Mainland. And guess what, the next one is going over tomorrow morning!"
"You didn't use your mind control thing on her, did you?" came the next question.
"Nope. In fact, she suggested it to us."
At this point Gazzy butted in, saying "She said something about one of the scientists here wouldn't stop asking her to 'Rremove zese little terrors beforre I am forced to kill zem'." Gazzy did the last part exactly like Dr. Zelenka said it earlier.
"When do we leave?" Max had given in.
"Early tomorrow morning. Like, right after sunrise."
"So don't be late!" Nudge added.
We stood up to leave, and the slates around the front of the briefing room hissed open. I had never even noticed them close. Probably just as well.
"Would you be willing to accompany me to my lab?" McKay was standing right next to me, and I could tell that he was trying rather hard to be nice to me.
"You know that I don't like labs that much," I said. I was buying some time to read his thoughts so I could determine whether or not to trust him.
"It's not that kind of lab. It has bunch of computers and really high powered fancy stuff that you wouldn't understand if I were to tell you. It also has some stuff that even I don't understand all that much. I was hoping that you might be able to turn some of it on. Sheppard is getting tired of being used to turn everything on just so we can say 'Oh, that's cool but it's really unnecessary, could you please turn it off again?'. I figured you might be able to turn as well, seeing as how Atlantis just gave instructions on where the conference room was."
"You shouldn't refer to Atlantis like she is just an inanimate object!" I said, offended. "She actually talked to me."
"She...did?" McKay was speechless.
"Yup. And I might help you turn some stuff on, but right now, I'm going to get something to eat."
McKay seemed a little happier at that, and said, "Well, I could use a bite to eat myself."
We got to the mess, and I grabbed a tray. Behind me, I heard Rodney talking with someone. From the tone of his voice, I guessed that it was his love intrest. A casual flick of my mind proved it. After piling up my tray with food, I went over to the table that McKay was sitting at.
The person that he was talking to stood up, saying, "I need to go; a collection of plants came in that need cataloging." She left.
After dinner, I followed McKay to his lab. "My laboratory is in another section of the city, so we use these teleporter thingies," he explained, stopping before what looked like an elevator. I wondered if Atlantis knew where Dr. McKay and I were going? Abruptly, a panel in the back closed, and the door closed. McKay seemed a little worried for a moment, then saw my face. Atlantis had told me she would take care of it. The door opened before McKay could one of the access panels off. "Hey, this is right outside my lab!" he exclaimed. "I never saw this before."
"It might be one of the special little things Atlantis has for those with the ATA gene," I said, hoping that he would forget it.
"Maybe... Well, come on, let's see if we can figure out what some of this junk does."
A/N: Hideout Writer here, I know that my writing style is a bit different than that of The Layman, but that's the nature of the beast. Review, it's not that hard, leave a comment, and when I prepare the next chapter, I may answer readers down here!
The Layman here, one last time. The only part of this chapter of mine is the dialogue of the Flock telling Max about the trip. Anything else (and everything else from now on) belongs to Hideout Writer.