Unnatural Selection by auburn (NC-17)
Mar. 25th, 2011 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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stargateficrecShow: SGA
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters:: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Evan Lorne, Todd, Radek Zelenka, Dusty Mehra, and many more
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay, Sheppard/Todd, Lorne/Larrin,
Het/Slash/Gen: Slash
Warnings: Highlight: Graphic violence, character deaths" target="_blank
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
auburnnothenna
Author's Website:
Link: Unnatural Selection by auburn
Natural Reaction (Coda)
Why This Must Be Read:
A 2010 Big Bang entry, this apocalyptic epic contains wonderful alien interaction as the Ancient ship Destiny carries its unwitting/unwilling passengers through uncharted space. The story is deliciously dark and filled with great supporting characters, but I believe the strongest sections deal with a John Sheppard who's become something more than human. Although the change was against his will, he's slowly learned to accept it, and so will the others.
Excerpt:
John snapped awake from a dream of the hive. The irony didn't escape him; in Pegasus, he'd dreamed of getting back to Earth. He'd still been holding out hope there would be some way he could go back to who he'd been before. Before Atlantis, before the nasce.
He sat up and ran a shaking hand over his face, unsure what had brought him awake in the first place. A sound? Scent? The SGC used air scrubbers on the lower levels, but it still stank all the time to John's enhanced senses, just as the corridors were too bright and dead to the touch. He hadn't noticed the lack of life in Atlantis, during the months of the occupation, but then Atlantis wasn't dead: it responded to John's ATA gene much like the hives responded to the wraith and their hybrids. He hadn't felt trapped until he stepped through the stargate onto Earth again.
At least with Teyla and the drones, and Todd, always Todd, he wasn't completely isolated in his own head. A thin thread of hive sense bound them together at all times, though it wasn't as all encompassing as in the hive since Teyla was of Athos Hive, not First.
A glance found Todd where he'd known eie'd be, sitting still in the chair by the table, hands folded on eis lap, eyes open and watching the door into the John's VIP quarters. The SGC had given Todd eis own quarters, but Todd ignored them and stationed emself to guard John in his quarters — and watch him lest he find some escape, John sometimes thought. Todd breathed slowly, sunk into near hibernation to save energy. Eieeis head and met John's gaze. The lights were turned down, but Todd's pupils — slit like a cat's, like John's — were still narrowed. Eie blinked slowly, predator lazy.
"What — " John started to ask.
The alarm blaring through the corridors interrupted him.
"An attack?" Todd speculated.
John shrugged and left the bed. He dressed first, then used the toilet, a reversal of his usual routine. A glimpse of himself in the mirror made him stop with a wince. It wasn't that he didn't still look like John Sheppard; the wraith tattoos that ran up one side of his neck and jaw to curl around the orbit of his eye didn't change his features. Those features, though, threw him because they were a decade too young. That… erasure… bothered John more than the cat-pupils, the short, dark claws or the blue tint to his skin that darkened along his sides and back. It still startled him as much as it had the first time he saw himself in an Atlantis mirror; he knew some people thought he'd sold out for the promise of the fountain of youth. If he had, it would have been a devil's bargain. What price perpetual youth, without a withering portrait in the attic? Only another's life, blood on his hands, stranger forever in a strange land, where he got to keep his name but he'd already lost himself. Fuck. He turned away, ignoring his five o'clock shadow, the pallor and darkness of heat differentials under his skin that his changed eyes saw, and the cold in his bones that no one could see.
He pushed aside his unease and, after a moment's thought, began packing everything he'd brought or acquired. Pants, shirts, underwear, socks, toothbrush, odds and ends, all went into the pack neatly, stowed away while Todd watched without comment. He started to tell Todd to pack up eis stuff, then remembered eie hadn't brought any personal belongings through the stargate. He filled the second pack with electronics he'd bought online.
The last zip and buckle closed, John left both packs on the bed and headed for the courtesy telephone. It wouldn't dial out of the Mountain, but he wanted news from SGC security anyway.
The floor rocked under his boots and the Mountain groaned to a distance-muffled boom.
"That didn't sound good," John commented.
Todd got to eis feet.
The phone at the security station rang but no one picked up. John replaced the handset and frowned at it thoughtfully. Instinct insisted they get out before they were trapped.
"We should join the Athos Hive Consul and her drones," Todd stated.
John considered it and nodded agreement. Teyla Emmagan had done most of the negotiating for the Union, while John advised and interpreted what the humans of Earth meant and expected as opposed to what the words would seem to mean. He liked her, though she and the four hybrid humans who accompanied her often seemed more alien than Todd did. Safety in numbers anyway. He and Todd were less likely to suffer some 'accident' with more witnesses around them, too. The SGC's airmen and marines were all professionals, but they were also human, and Todd freaked them out even without the stories the Genii diplomats were telling about the Wraith.
Todd walked fluidly to the door and opened it. John followed em out into the corridor. The Mountain jolted again. He'd expected to see a security force but the station was deserted. Footsteps from the other direction made him turn.
A baby-faced airman John recognized from previous encounters trotted up to them.
"Sirs," he said. He was faking calm. The faking part alarmed John; he wanted to know what he wasn't being told.
"Can you tell us what's going on, Hoskey?" John asked.
"If you could just come with me, sirs, someone else will explain, I'm sure." Hoskey looked spooked under his nervous smile. He had proved himself a talker before. John bet he could get the truth from him in a minute or two.
"Come on, Hoskey. Just clue me in."
"General Landry's evacuating all diplomatic and non-military personnel, sirs," Hoskey said. He called Todd sir, which amused John, though he wasn't interested in explaining why. Hoskey was so green he probably called the women officers sir too. "They're dialing Atlantis now."
"Who's attacking?" John asked. He dodged back into his quarters, grabbed his long coat and shrugged it on, then his pack. Todd never took eis coat off. Eie flicked long white hair back and shouldered the second pack filled with stuff John had purchased with an eye to entertaining himself when he wasn't liaising. The Genii Empire and Coalition worlds all had entertainment of course, but the Union didn't. Spending the rest of his life in a hive or hanging around Atlantis alone when he wasn't explaining the Wraith to the Earth humans and Earth ways to Wraith was a mind-numbing prospect. He'd invested in a couple of high-end laptops and other electronics, price no object, since he was going to be officially dead in a few weeks. Use it or lose it; he had nothing to save for and his family… well, they didn't need money from him or anything else, or he wouldn't have gone to Pegasus in the first place.
"Don't know, sirs. Security on the surface reported energy weapons."
Which had ruled out a national or terrorist attack on the United States with NORAD as a target.
"Zats?" John asked. "Staff weapons?" The Goa'uld weapons were more dangerous than Wraith stunners; made to wound and kill. Wraith wanted their prey live, mostly, though hives, cruisers, and darts all carried heavier weaponry meant to do material damage.
"No one's said, sir."
"Jaffa?"
"I don't know," Hoskey blurted. "but they've already penetrated the NORAD levels."
Crap.
"Jaffa," Todd said. "These are the genetically engineered warrior species used by the… Goa'uld?" Todd's voice did strange things to the word. Eie wasn't used to it.
"Yes," John confirmed. He'd never seen a Jaffa in person, but he'd read up on them when he'd been brought into the Program to join the Atlantis Expedition.
"They have an immature Goa'uld symbiote."
"Right."
"Which accelerates their healing speed," Todd finished and John realized eie wanted to feed on a Jaffa, to taste the different viand of the paired symbiot lives. Hoskey didn't get it, but John got a glimpse through the hive sense: Todd wasn't particularly hungry, but eie was curious.
John didn't let his distaste show. Todd had fed from him out of necessity, John had made the offer for the same reason, but he wondered: would Todd have done it anyway, if he'd known John had the ATA gene?
No way to know now and too late to change anything if he could know.
Maybe… he didn't really want to know.
...
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters:: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Evan Lorne, Todd, Radek Zelenka, Dusty Mehra, and many more
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay, Sheppard/Todd, Lorne/Larrin,
Het/Slash/Gen: Slash
Warnings: Highlight: Graphic violence, character deaths" target="_blank
Author on LJ:
auburnnothennaAuthor's Website:
Link: Unnatural Selection by auburn
Natural Reaction (Coda)
Why This Must Be Read:
A 2010 Big Bang entry, this apocalyptic epic contains wonderful alien interaction as the Ancient ship Destiny carries its unwitting/unwilling passengers through uncharted space. The story is deliciously dark and filled with great supporting characters, but I believe the strongest sections deal with a John Sheppard who's become something more than human. Although the change was against his will, he's slowly learned to accept it, and so will the others.
Excerpt:
John snapped awake from a dream of the hive. The irony didn't escape him; in Pegasus, he'd dreamed of getting back to Earth. He'd still been holding out hope there would be some way he could go back to who he'd been before. Before Atlantis, before the nasce.
He sat up and ran a shaking hand over his face, unsure what had brought him awake in the first place. A sound? Scent? The SGC used air scrubbers on the lower levels, but it still stank all the time to John's enhanced senses, just as the corridors were too bright and dead to the touch. He hadn't noticed the lack of life in Atlantis, during the months of the occupation, but then Atlantis wasn't dead: it responded to John's ATA gene much like the hives responded to the wraith and their hybrids. He hadn't felt trapped until he stepped through the stargate onto Earth again.
At least with Teyla and the drones, and Todd, always Todd, he wasn't completely isolated in his own head. A thin thread of hive sense bound them together at all times, though it wasn't as all encompassing as in the hive since Teyla was of Athos Hive, not First.
A glance found Todd where he'd known eie'd be, sitting still in the chair by the table, hands folded on eis lap, eyes open and watching the door into the John's VIP quarters. The SGC had given Todd eis own quarters, but Todd ignored them and stationed emself to guard John in his quarters — and watch him lest he find some escape, John sometimes thought. Todd breathed slowly, sunk into near hibernation to save energy. Eieeis head and met John's gaze. The lights were turned down, but Todd's pupils — slit like a cat's, like John's — were still narrowed. Eie blinked slowly, predator lazy.
"What — " John started to ask.
The alarm blaring through the corridors interrupted him.
"An attack?" Todd speculated.
John shrugged and left the bed. He dressed first, then used the toilet, a reversal of his usual routine. A glimpse of himself in the mirror made him stop with a wince. It wasn't that he didn't still look like John Sheppard; the wraith tattoos that ran up one side of his neck and jaw to curl around the orbit of his eye didn't change his features. Those features, though, threw him because they were a decade too young. That… erasure… bothered John more than the cat-pupils, the short, dark claws or the blue tint to his skin that darkened along his sides and back. It still startled him as much as it had the first time he saw himself in an Atlantis mirror; he knew some people thought he'd sold out for the promise of the fountain of youth. If he had, it would have been a devil's bargain. What price perpetual youth, without a withering portrait in the attic? Only another's life, blood on his hands, stranger forever in a strange land, where he got to keep his name but he'd already lost himself. Fuck. He turned away, ignoring his five o'clock shadow, the pallor and darkness of heat differentials under his skin that his changed eyes saw, and the cold in his bones that no one could see.
He pushed aside his unease and, after a moment's thought, began packing everything he'd brought or acquired. Pants, shirts, underwear, socks, toothbrush, odds and ends, all went into the pack neatly, stowed away while Todd watched without comment. He started to tell Todd to pack up eis stuff, then remembered eie hadn't brought any personal belongings through the stargate. He filled the second pack with electronics he'd bought online.
The last zip and buckle closed, John left both packs on the bed and headed for the courtesy telephone. It wouldn't dial out of the Mountain, but he wanted news from SGC security anyway.
The floor rocked under his boots and the Mountain groaned to a distance-muffled boom.
"That didn't sound good," John commented.
Todd got to eis feet.
The phone at the security station rang but no one picked up. John replaced the handset and frowned at it thoughtfully. Instinct insisted they get out before they were trapped.
"We should join the Athos Hive Consul and her drones," Todd stated.
John considered it and nodded agreement. Teyla Emmagan had done most of the negotiating for the Union, while John advised and interpreted what the humans of Earth meant and expected as opposed to what the words would seem to mean. He liked her, though she and the four hybrid humans who accompanied her often seemed more alien than Todd did. Safety in numbers anyway. He and Todd were less likely to suffer some 'accident' with more witnesses around them, too. The SGC's airmen and marines were all professionals, but they were also human, and Todd freaked them out even without the stories the Genii diplomats were telling about the Wraith.
Todd walked fluidly to the door and opened it. John followed em out into the corridor. The Mountain jolted again. He'd expected to see a security force but the station was deserted. Footsteps from the other direction made him turn.
A baby-faced airman John recognized from previous encounters trotted up to them.
"Sirs," he said. He was faking calm. The faking part alarmed John; he wanted to know what he wasn't being told.
"Can you tell us what's going on, Hoskey?" John asked.
"If you could just come with me, sirs, someone else will explain, I'm sure." Hoskey looked spooked under his nervous smile. He had proved himself a talker before. John bet he could get the truth from him in a minute or two.
"Come on, Hoskey. Just clue me in."
"General Landry's evacuating all diplomatic and non-military personnel, sirs," Hoskey said. He called Todd sir, which amused John, though he wasn't interested in explaining why. Hoskey was so green he probably called the women officers sir too. "They're dialing Atlantis now."
"Who's attacking?" John asked. He dodged back into his quarters, grabbed his long coat and shrugged it on, then his pack. Todd never took eis coat off. Eie flicked long white hair back and shouldered the second pack filled with stuff John had purchased with an eye to entertaining himself when he wasn't liaising. The Genii Empire and Coalition worlds all had entertainment of course, but the Union didn't. Spending the rest of his life in a hive or hanging around Atlantis alone when he wasn't explaining the Wraith to the Earth humans and Earth ways to Wraith was a mind-numbing prospect. He'd invested in a couple of high-end laptops and other electronics, price no object, since he was going to be officially dead in a few weeks. Use it or lose it; he had nothing to save for and his family… well, they didn't need money from him or anything else, or he wouldn't have gone to Pegasus in the first place.
"Don't know, sirs. Security on the surface reported energy weapons."
Which had ruled out a national or terrorist attack on the United States with NORAD as a target.
"Zats?" John asked. "Staff weapons?" The Goa'uld weapons were more dangerous than Wraith stunners; made to wound and kill. Wraith wanted their prey live, mostly, though hives, cruisers, and darts all carried heavier weaponry meant to do material damage.
"No one's said, sir."
"Jaffa?"
"I don't know," Hoskey blurted. "but they've already penetrated the NORAD levels."
Crap.
"Jaffa," Todd said. "These are the genetically engineered warrior species used by the… Goa'uld?" Todd's voice did strange things to the word. Eie wasn't used to it.
"Yes," John confirmed. He'd never seen a Jaffa in person, but he'd read up on them when he'd been brought into the Program to join the Atlantis Expedition.
"They have an immature Goa'uld symbiote."
"Right."
"Which accelerates their healing speed," Todd finished and John realized eie wanted to feed on a Jaffa, to taste the different viand of the paired symbiot lives. Hoskey didn't get it, but John got a glimpse through the hive sense: Todd wasn't particularly hungry, but eie was curious.
John didn't let his distaste show. Todd had fed from him out of necessity, John had made the offer for the same reason, but he wondered: would Todd have done it anyway, if he'd known John had the ATA gene?
No way to know now and too late to change anything if he could know.
Maybe… he didn't really want to know.
...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 11:19 am (UTC)