stargateficrec | A Rough Road Leads to the Stars by Freyja (PG13)

Show: SGA

Rec Category: Alternate Universe
Characters: John Sheppard, Radek Zelenka, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan
Pairings: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard

Categories: Angst, Alternate Universe Pre-slash
Warnings: None
Author on LJ: None
Author's Website: Freyja on Wraithbait
Link: A Rough Road Leads to the Stars

Why This Must Be Read: The Summary says: 1960s. John's an astronaut, a perpetual alternate for the latest mission to the moon. Rodney's an acerbic rocket scientist who's been on loan to NASA from Canada. When one of the other astronauts can't go, John gets picked to go on the mission. Naturally, everything goes wrong, and it turns out that Rodney's the only one who can bring them back home.

This is sort of a SGA remix of Apollo 13 although Apollo 13 flew to the moon in 1970. They are 3 years earlier in this universe, because the authors prompt said that this has to take place in the 60s. John, Ronan and Teyla (Lovell-Hanks, Swigert-Bacon and Hayes-Paxton on Apollo 13 movie) are astronauts flying to the moon when the mission goes wrong and Rodney is the flight director (Gene Krantz-Harris on Apollo 13 movie) who helps bring them home.

Apollo 13 is one of my all time favourite movies as SGA is one of my all time favourite TV shows so remix the two and this is the fic you get.

I have always had a passing fascination with the space race, and moon landings. One of my earliest memories is on holiday with my family back in July 1969 looking up at a tiny whote TV screen with fuzzy pictures of Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the moon of of later news reports of the Apollo missions.

When the moon is full, mirrored upon the surface of the small lake, John remembers.

He can still see everything as if it had happened yesterday. The events don't haunt him in his sleep anymore and he no longer cringes when someone mentions the Atlantis missions. He can watch the TV feeling only a rush of emotion for the lives lost when the news reports Columbia's destruction.

His daily life goes by without attacks of sadness. He laughs with his friends and doesn't think of the afflicted Atlantis XIII mission anymore. Writing his books about what happened, and watching the movie shot a few years ago that covers the events surprisingly well, has been better therapy than he could have imagined.

But seeing the moon he had been promised still sends waves of sadness through his body. He has learned to ignore them, but once a month he allows his thoughts to ramble, to go back in time to April 1967. Once a month, he doesn't sleep by night, but sits down at the lake, gazing up to the stars and the full moon he lost, pressing "replay" in the most hidden corner of his memory.