stargateficrec | Nil Nisi Bonum, by dossier. (PG)

Rec Category: AU
Pairing: None
Category:
Warning: character death
Author on LJ:

dossier
Author's Website: http://www.zonezine.net/~dossier/html/stories.html
Link: Nil Nisi Bonum

Summary: The story is a fusion of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" and to a lesser extent the original texts of T.E. Lawrence, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and its abridgment "Revolt in the Desert", and a wildly AU Stargate Atlantis universe. Sheppard comes to Atlantis as a Captain, doesn't go to Athos and therefore doesn't wake up the Wraith. It goes from there...

Why This Must Be Read:

You don't need to know "Lawrence of Arabia" to enjoy this story. The brilliance of the story lies in the twisting of the canon events. They are consequently changed, and the change is carried onward.

I'm not the biggest fan of Sheppard, but here I can see him as this tragic figure, disillusioned about the military and 'going native'. In the end, even though he's a leader, he's just a pawn in a terrible war.

Very engaging. This story drew me in and didn't let me go even after I finished reading.

From the personal papers of John Sheppard, LTC USAF (deceased)

When Colonel Sumner collared me in the gate room, before we left the SGC for Atlantis and told me in no uncertain terms to stay out of his way, I didn't realize that he meant to completely sideline me.

He overrode Weir’s request that I go with him to look for a place to evacuate the expedition, basically seconding me to the science department. Dr. McKay said something scathing and told me stay put; the city's shields were failing and they didn't need me turning more things on. He told me to think off, off, off to everything and anything that I could find. At the time I didn't realize that he was only thinking about the chair incident in Antarctica, Captain, think about where we are in the solar system, and not that I could actually hear the city's alarm wailing in my head, signaling that we were about to be drowned when the shields failed in the submerged city.

Sumner failed to secure us an evac site, but the City pulled a Hail Mary and saved us from imminent destruction with a majestic, thundering rise to the surface. After that, life for me settled down to a boring routine. Sumner and his team would go off-world looking for the legendary power source McKay called a ZedPM; the scientists worked on whatever the crisis du jour was, and I hung around the labs waiting to turn things on and off, in between rounds of guard duty in the gate room.