SGA FIC: FOREIGN CONCEPTS [CHAPTER 8]
Jul. 22nd, 2009 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_erikah_xOookay, okay. Here's chap 8. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 are coming tomorrow. Promise.
Title: Foreign Concepts 8/11
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
x_erikah_x
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence and torture
Word Count: ~26,000 in 11 chapters
Genre: Gen, H/C, Action, team friendship
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex and other cameos
Spoilers: Set at the end of season five, but no specific spoilers
Disclaimer: Stargate and its characters belong to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. No infringements of rights is intented.
Beta: Many thanks towildcat88. All remaining mistakes are mine.
Author’s Note: The full fic has 11 chapters, all finished and edited. I’ll post daily until it’s finished.
Summary: When the team first arrives on Milania, they are impressed with their level of accomplishment. The feeling soon fades when they discover how deep their xenophobia goes.
John opened his eyes and tried curling around his aching chest, but was unable to move. Everything was dark except for a small beam of light coming from far ahead. He looked around and saw himself half buried in earth and rocks. He coughed and groaned as his chest spiked with pain. After taking a deep breath, he tried pushing himself up using his elbows as support. His muscles let their misery show, but in the end he won the battle of stubbornness.
"Guys? You okay?" he asked.
John heard a moan that he soon discovered to be Rodney when he sat up from under a layer of brown and black dirt.
"That was bigger than I expected," Rodney said, a little short of breath.
Ronon groaned in response and Teyla appeared from under a pile of small rocks. John eyed her in concern.
"I am fine," she assured him. "We have to go before more guards come in," she said as she started getting up.
"Yeah." John hissed as he stood and swayed for a few moments until his hand found the wall. "Let's go," he said breathlessly.
John felt Ronon's hand supporting him and tried not to voice his pain when Ronon squeezed his bruised arm too hard. John climbed over debris in their path and looked back, seeing his team all up and looking fine except for the dirt and bruises. Some prisoners were also getting up, a few unhappy guards as well. John took the lead and followed the beam of light all the way out until he was in the warehouse.
The place was almost empty. Buckets, shovels and tools were abandoned while some injured workers cradled broken limbs and several guards took out their frustrations on the few unfortunate souls who had been unable to escape. John knelt down and touched the neck of a fallen guard, finding no pulse. Not feeling sorrow over the disfigured state of the man's face, John tapped his clothes and extracted his shocking rod and knife, giving the stick to Rodney and keeping the knife for himself since they had lost their previous weapons in the battle inside the mines. Shots came from outside, along with cries, shouts and yells, all getting closer to their position.
The team hurried along, but ran for cover when the ground erupted with weapons' fire. John hid behind a few crates and peeked to see armed soldiers entering the deposit and shooting the prisoners spilling from the mine.
"Take cover!" he yelled.
The running men threw themselves down and stopped coming from the small entrance while others panicked and ran in opposite directions. Some were armed with batons and raced towards the attackers.
"Oh, God! We're not going to make it!" Rodney cried from next to John.
John lowered his head to escape splinters coming from the blowing crates. "We just have to make it to a truck!"
"And how do you propose we do that?"
John exchanged looks with Ronon and Teyla then peeked around the corner of his cover. The soldiers were distracted, shooting at anything that moved and getting closer. John tightened his hold on the handle of the knife and waited for the guard to come nearer. John took a deep breath, then bolted up and threw the blade at the man's chest. The soldier fell motionless.
Ronon took that opportunity to dash out of his own cover and cross the distance to another pile of crates, picking up the guard's gun on the way and shooting before he jumped behind the protection of the wooden boxes. Ronon looked back at Sheppard before turning and shooting at the soldiers that were now alert to their danger.
Sheppard looked at Teyla and nodded. She nodded in return and darted from her own cover, going for another one farther ahead from Ronon's. John breathed in relief when she crouched down in safety and readied the knife Ronon had given her.
Ronon got up again to shoot and Sheppard nodded at Rodney. Rodney took a few deep breaths then raced as fast as he could to hide with Ronon.
John looked ahead, marking his path to join Teyla. He ran and crashed down behind his cover, wiping his sweaty forehead as he felt the high of adrenaline dull his aches and pains. He knelt and turned, watching as Ronon used his gun to open a path and run towards the closest vehicle. A soldier fell down on the way and Sheppard jerked his head towards the body when Teyla looked at him, ready to follow Ronon. Teyla nodded and raced from the cover, stopping to take the man's gun along the way. She rolled and halted by Ronon, not taking a breath before starting to shoot as well.
Rodney went next and crouched next to the truck's door. Rodney pressed his body against it and made the door open. Ronon ran to enter the vehicle, breaking the passenger window with bullets, then was followed by Teyla. John raced and crossed the distance to them, diving into the back of the weird car and crying out midair when he felt a hot prickle pierce his shoulder. He landed hard, breath knocked out of his lungs, and took a shaking hand to the source of pain. It came away wet and red.
Somehow the engine was started and they began moving. John took deep breaths as he pressed a hand against his wound, squeezing his eyes with the sharp pain. He gasped with the hard turns of the truck, his head bouncing and his chest tightening. He snapped his eyes open, a cry stuck inside him, when he hit his shoulder against the metal wall of the car. He wanted to cry out to his team, but they were busy shooting and getting to safety, the loud noises muffling the groans in the back seat.
"G-guys..."
His voice died at the back of his throat. He bit his lip, squeezing wet eyes, breathing deep through his nose and making his chest spike. He tried calling out again, but couldn't find an opportunity among his grunts and gasps. He took short shallow breaths, batting his hand around in the hope of hitting someone in the front seat.
"John!" came a strangled cry from Teyla. "John is hurt. Ronon?"
Teyla gave her gun to Ronon, jumped in the back seat and squeezed her body next to his. "When did it happen?"
John gasped when she touched the bullet wound, wanting to call out her name, but only managing a groan. He settled his breathing again, finding it hard to prevent the shallow and fast inhaling from his lungs. She pressed against his shoulder, making him want to curl around and away from her. He clenched his fists to keep himself still.
She touched his face and made him open his eyes. "I have to stop the bleeding, okay?" Her voice was shaky.
Pain and tiredness increased the delay in his response, but he nodded weakly. He let his eyes close and muffled a grunt when she raised his chest slightly to put pressure on the exit wound.
"What do you feel, John?"
John opened his eyes slightly. Teyla's even pressure had stabilized his pain which had already settled down when the truck had stopped bouncing so much.
"The shooting stopped," he managed to whisper.
She nodded. "Yes, we are on a road. They are not following us. We are safe."
"Good," he said as his eyes drooped.
"John?" Teyla shook him. "Just stay with us a bit longer. . . ."
Her voice slowly faded as he gave into sleep.
###
Teyla finished dressing John's injury with a clean cloth she had found in the truck. She wished she had clean clothes for him to wear, but in the cold wind of the moving vehicle she would have to settle for the dirty prison uniform. It no longer looked plain and gray. It was ragged as if he’d worn it for years, torn open in several places and completely stained brown and black, with many spots of blood in between. She had taken off his shirt to clean the wound and seen the colorful state of his chest and abdomen. She’d had to feel his chest to look for possible fractures and felt her own chest constrict with John's soft moaning during his sleep. He looked tired and in pain even though he was supposed to be in peaceful rest.
She touched his forehead and pushed his hair aside. His face was damp, but his temperature was normal, a small blessing for which she thanked the Ancestors. His heartbeat was still fast, but it had improved slightly after his bleeding had stopped which meant he probably wasn’t hemorrhaging internally.
Looking through the back glass, she saw the escaped prisoners who had managed to climb onto the rear of the truck. They looked weary and wide eyed, shaking in the cold wind of outside, but some had managed to fit themselves in between the few crates that were left. She saw only three women, none of them Milin or Bina. Teyla took a deep breath and hoped they were all right.
Many workers had fled the mines. Many had not. When the team had provoked the rebellion, most people had taken that opportunity to rise and fight, but some were too afraid and remained behind. The explosion had caused many cave-ins inside the mountain they had been working and people must have been trapped inside. She kept a small thread of hope that perhaps the escape of so many would spark something in the prisoners who had stayed behind and something else entirely different in the guards and the government that condoned that kind of place.
Those people were not criminals. It was sad to think that a world that had managed to advance so far technologically could be so cold and cruel. Fear of the Wraith was not an excuse for unfounded fear of other humans. One could not set all other worlds apart simply because they did not like the few worshipers in their midst. The unfairness of all that made Teyla tighten her jaw in anger.
"How is he?" Ronon's rough voice startled her from her thoughts.
Teyla turned to look at him. "He is still sleeping," she said softly. "The bleeding has stopped and he seems to have improved slightly."
"Any signs of--"
"No signs of fever, hypothermia or internal bleeding," she interrupted Rodney. "The bullet passed through the side of his chest, near his shoulder and exited on the side. I do not think it hit any major organs or arteries."
Ronon looked back and down at John. "Lucky shot."
Teyla nodded slightly. Indeed it could have been much worse.
"You call that being lucky?" Rodney asked. "Why is he still unconscious?"
"He was unwell to begin with, Rodney. He was badly mistreated by the guards, poorly fed, and probably wasn't sleeping through the nights." She touched Rodney's shoulder. "His body merely needs some rest."
"Does that mean he could get worse?"
"The wound could get infected," Ronon responded, gaining a glare from Teyla.
"We will not let that happen," she completed the thought.
Rodney nodded. "Good, because that wouldn't be good, especially if we can't escape."
"We have escaped," Ronon observed.
"I mean, there is only one road coming and going from that place. I have been driving here for several minutes. We'll encounter soldiers ahead any moment, you know."
Rodney was right. There were only trees and mountains around them, and only one way to go. Some of the prisoners on foot had gone into the forest, but the team had no idea where they were or where the stargate was. Without knowing why Atlantis had not rescued them yet, the team had few options to consider.
"This road has to lead somewhere, McKay."
Rodney waved a hand as he drove. "Yeah, and what about the guards?"
"We got guns," Ronon answered plainly.
"They've got guns too..."
Ronon turned to Rodney. "We got a truck."
"I'm pretty sure they also have vehicles."
"What would you rather us do, Rodney?" Teyla interrupted their quarrel. "We cannot go back, and we cannot stop here. The road is our only option. As long as we are alive, there is hope."
Banging on the back window made her look behind. She narrowed her eyes, then raised her weapon when she saw another truck filled with soldiers, approaching.
"We have a problem," she warned her teammates.
Ronon put his own gun out of his broken window. "Stay down, McKay." He put his head out. "Down, everyone, down!" he shouted at the people in the rear of the vehicle, then went back to the cover of the interior.
Teyla moved to the opposite side from Ronon's and opened her window. The pursuing truck approached fast and started firing at them. Teyla and Ronon fired back.
The escaped prisoners screamed and covered their heads, crouching as low as they could in the structure. The ground erupted with enemy fire and bullets pinged against the metal exterior. Teyla and Ronon returned fire in equal measure and smashed the opposing vehicle's front windshield. Some prisoners in the back had also gotten guns from the guards and started shooting as well.
"Ugh... crap!" Rodney yelled.
"Stay down, Rodney!" she shouted at him.
"How can I drive and avoid whizzing bullets at the same time?"
Glass rained on her head when the back window broke. She shielded her eyes and lowered her head, glancing back to check if John had been hit. His body was covered with small pieces of glass, but none appeared to have injured him. She crouched lower behind the seat and turned to fire through the now open rear.
"Oh, God! Teyla?" Rodney called.
"I am uninjured."
"Go for the tires!" Ronon suggested.
"What?" she asked.
"The tires!" he shouted. "I saw it in a movie!"
Teyla did as she was told and sighted down her weapon. The road was irregular, making her bounce on her seat and miss. She tried again, firing continuously for several moments. Eventually, one of them hit and the chasing truck swerved violently to the right, losing balance and crashing. She sighed in relief as she turned back to sit straight.
"Thank you, Ronon." She smiled.
"Yeah." Ronon grinned.
###
Chapter 9, 10 and 11
Title: Foreign Concepts 8/11
Author:
x_erikah_xRating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence and torture
Word Count: ~26,000 in 11 chapters
Genre: Gen, H/C, Action, team friendship
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex and other cameos
Spoilers: Set at the end of season five, but no specific spoilers
Disclaimer: Stargate and its characters belong to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. No infringements of rights is intented.
Beta: Many thanks to
wildcat88. All remaining mistakes are mine. Author’s Note: The full fic has 11 chapters, all finished and edited. I’ll post daily until it’s finished.
Summary: When the team first arrives on Milania, they are impressed with their level of accomplishment. The feeling soon fades when they discover how deep their xenophobia goes.
Chapter 8
John opened his eyes and tried curling around his aching chest, but was unable to move. Everything was dark except for a small beam of light coming from far ahead. He looked around and saw himself half buried in earth and rocks. He coughed and groaned as his chest spiked with pain. After taking a deep breath, he tried pushing himself up using his elbows as support. His muscles let their misery show, but in the end he won the battle of stubbornness.
"Guys? You okay?" he asked.
John heard a moan that he soon discovered to be Rodney when he sat up from under a layer of brown and black dirt.
"That was bigger than I expected," Rodney said, a little short of breath.
Ronon groaned in response and Teyla appeared from under a pile of small rocks. John eyed her in concern.
"I am fine," she assured him. "We have to go before more guards come in," she said as she started getting up.
"Yeah." John hissed as he stood and swayed for a few moments until his hand found the wall. "Let's go," he said breathlessly.
John felt Ronon's hand supporting him and tried not to voice his pain when Ronon squeezed his bruised arm too hard. John climbed over debris in their path and looked back, seeing his team all up and looking fine except for the dirt and bruises. Some prisoners were also getting up, a few unhappy guards as well. John took the lead and followed the beam of light all the way out until he was in the warehouse.
The place was almost empty. Buckets, shovels and tools were abandoned while some injured workers cradled broken limbs and several guards took out their frustrations on the few unfortunate souls who had been unable to escape. John knelt down and touched the neck of a fallen guard, finding no pulse. Not feeling sorrow over the disfigured state of the man's face, John tapped his clothes and extracted his shocking rod and knife, giving the stick to Rodney and keeping the knife for himself since they had lost their previous weapons in the battle inside the mines. Shots came from outside, along with cries, shouts and yells, all getting closer to their position.
The team hurried along, but ran for cover when the ground erupted with weapons' fire. John hid behind a few crates and peeked to see armed soldiers entering the deposit and shooting the prisoners spilling from the mine.
"Take cover!" he yelled.
The running men threw themselves down and stopped coming from the small entrance while others panicked and ran in opposite directions. Some were armed with batons and raced towards the attackers.
"Oh, God! We're not going to make it!" Rodney cried from next to John.
John lowered his head to escape splinters coming from the blowing crates. "We just have to make it to a truck!"
"And how do you propose we do that?"
John exchanged looks with Ronon and Teyla then peeked around the corner of his cover. The soldiers were distracted, shooting at anything that moved and getting closer. John tightened his hold on the handle of the knife and waited for the guard to come nearer. John took a deep breath, then bolted up and threw the blade at the man's chest. The soldier fell motionless.
Ronon took that opportunity to dash out of his own cover and cross the distance to another pile of crates, picking up the guard's gun on the way and shooting before he jumped behind the protection of the wooden boxes. Ronon looked back at Sheppard before turning and shooting at the soldiers that were now alert to their danger.
Sheppard looked at Teyla and nodded. She nodded in return and darted from her own cover, going for another one farther ahead from Ronon's. John breathed in relief when she crouched down in safety and readied the knife Ronon had given her.
Ronon got up again to shoot and Sheppard nodded at Rodney. Rodney took a few deep breaths then raced as fast as he could to hide with Ronon.
John looked ahead, marking his path to join Teyla. He ran and crashed down behind his cover, wiping his sweaty forehead as he felt the high of adrenaline dull his aches and pains. He knelt and turned, watching as Ronon used his gun to open a path and run towards the closest vehicle. A soldier fell down on the way and Sheppard jerked his head towards the body when Teyla looked at him, ready to follow Ronon. Teyla nodded and raced from the cover, stopping to take the man's gun along the way. She rolled and halted by Ronon, not taking a breath before starting to shoot as well.
Rodney went next and crouched next to the truck's door. Rodney pressed his body against it and made the door open. Ronon ran to enter the vehicle, breaking the passenger window with bullets, then was followed by Teyla. John raced and crossed the distance to them, diving into the back of the weird car and crying out midair when he felt a hot prickle pierce his shoulder. He landed hard, breath knocked out of his lungs, and took a shaking hand to the source of pain. It came away wet and red.
Somehow the engine was started and they began moving. John took deep breaths as he pressed a hand against his wound, squeezing his eyes with the sharp pain. He gasped with the hard turns of the truck, his head bouncing and his chest tightening. He snapped his eyes open, a cry stuck inside him, when he hit his shoulder against the metal wall of the car. He wanted to cry out to his team, but they were busy shooting and getting to safety, the loud noises muffling the groans in the back seat.
"G-guys..."
His voice died at the back of his throat. He bit his lip, squeezing wet eyes, breathing deep through his nose and making his chest spike. He tried calling out again, but couldn't find an opportunity among his grunts and gasps. He took short shallow breaths, batting his hand around in the hope of hitting someone in the front seat.
"John!" came a strangled cry from Teyla. "John is hurt. Ronon?"
Teyla gave her gun to Ronon, jumped in the back seat and squeezed her body next to his. "When did it happen?"
John gasped when she touched the bullet wound, wanting to call out her name, but only managing a groan. He settled his breathing again, finding it hard to prevent the shallow and fast inhaling from his lungs. She pressed against his shoulder, making him want to curl around and away from her. He clenched his fists to keep himself still.
She touched his face and made him open his eyes. "I have to stop the bleeding, okay?" Her voice was shaky.
Pain and tiredness increased the delay in his response, but he nodded weakly. He let his eyes close and muffled a grunt when she raised his chest slightly to put pressure on the exit wound.
"What do you feel, John?"
John opened his eyes slightly. Teyla's even pressure had stabilized his pain which had already settled down when the truck had stopped bouncing so much.
"The shooting stopped," he managed to whisper.
She nodded. "Yes, we are on a road. They are not following us. We are safe."
"Good," he said as his eyes drooped.
"John?" Teyla shook him. "Just stay with us a bit longer. . . ."
Her voice slowly faded as he gave into sleep.
Teyla finished dressing John's injury with a clean cloth she had found in the truck. She wished she had clean clothes for him to wear, but in the cold wind of the moving vehicle she would have to settle for the dirty prison uniform. It no longer looked plain and gray. It was ragged as if he’d worn it for years, torn open in several places and completely stained brown and black, with many spots of blood in between. She had taken off his shirt to clean the wound and seen the colorful state of his chest and abdomen. She’d had to feel his chest to look for possible fractures and felt her own chest constrict with John's soft moaning during his sleep. He looked tired and in pain even though he was supposed to be in peaceful rest.
She touched his forehead and pushed his hair aside. His face was damp, but his temperature was normal, a small blessing for which she thanked the Ancestors. His heartbeat was still fast, but it had improved slightly after his bleeding had stopped which meant he probably wasn’t hemorrhaging internally.
Looking through the back glass, she saw the escaped prisoners who had managed to climb onto the rear of the truck. They looked weary and wide eyed, shaking in the cold wind of outside, but some had managed to fit themselves in between the few crates that were left. She saw only three women, none of them Milin or Bina. Teyla took a deep breath and hoped they were all right.
Many workers had fled the mines. Many had not. When the team had provoked the rebellion, most people had taken that opportunity to rise and fight, but some were too afraid and remained behind. The explosion had caused many cave-ins inside the mountain they had been working and people must have been trapped inside. She kept a small thread of hope that perhaps the escape of so many would spark something in the prisoners who had stayed behind and something else entirely different in the guards and the government that condoned that kind of place.
Those people were not criminals. It was sad to think that a world that had managed to advance so far technologically could be so cold and cruel. Fear of the Wraith was not an excuse for unfounded fear of other humans. One could not set all other worlds apart simply because they did not like the few worshipers in their midst. The unfairness of all that made Teyla tighten her jaw in anger.
"How is he?" Ronon's rough voice startled her from her thoughts.
Teyla turned to look at him. "He is still sleeping," she said softly. "The bleeding has stopped and he seems to have improved slightly."
"Any signs of--"
"No signs of fever, hypothermia or internal bleeding," she interrupted Rodney. "The bullet passed through the side of his chest, near his shoulder and exited on the side. I do not think it hit any major organs or arteries."
Ronon looked back and down at John. "Lucky shot."
Teyla nodded slightly. Indeed it could have been much worse.
"You call that being lucky?" Rodney asked. "Why is he still unconscious?"
"He was unwell to begin with, Rodney. He was badly mistreated by the guards, poorly fed, and probably wasn't sleeping through the nights." She touched Rodney's shoulder. "His body merely needs some rest."
"Does that mean he could get worse?"
"The wound could get infected," Ronon responded, gaining a glare from Teyla.
"We will not let that happen," she completed the thought.
Rodney nodded. "Good, because that wouldn't be good, especially if we can't escape."
"We have escaped," Ronon observed.
"I mean, there is only one road coming and going from that place. I have been driving here for several minutes. We'll encounter soldiers ahead any moment, you know."
Rodney was right. There were only trees and mountains around them, and only one way to go. Some of the prisoners on foot had gone into the forest, but the team had no idea where they were or where the stargate was. Without knowing why Atlantis had not rescued them yet, the team had few options to consider.
"This road has to lead somewhere, McKay."
Rodney waved a hand as he drove. "Yeah, and what about the guards?"
"We got guns," Ronon answered plainly.
"They've got guns too..."
Ronon turned to Rodney. "We got a truck."
"I'm pretty sure they also have vehicles."
"What would you rather us do, Rodney?" Teyla interrupted their quarrel. "We cannot go back, and we cannot stop here. The road is our only option. As long as we are alive, there is hope."
Banging on the back window made her look behind. She narrowed her eyes, then raised her weapon when she saw another truck filled with soldiers, approaching.
"We have a problem," she warned her teammates.
Ronon put his own gun out of his broken window. "Stay down, McKay." He put his head out. "Down, everyone, down!" he shouted at the people in the rear of the vehicle, then went back to the cover of the interior.
Teyla moved to the opposite side from Ronon's and opened her window. The pursuing truck approached fast and started firing at them. Teyla and Ronon fired back.
The escaped prisoners screamed and covered their heads, crouching as low as they could in the structure. The ground erupted with enemy fire and bullets pinged against the metal exterior. Teyla and Ronon returned fire in equal measure and smashed the opposing vehicle's front windshield. Some prisoners in the back had also gotten guns from the guards and started shooting as well.
"Ugh... crap!" Rodney yelled.
"Stay down, Rodney!" she shouted at him.
"How can I drive and avoid whizzing bullets at the same time?"
Glass rained on her head when the back window broke. She shielded her eyes and lowered her head, glancing back to check if John had been hit. His body was covered with small pieces of glass, but none appeared to have injured him. She crouched lower behind the seat and turned to fire through the now open rear.
"Oh, God! Teyla?" Rodney called.
"I am uninjured."
"Go for the tires!" Ronon suggested.
"What?" she asked.
"The tires!" he shouted. "I saw it in a movie!"
Teyla did as she was told and sighted down her weapon. The road was irregular, making her bounce on her seat and miss. She tried again, firing continuously for several moments. Eventually, one of them hit and the chasing truck swerved violently to the right, losing balance and crashing. She sighed in relief as she turned back to sit straight.
"Thank you, Ronon." She smiled.
"Yeah." Ronon grinned.
Chapter 9, 10 and 11
