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All the
Difference Fandom: Atlantis "No, no, no," Rodney said quickly. "No, you see, I won't be going to Atlantis." Dr. Weir sat back in her chair and looked at him across the desk of the cramped, temporary office the SGC had assigned her. She blinked once in surprise. "Oh," she said. "I assumed, given your close involvement in the Atlantis project so far, you'd leap at the opportunity to come on the expedition." "And I would!" Rodney said. If I were suicidal, he added silently. "It's just that I'm a theoretician. My particular gifts -- extensive as they are -- aren't suited to field work. God knows I'm allergic to enough things on this planet without adding an entire other galaxy's worth of potential toxins to the mix, and I have very specific dietary requirements, and you don't even want me to tell you about my hyperglycemia --" "You have told me about it," Weir said. Rodney gave her his most winning smile. "Well, then, you understand." "Yes," she said, slowly. She looked at him. "Of course, the expedition's head of science will be able to investigate and classify any Ancient technology we discover before anyone back on Earth gets to see it. If even a fraction of the city survives, we'll be making radical and significant discoveries… well, almost constantly, I'd say. I'm sure," she went on, "Dr. Hytner will be delighted when he learns he's been offered the position." Rodney stared at her. "Hytner? Jeremy Hytner? That second-rate, unoriginal proponent of some of the most poorly thought out work I've had the misfortune to come across in the past decade? My God, his paper on point-to-point energy transfer actually gave me bad dreams. You can't be considering him." Weir spread her hands in a gesture of innocent helplessness. "I have to, if you're not interested." Rodney was silent for a while. "First call on any Ancient tech we find," he said at last. Weir smiled. Three years later, Rodney is sitting by a camp fire on a planet in another galaxy, arguing with Sheppard about which Star Trek series is the best, while Ronon boils water so they can make four mugs of the fragrant tea which Teyla always carries with her and which Rodney has lately found is starting to grow on him. The planet has rings which arc across the sky like ribbons, reflecting the sunlight into myriad rainbows, and as he impatiently motions at Ronon to hurry up and brew the tea, Rodney glances up and thinks: God, I nearly didn't -- Then Sheppard says something outrageous about Voyager
just to provoke him and Ronon almost spills the tea and Teyla laughs and
Rodney cannot imagine being anywhere else. |