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Timestamp meme (sort of): Running on Empty tag
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winter_elf asked for a near-future tag to "Running on Empty", and I realized I've got this thing sitting around on my hard drive, already written, that I never posted anywhere.
I've been intermittently working on a sequel to "Running", where Sheppard tries to teach Rodney wilderness survival. It's never really come together; I started writing it shortly after finishing the original story, and then I was going to work on it as one of the ficathon stories, but ended up doing something different; and then Sunday happened and caused me to reconsider certain key elements of my plot. So, at this point, it's just ended up as a handful of random scenes that don't really tie together. This is the scene that would probably start off the story, if I ever actually write the story.
Certain parts of the U.S. army survival manual are really strange.
The book had a plain, tan cover and a trade paperback binding with PROPERTY OF JOHN SHEPPARD, USAF printed across the back. The faded letters reading JOHN SHEPPARD had been crossed out with the brighter, newer lines of a Sharpie marker, and replaced with RODNEY MCKAY, PhD, in a different handwriting.
At the moment the book lay open in Rodney's lap, propped on his knees as he sat in the copilot's seat of Jumper One.
"Colonel, Colonel, listen to this! You know how to get rid of internal parasites when you're out in the field?"
"No, Rodney, tell me, how?" Sheppard wore a slight grin as he kept his eyes on the view out the Jumper's front view port.
"You drink kerosene."
"No, really, you don't say." The grin had gotten wider.
"Two tablespoonfuls, it says. It's right here on page 52. You can also eat cigarettes -- nicotine's an insecticide." He shuddered. "Blech. Eating cigarettes. Trust you grunts to come up with something that nasty."
"Interesting," Sheppard remarked, a bit absently, adjusting one of the controls and looking down at the white riffles of wavetops beneath them. "Didn't know that."
"What do you mean, you didn't know that? Are you telling me you haven't read this book? You're taking me out in the middle of nowhere to play Daniel Boone and you haven't even read your own military's survival manual?" His voice had risen to a squeak on the last words. Behind him, Teyla exchanged a look with Carson.
"That's it," Rodney announced to the jumper at large, slamming the book shut. "We're all going to die."
Carson rolled his eyes, unable to contain himself any longer. "Were you born like this, Rodney, or did your parents frequently drop you on your head as an infant?"
Rodney twisted around in his seat. "Excuse me? Where have you been lately, Carson? We've tried the whole wilderness-survival thing quite recently, and it didn't exactly work out for us."
"Which is why we're doing it under controlled conditions this time." Sheppard looked over his shoulder at his passengers. "And we have a doctor along, this time. Wha--"
"Don't say it!" Rodney snapped.
Innocent green eyes blinked at him. "Say what?"
"You were going to say 'what could possibly go wrong', weren't you? And we all know what that means."
"I didn't know you were superstitious, Rodney."
"I'm not! I just don't believe in tempting fate!"
"For the record, Rodney," Carson said, sitting back and crossing his arms, "I don't believe this is a good idea, either."
Rodney's head snapped around to fix the doctor with a glare. "Oh, now what, you don't believe I can do this, is that it?"
Carson closed his eyes briefly. "No, Rodney, it's simply --"
"Aha! That's it, isn't it? Reverse psychology! You insist I can't do it, I find myself arguing the other side of the debate and all of a sudden you've won! I took Psych 101 too, you know!"
"You took a psychology class?" Sheppard quirked an eyebrow at him. "Did you fail?"
"It was required for graduation, due to the dumbing-down of our universities because of the influence of fuzzy-brained soft scientists like a certain Scot back there -- and no, for your information, I certainly did not fail!" Folding his arms, Rodney developed a sudden interest in the wavetops beneath them as he muttered, "I just had to take it twice, that's all."
"Which technically means you failed it the first time." Carson sounded gratified.
"I did not! I mean, well, yes, my letter grade, if you want to get technical about it -- but it absolutely was not my fault. The teacher hated me, had it in for me from the beginning."
"Can't imagine why," Carson muttered. Sheppard's lips twisted as he struggled valiently not to grin. Teyla stared fixedly at the jumper's chronometer, her lips moving silently as she counted down the ticking numbers marking time to their journey's end.
Rodney opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, obviously hunting for a suitable comeback, and finally lifted his chin and snapped, "None of which has a thing to do with the fact that we shouldn't be out here in the first place. Particularly not him." He pointed at Sheppard, a trifle vindictively.
"I'm fine," Sheppard said, with a touch of bite in his voice.
"Oh, what's the matter, hit a nerve, Colonel? Look at him, Carson!" Rodney poked a finger at Sheppard's arm; the pilot raised one hand from the controls to bat him away. "He's skin and bones, looks like a puff of wind would blow him away. Clearly, we should turn right around and head back to Atlantis." A note of whine crept into his voice.
"He insists that he's fine." The disapproval in Carson's tone was obvious. "According to all my tests, the infection's gone, he's recovering nicely, and all he needs is time. Since clearly he's too daft to stay in his quarters, like any reasonable person --"
"Hello, sitting right here," Sheppard murmured.
"-- I've given my approval to this barmy idea only on the condition that we don't do anything too strenuous, and if I get a whiff of trouble, we're picking up and straight back to Atlantis we go."
"Look, both of you, the last thing I want is a relapse, believe me. But it's been two months, and I can't stay grounded forever. I'm going out of my mind. This'll be a nice, easy, stress-free trip ... a vacation, really."
"And there he goes again, jinxing us!" Rodney threw his hands up into the air. "Why don't you just keep going, Colonel; why stop there, when there are plenty of other ways you could screw us over? We're perfectly safe; it'll never happen; there's no way any of them could get in here; it's only a case of the flu; they're a peaceful agricultural society; they couldn't possibly hit us from that far away --"
"I'm picking up an odd reading, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about?" Sheppard suggested, smirking.
"Are you implying that the trouble we get into is my faul--"
"Oh look," Teyla said, not entirely managing to disguise the relief in her voice. "There's the mainland."
winter_elf asked for a near-future tag to "Running on Empty", and I realized I've got this thing sitting around on my hard drive, already written, that I never posted anywhere.I've been intermittently working on a sequel to "Running", where Sheppard tries to teach Rodney wilderness survival. It's never really come together; I started writing it shortly after finishing the original story, and then I was going to work on it as one of the ficathon stories, but ended up doing something different; and then Sunday happened and caused me to reconsider certain key elements of my plot. So, at this point, it's just ended up as a handful of random scenes that don't really tie together. This is the scene that would probably start off the story, if I ever actually write the story.
Certain parts of the U.S. army survival manual are really strange.
The book had a plain, tan cover and a trade paperback binding with PROPERTY OF JOHN SHEPPARD, USAF printed across the back. The faded letters reading JOHN SHEPPARD had been crossed out with the brighter, newer lines of a Sharpie marker, and replaced with RODNEY MCKAY, PhD, in a different handwriting.
At the moment the book lay open in Rodney's lap, propped on his knees as he sat in the copilot's seat of Jumper One.
"Colonel, Colonel, listen to this! You know how to get rid of internal parasites when you're out in the field?"
"No, Rodney, tell me, how?" Sheppard wore a slight grin as he kept his eyes on the view out the Jumper's front view port.
"You drink kerosene."
"No, really, you don't say." The grin had gotten wider.
"Two tablespoonfuls, it says. It's right here on page 52. You can also eat cigarettes -- nicotine's an insecticide." He shuddered. "Blech. Eating cigarettes. Trust you grunts to come up with something that nasty."
"Interesting," Sheppard remarked, a bit absently, adjusting one of the controls and looking down at the white riffles of wavetops beneath them. "Didn't know that."
"What do you mean, you didn't know that? Are you telling me you haven't read this book? You're taking me out in the middle of nowhere to play Daniel Boone and you haven't even read your own military's survival manual?" His voice had risen to a squeak on the last words. Behind him, Teyla exchanged a look with Carson.
"That's it," Rodney announced to the jumper at large, slamming the book shut. "We're all going to die."
Carson rolled his eyes, unable to contain himself any longer. "Were you born like this, Rodney, or did your parents frequently drop you on your head as an infant?"
Rodney twisted around in his seat. "Excuse me? Where have you been lately, Carson? We've tried the whole wilderness-survival thing quite recently, and it didn't exactly work out for us."
"Which is why we're doing it under controlled conditions this time." Sheppard looked over his shoulder at his passengers. "And we have a doctor along, this time. Wha--"
"Don't say it!" Rodney snapped.
Innocent green eyes blinked at him. "Say what?"
"You were going to say 'what could possibly go wrong', weren't you? And we all know what that means."
"I didn't know you were superstitious, Rodney."
"I'm not! I just don't believe in tempting fate!"
"For the record, Rodney," Carson said, sitting back and crossing his arms, "I don't believe this is a good idea, either."
Rodney's head snapped around to fix the doctor with a glare. "Oh, now what, you don't believe I can do this, is that it?"
Carson closed his eyes briefly. "No, Rodney, it's simply --"
"Aha! That's it, isn't it? Reverse psychology! You insist I can't do it, I find myself arguing the other side of the debate and all of a sudden you've won! I took Psych 101 too, you know!"
"You took a psychology class?" Sheppard quirked an eyebrow at him. "Did you fail?"
"It was required for graduation, due to the dumbing-down of our universities because of the influence of fuzzy-brained soft scientists like a certain Scot back there -- and no, for your information, I certainly did not fail!" Folding his arms, Rodney developed a sudden interest in the wavetops beneath them as he muttered, "I just had to take it twice, that's all."
"Which technically means you failed it the first time." Carson sounded gratified.
"I did not! I mean, well, yes, my letter grade, if you want to get technical about it -- but it absolutely was not my fault. The teacher hated me, had it in for me from the beginning."
"Can't imagine why," Carson muttered. Sheppard's lips twisted as he struggled valiently not to grin. Teyla stared fixedly at the jumper's chronometer, her lips moving silently as she counted down the ticking numbers marking time to their journey's end.
Rodney opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, obviously hunting for a suitable comeback, and finally lifted his chin and snapped, "None of which has a thing to do with the fact that we shouldn't be out here in the first place. Particularly not him." He pointed at Sheppard, a trifle vindictively.
"I'm fine," Sheppard said, with a touch of bite in his voice.
"Oh, what's the matter, hit a nerve, Colonel? Look at him, Carson!" Rodney poked a finger at Sheppard's arm; the pilot raised one hand from the controls to bat him away. "He's skin and bones, looks like a puff of wind would blow him away. Clearly, we should turn right around and head back to Atlantis." A note of whine crept into his voice.
"He insists that he's fine." The disapproval in Carson's tone was obvious. "According to all my tests, the infection's gone, he's recovering nicely, and all he needs is time. Since clearly he's too daft to stay in his quarters, like any reasonable person --"
"Hello, sitting right here," Sheppard murmured.
"-- I've given my approval to this barmy idea only on the condition that we don't do anything too strenuous, and if I get a whiff of trouble, we're picking up and straight back to Atlantis we go."
"Look, both of you, the last thing I want is a relapse, believe me. But it's been two months, and I can't stay grounded forever. I'm going out of my mind. This'll be a nice, easy, stress-free trip ... a vacation, really."
"And there he goes again, jinxing us!" Rodney threw his hands up into the air. "Why don't you just keep going, Colonel; why stop there, when there are plenty of other ways you could screw us over? We're perfectly safe; it'll never happen; there's no way any of them could get in here; it's only a case of the flu; they're a peaceful agricultural society; they couldn't possibly hit us from that far away --"
"I'm picking up an odd reading, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about?" Sheppard suggested, smirking.
"Are you implying that the trouble we get into is my faul--"
"Oh look," Teyla said, not entirely managing to disguise the relief in her voice. "There's the mainland."
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I'd like to write more ... I've just got so very MANY projects going right now.
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Right now the sequel is very much a disorganized jumble. It might come together someday, though!
Running on Empty tag
Re: Running on Empty tag
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This tag? Is so adorable. I loved Rodney being convinced at John jinxing them and John's unflappableness. And poor, poor Teyla. I really hope she's coming along to visit her people, not to train with them because they're going to drive the poor dear crazy.
(okay, seriously why do I not have an icon with John and Rodney?)
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And glad you liked the tag!
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Loved it! Thanks. :-)
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Running on Empty Tag
I like reading those survival books. They remind me to stay out of situations like that.
Re: Running on Empty Tag
Re: Running on Empty Tag
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But it really does sound like a prologue... *hint* *hint*
:-D
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About Survival Manuals...
(Anonymous) 2007-01-27 07:51 am (UTC)(link)Re: About Survival Manuals...
Re: About Survival Manuals...
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And I friended you because you have the same view on fic I do. I'm more of the OTF myself.
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However I empathise with the many projects problem... I share your pain! Too many ideas... too little time!
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So, now that you've got the teaser done, perhaps we'll see Acts I - IV sometime? =D
Good luck with all your WIPs. I've just friended you, I hope I'll read more of your fic and your episode opinions in the near future!
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I'm sure there will be more fic forthcoming; it's pretty much inevitable. And ooo ... new episode tonight ...
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I loved Running On Empty so much--it was so consistently tense, with the Wraith chasing both Rodney and John and waiting for them to find each other (Rodney with minions! Amnesic Sheppard!), and then you didn't let up once they were back together. I loved the little bit about comparing kills.
Wonderful, wonderful work.
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