Well. Here we are. Five seasons have flown by and now we've at last gotten to the Stargate Atlantis series finale, "Enemy at the Gate." Join me as I try to contain all my feels on this last outing with the Atlantis crew. Like with "Vegas," I will be talking about the extended version of the episode (available on the DVD set).
It's the last episode of the series, y'all. We are so far beyond spoilers now.
What Happened
Atlantis at night. The gate activates and Amelia announces that they've got a transmission coming in. They pull up the video screen to see Todd. He tells them his treatment from an iratus queen was successful. Unfortunately, he's had a recent setback. One of his underlings has overthrown him and left him stranded after crashing his dart. Woolsey asks why they should care and Todd says the manner in which his minion was able to (temporarily) defeat him will be of interest to them. He is in possession of a ZPM.
The team and Woolsey meet to confer about this information. Ronon doesn't buy it, but Woolsey thinks it is a bad plan if it is some kind of trick, since Todd has offered himself into their custody until they can retake his ship. John says he's sure that Todd is leaving something out and Woolsey agrees, but he doesn't think it is about the ZPM. Rodney says if the underling really does have a ZPM they are in trouble. Ineffecient energy production is the one weakness of the wraith. If they have a ZPM to power one of their hives, it will be nigh unstoppable. Woolsey says it's a threat they can't tolerate, and one that they won't.
Todd is brought to Atlantis and put into isolation. Jennifer examines him and says that there is no sign of the treatment or the disease it caused. He is perfectly healthy, back to where he was before taking it. Complete with feeding hand. Woolsey goes to talk to Todd, who implies that if they don't help him Atlantis might be destroyed. Woolsey asks where the ZPM came from. Todd admits that he might have recovered a few more from the replicator homeworld before it was destroyed than he had originally let on. Woolsey asks why the delay before installing it on the hive ship, then? Todd explains that the organic nature of the hive ships made adapting them for use with the ZPMs a challenge and they only just figured out how to make it work.
Woolsey asks if the underling knows the location of Atlantis. Todd says it is a pointless detail but then answers that yes, of course he does. Even if they don't believe him, he knows Woolsey can't take the chance that he isn't telling the truth. Todd then adds that the hive is a work in progress. It still hasn't reached its full potential, so they still have a chance to destroy it. But they have to attack now.
The I.O.A. approves the request to investigate the matter, though all of the team but John are worried that Todd has some hidden agenda. Still, it doesn't matter. Todd is right, they can't take the chance. They take the Daedalus to the location of the hive. They bring Todd along and John has him kept in custody, with his subspace transmitter removed, along with having him searched and put in a jumpsuit. On the way, John visits him and Todd asks if all of the precautions are really necessary and John replies they really are after Todd's last trip on the Daedalus. He tells Todd that every time they agree to work with him John walks around feeling like there is a live grenade in his pocket, just waiting for it to go off in the form of that one thing that Todd "forgot" to mention. Todd asks why John let him go free the last time if he really feels that way. John says they made a deal and Todd held up his end. He also admits he really didn't expect Todd to live. This time though, he tells Todd, if there's any hint of betrayal, he isn't gonna wait, he is just going to kill him.
They get close to the hive's coordinates and John and team have Caldwell drop them off in a jumper. They cloak the ship and approach the hive to check it out, promising to stay in radio contact. If it is what Todd says it is, then the Dadedalus can come in with guns blazing. As they approach, Rodney picks up some very unusual readings, though he isn't sure yet if it's from a ZPM. They move in closer and Rodney realizes that the readings are showing that the wraith do have a ZPM and they are using it to grow the hive ship past its normal limitations. Rodney says that once they are done the hull will be impenetrable. They realize they need to destroy the ship now before it gets to that point. They move in just a little bit closer and the hive ship powers up its weapons. Rodney says there is no way that the ship can see them, it must just be running a test or something, but the hive fires and aims directly for the jumper. John realizes the wraith can see them. With the addition of the ZPM they must have increased the sensitivity of their scanners.
Sheppard radios the Daedalus that their cloak is ineffective and Caldwell starts to move in. The hive continues to fire at the jumper and John drops the cloak so that they can fire back. They keep on dodging and get a glancing blow that disables most of the jumper's main systems. Caldwell arrives before the hive can take the jumper out completely and they manage to score a direct hit on the hive. Unfortunately the damage they deliver is minimal. The hive fires back from all batteries and the Daedalus takes on massive damage. They prepare for the next volley and try to brace for the impact but the hive instead jumps away to hyperspace.
The team gets the jumper back on board to find out that the larger ship's hyperdrive is down. Caldwell gets a team together working on a patch so they can return to Atlantis. They try to theorize why the wraith left when they only needed one more round to finish off the Daedalus. Rodney thinks maybe since the ship is still growing that one encounter maxed out its current energy resources. That doesn't bode well for their next encounter with it. Caldwell says with the amount of damage it could be days or weeks before the Daedalus is fully operational again. They are interrupted by this train of thought when Major Marks pops in and says they've found something.
They get to a control room to find Kavanagh, who has recently been reassigned to the ship. He tells them that just before the hive jumped away they picked up a weak subspace transmission. He pulls it up and Rodney recognizes it as wraith code. Kavanagh says that it is hard to decrypt because it is interlaced with a faint residual radiation that he's never seen before. Rodney recognizes it though as the marker of something from another reality. He tells them some wraith in some other reality sent a signal that punched a rift through space time into multiple realities. He pushes Kavanagh out of the way and quickly deciphers it. It is a set of coordinates. To Earth.
Caldwell wants to contact Atlantis as soon as communications are back up. Atlantis can notify Stargate Command of the approaching super-hive. Rodney has another idea, though. He asks how many ships they have at their disposal and Caldwell replies the Apollo and the Sun Tzu. The Odyssey is unavailable due to some super secret mission. Rodney says two will have to do and John asks what he has in mind. Rodney says the hive will have to drop out of hyperspace at some point before Earth to fully regenerate. He can extrapolate from its jump data where that will be and they can have ships ready to meet it. They can't afford to wait until the hive reaches Earth, otherwise it will be at full power by then.
The Daedalus makes it back to Atlantis and beams the team down to the control room. Woolsey tells them that the good news is they haven't detected any more hive ships headed toward Earth. Rodney says he suspected as much. The signal was too short and too weak. The hive likely only picked up on it because of their improved sensors. John asks for the bad news. Woolsey pulls up a subspace message from Colonel Ellis after the Apollo engaged the hive. The ambush did not go well. They did very little damage to the hive, and the Sun Tzu has been crippled, while the Apollo will not be able to make it to even the nearest stargate for at least a month. Meanwhile, the hive carried on its merry way after the battle, with no more ships to stand between it and Earth.
Rodney finds John in the city and they have both come to the conclusion that Atlantis itself is a ship that is capable of reaching Earth. The only thing stopping them from taking it is ZPMs, they would need to be fully powered with three of them. John agrees and indicates that he is working on getting them some. He goes to where Todd is being held and tells him that the plan didn't go as expected. Todd asks if John is going to hold him responsible, or if he has come to make good on his earlier threat. John tells Todd to tell them where to find the rest of his ZPMs and it will improve his situation. He convinces Todd it is in his best interest to help them and Todd agrees.
They send Major Lorne to go retrieve two more ZPMs and send them to Rodney to verify they are safe to install in the city. John heads for the chair room and Woolsey stops him. He tells John he won't be flying the city back to Earth. He will be gating to Earth ahead of them. Even with the ZPMs there is a chance the wraith will beat them to Earth and that means that the control chair there is their only defense. General O'Neill has requested that John be the one to man it. He and Woolsey shake hands farewell and wish each other luck. John arrives on Earth and is greeted by Sam.
Rodney and Radek get the ZPMs installed and the chair properly calibrated. Rodney says they are ready to go and asks who will be flying the city. Carson pipes up from the doorway that he'll be their pilot for this adventure. Rodney is surprised, but Carson says that apparently after John he has the best ability with the chair. Carson settles in and Woolsey orders the shield raised. He tells Carson to take them up and the city takes off.
On Earth John learns that Sam is in temporary command while Landry is setting something up in Washington. After that she'll be moving on to take command of their next Daedalus-class ship. It was going to be called the Phoenix but with the recent passing of General Hammond it has been rechristened to, well, the General Hammond. They share a moment of respect for him (in a very nice tribute to Don S. Davis, the actor who portrayed Hammond and who died not long before the episode was filmed). They enter the elevator and John asks if they are going to hop a transport to the McMurdo base. Sam tells him not exactly.
They get to the command center and Sam introduces John to Major Davis with Homeworld Security. They show John on the monitor that the hive has already arrived, even though they hadn't expected it for several weeks. Apparently the ZPM gave it more of a leg up than they had anticipated. For the moment it is just hanging out in orbit though, and they suspect that it is waiting until the ZPM is fully integrated into its systems before attacking. John says they can't let it get to that point and asks if they have any fighters. Davis says they have a squadron of F-302s on standby but they aren't equipped for attacking such a heavily fortified target. John asks how long to fit them with nukes. Davis answers that could take some doing but he gets to work on it. John asks if the fighter pilots have any experience fighting the wraith and Sam reminds him that is not why she brought him back to Earth, realizing he wants to lead the squad. He says he can sit in the chair and wait for an attack or he can take the fight to them and asks which she'd prefer.
In Atlantis Woolsey calls Teyla and Ronon to his office. He tells them they are almost to the edge of the galaxy and offers them one more chance to reconsider their involvement in the mission. There is time to drop them off if they wish it. He acknowledges that their priorities are not his or the rest of the expedition's and it isn't fair to ask them to join in a battle that isn't theirs. They thank him for the offer but tell him they are staying. They will fight with Atlantis.
John gets the F-302s ready to go but Sam and Davis arrive to tell him there's been a change of plans. They have detected a wave of darts headed for the planet. John asks if they know where the darts are headed and Davis says he thinks so. The transmission the wraith from the alternate reality sent included a warning about the planet's defenses, specifically the drone chair. In that reality, the chair was no longer in Antarctica, but had been moved to Area 51. He thinks the darts are heading there to take it out. John thinks this is an advantage, but Sam reveals that the chair was actually moved to Area 51 in this reality a month ago.
John leads the F-302s to try to intercept the darts before they get to Area 51 but the darts seriously outnumber them. John and his team put up as much of a fight as they can but they are overwhelmed and the darts pull off a kamikaze attack on the base. John's fighter is hit and he is able to prevent himself from crashing, but only just. Unfortunately, Area 51, and the control chair, are completely destroyed. John makes a split decision and changes his direction, heading to the upper atmosphere. He says he still has a nuke left so he's going to complete his mission. The hive has started moving toward Earth and John thinks if he powers down everything but life support once he's broken orbit he can get close enough that the hive won't detect him until it's too late. Sam reminds him that there is no way one nuke will take out the suped up hive and John agrees not from the outside. His plan is to go into the dart bay, get as far inside as he can, and detonate the nuke from within. Sam says she can't ask him to run a suicide mission and he says she doesn't have to, he's volunteering.
Atlantis gets to the edge of the Milky Way and then drops out of hyperspace. Woolsey demands to know why and Rodney says they aren't sure. While Rodney tries to figure out what happened, Woolsey tells Radek to recalibrate the gate so they can dial in to Earth and check in and apprise them of the situation.
Sam joins Davis in the command center and asks for a progress report. The hive is still moving toward the planet and has almost reached Earth orbit. It has begun scanning the planet. She asks if there has been word from John and Davis says not yet. His best estimates put John at twenty minutes out from intersecting with the hive's orbit. Walter arrives and tells Sam there's a problem. They've been trying to dial up the Alpha site to send some I.O.A. dignitaries off world until after the attack but they can't get a lock on the gate. He's tried other planets and has had similar results. The gate is offline.
Atlantis dials up the SGC and Woolsey tries to open up communications but he gets no answer. Amelia confirms that the comm system is working, they are just not getting a response. Rodney says he's getting an energy signature back through the wormhole and it's wraith. Woolsey is afraid that the wraith are already at the SGC but Rodney says the readings are consistent with what they would pick up in the middle of a hive. They realize that the wraith are following their standard operating procedure for a culling: dial up the gate once in orbit to keep their victims from dialing out. That means there is a gate on the hive ship. The Pegasus galaxy gate takes precedence in any wormholes whenever a Pegasus gate and a Milky Way gate are in that close proximity to each other. Which means they have an open gate that leads directly onto the attacking hive.
On the hive wraith stand guard around the open gate and several flash bangs come through. In Atlantis Lorne, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon head through. Woolsey watches them go and receives confirmation from Lorne that they've cleared the gate and are heading further into the hive. He worries that he should have sent more marines but Radek assures him that a full-scale attack would have done little good. Woolsey admits that's probably true but he hates waiting in the middle of nowhere, unable to move to help if needed.
Radek says he has something he needs to talk to Woolsey about in that regard. He thinks he can do something about them being stranded. It's something Rodney has been working on for a while, an adaptation of Ancient technology. It was abandoned because of instability and power requirements, but Radek tells him about wormhole drive. It's like gate travel but without the gate. If it works it could have them at Earth in a matter of seconds. Of course, the calculations to implement it are crazy complicated and if they are even a little bit wrong they will be beyond screwed.
On the hive the team stops to assess. Teyla asks Rodney what he is thinking their best course should be. He says there are any number of systems they could sabotage but to take the hive out for good, their best bet is the ZPM. If they can create a fatal overload of the ZPM it will take the whole ship out in one shot. Of course the downside is that they likely won't have time to make it back to the gate once they start the overload process. Lorne chastises Rodney for not bringing this up earlier and Rodney says he's thinking on his feet, he didn't know it would be an issue earlier. Ronon says it doesn't matter. If they have a chance to destroy the ship, they're gonna take it no matter what. Teyla tells Rodney to lead the way.
John floats in space in his F-302 and deems the time appropriate to restart the ship and head for the hive.
On the hive the team runs into a group of wraith and gets into a fire-fight. Ronon and Rodney try to go around while Teyla and Lorne provide cover fire. They run into wraith that way too and Ronon fights them off, getting shot in the process. The bullet hits his lung and he starts to bleed out. He tells them to just go and Teyla says they are not leaving without him but it is too late, he dies. The wraith are still coming though so they are forced to leave his body behind.
John makes it into the hive and radios Sam in command. He tells her he made it inside but he doesn't have much time before the wraith shows up so he's arming the nuke. Lorne, Teyla, and Rodney, still pinned down under fire, pick up the transmission as well. Sam tries to talk John out of it but he tells her to tell Atlantis bye for him when they show up. Rodney breaks into the conversation and tells John they're on board the hive and to hold off on blowing them all up. John asks how they got on the ship and he says it's a long story but they are headed his way and will explain then. He says he can rig up a remote detonator for the nuke. John says that's all well and good but there's still no way off the ship and Rodney says that's where he's wrong.
Woolsey goes to the infirmary to let Jennifer know they are about to fire up the wormhole drive. If it works, he tells her, they could find themselves in the middle of a combat situation. She needs to make sure her staff is ready. She asks what if it doesn't work and he says the city will be instantly vaporized, so, yeah.
John meets up with the rest of the team, surprised but glad to see them. While Rodney gets to work on rigging up the nuke, John asks where Ronon is. Teyla can barely bring herself to tell John he's dead.
Of course, that is when we are treated to the sight of Ronon reviving elsewhere on the ship. The wraith recovered his body and patched him up then used their reverse-feeding to bring him back to life. The wraith says he has questions he wants answered.
Davis announces that the hive has completed its scan of the surface. Sam lists how the wraith will proceed to begin their attack.
The wraith asks Ronon how many humans are aboard his ship and is angered when Ronon refuses to answer. He moves to attack Ronon but is mowed down from behind by a stream of bullets. As he falls we see John and the others enter the room, glad to find Ronon alive. They radio Sam that they have Ronon and are moving to the gate. The wraith have powered up their weapons and she asks him how much time they need. He says five minutes to get there, five minutes to recalibrate the DHD. Davis doesn't think they will last ten minutes. John tells Rodney to give him the detonator. Rodney reluctantly does so and just as John is about to press the button Sam tells him to wait. She says they have detected another ship.
Atlantis arrives and Woolsey orders Carson to open fire. Sam tells John and crew what's happening and they resume their trip to the gate. Rodney gets to work on the DHD and the others hold off the wraith. Atlantis starts to take damage but Woolsey tells Carson to keep firing until the shield starts to collapse. Rodney gets the DHD calibrated and dials up the Alpha site. He and the team head through the gate, with John setting the detonator just before stepping through. The nuke goes off and the hive is destroyed.
Sam thanks Woosley for his help and he says they aren't out of the water yet. Atlantis has lost orbit and Carson is unable to stabilize the city, they are falling to Earth. Sam asks if they have enough shield left to survive reentry and Woolsey tells her they are about to find out. There is a tense silence in the command center as they wait for word from Atlantis. Woolsey gets in touch as soon as they are done with reentry and says that Carson is going to try to land them in the water so they should probably notify the necessary authorities.
Some time later John visits Ronon in the infirmary and asks how he's doing. He says he's fine, ready to get out of there. John tells him to take his time. The city is pretty banged up, they won't be going anywhere for a while. Ronon asks if John thinks they'll let really them take Atlantis back to Pegasus once it's fixed up. John promises they will make sure Ronon gets home and Ronon says Atlantis is his home. Amelia pops in and asks if she's interrupting. At a look from Ronon, John excuses himself. Ronon sits up a little straighter and she asks if he's up for taking a walk. She tells him there's something he needs to see.
John heads down to where Todd is being kept. Todd says all is well, the planet is saved, and it's all thanks to his ZPMs. John replies the question is what will happen next time. To which Todd asks, "is there going to be a next time?"
Amelia leads Ronon out to a balcony where they join Woolsey, Carson, Jennifer, Rodney, and Teyla at the rail. Woolsey welcomes Ronon to Earth and we see they are all looking at the Golden Gate bridge. Jennifer hastily remarks that no one can see them, right, and Woolsey confirms that they activated the cloak before landing. The entire area is under naval quarantine though. They all kind of settle in, enjoying the view, and John comes out to join them. The camera pans out as they all enjoy the view.
Commentary
Man, I just get so sad whenever I watch this episode. The ending is so bittersweet. I mean, it is a perfect ending for the season, and it works as a series ender. But they did such a fantastic job setting the stage for a really interesting future that I regret we never got to see what came next. Clearly a big challenge for season six would have been to get Atlantis back to the Pegasus galaxy. Then there would likely have been fallout from its sudden and extended absence to deal with once that was accomplished, especially with the coalition slowly rising to power throughout the galaxy. Plus, there is the lingering question of what to do with Todd. Would he finally become a true ally and join forces with the city for good? Or would he double-cross them and sneak off the first chance he got?
I think what makes this most frustrating of all is that right after the season ended there was a script written for a direct-to-DVD movie that would have wrapped up these final loose ends and served as a more proper close to the series (in the same vein as The Ark of Truth did for SG-1.) Of course, before it could be filmed, the bottom dropped out of the DVD market and MGM declared bankruptcy, so, we never got that final story. Grr. Argh.
Although for anyone craving closure, I do highly recommend the Legacy series of tie-in novels from Fandemonium. They are a non-canon continuation from where the series proper leaves off, but they are very well done. I have read the first two, which are in print (as well as being available as ebooks), and I see the next two are available in ebook versions, so I've snagged those as well and will be reading them soon. The second book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger itself, if I remember correctly.
But back to the episode. As I said, it is a fantastic ending to the season, and there are a lot of absolutely spectacular moments packed into "Enemy at the Gate." I love that, like, everybody gets something to do in this episode. Hell, they even brought back Kavanagh. Plus, Lorne got to go with the team to storm the hive ship. That was spectacular.
We got another instance for Atlantis to be the Amazing Flying City!! Always a win, and seeing Carson's confidence in piloting it, given his initial hesitance with the control chair way back in "Rising," well, it was like coming full-circle.
I could have probably done without another attempt at a suicide mission for John. Okay, self-sacrifice is noble and all, but jeez. We get it John, you are totally willing to sacrifice yourself to save Earth and your team and the Pegasus galaxy. That doesn't mean you have to jump at the chance, however. You've already died once this season, even if it was in another reality. That's enough, thanks.
Speaking of deaths, oh man, Ronon. Ronon. That always hits me especially hard, even after the first viewing and knowing that he is only temporarily dead. But this time around, given how much more fond I've grown of him during this watch-through, man. There may have been tears. He just. Wow. I think that overall during this rewatch it was his character's growth that surprised me the most. I never didn't like him, but I now have a much stronger appreciation for him than I did before. I love that he goes from "I can't leave this galaxy until every last wraith is dead" in season three to flat out telling John that Atlantis, wherever it is, is his home in this episode. Like he told Woolsey, the people in Atlantis have been sacrificing themselves for a fight that wasn't theirs ever since they arrived in the galaxy. He has no problem returning the favor. It's a bonus to see that he and Amelia seem to have a growing relationship, too. He deserves some happiness.
Then there's that last scene, where everyone in on the balcony looking out at the bridge. It is just one of my favorite images from the whole series. The only things missing to make it perfect for me were Lorne and Radek.
Sigh.
Favorite Quotes
"I may have acquired a few more than I let on." (Todd)
"How many more?" (Woolsey)
"Let's not get caught up in unnecessary details." (Todd)
"I like details." (Woolsey)
"Well, things didn't go exactly according to plan." (John)
"So I heard. You intend to hold me responsible?" (Todd)
All I know is that everything went sideways, the way it always does when you're involved. You gonna tell me that's a coincidence?" (John)
"Am I supposed to be enticed by this offer?" (Todd)
"No. I'll probably kill you anyway. But don't forget this: this wraith betrayed you and got away with it. For no other reason, you might wanna do it out of pure spite." (John)
"You know how to talk to me, John Sheppard." (Todd)
"We've all grown so accustomed to having you here as part of the team, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that your priorities are not necessarily always the same as ours. You're being asked to fly to another galaxy, to take what might turn out to be the losing part in a battle that isn't yours." (Woolsey)
"Do you mean like everyone on this base has been doing for the last five years?" (Ronon)
"Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Woolsey, but I assure you it is not necessary." (Teyla)
"We're not going anywhere." (Ronon)
"Very well." (Woolsey)
"I've restored your life, human, and bound your wound." (Wraith)
"That was real nice of you." (Ronon)
"Hi. Heard you died and came back to life." (Amelia)
"Pretty much. There's uh...there's a few things I still need to to." (Ronon)
"You okay?" (Jennifer)
"I'm alive...and I've got you. What else would I need?" (Rodney)
~*~
...and that's it. That's the end of Stargate Atlantis. Stop back by on Monday for a final wrap-up and my thoughts on the series overall. Then, on Wednesday, I'll announce the next rewatch.
Showing posts with label MGM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MGM. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Fanfic Friday (Because Why Not?)
Howdy folks! Happy Friday! So, it turns out that the story I posted yesterday wasn't the only thing I ended up writing this week. I also managed to write a sort piece of fan fiction. I seem to have been getting back into that a little bit lately. I haven't written any in years, but this past week I finally had a story that I just had to get out of my head.
It combines my two biggest obsessions: Stargate Atlantis and Dragon Age. Thematically it contains some elements similar to "Above the Clouds," but it is definitely a different type of story. To me, the Eluvian mirrors in Dragon Age have always triggered thoughts of the Quantum Mirrors from Stargate. I also have always thought that Alistair would get along well in Atlantis. So I decided to take those two elements and put them together and see what happened. I am pretty happy with the result. I even went ahead and submitted it to Wraithbait (although I had completely forgotten that you have to put in html tags for anything like italics or, you know, line breaks when submitting a story there--that was fun, let me tell you). If I get any sort of positive feedback on the story, I might write some more adventures in this universe.
Spoilers disclaimer: MAJOR spoilers for the end of Dragon Age: Origins and hints of characters and events from DAO: Awakening. No real spoilers for Stargate Atlantis, provided you are aware of who is actually in the city as of season five.
Other disclaimer: Please note that Alistair and all things Dragon Age belong to Bioware and EA, while all things Stargate belong to MGM. Just the idea for the story is mine.
I hope you enjoy!
Alistair paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Despite the chill of the vicious winds this high in the mountains the exertion of the climb was getting to him. This pass had clearly been carved out by Chasind with a sadistic streak. Or a very disoriented dragon, he thought, smirking to himself. Really it barely qualified as a pass at all, but it was the only known way through this stretch of the Frostback Mountains, and he would complete his assignment or die trying. Looks like the dying part of that is getting more and more likely though. He winced as a new blast of frigid air swept through the range, almost knocking him off of the narrow ledge. Alistair pressed himself against the wall of rock that the ledge followed and steadied himself with a few deep breaths as he waited for the wind to die down again.
He continued to make his way through the treacherous pass once nature seemed to have calmed back down. Not for the first time, he allowed himself to wonder what his life would be like now if he had accepted the crown of Ferelden after the archdemon had been slain. I wouldn't be trekking out here in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure, he thought to himself. He still firmly believed that letting Anora remain queen had been the right thing to do, but he had grown convinced that she didn't accept that he believed it. Every time he had call to go to court she could not even stand to be around him, and he knew better than to think it was his resemblance to Cailan. No, his very existence was a threat to her rule and so he made her uncomfortable. As a result, she had somehow managed to convince the new Warden Commander to relegate him to all of the tasks that required extensive (and dangerous) travel throughout the damned country.
Such line of thought twisted a double-edged blade right into his heart, however. Alistair had no quarrel with the Orlesians, nor with the new Commander that the Wardens in Orlais had sent to help rebuild the order after the Blight. But every time he saw the man it was a reminder of the woman who should be Commander of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. The love of Alistair's life, his brave and fiery elven mage, the hero who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. All because Alistair had refused to swallow his pride, his honor, to grant her one simple request. He had meant to take the final blow himself, of course, but a hurlock, an alpha, had distracted him just long enough for her to strike the dragon first, and with one final spell the Blight was over and she was gone. Thinking of Cailan was no better. Ever since Anora had admitted that Alistair's half-brother had been fully aware of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder why the man had never acknowledged him once they had met, at least in private. He couldn't help but wonder if Cailan had lived, perhaps they might have eventually come to be true brothers to each other after all.... Then again, maybe Cailan would have been just as bad as Goldanna, wanting nothing to do with Alistair unless it was of benefit to her.
So here he was, all alone in the mountains, risking his neck to find some elven artifact that the Commander had heard rumors existed. Always alone, even among the other Wardens. None of the faces in Amaranthine were familiar to him these days, save that of Oghren, and the dwarf had his own concerns to deal with. At least out here in the wilds it was less awkward. Alistair tried to shake his depressing ruminations and focused instead on the land around him. By the time the sun had begun to fall from its zenith he realized that the land was leveling out. Shortly after that, it began to descend. He had crossed through the pass and was on his way down into a basin between this range and the next. It appeared to be heavily wooded, which he hoped meant it was his destination. At the very least, he should be able to find a good place to make camp for the evening.
As he entered the woods he increased his guard. Likely there would be predators he would need to watch out for, but also, if what he sought was here, then there should be signs of a previous civilization. Even in the shade of the trees, the woods were practically cozy after the winds he had endured in the pass. Alistair soaked up the warmth gratefully as he searched, ever an eye out for signs of his quarry, a likely spot to rest for the evening, or even potential dinner.
He almost missed it, the first sign that he was in the right place. He was resting in a small clearing and thinking it would be a good place to stop for the day when a nearby stone caught his eye. Its shape was just a little bit too regular, the moss covering it seeming to follow too decorative a pattern, as if it was filling in crevices that had been put there intentionally. He moved across the clearing and examined the stone, unsurprised to realize that it was part of some larger structure--a paving stone, perhaps, or part of a building. His weariness forgotten, Alistair searched the area for more stones and after a short time found one, and then another, each embedded in the ground. He stepped back and looked at the area in front of him carefully, and after a few moments he could see that the trees in this part of the woods ran a little bit straighter, and there seemed to be two parallel lines of them, evenly spaced. A road had run through here once upon a time, long long ago.
Alistair followed the remnants of the road for two hours before he found the ruins. There wasn't very much left to be found, truth be told. But he could see where the foundation had been, and it took little for him to imagine the building that once stood here, centuries ago, when the elves were in their height of power. It hadn't been a very large building, probably just a way-station for travelers coming through the mountains, he guessed. The ruins in and of themselves were an incredible find, and he knew he would have to carefully mark them on his map before he returned. Likely other Wardens, or maybe even the Dalish, would want to come here to study them. But he had not been sent to find the ruins, he had been sent to find something in the ruins, and he feared his luck had just run out. There were no traces of the artifact for which he searched. Still, night was falling and he was tired. He would make camp here and get some rest. Maybe in the morning he would be better able to examine the area.
He expected a restless night but perhaps some trace of the magic of the ancient elves still lingered in the ruins. No predators came anywhere near Alistair and he slept far more soundly than he had since joining the Wardens. Even when he didn't hear the darkspawn in his dreams, he remained plagued by nightmares, or even worse, memories of the few happy moments he and his love had spent together before her death. This night, however, he did not dream at all.
When he wakes the next day he sets to work combing over every bit of the ruins. His diligence is rewarded when he discovers that a flat round stone tablet set into the ground near the back of what had once been the building moves to reveal an underground room. He can make out the first few rungs of a ladder, as well as an unlit torch hanging on the stone-lined wall. He climbs down far enough to retrieve the torch and brings it aboveground so he can light it, then carefully makes his way down into the cavern. He looks around in awe, sensing from the stale feel to the air that no one has been down here in a very long time. Perhaps not since the fall of Arlathan. Alistair walks to the center of the room, illuminating as much of it as possible with the torch. It is not much smaller than the ruins indicate the building above once was. Probably it was used for storage. A glint catches his eye and he turns to find the source. There, tucked carefully in a corner and draped with a sheet of cloth that looks as if it would crumble at his very touch, is an object that can only be what he was sent here to find.
Alistair glances around and notices that there are more torches lining the walls. He lights the one nearest the artifact and replaces the torch in his hands back in its bracket. Then he carefully approaches the object and brushes aside the cloth. He registers a moment of surprise when it doesn't disintegrate, but then he is distracted by the object itself. An Eluvian. The mirror is slightly larger than he is and set in an extremely ornate stone framework. The stone has been carved to quite realistically mimic living trees. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The mirror itself does not give a reflection but instead shows a grey smoky haze. Alistair can practically feel the magic radiating from it.
He has done his duty and located the Eluvian. Even better, it is already secured in a very safe location, and he knows that once he leaves it will not be disturbed again until he tells his Commander where it can be found. He knows he should cover the mirror up with the cloth once more, extinguish the torches, return to the surface, mark his map and return home.
But he doesn't.
Instead, he reaches out a tentative hand and lightly grazes the surface of the Eluvian with his fingertips. A soft warm tingle spreads throughout his body, starting where he touched the mirror and working quickly into the very heart of him. He feels a stirring deep inside, in the part of him that was once used by the Templars to dispel and deny magic. Only this time he does not deny it, this time he accepts it wholeheartedly. His eyes reflect the light of the elven script set into the frame as the words begin to glow. Without any further thought Alistair places both palms flat against the mirror. For the briefest of moments the haze clears and he sees the reflection of a room similar to the one in which he stands. Then he is jerked forward and all he knows is the blinding sensation of pain consuming his entire body.
He doesn't know how long he lies on the floor before consciousness returns to him, but when he comes to he realizes he is not alone. He can hear a heated argument--one side of it at least--from nearby as he groggily sits up and tries to blink his vision clear. He feels as if he has just been rammed by an ogre, then picked up and slammed into the ground repeatedly by said beast. Every muscle and bone in his body aches. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself, wondering if he is about to have to defend himself from the intruders. As he tries to get a grip on the situation some of the conversation catches his attention.
"Look, I don't know where he came from, alright? Why do you always look at me for an explanation, huh?" There is a mumbled response to the question but Alistair can't make it out. The speaker he can hear continues in a very fast, very irritated tirade, "Look, just because I know more than, well, everyone else, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know, okay? One minute I was studying the device and then he was just falling through it. He almost landed on me. Have you seen him?! He's wearing a full suit of medieval armor! Can you imagine the kind of damage that would have done to my delicate structure?"
Alistair has to resist the urge to chuckle. The speaker certainly doesn't sound very delicate. He frowns as what the man said sinks in. Why are the intruders trying to determine where he came from? They showed up after he had...after he had touched the mirror. The conversation outside continues but Alistair has stopped listening. He takes a good look at his surroundings. When he woke up he had just assumed that he was in the underground room in the ruins. But now that he looks around he sees that he is not. It is very similar, but the surfaces are not lined with rock, instead they are a smooth uniform material, like stone but not. The torches are gone, replaced by glowing orbs affixed to the walls. Instead of a few fragile shelves, the room contains a series of strange devices the like of which Alistair has never seen. They appear similar to desks but they are not made of wood, or any material he is familiar with. One directly in front of him is covered with blinking lights and glass panels that are covered in some sort of glowing script. The ladder is gone, instead there is a doorway in the far wall of the room, open to reveal daylight streaming in. Not underground then. The others must be standing just outside the door.
Gingerly he stands and turns around, finding a mirror, but not the one that he discovered in the ruins. This one is roughly the same shape and size, but its frame is wholly different. It is made of a similar material to the desks in the room, and it lacks the decorative carvings of the Eluvian that clearly brought him to this strange place. He vaguely remembers Duncan mentioning once that scholars believed Eluvians to be ancient portals, used by the elves to transport themselves across Thedas. Apparently the scholars were right. As he examines this other mirror he becomes aware of the voices from outside getting louder.
Alistair turns just in time to see two men enter through the doorway. They are both looking at something one is holding and he realizes it is a tablet that resembles another panel like those on the desk, covered in glowing script. As they cross the threshold the man without the tablet looks up and tenses as he sees Alistair standing in front of the mirror. Alistair senses instantly that this man is a soldier, despite his lack of armor, and a dangerous one at that. He tries to look as non-threatening as possible. The other man does not notice, however, and keeps on walking. He begins to speak and Alistair identifies him as the angry man who thinks he knows everything. He doesn't look delicate at all, Alistair notes.
"Look, even if it is a Quantum Mirror, and I have to admit, from the evidence, that is looking more likely, we can't really do anything with that information now. Whatever our friend did to get here burned it out. I mean, completely. Used up all of the juice. I mean, yes, I was running a diagnostic at the time, and I guess that could have contributed somewhat, but even if it did--"
"Rodney," the soldier says cutting off his companion's rant. He says it very softly and Alistair knows he was right to call this one dangerous.
"What?" The one called Rodney asks in an exasperated tone. He finally stops walking and looks up from the tablet in his hands, his blue eyes going wide as he sees Alistair, just a few feet away. The other man's hand drops to an object strapped to his thigh. Alistair doesn't recognize it, but he'd be willing to bet his last silver it is a weapon. Very slowly he raises his hands in the air, palms up, trying to indicate he means no threat to these people. Rodney lets out a strangled yelp and jumps back about a foot. The sound brings two more people into the room, a wild looking young man only a few years older than Alistair and a beautiful woman that he realizes is just as dangerous as the soldier. Both are brandishing weapons like the one the soldier wears.
"Um, hello." Alistair says after a tense moment of silence. When no one says anything in reply he adds, "I'm Alistair. I seem to have gotten a bit lost. Maybe one of you could, um, tell me where I am?" The wild man and the woman keep their weapons trained on him but they glance at the soldier as if waiting for the command. He's the one in charge, then. Alistair is relieved to see that he has not yet drawn his weapon. The man stares at him closely, clearly trying to assess the level of threat he represents to their group.
"At ease," he says in that same quiet tone after a few moments. The other two drop their weapons and Rodney relaxes visibly, though not completely. He tilts his head and then gestures to himself, saying "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. This is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." He gestures to Rodney, the woman, and the wild man. "As for where you are, well, it's more or less the same place you were, just..." he runs a hand through his hair as he trails off and Rodney pipes up to finish his sentence.
"...just in a different reality. Well, most likely. I'll need to go over some data to know for sure." Alistair frowns at this answer. A different reality?
"You mean, like in the Fade?" he asks, trying to make some sense of what he's been told. That would explain a lot. The Fade is known to contain strange, often inaccurate reflections of real places.
"Hmm, maybe, maybe," Rodney answers, looking down at his pad. "Depends on what you think this 'Fade' is, but...hmm." He wanders over to one of the desks and begins tapping his fingers against what turn out to be buttons of some sort. The soldier, Sheppard, shakes his head and looks at his companion with a sort of resigned bemusement.
"You'll have to forgive Doctor McKay," Teyla says quietly, moving to stand next to him. Her voice is calm and reassuring, although he can see that she is visibly trying to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "He tends to get...absorbed in his work. Perhaps it would help if you tell us of how you came to be here?" Alistair starts to protest that he doesn't know but she stops him to clarify. "I mean, what do you remember before you woke up here?"
So Alistair tells them of finding the ruins and the Eluvian, explaining that he was looking for it and what his people knew of the artifact. He doesn't tell them everything, there are many details they don't really need, but he tells them more than he would under normal circumstances. He finds himself trusting them almost immediately for some reason. Rodney occasionally jumps in to the conversation to ask him about the elves or the Eluvian or what he means by "magic," about which he clearly feels dubious. Alistair can't imagine why, given the lighting in the room and the objects that Rodney manipulates with such ease. Those seem to reek of magic to him. But perhaps they call it something else here. After a while he tires of standing in the middle of the room and moves to lean against one of the desks. As he does the lights on its surface begin to glow and he can feel the whole of it hum with a soft vibration. That tingle he felt when he first touched the mirror returns. Rodney looks up in surprise when the desk lights up and then glances questioningly at Sheppard.
"I hadn't initialized that one yet."
"Not me," Sheppard answers.
"Huh," Rodney says, giving Alistair a hard look of his own. "Well that's interesting." As no explanation is forthcoming Alistair doesn't give it any further thought. The room falls silent save for Rodney muttering to himself, but it is a companionable silence and Alistair finds he rather enjoys it. After a while Rodney slams his tablet down on a flat surface and huffs in frustration, rubbing his eyes.
"Rodney?" Teyla asks tentatively. "What have you found?"
"Nothing," he answers tersely. "That's the problem. There's not a damn thing in here about how to activate the mirror or how to dial the right reality. We already know there's no remote, we went over the place three times looking for it before Astaire here showed up--"
"Alistair," he interrupts, wondering how the man could have forgotten his name already.
"Whatever," Rodney huffs, "the point is, we didn't find a remote, and there's no reference to one that I can find anyway. I mean, maybe if I could download the whole database and go through it in my lab with a team of scientists we could figure out how to get it to work. But there's still the problem of powering the damn thing."
"Wait a minute," Sheppard says, frowning. "Back up. What do you mean 'how to dial the right reality?' Nobody's touched it since Alistair came through. Shouldn't it still be set on the correct channel or whatever? I say we go grab a naquadah generator and hook it up to the mirror. This thing can't require that much power, can it?"
"Oh, by all means John, do my job for me, please. Yeesh. Are you kidding me? Just hook it up to a naquadah generator? Seriously?"
"Rodney," Sheppard says with a warning tone, "you're avoiding the question. Why do you need to know how to find Alistair's reality again?"
"Oh, um, well. Remember that diagnostic I said I was running? Well, it might have triggered something that cycled the different realities this thing is connected to and, well, it seems to have kept going for a few minutes after he came through."
"Rodney..." Sheppard says.
"Look, we were all caught off guard when he showed up!" He jerks his thumb at Alistair, who isn't even trying to make sense of their words. He furrows his brow as the gist of the conversation begins to become clear though. "Our scans showed this planet to be completely uninhabited, and we know no one has come through the gate since we arrived!"
"So we download the database and take it back with us," Ronon speaks up. Alistair jumps. It is the first time he has heard the man speak since he arrived. "You have your people go through it and figure out how to turn it on and get it to the right channel, then we come back, hook up a generator, and Alistair can go home."
"Um, no." Rodney answers, chagrined.
"Why not?" Sheppard asks.
"For one thing, I don't have nearly enough memory to copy the whole database right now. For another, there are almost an infinite number of realities that thing could be hooked up to, and it's not like they're listed in any sort of order. Also, the naquadah generator isn't going to work. In fact, it's probably the worst possible thing we can do because, well, according to the diagnostic, it is broken. Really broken. Any attempt to bypass it and provide an alternate energy source is more than likely going to cause the whole thing to blow up." The room falls into silence once more as everyone digests this new information.
"So I'm stuck here." Alistair says at last. He is surprised to find that he isn't upset at this revelation.
"Um, yes?" Rodney says tentatively. Alistair walks over to the mirror and reaches up to touch it. "What are you doing?!" Rodney cries.
"All I had to do was touch the other one," Alistair answers. But he knows even before he makes contact with the mirror that there will be no reaction to his touch this time.
"Well, yes, clearly the mirror in your reality is working just fine." Rodney sounds a little testy now. "The problem is that you need this one to be working in order to get back, and well," he falters, "it isn't."
"Alright then." Alistair says. "So, what now?" There is another long moment of silence and he can't bring himself to turn around and face them. After a few moments, Sheppard is the one to break the silence.
"Now, you come and stay with us."
"Really?" Rodney asks in surprise as Alistair turns at last. Sheppard's face is serious, and a bit sad. Alistair suspects he feels a little bit responsible for their current predicament. Teyla is nodding in approval, however, and Ronon is giving him an assessing look. Alistair meets Ronon's gaze and after another moment the young man nods just once and looks back to Sheppard. Alistair looks at Rodney who glances at the desk that lit up at Alistair's touch and then shrugs and says to Sheppard. "Might not be a bad idea." He gives a little bit of a chuckle and adds, "Woolsey is gonna love this."
They gather up their belongings and Alistair follows the group out of the building and along an overgrown path. There are no woods, but the mountains could be identical to those he came through at the start of this strange journey. Before they get to the pass that would lead back to Ferelden (or whatever stands in its place on this side of the mirror) they come upon a large ring standing up against the mountain face. In front of it is a small podium of some sort that Rodney walks up to. He presses a sequence of buttons and there is a rumbling from the ring. Alistair jumps backwards as there is a loud "whoosh" sound and a jet of something resembling water shoots out horizontally from the center of the ring before settling back and leaving what looks like a standing pool shimmering across its surface. It is beautiful. Teyla places a reassuring hand on his arm and promises him this will not hurt, although it might feel a bit strange his first time through. He sees Sheppard talking to thin air and hears him identify himself and say something about clearance and a visitor. After a few seconds Sheppard nods and gestures toward the ring and one by one, they step through.
This sensation is no less strange than his journey through the mirror, but much more pleasant at least, and when he emerges he is still standing and fully conscious. A fact he is quickly glad of as he looks around and finds himself inside a gleaming building bustling with people and more objects like those in the room and Rodney's tablet. A feeling of belonging, a sense of home, unlike anything Alistair has ever felt in his life washes over him. He looks at Sheppard and sees that the other man is watching him take it all in with an open grin.
"Welcome to Atlantis Alistair," he says.
It combines my two biggest obsessions: Stargate Atlantis and Dragon Age. Thematically it contains some elements similar to "Above the Clouds," but it is definitely a different type of story. To me, the Eluvian mirrors in Dragon Age have always triggered thoughts of the Quantum Mirrors from Stargate. I also have always thought that Alistair would get along well in Atlantis. So I decided to take those two elements and put them together and see what happened. I am pretty happy with the result. I even went ahead and submitted it to Wraithbait (although I had completely forgotten that you have to put in html tags for anything like italics or, you know, line breaks when submitting a story there--that was fun, let me tell you). If I get any sort of positive feedback on the story, I might write some more adventures in this universe.
Spoilers disclaimer: MAJOR spoilers for the end of Dragon Age: Origins and hints of characters and events from DAO: Awakening. No real spoilers for Stargate Atlantis, provided you are aware of who is actually in the city as of season five.
Other disclaimer: Please note that Alistair and all things Dragon Age belong to Bioware and EA, while all things Stargate belong to MGM. Just the idea for the story is mine.
I hope you enjoy!
Finding Home
Alistair paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Despite the chill of the vicious winds this high in the mountains the exertion of the climb was getting to him. This pass had clearly been carved out by Chasind with a sadistic streak. Or a very disoriented dragon, he thought, smirking to himself. Really it barely qualified as a pass at all, but it was the only known way through this stretch of the Frostback Mountains, and he would complete his assignment or die trying. Looks like the dying part of that is getting more and more likely though. He winced as a new blast of frigid air swept through the range, almost knocking him off of the narrow ledge. Alistair pressed himself against the wall of rock that the ledge followed and steadied himself with a few deep breaths as he waited for the wind to die down again.
He continued to make his way through the treacherous pass once nature seemed to have calmed back down. Not for the first time, he allowed himself to wonder what his life would be like now if he had accepted the crown of Ferelden after the archdemon had been slain. I wouldn't be trekking out here in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure, he thought to himself. He still firmly believed that letting Anora remain queen had been the right thing to do, but he had grown convinced that she didn't accept that he believed it. Every time he had call to go to court she could not even stand to be around him, and he knew better than to think it was his resemblance to Cailan. No, his very existence was a threat to her rule and so he made her uncomfortable. As a result, she had somehow managed to convince the new Warden Commander to relegate him to all of the tasks that required extensive (and dangerous) travel throughout the damned country.
Such line of thought twisted a double-edged blade right into his heart, however. Alistair had no quarrel with the Orlesians, nor with the new Commander that the Wardens in Orlais had sent to help rebuild the order after the Blight. But every time he saw the man it was a reminder of the woman who should be Commander of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. The love of Alistair's life, his brave and fiery elven mage, the hero who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. All because Alistair had refused to swallow his pride, his honor, to grant her one simple request. He had meant to take the final blow himself, of course, but a hurlock, an alpha, had distracted him just long enough for her to strike the dragon first, and with one final spell the Blight was over and she was gone. Thinking of Cailan was no better. Ever since Anora had admitted that Alistair's half-brother had been fully aware of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder why the man had never acknowledged him once they had met, at least in private. He couldn't help but wonder if Cailan had lived, perhaps they might have eventually come to be true brothers to each other after all.... Then again, maybe Cailan would have been just as bad as Goldanna, wanting nothing to do with Alistair unless it was of benefit to her.
So here he was, all alone in the mountains, risking his neck to find some elven artifact that the Commander had heard rumors existed. Always alone, even among the other Wardens. None of the faces in Amaranthine were familiar to him these days, save that of Oghren, and the dwarf had his own concerns to deal with. At least out here in the wilds it was less awkward. Alistair tried to shake his depressing ruminations and focused instead on the land around him. By the time the sun had begun to fall from its zenith he realized that the land was leveling out. Shortly after that, it began to descend. He had crossed through the pass and was on his way down into a basin between this range and the next. It appeared to be heavily wooded, which he hoped meant it was his destination. At the very least, he should be able to find a good place to make camp for the evening.
As he entered the woods he increased his guard. Likely there would be predators he would need to watch out for, but also, if what he sought was here, then there should be signs of a previous civilization. Even in the shade of the trees, the woods were practically cozy after the winds he had endured in the pass. Alistair soaked up the warmth gratefully as he searched, ever an eye out for signs of his quarry, a likely spot to rest for the evening, or even potential dinner.
He almost missed it, the first sign that he was in the right place. He was resting in a small clearing and thinking it would be a good place to stop for the day when a nearby stone caught his eye. Its shape was just a little bit too regular, the moss covering it seeming to follow too decorative a pattern, as if it was filling in crevices that had been put there intentionally. He moved across the clearing and examined the stone, unsurprised to realize that it was part of some larger structure--a paving stone, perhaps, or part of a building. His weariness forgotten, Alistair searched the area for more stones and after a short time found one, and then another, each embedded in the ground. He stepped back and looked at the area in front of him carefully, and after a few moments he could see that the trees in this part of the woods ran a little bit straighter, and there seemed to be two parallel lines of them, evenly spaced. A road had run through here once upon a time, long long ago.
Alistair followed the remnants of the road for two hours before he found the ruins. There wasn't very much left to be found, truth be told. But he could see where the foundation had been, and it took little for him to imagine the building that once stood here, centuries ago, when the elves were in their height of power. It hadn't been a very large building, probably just a way-station for travelers coming through the mountains, he guessed. The ruins in and of themselves were an incredible find, and he knew he would have to carefully mark them on his map before he returned. Likely other Wardens, or maybe even the Dalish, would want to come here to study them. But he had not been sent to find the ruins, he had been sent to find something in the ruins, and he feared his luck had just run out. There were no traces of the artifact for which he searched. Still, night was falling and he was tired. He would make camp here and get some rest. Maybe in the morning he would be better able to examine the area.
He expected a restless night but perhaps some trace of the magic of the ancient elves still lingered in the ruins. No predators came anywhere near Alistair and he slept far more soundly than he had since joining the Wardens. Even when he didn't hear the darkspawn in his dreams, he remained plagued by nightmares, or even worse, memories of the few happy moments he and his love had spent together before her death. This night, however, he did not dream at all.
When he wakes the next day he sets to work combing over every bit of the ruins. His diligence is rewarded when he discovers that a flat round stone tablet set into the ground near the back of what had once been the building moves to reveal an underground room. He can make out the first few rungs of a ladder, as well as an unlit torch hanging on the stone-lined wall. He climbs down far enough to retrieve the torch and brings it aboveground so he can light it, then carefully makes his way down into the cavern. He looks around in awe, sensing from the stale feel to the air that no one has been down here in a very long time. Perhaps not since the fall of Arlathan. Alistair walks to the center of the room, illuminating as much of it as possible with the torch. It is not much smaller than the ruins indicate the building above once was. Probably it was used for storage. A glint catches his eye and he turns to find the source. There, tucked carefully in a corner and draped with a sheet of cloth that looks as if it would crumble at his very touch, is an object that can only be what he was sent here to find.
Alistair glances around and notices that there are more torches lining the walls. He lights the one nearest the artifact and replaces the torch in his hands back in its bracket. Then he carefully approaches the object and brushes aside the cloth. He registers a moment of surprise when it doesn't disintegrate, but then he is distracted by the object itself. An Eluvian. The mirror is slightly larger than he is and set in an extremely ornate stone framework. The stone has been carved to quite realistically mimic living trees. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The mirror itself does not give a reflection but instead shows a grey smoky haze. Alistair can practically feel the magic radiating from it.
He has done his duty and located the Eluvian. Even better, it is already secured in a very safe location, and he knows that once he leaves it will not be disturbed again until he tells his Commander where it can be found. He knows he should cover the mirror up with the cloth once more, extinguish the torches, return to the surface, mark his map and return home.
But he doesn't.
Instead, he reaches out a tentative hand and lightly grazes the surface of the Eluvian with his fingertips. A soft warm tingle spreads throughout his body, starting where he touched the mirror and working quickly into the very heart of him. He feels a stirring deep inside, in the part of him that was once used by the Templars to dispel and deny magic. Only this time he does not deny it, this time he accepts it wholeheartedly. His eyes reflect the light of the elven script set into the frame as the words begin to glow. Without any further thought Alistair places both palms flat against the mirror. For the briefest of moments the haze clears and he sees the reflection of a room similar to the one in which he stands. Then he is jerked forward and all he knows is the blinding sensation of pain consuming his entire body.
He doesn't know how long he lies on the floor before consciousness returns to him, but when he comes to he realizes he is not alone. He can hear a heated argument--one side of it at least--from nearby as he groggily sits up and tries to blink his vision clear. He feels as if he has just been rammed by an ogre, then picked up and slammed into the ground repeatedly by said beast. Every muscle and bone in his body aches. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself, wondering if he is about to have to defend himself from the intruders. As he tries to get a grip on the situation some of the conversation catches his attention.
"Look, I don't know where he came from, alright? Why do you always look at me for an explanation, huh?" There is a mumbled response to the question but Alistair can't make it out. The speaker he can hear continues in a very fast, very irritated tirade, "Look, just because I know more than, well, everyone else, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know, okay? One minute I was studying the device and then he was just falling through it. He almost landed on me. Have you seen him?! He's wearing a full suit of medieval armor! Can you imagine the kind of damage that would have done to my delicate structure?"
Alistair has to resist the urge to chuckle. The speaker certainly doesn't sound very delicate. He frowns as what the man said sinks in. Why are the intruders trying to determine where he came from? They showed up after he had...after he had touched the mirror. The conversation outside continues but Alistair has stopped listening. He takes a good look at his surroundings. When he woke up he had just assumed that he was in the underground room in the ruins. But now that he looks around he sees that he is not. It is very similar, but the surfaces are not lined with rock, instead they are a smooth uniform material, like stone but not. The torches are gone, replaced by glowing orbs affixed to the walls. Instead of a few fragile shelves, the room contains a series of strange devices the like of which Alistair has never seen. They appear similar to desks but they are not made of wood, or any material he is familiar with. One directly in front of him is covered with blinking lights and glass panels that are covered in some sort of glowing script. The ladder is gone, instead there is a doorway in the far wall of the room, open to reveal daylight streaming in. Not underground then. The others must be standing just outside the door.
Gingerly he stands and turns around, finding a mirror, but not the one that he discovered in the ruins. This one is roughly the same shape and size, but its frame is wholly different. It is made of a similar material to the desks in the room, and it lacks the decorative carvings of the Eluvian that clearly brought him to this strange place. He vaguely remembers Duncan mentioning once that scholars believed Eluvians to be ancient portals, used by the elves to transport themselves across Thedas. Apparently the scholars were right. As he examines this other mirror he becomes aware of the voices from outside getting louder.
Alistair turns just in time to see two men enter through the doorway. They are both looking at something one is holding and he realizes it is a tablet that resembles another panel like those on the desk, covered in glowing script. As they cross the threshold the man without the tablet looks up and tenses as he sees Alistair standing in front of the mirror. Alistair senses instantly that this man is a soldier, despite his lack of armor, and a dangerous one at that. He tries to look as non-threatening as possible. The other man does not notice, however, and keeps on walking. He begins to speak and Alistair identifies him as the angry man who thinks he knows everything. He doesn't look delicate at all, Alistair notes.
"Look, even if it is a Quantum Mirror, and I have to admit, from the evidence, that is looking more likely, we can't really do anything with that information now. Whatever our friend did to get here burned it out. I mean, completely. Used up all of the juice. I mean, yes, I was running a diagnostic at the time, and I guess that could have contributed somewhat, but even if it did--"
"Rodney," the soldier says cutting off his companion's rant. He says it very softly and Alistair knows he was right to call this one dangerous.
"What?" The one called Rodney asks in an exasperated tone. He finally stops walking and looks up from the tablet in his hands, his blue eyes going wide as he sees Alistair, just a few feet away. The other man's hand drops to an object strapped to his thigh. Alistair doesn't recognize it, but he'd be willing to bet his last silver it is a weapon. Very slowly he raises his hands in the air, palms up, trying to indicate he means no threat to these people. Rodney lets out a strangled yelp and jumps back about a foot. The sound brings two more people into the room, a wild looking young man only a few years older than Alistair and a beautiful woman that he realizes is just as dangerous as the soldier. Both are brandishing weapons like the one the soldier wears.
"Um, hello." Alistair says after a tense moment of silence. When no one says anything in reply he adds, "I'm Alistair. I seem to have gotten a bit lost. Maybe one of you could, um, tell me where I am?" The wild man and the woman keep their weapons trained on him but they glance at the soldier as if waiting for the command. He's the one in charge, then. Alistair is relieved to see that he has not yet drawn his weapon. The man stares at him closely, clearly trying to assess the level of threat he represents to their group.
"At ease," he says in that same quiet tone after a few moments. The other two drop their weapons and Rodney relaxes visibly, though not completely. He tilts his head and then gestures to himself, saying "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. This is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." He gestures to Rodney, the woman, and the wild man. "As for where you are, well, it's more or less the same place you were, just..." he runs a hand through his hair as he trails off and Rodney pipes up to finish his sentence.
"...just in a different reality. Well, most likely. I'll need to go over some data to know for sure." Alistair frowns at this answer. A different reality?
"You mean, like in the Fade?" he asks, trying to make some sense of what he's been told. That would explain a lot. The Fade is known to contain strange, often inaccurate reflections of real places.
"Hmm, maybe, maybe," Rodney answers, looking down at his pad. "Depends on what you think this 'Fade' is, but...hmm." He wanders over to one of the desks and begins tapping his fingers against what turn out to be buttons of some sort. The soldier, Sheppard, shakes his head and looks at his companion with a sort of resigned bemusement.
"You'll have to forgive Doctor McKay," Teyla says quietly, moving to stand next to him. Her voice is calm and reassuring, although he can see that she is visibly trying to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "He tends to get...absorbed in his work. Perhaps it would help if you tell us of how you came to be here?" Alistair starts to protest that he doesn't know but she stops him to clarify. "I mean, what do you remember before you woke up here?"
So Alistair tells them of finding the ruins and the Eluvian, explaining that he was looking for it and what his people knew of the artifact. He doesn't tell them everything, there are many details they don't really need, but he tells them more than he would under normal circumstances. He finds himself trusting them almost immediately for some reason. Rodney occasionally jumps in to the conversation to ask him about the elves or the Eluvian or what he means by "magic," about which he clearly feels dubious. Alistair can't imagine why, given the lighting in the room and the objects that Rodney manipulates with such ease. Those seem to reek of magic to him. But perhaps they call it something else here. After a while he tires of standing in the middle of the room and moves to lean against one of the desks. As he does the lights on its surface begin to glow and he can feel the whole of it hum with a soft vibration. That tingle he felt when he first touched the mirror returns. Rodney looks up in surprise when the desk lights up and then glances questioningly at Sheppard.
"I hadn't initialized that one yet."
"Not me," Sheppard answers.
"Huh," Rodney says, giving Alistair a hard look of his own. "Well that's interesting." As no explanation is forthcoming Alistair doesn't give it any further thought. The room falls silent save for Rodney muttering to himself, but it is a companionable silence and Alistair finds he rather enjoys it. After a while Rodney slams his tablet down on a flat surface and huffs in frustration, rubbing his eyes.
"Rodney?" Teyla asks tentatively. "What have you found?"
"Nothing," he answers tersely. "That's the problem. There's not a damn thing in here about how to activate the mirror or how to dial the right reality. We already know there's no remote, we went over the place three times looking for it before Astaire here showed up--"
"Alistair," he interrupts, wondering how the man could have forgotten his name already.
"Whatever," Rodney huffs, "the point is, we didn't find a remote, and there's no reference to one that I can find anyway. I mean, maybe if I could download the whole database and go through it in my lab with a team of scientists we could figure out how to get it to work. But there's still the problem of powering the damn thing."
"Wait a minute," Sheppard says, frowning. "Back up. What do you mean 'how to dial the right reality?' Nobody's touched it since Alistair came through. Shouldn't it still be set on the correct channel or whatever? I say we go grab a naquadah generator and hook it up to the mirror. This thing can't require that much power, can it?"
"Oh, by all means John, do my job for me, please. Yeesh. Are you kidding me? Just hook it up to a naquadah generator? Seriously?"
"Rodney," Sheppard says with a warning tone, "you're avoiding the question. Why do you need to know how to find Alistair's reality again?"
"Oh, um, well. Remember that diagnostic I said I was running? Well, it might have triggered something that cycled the different realities this thing is connected to and, well, it seems to have kept going for a few minutes after he came through."
"Rodney..." Sheppard says.
"Look, we were all caught off guard when he showed up!" He jerks his thumb at Alistair, who isn't even trying to make sense of their words. He furrows his brow as the gist of the conversation begins to become clear though. "Our scans showed this planet to be completely uninhabited, and we know no one has come through the gate since we arrived!"
"So we download the database and take it back with us," Ronon speaks up. Alistair jumps. It is the first time he has heard the man speak since he arrived. "You have your people go through it and figure out how to turn it on and get it to the right channel, then we come back, hook up a generator, and Alistair can go home."
"Um, no." Rodney answers, chagrined.
"Why not?" Sheppard asks.
"For one thing, I don't have nearly enough memory to copy the whole database right now. For another, there are almost an infinite number of realities that thing could be hooked up to, and it's not like they're listed in any sort of order. Also, the naquadah generator isn't going to work. In fact, it's probably the worst possible thing we can do because, well, according to the diagnostic, it is broken. Really broken. Any attempt to bypass it and provide an alternate energy source is more than likely going to cause the whole thing to blow up." The room falls into silence once more as everyone digests this new information.
"So I'm stuck here." Alistair says at last. He is surprised to find that he isn't upset at this revelation.
"Um, yes?" Rodney says tentatively. Alistair walks over to the mirror and reaches up to touch it. "What are you doing?!" Rodney cries.
"All I had to do was touch the other one," Alistair answers. But he knows even before he makes contact with the mirror that there will be no reaction to his touch this time.
"Well, yes, clearly the mirror in your reality is working just fine." Rodney sounds a little testy now. "The problem is that you need this one to be working in order to get back, and well," he falters, "it isn't."
"Alright then." Alistair says. "So, what now?" There is another long moment of silence and he can't bring himself to turn around and face them. After a few moments, Sheppard is the one to break the silence.
"Now, you come and stay with us."
"Really?" Rodney asks in surprise as Alistair turns at last. Sheppard's face is serious, and a bit sad. Alistair suspects he feels a little bit responsible for their current predicament. Teyla is nodding in approval, however, and Ronon is giving him an assessing look. Alistair meets Ronon's gaze and after another moment the young man nods just once and looks back to Sheppard. Alistair looks at Rodney who glances at the desk that lit up at Alistair's touch and then shrugs and says to Sheppard. "Might not be a bad idea." He gives a little bit of a chuckle and adds, "Woolsey is gonna love this."
They gather up their belongings and Alistair follows the group out of the building and along an overgrown path. There are no woods, but the mountains could be identical to those he came through at the start of this strange journey. Before they get to the pass that would lead back to Ferelden (or whatever stands in its place on this side of the mirror) they come upon a large ring standing up against the mountain face. In front of it is a small podium of some sort that Rodney walks up to. He presses a sequence of buttons and there is a rumbling from the ring. Alistair jumps backwards as there is a loud "whoosh" sound and a jet of something resembling water shoots out horizontally from the center of the ring before settling back and leaving what looks like a standing pool shimmering across its surface. It is beautiful. Teyla places a reassuring hand on his arm and promises him this will not hurt, although it might feel a bit strange his first time through. He sees Sheppard talking to thin air and hears him identify himself and say something about clearance and a visitor. After a few seconds Sheppard nods and gestures toward the ring and one by one, they step through.
This sensation is no less strange than his journey through the mirror, but much more pleasant at least, and when he emerges he is still standing and fully conscious. A fact he is quickly glad of as he looks around and finds himself inside a gleaming building bustling with people and more objects like those in the room and Rodney's tablet. A feeling of belonging, a sense of home, unlike anything Alistair has ever felt in his life washes over him. He looks at Sheppard and sees that the other man is watching him take it all in with an open grin.
"Welcome to Atlantis Alistair," he says.
Friday, February 18, 2011
The Details Are Kind of Important
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| Photo by Jamiecat via Flickr. |
Heads up, this is going to largely be a post about Stargate. Well, it is a post about writing, but my inspiration was a Stargate novel, and therefore main examples are gonna be from Stargate. I just say this to warn you, though I will do my best not to delve so far into things that someone who hasn't seen anything can't follow the line of thought.
Anyhoo, disclaimers done, moving forward now.
I have mentioned before that I a huge fan of Fandemonium's series of Stargate novels. These are novels approved by MGM, but not considered canon by the franchise's writers. They are written by a variety of authors and each one is a stand-alone story (with the exception of two that tie into each other, wrapping up a story left untold by a specific episode). There are multiple books out for Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, and there might be some on the way for Stargate Universe (so far the only novel they have released for that series is the novelization of the pilot episode, Air).
Basically, and I say this in the most loving way possible, these books are official fan fiction, written by professional writers hired by Fandemonium and approved by MGM. I know that at least one of their regular authors actually started out writing Stargate fan fiction and was contacted by Fandemonium when they started putting these books together and asked if she would like to contribute. From what I can tell from the FAQ on the Stargate novels site (which, to be fair, seems like it hasn't been updated in quite some time because it only mentions SG-1 and still says the books aren't available outside of the UK, which hasn't been true for a long while), while MGM has to approve each story idea and the stories themselves in each stage of production, the writers come up with their own story idea for each novel.
The stated goal is for these books to each feel like an episode of Stargate. While the events within these stories are not considered canon, they do follow canon, meaning they don't change up something that has been established on screen or verified by The Powers That Be. They also must leave the Stargate world as they found it by the end of the story. (I will note this is one of two major deviations from traditional fan fiction, the other being the lack of romantic involvement, save those that have been established or alluded to in the official show canon).
Most of the time the writers accomplish this goal beautifully. When they don't, however, it is extremely jarring. Usually, failure to feel like a true episode is down to a lack of attention to detail. Characters are not acting like themselves, with no explanation given for the change of behavior. Things that have been clearly established as possible within the shows are treated as if they have never been encountered before, with, again, no explanation as to why this particular instance is different from what we, the reader (and presumably viewer) have seen before and know has already been experienced by these characters.
It seems to me that most of inconsistencies seem to come from an author's first entry into writing a Stargate novel, suggesting they are just not as familiar with the show and the mythology of the universe as the other writers. According to Fandemonium's FAQ, all of their authors are fans of the show and have seen every episode at least once, but I wonder sometimes. SG-1 ran for ten seasons, Atlantis ran for five. That's a lot of episodes, and just seeing them once maybe isn't enough to ground someone in the mythology. At the very least, I feel like maybe these first-time Stargate authors need a little bit more hand-holding throughout the process, and their manuscripts perhaps should be given a bit higher level of scrutiny.
Sometimes it is just clear that the writer is perhaps writing for one show, say, Atlantis, when clearly he is more familiar with the other, SG-1. In this case, portrayals of the characters are just a little less nuanced, and that can be overlooked if the story is compelling enough. But when you have a character born and raised in the Pegasus galaxy (where Atlantis is located) thinking and referring to humans as "Tau'ri," it can get extremely frustrating. Why? Because the term "Tau'ri" is a term used by the Goa'uld (a race that has never been to the Pegasus galaxy or had any contact with it until well after the SG expedition arrived in Atlantis) and by those cultures they have dominated to refer to the people of Earth. People from the Pegasus galaxy who encounter people from Earth tend to think of and refer to them as Atlanteans or Lanteans, because they have set up residence in Atlantis. It is a small detail, but an important one to staying true to established characters.
Sometimes though, I wonder if the author has actually watched the show they are writing for at all. Take for example, the book I am currently reading, The Power Behind the Throne. Granted, author Steven Savile seems to be a good writer, I am not trying to knock his skills in that area. His basic story idea is even actually pretty interesting. But I have to say, I am having some problems with one of the major plot lines.
Okay, a little background for you really quick if you are not familiar with the franchise. The stargates transport people and other matter from one planet to another via stable wormholes. Each planet has a gate address made up of seven symbols (six representing the planet's coordinates and the seventh being a point of origin, or the planet from which you are dialing). It is kind of like an interstellar telephone number. (Using an eight-symbol address, with seven coordinates and the point of origin, will take you to another galaxy, but that requires more energy than most stargates have access to.) Matter will only travel one way through the wormholes (from the originating planet to the receiving planet) but radio transmissions and data can go both ways (so people can stay in contact through the gate when they are off-world). When you step through the event horizon, your body is broken down into all of its component molecules and transferred from one end of the wormhole to the other, to be reassembled upon arrival. The effect is almost, but not quite, instantaneous. Assuming that everything is just fine with both gates and the wormhole itself.
Got that? Okay. Good.
It has been established that all kinds of things can interfere with wormhole travel. The wormhole passing through a solar flare can cause time travel. Interference on one end or the other can cause an unstable wormhole, resulting sometimes in a very painful transit and sometimes in loss of matter being transported entirely (which means death if the matter is people). A directed blast of energy (such as a nuclear bomb) can cause the wormhole connection to jump to another nearby gate, even if there is matter in transit, resulting in that matter coming out somewhere other than the originally dialed destination.
That last one is important, we've seen our heroes make use of it a few times (intentionally and not) throughout the series on SG-1 and Atlantis. The fact that a wormhole hit by a blast can redirect to a nearby gate even with matter in transit was established at the end of the first season of SG-1, when Daniel and Teal'c made it through to Stargate Command, but Carter and O'Neill, just behind them, got stuck on some ice-planet (which turned out to be Earth, but that doesn't matter for the current discussion).
Okay, back to the story. The planet which SG-1 has been visiting is pretty much literally Hell. Sky on fire, bleak landscape, crazy hot or crazy freezing temperatures, yada, yada, yada. It's not a recommended site for gate travel, really (this was on purpose). When SG-1 tries to leave the planet (under fire from their good old enemy, the Goa'uld), they establish a wormhole connection with Earth but during transit the wormhole jumps and they end up somewhere else.
Back on Earth, at the SGC, everybody is freaking out because the wormhole closed before SG-1 rematerialized. Okay, well, that's understandable. But they all assume that this means our heroes have perished and no one even seems to think that maybe, just maybe, the wormhole jumped. Even though there was clearly a huge wonky energy reading right before the wormhole failed.
Furthermore, SG-1, on planet stranded, seem frankly amazed that their wormhole somehow jumped, as if they had never considered such a thing to be possible. Even though the exact same thing had already happened to two of them. We know it has, because Carter is a Major in this book (she was promoted in season three), so clearly season one has already happened. Gah.
Then. Then! They try dialing Earth with the same address they used from the original planet with no luck. Which makes sense because a new planet means a new point of origin symbol. But then O'Neill starts freaking out and lapsing into despair because they will never figure out the point of origin, oh no! Okay, my credulity has been stretched to its limits at this point. This was an issue in the movie, yes, because Kurt Russell and James Spader had no idea how the gates actually worked (or that they dialed more than one planet). Also, they had no Carter. But, assuming that the Dial-Home-Device (or DHD, on which you enter the coordinates of where you want to go), is working properly (and there's no indication given that this one isn't) it isn't gonna be that hard to figure out the point of origin through trial and error. There are a finite number of symbols on a DHD. The first six symbols of Earth's address haven't changed. So they just need to try the address with each symbol on the device until they get a connection.
Like I said, the story itself is actually pretty interesting, but I feel like maybe Savile is working a little hard to cram a pre-existing story into the Stargate framework, and he made a few missteps along the way. I want to enjoy the book, but it is hard to do when characters that I know very well are acting like they have forgotten basic common sense, or at least basic parts of the job they have been doing every day for the last three years at least. It would be like me going in to work at my old job and not remembering that I have to count the money the contractor is giving me before I sign that yes, he did give me that much money, and then freaking out and being confused later on when nothing added up correctly.
Maybe I am wrong and Savile has an awesome explanation waiting as for why these people are acting so stupid. I sure hope so. Shame on MGM though for letting this get through their "approval" process. I know they're facing a bankruptcy and trying to get what money they can from the consumers, but that doesn't mean they should let the quality control slip. We might as well just relegate the stories to the badly written, unofficial fan fiction, otherwise. And I know well enough by now how to spot and avoid those.
I know I am nitpicking, I know that these are small details. But I pay good money for these products expecting something very specific, something which this company says is its intended goal. And I truly believe that something made by fans and marketed to fans should know better. Is that too much to ask?
I think my point with all of this was that this has made me very conscious of my own writing style. Even though I am unlikely to be writing anything professional in an existing franchise outside of straight up fan fiction (and you can be darn sure I will do my best to get the details correct there), there are lessons to be learned from this. The first is to know your characters inside and out. The story you are trying to tell is important, certainly, but the events should be shaped by the characters, and if they are acting contrary toward their established natures, you had better have (and provide to your readers) a darn good explanation for it. The second is that small details count. Keep track of what you write and say about your world, because the people who will end up reading are going to be paying attention to that kind of stuff. Third, and finally, know your target audience. I am not saying pander to them, mind you, we don't always want what we think we want. But. If you are writing for fans of an existing franchise, whether it is your world or the creation of someone else, your readers are going to want you to get it right, so be sure you do so.
Now, it's Friday, so, enjoy a new Gronk (Katie Cook is apparently not a fan of Monopoly), and have an excellent weekend! Off you go, now.
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