Interference

#9 of The Carson Diaries, from the episodes “Sanctuary” and “Before I Sleep”

by Setcheti

 

 

Rodney’s been hangin’ about down here in my lab a lot ever since…well, ever since Proculus.  Major Sheppard still isn’t talkin’ to him if he can help it – and the few times he couldn’t, I’ve caught some remarks about Mr. Spock that definitely weren’t their usual playin’.  And a few other remarks as well that were even less friendly.

 

Whatever it was Chaya did to our major, she obviously didn’t help him understand that Rodney was just tryin’ to help.  And for someone who could read minds, she obviously didn’t try to read Rodney’s to see why he was so afraid for his people and so determined to protect them even if it made him look crazy – he’s still reactin’ to that nanite incident, to losin’ half his team.  But then, Dr. Weir hasn’t said word one to him about it either and she bloody well knows all of the above.

 

But then, that’s just Dr. Weir.  And I won’t say that Rodney’s not goin’ halfway out of his way to annoy Sheppard at this point – the best defense bein’ a good offense, you know.  And our Rodney’s always been very good at offense, very good indeed.

 

So good that Dr. Weir didn’t seem overly upset that he was dead in that other reality.  Or that I was, either, for that matter, but then I’m not too bad at offense myself.  As she’s found out a time or two.  Or five, maybe ten –I’m not countin’.  She might be, though.

 

Major Sheppard certainly is.  I never should have listened to bloody Rodney when he said he didn’t want anyone to know I was helpin’ him figure out what Chaya was up to, never.  I’d noticed somethin’ off about her from the first, see, and not just because she was in such too-perfect health.  No, it was my reaction to her that caused me some concern; when she was in the infirmary I was just as taken with her as I could be, but even at the time the feelin’ didn’t sit quite right.  And when I saw the way the major was actin’, I tested myself and found some pheromone action goin’ on that I didn’t much like the look of.  Then Rodney showed up askin’ me to look him over…well, it was the same thing, he was just havin’ a different reaction to it.  A bad one.  I mean, Rodney can be lackin’ in interpersonal skills sometimes, but he’s not that lackin’. 

 

They all know that, of course, they just ignored it because Sheppard did.  Not that he could help himself.  It took me a bit, but I finally traced the reaction back to the ATA gene and after that the way our major was actin’ made perfect sense.  Of all of us here he’s the one closest genetically to the Ancients, that had to be the reason she picked him.  And the reason she disliked Rodney so very much, enough that she tried to put the blame for them not bein’ willin’ to help us on him.

 

I was patched in to his laptop, see, the one he took to that last meetin’ with him to run his scans.  He was feedin’ me the data, and I was tellin’ him what it meant.  He didn’t want anyone to know I was on the other end of things, though…and now I know why.  I didn’t realize how far the team had pulled back from him – because of Major Sheppard, you understand – until Dr. Weir set them to explorin’ the city and the man refused to let Rodney come with them.  ‘I don’t want any casualties on this mission, thanks,’ those were his exact words.  Said it in front of the control center staff too, he was meanin’ that one to hurt.

 

It did.  As near as I can tell, it still does.

 

I say as near as I can tell…because Rodney’s not been talkin’ to me all that much either lately, in spite of the fact that he’s been showin’ up in my lab so often.  And that worries me, it worries me a lot.  But there’s nothin’ to be done about it, at least not until I’ve found a way to fix the ATA pheromone problem and fix Major Sheppard along with it.

 

Luckily, at present that’s about the only serious problem I’ve got to deal with – other than the Wraith, of course.  Elizabeth seems to be handlin’ everythin’ all right, in fact I’d even say her meetin’ with her other self was a help to her in some ways.  She’s a bit more confident now, and a bit more far-seein’ when it comes to the people around her than she was a week or so ago.  She did pick almost everyone who came to Atlantis, of the science teams anyway, and I think it did shake her a bit that in that other reality she was the only member of the expedition to survive.

 

It shook me a bit as well.  And Rodney…well, like I said, he’s been quiet.  Busy, but quiet; the last time he was tryin’ to find out everythin’ about the way the jumpers worked, this time he’s obsessin’ over the emergency fail-safe systems inside the city.  It’s another one of those things that we most likely should have been doin’ months ago.  And since now he knows his supposition about rotatin’ the power sources will work, he’s refined his instructions for keepin’ power on in the city – or at least, the most important parts of it – for up to a year.

 

I just wish he wasn’t bein’ so obvious about the fact that he doesn’t expect to be here to do it himself.  Those instructions he’s been writin’ out…they’re all in layman’s terms, or as close to it as he could get.  I’d have been happier about that if he’d had Sheppard or Ford help him simplify things, but I think the one he went to was Bates.  Who has really come around lately, I’m happy to say, and who of all of them would be the most likely to understand Rodney worryin’ about lettin’ a stranger run all around the city and find out everythin’ about us.  I believe it’s due to Bates’ influence that Dr. Weir didn’t give Chaya full run of our computers – intentionally, anyway.  I’ve no doubt the woman could have accessed anythin’ she wanted to with only a thought.

 

I’m almost sorry she didn’t.  She might have learned somethin’ about us.

 

Of course, that’s wishful thinkin’ on my part.  From the story the other Dr. Weir had to tell about the Ancients, they were arrogant, prideful people.  She may have realized it at the time, that the man who helped her was doin’ it for his own reasons and not necessarily because it was the right thing to do for us, but after ten thousand years and a healthy dose of senility…well, he’d become idealized in her mind, they all had.  We all had too, I think, up to a point.  She’d had to dream about somethin’.

 

And when she woke up, I think it was still a dream to her.  Elizabeth couldn’t see it, Sheppard and the others didn’t want to…but Rodney kept diggin’ around in my scans when he thought no one would notice, he knew she wasn’t all there.  He didn’t say anythin’, though.  Most likely he knew no one would listen to him except me, and preachin’ to the choir isn’t somethin’ he wastes his time on.

 

Actually, he doesn’t waste his time at all, if he can help it.  Which makes me wonder why when he’s got a bit free from the fail-safes he’s been spendin’ it down in that room, pickin’ apart the systems connected to the chamber that kept the other Dr. Weir alive for ten thousand years so she could save us.  He asks me questions from time to time, but he won’t ask me to help him or tell me what he’s hopin’ to find out.  I have a bad feelin’ about that.  But they’re to start checkin’ out the offworld locations where the ZPMs are supposed to be soon and I know Dr. Weir will insist that they take Rodney with them, so maybe after bein’ thrown into close contact with his team for a bit he’ll start openin’ up again.

 

I just have my fingers crossed that the opposite won’t happen.