Flux, by Desdemon
Title: Flux
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Stargate: SG-1/Firefly crossover
Pairing: Daniel/Simon
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Simon and Daniel have flux issues.
Simon soon found that he and Dr. Daniel Jackson had a lot in common.
For instance, they were both doctors. Well, sort of, Dr. Jackson had said once when they were drunk on Athosian beer. You’re a real doctor, and I’ve got a piece of paper with some signatures on it. Which means next to nothing anyway, since everyone on Earth thinks I’m crazy.
What do you mean? Simon had asked with a small frown.
Dr. Jackson’s eyes were heavy and blinking. We’re not like you back home, he’d said, pointing his cup at Simon. We don’t believe in this. He’d spread his arms to take in the room, Atlantis, space.
You mean to say that your Earth hasn’t discovered space travel? Simon had been somewhere close to ecstatic to learn that Dr. Jackson was from Earth-that-was, or rather Earth-that-is-right-now, because it was still Earth where they were, still blue and green and teeming with humanity. He could go there, he had been informed, if he didn’t mind holing up in a spaceship for months. Simon had been sharply reminded of Serenity, and it had almost killed him to decline the offer.
No, Dr. Jackson had said. Yes. I’m drunk, he’d announced suddenly, and he’d pushed his cup away. I don’t want to talk about Earth.
They had similar interests as well. Dr. Jackson had showed him some Latin texts he’d brought with him on the Prometheus, and Simon had pored over them until his proficiency with the language, Dr. Jackson told him (though Simon thought perhaps he was just being kind) nearly rivaled Dr. Jackson’s own.
They also, apparently, made the same facial expressions.
Whoa, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard had said, after they were told Dr. McKay and his team of scientists had yet to find where the space-born Stargate had dialed out to. Did you guys plan that? They’d exchanged confused looks. This, Sheppard had said, and he’d pursed his lips, raised his eyebrows, and narrowed his eyes all at the same time. Dr. Jackson and Simon had both had to smile.
Simon had woken up calmer on his second day in Atlantis. The day before he’d had to be sedated by Dr. Beckett when he’d had something of a panic attack after being beamed aboard the puddlejumper with River nowhere in sight. He’d met his first alien, named “Teyla,” and he’d met Dr. Jackson, who’d led him along with Dr. Weir on a tour of Atlantis. They’d showed him many strange rooms, introduced him to Dr. McKay and his team, showed him the view of the outside, the puddlejumper hangar, and the extensive, advanced medical bay.
What? Simon had asked when he caught Dr. Jackson staring at him.
Nothing, Dr. Jackson had said after a moment, shaking his head. You just look like I did. His mouth curved gently. World-struck.
They’re sending me back, Dr. Jackson said quietly one night. They were in the empty commissary, lying down on groups of two and three chairs, listening to the dead silence that filled the complex when everyone else was asleep. Both of them were unused to the Atlantis timetable. Dr. Jackson was used to a different sunrise and sunset, while Simon was simply used to continuous blackness. It kept them both up, it exhausted them both - but it made them talk. Dr Jackson drew in a level breath. There are some languages that only I can translate reliably. It’s too risky to have someone else do the work. And they just found some… something on PX-who-knows that might… He sighed.
You don’t want to go? Simon asked.
No. I don’t. Dr. Jackson was staring at the ceiling. I want to be here. I’ve been here two months and they’re already reeling me back in. His voice was bitter. Simon craned his head to see Dr. Jackson’s face. What I want to study is here. Everything I’m capable of doing, everything I might be able to discover is here. I need to be here, Dr. Jackson said.
They won’t let you come back, Simon hazarded.
Oh, they say they will, Dr. Jackson said. But I’ll never make it onto a ship. They’ll find another artifact, or they’ll be full up, or Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell will find some way to make me rejoin the old team. He said “Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell” with derision. It’ll never happen.
Simon was silent for a moment. You can’t get out of it…? he asked finally.
Dr. Jackson took off his glasses and slung an arm over his eyes. No, I can’t get out of it. He sighed again, heavily. Military says jump.
Simon stared at him a moment longer, then turned to face the ceiling. Very quietly, he said, You can’t stay, and I’ll never leave.
He heard Dr. Jackson turning his head to look at him. We’re still working on that, he was told gently.
And I appreciate it, Simon said. But I don’t think your scientists have any idea what caused that Stargate to turn on.
It’s a complicated problem. Dr. Jackson’s voice was very soft.
Simon swallowed thickly. He closed his eyes, thinking for the hundredth time but unable to say, River could fix it. River would be able to solve the problem.
He heard Dr. Jackson moving, but didn’t realize how close he was until his voice was right by Simon’s ear. He opened his eyes and found Dr. Jackson kneeling beside him, looking oddly sideways from Simon’s prostrate position.
I have someone, Dr. Jackson was saying. I have someone on Earth but h- they don’t know, and I’ve never - but I just wanted you to know that I have someone. His voice was urgent and tight.
Okay, Simon said, bewildered, and he was still confused right up until the moment Dr. Jackson kissed him.
Some time later - two months, three, Simon had been barely able to keep track of time on Serenity, let alone in this literally alien city - McKay announced that he had found something, and they all crowded into the briefing room to hear about temporal fluxes and energy signatures, while Simon was quizzed yet again on the specifics of his ship. He wasn’t, nor had he ever been, able to give them much. Kaylee had tried to explain all of it to him once, but the inner workings of his derelict transport could not have interested him less. Now he wished he’d paid attention.
Next McKay and his fellow scientist Zelenka went over what seemed like hundreds of technical concepts with the others in the briefing room, until Simon couldn’t take any more. He stood up and asked deliberately and sharply, Can I go home or can’t I?
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then McKay said, We still don’t know.
Simon left the briefing room.
She’s been alone for I don’t know how long, Simon said to the balcony he’d fled to, knowing without looking that Daniel had followed him to his quarters. I don’t even know if time passes the same way here. I don’t know, his hands curled into fists on the railing, his back tightened, if she’s hurt, if she’s been caught, if the ship picked her up at all… I just don’t know - anything, and he was grinding out the words now, his throat closing up. He heard Daniel shifting back and forth behind him.
McKay is experimenting with an adapted form of Ancient technology that may be able to help us recreate the temporal flux, Daniel said quietly.
I don’t care, Simon said.
It may get you home, Daniel said, still in that quiet voice.
Simon was breathing hard. Past his balcony were unnatural lights marking alien households. Above him was a long-gone galaxy, ancient and dead to every sensible thought in his head. He closed his eyes.
Oh, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard said.
Daniel’s heart was thundering under Simon’s, and they were both still panting. Simon rolled away, hand reflexively fumbling for the sheet, making sure it was at least to his waist, and it was, and he almost said, Can I help you? as easy as you please, or rather shakily and with false bravado, but something about the way Daniel was silent made him swallow it down.
Sheppard’s mouth was slightly ajar. His eyes flicked from Daniel to Simon and back very quickly, and then he opened his mouth wider, but he seemed frozen in place. Finally he managed in a low voice, Don’t ask don’t tell, and then he turned stiffly and walked out. The door slid shut behind him.
Simon almost said, Why didn’t you lock the door? But Daniel was still silent.
We should stop this, Simon said at last, softly, the way he talked to a trembling and wild-eyed River.
Daniel didn’t answer.
We should stop this, Simon said again, but then Daniel slid a hand to Simon’s hip, drew him close, and kissed him, kissed him, kissed him.
Are you ready? Sheppard asked him, slapping him on the back in a way that reminded Simon of Jayne. The lieutenant colonel had been very sociable with Simon lately, slapping his back and punching his shoulder, friendly in the most heterosexual way possible. Simon would have found it amusing if this gracious behavior hadn’t coincided with Daniel’s departure two weeks ago.
He doesn’t want me, Daniel had said while they were packing his belongings, which consisted largely of books and papers. He hadn’t looked at Simon when he said it, and Simon had known they were talking about Daniel’s Someone.
He’d been silent for a long time before he could think of something to say. How long have you known?
How long have I wanted him, you mean? Daniel had said with a sharp laugh. He’d shaken his head and pursed his lips, and finally he’d looked up at the ceiling, eyes squinting obscurely. Forever. He’d exhaled shortly. Forever and ever and ever, he’d mumbled, and dumped two more books into a crate.
Simon had glanced at the ground, then at Daniel, drawn up in miserable lines over the half-full crate, and he'd said quietly, I’m sorry.
Are you ready?
Yes, Simon answered, and he meant it. This galaxy was an endlessly strange and beautiful place; Serenity had never felt more like home.
All right, suit up and we’ll head out! Sheppard called cheerfully, raising his voice so the rest of the puddlejumper team could hear.
Simon’s spacesuit felt heavy and awkward after months of not wearing it. His breath hissed in his own ears as he heard the lieutenant colonel’s final instructions and boarded the puddlejumper. A surprising number of people had turned out to send Simon off; Dr. Weir and Teyla; McKay and Zelenka; Dr. Beckett, who’d thanked him for essentially running the medlab these past few months, though Simon had insisted he had only been helping.
The Stargate looked just the way he remembered it.
Scared? Sheppard asked him, watching his face through the globular helmet.
Terrified, Simon murmured, staring out the front of the puddlejumper at the massive ring suspended ahead of them, garnished with stars.
Don’t be. This’ll work, Sheppard assured him. You know, we hope.
Simon glanced at him sharply, but he was wearing a grin. A joke, then. Simon smiled tightly, not entirely appreciating it.
Hey, Sheppard said, serious now. Trust McKay. He knows what he’s doing.
Simon nodded shortly.
They released him out of the airlock and he floated out like a bubble, drifting inexorably towards the activated Stargate, which was roiling with a false ocean that Simon now knew to be time itself. He took a deep, shaky breath. Behind that silvery blue surface was River, and Serenity. He would be home again.
When at last he touched the event horizon, it was as lightly as a kiss, and he thought of Daniel.
“Simon, you thinking about coming home anytime soon?” Mal’s voice crackled over his intercom, and he winced.
“No, thanks, I thought I’d just float in space indefinitely,” Simon said.
“Ha ha, ha. Oh, I’m laughing. Wash, see me laughing?”
Wash’s voice crackled in. “He’s laughing.”
“We’ll go in when River wants to,” Simon said for the second time. River was floating some thirty feet away, attempting to do space cartwheels. “Are we in some rush I should know about?”
“No, no rush,” Mal replied. “Just I like to have my crew on board the ship, ‘stead of outside it half the time.”
“She likes it out here,” Simon said firmly. “You can pick us up in ten or twenty minutes.”
“Doctor, you are becoming quite the space monkey.”
“Space monkey?” Simon repeated disbelievingly.
“It would be physiologically impossible for a monkey to live in space,” River informed them. Simon looked over at her. She was now spinning in very, very slow circles. “Unless you could genetically alter them to have no lungs.”
“An abuse of power if I ever heard one,” Mal declared. “You stay close, you hear?”
Simon smiled. “We will,” he said. “We’re in space. We’re not going far.”
He felt, rather than heard, the soundless arrival of the wormhole.
He had only time to gape at the writhing, whirling circle of blueish-white light before he found himself less than a foot away from it.
“Wo de tian a,” came Wash’s hushed whisper.
“River?” he bellowed.
“Simon,” came the shriek across the intercom, and then he was swallowed whole.
River! He was falling head over heels, tumbling over and over in slow motion. He looked wildly above him, below him, in every direction. He couldn’t see Serenity, much less River. River! His chest felt tight. He knew he was breathing too hard. River! And then, like the shifting of sand, he was on a ship.
River!
Hey, calm down, there, buddy, said a voice he didn’t recognize, muddled through the helmet. He clutched at it, couldn’t remember how to get it off. His vision was sparkling like champagne, and he knew that he was hyperventilating. Whoa! Whoa! Let me help you with that!
Get away from me! Simon cried, striking out at the hands near his head.
Sheppard, a female voice said warningly.
Get back, Simon warned, understanding that River wasn’t on the comm, that no one was on the comm, that he didn’t know where he was, and that he was going to pass out soon if he didn’t get his helmet off. His fingers fumbled with the mechanism, finally catching it, finally ripping it from his head and throwing it aside. He fell to his knees, gasping for air that somehow wasn’t there, and he looked up to see faces he didn’t recognize.
Can somebody sedate him, please? one of the strangers said. Sheppard. Simon struggled to his feet. Now?
Someone was approaching him. Simon recognized a syringe. He bolted, but he didn’t get two feet before a woman tackled him and forced him to the ground. Simon struggled blindly, but her grip was like iron. W-what do you want with me? he gasped, but he already knew the answer, already knew the Alliance had somehow found them. She’s not here, Simon cried out. Maybe they didn’t have River yet. I don’t know where she is.
And I don’t know who you’re talking about, Sheppard said. Any day now, Beckett.
Beckett approached him and knelt down. This is just going to calm you down a bit, he said in an accent Simon didn’t recognize. It’ll put you to sleep for a while, that’s all.
I know what a sedative is. I’m a doctor, Simon said savagely, who would have bet money that that wasn’t just a sedative, and he twisted mightily in the woman’s grip. Nothing happened.
Beckett looked terrified. Come on, Sheppard ordered, and the woman held Simon's head while the needle pricked his neck.
He woke up in a bed. He blinked slowly several times, then turned his head to look at the rest of what appeared to be a hospital room. He saw more beds, all lined up neatly. A military hospital room. No imagers, no DNA scanners, as far as he could see; unusual for the Alliance. He looked over to his other side.
Hi, said a man with glasses and his hands in his pockets. I’m Dr. Daniel Jackson.
Simon didn’t say anything, and he continued to not say anything as Dr. Daniel Jackson questioned him on where he’d come from and why he had been floating in space, having nothing to say to the Alliance. When the woman who’d overpowered him came in and introduced herself as another species, he began laughing. When Dr. Jackson told him where he really was, he began shaking. River, he kept saying over and over. I have to get back to River. Dr. Jackson talked to him gently until he stopped shaking and offered to show him around Atlantis. He had no choice but to accept. What else could he do?
Simon soon found that he and Dr. Daniel Jackson had a lot in common.
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Stargate: SG-1/Firefly crossover
Pairing: Daniel/Simon
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Simon and Daniel have flux issues.
Simon soon found that he and Dr. Daniel Jackson had a lot in common.
For instance, they were both doctors. Well, sort of, Dr. Jackson had said once when they were drunk on Athosian beer. You’re a real doctor, and I’ve got a piece of paper with some signatures on it. Which means next to nothing anyway, since everyone on Earth thinks I’m crazy.
What do you mean? Simon had asked with a small frown.
Dr. Jackson’s eyes were heavy and blinking. We’re not like you back home, he’d said, pointing his cup at Simon. We don’t believe in this. He’d spread his arms to take in the room, Atlantis, space.
You mean to say that your Earth hasn’t discovered space travel? Simon had been somewhere close to ecstatic to learn that Dr. Jackson was from Earth-that-was, or rather Earth-that-is-right-now, because it was still Earth where they were, still blue and green and teeming with humanity. He could go there, he had been informed, if he didn’t mind holing up in a spaceship for months. Simon had been sharply reminded of Serenity, and it had almost killed him to decline the offer.
No, Dr. Jackson had said. Yes. I’m drunk, he’d announced suddenly, and he’d pushed his cup away. I don’t want to talk about Earth.
They had similar interests as well. Dr. Jackson had showed him some Latin texts he’d brought with him on the Prometheus, and Simon had pored over them until his proficiency with the language, Dr. Jackson told him (though Simon thought perhaps he was just being kind) nearly rivaled Dr. Jackson’s own.
They also, apparently, made the same facial expressions.
Whoa, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard had said, after they were told Dr. McKay and his team of scientists had yet to find where the space-born Stargate had dialed out to. Did you guys plan that? They’d exchanged confused looks. This, Sheppard had said, and he’d pursed his lips, raised his eyebrows, and narrowed his eyes all at the same time. Dr. Jackson and Simon had both had to smile.
Simon had woken up calmer on his second day in Atlantis. The day before he’d had to be sedated by Dr. Beckett when he’d had something of a panic attack after being beamed aboard the puddlejumper with River nowhere in sight. He’d met his first alien, named “Teyla,” and he’d met Dr. Jackson, who’d led him along with Dr. Weir on a tour of Atlantis. They’d showed him many strange rooms, introduced him to Dr. McKay and his team, showed him the view of the outside, the puddlejumper hangar, and the extensive, advanced medical bay.
What? Simon had asked when he caught Dr. Jackson staring at him.
Nothing, Dr. Jackson had said after a moment, shaking his head. You just look like I did. His mouth curved gently. World-struck.
They’re sending me back, Dr. Jackson said quietly one night. They were in the empty commissary, lying down on groups of two and three chairs, listening to the dead silence that filled the complex when everyone else was asleep. Both of them were unused to the Atlantis timetable. Dr. Jackson was used to a different sunrise and sunset, while Simon was simply used to continuous blackness. It kept them both up, it exhausted them both - but it made them talk. Dr Jackson drew in a level breath. There are some languages that only I can translate reliably. It’s too risky to have someone else do the work. And they just found some… something on PX-who-knows that might… He sighed.
You don’t want to go? Simon asked.
No. I don’t. Dr. Jackson was staring at the ceiling. I want to be here. I’ve been here two months and they’re already reeling me back in. His voice was bitter. Simon craned his head to see Dr. Jackson’s face. What I want to study is here. Everything I’m capable of doing, everything I might be able to discover is here. I need to be here, Dr. Jackson said.
They won’t let you come back, Simon hazarded.
Oh, they say they will, Dr. Jackson said. But I’ll never make it onto a ship. They’ll find another artifact, or they’ll be full up, or Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell will find some way to make me rejoin the old team. He said “Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell” with derision. It’ll never happen.
Simon was silent for a moment. You can’t get out of it…? he asked finally.
Dr. Jackson took off his glasses and slung an arm over his eyes. No, I can’t get out of it. He sighed again, heavily. Military says jump.
Simon stared at him a moment longer, then turned to face the ceiling. Very quietly, he said, You can’t stay, and I’ll never leave.
He heard Dr. Jackson turning his head to look at him. We’re still working on that, he was told gently.
And I appreciate it, Simon said. But I don’t think your scientists have any idea what caused that Stargate to turn on.
It’s a complicated problem. Dr. Jackson’s voice was very soft.
Simon swallowed thickly. He closed his eyes, thinking for the hundredth time but unable to say, River could fix it. River would be able to solve the problem.
He heard Dr. Jackson moving, but didn’t realize how close he was until his voice was right by Simon’s ear. He opened his eyes and found Dr. Jackson kneeling beside him, looking oddly sideways from Simon’s prostrate position.
I have someone, Dr. Jackson was saying. I have someone on Earth but h- they don’t know, and I’ve never - but I just wanted you to know that I have someone. His voice was urgent and tight.
Okay, Simon said, bewildered, and he was still confused right up until the moment Dr. Jackson kissed him.
Some time later - two months, three, Simon had been barely able to keep track of time on Serenity, let alone in this literally alien city - McKay announced that he had found something, and they all crowded into the briefing room to hear about temporal fluxes and energy signatures, while Simon was quizzed yet again on the specifics of his ship. He wasn’t, nor had he ever been, able to give them much. Kaylee had tried to explain all of it to him once, but the inner workings of his derelict transport could not have interested him less. Now he wished he’d paid attention.
Next McKay and his fellow scientist Zelenka went over what seemed like hundreds of technical concepts with the others in the briefing room, until Simon couldn’t take any more. He stood up and asked deliberately and sharply, Can I go home or can’t I?
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then McKay said, We still don’t know.
Simon left the briefing room.
She’s been alone for I don’t know how long, Simon said to the balcony he’d fled to, knowing without looking that Daniel had followed him to his quarters. I don’t even know if time passes the same way here. I don’t know, his hands curled into fists on the railing, his back tightened, if she’s hurt, if she’s been caught, if the ship picked her up at all… I just don’t know - anything, and he was grinding out the words now, his throat closing up. He heard Daniel shifting back and forth behind him.
McKay is experimenting with an adapted form of Ancient technology that may be able to help us recreate the temporal flux, Daniel said quietly.
I don’t care, Simon said.
It may get you home, Daniel said, still in that quiet voice.
Simon was breathing hard. Past his balcony were unnatural lights marking alien households. Above him was a long-gone galaxy, ancient and dead to every sensible thought in his head. He closed his eyes.
Oh, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard said.
Daniel’s heart was thundering under Simon’s, and they were both still panting. Simon rolled away, hand reflexively fumbling for the sheet, making sure it was at least to his waist, and it was, and he almost said, Can I help you? as easy as you please, or rather shakily and with false bravado, but something about the way Daniel was silent made him swallow it down.
Sheppard’s mouth was slightly ajar. His eyes flicked from Daniel to Simon and back very quickly, and then he opened his mouth wider, but he seemed frozen in place. Finally he managed in a low voice, Don’t ask don’t tell, and then he turned stiffly and walked out. The door slid shut behind him.
Simon almost said, Why didn’t you lock the door? But Daniel was still silent.
We should stop this, Simon said at last, softly, the way he talked to a trembling and wild-eyed River.
Daniel didn’t answer.
We should stop this, Simon said again, but then Daniel slid a hand to Simon’s hip, drew him close, and kissed him, kissed him, kissed him.
Are you ready? Sheppard asked him, slapping him on the back in a way that reminded Simon of Jayne. The lieutenant colonel had been very sociable with Simon lately, slapping his back and punching his shoulder, friendly in the most heterosexual way possible. Simon would have found it amusing if this gracious behavior hadn’t coincided with Daniel’s departure two weeks ago.
He doesn’t want me, Daniel had said while they were packing his belongings, which consisted largely of books and papers. He hadn’t looked at Simon when he said it, and Simon had known they were talking about Daniel’s Someone.
He’d been silent for a long time before he could think of something to say. How long have you known?
How long have I wanted him, you mean? Daniel had said with a sharp laugh. He’d shaken his head and pursed his lips, and finally he’d looked up at the ceiling, eyes squinting obscurely. Forever. He’d exhaled shortly. Forever and ever and ever, he’d mumbled, and dumped two more books into a crate.
Simon had glanced at the ground, then at Daniel, drawn up in miserable lines over the half-full crate, and he'd said quietly, I’m sorry.
Are you ready?
Yes, Simon answered, and he meant it. This galaxy was an endlessly strange and beautiful place; Serenity had never felt more like home.
All right, suit up and we’ll head out! Sheppard called cheerfully, raising his voice so the rest of the puddlejumper team could hear.
Simon’s spacesuit felt heavy and awkward after months of not wearing it. His breath hissed in his own ears as he heard the lieutenant colonel’s final instructions and boarded the puddlejumper. A surprising number of people had turned out to send Simon off; Dr. Weir and Teyla; McKay and Zelenka; Dr. Beckett, who’d thanked him for essentially running the medlab these past few months, though Simon had insisted he had only been helping.
The Stargate looked just the way he remembered it.
Scared? Sheppard asked him, watching his face through the globular helmet.
Terrified, Simon murmured, staring out the front of the puddlejumper at the massive ring suspended ahead of them, garnished with stars.
Don’t be. This’ll work, Sheppard assured him. You know, we hope.
Simon glanced at him sharply, but he was wearing a grin. A joke, then. Simon smiled tightly, not entirely appreciating it.
Hey, Sheppard said, serious now. Trust McKay. He knows what he’s doing.
Simon nodded shortly.
They released him out of the airlock and he floated out like a bubble, drifting inexorably towards the activated Stargate, which was roiling with a false ocean that Simon now knew to be time itself. He took a deep, shaky breath. Behind that silvery blue surface was River, and Serenity. He would be home again.
When at last he touched the event horizon, it was as lightly as a kiss, and he thought of Daniel.
“Simon, you thinking about coming home anytime soon?” Mal’s voice crackled over his intercom, and he winced.
“No, thanks, I thought I’d just float in space indefinitely,” Simon said.
“Ha ha, ha. Oh, I’m laughing. Wash, see me laughing?”
Wash’s voice crackled in. “He’s laughing.”
“We’ll go in when River wants to,” Simon said for the second time. River was floating some thirty feet away, attempting to do space cartwheels. “Are we in some rush I should know about?”
“No, no rush,” Mal replied. “Just I like to have my crew on board the ship, ‘stead of outside it half the time.”
“She likes it out here,” Simon said firmly. “You can pick us up in ten or twenty minutes.”
“Doctor, you are becoming quite the space monkey.”
“Space monkey?” Simon repeated disbelievingly.
“It would be physiologically impossible for a monkey to live in space,” River informed them. Simon looked over at her. She was now spinning in very, very slow circles. “Unless you could genetically alter them to have no lungs.”
“An abuse of power if I ever heard one,” Mal declared. “You stay close, you hear?”
Simon smiled. “We will,” he said. “We’re in space. We’re not going far.”
He felt, rather than heard, the soundless arrival of the wormhole.
He had only time to gape at the writhing, whirling circle of blueish-white light before he found himself less than a foot away from it.
“Wo de tian a,” came Wash’s hushed whisper.
“River?” he bellowed.
“Simon,” came the shriek across the intercom, and then he was swallowed whole.
River! He was falling head over heels, tumbling over and over in slow motion. He looked wildly above him, below him, in every direction. He couldn’t see Serenity, much less River. River! His chest felt tight. He knew he was breathing too hard. River! And then, like the shifting of sand, he was on a ship.
River!
Hey, calm down, there, buddy, said a voice he didn’t recognize, muddled through the helmet. He clutched at it, couldn’t remember how to get it off. His vision was sparkling like champagne, and he knew that he was hyperventilating. Whoa! Whoa! Let me help you with that!
Get away from me! Simon cried, striking out at the hands near his head.
Sheppard, a female voice said warningly.
Get back, Simon warned, understanding that River wasn’t on the comm, that no one was on the comm, that he didn’t know where he was, and that he was going to pass out soon if he didn’t get his helmet off. His fingers fumbled with the mechanism, finally catching it, finally ripping it from his head and throwing it aside. He fell to his knees, gasping for air that somehow wasn’t there, and he looked up to see faces he didn’t recognize.
Can somebody sedate him, please? one of the strangers said. Sheppard. Simon struggled to his feet. Now?
Someone was approaching him. Simon recognized a syringe. He bolted, but he didn’t get two feet before a woman tackled him and forced him to the ground. Simon struggled blindly, but her grip was like iron. W-what do you want with me? he gasped, but he already knew the answer, already knew the Alliance had somehow found them. She’s not here, Simon cried out. Maybe they didn’t have River yet. I don’t know where she is.
And I don’t know who you’re talking about, Sheppard said. Any day now, Beckett.
Beckett approached him and knelt down. This is just going to calm you down a bit, he said in an accent Simon didn’t recognize. It’ll put you to sleep for a while, that’s all.
I know what a sedative is. I’m a doctor, Simon said savagely, who would have bet money that that wasn’t just a sedative, and he twisted mightily in the woman’s grip. Nothing happened.
Beckett looked terrified. Come on, Sheppard ordered, and the woman held Simon's head while the needle pricked his neck.
He woke up in a bed. He blinked slowly several times, then turned his head to look at the rest of what appeared to be a hospital room. He saw more beds, all lined up neatly. A military hospital room. No imagers, no DNA scanners, as far as he could see; unusual for the Alliance. He looked over to his other side.
Hi, said a man with glasses and his hands in his pockets. I’m Dr. Daniel Jackson.
Simon didn’t say anything, and he continued to not say anything as Dr. Daniel Jackson questioned him on where he’d come from and why he had been floating in space, having nothing to say to the Alliance. When the woman who’d overpowered him came in and introduced herself as another species, he began laughing. When Dr. Jackson told him where he really was, he began shaking. River, he kept saying over and over. I have to get back to River. Dr. Jackson talked to him gently until he stopped shaking and offered to show him around Atlantis. He had no choice but to accept. What else could he do?
Simon soon found that he and Dr. Daniel Jackson had a lot in common.