Words Unspoken
Title: Words Unspoken
Fandom: Stargate Universe
Word Count: ~500
Rating: PG
Pairings: None (Gen)
Summary: Written for the prompt “pain” at the stargateland community.
Author's note: If you haven't checked out the Stargate Land comm, new members, to my knowledge are being accepted. We could always use a few more SGU fans in the mix! We have a few members less than SGA and SG-1 but we're working viligantly to keep up in the competition!
-------------------------
Words Unspoken
The Ancients had four words for pain. Eli had learned each and every one as he struggled to grasp the basics of the language. Rush kept hounding him about it, how could he expect to run maintenance on a system in a language he didn’t speak? Or write he guessed, the language wasn’t really spoken anymore.
But even unspoken, the symbols for each word ran like a loop through his head some days.
There was one that meant emotional pain. Whenever he saw this word as he scanned through the ship’s systems, his thoughts always fled across light years’ worth of distance. Back to earth and his mother. She’d probably be cooking dinner about this time. His place across from her would be empty, as it had gone every night since he’d been swept off to another corner of the universe.
There was one that meant pain due to disappointment. Eli had come to know this one well enough. Each and every time they failed to find a way home. Each time a team stepped back through the gate with one less person than they had gone through with earlier that day.
The Ancients had a word that represented pain caused by betrayal. That one played through his head when Rush minimized a screen on his console when Eli approached to offer his help. The brilliant man, who was supposed to be working with him would give him a shifty gaze and dismiss him with a wave of his hand. Eli knew the man was hiding something, Rush was always withholding information. But it didn’t lessen the sting of the blow each time it happened.
There was a word for physical pain of course. That one Eli had always been acquainted with. His periodic migraines, the ones bad enough to feel like someone was splitting his skull apart from the inside, well, he’d faced those without painkillers many times since stepping foot on this ship. It’s not that they didn’t have aspirin, they did. But their medicine stock was limited, and when soldiers came in screaming in agony from some mission gone wrong, well, his pain seemed miniscule and insignificant in comparison.
Yes, for the first few months on the ship, those four words for pain had played through his head on repeat, reflecting the seemingly endless gloom that seemed to drift throughout the ship.
The Ancients had four words for pain. And many more for happiness. The joy of finding fresh food on a strange planet or surviving an alien attack. The grins on the faces of his comrades when they survived almost impossible odds. There was sadness out here; there was a vast space that threatened to swallow them whole. But there was also joy and exhilarating experiences. He looked at his face in the mirror observing the circles that hugged his eyes, testaments to the late night he’d just finished where he’d failed to fix a leak in the hull, and smiled.
-------------------------
Fandom: Stargate Universe
Word Count: ~500
Rating: PG
Pairings: None (Gen)
Summary: Written for the prompt “pain” at the stargateland community.
Author's note: If you haven't checked out the Stargate Land comm, new members, to my knowledge are being accepted. We could always use a few more SGU fans in the mix! We have a few members less than SGA and SG-1 but we're working viligantly to keep up in the competition!
-------------------------
Words Unspoken
The Ancients had four words for pain. Eli had learned each and every one as he struggled to grasp the basics of the language. Rush kept hounding him about it, how could he expect to run maintenance on a system in a language he didn’t speak? Or write he guessed, the language wasn’t really spoken anymore.
But even unspoken, the symbols for each word ran like a loop through his head some days.
There was one that meant emotional pain. Whenever he saw this word as he scanned through the ship’s systems, his thoughts always fled across light years’ worth of distance. Back to earth and his mother. She’d probably be cooking dinner about this time. His place across from her would be empty, as it had gone every night since he’d been swept off to another corner of the universe.
There was one that meant pain due to disappointment. Eli had come to know this one well enough. Each and every time they failed to find a way home. Each time a team stepped back through the gate with one less person than they had gone through with earlier that day.
The Ancients had a word that represented pain caused by betrayal. That one played through his head when Rush minimized a screen on his console when Eli approached to offer his help. The brilliant man, who was supposed to be working with him would give him a shifty gaze and dismiss him with a wave of his hand. Eli knew the man was hiding something, Rush was always withholding information. But it didn’t lessen the sting of the blow each time it happened.
There was a word for physical pain of course. That one Eli had always been acquainted with. His periodic migraines, the ones bad enough to feel like someone was splitting his skull apart from the inside, well, he’d faced those without painkillers many times since stepping foot on this ship. It’s not that they didn’t have aspirin, they did. But their medicine stock was limited, and when soldiers came in screaming in agony from some mission gone wrong, well, his pain seemed miniscule and insignificant in comparison.
Yes, for the first few months on the ship, those four words for pain had played through his head on repeat, reflecting the seemingly endless gloom that seemed to drift throughout the ship.
The Ancients had four words for pain. And many more for happiness. The joy of finding fresh food on a strange planet or surviving an alien attack. The grins on the faces of his comrades when they survived almost impossible odds. There was sadness out here; there was a vast space that threatened to swallow them whole. But there was also joy and exhilarating experiences. He looked at his face in the mirror observing the circles that hugged his eyes, testaments to the late night he’d just finished where he’d failed to fix a leak in the hull, and smiled.
-------------------------