By Way Of The Stars To The Sea, And Home Again
Part Three
Up you come, Sunshine.”
Daniel managed a grimace at Mitchell’s nickname and clung even tighter to the railing. He kept a firm grip on Sam’s belt, steadying her while Ronon and Elizabeth dragged her slowly back to the walkway. Only when she was safe did he look up at Mitchell and Jack, bent over the rail. Their grip on his clothes was the only thing preventing his fall into the churning water over which he dangled. Where five of their teammates had already fallen and disappeared.
His feet kicked in midair, unable to gain a purchase until they hauled him high enough. Toes gratefully perched between the railings, he let his friends drag him over and move to an undamaged area further down. “Now what do we do?” he asked. Vala’s terrified cry still echoed in his mind.
“Now, we find the others,” Jack declared.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I thought my day couldn’t get any worse with that bug thing in my hair, but I have to admit being groped by something with hands and faces on its tentacles, being tossed away like last year’s fashion, and swallowed by an orange jellyfish does certainly put a crimp in one’s plans. I’m sure this is Daniel’s fault.
Even if it’s not, he’s going to pay.
Vala kept inventing new ways to torture Daniel, which kept her from completely going to pieces. One moment she’d been floundering in the water and the next something orange-tinged and stinking like a Goa'uld’s favorite breakfast had closed over her head. Sliding down a short, slimy tunnel had left only brief impressions through a wave of sheer terror, and then she’d landed with a bump in something…squishy.
Unexpectedly, she hadn’t died then. Life seemed to still be on offer, so she cautiously opened an eye and peered—out? She could see the water, but it was on the other side of a rubber-like wall. Beneath her, she could see whitish fronds streaming in a circular curtain from the creature’s rear end, and above, opaque blobs that might be a brain, or head, or ears, and a gaping-wide mouth. She ducked as a flood of water fell on her, then something else much heavier and unyielding. She pushed it off and found herself face to face with a partially drowned, thoroughly terrified Rodney McKay.
Can this day get any worse?
The water sloshing around their bodies slowly drained away. McKay’s panicked breaths echoed in the cramped space. Eyes screwed shut, fists clenched over his face, he looked…well, he looked like someone who’d been swallowed by a big alien jellyfish.
Vala tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey! Calm down. You’ll use up all the air.”
His eyes flew open, whites flashing in the weird light that emanated from the body around them. “Air? There’s air? How can there be air? I’m dead….”
She rolled her eyes and slapped him on the cheek. “McKay, get a grip.”
“Vala? Where are we? Are you dead too? I thought the afterlife would be a little less soggy.”
“We’re not dead. At least, not yet.” She wriggled around and dislodged his knees from her hip. “Some kind of sea creature swallowed us.”
“You’re kidding! This has to be Sheppard’s fault.” McKay leaned close and peered over her shoulder. “Oh, no.” Another jelly-creature emerged from the dark water and hove alongside. “Is that…?”
Vala looked and found herself staring at three bedraggled people, their expressions mirroring the surprise and anxiety she felt. Squashed inside the second creature were Sheppard and Teyla, plastered either side of a very discomfited Teal'c. A giggle escaped her. “Well. They look cozy.” McKay’s heavy breathing tickled her ear. She looked around, whacking him in the face with a wet pigtail. “Must you get quite so close?”
His open mouth clacked shut with indignation. “Don’t flatter yourself, sister.”
She huffed a dramatic sigh. “If I had to get stuck inside a giant alien fish, at least I could be sharing with that dishy colonel, or Muscles – he’s nice and cuddly. Just my luck I get you.”
McKay’s no-doubt witty reply was drowned in another gush of water. Vala screwed her eyes shut and waited for it to drain away. The air around them turned noticeably fresher. Gingerly she touched the slippery body cavity surrounding them. The translucent skin bulged outward, then shuddered. “I think it’s ticklish,” she observed.
McKay tried to push her aside and peer down past their feet to where the water had drained away.
“You’re not going to get through there. And I’m certainly not.” She smacked his hands off her hips. “There are some things I just will not do, even in the name of survival, and squeezing through an orange alien jellyfish’s bottom would have to rank pretty much on the top of the list. In fact—”
“Will you be quiet?” McKay bellowed in her face.
Vala scowled at him. “Well, if you’re going to be like that, I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.” She twisted around, presented the rude man with her back and tried to ignore the uneasy thought that she was now like a parasite, trapped within a host. C’mon fishy. You must have something planned. Take us out of here. Please?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Above on the walkway, ‘finding our people’ was proving hard to achieve. None of the five thrown into the water responded to radio hails, nor did the Atlantis Operations center so far away. Unwilling to give up, Mitchell and Ronon took turns trying to raise someone, anyone.
Daniel joined Sam, Elizabeth and Jack. They now stood at the rear of the tank, opposite the encrusted door SG-1 had originally tried to escape through. It seemed a very long distance. Between them and their one hope of safety the seawater churned, rising steadily.
“Uh, guys, we’d better do whatever we’re going to do pretty quickly,” Daniel remarked. “We’re about to get wet.”
“Good idea, Doctor Jackson,” Ronon said, abandoning the radio.
No one could tear their gaze from the seething water below. Waves were hitting each side of the tank, sending up splashes that were beginning to hit the underside of the walkway. The reality of their situation was seeping home to all of them. Daniel could see it on the others’ faces. He grimaced. No. Not going to accept that Teal'c, Vala, any of them would end this way. They’d been too far, fought so hard, lost so much, and still had lives to live. No way did any of them deserve this. They had to be alive, somehow. There had to be some justice in the universe.
Unfortunately, judging from his own personal experience, universal justice was a fickle concept at best. Daniel glanced at Jack, drawn as always in times of stress to his friend’s indomitable strength. Or maybe it was just stubbornness.
Jack met his look. He straightened, and Daniel could almost see the burden of leadership slide onto his shoulders. “Head for the door,” Jack ordered. “Carter, Mitchell, take point. We’ll go up until we can raise contact with Ops or Daedalus. Get their scanners to start searching.”
With a smattering of “Sir”s, they moved out, purpose helping to numb the dread inside them all. Daniel took up the rear with Ronon.
They only made it as far as the halfway point along the side wall. Water suddenly exploded all over them, erupting from below in great geysers that shot through the metal grid they stood on; it even hit the roof before plunging back down to be absorbed by the next surge. Sam and Mitchell were soaked and they staggered back to avoid another drenching.
“General!” Elizabeth called out. “The coral, it’s moving again.”
Sure enough the coral creatures attached along the wall in front of them were expanding, tentacles beginning to form and bend searchingly through the air. Another wave crashed up from below, drenching them all.
Daniel glanced down, did a double-take, and yelled, “Uh, I think we’d better make a run for it.” The water had risen at least ten meters in just moments and wasn’t stopping.
Ronon shoved him forward, muttering, “After you, Doc.”
Everyone broke into a run. They covered only a few meters before the coral alongside gave a loud burping noise and poured clouds of tiny white particles past them, out into the void where it mixed with the spray and drifted down to the roiling surface. All around the tank walls, the same thing was happening.
“It’s spawning,” Elizabeth said in wonder.
The moment the spores hit the surface of the water it triggered a feeding frenzy. Fish, eels, all manner of sea creature suddenly appeared, even using the swelling waves to propel themselves up and through the clouds of spores.
“Wow,” Mitchell gasped as they ran. The variety of the fish was amazing: some with enormous eyes, some with no visible eyes, others with feelers or fins like feet, tiny and quick or lumbering and huge, brightly colored or some so pale they were prismatic glass; all intently feeding.
Another wave hit the watchers, so violent it swept Daniel and Ronon off their feet. They collided with Elizabeth, throwing her into Jack’s arms. Clutching at each other, they were pushed along the walkway, but this time the water didn’t recede. It rose around them, lifting them, battering them against wall and coral and railing. Daniel felt Ronon grab him, wrap his arms and legs around him as they were swept up and out over the seething morass. For one instant, the water cleared. They both gasped desperately for air. Then they fell.
The force of the fall drove them deep under the surface, through the melee of fish. Bashed by darting bodies and scratched by snapping jaws, Daniel and Ronon managed to keep a hold of each other and swim for the surface. They never reached it. In the dim light penetrating the murk, something enormous rose up before them. Ronon tried to aim his weapon, but with a swish and flick it was suddenly right there, and then it had them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vala’s jelly-taxi, as she decided to christen it, made a sweeping motion with its tail, or whatever those stringy things were called, and suddenly they were off, scooting through the water at speed. McKay grabbed her, again, but she spoke over his babble. “Look! The others are following us. We’re heading for the staircase. Why would it do that? It wouldn’t need to climb—oh—ahh!”
Well, she couldn’t help that last, tiny little scream. Anybody would, when your jellyfish taxi rammed headfirst into the coral and squeezed itself through the not-so-solid wall. In fact, McKay screamed too. And suddenly there was light all around them.
“Ooh, pretty.” Vala leaned closer to their host’s stomach lining.
They emerged into a long, light-filled tunnel, one side metal, the other three sides constructed in Ancient designs of twisted copper amongst transparent panels which held back…the sea.
McKay ground his teeth at her, but was cut off by a voice that made them both jump.
“Rodney? Rodney, do you read me?”
“Teyla?” McKay jabbed Vala in the back, scrabbling for his headset. “Yes. I read you. Thank heaven. I thought I’d be stuck in here with Mary Poppins for the rest of my natural life.” Vala rammed her elbow into his soft gut. “Oof. Are you alright?”
“We are inside another creature, swimming behind you. We are wet, but fine. Teal'c and John are with me.” Teyla hesitated, then asked, “Do you think the others are unharmed?”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” McKay said distractedly. “We should worry about us.”
“That’s very sympathetic of you,” Vala said archly.
“Yeah, McKay. Thanks for the show of concern.” Another voice joined the conversation, and made McKay flinch.
“General? Is that you? Get me out of this thing!”
“Sorry, no can do. We’re in the same boat, as it were.”
A shadow fell over them, cast by another jelly-taxi cruising past them. Within its transparent body, Vala could see the tall and good-looking Ronon with Daniel, disheveled but alive. “Daniel!” He waved back at her. “Trade your fish buddy for mine?” she asked hopefully.
Daniel and Ronon laughed as they were whisked away. Following their fish were two more, bearing Sam and Doctor Weir, General Jack and Mitchell.
The five creatures cruised their cargos down the light-filled tunnel, around a corner and along another stretch. Several smaller fish accompanied them, and it was really rather beautiful. On the far side the sea was dark and forbidding, but in here with all the bubbles and light, Vala felt quite snug.
General Jack called the roll and it was a relief to hear everyone answer. Then, of course, he asked the question that woke McKay up. “Where the hell are we?”
“Oh, well,” McKay said, “it could be some kind of access tunnel, or even an energy conduit for the star drive.”
“Do you always make pretty things sound so boring?”
“All the time,” Sheppard offered.
Their taxi-fish turned another corner. “Does anyone know how we can get these fine fishes to release us?” Mitchell asked.
Before McKay could launch into another boring and probably incorrect tirade,
Vala clicked her own radio. “We probably just have to ask them.”
“What are you talking about?” McKay sputtered.
“Earlier, I thought at it that I’d like to leave, and it brought us here. It’s obvious they’re telepathic.” Really, the man was dense.
“Ob—that’s… you have no evidence upon which to base an assumption that these things are telepathic.”
Vala flipped her pigtails in his face and cut him off. “Apart from that nice big door over there.”
That shut him up. Their hosts were speeding through the bubbling water and in the dappled light of the conduit Vala could see, well, maybe not a door but definitely an opening. It had a covering that looked like one of those cat flaps Mitchell had once described to her.
“Door? Big? You are nuts!”
“That li’l cat flap?” Mitchell cut McKay off.
“Yes, thank you, Cameron.”
“Why are there only fish going out, not coming in?” Sam asked.
“Hah, answer that, Miss Smarty Pants,” McKay taunted. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Rodney,” several exasperated voices drawled in tune.
“What?” Now he was Mister Innocence.
“Just because you don’t know the answer,” said Colonel Dishy, “doesn’t mean you have to be rude.”
Vala smirked at him. “Let’s ask a real scientist, shall we? Sam?”
“Well,” Sam replied, amid a lot of background snickering on the channel. “Maybe it’s something to do with the phosphorescence. SG-1 were all covered in it when we arrived. Could be these animals are attracted to it.”
“Then why are we still alive?” Teal'c rumbled.
“Maybe they’re slow eaters,” began McKay. “Uh, oh.”
The lead jelly-taxi bearing General Jack and Mitchell had arrived at the cat flap. It lined its mouth up with the aperture, then appeared to swell. The flap opened, the fish gave a mighty heave and spat a huge air bubble containing the two men out into the sea.
“Oh, dear.”
Horrified calls mingled over the radio. “Yack, yack, yack. Everyone shut up!” Mitchell finally cut through. “We’re okay. The bubble held together. We’re going up to the surface.”
The next taxi lined up and spat out Teal'c, Teyla and Sheppard. They tumbled through the dark water and began to rise out of sight.
“Oh. I think I know what this is,” said Sam. “The phosphorescence was a byproduct of the waste from the fish or the coral. It was all over the bottom of the tanks.” She and Elizabeth were ejected into the sea. “They’re garbage removalists!” she yelled as they faded from sight.
Vala and McKay just blinked at each other.
Daniel and Ronon were next out the chute, accompanied by Daniel’s plaintive protest, “We’re garbage?”
“Well, how unglamorous is that?” Picked up and spat out like common rubbish. Perfect end to a perfectly miserable day. She glanced at McKay. He was no happier than she.
“I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
He thought it over. “I’ll just have to think up a theory to disprove Sam.” He brightened up considerably. “Piece of cake!”
United in deception, Vala grinned at him, then they both grabbed the other as their jellyfish lined up, expanded and hurled them into the forbidding sea. Head over heels they were tossed through the water. Eventually they slowed and began to drift upwards. Trying not to use what air was left to them they stared up at the gradual lightening of the sea. So, so slowly, it turned from indigo to green to blue, and finally daylight. They popped to the surface and the bubble broke.
McKay’s delighted laugh was cut off when a wave smacked him in the face.
“Vala!”
“Daniel!” There was her favorite person to cling to when she found herself in deep water. Literally. She pushed off from McKay and wrapped herself in Daniel’s strong arms.
Everyone was there, paddling close by. Sam, Doctor Weir, Teal'c and Teyla. Ronon and Mitchell were keeping McKay upright and General Jack and the dishy Sheppard were already busy with their radios.
She looked up at Daniel, dripping and a bit shiny around the edges. He was looking past her at the beautiful alien towers soaring above them, a pleased smile dimpling his face.
“We’re back in Atlantis,” he said.
“Daniel Disneyland.” She’d looked up Mitchell’s nickname after their last visit here, and had to agree it was appropriate.
A familiar tingle swept over her and she silently thanked the Asgard for their clever beamy thing which plucked them all from the sea and deposited them in an expanding pool of water in front of Atlantis’s Stargate.
McKay flopped onto his back. “Oh, yes. That’s more like it.”
“Don’t say it, McKay,” Sam warned.
He did. Of course. “There’s no place like home.”
What was it about Earthlings and their obsession with that movie?
By Way Of The Stars To The Sea, And Home Again
Part Three
Up you come, Sunshine.”
Daniel managed a grimace at Mitchell’s nickname and clung even tighter to the railing. He kept a firm grip on Sam’s belt, steadying her while Ronon and Elizabeth dragged her slowly back to the walkway. Only when she was safe did he look up at Mitchell and Jack, bent over the rail. Their grip on his clothes was the only thing preventing his fall into the churning water over which he dangled. Where five of their teammates had already fallen and disappeared.
His feet kicked in midair, unable to gain a purchase until they hauled him high enough. Toes gratefully perched between the railings, he let his friends drag him over and move to an undamaged area further down. “Now what do we do?” he asked. Vala’s terrified cry still echoed in his mind.
“Now, we find the others,” Jack declared.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I thought my day couldn’t get any worse with that bug thing in my hair, but I have to admit being groped by something with hands and faces on its tentacles, being tossed away like last year’s fashion, and swallowed by an orange jellyfish does certainly put a crimp in one’s plans. I’m sure this is Daniel’s fault.
Even if it’s not, he’s going to pay.
Vala kept inventing new ways to torture Daniel, which kept her from completely going to pieces. One moment she’d been floundering in the water and the next something orange-tinged and stinking like a Goa'uld’s favorite breakfast had closed over her head. Sliding down a short, slimy tunnel had left only brief impressions through a wave of sheer terror, and then she’d landed with a bump in something…squishy.
Unexpectedly, she hadn’t died then. Life seemed to still be on offer, so she cautiously opened an eye and peered—out? She could see the water, but it was on the other side of a rubber-like wall. Beneath her, she could see whitish fronds streaming in a circular curtain from the creature’s rear end, and above, opaque blobs that might be a brain, or head, or ears, and a gaping-wide mouth. She ducked as a flood of water fell on her, then something else much heavier and unyielding. She pushed it off and found herself face to face with a partially drowned, thoroughly terrified Rodney McKay.
Can this day get any worse?
The water sloshing around their bodies slowly drained away. McKay’s panicked breaths echoed in the cramped space. Eyes screwed shut, fists clenched over his face, he looked…well, he looked like someone who’d been swallowed by a big alien jellyfish.
Vala tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey! Calm down. You’ll use up all the air.”
His eyes flew open, whites flashing in the weird light that emanated from the body around them. “Air? There’s air? How can there be air? I’m dead….”
She rolled her eyes and slapped him on the cheek. “McKay, get a grip.”
“Vala? Where are we? Are you dead too? I thought the afterlife would be a little less soggy.”
“We’re not dead. At least, not yet.” She wriggled around and dislodged his knees from her hip. “Some kind of sea creature swallowed us.”
“You’re kidding! This has to be Sheppard’s fault.” McKay leaned close and peered over her shoulder. “Oh, no.” Another jelly-creature emerged from the dark water and hove alongside. “Is that…?”
Vala looked and found herself staring at three bedraggled people, their expressions mirroring the surprise and anxiety she felt. Squashed inside the second creature were Sheppard and Teyla, plastered either side of a very discomfited Teal'c. A giggle escaped her. “Well. They look cozy.” McKay’s heavy breathing tickled her ear. She looked around, whacking him in the face with a wet pigtail. “Must you get quite so close?”
His open mouth clacked shut with indignation. “Don’t flatter yourself, sister.”
She huffed a dramatic sigh. “If I had to get stuck inside a giant alien fish, at least I could be sharing with that dishy colonel, or Muscles – he’s nice and cuddly. Just my luck I get you.”
McKay’s no-doubt witty reply was drowned in another gush of water. Vala screwed her eyes shut and waited for it to drain away. The air around them turned noticeably fresher. Gingerly she touched the slippery body cavity surrounding them. The translucent skin bulged outward, then shuddered. “I think it’s ticklish,” she observed.
McKay tried to push her aside and peer down past their feet to where the water had drained away.
“You’re not going to get through there. And I’m certainly not.” She smacked his hands off her hips. “There are some things I just will not do, even in the name of survival, and squeezing through an orange alien jellyfish’s bottom would have to rank pretty much on the top of the list. In fact—”
“Will you be quiet?” McKay bellowed in her face.
Vala scowled at him. “Well, if you’re going to be like that, I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.” She twisted around, presented the rude man with her back and tried to ignore the uneasy thought that she was now like a parasite, trapped within a host. C’mon fishy. You must have something planned. Take us out of here. Please?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Above on the walkway, ‘finding our people’ was proving hard to achieve. None of the five thrown into the water responded to radio hails, nor did the Atlantis Operations center so far away. Unwilling to give up, Mitchell and Ronon took turns trying to raise someone, anyone.
Daniel joined Sam, Elizabeth and Jack. They now stood at the rear of the tank, opposite the encrusted door SG-1 had originally tried to escape through. It seemed a very long distance. Between them and their one hope of safety the seawater churned, rising steadily.
“Uh, guys, we’d better do whatever we’re going to do pretty quickly,” Daniel remarked. “We’re about to get wet.”
“Good idea, Doctor Jackson,” Ronon said, abandoning the radio.
No one could tear their gaze from the seething water below. Waves were hitting each side of the tank, sending up splashes that were beginning to hit the underside of the walkway. The reality of their situation was seeping home to all of them. Daniel could see it on the others’ faces. He grimaced. No. Not going to accept that Teal'c, Vala, any of them would end this way. They’d been too far, fought so hard, lost so much, and still had lives to live. No way did any of them deserve this. They had to be alive, somehow. There had to be some justice in the universe.
Unfortunately, judging from his own personal experience, universal justice was a fickle concept at best. Daniel glanced at Jack, drawn as always in times of stress to his friend’s indomitable strength. Or maybe it was just stubbornness.
Jack met his look. He straightened, and Daniel could almost see the burden of leadership slide onto his shoulders. “Head for the door,” Jack ordered. “Carter, Mitchell, take point. We’ll go up until we can raise contact with Ops or Daedalus. Get their scanners to start searching.”
With a smattering of “Sir”s, they moved out, purpose helping to numb the dread inside them all. Daniel took up the rear with Ronon.
They only made it as far as the halfway point along the side wall. Water suddenly exploded all over them, erupting from below in great geysers that shot through the metal grid they stood on; it even hit the roof before plunging back down to be absorbed by the next surge. Sam and Mitchell were soaked and they staggered back to avoid another drenching.
“General!” Elizabeth called out. “The coral, it’s moving again.”
Sure enough the coral creatures attached along the wall in front of them were expanding, tentacles beginning to form and bend searchingly through the air. Another wave crashed up from below, drenching them all.
Daniel glanced down, did a double-take, and yelled, “Uh, I think we’d better make a run for it.” The water had risen at least ten meters in just moments and wasn’t stopping.
Ronon shoved him forward, muttering, “After you, Doc.”
Everyone broke into a run. They covered only a few meters before the coral alongside gave a loud burping noise and poured clouds of tiny white particles past them, out into the void where it mixed with the spray and drifted down to the roiling surface. All around the tank walls, the same thing was happening.
“It’s spawning,” Elizabeth said in wonder.
The moment the spores hit the surface of the water it triggered a feeding frenzy. Fish, eels, all manner of sea creature suddenly appeared, even using the swelling waves to propel themselves up and through the clouds of spores.
“Wow,” Mitchell gasped as they ran. The variety of the fish was amazing: some with enormous eyes, some with no visible eyes, others with feelers or fins like feet, tiny and quick or lumbering and huge, brightly colored or some so pale they were prismatic glass; all intently feeding.
Another wave hit the watchers, so violent it swept Daniel and Ronon off their feet. They collided with Elizabeth, throwing her into Jack’s arms. Clutching at each other, they were pushed along the walkway, but this time the water didn’t recede. It rose around them, lifting them, battering them against wall and coral and railing. Daniel felt Ronon grab him, wrap his arms and legs around him as they were swept up and out over the seething morass. For one instant, the water cleared. They both gasped desperately for air. Then they fell.
The force of the fall drove them deep under the surface, through the melee of fish. Bashed by darting bodies and scratched by snapping jaws, Daniel and Ronon managed to keep a hold of each other and swim for the surface. They never reached it. In the dim light penetrating the murk, something enormous rose up before them. Ronon tried to aim his weapon, but with a swish and flick it was suddenly right there, and then it had them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vala’s jelly-taxi, as she decided to christen it, made a sweeping motion with its tail, or whatever those stringy things were called, and suddenly they were off, scooting through the water at speed. McKay grabbed her, again, but she spoke over his babble. “Look! The others are following us. We’re heading for the staircase. Why would it do that? It wouldn’t need to climb—oh—ahh!”
Well, she couldn’t help that last, tiny little scream. Anybody would, when your jellyfish taxi rammed headfirst into the coral and squeezed itself through the not-so-solid wall. In fact, McKay screamed too. And suddenly there was light all around them.
“Ooh, pretty.” Vala leaned closer to their host’s stomach lining.
They emerged into a long, light-filled tunnel, one side metal, the other three sides constructed in Ancient designs of twisted copper amongst transparent panels which held back…the sea.
McKay ground his teeth at her, but was cut off by a voice that made them both jump.
“Rodney? Rodney, do you read me?”
“Teyla?” McKay jabbed Vala in the back, scrabbling for his headset. “Yes. I read you. Thank heaven. I thought I’d be stuck in here with Mary Poppins for the rest of my natural life.” Vala rammed her elbow into his soft gut. “Oof. Are you alright?”
“We are inside another creature, swimming behind you. We are wet, but fine. Teal'c and John are with me.” Teyla hesitated, then asked, “Do you think the others are unharmed?”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” McKay said distractedly. “We should worry about us.”
“That’s very sympathetic of you,” Vala said archly.
“Yeah, McKay. Thanks for the show of concern.” Another voice joined the conversation, and made McKay flinch.
“General? Is that you? Get me out of this thing!”
“Sorry, no can do. We’re in the same boat, as it were.”
A shadow fell over them, cast by another jelly-taxi cruising past them. Within its transparent body, Vala could see the tall and good-looking Ronon with Daniel, disheveled but alive. “Daniel!” He waved back at her. “Trade your fish buddy for mine?” she asked hopefully.
Daniel and Ronon laughed as they were whisked away. Following their fish were two more, bearing Sam and Doctor Weir, General Jack and Mitchell.
The five creatures cruised their cargos down the light-filled tunnel, around a corner and along another stretch. Several smaller fish accompanied them, and it was really rather beautiful. On the far side the sea was dark and forbidding, but in here with all the bubbles and light, Vala felt quite snug.
General Jack called the roll and it was a relief to hear everyone answer. Then, of course, he asked the question that woke McKay up. “Where the hell are we?”
“Oh, well,” McKay said, “it could be some kind of access tunnel, or even an energy conduit for the star drive.”
“Do you always make pretty things sound so boring?”
“All the time,” Sheppard offered.
Their taxi-fish turned another corner. “Does anyone know how we can get these fine fishes to release us?” Mitchell asked.
Before McKay could launch into another boring and probably incorrect tirade,
Vala clicked her own radio. “We probably just have to ask them.”
“What are you talking about?” McKay sputtered.
“Earlier, I thought at it that I’d like to leave, and it brought us here. It’s obvious they’re telepathic.” Really, the man was dense.
“Ob—that’s… you have no evidence upon which to base an assumption that these things are telepathic.”
Vala flipped her pigtails in his face and cut him off. “Apart from that nice big door over there.”
That shut him up. Their hosts were speeding through the bubbling water and in the dappled light of the conduit Vala could see, well, maybe not a door but definitely an opening. It had a covering that looked like one of those cat flaps Mitchell had once described to her.
“Door? Big? You are nuts!”
“That li’l cat flap?” Mitchell cut McKay off.
“Yes, thank you, Cameron.”
“Why are there only fish going out, not coming in?” Sam asked.
“Hah, answer that, Miss Smarty Pants,” McKay taunted. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Rodney,” several exasperated voices drawled in tune.
“What?” Now he was Mister Innocence.
“Just because you don’t know the answer,” said Colonel Dishy, “doesn’t mean you have to be rude.”
Vala smirked at him. “Let’s ask a real scientist, shall we? Sam?”
“Well,” Sam replied, amid a lot of background snickering on the channel. “Maybe it’s something to do with the phosphorescence. SG-1 were all covered in it when we arrived. Could be these animals are attracted to it.”
“Then why are we still alive?” Teal'c rumbled.
“Maybe they’re slow eaters,” began McKay. “Uh, oh.”
The lead jelly-taxi bearing General Jack and Mitchell had arrived at the cat flap. It lined its mouth up with the aperture, then appeared to swell. The flap opened, the fish gave a mighty heave and spat a huge air bubble containing the two men out into the sea.
“Oh, dear.”
Horrified calls mingled over the radio. “Yack, yack, yack. Everyone shut up!” Mitchell finally cut through. “We’re okay. The bubble held together. We’re going up to the surface.”
The next taxi lined up and spat out Teal'c, Teyla and Sheppard. They tumbled through the dark water and began to rise out of sight.
“Oh. I think I know what this is,” said Sam. “The phosphorescence was a byproduct of the waste from the fish or the coral. It was all over the bottom of the tanks.” She and Elizabeth were ejected into the sea. “They’re garbage removalists!” she yelled as they faded from sight.
Vala and McKay just blinked at each other.
Daniel and Ronon were next out the chute, accompanied by Daniel’s plaintive protest, “We’re garbage?”
“Well, how unglamorous is that?” Picked up and spat out like common rubbish. Perfect end to a perfectly miserable day. She glanced at McKay. He was no happier than she.
“I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
He thought it over. “I’ll just have to think up a theory to disprove Sam.” He brightened up considerably. “Piece of cake!”
United in deception, Vala grinned at him, then they both grabbed the other as their jellyfish lined up, expanded and hurled them into the forbidding sea. Head over heels they were tossed through the water. Eventually they slowed and began to drift upwards. Trying not to use what air was left to them they stared up at the gradual lightening of the sea. So, so slowly, it turned from indigo to green to blue, and finally daylight. They popped to the surface and the bubble broke.
McKay’s delighted laugh was cut off when a wave smacked him in the face.
“Vala!”
“Daniel!” There was her favorite person to cling to when she found herself in deep water. Literally. She pushed off from McKay and wrapped herself in Daniel’s strong arms.
Everyone was there, paddling close by. Sam, Doctor Weir, Teal'c and Teyla. Ronon and Mitchell were keeping McKay upright and General Jack and the dishy Sheppard were already busy with their radios.
She looked up at Daniel, dripping and a bit shiny around the edges. He was looking past her at the beautiful alien towers soaring above them, a pleased smile dimpling his face.
“We’re back in Atlantis,” he said.
“Daniel Disneyland.” She’d looked up Mitchell’s nickname after their last visit here, and had to agree it was appropriate.
A familiar tingle swept over her and she silently thanked the Asgard for their clever beamy thing which plucked them all from the sea and deposited them in an expanding pool of water in front of Atlantis’s Stargate.
McKay flopped onto his back. “Oh, yes. That’s more like it.”
“Don’t say it, McKay,” Sam warned.
He did. Of course. “There’s no place like home.”
What was it about Earthlings and their obsession with that movie?
By Way Of The Stars To The Sea, And Home Again
