OTA - Arrival

[has_2ls]

Of all the fool damn things he’s done over the years, Jack is pretty sure that diving into icy cold water is way, way up on the list. McKay needs him to drain the jumper bay and apparently the only way to do that is to dive down there, look around for some switch, and flip it. McKay seems to think it’s pretty obvious but apparently Jack’s having an obtuse day - none of these controls seem obvious in any sense of the word.

The cold seeps in almost down to his bones and his lungs are burning from lack of air. He can hold his breath for a decent amount of time but he’s got no idea which of these switches he’s supposed to be pushing or pulling. Nothing to do but go back up and bark at McKay until he can give him a better description of what is and isn’t obvious on Atlantis. Damn Ancients. Why couldn’t it have been one of those ATA activated things where he could just think “open” from up on the ground, dry, and skirt around this whole mess?

When he breaks the surface again, Woolsey is there looking all expectant-like and Jack wishes like hell he had something to tell him. Thing is, he doesn’t and Woolsey isn’t the one he needs to talk to anyway.

“Did you do it?” Jack shakes his head and holds out his palm. “Radio.” Woolsey hands it over with a minimum of fuss but he’s still hovering and Jack knows that he’ll have to feed him something just to keep him from panicking and revealing their position. First things first, he’s got to talk to McKay.

“McKay. You and I have very different definitions of the word obvious.” McKay squawks a little, out of his element, and Jack interrupts him. “There are dozens of controls down there and I wouldn’t even know how to describe.” Still, he and McKay come to some kind of consensus that the emergency switch should be toward the middle of the console and extremely prominent. Jack hopes, for everyone’s sake, that he’s right.

He’s not really fond of going back in the water but a little cold water’s hardly the worst thing he’s faced in twenty plus years of a decorated military career. If Sheppard and his team can pull off this rescue, it will have been more than worth it for Jack to get hypothermia and frostbite. More than worth it. He takes in a deep breath and goes back under, swimming to the center of the room and pushing at a likely switch.

It seems to be draining the room, so Jack releases it, only to see the water rush back in. Great. One more trip topside to inform McKay that he’s a complete idiot and he’s back in the water again, hopefully for the last time. He pushes at the switch and ignores the burn in his lungs, ignores the way his vision goes black around the edges. When everything starts feeling fuzzy and he feels light-headed, he keeps holding on, knowing that everyone’s fate pretty much depends on Sheppard and the rest of them getting into Atlantis to take it back from these damn replicators.

He focuses on that, the rescue, and it feels like time slows down and he’s suspended for a little while. The big difference is that he feels like he’s sprawled out on a flat surface and while he’s wet and cold, it doesn’t feel like he’s underwater anymore. He gasps in a deep breath, chokes on it, and spends the next few seconds coughing and sputtering and wondering where in the galaxy he’s wound up. Replicators. Of course. Like as not, he’s in a room somewhere with some alien’s hand in his head and none of this is even real. When he hears footsteps, he decides to go on the offensive.

“Look. You’re not getting anything from me. Hell, I don’t even know anything. You captured the wrong guy if you wanna know how to get from Pegasus to Milky Way because I don’t even know how the damn gate works, much less that bridge Carter and McKay dreamed up. Completely out of luck.”

There. That should satisfy them, right?

[[Jack is sprawled out in a hallway after having been winked aboard by Q. He is also soaking wet :)]]

Comments

[has_2ls]

"Hey, you have no idea how much magnets can really explain. Next time you have a briefing, go in there and drop that on them. Perfectly serious. It makes people think, you know."

Jack usually considers himself a dog person but the cat, well. He's pretty fond of the cat. She seems fond of him, too, the way she keeps nuzzling up against his hand. "You been here very long?"

[reincarnshaman]

"I'd do that but then I'd have to duck whatever my teammates lobbed at me. Kale's a fair shot with a stapler and Adrian... I've got a shirt with a stain that will never come out." Ritual mages can be nasty sometimes. "Though, the others might think it was funny."

At Jack's question though, Trever has to think about it. "Almost ten months... I think."

She thinks he'll make a fine minion.

[has_2ls]

"Well, humor always makes work better," Jack agrees. "And I am the number one target for getting someone to laugh at me. Makes people much happier about getting a job done for you, that's for damn sure."

[reincarnshaman]

"Laugh at you and they don't realize you're smarter than you look?" Trever suggested. His Uncle Rory uses that tactic. The man was an assassin but also acted as a fool to divert attention from himself.

It helped that he was technically a fool; a Fortunate Fool, a seventh son of a seventh son.

[has_2ls]

"Being underestimated is always a good tactic," Jack says. "So, what is it that you do, exactly? I don't think I got around to asking."

Or if he had, it had been forgotten because of the cat still nuzzling up against him.

[reincarnshaman]

"I'm a veterinarian and I do some ... work for the government," he said. "You?"

He's a prince. That means he works for the government, right?

[has_2ls]

"I'm a general and I work for the government," Jack says, laughing at that particular way of boiling it down. "So, you know. Enjoying your federally mandated leave on this ship? Because I'm sure you're not working remote."

Jack sure won't be.

[reincarnshaman]

"My mum's in the army," Trever offered. If by in the army you mean in charge of the army. "And I think I'd enjoy it better if I were getting paid."

Trever has been doing vet work on board mostly because he can't not do it. He's that sort of guy.

[has_2ls]

"So, how does this place work? Live on the goodwill of others or am I going to have to find another chosen profession? Because, honestly, I've been doing good at this general things," Jack says, "and I don't want to switch things up this late in the game. Change isn't good for someone as old as I am."

[reincarnshaman]

"Apparently there's no real money... so to speak. I've been doing vet work here and helping in the sick bay. My brother's been trying to hack the system," Trever said. "But there's some talk about forming a security force made of the displaced members."

He has no problem with admitting that his brother is hacking into the computer systems. It's not like they can stop him.

[has_2ls]

That's something Jack might actually be good at so he makes a note to remember that when the time comes to be something other than idle.

"Wouldn't be a bad gig, working security on a ship like this."

[reincarnshaman]

"I certainly don't think so. I'd love for something like that to do. Not having it has made me antsy."