This is part of a little AU I slapped together for ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pentapus's ficlet challenge. And I mean slapped together on the spot. But the concept continued to intrigue me and since then I've expanded it. I have a larger story in mind, but seeing as how I have enough stories as is, I'm going to be writing it snippets at a time that I will eventually peice together into a larger fic.
So as not to have to deal with the piddly little details in the snippets, here's what you need to know (which will be expanded on later).
The Atlantis expedition is an Atlantis colony. The entire Milky Way has been colonized (not including already inhabited planets) so the colonization has moved on to Pegasus, but there's still plenty of exploring going on (which is the purpose of the colonies)
Everyone has a dragon. Either a single dragon all to themselves or a dragon beloning to their family. Dragons are either inherited or hatched from eggs to be passed down the generations. Most dragons can live to up to five human generations. No one knows how or when the Dragon/human bond formed.
There is still gate travel and an SGC.
The city of Atlantis is the capital of the planet of Atlantis (I refuse to call it Atlanatica). Dr. Weir is the govenor (govenor, I know, cheesy)
Instead of being sent to Antarctica, Sheppard was sent to Atlantis as part of the wing brigade protecting the swamp that divides the continent. He will eventually become part of the city's brigade.
This story is how that happens.
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pentapus's ficlet challenge. And I mean slapped together on the spot. But the concept continued to intrigue me and since then I've expanded it. I have a larger story in mind, but seeing as how I have enough stories as is, I'm going to be writing it snippets at a time that I will eventually peice together into a larger fic. So as not to have to deal with the piddly little details in the snippets, here's what you need to know (which will be expanded on later).
The Atlantis expedition is an Atlantis colony. The entire Milky Way has been colonized (not including already inhabited planets) so the colonization has moved on to Pegasus, but there's still plenty of exploring going on (which is the purpose of the colonies)
Everyone has a dragon. Either a single dragon all to themselves or a dragon beloning to their family. Dragons are either inherited or hatched from eggs to be passed down the generations. Most dragons can live to up to five human generations. No one knows how or when the Dragon/human bond formed.
There is still gate travel and an SGC.
The city of Atlantis is the capital of the planet of Atlantis (I refuse to call it Atlanatica). Dr. Weir is the govenor (govenor, I know, cheesy)
Instead of being sent to Antarctica, Sheppard was sent to Atlantis as part of the wing brigade protecting the swamp that divides the continent. He will eventually become part of the city's brigade.
This story is how that happens.
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It was big, black, lean as a bladed whip, pissed, and throwing the stereotype of wild blacks being rebellious loners back in their faces. Had it not been for the polished and well-cared for saddle harnessed to the black's back, it would have been easy to assume the body it was standing over to be its meal. Since it was saddled, the marines were to go with non-lethal force.
McKay felt himself an appropriate distance away; close enough to help if needed, but way, way, way out of reach of that lashing bladed tail. The damn thing was a collection of bony knives, lean muscle, and angular. Even its wings were spike-tipped at the fingers and along the arms. Rodney could feel Bina's skin ripple in a shudder, so he leaned forward to pat the milk-white neck.
"That thing is insane!" Bina yelped. "I'm surprised he hasn't stepped on his human."
Rodney could see said human from where he sat - kind of. He was lying face down in the tall grass bordering the edge of the swamplands. A couple of kids had found him... well, found his dragon crouching protectively over him and snapping at anyone who moved in too close.
McKay could hear the soft spat of tranguilizer darts hitting their mark.
Bina's blue eyes widened. "Good crap! Ten shots and he's still up."
Rodney gaped. "What!"
Ten, twenty, Bina lost count after a while. The black's thrashing grew sluggish, uncoordinated, as though the darts had been filled with Vodka. But it never staggered dangerously close to its human, not once. In fact, it backed off so as not to drop on him when it suddenly collapsed onto its side. Both Rodney and Bina released a breath of relief.
"He's gonna have a headache," Bina muttered.
The Atlantis Wing Brigade led by Lorne and his red surrounded the black to spread the nets. Carson and his medics swarmed the dragon's human. Rodney slid from Bina's back to move in for a closer look, and wished he hadn't.
The dark-haired man look like he'd been chewed up and spit out. Bruises, bloodstains, shredded clothes barely hanging on, gashes, and his arm lying at an odd angle. With a one, two, three, Carson and his team gently rolled the man onto his back on the stretcher. The guy was skinny, really skinny, like he hadn't eaten in a while; a soaked and bloody shirt sinking into his concaved stomach and molding to sharply protruding ribs. There were bruises on his neck and face, and on the part of his chest exposed by a tear in his shirt from collar-bone to sternum.
Carson and his team didn't work on him until they had him loaded safely on the jumper. Rodney stood outside watching as the hatch lifted and the jumper pulled away. A gust of strong wind that nearly bowled him over pulled his attention to the brigade working as one to lift the black coiled in nets into the air. That left only a few marines trying to get a clue as to where the guy had come from, and Rodney. Not that he needed to stay. He'd done his part taking energy readings. Whatever had trashed that man hadn't been anything technological.
Rodney climbed back into Bina's saddle, strapping his legs in tight for the flight home.
"This is going to be interesting," Bina said.
-----------------------------------------------------
I know, really short. But there will be more and slightly longer. What do you think? Stupid? Tolerable? Intriguing? I promise that the next installment will be longer and a little more in depth.
Rodney snorted. "You're telling me." If the guy and his dragon turned out to be serial killers, Rodney was moving to another planet.
McKay felt himself an appropriate distance away; close enough to help if needed, but way, way, way out of reach of that lashing bladed tail. The damn thing was a collection of bony knives, lean muscle, and angular. Even its wings were spike-tipped at the fingers and along the arms. Rodney could feel Bina's skin ripple in a shudder, so he leaned forward to pat the milk-white neck.
"That thing is insane!" Bina yelped. "I'm surprised he hasn't stepped on his human."
Rodney could see said human from where he sat - kind of. He was lying face down in the tall grass bordering the edge of the swamplands. A couple of kids had found him... well, found his dragon crouching protectively over him and snapping at anyone who moved in too close.
McKay could hear the soft spat of tranguilizer darts hitting their mark.
Bina's blue eyes widened. "Good crap! Ten shots and he's still up."
Rodney gaped. "What!"
Ten, twenty, Bina lost count after a while. The black's thrashing grew sluggish, uncoordinated, as though the darts had been filled with Vodka. But it never staggered dangerously close to its human, not once. In fact, it backed off so as not to drop on him when it suddenly collapsed onto its side. Both Rodney and Bina released a breath of relief.
"He's gonna have a headache," Bina muttered.
The Atlantis Wing Brigade led by Lorne and his red surrounded the black to spread the nets. Carson and his medics swarmed the dragon's human. Rodney slid from Bina's back to move in for a closer look, and wished he hadn't.
The dark-haired man look like he'd been chewed up and spit out. Bruises, bloodstains, shredded clothes barely hanging on, gashes, and his arm lying at an odd angle. With a one, two, three, Carson and his team gently rolled the man onto his back on the stretcher. The guy was skinny, really skinny, like he hadn't eaten in a while; a soaked and bloody shirt sinking into his concaved stomach and molding to sharply protruding ribs. There were bruises on his neck and face, and on the part of his chest exposed by a tear in his shirt from collar-bone to sternum.
Carson and his team didn't work on him until they had him loaded safely on the jumper. Rodney stood outside watching as the hatch lifted and the jumper pulled away. A gust of strong wind that nearly bowled him over pulled his attention to the brigade working as one to lift the black coiled in nets into the air. That left only a few marines trying to get a clue as to where the guy had come from, and Rodney. Not that he needed to stay. He'd done his part taking energy readings. Whatever had trashed that man hadn't been anything technological.
Rodney climbed back into Bina's saddle, strapping his legs in tight for the flight home.
"This is going to be interesting," Bina said.
-----------------------------------------------------
I know, really short. But there will be more and slightly longer. What do you think? Stupid? Tolerable? Intriguing? I promise that the next installment will be longer and a little more in depth.
Rodney snorted. "You're telling me." If the guy and his dragon turned out to be serial killers, Rodney was moving to another planet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 11:11 am (UTC)From:...Whoo. I just started trying to calculate the amount of meat needed by a society that contained that many large carnivores.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 11:18 am (UTC)From:But this is your story, and if you keep writing, I'll keep reading, because dragons + Atlantis = cool. I promise to keep to myself any further comparisons to Pern. ;p
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 11:26 am (UTC)From:Just reread snippet, and see that I somehow missed on the prior four readings that Rodney does have a dragon, it just happens to be injured at the time of the snippet.
promise this will be the last suggestion thingy - what if instead of being bonded to their riders, dragons were sort of like horses were a hundred, hundred fifty years ago? Lots of people had one, but only those who could afford to house and feed them.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 06:59 pm (UTC)From:The idea for this is based on an original story of mine - two, actually. One involves a country (not world, country) in which everyone has a dragon (while every where else only those of importance have dragons). In the other, everyone has a dragon, either personally, as part of their family, or part of the village. The latter is what I'm more or less going with.
There will be an explanation for the bond eventually, and nothing complex. Right now what I'm considering is something along the lines of it being a kind of alliance formed (probably starting with dragons and Ancients) for the purpose of better survival. But since that revelation won't be for some time, I'm still tweaking it. Then, of course from there, human and dragon bonding just became second nature.
What I keep bouncing back and fourth about is, should there be magic? I'm considering no, and like you said, making dragons intelligent animals - more like a sentient race, maybe with some unique gifts like empathy and such. I feel going the magic route would be going too far.
Right now what I'm focusing on is John, his drgon, how they became part of Atlantis, and integrating many of the SGA story lines into the AU. For example, I'll be doing a snippet about the aftermath of Sheppard having to kill Sumner, and maybe do other such tag pieces. But I do plan for it all to lead up to a larger work.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 07:04 pm (UTC)From:Plus these dragons really aren't that big since they have to be able to fit through the stargate. I'm thinking the size of an Indian elephant. Granted, that still means a lot of eating, but probably not as much if they were larger.
story
Date: 2007-08-18 11:38 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)i really like this so far and i think you should continue. i have never really foun dthat many good atlantis Au fics and this seems to be a good one so far.
Re: story
Date: 2007-08-18 07:05 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-08-19 02:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-08-19 09:18 am (UTC)From:I love the way Shep's dragon kept protecting him and I'm curious to see what happened so that John was in so dire condition.
This dragon/human bond sounds interesting. Please keep writing.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-27 09:35 pm (UTC)From:But other than that, you've got me hooked and I just may swallow the fishing pole in my haste to get to the rest of this story. AUs are my passion!
Speaking of AUs, have you read the Retrograde universe by ltlj?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-28 04:37 am (UTC)From:I'm very iffy about this AU. AUs make me uncomfortable, although the closer I can keep it to canon SGA, the less uncomfortable I am.
And I have read the Retrograde verse stories. Very good.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 01:20 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)I love the concept of this story. I have just gotten into SG:A and this is the first AU I've read, as well as the second of your stories. If this is what I can expect from your other works I'm not expecting any sleep tonight as they will most likely be just as addictive. I love the characterisation of the dragon and the way you have woven the descriptions of the characters into the story without making it a chore to read. I hope you continue this!
Off to read everything else...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 12:55 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:27 pm (UTC)From:For that reason, though I do intend to continue with this AU (since people do seem to like it) it'll probably be slow going.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 06:22 am (UTC)From:Any more likely?
Soon?
Thank You,
kontiki
no subject
Date: 2008-08-09 11:16 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 12:57 am (UTC)From:however, I've - I guess you could say - conditioned myself a little more when it comes to AUs. So though it may be a while before you see any more from this AU, it's one I would like to continue, so there will eventually be more.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 10:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 09:36 pm (UTC)From:Actually, I've re-written it, but due to plot issues it stalled out. I've since discussed these issues with my alpha, know where I went wrong and am now replotting the part of the story that was giving me trouble. I plan on finishing it once my other various writing projects are out of the way. So though it will be a while, I will finish this ;D.
AUs are tricky for me because I'm very "What we see is how it's supposed to be." In other words, if it doesn't adhere to canon, then it makes me feel uncomfortable. It's not as bad as it once was but there still tends to be some reluctance. But I really like this AU, so will finish it whether I like AUs or not ;).
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 02:45 am (UTC)From:And thank you for continuing this story off 'screen'. Looking forward to the end product! *sits and waits patiently*