¡Mira!

xposted to IJ and LJ

Kim Manners came to my attention due to The X-Files, where he was a producer and a director. I liked a lot of his episodes, and loved some of them, like "War of the Coprophages" and, of course, the ultra-freaky "Home." In the very, very wonderful José Chung's "From Outer Space", one of the detectives is named Manners after Kim and, who liked Kim, swore like a stevadore.

And now he's dead. Only 59 years old -- that's my husband's age. I'm shocked and disappointed. What a loss, a terrible loss.

Without further ado (such an awkward transition): a Chuck story

Engineering Atlantis

"All right, gear up, Campbell," Major Lorne says. Chuck nearly falls out of his chair.

"Um," he says, half-rising, wondering if he'd misheard. Lorne frowns at him, so he locks his console and turns the controls over to Amelia, who's watching him wide-eyed, and hurries to the locker room.

"Oh, good, you are coming as well?" Radek says to him when he arrives. "You have degree in electrical engineering, yes?"

"Yes," he admits, and shivers in apprehension. But if Radek's going, he can do it, go off-world and rescue the colonel and his team.

Cadman bursts in. "The major asked me to make sure you're equipped properly," she says. It occurs to Chuck that she's in the men's locker-room, but she doesn't seem to care. She helps him select a tac vest, leads them to the armory to be fitted out with the weapons they're checked out on, and then double-checks their gear.

"Captain," Lorne says, and she and Chuck come to attention, or as much as anyone comes to attention in Atlantis. "Sergeant, Doc. Here's the sitch: the Pelorans will allow only four people through their stargate. We'll go through uncloaked. Cadman and I will guard you, and you two will figure out what the hell's going on. Sergeant Stackhouse is bringing through a second jumper, cloaked, with backup, just in case."

"Have you heard from Rodney?" Radek asks, and Chuck can see how anxious he is.

"Not since the data burst you caught. And good job, Doc."

Radek nods, and rubs his eyes. "What if I had missed it? Rodney could not know that I would be able to detect his signal amidst the noise of the transmission. I could easily --"

"Doc," Lorne says, and puts his hand on Radek's shoulder to gently shake him. "You did good. Let it go."

Radek nods, but he looks miserable. Chuck says, "Sir, I haven't been on many away missions, and never a rescue. Are you sure I'm the right person?"

"Oh, Chuck," Radek says, "I have seen your work. Besides, if I go, you can go. Evan knows how much I do not like going off-world."

"Yeah, but you're second in command of the entire science division," Chuck points out. "I'm just a technician." Chucknician, he knows they call him behind his back, but he doesn't need to share that now.

"No, no," Radek starts, but Lorne says, "Ladies! You're going. Suck it up." He looks at Cadman. "No offence."

"None taken," she says cheerily. "Besides, I'm not a lady. I'm a girrrrrrrrl."

Lorne rolls his eyes, and says, "Head out, people." He leads them to the jumper bay. As they settle into their seats, he says, "It's about a forty minute flight once we're through the gate. Both of you keep close eye on what we fly over -- any weapons, masses of people, machinery, whatever. We need to know everything." He looks at each of them, measuring them, Chuck feels, then taps his radio. "Stacks, you ready?"

The jumper beside them fades out. "We'll follow you through," the sergeant says in Chuck's ear. "Then do a perimeter search."

"Keep us posted," Lorne says, and the jumper begins to rise.

Chuck wishes for a seat belt, some kind of restraint; even though he can't feel any motion, he can see how quickly they fly up into the gateroom, where they hover. He leans forward and peers around -- there's Amelia! He manages not to wave to her. He remembers when Dr. Weir was still with them, how she'd always be present when an away team left or returned. Chuck is still proud of himself for finding the courage to break from Earth, and is a little disappointed that communication and even visits are now so routine. He's long past the age when he should want a Really Big Adventure, he scolds himself, and he isn't sure he has the courage or skills to survive one. Except he had, hadn't he.

Deep in his memories of his trip to Pegasus, he's taken by surprise when Lorne shoots through the stargate and then he's lost in the interstellar distances. There isn't any thought during the transition, he's been told, but he isn't sure he believes it -- then he gasps for breath and clutches the back of Lorne's seat.

"You okay there, Campbell?" Cadman asks him, checking her many weapons.

Chuck looks at Radek, whose eyes are as big behind his glasses as Chuck's feel. It's one thing to go through the gate for a brief visit to Earth but another thing entirely to go through armed to the teeth on a rescue mission. Cadman isn't waiting for an answer; she knows better than he does that none of them has any choice but to be okay.

"Doc, bring up the schema of the fort."

"Ah, yes," Radek says, hastily putting down his water bottle and wiping his mouth. Chuck sees that his hands are trembling slightly, but Radek brings up the HUD and begins to explain. "This is from an altitude of approximately nine hundred kilometers; I suggest you and Sergeant Stackhouse take the jumpers up to an LEO so we can let the planet's rotation get us to the fort more quickly." He clicks some keys on his notebook and the HUD's image zooms dizzyingly. "Here from one-eighty kilometers, so you can see more detail."

"Shit," Cadman says. "Excellent location. High ground, and the lowlands are nearly treeless. Get in closer?"

The image zooms again, and now Chuck can see the fort doesn't look much like a fort in a Western movie, or even a medieval castle. It's something entirely else. He can't help himself; he half stands to see it better.

"As you see, this was probably built by the Ancients at a very early date. From what I can tell, the technology -- while far advanced to us -- is quite primitive compared to Atlantis." He clicks again, and now they're face-to-face with the structure. Tall walls that look like rows of enormous columns but built side by side into one sinuous wall. Every seventh column is a window, though Chuck feels confident it isn't like any window on Earth. They run from floor to the top of the roof, and must be -- he checks the key -- five hundred meters.

The sinuous shape of the walls is mirrored in the sinuous shape of the structure itself: not a cube or rectangle, it follows the crest of the hill it's perched on, like a snake, Chuck thinks. A snake that's keeping their people hostage.

Lorne flicks the display off. "We're getting close," he said, "so let's run through this. Stacks, Hendricks, Tillis, Njonjo, you listening?"

"Yessir," Stackhouse replies.

"All right. You remain in the air, cloaked, while we go in and make nice with the indigs. Radek, Campbell: you'll pretend to work on the equipment for these guys, but don't worry about actually doing anything, just stall 'em. Figure out where our guys are and how to get them out. When you talk to me, use the radio, but pretend to talk to each other. Keep your radios open at all times. "

"Evan, I can probably find where they are even from here, because of their subcutaneous transmitters."

"We tried earlier, but the walls of that fort block --"

"Yes, yes, but you didn't have me. I will, just, wait . . ."

Chuck watches as Radek's fingers poke at the keyboard while he mutters to himself. "Ne, ne, hovno," Chuck hears; he knows what that means. "Yes, here --" The HUD re-appears, but this time there are four small, and widely dispersed, red dots. "There they are. Oh, dear."

"Crap," Lorne says. "That's a problem. Jumper Two, you seein' that?"

"Yessir," Njonjo's voice says. "Can you identify who's who?"

"Ah, yes, the frequencies are different. Here's is Teyla, here is the colonel, over here, this is Rodney. Way over here, this is Ronon."

"So spread out. Who first?" Lorne asks.

No one replies. They all stare at the image hovering before them. By separating the team like that, the Pelorans have significantly increased the odds that releasing one would give the Pelorans time to regroup and attack.

"All at once," Radek finally says. "When we are working on this weapon of the Pelorans, we will release them all at once."

Lorne looks satisfied and nods, but Chuck say nothing. He hopes Radek is right.

"Stackhouse?" Lorne says.

"Cloaked and ready, sir."

"Cadman?"

"On your mark."

He glances over his shoulder at Radek and Chuck, then takes them down. Chuck sees a flat area just outside the structure that Lorne is using as a landing zone. The Peloran military are standing there, a squad carrying ugly weapons like bulky Colt C7s. He pats the Beretta strapped to his thigh, takes a deep breath, and braces for landing -- unnecessarily. Lorne sets the jumper down so gently that Chuck doesn't realize they're down until the hatch pops open.

Lorne exits first, then Cadman, who stands by the hatch, her hand up, keeping Radek and Chuck inside. To Chuck's surprise, her hair is down and her vest opened in a way that shows off her breasts. She sees him looking her over and grins. "Remember, I'm just a girrrrrrl," she whispers. Beyond her, Chuck hears Lorne talking to someone, sounding plausibly friendly, and then Cadman gestures. He follows Radek out into the icy air, squinting into the brilliant sunshine.

"About time," someone says. "Follow me."

Chuck's mouth is so dry he can barely swallow. He follows Radek, Cadman behind him, as they're led along a muddy path for perhaps quarter of a mile. The sun is too bright and he wishes he'd worn sunglasses, and the mud squishes unpleasantly beneath his boots, getting caught in the tread, and he really wishes he were back at his station in Atlantis joking with Amelia.

They come to a stop so abrupt that Chuck nearly runs into Radek. He leaves his hands on Radek's shoulders; it's comforting, and to them both, he thinks. The difference between the glaring sunlight he's trying to look through and the dark in which the squad leader and Lorne stand in is too great; he can't see what's going on. There's a puff of warmer air that smells of boiled mutton and sour milk and dirty bodies, and they're led inside.

The snake-like building hides an indoor city, very third world-ish, and Chuck has the immediate impression of poverty, cruelty, and desperation. He stays away from the walls and doors as much as possible; even though his gene isn't very powerful, he's afraid to let these people know he can offer them anything. Because here, inside the snake, it's obvious that some version of the Ancients created the building. He can't explain it; maybe it's knowledge at a genetic level. But he can feel a pull, the way he could when he first walked through the gate into Atlantis. He wonders what it was like for Colonel Sheppard, and if these people know.

"What?" Radek whispers to him, but he just shakes his head. Major Lorne must know, and it's probably not safe to talk about.

They make their way through the crowds: kids racing around, dog-like creatures shitting and pissing, donkeys hauling little carts full of straw and vegetables and pots and pans. The ceilings are vaulted, with egg-shaped skylights that let beams of the startlingly bright light down like pillars, and the walls are lined with little shops: mounds of spices and herbs, streamers of dried vegetables; sacks of beans and grain; stacks of colorful bowls, rolls of woven rugs, strands of beaded jewelry, and hundreds of people crammed together, shouting irritably in the heat. Chuck wonders who everyone is -- where do they grow the grain and vegetables? Indoors, or is it brought from other parts of this world, or even from other worlds?

A shove draws his attention away from the packed stalls and back to his task. He grimaces at the guy who'd pushed him and jerks away, moving closer to Radek. They're coming to the end of the bazaar; the stalls are spaced farther apart and the noise is diminishing. It's darker, too, with fewer -- and dirtier -- skylights. Some are bricked over.

And it's hotter. He's already sweating from nerves under all the equipment and the pack he's wearing but now the sweat is rolling down his back and under his arms. Where the hell are they going?

After a long walk through an increasingly dark corridor, they start hiking downhill. The walkway is rough brick, slick with mud and slimy with grease; he has to walk carefully. He puts his hands back on Radek's shoulders.

Finally, finally, they're let into an enormous room, the size of a warehouse, crammed with dented machinery, patina green with age, making grinding, rumbling noises. "What is this place?" Chuck thinks he hears Lorne shout. There's more shouting, none of which he can hear over all the noise of the machinery. He's going to get a headache pretty quick. Radek turns to him and he bends his head to hear. "We must work quickly, find a way to release Rodney and the others."

He followed Radek who pushes through their guards to where Lorne is in heated discussion with someone nearly twice his size. The big guy looks annoyed at the interruption but quickly realizes that Radek and Chuck are the repairmen and leads them to a console along one wall. "The air!" he shouts at them. "To filter out the toxins."

Radek looks at Chuck, his eyes wide behind his smudged glasses. Toxins, Chuck thinks. Great. Really fucking great.

Radek pulls out his laptop and boots it up while Chuck investigates the console. It's pretty basic. It looks as though it had been designed for something else and then badly converted into an elaborate on-off switch, presumably for the filters. He can't tell, and he supposes it doesn't matter; they're aren't really here to fix anything, but he might as well see if this thing can help them extract the colonel and his team.

He finds a dusty monitor, wipes it off, and crawls under the console to check the wiring. He likes this kind of work and sinks into, a sort of meditation. Although his manifestation of the ATA gene is minimal, he thinks he can feel something from the console, or maybe the wiring, a sort of mutual interest.

Radek crouches next to him. "What do you find?"

"I think we can monitor some parts of this place," Chuck says with more confidence than he can feel.

"Open doors?"

"Not sure."

"I will make it happen," Radek says, and disappears again, presumably back to his laptop. There's a little sizzle, more felt than heard, and Chuck scrambles out to find the monitor functioning. Punching buttons, he realizes it's a very simple surveillance system, and he's working his way through the building. There are hundreds of cameras he can click to, though many no longer work.

"We would call this IP based," Radek whispers to him. "Very good for our purposes because already part of the computer network. Ha. We show them."

Chuck's next click reveals Dr. McKay pacing in a cell. The monitor is black and white and very poor resolution, but even so, Chuck can tell he's been knocked around. He has a bit of a limp, he's cradling one arm, and his face is puffy. "Oh, Rodney," Radek moans.

There's a scuffle behind them and they turn to watch Cadman shoving one of their guards away. Her hair is in her face and her eyes bright with anger.

"They're giving us cover," Chuck whispers to Radek just as Cadman's voice says in his ear, "So do something!"

"I am working fast as I can. Okay, okay, I can do several things. Maybe all. Big diversion, yes? Open all doors everywhere so they can escape but also make all warning sirens blow, and these horrible noisy machines I think I will ruin."

Chuck almost laughs, but Radek has his laptop connected to the console and suddenly the images on the monitor flash by faster than Chuck could ever manually change them. The noise around them grows, and there's a frightening creaking sound. "Don't blow us up!" Chuck pleads.

"Ha!" Radek says, and Chuck thinks he's a little afraid of Radek like this.

"All right, Chuck, you see that panel next to the biggest turbine? With two black boxes? Yes? Go over there and touch it."

"Oh, shit, Radek, my gene isn't that strong, and what's it going to do, anyway?"

From over his glasses, Radek looks at Chuck. Chuck swallows hard, glances at Lorne who's staring meaningfully at him, and winds his way through the mass of guards and whoever else is down here with them. "Radek," Chuck murmurs to himself. There's more shouting behind him and he begins to jog toward the panel -- he can't run full out because the place is a junk heap of stuff, a store room of broken crap. Over his radio, he hears Stackhouse shouting but it's too noisy and chaotic for him to make out what. He hears Cadman's voice, and the grinding noise gets louder. He glances behind him and sees two really enormous guys moving steadily in his direction, both gripping weapons. Radek is shouting now, too, and then Chuck flings himself over a broken something and slaps the panel, thinking please please please.

Something pops and steam begins to billow up, hitting the high ceiling, and then filling the room. It stinks. Another large drum of something pops, and the grinding reaches a new, more painful pitch, more a screech, and then klaxons begin to wail.

What now, Chuck wonders, as the first guard reaches him and with a satisfied smile stretches his hand towards Chuck's throat. Never releasing the panel, Chuck turns so his back is against the wall behind him, but it's a door that slides open and he falls on his ass. The last thing he sees is the guard falling on top of him, a neat red spot blossoming in his chest.

He rolls away, but the guy falls over his legs, so he kicks as hard as he can until he can crawl away. Lorne and Cadman are shooting, so he stays low, pulling out his Beretta. He notices that his hand is shaking, and he really wishes he had the earplugs he uses on the firing range.

Above all the chaos, he hears Radek's voice booming -- he's figured out some kind of public address system, and he's shouting, "Rodney! Colonel! Everyone get out, I am blowing up this, it is going to blow up!" Chuck has no idea if Radek's telling the truth or not, but no one else does and suddenly there's a terrifying rush of people toward the exit, back toward the bazaar, and yet another vat of something begins to steam. He scrambles over the dead guard as best he can, and vaults over the busted equipment, reaching Radek in time to hear him shout, "Out! Out! Everyone!"

Radek grins at him maniacally, then Lorne grabs Radek by the vest and jerks him away from the console. "Come on, Doc," he sees him mouth. Cadman is waiting by the door, P90 up and out, looking like an avenging angel. He follows Radek and the major and sees Cadman fall in just behind him, feels her hand on his back. "You did good," she shouts at him over the cacophony, "now hustle!"

He hustles. The crowds are insane, merging in the central spine of the snake-building, and he briefly wonders if anyone has been trampled, but it takes all his attention to work his way through the crush, around the toppled drums of spices and trampled bags of grain. He sees Ronon Dex emerge from a side vault, battered and furious, pulling on Cadman and Chuck as if they were recalcitrant children.

He's lost his radio in the shuffle but he thinks he hears Ronon shout, "Teyla!" He can't look away from his feet, however; it's just too dangerous to risk falling even with Dex dragging him. Then Teyla grabs his hand. Her face is red and one eye puffy, but she smiles at him serenely and Chuck remembers that he's a little in love with her.

Ahead there's a burst of gunfire, a P90, and he sees Stackhouse and Njonjo firing over everyone's heads. They all speed up, pushing the people ahead of them aside; he briefly feels sorry for them, caught between the hard place of an exploding building and the rock of the Atlantians' weapons, until he remembers why they had to come here and do this.

Brilliant light flares in his eyes and he barely has time to register that it's another entrance, not the one they came in by, when he's being tugged toward it, and finally begins to run. Running feels wonderful, to stretch his legs heading toward the astounding light of this place, on top of a new world -- he runs and runs until he's passed most of the people and is at last under the great sky and not the ophidian ceiling behind him.

He sees one jumper, and then a second wavers into view, uncloaking like some Romulan ship. He turns and nearly crashes into Ronon, who's still towing Radek and who shouts, "Go! Go!" so he goes, they can count heads later. Gasping, he staggers up the ramp into the nearest jumper, closely followed by Ronon and Radek. More gunfire, so he starts back out, but Cadman hustles in and pushes him into a seat. "Rodney!" she bellows, and Doctor McKay totters up the ramp helped by Cadman.

"Where's Sheppard?" McKay asks, his voice raspy and barely audible over all the noise. "Where's John?"

The ramp starts to close and the jumper hovers abover the crowd. People wail and shriek and thrash about. "When's it gonna explode, Doctor Zelenka?" Chuck shouts at him.

Radek rubs his mouth, then says, "Never. Or at least not right away. I just make a lot of noise and doors open and a few things explode. Everything else the people do to themselves."

"Holy crap," Hendricks says from the front of the cabin where he and Tillis are co-piloting. "You mean this was a big fake-out?"

"The biggest," Radek says cheerfully. His face is filthy and one of his shoes is untied, his eyes are red and a little swollen.

"Did we get everybody out?" McKay asks, hoarse.

"Yessir," Tillis says. "We've heard from Major Lorne; he and Stackhouse are in the other jumper with the colonel, Teyla, and Staff Sergeant Njonjo."

"Is the colonel okay?" Chuck asks.

Tillis shrugs. "Will be," he says and turns away. Chuck can see the other jumper through the windshield; the two rise in unison higher and higher, until the scalding blue sky turns indigo and then black. He drops his head back, bumping against the wall of the jumper, and shuts his eyes. His heart is still racing, his Beretta still clutched in his hand, he's sweaty and covered in dust and something spicy.

He opens his eyes again when he hears McKay's husky voice. He lost his radio in the mahem, but he sees that McKay is talking into one. "So not too bad translates to what, broken limbs? Bashed in skull? Oh, I'm fine. Right as rain, if you don't count the sprained ankle, the twisted arm, and whatever it was I inhaled. Oh, bite me."

Chuck grins to himself, and then catches Cadman's eye; she was grinning, too. McKay is talking to the colonel, who must be all right.

"I have no idea why they were so stupid. If they'd simply asked, we probably would have helped them. No, Radek didn't. It was not a bad plan, especially since he came up with it on the fly."

"See if I help you escape again," Radek tells him.

"Teyla says thank you," McKay says to him. "Sheppard says he owe you a beer."

"Yes, beer is nice," Radek agrees; he looks ridiculously happy despite his crazy hair, filthy and torn clothes, and glasses that angle across his nose.

"I imagine I will see you soon," McKay says, and hands the radio back to Tillis. "I'm surprised and impressed, Radek. Thank you."

"I'm surprised, too, Rodney," Radek says. "Please do not ever ask me to do that again."

"I'll try." McKay closes his eyes. "Believe me, I'll try."

When they finally emerge from the jumpers back in Atlantis, Chuck wants nothing more than a very long, very hot shower, a glass of ice water, and his bed, not the briefing he has to attend with Dr. Zelenka and Major Lorne. He can barely keep his eyes open.

"Excellent job," Colonel Carter says. "Radek, just stunning work that you figured out how to get them out without injuring anyone. Or many," she appends. "And Chuck, Major Lorne tells me you did very well supporting Doctor Zelenka in his efforts, and showed real initiative and considerably bravery in the face of danger."

"Thank you, ma'am," he says, and can feel himself flushing with pleasure. "The major is too kind."

"No, no," Radek says, "You did very well. You are a good engineer. Perhaps you will consider working for me?"

Chuck's mouth drops open; he can't believe he's being asked. "I'm military," he says at last. "It depends on my commanding officers."

Radek makes a gesture that Chuck interprets as forget about them. "What would you like?" Radek asks.

Chuck looks at Major Lorne and Colonel Carter; they look interested, and a little entertained. "Um, I'd like that. Very much."

Radek slaps the table. "Excellent. You need some refresher courses, I think, so you should work with me for a while, before taking on your own projects. We will discuss this later, after we are clean and rested, yes?"

Chuck isn't sure who Radek is asking; fortunately, Colonel Carter says, "Yes, good idea."

He follows Radek out of Colonel Carter's office, intending to go straight to the transporter that will take him nearest his quarters, but Amelia and the other techs are looking at him with concern, so he heads toward them. "Wow, Chuck," Rui says, "you okay? Dude, you look kinda beat up."

"No, just dirty," Chuck says. "How'd it go while I was gone?"

"Quiet," Amelia says. "Until Rui came on duty."

"Ha," Rui says, but he's still looking worriedly at Chuck.

"I'm fine," Chuck assures them. "But I really need a shower."

"Come back afterwards," Amelia says. "You know, if you feel up to it. Tell us what happened."

"Okay," he says. He can keep his eyes open a bit longer. He likes their concern and interest. And how much longer will he work with them, if he's really going to go back to being an electrical engineer, so he wants to spend time with them now.

He's finally at the transporter when Lorne calls to him. "I won't keep you," he says. "The colonel would like to see you when you have a moment. I think he wants to thank you."

"Jeez, Major, I didn't do anything. Just helped Radek."

"You helped Radek when a lot of dangerous people were pointing weapons at you, when things were exploding and imploding, when you had no idea what was going to happen next. That's something."

"Yes, sir."

He resists ignoring what the major said and punches in the infirmary as his destination. It's quiet there, not what he expected at all. Everyone really must be okay. But he sees someone's feet beneath a privacy curtain and hesitates; if it's where the colonel is, should he go or not? He doesn't know what to do. He creeps forward as quietly as he can, trying to see around the curtain. From the shoes, he knows it's McKay standing there, so he assumes the colonel's in a bed. Then he can hear McKay talking, his voice still low and hoarse.

"I was more angry than frightened," Chuck hears him say. "Mostly worried about you." The colonel says something, but Chuck can't understand the words. "I did, actually. One of them has a black eye, and the other's testicles have probably receded. But that was only after the doors opened and I took them by surprise."

Chuck steals away. He doesn't want to hear anything he shouldn't. He's walking back to the transporter. This time he escapes to his quarters.