'Future Past' one for slashthedrabble #70 'The Future'

[darkhavens]

Author: darkhavens
Title: Future Past 1/1
Pairing: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: G
Words: 300
Feedback/Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Fifty years after the Stargate system became common knowledge on Earth, what does anyone really know about the people who went to Pegasus?
Notes: Written for slashthedrabble #70 'The Future'



Official histories never tell the whole, unbridled truth. They don't tell the world how close those first intrepid travellers to Pegasus really were, how close they had to be. They pass on facts and statistics, dry words and hollow numbers. Emotions, feelings, were seen as inappropriate.

Many only skim the books named on their reading lists at school; they watch the vids and documentaries their professors use as tools to pass on personal agendas. They never know the truth.

They never know that General Sheppard almost caused a coup by losing an arm and being recalled to Earth. How Doctor McKay refused to let his lover leave the flying city, so sure that Earth would never allow him back so badly damaged. Imperfect. No longer fit for battle.

There is no government-sponsored documentary explaining just how Sheppard went from Air Force General to Doctor - inside a month. Or how he skipped the usual interview procedure and was working in the lab beside McKay before the ink was dry. That's not the tale they want to tell.

But the truth has a way of filtering out.

An alien wedding ritual caught on digital media. A flood of emails saved in haste to the wrong disc. A stack of fading photographs and obsolete memory cards carry fragments of a story that got trampled underfoot by history's Government Issue boots.

And someone, somewhere, takes an interest.

Old biographies and memoirs, personal diaries and journals, letters, all are grist for the mill that's started turning. Requests for documents and files, long unlocked by various governments who used to take their secrets to the grave. Nothing left to hide - the gates became common knowledge half a century ago.

In the end, it's not the movie of the year; it's just another space opera love story.

Comments

[literati.livejournal.com]

bloody brilliant!

I cannot count the ways that I love this.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

*beams* Thank you, Pookie!

[lishel_fracrium.livejournal.com]

very,very nice. loved it!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I love the thought of people learning about their love affair, fifty or a hundred years in the future. makes me happy. *g*

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Loved it. Thanks.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Charming! I loved it. Thank you!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

very cool! I like the tone...

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm a sucker for 'based on true events' movies like that so I figured I'd create one for the McShep love story. *g*

*nods*

[krysalys.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's about how it would happen, too. What ends up in the history books (the official ones) is a mere pale sliver of all that really happened. Because, really, no one can really know what went on unless they were there. And even then, their perception's colored by their very personalities.
Wonderful job, hon.
And if Rodney were alive when that movie was made, he would've flailed and pitched a holy shit fit over the invasion of privacy. Heh. *G*
----}-@

Re: *nods*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And oh, yeah, Rodney would have had an apoplectic fit at seeing someone pretending to be him. And it's not just the invasion of privacy, it's how they think they can possibly do him justice with some hack actor who's never held a lifesigns detector, let alone faced down a Wraith while holding the heart of the city in his hands. *g*

[rokeon.livejournal.com]

My history professor once complained about computers, how people in the future aren't going to have all the handwritten letters/diaries/manuscripts/notes that historians have always used to learn about people's lives. I love that you've used digital media, discs, and memory cards for the exact same sort of documents.

Lovely. And space opera love story makes me ridiculously happy.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I used digital media because after a year being a galaxy away from the nearest office supplies store, they probably came as close to being a paperless organisation as it's possible to get. And once you've got a setup like that to work, why mess with it? *g*

[teh-gandu.livejournal.com]

Simply breathtaking.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

[from-the-corner.livejournal.com]

I usually avoid future fics, but I'm so glad I made an exception. You wrapped it up perfectly. This is exactly what history is. Or isn't.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you made an exception to your rule and it worked for you. :D

feedback

[suzy_queue]

Absolutely excellent. I love it.

Re: feedback

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

[aurora]

Wow, this is really good.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[yin-again.livejournal.com]

Aw, Brokeback Atlantis! Sweet.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks!

At least mine had a happy ending (give or take an arm). ;)

[chaps1870.livejournal.com]

Awww...that was sweet. :)

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

:D Thank you!

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

Honest to God,
I have chills.
This is wonderful.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Your reaction has made me all warm and fuzzy. *g*

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

*sniffles* This is heartbreaking and I love it. Beautiful, and inspirational.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Heartbreaking in a good way, right? *g* After all, they did get to stay on Atlantis together. ;)

[c425cc33.livejournal.com]

Just enough detail for *us* to make sense of the events while everyone else is still putting together the pieces, rightly or wrongly. And John & Rodney are the constant in history that's been misshapen over time. Lovely.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I imagine it being a movie that descendants of the original expedition members would go to see so they could tear it apart over dinner afterwards...

"I can't believe they changed that! That was Great-Grandpa Radek's idea, not that jackass Kavanaugh's! Of course, I'm not in the least surprised. You all know his grandson married the director's sister while the movie was in pre-production, yes? Nepotism, that's what it is!"

:D

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Thank the gods you didn't go to bed!! This awesome tale of the future totally captured me! (And of course, here comes the clamouring for more!)

A nice little twist to the unknowns, hon! *Hugs you...*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Sometimes I do my best writing when I'm blinking hard to stay awake and I have to be up for work in four hours or less. (Yup, since you ask, I did it again last night. This time for Supernatural. *g*)

As for more, well, I got a little overexcited (http://darkhavens.livejournal.com/137942.html?thread=2460630#t2460630) in the previous comment to this one. *tg*

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Wonderful.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D