After the ordeal, despite McKay being grumpy about our mission today, I thought something more chill, like checking if a planet is inhabited or not seemed like a nice break from our painstaking search for more Stargates for Sam's bridge from the MilkyWay to the Pegasus.
My train of thought is halted when Sheppard sneezes and coughs again.
"Are you all right, Colonel?" Teyla asks.
"It's nothing, just a cold. No big deal. It's just annoying."
"Talk about annoying." McKay snips.
"What?"
"We should be focusing on harvesting space gates."
"Kind of what we're doing now. The MALP detected life so we gotta check. We can't just steal a Stargate from a planet that needs it."
"I am just saying that identifying potential space gates to complete intergalactic bridge should be our priority, not making contact with the locals of some backwater hamlet."
"Jesus!" I mumble under my breath only loud enough for Ronon to hear, and chuckle at.
"Are you that eager to return to Earth, Rodney?"
"This isn't just about me. It's about the ability to go back and forth between Earth and Atlantis conveniently... and whenever I want to."
"How's that work again?" Ronon leans forward.
McKay turns around, almost giddy to explain it. "Okay, once we've seeded enough Stargates across the void between Pegasus and the Milky Way, we'll be able to take a jumper from the one to the other to the other till we reach the other sid. That way we won't tax the ZPM, we won't be reliant to the Daedalus."
"Yeah, and what normally takes us three weeks to go to and from Earth and Atlantis will take us thirty minutes."
"Very clever." Teyla compliments.
"Yes."
"Rod."
He pauses. "It was Samantha Carter's idea." He admits.
"Backwater, hamlet, dead ahead." The raven-haired Colonel announces.
_____________________________________________________
As we walk through the small village, the people are very welcoming and dressed so brightly, its such a contrast with the many places where we see the results of the Wraith's awakening.
"Okay, let's just make contact, buy our souvenirs, and..." His eyes follow two beautiful women, "get out of here."
"Fair day to you." One of them greets.
"Fair day to you." John responds.
McKay remains distracted. "Nothing here. We should probably go." The men's eyes follow the women and every part of them. "Eh, it probably wouldn't hurt to, uh, make contact with the locals though, no?"
Teyla and I roll our eyes. "Men are too easy." She laughs, but John and Rodney don't even acknowledge our joke.
"No, no. When you're right, you're right."
"No, no, well we're here now, and uh..."
Before McKay can keep on rambling, a man approaches us. "Hello! Hello, new people! Why didn't anybody tell me the new people were here yet!"
The young woman who greeted Sheppard runs up to the man and embraces him. "Lucius, I've missed you!"
He barely returns the hug and continues his stride toward us. "Oh please. Well, I was just out for a walk. Have you met the new people yet?"
"We just got here." Sheppard answers.
"Oh, great! Great! Then I haven't missed anything. I hate missing things. Have you met my wife, Willa? Isn't she gorgeous?" My other wives are just making lunch." He points to the women behind him.
A young woman calls out. "Fair day, Lucius!"
"Hello, sweetheart." He blows her a kiss. "I love ya. I love ya." He then addresses the whole village. "Fair day, everybody."
We all look between us as the villagers respond in kind. "I'm... John Sheppard. Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagen, and Alison O'Neill."
After the short introduction, Lucius' eyes focus on me and Teyla, and he stalks up to us. "Teyla, Alison, where are you from?"
"Athos."
"A long way from here."
He must assume, I'm with Teyla from Athos because he doesn't even ask where a long way from here is, a clear sign of a man who doesn't really care."Athos. I've never been there. Sounds nice. Is it nice?" He continues to press.
"Until it was culled by the Wraith."
"Oh, I hate them. What do you say you and me get together, we have some lunch, we talk about this, huh? Maybe have some wine?"
"We don't even know your name." McKay states.
Finally taking his eyes off the two of us, he turns to Rodney and they all start to laugh like it was the funniest joke they have ever heard.
"We're serious."
"You mean you truly have not heard of Lucius?" The first woman who ran to hug him inquires.
"Well everyone knows." Another joins in.
"He's the wisest and kindest man among the stars."
My eyes widen, these women are so smitten, that I'm certain if he asked, they would worship him.
"Aw people just say that. I mean, you can't prove it until you've met everybody, am I right? Hmm?"
"Well then... Lucius, we're glad we met you."
He leans closer to Sheppard. "And if you aren't yet, you will be! Come on! Let's have some lunch, huh? Everybody has to eat. Right? Come on, right this way, please. Please."
The three men are escorted by the wives but Lucius waits for Teyla and I. "After you, please."
Once seated, the overly-confident man, continues to chat up the two of us, not taking a clue that neither of us are interested in the slightest.
"I love architecture. It's all a mystery to me, really, but..." He chuckles, "it hasn't stopped me from trying."
"I see."
"Mmhmm."
He loudly whispers to John. "Are they taken, yet?"
"Hmm?"
"Hell no! If you got a question about me or Teyla you better ask us, because no one speaks for us."
"Exactly."
"Oh yeah! You are definitely wife material. You gotta love a woman with spirit." His eyes disgustingly runs over me. "And a great body."
"Watch. Your. Mouth." Ronon warns with gritted teeth.
"My bad. Didn't realize..." Lucius didn't finish his sentence maybe because of the death glare the man that towers over most people, is shooting him, or possible mine, either way... thank god!
I turn up to the Satedan. "Thank you."
"No one should talk about you like a object. Even if you can take care of yourself."
I smile at his words, and tune back into the conversation.
"Excuse me, um, Lucius. Please pardon my ignorance, possibly even my manners, but, uh, what is it exactly about you.."
"Ah ah. I know what you are going to say, so you don't even have to ask. I have gifts.
We all look at each other, skeptical.
"What are those, uh... gifts?" The colonel inquires.
"Exploration, Alchemy, Medicine. I have, I have to say, some of the best ointments around." Sheppard sneezes. "See, I could take care of that just." He snaps. Like that."
"Ah, it's just a cold."
"Nevertheless, I have a potion that could get rid of that in six or seven days."
McKay raises his eyebrows. "Mm."
"That's impressive." John comments.
"You get used to it. We'll do a trade. So... where you all from?"
"No place in particular. We move around a lot."
"In that wonderful machine of yours. Yeah, I saw it. I was on a walk, I look up and I heard... somebody said that-that you flew through the ancestral ring?"
"Yeah, that was us!" Ronon answers the gross man.
"How does it fly?"
"It's complicated. One has to-"
"I mean. where do you geat a machine like that? I, it, I mean... it's a wonderful way to travel. Can I get one? Are they hard to fly?"
"Yes." Sheppard starts. "They are hard to fly, and... no, you can't have one."
"But I want one. Please."
I cock my head. "Mm, that's too bad, you can't have one."
Sheppards eyes widen, but Ronon looks like he wants to give me a high-five. It seems like the team isn't the only one who had a reaction to my answer, but the villagers seem to disapprove of their favourite person being turned down.
"Well, perhaps as trade for some of his wonderful medicines."
"Or perhaps not." McKay counters.
"What?" He's clearly insulted. "You come all this way, you don't even want to do a trade? Look, it doesn't even have to be the ship. Forget the ship. I don't even want the ship. Okay? You gotta have some other stuff that you want to trade, right? Okay? Like-like...how do you get your hair to go like that?"
Lucius looks at Sheppard, expecting him to say yes.
"Lunch was great... but I realized we're running late."
"For what?"
I roll my eyes at McKay. "You know, Rodney, that important thing."
"Yes!" Teyla agrees and we all stand with her and the Colonel, "as much as we would love to stay, we really must go."
"No, no, no, no! I don't want you to go. You just got here, come on! Come on!" Lucius begs, like an entitled child begging for toy that they can't have. It's rather pathetic. "We haven't even had the second course. Please! I want you to see some of my medicines." He turns to one of his wives. "Go get the ointments, the good ones. Go! Run! Go!" She runs off obediently.
"Another time, Lucius. We gotta go."
Just as I observed earlier, he continues to throw his tantrum. "No. No, I don't want you to leave!"
We turn to leave, but we're blocked by the villagers, and I can't shake the feeling that something is weird, is this some sort of cult behavior?
"Okay, okay, okay. All right. Let them go. We're all friends here, right?" They break apart, listening to their 'leader'.
Sheppard moved by pity, makes an offer. "Tell you what. As soon as we get back, we'll tell our medical people to come, see what you have to offer. Then we'll talk about trade."
"Later today, maybe?" Lucius lights up.
"Maybe."
"I'll have everything ready."
"Thank you."
"You won't be disappointed!"
And then we finally leave, and I feel that I need a shower to rinse off the feeling of his eyes on me.