Advent Calendar - 21st December 2008
Shopping in Pegasus
by Leesa Perrie
Set Season 3, before The Return
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
M4L-419, more commonly known as Mall World - one of Ford’s names
that had stuck - was a prosperous planet that welcomed traders from all
corners of the galaxy. It was a good place to find Ancient
devices, though they were usually broken, much to his irritation.
But still, spare parts were always useful and there was always the
chance of something major turning up. Like a ZPM.
Well, one could dream.
It was also useful at times, like birthdays and Christmas, for finding
an unusual gift for a friend. Of course, unusual didn’t
always go down as well as one imagined, but surely it was the thought
that counted? At least, that’s what he’d always been
told anyway.
And until the gate bridge was completed, Mall World was more convenient
than a trip back to Earth, or trying to persuade the supply staff that
an X-Box was a necessity if they didn’t want to see the
Commanding Officer of Atlantis go completely insane. Or the Head
of Science for that matter - he was sure he could have gotten Sheppard
to share.
So, no X-Box, not until the gate bridge was up and running and going back to Earth was much easier.
What to get, though, what to get? Teyla had been easy; some
native teas, a couple of scented candles and a blanket that she’d
been oh so not subtly
mooning over in front of him. He could take a hint. Well,
he could take one when it was pointed out so obviously.
Ronon hadn’t been that hard to buy for either. A knife,
which Sheppard had helped him choose seeing as he wouldn’t know a
good knife from a bad one. Of course, Sheppard’s help had
ended up with him buying the most expensive knife on offer, so the
caveman could forget about getting anything else from him. Not
that he had a clue what else to get anyway.
Carson had whisky, a 21 year old Glenlivet single malt. Expensive
and yes, a stereotype, but for some reason Carson liked the foul
tasting stuff. That was one thing he’d managed to procure
from Earth; smuggled here by a member of the Daedalus crew. For a
fee, of course.
As for Elizabeth, Teyla had used her not so subtle approach again and
he’d purchased a carving that, personally, he thought was ugly
but Teyla clearly seemed to think Elizabeth would like. He
deferred to her judgement and hoped she was right.
So that just left Sheppard. He’d asked Teyla, but
she’d said he needed to do this one on his own, because,
“he is as a brother, is he not?”. What sort of
question is that to ask someone? And no, so absolutely not true
at that. But she wouldn’t be budged, and had apparently
told Ronon not to help either.
It wasn’t like he felt comfortable asking Elizabeth, and Carson had already made it clear he was on his own with all the presents, saying that as it was the thought that counted, the thought needed to be his own.
If he didn’t know better, he’d say it was a damned conspiracy.
He wandered around the marketplace, but nothing seemed to be
right. There were one or two items that might do, but he
wasn’t sure. He should have bribed the Daedalus guy to
bring something for Sheppard too, even if it wasn’t an X-Box; the
coward hadn’t thought he could smuggle in something electronic
like that.
Too late now. Christmas was next week and the Daedalus almost back to Earth.
He was about to give up, wondering if he could make
Sheppard a handheld gaming device – after all, he was a genius
and it surely couldn’t be all that hard - when he spotted
something hidden amongst a pile of metal junk.
The device had a cylindrical handgrip at one end, with a clear tube
extending from it that lit up as soon as he picked it up.
Probably ATA gene activated, then. He grinned when he realised
what it reminded him of and radioed Teyla, asking her to come and
haggle for the Ancient flashlight for him. It wasn’t a
design he’d seen before, perhaps it wasn’t widely used or
was defunct? Whatever, it was just perfect.
Especially if he could barter Stackhouse out of his Star Wars DVDs to
go with it. His grin widened at the thought, face lighting up in
boyish glee. Oh boy, Sheppard was going to freak over this.
And perhaps he wasn’t so bad at this present buying after all.
The End
A/N:
1) I have no idea how easy/hard it would be for Rodney to procure a 21
year old Glenlivet single malt whisky, but just go with me on this one
please! In case you’re curious about the price, then at the
time of writing a bottle of this would be selling for around £65,
or $100 (US dollars). 2) Jayne, my trusty beta, threw some ideas
around for what Rodney could buy Sheppard from a Pegasus galaxy world,
and somewhere in amidst of them I’m sure she suggested a
lightsabre, so credit where credit is due!
