Fic: Say Mercy

[libra_traveller]

Title: Say Mercy
Author: libra_traveller
Rating: TV14?
Warnings: Torture. Unseen torture to be more specific. Shadow-play, close ups on face of enemy, and only back of head of prisoner.
Summary: John gets tortured by Cowen, and in the process proves he knows his abcs.
Author's Note: My attempt at a script, never finished



Beginning to an episode.

All said in the dark, all you can see is shadows and the reflections of light.

Cowen - Beg for mercy!!

Sheppard - I believe... the proper phrase is.... say uncle!

(Spit! Slap! various groaning)

- My aunt knew when to say it. And she was 83 and in a wheel-chair at the time.

- (Punch! Kick! screams)

- You WILL stop defying me you piece of fonderifous turd.

- Sorry, I didn't catch that. Did you just compare me to manure? I'm flattered. Manure helps the flowers grow. I love flowers. Especially roses. Once gave my ex-wife a white rose. I think she left me because of that. It wasn't red so, Obviously it meant I didn't love her anymore and was sleeping with another woman. Are your females this unpredictable?

(Someone mutters in the background, Hell Yes!)

- Shut Up! I don't care about you and your damnable wife. Now tell me about Atlantis!!

- Oh sure. It's a fairy tale. Little pink or was it blue bunnies jumped on this huge piece of land knocking the whole bubble of people to the floor, it bounced up and disappeared forever.

(Slap, screams, various torture sounds, guards saying that's enough,
guards getting beat up....)

- Now. Major. Tell me. Who should I kill first? Dr. Weir? Her first name is Elizabeth isn't it? Let's see. Rodney McKay. The self-proclaimed genius. Aiden Ford th-

- Lieutenant Ford (grinding teeth sound)

- Your second in command, yes. I believe your people call him your 'puppy dog'.

- Yes. He goes woof... woof.

- Any good dog knows when to abandon his master and join up with the better pack.

- You are right about that. But let me tell you something. You Ain't It.

- Take him away! He will give no more information.

- Yes, sir. What shall I do with the body?

- Hmm. Burn it. Alive.

- But sir?

- Oh, you're right, detach the limbs first, leave him slightly alive... and then burn him.

- Much better. What type of fire?

- Oh look at you two. Playing Mr. I can torture and Mr. Which way? Give me a break. I could kill you so fast you wouldn't have had time to blink.

(Long Horrified Silence. Prisoner rests his eyes.)

- You're right. Herman, snap his neck, now. He's too much of a risk.

- Hey, now wait a minute, I can still be useful!!!

- Stop. I see. NOW you wish to speak.

- Yeah. You were just asking the wrong questions.

- Fine! (Growls) What are the right questions?!

- A. Who are you?
B. Why am I here?
C. When did I arrive?
D. How did I get here?
E. What am I here for?
F. Where? But more importantly, where are you and your people Not?
G. How can we help you?
H. Why should we help you?
I. Why do I not trust you?
K. How can this be changed for the better of both our people?
L.-

- Enough. You've made your point.


- Guards. Take him back to his cell. Make sure he is fed, given water, blankets, and a.... pillow. We will talk tomorrow after you've rested.

- Thank You.


- If any of you harm him while I am not there, I will have you shot.

- Sir?

- Castrated!!!! Do I make myself clear?!

- YES SIR!

[cut to commercial]

Camera focuses on to an empty desk, and two empty chairs, bright lights fill the room. On a table near the wall in the small room, is a pitcher of water and two small glasses. The metal door opens quickly, hitting the wall with a loud rattle. Two scrawny, ugly men, drag in a thin, pale, once handsome man. They none too lightly, toss him into one of the chairs. The man's face is covered in yellowish-purple bruises and inflamed cuts. A stocky man walks through the door, noting how ill the man looks, and swiftly punches one of the brutes in the stomach and kicks the other in the groin. These men limp out of the room, leaving the prisoner with his keeper.

Cowen - I see they've fed you at least.

Sheppard - Don't hurt them, they did everything you asked. My cuts are just infected, nothing they could do without calling in a doctor.

Cowen - Did you get a good rest then? [Cowen had yet to sit in the chair behind the desk, he shifts from one foot to another, not knowing how to act around the man now that he's not planning on killing him.]

Sheppard - Actually I did. It was nightmare free, in fact. I guess the exhaustion from a good torture prevented my subconcious from attacking me with past traumas.

Cowen - Er, that's good, I guess? Well, since we're not going to kill you, I suggest you talk to one of your therapists, there must be a better way to have a painless sleep.

Sheppard - [Who has yet to raise his head or even open his eyes.] One would think, but those quacks have enough trouble trying to help themselves fall asleep. They wouldn't know where to begin in helping me. Though maybe I could exchange my nightmares for some of their insomnia.... Ugh, sorry for the tangent. I'm not really awake yet. Did you consider my offer?

Cowen - Oh. Yes, I did. Though it wasn't so much an offer, as an accusation. I guess I'll start by explaining my position and then you shall explain yours. [Cowen walked around the desk and sat down uncomfortably. Sheppard raised his chin, eyes locking onto Cowen's face.] I'll start with your questions. A. As far as I've been informed, your people travelled from a distant point in space. You took up residence in our ancestors city, a place we thought destroyed. Since arrival, you've managed to revive our predators, causing thousands of our people on other worlds to be killed and/or taken for later food. B. None of the people we've been in contact with, has found a reasonable answer for your people to be in this galaxy as you call it. Before I continue, would you like to answer this?

Sheppard - As it seems I have no choice, why not. Let me first start by telling you that I had no idea whatsoever that our people could travel to other worlds before a few weeks prior to our trip here. I was in the dark completely. We are in fact explorers, but from our military standpoint we are here to find a weapon to destroy our enemies back home. Yes, our weapons we have with us were designed to kill and subjugate our own people, and in many cases, simply to protect. Over thousands of years they were developed, crude at first, then more advanced. For the last decade it seems, our government has been aware of aliens after we discovered our own gate. Since then the military has been fighting various races who are out to eradicate our existence. The first team to gate to another planet, saved a whole race of humans who were enslaved by parasitic aliens who could inhabit humans and control their actions, practically squashing the human's mind.

Cowen - Parasites? And it is against them that your people came here for a weapon?

Sheppard - Sorta. Here's where my knowledge of the events is a little shaky. We have had and lost so many different alliances with aliens, some good, some bad, some indifferent. Then our main allies are being destroyed by a race of metal bugs so they don't always have the time or capabilities of helping us. This really intelligent geek who once became one with the ancients, I'll explain that in a minute. He figured out how to come here, positive that the ancients had technology that could help us. Unfortunately, nothing on our homeworld has any recording of the wraiths, so we basically had no idea what we were getting into when we came here.

Cowen - That I do believe. Now, what do you mean, he became one with our ancestors? He died?

Sheppard - Exactly. But then Oma, an ancient ascended being, big white glowy squid, showed him how to become a glowy squid too. As it turns out, these squids are very particular when it comes to when, where, and why, they'll squirt their ink. Sorry, I'd been working on that metaphor for awhile. These powerful beings basically have a hands-off principle, they refuse to interfere with mankind. Oma herself is living, I mean existing, with her own rules, she's not even supposed to be helping others to ascend.

Cowen - Get to the point before I shoot you to stop this migraine.

Sheppard - Sorry. One of those parasite aliens figured out how to ascend with its host. The ancients of course tried to descend him, but couldn't without killing him for good, and since they refuse to destroy evil monsters, the dude is half alive and half ascended. It means he's a HUGE threat to us. He can affect things in our physical world and he has the omniscient power of the ancients. So yeah, that's our biggest enemy, and we're here to see if the ancients left anything in this galaxy that could help us.

Cowen - I see. Well, I understand the fundamentals anyways. As for C, your arrival was recent. Moving on, D-

Sheppard - You wrote them down didn't you? Man, been awhile since anyone bothered to write down what I said, people rarely find my words that important.

Cowen - Okay, D. How did you get here?

Sheppard - I'm not allowed to disclose that information.

Cowen - For now, that's fine, but some day in the far future, I imagine my people will find that information useful.

Sheppard - Sure, in the far, far future, when you're no longer considered a threat to us. What was E again?

Cowen - What you're here for. But we already answered that. F. Where? Where are our people not?

Sheppard - Oh that. Your ancestors weren't born in this galaxy. They were born in ours and travelled here to save themselves from something. We've yet to figure out what that *something* is. As far as we can tell, it was before our parasites were a threat, so we don't know what went wrong. So, you're here, instead of in your home galaxy.

Cowen - I do believe that. The Wraith have so much dominace over this place that I have trouble believing both our species were meant to exist in this one section of space.

Sheppard - Yeah. Um, can I have some water please? [Sheppard makes a gesture to the table and Cowen stands up and retrieves the water. He poors Sheppard some water and watches anxiously as he drinks, fervently hoping Sheppard hasn't gained the energy to fight yet. Cowen returns the pitcher and glass to the table. Though Cowen doesn't drink any of the water, Sheppard is either oblivious or doesn't care that it could be poisoned.]

Cowen - G. How can we help you? I of course dislike this question, but as we have been working against your people's goals for coming here, I'll let you attempt to answer this.

Sheppard - Hmm. It's a pretty simple in fact. Stop trying to kill us and take over our city. You leave us alone, we leave you alone. If we manage to destroy the Wraith, well, there you go, Wraith dead, everyone benefits. And get this, in fifty years.... they're still dead.

Cowen - I dislike 'ifs' but I'm glad to see that you're not overconfident in your beliefs of destroying the creatures that have plagued us for so long.

Sheppard - Yeah, well if you ever hear us say 'when we kill the wraith', it's just to keep our confidence from slipping. Loss of hope insures failure.

Cowen - H. Why should we help you?

Sheppard - To survive. Mess with us and your people die.

Cowen - So I've gathered. I. Why don't I trust you? I think that is clear, your people hold many secrets-

Sheppard - Hey, wait a minute. We never pretended to be farmers and only farmers. I understand the need to hide from the wraith, but fighting other humans in this place is completely ridiculous and guarantees that the Wraith will win.

Cowen - We trust little, your people trust little. In this we have a commonality. Is there a reason you skipped letter J?

Sheppard - Yeah, you were about to hit me and my mind went blank. [Sheppard's body shivers as he's reminded of his treatment.]

Cowen - [Looking bored,] K. How can this be changed for the better of both our people? I assume you mean we become allies, for real this time.

Sheppard - You know what people say when you assume... wait you probably don't know that saying. [Cowen's eyes were turning murderous. Sheppard, remembering Cowen's dislike of Sheppard's humor, cleared his throat.] It means that we stop being enemies, and in the case of one of us having someone or thing attacking, the other helps if they can. If they can't, they can't. Of course if it turns out that the other group actually set up the attack, we're back to square one. [Cowen simply blinks.] We'd be enemies again.

Cowen - Fine. You do make a relevant point. One problem though, putting this into effect would be impossible.

Sheppard - Not true. Return me to my people alive, and no more hurt than I am at this moment, we don't hear of your people for a month or two, enough time for everyone to get over hating your guts so much they can't think straight, then you can make a radio contact, one without any hostages involved, one that isn't asking to meet with us, a simple hello, and maybe a sorry too. And we'll contact you back with our own hello sometime after that. From there we just see where it goes.

Cowen - [Cowen stands up and knocks on the door to his office. Two of his soldiers come in.] Contact Atlantis, radio them that we're returning Sheppard a little worse for wear, but otherwise intact. They'll probably tell us of some neutral planet to drop him off at. Get the coordinates, say thankyou and disengage. If they ask why we're returning him, say he's too much of a bore to keep.

Sheppard - Hah. Thank you. You won't regret this. I can't say this will do you any good either, but it won't make things worse for your people, as long as they don't turn on you of course-

Cowen - Quiet. Dismissed. [The soldiers leave. They look bored too. And perhaps a bit disappointed. Sheppard remains.]


[A long awaited commercial break finally arrives.]