Chapter Text
Rodney had this dull back-of-the-neck headache that wouldn't go away. He'd slept like crap last night, and now he's tired and cranky before this mission.
He drank coffee at breakfast, using it to wash down a couple of Tylenol. His Tylenol stash was getting low and he'd have to beg Carson for more at some point. Hopefully, he could sleep after this mission.
The only reason he was still going on this mission was because they were going to visit some acquaintances of Teyla's and it was 'fair' day. That made it an opportunity to trade for clothes or items they couldn't easily get anywhere else.
Sure, the Daedalus was a huge help in bringing supplies, but the travel time and finite storage space made what they could get limited. Therefore, identifying new trade partners was always a priority.
"You okay?" John leaned over and asked quietly as they gathered together in the Gate room.
"Just a headache," Rodney admitted.
"You've had 'just a headache' for a couple of days," John frowned.
"Meh," Rodney shrugged. "It's the weather." It had been cool and rainy for most of a week, so he could easily blame that.
"You going to be okay to go with us? We could get someone else..." John started.
"What! And miss out on all the fun?" Rodney rolled his eyes.
"You're just going for the food," John teased with a grin.
There were always a myriad of food vendors that was always an attraction on fair day, although John or Teyla would try anything new before Rodney would risk it.
"Not going to miss out," Rodney grinned.
"Let me know if you don't feel better," John said.
However, now that Rodney thought about it, he was feeling slightly better. Maybe the Tylenol was finally working. That had to be it.
He looked around the Gate room. Fair day also meant a bigger mission group. In addition to his team, Lorne's team was going. The chance to find new foods also meant that Parrish would be going along to try to gather new plants for the hydroponic gardens.
Elizabeth stood on the platform above the Gate, watching them all.
"We're ready," John called up to hear.
Elizabeth nodded. "Good trading!" She waved at them.
Chuck dialed the Gate and they stepped through to P3X-392. It was an unoccupied world since the fair traveled from place to place to avoid the Wraith. Even a small child knew that a permanent Fair space would draw too much attention.
The air was cool and the sky was overcast, but Rodney didn't think it felt too much like rain. That was good since mud underfoot was always a pain.
"No going off alone," John reminded everyone. Although Rodney privately thought that was more for Parrish than anyone else. Rodney definitely wasn't going off alone even if he wanted to, John usually trailed along wherever he went. Ronon and Teyla would usually stay together, but sometimes John would trade off with Ronon. That way Ronon would stay with Rodney and John would stay with Teyla.
"Check-in here, in two hours," John said.
"Or if it rains," Ronon said, looking up at the sky.
"Good point," John nodded. "If it rains, everyone will likely close up shop, so pay attention."
A lot of nods and the group disbursed in different directions.
Rodney was interested in following the good smells to find the food vendors.
"I think I smell cinnamon!" Rodney said cheerfully.
John took a breath but shook his head. "I can't, but I believe you. Let's see what we can find."
John stayed by his side as Rodney followed his nose to a tent that had an interesting array of baked goods. Something more than just bread and biscuits. There were cakes and cookies, which drew Rodney's attention.
"That!" Rodney pointed. There was a loaf of bread, likely a quick-bread from the texture he could see.
"Ah! A wise man, looking for the kanéla loaf!" the woman behind the display said.
Rodney nodded and inhaled. "It smells wonderful!"
She smiled as John stepped up to negotiate. Teyla was best at it but Rodney knew that John had learned a lot from Teyla. Knowing Rodney's interest in food, they had discussed what a reasonable price for most foods would be. Rodney let John do the work, and he eventually traded the trinkets used as currency for the loaf.
"Try it!" Rodney urged, knowing not to dig in without someone testing it.
John got out a knife and took a slice. He bit into it and chewed for a moment. "I don't know..." He frowned.
Rodney huffed.
John gave a small grin. "It's fine," he admitted. "Just teasing."
"I'll tease you," Rodney replied. He held the loaf out so that John could cut a slice for him. He took the slice and bit into it. "Mmmm..." Rodney hummed. "Cinnamon..." He turned to the woman, "Tell me again what you called this?"
"It is just kanéla," she shrugged.
"Can-el-a," Rodney said carefully, to remember the name so he could ask Ronon and Teyla about it. Spices weren't unknown in Pegasus but anything that resembled cinnamon would be appreciated by the entire expedition.
John kept up a running commentary as they wandered about the fair but the kanéla bread was the most interesting find. Although that didn't stop them from trading for some meat skewers to eat as they walked around.
"We need to head back to the Gate," John said at one point.
Rodney looked longingly at the meatballs but figured he had snacked enough. He was also feeling better than he had in a couple of days, which he had to reluctantly attribute to getting out of the lab for more than quick meals and sleeping.
"Sure," Rodney replied. "Can we see if there's more of this bread?" He waved what was left of the loaf.
"That's easy," John nodded. "It's on our path back to the Gate."
"My last loaf," the woman said as she exchanged trinkets for the bread.
"It's very good," Rodney said. He saw John make note of the vendor's contact designation. Didn't mean she was from that location, but it was a way of contacting vendors when there wasn't a fair.
"Glad you like it," she smiled.
It was kind of odd to simply walk back to the Gate. Rodney was so used to being chased or fleeing weather or taking a Jumper, that he noticed the simplicity of just walking back.
"Everyone here?" John asked, looking at the group.
Lorne was more-or-less dragging Parrish along, the last ones to arrive.
"All here," Lorne reported, glancing at Parrish.
"Let's go home!" John said.
Of course, it was never that simple. Because they all had purchased various things at the fair, they were going to an off-world site to double-check their purchases. It was easier to check for insects or anything suspicious that may have been planted in their purchases.
Lorne called Atlantis from their secondary location and a small team came through the Gate. They had Life Signs Detectors and metal detectors with them.
"No life signs," one technician reported as he finished scanning their bundles. No insects was a good thing.
The tech with the metal detector was hesitating over something Lorne had among his purchases.
"Dr. McKay?" the man called. "Can you take a look at this?"
Puzzled, Rodney went over to see what the man was looking at.
"It's not something I've seen before," he admitted. "It's definitely not pinging as radioactive but it's, well, it otherwise reads as uranium."
"I picked it up because it seemed odd to me," Lorne admitted. "It's not something I could readily identify visually, and figured I could poke at it in the lab."
"How much of this did you get?" Rodney asked.
"Only a couple of pounds worth," Lorne replied. "The vendor was using it to hold down other things, so he let me trade it out for other rocks. Didn't need to spend anything on it."
"Huh," Rodney said, turning the soft-ball sized rock over in his hands. "Looks like you found something fascinating."
"That would be cool," Lorne admitted.
"Your find, but take it to the lab and have it checked out," Rodney said. "It seems benign, but, well, we've all been there!"
Lorne gave a wry grin. "Sure have," he nodded.
"Anything else?" John asked the techs.
"No, sir," the one said. "You're cleared to return to Atlantis."
"Thank you, Corporal," John nodded. "Go ahead and dial the Gate."
The man dialed the Gate and, as usual, John and Ronon were the last ones through. It felt good to be back and Rodney was interested in seeing what else anyone found.
The check in the infirmary was quick but thorough.
"Carson, I'm running low on Tylenol," Rodney said. "Any chance I can get some for my room?"
Carson frowned. He poked at the tablet in his hand. "I just gave you some a week ago. You've gone through that already?"
"It's the damned weather," Rodney waved a hand toward the outside they couldn't see from their current location. "Just... please?"
Carson sighed. "All right. But if you go through this too fast, I'm not going to give you more until I can do a complete check-up on ye."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "It's just the weather," he protested. "Once it settles into something better, or even worse, I'll feel better. It's the damp and humidity that bothers me."
"I'll still be keeping an eye on ye," Carson promised.
"All right, all right," Rodney gave in. "Do what you have to."
Carson doled out a small number of Tylenol, fewer than Rodney would have liked. But he took them and went back to his room. He wanted a shower and a chance to take a small nap. He was surprised to find himself sleeping through the night, woken by his alarm in the morning. Something that had not happened in a while. It felt good.
The headache was back but breakfast seemed to help. John and Ronon were there, and food -- and coffee! - seemed to help.
"Debriefing in an hour," John reminded him as he got up from the table. "Have some reports to work on, so I'll do that for a bit."
Rodney nodded. "I'll be there!" he promised.
The debriefing was more of a 'what did you find' sort of report.
Rodney was able to ask about the kinda-cinnamon spice. "Can-el-a, I think it was pronounced," he said.
"Kanéla!" Ronon sat up. "Very popular and a high-value trade good, once it's been gathered and ground to powder. Transforming it to powder is the hard part, from what I know."
"The woman in the booth seemed faintly dismissive?" Rodney recalled. "She said it was just kanéla. Like it's a weed."
"It may be, where she is from," Ronon nodded. "But worth following up on."
"I have her contact info," John said. "We'll put that on a mission rotation."
Elizabeth nodded. "New foods and spices are always good."
The others went around and reported on trade goods they would like to follow up on.
Lorne went last. "I found some odd rocks that need some looking at in the lab. The tech said the rock reads like uranium on the detector, but there's no radiation to go with it."
"What would that mean?" Elizabeth asked.
"Something that's fissionable but not radioactive might serve as a power source," Rodney said. "We'd have to work carefully with it, to see how it reacts."
"Sounds promising," Elizabeth looked interested.
"The problem is, one of the fair vendors was using the rocks as, well, rocks," Lorne admitted. "He had no idea where they came from, he thought maybe one of his helpers had picked them up a couple of fairs back. There's no simple way to figure that out."
"Part of the mystery, then," Elizabeth grinned. "Good work, everyone. Thank you!"
Lorne's report reminded Rodney that he wanted a chance to examine the rocks himself. He followed Lorne.
"Major! Where are the rocks?" Rodney asked.
"Dr. Zelenka gave me a small lab on level six," he said. "I was going to poke at the rocks in my spare time."
"I don't want to step on your toes..." Rodney started. When Lorne gave him a flat look, Rodney admitted, "Okay. I want to poke at them myself. If they are a potential power source, we should follow up on that sooner than later. Your non-existant spare time isn't going to be enough."
Lorne sighed. "Yeah. I know, I know. Do what you have to, but let me know what you find?"
Rodney nodded. "I can do that."
Rodney went to the lab on level six. The labs there were smaller than the labs they were generally using and were for smaller or personal projects. Rodney knew he was alone on the floor, and locked the door behind him as a security precaution.
The rocks were still in the rough sack that they had been transported to Atlantis in. Rodney looked around. There wasn't any useful equipment. Or enough furniture, having only one chair and not enough flat space to resemble a desk. He'd have to make a list of what he would need. He opened a new file on his tablet and started making notes.
"Rodney?" John's voice came over the communicator.
"Yeah, what?" Rodney answered absently.
"It's lunchtime, and we have that mission to P59-092," John reminded him.
"Oh, fuck," Rodney sighed. He rubbed his forehead. Now that he wasn't focused on the project, the headache was back. "Okay, I can use food. See you shortly."
"See you there," John replied.
Rodney finished the thought John had almost interrupted and stood from the chair. At least the Ancients made relatively decent furniture, he thought as he stretched.
Lunch was not-beef stew and not-quite-corn bread.
"It's interesting that not-quite-corn is a staple in Pegasus and wheat is not," Rodney commented.
Ronon shrugged. "Corn is more popular in smaller communities. And I've talked to your people about other grains, and wheat isn't something that is as wide-spread. They both can be ground by hand, so it's not a matter of the milling, it's just what is grown. Sateda had both corn and wheat breads when I was growing up."
"Do you think it would be worth going back to Sateda, to see if there are plants we might be able to bring back to Atlantis?" John asked.
Ronon didn't talk about Sateda a lot and going back there was treated carefully.
Ronon looked thoughtful, then nodded. "Some of the growing fields were well away from the cities. There may be plants or entire fields still there."
"We'll put it on the mission list," John nodded. "Food sources are always a priority."
"Worth checking out," Ronon agreed.
"What were you working on?" John turned and asked Rodney.
"Lorne's rocks," he replied. "If they're a possible power source, I'd like to check them out sooner than later. But the lab needs to be built out and I'm working on deciding what kind of equipment's going to be needed."
"Lorne would be glad to help," John said.
"He's next on my list, to be honest," Rodney admitted. "I'm approaching it from a power-source view and I'll need his geology-view. Or decide if any of the others have enough geology background to help."
"Put in a request for a geologist," John suggested.
"I will, but that will be six or more months out," Rodney sighed. "We can at least get started."
"I'll let Lorne know," John said.
"He did offer to help, as he could," Rodney admitted.
"I'll see if he can carve some time out, then," John replied.
"Thanks!" Rodney replied.
He felt better as he went back to the lab. Food was always helpful.