The reason for translating one of my FFs is a written examination in English. To be honest, I am utterly afraid of writing endless chains of dependant clauses (I know myself, I always do that). That's why I tried to practise cutting through my own stories...
Autor: Toth
Titel: Star Trek - Other Perspectives
Spoiler: None
Disclaimer: All rights on Stargate belong to MGM, all rights on Star Trek belong to Paramount Pictures
Chapter 1 – The Siege (Part 2)
It was an agreeable cool evening. A few clouds cruised at the sky, an ocean of small lights aroused the appearance of an ordinarily end of a day. Even the soft waves, breaking at the borders of the magnificent city, were not able to cover the fact that the remaining inhabitants were utterly nervous.
It was time, when the order to dim the lights sounded in every street. Only soldiers made their patrols through the city, always watching the sky above. Everyone clasped his weapon...
“Always remember: Short and aimed volleys!” a far too eager corporal shouted, shortly before he took seat at one of the railguns by himself.
He was ignored. Everyone already knew his job. There was an enemy, somewhere above. He has sent numerous Fighters with the true knowledge that they won’t return. But they should seek out the defence of Atlantis and drop some troops off to cause as much damage as possible.
“Beware! They are coming!” the same Corporal shouted, while four flares were launched.
There was one thought in some of the defenders heads: It was a hell of a nice view. But they revised their opinions at the moment, when hundreds of small black dots appeared in the lights. Dozens of volleys were shot straight into the swarm, hitting and destroying them here and there.
During this start of the battle, Major John Sheppard hazed as fast as possible to the so-called chair-room. It was located in a tower at the border of the city.
“McKay, start it immediately!” he was shouting at the poor Canadian, who worked tired at one of the Naquadah-generators.
“Wait a minute!”
“We don’t have a minute!”
“Listen! This generator can only deliver the power-supply for the chair in a mode of controlled overload.”
“Just make it working, ok?”
“I’m already trying...”
The battle continued above the city, but both of them were so concentrated on the seat that they didn’t recognized two marines in the same room. Lieutenant Peter Samuels observed the next corridor carefully. There was nothing except for weapon sound and hollow impacts. Releasing some breath, he looked to the comrade next to him.
This marine, Lieutenant Alex Newman, was forced to become his roommate, but they became soon friends. They were doing their duty for a few weeks, but they haven’t experienced any mentionable adventures. Now they were here.
“Wraith!” Samuels shouted.
A whole bunch of them turned the corner and started to fire on sight. They answered with defence fire behind their cover, but the evil aliens simply didn’t want to die. They advanced slowly but steady.
“McKay, you should really hurry with the damn reactor!” Newman shouted to the scientist, who was ignoring him and continued to work around.
“What’s going on there?” Sheppard asked the marines and lifted off the chair.
“There are too many!” Samuels stated, while escaping behind a column.
Sheppard went to the corridor and drew a hand grenade. As soon as he threw it into the corridor, an explosion lifted the Wraith off their feet. He faced the soldiers:
“What’s the problem?”
Both marines shrugged their shoulders. Well, until they were recognizing half of the Wraith starting to wake up. The avoidance of further awakenings was ensured after a few aimed volleys. But only several seconds later (they were just calming a little bit down), something strange occurred in the heat of the battle:
A door appeared.
It must be admitted that it was quite an impressive door within a heavy silver frame, equipped with an odd touch-screen console. It opened as soon as it popped up, revealing a small part of a bright and friendly corridor. A woman in an unknown blue and black uniform passed it. She seemed to be stressed, but had still enough time to sneer at the uniforms of both marines.
“Alex, I was ordered to tell you that the mission briefing starts in 5 minutes. You’re expected at the Observation Lounge”
“Oh come on, I just arrived...”
The soldier lowered his head and walked grumbling through the door. Thereafter the woman faced Samuels:
“Besides, when does your shift begin?”
“Uh, I have still 10 minutes left.”
“Good for you.”
She left with these words, too. The door suddenly disappeared.
“What... the heck... is going on here?” Major Sheppard started, while McKay was just sitting there with his mouth wide opened and frozen in the middle of his last action.
“Would you believe, if I tell you that this wasn’t like it seemed to be?”
“I’m not quite sure how it seemed to be at all. Damn, where are you from?” The Major pointed at the sticker on the right arm of Lieutenant Samuels.
It wasn’t a national flag; it was more a modified version of the UNO crest with the Milky Way instead of Earth. Samuels became aware of this, ripped it off his uniform and put it into his watch pocket with an irritating smile.
“Well, it will sound strange for sure, but I want to stay honest. We aren’t in Atlantis... there is in fact no Atlantis. This whole world is just a TV show, published 350 years ago.”
“Huh, I feel quite real!”
“Naturally, the actor who portrayed you is quite dead, but we are at the holodeck of a spaceship.”
Meanwhile Rodney made a desperate effort to stand up:
“That’s ridiculous! We can’t possibly be holograms!”
“You want a proof?”
At the same time a Wraith fighter crashed into a building nearby. The whole tower was shaking.
“You can’t do any conversation with this noise... Computer! Delete all Wraiths!”
Silence. The sound of flying fighters disappeared at first, thereafter the last blasts faded away.”
Rodney ran to the nearest window. He seemed totally confused:
“They are all gone...”
He wasn’t sure if it was better to ease or to be concerned.
“What kind of a ship?” Sheppard asked.
“It’s a vessel of the United Federation of Planets. The... well... the... USS Meredith McKay, NCC-71224!”
Both of them stared at the scientist who petrified immediately.
“Named after me?” he whispered.
Lieutenant Samuels nodded. Sheppard had numerous questions, but the very first that left his lips was:
“Meredith?”
It was aimed at McKay.
“Why not Rodney?” he protested.
“If you take a name, you usually take the first name. There wasn’t any more space for a Rodney.”
“Meredith?!”
“Not even an R with a dot was possible?”
The lieutenant sighed and shook his head. There were many questions in Rodney’s head, too, but the first he chose for the pole position was:
“He hasn’t one, doesn’t he?” he pointed at Sheppard.
“Hey, Meredith...!”
“They take usually scientists...” Samuels denied.
“At least one victory...”
“Didn’t you say that this is a TV show? Who names a vessel after characters from a TV show?”
“Well, the guys from Utopia-Planetia-Fleetyards have their very own humour.... and after they ran out of all the cool names, like Intrepid, Constellation or Galaxy, well, you see...”
Both of them were just standing there and stared in a confused manner. Samuels shrugged his shoulder:
“Well, we could continue the conversation later. But I need to go now. Computer! Exit!”
The door appeared again. It opened automatically, when he passed it. Sheppard and McKay stared shocked at each other, soon after the next disappearance of the door.
“Meredith?!?”
Only a few seconds later, Samuels returned with some diffused gesticulations:
“Oh sorry, I almost forgot... Computer! Save and end program!”
Before his final leave, Atlantis decomposed until there was only a black, sterile hall with a yellow grating pattern left.
The End (because I won't translate the rest of it 
)
