Originally Posted: Aug. 21st, 2007
Length/Rating: 100 words, PG, Gen
Pairing/Warnings: none
Summary: *To Protect. Written for sga_flashfic‘s Men and Machines challenge.

“STARGATE ATLANTIS”, “STARGATE SG-1” and other related entities are owned, (TM) and © by MGM TELEVISION and DOUBLE SECRET PRODUCTION in association with GEKKO FILMS and THE SCIFI CHANNEL. All rights reserved. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.

They were humans encased in stone carapaces, scuttling safely through planetary radiation, protected by layers of living metal. Friendly, harmless… yet Carson couldn’t tell, not quite, if sentience came from flesh or stone.

Unfazed, Atlantis bartered over glowing mosses and cave-grown foodstuffs. Deftly weaving xenogeologists’ requests for ores among mundane necessities; oranges for not-iron, not-tin for chocolate.

And when, months later, Atlantis seemed a little brighter, a little faster, they brushed it off on genes and learning curves. Consumed with repairing, restoring their city to her former glory, they pushed on.

And when the fine silver dust stopped washing off…