Alias ficlet
Oct. 18th, 2003 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI'm determined to write something every week, but this week was so busy I never had time to collect my thoughts; all I can offer is a Sark ficlet. It's something of a stylistic experiment. Spoilers for 5x02, setup for 5x03.
Title: Sufficiency
Author: Vanzetti (vanzetti @ populli.net)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JJ, Bad Robot, ABC.
Not beta-read, and thus more likely to contain flaws
800 million dollars in gold. Even in Sark's world, awash with cash from drugs and guns, it was a substantial sum. It was the kind of money which would enable a man to do what he pleased for the rest of his life. Would have enabled.
800 million and Andrian Lazarey: now he knew the price of a life.
He kept his face blank as the deal was completed. Shake hands with the bankers and walk out the door. An investment, San'ko had called it while they bargained over his life: his own stake in the Covenant. They wanted the money, but they wanted him--his skills, his connections--as well. And after two years in prison, that could only mean one thing. One person. Derevko. He'd burned all his other bridges, over the last two years.
"You see how easily we arranged you release. I'm surprised she never..."
"Indeed," Sark had said.
"No resentment?"
He had twisted him mouth into a smile. "In this life, one can't afford to bear grudges."
Now it was another round of handshakes and out the door, on the sidewalk under the blazing sun. He considered telling his companions that he intended to walk back to the hotel, just to test his bonds. The final offer had been reasonable, a little too reasonable in Sark's opinion: they must have known that he would have taken less, would have taken nearly anything for the promise of another day of life. Had he stopped valuing his life, he could have freed himself of CIA custody.
Lucky for San'ko that he hadn't. He didn't bother to hide the smile as they escorted him, so very respectfully, into the waiting car. If it disturbed his new captors, so much the better. He had seen the shadow of fear in San'ko's eyes: the Covenant, he guessed, had crossed her one time too many. Business competition, or something more personal. He would need to find that out.
They weren't fools, Sark thought, not the people who had planned Lazarey's murder and his own release so carefully, who had seen the opportunity over time and space and arranged everything just so. Not fools, but that calculation had its own weaknesses; it assumed the same dispassion in others.
Passion and dispassion: he'd learned them both at Irina Derevko's hands. He'd need them both, for what he planned to do. Not business competition, but something much more personal. The price of a life.
end.
Next week, I'll try to do better
Title: Sufficiency
Author: Vanzetti (vanzetti @ populli.net)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JJ, Bad Robot, ABC.
Not beta-read, and thus more likely to contain flaws
800 million dollars in gold. Even in Sark's world, awash with cash from drugs and guns, it was a substantial sum. It was the kind of money which would enable a man to do what he pleased for the rest of his life. Would have enabled.
800 million and Andrian Lazarey: now he knew the price of a life.
He kept his face blank as the deal was completed. Shake hands with the bankers and walk out the door. An investment, San'ko had called it while they bargained over his life: his own stake in the Covenant. They wanted the money, but they wanted him--his skills, his connections--as well. And after two years in prison, that could only mean one thing. One person. Derevko. He'd burned all his other bridges, over the last two years.
"You see how easily we arranged you release. I'm surprised she never..."
"Indeed," Sark had said.
"No resentment?"
He had twisted him mouth into a smile. "In this life, one can't afford to bear grudges."
Now it was another round of handshakes and out the door, on the sidewalk under the blazing sun. He considered telling his companions that he intended to walk back to the hotel, just to test his bonds. The final offer had been reasonable, a little too reasonable in Sark's opinion: they must have known that he would have taken less, would have taken nearly anything for the promise of another day of life. Had he stopped valuing his life, he could have freed himself of CIA custody.
Lucky for San'ko that he hadn't. He didn't bother to hide the smile as they escorted him, so very respectfully, into the waiting car. If it disturbed his new captors, so much the better. He had seen the shadow of fear in San'ko's eyes: the Covenant, he guessed, had crossed her one time too many. Business competition, or something more personal. He would need to find that out.
They weren't fools, Sark thought, not the people who had planned Lazarey's murder and his own release so carefully, who had seen the opportunity over time and space and arranged everything just so. Not fools, but that calculation had its own weaknesses; it assumed the same dispassion in others.
Passion and dispassion: he'd learned them both at Irina Derevko's hands. He'd need them both, for what he planned to do. Not business competition, but something much more personal. The price of a life.
end.
Next week, I'll try to do better
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:50 pm (UTC)*noogies*
no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:57 pm (UTC)We scare me.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:53 pm (UTC)And thanks. Yes, I was confused about why the Covenant people didn't just kill Sark out of hand, and why he might work with them. If that's what he's doing. ("It's called Meduas! Did you get that, Sydney, or do I need to say it louder?")
no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:58 pm (UTC)*loves Sark*
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Date: 2003-10-18 10:50 pm (UTC)hmm.
one might beg the question, then, if sark resents sydney not only for killing his father, but for ruining his relationship with his 'mother', and for taking away allison...and if not, why on earth doesn't he? i love it that your fic makes me think.
He had twisted him mouth into a smile. "In this life, one can't afford to bear grudges."
perfect. magnifique. i can absolutely hear that line - along with the rest of it - in newandimproved!sark tone. this was a beauty of a ficlet.
p.s. any chance i could get you to return the beta favor? i'm nearly done with something, and it needs a
secondfirst opinion.no subject
Date: 2003-10-18 10:58 pm (UTC)I think this Sark is still in the "kill them all, and let the devil sort them out" stage. I'm not sure what he's planning, but it's likely to be a nasty surprise for someone: the Covenant, Sydney, Irina, maybe all of them.
And thank you for the praise! I'm glad that you liked it, and that it seemed in-character to you.
by the way, your icon is, as they say, cute as a button.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-19 09:38 am (UTC)800 million and Andrian Lazarey: now he knew the price of a life.
See, now you've got me wondering if you mean Lazarey's life or Sark's.
Experimental ficlets are good. They're wonderful. Better doesn't factor into it.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-19 10:26 am (UTC)This is what makes me uncertain about the fic. There's a little too much ambiguity in it. Although Sark doesn't quite know what he thinks about hte whole situation--he's focused on keeping himself alive here. A little breathing roo, though, and he might well decide that someone was goingto pay for Lazarey's life as well.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-19 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-19 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-20 10:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-06 11:13 am (UTC)Love Sark's POV and your thoughts around the "why" of his alliance with the Covenant. There has to be more there than we are seeing so thanks for filling in some of the missing spaces
Yay for experimental ficlets *g*
no subject
Date: 2003-11-06 03:49 pm (UTC)If only we knew more about Sark's relationship with his father!