Lucky Findings
Dr Weir sighed as she heard the gate dialling in again.
"Incoming wormhole." Reported the officer on the Gate controls.
"Raise the shield." The force-field appeared over the event-horizon of the stargate. "Is there any IDC?"
"Negative."
The shield crashed as something large collided with it. The soldiers on duty, newly arrived from the SGC, winced at the noise.
"What was that this time?" Elizabeth looked towards Rodney McKay who was working at one of the sensor panels.
"We can't really tell. You see, the shield works like the iris at the SGC. Any matter that attempts to come through doesn't have a chance to rematerialize in the space between the event horizon and the shield." He started.
"Yes, yes, I already know that. I did command the SGC for a short time you know." She snapped. Elizabeth had no time for one of Rodney's long-winded explanations, especially when he was explaining what she already knew.
"Right, well," he replied, slightly of-stride. "The sensors can pick up any small amounts of radiation or energy the object produced when it entered the gate."
"Well?" Elizabeth put in, heading him off before he launched into lecture mode.
Rodney sighed. "We think they're darts."
"Why would they send darts? Don't they realise that they can't get through?"
"I don't think that's the point. We've seen they can fly them remotely for a short distance, and they could just be demonstrating their superiority of numbers, despite the heavy losses they took when the Daedalus arrived. Besides, they may not actually know about the shield. For all they know their ships and people are being destroyed by us the moment they emerge from the gate. The Wraith have never got into the gate room. Or, they could just be trying to wear the shield down."
Ahead of them, the gate shut down, and almost immediately restarted.
"Receiving Major Sheppard's IDC"
"Let him in." Replied Elizabeth.
John's team came in fast, closely followed by a Wraith stunner bolt which slammed into the wall clearedand reinforced dueto thehigh volume of weapons fire that came through. As soon as they were clear, the gate operator raised the shield. There was a flash and a crash of something hitting it.
"Why don't these guys learn?" John burst out. "That's the forth group that have tried to get through. Teyla had to dial us a different address so that we could stop a group hovering by the gate getting in before us and getting through. And then we ran into a team there as well. We couldn't have entered our IDC quickly enough to get through ourselves, but not let them. I think they're learning about it you know."
"Fifth group." Rodney corrected.
John through him an enquiring look, and Elizabeth added, "Another dart tried to get through just before you arrived. Did you find anything?"
"Actually we did, though not on the planet we were exploring. On the other planet, which Teyla said was empty; we found what looked like the remains of an Ancient outpost. There, we found…" John paused, drawing out the announcement.
"Oh, do tell, the suspense is killing me." Rodney's voice dripped sarcasm.
John glared at him for killing the atmosphere, "We found a fully charged ZPM."
"Wonderful, why didn't you find it before you nearly killed yourself waiting for one to arrive."
"Rodney, stop being so cynical." Elizabeth said sharply.
"Yeah! Besides, that's not the best of it." John added.
"What could be more useful than a ZPM?" Elizabeth put in, surprised.
"What do you mean? We've already got one that'll last decades with our naquada generators."
"Well, we could send it back to Earth," Elizabeth said slowly, as if explaining to a child, "and then they would have one as well."
"Now now. Anyway, as I said, that's not the best of it. You see, we think it must have been some sort of supply outpost. There were hundreds of what must have been the Ancient's equivalent to shipping crates. Some were empty; one had that in," he indicated the ZPM, "but most were completely full."
Rodney's train of thought, which had been running through all the things that could have been found that would rate as better than a ZPM, hit a station. A very brilliant, wonderful, magnificent station. "You didn't find them did you?"
"We did!" Replied John, sure of what Rodney was thinking. "Schematics and parts as well."
"You're joking."
"No, dead serious."
"Your right, that is brilliant!"
"I hate to break up what must be an exciting conversation, but would you care to explain to the rest of us what the hell it is you two are going on about." Elizabeth put in acerbically.
"Drones!" Said John and Rodney. Rodney had a look of childish glee all over his face, and John's was filled with the curiously ecstatic expression he'd last displayed when he'd announced to a bemused Elizabeth that he had shot Rodney with his gun.
"That's good news. Thank you for sharing it. Now, I assume you'll want to get them here, and already have a plan as to how to go about it? Do what you need, take all the people you want. But before you leave, I'll dial up the SGC and share the good news." Elizabeth headed for her office, feeling slightly better about the day than before.
John hung around like a spare part while Elizabeth reported in, in case he was needed to make a report of his own. Fortunately he wasn't, and so he got Ford to round up some strong backs to help with the moving.
The team were waiting before the gate with Teyla, John, Ford, and Rodney ready to go within the hour. They all stood safely back from the opening burst, but the newest people from Earth were obvious by the way they still lurched back ahead of it.
They all stepped through the gate with John and Teyla, armed, taking the lead, under the mildly watchful eye of Elizabeth. She was unaccountably nervous, but then again, she usually was when a team moved out. She turned to get on with a report to take her mind off of it.
The gate shut down shortly after the team had stepped through, and almost immediately the symbols on it began to light in sequence. "Incoming wormhole." Elizabeth sighed. Business as usual.
John and Ford made a quick sweep of the outpost and surrounding forest, while Teyla and Rodney organised the moving of the crates. Neither man found anything. When they got back to the outpost, Teyla confirmed that she had sensed no Wraith in the area. At the same time, Rodney was doing an inventory.
"We have more drones here than were used to destroy Anubis's fleet on Earth, and schematics so we may be able to build our own." He reported excitedly.
"And we found these ZPMs," Teyla added.
"Yes. Unfortunately they're depleted, but we may be able to reverse engineer them. Anyway, we have enough fire-power to defend Earth and Atlantis from any major threats."
"Glad to hear it," replied John, "Now, let's get these things moving."
John moved towards the door, and immediately jumped back. An indistinct movement, like someone moving stealthily in the trees had caught his eye, and he instantly recognised it for what it was. A shadow. "Oh shit!"
Teyla looked around, concerned, and then she noticed something. "The Wraith." She growled.
"I thought so. There are shadows out there."
"Shadows? There are shadows in here. Why are they a problem?" Asked one of the newer people, who obviously hadn't paid attention to the brief about the Wraith.
John threw him a glare for being so obtuse, and Teyla explained, "Shadows are images the Wraith project to distract you, or make you believe you are surrounded."
"I thought they had to be quite close to project them." Ford put in. At that moment, the distinctive whine of a dart rushed overhead.
"They are!" John replied. He peered out at the sky. "Two darts up there, at least. They must have come through the gate. I knew we should have placed someone on guard."
"And then they would have been taken by the Wraith, which would do only them good." Teyla replied levelly.
"Well, we needn't worry about them finding us again. It appears this outpost is surrounded by an energy field. I assume that's the reason the Wraith haven't found and plundered this outpost before now." Rodney was examining one of his instruments.
"Then how did we find it?" Replied Teyla.
"We used the Ancients technology. Obviously it can scan through it. Anyway, all we need to do is wait for them to leave."
"They must know we are here," put in Teyla "There are no other humans that we detected on this planet, and empty planets are of no interest to the Wraith.
"Then they may not leave for a while. Either way, there's not much we can do alone against two darts. Rodney, do you have that remote dialler you were going on about this morning?"
"What good will that do us? It won't magic us through the gate you know."
"Well, I had the brilliant idea to call up Dr Weir and perhaps ask her to send some back up, like a puddle jumper. We know one of them can take on two darts."
Rodney, a little disgruntled because he hadn't thought of that, pulled out what looked like an Ancient PDA. He pressed the on switch, and then entered Atlantis's symbols. He waited a few seconds, and then said, "Try now."
"This had better work…" John lifted his radio. "Sheppard to base. Do you copy, over?" Silence. "Atlantis this is Major Sheppard, do you read?" Silence again. He turned to Rodney. "Are you sure that thing works?"
"Yes!" Rodney replied, hurt by the assumption that his device wasn't working, "It worked perfectly on Atlantis."
"Well, how far does this energy field go?"
"Why?"
"Well, I want to take a look at the gate, see if it's open."
"The dialler works." Stated Rodney flatly.
"I never said it didn't. I just want to be sure."
"If you go about 50m that way," Rodney said sulkily, pointing straight out the door, "there's a clearing. It should be inside the field. I noticed it on our way up."
"Right. Teyla, you're with me. Ford, stay here and keep a look out. We'll call you if we need anything."
"Sir."
"Oh, and keep him out of trouble." John added then left. He heard Rodney spluttering angrily behind him, and grinned.
On their way to the clearing Teyla said, "You can be really mean to Rodney sometimes. He does try his best."
"I know, but he annoys me as much as I annoy him. He's knows I like him really."
"Hmmm."
John flattened himself down on the edge of the clearing and Teyla lay beside him. They both drew binoculars. John peered at the gate, which stood completely inactive, no symbols lit on the DHD or chevrons lit on the gate itself. He frowned, and reached for his radio.
"Err, Rodney? Are you sure you sent the right symbols? The gate's not open."
"Certain. I'll try it again."
While he waited, John looked up at Teyla who was scanning the landscape. "Anything?"
"No, the darts appear to be somewhere else, and I can see no one on the ground."
"Good, let's hope it stays that way for a while." He looked up at the gate again. Before his eyes he saw the symbols on the DHD light. He recognised the pattern as Atlantis's. One by one the chevrons lit as the symbols raced around the ring, until the seventh symbol started to move into position. However, when it had nearly reached the top, it vanished. The entire gate darkened again. "Err, it's stopped." He said into his radio. "The symbols were right though."
"Oh, thank you. The Atlantis gate must be busy."
"Still, the Wraith only used to dial in about once and hour, and then only for a few minutes."
"Unless they don't want to let us get back there, or someone on Atlantis to leave."
"But how do they know we're here. They can't detect us, and I know they weren't around when we arrived."
"They only needed one glimpse of us. The Wraith are patient hunters, and keen on revenge." Teyla put in.
"I didn't need to hear that." Replied Rodney.
The whine of a dart made John look up, and he saw it moving his way at speed. He froze, watching, not quite bringing himself to move as he saw the darts weapons fire racing towards him. Teyla forced him down at the same instant that the bolts hit an invisible wall and bounced off. The air smelled of burning tin, and all of their hairs stood on end.
John got up, spitting out a little dirt, and sub-consciously smoothing the hairs on his arm. He saw the dart moving away and the scar on the ground where the bolt had hit.
"Err, Rodney, you weren't quite right about that energy field. It seems to be some sort of shield against weapons fire as well."
"Really, it must be selective about what it stops."
"That's nice. Well, the Wraith are now certain that we're here. Do you want to dial Atlantis again? We really need that back up now."
"Right, trying again."
Once again the address was entered as if by and invisible hand, and the gate refused to lock onto the seventh symbol.
"Any luck?"
"No. We're falling back. See you in two minutes."
"There must be some way we can establish an out-going wormhole." Elizabeth was getting frustrated at the lack of success, and her voice showed it.
"There is: beat the Wraith by dialling out first, but they seem to be able to dial twice as fast as we can." The scientist making the report took a subtle step back; Elizabeth looked close to losing her temper.
"Well, find a way to dial faster. The SGC managed and they didn't have a DHD." She let out a burst of anger in that sentence, but it didn't help. The scientist hurried off, looking scared.
Yet again the gate shut down, and before they could dial out the Wraith established an incoming wormhole.
One of the new people ducked again as the dart raced overhead. "How long can they stay in the air for?"
"We don't know, all the darts we've had a chance to examine have been in less than mint condition."
John bristled at Rodney's tone, inferring that it was his fault. "Would you like a close encounter with a working dart?" He said sharply.
Rodney opened his mouth to answer, but finding no comment, closed it again.
"With all this stuff, we must have something we can do?"
"Most of this stuffwas designed to work with a chair platform. We've never got a drone to work without one."
"The gene won't help?"
"No. The drone's need a target to track."
"That one at Antarctica didn't, unless I need to have a few words with Dr Beckett."
"That was different."
"Why?"
"Can you two stop arguing!" Snapped Teyla.
Rodney went to argue with her as well, but when he saw her face he though better of it. Drawing out his instruments, he removed one of the drones from a crate, and he set to work, all the time muttering about having to do the impossible.
Dr Zolenka stood next to the gate controls, while another scientist stood next to a laptop counting down the time until the gate would shut down. Abundle ofwires connected it to the DHD.
"How will this work?" Asked Elizabeth who was supervising the experiment.
"We discovered there is a short delay between when we hit the control on the DHD and the when the gate receives the signal. It's all most long enough for the computer to send three symbols before the gate shuts down. It may be enough of an advantage."
"How long until you can try it?"
The other woman glanced at the laptop. "Thirty seconds."
They waited, and just before the gate shut down, symbols began to light on the gate controls. Before the last remnants of the light had disappeared from the centre of the gate, the first symbol was racing into place, the second close on its heels.
The seventh symbol just got into position as the first signs of an incoming wormhole appeared. Everyone cheered as the wormhole opened, and Elizabeth touched her ear-piece.
"Atlantis to Major Sheppard, do you read?"
There was a pause, and then a just about audible response. "Just about Doctor. What took you so long?"
"We've had a few problems. How are you?"
"Stuck in the Ancient outpost. We have two darts surrounding us. Can you send in a jumper?"
"I'm afraid not. You aren't the only ones who haven't been able to check in. All our active jumper teams are off-base at the moment, and the ones in off duty are over at the mainland dealing with a little problem the Athosians have had. They won't be back for at least an hour, and we only just about got this wormhole open."
"Rodney? Do you have that auto-dialler?" Put in Dr Zolenka.
"Of cause, we were planning to test it." He replied.
"Right, well set it to dial as soon as the gate shuts down. We can't afford the Wraith to be able to set up a wormhole again."
"How long till the next shut-down?"
"32 minutes…now!"
"Right. Done."
John took the radio again. "Dr, get a couple of jumpers ready as soon as you can. We'll holler when we need them."
"Right you are Major. And John, look after yourself."
"I plan to."
"Ah ha!" Rodney exclaimed. He touched a connection with a wire. John turned around, and instantly jumped aside, swearing. The drone was glowing yellow.
"Will it fire?"
"Who knows? But this is a start."
"Good, well, carry on. And warn me next time before you surprise me like that."
Not long after he had stopped talking, the gate shut down. Elizabeth looked up in alarm. "Why did it do that? I thought we had thirty minutes yet."
"We did. Perhaps the Major's radio signal was blocked or faltered for a minute. Hopefully it shouldn't be a problem. The auto-dialler is set to detect a lack of a signal if that happens, and it should start dialling any second now."
Right on cure, the symbols on the gate began to light in turn. As the gate connected, the shield raised automatically. The crunch as something collided with it ruled out everyone's best hopes.
"What happened?"
"I'm not sure…" Zolenka replied slowly. "Try the radio, perhaps it's them?"
"Major Sheppard, this is Weir, do you read me?" Silence replied her query. "John, are you there?" Still silence, filled only by another thud on the shield.
Zolenka swore in Russian. He summed up what everyone was thinking in a word.
"Have you finished yet?"
"NO! Will you stop bugging me? How am I supposed to override these fail-safes if I can't concentrate!" Rodney touched another connection, and the yellow light faded. "Now look what you've made me do. I'll have to start again now." Rodney turned his back on John, and touched another connection.
John turned away, but some instinct madehim spin around again, and he ducked just in time as the drone flew away over his head, leaving a stunned Rodney in its wake, tool still hovering over the space the drone had occupied.
Teyla came rushing in, also looking a little shaken. "I assume that bright yellow blur was a good thing. It just came rushing over our heads and headed for the skies. A little warning would have been nice." She added sharply.
John, who was flattening his hair back down, and subtly checking he hadn't lost any, added, "Yeah. That would have nice."
"Sorry!" Rodney started defensively, "It was a surprise for me as well."
Suddenly a thought struck him, and he dashed outside. Teyla and John rushed to join him, looking up at the sky. Rodney pointed, and they could see a yellow dot closing in on the just visible blur that must have been a dart.
The dart dived. The drone followed. Just before the dart should have hit the ground, it pulled up and the drone ploughed into the ground. Even from their clearing, the trio could see the drone's glow fade.
Rodney sighed and sagged. Reluctantly he turned, and returned inside.
John turned, and noticed he had gone. He hurried to catch up with him. Rodney was sitting on the floor next to one of the crates of drones, glumly staring at the floor between his legs.
"What's up? Are you not going to try again?"
"Why bother, without a chair and sensors to guide it, the dart can easily out-manoeuvre the drone, so it's a waste of time. They just have to wait or us to run out of drones, and then for the shield to fail, and then they can come on down. This, by the way, will be in a couple of days. It's like it was at Atlantis. Our presence, particularly you, has activated systems, and so the powers systems are being drained a lot faster. When it's gone, we can't recharge a ZPM, and then we're sitting ducks!"
"Look, you can do this. You've already achieved what you said was impossible. All you need to do is find some advantage that that'll let you go one step further. We just need to catch them by surprise, and then they won't have a chance to dodge. Now, can you get another couple of drones ready?"
"Well, I think I know how I did it. I just need to dismantle a few drones, but I won't be able to fire that fast."
"That's all right. If you show one of the others what to do, can you get two off at a time?"
"I think so. It should only take a couple of seconds to fire one, but we need to dismantle them first a bit. That'll take about half an hour, at least. But still, that doesn't solve how we're going to get them to hit."
"Leave that to me."
John sent Teyla to scout around behind the outpost, while he looked over the route to the gate. That route was the key to his plan. If it was blocked in any way they would not be able to escape nearly as easily. While he watched, the gate was open and one of the darts was moving down the path.
As the dart reached about half way between the gate and the outpost, it dropped its transporter beam, and a group of Wraith appeared.
The second dart lined up behind it, and dropped another team by the first. John moved backwards silently, and once he was undercover he dashed back to the outpost.
He burst back into the outpost, and Teyla appeared just behind him. "The Wraith are very near." She said.
"They're on the path on the way to the gate. What weapons have we got?"
Rodney lifted his pistol from where he'd taken it out of his pocket. He'd always found carrying one uncomfortable. "The guns Teyla, you and I have, and a few weapons I assume the Go'aould stole or found and called zats."
"Do they work on Wraith?"
"They should do."
"Well, Rodney, hurry up. Everyone who isn't involved in that bit, grab a zat. Rodney, how does your dialler work?" He had picked it up, but could only see a blank screen.
Rodney leaned over and tapped the on-switch. A picture of the Atlantis DHD appeared.
"Ah!"
The Wraith moved quietly towards the outpost they knew was near. They reached the point where the dart's shot had been deflected. Knowing about the Ancients shield technology, they approached with caution. The leader signalled for one of the others to move forward. He hesitantly leaned forward, and the moment he touched the air where the field was, he was enveloped by some sort of energy and collapsed, unconscious.
The next person to approach passed through it without incident, and so the rest moved on.
Once they were all through, without actually experiencing any discomfort, a movement in the trees nearby caught their attention. Two span to face it, while the rest scanned the surrounding trees. Suddenly, the two facing the movement dropped. Bursts of energy appeared out of the trees, and hit all but one of the warriors. While they were still collapsing to the floor, he made a dash for the gate; zat bolts flying over his shoulders.
John burst out of the trees to make chase, closely followed by two of the people John had christened the lifters and shifters.
The Wraith warrior snapped a few shots at them, while he continued to run towards the gate. Once hit one of the other men, while the other sailed over John's shoulder. John snapped off a few shots, but they all missed.
The Wraith was approaching the DHD by the gate. He'd have to stop to dial it, John hoped.
He watched in dismay as symbols on the DHD began to light. He wasn't the only one with a remote dialler.
"NOW RODNEY!" He bellowed into his radio.
The fifth symbol on the DHD lit, and then the sixth. Next second, they went out. A dart rushed overhead, a drone in close pursuit, a good yard behind it and closing.
The warrior ducked behind the DHD, one arm reaching over to press the symbols. John stopped and took careful aim. His shot caught the arm, and the warrior lolled sidewise.
In the sky, the first drone was caught its target, which dissolved in flame, but the second dart was not being pursued.
"Rodney, I hope you've got a spare!"
"I'm firing it now!"
"Good. Now, everyone get to the gate. Don't try and grab anything, just go. We can come back with a jumper later."
Silence answered him over the radio, but a yellow streak was homing in on the second dart that was hovering over the gate, and it hadn't noticed yet. Only at the last second did it make an evasive manoeuvre.
From the trees, the team appeared, all making best speed towards the gate. John drew out the auto-dialler and his GDO. The tapped the on button. Nothing happened. He tapped it again. Still nothing. Snarling in frustration, he dashed towards the DHD.
Everyone else slowed when they saw there was no open gate, but Teyla chivvied them on, and John's actions lent them haste.
Overhead, the dart briefly managed to gain enough distance from the drone to fire a few shots at John, but the drone quickly caught it again and he had to concentrate on avoiding it.
Desperately John slammed his palms on the symbols and the gate opened in front of him. He entered his IDC, then made a dash for the gate, only stopping to yell, "GO!"
Elizabeth was in her office. There had been a brief respite in the gate attacks, presumably while the Wraith got more things to through at the shield, and the gate was still inactive.
The symbols rushing around the gate caught her attention, but only briefly. While the shield was holding well, the attacks were of no real concern. They had decided not to try to open another outgoing wormhole, just in case the off-world teams needed to dial in quickly at the same time.
She did look up, concerned, when she heard the shield shut off, and she rushed to the control room to investigate.
Teyla dived through the gate just after John, and was closely followed by the lifters and shifters. Rodney lagged behind slightly, fiddling with something, and then dropped his radio. One of the other men slowed to pick it up, but he waved them away.
Together they dived into the gate, as overheard the dart lost its chasing drone and was making a pass overhead.
Elizabeth watched in astonishment as first John, and then the rest of this team fell from the gate and staggered across the room. As Rodney signalled he was the last, the shield was raised again.
Once he had regained his balance and his composure, Rodney moved up to the control room, continuously looking anxiously at the still open gate.
Elizabeth moved to his side. "Shouldn't the gate have shut down?"
"No." Rodney brandished a radio, through which could be heard the whining of a dart. He said no more, except a handful of monosyllables as he worked. "Ah hah!" he exclaimed. He pressed a button.
On the floor ahead of the gate, a bright light blossomed, flickering. It grew, and sagged, then expanded to a much larger size. Abruptly it disappeared, and in its place lay quite a few packing cases, the top one open, revealing the drones inside of it.
"Well done Rodney!" Said Elizabeth.
"Oh, it was nothing. I just tied Atlantis's transported into the ones I found in the base. Now we just need to fit them into our defences."
"Right, well, seeing as you've managed this far, I'll leave you to organise that. And, of cause, you know what you're doing.
John came up to the control room, and watched the progress of the unpacking. Something was troubling him.
"You know, we never did find out how the Wraith new we had come back. And, the Ancients spent a lot of time defending this city, using everything they had at their disposal. Why did they leave so many drones on that planet?"
"Perhaps they couldn't get at them."
"Perhaps."
Together they watched the drones get put away.