Title: A Light Into the Future
Summary: She had known this wasn't going to be the most normal of assignments when she'd signed on, for heaven's sake she was standing under the stars of an alien galaxy. Still, encountering her several thousand year old alternate self had been a shock to her system.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis, the rights belong to its respective owners. I do not use them for any means of fiscal gain.
She stared out over the impossibly large ocean, losing herself on the slow lull of waves breaking against the piers of Atlantis. Elizabeth Weir let out a breath. The salt-laced air doing nothing to calm her mind.
She had known this wasn't going to be the most normal of assignments when she'd signed on, for heaven's sake she was standing under the stars of an alien galaxy. Still, encountering her several thousand year old alternate self had been a shock to her system.
From the mission reports she had read over during her brief tenure as head of the SGC, she had known that such things were possible, if still highly unusual. Unless you were SG-1, who could probably receive an award for the amount of times they had flouted conventional ideas of temporal mechanics. However there was a vast difference between reading about it in the dry and impersonal tone of military after-action reports and looking into eyes, that held the weariness of millennia, but were still undoubtedly her own.
Before her other self, and keeping these pronouns straight was doing nothing to help her headache, had passed on she had grabbed her hand for a second. It was strange. It had almost felt like something had passed between them.
She stared down into the depth of the ocean below her; indistinct shapes were moving in the darkness. As she watched the shapes began to take form. Vast starships in the void of space. Images of destruction and war. Ancient and Wraith warships locked in battle. Flashes of energy lancing back and forth. Wraith Darts screaming through space, countered by Drones that erupted from the planet below.
She focused, gripping the handrail of the balcony harder. The scene shifted. A group people in white robes standing round the table in the conference room; another man with a kind face and mischievous eyes staring at her from across a console; hiding behind a pillar as a procession of people left through the Stargate; Atlantis empty and sleeping, walking through her quiet halls.
Elizabeth choked back a half sob, half laugh. She'd passed on her memories. Well it made sense, she though wryly, that she would have known best what to give herself for her birthday.
She closed her eyes, walking the halls of the city in her mind. A silent observer.
Opening her eyes, she blinked away the tears that had formed. She looked at the city with new eyes. A city that had been so much to so many: a symbol, a legend, a ghost, a goal, a weapon. But above all, something that seemed to get forgotten, a home. To them and the Ancients before them.
She was shaken out of reverie by a strange feeling. She frowned, trying to focus on it. There! A whisper, pulling at her mind, leading her somewhere.
Cautiously, she turn and followed it back into the gate room. The voices of the various technicians and scientists working there faded into a buzz, even McKay's astringent voice faded into so much noise.
She left the gate room and headed to one of Atlantis' many transporters. Seemingly of it's own accord her hand selected her destination, far out on the east pier.
She walked down corridor after corridor, following the indistinct trail in her mind until it came to a sudden stop. She looked around, confused. She was standing in the middle of a blank corridor, the same kind of which criss-crossed Atlantis. There was nothing particularly remarkable in it but still she felt that this was where she needed to be. Acting on an instinct she couldn't place, she reached forward and put her hand against the wall. Two beams of bright white light flashed out from from the crystalline lighting features that lined the hall, blinding her.
As the glare faded, she blinked trying to clear the spots from her vision. She had moved. She was in a small empty room, the only feature a window overlooking the ocean.
There was another flash of light, this time leaving a man standing in the centre of the room.
She frowned as one of her newly assimilated memories came to the fore. "Janus?"
"Hello, Elizabeth," He smiled tiredly. "If you're hearing this then it is safe to assume that our plan worked, and your expedition did not perish upon their arrival in the city."
"Yes. Thank you." She struggled to find the words that could convey the overwhelming gratitude she felt. He smiled at her again.
"I am disappointed I will not be there to bear witness your success. The ingenuity of your people would be fascinating to witness first hand."
She stepped forward. "But you're here aren't you? How...?"
"I'm afraid all you see before you is an echo; a mental imprint of myself that I left here to give you this message."
She couldn't begin to explain the pang she felt in her heart at hearing that. He glanced off at something unseen, before grimacing.
"There isn't much time, the others will soon notice my absence. My kin may advocate the path of non-interference, but as you may have guessed we don't always see eye to eye on such matters."
A small smile crept on to Elizabeth's face, thinking back to the transcripts she had seen of Dr. Jackson's debriefing after his 'decension'. In particular, his rather acerbic opinions on the Ancients ideas on dealing with the "lesser races".
Janus continued. "I cannot in good conscience, leave our descendants to death at the hands of a product of our own arrogance." He took a breath, his fury subsiding somewhat.
"I've left caches of certain supplies on various worlds. They are shielded against the Wraith, as well as the Others using some technology that Moros thinks I don't know about." A vindictive smirk crossed his face at that.
"The gate addresses are stored here in this lab. Also, there is one more thing." He paused. Elizabeth watched as a panel drew back in the floor and a pedestal rose from it. On it, glowing gently with the light of a leashed sun, was a ZPM.
"I know it's not much, but it was the best I could manage with the others watching my every step. At the very least it will be enough to engage the city's defences when you eventually need them."
He glanced away again. "I'm afraid I'm out of time." He turned and looked at her, a strange expression on his face. "Elizabeth...good luck." He smiled before there was another blinding flash of white light.
Elizabeth blinked the stars from her eyes. She stared at the ZPM, once again struggling to hold back an unexpected swell of emotion. She blinked again as she felt tears form in her eyes.
She took a breath, letting all the turmoil drain away. There was nothing she could do to change the events of the past or even alternate timelines, instead she had the present to focus on. But she still sent out a silent thank you in case Janus was watching from whatever plane he existed on now. With another a deep breath she tapped her radio.
"Rodney, assemble a science team and meet me at my current position," She glanced at the glowing crystalline structure with a soft smile. "I think one of your prayers may have just been answered."