An Efficient Use of Resources
by BookwormDragon

Disclaimer: Neither the Stargate: Atlantis Universe nor any of the Characters in the Stargate: Atlantis Universe belong to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.


"I just think that it's ridiculous to wait for our gruesome yet heroic deaths at the hands of the Wraith when the answer is so simple!" Rodney grumbled, frustrated. "It's not just our own lives we have to worry about, you know! What if the Wraith get access to the Gate? And what about the Athosians? We've promised them our protection, and even if, by some unlikely chance, we take out most of the Wraith fleet, we won't be able to destroy them all!"

"We're doing all we can, Rodney! We really can't do much more except pray for a miracle." The edge in Weir's voice betrayed her exhaustion.

"No, we aren't doing everything we can! As for praying, I somehow doubt that the Ancients give a damn about us lowly mortals, the arrogant cowards - otherwise, they wouldn't have run away ten thousand years ago, leaving their stupid creations behind to eat people! Prayers - hah! If you want to waste time and energy on that, go right ahead. Meanwhile, I'll just be, you know, actually working on a way to save our asses once again, as usual! And speaking of which, we know where a perfectly good ZPM is, so why are we still sitting here like idiots, anyway?"

"What on Earth are you talking about, Rodney?"

"M4X-703."

"Rodney! How can you even suggest such a thing? Without the ZPM, they would be helpless before the Wraith! We would be committing murder!"

"Who said anything about killing anyone except the Wraith?"

"But-"

"Idiots! I am surrounded by idiots! A bunch of monkeys would be more intelligent!"

"Hey!"

"Look, that ZPM is powering a very small shield which was, quite frankly, inefficiently jury-rigged over 10,000 years ago - do you have any idea how much power is wasted every single day that it operates? It can only protect a very small number of people, and it's strictly defensive. But if we plugged it into the City, it could either shield or cloak the entire city. A city, I might add, which can theoretically shelter thousands, even millions, of people. If we used it only to protect or hide, it could last for generations. Generations! And that doesn't even consider the fact that the City has weapons that could be accessed with sufficient power. We might even find something to defeat the Wraith, eventually!"

"That still doesn't justify-"

"Don't you think that if we explained it to the children on M4X-703, that they would want to use the ZPM to protect more people, and maybe even defeat the Wraith? Do you think that they like committing ritual suicide at 25?"

"So, asking them all to commit suicide right now for the greater good is better?"

"What?! No! What is this ridiculous obsession you people have with death?! No one needs to die! We can bring them here, to Atlantis, with the ZPM! They can stay in the City until the Wraith realize that this was a wild goose chase and leave, and then they can move to mainland if they like, or we can teach them to work in the city, or...well they'll have lots of choices, they seemed quite intelligent to me, except for the whole ritual suicide thing! And, hey, they won't need to do that anymore, either!"

"Oh. That's actually a very good plan. I don't know why we didn't think of it earlier, in fact..."

"Well, I am a genius..."


Author's Note: This is a response to SGA's canon stupidity. While my dialogue is unique, the idea itself is not: the solution is so obvious that many fan authors have used it in their stories. I just thought that Rodney deserved the chance to tell everyone how stupid they were and actually be right. :) I also wanted to show that this solution is beneficial to everyone, and not a case of tricking the "poor, backward natives" into handing over valuable tech for nothing. As Rodney implies, the idea is that the Lanteans will now reach out to other worlds, eventually turning Atlantis into both a Sanctuary from, and a weapon against, the Wraith. Someday, this may become part of a larger Independent!Atlantis AU.