A/N: To confirm, each of Biarmaland's ZPMs AKA Potentia are at 63.666…%, as they're set similar to how Atlantis' modules were set before Janus screwed with them, that is all simultaneously, so the energy drain is universal with all nine ZPMs at the same level.
For Ikaros, let say he's been planning something from the higher planes for a long time, it's just now he's had to retake his Lantean body to continue.
For the image of Elizabeth well that's just something that'll be revealed in time.
On the subject of energy the ZPM from the Tria is at 7.5%, when they stole the ZPM from Asuras it was at 98% but after landing it has fallen to 70%, while the naquadria generators were capable of outputting 45% of a ZPMs output, putting Atlantis' power total energy at 40.8%, oh and if you notice I've scaled Atlantis up slightly.
About the spelling and grammar I must apologise, I've just been trying to get them out as fast as I can.
Ikaros sat back down in the Avenger's command chair, placing his hand on the cool refreshing crystal hand rest that connected him to the ships systems. It'd taken less time than he'd thought to recover from his energy drain; the abilities his species had developed over their evolution towards ascension functioned just like a normal physical ones, exercising them would increase their effectiveness and his own stamina however being ascended meant that he'd already lost ground.
The Avenger's hyperspace computer alerted him that the ship was ready to revert to regular space, Ikaros flexed his shoulders and charged the shields, ready to raise as soon as the Avenger appeared inside the normal universe. He also let the interface take him to the drone bays.
Be ready, but don't launch, but be ready, I may need you.
Ikaros whispered into the drones, he felt them warm up, the explosive charges primed and their targeting and networking systems were ready.
The Avenger ripped into normal space, heading into the darkness taking time to rid itself of the extra speed from hyperspace, that was to be expected after all Ikaros had pressed them far beyond their specifications. The Avenger's sensors reported that there were no ships in the vicinity, after a second sweep on the sensors Ikaros speed towards the third planet, he deactivated the shields but kept the capacitors charged.
The Avenger moved down through the atmosphere towards the largest mountain range, although sensors didn't show anything Ikaros knew what was there and he needed to find it. Ikaros flew by the range before finding the correct area to land, he already knew the area from his ascension, however he just needed to check, it's always better to check.
The Avenger pitched backwards, the forward section pulled up as landing gear extended from the bottom, touching down gently, the landing gear dipped as the engines cooled down. A hatched opened from the underbelly and a walkway extended, Ikaros walked down the hatch and gazed up at the peaks, as soon as he was clear of the hatch he took the remote from his pocket sending the appropriate mental command. The walkway went up into the ship and the hatch closed.
Ikaros started to hike up the slope, he was going to take a while to get up there.
Rodney rose from his slumber, he could here Sam saying something through the radio.
"Sam this is McKay, what's going on it's…" Rodney checked his watch. "08:00 and I only turned in five hours ago, so what do you want."
"I don't care Rodney, you need to get up here now!"
With that Sam signed off, Rodney grumbled and rolled out of his bed and got up, he quickly pulled of his top and washed before putting on his uniform and leaving his room fully aware that he probably didn't look any good.
As he ran up the stairwell into the control room he could see the Stargate's event horizon open and Sam was standing in front of the plasma screen.
"Ah, he's here, Dr McKay Major Lorne's team has found something." Sam turned to him and Rodney saw the dark circles under her eyes. "And if you think you've got it bad you've got no idea. The IOA have had me up all night, their representative was here and I'm now wishing for the days I actually carried a gun. So don't start."
McKay nodded startled by the venom in Sam's voice before walking into the cameras focus.
"Alright Major, what've you found?" Rodney felt his eyelids droop as Lorne rolled his eyes.
"I think I'd better let Captain Cadman explain." Lorne smirked as he went off camera.
Rodney suddenly straightened and to the amusement of the control staff ran his hands through his hair trying to bring some sense of order before straightening his jacket. He looked up and smiled as Laura entered the frame.
"Hi Rodney, look I'm sorry for dragging you out of bed." Laura smiled at him.
Rodney in turn blushed slightly and became very flustered. "Don't worry, it's nothing," Some of the control staff were sniggering in a desperate bid not to laugh.
"Look Rodney I know you well enough to be aware of the fact that you go through every mission report from both Atlantis and the SGC on the Ancients like a neurotic, so I won't bother giving you details. We've found an outpost here containing a device identical to the Dakara wespon."
Rodney's eyes widened in shook and just a bit of hope, if that device was anything like the weapon SG-1 had found on Dakara they could end the Asuran replicator threat once and for all.
Radek hunched over his laptop checking and rechecking the data from the traveller's Ancient warship, Sam and McKay had put him in charge of repairing the ship, well Sam had, Rodney didn't stop trying to 'help' him. But to Radek Sam had put him in charge and he didn't want to let her down, this was a chance to prove that he was just as valuable as Rodney, in fact Rake was going through the ships command logs to find what amounted to the ships normal status, in the process he'd found the ships name, it was called the Illuminasta. Apparently she'd been part of a taskforce sent to secure a place called the Store, although any further reference had been omitted from the ships log, Radek was working on the assumption that it was something that had been classified. He was brought by his mussing by someone nocking at the door, Radek turned to see Rodney standing in the door way sporting his hair completely spiked like a rock star, evidently he hadn't slept well.
"Look Radek have you got a moment?" Rodney looked uncertain and his hands were fidgeting nervously, that wasn't a good sign.
"It depends what for," Radek narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Look, I know I don't exactly give you a lot of respect for what you do around here, but you are a brilliant scientist and to be honest, sometimes you make me feel insecure," Rodney took a deep breath before continuing. "Something that we learn here is to work as a team and I just want you to know that."
Rodney turned and left leaving a speechless Radek staring after him.
When Rodney reached a point beyond Radek's visual he leant back against wall and closed his eyes. Laura was right; it does feel better to talk about some of these things. Rodney tried to stop thinking about exactly where that train of thought would leave given his conflicted feelings towards Laura.
He took a deep breath before heading to the armoury; Sam was letting him go alone to meet up with Lorne's team. Rodney walked into the room and pulled the Kevlar plated tac-vest on followed by hooking his P-90 on and strapping a side arm to his leg and pulling on a GDO.
Laura's face once again swam up to his mind's eye spurning Rodney to actually run from the room towards the 'gate.
Shepperd sat in the Illuminasta's control chair as he brought the bulk of the three kilometre long ship down next to one of Atlantis' piers, John could see the sensor feed in his mind, by Earth terms Atlantis was barely bigger than a town being eight kilometres from pier to pier, however with every building interconnected it contained the same internal space as New York. Shepperd's area for landing was a space between two of the larger piers, John focused the Illuminasta's engines as he gently nestled the Illuminasta between the piers, obviously Ancient ships had carried this manoeuvre before as new systems were powering up along the piers as walkways extended and power conduits opened for repairs. Shepperd's eyes opened as the chair moved out of the reclined position.
"This is Shepperd, docking complete," he kept the comms open in order to keep touch with the operations tower.
"Alright John, get up here now, it's urgent." Sam signed off and Shepperd winced, she was clearly in bad mood.
He reluctantly got out of the chair and headed towards the nearest transporter, as he entered he prepared to press the area beside one of the docking airlocks before noticing that the ship schematics had zoomed out and the cities transporters were interlaced, John frowned before pressing the transporter nearest to the control room.
When the doors opened he found that he had indeed arrived in the control tower, he shrugged before heading up into the 'gate room and up into control area, he could see Davidson, Caldwell and Ellis already in Sam's office. John was prepared to wait when Sam caught his eye and gestured him to come over.
As he walked in he saw Dr Zelinka sitting on one of the padded seats, John looked up at Sam as the glass door into the room sealed shut.
"I've asked you all here to discuss how defendable Atlantis is at the present moment," Sam looked round at each and everyone in the office. "Back in the Milky Way the Lucien Alliance has kicked up a lot of trouble with the Aschen, together they've been systematically attacking Jaffa shipping and have launched biological attacks on our allies."
"And this affects us how?" John felt a great sense of foreboding, he was missing something big.
"The SGC's intelligence has located a staging post for their fleets, General O'Neill and Bra'tac want to launch a pre-emptive strike, but the only ship we have in the Galaxy is the Sun Tzu, and the Chinese won't release their ship for use." Sam took a deep breath before looking to Colonel Ellis. "The Apollo's been ordered to join a joint-Jaffa task force."
Colonel Ellis looked confused. "But the Daedalus is in a far better condition than the Apollo."
Sam nodded. "That's why, you'll have three weeks on route to get your shields and weapons up to specs."
Ellis nodded understanding a little, O'Neill wanted to make sure Atlantis could be defended.
"So, what've we got people?"
Zelinka looked up. "We have a full store of drones in the city and so has the Illuminasta. Overall twenty traveller ships have been updated and I've got engineers from the disassembled traveller ships installing point defense particle canons for point defence alongside the railguns."
Sam nodded turning to Caldwell and Davidson.
"Daedalus is under no condition to enter battle, our shields are still only charging to 50% and only two of our plasma beam weapons are currently operational." Caldwell looked reticent. "Dr Novak thinks that we'll be back up in under a week, she said if Hermiod were here we'd probably be done by now, but…"
Caldwell trailed off; it just didn't need to said.
"Odyssey's ZeePM is charged and all systems are ready except for the beam transports, we've been working on it."
Sam nodded and bit her lip.
Laura sat at one of the Ancient control panel, the outpost contained a curious mix of the older Ancient controls, the kind that she seen in Dr Jackson's files on the time loop machine and the more advanced controls identical to those on Atlantis. She rubbed her eyes before getting up from the console and fingering her P-90 as she walked from the room to look out on the tropical rainforest. As she saw Rodney walking with Lorne beside him she felt a smile grace her lips, a smile that swiftly turned into a laugh as she saw the state of McKay's hair.
Rodney walked through the rainforest wondering why he'd agreed to go along with this until he heard Laura's laugh, he looked up to see her standing in a door way embedded in a mountain side, her mouth wide open smiling as she laughed wildly. That laugh Rodney decided was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard, not that he'd ever, ever admit that. Spurred on by her laugh Rodney picked up his pace running the last few meters straightening in front of her.
"What's so funning Captain?" Rodney went with the snide comment.
"It's just how adorable you look with your hair like that," Laura reached out and ruffled Rodney's hair causing him to blush bright red.
Major Lorne watching the two of them felt a little sick, couldn't they just get a room.
Rodney was sure he'd brain had stopped, she thought he was adorable.
"Come on Rodney, or are you just going to stand gawping at me," Laura smirked as she took hold of Rodney's tac-vest pulling him into the lab with her.
Ikaros stayed along the walls inside the facility, his energy pistol identical to those used by the Asurans was holstered in his belt but the force lance of the kind that was standard issue on Lantean warships like the Aurora was in his hand. Unlike the energy pistol it wasn't a weapon in itself, it was designed to amplify normal Lantean abilities, from what Ikaros knew the Ori staffs used by their Priors worked in a similar way.
Ikaros neared a door, he raised the force lance as he mentally opened the door, not that he expected anyone to be inside, after all if this facility was compromised then the galaxy would be in a sorry state. He entered the room, as expected no one was there, in the centre of the room was a crystal slab on top of a reinforced trinium-naquadah-carbon-neutronium alloy shielding the crystal circuitry. Ikaros stepped forward and activated the facility, the consoles fired up immediately as well as the lights, there was a deep rumbling in the geothermal power systems came online followed by the subspace capacitors. The crystal slab before him fired up showing the Avenger in its position on top of the mountain range, Ikaros sifted through the menus opening up the section he wanted. The systems highlighted all of the Avenger's damage and systems to be upgraded.
Ikaros knew that seven million years ago when his people called themselves the Alterra their civilisation was spread over multiple galaxies their ships had some of the most powerful hyperdrives ever built. However after the plague and the alliance's dissolution and the resettlement of the Pegasus galaxy they were limited to a single galaxy, this allowed them to downgrade their hyperdrives as they only needed to be powerful enough to get to the nearest sector jump gate, or supergate as the humans called them, they had a flair for the dramatic like that.
Ikaros was about to reinstall a more advanced hyperdrive capable of meeting his needs and installing a larger drone storage bay. Ikaros then run a scan to check if there were any potentia left lying around, he knew it wasn't likely but it was possible.
Meanwhile far away in the Pegasus galaxy the Ausran rebel city was full of activity; they were producing potentia so as to build up a reserve in case of an attack by either the wraith or the Asuran forces. The fabricator ship was building other fortifications, namely a network of defence satellites identical to those used during the first siege of Atlantis.
The Asuran in charge who'd let go of Dr Keller's form, she now wore a typical Asuran dress that seemed to hug her curves and her hair was now brown and wavy. She stood before Elizabeth.
"How are you?" she sat down before the human, her faced showed concern.
"Fine," Elizabeth smiled, however the Asuran merely raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I'm completely bored out of my mind, there's nothing to do!"
The Asuran smiled.
"I know," she passed Elizabeth an Asuran tablet. "I asked one of my contacts to do some digging on your original and I've found some inconsistencies in Oberoth's files. I'm not sure what it means but if you want to know whether she really died."
Elizabeth took the tablet and thanked the Asuran who nodded and left the room.
"The truth isn't in some data from the collective,"
Elizabeth looked sharply up to see a mirror image of herself standing on the balcony; she got up and sprinted to stand next to herself.
"What, who are you?" Elizabeth looked at her mirror image, still in the same suit as earlier.
"You already know the answer to that question, I just want you to know that you won't be in my shadow, just be yourself."
Elizabeth smiled at her mirror.
"I don't think so, I remember being you, all the things that you did. I'll never be able to live up to what you've done."
"Remember back over four years during our stint as commander of the SGC?"
Elizabeth nodded, agreeing with herself.
"That one time when we questioned whether we really had what it took to run the program."
Elizabeth nodded.
"Remember what Daniel said: 'no one is, but you're the best person we've got who hasn't been through the 'gate. You stood up to Kindsy despite the fact that you hadn't any reason to trust us over them. I believe you're the right person for this job.' You can help these people; just give it a try,"
John felt searing pain in his back as Ronan drew the fighting stick to a sharp blow; he stumbled forward and tried to make a hit on Ronan only to be swatted like a fly.
"So I heard you and Keller…?" John went to try to distract Ronan through exploiting rumours he'd heard.
"What about me and Keller?" Ronan renewed his offensive, John'd evidently hit a nerve and he was unprepared as he knees buckled and he fell down. "It's my private business,"
He reached out a hand to help Shepperd up, groaning he took the hand and got up.
"Sorry," John watched as Ronan nodded and left the room.