A/N: I don't own Stargate Atlantis, wish I did, but I don't. Samhain and the Leviathan is mine, so please no stealing without my consent, I would really love that. Thanks!
Leviathan / Chapter Two / Tour of the USS Leviathan
"Wow," John Sheppard mouthed as he stepped out of the transporter and got his first look at Project Leviathan. "How big is she?"
"It's a he, and he's about twelve miles , or 63, 360 feet in length." Zelanka explained as he led the group down a stairwell.
"He?" Teyla asked. "I was not aware that mechanical machines had a gender."
"Sometimes we give gender references to our things, like my bike back on Earth was a she, and had a temperament to match." John grinned.
"In this case, it's a he. According to some versions of the Bible, God created the Leviathan on the fifth day, a male and a female. God killed the female so that the two creatures could never reproduce, for they and their progeny could potentially destroy the Earth." Lt. Cadman told the group as she met them at the bottom.
"What are you doing here Cadman? I thought you were a marine?" Ronon asked.
"I am, but after being stuck in Rodney's head, I got interested in science. Zelanka let me help on this project some, and act as a bodyguard for him. You'd be surprised how often a scientist forgoes his own safety when he's working on something."
"Actually we do know." Teyla answered, grinning. "Is there anything else you'd found out that is interesting?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. Samhain started designing plans for a second ship, the female. This ship, the one hanging above your heads, is Samhain's version of the male. She wanted to reunite the two creatures and start a whole fleet of these ships." Cadman explained, a grin spreading across her features.
"A whole fleet of these kind of ships, sounds like a good idea to me." Ronon grinned as well. "Sure as hell would make the Wraith stop and think for a while."
"Let's just focus on one ship at a time." Sheppard advised. "I want to make sure that this first one is up and running before we start on any sequels."
"How is this thing supposed to fly?" Ronon asked, staring up at the long gray machine just above his head.
"Actually, it doesn't fly, it slithers, like a snake." Zelanka pushed up his glasses. "The main body of the ship is separated into twelve, one mile long segments that moves it through space and water. Propulsion jets are situated all throughout the segments."
"Because of these segments, and a unique engine design by Samhain, the Leviathan is able to maneuver any way imaginable." Cadman's grin never left her face. "Forwards, backwards, sideways, up, down, loop-the-loop, you name it and this ship can do it."
"But, wouldn't though maneuvers make it hard on the people inside the craft?" Teyla wondered, a quizzical look directed at the scientist and marine.
"There are inertial dampeners throughout the ship, plus shields, that give the occupants the sense that they aren't moving. It feels no different than being in a puddle jumper or on the Daedalus." Radek explained as he passed out silver disks. Pushing a button they were transported onto the Leviathan's bridge.
The bridge had a gray and blue color scheme with a main view screen, two command consoles, a captain's chair, and numerous computer panels spread along the back wall. Zelanka moved to one of the two consoles, and promptly brought up a ship schematic.
"The bridge was designed so that a skeleton crew of four people can operate the entire ship. The captain's chair is actually a Chair. It can control the weapons just as easily as the one here in Atlantis or in Antarctica. The command consoles control communications, navigation, shields, and are able to hook up directly into the mainframe and take charge of life support, beaming, and internal affairs. The main console on the back wall strictly operates engines and ZPM conditions." Cadman did a Vanna White for the mentioned console.
"There is a hyperspace drive, two sublight engines, and as I've mentioned before, numerous propulsion ports." Zelanka told his group as he led them out of the bridge and down the hall.
"There's a mess hall, kitchen, chapel, morgue, three rec halls, two infirmary's, crew quarters, all of which have their own bathrooms, four training halls, a conference room, war room, and a secondary control room."
"I must say, this ship is very impressive." Teyla remarked, running her hand along the Ancient designs etched onto the walls.
"I'm glad you think so. It took me five years to design it, and another ten years to build it." A voice said and the group looked down the adjacent hall to find it's owner. Samhain was crouched on the ground, examining some circuits from a wall panel.
"Can't you ever arrive anywhere like a normal person?" John asked the Ancient. Samhain smiled and replaced the wall panel.
"Ah, but where's the fun in acting normal?" Samhain stood up and joined the group.
"Where's Rodney?" Radek asked, glancing around, expecting his friend to make a surprise appearance as well.
"Still in the middle of negotiations I'm afraid. Now they're trying to decide terms that would be acceptable to both parties." Samhain grimaced. "Politics really aren't my thing, but it seems like Rodney is holding his own. It's funny though, he keeps glancing at some note cards he brought with him." Samhain shrugged.
"What are you doing here?" Cadman asked, her gaze trained on the Ancient in front of her. Samhain calmly returned the gaze.
"A girl can't simply drop in and say hi?" Cadman didn't avert her eyes, but she did raise an eyebrow. Finally Samhain sighed. "Alright, I was hoping you'd let me be on board when you went out on the test flight." Silence followed this request, with quick glances between the Atlantis team members.
"I don't see why not." Radek started. "She said herself that she's the one who designed and built this ship. If we run into any problems, it would probably be an easy matter for her to fix them."
Sheppard thought about it for a moment, then smiled. "Sure, why not. Welcome to the Leviathan Samhain." John held out his hand and the Ancient shook it.
"Thanks," Samhain smiled and turned all of her attention to the Czech scientist, her expression no longer friendly, but extremely serious and curious. "How did you overcome the circuit problems? In what way did you reconfigure the power to allow for any exotic particles in the secondary power source?" Samhain asked, firing the questions almost simultaneously. It was hard for the scientist to keep up.
"We used Earth tech to help regulate the power in the circuits, and we didn't configure in the secondary power source."Zelanka answered, showing the Ancient his data pad.
"What secondary power source?" John asked the two scientists.
"In order to stretch the power in the ZPM longer, I designed a low scale model of the Arcturus Project." Samhain explained, pulling up a schematic on the data pad.
"You mean the device Rodney used to destroy a solar system with?" Ronon questioned, suddenly wary of this new power source.
"Yes, but this one works in conjunction with a subspace drive, so all the dangerous particles are blasted into subspace. I was planning on using an empty ZPM as a sort of trash can to store the particles in." Samhain explained examining the schematics. "Since it was still in the experimental stages it was listed as a secondary system and not configured into the main power circuits."
"The council must have trusted you a lot to approve of that device. It sounds like a bomb waiting to go off." Sheppard observed, not missing Zelanka's small nod of agreement. "They did sign off on the project, right?"
"Of course," Samhain answered, but didn't meet the Colonel's eyes. Sheppard shook his head.
"Do you ever do anything by the book?" Sheppard asked, looking up at the mischief maker.
"Sometimes," Was Samhain's reply. "Zelanka, why don't you show what modifications you made to the engines before you fire them up? I want to make sure that connections are securely in place. I've been told that my engineering tactics can be..........different."
"That's one word for it." Zelanka muttered before turning his attention to Cadman. "Why don't you show the Colonel and his team around the ship? You can answer any questions they might have. They might find the training rooms interesting." Cadman nodded as the Czech and Ancient disappeared down the hall. Turning to her companions, she smiled.
"Shall we go inspect the training rooms? I'm pretty sure the mats in there haven't been broken in yet." The group smiled and followed Cadman, who explained some more of the systems on the way.
A/N: Thank you for reading yet another installment of 'Leviathan'! Comments, complaints, concerns, and reviews are always appreciated. And yes, I do believe flames are actual reviews so feel free to use them to your hearts content (though I hope you have no reason to). Until next time!