Three

'Ghosts'

Lilion glances up from the panel she is trying to weld back into place. Movement, something scurrying farther up the corridor, had caught her eye. But the corridor is empty. She shakes her head and returns to the task in hand. That is the second time today it had happened and several times over the last few weeks. Torr put it down to stress and the huge unknown nature of the ship. It isn't hard to imagine there are ghosts lurking in the shadowy recesses, not to mention the very nature of the ship, slowly falling apart on it's journey, creaking and groaning as systems fail and metal corrodes. Lilion is doing her best to try and patch the worst problems as Todd works his way through the systems, finding weaknesses and potential life threatening problems.

First life support, then food and now Lilion and Todd are trying to get the complex communication systems up and running all over the ship. The bulkhead light keeps flickering above her and sparks shower out, illuminating the floor. There! Surely that isn't imagination? Lilion's heart lurches as a shadow runs across her foot and up the corridor. That is definitely not a ghost. She had felt the weight of it across her boot. She shivers and renews her effort to finish the welding. The sooner they could talk to each other from separate parts of the ship, the better.

Torr stares in amazement at the holographic images unfolding all around him. The wealth of information gathered on Destiny's journey through the universe is immeasurable. It would take him all his years and then several lifetimes more to study it all. He pulls up another file with his hand and here he finds the details of a far distant planet forming, a molten, red ball with five silver moons and an unstable solar system swirling around it, planets colliding into each other in the outer reaches. He watches for a moment as the sun slowly builds into a supernova and then collapses in on itself, the solar system blinking out of existence, the entire life cycle of a planet condensed into a matter of seconds.

The days are beginning to stretch into weeks on board Destiny and their lives are falling into a routine. Once Todd rebooted the life support systems, Lilion had set to fixing and re-engineering as much as she could to make their lives on board as comfortable as possible, using Todd as her eyes and ears in the ship's software. Torr, feeling redundant, had managed to get Todd to access Destiny's huge universe mapping database. It is a treasure trove beyond his wildest dreams. Torr spends his days, unlocking maps, cataloguing civilisations and plotting the journey Destiny has taken. He is searching for information on this planet Earth that Colonel Telford had mentioned. It seems that Atlantis, and Torr smiles at the thought, is real and not a myth, his theory about the city had been right all along, a city ship built by the Ancients that these humans took back to Earth after a battle with the ancestral Wraith. Perhaps a sister ship to Destiny. Todd had given them as much information as he could about the city, the human crew and Earth but his bioscan is ancient and there are gaps in his memory. What Torr could do with is talking to Colonel Telford again to try and piece together just how far Earth and Atlantis is from the Pegasus galaxy and if Destiny is taking them there.

'So, there was definitely something there. I felt it! It ran right over my boot. There is something on board with us.' Lilion talks between stuffing spoonfuls of protein soup into her mouth. Torr watches as the green, gelatinous mix of carbohydrates, proteins and minerals drips from the spoon she is waving mid-air to underline her description of the mornings events.

'It is real, alive! Gives me the creeps. Anyway as soon as we can bioscan the whole ship, we can find out what it is. And then. I'm going to blast the horrible creepy thing out of existence!' she shudders at the thought of them and continues to eat. 'Not hungry?' Lilion points to Torr's untouched soup. 'It won't taste any better if you let if get cold.'

'Not hungry, no. Look, don't yell at me but I do think we are under a lot of stress and... the ship is old and...'

'You still think I'm imagining them!' Lilion can feel the anger rise at Torr's inability to believe her.

'No. No! That's not what I said Lili, I think you could projecting your very real concerns about our situation into manifestations of ghosts... Lilion!' Torr tries to dodge the spoonful of soup she flicks at him but is too late and it hits him squarely in the face.

'Lili, look. I'm sorry. I've just got other things on my mind. I want to try and talk to that Colonel Telford again.'

'For a start I am not imagining them, wait till one runs over your foot and secondly, I don't think it's a good idea to let the Colonel take control of me again, not with the mood I'm in at the moment!'

'I thought I'd try using the communication stones.'

'You?'

'Yes but you can secure me so I can't cause any damage and we can get Todd to knock me out if the Colonel tries anything. I want to see if we can find out how far we are from Earth and how long before we get there.'

'OK but let me at least get the communication systems up and running first.' Lilion finishes her soup and points to Torr's bowl.

'Help yourself. I've had enough already.' Todd pushes his bowl over to her and watches as she tucks in.

Todd stands with his arms folded, watching as Lilion ties Torr to the chair next to the Ancient communications stones. She leaves just enough give on one arm for Torr to be able to touch the stones.

'Are you quite sure those bindings will hold?'

'Quite sure Todd. But, should it get out of hand, you can send another electrical charge to him?'

'As long as his hands are on the console, yes.'

''I am still here you know.' Torr tries to wrestle out of the bindings but only succeeds in tipping over the chair he is on.

'See, he can't get free.' As Lilion heaves Torr and the chair back into place, he notices something.

'Lili, where's your blast gun?'

'I've hidden it and Todd has securely locked it so I can't retrieve it under duress. I don't want Telford trying to snatch back the ship or taking permanent control over you!' She drops a swift kiss on his cheek. 'I don't want to be alone on this ship with just a load of ghosts for company. Ready?'

Lilion stands back with Todd and watches as Torr reaches out and holds one of the communication stones.

'So, you've worked out how to use them, I see.'

Lilion stares for a second or two at Torr, despite it physically being him, the personality is very different.

'Colonel Telford?'

'Yes, and you are?' Telford tries to loosen the bindings on his arms but it is no good, he is held captive in the chair.

'Lilion, I think you've already met Todd. Look, we have some questions we'd like you to answer.'

'Untie me and I'll happily answer them.'

'That isn't going to happen. We think this ship is heading for your planet Earth but we don't know the location of the planet in relation to the Pegasus galaxy, or what we will find when we get there...'

'Ask him how he has a communication stone if he is in some kind of stasis pod on Atlantis. ' Todd interrupts.

'Good question. I stole one and pocketed it before I went into stasis. Thought it might come in handy, in case...' Telford trails off.

'Stasis?' Lilion asks, not liking the way Telford has left his sentence unfinished.

'The Ancients had perfected the ability to suspend life in a deep state of hibernation for thousands of years called stasis.' Todd answers her question. 'To use the communication stones two people have to holding them at the same time.'

'So why are you in stasis on Atlantis?' Lilion moves round to face Colonel Telford face on, finding it hard to cope with Torr's body taken over and glad she'd locked away her blast gun.

'Because... because is a long story, untie me and I'll tell you.'

'No! Just answer the question or I'll get Todd to shock you back into stasis, permanently.'

Telford sighs and watches Lilion for a moment or two. 'That's my choice, answer your questions or be sent back into stasis?'

'No, answer my questions and then be sent back into stasis... alive.'

Telford smiles. 'You're tough! Are you Athosian?'

For a moment, Telford notices Lilion recoil slightly at the question, she didn't like being called Athosian. He notes her reaction and waits for her answer.

'I am a Traveler, not Athosian. So, do you want to return alive or dead to Atlantis?'

'OK! OK, you win. Fire away... with the questions that is!'

Lilion and Todd listen to the Colonel as he recounts the reason he is in a stasis pod with a communication stone.

'After Atlantis arrived back at Earth, it was business as usual, Stargate Command continued with it's missions through the Stargates to other galaxies. But, and I'm not completely sure about how it happened, there was some scientific discussion about it being the effect of two Stargates on one planet... a large planetoid sized object broke free from the Kuiper Belt and was launched into a direct trajectory with Earth. There wasn't enough time to destroy it. It hit Earth and exploded.. it was what they call an extinction event. We were able to sink the city of Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean with the remnants of Stargate Command and, using the stasis chambers, hoped to ride out the worst of the impact until we could re-float and try and rebuild what was left of civilisation. I guess, if this is two thousand years later, nothing was left to rebuild... I took the stone as a... as a potential way to get off the planet... to find help, if the worst...'

'So you wanted this ship to launch a rescue mission for Atlantis?' Todd paces up and down, evaluating the information.

'Yes! Yes. But it may be too late for Earth. I thought you were a real Wraith... you have to understand...'

'Well, I still don't trust you enough to untie you after last time.' Lilion sits down in front of Telford.

'But I think we are after the same thing. Getting to Atlantis. If you can tell us the location of Earth and how long before we get there, we will try and rescue you and your crew. Deal?'

Telford stares into Lilion's eyes and see there is no room for manoeuvre.

'Deal.'

'Good. Let's get to work. Todd can you project the star maps into this room?'

As Lilion, Todd and Colonel Telford start to work together to plot how far from Earth Destiny is, in it's dimly lit corridors and empty recesses, run small, shadowy creatures, growing in the sudden warmth as the ship comes back to life, while Torr, in suspended state of hibernation deep in the bowels of the submerged city of Atlantis, dreams the dreams of ghosts.