A/N: Sorry for taking this long to update! I just wanted to make sure I got it right. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the result.
I'm hoping to keep updating more regularly now. I'm still in school and with a job, but now I've finished structuring the main ideas for the next few chapters. I've got to tell you, I'm as excited as some of you may already be about how this story is developing!
Anyway, here is Chapter 3. Enjoy!
P.S.: Thanks again for such nice reviews!
Janus' lab
Atlantis, Earth
1200 hrs. July 27, 2013
C'mon, Daniel thought, just a little more.
He was sitting in front of an Ancient screen displaying the equivalent of a computer progress bar. According to it, the decryption process was at 98—no, 99% percent now. It wouldn't be long.
Almost two weeks had passed since their discovery of the hidden section of the Ancient database. He had tried to be as patient as he could, but when he and Rodney had realized that the information available so far was nothing but a jumble and that it would take several days for the mainframe of Atlantis to complete the decryption process, he had decided to return to the SGC and do some research of his own—yet again.
Whatever little information he had been able to understand had only left him with more unanswered questions. He had seen a couple of Asgard and Nox terms, as well as some symbols he hadn't seen before, among the decrypted data. He had spent a few days going all over his reference material, hoping to find something that might look similar to those unknown symbols, but he had come up empty.
Then he had an idea. It had nothing to do with the symbols themselves, but perhaps—if they were indeed related to these "Precursors"—he would be able to find out where they had originated.
He had come back to Atlantis three days ago and requested to use the same lab he and Rodney had discovered five years before: Janus' secret lab. Here, in absolute peace and quiet, he had gone over all the data related to the Destiny and its planned course. From what the Destiny's crew had been able to inform, one of the galaxies the ship had visited after starting its journey was Pegasus. Perhaps it had also visited the Precursors home galaxy before?
It didn't take him long to find out that Pegasus had actually been the second galaxy the Destiny had been at. And if the galaxy the Ancients had visited before arriving at Pegasus had also been the first "stop" along the Destiny's path, then—theoretically speaking—the only candidate according to the Ancient record was the Andromeda galaxy.
Finally, today he had come here since before sunrise to start translating the data, as surely now it would be virtually complete and coherent. He had a theory; now he only needed to confirm it. And for that, he needed to dig deeper into the hidden database.
After more than 6 hours, he had finally reached a conclusion. But…
No, it can't be.
"Any progress?" It was McKay's voice. When had he entered into the lab?
"It's another database," Daniel answered, turning back to see Rodney.
"Come again?"
"It's not a section of the Ancient database at all; i-i-it's a separate database."
"What are you talking about? What does it—?"
"It's the database of the Alliance!" Daniel said. "That's why there were traces of Asgard and Nox languages. It's everything on all of the four great races!"
"No, that can't be."
"That's exactly what I thought, but there's no other explanation. At least from what I've been able to translate so far."
"Daniel, there's no way it can be the Alliance database. From what we know, those races didn't become allies until after the Ancients had returned from Pegasus. Unless the Ancients dared return back to Atlantis to—" McKay paused then made the same face he always made when he realized something big.
"Rodney?"
He remained silent for a few more seconds. "Maybe they did."
"Did what?"
"Come back to Atlantis. It would explain everything." Daniel frowned. "Have you read a report about our encounter with an alternate version of Dr. Weir during our first year in the city?"
"I don't remember the details."
"She told us about her encounter with Janus, among other things. She said he'd taught her how to rotate all three Zed-PM's every 3,300 years or so, instead of using all three simultaneously, to prevent the power from falling below critical levels, which would've caused the shields to fail and the city to get completely flooded."
"But wasn't there a failsafe which would allow the city to rise up to the ocean surface if such a thing happened?"
"Yes, but that's not the point. See, after I learned all about that, I had a look over the power record from the last 10,000 years. It turns out that there were some anomalies every now and then, but since I was unable to determine what it had been, I just ignored it."
"What's your point, Rodney?"
"Maybe each of those anomalies is proof that the Ancients kept coming back here for something, maybe to create this database—"
"—as a backup," Daniel completed, "in case something happened to the device we found several years ago at the planet they used as a meeting place."
"But why the need to encrypt and hide it?"
"I think that's a no-brainer. Just think, if you were an Ancient hiding a valuable amount of information, would you just leave it available to anyone? Or would you wait for the right people to find it eventually."
"I guess you're right," McKay said. "So, what have you found on the Precursors?"
"Well, it turns out that the Precursors are not the Furlings after all," Daniel said. "But they did interact a lot after they met. Apparently, these guys were like the Ancients in our galaxy—seeders of life, highly advanced, large empire. But they also believed in something called the 'Mantle of Responsibility'. According to this belief, it was up to the Precursors to ensure that every race in their galaxy was at peace with each other and among themselves. They also believed that one day a special race would evolve up to a certain point where they could become their inheritors.
"Now, even though the Ancients didn't remain long in the Precursors' galaxy, both races left a strong impression in the other and influenced each other in a special way. They kept in touch for several millennia until, all of a sudden, the Precursors just seemed to vanish completely. The Ancients thought about going back to find out what had happened, but in the end they decided to remain in Pegasus and look after the humans they'd already seeded there."
"OK, here's an obvious question," McKay said. "If the Furlings are not the Precursors, then who are they?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe the Precursors' inheritors?"
The Ancient screen suddenly flashed; the decryption was complete.
"Hmm… this is interesting," Daniel said.
"What?"
"Look, here. This is the only sentence written in Ancient related to the Furling records in the database. It says, 'all these secrets will become clear at…'"
Both Daniel and McKay kept staring at the screen for a few moments.
"Is that what I think it is?" McKay finally said.
"If you think it's a 9-chevron address," Daniel said, "then yes, it is."
In Slipspace, en route to Forerunner Installation 00, designate "The Ark"
UNSC Infinity
1900 hrs. September 30, 2558 (Military Calendar)
"Two minutes from our destination, Captain" Roland said.
The ship's AI had been monitoring everything aboard the ship—literally, everything—for an entire week now, making sure everything was in place and in order. Except for the people at S-Deck who had awoken during the last gap between jumps, most of the crew was still in Cryo-sleep, just waiting until they reached their destination. Power generations, life support, and every system aboard the Infinity—not even Major Sullivan and his… unusual bodyguards could escape from his careful tending.
Quite frankly, he was bored. After all the action he'd seen at Requiem, this was not challenging at all. He could only hope there would be something more interesting to do once they reached the Ark. But how could there be? The installation would be completely abandoned, wouldn't it?
"Thanks, Roland," the captain said. "Stand ready to wake everyone up. And tell Major Sullivan to come up here, please."
Roland just nodded. The captain's old acquaintance had insisted in remaining awake for the entire trip. Roland couldn't help but wonder what his intentions were. After all, if he was only here as an ONI representative, he wouldn't have brought any kind of security detail, let alone the special one he had brought. Was he planning on going to the surface by himself? Did he have any special orders? Was he aware of something else?
"All Cryo-chambers report ready to open pods, Captain. And Major Sullivan is already on his way here."
"Thought he'd be. Thanks."
"Stand-by, Captain. We're returning to normal space in sixty seconds… fifty seconds…" As his countdown progressed, Roland could see expectation—and yes, even a little tension—building up in the faces of everyone in the bridge. Soon they would all know if the length of their trip had been worth it.
At thirty seconds, Major Sullivan came into the bridge. "Captain Lasky, talk to me."
"We're just about to find out how accurate your intel is, Sully," was the captain's response.
Twenty seconds…
"You'll see. I'm telling you, we've been at this for a long while now and are confident the results will be just perfect."
Ten seconds…
Lasky said nothing else.
Five… four… three… two… one…
As the Infinity emerged from Slipspace, the view port became filled with a bright light which was being reflected from both the surface of a large body of water and from the snow covering the peaks of the mountain range surrounding it.
The ship was close to the surface. Very close.
Roland, the only one aboard with a fast enough reaction time, immediately took over the ship's controls and pulled the Infinity upright—a feat in itself, considering the size and mass of the ship. In just a few seconds, it was shooting upwards toward the atmosphere, and with a few more maneuvers, the AI turned the ship in such a way it would now remain facing it from a safe distance, several thousand miles above the surface.
All the while, he had also been monitoring the reaction of everyone else in the bridge and all over the ship. Needless to say, everyone was shocked at first, and he even had seen fear in some faces. Captain Lasky himself was breathing heavily, trying to regain his composure.
But now, everyone was standing amazed at the sight of the imposing Forerunner installation they had arrived at. There was no doubt; this was the Ark.
Then something appeared on sensors. Crap.
"Well Sully," Lasky finally said, "I'd say your intel was accurate, after all. Up to the point where we almost—"
"Captain," Roland interrupted, "the ship's sensors are picking up the presence of three CCS-class Covenant cruisers at 30 kilometers closing in on our position, and fast."
The captain didn't wait to hear more. "All hands, battle stations!" he shouted, then turned to see the AI's avatar. "Roland, have all of our weapons systems ready. I want to be able to blast them out of space the second we have a firing solution."
That won't be difficult, Roland thought. Infinity boasted a significant missile network that could be implemented for ship-to-ship combat, anti-air defense, and orbital gunfire support for Marine forces. Even the Covenant fleet back at Requiem had been wise enough to flee into the planet rather than stay outside and face the mightiest ship in the UNSC fleet.
Placed throughout it were 1,100 missile pods of three types: Archer, Rapier, and Howler, totaling the ship's missile payload at 25,900 missiles. Close-in defense against enemy missiles, fighters, and boarding craft was provided by the ship's M965 Fortress point defense system, a network of 830 70mm automatic cannons. It also had a number of Mark 2488 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons—or Mass Drivers, as some preferred to call them—placed along the ship.
And of course, the Infinity's primary armament was three CR-03 Series-8 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and two reverse-engineered Mark I Energy Projectors. Originally, the ship had four MAC guns and only one energy projector until, after the First Battle of Requiem, FLEETCOM decided it would be better for it to have two such weapons as they had proven to be incredibly effective against energy shielding. Back then, considering the possibility of a Forerunner attack and knowing against whom they would be fighting, it had been better to be prepared.
The three MAC guns, however, would be more than enough to deal with these three Covenant creaking tubs.
As the ship moved into firing position, Roland made sure those guns were already fully charged and ready to fire. The AI immediately began stated to acquire firing solutions, assigning a ship to each MAC respectively.
"We're in position, Captain, ready to fire on your mark," said the lieutenant assigned to the weapons station.
Lasky didn't even take a moment to take a look at the ships about to be destroyed. "Fire!"
And before anyone could even blink, the three enemy ships disappeared engulfed in white-blue flames. The threat was gone—at least for now. Surely more ships would follow this ones at some point, and who knew how many troops they had deployed already at the Ark's surface? They would need the Spartans on the ground. And soon.
Roland knew Captain Lasky had thought the exact same thing he'd just thought as he approached the holotable and once again turned to see him. "I need a complete surface scan. We're going to require suitable places to deploy our fireteams and to start building bases."
Roland quickly made the requested scan, pinpointed some ideal coordinates, and relayed the information to all the Pelican pilots already on station and prepared to leave. He also displayed this information on the bridge's holotable for the captain to see. Now the only thing needed for it all to begin was his order.
"All Spartan fireteams prepped and ready for launch, Captain."
Lasky acknowledged. "Commander Palmer?" he said on the comm. "The word is given."
Gate room
Atlantis, Earth
1500 hrs. August 3, 2013
Daniel was standing on the balcony overlooking the Gate room in Atlantis, watching as the crew downstairs prepared a MALP to send it through. Woolsey was standing beside him, supervising everything.
Daniel had just returned from Washington D.C. the day before, after having been at Homeworld Command for a few days. Trying to convince Jack O'Neill of using the Atlantis Stargate—and of course the city's ZPMs—to dial the 9-chevron address he'd found a week before had not been easy, but he had been thoroughly investigating and he was well prepared with all the information necessary to defend his stance. Finally, Jack had granted him the permission to do as Daniel requested.
Jack's orders had been simple: dial the address, and in case of a successful connection, determine the amount of power being used, then send a MALP and determine viability. If too much power was being used, they would have to wait until Sheppard and his team brought back the new ZPMs to dial again; if not…
McKay was working on a console behind Daniel, trying to interface a virtual DHD with the Gate systems. He had already deactivated the bypass command he'd developed for the Midway Station years ago and which now prevented the Atlantis Gate from superseding the one at Stargate Command. The virtual DHD, a computer model of a standard Milky Way galaxy DHD, was meant to temporarily replace the one on Atlantis so that the address could be dialed exactly as it had been found. They had already learned from the Destiny expedition that a 9-chevron address was more of a special code to reach a specific location rather than an actual set of coordinates, so this measure was necessary.
Daniel had learned a lot about the Ancient-Precursor alliance in the past few days. Not only was he certain now that they were originally from the Andromeda galaxy, but he had also discovered that the Ancients had left a small number of humans on one of the many planets in that galaxy by request of the Precursors. Still, the purpose behind this action had not been made clear by the Ancients. Now, he could only wonder if they would find humans the same way they had on Pegasus. And how advanced would they be?
"We're good to go," McKay said.
Daniel turned to see Woolsey, and they both nodded. "Dial it up," Woolsey said. Rodney stroke a key in his computer, and the dialing sequence began.
Though of a newer model, the Gate was dialing slowly, the same way the one at the SCG would. It took it a full minute to get to the eighth chevron, and by then everyone was already nervous.
"Chevron nine…" McKay's voice was trembling. "Chevron nine… is locked!"
The Stargate became alive, the usual kawoosh emerging from it then settling itself into the puddle that made up the event horizon. Daniel smirked.
"Zed-PM power consumption… is just fine. We might be able to keep the connection for a few minutes and still have enough juice in them to dial two more times."
Woolsey addressed someone else in the control room. "Send the MALP through."
The probe started to move towards the Gate. When it crossed the event horizon, Daniel, McKay, and Woolsey walked up to the monitoring station. A few seconds later, they began to receive a video feed.
"What are we looking at?" Daniel asked.
"I think it's a large room. The walls seem to be decorated with…"
The three edged closer to the screen. They couldn't believe their eyes.
"Stargates?" Woolsey said.
"So it seems. They appear to be of the first model, like the one aboard the Destiny," Rodney said. "Telemetry indicates a viable atmosphere, no presence of radiation. We'd have no problem to go there."
"Why would a room be filled with Stargates?" Woolsey asked, still confused apparently.
"That's what we're going to find out," Daniel said, already dialing Jack's number on his cellphone.
"O'Neill."
"Jack, the address is still working. We're sending you all the information in a moment."
"Is there something nice on the other side?"
"Let's just say it's worth putting the team back together again."
"I'll call them up," Jack said.
In orbit above the Ark
UNSC Infinity
2200 hrs. October 7, 2558 (Military Calendar)
Lasky couldn't help but stand in awe at the sight of such a marvelous construction. Even Requiem paled in comparison to this place. It seemed so bright, so peaceful, and yet so majestic and mighty.
They had been there for a week now. The Spartans had found virtually no resistance on the surface so far, so it was safe to assume the cruisers had not yet deployed that many troops by the time the Infinity had arrived. That, or they were hiding somewhere in the installation. It was so massive they could choose any secluded spot in it and stay there for as long as they needed to, just waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
For now, the ship had already been sending supplies and materials needed to build up several research bases at various key locations, including the Cartographer and the Citadel where Master Chief had stopped the Prophet of Truth from firing the entire Halo Array.
Preliminary reports from both thorough surface scans and the science teams working down there indicated that many of the Ark's main systems and structures had indeed been destroyed or damaged as a result of the firing of the replacement Halo ring, but had since been automatically rebuilt or repaired. Still, the Halo constructing systems were still offline, which—according to some of the science guys—was odd considering it should have been one of the first systems to be repaired.
For the moment, Lasky didn't care about that. Their mission was to decommission the remaining Halo rings, not to build more.
"Captain," Roland said, appearing on the holotable behind him, "sensors are picking up an anomalous energy signature coming from the surface of the planet."
Lasky turned and walked up to the holotable. A hologram of the Ark was being displayed above it, with a blinking light right in the middle of one of the Ark's larger arms. "What do you mean with 'anomalous'?"
"It's like nothing the sensors have detected so far on the surface. It's like nothing we've ever detected on any other Forerunner installation. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in that sector that could require such a large amount of energy. I mean, it is inside of a structure, but it is nowhere near large enough to need so much power."
The hologram of the Ark started to become larger until it displayed only the structure Roland was talking about.
"Do we have any team near that area?"
"None, sir."
"How long until we can deploy one there?"
"I'm not sure that would be wise as of yet. For all we know, the place could be leaking high levels of radiation."
"Alright. Keep an eye on it, see what else you can find about it."
"Aye, Captain."
Lasky walked back to the bridge window. He tried to find the possible source of that mystery energy signature with the naked eye, but it was impossible. A few minutes later, Roland told him the energy signature had disappeared.
Not three seconds later, the AI also told him Sully was calling him from his quarters. He walked once again towards the holotable and tapped the comms. "What is it, Sully?"
"Is it true the ships sensors just pick up something strange down there?"
"Wha—? How did you—?"
"Request permission to take a team down there to investigate."
Lasky frowned. "Negative. We still don't know if it is safe to go there."
"I could find out for you."
"How did you even know the sensors had picked up something?"
"Please, Lasky, let me go down there."
Lasky knew he could spend some time trying to make Sully talk, but it would be pointless. ONI operatives always had a way of knowing things, and they would never say how, no matter how much someone tried. But whatever the reasons, he still couldn't let him go down.
"I said negative, Sully. That's my final word."
The comm link went dead. Lasky walked away from the table.
Everything else remained normal for a long while, until an alert started to sound all over the ship. "Warning. Unauthorized Pelican launch at Bay 6."
"Roland, what's going on?" Lasky asked.
"It seems Major Sullivan decided to ignore your orders," Roland answered. "He just took a Pelican and left."
"Just like that?! Aren't there security measures to prevent such a thing from happening?"
"He overrode them all. Don't ask me how."
"Open a channel. Let me talk to him."
A green light flashed on the holotable. "Sully, what are you doing?"
"You wouldn't let me go down there, my friend. You forced me into this. But don't worry, I'll be back in no time."
"Sully—"
"And don't even think about sending anyone else to follow me. I'm dead serious here."
"Sully!"
The channel went off.
Lasky didn't know what to think about his old friend's actions. He thought about firing a warning shot at the Pelican, but would that be wise? What if the shot actually hit him and sent him down to the surface on an uncontrolled re-entry?
"Roland, you think he's headed to the location you mentioned before?"
"I'd say that's a safe bet."
He couldn't let him go, no matter what he'd said. "Get me Commander Palmer."
After a few moments, her voice sounded on the comm. "Palmer here."
"Palmer, do you have any Fireteam available?"
"Fireteam Hammer could be ready in five minutes. Why?"
"Major Sullivan, just left the ship without authorization. I need them to go after him." Lasky paused for a moment. "You too gear up, please. Go with them."
"Right away, Captain. Any ideas on why he left the way he did?"
Lasky lowered his head, his mind trying to comprehend what had happened to the man that had once been his best friend. "No."
Somewhere in hyperspace, en route to M9R-748, Pegasus galaxy
USS George Hammond
1700 hrs. August 3, 2013
Sheppard was standing in the middle of the bridge. After a long trip of two weeks, they were finally about to drop out of hyperspace… back at Pegasus.
Soon he would be able to see his team, his family, again. Teyla, Ronon, even the Athosians who had been invited over to the planet. Sheppard grinned. Teyla hadn't been the one to suggest that; it had been him. He knew she would never ask for such a thing, and he'd done so not only with her in mind, but her son as well. After all, what kind on a childhood would he have if he grew up without his own people… without his father?
"Relax John," Colonel Samantha Carter said to him. "I hadn't seen you this excited since… Actually, I had never seen you so excited before."
"Are you not?" Sheppard answered. "This is also your first time back in Pegasus in five years, and the first time you come here in your own ship."
"Guess you could say that," Sam said. "Still, it's just a short visit, then I'm going back to searching for a planet with a Naquadria core from which to dial the Destiny. And you'll be going back to your job as second in command in Atlantis."
"You know, I never believed I'd ever say this, but I don't want to be second in command anymore. This is where the real action is."
Sam shrugged. "Not that much, remember? Our people have found the Wraith on very rare occasions since they came back here. Even when they have, there have been no Wraith ships involved at all."
Sheppard was about to speak again but was cut short by the lieutenant at the navigation station. "Colonel, we're about to drop out of hyperspace." Sam nodded.
John just turned back to the window. "Remind me of the reason why we're going to the planet where they discovered the ZPMs instead of picking them up at our base."
"We're picking up seven ZPMs. That many of them will certainly give off a very big energy signature. Our base wouldn't be able to mask so much energy, but if they remained undetected for so many years, then the Ancient facility where they were found surely has a way to mask the energy readings."
"But if there are no Wraith ships out there…"
"I didn't say that. I said we've found no more ships, but that doesn't mean they're out there somewhere. It's just a precautionary measure."
As the ship came out of hyperspace, they received a transmission from the Daedalus. "Good to see you arrived in one piece, Colonel."
"Same here, Colonel," Sam answered. The Daedalus had left Earth only a few hours before the Hammond had, but their instructions were to deliver first some supplies to the Pegasus Forward Base and then catch up with Colonel Carter. Apparently, they both had arrived at the same time.
"Colonel," someone said, "sensors are detecting a ship coming from the other side of the planet. Hull configuration suggests it's a Wraith cruiser."
Sheppard turned to see Sam again. "What were you saying about there being no action or Wraith ships anymore?"
Sam didn't answer him. "Raise the shields and power up the Asgard weapons. Daedalus, be advised, we have a Wraith cruiser closing in to our position."
"Roger that, Hammond, we're readying our weapons," Colonel Steven Caldwell said over the comms. "We're also picking up a distress signal coming from inside the Ancient facility on the planet."
"Yeah, we're receiving it too," Sam answered. Her face sobered. "It's your team, John. They're trapped inside the facility, surrounded by Wraith troops."
"Can we beam them out?"
"Negative. They must have deactivated their locator beacons."
"Could you beam me down there?"
Sam turned to see him. "I think so, but first we should deal with that cruiser."
"Wait. What if the Wraith have already captured some of our people?"
Sam hesitated, then she said to the weapons officer, "Try to disable the cruiser without destroying it, just in case." She also advised the Daedalus not to destroy the cruiser until they were sure there were no humans aboard.
As the Wraith cruiser came into view, Sheppard couldn't help but think it looked slightly different, but he couldn't notice the exact differences.
"Cruiser is in range, Colonel," the weapons officer said.
"Fire Asgard weapons," Sam said.
The concentrated beam of plasma streaked through space, hitting the cruiser…
…and dissipating itself amidst a barrier of light.
No one on the bridge could believe their eyes.
"That cruiser has shields?!" Sheppard exclaimed.
