A/N:

First of all, I would like to thank you all very much for reading and especially thank all those who posted such kind reviews. Especially when that's what gets writers going much better - it gets me the idea the whole work of writing was worth something after all. Without you those stories would end up 'in the drawer" or even forgotten and never written. Thank you so very much.

There was one thing that I thought about the Ancients - we know they do not know everything, we know they have limits, remember that. Even in their ascended state they were using the gate to travel, so they probably can't just will themselves into some other place. That's why I pictured Janus in the Milky Way. I think even though he returned here at some point he would rather go back at some point and when Atlantis came back to Earth he would have accompanied it so he's back but knows everything that might have happened in Pegasus that can threaten lives there.

Remember that Elizabeth's body that was infected by nanites was destroyed in order for her to "digitally ascend" so that body is out of question. And no, to spoiler, there are no "parts" of Elizabeth, or cloned consciousnesses (seen that routes written or filmed, liked them, had another idea). You will have to wait and see for the explanation I gave.

Remember the Coalition? We get to whine at them in this chapter a little. And we have company for doing that :)

Have a nice read :)

The first week in Pegasus was a flurry of activity for all the teams since it was essential to reestablish contact with all the major civilizations already met in the galaxy. Lt colonel Lorne was sent to contact the Coalition as the one with the calmest and most diplomatic team in the City. Teyla, with John and the rest of the team spent a week with the Athosians on their new planet and surprisingly Zelenka volunteered to go check on the kid society and their ZPM powered protection mechanism.

One of the most surprising calls the City got was a dial-in from the Genii home world during the second week. Ladon Radim came by himself without any security but accompanied by some scientists.

"Any questions, Ladon?" John asked. "That's a company for Rodney, not for us, really."

"I brought them here with some drives." Ladon answered sweetly. "There are some unusual readings you might be interested in. We're not really interested in space right now but you, with your ships, might."

"You're saying there is something happening in space in Pegasus?" Woolsey asked a little worried. "How do you know ti?"

"Our scientists were tracking the Wraith and their communication for the better part of last months. The chatter increased first after you left. Then, suddenly it stopped. It seems they had gone into hiding or just stopped communicating between the hives."

"Maybe they just changed the frequency they communicate on?" Rodney suggested bending over his laptop that had the data storage devices connected.

"We monitor any transmissions and sometimes we can't decipher the signal, but any transmission that is there we pickup." Ladon said. "At first we thought they just switched to their telepathic link but we are unable to detect any hive movement lately. What's more the Travelers started to travel in larger groups in the last weeks as well as dropped off a lot of their people on the ground on both inhabited and uninhabited planets. It looks like they are afraid of something."

"And you are interested in it because?" Rodney sneered. "Don't get me wrong, but space isn't your domain, right?"

"It isn't… yet" at that Ladon's statement Rodney made a face. "We don't have spaceships now, but we're working on air ships, so it's a natural progression, right? Besides anything that is the threat n space is easily turned into a threat that can land on the ground."

"He's right." Sheppard agreed. "If there's something frying around and creating problems not just for the Wraith but for the people then it's bad for all of us."

"I just don't get it." Richard cut in. "We've talked with the Coalition and they said everything was fine in here. Why didn't you inform them there is a possible threat out there?"

"We did." Radim said with an angry face. "They just didn't seem to listen. Told us that we were worrying about imagined problem. They think that it doesn't concern them. The Travelers had similar success in making the Coalition believe the threat was real."

"So…" John started looking at Radim "the Coalition didn't want to listen to you so you turned to us? Bit extreme even for you."

"The threat is real, Sheppard." Ladon growled. "I would like it cut before it affects my people too much."

"Too much?" Ronon asked. "You said it like it already affected your people."

"It did. The Travelers were transporting some goods for us from a planet with a space gate. For a fee they wanted…" Ladon added seeing questioning look from Teyla. "They never made it to our planet. The representatives showed up and didn't know what happened with their ship. It disappeared. With my cargo and thirty Travelers. So, two peoples are at loss here."

"Now it makes sense…" Ronon commented.

"But it's not only us. There is a problem on the ground too." Ladon continued. "Some of the more developed cultures, those with technology not such as ours but still higher than usual reported that someone was stealing their technology. They didn't want to join the Coalition in fear that they would have to share their technological developments and stayed relatively isolated from the rest of the galaxy but now they contacted us with their problem."

"If someone is stealing technology and at the same time messing with something in space then we might be in much trouble." Woolsey decided. "We need to get a closer look at it when the Daedalus gets here."

"You have no idea." Rodney commented looking up from his laptop with a strange look on his face. "There is an energy pattern left in space from a disturbance in the hyperspace windows."

"And you know that how?" John asked.

"From the incident with the Vanir." Rodney whined. "That's the residue radiation that was left when the Hives started exploding when entering the hyperspace. It could explain why they stopped moving or communicating."

"Disable dialing of the Stargate, now!" Woolsey pointed to Amelia, who ran to the console to tap at it furiously. "The last time the Attero device was activated gates started blowing up." He answered the yet unspoken question Radim was about to ask.

"Don't need that." Rodney opposed. "It will just cut us from the gate system, not do any good."

"Why is that, doctor McKay?" Richard asked.

"The reside radiation is at least a week old this one and we've been using the gate almost continually those past two weeks. If there was any side effect we would have encountered it already." Rodney explained. "Besides we did destroy the Attero. It must be something else now."

"That doesn't make it better." John said. "It just means we don't know more that at the beginning."

"The Daedalus should be here in several days, we'll know more with their sensors." Rodney added. "But this kind of technology can only mean trouble. For all of us. The stargate doesn't blow but who knows what side effects we'll experience."

"You say the Coalition didn't seem concerned about the situation?" Teyla asked looking at Radim.

"No. That's why we chose to sever our connection with them." Ladon said.

"You did what?!" Teyla was stunned.

"They are not going to do anything about it so they're of no use. Ignorance is not something we look for in an ally."

That shut everyone up for good. Although everyone wanted to say that quitting like that was not fair to the rest of the Coalition it was clear that letting facts like that slide was a serious error in judgment that could lead to a major problem in the future.

"You're not telling us something." Ronon suddenly said. "There is more if you came to us."

"My good friend Ronon… suspicious as always." The Genii sneered.

"But he's right, commander Radim." Woolsey turned towards him. "What are you not telling us?"

Ladon Radim seemed to think about disclosing more but finally breathed deeply and started talking.

"There was a lot of technology stolen from our labs as well." Ladon admitted. "We fear there may be some Genii involved in the rogue group we talk about."

"Of course there are." John sneered. "And you didn't think it was important to mention it?"

"It's not material to the problem."

"Do you have any idea who exactly may be involved from your group?" Woolsey asked.

"There was no one missing when we did a headcount last week. We believe it was someone from the old undercover operations with connections to our science labs." Ladon admitted. "They knew exactly what they were doing. They stole things without any damage to our security systems but using very old codes we didn't get to changing yet. All the present security and scientists use new codes and are unaware of the old ones. We made sure of it."

"Not sure enough." Ronon mumbled.

"We still need to figure out what this is." John stated. "If some rogue Genii group is involved in stealing technology from other races it can't be good. If the Travelers are being robbed as well then it means they had risen in their tech above the usual level. We will do more with help from the Daedalus. Until then maybe Rodney should be in contact with the Genii scientists to share knowledge…" Sheppard raised his hand effectively quieting Rodney before he could protest. "I will get in touch with the Travelers if Ladon here will help me localize their current base of operations."

"Of course."

"That is a good idea, colonel Sheppard." Woolsey admitted. "Looks like some of the problems we'll need to take care of on our own. I will send Lorne to talk with the Coalition that we believe there might be some threat but if they want to underestimate it we'll pretend to follow their lead. This way we'll not be in any trouble from them about it."

It was a hard time for John's team for the next few days. Teyla and Ronon decided to follow up with some marines for company to check on more civilizations. The basic reason of establishing contact was overridden with the concealed one – concentrating on checking if other cultures encountered any problems. Seemed that a lot of them started feeling threatened by an enemy that could not even be traced or seen. A lot of cultures were in contact with the Travelers and knew about the missing ships. Especially when the ships were supposed to transport some of the supplies for those worlds and didn't eventually come. Everywhere they went Teyla heard that the Coalition was uninterested of the threat and everywhere they went they were asked if Atlantis was going to provide help and protection should the need arise. The representative team was warned after the first such mission to be cautious not to alienate the Coalition with undermining their role in the Galaxy so no promises were made but a lot of codes were handed for the instances of trouble.

Rodney had a similarly busy week travelling from Atlantis to the Genii home world and back almost every day and in the meantime working furiously with the scientists on both places. The radioactive residue was very similar to the Attero device but not exactly the same. It had, however, many similarities with the Asgard hyperdrive technology as it turned out after the full analysis. That discovery prompted a lot of uneasiness amongst the members of the expedition. The Vanir were not a really big group when they were last encountered but who could know how many of them there really were in the Galaxy. If there was a group of them preparing some means to destroy the Wraith without any thought about the wellbeing of the Pegasus natives it could mean a very serious complications and danger for everyone.

John managed to get in contact with Larrin after almost two days of searching through all the places Genii got in their databases as possible ports. Turned out it was the Travelers who initiated contact every single time and every time it was from a different planet. The last one seemed to work out though and as soon as John got out from the space gate there was a huge and obviously Lantian warship waiting in orbit for anyone to find. He pushed the Puddle Jumper in its direction and quickly decloaked as well as activated the communication systems to contact the ship.

"This is colonel John Sheppard from Atlantis, please come in." John started calling. "This is colonel John Sheppard from Atlantis, requesting access to the ship to land, please respond."

"The port hangar bay is open, nice to hear your voice, Sheppard." Larrin greeted through the comm..

The landing on a vessel such big as the Aurora class Lantian battleship was always a kind of adventure. It's landing bay was almost big enough to house entire Daedalus and there was place for more than thirty jumpers to park easily with much space. If you wanted to check how much ships could be packed without comfort of their own piers you could be overwhelmed by the amount. With all that greatness it was surprising how easily and efficiently you could move through the ship itself since it had no transporters and relayed on walking only. Soon after exiting the Jumper John reached the control room of the ship where the chair and all the main consoles were situated and where Larrin was waiting for him.

"Nice to see you're okay." John started. "I heard your people run into some trouble recently."

"You heard right, Sheppard." Larrin answered. "We've lost at least two ships in the last month and we can't localize them or their wreckage even though we dispatched ships to look for them on their routes."

"And?"

"Nothing yet but we managed to search the paths at least three times, covering all the places it could vary from course." Larrin looked at him closely. "How do you know? And when did you all get back to Pegasus?"

"We arrived almost three weeks ago but couldn't contact your people. You kind of hid, you know."

"So, how did you do it now?"

"The Genii contacted us." John explained. "Said they were in contact with you, so… Anyway, seems we have a problem, right? What ships did you lose?"

"The two we know about were the ones your engineers helped us with the hyperdrive. There are at least three more that were due to come back yesterday or two days ago and still didn't make any contact so we think they may be lost as well." Larrin said leading John into a small office originally meant for the commanding officer. "The Coalition doesn't want to hear that there is something wrong in the galaxy."

"We know, we confronted them after our talks with the Genii. We make it seem like we agree not to do anything but our scientists are working with Ladon Radim's and we're planning on expanding our checks when the Daedalus gets here any day now."

"You better check if they are alive, Sheppard." Larrin said gravelly. "The Wraith stopped travelling in the hyperspace altogether for now and we ourselves started relying on basic drives and stargates for now as long as we don't know what is happening."

"McKay found out that there was something there with similarities to the Attero Device the Vanir activated once. You know, the one that blew up the gates. It turned out to be a dead end, but there definitely is something wrong so… you need to keep safe."

"You should better check on your own vessel." Larrin suggested. "So far the majority of our fleet never encountered any problems but we've lost some of the ships with your modifications and your spare parts."

"Crap…" John suddenly connected some facts. "The Daedalus should have been in Atlantis yesterday and they didn't even make contact since they entered the Galaxy several days ago."

"Then she may be lost just as our vessels."

John returned to Atlantis in a hurry after that. He didn't even let the jumper land properly before raising from his chair and running out to the control room.

"Chuck, is the Daedalus here yet?"

"No, sir, not yet."

"Has there been any contact?" John continued with rising anxiety.

"No, not since they called from just inside the Pegasus galaxy." Chuck answered. "They usually make a short stop there for the hyperdrive to cool down from the long voyage through the void between galaxies. It usually takes them about three to five hours."

"Why do they do that again?"

"The hyperdrive functions better without such long trips done in one leg. Something about…"

"Okay, I get it. Better to stop for a minute than push it all the way. But they are in radio range and are able to communicate right now, right?"

"They should be. Their systems were operational when they made contact just before jumping into the window." Chuck admitted. "It's really not like them not to make any contact. We tried to reach them several times but they didn't respond to any of it."

"Where's Woolsey?" John asked.

"In his room. Shall I radio him to come here?"

"Tell him I'll be right there to talk to him." John answered heading to the transporter. "Radio McKay, Teyla and Ronon too. I'm afraid we need to get moving now, there may not be much time. Get Lorne and his team as well, it would go faster with two jumpers." John shouted punching the right dot on the screen of the transporter. "And get me a gate address to a closest planet to their pit stop by the time I get back."

"What is so important that you couldn't wait to discuss, colonel?" Richard Woolsey asked putting his expedition jacket on while walking with John back in the direction of the control room. "You seem upset."

"I'm afraid the Daedalus might have been lost just like the Travelers' ships."

"Why is that?"

"Larrin thinks the ships that were lost to them were mainly those we retrofitted with technology from the Daedalus." John explained. "And we're out of contact with them far too long. Add to it that they're overdue which didn't yet happen without reason and Caldwell's neatness and you have a highly suspicious situation."

"What do you think we should do?" Richard asked coming with John out of the transporter and into the control room. "How can we check it?"

"I asked Chuck to get me the address to the planet the Daedalus stays near during their stop at the edges of Pegasus and I want to go there with a Jumper check if there is something, anything indicating if there was a problem. Then jump to the next planet along their path and check it and so on and…you get my idea."

"That would be an awful number of planets to check."

"That's why I ordered Lorne to do it with me. That way we'll have half the gates to check." John explained. "We'll make contact every few gates to get the coordinates for the next planets. If the Daedalus makes contact with you or, even better, arrives here, then we'll call off the operation and come home happy. But if not…"

"Better to start searching now than wait until they are really long overdue." Woolsey finished for John. "You have a go. Get all the men ready and go ASAP."

"Already on it." John murmured looking questioningly at Chuck. "What do you have for me?"

"Colonel Lorne is in his jumper with his team, your team is waiting for you in Jumper One and the gate address is already in your databases."

"Thanks." John turned to Woolsey. "I will grab my gun and vest and go."

"No need, sir." Chuck informed with a smile. "Teyla got it for you and took into the jumper already."

"Good luck, colonel." Woolsey said sincerely. "Be careful out there. If there really is something dangerous waiting for space vessels I don't want to have to send a team to find you two."

"Understood, sir."