"Okay, Rodney why did you have me send Todd back to Pegasus without us?" Sheppard asked turning back from the balcony, overlooking the Stargate, when it shut down after Todd, and the marines escorting him had passed through.
"What are you so worried about, we're sending him to a Wraith planet with the treatment as soon as he gets there," Rodney said. "In fact they're probably dialing right now."
"What do you got?" Sheppard asked, scowling at him.
"Just get on with it," Woolsey said.
"I've been able to access the data on the storage crystal, the Ancients had hidden a lot more of the database than I expected." Rodney said.
"Well, how much?" Sheppard asked impatiently.
"It increased the size of the database by nineteen percent," Rodney answered. "I haven't gone through all of it yet, it had some information on their more advanced tech, but most of it was their history. Going all the way back to before they left their home world, which was apparently a lot further back than we thought. I was reviewing it, staring at the point they left Altera, but it was a little confusing at first. Until, I realized that this galaxy wasn't their first stop. After leaving Altera they first settled in a very distant region of space from here, where they lived in peace for millions of years, then a group of them decided to set out again to find a new home."
"Why," Teyla asked.
"It doesn't say," Rodney answered. "I've only skimmed a summary of the history so far, and the records from that far back are very obscure, but whether it was due to conflict or just a desire to explore, it was not a rare thing to happen. They would migrate, settle, colonize, creating vast civilizations, then some would set off again to start the process over. There're thousands of records of these expansions, and they weren't short trips, each time they would travel hundreds of millions of light years. This answers some questions though, when SG-1 visited Praclarush Taonas they reported seeing a hologram of Earth, in which Antarctica had not yet reached the South Pole. That was at the very least, seventy million years ago, or more. According to this they left Altera about a hundred fourteen million years ago."
"So are there Ancients still alive out there?" Woolsey asked.
"I'm not sure," Rodney answered. "It looks like they would lose contact with each other, but I've been able to confirm a theory of Dr. Jacksons, every galaxy the Ancients went to they would seed it with primitive humans. I haven't found why," He said quickly as they all began to ask the question.
"So there could be humans everywhere in the universe?" Ronon asked.
"Yes, and Stargates," Rodney answered, grinning with excitement as he went back to looking through the new information in the database. "Oh, here it is," He exclaimed.
"What?" Sheppard asked.
"A complete list of all the Stargates in the local group," Rodney answered.
"Are you saying that there are more galaxies in the local group that have Stargates?" Woolsey asked.
"Of course," Rodney said nonchalantly as he was looking through the list, then stopped and gave him a puzzled look, "Wait, did you think it was just the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies that had Stargates?" He asked rhetorically. "We knew that the Ancients had arrived in this galaxy at the very least thirty million years ago, before leaving for Pegasus between seven and ten million years ago. With their tech, twenty million years is more than enough time to spread to every galaxy in the local group, even if they restricted their population growth to a crawl."
"Oh, of course," Woolsey said trying to hide his embarrassment.
"Wasn't that obvious to everyone else?" Rodney asked.
Knock it off, Rodney," Sheppard chided him.
"Sorry," He said.
"Why would they have hidden this?" Woolsey asked.
"In case the Wraith ever found the city," Sheppard said. "They didn't want them to learn that there were humans outside the Pegasus galaxy."
"Exactly, had they known there was a buffet in nearly all the neighboring galaxies, they wouldn't have spent the last ten thousand years hibernating. I have no doubt that they would have been able to upgrade their hyperdrives," Rodney said.
"That also explains all the dangerous tech they left behind," Sheppard began. "Things we thought were neglected or just failures, were actually cleverly crafted traps, set up to kill Wraith had they ever found a way in."
"That sounds right," Rodney said. "Remember the device that created explosive tumors, or project Arcturus even."
"Too bad they weren't as clever fighting the Wraith as they were when it came to creating advanced tech," Sheppard said. "It's pretty obvious that they did not make good soldiers."
"What are you talking about," Rodney asked.
"Wait, did you really think they lost the war because they were outnumbered?" Sheppard asked. "They fought for a century, during which time the Wraith conquered the entire galaxy. Granted the Wraith are very powerful, but the Ancients technology was far more advanced. We've been here five years even more outnumbered, and outgunned, but with the use of some Ancient tech we've been able to bring them down quite a few pegs. I've been going over the records of the war in more detail. The Ancients thought that in order to win they needed to create better tech, more powerful weapons, bigger ships, and stronger shields, because they would always use direct assaults. It's like it never even crossed their minds to go after critical targets."
"They were very book smart, but didn't have any street smarts," Chuck interjected.
"That's it, exactly," Sheppard agreed. And it didn't take the Wraith long to learn to take advantage of that, luring them into ambush. It's the only thing that makes sense, as to how they could've lost the war."
"Oh," Rodney said deep in thought for a second, then something occurred to him. "I think I can explain why, it's like the Tollan back in the Milky Way, they lived in this galaxy for millions of years without any major conflicts. Over that much time, they lost the ability to think strategically."
"That makes sense," Sheppard said. "That or they lost on purpose," He said joking.
"Okay, we seem to have gotten of topic," Woolsey said, and everyone turned back to Rodney.
"What are those other columns on the list?" Chuck asked.
Rodney looked back to the screen, "Um, the top of the first column says Oxyg-."
"This is all very interesting," Sheppard interrupted. "But this doesn't help us right now, what did you learn about the other devices in that room?"
"I've only had time to glance at them so far, so I'm not sure what they are or what they do. What I can tell you is that it's the most advanced tech I've ever seen. I'm not going to be able to figure them out soon," Rodney said.
"Well, what about Z.P.M.'s, did you find the info on how to make them?" Woolsey asked.
Rodney's smile vanished as he said, "Yes, I did," without the excitement they would have expected from him, at finally getting the info he'd been searching for five years.
"What's wrong," Sheppard asked.
"It requires a massive machine, similar to a particle accelerator," Rodney said.
"Does it not say where they are?" Woolsey asked.
"It says where they were," Rodney answered. "Before leaving Pegasus they destroyed all of the ones there, and before going to Pegasus they destroyed all of the ones here."
"Can we build one?" Sheppard asked.
"It would take decades," Rodney said, sounding very depressed.
"What about those time changing things?" Ronon asked.
Everyone looked at Rodney with renewed excitement. "Oh, sorry I wasn't clear. It would take decades with the use of a time dilation device," He said.
"So the treasure has not helped at all, except for those Z.P.M.s," Sheppard said.
"Well, give me some more time to go through this," Rodney said, then looked back to the monitor.
Everyone started to walk away to give him some space. They got about ten feet before Rodney seemed to get real excited, and started typing real fast for a few seconds, before standing up and looked their way.
"What is it?" Sheppard asked.
"Well I don't know if it will help us right now, but we need to check these things out," Rodney answered.