Atlantis, Conference Room

April, 2010

The conference room was quiet at the moment there was really nothing that needed to be said the people of the galaxy seem to have completely removed themselves from anything to do with the Atlantis expedition. Out of over a dozen trading partners that the expedition had a little over a year ago only three have kept up the trade. Really the expedition could always get their food from Earth but it is imperative that the expedition keep up relations with the worlds of Pegasus, that was one of the mandates that the IOA had added to the mission statement when Atlantis left Earth. At the moment they were failing that imperative with the Athosians, The Protected of Borealis, and the kids from M7G-677 being the only groups that are happy to trade with Atlantis all others have shunned them.

At this moment Dr. Woolsey walked into the room around the table was Colonel John Sheppard, the commander of all forces in the Pegasus Galaxy, Colonel Abraham Ellis commander of the Apollo, and Colonel Steven Caldwell, the commander of the Daedalus, currently the two vessels are sitting on Atlantis' pier waiting for something to occur so they may unleash their might. Across the table from the commanders was Dr. Keller, head doctor of the expedition, really Keller and Beckett trade the title of head doctor whenever someone with said designation is needed. Also at the table was Teyla Emmagan, the Athosian had become the second highest civilian commander in all but name, the senior expedition personnel who make up over eighty percent of current personnel know Teyla and trust her immensely. The last person was Dr. Raffaella Esposito the doctor who was one of the first people to come to Atlantis after the initial expedition was launched and after working under Dr. McKay for the past few years she was inline to be the temporary Chief Science Officer till Dr. McKay or Dr. Zelenka get back from tearing the Tria apart at the Alpha site back in the Milky way.

"Let's get this meeting started shall we?" said Woolsey sitting at the head of the table.

"Just got back from installing the listening satellite over the Genii homeworld, works but it seems that the subspace signal is stronger than anticipated, its currently off till the Doctor can figure out why." said Caldwell, the satellite was the expeditions first response to the Genii's now militarization now there are five worlds apart of the new Genii Federation their people nothing more than people that pay tribute to the Genii who bully them with their advanced technology relative to the people of the galaxy. Sooner or later they would have to deal with the Genii but at the moment Atlantis had bigger issues.

"Wait why do we care if the signal is strong the Genii don't know what subspace is let alone detect a signal. Right?" asked Keller since being married to McKay a year earlier Keller had gotten to know some basics of the astrophysics that her husband talks nonstop about. Now that she was married she had hyphenated her last name so that her children might get the name Keller as she is the last in her extended family with the name. McKay when asking her father permission to marry Keller had agreed as he didn't really care, and really never thought about kids but people still called her Doctor Keller as Rodney has the name of Doctor McKay.

"You're right the Genii can't detect the satellite or subspace but the Wraith can, due to Colonel Sheppards imprisonment onboard the traveller ship and with him trying to contact us we know that the Wraith have shown a great capacity to detect subspace signals no matter how faint, so we don't want to draw the Wraith to the Genii homeworld by accident" answered Dr. Esposito

"That pretty much covers it, so doc can you fix it?" asked Sheppard looking to Dr. Esposito

"We will have to give it a once over if it is a problem in design or we overestimated our ability, it is really hard to compress a subspace signal to be as dense but undetectable as is needed for the satellite" replied Dr. Esposito

"Well try your best doctor" said Woolsey "Now... onto our situation with the Galaxy"

"My people are happy to have you back but Kanaan tells me that the fact we trade with you is harming his trading with other peoples" said Teyla

"And that is our current problem" started Woolsey "I've tried to call a meeting of the Coalition of Planets but I am told only a member can and we are apparently a non-member, similar to observer status at the UN, we can talk when a meeting is held but we can't vote or call meetings" said Woolsey.

"So can we get some of our allies to call a meeting?" asked Sheppard

"That is if we have allies…" replied Dr. Esposito

"Well at the moment none of our previous allies are really talking to us, however The Protected of Borealis are about to be accepted into the Coalition we can ask them to call a meeting on our behest" said Woolsey The Protected of Borealis, or as they were once called The Lord Protectors People were the people from the planet where SGA-1 found a similar city-ship to Atlantis, later finding out the name was Borealis, however with a royalty cast using the drone weapons to keep the others inline it was an uncomfortable mission. Eventually they brought down their only bargaining chip, the drones, and the people were able to vote for their leader and Mara being the last Lord Protector's daughter and a smart negotiator was given the right to rule by the people, however due to the fact that during the mission McKay had to deplete the ZPM powering the drones the Atlantis expedition provides a Mark Ⅲ naquadah generator that allows Borealis to use its drone stockpiles and protect the people from Wraith attacks.

"So how long until they can call a meeting?" asked Keller

"We expect them to be accepted in a weeks time, then we will ask them to call a meeting which will take three days or so to assemble" said Woolsey "In the meantime we need to prove we can defend them like we said so question is how we are going to prove that?"

"Well we got two ships out of seven in this galaxy, I'm sure they must realize that it is a significant investment" said Caldwell

"Well they actually have never seen our ships let alone what they could do" said Woolsey

"So what you want us to give a tour?" asked Ellis with an offended tone. Really he would do it he is both under the command of Sheppard and then Woolsey and the good soldier that he is he will always follow commands.

"Maybe but when we meet I would at least like to have a ship above us. If I have to pull that card out to regain our credibility I will be more than happy to do so" replied Woolsey, he may have been a lawyer before joining the IOA but during his time as diplomat and liaison between two organizations, the SGC and IOA, he had earned quite the amount of experience in politics so he knows how the game is played.

"Alright anything else?" asked Ellis

"Our friend in the stasis pod…" said Woolsey referring to the Wraith in there, Todd, it had been a year since he was intombed into the pod and only recently did anyone figure out what to do with him. Back on Earth the IOA wanted to dissect him but given that he was still technically alive at the time they really couldn't find any Doctors with the correct clearance to volunteer to perform the dissection even if he is a Wraith. Now however…

"Beckett and I believe we have perfected the retrovirus and at this point all we can do is a practical application for our movement forward" said Keller

"What makes this time different from the others?" asked Teyla, the first time they used this retrovirus it caused a mess across the galaxy in the name of Michael and every time since it was a mess.

"Well we have had a working relationship with Todd and we know he was looking to remove his Wraiths need on Humans to feed" said Woolsey " the IOA as well as I believe that this is the best possible way to bring a stop to the Wraith with the least amount of blood shead"

"So what do we do then?" asked Sheppard

"Well it's rather simple, we wake up Todd and start the treatment, it should take about three days for the complete transition" said Keller

"You brought the time down?" asked Sheppard remembering the transformation for Michael took weeks

"We aren't turning them into Human, we are turning them into a sort of hybrid that Michael utilized. They will still have the ability to manipulate their technology and they will still have albeit less of a healing factor we think they will even have a lifespan and age" said Keller

"Well really as long as they can still live and not have to take a chance whenever they feed I'm sure they will accept it" said Sheppard referring to the hoffan drug that was spread throughout the galaxy by Michael and now whenever Wraith feed there is a chance that the person they feed on was infected with the drug making them not only immune to the feeding but also deadly to the Wraith feeding on them. For the Wraith it really does seem to be the twilight of their race with a civil war raging across the galaxy and their only source of food being poisoned. If the retrovirus works then their race is saved.

"Alright but the question is whether Todd will accept it" said Woolsey

"Why wouldn't he? It is either this or we stick him back into the stasis pod" said Ellis

"Or just shoot him" added Sheppard, even with their long relationship Sheppard never actually had any feelings for the Wraith, in fact most of the time it was him holding back the need to shoot Todd.

"Well we can't just shoot him…" defended Keller

"Then what, if he refuses the treatment or the treatment fails we what? Release him? Let him feed on the people of the galaxy or do we just lock him up and let him starve to death?" asked Caldwell

"Alright then we give him the ultimatum… he either accepts the treatment, we allow him to understand every faucet of it and if he can point out any errors or possible fixes we take them onto account and after he is satisfied we perform the transformation" said Woolsey

"Alright then how fast can you get the materials together Doc?" asked Sheppard looking to Keller really he hasn't gotten use to calling her by her name, even if he was Rodney's best man. The scientist grudgingly admitted that he hadn't had many close friends when asking Sheppard to be the best man which made Sheppard's day. The whole wedding was an interesting affair, it was held on Atlantis after some convincing by Woolsey to the IOA and with the photographer, interestingly enough Chuck, having to make sure that the pictures didn't show much of the city. These photos would be distributed to family and friends outside the SGC and then there was the really glorious photos with Atlantis in the background that hung up in the married couples room.

"Will take a day or two" said Keller

"Alright then, tuesday we will wake Todd and go over the procedure with him" said Woolsey on Atlantis there really isn't any official weekend. Personnel that aren't military can take whatever time off they want but the people on Atlantis are so focused on their job and research that they really don't take holidays or weekends off. Of course there is the exceptions, Christmanss and the like, but really there isn't many who take time off which is why this meeting is taking place on a Sunday. "And lastly is the Wraith Civil war, Colonel Sheppard, if you would please" looking to Sheppard who, finally opened the folder in front of him. He didn't bother opening it for the first half of the meeting as he knew it was politics and science not items he is inclined to care about, at least not till it's needed to save his ass.

"What we figured out by the downed Wraith cruiser we got our hands on a few weeks ago is that the Civil war has been brought down to five different sides and by the size of territory and known hives it seems that two of them are about to be absorbed into the other three" said Sheppard.

The downed cruiser had actually been quite the amazing find, aside from a few stragglers all the darts died in the battle that damaged the cruiser enough that once it dropped out of hyperspace above the planet it planned to cull it broke apart and crashed. The Wraith technology experts on Atlantis, a Dr. Mundy and Dr. Jule, were able to download nearly half the manifest of the cruiser intact including a detailed dossier on Wraith biology, which helped Keller a lot, a list of current feeding grounds and which grounds were under which alliance, and interestingly enough planets where the Wraith grow their ships. The two Colonels have been dying to get permission to nuke the planets into oblivion with but the IOA is hesitant because of the technology that the Wraith are using to grow their ships, Ancient power generators. The generators are, according to the Wraith download, geothermal generators transplanted to a few newly formed planets that are rather volcanic and very hazardous to life. Which make it perfect for the geothermal generators and based on the limited knowledge on the cruiser the generators were taken from a destroyed Ancient factory world which is on the top list of places to check out. Also apparently the generators are so great that if one were to place it above the yellowstone supervolcano they could power the entirety of the American continent for the next hundred years. So the IOA is hesitant and apparently trying to draft a plan to get ahold of the generators that outclass anything the Asgard had come up with by orders of magnitude.

"So we are going to be dealing with a three sided Civil war soon…" said Woolsey

"Yes which I don't really like…" said Caldwell

"Indeed, with three sides it is a lot easier to come to terms than to keep fighting" added Woolsey

"So any idea how to make the war drag out for longer?" asked Ellis

"Aside from destroying everyone whenever they decide to meet up and make it look like they came to blows I've got no clue…" said Sheppard

"Maybe we won't need to worry about the war coming to an end…" said Keller looking down and sort of mumbling it, but everyone heard and looked to her

"Care to explain Doctor?" asked Woolsey

"The Civil war was because there weren't enough people for the Wraith to feed on, and if they don't need people to feed than the war no longer matters" explained Keller

"That's putting a lot of faith into your serem doctor, and I'd agree to it but there is the old adverb shake hands with your right hand while holding a stick in your left" said Caldwell

"Putting sticks aside, perhaps if we reconvene when the operation turns out to be a success or failure and go from there" said Woolsey

Mumbled confirmations we heard around the table and they moved on

"Alright in terms of the Ancient factory world, when should we be sending that out?" asked Woolsey

"I would like to have both ships to come. The world is in the middle of multiple known Wraith bases and we have no idea what will be waiting there when we arrive" said Caldwell, being the commander of the oldest ship in the fleet he had an elevated status to the officially same ranked Colonel Ellis

"Also having Colonel Sheppard would be a great help" added Dr. Esposito

"Don't know that you thought so highly of me doc" smiled Sheppard since Esposito's promotion to Chief Science Officer Sheppard had tried to become friends with the doctor as when he was friends with McKay he always had the inside scoop of the cool stuff coming out of the labs on Atlantis and to a lesser extent Area 51, now however he doesn't have such a source and for him the good looking doctor was much better than McKay.

"Actually it is the fact that you have the greatest CIA, Only behind General O'Neill himself" answered the Doctor, ignoring Sheppards kind hearted remarks. The ATA gene or Ancient Technology Activation gene is a specific gene that controls the release of proteins and enzymes that modify the nervous system and allows the people with the gene to control Ancient technology with their minds alone. There are multiple people that have the gene but the potency of the gene also controls the ease at which one can control the technology and such a level is determined by the CIA level or Chair Interface Aptitude, there were attempts to change the acronym to something not so similar to a certain intelligence agency but such things never came to fruition. At the top of the CIA is Ancients but since an Ancient had never taken the test that the SGC uses to determine level of CIA it is General O'Neill who is the benchmark and everyone else's level is determined in reference to O'Neill, Sheppard being the closest one.

"Well I'd rather stick around when we wake Todd up" said Sheppard

"I can use Doctor Beckett but I'd imagine he is needed here…" said Dr. Esposito as behind Sheppard is Doctor Beckett, strangely enough the fact that the Doctor is a clone didn't lower his CIA level it actually elevated it which is something that is still being researched.

"Well given that we may only have one chance to look at it before the Wraith get wind we know of the planet I would suggest we put the mission on hold till after we get confirmation that it will work" said Woolsey

"Alright, what else do we have?" asked Sheppard

"Actually that is it for this week" said Woolsey, the weekly meetings are something Woolsey insisted on since coming to Atlantis a few years ago and even if there was nothing to talk about there was still the meeting. Ever a stickler on protocol Dr. Woolsey is.


Atlantis, Stasis Pod Room

Tuesday

Sheppard entered the room with a squad of marines and Ronon who has his pistol out, Sheppard really wanted one of them but whenever he met with the Travellers who the pistol belonged to he never got around to asking for one.

"That better be on stun" said Sheppard to Ronon

"Your guns don't have a stun setting" said Ronon gesturing to the marines around him with their P90s.

"Our guns don't kill Wraith instantly" said Sheppard

"Fine" and with the click the gun was set to stun.

"Alright go ahead Jacks" said Sheppard nodding to the marine who was near the 'unfreeze' button and with a slight sizzling sound of the ice looking material that wasn't actually ice, interestingly enough according to the people at Area 51 it had a closer material makeup to silicon. With the sizzling done Todd opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings.

"Is this my execution Sheppard?" he asked looking to Ronon

"Nope. In fact we're here to help you" replied Sheppard

"Interesting... How?" asked Todd who through the feeling in his body he figured that he was asleep for at most a month, but he quickly dismissed it. He was use to Wraith stasis and not the much more advanced Ancient stasis.

"Do you remember Michael?" asked Sheppard

"One of your released experimentations" answered Todd which caused a slight wince from Beckett, who was at the back behind two Marines.

"Exactly" responded Sheppard "We got ahold of his research and we got your answer to not needing to feed ever again"

"What makes you believe this will be better than any other times both you and I have attempted such a feat?" asked Todd. He remembered the near death experience of both the attempted treatment and the crashed Hive that resulted, then being bitten by the Iratus bug to fix him.

"Well through Michael's research into a Human/Wraith hybrid by changing Humans into the hybrids, we believe we can go the other way and change Wraith into hybrids. You will still have all your natural abilities albeit hindered, but you will have a working digestive system" said Beckett stepping forward not saying that the little Torren Emmagan was actually a great help, turns out Michael was right in the importance of the boy.

"May I see this research?" asked Todd

"Of course it may be a bit for you to get the hang of all of it" said Beckett handing over the tablet that Todd reached for, but quickly stopped when the marines raised their weapons and Ronon turned off the safety for his pistol.

"Bloody hell boys… It's alright I'm good if he does try to feed on me it's a death sentence for him" said Beckett still holding out the tablet, and it was true. Micheal when making his hybrids and Beckett he not only gave the Hybrids greater strength but also gave them the Hoffan drug making them deadly for any Wraith to feed on them.

Todd slowly and hesitant took the tablet and began looking through the procedure.

"This could work…" he said after a minute "but what of the Queens?"

"What about them?" asked Beckett

"Your DNA base is Wraith warrior, the males of the Wraith species. The Queens have a great different DNA than Wraith warriors as they are the source" said Todd

"I… I haven't thought about it but it makes sense…" said Beckett

"How so? Doesn't make sense to me a Wraith is a Wraith" said Sheppard

"Wraith are birthed based on the Queens DNA Sheppard. Only modified to be a warrior through birthing pods and only the Queens DNA is the true source of Wraith DNA as should a Queen be birthed by a birthing pod then the birthed Queen has degraded DNA and should such a thing become common place Wraith will cease to be. Only a Queen birthed from another Queen can continue the species lest we be lost to degraded DNA" explained Todd.

"The same thing happened to the Asgard but instead of the different generations it was clones" said Beckett adding onto Todds explanation

"Wait so you don't need a Wraith dad and mom to give birth the regular way?" asked Sheppard

This caused a laugh from Todd, the strange, not quite alien but definitely in the uncanny valley of laughs "you know nothing of the Wraith life cycle Sheppard" laughing more which, though they wouldn't admit it, freaked out the marines "oh my, that was a great thing to hear Sheppard" he finished laughing "But this should work for all Wraith warriors but will need to be changed heavily for Queens" said Todd holding out the tablet to Beckett, the marines and Ronon tensed again, Beckett grabbed it.

"Alright then we can begin, Todd you know the drill" said Sheppard tossing the Wraith harness they had which kept the Wraith hands locked to their sides and unable to move their arms whatsoever when strapped in. Which Todd put on and had to wait for Ronon to attach the last of the clamps locking him in, which he did with glee.


Atlantis, Pier

Night

It was a clear sky on the planet Atlantis landed on, it wasn't Lantea and it wasn't even on M35-117 the second home of Atlantis since the expedition arrived six years earlier, currently Atlantis was on a water world that was at the edge of the Pegasus Galaxy and completely unknown to the Wraith. The clear sky showed the Pegasus Galaxy in all its splendor and what only a few astronomers from Atlantis have noticed is that when the shield is up, like it is at this moment, it blocks out all the light pollution endemic on the cities of Earth. So up above was the galaxy in its greatness as if there wasn't any light coming from the city of the Ancients. On the pier was Sheppard, Ronon, a squad of marines, and Todd. It was Todd's requests, after a more indepth look into the process he realized there was a small chance that he would not survive it so he asked to see the stars. Like the time when he was freed from the Genii prison he liked to see the stars. What the people of Atlantis and most Humans didn't know was for most Wraith commanders and Queens they actually have hobbies that take up their time and for Todd it was astrology, he used a great many telescopes he'd taken from destroyed human worlds for his collection. He even mapped out most of the Pegasus galaxy in his long life.

"Sheppard such a sight is never to be dismissed" said Todd looking to the sky

"Ya well, not into much space seeing myself, more of a beach seeing man" Sheppard replied which caused confusion from Todd, but not from Ronon, their year on Earth had resulted in many trips to the beach that Ronon was amazed at seeing what the women of Earth wear to the beach.

"Ah you know nothing Sheppard" replied Todd at that moment Sheppards radio came alive 'Colonel we're ready down here' came Becketts voice

"Alright Todd looks like sightseeing is over" said Sheppard which had gotten a confirming mumble from Todd who turned around and followed Sheppard back into Atlantis. A few minutes and teleport and they were ready at the operating theatre.

"Alright we're gonna remove your restraints then if you can lie down, we will sedate you and get ready, then in three days you should wake and be all good" said Beckett to Todd who had the harness unstrapped and lied down onto the table.

"Good luck Doctor" said Todd as the sedative was injected and he fell asleep.

It was a long three days for Keller and Beckett with stabilizing Todd the few times it was required due to the changes to his body and by the end of the three days Todd was greatly changed. His feeding organ was gone along with the pale skin endemic with the Wraith species still slightly pale but more toned and still distinctly alien, Todd still had his white hair and protrusions on his upper cheek. What changed drastically was that Todd looked visibly older, wrinkles and being slightly shorter were the signs that he actually aged years over the few days. Standing at his side was Sheppard looking over the Wraith that he had quite a strange history with, enemies and allies constantly shifting constantly trying to kill the other and save the other. He hoped that this time it would put an end to such things, a Wraith that doesn't need to feed and according the Dr. Beckett completely fine. The DNA of Todd wasn't degrading like before and wasn't slowly turning back like the time before that, an honest to god non human feeding Wraith, it could be the end of people fearing the Wraith across a galaxy.

Slowly Todds eyes opened, looking to Sheppard and around him "It appears that the operation was a success then" Todd concluded

"Aye it was, how you feeling?" asked Beckett coming in and taking his readings on the Wraith, there were two marines each carrying Wraith stun weapons.

"Sore… more than I should be, my healing should never allow me to be this sore…" said Todd who felt the worst he has in his long life.

"Well it should clear up, but perhaps not all of it, tell me Todd how old are you?" asked Beckett, this made Sheppard concentrate on the next words leaving the Wraiths mouth, he was interested as well with the knowledge that the Wraith are biologically immortal and with their periods of stasis Todd could quite possibly be really old

"I was there when we launched our first attacks on the Ancient Lanteans, I was there when we pushed them to their last city, I was there as we failed to destroy this city for a hundred years…" said Todd remembering the war, that knowledge shocked everyone in the room. Todd was over ten thousand years old that much was true and quite possibly the oldest living thing that the people of Earth have come across since the death of the Asgard.

"Well this treatment might have been the reason as to the sore feeling, you are aware that it could give you a lifespan" said Beckett ignoring the revelation from Todd he knew that the Wraith was old and looking at his cells over the last couple hours confirmed that Todd was older than most.

"Indeed, so I am dying of old age is it?" asked Todd

"Well based on your looks and my own readings I think that you are in the later years of your life, if I were to put a human year on you I would say in the late 60's early 70's" said Beckett "So while you may be getting weaker you will still have many years ahead of you"

"Wait so you led the armies against the Ancients?" asked Sheppard the fact of the age of Todd finally cleared through his thought process

"I was merely a weapon operator when we attacked and by the end of the war I was commanding a cruiser in the siege of the Ancient Lanteans" respond Todd. That was something that the Wraith seem to have done to the Atlantis expedition, they have given them the name of Lanteans, no doubt to the fact that they inhabited Atlantis when it was back on Lantea, but they also gave the Ancients the name of the Ancient Lanteans which was also strange. Yet unknown to the humans of the galaxy giving a name to a group of humans is something sort of respect for the Wraith, they know that the people of Atlantis are dangerous when they destroyed multiple Hives who were trying to attack them so they earned a name, that being the name of the world that they inhabit, Lantea.

"Well what about…" started Sheppard only to be cut off from Todd

"The past remains in the past Sheppard, only the future can be talked about, only the endless cycle can be consulted" said Todd not realizing that the endless cycle of sleeping then feeding can come to an end now that the Wraith no longer need to feed.

"Well we best let Todd rest and regain his strength" said Beckett leaving along with Sheppard. The two marines also left and the door was locked behind them.

Later the conference room had its table filled and around it were the same people as a few days earlier, but replacing Keller was Beckett.

"So Doctor can you update us on what is happening with Todd?" asked Woolsey

"He is exactly what we expected from our simulations, his digestive system is operating, albeit a bit less than I am happy with" said Beckett

"But he will live?" asked Sheppard

"Aye he will, and for quite a long time" responded Beckett

"So it works. Now what? We ask the Wraith to nicely change?" asked Ellis

"We set Todd up to take command of the Wraith and hopefully he can supply the necessary experts so that we can change Queens as well" said Sheppard

"Well it may not be that easy. We don't know what happened to Todd's alliance, most likely absorbed, so we need to find a way to get Todd another up on the Wraith" said Woolsey

"Well how are we going to do that Wraith respect strength and Queens both of which Todd doesn't have" said Caldwell

"Perhaps I may retake my disguise as Todd's Queen?" suggested Teyla causing unsure reactions from the people around the table.

"A Queen without a hive?" asked Caldwell "Will that not be even worse?"

"Then we get her a hive, maybe a few cruisers as well…" said Sheppard causing everyone to look to him

"And how do you suggest we do that?" asked Woolsey

"Well we wanted the Ancient generators, a Hive is a good place to carry them" At the implication of what Sheppard is suggesting eyes widened across the table

"We have no idea what we will be facing, we can't go and raid what basically is a Wraith shipyard all we really have is Todd and possibly Teyla who can run the ships" said Caldwell really he liked the idea, that is if he had the entire fleet of Earth with him but with only two ships and only two people that can control the stolen ships it is an exceedingly bad idea.

"Dr. Mundy and his team is working on an adaptor that will allow us to control Ancient technology that usually only can be controlled with the ATA gene if he can modify it to Wraith technology we can possibly take control any ship with the adaptor" added Dr. Esposito

"Boom we get the adaptor to work outfit our marines with em and we got ourselves a Wraith fleet and the Ancient Power generators" said Sheppard

"The operation is ridiculously unsafe, we could be facing thousands of Wraith on the planet and dozens of ships in orbit and who's to say they are building ships in the first place?" asked Ellis always the cynic and really at this moment the voice of reason.

"I am inclined to agree with the Colonel if the ships aren't even ready let alone building then we will be wasting our effort in coming up with a plan" said Woolsey "If we ever send out a reconnaissance then we can talk about a raid, but before then we need to think of a better way"

And they tried, from repairing the downed cruiser they found to finding and capturing a Hive ship they came up with ideas and when the idea had some merit went through a plan but such plans never made it far due to insurmountable obstacles that would either require technology that is experimental at best to unreasonable numbers of manpower. Yet everything they thought about failed when they game planned it out so they decided to shelf the idea till Todd could be consulted.

"Alright then onto our image problem" said Woolsey "The Protected of Borealis were accepted into the Coalition of Planets and in fact due to the drone weapons they have they are inline to be a great powerhouse for being one of the few planets that is safe from the Wraith"

"Alright, can we ask them to call a meeting?" asked Sheppard remembering the plan from a few days ago

"Well in fact they have already asked for a meeting, something about creating a better trading economy" said Woolsey which surprised everyone around the table. Trade has been the same around the Galaxy since the fall of the Ancients and now if the people are attempting to better it then that would mean a step closer to a true multi-planetary government. What they didn't realize was that this was Mara's doing as she had been quite the student and due to the number of economy and government textbooks that the Atlantis expedition have been gifting her and she has had quite a large amount of knowledge compared to the rest of the galaxy, actually starting a common schooling system on their world that they named after the city-ship Borealis and with being protected from the Wraith the people of Borealis are really inline to advance fast with the help of the expedition.

"Great so when we going?" asked Sheppard

"I will be attending it in three days time, I just require some preparation" said Woolsey

"Well what kind?"


M5G - 9T8

Three days later

M5G - 9T8 had a healthy layer of snow as it was the middle of winter for the planet while back on Earth it was the middle of April. Really the planet was not when their meeting was going to take place but it still brought a frown to Woolseys face when he stepped through the stargate, still in his suit he didn't really think that such a place would be the rendezvous. This was what occurs every time the Coalition meets, each party is given an empty planet to meet at and a guide takes them through several gates before arriving at a specific destination. The guide was a rather short man compared to the Atlantis expedition, in fact that was what most people of the Pegasus galaxy are compared to the Tau'ri aside from the few exceptions as there are always exceptions. Some biologists have put their shorter stature due to the primitive lifestyles they live as well as their evolutionary history. Though the people living today don't know this but the reason that the Pegasus humans look and are so alike with those from the Milky way is due to some Ancient genetic modifications. Really when the Ancients left the Milky way a million years ago they took the entire genetic repository of the living animals at the time this included the human ancestor Homo antecessor, and with this repository they seeded the life across the Pegasus galaxy then after a few hundred thousand years and some Ancient modifications Humanity evolved across the Galaxy and the Wraith as well.

Back to the moment however the guide dialed the gate to an empty forest, and three more times till the entourage from Atlantis arrived. Among them was SGA-1 and 2 minus McKay, the science officer for SGA-1 was a new guy Lieutenant Garry Willum a young air force lieutenant with a degree in astrophysics, Sheppard was hesitant to have the guy but when he went toe to toe with Ronon at drinking long past when Sheppard would've passed out he was glad to have him, he still didn't beat Ronon, no one beats Ronon. Also among them was Woolsey and their hooded special passenger. The Daedalus would be standing by and at the moment it was sitting in the middle of space waiting, its Asgard subspace sensors pushed up to maximum actually allowing it to track the stargate wormholes from far larger distances than they could a ship moving through hyperspace due to the massive disruptions in subspace the wormholes cause. It was really only luck that the Daedalus was able to keep the moving party from being to far outside its sensor range. Eventually they finally made it to the planet and through a cave they came to an underground bunker that was here due to the Genii Federation, its location long forgotten by the Genii today.

The Atlantis expedition got three seats at the back of the meeting room, in the hall were hundreds of people representing the hundred and three planets of the Coalition of Planets. Some representing little more than a collection of villages while others planets with hundreds of thousands of people there was even a planet with a million individuals, usually any planet with populations larger than a few million were culled to ruin during the opening months of the Wraith awakening.

Overall the population of the Coalition of Planets didn't reach greater than the three hundred million of the United States of America, the end result of how the Wraith keep their livestock. The meeting was called to begin by the three heads of the Coalition, like the five permanent members on the United Nations security council the three were Latira the one world with a million individuals, the Tribes of Santhal the tribes are actually different peoples who have come to the planet Santhal that through its position in the galaxy is only culled by Darts and the Wraith Hives haven't made their way to the planet in a thousand years, and lastly the Free Peoples of Riva another world so far out at the edge of the galaxy that only Wraith darts arrive from time to time to cull the population.

"This meeting will commence" said Dimas the representative of Riva "Now the purpose of this meeting is a resolution put forward by The Protected of Borealis the one hundred and first planet to have been accepted into this Coalition, If the representative Mara could please step forward"

And this surprised Sheppard Mara seemed like such a young woman when he met her on Borealis but the woman standing up now was confident and strong, a real leader among the many leaders already in the hall.

"People of the Coalition of Planets, may I first begin by thanking you all for accepting my peoples into this Coalition and I expect that we may both help each other so that we all rise higher together" started Mara and with her opening remarks eyebrows raised across the hall, the new innitiants usually begged for help for one reason or another but Mara was talking about how they can help each other "I through the consulting of my council" another addition Mara had done when getting the textbooks on government, she made a sort of congress with every village getting the ability to send a representative to the tower and every town two. "Believe that establishing a single currency used throughout the Coalition and getting every planet in the Coalition to promise to only use such a currency based out of a bank owned and operated by the Coalition can not only increase trade but through the bank we can help our less fortunate planets and grow the more fortunate ones" said Mara really the people of the galaxy know how currency works but as was the problems after World War 2 in Europe there was just so many different currencies that it was basically useless. What was a new addition to the formula that Mara suggested was a bank owned and operated by the Coalition, such a thing was never considered before as like with most government banks on Earth they don't turn a profit but instead help grow the economy and are used to loan out money in times of need things and this simple purpose was something the people of the galaxy never considered.

There were a few skepticals "And how do you think a single currency and a Coalition owned bank will help all of our peoples?" asked Kelore the man from Latira, with a world of a million people Latria was one of the worlds that had a currency but outside of the world it was useless and trade done with Latria is through bartering.

"Because such a thing has worked before and works today, through texts given from the Atlantis inhabitants I have learned how such a system will benefit all and how together we stand higher than we ever can separate" said Mara and with the mention of the people of Atlantis there were audible groans from the people in the hall, and at the back Woolsey frowned slightly.

"If such a thing can work why have the Atlantis inhabitants not suggested such a system before?" asked Shiana the representative from the Tribes of Santhal, the venom in her voice still hasn't left since their imprisonment and trial and with Atlantis missing for a year it only had proven to her they couldn't be trusted.

"I believe we can ask them, Dr. Woolsey if you may" asked Dimas gesturing to the speaking podium where Mara is.

Woolsey stood up, straightened his suit and walked forward from the back with a purpose, for some of the newer planets it was the first time seeing the people from Atlantis and Woolsey was determined to make an impression. Coming to the podium which was both to the right of the three representatives and in front of the hall containing all others Woolsey nodding to Mara before taking her position at the podium.

"I can confirm that such a system is common place on both Earth and throughout our home galaxy on advanced worlds" said Woolsey, since arriving in Pegasus it was known that the people will have a natural hatred towards them as they never had to deal with the Wraith and the mentioning of Earth and populations across the Milky way galaxy were always kept to a minimum when speaking with Pegasus humans. However at this moment Woolsey figured nothing but the truth would not only help Mara and her proposal but also Atlantis's standing in the Coalition

"And how does it work on Earth?" asked Dimas and so began half an hour of questioning which befuddled many of the people in the hall. As for explaining the European Union with its common currency across many countries Woolsey had to explain the World Wars which were a foreign concept to the Humans of this galaxy, going to war and fighting against your fellow man at a governmental level was seen as petty as all were needed to survive against the Wraith. Then to the governmental banks which founded America and allowed them to win the two World Wars and put a man on the moon, by the end there were still many questions about the history of Earth but Woolsey was able to put such a line of questioning to an end and promised to hand out the textbooks they've given to Mara to all interested parties.

Now it was up to Woolsey to speak "As I am sure there are some of you who either believe or have been told to believe that we from Atlantis have abandoned this galaxy, and I am sure some of you don't believe what we have told this Coalition for why we were unable to return and I am here to help provide answers and provide hope to the people of this galaxy" pausing for a moment, Woolsey continued "Let me say this for the record, Atlantis did have to return to Earth to defend it against an advanced Wraith Hive ship that our ships couldn't destroy, Atlantis did have to remain on Earth to defend it till proper defenses were repaired and put in place, and Atlantis will remain in the Pegasus now and for the foreseeable future. And today I tell you that we from Atlantis are more committed than ever to bringing the Wraiths hold on the galaxy to an end, this includes two of our space worthy battleships each able to take on multiple Wraith cruisers and win being permanently stationed within this Galaxy" Woolsey said battleships even though it is battlecruisers as the people of the Coalition of Planets had no idea what a cruiser was in terms of naval power so saying battleship made it easier for them to understand " I repeat we will bring an end to the Wraiths hold on the galaxy and to that end" said Woolsey gesturing to the other two people in the hall from Atlantis, the hooded man and Sheppard walked to the front of the hall and in front of everyone "May I introduce Todd, a Wraith" and the hood came down.


I like this chapter, I've tried to put the state of Pegasus out on the table so tell me what you think.