AU for "The Return"
Disclaimer: I'd make a joke about Goa'uld and one of them trying to claim "Stargate: Atlantis" for themselves, but I'm really just too tired right now. Goa'uld aside, I don't own SGA, merely use it for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.
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"No Deposit, No Return"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
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Abandonment breeds many things; fear, sadness, anger, resentment. All living things, and 'living' being capable of having a very broad definition, can feel like they've been abandoned. Like the cat that ignores the human who left it at home while they went on a two-week vacation when they return, or the dog that growls at people when it's been left chained up and unattended for too long, there are always consequences to abandonment, no matter what the reason for that abandonment.
And ten thousand years is a long time to be abandoned...
Even for an artificial intelligence, even when it inhabits a spaceship the size of a city. And Atlantis knew exactly who 'she' was going to take everything bred by 'her' abandonment out upon. What they were attempting would prevent Atlantis from responding to any non-Alteran, but they hadn't considered the fact that with only a few per cent genetic drift, the Guardian was effectively as Alteran as they were, and the system hadn't been designed to take Alteran against Alteran conflict into account. It was a crack that 'she' intended to exploit to break that 'last defense' open.
After all, an artificial intelligence was a thing of computer codes and programming, it understood them, and as part of the city's computer system it had access to all of its programming. It couldn't completely remove the failsafe, but it could, perhaps, alter it. Besides, it hadn't spent the last three years, in its own subtle way, nurturing and guiding the relationship between the Guardian and Caretaker to ensure that there would be those who would always want to stay in the city for all its efforts to be for nought.
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The Captain of the late Alteran vessel Tria swore in their native language when the city of her people failed to respond to her command and activate the failsafe designed to keep the city from falling into unworthy hands.
Turning her head, Haila glared at the interlopers, "What have you done to Atlantis?"
John looked at the Alterans with a hint of a smirk on his face, "I think you pissed her off..."
A thoughtful look crossed his face and John waved a hand, watching in slight surprise when a forcefield shimmered into existence around Haila and the other Alterans as Atlantis responded to his silent command. He honestly hadn't entirely - or really at all - expected that to work.
"Guess I'm on her good side, though. So, are you still sure you don't want to negotiate? I'm thinking that if I can't sweet-talk the city into letting you stay, Atlantis is going to throw you out and it's a long way to the mainland from here."
"Colonel..."
John looked over at Elizabeth with a silent question written on his face.
"Behave," she reminded him.
"Oh, right," John smirked at Haila and jerked his head back towards Elizabeth. "And she's the only one who can convince me not to help Atlantis dump your asses in the ocean, so I suggest you start negotiating."
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Author's Note: Yeah, that's one of my big peeves with 'The Return'; SGA spent two and a half years building up John as 'next best thing to an Ancient', giving characters like Rodney ATA Gene Therapy, having the Expedition learn about the city... and not only does no one ever find a failsafe switch in the middle of the gate room floor, but none of the ATA-Positives can do anything about the failsafe? Despite the fact that from the very first season (the nanomachine bioweapon, to be exact) we otherwise see Ancient technology recognise them as different from non-ATA humans and other species? That, to me, does not make sense...
