An Outline of Unknowns

"Now that we have you, what can you tell us? Can you lead us to the Architect?" Morpheus asked the Key Maker when they were at a place they could all stop to talk. The teams had met at the secondary exfil site: an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. The room they were in resembled a major assembly area; it was somewhat open with clear views of the surrounding grounds so no one could sneak up on them while they had a very private discussion.

"We can definitely visit the Architect," he said as he looked directly into Neo's eyes. "There is a door in the central building of the city. If you can open that door, he is behind it. That will not be easy, though because the security system is designed to self-destruct if the building is breached. Unless the power to the building is out, a human can never enter it without dying. If, however, the power is out, there is a fraction of a second when someone can enter before the backup system activates,"

"I think Apollo and I can help with the power," Starbuck offered, standing behind the Key Maker with Apollo and Trinity.

"That will be difficult, because we will have to destroy the facility that supplies the building with power. It'd on its own power grid," Trinity said as she tried to figure out the mission needs. "I think the three of us can do it,"

"I agree. Dr. Jackson, myself, and Morpheus can visit the Architect while the three of you take out the power station. Niobe, Boomer, and the rest can be our exfil team. If anything goes wrong, they can come in and remove us all from harm," Neo said, planning the whole mission in his mind. Where they would go from there, he did not know. There was so much they didn't understand, and it seemed to just be getting more complex. At least now they had help, both in the Matrix and the real world. Things did not seem quite so bleak anymore.

"Remember everyone, the priority is getting information from the Architect, and, failing that, taking him alive. We do not need a dead Architect – that does us no good," Dr. Jackson said firmly.

"How soon can you be ready?" Morpheus asked the Key Maker, who promptly pulled out a strange looking key that almost seemed to glow with power.

"I am ready now, so whenever your people are ready," As everyone broke into their assigned teams and determined their individual mission parameters, Daniel quietly approached the Key Maker and started to ask him questions about how he made the keys and what they were for. Daniel thought he had an idea of how they were made and what gave the Key Maker his power. Daniel did not know how right he was.

-Three Hours Later: Outside Power Plant on the River James-

The river was cold tonight, or so Apollo thought as they swam silently towards the plant they had to take offline. They had initially planned on simply driving up to the plant and shooting their way in, but were surprised to find military check points positioned all around the area. Surely someone had been tipped off. Because of those checkpoints, they had decided to use their secondary plan. A quick phone call to their operator and they all had the equipment they needed to make a clean water infiltration. That is how they found themselves fifteen feet underwater and moving quickly upstream to the power plant. Apollo was surprised to find they had even thought to put patrol boats in the river; obviously the machines were a little scared. He couldn't blame them though. After what Daniel had done to those agents and everything else he and Starbuck had done in their search for the missing SG team, no one should have been surprised that the machines were circling their wagons.

Apollo clicked his voice switch three times to let Trinity and Starbuck know that they were two minutes out and would be nearing the surface shortly. All three of them smoothly pulled out their MP-5s and let go of their powered swimming devices, letting them power down to the bottom of the river. Apollo was the first to break the surface and he surveyed the scene, doing his best to make no waves or any noise that might alert anyone. There was a small dock and two doors at the far wall that led into the facility itself. Because this was a hydroelectric facility, it was right on the water and would be easy for them to access. Finishing his survey, Apollo dropped back underwater and tapped his mic twice to bring the other two team members close so he could give hand signals. He withdrew his combat knife from its sheath on his ankle and gave the motion commands for the next two minutes. Then he turned back around as Trinity and Starbuck readied their weapons.

Sleek as a cat, Apollo dove deeper into the water, turned around, and kicked hard to reach the surface quickly. As he broke the surface he sank his knife into the throat of the first guard standing on the dock. The guard's eyes became quite large at the sight of a black, dripping mass attacking him from the water. The first guard never made a sound as his life ended the instant the knife met its mark, severing his spine through his larynx. His body did, however, make some noise as it slipped into the water with Apollo. Fortunately, both Trinity and Starbuck were already breaking the surface. They had emerged enough to see across the dock and take aim at the other two guards, who were by the main door to the facility. Each guard had raised his weapon as he had heard some of the commotion on the end of the dock, some thirty yards away. Unfortunately for them both, Trinity and Starbuck let loose two rounds on their respective targets, and both guards dropped in a heap as the rounds entered their skulls, killing them instantly. At that, the ladies surveyed for a good thirty seconds with their night vision goggles for any roving guards or Cameras. Starbuck keyed her mic once to signal "all clear" to the other three, who quickly exited the water and made their way to the doors, where Trinity and Apollo removed both guards' bodies and tossed them into the river with their former friend.

"The control facility should be three levels up from here," Trinity said as Starbuck worked the security system that controlled the door lock. Within a few seconds, the door clicked and they were able to enter into the facility. Unbeknownst to them, though, the secure facility was monitored by the command section that had control of all system agents, an two agents were immediately dispatched.

Making their way down the first hall and into the stairwell, the infiltrators killed two more guards who had been unlucky enough to be looking the other way and never saw them coming. Once in the stairwell, it didn't take long to climb three floors to the control facility. Unfortunately for them, the facility was somewhat busy with a dozen people hard at work, facing the doors to the room. The three of them knew what they were doing, though, so they made stealthy, quick work of everyone in the room.

"Starbuck, set your explosives behind that console over there," Apollo said, motioning to the control console at the back of the room. It was next to a door that probably led down to the floor where the turbines worked to transform the waterpower into electricity. As he spoke, Apollo moved past her and through the door, entering into a large hall that was surprisingly empty. It was the middle of the night though so fewer people were around. With his explosives set and Trinity having set her small-scale EMP that would render all of the turbines essentially inert, they made their way back up to find Starbuck standing in the middle of the control room, face to face with a system agent.

"You are Sister to us? We did not know there were machines outside our system," the agent said. Confusion was evident on both his and Starbuck's faces. Starbuck was, naturally, completely befuddled at the idea the machine thought she was somehow related to it. Per usual, she became angry and hit the agent so hard his body literally bounced off the ground and, as she came over him to finish him off with a ferocious kick, he moved. He did not move nearly fast enough though, as Starbuck adjusted her kick and his body slid across the floor into the wall near the entrance.

"You are a machine; I can see it in your code. Why would you attack me?" He asked in a sad voice, sounding both confused and angry. At that, both Trinity and Apollo emptied their clips into his body. He tried to dodge, but with both of them firing and nowhere to go, he quickly shifted back out of the body of the superintendent who should have been on the turbine floor.

"I don't think we told you: the agents inhabit the bodies of people in the Matrix. When you kill them, they revert back to whoever the person had been," Trinity said in a low voice to both of them.

"Did we just kill another human, then?" Apollo asked.

"We believe so. If you die in the Matrix, you die in the real world. What the mind believes is real, the body makes real. At least, that's how we understand it," Trinity answered, adding a lot more weight to the situation they were in. "The triggers are set for five minutes. We'd better move," Trinity led the way out of the control room and down the stairwell at a near running pace.

"We'll talk later, Starbuck," Apollo said as he took the rear and made sure they were not pursued. Getting out of the facility was fairly simple as all three made it into the water in under a minute and a half after the timer was set. It turned out they were very fortunate, though, because the patrol boat was a mere thirty yards from the dock, and the two men on the boat mistook them for the guards who should have been there. In the seclusion of the dark of night, it was easy work for Trinity and Apollo to dispatch the patrollers and take the boat. As Starbuck figured out the boat's controls and turned it around, Trinity and Apollo dumped the bodies of the two dead patrolmen into the river and they found seats. They held their weapons at the ready in case they ran into any more boat patrols.

Starbuck turned the boat back towards the city and quickly got them up to full speed. She was deep in thought two minutes later when a small cloud erupted from the top of the building behind them and all the lights in the center of the city went out. Hopefully, Colonel Mitchell and Boomer were able to destroy the secondary routing facility so the city center would stay without power for long enough, because Starbuck had a lot to think about. "Why would that agent think I was a machine?" She asked herself over and over as they sailed silently through the darkness. Finally, they reached their exfil point and beached the boat.

-Same Time: City Center-

"There goes the power. We had better move fast," Neo said as all four of ran through the front doors of the two hundred story high-rise that was the confluence of the city center. It was almost poetic they should find the Architect here, Neo thought, as they entered the elevator that would take them to the Mezzanine on the thirtieth floor. From there, they would take the express elevator to the Architect's floor.

"Are you sure about this?" Daniel asked the Key Maker. "If he isn't there, we're back where we started."

"Yes, quite certain, I am programmed to know. We all do what we are programmed to do," the Key Maker said.

"Such a limited view of life you have," Daniel noted as he thought about the various implications behind the Key Maker's statements over the last few hours. The elevator opened briskly, revealing the Mezzanine and the waiting express elevators. The power was still out, though, which was the sign they needed to board the last elevator. Fortunately the elevators and emergency lights ran on an ups otherwise they would be walking for a while

"Which floor?" Morpheus asked as the Key Maker boarded the next elevator and was summarily moved to the back of the elevator for his protection.

"Two hundred and one," he said as Morpheus turned around and looked strangely at him for a moment. He was about to tell him there was no button for floor 201 when he noticed a small button at the bottom of the panel marked '201.' As he pressed that button, the express elevator lurched upward in a manner he had not expected. They all drew their weapons to be ready for whatever would greet them when they reached their destination. The door opened soundlessly and they found they were staring down a completely white hall lined with doors. It was hard to tell how far the last door at the end of the hallway was because the all-white walls were playing games with their depth perception. They moved quickly out of the elevator and down the hall as the Key Maker pointed at the farthest door down the hall and removed his key from his pocket.

Before they could move, though, all the doors began opening, releasing Agent Smiths into the hallway with them. Daniel stepped to the front as they advanced and pushed with his mind into the hall ahead of them. It was as if a hurricane had entered the hall and simply blew all of the agents back into their doors. Behind them, however, the Smiths began shooting with large revolvers. None of them had time to react, however, before one man had stopped all of the Smiths' bullets. His key fell with a loud 'clang' as his body convulsed on the floor and his lifeblood left him. Neo turned, realizing they should have had someone watching their rear. He picked up the key as all of the Smiths behind them Came out of their doors and stood with their weapons at the ready.

"We will not be defeated. You are humans, and therefore no match for us." As all of the Smiths fired their weapons, Daniel became quite angry. Neo, on the other hand, managed to remain calm and raised his hand, causing all of the bullets to stop in midair, as if standing at attention and awaiting Neo's command. Neo took one bullet and flicked it back at the nearest Smith, who could not move to avoid it. The bullet tore right through Smith's head while all of the other bullets fell uselessly to the floor. Once the bullets hit the floor, Daniel struck, pushing with his mind again as the wind roared through the hall and knocked the Smiths back to the elevator, which promptly closed with half of them inside of it. The other half was still in a heap on the sides of the hall. They did not get up immediately, so they watched as Neo stuck the key into the door and the frame began to glow. The door opened into a room that shined brighter white than any of them, save Daniel, had ever seen. As the last of the three surviving members of their team stepped inside the door, the brightness faded from the hall and one Smith could be seen clearly reaching down to the dying Key Maker, absorbing his knowledge and power.

-Time Unknown: With the Architect-

Daniel was surprised that even he felt a little like time was passing at the wrong speed when they suddenly found themselves standing in a room with giant televisions for walls. Each screen held a different view of Neo's life. For Neo, this felt a little awkward; he didn't necessarily want Dr. Jackson and Morpheus to see all of these pictures. After looking around the room for a moment, they all realized in one corner was a chair with its back to them, and seated in the chair was an older man with graying hair.

"Are you the Architect?" Neo asked.

"I have been expecting you, Neo. You are not the first of your kind to come this way. In fact, you are the sixth Neo to make this meeting," the Architect said as he turned his chair around to look at Neo. What he saw, though, surprised him greatly – not only was Morpheus, who he thought useless, unexpected, but there was another there he did not know who seemed far more powerful than the others. "You were not supposed to bring anyone with you. This was not foreseen and is highly unusual. I will not negotiate with these other people," he spat and attempted to remove the others by force, but was stopped cold by the stranger. Daniel, who could see through the code to the being beneath it, noticed at once the Architect was wholly different than the other machines they had encountered thus far.

"Your power will have no effect around me. You probably don't understand why you can do the things that you do, but I know what you are and I am beyond your abilities," Daniel said, which completely confused the Architect.

"We're here to negotiate two things. First, we must find four of our friends who were last seen near Machine City a few weeks ago and were implanted into the Matrix. They're not from this world and must be returned to us." Morpheus decided to play peacemaker in this volatile situation. The Architect only looked more confused.

"There is only this one equation. How can there be other worlds? If it is people you are looking for, I could help you, but I will not." At this Daniel stepped forward and jammed his hand into the chest of the Architect like he had before, and this time the Architect actually started a conversation. Daniel was surprised to find that he could easily manipulate this machine. While the Architect was obviously in the latter stages of Ascension, he had somehow become blind the notion of any life but the one he now had. It was a strange adjustment, but Daniel, having accessed his Ascended memories, knew the deed was done by another Ascended being. He would have to look into that later; for now, though, he simply edited that piece of the Architect's code a bit and gave him a taste of the wider universe and a hazy memory of the Colonies. Then he withdrew his hand and noticed his two friends standing next to him, looking very worried.

"I'm fine, and I think you'll find our friend here to be a little more forthcoming now," Daniel said as the Architect turned around and sat back down in his chair, slumping in a very depressed manner.

"The Oracle was right all along, and I am sorry, but I have not seen any of it. Whatever you did to me Dr. Jackson, I am afraid I cannot help you end this war."

"Why not?" Daniel asked with genuine surprise.

"One more powerful than me has always been in charge of this place. It is he whom I answer to. I can help you find your people, but I cannot stop the machines from destroying Zion," he said, with an air of heavy inevitability.

"Can you set up a meeting with the more powerful one? Does it have a name?" Neo asked, truly shocked by all of this. And what did he mean by me being the sixth? Neo thought, as he fought to process what was being said.

"We call him Origin."

"Come again?" Daniel almost choked. This was beginning to sound all too familiar.

"I have never seen him face to face, but he calls himself Origin,"

"That is a very strange name," Morpheus remarked.

"We can handle him, then, if he is who I think he is," Daniel said as they all stood to leave.

"You have to come with us now," Neo told the Architect, opening the door.

"I will, but we cannot go through that door. It will lead you back to the building you Came from, and undoubtedly we would cause an explosion that would destroy much of the city, a notion I am not fond of. We must go this way." He turned around and led them to a door that wasn't there five minutes ago.

"I don't think so. I've learned a few things these last few days, and I think that I will be the one to lead us through a door." Daniel willed a key into existence, and it appeared in his hand. With key in hand, Daniel led them to a new door. Neo and Morpheus were now thoroughly amazed and stared in disbelief. Daniel put his key inside the lock in the doorknob and turned it. As he opened the door, he said, "See, like you, Neo, I can see and create things in the code of the Matrix, but having been Ascended I can go a step further and create things that have never existed before within the Matrix, like new pathways between programs." He promptly walked through the door and into the factory where they had first planned their mission. It was the Architect's turn to be surprised.

"I have never seen a human do that before. It used to be only a few of us who had the ability to create. How is it you can do so as well?" He asked as he followed along to wherever they were going. Daniel made no attempt to answer him and simply kept on walking towards the assembly area where Cam and some others had begun to arrive.

-Meeting Place in the City: The Matrix-

Neo had been thinking a lot lately. The two days since their raid on the city center and subsequent capture of the Architect had thrown the entire Matrix into chaos. Agents had been everywhere, looking for him, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to move around without running into trouble. Currently, they were all together in an underground room off a back alley towards the edge of the city. All of the Zion Red Pills were present for a meeting. The Architect had some information they all needed to hear, and then they had to plan.

"Now that everyone's here, let's get started," Morpheus addressed the group. "Two days ago, we raided the city center and took the Architect from the machines. With a little help from our new allies." He paused as Daniel acknowledged the implied gratitude. "The Architect has agreed to help us. Because of this, we now know that while there were a quarter million machines tunneling to Zion, that number is now over a million, and they have added two more digging machines." Morpheus finished and waited for the murmuring to die down. He could clearly hear shouts of anger and consternation. "I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but we must face it." He paused again. "We must shed our fear of them if we are to be victorious."

"I can show you where they will be coming from and what their strategy will be," the Architect added.

"What can you tell us about their staging grounds and how we might attack them there?" Colonel Mitchell asked, catching them off guard. The assumption had been the machines would stage on the surface, and most of the ship captains had never even seen the surface.

"That's beyond your reach. Even if I told you, you could not penetrate the defenses to reach the staging area," the Architect said, without a second thought on the matter.

"I think you shouldn't underestimate our abilities. I have no doubt we can penetrate the defenses…we simply need to know where the staging area is and I think we can significantly reduce their strength," Cam claimed, which most of the other ship captains simply could not fathom.

"Even if you could get a ship to the surface, you would have to cross the growing fields, which are patrolled by sentinels. After that, you would have to cross the Bahai Range that borders Machine City. A ring of large ships – larger than any you've seen, most likely – protects all the surrounding areas. Once past them, you would have to fight all the sentinels in the staging area, because you could not possibly surprise them or use anything like an EMP device." He paused for effect and to take a breath. "It is a useless gesture." At that, he turned away from Colonel Mitchell, who was looking a bit annoyed.

"The truth is, we could bombard this entire planet from space and destroy every machine on the face of this world in a few hours if we chose to. The only thing keeping us from doing just that is the humans you have down here. Don't think for a second we have any regard for your lives as machines, because we don't," he said fiercely, and was a little unnerved by how cold the room had just gotten. He took a second and looked around at all of the ship captains who were giving him very hard stares. Most of them hadn't been back to Zion since the Tauri and Colonials had arrived and did not really understand the dynamics of how their situation had changed.

"We don't need to fight to a truce with these machines. From this point on, I am willing to commit any and all of my forces to the rescue of your people and the destruction of the machines. What we should be thinking about is how we rescue all of these people who are trapped inside the Matrix," Cam stopped, as he noticed Daniel was trying to add something to the conversation.

"I think there are some machines with true souls, though, and we must give them the opportunity to survive. And we may not be able to kill their leader. There must be some level of peace," Daniel added, which only served to make all of the captains more confused and a bit angry.

"Gentlemen and Ladies!" Morpheus shouted to quiet the gathering. "This is not a decision to be made by us. The Council, the Tauri, and Colonial leadership must decide this. I want you all to think about what you might choose to do and to let me know so I can bring the information to Zion. As the leader of the Red Pills and our fleet, I have some authority to guide a decision but we must speak clearly." Morpheus's speech effectively ended the meeting, and he looked for Neo, who had left the room at some point when Morpheus wasn't paying attention.

Three people suddenly Came from the front door and shouted, "Everyone to the exits! Agents are coming."

"Who's watching the door?" Cam asked as the three men moved to guard their respective exits.

"Neo is holding agents back right now," the last man in the room called just before he too disappeared out the nearest exit.

"Daniel, you and I need to help him; Morpheus, we need to get out of the Matrix. I can get us to Zion quickly if you and I can step out of the Matrix for a few hours," Cam said as ran to back up Neo.

"I'll trust you, but I don't see how you can do that without us both abandoning my people and giving up on holding the Architect," he said as they entered the room where Neo was fighting off three agents at once.

"Upgrades?" Neo asked as the first agent attempted to kick him in the face. He blocked the kick with one hand but found he had to use all of his senses and abilities to fight all three agents.

"Can you handle these three?" Cam asked, looking out the broken steel door that had been safeguarding their meeting area and saw there were several more agents coming down the alley towards them.

"Yes, take the others. I'll be there in a minute," he said and smiled as he landed a hard kick to the side of the first agent, burying him in a wall. The agent did not attempt to move after that. Daniel and Cam moved quickly out the door while Cam smiled at the prospect of a good fight.

"Daniel, look what the twins taught me," he said, referring to the twins that had died the day before trying to protect the Merovingian. As Daniel looked over at Cam, he was surprised to see him partly dematerialize and then reappear on the other side of the agents. Without the agents realizing what was happening, he had pulled out his katana and cut one agent completely in half from behind and drove his sword through the head of the second. The other three agents near those two turned around and began to fight with Cam. They did not expect Daniel to join the fight. That proved fatal for two, who quickly fell before him, one from a running kick and the other because Daniel grabbed the front of his suit and threw him through a wall. With only one agent left in the alley and Neo having come through the door to help the three of them made quick work of him, they were ready for their own exit.

"Daniel, I need you and Neo to stay in the Matrix. Morpheus and I are going to take a little trip," Cam said. "Neo, when I'm out, I need you to be in charge of all forces for the time being. If you need a break, make sure to find relief to protect the Architect; we cannot lose him," Morpheus said. Neo nodded his understanding. Daniel also nodded.

"The Architect and I need to work on finding Colonel Sheppard and his team. We should have their location by the time you come back."

"That'll work. We'll see you soon," Cam said as he and Morpheus turned to walk away. After about ten minutes, Cam and Neo reached the phone that would allow them to exit the Matrix.

"So, tell me what you plan to do. You know we can't move the ship while they're in the Matrix."

"You'll just have to wait and see," he said, smiling at what he had planned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Orbiting Zion: Bridge of the Enterprise

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"We read you five by five, Colonel. What can we do for you?" Commodore Missen asked as he listened to Colonel Mitchell's sitrep.

"I have two for immediate beam out. Can you beam us onto the bridge, please? We need to discuss a tactical situation," Cam requested as the transporter activated, placing him and Morpheus aboard the Enterprise directly in front of the commodore. It was quite humorous to Cam, who watched Morpheus all but jump out of his skin at being moved instantaneously from his ship to this place.

"It's okay Morpheus; it's normal. If you will follow me I will show you the view from where we are," he said as he led Morpheus off the bridge and down the hall to the mess hall and its wide viewing windows of the planet below. "This is our mess hall, and that is the world you live on." Cam pointed as he spoke and they entered through the main double doors. Morpheus looked unsteady and was actually speechless for a few minutes while he took in the view from the window and imagined what it could mean for his people. "If you'll follow me, I have one more window for you to look at," Cam said, leading Morpheus over to the other side of the ship.

"I don't think I ever truly believed you were from another world. Most of us just assumed you meant there were other cities like Zion, and you were from one of those. We assumed that the ring you came through was just a tunnel of some sort to a different city. You always hear rumors about other cities, but no one believes them," Morpheus said and stopped as they were crossing the ship through hallways that boggled his mind.

"There are definitely no other cities like yours planetside. I know because we looked. Here we are," Cam said as they entered another large room on the opposite side of the ship. There were several people in the room, which was obviously a gym, using exercise bikes, free weights, and sparring on a mat on the other side of the room. It made Morpheus feel a bit more at home. What amazed him, though were the large windows that gave him a clear view of the fleet outside the window in orbit.

"What you see out there are three Enterprise class Battle Cruisers. This ship is the Enterprise, that one over there is the Ajax, and the one next to her is the Kronos, while the larger ship there is the Normandy," he said, pointing out the Tauri fleet. "The Normandy is a troop ship; while well-armed, she is designed to carry thirty thousand troops and their equipment. That larger ship off a bit over there is the Colonial Battlestar Galactica, and the two behind her are Colonial Gunstars," he finished, letting Morpheus take it all in. "I wasn't supposed to show you this right away because of security, but I wanted you to understand what we have in this fight. The fact is, just our three Battle Cruisers could destroy all life on this planet. The machines will not survive this war. What we have yet to figure out is how to get all of your people out. We have something in the works that I think can evacuate your people, but I want to figure out how to save the two hundred million people being enslaved by the machines." At the mention of a number that high, Morpheus's head snapped around.

"How is that possible? The city is nowhere near that large! I don't think they could hide so many people," he said, obviously confused.

"No, I don't think so either. I think you're closer to thirty million. There are six what you would call 'growing fields' on the planet and I think there used to be six Matrixes and six cities. It looks like the other five were destroyed, though." Morpheus was clearly becoming dismayed. Colonel Mitchell gave Morpheus some space to think and walked over to the two men sparring on the mat. He talked to them for a few moments while Morpheus tried to comprehend everything. After about five minutes, Commodore Missen came into he gym and approached Morpheus.

"When you are ready, you and Colonel Mitchell and I will be beaming down to Zion."

"Thank you for this," he said, motioning to the view of the fleet in the window. "And thank you for your help. My people will never be able to repay you."

"Don't thank us yet; there's still a lot of work to do," Cam said as he rejoined the two of them.

"Are we ready?" Missen asked. Cam and Morpheus both nodded and he called to the transportation specialist. All three disappeared in a beam of light.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Zion: Council Meeting Chamber

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"This is Major Young; we hear you, Commodore. We're ready here when you are." Major Young and the assembled Council were treated to a sight not often witnessed by non-Tauri, but these Thirteeners – as some had started to call them – were a bit of an exception. The Council was a little shocked to see three people appear out of thin air, though, so they had to explain a little about their transportation technology. Once that was done, Colonel Mitchell told how he and Morpheus had come to be there and mentioned the ships in orbit.

"Tell us again why you can't simply destroy all of the machines from orbit?" Commander Locke asked for the third time as he sat at the Questioner's table in front of the Council with all his commanders to his back in the amphitheater.

"Simple, Commander. We want to save as many of those two hundred million people as we can, and right now we simply don't have the resources in place to medically care for or feed and clothe two hundred million people. The Colonies could probably host them if we could get them to the Colonies, but I don't believe any of us have the capacity to help all of those people at once," Commander Adama explained, again, from the seat next to Locke at the Questioner's table. He had been planetside for the past couple of days, having worked his way to Zion through the tunnels in a Raptor. It had been quite a journey, which was why he was a bit annoyed at the Tauri for failing to mention they had transport technology that could have gotten him there in seconds.

"You must understand; our primary concern is the survival of Zion. If that means the destruction of the fields and the people there, we don't like it, but some of us must survive," the head of the Council said, causing all the Council to nod in agreement.

"I have been authorized to offer your people a means of evacuation for all of the civilian population within this city. I know that fight that is about to come will not be pleasant, and if we can avoid civilian casualties that would be a huge positive," Colonel Mitchell suggested, knowing that some explanation would have to come after their next question.

"There are over two hundred thousand civilians in this city. You can do this even with the ships I have seen in space how?" Morpheus asked, not understanding what Cam was saying. Cam stepped forward, placed a small device on the floor in front of the Council tables, and motioned for one of his techies, who came forward and handed him a laptop with a data cable. Within a minute or two, the device sprang to life and everyone was immediately intrigued by the image of a Stargate being projected into the air.

"This is a Stargate. The race of people that you…" he pointed at the Colonials "…know of as the Lords of Kobol were actually called the Alterrans. They existed for millions of years, and one of the things they left behind was a network of these devices." Another image of the Pegasus Galaxy with small dots representing all the known Gates appeared. "They are essentially gateways that can connect to any other Stargate, and it enable instantaneous travel between the two connected Gates." He paused to let it sink in. Then he looked directly at the Council members. "The device that you have in your temple is one, and we can use it to move all of your civilians off-world in forty-eight to seventy-two hours, if you agree to it. Initially, we can house all of your people on our main Pegasus base, New Lantea. Once this fight is over, we can work out something more permanent." As he finished, it was clear that the Council was a bit overwhelmed, and even Commander Adama clearly had some questions.

"Why didn't we already know about these? And I will need to consult higher command about this. I believe they will request some of these gates."

"Both General O'Neill and Dr. Weir are briefing your authorities as we speak. We have already anticipated that request and have several Gates aboard the Odyssey in the Cyrannus System." At this, he turned around and addressed the Council again. "In addition to what Colonel Mitchell has already said, we have a back up option as well if this city is overrun." The hologram changed from the image of Pegasus to an image of Atlantis, it was a comprehensive view of the city floating in space the entire city from bottom to topmost spire could be seen. "This is one of the cities the Alterrans left behind. This one is called Atlantis, and it can hold well over a hundred thousand people. We've found several more like Atlantis, and one of them is here on this planet. We're in the process of raising it out of the western ocean. If we can get it working, it will be yours to use it as you see fit. What I would suggest, though, is that we use it as a Beta Site for your military to evacuate to if Zion falls." Then the hologram disappeared and the techie who had helped to prepare the presentation came back to remove the equipment.

"In addition to what he Tauri have offered, we have verified you are truly the Thirteenth Colony of Kobol. Thus, we would like to offer all the help the Colonies could possibly offer to our long lost brothers." Commander Adama waited to see what the Council would say.

"There is so much to think about here, we do not know where to begin. For now, we will vote on the motion to move all civilians out of Zion to the temporary site," the Lead Counsel said as she stood and surveyed all the other twelve assembled Counselors. The vote was quick; she called each name and everyone gave the affirmative.

"We can begin the evacuation as soon as your people are ready," Colonel Mitchell said, happy at least one thing had been decided.

"We will reconvene once we are through this Stargate," the Counselor concluded. All the Counselors left to their own districts to get their people to the temple in preparation for evacuation. The head of the Council made her way over to Commander Locke.

"Commander, you and Morpheus are now in charge of the city. We are leaving with the civilians; the two of you must do all you can to free our people." Both men acknowledged the Lead Counsel and they parted ways.

-The Docks: Two Hours Later-

"Commander Locke, these shields can save the lives of all the people up here in the Docks," Commander Adama said indignantly as he pleaded with the commander to add the devices to his defense grid. It almost seemed as though he expected to lose the Docks, because he would only agree to use the shields to defend the temple.

"You already know my thoughts on this subject."

"But, if we have to fall back to the temple, the ships in orbit can beam us out. We won't need them, then," Colonel Mitchell reminded the commander. He was not used to having to plead with anyone. "Also, Commander, Morpheus and I need to go, but we will be circumventing much of the surface force to put a nuke in the tunnels above you, so there will be significantly fewer sentinels coming at you. Once we verify how many of the machines are needed to maintain the fields while we evacuate, we'll be hitting the other areas very hard. So there is little reason for a last resort scenario."

"Oh, fine. If you're that sure, then I guess I can't argue. Don't be wrong though," Locke warned, looking Mitchell directly in the eyes. "If we do have to fall back, I'll put you in front and you can take their bullets." Mitchell grumbled as he and Morpheus disappeared in columns of light on their way back to the Nebuchadnezzar and Morpheus's Matrix team.

"The civilians have started evacuating through the Stargate. Commander Adama, would you like to go see the Stargate? We're not really needed here right now," Major Young said. He had joined the group several minutes ago and thought it best to give everyone a break from each other after their argument.

"That sounds good," Adama said as he turned around and walked away from Locke, who was probably glad for a little quiet. For Adama, the idea of having everything depend on him was overwhelming. Like everyone else, though, he was glad the civilians would not be here for the fight.

"That is truly amazing," Adama said as they watched people disappearing through the strange blue glowing puddle that fit neatly inside the ring he had seen only once before.

"Wait a minute. The Gate has been open for thirty-eight minutes and will be closing any second," Young said, and the Rangers stopped the flow of people for a moment while the Gate snapped shut and the puddle disappeared.

"What happened?" Adama asked.

"The physics of wormholes only allows for thirty-eight minutes of open wormhole. Except for rare circumstances, that means you can open the Gate again in a moment," he finished as the ring began to turn again. Within a minute the familiar blue cloud shot out from the Gate and bounced back into a stable wormhole. The Rangers managing the Gate let the flow of people start again and Major Young could easily hear the radio of one of the Rangers crackle with the go ahead New Lantea.

"If you would like, after this next round we can go through the Gate so you can meet some of our people on the other side. We need to bring some more supplies through anyway, so we won't be delaying the evacuation," Major Young said.

"That could be interesting. Why not? How big is that Gate?" Adama asked. An idea had just occurred to him.

"If you are wondering if one of your Raptors or Vipers could fit through the Gate, the answer is Viper, yes, and Raptor, no. Although, I bet with a little modification the Raptor could be made to fit as well." Adama was not terribly surprised the Tauri had already thought of that. They were very resourceful.

"Your people seem to have thought of most everything."

"That's funny. It's my experience that we rarely think through the consequences of anything," Major Young said with a chuckle. He laughed, but he did appreciate the compliment. He liked Commander Adama, and he thought he could like the Colonials too, although only time would tell. He knew they badly needed good allies in Pegasus, whether they liked them or not. It seemed General O'Neill was willing to have allies at such cost that even though the Tauri might not end up in control of Pegasus, at least the Wraith would be gone. It was quite a gamble.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Nebuchadnezzar: Unknown Location within Tunnel System

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Glad you're back, Sir. We were getting worried." Link welcomed Morpheus and Cam back as they reappeared on the main deck of the Nebuchadnezzar.

"Glad to be back. How are things here?" Morpheus said with a smile for his operator. All the other people on the ship were currently in the Matrix, so it was a fairly quiet place, which was nice. Link briefed the two of them quickly on what had taken place over the last few hours.

"Let's pull Trinity out and switch so you can get some rack time and maintain the watch. The Colonel and I need to get back in. We need to meet again and set up a plan. If we are going to rescue Colonel Sheppard and his people, we need to move quickly," Morpheus said as he and Cam sat down in their chairs and put their heads back while the Colonial tech who had been sitting quietly made ready to hook them into the Matrix.

"Glad to see you back," Daniel said as Cam and Morpheus came around the corner from whichever entry site they had used. "How are things going out there?"

"Better than expected. McKay penetrated the cloud and ionized layers of the atmosphere, and it turns out the have a city ship sitting in one of their oceans."

"Wow. It's like Christmastime or something," Daniel said, trying to make a joke at their good fortune. No one laughed.

"Up until recently, we only knew of two city ships still in existence. But since Daniel discovered Kobol, we can now push that count up to fifteen," Cam told Morpheus, who stared blankly. "Never mind," he said, and sat down to talk with the whole group about what they needed to do next. "So, Daniel, where is the Architect? And what is the intel we supposedly have on Sheppard's location?" Cam asked.

"It turns out when they were inserted into the Matrix, the machines took some of their memories and made them actors. They are the primary cast for a TV show. You won't believe me, but it's Wormhole Extreme," Daniel said, trying to straight face. Cam, however, began laughing so loud that the people in the closest seats to them turned around.

"That has got to be the funniest thing I have heard in a long time," he said after several minutes of laughter, which even made Morpheus laugh a little, though he still did not understand the humor. "On our home world, someone once created a television program to hide the existence of our Stargate program. That show was called Wormhole Extreme, and it was quite possibly the worst show ever made. It's a running joke in the program we work in and it is beyond ironic that that is what they've been tricked into believing." Morpheus nodded to signal he understood, but really, how could he?

"The set is crawling with agents and security, though so this mission could be difficult. Also, the Architect said that they might perceive us as enemies and attack us."

"Can you do your little shrink them down thing again, then? And you never answered my question about the Architect," Cam said, sensing some trickery on Daniel's part.

"Yes, we can probably do some shrinking but…I know you won't like this, but I let the Architect go."

"What!?" Cam was furious. And Daniel started talking very fast to get Cam to calm down before he did something stupid.

"There's a faction within the Matrix that wants peace. I think he can get them to help us let the people out of machine slavery slowly."

"Explain quickly."

"If he and the Oracle can rally enough support, they can create a 'holding' Matrix that we can use to keep the people in a sort of stasis long enough for us to release them over time. Then we can destroy the machines. Nuke Machine City."

"What do they get out of it?" Morpheus asked, clearly unhappy as well.

"We let them live on this planet, marooned." Both Morpheus and Cam settled a little.

"I'm still pissed you let him go, though."

"Where were Trinity and Neo on this?" Morpheus asked, already knowing the answer.

"It was their idea, really. I added a little, but ultimately I think they realized there has to be some sort of peace," he finished, ready to move onto the next topic now.

"Where are the rest of the Red Pills?" Morpheus asked.

"I'm supposed to bring them to you once we finished our discussion. When we get there, we'll make the final plans for the extraction of Sheppard's team."

"That sounds great. Lead the way."

Big things were in store, and Daniel and Cam were ready for them; somehow, though, this seemed very much like business as usual. For Morpheus and Neo on the other hand, this was in many ways an earth-shattering time, because so much of what they had believed was now proving to be rather wrong. Who could blame them, really; being enslaved, and then freed after hundreds of years is a great thing, but still disruptive of one's views of the world and one's place in it.