The Others Chapter 2 part 3

New Athos: aprox 1520 hours (Atlantis time).

The jumper rose smoothly off the ground, the hum of its engines loud in the quiet of the clearing. As it climbed the engine pods extended from their mountings in the hull, the engines glowing brightly in the shadowy clearing.

The grassy space was empty, the last of the marines and civilians, along with a loudly protesting McKay, having gated back to Atlantis a few minutes previously. Prior to boarding the jumper, Sheppard had spent those few minutes examining the port engine pod for any signs of damage.

Save for a rather nasty dent in the hull plating that covered the pod when retracted; he couldn't see any major damage, even when he had extended the pod to check the inside. It had extended and retracted fluidly enough, and the diagnostic he had run after landing had reported no damage. The other McKay, after surreptitiously borrowing his counterpart's tablet, had also reported no visible problems with the Jumper's systems.

While this had reassured Sheppard slightly, he still intended to be cautious. The jumper's were sturdy beasts, but they weren't infallible. A fact either McKay could tell anyone from experience. Still he could only hope the damage was just cosmetic!

Now as he pulled the jumper into a smooth but steep climb, he kept a wary eye on readings from the engine pod. The light from the forward viewport darkened slightly, as the Jumper climbed through a thick cloud of smoke. In the dry conditions of midsummer on New Athos, the fire in the woods around the wrecked outpost had spread rapidly, causing a thick plume of smoke to rise high into the air. Thankfully the wind had been blowing the flames southwards, away from the Stargate, for the smoke was thick and choking.

After a few seconds the jumper burst clear of the smoke into clear sky, bright sunlight shining through the view screen once more. It lit up the inside of the jumper cheerfully, but the mood inside the craft was anything but cheerful. They were all nervous, shaken by what had happened.

Not too long afterwards, the sky began to darken, as the jumper started to leave the planet's atmosphere. The noise from the engines became quieter, as gravity loosened its grip on the jumper's mass. Sheppard thankfully eased up on the engines slightly, for now they had broken orbit the worst danger of the engine pod breaking from strain was gone. Now as stars began to become visible in front of them, he turned the jumper's sensors to active, looking for their destination.

Immediately he picked up a powerful energy signature in a higher orbit, but surprisingly that was all. The sensors couldn't pick up any dimensions or display an electronic image of the ship as they usually did. Slightly concerned Sheppard began to trigger his radio, then checked himself as he realised how ridiculous the words he had been about to say would have sounded. Fortunately for him, it appeared their approach was being watched, for the radio crackled into life before he had to say anything.

"Dr Weir, Colonel Sheppard asks that you come aboard as soon as possible, he is concerned that more Replicator warships will arrive soon."

The voice came as quite a shock to both Sheppard and 'his' Ronon. To hear Teyla's familiar tones, when minutes previously they had watched deeply concerned as she was carried unconscious on a stretcher through the Stargate, was deeply unsettling for both of them. Weir leaned forward, and gazing upwards, radioed back.

"Understood Teyla, we'll be aboard momentarily."

Sheppard, copying her actions, leaned forward to gaze upwards through the jumper's angled viewport. For a few seconds he could see nothing save the darkness of space, and then a shape began to emerge from the blackness. It was a long dark shape, the blackness of its hull making it hard to distinguish from the space around it. As the jumper drew nearer, Sheppard saw that the ship's outer hull, unlike the grey metal of most Lantean or Asuran ships, was either painted black or made from some very dark alloy or metal.

While he guessed that the main purpose of this was to make the ship harder to detect visually, even though the limited sensor readings suggested it had other more effective means of concealment, it also had another more psychological effect. The dark matte surface of the hull made the ship look extremely intimidating. As the jumper climbed towards it, Sheppard gave a low whistle, as his keen eyes caught sight muzzles of the energy weapons on either side of the hull.

He shot McKay a questioning look. "I assume that's one of those nastier ships the Replicators were building that you mentioned earlier?"

McKay nodded, as a set of docking instructions flashed up on the HUD. About midway along the lower hull, a large rectangular shaped pattern of blue lights flashed on, highlighting the entrance to a hanger bay. As they passed into the shadow of the hull, Sheppard swung the jumper around, bring it to a stop under the now open hanger bay doors. Automated systems took over, and taking his hands off the controls, he sat and watched as the jumper rose upwards into the hanger.

As they cleared the floor level a large open space was revealed. The shaft from the bay doors opened into the centre of the hanger with a good 60 metres extending forward and aft on either side. At the far end of either bay was situated a raised projecting structure with sloping windows, with a similarly elevated walkway on either side spanning the width the bay. The forward bay contained two large blocky ships, clearly Lantean in design, but unlike anything they had seen before. The aft bay however was empty, save for numerous advanced looking pieces of equipment, no doubt intended for the servicing of ships.

All this John saw as the jumper rotated in mid air, before heading on autopilot towards the rear of the aft bay. As it neared the end of the bay he surveyed the structure in the centre of the rear wall. On closer inspection it looked to Sheppard to be some sort of flight-control centre or control room, each one likely designed to manage its own individual bay. Certainly the tinted sloping windows looked very similar to those of the control room for the Atlantis Jumper bay, or the control towers back home on Earth.

He noted that here, unlike in the forward bay, there was no large set of armoured doors in the wall directly below the control room. In the aft bay, the only visible entrance or exit were four typically Lantean doors on either side of the hanger, grouped together in pairs at the far end of the bay from the entrance shaft. In design they were akin akin to any of the doors in Atlantis, but much sturdier looking. He noted absently that all four were easily visible from and in range of any guards that might be stationed on the walkway. This bay was clearly designed to be defendable, a trait that he had never previously encountered in Lantean architecture.

The jumper came to a slow halt in mid air, before rotating and lowering itself to the ground facing outwards, between two banks of machinery. As they exited the rear of the ship, Sheppard noticed a light blink at him from a semi-circular arrangement of controls facing the jumper. As Sheppard walked around the back of it so that he was facing the jumper's open hatch, the console sprang into life. A schematic of the jumper appeared on the screen before him, with its port engine pod coloured in red. It seemed that the hanger bay computer had automatically detected a fault with the jumper once they had taken control of its flight systems, and piloted the craft to some sort of automated service or repair bay. As he watched the port drive pod pod extended outwards, and a bright green light of some sort began to play over the drive systems from the machinery to his left. On the console, a schematic appeared, apparently some sort of itemised repair list. Not just the port but the starboard drive pod was coloured in yellow, along with a number of other systems. The implications were obvious, that jumper was non operational for the near future!

As Mckay led them towards the bridge, Sheppard's original ideas about what exactly this ship represented were confirmed. While the passageways were similar in design to those of an Aurora, they were far more functional, almost spartan in appearance. This, along with a few other things, gave the ship a more militaristic air which the Orion, admittedly built by the Lanteans themselves, had always lacked.

Their journey towards the bridge was a long one, for as Mckay had pointed out, while the dreadnaught did possess internal transporters, there were none located near the hanger bays. Sheppard guessed that was also a deliberate step, suggesting that during the war with the Wraith over ten thousand years ago, some Lantean ships had been boarded. All in all, this ship, while clearly Lantean built, represented an aspect of Lantean thinking he had never seen before. While an Aurora was a powerful vessel in its own right, he had always considered it to be less of a dedicated warship than an (admittedly heavily armed) multipurpose vessel. There seemed to be no frills or compromises for convenience in this ship's design.

After passing through a final particularly thick pair of blast doors, the five of them entered the bridge. Sheppard paused slightly just inside the doorway, staring at the man opposite. He was standing near the command chair in the centre of the room, one hand resting on the backrest.

Just to his right stood Teyla, or at least, another Teyla. She seemed to be looking for someone, her face apprehensive, but when no one else entered the compartment she relaxed slightly.

Sheppard however, only had eyes for the man standing next to her. It was truly a shock, for unlike the nightmare version of himself, he could somehow tell this man really was "him."

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Sheppard stood frozen by the command chair, his eyes locked on the newcomers. He couldn't help but involuntarily move his hand slightly towards his holster. He caught his counterparts warning look and hastily checked himself. Mustering up all his resolve, he stepped down from the chair platform towards the newcomers.

He looked into his counterpart's eyes, saw the same confusion and doubt he had felt himself, and with an effort, held out a hand. With a look of suspicion, the other man took it, and shook with a firm grip.

Sheppard stepped back, and gestured with a hand around the bridge. "Welcome aboard"

Weir smiled slightly. McKay gave an exasperated snort and disappeared down the passageway, presumably towards his engine room.

The (real) Sheppard leant mock casually against a console, his eyes watchful. John sighed.

"Did Col Carter have any orders for you we should know about?" he said.

"We're to head for the nearest planet with a gate and report in. I told her I agreed with your judgement that it was a bad idea to stay here much longer" Sheppard replied.

John nodded. "Sounds like a good idea, we should probably get going then."

He stepped back up to the command chair, and pressed his hand into one of the gel control surfaces. "Mckay, hurry up and get to the engine room, we're getting out of here asap."

McKay sounded decidedly aggrieved when he replied. "For you information I'm already in the engine room thanks, prepping hyperspace engines now."

Sheppard settled himself into the command chair, and started to power up the ship's main systems. With a low rumble, the sublight engines came online, and the dreadnaught began to break orbit, its powerful Ion gravitic drives easily pulling it free of the planet's gravity. Concentrating on flying the ship, John was slightly surprised to feel another mind connected with the ship's systems. Opening his eyes, he was unsurprised to see Sheppard seated at a console, surveying information on the ship's specs. With a small grin, John directed the sensor information from their escape from Asuras to the console.

When they were well clear of the planet Sheppard accessed the ship's database for information on the nearest gate. Apparently the Asurans had encountered some old Lantean outpost or installation with a surviving database, for the ship's navigation systems held an extraordinarily detailed amount of information on the galaxy's gate network. Sheppard selected a planet on an aprox 90 degree bearing relative from their original course to New Athos. Checking all systems showed green, and the hyperdrive engines were powered, he began to open a hyperspace window.

Before him, he felt as well as saw the fabric of space distort, as the usual maelstrom that was a hyperspace window was forced open by the ship's engines. Smoothly the dreadnaught accelerated forwards at faster and faster speeds; until with a slightly flash it entered the realm of hyperspace. Behind them the hyperspace window, no longer being held open by the ship's advanced engines, abruptly closed shut, and vanished from normal space.

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Already far behind them, a series of hyperspace windows flashed open in orbit of new Athos, disgorging a number of long dark shapes. If there had been anyone watching, they would have recognised the silhouette of 5 Aurora class warships. Their sensors intensively scanned the planet's surface and the surrounding space, detecting both the trace remnants of the crashed frigate on the surface and the still strong energy trail of a ship leading out into clear space.

Smoothly the 5 ships swung around in formation, and followed the energy trail. When it soon came to an end, their sensors probed the space around, looking for any signs of a cloaked ship. When they found none, they made the logical conclusion that their quarry had jumped to hyperspace. Unable to track the ship's course themselves, they signalled their Homeworld for further instructions. A few minutes later, the five Auroras once again jumped to hyperspace, following the instructions given to them by their commander.

Unclassified system: aprox 1630 hours (Atlantis Time)

Around half an hour after leaving New Athos, the dreadnaught dropped out of hyperspace over a beautiful green planet. A Space-gate floated serenely in high orbit.

As he had promised Carter, Sheppard announced on arrival that he needed to contact Atlantis and let them know everything was ok. His counterpart, whom Weir had taken to calling "john" to tell them apart, had agreed. He had suggested however that they use another jumper instead of their own. Since that particular ship was apparently now being stripped for repair by the ship's automated systems, Sheppard had readily agreed. He was now therefore being led by the other Teyla towards one of the dreadnaught's jumper bays. She had silently directed him to a transporter, which had made their journey to the forward sections far quicker. Apparently there were transporters near the jumper bays, unlike the larger hangers, but to reach the bay one still had to navigate a number of heavy bulkhead doors and rung ladders between decks. As he waited for Teyla to climb down a hatchway in front of him, he saw with concern that one of her sleeves was crusted what looked like dry blood. His eyes narrowed, when he saw that she wasn't favouring that arm at all or acting like it pained her at all. When they had both reached the bottom, before she could move he blocked her path and gestured to her bloody sleeve.

"What happened" he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

Her eyes flashed angrily, "It's none of your concern" she said, and tried to push past him.

He grabbed her shoulders, and was treated to a ringing slap for his troubles.

He stepped back angrily, tensing for some sort of fight, until he saw the stricken expression on her face. Slightly ashamed of himself, he muttered "I'm sorry."

She didn't reply, simply sank down onto a seat by a nearby console. He crouched down beside her, feeling even more ashamed of his paranoia.

In his experience, his Teyla never showed much of her true feelings unless she was very upset or concerned about something. That wasn't to say she was distant, anything but, however she was definitely what some people would have called "deep." If this woman was anything like her counterpart, which, considering what Weir had told him was very likely, then she must be feeling pretty shit about something.

Uncertain of what to say, he spoke her name, trying to get her to explain what was wrong, or at least look at him. But at the sound of her own name, she shook a little, and a stricken expression crossed her face. She sat there in silence for he couldn't tell how long, until in desperation he wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort this deeply upset woman.

She looked up at him, and after a little while, gently but firmly disengaged his arms from around her. She ran one hand over her right arm, pulling back the bloody and torn sleeve. To his surprise, the skin was completely unmarked. She saw his mystified expression and slowly explained.

"When we were escaping from the replicator Homeworld, we got in a fight with a number of replicator guards. We managed to kill them, but a piece of shrapnel from the grenades hit my arm. The nanites the replicators used to ... construct us, meant that it soon healed, but the shock of it is still there, even if the wound itself is gone.

Sheppard could only imagine how that must have felt, he would have said something comforting, but she carried on, seemingly unaware of his presence.

"It wasn't the pain, that was bad, but it was the reminder of what i am. I'm not Teyla Emmagen, I may have her memories, her looks but I'm just a copy. The remainder of a failed experiment! I never told you John, or should I say, the real Teyla never did, but my people hold the idea of an individual, each person's ... soul, very highly. By the beliefs of my people I am nothing, and it scares me beyond anything I've seen the wraith do.

She wasn't crying, that's what he noticed suddenly, there were no tears, no hysterics, none of the theatrics his wife had used in her shouting and pleading matches with him. This woman was perfectly calm, yet terrified and very angry at the same time.

She stood up suddenly, and set off down the corridor again. As he hurried to catch up with her his mind was racing, suddenly everything didn't seem so clear cut as it had before. These people weren't just copies, as he had been trying to convince himself that they were. He hated to think what was going to happen to them once the IOA found out. They couldn't help their origins, he knew that, but he doubted the IOA would be so understanding.

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As he waited for Sheppard to report back, John played the dreadnaught's powerful sensors over the planet below. To his surprise, he found that the planet was inhabited. Not only inhabited, but the standards of some of Pegasus, it was quite advanced. From what he could see, the people below were about equivalent to the late 19th century on earth. He wondered if they even knew of the wraith. Certainly this planet was in a very isolated star system, and the Spacegate would mean they wouldn't have had contact with any other planets. Certainly the population numbers were telling. He could detect 3 particularly large settlements on different continents, each with close to a million inhabitants.

Weir walked up beside him, and gazed at the view-screen showing the sensor readings. She looked interested, and then concerned. Her comment showed she had been thinking along the same lines as him. "These people look like the Galaxy's left them alone" she said. Her face took on a concerned expression "and now we've arrived, probably with a load of replicator ships on our tail" she added.

John grimaced, that had occurred to him too. With that thought in mind, he opened an internal comms channel to the engine room.

"McKay, any progress with finding some sort of hidden tracking system or transmitter?" he said.

For about a minute there was silence, then the scientist's voice came back.

"Nothing yet, look I could probably search for weeks at this rate. I've just got started examining the main computer systems, and the compartment is huge. This thing is so automated it's probably got more computer capacity than the whole of Silicon Valley! I've ruled out a transmitter keyed in with the comms systems, but this thing is so complicated and has so many redundant systems, there could be a transmitter anywhere on the ship."

McKay sounded rather breathless, probably because he had been down on his knees among consoles and circuit boards. His news was rather worrying though. John read between the lines of what he had said, and asked

"So we're going to need some more hope before we can go anywhere near Atlantis?"

"Definitely, this ship is far too much for even me to handle alone. I could really do with about 20 more people, even Radek would be useful."

John snorted quietly at the last sentence, "Ok Mckay, I'll have the other me relay that to Col Carter."

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Sheppard and Teyla had just arrived into the forward jumper bay when the comms panel in the bay's control room beeped. Walking into the room, Sheppard searched for a moment among the many different control, and then pushed down on a crystal button that was glowing slightly.

"Sheppard here"

"Hey it's me" came the voice of his counterpart "Mckay just told me it's very unlikely that even he (Sheppard snorted at that) will be able to check this ship properly for any hidden transmitters or tracking devices without help. He asked if you could maybe asked Col Carter for a science team or two, he even went so far as to admit Zelenka would be really helpful"

Sheppard considered that for a second.

"Fair enough, I'll mention it to her. If that's the case I don't think we should stay here too long." he said.

"Agreed, perhaps you and Ronon should take one of the ZPM's back through the gate, we can always arrange a rendezvous somewhere else" came the voice from the bridge.

Sheppard nodded slowly to himself, understanding what the copies were trying to do. He guessed that had been Elizabeth's idea, to try gain Carter's trust. He now believed that these people were telling the truth, but the problem would be convincing Carter of that. The offer of a ZPM unsolicited would do quite a lot to aid that.

"Ok, that sounds like a decent idea, can you get the two Ronons to bring it to the forward bay. We'll have to borrow one of your jumpers I'm afraid, seeing as your ship appears to be dismantling ours!"

Weir's voice came over the comms, sounding amused. "I don't think that'll be a problem Colonel. I'm sure Rodney will look forward to helping himself to some of the emergency rations, and we could certainly all do with something to eat."

"Understood" he replied shortly, and hurried over to one of the jumper's. The bay was large and roughly circular, with 12 jumpers on two levels of 6, those on the upper level docked on similar cradles to those in the Atlantis jumper bay. As he entered the jumper the consoles came to light with a soft "thrum" blue lights glowing softly on the console. It might have been paranoia, but he checked to see if Teyla was watching before he began to dial the address. She was seated on a bench in the rear of the ship, looking down at her hands, so her view would be blocked by the bulkhead.

As he dialled the last symbol, a screen popped up in the corner of the HUD, indicating that a wormhole had been established. He was trying to think not to think about it, but the way Weir had called him Colonel had shaken him a little. He was trying to remember that she wasn't the close friend they had lost, she was a different woman, despite the memories she possessed. Triggering his headset, he started to report in to Col Carter on Atlantis.

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About 20 mins later Sheppard shut down the wormhole, and turned around to find the two Ronon's just entering the jumper bay. His Ronon (he could tell by the dried blood on his cheek) was carrying a rucksack, which he passed to Sheppard. John unzipped the bag and pulled out the softly glowing ZPM. He gazed at it with deep satisfaction for a few moments, then put it back and re-zipped up the bag.

A few moments later Weir arrived at the door of the bay as well. She came over to him, and handed him a folded piece of paper.

"You better get going. You'll find the coordinates for a rendezvous on there. We'll meet you there in 24 hours exactly. If we're lucky Mckay will have found something, if not, we might need to keep jumping for a while.

Sheppard nodded, and started to walk towards the jumper, Ronon by his side, when Weir spoke again.

"Oh and Colonel," he turned around, his expression curious. A thoughtful expression crossed her face "if it's no great trouble, could you bring a thermos of Coffee next time, I think all of us could really do with some. She smiled slightly "plus it would probably help Mckay stay awake."

Sheppard couldn't argue with the last part.

"Of course, we'll bring some clothes and food as well. I doubt the replicators stocked this thing with those."

The other Ronon grimaced. "Nope" he said curtly, as if the thought had just occurred to him.

"We'll survive. We should really be going, i don't want the Replicators to find this world if we can help it. There are people on the surface he don't deserve to suffer because of us. "

With that the three of them hurriedly left the bay and disappeared from sight around the corner. As the bulkhead doors slid shut, Sheppard and Ronan hurriedly boarded the jumper he had used earlier. As the ramp began to raise Sheppard sat in the pilot's seat, and began to power up the ship's engines, Ronon beside him.

He lifted the jumper into the air and held it over the floor in the center of the room. Guessing, he hit the same control that was used to retract the floor to the gateroom in Atlantis. It was the same here, and below him the floor retracted into a number of sections in the same way, revealing the shame narrow shaft below. Dropping the jumper into the shaft, the drive pods still retracted, Sheppard descended until he reached another set of thicker doors. Once again, at his command, they slide apart, revealing a breathtaking view of the planet below.

As they dropped clear of the hull, the drive pods extended and he started to ease forward towards the spacegate. Just as he was about to ask Ronon to dial, the sensors beeped a warning, and he saw with horror that a number of hyperspace windows were opening above the dreadnaught.

Above them he saw the vast bulk of the copies's ship start to move forward, clearly trying to shield their path to the gate. As he snapped at Ronon to dial, he opened a coms channel to the Dreadnaught. As a view of dreadnaught's bridge flashed into life on the HUD, he saw the other Sheppard seated in the command chair, a look of concern on his face. The room visibly shook, and he saw his copy's face take on a grim expression.

"Would love to talk right now, but if you hadn't noticed I'm rather busy! Hurry up and get to the gate while I can still cover you. "

Before Sheppard could say anything at all, his copy cut the comms channel. Hurriedly cloaking the jumper, Sheppard dove towards the Spacegate, only to realise as the wormhole formed a few Km ahead, that he was approaching from the wrong side. Cursing, he pulled the jumper over the top of the active gate, and spun in a tight circle a few kilometres on the far side. As he swung round, he saw the swiftly turning mass of the dreadnaught under heavy drone fire from 5 Auroras, its shields glowing brightly. As the vast ship swung around with a grace that belied its size, a flurry of drones erupted from its upper hull.

He watched as what looked like close to a hundred drones tore into one of the smaller battle-cruisers which was consumed in a vast explosion as the drones detonated inside its hull. When the flash faded, the ship was in two halves, which began to drift apart. From the looks of the damage, its shields hadn't been fully been fully raised, or the volley would never have done so much damage.

As he lined up the jumper with the active Spacegate, transmitting his IDC, the glow of the engines at the rear of the dreadnaught increased significantly. With increasing speed, the dreadnaught, drones still spitting from its upper hull to intercept fire from the Replicator ships, sped out of orbit into space, on a heading for the system's sun. As the jumper's drive pods retracted into the hull automatically, Sheppard saw a series of bright blue flashes burst from a number of places on its rear hull, to impact heavily on the shields of one of the pursuing Auroras.

From the looks of it, the replicator vessels hadn't expected to find the dreadnaught so close to them, a mistake for which they had already suffered. Now the surviving 4 battle-cruisers had reformed their formation and were already speeding after the escaping dreadnaught. Glowing yellow drones competed with volleys of blue bright flashes, and just before the jumper entered the wormhole, he saw another huge volley of yellow drones impact on the hull of one of the Aurora's. Then there was only the familiar view of the wormhole, and the Atlantis Gateroom rushing up to meet them.

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Sheppard grimaced as another volley of drones slipped through his defences, and impacted on the shields. They had been unbelievably lucky at the beginning, for the Replicator ships had dropped out of hyperspace in possible the worst possible place for them. He'd been lucky enough to destroy one of them right then, but since then things had got far more difficult.

He continued to jink and dodge as best he could, hoping that he could cause enough damage to their shields with his stern tracking pulse plasma turrets. Unfortunately each time he managed to drop one of the Aurora's shields to dangerous levels, it would pull back and wait for its shield strength to build up again. Right now his only advantage was speed, for he was slowly outrunning the Replicator vessels. He hoped that with luck he would get enough of head start to swing around safely and open up with the dreadnaught's main batteries.

Another volley of drones impacted on the shields, dropping them to 65 . He had resorted to using his drones simply as a point defence system, hoping to pick off enough oncoming fire to limit the damage. Without a full crew, he was unable to access all of the dreadnaught's weaponry and continue to fly the ship, so the numerous point defence batteries along the hull were silent. Luckily the stern turrets were auto-targeting, but trying to keep track of drones coming from 4 different directions was starting to take its toll, and dangerous numbers were managing to seep through his defences.

As the hull shook again Weir, Ronon and Teyla raced into the bridge, staggering slightly as the hull rocked. He had informed them what was happening over the PA as soon as the replicator ship's arrived. Now the three of them clung to consoles as the ship shook violently once more, for the replicators had redoubled their attempts when they realised the dreadnaught was steadily drawing ahead.

It wasn't enough though, for even as the rear turrets scored a lucky hit on one of the auroras, knocking its shield strength down to less than 10 , another volley of drones dropped the dreadnaught's shields down to just under 50 . He considered jumping to hyperspace, but the problem with that was these four ships would no doubt just follow them again. He triggered the intercom to the engine room once more as an idea struck him.

"McKay, I want you to feed every bit of power you can spare to the engines, take it from the weapons systems if you must but leave the shields and drones." he yelled over the explosions.

There was no reply, and for a second he feared that the scientist hadn't heard him or worse was injured in some way. Then he felt the power being fed to the engines surge upwards, heading dangerously into the red. The dreadnaught surged forwards like a thoroughbred, its engines glowing like a furnace, its rear canons falling silent as McKay fed their power to the engines and shields. With relief he saw the shield strength rise slowly upwards, finally peaking at around 65 , at which point it held, despite the occasional drone that managed to impact on the energy barrier.

The Auroras dropped steadily behind, unable to keep pace with the dreadnaught's speed. They continued to fire, but the greater range meant Sheppard had more time to concentrate on intercepting their drones.

As the ship ceased to shake so violently, Teyla and the others loosened their death grips on consoles and chairs around the room.

"Shouldn't we be jumping to hyperspace?" Teyla asked.

"No, we can't just leave those ships in this system, if they can't follow us they'll return to the planet and wipe out the population, and it'd be entirely our fault!" answered Weir, her tone passionate.

Sheppard coughed slightly, "Plus, they managed to find us here, there's no guarantee they won't just follow us into hyperspace and hit us the next time we try to contact Atlantis. No, whatever the reason, we need to take them out now!"

Weir eyed him with concern, "Can we do it?"

Sheppard nodded, "Yep, but we need to get far enough ahead of them so we have an advantage." He leant back in the chair slightly, letting the ship fly on autopilot, for they were far enough away from the Aurora's for their drones to be out of range.

"Basically we got lucky! They jumped into orbit above us. It meant they weren't ready, but it also meant I couldn't use the ship's main weapons. We pack a bigger punch, but I need range to attack them. In close quarters they can just smother us with drones. Plus they're fully crewed, while I'm trying to run all these weapons by myself, which is tiring I can tell you!"

Weir looked thoughtful, "so what's your plan John?" she asked.

"We slingshot, get as close to the sun's surface as is safe and use the gravity to sling us around and speed us up. At the rate we're going now, we should reach it well before they do and it will mean that when we come back round, we'll be the ones with the clear line of fire and the weapon's range. If we're lucky we should be able to pick all four of them off easily, this thing's weapons are designed to destroy hiveships!"

"Ok, assuming this plan will work, how long is it going to take us to reach the sun? Will we be safe that close to the surface?" queried Weir.

Sheppard consulted the dreadnaught's systems. They were leaving the Aurora's further and further behind, though from the looks of it, the Replicator ships had also diverted excess power to their sublight drives for as he watched, the distance between them failed to decrease any further. Ok, he thought, they're not getting further away, but they're not gaining either, which is a good thing!

"The shields should protect us fine, but I'll get McKay to divert any excess power to them anyway! As for time, well, that planet wasn't exactly far from the systems centre to start with, so at the rate we're going, I'd say about 20 minutes." he said.

Unclassified system, unclassified Star: aprox 1725 hours (Atlantis Time)

Approximately 20 minutes after Sheppard and Weir's conversation, the dreadnaught began to dive towards the surface of the unnamed systems star, a G-type star similar to Earth's, but much younger. As the ship headed towards the surface, following a carefully plotted course designed to use the star's gravity to accelerate the ship, the shields began to grow steadily yellow as they were bombarded with varying types of radiation.

From the bridge of the ship, the view was quite spectacular. The advanced material of the viewports, similar in appearance to glass but in fact totally different in atomic composition, blocked most of the glare, allowing the 4 of them to gaze upon the swirling ball of gas and fire. The ship's dark hull glinted dully in the bright light, despite its light absorbing coating. Sheppard watched the sensors listing the ship's speed increase steadily, as the star's gravity took hold of the vessel. Sheppard planned to grab as much inertia as he safely could, hopefully exiting the sun's gravity facing the planet before the replicators had arrived. If he timed it properly, they would make easy targets, while the immense radiation of the sun at the dreadnaught's back would hopefully affect the accuracy of their targeting systems.

Taking a risk that the ship's shielding could take it, he lowered the dreadnaught still closer to the planet's surface, and immediately felt the greater tug of the star's gravity on the dreadnaught's hull. The ship was travelling almost 1/3 faster than it had managed before, and while the outer hull was starting to heat up steadily, it was nowhere close to dangerous. Already they were close to halfway along their course around the star, and it would take much longer than it would take to complete the remaining course for the heat to reach dangerous levels. All the same, he diverted power from the now unnecessary drone systems to the shields. At the same time he reduced power to the engines, which had begun to reach dangerously high temperatures, a situation not helped by their proximity to the star. It would have no real effect on their speed, and he would need full power in a little while to break free of the gravity, best not to strain them unnecessarily.

Suddenly a number of systems began to flash urgently at him. Concerned, he surveyed the readings being displayed in his mind. To his surprise the reading didn't come from the shield systems or engines, but from the ship's astrometric sensors. The ship's computer system clearly regarded whatever the sensors were reading to be dangerous, but he could make no sense of the data being displayed before him. The readings increased, and he felt the stress on the ship's hull began to grow, as some force other than the sun's gravity began to tug at the dreadnaught's bulk. Deeply concerned, Sheppard surveyed the readings, diverting the excess engine power to the shields as a precaution. The readings looked similar to those created by the forming of a hyperspace window, but at the same time dissimilar. Just as he was debating what to do, he felt the sensors zero in on something ahead of them, and he concentrated all his attention on that one point. It was a mistake.

"JOHN" yelled Weir sounding very scared.

Sheppard opened his eyes, and then stared in horror at the sight before his eyes. A gaping blue vortex, like a funnel of water pouring down a drain, had appeared directly in front of the ship.

Reacting swiftly like the trained pilot he was, he sent the engines to full military thrust, trying to claw his way out of the star's gravity and avoid whatever the hell had just appeared before them.

The roar of the engines grew, and warning lights flashed red in his mind as the abused engines tried to break free of the massive forces of gravity and inertia. The dreadnaught's bows lifted slightly, but try as he might, he couldn't pull free of their original course.

In horror he watched the gaping tunnel in space draw nearer and nearer, and all the engines were doing was making it get closer. Desperately, he fired the landings thrusters along the base of the ship, designed to be used for delicate manoeuvres inside a planet's atmosphere. The ship's bow rose slightly more, but then gravity drew it downwards again.

He gazed around the bridge in shock; Weir was staring wide eyed, her mouth slightly ajar, her face showing utter terror. Ronon, ever practical, had grabbed hold of Teyla and was strapping her into a seat. As the ship's hull groaned dangerously at the pressures being exerted on it, John opened a comms channel to the engine room.

"McKay, don't argue just get strapped into a chair right the hell now!" he shouted.

He saw Ronon physically drag Weir across the tilting deck toward a chair, saw him strap her in to it and then dive for the nearest chair himself.

When he realised for certain that there was nothing he could do to alter course. Sheppard franticly cut all power to the engines and diverted it to shields, artificial gravity and the inertial dampening system, hoping desperately that the ship would survive whatever the hell it was just about to encounter. Like an arrow from a bow, the dreadnaught shot bow first into the depths of the blue tunnel, and promptly vanished. With a blinding flash, wormhole closed shut behind it.

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When the dreadnaught failed to reappear around the sun, the Replicator vessels proceeded to scan the surrounding space intensively, looking for any indication of a cloaked vessel. When their exhaustive scans returned nothing, they transmitted a message requesting a hyperspace bearing on the dreadnaught to their Homeworld. It came back negative.

They then jumped briefly into hyperspace, before emerging in high orbit above the one inhabitable planet in the system. They then proceeded to devastate the cities of the industrial era human population below. The Asurans systematically targeted human life signs, pounding the planet's surface with drone after drone, until the buildings of the cities were piles of rubble scarcely a meter high and houses and farms were levelled or ablaze. Further damage to the planet's ecosystem was caused by the vicious re-entry of the two halves of the Aurora that Sheppard had earlier destroyed. The two sections impacted on a particularly fertile section of continent, which had largely fed one of the three major cities. The two twisted and scorched pieces of ship ploughed into the ground at colossal speeds, creating two massive impact craters and devastating thousands of acres of crops.

In a final act of devastation, the nearest vessel targeted the space-gate, a stream of drones causing the gate to shatter into several small pieces, which drawn in by the planet's gravity, soon burnt up in a stream of fiery comets, visible to the few stunned survivors below.

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In another galaxy, in another time, another bright blue wormhole flashed open, depositing the battered shape of the dreadnaught into deep space. All aboard were unconscious, made so by the rough ride. Their arrival did not go entirely unnoticed however. The brief high surge of energy generated by the dreadnaught's arrival registered on a number of scanners, on either side of the well monitored border.

Message and courier vessels were dispatched from sensor outposts to report to their respective hierarchies. While at the same time, all along the border regions, garrisons and vessels were put on higher levels of alert, as both sides studied the information on this unusual energy reading, fearful of what it meant. In one vast shipyard, a huge ship along with a number of smaller craft cast loose its moorings, and plotted a course for the triangulated location of the unusual energy signature

End of chapter 2.

Finally people I've made it. We've finally arrived at the crossover! No updates for a while now I'm afraid exams to revise for!! Hope you enjoy, please read and review!!

Jpdt19

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