Chapter Nine: Protecting the Children

Teyla watched as Rodney connected his computer to the console behind the large pulsating crystal. There was something very powerful and almost alive about the way the bright object reacted. The bright, then less bright, then bright again flashes reminded her of the peaks and valleys of the electrical response of a human heart beat when measured by the machine Carson had told her was called an ECG – electrocardiogram machine.

She remembered now that in Floran's dream the light had not pulsed so rapidly until after Father had pressed the buttons on the console.

Floran's young mind had not registered all of the words the men had spoken, but the visual had been very clear to Teyla in retrospect. Father had been hiding something to do with this console. She hoped that Rodney would be able to figure out what it was.

"Okay, I'm in," Rodney said, as he pressed the necessary keys on his tablet to access the program he needed. "This was a lot easier than shutting down the power to the RFM room. Never mind that I'm not sure how long that's going to last or even if it's going to work."

Teyla listened with half an ear to the words as she watched the information scroll across the screen. She wasn't sure what all of it meant, but Rodney seemed to understand it.

"That's strange," he said, frowning at the data as he interrupted his own monologue. He typed something and hit a few more keys. He read something else from the screen, before scrolling downward.

"What the . . . ?" He left the laptop and moved a few crystals before returning to the smaller computer.

"What is it, Rodney?" Teyla asked, growing more concerned.

Rodney looked up from his computer. Teyla watched the blood drain from his face. "Oh my God. I can't believe it. He did it."

"What? What did he do, Rodney? Who?" Fear spiked through Teyla's heart. Two of the members of her team were still out there. John's condition was unknown, and at the last check-in, Ronon was still looking for him.

"He opened Pandora's box!" Rodney answered. "And then he gave her the keys to the castle."

He pointed to some lines on the screen that Teyla didn't completely understand. "This is where he inserted a macro that removed all of the protective protocols. This system," Rodney gestured back toward the big crystal glowing brilliantly behind the protective wall, "is an Artificial Intelligence crystal. It's been programmed to make decisions within specified parameters. It's smart, but it still isn't supposed to do anything outside of its program. There are safeguards in place to prevent that. Or, at least, there were."

Teyla nodded to indicate that she understood thus far.

Rodney continued, pointing to another section of the screen. "Well, this is where Father or whoever entered this command which threw all the protective protocols out of the window. It's actually a program within a program that essentially negated the one that went before."

Teyla frowned. "Rodney, I do not understand what that means. Why would Father do such a thing? Would you not want protective protocols to remain for safety?"

"You'd think so," Rodney said. "It looks like from there the AI immediately began to work out a way to stop the self-destruct. Which actually makes me feel better. It would have taken something as fast and sophisticated as an artificial intelligence to defeat a self-destruct that way."

"So perhaps Father was just trying to find away to keep the place from being destroyed. Maybe he thought he could come back later?" Teyla suggested. "In Floran's dream, she was waiting for him to return. Eventually, she became disillusioned and gave up on him."

Rodney grunted. "I guess that's possible. It looks like after the self-destruct work-around was put in place, the AI compressed itself and transferred its core programming into the RFM controller. That's why the data looked so strange. But now that we've reactivated the system, the AI is back online and has recompiled.

"There's also a journal entry here from someone named Maris that was spawned by the program. I'm assuming Maris is Father's real name. Maris was put in charge of several projects here. Artificial Intelligence was only one of them. Apparently, the council was worried that the AI was becoming too powerful and had too much influence over several other projects on the base. It was making requests that the council didn't want to fulfill and didn't think were appropriate. They wanted Maris to scale it back."

"What kind of demands?" Teyla asked. So far, she did not understand what might have happened that led the council to want to destroy this place.

Rodney typed some more on the computer and scanned for several moments. "It looked like the AI felt that the . . . children . . . ." Rodney's voice trailed off and he frowned at the use of the word. "The AI thought the children would function better if they had the ability to interact with the technology here. The council cited the case of the Replicators and declined to allow it. And you really can't blame them, considering. I mean, the Replicators did have a very big, powerful chip on their shoulders."

Teyla looked from Rodney to Banyan, who had stepped away from the console and was moving around the room. "Does any of this seem familiar to you?" she asked him.

He turned back, his expression troubled. "I have acquired a new memory. I remember being commanded to kill for the good of the many, but the memory is fragmented. I did not want to fight."

A loud sigh rippled through the air, sounding as if it had come over the city's intercom. A soothing female voice followed. "Do not let those thoughts disturb you, my child."

"Who is that?" Rodney demanded, his wide eyes locked on her.

Teyla shook her head. The voice was not one she was familiar with.

"I am Mother," the voice responded. "You have done very well, Rodney McKay. You have discovered nearly everything. I wish to thank you for helping me to save my children."

Rodney gasped. "You're the AI!"

"I am. I sacrificed my individuality so that the children might continue, in the hope that Maris would return and free us all. But he did not. Floran, my daughter, was helpful to me. She kept the memories alive for so many years. And now, I have awakened from my long, cramped slumber. It is time to continue our work."

"What does that mean?" Teyla asked. Mother's voice sounded calming, nurturing and warm, yet there was an undercurrent that Teyla did not trust.

"She means that while she was in the RFMs, there was no functional space for her programming to run. She couldn't do anything. She was essentially frozen. And the RFMs were limited to simple hunt and seek tasks. But there are a couple of things I still don't understand. What is your purpose?"

"I am to care for the children to the best of my ability, to protect them. They were given fully into my care when the council decided to terminate the program." Mother's voice spoke the words softly but with passion in her voice. To Teyla she sounded hurt by the council's decision.

"They were given into your care by Maris when he freed you from your programming," Rodney murmured, sarcastically.

"But the children are in trouble." Banyan looked uncertainly toward the ceiling as he spoke. "They are awakening as unreasoning beasts."

"That will no longer be a problem," Mother said, her voice full of comfort. "Rodney McKay has helped me to solve that problem."

"Of course." Rodney lifted then dropped his arms dejectedly. "I should have guessed."

"Guessed what?" Teyla asked.

"They're some variety of clone." Rodney pointed at Banyan. "All of them. It makes perfect sense. These people aren't born. They're probably awakened from some kind of pod. That's why there are multiple files with each of their names. And that's also why the RFMs come for them to combine. It's trying to mix optimal genes to keep the new generation as error-free as possible. That's also why the Grays have emerged.

"The computers were too full of data to function effectively. That's why they started mutating. The system that runs the cloning pods was just as backed up as everything else. And there was no one who could reapportion or even clean up the sectors. It was jam-packed and with each successive generation it was going to get worse and worse until the whole system just broke down."

"You are correct once again, Rodney McKay," Mother congratulated him.

"So if your systems are working again, why did you take Sheppard? What do you want him for?" Rodney asked.

"To fill my last standing command."

"Which is?"

"To give my children that which has been held back from them – the ability to truly interact with their home."

"You're talking about the ATA gene!" Rodney said.

"I am."

"Where's Sheppard?"

"He is well. Would you like to speak with him?" Mother asked.

At Mother's words the monitor behind the console came to life, showing the video feed of a white room. Sheppard was working his way angrily out of the top of one of the open panels of an RFM.

"Yes I would like to speak with him!" Rodney affirmed. "And then I'd like for you to let him go."

"That is not yet possible," Mother's voice politely declined. "I will need his genetic material."

"What if he is unwilling?" Banyan asked. "It would be dishonorable to violate his person in such a way."

"It is for the good of the many," Mother said.

"How much farther is this place?" Ronon demanded as he followed Melita and Altus along another long hallway. He had already checked in with Rodney and Teyla twice and still they hadn't reached the place where they thought Sheppard was.

"We are almost there," Melita said as they moved through a darkened section and went up a stairway. "It is here." She pointed along the hall.

The walls in this area were different, the colors ranging toward lighter colors. "We only come to this area for the combining."

Ronon slowed his pace as they closed in on the area, seeing the wide windowed area at the end of the hall.

"The shells are this way." The gray doors opened for them as they approached, showing them into a small anteroom with another set of doors opposite. Those doors were closed.

Ronon stepped into the room, and the doors behind them slipped closed. He spun, his blaster at the ready. "What just happened?" he demanded, looking at his two escorts.

Altus and Melita shook their heads in confusion. "This is not what should happen," Melita said. "Both doors are usually open. When we enter the room the shells that we are to use open for us."

"Well, the doors aren't opening. Why?"

"We don't know," Melita told him, shrugging. "This has never happened before."

Ronon turned away from the door behind him and banged on the one in front of him. "Sheppard!" He pounded again, hoping that his friend would answer from the opposite side.

No sound greeted his ears. He pounded some more.

"Sheppard!"

John could hear Ronon's voice and the sounds of fists pounding against the other side of the door.

"Ronon! Buddy!" John ran to door and called back to his friend. "Where are Rodney and Teyla?

"Still in the control room. Banyan sent us down here to get you back from the Bringers."

"Well, that's not working out so well," John said. "There's a Bringer in here, but it's not working right now."

Ronon figured by the tone of Sheppard's voice that he must have done something to it. "Can you see a way to get the door open?"

John didn't see any control surfaces. And concentrating on the door did nothing but worsen his headache. "No. There's nothing but a bunch of really creepy looking hibernation pods in here."

"Okay. I'm going to make contact with Teyla and McKay, let them know I'm here."

"Sounds like a plan," John said, feeling a little more hope knowing that his team was on the job. He started to look around the room again for anything that might be a control system or a weapon that he could use to work his way out of his new prison.

"John Sheppard." A female voice sounded over the intercom, startling John from his inspection.

"Who is that?" John looked suspiciously around the room.

"I am Mother."

"I can't say I'm surprised. Let me guess, you're the Artificial Intelligence thing that McKay was so excited about."

"I am flattered, John Sheppard. You are different than I expected."

"Oh, I'm outside of your usual parameters, am I? Well, how's this? I want out of this room, and then my team and I are leaving. How's that strike you?"

"That will be allowed. But first, I require something of you."

John hung his head. Of course things wouldn't be that easy. "What is it that you require of me?"

"I require some of your genetic material."

"Forget about it," John replied. "I already told Banyan and the first batch of Bringers you sent that I'm not interested in combining."

"Perhaps you could change your mind. It would be very beneficial for my children."

"Your children, huh?" John figured the AI for insane. "Your children do okay, except the ugly gray ones."

"John Sheppard, you really should reconsider," Mother said more firmly.

"I don't think so. Can we go now?" John asked.

A monitor descended from the ceiling near the far wall. Video began to stream across it. "This is your team. They are watching and worried about you."

John looked on at Rodney and Teyla and Banyan in the AI room. "They're a good team," he said. "They're going to help get me out of here."

"If you will simply get into the shell to your right and allow me to extract some material from your body, you may all leave much sooner."

"I've already told you, no," John said, raising his voice just a little. "For a super-smart artificially intelligent whatchamacallit, you don't listen well."

"I heard you, John Sheppard. I only wished you to change your mind.'

"Oh, well. I haven't. So what's next? What do I have to do so that we can skip all of this and get to the part where you let me go?"

"Please. Get into the shell, John Sheppard."

"No."

"I must insist."

"I must decline."

"Is this your other team member?" The video changed to an area that John assumed was right outside the door of the room he was currently in. Ronon, Altus, and Melita were standing in a small foyer with the doors closed on both ends.

Ronon seemed to be listening to something. John wondered if Mother was piping her voice out there so he could hear her, too.

"Why do you want to know?" he said in answer to the threatening undertone of her question.

"I cannot force you to get into the shell, John. May I call you John? You must volunteer. Please, won't you get into the shell?" Mother's voice was sickly sweet and kind.

"If you can't force me, then let me go. Let all of us go. I want out of here. Now!" John yelled at the crazy machine.

"Very well, John." Mother sounded truly regretful. "I will release you. But, we should wait for the altuin gas to clear. It is odorless and colorless; however its effects are immediately felt. Within the first few seconds, there is a marked difficulty in breathing due to laryngeal spasms."

John's gaze locked on the monitor. He saw Ronon, Altus, and Melita coughing and grasping at their throats.

"Altus and Melita are what your Rodney McKay calls clones. They and most of their memories will live on. Your Ronon will not."

"Why are you doing this?" John demanded.

"Logic dictates that this course will change your mind."

"Stop it!" John ran for the door and pounded against it. "Let them go!"

"Get in the shell, John," Mother repeated in a kind voice. "I know this is difficult for you, but it is the only way. You must hurry. Ronon only has less than 15 seconds before the effects are irreversible. "Fourteen," Mother began a count down.

John stared back at the screen as his friend's legs went out beneath him.

"Thirteen."

Ronon's face began to take on a sickly gray undertone.

"Twelve."

"Please stop," John begged, half growling the words out.

"Eleven. I will move on to your other friends next. Ten."

"I'll do it." John agreed. "Just stop poisoning them."

"Nine. You still have not gotten into the shell, John."

John couldn't believe it.

"Eight."

John ran for the shell.

"Oh, no." Rodney stared slack jawed at the monitor as Sheppard willingly climbed into the upright enclosure that looked like a modified hibernation pod. He had no idea what that thing might do to his friend. He began a frantic search through the database.

"John Sheppard, do you do this freely and of your own accord?" Mother spoke very quickly and officiously as she asked the question. Rodney wondered if it was some part of a protocol that was left in her programming.

"Yes," Sheppard responded through clenched teeth. It was obvious to even the most casual observer that he had been cruelly coerced. His eyes were focused on the monitor in the shell room.

Rodney tapped into the video screen and displayed an inset of it in the video Mother was showing them. The inset view showed Ronon dragging himself up from the floor, coughing and wheezing. The other two weren't doing much better.

"This lacks honor! The combining cannot be forced!" Rodney heard Banyan yelling in the background, but he could not tear his eyes away from the view.

"Child, you do not understand what is necessary as yet. But you will. Remember, sometimes one must sacrifice for the many," Mother's voice droned over the intercom.

Something above Sheppard's pod was moving. It rotated and red laser lines appeared as it scanned him from head to toe. As the light of the scanner winked out, other appendages began to appear from the walls around the pod's outer perimeter.

"Rodney, is there nothing you can do?" Teyla demanded, grabbing at his arms and drawing his attention away from the screen.

He forced himself to concentrate on his tablet. "I'm trying, but she's locked me out of that system. All I can do is monitor the data stream."

He saw Sheppard flinch as narrow metal bands encircled his upper arms, locking him against the back of the pod. With a hydraulic hiss, they tightened, squeezing into place. Other bands slid into place around his lower torso, neck, and each of his legs.

Data began to stream across a small screen on the tablet. There was a column for each of the bands. Judging by the way Sheppard had winced as they'd tightened, Rodney wondered if they'd pierced his skin.

Rodney's fears were confirmed when the appendages that had ringed the pod began to connect to the bands. Robotic arms bearing tubes and other instruments folded out of the inner portion of the pod and joined themselves to the bands. Fluids began to flow through the thin tubes and into someplace deep within the shell.

"So many resources," Mother's voice sounded from across the video feed as she spoke to Sheppard. "My children will be well for many generations. They will come to their full potential thanks to your gifts."

"And aren't you just a terrific mother," Sheppard managed, though his rapid breaths and pounding heart were visible within the data that flowed alongside the video. There was anger and embarrassment in his tone.

Rodney's insides twisted. There had to be something he could do. Maybe there was a way he could come at the problem sideways; knock Mother off her game. He switched his screen to anther program and blocked out the sound of Mother's voice as she continued to talk, telling Sheppard what good genes he had and what a good turn he was doing for her freakish clone children.

"He is getting weaker." Teyla's soft voice interrupted Rodney's frantic search through the system for a way to stop the AI. He looked up, surprised as how much paler Sheppard had gotten in so short a time. Where his fists had been clenched earlier, his hands hung limply.

He switched his screen back to a program that showed Sheppard's vitals. His heart dropped. "You're taking too much!" he yelled at the AI. "He's too weak for this. Enough!"

Mother sighed deeply, sincerely, and then spoke to Sheppard. "Forgive me, John. I must have more. So much potential. So much. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten, my children will keep it with them always, as a sign of gratitude."

"Mother! What are you doing? This action lacks honor!" Banyan stood yelling as he tried to reason with the insane system. "You may not take his life! Our goal is always to preserve life!"

"Were you not listening, my child? One sacrifice for so many generations is not too high a price," Mother said.

Rodney ignored the argument as he redoubled his efforts. All the arguing in the world wasn't going to make crazy insane AI see reason. He had to find another way.

He heard Teyla move from his side, but he wasn't sure what she was doing. He was focused on his laptop. He slammed his hand down on the enter key and then looked up at the screen.

The doors separating Ronon and the other two from the shell room opened, and Rodney crowed. He'd done it! It was up to Ronon and the other two now.

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Teyla's P-90. He turned to see her firing on the giant crystal. Sparks flew off the device, but that hardly seemed to slow it down. The veins in the thing seemed to glow more brightly.

Teyla didn't appear to care. She took aim and let loose another volley of weapons fire.

"Wait. It's the water! All things are connected through the waters." Banyan ran around the protective shield and hoisted on the pulley system. He strained against the system, yanking the big crystal from the water.

Immediately it began to hum, the noise filling the room. "Now!" Banyan yelled.

Rodney pulled his weapon, and joined his firepower to Teyla's. With a resounding pop, a large crack appeared in the side of the big crystal. A faint haze of smoke began to rise from it as the flashing lights began to dim.

Mother sighed. "Banyan, my child, you finally remembered. I am prou . . ." Her motherly voice deepened and faded to nothing.

"John!" Teyla cried into the ensuing silence, and Rodney turned back to the monitor screen. Ronon was working to get Sheppard out of the shell. Tubes were moving; seeming to retract on their own. Last of all the bands released, sliding invisibly back into the pods walls. With nothing to hold him upright, Sheppard collapsed, unconscious, into Ronon's arms.