Chapter 5 part 2

They landed nearly a mile away from the ship; it had been difficult to find even a small clearing in the forest, and Perrault didn't want to park too close to the wreck, just as a precaution. They were following a compass—nobody knew if the magnetic poles of this planet were the same as Earth's, but it was better than nothing. Alice had collected the life signs and energy detector from the Jumper, but it was useless at first, as it only had a range of a hundred meters.

It was slow going. The undergrowth was thick and every so often they stumbled upon a fallen tree and had to detour to go around it. The trees were daunting; they looked like standard American sycamores, but towered over them like giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park, which Alice had visited several times, back when her dad was still alive, so she had some comparison, even though she knew little about botany. In between these behemoths, shrubs the size of one-story buildings extended their branches towards the scarce sun rays filtering through the thick foliage above. Still lower, long, sharp-bladed grass covered the ground, interrupted only by the multitude of rocks and boulders, themselves almost entirely overgrown by moss. Alice had never seen a forest such as this; it was almost too alive, every inch of space taken by the plant life. And not only that; they heard the rustling leaves and snapping branches as animals fled before them, alarmed by the unknown sounds and smells. Alice could swear she saw one of the goat-like antelope (or antelope-like goat? Who knew?) blur between the trunks, and a few minutes later they all heard the low, distant roar of some great cat.

They didn't talk; Karim took point, Alice following him closely with Cooper on her heels; Perrault closed the procession a few paces back. Alice was impressed with Karim's orientation; he barely even looked at the compass. He was walking quickly, but cautiously, choosing his footing in an expert way that made little sound. Alice felt like an elephant stomping around on porcelain next to him. Even Cooper, she felt, avoided the snapping branches and rustling leaves better than her. Not to mention that as they finally stood at the edge of the clearing that was all fallen trees and overgrowth, covering the sides of the hull of the Asgard ship and steadily creeping up, she was drenched in sweat and inwardly swearing at all the gear she was carrying around. Karim and Perrault were both breathing quite normally, their faces clean, and Cooper looked only a little worse for wear.

Alice took out the life signs detector from a pocket and looked for the energy signature they'd seen in the Jumper. It was there, alright; faint, but still present.

"Can you tell what happened?" Perrault asked, looking at the detector over her shoulder.

"No, sir. Nothing beyond the obvious; they crashed into the planet surface, but why and how come the ship stayed in one piece?" She shook her head. "With such forces, it should have been torn apart on the approach. Unless they had the shielding on, but if yes, why did they crash? I will need to inspect closer, sir."

"You mean go inside?" Will asked, alarmed. "Is that safe?"

"The hull looks remarkably intact," Alice said, trying to sound braver than she felt. "I'm pretty sure it won't fall over my head. Even so, sir, it would be best if I went in alone to check the structural integrity," she told Perrault. He raised his eyebrows at her. "You can follow me when I confirm it's safe."

He thought for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. But first sign of problem, you get out of there, okay?"

"Yes, sir." Alice smiled, as much to encourage him as herself, and turned towards the wreck. She wasn't familiar with Asgard ships beyond what she's read in technical reports from people who've been aboard one—such as Colonel Carter—but she didn't think it would be very hard to find her way around; it would be enough to follow the energy signal. She guessed it would lead her to the engine or maybe some secondary power generator. First, however, she needed to find a way to enter the ship. This turned out to be harder than she thought; not only most of the sides of the hull were overgrown by shrubs and moss, but it seemed that there were no entrances. Finally, after half an hour of searching, Alice found something that resembled an emergency hatch. There was a panel that would open it, but it didn't work. Yet there was some residual energy inside, because when she was touching the glossy buttons, the graph on the energy detector spiked slightly. It just wasn't enough to open the door. Alice frowned and got out her service kit. The panel didn't have any screws to unscrew, but Alice used a flat-ended screwdriver and a small hammer to pry it away from the wall and expose a mess of dials and small crystals. Alice smiled. Every advanced race in the universe seemed to use crystal technology, which was a good thing, because once you understood the principle, you could work with different systems, albeit it took much time to truly comprehend it. Alice took out one of the small crystals, replaced it with another one and used the one in her hand to bridge two others. The graph on the detector spiked again, this time more violently, but the hatch remained shut; frowning, Alice turned one of the dials, then replaced another crystal, and bridged them together once more; this time there was a satisfying click and a puff of air as the door depressurized and swung slightly ajar. Alice pulled it completely open, looked around at the rest of her team, standing some paces away, nodded to them, and slipped inside the ship.

It was dark. She brought out a flashlight, suddenly happy that she did carry all her gear. How else would she be able to get in here if she didn't have her kit?

"Be careful, Boyd," the radio crackled with Perrault's voice in her ear. "We don't know if it's empty."

"Yes, sir." Alice nodded, though obviously he couldn't see it, and moved the flashlight to her left hand, picking up the P90 with her right and putting the life signs detector into a pocket. Then she looked around to get her bearings.

She was inside a pressure chamber. There was another door to get through in order to get into the ship proper, and she had to repeat everything she did to the outer panel to get it open. Finally, she stepped into the corridor. It was dark and dank, the smell of mold permeating the air. The walls were curved, nearly cylindrical, with arches every few steps, and vertical tubes hanging in between. Alice guessed they were lamps, now black as everything else. She inspected a few of the arches closely, but there were no cracks or anything that suggested the ship might be structurally damaged. It was not enough, though, Alice decided; even if in this place everything looked okay, it might not be a few paces away. Without lifting her finger from the trigger of the P90, she mounted the flashlight on its top with her left hand and then brought out the life signs detector again. It showed that the source of the energy was coming from the left, at the rear of the ship. Alice started that way.

Only the sound of her footsteps and her own breathing disturbed the complete silence. The light of her torch brought out strange, slick shapes out of darkness. The air was damp, stuffy and still. Alice felt as if she was walking through some ancient tomb, and her skin crawled a little, even though it appeared the place was completely empty. Where were the Asgards that flew the ship all the way here? Were they the ones of Othala, those who had committed mass suicide, leaving their legacy to the Earthlings? Or were they those of Pegasus, who had once kidnapped Doctor Jackson and Doctor McKay? Regardless of their origins, were they the ones who brought humans to this planet? And why?

Alice finally arrived at the end of the long corridor, where there was an open door. Alice entered into the room, reading the graph that suggested the source of the energy was somewhere close. Here, she found a couple consoles with some stones on them, but both were dark and didn't respond to her moving the stones around. Nevertheless, it was something. Alice didn't want to go much further all alone if she didn't need to, and she thought Perrault might get impatient soon, too. She sat down on the floor next to one of the consoles, popped open the panel at the back, and shone some light on the inside. The configuration was completely unfamiliar to her, but she thought she could identify the master control crystal, and if she could link her computer into that, she might be able to get some readings. She put the life signs detector aside and took out the tablet from yet another pocket. She then connected it with what she thought was the master control crystal and clicked the power button. It came on within seconds, and she brought out a diagnostic tool.

Two minutes later, she tapped her earphone to radio Perrault.

"Sir, you can come in. It should be safe," she informed him. "Just turn left and go all the way to the end of the corridor."

"On our way," came the response.

It took them another two minutes to get to her. They found her still on the ground, leaning over her tablet and frowning to herself.

"This is a creepy place," Cooper said as they entered the room, each with a flashlight, brightening up the room. "You alright, Alice?"

"Huh?" Alice looked up at them, her gaze unfocused for a second. "Oh, yes. This is interesting, sir." She waved towards the console. "This is just an auxiliary console, but it's interconnected with the mainframe so I've been able to get some data out of it."

"It still has power?" Perrault was surprised.

"Not a whole lot of it, but yes, some is still there. It's leaking, though." She paused. "I'm pretty sure their power generators are shielded, or we'd already be dead."

"That's a cheery thought," Will muttered.

"Is it safe to stay here?" Perrault asked.

Alice nodded. "Yes. As long as we don't try to pry open the generators, we should be alright. Another year, and there's not gonna be any power left, anyway."

"Were you able to determine what 'appened?"

She frowned again. "Not exactly, sir. It seems that the ship's log has been either damaged or erased."

"Erased?"

"Or damaged, yes." Alice shrugged. "I can tell you what caused it to crash."

"Do tell," Cooper said eagerly. Perrault rolled his eyes and made a go on gesture. Karim was standing at the entrance, looking out, keeping watch—for what, Alice didn't know, but she guessed it was second nature to him.

"Sabotage." The word got their attention—even the sergeant looked around at her. "Someone had tampered with the systems from the inside. That's why they still had the shield as they came down, but didn't have the navigation or steering to decelerate in time. The shield failed as they crashed, but only after it took most of the shock. This is why the ship's hull is still mostly intact. There are some tears in the lower sections, but that's pretty much it."

"And the power generators?"

Alice nodded again. "Sabotaged as well. In fact…" She hesitated.

"What?"

"It doesn't make any sense, sir," she professed, shaking her head. "The way it's been damaged? I could fix it, let alone an Asgard."

"Can you fix it now?"

"No, sir, it's too late now. When I said that the power was leaking, I actually meant the beta decay. Asgard technology is based on neutronium, sir, which is basically a very dense matter composed solely of neutrons. The Asgard were able to harness the energy produced as the neutronium gas expands, although we still don't quite understand how. Under normal circumstances, it takes thousands of years for a free neutron to decay into a proton, but the machinery the Asgard have constructed is capable of accelerating that thousand-fold. That is what the saboteur, whoever they were, messed with. The negatively charged down quarks were converted into positively charged up quarks by emission of a W boson. W bosons then decay into electrons and electron antineutrinos. So there is no more neutronium, see, just random subatomic particles, and it's impossible to go back."

Perrault looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "I didn't understand any of what you just said, so next time just tell me no, can't fix it, and that will be enough. Otherwise it's a waste of a perfectly good explanation."

Alice smirked. "Yes, sir."

"So what's the dangerous part?" Cooper put in, shining the flashlight into Alice's face so she had to squint. "Oh, sorry." He moved it aside.

"Radiation is the dangerous part. Under normal circumstances, exposure to neutrons itself can be hazardous, although fast neutron therapy is used in cancer treatment for example. You can imagine what incredibly dense matter composed of neutrons can do, however, and beta decay itself is a form of radioactive decay, it emits harmful ionizing radiation, and with volumes and condensation such as here, exposure to it would kill instantly."

"I suggest we don't go anywhere near the generators, then. Who's with me?" Will threw his hands up, but his quip was universally un-acknowledged.

"Is there a way to determine who was the saboteur?" Perrault asked, pronouncing the word as in French.

"No, sir. Like I said, the log is damaged or erased, it's impossible to tell."

"Don't they have a black box?" Karim asked, looking over his shoulder at Alice, still planted at the entrance.

Alice shook her head. "I don't know. If they do, it won't be accessible through the normal consoles. I don't know where to look," she admitted. "I could use Doctor McKay's expertise there."

"Oh, I'm sure he's going to want to take a look at it himself anyway," Perrault grumbled. "Alright, then, if there's no more to be learned 'ere now, we should get back and give a report."

"Yes, sir." Alice nodded and began unclipping her tablet from the console. She put it back to her pocket, grabbed the life signs detector, and got up from the floor. With Karim on point again, they moved back along the corridor to the hatch and got out of the ship, blinking and squinting their eyes against the sunlight. The sun was now hung low over the horizon, which they could see through the gap in the trees created by the ship's hull, stretching all the way to the ocean side. As they got back into the forest, the air grew colder and the shadows deepened, making it progressively darker. It took them less time to get back to their Jumper, because they were retracing their steps. Alice didn't understand how Karim could know the path so well after going this way only once, but he did. Alice felt alien and uncomfortable in the forest; he seemed to thrive in this environment. This was what he was made for. She was just a city girl, but she had a feeling she would have to get used to the great outdoors.

They touched down on the other side of the clearing from where Sheppard's Jumper was parked. It was already dark as they entered the town, Perrault and Cooper walking abreast with Alice and Karim following them two or three steps behind. More people were around now; Alice even thought she recognized some they'd seen at the beach, on the field and among the antelope herd. They all sat outside their huts and cabins, some on wooden logs, others directly on the ground. Alice felt their watchful eyes on them as they passed by, their faces anxious and worried. Alice guessed if she lived in Pegasus her entire life, she'd be mistrustful of strangers too.

Actually, she was mistrustful of strangers anyway.

They reached one of the central buildings, a long wooden hall; Alice understood it was some kind of a gathering place, probably used to hold town meetings and celebrations. It was right across from the church—there was no doubt in her now that was what it was—and had a pair of huge doors that made her think of medieval castles. In one wing, there was a smaller entrance carved out that opened independently, and beside it was where Ronon was waiting for them, leaning against the wall.

"We're inside," he told them and wrenched the small door open.

Inside, there was only one big room, empty save for a stage on one end, and an impressive fireplace on the other. It was lit, the fire throwing orange shadows on the walls, windows open high up to let out the smoke. Sheppard, Teyla and McKay sat on wooden benches around a big table, decorated with food; mostly forest fruit, but Alice didn't recognize any of the wide variety of berries.

Three other people sat at a table: locals, two men and a woman. The men were tall and muscular, middle-aged, and the woman was older, her white hair falling in waves on her shoulders. They were wearing clothes of a thick brown thread, which Alice guessed were made of the antelope-like animal's fur.

"These are the friends I was telling you about," Sheppard said to the locals, waving at the Fourth Recon Team to join them at the table. "This is Perrault, Boyd, Cooper and Karim. Guys, this is Hlava, Doren and Earah."

The woman, Hlava, inclined her head towards each of them in a prolonged greeting, and after a second the two men did the same. Perrault and Karim nodded curtly to them, and Cooper looked at Alice significantly and they both replicated the drawn-out bow of the locals. Then they took their seats.

"They were out exploring the area." Sheppard gestured to Karim, who sat closest to him. "They found the ship you came here on."

"That is not possible, for it is half a day's journey from here," Earah protested.

"We have ways of moving much faster," Teyla told him in a calming manner. "Things we inherited from the Ancestors."

"So you are Ancestral worshippers, too?" Doren asked in a low voice, as if he was afraid someone would overhear him otherwise; however, they were quite alone in the hall.

"Doren!" Hlava's tone was chastising. "We have cast aside the belief in supernatural origins of the Ancestors," she explained to the newcomers. "We now believe that they were an advanced race of humans who came before us but went extinct following some terrible cataclysm."

Sheppard and McKay exchanged looks, raising their eyebrows.

"What did you find on the ship?" Earah inquired after a brief moment of silence. "None of our people have been there for some time."

"It's getting quite overgrown by the forest," Cooper answered casually. "A few more years and it will look like an actual hill."

"What is wrong with your face?" asked one of the locals, looking at the anthropologist curiously.

"Doren!" Hlava castigated him again.

"I am sorry." Doren inclined his head again. "Mother Hlava often tells me I should think more before I speak."

"It's alright," Cooper assured him in a chipper tone that didn't fool Alice. "We call it vitiligo, it's a skin disease. It's not harmful or infectious."

"So you got here on the ship?" Alice changed the subject, as much to get back on track as to relieve Will.

"Yes. Our own world was attacked by the Wraith. Your leader here tells me you know of this terrible enemy." Hlava looked at Sheppard seriously.

"Yeah, we've met them a couple times." He nodded, smiling mischievously, and Alice understood why; indeed, they did meet them. In fact, they had one of them in custody in their flying city.

"How did you get on the ship? Who flew it?" Alice pressed.

Hlava didn't reply for a long moment, and then sighed. "We do not know nor understand much of what happened. The ship appeared in our skies one day, mere hours before an attack of the Wraith. We were transported aboard by means of a beam of light. We crashed on this planet and made it our home."

Alice was looking at the woman in a scrutinizing manner, and even she saw Hlava's reluctance to go into details. She was very careful not to say anything about the ship's original crew. Alice shifted her gaze towards Sheppard. He nodded infinitesimally—urging her to go on, she thought.

"And you didn't see anyone else on the ship? Any… non-humans?"

Now all three of the locals frowned, surprised. "Non-humans? What do you mean?"

This, in turn, confused the Atlantians. If not the Asgard, who was flying the ship?

"It's getting late," Hlava said before Alice could voice the question each of them was asking themselves. "We must go back to our families. It is not safe outside at night. We would be happy to continue our talks tomorrow, but we should warn you that we rise early to attend to our duties and won't be free to meet until the noon meal."

"Of course," Sheppard agreed at once. "We would not interfere in your schedule. We will come back tomorrow."

"You can stay in the town." Hlava shook her head. "I do not know what devices do you possess that allow you to make half a day's journey in mere minutes, but we would not have you walk through the darkness to reach them. You can stay in Earah's and Doren's homes."

The two men bowed low.

"That is very nice of you," Sheppard assured her. "But we will be alright. Our… devices… are not that far and we can take care of ourselves." He patted the P90 hanging from the webbing on the front of his tactical vest.

"As you wish."

"You don't mind if we stay here for just a moment longer, do you?" The colonel unleashed the power of his brightest smile on Hlava. "Our colleagues did not have yet the chance to try this great meal." He gestured to the food on the table.

"Not at all. You may stay as long as you wish. Have a pleasant night." Hlava inclined her head again, followed by her companions, and the three of them turned around and left the hall.

"They're lying," McKay said in a low voice as soon as the door closed behind their hosts.

"No kidding," Sheppard frowned.

"It's more like they're not saying everything," Alice corrected. "And who can blame them? They don't know us. We're cautious, too."

Teyla nodded to her. "Captain Boyd is right. We just need to gain their trust."

"We don't really have time for that. We can't leave Atlantis just hanging there on the orbit forever," McKay protested.

"Not forever, just long enough to see what they aren't telling us." Ronon took a bunch of what looked like gooseberry, but was of much darker green, and put it into his mouth. "We're not in a hurry."

"We're in a bit of a hurry," Teyla amended. "We can't leave Todd in our cell forever. He's already very weak."

"Yeah, but I still don't know if we should just let him go." Sheppard shrugged. "I'm more concerned with getting in touch with our people on New Athos." He looked at Teyla while saying this and she nodded gravely. Alice again was reminded that her own baby was out there. Our people, Alice thought. He considers them to be our people. He was a good guy.

"Still, we shouldn't land Atlantis here until we know all the circumstances of the Asgard ship's crash," Perrault interjected. "Too many unknowns."

"Yeah." Sheppard turned to Alice. "I'm gonna want you to go back there with McKay in the morning. Maybe the two of you can find something you missed."

Alice nodded, but she was not really focusing on him at that moment. Instead, she had her head cocked to one side, listening hard to something outside the wooden walls of the hall. Someone—a young girl's voice—was there, singing loudly. The sound grew closer, as if the person was walking towards them.

"What?" It was Karim who asked her, looking at her with his eyebrows raised. Man, was he perceptive.

"Do you hear that?" She asked. "The song?"

"Yeah. Someone is singing, so?" Sheppard shrugged.

"The melody doesn't sound familiar?"

The girl was so close now they could almost hear the words; almost, but not really.

"Familiar how?"

Alice shook her head. The singer now passed the building and her voice begun growing fainter.

"Listen." And Alice began to sing along, quietly, to the slightly slower than usual rhythm established by the girl:

There's a starman waiting in the sky

He'd like to come and meet us

But he thinks he'd blow our minds

There's a starman waiting in the sky

He's told us not to blow it

'Cause he knows it's all worthwhile

He told me

Let the children lose it

Let the children use it

Let all the children boogie

All of them were looking at her in disbelief now.

"That's it. That's the song." Cooper's eyes were wide with surprise. "And I know it, too. I've heard it before."

"It's David Bowie," Alice said. "How does a girl born and raised in the Pegasus galaxy know David Bowie?"

"Who's David Bowie?" Ronon asked.

"He's a singer from Earth, quite popular," Sheppard answered.

"He's a little more than that," Alice contradicted, but decided to let it go. "But let me get back to my question: how can a Pegasus native know David Bowie?"

"Let's ask her," Cooper suggested, and Sheppard nodded assent. They all stood up at once and trotted to the door. The girl was already far away, but thankfully still on the main street, with no one else around, so they caught up to her in a moment. She stopped singing as she heard them approach, and turned around to look at the eight of them with a frightened expression.

"Hey there," Sheppard greeted her in a soothing voice.

"You're the outsiders," the girl stated, looking at them and taking a step back.

"Yeah, we were meeting with your leaders before. Hlava and two others. I'm Sheppard."

"I'm Jayin," the girl replied. She was maybe seventeen years old, and very pretty; her thick, sleek hair went down in waves all the way to her waist. "I should go home."

"Sure, sure… just one question, though." Sheppard smiled to her warmly. "What was that you were singing before?"

Jayin shrugged. "Just a song someone taught me."

"Who was that?"

"Father Lawrence," she replied, and her eyes flickered up to look at the church spire. "He knows many songs."

"Of course. Well, thank you, Jayin. It was a pleasure meeting you." Sheppard bowed low to her and she blushed red-hot, turned around and walked away at a brisk pace.

"Oh, stop it. She's not even legal!" McKay told him in an annoyed tone. The colonel ignored him.

"Father Lawrence. Sound pretty Earthish, doesn't it?"

"Earthish? That's not a word!" McKay huffed, but he was again ignored.

"Well, there's a Mother Hlava, maybe that's the male equivalent?" Cooper suggested, but without conviction.

"Yeah, maybe." Sheppard didn't sound any more certain. "Alright, let's get back to Atlantis. We'll brief Woolsey and come back tomorrow morning to poke around the ship some more, and then at noon we'll ask that the Father join us in our talks."

They all nodded and without further ado, split into two groups, Sheppard's continuing up the street the way Jayin went, and Perrault's team doubling back to the other side of the town, where they left the Jumper.

It was about an hour till noon; they had been hard at work for four already. On Earth that would mean they begun at around seven in the morning, but this planet's day was longer and therefore noon wasn't exactly twelve hours from midnight; more like thirteen and twenty minutes. Alice thought of all the times in college when she had wished that a day could have more than twenty four hours and found it incredibly bizarre that it did here. It was one thing to be in space aboard a ship which still used the twenty-four hour clock, and another completely to be on a planet where you could actually observe the slower passage of sun on the skies.

Doctor McKay was working on the bridge—or at least the place which most likely was the bridge. Alice, on the other hand, spent that entire time in the engine room, and the two of them talked over the radio, comparing results and firing up theories. And theories was all they had; if there had been a black box, they didn't find it.

"We could ask our people on the Odyssey to look for information in the Asgard core," McKay told Sheppard when they finally climbed out of the ship and stood at the edge of the clearing, making a report. "But that would require recalling it from whatever super-secret mission it is on so…."

"Yeah, fat chance of that," Sheppard agreed. "Still, you did find something new, didn't you?"

"As much as it pains me to say it, not really. I mean, Boyd was right: it's obvious parts of the ship were sabotaged, but it's almost insulting how badly it was done. No way an Asgard wasn't able to fix it in no time."

Alice nodded. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Asgard driving this ship."

"No?" Sheppard raised his eyebrows. "Who, then?"

"That is unclear, sir, but it's almost as if someone jerry-rigged the controls together." She shook her head. "Some of the systems appear to have been untouched, even though they could help in flying the thing."

"Clearly whoever that was, they didn't really understand the technology," McKay confirmed. "But they did their best. The computer log is fried—as in, literally the crystal burned out—but there are indications that they had been in hyperspace, and so someone had to make that jump happen."

"And no idea who that might have been?" Perrault put in hopefully.

"No, sir, although I do have a theory," Alice said cautiously. "The people we've met in that town don't appear to be technologically advanced enough to have piloted the ship, but I've read reports about some natives of the Pegasus who are both tech savvy enough to put it together, and have a history of appropriating alien vessels for their uses."

"The Travelers," Sheppard guessed at once.

"Yes, sir. The Asgard technology does not require any special genes to operate, so they'd be perfectly capable of using it, but it's also incredibly complex, and therefore it would make sense that they would not entirely comprehend it."

"But where could the Travelers find an Asgard ship?"

"Ah." McKay looked uncomfortable. "That is the interesting part."

"Interesting how?"

"I'm pretty sure this is not a Pegasus Asgard ship. I had a chance to observe their technology when they, you know, with me and Jackson." He waved his hand in a whatever gesture. "This looks like genuine Ida Asgard. And this ship is old. Difficult to say with this level of tech, but I'd say thousands of years old."

Sheppard shook his head. "How the hell…?"

"It's a real shame that the logs were unavailable," Teyla said. "We might have found at least the ship's name."

"I think I can answer that question." A new voice joined the conversation; one with a thick Southern American accent. They turned around to peer at the edge of the forest, where Karim stood watch. His stance was relaxed, but he had a finger on the trigger of his P90 nevertheless. Next to him stood a middle-aged man going on elderly, with short hair that was either very light blond or gray—almost white. He had a long cloak of the same brown thread that the people in town had worn; it was open at the neck, revealing a high black collar with a white square notch in the middle.

"Father Lawrence, I assume," Sheppard said without real surprise. The man nodded and walked the rest of the way to rejoin their group; six of them were standing there, outside the hatch they used to enter the ship, with Ronon and Karim posted at some distance apart, keeping watch.

"Yes." He nodded. "The ship's name is the Billiskner."

"Impossible." McKay threw his hands up in an impatient gesture. "The Billiskner was destroyed something like ten years ago."

"Is that so?" The clergyman raised his eyebrows and then turned to Sheppard and changed the subject. "You have good men, Colonel. That one heard me coming from half a mile out, I'm pretty sure." He motioned towards Karim, who was looking at him steadily with his finger still on the trigger. Ronon was standing a hundred yards away in the other direction, and although he was relaxed, too, there was something watchful about him as well.

"Yeah, he's a good one," Sheppard agreed, but his tone was cautious. "You know who I am?"

"I spoke to Hlava in the morning. She told me all about you." The father bowed to them in the manner of his townsfolk. "I am Peter Lawrence, the shepherd of Our Lady of Mercy." He paused for a moment. "Previously I had been a parish priest in Austin, Texas."

This announcement silenced the group for a good thirty seconds. They stared at him in disbelief, their faces all masks of shock.

"From your expressions I see that you know where that is. I was right, then. Despite your presence here of all places, you are Earthlings."

"How the hell…?" Sheppard didn't finish the question, but Lawrence understood anyway.

"That is a long tale. I came here because I think it will be better if we talk alone for the time being. There are those who would not trust you even after seeing your weapons, which are clearly from Earth." He smiled, nodding towards the P90 in Sheppard's hands. "But first, will you tell me something?"

"What?"

"Is the Earth still there? Is it safe?" He looked serene but there were intense undertones to his question.

"Yes." Sheppard shrugged. "Last we heard, anyways."

"That is good. That's good news." Lawrence looked around and then gestured towards the edge of the forest. "Let's sit there."

There were some fallen trees, half-swallowed by shrubs and moss. They sat on the trunks; only McKay stayed standing.

"Are you crazy? I am not going to sit on that! Who knows what kind of germs are crawling all over!" He protested, when Sheppard patted a place next to him. The colonel shrugged and looked at Lawrence expectantly. The father, however, was gazing up towards the sky and didn't say anything for a good minute. Alice wondered if he was gathering his thoughts or praying. Then he sighed and shifted his gaze to them. He took time to look each of them in the eye—Alice found it quite uncomfortable—and then focused on Teyla.

"You are not from Earth."

"No. I come from a planet called Athos, which is no more. My people had to flee the Wraith and now found a home on New Athos," Teyla said with dignity.

The father inclined his head and then made a sign of the cross in the air before him. He looked around on all of them again and nodded.

"I had been a priest for over thirty years," he began. "But I never really believed in Evil. Don't get me wrong, I knew there were bad people out there, but I never thought there were monsters. Not only aliens, but beings hell-bent on destroying us; or sentient creatures who literally feed on humans. If you had told me that back in '05, I would have laughed you out of my church. I am a much humbler person now." He smiled wistfully. "I cannot really tell you much about how it all started; none of the survivors can. We weren't there. What we managed to piece together is this: the Stargate was discovered on a dig in Giza in the twenties. It lay in some warehouse gathering dust until mid-nineties, when we were finally able to make it work. By we I mean the military," he clarified. "They went through to explore the galaxy, but kept the existence of the Gate secret on Earth. That was until September 2005." He paused for a moment, looking to the sky again. "That was when it began. At first it was just a few people in the Air Force and the Marine Corps, but it spread very quickly."

"The Prior Plague," Alice breathed, enthralled by the story. Father Lawrence looked at her with his eyes wide open.

"Yes." There was clearly something he wanted to ask, but in the end he didn't. He stayed silent for a moment and then picked up his story: "We didn't know what it was, only that it was very fast and very lethal. It wasn't long before the governments around the world lost control over the panicking population, and the riots over food and water were almost as deadly as the virus itself."

All of them exchanged puzzled looks. That was not what happened in their world. Nobody interrupted, though.

"In America, a martial law was imposed. Tanks rolled onto the streets in an attempt to keep some illusion of peace. By this point communication with the rest of the world was pretty much halted so we didn't really know what was going on elsewhere." He paused for a moment again, this time looking down on his hands linked together on his lap. "I am not proud of myself. I should have been out there, helping my flock. Instead, I fled to my church and locked the gates. I had enough food and water to last a month, maybe more. That cowardice is what saved my life. It is also what I will never stop repenting."

"You did what you had to do to survive," Copper tried to console him. "It would have served no one for you to get sick and die, too."

"It would have served God," the father contradicted, but let it go. "I could hear the sound of weapons, the screams of the dying, the moans of the suffering. I could hear the thunder of canons, even as I locked myself in the basement of my church. And then I couldn't hear anything. I was still too much of a coward to go out, though. I intended to stay inside as long as my rations allowed me. It is hard to tell exactly how long it took. More than a month but less than two. Then I came out." The next pause was long and deliberate. "I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say, I fled right back into my church, knelt and prayed for God to strike me where I stood. He didn't. I spent that night looking at my thirty-eight and pondering if I was more scared of eternal damnation or dying out there."

"Damnation?" Teyla repeated, surprised.

"Christians believe that suicide is a mortal sin," Cooper explained. "One that sends you straight into hell."

"I've never thought I was afraid of death," Father Lawrence picked up his story. "But dying like that… in pain, completely alone, my body putrefying on the streets among all the others… I couldn't face it. Better to go quickly, in my church. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. In the end, I was too scared of God's wrath, and I put my life into his merciful hands. God works in mysterious ways. Through that ordeal, my faith was strengthened. In the end, I was right to leave the gun untouched that night. In the morning, a flash of white light scooped me up and suddenly I was aboard the Billiskner. I was looking through the window onto Earth. It looked peaceful, serene. I remember thinking it was an odd thing to see in Heaven, but of course it wasn't that.

"There were actually two ships. The other one was ours, it was called the Daedalus. It had gone and fetched the Billiskner from our allies. They were tied up in their own war, I believe, and that one old ship was all they could spare."

"Do you know who they were warring with?" McKay asked in a faint voice.

"Some mechanical creatures, I forget the name."

"The Replicators?"

"Yes, that's it." Lawrence nodded. "They were losing, which is why they couldn't come to our rescue. Unfortunately, the Billiskner wasn't enough." He paused again. "See, some people, like me, survived the plague. A number significant enough that there was barely enough room on the two ships."

"It's actually not about the room, but life support system and its efficacy..." McKay began, but fell silent seeing Sheppard's stern gaze.

"Perhaps, I do not understand technology," Father Lawrence allowed graciously. "But the ship had sensors that picked up human life signs on the planet. They brought them aboard one at a time, where medical professionals ensured they were free of the plague." He paused for a moment. "A little over twelve hundred people, that was all that remained from seven billion."

Nobody said anything; they were all completely enrapt in the story. That it was all true—albeit perhaps not in their reality—was all the more horrifying.

"The aliens who sent us the plague—the Ori—they had ships superior to those we had. They chased us and followed everywhere we went. It was like they could track us through hyperspace."

Sheppard and McKay exchanged significant looks. Alice knew what they thought about; the Asgard core that had been installed on the Odyssey could also be tracked by the Ori.

"They destroyed the Daedalus, and we were at an end of our rope. But we had an advantage: we had a genius aboard."

McKay raised his eyebrows and actually sat down on the log, next to Sheppard, forgetting about the germs.

"Doctor Samantha Carter was the one who thought of a way to escape the Ori."

They all smiled hearing the familiar name, except for McKay, who grimaced, but didn't say anything, perhaps halted by another severe look from Sheppard.

"Don't ask me what she did, for I did not understand it. I only know that somehow she moved our entire ship from one reality to another. This one." He looked around at them. "I see that none of you are surprised."

"We've had some previous experiences with alternative realities," was all Sheppard said and then motioned the Father to go on with the story.

Lawrence shook his head disbelievingly, and again looked for a moment as if he was going to ask a question, but in the end, he just went back to his story: "Our Earth was gone for good, and we couldn't outrun the Ori. We thought we would be free of them in another reality. But as soon as we emerged in this version of the Milky Way, we've detected them in the vicinity with the ship's sensors. We didn't know if they came through after us, or if they were natives of this particular reality, but that single hop was all the ship was capable of, so we couldn't try again. We were stuck here.

"We couldn't risk heading for Earth. There was no saying if it fared any better than ours, although the presence of the Ori was a rather bad omen, if they weren't ours. But if there was a chance that they somehow avoided them so far, we couldn't just barge in and risk bringing the bad guys with us. It was Doctor Carter who suggested we flee to another galaxy."

"You didn't find Atlantis?" McKay asked eagerly, which earned him another stern look from Sheppard.

"Atlantis?" The clergyman thought for a moment. "It sounds familiar, I mean beside the mythical thing. What is it?" Then he took in Sheppard's expression and nodded understandingly. "Alright, let me finish my tale first.

"We came here, to the Pegasus, and the Ori did not follow. Either they were yours and didn't find us, or ours but lost our trail. Either way, we were free of them. We were going to look for a planet that could sustain life and make a colony there. Twelve hundred people is nothing compared to seven billion, but it's enough to set up a viable society that hopefully wouldn't die off. We found a perfect planet very quickly, Doctor Carter and the others were quite surprised. What was even more astonishing was that there was life on it already. People, and no less than twenty thousand of them.

"Again, I see from your faces that this does not surprise you either, but it was a true shock for us, especially those of us who didn't spend the last eight years or so traveling the galaxy and meeting alien races. We landed the ship, and went to meet them. They agreed to let us stay, a thousand and two hundred refugees. They became more than our hosts; they were our guides in this new reality. They showed us their Stargate and told us they sometimes traveled to trade with other people on different worlds. This galaxy has hundreds of worlds, hundreds of peoples!" He shook his head. "Our hosts, they are called the Lacronans, they were rather shy of strangers. It took us months to get their trust. We were more advanced than them, technologically speaking, and we could help in some things. They didn't always want to change their ways, though. It kept us safe from the Wraith for hundreds of years, they'd say and we'd nod and continue to not understand. Oh, they told us all about the Wraith, but we didn't truly believe them. Seeing is believing, though.

"They came one night about four months after we'd landed on Lacrona. Before we could even start to think about fighting back, half of our people were gone, including Doctor Carter. Just disappeared in a beam of white light from their aircraft, it looked like tiny fighters. Someone organized the defense, but we were terribly outnumbered and outgunned. Their technology… I've never seen anything like it." He looked up at the sky and kept quiet for a moment. "Eventually we decided to evacuate, and made for the ship. We took as many Lacronans as we could, now they becoming refugees as well. The problem was, of course, that Carter and every other member of our group that had any idea about the technology of this ship was gone." Lawrence nodded towards the derelict spacecraft half-buried in the ground. "It took us three hours to get it up. By that time, there were less than two hundred of us and maybe half a dozen thousand of Lacronans. I think the Billiskner was more powerful than the Wraith Hive, but we didn't know how to fire its weapons, and so we ran. We went into the hyperspace and ran away."

There was a longer pause this time. The father closed his eyes, as if he was relieving it. Alice supposed he was.

"We made it into this star system. We didn't drop out of the hyperspace of our own volition, however; we were sabotaged. It turned out that a few Wraiths had made their way onto our ship before we got it off the ground, and were now wreaking havoc in the few systems we could operate. We found this planet… with breathable atmosphere and abundant wildlife. It was like a gift from Heaven. Except we couldn't fly there; the controls were unresponsive for the main engines. In the end, it didn't matter. We were on a collision course with the planet anyway. We tried to beam our people down, but that technology didn't work either. The only thing we had were the shields. So we braced for impact and went in. You can see the results." He waved towards the wreck. "The shields held for the entry and absorbed most of the shockwave. Most, but not all." He paused again for a moment. "There were about a thousand people on the lower deck. We couldn't even recover their bodies. The Lacronans don't come here, they believe the place is hunted by the souls of those poor bastards."

"And so you were forced to make your colony 'ere," Perrault summed it up.

"Yeah. Most of the Lacronans decided to explore the place further, but a couple hundred of them made a village right here. You were there. We found that this gazebo thingy gives goat-like milk, tender meat, and strong, thick thread for clothing. There are fish in the sea and by some fluke some farmer brought grain from Lacrona, just a sackful, but from one field, we were able to make more and spread it around. There are some local edible plants, too, although we are understandably careful to eat it."

"So there's five thousand of Lacronans and two hundred of Earthlings here?" Cooper asked pensively.

Lawrence shook his head. "There were fifty of our people on the lower decks."

"I'm sorry."

The father didn't reply for a moment, but just bowed his head low, looking at his feet.

"Most of our people have gone farther with the Lacronans. There are only five of us here in the village. I am the oldest. The others were scared, you see. They saw just as well as I did that you must be Earthlings, but we have been through a lot. They didn't want to come forward until we determine your true intentions. But I am a man of God, and my way is to trust and be open. This has been my tale. I would hear yours, if you are willing to tell."