Continuing the tour, Sheppard takes Nick to the holoroom containing the educational database interface. The image of an Ancient woman is speaking to a group of students and answering questions. He explains to Nick, "It's interactive and multi-lingual. Covers a whole range of subjects, some of which we'd never even heard of but that, apparently, every Atlantean child should know."
When the current module ends, the co-ordinator of this little field trip, Emily Patterson, motions to Sheppard who gives her a coy, 'Who me?' smile until she says to her charges, "Everyone, this is John Sheppard. He is the one that flew Atlantis to Earth from the Pegasus galaxy. John, would you mind?"
Sheppard confides falsely, "I hate it when she does this," and steps forward. "Emily, good to see you again. Kids, how's it going?"
Nick watches Sheppard work the crowd of teens, girls smitten and boys awed.
"Well, I didn't fly the city so much as I sat in a chair told it where to go." His tone elicited a laugh from some of the kids. "The city does all the real work. It's kinda like the hologram lady you were just talking to, except the city doesn't need words to hear. It reacts to some people's skin and nervous system and sometimes even their thoughts."
Today's kids are such pragmatics and proceed to pepper him with questions but Sheppard manages against the onslaught.
"Why can't anyone tell the city what to do then?" one young man asks.
"It's like the biometrics on your laptop, voice-enabled dialing on your smart phone, retinal scans sorta like what you see in the movies. But instead of your thumbprint or retina or speech, DNA is the key. It's the password you can't lose."
One girl raises her hand, "What if you're not one of those people?"
"Many systems, once they're initialised, can be used by anyone with training. Now don't get me wrong, the Ancients did build a lot of cool stuff but don't go revering them too much - they're not around anymore to prove us wrong. You know what matters most? They were human. These computers, the city, the ships, all of it were designed by people very much like you." He makes eye contact with everyone in the small audience. "Now, have you guys seen the cool planetarium show with the Pink Floyd laser show yet?" Sheppard steps up onto the pedestal and activates the star map feature to talk a little about some of the planets and cultures in Pegasus.
After the group of students moves on, Sheppard seals the room and calls up the historical database. "Some of this is classified but I'm going to show you anyway. Frankly, nobody'd believe it who doesn't already think the planet is run by a global secret society - no offense - riddled with aliens who plan the economy, the wars, fix the crap tables, and totally robbed Showgirls of an Oscar nomination."
Nick watches the briefing describing the Ancients' departure from Earth and arrival in Pegasus, their program of seeding life, how some evolved through ascension to a higher plane of existence and the story of their last great battle and defeat.
"The irony is, they accidentally created the enemy who defeated them," Sheppard concludes. "How does that fit in with your battle between Light and Dark?"
"Creatures born of human fears and preying on living souls? Sounds pretty dark to me."
"You think she'll see the Wraith that way?"
Nick grimaces. "Wish I could tell you 'yes'. From our point of view, it's pretty straight forward - us versus them. For her, it's a little more complicated. Light and Dark, Good and Evil exist because humans have choice. Otherwise, we'd be back in the garden and there'd be no meaning in human existence."
As Sheppard preps a jumper to fly Nick back to Hobart, he gets another surprise.
Nick asks, "Does this thing use radar or GSP nav...," he pauses as the HUD comes on, "Heads up display. Sweet."
Sheppard says slowly and suspiciously. "I didn't activate the HUD."
"So it's voice command?"
Powering down the console and controls, Sheppard says, "Switch seats with me for a second. I just need to check out something." He vacates the pilot's seat.
Nick gives him a weird look, "Okay." He studies the controls quickly, running through his check list, "Pitch, yaw, thrust."
Each control highlights on the HUD in a program Sheppard's never seen before. "Is that...a tutorial?"
"That would make sense wouldn't it?" Nick misses the significance of all this. "Okay, communications. Flight, this is...?"
"Jumper One," Sheppard fills in the blank and settles into the co-pilot's chair.
"Jumper One requesting clearance for take off, copy?"
"Roger that, Jumper One. Bay doors are open. You are cleared for launch. Safe flight."
"Thanks, Flight. Up, up and away."
"Inertial dampners."
"Inertial what?" An acknowledgement sounded from the console.
"The technology that keeps us from taking G's and ending up as jelly on the seat backs."
"Oh. Good to know. Maybe you should put a warning label on the dashboard."