[AU] In this story, councilor Melia never met the alternate timeline Dr. Weir in S01E15: "Before I Sleep", also, Elizabeth was never killed off and remained the leader of the Atlantis Expedition. (because as much as liked Sam and Woosely, Weir was to Atlantis what Hammond was to SGC, it just felt...wrong without her)
The City of Atlantis, 10,000 years ago
Councilor Melia stood and looked through the windows as Atlantis sank lower and lower into the ocean, after over 100 years of fighting it had finally led to this: her people running back to Avalon* with their tails between their legs.
She left the council hall where they unanimously voted to sink the city and evacuate the surviving population and began walking towards the hangar bay, Melia knew that despite their plan to return and reclaim their city some day in the future, it was all just wishful thinking, those who've departed for Terra* had no ships, no resources but what they carried on their backs, hardly any weapons, and most importantly: no hope.
As Melia walked amongst the now abandoned gate ships, she wondered how long it would take for her people to realistically recover, if they would ever recover, and more importantly: how many they had left behind.
Let's see… the pre-war population of Atlantis and our colonies were about 3 million, the Wraith commiting genocide on our colonies grounded us down to about 500,000 and since 400,000 of us live on Atlantis… well, lived on Atlantis, then it can be deduced that leaves 50,000 Lanteans still stranded on various outposts and surviving colonies. Melia thought.
50,000 people, that was the reason she wasn't on Terra with her brethren, they were the reason she was about to do this, Melia can still remember every word of that heated council meeting replaying loudly in her head.
Lantean Council Hall, 1 week ago.
"No, Absolutely not" said the voice of an alarmed High Councilor Moros.
The outlook of the battle was grim, no matter how many ships they destroyed, the Wraith just kept sending more and more reinforcements, almost all the refugee ships from their colonies were getting shot down as soon as they got anywhere near Lantea and the council was now only prolonging the inevitable to buy themselves time to get the remainder of their people time to escape.
"High Councilor, If you can just understand my-" Melia began
"No! Councilor, you are NOT staying behind, our people will need you on Terra if we are to rebuild"
"High Councilor, we are stronger with numbers, and right now there are still 50,000 of our people out there awaiting their fate, PLEASE high councilor, give me one cloaking shuttle, I will personally bring these people on to Terra.
"Melia" Councilor Janus began. "We've lost contact with our remaining colonies and outposts days ago, There is no guarantee that those people are even alive, for all we know, the Wraith could've culled them"
"For once I agree with councilor Janus" Moros began.
"Besides, one shuttle councilor?, even if, and that is a big if they are still alive, there would be no possible way for you to evacuate all fifty-thousand of them"
"Councilors," Melia argued. "We have an obligation to protect and serve our people... especially now in our darkest days, I have served in the Lantean Armed Forces for 30 years, I have fought countless battles and witnessed with my own eyes the fall of Athos, I have seen the horrific fate that awaits those who fall into the hands of the Wraith"
Melia looks around with a tired look on her face " and it is something I believe no one should ever see or go through".
"High councilor Moros, fellow councilors, please, one shuttlecraft with a cloaking device, I know I cannot save them all, but this will give those people a chance to survive, a chance to live and start over, please, give me the chance to save them, for if I don't, then they are certainly condemned to death in the hands of the Wraith".
Moros remained unfazed
"Enough Councilor Melia, my answer is still no; however… The final choice is with the council, should you all vote 2/3rds in favor of councilor Melia's plan, then my decision may be overruled, so all in favor of councilor Melia's rescue operation stand and say "I".
Melia looked around the room towards each of the councilors, she would need 4 people to vote for her in order to get her plan approved, she looked at each of the councilor's conflicted faces, nervously awaiting their decision.
Councilor Artenus was the first to respond. He stood up from his seat and said with determination:
"I"
Councilor Tempus was next when he got up and whispered
"I"
Shortly after him, Councilor Tenara also got up:
"I"
Melia nervously looked around the room, all she needed was one more vote, and only 2 were yet to cast their vote: Councilor Thesara and Councilor Janus.
However, just as she finished her look-around, Thesara spoke up
"I cannot in conscience send one of our esteemed councilors into what may be certain death high councilor, my vote therefore is no"
Now just one more councilor remains, Janus looked extremely conflicted as all eyes were now on him, he was against Melia's crazy plan but after a long minute of discerning, he finally relented, Janus stood up and said:
"I"
HIgh councilor Moros was evidently very upset, but realizing that there was now nothing he could do he relented.
"Sigh...very well then, councilor Janus, have a shuttlecraft prepared for councilor Melia, place as many provisions as you can"
"Councilor Melia" Moros began with a solemn look on his face, "I hope you know what you are doing".
Present
Melia stepped aboard the shuttlecraft, and checked her provisions, emergency rations, water, a rifle, a piston, and… a single potentia, Melia was visibly confused, there was no way Moros would approved of giving her something as valuable as potentia meaning it must've been smuggled on board, but who would...Janus Melia thought with a smile, Looks like he believed in my crazy idea after all.
After looking back at the hangar bay one last time, Melia shut the door, started the engines, and proceeded to drive the shuttlecraft into the airlock. She pushed a couple of buttons on the center console and the doors started to open, presenting to her a wall of water held back by a force field, Melia then slowly inched the shuttle forward unless it phased through the shield and was fully in the water. Turning her head back towards Atlantis, Melia hoped this would not be the last time she saw it as she turned on her cloak and ascended til the sea became the stars.
By this point, the wraith had mostly left the system save for a single cruiser scanning the planet for survivors, Melia activated the impulse engines to put a good distance between herself and the Wraith cruiser before dialing in the coordinates of a remote deep space science outpost with a good chance of housing survivors and engaging the hyperdrive.
By this point, Melia knew she was on her own, they had no more fleets of the most advanced ships in the galaxy, no more Aurora class battleships, no more allies, a finite amount of *potentia and no more allies, for the first time in her life, as the small shuttlecraft zipped through hyperspace with Melia alone at the helm… she was genuinely scared.
Outer edge of the Pegasus Galaxy: 12 hours later
Melia woke up from a short nap and looked at the profile of the science station she was approaching, it was apparently according to the tablet she was holding, a research facility for the development of new ways to harness the energy of a supermassive blackhole.
"Huh" Melia thought out loud "and I thought we allocated all our resources to weapons development"
"Ok, so a crew complement of 19, 14 scientists and 5 security details" she said while tapping around the database page on the station, hopefully, she could get them out back to Atlantis, and on to Terra. Melia frowned, she wished she could just drop them off at the nearest planet with an Astria Porta but unfortunately, the council had decided to remove Atlantis from the Pegasus gate network and only allow for connections to Terra, meaning she'd have to bring them all back in her shuttle.
The ship computer was telling her that they were now over within 3 Astronomical units of the station.
Melia sat down at the pilot's chair, tapped a few buttons and watched as the shuttlecraft dropped out of hyperspace expecting to see a space station next to a supermassive black hole. To her horror, what she saw instead was a Wraith hive ship with dozens of darts. Concentrating their fire on the small space station before it exploded in front of her eyes.
Coming out of shock, Melia reached for the cloaking controls, but before she could finish…
BOOM!
Melia's shuttle had been spotted by a dart and she now had an entire hiveship plus it's darts bearing down on her.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT!"
Melia frantically punched some icons on her console, raised the shields and attempted to activate the hyperdrive, but as it was spooling up…
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! A swarm of darts, plus the hive ship managed to score 5 direct hits on her shuttlecraft, sparks flew from circuit breakers behind Melia as it dawned on her that the last shot had broken through her shields and hit the hyperdrive nacelle, effectively knocking it offline.
In her panic, Melia quickly set the impulse engines to full power and activated the automated targeting computed, ordering it to only return fire at the pursuing darts knowing that her shuttle's little peashooter of a plasma cannon wouldn't even dent the hive ship. As the chase continued, Melia brought the shuttle into the debris field made of what was left of the station, 2 Wraith cruisers, and several dozen darts, looks like the station made a final stand. She briefly thought.
Melia looked down behind her and then down at her console in despair while dodging and swerving through the debris field, her shuttle's canon had taken out a couple of darts but dozens more were chasing her, and her shields were being depleted faster than the generators could rebuild them.
Quickly running out of time, Melia started to brainstorm ideas as the shuttle and darts continued their chase. OKOK Melia discerned. so I can't fight them, cause I'm seriously outnumbered and outgunned, I can't run because my hyperdrive is offline, I can't outmaneuver the darts because they're more agile and….
"ARGH… SHIT!" Melia screamed while slamming on the console in frustration.
BOOM! Suddenly the hive ship managed to score a shot on the shuttle and knocked out her weapons.
Desperate, Melia looked back at the tidal wave of Wraith bearing down on her, and then up towards the supermassive black hole.
"Let's see you all try to survive THIS"
Melia disengaged the engine throttle safeties and redlined the impulse engines as she approached the black hole, she quickly moved some sliders around to send maximum power towards the engines, inertial dampeners, and structural integrity field as she entered an orbit and slowly decreased her speed to allow her orbit to decay. The computer started to blare warnings as the shuttle began to approach the event horizon.
"WARNING WARNING, EXTERNAL GRAVITY IS BEYOND SAFE PARAMETERS"
" WARNING WARNING, EXTERNAL GRAVITY IS BEYOND SAFE PARAMETERS"
Melia was about to increase her speed to stabilize her orbit when
BOOM!
"OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME" she exasperatedly exclaimed.
Despite the overwhelming gravity, those wraith darts were still hot on her tail, she was hoping that the wraith wouldn't follow her into so close towards the event horizon but apparently that was wishful thinking.
Acting quickly, Melia tapped a few more buttons on the console and diverted even more power to the structural integrity field, around her the light flickered off, the temperature in the cabin began to rise from the overexerted engines, then the gravity plates shut off and the inertial dampeners were weakened, meaning Melia was now feeling 7Gs from the blackhole's gravity leaking in through the weakened inertial dampeners.
Slowly, Melia inched her shuttle even closer towards the event horizon, but no matter what she did, those wraith darts behind her wouldn't budge.
"WARNING, STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD CRITICAL"
"WARNING, STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD CRITICAL"
Melia closed her eyes and was about to accept her fate when suddenly….
"HA HA" Melia laughed victoriously,looking out of her left window, she could see a single Wraith dart disintegrate and slowly fall into the event horizon, this was followed by another dart, then another, and another, until Melia could see the remains of dozens of darts falling infinitely slowly towards the event horizon.
Declaring victory, Melia decided to hide from the Wraith Hive amongst the debris field falling into the blackhole as the intense gravity would make her invisible to sensors.
Melia diverted power towards the engines to speed up and escape the singularity's gravity well when suddenly…
"WARNING, STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FAILING"
"WARNING, STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FAILING"
Despite the engines being at full power, Melia noticed that the shuttlecraft's orbit was still distinctly decaying towards the event horizon, and when she attempted to divert power towards the engines, all she got was a large warning on the view screen that said the fuel cells were depleted.
Melia turned white as a ghost, perfect, I came all the way out here and defeated hundreds of wraith only to be killed by a black hole she grimmly thought.
Defeated, Melia could only watch as the event horizon drew closer and closer, looking in the other direction, she could see the stars moving due to the light bending and the time dilation caused by the black hole… Melia leaned back into her chair as she realized that she was a goner, there was no way she was getting out of here, not unless she could travel at near the speed of light, and the only way to get any ship to go that fast without a hyperdrive is...if...you...had…
Melia slapped her forehead. oh you are so so stupid Melia
She got up from her chair and due to the high gravity, slowly made her way towards the back where a gray unmarked crate contained her salvation, she opened it up and grabbed the amber crystal that contained energy nealy equivalent to that of a small star, plugged and secured it into the shuttle's power slot, and as if by magic, the G forces were gone, and all the lights flickered back on.
"YES!" Melia screamed victoriously, she quickly got back to her chair and slapped on a button to restart the engines, then she placed the throttle lever in its maximum position and listened to the sublight impulse engines roar to life, looking at her viewscreen heads-up-display she could see the ZPM charged shuttle's velocity increase 0.33c, 0.42c, 0.59c, 0.68c, 0.73c, 0.81c, 0.88c, 0.97c, 0.98c, 0.99c, 0.999c, 0.9999c
Slowly, Melia could see the event horizon getting smaller and smaller and the stars above glow brighter and brighter as the shuttle further accelerated until she was safely no longer in danger of falling into the singularity.
As she zipped out of the black hole at nearly the speed of light, Melia quickly tapped her control panel in order to engage the shuttlecraft's cloak for fear that the Wraith hive may still be looking for her but found out that THAT was offline and needed repair as well.
Sighing with frustration, Melia decided to decelerate, she had slowed to 0.5c when the viewscreen displayed 1 unidentified vessel approaching her from hyperspace, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Melia thought. I did NOT just escape to blackhole to be culled by the wraith, fearing for her life, Melia brought her shields back up and prepared to accelerate to near lightspeed again when something completely unexpected happened
BEEP BEEP "INCOMING TRANSMISSION"
BEEP BEEP "INCOMING TRANSMISSION"
"What the…" Melia thought out loud. She went over towards the comms station and broadcasted the incoming hail on the shuttle cockpit's speakers.
"Unidentified Vessel, This is Colonel Caldwell of the Earth Ship Daedalus please identify yourself…"
*Avalon: The Milky Way Galaxy
*Terra: Earth
*Potentia: Zero Point Modules or ZPMs
*Astria Porta: Stargate