Kalan exited the stargate, today was an important day for him and the rest of his planet. Orban wanted to join the Alliance, this would be his first meeting.
"Greetings Ambassador Kalan," spoke Davis.
"Commander Davis, I'm guessing," replied Kalan.
"Yes, I am. Welcome to Altera and Earth," replied Davis.
Kalan taking in the gateroom was impressed. His mind wondered what the rest of the Altera was like.
"Impressive place you have here," spoke Kalan.
"You haven't seen anything yet," replied Davis, "I have arranged a tour for you, both here in Altera and a few other sites. Councilmen Woosley wishes you to see things. Councilwomen Teyla Emmagan will take you on the tour."
Teyla arriving in the gateroom, "I apologize for being late. My son Torren scraped a knee and would not be satisfied till I bandaged it."
"I understand, my son Tomin was much the same, when he was young," replied Kalan.
"I will leave you in the good hands of Teyla here," replied Davis. Taking his leave to attend to other duties. Running Altera was a full-time job even with all his assistants.
"Let me take you to the PuddleJumper bay, we will take one around here, and I will show Altera and Earth, then a few other places off-world," replied Teyla.
Teyla began the tour by taking Kalan out on the observation deck that surrounded the control room. Kalan was in awe of the size of the city of Altera. Teyla explained how the city was made up of seven city ships, with Atlantis being the central one. Moving beyond the ring of the six city ships was Altera Proper. Kalan was amazed at how scope, and watching as ships came and went from various landing ports around the city. Teyla took him up to the cargo bay where the Puddle Jumpers sat. Teyla invited Kalan to take the second chair as she piloted the ship out. They made a few passes around Altera and then went to a higher orbit, circling the planet. Teyla explained that a several moons had been populated and that Mars had as well.
Circling back to Altera they entered the Gateroom, Kalan was shocked to see the ship enter the Stargate, and emerge out on Midway station.
"Welcome Teyla we were expecting you," spoke Harriman over the communication system.
"It is good to see you again Walter. Permission to exit the gate area?" asked Teyla.
"Permission granted, enjoy your sightseeing tour!" replied Harriman.
Teyla explained which galaxies the Alliance had resources, amazing Kalan with the size of the alliance, and expanding his view of the universe. After a quick 30 minutes tour, they returned to Altera.
Woosley met them in the puddle jumper bay, "Greeting Kalan, I am sorry I wasn't available to give you the tour myself. For that you should be happy, Teyla is a much better pilot than I."
"Councilmen Woosley's piloting skills are legendary," replied Teyla.
"And not in a good way," replied Woosley.
"I am sure it would have been fine," replied Kalan.
"As long as you had not eaten," replied Teyla.
"Where do we begin?" asked Kalan.
"This is where I take my leave. Kalan is was a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to seeing you more in the future," replied Teyla.
"Let us go to my office and we can begin discussing Orban's inclusion," replied Woosley.
O'Neill meeting with McKay, and Carter.
"Chloe brought me an old proposal that got stuck in some red tape," replied O'Neill.
"What does it have to do with us?" asked Carter.
"Well it was a proposal by you all to convert the Milky was Stargates to the Pegasus ones, with nanites," replied O"Neill.
"Yes that is several years old," replied McKay.
"Well I've been doing some thinking on it, your idea sounds good, but I had thought," replied O'Neill, "The ancients sent out seeder ships to place stargates around the universe. How many are out there?" asked O'Neill.
"Last I looked in the database just over ten million," replied McKay.
"It would take thousands of years even with our advanced technologies to replace all of those, and I am pretty sure the seeder ship versions do not have the materials needed to convert to a Pegasus Stargate," replied Carter.
"McKay I know your busy with finding the Pegasus Dakara weapon, and Carter your working on additional steps for Curiosity. Who could take your work and try to come up with a solution?" asked O'Neill.
"I'd say Zalenka or Dr. Miller," replied Carter.
"Jeannie is out she has a higher priority assignment," replied O'Neill.
"Zalenka is on the Curiosity, so he is out," replied McKay, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, Rush."
"You're a witness to this," replied O'Neill pointing at Carter.
"He already has an understanding of the seeder ships, which I think would make him the best alternative," replied McKay.
"Rush it is, forward him everything you all have on it," replied O'Neill.
Over in Woosley's office, he was just finishing, "So that is basically what you get for joining the alliance, and what we would expect."
"I think those terms are acceptable, but I mist discuss with the other leaders of my people," replied Kalan.
O'Neill knocking on the door, "Welcome Kalan, I wanted to stop by and ask how Mirrin and Tomin were doing?"
"Tomin is doing well, he is what I believe you call a sports star," replied Kalan.
"Which sport?" asked O'Neill.
"Squelching, Councilmen Woosley says it's similar to rugby," replied Kalan.
"Impressive, and Mirrin?" asked O'Neill.
"She is continuing to studying what I believe you call lasers. She took a fascination with it as we re-taught her. She can do some amazing things with light," replied Kalan.
"Would love to see it sometime," replied O'Neill.
O'Neill walked Kalan back to the gateroom as they talked and discussed the changes that had occurred in their society, and how they were no longer using the Urrone. Kalan thanked O'Neill for his time hoped to see him soon.
"Now we have two important missions. Retrieve Elizabeth, and now find the Dakara weapon in Pegasus," spoke Sheppard.
"Well, I have a few ideas on where to find the weapon. We need to search Lantea, and I would suggest Taranis," spoke McKay.
"Those make sense," replied Sheppard.
"Is the Elizabeth mission still under the table?" asked McKay.
"Yes. How are the preparations going?" asked Sheppard.
"Jennifer has a new body in stasis, and I have the transfer device nearly ready," replied McKay.
"So how close to Weir, do we have to get?" asked Sheppard.
"The transfer device will need to be within fifty feet, preferably twenty to properly scan her," replied McKay.
"Twenty feet, OK, we can do that," replied Sheppard.
"What ship are we taking? I know you planned to use a new S-72, is that still the plan?" asked McKay.
"Yes, it has the room we need and is small and virtually undetectable," spoke Sheppard.
On Curiosity, Jinn was trying to explain to Moran what fried eggs were for breakfast. Moran had quickly learned the helm controls and had been piloting the Curiosity while supervised. Today would be his first solo experience, although Jinn was sure Mitchell would be keeping a close eye on him.
"Sir, sensors are detecting two ships in hyperspace. Their current course brings them very close to our course, in about thirty minutes," spoke Wallace.
"Any chance they are of a known configuration?" asked Mitchell.
"No, sir the system does not recognize them. They both have different configurations," replied Wallace.
"Sir those appear to be Burchen vessels," replied Moran. He had been trying to learn English, however, it was taking significant time. Avidan was still translating for him.
"Those are the traders correct?" asked Mitchell.
"Yes, sir," replied Moran.
"Let's drop out of hyperspace near where we meet them and see if they would like to talk," replied Mitchell.
"Yes, sir," replied Moran.
Twenty minutes later the Curiosity dropped out of hyperspace. The two Burchen vessels altered course and dropped out in front of Curiosity five minutes later.
Wallace spoke, "Communication channel is up"
"Moran our friend here from the Unacks tells us you are the Burchen. We just wanted to say hello as we saw your ships in hyperspace," spoke Mitchell.
"Moran is that you? Who are these people?" asked humanoid that appeared on the screen.
"Yes, I am Moran. These people are from Avalon, the Alliance Guard. They have saved my people," spoke Moran.
"Your people are cured?" asked the humanoid.
"Yes, we know a little about medicine and was able to provide them with a cure. We are returning to our world. Since we are in the neighborhood, we wanted to say hello. I am Commander Mitchell and this is the Curiosity," spoke Mitchell.
"I am Farechet, these are my ships. We are traders. Do you have anything you wish to trade?" asked Farachet.
"If you have good star charts of this area we would be interested in trading," spoke Mitchell.
"What would our star charts be worth to you?" asked Farachet.
"What are you looking for?" asked Mitchell.
"Weapons?" asked Farachet.
"No," replied Mitchell.
"Your female!" shouted Farachet, seeing Gardner walk onto the bridge.
"Definitely not," replied Mitchell.
"That is a definite no," spoke Gardner.
"We would trade an entire ship for her," replied Farachet.
"I said the answer is no. I am sure there is something else we could trade," replied Mitchell.
"No trade," replied Farachet, closing the communication channel.
"I guess they don't like being told No," spoke Mitchell.
"No they do not," replied Moran.
"Sir they are leaving," replied Wallace.
"Do your people trade, your females with them?" asked Gardner.
"No they do not. I have never heard of them wishing to trade for people," replied Moran.
"That disturbs me," replied Gardner.
"Yes it does," replied Mitchell.
Wallace looking confused, "Well it's disturbing they want to trade for anyone."
"The fact that they have never traded with the Unacks means they are now looking for slave labor. That only leaves a few other options that they would be interested in," replied Gardner.
"Oh yeah as a sex slave," replied Wallace. Jinn giving him an odd look.
"Concubine is the polite term. However it could be much worse than that," replied Gardner.
"I'm confused again," replied Wallace, seeing another strange look from Jinn.
"Experimentation," replied Mitchell. Gardner took her chance and left the bridge to go back to her quarters.
"Let's resume course for home," ordered Mitchell.
Two nights later, Jinn was returning to the bridge from the dining hall after grabbing a snack, before calling it a night she saw Gardner leaving Hailey's quarters, and shortly thereafter Zalenka as well. Three days later, she saw Moran leaving Gardner's quarters, he looked exhausted. Jinn decided maybe Gardner wasn't entirely by herself.
Jinn was sitting in the astrophysics lab, reviewing the data from the probe sent to the edge of the universe. Zalenka walked in.
"Is the probe still reporting nothing?" asked Zalenka.
"Yes about one light-year beyond that last solar system, it's not returned anything. It still appears to be moving, and we are still receiving a signal from subspace, but there doesn't appear to be anything," replied Jinn.
"Don't worry we will be back to investigate further," replied Zalenka.
Kalan returned to Altera to meet with Woosley.
"I have shared the details of joining the alliance with my people and they have overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining," spoke Kalan.
"Excellent the alliance would love to have you!" replied Woosley.
"There is one thing we would like to do immediately," replied Kalan.
"Which is?" asked Woosley.
"We would like to establish our children into your education system as soon as possible," replied Kalan, "In particular those recovering from Urrone."
"I see no problem there," replied Woosley.
Kalan and Woosley spent the next several hours discussing the next steps, and that at least two months would be needed before Orban could take an official seat. Relations would start up immediately, with the exchange of medical and many domestic programs immediately.
O'Neill met with Rush, on building a new generation of stargate seeding system.
"Dr. Rush, I hope you have had time to review the material from Dr. McKay and Dr. Carter," asked O'Neill.
"Sir, I think I have a better solution. First, we go out and upgrade the existing seeder ships to build the new model of stargates, and let them continue on, with their current mission. Next, we build a series of replacement seeder ships, that will go to the known stargates beam out an existing stargate, and beam in a new one. Once the old one is on-board we can convert it to a new model, and use it at the next stargate," replied Rush.
"How long will that take to replace all of the existing stargates?" asked O'Neill.
"If we build a thousand of these ships, we should be able to replace all of them within ten thousand years," replied Rush.
"Not good enough. I want to replace them all within a year. I do think you have the right idea on upgrading the seeder ships," replied O'Neill.
"We have thousands of galaxies that are cataloged, we can't even begin to reach all of them in a year," replied Rush.
"Get plans put together on what needs to be updated on the Seeder ships, and we will execute that. I want a quicker solution to upgrade existing stargates," replied O'Neill.
"I'll see what I can do," exasperated Rush spoke.
Next O'Neill was meeting with Carter on the Curiosity.
"Hey Sam!" replied O'Neill, "The one meeting I have been looking forward to."
"How is your day going?" asked Carter.
"Well I just had a meeting with Dr. Rush you can take it from there," replied O'Neill.
"You want an update on Curiosity?" asked Carter.
"That would be a yes," replied O'Neill.
"Nothing good. We have ruled out numerous ways of getting them home faster. We have run simulations and the ship just can not hold up to riding a ribbon back. We have thought about a supergate, but they just simply don't have the materials to build one. We did do some simulations on the engines running continually for three years, and discovered that they begin breaking down after eight months. Our simulations on running in 6 days on and 1 day off, the engines should run without issue for two and half years at least," replied Carter.
"There has to be something we can do?" replied O'Neill.
"Right now our Nav ships are the best option. I've dug through the repository looking for anything and not found anything. We are continuing to try to think of new ways but this is the best we got right now," replied Carter.
"Keep that big brain of yours working on it," replied O'Neill.
"Yes honey," smirked Carter.
"What're our plans for tonight?" asked O'Neill.
"Jackalyn is wanting to see a movie, Jacob is wanting the playground, and Samatha is wanting to go play on the ascended realm," replied Carter.
"So no rest for us," replied O'Neill.
"Not for a long time," replied Carter.
Sheppard with McKay and Keller were ready for their mission. They boarded the S-71 and had brought on board a stasis pod with a clone inside, and a large device that McKay attached to the stasis pod.
Sheppard brought the S-71 out on Taranis, cloaked to avoid detection.
"We are going to check Taranis and Lantea out first, then we will proceed with the other mission," replied Sheppard.
"That shouldn't be a problem, everything here is looking good," replied Keller.
"I will get started scanning looking for the weapon here," replied McKay.
Sheppard began a search pattern from the known Ancient base outward while McKay scanned. The original base was gone destroyed when the supervolcano erupted. Several hours of scanning around the caldera and nothing to show for it. They began moving further out, after about 5 hours, the scanners picked up life signs on the planet. A fly-by confirmed there was a small village there. They made a note of its location and decided they would make contact later on with these people. Contact was their priority.
McKay thinking, "This is not the location of the weapon. It's just too far away from the stargate. Wouldn't make sense for it to be this far away."
"I was thinking the same thing," replied Sheppard.
"So on to Lantea?" asked Keller.
"Yes, and we have something to drop off there that is loaded on this crystal," replied Sheppard.
"What's that?" asked Keller.
"A space gate, they want to launch a super gate into that system," replied McKay.
"There is no black hole there?" asked Keller.
"Our supergates, don't need a black hole to power them," replied Sheppard.
"Using our Interdimensional Energy Collector we are able to power a supergate directly," replied McKay.
"How long till we are there?" asked Keller.
"We're going to take the stargate to the nearest system to Lantea, then it will be thirty-five hours in hyperspace to reach the Lantea system," replied Sheppard.
"Glad I brought a good book to read," replied Keller.
Thirty-five hours later they were above Lantea. The three remembering their time on the planet. This had felt like home for some time, and yet so much had changed.
"We're back," spoke Sheppard.
"Home," replied McKay.
"Do you think they will open travel to here sometime?" asked Keller.
"That remains to be seen," replied McKay.
"They must be considering it if they are putting in a supergate here right?" asked Keller.
"Militarily this a great location for it," replied Sheppard.
"Let me beam the stargate out in orbit," replied McKay. He punched a few controls and the stargate stored on the crystal was now in stationary orbit above Lantea. Ten minutes later McKay had it online and connected to the Pegasus network.
"Let's start scanning this planet," replied McKay.
"Wouldn't we have found it before, if it was here?" asked Keller.
"Our sensors are much better than they were when we were here," replied McKay.
"Why would they leave such a powerful weapon laying about?" asked Keller.
"The ancients didn't consider it a weapon. It wasn't until Anubis developed a plan to use it to wipe out all life, that they even understood how dangerous it was," replied McKay.
"The ancients didn't think militarily. That is why they lost the war with the wraith. They could not think tactically on how to use their technology," replied Sheppard.
McKay began scanning over the planet, things were going along well for the first four hours. McKay picked up a low-level energy signature. Something their sensors could barely detect.
"We need to check this out," replied McKay.
"Heading there now," replied Sheppard.
Twenty minutes later they were looking at the side of a small hill. The energy signature was coming from the side, which would have been closest to Atlantis when it was here. McKay adjusting the sensors, and performing new scans.
"It's a hologram," spoke McKay.
"The hill?" asked Sheppard.
"No, here let me do this," spoke McKay, on the HUD, a rectangular shape appeared outlining a small portion of the hill.
"That's big enough to fly into," replied Sheppard.
"It's big enough for an Aurora class ship," replied McKay.
"No, it couldn't be," replied Sheppard.
"What?" asked Keller.
"We may have found a shipyard for Atlantis," replied McKay.
"I thought they build their ships on Atlantis," replied Keller.
"They did, but if they were at war, they would need additional facilities to build enough ships," replied Sheppard.
"Shall we go in?" asked McKay.
"Yes we need to," answered Sheppard, as he piloted the ship in. Everyone cringed a little as they approached the hologram, but they passed it easily. Lights came on in the chamber they were in. The chamber was twice the height of an Aurora, and the length of an Aurora class ship.
"Doesn't look like much," replied Sheppard. He was turning the ship a full three hundred sixty degrees. When they saw doors raise up from the floor closing off the entrance.
"Rodney!" exclaimed Sheppard.
"Wait, it's not a door. We're being lowered. This is an elevator," replied McKay.
"An elevator to where?" asked Keller.
"I don't know yet, but we are going deep," replied McKay.
"How deep?" asked Sheppard.
"We're already three miles below the surface," replied McKay.
"I'm cloaking us," spoke Sheppard.
"If we need to we can jump back to ascended form," replied Keller.
About that time a light appears in front of them, the elevator came to a stop. Before them was a super gate, as large as the ones they had built. The facility extended far to their left as they looked around. Sheppard tentatively flew his ship out from the elevator. They could see five ships under construction. They appeared to be Destiny design, but a bit smaller.
"Those are seeder ships," replied McKay.
"It looks like they have ten bays for building here," replied Sheppard.
"How many people would it take to build one?" asked Keller.
"By hand, thousands. I suspect we will find this far more automated," replied McKay.
"What is that down there?" asked Sheppard as he piloted toward the far end of the facility.
"Materials, lots and lots of raw materials. That's naquadah, neutronium, and that is trinium," spoke McKay.
"What is that over there in those canisters?" asked Keller.
"That I do not recognize," replied McKay.
"Something new," replied Sheppard.
"Well looks like we found something after all," replied Keller.
"We need to send a team back to further investigate this place," replied Sheppard.
"I want to be on that team," replied McKay.
"We will see Rodney," grinned Sheppard, "Now let's get back out of here, and back on mission."
"What?!" cried McKay.
"We have Elizabeth to save, and to find the Dakara weapon," explained Sheppard.
"Let's go save Elizabeth," replied Keller.
Thirty minutes later they were back in orbit approaching the stargate they had deployed.
"Dial it up!" ordered Sheppard. McKay punched in a gate address for another space gate. Sheppard move the ship through.
"Start scanning, she will have drifted away from the gate, and I want to avoid any contact with the other replicators that were with her," ordered Sheppard.
"I have them, on scanners. Right there!" spoke McKay.
"That's some distance," replied Sheppard.
"Well look how many years it's been," replied McKay.
Sheppard piloted to the location where McKay indicated. They could see floating in space, the replicator clone, that Elizabeth had created for herself. Maneuvering within twenty feet of the body.
"OK it's time to do your thing!" ordered Sheppard
"This is going to take some time," replied McKay. He began activating the device he brought with them. Keller was monitoring the readings on the cloned body of Weir.
Two hours in, Keller spoke, "I am seeing brain activity."
"We have forty-five percent transferred," replied McKay.
Two hours later and Sheppard was asking, "How much longer?"
"Fifteen percent remaining. About another hour" replied McKay.
Finally, after five hours it was complete, Keller asked, "Do we wake her up?"
"Are you sure there are no nanites in her?" asked Sheppard.
"Yes, only the consciousness was transferred. Just like the Asgard used to do," replied Mckay.
"I have a replicator disruptor standing by just in case. If I give the order, you beam her out into space. Understand?" asked Sheppard.
"Seriously?" asked Keller.
"Yes," replied McKay.
"What?" asked Keller.
"Jennifer if this is more replicator than Elizabeth, we may have no choice," replied Sheppard.
"Let's give her a little time," replied Keller.
"Wake her up," ordered Sheppard.
Keller punched a few controls on the stasis pop, and it opened with a hiss. Weir's eyes began to flutter open, looking all around, she tried to set up but couldn't.
"McKay, what have you done? You know how dangerous I am," asked Weir.
Sheppard stepping in front of Weir, "You not a replicator. Your flesh and blood."
Weir mesmerized, "It's so quiet. How?"
"I was able to find a sample of your DNA, I created a new body for you. One that was devoid of sentience, is the best way I can describe," spoke Keller.
"I created a device that would read your thoughts, memories from the replicator nanites and download them into this body," replied McKay.
"I'm human again? How did you get the technology to do this?" asked Weir.
"Elizabeth, calm down. A lot of things have changed since you made this sacrifice," replied Sheppard.
"Apparently so," replied Weir, "What about the others?"
"By the time we remove the programming of the nanites there would be nothing left. Because they downloaded your consciousness into the nanites you were all there," replied McKay.
"I wish there was something we could do for them," replied Weir.
"Maybe in time we can," replied Sheppard.
"What about my replicator body out there?" asked Weir.
"Well, the procedure would have wiped their entire programming. They have broken up now, little more than dust," replied McKay.
"Well I'm glad it worked," replied Weir.
"Let us know if you feel any need to murder, or replicate," replied Sheppard.
"Will do. I'm feeling much stronger than I expected," replied Weir.
"The body was in excellent shape, basically your body is at your peak of what it could be," replied Keller.
"How is that possible?" asked Weir.
"Long story, there is much to tell you," replied Sheppard.
"This ship it's not a puddle jumper?" replied Weir.
"Long story," replied McKay.
"You're going to have a lot of catching up to do," replied Sheppard.
With many more "Long story" answers on their way, Sheppard piloted the ship back to Stargate to the Lantea system, then contact Altera for a reverse wormhole. They were back in Altera quickly, as they were preparing for what would be O'Neill yelling. Upon arriving in Altera, they called for O'Neill to meet them in the puddle jumper bay.
Sheppard was the first off the ship, approaching O'Neill, "Sir we have someone for you to meet."
"Who would that be?" asked O'Neill.
Weir stepping out from the ship, "That would be me."
O'Neill immediately slipped into Ascended form preparing to destroy the replicator. Sheppard anticipated this, slipped as well and blocked O'Neill.
"She's flesh and blood!" shouted Sheppard.
O'Neill taking a second to look Weir over, shifted back to human form.
"Your both Ascended?" asked Weir.
"I think the question here is how are you human?" asked O'Neill.
"We can answer that," spoke McKay as he and Keller stepped out from the ship.
"First off it was my idea, I should get the blame," replied Sheppard.
"Plenty of blame to go around, but someone better start explaining," replied O'Neill.
"Could we maybe sit?" asked Weir.
"She's getting used to her new body, it's going to take some time," replied Keller.
"Avidan beam the five us to my office now!" ordered O'Neill. In a flash, they were in O'Neill's office. He took his seat behind his desk.
"You're in charge of Atlantis? So much has changed I'm so confused," replied Weir.
"You have been gone for nearly four years. Atlantis is on Earth, the wraith are defeated, the ancients are gone, humans have Ascended, we now are the keepers of the universe, and we have an alliance that spans multiple galaxies. That's the short story, we can go into more later. I want these three to start explaining before I shoot them into the sun!" replied O'Neill. Weir had a look of shock on her face.
"I created a device that downloaded Dr. Weir's consciousness out of the replicator nanites into a new body," exclaimed McKay.
"Stop, Sheppard you go first, something tells me you are behind this," ordered O'Neill.
"After things calmed down, I asked McKay if there was a way we could save Elizabeth, Dr. Weir. He said many things, but the end result he did some research and found how to separate her consciousness from the nanite programming. Once he learned he could do that, I asked Dr. Keller to see if she could create a new body for Dr. Weir. After much search we found a DNA sample and was able to create a new body, minus the consciousness for McKay to download into," replied Sheppard.
"So when you were supposed to be searching for the Dakara weapon in the Pegasus galaxy you were instead off saving Dr. Weir?" asked O'Neill.
"Oh, we found a secret base on Lantea, that appears to be where the Ancients created the seeder ships. It's three miles underground.." spoke Sheppard.
"Six miles underground," interrupted McKay.
"Shut up McKay, six miles underground. All kinds of resources are there. It needs to be investigated. Taranis we didn't find anything but a small village of people there. We didn't make contact, but we should send a team back," spoke Sheppard.
"If you're talking about the device the ancients used to see life in the Pegasus galaxy, I know where that is," spoke Weir.
"You do?" asked O'Neill.
"Where?" asked McKay.
"How do you know?" asked Sheppard.
"It's here, it's Atlantis. I'm not sure I know how I know that," replied Weir.
"There is nothing like the Dakara weapon here," replied McKay.
"They made an advanced form of it," replied O'Neill.
"Yes, they can generate the energy here and direct it into the stargates," replied Weir.
"OK, here is what we are going to do. Dr. Keller, you're going to take Dr. Weir to the medical bay. I want you to go over every detail with Dr. Beckett. He will go over you with a fine-tooth comb. I want a complete medical report on her in an hour. Dr. McKay you are going to begin investigating the Dakara weapon being here on Atlantis. Commander Sheppard and I are going to discuss this whole matter in much greater detail, while I decide what to do with you three. By the way, Elizabeth, it is good to have you back, if it's truly you and not replicator in there," spoke O'Neill.
"Yes sir," replied Keller, McKay, and Sheppard in unison.
"Thank you, General O'Neill," replied Weir.
"It's Supreme Commander of the Alliance Guard now," replied Sheppard.
"So much to catch up on," replied Weir.
Keller took Weir to the medical bay. Becket was shocked when she entered the medical bay. Sheppard and O'Neill talked at great lengths about being reckless, disobeying orders, and being insubordinate for not bringing the idea to him. In the end, O'Neill said he would have a disciplinary note added to their records and that they would move on. Privately O'Neill told Sheppard good job on rescuing Weir if it really worked.
Over the course of the next few days, Weir stayed in medical, while she was getting used to her new body. Expedition members stopped by visiting her and catching her up on what all had transpired. Weir was shocked at how things had advanced so quickly. Sheppard stopped by as often as he could get away from Mars, bringing Larin with him when she was available. Quarters were found for her, and she began exploring Altera and learning even more about what had transpired. She was watched closely but all scans had shown that she was Dr. Weir, not Replicator Weir. Weir did find herself having knowledge of things she could not recall how she had learned. McKay explained it as knowledge stored by the replicators, that was carried over.
UNN reported on Dr. Weir and had many questions on her life as a replicator. This drew more attention to the actions than O'Neill wanted. Weir was trying to find her place. Woosley immediately latched on to her, as his top aid. Weir expected it to be complicated, as negotiations normally were, however, she found working with the parties to be extremely easy and not the stressful position she had expected.
Out on Curiosity, Hailey was on duty with Moran on the bridge, while the others were getting rest.
Hailey watching the sensors from her command chair, "We have two ships on an intercept course for us."
"See I do," replied Moran in broken English.
"Avidan, wake the command crew!" order Hailey, "Moran do you recognize those ships?"
"I do not," replied Moran.
Just then sensors picked up the third ship. Mitchell was the first on the bridge followed by Jinn, and Wallace.
"What do we have?" asked Mitchell.
"Three unknown contacts on an intercept course," replied Hailey.
"How long till they intercept?" asked Mitchell.
"Present course and speed, ten minutes," replied Jinn, who took over for Moran.
"I do not recognize these ship profiles," replied Moran using Avidan to translate again.
"Shields up, and weapons ready," ordered Mitchell.
"Sir a fourth and fifth ship just came into scanner range," replied Jinn.
"We are getting a greeting party. This many ships, I don't think they intend to be friendly," replied Mitchell.
"No sir, I would agree," replied Hailey.
"Eli, I want weapons targeted on each of those ships," replied Mitchell.
"Once they drop out of Hyperspace we'll be ready for them," replied Wallace.
"Have we received our last response from Altera?" asked Mitchell.
"Yes sir, came in about an hour ago," replied Hailey.
"Good if we need to jump to hyperspace, we won't be missing anything," replied Mitchell.
They watched as the five ships approached, scanners were showing they had a considerable armament. The five ships dropped out of hyperspace around the Curiosity.
"Weapons lock on all ships sir," replied Wallace.
"Let them make the next move," replied Mitchell.
Finally after a couple of minutes, one of the ships hailed the Curiosity.
"On Screen," ordered Mitchell. They could see a rugged looking individual, wrapped in cloaks and garments.
"Verlag," spoke Moran.
"Yes Unack, I am a Verlag!" replied the individual.
"I'm Commander Mitchell of the Altera Alliance. How can I help you?" asked Mitchell.
"Give us your females," replied the individual.
"Maybe first you can give me your name?" asked Mitchell.
"My name does not matter. We are here to claim your females," replied the individual.
"We had a run-in with one of your raiders and we took out his shields with one of our minor weapons. Now I'm not trying to brag, but I don't think your ships are a match for the Curiosity," replied Mitchell.
"I have five ships, to your one," replied the Verlag.
"As I told the Burchen last week, our females are not for sale," replied Mitchell.
"Deliver us your females or we open fire," replied the Verlag.
"If you destroy us, then you won't get the females," replied Mitchell.
"Sir, I'm detecting an energy build-up," replied Hailey.
"Great," replied Mitchell, "You do not want to do this,"
Five energy bursts struck the Curiosity. The shields withstood the attack easily, this was followed by subsequent attacks.
"Do you all give up yet?" asked Mitchell, "Our shields can withstand your energy blasts."
After multiple attacks from the Verlags they ceased their attack.
"Glad to see you realized how pointless this was," replied Mitchell, who couldn't help but notice the grin on the Verlag. The five ships were maneuvering together. This is when they saw the ships were adjusting and reshaping, to interconnect together.
"What are they doing?" asked Mitchell.
"Merging the ships together? They must be able to fire a more powerful burst," replied Hailey.
Then they could see energy crackle around the new combined ship, as they fired a new single blast at Curiosity. The ship rattled and shook from the impact of the blast.
"Sheilds are down to sixty percent," shouted Wallace.
"Eli, destroy that ship," replied Mitchell.
"Yes sir!" replied Wallace. The two dorsal plasma cannon platforms opened up fire, letting a volley of ten blasts strike the Verlag craft. Two-thirds of the craft was destroyed, the other portions were venting atmosphere. Shields could be seen coming up to seal off those leaks.
"Now leave!" ordered Mitchell.
"This is not over," replied the Verlag.
"Yes, it is. Tell your people if they bother us again we will not be so kind," replied Mitchell. He cut the communication with the Verlags.
"Get us out of here," replied Mitchell.
"Yes sir!" replied Jinn.
O'Neill was taking a trip to Orban, now that relations had been fully established, and grievances on both sides forgiven. O'Neill stepped out of the Stargate with Carter, Woosley, and Weir. Weir was making her first off-world travel since her return. She was amazed over the obvious Aztec roots in their society and how they had meshed with Technology.
"Greetings Supreme Commander O'Neill," spoke Kalan.
"Commander O'Neill will suffice," replied O'Neill.
Merrin stepped forward, "Greetings Jack!"
"Merrin!" shouted O'Neill, "I was told I would get to see a light show that you put together."
"Yes I have a special one I have created just to celebrate Orban joining the alliance," spoke Merrin.
"Merrin it's so nice to see you!" spoke Carter.
Merrin came up and embraced O'Neill and Carter both in a big hug.
"Now Merrin that's now how we greet dignitaries," cried Kalan.
"No this is how you greet friends," replied O'Neill.
"Kalan, let me introduce Dr. Weir, she will be taking over helping you to adjust to the Alliance and work through issues," spoke Woosley.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" spoke Weir.
"I have some scientists from our nanotechnology that have found your story amazing," spoke Kalan.
"I assure you it's not that fascinating," replied Weir.
"Let's go see what you have planned for us!" spoke O'Neill.
"We are off to see Tomin play a game of Squelching," replied Kalan.
"He is really good," spoke Mirrin.
"Of course you say that the two of you have been dating for a couple of years now!" spoke Kalan.
Carter spoke up, "So you and Tomin?"
"We just seem to have a special connection," replied Mirrin.
The watched a game that was cross between rugby, wrestling, and hockey. O'Neill found himself enthralled with the game. Carter and Weir were constantly worried someone was going to be killed, and Woosley sat bored. Tomin's team won with a last-second score by Tomin.
Tomin approached the group after the game, "So what do you think?"
"I think we need a Universal Sports Network. I'd love to watch those games far more often!" cried O'Neill.
"Aren't you worried you're going to get hurt?" asked Weir.
"I do, I've broken both arms, both legs, and my right leg twice," replied Tomin.
"Ouch," replied Carter.
"Your medical bay we have ran all players through it, to check for any series injuries, and they are healed up. Only two who was known for removing their helmets on fights, had any brain damage. They have now been banned from the game," replied Kalan.
"They were pretty stupid to remove those helmets. Most of us don't really try to injure anyone. It's more show, and about pinning people than hurting them," spoke Tomin.
"I didn't look that way," spoke Weir.
"Then we did our jobs right!" replied Tomin.
"Then how did you get so many broken bones?" asked Carter.
"Give the kid a break, he's alright!" cried O'Neill.
"He tripped," grinned Mirrin.
"Huh?" asked O'Neill.
"I kinda tripped and broke both arms, and my legs. I knocked four guys down on top of me," explained Tomin.
"From his team," giggled Mirrin.
"She's never going to let me live it down," replied Tomin.
"Come on it's time for my light show. It's just down the street here, over the park," replied Mirrin.
The group walked down to the park. Kalan had a special viewing area reserved. People that had already gathered at the park applauded as the group entered.
"What's this about?" asked O'Neill.
"People came out here to see the Supreme Commander O'Neill and his team. Not every day do you get to see the heroes of the galaxy," replied Kalan.
"Hero's of the Galaxy?" asked O'Neill.
"His team?" asked Carter.
"The Goa'uld, replicators, Ori, and the Jinn. Not to mention defeating the Wraith in another Galaxy," replied Kalan.
"He does have a point," replied O'Neill.
"It's starting!" cried Mirrin.
The light show was five parts. The first showed Atlantis rising from the sea, Carter was astounded with the detail on the lasers. The second part showed the fall of the Replicators. The third part showed Atlantis coming to Earth, leaving out the superhive. The fourth showed the Battle for Earth, with O'Neills sacrifice, and the Ancients leaving. The finale showed the creation of the Alliance and Orban coming in as the newest member. Applause erupted all over the part as it finished.
"That is amazing!" cried Carter.
"Thank you!" replied Mirrin.
"Really good likeness of me you had in there," replied O'Neill.
"I have so many questions for you, on how you did some of that with lasers," replied Carter.
"I would be happy to come to Alterra and show you," replied Mirrin.
"Yes let's do that! You've got to show me how you were bending that light," replied Carter.
"It's easy you just need to adjust the spin of the particles," replied Mirrin.
"Wait you're adjusting the spin on the particles?" asked Carter.
"Yes," replied Mirrin.
"The applications of that are endless," replied Carter.
"Care to explain?" asked O'Neill.
"Communication, shields, medical treatments, and that's just to start," replied Carter.
"Well she did invent naquadah Generators," replied O'Neill.
"That was the old me," replied Mirrin.
Author's Note: I hope everyone is doing well under the circumstances we are all experiencing. I finally got some balance back with working from home and dealing with everything. Hopefully, everyone is safe and avoiding this Covid-19. I will see if I can get a few chapters pushed out a bit more quickly.
