A/N:

This chapter may feel a bit truncated but I'm trying to build businesses, run the farm, clean out junk from the workshops (so that I have more room for the businesses) and it's harvest season so I'm exhausted every day. Maybe if I can get the Ko-Fi and and stores going I can breathe. I dunno. But if this installment and the next ones feel a bit... short and unplanned, keep all this in mind and please stick with me. Also, there never was much of the city while they were in transit unless they were also almost about to blow up. *shrug*

I will hopefully be back to normal soon. But I am a little out of sorts at the moment. So please have patience with me.

J.R.

Recap:

The story of Travis McIntyre and Luka thinking about the Asgard cloning process.

Episode 6

All over Atlantis. On every balcony all over the city. By every window. On every bridge. On every platform, dock, and good view and vantage point.

A steady thrum began building from deep within the walls of the city. As regular as a pulse while the various drives began warming up, preparing the city for launch. The slight ever-present rocking of the waves around the piers stilled and the attitude adjusting thrusters came online. Water, churning far below, frothed and stirred like a boiling cauldron as the impulse engines came online.

At factory-ready, it was estimated that the giant city ship could be in space within ten minutes. Less if the city was already at a battle-ready state. But this was a cold start-up of engines, systems, and architecture that were still undergoing repairs. The outer shell of the city had been repaired but not stress tested. The engines had been overhauled and turned but not broken in. So this was a slow startup.

A few inches at a time, Atlantis rose again from the earth. Water dripped from piers and supports sluggishly.

As soon as the last sensor on the hull was free of the brackish water, the shields came on with a hum and pushed the last of the dripping water off of the city with a mighty spray before they pushed outward creating the protective bubble that Atlantis would travel through space in.

Luckily there still was a cloaking option due to a little jiggering from the doctors McKay and Zelenka, even with the shields active. Although it did drain power at an alarming rate.

Doctor Romanov had simply smiled at them when they nearly panicked seeing the power drain. After what he and Doctor McIntyre had found in the deepest bowels of the city, he didn't see any reason to worry. Not that he wasn't enjoying their alarm. They were so entertaining!

Elsewhere, Ronon held a still weak Sophie to the railing of her balcony with one arm, his other supporting Torren to his chest. Luka stood on the bottom rung of the rail, holding tight to his mother as the city shook slightly under the strain of lifting off. His eyes nearly bugging out of his head at the sheer power requirements that the engines must need and the calculations that raced through his brain.

"Momma?" He asked, his voice quietly shaking.

"Yes, baby?"

As a tiny jerk shook the deck plating under his feet, Luka gulped. "Who's flying the city?"

"Rodney said Uncle Jack insisted on flying to the first stopover since we'll still be in the Milky Way for a few months yet." She smiled, the shaking smoothing out with Jack's normal competent handling. She could almost hear Daniel, who had "finally" been assigned to Atlantis however temporarily to assist with translating the more complex things that had been uncovered in the city, yelling asking Jack what he was doing. Jack would reply he was just getting a feel for the old girl. Daniel would beg him to just leave her alone.

Cam would just chuckle. Vala was probably bouncing from one end of the city to the other in her excitement to be off on a new adventure. Sam would be taking a break to watch the world shrink away, ever fascinated by the wonders of the universe. Teal'c, an old hand at interstellar travel, would probably have claimed a seat out on the canteen balcony and be sipping a drink calmly, amused at the childlike fascination of everyone around him and still enjoying the view. Some things, after all, never got old.

"Where will we be stopping first?" Luka asked, breaking her from her thoughts and the warm comfort of the Ronon wall against her back and side.

"P8X-583."

"Nem's planet?" He asked. His already wide eyes going even wider.

Nodding, Sophie brushed a curl from his eyes. "Rodney suggested a water planet and Jack agreed. The ruling council of Nem's world apparently agreed to host us for a while because they have no use for the surface world and the land. And since the surrounding gas giants keep the planet at a steady orbit it should be a fairly stable place to finish repairs."

"And without direct access to us on earth," Ronon added, "whoever attacked the city would need to come through the local gate or ship. The council has already put a shield on their gate as soon as Jackson and his team left after Jackson's interrogation. They've had friendly relations with earth but didn't want a part of the Goa'uld war." His military mind had been quite interested in the threat assessment part of the meeting. Apparently there were two ideas of who their attackers were. Either a new threat to Atlantis that would follow them to a new planet or some new threat to Earth itself.

Was he getting old, that he hoped for the later? Some peace and quiet? Or maybe he was just hoping for a little downtime while they finished repairs and before they finished off the threat of the wraith for good. John had already mentioned that doing planet-wide scans for the bug versions was on the table, after the major threat of the hives was gone. There would probably be more threats to come, but they didn't want the wraith popping back up in a few thousand years.

"Are we disconnecting the city gate from the network?" Luka asked a few moments later, his small brow furrowed.

"The city gate has been disconnected since Atlantis reached earth." Sophie reminded. "Don't you remember we were beamed here from Area 51 since the gate room at the SGC was too small for our team, our gear, and the materials we brought with us? You were half asleep at the time though."

In the chair room of the central tower, Jack O'Neill looked as if he was taking a nap in the lit-up reclining chair. He didn't need to look through the reinforced glass windows to see Earth shrinking into the distance and the stars enveloping the city-ship. Using the city sensors, the chair showed it all to him as if the entire city was just an extension of himself. "Daniel I can feel you pacing." He chided, a small smile twisting the corner of his mouth.

"Are you sure you can fly this thing?"

Jack smirked. Daniel, the foremost expert on all things ancient in two galaxies, had gotten the gene therapy. And while the therapy had been a success, his abilities were just enough to use a reader or Merlin's database with a great deal of help from Merlin himself. Daniel was still salty about the fact that he couldn't make the city dance and sing like his old friend could. Let alone make a puddle jumper do anything but turn on the lights. But at least he could use a life signs detector and the ancient library, so it wasn't a total waste.

Jack shook the city just enough to make Daniel jump and glare at him. "Just getting a feel for the old girl."

"Oh please, leave her alone."

Teal'c sat with his old friend as the stars drew closer, a tiny knowing smile hidden behind his steaming mug. Carter was playing with an understated gold band on her left hand. It was new and she kept twisting it without realizing what she was doing. He had a feeling that something happened when Sam was transferred to building and running the new space docks. She would no longer directly under O'Neill and so their relationship was now beyond censure. Jack hadn't waste any time.

And even remember the memories of their alternate timeline, Teal'c was happy for his friends and content in his own life. For now. Rya'c had just presented him with his first grandchild and she was the living image or Drey'auc. She would cause his son much grief in their new free lives. Her grandfather couldn't wait.

"I'm sorry Teal'c," Carter blushed, taking a sip of her coffee. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you and O'Neill are planning to live on the new space docks when they're constructed, or remain on earth." A sly light filled his dark twinkling eyes.

She chuckled, following his gaze to the ring on her finger. Nothing much got past the former first prime. Even if you really wished it would. "We don't honestly know. If the new interplanetary alliances pan out, we might be on our way to a Federation." She laughed again at the Star Trek reference. "But it all depends on if he stays with Homeworld Command or gets the position as Earth Ambassador. I think the other delegates are hoping he will because he doesn't mind cutting through the red tape."

"It will be refreshing I will admit," Teal'c admitted. "The others I have met are too interested in politics."

"A necessity of the job I imagine." She admitted as the moon drew closer off the port side.

"Unfortunately."

Up in the hologram room, Vala was bounding from window to window as the water churned and splashed against the shield of the lifting city-ship. Through nearly forty years-long practice, she had become very good at acting like a brainless idiot while she planned and plotted schemes that would make the most hardened earth criminal drool with envy. Living with a Goa'uld and tricking it into killing itself on an Asgard protected planet tended to make someone have one hell of a poker face.

Now though, her brain was in a whirl. Daniel was leaving the SGC for Atlantis. Sam was grounded in Atlantis until the designs for the new space docks she was would be working on with Sophie were done. Teal'c was gone off back to being an ambassador for the Free Jaffa. Only she and Cameron were left on earth.

There was Jack. But she had never gotten the chance to get to know him. And likely wouldn't despite the new bit of shiny on Sam's left hand. He officially was on "vacation" as soon as Atlantis was delivered to its first stopover. Unofficially was a different matter. But she wasn't supposed to know about that in case she blabbed to the wrong person.

Either way, she and Cameron were now all that was left of the team. And they were grounded until the other members were replaced.

The newest translator and historian type that Cam had interviewed wasn't Daniel but she was… competent, Vala supposed. Attractive too. Although Cam hadn't seemed to pay much attention after she missed a reference to some obscure earth food from a region she was supposed to originate from. Apparently he thought she wouldn't be very useful on the cultural mission side of things. Eating odd food was a part of that, she had to admit. Village leaders tended to talk more if you shared a meal with them and didn't turn your nose up at whatever was placed before you.

The military scientists though were pitiful. Sam would be nearly impossible to replace. And Teal'c? Well, how many mounds of muscle were also Jaffa and had a brain? They kept trying to replace him with a marine, more muscle than the brain in them.

A cough broke through the storm of thoughts that seethed in her mind. Turning, she saw Cam leaning against the wall at the window next to her.

"Beautiful isn't it?" He nodded out to the stars that drew closer and closer as the blue sky faded to black around them. "The stars."

Vala knew that look. She knew that tone of voice too. The "I have some bad news" voice.

"What is it, Cam?" She asked, her voice low as she braced herself mentally. Physically, her fingers turned white in her clenched fists.

Turning to half face her, Cam leaned against the window frame and sighed. "Moonshine or spoon full of sugar version?"

She smiled at the references. Her first drinking trip off base the entire team had wound up at Sam's house watching Mary Poppins at two in the morning after her first taste of what Cam had called a southern tradition. Even since he had always used that to ask her how she wanted unwelcome news.

"'Shine please."

Nodding, Cam folded his arms across his broad chest and took her in. Sometimes she looked like a scared little orphan being told to pack up their clothes into a trash bag again because it was time to go to the next house that would never be home. But this time… SG-1 had been home, for both of them.

He would be fine. He was used to being reassigned at a moment's notice.

But Vala?

"We've been reassigned." He said without preamble. Regretting it almost instantly when her eyes began swimming. "I'm being assigned to work with O'Neill at Homeworld until the new space docks and moon base are completed."

Biting her lips hard to keep the tears, that she just knew were welling up in her eyes, from falling Vala croaked, "and me?"

Smiling reassuringly, Cam reached out to her and pulled her into a hug. "Are being stationed with Daniel on Atlantis for now, as per his request and apparently Sophie's mother and grandmother." He whispered into her hair.

Vala gasped, trembling as the bitter painful tears turned into happy ones. She hadn't been forgotten by anyone. She hadn't been left behind. She was wanted. "Why?"

Chuckling, Cam stroked her shoulders soothingly. "Well apparently, you have been working with Rota on her ethnobotany projects?" He looked into her face and saw the truth. She had. But she didn't want anyone to know she had an interest in anything other than what shimmered and was highly valuable. Her next deal, her next score, her next mark? Those were safe. As long as everyone assumed those were her only interests, she could hide.

"And apparently, you have been focusing on the medicinal side of things."

Her eyes slid away from his.

"They could have asked for someone from the science department to work with them but they demanded you." The air force colonel grinned. "Something about scientists being hard for natives to talk to, you being very good at charming people into telling you things, and you needing a fresh start where people didn't remember you were a host." He snorted. "Of course I heard tell of a battle royal between those two and Daniel. He wanted you to stay his research aide. Seems he's grown attached to you. Think you can handle Pegasus?"

Pulling back her shoulders, Vala straightened and grinned a slightly wobbly grin. "I handled the Ori home galaxy, being burned, birthing Adria, and being a Goa'uld. I can certainly handle a few Wraith."

"Good girl."

Stiffening against him, Vala pulled back to look up at him. "What team will I be on?" She smiled. "Because you know I can't work with just anyone."

Shaking his head, Cam snorted out his laughter.

Across the city in the medical wing Rodney, having been released from his duties and told in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome in the chair room, was sitting with Jennifer at her tiny office window. Holding her hand as the sphere of Earth faded, he had never been happier. He was missing out on one of the rarest things earth had ever experienced, but he was fine with that.

As the Earth set on the other side of the sun, he turned to her and reached into his pocket. "Jennifer..." Rodney paused and gulped. "I have a question to ask you." Blinking rapidly, he paused again. Then the words began spewing from him almost uncontrollably. "But I've... cometolearnthatwhensomethingfeelsrightsometimesyoujusthavetogoforitotherwiseyoumightnevergetthechanceagain." He gulped in a breath and continued. "And this, us, feels right." Blinking wide stunned eyes, as if he couldn't believe he was actually at this point. "Marry me?" He held up the tiny bit of metal and stone from his pocket up.

It wasn't flashy. The band was smooth and wouldn't catch on her clothes, which Jennifer knew she had complained about once. She was touched that he remembered. There was a stone. Sort of. A lot of stone. A very specific type of calcium that she couldn't imagine that he would have remembered the one time she said in passing that she preferred them.

"You remembered that I love pearls." She breathed, her hand inching to his.

Rodney smiled. "I remember everything about you." Snorting a laugh, he kissed her temple. "Even that you hate poutine. How can you be from Wisconsin and hate cheese curds, I'll never understand. Poutine is fantastic."

"Poutine is artery-clogging is what it is." She insisted before waving her hand, reminding him.

"How did I propose to a girl who hates what is a Canadian national treasure?" He teased. "Hm?"

"Well, you're doing a poor job of it by not handing over my pearls." She snapped, smiling, and shaking her hand once more.

"Well, you haven't answered me yet!"

Her smile grew wider. "Yes."

Up in Woolsey's office, the director of Atlantis sat alone, sipping his steaming cup of coffee. A smile tugged at his lips. Atlantis was well on its way. It would become a science and research station more than a military one if he had anything to say about it. Yes, the Wraith were still a problem in Pegasus. Yes, they would always need the military. But…

He was a Trekkie too. And they were on their way to a Federation that would span galaxies.

Richard was quietly happy with that fact.

Laughing into his cup, Woolsey moved to the balcony of his office to watch people scurry back and forth or stare out the windows. This was the best view in the entire city he decided. One of life, and hope. A future.

Then he chuckled to himself. He hadn't realized he had a poet's soul.

"Woolsey!" Someone called to him.

Turning, he saw two of the newest additions to the city waving him over. Erik and Kara beckoned him over to the windows that they had paused their walk at. "Come on Richard!" The small woman called. "Come join the festivities!"

He shook his head softly, still smiling.

But Kara would not be deterred. Stepping out of her husband's hold, she bounded to him like a woman half her age and slipped her arm through his. "It's well past time to make friends and a life here Richard." She chided gently, patting his forearm.

Erik, smiling indulgently at his wife, chuckled at the much beset and put upon look that crossed the city administrator's face. "Best learn to just grin and bear it when my wife sets her mind on something, Woolsey. There's no shifting her."

By the time the city had passed by Mars on its way out of the neighborhood, a festive mood had taken the city by storm that lasted until Neptune as a tiny dot behind them.