A Stargate Atlantis Story - The Depot

by SGphan

Atlantis had been on Earth for 3 years, when a new computer program activated and lead them to The Depot. Will this is a wonderful treasure, or will it expose the stargate for all to see?

A Stargate Atlantis Story - The Depot.

Prologue.

Atlantis had been on earth for about 3 years, and was finally fully repaired and fully operational for the first time since they had stepped through the gate back in the Pegasus galaxy. They had repaired the primary power grid in about 2 months, but it took almost 2 years to repair all of the secondary systems and the physical damage.

Even before the main grid had been repaired, they realized they would not be able to maintain the cloak indefinitely. Since the cloak used the same amount of power as the shield, the ZPM's were already partly drained before they got them, then they used a lot of power pushing the star-drive to get to Earth as fast as possible, and then used even more power in the fight against the super hive ship, they estimated that the ZPM's would fail within 6 to 9 months, depending on how much power was lost while they were making repairs. Then the cloak would fail and Atlantis would be exposed for all to see.

Fortunately, the solution proved to be very simple, although the IOA was very reluctant about it. It took a while to cleanup area 51, after the Wraith Darts had crashed in an attempt to destroyed the ancient weapons control chair. It took about 2 weeks for the Combat Search And Rescue crews to clean down to where the ancient control chair was at. They saw that although the control chair itself had been ripped free from the base, at the pivoting point, the base was still intact. They theorize that the shockwave probably slid over the base since it was in a recess in the concrete. The chair was damage beyond repair, and would have to be replaced, but the ZPM was still usable. This meant that they had access to a mostly charged ZPM. The IOA had not wanted Atlantis to know this. They claimed that Atlantis was designed to operate on three ZPM's, and they already had three ZPM's, so they did not need a fourth one. The IOA wanted to use the 4th ZPM to power one of the earths battleships. Even when they finally accepted that they had to give the ZPM to Atlantis, they tried to claim that it was only 'on loan until a better solution could be found'. They already knew that a single ZPM could power the shields for over 3,000 years, and even with so many other systems running it would probably still last for 1,000 years.

Even with enough power to keep the cloak going for a millennium, the IOA was still not happy about Atlantis being so close to the mainland. After several months of deliberation it was decided that Atlantis had to be moved to a spot where no civilians would be able to see it. They did this by the US government purchasing Easter Island and claiming that it was to be converted into a military base for the development and testing of new high-tech weapons. It would also be a no-fly zone, with the excuse that some of the weapons could interfere with the planes systems and make the plane crash. Of course this was all a lie, there was no weapons being designed and tested. There was no need to. The truth was that Atlantis was sitting right beside Easter Island, without the cloak and clearly visible to anyone who got close enough to see it. The island itself was acting as a relay point for military aircraft to land and takeoff, and helicopters too shuttle people back and forth to Atlantis. If any civilians did manage to spot Atlantis, such as perhaps a person on an airplane with a set of really good binoculars looking out the window at just the right time, it is extremely unlikely that they would realize the true size and they would likely assume that it was simply the research facility. Even the online satellite images were doctored. Instead of trying to erase Atlantis, they made it look like Atlantis was smaller, and on the island. This would help add support to the cover story.

There had been many changes in those three years, including Stargate command being moved from Cheyenne Mountain to Atlantis. This was done because the Atlantis gate superseded the Cheyenne Mountain gate for incoming travelers, so the IOA decided to just move all of Stargate command to Atlantis. Fortunately for Stargate command one of the things that the IOA overlooked when they made this decision was that from Atlantis they could operate on a much smaller budget so they no longer needed financial aid from the IOA and no longer had to tolerate IOA oversight. When this was revealed to the IOA, they tried to reverse the decision, but the US government had already started to repurposed the old Stargate command. It would be the new headquarters for Home-World Defense. The IOA tried to claim that Home-World Defense was part of Stargate command since all of the alien tech came through the Stargate program, and even the original stargate was still there, being used for communications with off world teams and allies. The US government told them that it may have been part of Stargate command in the past but was now a new and separate branch of the US military just like the Army, Navy, and Air Force, are separate branches of the US military. The IOA had requested the Stargate Command be moved to Atlantis, and it was. It was not the fault of the US government that the IOA had failed to consider the outcome of that decision.

Those 3 years had seen tremendous advancements in technology from the Stargate program, from the study of Atlantis itself, and from studying the remains of the Tollan civilization, with help of 2 survivors who had been on the moon, and another 53 who had been off world, when the attack happened.

They soon discovered that most of the Tollan technology had survived. The attack on them seemed to have been targeted at the people, and the ion blasters. It was as if the Goa'uld did not care that technology remained, although Teal'c suggested that it was more likely the Goa'uld wanted the advanced technology for themselves and was planning to return to the planet after the radiation had faded, but then were unable to after the replicators defeated them. The SG teams were finding things that they never even suspected the Tollan of having, such as a Single Elemental Extractor that could be use to pull a single element, almost any single element, out of a mountain, asteroid, or whatever it was pointed at, and the longer that it was on, the further its range. Theoretically it could be used to pull every single atom of iron, copper, nickel, gold, or any other single element, from an entire planet. That certainly did explain how the Tollan's were able to rebuild their civilization so quickly. With the SEE (Single Elemental Extractor) they did not have to mine for the resources and then refine them, they could simply pull whatever they needed out of the ground already pure, and ready to use. The SG teams did discover that it had two limitation. The first was that it could only pull one element at a time. It could pull hydrogen out of water, but he could not pull hydrogen and oxygen at the same time. This meant that it could not be used for extracting oil, or other complex molecular structures. The second was that it could not be used to extract radioactive elements. It was assumed that this was a safety feature to prevent accidentally extracting too much and passing the 'critical mass' point. Even with these two limitations, it is still a wonderful piece of technology, and the SGC was able to build a small ship around the SEE for the purpose of mining the asteroid belt for resources. This had given them the resources they would need to build whatever they wanted, or needed, without having to take hundreds, or even thousands, of tons of resources from the earth to build ships and satellites. With the SEE they were able to extract whatever metals they needed, including a few that was not even on the known periodic table of elements. They were even able to extract Naquadah and Neutronium from other planets and asteroid's in other solar systems.

Another of the advancements was that they found a way to incorporate Asgard beaming technology with a series of geostationary space stations/relay satellites in orbit around the Earth, so that a person could transport from anywhere in the world to a approved safe spot anywhere else. There were thousands of approved safe spots all around the world. Every American military base, no matter where it was, had one, as well as the capital buildings of many countries, and all of the US, Russian, and Chinese, embassies around the world, and even a few hotel rooms in different places that the government kept reserved for government use, if there was no other points close by. It did not require any special technologies to make the safe places. All that was needed is a designated area for the people to materialize into, out of sight of the general public. The technology was all in the satellites. All the person had to do was activate a remote locator, and they would be transported up to small room, not much bigger then a closet, in the closest satellite, and then select where they wanted to go, and the transporters would send them through the satellites relay system, much like they had done with the intergalactic space bridge except these were done line-of-sight around the Earth, to the satellite over their destination, then it would send them to the closest authorized safe point. Although anybody with a remote locator could transport to Easter Island, only authorized personnel in Stargate command, and the Presidential remote locator could transport directly into Atlantis. and they would always materialize in the the safe spot in the office of the mission commander.

Chapter 1.

Tollana.

8 days after Tanith attacked Tollana, the Earth ship Prometheus exited hyper space above the planet to look for any survivors, or any Tollanian tech that they might be able to salvage.

They had only been there for about two hours when they suddenly detected a distress single coming from one of the moons. Since their sensor records verified that the single had not been on during those 2 hours, that meant that either there was someone on the moon to activate it, or it was automated. They decided to investigate to find out. They were a little surprised to find two people in a shuttle-craft. The 2 survivors told him that they had detected the Goa'uld attack and reduced power to prevent detection, even using space suits for life support for 4 days. They kept the power down as long as possible and only partly powered up again when all the suits power modules were drained and had to be recharged. They did not dare to fully power up and activate the distress beacon until they detected the Tau'ri ship and was able to verify that it was not Goa'uld.

When the mission commander asked if they knew of any other survivors, they said that there was no way that anybody else could have survived on the planet. The final attack was a radiation pulse wave that disintegrated all human flesh on contacts. There is no way that anybody could have survived that. After those two transported down, they realized that much of the technology had survived, including the information web. They tried to use the web to learn if there were any other health implants still operating. Unfortunately for them, they did not have the security clearance to access information about the public at large. Every time they tried, they were blocked. Then one of them decided to try a different tactic. He asked the AI to verify their ID's and to verify that they had been assigned to the moon station. The AI verified both points. He then told the AI that he had information for the ruling counsel all about the mission, but he could not find the ruling counsel and needed to know their locations.

The AI then did a scan for the health implants of the ruling counsel to find their location, but it could not find the implants. It then followed procedure for if a official could not be located, searched for the next lower ranking official. After a few seconds, the AI concluded that no members of the counsel could be found. It then tried to locate anyone at any political level, with no success. Then it send out a general call to see what implants were still active, and there was only 2.

Since there was no protocol for this situation, the AI accessed basic Tollan law to look for a solution. It concluded that there must always be a ruling counsel, and since no other Tollan could be found, these two would become the new counsel. Since one had been in charge of the moon mission, he would be elevated to the position of president with all rights and privileges of that position, and the other would temporarily take on all other positions until off-world personal can be recalled.

When the Mission commander asked about others being off-world, The AI would not answer him since he was not a authorized Tollin. When the new Pres. asked, the AI told him that there was 53 people currently off-world. 47 had gone through the Stargate, and 6 was in a spaceship exploring the asteroid belt of this solar system and were do back in 4 days. One of the Tollin asked how anyone could return through the gate when it was destroyed, and the AI said it would need to be repaired, or replaced. The Tollin asked if the Prometheus could go get the 47 people, and the Mission Commander told them that it would take 2 weeks to get to them, and the ship only has enough supplies to last the crew for 4 weeks. Even if the life support could take on another 47 people, they would run out of supplies 4 days after getting them.

Since they also have to go to the planet Praclarush Taonas to get another ancient control chair, they can get another gate from a uninhabited world about 2 days from there, and be back in 12 days, then the 47 could come home through the new gate. The 2 Tollin agreed to this and most of the crew beamed up to the ship. A few remained to carry on the salvage search. After sending down enough supplies to last them 12 days, the ship leaves to get the gate.

When the 6 returned 4 days later, they were given temporary ranks among the new counsel, till the other 47 could also return, then they all would be given permanent positions, based n their current authority level, abilities, and knowledge.

Before leaving to get the new chair and new gate the mission commander sent a update to the SGC. The SGC responded that they would like the new Pres. to go with them to get the new gate, and once the Prometheus has the new gate, before they leave orbit of that planet, SGC would like the new president to gate to earth so they can try to establish a new trading agreement. The new president did agree to spend a few days on earth discussing a new treaty, but told the other Tollin to remain to watch the Earthlings, and to act as a mediator between the SGC people, and the AI, since it would not tell them anything.

After the 12 days, the Prometheus returned to Tollana and the president returned through the gate. They then dialed up the address for where the 47 people had gone to. They learned that the Tollanians had been trying to get back for over a week, and had given up 2 days ago. They were very grateful to be able to return, but sad to hear about the attack. Since the gate was still on the ship, the Tollanians were beamed down as soon as they were all through the gate. The AI assigned to them positions on the Council as it detected the health implants. It did not take long for the Council to be fully reformed, although the new members had no idea what they were supposed to do now.

They quickly realized that the old ways would no longer works. They did not have enough population to maintain the old ways, and would have to focus on survival over comfort. This did not mean they would have to give up all of their technological advances, it just meant that they would no longer be able to live as they had been depending on the technology to provide all of their needs and protections. This had been one of the considerations in the new treaty, and SGC had agreed to send people through that knew farming and agriculture.

This agreement worked well for several years, until the Tau'ri requested that the Tollanians send five or six people to earth to help them with a project that was proving difficult for the Tau'ri. The Tollanians soon discovered that the project was the restoration and repair of Atlantis, a technology even more advanced then there own. Upon seeing this, they realized that the Tau'ri could be trusted with advanced technologies, and agreed to share some of the Tollan technology as long as it was used only by Stargate Command and Home-World Command. Since it would have been very difficult to explain the huge jump in tech to the public, Stargate Command and Home-World Command agreed to this.

It was mostly thanks to the help of those people that the SGC was able to make such tremendous advancements in just 3 years.

Chapter 2.

The Computer Program.

Even though the military had offered Rodney McKay his choice of where he wanted to work, he did not want to leave Atlantis until he had extracted every last bit of information that the city had to give, even if he had to work under John Shepherd, who had been promoted to Colonel. When our little adventure began, Rodney McKay was at a computer in the control room, as usual complaining that the work was not going as fast as he thought it could be. Suddenly, a new program started running through all the computers. At first he thought Zelenka had done something, and demanded to know what it was, but Zelenka told him that he had not done anything and he was also locked out of the computer system.

A few seconds later the Stargate began to dial-up. Since Colonel John Shepherd was now in charge of Atlantis, McKay tried to alert him about this, but the communications were not working. He tried to go over to Colonel John Shepherd's office, but the doors would not open. Whatever the new program was, it was overriding EVERYTHING else, and there was nothing that any of them could do about it. They quickly realize that this is not a normal gate activation, this was a nine Chevron dial. For a second McKay wondered if they were dialing up destiny, but the sequence was not the same, and they did not have the power to dial destiny. After the gate had dialed the ninth Chevron, and connected, the computers started working again. Rodney McKay's immediate concern was that dialing the ninth Chevron would pull to much power, causing the ZPM to overload and possibly explode, so he checked the power readings. The amount of power being used was equal to that of any normal activation within the galaxy. He realized that the gate they had dialed was within the Milky-way Galaxy. From his studying what happened when they dialed the ninth Chevron address to connect with destiny, he had already theorized that dialing the ninth chevron did not dial an exact location but instead dialed an exact gate regardless of its location, and he took this connection as support for his hypothesis.

Rodney McKay was about to try and contact Colonel John Shepherd again, when he realized Shepherd was already there asking what happened. He was filling reports when his computer froze and a new program showed up. After Rodney McKay told him, he decided to inform Gen. O'Neill about this, and O'Neill said no one was to do anything till he got there. A minute later he, Samantha Carter, and Daniel Jackson transported into Atlantis. Rodney McKay started to explained what happened, and how the gate dialed up, and that it was still open, even though it should have already closed due to inactivity, Gen. O'Neill said that they would not find out anything by just looking at the event horizon so they decided to send in a MALP gen-4. Unfortunately the images that is sent back did not tell them much. It showed a small cave with the smooth tiled floor, smooth sides, and a curved ceiling, the same height as the gate itself. They decided to try a new sonar system that had been installed in the MALP. If it worked it would give them a 3-D image of what is around the MALP, including what is behind the gate.

The sonar showed that the cave went through the gate and then turned the corner, and it showed that there was a very large opening on the other side of the wall that the tunnel turned into. If there was anything in the big open space on the other side of the wall, they could not detect it. The sonar just read a HUGE, OPEN space as if it was the outside. The MALP did tell them that the atmosphere was breathable, and that the gravity was equal to earth standard.

John Shepherd was ready to step through the gate and go explore this new world immediately, until Rodney pointed out that there is no DHD, so how would they get back home? Samantha Carter reminded him that the new MALP had a PDD (portable dialing device) built into it, that could be used if there was no DHD. This was one of the new technologies that had been perfected in the past three years. The touch screen was about the size of a hand-held tablet, and it used the same small Naquada reactor that powers the MALP to activate the Stargate.

The PDD was very simple to use. All they had to do was take the 100 foot cable that was coiled in one of the access hatches, then connect the three separate lines within the cable to the Stargate. Then they just scroll through all of the known addresses until they find the one they are looking for and activate it.

They've been trying to decide who would go, and argued over that for about 30 seconds, before general O'Neill announced that he would be deciding who goes. None of them tried to argue with him. He decided that he would go, but since they did not know what was on the other side he wanted Daniel and Samantha Carter to join him. Shepherd and McKay could join them if they wanted to. Of course Shepherd wanted to and he told McKay that he had to join as well. Just as they was all about to go through the gate Shepherd put his arms out blocking everybody. General O'Neill gave him a look that said 'is there a problem here?'

Shepherd looked at his watch and then looked at McKay and asked 'what time did you say this gate dialed up?' Suddenly McKay looked like he been struck by lightning, as he realized that it'd already been more than the 38 minutes that is supposed to be the gates maximum time that it can be open. In fact it had been 46 minutes since the gate had dialed.

The next minute they were on the other side, and a few seconds later the gate shut down, as if it had been waiting for someone to go through before it turned off.

Chapter 3.

The Cave.

As soon as the gate shut down, they saw a lighted pathway for them to follow. It was not very bright, but it was clearly visible. Two lines of lights on each side of the floor went past the gate and then around the corner.

For a moment they thought they would find the answers to where they were and what this place was around that corner, but instead they discovered that the pathway continued for as far as they could see the lights. The lights were not very bright, in fact they were so dim that it did not even illuminate the top of the railing and they actually had to place a hand on the railing to realize that it was just railing. After Daniel Jackson laid down on the path and placed his arm through the railing support he was able to reach down below the path that they were on and verified that they were on some sort of ledge. He had no way of knowing how high they were only that they were not walking along even ground. The group decided that they would just have to keep walking, staying between the lights, to see where it took them.

They set off on a pace of about 4 miles an hour, about 45 minutes later, they had covered about 3 miles, and then they saw that there was another source of light ahead of them and that the path seems to end at that other source. Another five minutes and they were there. The lights seemed to be nothing more than a glowing disk on the wall in front of them. By this time general O'Neill was getting inpatient, and was considering ordering them back to the Stargate to use the PDD and returned back to Earth when John Shepherd reached out to touch the glowing this. Rodney McKay was trying to say not to, because they had no idea what the glowing disk did, when Shepherd touched it. Immediately a puddle jumper de-cloaked right beside them with the hatch open. They all went in to sit down and wait to see what happens next, John Shepherd and general O'Neill went to the front compartment to see if they could get the puddle jumper to work. As soon as they sat down the puddle jumper turned on, and the window display showed images of John Shepherd and general O'Neill in the respective seats and it had a representation of DNA beside each one. Once it was confirmed that they each had the ancient gene a mechanical voice began speaking to them in ancient. Daniel Jackson and Rodney McKay were able to understand and translate the Ancient into English for the others. It was explaining that this place had been built by the ancients as a last resort should they lose the war with the wraith, and then the wraith followed them back to earth. Since this place was built into a giant asteroid that had a 2,000 year orbit in a binary star system, there is no way that he could be reached with a normal seven Chevron dial up so they used the same idea that they had used with Destiny. This gate could only be reached by dialing a specific nine point address which would connect to this gate no matter where it was at.

While Daniel and Rodney McKay had been translating, they did not realize that the artificial intelligence program they controlled this modified jumper had a adaptive language learning program, and while they had been explaining what it said to the others, the computer had been learning their language so that it could communicate with them better. After explaining about how this gate worked the display changed. It looks like a Ancient to English translation guide, and although there were numerous blanks where the AI had not yet learned the proper English words, with the help of Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Rodney McKay, it was quickly able to learn the basics of English and communicate with them better.

The AI explained that after the ancients realized that they would not be able to beat the wraith in the war, approximately 200 of them were selected to go back to Earth ahead of the rest, including engineers and scientists, for the purpose of building this depot to be used in the event that the wraith were able to follow them back to earth.

That was when all of the lights in the entire facility turned on, and they were able to see the truth of what they had found, and it was almost more then they could believe. It looked like it could easily be a mile high, 6 miles wide, and 5 miles deep, and they are about 10 feet from the roof, looking down on...

Chapter 4.

The Find.

General O'Neill could not believe what he was seeing. He even had to leave the puddle jumper and go look for himself instead of looking through the display screen to confirm it. Sure enough right there on the floor, 10 brand new Aurora class ancient battleships. Each one, half as tall as the room. Two rows, five in each row, side-by-side.

The AI told them that these ships are not like the ships in the Pegasus galaxy, since these ships are newer and meant to be stronger. Those ships there were each powered by a single ZPM, while these ships are each powered by 3 ZPM.

1 for shields, to make sure they never fail no matter how much they had to take.

1 for energy weapons, to make sure they always had a lot of power.

1 for everything else, so the first 3 could be used only as needed and not drained before they were needed.

On the side wall were row and row of recesses. 100 recesses in each row, and then they were 25 levels high. According to the puddle jumper display the recesses were each 30' x 30' and approximately 20 feet deep, and each held 2 Stargates. One was a space gate, and one was a planetary gate with a DHD. Each recess only had 1 power crystal, so they would have to decide if they wanted to power the space-gate or the planetary gate. These gates were also designed to work with the 9 Chevron address to dial that specific gate no matter where it is. Everything in the depot can work on the 9 chevron system, as well as the 7 chevron system. The 9 chevron address for each gate is on the boxes holding the power crystals. Also, each of the ships has one of these Gates they can be used for rotating crew, or evacuate crew if necessary. All of the Gates on the walls are secured to antigravity units for the purpose of sending them through the supergate's.

To make it even better, every one of them was a Pegasus style gate, so it would supersede any Milky Way Gates that was already in the vicinity, and since these Gates could be moving and still used, they did not affect the correlation updates. While they were compatible with the Milky Way style Gates, and could be dialed up using the seven Chevron system, the Milky Way DHD's could not dial each gate directly because they were designed to operate on the seven Chevron instead of nine Chevron system. These Gates and DHD's were even more advanced then the Pegasus system Gates, and even more advanced then the gate of Atlantis itself. The DHD's of the Pegasus Gates were also designed on the seven Chevron system, and even Atlantis can usually only dial the eighth Chevrons. All of which is based on the location of the gate instead of each gate having its own ID.

Rodney McKay was excited about the discovery of the Gates even more than the discovery of the ships, and was absolutely astonished by the number of the gates here. 100 recesses in each row, 25 rows on each wall, and both walls, added up to 5000 recesses, and 2 gate each is 10,000 gates. There was not even that many known Gates in the entire Milky Way galaxy.

The AI continued to explain. The wall that they are now on is divided into five levels, and they are currently on the top level. The two levels directly below them are storage for drone weapons. Approximately 14 million of them, organized in rows sitting on shelves, just waiting to be activated. On the level below that is what they refer to as puddle jumpers. Approximately 1400 of them. And in the lowest level, at ground level, are power modules, what they referred to as ZPM's, secured to inactive antigrav units. Exactly 1000 of them spaced evenly in recesses along the wall. All of them fully powered. On the current level, further along than the current location, was a Ancient Repository of Knowledge. General O'Neill actually flinched when he heard that. The AI continued the explanation. This Repository of Knowledge was not like the old ones that had been left in this galaxy. During the 5 million years that the ancients were in the Pegasus galaxy, they realized that having a one time information dump into a mind is not an efficient way of transferring information since it runs the risk of overwhelming the person. Instead, this new repository acts as a continuous information storage system, and a person can access the information that they need at any time without fear of being overwhelmed. It can also be used to remove information after it is used if necessary. Everything in the depot is brand new, and ready to use.

Daniel Jackson asked the AI how everything could be brand new if it had all been built over 10,000 years ago? Even if no-one bothered it, there would still be damage just from entropy. The AI explained that after it was all built, a Time dilation field was activated after the builders left. A ratio of 100,000 to 1, so while it is true that the universe has had 10,000 years, inside the depot the time has not yet been equal to 50 earth days. Everything is still new, and probably even still has the new smell.

On the far wall was a single gate, with two super-gates on each side of it, almost as tall as the cavern itself. One was a solid gate, and the other was constructed of separate segments, like the Ori super gate was. The AI explained that once the process has started, the Stargate on the wall would dial-up Atlantis and the AI would interface with the Atlantis computer systems, opening the puddle jumper bay doors, above and below the bay, to make a unobstructed path way to the open sky from the gate room. Then it would interface with 1,000 drones, launching them, to destroy any wraith ships attacking Atlantis. Once there is no more enemy to destroy, the Atlantis computer would take control of the drones and returned them to holding in Atlantis, while the AI interfaced with the individual components of the secondary supergate, sending them through the wormhole to Atlantis, and up through the open bay doors to form a supergate above Atlantis. Once the secondary supergate was completed the regular gate would deactivate and the supergates would activate.

The AI would then interface with the ships, puddle jumpers, remaining drones, and antigravity units, sending them all through the supergate in that order, except the primary puddle jumper would go first since they would be in it. Once on the other side the Atlantis computer would guide the drones and puddle jumpers to storage, and would secure the ZPM's in a empty storage room. The ships will take up orbit above the planet, to wait for crews to come aboard. The new Stargates would probably remain in orbit until they could be transported to a viable planet.

Then the asteroid that holds the depot would self-destruct. The naquada in the Stargates will enhance the explosion 100,000 times over, making sure that there is nothing remaining.

Chapter 5.

Keeping The Secret.

John Shepherd was ready to get things started and was even reaching for the activation when General O'Neill stopped him. Looking at the general he simply asked "Sir? You don't think we should be taking advantage of this?"

General O'Neill's answer was "And how would we be able to keep Atlantis a secret, if there's a giant Stargate above it and all this stuff coming through the gate and going down to Atlantis?"

"Also" Samantha Carter added, "The Lantians probably knew about this, and would know what was happening when the gate there was dialed, and the puddle jumpers bay opened. Our people there now have no idea, and would not know what was happening."

O'Neill looked at her for a second, and then looked at Shepherd and said "Ya, that to."

"Ok, sir, do you have any ideas how we can get all of this, or are you planing to leave it all here? If we leave there is no guarantee that will ever be able to get back here."

"No, I do not plan on leaving any of it here." General O'Neill said. "We need to figure out how to get it back to Atlantis without exposing Atlantis to the whole world."

Samantha Carter said "Sir, I may have an idea."

"I thought you would. That's why I brought you." General O'Neill said.

She questioned the AI. "Can the order of these events be changed, or they preset?"

The AI explained "The order of events that I listed are the default setting, however it was understood that unforeseen events may require changes. Would you like to make changes now?"

"Maybe, can the supergate sections pass through the Atlantis shield?"

"Affirmative," the AI responded. "It was known that this might be necessary if Atlantis was under prolonged attack even after returning to Earth."

"Yes." she explained. "I would like to make a few changes. Can the anti-gravity units for the ZPM's fit through the regular gate?"

"Affirmative." reply the AI. "The units are small enough to fit through the gate."

"Okay, then we need to send 2 ZPMs to Atlantis, and we need to activate communications so that I can talk to them." She said.

General O'Neill asked her "Carter, what are you planning?"

She explained "Once Atlantis gets the 2 fully powered ZPM's, they will then have 3, and they will be able to leave Earth. They then can go to the far side of the sun, where they will be totally hidden from prying eyes, and then we will be able to send them everything else. Since it will still be in the Earths solar system we will still be able to dial it."

As she was explaining this the AI showed the earth on the display, then switched to a display of the orbit around the sun, then showed a visual representation of Atlantis leaving the earth and traveling to the far side of the sun, then showed Atlantis on the far side of the sun and showed the same address could be used when it was on the Earth, confirming that this plan can work.

The display screen then showed a 50 x 20 grid of black circles with 2 of them turning white, indicating that 2 of them had been turned on. It then showed the Stargate on the far wall, 5 miles away from them, being activated. The AI told them that communications are now open and that it will take approximately 50 seconds for the ZPMs to reach the gate.

After a second General O'Neill looked at Carter as if expecting her to continue when she said that she cannot continue. She is not in charge of Atlantis, so either General O'Neill or Colonel Shepherd will have to tell them what to do.

General O'Neill realized she was correct, and said "This is General O'Neill calling Atlantis. Do you copy?"

A second later Zelenka's voice could be heard "Affirmative Sir."

"I do not have time for a long explanation. So listen carefully. In a few seconds 2 ZPMs are going to come through the gate." General O'Neill said. "You are to install them, and use them to leave Earth. You are to fly halfway around the sun, and Then place Atlantis in the same orbit as the earth on the opposite side of the sun. Do you understand?"

Zelenka responded "I understand the order Sir, but can I ask why?"

"How long do you think it will take you to carry out these orders?" General O'Neill asked, ignoring Zelinkas question.

"Since Colonel Shepherd and Dr. McKay were both with you, I will have to find Dr. Beckett to use the chair. That could take a while since I've no idea where he is. Once he is here it will probably take about 30 minutes to get out of the earths atmosphere, but after that it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get to the other side of the sun. We can use the star drive at minimum power to travel at light speed and be there in about 17 minutes." Zelenka said.

Rodney McKay told him "That plan will not work. You could not use the star drive the jump through a star like that. You will have to use the star drive to jump 90° from the sun and then again another 90° to get to the opposite side."

The ZPMs had finally reached the gate and the AI told them that he would be closed as soon as they passed through it, however the gate can be opened again at any time if they wish to pass anything else through.

General O'Neill said "We will be in communication again in six hours time, and Atlantis needs to be in position by then."

Then the gate closed.

Chapter 6.

6 hours later.

During the next six hours, while most of them were talking to the AI, general O'Neill decided to use the time to go get the MALP so that they would not have to leave it here when they departed. The others continued talking to the AI trying to learn all that they could about this place, and the items that were here.

Colonel Shepherd asked if the AI could explain why the Atlantis computer had waited three years after returning to earth before it activated the program leading them here? If they truly had been under attack they would have needed this place much sooner. The AI explained that builders knew that there was a chance that Atlantis might peacefully returned to earth, and this depot would not be needed, so they made sure that the program that dialed up the gate for the depot would only activate if the Atlantis sensors detected active wraith technology in orbit.

This confused them for a moment since there was no active wraith in orbit, until Dr. McKay realized that the wraith ships are alive, and can heal. He theorized that if a chunk of the wraiths super-hiveship had somehow survived the nuclear explosion, and was able to access a source of energy, it could grow into a new ship. How quickly it grew would depend on how much power it had access to. Col. Shepherd asked him where the thing could have access energy in orbit? Dr. McKay said that he could have collided with one of the satellites and access the energy from the solar panels. They already know that when a ship starts to grow, it first grows testicles, to make contact with a source of energy. It is not hard to imagine a chunk landing on a satellite, and using it's own internal energy to growing tentacles to get to the wires running from the solar panels. That would enable it to grow, till it produced it own power generators. After that it could grow into a fully functional ship very quickly.

General O'Neill simply said that he did not care what caused it, he is just pleased that it happened and that they now have access to everything here, and if there is a intact wraith hive ship in orbit, the SGC scientists will be delighted to get to study it.

Samantha Carter said that the number of drone weapons was more then Atlantis could hold, and she wandered if some were meant to resupply the Ancients weapons at the Antarctic. The AI explained that was a secondary option, but defending Atlantis was primary. Colonel Shepherd said that would have been nice if Atlantis was still on Earth, but since it is half way around the sun, it does not really help them now. That was when Samantha Carter reminded him that the new gates could be used even if they are close together, so it would be possible to put one on Earth, and then send the drones through the gates to Earth. They probably would need one on Earth anyway, to be able to go back and forth to Atlantis easily.

The display was showing a countdown to the six hour mark, and one minute till it and informed them that the six hours is almost up, and it could activate the Stargate again if they would like to communicate with Atlantis again, but the Stargate could only remain open if something was being sent through it, so they would have to decide what to send through it. They decided to send through another ZPM since that would give them almost a full minute to explain what is about to happen. The AI activated the gate and told them that the ZPM's would again take about 50 seconds to get through. If they did not send something else through after that the gate would close.

As soon as the gate was open General O'Neill called Atlantis to see if they were in position. Dr. Beckett responded that they had been in possession for a little over an hour and was ready to carry out whatever orders they were given. General O'Neill told them to just make sure that there was nobody in the puddle jumper Bay and to remove nonessential personnel from the gate room. Everything else would be done automatically. It took only a couple of seconds for this to be done and then the AI program took over. The doors to the puddle jumper Bay was open and several drones launched through the gate to carry out the purpose. When no enemy ships were detected the Atlantis computers took control of the drones and guided them to drone storage to be used when needed. The AI then interfaced with the supergate segments causing them to fly through the gate and up through the bay to form the supergate above Atlantis.

Once the supergate was constructed the Stargate deactivated and the two supergates activated. To prevent the unstable vortex of the forming supergate from damaging the battleships a force field was engaged directly in front of it for the few seconds needed.

They expected everything to start going through as soon as the supergates opened, but instead they heard a sound on the wall behind them, and saw a hidden door open to reveal a rings transport. The AI told them that it would take then to another one behind one of the puddle jumpers, and if they did not take it, they would be trapped here. Since the MALP was to big to fit in the rings with the 4 of them, Colonel Shepherd and Dr. McKay would go first, then General O'Neill would use the remote to drive the MALP into the rings, and send it. Colonel Shepherd would them move it out of the way so General O'Neill and Samantha Carter could transport.

As soon as they were all in the puddle jumper, and the door closed, they felt it power up and begin to move. A moment later, they were through the supergates. The AI moved their puddle jumper to the side of the gate, so they were able to watch as everything else came through, then it released its hold and let them take over if they wanted to. General O'Neill was about to pilot the puddle jumper back to Atlantis when Samantha Carter suggested that they should remain where they are for the time being. Since they did not know for sure when everything would be coming through, or where it would be going, it was safer to stay out of the path rather then trying to avoid getting hit.

A few seconds later they saw the first ship come through the supergate. Since there wasn't a planet for it to orbit it settled into a longitudinal orbit around Atlantis, as if they were sharks circling a boat. The bottom circle was the 10 Aurora class ancient battleships, above that was the puddle jumpers, then the remaining drones, and finally the new Stargates. The ZPMs, and the Ancient Repository of Knowledge, had all landed on one of Atlantis's outer pylon.

The Stargates had been the final thing to come through the supergate, and a moment later the supergates disengaged and the individual components separated, and started to fly down to Atlantis. A second later Atlantis contacted the puddle jumper and told them that an incoming gate had activated from the same address as the one that the supergate segments had come from. Samantha Carter realized that the AI was about to fly all of the supergate segments into a incoming wormhole, which would disintegrate all of them. She asks Zelinka to raise the shield on the Atlantis Stargate to prevent this from happening. It worked and the supergate segments were unable to fly into the incoming gate, so they were lined up like train cars waiting to get to go. It took a few minutes for the four to get to the control room. Since the supergate segments were blocking the entrance to the puddle jumper docking bay, they had to park the puddle jumper outside of the gate room and come in from the balcony. Samantha Carter tried to contact the AI at the depot to see if it would respond. It asked why the supergates segments were not able to pass through the event horizon? Samantha Carter explained that they had raised the shield on the Stargate because they did not want the segments to be destroyed. The AI said that it had to destroy them in order to prevent an enemy from using them to establish a new supergate. Rodney McKay suggested that there could be another way to prevent that, without having to destroy the supergate segments, if the segments were not all kept together in one circle then they could not be activated. It took a few seconds for the AI to process this information and then the gates began to move backwards, out of the Atlantis control tower. Most of them did reform the circle, but two of them from opposite sides met to the center. The AI then said that it had fulfilled it's purpose and would now self destruct the asteroid. That command could not be changed or overridden. Then the Stargate closed.

Chapter 7.

Gateway to Earth.

The original idea was for Atlantis to return to Earth once they had everything, but they quickly realized that this would not be a good idea. The ships were so big that they would be seen even from orbit, and there was nowhere on earth to park them. It was decided that the best option would be for Atlantis, and almost everything else, to remain on the far side of the sun from the earth. The one exception would be one of the Stargates. It would be taken to earth and placed in Cheyenne mountain to act as The Gateway To Atlantis, after spending a little while in Area 51 so they could send through enough drone weapons to refill the storage there. General O'Neill knew that the IOA would try to use this to claim control over the Stargate operations again, but since the new gate would have a DHD, it would not require anything more to operate, so it would not make any difference in the cost of maintaining the Stargate operations, and in fact they could now use one of the ZPM's to power Home World Command, so their bills would be much less then before. The IOA would not have any way to use this situation to their benefit.

After Atlantis contacted HWD and told them the plan, it took less then an hour for the Prometheus to get a gate and return to Earth. They were also able to conform that there was a Wraith ship in orbit, it seemed to be 'tethers' to a obsolete Russian TV satellite. Once the new gate was powered, it only took a few minutes for John Shepherd to use the Atlantis control chair to send a few thousand drones to Earth. Since he could not see where they were compared to storage, he turned them off as soon as they were on Earth, and they all had to be placed in storage by hand, but it was still better then not having any.

It took a while for the 10 ships to get crews, since the people had to be taught how to use them. As they were coming thru the supergate, John Shepherd jokingly asked which one he was going to get and General O'Neill said that not only was John going to get one, but it would even be named after him. They USS pigheaded idiot. They all laughed at that, till they realized that communications with HWD was still on and HWD did like the idea of John Shepherd having one since he could so easily control ancient tech. They said that since all of the ships are the same, John Shepherd could have his pick of one as a reward. He would still be in charge of Atlantis, but him being in charge of one of the ship would help make sure there was at least 1 ship always close if needed.

It only took about a week for everything to settle down after they got all the new stuff, and all the paperwork to get pushed through, and then life pretty much returned to normal, with the exception that Atlantis was no longer on Earth, and the only way to get back and forth was the new gates.

SGC decided that since they have the puddle jumpers, and nether the Goa'uld, or the Lucian Alliance had any ships that could fit through the gates, it would be better to take the planetary gates, and replace them with the space gates. That would cripple the Lucian Alliance ability to move Kassa. They had to make sure to ID each gate, and where they got it from so they could return it later if they had to remove the space gate for some reason.

Chapter 8.

Epilogue.

It had been 10 years since they found the Depot. The Lucian Alliance has been torn into a dozen smaller groups, each fighting the others. No one has heard from any of the Goa'uld for almost 8 years, and the Tok'ra believe that the last one died trying to test a new gate ship. The Jaffa are free and those who did need Goa'uld symbiotes now use Tretonin.

The war is over and there is a new universal peace, enforced by the Tau'ri and their very powerful ships.

The End.