The Search for Atlantis

by Aaunty Pasta

After a frieze depicting the Stargate is found in Greece, SG1 is dispatched with an old friend to investigate. This was written three years ago, before I found out about SGA. I updated it, but not much was changed. Almost Canonical... weird.

Title: Search for Atlantis

Author: Pammie, Pasta
Email: Warnings: None
Pairings: None
Spoilers: Torment of Tantalus, Frozen, Meridian, Abyss
Season: Six
Rating: G
Summary: After a frieze depicting the Stargate is found in Greece, SG-1 is dispatched with an old friend to investigate. Meanwhile another friend gives an archeologist the key to the adventure of a lifetime.
Author's notes: This story had been bouncing around my head for about six months. I started another version, but was never able to finish. In the meantime, the show gave me more stuff to work with, so I decided to completely rewrite it. After beginning the rewrite, I began to look at the other story, so if you like this one, check out the other one as well. I originally started it three years ago, long before I had ever HEARD of Stargate Atlantis. Reading this now, three years later, I can't believe how close it is to the way the premise is in SGA.

Important Note: This story takes place at the end of season 6 of SG-1 just before "Full Circle." And no, I had not even heard the premise for Atlantis when I wrote this. I updated it during the second season of Atlantis.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or Stargate. I am not making money off of this story nor do I intend to make money from it. Thanks to TPTB (the powers that be) for creating the show for me to practice my writing skills on.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tanis ran her gloved hand over the large frieze, dusting the last bits of millennia old ash from its patterns. The design was intricate and unusual enough for it to be a mystery for everyone on the archeology team, including team leader Atlantis Brogan, Tanis for short.

"So what are we going to do?" asked one of the other archeologists.

"I've got a friend who helped me out with my thesis in college," Tanis said. "She may be able to help." Gingerly, she sidestepped the frieze. It depicted a large circle with strange symbols around its perimeter and a glowing city within its borders.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The knock at Jack's door turned into a pound as he finished tying his robe around his waist. "I'm coming!" he yelled groggily, sprinting to get to the door before whoever was on the other side decided to break it down. Jack pulled open the door, squinting at the sunlight.

"Well, it's about time," Catherine said. "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, well, I was sleeping," Jack said with a wave to invite her in. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Ernest were in Hawaii or something."

"We were, but I got an interesting e-mail and we hurried back to ask Daniel about joining us for a field trip," Catherine said. "But when I tried to call, his number had been disconnected and when I tried to visit, his apartment had been cleared out and was for rent."

Jack rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Uh, Daniel's, uh, well, it's hard to explain."

"Try," Catherine demanded.

"Sit down," Jack said softly. "It's hard to talk about." He sat down across from her and explained the entire story of Daniel's ascension to her.

After sitting in silence for several moments, Catherine finally spoke. "I find that hard to believe," she said.

"I wouldn't have really been able to believe it either," Jack said. "If he hadn't come to me in his... ah, ascended state. He helped me get through a pretty sticky situation."

Catherine nodded. "I'm sure he's missed very much at the SGC."

"Yeah," Jack said absently. "I didn't like having to replace him."

"No one could really replace Daniel Jackson," Catherine said. Jack nodded. "But maybe the person who took his place on SG-1 could help," she continued as she reached into her purse and pulled out a folded paper. She handed it to Jack. "This frieze was found among the ruins being excavated at Thebes in the Mediterranean. The ruins, called Aquateria, are thought by some to be those of the ancient city of Atlantis. This may be further proof of that as well as proof that the Ancients were the original Atlanteans."

Jack's eyebrows went up as he looked at the picture printed from an e-mail. "Maybe," he said. "I should probably show this to General Hammond."

"Be my guest," Catherine said. "I'd like to join you if you don't mind. Hammond has been allowing me to keep up with the Stargate project off and on."

"Then by all means," Jack said as he stood and grabbed his keys. "Let's go."

Catherine cleared her throat then nodded to his attire. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Jack looked down at his tattered robe. "Right," he said and put his keys down.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"She's with me," Jack said as he signed through the checkpoint at sub-level 28 in Cheyenne Mountain with Catherine.

"Nothing's changed," she commented as they headed to the briefing room.

"Nothing except..." Jack replied.

Catherine nodded. "Except," she agreed as they went through the door to join the rest of SG-1.

Sam Carter stood and embraced the older woman. "How are you?"

"A little disappointed that no one called me about Daniel," Catherine said.

"I apologize for that," Hammond said as he stood. "But it's complicated."

"I would say so," Catherine said. "Jack explained it as best he could."

Sam cleared her throat and waved a hand to Teal'c and Jonas as they stood next to the table. "You remember Teal'c," she said.

"Of course," Catherine smiled as Teal'c bowed slightly in respect.

"This is Jonas Quinn," Sam introduced the newest member of their team.

"Daniel's replacement," she said softly and shook his hand.

"I wish it were Daniel who could be here instead of me," Jonas said. "But I'm happy to make your acquaintance."

"Jack tells me you are a quick study," Catherine said. Jonas nodded so Catherine went on before he could vocalize. "What can you tell me about Atlantis?"

"It's a mythical continent that many theorize was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. There are as many theories about it as there are people who debunk them," Jonas recited. "Dr. Jackson theorized that it existed but was removed from the planet by aliens. In his later journals he suggested that it might have been a city of the Ancients."

"Not bad," Catherine said. She pulled the paper out and handed it to him.

Jonas looked at it for a few moments then handed it off to Sam. "Where was this found?"

"An island in the Mediterranean," Catherine replied. "Thebes. The site where it was found is called Aquateria."

"There are some that theorize Aquateria was Atlantis," Jonas said.

"I'd like to request going there and getting a better look at this thing, General," Jack said.

Hammond examined the picture in his hand. "Agreed," he said finally. "We need to find out if there is a connection between the ruins and the Ancients as they may be the key to defeating the Goa'uld."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dreams are normally the key to one's own subconscious, but lately, Tanis had been having the most unusual dreams. Sure, she had dreamed about Atlantis before, she was named for the lost city, but these dreams felt even more real.

She stood on a bluff in a desert, overlooking a huge pyramid. Looking around her, she saw the silhouette of a man, dark against the bright of the clear blue sky. She realized he was coming closer, and he soon stood by her side. He took her hand in his and led her past two great columns and into the pyramid.

Inside the structure was the circle from the frieze at Aquateria. The symbols spun around in the frame of the ring before stopping with a clunk and spinning again. It spun seven times, finally stopping on a triangle of three circles. A whirlpool of light stretched out at her with a roar and pulled itself back in, settling into a pool of water.

The man moved to stand next to the pool and gestured for Tanis to join him. Tanis stepped forward to the vertical wall of water and touched it gently with her fingertips. Although the surface was cold, her hand did not feel wet. She turned to him.

"Go ahead," he said. "Step through."

"What if I drown?"

"You just might," the man said. "But you won't die." He was silent for a moment. "Don't be afraid. There is a whole other world on the other side of that pool."

"I'm not afraid," Tanis replied and turned back to the pool. Both stared at the surface as it hung barely an arm's length away. Finally, Tanis bit her lip and held out her arm before stepping through.

With a start, she woke from the dream, drenched in sweat from the hot, humid Mediterranean night. "What the hell was that?" she whispered.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tanis was amending her maps of the ruins when one of her colleagues escorted Catherine and the others into the tent. After an embrace and introductions, Tanis showed her friend to the frieze.

"It's been cleaned since I sent you the pictures," Tanis said when she was standing over the bright wall as the wind shifted the awning above. "And we put up the awning to protect it from the sun."

"Incredible," Sam muttered.

"This is what is strange," Tanis said as she led them around the edge to the bottom of the frieze. "These symbols," she gestured to the row of symbols at the base of the city. "Match the symbols on the ring."

Sam leaned in so only Jack could hear. "The last symbol is the one from the DHD from Antarctica." Jack only nodded slightly in response.

Catherine glanced at Jack and Sam then turned back to Tanis. Tanis continued. "After looking at them for a while, I realized that these," she squatted and fingered the first six symbols. "Are constellations." She looked up at the friends Catherine had brought. "Possibly coordinates to lead us to Atlantis."

Sam knelt down next to her and touched the seventh symbol. "What about the seventh symbol?" she asked.

"I can't be certain," Tanis said. "But I think this is the symbol for Atlantis." She touched another symbol, a triangle with a circle above it, which was over the row of seven characters. The symbol Sam knew full well was the Stargate symbol for Earth. "I've seen it used in the myths of Atlantis all over the world." She looked back at Jack and the others. She adjusted her position so she was sitting on her knees and lowered her voice. "I think you use the circle somehow and that these symbols are somehow the key to working the circle." She shrugged and stood. "Too bad we don't have one of those circles."

As she turned to face the others, she could see a slight bit of discomfort in Catherine's face. Before she could comment, Jonas spoke up. "These are very interesting ruins," he said. "Have you found anything else like this?"

"Paintings depicting life before the city was destroyed, some other friezes, but nothing this grand," Tanis replied, letting the subject of the circle and Catherine's strange reaction to her theory drop. In the back of her mind, however, she vowed to talk to the older woman alone when she could get the chance. "We're thinking this may be a square of some kind. Would you like a tour of the rest of the ruins?"

"Sure," Jonas replied.

Tanis brushed herself off and led Jonas away.

"Teal'c," Jack gestured to the dark man in the floppy hat. "Go with him. Just in case."

"Jonas is quite proficient at 'dodging the subject'," Teal'c commented. "But I will go 'just in case'." He turned and walked after Jonas and Tanis as they chatted amicably about the ruins.

"I think she's a bit smarter than she should be," Jack said.

"It's incredible how she was able to theorize the significance of this frieze with nothing to draw upon," Sam commented.

"Daniel had less than this when he figured out the symbols with the Stargate," Catherine replied.

"Yeah," Jack said. "Too much like Daniel for her own good."

"I'd like to tell her about the Stargate," Catherine said.

"Not until Hammond gives us permission," Jack said. "I'll go call him."

Jack left Sam and Catherine alone. They turned and looked back at the frieze. "Do you really think this will lead us to the lost continent?"

"I don't know," Catherine replied. "But who knows. At the very least it might lead us to more of the 'meaning of life' stuff Daniel was so excited about back on Ernest's planet."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"So Catherine," Tanis began as she sat on the floor next to her bed in the tent she was sharing with Catherine and her friend Sam. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

Sam had gone to talk to the others, leaving Tanis and Catherine alone for the moment. Catherine stopped digging in her suitcase to look at the younger woman. The only sound was Tanis' pencil as she drew in her drawing book.

"Nothing for you to be concerned with," Catherine replied as she went back to digging. "What are you drawing?"

Tanis sighed and stood, throwing the pad face down on the cot. "I don't know," she replied. "Someone from a dream."

"Let me see," Catherine said with her hand out.

Tanis handed the book to Catherine and watched as she turned it over. When Catherine saw the drawing, she gasped. "Do you know who this is?"

Tanis shook her head. "He's been in my dreams since around the time we found the frieze."

"There's more to it than that," Catherine said.

"You know him?"

Catherine nodded. "He's an archeologist. His name is Daniel Jackson."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"She drew this?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Catherine said. "She told me she had been dreaming about him."

"Are we sure it's just a dream?" Jack asked. "I mean, maybe Daniel has been visiting her for some reason."

"It is certainly possible," Sam replied. "But why and how would he have found out about this?"

"Who knows how Daniel does anything he does," Jack stated. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

Jonas broke into the silence. "What did General Hammond say about telling her about the Stargate?"

"He's having a background check done on her," Jack replied. "It should be done by morning if there's nothing to worry about."

"For now, though," Sam began. "I think we should get some sleep."

Sam, Jonas and Teal'c nodded and headed off to bed. As Jack started off, Catherine grabbed his arm. "I think you should impress upon Hammond how important this may be."

"I have and I will," Jack said as he hooked Catherine's arm around his own and escorted her back to the tent she was sharing with Sam and Tanis.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

He stood next to the circle, waiting. This time they were in a room with strangely militaristic architecture.

Tanis stood at the bottom of a metal ramp, looking up at him.

"You are Daniel Jackson," she said matter-of-factly.

"Guilty," he said. "I suppose Jack told you."

"No, Catherine," Tanis replied.

Daniel nodded. He didn't speak for several minutes. "Aren't you coming?"

"Why?"

"You want to find Atlantis, don't you?"

"I don't think it is really through that circle," Tanis told him. "The circle may lead me to it, but Atlantis is not through the circle."

"It's called a Stargate," Daniel said.

"Stargate, then," Tanis replied. "What are you looking for?"

"I honestly don't know," Daniel replied.

"Are you dead?"

"That's complicated."

Tanis nodded. "Why me?"

"You are Atlantis," Daniel replied. He held out a hand and asked again, "You coming?"

Tanis paused, then nodded. Taking Daniel's hand, she went through the Stargate with him next to her. She barely felt it. On the other side, she found herself standing at the edge of a vast plain teeming with life. Off in the distance was a city, gleaming in the sunlight. "This is Atlantis!" she whispered.

"This is how it used to look," Daniel replied.

"How do you know?" Tanis asked.

"Oma Desala," Daniel said simply.

"Mother Nature?"

"Yes," Daniel replied. "But she has been gone from here for a very long time and she wants to know what happened to the city as much as anyone else does."

"Did she live here before she became like you?"

"Before she ascended, yes."

"Why did you ascend?"

"To keep from dying."

"Can you return to your former form?" Tanis asked. She turned to face him when he didn't respond immediately.

"Maybe someday," he replied. "If I find a reason to return."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Two Days Later

Tanis found herself sitting in the conference room at the SGC. At the end of the table was General George Hammond. Catherine and SG-1 were seated along the sides of the table and Tanis sat at the other end.

"I never thought the United States Air Force would be interested in this discovery," Tanis said. "Why did you have me brought here and arranged for the wall to be brought here as well?"

"What do you know about Daniel Jackson and this project?" General Hammond asked, ignoring her questions.

Tanis sighed. "Daniel Jackson has ascended to a higher plane of existence," Tanis reported. "He has been coming to me in dreams to tell me about the Stargate."

"Why?" Hammond asked.

"I have no idea," Tanis replied. "Maybe because I was the head of the team on the dig that found the wall."

"Did Daniel say anything about it?" Jack asked.

"He said I am Atlantis," she replied. "I don't know exactly what that means. I mean, my given name is Atlantis, but I get the feeling it is more than that." She paused. "He said something about Oma Desala being from Atlantis."

"Oh, yeah?" Jack said. "Might explain Daniel's involvement, but not why he came to you."

"I'm sorry, he speaks in riddles most of the time," Tanis said.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "He does that to me sometimes, too."

"The coordinates from the wall weren't at the cartouche on Abydos," Sam said, moving the conversation on. "They weren't in the list from the storehouse of the Ancients, either."

"I'm a bit wary of sending a team," Hammond said. "But we'll send a probe through and see what's out there. Agreed?"

They adjourned to the control room overlooking the gateroom and watched as the Stargate began spinning. Tanis stood transfixed, watching as each symbol clunked into place.

"What is it?" Catherine asked.

"It's just amazing to know that that piece of ancient, alien technology can take us across the galaxy," Tanis replied.

Catherine smiled. "Wait until you actually get to go through it."

Tanis smiled as she watched the probe go through the gate. Seconds later, it had reached its destination.

The camera adjusted its focus on a small field and a city in the distance down a path that had, at one time, been well used. Now, it was overgrown with grass and weeds.

"Well, what do you think?" Jack asked the general.

"There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous," Hammond said. "I'm giving you a go for a recon mission." He turned to Tanis. "Get suited up. You're going with them."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tanis followed Sam Carter through the Stargate. "Whoa!" she exclaimed once on the other side.

"Some trip, huh?" Sam asked.

"Whoa, yeah," Tanis replied. "And you do this every day?"

"Just about," Sam replied. "What do you think?"

"Looks awfully Earth-like," Tanis said.

"Most of the planets we visit are Earth-like," Sam said.

"Are all the people you have met descendants of humans from Earth?" Tanis questioned.

"No," Sam replied. "Like, there was this one race that lived in..."

"Major!" Jack interrupted. "Let's move!"

"Sorry, sir," Sam apologized and followed him down the path.

Jonas went next followed by Tanis and Teal'c. As Tanis pushed aside the grass, she felt panic rise in her throat. The path grew narrower and spun in her vision. Her pace slowed and she felt Teal'c run into her. "Are you well?" he asked.

Tanis yelped and spun on her heel, ready to fall, only to be caught by Teal'c. "Colonel!" he yelled.

"I feel weird," Tanis mumbled. "Like overwhelming Déjà vu."

"What is it?" Jack asked her.

"There's something familiar about this place," Tanis said as she stared through the grass at the town. "They ran from here! The planet wasn't safe!"

"What do you mean not safe?" Jack asked softly.

Tanis breathed then calmed herself. "I'm not sure," she replied. "Something threatened to destroy the colony before most of them could even get here." She looked up at Jack. "They moved on with the rest of the colony."

"Is they the Ancients?" Sam asked.

Tanis shook her head. "I don't know."

"How do you know these things," Jonas asked.

"It feels like something from the past," Tanis replied. "My past."

"Genetic memory," Sam said. "The memory is in your genes."

"Is that possible?" Tanis asked.

"The Goa'uld pass on all of their knowledge that way," Sam told her.

"But how is it possible that humans can?"

"We'll figure that out later," Jack said. "For now, let's get to the structures and take a look." He took Tanis' hand. "You OK?"

Tanis nodded. "I think so," she said as Jack helped her to her feet. "Let's get going."

Once at the ruins, Tanis could not shake the strong feeling that she had been there before. Parallels between the ruins here and those in Aquateria could not be denied but the feeling seemed to be more than that. The only differences between this city and Aquateria were that Aquateria had been destroyed by volcanic activity. This city had clearly been abandoned.

" The city is even laid out the same way," Tanis said as they looked at friezes identical to those at Aquateria. "Mapping it out will help the excavators at Aquateria dig out the rest of the city."

"Over here," Jonas called. "Look at this."

Half buried in the centuries old dirt was a frieze. As Jonas brushed away the dust, the group gaped. It was the same painting as had been found in Aquateria—with the address for Earth painted along the bottom.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Although the city is laid out in a circular fashion and has the palace in the very center of the city," Tanis reported. "It does not conform to any of the known descriptions of Atlantis."

"How so?' Hammond asked as he watched her flip from slide to slide on the screen.

Tanis switched the lights on and picked up a marker for the dry erase board. She drew three circles, one inside another on the board. "The acropolis of the lost city is within three circles of water separated by bands of land with an island in the middle. On the island is the palace of the king and the temple to Poseidon. Each ring is crossed by a bridge and canals lead through the city to the walled exterior. The largest of the canals runs straight through the city and the gate to a great plain beyond." She drew a line from the center circles through the outer circles and to the bottom of the board. "The plain is a grid of canals used for planting food for the city."

"That description is pretty precise," Hammond said. "For a story that is centuries old."

"But the same story has been told on both sides of the Atlantic," Tanis said. "It is identical whether you look at stories from the Mayans and Native Americans or the Greeks and Egyptians."

"There is something else," Jonas put in as he pulled a rubbing from his notebook. "Everything from Colonel Simmons' effects that had anything to do with the Stargate program was brought here. I was able to take a look at some of it and I think this is the tablet from which he got the coordinates he and the others were trying to get to."

"With the cache of weapons?" Carter asked.

Jonas nodded. "The tablet used markings similar to those on the Stargate to mark the coordinates where the cache was supposedly kept." He held the paper out to Hammond. Tanis peeked over his shoulder. "There are seven symbols but the last one is not a point of origin."

Tanis looked up. "Why seven? Or eight with a point of origin."

"Another galaxy," O'Neill replied. "Like for the Asgard."

"Asgard?"

"I'll have the proper files made available to you," Hammond told Tanis. "You've got some catching up to do if you want a permanent post here."

"Of course, sir," Tanis replied.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tanis dropped the box of files on the table in her hotel room and flopped face down on the bed. The box had over one hundred files, each containing a report of missions for just the first year of the Stargate project, including the first mission on Abydos.

"Tired?" asked a voice from the chair next to the table.

"I have six years' worth of reading to do," she said without moving her head. She stretched her arm out to point at the stack. "That is just the first year."

"I know," the being said. "I wrote most of it."

Tanis's head jerked up and she turned to look at him. "I'm not asleep." She said.

"No," Daniel said. "I thought it would be quicker to just talk to you when you're awake." He gestured to the files. "You'll be up all night if you read all that."

Tanis put her chin in her hands. "What do you suggest?"

"Stand up," Daniel ordered.

Tanis complied. "Now what?"

Daniel stood in front of her. "This," he said and turned into wisps of light that wrapped around Tanis.

Tanis gasped, then relaxed. Their minds mixed, becoming almost as one. She could see Catherine and the first time she met Daniel in a limousine in the rain and meeting Jack only months after the death of his son.

Then there was Sha're and Skaara and the year he lived with them as Sha're's husband.

Sam and her excitement about the DHD.

Losing his wife and brother-in-law to the Goa'uld.

Teal'c saving their lives.

Kowalski.

The second Stargate.

Hathor.

Ernest's planet.

The mirror and thwarting the attack in this universe.

The Tok'ra.

Sha're and the birth of her son.

The Asgard.

Hathor's return and defeat.

Kheb.

The crystal skull.

Replicators.

The light.

Chaka.

Sarah.

The emotional and physical pain of dying—knowing it was happening and being unable to do anything about it.

Suddenly, Tanis's mind knew everything Daniel had lived during his time at the SGC. A single tear rolled down her cheek as the light that was Daniel dissipated and he returned to the form he had been in before.

"Do you understand now?" he asked softly.

"More than I thought I ever could," Tanis replied.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Tanis was picking at her food in the SGC commissary when Jonas joined her.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked.

"No, go ahead," Tanis said as she sat straighter.

"I've been doing some reading on the Atlantis myth," Jonas told her.

"The way things are going, we may prove concretely that it wasn't a myth," Tanis replied as she put her chin in her hand. "But go ahead."

"There are several theories regarding the lost city of Atlantis," he said. "One, of course, is that the ruins of Aquateria on Thebes are really the ruins of Atlantis. Another concerns some rock formations in shallow water around several islands in the Caribbean. The third is that Atlantis was once part of Antarctica."

"I've heard that one," Tanis responded.

"The third would explain a lot," Jonas told her.

"How so?"

"Well for one thing, they found a second Stargate in Antarctica," he replied.

A sudden flash of memory from her contact with Daniel made her suddenly sit up. "That's right! It was in the files I read."

"Then there is Ayiana," he continued.

"Who?"

"The team who dug out the Stargate was digging around the site to see if there was anything else of interest when they found a woman frozen in the ice," Jonas explained. "There were many theories about how she had come to be frozen in the ice, but we were unable to ask her before she died."

"You revived her!" Tanis asked incredulously.

"We thawed her," Jonas replied. "She revived herself."

Tanis shook her head in disbelief. "How did she die... again?"

"Everyone who came into contact with her contracted some kind of disease," he explained. "She was able to cure most of us before she died of it herself."

"Incredible," Tanis whispered. "I have to see the file on that."

Jonas picked up his now empty tray. "I'll get it for you," he said. "Let's go down to Doctor Jackson's office. There are some other things I think you might be interested in."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"I think we should go back down to the base at Antarctica," Tanis announced to General Hammond and SG-1.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"I want to see the site where the Stargate and Ayiana were found," she explained. "I want to see if there's something that might have been missed."

"I thought you were interested in finding Atlantis," Hammond said.

"This is about Atlantis," Tanis said. "One of the more recent theories is that Antarctica used to be Atlantis. The discovery of the Stargate and Ayiana make me think that it is possible the theory might be true."

"How did you come to this conclusion?" Hammond said.

Tanis walked the length of the table then turned back, pacing. "A combination of factors," she said as she paced. "The Stargate and Ayiana, for one." She stopped pacing and looked at the assembled group. "Because I just feel that there is something there."

"A feeling isn't exactly a good reason to go into the freezing cold," Jack commented.

Tanis sighed. "It just seems logical," she said. "The continent has a mountain range surrounding a plain. Atlantis was a plain surrounded by mountains and ocean with the city at the edge of the plain. From what I have read about the Ancients, they had the technology to do some amazing things." She paused. "Including moving a continent."

"Perhaps Ayiana had been left behind to make sure the movement occurred properly and she was not able to escape before becoming trapped in the ice," Jonas said.

"Are you saying that Ayiana was an Atlantisean?" Sam asked.

"It's possible," Tanis said as she leaned on the back of Jonas's chair. "Well, General?"

Hammond looked at the expectant faces around the table. "You have a go," he said with a nod.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"I hope you wore your flannel underwear," Jack said as the group disembarked from the plane. "'Cause it's gonna get COLD!"

The three-man crew that had been assigned to the base met them. Not the same crew that had found Ayiana, but they had been fully briefed on what had happened here before. The base itself had been cleared for habitation after a thorough check by military disease specialists proved that there was no sign of the organism that had almost killed SG-1 and the staff that had been here at that time.

"I'm Dr. Emily Wanton," a woman with bright red hair and freckles dusting her face told them. She gestured to the others. "This is Dr. James McMillan, and Dr. George Denton."

After Tanis and SG-1 had been introduced to the doctors, Emily led them to a geology lab. "When we heard you were coming and why, we took some sonar scans of the ice surrounding where the Stargate and Ayiana were found. I thought you might like to see the results."

On the computer screen appeared the scans. With a few taps of the keys, Emily brought up an extrapolation of what the area would look like without the layers of ice. The Stargate site was at the end of a channel, which ended at the base of a mountain. She tapped the keys again and brought the original scan back up. "Looks like the channel is not filled with ice for some reason," she said as she pointed to a dark area in the scan. "Looks like if we dig a few dozen feet to the east, we'll find ourselves inside the tunnel created by it." She turned in her chair to look at the assembled people. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you how far the tunnel goes because the scanner's range only goes a few hundred feet beyond the ice wall."

"How long will that take?" Jack asked, suddenly interested.

"Normally, a few weeks," she replied. "Your help could bring that down to a few days."

"Just show us where and how," Jack replied.

"We'll start out first thing in the morning," she said. "Let me show you to where you'll be staying."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Four Days Later

"I'm through!" Sam called to the others after the tip of her ice drill broke through the wall of ice. She pulled the clear plastic mask from her face and began to pull the ice from the hole until it was large enough to see through. As the rest of the group gathered behind her, she shone her light into the blackness.

"This is amazing!" Sam exclaimed. "There is no ice at all in here!"

Using picks and shovels, they soon made the hole large enough to crawl through. Soon, the four members of SG-1, Tanis, Emily and George stood in the cavern. Above, there was ice, while the walls and floor of the cavern were rich, dark Earth. After sending a sample of the dirt back to the lab where James was waiting, SG-1 and Tanis followed the channel into the darkness as Emily waited at the entrance for George to return.

"How far do you think this tunnel goes?" Jack asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

"According to the stories, it was about ten miles from the base of the mountains to the city," Tanis said. "From the computer simulation, the Stargate was at the base of a mountain range. So, at the most, ten miles."

"If we don't come upon a cave-in or something else blocking our way," Jonas put in.

"You mean like that?" Tanis asked as she pointed ahead.

In the tunnel just at the edge of their light, they barely made out the blockage as it reflected off their light. Soon they were close enough to see that it was a forest of columns, stalactites and stalagmites, all made from ice. At the outer edge where they stood, the ice structures were far enough apart that they could walk through them. As they ventured farther into the ice forest, it became denser until a wall of columns kept them from venturing any farther.

Tanis tried to push her way through two of the columns but found the gap was too narrow. "This is as far as we go," she said dejectedly.

Jonas stuck his head between two of the columns. "They seem to get thicker and become a solid wall as they go along." He pulled his head out and looked back at Tanis. "I was hoping we hadn't come all of this way for nothing."

"Perhaps we haven't," Teal'c said and nodded to a dark shape between the columns.

Tanis followed his gaze. She slid her arm between the bars of ice and reached as far as she could for it. Her fingertips brushed against the cold surface. "It's no use, I can't reach!"

The others tried but none were able to reach as far as Tanis had. Determined, she unzipped her coat.

"Tanis, wait!" Sam said. "You'll freeze."

"I won't be out of it long enough to freeze," Tanis replied as she dropped the coat at her feet.

Sam picked it up and waited with it open so Tanis could slip into it more quickly when she returned. She didn't wait long.

Teeth chattering, Tanis handed the 24 by 18 inch object to Jonas and slid back into her coat. Sam quickly turned her around and zipped her up, rubbing her sleeved arms roughly to restore circulation.

"Let's get back to the base," Sam said as Jonas examined the tablet.

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Emily threw a blanket around Tanis and sat her in a chair in the common room where George handed her a cup of hot tea. Tanis sipped it as Jonas laid the tablet on the table between them.

"What do you think?" Jonas asked.

Tanis sneezed. "I think we should get this back to the SGC and get it translated," she said. "It could be important." She sneezed again.

"You know how bad of an idea it was to take your coat off out there?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes," she replied. "But once I got it off, it didn't seem as cold as it was supposed to be. Cold, yes. Just not arctic cold."

"That is strange," Emily stated. "She should have frozen to death down there. Even as short a time as she was out of her coat."

"What about the tablet?" Tanis asked, gesturing to the object that Jonas still held it in his hands.

"It does look like the writing of the Ancients," Jonas said as he examined it.

"Do you think we could start on it on the way back?"

"We might," Jonas said. "Getting back to the SGC would be a good idea. Dr. Jackson was able to create a pretty good guide to translating it in his notes. If we want a more precise translation."

"OK," Tanis replied. "When is the plane due back?"

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"I found this buried in the ice near where Ayiana was found," Emily said as she handed a small piece the Tanis. It was made of the same material that the artifact they had found in the ice cave had been. "It could be something to do with the tablet you are taking back to the SGC."

Tanis took the piece in her hand, examining it before she sneezed. "I really hope you don't have pneumonia," Jonas commented.

"That makes two of us," Tanis replied as she rubbed her nose with her free hand. She looked back at the piece in her hand. "This looks like it might fit in that crevice along the edge."

"That's what I got to thinking," Emily said.

"Thanks," Tanis said and slid the piece in her pocket in time to put her glove back on before the door opened. Quickly, the five visitors ran to the plane and boarded. Within five minutes, the plane was in the air.

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"Let's see what you are," Tanis said as she slid the smaller piece into the slot in the side of the tablet. The translation of the writings hadn't turned up much. It said simply, "The legacy of Atlantis". "Ready?" she asked Jonas. Jonas nodded and she slid it the rest of the way into the slot. It clicked softly then seemed to hum with energy. Above the circle of words, a man appeared in the form of a hologram.

"Wow!" Sam exclaimed from next to the video camera as it recorded what was going on on Daniel's desk. Everyone jumped when the image began to speak.

"That's the language of the Ancients," Jack said. Everyone looked at him. "I may not remember what it means, but I remember what it sounds like."

They looked back to the man as he recited things that none of them could understand.

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"OK," Tanis said as she joined SG-1 and General Hammond in the briefing room. "I have the first section of the recording translated... I think."

"Go ahead," Hammond said.

Tanis took a deep breath. "Since the language hasn't been heard in several thousand years, there is no way I can do an exact translation, but using Dr. Jackson's notes I have kind of gotten the gist of it. His name is Aston and he is a scientist." She turned to the screen behind her and pushed the button on her remote. The lights went down and a familiar image came on the screen. "He speaks of a plague which I found further mention in the notes leading me to this information."

"Been there, done that," Jack stated. "Over and over and over..."

Tanis smiled. "Yes, as you know from this, they gave up." She paused. "Or those who were there did. The Ancient scientists who studied at Atlantis didn't." She switched to a view of Antarctica. "Antarctica is the lost continent."

"You're kidding!" Sam exclaimed.

"Nope," Tanis replied. "But according to Aston, the city itself is submerged under the south Atlantic." She paused. "Or so it was rumored."

"How did it get there?" Hammond asked.

"The Ancients themselves put it there," Tanis replied. "The cold of the arctic zone was able to keep the disease from spreading to the populations on the other continents. The disease seemed to only be killing the Ancient ones. They had the ability to heal normal humans of the disease and give them immunity, but not themselves. A lot of people who were only part human were able to be healed by full Ancients as well and carried the immunity. They were able to leave, finding homes all over the Atlantic."

"That explains the legends on both sides of the Atlantic," Sam commented. "But what of the stories stating the continent was destroyed in one day?"

"To those on boats escaping the island on that final day, it must have looked like it had been destroyed," Tanis said. "In the early sections of the recording he says to 'Beware the Wraith'. I can only assume that it is the name they gave the virus since he doesn't speculate on it."

"What about the Stargate?" Jack asked. "Why didn't they just use the Stargate to escape?"

"They were in quarantine," Tanis said. "The disease hadn't spread quite yet and they hoped to contain it here."

"But they didn't," Jonas said.

"No they didn't," Tanis replied. "But those from Atlantis didn't know that. They were cut off from the universe. They hoped to find a cure for the plague so they could rejoin their people in the stars…"

"I take it they never did," Hammond said.

"Actually," Tanis replied. "I think they might have."

"He said that?" Jack asked.

"To be honest, I haven't gotten that far in the translation," Tanis told him. "But he seems to get excited as he gets to the end."

"Perhaps you should make that your priority," Hammond said.

"I have," Tanis replied. "I'm having trouble with a couple of the words. It doesn't seem to make sense just yet."

"I have great faith in you," Hammond replied. "Good work."

"There is something else," Tanis said before they could stand completely. They sat back down. "They were experimenting with Goa'uld symbiotes in an effort to keep themselves alive long enough to find a cure. One experiment went awry and the symbiote took an Ancient one as a host. He ran amuck through the galaxy for several years before they froze Atlantis. Aston mentions that the Goa'uld carried the disease although he did not suffer from it. He thought it was possible that he could spread it to the other colonies."

"Which it seems he did," Jack said.

"Do you think it could be Anubis he was speaking of?" Jonas asked.

Tanis shrugged. "The only Goa'uld he named was one he called Egeria. I recognized that name from Dr. Jackson's notes so I concentrated a bit on that section," she said as she sifted through the papers on the table next to where she stood. She picked one out and recited from it. "She was a queen who they gave a genetic treatment to. They took all the evil out of her, hoping that any children she might breed would help with a cure."

"It was probably about that time that Ra came to Earth and began enslaving the people in Egypt," Sam put in.

"Right," Tanis said. "Atlantis was frozen before this and Egeria obviously was among those who left the continent."

"Then she encouraged rebellion covertly but looked like she had allied herself with Ra," Jonas said, reminding them of the writings in a tomb found on Pengar. "She was betrayed by someone she thought was a friend and, they thought, killed on Pengar."

"We all know the rest of that story," Hammond said. "How long do you think it will take for you to translate the rest of the recording?"

"I don't know," Tanis replied. "With Jonas's help and Dr. Jackson's notes, I'm hoping to get it done fairly quickly."

"Very good," Hammond replied as he stood. "Dismissed."

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Tanis fingered the tablet/recording device as the taped recording of Aston's declarations played in the background. "You don't really know as much as you've led me to believe," she said suddenly then turned.

"You got me there," Daniel said as he sat on his desk. "I'm sorry."

"They have been teaching you too much for your own good," Tanis replied.

"Something is happening," Daniel told her. "Anubis has been too quiet lately."

"I'm guessing that's bad," Tanis said.

"It certainly is," he replied.

Tanis scrunched her mouth. "There where life abides, hope grows."

"Where did you get that?" Daniel asked.

Tanis pointed to the video of the scientist of the Ancients. "Him," she said. I got part of the ending translated. "He found a cure for the plague."

Daniel stood. "You're kidding. When?"

"About a thousand years ago from the carbon testing of the device," Tanis explained. "Do you think it's possible some might be alive? Or maybe their descendants?"

"Maybe," Daniel whispered. "I have to leave."

"To go where?"

"I have to find out what Anubis wants, why he has given up on destroying Earth," Daniel replied. "For now."

"I could help you," Tanis told him.

Daniel shook his head. "It is not time for you to ascend."

Tanis rolled her eyes. "Why not?"

"The Ancients are gone," Daniel said. "But their blood runs through your veins."

"I'm one of the ones who descended from them," Tanis realized.

Daniel nodded. "I believe you may be."

"That explains a few things," she said.

Daniel smiled. "I'm sure it does," he said. "You'll find more."

Tanis nodded. "Hammond offered me a position here," she told him. "But I think I'm going to head back down to Antarctica. See if I can find anything else that will tell us if the city still exists."

"Promise me one thing," Daniel began.

"What?"

"Don't take your coat off outside down there," he finished. "OK?"

"OK," Tanis replied.

The End?