Chapter Thirteen:
I stood and stared in wonder at the city around me. I was standing in the centre of what looked like the main square and glanced at all the buildings that speared upwards towards the dome of ice above us. They were tall and elegant, rather like spires on a fairytale castle and made from the same alloy as the stargate.
I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. Atlantis was more beautiful than I had ever imagined.
"Wow." Daniel breathed beside me.
"Oh, yeah." Dad agreed.
I blinked and dragged my gaze away from the tall thin spires and the maze of balconies and corridors spiralling away from this centre square. I gazed around the square, frowning slightly. Something was wrong with this picture…
And then I had it. This square had once been an amazing garden. A place were you could come and sit and read or think or play. I blinked again as a remembered image danced before my eyes – except it was not my memory, but one that I had been gifted with.
"It's a garden." I said, walking forward, a smile growing on my face. "With large trees all around to sit under and soft grass beneath your feet and you can smell the scent of flowers in the air."
"The heart of Atlantis." Dad agreed.
I flashed him a grin. "Come on." I said.
"Where are we going?" my mother asked, finally tearing her gaze away from the city around us. "Do you know where the generator is?"
"Of course." I grinned. "But better than that, I'm going to show you the stargate!"
I walked quickly off to the right, twisting through the maze of corridors as if I had done it my entire life. I couldn't help but feel a sense of home as I walked through the halls. I felt the wonderment of those around me and stared at the rooms we passed with new eyes, suddenly seeing what they saw.
The corridors were paved with golden brown stone and the walls were a pale gold colour. But everything felt bright and airy as there were large windows throughout the city, overlooking nothing but the ice that surrounded us, but that had once stared out at wild blue ocean and deep green forests.
The doors to the rooms were large and ornate, just like I remembered, but had no handles as you did not need them. They would simply open as soon as you approached and tried to enter the room beyond. The rooms themselves were quite simple, with comfortable furniture and brightly coloured drapes. Bedrooms and meeting rooms passed by as I wound closer to my destination.
I caught Daniel's curious glance and smiled. "Atlantis was a communal city." I explained. "Everyone had there own rooms where they could seek privacy, but there were many 'lounge' rooms where they could meet with friends and neighbours."
"What about an infirmary?" Janet asked.
"Or the labs?" my mother added.
"The labs are two levels below this one, just beyond the living areas of the city." I answered. "As for the infirmary, we have two. Both are located at opposite directions to the other and are a short walk from the control room."
"Handy." Dad said.
"The city was built to exist in both war and peace." I told everyone. "They planned ahead, knowing that peace only lasts for so long."
"Only their enemy was disease." Mom said. "Something they couldn't fight."
"Indeed." Teal'c said.
We walked in silence for the rest of the way. I cannot say what the others were thinking, but I was thinking about the Ancients who had lived in the city before me. I felt not the sadness or emptiness that perhaps the others felt, but a sense of welcome and joy. This city had meant to be lived in and now we had come back to it.
"Here we are." I said, flicking a thought towards the door so it would open.
Well, it wasn't a thought exactly. Explaining just how I used Ancient technology was hard. It was true that Ancients had slight telepathic abilities, but that had very little to do with how their technology worked. It was simply keyed into their genetic structure so that it could read the intent of anyone who possessed it. Kind of like a door opening because it knew you wanted to walk through it. All you really had to do was direct your intent towards the object, rather like shifting you focus. It was hard to explain as what I did was more instinctual than conscious.
The control room, which is what I considered it to be, even though the Ancients called it another name, was a large and bright room in the centre of the city that stood high enough that it could look over the gardens below and catch glimpses of the view beyond – a view that, right now, was the dull glow of solid ice. A balcony was wrapped all the way around the outside, giving those who worked in the room a chance to smell the scent of flowers and salt on the air and take a moment to appreciate the life of the city as they worked.
"Wow." Janet said as she walked into the room.
"You should see what I can see." I told her. "I have memories of the city when it sat above a great forest and there was a beach just beyond it. You could walk out on that balcony and smell the ocean and feel the sun on your face."
I smiled in pure joy at the memory, which faded a little when I saw Janet's concerned look. I shook my head. "There isn't anything wrong with me, Janet." I said. "The Ancients shared memories with each other. It was why they where such good scientists. I'm just remembering the memories and thoughts that they though were important enough to encode into my DNA."
"Yeah." Dad said. "I remember it too, although some of the memories are rather fuzzy."
I shifted my gaze to the stargate which stood just in front of one of the windows. It was slightly different to the others, and looked more technological, if that description made any sense. Instead of the spinning ring inset into the stargate back in the SGC, this one simply lit up the right symbols as you dialled using the touch pad on the control panel.
In front of the stargate was a few steps leading up to where we stood, and there were three panels of controls facing towards the stargate. I sat down in front of the central control panel in one of the two chairs and grinned as I pressed a series of buttons. As everyone watched a flash of blue rippled across the underside of the ice dome as I activated the force shield that protected the city.
"Cool." Dad said, sitting down beside me in the second chair. "Want any help?"
"No, I'm good." I said, flashing him a teasing grin. "You got to fly the ship so I get to push the buttons now."
"Fine." Dad said, but he smiled at me anyway.
"How is there still power in here?" Mom asked. "It should have run out years ago!"
I turned to glance at where she was frowning at the ceiling. "The city is powered by five power sources." I said. "Besides, the city has the ability to shut itself down if it doesn't sense any sort of life for a period of time. So it's kind of been asleep for most of the time since the Ancients left."
"Handy." Dad said again.
I grinned and pushed a few more buttons. I frowned slightly as I worked, delicately trying to hook the Ancient's communications system into the same radio frequency used by the SGC. In front of me the gate sprang to life as I dialled the address for Earth. "This is Shannon Carter. Can anyone hear me?" I asked.
"Dr. Carter?" came the General's surprised voice. "What's going on?"
"We found the lost city of Atlantis, sir." I said. "Permission to activate the defences?"
"Permission granted with great relief, Dr. Carter." The General replied. "How long will it take for you to get them online? Anubis' fleet is almost here. We've got half an hour at most."
"We'll be ready by then." I said. "Carter out."
The stargate shut with its familiar sound and I got ready to wake up the city again. "How did you do that?" my mother asked. "And for that matter, how come we've never accidentally gated to Atlantis before now, just like we did with the second stargate?"
"You need a special address to dial Atlantis." I said. "It's different to the one for Earth."
Mom nodded. "Why is that?" she asked. "I mean, if Atlantis was always on Earth, why have a different address?"
I turned to grin at my mother. "Because Atlantis wasn't always on Earth."
"What?" Daniel and Janet said together as they turned around in surprise.
"I, too, am confused." Teal'c added.
I smiled and shot a look at Dad. He knew what I meant, even though it just seemed to be dawning on him. "Atlantis is the Ancient's equivalent of a space station." I said bluntly. "The force shield can trap the atmosphere so it can travel through space."
"It travels through space?" my mother echoed.
"Yeah, in theory." I agreed.
"Okay." Mom was obviously going to have to think about that. "So what do we need to do to get this place ready to battle Anubis?"
"I'm trying to power up all the systems, now." I said. "It shouldn't take a few minutes."
"And then?" my mother asked.
"We battle Anubis." Teal'c stated firmly.
"You got it, T." Dad agreed.
"How?" Daniel's quiet voice asked.
Dad shot me a glance, but I shrugged. I didn't know exactly how either, but I knew I would know as soon as I saw it. If that made any sense. "You'll see." I said instead.
"Systems powered up." I said after a long moment of silence.
"Take her out." Dad said.
"With great pleasure." I grinned, before pressing a large button in the panel.
At my touch, part of the control panel slid away to reveal what looked like a ball on a stick. I put my hands on it and focused my mind towards my purpose, making it easier for the city to pick up what I wanted it to do. With a loud groan, it slowly began to shake, as engines that hadn't been used in thousands of years started up.
Slowly we began to press upwards on the ice above us and I hoped the engines had enough power to break through – because if they didn't, we were in serious trouble. But I shouldn't have worried. After straining for a minute, the ice above us began to crack and break away.
Chunks of ice soon began to break away and fall, making the force shield glow blue with each impact. I gritted my teeth and sunk deeper into my mind, focusing all of my energy into willing the city to break free. Beside me, I felt more than saw my father tap a few buttons and help me steer this thing.
The cracking in the ice grew louder and wider as we pressed upwards, before suddenly it shattered all around us. With a sudden jolt, the city sprang upwards through the hole we had just made and burst onto the surface of Antarctica. I barely managed to slow the engines down in time to stop us flying all the way into orbit.
I let out a long, slow breath, trying to calm my nerves. "Man," I said, slumping backwards into my chair. "That was harder than I thought."
"No time for that now, Shan." Dad said, looking upwards towards the sky above. "Anubis is already here."
"Shit." I muttered.
I shot my father a look. "Danny, take the controls." He snapped, leaping out of the chair at the same moment I did.
"Me?" Daniel asked, somewhat bewildered.
"You possess the gene needed to operate Ancient technology." I explained. "No time to explain how we know. Just open your mind and focus on what you want to happen and it will happen."
Daniel looked shocked and surprised, but nodded. "Alright." He said, and sat down at the controls.
"Doc, stay with him." Dad said.
Almost as soon as Dad had finished, he was off, running down the corridors. I shot him a glance before taking off in the opposite direction. "Mom, stay with Dad!" I called as I left.
I didn't bother to wait to see if she would or not, but pushed myself harder, sprinting as fast as I could down corridor after corridor. No matter what I had thought before know, I had always believed we would have more time. I hoped that Anubis would take a moment to spot us – because we would need it.
Vaguely I heard footsteps echoing behind me and thought one of the others must be following me. But I paid them little attention. Right now I had to get to the south tower. And fast.
"Ah, guys?" Daniel's voice echoed through our radios. "Anubis has spotted us. We have a squadron of gliders coming straight for us."
"Copy that." I snapped into the radio as I ran.
I heard my mom also confirm she had heard the news before my dad's voice broke through. "Hey, Danny, you do realise the ship has a comm. system, don't you?" he asked, sounding slightly out of breath.
"Thanks, Jack," Daniel snapped, a slight trace of fear in his tone. "But know might not be the right time to play with alien technology."
"Actually, Daniel, now is the perfect time." Jack replied. "See if you can't raise the shields!"
At that moment I burst into the room I had been seeking. It seemed rather plain compared to all the other rooms we had seen, as the floor and walls were simply made from the same alloy as the outside walls and there was none of the usual decoration. It didn't matter, as the room only served one purpose – it was one of four defensive outpost located around Atlantis.
I ran to the reclining chair in the centre of the room and sat down. Swinging my legs up off the floor, I barely spared a second to get comfortable before I placed my hands on the arms and shut my eyes.
"I'm in." I said as images and numbers began to swirl in front of my shut eyes.
My words echoed around the ship as I unconsciously used the ship-wide comm. system. Within seconds I had linked my mind with the city's defence system and the images and numbers stopped their chaotic tumble through my mind.
"So am I." Dad said, also via the city's comm. system.
"Then let's do this." I said, bringing to mind the image of the glider squadron heading straight for Atlantis.
"How's the shield coming, Danny?" Dad asked.
"It's up…now." Daniel said.
I said nothing as I focused my attention on the coming gliders. As soon as they got in range I sent a thought straight to Dad. Now. Acting simultaneously, we both ordered Atlantis' weapons to open fire.