"Dr. McKay, I am curious about Atlantis's main power system, can you assist me?" Seven asked walking into McKay's lab without knocking.
"Look, I'm a bit busy at the moment!" McKay snapped looking up from some sort of device he was tweaking, he then realized it wasn't an Atlantis crew member, "Oh, Seven, hi…"
"Hello," she replied, "can you assist me?"
"Uh…" began McKay as Dr. Zelenka walked into the lab.
"I may have discovered a way to send back…"he began but was cut off by McKay.
"Randy," he said smiling wrapping his arm around Zelenka's shoulder.
"Radek," Dr. Zelenka corrected.
"Yeah, sure, whatever, could you assist Seven in finding a way to power up Atlantis? Great, off you go," McKay said rapidly leading Zelenka and Seven out of his office, "you two have a great time," he called pushing them out of his lab and into the hallway.
Seven looked at Dr. Zelenka who looked as though he was trying to process what had just happened, "I have some inquiries about your power systems…"
"Way too close," Rodney mumbled getting back to his work, so far, he'd tried to find a way that Voyager could have been bumped into the future or alternate reality, but nothing came to mind, he sat down back at his desk, only a day left…
"This is not good," B'Elanna remarked as Major Sheppard watched her, Dr. Weir had given him orders to keep an eye on all of their guests.
"What is it?" John asked.
"Well, I may have found a way to get your city running on full power, but it would be for a limited amount of time, and it would take me at least two days to configure it properly," she grumbled in frustration.
"Do it," John replied, "it's the closest we're going to get."
B'Elanna rolled her eyes and looked at Capt. Janeway.
"You heard the man," she replied and B'Elanna began tinkering with some more of the machinery.
"So, what can we expect from these Borg?" John asked Capt. Janeway, "how do they…uh…assimilate you?"
"Nanoprobes," Janeway replied, "they inject them into your blood stream."
"So they immediately get the memories and knowledge of the person they've assimilated?" John asked as he heard Seven enter with Zelenka.
Janeway nodded.
"Lt Torres, what are you doing?" Seven asked as B'Elanna looked up from her work.
"Look, Capt Janeway told me to try and get this place running, so I'm trying to get this place running, you got a problem?"
"In fact I do," Seven replied as she began nattering in monotone about something that was making B'Elanna turn red with rage.
"WE HAVEN'T GOT THAT LONG!" B'Elanna snapped.
"Seven, B'Elanna, stop acting like little children" Capt Janeway ordered, "there are many people's lives at stake here."
"Now this is a switch, but is there a mess hall around here?" Tom asked as his stomach grumbled.
B'Elanna craned her neck, they'd spent the night on Atlantis and the beds weren't the same as the ones on Voyager, "Yah, I'm starving."
"Well our foods aren't as…exotic as some of yours, but we have a place to eat, Zelenka, you're in charge here," John said then left with Tom and B'Elanna following him.
"In charge?" Zelenka exclaimed, "But…"
"We'll be fine," Capt Janeway insisted, "I think he just wants someone from Atlantis to be in the room all the time."
Zelenka nodded, he'd been trying to tell McKay that he might have found a way that Voyager had gotten to Atlantis, but he'd been shoved out of the way too soon, and now he couldn't even tell him until Sheppard got back, because he knew John could have a very nasty temper if you disobeyed what could barely even be called an order…
"Stargate?" Janeway mumbled, that was the name of the strange wormhole device that had brought them to Atlantis, she'd never been through one before, but the name sounded strangely familiar, it had been bothering her for a while now, "What year was the first Stargate built?"
Zelenka looked at her his brow furrowed, "We're not exactly sure, but the first one was re-discovered in 1928, they were put into commission around 1997 with the Stargate program, why?"
Then it hit her, like an icy snowball, where she had heard the name before, it was in all the history classes in all the schools, something that you hear about then forget.
"The first reported Borg was rumored to have been reported around 2006," Capt. Janeway said, "it was sent through a data stream to Earth from another planet, but it was ignored until a few hundred years later when they became a real threat."
"That is impossible," Seven said, "in that time in Earth's history they were not technologically advanced enough to even be on another planet, much less transmit a message from one."
Dr. Zelenka looked back and forth between the two women, "What are you talking about?"
"That's where you're wrong Seven, you see it's been discovered in the past 200 years that before Starfleet, there was a secret Air Force program, called the Stargate Program, after the program was revealed, the gate was destroyed."
"And what of Atlantis?" Seven asked.
"The city of the Ancients," Capt Janeway replied wearily, she couldn't believe this was happening, "that's what it's called in the history books, it was fine, the city itself was rumoured to have locked itself down, most people escaped but the few that remained…"
Zelenka listened with interest, both women seem to have forgotten he was there, "Did anyone live?"
Capt Janeway stopped, "Seven, we have to get out of here…NOW!"
Seven tilted her head as if to ask "Why?"
"We've messed up the past enough," Capt Janeway said, "we don't need to stay and mess it up even more."
Rodney shifted uncomfortably, the readings he was getting were…odd to say the least.
"Maybe this is what Zelenka tried to tell me," he muttered punching buttons.
"Dr. McKay, what are you doing?" Grodin asked.
"The planet we were on, the readings we brought back, they suggest…I don't know, but they must have something to do with the fact I'm talking to people who could be300 years older than me," McKay replied clearly frazzled, "I need to talk to Elizabeth…"
