Thanks as always for the reviews. They're much appreciated. And for anyone wondering, the relevance of the Teaser should become clearer in this chapter.

TheNaggingCube – Glad to hear you like Roberts. I figured the expedition needed another Brit or two. g>

Jules47 – 'Atlantis in deep trouble'. LOL

Chapter 6

"In a little under twenty hours, Atlantis returns to the deep."

Sheppard's announcement was met with stunned silence. For long seconds the only sound to be heard was the gentle rush of waves breaking against the outside of the city as people looked from one to another in shock.

"We'll have to evacuate!" blurted Kavanagh. Some of the scientists sat nearby nodded their agreement. "Since we've no way of using the Chair to regain control over the City, it's the only logical course of action open to us," he went on, warming to his topic, looking around the room as if daring anyone to disagree, his eyes lingering warily on McKay and Sheppard. General muttering arose from all around the room as people started debating the pros and cons of Kavanagh's plan with their neighbours.

After a few seconds, Weir called for order and a reluctant silence settled once more. "Anyone else got anything constructive to say?" she asked, opening the floor for comments, but looking in particular at McKay and Zelenka who for their part seemed to be ignoring her entirely. They were sat alongside each other, sharing a laptop, both working at whatever was set up on it. The faces on the group able to look over their shoulders reflected equal parts interest and bemusement.

Before she could ask what they were doing, another voice cut in. "With all due respect to Doctor Kavanagh, I would like to suggest that there might be an alternative to evacuation." Leila Meidani looked at Kavanagh over the lid of an open laptop and then to Weir. "Contrary to expectation, there has been little to no call for a linguist during our meetings with the inhabitants of the Pegasus Galaxy." The Iranian's voice slipped into a lecturing tone. "It is such an extreme statistical improbability that all people should have evolved a language so similar to English that we can only theorise that the ability of people from so many worlds to communicate with each other must be a corollary of Stargate travel itself." She paused, noted the growing impatience on Weir's face and added hurriedly, "which is interesting but not immediately relevant."

"The point I am trying to make," she continued after a slight pause, "is that since the expected role of a linguist has proven unnecessary, I have been working with Doctors Baines and Grodin on putting together an automatic translation matrix for Ancient, something more comprehensive than the current system. As yet it's far from completed, but in working on it I have needed considerable written and spoken sample material of the Ancient language. For this I have been using some of the records from Atlantis' historical archive. In some of the earliest entries I have been accessing, there has been occasional mention of a Control Chair." She stopped and looked at Weir then around the room at the others watching her, slightly surprised as if expecting a more interested response to her statement. Then, as if realising her point had not been completely understood, she went on speaking by way of clarification: "Another Control Chair."

Sudden discussion swelled around the room at the revelation. "And you hadn't decided to tell me about this earlier why exactly?" spat McKay in undisguised irritation as if the omission was a personal insult, his harsh, sarcastic tone cutting effortless through the noise. Weir might have been silent, but her own expression mirrored McKay's words.

"Until now, I did not think the information had any relevance," Meidani said with a contrite grimace. "My understanding was that the Chair we have cannot be used, so a second one was nothing more than a curiosity which was why I did not think it worth mention," she went on, offering an apologetic shrug as she did.

While she was speaking, Grodin reached over, pulled the laptop she had been using in front of him, started bringing up other windows displaying maps and schematics and started typing. McKay and Zelenka got up from their seats and joined him, speaking amongst themselves so quietly even those near them struggled to overhear. Wordlessly Meidani left her seat and just got out of their way.

After a few minutes the trio's whispered debate stilled and they looked up to find every eye in the conference room on them. "I think we have something here, Elizabeth," said McKay. "The data is somewhat limited, but it's looking like this other Chair appears to have a significantly lower power requirement to reach its activation threshold, perhaps low enough that one of our Naquada generators would be sufficient, but we'll need to run some power consumption equations to be sure."

Weir nodded but said nothing. Years of experience around the negotiating table had made her a fair judge of people, and she knew the trio from her scientific team needed no encouragement to find a solution. "Gentlemen," she began, waiting for a moment to be sure she had their attention, "I want a progress report in two hours." McKay did not even look up from his work, merely waved a hand in acknowledgement. "Meanwhile, we've got to plan for the worst case scenario," continued Weir. "Major Sheppard, Teyla, Sergeant Bates, I want you to come up with an evacuation plan should it become necessary for us to leave. Major Sheppard, arrange with Doctor Zelenka to get the alien power generator moved to the Control Room and mounted on a cart so we're in a position to get rid of it as soon as the Gate controls can be accessed. If anyone comes up with any ideas in the meantime, see me immediately, but otherwise just carry on with the repairs. Thank you everyone."

o0o

Five minutes later than the two hours she had specified McKay, Zelenka and Grodin pushed their way past the repair teams into Weir's office to find Sheppard finishing up briefing her on the evacuation plan. He made to leave, but Weir waved him to stay and he slouched in a chair to listen to McKay's report.

"This is what we've got," said McKay, flipping open a laptop and orienting it towards her. A series of complex equations filled the screen. "These relate to the power requirement for the Antarctica Chair. Based on the information we've gathered from the old records, these functions," he hi-lighted parts of the equations as he spoke, "have no equivalent in the secondary Chair referred to in the archive, so if we dispense with them, the power requirement is… so." The hi-lighted functions disappeared and a new equation appeared below. The three scientists stood around looking distinctly pleased with themselves.

Weir studied the equation, recognising only a few of the mathematical symbols alongside the Greek and Cyrillic letters, but having little idea of what they might represent. "Your conclusions?" she prompted.

McKay looked at her, a slight frown on his face as if surprised that not everyone could appreciate the elegance of what they had derived. "Based on this, if we can get a Naquada generator to produce a stable output of at least 108, which is doable for a short time, if not too advisable, I believe it may be possible to activate the secondary Chair and possibly bring it up to a sufficient operating level to access the City's security protocols."

"Have you checked if we can we reach one of the Naquada generators," said Weir, "and more importantly, do you have an exact location for this Chair yet?"

"We're in luck when it comes to the generator," Grodin said. "The nearest generator is separated from us by only one bulkhead. I've spoken to Captain Roberts and he's already got people working on cutting through it. He estimates he will be through in less than an hour. As for the location of the Chair…" He leaned over to the laptop and brought up a 3-D representation of the City. With the mouse pointer he indicated a point deep below the central hub of the City. "Here," he indicated. "This is partly conjectural; the architectural plans we'd pulled from the database a few weeks ago had the lower levels of the City only roughly blocked in. What we are sure about is that it's one of the oldest parts of the City, though we're not entirely certain how old. The section of archived material that Doctor Meidani found the references in we've been using dates back more than twenty thousand years, and she hasn't found any references to that part of the City more recent than eighteen thousand years ago, which means we've no way of being sure what condition things are in down there. And so far as I can recall, those sub-levels don't feature on the internal monitoring system."

Moving from where he had been sitting so as to get a better view of the laptop's screen, Sheppard studied it for a few moments and looked over at the others. "So if I understand this right, the plan is I go down to a part of the City we haven't explored yet, and which we've discovered we don't have reliable maps for, and while down there all I have to do is find a Control Chair which may or may not be there, and which may or may not work even if it is there, and use it to cancel the City's security alert?"

McKay, Grodin and Zelenka exchanged glances. The idea had sounded so much better when they had been discussing it back in the laboratory. His enthusiasm only marginally dampened by the Major's sarcasm, McKay turned to him. "yes, that would be the plan."

"Oh wonderful," the Major grimaced. "So we've nothing to worry about. After all, we have a plan, don't we… What could possibly go wrong?"

Wisely no one answered.

"What's the current situation with regard to the evacuation?" Grodin asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"At the moment we're going to have to be prepared to start evacuating non-essential personnel and equipment to the Alpha site," Weir stated. "Major Sheppard and his team have managed to find an access conduit to the Jumper bay and establish that the on board DHDs are still functioning. Captain Roberts estimates that it will take between two and three hours to get through the hangar bay door to allow a Jumper to get close enough to the Gate to dial it. Once we can get the Gate activated, we can send the alien power generator through to one of the uninhabited worlds we've come across such as M3S-427. The planet is a virtual desert so the generator should not be a risk to anybody there, now or in the future. Pass the word that I want volunteers for a skeleton crew to remain on Atlantis until an hour before the failsafe kicks in, and for everyone else who will be moving out to the Alpha site to be assembled in the Control Room with all the equipment we can take with us in ten hours. Major Sheppard, as soon as we've got the Naquada generator, I'll be wanting you and someone from the science team to see if you can find and activate this second Chair. Good plan or no, it looks like it's the only plan we've got to regain control over the City."

"Agreed. Rodney and I will be ready to go once the generator's been prepped," said Sheppard and turned to leave.

"What do you mean 'Rodney and I'," argued McKay, hurrying to catch up with the Major's brisk stride as fast as his injured ankle would allow. "Just hold on one moment, Major. Aren't you forgetting I get some input here with this whole 'agreement' issue…? Not wanting to be picky or anything, but I am one half of this mission you've just gone and unilaterally volunteered us for."

Sheppard slowed and looked at him. "What are you telling me, Rodney? You honestly saying you think I should be getting someone else to go on this mission with me? Grodin? Zelenka? Can you tell me you think they, or anyone else here on Atlantis for that matter, would be able to get an abandoned piece of Ancient technology up and running anywhere near as well as you could?"

"Of course not," he said as if it were a fundamental universal law so obvious it hardly rated comment, then went on, "but it would have been nice to have been asked first."

A crooked smile crept over Sheppard's face. "Doctor McKay, can I interest you in a risky, possibly futile attempt to find the right doohickey to turn off Son-Of-Hal here and save the City?"

"You know, Major, when you think about it, that's a fairly inappropriate reference, and besides, I'm not sure a Control Chair can reasonably be described as a 'doohickey'…"

"Rodney..."

"If you think about it, aren't doohickies generally considered to be small?"

"Rodney…" Sheppard repeated more insistently.

"What?" McKay paused. "Oh yes, the whole saving-the-City thing. Comes down to me again, naturally. Because as you correctly point out, I am the best man for the job."

"Yes, Rodney," the Major agreed calmly. "Of course, Rodney. Whatever you say, Rodney."

"Hey!"

Back in her office Weir could hear them still bickering as their voices faded from earshot; her two best problem solvers, gleefully sniping at each other like contrary teenagers. She allowed herself a small smile. Everyone in the room had known McKay would go despite his protests: complaints notwithstanding, the Canadian had always come through for them.

A little over an hour later Weir watched them leave. Equipped as if for an offworld mission, and carrying tools and the Naquada generator, Sheppard and McKay headed off for the stairs that were their only way down into the depths of Atlantis.

"Be safe!" she whispered.

o0o