Title: Atlantis

Author: Tonia Barone

Rating: Teen

Spoilers: Underground, Before I Sleep, Defiant One, The Siege, Trinity

Disclaimer: SO not mine. pouts over this fact

Notes: Thanks to jakisbishlygay for the beta. rolls eyes A VERY BIG thank you because there were parts of this I either read wrong in the summary or remembered wrong or something and she caught the huge continuity error it provided. So thank you muchly, jakisbishlygay.

Summary: I really wish I could feed my Children. If I could, then they would not run into such problems as psychotic natives hellbent on destroying the Wraith, my Children and themselves.

She watches the Children worry over their food supply and wishes she could show them to the stores of seeds, starters and the special growth formula that would have them ready within weeks, not months. With a population the size she was created to hold, have they not wondered at the small number of hydroponics bays she holds?

There is also some food stored in stasis chambers in the as-of-yet unexplored halls. Her ever-curious Child, the one who created the time device, had made certain enough food was left behind for the Old One. The stasis chamber couldn't sustain her alone and during the brief times she awoke, she would need to eat. The Time Child over-estimated the amount she would need to sustain her, so there is much left.

If only she had the power to show them, but if she created a message for them such as she had done for the Engineer, they would likely debate it and pour over the probabilities of her intelligence for weeks rather than gather the necessary food. And even if they didn't, even if the Engineer spoke up about the message she gave him, her Protector would become insufferable to all those around him. He would pout and whine about not being the one whom she had communicated with first, despite him having 'the gene'. Never mind the fact that she speaks to him every day through that very link. The Engineer doesn't have that Gift or the natural connection the Healer and her Favorite Child has.

The Warrior tells them of a people the Athosians have traded with in times past. That is enough endorsement for the Leader to grant a team to seek trade with them. Her Favorite and his usual three companions leave in a puddle jumper and the Doorway closes. The people are simple, yet there is something about them. The Children are too focused on trade to notice at the moment, but she senses something odd under the village.

She could do nothing but wait once her Children left the puddle jumper. Her Favorite Child and her Protector returned to the puddle jumper after a time, returning to her halls to discuss a trade with the people of the planet, the Genii. They were willing to trade food for medicine and an explosive element her Children used they called 'C-4'. The Leader is very reluctant to agree to such terms, but they need food badly so she agrees.

Back through the Doorway her two Children go and once more she gets an odd sense about the village. Something lurks there that is unsettling, though she cannot say what. She waits while her Favorite Child and her Protector wander off. She wishes she could go with them, watch over and protect them. These two are very dear to her and they seem to have an unfortunate habit of getting into trouble; they are much like younglings in that aspect.

After a worryingly long time, all four Children return to her. Her Favorite Child and her Protector seem to be in especially good spirits. Oh dear, they seem to have found more trouble, for why else would they look so cheerful? She almost wishes she could tag them with a tracking device and be able to teleport them out of the danger that inevitably follows the trouble they find.

They tell the Leader of a plan the Genii have to use nuclear bombs on the sleeping Wraith Hive ships. All that is needed is the C-4 her Children possess. The Leader is set against it; it is far too dangerous a plan and she, Atlantis, agrees. Her Favorite Child and his Second plead their case, however, and the Leader eventually assents.

Thankfully, her Favorite Child is not a complete idiot and has two other puddle jumpers follow his under cloak; it is a task she does gladly. She waits with the two groups of Children in the cloaked puddle jumpers while her Favorite Child and his team follow several Genii through the Doorway to a world where a Wraith Hive ship sleeps. She hopes all goes well, because the Genii amassing below the puddle jumpers are disturbing.

At last her Favorite Child's team returns with the Genii. No, wait, one Genii is missing. A young Genii woman waiting asks what happened then blames the Warrior when they explain that there was nothing to be done. They are then betrayed by the Genii, who want the data source the team found on the Hive ship. At her Favorite Child's word, she gleefully reveals the two puddle jumpers and watches as he takes the data source back from the Genii. He gives the order and they soon make haste through the Doorway and once more all the Children are home.

The Genii, she feels, will not let this go so easily and she hopes her Children are prepared when the time comes. On a more positive note, the data source tells her Children of the sixty or so Hive ships the Wraith have; a much lower number than the time the Ancients resided in her walls. They may have been peaceful by nature, but her former Children created a great many offensive devices. A few of those still remain, she is certain. She knows of at least one of the defense satellites that survived the Great Siege intact, if not functioning. It's final battle ended by mutually crippling blows to it and the Wraith Hive ship it was fighting. The Hive ship, to her knowledge, is still on the planet near the satellite.

There are also the attack drones that remain in their bays below the chair interface she possesses, if only there was power to use them, and Project Arcturus is still intact...

No, she thinks, that is not an option. Her former Children died trying to get that machine to work, yet she knows her Protector by now. If he finds out about it, he will undoubtedly want to make it work. The Ancients worked on it for almost a decade before they finally gave up; before they were forced to give up. Then the Wraith destroyed all life on the planet. Well, what life the machine hadn't already destroyed.

With this in mind, she works to hide all of the files she has on Project Arcturus. She doesn't delete them on the off-chance that the Children find it. If they do find it, they will need the information she has on it. No, she will hide it so that it might never be found by anything other than a direct search looking specifically for it.

Please, she pleads to her former Children, please don't let them find it.