So I got the next chapter done much earlier then I thought I would… so I might as well just post it… I got to watch splashdown yesterday and yes I did notice slight things I got wrong… but too bad, this was already written and I was going mostly on memory… so just ignore the inconsistencies… grin
This chapter doesn't have the movin and shakin as the last ones, mostly explaining to each other what happened… but there are battles a comin… just stay with me… and as always… if you like… let me know
…oooOOOooo…
Lucas and Dagwood ran into the water as soon as the shuttle surfaced. Darwin had seen the Shuttle and followed it back to shore. He didn't leave the Catptain's side as Nathan waded a shore, going as far as he dared so as not to beach himself. "Hey there bud, how you doing, whole new ocean to explore huh?" Nathan gave him an 'okay' sign and sent him back out to open waters, he flew though the air many times in celebration. Both sides had gotten so used to the Vocorder, that not being able to fully communicate the joy off seeing each other again was difficult. Once on the beach, Bridger stood there for a few moments, taking in the sad sight of his broken ship. Lucas came up next to him. "It's amazing as many people survived as they did." He said quietly.
"Not enough people though… We lost good people… Including Wendy, Lucas."
"Dr. Smith's dead…" Lucas looked in disbelief at the Captain.
"A Stormer got her, there was nothing we could do." He looked back to the ship. "I don't know if they'll let me build another one."
"Sure they will, she's the SeaQuest."
"I couldn't even keep her in one piece for a year."
"It's not your fault."
"I know… but she's still my ship."
"At least your alive to build another one." They stood there in silence for a bit longer before Commander Ford called for them, the jumper was ready, everyone was on board, they were heading for Atlantis.
…oooOOOooo…
"Colonel Sheppard, I see you've brought me back even more patients."
"Merry Christmas Doc."
"It's the middle of October."
"Merry early Halloween then. They've been sitting in a broken tin can on the bottom of the ocean and sitting in freezing water for well over a day. They're a bit wet." Sheppard said smartly
"I see that, Colonel, thank you."
"Dr. Beckett," Captain Bridger stood next to Sheppard.
"Captain Bridger?"
"In person."
"Your crew's been askin' for ya. They're all tucked away safe in the infirmary."
"They're doing well then."
"Aye, how about yourself?"
"Could use a shower and warm dry clothes, but otherwise…"
"Don't worry Captain, each and every one of you will be following me down to my infirmary and staying for a bit, don't want any pneumonia on my watch . You can catch up with your crew then."
"I'm more worried for Mr. Piccolo, he's was trapped in a flooded compartment for the whole time we were down there."
"Excuse me, trapped underwater, and he's alive?"
"He has gills, but I can imagine even having gills, that amount of time underwater would take it's toll."
Brody and Ortiz brought Tony off the jumper between them. Carson was dumbfounded "Did you say gills?"
…oooOOOooo…
"Captain Bridger."
"Dr. Weir I assume." Bridger sat up a bit in his infirmary bed, hooked up to monitors and an IV. "I want to thank you for rescuing my people. I thought our goose was cooked back there."
"Well it's not often we find anyone else from Earth out here."
"By the way, where is out here exactly?"
"You're on Atlantis, it's a city the Ancients left behind when they left for Earth, You are currently in the Pegasus Galaxy." She grinned.
"Well that's quite a statement, I was under the assumption that Atlantis sank in the middle of the Atlantic and… the Pegasus Galaxy. How in the world did you travel to another galaxy.
"We use a device called a StarGate. It allows us to travel from planet to planet via a wormhole. As you can imagine it took quite a bit of power to get us here from Earth. Currently we are able to open a wormhole to Earth periodically, we recently got a ZPM. We also have a ship, the Deadalus traveling between the galaxies."
"So we do have a way to get home?"
"Don't know about your ship, but your crew certainly."
"How come on one on Earth knew about these StarGates?"
"A few governments knew, but knowledge of them has been kept it from the general public for fear of panic. The StarGate project has been in full swing for almost ten years in the US.
"So I guess we're stuck here with you, huh."
"We have some of the smartest people from Earth on Atlantis. If anyone can think of a way, they can. I'll talk to Dr. Beckett and see if we can't spring you guys out of this place." She looked down the line at this rest of his people. Most of which were asleep, or being visited from shipmates.
The Captain chuckled, "I don't know if he can stand to have me out of his sight. I only have to cough the guy's right here poking and prodding."
"He does have eyes all over doesn't he? I heard he threatened to strap you too your bed if you didn't stop getting up to check on your crew."
"He's quite stubborn." Bridger said matter-o-factly
Weir grinned, "Once you're free of his grasp we can get our crews together and go over both of our stories, get everything straightened out."
"Good idea."
…oooOOOooo…
"Captain Bridger?"
"Nice to see you awake Lieutenant."
"You're alive," Tim said weakly and almost surprised.
"No one told you?"
"That's because he just woke up Captain," Dr. Beckett walked up. "And how exactly did you sneak back into my infirmary and start pestering my patients?"
"Though a very cunning use of stealth and making sure your back was turned… How is he?
"Recovering from a nasty concussion, broken bones, bumps and bruises, but I'm very happy to see Lt. O'Neill awake again, quite a good sign."
"He's a tough kid."
"That he is."
"You know… I'm right here," Tim waved his had in front of them.
"Well hurry up and heal up, there's a whole city for you to study, you and Ortiz be in seventh heaven. You've finally found Atlantis."
"So I heard."
The Captain chuckled, "Rest up," he patted Tim's good knee.
"Yes Sir," He have a lazy salute.
Bridger turned back to Carson, "How much longer 'till he's up and about?"
"The swelling's gone down, his leg's healing nicely. If his MRI comes back normal then he might be up for crutches tomorrow. As long as he checks in regularly." He looked at Tim carefully."
"No offence but if it means getting out of here, you just tell me when and I'll be…here… I'm going batty staring at this ceiling."
"You only just woke up." Bridger laughed.
"And I'm already sick of it."
"Aye, I get that a lot, I think I should paint the walls or somethin'." Carson looked around.
"At least the ceiling, or show some movies or something."
"Well let's not go too far, this isn't a hotel or anythin'."
…oooOOOooo…
Later that afternoon, both senior crews had gathered in Atlantis' conference room. Carson had even let Tim out early just so he wouldn't have to hear him beg anymore about being the only one missing. "…In our travels though the 'Gate, we've discovered the existence of a race called the Ancients," Dr. Weir continued. "They are the ones who created the StarGates. We also found out they are the first evolution of the human race."
"First evolution?" Commander Ford asked.
McKay answered, "They were sort of super-smart-humans, they kinda seeded Earth, we wouldn't be here without them."
Elizabeth continued, "A species, here in the Pegasus Galaxy, called the Wraith defeated the Ancients, they returned to Earth, leaving this city in hibernation behind them… and here we are."
"Completing the circle." Lucas said in awe.
"In a manner of speaking… yeah I guess so." Mckay said.
"My question is what is the UEO, I've never heard of it," Weir asked.
"How long have you been here?" Brody asked in disbelief.
"Just over a year."
"Then how do you not know about the United Earth Oceans Origination?" Brody continued.
"Is that sorta like NATO? Lt. Ford asked.
"NATO?... I guess," Bridger said. "It was formed in 2009 when…"
"Whoa," Sheppard interrupted, waving his hand. "2009, I don't think so."
"Excuse me?"
"I don't know if you've look at your calendar lately, but it's only 2005."
"Um… last time I checked it was 2019," Lucas quipped back.
"Okay… we have a problem," Zelenka pushed his glasses up his nose.
Weir placed her hands on the table, "Why don't we start at the beginning," she turned to the Captain. "How exactly did you get here?"
"We received a message about a week ago from what we thought was an old friend of mine, asking us to head to Christmas Tree Trench. In reality, what we didn't know at the time, is that it was really a KraTak fooling us. They kidnapped us, dragged us though… hyperspace or something… only for a short time mind you, never in a million years did I think we had gone far enough to be in another galaxy. The Hyperions, who we thought had brought us here, tried convincing us to fight with them against the KraTaks who were wiping them out after they flooded the planet. Needless to say we were wrong, we were about to help the KraTaks wipe out the Hyperions. We snuck back on the Hyperion Mothership, their only ship with interstellar capabilities. We got trapped, the KraTaks attacked the SeaQuest and we ended up blowing the ship while we were still on it."
"Well sometime during that hyperspace trip you must have somehow gone back in time also," McKay broke in.
"But that's impossible," Tim mentioned.
"Mmm… not so much." Sheppard leaned back in his chair, smirking.
"You said you were in hyperspace for only a few minutes?" Radek asked
"Not even," Lucas responded.
"In order to travel that distance in that amount of time you have to have been traveling roughly the same speed as a wormhole."
"Is that even possible?"
"I didn't think so, but during your trip you must have come very close to a sun during a solar flare." McKay said
Weir remembered the SG-1 mission Rodney was thinking of from when he went over their records before the Atlantis project. "But they weren't traveling in a wormhole."
"They may have been, who's to say the Ancients were the only ones to master wormhole technology. These… KraTaks maybe have figured out a way to create wormholes independent of StarGates and integrate those capabilities into their ships."
"It's hard to believe they had that level of technology," Ortiz said.
"The Gua'uld didn't invent most of their technology, we didn't event the StarGates. They may have stolen it from someone else." McKay said.
"Well, no matter how they got it, as far as I know their only system for it was on that ship when it blew. So it should be gone." Bridger said.
"Wait a minute, if we're from 14 years in the future, why didn't we ever know about this Star… Gate… program… thing?" Tony spoke up.
Weir shrugged, "I guess the program never went public."
"I wonder if it's still running." He said almost to himself.
"Well, we won't know now will we." Ortiz said back.
"Now, not so fast guys, Dr. McKay, is there anyway to send us back to our own time?" Bridger asked.
"Theoretically, yes. In practice, it may be a bit harder."
"Okay."
Rodney sighted, "In theory, if we send you though a wormhole, though a flare, on the opposite side of the sun you first went though, it would reverse the time affects."
"And in reality?"
"We can't predict flares, number one. And second, I don't know how their wormhole tech works. It could be functioning on a different level, if it transports faster or slower the time span you travel could be radically different."
"So how can we take this from probably not working to actually working?" Sheppard asked.
"The only way, is if we could predict flares, find the path they took though space, find the sun that affected them and use the KraTak wormhole tech." Zelenka said
"Oh is that all? Sheppard said sarcasticly.
"Which we just destroyed." Bridger said.
"Which you just destroyed, yes," McKay responded.
"Is there anyway you can salvage it?" Weir asked.
"Depends on how well they destroyed the ship." Zelenka said
"We blew it pretty well," Brody said almost in pride.
"There's gotta be some information and tech still intact," McKay said.
"There's no way you'll be able to find anything working left on that ship," Lucas warned.
"Hold up Lucas, they know much more about these wormholes then we do at this point," Lucas rolled his eyes, "There very well could be stuff left intact down there. I mean we survived didn't we."
"It's still underwater."
"They brought the SeaQuest up."
"You know, it would make it a bit easier to work on, you know… if it wasn't flooded and all." McKay pointed out.
"Okay, Colonel, I want you to bring the mothership up, make sure it's empty of any KraTaks, and we'll go from there." Dr. Weir stood up.
"Yes, ma'am. Ah… This is the last thing we have to move via jumper right, I don't know how much more of this they can take."
"Let's hope so."
As McKay and Zelenka left, Lucas ran to catch up, "Dr. McKay, I have some questions for you."
"Some?" Brody laughed.
Dagwood walked with Tim out the door, "Are we going to leave Darwin on the other planet, they have lots of water here too."
Captain Bridger walked over to Dr. Weir, "I just wanted to thank you again."
"We're both stranded out here alone Captain."
"Not alone anymore."
…oooOOOooo…
awww… they're one big Earthling happy family… so now we have everyone… but now they need to get back home… dun dun dun… have a happy new year everyone… I'll update when I get back home again…