Chapter Eight - The Replicators
The safety of Earth and the increase and addition to our fleet have all been thanks to the Replicators. The Replicators knew and understood everything the Ancients had learned. They weren't the next best thing to having an Ancient, they were better because they were far more capable than their predecessors, and far more patient. They could make calculations faster and more accurately than their makers. They could adapt to their Earth charges who were obviously meant to inherit everything the Ancients had. The Replicators surpassed the Ancients.
As such, they were in great demand throughout Homeworld Command.
Every vessel in the fleet boasted of at least ten Replicators. These Replicators helped with the day to day operations of the vessel while providing special support in times of need. They aided in repairing the ship as well, especially during battle.
They were amiable and were programmed never to harm anyone, human or otherwise. They were programmed to feel joy while helping others. Each was modeled on an actual Ancient who had lived on Atlantis.
They kindly looked over the crew members and their work and offered assistance when they thought the recipient would be open to learning. In fact, many of the crew regularly engaged the Replicators to learn everything they could. The only problem is the crew only understand the most basic of Ancient concepts.
Throughout Homeworld Command itself, Replicators could be found acting as advisers on all sorts of subjects. All the Replicators were connected via subspace and this allowed them to communicate and pool their resources. The President also had a Replicator on his staff to keep him updated on everything going on in the galaxy. This also allowed him to more easily and quickly respond to the problems of the universe and to give orders. The IOA would have one Replicator on their staff, mostly to inform them of the going-on's in the universe.
The Replicators were our direct connection to our own creators and everything they had learned. The Ancients may have seen the Replicators as mistakes but I would say they just didn't see them correctly. Ancient arrogance, perhaps, to believe a machine wouldn't be able to do a task better than them. We had no such arrogance. The Replicators were better at everything than us but we would use this to our advantage.
Rodney Mckay had been at work for months trying to make a working Wormhole Drive. Collaboration with the Replicators is when his work finally began to bear fruit. They jointly made a working prototype. Since the vessel might explode, though, the Replicators decided they would make the maiden voyage. The ship would travel from Earth to Abydos where the USS Avalon would be waiting. The rest of Task Force Astria would be scattered along the prototype's path.
The prototype came out early by a few thousand light years. Its emergency transponder beacon activated the second it exited the wormhole. The USS George Hammond was closest and was sent to rescue its sole Replicator occupant. Before they could even get back to Earth, the Replicator had analyzed all the data and concluded why the drive had failed. They said it was because the drive needed an Intergalactic Hyperdrive to work. It was decided they would reconfigure the systems on the USS Hephaestus to work as a Wormhole Drive.
The USS Hephaestus was chosen because it was the toughest vessel in the fleet. During construction, her hull had been reinforced with naquadah, carbon and trinium. It would be tougher than its predecessors. However, it was the strength of her shield that sealed the deal. Although Atlantis had a stronger shield, no one wanted to lose the ancient city on a test. True that they could now build more city ships, they did not yet have a way to backup all her data.
If this worked it would mean all the Hephaestus-class vessels, Daedalus-class vessels and Atlantis would be able to get anywhere in the universe in minutes. Destiny would never be more than a day or two from help and all the planets in the Milky Way and Pegasus would be under the constant protection of Earth. And Earth would never be far from any vessel in the fleet.
Using the Wormhole Drive required knowing everything about where the ship would come out. It would be far too easy to end up in the center of a sun or too close to a planet, so knowing exactly where to come out was of greatest importance. Right now, any vessel who wished to reach Destiny would first have to come out at the last place Atlantis was and then use the hyperdrive to get the rest of the way. After that, any other vessel would be able to come out at their last location.
In the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies, this wouldn't be a problem especially since they now had, and would have soon, real-time data on everything happening in two galaxies. Every sun, planet and celestial body was being observed and recorded. Any commander would easily be able to pilot their vessel anywhere with ease. Now, almost every vessel in the fleet could reach any world in moments. Once Atlantis returns to its duties in Pegasus, every world would have a swift response to Wraith incursions.
The only possible pilot for such a drive is, of course, the Replicators. No one mortal could ever hope to be able to. The Ancients themselves couldn't; but Replicators are not mortal and are therefore only limited by their creators. But their creators didn't limit them with their own limitations, only limitations meant to safeguard all life and the pursuit of knowledge. They exceeded them in their abilities to manipulate the universe around us.
The Replicators finished the refit in about a week and ran every scenario possible in that time. The vessel would make its first test by taking the same run as the prototype. Task Force Astria would be in place in case the vessel needed help. Everything was ready to go so Colonel Sheppard gave the order to engage the drive. It was a wonder to watch as the vessel seemed to jump inch by inch until the entire vessel was gone. Moments later she came out close to Abydos without any trouble. The test was deemed an absolute success. The refit of the entire fleet would take about three months. At that time, Atlantis would be returning to the Pegasus galaxy.
It would take at least this long if not longer because the entire energy systems on the Daedalus-class vessels had to be overhauled to be able to channel that much power. They would be receiving their third ZPM to be able to power the Wormhole Drive. They would have a back-up console installed as well, but because of its small size only one could be in use at a time. During battle or while using the Wormhole Drive, if all three ZPMs should be depleted, the system would automatically switch over to the backup.
Because of the massive energy requirements, the Hephaestus-class vessels would have a fourth console with three ZPMs integrated into her power systems to provide the energy required. Atlantis would get another console room in its main tower to power their Wormhole drive. Atlantis would have the power from fifteen ZPMs at its control at any one time while the Hephaestus-class vessels would have twelve. These had to be the best powered vessels anywhere, well exceeding the output of most suns. When Atlantis returned to Pegasus she would be taking with her a wing of five Hephaestus-class vessels along with Task Force Atlantis. The USS Daedalus would be staying behind in the Milky Way galaxy.
During the refit, the Hephaestus-class vessels would have an additional five Ancient Drone port launchers installed. As well as five more Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons. Atlantis would have three more Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons installed on each pier to bring her total number to forty-eight. An additional Asgard Neutrino-Ion Generator would be installed on each pier to provide additional power to the Beam Weapons, two per pier. Her drone storage rooms would see ten Ancient Matter Creation Devices installed in each room so that during battle her stores of hundreds of thousands of drones could easily be replenished.
First, however, before the refit of TF Atlantis, they would be sent back to Pegasus to deploy the satellite network. Once that was in place, Atlantis could make a return to frighten even the bravest of Wraith.
The Replicators were more than just simple engineers or teachers, they could also reconfigure the space inside of their 'bodies'. Since all they really needed to maintain the appearance of a human being is the exterior, the interior could house anything. They could even make and house a shield generator powerful enough to shield two people without the use of a ZPM. A 'backpack' of sorts could be fashioned to a Replicator's back to hold a ZPM. Thus powered, they could easily protect a party of ten or fifteen people. They would also be able to create a cloak big enough for a party of ten with a ZPM.
Since they know everything and understand everything the Ancients had written about, they also understood Merlin's research and how his phase technology works. So long as they had physical contact, they could take any person or vessel out of phase with ease. Now anyone on foot, or on Atlantis, could explore the galaxy out of phase. All they needed was some sort of physical connection with the Replicator, whether with physical contact or contact with a vessel. Testing revealed a vessel could travel in hyperspace out of phase. A vessel could not use the Wormhole Drive out of phase though because the shields were needed to maintain the vessel's integrity while in the wormhole.
Because of power requirements, a cloak and a shield can't be used at the same time by the same Replicator. However, working independently, one Replicator could shield while another cloaked that shield and all those in it. Though, with the use of phasing which not only takes us out of phase, but also makes the individual invisible to everyone else, this option would be more overkill than anything.
With their new abilities, and their old ability to change their appearance, they were the perfect spies. With the Supergate still intact, there remained a way to get to the original Alteran galaxy. The USS Hephaestus would get the mission just in case they might need to defend themselves against an Ori Mothership. Colonel Sheppard ordered the Supergate dialed and, out of phase, went to the Alteran home galaxy.
There wasn't anyone around the gate, even though they knew we could dial their gate they didn't seem too worried about us invading their space. Should this make us more optimistic or cautious? They obviously didn't think of us as much of a threat as we did them. It has been almost over a year since the Arc of Truth, maybe they assumed we wouldn't be coming back. But we have to because our origins, however indirectly, start in this galaxy. What we could learn, not only about our past but also about their technological understanding.
Once there, they took scans around the gate so that they could use their Wormhole Drive to get back here. Now that they were through, the gate was no longer necessary. Now they could use their Wormhole Drives to return to Earth whenever they wanted and they could reach the Alteran galaxy from the Milky Way. The location of the Alteran home galaxy was now known to all at Homeworld Command.
A group of fifteen Replicators with their own Puddle Jumpers would gather as much information about these people as possible. The Tinkerer, as the USS Hephaestus was also known, would visit their fifteen most populated planets and drop off a Replicator in their Puddle Jumper out of phase. They would learn their language and customs. Most importantly, they would find out if an alliance was possible. These two peoples shared the same ancestry after all.
In the meantime, they would sneak onto an Ori Mothership to study every inch. I say sneak when really they just walk right on since they'll be out of phase. They would infiltrate the city of Celestis and learn everything there was. They would infiltrate everywhere. It was hoped a friendship could be established. It would after all be beneficial to each race. With the help of the Replicators, they could easily be taught how to make use of the technology left behind. Until then, though, they would go by the motto: trust, but verify.
From now on, the Replicators would act as the fleet's science officers. Aboard all Daedalus-class, Hephaestus-class, Atlantis and Puddle Jumpers, Replicators would protect our fleet with knowledge and give us the upper hand in battle. With their phasing technology, every vessel would be able to venture out into and study the universe in security and safety. Even Destiny would now be able to phase giving them yet another defense against the dangers of the Universe.
Now Destiny was most assured that she would be able to survive any danger. Should she encounter more Command Ships who wish to weaken Destiny by blockading the suns, then Destiny could just phase until she is so far in no drone could survive then phase out and harvest stellar matter. Then before exiting, she could phase again and continue on her merry way. Even out of phase, she would be able to study the universe and the background radiation. The only problem was that the gate couldn't connect to the outside world and no gate could connect with Destiny.
On Destiny, her main Replicator adviser would be Alloron. He lived on Atlantis in the years before she left Earth and spent millennia on her in the Pegasus galaxy. He died millions of years before the Wraith even came into existence. He had made a life of studying Destiny who, by his time, had already been going for several million years. He had hoped to visit her and some of the planets in her path. He never made a plea, though, because the council was soundly focused on the upcoming move to the Pegasus galaxy, which took over a thousand years. Alloron would accompany Lt. Scoot, Msgt Greer and Eli through the gate from now on.
On Atlantis, Ganos Lal would be providing assistance once again. She first designed the systems to teach Lantean children the basic systems on Atlantis. She was the clear choice after she basically gave her life for two galaxies. Her memory would live on in the hope that she might one day win against the Orici, Adria. It was secretly hoped, by some, that by bringing her memory back to life for those under her protection might ultimately give Ganos some power by which she can ensure victory. Until then, the Replicators were put to the task of studying Merlin's research to see if there was a way to direct the pulse or anything that would allow them to imprison Adria. There was little hope, though, since the ascended Ancients now far surpassed the Replicators. And they seemed more than content that Ganos was out of their way.