Chapter Seventeen

"I can't believe how many things you planted. We haven't even cleared the rows of berries and there are already over three hundred basket's full." Rodney said, sounding amazed and tired as he came over to me and set down his full basket of blueberries.

"I didn't want to go without my favorite food's from Earth and since there was a chance that we would never go back I made sure to bring everything I could." I replied with a smile and shrug before deciding now was the perfect time to tell Rodney what I had just learned.

"I just discovered that there are motorized carts three buildings over that the Ancients used to transport food from the Greenhouse to the entire city. You should get some people from Earth to go over there and drive them to the Greenhouse." I said as we both grabbed a small handful of blueberries from the baskets to snack on.

"These carts, do you need the Ancient gene to power them?" Rodney asked.

"Mmmm...No. All they take is the push of a button, knowledge of steering and pushing pedals from what I can tell they look a lot like golf carts on Earth only much bigger and sturdier with a large backend where they would put the baskets." I replied looking over the mental image I was being shown.

"Okay good. In that case I'll get some of the others and head over there now while you stay and help harvest everything...that is if you want to stay and harvest everything obviously you don't have to but I'm sure you know that-" Rodney said starting to ramble probably due to the raised eyebrow I was giving him. Not wanting him to panic I interrupted him,

"Actually it would probably be better if we both go since I know what I'm looking for to make sure they all work then you can teach the others how to drive them while I head back to the laboratory, I should start working on the formula's right away." I said eager to began my work as I knew the Wraith would be upon us soon...

"I wonder which route the Wraith are taking to get here? If I knew that I might be able to string a few surprises in their path..." I thought my mind pulling together various information on the space defenses that the Atlantians had created and used during the war.

"Randy?" Rodney's voice broke through my thoughts causing me to blink and look over at him.

"Yes?" I asked wondering what he wanted and why he was giving me a curious look.

"You kind of blanked out on me there for a minute. I have some of the guys from Earth coming over to help drive the carts but I don't know where they are." Rodney replied.

"Oh right. Follow me." I said as I began to walk quickly out of the Greenhouse and over to the storage building that the carts were. I heard Rodney walking behind me so I didn't bother to slow down in my rush to look over the carts as quickly as I could so I could get back down to the lab it was only when I reached the building and didn't hear Rodney behind me that I glanced back.

I was surprised to see Rodney was a good fifty feet behind me and it looked like he had been running at some point to try and catch up with me as his face was flushed and he looked like he was breathing a bit heavily it made me feel kind of bad. Trying to push the feeling aside I turned back to the large metal door of the storage building and pushed the button that was supposed to open the large doors. When the door didn't open I figured it was probably rusted shut due to having been underwater when the shield started failing so I used my telekinesis to jerk it open.

As the large door flew up I was greeted with the sight of four rows of carts each row looking to be at least sixty carts deep. I wanted to groan at the amount of time that it would take to go through and inspect each cart and make sure they worked but knowing Rodney was right behind me motivated me to just get started on the first one immediately. Although I did grumble mentally at the amount of buttons and levers that was inside the cart that had nothing to do with turning it on or steering it.

Since I hadn't read everything about the carts that was available to me, having just wanted to know how to operate them there was quiet a bit that I didn't know. As it turned out the Lanteans just had to go and make the carts tripped out with technology. Some of the technology was useful, I discovered you could program a destination into the cart and it would drive itself to the place and stay there for a set period of time and then return itself to the storage shed unless you changed the final destination.

Also each cart was able to transform into a boat so they could carry things to and from the mainland in auto pilot or with a driver and each cart was also able to fly which made sense if something needed delivered in a hurry. And there was a large holographic map of the city that you could turn on so if you got lost easy or had to go to a certain place you could see where you were and where you needed to go. The rest of the technology was basically useless there was a button that would change the color of the cart, a leaver that would turn the backseats around, a button that would heat up the seats, a button that would open up a hole in the floor directly underneath of the driver and a leaver that would switch the driver controls to the passenger seat. The more I learned about what the various buttons and levers did it became clear to me that over half of it was only put into the carts because the Lanteans were bored and wanted something to do with their technology.

Knowing it would take to long if I made everyone wait until I was done looking over all of the carts I showed Rodney how to operate the first one focusing only on the basics as that was all that was needed and he caught on very quickly so after borrowing the red pen I noticed he had in his pocket I told him that I would leave a red checkmark on the side of each driver seat so he would know which ones were okay to be used, since all the carts were identical and the first one had seats that were made of something that looked and felt like white leather.

Logically I knew that there would be no need to examine all the carts but I felt pressured to at least make sure the entire first row of sixty were in full working order. As I continued down the line I was thankful for the faint noise that the carts made as people arrived to drive them out of the building one after another, something that if done with Earth golf carts would have been both noisy and smelly. I did have to peek up when I heard some kids start to giggle and saw that John was driving one of the carts and it had multiple kids riding it with him.

Grinning as one of the kids pushed the button that changed the color of the cart I took a second to stretch and saw Rodney walking towards me looking a bit unsure of himself, curious as to what he wanted I waited for him to make it down to me as I was on the fourth to last cart I figured waiting a few minutes to talk to one of my soulbonds wasn't going to be the end of the world.

"Hey Randy...I was wondering if you needed.. I mean wanted any help?" Rodney asked sounding a bit hopeful.

I didn't need the help but seeing it as an opportunity to get to know Rodney a bit more I nodded, "Sure an extra pair of hands would be welcome." I told him.

"Oh...ok good good. Umm what would you like me to do?" He asked sounding both happy and a little lost which made me feel bad for him as I realized once again just how weird this must be for him and Ronan for that matter. Two guys getting stuck with one girl and on top of that I wasn't even a normal human girl anymore.

"I'm going to pop open the hood, you should hear it click when it's unlatched just lift it up and use the black rod directly inside and line it up with the hole in the top of the hood it will be propped up that way and you can tell me if you notice anything moving when I push a certain button or lever." I told him.

Conversation was a bit one-sided as I had worked in a mechanic shop for several years when I was younger and he didn't seem to be the type who liked to get their hands dirty but we managed to find a good balance and learn a little more about each other before Rodney was called away by someone and I was left on my own for the last cart which I finished quickly eager to get back to the bio lab only to be stopped short halfway to the main control building by Ronan who was coming to meet me.

"So how were the weapons? Any notes?" I asked as we got closer to each other.

"Some of them are okay, there are a few that don't have a lot of strength behind their fire power making them useless in a long distance fight and there are a few others that need basically all of the technology removed from them. It makes them useless in a real fight as the weapon won't lock on to a target unless you push certain buttons in a certain order and others won't fire if you don't hold them just so." Ronan said as he leaned onto the railing that looked out over the water.

I got a strange feeling that this was the most he had said to anyone in a really long time but he wasn't done there. He continued to talk, telling me the pro's and con's of every single line of weapons of which there had been on my last count, twenty different lines each with at least three variations. He also offered me some suggestions on how to better the weapons and their firepower. He showed me his own weapon, the raw power behind each shot immediately catching my interest and curiosity and we continued to talk until the coolness of the air caught made me shiver a little which made me realize that it was now well into the night and all activity in the Greenhouse and the storage room had stopped leaving the night silent except for our voices.

"Wow. I didn't realize how late it was." Ronan said his voice tinted with surprise.

"Honestly I didn't either, I should probably get back to the lab…" at that moment my stomach gave a semi-loud grumble which told me that I had better get some food in it before I even thought about going back to the laboratory.

"But I think I'll stop by the mess hall first." I said sheepishly patting my stomach as it let out another grumble.

"I should probably get some grub myself." Ronan said and I got the feeling that was his way of saying that he was going to accompany me there. Surprisingly the long walk wasn't uncomfortable although neither one of us spoke and it wasn't until we were actually in the mess hall and I was reaching for a tray and realized my right hand felt cooler that I realized at some point in time Ronan and I had begun to hold hands and I had just let go of his hand to grab a tray.