Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed the first chapter. I can't reply to you all personally, because there seems to be a glitch in the system at the moment.
Disclaimer: I am not a scientist or astrophysicist, so some of my scientific idea's may not be one hundred percent accurate.
Chapter 2: The ancient city.
Shalite Flensing felt the transporter beam envelope her, as the bridge of the phoenix disappeared, and the control room of Atlantis appeared before her. No one had laid eyes on the city for hundreds of years and she was fortunate enough to be part of the final expedition to explore the planet before its red giant sun finally threw of its outer layers of gas and became a white dwarf.
She had studied archaeology when she had finished her secondary education and it was always her dream to be able to visit the ancient city at least once, but this would be her one and only visit, as the astrophysicists at the coalition science academy estimated that the star only had 50 years at maximum left and the planet would be uninhabitable long before that.
She watched as Roget Farmer, her long-time colleague and friend, was deposited by the transporter beam. He was about 60 Louisan years old and was looking older every time she saw him, he was shorter than her, but at 175cm or 5.7inches tall she was one of the tallest of her race, so most of the Louisan people were much shorter than her. His eyes were a brilliant blue, his hair was silver grey and the lines around his eyes and mouth had turned to wrinkles a long time ago. Whatever muscle he'd once had, had turned to fat a long time ago as well.
She stood in awe of her surroundings, the reds and greens of the gate-room were lavish and the grandeur of the central staircase leading the gateroom floor took her breath away. She felt foolish for her admiration of the great city, but then she blamed it on her youth. But then who wouldn't be enamoured by this place, whatever age you were.
Turning around she caught Roget smiling at her with his trademark crooked grin and felt slightly embarrassed by her youthful exuberance, but she was only 27 years old, so what else could anyone expect of her.
Smiling at him fondly, she took his hand and walked over to one of the control desks with him. From where she was standing, she could see the great ring in all of its brilliance, with the eerie red light from the dying sun reflecting off of it and casting long shadows across the gate-room floor. Even though the light was menacing the ring was still an imposing sight.
She was so focused on the sight that was the great ring that she barely heard her colleague talking to her, "I'm sorry Roget, can you repeat that?"
"I said that there appears to be a forcefield protecting the atmosphere, it should be safe to take our breathing masks off in here." He told her as he took it off.
Holding her breath, she looked at her friend to make sure that he was okay without his mask and much to her relief he appeared to be, so she took hers of as well.
There was a red light flashing on one of the control panels in front of her and she had no idea what it meant. This city had been uninhabited for nearly 50,000 years, so why were there systems powered up.
"Do you know what has been powered up?" She asked looking around for anymore flashing lights.
Roget scratched his head, "It appears that someone is drawing power from the sun to power a shield around the atmosphere, but why would someone do that, since there is no-one living here?"
"Unless there is someone in the city and they have come here recently to explore like we have." Shalite suggested.
"But why do that if you were only going to be here for a short period of time? The only thing that I could suggest, would be that someone has been put in stasis and someone is coming to wake them up at some point in the near future." Roget told her, as he was still scanning the consoles.
"What do you suggest Roget?" She asked him. She had always respected his opinion, as he had been her mentor since her first year at university and when she was told that he would be coming on this expedition as well, she couldn't have been happier.
"I suggest we get the Phoenix to transport us to the area where the stasis pods are and then we can see if there is some poor soul trapped down there?"
She caught sight of another flashing light a few metres away and went over to investigate. "There seems to be an active data file integrated into the systems one of the stasis pods."
"Perhaps it is a command to open the stasis pod at some point in the future," he surmised, while scratching his head again. Shalite loved that about him, he always scratched his head when he was thinking about something.
She mimicked her mentor and started scratching her head, "but why would someone do that?"
"Well I suggest we get down there and find out," Roget said earnestly." I will contact the Phoenix and ask them to transport us down there."
She looked at him with her enormous brown eyes, she knew how much he loved her eyes and her wonderment of the world around her. "No, Roget, I would like to walk and enjoy this extraordinary city. I don't believe that the section with the stasis pods is too far away."
It wasn't long before he caved to her request and he agreed to walk, "alright we will walk for a short time, but if it poses too difficult, I will call the phoenix to pick us up and transport us there."
Throwing her arms around him with her youthful zeal, she thanked him, and it wasn't long before they were walking towards the area that the pods were.
Shalite had committed the schematics of the city to memory, so she knew the direction that she needed to take to reach them. There was a spring in her step, as they walked down the corridors of the deserted city. The last thing that she had expected to find when they had entered the city was a living breathing person and although they hadn't had conformation on that as yet, the thought of someone being here excited her. Why were they here and how long had they been here? Were they human, or were they a species that she had never met before? The list of questions could go on and on, but for now she walked on in anticipation of what was to come.
She came upon one of the transporters and for some reason it was working. That was just another mystery that she would have to contemplate, or perhaps that too would be answered when the reached the stasis pod room.
Stepping inside the transporter, she waited for her colleague to join her, he was a little way behind her, but given his age and his short legs that wasn't really surprising. Pressing the area on the display panel that she needed to go, she held her breath hoping that it would work. When the doors opened again in the lower levels of the city, she received the shock of her life when the corridor ahead of her was filled with fine red sand.
They'd had communication devices implanted under their skin along with their subcutaneous transmitters before they had started on the expedition, so It was with a great deal of disappointment that she tapped her arm, "Shalite to the phoenix, can you please transport us to the room containing the stasis pods?"
The transporter beam enveloped her and Roget once again, and the bridge of the phoenix came into view for a split second before she was standing on Atlantis once again. The pods were directly in front of her and right in the centre the most beautiful man she had ever seen was trapped inside.
His hair was pitch black and sticking up all over the place and his ears were sculptured into points at the top. She'd heard ancient fables about beings called elves, who had pointed ears. He was tall, taller than her, he was lean and muscular, just like the elves in fairy tales. She wondered how he had ended up there, because his clothes were all dusty and dirty, she couldn't wait to talk to him. Perhaps she would be able to run her fingers through his hair or touch his ears. I can't do that, I can't even think that, she chastised herself, I'm in a committed relationship with a child on the way. She thought of her husband Tuart, he was every bit as good looking as the man in the stasis pod; well almost.
"Shall we try to revive him?" She asked Roget, not taking her eyes of the enigmatic stranger trapped within the pod.
"I may have to try and deactivate this other power source that seems to be connected to it. I don't think that we can revive him until this other file is shut down."
She continued to stare at the stranger in the pod as Roget, worked his magic on the active data file, this had to be one of the most exciting things she had ever done in her life. This was one of the reasons she had become and archaeologist. She wondered whether this man might be an ancient, that would certainly make her day, being able to talk to a living breathing ancient.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a new voice in the room, "What the hell is going on and who the hell are you?"
Turning to the sound of the voice she was surprised to find a hologram of and old man staring at them.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rodney McKay slowly awoke from his slumber, he had no idea where he was or how long he had been asleep and more to the point who the hell was waking him up. It didn't take him long to remember what had happened though, he was a hologram and he was on Atlantis approximately 48,000 years after the original Rodney McKay had died.
Why had he awoken, was it time for Sheppard to awake? He looked over at the stasis pod that he had put Sheppard in, it was still active and Sheppard was still sleep, so that hadn't happened. He slowly became aware of his surroundings and it was only then that he realised that there were two people staring at him.
"What the hell is going on and who the hell are you?" He asked the closest one.
For a moment he thought it was Teyla, with her chestnut hair and her copper skin tone. Her eyes were brown like Teyla's and she was pregnant, the only difference was that this woman was much taller than his friend. But then he remembered that Teyla had died a long time ago along with her baby. In fact, even he was long dead; he was just a hologram of the man who was Dr Rodney McKay. He suddenly realised that he had no idea how long the original McKay had lived after he had finished creating him.
He turned his attention to the woman staring at him, "well?" He asked again, in Rodney McKay's acerbic tone.
"Ummm…we've come to explore Atlantis, but we found and active file and that led us here where we found this man in stasis and when we tried to get him out you were activated."
Rodney searched the data base and was annoyed when he finally realised what was going on. "He's not supposed to awaken for another 300 years, so you will not be able to awaken him before that. Only I can do that, but it will take me quite a while, so unless you have a perfectly good explanation as to why I should do it. You may leave and deactivate me on the way out."
The man spoke to him next, "My name is Roget Farmer and this is my colleague Shalite Flensing and who are you?"
"I'm a hologram of the late, great Rodney McKay. Now is someone going to tell me what is going on?"
It was Roget who answered him, "Well this planet has already lost most of its atmosphere, and it is only the shield you have running that is stopping us from suffocating. Our astrophysicists predict in less than fifty years, the sun will throw of its outer layers of gas and become a white dwarf.
That wasn't what he had calculated, how could the great Rodney McKay have been wrong, this certainly wasn't a variable that his creator had predicted, "No, no, no that is too soon, we should have at least another 300 years left."
"May I ask who this man is and why have you got him in stasis?" Shalite asked him with curiosity.
"His name is Colonel John Sheppard and as to why he is in stasis, it's complicated. All that I can tell you, is that he needs to stay here for another 300 years at least, or the repercussions could be devastating for the entire galaxy."
"Worse that the great-war?" Shalite asked with confusion.
That was a war that he hadn't heard of in this part of the galaxy, "the great-war?"
Roget was scratching his head when he replied. "The war between the one called Michael and the rest of the galaxy."
Rodney would have kicked himself if he wasn't a hologram, of course Michael was ancient history to them and they certainly wouldn't understand why they needed to go back in time and change history.
"Never mind, "he replied to their query. "Do you have a ship in orbit? I can help you get John out of the stasis pod, but I will need to spend some time doing the calculations to rewrite the program I have written and I'd rather not do it here. Oh, and I'll need a room with holo- emitters to proceed with my work," he explained to them and he certainly hoped that he could reprogram things.
Shalite smiled at him and he couldn't help think of his long dead friend again, "I can do one better; we have incredible holographic technology these days, so I will give you a mobile emitter"
Wow, just like in Star Trek, he thought before thanking her.
He stood and watched as Roget examined the pod and it was clear that he was trying to work out whether he would be able to transport the pod to his ship, Rodney certainly hoped so, because there was no way he wanted to stay here any longer than he had to. He could probably figure it out himself, but the original Rodney McKay hadn't programmed him for that variable, so he may not be able too, whether he wanted to help or not.
"We should be able to do this without to much trouble." Roget told him with a smile. "I will just put transport enhancers on this pod and then this one should be the only one that is transported."
Wow transport enhancers, just like Star Trek, he thought and he had to wonder why he had been programmed with so much useless knowledge.
Of course, there was one problem if Atlantis wasn't habitable anymore and they took John away from this place, how the hell was John supposed to go back in time and change history. He knew that he couldn't let these people know what their plans were, but was there someone alive today that could help them with their plans? He certainly hoped so, because he knew that his creator had mourned the loss of Jennifer Keller for twenty-five years and he'd probably mourned her until the day he died and he was probably a bitter twisted old man by that point.
He suspected that if John couldn't go back in time to save Teyla, he would be devastated, but not for the reasons that he would tell everyone. Everyone knew that they had feelings for one another, everyone except them of course. But none of that would matter if they couldn't find a way to get John back to Atlantis in the past to save Teyla. He also knew that John would probably die a lonely old man in this time period, if that were the case.
His thoughts were interrupted when Roget spoke, "Okay Dr McKay we are ready to transport the stasis pod. We should be able to transport you while you are online, all of the areas on out ship are equipped with holo-emitters, so don't worry, you shouldn't go off-line at all."
He nodded at Roget and waited, he didn't know whether this was a good idea or not, all he knew was that the original plan wasn't going to work, so either he had to come up with a new plan, or he would have to find someone who could and he would have to do it quickly.
Rodney was enveloped by a transporter beam and he watched as the view of Atlantis faded away to be replaced by the bridge of a starship. He watched as Roget and Shalite were deposited alongside of him, he had no idea where the stasis pod had been transported, but that was his major concern right now, so he turned to Roget, before anyone else on the bridge had a chance to speak to him, "where has the stasis pod been transported too, I really need to check on Sheppard now?"
A tall dark-haired man came up to him and introduced himself, "hello I am captain Tuart Smith and you must be Dr McKay? Shalite informed me that you would be coming on board"
It wasn't until that point that Rodney decided that perhaps he should have a good look around. It was weird but the ship looked like something out of Star Trek in its opulence. There was thick grey carpet on the floor and the seats were extremely well padded, but what amazed him the most was the sheer size of it. Finally, his eyes settled on the view screen where he could see the planet below and from this orbit all he could see was a red, dry lifeless planet. He could just pick out what was left of Atlantis and if he'd been human his heart would have broken at the state of the once magnificent city. It was a view that he hoped that John would never have to see, because although John never liked to express his emotions, he knew that it would break him.
He wondered if he should bother to wake him up at all, if they weren't going to be able to change history, maybe he should just let him sleep and if it were possible to dream in the stasis pod, perhaps he could dream of better times. But he knew that he needed to change history for his creator's sake, so that he could get a chance to be with the woman he loved until the day he died. And to accomplish that he needed John Sheppard.
He decided that he really needed to get to work, so he asked his question again, "where has the stasis pod been taken, because I really need to see John Sheppard now!? He asked forcefully, hoping that would get their attention.
He really wasn't in the mood for pleasantries when the weight of the entire galaxy hung in the balance, even if it didn't right now it certainly had 50,000 years ago and right now he was determined to put it right, even if this timeline ceased to exist. But then he knew that these people would still exist, even if it became and alternate reality to his creator and John Sheppard's.
"Alright Dr McKay, Shalite can go with you and show you the way, we have him in our medical bay and Dr Jarvis is on standby in case there are any difficulties." Tuart told him, before turning to Roget, "would you like to go down to the planet again and supervise the rest of the exploration?"
When Roget nodded his head, Rodney watched as the transporter bean enveloped Roget and then suddenly he was gone, he then turned to Shalite and allowed her to lead him off of the bridge.
She seemed pleasant enough and he wondered if she was a descendant of the Athosian people, she certainly looked like one. Which gave him hope that some of Teyla's people had survived the horrendous events of the war with Michael. A sudden thought struck him, was Carson still in stasis down there, but then he realised what a stupid thought that was, because even in stasis the body aged and Carson would have entered the stasis pod almost 50,000 years ago, so unless someone had revived him at some point along the way, his friend would be long dead.
His thoughts were beginning to confuse him, he was only a hologram, so at what point did he start to think of himself as Rodney McKay, this day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Arriving in the infirmary a few minutes later, he found a short round man with brilliant blue eyes, coming to greet him, "Hello I am Dr Joe Jarvis, I am happy to meet you."
Rodney sighed, why was this person treating him with respect? He was only a hologram after all. "Hi, I'm Doctor Rodney McKay and I'm a hologram, so why are you treating me with such respect?"
The doctor smiled at him and his blue eyes twinkled, which reminded him of Carson yet again, "holograms are sentient beings in our society and are treated equally."
Cool just like Star Trek Voyager, he thought and then another thought occurred to him, "What about Androids, or Robots?"
"The peoples of this galaxy experimented with Androids for a while, but quickly decided not the pursue that line of scientific research." Shalite supplied.
"Oh," was all he could say to that comment, before he focused his attention on more pressing needs, "okay where is Sheppard and the stasis pod, as I really need to get to work straight away."
Dr Jarvis led him over to the stasis pod and Shalite followed close behind, he wondered if she was somehow infatuated with Sheppard, most women were and in 50,000 years obviously nothing had changed.
"Umm…. Shalite, it's going to be a while before I can revive him, so perhaps you should go and do something else."
"I'm sorry Dr McKay, I'm just fascinated by his ears and his hair. Do you know what colour eyes he has, I bet their gorgeous?"
He just rolled his eyes at her, "you know what I never really noticed." He said impatiently.
"Sorry Dr McKay, I will leave you to your work."
"Thank you Shalite and can you please call me Rodney?"
"Certainly, Rodney," She told him, before she left the room.
Dr Jarvis was in his lab, so at last he was alone again. Now he was able to get to work reviving the messy haired flyby. There was so much a at stake, so he knew that he had to act quickly, but, then did he? He currently had no idea whatsoever how he was going to send Sheppard back in time. He shrugged his shoulders and got to work, hoping that by the time someone dared to interrupt him again he would be finished.
TBC…