For those of you wondering why the people of this time period couldn't move Atlantis, I hope that this chapter answers some of your questions.
Chapter 3: Stuck in the future.
He was flying over the city of Atlantis, a place that he thought he would never see again. He knew that he had been here before recently and he was glad to be here again, but was it real or was it a dream. The sky was a magnificent shade of blue and the rays of the sun were glistening off the ocean. The spires were as tall and alluring as he remembered them, and the glass windows shone in the bright sunlight. He couldn't have been happier to be here.
He knew that something wasn't quite right; as his Spidey sense was tingling, but he chose to ignore it, because of the pure joy that he was experiencing.
Coming in closer he saw that all of his friends were standing on the control room balcony and waving to him. Teyla was there with her baby boy, Rodney, Ronon, Sam, Jennifer, Zelenka and Lorne were all there as well, and they looked happy to be alive.
He approached them wanting to say hi, but one by one they started to disappear, until it was only Teyla and an incredibly old Rodney McKay standing there. Slowly their faces disappeared and he could hear voices….
Suddenly he felt very cold and his addled brain couldn't really understand what was going on, he heard a strange tapping and then someone was calling his name and the voice sounded vaguely familiar. His heart sped up and he was finding it difficult to breathe, suddenly something was placed over his face, which made him struggle even further, but then the tapping stopped, and someone took his hand. Could it be who he was thinking of? The hand in his was certainly soft and silky enough.
He knew that the only way he was going to find out was to open his eyes, he tried and nothing happened, so he tried again and this time he succeeded and he found a pair of enormous brown eyes looking down at him, "Teyla?" He whispered.
Next a pair of bright blue eyes were peering down at him and it brought him to tears, he was sure that they belonged Carson and that was someone he thought that he would never see again, "Carson?" He whispered and he was relieved to find the mask that was covering his face was gone.
It wasn't long before his befuddled brain figured what was going on.
"Is he brain damaged, I thought you said that he wouldn't be brain damaged," an irritating voice said, and it was also a voice that he thought that he would never hear again. That was the point that his brain kicked into gear. He was supposed to wake from stasis and old man Rodney was supposed to send him home, so what the hell happened and why the hell was he shivering?
Finally he managed to speak, "Wha…appened? He asked and he was shocked at how slurred his voice sounded.
"Oh my gosh, he is brain damaged. You're a doctor you're supposed to be the king of voodoo medicine, so why didn't you tell me he could be brain damaged?" He certainly knew that was Rodney, when he started criticising the medical profession, obviously some things never changed. But if that was Rodney who was the doctor and who was the young woman that were with them.
The faces around him suddenly became clear and he was saddened to see that he seemed to be in an infirmary, with old man Rodney and two people who he didn't know. The woman was the splitting image of Teyla, only a lot taller and she was pregnant as well, and the doctor was shorter than her, with dark brown hair and with brilliant blue eyes, just like Carson's.
Finally, he looked at Rodney and managed to speak, "alright old man McKay, what the hell is going on, why am I in an infirmary and not on Atlantis, which is where I was supposed to be when I woke up!?" He took a deep breath before continuing his rant, "who the hell are these people and why am I so cold!?"
The man with the bright blue eyes spoke, "Shalite, can you please get John another blanket why I explain everything to him?"
He watched as the copper skinned woman went and collected him another blanket, she placed it over him with a smile, which reminded him of Teyla.
"Is that better?" She asked him and she flashed him another one of her winning smiles.
He nodded and turned to the man with the blue eyes, "I think I'll let you Dr McKay fill you in, but first I'll introduce myself, I am Dr Joe Jarvis and this is Shalite. I will leave you alone in a minute, after I have checked your vitals."
Nodding he allowed the doctor to carry out the health checks that he was no stranger to, since back home he spent way too much time in the infirmary. "You're temperature is still a little low, so we'll keep some extra blankets on you for now and I think I'll give you some extra oxygen, so I'll put a nasal canula under your nose."
John sighed, he really didn't need these strangers fussing over him, all he wanted was an explanation.
Eventually the doctor finished and left the room, taking Shalite with him. Once he was sure they had left, he turned to McKay, "Now can you please tell me what is going on? The last thing you said to me was that when I woke up you would be there and you would be able to get me to the gate."
"That was over 300 years ago, and you were supposed to be in stasis for another 300 years, but these people found the stasis pod and tried to open it, which activated me. I tried to explain to them what was going on and that was when they informed me that the planet and it's red giant only had 50 years maximum left."
His breathing sped up again, what the hell was old man McKay telling him, was he ever going to get back home, to Teyla, or to Atlantis and what of the future, or the past, he really didn't know what to think. This galaxy was going to have to deal with Michael for generations. That was his guess, but he really had no idea how long Michael stayed around, or how long it was before he was defeated. All he knew was that all of his friends were long dead and he was stuck 48,000 years in the future.
He tried to settle his breathing down, before looking at the hologram, "so you're telling me that I'm stuck 48,000 years in the future without any hope of ever getting home again."
"Well it's closer to 50,000 actually."
So basically, in the words of a long dead friend, 'he was totally screwed.' He turned to look at the hologram of his friend standing next to him, trying to remember the man that he had been. He was grateful that he had the Rodney hologram with him, it was only something small, but at least it tied him to the past and his family.
"Can you please leave me alone for a moment Rodney?"
He was relieved when Rodney left the room without argument or complaint, since there were tears brimming in his eyes. He actually had no idea what he was going to do now. Should he try and find a time jumper and travel back into the past, but could a jumper travel back 50,000 years. Or could he could stay here and try and build a life for himself, but then what about Teyla, she would never know her son, his friends would die, and Michael would rampage across the galaxy killing wraith and human alike. Obviously, Michael was stopped at some point, but how many lives were lost before that happened.
It eventually became too much for him and he let the tears fall, he cried for Teyla and the son that she never knew, he cried for all of his friends, whose lives were lost fighting against insurmountable odds and finally, he cried for himself and the life that he would never have, because now he was completely alone and all of his friends were long dead.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rodney left the infirmary and went looking for his new friends, he knew that this was his life now and he would be stuck in this time period, but what else could he expect, he was a hologram after all. If he were real, his heart would have gone out to John though. John really wanted to get home, he really needed to get home, so it was at that moment he decided that he was going to help him get back home, however long it took.
He found Dr Jarvis, Shalite and Roget sitting in the mess hall eating lunch. He wondered if food had changed much over the last 50,000 years, perhaps he would have a look and see if there was something that Sheppard might enjoy.
It didn't take him long to walk over to their table and sit down. Despite the opulence of the ship, the mess hall was small in comparison to other parts of the ship.
"How is he?" Shalite asked in a serene tone, which reminded him of Teyla.
"He's not doing too well. I think he misses his home."
Roget looked at him and Rodney sensed that he had a question to ask and it was one that he wasn't going to like, "Dr McKay who is John Sheppard and how did he get stuck in the stasis pod. You haven't really told us anything, so I believe that it is time that we have some answers."
Rodney sighed, he knew that he really owed these people an explanation, "Do you know about the stargates the ancestors built." When they nodded, he continued, "well Sheppard was travelling back to Atlantis after searching for a friend who had been kidnapped by Michael…."
Shalite interrupted him, before he could continue on, "He was the one who started the great-war."
He nodded and continued, "Well when the stargate was activated a solar flare interacted with the wormhole and it sent him 50,000 years into the future. To get him back to his own time we needed a similar event and I suspected that a solar flare would interact with the wormhole in around another 700 years; give or take a hundred. That was why I put him in stasis. That was 300 years ago. My calculations indicated that he should have been in stasis for at least another 300."
"Well you must have been wrong, because in three hundred years there won't be a sun." Roget told him and he sounded a little too smug for Rodney's liking.
He rolled his eyes; it was obvious that these people knew nothing about astrophysics or wormhole theory. "The Solar flare isn't coming from this sun; it is supposed to come from a system nearby."
"Can't we find another ring and see if the flare will interact with that?"
"Yes, yes that's fine in theory, but the calculations could take years and even then, there's no guarantee that we will find the right conditions to send him back 50,000 years. The odds of that happening are astronomical, so in the words of my creator, basically Sheppard is screwed."
"So, what were you created to do?" Dr Jarvis asked him with interest.
"The great Dr McKay designed me and uploaded me into Atlantis' systems to make sure that Sheppard went into Stasis and to give him the information he needed when he got back home."
Oops… he knew that he'd actually put his foot in it, there was no way they needed to know what information Sheppard had in his possession.
"And what information might that be?" Shalite asked him, with curiosity.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter, since Sheppard is never going to get home to deliver the information anyway."
He was relieved when they actually dropped the subject, so he looked at them and asked the question that he'd been wanting to ask ever since he had been activated. "So what happened after the great war? Obviously, Michael was defeated, but was he killed and what happened to the Wraith?" He looked at them with interest before continuing, "you do know about the Wraith, don't you?"
Shalite smiled at him, "yes we know about the Wraith, but I think if we are going to tell you what happened to the wraith, we should include John in the conversation."
Rodney knew that they were right, but he had no idea how John would handle it knowing that there was possibly no way he could change what had happened.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
John awoke to the sound of people entering the infirmary, he knew that it was more than one, because he heard multiple footsteps. If Ronon were here, he never would have made a sound when he entered. He didn't bother to turn over, since he knew that none of his friends would be there, except for old man McKay perhaps.
"Sheppard, are you ready to hear what has happened in the galaxy over the last 50,000 years." McKay asked him in a surprisingly calm voice.
He rolled over and looked at Rodney and the others who had entered the room, there was Shalite, the doctor and a man he'd never seen before. It was McKay who supplied the answer for him, "this is Roget Farmer, he is an archaeologist like Shalite."
John nodded at him and then looked back to the others, "I will listen to your story on one condition."
"And what is your condition John?" Dr Jarvis asked.
"Well Doc, I assume we're on a spaceship?" When the doctor nodded, he continued, "well I'd like to see Atlantis from orbit? I assume that you can see it from the ship?"
The Doctor gave him a doubtful look, "well I don't know John, when we took you out of stasis, there was some side effects, so I don't know whether you should be up and about as yet. I guess if you go in a hoverchair it will be alright."
John rolled his eyes, even in the future the doctors tended to be mother hens. "Sure, doc whatever you say."
"Shalite can you go and find a hover-chair." He asked before turning to John, "and can you please call me Joe, I don't feel comfortable with you calling me Doc?"
"Sorry force of habit," John replied.
Shalite came back a few minutes later with a hover-chair, "Cool." He muttered, thinking about the humans in the movie WALL-E.
Shalite and Roget tried to help him settle in to hover-chair, but he shook off their help and tried to manage it himself, but he didn't have much success, because before he had a chance to get to his feet he suddenly felt dizzy and had to lay down again.
"Are you alright Sheppard?" Rodney asked going into mother hen mode, which surprised him because the McKay he remembered wouldn't have noticed. But this was a hologram of a man who was 25 years older that the man he remembered, so of course he could have mellowed over the years.
"Yeah, I just felt dizzy for a little while."
"That is a sign of hibernation sickness, which unfortunately you are showing all the classic symptoms of." Joe informed him helping him sit back up again.
"Hibernation sickness?" He asked, feeling confused, surely that only happens in the movies, he thought, while waiting for an answer.
"Yes, it is a common illness for someone who has spent a long time in suspended animation; the symptoms include weakness in the muscles, amnesia, and difficulty in breathing, hyperthermia and dizziness. Fortunately, you have only a mild case and should be alright in a day or two." Joe informed him, "do you still want to go and have a look at Atlantis and then we can tell you the story of what happened to Michael and the wraith?"
He nodded and put on his trademark crooked grin, he had no idea how long he was going to be stuck here, but he knew that he needed to suck it up.
It wasn't long before he was settled in the chair, with a blanket over his knees and ready to go. Roget had to get back down to the planet to join the expedition once again and Joe decided to stay in the infirmary, so it was only Shalite and Rodney that accompanied him.
Shalite took the back of the hover-chair and pushed him along a long corridor until they arrived in a small room with a large window off to the side, where she parked the chair, so that he could look out at Atlantis.
His heart broke as he looked out over his precious city, which was long dead. The dry desolate planet that it was situated on filled him with immense sorrow and the eerie red glow that surrounded the ship and the planet was extremely disconcerting. When he went into stasis, he had hope for his future, but now he felt as if he had no future and no hope, despite telling himself earlier that he needed to suck it up and get used to it.
He wondered if Atlantis could still fly, or whether she could still communicate with him despite being abandoned for millennia? That would be a question that he would have to ask McKay at another time.
Turning to Shalite, he put on his best smile and looked into her big brown eyes and instantly remembered his long dead friend. He knew that there had to be a way to get back to Teyla and save her and he wouldn't stop looking until he found it, even if he had to do it alone.
"Can you tell me what happened with Michael and the wraith now?" He asked Shalite and he wondered if he really wanted to know. Another thought occurred to him, before she had a chance to start, "and what happened to the people living in Atlantis?"
Shalite took a deep breath and started her explanation and John sensed that he was in for a long afternoon. "Atlantis was abandoned at the end of the last great war between the humans and the being you called Michael. Michael and his army of human/wraith hybrids decimated countless worlds, killing wraith and humans alike and the virus that he had inflicted on the peoples of the Pegasus galaxy killed millions. Eventually Michael and his hybrids left the galaxy, looking for more worlds to conquer and the people who had been living on Atlantis returned to their home planet of Earth.
The war lasted hundreds of years and the galaxy that was left behind, was in a pitiful state and it took hundreds of years for the of the Pegasus galaxy to begin to recover. The few wraith that were left went into hibernation and eventually they either died off, or left the galaxy looking for richer feeding grounds. Basically, there wasn't a big enough food supply in the Pegasus galaxy to sustain the wraith long term."
"What happened to the surviving humans?" John asked with apprehension.
"Slowly the survivors used the gate system to make their way to worlds that were still liveable. What little skill and knowledge they had left they put to finding other survivors, growing food, and hunting wild animals. Those with the ability to build, spent most of their time building settlements on the habitable worlds.
It was a hundred years after the war had ended that the people of the galaxy came together to form a coalition of planets. I understand that It was something that was in its early stages before the war broke out."
John rubbed his temple, his head was really beginning to hurt, and he wondered if it was to do with the hibernation sickness, or the story that Shalite was telling him. "I actually hadn't heard of that happening at the time I stepped through the wormhole that led me here, so perhaps it came later."
"It was the last major war that the galaxy fought, there were some minor skirmishes over the years that followed, but nothing compared to the war against Michael. The coalition of planets quickly brought stability to a galaxy that was vulnerable. If it hadn't the factions that were beginning to form, would had killed each other off, quite possibly wiping out the last remaining humans of the Pegasus galaxy."
"So, you're telling me that in 50,000 years there's been no wars and the galaxy has been at peace?" John asked with confusion.
Shalite looked at him, with a look that John could only describe as pride, "according to our history books and sacred writings, the war with Michael was the last great war."
John smirked at her, he suspected that if he remained here, they could become good friends, "what have you people done for 50,000 years."
"We try to preserve the peace, explore and we have developed some incredible technologies, without the wraith culling us every few hundred years. These days the humans of Pegasus have technology that rival the Ancients and the people of earth who inhabited Atlantis for a short time. We have starships that can travel great distances through hyperspace, although we haven't visited earth for thousands of years, or ever gone looking for the wraith. Our cities are as magnificent as Atlantis once was and we live in a galaxy of peace."
Before John had a chance to reply, Rodney interrupted, "well if you have technology that rivals the ancients then why haven't you moved Atlantis?"
Shalite furrowed her brow, "well despite the best efforts of some of the greatest minds in the galaxy trying over thousands of years, no-one has ever been able to build a flying city, so no-one has bothered to try and see if it could still fly. Then thirty thousand years ago it was decided that it should be left as a historical site, but of course back then no-one quite knew what would happen with the sun. There is also myths and legends that only someone with ancient DNA can pilot the city."
John certainly knew that the myths and legends were true, but there was no way that he was going to tell her that, since he'd only just met her and he hadn't decided whether he was going to trust her yet.
"And what brings you to Atlantis?" John asked her with interest.
"I am an archaeologist and today we are on the final expedition to explore the city of Atlantis, to salvage what we can for posterity's sake."
He thought about what he had heard and decided that if he was able to remove Atlantis from this cold dead world, he would do everything he could to try and make it happen.
"I want to go back down there, and I want you to come with me Rodney. You're welcome to join us Shalite."
Shalite smiled at him and he could see that she was considering what he had said. "I will have to check with the doctor and as soon as he feels you are well enough; I will ask Captain Smith if it will be possible."
John watched as she blushed at the captain's name, he wondered if this man was the father of her child. Deciding that he'd had enough for the moment, he looked at his two companions and asked them to take him back to the infirmary. He had to admit that he was feeling exhausted. Visiting Atlantis would have to wait for another day, he did have 50 years left after all.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
He awoke from his sleep, having no idea how many eons had gone by since he'd put himself into stasis.
He had sensed a wraith presence and had been able to reach out to it over a large distance. He wondered who it was, perhaps the one with Wraith DNA have travelled through time and space to arrive here. Perhaps it was time for him to become great again. He had slumbered through the centuries awakening from time to time to clone himself and one other. He had fixed the problem with degradation from cloning from a clone thousands of years ago, so each clone was as strong as the original. Countless species over many generations had tried to perfect the process and died out from the degeneration in their cells, but he was the one who had managed to do it and there was no way that he was going to share the information with others. This was his secret and this was how he was going to become great again.
There was still something that had to be done and he really hoped that he had arrived at the point in space and time to prevent his death in the past. History had to play out the way it had and there was no way that anyone was going to change it.
He sensed that the one who he sought, the one who had disappeared 50,000 years ago, had arrived in this time period and he had every intention of killing him before he had a chance to go back in time and change the timeline where he was victorious. The one where he had successfully gained access to the child that had helped him perfect his hybrids. They had all died out over the centuries, but he still had genetic samples to create more and with their help he could rule over Pegasus again, but now he sensed another child with wraith DNA, perhaps he could use fresh samples from this child that hadn't been born yet. He knew that if he was patient and bided his time, he could be great again.
He'd made up his mind that for his new plan to come to fruition and to preserve the time line, John Sheppard would have to die.
TBC…