It took a few moments for the brightness of the event horizon to leave Harry's eyes and a few more for them to adjust to the dimness of the other side. Harry blinked and automatically moved slightly to the side, allowing the other scientists and marines to come through the Gate behind him. He took a deep breath and looked around the room.

It was large and dimly illuminated by the light from the Stargate. Directly in front of the Gate was a large set of stairs, which began to illuminate as Rodney and Sheppard wandered up. The writing on the staircase fascinated Harry and he was dying to get closer so he could translate it properly, but he had more pressing things to do. There were corridors leading away from the Gateroom both at the bottom of the stairs and at the top and Harry saw the dark shapes of the marines slinking down them.

Harry hardly took notice as Weir wandered past him, talking into a radio. The Gate shut down, making the room dimmer for a mere few seconds, but it began to get brighter as the main lights came on automatically. Harry smiled at the marines shifting his equipment to the side so it was out of the way, and turned to the staircase. He made quick work out of the stairs and bounded up next to an excited Rodney.

"Ok people; let's get ourselves set up here. I want access to the main systems as soon as possible." Rodney glanced up at his team and frowned. "Well, get moving!"

Harry smirked as the scientists froze for a second, before all moving as one. He shook his head, amused that the grumpy Canadian could still be so snarky during the most amazing journey of their collective lifetimes. He swung his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out his tablet. Harry dumped his bag next to what he guessed was the main console in the room and pulled the panel off the side, revealing the glowing crystals.

Harry gave an annoyed frown as he tried to connect to the system, even wiggling the connecters between his tablet and the console. He chewed his lip, and carefully removed the crystal connecter that he and Rodney had created in Antarctica. Harry pushed his hand deeper into the console, carefully navigating around the delicate crystals and found the secondary connection site, which was annoyingly far into the console. He tapped a few buttons one handed. Code began to scroll across his screen and he gave a bright smile.

"Making progress then?" Harry removed his hand from the inner depths of the console, sat up straighter and looked up at Rodney stood over him. "Yeah, I've managed to interface the console with my tablet. It is incredibly similar to the one at Antarctica."

"So all that time studying it paid off?" Rodney remarked dryly.

Harry merely gave a grin in reply. "Damn straight. It may have been an utter pain in my ass, but it has sped things up a lot." Harry looked past Rodney, and saw the other scientists tapping away at the elegant crystal controls on the other consoles. "How are the others doing?"

Rodney's eyes flicked over the others in the room, before returning to Harry. "We have managed to access the Gate controls and got through the first level of encryption so we can access the Gate address database. But we need to be able to access main controls soon."

Harry nodded and glanced back down at his tablet. "Right. I'm on it." Harry leaned back against the console next to the open panel and once again became absorbed in the code scrolling rapidly across the screen. He flexed his hands subconsciously, before his fingers began to dart across the touchscreen. A frown graced his features as he concentrated fully on his work, blocking out the outside world.

Harry rubbed his eyes and scowled at his tablet screen. He had been able to access the readings for the life support systems and was confused with the output. Peter, another British member of the expedition, was sat in front of the console next to Harry's and Rodney was moving rapidly around the room, directing and berating the others in equal measure. Harry absently nodded to him as he came over to check how Peter was going with assessing the Gate addresses in the parts of the database that they had been able to get into so far.

Harry was swearing under his breath and reread the Ancient code flitting across the screen in front of him. He leaned back against the cool side on the console and stretched his legs in front of him, working the kinks out. He had been in the same position for a while now, trying to make sense of the readings his tablet was giving him.

Rodney turned from the other British man and looked down at Harry, an eyebrow raised. Harry sighed and picked up his tablet once again, accessing the readings he had been analysing. He saw that they weren't any different and frowned. If what he was reading was true, then they were all in deep trouble. He opened his mouth to tell Rodney that he needed to look at his findings, when Rodney frowned and tapped his ear. Harry's frown deepened, but cleared when Rodney pointed to the radio in his ear with a roll of his eyes.

Harry dragged his backpack next to him and rummaged around until he found his own radio. He fitted it in his ear and spent a few minutes adjusting it as Rodney spoke into his own.

"Yeah, Carson. I'm sure it is amazing, but I'm kind of busy. No. No, of course not." Rodney gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Right. Five minutes, at most. Fine, fine. I'll be there in a moment." Rodney sighed and looked down at Harry. "Carson has something utterly amazing that I have to see apparently. I'm going to head up down there and see what he is blabbering on about. I'll be back soon."

"Before you go," Harry stood up, stretching his back. "You really need to see this." Harry gave him his tablet. "I've accessed the environmental sensors. This is the readout."

Rodney rapidly scrolled through the code on the screen, a scowl on his face. "This can't be right. It doesn't make any sense."

Harry shrugged. "I'm not a scientist. I'm a tech guy. But I've translated the words. These ones" He pointed out a few ancient characters, "say 'ocean', 'below' and 'seabed'. I can deduce what that means."

Rodney glanced up quickly, before studying the data again. "Damn. It makes sense now. Oh, we are so screwed if we don't fix this." Rodney handed the tablet back and starred into space for a minute, before suddenly clicking his fingers. "Right. I'm going to see what Carson wants and then find Elizabeth and break the good news. You keep working with Peter and access the power systems so we can work on sorting this out."

Harry kicked a box out of his way, his arms loaded down with two of the laptops provided for the expedition. He already had a few connected, wires snaking between them and the consoles in the room. The other scientists were hard at work at them, absently nodding in thanks as Harry quickly and efficiently set it all up. He merely gave a smile and shrug in response – as the resident tech guy on the expedition, he felt it was his job to do all the computer stuff so that the others were free to work on their areas of expertise.

Harry carefully placed the laptops down on top of a storage box next to the main console and opened them, starting the machines. He connected them to the main console and typed in a few commands. Once he was confident that they were working as they should do, he pulled his tablet back out of his backpack where he was storing it and made sure it was connected to all the new computers he had hooked up and the Ancient consoles.

"How are we doing Peter?" Harry questioned the British man, who had just returned to the control room with a bag containing energy bars and bottles of water. Harry accepted the water and quickly checked the flavour of his bar (chocolate, it was the first piece of luck Harry had had all morning). Harry shifted his tablet so it was more securely in the crook of his arm and took a bite out of his bar.

"We are still accessing the power readings for the city. We are just searching through the systems to get to the key areas." Peter sat back down and took a sip of water.

Harry took a seat next to him at the console and rested his tablet in his lap, leaning against the edge of the console, so that he still hand one hand free to eat his energy bar. He absently crumpled the wrapper and shoved it in his pocket as he immersed himself in the Atlantian computer system. He navigated through the complex system, before smiling in triumph as he located what looked like the energy consumption log.

"I've got it." Harry smiled at Peter, who leaned over to watch as Harry accessed the most recent energy readings in real time. But his smile soon disappeared as warnings in Ancient flashed up on his screen. He froze for a second, before accessing the logs from when they arrived.

"Damn. Energy levels have dropped to a dangerously low level since we have been arriving. And it is continuing to drop at an exponential rate. We need to tell Rodney!" Harry chewed his lip and frowned in worry as Peter jogged away without saying a word.

Harry was sat in the control room with some of the most senior scientists on the expedition. A team of marines had just left through the Gate and Harry had watched briefly for a few moments as they disappeared through the glowing event horizon, before returning to his analysis on his tablet.

"Energy levels are dangerously low, thanks to two depleted ZPMs and the third being close to giving up." Rodney made no attempt at introducing what this impromptu meeting was about. Everyone in the city knew how bad the current situation was. "Any ideas people?"

"What about the naquadah generators?" The scientist who spoken had a ponytail and glasses. Harry had bumped into him a few times in Antarctica and had taken a dislike to him. It wasn't that Harry cared what he was like personally because he had no burning desire to be friends with him, it was the fact that he felt the need to criticise Harry every time he saw him. "We could-"

Rodney cut the American off curtly. "No. It won't be enough."

"We have to at least try!" Kavanaugh blinked behind his glasses and glared at Rodney. "You could be wrong."

"I'm not." Rodney glared back. "And if we tried to hold back an entire ocean that is currently above and all around us, the generators will overload. They aren't enough."

"So that's it? You're not even going to consider my idea?"

"I've considered it already and I'm telling you it will not work. I'm not going to try something that I know won't work and waste the generators that we will need later on! And that is if we ignore the fact that if they overload, they will take us and a big portion of this city with them." Rodney's voice had an annoyed edge to it and was becoming sharper than normal, which was amazing because his voice was normally like the edge of a knife.

Radek, who was next to Harry, cut off the bespectacled irate American before he could speak again. "Rodney is right. Generators are not enough."

Harry looked around at the group as no one spoke up, the silence tense. "Ok. So we all know what we have to do. We have to leave."

Kavanaugh scoffed. "Yeah, that's right. We've come all the way to another galaxy to this city and we are going to leave based on the opinion of a teenager with no qualifications to justify why he should be here in the first place!"

Rodney stiffened in anger at the harshness in Kavanaugh's tone, but Harry shook his head at him. Ignoring the ponytailed man, Harry tapped on his tablet and turned it around so that the group could see the screen.

"I've been looking through some of the basic protocols that were activated by our arrival in the city. We can't access much of the database yet, but I can read the most recent logs." Harry's voice was soft, but everyone caught every word. "We can't raise the city. The stardrive engines control all movement of the city according to the database and it could take weeks, maybe months, to even gain access to that system. The moment that the city sensed a living presence, it activated the life-support systems. This caused a huge drain on the power." Harry tapped his screen and shown them a graph of the power consumption of the city from when they Gated there. "I've been able to determine that parts of the shield are pulling back and allowing areas to become flooded."

"Why would it do that?" A petite female scientist questioned, who was called Miko if Harry remembered correctly.

"It is conserving power. The city is sacrificing parts of itself so that the important areas remain safe. The control tower is the most important area, so the shield will most likely continue to pull back until it is just the tower being shielded. But even that will fail."

"So how will us leaving help that?" Kavanaugh questioned, a condescending edge to his voice and his arms crossed haughtily.

Harry ignored the urge to throw back a retort, but controlled himself and kept his tone neutral and his face blank. "I've been able to view some of the protocols and I've seen a few that will shut down the systems when there is no living presence in the city. I think that if we left, then the city will shut down all systems apart from the shield."

"Then we must leave until we find more ZPMs." Radek nodded at Harry in agreement.

Rodney sighed and rubbed his temple slightly. "Peter, I want you to show Elizabeth the shield failing. Harry, I assume you have accessed the log of the areas to be sacrificed?" Harry nodded and pulled up the required information. "Good. Send the information to Peter's tablet. I want everyone else to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Sort out the equipment and only take what is necessary for our survival."

Harry quickly loaded the information onto Peter's tablet and gave it back to his fellow countryman with a grim nod. He looked around the Gate room as the scientists darted around busily like a hive of bees. Harry felt a stab of deep disappointment but stamped on it quickly. They had found the city and now they had to leave. But Harry was sure it was just for now. He really wanted to believe that they would find another power source and return to the magnificent city.

Harry had his backpack on his shoulders, all his odds and ends packed away. The only thing still out was his tablet, which was still hooked up to the main console. Harry was monitoring the power readings as Rodney tried to convince Weir that they were safer leaving.

"This city is sacrificing parts of itself in order to maintain these main areas but catastrophic failure is inevitable." Rodney looked down at his scientists around the stairs. They had separated the essential equipment needed for survival from stuff that they would have to leave behind.

Elizabeth frowned sadly. "Not in my wildest dreams would I hope to find the lost city of the Ancients so completely untouched, so pristine, and we have no choice but to walk away from this?"

"In order to save it." Rodney looked around again, well hidden sadness in his eyes.

"To save it for whom? We don't have enough power to send a message. As far as Earth is concerned we're just going to be missing, presumed lost."

"We'll be back. We'll find a power source somewhere in Pegasus." Rodney was confident in their ability to find a new power source and Harry couldn't help but agree with him. This couldn't be the only Ancient settlement in the entire galaxy. At least, Harry hoped not.

"We have yet to hear from Colonel Sumner. We've got no idea what's out there."

"We can't wait. It is time to go now." Rodney's tone was firm and Harry couldn't help but agree, as the reading on his tablet shown him that the energy level had reached a critically low level.

"Rodney, we are at critical level." Harry's voice was low, but Rodney heard it as though Harry had screamed it. Rodney gritted his teeth and moved towards the dialling console. He waited for the go-ahead from Elizabeth and began to quickly select chevrons. But even as he typed out the address, the Gate reversed and symbols glowed quicker than Rodney was entering them.

"We've got an incoming wormhole!" Rodney whacked another crystal button and the glowing shield activated.

"I'm reading Lieutenant Ford's identification code." Peter's accented voice sounded from behind a laptop on the console.

Elizabeth's voice had a concealed tone of relief. "Let him in."

Harry watched as Rodney deactivated the shield and saw the blue uniform of Sheppard jog through, closely followed by the black and green of the marines. Harry was confused, however, when a large group of other people came through. They were looking nervously around the room and wore simple clothing in shades of brown. They were a mixture of ages and sex.

Elizabeth ran down the staircase and met Sheppard at the bottom, amidst the foreign civilians. Harry saw them having a heated discussion, but was distracted from watching them as the shaking that he had almost successfully been ignoring until now increased drastically.

Harry took a more secure stance and began to frantically tap his tablet, double checking his readings. "Rodney! The shield is failing!"

The shaking had got so bad that Harry could barely stand up, but he managed to stay mostly upright. He barely noticed as boxes and crates fell to the ground down next to the Gate. He vaguely registered the others shouting about addresses and dialling out to another planet, but ignored it all in favour of looking at the readings from the main console. Harry couldn't keep his tablet still enough as he flailed about to keep his balance, so he shoved it into his backpack at his feet and quickly tottered over to a laptop that had been secured to a console a few metres away from him. He gripped the edge of the console with one hand and furiously typed with the other.

"Some kind of critical failsafe is kicking in!" Harry's voice was loud to carry above all the noise. "We're rising to the surface!"

Sunlight began to break into the room and illuminated the room in bright light, the colours of the stained glass windows around the Gateroom glinting off the dull metal surfaces in the room. Harry gave a bright smile, but it soon turned into a grimace of pain as the intense shaking finally got the better of him and he pitched forward. He barely had enough time to throw his hands out and make sure he rolled with the impact to minimise damage, but there was little he could do as his temple hit the sharp corner of the console.

The shaking had stopped and Harry was sat on the ground of the control room. He felt wetness on his temple and touched his head. He felt a spark of pain at his touch and pulled his hand away, finding warm blood on his fingers.

Peter hurried over, a marine hot on his heels, and made to touch Harry's head. Harry shifted backwards and raised his hands to ward him off. Seeing the confused and slightly hurt look on his countryman's face, Harry twisted his wrist so that Peter and the marine could see his medical bracelet clearly.

"It would be best of you didn't – at least, not without gloves." Peter and the marine nodded in understand and the marine pulled a bandage out of his vest and carefully handed it over. Harry scrunched it up and gingerly pressed it as hard as he could to stem the small flow of blood.

"Carson has started to set the medical bay up a few floors down. You should go and get that looked at." Harry turned and saw both Elizabeth and Rodney stood behind him, eyeing him in concern. Harry scowled at them, but grimaced as a sharp pang of pain laced though his temple.

"Fine. But once I'm done there, I'm coming back to sort out my equipment."

Harry saw Rodney roll his eyes, but he didn't argue. Before he could make some kind of snarky comment, Harry wandered down the control room stairs and headed in the vague direction that he remembered someone mentioning that the medical bay was situated.

"So lad, what do you think?"

Harry looked around the room from his place on the bed as much as he could with Carson firmly holding his head in place. The room was alive with activity as nurses, doctors and marines arranged equipment and supplies. The room had an elegant design, one that was both functional and pleasant to be surrounded by.

"Its looking good, Carson." Harry winced at Carson pressed the paper stitches tightly over his cut. "Was it originally an Ancient medical bay?"

"Aye – well, we believe so." Carson adjusted the stitched and pulled away to grab a dressing. "The equipment appears to be diagnostic machines. I guess we will find out soon enough. Rodney has promised me some of his staff will be down as soon as they are all set up in their own labs a floor up."

Harry tilted his head so Carson could securely stick the small dressing over the cut. "So Rodney has rooms chosen for labs already? Good, I can get my equipment set up soon then." Carson moved away and pulled his gloves off, shoving them into a medical waste bin. Harry gently felt the dressing. "Do I have to wear this thing? I though it wasn't too bad?"

Carson slapped his hand away to stop it poking the injury. "Aye, you have to wear it. It is best with an open cut, especially considering your medical condition." Harry rolled his eyes, but nodded in defeat. "You don't have a concussion and it is a minor injury, but I want you to promise me you won't push yourself too hard for a day or two."

Harry jumped down from the table and bounced across the room away from the Scotsman. He grinned over his shoulder as he left, causing Carson to shake his head. "You know I can't promise that. Carson. This is the Lost City of Atlantis! I have so much to do!" Harry threw casually over his shoulder as he disappeared out the doorway.

Harry bounded up the stairs towards the Gateroom two at a time, glad that Carson forced those painkillers down his throat and that they were starting to take effect, easing the dull ache in his temple. It would be much harder for him to get any work done in his new lab and set it all up properly if he had a killer headache to deal with. It was just his damn luck that he was the only one who had something more than a surface bruise thanks to the jerky journey to the surface of the ocean.

Harry retrieved his backpack from the control room, checking to make sure that his tablet had fared better than he had in the rising. He was relieved to see that it was still in perfect condition and swung his pack over his shoulder. He made his way down the staircase to where a young marine was directed people taking the equipment, boxes, crates and supplies away from the Gateroom and to the correct area. Harry saw his own boxes and crates carefully stacked in a corner, their stencilling neatly informing everyone which department they were meant for.

"Hey." Harry smiled at the young marine and stopped to stand next to him. "I was wondering if I could borrow a few marines for a few minutes to take my equipment to my lab."

The marine nodded, and beckoned a few more marines over. Harry nodded to them in greeting. "I need all the stuff for the computing lab taken to my lab. I assume one of you knows where it is?" Harry saw the marines nod silently and watched as they began to head over to the pile of equipment. More marines joined them and soon all of Harry's equipment was being hurled out of the Gateroom and down a couple of corridors.

Harry followed silently and as he passed a large room, he heard Rodney's voice raised in annoyance as he berated his science teams about the placement of equipment. It seemed like this entire corridor had been commandeered by the science department, because every room that Harry glanced in had scientists moving around equipment and unpacking supplies. Harry thanked the marines as they made their way back past him towards the Gateroom and silently entered the room that they had placed his equipment in.

Harry was surprised to find that he would have the room to himself, as he expected to share it with another scientist or two. But he saw only his own equipment in the room and he knew that all the other large pieces of equipment had been moved from the Gateroom, so he was the last person to be allocated a lab. Harry grinned to himself and observed the rest of the room.

It was a medium sized room, with work benches at one side. There was an ancient console on the other side of the room and a large piece of what appeared to be glass hanging on the wall in front of it. Harry assumed it was the screen for the console. Directly in front of Harry, there were floor to ceiling windows, offering Harry a spectacular view of both the towers of the city and the ocean. Harry saw a panel on the wall near the windows and after some quick experimentation, found that it could be used to make the windows opaque to varying degrees, like a dimmer switch on a light. Harry turned and saw that there was a sofa and two chairs arranged around a small table in one corner of the room. A door in the corner almost missed his attention and Harry found it was a small bathroom.

Harry rubbed his hands together and began to sort through his equipment.

Harry was kneeling on top of a workbench, a drill in one hand and a bracket clutched in the other. He was carefully mentally measuring the height above the bench and almost jumped in shock when his earpiece crackled into life. Harry put down the drill and tapped his radio in annoyance.

"What do you want? It better be important because I'm currently balanced on top of a desk."

Rodney's grumpy voice sounded in Harry's ear. "Are you sure you should be doing that after you cut open your head earlier?"

Harry huffed in annoyance and picked the drill back up. "I'm fine. And these monitors won't put themselves up. What did you want Rodney?"

"I know you have managed to get remote access to the address database on your tablet. I need you to search for addresses containing the symbols I've sent to you."

Harry put both the drill and bracket down this time and leaned across to the next workbench and grabbed his tablet. A quick search revealed a dozen address in the database. "Ok. I've got 12."

"Ok, so narrow that down to ones that can sustain life."

"I've got…..4."

"Right. Look for any that they Ancients mark as dangerous, or as the enemy or even just some kind of caution label attached."

Harry entered the new parameters. He grinned. "Bingo. Only 1 address." Harry copied the address and sent it to Rodney's laptop. He put his tablet back down and grabbed the drill once again. "I've sent it to your laptop."

Harry drilled the holes and attached the bracket to the wall. He swiftly connected the monitor and climbed off the desk. Looking around the room, Harry felt a moment of pride and feeling of satisfaction. He had set up the server in one discreet corner of the room and had already started to work on the network that they were going to use on Atlantis. He had half a dozen monitors attached to the wall above the work bench and keyboards, touchpads and a computer mouse or two connected up. On the other work bench, he had lots of bits and pieces including a few laptops, a spare tablet, hard drives and a multitude of other useful things. Harry's budget from the Governments involved in the expedition had allowed him to make sure that he got the best, most hardwearing and reliable equipment he could find.

It had taken a while, but he had managed to connect it all up to the console so that his equipment was getting power, and now he just had to interface the console so that he could access the Ancient databases and archives. He had the side access panel off the console in minutes and was reluctantly crawling underneath, his interface crystal clutched tightly in his hand. It took him almost twenty minutes crammed under the console amongst the glowing crystals, but he managed to find the right connection point. He pulled himself out and looked up at the glass screen on the wall. Ancient words floated across the surface. Harry gave a small cry of triumph and threw himself into the seat in front of the console and began to happily type away.

"Wow." A voice sounded behind Harry. "You move fast. You've got this room set up in just a few hours."

Harry turned and saw that three marines were stood in his lab doorway. They were all between 24 and 26. Harry had trained with them at the Antarctica base. He had been in the gym jogging on the running machine early one morning and they had joined him. It hadn't been long before they were all talking about exercise, their hobbies and the impending expedition to Atlantis. Once they had discovered that they all did different kinds of martial arts, they began to train together as well as exercise. It had been good for Harry to socialise with others who were going to Atlantis as well. They were a whole galaxy away from Earth and friendships would be important.

Harry smiled. "Oh, you know me. I've got to get it all done before I can relax."

Daniel rolled his eyes and glanced at his fellow marines, Zack and Nate. "I thought you might say that. So we thought we would come and see you, make sure you eat." He pulled out an MRE and a bottle of water. Harry caught them as he tossed them over and grinned at them. Back in Antarctica, they would bring him snacks when he was pulling all-nighters, studying the consoles and other Ancient technology.

Harry moved off his chair in front of the console and sunk down into one of the armchairs, gesturing to the others to sit also. They all sat down on the other seats and pulled out their own MREs. Harry smiles slightly as he saw that they had managed to snag not only a vegetarian one for him, but one that was an edible flavour. Not that they were great to begin with. "So, what have you guys been doing all this time?"

Nate shrugged, chugging his water. He wiped his mouth and grimaced. "I've been helping move the botanists into the rooms they found a couple levels below. I swear, if I see anymore plants, I'm gonna go mad. And they shouted at me about 'respecting plant rights' just cos I put one down harder than they liked. Honest to God shouted at me!"

Daniel laughed. "Thank God I had patrol duty. I couldn't take so much time with the scientists." He took a large bite of his food and glanced at Harry. "Not including you of course, Harry. You are at least normal."

Harry chuckled. "Don't be fooled. Behind this awesome and handsome image lies a true tech nerd."

Zack shook his head. "Well, you are the most normal of all the genius scientists we have running around. At least I only had to make sure that none of the scientists fell into the tanks as they tested the city's water supply. I swear that they think we are only here to be grunts and do the heavy lifting."

Harry snorted. "Well, you are here to do the heavy lifting. And to point and shoot when aliens try to kill us."

"Harry, how could you say such things?" Zack said dramatically, with such a ridiculously exaggerated sad face that they couldn't help but laugh. Harry finished his food, still chuckling.

"Thanks for the food guys."

Daniel finished up his own food and drank the last of his water. "Not a problem. Maybe next time we will be able to have real food. They are setting up the kitchen right now and have already got all the seating sorted."

Nate pointed to a box next the door in the room that Harry hadn't even noticed until now. It was his box of personal belongings, with his name stencilled on with uniform precision. "They have found rooms with beds and stuff that they have come to the obvious conclusion is living quarters. They will do one last sweep tomorrow to make sure they are safe and then assign rooms. Until then, they have set up some barracks for everyone. We thought it would be best to bring your stuff to your lab so you don't have to search thought all the crates tomorrow trying to find a change of clothes." Nate grinned. "And seeing as you have a couch, you would probably be more comfortable here than in a room with four or five other people."

Harry nodded. "Thanks guys. What are you all going to do?"

Zack grinned. "We are used to sleeping in barracks. Getting personal rooms tomorrow will be a luxury compared to some postings I've had. And we have patrol at different time tonight, so we won't be there all night."

All three marines stood up and gathered up the wrappers from the meal. "Well, we best get back."

"Yay, more scientists to babysit." Nate muttered under his breath. He swept out of the room, waving at Harry, with a dejected look on his face. Harry waved at him and the others at they left to go back to their duties. Harry shook his head in amusement and turned back to the Ancient console.

Harry nodded politely at the man before him, and took sips of his steel mug of water. Hew knew that there was champagne going around, but he had never cared for the drink and only forced himself to have a glass when the situation demanded he did so and it would be rude not to. Harry took another sip and gave a courteous smile as another man and woman joined his small group.

It had been a few hours since the rescue party had returned through the Gate and a quick celebration party had been thrown together at the last minute to celebrate being in Atlantis and a successful rescue mission. Harry had been in his lab working on the computer network at the time, but Rodney had later told him all about their people returning through the Gate safely.

Harry was able to escape the group of scientists and Athosians he was in whilst they were distracted by the topic of conversation and managed to weave his way over to Rodney and Carson.

"Enjoying the party lad?" Carson took a sip of his mug of champagne, looking Harry over critically. "How's your head?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Doc. Really. And the party is good. I'm glad to take a break, but I'm eager to get back to my work."

Carson shook his head in amusement. "Aye, you and Rodney are alike in that way."

Rodney glared at Carson before turning to Harry. "I haven't had a chance to go to your lab yet, but how are you getting along?"

Harry nodded. "Good. I've got all my equipment set up, have accessed the power in the room and have interfaced and accessed the console in the room."

"Good. The console is the reason I've given you that lab. Having access to the Ancient database is important. Have you set the network up yet?"

"I've got it set up, and I just need to make a few small adjustments and then I'll do a full check once all the computers have been connected." Harry saw Daniel and Nate out of the corner of his eye heading away from the food table. "I'll see you at the meeting at 10am tomorrow." Harry smiled a nodded at Rodney and Carson and swiftly made his way over to the two marines.

"Hey." Daniel and Nate grinned at Harry. "I was just wondering if you wanted to plan some training sessions."

"Sure. How about we run together in the mornings? I know neither if us, or Zack, have anything at 6 for about an hour. And one room that has been assigned is a new sparring room. We can meet every evening at about 6, before dinner?" He smiled when Harry enthusiastically nodded. "They've set a room aside as a gym, but haven't set all the equipment up yet. The labs, control room, mess and living space all take priority over any of the recreation areas."

"Yeah, I get that. It will be set up soon, so no big loss." Harry shrugged and turned to lean against the railing on the balcony that the party was being held on. The sea was illuminated with the dying light of the setting sun and it reflected of the surface, glinting a thousand different colours.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Zack's quiet voice drifted over to them and he leaned next to them, admiring the view.

"Yeah." Harry swallowed. It really was a magnificent view, made all the more incredible by the fact that they were on an alien plant, in a whole different galaxy, far away from home. Harry could feel the excitement bubbling in his chest and couldn't wait to see what adventures this unbelievable experience would bring.