City of the Daleks.
Chapter Two

Rodney got to his feet and looked around. The room was stark white and didn't look anything like Atlantis. There was no light source but everything was well lit. Shepherd walked in through the double doors 'So McKay?'

'So? So what?' Rodney walked around the console that took up the middle of the room.

'Rodney, where are we?'

The scientist thought about it for a moment, he was thrown into a blue box. 'Well obviously... We're...' Rodney had one of his trademark brilliant flashes. 'We are not actually "in" the box. We're in a layer of sub-space accessed through a trans-dimensional portal projected inside the blue box which acts as moving door. Ha!'

'So we're not in the box?' Shepherd asked again.

Rodney had to admit it, he was brilliant. It would take anyone else weeks to deduce the true nature of this place. 'No. Nope. There is no way we can be in that box.'

Shepherd didn't look convinced. 'Right, so if I asked Ronon to rock it we wouldn't feel anything?'

'Well that's pointless, even with the doors open there's no way sound could travel through the portal but go ahead shout all you want.'

'I can hear you guys you know.' The caveman shouted from outside. Rodney felt his mouth drop. That wasn't possible. 'Hold on to something.' Came from outside before the entire place was rocked like a Star Trek set from the original show.

Flying off his feet Rodney bounced of one of the white walls and collided into Shepherd, who was also sent flying. 'Wrong, not once but twice Rodney!' the colonel shouted as Ronon stopped.

'No I wasn't! I was wrong ONCE, about two things.' It was at that point a klaxon screeched from outside.

'Shepherd! Something is wrong!' Shepherd was on his feet and out in a flash. Rodney spent a full second deciding which was more important, being right or changing the subject, before he ran after him outside and back to the gate room.

John threw himself up the stairs, the Ancient writing on them flashed an angry red. Glancing up to the control room pulsing text covered every screen and no one knew what was happening. 'Elisabeth?'

'John, we're locked out of the city. Door's in and out of the gate room are sealed and the computers aren't responding.'

'Not true.' Zelenka pushed between them. 'They are responding but apparently there is some sort of classified lockout of the main system. We're working on a limited mode. The shield is active, long range sensors are off, and the 'gate controls are all secured and controlled from somewhere else. It's some sort of classified protocol.'

McKay sat down next to the other scientist. 'What do you mean classified? I didn't think there was anything classified in all the Ancient's database.'

'There wasn't, at least not anything we had found yet.' Zelenka answered. 'The classified section must be hidden somewhere else in the system.'

'So it's hidden and classified?' John clarified

'Yes.' McKay answered in that singularity annoying condescending way of his. 'And I have just accessed it. Lets see I'll search for "Time Lord Detected".'

'We know what it say's but what is a Time Lord?' Elisabeth asked

McKay tapped a few times on the panel and sat up straight. Zelenka cursed in his own language. After a beat McKay breathed in. 'Okay, the Ancients had a scale for alien races, one to eight, with nine being Ascended.'

'Let me guess, they were ten.' John said to Elisabeth.

'No, nine.' Radek said, 'but the Ancients classed their own civilisation as level seven.'

'We're around three point five, it's a scale to do with inventions and scientific knowledge. This is not good, alright listen to this:-' McKay traced his finger across the screen. ' "Much like their fairy tails in our history, the Time Lords have demonstrated a mastery of both time and space beyond any other people encountered. Their homeworld was found in a cluster of seven star systems, a ship was sent to make contact. It was returned through a free forming wormhole before it got close enough to make contact." In other words they threw it down a wormhole without a Stargate to contain it. With that technology you could travel one end of this universe to the other.'

'Nice.' John admired

'You would say that. We're talking about wormhole physics that goes beyond the Ancients, the Asguard... Even the Ori need a Super-Gate on both ends to send something the size of a ship trough a wormhole. The Time Lords had one device, at best, and used it like the Asguard use their beam technology.'

Zelenka was still reading, 'Not good, that is not all; There were two more expeditions sent. The second was returned without a ship, the third all five ships were returned, their crews regressed to children.'

'What?' John could hardly believe what he was hearing.

'According to this, the second ship that was sent the crew was teleported back to Earth without their vessel. The crew with no memory of the journey to the planet or how they got back. Interplanetary transport at that sort of range? It's by all means possible to use a ring platform to beam to an orbiting body, much further than Asguard Beams but...'

'They can do without the lecture Radek.' McKay snapped

'Actually I think John was asking about the children thing. I know I would be.' Elisabeth said.

'Oh boy. That's just the tip of the iceberg.' McKay seemed to scroll down. 'Right, the third and final attempt wasn't an exploration. Five Ancient warships were sent. According to this they saw what happened to their other two as threats and wanted to prove their strength and negotiate from a position of power.

'They lost contact as the fleet entered hyperspace and they were simply returned the moment they left. All on board were reduced to three and four year olds. No damage done to the ships, not a single drone fired. At the same time a stranger appeared in the Ancients capitol, this was before they built Atlantis.

'This guy that appeared just told the Ancients to leave them alone. That his race were the Time Lords and if they continued to get in their way they would deny the Ancients space travel.'

John had to stop him there. 'Hang on, hang on. These Time Lord guys could do that?'

Zelenka looked up. 'Colonel; if these people have a tenth of the power demonstrated in this record they could.'

'He's right. The possibility of time travel? They could go back in time to the fifties and kick off a nuclear holocaust.' McKay explained

'Introduce a virus to Earth's past killing of our ancestors.' Zelenka added

'Okay, time travel bad. We get that.' Ronon spoke up for the first time. 'If they are so powerful why don't they just step in and help against the Wraith?'

'Same treason the Ancients don't?' John asked.

'No I don't think so. The Ancients have ascended, these people are still human, well human like. Maybe they just don't want to get involved.'

'Surly, Elisabeth, any civilised race would help if an entire galaxy of people were enslaved.' Tayla frowned. 'These people sound civilised do they not?'

McKay lent back 'Well that level of technology certainly suggests something like a civilisation. The only question is what type of civilisation? Vengeful? Vindictive? something else beginning with "V" that means we're all going to die?'

'Here's a thought, we have one of these people in the infirmary. Why don't we ask?' Ronon suggested. 'But first can we stop these lights flashing everywhere?'

Jamie watched as the lights died and slid back into the walls. The young highlander would be lying if he said he understood half the things he saw while travelling with the Doctor but he knew enough. The people around him had very little idea what as going on and the Doctor had made a terrible mistake.

Victoria had recovered as well. Woken up by the noise and light she had refused to stay in bed and was half crouched at his side. Whether she was ready to run or pounce like a wild cat Jamie couldn't tell, the look in her eye told him she had very little idea herself.

His fellow Scotsman was busy hovering over the Doctor. A strange box in one hand; 'At least that bloody noise has stopped. I can't make heads nor tails of this. His blood shouldn't work, two hears that are barley working and a brain that isn't. As far as I can tell he's dead, but still breathing. Just'

'The Doctor can't be dead!' Victoria cried.

'No love, he's not dead. Just in some sort of coma that I don't understand.'

The young woman pushed past Carson and grabbed the Doctors hand; 'But he will wake up won't he?'

'Hush Victoria!' The Doctor whispered loudly. 'Don't move. We've been captured by Wraith.'

'Doctor! Your alright!' Jamie said. Ha, even now the Doctor could out think this lot.

'Jamie, do be quiet! The Wraith suck the very life out of you. Both of you pretend to be dead until I think of something... Don't say anything.' Carson was waving that box over the Doctor's head and shaking it.

'Nothing!' Either this bloody thing's useless or doesn't work on him.' he grumbled and threw the box away.

'Jamie? That didn't sound like you?'

'Aye, that's because it's not me.' The highlander answered and a single eye opened.

'Oh... Hello, and who are you then?' The Doctor asked, a single eye darting around.

'I'm Dr Carson Beckett... How do you feel?'

His one open eye blinked, slowly.

'Aye, right you are then. Sorry about the guards shooting you but that's the bloody yanks for you. Always blazing away.'

'What's a Scotsman doing in the city of Atlantis?'

'I'm part of an expedition from Earth. We came here looking for the Ancients and found their city. We set up base and explore this galaxy.'

A group of strangers entered 'Oh you're awake. Why didn't you tell us Carson?' the brunette woman said.

'Hadn't gotten around to it just yet.' He shrugged as the Doctor got up.

'Ahh. I take it your the manager here?' he said

'Well yes.' she was taken aback but smiled politely. 'My name is Dr Elisabeth Weir. This is Colonel Shepherd. Doctor's McKay and Zelenka are from our science department and these are Tayla and Ronon. Natives to this galaxy, they help us against the Wraith.' She introduced the others with her.

The Doctor reached out and shook her hand enthusiastically. 'A pleasure to meet all of you. I feel like I am in good company with all my namesakes here. I'm the Doctor, of course, and these are my friends Jamie and Victoria. Now if you'd excuse me we have a pressing engagement in another Galaxy.' Finally he let go of the woman. 'Come on. Quickly!' he muttered.

Jamie had travelled with the Doctor long enough to ask him fool questions, at least in front of people that shoot at them. Victoria on the other hand. 'What about the friend we came to visit?'

'He's dead by now. Or very much like it.' The Doctor grabbed her hand. Now come along Victoria!'

'Wait. If this is about our guards shooting you I understand. You have to believe me it was an accident.' Elisabeth said half backing away and half putting herself between them and the door.

'Sausages! An accident is one or two shots. You shot at us the moment we came out of the TARDIS without warning.'

'Be fair.' the one called Shepherd stepped in front of her, the big man called Ronon by his side. 'You just appeared out of nowhere and scared the crap out of us. Sure those guys were morons but come on, cut us a little slack.'

'Hey now you listen here.' Jamie always hated bullies, if the Doctor wanted to leave he wasn't going to let these two get in their way. 'You ain't gonna stop us so get out of the way.'

The big man looked at him. 'You think I'm scared of a boy in a skirt?'

'Skirt? Alright that's it.' No one called his kilt a skirt. It didn't matter that he was probably one of the tallest men Jamie had seen, he was going down. With all his strength Jamie punched the man mountain in the gut. Almost braking his fingers.

While he nursed his hand Carson coughed uncomfortably. 'They're not skirts Ronon. It's called a kilt, Jamie's what's called a highlander from my home. Hell, my great grandfather was a highlander from the clan Mc Gillion.'

'But you're a lowlander now?' Jamie asked, trying to shake some feeling back in to his hand.

'Aye. Grandma said it was a real disappointment to the clan.' Carson shrugged. After that there was an uncomfortable silence.

'So are we going now Doctor?' Victoria asked.

'Unless they can think of a terribly compelling reason for us to stay...' he said in a light tone. Not to Victoria but the small group blocking their way.

It was then the walls started talking. 'Hey McKay get a load of this:- we just reactivated one of those tank things...'

Then came the last thing Jamie ever wanted to hear:- 'EX-TERMINATE!' followed by two blood curdling screams.

'Hum... that might do.' The Doctor said in the same way you'd talk about the weather before glaring at the suddenly ashen faced group.

End Chapter Two