Jacob McManus loved school. First thing in the morning he and the other kids got to help with the animals in the barn. It was a very big place, but only a very few animals were in it, so it was almost like having pets. Then they all worked on numbers and languages, learning the alphabets, how to read them, how to say them, and why something worked in one language but not in another. It was weird how Ancient didn't have swearing like the languages the grownups in his family spoke or Athosian didn't have words for give up.

The Genii kids in his class were all sick and had to take medicines that Doctor Beckett and Doctor Holbrook gave them. It made Jacob sad that his new friends didn't feel good, but he was glad that the doctors were working to make them better. It was also nice that the doctors made the teachers take them outside for their classes when it wasn't raining. It made recess time much more fun cause they could swim or play on the swing sets, or dig in the dirt of the gardens. The only bad thing about school was that there were too many girls. Girls didn't like to play neat games like wrestling in mud or flying puddlejumper toys or water fights or anything else fun.

Jacob looked across the square at the group of girls that were playing house with different kinds of baby dolls by the fountain. He made a face. Babies were alright, but only his brothers. Baby dolls were just yucky. Bored, he looked around but the teachers were all busy and the rest of the boys were playing with bantos rods, something that his Das both said he was too young to play with yet. He sighed. He'd just have to go and find something to do on his own. No one noticed as Jacob wandered off.

Sga-saints-sga-saints-sga-saints-sga-saints-sga-saints-sga-saints-sga-saints

"On it!" the twins called out, going to the control consoles over by the large observation windows and pulling up files. A few tense moments later, Conner called out. "Holy Fucking Shit! This is where they built the ships they used to fight the Wraith."

"The one still in dry dock here is the Hippaforalkus. It's Aurora class and from what I can tell, needed a lot of minor repairs when the Ancients abandoned this place, but was mostly space worthy," Murphy said on the heels of his brother. "We need Doctor Zelenka or Rodney to figure out how bad the damage is and if it's salvageable now."

"Norina, call Lycus' assistant or aid or whatever as well as yours. We need to evacuate everyone off this planet now," Sheppard said. He turned to Rodney. "How long do you think we can hold off the explosion if we get your team in here to monitor the equipment?"

Rodney looked back at the control console, rapidly doing equations in his head. "We can hold it off, three maybe four hours if I can get Johnson, Woolridge, Simpson and two or three others. Radek will know who to send. I'll need him and an engineering team to see if we can salvage the ship in time."

Sheppard nodded and turned back to Norina, still ignoring Lycus. "Ok, you need to evacuate all of your people, children and elders first. They are the highest priority. The rest of your people are second. Tell them to take only what they can carry. Seeds, food plants, and any Ancient tech, parts or crystals are what they should bring for trade items. All of those are highly valued on Atlantis and your people will be able to trade for whatever they need if you or Elizabeth decide that your people won't be settling in Atlantis."

"You would make us Lantians?" Noria asked in wonder.

"Yours wouldn't be the first group we've adopted. Your people are the first we've come across that actually knows at least a little of what they're doing when it comes to Ancient tech. We can always use more people like that, but as I said you and our leader, Elizabeth Weir will have to work that out. Right now, let's just get your people to safety." Sheppard turned to Ronon and Teyla. "The two of you get down to the gate and let Elizabeth know what's happening. Send Lycus through and he can start negotiations for his people. Then help with the evacuation. Conner, I'll need you to help the engineers and Murphy, you help the group up here and download as much of the database here that you can." As soon as they got their orders, everyone turned to the job of rescuing the Taranian people.

As Murphy had spent most of his time digging through the database in Atlantis, he was able to quickly sort through the Taranian database. In fact, it had only taken him a few moments comparing the two to realize just why the Atlantis database's organization had seemed familiar, but hovered just out of his conscious reach. Earth databases were set up in family groups, where one subject led to another that was related to the first. The progression from one subject to the next was generally a logical one.

These Ancient databases weren't logical, which was what had been driving the scientists and everyone else nuts for years now. They were set up in families, but these subjects were linked together by emotion and instinct – art. Here, it was the art of war. It was an art that Murphy would deny understanding to his dying day. Even to his brother he'd said that their work was simple – find the evil man doing his evil deeds, and kill him – nothing more and nothing less. Conner was the one with the delusions of artistry.

"Are you sure we can trust them?" Murphy didn't turn or let the man who was whispering to Noria know that he could hear them.

"It's not a matter of trusting them as much as it is knowing that we can't trust Commander Kolya. If he says that we can't trust them, then we probably can. You know as well as I do that we don't know as much as we need to about the technology the Ancestors used," Noria explained.

Just then the scientists from Atlantis came barreling into the room. Rodney was in his element, ordering around his minions at the top of his lungs. One of them brought a large box of flash drives over to Murphy. They wouldn't be able to save even a tenth of the data base, but if they didn't copy the stuff that Murphy knew was duplicated, they might be able to save the more important parts. "Murphy, you going to be able to help us?" Simpson asked.

"Sure, just give me a yell if ya need me ta translate something," Murphy told her. He glanced up to see Rodney and Radek running after Noria and Sheppard. The man who had questioned Noria, a Makixal by name, hovered in the background as the group took over manning the control consoles that would hopefully buy them enough time to evacuate everyone and get the ship off the planet.

They needed that ship. The people were, as always, more important than any technology, but they had no ships of their own. The Daedalus belonged to the SGC and Earth. They had no control over it. A ship of their own, one that they could send to Earth, use to defend themselves against the Wraith or as a blueprint to make more was worth a lot, although they would have to change its name. The name the Ancients had given it was just awful.

Murphy had no idea what Elizabeth would try to trade for it, but he knew that a one way ticket to the Milky Way for their entire population if that was what they wanted wouldn't be out of the question. They had traded that with individuals in the past, usually for something extreme. Murphy did know that Elizabeth was prepared to offer that up in exchange to anyone who was willing to give them a ZPM for instance.

"How big is your population?" Murphy threw the question over his shoulder. He could see the Taranian people beginning to line up on the walk way up to the gate from his position by the observation window. Makixal named a number, and said that there were also several families that lived on the outskirts of the settlement farming what little arable land there was. "Anyone want to run the numbers on that?" Murphy asked. Brewing he was ok at, languages he was good at and assassination he was great at, but Murphy really wasn't all that good at the sort of advanced word problems that would help him to figure out how soon the locals would all be evacuated.

"They'll all be out of here in just under three hours," one of the scientists offered.

Murphy nodded and hit his headset. "Hey Conn, how ya doing down there?"

Conner looked around at the sheer chaos that the bridge of the Ancient ship had become. "We're up to our balls in work here. Rodney's having a great time. He and Radek think that we'll be able to launch this thing in a little over three hours. We've got to think up a better name," he griped.

"How about Enterprise?" Murphy asked, with a laugh.

"Who'd you pick for Spock?" he asked. It was one of the many pointless discussions he'd had over the years with his brother, but they passed the time.

"Oh Rodney of course," Murphy insisted. "He's got the brains."

"Nah," Conner refuted. "He's totally Scotty - an engineer, able to come up with brilliant solutions on the fly and can't ya just hear him yelling about the engines can't take much more of this?" As Rodney was currently waving his hands about his head and yelling about engine tolerances he felt he was completely right about his pick.

"Hmm, yeah and he's right about Sheppard being Kirk," Murphy said. "How about Teyla? She doesn't have the education, but she's sure smart enough and she's got that serenity thing going for her."

"Well, other than her being the wrong sex you'd be right," Conner shrugged. He was busy sending the damage and repair reports to the other's laptops. "Nothing shakes her for long, but I think she'd make a better Uhura. That was one kick ass woman. Beckett's McCoy of course."

"Aye, goes without saying," Murphy agreed. "How 'bout Ronon? He ain't no red shirt for all he's a bruiser."

"Sulu," Conner said after a moment. "He's real versatile that one. Plus he loves weapons as much as Sulu did, plus there's that romantic thing the big guy has going. Remember that episode when Sulu was running around with a sword and had Uhura protesting that she wasn't a damsel in distress?"

"Yeah, I remember her putting it a bit better than that though," Murphy laughed and Conner did as well.

What Conner remembered most about that episode was how their ma had pointed at the television and told them that it was a damned shame the woman wasn't a real one because that was the sort of woman that was worthy of becoming a McManus. That was another reason to compare Teyla to her. Teyla was not only a complete lady, she was also able to kick ass and take names and she was going to have his brother's twin girls in two more months. The twins continued their idle bickering over which of their friends were closest to which television characters. It was a good way to relieve the stress of being separated as well as allowing them to remain in contact with each other.