Chapter 35
The Daedalus arrived at Taranis to find two of Atlantis' puddlejumpers in orbit. Colonel Caldwell ordered them retrieved and sat in his bridge chair wondering if they were the only people he was going to find. Doctor Weir's people had been blunt. Taranis was going to be destroyed by a super volcano according to Doctor McKay, and no one was willing to bet against the man.
Waiting on the bridge for the jumpers to dock, Caldwell carefully examined what he could see of Taranis on the view screen, looking for the super volcano Doctor McKay had said was about to erupt. He couldn't see anything that he recognized as a volcano, but then the geologist had said something about Yellowstone being one, so he probably wouldn't know what he was looking for in the first place. At least that was what he thought until the eruption started.
It was probably the most fantastic sight that Steven Caldwell had ever seen. The Aurora class battleship emerging from the center of the volcanic eruption was surrounded with lava, like seeing the center of a flower as it opened. The sight was enough to leave anyone breathless, and that was without considering the fact that there were people on board that ship that he knew and liked. He nodded at his communications officer who opened a frequency at the silent order. He didn't get a chance to say anything because the moment the channel was open the bridge crew was blessed with the dulcet tones of Doctor Rodney McKay yelling at the top of his lungs some kind of technobabble about how something was going to blow up if some moron didn't get his head out of his ass and do what McKay told him.
"This is the Daedalus," Caldwell said through a grin he was trying to stifle. "It's good to hear you've survived, Doctor. Do you happen to have any passengers?" That was now the important question; just how many others, both of ART1 and the locals, had made it. He could already see the spreading ash cloud from the eruption. Doctor McKay had been right in his prediction once again. From the amount of ash being sent into the sky, the entire planet would be shrouded in days. It was an extinction level event.
"We're all alive and accounted for Colonel," Sheppard said, while in the background McKay was now screaming at some unfortunate named Anderson. "We've just lost the shields and the hyperdrive wasn't repairable in the time we had. Rodney says it will take at least a week to get that back on line. The sublight engines are working, so we've got life support, communications and we're not dead in the water but that's about all we've got going for us right now."
"I'm willing to shuttle you and your passengers back to Atlantis, but if my figures are correct then it will take at least four trips." Unspoken was the knowledge that if they all left it would mean abandoning the ship. Caldwell's help could only go so far no matter his personal feelings on the subject. There was also the fact that certain people would be demanding that the ship be brought back to Earth, no matter what.
"Well, I'm sure that the Tarsanians would want us to finish up the repairs on their ship. I'm not sure what Elizabeth and Chancellor Lycon have worked out, but abandoning, ah... her, shouldn't be on anyone's list. We'll take you up on the offer of a ride, but we'll leave enough people here to get the hyperdrive up and running," Sheppard said. "If you could bring Major Lorne back, I'd appreciate it. Slow and steady aren't exactly the twin's middle names and I'd like a chance to get out of this chair sooner or later."
"Hey!" Caldwell could hear in the background. "Slow's for the old." That would be Murphy, he knew. "And steady's only good if you're talking about a man's aim." And there was Conner, right behind his brother. Now if only the last two members of ART1 would speak up he would feel much better.
"Not a problem Sheppard. I'll let Novak coordinate with your people on the evacuation."
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"JACOB NOAH MCMANUS! Just what do you think you are doing!" Gretchen McManus yelled as she stormed into the room where Jacob and Her Highness were. They had found the boy because of the power usage being pulled into the building from something that child was doing. Right behind Gretchen was Major Lorne and several of the minor engineers, the ones that had been left behind in Atlantis.
"Ma! I finds kitty and I plays game with city lady!" Jacob told his mother, delighted to share his day with her.
"You are playing a game with Atlantis?" she asked puzzled, surprised out of her ire.
"Uh huh," he agreed. He turned back and showed her the lights on the console. They lit up in a pattern and Jacob carefully repeated it. "See?"
Gretchen sighed. Her little one was far too much like his fathers, Murphy in particular. "Why don't you let the scientists play with Atlantis now?" she said as she pulled her son away from the console. "You should not wander away from the teachers." It was not the first lecture she'd given her son, nor would it be the last. He was a good boy though, and it usually only took once for him to understand what he'd done wrong, so he seldom repeated his mistakes. The trouble was that he was far too smart for his own good and always found new ways to get into trouble.
Lorne did his best to hold in the snickers until after the lecturing Gretchen had removed her son from the room. "So what game was he playing with Atlantis?" he asked the scientists. He frowned at the slack jaws on the scientists faces. "HEY!" he poked the nearest one. "What's going on?" If there was something really wrong he had to know it and fast.
"We thought that this was one of the stasis chamber rooms for the city inhabitants. A sort of emergency hibernation spot for people who couldn't help with emergencies," the scientist tried to explain. "But these chambers are full of organic and chemical compounds that easily degrade – and they're used to make drones."
"DRONES!" Lorne perked up at that information. Everyone had known that somewhere there had to be a facility for the creation of the Ancient's weapons. The more mundane the weapon, the more common the facility to create them had to have been. They hadn't found any before now though.
Most of the small group of scientists nodded. "We need a translator down here right away, but if Atlantis and the database cooperate, we just might be able to start production of more drones within days."
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A very exhausted group heaved a huge sigh as Colonel Sheppard lightly landed the still unnamed ship on one of Atlantis' piers. There was still work to be done, but now at least, they could take their time with it – if they were allowed to that is. Sheppard ordered all Lantians off of the ship, and dragged Rodney away from the repairs that he was making. It wasn't a vital repair, although it was important, and it was more important that the Council got the information on Taranis that it needed. Knowing Elizabeth, she would want Lycus to see what had happened and John wasn't looking forward to it.
As he had suspected Elizabeth and her guards were waiting for them as soon as they left the ship. "Do you want the good news, or the bad news?" she asked John quietly as they headed for the main conference room.
"You know me Elizabeth," he said as he watched the twins reunite with their family further on down the pier. "Bad news first."
"We're tracking an inbound Hive ship. It'll be here in one week, that's the bad news." John stopped and shot her a look full of horror. She gave him a grim smile. "The good news is that little Jacob McManus proved just how much he belongs in that crazy family by finding the building that houses the drone manufacturing facility."
"Trust a McManus to find all of the really neat weapons," John agreed.
"Now that Rodney and Radek are back it shouldn't take more than a few hours to get the facility back on line. As far as the scientists that they left here could figure out there aren't that many repairs needed. From what I understand it's mostly replacing the tubes that carry the organic and chemical materials from the stasis pods where they're stored to the machines where they're used, but they're not about to take the chance that they're wrong, so we've waited for Rodney."
"Good idea," John said with a slight shudder. He knew he wasn't the only one who had vivid memories of those times the scientists had gone ahead without Rodney's permission. They had reached the conference room now and with any luck, he would be able to sit down and crash while Rodney played the video from the ship's sensors.
A very grim faced set of Councils, both from Atlantis and Taranis, watched the view screen as the last moments of Taranis played across its surface. "As I said before, an extinction level event," Rodney rasped. He and his engineering teams, (those whom he had allowed to stay) had done an extraordinary job with the Ancient ship. In just under a week they had repaired the hyperdrive AND the shields resulting in a functional, if not completely repaired, ship. He was exhausted and it showed in every movement. "Now as the idiocy of the paranoid has destroyed the planet as a viable biosphere, you people have to decide just where you're going to live now. Just so you know, it won't be here." With that he crashed back into his chair.
"You would turn us away?" Norina asked sadly. With everything she had seen, she had truly begun to want to become Lantian, perhaps even marrying one of the Earth born, perhaps even Rodney himself, although she wasn't certain they would make a good match.
"You I have no problem with," Rodney pointed at her. "But there is no way HE is welcome in MY city." He pointed directly at Chancellor Lycus. "We have enough trouble as it is. We don't need to invite stupidity to take up residency. I'd tell you to trade your ship for a one way trip to the Milky Way for everyone but there are a few of you who could, possibly, eventually make it to Simpson's level of competence if you just got the education you need."
Sheppard, who was just as exhausted as his teammate, leaned over and whispered to Norina while Elizabeth tried to smooth over the sharp edges that Rodney had raised. "You don't know it yet, but that is a huge compliment in McKay talk. He often says that Radek is the only one around here with half a brain and the rest of his people are morons and idiots, in spite of the fact that they are some of the smartest people our home world ever produced. There's only one person I've ever heard him not talk down about as far as intelligence goes and that's his rival Samantha Carter. He keeps thinking that one of these days he's going to convince her to have his kids. It is the fact that Lycon almost got all of your people killed that really has Rodney furious with him."
"I can understand that," she said, even as her personal plans died with the knowledge. "But what did he mean by a one way trip to the Milky Way? I've never heard of such a place." Norina was more than just a little confused. Rodney knew just how much a ship of the Ancients was worth to her people. What trip could possibly be worth that much?
"We call this galaxy Pegasus," John told her pointing at the floor under his feet. "The Milky Way galaxy is where our home world is. Don't get me wrong, it has its share of dangers, for instance there is a group of parasitic snakes that rule over a good portion of it and demand that their subjects worship them as gods even as they use their bodies for hosts."
"But there are no Wraith there," Norina realized. That and that alone would be more than worth trading her ship for. "Doctor Weir, I believe that Doctor McKay's suggestion would be in my people's best interest. However, if it is possible, I know that there are a few who would like to stay here in Atlantis, mostly those who have put their entire lives into repairing our ship."
"Norina!" Lycus hissed in her ear.
"Shut up you damned fool! They just offered to send every last one of our people to a place where there are no Wraith! We'd never have to worry about a culling again!" she whispered back.
"I'm sure that my people would have no objection to that," Elizabeth offered.
"Fine, it's settled then." Chancellor Lycus got up and left the room.