Special episode.
Here's a treat for you since this story got 1000 views.
Episode 3
Outside lower levels. Atlantis.
McKay was standing at the panel trying to get it open, he wasn't having much success and then he found a small pin that he accidentally moved to the side, that made the panel come of and underneath that was the console.
Meanwhile at a nearby terminal Daniel was guiding Sheppard and Teal'c to the nearest junction.
"Sheppard, in two hundred meters there's a door on you right, take that and then there should be a door that'll bring you into a room, that's your junction.
Teal'c, how are you doing?" Dainel said as he was standing at a console that showed a map of Atlantis and had every junction marked.
"I'm at the junction right now. Standing by for orders." Teal'c answered
"I found it to." Sheppard reported.
"Good. No we wait for McKay to find where it's broken." Danile said.
"Hey, I can hear you. I'm working as fast as I can ok?" McKay replied over the radio.
McKay was standing at the terminal that had been hidden by the panel; he was working on finding where the connection was severed.
"Got it. It's junction BD-3." McKay said as he found the problem.
"That's the third closest one, it's about the same distance from both Sheppard and Teal'c. Get to the closest transporter booth, there should be one on the opposite side of the corridor you came from for you Sheppard, for you Teal'c the closest one is a hundred meters down the corridor to the left and then the third door on your right. When you get to the booth go up three floors and then it's the fifth most south one. The junction is in the floor of a room on the same side three doors to your right.
Got it?" Daniel said
"Yeah, I'm on it." Sheppard answered
"Same here." Teal'c said in his usual deep voice
Both Sheppard and Teal'c set of towards their booths and despite Sheppard's booth being closer than the one Teal'c had to get to Teal'c was standing there waiting when Sheppard got out of the booth. Sheppard just walked past him opened the door and looked around.
"Talk to me Daniel, where's the junction? The rooms empty." Sheppard said into the radio
"Well, it's in the floor, there should be a hatch or something to get down there." Daniel answered
"Well there's nothing inside. Keep looking on those schematics." Sheppard said
"Sheppard. Come here" Teal'c shouted from outside the room.
As Sheppard ran out of the room he saw Teal'c pointing his P-90 at a hole in the floor.
"I think you found the hatch." Sheppard said to Teal'c
"Indeed."
"Daniel, Teal'c found the hatch, it was in the corridor outside the room" Sheppard said into the radio. "Let's have a look shall we."
"Ok, then get down there and connect anything that's lose so we can get this section hocked back up to Atlantis." Daniel replied.
"Hey, who's giving the orders here?" Sheppard said into the radio.
He turned on the flashlight and looked down the hatch, he saw a crossing with four tunnels leading away. He jumped down into the hatch and crunched as he landed, the moment his feet touched the floor the lights in the tunnels turned on, he looked down into the left tunnel, nothing, in the one directly ahead it was the same and so was the right one, he turned around and saw a grey wall.
"McKay, I found the replicator that Lucius lost. Think you can reprogram it?" Sheppard said
"Well that should be easily done." McKay answered
"Well get up here then."
"I'm on my way."
"Did you find the junction yet?" Daniel interrupted
"Negative, I think the replicator is blocking the way." Sheppard replied.
"Copy that." Daniel said.
Control Room. Central Tower. Atlantis.
As the team in the lower levels was waiting for McKay to arrive the following conversation was taking place in Atlantis control room between Sam and O'Neill.
"Let me get this straight. You want to recruit him into the Air Force and make him a Major General. Do you have any idea how much complains you're going to get for making a raw recruit into a three star general immediately after training?" Sam said
"Yea, well you know how much I care about what other people think." O'Neill replied starting to get annoyed
"Yes, I do know that you completely ignore what people think. But why three stars directly? Going from a raw recruit to three stars directly is a lot to ask of someone, why not start with something a little easier, like Captain, Major or Colonel?" Sam said
"Hey, you know as well as I do that he's not a raw recruit. He's been handling guns on missions for years now and he's saved the asses of several people from the Stargate program, including me and yourself. I actually think it's going to gain a lot of support from within our own walls from the people that he's saved, which frankly is everyone. He's a good man and if he's going to rebuild Area 51 and be the chief scientist on Aliens it'll be much easier for him to make decisions without the military interrupting and deciding what they should focus their work on. And that's the last of it, it's decided, he's going to have to get his ass through training camp and then I'll give him the stars." O'Neill said annoyed
"Well I think you might be right sir. Even if many will think that it's going to be weird to be commanded by a doctor." Sam said
"And that's exactly why he's going to do this, that way he'll be a Major General and they'll look at him as such." O'Neill said with a finality in his voice that left no room for discussion. "And besides you're a doctor in Astrophysics and no one complains about that!"
"That's true sir. I guess you're right. But I'm wondering about the training." Sam said
"Yea, what about it?" O'Neill said irritated
"Well, he did that before General Hammond would allow him to carry a weapon when we where on missions." Sam said
"So that makes it even easier, I'll just have to make him sign up and then it's done." O'Neill said happily
"I guess so, but you know what he thinks about the military and our ways. It won't be easy." Sam answered
"Then it'll be even easier. He'll be in control of the military resources so I doubt he'll complain and if I make it so he'll answer only to me I think he'll be happy." O'Neill said with a big smile
"That could actually work sir." Sam replied
"I know, that's why I'm in command." O'Neill said.
Junction. Above the lower levels. Atlantis.
McKay was standing above the hatch with a datapad in hand.
"How's it going McKay?" Sheppard said
"I'm working as fast as I can ok?" McKay answered a bit irritated
"Well work faster."
"Take it easy. I'm almost done here. Just a little… little… more. Done"
As he said that the replicator in the tunnel melted back into human form and started walking out of the tunnel towards the hatch.
"Eh, McKay you do have this thing under control I hope?" Sheppard said.
"Of course I do. I ordered him to go back to Lucius and follow his commands."
"Well then let us fix the junction."
"Yea. Can't be that hard can it?" Daniel said, he'd arrived just moments before from the transporter booth.
"No, they probably did it digitally." McKay said
"Nevertheless I guess we should get going." Sheppard said going in to the tunnel the replicator had blocked
He walked down the tunnel took a right and saw a large white sphere with several cables going in through holes with a blue line around.
"McKay, Daniel, get down here. I'm going to need some help down here."
"Ok, come on McKay let's get going." Daniel said
"Fine, but stop pushing me around." McKay complained.
They jumped down the hatch, well Daniel did and McKay sort of slipped down the edge and got down to the floor, when the got to Sheppard they where both shocked at the sight of the hub.
"Wow, it will take some time to find to problem in this mess." McKay said
"Or we just put the cable back in place." Daniel said holding a cable that was lose, he then put the cable back in place and the slot he putt it in lit up.
The group went back to the hatch and was greeted by Lucius standing in the corridor next to Teal'c.
"Hello guys. It's good to be back in Atlantis." Lucius said smiling.
"Happy to help." Daniel said.
"I take it you don't know about Atlantia since we're sitting so far away from her?"
"No we don't. But I've heard about it, I thought it was some misspelling or misunderstanding when the tablets and other writings was written."
"Slow down now. What's Atlantia?" Sheppard interrupted
"Well think about it. Atlantis is said to be the city of the Ancient, but it's pretty small for being a city don't you think? We know there was millions of the Ancient, at least at some point. Not everyone could have lived in Atlantis but there's no other traces of them living on Earth. What if Atlantis was only the tip of the iceberg? What if there's a real city of the Ancient down there? It was mentioned on the tablet that spoke of Atlantis, but since is and ia have very similar signs, there's only one line separating them from each other, I thought that it was a misspelling." Daniel said enthusiastically
"I think it's pretty big considering no all of it's been explored yet." Sheppard said
"Well, you've only been a few hundred at any one time here and with power running low you've not been able to safely explore all the parts of the city. With a few thousand people we could search the city in a couple of weeks."
"I guess you're right. So where's this grand city of yours then Lucius?" Sheppard asked
"Where did we use to hide things?" Lucius said with a smirk
"Let me guess, at the bottom of the ocean?" McKay said
"Yes, waters pretty amazing, so we like to have it our guardians. It's in the middle of what you call the Atlantic Ocean, just past the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and then take a right towards the South Pole, it's on the left side, you can't miss it." Lucius said
"Well then, let's go see it, meet us at the control room, but wait for us to call on you, don't want you to scare O'Neill." Sheppard said
As Lucius disappeared the group took the transporter booth back to the control room.
Control Room, Atlantis.
"So what did you find down there?" O'Neill said
"Well, meet Lucius, he's Atlantis AI it seems." Daniel said with his childish smile, as he said that Lucius appeared and walked up to O'Neill.
"Hello O'Neill." Lucius said
"Well hello Lucius. Didn't think I would see you again." O'Neill said
"What you two know each other?" McKay said
"Well I don't think know is the right word. He's what they put inside the head sucker. He's the one who was downloaded into my mind, twice." O'Neill said angrily
"Oh, I see, that must have been one of the pieces of my mind that disappeared when the Ancient left." Lucius
"Wait, pieces of your mind?" Sam said
"Yes, some of my memories and though processes was downloaded or copied before the true Ancients left Atlantis. I'm fragmented. I guess they put me into the libraries to help the user with the knowledge, so they wouldn't get overloaded the moment they used it." Lucius said
"Wait, you mean that you knew that it would overload our minds?" Sheppard said
"Yes, even among us only the previously ascended where able to survive it. I'd like to have the pieces of my mind back if you could help me." Lucius said.
"We'll see about doing that, unfortunately two of those pieces where destroyed by the Asgard when they helped me." O'Neill said.
"I highly doubt it. Sure the Asgard where advanced but to removed the knowledge you'd need the chair that is in the lower section and I doubt that they have anything that advanced even now. It's more likely that they locked it up somewhere in your brain and so with any luck I can extract the parts from your brain."
"And how do you know that it'll work?"
"We've done it countless of times. Most wouldn't survive the process but we removed the knowledge before they died, no problems."
"Well then do it. But we don't know where the rest of the libraries, as you called them, are, they could be anywhere." O'Neill said
"That won't be a problem. They each send out a subtle subspace signal that Atlantis can track."
"Well then we'll get them here and you'll dismantle and download what you need."
"Just a small problem. I can't download anything from them. It'll only respond to something living, so a human will have to activate it and carry the information here."
"Well that complicates things then. I don't think anyone will do that."
"I'll do it." Daniel said stepping forward "You said that only former ascended could survive it. I've ascended several times so I should have a better chance than most."
"Are you sure about this Daniel?" Sam said. "You know what it did to O'Neill."
"Yes, but to even grasp that knowledge for a moment would be worth dying for." Daniel said steadfast
"Then it's decided. We should get started as soon as possible." Lucius said with a big smile
"Hold your horses, we've got things to do here first. Like figuring out what those dots on the map are." O'Neill said.
"Another thing, you know when we searched for Atlantis and I was confused about the different spelling on different parts of the tablet? Turns out that it wasn't a misspelling. There's a city called Atlantia and it's on the bottom of the ocean." Daniel said
"And what do you want me to do with that information?" O'Neill said "We're in San Francisco bay under cloak, we can't submerge here, that would look weird if we used the shield and using the cloak we'd flood the city."
"Sir. That might not be a problem. We've got enough power to do, well anything; we've got limitless power. We could use the cloak and shield at the same time, by using half the emitters as cloaks and half as shield we could go bellow the surface and then we'd got there under the surface or we could fly the city, we've got enough power to cloak anything right now including the water vapor that's caused by lift of and with the shield we could contain the vapor to. There's nothing to stop us from getting there." Sam said looking up from a console showing a big increase in power output
"Well then, I guess we might as well go there then. It's better then to stay here; there are too much people in the vicinity either way. Prepare to do it. I'll just have to run this by the president." O'Neill said as he turned around and walked of towards the hangar bay.
Hangar bay. Atlantis.
O'Neill walked in to a jumper and closed the door behind him; he sat down in the pilot seat and called the president from the jumpers internal systems to the presidents newly installed version of an Ancient screen in the Oval Office.
"Hello mister president. We've found something new and I'd like to take Atlantis to investigate it." O'Neill said
"You know I trust your judgment, but I thought we couldn't lift of or submerge the city without giving Atlantis away?" The president answered
"Well things have changed. We found something else to power Atlantis, it gives of so much power that half of the emitters could give us the shield strength that we get from all emitters and three ZPMs, the other half of the emitters could be used to cloak the city. That way we could submerge the city without leaving a big hole in the ocean." O'Neill said
"Very well. You've got a green light. Do it, but be discrete. I'll be coming over to Atlantis in a few days time so make sure it's nice and tidy."
"Thank you mister president." O'Neill said as he stood up and saluted the president before terminating the link.
Control Room. Atlantis.
"We've got a go people. But be discrete." O'Neil screamed as he returned from the hangar bay.
"Yes sir." Was heard from around the room as people rushed to their stations.
"Is everything ready Sam?" O'Neill asked
"Yes Sir. We'll be going under the surface in thirty seconds. Sheppard's in the chair room ready to take us down. McKay's in his lab checking some things and Daniel and Teal'c went to start the project on designing the new Area 51 with the help of Lucius." Sam replied
"Good then take us down."
"Sheppard, you've got the green light. Take us down." Sam said into the radio
"Copy that." Sheppard answered
A few moments after Sheppard said that they felt how Atlantis started to sink beneath their feet. The water started to crawl up the shield and they saw the surface disappear.
"What do you think that we'll find?" O'Neill asked
"Well I've got no idea, but it could be anything from a large city to one more city-ship." Sam replied
"Guess we'll have to wait and see."
As the water enveloped the entire city they fell over to with O'Neill getting stuck below Sam as Sheppard accelerated the city sideways.
"Sorry sir." Sam said blushing a bit as she pulled herself onto her feet and then helped O'Neill back on his feet.
"Don't worry, it happens." He replied smiling from the feeling of her lying on him.
"Sheppard, be gently or I'll take over the controls." O'Neill then shouted into the radio
"Sorry Sir, I'll be more gentle." Sheppard replied
"Great driving Sheppard" Daniel said over the radio. "Now Area 51 will be upside down and the drones will shoot into the ground."
"As I said, I'm sorry." Sheppard replied
Atlantis continued to move towards the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
"Eh, Carter, why are we in the Pacific Ocean? Wasn't Atlantia in the Atlantic Ocean?" O'Neill said a bit confused looking at a map.
"Yes, but it'll be faster to go here, fly over the USA and then land in the Atlantic Ocean." Sam replied
"Ok, but still seems odd to me."
"Trust me sir."
The city started to rise and the shield penetrated the water. When the entire city was above the water Sheppard power up the engines. Again there was a bump and O'Neill and Sam fell, again Sam landed on top of O'Neill, again Sam blushed and O'Neill smiled.
"Don't worry about it." He said, he then took up the radio. "Sheppard put the city back onto the water. I'm taking over."
"Sorry Sir. I'm on it." Sheppard replied with shame in his voice.
When they touched down on the water there was a bump again, but this time O'Neill managed to grab a console with one hand and Carter's waist with the other before they fell.
"Thank you Sir." Sam said blushing even more.
"No problem. Do you mind showing me to the chair please?" He replied
"Of course sir."
They walked of towards the closest transporter booth and then made their way to the chair.
Chair Room. Atlantis. Pacific Ocean.
"Well your not going to be driving this thing any time soon. Thought you where the best one at this?" O'Neill said to Sheppard
"It's like being used to driving with a pedal car and then get thrown into a Ferrari and told to race it. It's hard as hell." Sheppard complained.
"Watch and learn." O'Neill said and sat down in the chair.
He started to crank up the engines slowly and the city took of slowly at first but accelerated faster and faster. After a few minutes they landed in the Atlantic Ocean, this time there was no bump and because O'Neill had shaped the shield into a spike the city immediately submerged itself under the surface. A couple of more minutes and the sensors began to pick up Atlantia.
"My god, it's huge." A scientist monitoring the sensors data exclaimed.
Lucius appeared in the chair room.
"Behold Atlantia." Lucius said and showed hologram of Atlantis and Atlantia. "Built to hold our entire civilization without problem if needed. She was our final huge project and one of our biggest. Her towers reach several kilometers and she's got enough internal space to hold three billion people if needed without it getting to crowded. How I've missed her."
"Wow" was heard inside the room and the entire city as people saw Atlantia approach. O'Neill slowly got Atlantis right above the city and scanned Atlantia.
"Lucius, where am I supposed to park this thing?" O'Neill said
"Hold on a minute. I'm trying to get in touch with her AI, but all I'm getting is an automated reply telling us to wait for instructions, seems like she's unplugged too. You mind putting her back in?" Lucius said
"Can't we land manually?" Sheppard said
"You could, but the margin for error is less then a nanometer. So I'd like to get a helping hand from her much rather then going down blind." Lucius replied
"So I guess we've got no choice then. Sheppard take McKay and Teal'c down there and get that thing powered up." O'Neill ordered
"You should take three ZPMs down there to get her going with enough power to find the error. She's a bit bigger then me, so she needs more juice." Lucius said
"Very well. I'll get it online." Sheppard said "But we've only got one ZPM that has still got power."
"Not true, have you forgot what I've told you about the ZPM? Recharge? Take two of my back ups in exchange for two empty and I'll recharge your empty ones when mine are full again. The replicator is already on his way with two and then he'll find two empty and recharge them in my generators." Lucius said "If you go to the hangar bay I'll redirect him there."
"Sounds good. I'll get the team and go." Sheppard said
Sheppard ran out of the room to get McKay and Teal'c.
"O'Neill shall we start the download from your mind?" Lucius said.
"Give me a minute, I need to talk to Daniel first. I'll meet you downstairs." O'Neill replied
"Very well. But Daniel is already down here with me trying to design some facility he calls Area 51"
"I guess I might as well come down then."
"That would be the most efficient way."
Design Room. Atlantis. Atlantic Ocean.
O'Neill entered the room to see a large schematic of a facility floating in the air.
"So what's this thing you've built here?" O'Neill said
"It's what I'm hopping to make the new Area 51 into." Daniel replied
"And what's the price tag on this facility?"
"A bit more than the budget the SGC has had for the last ten years, combined." Daniel said looking into the ground
"Well I think you'll have to redesign this place then."
"Yea, I'm working on that. But you've given me a very tight budget to do it on."
"Yes and that's the reason I'm here, I could increase your budget so you could build one fifth of this every year instead of one two percent every year."
"Well then do it." Daniel said frustrated
"I can't do it just like that. To do that I would need a military to be in charge and last time I checked you're not a military." O'Neill said
"No I'm not, so what you want me to put someone from the military I charge of this and try to make him follow my orders?"
"No, I want you to be in charge and to be the only one in command, after me and Carter of course. So I want you to sign up and become a military commander so I won't have the problem with giving you more funding."
"You know what I think of the military Jack. I don't like to be told what to do by anyone thinking with their trigger finger."
"That's why I want to make you a Major General and make me and Carter the only ones you answer to. That way you'll be able to tell other people what to do."
"No, I won't do it." Daniel said having made up his mind
"Then that founding you've got could be diminished by a lot."
"You can't do that"
"Oh yea? Watch me!"
"Fine, I'll do it then, but only if you promise to make yourself and Carter the only ones I've to listen to."
"Done and done. Welcome to the service." O'Neill said with a smile
"Thanks, I guess. Can I get back to work now?" Daniel said
"Sure but I'll need to use the chair first. Lucius let's do this."
"I'm ready when you are." Lucius said as he appeared in front of the duo.
O'Neill walked up to the chair and sat down. The chair activated and after just a couple of seconds it deactivated again.
"It's done O'Neill. Thank you, I feel more whole then I've done in a long time." Lucius said. "Now I've got a request to make of you. I'd like to make two more replicators, one to search the database and compare the difference of the backup and the primary one, a second replicator to accompany your team and protect the ZPMs and the third that I've already got will help Daniel to recover the libraries and their information."
"Why do you need my permission to do that?" O'Neill asked
"Well, I'm designed so that I can't make anything without the permission of the highest standing person walking my halls at any given time or the permission of anyone that has been granted permission by the highest standing one. You can also allow everyone to make certain things or ban some things for everyone or just some."
"Very well, but I want them to consider everyone from the Stargate program a friendly and no duplicating either."
"Thank you, it's been done." Lucius said. In the building room two human form replicators took shape, they headed towards the doors leading to the corridor outside the design room.
"Now onto the permissions, no one without permission is allowed to make weapons or explosive. Daniel and Sam have permission to build anything they like. Oh and can you make six stars which looks like this" he pointed to the stars on his shoulders "and one uniform which looks like mine but in Daniels size."
"Permissions set. Stars and uniforms are synthesized, sending replicator to retrieve them." Lucius said
"Thank you Lucius. Now, more permissions. The president is allowed to make anything. Captains of spaceships of the Stargate program are allowed to request anything except personal weapons and explosives, they also have permission to beam anything out of here."
"Permissions updated. Beaming out of this section is not possible. Small things can be gated to Atlantis gate and then beamed while bigger things will have to go through the supergater."
"Lucius, could it be possible to have a beaming array down here and then connect it to another array on the outside for transport?" Daniel asked
"That could work if we had beaming technology that would send things that far. Unfortunately we could not build such things." Lucius answered
"Well we can. The Asgard managed to build transporters that works over any distance." Daniel said
"Well then, bring me a blueprint and I'll build and install it in Atlantis with the help of replicators."
"Cater, send Lucius a blueprint on an Asgard transporter. We're going to build one and install it in Atlantis so we can get stuff out of this room." O'Neill said into the radio
"Will do Sir. You should have it now." Carter responded
"I've got it now. It's a bit crude but I think I understand the principles. Give me a couple of hours and I'll build and install the array on this side and then a couple of more hours to do the same on the other side and connect them." Lucius said. "Permission to create replicators for labor?"
"Granted." O'Neill said.
Jumper Bay. Atlantis. Atlantic Ocean
The replicator arrived first and so it moved towards jumper one, minutes after the replicator Sheppard, McKay and Teal'c came.
"Ah, guess you're the replicator." McKay said
"Yes, that I am. My orders are to follow you to Atlantia and keep the ZPMs safe." The replicator said
"Wait, I thought you where supposed to deliver the ZPMs and then collect our empty ZPMs before going back and recharge them." Sheppard said
"O'Neill gave Lucius permission to make two more of us. Number One is going to go through the database and sync the old one with the new one. Number Two is going to assist in the recovery of the libraries, I'm Number Three and my task is to help you with anything that you require on this mission and also safeguard the ZPMs." The replicator said.
"So where's the ZPMs then?" McKay said
"They're safe with me." The replicator answered, the nanites in his chest separating to reveal three ZPMs inside his body.
"Well, guess that's a good a place as any." Sheppard said
"Yes and they give me extra power, it'll take much to take me down right now." The replicator said.
"Shall we get going?" Teal'c interrupted.
"Yes, everyone suit up. Where going down into Atlantia." Sheppard said.
Everyone entered the jumper and the hatch closed behind them, Sheppard sat down in the pilots seat and the jumper took of.
"This I jumper one."
"This is Atlantis. You're clear for take of."
"Thank you Atlantis. See you when you land." With those words Sheppard piloted the jumper out of the hangar bay and the jumper raced towards the shield and the water on the other side, as the jumper reached the shield it entered the water and changed course towards Atlantia.
THE END
That's the end of it for this time.
I hope you liked it.
With any luck the action will start in a couple of chapters, I'm sorry for the slow start, but I feel that I need to have a solid foundation to build onto.
Please R&R.
The next chapter will take longer to come out since I'm going to school and the last weeks are full of stuff that needs doing.
See you next time.
Re-wrote small parts of the chapter and polished some things.