So here's the next one.
Happy reading.
Tower System. Pegasus.
The fleet had jumped back to the system that the Tower is located in. McKay and Beckett was working on Beckett's command ship to prepare to transfer Weir from her replicator body to her new organic body. While they where doing that Sheppard was making his way from his ship to the hangar where the rescued people where located. Arriving at the door leading to the hangar he entered, flanked by two marines, when the people saw them they got up on their feet and ran up to Sheppard, pointing their guns and holding the people at bay more marines rushed inside to help hold back the people.
"Calm down people. We are here to help you, not to hurt you. Can the leaders from the villages please come here? I want the rest of you to stand back so no one gets hurt."
Hearing the warning in Sheppard's voice the people stepped away from the marines, who had a hard time holding them back even with their Atlas armors, four limping figures freed themselves from the group and walked up to Sheppard, presenting themselves as the leaders.
"Hello. We mean you no harm, if you know the address of your Stargate we will return you to your planets." Sheppard said
"You mean the ring of the ancestors?" One of the leaders asked.
"That's the one."
"Then the answer is yes. We all know of how to get back home." Another of the leaders said.
"But there's another problem, most of these are from other places and know not how to get home." The third leader said pointing at the group of people.
"We will take care of that, if we can't find their home then we will find them a new planet to live on." Sheppard said
"Thank you." Three of the leaders said as they turned around and walked back to the saved people. The fourth stayed behind and looked Sheppard in the eyes; to Sheppard's surprise what he saw was not two eyes but two hollow caverns.
"Is that you Eldred?" Sheppard said in surprise
"Yes, things change, don't they?" Eldred replied with a smile.
"Who did this to you?"
"It was an accident. A few weeks after we no longer could contact you, the Wraith came from the sky and took a lot of people, but some of us fought back, with the help of the generator you gave us we managed to shoot down a couple of darts, unfortunately one of them crashed through a window and pieces of glass got stuck in my eyes."
"That is both good and bad news, how many of you where left?"
"Everyone I know that survived the culling's is here now. But something I think is more important to you is that Mara is hurt and she needs medical attention."
"Where is she?"
"She's over there with the others." Eldred said pointing at the people.
Turning to two marines he ordered them to take her to Beckett before turning back to Eldred.
"You should go with them and get those holes checked out, we have some nice technology here, maybe there's something Beckett can do for you." Sheppard said.
"Thank you but I'm fine and I doubt that there's something he can do to get my eyesight back." Eldred replied.
"I insist and it looks like your people won't allow her to be taken to Beckett, so how about you follow her there and get checked while you're already there?" Sheppard said and motioned towards a group that was pushing away the marines from Mara, realizing that Eldred didn't see he instead described what was happening.
"Ha-ha. Well I guess I better go then." Eldred said laughing at the description as he followed the noise back to his people where he calmed them down enough to let the marines carry away Mara. With Eldred holding onto the arm of one marine they left and when they where outside the room a flash of light enveloped the group and moved them to Beckett's personal infirmary where Keller was waiting for them and quickly got to work on Mara when the marines had placed her on a bed.
Beckett's Command Class Ship. Pegasus.
Beckett and McKay was standing in a room surrounded by monitors and consoles, on one side of the room computer codes was flashing by on the monitors and on the other side medical information was shown on the monitors. The two doctors where standing in the different halves of the room looking through information on both Elizabeth's replicator and organic body, feeling satisfied with what they saw they started the transfer.
Transfer room. Beckett's Command Class Ship. Pegasus.
Elizabeth was feeling strange, as if she was having a massive hangover but without the headache. Opening her eyes she felt light stinging in her eyes, forcing her to shut them again. As more and more senses responded she felt wet all over her body and heard the clucking of fluid in her ears. Forcing her eyes open again she saw that she was in fact in some fluid but that her mouth and nose was covered in a mask with tubes coming out of it and going into the roof, then the light became to much and she had to close her eyes again. As the top of her head came above the fluid she felt cold, then her face and then the rest of her body, piece by piece. As the fluid slowly retreated into the floor she feel down on her knees before managing to get her legs to carry her weight.
The glass tube she was in opened in the front similar to a Destiny stasis chamber. Looking outside of the tube she saw a room without windows.
"Hello Elizabeth. Welcome back to the land of the living. There should be a chair with a uniform in front of you." A voice said.
Looking around in confusion she saw the chair with the uniform and realized that she was completely naked from head to toe. Removing the mask from her face she walked up to the chair as fast as she could, she took up the uniform and sat down on the chair, feeling the cold metal against her bare back she jolted back up and decided against siting down while putting on her clothes, instead she balanced on one leg as she pulled on her underwear and pants and then sitting down while putting on her bra, shirt and socks. Looking around the room wondering what to do next her gaze fell upon herself lying on a table, seeing herself lying there with cables sticking out of her body she felt as if she was in a horror movie.
"If you're all dressed there should be a poker chip in your left front pocket, press it when you're done and we will get you out of there." The voice said.
Looking around for anything she searched the room for several minutes before accepting that the poker chip was her only way out and she took it out of her pocket and pressed it. The moment she did a signal was sent to the ships and she was beamed out of the room and into the room where McKay and Beckett where working.
"There you are." McKay said with a broad smile.
"Come here, I need to make sure that you're alright." Beckett said with an even broader smile, not waiting for her to move her walked over to her and started to examine her.
"So I take it that voice was one of you?" Elizabeth said with a smile
"Yes, it was Beckett." McKay said.
"I don't see any windows here, how did you know that I was awake?" Elizabeth said
"We used these and a lot of guessing." McKay said pointing to the monitors.
"So you never saw me naked?" Elizabeth said relieved
"Nope, the only one who did that was Lucius and Maximus." McKay said
"Who are they?" Elizabeth said
"Well it's a long story." McKay said and beamed in two chairs, they sat down and McKay started to tell Elizabeth what had happened since she had died, after a while when he was happy with her health Beckett ran of to help Keller with Mara and Eldred, after a few hours McKay was done with his story, at first Elizabeth was skeptical but after a while she started to think that it was to amazing to be a lie and she accepted it as the truth, they stood up and McKay helped Elizabeth, her legs still a bit wobbly from the transfer, to get to a set of rings in the back of the room, when they got there he pressed a few buttons on his arm, the rings activated and sent them to Sheppard's command class ship. The room they arrived in was as large as a normal living room and there where several more rooms making the suite as big as a normal house.
"This suite was built to make it easier for you to get back into shape and to help you catch up with what's been happening while you had your holiday. There's a room in the back where you can explore the corridors of Atlantia and Atlantis so you feel at home there, we also have live data from internal sensors from every ship here so you can explore and get to know the crew as if you where there, they of course won't see you, that way you will know who we have here. There's another room where you can read mission reports and other things you'd like to read, there's newspapers from all over the world from the time you died to a few days back, we will update it every time we dial back to rapport. Other things like food and such will be taken care of, just say the word and Maximus will fix it." McKay said
"Thank you and thank you for bringing me back." Elizabeth said with a smile
"No problem, but now I have to get back to my ship and take care of a few things." McKay said before turning around and walking back to the rings, just as he was about to depart he remembered something, reached down to a pocket on his right leg and picked up a FMC, he threw it to Elizabeth who caught it but fell flat into her stomach, McKay just laughed and ringed back to his own ship.
Observation deck. Sheppard's command class ship.
A few days later, with most of the rescued people sent home and the rest moved to the planet bellow, Sheppard walked into the observation deck of his ship, standing on the deck was Elizabeth.
"Hello Elizabeth." He said
"Hello John."
"I thought that you where going to stay in your suite and catch up on things."
"I got bored with it, what has happened has happened and I'd rather get to know the ships and their crews first hand."
"Well it's up to you how you do it, just don't rush things. Wouldn't want you to get burnt out the first thing you do."
"Let me worry about that. You've got enough to think about with all of these ships."
"Well, as long as we stay stationary it's not that much of a headache, Maximus takes care of most of the logistic. Our biggest worry is that we haven't established a base yet; sure we can stay out here as long as we need, but it would feel better to have a safe location to land our ships at, a world where we could place our Supergate."
"Have you tried to ask Mara and Eldred if we can stay here?"
"No, I guess we never though of building an outpost on a planet where there already lived people."
"Well go ask her, I talked with her for a while and it sounds like the Tower is empty except for her, Eldred and Petra."
"I know that it's mostly empty, but still."
"Go ask her, what's the worst thing that could happen?"
"A no I guess."
"Correct."
"Fine, I'll do it later, I'm going to talk to Larrin about the Travelers situation soon, but after that I'll get down to the planet and speak to them."
"You do that and I'll continue to get familiar with the ships. Do you know what all of the are named?"
"Some I know, some I don't'. The cruisers all go under the name Max wing so we don't really have a name for the separate ones. The carrier is called Cyclone and the Auroras are called Viking and Valkyrie. I think someone said the transports where called Falcon and Trition. Beckett named his command class ship the Serenity and McKay is calling his the Nightmare, weird name for a spaceship if you ask me, that's the ones I know of."
"So you think calling your command class ships the Reaper and the Heroica is better than Nightmare?"
"Well yes, his ship is a science ship, a very heavy science ship, but still a science ship. He won't see much combat in that thing, but I will."
"Seriously? I don't even know how you got some of these names approved. The scout ships are named Argo, Normandy, Tantive, Piranha, Shadow and Serpent while the science ships are named Talos, Illaria, Trinity and Zodiac."
"Well the crews got to vote and O'Neill approved the names with a laugh."
"Still, thought you of all people would pick a serious name for your first ship."
"Then you don't know me good enough."
"Still, the Reaper and the Heroica?"
"Why so serious?" Sheppard said and moved towards the door.
"Get out of here, you've got things to do and I need to get to know the crew better." Elizabeth said as she saw Sheppard's motion towards the door, Sheppard walked out of the room relived to have gotten away from a lecture on what name a ship should have.
Remembering Larrin's request he moved to the closest set of rings and ringed over to the rings closest to the hangar the Travelers where living in. Walking into the hangar he was surprised by what he saw, from the small Traveler ship the Travelers had managed to build a small community of what looked like bungalows, some where larger than others, clearly meant for families, in the middle sat the striped husk their old ship, out of it came cables that moved out to the huts. Out of one hut near the ship Larrin emerged, alerted to his presence by some kids who where running up to Sheppard screaming things. Making her way out of the huts she pushed the kids back towards the huts and walked up to Sheppard.
"Hello Sheppard. Nice of you to come by."
"Well you wanted to see me."
"Yes, we have to talk about our situation."
"What about it? Is there anything you need?"
"Yes, freedom and a chance to strike back at the Wraith."
"Well we can have you moved to a planet and help you get some basic technology going."
"That would be good for the kids and some of the older people, but the rest of us wants to take the fight to the Wraith and eradicate them, I heard that your mission is somewhat similar."
"Yes, our mission is to exterminate the Wraith as a species."
"Then I request that those of us that want to help are allowed to serve in your crews or among your soldiers. My ship was the last of our ships and even we can't hope to repair it."
"Are you sure that this is what you want?"
"Yes, we want the Wraith dead, it's either them or us; one is going to get wiped from the face of this galaxy."
"How many of you are there?"
"About one hundred that can be of any use and fifty that are to old, to young or are injured in some way so that they can't serve on a ship."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you Sheppard." Larrin said before taking two steps up to Sheppard and giving him a hug, Sheppard was so surprised that he only could hug her back. After a few seconds Larrin let go and walked back to the huts to tell her people the good news. Sheppard waited a few more moments before turning around, leaving the room and making his way to the hangar where he took a jumper to the surface of the planet.
Tower. Tower planet. Pegasus.
The people of the nearby village were looking up in awe as they saw Sheppard's jumper approach the tower. Arriving at the tower he parked outside the entrance and walked inside.
"Hello." He shouted as he entered the control room. In response Mara's head looked around a corner and she waved him over. Having cut her hair very short because it was more practical she was still as beautiful as before. When the ZPM was drained many of the other people living in the Tower had moved out and helped in the villages with whatever they could, she was now living in the Tower together with Eldred and Petra and together they tried to make heads and tails of the technology in the city. Despite being somewhat primitive they where making progress, much thanks to Sheppard who brought them a Naquada-generator so they could power some systems. At the moment she was working under a console with Petra and Eldred nowhere in sight.
When he got to her he crouched down and saw that she was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, but made out of red leather, from several pockets on the shorts things poked out, some looked like screwdrivers and spanners. She was holding several crystals that she tried to fit into the underside of the console, to his surprise the console lit up for a short while but then died again, frustrated she placed the crystals on the floor and crawled out from under the console.
"Hello John."
"Hello Mara. How's it going?"
"Right now it's going pretty bad, but at least the chair is working again. Most of what's broken is fried crystals or lack of power. We suspect that some sort of power surge took out most of the crystals, might have been a lightning strike."
"Sounds like you have your hands full. Where's Eldred and Petra by the way?"
"Yes we do. They're in the village getting some food, should be back soon."
"So what do you trade for the food?"
"Nothing, they are used to giving much of what they produce to the Tower, so feeding three mouths is no problem at all and they're happy to do it as long as we do our best to protect them from the Wraith."
"And how is it going with the protection part?"
"Pretty good, we've taken out a few darts and have only lost five people to culling's in the last year. So what brings you here?"
"Well there's this thing I need to ask you, as you know where're searching for a place to build a base, so far we have some problems finding a planet that's not inhabited already."
"So you want to build a base here?"
"Well yes, if that's not to much to ask. We will build far away from any village and do our best to protect the planet from the Wraith."
"That's out of the question." She said angrily
"Well it was worth a try, we will keep…"
"If you're going to have a base on this planet you're going to build it here in the Tower."
"Here? But I thought you where trying to restore it?"
"Yes, but we could use your help with it and it would be a lot easier to learn how all of it works if we had the necessary components instead of trying to salvage things from other systems."
"Are you sure? Won't Eldred and Petra have something against it?"
"Yes I'm sure and I think they will like the idea of getting the Tower back into shape."
"Then I have to return to the fleet and prepare." Sheppard said, as he was about to turn around and run out of the room to his jumper, but Mara grabbed the belt that held up his pants and pulled him back, working on the Tower had made her surprisingly strong.
"Not so fast." She said.
Pulling him back she grabbed his waist and pulled him in close before kissing him, Sheppard didn't resist but instead returned the kiss, after a minute Sheppard broken the kiss and turned around and went back towards his jumper with a silly smile on his face.
"About time you two did that." Eldred said from the door Sheppard was heading for.
"Hello to you too Eldred." Sheppard said
"Hello." Petra said from besides Eldred.
"So was there anything Beckett could do to help you?" Sheppard said
"Actually there was. These things you call nanites are amazing, if used correctly." Eldred said and looked up at Sheppard, instead of the two holes that where there before Sheppard saw two green eyes, then they changed to blue and then yellow.
"He gave you new eyes made of nanites?"
"Yes, with the help of someone called Maximus."
"Ah, well how do they work?"
"Just fine. I can see sharper than ever before and I can see more than before, I think you call it infrared and ultraviolet."
"Wait a minute, you can see infrared and ultraviolet light?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Wow."
"I say the same."
"Well I've got to get back to the fleet, Mara made me a offer that I can't refuse."
"What did she offer?"
"Well ask her yourselves, she said that you'd like the idea."
"She promised that you could help us out with restoring the Tower and use it as a base didn't she?" Petra said
"How do you know? Did Beckett give you super ears?"
"Ha-ha, no but she's been talking about it and how she was going to ask you if you'd do it."
"Really? Well if you two don't mind I'd like to accept her offer."
"I would be honored to have you here." Eldred said.
"You have done so much for us that we'd be fools to say no." Petra said.
"Great, now if you'll excuse me. I've got to get back and start to prepare for this." Sheppard said and walked past the couple to his jumper. When he got to the jumper he sat down in the pilot seat and simply thought about what they just been offered. After a while he snapped back to reality and took of in the jumper towards the fleet, when he got there he parked in the hangar of the Reaper and walked of to the conference room. There he sent a message to O'Neill that he needed to speak to him.
"Maximus, I need to talk to you." Sheppard said into the air.
"I'm listening." Maximus said as his hologram was projected in front of Sheppard.
"See that City-Ship down there?" Sheppard said as he pointed on the Tower on a holographic map.
"Yes, it's in a very bad state of decay."
"How long would it take to rebuild it?"
"Several years without materials judging from the data I have, with proper materials I think it can be done in a year, tops."
"Well get started as fast as you can, start with the central tower and work your way outwards, salvage anything which can't be repaired from the rest of the city."
"I will begin as soon as possible."
"Good, summon Beckett, Rodney and Elizabeth here."
"Done." Maximus said as his hologram dissolved, this was going to take time he thought, better get started right now. Making a few replicators, a green gate and a ring platform he beamed them down inside the Tower where the replicators installed the gate and rings before setting out to explore the city.
O'Neill appeared as a hologram on the other side of the table.
"You wanted to see me?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes sir. With your permission I'll be sending some natives back to you for some training with our ships and gear."
"Who are these natives?"
"The last of the Travelers, we rescued a single ship and now they want the Wraith dead."
"How many?"
"Around a hundred."
"Are you sure that we can trust them?"
"Yes sir. They want the Wraith dead and I say we let them help us."
"Granted, send them trough when you have the time." O'Neill said after thinking a few seconds.
At that time McKay, Beckett and Weir appeared as holograms around the conference table.
"Looks like your hunch was correct Elizabeth." Sheppard said
"So we get to set up a base down there?" She replied
"I got something better than that, we get to rebuild and use the Tower."
"How long will this take?" O'Neill said.
"Maximus told me around a year if he gets the materials needed."
"Hm, we will send you some of the surplus from the facility in the Hepstus system, but you need to build your own infrastructure if you're hopping to have enough materials for the repair of that thing."
"Yes sir. We're going to seek out some planets with the needed resources and set up our own mining facilities with the first load you send."
"Good, if there's nothing else I have an expedition to lead."
"Nothing else to report." Sheppard said and turned to his colleagues.
"So we have a base now?" McKay said
"Yep, now we only need to build it and for that we need materials."
"I'll go look through the database." McKay said, already knowing what was coming, as he disappeared and went to work looking for planets to mine.
"I'll be going to meet the people of the planet bellow and get to know them a little bit better." Elizabeth said and disappeared.
"I'll be going too, have some people that needs my attention." Beckett said and disappeared, leaving Sheppard alone in the room. Sheppard got up and made his way to the hangar where the Travelers where living. Seeing Sheppard approach from her hut Larrin got up and went to greet him.
"I've got some good news for you and then some great news." Sheppard said
"Don't keep me waiting." Larrin replied with a smile
"Your request has been approved, as soon as you're ready the ones that want will go through the gate to Earth where you'll be thought to fit in and use the tech we have on our ships."
"Thank you, but last time we compared we knew as much as you knew, if not more, about Ancient ships, so I doubt that you can teach us anything."
"Last time we didn't have a fleet of Ancient fleet or the other things that are back on Earth. If you want to fight the Wraith on our side this is how it's happening."
"Fine, but I doubt that we will learn something."
"We will see about that."
"What's the great news then?"
"Well I think we have found something for the people that can't serve on a ship. We're going to need a lot of raw materials in this war so I offer them the chance to help in this war by taking care of the mining outposts. It will mostly be siting in a chair and ordering the replicators around but it's better than nothing."
"Thank you, I'm sure that they will be happy to help in any way they can." Larrin said with a smile so large that Sheppard was surprised that it fitted on her face.
"Don't thank me, I'm the one who should thank you, we're going to need every help we can get to win this war." Sheppard said.
"Nevertheless we are in your debt Sheppard."
"Don't worry about it, just tell me when you're ready to move out of here." Sheppard said, he turned around and was about to walk away when he heard a sharp whistle, looking back he saw most of the Travelers dropping whatever they where doing and grabbing bags outside their huts before moving towards Larrin.
"We are ready to move out right now if need be." Larrin said
"Well I guess we might as well send you on your way then." Sheppard said and motioned for a marine standing inside the door.
"Escort these people to the gate room of the Reaper, dial Earth and tell them that the Travelers are on their way." Sheppard said to the marine. The marine saluted and prompted the growing mass of people to follow him, walking out of the room he moved to the gate room, dialed the Reaper and moved through with the Travelers following right behind him. Larrin stayed behind with Sheppard in the hangar.
"If it was materials you needed take these huts and the remains of our ship and use them. From now on we are no longer Travelers."
"Thank you, we will make good use of it." Sheppard said and handed her a poker chip. "Press it to catch up to the rest of the group."
Larrin looked at the chip skeptically, but pressed it and to her surprise she was enveloped in a white light leaving Sheppard alone in the hangar with the fifty people who for some reason couldn't serve on a ship.
THE END
I hope you like it.
I know I like it, especially the wake up scene with Elizabeth. ;-)
Please leave a review; it's the thing that makes it fun to read.