A/N: has had some problems which means that all reviews posted in the last 3-4 weeks might not have reached me. If you have writen a review to ask me something please do so again so I can answer it for you. /MWB
"Security to the gate room." General Landry shouted. His eyes flashed in annoyance. The gate had dialled just a few moments ago and before his eyes the iris of the gate went from grey, to red, to orange, to vaporised in a matter of seconds. The excess energy tore through the gate room and burnt two centimeters in the wall and four into the glass, but not through to the control room.
Five SG teams ran into the gate room. A hail of small blue bolts ripped through the gate and mowed them down. Four men in Atlantis uniforms came through the gate with Alterran rifles pressed to their shoulder. They came down to the base of the ramp and split up in pairs to secure one door each. Then they reported back and twelve more men came through before the gate shut down.
Taking point Major Lorne lead his four men out of the gate room on one side while Major Teldy led her men up the other side. The last four men stayed in the gate room and begun to set up a defensible position if they needed to fall back.
They had seen General Landry flee when they cleared the gate room but they found no signs of him or anyone else in the control room. With the touch of a button Lorne transmitted a subspace signal. Twenty six seconds later the gate activated again and a single jumper came through.
-Good work Majors- Sheppard said over the radio. He backed the jumper into the, again, inactive gate and ripped it from its bearings.
"Thank you Colonel" came the reply from Lorne. With the gate loose Sheppard let it drop to the floor and the four men in the gate room latched it to the underside of the jumper. He cloaked the jumper and hurried up through the shaft which lead to the surface, four drones fired before hand had opened up the large blast shield which sealed the old missile silo during normal operations.
-Remember not to risk too much Majors, free those you can and make sure to keep the jamers up until the Apollo's ready for you.-
"Yes Sir, we have our orders."
-See you in in Antarctica then, Sheppard out- he said as he put his foot down and the jumper broke through the sonic barrier and raced across the surface of Terra.
Another bang sounded from the corridor outside, the fifth in four minutes. Twenty seconds later she heard the door next to her's open and two seconds later another bang sounded from the corridor followed by something heavy slumping against the wall separating her cell from the one next to her's.
She knew well what was coming and there was nothing she could do to stop it this time. She was bound to the chair facing the door with both rope and some sort of forcefield, most likely Goa'uld designed. She had managed to free her hands from the ropes, but the forcefield stopped her from doing anything with them.
Finally the door swung open. Sergeant Walter and General Landry were standing on the other side with a pistol each. Without a word Walter walked up to the wall. The forcefield shut down and Landry raised the gun. He fired at her. She was already moving. They had only tied her hands behind her back to the chair and with the forcefield down she ducked to the right and swung the chair around her, sending it into the two men.
The chair flew and Landry raised one of his arms. It only graced him while one of the legs hit Walter in the head. Landry raised the gun again but she was there and drove a knee into his family jewels. She drove him into the corridor but he did not bend over like she expected him to, instead he slammed her against the wall with a bang. When he released some of the pressure on her chest she drove her heels into the wall behind and pushed. Again they hit the wall with a bang. This time it came from the pistol in his hand. She felt a sharp sting in her neck.
"Sheppard here, I'm approaching the outpost." He flew over a mountain ridge and saw the hole in the ice.
-Good to hear from you Colonel. The Apollo left for the SGC only minutes ago- Weir replied over the radio.
"We'll have to inform them to stay a little higher next time. The jumper detected them through a vortex behind the ship."
-You can tell them yourself when they return John- He lowered down the narrow shaft to the outpost.
"I'll be sure to do that." He put down the gate at an angle and wiggled the gate back around the jumper. Then he moved deeper into the facility to where Mokar had wanted the gate.
-Leave the jumper inside until Zelenka can have the shield installed.-
"You sure? I thought they would be sending more things through?"
-We want both shields operational before we bring a ZPM here.-
"Makes sense." Sheppard walked out of the jumper in full combat gear.
"It was O'Neill's suggestion" Weir said. She waited for him at the end of the jumper's ramp.
"So what now? Any new orders?"
"You can go help them install the new control chair, Beckett's having a hard time activating it."
"I'll see what I can do." He said and hesitated for a moment right next to her. Then he locked his arms around her. "It's good to have you back."
"It's good to be back Colonel." She stated and let the hug last for many more seconds before she broke free. "Of you go now, we can catch up later when we are not trying to save Earth."
"She's waking up" Someone shouted. Inside her head spikes of pain complained about the volume.
"Quiet down will you" she sneered.
"Sorry Colonel" the voice whispered right next to her ear as she was lifted up.
"We have secured Colonel Carter, Dr. Jackson, Sergeant Walter and twelve of the SG teams inside the base Sir" someone else said and she could hear the click of a radio.
-Have you tagged the bodies too?- a voice returned over the radio.
"Everything's good to go Sir, we're barely holding of the airmen stationed on the higher levels so we'd appreciate a quick extraction."
-Standby for beaming.- There was a white light and when she forced her eyes open Jack was there to support her.
"Helm, turn the ship around and get us back to base" he ordered. She could see the mountain flying by the viewport as the ship swung around its axis and accelerated away while it cloaked.
"What's happening Jack?" she asked. The ship shot forward over Colorado and approached New Mexico.
"All in due time Carter" he said. One of his hands stroked her hair and as he held her close she felt the rhythmic beating of his heart. Then he looked over her shoulder. "Get her down into the mess so she can get some proper food Sergeant."
"Yes Sir" a woman said and motioned for Carter to follow.
"Get some food and sleep Sam" O'Neill ordered, leaving no room for discussion.
"Try it now" McKay said. His head was buried in a hole in the platform on which the control chair sat.
"Which one?" Sheppard asked from the control chair as he leaned back and the chair finally activated.
"Both should work."
"No no no, start with the gate shield, it drains much less power." Zelanka demanded. In his hand was a datapad and on it large amounts of data scrolled by as he tried to get readings on the chair.
"Gate it is then." Sheppard said and concentrated on the newly installed system. As the chair connected to the shield generator it performed a quick diagnose. It took a few seconds, then the shield formed around the gate and the jumper parked inside it.
"Looks like we can remove the jumper then" Weir said from where she stood by the ring platform.
"Go right ahead, you could use the training" Sheppard said. He shut of the small shield and begun to activate the larger dome shield around the outpost.
"I don't have the gene John" she said with her typical laugh.
"Oh, right. Sorry to correct you about your own body, but it seems that O'Neill convinced our resident Ancient to give you an upgraded body while he was at it. I'm due for the same upgrade in a few days."
"Really?" she asked slightly amused. Still she walked over to the jumper.
As Sheppard raised the dome shield systems dormant for millions of years started again, working flawlessly after all the time under the ice. When the shield had formed completely, cutting through the thick ice, the heat turned on. In seconds the temperature rose and the ice begun to melt.
"Uh, you might want to turn down on the heat slightly. Not that I'm complaining about it or anything but we'll drown if that ice melts" Rodney cautioned.
"I don't think we'll have to worry about that Rodney, the chair's using the shield to melt the ice from above too, at most we'll get a little wet." He saw the jumper rising from the ground and ripping the gate with it as it rose into the icy roof.
With a thought he forced the jumper and Weir down to the ground before she could do any more damage.
When the Apollo returned to the outpost the shield had burned away a large circle in the ice which a radius of several kilometers. As the warship lowered towards the ground the shield shifted to let them through. About the same time as it touched down the gate activated and Mokar came through with two hover sleds in tow.
"Is that the living quarters?" O'Neill asked. He and Carter had just beamed down into the outpost where Mokar had set up the construction equipment and a second shield had formed around the area.
"No" Mokar said just as a diagram was projected into the air. "Since Atlantis stood here most of the time we never expanded the outpost to full size, these will be the basic factories. Sadly I'm using the last of the nanites I have to construct this. We will need to construct a lab capable of creating more unless you want to build the rest of the outpost by hand and jumper."
"There's a lab on Atlantis which can create repli..." Carter begun but then bit her tongue. "They're not replicators are they?"
"Nanites, not replicators or Asurans" Mokar corrected. "We only use them to move the pieces to the places instructed by the base controller and then merge them together. They do not communicate with each other, only with the controller and are therefore unable to take on more advanced forms. Though I have to admit the Asurans are an interesting pieces of technology, there might still be promise within them, even if the Lanteans did most of the development."
"We've seen them rebuild at an incredible pace, I'll admit they could be useful, but the Asurans were a large threat to everything in the galaxy" Carter objected. "Not to mention the fact that the replicators fought by the Asgard and later us were even more deadly."
"And I agree that it can not be allowed to happen again, still it could serve to replace the workforce we need." He looked her deep in the eyes. "O'Neill have said many things about you, among other things he mentioned your brain as one of your worlds largest assets. You have seen the threat caused by both of these replicators and you would seem critical to any development of new ones."
"Yes of course, they're a plague in many galaxies" Carter said. In front of them the hover sleighs deposited the parts and the grey mist begun to move the parts into place, starting from the bottom and building upwards. "Still I see your point, you can have a small factory assembled in a matter of hours with nanites if you have the parts. A nanite replicator could potentially take the material straight out of the ground and process them on site to whatever you would need."
"O'Neill's already told me that you'll be joining our ranks so how about you take care of the development of the next generation of replicators? You're critical enough about them that you won't let them out of the test phase before you're absolutely sure they will never end up being a plague again."
Carter frowned. "I guess so." The machinery inside the first factory was covered inside a building. "But that could very well mean you will have to wait a decade or two before I'll sign off on them."
"I understand, you will have all the time you need to complete them, even if we have a fully functional workforce by the time you finish they can still be used in hazardous environments." He said and he led them towards the gate. "O'Neill. I entrust the outpost in your hands, I will have Sheppard relieve you when he gets here in the Sun Tzu. Or possibly Major Lorne if we can repair the Lantean warship, there's still the expedition to Thuvalan, Caari, Sar and Lega which will need an experienced commander."
"The last diagnose didn't tell you anything more?" O'Neill asked as Sheppard joined them by the gate.
"Nothing more, so far I only know that there's something strange with several of the gates and DHDs in Caari. The facilities in the other galaxies are responding but neither the gate nor the DHD is there anymore" Mokar said as he dialled the gate back to Atlantis.
"Just make sure the ship's back here before the shooting starts" O'Neill said before he patted him on the shoulder.
"If it is possible I will have her here long before that."