Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate Atlantis' or any related concepts or characters; you know the drill by now
Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate Atlantis' or any related concepts or characters; you know the drill by now. Also, the basic details of the plot were inspired by 'The Phantom of the Opera', although I have naturally put my own spin on things; hope it meets with your approval
Feedback: Always appreciated, trust me
The Phantom of Atlantis
A few hours later, Elizabeth sat in frustration in the room that had already been unofficially delegated as her office, staring at the information on the screen before her as she tried to piece together the puzzle that Atlantis had already presented to them.
It was ironic, really; she'd agreed to lead the expedition to Atlantis because she'd wanted the chance to find answers to some of the mysteries surrounding the Ancients, and yet, in the end, the greatest mystery they'd encountered so far seemed to have been a contemporary one.
Somehow, since the Ancients had left Atlantis, somebody had started to live there.
That somebody who had made Atlantis their home had somehow known enough about Ancient technology to not only know the importance of ZPMs to keeping the city going, but had actually managed to acquire a new ZPM from somewhere and use it to power the force field that was keeping Atlantis intact at the bottom of the ocean.
That somebody had also, for reasons that Elizabeth could only assume were good ones, rendered it impossible for anyone to so much as send a message to Earth via the Stargate from this end.
And, the most important detail of all, that the someone or someones who'd done all that may or may not still be in Atlantis.
Elizabeth may have signed up to lead this expedition to solve mysteries, but she'd been expecting to tackle mysteries about technology or culture; she certainly hadn't been expecting that there'd be a great need for detective work like this when she'd agreed to go to the Pegasus Galaxy.
It was official; just when you thought that life had thrown you all of the surprises that you were going to encounter, it found another way to surprise you. She'd come all this way expecting to discover a deserted city that hadn't been inhabited for thousands of years, and had discovered that not only was the city apparently not as uninhabited as they'd assumed, but that its inhabitants, whoever they were, had gone to great lengths to prevent Earth from being dialled. According to what McKay's team had discovered, the program that activated the shield when the Stargate dialled a Milky Way address was protected by an as-yet unidentified password, with no hints regarding what that password could be to be found anywhere; whoever had done this had clearly not wanted to make it easy for whoever- or whatever- they were dealing with to get to their galaxy.
On the positive side, Elizabeth was confident that they would eventually find the password; even in a language as complex as Ancient, there were only so many possible combinations that could have been used to serve that purpose.
On the negative side of that argument, there was equally no way of knowing how long it would take them to find the right one to get through the shield. They didn't even know how many letters there were meant to be in the password in question; they would essentially have to devote at least half their science staff at a time just to cracking this code if they wanted it to get back to Earth within the year, and even that was optimistic.
If only they knew who had actually inserted this 'security feature'- Elizabeth couldn't think of it as anything else; clearly somebody had wanted to protect Earth from something in this galaxy- into the Stargate in the first place and had an opportunity to talk to them.
Maybe the person, whoever they were, would be willing to allow the team to access the Milky Way galaxy once they knew they weren't going to threaten humanity or whatever race the shield had been erected to protect...
Despite her confusion, Elizabeth couldn't stop a slight laugh from escaping her lips at that thought.
The day things went easy for anyone who travelled through the Stargate was the day that the Goa'uld as a whole decided that it was wrong to conquer other civilisations; it wasn't going to happen.
Unknown to Elizabeth, the object of her thoughts was currently sitting in a small tunnel that he assumed had originally been intended as a maintenance tunnel of some kind, allowing the Lantean engineers access to some of the harder-to-reach parts of the city in the event of them needing to conduct repairs.
Doctor Elizabeth Weir… he reflected silently to himself as he studied her, a soft smile spreading across his lips as he looked at her.
So, he'd been right.
It was her.
He hadn't been sure at first- so much about her had changed- but it was indeed her.
If nothing else, it was comforting to know that not everything had been altered, even if the essential details weren't the same as what had previously occurred (A fact that he was particularly grateful for; he somehow doubted he'd have had so many interesting experiences if things had proceeded as they had the first time).
Now, all he needed to do was wait a few more moments for the failsafe to kick in- he would have done it instantly, but he'd wanted to give himself time to move into hiding in case he'd underestimated the team again and they found him before he could get to safety-, and then…
He shook his head; there was no point continuing along that particular train of thought until he'd formed a better picture of the new arrivals to his city. He already had a relatively good idea of how she would react to him thanks to past experience, of course, but he still had no way of knowing how much she had been changed by what had occurred.
And as for the rest of the expedition...
He shook his head, scolding himself for his concerns.
He'd learned the hard way that nothing could be predicted; all that he could do was try and make his way through life as best he could and hope that things worked out to be at least not as bad as they had been.
He'd waited this long for someone else to come to Atlantis; a bit more time by himself as he tried to come to a decision wouldn't kill him…
Then the chevrons on the Stargate began to light up and he instantly moved away from his original position, taking the tunnel that would lead him back to his original observation 'window' as he studied the scene playing out before him.
If nothing else, he'd like to see her reaction when the city that would be her home rose above the waves...
Glancing up as the Stargate activated, Elizabeth was more than slightly surprised to see Colonel Sumner and what looked like just over half of his original team come through the Stargate, closely followed by what looked like dozens of refugees dressed in clothing that reminded Elizabeth of some of the many Middle-age level societies that the SGC had encountered during their early travel to Goa'uld dominated planets.
"Colonel Sumner?" she asked, hurrying down the stairs to look inquiringly at her military commander. "Who are all these people?"
"Refugees," Sumner replied, his tone indicating his reluctance at bringing them back with him. "We ran into the local hostiles; things got ugly, a number of us were abducted on both sides, and..."
He shrugged, trying to appear as though he had no strong opinions either way about the situation. "Well, Lieutenant Ford, among others, made a fairly compelling argument for bringing them back with us."
"I... see," Elizabeth said briefly, before she turned to look at one of the new arrivals, this individual being a tall man who gave off a greater appearance of authority than the rest of the refugees. "I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir, commander of this facility."
"I am Kanaan," the man responded, inclining his head slightly as he looked at Elizabeth. "I wish to thank you and your people for providing us with sanctuary, Doctor Weir; we-"
Before he could continue, the entire city suddenly seemed to shudder once, as though an earthquake of some sort had just taken place- Elizabeth was briefly thrown to the floor, along with some of the other expedition members around her-, and then it began to shudder, shaking slightly every few second as though it was caught in an earthquake of some sort.
"Doctor McKay?" Elizabeth asked, scrambling rapidly to her feet as she turned to look at the scientist as he stared in shock at the read-outs before him. "What just happened there?"
"I can't- I don't know!" McKay protested, staring in confusion at the read-out on his laptop. "One minute we're all fine, the next the city just... just..."
His voice trailed off as he looked over at the large window at the opposite end of the tower from the Stargate, his eyes widening as he took in the sight before them. Spinning around to see what had attracted his attention, Elizabeth was only just in time to see the water that had previously filled the window was becoming increasingly lighter, the deep blue that had previously filled the window becoming lighter as the shuddering increased.
"Oh my God..." Elizabeth whispered as she hurried over to stare out of the window, barely even registering the presence of Sumner and some of the new arrivals behind her. As she reached the window, the water before her seemed to almost instantly vanish to reveal clear blue skies, the tower now above the water rather than underneath it as it had been upon their arrival. As she stared out of the window in awe, Elizabeth couldn't stop a broad grin from spreading as she saw a brilliant sun shining down onto a clear blue ocean that spread out around them as far as she could see, the water only broken as the shorter buildings in the city rose out of the water around them, the towers rapidly bursting from their watery resting-place like trees growing to full height in a matter of seconds.
It was, without a doubt, the most incredible sight that Elizabeth had ever seen in her life. The vast city of the Ancients rising out of the ocean to greet the air and the daylight once again, the water tumbling off it as it rose ever higher above the waves, the glass and metal shining in the sun to create the illusion of being made of gold rather than whatever materials the Ancients might have used in the construction…
In all her life, as she looked out at the city that was now her home and her command, Elizabeth doubted she would ever witness anything as awe-inspiring as this ever again.
"Well," she said at last as the lights- which had dimmed as the city rose- came to light once again, allowing a slight smile to remain on her face as she looked over at where Sumner and McKay stood off to her right in front of the window, "it would appear that we've already made our mark on this city."
Then her eyes narrowed as she looked at McKay. "And I want answers as to how this happened in the first place as soon as possible, is that understood?"
What she'd just seen may have been incredible to witness, but if this city was going to rise off the bottom of the ocean without providing her and her staff with advance warning beforehand, she'd like to know why it was doing that in the first place.
An hour or so later, Elizabeth stood in the control room with Sumner and McKay, looking patiently at McKay even as she took in what Sumner had just told them about their first mission in Pegasus.
Having arrived at the planet they had dialled- the planet in question being Athos, as they now learned-, the team had quickly made contact with the local Athosians, led by a woman called Teyla Emmagan, who had revealed the presence of this galaxy's version of the Goa'uld; the Wraith, powerful aliens who apparently regularly abducted humans from various worlds throughout the galaxy. The Athosians had been unwilling or unable to reveal the Wraith's purpose in doing so, and Sumner had seen no need to pressure them for further information on that front at the time, instead focusing on the more immediate issue of finding out if they would be permitted to send at least some of their people to stay with the Athosians while they attempted to learn more about the current situation on their new planet (It had been decided to avoid mentioning Atlantis at first as there was no telling how the Ancients were perceived in this galaxy; Elizabeth had been on too many diplomatic missions where someone's perceptions of others were affected by where they lived or other matters of origin, so it had been decided to keep the specifics quiet until they could better determine the situation here).
Before negotiations could proceed much further than discussions over dinner and a brief tour of a nearby ruined city, a small group of Wraith ships had attacked Athos, abducting several Athosians, Teyla amongst them, and various members of the military teams, among them Sumner's second-in-command- a Captain Louis Gemmel, Elizabeth recalled; she hadn't had much chance to speak to him so far-, before departing through the Stargate once again. With the village decimated, Lieutenant Ford- who had been stationed at the Stargate and thus been able to note the symbols of the address that the Wraith had dialled to when leaving the planet- had decided that the best thing that could be done for the Athosians was to relocate them to Atlantis, thus protecting them from any future attacks at the hands of the Wraith. Sumner had initially objected to the idea, of course, but when some of his team had pointed out the benefits of the Athosians' knowledge of the Pegasus Galaxy, coupled with the fact that aid in exploring the city couldn't fail to be a good thing, he had finally agreed to the suggestion and allowed the Athosians to accompany them back to Atlantis.
"Well," Elizabeth said as Sumner concluded his report (It was far too factual to be called a 'story'; he hadn't even attempted to embellish the events that he narrated, resulting in it being, quite frankly, one of the dullest reports she'd ever heard even if she'd never admit to it), "I think it's safe to say that we've determined the reason somebody wanted to limit access to Earth."
"Quite," Sumner agreed. "From what I saw of these 'Wraith', their technology appears formidable; an encounter between us and them might be relatively evenly matched these days, but who's to say what state we'd have been in if they'd managed to gain access to Earth before now?"
"Precisely," McKay interjected, nodding in agreement at Sumner as he continued to study his laptop. "Of course, we'd need to get a better idea of the Wraith's current level of technology- to say nothing of what they are personally; parasites like the Goa'uld or something else?- before we can make any real assessment of just how much of a threat they'd be to us; once we've tracked down the planet where those ships took their prisoners, we'll probably have a better idea of what they're capable of..."
"We can focus on that later," Elizabeth interjected, glaring at Rodney in a manner that made it clear there was no room for argument in this case; she was still uncomfortable about the prospect of sending a team on a mission against a primarily unknown enemy when they were still struggling to find their feet. "In the meantime, have you discovered why the city released itself from the ocean floor like that?"
"That's it," McKay replied.
Elizabeth blinked.
"'That's it'?" she repeated, looking incredulously at McKay. "Doctor McKay, you're telling me that you could work out how the Zero Point Modules work, and the best explanation you can come up with for this city rising to the ocean surface after spending the last ten thousand years underwater is 'That's it'?"
"Look, I ran through every possible cause for this that I could think of; none of them fit the facts that we have available!" McKay protested, looking indignantly at her. "I found a reference in the code- after my entire staff spent the better part of an hour combing through it, I might add- to a failsafe release mechanism that's meant to make the city rise above the water if the power falls below a certain level, but even with the demands caused by our presence, with our naquadah generators taking on the demand of some of the more minor systems we should have been able to keep the city operating at a sufficient power level to stay at the bottom of the sea for weeks, if not months! There was no reason for us to rise up then-"
"But we would have risen eventually, correct?" Elizabeth interjected, looking pointedly at McKay as she folded her arms and waited for him to confirm her statement.
"Well…" McKay muttered, evidently trying to think of a better way of saying what he was about to say before he sighed in frustration. "OK, yes, eventually we would have risen to the surface anyway…"
"At which point we would have had absolutely no usable ZPMs available to us at all and would not be able to erect the shield to protect us in the event of an attack, correct?" Elizabeth asked. She had only understood the essential basics of the information she'd learned from the research team back at the Antarctic base- she was a diplomat, not a scientist, after all-, but she'd learnt enough to know that the power produced by even one ZPM was greater than several naquadah generators put together.
For a moment, McKay simply stared silently back at Elizabeth, before he sighed and threw up his hands in resignation.
"Fine," he groaned in frustration. "I admit it; we would have been in trouble if we'd just remained at the bottom of the ocean indefinitely, we would have unnecessarily drained the ZedPM for nothing more than some extra camouflage that we might not have even needed for several months…"
Once again he paused, waving a hand as though he was trying to come up with an appropriate metaphor, before he spoke again. "But that doesn't change the fact that somebody deliberately activated that failsafe ahead of schedule!"
"One of your staff-" Sumner began.
"Colonel, nobody intelligent enough to be permitted to join my staff would have been stupid enough to try anything that might shut down the force field that was the only thing keeping the ocean from flooding the entire city and killing everyone inside it," McKay countered, glaring over at Sumner with a clearly hostile expression at the implication that one of his staff could have made such a mistake. "Besides, this activation has no indications of being caused by something we did to the code; as far as I can tell, someone deliberately ordered the city to do this."
As he turned to look at Elizabeth, McKay was momentarily silent as he stared at his expedition leader, clearly wanting her to understand the implications of what he was about to say. "Somebody who sent that signal from a building located all the way over…"
Reaching over to indicate the map of the city on a screen beside him, McKay tapped an area in the upper-right corner of the city…
Specifically, in an area that Elizabeth knew she hadn't ordered any teams to search prior to the city rising to the surface; even if somebody had been in that area, nobody would have been foolish enough to touch anything that might have had the potential to do something like this.
She understood the implications of McKay's reasoning well enough; she just wasn't sure she liked them.
"Somebody else activated the failsafe?" she asked, looking anxiously at McKay for clarification. "As in, somebody not a member of this expedition?"
"Correct," McKay said, nodding at her with a slightly apprehensive expression as though he was afraid she was going to follow ancient tradition and kill the messenger. "I've tried to bring the city's sensors on-line to see if I can track who did it and where they went afterwards, but I'm really not holding out any hope…"
"Once you've got the Stargate address for where the Wraith took our people, get right on it," Sumner said, looking grimly at McKay as he stepped forward, clearly resuming command of the situation now that the immediate question had been answered. Elizabeth stepped forward to voice her objection- they still knew too little about the Wraith to risk an actual assault on them- but Sumner raised a hand to stop her. "Don't try and change my mind, Doctor Weir; this is a purely tactical decision. If these 'Wraith' learn what we're capable of and where we're located, what we've learnt of them suggests it would be unpleasant at best; we cannot take the chance that they will give away vital information if held for too long."
"Colonel Sumner," Elizabeth stated, folding her arms to stare back at her military commander, "while I acknowledge the merits of your argument, I ask you if you have considered the possibility that the Wraiths' prompt arrival at that planet may be as a result of inside information-"
"In other words, one of the Athosians may have informed them?" Sumner replied, shaking his head slightly. "I considered that, Doctor Weir, but even if so, it's unlikely that they'll manage to send a message now if there is a traitor; we can safely monitor them and determine if there is a mole amongst them."
With that said, Sumner allowed himself to relax, and a slight smile crossed his face as he glanced behind Elizabeth. Turning around, Elizabeth couldn't stop a slight smile from crossing her face as she saw two of the Athosian children chasing each other through the main hall around the other expedition members. One of them was wearing a grey twisted face-mask with long white hair that Elizabeth had gathered was meant to represent a Wraith- she wondered if the mask was an accurate depiction of a Wraith or simply based on loose description- while the other boy was wearing a strange silver-coloured mask that covered most of his face.
For some reason, it was the silver mask that most attracted Elizabeth's attention. She wasn't sure why- it wasn't that elaborately-made, and it clearly wasn't even made of real silver-, but something about it made her wonder. Maybe it was the fact that the boy wearing it was actually chasing the boy wearing the Wraith mask; it suggested that the mask was intended to represent some heroic
"Besides," Sumner's voice said, breaking into her train of thought, "I think it's safe to say that, even if there is a spy among them, not all of them are like that."
Shaking her head slightly in frustration at her distraction, Elizabeth turned around to face Sumner once again.
"All right," she said, nodding in agreement at her military commander. "Just be certain that you actually have a plan once you find where the Wraith have gone."
Even as Sumner and McKay left to study the Ancient database, however, Elizabeth couldn't shake her concern at the implications of McKay's earlier discovery regarding the shield.
Once again, they had discovered evidence that somebody else had been in the city.
The only difference was that, on this occasion, it was evidence that somebody else was in the city with them now.
Where could they be? Elizabeth wondered as she studied the window behind the Stargate, looking out at the city before her.
And more importantly… what do they want?
