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

AN: OK, now these next few chapters are going to be interesting ones- at least, I hope they'll be interesting ones-, given that they take a more direct look at how the offowrld team handle a mission with Sumner in charge as opposed to Sheppard… specifically, looking at Chaya's 'return' to Atlantis (To say nothing of how John would interact with her in this timeline)

The Phantom of Atlantis

As the gateship left the Stargate to swiftly enter into orbit around the next planet on their list from the Ancient database- it was definitely a relief to be able to just enter the addresses as they were; apparently the database in the city was programmed to automatically update the Stargate addresses to compensate for any stellar drift that might have occurred since they were originally created- Colonel Sumner allowed himself a slight smile as he glanced over at where Doctor McKay was sitting in the pilot seat.

The Canadian scientist had requested the opportunity to fly the jumper on this occasion rather than Sergeant Markham- his official reasons being that he wanted to 'practise with the Ancient gene' when anyone could see he just wanted to fly the thing-, and Sumner had quickly agreed. He might try to encourage professionalism from his team, but he was simultaneously willing to allow them the opportunity to explore new talents; he had little real interest in flying himself, beyond its ability to rapidly get him from one point to another, but at the same time he couldn't deny its importance in the daily activity that they had to endure since they had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy. Sergeant Markham was a decent pilot, but given the advantages of the simplicity of the traditional four-man-team structure that had been organised back on Earth, he preferred not relying on the sergeant's abilities unless he had to; adding an extra man for even a short-term basis tended to throw off the team dynamic.

With a relatively relaxed mission like this- just scouting out a planet to see if there was anything interesting on it-, he'd considered it the perfect opportunity for the scientist- the most aeronautically-minded amongst them; he and Ford weren't pilots by training and Teyla's people had barely even mastered the wheel, while McKay had at least been involved in the development of some details of the plans for the Prometheus and the F-302s- to get in some practise at flying the gateships. He would never have the natural feel for it that some members of the expedition had displayed, but he could do a fairly good job when he was in the control seat; in this kind of situation, it was the perfect opportunity to give McKay some much-needed practise.

"Anything interesting?" he asked, glancing over in McKay's direction after a couple of minutes had passed since exiting the Stargate; normally he allowed his team to wait and report anything they discovered, but there always came a time when the need for answers took priority. A couple of seconds after the words were out of his mouth, the HUD appeared on the screen before them, displaying the relevant information as McKay's subconscious mind processed the question and 'told' the gateship what they wanted to know. It was never quite as quick as Sumner would have liked, of course, but even the members of the expedition with the strongest Ancient gene couldn't make these systems operate faster than McKay was capable of at the moment.

"Scanners don't show much in the way of habitation; looks like only a few small villages centred around one location," McKay said, shaking his head as he glanced back over at Sumner. "I'll take a quick orbit around the planet just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure if there was anything interesting enough to attract our attention we'd see it already…"

"No harm in making sure," Sumner said simply as he sat back in his seat as McKay took the gateship into orbit. As much as he hated to admit it, none of the expedition had a natural 'knack' for Ancient technology to the extent that they received an instantaneous reaction; it always seemed to take them an admittedly slight but nevertheless noticeable amount of concentration in order to trigger a response from the machinery in question.

It was one reason the Phantom's continued existence worried him so much; from what they'd seen of the man's ability to control Ancient technology so far, there was a very good chance that he could easily override anything they wanted Atlantis to do if he wanted.

Hell, from what he'd overheard during the Genii invasion, the man was already immune to Atlantis's internal sensors; even if he did discover evidence that the Phantom was a legitimate threat and was able to convince Doctor Weir to arrange a larger-scale search, how could he track someone he couldn't even-

The gateship suddenly shuddering as though it had hit sometime distracted Sumner from his thoughts about the Atlantis situation; the sight of what looked to him like Wraith weapons fire passing alongside them only confirmed his fears.

"Wraith darts?" he asked, glancing over at McKay.

"Unfortunately, yes; looks like two of them," McKay replied, his tone brief for once as he moved the gateship in what only the view through the viewscreen told Sumner was a spin; he might not always understand how the inertial dampners worked, but there were definitely times when they were a distinct advantage.

"If my opinion matters to anyone, I recommend shooting back any time now," Ford added, looking

"I'm sorry, do you think I haven't tried that?" McKay countered, turning to glare at Ford. "The hit must have caused some damage, and right now I don't think this is the time to conduct repairs!"

"Where did they come from?" Teyla asked, looking out at the viewscreen questioningly.

"Excuse me?" Sumner asked, looking back at the Athosian in confusion.

"These ships are only short-range fighters," Teyla pointed out (There were definitely times when Sumner wished he'd spent more time at the SGC; he just wasn't used to thinking of facing opponents like this). "If they did not come through the Stargate- which, based on the direction they came in, they most likely did not-, a hive ship must be close by-"

"In which case we need to get out of here fast," Sumner concluded, quickly turning to look impatiently at the pilot while also making a mental note to spend more time thinking about possible threats he might face in this job; he'd been so focused on figuring out how to cope with the Phantom that he'd almost forgotten that the man wasn't the only threat he had to deal with. "McKay!"

"I'm working on it; it's not like we're on the same side of the planet as the gate right now!" McKay countered, glaring over at Sumner in frustration as he tried to keep the gateship moving in a manner that would prevent the Darts locking on to them without giving them the opportunity for a lucky shot.

"Couldn't we lose them in the atmosphere?" Ford asked, looking over uncertainly at the Canadian.

"Worth a shot," McKay replied briefly. "Just give me a few…"

His voice trailed off as he stared at the HUD currently displayed before them. Sumner might not have been certain he knew what every symbol on the device said, but he was fairly sure that the massive cloud of something that currently seemed to be coming out of the planet below them wasn't a normal occurrence. Almost as soon as they'd registered its presence, it swept over the small dots on the HUD that demonstrated the current location of the Wraith darts before it continued to envelop the gateship.

"Hang on!" Sumner yelled, as the cloud- which seemed to be formed completely out of brilliant blue lightning- surrounded the gateship, crackling around the edge of the viewscreen before it suddenly faded away as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the four-man team staring incredulously out at the empty space that now surrounded them once again.

"The Wraith darts have been destroyed," Teyla said after a moment's pause, staring in awe out of the viewscreen at where the 'storm' had so recently surrounded them.

"Well… Ford muttered, staring in surprise at the suddenly empty space behind them, "at least that's something."

"I…" McKay gasped, turning around to look incredulously at the rest of the team. "I… I thought we were dead… Anyone else think we were dead?"

"What the hell was that?" Ford asked, indicating the screen that had so recently displayed the storm.

"Some sort of energy weapon, most likely…" McKay muttered, evidently unwilling to commit himself until they knew more either way.

"Quite…" Sumner reflected, nodding thoughtfully before he looked back at them. "Shall we take a look?"

"Definitely," Ford confirmed, nodding back at the colonel. "Something that effective, we definitely need to find out more about it."

"Personally speaking, right now I'm just grateful not to be dead, but I'm all for finding out why," McKay added, as he turned the gateship around and set it on a course towards the planet. "It looks like that… whatever it was… came from near the village I detected earlier; I'll take the ship down there and see what we can find."

"Any theories?" Sumner said as he looked quizzically over at his team scientist.

"Well, aside from the fact that it's an energy weapon that somehow destroys darts while leaving us without even any electromagnetic pulse-related damage, I think we can safely conclude that…" McKay began, before he trailed off and shrugged apologetically. "Nothing. I have nothing to conclude; I'm just… talking for the sake of talking."

"Ah," Sumner said simply, deciding to leave it at that; after so long hearing McKay go on about he was an expert in pretty much everything to do with Atlantis, it was a pleasant change to encounter something that made him be quiet.

"Could something like that be… naturally occurring?" Teyla asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the cockpit as it continued towards the planet.

"I doubt it," Sumner said simply. "Most likely it's a weapon the Ancients left behind."

"Of course…" McKay said, shaking his head in what Sumenr was fairly certain was a self-criticising manner- not that he got the opportunity to see it often; the problem with working with somebody as smart as McKay was that he tried not to let you know when he didn't think of something- as he looked eagerly over at his teammates. "And any weapon that powerful would have to be powered by…"

"A Zero Point Module?" Sumner concluded.

"Correct," McKay said, nodding resolutely at his commander. "We are definitely going down there."

Sumner wasn't going to deny the accuracy of McKay's statement; even if they weren't going to take the ZPM from the planet- Doctor Weir had been angry enough when they'd taken the ZPM from M7G-677-, it was always possible that the weapon might have a couple of back-up power sources nearby that they could use. Their current ZPM would do them for a while, of course, but its limited amount of power meant that they were still reluctant to rely on it to charge up the entire city; even with their naquadah generators covering more of the basic essentials, there was so little power left in the ZPM that they were reluctant to use it unless they had to…


A couple of hours later, the four of them were crouched in the trees on the other side of a river, studying the primitive- Middle-Ages-style dwelling on the opposite side of the river where the gateship had landed; Sumner had concluded that there was no sense causing a panic by arriving via ship.

"If there's a weapon down here, sir," Ford commented, the young lieutenant looking at the village before them through his binoculars, "these folks didn't build it."

Sumner had to agree with that assessment; even allowing for the possibility that the species here had opted for a 'back to basics' approach, he strongly doubted that they'd have gone so far 'back' that they didn't seem to even have anything more than basic technology available.

"More evidence for the 'lost Ancient weapon' theory at least," he mused, before he glanced over at where McKay was impatiently studying an Ancient scanner. "Picking up anything?"

"I'm picking up everything," the Canadian replied in a sullen tone. "Just nothing worth mentioning."

"Well then," Sumner mused- given the orbital nature of the current Stargate, there was no point asking if Teyla's people had been here in the past-, "time to take a closer look."

With that said, he and the team began to slowly approach the village, Sumner taking care to ensure that their weapons were available without giving a potentially negative impression of combat-readiness, until they finally reached the village. As they walked further into the village, Sumner noted the almost stereotypically Indian-like costumes of the villagers, each of them possessing elaborate tattoos. The only person who seemed to be wearing more practical clothing was a bald man in red robes, who ran off towards a house off in one corner of the village when he saw them approaching, leaving them to look silently at the gathered villagers.

"Uh… hello," Sumner said, nodding slightly at the villagers around them as the team advanced into the village, uncertain what else to say in this situation; he was never entirely comfortable in first contact situations like this, and the fact that they had an orbital gate only made the situation worse. "It's OK; we're… we're not here to cause trouble."

"It is likely they have never seen anyone from outside their village," Teyla said, briefly stepping forward to address Sumner in a low voice; once again she demonstrated the diplomatic attitude that had prompted him to recruit her for his team in the first place.

"Welcome," an old man in a red robe said, breaking the silence that had apparently settled over the villagers as he walked through a small bridge off to one side, followed by a group of men in identically-coloured robes. "I am Zarah, one of the abbots of Proculus."

"Colonel Marshall Sumner," Sumner said, nodding briefly in response to the man's introduction; so far this guy's robes were the most complete clothing he'd seen, which at least suggested that he was one of the people in charge here. "This is Teyla Emmaggan, Lieutenant Ford and Doctor McKay."

"Please, come," Zarah said, nodding briefly at the group before he turned around, heading towards what Sumner could only think of as a hut without any walls- he couldn't help but look slightly uncomfortably at it; these people had no sense of security or privacy-, just off to the side of the bridge that he and his fellows had entered by, a low table in the centre of the building suggesting that it was a communal dining area of some kind.

"This is the first time- at least in my own lifetime- that people from another land have come to us," Zarah continued as the team sat down around the table. Sumner wasn't certain if he should take the broad grin on the man's face as a good sign or something that he should be concerned about; it was almost… too enthusiastic, in his opinion.

"We came by ship," he said by way of explanation, concluding that he might as well start testing the level of local knowledge with the basic essentials (Plus, of course, asking about that weapon they'd seen in action straight away would probably create the wrong impression; they didn't want to appear too military-focused too early).

The uncertain expression Zarah assumed at his words was all Sumner needed to confirm his initial assessment from the first look at the planet's civilisation; these people definitely weren't very technically advanced.

"A machine that flies through the sky," he continued; the confusion could have simply been because the man assumed he was talking about a boat despite the lack of a decent-sized river fanywhere near the village. "It allows us to move from one world to another."

"Another world?" Zarah repeated, looking in confusion at Sumner, clearly not understanding the explanation.

Sumner only just managed to stop himself from groaning in frustration. It was beginning to look increasingly likely that McKay's 'abandoned Ancient weapon' theory was accurate, although the weapon in question was almost certainly automated, given how low-tech these people seemed to be from what Sumner had seen of them so far.

"From among the stars you see in the night sky," Teyla put in, picking up the explanation. "We are peaceful explorers."

"Well then," Zarah said, evidently satisfied with that explanation for the moment despite his evident confusion, "glory to Athar for bringing you here safely."

"Athar?" Ford repeated, looking inquiringly at the man.

"The provider… and protector of all," Zarah said, looking over at Ford with a tone in his voice that suggested to Sumner that the other man was wondering if the young lieutenant was stupid. "Surely you know?"

"Athar is known by many names among the stars," Teyla said before Ford could speak himself, apparently satisfying Zarah's curiosity. Sumner had to admit, he liked the way the Athosian had phrased her response; acknowledging these peoples' beliefs without confirming or denying that they shared it, while also leaving room open for interpretation in case 'Athar' was an Ancient who had once lived on this planet and provided them with that weapon they'd encountered rather than merely a more metaphorical god.

"Is… uh… Athar around?" McKay asked, looking over at Zarah in a manner that Sumner had come to recognise from past experience; it was McKay's expression when he tried to give the impression that he knew what he was talking about. "We'd love to talk to him. We're…friends."

Sumner had to fight to stop himself from rolling his eyes in frustration at McKay's ineptitude; there were definitely times when his team couldn't understand the need for silence on some occasions.

It was just as the Canadian had said when Commander Kolya was attempting to force the two of them and Doctor Weir to repair the last grounding station during the storm a few weeks ago; the man couldn't bluff to save his life, even about the little things like whether or not they 'knew' this planet's 'god'.

"Athar is friend to all," Zarah replied, his tone once again suggesting to Sumner that he and his people took this as a fact (The colonel was just grateful he hadn't denounced McKay as a liar; this meeting looked like it would be awkward enough without those issues to take into account). "And with us always… Even now," he continued, placing his hands together in a gesture that Sumner assumed represented prayer; the military part of him wondered if the clenched hands represented a willingness or ability to do violence, or had some other lost meaning that he was missing.

"Of course," McKay muttered, raising his hands slightly as he glanced up at the ceiling. "Hi, Athar."

"What Doctor McKay means is that we wish to offer our thanks," Teyla put in, smiling reassuringly at Zarah; she might lack the formal military training of the soldiers Sumner had selected on Earth, but her diplomatic abilities were definitely not to be questioned at times like this. "We were attacked by the Wraith and would have been killed had it not been for Athar's intervention."

"Wraith?" Zarah asked, looking at Teyla in a manner that made it clear to Sumner the man had no idea what Teyla was talking about.

The colonel blinked in surprise.

This was new…

A civilisation in this galaxy that doesn't know about the Wraith? Sumner reflected. This definitely merits further investigation…

"You've never encountered the Wraith?" he asked, looking quizzically at the older man as he tried to determine whether or not he was being honest. "Tall, pale-skinned men, lizard-like eyes, typically dressed in black armour coats, they either make you vanish by scooping you up with their ships or they come down and drain your life out of you with their hands…?"

"We have never encountered such beings," Zarah replied, his evident confusion at Sumner's description too clear to be faked (Sumner wouldn't deny that his people skills needed work, but he did know when someone was lying to him).

"Never?" Ford repeated, his own curiosity matching Sumner's own.

"And there is no mention of them in your history?" Teyla asked; Sumner was only slightly relieved to note that this latest turn of events was just as surprising for Teyla as it was for him.

"None," Zarah replied, looking around the team as he was trying to decide whether he should take them seriously or not. "I can assure you that for many thousands of years we have lived here in peace."

A quick glance at the other members of the team was all Sumner needed to make up his mind; they definitely needed to talk about this latest turn of events in private.

"Could you… excuse us for a moment?" Sumner asked, as he looked uncertainly at Zarah; he had no way of knowing how the other man would react to them asking for privacy so soon after arrival, but the implications of this latest discovery were something that he and his team should definitely talk about by themselves.

"Of course," Zarah said, rising to his feet as he held out his hands in a 'stay' gesture. "Please, I must tell the other abbots of your arrival before we go to meet with Chaya."

"And 'Chaya' is…?" Sumner asked, looking quizzically at Zarah; regardless of the etiquette on this planet, he wanted to talk to someone in authority as soon as he and his team had a chance to discuss their recent discoveries about this civilisation, without wasting time on intermediaries.

"The high priestess of Athar," Zarah replied, before he placed his hands together once again and briefly raised them to his lips (Sumner wished the man would stop doing that; he'd been in the military too long to feel comfortable with somebody making fists in his presence). "This is a great day for our people."

"Uh… thank you," Sumner called after Zarah as the man left- at least it sounded like they'd be talking to someone important soon; given these peoples' evident dedication to 'Athar', the High Prestess would most likely be fairly important in a society such as this one-, quickly leaning in to the centre of the table as soon as the man had left the hut. "Can you believe the potential applications of this?"

"I can scarcely comprehend it myself, Colonel," Teyla replied, her own broad smile reflecting the enthusiasm that Sumner himself was trying to keep in check; he had at least some kind of authority to maintain in this situation, after all. "Every inhabited world I have encountered in this galaxy has been ravaged by the Wraith, yet this one appears untouched."

"Well," McKay added, looking thoughtfully around at the others as he spoke, "that would certainly be the result of the Ancient weapon that saved our asses up there; it only makes sense."

"You sure about the Ancient thing?" Ford said, looking critically at the Canadian scientist.

"Well, there's no other explanation," McKay replied, his enthusiasm growing as he studied the group around him, as though trying to make sure they'd understood the implications of his current theory. "I mean the power requirements of something like that must be… well, 'astronomical' is putting it mildly; they'd definitely need a ZedPM to get it working…"

"And yet," Teyla added, uncertainty now on her face as she voiced Sumner's own concern, "they do not appear to be technologically advanced…"

"We should consider the possibility that Zarah's lying," Ford pointed out, looking over at Sumner as though seeking acknowledgement of his theory.

"True, but unlikely; he didn't strike me as the lying type…" Sumner said, nodding thoughtfully while trying not to explicitly dismiss the lieutenant's theory as he glanced over at McKay. "What do you think; automated defence system?"

"Assuming these people are telling the truth-" McKay began.

"We don't have any evidence that they're not; we shouldn't start jumping to conclusions," Sumner interjected, raising his hand to halt McKay's speech, Elizabeth's reprimand for his near-accusation of the Phantom with little to no evidence to back up his claim still ringing in his ears; regardless of his own suspicions, he wasn't going to voice any concerns he might have about this situation until he had evidence to support him feeling one way or the other.

"Well… in that case, until we learn anything else, 'automated Ancient weapon' seems like our best explanation for this planet's situation, yes," McKay confirmed, nodding at his commander

"Imagine a world where displaced refugees from… dozens of planets could come and live in peace, without fear of being culled by the Wraith," Teyla added, the broad smile once again returning to her face as she looked around at the others.

As much as he preferred to consider the potential military applications this place had to offer- a guaranteed Alpha Site was something the expedition could certainly use, as far as Sumner was concerned-, he had to admit that Teyla made a good point; if this planet's people would agree to permit their world to become a refugee camp for others, they could simultaneously save innocent lives and deprive the Wraith of a significant portion of their food supply.

"Maybe we could negotiate some kind of treaty," Ford added, looking uncertainly between Sumner and Teyla; Ford was a good soldier, but Sumner sometimes worried about his need for validation from his superiors.

"We just need to get access to that weapon and see what we can learn about it," McKay cut in. "Better still, we can find that ZedPM- not that we'd steal it or anything," he added, as Sumner turned to look pointedly at him; Elizabeth had nearly had the entire team's heads after they'd come so close to unintentionally dooming that planet to attack while examining their ZPM, Elizabeth had made it clear that modules were only to be taken back to Atlantis when it was certain they were fulfilling no function at their current location.

"For now," the colonel said, as he turned to look at Teyla and Ford- he didn't like 'singling out' any one member of his team; it didn't exactly encourage an easy working environment if he gave the impression he didn't trust or like one person in particular-, "everyone simply remain natural and avoid causing offence; if we're going to reach any kind of agreement with these people, we need to tread carefully."

"Of course," McKay said, the Canadian almost sounding offended at the implication that he would be anything other than polite.

Sumner didn't bother replying to that comment; right now, the sooner they went to meet with this 'Chaya' person and established some kind of framework on which to begin their attempts to negotiate an arrangement of some sort, the happier he'd be.