Chapter 4

Elizabeth kept her eyes on the gate, but turned her body towards Chuck sitting behind the dialling consol.

"Why hasn't the gate deactivated yet?" she worriedly asked, still looking at the cool blue puddle of the gate through which SGA-1 had disappeared almost five minutes ago. For the gate to still be active could not bode well.

For a moment she could hear Chuck busy at the controls of his station and when the sound of fiddling finally stopped she could almost hear his confusion. "I'm not sure," he finally replied. It was the answer she had been dreading. Though Atlantis now had three new and operating ZPM's, she still constantly worried about power consumption. It seems to have been such an integral part of het life for so long that she could hardly believe they had enough energy to go around.

"Okay," she slowly replied. "I suppose that whatever is keeping the gate open cannot do so more than thirty-eight minutes?" She looked at Chuck as she spoke, but the blue light of the stargate seemed to pull at her. She looked at Chuck and he shrugged.

"I suppose so," he told her. Elizabeth nodded, but also touched her earpiece.

"Sitnalta, Radek, can you come to the control room?" she asked into the small microphone. Since Miko had managed to isolate the individual earpieces on different frequencies, Elizabeth at least did not have to worry about the wrong people intercepting a communication. By simply speaking the name of the person she needed, the devices only opened the frequency of that individual earpiece – much like a voice-activated speed dial on a phone.

Within minutes both scientists rushed into the blue-lighted control room.

"Oh, dear," Radek said as he entered the room and saw the activated stargate. Trust the ex-Czech to instantly see to the heart of the problem. He turned towards Elizabeth. "How long has that been open?" he asked. Elizabeth looked over at Chuck who would have a precise time.

"Five minutes and three seconds," the technician replied. Then he tapped at a crystal control. "The source of the problem is most definitely coming from the planet," he informed them. Elizabeth nodded and turned towards the two scientists.

"See if you can get it shut down," she told them. They nodded and because she knew they worked better when she was not hovering, she left them to go to her office. It was only a short distance from the control room, but that small space she offered them was important.

It was about half an anxious hour later that the small beep of the gate informed her it was thirty-eight minutes after the gate has first been activated. According to gate physics, it would now disengage. So she got up to go see for herself what the two scientists made of the strange phenomenon.

Unfortunately, when she looked up, she saw the cool blue of the gate through her window. It was not shutting down as she had assumed it would. Worried now, she rushed to the control room where Radek and the gate staff were frantically busy at the gate controls. Sitnalta was sitting at a station with her eyes on the panel in front of her; her eyes closed.

"Report!" she snapped as she came near enough to be heard above the bustle.

A ruffled Radek looked up at her voice. She hated it when the man looked that way: it always spelled trouble.

She was correct. "It won't shut down," he needlessly informed her. She narrowed her eyes as she thought about it.

"But the reason it won't shut down is because of something off-world?" she asked.

Radek nodded, but still he looked stressed. "Yes"

"But gate physics dictate the gate should shut down after thirty-eight minutes," she tried getting to the bottom of things.

"Yes," Radek once more said. Then he sighed as he seemed to realise he could not hide the problem anymore. "The SGC once had the same problem," he started his explanation. "Then a black hole supplied enough energy to keep the gate open beyond the usual time."

"So something is supplying the gate with enormous power from the other side?" she prodded. Radek pushed his glasses back up onto his nose.

"That's the problem," he replied. "Something over there is keeping the gate open, but we are still supplying the energy," he finally dropped the bomb.

Elizabeth felt dread drop like a cold stone upon her heart. "How much energy is the gate using?" she quietly asked her second scientist.

Sitnalta must have heard the question, for the young woman lifted her hand from the crystal controls and jumped up, turning towards Elizabeth. Her String of beads rattled slightly. "The longer the gate stays open the bigger the drain on the ZPM's," she hurriedly told Elizabeth as she started to cross the control room.

Elizabeth thought her explanation did not warrant the fearful expression in both the blonde girl and Radek's eyes. "Yes, but..." she started.

By now Sitnalta had passed her by and was on the stairs leading to the lower levels. The girl stopped and looked at Elizabeth with her huge eyes. "You don't understand," she spoke. "The drain is exponential. The longer the gate stays open beyond when it should, the bigger the drain becomes per second. Though something else is keeping the gate open, we are the ones supplying the immense amount of power to do so!"

Sitnalta continued her journey down the stairs the moment she stopped talking and Elizabeth had no choice but to pursue her on her way.

"Can we shut it down from this side?" she asked the younger woman as the two of them bounded down the stairs and started to rush down a corridor. Sitnalta merely shook her head as she continued her journey.

"Not that I can see," she informed the leader of Atlantis. "But I'm heading towards the hologram-room to see if there is anything Atlantis can do about it," she supplied half an explanation.

Elizabeth frowned as she kept on following the blonde. Once before they had used the chair to link Sitnalta to Atlantis, seeing as the chair was the biggest single interface with the city. But why the woman would prefer the hologram-room – a room that they hardly ever used – was a mystery.

The two women entered the hologram-room together in a rush. Elizabeth put out a hand and slowly touched Sitnalta's arm, making the woman turn towards her. "Why here?" she asked her friend.

Sitnalta smiled faintly. "The chair is a control, this is a communications interface," she explained, but Elizabeth was not sure she understood completely.

"I'm not sure I follow," she voiced her thoughts. In answer to her question, Sitnalta hopped onto the slightly raised platform and, reaching out and taking her friend's hand, pulled Elizabeth after her. Still holding on to her hand, Sitnalta briefly closed her eyes. Moments later the lights seemed to dim slightly, but only for a heartbeat. When it came back on, Sitnalta opened her eyes and looked at Elizabeth – who had been watching her. The blonde smiled and nodded at something behind Elizabeth.

Anxious to see what Sitnalta was looking at, Elizabeth spun around. Behind her stood...she. Since the day they had all become Atlanteans, Elizabeth had taken to wearing dresses resembling those of the Ancients – although she did not limit her colours to cream and white. Today she was wearing a deep red.

The other Elizabeth, on the other hand, was wearing a cream dress – one that looked vaguely familiar. Also, there was something strangely different to the other Elizabeth's appearance. Ever since the nanites had been introduced to her system, Elizabeth had had a hard time keeping her hair short. In fact, it had become such an annoyance that she had given up the fight and was wearing it much longer than she would have preferred. Even pulled into a braid, it hung halfway down her back. The other Elizabeth's hair, on the other hand, was as short as she remembered her own being years ago, when she had tried keeping it in a fashionable style for her diplomatic work.

Elizabeth turned her head towards Sitnalta, angling her a look she knew was effective in getting others to talk. Sitnalta smiled faintly. Elizabeth noticed her grip on her hand did not slacken, though.

"This room was used in recording information holographically onto Atlantis' memory. But it can also display that same images," the younger woman began her explanation. "I find that, whereas the chair is more a control of Atlantis, this works better for communication," she finally explained her coming here.

Elizabeth looked determinately at the other she, then back at Sitnalta and lifted a single eyebrow. Sitnalta sighed.

"You're doing it again," she told Elizabeth and the leader of Atlantis smiled. Sitnalta used her free hand to indicate the other Elizabeth. "That is a representation of how Atlantis sees herself," she said.

"As me?" Elizabeth asked incredulously. The other Elizabeth – Atlantis – had not moved since appearing, and she now found it slightly unsettling.

Sitnalta nodded slightly. "She feels some...solidarity with you," the blonde explained. Then she tilted her head slightly to one side. "Atlantis is an AI – an artificial intelligence. But not an Asimov, Skynet or even Roddenberry kind of AI. Though aware of a part of herself being separate and able to learn and understand, Atlantis at all times remain a huge city, and the AI is that of a city." Sitnalta rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "This is very difficult to explain," she said with an apologetic look at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth smiled. "That's okay. But why are we here?" she asked, realising understanding Atlantis was not the priority.

"My daughter was wondering whether I could assist in deactivating the stargate," the representation of Atlantis finally spoke. Both women looked at the hologram.

"Can you?" Elizabeth finally asked. She suddenly had a feeling she knew how the Becketts must have felt when first meeting each other.

Atlantis looked at them, silent and unmoving. After a few seconds the hologram became animated as she replied. "I am not certain," she slowly answered in Elizabeth's voice. "My daughter," the hologram said, addressing Sitnalta, "return to the control room in order to assist me."

Sitnalta nodded and closed her eyes, still not letting go of Elizabeth's hand. After a while she opened her eyes, looking confused. Deliberately she pulled her hand from Elizabeth's, but nothing seemed to happen. The representation of Atlantis was still standing there, looking at them through still eyes.

"Something's wrong," Sitnalta worriedly told Elizabeth. "I can't seem to detangle our minds from our interface with Atlantis," she said. "We're stuck."