Five

'Through the Looking Glass'

Torr and Lilion stand in in the gate room on Atlantis. The light filters slowly through the seawater beyond the windows, bathing the room in soft, blue patterns. Behind them the gate closes and they are left in the half-light of the sleeping city.

'The city was sunk in the deep ocean, where is this light coming from?' Lilion has no idea why she is whispering.

'Not my field of expertise... this is extraordinary! Look at this!' Torr takes the steps two at a time up to the main control room. 'This place is the find of a lifetime! Atlantis... it really exists!'

Lilion shivers and follows him. 'It's so cold. We need to find them before we get hypothermia!' She moves to a window and stares out into the water beyond. It is a heaving mass of bioluminescent phytoplankton, their blue energy filling the gate room with light.

' Find who?' Torr absentmindedly replies, running a hand over the desk he is standing in front of.

'Colonel Telford...The stasis chambers... Come on, leave that for now, let's find him, help me with this door panel.'

Reluctantly Torr leaves the control room and follows after Lilion as she keys in the codes Telford had provided to open the doors to the stasis chambers. 'He was right, the power levels are at a bare minimum, enough to maintain life, we need to be very careful about accessing anything more than the doors at this stage. Let's hope he knows how to kick start this city back to life or we are pretty much stuck here.'

She jogs off down the corridors, leaving Torr to catch up with her.'Hey, wait! What do you mean, stuck here?' Torr asks in alarm, he hadn't given much thought to the return journey.

'Well, certainly not enough power to be able to dial up the gate. Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be a one way ticket, we might not be able to get back to Destiny...here, this should be the stasis room.' Lilion stops outside a door and knocks on it, leaning in to to listen for the echo.

'Well, I don't think Telford's going to open it for you, what are you doing?'

'Ssshh! Listening for an echo, I don't want to open the door to find the room is flooded.'

'Well, that didn't just stop you from opening door from the Control Room!'

'That had a window in it... well, here goes, stand back just in case.' Lilion keys in the code and the door slides open.

Inside the stasis room are twenty four stasis chambers, all occupied. The light filtering through the room from the corridor behind them is low and the room is filled with shadows and the sound of the stasis pods monitoring the bodies within. Torr and Lilion slowly approach the first chamber and look through its glass shielding at the body within. They both recoil in horror at the emaciated mummified body inside. 'I think it's safe to say, that this poor soul is not Telford!' Lilion shivers and moves to the next chamber.

'What happened?' Torr stares a the body for a moment.

'Who knows, after two thousand years in these chambers?...a stasis malfunction, an airborne disease in the bio filters...'

'Looks like the body has undergone a mummification of sorts, the Ancients used to have many techniques for preparation for burial... did you know that they used to remove the brains by forcing a ...'

'Stop! Don't want to hear. oh..no, that is revolting! This one's not Telford either, the body seems to have melted into something... just horrible!' Lilion moves on from window to window, looking through the glass. 'He must be here somewhere!'

'This is a woman... and there are two men as well on this side that all still look viable.'

'There are two women here and another man... two more, three. They've got name plates on their stasis suits... '

'Not many of them. Which is Telford?'

'This one.' Lilion reads the small name plate Torr is pointing to.

'OK, let's fire him up then!' Lilion presses the reanimation button on Telford's chamber and stands back, reaching for her blast gun and raising it in readiness.

'What are you doing, Lilion! You can't shoot him!'

'Just making sure he understands who is in charge.'

'He's been in stasis for two thousand years! He'll be in no fit state to do anything and technically, Atlantis is still his! We are guests, stop being so hostile. I'm going to wake these others too...'

The stasis chambers fire up and the slowly the bodies inside are bought out of deep molecular hibernation. Lilion and Tor watch and wait as inside, the eight remaining survivors on Earth slowly wake up from two thousand years of sleep. As the chambers open and the eight survivors stumble out, Torr steps forward to greet them while Lilion remains, armed and ready for any sudden attack.

'Colonel Telford, Colonel Carter, Lt. Colonel Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Dr McKay, Lt. Torren Emmagan, Dr. Freya PeaseGood ... I am Torr, a descendant of the Wraith you knew as Todd and this is Lilion, a Traveler, we are from The Pegasus Galaxy...'

'Let me guess, you come in peace, so why are you pointing a gun at us?' John Sheppard steps forwards from his stasis chamber rubbing his neck and stretching...' and why does my head hurt so much?'

'Yes, we do come in peace, Lilion just isn't sure you will be peaceful, we have had trouble already with Colonel Telford.'

Samantha Carter steps forward, looking around. 'Is this all of us?' She moves over to the stasis chambers.

'I am sorry, Colonel Carter, the other chambers must have malfunctioned a very long time ago.'

'How have you had trouble with Colonel Telford, he was is stasis with us?' Dr. McKay asks, adding.. 'Oh, I feel dreadful... I think I am about to be sick... I feel as weak as a kitten... '

'Don't worry, just your body adjusting to the sudden change. I need to run medical checks on everyone.' Dr. Freya PeaseGood steps forward and then stops, grabbing at a nearby unit to steady herself.

'Colonel Telford took some communication stones with him into stasis, we have been able to use them to find out about Atlantis. Please you must all have your medical checks... you have been in stasis for so long. There will no doubt be a period of adjustment for your bodies...' Torr helps the Freya to her feet again.

'Just how long have we been in stasis?' Teyla asks.

Lilion sighs, removing the communication stones from Colonel Telford and checking him for weapons, replies. 'A couple of thousand years. Now, all of you, over to the wall. I want to check you all for weapons.'