Eight

The Return Home

While Ronon, Freya and Torren start to prep for the trip to Destiny. The rest of the Atlantis crew stay in the meeting room as Samantha explains their plans to Torr and Lilion.

'Our immediate priority is to find out what has happened on Earth in the time that we have been in stasis and to secure Destiny. I appreciate that you both would like to return to the Pegasus Galaxy but we cannot take the risk of either Atlantis or Destiny falling into the wrong hands until we know more...'

'So you won't let us go back through the Stargate?' Lilion interrupts Samantha.

'Not at this present time, we would like one of you to assist Colonel Telford's team on Destiny and one of you to remain here to help on Atlantis...'

'As your prisoners?' Lilion interrupts again.

'No, as our guests, for now.' Samantha finishes firmly. Lilion is about to answer but Torr lays a hand on her arm, sensing she is about to say something she might regret later, 'Lilion is eager to return home, we have been stuck on board Destiny for many weeks before arriving here. I am happy to remain on Atlantis, this city is extraordinary and I am sure Lilion will be happy to accompany the Colonel to Destiny. She can talk him through the modifications she has made.'

Lilion snatches her arm away from Torr and sinks low into her chair, glaring at the others sitting around the meeting room table.

'During your time on Destiny did you find any signs of life? Find any stasis chambers like the one here on Atlantis?' David asks.

'No, but we have barely scratched the surface of the ship, our first priorities were life support...'

'Fritters.' Lilion mutters under her breath.

'Pardon?' Rodney picks up on Lilion's muttering. 'You just said something, she just said something!'

'Just that there are some strange mutated versions of space rat running around the ship! I've called them Fritters.'

'Space rats?' Rodney wrinkles up his nose in disgust.

'Not scared of rats are you?' Lilion sits up, sensing a fresh quarry for teasing in Rodney. 'These are pretty big as rats go.'

'Lili, don't tease!' It is all Torr can do to keep a straight face, 'These 'rats' as she has described them are without a corporeal form, just gaseous emanations that roam the ship. They are no threat, as for stasis pods, there could well be, the ship is huge and we have not explored it all. It makes sense for Lilion to go with your team to Destiny, she is qualified in space propulsion, hydraulic engineering, bio-mechanical engineering and astrophysics... plus is pretty good with a blast gun too.'

'Really?' Rodney stares at Lilion while Torr reels off her impressive list of qualifications.

'Yes! Why, do you have a problem with that?' Lilion asks Rodney.

'No, just surprised, you don't seem very gee... I mean you don't look like you...' Rodney trails off, unable to think of a suitable way to finish his sentence.

'What he means is, you don't look geeky enough to be a math geek like him.' John finishes Rodney's thought for him. 'Excellent, we could use skills like yours on the team. You'll be with me, Colonel Telford, Teyla and Ronon.'

'Teyla?' Lilion questions.

'I have noticed already that you seem concerned about me, is there a reason?' Teyla asks, curious as to why there is an air of tension between the two of them.

'You and your son are Athosian. Athosians are...' But Torr interrupts before Lilion can insult Teyla and Torren, the last thing they need is to be antagonistic with these Ancients, now that they are just beginning to form a working relationship.

'What Lilion is referring to, is that over the last few thousand years, the Athosian people have become scattered over the galaxy, without a leader they now work mainly as mercenaries for those who would require their fighting skills. They are perhaps no longer the people you left behind all those centuries ago.'

Teyla looks shocked by the news and Lilion feels a tinge of remorse at her quick judgement of her.

'I find it hard to believe, we are.. were a peaceful and proud people. Things must be very different in the Pegasus Galaxy now.'

'I will be happy to tell you all I know of the Athosians, if you want.' Lilion smiles at Teyla in the hopes of building a friendship with her, Teyla is clearly is not like any Athosian she has met before.

'Thank you, I would like that...'

'In fact, at some point we would like to find out all about Pegasus and what has happened there from you both, but for now we urgently need to find out about Earth and Destiny. Let's continue this discussion another time. We have to work to do!' Samantha stands up and straightens her jacket. Time enough for talking later.

John, Teyla, Ronon, David and Lilion all wait in the Stargate chamber while Freya dials in the chevrons for the jump to Destiny. Lilion can't help feeling a surge of excitement at the thought of stepping back through the gate. Despite her misgivings, she is beginning to like these Ancients with their military precision and sense of fair play. Maybe Torr is right and she could convince them to travel back to Pegasus once they see their options and supplies are limited on Atlantis.

As Colonel Telford and his team step through the gate, Rodney, Torren, Freya, Torr and Samantha turn their attention to scanning the fiery planet Earth below.

On Board Destiny

Once the Stargate closes behind them, the room is quiet and full of shadows. Lilion steps forwards and yells into the gloom. 'Anyone at home? Where are you?' And from the deep recesses of the ship a deep, unmistakeable voice replies. 'Ah! You return! I was wondering what was keeping you both.'

'Todd? Is that you?' John turns around on the spot searching for where the voice is coming from, one hand on the blast gun at this side.

'John Shephard! Yes it is me. I thought never to hear your voice again. And who is with you, I have already met Colonel Telford... Teyla and Ronon! It is good to see you all again. I fear the circumstances could be better...' They watch in surprise as the body of Todd materialises in the centre of the gate room.

'Todd? Is that you?' John moves towards the imposing figure of the ancestral Wraith.

'It's a holographic bioscan of him. So, like him but not actually him.' David waves his blast gun through the image to prove his point.

'Hey! I am right here, you know, I can hear you, you don't need to speak of me in the third person... or stick your arm through me... Where are you all going?Are there any others, or just you?' Todd watches as they exit the gate room and head for the bridge.

On Atlantis

Freya checks the positional chart again, there is no mistake with the calculations. 'Rodney, I think you had better take a look at this.'

Rodney stares at the figures on the screen. 'Run them again, there must be some error, this can't be happening.'

'There is no error, I've run them twice. Look at the model predictions.' Freya and Rodney start to argue about whether the model is accurate or not.

'But this only gives us a one hour window... Colonel Carter and Torren are out in a puddle jumper. We need to call them back immediately.' Rodney and Freya rush to the communication console Torr is working on and push him to one side. 'I was just about to unlock the Ancients Library of Intergalactic Chronicles...'

'The what? How on earth have you accessed that? I haven't even heard of...no wait, no time! Sorry Torr, this is more important. Freya, you contact the jumper, I'll try and get through to Destiny. We have no time to lose.'

On board the Puddle Jumper, over what once was the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado.

'And you're sure this is where 'Area 52' is meant to be?' Torren glances out of the cockpit window to confirm what he is seeing on the scanners, a sea of magma and flowing rock.

'This should be the co-ordinates, unless the shifting plates have moved the mountain range, let's try a wider area, see if we can pick up a responder signal to ours. The technology should talk to each other automatically.'

'That's if Stargate Command still exists. We have had no life readings of any kind on the surface of the planet so far.' Torren shakes his head. The planet is empty and ripping itself apart. Their discussion is interrupted by a message for Freya.

'Mam, you need to return to Atlantis immediately. '

'But we haven't finished our search yet. We have two more sectors to cover. What's the problem, can't it wait?'

Freya replies firmly. 'Mam, you need to return immediately. We only have a one hour window to leave the Earth before it destroys itself.'

On Atlantis

'Did you just say the planet is destroying itself?' Torr stares in horror at Freya as Rodney tries to get hold of Destiny.

'Yes! The planet below is tearing itself apart. When it does, it will start a series of catastrophic collisions across the solar system, first the moon, then the nearer planets, eventually it will cause the solar system to destabilise and collapse and the asteroid belt to rip through the system... whatever happens, we need to move Atlantis out of the way, and soon.'

'I can't get through to Destiny! Have you got hold of Colonel Carter?' Rodney tries the communication channels again. 'There must be some problem on Destiny with their systems.'

'Oh, um, we might have rerouted the system to provide communications throughout the ship, so we didn't get lost.' Torr winces at the thought. 'Sorry. We weren't really expecting anyone to contact us in FTL.'

'Great! Now we can't warn them or move Atlantis anywhere near them to get a puddle jumper there because of the Stargates!'

'How about if we go through the gate to them?' Torr asks.

'No time. Those figures are only a prediction, a best guess, the planet could rip apart at any moment.' Rodney tries the Destiny one more time but is no good, he gets no reply.

Samantha and Torren land the puddle jumper back in its bay and sprint down to the control room where the other three are trying to work out a way to get the message to Destiny but there seems to be no way of accessing the ship from Atlantis.

'We need to leave Earth, the moon and it's environs well behind but that will bring us dangerously close to Destiny and maybe trigger another gate related event!' Rodney can feel himself beginning to shout.

'Calm down, Rodney. Freya, you and Torren work on trying to get a message through to Destiny, have we time to fire up the Stargate?'

Rodney shakes his head. 'There's no guarantee that anyone is still in the gate room on Destiny.'

'Any sign of Stargate Command?' Rodney asks.

'No, nothing. We can only hope they left the planet before...' Samantha trails off. 'Can we move Atlantis the other way, further in towards the sun and away form Destiny?'

'No, there's no way of knowing how the city will hold up to the extra solar exposure, it was designed to be on a very specific planet and under water. We don't even know how much power the city has left...'

'Can the city travel at FTL speed?' Torr asks.

'Yes, the Ancients city-ships all could. That's how we arrived back at Earth.' Rodney replies annoyed at being interrupted for such a basic question.

'Then jump the city to FTL and take Atlantis back to New Lantea. Away from the danger in this system.'

'And what about Destiny? We can't leave them without letting them know, what about when they travel through the gate... oh, of course, the gate won't dial in FTL, they would have to wait till we arrive at...' Rodney answers his own question.

'They will see what happens to earth and will work out where Atlantis has gone, Lili will work it out. From what I can see, your home world is finished and there is nothing for you here. At least there is food and water and a familiar planet in New Lantea. It's time for Atlantis to return home.'