Ace In The Hole
Chapter 4
"Dr McKaye…. Are you sure we are ready?" Richard Woolsey has no doubts in his mind as to the skills and dedication of those around him but the time scale that Colonel Sheppard has set seems a little rash, he had considered pushing the deadline back for the briefest of moments but in the interests of morale he had decided to push on and hope nothing had been missed.
"We are set to go… all departments are locked down and ready the SGC has assured us that all air and shipping traffic has been pushed back as far as possible" Rodney couldn't help smile, "Still could have been a cool way to reveal the program… seeing the city blasting into space on the morning news"
"Maybe next time Dr McKaye" Woolsey smiles "Chuck, open a secure line to the SGC please" Woolsey nods to the Canadian technician as he straightens his uniform for the fourth time in as many minutes.
"General…"
"Mr Woolsey, I hear you are leaving early?" Landry smiles warmly knowing full well that it was O'Neill that had prompted Sheppard into action even though nothing had been said.
"I believe Colonel Sheppard is eager to make a move after waiting around for so long Sir."
"Right …." Both men knew full well Sheppard was out to impress them, and more importantly he wanted to clear out before they had a chance to change their minds. "Well Richard I will merely say good luck and god speed…SGC out"
"Woolsey to Sheppard"
"Sheppard here"
"Colonel….. Take us out"
This was the moment John had been waiting for, the cities systems were fully powered up and ready, he had gone over his pre-flight preparations more than a dozen times already and he knew the city herself was itching to get going. He could feel the energy of her systems rising slowly as the cities stardrive began powering up, he opens his eyes momentarily to see Lorne watching him with a bemused look on his face.
"Should I leave you two alone Sir?" Lorne grins.
"Just concentrating Lorne… you know what she's like when she's got you in the chair… she wants all your undivided attention." Sheppard roles his eyes…. Suddenly a thought strikes him, he has always been the one to pilot the city out and as much as he loves doing it he wants to see how it looks from the other side, deciding quickly the chair returns to vertical and stops glowing as John stands and steps aside holding his hand out to Lorne.
"You're kidding?"
"You've trained…. She likes you…. You know what to do… Colonel Lorne…. take us out" John grins at his XO knowing full well what he is currently going to be feeling, a mixture of heady excitement and sheer terror.
"Yes Sir" Lorne sits hesitantly in the control chair which reclines and lights up for him immediately, he senses the city straight away a warm tender presence in his thoughts guiding him through her systems effortlessly like a lovers caress, she begins a dance for him, her in his mind, him in hers as system after system come online.
John is mesmerised watching the concentration on Lorne's face a small smile tugging almost imperceptively at the corner of his lips, sweat forming across his brow as he finally feels the stardrive powering up with a powerful rumble. Suddenly the whole room begins to shake slightly and he knows without looking at a monitor that they are already off the ocean and climbing steadily… after a short climb he hears the shields activate, he knows that Rodney was waiting until they reached 24000ft before he switches from cloak to shield.
"Sheppard… shields up and we are in the green." Rodney states calmly over the radio.
"Copy that Rodney… but I'm not driving today" Sheppard can imagine the look on his best friends face right about now "Colonel Lorne's taking us out for a change…. Sheppard out"
Suddenly he can feel Lorne increase the power he knows that he is climbing out of the atmosphere rapidly and he also knows what he can see in his mind the full majesty of the planet at his feet like he is standing in space looking down from on high. He begins to feels the acceleration die down and Lorne's face relaxes into a grin as he opens his eyes which immediately lock onto Sheppard's.
"Holy Shit… sorry sir but that was just…. Wow!"
"Tell me about it…. You haven't finished just yet Colonel…. Take us home" Sheppard winks as he walks out and hurries to the nearest balcony just in time to be standing outside as the city makes the jump into hyperspace.
The journey back to Pegasus was thankfully uneventful and various people with the ATA gene took turns in the control chair, though it wasn't necessarily needed having someone in the driving seat so to speak made everyone including Mr Woolsey feel just that little bit calmer, of course Dr. Mckaye spent most of his time in his lab trying to find out as must as he could about the submersible drilling platform that they had left on Lantia, there was something about it he still couldn't put his finger on.
In all the time that he and the science team had spent there they had never managed to get the platform fully online and despite their best efforts at the time, over fifty percent of the station had remained sealed off even Sheppard's magic touch hadn't worked, what ever its ultimate purpose was it had been largely ignored all that was needed at the time was power and that was what it had given them but still questions were rolling around his head, of course being Rodney there were always questions rolling around in his head but in the end he kept returning to the same one over and over… like a subconscious thought mocking him daring him to figure it out and slowly he was becoming more and more frustrated.
"Why?"
"Excuse me?" Radek looks up to Rodney not sure if he has missed part of the question.
"Why?"
"Why what?" Radek can't help but look a little confused
"I was just thinking…..the Ancients had Atlantis on Lantia for years….right?" it was more of a statement than a question "And built loads of stuff on numerous planets throughout the galaxy"
"Yes ….but I'm still unsure as to where you are going with this" Radek couldn't help the confused look he was giving Rodney at the moment he was getting tired and hungry and was not in the mood for playing games.
"Why? We found nothing else on Lantia except this place, so why here what makes it so important to the Ancients that it had to be here, we're missing something" Rodney could almost feel the thought in the back of his mind trying to push through and it was torture.
"I think you are seeing something that is not there Rodney, Colonel Sheppard wants to merely pack it up and take it with us, rather than leaving it to rot on the ocean floor… we may as well put every asset we have to use" Radek sighs to his friend gently "Rodney I'm tired and hungry so I'm going to grab a bite to eat and then I'm off to bed …. I'll see you in the morning" Rodney merely nods to his friend as he continues staring at the screen of his laptop he doesn't even notice Jennifer enter the room as Radek leaves.
"Hey you…." Jennifer smiles as she wraps arms around him gently from behind "What ya doin?"
"Sheppard wants to salvage the platform from Lantia I'm just going over something…" he answers wearily.
"The one you found the Wraith Queen nearby?"
"Yep …. Something about it as always bugged me…"
"Such as?" Jennifer knows how her husbands mind works… she as quickly learnt that the best way to get on with their life is too help him figure out what is bugging him… that way he usually lets it go and turns his attention back to the day to day problems rather than obsess on a usually trivial matter.
"Why here?...the Ancients built dozens of facilities on dozens of planets, and although they were on Lantia all that time this is the only other structure that we have found on the planet except the city… why?"
"Power" Jennifer knew it was too obvious but she loved to see him role his eyes and give that did you just say that look.
"No…. at least I don't think so… why would they need it? They had ZPM's any power produced is no where near I single ZPM and where would you store the power the platform has a capacitor to store power but the city doesn't… not really" Rodney couldn't help it the more he thought the less it made sense.
"What did the data base have to say about it? Has to give you some clues" Jennifer knew she was clutching at straws a nice romantic meal and an early night in bed was looking further and further away.
"As usual…. Not so much…. Just vague references to power distribution and it being under water…." Rodney starts taping on his laptop bringing up the original file that Dr. Kavanagh had found describing the platform"
[Inferus Aqua Duco Pulpitum]
Underwater Drilling Platform
by Dr. Kavanagh
The file so obviously written by Kavanagh prattled on about how he had discovered a possible power source that could augment the cities single ZPM it was long winded boring and straight away she could see it was also wrong, Jennifer couldn't help it she turned and smirked at her husband knowingly.
"What?"
"Oh Come on Rodney….It's right there" Rodney stared at the report reading it over twice before biting.
"What!...oh for gods sake Jen….what?" Rodney couldn't help give her the puppy dog eyes, he knew instinctively she had spotted something one of the first things he had loved about her was her quick mind … well if he was really honest it was the second thing he had fallen in love with but he was never brave enough to admit that to her.
"We all agree on one thing right?" she smiled warmly kissing Rodney gently on the lips "Dr. Kavanagh is an idiot…correct?" Rodney nodded suddenly distracted as she once again slowly leans in to brush her lips against his "So if he's such an idiot, did none of you think to check his translation?" Rodney's eyes snap back to his Laptop his brow knitting into a frown "You've learnt a lot more Ancient since then …. Duco is not drill…. Its?" Jennifer leaves the sentence hanging in the air as she watches Rodney, slowly the piece falls into place and his eyes go wide with shock…. he is up in an instant his hand on his radio in seconds.
"McKaye to Zelenka"
"What now Rodney?… I was just about to go to bed."
"Get your ass back here… an hour tops… promise" Rodney can hear the scientist mumbling in his own tongue no doubt a few of the words are curses.
"I'm on my way…. This better be good Rodney… Zelenka out" Rodney turns to his smiling all knowing wife and kisses her gently on the lips once more.
"Hour tops eh?" she smiles warmly.
"Maybe two… possibly three…" Rodney offers meekly knowing full well she is not buying it.
"Rodney… honey if you are not in bed by 2am that gives you…" she offers him a knowing smile as she checks the time on her watch "I'm going to be a little bit annoyed… but if you manage to be back before two…. I'll make it worth while" Jennifer wiggles her eye brows knowing full well Rodney will be back before her deadline she smiles and turns too leave with a grin, leaving Rodney with an equally large grin as she disappears out of the lab, he knows he has struck gold with Jennifer and he knows in his heart he would always put her needs before anything.
"What is it Mckaye" Sheppard couldn't help but sound tired… he had spent a long morning going through training schedules and placements he had also been working on an idea he'd had about the drilling platform on Lantia, he had almost forgotten about it a long time ago but every time John had sat in Atlantis's control chair an image of the platform had been the first thing to pop in his head, he knew that Atlantis thought it was important he just couldn't figure out why.
"Kavanagh is a moron!" Rodney announces as he enters the room, Sheppard merely nods in agreement waiting for McKaye to enlighten him as he sense's this is gonna be a long rant. "I mean a complete moron…. But to make it worse he's made us all look like complete morons and that I'll never let go"
"Are you gonna rant or you wanna let me know why I'm here rather than getting my lunch" Sheppard saw the annoyance in his friend's eyes and he couldn't help but smile.
"The platform… what are you planning?" McKayes question caught him off guard, he hadn't really got a plan as such he just knew that Atlantis herself thought it was important that seemed good enough for him.
"Hadn't really decided…. Why?
"Like I said Kavanagh is a moron but we were just as bad….no one checked his translation… we just saw power and went with it" Rodney was pacing back and forth frustrated at himself more than anything else.
"He translated Inferus Aqua Duco Pulpitum as Underwater Drilling Platform the stupid moron" Rodney is staring at Sheppard waiting for him to catch on after a few second he can see he still has no clue what he's annoyed about sighing "Duco is not Ancient for drill…. It's Ancient for construct!" Sheppard's eyes go wide in realisation.
"You saying?"
"It's their primary construction facility" Rodney suddenly relaxes into a grin "Once we knew what it was we found tons of information in the database oh god…. If Atlantis is the Ancients crown jewels then this place is their frilly knickers that they hid underneath" Rodney is grinning at Sheppard uncontrollably he had a plan of course and wanted his audience.
"Sheppard to Woolsey"
"Go ahead colonel"
"Sir I need a briefing with all senior staff in one hour… Dr McKaye has something you need to hear"
"Understood" Both men smile as they head out knowing that this time in Pegasus was going to be just a little bit different.