Ace In The Hole
Chapter 5
Mr Woolsey, Colonel Lorne, Dr Beckett and Dr J. McKaye sat chatting as Colonel Sheppard and Rodney entered the briefing room, Sheppard immediately sits next to Lorne who offer's him a friendly nod whilst Rodney offer's his wife a brief loving smile before he begins.
"First I want to point out that Dr. Kavanagh is an idiot…ok?"
"Rodney!" Sheppard couldn't help glare.
"Dr McKaye I think most people at this table probably already agree with you on that one so please continue" All heads around the assembled group were nodding in agreement with Woolsey's statement so Rodney felt assured and let it go.
"The platform we left behind on Lantia… if Colonel Sheppard hadn't of mentioned it…. I would never have even remembered it…. Anyway…..It's not what we thought it was" He looks around the room excitedly "It's not a drilling platform…. Well it kinda drill's and it's not a power generator ….Though it does generate a lot of power" McKaye digresses Woolsey can't take it much longer.
"So what is it Dr McKaye?"
"It's the Ancients primary construction facility" He says with a smile….
"How … I mean … why?….How?" Richard Woolsey's head is spinning "Explain?"
"The Ancients believed in spreading out their assets not putting their eggs in one basket so to speak … I mean it makes sense they have stargates and hyperdrives we all know from history that one stray comet or asteroid and bang your back in the stone age" McKaye's on a roll now "So they spread their mining and farming facilities out maximising production and utilising their advanced technology to transport everything"
"You going somewhere with this McKaye what's it got to do with the platform?" Sheppard's getting annoyed and knows Rodney is grandstanding for the crowd.
"Actually yes I'm going somewhere…. Colonel Lorne…. What's the biggest problem in spreading out your assets like that?" Lorne smiles easily as he replies.
"Easy… defence and security …. Spreading out your assets means it's a larger area too cover… troops are spread thinner on the ground and it's harder to protect a single facility or asset"
"What exactly has this got to do with the platform?" Mr Woolsey was getting slightly confused by now.
"It's the reason they lost the war" Rodney can't help but grin now at the assembled frowns in front of him.
"I thought they lost because the Wraith had over whelming numbers?" Sheppard smirks enjoying watching McKaye annoyance as he states the obvious and well known fact.
"Yes…. over whelming numbers helped but they hit the Ancients Achilles heal so to speak…..Their off world mining capabilities"
Rodney sighs he knows this is going to be long and arduous but he is just the man to explain this, "Right they set up a mine on a planet… they use transport ships to bring the ore to Atlantis… the industrial plant I got working on the north east pier…. Turns out it's a refinery and processing plant it extracts minerals such as Naquadah and Trinium and once it has a full hopper it transports them to the platform using an industrial size version of the people sized ones we are used to….. Ok so the station as four construction bays so long as the city keeps supping raw materials they keep churning out what ever they are programmed to"
"The Wraith blockade blocked the transports and ultimately starved them of raw materials" Sheppard beats Rodney to his conclusion much to Rodney's annoyance.
"Exactly the station went into what they called Induction Mode, basically it's capable of not only getting its energy from the planet through geothermal induction but it can also get raw material's from the planet though a form of gravitic induction"
"You saying it find's and pulls what it needs from the planet itself? because that could reinvent the mining industry" Lorne cant help himself so many years working as a mining engineer and still he was fascinated by what the ground below them could offer up.
"No that's the catch… it pulls up everything indiscriminately" Rodney sighs "Then using a lot of energy and time it rearranges the collected matter at the atomic level….its time consuming and about as inefficient as you can get but it allows the platform to continue construction although at a much slower pace"
"So…. what sort of time frame are we talking about here Dr. McKaye? What can it produce?" Richard Woolsey is intrigued.
"Keep supplying the station with the correct materials and it will build almost anything you want from Lantean weapons to Drones to floor tiles, for instance take the drones each of the construction bays will churn a drone out in 4.4 hours" Rodney smiles knowing what this means "Of course that means 4 drones every 4.4 hours or 150 drones a week or nearly 8000 in a year but without the correct materials being supplied and in Induction Mode it drops to 1 drone every 1.2 days that's only 300 a year"
"Eight thousand drones?" Sheppard and Lorne's eyes glaze over suddenly as they go over the possibilities.
"Colonel's please focus…." Mr Woolsey smiles trying to hide his obvious own excitement. "The platform is surely not big enough to build a ship I take it?"
"From what I can gather the Jumpers were constructed there it requires all 4 construction bays working together roughly 6.3 days but that's still that's 57 jumpers in a year but I would hate to work out how long it would take in induction mode"
"So…. Dr. McKaye… how do you suggest we proceed it seems that Atlantis and the platform are linked…. if the city it to refine the ore" Rodney couldn't help but cut Mr Woolsey off.
"Erm… No…. not gonna work… first we don't have the manpower to set up the needed mining operations secondly shipping would be risky thirdly we couldn't gate it through our gate without tying the gate room up almost entirely"
"We follow our original plan and take the city to PX31-7AJ and install a gate on the platform" Sheppard grins as he speaks he knows how annoyed Rodney is by him stealing his thunder once more.
"Unlike the Ancients we have the whole mining and refinery back up of Earth and the SGC to fall back on they can send refined materials direct to us via the gate bridge, we simply install Asgard beaming technology on the station which shouldn't be no more difficult than when we installed it on Atlantis herself… that way each consignment of ore sent through can be beamed to its relevant hopper just like the Ancient transporter on Atlantis did"
"What about security putting a gate on there is risky or I'm guessing the Ancients would have done it" Woolsey asks hating to find a negative in the plans.
"They wouldn't have considered it…. it wouldn't have made sense to them…. their refinery was here in the city so any ore they got would have had to come here to Atlantis first, it wouldn't have made any sense to put the gate on the platform" Rodney's pauses thinking. "The platform has shields and dampening technology I mean even the cities sensors had a hard time detecting it that's why they put it where it is… we could easily modify its systems to put a gate shield in place like the one on Atlantis hell the platform can even produce the parts for it in a few hours"
"There is also a sizable living area down there we could run the whole thing as a self contained base with a rotating crew assignment"
Sheppard's mind was now thinking who he could trust with their prize asset, he notic's Lorne out of the corner of his eye deep in thought "What's up?" Sheppard could tell he had startled him away from his thoughts.
"Sorry sir… I was just thinking….Rodney?" Rodney looks at Lorne questioningly "Did the Ancients shut down the platform before they left?" they all noticed the slightest quiver at the corner of Rodney's lips has he tries to hold back another grin.
"Why do you ask?" Rodney knows full well what's coming and he's a little surprised its Lorne and not Sheppard that got there first
"When the station was found it was powered down did the Ancients do it or did it power down itself? Sheppard and the others were looking at Lorne and McKaye with slightly confused glances the had obviously figured something out that Rodney found amusing.
"It powered down after 121 years I believe… and I must say I am impressed you spotted it" Rodney starts grinning wildly at Lorne who smiles back
"It ran out of space? I'm just guessing….?" Lorne's smile is now a full blown grin matching Rodney's "One last question Dr. McKaye… what was the last thing the platform produced?"
"A drone I believe" Sheppard sees Lorne's mouth drop open in stunned silence and suddenly he's on the same page ever the math genius he's done the calculations in his head and he stares at Rodney and then at Lorne open mouthed but silent.
"Rodney sweetheart…" Rodney's eyes turn to his wife who has sat along side Carson without saying a word "Could you…. if its not any trouble of course…. explain what you have figured out…for the rest of us mere mortals that is" He instantly recognises the warning tone in her voice and smiles at her lovingly.
"The station carried on chugging away in its back up Induction Mode after the Ancients abandoned the city it only stopped when it run out of storage space for the drones it was constructing"
"So how many are there?" Jennifer knew full well how important drones were to the defence of the city, second to a ZPM they were probably their most prized assets "How many Rodney?"
"It shut down roughly 121 years after they left or 44206 days later" Rodney turns to Colonel Sheppard he knows he already has the figure as much as he hates to admit it Sheppard is a genius at Math and it annoys Dr McKaye, but Rodney the friend secretly loves to bring John the math geek out to play, "Well?" he gestures to his friend waiting expectantly.
"The platform is currently holding 36838 drones in its cargo hold…no wonder it's locked down tight…" Sheppard can't help chuckle. All those assembled sit in silence for a few minutes as Rodney finally takes a seat next to his wife taking her hand in his and giving her a warm smile.
"This of course is huge and though this might come as a shock to you all…. I am going to suggest that we severely limit the information that we pass the IOA about the platform" Woolsey breathes slowly before he continues "Dr McKaye am I right to assume that the platform can be moved?"
"Of course it's designed to dock with the underside of the city for transport"
"And only the city is capable of moving it?" Woolsey continues.
"Yes….oh I get it… you think the second the IOA hears about it they will request we pick it up and return it to Earth we would be back where we started" Rodney groans knowingly.
"My thoughts exactly…I know you all thought of me as the IOA bean counter when I first came to Pegasus and to be honest at first maybe I was" Sheppard goes to interrupt but stops as Mr Woolsey raises his hand to silence him "But if I've learnt one thing its that although Earths protection and survival is our goal I will not rape this galaxy of its assets like some grave robber, Earth will be allowed access to the platform and all it can produce but it stays here in Pegasus where it belongs" All the faces around the table light up with smiles at Woolsey's comments they know he is as committed to Pegasus as they are and that he will not sacrifice this galaxy to the whim of some over paid pen pusher billions of miles away.
A day later Atlantis exits from hyperspace and slowly glides into a stable orbit high above the planet Lantia.
"Doctor?" Mr Woolsey can't help feeling anxious.
"We're fine we are in a stable geosynchronous orbit and long range sensors are detecting nothing in the immediate area…and…" McKaye slowly goes quiet as he taps on his laptop for a few seconds "There … right where it's supposed to be…" McKaye looks to Mr Woolsey waiting for permission.
"By all means doctor" Woolsey agrees with a curt nod.
"McKaye to Zelenka?"
"Go ahead" Zelenka's voice is heard clearly over the speakers
"I'm beaming it now you have two hours Radek…chop chop" Rodney can't help trying to wind up his friend he knows he will get the job done but it never hurts to annoy him when he can. Down in Radek's lab the bright light of an Asgard transport beam fades away leaving the Asuran satellite on the floor in its place.
"Ok people we have 2 hours to remove this gate and get it calibrated ….lets get a move on" Radek smiles he knows his team will get it done "remember try not to damage the shield emitters or hyper drive we need to take a look at them later"
Less than half an hour later and a puddle jumper carrying Colonel Sheppard, Dr McKaye and Colonel Lorne and his team are docking at the underwater platform.
"Lorne have a quick look around this level check everything is as we left it…. I'm gonna head to control with McKaye see if we can get this place off lockdown" Lorne nods too Sheppard who in turn looks to Rodney "Let's go see if we are right about this eh?" Both of them are feeling nervous they have already made plans how to put this station to use neither one of them want to be wrong.
Almost an hour later and Rodney has managed to get the station online but the upper three levels are still completely locked down… its starting to annoy him and he knows the others are counting on him to crack this.
"This is crazy… the system is requiring an eight digit code and it can't be by-passed… I've tried every trick I know but I can't get past it" Rodney sigh's annoyed but not admitting defeat.
"Could it be Atlantis?" Lt Jones asks genuinely trying to help, Lorne winces at the Lieutenants question knowing McKaye is not in the mood for dumb grunts at the moment.
"Yes … Atlantis of course why didn't I think of it?" McKaye glares at the young Lieutenant.
"Only trying to help!" the lieutenant replies trying too defend himself.
Sheppard can't help but roll his eyes he's bored and frustrated and once more getting pissed off at the Ancients for putting such a stupid thing as a coded lock in there way… how in the hell were they to know a specific eight digit code unless…
"Rodney?" Rodney quits scowling at Lt. Jones to look at Sheppard questioningly "Is it just letters and numbers? Or are there gate symbols as well?" Sheppard asks with a slight smile.
"Gate symbols are there as well ….why?"
"An address that no Wraith would know but us and every Ancient would….. Earth…. Its earth's 8 symbol address… that's the code" Rodney quickly punch's in the code and to his delight hears the faint clunk of a blast door finally unlocking.