Ace In The Hole
Chapter 10
Mr Woolsey had gathered the guests from Earth, Colonel Sheppard and Colonel Lorne's teams and Dr's Becket and McKaye out onto the balcony of Atlantis's main tower.
"Colonel Sheppard… I believe you had something you want to say…." Woolsey offers the colonel a slight nod before stepping aside.
"Well… I think you all know me well enough by now to know I don't really do speeches…. But I just wanted everyone to be here for this" Teyla and Ronon can't help look a little confused when they notice all the smiling faces around them… Teyla spots Alex at the back of the group and catches a look of excitement flash across his face if only for a second.
"What's going on?" Teyla asks curious and with the slightest apprehension.
"I just wanted you to know…. You're no longer alone… We're with you now" John grins as Ronon and Teyla finally spot the five 304's that are high in the sky in formation heading towards the city obviously coming into land.
"I am not sure what to say?" Teyla feels slightly overwhelmed by Earths now obvious commitment to her people and this galaxy.
"Thanks" Ronon grins summing up their feelings in a single word.
"Dial it up Chuck" Sheppard says with a smile "Like I said Lorne I just wish it was me honest….. Who wants to sit in a room of ship commanders talking battle strategy when they could be escorting VIP's to our new outpost?"
Colonel Lorne is not buying it he knew as soon as Carter and O'Neill asked for a tour of Nautilus before leaving for home that it was gonna be him and his team stuck escorting them. Hell he knew full well that Sheppard loved any chance he could to wind him up, but he had hoped that Sheppard would be wary of putting Lt. Weir anywhere near the IOA members.
"You're all heart sir"
"Nautilus as acknowledged our signal your good to go" Chuck states calmly.
"Let's go… after you sir" Lorne holds his hand out for O'Neill the group starts walking through the gate and soon as they are all through the wormhole disengages.
Sheppard proceeds to the briefing room where he meets Mr Woolsey and the commanders of his task force and Lt. Colonel Marks his XO on the Odyssey.
"Please be seated…. I hope you had an uneventful flight…. No mishaps on the way?" Sheppard smiles as they all take a seat quickly
"We had a slight problem with the hyperdrive when we took a break at midway but managed to fix things…. Dr Cairns is still trying to iron out the kinks I'm afraid" Colonel Grainger of the Adaris says.
"We knew there may be a few problems pushing the ship into service so quickly…. But needs be…. Sorry" Sheppard smiles apologetically "Anyway we have allotted crew quarters within the city for everyone on board… I know the quarters on board a 304 are a little cramped and we have ample space within the city…. It may stop your crews feeling a little stair crazy"
All the ship commanders nod knowing that being stuck on a ship is one thing but stuck on a ship a whole galaxy away from home could cause a lot of frustration within their crews, but with Atlantis to unwind on maybe Pegasus won't be so bad after all.
"Of course whilst in the city your crews will be expected to abide by the rules…. It can be a dangerous place still and everyone's safety is paramount…. I don't want too loose anyone to stupidity" Mr Woolsey adds knowing that often the urge to explore can be to strong for many newcomers.
"We have all undergone extensive training supervised by both the IOA and SGC and we are all well aware of Dr McKaye's vicious tongue should we mess with anything we shouldn't" Colonel Yuan of the Sun Tzu jokes making the group smile and relax a little.
"Well fearsome as MCKaye may seem he has his use's …. He is currently working on modifying an interface to allow our ships to be able to control Ancient drones" Sheppard says with a smile.
"We have found a cache of them and may be able to utilize them soon enough" Woolsey adds with a smile finally.
Captain Cadman and a couple of marines stand to attention as General O'Neill and his entourage enter Nautilus.
"Welcome to Nautilus Sir" she smiles.
"At ease captain… no need for ceremonies… just a quick tour to give us an idea of what you need…." O'Neill offers casually.
"Few luxuries to relieve the boredom wouldn't go a miss sir…. there's not much to do here…. Can't even go out on a balcony like you can in the city…. We have set up the crew quarters easy enough and there are a few research and design labs on the lower level but other than that it's fairly basic"
"Well lead on captain" O'Neill says knowing from Carters fidgeting that she is eager to look around.
Cadman leads them down the corridor and up to the next level to the stations main control room it looks almost like the bridge of an Aurora class vessel except the windows instead of looking out into space are looking into a large room that is filled with machinery. At first glance it looks like a complete jumble of various machines but on closer inspection four groups of machines can be seen. All for machines are chugging away happily.
"Dr. Zee… we have guests" Cadman says loudly as she is guessing neither he nor the other scientists have even noticed their presence.
"Oh…. Sorry… kinda got caught up… hello General… Colonel" he offers a warm smile to the group then turns to direct his conversation to Colonel Carter knowing full well the others will be listening but only she will probably understand.
"What you making Radek?" Carter offers with a smile
"Bullets" he smirks at Carters surprise "There is a molecular scanning device in the R&D lab on the lower level it allows you to add something to the database directly…. Bullets require little resources and we have been able to find a lot of scrap metal to use as a trial run" he smiles.
"How did it go?" Carter asks with obvious excitement.
"Radek hands her two bullets"
"Which ones new?" she asks.
"Both" he answers with a grin before handing her a third, visibly they are identical "We have quickly discovered that we can also do something else ….. But I will warn you… this could cause major economical problems back home should this technology get into the wrong hand's" he hesitantly hands her a fourth bullet made of glistening solid gold.
"Is this?" Carter asks slightly taken aback.
"Once the structure is input into the system the R&D labs allow you to tinker with the molecular structure and change the composition…. We tried this as a one off" Radek smiles sheepishly.
"A Bet actually" Cadman adds grinning.
"Yes well…. The station collected the materials and synthesized this solid gold bullet in 1 hour 8 minutes" Radek shrugs.
"Well at least we know if we need have our funding cut we have a new way to pay for the program" O'Neill adds with a chuckle.
Lorne and his team after deciding that the platform introduction was best left to Cadman were sitting in a fairly bland recreation room waiting for this day to end so they could return to the city.
"So sir…. It just seems strange to one minute have Lt. Jones with us … then for no apparent reason swap him out for a green guy that we never met before we got here… has he been hiding in his quarters or something sir?" Lorne couldn't help smile at his two team mates neither Tim or Jake were dumb and they could sense something was different about the way the new lieutenant had been drafted in.
Fortunately Alex had seen this coming and had distanced himself from the others by going to the other side of the room looking at books and pictures anything to allow Lorne a chance to placate his team's worries.
"He's a shy guy that's all…. Bit of a geek…. But Colonel Sheppard and I both agree he will be a good fit…. now that Parrish is staying on Earth" Lorne smiles hating to lie to his team.
"Well I hope I don't have to save his ass as many times as I saved Parrish's" All three laugh as Alex rejoins them.
"What did I miss?" he asks with a smile.
"Nothing lieutenant" Lorne answers smiling back.
Suddenly the stations alarm begins to sound and Lorne and his team head up to meet the others in the control room, as they enter they can see worried faces around.
"Cadman escort Mr Dunham and Miss Xiaoyi to the gate room and send get them back to Atlantis" O'Neill orders calmly as both Carter and Zelenka try to find out why the alarm has sounded.
"Shall I ask for back up…Sir?" Cadman asks knowing it's a stupid question as they do not know what's even going on yet.
"No just get them to safety…. Just in case…. We will update them once we know something" Cadman turns and escorts the two IOA members out as Lorne and his team enter.
"Sir… anything we can do?" Lorne asks.
"Not yet…. We aren't even sure what's going on" O'Neill glances to Alex then turns to badger Carter.
"Reed … Coughlin… go make sure the gate is secure we may need to get out of here in a hurry" Lorne orders and the two men leave with the slightest of nod's "Anything?" Lorne finally asks Alex once they have gone but he just roles his eyes and frowns in slight annoyance.
"The platforms main computer has not been on good terms with me for a few millennia but I will try" he shrugs as he places his hand discretely on one of the screens at the back of the room and closes his eyes, a small blush of Lantean code flashes across the screen and Lorne sees Alex's frown drop and a smile appear instantly.
"It seems that she has forgiven me"
Across the room Carters voice can be heard.
"Sir…. We are suddenly receiving a feed from a Lantean communication satellite in orbit…. It seems the station detected a hyperspace window…. We have a ship in orbit" Carter announces calmly "Not sure how the system came online sir?"
O'Neill looks around and spots Lorne and then Alex who is trying to act casual and not draw attention to the fact his hand is pressed to the monitor next to him…. O'Neill roles his eyes and turns back to Carter.
"Can we tell what it is yet?" He asks and just as she is about to say no an image appears onscreen.
"That's a traveller ship Sir….. Looks pretty banged up.….like it's been in a fight….picking up a transmission Sir" says Carter.
[Atlantis please respond….. this is the traveller vessel Kaldara please come in...we require immediate assistance.]
"Sir?"
[Atlantis please respond….. this is the traveller vessel Kaldara please come in.]
"It could be a trap" O'Neill has been caught out to many times by good intentions to not be cautious.
"Sir…. It doe's sound like Larin the traveller we have already had dealings with…. but we could bounce a signal off the satellite…. That way we wouldn't be giving away our position…. Just in case" Carter supplies knowing it's probably the best course of action.
"OK …. Do it."
"Go ahead sir"
"This is General O'Neill to the traveller vessel in orbit go ahead"
[Thank god….. General our ship was ambushed by the wraith and we have taken heavy damage…. Life support is failing and our hyperdrive has just failed…. We require immediate assistance…. Is Colonel Sheppard there?]
"I'm afraid not…. In fact Atlantis is no longer on this world…. Lucky for you we have got a small base here so we can send for help… so sit tight..." O'Neill is cut off before he could finish.
[General you don't understand….. the Wraith attacked us only a relatively short distance away and although it will take a while for them to catch up with us we are still well within their sensor range…. We have minutes not hours General] O'Neill can sense the panic in the women's voice.
"Sir I have an idea…. But they are not gonna like it"
[You want us to what?]
"Blow up your ship by setting it to ram the hive" Carter supplies to the shocked Larin.
[These ships are our homes…. We have no way of building more…. Without them my people will die… we have lost too many already Colonel…. I can't do it] Carter knows how proud and the travellers are they have been evading the Wraith for centuries but years without support as meant their ships are failing and no new ships are there to replace them.
"Larin we can beam your crew down to us and safety… thankfully the beaming technology was installed this morning…but" Carter lets the problem hang she knows Larin is not your run of the mill Pegasus native.
[If the wraith find our ship empty they are gonna want to know where we went]
"Exactly" Carter sighs.
"Larin…. General O'Neill again…. Look I know we are asking a lot but believe me when I say…. I will make it worth your while….. trust me"
[I'm lowering the shields…. The Wraith could be here anytime though] She sighs knowing that her ship…. Her home….. Another piece of her people's history was about to be lost all she could feel was sadness.