Ace In The Hole
Chapter 46
The Jumper exits the Stargate engaging its cloak the second it is clear, Lorne turns to his co-pilot with a deep sigh as he steers the small craft high into the murky sky.
"This one better be better than the last one Lexy" Alex just glances at him impassively before returning his attention back to the console in front of him.
"Is this fifth or sixth now?" Jake pipes up leaning forward to glance out the view port.
"Seventh" Tim chuckles as he starts munching on an energy bar.
"I never said finding the other stations would be easy... that's why I didn't mention them in the first place" Alex grinds out.
"Well if there are other ancient construction stations we have to find them" Lorne says forcing a smile.
"If he can't even find em and he knows what he's looking for I doubt we have to worry about the Wraith ever finding them" Tim says with a small grin.
"I can't believe you have this much trouble locating them... didn't you guys ever think about putting a tracker on board?" Jake says with causing Alex to glare over his shoulder at him.
"Each city could track its own construction unit... that is how I knew where mine was and how Elizabeth knew where Avalon's had been left" Alex's glare softens "It was a security function..."
"Seems a bit of extreme security function" Lorne says with a weak smile as Alex glances at him.
"Really?... If the Wraith had access to just one of them they would have access to drones, intergalactic hyperdrives, cloaking technology..." Alex shakes his head defiantly "No... we couldn't risk it... it was just..." His conversation is cut short as a panel on the jumper lets out a small bleep.
"Found something?"
"I think so..." Alex grins "Head for these coordinates"
"Let's hope this pans out" Lorne smirks.
"Why the hell isn't this working?!" Rodney sighs frustratedly.
"I don't know!" Cairns barks back "I'm as pissed off about this as you are Rodney"
"Guys!" Jeannie says whilst smirking at both of them "If you have quite finished... Radek and I think we know why its not working"
Rodney just glares at his sister before coming over and snatching the pad out of her hands, he glances at the data then back up to her before shaking his head.
"It has to be Rodney" Radek says snatching the pad off him and handing it to Dr Cairns.
"The slipstream field forms like a wedge?" Cairns says in wonder "I just thought it would be a bubble like the hyperdrive produces... I never thought..."
"It has to be... that is the reason Destiny is the shape she is" Jeannie says as she taps on the pad display "The geometry of the field must be fixed"
"You are just guessing!" Rodney says annoyed that they are probably right.
"Are we?" Radek says "The Destiny's field generators are here, here and here" Radek picks up the marker and quickly draws the outline of a 304 on the board "We have installed them on the Arc Royal... there, there and there"
"See... the field would cover the ship if it was a bubble as we first thought but" Jeannie draws a wedge shape in red over the 304 diagram "But if its a wedge shaped field it would pass through the hull there and there causing the field to collapse"
"We would have to lengthen the ship to put a field generator in the forward section" Radek sighs
"That's not gonna be possible" Rodney sighs.
There is a faint clunking sound and a slow hiss as the Jumper locks into position on the construction platform.
"Wait" Alex taps a few controls on the jumper before grinning "Just checking the life support is up and running"
"Good call" Jake says sheepishly, his hand inches from the jumpers hatch control.
"We need to breath!" Tim says shaking his head.
"I forget sometimes... sorry sir" He says glancing sheepishly at Lorne.
"Come on... lets see if this place works" Lorne says pushing Jakes hand away from the control shaking his head all the time smiling knowingly, as they step out of the jumper and onto the station, its cold damp and dark.
"Shouldn't the lights come on when it senses our presence?" Lorne says glancing around the room.
"Yes" Alex says with a slightly puzzled look.
"Maybe there is not enough power" Jake says hesitantly.
"No... there's power... something is not..." Alex stops speaking as a beam of blue light sweeps across the four of them.
"What the hell was that?" Lorne says patting his body down subconsciously checking that he's all still there.
"It's OK... we were just scanned"
"Why?"
"Sir!" Less than 10ft away from them to their left a hologram of a Lantian appears, as soon as Alex sees it he smiles broadly.
{Atavus, I have just been ordered to rendezvous with the fleet, the high council is attempting one last stab at diplomacy but you and I both know that the Wraith will not be stopped unless by force, we have received disturbing reports that they have managed to acquire several Potentia's, it would seem that they have become unstoppable} the glowing Lantian smiles warmly {I have no doubts that you will find a way to finish what we couldn't, but for now we will fight with everything we have, knowing ultimately we go to our doom..." A small glimmer of mischief flickers across the holograms handsome features and Lorne can't stop himself from smiling when he sees the same glimmer of mischief on Alex's face.
{Cal is safe... although I have to warn you that she is completely out of resources and will probably be in a vile mood dependent on how long it has been since your last visit} the glowing Lantian chuckles causing Alex to grin.
{I have uploaded her lock down codes to this units system, only your personnel access code can retrieve them. I had to be sure it would be you and only you that found her, and I also left you one last gift my old friend, be safe} The hologram fades and Alex merely stands in silence for a few seconds staring at empty air.
"Caydius" Alex smiles turning to his team "Avatar for the city of Calandora"
"No matter what the councils orders were he would always find a way..."
"A way to what" Lorne says as Alex enters his code on the console next to him.
"To help" Alex smiles a bitter sweet smile "Even when all seemed lost...Cay always had a way of coming through for you just when you needed it" Suddenly the stations lights come on and systems begin activating, Alex places his hand on the nearest monitor and a blush of Lantian code flashes across the screen.
"Is that?" Lornes says excitedly looking at three more gate addresses.
"He went into battle with the fleet and three other cities... that gave him the location of their construction units" Alex grins "A breech or regulations but... desperate times n all"
"So who is this Cal he mentioned?" Tim says glancing at the gate addresses on the display.
"Cal is the the only A.I. To ever been created by my people, Custos Addo Libertas" Alex says looking at the others with a smile "Guardian that Gave Freedom"
"Well that explains a lot" Lorne says dryly raising an eyebrow.
"Cal was created to control the very first ship my people used to escape from Celestis"
"The Ori home world?" Jake says with a frown.
"Actually if you want to be technical it's the true birthplace of the human form... but yes the Ori home world" Alex nods.
"So that ship is still around?" Alex shakes his head and laughs.
"No... but we couldn't abandon Cal after she gave our people their freedom... it just wouldn't have been right... no... we transferred her into the NTC" Alex says with a smile.
"NTC?" Lorne asks frowning.
"Navis Tekton Constitum"
"Wait..." Tim says suddenly excited before he notices the looks of surprise on Jake and Lornes faces "Don't look so surprised!... Clare's been teaching me a little Ancient"
"Told you he's been seeing that linguist with the long brown hair didn't I sir" Jake grins but Lorne just roles his eyes indicating for Tim to continue.
"I know for a fact that navis is ship" Alex just nods a small smile creeping on his face "And tekton is build... but the other?" Tim shakes his head.
"Constitum is station" Alex says when he sees Tim can translate no further .
"Ship building station?... you mean ship yards?" Lorne says mouth wide open.
"Why didn't you tell us about them?" Jake says sounding surprised and hurt.
"There wasn't much point... without the proper codes even I couldn't gain access" Alex says whilst flipping through pages and pages of data on the display in front of him.
"Didn't you have the codes?... you are Atlantis after all" Lorne says confusion clearly spreading across his face.
"No" Alex frowns feeling slightly annoyed until he notices the looks of confusion, he sighs offering a small smile "My sole responsibility was to protect and safeguard the high council, Calandora was responsible for protecting the ship yards...it was just protocol... codes and locations were need to know" Alex shrugs once more but his smile grows when he sees the others clearly understand.
"I guess would be safer that way" Lorne says with a nod.
"The gift he left us" Alex says as he swipes his hand over the control to the view port, the window polarizes making the huge cargo bay full of Jumpers visible.
"Jesus!" Tim says excitedly.
"There are over 50 Jumpers but when the station ran out of space Cay programmed it to switch to drones... the corridors on level two are full of them"
"Lets get back to Atlantis and report in... this is going to put a smile on a few faces" Lorne grins.
"Ship yards?" Rodney is bouncing excitedly "We have to see them"
"We will Rodney..." Sheppard sighs "Commander Yuan here" The Chinese commander bows his head respectfully "Is taking the Sun Tzu to secure the new Nautilus station we have found"
"Ship yards!" Rodney almost whines "Lorne is reporting his findings to Teyla and..."
"John" Teyla comes rushing into the room with Lorne and his team hot on her heels.
"What's up?" Sheppard asks unable to mask the panic on his face.
Teyla realising that Sheppard is alarmed by her tone grimaces "Sorry... I did not mean to alarm you...Its nothing bad" she pulls a face at the glare Sheppard sends her.
"Don't do that to me... Jeez!"
"Its just..." She hands the pad with a gate address on it to Sheppard.
"But that's..."
"Athos" Teyla nods.
"Your original home world" Sheppard's eyes widen then instinctively flick towards a rather squeamish looking Alex "Why didn't you tell us that the Lantian ship yards are on Athos?"
"They're not... exactly" Alex shrugs but sighs at seeing Sheppard's less than amused look "They are hidden within the Athos system"
"Lorne... take Teyla" Teyla nods and beams a huge smile at him "Take Teyla, McKaye, Ronon and the lieutenant here to go find these ship yards... access they're condition"
"Miller, Zalenka and Cairns may be handy" Lorne says with a smile at seeing Rodney's glare.
"Fine... but just... be careful..."
Teyla smiles at seeing her home world once more as the jumper exits the gate, she takes a good look at the area around where their last encampment had been.
"Over there is where our peoples destinies crossed paths" Teyla points.
"Knowing you like I do... I bet you thought Sheppard and the others were mad men not knowing what the Wraith were" Lorne says with a smile as he points the Jumper towards the heavens and begins climbing out of the planets atmosphere.
"There was just something about him" Teyla says wistfully.
"Apart from the good looks" Lorne grins.
"He is an attractive man that is true... but there was an air of honest sincerity that I saw... I knew in that moment the kind of man he was... from that instant I have trusted him with my life" Teyla and Lorne look at the others sat nodding behind them.
"looks like no ones gonna argue on that one" Lorne grins.
"Alex?"
"Head there... towards the sun" Alex points to place on the Jumpers display.
"There's nothing there... and that is pretty close to the sun!" Rodney frowns looking at the display from his seat.
"Rodney" Alex sighs "Trust me"