Here's the next chapter for you all, questions will be answered and others will be asked. Note: I only own what characters i create, the names and places i invent and the ships and vehicles i seem to be designing in droves for this single story.
I realised when i was writing this particular chapter that i had broken both 50,000 words and 100 pages on Microsoft Word. Who would have thought i would be doing that as a twenty year old maths student :)
Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. .net/topic/84023/35075481/1/
Review Responses
mwbib: There is plenty more still to come, like this chapter.
Shadow of Realm: Well they are only destroyers, small and easy to build ships that make good escorts, scouts allowing you to maintain a presence in more places than you could with just big ships. Perfect considering they were designed to fight against the Wraith when they were a major problem.
Ruby Pena: I am glad you approve, enjoy the next chapter.
stark40763: So many reviews, thank you. There are small problems and then there are big ones, the question is how big?
Kolumna – Control Room
A lone Genii soldier stepped into the control room surveying the scene around him. The hub of the ancestral city was bustling with activity even during this late hour into the capture of the city. Genii technicians were manning control stations while soldiers carried heavy crates of supplies away from the active stargate and to wherever their contents were needed throughout the city. Nodding to the passing soldiers he walked into the office that the previous leader of the city had been forced to vacate and stopped before the desk.
"Commander I have the status report that you requested," he said placing a wad of papers amongst the others strewn across the desk.
Commander Gerard Nadier gave the written report a withering look before looking at the blonde haired Lieutenant Commander before him. He was a soldier, a man of action, and on the list of things he hated most paperwork held its own very well.
"Just give me the short version," he said. "You know what my views are on unnecessary paperwork Duvar."
"Yes sir," he replied. "The city inhabitants have been captured and our forces have finished securing a perimeter. The sensor shielding generator has been installed in the main tower and is covering the whole city. Defensive weapons are being put in place as we speak and as supplies arrive. I am told the last of the defences will be in place by dawn."
"Any resistance?"
"None, the majority of guards and personnel were off duty when we attacked as you predicted. After we captured the gate room any soldiers we encountered were silently brought down by our strike teams and captured alive for questioning as you requested."
He nodded. "What have you done with the prisoners?"
"They have been secured in two of the larger rooms in the central tower, on different levels of course. I thought it best to have them close at hand should any more Lantean forces attempt to retake the city."
Gerard raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Good thinking old friend. Although I am surprised you were able to fit them all in just the two rooms, are you sure you took them all alive?"
"There weren't that many sir, no more than a hundred and all confined to quarters in the central tower. There were only a few guards patrolling the corridors in any case. Their security was pathetic."
"Hmm, the city was rather undefended wasn't it? Any theories as to why this might be?"
The question sounded innocent but Duvar knew it was anything but, his superior, and friend, was testing him like he had done so many times over the years. It was by passing these tests that he had earned his position as the right hand to the man who had once been Kolya's right hand man. Now Kolya was gone and they were finishing what he started, capturing the city of the ancestors, disposing of an inept government and eventually restoring the Genii to their rightful place as rulers of the Pegasus galaxy.
"Well sir I think our initial theories were correct and that the Lanteans were fielding a limited presence in the city after a possible Wraith attack forced them to relocate to another world. Judging from the state of the city they crash landed on this planet and have been excavating the city ever since. I suspect the report Ladon eventually submitted about the Tau'ri use of starships is accurate and that they have relocated most of their people to ships when the city became to badly damaged to support them all. Most of the city past the central tower has suffered massive structural damage and has been undergoing repairs by the Lanteans."
"Good, you have analysed the situation well. However you have failed to take into account a few facts. Firstly the city has evidently been stripped of most of the technology that Commander Kolya previously encountered when he first attempted to capture the city. Second of all the guards were armed with batons and not proper weapons, which leads to point three. This planet has been listed as part of the alliance of planets that the Genii are also members of and, as you may recall, it was when rumours of the damaged Ancient city that had been seen here reached us that we began to plan this assault."
"So what do you make of the situation sir?" Duvar asked casually.
"I believe that the inhabitants of the city that you captured with such ease are in fact the native populace of this planet. Also the Lanteans tasked them with repairing the structural damage to the city after it crash landed here in exchange for helping them join the alliance. But make no mistake, while they may have appeared to have abandoned the city they will no doubt return soon enough to check up on the native's progress. Which is why we must prepare for the inevitable assault that is to come and precisely why we have taken hostages, if we have hostages and they are killed due to the Lanteans rashness then their reputation will be destroyed."
Duvar smiled at his superior's cunning, he had as much respect for his commander as Nadier had for Kolya. But in Duvar's eyes Nadier was the superior tactician. By staying behind when Kolya had fled and pretending to support Ladon, he had earned a promotion and a position of power in the new order. That power had gained Nadier access to the latest information coming through to the Genii, such as the disappearance of Atlantis and the sudden emergence of a damaged city on another world. Finally, after swearing false allegiance to Ladon and his followers, their patient waiting had finally paid off and they had found the opportunity they were waiting for, a chance to seize power for the Genii that should never have been denied from them in the first place.
"The evacuation would also explain why the fabled shield around the stargate appears to be non existent sir. If the Lanteans did indeed abandon the city to the locals then they would have removed the shield so that it couldn't be used against them if the locals decided to keep the city for themselves. It's just a shame that they took all of the useful technology, those invisible space ships of theirs would have been useful. Even, if we couldn't operate them yet I'm sure that our scientists could learn something from the technology."
"True but we only need to offer up the hostages in exchange for the ships and whatever else we ask of them. They most likely don't have any of those power sources for this city but a few more of those generators would be useful so that we can restore partial power to the rest of the city." He picked up a report from amongst the pile and sighed. "It seems our own attempts at adapting our generators are proving futile, our generators just don't have the juice it seems."
"If our scientists had the devices to study I am sure that they can eventually replicate the technology sir."
"Indeed they could. But for now we need that generator where it is and intact, so keep the scientists away from it. How goes the recruiting?" he asked with a smirk.
"Our operatives still have control of the transmitter and the message is still being broadcast despite Ladon's efforts. Our operatives are giving instructions to our forces as they declare allegiance to you sir. However the majority of Ladon's supporters are in the city and are refusing to acknowledge you."
"It was to be expected, but as the word spreads that we have taken control of this city others will flock to our cause. The deal we will make with the Lanteans will further cement our future. This city was abandoned by them and we have staked our claim to it, so long as we stipulate in the deal that they leave us be they will have no choice but to comply. They cannot risk the political fallout that will follow from attacking the Genii, who are a member of the Alliance, and once this is finished we will be the Genii."
"But sir, haven't we already broken that trust by attacking this world and killing its people?" he asked with a hint of doubt creeping into his voice.
"No, we can claim that we have in fact liberated this world from the peoples who oppressed the locals. You have seen the surveillance images of the outlying villages, they are poor conditions compared to this city, which those loyal to the Lanteans live in. We can offer the people better standards of living and in exchange we get this city. We have claimed a piece of abandoned technology and a couple of locals resisted even though they have no claim to it themselves, who will argue besides the Lanteans. Besides the people here know nothing of the potential for this city, potential that we can realise once we have the full support of our people behind us."
"I understand sir."
New Lantea - Atlantis
John Sheppard settled into his office chair with a sigh. It had been three weeks since, what people were calling, the Matriarch incident occurred and he hadn't heard the end of it since. It all sounded so good at the time, he thought as he pondered the past few weeks. They offer the cure to the Wraith feeding problems, some of them accept it once they see it works fine on Todd and then gradually more and more of them see the advantages of not having a major military power out to get you and accept as well. In the mean time the Wraith would slowly have been building an infrastructure for themselves on their own worlds after some tutoring in the ways of farming. That had been the plan. It was a good plan. It was a plan that even factored in Wraith stubbornness. It didn't however factor in the mother of the Pegasus brand of monsters making her appearance back on scene. Not to mention a chapter of the historical encyclopaedia needing to be rewritten, still at least it wasn't the first time that had happened. The end result being they now had the entire Wraith species queuing up to receive the miracle treatment that would turn them from the scourge of the galaxy to a potential ally. Admittedly it meant that the Wraith weren't a threat anymore, but they had to face the fact that they couldn't process so many Wraith all in one go. To cope with this a few ground rules had to be established, the first of which being that any Wraith that could go into stasis would go into stasis until they received the treatment. The second was that queens and the upper echelon of the Wraith society were getting the treatment first for security reasons, and because they consisted of a smaller part of the Wraith populace after the drones. In any case the drones can all be controlled by the combined mental might of the Arima and Echidna so they were certainly not going to be the ones to betray them. Another rule, in the code of conduct for all Wraith, was to form an orderly line and patiently await your turn to be processed. Luckily they were used to the procedure by now and by switching personnel every few hours a regular routine was established. Wraith is beamed in, is altered, receives gene therapy, is beamed out, new Wraith is beamed in and so on, and so a Wraith was processed every two minutes. Or as some scientists were saying, vampire goes in Wraith comes out, they had after all been told to be respectful to their new allies given their newly revealed history. This wasn't a large number but they were working on that problem, a little tinkering with the ascension machine and Rodney assured them they were on to a winner. But in the mean time they were sticking with Plan A, which involved altering half a million Wraith one at a time.
Of course they would need to be watched over so the Arima would be following the Weir whether she went and by extension the growing armada of ships that accompanied her. After the Wraith had submitted to their Matriarch they had begun flocking to her side. Having realised that a number of hive ships and their accompanying cruisers were scattered all around them they decided to split up for a while. The Arima arranged to meet the ships and once instructions were given the Weir revealed her presence, to the shock of the unsuspecting Wraith ships, and together they set off for home.
When the Weir arrived in orbit over Atlantis she was greeted by both the Daedalus and the, recently arrived and refitted, Apollo. Luckily they had had the foresight to increase speed so that the Weir arrived first and they could warn them of the incoming guests that were approaching the planet. It was quite an impressive, scary and certainly more than a little intimidating sight, when the massive hyperspace window tore itself open and disgorged the Arima along with sixteen hive ships, along with their cruiser escorts. The ships, except for the Arima which was stationed over Atlantis in an act of trust, had quickly been shunted into orbit around one of New Lantea's moons with the Daedalus and the Apollo, along with a flight of cloaked puddle jumpers, keeping watch over them until they were called forward for their crews to undergo treatment. Three weeks on and Wraith ships were still reaching the system. Sometimes it would be the occasional cruiser, other times it would be a small fleet of cruisers or a lone hive and once a fleet of three hives and fifteen cruisers had arrived in one go. Back in the present and the Wraith fleet would almost be entirely located in the New Lantean system and once the last few cruisers arrived the fleet would be composed of the Arima and her sentinel guardians, 31 hive ships, 293 cruisers and no one quite knew just how many darts.
Unfortunately, even with a potential solution to their Wraith mass conversion problems on the horizon, they were still looking at turning whatever system the Weir happened to be in into a parking zone for the combined Wraith fleet. This unfortunately meant they were beginning to attract some people's attention. The results of which were causing John to have mixed feelings in the past few days. A week after they had made it back to Atlantis the cities powerful sensors had detected a ship heading towards them at high speed. Less than a week later and said ship had arrived and had gone stealth, or rather it had tried to go stealth but the powerful sensors of the city and the Asgard counterparts on the Weir had been able to keep track of the ship as it slowly made its way deeper into the system. Operating at minimal power the ship was practically in orbit before it was close enough to do a full scan of the planet and the ships in orbit without raising its energy levels. At such a close range though the ship was easy to identify if you knew where to look and it turned out to be a Traveller generational ship. They had decided to let the Travellers reveal themselves before they made a move to talk to them, that is until the ship broke away and started to head out of the system without so much as a hello. The response by the Weir to this act of blatant rudeness was to make a short hyperspace jump to end up right over the Traveller ship and snag it in a tractor beam and, before the crew even realised what was happening, proceed to tow them back in system. And to intimidate the nosy Travellers even more Sheppard decided to visit the ship himself using the Weir's hologram projection systems. They certainly got quite a shock when he suddenly shimmered into existence onto the bridge.
When he appeared on the bridge he said nothing, allowing the shocked Travellers to take in what had just happened and taking in the scene before him. It was certainly interesting communicating by hologram as it was almost like he was on the bridge of the alien ship and yet he knew he was still on the bridge of the Weir. Surveying the bridge crew he noticed that the pilot was the very familiar Katana Labrea.
"Well, well, well," said Sheppard, with a familiar cocky grin on his face. "If it isn't my old friend Katana, so what brings you to the neighbourhood?"
Katana's face was livid. "Sheppard just let us go and get off my ship." At her raised voice the other Travellers on the bridge snapped back to reality, drew their weapons and pointed them at Sheppard.
"I'm afraid neither of those things is possible right now," he replied calmly. "First of all because I want to know what you were planning and why you were spying on us and as for the second…" He stepped forward and his head passed through a cable hanging from the ceiling. "I'm not actually on your ship."
Katana motioned for the others to lower their weapons.
"We were just passing through so will you please just let us go?" She was still scowling but she was angry at herself for getting caught and putting her crew in danger.
"Not just yet little lady," replied Sheppard. "First of all you and I are going to have a little talk. I want to know what you're doing spying on us."
Katana sighed. "We received your message that you wanted to have a word with us. But since it was coming from a planet that was empty when we last looked over a month ago we decided to play it careful and check things out first."
"Larrin put you up to this?" Katana's momentary look of annoyance was all the answer he needed. "Yeah, this sounds like one of Larrin's ideas."
"Never mind that," said Katana. "More importantly what is a Wraith armada with the biggest hive ship and cruisers I have ever seen doing here? And another thing, what's with that ship of yours? It looks like a cross between an Ancient warship and one of your battle cruisers."
"Ah well the Weir may resemble an Aurora but she's been built entirely by us. As for the Wraith fleet in orbit it's a long story and not one I would like to tell twice, and since I know Larrin is going to want to hear this I suggest you give her a call. The point is that the Wraith are not going to be feeding on anyone anymore if we have anything to say about it. I'll send you a copy of the conversation we had with their Matriarch to have a look at, and then we'll answer any questions you have."
Katana nodded. "All right fine, but I want you to let my ship go first."
"Done, just keep you systems powered down. No weapons, shields and especially no hyperdrive. I really don't want to have to come after you."
"Really think you can catch us?" she joked.
"Hell yes."
An hour later and Larrin had stepped through the stargate to talk after finding out that her scout had been found, captured and been half way convinced that humans were no longer part of the Wraith diet. There were some things that you just had to see for yourself if you're going to believe them and for her this definitely qualified. At the moment SGA-1, Woolsey, Todd, Echidna, Katana and Larrin were sitting around the conference table in Atlantis trying to sort out this mess with Woolsey taking point.
"Okay ladies you've seen the recordings and you've seen the physical evidence." At this point both Wraith revealed their unmarked palms. "Now any questions?"
"So you really expect us to just accept that the Wraith have suddenly just turned good?" Larrin nearly shouted.
Echidna sighed. "I am truly sorry for what my children have done, and I am even sorrier that I was not able to stop them. However you must understand that they did so because it was necessary for them."
Todd placed his hand on his mothers shoulder to comfort her and then continued for her. "My kind used to gain life energy from animals, but humans offered something different. The life force of humans is so much like our own that to us it was the tastiest thing in universe. We became addicted to it and once we started to feed we found we could not stop. Animals would no longer satisfy our hunger when we knew that there was such a more satisfying option available to us. Now though we have a choice, a chance to start anew and we intend to seize it."
"But it wasn't just that need to feed that led your kind to try to dominate the galaxy," replied Larrin. "It was your nature, you beat the Ancients and you decided you liked being the ones at the top of the food chain. What's to stop you from trying it again?"
"Because now we have a way to solve the problem," said McKay. "If the Wraith can't feed on humans anymore then the temptation to feed becomes irrelevant."
Larrin wasn't convinced. "Like I said what's to stop you from trying to stay there?"
"Because I will not let them." Echidna simply stated. "Because I will force them to accept the change or I will kill them."
Everyone was silent at this bold statement of uncaring, unforgiving truth. They were shocked that she would be willing to kill her own children, but it was the truth. And the real truth was that she blamed herself for turning them into monsters. She had brought them into a universe that would hate them for what they could and had become. But if the price of saving them from that hatred was to do the one thing that would cause her so much pain then she would gladly pay that price.
"As we speak my children are being given the cure," she continued. "Slowly but surely my race will be reborn to the way we should have been to begin with. It will take time, nearly two years from what I am told, but the Tau'ri scientists are even now working on a way to greatly speed up the process and I have faith in them. My people will soon have a purpose, to become the friends and protectors of the people of this galaxy. But to do this we will require help, we will require all of your help to take our place in this universe or I fear our race will once again fight for the same reasons as they did before…for what we need to survive."
"You need our help to establish colonies don't you?" asked Katana.
Echidna nodded. "I have been away for a very long time but from what my son tells me we are in great need of your assistance in this matter." She then motioned for Todd to speak.
"While our kind has established many outposts throughout this galaxy we have never built colonies as you would call them. We have no means or knowledge to grow the food we will need to feed our people after they receive the treatment but we do have the work force necessary to construct colonies. We understand that you have been trying to establish colonies for some time now but you do not have the work force to do so quickly enough, as I understand that even with overcrowding on your ships you are constantly working to maintain them. We can offer you the work force that you need and you can give us the knowledge that we require."
Larrin gave a cunning grin, she could already see the possibilities that an alliance would bring. "Two peoples of the stars coming together to help the other, it's an interesting idea."
"Will you help us?" asked Echidna.
Larrin shrugged. "Unfortunately it's not my decision alone, I'll put it to the council but there will have to be concessions."
"Such as?" asked Todd.
"We'll need planets of our own and we'll need your help to find them. Alternatively you could always give us some of your worlds."
"We will see what we can do," said Echidna.
"While you're at it how about telling the council we would like a word as well," added Sheppard.
"What did you have in mind?" asked Larrin.
"An alliance," said Woolsey.
"Between the Tau'ri and the Travellers?"
"Between the Tau'ri, the Travellers and the Wraith," corrected Woolsey.
"Interesting idea," said Larrin.
"Indeed," added Todd.
Sheppard shrugged. "Makes sense since we will be getting involved with each other so much, an alliance would just make things easier. We all have at least one thing the others want, a way to get along."
"So what else do you want from us?" asked Larrin with a playful grin.
"Well I'm sure Ronon could give you a whole list of people who would like to have a particle magnum to call their own, so that kind of technology would be appreciated. Of course we don't necessarily need your technology but it would be a good trade off for what you want."
"If it's a technology exchange then we would be interested in some of your weapons technology."
"That we can't really do, for two reasons," said McKay. "Firstly our technology is pretty advanced and is worth way more when compared to your particle magnums. And second of all the technology you're thinking off was a gift from one of our allies and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be happy with us just giving it away."
"McKay's right," added Sheppard. "Besides technology isn't what you need right now, what you need is to get your ships fixed up. From what I've seen and what you've told me your ships are in major need of a tune up."
"I suppose that's true," Larrin grudgingly admitted.
"Wonderful, then it looks like we have a basis for an alliance," said Woolsey.
For the next hour they haggled over the details for the proposal when the talks were interrupted by the stargate activation. Through the open wormhole a message was being broadcasted to them from the Genii. It was Ladon, and he didn't sound like he had good news.