Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & Stargate Atlantis: Post 01x15 "Before I Sleep".
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Author's Note: Written for Day 8 of the 2023 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N 2: This is blah with a side meh. There were too many whiny and upset people at work, too few of us actually at the workplace, and my brain is fried.
The situation in Atlantis had been tense for several months after Buffy had laid down her ultimatum. Unfortunately, Dr. McKay had been unwilling to let it go, both because she had an incredibly strong gene, but also because she had let it slip that she had actually been taught how to use the ATA gene by the Alterrans.
Most of the Expeditions members either avoided her if possible or they were immature and pretended she wasn't there at all. Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard had attempted to force her to accept that a member of Earth's military followed her everywhere while she was in the City, but after she locked the fifth one in one of the randomly small rooms the City was littered with they finally gave up and admitted it was a waste of time and resources. Locking the two of them out of their offices for 24 hours at a time also helped.
Two months after they had begun treating her with more respect and mostly stopped trying to force her under their command, she had given them a ZPM that was about a quarter full. She could've given them a full one, but she didn't think they deserved it. The additional power allowed them to activate more of the City's systems, including the A.I. Although the A.I., who referred to herself as Atlantus, the Alterran name for Atlantis, would only acknowledge those with a strong natural gene.
In other words, the only ones she would converse with and answer questions for were Buffy, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Kusanagi, and Dr. Beckett. Buffy placed what was essentially a 'child lock' on what Atlantus was allowed to tell the Expedition members, something that naturally caused them to act like spoiled toddlers towards her. In retaliation, she locked them out of even more until they apologized and began behaving again.
Truthfully, she didn't have time or inclination to police them, but she didn't want the Expedition members to accidentally kill them all either. In an attempt to avoid the tensions she spent a lot of time off world, supposedly to reacquaint herself with various planets, which she did, but the main purpose was to visit Alterran outposts. Or rather, to check which ones were still untouched and/or operational.
One of them was a minor potentia factory, located in one of their outposts. One of the Alterrans had told her about it, and also how to get there and manufacture new power sources in case it was needed to defend Atlantis. It would take time, but one of the things the people from Earth had told her in an attempt to get her to share ZPMs was that three Hive Ships were heading directly for their City. As such, she had begun the process of making more. The problem was that it took about a week to make and charge a single ZPM given the small size of the factory. It didn't help that she couldn't always leave the City either.
The Hive Ships were four days out when Buffy decided to have a conversation with the leaders of the Expedition. The four of them met in Major Sheppard's office since it was the least likely to have anyone random people wander in for no reason. Mainly because most people didn't seem to be aware he even had an office.
"Dr. Weir, Major Sheppard, Dr. McKay. Have a seat."
Sheppard raised his eyebrows at her, "Shouldn't I be the one saying that since we're in my office?"
"Probably," it didn't matter and she really wanted to be elsewhere negotiating something else, but she had pressing matters right where she was. "I have acquired several ZPMs and I am willing to allow you to *borrow* them for the duration it takes to either kill the Wraith, hide from them, or leave this planet and settle elsewhere."
It didn't take long for the expected shouting and talking all over each other to begin, but she only permitted it for a couple of minutes and then she whistled shrilly. "I have three ZPMs. They will fully charge the City to either attack the Hive Ships, sink the City so they will believe we're not here, or one of us can fly Atlantis to another planet. It's up to you, but you need to make the decision within the next 24 hours. When you have decided I will allow you to *borrow* the three potentia. When this is over I will take them back. If you create any problems I will kick all of you out of my City. Any questions?"
Unsurprisingly, McKay had a lot of questions starting with, "Where did you get the ZedPMs from?"
"I was told of a minor factory in case of an emergency where I would need more to keep the City safe. No, I won't tell any of you the location or how to make more."
They worked out a few more details and she answered more questions, but then she left them to discuss how to move forward. It wasn't an ideal situation by any means, but she just hoped it wouldn't cause problems for her down the road.