Xander was pulled from a very nice dream of Cordy in a bikini, by Atlantis' equivalent of irritation and concern. While Atlantis was not sentient and thus not capable of actual emotions, she could still do things that seemed to emulate emotion. And right now, she was broadcasting the equivalent of annoyance and concern. Someone was doing something that was going to get himself electrocuted. Something stupid, thus both annoyance and concern. Leaving the warmth and comfort of his bed and Cordy's arms was not something he wanted to be doing at 2:00 in the morning. If it was Cordy or D.J. that had woken him up, he'd be fine. As it was, he was also annoyed and concerned.
"McKay what the Hell do you think you're doing?! It's 2:00 in the morning, you should be in your bed, not pissing me and Atlantis off, especially by doing something stupid!" He ranted, as he entered McKay's lab.
"I'm not doing something stupid, I'm trying to fix this machine, it keeps making the most god-awful noise."
"McKay, the machine isn't broken and you're on the verge of electrocuting yourself and then the machine will be broken!"
"How you do know it's not broken? You're not a scientist!"
"No, but I am connected to Atlantis, remember? And trust me, she knows. That machine is the equivalent of an Ancient sound synthesizer, it's programed to make that noise. Why? I don't know, check the programming, maybe it's somebody's idea of music, just stop poking at it. Didn't anyone ever tell you, it's rude to poke ladies when they don't want to be poked?"
"Seriously? And you're acting like Atlantis is alive."
"McKay, I know Atlantis isn't alive, I'm connected to her, remember? But she does know how both she and her equipment is supposed to work and that one is working the way it's supposed to. Besides, it's part of her job to keep us all alive and functioning and she's trying to keep you from electrocuting yourself. Leave it alone, go to bed and check the programming in the morning. And try doing that before you poke at something. I know you like figuring things out for yourself, but you'd save yourself and the rest of us alot of wear and tear on our nerves if you'd check first. Good night!"
Once back in his quarters, Xander checked on D.J. and then went to bed, wondering if he could recapture that dream. Cordy rolled half on him and muttered. "Where'd you go?"
"McKay annoyed Atlantis by doing something stupid and nearly electrocuting himself. He found something Oz would've liked, an advanced sound synthesizer. He didn't know that was what it was and thought the sound it was making, meant it was broken."
"Why is he even up at this time of night, it's not like we've got a crisis going on?"
"If I had to guess? He's thinking of asking Keller out and is nervous."
"He should just do it, she'll say yes. She comes to our ladies poker nights, trust me, she likes him."
"I'll give him a nudge in the morning. Although, I might let him stew for a little while, I was having a really nice dream that involved working to remove this sweet bikini you had on."
"Well, we're awake and you could try removing something else right now." She said, mischievously.
"You have the best ideas." He answered, and proceeded to do just that.
The next morning, Xander went to check on something else Atlantis had alerted him to.
He tapped his earpiece. "Elizabeth, can you come to the east tower? Ask Atlantis to direct you to my location. She alerted me to something and you need to see it. Bring Sheppard and Cordy with you."
"We'll be there in a few minutes."
"What is it, Xander?" Elizabeth asked as they arrived at his location. They could see some very large machines, ten in all, in what looked like an extremely large docking bay.
"I've been working on familiarizing myself with everything Atlantis monitors. According to Atlantis, these are mining shuttles, for mining asteroids. They'll break an asteroid down into manageable chunks, then pull the asteroid pieces inside and break it down even further. At which point they'll separate out everything that's in it. Metals and minerals and such. Whatever is left over, can be used for other things. You just have to periodically remove what they've processed. One of the things they process is naquada. Which means they have a way of detecting and removing it along with the other things."
"That could come in very handy. But they're too big to get thru the 'gate, so we'd have to have the Daedalus tow one back to the Milky Way. But if that's all they do, why not just write a report?"
"Because the Ancients left them with their holds full. Every one of these shuttles is currently full of everything from iron ore to gold and naquada."
"Naquada, which we use as part of our ships?" Cordelia exclaimed.
"Yes. Which is fairly rare and difficult to mine. We've only found a few planets that the Goa'uld or the Ancients hadn't depleted. According to Atlantis, these ten shuttles have enough naquada already processed to help build one Earth cruiser." Xander announced.
"We've only managed to find enough for three ships so far. The Prometheus, the Daedalus and the Athena. The Unas' planet being the best source we have. They're doing the best they can mining it for us, but it's hard to mine. With enough ore to build another cruiser, it would take some of the pressure off of them. This is a great find. I'll notify Earth. Good job!" Elizabeth told him. "Keep checking on what Atlantis is monitoring, who knows what else the Ancients just left abandoned for us to find."
"Yes, ma'am." And while Elizabeth and Cordelia returned to their office, he and Sheppard set out to do just that.
