"My name is Alexander and I'm turning on the heat. In case you haven't noticed, it's freezing in here."
"We don't have the power for that." The man said.
"Yes, we do. There's a nearly full Potentia plugged into the power matrix."
"What's a Potentia?" The woman asked.
"A storage module for zero point energy."
"You mean a zed p m." The man said. "They're called zed p m's and no there isn't one here."
"They're called Potentia's and yes there is. I identified it the moment I interfaced with the computer."
"How the Hell can you interface with the computer?" The man said.
"By joining my mind to it."
"That's not possible." The man said.
"I assure you it is, all of our technology requires a mental component. How much, depends on the complexity of the technology."
"Our? This is Ancient technology." The woman said.
"It's Alteran. I am an Alteran. We created this technology."
"Elizabeth I'm going to get security. Obviously he's insane."
"Didn't Jack tell you I was coming?"
"Jack who?" The woman asked.
"Jack O'Neill."
"Are you Alexander of the Altimah Project? The expert he said was coming?"
"Expert? That's what he told you I am?"
"Well no, he just said someone who understood the technology far better then we do. I assume that meant expert."
"Yes, because my people created all of this."
"You're saying you descended to help us?!" The woman asked, excitedly.
"I never Ascended in the first place. Why would I want to?"
"Enlightenment, it must be so -."
"Is that what you sold yourself on believing it is? It's an evolutionary leap. Living energy. Boring. Why would I do something that would mean I'd never get to experience sex with my wife again?"
They both gaped at him like fish out of water.
"Anyway, there is a Potentia here and it's nearly full. The outpost has been completely shut down since we left Earth one million years ago. I activated the environmental controls and turned on the heat. It won't take long for it to warm up in here."
"You're actually claiming you're related to the Ancients?" The man asked.
"Look, I can't keep calling you the man and the woman in my head, what are your names?"
"I'm Dr. Elizabeth Weir, I'm in charge of this Project."
"I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, two PhDs. I'm the Chief Scientist. I'm the world's foremost expert on Ancient technology."
"No, you're not. Only two people in the whole world have reverse engineered any Alteran tech. Daniel Osbourne and Johnathan Levinson of the Altimah Project. Daniel Osbourne is currently at our base working on a project. Johnathan is in the computer room, running a systems check."
"No one told me anyone had reverse engineered any Ancient technology!"
"Alteran. And we've been doing it for three years. Some of it went into building the new Earth ship."
"Elizabeth, why weren't we told about this?!"
"Well, the government didn't know that what the Altimah Project was patenting was reverse engineered Alteran tech until recently. But then they also didn't know there were two Alterans living on Earth either. Not until we helped stop Anubis, that wanna be half Ascended ass with an attitude problem."
"How did you help stop him?" Elizabeth asked.
"By flying the Altimah, my ship, into battle against him. She may be small, but she definitely packs a wallop."
"You have a ship?! An Ancient ship?!" McKay exclaimed. "Oh God, I can't wait to take it apart!"
"Touch it and you'll get a big nasty shock. The Altimah is private property. Mine. Not for greedy little scientists to get their grubby little mitts on."
"Elizabeth! Make him let me take that ship apart. You're in charge here."
"She's not in charge of me. I'm here to work with you, not for you. The President requested that I help."
"Can you help us find the Stargate address of Atlantis? Once we have a way of getting there -."
"They really haven't told you anything, have they? I know the address to Atlantis, it was my home and we have a way of getting there. Just insert a Potentia in the clavis."
"What's a clavis?" Elizabeth asked.
"The device used to dial the astria porta."
"What's an astria porta?" McKay asked.
"What you call the Stargate."
"We don't have a clavis." Elizabeth said.
"How are you using the astria porta then?"
"We built our own device."
"Did you study a clavis before doing that?"
"No, because we didn't have one."
"Oh boy. That could be big trouble. There are a number of safe guards the clavis uses to keep the astria porta from connecting to something potentially unsafe. And I am reading a clavis nearby. It's still installed in it's original position. Didn't you find the astria porta here?"
"We found the one in Egypt first, without the clavis. The one here was found about six years ago and moved to Nevada. We had to use it to replace the other one when it was destroyed."
"Destroyed how? They're pretty close to indestructible."
"It was aboard Thor's ship when you destroyed it to keep it from crashing." Another voice said.
"Jack, nice of you to finally join us and why would it be on his ship?"
"The ship was overrun with Replicators. Outbound transport wasn't working so we beamed up the Stargate in order to get off so we could crash it and destroy them."
"It wouldn't have worked. They would have survived. You saw what it took to destroy them."
"Yes, but we didn't know that at the time. Your intervention helped."
"No problem. It's what we're trying to do."