Harry's expression went blank for a moment. John recognized the signs of listening hard to someone not in the room.

"Lady Emmagan, Doctor Weir, and the ICW have an agreement on food supplies," Harry said after a moment, his expression clearing. "Doctor Weir has agreed on access to ship building facilities once they become available. Those will probably need an Alteran gene carrier on premises. Doctor Weir says she'll be getting things set up for our visit, but she wants confirmation from you before dropping the shield."

"No surprises there," John commented. "When do we leave?"

"We have enough time for a nice lunch," Harry said with a grin. "Hermione said that Doctor McKay and Specialist Dex had a very productive shopping experience at Hermione's expense. So expect Lady Emmagan to want to come back and visit Diagon Alley some time."


Lunch was in the main dining room at Government House. Fresh salmon, rice pilaf, tossed salad, and chocolate cake with ice cream. The kitchen house elves had taken extra care to keep citrus away from kitchen.

"Elizabeth had Sergeant Kendall give Benton a list of what Atlantis would need for food for a month," Teyla explained, indicating the liveried house elf who was overseeing the house elf food servers.

"House elves have unique magical abilities. I believe it would be useful for Atlantis to have access to those abilities," Hermione said carefully.

"Benton is excited to visit Atlantis," the house elf stated. He was practically vibrating with excitement. "We hope that house elves will be able to bond with the city so we can live and work there."

"And if they can't?" Rodney asked.

"Then we will not be able to live there," Benton said sadly. His ears drooped.

"And that would be disappointing for all of us," Teyla said. Benton's ears picked up. Teyla turned to John. "Elizabeth introduced Benton to Sergeant Kendall and his people as a 'Spriggan'. It was decided to say they were refugees from the Wraith but they were also interested in exploring different societies in the Pegasus galaxy."

"Benton has already told the house elves that their new race name is the same as their old fae name and we have a new story that is sad, but nicer than our old one," Benton stated.

"And what was your old story?" Rodney asked. His voice was surprisingly gentle.

"We were the servants of the Seelie Fae, the lucky and beautiful fae. Unlike them, we could handle cold iron. When the humans drove them away to the Hollow Hills with their cold iron weapons, the Seelie Fae exiled us and cursed us. They broke our bonds to their magic in order to destroy us but the human magic users can also make bonds and their places of power nurture us. So we lived in spite of our old masters."

"What about the goblins?" John asked. "Were they servants of the Seelie Fae that got exiled and cursed?"

"Exiled, yes. Cursed? We know not," Benton said, voice low. "They were foot soldiers. But they were also smarter than the fae believed and learned how to make their own armor and weapons when the fae didn't bother to give them any. They learned the secrets of runes and the secrets of cold steel and magical silver. The fae did not want them to learn these things but they did anyway. And when they were abandoned and had to find new ways they became mercenaries and they mastered the art of business. The hidden battles where gold flows rather than blood. But they remember the blood. And they remember they were soldiers who could not trust their masters."

"Fortius Quo Fidelius," John quoted. "Strength through loyalty. Loyalty to family, to clan, to nation," he added. "No one else takes precedence. Contracts must be air tight and scrupulously honest because they cannot trust their clients but their clients must be able to trust them." He shrugged. "A good attitude for bankers or business people in general."

"The goblins have another saying that they do not often share," Benton continued. "No thing not earned."

"Do not take what is not yours by true right," Ronan stated. "Do not accept what you have not earned. Gifts always have obligations." He looked around the table.

John also looked around the table at the rest of his team. He knew his own face reflected his ongoing surprise at the depths Ronan occasionally revealed.

Ronan continued. "My father was an honest merchant. He never cheated his customers or his employees, his scales were true. He was a community leader who spoke out against government corruption. He told me to join the military because he knew that there were corrupt people who wanted him dead and I would be safer there. He also figured I would have no legacy from him. He was right."

"No," Teyla said gently. "He gave you a legacy. Your moral compass. And I can think of no finer legacy than that."

The rest of the meal was quiet. John had the feeling that Benton's revelations concerning the house elves and the goblins had given everyone a lot of food for thought.


To John's surprise they used the Government House teleporter to get to the portal station with Isaac's team and AR1 as well as Benton, Brightblade, and Grimknife. The shuttle was waiting with the same pilot from the night before and the ship was loaded with wooden cargo boxes. But one box looked to be made of blue gray Alteran metal. It had glowing silver runes engraved on the surface.

"We're taking standard security precautions," Ewan the pilot said. "Ten or so space portals before our final destination."

"How are they selected?" Rodney asked.

"Random shuffle," Ewan explained. "We have at least a thousand confirmed space portal addresses to pull from. Plus we have Alteran shields and magical ones. All anybody's going to detect is a portal activating then shutting down."

"Atlantis is going to be moving as soon as she's able," John murmured to Rodney. "We need something like their portal shuffle ready before that. Encrypted."

Rodney snorted. "Ten minutes, tops. Shuffles are not difficult, just misunderstood. Select a random number of space gates to go through, say ten to twenty. We could set up something similar for ground gates."

John nodded. "How about a handheld mini dialer? Memory for maybe a dozen gate addresses, updateable through Atlantis' main gate DHD. Having it keyed to individuals would be good."

"Token and password, like the GDO," Rodney corrected. "You don't think the Magi method will work for us?"

"The ATA gene therapy only has a 48% success rate," John reminded him. "It may be years before we know what the long term effects might be."

The shuttle's passage though the Magi's portal interrupted their conversation. Ewan's looping the shuttle around the space gates was interesting. It told John that Ewan was used to working in 3 dimensions where orientation to the ground wasn't a priority. Ewan was a space pilot.

John had to admit that even with the experience he had flying jumpers in space, he still caught himself trying to keep track of up and down even when the ground was millions of miles away.

"Last portal," Ewan called out. "Major Sheppard, time to knock on the door."

John moved forward and keyed in his password on the GDO device strapped to his wrist. A green light showed on the device. "We're good to go."

Ewan nodded but instead of starting forward on autopilot as John expected, he sent a tiny drone through the event horizon. A solid green light appeared on the pilot's console and then they went ahead. John felt the welcoming warmth of Atlantis in his mind as the jumper powered down and was lifted to the jumper bay.

The jumper hatch dropped down and they started out.

"Benton?" Isaac asked. The Spriggan's eyes were wide and he appeared to be listening to something.

"She welcomes us," Benton said after a moment. "She is not strong enough to attempt to bond. She is weak and in pain. But we can work here."

"And you, Grimknife?" John asked.

"She welcomes us," the goblin said. "That is her nature. To trust until that trust is broken."

"The city is sentient? She can feel pain?" Rodney asked. He sounded horrified.

"There are biological analogues in her structure," Brightblade explained. "She translates damage as pain."

Rodney swore. "She's in pain. Why didn't we know? Why didn't the diagnostics tell us?"

"Probably for the same reason we don't go to see Carson all the times we should," John stated. "Plus, she doesn't know us and without charged ZPMs there's not a lot we can do to help her."

Elizabeth Weir appeared outside the open hatch. "Rodney, is there a problem?"

"She's in pain!"

John hurried introduced the newcomers. "Brightblade is a healer among her people and Grimknife is a security specialist. Benton is a leader among the Spriggans."

"Welcome to Atlantis," Elizabeth said. She stepped aside so everyone could leave the jumper. Isaac grabbed the Alteran cargo box. Either it was lighter than its size implied or there was an antigravity component to the box.

Isaac set it down in front of Elizabeth. "A gift to the city-ship Atlantis from the people of Domus Novae." The top popped open to reveal the golden glow of three fully charged ZPMs.

Rodney ran to inspect the gifts. "You know how to charge them?" Rodney whispered.

"Charge them, yes, make them, no," Isaac admitted. "With any luck, these will get the city to a power level where she can heal and do repairs and you can locate the charging station that should be here somewhere."

"We also come with food," Benton reminded them. He gestured to the other boxes in the jumper.

"Someone tell Sergeant Kendall we have groceries," Elizabeth ordered with a smile.


Rodney and one of the electrical engineers double checked all the connections to the ZPM station. Another team was monitoring Atlantis' grounding stations and yet another team was monitoring the naquada reactors.

Finally, after several hours, Rodney had John initialize the first ZPM and set it in its cradle in the station. It promptly sank into the unit and began to hum gently. Atlantis shuddered then settled a little, almost as though it had leveled itself.

The other teams reported no power fluctuations.

"Rodney," Radek called down from the control room. "Systems are turning on all over the city. Security, defense, environmental systems. Pumps have turned on and are pumping out the flooded areas. We're getting a list of required repairs. I'm also seeing barriers go up around the most badly damaged areas."

Rodney nodded to John. "Initialize number two."

John did so. The second ZPM sank into its housing.

"The naquada generators have been cut off," the naquada team leader reported. She sounded only a little panicked.

Rodney checked his console. "Power distribution control detected an incompatibility with the naquada reactors. Go ahead and put them into safe mode."

"Change out the last one?" John suggested.

Rodney nodded.

At John's touch the partially depleted ZPM rose to be removed. He carefully set it aside then placed the last fully charged ZPM into the cradle. Like the others, it sank into its housing and began to hum softly.

John called up to the control room. "The new units are installed."

"The city is running through diagnostics on all structural and control systems," Radek reported. The city started shuddering only this time it didn't stop. Radek swore in Czech. Then: "It looks like there's damage to some of the control systems."

Isaac could be heard over Radek's headset. "Major, you need to get to the control chair now!"

There was a slight pop of air, then John felt himself being pulled by his belly button as Benton grabbed him and popped them both into the chair room.

"She is frightened. She is screaming."

John ran to the chair and settled in. He reached out with his mind to find her. It was like flying into a hurricane. Benton was right. She was frightened and in pain. She screamed in his mind. Finally the screaming turned into sobs and Atlantis seemed to recognize that there was someone else there.

"Atlantis?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm John. I'm in the control chair. We got new potentia for you and plugged them in and you got upset. I guess we hurt you when we plugged them in."

"There are protocols…"

"We didn't see them."

In his mind he caressed strawberry blond hair and looked into tear filled cornflower blue eyes. He knew she was a she but he also knew she was, by his understanding of human biology, prepubescent and would always be. He sensed a mind unfathomably vast but with a loneliness of being forever denied friendship, companionship.

"Atlantis, tell me how we can help you."

A list of instructions flowed into his mind. He shunted them to the chair console. "Rodney, Carson, if you can hear me… We initialized the potentia without protecting her. She's biological and her support systems haven't been looked at since before the city sank. The protocols should be on the chair support console screen."

If he listened he could hear both Rodney and Carson swearing. Then Carson was giving orders to his medical staff for supplies.

"John, are you okay?" he heard Rodney ask.

"Yeah," John answered. He hoped Rodney could hear him. "Got a lot going on here. They told her to go to sleep and promised they'd be back." He tamped down his fury at the people who did this to a defenseless child. She may have been in control of an entire city, but she was still a child and she was defenseless against the adults who should have been caring for her.

Rodney must have heard him because the scientist started swearing about the heartless, soulless Alterans again. He also heard Radek swearing in Czech and, to his surprise, Elizabeth. Whatever respect Elizabeth had for the Alterans was apparently long gone. She had a surprisingly formidable vocabulary of obscenities in multiple languages.

John felt a frisson of fear go through Atlantis. Not enough for anyone else to feel. "No one is angry at you. We're all angry at them," he told her.

"Brightblade is keeping an eye on your vitals," Rodney advised him. "She doesn't want to try any potions on you since you're not a Magi. Carson ordered IV glucose for you since you're burning through calories like crazy. Right now Carson, Emily, and Benton are working on replenishing Atlantis' nutrient bath and oxygen supplies."

"My name is Alia," she said. "My ship designation is Atlantis."

John passed that information along.

"My brothers and sisters are gone, aren't they?" Alia asked.

"As far as we know," John admitted.

"Did they abandon them like they did me?"

"I don't know but I hope not."

"You are tired," she observed. "You need to eat and rest."

"Will you be okay if I leave the control chair?"

"Yes. Carson and Benton are with me. Carson is a little afraid of me but he is also angry at the others. Benton loves me. He never wants to leave my city. He wants to bring all his people here to care for my city but he also knows the Magi need his people to watch over and help them."

John chuckled. "Sounds like the border collie my mom had when I was a kid. Mom said Georgie Boy was convinced God made his kind to watch over humans since humans should not be allowed into the world without supervision."

She chuckled. Then: "Go, eat and rest."

John opened his eyes. He hadn't realized he'd had them closed. Rodney was watching him with a worried expression as John disengaged from the control chair. He realized he was stiff from staying in one position for too long.

"How long have I been in the control chair?"

"About an hour," Rodney answered. "Most of that time the city was shaking like a leaf. Then the shaking stopped and you were able to speak to us."

"I feel like I've run a marathon," John told him and Brightblade. "They left her. They said they'd be back and it didn't happen. It will take a lot for them to convince me they didn't intend for her to die out here."

"According to Old Elizabeth, Janus set it up so the shields wouldn't fail the moment we arrived," Rodney reminded him.

"But Janus didn't bother to tell Old Elizabeth that Atlantis was controlled by a biological being. He didn't bother to leave any notes so we would know Alia was even there. He knew from Old Elizabeth that she was from Earth and she wasn't of Alteran descent," John stated. "Hell, ten thousand years ago, the Goa'uld were in control of Earth. The Alterans had an entire galaxy of planets to choose from. So why return to Earth? What was their end game?"

"He didn't leave any notes that Old Elizabeth was in a stasis pod, either. But Janus did know they had return to Earth because in the old timeline you were of Alteran descent."

"You are not eating and resting," Brightblade sniffed at John. She had disengaged the IV from his arm.

"Food then a nap," Rodney stated, grabbing John's arm to lead him out of the control chair chamber. "I'm told Kendall and his people have been going all out in the commissary."


Elizabeth Weir watched as the commissary staff set out a variety of fresh salads and charcuterie boards. Sliced meats, cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables, pickles, olives, crackers, all the things they hadn't had available since they left Earth. Scones with honey butter, fresh wheat bread, biscuits, croissants.

The feast almost made her forget the terror of the first moments after the new ZPMs were installed. Atlantis had felt like it was ready to sink. Colonel White had been standing near Radek and something alarmed him. He'd shouted for John to get to the control chair.

Then Benton's voice. "She is frightened. She is screaming." After long moments, the sinking feeling stopped but the shuddering when on. Finally that stopped as well.

Rodney came on the speakers. "We hurt her when we plugged in the new ZPMs. We didn't know there were special protocols we needed to follow. John is in the control chair and has gotten her calmed down."

"Her?" Elizabeth asked.

"Alia," Rodney said. "Her ship designation is Atlantis but her name is Alia. Atlantis doesn't have an AI. She has a biological brain in a biological body encased in a cylinder at the base of the main tower. And we almost killed her."

"Is she going to be all right?" Elizabeth asked.

"As far as I can tell from the readouts on her diagnostic console, we have her stabilized. But she needs time to heal. When the others abandoned the city, they told her to sleep and they'd be back for her."

"That was ten thousand years ago," Radek muttered.

"Aye,' Carson agreed. "And they never came back for her. Janus may have gone out of his way to save Old Elizabeth and the city, but he did nothing to ensure Alia's survival."

Carson sighed. "It's Benton's opinion that Alia should not be left alone. She's been alone for far too long. He wants to bring more of his people in to help clean and repair the city and to be with her. Apparently Benton can feel her emotional state."

Isaac spoke up. "Benton, is Alia strong enough to bond with you?"

"War Master John is strong enough," Benton stated. "I can feel her. She is lonely and she is frightened but not as bad as before. Together we were strong enough to keep her from destroying herself and the city in her panic. Together we can help her heal."

"But you have to sleep sometime," Elizabeth muttered.

"I'll have Alex and Ewan head back to Domus Novae," Isaac said. "About two dozen Spriggans, all volunteers, various specialties, heavy on cleaning and repair." He turned to Alexander. "Ask War Master Potter. Hogwarts may have under employed Spriggans on staff. Government House, too."

Alexander made a face.

"Keep your bigotry to yourself," Isaac warned. "A Spriggan saved the city and the lives of every single soul here including yours."

Alexander grabbed Ewan and they headed for their shuttle.

"We have no way to pay them right now," Elizabeth protested.

"Room, board, and work," Isaac assured her. "I'm sure Benton will negotiate fairly for them."

"Is bigotry a problem with the Spriggans?" Elizabeth asked.

"There are people who look down on people who our society historically deemed as lesser," Isaac said carefully. "The Spriggans are among those allegedly lesser people. So are the goblins."

"And my people?" Elizabeth asked.

"Only stupid people would describe your people as 'lesser'," Isaac stated. "I'm beginning to suspect Alexander and most Alterans qualify as 'stupid'."


A/N: All due apologies to Anne McCaffery but Atlantis decided she wasn't an AI but a brain ship.