Rodney was happy, Gen. O'Neill had made him Head of the Science here at Atlantis. He was in charge of a number of scientists, including Zelenka. He went to talk to Zelenka first.
"Morning Zelenka!" as he entered Zelenka's lab. His lab was one floor down from Rodney's and contained a number of ancient devices that he was studying to determine their use.
"Morning Rodney, yes I have heard you're in charge," replied Zelenka.
Rodney smiling, "Yes but I have your first assignment."
"What cleaning up your lab? or fetching your coffee?" smirked Zelenka.
"Actually I want you to lead the investigation into all the other labs on Atlantis, " replied Rodney.
"Seriously? You're trusting me with this task?" asked Zelenka.
Rodney grinning, "Well better you than Felger. I'm assigning Rush, Brody, Novak, Lee, Parks, and Volker to assist you. I just wanted to discuss priorities and give you time to make a plan before we have a science department meeting."
"Thank you, Rodney, for that level of trust," replied Zelenka.
"First thing, we need the additional medical bays cleared to make sure they are safe, in particular, the one out on the southeast pier, Col. Davis is setting that pier up for the training of recruits. Next Gen. O'Neill wants to know what these manufacturing labs that have been found actually manufacture. Also, Carson has asked for us to keep an eye out for a genetics lab, he has a special project from O'Neill. Then we need to sweep rest of the remaining labs." said Rodney.
"I'll assign Lee to the manufacturing labs, maybe have Parks as well. Novak to the medical bays. Brody, and Volker to the other labs. Isn't there something else for Rush to do? That guy is seriously annoying," replied Zelenka.
"Yes I know he is, but he is good," replied Rodney.
Frowning Zelenka, "Alright I'll send him out on the labs."
The next day, Rodney had requested everyone in the science department to meet in the conference room. Rodney patiently waited as everyone arrived a brooding Dr. Rush came in last. Rodney was preparing to speak when Jeannie walked in.
"Jeannie what are you doing here?" exclaimed Rodney.
Jeannie smiled, "Gen. O'Neill told me he hadn't informed you that I would be working here now."
"Your working here? Under me? Why wasn't I told about this!" exclaimed Rodney.
"Working here, yes. Under you, no. Probably because of how you would react," replied Jeannie.
"Look I'm head of the Science Department here on Atlantis if you are working here, your working for me," explained Rodney.
Jeannie explained, "I'm here on a special assignment. I report directly to Gen. O'Neill. Let's talk about it after the meeting."
A flustered Rodney, "The first task we have been given is to investigate the various labs that are scattered around Atlantis, to determine the nature of the work being done, and to determine any risk. I've put Zelenka in charge of this."
"Dr. Lee and Dr. Parks, I'd like for the two of you to investigate the labs that have been marked as manufacturing in nature. Gen. O'Neill is interested in knowing what they build, and if it's something we can use. Next Novak, I would like you to check on the medical bays, please keep an eye out for any genetics labs in those, Dr. Beckett wants to know immediately if there is. Dr. Rush, Brody and Volker, you each will work on investigating the remaining labs to identify the research and any risks." directed Zelenka.
"Excuse me? You are assigning me to investigate labs? Don't you think that is a waste of my talents?" asked Rush.
Zelenka sighed, "Your talents are best where we assign them. For the moment that is investigating the labs. We don't know what could be in these labs, and we need them checked out."
"I feel my time would be better spent going over the Ancient Database looking for more advanced research," explained Rush, "Not out looking over abandon labs, that is more for Brody and Volker than someone with my skills."
"What do you mean someone with your skills? I understand Ancient just as well as you do and we both understand Ancient technology just the same," exclaimed Volker.
"I highly doubt that," replied Rush.
"Look Rodney has assigned you all to me, and I've assigned you these tasks. I'm going to be right there along with you investigating the labs," explained Zelenka.
Rush sighing, "Neither you nor Rodney are intelligent enough to be leading me. I should be the one in charge here."
"You in charge?" exploded Zelenka.
Gen. O'Neill walked by the conference room, he saw it was full of egg heads arguing. He made it a point to hurry on by and not get caught.
"Look I am in charge, and I'm assigning Zelenka this task of investigating the labs! If you don't like it, then he and I need someone to fetch our coffee!" yelled Rodney.
"I'll speak to Gen. O'Neill about this, neither of you is qualified to be in charge of this!" yelled Rush, as he stormed out.
Gen. O'Neill had barely gotten sat down in his chair when he heard the pounding on his door. He looked over at the Asgard beam device. He walked over to it and decided it wasn't too early for Jell-O in the mess hall. He punched a few buttons and was in the mess hall a second later. Excellent blue Jell-O was already out, this could be the highlight of his day.
Outside of Gen. O'Neill's office, Rush continued to pound on the door. Col. Davis heard the commotion and came out to investigate, "Rush can I help you?"
"No I need to talk to Gen. O'Neill, he's put that imbecile McKay in charge of the science teams. He thinks I'm going to be sent around to investigate the labs," cried Rush.
"Dr. Rush how many times have you saved the planet or the Atlantis expedition?" asked Col. Davis.
"What? This isn't about heroics, it's about intelligence!" replied Rush.
Col. Davis, suspecting the general had used the Asgard Transport Beam to leave his office, "Col. Carter and Dr. McKay have saved this planet and the Atlantis expedition more times than I can count. I would not question their intelligence in front of Gen. O'Neill, or you may find your self-being beamed in the middle of the Pacific."
"Gen. O'Neill can't do that!" cried Rush.
Davis spoke, "Yes he can, and I would doubt anyone here would stop him. Now personally I would think you would be jumping at a chance to investigate the labs and be the one to find the next big Ancient discovery, but I guess I was wrong."
"What do you mean the next big discovery?" asked Rush.
Davis smiling, "Well nobody knows what research was underway in these labs, who knows maybe the next big energy source, hyperspace drive, or healing device could just be sitting in one of these labs waiting to be found."
Rush calming down, "I suppose your right."
Davis relieved, "Also you never know what you may find that could be dangerous to save the world from."
Rush much calmer, "It would be wise for me to be there to prevent a catastrophe."
Jeannie and Rodney had lunch together to discuss her assignment.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me you were taking a job here!" said Rodney.
"Look Mer, Gen. O'Neill came to me himself asking me to take this assignment, it was kinda hard to turn down," answered Jeannie.
Rodney interested, "So what is the assignment?"
"Build a Z.P.M. or another power source of equal or greater power," replied Jeannie.
Rodney shocked, "Is that all?"
A week passed, and Zelenka and McKay were meeting with Gen. O'Neill about their findings so far.
"So campers! What do we know?" asked O'Neill.
McKay nodded to Zelenka, "Good news and bad news sir. Dr. Lee has identified one of the manufacturing labs is for making drones, however, it will require significantly more power than a single Z.P.M. to activate the systems and produce the drones."
"That is good news, could we offset that with a Naquadah reactor?" asked O'Neill.
Zelenka sighed, "According to Dr. Lee most of the manufacturing labs will require at least a second Z.P.M. to bring online."
"Continue," said O'Neill.
Zelenka added, "Dr. Lee and Dr. Parks have found 3 labs that appear to be a small parts lab. They seem to be able to manufacture things like handheld scanners, personal shields, and other small devices. In addition, they found that three of the piers, as we suspected, is for the manufacture of ships. However, that will require a full 3 Z.P.M.s to power the city, before that can be activated. They are continuing to investigate that more fully."
"Ancient warships? That would be nice, but we need 3 Z.P.M.s. would be nice if we found a lab for manufacturing those," explained O'Neill.
"Novak is down to the last two medical bays, she has cleared them all, but has not found a Genetics lab beyond what is in the primary medical bay." added Zelenka, "The other labs have yet to turn anything interesting or dangerous but we are have only scratched the surface of them."
"Keep up the good work Zelenka," said O'Neill.
The Next day Lindsey Novak entered the last medical bay she had to investigate. She immediately noticed this one was different from the others. This one had a stasis unit, something similar to the Ancient Assembler, a holographic display platform, and some sort of pod in addition to the regular medical equipment she had been finding.
"Well what do we have here?" she said to herself.
The stasis unit was in excellent shape and her initial testing showed in fully working order. The primary medical bay had several of these, but this was the first auxiliary bay she had seen with one.
Looking at the holographic platform, she triggered it, and she immediately recognized the hologram, a strand of DNA. She immediately reached for her communicator.
"Dr. Zalenka, I think you better grab Dr. Beckett and meet me in the eastern tower medical bay," she called.
"What have you found?" Zalenka called back.
"I think we found the genetics lab you wanted," she replied.
"We will be right there," Zalenka responded.
Twenty minutes later, in walked Zelenka and Beckett.
Carson, " Now that is a DNA sequence." He stepped up on the display to get a better look at the DNA. He reached out and expected his hand to pass through the hologram when the gene he touched lit up instead. He quickly found he could alter that DNA sequence in the hologram.
"Carson is this a gene manipulator?" asked Zalenka.
"You tell me, but I think it could be," replied Carson.
Novak said, "Sir I've been studying the connections from the hologram display and they connect to this pod here, it's not anything like we have seen before."
Zalenka stepped over and immediately saw what Novak, was talking about. "We'll need to study this further, but I think that is the interface to examine DNA and manipulate it, and this pod is where it is modified on the individual."
"This is just what I have been looking for on my research," replied Carson.
Novak and Zalenka would spend the next week investigating the equipment, Carson joined them as he was able. Their investigation showed they were correct the hologram display would show the DNA of anything in the pod, and it could manipulate it. They set up a test where they changed the DNA of a tomato seed to that of a blueberry. They would wait to see the results.
Carson had all the known information on the Asgard DNA, Cloning and disease entered into the Atlantis database, as he prepared his research. Col. O'Neill had ordered him to investigate and try to find a cure. He didn't fully understand why, since the Asgard had all been wiped out.
A week later Rush enters a lab he immediately recognizes the lab as something more akin to an observatory than a technology research lab. This peaked his interest. Why would they need an observatory here, when they had ships they could travel where ever they needed to observe.
This room contained a holographic display. Once activated it showed the local solar system. In amazing detail. Taking note of this, Rush felt at the least this would allow Homeworld Security to know about any potential asteroid impacts long before they became an issue. He began to zoom out, and quickly was looking at the Milky Way. Another zoom and he could see the Midway Station, this was amazing detail. Finally, he could see the Pegasus galaxy, and he continued zooming, Ida, and Othalla galaxies. He continued to zoom out, and an entire string of galaxies started appearing. Manipulating the controls he zoomed in on the galaxies far away.
He began to see hundreds of planets and they appeared to have a seven symbol address for accessing them via stargate. Zooming in on one of the planets, he found information on the atmosphere, weather conditions, and resources available on the planet. He settled in to find as many details as he could on how this was possible for Atlantis to know all of this. These galaxies were millions of light years away.
He soon discovered there were Seeder ships that were building, and depositing stargates on planets suitable for human exploration. Shifting through the computer there, brought the design and plans for a Seeder ship. Next, he found a ship named Destiny, larger than the seeder ships. Rush decided he was going to be here a while investigating, so he settled in to get comfortable.
Meanwhile down in the former lab of Janus, Daniel is reading through the Ancient Database, reviewing the history given in the Database. Daniel comes across something called a seed ship, and a ship called Destiny. Daniel intrigued begins to read further and pull up additional supporting documents, finding design documents for the ships. He continues reading the information, the seed ships were automated ships sent out by the Ancients to populate galaxies with stargates, and to record basic information about the planets where they were being deposited. It was appearing hundreds of these ships had been built long before the Ancients had left the Milky Way, and some even before they arrived here. Destiny was built and sent out about two million years ago, to follow the seed ships and to track a mysterious pattern in the background radiation of the universe.
Daniel lept from his desk, he had to tell Jack about this immediately. He rushed to the nearest transporter, exiting in the command tower, he rushed up to Jack's office knocking. He soon realized how late it was and that Jack was probably in his quarters. He rushed back down to the transporter and exited out in the residential tower that Jack and Samantha had joint quarters on.
Jack answered the door in greet fatigues, "How can I help you, Daniel?" Inviting him on in.
"Jack, I found how stargates are made, and I found there are hundreds of galaxies with stargates in them, the Ancients sent out seeder ships to populate galaxies with stargates. Then there is this ship called..." Daniel was hurriedly explaining.
"Destiny that is tracking a pattern in the background radiation of the universe. I know Daniel," explained Jack.
A confused Daniel, "How?"
"Remember when I had the Ancients download? Well I took some notes." explained Jack, "But I really had no more information than that. I've been hoping someone here would find some information on it. So please go on, I've been curious ever since."
"You took notes?" asked Daniel.
"Wouldn't you of interesting and cool things like that if you could," answered Jack.
"Well yes, but oh never mind." replied Daniel, "So these seed ships are automated they pick up materials along the way using mining pods to pick up natural resources, it is then refined and processed and used to create the stargates. These seeder ships look for planets that humans could survive on, and places a gate there, it configures the gate and does an update out to rest of the network in that network for the new address. Then the ancients found this signal hidden in the background radiation and created the Destiny to track it. The Destiny has a stargate on it, that can be accessed with a 9 chevron address. It's tracking the signal in the radiation."
"There is no telling how far away Destiny could be or if it exists," explained Jack, "While this is exciting we still have to get our ducks in a row here, before we try to jump halfway across the universe. We're not going to risk another Wraith/Replicator/Ori scenario."
"True, so exactly what is our plan?" asked Daniel.
"Strictly off the record, we're going to go over everything in Pegasus and the Milky Way, then we're going to explore Othalla, Ida, and the Ori Galaxy." answered Jack, "We're going to turn over every stone looking for any ancient knowledge we can, and slowly advance out. "