A Puddle Jumper had exited out of the space gate, located on the Pegasus side of the space bridge. Designated as PJ-1, Sheppard was piloting, with Rodney McKay, Lt. Adams, and Lt. Andrews. While Lt. Adams and Lt. Andrews were recruits they had earned distinction and were getting off world time assisting in the evacuation. M7G-677 was expected to be a simple extraction, and collection of a Z.P.M. and electromagnetic shield device. The inhabitants of M7G-677 were on good terms with Col. Sheppard. Sheppard dialed up M7G-677 and entered the Stargate. Sheppard set the Puddle Jumper down outside of the electromagnetic shield. It would be a short walk to the villages, where his friend Keras lived.
Sheppard and his team had not gone very far when he heard, "Halt!", turning he saw the source was Ares.
"Ares good to see you, how is your child?" asked Sheppard.
"Sheppard it is good to see you! Keras will be happy to see you. My daughter is growing well." replied Ares, "Lower your bows, these are our friends. What brings you here today? Came to check up on us?"
"Actually I'm here to move you, to a place where the wraith will never be a concern again," replied Sheppard.
"Let us go talk to Keras, he now speaks for all the villages," explained Ares.
Thirty minutes later they step into a village, word quickly spreads and Keras comes out to greet his friend, "Sheppard it is good to see you."
"Likewise Keras. We need to talk," explained Sheppard.
"In here my friend." Keras pointed toward a hut. Sheppard and his team entered and find seats.
"Keras we have found a way to keep everyone safe from the wraith. However, it will require you to move and leave this planet. You will use the stargate to travel to where my people and the ancients came from before coming here. There you will find food and villages ready for you to live in. Your people will be free to grow as much as they want, and trade with other villages, and worlds. But more importantly, you will be safe from the wraith." explained Sheppard.
"But we are safe from the wraith here, at least for another lifetime. Besides the Wraith ship that approached our villages two months ago, crashed and was wiped out," Keras replied.
"What do you mean wiped out?" asked McKay.
"It crashed far in that direction and we saw a massive lighting storm over it, it lasted all night and most of the next day. When we checked on it afterward we only found the charred remains of their ship," explained Keras.
"Rodney what happened?" asked Sheppard.
"I don't know maybe how it interacted with the shield," explained Rodney
"First things first, we need to get your people safe. We are working to move all humans from the Pegasus galaxy to this new home. If anyone remains behind you will be targeted by the Wraith, they will come in on foot to hunt you. This will no longer be safe." explained Sheppard.
"The device I fixed won't last more than your lifetime, there will be no protection for your children then," explained McKay.
"Ares, please send runners to each village, ask for their elder to come here immediately," ordered Keras. Ares quickly disappeared. Keras explained, "It will take about one hour and then they should all be here. We will then get everyone ready."
An hour had passed and the village elders had arrived and been told one by one from the 12 villages. Sheppard stood up to talk to them, "Here is the deal, you need to get everyone ready to travel to the gate as soon as possible. Only bring what you can carry, once we get to the gate we will send you to a place call Midway Station, once there you will enter another Stargate and travel on to the planet Corlan, once there my people will be there to help you set up in new homes, provide food, and help you to get started again. Now please hurry we need to get everyone moving as soon as possible."
The village elders hurriedly gather their villages together and started the march toward the Stargate it would take 8 hours to reach the stargate on foot. Sheppard told Rodney, "I'll go with Adams with the people to the gate, you collect what you need to collect and take Andrews with you. Load up the puddle jumper and meet us at the gate."
Sheppard and Lt. Adams started leading the villagers, which had grown in number to over a thousand people to the Stargate. McKay and Lt. Andrews headed to where the device was located.
"So Lt. Andrews you have a first name?" asked McKay as they made their way through the forest.
"Leslie sir!" replied Andrews.
"You don't need to call me Sir, I'm a civilian, I'd prefer Dr. McKay or Rodney," explained Rodney.
"Dr. McKay then," explained Andrews
"We're going to collect a Z.P.M. and the device that creates the electromagnetic shield that protects this area," explained Rodney.
"Isn't that what powers Atlantis?" asked Andrews.
"Yes but this one is nearly depleted. It could maybe power the city for a day before it was exhausted," answered Rodney.
They reached the device, Rodney first removed the Z.P.M. he connected his tablet to get a reading on the power level. It showed the Z.P.M. had nearly 15% capacity, previously when he fixed the device it only had 2%.
"This is impossible!" cried Rodney, "It's like the Z.P.M. got recharged." He hurriedly put the Z.P.M. in his pack and began work to extract the shield generator. It would take him and Andrews to carry it back. Two hours later McKay had the shield generator ready to move to the puddle jumper.
"So what's the big deal about this? Don't we already have shield generators?" asked Lt. Andrews.
"If I'm right this isn't a shield generator," replied Rodney.
"What is it then?" asked Lt. Andrews
"A Z.P.M. recharger, I think it somehow drew the power from the crashed wraith ship to recharge the Z.P.M." explained Rodney.
"Wow! That's a good thing?" asked Lt. Andrews.
"A good thing? Oh yeah, you haven't had an introduction to ancient tech yet have you?" asked Rodney.
"Nope that is next week," replied Lt. Andrews.
"Let's just say this is what we have spent seven years trying to do," replied Rodney.
They worked together to carefully carry it back to the puddle jumper. Once in the puddle jumper, they radioed Sheppard.
McKay over the radio, "Sheppard this is McKay, we are heading back to base immediately with what we found. I am going to request the Daedalus or Apollo to sweep this planet for any additional shield generators. I'll explain later when I'm back."
"Roger that, we'll be at the gate in 5 hours, try to be back by then." Sheppard over the radio.
"Sheppard, I'll leave Lt. Andrews at the gate to meet you." McKay over the radio.
McKay headed straight to the gate, dropped off Lt. Andrews, dialed the bridge network, and entered immediately. Moments later to him he exited at Midway Station.
Maj. Marks over the radio, "Please report!"
"This is Rodney McKay we are in a hurry to get back to the Milky Way clear us through please," exclaimed Rodney over the radio.
Maj. Marks did a sensor sweep of the puddle jumper, cleared them for the next shield, and finally to enter the green sector for entering the Milky Way network.
"Welcome to the Milky Way! You are cleared to proceed," announced Maj. Marks. Rodney directed puddle jumper on through and came out on Corlan. He immediately dialed Earth and sent identification code, and was cleared to proceed.
Exiting out the start gate on Atlantis, he called to operations to have Gen. O'Neill, Gen. Landry and Zalenka to the puddle jumper bay immediately.
Opening the back hatch on the puddle jumper, Gen. Landry was huffing, "What's so important?" as Gen. O'Neill came rushing in.
"I think we found a way to recharge a Z.P.M.!" exclaimed Rodney.
"Recharge a Z.P.M.?" asked Landry.
"Rodney deep breath and start from the beginning!" order O'Neill.
"Five years ago when I fixed the electromagnetic shield on M7G-677 the Z.P.M. contained less than 2% of its capacity. Today it had 15%. I don't think the electromagnetic shield, is a shield at all. We need to do some testing, but I think it pulls any electromagnetic energy into it, to charge the Z.P.M. attached to it. Apparently, a wraith ship crashed in the field, the people reported there was a massive electrical storm at the crash site, now the Z.P.M. is 15% charged!" exclaimed Rodney.
Zalenka arriving, "So what's so important?"
"This!" exclaimed Rodney.
"You mean the capacitor for the grounding stations?" asked Zalenka.
"Capacitor?" asked Rodney.
"Each of the grounding stations has one of those, it looks like it helps to prevent an overload if there is too much energy from the lightning." answered Zalenka, "Why are you so excited about it?"
"Did you investigate that piece out for what it did?" asked Rodney.
"No Rodney we were kinda busy trying to save Atlantis from the massive storm that was hitting us on Lantea." explained Zalenka, "Now what's the big deal?"
"It charged a Z.P.M.!" exclaimed Rodney.
"Wait, let me get this straight. Rodney, you're saying this can charge a Z.P.M. and Zalenka you're saying we have these on Atlantis attached to the grounding stations that handle the lightning rods?" asked Gen. O'Neill.
"Yes!" replied Rodney and Zalenka.
"Rodney you know what this means?" asked Zalenka.
"Yes those depleted Z.P.M.s we can fully charge," replied Rodney.
"Hold on why haven't the Z.P.M.s been charged then that we have in the city?" asked Landry.
"Those Z.P.M.s are plugged into the city, however, these are made to plug the Z.P.M. into each unit," answered Rodney.
"We never had time to investigate those devices they appeared to be a capacitor for the grounding stations." explained Zalenka, "And we have purposefully steered the city away from storms when possible."
Landry and O'Neill looking at each other, O'Neill orders "Get this to Dr. Miller, and both of you work with her. She is in charge of our high energy research, so neither of you blows up this solar system. Work with her, if we can get this working, then we are in business."
"Wait, I found this, why is she in charge? Just because I blew up one solar system!" asked Rodney.
"Well you didn't realize what you had when you worked on it before, Rodney," explained Zalenka.
"You didn't either! You thought it was a capacitor!" replied Rodney.
"And that's why Dr. Miller is in charge instead of either of you two! Airmen assist these two with getting this device to Dr. Miller's Lab." order O'Neill.
Walking away while the airmen carried the device, Rodney was mumbling, "Blow up one solar system and they never let you live it down."
Hours later, Sheppard walks into Dr. Miller's lab.
"Hi, Jeannie! Hey, McKay did you by chance forget something? Like coming back to M7G-677? Or sending someone to get us?" asked Sheppard.
"Sheppard, can you believe this? It's been sitting under our noses this entire time on how to recharge the Z.P.M.s!" asked Rodney.
Sheppard looking at Rodney, "Yes this is going to change things. But our ride Rodney?"
"What ride?" asked Rodney, "Oh I said I'd come back! I'm sorry but this is more important. We can recharge a Z.P.M.!"
"Hi, John. As you can tell these two are rather excited," explained Jeannie.
Sheppard replied, "We all are this is big news, unfortunately, we only have so many Z.P.M.s even depleted ones."
"I hadn't thought about that, we really need a lot more Z.P.M.s, now if we could just find a way to actually build them," replied Zalenka.
"Looks like my work here is far from being done," replied Jeannie.
A week later in the conference room, Dr. Miller, Zalenka, and McKay were presenting their findings to Gen. O'Neill, Gen. Landry. Col. Sheppard, Col. Carter, Col. Mitchell, and Woolsey.
"So gentlemen thanks to Dr. McKay's discovery on M7G-677, we found the device pictured here. It is used for charging a Z.P.M. It appears it converts electromagnetic energy and stores it inside the Z.P.M. This device appears to be a portable module that can be used to collect it from various sources. On Lantea the grounding stations were attached to the floor of the ocean, however here on Earth we don't have that, so we steer the city around storms. Each of these grounding stations has one of these devices. The city is able to use three Z.P.M.s while charging Z.P.M.s in those grounding stations. We now have a way to recharge the fifteen depleted Z.P.M.s we have found." explained Dr. Miller
O'Neill asked, "How fast can the depleted ones be charged?"
"If we were to steer Atlantis into every lighting storm in the Pacific, we might be able to charge one a year." explained Dr. Miller, "We don't have enough lightning storms here to charge the Z.P.M.s any faster. Which is why we now believe the ancients choose to have Atlantis in the middle of an ocean. However, we believe we could use the mobile recharger someplace with higher levels of electromagnetic discharge that could charge them up faster." replied Dr. Miller.
"Where do you have in mind, Dr.?" asked Landry.
"PB2-908 or better known as Heliopolis. As you sir very well know storms rage on that planet with massive lightning strikes continually. We are examining other potential worlds as well." replied Dr. Miller.
"General, it wouldn't be safe to go there by Stargate, we should send a ship, and possibly relocate the Stargate to a safer spot if it still exists from the coast it was located at," explained Carter.
"We're going to need something to be able to survive as a lightning rod on that planet." interjected Col. Mitchell, "Something that can take the repeated hits we are talking about."
Landry looked over at O'Neill, "I think I have an idea."
O'Neill grinning, "Why not?"
"Dr. McKay get your science and engineering teams ready, they have a big job in front of them," explained Landry.