"We have tried in the past to enter the Ancestors' control facility. It is surrounded by an invisible wall that none can penetrate." Then it was Vene's turn to look hopeful. "But of course! You arrived in an Ancestor's ship." He sat up straighter and examined John intently. "You would help us?"
"We could at least take a look."
The energy in the room altered abruptly, and the Elders went off on a conversational tangent exploring the possibilities. Rodney, on the other hand, had gone unnaturally still. It was so out of character that Carson's query was edged with concern. "Rodney? What is it?" He leaned across to examine the open book.
Eyebrows lifting toward his hairline, Rodney mouthed something that looked like twelve, while his finger tapped manically against the page.
"Twelve what?" Ronon asked, also stepping forward to see.
John counted it a good thing that the Elders were otherwise occupied, because the avarice radiating from Rodney was downright embarrassing. "If this is correct..." The scientist looked up and stared at John with saucer eyes. "They have twelve ZPMs, none of which is more than ten thousand years old!"
Carson almost choked on his tea. John was getting a bit of a head rush himself, but in purely a good way. If Rodney was right, their options had... well, considerably expanded.
One Elder was pulling folders from a shelf, while the others talked about priority evacuation plans. "Whoa, whoa!" John pushed his chair back and stood. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. First we need to take a look at this place."
"Yes, of course. I'll take you there immediately." Vend rushed to his feet and all but ran around the table.
"It would be wonderful if you could do this for us" The female Elder, whose name John hadn't caught, added in a more cautious voice, "We have not encountered a people willing to perform a service without payment."
Applying his Scottish charm, Carson replied reassuringly, "My colleague and I are scientists." He lifted his pack and pulled it on. "Such things are of great interest to us."
Nodding approvingly, the Elder walked them to the door. "Gathering knowledge for its own sake is a worthy pursuit-something that I keep impressing upon my students. If nothing else, your being here will set a fine example for them."
Rodney had never been all that interested in architecture, but he'd already noted the use of Ancient-made metals and composites in the ceilings and doors. A few minutes into the group's walk through the village, decorated stone walls gave way to sleek gray corridors that closely resembled those of Atlantis. The laboratory couldn't be far.
According to Vend, the main facility had once been accessible from the top of the cliff-no doubt the structure Rodney had detected beneath that enormous mound of sand that they'd climbed on arrival. He was certain that half of the stuff was still inside his boots. Which raised an interesting point. The yellow sand was annoying, especially since it had worked its way into his socks, but it wasn't harmful. Presumably the rusty hue associated with the coarser granules was due to a highly acidic mineral, because oxidization alone could not be responsible for the burning.
"We'll need to get a sample of that red sand," he said to Carson. Its properties might also explain why his scanner had been unable to provide more detailed information on the Ancient building. The shield that surrounded the main lab unquestionably interfered with the signal, but the energy field couldn't account for everything.
Nodding absently, Carson replied, "I remember this place." At Rodney's look he amended, "You know what I mean. This was an Ancient outpost where their scientists monitored the planetary shaping and performed continuing research." He glanced around at the numerous doorways that lined the passage. "These were the living quarters for hundreds of technicians, most of whom were human."
"We believe we are descended from the people of which you speak. The buildings were extended by carving into the nearby cliffs." Uene stared at Carson curiously. "How is it that you `remember' such things?"
From the back of the group, Sheppard spoke up. "It's not exactly a memory."
"Aye," Carson added quickly. "It's something that I... saw."
Vene's expression shifted. "Ah! I have heard of such places. A room where an Ancestor stands on a podium and speaks of things past?"
Smiling weakly, Carson replied, "Something like that."
Rodney lengthened his stride, anxious to save time. He still didn't completely trust Carson's one-week estimate of Atlantis's situation. That aside, the prospect of securing as many as twelve ZPMs had provided an injection of adrenaline to his system that no amount of caffeine could match. His mind was already racing several steps ahead, exploring myriad possibilities.
Sheppard steered the conversation to a less ambiguous topic. "Uene, have your people settled elsewhere on the planet over the last ten thousand years?"
"Many communities have been established across Polrusso, all nestled within cliff faces. The eleven largest villages have been built around smaller laboratories where we believe the power modules to drive the terraforming are kept-the ZPMs, as you call them."
Which instantly rendered Rodney's budding plan inoperable. Or maybe not. "You do realize, of course, that once the water is released-"
"These areas, indeed, all of our homes, will be washed away, yes. Over the last ten generations, each village has built an entirely new settlement with extensive food and water storage facilities inland from their current location. This food and water is frequently replenished, but we cannot live there for any period of time, for we must plant new crops each season and we can only access the underground water from the cliff settlements. According to the Ancestors' maps, once the great flood begins, these new areas, which are on basement rock, will remain safe during the subsequent months of weather changes. At that point we will be able to plant the seeds we have acquired from other worlds to grow crops suitable to the newly generated climate."
Okay, that was promising. "How long would it take you to move there?"
"According to the texts, we should be alerted two weeks in advance of the release of all water. However, as we believe that there is something wrong with the machine, we fear that if-when-the time comes, we will be given little if any forewarning. Consequently, we have developed plans for immediate evacuation and methods of rapid communication between villages. If one area begins to collapse, we hope that, even if those villagers cannot save themselves, their warning will allow others to flee." Vend's voice became troubled. "It is not easy to live this way. Each dawn I wonder if this will be the day. And if so, will we have sufficient warning to escape with our lives?"
"Must be tough, in addition to coping with the Wraith and all," said Sheppard.
Beside Rodney, Vend's step faltered. He quickly recovered and kept moving. But if Rodney had noticed, there was no way Sheppard had missed it.
"Especially since they've become pretty active of late," the Colonel continued.
The Polrusson Elder was distinctly uncomfortable as he searched for a way to answer. A pause came and went before Ronon said, "One of the tales I heard was that this planet hosts a Wraith hive ship."
This time it was Rodney's turn to stumble. He wheeled on the Satedan. "Don't try to tell me you couldn't have mentioned that earlier."
"Does it change anything right now?"
"Other than my blood pressure?"
Ronon's look said something along the lines of my point exactly. The man appeared to delight in pushing Rodney's buttons, a hobby for which he seemed to have an unusual aptitude.
Their team leader didn't look thrilled, either. "Vene?" Sheppard asked, his tone pointed.
"Your friend speaks the truth," admitted the Elder, his voice heavy with regret. "We had hoped to conceal it from our trading partners and especially from you. It was when the Wraith came that Atlas and the other Ancestors abandoned our world."
"Well, we're not going anywhere just yet," Sheppard assured him. "But it's good to know these things so we can be prepared."
Apparently dealing with
a berserker terraforming machine wasn't enough fun for the week. No, they had to run into some Wraith as well. Nobody could say the Pegasus Galaxy didn't have a sense of humor.
When the laboratory entrance came into view Rodney pushed his various thoughts of doom aside. Because the design so closely resembled many of the devices they'd found on Atlantis, it didn't take long for him to locate the control panel for the force field. "I'll just be a minute here," he told the others. "Feel free to keep discussing the minor problem of having life-sucking monsters in residence."
Taking Rodney up on his suggestion, Sheppard turned to Vend. "I have to say I'm a little surprised that your people have done so well."
"That is only because the hive ship appears not to have fully woken."
"Do you know where this ship is?"
Which was enough to make Rodney lose his grip on one of the crystals. Scrambling to recover it, he swung around to face the Colonel and demanded, "Tell me you're not contemplating-"
"No, Rodney, I'm not quite as dumb as I look," Sheppard replied with a tight smile. "Just curious. How about you get back to work?"
Rodney was absolutely certain that he could feel Ronon's smirk behind his back, but resisted the urge to comment. The sooner he could get them into this lab, the sooner they could find out what he needed to know-and make a strategic withdrawal before Sheppard went into hero mode.
"Nabu and his minions live in the great abyss that will one day become the deepest part of our oceans," Vene explained.
Small mercies. At least this Wraith already had a name, so Sheppard couldn't tag him with `Steve' or `Bob.'
"Although most of their kind still sleep, Nabu and some of his dreaded horde often emerge to wreak havoc on our villages. They defile young women and steal children from their beds."
"That poor lass we saw on the way to the council chambers," Carson said with a flash of insight. "Although we've never heard of the Wraith specifically targeting young children before. If anything, they seem to leave them alone in favor of adults."
"Yeah, but we'd never seen humans worship Wraith before that pleasant little outing with Ford a few months ago, either," Sheppard reminded him. "Different hives don't always follow the same MO."
Still focused on his efforts to disable the force field, Rodney was listening with half an ear. He agreed that it didn't make a lot of sense for Wraith to go out on kidnapping sprees, and assaulting women certainly was a new and ugly twist, but he'd long since given up on expecting things in this galaxy to make sense.
"Nabu is the bane of our existence." Vene's voice had adopted the same bitter tone that Rodney had heard on too many planets. "He only raids the villages during the sandstorms. Some among our people suspect that he controls the storms, or has otherwise caused the terraforming machine to fail."
Although this was an unlikely stretch, it seemed only human to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between bad things happening and the Wraith. Hell, there were days when Rodney considered blaming the lack of butterscotch pudding in the mess hall on the damnable creatures. After all, it was the Wraith's fault that Atlantis now played host to considerably more Marines, and Marines tended to eat a lot.
Resetting the final crystal, Rodney watched in satisfaction when the bluish shimmer of the force field winked out. "And we're in," he announced with an exaggerated sweep of his hand toward the door. Ronon rolled his eyes, but Sheppard gave him a quick nod of acknowledgement. Vend gasped in elation.
The lab's expansive interior bore a striking and unsurprising resemblance to the main labs on Atlantis. Clearly Vene had never seen such a place before. He stood stock-still about two meters inside the doorway, awed and doubtless intimidated by the array of exotic technology.
Rodney set to work on a rapid catalogue of the lab's contents, trusting that Carson could locate the exogenesis machine-assuming it was still here. Finding Atlas's experimental device would obviously be the jackpot, but until informed otherwise Rodney was working under the assumption that it had been used to interfere with Polrusso's terraforming. Given what they knew of the Ancient Council on Atlantis, Atlas had most likely hidden that fact from the Council. Yet one more aspect about the Ancients that Rodney found less than admirable.
For now, he would focus his efforts on determining how to shut down Polrusso's terraforming machine. The implications of obtaining twelve ZPMs for the defense of both Atlantis and Earth were, in short, phenomenal.
Okay, maybe not twelve ZPMs. No reason to be greedy. The Polrussons could probably do with one to power a decent shield that would deal with a necessarily abrupt climate change. And perhaps a second ZPM as a backup. But Rodney had no doubt that the Polrussons' gratitude would assure him of securing, say, eight or nine. Even six would provide sufficient power to implement a scheme that, until now, even he had considered impossible.
The lab had been well sealed from the sandstorms; after sitting idle for ten millennia all the equipment was nearly pristine, although none of it was powering up in the way that Atlantis had. Of course, Janus and the time-traveling Elizabeth had prepared Atlantis for the team's arrival. Here, Rodney would almost certainly be required to use his gene to initiate the necessary equipment.
Crossing the room to the main database computer, a considerably smaller version than the Atlantis model, he laid his hand against the touch pad. After a moment, the bottom third of the screen lit, displaying a single line of text-the Ancient equivalent of a command prompt. That was a start. Atlantis's computing team had developed a standard set of instructions for initializing equipment found in the city. He'd memorized the complete file months ago.
"Hey, Rodney." Sheppard was moving around the room, eyes scanning a set of storage shelves. "If we managed to reboot the terraforming machine on this planet, the ocean would fill, right?"
He really didn't have time to teach Terraforming 101, but Sheppard would no doubt keep asking until he got an answer, so Rodney decided to humor him. "Gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law," he replied distractedly, tapping out line after line on the Ancient keyboard. "The reservoirs, like the one I noted on the way in, would be released almost instantly and empty into the lowest point of land."
"Which is the basin where this hive ship is probably buried."
The man had a point. "The ship would be flooded within a couple of hours." Rodney glanced over his shoulder at the Colonel, who raised an eyebrow. "There'd be no way they could all awaken and escape."
"It'd sure be a nice fringe benefit."
"This is possible?" Vene sounded almost afraid to hope. "We can rid our world of the Wraith?"
"Perhaps. Theoretically." When the computer came to life, Rodney allowed himself a moment to enjoy his success before starting a preliminary scan of the database. "First I'd have to get a grasp on how the original terraforming process works. Of course, I'm still hoping to run across Atlas's machine, since it would come in really, really handy about now. But there's a lot of data here, so I may be able to pull enough useful information out of it to make this work for all of us."
"Go ahead and take notes, or do whatever you need to do," Sheppard told him. "We'll finish up the treasure hunt."
"Treasure hunt?" Vene asked.
"We consider anything new to be treasure, scientifically speaking," Carson explained.
While Ronon and Vene moved into the next room, a storage area, Rodney set up his laptop on a high bench and connected it to the Ancient computer.
Some time later, he heard the Colonel ask quietly, "Got anything?"
He looked up, about to reply, and realized the question had been directed at Carson.
Leaning forward, both arms propped on a nearby bench, the doctor sighed. "No. I can see this entire facility in my mind. I even know what some of the equipment was designed to do. But I can't reach in and find the one piece of information that we need."
"It's okay. Rodney'll figure something out, even if we can't find the exogenesis machine" Sheppard turned. "Won't you?"
"Sur
e. Well, maybe. At the very least, I think we can solve the Polrussons' problem, and that ought to get us closer to solving our own."
"You have a problem on your world?" Vend inquired, walking back inside.
Swiveling around in his chair, Rodney replied, "Well, of course we've-"
"Got a problem with the Wraith, just like everyone" Sheppard fired a warning look in Rodney's direction. "We're hoping that any technology we find can aid us in that."
"You've had some success?" Vend's whole bearing took on a hopeful air.
"We've done okay," Sheppard replied.
Deciding that he was better off concentrating on the task at hand, Rodney turned back to his computer. "I need to compare this with some of the records back"-he almost said `on Atlantis.' Reason number four hundred and sixty-one why he would never have made a good secret agent- "home. And if Radek's done malingering in the infirmary, he can make himself useful crunching numbers." He selected the relevant files and began downloading them onto his laptop.
Wearily lifting himself off the chair, Carson said, "I'm ever so sorry, Colonel. But I'm absolutely certain that it's not here "
"Of what do you speak?" Vene asked.
"We thought that if the exogenesis machine was in this lab," Rodney replied, "we could discount it interfering with the original terraforming program. That would have made my life considerably simpler, because then I could have pinpointed your problem more readily." Which, he thought rather proudly, was an accurate rendition of the truth.
"That's it," he declared when the download was complete. "The Ancient computer here doesn't have the data required to achieve what I need in a reasonable time frame. But even without Atlas's machine, I think I may have an alternative solution." With Sheppard's warning fresh in his mind, Rodney knew better than to elaborate.
"Can we get back to the 'gate yet?" Ronon asked. He studied a large window, but nothing was visible through the pane except unmoving sand. "How do you know when the storm has passed?"
Vene stepped to the door. "We can return to the village and find out."
Moving to follow, Sheppard passed by a small panel mounted on the wall. Immediately it flashed, and a previously unnoticed door slid open, spilling bright, natural light into the room-along with a tremendous cascade of sand.
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