Harry Potter loved Stargate intergalactic subspace paths. Whilst stepping through a normal path within a Galaxy was near instantaneous, an intergalactic one of three million light years would take approximately nine seconds to travel through. Nine seconds of twisting and curving around stars, black holes, the void between galaxies, more stars, and finally in a flash of bright white, he was stepping into the near darkness of what would hopefully turn out to be Atlantis itself.
Theron was ahead of him and Aiyana, walking slowly forward scanning with her PR8 around the room, the night vision on her eye HUD glowing green. Harry led Aiyana away from the event horizon, as Colonel McTavish and his men appeared and began to fan out into the large hall.
Harry spared a glance behind him at the Stargate, and noticed its design was somewhat different. Guess the Alterans upgraded the thing in their time here. Gone was the rotating inner ring, it was now just one solidly constructed Stargate, where the inner ring should've been were segmented sections that could change star constellation coordinates seemingly at will, the mechanism - to use a crude comparison - was 'digital' compared to the 'analogue' of the Milky Way Gate system. The Chevrons glowed a cool blue instead of orange, but that was merely an aesthetic choice.
He turned back and watched as the hall seemingly lit itself up as McTavish's men walked up the main staircase directly facing the Stargate. Alteran characters were everywhere, the architecture full of geometric relationships and shapes, distinctive of the Alterans. The room was definitely big enough to accommodate MEVs, he could also spot graviton motion arrestors built into the sides of the main staircase, doubling as more lights. Each step of the staircase also had Alteran characters on it – in yet another dialect of Ancient.
The lights now illuminated the room fully, allowing him to see darkened tinted glass windows with yet more geometric motif. Up the stairs to the right, there seemed to be a main control area, and walking through that across a small bridge would get to the 'Commanders' office, which had also a nice view of the entire arrival hall. To the left of the stairs, was an open segmented doorway, which McTavish was now securing…a meeting room.
More security troops had been pouring in, and separating into their respective teams, continuing to secure the area.
Harry turned to Aiyana, and saw her absolutely basking in the place. A light had entered her eyes that he had never seen before.
"Atlantis," she breathed deeply.
"This is it?" he asked, mostly for confirmation.
"Yes, the decorative elements have changed, but the layout is still the same as I remember."
"Good, shall we see how Atlantis has fared after all this time?"
Aiyana nodded and examining the patterns on the floor, walked forward and came to a stop, her hand held out in front of her. Abruptly, out of the floor, a small door opened and a mental interface podium shot up and came to a stop directly under her hand. Her hand settled on it and it immediately lit up with a blue glow, her eyes closed as her mind interfaced with the city.
She didn't spend a few seconds doing this when abruptly she stepped back, the podium disappeared into the floor again. She tapped on her ear, initiating com with everyone, and even back to the SGC.
"This is Aiyana to all security teams, stop what you are doing and fall back to the Gate Room, immediately. The city's power reserves are extremely low, and it's sitting on the floor of an ocean. The force field keeping the water out is at barely sustainable levels…our mere presence is taxing what little power is left."
There was a pause as everyone absorbed that.
"Understood, Aiyana," General Theron's voice over the com. "You heard her, McTavish, get your people back."
"Aye, General."
"In the meantime, Harry and I will rush to the main power room and install the ZPMs into the city."
"This is Potter to SGC," Harry tapped his own earpiece. "Hold the main expedition team and keep the wormhole open until we give the go ahead."
"Understood, Commodore, we've been listening," assured Hammond from three million light years away.
"Come on," said Aiyana, grabbing Harry's hand and rushing over to a doorway below the Commander's office, it opened at their approach and they burst through into a hallway, passing retreating soldiers as they went. The duo turned down a staircase, taking steps three at a time, and went down nearly five levels before Aiyana shook her head.
"We'll need to risk using a Transport station, it'll take too long to get to the base of this tower otherwise."
Aiyana rushed towards a door that had slight tinted window slits built into it. It opened at their approach, and a panel on the other side opened to show what Harry assumed to be an overhead diagram of the city with various dots lit up all over it. Atlantis reminded him somewhat of a snowflake, in terms of overall design.
The moment the door of the closet sized room closed, Aiyana, touched a point on the city diagram and there was a bright flash for a moment, before the door opened again, and the view beyond had changed, to another entirely different corridor with dark brown, almost black panelling. It lit up for them as they ran, seemingly highlighting the best route towards the central power room.
Aiyana turned a corner and rushed towards a seemingly non-descript room, it hardly screamed 'I'm important', or had any warnings, it looked…utterly normal, in relative terms of course. Harry followed her into an octagonal sided room; dominating it in the centre was a triangular podium that rose up to waist height, surrounded by consoles that seemed to rely entirely on mental interface; it looked somewhat like an organ, with two levels of crystal trays with various touchpad surfaces inscribed into it, on the lowest level, were seemingly more interface surfaces and buttons, all inscribed in Alteran. Along one wall there was a thin screen however, showing a never ending blue haze with Alteran characters swirling through it in every direction. Alongside some of the walls were diagnostic screens showing the current status of the city's power systems.
Aiyana put down her backpack and rushed over to one of the consoles, which lit up under her touch, and she began tapping furiously into it – and it began making small beeps and squeaks as she went.
"Get out the ZPMs so long."
Harry nodded and zipped open the bag, pulling out the shock proof container holding the precious power sources. He put it down and opened it, pulling one of the ZPMs out carefully and holding it, ready for her word to insert the module. He had the time to examine the upper portion of the triangular podium and saw three ZPMs nestled into slots.
"Okay," nodded Aiyana. "Two ZPMs are completely drained, the third is almost drained as well, and we barely have twenty minutes of power left in it, thanks to our arrival. I'm going to raise one of the drained modules, the moment it's out, pull and switch."
There was slight hum and a dead ZPM rose out of the podium. It came to a stop and Harry carefully pulled it out of its receptacle, and immediately lined up the fresh one according to the shape of the slot, once he was sure he simply guided it half in and abruptly felt the thing snagged from his hand as the internal mechanisms pulled in the module, it settled fully in the podium and lit up with a yellow active colour.
"Good, power flow is stable; the force field has stabilized…" Aiyana reported. She continued to tap at the console. "Now for the next one…"
Again, a dead ZPM rose out of the podium, again Harry swapped the old one for the new.
The second ZPM settled into the podium fully and lit up.
"Power levels rising…the city is at seventy two percent of rated power," grinned Aiyana.
"Excellent," Harry shared the grin and tapped his com. "Potter to all Expedition members and the SGC, the city is powered up…and imminent danger of drowning has been averted. The main Expedition can begin to come through and the security teams can resume their search."
"Understood," came the chorus across the link.
"Aiyana to General Theron, I've noticed that there are some flooded sections of the city, especially on the outer sections. I'm going to raise the city's main shield to push the water away from us completely and begin draining it out. In the meantime, I advise you to keep the security teams within the building we are currently in."
"Very well, I'll pass that down."
"Harry, why don't you go outside, I'm sure you'll enjoy the view of this," Aiyana nodded at him.
"You sure?" he frowned.
"I've seen this many times before," she smiled at him with a twinkle in her eyes.
Harry acknowledged with slight bow of his head and vanished with a slight displacement of air, filling in the void his body had once occupied.
"Show off," she muttered.
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Harry stood a few feet away from the base of the Atlantis Stargate, General Theron, Major Sheppard and Dr Mckay around him looking at the event horizon.
"SGC, Atlantis base offers greetings from the Pegasus Galaxy, we have made contact with Briseus, she is in orbit around the planet Atlantis is landed on and can look after us now, and you may cut power to the gate."
"Understood, good luck Atlantis," said Hammond's voice over the com.
However, the SGC clearly wanted to wish them more than a simple good luck, as a large champagne bottle rolled through the event horizon. The subspace path abruptly shut down and the new blue and naquadah black coloured Stargate settled into idle mode. Theron stepped forward and picked up the bottle. It had a note reading 'May God be with you in all the strange and amazing places you must walk, Bon Voyage, General Thompson.'
"Thoughtful of him," smiled Theron.
At that moment, a musical hum chimed through air of the city, there was a slight flash outside the windows as the ocean water, which had been creating a deep blue aquarium vista through them, abruptly vanished as the water was visibly pushed back by a gigantic shield. It was over in barely three seconds.
They rushed up to the windows behind the Stargate and could now finally see the true extent of the city. They were clearly in the tallest and central tower of the snowflake shaped city, numerous others crowded around it, but never came close to its height. Each arm of the snowflake held yet more tall building clusters, the architecture was breathtaking. Normally, the Alteran's went more for functionality than aesthetics, here it seems, with their capital city, they felt the need to impress. The architectural skill was nothing short of lightyears beyond what Earth was capable of. He could just imagine the structural engineers in the Expedition salivating at the prospect of learning those building methods.
The buildings curved, and sloped organically at some points, merging into yet more geometric shapes, in a way that just seemed 'natural' and not awkward at all - whilst the numerous windows gleamed in the light emitted by the glowing umbrella of the city shield that hovered now protectively over Atlantis.
"That is impressive, isn't it?" McKay looked deeply impressed and amazed.
The moment was broken when Dr Beckett's voice intruded on it.
"Beckett to General Theron, I've found something you all, including Aiyana should definitely see."
"We have a lot to see, Doctor, can it wait?" Theron tapped her earpiece.
"No, not if what the Alteran Hologram Lady is telling me is true, I'm ten levels down from ye."
"Very well, we'll be there in a few minutes," Theron turned off her link. "Down to business then."
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They met up with Beckett in what turned out to be Atlantis' Hologram Room. Harry couldn't help but feel a slight sense of déjà vu, his own design for the Hologram rooms on board the Achilles and Briseus, was also octagonal, in fact, except for the differing surface décor it was an almost match.
He shrugged it off, Think about it later.
Aiyana joined them as well as they reached the room and its doors split open, much like the ones in the conference room in the arrival hall. Beckett stood at the interface podium, with it lit under his touch, and projected in front of them all was a medium height Alteran woman wearing an intricate white dress. Her face was vital and beautiful, and she had a distinct intelligence that seemed to radiate from her like a palpable aura.
The Alteran woman was in mid recitation – clearly Dr Beckett had accessed the last log entry recorded by the Alterans before abandoning the city. She was speaking in modern English too; the user-friendly and very intelligent system had interfaced with the language centres of the Doctor's brain to make it intelligible to him.
"…in the hope of spreading new life in a galaxy where their appeared to be none. Soon the new life grew, prospered. Here…"
"The recording loops, this is my second time through…" smiled Carson.
"What have we missed?" asked Theron.
"Not much."
"…exchange of knowledge and friendship," continued the Alteran woman. A star map of the Pegasus Galaxy appeared above her head, with every world terraformed, colonized or seeded with life by the Alterans marked in blue. They had managed a lot in five million years. "In time a thousand worlds bore the fruit of life in this form. Then one day our people stepped foot on a dark world where a terrible enemy slept. Never before had we encountered beings with powers that rivalled our own. In our over confidence, we weren't prepared and outnumbered. The enemy fed upon defenceless human worlds like a great scourge until finally only Atlantis remained. This city's great shield was powerful enough to withstand their terrible weapons but here we were besieged for many years. In an effort to save the last of our kind we submerged our great city into the ocean. The Atlantis Stargate was the one and only link back to Earth from this Galaxy, and those who remained used it to return to that world that was once home. There the last survivors of Atlantis lived out the remainder of their lives. This city was left to slumber, in the hope that our kind would one day return."
Beckett stepped down and the hologram vanished.
"So the story of Atlantis is true," mused McKay, "a great city that sank in the ocean."
"It just didn't happen on Earth," agreed Beckett.
"Well, the ancient Greeks must have heard it from one of the surviving Alterans."
"I'm more worried about the fact that the Alterans got their arses kicked forcibly back to the Milky Way," Harry was grim. "I always assumed it was some natural calamity that caused their return, not a more powerful enemy."
He strode over the interface podium and placed his hand on it. Again it lit. This time a different Alteran woman appeared. Her dress was simpler, her black hair longer and slightly scruffier, and she appeared older than the first Alteran lady to appear.
"It seems Dr Beckett accessed the last log of Atlantis, that woman was an Alteran Council member," explained Harry, interpreting what he saw in his mind's eye of the cyberspace of Atlantis' database. "She should be of more help, her name is Ganos Lal. Essentially, the 'Minister of Education' of the Alterans here in Atlantis."
"Hello," said the Lal hologram, her arms folded regally into a white cardigan of sorts. "You may enter your query verbally or by manual input in the console in front of you. But note for future sessions, that manual input is required for most system interaction." Her tone was distinctly patronizing.
"Hello, who is the 'enemy' that the Council member refers to in the last official log of the city?"
"She is referring to the Unstantia Ereptor, or their more colloquial name in your tongue – Wraith," the Lal hologram said.
"What is the Wraith?" asked Theron intently.
The Lal hologram abruptly took a step to the left and next to her appeared a tall being with two arms, two legs…a general human shape, except for the fact that it had long pure white hair, milky white skin with a hint of green, cat-like eyes, hands that had clawish like nails and a mouth of extremely sharp clustered teeth. The Wraith had an expression on its ugly face that had it perpetually snarling. It wore dark black leathers with a long coat, heavy boots and some sort of gauntlet that had a technological nature to it.
"This is a typical exemplar of a Wraith; this specific form is known as a Command drone."
The Wraith hologram vanished to be replaced by another. This Wraith's face was entirely covered with a sort of organic HUD mask, it was taller and bulkier than the previous one, and wore a form of armour.
"This is the Wraith warrior drone, the most numerous type in existence," explained Lal.
The hologram was again replaced, but this time a distinctly female shaped Wraith appeared dressed in a simple white dress, but a form of clawed gauntlet was around her right arm and hand.
"This is the Wraith Queen, their exact number is unknown, but they serve as the leader of a hive ship, however, depending on their individual power, a single Queen can have many hives under her domain."
The Queen vanished and Lal stepped back into the central position, expectantly waiting for the next question. Harry glanced to Aiyana who looked distinctly worried.
"The Alteran name for the Wraith," she said addressing the hologram, "loosely translated it means Essence Stealer, what is meant by that name?"
"A more correct translation would be Essence Feeder," countered Lal. "The Wraith sustains themselves by forcefully draining all the mitochondrial energy, vital nutrients, and blood of any living being."
"You've got to be kidding me?" Mckay was astonished. "You're telling us this entire Galaxy is dominated by Space vampires?"
"Terran vampires leave their victims alive and only drain blood, it is not life threatening, the Wraith feeding process when completed results in death…" stated Lal.
"How can she know tha'?" asked a baffled Beckett.
"She's getting that from me, since my mind is interfaced with it," Harry said in an obvious tone.
"…at the time Atlantis was abandoned, it was estimated that the Wraith had one hundred and ten strategically located worlds under their control, and maintained a fleet of sixty nine hive ships and seven hundred and ninety Cruisers. So therefore yes, the Galaxy is well under their control."
A Galaxy map appeared overhead, showing the entire thing highlighted in an angry red.
"All right, that's enough Commodore," Theron held her hands up to halt the proceedings. Harry nodded and stepped down, the device deactivated. "Aiyana, you and Harry dive into the Alteran database and give me a comprehensive summary on the Wraith, from how the Ancients got their butts kicked to what the defensive capabilities of Wraith ships have, their tactics…everything."
"Keeping in mind, General, that the database was last updated ten thousand years ago," Aiyana noted.
"I understand that, but old information is better than nothing at all," said Theron. "Commodore, get on the com to the Briseus, tell them to Cloak themselves immediately. We can't afford to draw the attention of the Wraith now of all times."
"Understood," nodded Harry, "should we tell them to start beaming down their supplies and personnel as well?"
"Sit tight, let me just get my bearings on this Wraith issue, everyone dismissed."
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