Five Horsemen Productions

[ussrelativity]

I am about half way done with Chapter 14, I will try and work on it more during the night.

[Rasunda]

Okey. Keep it up!

[ussrelativity]

Well, when I said half-way, it ultimately ended up to be one-third-way, since I ended up going to over 2500 words.

Hope it was worth the wait.

Spoiler:

Several days later, the Hammond came out of hyperspace over Atlantis.

Colonel Carter beamed down into the city, with some equipment.

“Welcome back, Colonel.” Mr. Woolsey said.

“It’s good to be back.”

“Hey, Sam.”

“Daniel. I heard from Woolsey that you were here, and that there was an Ancient in the city.” Sam sounded skeptical.

“Yes. The Ancient I did my more recent research into their scientists. He was one of the Lanteans who fled to Earth after they lost their war with the Wraith. He’s, uh, the one who built the time machine our, “other” selves used.”

“The mission where we got the Z.P.M. from Ra.”

“Yeah. Although you could call them S.P.M.s too. Subspace Potentia Module. I’d rather stick with good old Z.P.M.” Daniel said.

“Have you confirmed that he’s really an Ancient? We have been fooled before.”

“Mr. Janus has demonstrated some abilities that a Replicator certainly cannot do.” Woolsey stated.

“Like read minds?”

“I could if I wish to do so.” Janus said, approaching from the other direction.

Carter’s expression was pure shock.

“You are Colonel Samantha Carter.”

“Yes, I am. So you were the one who built the time machine?”

“I was.”

“What do you want to start with?”

“The continued restoration of the city and to prepare you to fight the Wraith.”

“You do know that we’ve been trying for years to defeat them, and even with the city at full power, it’s not that easy.”

“As my colleague told your friends, had you attacked them on a full-scale over two years ago, they would have been nearly extinct now. If your people are unwilling to fight them, I cannot help you further.”

“I’m just saying that this enemy operates very differently from the Replicators and..”

“The Asurans. I will be absolute on that definition. My colleague was right in his defense of them.”

“Well, it’s too late to consider that option. We destroyed the Replicator homeworld.”

“And what would have happened had you not done that with sheer luck?”

“Luck had nothing to do with it. We had to reorient our plan in order to destroy them while keeping our fleet in one piece.”

“In reference to luck, you do not know how lucky you truly were.”

In the hologram room, Janus, Woolsey, McKay, and Carter were all around Janus as he made some modifications to the control system. Sheppard was off opposite Janus.

Above a holographic representation of Asuras, there were several clusters of Wraith ships in high detail, unlike previous uses of it. Several tiny light streams came up from the planet as the Wraith exchanged fire with several Asuran ships above the planet. The display zooms in on several waves of darts heading down towards the surface.

“There were numerous attacks on Asuras by the Wraith. Here you have over 100 of their ships of varying class.”

As Janus spoke, the display moved back out. It certainly was quite a sight to have that kind of detail. A hive ship is destroyed, followed by another. The Wraith were taking severe losses, and few Asuran ships were lost. Most of the Wraith casualties were coming from the drone weapons and planetary defense systems directly from Asuras.

“What are those?” Sheppard asked, pointing the red high-speed shots from the surface.

“Those are surface-based spatial charges. They appear to be designed to target the larger Wraith ships, such as their cruisers and hive carriers.”

“When we sent our fleet to attack them, why didn’t they use these weapons against us?” Carter asked.

“There planetary installations were compromised. A number of them commandeered the defense control and disabled ground-based defense installations. Several of their other ships were on the surface in shipyards. The other ships could not launch once your plan took effect.”

“That explains it. Even before we enacted our plan, they couldn’t use their main defenses.”

“Why didn’t they tell us?” Woolsey asked.

“Mr. Woolsey.” Janus said, turning toward him.

“Nearly two years ago, we encountered the remnants of Niam’s faction in our city’s computer systems. They reassembled themselves into Replicator forms and one of them attacked our people. Our former leader was with them and stopped him.”

A brief silence is had.

“So, we really got lucky.” Carter replied.

“Yes. Had they used their full extent of capabilities, your fleet would have been destroyed.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about them anymore.” Sheppard said.

“And what happened after the planet’s destruction?” Janus asked. “Specifically with the Wraith.”

“The hives pretty much went their own ways.”

“The one you repeatedly ally yourself with used this opportunity to attain technology not meant for them.”

“Yeah, we know that. We took care of it.”

“How did you accomplish that?”

“I managed to get my 302 right into the hive and we remote detonated a nuke.”

“Colonel, these ‘glory-charges’ will one day lead you to your end. You all can’t rely on your sheer luck for your safety.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“You should hope you do.” Janus said, not impressed.

“Can we get back to work please?” McKay asked, finally chiming in. “We’ve got one Zed. P.M. in Atlantis, we need two more. Oh! What we should do is get one on each of our 304s!”

“The proliferation of the power modules is what gave the Wraith the advantage they had.” Janus said.

“Well, we’ll just be more careful.”

“Rodney it doesn’t work that way.” Carter said. “The Wraith were able to defeat the Lanteans and the Replicators…”

“With our help.” McKay interrupted.

“Their tactics continuously change. Who’s to say that we can actually eliminate them? From what I’ve heard, Dr. Keller has made a lot of progress on the Wraith gene therapy.”

“Do you believe we should seek out Todd again?” Woolsey asked.

“Maybe we should. With an actual Ancient here, we are in a much stronger position to deal with them now.”

“You want to work again with them.” Woolsey said.

“No way. Not going to happen.” Sheppard said, decisively. “The Z.P.M. thing was bad enough, but letting him escape is the last of it. I don’t care. Next time I see him, I shoot him on sight.”

“He hasn’t answered the last two attempts to contact him.” Woolsey said.

“He’s up to something. Probably knows I’ll do it.” Sheppard replied.

“I can tell you this. The Wraith are in the process of re-gathering their ships, and will come here to secure the city for their kind.”

“They tried that before, and our people were able to repel them.” Carter said.

“It is general knowledge amongst their race that this city is still intact, and they will stop at nothing to claim it. They want the location of additional galactic regions and information they can utilize to enhance their ships. You barely managed to stop one enhanced hive, imagine trying to fight ten.”

Woolsey didn’t like the sound of that. He was already having a hard time with the I.O.A. and trying to keep the city running, and having to face another siege was not preferable to him.

“What we need to do is launch a pre-emptive strike against them.” Sheppard suggested. “Before they can get here.”

“We do have one additional resource we can field. Teyla.” Woolsey suggested in response.

“I don’t think she wants to go through that again.” McKay said. “I don’t.”

“If she can assume command of the Wraith alliance, she can order the hives to engage the others in an all-out attack. If they take more losses, it would give us the upper hand down the road.”

“We should see if she is at least willing to go through with it again. If we can keep the Wraith distracted at least a while longer for us to get the city up to full power, we may be able to finally defeat them.” Carter said.

“If you choose this action, you should take it with care. These creatures are more devious and clever than I believe you know.”

Later on, Sheppard was in his personal quarters, when Ford entered.

“Hey.” Sheppard said.

“This whole Ancient thing got you thinking about what to do with the Wraith?”

“Yeah. Thing is, I knew this was coming. With Todd, that is. I mean, I kept throwing up the red flag to the point where I was just going to take care of it myself. And I was going to, I said that before. And he just…. gets away. He knows this city probably better than any other Wraith now. If they launch another full-scale attack, you know he’d be the one who could do it best.”

“From what you’ve told me, he’s pushing his position in the hive alliance pretty good. He might not even need Teyla now.”

“No, he’s gonna need her in the long run, which at this point, is now. It’s been over a year and a half since we fooled them into thinking that she was one of them. After what Kelzio told me, it’s a given that he’s going to contact us about using Teyla again soon.”

“So, you want to get the jump on him by having Teyla already get the procedure, and then contact him in her…. position as a queen?”

“If he’s up to something, which he obviously is, we can push him into trying to cover his tracks, of which McKay can try and find.”

“So you want us to have some tricks up our sleeves this time.”

Sheppard paused for a moment.

“I’m still pissed about his little stunt he pulled on the Daedalus. He came aboard carrying those stick things, you know the stunners they carry? They’ve got stick versions that you put together and he took down Caldwell and the whole bridge crew like this.”

As Sheppard explained he demonstrated with his hands what he described to Ford about the stun weapon that Todd carried with him aboard the Daedalus.

“He could consider himself lucky he didn’t run into me.”

Sheppard pauses.

“Cause I would have just shot him down. I keep it simple.” Ford explained.

“That’s how you and your friends kept themselves alive.”

“Yeah.”

A brief silence is had.

“What do you say we watch a movie down in the mess? I haven’t seen one in five years now.” Ford couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

Sheppard developed a smirk from the humor of it. “Yeah, why not? There’s this really good Batman movie I think you’ll like.”

“No kidding? Let’s give it a shot.”

Ford and Sheppard head out.

Continued in the next post.

[ussrelativity]

Here's the second part to Chapter 14.

Spoiler:

Later on in a lab, Janus, McKay, and Zelenka are in the process of manufacturing a Subspace Potentia Module.

McKay was quite happy throughout the whole ordeal.

“Finally, no more McKay, quit hogging all the power. McKay, quit monopolizing the city’s power, McKay, your department uses more power than anyone. Rodney, your experiments have exceeded limits, blah, blah, yak-yak-yak…”

Zelenka interrupted.

“Rodney, we’re ready.”

“What? Oh, right.”

Janus set the remaining systems to begin. A part of a module materialized and some readings came back on Janus’ terminal.

“Now, Dr. Zelenka, set the subspace resonator to full gain. Dr. McKay, what you see is a part of the shell of the module. What allows the technology to operate is an artificial generation of subspace. It is not self-sustaining, so it cannot function indefinitely. It can only provide a finite amount of power, after which you can dismantle and recycle it.”

Janus runs another system, after which another portion of the module is assembled.

“I did try putting together a Zed. P.M. a while back using equipment like this, but all we got was just a dead module.”

“You were treating the process like you were manufacturing another piece of equipment. This technology is meant to serve as active power generation. Effectively, a subspace micro-tap. A subspace resonator, that Dr. Zelenka there is monitoring, is needed to create a subspace ‘tap’ that the module can safely utilize.”

The module is assembled further, as the other equipment registers other readings.

“It’s nearly done now. Dr. Zelenka, what is the current power stability reading?”

“Current readings are stable. City-wide power draw is within the range you suggested.”

“The module is ready. I am finishing the assembly.”

The module comes together fully.

“Dr. Zelenka, you may disengage the resonator system.”

Zelenka shuts down the equipment. The other systems power down and McKay approaches the newly completed module.

“You can pick it up now, Dr. McKay.”

McKay takes the module and holds it up a bit. “Brand new Zed P.M.”

“Before I choose to manufacture an additional module, I would rather have that module installed into the main power distribution center in the city. Use of the subspace resonator is a greater power draw than most, including the Stargate for long-range use.” Janus explained.

“Well, I’d suppose I’d agree with you there. We assembled a big generator that allowed us to create a bridge between realities, and it cost us a Zed P.M. once.”

“When you try and manufacture active power generation, your existing power systems will be heavily utilized.”

“Oh! There was this one time we found another Daedalus, except it wasn’t our Daedalus, it was this one from another reality, and it has this drive that allowed the ship to jump between realities, and to power it, it had this type of subspace tap that tapped power from subspace continuously, and it had these types of capacitors that were able to store effective power for the drive, which used up a lot of power in itself.”

“The power generation you described required a large generator and an array of capacitors needed to facilitate the drive. Though the generator is feasible, one in that configuration would be slower to provide power, and would not be ideal for use in the city, when we have the more efficient potentia that the city was meant to operate from.”

“I know. Okay, I should get this down to the power room.”

“Do so. When you return, we can begin assembly on a second new module.”

McKay took the module, boxed it up, and headed out. He turns back briefly.

“We’re really going to have three Zed P.M.s in the city from now on?”

“Correct, Dr. McKay.”

“About time.”

As McKay is heading through another section of the city, his wife catches up to him.

“Hey, Rodney. What’s in the box?” Jennifer asked.

“Oh, hey Jen! Here, we have a brand new Zero Point Module. After I get this set up in the city, Janus will begin work on a second to put in and then we’ll have a full complement again.”

“Well, we’re going to need a full set if we keep bringing more refugees into the city. My staff is stretched pretty thin handling some of the extra people coming in. It’s going to be easier with the extra equipment from the Odyssey and Hammond now.”

“That’s good to hear. We’re still on for dinner later?”

“Yeah, unless I have extra examinations.”

“Just do what I do. Trade with one of your people.”

Jennifer had no words.

“You just, you think that works on everything don’t you?”

McKay chuckled. “Who’s to say it doesn’t?”

“I will see you at seven.”

The two share a quick kiss. Rodney continues, with a slight smile.

End of Chapter 14.

As always feedback, feedback, feedback.

Just one more chapter to go on this one.

[Rudy Pena]

It is really good, I do hope that they take the fight to the wraith soon.


Now that I think about it, I would have thought that McKay would of said to use Teyla like that. Not Woolsey.

[Rasunda]

That is really good. But make a space battle!

[ussrelativity]

Finally got around to working on Chapter 15. I hope to have it done very soon. I've been waiting to write this part for a while. Expect a few character interactions, and a major character reveal.

[Rasunda]

Good, good. This pleases Lord Rasunda.

[Aragon101]

Finally got around to working on Chapter 15. I hope to have it done very soon. I've been waiting to write this part for a while. Expect a few character interactions, and a major character reveal.

Just a thought, it's Larrin isn't it? Or Elizabeth. Given that they're they only two left with access to higher level technology (Larrin the Travelers, Elizabeth likely still has Asurans and may even know where the Aurora is)

isn't this the last chapter of this episode? finally the first episode is done?

[ussrelativity]

Yes! Chapter 15.

I've been waiting to get to this part for a while.

Spoiler:

Ronon and a few others were working out in the Atlantis gym as a couple of Athosians and Satedans were sparring. The city seemed to be more crowded by the week in the non-operation centers of the city. Balkan was evacuated three months earlier, and last week, Manara was evacuated.

The Coalition formed a year and a half earlier amongst various Pegasus worlds had suffered a number of setbacks. Two worlds had cullings, and another evacuated to Atlantis. Most survivors were scattered. It took months to track down most of the survivors and recover the people.

Carter, while overseeing the off-loading of the industrial equipment to Atlantis had several doubts about the intents of Janus. From what she knew of him, he was one who would have placed the interests of the humans first over simply directly engaging the Wraith. Now she finds that he felt that he should have let the Attero device run its course. She could only theorize that something happened to him after the exodus, or he isn’t what he appears.

McKay, having greater spirits since the arrival of Janus, worked on numerous ideas for augmenting the city’s defenses. He was sick of having only the drone weapons to work with, and he wanted to try and build some new weapon systems, perhaps a scaled-down version of the satellite weapons. He thought to himself as he was setting a table for him and his wife, who would be coming in soon.

Sheppard and Ford were kicking back like they used to during their first year in the city, along with some other personnel and about 90-100 Pegasus refugees watching “The Dark Knight” on a projector. Some of the younger ones really got a kick out of Batman.

Sheppard knew that they wouldn’t have opportunities like this to relax in the future, and that a victory wasn’t guaranteed, even with the new Ancient, but he had a job to do, and the people under his command depended on him for leadership. Having Ford back was a bright spot.

It felt like the “band was back together” like how Colonel Mitchell once told him. His closest squadmates were back.

Elizabeth sacrificed herself. She was gone, and he had to accept that. He was still hurting from that incident, and would likely feel this way more or less for the rest of his life. Too many people have been lost in his career as an officer. If he and his colleagues could make it through the coming confrontation, he knew that he would have done his good in life.

Returning from an ambassadorial mission, Teyla returned to Kanaan and Torren for dinner. She knew what was coming, and wanted her son to grow up in a peaceful world, free of the Wraith.

Woolsey was conversing with Janus in his office, with some light classical music in the background. Woolsey was asking about contingencies in case of a unforeseen result in the conflict. He was still concerned about the intentions of the I.O.A. especially how Kelzio verbally struck them down. Woolsey felt that he could handle the I.O.A., and that operations would have to proceed as planned for the long term.

One issue that was beginning to crop up was the capacity for refugees. With the additional Zero Point Modules in the city, capacity was not as severe an issue as before, but maintaining order was. They only had so many security personnel. Being closer to the expedition than any other group, the Athosians were not a concern, but the newcomers were.

Later, when activity in the city slowed a bit, Ford was by himself in an isolated section of the city looking outward at the ocean. He was thinking hard about everything.


--SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER--

In the corridors of an unknown ship, a uniformed man is walking with another person, that one being Ford.

“You’re ready?” the man asked.

“Yeah, we’re going with just me and two others. I think it’s best that the rest of my men stay aboard. With just two of your people with me, we can make it look convincing that I’ve managed to stay in one piece and that we’ve kept together on the move. You’re sure that none of your gear you’re letting me keep will be detected by them?”

“No, I guarantee it. When the time comes your team will be able to signal us. The Wraith will surely be ‘pissed’ as you put it, when we enter the fight.”

“Atlantis will try and get you on their side, and probably try and call the shots for you.” Ford said.

“Those collaborators certainly won’t like our tactics, but you know damn well we cut our losses a very long time ago. Like themselves, those that collaborate with the beings will receive the same.”

“They may not openly worship the Wraith, but they’ve gotten way too cozy with some of them. Even those ‘travelers’ worked with them.”

“In the past year, our allies are in ever increasing chance of being tracked by the Travelers and Atlantis. One way or another, we’re going to have to ‘convince’ them to do otherwise.”

“How’s the repair work going on those battleships?” Ford asked.

“One is up and running and we’re still dismantling and redesigning whole sections of the hull. The one most damaged is still taking longer.”

“I’ve said it god knows how many times, but the way the Asurans put up a fight against Atlantis was pathetic.”

“Even without their ground-based support, they should have been able to disable or destroy a lot more than that. Our retrofitted versions will certainly give them something to think about.” the other uniformed man said.

“Once you have them ready.” Ford interrupted.

“You know it’s best that they go back to their corner of the universe and quit empowering the Wraith.”

“They won’t go willingly.” Ford said.

“Our command cruisers can stand up to their 304s. They got that high-power weaponry from the Asgard, but we’re confident we can hold our own when the time comes. Tero and Ni’kel are already in the landing bay, so take a minute and then join them.”

“Thanks.” Ford enters another room. Inside is a woman who looks up toward him.

“You’re going now?” she asks.

“Yeah. I’m leaving with the others.”

“Are we still looking at four to six months?”

“Even with their cloning bases, the Wraith will be forced to attack Atlantis within the next few months. A few factions have come together and are sharing their cloning resources with each other. They’re cranking out enough humans to maintain their stores. It’s not exactly a lot, but they’re no longer blasting each other now.”

Ford walks over to the woman. It is revealed that she is pregnant. The two enter another room, where a small boy is reading a picture book.

“Hey, little guy.” Ford says. The boy looks up and smiles.

“Hi Dad.” The boy says to him.

Ford sits down next to him.

“Remember what we talked about before?”

The boy nods.

“Well, it’s time.”

The boy is disappointed.

“I know. But you remember the promise I made to you and your mommy. I will be back in a few months. If everything works out, we’re going to go to Earth, and we’re going to live there. You’ll get to see where I was born, and where I used to live. There’s no guarantee that it can happen, but I will try my best.”

He reaches into his shirt and takes off his dog tags.

“Ian, I want you to hang on to these for me. When I come back, you can give these back to me.”

“Okay.” Ian replied. He put them around his neck. Ford smiled at him.

“You’re a little marine, now aren’t you?” Ford gives Ian a pat on the back, and hugs him. “I want you to be strong for your mother, and for your little sister, too.” He rubs the small bump on his wife’s abdomen. “I love you, Vina.” The two kiss.

Later, Ford is seen with two other men dressed like how he was when fighting the Wraith on his own. He checks his belt again, knowing that it isn’t what it entirely appears. A communication signal is heard.

“Aiden, we’re at the rendezvous point.”

“Understood.” He turns to Tero and Ni’kel. “Here we go.”

“We’re transporting you to the other ship. Once they have you on the surface, make indirect contact with the Atlantis team.”

A transporter beam is activated.

Outside of the ship, a smaller ship is seen. It matches the design of the ones the Asgard use in Pegasus. The other one phase-shifts as the Asgard ship jumps into hyperspace.

Ford is seen on a balcony again.

“I’m coming back. I promise.” He says to himself.

--End Of Chapter 15

*braces for the reactions*

[Aragon101]

Yes! Chapter 15.

I've been waiting to get to this part for a while.

*braces for the reactions*

*Shrug* Kind of going on an odd tangent, but there just isn't enough details on why

Spoiler:

Ford

is doing what he's doing. Admittedly yes, a bit of a surprise, but not so much since it's a popular fanfic twist.

Personally i would have rathered more about Atlantis getting used to Janus sticking around, but this was pretty good too I quesiton how the person in question got a hold of the ships in question, but i guess it's nothing huge yet. The cloning i have a bit of an issue with since if the wraith could do that, why even bother culling especially given that Earth and Atlantis are on the prowl.

Personally, i think it was too much of a twist in that it took focus away from the premise of the episode which was Janus and Kelzio shaking things up in Atlantis. this kinda feels like you were going for the effect Sela had in that TNG episode where she walks out of the shadows and it's like "HOLY ****! TASHA!" but what you had was too sudden and out of the blue. I would have rather not known who this was until Atlantis actually sees him. Shroud him in mystery i say! don't tell us all about him right off the bat

Overall, storywise i'm curious. Keep it up! New Episode!

[ussrelativity]

Thank you for the response and feedback.

As for Janus being in Atlantis, more will unfold in the next episode.

When it comes to cloning and the Wraith, their industrial capacity and security is a major issue. It's just a stop-gap measure, since they can't rely on that for feeding 'stock' entirely by a good margin.

I wasn't going for a Sela effect with this, but it brings a major development to a very underused character and especially fills in a major gap between "The Hive" and mid "Season 6". The two others with Ford as his 'men' will begin to fill in a few secret gaps until the siege begins.

Believe me, I've been wanting to get to this part for a while. I was toying with many ideas about what to add to Ford's experiences, and this one will shape him in the background, including keeping Atlantis and Sheppard in the dark about who his friends really are and how he really got off the hive. There will be another flashback part with just that later down the road.

I intend to make the next few episodes shorter in chapter amount, perhaps 2-3 a piece.

Also, Aragon, I consider you my top consultant on some of the trickier parts. Also I mentioned in a PM about a previous episode that will come to light again via a flashback in regards to the extra items Ford discussed with the officer. This one's a doozy, especially with regard to what I've been talking about in the "writer's room".

More feedback and shaping is appreciated. PMs and e-mails are welcome.

Also, main premise was Janus returning, but the shocker was Ford at the end.

[Rasunda]

Really good episode! I too whish to hear more about Janus and everything, also about Ford.. So yeah, you're holding up fine!

[ussrelativity]

7x01 is being written now. I hope to have some effective implementation of ideas and how the arc will shape up.

[ussrelativity]

I'm getting closer on the next chapter, so what should I call it?

It involves the city business getting streamlined again, and diplomatic pressures regarding the Coalition.