Why leave Atlantis in Pegasus?

[tombombadil]

i often wondered this.....

[Nemises]

with sga being canceled i think they should fly atlantis back to earth and park it in one of our oceans and that would provide us with ample security for earth aswell.

[Jangles]

with sga being canceled i think they should fly atlantis back to earth and park it in one of our oceans and that would provide us with ample security for earth aswell.

Cool idea, but several things would have to happen and a few I don't see happening.
1. Defeat the Wraith. (Most likely will happen, one way or another)
2. Get some more ZPMs.
3. Change atleast one of the gates in the PG to one that can dial the MW.
4. Get a ZPM for said gate.
5. Or barring that, get Midway Station up and running again.

Most likely what will happen is the Wraith will be defeated and they will leave Atlantis where it is. This way they don't have to build another base to take its place.

[andy tyler]

They left the MW for PG because of a disease that was killing them.

They were forced to leave PG through the stargate because the Wraith were attacking Atlantis I think. This is where I was a bit sketchy. They learned from the Atlantis database that the Wraith laid siege to Atlantis at some point and their shield could not hold forever. They decided to sink Atlantis and leave through the stargate.

Now this leaves a few questions.
1. How did they sink Atlantis without the Wraith finding it and using the SG to come to the MW? Did they defeat the Wraith attacking Atlantis and then leave? Did they pull some kind of trick like Mckay did when he turned the shields into a cloak? Did they relocate the city to a new planet and then leave?

2. Why not take Atlantis back to the MW or to another new galaxy? Did they not have enough power to get back? Would the trip take too long (like the Atlantian ship found between PG and MW)? Does Atlantis have the type of hyperdrive that is fast enough to go between galaxies in a relative short amount of time rather than lifetimes?

No they were on the same planet. The wraith knew exactly where to go not to mention the satellite in the solar system meant to destroy wraith hives was there.

My guess is they sank the city and the wraith knew about it, but there was no way they could breach the shield so they gave up.

[Ripple in Space]

No they were on the same planet. The wraith knew exactly where to go not to mention the satellite in the solar system meant to destroy wraith hives was there.

My guess is they sank the city and the wraith knew about it, but there was no way they could breach the shield so they gave up.

I agree, and I think they planned on returning.

[stargabb]

They left the MW for PG because of a disease that was killing them.

They were forced to leave PG through the stargate because the Wraith were attacking Atlantis I think. This is where I was a bit sketchy. They learned from the Atlantis database that the Wraith laid siege to Atlantis at some point and their shield could not hold forever. They decided to sink Atlantis and leave through the stargate.

Now this leaves a few questions.
1. How did they sink Atlantis without the Wraith finding it and using the SG to come to the MW? Did they defeat the Wraith attacking Atlantis and then leave? Did they pull some kind of trick like Mckay did when he turned the shields into a cloak? Did they relocate the city to a new planet and then leave?

2. Why not take Atlantis back to the MW or to another new galaxy? Did they not have enough power to get back? Would the trip take too long (like the Atlantian ship found between PG and MW)? Does Atlantis have the type of hyperdrive that is fast enough to go between galaxies in a relative short amount of time rather than lifetimes?

i think they couldn't fly out because the wraith were attacking and if your shield is failing so is your power, and maybe they didn't want to lead the wraith to earth..who knows?

[Rise Of The Phoenix]

When the Ancients left Pegasus Atlantis had three fully functional ZPMs, with all that power I don't really see them having any trouble taking off, even with loads of hives and cruisers in orbit of Lantia firing on the city.

Spoiler:

It only took like a minute (if I recall correctly) for the city to reach orbit and enter hyperspace in First Strike and that's with only one functional ZPM after the city was under attack by the Asuran's sustained beam weapon.
Of course the asteroid was placed in the path of that weapons beam for a short time, but I think the impact taken by that weapon is greater than a hundred hives and cruisers can throw in the same amount of time.
I personally don't think power would've been a problem had the ancients decided to leave the Pegasus galaxy when they did on Atlantis

It's likely that the Ancients didn't leave on Atlantis so that there was an outpost had they ever wanted to return to the Pegasus galaxy in their future.

[NoobTau'ri]

Why, when the chips were down for the Ancients did they decide to leave Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy? Why not bring it back and rebuild their civilisation in the Milky Way.

Did they intend to go back? Were they just thinking of abandoning it permanently, if so why not destroy it?

When they were in a similar position in the Milky Way they took it with them.

My guess is that they didn't have enough power to open a hyperdrive window to Earth while simultaneously resisting Wraith firepower on their shield. If they tried to open a hyperspace window, power would be diverted from the shield to the hyperdrive and the shield would fail resulting in Atlantis being destroyed; if they fed the shield with enough power to withstand Wraith bombardement, there wouldn't be enough power available to open a hypdrive window.

[Gate-builder]

My guess is that they didn't have enough power to open a hyperdrive window to Earth while simultaneously resisting Wraith firepower on their shield. If they tried to open a hyperspace window, power would be diverted from the shield to the hyperdrive and the shield would fail resulting in Atlantis being destroyed; if they fed the shield with enough power to withstand Wraith bombardement, there wouldn't be enough power available to open a hypdrive window.

They had 3 ZPMs, thats more than enough power. A single ZPM could hold back the Wraith bombardment for a substantial period of time, as we saw in The Siege. That leaves 2 to power the stardrive which is plenty to get into orbit and jump into hyperspace.

[NoobTau'ri]

They had 3 ZPMs, thats more than enough power. A single ZPM could hold back the Wraith bombardment for a substantial period of time, as we saw in The Siege. That leaves 2 to power the stardrive which is plenty to get into orbit and jump into hyperspace.

That is your opinion and nothing more. Those 3 ZPMs would need to provide enough power to:

- Lift a 2 mile wide city while at the same time providing the shield enough juice to resist the shield-draining weapon of the Wraith - which drains power from a ZPM like crazy

- Open a hyperspace window while at the same time resisting the Wraith's firepower.

That's quite a chore. Lifting the city with the sub-light engines and overcoming the gravitational pull of the planet and providing enough power to the shield for it to resist the firepower of the hives and opening a hyperspace window.

[Nemises]

Cool idea, but several things would have to happen and a few I don't see happening.
1. Defeat the Wraith. (Most likely will happen, one way or another)
2. Get some more ZPMs.
3. Change atleast one of the gates in the PG to one that can dial the MW.
4. Get a ZPM for said gate.
5. Or barring that, get Midway Station up and running again.

Most likely what will happen is the Wraith will be defeated and they will leave Atlantis where it is. This way they don't have to build another base to take its place.

they could make more zpm's using the asgard core

[Rise Of The Phoenix]

That is your opinion and nothing more. Those 3 ZPMs would need to provide enough power to:

- Lift a 2 mile wide city while at the same time providing the shield enough juice to resist the shield-draining weapon of the Wraith - which drains power from a ZPM like crazy

- Open a hyperspace window while at the same time resisting the Wraith's firepower.

That's quite a chore. Lifting the city with the sub-light engines and overcoming the gravitational pull of the planet and providing enough power to the shield for it to resist the firepower of the hives and opening a hyperspace window.

In First Strike

Spoiler:

a single ZPM was used to lift the city into orbit, with a slight amount of additional power from the under water drilling station (I don't think that this would have been as much as even a tenth of an additional ZPM) wto help.

.
During the Siege part 3 McKay said that the cities shield would last days under bombardment from the Wraith weapons fire.
That was against ten hives and 36 cruisers.
We have to assume that there would've been more ships in orbit of Lantia during the time the Ancients returned through the Stargate to Earth.
If we over estimate and say it takes 5 minutes to get into orbit and ten seconds to enter hyperspace that wouldn't have been enough time for the Wraith to drop the cities shields even though it had to get into orbit.
If one ZPM can sustain the shield to hold off 46 Wraith ships for say 3 days I'm sure that 3 ZPMs can provide enough power to hold off 400 ships for 5 minutes and ten seconds so that the city could get into hyperspace.
In fact I'm sure that the 3 ZPMs working in parallel as I recall Janus saying in Before I Sleep could've (only the parallel comment relates to Janus) quite easily given enough power to get the city into hyperspace safely and back to the Milky Way with power to spare.

[Finger13]

One thing they have never discussed in the show but should, is the relation between Earth Religions and the Ancients. You could make an argument about various biblical things being the product of primitive Earth cultures trying to describe the Ancients and their abilities. Didn't the Ancients return about the same time as the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity?

God created the Earth= Ancients using that weapon on Dakara to create or destroy life.

Ascension/ Ascended Ancients= angels

Only the pure of heart or those deemed worthy get to ascend= some of the requirements for going to heaven.

Ancients had healing powers and other abilities, which could explain a lot as well.

If the Ancients came to Earth around 10,000 years ago, that'd be roughly 8,000 BCE. That's way before any civilization was formed or any coherent religion.

That is a good point though.

[Rise Of The Phoenix]

I too think that berlin88 makes a good point.
I wonder whether it was intended by TPTB that those elements of the Ancients like ascension, miracles etc are comparable to the various religions.

[kymeric]

The same reason they put it in pegasus in the first place, to tell new stories without saying "Why dosent Sg1 come save the day!" So we can get new sg1 stories and atlantis stories!