Chapter Text
"Did you check out the databurst yet?"
John looked up from his lunch, making a face as Rodney dropped a fully loaded food tray across from him, jostling the table and almost knocking over his water cup in the process. Quickly, John grabbed the cup before it tipped over. "Not yet, was gonna do it after eating. Why, anything interesting come up?"
"They found something on Earth - Ancient outpost, maybe," Rodney says, looking almost giddy as he grips his utensils. "That scanning algorithm I was working on for finding underground power sources? They loaded it on the Daedalus and it got a hit - in New York! The state, not the city. Near Turin, to be specific."
John arches his brows. He has no idea where that is. "Huh," he says, rolling his jaw and then turning back to his food. "Guess it makes sense, since Earth was the Ancient home base way back when. Antarctica can't be the only ruin they left behind."
"That's what I thought! This might be just the first of many that we come across," Rodney says, smiling all smug and pleased as he starts cutting into his Salisbury Stake of tava-beans and canned beef. "Just imagine, with the new scanners and my algorithm, who knows what we will find. There might be thousands of Ancient ruins on Earth, hidden and buried under ten thousand years of human occupation."
Giving him an amused look, John wonders if someone had said something to Rodney about his work. He only preens like this when future acclaim and credit is on the line. "Anything interesting come up yet?" John asks.
"What, a recently discovered, hitherto unknown Ancient outpost right in your own backyard isn't good enough for you, Colonel?" Rodney sniffs. "And, well, no. They found a site - haven't found a way in, yet. There's a door - and it's pretty firmly shut. Apparently they're getting O'Neill to open it."
Arching his brows with interest, John takes a ship of water. "General O'Neill?"
"No, the famous asshole with only one l - yes, General O'Neill. How many O'Neill's there are with Ancient Technology Activation Gene?" Rodney asks, giving him a look.
John makes a show of thinking about it. "Two."
Rodney pulls up short and makes that scrunchy confused face he makes when someone interrupts his train of thought. "What?"
John arches his brows, suppressing a grin. "There's two of 'em. The other one's First Lieutenant," he explains. "Also has ATA gene. Pretty sure it's exactly as strong as General O'Neill's." He lets it hang for a moment while Rodney makes faces at him and then clarifies. "Since he's the General's clone."
Rodney blinks and then snaps his fingers in realisation. "The clone, the - the - the one made by the Asgard?"
John shrugs, basking in having known something he didn't. It never gets old, pulling one over Rodney McKay, "Well, just one of them," he says. "Loki."
Rodney nods, leaning back on his seat. "Huh. I completely forgot about him. You know, back when we started, when we were planning on the expedition, I actually suggested we get in touch with him about joining."
"You did?" John asks, interested, while skewering bits of potatoes onto his fork.
"That was before we found out about you, obviously," Rodney says, waving a hand. "Back when O'Neill was still the princess of the ball as far as ATA gene was concerned and the gene therapy was but a twinkle in Carson's eye, the clone was the second best option we had."
"Huh," John hums as he chews. "So, why didn't you?"
"The General vetoed it," Rodney shrugs and then leans in. "So, the clone joined the military, in the Air Force, again? Even after living through a whole life in it? What is he, a masochist?" he asks incredulously and then flinches as John throws a pea at him. "Not that I mean - you know what I - no offence meant. I think. Maybe a little offence."
John throws another pea at him. "Rude," he says pointedly. "Besides, General O'Neill did pretty well for himself - why wouldn't he want to continue the career? If you found yourself turned into your teenage version, don't tell me you wouldn't go into sciences."
"Well, that's a completely different thing - sciences is -"
"It's the exact same thing," John says and turns back to his food. "It's picking life with or without the Stargate. A no brainer if you ask me."
"There's that," Rodney hums. "I guess for a guy like O'Neill, military is the only way to get in - the chances of him getting a degree that's applicable, I mean, General O'Neill is a lot of things, but a genius he isn't."
John gives him a wry look. "Right," he says and shakes his head. "So, we know anything else about this outpost thing?"
"Right, the outpost," Rodney immediately - and cheerfully - changes tacks. "It's under a mountain or a hill or something, and the techs on board the Daedalus think it was buried in lava roughly a hundred thousand years ago..."
"John," Elizabeth calls warmly as John enters the conference room - first after her, it looks like. "Afternoon. How goes the inventory?"
Aw, shoot. "Well, it's - still going," John says, wincing - he might've been ignoring it and maybe had even forgotten. "That's, uh, not today, right - it's the 28th."
"It's also February," Weir says pointedly, holding a datapad in one hand and a stylus in the other. "Am I to assume it will be a little late, again?"
John makes a face and then offers her an apologetic smile. "I'll try to get it to you first thing tomorrow," he promises. Lorne would be done with his part by now, and John could knock out the rest in the evening. It would cut into his golfing, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made. "It'll be the first email on your desk when you wake up."
Elizabeth smiles, amused. "Good, I look forward to it," she says and signs whatever she was writing before setting the datapad down. "Staying on top of the inventory is maybe not the most important thing imaginable, now that we have a more settled supply line with the Daedalus - but it is still vital to the running of this base and this expedition."
"Yeah," John agrees, pulling up his usual chair and taking a seat. "I have to say, it's been pretty nice, not having to scrounge up for supplies so much."
"Yes, quite," Elizabeth agrees, rocking her chair side to side slightly. "Though we still have to requisition everything through the IOA, and for our requisitions to get through without issues we need an up-to-date inventory."
"Maybe we should get one of the geeks on it, have them build some sort of, I don't know, automatic filing system."
Elizabeth chuckles tiredly. "I'll just add it to the list of the thousand other tasks they have on their tables, shall I?" she asks and then shakes her head. "Have you had the chance to look through the databurst?"
"I skimmed it, and McKay gave me the cliff notes," John admits, crossing his hands idly. "They found an Ancient outpost in New York?"
"They did - though it's still up in the air what it is, exactly," Elizabeth admits.
"What do we know about it?"
"Not much," Elizabeth reaches for the datapad and activates it again, before throwing some images onto the crystal screen for John to see. "It's not as big as the Antarctic post, but it's taller - goes down several dozens of feet into the earth. It's completely embedded in what seems to be lava rock, and collapsed in places. But there's a cavern - and door - they haven't been able to open yet."
"And there's an energy source? McKay mentioned they picked up a signal," John says.
"A very faint one, yes - but it matches the frequencies of the crystal matrix energy sources used by Ancients," Elizabeth agrees, flicking through the images to show a door of familiar brownish metal alloy that a lot of Atlantis is made of. "It won't be a fully charged ZPM, they doubt it even is a ZPM - but it's something."
"Hm," John answers, eyeing the door. "I've never seen Ancient design like that."
"Me neither," Elizabeth agrees. "They're still doing analysis on it. We'll know more by the next databurst."
John nods, thinking. In terms of the Pegasus galaxy, finding the ruins of an Ancient outpost is nothing new or even overly exciting - they've gone through about a dozen of them in the last year. Finding one on Earth, though… "Any chance they might need our help with it?" John asks, glancing at Elizabeth.
She smiles at that. "I think Earth has enough experts to handle it," she says, her tone chiding.
"Yeah. I guess we can't hog all the Ancient ruins," John muses ruefully. And it's not like he's all that eager to head back to Earth, even for a mysterious Ancient outpost or whatever it was. Last time he barely got back and only avoided a court martial by the skin of his teeth.
"Indeed," Elizabeth says and then looks up. "Good afternoon Teyla."
"To you as well, Elizabeth, and you, John," Teyla says while she enters the meeting room. "I heard there was exciting news from Earth?"
"Some, yes," Elizabeth says.
"They found an underground Ancient ruin," John announces, giving her a smile. "Sealed up for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe millions of years. McKay is very smug about it - they used his program and scanner upgrades to do it. Just a heads up."
"I see," Teyla says, smiling. "I am sure he is very pleased."
"He has every right to be," Elizabeth says with a rueful smile. "They'd barely finished with the upgrades, and it already had a hit - and that's without the Daedalus even doing a proper search. There's a very real possibility more will be found, once the search truly begins."
"You expect there to be more such sites on Earth?" Teyla asks, interested.
"From what we know, Earth was the home base of the Ancients in the Milky Way galaxy," Elizabeth explains to Teyla. "They lived there for a very, very long time. In fact, it's strange we haven't found any more of their ruins - by any logic, the Earth should be covered with them."
"It very well might be," a voice interjects. "It's just that, there's been a few ten thousands of years of humans occupying the place after them, and we're, well, we're a handy bunch. Any Ancient sites on the surface would've been ruined and dismantled and re-purposed ages ago. Never mind the fact that there was a little Goa'uld occupation somewhere in there too, and we know what they did with Ancient Tech - hell, Earth might be where they got it all from!"
"Good afternoon, Rodney," Elizabeth greets him with an amused smile. "And you, Carson."
"Elizabeth," Carson Beckett greets her, followed by Rodney, who just waves a hand. "Lovely weather for it."
"It is indeed," Elizabeth says, turning her chair fully to face the table.
"Yes, yes, chitchat, pleasantries, small talk," Rodney says dismissively and takes a seat beside John before immediately leaning in, datapad in hand. "I've been going through the data from the Ancient outpost they discovered, and it not only pre-dates the Ancients returning to Earth but it postdates them leaving Earth in the first place!"
John leans back a little. "You wanna run that by me again?"
"We know Ancients lived on Earth long term until about five million years ago when they had the plague and left and all that, yadda yadda," Rodney says, waving a hand in the middle of poking at the datapad. "Atlantis was stationed on Earth in a place where the Antarctic outpost is until it left and then they came here and did their Ancienty thing. And then, after spending millions of years in Pegasus, they lost the war with the Wraith, packed their bags and headed back to Earth with their tail between their legs, about ten thousand years ago."
"Yes, Rodney, we know that," Elizabeth says patiently.
"Right, yes, well, this place though," Rodney throws some data onto the crystal screen. "Is roughly seventy-five thousand years old."
There's a moment of silence as they stare at the data, most of which is incomprehensible to John. Carbon dating or something, maybe?
Teyla looks between them and then rests her elbows on the table. "So, the ruin originates in a period of time when the Ancestors weren't present in your galaxy?" she clarifies curiously.
"Assuming that the Ancients never did go back before, obviously - which we don't know for sure," McKay says with a shrug.
"We have no records of Ancients on the Milky Way galaxy in the period of time between their departure and their return," Weir clarifies, clasping her hands together. "And even when they did return, they built nothing that lasts to this day that we know of. The Ancient ruins of the Milky Way galaxy are all at least five million years old."
"I cannot even fathom such a time period," Teyla murmurs.
"You're not the only one," John agrees - it still blows his mind a little that Ancient stuff just lasts that long. Try and find anything a human built that might last even a million years.
"Yes, well," McKay makes a face at them, as though sympathetic to their intellectual shortcomings. Dick. "As far as we know, the plague they had almost wiped all of them out. They had a golden age, and then they all just dropped dead, millions, probably billions of them, pretty much all at once. After that, I figure returning to the Milky Way was off the table."
"From what we've seen of the plague, I'm not surprised," Carson agrees grimly. "We only had one run-in with it, and thank god it was in Antarctica. It's incredibly virulent, enduring, fast acting, and almost 100% fatal. If we hadn't been able to keep it so isolated… god help us. I still shudder at the risk they took, taking General O'Neill to SGC and through the Stargate infected with the disease."
McKay makes a face and then shakes his head. "Well, anyway - if the samples they took off that door are correct, there were Ancients living - and building - on Earth when there shouldn't have been," he says and points at the screen. "Either Ancients who stayed, survived the plague, and kept living on Earth for another 4.9 million years - or Ancients who left the Pegasus galaxy long before the evacuation."
They digest that for a moment and then Teyla asks uncertainly, "And this is… a bad thing?"
"Well, no, not so much bad as… interesting?" Rodney says, searchingly.
Elizabeth smiles. "It is interesting," she agrees. "And might yet shed some more light to the history of the Ancients, so much of which we still know so little about. However," she adds. "This matter is in the hands of the IOA and the SGC, who are doing a full investigation on the matter. I'm sure we will learn more in the next databurst."
"What, we're not even going to advise them?" Rodney asks incredulously. "Elizabeth, I think we can all agree who's the foremost expert of Ancients here -"
"Colonel Carter and Doctor Jackson are both participating in the investigation," Elizabeth cuts in firmly, giving him the eyebrows. "And I think no one can doubt their expertise on the matter. Should they require our assistance, they will let us know."
McKay grimaces. "Well, Carter is more of a -" he trails off under Elizabeth's gaze and then mutters. "Yes, yes, alright. I guess they can have this one."
"Thank you for your lenience, Rodney," Elizabeth says wryly and picks up her own datapad. "Now that the matter has been settled, perhaps we can start the meeting?"
John shares a look with Rodney, idly knocking a knee against his and smiling wryly at the face the man makes. Then they both turn to give their attention to the all important weekly staff meeting.
"Ha! They can't open it!"
John sighs. "We're never going to hear the end of it now," he mutters to Teyla, who hides her smile behind her hand.
By the Ancient console, Rodney looks fit to dance with triumph as he reads through the reports. "They can't get the door to open! They tried both the O'Neills, and neither did the trick. They tried cutting into the door, they tried powering it up, they tried blasting it… they can't get it open. Ha, in your face, Sam!"
"The fact that they have not been able to open it does not mean you can, Rodney," Teyla points out.
"What do you mean - of course I can," Rodney says with a huff and waves a hand at John. "Or else Colonel Super Gene here can. Between us, it's not even an issue."
"Gotta love the confidence," John says wryly, looking around the control room. Pretty much everyone is skimming the data burst, reading up on the latest news - including Elizabeth, who is leaning onto the railing of the little bridge leading to her office as she scrolls through missives with her datapad. "I have a question though - why don't they just beam someone inside?"
Rodney gives him a very irritated, disappointed look. "Obviously they tried that first. There's an energy field, or signal blocker, or something, that throws the beaming tech off."
"Anti-Asgard tech. That's new," John muses.
"Not terribly surprising, though, all things considered," Rodney muses, turning back to the computer. "If I was a super advanced alien race living side by side with another super advanced alien race with teleport technology, I would up some defences too. We're going to Earth, by the way."
"We are?" John asks, though he kind of expected it.
"You are," Elizabeth agrees, apparently done with her skimming. "They want Colonel Shepard and Doctor McKay on Earth, both to lend their assistance to the Ancient ruin investigation… and to interview candidates for a new member of your team."
John's good mood plummets. "They want us to pick out a new member... from Earth?" he asks, flat. "Ford is not dead, you know, he's still out there - "
"And he has been for weeks," Elizabeth says apologetically. "I'm sorry, John, but if he wanted to return, he could've done so by now, and you know it. And the fact of the matter is you do need another member of your team, perhaps more than one, going on the sort of missions you do. You must've noticed these past few weeks…"
McKay also makes a face. "Statistically, have not been going great," he mutters and then, to John's betrayed look, exclaims, "What, it's true! I almost broke my neck the last time and, let me tell you, carrying your heavy ass to the gate was much easier with a third person around!"
John grimaces at the memory. He still has bruises on his knees from Teyla and Rodney dragging him up the stairs to the Stargate.
"I admit," Teyla says, also somewhat apologetic, "another person would have made things easier, and safer. We had no one to cover us as we made our escape."
John runs a hand through his hair. He knows he's the one who's been holding their team back, not willing to consider replacement. He knows they need someone else, but… "They want to push someone who's not even familiar with Atlantis on us?" he asks, casting a look at Elizabeth.
She gives a look right back at him. "We were all unfamiliar with Atlantis at the start, John. Please."
Rodney casts a sideways glance at John, who runs a hand over his eyes and sighs. "Teyla should come, then," he says. "She's a member of the team too."
Elizabeth hesitates and then presses her lips to a smile and nods her acquiescence. "Of course - unless you mind, Teyla."
"Not at all, I would be honoured to visit your home planet," Teyla says smoothly, giving John and Rodney an arched brow. "In real life. However, assuming we will be returning on board the Daedalus, I will need some time to prepare - and visit the Mainland to prepare my people for my absence."
"Of course," Elizabeth says with a nod and looks at John and Rodney. "Any other objections?"
John blows a breath and shakes his head, sullen. "Guess not."
"Can we pick a scientist?" Rodney asks and lifts his chin stubbornly at the look John gives him. "SG-1 has two scientists, I mean, technically Jackson is one - anyway, we need another scientist."
"You can pick whoever you want," Elizabeth says indulgently, tucking her datapad under her arm. "I am confident you know your team's needs better than I do - and the requirements for a position in Atlantis in general. The decision is entirely in your hands."
Yeah, sure, but a scientist…? John forces a smile. "Yeah, sure," he says and shoves his hands into his pockets in lieu of clenching them. "Guess we better get ready for a trip to Earth then."
"You'll be gating out in 24 hours," Elizabeth says. "Is that enough time for you, Teyla?"
"It is more than sufficient, thank you, Elizabeth."
"Good," she nods. "You might end up spending a few weeks on Earth, depending on how things go. Make sure you get ready accordingly, and, ah," she smiles, "prepare for early March in New York."