Fic: Long Road to Eden (Gen, mention of Beckett/McKay, G)
Title: Long Road To Eden
Author: padfootthegrim
Recipient: kat_lair
Pairing: Mostly gen, mention of Beckett/McKay
Rating: G
Word Count: 8,600
Disclaimer: No monies is being made from this. I own none of the rights to Stargate.
Author's Notes: Happy fic reading! I hope I managed to give you something you'd love! I went into this expecting more McBeck to happen, but then it made more sense to put this from Radek's perspective, so, yeah, this is pretty gen lol. Anyway I really hope you like it! I had a lot of fun writing it, though I wish I had more time to flesh some things out more.
Summary: "There's power somewhere, though," Damien added. "None of the air is stale, so something is still working."
"After all this time?" Radek was surprised. The only power source that they knew of that could do anything like that was a ZPM. "Do we dare hope?" he asked, knowing Damien would understand.
"I hope," Damien replied, "but we haven't found a reliable power signature. Too much rock. That's another reason we think there's something more down deep."
-o-
Radek sighed, finally having to admit defeat. He was indeed down to his last two chocolate bars. He added the lone box of Lentilky to the pair of Milena bars on his desk and stared at them, as if wishing was enough to make the three sweets become seven. The Lentilky he could make last; there were many of the small, brightly colored candies in the box. The Milena bars were a different story. He could probably get away with quartering the narrow chocolates, but they would still be gone much faster than Radek would like.
It was a matter of iron will power that Radek had any sweets left at all. It had been one year, seven months, and five days since Atlantis had been cut off from Earth. He tried not to think about it, but sometimes, like now, it hit home again.
The Separation happened fast; there hadn't been time to get more supplies and barely time to send the few people who chose not to stay back to Earth. From what Mr. Woolsey and John Sheppard had been able to gather, there'd been a changing of the guard of sorts in the IOA and the Stargate Program itself. What had once been deemed acceptable risk was acceptable no longer. When Rodney and Mr. Woolsey had gathered together the scientists and told them Earth's decision, reactions had ranged from denial to anger to calm acceptance. The SGC had recalled them all. They were to destroy Atlantis and leave.
"Now obviously," Rodney had said, an amused slant quirking his lip, "we're not going to do that. So this is your chance, people; anyone who wants to go back to Earth, speak now or forever shut up about it."
Only a small handful of people, all of them from the second or third rotation, raised their hands. Lorne had arrived and escorted them back to their rooms, where they were to pack and be ready for dial out in the morning.
"Any last messages will be sent as a data packet at that time," Mr. Woolsey spoke quietly as the last of the volunteers left the room. "Now, for security reasons we cannot fill you in on the plan, but if we have need of your various expertises, you will be called."
Early the next morning, thirty seven people and one large data packet were sent through the gate. Radek did not see them go. Two minutes after they closed the gate, Radek placed two nearly depleted ZPMs into their cradles next to their one mostly full one, and the ground beneath his feet rumbled and hummed as John Sheppard engaged the star drive.
It hadn't been an easy trip to the new world, Radek reflected as he popped open the top of the Lentilky box. They'd barely had enough power to set down on the new ocean and even now, they hadn't been able to find another ZPM. They had their naquadah generators, and Rodney, Miko, and Radek had been able to set up solar arrays to harness energy, but they were still just scraping by.
Popping two of the candies in his mouth, Radek closed the box and stashed it and the Milena bars in his desk drawer. The energy requirements of the city took up almost all of Radek's time these days, and he had to get back to it again. The added benefit of switching worlds was that the Wraith had no idea where Atlantis was yet, but no one was under the illusion that it would stay that way.
Within two months of Separation, as it came to be known, the number of SG teams had swelled from six to seventeen. Many of the new teams were made up mostly of Athosians and their primary job was locating new trading partners and food for the city's inhabitants. It was a whole new mission, Radek thought as he entered the labs. With no new supplies from Earth, the expedition made do with what they had. Most of their clothes had been replaced with comfortable leather and Pegasus equivalent fabrics. Many still had some uniforms and civilian clothes left, but it was just a matter of time.
"Where have you been?" Rodney groused when Radek sat across from him at the work bench. He waved his had to ward off Radek's reply. "Never mind, look at this. I think we'll be able to get the geothermal platform off Old Lantea after all and do I smell chocolate?"
"Wocher, mates!" Radek was saved from having to admit he still had some left by the timely arrival of Doctor Damien Sevoir, a cheerful Australian physicist and engineer, also part of SGA-8. "You'll never guess what we just found."
The sandy haired man dropped his lanky frame onto one of the lab stools and pretended to read over the whiteboard while Rodney became more and more irritated. Radek hid his smile behind his coffee mug as Damien took his time, trying to get a rise out of Rodney.
"We'll have to get it confirmed by the bio guys, of course," Damien finally started, picking up a bit of wire and fiddling with it as he spoke, "but all the evidence shows they're edible."
"What?" Rodney sputtered, "your big reveal is some animal we might be able to eat? No great scientific discovery, no way to give us power? Unless it's a cow, I don't have time for this!"
"Wes wants to call 'em Bufflebears, but he might just be getting sentimental over the thought of steak in our future," Damien continued, unperturbed by Rodney's outburst.
"Steak?" Radek perked up at the idea, and even Rodney couldn't seem to find another complaint.
Damien grinned. "Steaks, roast, ground chuck, and there might be enough fat on 'em for something like bacon. We brought one back with us."
"These creatures are plentiful?" Radek asked.
Damien stretched and lazed back against the work bench, the wire forgotten on the table. "Seem to be. There was a whole herd of 'em grazing around the gate, and even more by the tunnels. There's old evidence of agriculture all over the place."
"Tunnels?" Radek pressed, even as Rodney jumped in with "what tunnels?"
"Oh, I almost forgot," Damien grinned and stood, heading for the door. "There was quite a civilization there at one point. Mostly underground, a lot of writing everywhere. Not Ancient. I gotta get to the debrief. Siora took pictures if you wanna see."
oOo
There were many good things that came out of Separation, Radek thought as he stood in line for dinner and surveyed the mess hall. One of the first things Mr. Woolsey and Sheppard had done was put an end to one of the more pesky American military regulations, which in turn put the entire non-American contingent more at ease. It was good to see couples who had formerly been forced to hide themselves not have to worry anymore.
The seating arrangements were more mixed these days, though teams still tended to dine together. Nate Stackhouse and Jason Markham, who held the distinction of being the first American military gay couple to marry, sat at a table with their team, an Athosian hunter named Maius and anthropologist Xen Woo. Jen Marks from engineering and Dr. Biro were with them as well.
Radek collected his food and made his way to the table where SGA-1 sat with Carson, who obligingly scooted his chair closer to Rodney's to make room. "Are you coming to the gathering tonight?" Carson asked as Radek started in on his fish. "It's Ronon's turn."
Radek nodded and swallowed before answering. "Yes, I would not miss the opportunity to hear stories of Sateda." It was still a fairly new tradition; taking the place of the old weekly movie night. After Separation, once most movies had started being rewatched, Miko and Dr. Heightmeyer had proposed the gatherings instead. There was now a signup sheet on the main server and anyone could enter their name to talk about their families, their culture, share stories and songs, or whatever they wanted. The idea had caught on quickly, some people even sharing recipes and crafts as well. Two of the anthropologists even began recording the sessions and transcribing them. They called it Oral Histories of the New Atlantians, and it was available on the server to be read and reviewed as it progressed.
"I put us on the schedule to go to PMR-160 day after tomorrow," Sheppard told his team. "We're taking SGA-10 with us to get a look at those tunnels."
"The data SGA-8 collected was very intriguing," Radek put in. There was something familiar about the writing, but he couldn't place it yet."
"It's not only the vids and pictures," Rodney added. "They found what looks like maybe air circulators, which could mean the tunnels go for quite a distance or maybe deep underground."
"It's a little early to speculate, isn't it?" Radek glanced up to see Major Wes Ferreh pause on his way by their table. "I think all D said was there was a device that kinda looked like 'a great wonken fan.'"
"I think Damien's smart enough to call a duck a duck and not an elephant," Rodney snapped.
Wes chuckled and continued on his way. "I'll be sure to tell him you said he was smart," he called over his shoulder.
Rodney scowled and Carson laughed, leaning over to press a quick kiss to the side of Rodney's head. "He'll be useless the rest of the evening, won't he?"
"Worse than that," Rodney grumped, "he'll gloat."
For all Rodney's complaining, Radek knew everyone knew better. Though notoriously stingy with compliments, Rodney was ridiculously proud of his scientists. He'd confided this to Radek one drunken night six months after Separation.
"They've been through so much," Rodney had told him. "Every single thing this galaxy and this city have thrown at us, and they've risen above it all."
"They've had a good motivator," Radek had answered, sipping cautiously at the alcohol. He still hadn't managed the moonshine quite right.
"Mm," Rodney hummed in agreement. "Well, certain death is a good motivator for anyone."
Radek laughed. "No, Rodney, I meant you!"
Carson had arrived then to collect Rodney, but Radek hadn't missed the pleased expression his words had given his friend.
oOo
The gatherings themselves were wonderful, Radek thought, but the real prize, in his opinion, was the Oral Histories of the New Atlantians. The anthropologists were giving the people of Atlantis a beautiful gift. Even though Earth had forgotten them, and even when, universe willing, the original New Atlantians were long dead and gone, the decedents, who would surely travel out from Atlantis and populate many worlds, would know where they came from. The Atlantis expedition members were rich with culture and traditions, and even as old ones were set aside to make way for new ones, they would never be forgotten.
And it wasn't even just Earth's traditions being recorded. Every member from the Athosians and Setedians to the Genii who had defected from their world were contributing at gatherings, and therefore, to the Histories. As Radek settled into bed with his laptop, he chose a section of the Histories which had recently been reviewed and approved and settled in to read. This section was a play that had been performed by some of the Athosian children, who had made it up themselves after hearing Corporal Henry's retelling of Coyote's Tale. Included in the section was an AVI file of the performance, along with a transcription of the original story as told by the Corporal a few weeks earlier. Radek read for a while, but the allure of what the next day might hold finally forced him to shut down the laptop and snuggle under the covers. Hope for the future was a wonderful thing, but if that future were to become possible, Radek had to help make it so.
oOo
A week after research began on PMR-160, which Damien had dubbed Bufflebear World (the name had stuck, much to Rodney's annoyance), the curiously out of place scent of wood coals and grilling meat floated across the city. At first Radek and Rodney hadn't noticed anything except the suspicious absence of Damien in the labs. Then Sheppard showed up with a peculiar look on his face. "You guys doing anything weird? The city smells funny."
"Oh yes, blame the geeks," Rodney snarked, "anything else you can give us besides 'it smells funny?'"
"Kinda smells like a cookout," Sheppard replied, undisturbed as usual by Rodney's attitude. "You're not missing anyone right? No one's messing with electricity anywhere?"
Radek shuddered at the image that brought to mind and shared a glance with Rodney. "Nothing like that is scheduled today."
"Come on, let's check it out," Sheppard gestured to them to follow and the three left the labs, following their noses out toward the south pier.
When they emerged from the transporter and out into the warm air, the sight that waited for them made them all pause to take it in. Only now did Radek remember thinking that Damien's original one personal item to be a strange one. The sun was lowering toward the water, creating long shadows where a small group of people gathered around a table stacked with rolls and salads and a few other dishes Radek couldn't identify from a distance. A few feet away from the table, a barbeque grill was set up, steam and smoke curling away from it in a delicious smelling cloud. Manning the grill was Doctor Damien Sevoir, wearing cut off BDUs and a tee shirt, one of his hand rolled pseudo-cigarettes hanging from his lips as he flipped... were those steaks?
"I see you found us," Wes Ferreh grinned as he came over to where his CO and the two scientists stood. "The Bio Guys say the Bufflebear meat tests fine, so D volunteered to try it out."
"Oi! Don't stand there gawping!" Damien had noticed them and was now waving them closer. "Plenty here for everyone to try."
The people around the table started guiltily as Radek followed Sheppard and Rodney over. It was "the Bio Guys" as Wes had called them, along with a few others who had followed their noses just as Radek's little group had done. "We'd have cooked it in the mess hall," Wes explained as he offered the three of them cups of Athosian ale, "but we didn't want to get everyone's hopes up before we knew if it was good."
"Plus, there ain't enough here to feed the whole city," Damien added as he expertly slid steaks onto a plate. "Besides, I wanted to break out the grill. Finally an occasion to use it!"
"You lugged that thing through the gate the first time we came here and you're only now using it?" Rodney asked incredulously.
"Well sure, Doc," Damien shrugged as he cut the large steaks into portioned sections. "We didn't know if it was gonna be one way at the time. Now call your beau down here, and Woolsey too. Don't seem right we're not sharing this with them."
oOo
Bufflebear went down a storm, and within the month everyone wanted to be a part of Pier Parties, farming on Bufflebear World, or the tunnel research. Woolsey and Sheppard approved a plan to set up a few small cabins for R&R use. R&R on Bufflebear World doubled as hunting and further research into the tasty beasts, other animals, and the plants the old inhabitants of the moon had cultivated. There were many edible varieties of fruits, vegetables, and grains that now grew wild everywhere. Radek predicted that within the year the New Atlantians would have many new trading items.
The tunnels were what intrigued him the most, however. Over the weeks the reports poured in, detailing not just the "big wonken fan" Damien had seen, but also large metal and stone structures with mechanical innards. Some were for air circulation; some appeared to have been for a pulley or track system. The Ancient Database hadn't revealed much yet about Bufflebear World, aside from designating the moon as 'friendly.' Radek set Miko on the database search (they'd learned over the years that she usually had the best luck finding information in it) and finally got the chance to check out the moon himself, tagging along with SGA 8 and 5 when they had their rotation.
Bufflebear World was one of many moons orbiting a gas giant, and Radek's first glimpse of the scenery was alien and amazing. The sky had a slightly purple tinge to the prevailing blue and massive puffy white clouds reflected the purple at their tops. The gas giant Bufflebear World orbited was setting; only half of its massive girth showing over the western hills.
"It's twice as big as Jupiter," Rodney had breathlessly told Radek and Carson after SGA-1 had first visited the moon. "It has storms like Jupiter too. It looked like it was looking at us with huge green eyes."
Radek could just see one of those storms now and the swirling, frothing mass of greens gave him the chills. The sun they orbited was smaller and dimmer than Sol, and Radek could see the shapes of other moons even in full daylight. The temperature was pleasant and a light breeze blew across the grassland Radek stood in. It rustled the grasses and the silvery leaves of far off trees, bringing with it a sweet, tangy scent of various organics.
In the distance, Bufflebear roamed the grassland, their squat, bear-like bodies shuffling along as they grazed. A few of the closest ones looked up, studying the new arrivals as they chewed, but there was no nervousness in their stance. They didn't classify humans as predators yet.
As Radek followed the SG teams across the grassland, he could make out the remains of stone walls that had probably protected gardens, or maybe been used to corral the Bufflebear in the distant past. The grass crunched underfoot and little hopping bugs jumped away from their footsteps.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Damien asked as he fell into step next to Radek. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of coming here."
"Where did they set up the cabins?" Radek asked, still eagerly looking around.
"Over just in the trees," Damien pointed, and Radek could just barely make out the structures hidden among the shadows in the forest edge. "We wanted to keep them out of immediate sight in case the wraith ever buzzes the system. Watch out now, this ground is tricky."
Radek looked where they were going and saw immediately that Damien was right. The grassland, which appeared to go on for some distance unchecked, dropped away rather sharply about three feet from where they stood. It dropped down into a gully, wide enough for two men to stand in side by side, then rose sharply back up to be level, and the grassland continued. The tunnel entrance was barely visible from Radek's angle. "How did you even find it?" he asked.
"I fell," Damien laughed, and the two hurried to catch up with the teams, who were entering the tunnel one by one.
They tunnel was lit by lanterns, and the smooth stone seemed to amplify the light, shining and shimmering with many facets of color. There were writings and designs on every smooth surface, even the floor, though Radek did note a strangely blank line, wide enough for a MALP, which stretched away down the tunnel and out of sight around a curve. "How far does the tunnel go?"
"There's actually a whole network of tunnels and rooms," Major Ferreh replied. "We haven't found the end yet, but it all slopes continuously downward. The anthropologists think this is like the suburbs and we're going to find a city or larger settlement eventually."
"There's not too much leftover to go on," Xen Woo of SGA-5 added as they walked. "Anything that wasn't made from stone or metal is mostly gone."
"There's power somewhere, though," Damien added. "None of the air is stale, so something is still working."
"After all this time?" Radek was surprised. The only power source that they knew of that could do anything like that was a ZPM. "Do we dare hope?" he asked, knowing Damien would understand.
"I hope," Damien replied, "but we haven't found a reliable power signature. Too much rock. That's another reason we think there's something more down deep."
As they walked on, Radek watched the alien writing go by. The longer he stared, the more familiar the writing seemed. "Any new ideas on the writing?" he asked Dr. Woo.
Xen gave a frustrated sigh. "I know I'm going to feel like an idiot when we figure it out."
That was enough conformation for Radek. Somewhere, at some other time, they'd seen this before. "We have looked through the old mission files, yes? Even the ones from Earth?"
"Of course," Xen replied, "but even if we had the Asguard Database here I..." she trailed off, looking around with wide eyes.
The word Asguard pinged around Radek's brain, everything he knew of them flashing y in the space of a breath. The answer was right there, in his head-
"Heliopolis!" Xen exclaimed in delight. "The meeting of the four races! Ancient, Asguard, Nox, and Furling! Daniel Jackson was only able to document some of the writing. That's why we didn't realize what this was. We've never come across Furling writing or any of their settlements, so we're not that familiar with it."
"If it's Furling," Damien jumped in, "then it's a pretty good bet there's a power source or tech we can use."
The excitement grew as everyone else heard the news. "We must find where these tunnels lead as soon as possible," Xen decided.
Radek agreed. "We'll need supplies," he pointed out. They still didn't know how far the network extended.
"And if we go back you know Rodney will want to be the one to go," Wes teased.
"Now, mate," Damien grinned, "he hates walking."
"For this I think he'd make an exception," Radek laughed.
oOo
Of course they went back to Atlantis first. They had to share their revelation with everyone else, set Miko up with new parameters for the database search, and pack supplies for their expedition. They decided to pack for a week, though hopefully they wouldn't spend that long walking. Rodney chose the science team carefully, picking scientists with a lot of off world and first contact experience. They didn't think anyone still lived on Bufflebear World, but time was the enemy of every structure, and they wanted scientists who could think on their feet. Sheppard, Ferreh, and Stackhouse's teams went, along with Radek, and linguist Hugh Harris.
It was night on the moon when the teams stepped through the gate. The Bufflebear were all gone from the grasslands, and in their place were tall, leggy looking birds, all of them taller than a man. They mostly stood on one leg, their wickedly curved beaks swaying back and forth as they watched the ground and their surroundings. A few turned their heads to stare at the new arrivals with large, bulbous eyes. One clacked its beak and strode toward them, probably trying to decide if the humans were a tasty meal.
Wes waved his flashlight at the bird's eyes and it hissed and stepped back, clearly disliking the light. "Those are the only predators we've found so far. We don't know where they go in the daytime yet."
The tunnel entrance glowed slightly in the star light. Radek wasn't sure if it was some naturally occurring compound in the rock or if the Furlings purposely made the rocks like that. The team filed inside and Rodney flipped the generator that controlled the lamps on. One by one, the lamps previous teams had installed came on, stretching away from the group and down the tunnel.
"Okay," Rodney rubbed his hands together, sharing an excited glace with Radek, "let's find that settlement."
At first their progress was fast, but within a couple of hours they ran out of installed lamps and had to pause now and again to put up new ones. It had been Rodney's idea, but he was now the one most frustrated with the delay. "They had to have faster ways to get to their settlement," he grumped as another lamp flicked on.
"We don't even know for sure that there is a settlement down here," Radek pointed out.
"There has to be. There's no sign of ruins on the surface. Okay, screw the lamps. If we find what we're looking for we can install them later. Just string the connector cord behind us." Rodney flicked his flashlight back on as Ronon packed away the supplies.
"I'm sure some of these branching tunnels lead up to the surface," Xen looked around as they walked.
"Well sure," Damien grinned, "you'd want more than one way out in case of a cave in or a flood or whatnot."
"Can we not talk about that?" Wes groaned, and Rodney nodded.
"Right, no talking about catastrophes while we're exploring underground."
They paused for lunch a few hours later. Radek sighing happily as a Bufflebear sandwich Wes passed his way. Most of the food they'd brought was MREs and other nonperishables, but Damien had had the mess hall make up sandwiches for the first day.
As the others talked, Radek took the time to look around. There was a different feel in the tunnel in the tunnel now. The air was crisper, the writing on the walls carved deeper. They'd noticed that there seemed to be distinctive writing, possibly signs or labels, on the walls beside each chamber and branching tunnel. Xen thought them to be signs that they were getting close to the nexus. There would have been more people here, and not everyone would have known where to go. Just in front of where they stopped for lunch was another opening in the rock. Radek frowned, finished his sandwich, and stood.
Shining his light on the new tunnel, he saw the same odd blank line that was in their own. The new line curved to meet up with the one in their tunnel. "What do we think the blank spot's for?" he asked aloud.
"I'm not sure," Xen replied, "Maybe it's the designated path? With writing on the floor it seems like it might be."
"Not all the tunnels we've passed have had them though," Damien observed.
"And the floor writing is covered with something to preserve it," Rodney added.
There was so much they didn't know, Radek thought. Even the linguists back on Earth hadn't had much luck translating Furling. Of course, they'd never had much reason to try.
"Maybe it did designate a path," Sheppard spoke thoughtfully. "They had to have a way to get food and goods to the settlement, right? I can't see any advanced species just lugging it in on their backs."
"So maybe a vehicle of some kind," Radek surmised. It made sense.
They hadn't been walking for more than another hour when they noticed a rumbling sound echoing down the tunnel. It was faint at first, but soon Radek could tell it was getting louder. The rumbling was joined by a lapping, rushing sound. "Underground river?" Damien guessed. Radek shrugged.
As they approached a sharp turn, the rumble became a roaring rush of sound, and once they turned the corner it got even worse. "We have to be almost to it!" Rodney shouted.
Damien yelled something back, but Radek couldn't make it out. The tunnel turned sharply again and then revealed the river. From the sound Radek had nearly been convinced they were going to be standing at the bottom of a waterfall, but through the river was fast, it was only a few yards across and there were no rapids. The sound mostly came from four large water wheels. Two of them still moved steadily, scooping up great swaths of water and depositing them in large funnel-like objects. Radek pointed his flashlight and could see large pipes near the base of the funnels. The pipes stretched away into the darkness beyond the flashlight's reach. One of the funnels still seemed to be working, but the other was obviously blocked, the water overflowing and streaming down the sides to rejoin the river.
The other two wheels had lost the battle with time. One had completely broken loose and lay mostly submerged in the water. Little amphibious looking animals crawled on it, their eyes glowing brightly with reflected light. The other wheel, while still standing, listed at a harsh angle, the water dragging at its scoops.
"Hydropower and fresh water!" Damien shouted near Radek's ear. "They wouldn't want the noise pollution in the city but I bet we're getting close!"
Sheppard tapped their shoulders and pointed off to the right. A bridge stood over the river, connecting to one of the many tunnels Radek could just make out across the small cavern. The bridge looked to be in good shape structurally. As they got to the edge of it Radek watched Damien look it over critically.
"We'll have to try it," Damien shouted over the river. "It looks solid."
Radek didn't relish the idea but there didn't seem to be another way across. Judging by the partially submerged water wheel, the river was too deep to risk wading. Damien stepped out onto the bridge and hopped up and down a few times. Radek snorted and shook his head. It wasn't very scientific, but it did a good enough job for now. Damien gestured the teams to follow him, and Radek breathed a sigh of relief when they'd all safely made it to the other side.
Now that they were on the same side of the river as the wheels and funnels, the team paused to the scientists could look them over. It definitely looked like a power station. Rodney found a small control room behind the working funnel. He and Damien went inside, leaving Radek to peer in from the doorway. There were two banks of controls, two uncomfortably shaped stone seats, and hundreds of lines of tiny writing all over the place. It was significantly quieter inside the control room as well.
"Some of these labels are bilingual," Damien observed. He pointed to something Radek couldn't see. "Look! Ancient. It says 'ON.'" Damien grinned. "Wonder what it turns on."
"Well don't go flipping any switches," Rodney snapped.
"Aw, c'mon, Doc, I know better than that," Damien chuckled. "Oh, this one says 'LIGHTS.'"
"Maybe once we find the city we'll come back here and see about repairs," Radek suggested. He was more eager than ever to see what the city looked like. It was a good sign for them that there were labels in Ancient. On some level, the two civilizations had interacted on this world. Radek hoped Miko would be able to find more in the database.
Leaving the power station behind, they continued on down the tunnel. It had stopped sloping downwards and there were more and more offshoots and chambers dotting the tunnel walls. Radek could see the remains of hinges, as if many of the chambers had once had doors.
"Oh!" Xen's sharp intake of breath caused the others to stop and look at her. She was staring into one of the rooms, her hand over her mouth.
Radek quickly went to her side and peered into the room. It looked to be an entrance to a larger establishment; there were more of the uncomfortable looking chairs, though these at least looked to be cushioned. A polished stone desk sat near the back of the chamber. The entire room looked clean, too clean, really. They hadn't seen a lot of dust and debris on their walk, but enough grime had accumulated to make the whole place look tired and deserted. This place looked like it was shut down for the night, ready to open in the morning.
"Did you see it?" Xen asked.
"See what?" Radek asked, still peering into the room. He took a step through the door. "Did you see an animal?"
"Doc?" Sheppard questioned from behind Radek.
"The room appears to be clear," Radek replied.
Suddenly a creature appeared behind the desk. It spoke in a fast, clipped madder, then paused and stared at them. Sheppard was suddenly in front of Radek, his gun pointed at the creature. It didn't move, didn't even react to the weapon.
"I think it's a hologram," Radek said.
The creature spoke again, the same quick sentence as before. Sheppard lowered his weapon, but he kept a weary eye on it all the same. "Any idea what it's saying?"
"I can only assume it's speaking Furling," Xen replied. "That's what I saw originally."
"That's a Furling?" Damien asked from behind them. "It looks like a coyote!"
The creature did resemble a coyote or a jackal, Radek thought. It was tall, slightly taller than Ronon. It had tawny, medium length fur shot through with black, a long, narrow muzzle, and wide pointed ears. Its eyes were large with one large round pupil and what could have been a few other small ones. Radek wondered about compound eyes or pupils sensitive to other light spectrums. It wore a simple tunic or translucent blue.
The hologram flickered, stabilized, and the creature spoke again, cocking its head slightly to the side. "Holographic receptionist," Rodney muttered, still staring at the Furling. "It has to have a dedicated power source, or this business does."
"Doctor's office?" Damien suggested, looking around at the chairs.
"This could be the DMV for all we know," Sheppard muttered.
"Quaeris medical attention?" the hologram asked.
"That's Latin!" Xen exclaimed excitedly.
"So a hospital or medical center of some kind," Damien nodded. "Think it's intelligent?"
"Like an AI?" Xen asked.
The hologram spoke again, this time in Asguard.
"We won't know unless we can talk to it," Rodney replied. "Anybody know enough Latin or Ancient to speak it?"
"Doctor Harris does," Xen answered.
Hugh Harris, who had stayed mostly in the hallway, made his way to the front of the group. He took in the Furling hologram with wide eyes. "What do I say?"
"Let's keep it simple," Rodney waved his hand around.
Harris cleared his throat. "Nos non laeduntur. Nose es vultus pro in urbe."
The hologram bowed its head slightly. "Suscipiat, viatorum. Brachne est hoc modo." The hologram gestured to the right, flicked an ear, and vanished.
"What happened?" Damien asked.
Dr. Harris shrugged. "I said we weren't injured and were looking for the city. It said 'welcome, travelers, Brachne is this way,' then it pointed."
"Brachne is the name of the city then?" Radek asked.
Harris nodded. "I think so. It didn't sound like any Latin I know, at least."
"Well, we'll take it on faith for now," Wes stepped back into the main tunnel. "Come on, we've got Brachne City to find."
oOo
They hadn't had farther to go, they soon discovered. Thirty minutes after their encounter with the hologram, the tunnel abruptly widened and joined together with two others. The wide corridor spilled out onto a ledge overlooking a vast cavern. "Brachne City, I presume," Rodney said faintly.
It certainly was a sight to behold; catwalks stretched out in front of them in all directions, leading to many massive structures that reminded Radek of stalagmites or termite mounds. All along the sides of the cavern were balconies and ledges and tunnels. Decorative images and more writing were carved into every surface. Ramps and catwalks of stone and metal connected everything together like a web.
"Where do we even start?" Xen asked as they looked around.
"Think those are the water pipes we saw back at the river," Damien said as he pointed his flashlight above their heads.
Radek looked up and traced the pipes with his eyes. They too branched off in multiple directions, but the largest one went straight over their heads and connected to the central tower. To look at the whole setup of the city, Radek thought, it looked primitive. Of course, you knew that was wrong almost immediately. The Furlings had been able to lay pipe and power through rock, and build these tunnels and this city. They'd made lights almost out of the rock itself! The team's flashlights should not have been able to light the whole cavern but, like in the tunnels, the rock here had the same reflective capacity. It was still dim, but it was thrilling to stand there and see such achievement, and they'd barely scratched the surface of the mystery.
"Follow the power," Rodney decided, pointing towards the center spire.
"Let's split up," Sheppard suggested. "We'll all meet back here for dinner in two hours."
"Radios are still nonworking," Wes reminded the groups. "Stick with your team, use a distress flare if necessary."
Stackhouse cracked a few glow sticks and settled them into the writing around the tunnel they'd come in from. "Just in case anybody forgets where we parked," he grinned.
Radek ended up with Sheppard's team. Damien gave them a jaunty wave as Wes led his group down one of the ramps. Radek stared at the catwalk in front of him. They were wide paths, but there were no railings. There were also no cables or support struts of any kind. The metal seemed to grow out of the rock at their feet and connect with the closest tower with nothing else to hold the weight. Radek's only relief was that every catwalk seemed to be built the same way, so he didn't think parts of the catwalk had been lost to time.
"Ready?" Sheppard asked. Ronon was already on the bridge, seemingly totally unconcerned by the height.
"Let's get it over with," Rodney sighed.
If you could ignore being so high up, Radek thought as they walked, the catwalk made for a spectacular view. He could see Ferreh's team picking their way down a series of ramps along the cavern wall. On the other side, Stackhouse's team had chosen another catwalk, this one angling towards one of the first of the spires.
When they got to the center spire, Sheppard made them wait while he and Ronon entered first. "Looks clear," Sheppard said, a smirk on his face. "Get in here, McKay, and tell me what you see."
Intrigued, the scientists all hurried inside. "Oh," Rodney sighed happily, "now this is what we needed."
They'd come in at what appeared to be city operations. Banks of consoles sat in rows in the center of the room, a circle of pillars surrounding them. There were three inner doors and another outer door opposite the one they'd entered through. Radek could see another catwalk stretching away into the distance.
He turned his attention to the consoles, noting that some of them still had lights. Rodney had found a crystal interface and already had his computer hooked in. "This is amazing," he said as Radek joined him. "It's not just the hydropower. I'm getting diagnostics on three other water power plants, two windmills, but I think there were originally seven of those, and a solar array. It's not just that though."
Radek looked over his shoulder at the computer at the computer. The text was Furling, but there were notations in Ancient as well. "What is that?" he pointed, excitement growing in his stomach. "Rodney, is that..."
"ZedPMs," Rodney crowed, "I'd recognize that power signature anywhere."
"They look to be mostly depleted," Radek cautioned.
"Where there's some there might be more," Rodney waved off the warning. "Plug into another one, let's see what it says."
"Link me up with your computer, Dr. McKay," Dr. Harris spoke up. "I'm going to run the translating software. We might have enough comparisons to Ancient now to at least get an idea of Furling."
"And now we get to be bored," Ronon joked, glancing at Sheppard.
"That's life when you work with the geeks," Sheppard shrugged. "You can take Teyla and see what's behind the doors, if you want. Just don't go far."
By the time they had to leave to rendezvous with the other teams, Radek and Rodney had identified power diagnostics, city sensors, a currently unreadable city log, and a schematic of the tunnel system. Ronon and Teyla had found a cafeteria, a playroom for children (complete with the remains of toys, even), another medical center, and a handful of living quarters.
They made camp on the ledge that night (or day, Radek thought. He didn't know what time it might be on the surface). The next morning Damien took the engineers and their new translation software and followed Radek and Rodney back to the center spire. The plan was to learn more about the Furling's power systems and to track down the ZPMs. Sheppard sent Stackhouse and Markham back up the tunnel to check in with Atlantis. The rest of the group split up to explore, though all were told to be extremely cautious as they still had no radios.
"The Furlings must have had a way to communicate," Damien sighed, looking over the command consoles. "Especially in an underground city you'd think it'd be a high priority system."
"For all we know they were telepathic," Rodney grumbled.
"The Ancients had a presence in this city," Radek reasoned. "We understand how their communication worked. Maybe it's just our radios."
"Or it's shielded and we haven't found that system yet," Damien said thoughtfully.
"Can we please stay focused," Rodney snapped, "ZedPMs, remember?"
"Of course, Rodney," Radek replied. "That is our first priority right now. However, if we happen to run across communication or anything else of note, we can always split into teams."
"What do you make of this?" one of the scientists asked. He'd plugged into a station close to the far edge that hadn't appeared as networked as the others.
"Whatcha find?" Damien sauntered over and checked out the screen.
Curious, Radek moved to join them. On the screen was what looked like a blueprint or a line representation of a device. Radek immediately recognized three ZPM cradles, but they were off to one side of the device, instead of their more traditional placement in the center. The rest of the machine didn't offer much clues, though cables seemed to connect it in a dense web to some sort of outer casing.
"I was tracing the power structure," the scientist, Doctor Mendez, said. "This thing is practically off the grid. There's power that travels down the tunnel, but it's low grade, probably for air and light. This thing has three ZPMs in it but they didn't appear to be using it for power."
"That looks a little like a subspace lock," Damien observed. "You know that attempt we made to pull energy from another plane?"
"What?" Rodney was suddenly pushing his way through to get a look.
"Yeah," Damien pointed at some of the onscreen components. "That time we met Rod, remember?"
"Of course I remember," Rodney snapped. "Has this run through the translator yet?"
"No, not yet," Dr. Mendez answered. "For all the writing the Furlings put on everything, this section of the power map is surprisingly barren."
"Where is this?" Radek asked.
"The tunnel starts directly below this tower. It's a pretty sharp incline down to this chamber."
oOo
They left almost everyone in the city to continue research and keep the lights on for Stackhouse and Markham. Rodney, Sheppard, Radek, Damien, Wes, and Dr. Mendez all trooped down through the tower to get a look at the tunnel. The base of the tower was wide and round. There were openings at many regular intervals that led outside. Dead center of the tower was a small rounded hut-like structure with a metal door.
Radek, Rodney, and Damien puzzled over the door. There were no hand sensors, or keypads, door knobs, or latches. "Okay, now what?" Damien sighed, looking to Rodney.
"Well, there hasn't been much security anywhere else," Rodney started, laying his hand on the door. He was about to say more, but the door moved slightly under the pressure of his hand. "Huh. Apparently this isn't secured either," he pushed the door and it glided right open, swinging inwards to reveal a narrow ledge and stairs headed downwards.
"Does it push open from the inside too?" Sheppard asked, stopping Rodney from entering. There didn't appear to be a handle on the inside either. Sheppard pulled Rodney back from the door. "Let me try first."
Sheppard went inside and let the door swing shut behind him. A moment later, the door was pushed open from the inside. "Okay," he grinned. "Now we can go."
The stairs were steep and oddly spaced, forcing a cautious decent. The tunnel itself was so narrow Radek could touch both sides by reaching out his arms. With their flashlights lit, the tunnel reflected the light downwards brightly enough to read by, but they could not see the bottom. "Coming up these stairs is gonna be a bitch," Damien remarked.
Radek had to agree, but the curiosity was overpowering. They thumped down the stairs one after another, Sheppard in the lead. Radek could hear Wes behind him, quietly counting the stairs. He'd reached sixty when they arrived at a landing, the tunnel curving sharply left. There were no doors or tunnel offshoots, just more deep stairs.
Sixty stairs later, there was another landing and a sharp left turn. "It's getting warmer, don't you think?" Rodney asked, wiping away sweat.
Everyone nodded, but they continued down the third flight of stairs. Sixty of them. A landing. A left turn. "Dr. Mendez, how close are we?" Sheppard asked.
Mendez checked his computer. "About half way down, I think."
The heat continued to increase the deeper they went until finally, three hundred and sixty stairs later, the tunnel opened up to reveal another huge cavern. The source of the heat became immediately obvious, if somewhat shocking. The far end of the cavern was taken up by a slow moving river of lava. The cavern and stairs should have been unbearable.
"It must be shielded," Rodney said as they looked around.
"But why build anything down here," Radek asked.
They spotted the device near the center of the cavern. It didn't look like much from the outside. The outer casing was matte black, not reflecting light like practically everything else did. As they got close to the device, Radek thought it was a metal of some kind, not stone. The casing was egg shaped and appeared seamless, though they knew from the schematic that it did pop open. One energy conduit hung down from the ceiling and connected with the top of the egg. Another thicker conduit snaked from the lower side across the ground toward the flow of lava. It ended at an umbrella shaped structure that arched out over the flow.
"Does it say anything about how to open it?" Wes asked as he walked around the device.
Dr. Mendez checked his laptop. "There should be a control panel, according to this."
Sheppard was the one to spot it. "It's up on the conduit," he pointed.
Wes could reach it, and Radek was relieved to find that it pulled right away from the conduit, trailing a wire that kept it connected. Rodney made grabby hands for the control as soon as Wes pulled it down. The control had four buttons, three dials, and three toggle switches on it.
While Rodney hooked it up to his tablet for readings, Radek took his own scanner and tablet and went to check out the array over the lava flow. The conduit seemed to be in good shape all the way from the device to the array, which also seemed to have suffered no damage, even as close as it was to the lava. It appeared to be made of the same metal as the device. Up close, Radek could see the underside of the arching structure. Dozens of wide, crater like indents pointed straight down at the lava. Inside the indentations, hundreds of tiny holes dotted the array.
By now, Radek stood at the shore of the lava river. He kicked the ground, dislodging a shimmering stone and sending it out into the river. The air above the flow shimmered, holding the stone in place for a moment, before letting it drop down into the molten rock below. He had to wonder if that was how the Furlings did any necessary maintenance on the array. Could they simply strengthen the shield and walk out on top of the lava? Radek wished they were still around to ask.
There was a sudden hissing sound behind him and Radek turned to see the egg shaped device opening. He made his way back to the others as Damien peered inside the device and let out a whoop. "ZPMs! There's three in here!"
"Don't touch them," Rodney snapped. "What if they keep the shield going?"
"Uh, Dr. McKay?" Mendez was staring at his laptop with wide eyes.
Radek's tablet beeped, indicating a building charge in the conduit at his feet. "Rodney something is activating."
Before anyone could say anything more, there was a loud rumble above their heads. They all jerked away from the device and looked up in time to see a section of the ceiling drop a few feet and slide out of the way. A rack descended to lightly land next to the device, and Radek's heart skipped a beat. On the rack in perfect rows were ZPMs. Not only ZPMs, but other similarly cased objects of varying sizes too.
The rumble stopped and the control unit Rodney still held emitted a happy twittering sound. With shaking hands, Radek lifted his scanner and approached the rack. Power readings flowed across his tablet as he watched. "They're full," he whispered, heart pounding, "Rodney, these ones are all full."
"These ones aren't," Damien said, pointing to the lower section of the rack.
"Of course!" Rodney exclaimed excitedly. "It's a charging station! They've figured out how to harness subspace and they recharge ZedPMs with this," he waved at the egg shaped machine. "If we can get this to work..."
"Hold on," Sheppard gripped Rodney's shoulder, "Let's take this a step a time here. We have a lot of full ZPMs right here, right?"
Rodney blinked at him, then at the rack. "Yes?"
"So," Sheppard said patiently, "why don't we load up, take some back to Atlantis, regroup and look at all the data, then come back here and work on recharging. We have the time now."
The mood during the long walk back to the surface of Bufflebear World was one of elation. They had power now. Radek smiled and hefted his pack more securely on his shoulders. They'd had enough people to take all the charged ZPMs back with them, though they'd chosen to leave a few behind for use in Brachne City. There was still so much work to do, both in this wonderful new city and back on Atlantis, but for the first time in a long time, Radek truly felt confident. Their power problem was solved, they had many wonderful trading partners, a whole moon of edible plants and animals, and proof of new discoveries that were just waiting to be found. What would the future hold? Radek couldn't wait to find out.
Author: padfootthegrim
Recipient: kat_lair
Pairing: Mostly gen, mention of Beckett/McKay
Rating: G
Word Count: 8,600
Disclaimer: No monies is being made from this. I own none of the rights to Stargate.
Author's Notes: Happy fic reading! I hope I managed to give you something you'd love! I went into this expecting more McBeck to happen, but then it made more sense to put this from Radek's perspective, so, yeah, this is pretty gen lol. Anyway I really hope you like it! I had a lot of fun writing it, though I wish I had more time to flesh some things out more.
Summary: "There's power somewhere, though," Damien added. "None of the air is stale, so something is still working."
"After all this time?" Radek was surprised. The only power source that they knew of that could do anything like that was a ZPM. "Do we dare hope?" he asked, knowing Damien would understand.
"I hope," Damien replied, "but we haven't found a reliable power signature. Too much rock. That's another reason we think there's something more down deep."
-o-
Radek sighed, finally having to admit defeat. He was indeed down to his last two chocolate bars. He added the lone box of Lentilky to the pair of Milena bars on his desk and stared at them, as if wishing was enough to make the three sweets become seven. The Lentilky he could make last; there were many of the small, brightly colored candies in the box. The Milena bars were a different story. He could probably get away with quartering the narrow chocolates, but they would still be gone much faster than Radek would like.
It was a matter of iron will power that Radek had any sweets left at all. It had been one year, seven months, and five days since Atlantis had been cut off from Earth. He tried not to think about it, but sometimes, like now, it hit home again.
The Separation happened fast; there hadn't been time to get more supplies and barely time to send the few people who chose not to stay back to Earth. From what Mr. Woolsey and John Sheppard had been able to gather, there'd been a changing of the guard of sorts in the IOA and the Stargate Program itself. What had once been deemed acceptable risk was acceptable no longer. When Rodney and Mr. Woolsey had gathered together the scientists and told them Earth's decision, reactions had ranged from denial to anger to calm acceptance. The SGC had recalled them all. They were to destroy Atlantis and leave.
"Now obviously," Rodney had said, an amused slant quirking his lip, "we're not going to do that. So this is your chance, people; anyone who wants to go back to Earth, speak now or forever shut up about it."
Only a small handful of people, all of them from the second or third rotation, raised their hands. Lorne had arrived and escorted them back to their rooms, where they were to pack and be ready for dial out in the morning.
"Any last messages will be sent as a data packet at that time," Mr. Woolsey spoke quietly as the last of the volunteers left the room. "Now, for security reasons we cannot fill you in on the plan, but if we have need of your various expertises, you will be called."
Early the next morning, thirty seven people and one large data packet were sent through the gate. Radek did not see them go. Two minutes after they closed the gate, Radek placed two nearly depleted ZPMs into their cradles next to their one mostly full one, and the ground beneath his feet rumbled and hummed as John Sheppard engaged the star drive.
It hadn't been an easy trip to the new world, Radek reflected as he popped open the top of the Lentilky box. They'd barely had enough power to set down on the new ocean and even now, they hadn't been able to find another ZPM. They had their naquadah generators, and Rodney, Miko, and Radek had been able to set up solar arrays to harness energy, but they were still just scraping by.
Popping two of the candies in his mouth, Radek closed the box and stashed it and the Milena bars in his desk drawer. The energy requirements of the city took up almost all of Radek's time these days, and he had to get back to it again. The added benefit of switching worlds was that the Wraith had no idea where Atlantis was yet, but no one was under the illusion that it would stay that way.
Within two months of Separation, as it came to be known, the number of SG teams had swelled from six to seventeen. Many of the new teams were made up mostly of Athosians and their primary job was locating new trading partners and food for the city's inhabitants. It was a whole new mission, Radek thought as he entered the labs. With no new supplies from Earth, the expedition made do with what they had. Most of their clothes had been replaced with comfortable leather and Pegasus equivalent fabrics. Many still had some uniforms and civilian clothes left, but it was just a matter of time.
"Where have you been?" Rodney groused when Radek sat across from him at the work bench. He waved his had to ward off Radek's reply. "Never mind, look at this. I think we'll be able to get the geothermal platform off Old Lantea after all and do I smell chocolate?"
"Wocher, mates!" Radek was saved from having to admit he still had some left by the timely arrival of Doctor Damien Sevoir, a cheerful Australian physicist and engineer, also part of SGA-8. "You'll never guess what we just found."
The sandy haired man dropped his lanky frame onto one of the lab stools and pretended to read over the whiteboard while Rodney became more and more irritated. Radek hid his smile behind his coffee mug as Damien took his time, trying to get a rise out of Rodney.
"We'll have to get it confirmed by the bio guys, of course," Damien finally started, picking up a bit of wire and fiddling with it as he spoke, "but all the evidence shows they're edible."
"What?" Rodney sputtered, "your big reveal is some animal we might be able to eat? No great scientific discovery, no way to give us power? Unless it's a cow, I don't have time for this!"
"Wes wants to call 'em Bufflebears, but he might just be getting sentimental over the thought of steak in our future," Damien continued, unperturbed by Rodney's outburst.
"Steak?" Radek perked up at the idea, and even Rodney couldn't seem to find another complaint.
Damien grinned. "Steaks, roast, ground chuck, and there might be enough fat on 'em for something like bacon. We brought one back with us."
"These creatures are plentiful?" Radek asked.
Damien stretched and lazed back against the work bench, the wire forgotten on the table. "Seem to be. There was a whole herd of 'em grazing around the gate, and even more by the tunnels. There's old evidence of agriculture all over the place."
"Tunnels?" Radek pressed, even as Rodney jumped in with "what tunnels?"
"Oh, I almost forgot," Damien grinned and stood, heading for the door. "There was quite a civilization there at one point. Mostly underground, a lot of writing everywhere. Not Ancient. I gotta get to the debrief. Siora took pictures if you wanna see."
oOo
There were many good things that came out of Separation, Radek thought as he stood in line for dinner and surveyed the mess hall. One of the first things Mr. Woolsey and Sheppard had done was put an end to one of the more pesky American military regulations, which in turn put the entire non-American contingent more at ease. It was good to see couples who had formerly been forced to hide themselves not have to worry anymore.
The seating arrangements were more mixed these days, though teams still tended to dine together. Nate Stackhouse and Jason Markham, who held the distinction of being the first American military gay couple to marry, sat at a table with their team, an Athosian hunter named Maius and anthropologist Xen Woo. Jen Marks from engineering and Dr. Biro were with them as well.
Radek collected his food and made his way to the table where SGA-1 sat with Carson, who obligingly scooted his chair closer to Rodney's to make room. "Are you coming to the gathering tonight?" Carson asked as Radek started in on his fish. "It's Ronon's turn."
Radek nodded and swallowed before answering. "Yes, I would not miss the opportunity to hear stories of Sateda." It was still a fairly new tradition; taking the place of the old weekly movie night. After Separation, once most movies had started being rewatched, Miko and Dr. Heightmeyer had proposed the gatherings instead. There was now a signup sheet on the main server and anyone could enter their name to talk about their families, their culture, share stories and songs, or whatever they wanted. The idea had caught on quickly, some people even sharing recipes and crafts as well. Two of the anthropologists even began recording the sessions and transcribing them. They called it Oral Histories of the New Atlantians, and it was available on the server to be read and reviewed as it progressed.
"I put us on the schedule to go to PMR-160 day after tomorrow," Sheppard told his team. "We're taking SGA-10 with us to get a look at those tunnels."
"The data SGA-8 collected was very intriguing," Radek put in. There was something familiar about the writing, but he couldn't place it yet."
"It's not only the vids and pictures," Rodney added. "They found what looks like maybe air circulators, which could mean the tunnels go for quite a distance or maybe deep underground."
"It's a little early to speculate, isn't it?" Radek glanced up to see Major Wes Ferreh pause on his way by their table. "I think all D said was there was a device that kinda looked like 'a great wonken fan.'"
"I think Damien's smart enough to call a duck a duck and not an elephant," Rodney snapped.
Wes chuckled and continued on his way. "I'll be sure to tell him you said he was smart," he called over his shoulder.
Rodney scowled and Carson laughed, leaning over to press a quick kiss to the side of Rodney's head. "He'll be useless the rest of the evening, won't he?"
"Worse than that," Rodney grumped, "he'll gloat."
For all Rodney's complaining, Radek knew everyone knew better. Though notoriously stingy with compliments, Rodney was ridiculously proud of his scientists. He'd confided this to Radek one drunken night six months after Separation.
"They've been through so much," Rodney had told him. "Every single thing this galaxy and this city have thrown at us, and they've risen above it all."
"They've had a good motivator," Radek had answered, sipping cautiously at the alcohol. He still hadn't managed the moonshine quite right.
"Mm," Rodney hummed in agreement. "Well, certain death is a good motivator for anyone."
Radek laughed. "No, Rodney, I meant you!"
Carson had arrived then to collect Rodney, but Radek hadn't missed the pleased expression his words had given his friend.
oOo
The gatherings themselves were wonderful, Radek thought, but the real prize, in his opinion, was the Oral Histories of the New Atlantians. The anthropologists were giving the people of Atlantis a beautiful gift. Even though Earth had forgotten them, and even when, universe willing, the original New Atlantians were long dead and gone, the decedents, who would surely travel out from Atlantis and populate many worlds, would know where they came from. The Atlantis expedition members were rich with culture and traditions, and even as old ones were set aside to make way for new ones, they would never be forgotten.
And it wasn't even just Earth's traditions being recorded. Every member from the Athosians and Setedians to the Genii who had defected from their world were contributing at gatherings, and therefore, to the Histories. As Radek settled into bed with his laptop, he chose a section of the Histories which had recently been reviewed and approved and settled in to read. This section was a play that had been performed by some of the Athosian children, who had made it up themselves after hearing Corporal Henry's retelling of Coyote's Tale. Included in the section was an AVI file of the performance, along with a transcription of the original story as told by the Corporal a few weeks earlier. Radek read for a while, but the allure of what the next day might hold finally forced him to shut down the laptop and snuggle under the covers. Hope for the future was a wonderful thing, but if that future were to become possible, Radek had to help make it so.
oOo
A week after research began on PMR-160, which Damien had dubbed Bufflebear World (the name had stuck, much to Rodney's annoyance), the curiously out of place scent of wood coals and grilling meat floated across the city. At first Radek and Rodney hadn't noticed anything except the suspicious absence of Damien in the labs. Then Sheppard showed up with a peculiar look on his face. "You guys doing anything weird? The city smells funny."
"Oh yes, blame the geeks," Rodney snarked, "anything else you can give us besides 'it smells funny?'"
"Kinda smells like a cookout," Sheppard replied, undisturbed as usual by Rodney's attitude. "You're not missing anyone right? No one's messing with electricity anywhere?"
Radek shuddered at the image that brought to mind and shared a glance with Rodney. "Nothing like that is scheduled today."
"Come on, let's check it out," Sheppard gestured to them to follow and the three left the labs, following their noses out toward the south pier.
When they emerged from the transporter and out into the warm air, the sight that waited for them made them all pause to take it in. Only now did Radek remember thinking that Damien's original one personal item to be a strange one. The sun was lowering toward the water, creating long shadows where a small group of people gathered around a table stacked with rolls and salads and a few other dishes Radek couldn't identify from a distance. A few feet away from the table, a barbeque grill was set up, steam and smoke curling away from it in a delicious smelling cloud. Manning the grill was Doctor Damien Sevoir, wearing cut off BDUs and a tee shirt, one of his hand rolled pseudo-cigarettes hanging from his lips as he flipped... were those steaks?
"I see you found us," Wes Ferreh grinned as he came over to where his CO and the two scientists stood. "The Bio Guys say the Bufflebear meat tests fine, so D volunteered to try it out."
"Oi! Don't stand there gawping!" Damien had noticed them and was now waving them closer. "Plenty here for everyone to try."
The people around the table started guiltily as Radek followed Sheppard and Rodney over. It was "the Bio Guys" as Wes had called them, along with a few others who had followed their noses just as Radek's little group had done. "We'd have cooked it in the mess hall," Wes explained as he offered the three of them cups of Athosian ale, "but we didn't want to get everyone's hopes up before we knew if it was good."
"Plus, there ain't enough here to feed the whole city," Damien added as he expertly slid steaks onto a plate. "Besides, I wanted to break out the grill. Finally an occasion to use it!"
"You lugged that thing through the gate the first time we came here and you're only now using it?" Rodney asked incredulously.
"Well sure, Doc," Damien shrugged as he cut the large steaks into portioned sections. "We didn't know if it was gonna be one way at the time. Now call your beau down here, and Woolsey too. Don't seem right we're not sharing this with them."
oOo
Bufflebear went down a storm, and within the month everyone wanted to be a part of Pier Parties, farming on Bufflebear World, or the tunnel research. Woolsey and Sheppard approved a plan to set up a few small cabins for R&R use. R&R on Bufflebear World doubled as hunting and further research into the tasty beasts, other animals, and the plants the old inhabitants of the moon had cultivated. There were many edible varieties of fruits, vegetables, and grains that now grew wild everywhere. Radek predicted that within the year the New Atlantians would have many new trading items.
The tunnels were what intrigued him the most, however. Over the weeks the reports poured in, detailing not just the "big wonken fan" Damien had seen, but also large metal and stone structures with mechanical innards. Some were for air circulation; some appeared to have been for a pulley or track system. The Ancient Database hadn't revealed much yet about Bufflebear World, aside from designating the moon as 'friendly.' Radek set Miko on the database search (they'd learned over the years that she usually had the best luck finding information in it) and finally got the chance to check out the moon himself, tagging along with SGA 8 and 5 when they had their rotation.
Bufflebear World was one of many moons orbiting a gas giant, and Radek's first glimpse of the scenery was alien and amazing. The sky had a slightly purple tinge to the prevailing blue and massive puffy white clouds reflected the purple at their tops. The gas giant Bufflebear World orbited was setting; only half of its massive girth showing over the western hills.
"It's twice as big as Jupiter," Rodney had breathlessly told Radek and Carson after SGA-1 had first visited the moon. "It has storms like Jupiter too. It looked like it was looking at us with huge green eyes."
Radek could just see one of those storms now and the swirling, frothing mass of greens gave him the chills. The sun they orbited was smaller and dimmer than Sol, and Radek could see the shapes of other moons even in full daylight. The temperature was pleasant and a light breeze blew across the grassland Radek stood in. It rustled the grasses and the silvery leaves of far off trees, bringing with it a sweet, tangy scent of various organics.
In the distance, Bufflebear roamed the grassland, their squat, bear-like bodies shuffling along as they grazed. A few of the closest ones looked up, studying the new arrivals as they chewed, but there was no nervousness in their stance. They didn't classify humans as predators yet.
As Radek followed the SG teams across the grassland, he could make out the remains of stone walls that had probably protected gardens, or maybe been used to corral the Bufflebear in the distant past. The grass crunched underfoot and little hopping bugs jumped away from their footsteps.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Damien asked as he fell into step next to Radek. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of coming here."
"Where did they set up the cabins?" Radek asked, still eagerly looking around.
"Over just in the trees," Damien pointed, and Radek could just barely make out the structures hidden among the shadows in the forest edge. "We wanted to keep them out of immediate sight in case the wraith ever buzzes the system. Watch out now, this ground is tricky."
Radek looked where they were going and saw immediately that Damien was right. The grassland, which appeared to go on for some distance unchecked, dropped away rather sharply about three feet from where they stood. It dropped down into a gully, wide enough for two men to stand in side by side, then rose sharply back up to be level, and the grassland continued. The tunnel entrance was barely visible from Radek's angle. "How did you even find it?" he asked.
"I fell," Damien laughed, and the two hurried to catch up with the teams, who were entering the tunnel one by one.
They tunnel was lit by lanterns, and the smooth stone seemed to amplify the light, shining and shimmering with many facets of color. There were writings and designs on every smooth surface, even the floor, though Radek did note a strangely blank line, wide enough for a MALP, which stretched away down the tunnel and out of sight around a curve. "How far does the tunnel go?"
"There's actually a whole network of tunnels and rooms," Major Ferreh replied. "We haven't found the end yet, but it all slopes continuously downward. The anthropologists think this is like the suburbs and we're going to find a city or larger settlement eventually."
"There's not too much leftover to go on," Xen Woo of SGA-5 added as they walked. "Anything that wasn't made from stone or metal is mostly gone."
"There's power somewhere, though," Damien added. "None of the air is stale, so something is still working."
"After all this time?" Radek was surprised. The only power source that they knew of that could do anything like that was a ZPM. "Do we dare hope?" he asked, knowing Damien would understand.
"I hope," Damien replied, "but we haven't found a reliable power signature. Too much rock. That's another reason we think there's something more down deep."
As they walked on, Radek watched the alien writing go by. The longer he stared, the more familiar the writing seemed. "Any new ideas on the writing?" he asked Dr. Woo.
Xen gave a frustrated sigh. "I know I'm going to feel like an idiot when we figure it out."
That was enough conformation for Radek. Somewhere, at some other time, they'd seen this before. "We have looked through the old mission files, yes? Even the ones from Earth?"
"Of course," Xen replied, "but even if we had the Asguard Database here I..." she trailed off, looking around with wide eyes.
The word Asguard pinged around Radek's brain, everything he knew of them flashing y in the space of a breath. The answer was right there, in his head-
"Heliopolis!" Xen exclaimed in delight. "The meeting of the four races! Ancient, Asguard, Nox, and Furling! Daniel Jackson was only able to document some of the writing. That's why we didn't realize what this was. We've never come across Furling writing or any of their settlements, so we're not that familiar with it."
"If it's Furling," Damien jumped in, "then it's a pretty good bet there's a power source or tech we can use."
The excitement grew as everyone else heard the news. "We must find where these tunnels lead as soon as possible," Xen decided.
Radek agreed. "We'll need supplies," he pointed out. They still didn't know how far the network extended.
"And if we go back you know Rodney will want to be the one to go," Wes teased.
"Now, mate," Damien grinned, "he hates walking."
"For this I think he'd make an exception," Radek laughed.
oOo
Of course they went back to Atlantis first. They had to share their revelation with everyone else, set Miko up with new parameters for the database search, and pack supplies for their expedition. They decided to pack for a week, though hopefully they wouldn't spend that long walking. Rodney chose the science team carefully, picking scientists with a lot of off world and first contact experience. They didn't think anyone still lived on Bufflebear World, but time was the enemy of every structure, and they wanted scientists who could think on their feet. Sheppard, Ferreh, and Stackhouse's teams went, along with Radek, and linguist Hugh Harris.
It was night on the moon when the teams stepped through the gate. The Bufflebear were all gone from the grasslands, and in their place were tall, leggy looking birds, all of them taller than a man. They mostly stood on one leg, their wickedly curved beaks swaying back and forth as they watched the ground and their surroundings. A few turned their heads to stare at the new arrivals with large, bulbous eyes. One clacked its beak and strode toward them, probably trying to decide if the humans were a tasty meal.
Wes waved his flashlight at the bird's eyes and it hissed and stepped back, clearly disliking the light. "Those are the only predators we've found so far. We don't know where they go in the daytime yet."
The tunnel entrance glowed slightly in the star light. Radek wasn't sure if it was some naturally occurring compound in the rock or if the Furlings purposely made the rocks like that. The team filed inside and Rodney flipped the generator that controlled the lamps on. One by one, the lamps previous teams had installed came on, stretching away from the group and down the tunnel.
"Okay," Rodney rubbed his hands together, sharing an excited glace with Radek, "let's find that settlement."
At first their progress was fast, but within a couple of hours they ran out of installed lamps and had to pause now and again to put up new ones. It had been Rodney's idea, but he was now the one most frustrated with the delay. "They had to have faster ways to get to their settlement," he grumped as another lamp flicked on.
"We don't even know for sure that there is a settlement down here," Radek pointed out.
"There has to be. There's no sign of ruins on the surface. Okay, screw the lamps. If we find what we're looking for we can install them later. Just string the connector cord behind us." Rodney flicked his flashlight back on as Ronon packed away the supplies.
"I'm sure some of these branching tunnels lead up to the surface," Xen looked around as they walked.
"Well sure," Damien grinned, "you'd want more than one way out in case of a cave in or a flood or whatnot."
"Can we not talk about that?" Wes groaned, and Rodney nodded.
"Right, no talking about catastrophes while we're exploring underground."
They paused for lunch a few hours later. Radek sighing happily as a Bufflebear sandwich Wes passed his way. Most of the food they'd brought was MREs and other nonperishables, but Damien had had the mess hall make up sandwiches for the first day.
As the others talked, Radek took the time to look around. There was a different feel in the tunnel in the tunnel now. The air was crisper, the writing on the walls carved deeper. They'd noticed that there seemed to be distinctive writing, possibly signs or labels, on the walls beside each chamber and branching tunnel. Xen thought them to be signs that they were getting close to the nexus. There would have been more people here, and not everyone would have known where to go. Just in front of where they stopped for lunch was another opening in the rock. Radek frowned, finished his sandwich, and stood.
Shining his light on the new tunnel, he saw the same odd blank line that was in their own. The new line curved to meet up with the one in their tunnel. "What do we think the blank spot's for?" he asked aloud.
"I'm not sure," Xen replied, "Maybe it's the designated path? With writing on the floor it seems like it might be."
"Not all the tunnels we've passed have had them though," Damien observed.
"And the floor writing is covered with something to preserve it," Rodney added.
There was so much they didn't know, Radek thought. Even the linguists back on Earth hadn't had much luck translating Furling. Of course, they'd never had much reason to try.
"Maybe it did designate a path," Sheppard spoke thoughtfully. "They had to have a way to get food and goods to the settlement, right? I can't see any advanced species just lugging it in on their backs."
"So maybe a vehicle of some kind," Radek surmised. It made sense.
They hadn't been walking for more than another hour when they noticed a rumbling sound echoing down the tunnel. It was faint at first, but soon Radek could tell it was getting louder. The rumbling was joined by a lapping, rushing sound. "Underground river?" Damien guessed. Radek shrugged.
As they approached a sharp turn, the rumble became a roaring rush of sound, and once they turned the corner it got even worse. "We have to be almost to it!" Rodney shouted.
Damien yelled something back, but Radek couldn't make it out. The tunnel turned sharply again and then revealed the river. From the sound Radek had nearly been convinced they were going to be standing at the bottom of a waterfall, but through the river was fast, it was only a few yards across and there were no rapids. The sound mostly came from four large water wheels. Two of them still moved steadily, scooping up great swaths of water and depositing them in large funnel-like objects. Radek pointed his flashlight and could see large pipes near the base of the funnels. The pipes stretched away into the darkness beyond the flashlight's reach. One of the funnels still seemed to be working, but the other was obviously blocked, the water overflowing and streaming down the sides to rejoin the river.
The other two wheels had lost the battle with time. One had completely broken loose and lay mostly submerged in the water. Little amphibious looking animals crawled on it, their eyes glowing brightly with reflected light. The other wheel, while still standing, listed at a harsh angle, the water dragging at its scoops.
"Hydropower and fresh water!" Damien shouted near Radek's ear. "They wouldn't want the noise pollution in the city but I bet we're getting close!"
Sheppard tapped their shoulders and pointed off to the right. A bridge stood over the river, connecting to one of the many tunnels Radek could just make out across the small cavern. The bridge looked to be in good shape structurally. As they got to the edge of it Radek watched Damien look it over critically.
"We'll have to try it," Damien shouted over the river. "It looks solid."
Radek didn't relish the idea but there didn't seem to be another way across. Judging by the partially submerged water wheel, the river was too deep to risk wading. Damien stepped out onto the bridge and hopped up and down a few times. Radek snorted and shook his head. It wasn't very scientific, but it did a good enough job for now. Damien gestured the teams to follow him, and Radek breathed a sigh of relief when they'd all safely made it to the other side.
Now that they were on the same side of the river as the wheels and funnels, the team paused to the scientists could look them over. It definitely looked like a power station. Rodney found a small control room behind the working funnel. He and Damien went inside, leaving Radek to peer in from the doorway. There were two banks of controls, two uncomfortably shaped stone seats, and hundreds of lines of tiny writing all over the place. It was significantly quieter inside the control room as well.
"Some of these labels are bilingual," Damien observed. He pointed to something Radek couldn't see. "Look! Ancient. It says 'ON.'" Damien grinned. "Wonder what it turns on."
"Well don't go flipping any switches," Rodney snapped.
"Aw, c'mon, Doc, I know better than that," Damien chuckled. "Oh, this one says 'LIGHTS.'"
"Maybe once we find the city we'll come back here and see about repairs," Radek suggested. He was more eager than ever to see what the city looked like. It was a good sign for them that there were labels in Ancient. On some level, the two civilizations had interacted on this world. Radek hoped Miko would be able to find more in the database.
Leaving the power station behind, they continued on down the tunnel. It had stopped sloping downwards and there were more and more offshoots and chambers dotting the tunnel walls. Radek could see the remains of hinges, as if many of the chambers had once had doors.
"Oh!" Xen's sharp intake of breath caused the others to stop and look at her. She was staring into one of the rooms, her hand over her mouth.
Radek quickly went to her side and peered into the room. It looked to be an entrance to a larger establishment; there were more of the uncomfortable looking chairs, though these at least looked to be cushioned. A polished stone desk sat near the back of the chamber. The entire room looked clean, too clean, really. They hadn't seen a lot of dust and debris on their walk, but enough grime had accumulated to make the whole place look tired and deserted. This place looked like it was shut down for the night, ready to open in the morning.
"Did you see it?" Xen asked.
"See what?" Radek asked, still peering into the room. He took a step through the door. "Did you see an animal?"
"Doc?" Sheppard questioned from behind Radek.
"The room appears to be clear," Radek replied.
Suddenly a creature appeared behind the desk. It spoke in a fast, clipped madder, then paused and stared at them. Sheppard was suddenly in front of Radek, his gun pointed at the creature. It didn't move, didn't even react to the weapon.
"I think it's a hologram," Radek said.
The creature spoke again, the same quick sentence as before. Sheppard lowered his weapon, but he kept a weary eye on it all the same. "Any idea what it's saying?"
"I can only assume it's speaking Furling," Xen replied. "That's what I saw originally."
"That's a Furling?" Damien asked from behind them. "It looks like a coyote!"
The creature did resemble a coyote or a jackal, Radek thought. It was tall, slightly taller than Ronon. It had tawny, medium length fur shot through with black, a long, narrow muzzle, and wide pointed ears. Its eyes were large with one large round pupil and what could have been a few other small ones. Radek wondered about compound eyes or pupils sensitive to other light spectrums. It wore a simple tunic or translucent blue.
The hologram flickered, stabilized, and the creature spoke again, cocking its head slightly to the side. "Holographic receptionist," Rodney muttered, still staring at the Furling. "It has to have a dedicated power source, or this business does."
"Doctor's office?" Damien suggested, looking around at the chairs.
"This could be the DMV for all we know," Sheppard muttered.
"Quaeris medical attention?" the hologram asked.
"That's Latin!" Xen exclaimed excitedly.
"So a hospital or medical center of some kind," Damien nodded. "Think it's intelligent?"
"Like an AI?" Xen asked.
The hologram spoke again, this time in Asguard.
"We won't know unless we can talk to it," Rodney replied. "Anybody know enough Latin or Ancient to speak it?"
"Doctor Harris does," Xen answered.
Hugh Harris, who had stayed mostly in the hallway, made his way to the front of the group. He took in the Furling hologram with wide eyes. "What do I say?"
"Let's keep it simple," Rodney waved his hand around.
Harris cleared his throat. "Nos non laeduntur. Nose es vultus pro in urbe."
The hologram bowed its head slightly. "Suscipiat, viatorum. Brachne est hoc modo." The hologram gestured to the right, flicked an ear, and vanished.
"What happened?" Damien asked.
Dr. Harris shrugged. "I said we weren't injured and were looking for the city. It said 'welcome, travelers, Brachne is this way,' then it pointed."
"Brachne is the name of the city then?" Radek asked.
Harris nodded. "I think so. It didn't sound like any Latin I know, at least."
"Well, we'll take it on faith for now," Wes stepped back into the main tunnel. "Come on, we've got Brachne City to find."
oOo
They hadn't had farther to go, they soon discovered. Thirty minutes after their encounter with the hologram, the tunnel abruptly widened and joined together with two others. The wide corridor spilled out onto a ledge overlooking a vast cavern. "Brachne City, I presume," Rodney said faintly.
It certainly was a sight to behold; catwalks stretched out in front of them in all directions, leading to many massive structures that reminded Radek of stalagmites or termite mounds. All along the sides of the cavern were balconies and ledges and tunnels. Decorative images and more writing were carved into every surface. Ramps and catwalks of stone and metal connected everything together like a web.
"Where do we even start?" Xen asked as they looked around.
"Think those are the water pipes we saw back at the river," Damien said as he pointed his flashlight above their heads.
Radek looked up and traced the pipes with his eyes. They too branched off in multiple directions, but the largest one went straight over their heads and connected to the central tower. To look at the whole setup of the city, Radek thought, it looked primitive. Of course, you knew that was wrong almost immediately. The Furlings had been able to lay pipe and power through rock, and build these tunnels and this city. They'd made lights almost out of the rock itself! The team's flashlights should not have been able to light the whole cavern but, like in the tunnels, the rock here had the same reflective capacity. It was still dim, but it was thrilling to stand there and see such achievement, and they'd barely scratched the surface of the mystery.
"Follow the power," Rodney decided, pointing towards the center spire.
"Let's split up," Sheppard suggested. "We'll all meet back here for dinner in two hours."
"Radios are still nonworking," Wes reminded the groups. "Stick with your team, use a distress flare if necessary."
Stackhouse cracked a few glow sticks and settled them into the writing around the tunnel they'd come in from. "Just in case anybody forgets where we parked," he grinned.
Radek ended up with Sheppard's team. Damien gave them a jaunty wave as Wes led his group down one of the ramps. Radek stared at the catwalk in front of him. They were wide paths, but there were no railings. There were also no cables or support struts of any kind. The metal seemed to grow out of the rock at their feet and connect with the closest tower with nothing else to hold the weight. Radek's only relief was that every catwalk seemed to be built the same way, so he didn't think parts of the catwalk had been lost to time.
"Ready?" Sheppard asked. Ronon was already on the bridge, seemingly totally unconcerned by the height.
"Let's get it over with," Rodney sighed.
If you could ignore being so high up, Radek thought as they walked, the catwalk made for a spectacular view. He could see Ferreh's team picking their way down a series of ramps along the cavern wall. On the other side, Stackhouse's team had chosen another catwalk, this one angling towards one of the first of the spires.
When they got to the center spire, Sheppard made them wait while he and Ronon entered first. "Looks clear," Sheppard said, a smirk on his face. "Get in here, McKay, and tell me what you see."
Intrigued, the scientists all hurried inside. "Oh," Rodney sighed happily, "now this is what we needed."
They'd come in at what appeared to be city operations. Banks of consoles sat in rows in the center of the room, a circle of pillars surrounding them. There were three inner doors and another outer door opposite the one they'd entered through. Radek could see another catwalk stretching away into the distance.
He turned his attention to the consoles, noting that some of them still had lights. Rodney had found a crystal interface and already had his computer hooked in. "This is amazing," he said as Radek joined him. "It's not just the hydropower. I'm getting diagnostics on three other water power plants, two windmills, but I think there were originally seven of those, and a solar array. It's not just that though."
Radek looked over his shoulder at the computer at the computer. The text was Furling, but there were notations in Ancient as well. "What is that?" he pointed, excitement growing in his stomach. "Rodney, is that..."
"ZedPMs," Rodney crowed, "I'd recognize that power signature anywhere."
"They look to be mostly depleted," Radek cautioned.
"Where there's some there might be more," Rodney waved off the warning. "Plug into another one, let's see what it says."
"Link me up with your computer, Dr. McKay," Dr. Harris spoke up. "I'm going to run the translating software. We might have enough comparisons to Ancient now to at least get an idea of Furling."
"And now we get to be bored," Ronon joked, glancing at Sheppard.
"That's life when you work with the geeks," Sheppard shrugged. "You can take Teyla and see what's behind the doors, if you want. Just don't go far."
By the time they had to leave to rendezvous with the other teams, Radek and Rodney had identified power diagnostics, city sensors, a currently unreadable city log, and a schematic of the tunnel system. Ronon and Teyla had found a cafeteria, a playroom for children (complete with the remains of toys, even), another medical center, and a handful of living quarters.
They made camp on the ledge that night (or day, Radek thought. He didn't know what time it might be on the surface). The next morning Damien took the engineers and their new translation software and followed Radek and Rodney back to the center spire. The plan was to learn more about the Furling's power systems and to track down the ZPMs. Sheppard sent Stackhouse and Markham back up the tunnel to check in with Atlantis. The rest of the group split up to explore, though all were told to be extremely cautious as they still had no radios.
"The Furlings must have had a way to communicate," Damien sighed, looking over the command consoles. "Especially in an underground city you'd think it'd be a high priority system."
"For all we know they were telepathic," Rodney grumbled.
"The Ancients had a presence in this city," Radek reasoned. "We understand how their communication worked. Maybe it's just our radios."
"Or it's shielded and we haven't found that system yet," Damien said thoughtfully.
"Can we please stay focused," Rodney snapped, "ZedPMs, remember?"
"Of course, Rodney," Radek replied. "That is our first priority right now. However, if we happen to run across communication or anything else of note, we can always split into teams."
"What do you make of this?" one of the scientists asked. He'd plugged into a station close to the far edge that hadn't appeared as networked as the others.
"Whatcha find?" Damien sauntered over and checked out the screen.
Curious, Radek moved to join them. On the screen was what looked like a blueprint or a line representation of a device. Radek immediately recognized three ZPM cradles, but they were off to one side of the device, instead of their more traditional placement in the center. The rest of the machine didn't offer much clues, though cables seemed to connect it in a dense web to some sort of outer casing.
"I was tracing the power structure," the scientist, Doctor Mendez, said. "This thing is practically off the grid. There's power that travels down the tunnel, but it's low grade, probably for air and light. This thing has three ZPMs in it but they didn't appear to be using it for power."
"That looks a little like a subspace lock," Damien observed. "You know that attempt we made to pull energy from another plane?"
"What?" Rodney was suddenly pushing his way through to get a look.
"Yeah," Damien pointed at some of the onscreen components. "That time we met Rod, remember?"
"Of course I remember," Rodney snapped. "Has this run through the translator yet?"
"No, not yet," Dr. Mendez answered. "For all the writing the Furlings put on everything, this section of the power map is surprisingly barren."
"Where is this?" Radek asked.
"The tunnel starts directly below this tower. It's a pretty sharp incline down to this chamber."
oOo
They left almost everyone in the city to continue research and keep the lights on for Stackhouse and Markham. Rodney, Sheppard, Radek, Damien, Wes, and Dr. Mendez all trooped down through the tower to get a look at the tunnel. The base of the tower was wide and round. There were openings at many regular intervals that led outside. Dead center of the tower was a small rounded hut-like structure with a metal door.
Radek, Rodney, and Damien puzzled over the door. There were no hand sensors, or keypads, door knobs, or latches. "Okay, now what?" Damien sighed, looking to Rodney.
"Well, there hasn't been much security anywhere else," Rodney started, laying his hand on the door. He was about to say more, but the door moved slightly under the pressure of his hand. "Huh. Apparently this isn't secured either," he pushed the door and it glided right open, swinging inwards to reveal a narrow ledge and stairs headed downwards.
"Does it push open from the inside too?" Sheppard asked, stopping Rodney from entering. There didn't appear to be a handle on the inside either. Sheppard pulled Rodney back from the door. "Let me try first."
Sheppard went inside and let the door swing shut behind him. A moment later, the door was pushed open from the inside. "Okay," he grinned. "Now we can go."
The stairs were steep and oddly spaced, forcing a cautious decent. The tunnel itself was so narrow Radek could touch both sides by reaching out his arms. With their flashlights lit, the tunnel reflected the light downwards brightly enough to read by, but they could not see the bottom. "Coming up these stairs is gonna be a bitch," Damien remarked.
Radek had to agree, but the curiosity was overpowering. They thumped down the stairs one after another, Sheppard in the lead. Radek could hear Wes behind him, quietly counting the stairs. He'd reached sixty when they arrived at a landing, the tunnel curving sharply left. There were no doors or tunnel offshoots, just more deep stairs.
Sixty stairs later, there was another landing and a sharp left turn. "It's getting warmer, don't you think?" Rodney asked, wiping away sweat.
Everyone nodded, but they continued down the third flight of stairs. Sixty of them. A landing. A left turn. "Dr. Mendez, how close are we?" Sheppard asked.
Mendez checked his computer. "About half way down, I think."
The heat continued to increase the deeper they went until finally, three hundred and sixty stairs later, the tunnel opened up to reveal another huge cavern. The source of the heat became immediately obvious, if somewhat shocking. The far end of the cavern was taken up by a slow moving river of lava. The cavern and stairs should have been unbearable.
"It must be shielded," Rodney said as they looked around.
"But why build anything down here," Radek asked.
They spotted the device near the center of the cavern. It didn't look like much from the outside. The outer casing was matte black, not reflecting light like practically everything else did. As they got close to the device, Radek thought it was a metal of some kind, not stone. The casing was egg shaped and appeared seamless, though they knew from the schematic that it did pop open. One energy conduit hung down from the ceiling and connected with the top of the egg. Another thicker conduit snaked from the lower side across the ground toward the flow of lava. It ended at an umbrella shaped structure that arched out over the flow.
"Does it say anything about how to open it?" Wes asked as he walked around the device.
Dr. Mendez checked his laptop. "There should be a control panel, according to this."
Sheppard was the one to spot it. "It's up on the conduit," he pointed.
Wes could reach it, and Radek was relieved to find that it pulled right away from the conduit, trailing a wire that kept it connected. Rodney made grabby hands for the control as soon as Wes pulled it down. The control had four buttons, three dials, and three toggle switches on it.
While Rodney hooked it up to his tablet for readings, Radek took his own scanner and tablet and went to check out the array over the lava flow. The conduit seemed to be in good shape all the way from the device to the array, which also seemed to have suffered no damage, even as close as it was to the lava. It appeared to be made of the same metal as the device. Up close, Radek could see the underside of the arching structure. Dozens of wide, crater like indents pointed straight down at the lava. Inside the indentations, hundreds of tiny holes dotted the array.
By now, Radek stood at the shore of the lava river. He kicked the ground, dislodging a shimmering stone and sending it out into the river. The air above the flow shimmered, holding the stone in place for a moment, before letting it drop down into the molten rock below. He had to wonder if that was how the Furlings did any necessary maintenance on the array. Could they simply strengthen the shield and walk out on top of the lava? Radek wished they were still around to ask.
There was a sudden hissing sound behind him and Radek turned to see the egg shaped device opening. He made his way back to the others as Damien peered inside the device and let out a whoop. "ZPMs! There's three in here!"
"Don't touch them," Rodney snapped. "What if they keep the shield going?"
"Uh, Dr. McKay?" Mendez was staring at his laptop with wide eyes.
Radek's tablet beeped, indicating a building charge in the conduit at his feet. "Rodney something is activating."
Before anyone could say anything more, there was a loud rumble above their heads. They all jerked away from the device and looked up in time to see a section of the ceiling drop a few feet and slide out of the way. A rack descended to lightly land next to the device, and Radek's heart skipped a beat. On the rack in perfect rows were ZPMs. Not only ZPMs, but other similarly cased objects of varying sizes too.
The rumble stopped and the control unit Rodney still held emitted a happy twittering sound. With shaking hands, Radek lifted his scanner and approached the rack. Power readings flowed across his tablet as he watched. "They're full," he whispered, heart pounding, "Rodney, these ones are all full."
"These ones aren't," Damien said, pointing to the lower section of the rack.
"Of course!" Rodney exclaimed excitedly. "It's a charging station! They've figured out how to harness subspace and they recharge ZedPMs with this," he waved at the egg shaped machine. "If we can get this to work..."
"Hold on," Sheppard gripped Rodney's shoulder, "Let's take this a step a time here. We have a lot of full ZPMs right here, right?"
Rodney blinked at him, then at the rack. "Yes?"
"So," Sheppard said patiently, "why don't we load up, take some back to Atlantis, regroup and look at all the data, then come back here and work on recharging. We have the time now."
The mood during the long walk back to the surface of Bufflebear World was one of elation. They had power now. Radek smiled and hefted his pack more securely on his shoulders. They'd had enough people to take all the charged ZPMs back with them, though they'd chosen to leave a few behind for use in Brachne City. There was still so much work to do, both in this wonderful new city and back on Atlantis, but for the first time in a long time, Radek truly felt confident. Their power problem was solved, they had many wonderful trading partners, a whole moon of edible plants and animals, and proof of new discoveries that were just waiting to be found. What would the future hold? Radek couldn't wait to find out.