CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

It had taken the remainder of Sunday and all of the next two days to build four of the units, partly because they had to wait for needed parts to come in.  Atlantis was contacted again Wednesday morning.  Two of the four power units were sitting before the gate, ready to be sent through.  Sam would also be transmitting the instructions on how to connect the devices to a Naquadah generator, as well as complete information on their construction and how they worked.

The wormhole was going to be dialed with the original unit that was built, Sam having successfully gotten it working again.  It would be interesting to see if it would work a third time.

As soon as the gate dialed up and they sent a message to Atlantis, Doctor Weir's voice came back to them.

"Hello, Stargate Command.  It's good to hear from you again.  We've been anxiously awaiting you."

"Doctor Weir, this is Colonel Carter."

"Colonel Carter?  I see that more than one promotion got handed out while we've been here.  Congratulations."

"Thank you.  We're sending through two power units.  The power on these units is limited, and we don't know yet how many times one will establish a connection between us.  This is the second time for the one we're using.  Also, adjustments have to be made after each use.  I've managed to automate that, though it hasn't been thoroughly tested.  I will be transmitting data on the units.  Can you receive it?"

Weir glanced at Rodney McKay, who nodded.

"No problem," he said.

"Yes, we can, Colonel Carter.  Go ahead and send the units and the data."  Elizabeth looked over her shoulder.  "Lower the shield."

Soon, two odd-looking devices came through on a F.R.E.D.  McKay immediately went up and started examining them.  A tech let Doctor Weir know that the data had been received.

"Everything has come through," she told the SGC.

"Okay, as soon as you get one of those units hooked up, try dialing us," Sam instructed.

"Will do, Colonel.  I can't tell you how excited we all are about this.  It will be good to know that we can visit home."

"I'm sure it will.  We're excited about it, too.  We'll expect to hear from you soon.  If we don't, we'll contact you again tomorrow.  Stargate Command out."

The Stargate was shut down   Daniel and Sam looked at each other.  All they had to do now was wait for Atlantis to dial them.

That happened at a little after 2 p.m.  By all rights, it should have happened much sooner since the process of hooking the unit up to a generator was pretty easy, but Sam figured that McKay probably insisted on studying the power unit and figuring out how it worked before he'd hook the thing up.  In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if the man wanted to make his own modifications to it first.

"Nice of you to call, Atlantis," Jack greeted.

"Yes, it is," Weir agreed.  "Your power unit is working perfectly.  We'd have dialed you sooner, but Doctor McKay wished to study the unit first."

"I knew it," Sam muttered under her breath.

"Okay, now that we've got this all set up, what do you need?" Jack asked.  "Personnel?  Supplies?  Weapons?"

"All of the above, actually.  We can put together a list of what we need and what we'd like to have."

"Good.  We'll do our best to fill the order.  When we have it all ready to go, we'll send it through."  Jack glanced at Daniel and Sam.  "Also, there are two people here who would really like to come for a visit, if you don't mind."

Elizabeth smiled, knowing who at least one of those two people were.  "We would be delighted, General.  Doctor Jackson?  It looks like we're going to have the pleasure of your company here after all."

"Yes, I can't wait," Daniel responded.  "Neither can Sam."

"Very well.  We'll put together our shopping list and contact you again.  Atlantis out."

The "shopping list" came through the next day.  It was a pretty lengthy one.  It took three days to gather the items needed by the Atlantis team and to put together the personnel they'd requested.  Since the trip was no longer one-way, finding personnel who were willing to go was not a problem.

It was bright and early Monday morning when the gate was yet again dialed to Atlantis.  Sam had determined that the original unit wouldn't safely handle a third dial-up, so another one was used.  The gate room was crammed with supplies, equipment and personnel, not nearly as bad as it had been when the Atlantis expedition embarked on their journey, but still bad enough that Jack had no intention of going down there.

Daniel and Sam were beside the general and Teal'c, packs sitting at their feet.

"Got everything?" Jack asked them.  "Toothbrushes?  Hair care products?"  He glanced at Daniel's face.  "Spare glasses?"

"Yes, Jack, we're all set," Daniel replied.  "And, before you ask, that includes plenty of underwear."

"Just wanted to be sure."

At that moment, the wormhole was established.  Atlantis was contacted, and it was confirmed that everyone could go through.

Jack leaned over and spoke into the microphone.  "You're green to go, everyone.  Good luck."

The personnel began filing through the gate, taking with them the supplies and equipment.

Jack turned to Daniel and Sam.  "Well, I hope you two have fun.  Send me a postcard."

Sam smiled.  "We'll do that, sir."  She turned to Teal'c, as did Daniel.  "It still isn't too late to come with us, you know."

"Though I would find it interesting to view the city of the Ancients, there would be little for me to do there," the Jaffa responded.  "I have no skills or knowledge that would be useful."

"Okay.  We'll see you in three weeks, then."

"I will look forward to your return."

Daniel said goodbye to Teal'c, then he and Sam grabbed their packs and went down to the gate room.  They were the last to go through, giving Jack and Teal'c a wave before stepping into the event horizon.

Seconds later, the two scientists set foot in the Pegasus galaxy for the first time.  Immediately, they filled their eyes with the sights around them.

"Wow," they both said.

Doctor Weir stepped forward with a warm smile.  "Welcome to Atlantis."

"Thank you," Daniel said.  He looked around again.  "This is incredible."

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet.  This place is amazing.  We've only just begun to scratch the surface of it."

McKay wound his way through the personnel and supplies that had come through.  "Colonel Carter.  Those units you sent through are . . . interesting, an unusual concept.  They've got some serious limitations, though.  I, personally, wouldn't have gone in that direction."

Sam lifted an eyebrow.  "Oh, and have you been working on a viable power unit of your own?"

The man's smug little smile vanished.  "Well, uh, no, but I'm sure I could have come up with one if I'd had a starting point.  I'm confident that I can vastly improve upon the unit you designed."

"Actually, I didn't design it.  Well, I had a hand in it, but the original concept wasn't mine."

"Whose was it, then?"

Sam smiled.  "Daniel's."

McKay's jaw hit the floor.  He looked at the archeologist.  "Y-y-you?"

"No, not really," Daniel replied.  "It mostly came from the Ancient knowledge in my mind.  Jack built something similar back when he had the knowledge.  It's just that I was able to recall it in far more detail and made a schematic.  I'm sure that the original Ancient device was a great deal more advanced."

"So, those devices are based on Ancient technology?" Weir asked.

Sam nodded.  "Like Daniel said, the original technology was very likely far more advanced and would have used better materials.  The lower grade materials is no doubt why these units have such severe limitations.  I'm really hoping that, with the Ancient materials you have here, not to mention any technical information in the database, we can design something much better."

The smug smile on McKay's face was back.  "Yes, I've already been working on that and—"

"You and Colonel Carter can discuss it later, Rodney," Elizabeth said.  "Right now, I'm sure that our guests would like a tour of the city."

"Absolutely," Daniel confirmed, his eyes glowing with excitement.

McKay was disappointed that he'd have to wait to tell Sam all about his inspired work on the power unit.  "Well, okay.  I'll, uh, be in my lab when you're done."

Doctor Weir smiled at Daniel and Sam.  "Shall we?"

The first place she took them to was one of the balconies overlooking the city.  The two people from Earth gazed in awe at the sight.

"It's just like I saw," Daniel murmured.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked.

"Many months ago, I had a vision in which I saw this place, but it was from the time when the Ancients were here.  There were cylindrical-shaped ships flying overhead."

"Puddle jumpers."

"Puddle jumpers?" Sam queried.

"That's the name Major Sheppard tagged them with.  They are designed to fly through Stargates.  In this galaxy, many Stargates are floating in orbit around planets."

"Really?  That's fascinating."

"Doctor Weir, you know about the vision I had about the expedition here, right?" Daniel asked.

"Yes.  Major Sheppard told me about it.  I did give orders that no one was to go into anything resembling a city.  Unfortunately, because of the circumstances we had found ourselves in, Colonel Sumner chose to countermand my orders.  He was killed during the events that followed."

"I'm sorry to hear that.  Major Sheppard said that he didn't kill the Wraith queen."

"No, he didn't, though it put him and everyone else at great risk.  I'd like to know what would have happened if he had killed her."

"We can talk about that later.  It's something everyone here should know.  What I was going to ask is that, in the vision, I saw water flooding sections of the city.  What was that about?"

"Ah.  When we arrived, the city was on the floor of the ocean, being protected by a force field."

"Then the legend of Atlantis sinking beneath the waves was true," Daniel murmured.  "The legend just had the wrong planet."

Weir nodded.  "The problem was that, when we arrived, everything started turning on.  It seriously drained the ZPM that was maintaining the force field, and the field began to fail.  That's why we sent the team to that planet.  We were looking for a place to evacuate everyone.  But then, we discovered the existence of the Wraith."

"So, how did you get Atlantis to surface?" Daniel asked.

"We weren't the ones to do it.  Apparently, it was programmed to surface in the event that the force field failed."

The three continued their tour.  Major Sheppard joined them partway through, giving his own rather amusing commentary on certain things.

Daniel and Sam were taken to the puddle jumper bay and boarded one of the little ships.

"Like many of the systems in Atlantis, the puddle jumpers will only respond to someone who has the Ancient gene," Elizabeth explained.  "However, Doctor Beckett has succeeded in developing a gene therapy that allows us to inject the ATA gene into people who do not naturally have it.  It doesn't work for everyone, but close to fifty percent of the people here can now control Ancient technology."

"Wow, that's fantastic," Sam remarked.

Daniel stepped into the cockpit, staring at the controls.  Something deep in his mind responded to what he was seeing.  The ship suddenly turned on, startling everyone.

"Whoa.  Okay, that shouldn't have happened," John said.

"Sorry.  That was an accident," Daniel apologized.  He shut the power down with a quick thought.

"How'd you do that so easily?  You weren't even trying to turn it on."

Daniel studied him.  "How much do you know about me?"

"Well, I know who you are, the guy who opened the Stargate and one of the people who went on the original mission through it."

"What do you know about my ascension?"

"I was told that you ascended to a higher plane of existence or something like that and became like what the Ancients did, but that you were descended because you broke the rules.  You came back with a bunch of psychic abilities.  Doctor Beckett mentioned that you have very cool DNA, also because you were ascended."

"Actually, Daniel's DNA isn't just 'very cool'," Sam told the major, "he's closer to being like the Ancients were before their ascension than any other human being in existence, or at least that we know of.  That enables him to control Ancient technology with great ease.  In fact, we have at least one example of him even controlling Goa'uld technology that was originally developed from Ancient technology."

"Really?  Wow.  Too bad you're not staying here, Doctor Jackson. We could really use you."

"Yes, I've already expressed that sentiment," Weir said.  "Unfortunately, he turned me down."  She turned to the archeologist.  "Unless we can manage to change your mind while you're here."  Weir then looked at Sam.  "Both of you, in fact.  Your scientific skills and knowledge would be a tremendous asset, Colonel Carter."

"Heck, having you here might even poke a few holes in McKay's ego," Sheppard added.

"Is that even possible?" Sam responded.

The major thought about it.  "Probably not."

Sam turned back to Elizabeth.  "I appreciate the offer, Doctor Weir, and, I have to admit that I'd love to spend the next year discovering all the technology that's here, but I belong at the SGC."  She smiled.  "Besides, if I stayed here more than a few weeks, I'd probably shoot McKay."

Sheppard grinned.  "Hey, I'd help you cover it up.  Dump his body over the side with some weights, and nobody would ever know what happened."

The other three people smiled at the comment.

"I'm afraid that I have to give the same answer as Sam," Daniel said.

"Oh, you'd want to shoot McKay, too?" John asked.  "Wow, his fan club is even bigger than I thought."

Daniel gave him a smile.  "No, I don't think I'd have any urges to shoot Doctor McKay."  The smile got bigger.  "Although it is possible that Casper might visit him again from time to time."

Sam burst into laughter.

"Who's Casper?" Sheppard asked.

Sam told him and Weir about the incident with the journalist Emmett Bregman.  John absolutely loved it.

"Doctor Jackson, you are a man after my own heart," he said.  "Hey, wait a minute.  You said that Casper might visit McKay again.  Did you already do something to him?"

Daniel revealed the incident at the outpost, which made Sheppard laugh in delight.  "Oh, man.  I really wish I'd seen that."

"How come you never told me about this?" Sam asked her teammate.

"I didn't think about it.  It was right afterwards that I discovered the eighth symbol, and everything else went out of my head."

"I really wish I'd seen it, too."  Actually, she might have injured herself laughing too hard.

"Now I really wish you were going to stay," Sheppard stated.  "With you around, maybe McKay would behave himself a little more."

"Sorry.  Though, like Sam, I'd love to spend a year exploring what's here, my place is also with the SGC."

"Well, then we'll just have to show you as much of this place as we can during the weeks that you will be here," Doctor Weir responded.

The tour of Atlantis lasted another couple of hours and still only covered a tiny fraction of the place.  There were huge areas yet to be explored by the expedition team, more technological treasures to be discovered.

After the tour, Daniel and Sam ate lunch, then attended a briefing with Doctor Weir, Sheppard, McKay, Doctor Beckett, and a beautiful, brown-skinned woman named Teyla Emmagan, a native of the planet the Atlantis team first went through the gate to.  Her people were called the Athosians.

"All right, first of all, there a fact that some of you do not know," Elizabeth began.  "On the day that the Atlantis expedition came here, Doctor Jackson gave Major Sheppard a warning not to kill the female Wraith on that hive ship on Athos."

Teyla frowned.  "But how is that possible?  Your people did not even know of the existence of the Wraith."

"Would you like to explain, Doctor Jackson?" Weir asked.

"I have the ability to see the future," Daniel replied to the Athosian.  "I had a vision that showed me the Wraith, who and what they are, and what would happen if that female Wraith was killed."

Teyla stared at him in amazement.  "That is a tremendous gift, one that could save many lives."

Sam nodded.  "It already has.  Daniel's precognitive abilities have been responsible for preventing a lot of deaths, including mine."

Daniel felt a moment of sorrow, thinking of the lives on Tegalus that his abilities had not saved.

"So, what would have happened if I'd killed her?" Sheppard asked.  "You said that millions of people would die."

"If you had killed her, all of the Wraith would have awakened," Daniel answered.

"You mean on that ship?  Yeah, that would definitely have been bad."

Daniel met his eyes.  "No, Major Sheppard.  All of the Wraith, every one in the galaxy."

Daniel's statement was met with utter silence, everyone stunned and horrified by the news, except for Sam, who had already known.

"If every Wraith in the galaxy had been awakened, they'd have decimated the human population," Doctor Beckett said, his face showing his horror at the thought.

Daniel nodded.  "Entire planets would have been wiped out.  There wouldn't be enough people to feed them."

"Oh my God," Elizabeth murmured.

Teyla was among the most horrified of all, thinking of all the people in her galaxy, her home, that would have perished.  She turned her eyes upon the man who had prevented the catastrophe.

"Your warning saved billions of lives.  How can we ever thank you?"

"You don't have to thank me.  I can't tell you how relieved I am that it never happened.  I actually witnessed what would have taken place, and it was the worst nightmare you can imagine."

"Nevertheless, I and my people owe you a great debt," Teyla turned to John, "and to Major Sheppard for heeding your warning."

Daniel dipped his head in acknowledgment.  "There is, actually, something that I'd like from you."

"Anything.  You have only to ask and it is yours."

"I would very much like to learn about your people.  I'm an archeologist and anthropologist.  I study the history and culture of civilizations.  I'm also a linguist, someone who studies languages."

Teyla smiled.  "I and my people would be honored to share this knowledge with you.  You will have to come with me to the mainland to speak with some others among the Athosians."

"Your people are here now?"

"We evacuated them from Athos after the initial Wraith attack," Sheppard answered.

"Up until very recently, they lived in the city," Elizabeth said, "but we discovered that there is a large landmass less than half an hour's flight from here.  The Athosians made it their new home and are already planting crops."

"Yes, my people are safe from the Wraith," Teyla said, "but many, many other are not.  I hope that our new friends here," she looked around at the others, "will aid us to rid the galaxy of the Wraith."

"Actually, that brings up a question I had," Doctor Beckett said.  "First, I should probably explain that Doctor Jackson's paranormal abilities are not limited to precognition.  His power is actually quite extraordinary.  Among other things, he has the power to heal injuries in others and can even bring the dead back to life."

McKay stared at the doctor.  "You didn't say anything to me about that before.  You just told me that he could blow up spaceships and lift Stargates."

"Whoa, whoa!" Sheppard exclaimed.  "Blow up spaceships?  Lift Stargates?  Okay, I knew that he had a lot of different abilities because he ascended, but I wasn't told he could blow up spaceships and lift Stargates."

Teyla drew in a sharp breath, staring at Daniel.  "You ascended?" she asked in a hushed voice.  "You became as the Ancients?"

"I see that some explanations will have to be made," Elizabeth said.  "Doctor Jackson, perhaps you'd better fill everyone in."

"Over four years ago, we met an Ancient named Oma Desala," Daniel began.  "At the time, we didn't realize what she was, only that she was a very powerful being.  I learned some things about ascension from one of her students.  Two years later, there was an accident that exposed me to a lethal dose of radiation.  I was dying.  Oma came to me and offered to help me ascend.  I took her up on the offer.  For a year, I was one of the Ascended.  While ascended, I found out that they have rules that forbid them from helping those who are not ascended.  I couldn't live with those rules.  Something happened that finally made me break them in a big way, and I was punished.  I was descended, returned to mortal form with no memory of who I was.  I was found by people from Earth and brought home.  I soon regained the memories of my life before my ascension, but recalled virtually nothing of that year I was ascended."

"Do you still not remember?" Teyla asked, still astounded that this man had lived among the Ancients.

"No, I remember now.  I finally regained those memories.  Anyway, last year, something happened that led to me discovering that I didn't return to human form quite the same as I was before.  I was genetically altered, and there were some mutations in my brain."

"Doctor Jackson is now genetically closer to the pre-Ascended Ancients than any other human being we know of," Doctor Beckett explained.

"The differences gave me several different psychic abilities, including the power to move objects at will, control fire and sense the presence of others."

Sam took up the tale.  "A while ago, Daniel had the entire knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his brain.  This happened once before, to General O'Neill, and it nearly killed him."

McKay nodded.  "That amount of knowledge would be way too vast for the human brain to contain."

Sheppard looked at him.  "What?  Even yours?" he asked in a snarky tone.

"Uh, well, I do admit that I might have been able to handle it better than Colonel O'Neill did, but, in time, even my brain would have been overwhelmed."

"Actually, Rodney," Doctor Beckett said, "it is doubtful that you'd have been able to handle the download at all.  In fact, it may not have even worked on you.  The Asgard revealed that it is because of the genetic differences in Colonel O'Neill . . . sorry, General O'Neill, that he was able to absorb the knowledge at all."

McKay was not happy about the doctor's statement and would have made a retort if Elizabeth hadn't stepped in.

"I believe that's a discussion for another time, gentlemen," she said.  "You were saying, Colonel Carter?"

"The download almost killed Daniel, too," Sam recounted, "but he managed to remove most of the knowledge from his conscious mind and store it in his subconscious."

"All this resulted in me gaining another ability," Daniel explained.  "I can heal injuries and illness in myself and others."

"He brought me back from the dead," Sam said softly, gazing at the man she owed her life to.

"Which brings me back to the question I was going to ask," Beckett said.

"What's that?" Daniel asked.

"When you heal someone, you must, on some level, be seeing or at least sensing the internal structure of their body, the bones, muscles, blood vessel and tissues.  Is that right?"

Daniel nodded.  "More or less.  When it comes to an injury, I can sense the damage and just sort of will it to heal."

"Have you ever attempted to scan, so to speak, the body of a healthy person?"

"No, I've never had a reason to."

"Where are you heading with this, Carson?" Elizabeth asked the doctor.

"I am wondering if Doctor Jackson can go deeper than the physical structures of the body, perhaps down to the cellular level itself."

"For what purpose?"

"To find out about the Wraith."  Beckett turned back to Daniel.  "We got hold of a sample of Wraith tissue—"

"A sample?"  McKay said.  "It was a severed hand!"

"To you it was a severed hand, Rodney.  To a geneticist, it was a sample of a Wraith's cellular makeup.  What I've learned from it has been incredible, but there are still many unanswered questions.  If Doctor Jackson has the ability to see into the living structure of a Wraith's cells and understand what he's seeing, it could be a tremendous help."

"I couldn't do that with a severed hand," Daniel pointed out.

"Actually, we have a captured Wraith."

"You have a Wraith here?"  Daniel had to admit that the idea of a Wraith being there gave him the willies.

"He is in a holding cell," Weir told him.

"Would you be willing to attempt it, Doctor Jackson?" Beckett asked.

"I can try, but, even if I can delve that deeply, I can't guarantee that I could learn anything I'd actually be able to understand.  You do know that I'd have to touch him to do this, right?"

"We can stun him.  You would be in no danger."

Daniel thought of something.  "Actually, there is something else I can try first, something that might give us valuable information."

"What is that, Doctor Jackson?" Elizabeth asked.

"Another ability I have is one that's a little harder to explain.  Sometimes, I can touch an object or a person and see things related to it or them, often even look into the past of the object or person."

"That sounds like psychometry."

Everyone stared at Major Sheppard in surprise.  He shrugged.

"I had a girlfriend who was into all that stuff," he explained.  "One of her favorite movies was 'Vibes', with Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper.  Goldblum's character was a psychometrist.  He could see things about the people who handled an object just by touching it.  I didn't really believe in any of that stuff at the time, but that was before I found out about the Stargate and everything else."

"So, what are you thinking, Daniel?" Sam asked.

"That if I touch the Wraith like I did Frank March, that guy who was in The Trust, I could find out some things about the Wraith.  There is one possible problem, though."

"What's that?" Sheppard asked.

"I have a feeling that I'll learn more if the Wraith is conscious at the time."

That caused a moment of silence.

"Doctor Jackson, you apparently don't need to be told what a Wraith is capable of doing," Weir said.

"Yes, I know what they can do and how they do it."

"Daniel, I know that you'd normally have no trouble controlling the Wraith," Sam said, "but could you do it while you're trying to find the information?"

"I don't know.  I'd be distracted with that."

Elizabeth shook her head.  "Unless we could be certain of your safety, I could not allow you to do this."

"Then we'll have to figure something out.  I think this could be important."

Doctor Weir thought about it, then nodded.  "All right, let's go down there."

The group went to the cell where the Wraith was kept.  Daniel gazed at the living specimen of the species he'd seen in his vision.  The alien glared at all of them defiantly.

"Again you are here, but you will learn nothing from me no matter how many times you come," the Wraith said.

"Well, don't be so sure about that," Sheppard said.

Daniel took a couple of steps closer.  He could sense the alienness of the Wraith's presence.  It focused its gaze upon him.

"Open the door," Daniel said.

"Doctor Jackson, are you sure about this?" Weir asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

Trusting his judgment, Elizabeth ordered the force field to be lowered.

"Get back from the door," Sheppard commanded the Wraith, pointing a P-90 at it.

The Wraith did not comply for a moment, then backed away to the opposite end of the cell.  Never taking his eyes off the Wraith, Daniel opened the door and stepped inside.

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