Altantis Calling ... Part Two by stella_pegasi
ATLANTIS CALLING
by stella_pegasi
Part Two
“Atlantis, are you here?”
“Yes, I am here, and you are waking up.”
He became aware of whispered voices nearby, and he could hear a monitor quietly beeping in time with his heart beat. His eyes fluttered; he opened them for a very brief glance around him. He was certain one of the voices was Rodney, and he desperately needed to talk with Rodney. Trying to say his name, only a low groan came from his mouth, but it was enough. He heard Rodney call his name.
“Sheppard, Sheppard, are you awake. Come on flyboy, we need for you to wake up.” Rodney was next to his bed immediately yelling, “Jennifer, get in here, Sheppard’s awake.”
Teyla’s soft, soothing voice was music to his ears as he heard her chastise Rodney, “Dr. McKay, have we all not asked you to refrain from yelling in the infirmary? You need to remember to be quieter.”
Sheppard chuckled, “Yeah, Rodney, you shouldn’t be yelling.” It wasn’t until he opened his eyes, and saw Rodney smiling broadly that he realized he had spoken those words out loud.
Doctors Keller, Beckett, and Jackson sent everyone out of the trauma unit while they examined the colonel. Only Rodney, still confined to his bed, remained. He was full of questions, which he had been asking one after another.
“Meredith Rodney McKay, if you are not quiet this instant, I will find the largest needle in this infirmary, and I will give you a sedative in your gluteus maximus.” The look on Jennifer Keller’s face was enough to let Rodney know she wasn’t kidding.
Keller received a stony glare in return from Rodney. Sheppard laughed out loud and then coughed grabbing his abdomen, “Dr. Keller, please don’t make me laugh. My body feels like it has been hit by a very large jumper.”
“Colonel, you are very lucky to be alive. That energy burst thingy that hit you was very powerful. You were lucky that your internal injuries aren’t worse than a few bruised organs.” Keller watched as Marie finished replacing an IV hub in Sheppard’s right hand, and connected a new bag of saline. Seeing the face Sheppard was making, Keller shook her head at him. “Colonel Sheppard, sorry, I know you don’t like the IV’s, and all the other things we do to you. However, you know what; you wouldn’t have to have all of this if you would only stop getting hurt all the time. It would certainly make my life easier.” She turned toward the door and the three doctors and one colonel watched her walk away.
Dr. J sighed, “She doesn’t look like it, but Dr. Keller is a lot tougher than she looks.”
Rodney simply said, “Don’t I know it.”
Marie was helping Sheppard get settled, he had wanted to sit up. He was just getting comfortable as Woolsey, Teyla, Ronon, and Major Lorne appeared.
“Colonel, I hear you are feeling much better.” Woolsey came to the side of Sheppard’s bed and sat down.
“We are also glad to see you awake, colonel.” Teyla moved over to Rodney’s bed and jumped up to sit on the foot of his bed.
“Thanks, guys; it’s good to be awake and know that there shouldn’t be anymore blinding white lights. While I was unconscious I melded” watching Rodney’s reaction, he inserted, “her word, not mine, with Atlantis. She couldn’t reach me to warn us that she was under attack. The blackouts I was having were a result of these beings blocking her by using some kind of energy beam on the city. She had quite a story to tell me; the beings that are attacking her now are the same ones who attacked her when the city first left the Alteran home world. We have to find a way to stop them."
~ooOOOoo~
When Sheppard was finished conveying the story Atlantis had told him about the Ninge, no one spoke for a moment. They were all trying to assimilate the fact that the Ninge was an extremely old race, and appeared to be quite formidable.
Rodney managed to shake off the story first. “Zelenka, check the database and see if you can find any mention of the Ninge that might still be there. Put Dr. Franklin on finding that energy beam that they are sending toward us, get Chuck to help him. Also, get Graves to start checking the crystals for deleted data. It’s a long shot but maybe we could find the purged file.”
Zelenka nodded, “Rodney, if the purged data was stored on crystals the Ancients may have taken those crystals with them when they returned to Earth or they could have destroyed them.
“I know Zelenka; just do the best you can.” As Zelenka left, Rodney turned to Sheppard, “Does Atlantis know what these Ninge are planning to do if we can’t find what they are looking for?”
Sheppard closed his eyes and was silent about a moment. When he finally opened his eyes, he replied to Rodney, “They have threatened to destroy her if she does not produce whatever it is they are looking for.”
Woolsey asked, “Have they given her a timetable, colonel?”
A few seconds passed before the colonel said, “Yes, by tomorrow.”
Woolsey shook his head, “That is certainly not enough time. We need to talk to these Ninge and try to negotiate for more time. Colonel, ask Atlantis if she can convey a request for a meeting with the Ninge.”
Sheppard closed his eyes again; a couple of minutes later he spoke, “She will ask them, but she is not convinced they will listen to her.”
“McKay, how is it that this race that I don’t think has the gene, can talk to Atlantis?” Sheppard asked.
“Good question, Sheppard. The only way that I think they could do so is if they have a highly sophisticated program to interact with an AI at this level.”
“An AI?” Woolsey asked.
“Artificial intelligence, Mr. Woolsey; Atlantis is actually a very, very advanced artificial intelligence system. She is a computer with the ability to reason, articulate, and learn.
Sheppard smiled, “I actually think she’s a pretty nice girl.”
McKay gave him a very disgusted look, “You would, Captain Kirk, you would.”
The next couple of hours passed in relative quiet. Atlantis had informed Sheppard that the Ninge were considering their request to talk. She would let him know as soon as they reached out to her again.
Rodney was in constant contact with Zelenka and the other scientists that were looking for clues, but too little time had passed for them to have had much luck. Ronon and Teyla had gone to the mess hall on a food run. They were finishing up a late lunch when Sheppard stopped in mid-bite of his apple and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he had a message from Atlantis.
Tapping his COM, he called Woolsey. “Mr. Woolsey, the Ninge will appear to us in exactly one of our hours. Better put the tea on.” Looking over at Teyla and Ronon, he made a request. “Could one of you get me a uniform from my quarters, and something for Rodney to wear as well?” With a nod, both of his teammates left the infirmary.
“Sheppard, you know that Jennifer is going to have a conniption if I try to leave. She'll go ballistic if you try. Why can’t the Ninge just meet us here?”
“Afraid of a tiny little doctor, Rodney?” Sheppard cocked his head, flashing a slight grin at his friend.
“No, of course not…at least most of the time. However, she is hell on wheels when someone’s sick.”
Sheppard knew better, but he couldn’t help but laugh. The coughing and pain was almost worth Rodney’s face as he admitted he was just a tad bit afraid of Jennifer.
Forty-five minutes later, after fending off one very pissed off doctor, Sheppard and Rodney had joined the rest of the command staff in the main conference room. Now they waited.
~ooOOOoo~
They were not exactly certain how the Ninge would “appear”, as Atlantis had described their arrival, but the hour was almost up. Woolsey was standing quietly in the same spot that he had when he first walked in the room about ten minutes before. Sheppard felt he looked nervous. Understandable, it wasn’t often that they had visitors from a race as old as the Ninge. He was about to say something to Woolsey, to see if he could loosen him up a bit, when a humming sound filled the room.
Near the doors leading from the conference room a soft, almost iridescent blue glow appeared. As the light coalesced, three humanoid forms began to appear. When the process was complete, the humans in the room reacted with wonder at the beings standing before them. The Ninge were extremely tall and excessively thin; Sheppard estimated the Ninge height to be at least eight feet tall. Their skin was virtually translucent and had a grayish-pink tone. Their hair was silky, silvery white, pulled back and platted into braids that fell to their waists. The three Ninge were wearing clothing that consisted of floor length tunics of a milky diaphanous material worn over white opaque long sleeved shirts and pants. The most commanding thing about them, other than their height, was the large gold medallions attached to heavy chains that they wore around their necks. At the center of each medallion was a symbol carved into what looked like ivory and each Ninge wore a different symbol.
Richard Woolsey stepped forward to greet their “guests”. “I am pleased to welcome the Ninge to Atlantis. My name is Richard Woolsey, and I am the director of the Atlantis Expedition.”
He was starting to introduce the rest of the Atlantians when the Ninge standing in the middle raise a hand, “Is it true that you are not of the original crew of this vessel? Their voices had a very melancholy tone.
“Yes, that is correct. The original inhabitants of Atlantis returned to a former home some 10,000 years ago, leaving the city for their descendents. Many of those here are direct descendents, the rest of us evolved from the Atlantians when they seeded our planet. We were fortunate to locate Atlantis several years ago and fulfill the wishes of the original Atlantians.”
“Then the computer intelligence was telling us the truth. Is it also the truth that what we seek is not here?”
Woolsey answered, “We do not know what you are seeking, and therefore, we cannot answer that question with any validity. If you would tell us what you left on Atlantis when you visited before, perhaps we could help.”
The apparent leader of the group stared at Woolsey for a few moments. “I do not think you capable of helping us. If the Atlantians destroyed what we are seeking, then this city-ship is of no use and will be destroyed.”
Sheppard and Rodney both jumped up, but Rodney was quicker, “Look, don’t come here a few million years later and expect us to remember where you left your trinket. We have access to a database that might give us some answers, but Atlantis told you the truth. The files concerning your race were purged from the computer when the original Atlantians left. Atlantis couldn’t tell you where your object is because she doesn’t know. However, we have other resources, and we might, possibly, be able to locate what you seek.”
Woolsey stepped closer to the Ninge, “We would be happy to cooperate with you if you would allow us to. We have no quarrel with you, and would gladly give you what you are seeking if we knew what it was. I am asking for adequate time to locate the item, perhaps a month or more.”
The three Ninge turned to each other, their backs to the expedition members. Woolsey looked over at Rodney and Sheppard, who shrugged his shoulders. At this point, they didn’t know what else to do.
When the Ninge turned back to them, the leaders spoke quietly. “We will give you thirty of your days to locate what we seek.”
Rodney realized they were about to leave, “Hey, you need to give us a clue; what are we looking for?”
“You will know what we seek when you find it.” With that cryptic answer, the three Ninge dissolved in a cloud of iridescent blue mist.
~ooOOOoo~
The next week was a blur of activity as the research to find whatever the Ninge wanted consumed the Atlantis personnel. Dr. McKay had been released from the infirmary the day after they met the Ninge, his shoulder only badly bruised. He was leading the search for the ‘Ninge thing’, as it had quickly been dubbed by the scientists. Woolsey was hovering over Dr. McKay, which was causing McKay to become very agitated.
“Mr. Woolsey, don’t you have somewhere else you would rather be?” McKay had his nose almost on his computer screen. He was scanning line after line of code, flashing past on the screen. McKay and the others were looking for any remnants of the computer program had been uploaded to Atlantis by the Ninge, eons before.
“No, I need to be here; I want to know what is going on.” Woolsey seemed agitated.
McKay’s lips drew into a thin line, “Well, you are making me nervous just sitting there.”
“Then give him something to do, McKay.”
Both McKay and Woolsey reacted to the familiar voice. “Sheppard, you escape from Jennifer’s clutches?” McKay was smiling at his friend.
“Actually, I was officially released, thank you very much. So, I came down to see what I could do to help. You have two volunteers; put us to work, McKay.”
“How are you feeling, colonel?” Woolsey asked as Sheppard sat down on the stool next to him.
“Pretty good, still a bit stiff but I was lucky. Zelenka told me that from the data they recorded of the energy blast that Atlantis must have realized what was happening. She told me she pulled the energy back as much as she could with the time she had, which is probably why I ended up, pulled into the room. I was lucky, only ended up with a bruised liver and gallbladder, and very sore muscles.”
“No more blackouts?” Woolsey asked; concern for his military commander obvious.
“No, Atlantis can reach me without effort now that the Ninge have withdrawn their energy probe.” Looking over at Rodney, he could see the incredibly intense look on the scientist’s face.
“Rodney, you need all hands, give us something to do.”
Rodney looked up at Sheppard and stared at him for a few seconds, then tapped his COM, “Zelenka, can you transfer some of the translated database to a couple of pads, and bring them to me? Woolsey and Sheppard can review the data and help with the work load.”
Within fifteen minutes, Zelenka entered with two pads, and Woolsey and Sheppard began reading.
Ten days later, they were no further along than they had been the very first day of the search. The computer geeks could not find any record of the Ninge still in the database, or in the crystals that stored purged files. The Ancient translators, along with Teyla who had been learning the Ancient language, were working around the clock to translate as much of the unread database that they could. With the massive amount of data, it was overwhelming. It would take many months to translate a fourth of the remaining database.
Woolsey had called a meeting to review their progress or lack of progress. No one had been eating well, and Dr. Keller had insisted it be a dinner meeting. Among those sitting in the conference room were the primary leads on the research and the command teams, devouring their first real meal in days.
“Woolsey thanks; I had forgotten what a good meal taste like.” McKay was shoveling food into his mouth at warp speed. His comment about a “good” meal brought some raised eyebrows from a few of the less enthusiastic fans of the mess hall fare.
“So, everyone, where do we stand?” Woolsey asked of the assembled group. Looking around at each face, he already knew the answer, they were nowhere.
McKay swallowed his latest bite of food, “We are…well…we are absolutely screwed at this point. We have not found any mention of the Ninge in the database, or in the purged files. Sheppard assigned teams of Marines and airmen to search the city for anything. Hell, we’ve been for six years, and we still haven’t been able to search more than a third of the city. We're open to any ideas. We have twenty days, people; we need to figure this out.”
McKay’s words were met with silence as everyone in the room tried to avoid looking at each other. They realized the stakes were extremely high. The Ninge had vowed to destroy Atlantis if they didn’t locate whatever it was that the Ninge desired.
Woolsey felt the need to say something, “Everyone, you are the best and the brightest in two universes. If anyone can figure this out, you can.” He’d never been good at pep talks. Looking around, he could see he hadn’t done well this time either.
Silence descended on the group again, and Woolsey attention was drawn to Colonel Sheppard. The colonel was sitting across from him, absently tapping the table with his fingers. Woolsey knew that meant that the wheels were turning rapidly in the colonel’s head. He was about to ask if Sheppard had an idea, when the colonel leaned forward and spoke.
“McKay, if the Ancients did delete the files, and they didn’t destroy them, and they aren’t here, then they have to be somewhere. Could they have taken the crystals with them to Earth? Maybe they wanted to keep records of the most powerful races that they had encountered?”
“You mean taken them to Earth when they left Atlantis 10,000 years ago?” McKay asked. Sheppard nodded yes and McKay continued, “But how would we know where they left them on Earth or, even if they were still intact?”
Sheppard smiled ever so slightly. “Well, we know that SG-1 found a pretty big cache of treasures, including some serious Ancient tech, when they discovered Avalon under that mountain in England. Have you looked at the inventory list to see if they found any crystals?”
McKay stared blankly at Sheppard, not saying a word. The scientist’s eyes widening to the point that Woolsey thought his eyeballs would pop out. McKay jumped up, snapping his fingers. As he ran from the room, he told Sheppard, “Flyboy, you deserved that MENSA status after all.” Sheppard ran out of the conference room behind him and the rest of the group followed.
McKay headed straight to the control room. “Amelia, dial Earth, I need to speak to Dr. Lee, now.” Amelia began to dial immediately, but still looked for Woolsey, who nodded his OK.
Looking over at Sheppard, McKay began to talk in his most excited voice. “Sheppard, it stands to reason that if they took the crystals with them, that Mryddin would have been responsible for their safekeeping. He had possession of all the other artifacts. In addition, he had a lot of gold and jewels that had somehow come into the Ancient’s hands.”
Woolsey interrupted, “Mryddin was actually ‘Merlin’ wasn’t he?”
McKay snapped, “Actually, the other way around but yes, the same person.”
The gate tech at SG-1 answered, and Amelia informed him that Dr. McKay would like to speak to Dr. Lee, ASAP. A few minutes passed before Dr. Lee’s face appeared on their screens. “Dr. McKay, it is good to hear from you. We haven’t had a chance to speak in a long time. How are things in the Peg…?”
“Lee, shut up and listen to me. Do you have an inventory list of the items SG-1 found at Avalon?”
“Yes, we have a list of the items we kept, and the items that were returned to the British government. Why are you interested in the list? I mean most of that stuff, other than the two big pieces of Ancient tech, is in storage at Area 51? We have scheduled research to begin on the artifacts in about six months. I mean with the fight against the Ori and the Wraith coming to Earth, and then Atlantis here for those months, a lot of research has been put off.”
“Lee, do you know if there were any crystals on the list?” McKay was getting really exasperated.
“Let me see; I am pulling up the list now. Let’s see…” Lee seemed to take his time to review the list.
“Lee, sometime today,” Rodney barked. Sheppard laid his hand on McKay shoulder to calm the scientist down.
“Oh, yeah, yeah...hang on. Yes, there was a small box that contained about 15 crystals. They were catalogued, but never looked at from what I can tell. Is this what you are looking for?” Lee smiled.
“Never looked at...crystals from the Ancients, and you people never bothered to look at them? Where the hell was Carter when you found the damn things? Why didn’t Carter or Jackson at least take a look at them?” McKay was becoming quite agitated and red-faced.
Woolsey answered, “Dr. McKay, Colonel Carter was engaging the Ori at the time. No sooner did they defeat the Ori, before she was assigned to Atlantis. It is understandable that some of the items in our possession were not researched immediately.”
Not at all appeased, McKay turned back to Lee. “We need for those crystals to be examined now; you need to look at anything that has to do with a race called the Ninge.”
The Ninge…well, that is certainly a funny name. Why do you need to know about them?” Lee was smiling again.
McKay pursed his lips, taking a deep breath, and quietly said, “If you do not do this now, the Ninge may destroy Atlantis. That important enough for you?”
Lee nodded, looking a bit sheepish, “I will have the crystals brought from Area 5, ASAP.”
“Lee, just download the data, and send it to us; McKay out.”
McKay sat down in a chair that Zelenka hurriedly put under him so that he didn’t hit the floor. Sheppard looked at Dr. Z and laughed as Zelenka shrugged his shoulders. McKay just sighed, “Now we wait.”
~ooOOOoo~
Fourteen hours later, Dr. Lee transmitted the data that had been stored on the crystals recovered from Avalon. Lee suggested that they might like to review the crystal labeled AAACry-2. Ronon asked what that meant, and McKay told him, Ancient Avalon Artifact Crystal number 2 without looking up from the data.
“Bingo, here it is and is this very interesting. Woolsey, get the team together; I think we have a start, if not an answer, as to what the Ninge are looking for.”
Once everyone was assembled in the conference room, Rodney began to recount entries from the private log of the first commander of Atlantis. The log entries told the story of the two Ninge that stayed on Atlantis.
“When the Ninge broke off negotiations and started firing on Atlantis, the Atlantis commander, Theonisus Asculphus, ordered the ship into hyperdrive, and they left the Ninge galaxy. On board they still had two Ninge hostages, Grimme Nor and Lavisine Nor. They had purposely kept both Ninge. They wanted the program removed from the computers, and could not determine how to do so without destroying a great deal of Atlantis’ own program.”
Rodney continued, “According to the records, the Ancients attempted to reason, coerce, threaten, and whatever else they could think of to force the Ninge to remove their program. The Ninge refused. During that time, the health of the two Ninge was deteriorating rapidly. The Ninge apparently had very rigid dietary requirements. The Ancients tried to find the right combination of food items and supplements that would keep them alive, but they were losing the battle. Asculphus ordered Atlantis to return to the Ninge galaxy. He wanted to take the hostages back to their people, who the Ancients hoped could help them.”
“During the trip to return the sick Ninge home, Asculphus managed to develop a civil relationship with Grimme. Grimme divulged to the commander that his race was aggressive, always searching for new technology that could benefit them. Atlantis had simply been too tempting a target to turn down. Grimme had argued that the Ancients seemed like reasonable people and might share their knowledge and their power source, but the others had no use for diplomacy. The program had been uploaded, against Grimme’s wishes. When Atlantis began having difficulties with life support and navigation, Grimme ceased his efforts to a peaceful solution. He was very pleased that the Ancients had been smart enough to block the program’s progress. When informed that their people were hostages, Grimme also knew that it was a matter of time before their ship fired on Atlantis.”
“Grimme knew that the Atlantis shield was extremely effective in keeping the air supply inside the dome and frigidness of space out. What he did not know was that the shield was also more than strong enough to keep their powerful weapons from penetrating the shield. The Ancients, in good faith, sent all Ninge, but Grimme and Lavisine back to their people. The Ninge did open fire, and Atlantis simply left the galaxy.”
“The last entry in the log concerning the Ninge has to do with the deaths of Grimme and Lavisine. Despite their efforts, the Ancients failed in their task to keep the two alive, until they arrived back in the Ninge galaxy. I’ll read Asculphus’s last log entry for you.”
‘This is a sad day for Atlantis. We had only hoped to keep these two men long enough for them to help us rid our computer of their program. We were going to return them to their people. In our ignorance of their needs, we only sentenced them to death, as we could not provide proper nutrition for them to live. Lavisine died first; at least he died in the company of Grimme. Grimme did not have that comfort. I tried to provide him with a proper passage, but I wonder if I was only appeasing myself in my efforts. As he prepared to take his last breath, Grimme told me that he had spent his life trying to turn his people from violence to peace. He said he was at least happy to die among peaceful explorers.’
‘Upon their deaths, I ordered the two men to be placed in burial capsules and released into space. We located a nebula that seemed appropriate; it was long and thin and consisted of wispy, pale gasses, a fitting resting place for the Ninge. I had their adornments removed and boxed for possible return to the Ninge should we encounter them again. My next order was to resume our original course away from the Ninge galaxy.’
‘May we forgive ourselves for our actions. We are on a mission of peaceful exploration, bringing new life to these galaxies. We failed so early in our quest, and it cost the lives of two souls.’
No one sitting in the conference room spoke for several minutes. They were still absorbing the anguish that was evident in Asculphus’ words. His recount of their encounter with the Ninge was powerful not only for its content, but it was a piece of history of the city they all had come to love. Woolsey looked around the room at these men and women who had devoted so much time to discover the events of many millennia ago on Atlantis. The looks on their faces told him the impact the story had on them.
He started to speak, thinking that as the current leader of Atlantis, he should comment on those powerful words. However, he didn’t; he had noticed Colonel Sheppard’s fingers tapping the table. He waited, smiling as Sheppard began to speak.
“Rodney, I think I know what the Ninge are seeking. Does that inventory list that Lee sent include what was given to the British government?”
“Yeah, it does.” Rodney opened the list as Sheppard sprung from his chair to look over McKay’s shoulder.
At the same time, Sheppard and McKay yelled, “There it is, that’s what they want.”
Sheppard looked at Woolsey, “We need to talk to General Landry.
~ooOOOoo~
On the thirtieth day, the command staff and team leaders, who had worked on the project were waiting in the conference room for the Ninge to appear. Atlantis had told Sheppard only a few minutes before that the Ninge had contacted her. They had returned on the appointed day, and wanted what they were seeking.
An ancient box sat on the conference room table. The Atlantians were certain that the box contained the item that the Ninge wanted so desperately. It had taken a bit of talking to retrieve the item. Sheppard and McKay spoke with General Landry who in turned spoke, to the US State Department. The State Department contacted the British government, and the item, which had been catalogued and given to the British, was returned to Stargate Command. A SG team gated to a planet at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy where the Daedalus, already underway for Pegasus, waited for them. Colonel Caldwell beamed the package the team had brought with them aboard his ship and then they pushed the engines as hard as they could and arrived on Atlantis with twenty-four hours to spare. Caldwell and his executive officer, Major Marks, were also in the conference room.
As the humming began, McKay flashed Sheppard a nervous grin, “I hope this is what they wanted, Sheppard.”
“Rodney, what else could it possibly be?” Sheppard didn’t think that Rodney looked completely convinced.
The three Ninge who had visited before materialized in the room, and wasted no time. “Do you have what we are seeking?”
Sheppard picked up the box and walked over to the Ninge, “I believe we do,” and he opened the box. From the expressions that passed over the translucent faces of the Ninge, there was absolutely no doubt that the items were what they had sought from Atlantis.
“You found them; we did not believe you would after all this time. We are sorry that we caused you pain, and that we resorted to threatening you. We would have not carried out the threat to destroy Atlantis. We are peaceful and have been since the revolution, which began shortly after Grimme Nor disappeared.” The Ninge speaking reached into the box that contained several rings and two medallion and chains. He selected one of the medallions and removed it from the box. In the center was yet another carved symbol, one just like the symbol on the Ninge’s medallion, who had taken the old medallion from the box.
“We thought it would be better if we appeared to be the same violent race you first encountered. We recently found an account of the events when our ship and Atlantis interacted written by a crew member who left the ship due to an illness. She was not onboard when the ship was destroyed by a solar emission. Until we found this account, we did not know what had happened to my ancestor, Grimme Nor. After he died, Grimme who had been a leader of the peace movement became a martyr and his followers prevailed in their efforts to change our ways. We have been at peace since then.”
McKay spoke, “You will also find a crystal that contains the information about Atlantis and the events of their meeting with the Ninge. It will explain what happened to Grimme and his companion. Hopefully, the information there will ease any tension left between us.”
The Ninge spoke, “We are grateful. It may be a long time before we meet again. We do not venture far from our homeworld. If we do meet again, it will be as friends.” As the humming started, the three Ninge bowed to the Atlantians, and disappeared into blue mist.
~ooOOOoo~
It was late on the day that the Ninge had come for their items. A tired, but happy, group of Atlantians was sitting in the outdoor dining area at the base of the tower. Snack dishes, coffee cups, water bottles littered the table in front of them.
“McKay, we never know what is going to happen next around here.” Sheppard was leaning back in his chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him.
“I must say colonel, before the expedition arrived the only danger we were in was from the Wraith.”
“Don’t want you guys to get bored.” Sheppard grinned. Jennifer was sitting next to him, and she got up from her chair to take her trash to the waste container. Sheppard reached out with his right hand and gently grabbed her left forearm.
“Good, looks like the bruises I gave you are all gone. Sorry about that.”
“No problem, but I believe that you were under the influence of Atlantis at the time. So I suppose if anyone is to blame for my bruises, it would be Atlantis.” She smiled as Sheppard let go of her arm and continued to the trash.
Sheppard was a bit surprised when he felt Atlantis enter his mind, “Does the healer really believe that I hurt her?”
He laughed and thought, “I don’t think she is angry, she just knows that you were trying to reach us to warn us. So I suppose in some way, it was you, directing me to stop her so that they would listen to you.”
“Interesting. I have never been accused of hurting someone before, certainly not intentionally. I shall have to consider this. Perhaps it would be a useful tool when I feel my systems being tampered with. I am satisfied that this situation with the Ninge was resolved.”
“So are we, Atlantis, but we couldn’t have done it without you.” He felt the calming presence of Atlantis leave him at that point.
As they parted, Sheppard was thinking that he pitied the next engineer who fiddled with Atlantis’ circuits. Atlantis was realizing that the hollowness she felt when the Ninge had occupied her was gone. She could now communicate with John Sheppard, and that made her feel content.
The end…
Hope you enjoyed! I would love to hear from you, regardless.