SGA - I Knew You Could
Two more to go...
Title: I Knew You Could
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Bit of Crack
Length: ~ 3,700 words
Rating: PG
Synopsis: Stranded far from the Gate on a planet far from home, the team must find a way back. [See, I even made it sound serious...]
Author’s Notes: For the cliche_bingo entry “crossover: books/literary” - I chose SGA crossed with “The Little Engine That Could.” It so counts. *nods*
Disclaimer: Not mine, they belong to people with far more money than me. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Can you get us back?” Sheppard asked, looking over his shoulder at the little glowing screen.
Rodney shrugged him off and tried to pull up another schematic. “Shouldn’t the first question be, I don’t know, something like ‘Where are we?’” He typed in another command and glared at the results, adding, “Which, incidentally, the answer would be ‘I don’t know.’”
John sighed and backed away to give him some room to work. “Why don’t we see if there’s a way out of this place, or at least something to tell us just where we ended up?” he suggested.
“Yeah, you do that,” Rodney waved him off. He only half-listened to Sheppard divvy up their resources: Ronon would come exploring with him while Teyla stayed with Rodney on the off chance something huge and evil was lurking about trying to kill them all. Rodney kind of doubted it, but learned speaking up about such things just invited them to sneak up and bite you in the ass.
He was getting nothing out of the terminal he had started with, so he turned to look for something else to try. There really wasn’t much. A handful of terminals and a locked door seemed to be all this place had to offer, with a little corridor to the side leading to another set of locked doors. The only thing of interest so far was the circular platform in the center; the same platform that they had appeared upon after stepping near a similar platform in the ruins of some supposed temple that he now was thinking was actually some sort of Ancient lab or something similar.
A few more minutes with the terminals and he knew it was hopeless. Whatever had sent them here had apparently used up its power supply in the process. There was no way they were simply transporting back with the push of a button. Given that he managed to get an inkling of their location out of one of the terminals before it died, that meant a hell of a lot of walking to get back to the Gate, as in days, as in through some pretty nasty terrain, unless he could find something better.
He decided to work on the locked door as there really was nothing else left to do. There was a faint energy reading coming from beyond it, which could mean another platform, or it could mean a bomb ready to kill them all. He wouldn’t know until he got through, which was proving just a tad bit more difficult than he had thought it would be.
Finally, the door slid open and revealed its prize. He smiled, shaking his head, already running any and all scans he could think of.
“What is it?” Teyla asked as she approached. Her gun was at the ready and her head was cocked to the side as if trying to figure it out.
It was then he realized she had no frame of reference for what was so very obvious to himself. “This,” he said, gesturing to the contraption sitting in the center of a warehouse-sized room. “Is our ticket home.”
She nodded as if she understood and keyed her radio to advise Sheppard and Ronon that he had found something. She then started to circle around the front, the same curious expression on her face. “Is it Ancient?” she asked, hand reaching out to press against the oddly metal structure.
“Ancient and ancient,” Rodney confirmed. He found a latch and pressed inward, allowing a panel to slide open and reveal what hid inside.
It was large, spacious enough to hold the entire team and then some. He was about to step through to get to the guts of the thing when he heard Sheppard approaching. “So, Rodney, Teyla says you found a way to beam us back?”
“Think less ‘Star Trek’ and more ‘Agatha Christie’,” he shouted in response, turning around in time to see his friend’s reaction as he passed through the propped open doorway.
“Is that...?” John asked, trailing off as he took everything in.
Rodney nodded gleefully. The bluish car-like structure with its multiple wheels, multiple boxy add-ons, and something that looked suspiciously like a smokestack stood before them in all its glory. “Chuga-chuga-choo-choo!” he grinned.
John beamed back at him. “That is so awesome.” He circled around to where Teyla had been, and then back again. “Can you get it to work?”
“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Rodney replied, stepping inside.
The entire thing lit up around him, revealing lights and gadgets and screens. He sat down in the conveniently placed chair in the center, and got to work. He pulled up schematic after schematic, reconnecting long dead conduits and rerouting auxiliary power to the main connection. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was fairly certain he could steer this thing and plot a course back to the Gate.
That was, of course, when it talked to him.
He did not understand it at first but, after the third try, he recognized it as a version of the original Alteran language. He could have slapped himself as he realized the same message had been flashing across the bottom of the main screen for the past half hour. One standard language algorithm later, and he could finally understand it.
“How may I assist you, Engineer?” it asked.
“You have a verbal interface?” he verified.
“Of course,” it replied.
“Are you able to respond to commands and reroute energy as needed for specific functions?” he asked, ignoring the way Sheppard had burst into the main cabin at the sound of another voice.
“Of course,” it replied.
He typed in the coordinates of the Gate and asked, “Can you get us here?”
A little blue bar appeared on the screen for a moment before being replaced by a map of not only where they were in relation to the Gate, but the best path to travel between the two points. “It will be difficult given the current power capabilities, but I believe it is possible to accomplish,” it replied.
“The correct phrasing is ‘I think I can,’” John told it as he was pure evil and against any form of logic and order in Rodney’s life.
“Apologies,” the system replied. “I think I can.”
Rodney glared at John. “I hate you.”
Ronon looked to Teyla, who simply shrugged. “Earth joke,” he sighed, receiving an answering nod for his troubles.
Rodney set up a few more subroutines, a process made a thousand times easier by having a viable AI helping him and able to respond to requests instead of digging around and making the connections manually. Finally, he looked up at the less than patient faces of the rest of his team. “Should we take it for a spin?” he asked.
“Don’t want to spin, want to go home,” Ronon told him.
Rodney rolled his eyes and gestured towards the large doors that led to what, if his readings were correct, a rather chilly outside. “Go make yourself useful and pry those things open,” he ordered, turning back to a few final adjustments.
“Allow me,” the train replied and, sure enough, the doors slid open effortlessly, millennia of dust and muck falling at the wayside.
“Okay, that’s helpful,” John admitted. He peeked out at a rather barren and chilly landscape and must have noticed the same thing Rodney did at about the same time. “Ah, McKay?” he started.
“Working on it,” Rodney promised, pulling up several schematics. The tracks almost instantly disappeared beneath layers of dirt and grass, and it was fairly obvious the landscape had changed drastically since the last time this thing was taken for a ride. He was not finding what he needed, so he finally just broke down and asked. The answer surprised him.
“The tracks are guidelines for my subroutines to follow and simply ensure I am following the prescribed path. I am capable of hovering up to five lengths above the tracks in standard terrain, given the allowance of closer intervals to reset the connection after no more than twenty one lengths,” the train assured him.
“Huh,” he said, more to himself than to the machine. “That’s pretty convenient.”
“Extremely so,” the train agreed.
Finding no other complaints or concerns at this time, Rodney signaled the others to board so they could get on their way. It was a several hour trip at best, and he was not positive things were up and running at their optimum settings. It would have to do though as the alternative was to walk for days through unknown landscapes with extremely limited supplies.
Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon climbed aboard, the door sliding securely shut behind them. Seats folded effortlessly out of the walls even as the hum of the engines ratcheted up another level. It was not going to be a silent trip but again, they could make due.
The train shook a bit as it pulled itself out of the equivalent of a couple thousand years worth of dry dock. Once out of the storage station, it seemed to bask in the weak sunlight for a moment, another subtle hum joining the first. Rodney checked the readings to find it was charging solar batteries that could serve as a back up power supply, and it stuttered forward again once they reached thirty percent capacity. As if solely to prove its earlier point, the magnetic drive kicked it, raising the car until it was approximately a meter off the tracks before starting forward in earnest.
The first several kilometers were relatively simple flat terrain, and Rodney used the opportunity to look into just how things were working while the structure was in active mode. The landscape was, frankly, boring so he concentrated instead on power readings and hull integrity and trying to figure out whether or not the fact the main car still being connected to several smaller cars was slowing it down or actually helping given that some of the solar batteries were stored three cars down.
About an hour and a half in, they reached their first impasse. Sometime in the recent pass, a gentle stream had turned into a raging river and what had once been a signal booster was now hanging off a steel and stone beam, clearly no longer functioning. “Can you get us across?” Rodney asked, checking the readings.
“I think I can,” the train confirmed. Rodney ignored John’s smirk at the words.
The train edged forward just a bit hesitantly. It lowered itself slightly, still hovering above the water, but a bit closer to the original tracks to reinforce the connection and keep the power loop going. They were three quarters of the way across when the water unexpectedly surged upwards, engulfing one of the power panels on the rear car and sending a shock of electricity along the length of the entire structure.
Rodney did not get the chance to ask whether or not the train thought it could complete the crossing, watching as a sort of shielding slid in place and the power levels briefly surged. “I think I can still make it,” the train advised and, sure enough, they were across before the next wave hit.
He wanted to take a moment on the other side to run a diagnostic on the power systems, especially those of the final car in particular, but the train insisted it would be more detrimental than beneficial to stop now, given the momentum needed to get started again. Reluctantly, Rodney allowed it, but was determined to keep a close eye on the readings just in case.
They trudged along again until they reached a rock outcropping. It was obvious there had been a cave through it at one point, but there was a fair amount of growth and debris blocking the main entrance now. Ronon offered to hop out and clear it by hand, but the train offered an even better solution. “I think the sonic resonator should be able to clear it sufficiently,” it told them, already powering up the process.
Rodney had to admit that sounded pretty cool, and so he let her at it. One blast later, and both the cave entrance and the tracks themselves were visible once more.
She pulled forward, lighting systems on full to allow him to see through the bitter darkness. The walls of the cave were a rich black stone, and the lights randomly reflected off something that looked suspiciously like veins of ore deep within. There was still a bit of debris on the track along the way, but she was able to stay mostly close enough for the power loop to run at near maximum, which was a good thing as whatever the ore was happened to be blocking a fair amount of the sensors so Rodney had no idea what was coming next until the light shone upon it.
The end of the tunnel was met with the same problem as the beginning of the tunnel, and Rodney authorized another sonic blast. He realized this was perhaps not the best thing to do while still in the tunnel itself as he heard several large rocks bounce off the hull and skitter away before they made it through.
Back out in the fading sunlight, he pointblank asked the train if there were any structural issues. It insisted it was fine, offering sensor reading to back up the claims and, when asked if it believed it could complete the journey, it answered with another, “I think I can.” Rodney smacked John in the arm for that.
They traveled for another several hours, Rodney nearly lulled to sleep by the gentle chugging hum of the systems. When he gazed out the window to see the shadow of a huge, nearly mountainous, set of hills barely visible in the light of the twin moons, he amended the thought to admit he had possible passed out after all, given that he didn’t remember seeing them after the tunnel.
“Crap,” he sighed, looking at the map of tracks versus the pile of rocks in the valley between the ranges. Sometime in the past millennia there had been an avalanche or five, slowly building up enough debris to form an almost mini-range. It had been long enough that there were even trees and bushes growing in the dirt that had filtered between the rocks.
“Don’t suppose was could go around it?” Sheppard tried, grabbing the track schematics for himself.
“That is not possible,” the train confirmed.
“Are there any other paths that might be a bit less steep?” he asked.
“None at this time,” was the response.
Rodney decided it was up to him to ask the direct question. “Can you get us over this?”
“I think I can,” the train replied. He could have sworn the voice sounded... hesitant. Could AI sound hesitant? Did he really want it to?
He ran a scan and compared it to the map once more. “The debris is pretty thick in some areas,” he admitted. “The connection with the tracks will be minimal. Are you sure you can do this without the feedback for your subroutines and the power loop?”
There was a pause, and he really hoped it was just calculating at this point, and then a voice sounding suspiciously like it was trying to convince itself said, “I think I can.”
Rodney sighed. The worst that could happen was the thing died out half way up and they were forced to walk the rest of the way on foot. Not a pleasant experience, he was sure, but far better than having to make the whole thing so far, so there was that. He did not really have much of a choice anyway as the damned thing was already beginning the ascent.
He knew the exact point where the connection to the tracks began to weaken as the car began to shake. He checked the power levels and found them lower than expected, and already falling. The solar batteries were already being drained and could not be replenished until the sun came up, which he quite frankly was not sure when that would be because he never thought he’d be on this planet long enough to find out.
He had a sneaking suspicion that they were basically coasting from point to point, the train making a power connection with the tracks whenever she could, and then sailing on the results for as long as possible. Any time he asked any question though, he’d get the same damned answer.
They were nearly three-fourths the way to the summit when he realized his earlier prediction might not have been correct. The power levels were frighteningly low and it did not look like there were any sizable connection points forthcoming. He did not even want to estimate the grade they were currently climbing, but was forced to as they began to slip backward down the hill, the weight of the extra cars pulling them down.
“Brake!” he ordered.
“That would disrupt the momentum,” the train argued back.
“What momentum? We’re falling backward!” he pointed out.
“I think it is still possible to reach the summit,” the train told him.
“What?” he asked, not seeing how going in reverse somehow equated to reaching a goal.
“I think I can do it,” the train repeated.
Rodney ran a hand over his face, thinking unkind thoughts about stubborn programming until he got an idea. He snapped his fingers and tried, “What about the other cars? You could release them and not have to fight against them.”
The train sounded aghast. “I will not leave part of me behind,” she insisted.
“But,” Rodney protested, watching both power levels and elevation fall.
“I think I can do it,” the train maintained.
They had fallen past one of the connection points and were approaching the next. She clung on, making a connection and recharging what she could while fighting the draw of gravity. Without warning, she started crawling forward again, long body drawing out as much of the connection as possible, offering as much to her energy stores as she could. At the last possible moment, she surged upwards, letting the momentum take her to the next connection where she repeated the process.
It was clear the systems were not designed for this kind of stress. Lights were flashing in warning and alarms were beeping until Rodney found a way to turn them off. He tried to reason with the train even as he attempted to maximize power usage, but found the AI was either shorted out or stuck in a feedback loop as she kept repeating her new little mantra, stuttering it out as the systems began to dim once more.
Then, finally, something went right.
The sun began to peek over the tops of the mountains, letting a thin trickle of light find its way to illuminate the path. More importantly, it let the thin little trickle of light hit the solar cells, which sucked up the energy like a starving child. With one last final pitch forward, they were at the summit, gazing through the near blinding light at the beautiful valley below.
Systems came back online one by one until finally, the voice declared strongly and clearly, “I knew I could.”
Resolving that John was so paying for that, somehow, in some way, and possibly soon, Rodney flopped back in his chair and enjoyed the rushing descent down the mountainside, only checking three times that the brakes were still online.
It did not take them long to reach the Gate after that, the train pulling up beside the little circle that had transported them away and started the whole thing in the first place. With a note of distaste, she explained that was the reason she had been placed in dry dock, at least until they determined certain items should not be transported in that manner as it made the systems unstable. Unfortunately, shortly after resuming service, something had happened and the settlers had left, leaving both the transporter system and the train behind.
Part of her little speech had caught Rodney’s attention and he stepped out of the car and walked down to the next one, keying it open in much the same manner as the first. His heart sped up as he realized they had just reached the jackpot. Inside, laid out in neat little containers, were row after row of Ancient devices, most looking like they had never even been used and some even coming with data pads explaining their purpose.
He nearly had a heart attack when he opened the next car and found, pleasantly inert and neatly packaged, a ZedPM that looked like it was straight off the production floor. He cradled it to him and babbled promises of sending engineers to bring the train back to its full shining glory if the thing had even half a charge.
“I would like that,” the train told him. “It has been too long since I have had an engineer of my own,” she admitted.
Knowing that, no matter what, they would be sending a crew back at this point, if for no other reason than to see what else was in storage at the station, Rodney grinned and said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
The train made a chirping sound as if pleased and announced, “It was extremely pleasant working with you, Engineer McKay.”
“And you as well,” he returned, surprising himself by meaning it. He patted her gently on the side, and slapped Sheppard’s hand away from the ZedPM, ordering him to make himself useful and dial the Gate.
Teyla and Ronon grinned at each other as the blue light washed over the valley. Turning to offer the metal structure a pat of her own, Rodney heard her whisper, “You have been very patient with us all. I hope you are willing to put up with us again some time.”
The lights brightened somewhat and Rodney swore he heard a smile to the tone as the train replied, “I think I can.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is always welcomed.
Title: I Knew You Could
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Bit of Crack
Length: ~ 3,700 words
Rating: PG
Synopsis: Stranded far from the Gate on a planet far from home, the team must find a way back. [See, I even made it sound serious...]
Author’s Notes: For the cliche_bingo entry “crossover: books/literary” - I chose SGA crossed with “The Little Engine That Could.” It so counts. *nods*
Disclaimer: Not mine, they belong to people with far more money than me. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Can you get us back?” Sheppard asked, looking over his shoulder at the little glowing screen.
Rodney shrugged him off and tried to pull up another schematic. “Shouldn’t the first question be, I don’t know, something like ‘Where are we?’” He typed in another command and glared at the results, adding, “Which, incidentally, the answer would be ‘I don’t know.’”
John sighed and backed away to give him some room to work. “Why don’t we see if there’s a way out of this place, or at least something to tell us just where we ended up?” he suggested.
“Yeah, you do that,” Rodney waved him off. He only half-listened to Sheppard divvy up their resources: Ronon would come exploring with him while Teyla stayed with Rodney on the off chance something huge and evil was lurking about trying to kill them all. Rodney kind of doubted it, but learned speaking up about such things just invited them to sneak up and bite you in the ass.
He was getting nothing out of the terminal he had started with, so he turned to look for something else to try. There really wasn’t much. A handful of terminals and a locked door seemed to be all this place had to offer, with a little corridor to the side leading to another set of locked doors. The only thing of interest so far was the circular platform in the center; the same platform that they had appeared upon after stepping near a similar platform in the ruins of some supposed temple that he now was thinking was actually some sort of Ancient lab or something similar.
A few more minutes with the terminals and he knew it was hopeless. Whatever had sent them here had apparently used up its power supply in the process. There was no way they were simply transporting back with the push of a button. Given that he managed to get an inkling of their location out of one of the terminals before it died, that meant a hell of a lot of walking to get back to the Gate, as in days, as in through some pretty nasty terrain, unless he could find something better.
He decided to work on the locked door as there really was nothing else left to do. There was a faint energy reading coming from beyond it, which could mean another platform, or it could mean a bomb ready to kill them all. He wouldn’t know until he got through, which was proving just a tad bit more difficult than he had thought it would be.
Finally, the door slid open and revealed its prize. He smiled, shaking his head, already running any and all scans he could think of.
“What is it?” Teyla asked as she approached. Her gun was at the ready and her head was cocked to the side as if trying to figure it out.
It was then he realized she had no frame of reference for what was so very obvious to himself. “This,” he said, gesturing to the contraption sitting in the center of a warehouse-sized room. “Is our ticket home.”
She nodded as if she understood and keyed her radio to advise Sheppard and Ronon that he had found something. She then started to circle around the front, the same curious expression on her face. “Is it Ancient?” she asked, hand reaching out to press against the oddly metal structure.
“Ancient and ancient,” Rodney confirmed. He found a latch and pressed inward, allowing a panel to slide open and reveal what hid inside.
It was large, spacious enough to hold the entire team and then some. He was about to step through to get to the guts of the thing when he heard Sheppard approaching. “So, Rodney, Teyla says you found a way to beam us back?”
“Think less ‘Star Trek’ and more ‘Agatha Christie’,” he shouted in response, turning around in time to see his friend’s reaction as he passed through the propped open doorway.
“Is that...?” John asked, trailing off as he took everything in.
Rodney nodded gleefully. The bluish car-like structure with its multiple wheels, multiple boxy add-ons, and something that looked suspiciously like a smokestack stood before them in all its glory. “Chuga-chuga-choo-choo!” he grinned.
John beamed back at him. “That is so awesome.” He circled around to where Teyla had been, and then back again. “Can you get it to work?”
“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Rodney replied, stepping inside.
The entire thing lit up around him, revealing lights and gadgets and screens. He sat down in the conveniently placed chair in the center, and got to work. He pulled up schematic after schematic, reconnecting long dead conduits and rerouting auxiliary power to the main connection. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was fairly certain he could steer this thing and plot a course back to the Gate.
That was, of course, when it talked to him.
He did not understand it at first but, after the third try, he recognized it as a version of the original Alteran language. He could have slapped himself as he realized the same message had been flashing across the bottom of the main screen for the past half hour. One standard language algorithm later, and he could finally understand it.
“How may I assist you, Engineer?” it asked.
“You have a verbal interface?” he verified.
“Of course,” it replied.
“Are you able to respond to commands and reroute energy as needed for specific functions?” he asked, ignoring the way Sheppard had burst into the main cabin at the sound of another voice.
“Of course,” it replied.
He typed in the coordinates of the Gate and asked, “Can you get us here?”
A little blue bar appeared on the screen for a moment before being replaced by a map of not only where they were in relation to the Gate, but the best path to travel between the two points. “It will be difficult given the current power capabilities, but I believe it is possible to accomplish,” it replied.
“The correct phrasing is ‘I think I can,’” John told it as he was pure evil and against any form of logic and order in Rodney’s life.
“Apologies,” the system replied. “I think I can.”
Rodney glared at John. “I hate you.”
Ronon looked to Teyla, who simply shrugged. “Earth joke,” he sighed, receiving an answering nod for his troubles.
Rodney set up a few more subroutines, a process made a thousand times easier by having a viable AI helping him and able to respond to requests instead of digging around and making the connections manually. Finally, he looked up at the less than patient faces of the rest of his team. “Should we take it for a spin?” he asked.
“Don’t want to spin, want to go home,” Ronon told him.
Rodney rolled his eyes and gestured towards the large doors that led to what, if his readings were correct, a rather chilly outside. “Go make yourself useful and pry those things open,” he ordered, turning back to a few final adjustments.
“Allow me,” the train replied and, sure enough, the doors slid open effortlessly, millennia of dust and muck falling at the wayside.
“Okay, that’s helpful,” John admitted. He peeked out at a rather barren and chilly landscape and must have noticed the same thing Rodney did at about the same time. “Ah, McKay?” he started.
“Working on it,” Rodney promised, pulling up several schematics. The tracks almost instantly disappeared beneath layers of dirt and grass, and it was fairly obvious the landscape had changed drastically since the last time this thing was taken for a ride. He was not finding what he needed, so he finally just broke down and asked. The answer surprised him.
“The tracks are guidelines for my subroutines to follow and simply ensure I am following the prescribed path. I am capable of hovering up to five lengths above the tracks in standard terrain, given the allowance of closer intervals to reset the connection after no more than twenty one lengths,” the train assured him.
“Huh,” he said, more to himself than to the machine. “That’s pretty convenient.”
“Extremely so,” the train agreed.
Finding no other complaints or concerns at this time, Rodney signaled the others to board so they could get on their way. It was a several hour trip at best, and he was not positive things were up and running at their optimum settings. It would have to do though as the alternative was to walk for days through unknown landscapes with extremely limited supplies.
Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon climbed aboard, the door sliding securely shut behind them. Seats folded effortlessly out of the walls even as the hum of the engines ratcheted up another level. It was not going to be a silent trip but again, they could make due.
The train shook a bit as it pulled itself out of the equivalent of a couple thousand years worth of dry dock. Once out of the storage station, it seemed to bask in the weak sunlight for a moment, another subtle hum joining the first. Rodney checked the readings to find it was charging solar batteries that could serve as a back up power supply, and it stuttered forward again once they reached thirty percent capacity. As if solely to prove its earlier point, the magnetic drive kicked it, raising the car until it was approximately a meter off the tracks before starting forward in earnest.
The first several kilometers were relatively simple flat terrain, and Rodney used the opportunity to look into just how things were working while the structure was in active mode. The landscape was, frankly, boring so he concentrated instead on power readings and hull integrity and trying to figure out whether or not the fact the main car still being connected to several smaller cars was slowing it down or actually helping given that some of the solar batteries were stored three cars down.
About an hour and a half in, they reached their first impasse. Sometime in the recent pass, a gentle stream had turned into a raging river and what had once been a signal booster was now hanging off a steel and stone beam, clearly no longer functioning. “Can you get us across?” Rodney asked, checking the readings.
“I think I can,” the train confirmed. Rodney ignored John’s smirk at the words.
The train edged forward just a bit hesitantly. It lowered itself slightly, still hovering above the water, but a bit closer to the original tracks to reinforce the connection and keep the power loop going. They were three quarters of the way across when the water unexpectedly surged upwards, engulfing one of the power panels on the rear car and sending a shock of electricity along the length of the entire structure.
Rodney did not get the chance to ask whether or not the train thought it could complete the crossing, watching as a sort of shielding slid in place and the power levels briefly surged. “I think I can still make it,” the train advised and, sure enough, they were across before the next wave hit.
He wanted to take a moment on the other side to run a diagnostic on the power systems, especially those of the final car in particular, but the train insisted it would be more detrimental than beneficial to stop now, given the momentum needed to get started again. Reluctantly, Rodney allowed it, but was determined to keep a close eye on the readings just in case.
They trudged along again until they reached a rock outcropping. It was obvious there had been a cave through it at one point, but there was a fair amount of growth and debris blocking the main entrance now. Ronon offered to hop out and clear it by hand, but the train offered an even better solution. “I think the sonic resonator should be able to clear it sufficiently,” it told them, already powering up the process.
Rodney had to admit that sounded pretty cool, and so he let her at it. One blast later, and both the cave entrance and the tracks themselves were visible once more.
She pulled forward, lighting systems on full to allow him to see through the bitter darkness. The walls of the cave were a rich black stone, and the lights randomly reflected off something that looked suspiciously like veins of ore deep within. There was still a bit of debris on the track along the way, but she was able to stay mostly close enough for the power loop to run at near maximum, which was a good thing as whatever the ore was happened to be blocking a fair amount of the sensors so Rodney had no idea what was coming next until the light shone upon it.
The end of the tunnel was met with the same problem as the beginning of the tunnel, and Rodney authorized another sonic blast. He realized this was perhaps not the best thing to do while still in the tunnel itself as he heard several large rocks bounce off the hull and skitter away before they made it through.
Back out in the fading sunlight, he pointblank asked the train if there were any structural issues. It insisted it was fine, offering sensor reading to back up the claims and, when asked if it believed it could complete the journey, it answered with another, “I think I can.” Rodney smacked John in the arm for that.
They traveled for another several hours, Rodney nearly lulled to sleep by the gentle chugging hum of the systems. When he gazed out the window to see the shadow of a huge, nearly mountainous, set of hills barely visible in the light of the twin moons, he amended the thought to admit he had possible passed out after all, given that he didn’t remember seeing them after the tunnel.
“Crap,” he sighed, looking at the map of tracks versus the pile of rocks in the valley between the ranges. Sometime in the past millennia there had been an avalanche or five, slowly building up enough debris to form an almost mini-range. It had been long enough that there were even trees and bushes growing in the dirt that had filtered between the rocks.
“Don’t suppose was could go around it?” Sheppard tried, grabbing the track schematics for himself.
“That is not possible,” the train confirmed.
“Are there any other paths that might be a bit less steep?” he asked.
“None at this time,” was the response.
Rodney decided it was up to him to ask the direct question. “Can you get us over this?”
“I think I can,” the train replied. He could have sworn the voice sounded... hesitant. Could AI sound hesitant? Did he really want it to?
He ran a scan and compared it to the map once more. “The debris is pretty thick in some areas,” he admitted. “The connection with the tracks will be minimal. Are you sure you can do this without the feedback for your subroutines and the power loop?”
There was a pause, and he really hoped it was just calculating at this point, and then a voice sounding suspiciously like it was trying to convince itself said, “I think I can.”
Rodney sighed. The worst that could happen was the thing died out half way up and they were forced to walk the rest of the way on foot. Not a pleasant experience, he was sure, but far better than having to make the whole thing so far, so there was that. He did not really have much of a choice anyway as the damned thing was already beginning the ascent.
He knew the exact point where the connection to the tracks began to weaken as the car began to shake. He checked the power levels and found them lower than expected, and already falling. The solar batteries were already being drained and could not be replenished until the sun came up, which he quite frankly was not sure when that would be because he never thought he’d be on this planet long enough to find out.
He had a sneaking suspicion that they were basically coasting from point to point, the train making a power connection with the tracks whenever she could, and then sailing on the results for as long as possible. Any time he asked any question though, he’d get the same damned answer.
They were nearly three-fourths the way to the summit when he realized his earlier prediction might not have been correct. The power levels were frighteningly low and it did not look like there were any sizable connection points forthcoming. He did not even want to estimate the grade they were currently climbing, but was forced to as they began to slip backward down the hill, the weight of the extra cars pulling them down.
“Brake!” he ordered.
“That would disrupt the momentum,” the train argued back.
“What momentum? We’re falling backward!” he pointed out.
“I think it is still possible to reach the summit,” the train told him.
“What?” he asked, not seeing how going in reverse somehow equated to reaching a goal.
“I think I can do it,” the train repeated.
Rodney ran a hand over his face, thinking unkind thoughts about stubborn programming until he got an idea. He snapped his fingers and tried, “What about the other cars? You could release them and not have to fight against them.”
The train sounded aghast. “I will not leave part of me behind,” she insisted.
“But,” Rodney protested, watching both power levels and elevation fall.
“I think I can do it,” the train maintained.
They had fallen past one of the connection points and were approaching the next. She clung on, making a connection and recharging what she could while fighting the draw of gravity. Without warning, she started crawling forward again, long body drawing out as much of the connection as possible, offering as much to her energy stores as she could. At the last possible moment, she surged upwards, letting the momentum take her to the next connection where she repeated the process.
It was clear the systems were not designed for this kind of stress. Lights were flashing in warning and alarms were beeping until Rodney found a way to turn them off. He tried to reason with the train even as he attempted to maximize power usage, but found the AI was either shorted out or stuck in a feedback loop as she kept repeating her new little mantra, stuttering it out as the systems began to dim once more.
Then, finally, something went right.
The sun began to peek over the tops of the mountains, letting a thin trickle of light find its way to illuminate the path. More importantly, it let the thin little trickle of light hit the solar cells, which sucked up the energy like a starving child. With one last final pitch forward, they were at the summit, gazing through the near blinding light at the beautiful valley below.
Systems came back online one by one until finally, the voice declared strongly and clearly, “I knew I could.”
Resolving that John was so paying for that, somehow, in some way, and possibly soon, Rodney flopped back in his chair and enjoyed the rushing descent down the mountainside, only checking three times that the brakes were still online.
It did not take them long to reach the Gate after that, the train pulling up beside the little circle that had transported them away and started the whole thing in the first place. With a note of distaste, she explained that was the reason she had been placed in dry dock, at least until they determined certain items should not be transported in that manner as it made the systems unstable. Unfortunately, shortly after resuming service, something had happened and the settlers had left, leaving both the transporter system and the train behind.
Part of her little speech had caught Rodney’s attention and he stepped out of the car and walked down to the next one, keying it open in much the same manner as the first. His heart sped up as he realized they had just reached the jackpot. Inside, laid out in neat little containers, were row after row of Ancient devices, most looking like they had never even been used and some even coming with data pads explaining their purpose.
He nearly had a heart attack when he opened the next car and found, pleasantly inert and neatly packaged, a ZedPM that looked like it was straight off the production floor. He cradled it to him and babbled promises of sending engineers to bring the train back to its full shining glory if the thing had even half a charge.
“I would like that,” the train told him. “It has been too long since I have had an engineer of my own,” she admitted.
Knowing that, no matter what, they would be sending a crew back at this point, if for no other reason than to see what else was in storage at the station, Rodney grinned and said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
The train made a chirping sound as if pleased and announced, “It was extremely pleasant working with you, Engineer McKay.”
“And you as well,” he returned, surprising himself by meaning it. He patted her gently on the side, and slapped Sheppard’s hand away from the ZedPM, ordering him to make himself useful and dial the Gate.
Teyla and Ronon grinned at each other as the blue light washed over the valley. Turning to offer the metal structure a pat of her own, Rodney heard her whisper, “You have been very patient with us all. I hope you are willing to put up with us again some time.”
The lights brightened somewhat and Rodney swore he heard a smile to the tone as the train replied, “I think I can.”
~~~~~~~~~~
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