Chapter 1: Atlantis Begins

November 2nd, 2009

14:00, Time in San Francisco, CA, USA

Atlantis Briefing room

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard should have been tidying up the mess that was his new office within Atlantis after the less than graceful landing when the city's intercom went off, alerting him to the incoming wormhole. Since Richard Woolsey left command of the city to him, and all wormholes being directed to Atlantis with its newer gate, he was unable to complete any work for himself. He was busy getting a rundown of the next week's missions, with Colonel Samantha Carter, Colonel Steven Caldwell, and General Jack O'Neill, when Rodney came bursting in.

"I've done it. No need for congratulations, but I will be taking my Nobel prize now."

"What are you on about? Is this about your and Zelena's super-secret project that you kept screaming about when everyone tried to walk into your room?" Sheppard decided to speak since everyone else seemed as confused as himself.

"Well yes, I thought that with all the people from the SGC coming here for the database, I wouldn't get any work done so I went through the information about the wormhole drive. I've found a way to dial the 9-chevron address from here. I mean the power requirements will almost definitely drain the ZPMs, but we could open a wormhole to get us there, or at least part of the way anyway. Well at least four fifths of the way there."

Then, Dr. Zelenka ran suddenly, panting and muttering under his breath "Zabiju ho, neznesitelnou zadek. Je příliš mnoho, než ho požádat, aby ocenil ostatní? You had to just run off ahead didn't you. I told you The ZPMs would be depleted before we got anywhere close to the location of the Destiny, and no ZPMs mean no power, no power means no shield and no shield means the atmosphere would disappear the moment we dropped out."

"Well yes, but that's why we bring the Hammond and the Daedalus. We can have them land on one of the piers while we fly the city there, we drop out before the limit, one of the ships goes for the Destiny whilst the other helps locate a suitable planet for us to land on." Rodney counters, "We can get people to look at the Destiny's star charts and scout them out for the planets we need."

John could see where this was going, but before he could voice his concern Jack spoke "The IOA wont allow it. The best place for Atlantis is either here, or back in Pegasus, and personally, I think it should go back to Pegasus. However the IOA disagrees, so we're trying to come up with a way to get it back there, which you should also be helping with instead of working on a wild goose chase!"

"But if Sam could just look over the calculations she would tell you that …"

"You have your answer McKay! Now go and think of a way to help the inhabitants of the Pegasus galaxy."

Rodney then begrudgingly left, deliberately leaving his tablet for Sam to see, pulling Zelenka along behind him complaining about lack of understanding for his work.

Sam started to look through the work on the tablet when her eyes widened, she look directly at Jack, "Sir, with all due respect, I think we should try this, with the Destiny being controlled by the expedition, we could make the trip there. With the ZPM from the Odyssey, and the Neutrino Ion generators being installed on our ships, we should make it back in a few months. We'd have to start from the outer rim of our galaxy and with the all the power systems combined. It could work, we could get our people home Jack."

"I won't sign off on a mission like this but if you think it'll work I won't stop you. I'll keep the damn bureaucrats off your back until you get back, Woolsey could help as well if I tell him, he'll let Camile Wray know once we get your confirmation that your on your way there. I'll expect a signal when you get to the edge of the Galaxy. If I don't hear from you there will be hell to pay. " Jack replied, albeit reluctantly. "Is there anyone you want onboard before you disappear?"

"Well sir, if you can spare them," Sam started, "SG-1 would come in handy."

"I think that Atlantis could do with SG-1 expertise with all the Ancient doohickeys around here, and as such this will be their current assignment for the foreseeable future,"Jack confidently announced to the room.

"Now I'm not an expert on the 'Gate, but won't a wormhole stop us from opening the cities hyperdrive? So, is there any way to reroute them back to the SGC, without drawing attention to ourselves?" Steven piped up.

"Well with having the city cloaked, and all the wormholes, along with the travel here, the city is about to lose power. We'll have to move it off world and the IOA will agree with that won't they General" John asked. Everyone looked at each other with small smiles starting to form on their faces. "I don't want to inflate his ego anymore than it already is, but shouldn't Rodney and Radek be here to know before you go sir?"

"Let it be a surprise for everyone else. They'll all go along with you." Jack got up and started to leave. "Well, the last conversation never happened, and I'm late for meeting with the IOA, I'll mention about the power problems you're having Colonel. Good luck. Colonel Ellis, beam me up now. You'll have about a week before they wise up and send someone here to check the power." With that he disappeared in the familiar white glow of the Asgard beaming technology.

November 4th, 2009

10:24, Time in San Francisco, CA, USA

Atlantis Control room

"Chuck are all systems ready for lift off?" John wandered out of his office and entered a room full of shocked people. "We need to set off now before the IOA sends their people here. I thought we had a week, not 2 days."

"Yes sir, all systems are ready. Just where are we going? If you don't mind me asking."

Before John could reply, Rodney came charging into the room just as the city began lifting off "What is going on here? Did you convince the IOA to let us go back?"

"... Not ... exactly," John began gripping the closest console to keep his balance, "Chuck can you get me city wide once we're free from the atmosphere? Everyone has the right to know what our plan is."

"Yes sir," Chuck activated a rarely used console to his left, "You're on."

"Attention, everyone. As you will have no doubt noticed by now, the city has lifted off. Many of you will be wondering why we have done this without telling you. The truth is ... the IOA haven't approved of this mission, but as those of you who have been here before will know, we don't leave anyone behind. Our mission is to get to use the wormhole drive to get to the Destiny and rescue them. However if any of you don't wish to continue with this it will not be held against you. We must get to the edge of the galaxy, so you will have 1 day to decide if you want to leave. I know that isn't as long as many of you would have liked, but the IOA will be sending ships after us, the Hammond and the Daedalus will not be among them, so we won't have much time after dialling the Alpha site. Thank you."

November 5th, 2009

10:30, Time in San Francisco, CA, USA

Atlantis 'Gate room

"I still can't believe you managed to convince the General to go along with this Sam," Rodney shouted as he dialled the Milky Way Alpha site, but before he could get all of the address in, the gate activated. "Off world activation. Shield's raised. How could they have found us?"

A video link was established with the other side, "Hello boys and girls, if you could lower the shield so I won't immediately die on the other side. Thanks."

"Um... General... not to sound ungrateful, but before we lower the shield, how did you know our address?" Steven queried his superior.

"Well Sam gave it to me in the message she sent. I say I'm going to the Tok'ra planet, and gate to you from there." When he was explaining this everyone nearby decided to pointedly look at her. "What, you think I'm just going to let you leave without me? Not. A. Chance. I wouldn't miss this for the world. I did get you about a month head start by directing them to Pegasus before I came here. Now will you please lower the shield for me?"

"There you go sir, shield is now off. Why did you want to come here?"

Jack just laughed, "You have no idea how boring the job of a pencil pusher is, do you McKay? I've missed being put here in the field, though I could do with the not getting shot at and the pay was nice."

"Yes, well we've still got to get these dozen people to the Alpha site before we can go."

Jack looked down to the gate, brow furrowing "Wait, you mean they don't want to stay? You do know that if you send them back we'll lose any head start we have if they know where we're going. The IOA may use the communication stones to put us on trial for treason when we reach the Destiny."

"If we reach the Destiny you mean." Sam spoke up sadly, drawing everyone, except Rodney's, attention "We don't have the Odysseys ZPM, so we may not make it all the way. We," She indicated to Rodney, " have been looking at the power requirements, and we won't make it all the way there without tying all the power systems together. Which may overload Atlantis's systems, or drain all the power from both ships and the ZPMs, but it's the only way to get us close enough, unfortunately it will be a one-way trip, not much of a rescue now."

"They're gone, we'll have about two hours before our 'ride' comes to pick us up. You'll have 1 and a half to tie the systems together. We have to be long gone before they get here. Get whoever you need to help you to make it happen. Is everyone clear on that."

A chorus of agreements went up around the room, and with that, they went around ensuring that they would be ready to leave.

November 5th, 2009

11:55, Time in San Francisco, CA, USA

Hammond Command Deck

"Is everyone ready for the this?" Sam asked over the radio to Steven, Jack, John, and McKay.

"We're ready Colonel, set it off."

With that she, and Major Marks activated the makeshift power conduits. "There. Rodney you should be good to go now."

"Colonel! Two ships have just dropped out of hyperspace," Marks announced, "Picking up their IFF. It's the Sun Tzu and the Odyssey. They're launching their 302s."

"Rodney, we need to go now. We have company."

"What?! I need at least two minutes for the capacitors to fully charge up or it will fry all the conduits in Atlantis. They shouldn't have got here this quickly."

Sam was about to respond but was interrupted by an incoming transmission from the Odyssey, "Atlantis personnel, this is Carl Strom, head of the IOA, you will surrender yourselves to us immediately or we will open fire."

"Marks open a communication channel to both the Odyssey and the Sun Tzu," Sam was hoping to stall for time in order for Rodney to get them out of there. "This is Samantha Carter we will consider surrender if you recall your 302s..." she was stopped by two Asgard beams as they impacted Atlantis's shield.

"Damn it. Rodney get us out NOW!"

"Did they just fire at us? I didn't think they'd open fire at us. Getting us out now, before they kill us." Atlantis, and the two docked ships then lurched into the unstable vortex and nearly immediately dropped out.

"Rodney what happened, we weren't in there for nearly long enough. Where did we end up?" her only response was static, "Marks report."

"All systems apart from life support and shields are unresponsive, hyperdrive and transporters are disabled, sublight, weapons and communications have minor damage, we're unable to get a fix on our current location as of yet." As Marks was saying this, two large metal arms came into view of the ship.

"Major, run a scan on that thing, and the rest of you concentrate on fixing the ship, I want to be able to communicate with Atlantis and the Daedalus."

A/N: I apologise for the Czech Zelenka says, I had to use Google Translate for it, as I tried to keep all of them in character from the show, and I don't understand Czech. Here is the English version.

"I'll kill him, the unbearable ass. Is it too much to ask him to appreciate others?"