Hello everybody sorry for the delay I was having technical problems. I still have them but I've managed to work around them but now I am back and hopefully with a good chapter. I'll let you: the readers be the judge of that. Now on with the show. I own nothing.

Ch. 17

The past and present

Sometime after the events of Vedeenons visit and the brief wraith battle, the leader of Atlantis along with Atlantis 1 found themselves in the briefing room with most of them waiting for Rodney's presentation. Though only two in the room knew what was going to be in the presentation, everyone else was already used to Rodney's presentations as he did them whenever he found something of what he would describe as "Really, REALLY, cool" or something along that line. Either way it happened twice a month considering that the city they were stationed in held some of the most important knowledge in the known universe.

Before Rodney could get started colonel carter the leader of Atlantis asked. "Rodney why are we here? And better yet why are you not working on the replicator deactivation code?"

"let me explain. As you all know we have a new addition to Atlantis who has abilities similar to if not just like those of the ancients." He then gestures over to asura. "And I'm here to explain why." He then presses a button on a small remote in his hand which shows a picture of an ancient scientist. "project paladin. Started by an alteran scientist named Amelius, over a million years ago." He says this by holding up one finger while showing a picture of ancient on the giant screen behind him.

"now to further explain I have to go back in time and tell you of the ancients history, their technology, and their powers they attained through long periods of time. Now the alterans were first from a galaxy where like the Milky Way and later the Pegasus, were forced to abandon. And when they did they went to several galaxies over a course of thousands of years until they found the Milky Way and then Pegasus. And whenever they did come across those galaxies they found a unique energy signature in every single one. This energy signature could not be replicated by any machine or used as a fuel source."

"Whenever the ancients did find the energy the ancients could never understand why so, they assigned a group of their best scientist they could spare to finding out the answer to this. It was called the paladin project."

"Wait Rodney how'd you come across this information? We've spent years trying to find information like this, how'd you find it now?" asked colonel carter to Rodney. She then looked over to asura who was also sitting at the conference table. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Asura nods at this and says. "after Rodney showed me the part of the data base about the history of the ancients powers, I touched the consul and It just showed us this." Asura gestured to the screen showing a picture of Amelius.

"Why'd it do that?" colonel carter asked.

Asura shook her head as a sign that she didn't know and then Rodney said condescendingly. "Um hello trying to give a presentation here."

Colonel carter sighed annoyed and said. "I'm sorry Rodney please continues."

"ah thank you. Now" Rodney then pressed the same button on the remote causing another picture to appear showing images of galaxies. "the paladins where first appointed to the study of this new energy signature. And after several galaxies and several hundred years, the paladins were able to ascertain that the energy was more abundant in galaxies and worlds where life, more specifically sentient life, or semi sentient was abundant. Intrigued the paladin scientists tried to build machines that would help them understand and use it, other than just detect it. But unfortunately they all failed. But fortunately during this time other ancient scientists developed other radical technologies." Rodney then pushed the button again which showed an image of small metallic machines.

Colonel carter the only other scientist in the room asked. "Nanites?"

Rodney smiles at this and while pointing at his leader says. "Correct. Yes"

Tayla who has enough scientific knowledge to know what they are asks. "You mean like the same machines that make up the replicators?"

"No. these nanites are much more primitive, they were the predecessors of the replicator nanites, but were like I said much less complicated." Rodney answered back.

Colonel Shepard was losing his patients with is friend and his inability to stay on track asked. "How is this relevant to the paladin thing?"

"I'm getting to that. Now with this then new technology the paladins tried to use it to somehow affect the unique energy."

"Were they successful?" asked asura very curious.

"yes they were. But to better explain that let me show you why." Rodney then pressed the button on the remote again this time showing pictures of the biology and microbiology of an ancient person.

"the paladin scientist knew that whatever the energy was, it was generated by living things and whatever they made that was inorganic was ineffective. So! What they did was they injected a specific batch of nanites into their bodies calibrated to the specific frequency of the 'vim', as they called it."

Rodney then showed a pick of and ancient scientist holding his hand outward toward a box. "now after they did that the paladins were able to not only understand it but also control it, giving them several abilities thought to be impossible at the time." Rodney then pressed a different button on the remote showing that the pick of the ancient man was actually a video. The video showed that ancient man had telekinetic abilities and was moving the box.

This amazed everybody in the room, asura inparticular. After a few moments of a silence from the shocked audience, Ronan for the first time spoke. "He moved the box."

"How observant of you." Rodney joked.

"He, he moved the box with the force." Asura stated astonished.

"yes and that's not all they could do. Also like what asura said the jedi could do the ancients, along with telekinesis, had limited telepathy and enhanced coordination. But along with those abilities where healing abilities where they could not only heal themselves at rapid rate but also to others, and to add to the list of very awesome powers they could also foresee the future on rare occasions."

After a few seconds of silent amazement asura asked. "Is there anymore? That can't be all of it?"

"asura he just gave us the holy grail of how the ancients got their powers what more do you want?" asked colonel shepherd.

"listen I know it seems like a lot but to someone who has studied the force for as long as I have this is, well not that much. No offence Rodney." She gestured to Rodney.

"None taken."

"what Rodney said is only the start of it. There is a huge drawback to using the force if used improperly." Asura explained.

"like what?" Ronan asked.

Asura sighed and tried to explain. "Look when using the force while emotional, especially negative emotions, the force becomes addicting. Corrupting and twisting the person in question."

"like how?" colonel Shepard asked.

"they usually become homicidal, and will do anything to get more power. The sith were once jedi that were exiled for that very reason."

"yeah but that was just one group, wasn't it?" asked Rodney.

Asura shook her head and said. "No. it happens to every single jedi or force sensitive who uses the force like I described. They become bent on conquest and won't stop until they have crushed all resistance and are worshiped like gods by as many as possible." Asura then looked around the conference room only to again discover that again the people from the Milky Way galaxy seem to understand exactly what she was talking about. But not the people from Pegasus galaxy as both Tayla and Ronan were giving her a face that showed that they were trying to understand her but were having a hard time doing it.

Asura having lost her patients asked loudly. "Why do you guys look so understanding? What happened in the milky way?"

At first the people from the milky way seemed reluctant to answer but after seeing the also curious looks from Tayla and Ronan colonel carter answered. "What you just said is a pretty good description of the ori."

"and who were they?" asked Teyla.

Rodney answered this time saying. "the Ori were an offshoot of the ancients who used their powers and advanced technology to conquer their galaxy and tried to do the same to the milky way. We managed to fight them off but what you said sounds strikingly similar to what they did."

"the ori? Were they the parasitic aliens Mr. Woolsey mentioned?" asura asked remembering her interview with the NID agent.

Colonel Shepard spoke up this time explaining. "No those where the Goa'uld. They used technology to simulate abilities that would be thought of as divine power so that they would be worshiped by the primitive worlds of the Milky Way."

"yeah but how many primitive worlds could there. I mean you guys are pretty advanced." Asura said gesturing to colonel carter smiling.

Colonel carter, Shepard, Rodney then agree strangely with Rodney saying weakly. "Yeah…" he then gestures back to the screen and says. "Moving on." Rodney then presses the button again which showed a picture of an ancient scientist.

Rodney then says. "now like I was saying the paladins thanks to the nanites, were able conjure powers from the force or 'vim' as they called it. But after a short time the paladins tried to use it for weapons purposes."

"oh here It comes." Asura said.

"yeah." Rodney confirmed. He then showed a video of a similar ancient scientist from the first video testing his new powers. It starts like the one before it with the scientist moving the box a few feet, and then the scientist visibly looks tired and is forced to drop the box. Another more senior looking scientist walks up to him from behind and tells him to do it again. The testing scientist this time is only able to lift the box and hold it for a few seconds, and then drops it. The senior tells the tester to try again but the tester tells him that he can't but the senior does not listen and orders in a more stern tone to do it again. The tester visibly frustrated lifts up the box higher than before, crushes it in midair and telekinetically hurls the pieces at the senior impaling him with the fragments of the box; killing him instantly. Ancient guards then try to restrain him but the tester uses his telekinesis and hurls them against the wall, and as more guards show up the tester congers fire from his hands out of seemingly nowhere and burns the new guards. The video ends with a close up on the testers face showing yellow eye's that were once blue, a darker complexion than before, and visible black veins culminating from his eyes.

"The ancient scientists soon learned that trying to weaponize the vim was a bad idea, especially if the person in question is angry or frustrated." Rodney then gestured to the close up to the renegade scientist and said. "Or it leads to this. Asura care to explain?"

As everyone looked at Asura she explained. "What you see here is that, this man turned to the dark side. The dark side is when someone uses the force, like you said Rodney, angry, frustrated, stressed, or any other kind of emotion. It is much easier to use the force as it is fueled by whatever you're feeling when using it. But it is also addicting and makes you uncontrollable. What you see here are the obvious signs that someone has fallen to the dark side." Asura said pointing at the fallen scientist.

Seemingly satisfied with her explanation they turned back to Rodney who continued with his presentation. "This was not the first weapons test for the force, it was only the last one in a long line of failures. Now after Mr. happy here was finally subdued. The paladin project was almost shut down. This led to a civil war between those that worked on the weaponizing part of the project, which at that time was a lot of people, and the rest of Atlantis. It was only with the combined effort of the rest of the people on the paladin project with the rest of Atlantis that retorta, as the rogues called themselves, were defeated.

After the war the surviving retorta were put in the hibernation chambers as an example of what would happen to any who tried to do what they attempted."

"wait how is that a punishment?"

"ah well as you may not know the hibernation chambers do not completely stop the aging process. Over time your body gets weaker and weaker until you, well expire"

"The remaining paladin scientists were reassigned. Fortunately one or more of the more stubborn scientists who was reassigned to the nanites project continued to secretly work on the vim and tried reverse the effects of the 'dark side' and used the detained retorta as test subjects."

"Well that couldn't have ended well." Asura stated.

"Why's that?" asked Teyla.

"Because when someone falls to the dark side it is next to impossible and almost unheard of for them to turn back. Even with our advanced technology."

"But it is possible?" asked colonel Shepard.

"Well yeah in the same way an advanced alcoholic can only much, much harder. So Rodney did they?" asura said gesturing to Atlantis's top scientist.

"well actually they did." Rodney informed.

"what!" asked Asura shocked.

"yeah." Rodney then shows a picture of the biology of an ancient atlantian head. "When they first started experimenting vim powers the paladin testers were monitored and scanned constantly. And each time it showed increase brain activity as shown here" Rodney says pointing at the video showing some tester moving an object with is mind and highlighting the parts of his brain necessary to do so.

"and this" Rodney says showing another video of that same tester that fell to the dark side earlier, and like before parts of his brain were highlighted showing what parts were necessary. The difference from the earlier one is that his showed more cerebral activity and in different parts. "shows the parts of the brain used when under the influence of the dark side."

"now the dark sider's cerebral scan shows even higher brain activity and increased dopamine levels. Now while this was known during the paladin civil war, the retorta were too dangerous to try and capture and experiment on. Even after the war the Atlantis high council at the time thought it was too dangerous. So the surviving retorta were left in the statis pods until they would eventually deteriorated and died.

But luckily the underground paladin scientists kept the project going, albeit secretly. Now while the original goal of the paladin project was the understanding and use of the unique energy signature or 'vim' as they called it, the underground goal was the reversal of the dark side on the retorta. When they first tried this, their first thought was the use of nanites as they were the original reason for the paladin's initial success."

"now after months of secret experimentation the paladin scientists were able to program a new batch of nanites to regulate the dopamine and counteract the effects of the dark side. Effectively curing the retorta, as shown here." Rodney then shows a cerebral scan of a retorta or dark sider and how his brain is affected by the dark side. It then shows the retorta being injected with the new nanites and almost immediately his brain chemistry starts changing to the original scan of the first paladin.

"that's incredible." Asura said with a completely astonished expression.

"wait how did these 'underground' paladin scientist do that when they couldn't do that during their civil war?" asked ronin

"because during the civil war they didn't have any test subjects, and this" he points to the screen. "was done illegally."

"so what happened? How'd the Atlantis council and the other ancients take it after finding out about the paladins after school activates?" asked colonel Shepard.

"at first not well the underground paladins were almost exiled, but after showing the high council the retorta after the treatment, well they were still angry but agreed to allow them to continue the distribution of the new nanites. Soon after the all of the former retorta were reverted back to the way they were before and then eventually the nanites were distributed throughout the rest of the population allowing everyone access to the same abilities of the paladins."

"what about the retorta? No way they all gave up trying to be a god." Asked asura.

"oh no, some of the former retorta tried, profusely to be allowed permission to continue research on the dark side. Insisting that it would be a benefit in case the ancients ever ran into the Ori again. And each time they asked the Atlantis high counsel they were shot down, pretty hard to. And while they did have some support, they didn't have nearly enough to actually get approval. So, like the paladins before them the retorta tried going underground. But that had disastrous results for the retorta."

"how so?" asked colonel carter.

"well when the paladins did it they were given a level of trust from their part in the civil war against the retorta so no one suspected them and besides many of the paladins after the war were reassigned to the nanites project. And when the retorta were trying to go underground they knew that since the nanites were suppressing the dark side they would need a nanites scientist, and since they didn't have anybody in that project, they asked one of their old paladin buddies that was still on the project."

"why did they think that asking a paladin would work, when they were the very reason for their original defeat?" asked asura very curious as something very similar to this had happened before in her galaxy with varied results.

"well according to the logs, the paladin scientist was sympathizer at one point and the retorta thought that he would be again. But he wouldn't help them which lead to an argument between the paladin and the retorta who asked for his help. Long story short the retorta killed him."

"wait how is that possible? If the nanites neutralized the effects of the dark side how could he still do that?"

"Well yes like I said the nanites nullified the dark side but it still allowed them to get angry just didn't allow them to use their anger to fuel their vim powers. Any way the atlantian high council pretty quickly found out, and while the retorta claimed it was an accident the high council still decided to exile them and all of their followers."

"So what happened to these 'retorta' guy's then?" asked colonel Shepard.

"The logs don't specify. For all I know they were never seen or heard of again."

"So what happed after that?" asked Teyla.

"Well like I said the nanites were distributed to the entire ancient population allowing everyone to have vim or force powers without any worry of anyone going rogue. Eventually, by that I mean eons, the vim powers became all physical allowing the ancients to transcend the need for nanites." Rodney then showed a video showing the inner biology of an ancient person and how over a long period of time certain evolutions emerged and nanites were slowly taken out of their system.

"ok here is probably a stupid question, why are we just hearing about his now? You've been poking through that data base for years and didn't even so much as get a clue about this, so what took so long?" asked colonel Shepard.

"Ah well I have an answer for that." Rodney then showed a picture of a wraith hive ship. "when the ancients first suspected that they were going to lose the war with the wraith, the Atlantis high council ordered the immediate safe guard of any and all research about the vim and paladin project, so that in the event that the wraith ever had access to their data base they would never be able to gain the same abilities of the ancients."

"that still doesn't explain how you found it now."

"well when the ancients first hid away the paladin project they made it so that there was one and only one way to gain access to it. And that was that only someone who was on the same or close to the same evolutionary level as the original paladins, and only when looking through the parts about how the ancients got their powers."

After a few seconds of suspense colonel carter asked. "while all of that was very interesting I don't really see how much of this is relevant Rodney."

"its relevant because in the hidden files are the blue prints to the original paladin nanites. The format of which was the basis of all nanites from that point on in the ancient's history and that includes replicator nanites. Us restarting the paladin project would be a valuable asset in the replicator deactivation code."

"Wait wouldn't it just be easier if you just worked on the paladin nanites instead of the whole paladin project?" asked Colonel Shepard.

"well unfortunately there is a law written in their base code that unless the nanites are used in a certain step by step sequence that their programming will be completely stripped, which would erase anything we could use leaving me back at square one. So unless we completely restart he paladin project progress on the nanites situation is gonna be slow."

Colonel carter then rubbed her temple and asked. "so Rodney when can you get started on this?"

"well that's the other problem. When the paladins first started the project it took them decades to hundreds of years to even get the basics down. And one of those basics was learning this." Rodney then showed another video showing individuals with small glowing dots throughout their body, some more than others.

"What are those?" asked Tayla.

"These are a form of microscopic bacteria, that not only are naturally set at the frequency of the force but also show up anywhere the force is." Rodney informed.

"why's that guy got more than the others?" asked ronin bluntly.

"well some people were born with more than others." Rodney said patronizing his 'caveman' teammate.

"what were they called, and what makes them so important?" asked colonel Shepard.

"well they were called 'Quis bibendum squamis', and it was discovered that whoever had a higher count of them had a more sasesability to the vim. In fact the paladin nanites were so effective because they simulated the 'Quis bibendum squamis'."

Colonel carter then looked at asura and asked. "Asura whats your take on this? Do jedi have anything like what the Quis bibendum squamis are?"

Asura looked at colonel carter and answered. "yes colonel I think I do. In my galaxy they are called Midi-chlorians. And they are microscopic life forms that live symbiotically inside living cells. The standard amount of Midi-chlorians for humans are 2,500 per cell and the higher the count the more likely you are to be force sensitive."

"Wait are you saying that we all have those things inside of us?" colonel Shepard asked pointing at the screen.

"Yes I am colonel, and a lot of them at that." Asura confirmed.

"ok and why are you bringing them up Rodney?" asked colonel Shepard.

"because when the paladins first discovered the 'midi-chlorians' they found that it was near impossible to use vim powers without them and each galaxy had its own version of the MC's. and the reason I bring this up is that it would take me far too long to get up to speed on them to get the paladin project on track in time."

"so what your saying is that you need an expert on the force and medi-chlorians." Asked colonel carter.

"that is correct yes, and luckily we have one, as shown here." Rodney says after showing a picture of Asura.

Colonel carter then directed over to asura and asked while smiling. "Asura would you be…"

"yes colonel it'd be my genuine pleasure. And don't forget the fact that once the new paladins are trained, this base will have soldiers with powers similar to me."

"that hadn't crossed out minds at all, but now that you mention it, it would be nice." Colonel Shepard joked.

Well that's it for this chapter hope you liked it. Now to clear a few things up if you are ever confused on terms that you don't know they are probably latin as it is a the closes language to the ancients in stargate. Please read and review.

Carson Beckett M. D.: [sighs] We believe ATA or Ancient Technology Activation is caused by a single gene that's always on. Instructing various cells in the body to produce a series of proteins and enzymes