Rodney glanced up and nodded distractedly. Then he turned away from the screen and began to pace. “A ZPM, yes. But that’s not all. This isn’t just another planet with a gate, it’s a city. A flying city. If there’s anything more left of it than ruins, we could be looking at a goldmine of Ancient technology. Computer banks — drones — it could be another Atlantis! My God — do you have any idea what this means?”
All three of the others stared at him.
Rodney stared back, and then said “What? Okay, so you do know, but…”
“Let’s forget that you’re the only one in the room for a minute,” Sheppard said. “How long before that city, or moon, or whatever it is takes a nose dive into that star?”
Rodney turned back to the monitor and brought up an image showing a steadily declining orbit that wound closer and closer to the flickering red image of the system’s sun.
“Taking into account the steepness of the orbit’s decline, the size and mass of the city and the sun, and the draw of gravity…less than a week,” Rodney said.
“If the city is like Atlantis,” Zelenka said thoughtfully, “the way it broke orbit makes sense. It could be moving under its own power. Maybe there’s a malfunction.”
“You mean they might have tried to break orbit and sent themselves straight at the sun instead?” Sheppard turned to Rodney. “If that’s true, they might need our help. If there was something wrong with the star drive, but it was still functional enough to move the city, could you fix it?”
Rodney turned to Sheppard in irritation. “We don’t even know if there’s anything to fix. We don’t know if it’s a star drive, we don’t know if there’s a city still standing, and we have no idea — given both of those things — what could have gone wrong.”
“But if there was, you could?” Sheppard prodded.
“Given enough time, of course.”
“We need to get a team over there before it’s too late to get a look at the city,” Sheppard said. “If there are people still living there, we need to see if we can help them, and if not, I can’t imagine leaving an Ancient city to burn and be destroyed without at least taking a look around.”
“There’s one problem,” Rodney said. “We don’t have an address.”
“Sir?” Cumby said.
“Not now,” Rodney said, waving a hand. “I think it’s possible that if we run a new search and cross reference everything we can find on the city, we can come up with — ”
“Sir,” Cumby said again.
“Not now,” Rodney snapped. “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something important here? Or do you come from some part of Earth where people all talk at once? Maybe the reason you know so much about the history of the Bible is because you come from Babel?”
“I think you should take a look, sir,” Cumby said, unruffled.
Irritated, Rodney turned. “What? What is it that you think is so important that…”
He fell silent when he saw the sequence of symbols displayed on the screen.
“I ran a new search,” Cumby explained. “I input all the terms I could find associated with Admah that were unique. I found this address, but…”
Sheppard peered at the screen. “But what?”
“I’m not sure, sir,” Cumby replied. “There’s some kind of block. The final two symbols of the address are obscured.”
“Let me see that,” Rodney pushed forward.
“There’s a warning message,” Cumby said as he stepped aside. “Maybe…”
Rodney paid no attention. He typed furiously, frowned, grumbled, typed again, and then slapped his finger down on a key decisively. “Huh,” he said, then started typing again, frowning.
“What is it?” said Zelenka.
“It’s safeguarded. I’m trying to override it.”
The warning message on the screen blinked once, twice, and then disappeared. Rodney stopped typing and stared. “Great,” he said. “Just great. Now I not only can’t get in, but I don’t have the warning message that would have told us why I shouldn’t.”
Cumby was scribbling furiously. Rodney turned to him, trying to shift the focus of the moment. “What are you doing?”
“I think I got it,” he said.
“Got what?”
“The warning,” Cumby held out a piece of paper with a series of hastily scrawled symbols drawn across it.
Rodney stared at it, and then passed it back. “You must have gotten it wrong,” he said. “I can’t translate any of that.”
Zelenka reached out and plucked the paper from Cumby’s hand. “I’ll see what I can do with it.”
Cumby looked as though he couldn’t quite decide whether to be grateful to Zelenka or irritated with Rodney. Colonel Sheppard watched the entire exchange with a grin curling the edge of his lip. “There’s not a lot of time.”
“I’ll let you know what I find,” Zelenka said. He left the room with the paper clutched in his hand.
“He won’t find anything,” Rodney muttered. Sheppard laughed and turned away while Cumby continued to work at the controls of the computer console.
“How could you draw that?” Rodney asked him, turning back around. “You don’t have a background in Ancient and it was only on the screen for a couple of moments.”
“I don’t know what it says,” Cumby replied. “I have no idea how to translate any Ancient symbols.”
“Then how…?”
“Photographic memory,” he said, turning back to Rodney. “My IQ isn’t as high as yours, but I can keep things straight. It’s come in handy in research work; I’m not the best person to explain results, but I don’t forget them. I thought it was in my personnel record. Didn’t you review it?”
“Well, yes, obviously, but…” Rodney trailed off as Cumby turned away.
The younger man left the room, following Sheppard and Zelenka into the hall. Rodney stared after him for a moment, then turned back to the screen and shook his head. In silence he continued hitting keys, searching for a way past the security protocol on the address file for Admah.
Chapter Four
Mr. Woolsey sat at the head of the conference table. Gathered around it, Colonel Sheppard, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Rodney and Zelenka sat quietly, waiting for the commander to scan the documents they’d placed before him. To one side, Airman Cumby sat alone, looking uncomfortable.
“You’ve managed to piece together quite a story,” Woolsey said at last. “There’s more here than just a simple moon leaving its orbit but,” he smoothed the papers on the table and gathered his thoughts before looking up to meet their collective gaze, “it’s not exactly definitive, is it? There are a lot of random facts here, a lot of bits and pieces of stories, but not much concrete information. What exactly do you propose?”
“Rodney says we have about a week before Admah crashes into its sun,” Sheppard said, getting right to the point. “It’s not a lot of time, but it’s more than enough for an exploratory mission to the city. I want to take a team over there. If there are refugees to be evacuated, that would be our first priority. If there’s a city — a ZPM — Ancient technology…”
“It’s very tempting,” Woolsey said. “But I’m concerned by this gate address. You say there was a warning, but that you’ve been unable to translate its message?”
“We’re still working on that,” Rodney cut in. “Someone didn’t want us to retrieve that address. There’s something dangerous about it, but we have no idea what.”
“You’ve seen a message like it before then?” Woolsey raised one eyebrow and waited. “It seems to me that if this much effort has been made to warn us of something, we should take heed. ”
Rodney looked down at the table, but kept talking. “I agree. We haven’t seen all the possible error codes in the system — it could take decades to decipher them — but I’m certain that ignoring the warning would be foolish. The Ancients weren’t timid by nature — if there’s something dangerous on that planet, we need to figure out what it i
s.”
“What about sending a MALP?” Woolsey said.
“Of course we’ll send a MALP,” Rodney snapped. “We have to check there’s a breathable atmosphere, acceptable surface temperature, and so on. But the warning might not be about anything the MALP can detect.”
“So we don’t know whether the message came from the computer system, or if it was associated with the gate address?”
“No, but — ”
“Mr. Woolsey,” Teyla cut in, “if there is a power signature then it is possible that there are survivors. Do we not have an obligation to at least investigate?”
Woolsey raised his hand. “I’m not saying no,” he said. “I’m saying I’m concerned. I want people working on translating that message around the clock.”
“We can’t wait long if we’re going,” Sheppard said. “It’s going to start getting hotter over there pretty soon.”
“Understood,” Woolsey said. “Go ahead and prepare your team Colonel, but first I want your thoughts on… this.”
He shuffled through the papers in front of him and brought out several copies of a report. He handed one to each of them.
Rodney started to speak, then stopped and turned to Airman Cumby. “Go ahead,” he said.
Cumby smiled and scanned his own copy of the report. He started to read.
“By all indications,” he said, “the city of Admah and the city of Atlantis were in close communication at one point. What we’ve uncovered is more like a story book, or a legend, than a real record. There appear to have been more complete records at one point, but they are either corrupt, or inaccessible. This is all we could put together.
“Admah was one of the great cities of the Ancients. They developed an advanced civilization with strong trade. Admah was a preferred destination for travelers on leave, or visiting dignitaries. They developed a taste for entertainment and games. Apparently they became one of the foremost vacation spots in the galaxy.”
“That doesn’t sound much like the Ancients we’ve encountered,” Woolsey commented. “In fact, I can’t imagine a description of a city that sounded less like their civilization.”
“The records aren’t clear on exactly what happened,” Cumby continued, “but over time they appear to have grown somewhat decadent. The games became more than simple tournaments, and the citizens began seeking greater and greater excess. Travel to and from Admah slowed to a trickle, and over time stopped almost completely.
“Then the Wraith rose, and communications were cut off. Though there are several later mentions of the city, they are cryptic and vague. Attempts were made to renew communications between the cities, but all records of those attempts have been hidden, encrypted, or deleted. It seems as if the city was either destroyed by the Wraith, or withdrew into itself and cut off access to the rest of the galaxy.”
“That’s not promising,” Woolsey said.
“The address that we found is active,” Zelenka said. “We didn’t open the gate, but it’s there.”
“And you are sure it’s Admah?”
“Yes,” Zelenka replied. “It’s Admah alright.”
“Keep working on that warning,” Woolsey said. “Colonel Sheppard, when can you have your team ready?”
“We’re ready,” Sheppard replied. “Just waiting for you to give the word, sir.”
“Very well,” Woolsey said. “I want extra caution on this one, Colonel. We have no idea what we’re getting into, and if the Ancients didn’t want to travel there we can assume they had their reasons. We’re hardly in a position to protect ourselves from something they had enough sense to avoid.”
Sheppard nodded. “There is one problem, sir.”
“Just the one?”
“For now…” He nodded toward Rodney. “We can’t take a jumper.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Rodney said, “I noticed a number of coronal loops on the sun’s surface. Naturally I examined the Zeemen effect lines — coronal loops are a direct consequence of a twisted solar magnetic flux — and quite frankly, it’s off the scale.”
Woolsely blinked at him. “Very nice, Dr. McKay, but what does it mean?”
“It means,” Rodney said with a sigh, “that the stellar magnetic field is enormous.”
Tight lipped, Woolsey turned to Sheppard. “Colonel…?”
“Puddle Jumpers are susceptable to electromagnetic fields, sir. A field of that scale would disrupt all the systems as soon as we got through the gate.”
“And?”
“And we’d crash. Just like we did on M7G-677.”
“Oh much worse than that,” Rodney said. “In comparative terms, the electromagnetic field on ‘677 was like a AAA battery compared with 240V of mains power.”
Woolsey held up his hand. “Okay, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.” He turned to Sheppard. “If you don’t have a jumper as a backup, then I want a more regular reporting schedule, Colonel. And I want you out of there long before things start to warm up.”
“Suits me, sir.”
Turning back to McKay, he said, “Could the magnetic field be the subject of the warning message?”
“It’s possible,” Rodney admitted. “Although it wouldn’t have been such an issue if the moon was still orbiting its planet.” He looked at Zelenka. “What exactly is the holdup in translating that message, anyway?”
Zelenka shook his head and frowned. “There are a number of symbols that we have seen before, but still it does not make sense. I have developed an algorithm to compare it with other warnings we have found, but so far there have been no hits. If it is a warning, it is very specific.”
“Rodney,” Sheppard called across the table.
Rodney glanced up, startled, as if he was afraid he’d missed some comment or question directed at him.
“We’re going to need you on this one. Will you be ready?”
He stared at Sheppard for a moment, opened his mouth, closed it, and then nodded, though he looked anything but enthusiastic.“I have a couple of things I need to wrap up, and I’ll be ready.”
“Good,” Sheppard said. “We’re counting on you. If that city is a ship, and it can be flown…”
“I know, I know,” Rodney said. “Fix it.”
“I’d like to accompany the team as well,” Airman Cumby said.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Sheppard replied. “I want you on that team in case we run into any more warnings that Rodney can’t resist deleting. We’ll be in contact with Atlantis, if we run across anything maybe you can recreate it — like you did before. I kind of like the idea that there’s a guy with a perfect memory checking over the details.”
Cumby smiled. He obviously enjoyed the compliment. “It’s not perfect,” he said. “But it would be nice, for once, to put it to some good use. Most people just want me to use it to perform, like parlor tricks. What was on page two-fifteen, second paragraph, of A Brave New World.”
There was a pause, then Sheppard said, “So, what was it?”
“I never read it,” Cumby replied with a grin.
“Fair enough,” Sheppard laid a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “We’re counting on you.”
Cumby nodded. “I’d better get ready then.”
The rest of the group dispersed slowly. When the room had emptied, Woolsey gathered the papers in front of him, tapped them on the table to straighten them, and stood slowly. He was the last to leave the room and his expression was grim. He hated sending a team into something so tenuous, and since there appeared to be no other course of action, he fell back on his paperwork. It didn’t help, but it kept his hands busy.
Chapter Five
The team gathered early in the morning. Sheppard checked his gear twice, and then helped Cumby with his. He was a little nervous about taking someone he hadn’t personally worked with into the field on a potentially dangerous mission, but he kept his smile in place. Ronon and Teyla had been ready for at least half an hour, and the only missing team member
was Rodney.
“Figures he’d be late,” Sheppard said. “He’s probably filling his pack with sunscreen, insect repellant and food.”
“I could go to his quarters and see if he’s ready,” Cumby said.
“I’ve already been by there,” Sheppard said. “Rodney is up. He’s just late.”
Cumby nodded. They waited in silence for a moment longer, and then they all turned at the sound of approaching footsteps.
Rodney burst into view, moving very quickly. He had his gear slung over his shoulder and his laptop tucked under his arm. He was grinning from ear to ear. It was the kind of grin you’d expect if a kid was running away from a school bathroom just before the firecracker took out a toilet.
Ronon frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
Rodney cocked his head and his grin widened. “Absolutely nothing,” he said. “Why would there be anything wrong? Shall we get this show on the road?” But everyone just stared at him. “What?”
“We were supposed to leave ten minutes ago,” Teyla said.
“Sorry. I had to get a few things. We don’t want to be unprepared.”
“What things?” Sheppard said, expecting more of an answer than he really needed.
But Rodney surprised him. “Technical things. Aren’t we late already?”
Sheppard shook his head and let it go. “Okay,” he said. “So we’re all clear, we’re going through to look for the city. If we find it, we have priorities. First priority is to look for survivors and see if there’s anything we can do to help. If there are working ZPMs we’ll try to bring them back. If there is anything we can do to keep the city from crashing into the sun, we’ll give it a shot, but if it starts to get too hot — we get out. We’ll be heroes if opportunity knocks, but we aren’t going to put ourselves in any unnecessary danger. Understood?”
Everyone nodded.
“I did a little more research last night,” Cumby said as the gate began to spin.
“Yeah?” Sheppard said. “What did you find?”
“It wasn’t anything about the planet,” he said. “I researched more about the name of the city — Admah. It really was a city, not just a Biblical myth. It was in the Valley of Siddim, southeast of the Dead Sea, and was inhabited by the Canaanites. Historical records indicate that the city really was destroyed by fire.”
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