Atlantis Chapter Six – Looking to the Future

New Lantea

July 2012 – Old Earth Calendar

Personal Quarters

“Carson? You have something you want to talk to us about?” John asked as he let his Scottish friend into the main room of their quarters.

“Aye, I do. Is Rodney in?”, John thought Carson was looking a bit nervous, but that did seem to be the default setting in the good doctors personality, so he was used to it after so many years of working together.

“Yeah, he is showering. You know he was out at one of the grounding stations today. Apparently there was enough wave action that he got soaked to the skin a few times while making sure that nothing was sparking. Do you want anything to drink? We have some of that Tellrusian whiskey you like so much.” John turned towards the wooden cabinet they used as a dry bar to start prepping the doctors drink.

“Please. Two fingers, neat. If ye don’t mind, I would like to wait until Rodney gets out to explain why I am here.”

“So is this going to be a discussion where I am going to have to calm Rodney down? Or are you just here to find out if he had managed to electrocute himself today?” John asked as he quickly poured out a measure of the golden liquid.

“A wee bit o’ both, John. I know tha’ Rodney got cleared by the duty nurse, but I wanted to see ye both today. “When Carson held out his hand for the tumbler of whiskey, John saw that his hand was trembling slightly. Gaze sharp in concern, he looked at their Scottish friend. Who was as on the ball as ever and caught him at it. “I’m fine lad. But I have had a long day and I have some very good news to pass on.”

“You know best Carson.” John said. Deciding to table his questions on what was causing the other man to vibrate, he turned the conversation to something that had been tickling his curiosity for a while, “Do you have any idea why Rodney is giving Miko these disgusted looks when she is working in the auxiliary physics lab?”

“She listens to her music in this weird cycle thing. She has it organized by country and she has gotten back to the Korean bubblegum bands. The songs that’re making my teeth itch are some happy sunshiny monstrosity called ‘Gee Gee‘ and the other is an admittedly melodic piece of drivel called ‘Sorry, Sorry‘. They are catchy, insanely silly, way too bouncy and she is playing them repeatedly.” Rodney said as he walked into their living room. His voice was full of sheer, undiluted disgust at his scientists music choices. “Thankfully she is almost at the end of this rotation and I won’t have to hear them for another six months. What’s up Carson?”

“Right.” Carson took a final sip of his drink and put the glass down on the end table nearest him. “The two of ye know that my department has been working on the artificial wombs the Ancients mothballed above the crèche, correct? Well, we’ve run several generations of the little goat things the Athosians are raising through them and every group gestated in them has been extraordinarily healthy. We even went so far as to breed the first generation of births from the artificial wombs the natural way and the offspring from *that* union are as healthy as their parents.”

“Carson? You know all the times I made fun of you for your sheep herding ways? Well I stand corrected. It was goat herding. And you need to find the point of this story sometime soon. Before I see if we can get your license to practice voodoo revoked long distance!” John hid his grin at how quickly Rodney’s snarky attitude showed up in his whiskey tumbler. It really wouldn’t do to let either man know just how funny he found their sniping to be.

“So ye want the bottom line then? We are ready to start making babies, Rodney. And we, the medical staff involved in making those wombs work, wanted to offer the first option of using them to all the same sex couples in the City. So… You two are some of the strongest gene carriers we have, you’re in a committed relationship and ye have both mentioned wanting children before. What do you think?”

“You want us to be the first set of potential parents to use some Ancient technology that hasn’t been used in ten thousand years to make children?” for Rodney that was a remarkably neutral question, John reflected.

John decided to join the discussion when it looked like Rodney was going to lose his hard won neutral stance and launch into a rant about how medical science and voodoo were interchangeable. “Rodney, we are already trusting in technology that was ancient before the pyramids were built to keep us afloat, move us around and supply our air when we submerge. And it all works. So do the shields, weapons, transporters and a million other things that keep the City running. This will work too.”

“Yes, but Carson just grew goats in the womb that he wants us to use. How in the hell do we know that won’t affect our possible progeny? And then there is the lovely thought that while the Ancients were damn close to humans and could interbreed with us, what happens when you put a fully human embryo in one of those things for nine months?” Rodney protested.

Carson jumped in to try to alleviate that potential conflict. “We thought of all of those concerns Rodney. Each and every womb is sterilized thoroughly after each and every use. When we swabbed for testing purposes, they came up clean. Computer modeling showed that there was no difference between a basic human womb and the artificial ones, so that won’t affect development.  Also the room has hook ups for an independent power supply, so we ran several trials using a naquadah generator. The wombs responded beautifully to the generator and we never had a bobble in the year we’ve been growing goats.”

John could tell that Rodney wasn’t fully convinced. And when he wasn’t fully convinced he wanted information to make an informed decision before continuing with his considerations. But he was also the CSO, so he must have… “Carson, I know you’ve been logging reports on the main server, haven’t you?”

Rodney shook his head quickly and tried to explain what was bothering him. “He has, Colonel. And I’ve been reading them. Every single one since they started the whole ‘Grow a Goat’ campaign. It’s just… Babies are different than goats.”

“Babies are different than goats. We realize this and I would not be bringing this to your attention if we didn’t believe that everything was in perfect order and ready for use. All we need is the genetic material and in nine months, there will be a little McKay-Sheppard on Atlantis.” Carson said in a gentle voice. John appreciated that gentleness now. Just the thought of having a child, a baby  was terrifying. What in the hell did either of them know about babies?

“So genetic material? What kind of genetic material?” Rodney asked archly. John could tell that he was pushing his doubts and fears to the side for the moment to tease Carson.

Carson shook his head and grinned at Rodney. “Aye, it is that type you overgrown twelve year old. And ye can’t help each other out, the samples have to be clean. We have typed everyone down to the last chromosome using the Ancient sequencer, so we know that there are several people with recessive genetic diseases that we don’t want to introduce into our population. Thankfully the computer models have shown us we can remove the worst of the possible offenders.”

“So the hypoglycemia and allergies could be removed?” John tried not to wince at the hope in Rodney’s voice. While it had been years since he had had a hypoglycemic episode, he along with everyone else had had some nasty run ins with any number of allergens native to Pegasus. Getting rid of his Earth based ones for his children would be a blessing in his eyes.

His eyes sympathetic, Carson nodded. “Yes, we can fix those and the make sure the children are as healthy as possible. Now I’ll let the two of ye discuss things and just get back to me with your decision when ye have reached it. We won’t be moving forward on the baby front until then. Good night lads.” and with a warm smile and a nod, Carson walked out.

~//~

“So this isn’t what I was expecting when we came home this evening.” John said.

Rodney felt his face reflect the ‘No shit, Sherlock’ look that always caused John to smile and leaned back into the couch they had managed to get before all contact with Earth had stopped. That transaction had taken a lot of fast talking and some serious bribes to Caldwell and his crew, but Rodney couldn’t find it in himself to care, even at this late date. After all, the damn thing was comfortable.

Sighing softly, Rodney gently swirled the liquor around in his glass, “I have no idea what to do with this information. I mean, I knew that they were close to getting the wombs cleared for human use, but I thought it would be at least another year before they were ready. Do we really want to be parents?”

He could feel the look that John was giving him and tried not to squirm under the weight of it. There was no judgment in it, just love and understanding and it warmed him in ways that not even his professional achievements could. “You always said that you wanted to have kids so your genes would be carried on. And since we have no idea if Madison will enter into the McKay family tradition of the hard sciences, you agreed to give it a try.”

Rodney snorted softly at the thought of his niece taking up a soft science. The last time he had seen her, she had been looking at a chemistry set with an unnervingly speculative gaze. He fully expected to hear that she had started blowing shit up shortly thereafter when they got back in contact with Earth. After all, he had been a good uncle and bought her the deluxe set for Christmas and had Caldwell deliver it. Living in the Pegasus galaxy had to have some benefits after all. “I know what I said. But still, there is the whole raising the kid to the point where they can take up science. And well… I am not too sure I won’t fuck up some poor kid in my care.”

“You won’t. Neither will I. If only because we know what not to do thanks to how our parents raised us. And we will have most of the rest of our friends helping. And the Athosians. So, we should be okay.” John said firmly.

With a sigh, Rodney finished the liquor in his glass and looked at his partner. “So if this thing works like a normal womb, we have a 50/50 shot as to what comes out of it. Boy or girl? If we get a choice that is?”

The look John flashed him promised all sort of retribution for dropping the ‘can we raise a kid’ topic, but he gamely went along with the change. “Boy. I have no idea how to raise a girl and while I know you grew up with Jeannie, your track record with women is as bad as mine, so let’s stay with boys.”

“I am not as bad as you are Kirk! And well… I agree. Boys. Let’s only have boys. Can you imagine having a little girl and her dating?” Rodney said as he considered a possible future with a daughter in the picture.

Thoughts traveling alongside his like they had for years, John looked at him in equal horror, “Dolls. Makeup. Puberty. Uhm. No. Agreed. And never again to be discussed. We’re having boys.”

“I need another drink. Want one?”

“Oh, hell yes.”

~//~

“So how is this supposed to work again?” John asked as he started at the bell jar like thing that would soon be growing the baby he and Rodney would be creating. Thinking over the whole thing was making him want another night or two of drinking to make everything sane again, but Carson was anxious to get things started, so… No booze.

Eyes alight with the type of glee that inspired mad scientists everywhere, Carson started to explain the whole process again, “It’s verra easy lad. Ye and Rodney need to make a *clean* deposit into the specimen cups,” and here the doctor handed John two plastic wrapped cups with a smile. “Once ye have done that, your deposits will go into one of the two hoppers there and be scanned for viability and the best gene sequences will be chosen for the computer to combine with your partners. If everything is successful, the zygote will be moved onto a placenta pad in the growth chamber and nine months later, the two of ye will have a baby.”

Rodney was looking at the whole set up with speculative eyes. After a speaking glance at John, he turned back to the bouncing medical doctor. “Does this thing choose the sex of baby? Or can we determine what we would prefer?”

John could tell that the question had briefly startled Carson, but he recovered quickly. “Oh. Well lad, ye can leave the most advantageous genetic matches up to the computer or have it only consider those with a certain sex in mind. Why?”

Filing the information away, Rodney nodded, but pressed for further clarification, “So there is an element of randomness to the programming? It won’t select for certain characteristics?”

“Ye can set what level of manipulation ye want with this. While ye can’t ‘build’ a child, ye can repair harmful gene sequences and determine things like the sex. Did you two make a decision as to the sex of your child?”

John cleared his throat and tried to speak around the lump in his throat, “We want a boy, Carson. A healthy little boy with ten fingers and ten toes and everything else can be up to the mixing station here.”

Eyes at turns sympathetic and excited, Carson nodded. “Well then lads, ye had better get to work then. Clean samples from the both of ye. I’ll leave the room so ye can get on with it. I do not need to see this.”

~//~

“Clean sample huh? Guess this means that I can’t blow you and catch it in the cup. Soooo… Come here Colonel.” Rodney said with a smug grin.

“Oh yeah? Whatcha gonna do Rodney? Since I can’t get a blowjob, I guess I’m not going to see you on your knees with your lips around my cock.” John snarked back. Rodney watched as John canted his hips forwards, putting his cock on display.

Not that he minded looking at the display after all. From head to toe the Colonel was as beautiful as the day that Rodney had met him. More so now with the marks of a well lived life written on his face and body, Rodney often thought. Smirking a bit at the familiar track his thoughts were taking, he moved closer to his lover and dropped to his knees while holding his eyes. John managed to keep his face straight, but Rodney really wasn’t looking for that reaction, he was watching John’s eyes dilate and get darker with lust. Heady stuff that.

He kept his hands steady with an effort as he moved them to John’s zipper. Neither of them were really into exhibitionism, but giving John a quick and dirty hand job while Carson was on the other side of the door? Knowing what they were doing? Unexpectedly hot.

The act of unzipping John’s pants was something that he always enjoyed. His Colonel was always trying to show a lazy, uncaring facade, but touch on certain things? Welll…. That is when things got interesting. Like now. The muscles under his hands were getting all sorts of interested in what he was doing and perking right up.

Rodney slipped his fingers into John’s boxers and drew his cock out gently. It was just as pretty as the rest of the other man, and Rodney really wanted a taste of it. But he remembered Carson’s admonition so he took the time to blow warm air across the head to feel John’s shiver instead. “Hold on to your hat John. And get the jar ready, because I am going to be quick about this.”

“Right. Quick.” John moaned as Rodney wrapped his left hand over the shaft of his cock and started to stroke with a slow and steady pace.

“Ready?” Rodney asked. That was all the warning he was going to give John. Nudging his legs apart, Rodney slid his right hand down to play with John’s balls and stroke the skin right behind them. If they were back in their bedroom, he would be doing a hell of a lot more than the rubbing he was currently limited to. He would be licking and sucking with some nibbling at the best areas. When he heard John moan at that thought, he realized that he had been mumbling his thoughts aloud. Oh well. Something for later then.

The open specimen cup was being waved in his face and Rodney felt his concentration break. A quick glance up showed John to be biting his fist in an effort to stifle his moans, but it really wasn’t working all that well. His eyes were wide and dilated and when Rodney pressed his thumb just so, and twisted his fist just a bit more to the left, they glazed over even more as his hips jerked like they had been goosed with a live wire. He loved doing this to John.

“Not going to last much longer Rodney.” John mumbled around his fist.

When Rodney felt John’s knees start to lock up, he quickly got the cup in place and caught every pulse as John came with a muffled shout. Rodney milked every single drop of cum out of John that he could and carefully placed the cup to the side. After all, that cup was one half of his future son. Cup taken care of, there was no further need to be ‘clean’ and well, John was still twitching.

Swallowing cock was one of those skills that just took practice and after more than a year of actually getting to have sex with John, was something that Rodney still thought of as hell of a lot of fun. Because his lover never seemed to get used to it. He still yelped and bucked as he felt his mouth cover him. This time was no different and Rodney held onto his hips in an effort to control how deep John could thrust.

He wasn’t going for another orgasm from John at this point, just a ‘clean up’, one that would prime the pump for something later. And he wanted a taste too. A swirl of his tongue around the head of John’s cock got any remaining fluid and the deeply indrawn breath from him was a treat. Rodney let his eyes close and fell into the sensations of licking and sucking at the softening cock in his mouth.

“Rodney, come up here.” John said. His voice was husky and he sounded wrecked. His hands were tugging on Rodney’s shoulders in an effort to draw him up.

With a muffled pop of noise, Rodney pulled off of his treat and stood up to kiss his lover. He was so damn turned on by what he had been doing that he was sure that it would only take a pull or two before he would be coming all over John’s fist. Rodney tried not to arch into the feel of John’s fingers as he slowly and carefully pulled his zipper down and pulled him out of his boxers.

Rodney leaned his head on John’s shoulder and turned his face into his neck. The feel of a hand on his cock was indescribable. Each pull was shattering and he could feel his orgasm clawing at his spine, trying to get out. “John, I’m… I am going to come. Where is my cup?”

“I have it Rodney. Just… Let go.” John said softly.

“Oh, god. John!” the fire clawing at his spine let loose and all he could do was trust in John.

~//~

“When I told ye two to fill the cups, I didn’t mean to let me hear ye do it!” ranted Carson. He had been running over and over the same ground for over ten minutes and John was reluctantly impressed. He was even more impressed with the Scot when he started to load up their samples into the ‘Mixing Station’ attached to their artificial womb without missing a beat. “Right. So everything is loaded, and the two of ye need to initiate the process by touching the plates on top of the machine.”

“On three?” John looked over at Rodney and nodded.

“One, two, three.” both men placed their hands on the plates and thought ‘ON’.

There was no flash of light, no suddenly filled womb and no obvious baby.

Rodney checked the clear bulb of the womb and then looked over at Carson. “Shouldn’t something be happening? Like, I don’t know, a baby?”

Carson shot the other scientist a dark look, “Give it a wee bitta time. It takes about ten minutes for the computer to put everything together and assess the possibilities for viability. Once it picks the best one, it will fill the reservoir and add a placental pad with the zygote nestled in. If it all goes well, in three weeks, you will see a nest of blood vessels and the start of your son.”

“Oh. Three weeks? We won’t be able to tell anything sooner?” John asked.

“Well, ye won’t really be able to see anything for almost eight weeks and recognizing the wee lad as being yours won’t really hit for even longer. Babies don’t look like babies until they are almost six months along. So, ye have a ways yet.”

The artificial womb interrupted the conversation be starting to fill and a sponge-like pad came out and lowered into place.

They were officially pregnant now.

~//~

Da Vinci Station
August 2012
Power Generation Room

Rodney sniffed deeply of the cold stale air and tried to keep his nose from dripping into the housing for the ZedPM he was reinstalling into the Da Vinci. It was beyond chill and no matter how many naquadah generators he hooked into the power grid, they just weren’t enough to bring the space station out of the terminal deep freeze it was in. Taking a moment to blow on the tips of his fingers in an effort to warm them up, Rodney carefully ran them around the outer edges of the connector slots. They were as clean as they were going to get and obviously he wasn’t going to get any warmer by waiting.

“Radek, I need you to take the second ZedPM and insert it in its housing as I insert this one. We want to get them in as evenly as possible. The station has been sleeping a long time and this is going to be one hell of a wakeup call. John, as soon as everything lights up, please talk to the AI or whatever is running this place and let it know that we are friends and to not fry us?”

There was a moment of silence from his communicator and then John said, “Roger that Rodney. Any other requests before I let the nice Ancient technology play with my brain?”

Rodney snorted again in a futile effort to keep his nose from dripping, “Yes, you can’t let your brain get eaten. You know that Atlantis will be jealous if you come back feeling of another AI. On three.”

Smiling at the bark of laughter on the other end of the open line, Rodney nodded at Radek and began the countdown, “John, we are starting. One…” He heard the dual snicks as the ZedPMs locked into the grooves of their housings.

“Two…” The ZedPM’s lit up, glowing to indicate a successful connection to their new home.

“Three…” Rodney could feel the station come alive around them as the two Ancient power sources slid home and with a final press of their hands, each man made sure that the connection was secure.

“John?”

~//~

John shook his head at the antics of his best friend and lover. Even after all this time, he still had to have the last word in any game of wits the two of them engaged in. Listening to the countdown, he centered himself and placing his bare hand on the command console, prepared to ‘talk’ to the Da Vinci.

The feeling as the station came alive under his hand was nothing like what he had experienced with Atlantis. For all of her size and complexity, she was designed to help her inhabitants and protect them. The Da Vinci was most certainly not designed to be that warm and fuzzy to anyone. He was a machine of war and his programming reflected it.

Custodis programs confirmed the existence of the Cittadino Interface bearing the command codes from Città Atlantis.

Receipt of security data from Città Atlantis.

Initialization of potenta unus and duo, operating at under 50% of nominal.

Working…

Working…..

Working…….

Wor….

Authorization of initialization of internal life support: approved.

Authorization of initialization of internal security sensors: approved.

Scans of the main facility show several registered Cittadino and Incol from Città Prima database.

Authorization of main database access: approved.

Authorization for review of all manufacturing blueprints: approved.

Authorization for inspection of main manufacturing facilities: approved.

Authorization of release of nanomanufacturing center: Overridden and Declined.

Cittadino Interface nee Cittadino Primus from Città Atlantis now has command. Constituo designation Da Vinci.

End internal incident log.

~//~

John shook himself out of the fog that seemed to happen every time he interfaced with Ancient technology on a deeper than normal level. This time, he could clearly remember the events as they had happened and what he had done to keep the station from seeing them as interlopers. Grabbing Rodney’s spare mission tablet computer, he quickly jotted down what he remembered. If nothing else, it would serve to distract Rodney when he came up to find out what happened.

“John?”

Rodney. Apparently getting the Da Vinci to talk to Atlantis had worked and he had left everyone alone. Score one for the good guys.

“I’m okay, Rodney. It looks like everything is coming up correctly. I also remembered what was happening while I was talking to the computer this time, so I wrote it all down.” So he was basically throwing the space station to the wolves (or in this case the perpetually curious), but he needed some time to process what had just gone on. “I’ll be waiting for you two to get up to the command deck before I dial Atlantis.”

Listening to Rodney and Radek talk to each other as they cleaned up their work area, John sat down. Closing his eyes he thought of how weird what he had just done would have been ten years before and now was fairly common place. Chuckling lightly to himself he thought ‘My how things have changed.’

~//~

Atlantis

October 2012

Main Gateroom

Elizabeth watched as yet another science team departed through the Stargate to take their tour on the Da Vinci. Every single one of the Expedition’s hard science members and a fair number of the qualified military members had been aboard him in the last six weeks. With the return of the ZPM’s, the station was back at full power and each and every inch was being examined in exhaustive detail.

The reports coming in were all starting to agree on the same thing. The Da Vinci was operational and only needed to gather the basic components necessary to start production on the various ‘recipes’ in his database. From drones to Puddle Jumpers and even a slightly larger in-system tug, he could build them all. As an added bonus, Radek had reported that there were several labs equipped to produce control crystals and spare parts for the City itself. Which was a wonderful thing, because she had been ready to send scavenging parties out to the decrepit sister city of Atlantis in hopes of finding something useful.

The database on the space station was also releasing its riches. Over a hundred thousand years of galactic history was slowly being translated into English and disseminated to the anthro and archeology departments under the guidance of Daniel Jackson and his team of translators. With their withdrawal from the SGC they weren’t getting news and Elizabeth could only pray that his originator had survived and made it back to Earth. Both Jack’s would be devastated if he never came home, never mind how everyone else associated with the project would feel.

There were even hints on where they might be able to find more ZPM’s. And maybe a ship or two. Because they needed something bigger than a Jumper and the tug, while great, wasn’t interstellar, let alone intergalactic. If they could find something that would provide the needed transport capabilities, and maybe even something that was capable of offensive and defensive actions, which would be wonderful.  But until the database gave up those secrets, she was going to worry about what was under her control.

She was, thankfully, done with all the various admin paperwork that running the City seemed to generate and had turned back to her first love, translation. When Daniel had learned how fluent she was in the version of Ancient that the City’s database was using, he had given her several gigabytes worth of documents to translate. She was almost finished with this last bit and was looking forward to the next file. The one she was currently working on seemed to be talking about a recycling yard.

With a final keystroke, Elizabeth finished her translation and started to reread her work to make sure that she was making sense. There had been too many times where a misplaced word or mistranslated phrase had come to bite them in the ass for her to hand in work that wasn’t the best that she could make it. Everything seemed to be in place and with a sigh of relief, she saved the document and started to close out her work.

Suddenly she stopped. Recycling yard? Ancients had actually reused something? Something that maybe could be repaired? And reused? The file she had been translating was talking about a place where they Ancients had taken ship and parts of ships off to be stripped of parts and repurposed or just melted down into slag for reuse in one of their manufacturing facilities. And that could mean that the Da Vinci might have the coordinates for one of these places.
Energized at the thought, Elizabeth moved her search over to the copy of the Da Vinci database the translators had on file and input a new set of search parameters. Everything related to facilities labeled ‘Novus Propositum’ needed to be found, and quickly. She had a hunch.

~//~

“Any idea what caused Elizabeth to call us back from the station?” Rodney asked Daniel as he walked into the conference room filled with the heads of the multitude of departments under his charge.

“Not a one.” the younger man said back. “How’s the baby?”

Startled at the question, Rodney flashed him a smile that was equal parts smug and scared, “Growing. We can see him now, and he looks like something out of an Aliens movie. But Carson tells us that that is normal and he will begin to look more like a human being soon. And he is moving a lot. Little flutters, but still, moving. It’s very cool.”
Daniel shared a delighted grin with him at that news and nodded, “Nice. Carson says that we can try for ours whenever we are ready. Jack is still thinking it over.”

“Just don’t do anything in the gestation room. Carson has no sense of humor about anything like that. Okay?” and with a wink and a smile, Rodney moved to his spot at the conference table.

Rodney watched as Elizabeth walked in and took a deep breath and let it out before starting to speak. “Thank you all for coming over so quickly. Carson, please close the doors and Rodney, I need to you place this meeting under Command level security.” His hands were already keying in the necessary protocols as his mind tried to decipher what was causing her to insist on this high of a level of secrecy.

“Now before anyone completely panics, this meeting was called because I found something very, very interesting in the database we copied from the Da Vinci. Have any of you run across something called a ‘Locus Novus Propositum’ in your research?” She glanced around the table and met everyone’s eyes. Rodney could tell that his minions were thinking hard and well, so was he. The term was tickling something important in the depths of his mind and he let his hands go slack over his keyboard while he worked to jiggle the thought free.

Elizabeth let them sit in silence for over five minutes before anyone bothered to say anything. Rodney appreciated the patience she was showing to them because he could feel that the answer was there, it was something that he had dealt with in the past and even remarked on and he knew that when he made the connection, he would be livid that he had missed it. But for the life of him, he couldn’t get the information to come any further up from his unconscious mind to something he could readily access.
“Does anyone have anything?” she said, looking around. “Daniel?”

The young archeologist’s slash translator slash soldier looked over at her and shook his head. “You know that I just got my hands on this material when I came out here. Jack wasn’t allowed to have ‘official’ access to anything while he was retired and my originator didn’t bring anything from Atlantis home with him before he went missing and well, when we left, he was still missing. So… The only references to that term I personally know of are the ones where I checked your translation.”

Radek looked up from his computer. “I have seen this term before. St. Paul in Astrometrics has at least four locations marked thusly on the map we have of the Pegasus Galaxy. There is one several light years away from the planet where we originally met the Athosians. It has a further notation of ‘Navis‘. So to use colloquial English, it is..”

“Location for New Purpose, Ships.” Daniel murmured.

“It’s a shipyard?” Rodney said, excitement leaking into his voice. If even a tenth of the tech there was still functional….

“No, Rodney. As near as I can tell, it isn’t truly a shipyard. What it is, is a junkyard. Where they sent at least four mostly functional warships right before the end of the Wraith/Ancient war. And where we might find ships that we can repurpose and the parts we would need to repair them.” Elizabeth said with a broad grin.

Rodney could only stare at her in total silence.

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