Chapter Text
The stargate started to dial in without warning causing Chuck to sound the alarm, “Off world activation!”
“Is there anyone off world?” demanded Richard.
“No,” Sheppard called out as he hurried up the stairs with McKay and Lorne following closely behind him, “are you expecting anyone?” he countered swiftly.
“No,” Richard replies as the final chevron locked into place and the gate connected, “raise the shield!”
“Atlantis, Earth,” General Landry’s voice came over the radio, “lower the shield!” he ordered, as he struggled to breathe through the pain of his injury.
“Lower the shield,” Sheppard ordered, as the first wave of personnel emerged from the stargate.
“Medical team to the gate room!” Richard called out as everyone in the gate room rushed forward to help the incoming personnel.
“What happened?” Sheppard demanded as watched as medical personnel carried stretchers containing wounded SGC personnel through the gate.
“The Ori are attacking,” Colonel Reynolds informed him, as he came to a stop in front of the Atlantis Commanders, “they took out DC, New York, Moscow, and pretty much every major city on the planet,” his voice wavered slightly from the blood loss from his wounds.
“Transport the wounded to medical,” Carson ordered as he entered the gate room with Jennifer and the rest of the medical staff falling closely behind him, “Urgent cases first.”
“Yes doctor,” came the reply as his staff moved with an efficacy ingrained from years of emergency situations.
Working together Atlantis personnel and the nonwounded SGC personnel kept the incoming personnel and equipment moving and keeping the gate room clear for the people and equipment coming in after them, “keep the gate room clear!” called out Sheppard.
“Keep it moving,” Lorne said as he helped an injured Marine who was clutching a blooded folder in his hands, “Lieutenant, what’s…”
The Marine pushed the folder into Lorne’s hands as he gasped out, “message from Colonel Carter.”
Lorne’s eyes widen as he handed the folder over to Sheppard who had appeared at his side, he watched as the Colonel ripped open the folder and read through the report hurriedly, “they diverted the entire North American power grid to dial Atlantis,” he read out loud.
“They did what?!” Rodney exclaimed as he entered the gate room with a wave of Atlantis personnel rushing forward to help the wounded.
John passed over the folder and let Rodney read through the message himself, “Ok, this is bad,” he muttered, “The power grid in the mountain won’t hold the charge that large for very long before it explodes,” he sprinted up to the control room in order to communicate with the mountain, “Carter?” he called out over the radio.
“This is Siler,” came a familiar voice to the scientist, “the Colonel at the entrance,” he didn’t need to expand on that, the understanding was clear.
“Alright,” Rodney ordered calmly, “I need you to listen to me very carefully, get everyone near you through the gate right now,” he said very slowly and clearly, “do not take no for an answer, if they say no, knock them out and have them dragged through the gate. Do you understand me?”
Siler paused as he digested McKay’s statement, “I understand,” Siler paused for a second before yelling to get through the gate now.
McKay look toward where John and the others were helping the arriving personnel and shallowed hard, “keep the gate room clear, there may be incoming explosions,” he stated calmly.
“Understood,” Sheppard quickly shifted processes and had people exit as soon as they emerged from the gate, and not allowing anyone to speak or to ask questions. They needed to keep the area clear in case of incoming attacks, he spotted Lorne ordering SG3 and 4 to arm up and report to the gate room for incoming hostile forces.
After Rodney’s guidance to Siler, they had a wave of non-injured personnel come through the gate while the protectors remained behind, the Atlantis personnel kept the wave of people moving preventing them from stopping and speaking until they were outside of the gate room.
John and Lorne shared worried glances as they realized that some of the personnel who were currently coming through the gate weren’t members of the SGC, there was civilians as well as military members who had worked in the upper levels of the mountain.
“This is bad,” Lorne whispered as he helped a terrified teen as he fell to the ground after tripping when exiting through the Stargate.
“Yeah,” John nodded his head in agreement, “have you heard from Daedalus?” he questioned, the ship was supposed to arrive in a week, had they been still on earth and caught by the Ori?
“Negative sir,” Lorne replied.
“McKay!” Sheppard shouted over the commotion of the influx of people speaking over one another.
“What!” he yelled back as he worked on the computer next to Chuck.
“Find out if Daedalus and the other ships survived!”
“Right,” Rodney’s face flushed a sickly green as he realized what Sheppard was referencing, the Daedalus was supposed to be returning ten Atlantis personnel who were returning from leave, “Siler?” he called over the radio.
“Yes?” Siler answered as he shoved General Landry toward the open Stargate, “Gates at the 30-minute mark,” he reported calmly.
“Understood,” McKay knew that the gate would be closing soon, “what is the status of the ships?”
Siler paused mid-grab, “I don’t know,” he revealed, he glanced up toward the control room where Walter was still sitting, “Wait one,” he sprinted up the stairs.
“Rodney!”
“Seven minutes!”
“Copy,” Sheppard called back, “All non-essential personnel clear the gate room!”
Siler’s voice was replaced by Walter’s calming one, “Doctor McKay?”
“Yes?”
“Daedalus was enroute to Atlantis,” he reported, “Odyssey and Apollo were away from earth, the Sun Tzu was destroyed and the Hammond was damaged but jumped away, current condition unknown.”
“Ok,” McKay shallowed sharply, “whose left?” alive, was the rest of the unspoken question.
“I have requested all SG personnel to fall back to the gate room,” Walter reported as he worked to track people on the monitors, “the last group is in route.”
“Ok, can you activate the self-destruct?” McKay asked bluntly.
“I need…” he was cut off sharply by an explosion.
“Walter! Siler?” Rodney shouted, the worry was evident in his voice to those standing below him in the gate room.
“Easy McKay,” O’Neill’s steady voice came over the radio.
“O’Neill? What were you doing in the mountain?” Rodney frowned, hadn’t they reported DC was gone?
“I was in town on vacation when the Ori came,” he said dryly, the sound of the self-destruct device counting down was clear over the radio, “Everyone through the gate!” he ordered as an explosion was heard form the other side of the blast doors, “McKay once I come through you need to raise the gate shield.”
“Right,” Rodney nodded his head in agreement even though he couldn’t see, “we’ll need to verify the self-destruct goes off,” he glanced up and watched as the final wave of survivors came through the gate, he spotted various members of the SG teams as well as some of the bases SF personnel, true to his word O’Neill was the last one through, “McKay!” he shouted.
McKay activated the shield as everyone froze for a moment waiting before the explosion caused by the bases self-destruct hit the iris, “Self-destruct successful!” he shouted as he looked over the monitor to check for radiation threats from the explosion, “no contamination through the gate!” he reported which caused everyone to excel in relief as the gate finally closed and ended the thirty-eight minute nightmare they had just been in.
~*~*~*~*~
“246 survivors made it through the gate,” Beckett reported, as he handed over a tablet with the medical reports of the injures both major and minor.
“Any contact from the Daedalus?” questioned Richard from where he was sitting quietly reviewing the different reports.
“They just arrived in the sector,” Chuck reported, “no communication yet.”
“Good,” Richard nodded his head slowly, they would need to inform the crew of what had happened while they had been in transit.
O’Neill glanced around at the gathered personnel and decided to just go ahead and bit the bullet, “I will be assuming overall military jurisdiction, General Landry will take over city security while Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne keep control of the off-world teams.”
“What about?” Carter questioned.
“Colonel Reynolds will be overseeing the creation of an Alpha site and Colonel Mitchell will be overseeing the creation of a F302 base on the mainland. Carter will be taking over the repair and maintenance for the ships as they arrive in Pegasus,” he nodded over at Zelenka, “Doctor Zelenka will be assigned to you.”
Carter smiled as she took the offered tablet which had information on Atlantis’ shipyard for larger spacecraft as well as the status of supplies, they had on hand for the repairs, “Thanks Radek.”
“We also need to figure out the food supply situation,” Teyla brought up, “I can speak to our trade partners but I know of none who would be able to provide food for everyone expected to arrive here,” referencing to the arriving spaceships.
“Right,” Richard nodded his head slowly.
Jack frowned as he glanced around and asked everyone present, “who wants to build a farm?”
No one spoke or said anything for a minute until a silent Colonel standing at the back of the room raised his hand slowly.
“Who are you?” Jack frowned not recognizing the Colonel.
“Colonel Waters, NORAD,” he stated simply, he wasn’t supposed to be at work except he had gotten called in for an unexpected computer issue which had caused him to go to the mountain and he had been forced to bring his four children with him since it was his weekend with them. It was just by a twist of fate that the five of them had been there, and then they had been brought down to the lower levels as the attack had started.
“Right,” Jack nodded, “you know farming?”
“I grew up on a farm,” he replied as he looked around the room, he was unsure of his place here in this galaxy.
“Good enough for me,” Jack agreed, “talk with the botanists about getting the greenhouses operational and coordinating getting a farm set up on the mainland, Mitchell?”
Mitchell raised his hand to identify himself, “looks like we’re working together,” referring to the fact that they had to construct an airfield as well as a farm, “makes sense for them to be together in order to eliminate the need to build duplicate buildings.”
“Agreed,” Waters nodded, glad that Colonel Mitchell was willing to help and didn’t seem to mind working with someone who was not a member of the SGC.
“Teyla?” Mitchell glanced over at her with an unspoken question on his face.
“I will help Colonel Waters to arrange to trade for seed and animals for the farm,” she smiled as she addressed Waters.
“Thank you,” he smiled back in thanks, for the first time since this nightmare had started back on earth, he felt hopeful for the future.
~*~*~*~*~
It had been two years since the downfall of earth, and things had slowly been settling down for the newest residents of the city.
The Daedalus had arrived first, followed a month later by the heavily damaged Hammond and then bringing up the rear was the Odyssey and the Apollo, who had arrived back at the earth and was greeted by a wasteland and the remnants of the Sun Tzu in orbit.
The two ships had worked in tandem to transport up any equipment they could salvage form the remains of the SGC, Area 51 and the Outpost, before they moved to gathering salvageable supplies, and finally they broke through the interference that the Ori had left behind and managed to locate the pockets of survivors hiding across the planet.
Colonel Martin Edwards, team leader of SG 13 was silent as directed his team to help to guide the newly arrived group of survivors who had been found in an elementary school in downtown San Francisco, toward the medical bay for a standard physical. “Let’s move people,” he motioned for the survivors, this group was majority filled with children, which was highly unusual since kids hadn’t been found anywhere else yet, “hey kids,” he glanced around for an adult and spotted a teenager standing nearby with a group of kindergarteners surrounding him.
“You in charge kid?” Edwards questioned.
“Yeah,” the boy, Nico nodded his head, “the teachers left,” he stated bluntly, “I went to pick up my sister and found them all,” his head gestured to encompass the group, his hand tightening on the hand clasped in his.
“Damn it,” Edwards muttered, “no parents showed up?”
“No,” he shook his head, he motioned toward the other teens in the group, “a handful of us took over their care,” he shallowed hard, “we couldn’t just leave them.”
“You did the right thing kid,” Edwards replied as he glanced around the group and spotted a familiar set of eyes, “what the…” he muttered as he approached a second grader and knelt down in front of him, “hi there.”
“Hi,” came the soft reply as confusion took over the kid’s face.
“Do you know a Evan Lorne?” Edwards stated, the kid had the Major’s eyes, but he was positive he didn’t have any kids since he had accepted a transfer to Atlantis a couple of years before.
“He’s my uncle,” came the reply as the little boy twisted around to look for his uncle, “is Uncle Evie here?”
“No, but we’re going to join him really soon,” Edwards paused at the kid’s nickname for the Major, “and Uncle Evie is going to be so happy to see you.”
The smile that overtook the kid’s face was blinding, “Maxie!” he called out as he twisted toward where his younger brother was being held by a teenager named Will, “Uncle Evie’s coming!”
“He’s not on the ship,” Edwards stated before the younger Lorne kid could start to cry, “but you’ll see him in 18 days,” he promised as both boys settled down.
“Are you taking all of us with you?” questioned Nico as he glanced around at the other kids, or are you going too…”
“You’re coming with us,” Edwards interrupted him swiftly, “all of you.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Colonel Edwards walked around the celebration where groups gathered sharing food and talking about how their life had changed since the Ori attack on earth.
“Colonel,” Lorne approached him with his hands in his pockets.
“Major,” Edwards nodded his head in acknowledgement, “how are things going with the rugrats?”
Evan smiled as he glanced over to where the boys were playing with a group of Athosian children under the steady supervision of a surprising Colonel Sheppard, who had taken to the two boys with a glee once it was discovered that both boys carried the gene like their uncle did, “they still miss their parents but they are settling in extremely well,” he nodded to where Colonel Sheppard had just lifted a giggling Max over his head to help him escape the other children.
“That’s good,” he nodded his head slowly.
“How are things at the outpost?” referring to the small community that was building up on the mainland around the farm and airfield. Surprisingly a handful of people had opted to live on the mainland instead of in the city, and many people had started to build weekend cabin retreats for themselves as well after General O’Neill had built a cabin there not long after his arrival in Atlantis, he called it his fishing pond.
“Going well,” Edwards was the defacto ‘Mayor’ of the outpost and was responsible for overseeing the construction of the cabins and community areas. Many of the children spent majority of their time at the outpost enjoying the open area and the chance to get covered in mud and play with the Pegasus version of chickens and goats.
~*~*~*~*~
Atlantis was alive once again and her hallways echoed with the joys of children’s laughter and parents’ exclamations of worry. The city was finally content after so many years alone and the gradual awakening that had started once the expedition had arrived had finally exploded into life upon the arrival of the children and final sense of family.
~~FIN~~