The Other City von T L Kay
“Replicators!?”
They had made it back to Praesidium in one piece and had just finished relating to Jack what they had seen. He was understandably upset.
“Yes sir,” said Lorne.
“You’re sure?” Jack asked.
“Unfortunately yes,” said Kate.
Jack heaved a sigh and put his head in his hands. “This isn’t good.”
“No sir.” Kate paused and took a deep breath. “What do you think we should do?”
“I would say that we should just ignore it and hope that they won’t bother us, but I know that’s not an option. I also know that going home isn’t an option, so this is what we’re going to do. Dr. Sheppard I’d like you and Dr. Zelenka to see what you can gather from the city’s database, any information that would help us. Major Lorne I’d like you to take a team back to the Replicator planet.”
“Sir?”
“I assume that these jumpers have cloaks just like the others so you’ll be there for recon only, see what you can find out.”
“Yes sir.”
“Here’s hoping that these Replicators are different than their Pegasus counterparts.”
They all nodded their agreement.
“All right, let’s move.”
“We’re under fire!” came James’ voice frantically over the radio.
“What’s going on?” Kate asked as she rushed into the command room. “They just left.”
“The Replicators detected them,” said Jack.
Kate cursed under her breath. “How’d they do that?”
Jack shrugged. “Guess they are different than the Pegasus ones.”
“Clearly.” She glanced at the open gate. They had recently discovered the shield, and it was currently still activated. “Are they going to make it?”
Jack looked at her, but didn’t say anything.
Kate turned back to the control console, as if the Ancient device held the answers. They waited for what felt like a lifetime before the technician said, “Receiving their IDC.”
“Lower the shield,” said Jack.
The jumper shot through the gate seconds later and the technician immediately shut down the wormhole. The floor retracted and the ship eased down into the jumper bay.
Jack and Kate exchanged a look before turning and proceeding down the steps that would lead them to the bay. Lorne and his team were just coming into the hall when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“So that went well,” said Lorne sarcastically as he came up to them.
“What the hell happened?” Jack asked.
“Well sir, we’re not really sure.”
Jack looked at him questioningly.
“Perhaps we should talk about this on your way to the infirmary?” Kate suggested.
The others nodded and the proceeded up the stairs.
“We had just descended into the atmosphere and everything seemed to be fine, and then out of nowhere we were surrounded by ships,” Evan said as the walked through the halls. “They seemed to know exactly where we were, despite our cloak. I don’t even know how we got out of there alive.”
“Some damn good flying,” contributed James. “The Major pulled off some nice moves and we managed to get away.”
“Thank you James,” Lorne said modestly.
“Yes sir.”
“I don’t know how they knew we were there,” said Lorne, looking at Jack.
“I think that I might know.”
They turned to see that Zelenka had joined them in their trek to the infirmary.
“I’ve just come from the archives and I’ve found some interesting information.”
“Oh yeah,” said Kate “I forgot that that’s why I came up to the command center in the first place, to tell you what we’d found.”
Zelenka nodded. “Well I found some more.”
Kate gave him an inquisitive look.
“Perhaps you should start first Dr. Sheppard and then I will tell you what I have found.”
Kate nodded and then turned back to General O’Neill. “We learned that the Ancients built the Replicators here to help them in their creation of a weapon against the Wraith. After the disaster that was the Pegasus Replicators the Ancients here, known as the Tanisians, moved their operations to another planet where they hoped that if the Replicators rebelled it could be contained. They continued their research, although we still can’t find any reference to what it actually was, it’s like all documentation of it has been wiped from the computer. That’s all I’ve got.” She turned to Zelenka.
“Well it appears that there eventually was a war between the Tanisians and the Replicators.”
“Could have guessed that from the state of the planet,” said Lorne.
“Yes well, what we couldn’t tell is that the Replicators were the victors.”
“What?” asked Jack and Kate in unison.
“Yes, it appears that the Replicators advanced at a rate that the Tanisians could never have predicted. They developed methods of detecting ships through their cloak. They managed to wipe out the Ancients entire fleet of warships. It was then and only then that the Tanisians decided to cut their loses and leave Praesidium. It is my belief that they wiped the computers of their research.”
“But I thought you said that they created the Replicators to help them, wouldn’t they know about the weapon then?” Lorne asked.
“They were created to be servants,” said Kate, “not equals. They didn’t know what they were helping with.”
“But the Tanisians feared what they could do with that knowledge,” said Zelenka. “So they got rid of it.”
They had arrived at the infirmary by now.
“So then what happened?” asked Jack.
“They shut down the city and abandoned it. They believed that if they and the information were no longer here the Replicators would leave it alone and that they could someday come back with the help of their brethren in the Pegasus galaxy.”
“That didn’t work out too well,” said James.
“No, it didn’t. It is my belief that the Tanisians evacuated this city at roughly the same time as the Lanteans were evacuating Atlantis. When they all returned to Earth and realized there was nothing they could do to help each other they must have decided just to stay there and make lives for themselves.”
“Well this leaves us in a difficult position,” said Jack.
“How so sir?” asked Kate.
“We’ve just shown the Replicators that their most hated enemy is back in this city and they probably think that we have the knowledge that was taken out of the computer. They’re not going to stop until they have it.”
“So what are you saying sir?” asked Kate, though she was pretty sure she knew where this was going.
“I’m saying we need to pack up and get the hell out of here. We leave no trace that we were here therefore giving them nothing to trace us back to Earth with.”
Kate and Lorne stared at him, dumbstruck. “I can’t believe you, the great Jack O’Neill of all people, are saying that we need to turn tail and run,” Kate said.
“Sometimes that’s the best course of action,” he said unconvincingly.
Kate shot him a look.
“Look if it was just me and you Kate I’d be all for nuking the bastards. I hate Replicators; I don’t think anyone hates them quite as much as I do. However, it’s not just you and me. We have a whole city full of people to answer to, and a planet full beyond that. It’s my duty to make sure that they’re safe.”
Kate sighed, but anything that she had been about to say was cut off by a frantic call on the radio that changed everything.
“General O’Neill……under attack….lost jumper bay…..”
The message ended in screams and then static.
They all looked at each other, the unspoken hanging on the air. The Replicators were in the city.
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