Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 45

Chapter 45 - Flight or Flight Part 2

Holding his head in a hand, Eventus let his eyes bore into the woman on the other side of the screen. “So you're telling me that for the past ten thousand years your people have been running around the galaxy avoiding the Wraith?”

“Yes.” The woman, who had confirmed herself as Larrin, said. “And the ships we’ve been using to do so have begun to break down beyond the point of repair, which is why we need this one.”

There were several extreme bits of idiocy in that, and while Eventus wasn’t usually the type to openly call that out, in this particular case he felt offended on several fundamental levels. Because if you were going to run away from a problem, you should at least have the decency to do a proper job of it.

Straightening up, he turned his very best disapproving Ancient glare on Larrin. “The closest galaxy to this is roughly nine hundred sixty thousand lightyears from here. And scans of your ship’s hyperdrive show your people could have made the journey in a little under twenty years. At which point you would have been completely free of the Wraith because they are tied to the only location they know their food source exists at.”

It was one of the big reasons his people had been willing to cede the galaxy to the Wraith instead of wiping it clean in fact. Because as long as the Wraith didn’t know where there were more humans, they were functionally a contained threat.

“So no, you cannot have the Navis.”

“But–” Larrin began to protest before Eventus cut her off by continuing.

“Of course, if your people wish to request assistance in other ways there are a number of things we could provide from technical assistance to even help in relocating your people to another galaxy.”

There had only been ninety three naturally human habitable worlds discovered in the Andromeda galaxy when the gate seeding ships had gone through thirty million years ago. Far below the fourth hundred sixty seven discovered in Pegasus that had led to his people selecting it as their prime relocation choice. But it was Wraith free, had a small stargate network, and the Asgard probably wouldn't mind helping out by towing the Travelers ships there if he asked.

“Never hurts to have friends.” Lorne added in. “And I like to think we're pretty good ones.”

“You are.” Eventus agreed with a nod as his lips twitched slightly in restrained mirth. “Though Rodney's a bit of a work in progress.”

“Hey!” McKay protested as he looked up from studying the sensor scans they were taking on the Navis with a put out look on his face. “I'm a great friend to have! My team totally kills it on trivia night.”

A number of emotions flashed across Larrin's face in rapid succession before settling on a guarded resignation. “I'm going to need to retrieve my people from the other ship.”

Eventus grinned, glad she was being reasonable about things. “I don't see any problem with that. Will an hour be enough time?”

“That will be perfect.” Larrin returned as she reached over for something out of sight, cutting the communications link between their ships and leaving them to stare silently at the two ships that were now the only thing in the display.

“Pretty sure she's going to try and screw us over somehow.” Lorne offered as the silence began to stretch on.

“Why?” Eventus asked as he tried to figure out what part of their recent conversation with the woman might have led Lorne to that conclusion. “The Navis is in lockdown till someone with the access gene goes over there and we're watching everything they do with a gun larger than their entire ship pointed at them.”

“She's desperate.” Lorne put forward, studying the ramshackle Traveler vessel for a focused eye. “And I don't think she bought your offer to help.”

“What was that about anyways?” McKay interjected in a slightly annoyed tone. “Unless there are stargates there we don't exactly have the transport capacity to move people to Andromeda, and if their ships are all like what these scans are telling me of that one there's no way we'd be able to upgrade their hyperdrives to intergalactic standards.”

“There are.” Eventus corrected idly. “Stargates in Andromeda I mean. We seeded three hundred twelve mark twos there about thirty million years ago. Most were on planets with the potential to develop non-human life, but a little under a third were worlds humans could live on.”

Not that they had expected any life those other worlds developed to reach the point of sapience, but it was better to be safe than sorry that you missed out by skipping over a particular planet during the gate seeding process. 

“As to the ships, I was planning to ask the Asgard if they could help out.”

“Oh.” McKay muttered, sounding oddly disappointed. “I suppose that would… Mark two stargates? Like the ones in Pegasus?”

Eventus shook his head. “No, those are the mark threes. The mark twos would be the same as the ones you have in the Milky Way.”

McKay furrowed his brow as a question seemed to occur to him at that. “If those are the second generation stargates, what happened to the first?”

An interesting history question, that he only knew the answer to because he’d spent several years digging around the archives with a desire to know what was really going on with Destiny.

“There were several problems with the first generation stargates relating to wormhole range, ease of use, and durability. On top of that, something happened with the overseeing ship and seeding vessels that caused a loss of access. So in the end the whole galactic seeding idea was put on hold till the mark two designs were ready to implement.”

The records he’d found hadn’t been particularly clear on the details of just what had happened that had caused the early launch and loss of access to Destiny, but that was somewhat understandable given the details of a failed project likely hadn’t been a priority when making sure everything was transcribed to the cityship databases during the Avalon evacuation.

“Looks like they’re moving to dock with the Navis.” Lorne said as the Traveler ship began to maneuver towards one of the Navis’s docking ports.

There hadn’t been any small craft or ring systems detectable on the ship when Eventus had scanned it, so that was really Larrin’s only option if she wanted to retrieve her people. But given Lorne’s words he readied some of their drones for launch just in case.

“Do you want to get your people ready to ring over?” He asked.

“Would make me feel better.” Lorne confessed with a nod as he got to his feet. “You too McKay, going to want your big brain to make sure they don’t leave any surprises behind.”

A torn look flashed across McKay’s face before settling on an accepting resignation as he stood up. “Fine. But I’m wearing the power armor.”

“Up to you.” Lorne returned with a bemused shake of his head as two left the bridge, leaving Eventus alone in the now very empty feeling bridge.

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Author’s Notes: Poor Eventus, he’s just not used to dealing with the plotty types.

And yes, the math’s actually right there, assuming even just Wraith hyperdrive speeds the Travelers could have made it from Pegasus to Andromeda in 20 years. Glares in Ancient at insufficient running away skills