Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 19

Chapter 19 - Catching up to the Cleaner

“Certainly feels homey.” John said as he looked around the control room that, if it wasn't for a number of clearly aftermarket addons that looked like they were lifted from world war two, could have been on Atlantis itself.

“Suppose they didn't exactly have Home Depot back in the day.” Ford added in from where he had taken up watch by the entryway.

“I rather doubt they needed it.” McKay put forward in a distracted tone as he rapidly looked between something on his tablet and information streaming across the central Lantean control console.

“Well.” Councilor Lycus inquired impatiently, the older white haired man all but glaring over McKay's shoulder as the pair of guards that seemed to be the man's omnipresent shadow watched from a safe distance. “Can you fix it or not?”

“Easily.” McKay said, frowning at his tablet in a way John had long come to realize meant they were in some kind of trouble. “He basically just flipped on a basic safety lockout for most of your systems. But the problem is, I'm not sure yet if I actually should override it or not.”

That was pretty much what John had expected when he'd heard the words safety lockout, but he doubted the Chancellor would see it the same way given he seemed like the type of politician who wanted things done this way or not at all.

“What do you mean you're not sure?” Lycus demanded angrily. “We allowed you to come here because your Doctor Weir promised you'd be able to help.”

“What part of safety lockout don't you understand!?” McKay snapped as he turned to the man with an annoyed look on his face. “While I haven't been able to determine everything Evan has running, I've found enough to tell that lifting the lockdown could be bad.”

“How bad is bad?” John asked cautiously, wanting to be prepared just in case it ended up happening anyways.

“Crushed by machinery larger than the Bank of Montreal bad.” McKay returned.

John frowned, not sure just how large that was, but suspecting it was probably a good bit bigger than the couple story bank the name brought to mind.

McKay rolled his eyes. “Think two thirds the size of the Empire State Building. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Because as far as I can see he brought this whole place straight to full operational status.”

“I don't see why that would be a problem.” Lycus huffed, glaring at McKay as if the scientist's words had somehow personally offended him. “My people aren't stupid you know, if there are dangerous machines at work we're perfectly capable of avoiding their path.”

“Oh, aren't you now?” McKay said in a dangerously smug tone as he brought forward his tablet and flipped it around to show the Chancellor. “According to this you've been running the facilities shield at full power for nearly a year.”

“Rodney.” John warned, moderately sure the man was about to say something that would risk having their invitation revoked. “We're here to help. So unless this has something to do with getting things running again it might be best to let it lie.”

The look McKay shot him at that was anything but happy. “It's what Eventus warned Elizabeth about. Because those numbers I just showed you? That's the temperature of the magma chamber steadily increasing die to the high level power draw of the shield.”

He had really been hoping to avoid that particular pitfall given Evan had made it sound more like a long term problem kind of thing. But first hand information trumped speculation, so if McKay thought they were in danger John wasn't going to argue.

“How long do we have?”

Scowling, McKay quickly flipped his pad back around and returned to studying the information on it. “I was just getting to that. So if you'll just give me a minute I'll…”

“Oh.” He finally finished, sounding more than a little surprised.

“Is that a good oh, or a bad oh?” John inquired, narrowing his eyes at McKay as he began mentally running though their quick evacuation options.

“It's an I think I know what caused the Earthquakes oh.” McKay answered, the tension from moments ago all but vanishing from the other man's frame.

“And that would be?” John prodded when the scientist failed to expand further.

“Evan used the outposts shield to bleed off most of the built up heat from the magma chamber.”

“So a good oh.” John stated for the rest of the people in the room, relaxing significantly himself now that the threat of volcanic doom was no longer on the table. “Didn't know that was something you could do with shields.

“It's not.” McKay replied, and John turned an odd look to the man since evidence clearly suggested otherwise.

“To do it he had to override pretty much every safety system the shield had, and with nowhere else to go the excess energy fed directly back into the shield emitters burning most of them out.”

Chancellor Lycus lost strength in this legs at that, clutching onto the nearby console to keep himself up. “He burned out the shield!? But we need that to protect our people from the Wraith.”

“I said most of the shield emitters.” McKay corrected in annoyance. “But given it was a choice between that and this place going up in a blast that would make Mount Vesuvius look like a firecracker, I'd say you came out on top.”

The man had a point, though John probably would have tried to be a bit more diplomatic about it. But that was why they usually attempted to keep McKay away from easily offended dignitaries.

“I don’t suppose there's anything you can do to help the nice people fix up their shield?” John put forward as a potential olive branch since, really hoping Teyla was having more luck finding that missing scientist than they were fixing things for the Chancellor.

McKay wiggled one of his hands back and forth in a quick so-so motion. “I don't know, maybe. I'd have to physically examine the emitters to know one way or the other. And I kind of have my plate full right now working through everything mister Ancient has doing with the place.”

“Might be a good idea to prioritize that.” John offered to preempt what probably would have been a long complaint from the Chancellor.

“There's no point.” McKay waved off as the Taranian leader began to flush in clearly biding anger. “With the decrease in magma chamber temperature and deactivation of the accelerator system they used to pump up the power output the outposts geothermal generator is running at something like ninety four percent capacity just to keep up with all the systems Evan has active.”

“So no shield till Evan finishes working on the warship.” John simplified for the Chancellor.

“Which according to system projections will take another twelve days. So as I said, not exactly a rush.”

“Feels like that's cutting it pretty close if he wants to get back to Atlantis in time to stop the Wraith.” John muttered, not exactly sure how long the trip from Taranis to Lantea would take the vessel.

“The fact that you're so blatant with your wish to abscond with our Ancestral Warship has me once more doubting your people's intentions here.” Lycus stated as he straightened himself to his full height and shot them a somewhat anemic glare.

“It’s not like you were using it for anything.” McKay groused as he began typing something into his tablet. “Or even able to do more than… Oh no… That could be… Okay, they’re not self replicating so that’s something.”

“Rodney?” John asked in a cautious tone, not liking the direction those words pointed towards in the slightest.

“A big part of the repair process seems to involve the use of nanites.” McKay explained, all but confirming John’s fears.

“What are these nanites?” Lycus demanded, clearly reaching the end of his patients with McKay.

“Think small machines.” John told him. “It’d be a bit long to get into specifics, but they’re very dangerous.”

“These moderately less so.” McKay added in. “From the translated warnings these are only dangerous if you stick your hand in the power transmission field.”

“How dangerous is dangerous?” John inquired, knowing there always tended to be at least one of those guys who either intentionally or accidentally tested their luck.

Rolling his eyes, McKay flipped his table around to show John a stick figure like person with their arm in a semi transparent triangle and the limb beginning to dissolve.

Staring at the picture for a moment John couldn’t help but wonder. “You think he added that for our sake, or it was already there?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes: It was a “for dummies” standard Eventus convinced the rest of the Ancients to adapt by showing a 37% decrease in accidents amongst non-ancient populations working in ancient facilities utilizing it.