Stargate

Atlantis Departs the Milky Way

It took 3 days for O'Neill to deal with the prisoners they took, and to get the Langarans up there to begin learning to command the Ha'taq they had just taken possession of. 18 of them had been preserved intact, as one of the Captains scuttled his ship instead of surrendering.

They were preparing to lift off, and Rodney would switch the ZPMs one at a time after they entered space. Liftoff went smoothly, and as they maneuvered through the system Rodney did in fact replace them one at a time. It took him a moment to reinitialize the first of them as the power level was more than the computer system had expected.

"ZPMs are ready to go." McKay reported to the Command Tower.

"All stations, prepare for wormhole jump. General Shepherd, whenever you are ready." O'Neill ordered as they prepared everything.

"Inputting calculations for wormhole jump, preparing to initialize drive." Shepherd said from the control chair with his eyes closed. The level of control that was available was impressive as the computer analyzed the calculations and accepted the inputs.

From the bridge they could see the wormhole create itself before they flew into the open event horizon and entered the massive wormhole.

The wormhole that opened on the edges of the known Universe sent a shockwave felt throughout Subspace for billions of light years, and attracted every Drone Command Ship in the entire galaxy.

Atlantis began scanning, and realized they were toughly 2,000 light years from the edge of the galaxy, and Destiny was approaching swiftly 1 million light years from their current position.

Rodney entered the Command Center just as the city identified dozens of drone ships entering FTL.

"General O'Neill, this is the Odyssey, requesting permission to engage drones?" Captain Knight requested.

"Negative Captain, we will be keeping our eye on the prize. Rodney, how long until we can jump to Pegasus?" O'Neill asked Rodney McKay.

"That will take several hours to determine General. ZPMs are at 51 percent and will have to be replaced before we make the jump back. We are 4 days from rendezvous with Destiny at current distance." he reported.

"Very well, General Shepherd the lication is being relayed to you. Set a course and engage hyperdrive." O'Neill ordered just before the city jumped into hyperspace.

They arrived at the rendezvous point with Destiny exactly on schedule, and found that Destiny would be several hours yet before it arrived. They made sure to keep the exact point clear as they had been warned that would be the point Destiny dropped from FTL. The sensirs revealed that most of the drone ships had departed the immediate area, and were traveling to the spot that Atlantis had exited the Wormhole at.

McKay was still running the numbers when the engines finally reset and he was able to switch the ZPMs again. The 3 were still at 45 percent power, and would be used again later, but for the wormhole jump they had to have fully powered ZPMs. It would take another 6 hours before the engines were able to generate the wormhole again.

He knew it wasn't a bad turn around considering the distance they had just travelled. 56.2 Billion light years was a massive jump all at once, and the power required was astronomical.

"Rodney, you finally have something?" Carter asked as she recognized the look.

"Wormhole drive will be ready in 6 hours. I finally know exactly how far we are." he told her excitedly.

"Excellent, Destiny will be here in 4 hours, and that will give us time to get it docked properly before we depart." she replied as they worked diligently at their stations.

Destiny emerged from FTL exactly where Chloe had said it would, and the scopes stayed clear of Drone Ships. It took over an hour for Destiny to dock with Atlantis, and the crew was able to go into Atlantis for debriefing and to await the time before their wormhole drive would be active again.

Tayla and Ronin were excited to be returning to Pegasus after 2 years, as they knew the Wraith would likely be extremely desperate by now. General Shepherd met them all in the Mess Hall, as a proper lunch had been prepared for them. They all knew despite the supplies, they had only been intended to last Destiny a few weeks at the most.

"Welcome to Atlantis everyone, we know you are waiting for debrief on what is going to be happening to Destiny. For now we wil be returning to the Pegasus Galaxy, where Destiny and the 5 Tau'ri ships will disembark before we enter the atmosphere of our selected world. Destiny will be outfitted to make the trip back to Earth where it will undergo refits. Those of you wishing to remain on the Destiny mission will be given that choice, and General Young will be commanding it for the forseeable future.

"As it will take several days, each of you will be given the choice of which assignment you wish to accept, and each of you will be given the choice. As you have all beem deployed for 2 years, we have arranged that the 3 months Destiny will take to refit will be your assigned Vacation time. Afterwards you will be informed of what your new post entitles you too, and we will move forward from there. Before you return home, you must be made aware the program has been declassified. For those not in the Military, your contracts will ne simple. Military Officers will be allowed to retire or seperate with their current years of service. Rank and years towards Pension will be converted to the Tau'ri Defense Forces, and will accrue as if nothing has changed." Shepherd said as most of them aknowledged what he had said. "Any questions?" he asked.

"Will we be required to take vacation if we already know what we wish to do?" Greer asked.

"Yes Sergeant, your service will be reviewed before you can begin your next assignment." Shepherd replied. "Most of you are well overdue for promotion."

Shepherd spent several minutes answering various questions from them before they ran out of them. "Well, you are free to explore as you wish. We will be jumping to Pegasus within the hour, and you will be notified just before we do." he said before he left.

Dr. Nikolas Rush walked over to where General Young was seated. "Can I have a seat?" he asked as Lt. Scott moved over a chair.

"Please do, I have been anticipating this conversation for some time." Young replied as he sat down. "Before you begin your rant however, Atlantis has performed the scans of the next two galaxies as well for the data they would have provided. We are not abandoning the mission, however we do need to return to Earth before we begin the next part of the mission Destiny will be performing." Young told him.

"How are we not abandoning the mission?" Rush asked.

"Atlantis is better equipped to detect the Stargates, and the seed ships. The next Galaxy has 2 seed ships that are inoperative. The galaxy after that has another 3 same response. The Galaxy after that has no Stargates at all. However there were 6 Destiny Class ships built, this being the last one that the records were intact enough to find. Our mission will be to locate the others for the pieces of your puzzle that they hold. We will also be repairing the seed ships, and others as we are able. We will be furthering this mission, as it will also inform us of potential threats in other Galaxies." General Young informed him. "As I understand the reports from Dr. McKay and Dr. Zalenka, Atlantis has design upgrades that are compatible with Destiny that will improve our capabilities to return here in a few months when fully upgraded. The work will take roughly 3 months to complete once we land and the teams can begin. I understand several religious groups have provided funding for the operation." Young said amused surprising Rush.

Rush was struck dumb for a moment as he processed the reports he had heard. "So the failure we experienced was not that unusual. May I volunteer for the Destiny Mission?" Rush asked.

"You may, I was actually counting on that. You will be the lead researcher, and will be selecting your team. We will need as many experts as we can get, and the structure of the orginaization will be a little different than what you are used too." Everett Young said with a smile.

"What will the new structure be?" He asked as General Carter joined them.

"You will be required to join the Tau'ri Defense Forces, and will be part of the Atlantis Expeditionary Forces Destiny Division. You will be given a Civilian Rank, and will have to take the command tests with it. As such you would be part of the chain of command, and expected to disagree with me in private if you do. As Lead, you will however have a say in the mission prior to actual dispatches so you will know the reasoning before a decision is made." Young told him with a smile.

Rush nodded as he had expected something similar when Youmg smiled. "I assume I have the time on Earth to obtain the rank I am able?" he asked with his own smile.

"Of course Dr. Rush, there are written amd practical exams for mkst of the ranks, and time constraimts will be lifted for each rank. You will be an officer, so you will be starting as a Junior Grade Lieutenant. You will also be leading the refit of Destiny, though we will ensure you have plenty of downtime for rest and relaxation while on Earth." Young said as he turned to Carter. "General, nice to see you again."

"Everett, Nick, how is everything going?" she asked.

"Better, but a little disturbing actually. Have we been able to determine ever portions of the locations of the other 6?" Rush asked her.

Carter shook her head as she swallowed. "No, not even a symbol. We are scouring the database, but you have to understand the sheer size of just the historical files. We have however determined that the 9 Chevron Dialong is more a code than an actual address." Carter told him.

"Everyone prepare for wormhole jump." General O'Neill announced over the city speakers as they heard the drive turn on.

"You will like this." Carter said quickly as the city generated the Wormhole and jumped.