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The Return
It had taken around three weeks, but the great city-ship Atlantis was coming home to the Pegasus Galaxy. The go-ahead had finally been given after six months of political wrangling between the IOA and Homeworld Command, all that time Atlantis was sat cloaked just off San Francisco Bay. Relenting, the IOA reluctantly agreed to re-establish a presence in the Pegasus Galaxy even if to frustrate future attempts by the Wraith to attack Earth and the Milky Way. It would be especially poignant as it was decided that Atlantis would return to Lantea, its home for millions of years, after a three year long absence.
Keeping company with the city-ship was the Daedalus-class ship Apollo, detailed to provide assistance to the vast Ancient vessel during its journey and after it had arrived in Pegasus. Apollo and her handful of sister ships were all operated by the USAF after the loss of the Russian and Chinese ships, though plans were already in motion to build replacements.
Aside from some minor hiccups, the three week long journey had been uneventful but anxieties began to rise as Atlantis neared its destination. The Wraith were still a threat and it could spell disaster if they learned of Atlantis’ return, particularly there was no telling how well the millennia old city-craft would stand up to a Wraith attack after two intergalactic trips. If the Wraith were waiting at Lantea, it could potentially be the end of Atlantis.
Apollo dropped out of hyperspace first ahead of Atlantis, its job was to check whether Lantea was safe and could jump out again in a hurry. So on full alert with weapon systems armed and ready, Apollo appeared in orbit over Lantea and immediately detected another object in space. For a moment it seemed everyone’s worst fears had come true, but the sensors identified the object as being Lantean in origin. It was soon confirmed to be some sort of space station, drifting lifelessly without power, but questions remained. The big one being; where had it come from?
With no immediate sign of danger, Atlantis was cleared to proceed and began its descent down to the ocean surface of Lantea. Once the city-ship was down and the expedition members had gotten themselves organised, only then did they turn their attention to the mysterious space station in orbit.
Embarkation
Henshadw woke and took a moment to remember where he was, it surprised him each time when he recalled he wasn’t on Earth no more even a month after leaving the cradle of humanity. He glanced round at the green metallic walls of the room and saw through the glass window that the sky was getting light as dawn broke over the horizon, though his watch told him it was still quite early. With a sigh, he climbed out of bed and got dressed in a black combat uniform. He also donned a Royal Air Force blue-grey beret, not part of the uniform regs in the strictest sense but it was his reminder of his prior affiliation before joining the Stargate Programme.
Stepping out into the corridor he found it largely deserted, save for a handful of Atlantis security personnel and a couple of Henshaw’s own colleagues who’d trouble sleeping. He made his way up to the Gate Room, finding his way there much easier now he’d been here a week. There were a few personnel on duty, even at this early hour, in Operations to monitor gate activity and oversee the transfer of the last few items from Ark Roya in orbit.
HMS Ark Royal was a Daedalus-class ship operated by British personnel and had been built as part of an ambitious plan to have a Daedalus-class for each member state of the IOA. New vessels had been constructed at a steady pace, though the USAF remained the largest operator with both the Russians and Chinese now having two apiece. Ark Royal was the first such vessel to be operated by a nation outside of the ‘Big Three’ of the Gate Alliance Treaty, though she was due to be joined by a French ship…though only if a name could be decided upon.
Two years ago he would’ve never believe that he would be standing here, ready to embark on an expedition to explore a new galaxy. It was all thanks to when Atlantis had returned to Lantea and a previously unknown space station was discovered in orbit above the planet, seemingly cloaked for thousands of years until the last ounce of power in its ZPM finally ran out. It had been boarded by the Atlantis Team and powered up once more, revealing a wealth of data contained within its databanks.
The Lanteans had come across an Ancient Seed Ship adrift in Pegasus, it had been trying to return to Earth after suffering damage in another galaxy millions of years ago. It had been a lucky find as it had lost power whilst crossing the great intergalactic void and drifted the rest of the way. Though it had contained data on a galaxy which it had seeded with stargates, enough it seemed to tempt a group of Lanteans to set out for this so-called ‘Orion’ galaxy to try and escape the Wraith. However, it wasn’t clear what became of the Orion group as the Lanteans abandoned Atlantis some time later.
Now Henshaw was part of an expedition being sent out to the Orion Galaxy, though more resources and preparations had been devoted compared to the Atlantis Expedition. Plus the IOA had insisted on a more diverse multi-national team, apparently of the opinion that the Americans had too much influence over everything related to the Stargate Programme. Politics was something Henshaw didn’t concern himself too much with, he was a soldier through and through as well as a no nonsense commander. Though he had to be conscious of the bigger picture, he knew from experience that there tended to be a much narrower worldview when you’re under fire in a warzone.
Though Henshaw had to admit that it felt strange that the expedition’s mustering and departure point was Atlantis rather than dear old Mother Earth. It was for practicable reasons or so he was told, Atlantis was much closer to Orion than Earth was and it was a chance for the expedition members to become familiar with Lantean technology before arrive in Orion. Another reason, so he'd heard, was that Atlantis had the advantage that it could use up to three ZPMs to power the gate. By the sound of things, they were going to need a substantial amount of power to connect to the Orion Galaxy and it would be a...difficult journey even for the latest Daedalus-class vessel. Even with the experience gained from the Atlantis Expedition and the resources now in place to support it, it was likely that the Orion Expedition would be isolated for years before it would be able to contact anyone back home.
He glanced at his watch and saw that the Cafeteria would soon be starting to serve breakfast, it made sense to beat the rush and it seemed a few other early risers had the same idea.
