THE END OF BEGINNINGS

NINE (part 2)

Marcus Van Scott could see the top of the stargate from where he sat in the warm conference room.  The soft hum of idle computer displays and the steady buzz of half-mumbled conversations filled his ears.  He wasn't trying to eavesdrop on anyone around him.  He didn't want to.  But, he couldn't stop himself from watching them.  His eyes circled the room once and then twice.  He didn't know all of their names yet.  There might be time for that later.
Marcus' gaze kept settling back on Daniel Jackson.  The archeologist was sitting across the conference room.  He was staring down past the edge of the angular table, his gaze betraying his wandering thoughts.  Jonas Quinn was sitting beside him.  He would occasionally make a comment to Daniel Jackson who would absently nod a moment or two later.
Marcus knew very little about the history of that friendship.  He didn't need to know the details, however, to recognize the strong bond the men had.  Both of them shared incredible intellect and insight.  Both were seasoned gate travelers.  Both bore the scars that come with exploring the universe and taking on the foes and forces obsessed with controlling it.  Daniel's scars were just less physical than the ones Jonas had been left with.  Marcus couldn't imagine how deep their emotional wounds went.  And, he didn't want to.
"I am sorry to have kept everyone waiting," Teyla said tiredly as she walked into the conference room.  "An ambassador from one of our allies has been doing his best to monopolize my time."
"What does he want," Daniel asked.
"More than we can give him," Teyla answered, taking a seat that had been left empty at the table.  "It is not a matter of concern right now.  Let us discuss this development of the Seegan computer."
Marcus sat up in his chair.  "I'm somewhat lost on what exactly the plan is.  How is this ancient AI going to use the stargates to find the missing ship?"
"The way he explained it, it's not unlike a procedure Colonel Carter performed several years ago," Daniel said.
Marcus smiled slightly.  "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson.  You'll have to bring me up to speed on that one.  There are a lot of mission files to read and I haven't quite made it that far."
Zelenka cleared his throat.  "Colonel Carter was able to find a way to send a signal out through a singular stargate which then activated all of the other stargates in the Milky Way network.  It was the only way to defeat a wave of replicators that was invading at the time."
"The difference, here, is we aren't having to team up with a Goa'uld system lord for help and we aren't activating an Ancient weapon," Daniel added.
"Are you sure," Marcus asked evenly.
"Seegan has not shown itself to be any kind of threat," said Jonas with the shake of his head.  "It's advanced enough that if it wanted to it could easily find a way to achieve whatever kind of agenda you might be imagining it has."
"It also seems to know many of us fairly well," said one of the technicians seated at the table.  She blushed a little when she realized everyone was looking toward her.  It was a reaction she couldn't control.  "With the little access to the mainframe it has, the Seegan has been able to learn a lot about the Atlantis expeditions and personnel."
Teyla looked toward Daniel, Jonas, and Zelenka.  "Are you confident that this Seegan system is as honest as it appears to be?  Is there reason for concern that it may be manipulating the data you've discovered so far?"
"Well," Zelenka started to answer, hesitating a moment as he glanced at the two men beside him.  "We can't be 100 percent certain, of course.  But the evidence at hand, and observations and interactions so far, indicate that Seegan is benign."
"Sincere might be too anthropomorphic," added Jonas.  "But, it seems to apply."
"Just to be clear, this is all based on less than twenty-four hours of observation," said Marcus.  There was little emotion in his voice.  He wasn't trying to infer an opinion through his statement; not yet, anyway.
Daniel couldn't help but glare at the man seated across from him.  "Look, I have a pretty good idea who put Seegan down there.  That, alone, tells me a whole lot about the trust level I can afford to give him."
Marcus raised a hand in partial surrender.  "Okay, Dr. Jackson.  May I ask a follow-up question?"
Daniel watched Marcus then glanced at Teyla before shrugging his shoulders.  "Umm...sure?  I guess?"
"Seegan is in a box, isolated from the rest of the city and almost all of its systems.  Why?  Why would this Ancient-that you claim to know and trust-do that?"
"If you're asking me if his isolation has been to protect the rest of the city from him, then I would have to say the answer is no.  If that were the case, why allow Seegan to have even the limited access to the rest of the city that he does?"
"So you believe Seegan was hidden to protect something," Teyla asked.  "Some piece of information it contains?"
"Yes.  But not just a piece, all of it," Daniel said.  "Seegan was hidden to protect Seegan and all of the data he contains."
"And you know this...how," asked Marcus.
"The console.  Outside of the chamber in that museum," Daniel replied sharply.  "When I touched it, a holograph appeared that no one else has been able to see.  It was a puzzle, an incomplete phrase that needed to be finished correctly in order to open the chamber."
"I'm not sure-" Marcus began to say.
"The text that appeared wasn't written in Ancient.  It was Gaelic...or a very old English variant of it.  That means that Seegan was definitely hidden away long after the city was built and had arrived in this galaxy.  And...more than likely...after the city was abandoned."
Some of the others seated around the table mumbled to one another in surprised confusion.  Daniel was a little confused by this.  It was hardly his first outlandish theory.  Besides, his track record on such wild speculations proving to be correct was actually pretty good.
The bashful technician looked toward the older man she had great admiration for.  Her brow furrowed as she tried to rationalize his theory in her head.  "Dr. Jackson, why would-"
"I don't know," Daniel said, cutting her off.  "But if I had to guess, it had everything to do with the Ori."
"Which means that Seegan was also being hidden from the rest of the Ancients themselves," Jonas pondered out loud.
Daniel nodded his head once.  "Yes."
"Assuming that Seegan is benign and earnestly wishes to find the Destiny just as much as we do, what exactly is the plan being proposed," Teyla asked.
"We connect Seegan into the city's systems," Zelenka explained, "allowing him to dial out into the stargate network.  He's going to send a signal that will travel through this galaxy and then others, stargate by stargate.  That signal will analyze data stored in the DHD's and then...essentially...ping back."
"What information is the signal looking for," Teyla asked.
"Non-routine correlative updates," said Jonas.
Marcus looked confused.  "I'm sorry, what?"
"The stargate system is a highly advanced network.  In order to stay functioning, they will routinely dial one another in order for the dialing devices to stay functioning," Jonas explained without sounding condescending.  It was the kind of technical talk he enjoyed.
"It doesn't happen often," Zelenka added.  "Maybe every thousand years or so.  We aren't totally sure.  But, when a new stargate address is added to the network, it creates a unique update since it happens outside of the scheduled routine."
"How does this help with the Destiny," Marcus asked.  "I thought it was a ship.  What does it have to do with the stargate network?"
"Destiny has its own stargate," Daniel said quickly.  "That's how the crew was originally able to get onboard."
"And each time Destiny drops out of hyperspace," Zelenka continued, "It forces an update to the local network.  Seegan is hoping to track those updates to the Destiny's location."
"But the Destiny isn't in this galaxy, correct," Marcus asked.
"No, it's not," Daniel answered.
"The number of stargates this process would take must be...incredible," said Teyla.  "Dialing a single gate in another galaxy already takes a great deal of power.  I do not believe we have anything close to the amount of resources needed for this."
Zelenka shook his head.  "We shouldn't need a ZPM.  Seegan is aware of the power requirements needed to dial an eight chevron address.  He said he would dial locally from here."
Teyla furrowed her brow.  "Then how does the signal leave this galaxy?"
"Apparently, there are gates in other boundary systems like this one that can handle carrying it along to the next galaxy and so on from there," said Jonas.
Zelenka glanced around the room.  "The risk to us and the city appears minimal so far.  And there is nothing to indicate that would suddenly change.  So, now the only question is, do we do it?"
No one said anything, especially Teyla.  Her heart was beating a little faster in her chest.  She wondered, for the briefest of moments, if anyone else in the room could hear it.  She noticed Daniel's eyes and suddenly stopped thinking about the pace of her pulse.  His intense gaze was flicking urgently, shifting back and forth between herself and Marcus Van Scott.
Daniel sat up in his chair when another second of silence and had passed.  "Look, none of us should be foolish to believe that any action we take or decision we make in this place doesn't come without some level of risk of some kind of consequence.  We're a long way from home here and generally out of our league just trying to do the best we can.
"We have an option before us, a viable, workable option where we didn't all too recently.  We can either act on it, continuing in that effort to alway do the very best we can or, we can decide not to.  Whatever we're going to do or not going to, the clock is ticking and those people are still out there.  And we don't know how much more time they have left."
Teyla breathed deeply, letting Dr. Jackson's words sink in.  She knew he was right, of course.  They had to do something.  They'd been looking for a solution and, miraculously, one had seemingly been delivered.  But that very miracle, the amazing-almost too perfect-timing of it, was what had her hesitating.
"Thank you, Dr. Jackson," Teyla said softy.  "You have made a point most valid.  Please, allow me the next few hours to consider everything you have presented in order to make the best decision I can."
Daniel started to protest.  Teyla cut him off before he could actually say the words clinging to the tip of his tongue.  "I promise," she said, raising her voice a little, "you will have my decision by the end of the day, if not before."
Daniel exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding.  He nodded, resignedly, before slowly joining everyone else getting up from the table.
Only one other person besides Teyla herself remained seated at the angular conference table.  She waited until everyone else had left the room, and then waited another minute more, before she addressed Marcus Van Scott.  "Alright," Teyla said.  "I'm listening, Marcus Van Scott.  What course of action should we take?"
Marcus smiled weakly.  "I'm not here to tell you what to do."
"But you are entitled to your opinion.  I am asking for that."
"Very well," Marcus replied.  "You have to do it."
Teyla chuckled.  "That sounded more like an order from a superior."
Marcus shrugged innocently.  "You asked for my opinion.  I have opined, however the tone may have come across."  He sat up slightly, leaning closer to the edge of the table.  "There aren't a lot of options here.  Dr. Jackson's right.  The people on that ship have been lost far too long.  Who knows what danger they might be in.  Every moment wasted here looking for the best, most safest answer to finding them brings us closer to the point where they end up lost forever."
Teyla nodded her head.  "I know," she said, looking down at the illuminated surface of the conference table.
"Of course you do," Marcus said.  "You also know you have to do it.  You have to allow Seegan to be connected to the rest of the city."
Teyla looked up from the table.  The man seated nearby was annoying her.  His personality was as confusing as it was curiously interesting.  She gazed at Marcus sternly.  "Should you not be advocating for the opportunity to confer with your own superiors?"
"First, my superiors are still your superiors, if even indirectly," answered Marcus.  "Second, you said it yourself: dialing a stargate in another galaxy is costly on power.  I'm not sure I can justify taxing a limited resource like our energy supply for a call to my supervisor.  Third, they'd take too long to make a decision anyway.  Weeks might go by before they decide to investigate Seegan and his motives more closely before opting to commit to his plan."
"His plan," Teyla asked with an amused grin.
"If Dr. Jackson can anthropomorphize a computer, I guess I can, too."
"So do you trust this Seegan computer as well?"
"I don't know yet.  But I'm willing to trust Dr. Jackson.  This may be a good idea or a very bad one.  It's not my place to say.  It also doesn't matter."
"Why is that?"
Marcus leaned back in his chair, his gaze never breaking away from Teyla.  "Because its the only idea we have to use.  And, like Dr. Jackson said, the clock is ticking."