“We know they settled on Lantea,” McKay said. “Which we pretty thoroughly explored for any signs of Ancient installations other than Atlantis itself, and found zip.”
“I know that,” Daniel said.
“I know you know, I’m just reminding everyone.”
“Assume we’re all up to speed,” Sheppard said. “What are we doing?”
“Searching possible sites of very early Ancient settlement in Pegasus,” Daniel said. “In the Milky Way, they settled primarily on Earth and Dakara, but they had outposts throughout the galaxy. It seems likely that when they were seeding planets here with life, they actually spent some time on some of those planets, and may have left enough behind that we can get some idea of what they were doing.”
“Anything in particular we’re looking for?” Sheppard asked. “If they didn’t abandon these outposts in any particular hurry, I’m assuming they wouldn’t have left all their stuff behind.”
“I don’t expect we’re going to find a new super-weapon or a stash of ZPMs, if that’s what you mean. It’s very likely that any very early Ancient sites have been at least partially stripped, either by the Ancients themselves or by the local inhabitants. But even the layout of the buildings can tell us something about how the sites were used. And it’s possible that they left things behind that they considered unimportant, considered to be trash, even that will help us understand who they were and how they lived.”
He spread his hands in frustration. “That’s how actual archaeology works. As opposed to treasure-hunting, which, granted, is what we do around here a lot of the time. At best, I’m hoping we may find some surviving records from that era. We’re not likely to find anything you can use to shoot people.”
“I was actually just asking if there was anything in particular we were looking for,” Sheppard said after a moment.
It took Daniel a moment to shift gears. “Umm. Not really. Anything we find is going to increase our knowledge of Ancient settlement in the Pegasus galaxy from nothing to something.”
“I assume, Dr. Jackson, that you have some idea of where to start,” Woolsey said. He didn’t look particularly enthusiastic, but given his history with SG-1, it was saying something that he’d been willing in the first place to lend him Sheppard’s team.
“I actually have a couple of different ideas. First, I’ve been going through Janus’s records. He seems to have taken an interest in abandoned Ancient settlements here in Pegasus, possibly because he wanted to do his unauthorized experiments in places where no one was going to stumble across them by accident.”
“I’m getting a little tired of Janus and his experiments,” Sheppard said, although McKay brightened a bit.
“Janus doesn’t seem to have used any of these sites,” Daniel said. “Maybe he put this list together toward the end and then ran out of time before the Ancients went back to Earth, I don’t know. But it gives us a set of gate addresses to start checking out.”
Woolsey nodded. “You said you had two ideas.”
“I’d like to take a look at planets that show evidence of having been occupied by humans for a particularly long time. The original Athos, for example, we know that technological civilization developed there over and over again, with the Wraith knocking them back every time. But even before that, I think it’s clear that human settlement on Athos considerably predates the war with the Wraith.”
He sketched archaeological strata with his hands. “The problem there is that any kind of Ancient site is probably going to be buried under layer after layer of later cities built on top of it. But I’d still like to take a look around one of the Athosian cities and see if there’s any evidence that would support a larger-scale excavation effort. I was hoping that Teyla could get us permission from the Athosians to go take a look around.”
“I have spoken about this to Halling and Kanaan,” Teyla said. “I see the value myself of finding out more about our own past, as well as about the Ancestors. But my people are still debating whether to agree.”
“What’s the main issue?” Daniel asked.
“It is complicated. My people did not enter the ruined cities, for fear of attracting the attention of the Wraith. Things may be different now that we have a treaty with the Wraith, but that is very new. Some people are still not comfortable with the idea. And there is the larger issue of what will become of our original world if the treaty holds.”
“Do your people want to go back?” Ronon asked.
“Some do,” she said, and smiled at him. “Hearing that some Satedans have returned to their homeworld has inspired them. Others are worried that whether or not we return, Athos will be overrun by settlers from some other world interested in mining the old cities for their resources.”
“You mean the Genii,” Sheppard said.
“It would not be a surprise. And we must attract people to join us, whether or not we return to Athos. We are too few now to be a viable population alone. And we have always taken in refugees and travelers who wished to become Athosian. But they have always come a few at a time, and some of us worry about what will be lost if many people come who have no interest in becoming Athosian. My people do not want to become Genii.”
“I do see the problem,” Daniel said.
“There are others who are tired of moving from world to world and would prefer to stay where we have made a home, and still others who believe that because the Ancestors sent us to New Athos when they returned, it is where we ought to stay.” She shook her head. “It will take time for everyone to talk and come to a decision. In the meantime, I am afraid that any kind of mission to Athos would be perceived as the Lanteans staking a claim.”
“We aren’t going to jeopardize our relationship with the Athosians,” Woolsey said. “Dr. Jackson, I think you had better stick to the sites on Janus’s list.”
“We’ll do that,” he said. “I want to concentrate first on the sites that Janus has listed as being on currently uninhabited worlds, on the grounds that those are the sites least likely to have been stripped. First up is M4G-877. According to Janus’s notes, both the Ancients and the resident humans abandoned the planet because of hostile wildlife.”
McKay looked up with a frown. “How hostile are we talking about here?”
“If the Ancients couldn’t deal with it, I’m guessing that it’s pretty hostile,” Sheppard said. “Come on, Rodney, you know the drill. Planets with Stargates that are uninhabited are uninhabited for a reason.”
“Great. I’ll be sure to bring my dinosaur repellent.”
“It probably won’t be dinosaurs,” Woolsey said. The glances exchanged around the table suggested that no one else agreed.
On the third day they came to a town, earth houses with roofs of sod, long grasses growing on the roof, their roots holding everything in place, so that from a distance all one saw was a group of rounded hills, thin streams of smoke rising from chimneys.
“We will ask if anyone knows you,” the grandmother said, though she sounded as though she thought that was unlikely. “You must have come from somewhere.”
“Maybe the Wraith left her,” the boy, Kyan, piped up.
“The Wraith don’t leave their prey,” his father said.
“The Wraith?” The name meant menace, though she did not know who they were.
The father and grandmother exchanged a glance. “They come through the Ring sometimes,” the old woman said. “But our Ring is in orbit. They cull now and again, but we are a lot of work for a very small harvest. Mazatla has no cities.”