Knockoffs
This was a desperate move and they all knew it, but there was no other way that they could think of to get out of this situation. The Replicators had found this base and they had already started firing on the city. When Elizabeth asked Dr. Keller to come with her she had said no. Dr. Keller was afraid that the Replicators would be able to track them once they were locked on. Elizabeth knew that this was risky but she could not leave a group of people that were trying to help to be killed. The bodies were not as important as the core. These were Replicators and they could make another body if they had the main core to reproduce the mental patterns that made these people who they were.
These Replicators had made their own core which was what separated them from the others. Elizabeth told Rodney to work as fast as he could to get the core moved to the Jumper so they could be on their way. It was still hard to leave these people behind and it went against every belief the she had ever had. She had learned a long time ago not to leave anybody behind. This way they could get them back and rebuild them just like they had been before. They would have enough of the Nanites to build a few then they would be able to replicate more and so on until they had the entire community back. There were five of them now that were not exactly Replicators but not exactly fully human either. They had said that they were made from the inside out from organic material making them living breathing humans with Nanites helping them along. Their memories were all implanted from the mind probes that the Replicators had done on each of them in the past. This gave them the memories and thought patterns of the originals but they were not and they would be different people from the moment they realized this.
The others had told Elizabeth that the original Elizabeth that was on the Replicator home planet had been killed but this was something that was hard to believe for any of them. They knew that having the Nanites would make them all stronger and faster than any normal human. They could heal very quickly as evidenced by the cuts and lacerations they had received and watched as they had healed before their eyes. They had moved the Puddle Jumper into position on the Aurora class battle ship that the Replicators had used to destroy the City. That got them back to the Replicator home world where they were going to take a ship that had a Hyperdrive. The trip down to the planet was uneventful once they had unclamped from the battleship. There were ships everywhere and all they needed to do was find one that was finished and empty. Since they were not connected to the main core of this planet they could move around without being noticed which was risky but they had some things that they really needed and planed to take a few as they were going.
They were going to need a way to convince the people of Atlantis that they were sincere about wanting to help them in any way possible. The best way to do that was to take the Drive Core of one of the Aurora class ships. This would help to locate the ships any were in the Pegasus Galaxy. Some of the other things that they would need were ZPM’s and parts to remake the others when they had the chance. The supply’s to make the others was easy to find at nearly any work station. The Nanites that were used were self replicating and all they needed were enough to start the process to have the others back. John and Tayla went after the Drive Core processor. That left her, Ronon and Rodney to find and acquire the ZPM’s that Atlantis needed.
Rodney was going through some of the specifications that were in the computer system and he found this information invaluable to the other people of Atlantis. He made a copy of the information and it was time to get to their next objective. The ZPM’s were in a building that was guarded but not heavily. There was only one guard and he was watching the front of the building. Elizabeth, Ronon and Rodney simply went around to the back of the building and used the ladder to get on top of the building. They had a rope with them which Ronon and Elizabeth had no problem getting down. Rodney was afraid of heights and was more than a little squeamish about coming down the rope. Ronon told him to stay where he was and to keep watch while they did what they needed to do. The ZPM’s were in cases that were lined to protect them from external damage while they were being transported.
They were going to take what was needed for Atlantis and some spares for themselves. That would mean that they each would need to carry three of the boxes but they were not very heavy. They tied each of the boxes to the rope and had Rodney hall them to the roof. Once that was done Ronon climbed the rope so that he and Rodney could pull Elizabeth up. She was half way to the ceiling when the guard came into the building and shot the rope dropping her to the ground. Ronon told Rodney to get what he could back to the ship and pulled his sword. The last thing Rodney saw before he went down the ladder was a very determined Ronon jumping down into the building with his sword drawn.
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Tayla was in the lead as they went into the Aurora class battleship. John wished again that they could take one of these ships instead of the small fighter that they had. That ship was good and had plenty of room for all of them. It was smaller than an Alkesh but not by much. The difference between the ship that they now had and the Alkesh was the vast array of weapons. This mix of small size and weapons made the ship fast and deadly.
They were all feeling very different now with the mix of Nanites in their system, they could do things that their normal selves couldn’t. With their natural abilities and skills that they had learned from years of experience of doing this kind of thing and training they were able to get in and out without causing problems. The Aurora class ship was not finished yet but it was close to completion. They needed to cover their tracts and the best way to do that was to have an accident that would destroy this ship. After they had what they needed they made their way down to the engine room. It wasn’t hard to setup the overload on the ZPM that was onboard the ship. They had made plans before leaving on their individual missions. Rodney had told them everything that they would need to know to get the job done. It would take a while for the ZPM to build up a charge large enough to cause the explosion. They had disconnected all the warnings and alarms so that it would not be stopped. On the way out they found a box that looked familiar and looked inside. This was great, they had gone through all this to get the Drive Core and there had been one setting outside in a box the entire time. They took this one also as a spare and they could always use it later.
When they got back to the ship Rodney was running up to the ship with four ZPM’s and he was so out of breath from the run and the excitement of trying to get help. They would need to go back for Elizabeth and Ronon. When he did get it out that Ronon had gone back onto the warehouse to get Elizabeth back, John and Tayla ran from the ship to help. John told Rodney to stay with the ship and keep it ready to leave on a moments notice right before he left the ship.
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The guard was approaching the single female intruder with caution after he had shot the rope that was pulling her to the roof of the building. He was about to transmit that there was a problem when a man came crashing down on top of him and started attacking him with of all things a sword.
When Ronon dropped down on the Replicator he shoved his sword down through the back of the neck and deep into the body. As he was landing he pulled hard on the sword which had the sharp part of the blade facing back toward the back of the Replicator. He pulled down hard on the blade causing it to slice through the back of the Replicator. That only slowed him down as he was repairing the damage that had been done. Elizabeth got up off the floor and kicked him hard with a spin kick off the back leg, this would have knocked a normal person across the room. The Replicator was pushed back a small amount then he went on the attack. Elizabeth had pulled a knife to help her with this situation.
There were two locations that would need to be taken out to stop this Replicator, one controller in the head and one in the chest. Destroying one would do nothing as it would only repair the damage and come right back at them. Ronon gave Elizabeth the signal to go for the head and he would take out the one in the chest. Elizabeth was actually faster than Ronon because of her build. She wasn’t as strong as he was but with the long lean muscles she had and all the training she had gone through in gymnastics and ballet it was coming in very handy. She waited for the Replicator to throw a punch at her. As the right fist came crashing at her she stepped a little forward and to the right with her left leg. This put her in position to make a very fast spin to her left with the knife in the right hand. The knife was facing down from her closed fist. It entered the left eye of the Replicator traveling through the head to destroy the control center. Ronon had picked up on her signal and he stabbed the Replicator through the chest destroying the second control center.
It fell to the ground and seamed to dissolve as the Replicator pieces no longer had any direction as to what to do. Ronon picked up another two cases and emptied out the foam packing. He scooped up the pieces of the Replicator then gathered the other boxes of the ZPM’s that they were going to need and they were ready to go. That was when Tayla and John came running into the room. He told them to get the ZPM’s off the roof and to meet them back at the ship.
John went up the ladder and tossed the ZPM’s down to Tayla who was very careful to catch them and lay them on the ground until he could get down. They took them and made their way back to the ship as quickly as possible. They knew that the others would be onto them soon enough as it was and with the Aurora class ship about to blow; it was time to leave.
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Rodney had the ship prepared to launch as soon as the others got back. He had stored the ZPM’s and the data that he had downloaded as well as the Drive Cores in a safe location. The ship was fully powered up now but he was not the one that would be flying it. He would be able to fly the ship if he had to but trying to get out of the area without being seen was something that John Sheppard was going to need to do. He had the most experience with doing this sort of thing. Once they had found the ship they wanted they had docked the Jumper in the cargo hold for the trip out. Ronon and Elizabeth came in and deposited their boxes in the hold and got ready for any trouble if it came their way. When Tayla and John got there they were ready to go. Rodney took their ZPM’s back to be stored away while the ship was taking off. They would need to get away from the area as quickly as possible. The ZPM that they had rigged to explode was ready to go off any second now. In fact they were barely out of range when the ship exploded taking several other ships out with it.
The ship was cloaked and was traveling at a slow speed so that it would not attract attention. When the ship exploded Oberoth was alerted immediately, he had the area scanned for any movement at all in the area. He was able to locate a small bomber that was just going into Hyperspace. He sent two Aurora class ships after the ship. This was something that could not have happened without a little help. He had also just received information that the warehouse had been robbed and the guard had been destroyed. He would make sure this never happened again. He gave orders to track down this ship no matter how long it took. This looked like another attempt to steal ZPM’s by the humans that now inhabited Atlantis. He also stepped up the search for that city. He would be rid of this meanness as quickly as possible.
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Rodney was telling John Sheppard that the new program that he was working on would only have the Stargate offline for a short while so that he could streamline the dialing protocols. The Stargate activated and John was told that it was an incoming message. He went over to the monitor where he was told by one of the offworld teams that there was someone there that wanted to see him. It was a shock to see Elizabeth Wear walk into the view. She was telling him that she was not the original Elizabeth that he knew but she had all the memories that made Elizabeth who she was. They needed to meet to be able to discuss things and they had some things that Atlantis would need. The away team was through the Stargate in only about thirty minuets. They had weapons drawn and ready as they stepped through the Stargate but they were met by their doubles on the other side.
Each of the members of their respective teams was looking each other over, sizing themselves up compared to what they thought they looked like. That is all but John Sheppard and Elizabeth Wear who were looking at each other like the other one would disappear if they took their eyes off for a moment. The Replicator John was a little left out of this situation because it was not him that Elizabeth was looking at. He was a little jealous of the situation but there was nothing that he could do about it.
It would seem that the two of them were drawn together like a pair of powerful magnets and the pull was unstoppable. For Elizabeth it was very strange because she did not have these feelings for the Replicator John that she did for the John Sheppard who was now standing in front of her. They were able to pull themselves together enough to stammer out an apology to the others. They were led to the command tent to begin the discussions. That was when the Drive Core was brought out and both the Rodney’s started getting excited about what they could do with it. One of the things they could do with it was to locate every Aurora class ship in the Pegasus Galaxy. Another thing was that with this same device they could control a ship from a distance overriding the controls of the ship if they could overpower the one that was built into the ship.
The Rodney’s were firing off ideas of what was possible. Then Elizabeth brought out the ZPM’s and that caused Replicator Rodney to nearly go into spasms as he remembered the data that he had recovered from the computer on the Replicator planet. It was detailed instructions on how to use the ZPM’s and the defense capabilities of the Cityships like Atlantis. This also brought Colonel Sheppard back to reality. He told Rodney that it was still too dangerous to take the Replicators back to Atlantis but he should take the ZPM’s and data back to Atlantis and bring the equipment that they would need back here in a Puddle Jumper. He also ordered the other members of the away team that were on the planet before Elizabeth came along to go back to the Stargate and stand guard. Replicator Rodney would have liked to have gone with him to gather the things that they needed but he understood and went back to their ship where he had work to do.
The two Ronon’s were trying to stare each other down still yet while the two Tayla’s were trying to separate them so they didn’t start fighting. It was like having two large male dogs wanting control of the same yard. Replicator Tayla pulled Replicator Ronon off in one direction while the other Tayla took the other Ronon off in the other.
Replicator John was going to stay in the command tent so John took Elizabeth by the hand and walked off in a different direction that the Ronon’s and Tayla’s. Elizabeth broke the news that her original had been destroyed by Oberoth because she was beginning to exert control over her Nanites. John was in shock from the news. He had her right there with him but she was telling him that she was dead and it was because Oberoth could not control her. He now knew what Ronon felt when he saw the Wraith. In Ronon’s case the Wraith had killed his wife and their unborn child back on Sateda. Now anytime he had the chance all he wanted to do was kill Wraith. John felt the same way now. He knew that he would go after Oberoth but now any Replicator that got in his way was more then fair game, they were merely targets to him now. That is all but the Replicator team that was on this planet with them.
At that time Rodney came back through the Stargate with all of the equipment they were going to need. They all made their way back to the command tent. When John and Elizabeth got there the Rodney’s were busy setting things up. That was when the two Ronon’s finally had enough.
“Do you want to find out?”
“Yes, shall we do it as Satedains?”
“Of course, but you know that I will have the upper hand because of my Nanites.”
“Maybe, but I doubt that you are any stronger or faster than a Wraith and I have killed more than my fair share of them.”
“That is true, and I must say you did a fine job of it each and every time.”
They smiled at each other as they removed their weapons and got ready to fight. This was going to be hand to hand and it would end only when one of them could not get back up to continue the fight. Ronon knew that the Replicator version of himself would heal almost immediately so the only way to do this was going to be by knocking him out. They were just about to start when both Tayla’s stepped in again and Elizabeth was not going to allow this either.
“Stop this immediately. We cannot be fighting amongst ourselves when there are more important things to be done. The two Ronon’s barely had time to get their weapons before they were dragged off again.
Both of the Sheppard’s breathed a sigh of relief and they were also both glad that the Tayla’s and been able to control the Ronon’s again. That would have been a bloody nasty fight and the human Ronon would take a long time to heal compared to the Replicator Ronon. Still it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had gotten into it. They both knew the others strengths and weaknesses so how do you exploit your own weakness when the other person knows exactly what you are doing. John and Elizabeth had just left the command tent again when they got a radio message.
“Colonel we have a situation. There are two Aurora class ships breaking out of orbit and they are scanning the area. We are cutoff from the Stargate Sir.”
Elizabeth was upset now, she figured that the Replicators had followed them to the planet by tracking them somehow. She called the command tent.
“Rodney did you double check that ship to make sure it did not have a tracking device?”
“Yes, I triple checked it before and I have just rechecked it again, there are no tracking devices. They must have been checking every inhabitable planet along the route from the Replicator planet to find us.”
Elizabeth turned back to John and she had tears in her eyes as she told him that he would have to go. They would distract the Replicators long enough for them to get through the Stargate.
“Elizabeth you know that you don’t have to do this just because you are Replicator.”
“Please John, let us show that we are still human. We can do this and if you stay here they will have all of us in a matter of minuets, now go and quickly.”
She kissed him then gave him a shove toward the Stargate. “You won’t get a second chance at this so make sure that you are out of here when the Replicators start chasing us.”
John called his team and told them to meet in the tree line on the West side of the Stargate. He gave orders to the men that were stationed at the Stargate to be ready. As soon as the Replicator ships were out of range they were to dial Atlantis and to go through, his team would be right on their heals.
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John watched as the Puddle Jumper flew past the Stargate and it had tried to cloak as it went under the battle ships. That didn’t help much though as one of the ships fired on the Jumper knocking off the left drive causing the small ship so spin out of control and crash to the ground. Colonel Sheppard told the guards to dial the Gate and move out. It was all that he could do to make himself go through the Stargate and not run to the crash sight to try and help Elizabeth. It took him a moment when he was back on Atlantis while he got himself under control. He told the others that he had gotten something in his eye just as they were going through the Stargate and nobody was dumb enough to contradict him on the matter. He had just gotten her back and now she was gone again. He knew that the others would be upset also so it was up to him to put up a brave face. But not right now. He left to go back to his quarters for a while.
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The four Replicators that were sent to investigate the crashed ship beamed down further away so that they might be able to better catch anybody that had managed to survive the crash. When they got to the ship there were four bodies in the back of the ship and the pilot was slumped over the controls. The leader of this expedition went over to check the pilot and watched as he opened his eyes.
John opened his eyes and saw that the Replicator was having a hard time understanding as he watched the cuts on John’s face heal.
“Fooled you, didn’t we?”
The Replicator fired the weapon that he had been pointing at John but just before he fired he watched as the man in front of him change appearances to look just like he did. He fired the weapon anyway but the person had changed again to a very small female child and the weapon missed. That was when Ronon used a knife and his sword to disrupt both of the control centers killing the Replicator just like he had done with the other three in the back of the ship.
The Replicator that was going by the shape of Dr. Keller used her radio to call the bomber letting them know that the trick had worked. They had only been able to make four of the Replicator bodies from the City so Ronon had gone alone as a fifth person and he had done his job well. They now had enough blocks to make four more of her people. Rodney used the Drive Core to override the two ships controls before he used the Anti Replicator weapon that he had built into the ship. They were going to dock the bomber into the cargo hold before taking this ship. It was going to take time but with the help of the other Replicators they would have a new city built. They had given the team of Atlantis five of the ZPM’s but they still had several to use for themselves.
Rodney put a bow on the console of the Aurora class ship and changed the Drive Core to the frequency that they were using for the Drive Core on Atlantis. That way it would not show on the Replicator location maps. He put in the heading to get the ship to Atlantis where it would take up orbit around the planet. To keep from frightening them he also sent a message that would start broadcasting as soon as the ship came out of Hyperspace letting them know that this was a gift to the people of Atlantis. That way they would know that it was from the friendly Replicators that were sending it, not a trap. Rodney knew that his human self and Colonel Sheppard would spend months looking for traps and locator beacons. They would still yet have something that they could use against their enemies. He had also installed the Anti Replicator weapons that were much larger than anything that Earth or Atlantis had come up with to help them along.
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Elizabeth Wear was in a stasis chamber where Oberoth had ordered her placed. He was going to destroy her and he had let that information out to the general public but he still wanted to experiment with her to see what made her tick. She had been in the stasis chamber for months now as he did not have time to do anything with her for now. Her physical body was in stasis but the Nanites that she had in her were not. They would work when nothing else would and they had continued to do their job of healing her and making her better than she was before. Her body was not able to move but her mind was still very active because of the Nanites. This was something that Oberoth had not planed on and it was going to come back and haunt him. She was able to control the Nanites with her mind now and they had opened up areas of her mind that were normally dormant in humans. She found that not only could she control her Nanites but the Nanites that were all around her.
The room that she was stored in was small and dark. The door was locked from the outside but there was a small amount of traffic outside in the hall. The young Replicator female had no idea what was in the small room but she now had the overwhelming compulsion to open the door. She dismantled the lock and went in. There was a control station that was in the room and a long narrow box. She went over to the console and turned off the stasis field that was in the box. She then went over to help the dark haired woman that she had never seen before up.
Elizabeth gave her only two commands, one was to disconnect from the Central Data Core and the other was to help her. The woman would now do whatever she needed to do to help Elizabeth. She did not have enough strength now to be able to do anything so she was going to need to leave this planet as quickly as possible. As she was going by others she was giving them the same command, disconnect from the Central Data Core and help me. In about thirty minuets she had twenty five Replicators that would follow her every command. They made their way to the launch bay and for some reason she was getting mental messages from Rodney McKay. He was telling her how to change the Drive Core of the Aurora class Battleship so that it would not show up on the Replicator charts and he was giving her a heading to follow.
End.
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