Acknowledgements

First and foremost, this goes practically without saying, I would love to thank everybody associated with the creation and production of Stargate Atlantis and the Stargate franchise.  You have created and forged a truly wonderful playground for me and many others to play in and I truly thank you for allowing me to join this incredible adventure.  You have no idea how terrific you all are!  You all so totally rock!  Next I’d like to thank Sally Malcolm for her novelization of Stargate Atlantis’ premiere “Rising”, it’s an awesome book and, to me, you wrote with the voice of Doctor Elizabeth Weir so absolutely clearly and wonderfully I couldn’t imagine doing this book without bringing the parts of your book over that I did and working them in.  It adds such a flavor and authenticity to this story that could not be possible without you, the “Rising” story, and your flawless gift for voice.  I’d also like to thank you for short story “The Companion” (Stargate SG-1/Atlantis magazine issue #12), it’s a wonderful story that fit in perfectly for adding backstory to notion of the Trust and Janus’ secret lab and just secrets in general that this book really goes for.  It adds such great history and makes for a great McKay moment, thank you.  Much thanks to Jo Graham and her short story “Gods and Heroes” that appeared in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU magazine issue #33.  It gave so much help to Teyla’s character and the backstory of the city ruins on Athosia that again help this story have so much authenticity and validity.  It’s just a great read too.  Thanks bunches.  And a huge, monumental thank you to actress Rachel Luttrell for her terrific portrayal of Teyla Emmagan but more importantly for the interview you gave in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis magazine issue #14 which gave me the idea and the cart blanch to include some ideas that you yourself had thought of for the Teyla character.  It helped so much fleshing out the personal feelings of Teyla and just enhanced the character that much more and helped to make this story, in my opinion, the Teyla-centric story that it is.  Thank you so much you precious jewel you.  And of course thank you to Natalie Barnes and Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU magazine for conducting the interview and publishing it in the first place, as you’ve probably already guessed the magazine and people like you proved to be and continue to prove to be an invaluable wealthy source of information.  Thanks for the riches.  I have to give a big hand to actress Torri Higginson (“Doctor Elizabeth Weir”), Big Finish Productions, and especially Sharon Gosling for the Stargate Atlantis audio drama “A Necessary Evil,” it went a long way to helping out the progression of the story with the gift of phase shift technology that requires a huge amount of power to operate and having our Atlantean heroes encounter it before.  You helped McKay out so much and in a bizarre way, bad guy Asgard and Ancients throughout the Pegasus Galaxy.  And of course a great big thanks to Fandemonium Publishing for giving us fans access to your list of wonderful authors from which I have gotten so much both from their novels and their short stories.  And to everyone associated with Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU magazine, even though we’ve lost your magazine, you’re still my go to resource for information and canon whether it comes from your incredible interviews or the great short stories you’ve published over your many issues.  Thanks for the memories, may they always add new light and life to the Stargate franchise.  And lastly, a huge thanks to everyone at Activision that had anything to with the PC game Zork Nemesis especially the writers, you have given me so much inspiration and helped me flesh out the Pegasus Asgard even more than the little bit we got to know them in the Atlantis episodes “First Contact” and “The Lost Tribe”.  Your game is awesome and came instantly to mind when it came to taking these Asgard as far away from the passive and peaceful ones who had come to know and love from Stargate SG-1 and the darker image of the Ancients.  You gave me leaps and bounds in this story, I’m so grateful.  To the fans just like me, I hope you love this book and I hope I’ve done you proud because like you I’d accept nothing that would even think of shaming one of my favorite television shows ever, let alone it’s entire franchise.  And finally to my mother, thank you for being the first person to put a pen in my hand and telling me “Go have an adventure”—P.S. the adventure is awesome!