"It was wine," Teyla insisted firmly.
"For two hours after waking up, I thought I was blind!" Kyrik complained.
"I felt like my limbs had been chopped off," Alvar admitted. "And my head. But not completely. And my mouth tasted like a Wraith had crapped in it..."
"Exactly!" the second former Runner agreed.
"It was wine!" Emmagan maintained. "Likely... the berries we used for them weren't quite suitable."
We were sitting at a semi-circular, internally illuminated table in the Council Chamber, meeting toward the end of the current day. Not because an evening briefing was a given, but simply because by this time, all the participants of the drinking bout had come to their senses and were capable of articulate speech. There probably would have been more problems if Chaya and I hadn't put all three of them on IV drips. Thank Ermen and his storehouses for the saline!
"Alright, let's move on," I said, raising a hand to draw attention. "What's done is done. The wine is indeed tasty, but... Teyla, perhaps this wine is too strong for ordinary humans."
"Perhaps," Emmagan conceded. "I apologize to you all. I still believe it was the berries... We must be careful on the new planet. But the berries looked so much like the ones that grow on Athos..."
Yes, that would be a good idea. Considering that the chosen world hadn't been inhabited for a long time (and possibly never), the Athosians' faith that wild-growing berries were the same as what they had been planting on Athos for centuries wasn't exactly what one needed for a long life. We needed to thoroughly check their planet; what if some local nightshade was masquerading as a raspberry?
"In my world, we practice using markings for strong and weak alcohol," I shared, handing the girl a symbol I'd drawn from memory. "I think wine from these berries should be marked with this sign."
"Yes, of course," she said, casting a guilty look around the room. "Once again, I apologize."
"It's nothing," Kyrik said, relenting.
"But it shouldn't be repeated," Ermen added.
"Michael," Teyla asked, intrigued. "What does this symbol mean?"
"It means the product marked with it is... specific enough that it shouldn't be consumed by everyone without exception," I improvised. "Strictly for those strong in spirit, body, and seasoned in handling such products."
"My goodness..." Teyla marveled. "Just one word, one drawing, and it signifies so much... I must remember that the inscription 'Biohazard' means 'only for the strong in spirit...'"
"Exactly so," I replied, not a single muscle twitching on my face.
"Biohazard." The biological hazard symbol.
Since I was the only Earthling here, I figured Teyla and the others wouldn't find out for a long time that the symbol is placed in areas and on objects involving possible infection, storage, production, or use of biological substances harmful to health. At first, I thought about "pushing" for the use of the skull and crossbones on an orange background as a symbol for substances capable of causing severe bodily harm or death.
But I thought that would be too obvious. This way, who knows, we might save lives... Good intentions and all that.
"I'm surprised Misha didn't have any side effects," Alvar said, looking at me suspiciously.
"Lantean bodies are more advanced than those of ordinary humans," I said without flinching. "Millions of years of evolution and all that."
The fact that I was actually from a different universe wasn't something these guys particularly needed to know. The official version stated that I had arrived from afar as the last representative of Lantean society. The story Chaya told our comrades didn't differ much from the reality—except for the fact that we kept quiet about the likely negative attitude of the Ascended toward us.
The doors of the Council Chamber slid open, letting Chaya inside. The girl was dressed in a simple blue-gray field uniform. It had become something of our everyday attire. Practical and comfortable for daily wear.
"There you are," she greeted those present with a warm smile. Sitting down at the edge of the table, the Proculusian laid out her Ancient laptop. "Well, I have news."
"Good and bad?" I clarified.
"Exactly," the girl said sadly. "I've returned from Taranis."
"You went there alone?" Kyrik grew wary. "The locals could have set an ambush. I don't think the Chancellor will give up so easily."
"I used a Puddle Jumper," the girl explained. "I scanned the area around the base in stealth mode. If they intend to take revenge, it won't be anytime soon. No people were detected in the restricted zone."
"Perhaps they are just plotting and observing for now," Jensen suggested.
"Or they've accepted what happened and are busy with more pressing matters," Teyla shared her thoughts.
"In any case, there are no problems with them at the moment," I concluded. "I assume the outpost has a Jumper hangar?"
Though, of course, the Stargate was installed quite close to the main entrance. The Lanteans could have just walked.
"There is," Chaya confirmed. "Inside, I found five damaged Jumpers and one working one. There's a chance to restore them, but it will take a lot of time—we need to manufacture spare parts."
"That's for later," I set the priority. "Right now, we have more working machines than pilots. So, what about the outpost? Any problems with the generator?"
"No, we managed to avoid problems," Chaya said. "I returned its operation to the baseline level and activated the airlocks. The pressure in the magma chamber will drop, while the intake and filtration system will begin to accumulate the materials we need from the lava. Unfortunately, the storage facilities you saw around the mountain are empty. Some are even damaged and need to be resealed. Then we can obtain a supply of the substances necessary for producing hull plating and internal bulkheads."
"Wait," I frowned. "Airlocks? Storage? Lava filtration? I don't recall any of that..."
"The operation of the geothermal generator leads to an increase in pressure inside the magma chamber," Chaya explained. "Even at a minimum level, the generator could eventually cause a volcanic eruption. To prevent this, and also to obtain substances melted in the magma, the Ancients built a magma intake system. It pumps magma out of the magma chamber, after which metals are filtered from impurities, cooled, and turned into refined ore. Then they enter the storage tanks on the surface. You saw the large cylindrical containers around the outpost, didn't you?"
I remembered. Large tanks surrounded by a grayish fence. They were grouped in sets of about nine or ten and enclosed by a perimeter fence. To be honest, until now, I thought they were Taranian structures. But now I realized they didn't really look like their work. Moreover, the paths paved with stone—identical to the stone used for the fences and small buildings on the surface—leading from the outpost to these storage facilities were evidence that it was all built by the Ancients.
"Yes, there were such things there," Kyrik nodded. "Those are the storehouses?"
"Correct," Chaya confirmed. "Once the raw material enters them, it can be delivered to the workshops inside the outpost to manufacture the necessary parts."
"I hope we won't have to carry it by hand?" Alvar grumbled. "We'll need tons of ore to smelt something big..."
"Hundreds and even thousands of tons," Chaya corrected. "And no, you won't. There are conveyors for that. Not all of them are in working order, but I think I can fix them fairly quickly—a few days, a week at most."
And then we'd still have to melt, mix, and so on... The repairs were going to be very, very long. Considering we only had one engineer. We had to do something about that. The Earthlings managed without any workshops. They just pushed buttons.
"So, we'll be able to repair the damage to Atlantis that you spoke of?" Teyla asked.
"We will," I agreed. "In time."
Yeah. The only question was the malfunctions we *hadn't* talked about. And there were about a hundred times more of those than the ones we'd mentioned. The problem of airtightness and metal fatigue in the city-ship's structure was just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, it could continue to be operated in this state; with enough energy, it wouldn't fall apart thanks to the shields cushioning various physical stresses on the ancient structure. But in the end, I wasn't going to repeat the Earth expedition's mistakes where they could be avoided, was I?
So, the safety of Atlantis came first. The city had suffered greatly during the siege and ten thousand years of hibernation. Not to mention that it was almost completely submerged. Yes, not all compartments had their seals breached, but in most corridors, the water was ceiling-high. And salt water is not the best friend of wiring and electronics. Even if the latter is based on crystals rather than microchips.
"What about the ship?" I asked Chaya. It was this battleship that held most of our hopes for solving the problem with the Aurora's crew. Or at least for reaching the ship.
"I've been on board and managed to start the main systems," Chaya explained, connecting her laptop to the ports hidden in the tabletop. Well... they had those too. "I've obtained the diagnostic data. See for yourselves." She pressed a few keys on her device's keyboard, and a hologram of a starship I knew well appeared in the center of the room. "A Lantean battleship, Aurora-class, named the Hippaphoralkus."
The Aurora-class battleship Hippaphoralkus.
For a few seconds, silence reigned in the room.
"Shouldn't it be... more..." Jensen hesitated.
"More aerodynamic?" Chaya clarified.
"Yes," Jensen confirmed. "Since the ship is in a dock on a planet, it should at least be somewhat optimized for atmospheric entry so it doesn't break apart from friction with the dense layers and all that."
"Drag," Kyrik recalled.
"A valid point," Chaya said. "But thanks to shield technology, these physical phenomena can be negated. As for the rest... it's a spacecraft. Its appearance, streamlining, and so on are not important in a vacuum. In space, there is no medium, no resistance, so even if it were a piece of rock, it would still fly as far as it could."
Mmm... I could have used a physics teacher like her in school.
"From what I've managed to learn, the ship participated in several battles during the final stage of the war with the Wraith and sustained serious damage," Chaya continued. "It was brought to Taranis for repairs; however, an evacuation was declared, and the ship was abandoned. The outpost personnel went to Atlantis, and from there, as I understand it, to Earth."
"You were one of the Ancients," Alvar said suddenly. "Do you really need to look at logs and databases to tell us about something?"
A good question, but... I think I knew the answer to Chaya's lack of knowledge.
"I am a scientist," she reminded him. "Before Ascension, I had my own tasks, my own laboratory, and I did not interfere in military affairs. I don't think any of you knew what every single one of your military personnel was doing."
"Agreed," Kyrik supported her. "Military secrets. Not everyone needs to be told everything."
Alvar nodded slowly. Teyla remained silent.
In principle, I agreed. Even if the Lanteans were a single people rather than a confederation of a titular race and lesser races, there is always information that isn't shared with ordinary citizens. Or even leading scientists. As far as I understood, Chaya was not in the category of trusted individuals for the Lantean government, and therefore couldn't know everything.
"What are we dealing with?" I asked.
"The damage is significant, but it's clear that attempts were made to repair the starship," Chaya continued. The ship's schematic was colored in various shades of red and green. "Green represents undamaged sections and systems. They make up about forty percent. Orange are those that can operate on secondary circuits, but this is not recommended for permanent service. These are emergency systems and should not be strained. Red, however... that's what needs to be fixed."
And half the ship was colored red. Pretty shitty, actually.
"But can it fly?" I asked.
"After repairs—yes," the Proculusian said. "The sublight engines are damaged, and repairing them is impossible without restoring a large number of systems. The hyperdrive also needs repair. The main power conduits are either destroyed or damaged. I found several places where the locals tried to repair the damage... Unfortunately, they only made it worse."
"Can you fix the engines?" I asked.
"There is no critical damage; I just need parts," the girl added after a thought. "A lot of parts. I've programmed the outpost's workshops to produce the damaged components. When they are ready, they will be delivered to the hangar. There, with the help of cargo cranes and other equipment, I will replace the most cumbersome parts."
"Manually, without automation?" I clarified.
"Only some mechanisms are automated," Chaya sighed. "Mostly, it will have to be done manually."
I imagined that for a moment. A single Chaya busy first lifting some spare part with a crane, suspending it over the necessary element of the ship, then lowering it, then running to the ship, starting to weld... If she didn't drop dead after a couple of days of such running around, she'd deserve a monument while still alive.
"This could take a very long time," I shook my head. "Can we run the ship's engines and hyperdrive on secondary circuits?"
Chaya frowned.
"That risks failures," she warned. "The ship is old. Moreover, it's semi-civilian, so its margin of safety isn't that great. I can switch the damaged systems to backups. But when they fail, we could find ourselves in space without the ability to fix the situation."
"'When'?" Alvar clarified. "Not 'if'?"
"No." Chaya looked at me cautiously. "I understand the desire to reach the Aurora as quickly as possible, but it's a journey that will take more than one day. On a malfunctioning ship, anything can happen. A failure of the main systems, a failure of the backups—and we'll be able to do very little to fix it in open space."
She was right... But Earthlings had managed to fly and even fight on malfunctioning ships of this kind.
I needed to think over everything that had been said.
In the past, the Lanteans had a very large fleet, which included various starships. One way or another, they took part in the war with the Wraith. And almost all were destroyed.
In the events I knew of, the Earth expedition encountered Aurora-class or Hippaphoralkus-type starships several times.
They first became acquainted with these ships upon the direct discovery of the Aurora. When the Earthlings got a ZPM to power Atlantis, the city sent signals to the ships, calling them to return. The Earthlings set out for the starship on their own vessel, but the Wraith, who had been awakened by then, found the Aurora first. As a result, the already seriously damaged ship was destroyed.
The second starship found was the Hippaphoralkus itself. It was also heavily damaged, but a team of scientists from Earth managed to partially restore its systems. It was lost in a battle with Wraith Hives because it couldn't simultaneously maintain shields and weapon systems.
The third ship discovered by the Earthlings was the Tria. At that moment, the Earthlings were building a Stargate bridge to travel from Pegasus to the Milky Way without spending Atlantis's ZPM energy or running their only ship assigned to Pegasus between galaxies. On board the Tria was an Ancient crew. From their account, it became known that the ship had sustained hyperdrive damage, and therefore, using the ZPM installed on board, was moving toward Earth at near-light speed. Due to relativistic distortion, despite ten thousand years passing for the rest of the galaxy, the crew had aged only a few years. To be honest, I couldn't remember the fate of that starship, but the crew, after taking Atlantis from the Earthlings, died at the hands of the Asuran Replicators.
The fourth starship of this type was discovered by a human faction in Pegasus known as the Travelers. They had their own fleet of ships on which they lived. Finding an Aurora-class ship in the orbit of a dwarf star, they tried to start it but couldn't. Therefore, without his voluntary consent, they enlisted one of the Earthlings, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard, as an assistant. Ultimately, when the Attero device was activated—which exploded activated Stargates as a side effect—this ship was destroyed along with the Travelers' colony planet.
Similar ships were also built by the Asuran Replicators—a race of nanomachines that evolved from a weapon created by the Ancients. The latter had actually tried to destroy them but didn't finish the job. In the end, both the Asurans and their achievements, including warships, were destroyed by the Earthlings. The reason—the Asurans believed that humans should be exterminated. The reasons for this... it wasn't all that clear-cut. But the fact that intelligent machines copying the Ancients weren't quite right in their processors and were ready to kill humans as another manifestation of Lantean experiments made me want to stay away from them.
In general terms, Chaya knew about all these ships—I had told her. That's why she had been searching the galaxy for specific stars and ships that might be in their orbits.
Since there was no point in approaching the Asurans (at least for now), the ship Tria was unreachable for obvious reasons (we simply had nothing to fly to it in), the Aurora itself was seriously damaged and unlikely to be capable of interstellar travel, and the starship found by the Travelers—while it could make interstellar jumps (at least it could during the events of the series, which wouldn't be until the fourth year of the expedition, meaning at least three years in the future from the current moment)—couldn't be located... The Hippaphoralkus was the only option for our own interstellar ship that we could use.
And, presumably, its repair would be drawn out. By the way!
"How much time will we need for repairs?" I asked.
"It's hard to say," Chaya admitted. "Some systems can be restored by replacing control crystals or resoldering damaged wiring. Others require new parts, the manufacture of which in finished form is hardly possible. I'll remove the restoration of hull integrity from the repair plan in those sections we won't need for the flight to the Aurora and back, but that's just one star in the universe..."
I think the last expression was the equivalent of the Earth saying "a drop in the bucket."
"And still?" I persisted.
"Months," she said, spreading her hands. "Possibly even a year if we do everything properly and on our own. Unfortunately, I cannot be in several places at once. And besides me, forgive me, but no one can even handle the correct selection of crystals. Not to mention that if something fails at the outpost, like the conveyors or workshop mechanisms, I'll have to be distracted by their repair..."
In other words, Chaya would first have to check the functionality of some mechanisms, then smelt other parts, then install them, replace the wiring in half the ship, then test everything, eliminate possible problems...
And that's not even taking into account the fact that even for smelting crystals—which would then need to be programmed and replaced—we would first need to deliver a huge amount of sand from Lantea-2! And then there's the wiring, the mechanisms, and so on! If, hypothetically, some processors burned out—or whatever the Ancients used to replace them—all of that would have to be rewritten from scratch...
And all of this had to be done by just one person. Done without going insane. Just wonderful.
The prospects: hastily patch up the ship, fly to the Aurora, pull several crew members out of stasis and revive them, get them to agree to cooperate, and with their help, solve the remaining issues. I think even if we had at least a dozen technical specialists, they could greatly speed up all the processes.
Not to mention that we would at least have someone to leave on Taranis or Atlantis while we were transporting the Aurora's crew on the Hippaphoralkus. Or looking for other ships...
All in all, everything was limited by the availability of qualified technical personnel familiar with Ancient technology. If we had even five people, it would already be much easier...
"I think we could be taught how to perform some procedures," Alvar spoke up. "After all, I think we can handle soldering contacts or replacing some devices with identical ones."
"I will try very hard to do everything as needed," Teyla assured.
"It will take me time to understand everything, but I'm ready to try," Kyrik stated. "Since the Ancient gene didn't take in me, then at least, if nothing else works out, I'll bring the others the parts they need."
I almost smiled, imagining Kyrik lugging a twenty-ton ship's reactor core on his back. Or something of the sort. But, in truth, it was a more than correct approach.
"It's not that simple," Chaya said. "Lantean technologies require significant precision and care."
"For a start, I think we just need to show our comrades how they can help and see if they can handle it," I said, rising from the table. "I'm sure there's work they will perform excellently."
Replacing a burnt-out crystal with an identical but intact one is something absolutely everyone could do. It's not that difficult.
"Yes," Chaya said, without much joy on her face. "Of course, I'll show you what's needed..."
"One more thing," I said after a thought. "There are laboratories in the city with experiments we definitely won't be returning to"—the hypothetical "Ascension machine," which could bring a person closer to transitioning into a state of pure energy, scared the crap out of me. A good thing, but at the same time—dangerous. Since in the absolute majority of cases, it would turn the subject into a flash of light and thereby kill them. "We can take some of the equipment from them. Those same crystals or wiring..."
The Proculusian and I had discovered and deactivated at least a hundred such laboratories. The experiments the Ancients conducted there were not just dangerous—in a significant portion, they were immoral. I hope that for these very reasons, they were stopped and not implemented.
"We shouldn't," Chaya said quickly. "Breaking one piece of equipment to restore another is not the best option. Even if we don't return to those experiments, it doesn't mean the equipment and its parts are subject to dismantling. Besides being very complex mechanisms to produce and tune, it would take significantly longer to repurpose them than to manufacture new ones. We shouldn't do that."
"As you say," I told Chaya as I walked past. "In that case, it's time to get to work. Head to Taranis. Perhaps among the Athosians, there will be someone else who will be useful."
"I doubt it," Chaya muttered, but only I heard her. I understood; it was a well-founded doubt.
"And where are you going?" Alvar asked, seeing me approach the opening doors of the Gateroom.
"For a walk," I replied. "Besides, we need sand to make crystals, don't we?"
And we also needed help.
Though I somehow doubted that any of the Ascended would answer the call.