So, the answer to one question has already been obtained by elimination — most likely I'm on Atlantis. When it was slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean on an oceanic planet in the Pegasus galaxy.
And... There are two pieces of news here. I won't say that either of them is unambiguously positive.
From memory I could recall only one episode in the series when the expedition members saw something similar — a flash of light behind the window-porthole and bubbles of escaping air.
The fucking first one! The very beginning of the Atlantis story! The arrival of the expedition to the city!
Flash of light, air bubble — this is the consequence of the shield holding back millions of tons of water failing. Because there's no energy — the city's "batteries" discharged over the time it was here.
There are two probabilities of event development.
Probability one, which happened before the intervention of time jumps and the assistance of one indomitable Ancient. The city exhausted its energy reserves and sank. All expedition participants drowned. End of comedy.
Probability two. All the same, but at the last moment the heroes used the so conveniently provided "crutch" in the form of a time machine, returned to the past, found among the still living in the city Ancients a helper and he helped save the city. And at the moment when the expedition arrived, the shield discharged and everyone was already preparing to die, the engines worked, pushing the city to the surface. Without energy, without protection, Atlantis survived. And almost undamaged.
And I don't like either option. Stupid to die, having received a chance for a new life in a city built by people who developed hundreds of millions of years before the appearance of Homo sapiens. Though, those very first people, the Ancients, are the creators of Homo...
Pressing against the window, I tried to make out in the darkness of the buildings at least some hints of the presence of people in the city. After all, in the first impulses, the expedition members occupied a fairly large space inside the central spire, which led to the automatic activation of many systems — including in the central spire. I seem to be on one of the piers, since I managed to make out the huge bulk of the city's main building in the darkness to the side of me. And in the huge structure there wasn't a single glowing window — which is physically impossible if someone was there. If there was anyone in the city at all.
I have a suspicion that the absence of even minimal lighting throughout the city is proof that the energy sources powering Atlantis are on the verge of exhaustion. If the energy meter reaches zero... Honest word, I don't want to check that.
Need to get out. If everything is as bleak as I think, then I should get to the central spire as quickly as possible — the tallest building in the city — and use a Puddle Jumper. The latter is such a small ship designed for... For a lot of things. But the main thing is that it can fly through the Stargate. And those are such a big thing that...
To hell with it!
All in order!
The inevitable has already happened — I'm in trouble. And the faster I find a way to get out of it, the better.
For some reason I remembered the Voice's words that the "others" were not as accommodating as I was. Maybe there are others like me here. Annoying everyone to bloody snot "isekai." But from the silence and darkness in the city, I doubt it...
Well, head works, hands do.
Turning to the cabinets discovered earlier, I began looting. Even if there's an alarm here, I frankly won't mind if someone comes to help me. In such a situation, I just don't care who it will be.
There were three of them in total. And without tormenting myself with pangs of conscience that I'm possibly rummaging through the things of the dead, I proceeded to inspect the shelves.
The search lasted about ten minutes, and everything found I stacked on the surface of the lab table on which I woke up.
My first catch was clothes and shoes. Comfortable half-boots with high shafts on... Not laces, not zipper, not "Velcro"... Something like self-tightening regulators. Smelled like "Back to the Future." Well, not for me to choose.
Uniform of milky color with gray and brown inserts, similar to a military tunic — pants, underwear, jacket, short-sleeved T-shirt. If the Ancients have the same approach to button placement on clothes, then I got the male version. The lack of fittedness inspires optimism.
It seems there is justice in the universe after all
Good, clothes and shoes are available. Hm, even sock-like things. True, they resemble worn football socks, but as with underwear, worth putting on — they immediately fit the figure.
Comfortable.
A bonus was a belt with a thigh holster and straps for attachment. Fits, I'll take it. It would be desirable to test luck to the end and find a weapon.
This is about the male form, of course. Screenshot from the series "Stargate: Atlantis"
Another acquisition was a capacious backpack made of soft but extremely dense material. Really resembles a backpack — two straps, a handle for vertical carrying... Only instead of the usual zipper — magnetic.
The outer side, shiny in the light, felt like plastic to the touch, but I bet my hand it's harder than it seems. Memory helpfully suggested that such backpacks flashed in the series — during the evacuation from the city some Ancients left with them through the gate. And in it, surely, there should be something interesting. Like an experienced looter, I didn't make myself wait long, immediately studying the contents of the find.
Examining almost a hundred small bars the size of a small chocolate bar, wrapped in transparent packaging similar to polyethylene, I didn't guess long about the purpose of these appetizing-looking items. Quickly tearing the packaging off one of them, I bit off a small piece. In small doses I won't poison myself, and if it's crap — I'll get rid of it.
Of course, it's like the Ancients to store rat poison like this... But I doubt something like that.
N-da, something between children's plasticine and hematogen. Not tasty, but it satisfied hunger. Waiting a few minutes — will the swallowed cause vomiting reflexes or some other body reaction — almost without chewing, I sent three pieces into my mouth. The Ancients built ships and devices that lasted at least tens of thousands of years. Let's hope their food has a similar shelf life. The stomach graciously treated the product, and feeling full, I proceeded to search the last cabinet.
Unlike the other two, this one was divided into two parts by a horizontal shelf. On the upper one I found what instilled confidence in me for tomorrow. Though, who of us knows what that tomorrow's bottom will be.
However, a futuristic-looking energy pistol cannot but please. I remember those were with the humanoid replicators...
God, I watched this series twenty years ago! Yes, I rewatched a couple of times the most interesting episodes, but I can't remember such a thing after so much time⁈ I had more important things in life to concentrate on such... Marina, family, work, friends... Achievements and failures...
But I remember them quite vaguely, as if it was so long ago... Something doesn't like this to me. But now there's no time to dig into myself — I'll figure it out when I'm safe.
If, of course, I will be.
Energy pistol.
Several... unusual weapon layout, and all these crystals instead of the usual barrel... Well, that's details and a matter of habit. Most importantly, on the weapon, in the area where a firearm pistol has a bolt frame and chamber, here is a scale with square indicators. And this scale, like the crystal-barrel, is not lit. Whether you take it in hand or not.
Broken? Discharged?
The pistol fit comfortably in the hand, and the soft trigger literally urged the finger to press it. But I had no plans to shoot in a closed room. Therefore, the weapon went into the thigh holster and comfortably settled there.
I'm not complaining, but this is starting to scare. Somehow everything coincides too much. Or am I just looking for a black cat in a black room from shock?
The question that flashed — and where does this thing get energy from — resolved itself. The holster had several pockets in which a pair of small — little finger phalanx size — blue crystals in the form of tiny octagonal prisms rested.
And in the end of the pistol I saw just such a nest... Coincidence? I don't think so.
Inserting the crystal into place, I grunted contentedly — the weapon made a pleasant sound and the due elements lit up. Once again overcame the desire to shoot for a test. Stopped myself only by the thought that the consequences might definitely not please me.
My last find for me was a device that in the series was dubbed the "life detector." A small device in a semi-transparent white case resembling silicone, and a touch screen from frame to frame, with several buttons in the lower part of the case. Similar to a grotesque handheld due to its shape and size. But in fact it's a very advanced compact computer. I remember with its help they searched for life signs, radiation, energy sources... Useful thing.
And also, it has one unstated function. Though, rather "this is not a feature, this is a bug." The thing is that the "life detector" — is one of those very complex Ancient devices that worked...
Another barely perceptible to the eye beep, and the black screen came to life, drawing in front of me several schematic lines, partitions and... a blinking white dot in the center.
One life sign.
Mine.
Unbeknownst to myself, I sighed with relief.
The scanner worked in the hands of those who had the ATA Gene. Yes, human ancestors protected their best devices from use by enemies and other clumsy monkeys, setting them so that only the one with a certain genetic sequence, the ATA Gene, could work with them. For the rest such jokes are no more than a monument to another, more developed civilization.
Though, this didn't always save from the mischievous hands of series heroes.
This is how the "life detector" looks, also the Ancient Scanner, also the Ancient handheld or PDA. Picture from the series.
So, the dilemma with the gene resolved in minutes.
Either I have the ATA Gene, or specifically this device works without it. Which I strongly doubt.
They say that in the universe there is a principle of balance — somewhere trouble awaits you, and somewhere pleasant surprises.
I hope my white streak hasn't ended. And I really don't want a black one to follow it, and then the end of the zebra...
So, without losing a minute, I dressed in the found uniform, fastened the holster on my right thigh, threw the backpack over my back, and holding the "detector" in my left hand, and the weapon — in my right, headed for the exit.
A light movement over the three vertically arranged crystals in the panel to the right of the door panel — and here, I already went out into the corridor.
It stretched for many meters to the right and left of me, but estimating that the outlines of the central spire I saw are still to the right of the current location, I resolutely headed in the chosen direction.
Despite the clothes, which turned out to be quite light, but sufficiently warm, the cold in the other rooms still made itself felt. Leaving behind a decent distance, wandering through corridors and floors, I felt that, despite the mechanisms of the city awakening at my approach, hidden in the depths of the walls, floor and ceiling, my ears, fingers and nose were still freezing. Surely the city was still "swaying," reacting to my appearance.
No point in sitting on my ass and waiting for salvation. I think the Voice didn't send me here just like that — obviously there are some serious problems in the lost city of the Ancients. Doubts that I'm on Atlantis? No, none. Doubts that I'm alone in the city? Also no.
The convenient interface of the "detector," intuitive after several trials and errors, helped me navigate in space. In addition to detailed plan-schemas of a small space around me, with nimble and characteristic movements of two fingers on the screen, it was possible to change the display scale. And reaching the maximum distance, I confirmed my theory that I woke up still on one of the outer piers. And more precisely — on one of the "small" ones. They are "thinner" at the base than the "large" ones.
Plan of the city Atlantis.
The handheld dutifully gave me the city plan. But this is just a map, like a device blueprint on whatman paper. No interactivity. Well, or I don't know how to launch such a function.
Now it's not important — need to get to the central spire to get answers to other questions.
Having covered a considerable distance through corridors and stairs, I stopped to catch my breath at a healthy window. Strangely enough, but outside the window it became "lighter." With the naked eye I could see the outlines of dozens of buildings. Some — even in detail. Those closer, so altogether clearly.
View of the buildings of Atlantis underwater. Approximately so.
Having contrived, I looked through the window from bottom to top. As I assumed — through the thickness of water, and considerable, on the city fell dim rays of the local sun... M-m-m, no, still not the Sun, not the sun, but a star. That would be more correct.
Almost indistinguishable against the background of the darkness of the oceanic depths, somewhere there, above the highest point of the city, was a transparent film of the energy shield. The only thing separating the building from thousands of tons of water and the destructive force before which even the Ancients and their construction wonders cannot stand. At least in the series they didn't stand.
After all, the city is several million years old. And even if it's essentially a hermetic spaceship, for complete flooding it's enough a few breaches in one part, failed sensors of blocking flooded compartments in another, loose door fit in the third...
I don't want to test luck to the very bottom on my own skin.
Thousands of questions in my head, but they will all wait.
I'm on Atlantis.
In the Pegasus galaxy.
Something is happening here.
And the Voice decided that I can help fix it. Well, or no need to flatter myself — they just "tasked" me as the most accommodating. Though, I didn't pretend innocence for long myself. I had a chance to save my beloved — and I used it.
Do I regret it?
Not a drop.
Damn, nerves are no good. Need to be calmer. Or I won't last longer than I want.
Approximately how Atlantis looks underwater. Beautiful art, but not quite accurate—there's no shield here.
Finishing the breather, I checked the PDA and trotted toward the city's transport pod.
Time to get to the central spire as quickly as possible.
There is something there... someone... who can give answers to my questions. At least I should try to ask them and shine with erudition and meta-knowledge. Or, in the end, just start threatening.
***
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