The already familiar, and even quite annoying from the frequency of its appearances panel to the side of the door glowed with even white light. The same three vertically arranged crystals... Funny. In my past life door locks and handles didn't piss me off. And here and now... Probably just nerves. I think if in my past life I had to open dozens of them, knowing that at any moment I could die in the most unpleasant way, I would also rage at the sight of the damn locks and handles.
Good thing I don't have to carry a bunch of keys for them... The Ancients have it simpler with this — run your hand, and open sesame.
With a quiet melodious sound the door leaves parted to the sides, inviting to proceed inside a small room. Made in the form of a prism having a truncated pyramid at the base, it somewhat resembled a well-known elevator.
With the only exception that there was no elevator shaft in principle. And it's not even that underfoot is an impenetrable to the eye floor, and the wall around the cabin resembles monolithic stone.
This "elevator" has no shaft in principle.
Because this is, though a transport system, but of a different order.
Atlantis Transporter.
In the center of the wall opposite the entrance to the transporter there was a screen that friendly lit up at my appearance. The simplest contour plan of the city-ship caught my eye, on which there were already marked red dots scattered, it seemed, in chaotic order throughout the city.
In fact it's not so.
Poking the one located in the very center of the building — in the Central Spire — I heard the doors close behind my back. Instinctively I squinted...
A flash of white light broke through the eyelids, briefly making me "catch bunnies." A wave of barely tangible cold ran through my body. But the disorientation sensation quickly passed.
Having exited the transporter cabin, I smirked, seeing a completely different interior compared to what I saw just a minute ago.
Logical, considering that I moved hundreds of meters both "horizontally" and "vertically" in a matter of seconds. And instead of one of the piers on the outskirts, I was now in the very center of the pride of the Ancients.
The transporter is a local network of teleportation cabins scattered throughout the city. Thanks to them, you can not waste time walking through dozens of floors throughout the complex, but arrive from "Point A" to "Point B" in the blink of an eye.
Yes, such a device requires energy, which is already lacking. But estimating how much time and energy I would spend trudging through the empty corridors and floors of the city to get here on foot, I decided that the savings would still be significant. At least in time.
A spacious hall with several comfortable-looking sofas. Funny... I thought the expedition members from the series brought their own furniture to the city. And the "local" seems familiar. I definitely saw such a chair in the series!
It turns out that not only cities withstand millennia from the Ancients, practically without falling apart, but the leather upholstery of soft furniture doesn't crack at all. They knew how to build!
Numerous decorative columns, inside which there were decorative reservoirs with water, through which from bottom to top numerous bubbles ran, acted soothingly. And I really wanted to drink. There was a temptation to break the glass on the column and drink my fill... But something told me not to do this. At least out of fear that in a city that has lain for ten thousand years on the ocean floor in a dwarf galaxy of the local group of the Milky Way, it's hardly possible to find fresh water. And drinking rich in sea salts of another galaxy somehow didn't appeal.
Nothing, I'll manage. I'll leave this decision for the extreme case.
I don't know exactly how much time I've been in the city, but the anxiety and excitement of the first minutes have passed. The rationalizer brain kicked into full gear. Half and half with the notorious toad.
The idea to leave the city and avoid death by drowning pounded in my temple. The self-preservation instinct is reliably sewn into the subcortex, nothing can be done about it.
And in my chest ached the voice of nostalgia and pragmatism, assuring that I need to do everything to preserve this beautiful city from destruction. At least because this is a fucking flying spaceship! With very advanced technologies! With its own device allowing to travel to all ends of this and other galaxies.
I just need to apply my intellect correctly to find a way out of the situation. Energy is given by three ZPM — Zero Point Modules. But the team in the series usually managed with one "battery." And moreover, in this galaxy there are planets where almost whole, charged ZPM lie. Which can solve all my problems...
But they need to be found.
There are no extra ZPM in the city. It just so happened that in the series they weren't found. And I have a slight tension with searching Atlantis with sincere looting feelings.
Occupied with these thoughts, I finally reached the treasury of the Central Spire of Atlantis.
The red thread of the narrative through this universe is the Stargate technology. Essentially, this is a device created by the Ancients millions of years ago. It allows, upon entering the address of other gates, to cross thousands of parsecs in a short time. Travel from one point of the galaxy to another without spending on tickets, baggage and so on.
The device is made in the form of a large ring, through which a large number of people can pass simultaneously. Or special ships of suitable dimensions can fly through. And also, I think, equipment can pass — at least some types of robots or wheeled carriers coped with this task "excellently."
If I remember correctly, at the moment of activation the gate creates a wormhole connecting to the gate on the other side of the galaxy. High technologies and all that.
The energy allocated for the gate operation is generated by them independently due to the features of the installation design. And this is really magnificent! Because assembling a system consuming huge volumes of energy, which itself will generate this energy even millions of years after its creation, regardless of whether it was used all this time or stood inactive, is worth a lot.
The key thing to remember about this technology is that using it for its direct purpose, together with the dialing device similar to a giant mushroom, you can avoid a bunch of problems. Well, or at least dematerialize on one planet and materialize on another without harm to health.
In most worlds the gate are installed on stepped pedestals together with the dialing device — a panel with which it is necessary to indicate the destination. In Atlantis, however, the gate are located in a special room — the infamous Gate Room, which is also the center of control of the entire city.
Stargate in Atlantis. Their copies throughout the Pegasus galaxy have the same design.
Unlike most planets of the universe, where the dialing device "by default" is located next to the gate installation, in Atlantis it is placed in the city control center. And has its own, unique design.
But there will be time to figure this out. Now I just allowed myself a few seconds to admire the Gate Room of Atlantis.
Gate Room. View from the "office" to the "left" half.
This hall is a two-level room connected by a wide staircase. On the lower one are the gate themselves, as well as the platform for arriving beings and cargo. Directly opposite the gate there is a staircase, in the end part of each step of which inscriptions in the Ancients' language glow. What is written there, I never even tried to find out.
From the first level there are passages to other rooms of the Central Spire — and through one of such I just came.
On the second level the hall is divided into two halves: right and left, if standing with your back to the gate and face to the staircase.
To the left behind massive, rotating around their axis doors with square blue glass, there is something like a conference room where you can discuss any issues. Actually, in the series it was so. What the room served for the Ancients themselves, I can't even imagine.
"Right" half of the Gate Room.
In the opposite part of the Gate Room on the second level the builders placed the control station. A multitude of consoles of the most diverse purpose give access both to dialing the gate address and control over most of Atlantis systems. I don't know why opposite the control station the Ancients placed a small balcony, but it looks quite organic.
To my surprise, I found between the lower and upper levels another staircase in the "right" half. Having rummaged in memory, I remembered that yes, such still existed in the "series version." And the heroes often got to the hangar with gate-flying ships via it. It is built above the Gate Room, but I wasn't going there yet.
In the corner of the "right" half, close to the outer wall of the Spire, there was a small office with large glasses — from floor to ceiling. I remember it was used as a working office for the expedition leader. And there was also a personal transporter.
Strange that I couldn't appear from it... Well, what difference does it make now?
The handheld helpfully showed me the plan of this room. But didn't make distinctions between levels of one room. I remember it can be reconfigured for such subtleties, but now it's not up to that.
Plan of the Gate Room from an English-language forum. "Carter's Office" — that's the very "office."
Having looked around and not finding traces of anyone's presence (except dried but not decayed over the years plants in massive pots), I through one of the side passages on the lower level of the Gate Room headed to the lower floors of the tower.
Nowhere was there the slightest evidence of the expedition's appearance. No people, no equipment... So immediately you can't say if it's good or bad.
No more doubts — there's no soul in the city anymore.
As is known, unknown land belongs to the one who discovered it. And since I ended up here first, and there's no smell of any expedition here — means Atlantis is mine. And even if earthlings arrive here — fuck them in the face, not MY city. With compatriots I would probably negotiate, but in the series traditionally Americans did everything...
True, their "affairs" often went according to the simple equality "find/create problem — heroically solve problem." Though, and who doesn't screw up? Everyone has sins.
But, however, this didn't change the complexity of what was happening. Passing by windows, I looked again at the dead city. And grimaced again, seeing the familiar picture of flashes and air bubbles.
Need to hurry. After all, the city — on its last breath. Energy ends — and everything's over. It won't matter who rules the flooded city.
That flash and air bubbles that I saw at awakening — clear confirmation of that. The city sacrifices the periphery to save the central parts. And means a huge number of rooms on the lower floors and in the outer part of the city are now flooded with ocean water.
And this is not good.
Atlantis is not just a city, ship, flying capital of the Ancients in the Pegasus galaxy. But this is also a laboratory — a testing ground for the single combat of scientific research of human ancestors and the laws of the universe. The city hides very dangerous secrets: nanovirus, a creature feeding on energy, a device accelerating evolution, a device turning people into living bombs and so on.
The expedition, even possessing skills in handling Ancient technology and knowing their language, managed to screw up so that they didn't unravel it in five years of the mission.
And I have neither. No knowledge of languages, no team of specialists. All by myself, all by myself... But I doubt the city will like my "English with a dictionary."
There are two places I would like to see first. And in my plan their visit comes right after discovering the Gate Room.
Not finding the first in the direction I initially went, I returned to the gate room. Probably need to search on the floors in the other part of the tower.
But since there was time...
Via the side staircase I ran up to the second level of the Gate Room. From there — one more floor up.
And got into a semi-dark room in which light from the turning on lighting lamps barely broke through.
Having stood a few seconds, giving the lighting to drive the darkness to the state of twilight, finally saw the Jumper bay in all its glory.
***
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