Something in her, in how she held herself, how she spoke, how she behaved, made me trust her. Compared to the unexpectedly prim Ganos Lal, the former member of the Atlantis Council made exclusively a positive impression.
It seemed to me that Morgana would behave this way, but...
"I understand your confusion, Mikhail," the Ancient pronounced. "Our community was also shocked by the general's action. Ganos Lal... They were close. And his action contradicting everything we fought for, what we believe in... He upset many."
"How can a desperate plea for help upset?" I asked. "You told me that all the Ascended in the Milky Way are destroyed. You don't know what's happening in the vast galaxy. The expedition of earthlings you foresaw to Atlantis was supposed to happen several months ago, but nothing changed. And your most celebrated military leader decided that someone should be brought in to help. Since none of you decided to become human again..."
"The Ascension process is not a game of yo-yo," the Ancient objected to me. Seeing surprise on my face, she modestly smiled. "Sorry. I involuntarily sensed your thoughts..."
"No big deal," I waved it off, continuing to pace around the Ascended. "Now it worries me the least."
"Usually people guard their thoughts from outsiders," the Ancient noted. "Though... Now I understand why the general turned to you specifically for help."
"Because he could motivate," I shrugged. "I needed what he could do. And he needed someone who would agree. And judging by everything, has at least some idea of the conditions in which he will have to act."
"And he saw in you an inquisitive inventive mind, bravery, desire to go to the end," Melia listed. "This and much more. Possibly you reminded him of himself in his youth."
"Isn't it simpler to ask him?" I inquired. "You punished him in some sophisticated way, but so that he was always in sight..."
Not hearing the answer, I looked the Ancient in the face.
And on it froze a mask of despair and slight panic.
Not that I don't care, but...
"You didn't punish him," I whispered.
The Ascended depicted a sad smile. Suspiciously much she smiles in our conversation. I remember, a smile is an attempt to gain trust and win over.
"The Ascension rules were written long before us," the Ancient said. "And punishments for their violations... Are also great. Interference in the affairs of living beings is only a minor crime in the eyes of the community. But time travel, influence on the space-time continuum... We oversee the universe in which we live. And it's not in our interests to allow turning it into a dead wasteland," Melia assured. "Influence on space and time almost always entails a harsh reaction from the Ascended."
Now it's clear why when the Earth expedition arrived in Atlantis for the first time, almost the entire composition died, but managed to use the time machine of the Ancient named Janus, this fact — guest from the future — caused anger and condemnation from the other Lanteans. It wasn't grumbling. They feared that those who Ascended before them would punish the remnants of the civilization.
Strange society they have.
"And especially — crossing the boundaries of universes..." Melia continued. "Little can be worse than this. Such actions require more serious sanctions. Otherwise there will be no discipline."
Wait a minute... what did they do to the Voice⁉ Damn, to Hippaforalkus⁉
"What did you do to him⁈" clenching my fists, I approached the Ancient.
"Mikhail, I ask you to calm down. We both understand that you're interested in far from this," the Ascended said. "The general fulfilled his part of the deal before he took you from your universe. You can not worry about that."
"And for that thanks. So, what did you do to him?"
There remained a chance that I could find this guy and ask him a couple of questions. Sooner or later.
"I'm afraid I can't answer this question," a mournful expression appeared on Melia's face.
Clear. The answer will affect my further actions too straightforwardly. Telling me the truth is essentially the same as sending me to him if Hippaforalkus survived.
"Good, suppose," I pronounced. "Though I doubt he pulled this off in secret from everyone..."
"He had like-minded," Melia said. "They helped him break breaches between universes and accomplish the plan."
"And they..."
"Dead. The general completely exhausted their energy. No, it's not murder — according to our information they went for such a step voluntarily. Sacrifice for the greater good."
"Yeah, sure. Too convoluted combination," I confessed. "I'll repeat — it would be much simpler to find a helper here, in Pegasus. I'm sure your descendants with the ATA Gene are here."
"You know perfectly that they are here," Melia said. "As you know that they are hardly developed enough to accept the fact of Atlantis's existence and the technologies contained in it at the proper level. And unfortunately, we have no time to train them. Besides, the general acted tactically correctly. Violations of the space-time continuum of this level haven't been since the beginning of time... He knew that the Community wouldn't react to such interference immediately. And provided for the fact that the appearance in Atlantis of well-known and prepared people from other realities would attract our attention earlier than placing consciousness from another universe in a body created in Atlantis."
"Why?"
"Moving objects and organisms between universes has a harmful character for the receiving universe," the Ancient said. "Realities vibrate at a certain frequency. Moving part of one reality to another leads to significant distortions. The longer this happens, the more terrible the consequences."
Having scrolled her words in my head, I clarified:
"You answered because you know: I won't be able to use this knowledge, right?"
"We will stop you if you try to cross the boundaries of universes," Melia promised. "I assure you, we won't limit ourselves to simple suggestion. Stopping such violations is in our interests."
"Why?"
"If we don't, others will," the Ascended said.
Yeah, yeah... And in the series heroes everything somehow happened without admonition from the Ascended. Perhaps because some "can," others "can't"? Because the first must do what is planned so that the universe gets the right push. And the actions of others will lead only to negative?
Melia looked me in the eyes and smiled.
"You understand," she stated. "This is good. I think you'll agree to help us."
"Us?" I was surprised.
"Despite the fact that the general is no longer a be..." she fell silent, catching herself mid-sentence. "The general can no longer influence reality, but what he did it for won't resolve itself."
"It seems out of place to suggest you go to the Milky Way galaxy yourselves and figure everything out there?"
"When the anomaly just manifested itself, we did just that," the Ancient assured. "None of the scouts returned. As far as we understand, whatever kills the Ascended in the Milky Way acts on a regular basis."
"Merlin's device?" I suggested.
Moros, he is Merlin, created the Sangraal — a mechanism that destroyed the Ascended. But Ganos Lal destroyed the device. True, she spared the life of its creator.
"We don't know," Melia confessed. "That's why we ask you to find out the nature of the threat. And eliminate it."
"So save your lives," I pronounced.
"Exactly so," the woman nodded. "The anomaly is slowly expanding. It won't take much time before it reaches Pegasus."
"How much?"
"I'm afraid we don't know this."
"How so?" I was surprised. "There is a pattern of expansion, right?"
"There is," another guilty smile.
"But I have to find this out myself, right?" I squinted.
"I'm afraid so," she saddened. "This is not our whims. This is the rules of the Ascended."
"Which you don't intend to break even to save yourselves?" I was surprised.
"Yes."
"Seems your self-preservation instinct is a bit faulty," I muttered. "Any living being, if it's on good terms with the mind, worries about its survival. Even if you're more developed than simple people, this doesn't mean..."
"I'm afraid it does mean," Melia said. "To become Ascended means to renounce earthly attachments, obligations and laws. Liberation of spiritual energy for transition to a new level of existence."
"Ugu... And I heard this because Ascension doesn't threaten me? So?"
"The probability of this... Is minimal."
"But there is!"
"The magnitude of the probability is such that it's customary to call it an error," Melia tilted her head slightly. "I think you understand why."
Oh, I understood.
"Because my character doesn't allow running from problems finally," I pronounced. "Fight while there's opportunity. The general wouldn't call for help someone who at the first convenient opportunity goes aside."
"You're a smart person, Mikhail. At least in the matter of life philosophy."
Can this be considered prim mockery? I think not.
"How much longer will the shield hold?" I asked.
"I can't answer this question."
Too many questions. And categorical understanding that I won't get answers.
Sad.
"I wouldn't mind some help," I said. "Without knowledge of your language, understanding of technologies... Searching for the problem can drag on for years. This can cost you your lives."
"We agree to risk," the Ascended pronounced. "I understand your motivations to make your life easier. But to go further than Hippaforalkus did... We simply have no right. This would be interference. But I'm sure you'll find a way out of the situation. You're already lucky," she spread her arms, "you're in Atlantis. Our home, repository of our knowledge. What help can be greater than this?"
"At least a slightly charged ZPM would be a worthy help," I confessed.
Melia gifted me a sympathetic look. The kind with which they look at a child who says such heresy to his parents in the eyes... Both he and the parents understand the truth, but the performance must take place in full.
"Clear," I sighed. "Saving the drowning — the work of the drowning himself."
"In this case this expression can be taken literally," Melia assured me. "Believe me, Mikhail, I'm sorry that neither I nor my comrades can help you with anything more."
I would like to answer with Stanislavsky's words, but somehow the mood to joke is gone.
Not only did clarifying the situation only added depressive moments, but not even direct help — even hints weren't voiced. Just "you'll cope on your own, fighter! Here's an assault rifle without cartridges for you, there's an enemy army over there — bayonet them all!"
"If several months have passed since the expedition from Earth was supposed to arrive, then how do you explain the fact that I saw the city flooding? Exactly as in the series. Shouldn't it have happened earlier."
"Misconception," Melia stated. "The expedition consisted of several hundred people. And immediately after arrival they spread over a large area of the city, forcing its systems to awaken emergently to provide proper conditions for the existence of a large contingent of intelligent beings. Not to mention," she looked at the turned off hologram control terminal, "that this device, the stasis chamber, a number of other systems used in the events known to you upon the expedition's appearance, consume a large amount of energy. Cascade launch of some systems entailed activation of others — and so throughout the city. You managed to avoid this — so far. But luck is just the remainder of the project, isn't it?"
I understand what she's talking about.
In the series the expedition definitely played the intriguing voice message of Melia twice for understanding the situation. Plus, the stasis chamber was used to sustain the life of that very first expedition leader who in the original events went to the past. And I think this is only the tip of the iceberg of examples of wasting scarce energy.
"The Atlantis computer, to compensate for the energy loss on powering all systems upon the expedition's arrival, reduced the size of the shield covering the city, right?" I asked.
"Correct. In your case this happened due to activation of the dialing device," the Ascended pronounced. "So, the energy expenditure indicators in your case are even less than in the events known to you. So now the city battery levels are the same as they were after the expedition's arrival. With the only difference that you activated fewer city systems, and consequently, until complete exhaustion you have a little more time than the earthlings had."
"Some pluses," I grumbled. Then clarified. "So, now we are exactly in that time interval when the expedition was supposed to arrive for the first time and drown in full force?"
"Yes."
The guess about Janus's machine and the "primacy" of the expedition turned out to be correct. As well as everything it caused: absence of the city saving system upon ZPM discharge. Or "batteries," as Melia called them.
"So what next?"
"I can't answer this question."
"Then let's just reason," I suggested. "If Atlantis doesn't fall into the hands of earthlings, then they won't improve their position in the war, won't find weapons against enemies and so on. This will lead to defeat, right?"
"If humanity in the Milky Way is still alive," Melia corrected me. "But we know absolutely nothing about it."
Curious. And some of her answers are not so "slippery." Seems the Ancient still walks on the edge and shares the information she has.
"Hm... I won't say that the very fact of non-interference of the expedition in the Wraith hibernation saddens me," I confessed. "Perhaps the locals will live another fifty years in peace."
"Only if the anomaly doesn't reach Pegasus earlier," Melia noted.
What a soulful woman, huh? Doesn't let forget about the higher goal.
"And what will you do if I just decide to leave here?" I asked. "If I don't fulfill the obligations I took upon myself."
"Nothing," Melia replied calmly. "We don't interfere in the affairs of living beings."
"Not directly interfere," I clarified. "And means if you accidentally drop a brick somewhere, then you're not to blame that I will be passing below exactly at the moment it falls on my head. Right?"
The Ascended limited herself to a simple smile.
Somehow her facial expressions stopped pleasing me.
"Well," I said dryly. "No more help from you is worth waiting, this I understood. Though, thanks for the conversation. If bored — drop by for a light. We'll have some tea, eat this," I took out a bar from the backpack and twirled it between my fingers. "Whatever it is."
"I never liked them," Melia confessed. "Potentially they were supposed to solve the problem of limited food resources. But... the taste is so... specific."
"So you made them from bad raw materials," I shrugged.
"When you're under siege, even whale fat doesn't seem disgusting," the Ancient assured me.
And for some reason I lost my appetite. Maybe because I remembered — the Lanteans taught local whales to communicate with them. And then ate them.
I sighed doomedly.
"Friendship is magic," muttering the hackneyed phrase, I put the bar back in the backpack. "And magic, as is known, is heresy..."
Melia smiled a little wider.
"Exactly so Moros once characterized the proposal to install drinking columns in every corridor," she pronounced to no one knows what. "He was a conservative Lantean. But even reducing the number of installations, he still considered the idea of quantitative expansion of devices outputting desalinated water to public areas of the city worthwhile."
"If nostalgia for the past suddenly arose, you're welcome," I hospitably pointed to the exit from the holographic hall. "I won't refuse company. And I dare assure, I'm from an intelligent family, so I won't pester."
Melia looked at me with a surprised gaze. Her smile became unnatural. It happens when you understand that your interlocutor blurted out rare nonsense, but don't want to offend him.
"Thanks for the offer," she pronounced. "I'm afraid I have to refuse. My mortal path is completed. Potentially, of course, it's a good offer, but... Only potentially."
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm afraid I can't answer this question..."
"You're few," it dawned on me. "After all, not so many Ancients lived in Pegasus, and then you all returned to the Milky Way. And already there Ascended... And then the anomaly happened..."
Melia stopped smiling.
"Your intellect potentially scares me," she said. "Was it a guess or a conclusion?"
"Something in between," I muttered, rummaging in memory. "The Ascended don't burn incense on their plane of existence, right?"
"Not sure I understand..."
"The reason you missed Hippaforalkus's actions," I snapped my fingers. "If you did nothing, you would see that he is plotting something. But you were busy. And what can pure energy beings be busy with when nothing mortal interests them anymore?"
Melia looked at me without a shadow of a smile.
"In the series the Ori Ascended told one of the heroes that the Ancients were busy hiding the galaxy populated by their descendants from the gaze of the Ori," I pronounced, looking into the eyes. "You didn't allow them to see people they could convert to their faith. That's why you all weren't in the Milky Way at the moment the anomaly began. Someone covered them from the Ori, someone — Pegasus. That's why you're not omnipresent and omniscient. That's why rule violations happen — there are too few of you to keep track of everything even within one tiny galaxy like Pegasus. Hiding galaxies takes a bunch of energy from you..."
Can a being consisting of light turn pale?
It turned out yes.
"You can not answer, Melia," I pronounced. "Everything is clear anyway."
Not absolutely everything, but... Now I know: the Ascended can't react to my actions instantly. Someone of them will have to "leave duty" to stop me.
And this already opens spaces for maneuvers. Very large spaces in case I don't want to help them.
"Seems we underestimated you," Melia pronounced in a voice devoid of any emotions. "Your intuition is well developed."
"And I don't skimp on brains," I nodded, looking how she closes her eyes for a few seconds. "Warned your kin that I learned too much?"
"Much, but not enough to make a decision about your elimination and rule violation," the woman said. "We just took some measures so that you don't aggravate the situation."
"And what kind?"
"I'm sorry, but you have one less ship left."
And by her face you can't tell she's sorry.
"Janus's time machine," I guessed. "Deprived me of the opportunity to leave slamming the door loudly."
"Rather prevented irreversible violations of the space-time continuum and timeline changes," she recited. "Potentially this is much more dangerous than if you just leave Atlantis, saving yourself, not the city. It's a pity if you act exactly so."
Sure.
Because I hoped over time to figure out this thing and improve my position by taking from the past things I need now. For example discharged in this time ZPM that stored charge in deep antiquity. Reserves of projectiles, ships, find some technologies before they fall into enemies' hands.
"But only pity not me, but yourselves, right?" I asked. "After all if I leave, you'll have to get your hands really dirty to try to fix the situation again, right?"
Melia was silent. And her answer wasn't needed — everything was clear anyway.
"You're afraid," I continued voicing my guesses. "You still fear death from the anomaly. But don't want, or convinced yourselves that you can't leave the post of Ascended. Therefore you act through mortals' hands. After all, you just need not to get burned with rigging cause-and-effect connections..."
"Now you know," she pronounced.
"Know," I echoed. "You're helpless. Practically. And means punishments for my actions, if I bear them, will be significantly later than I do something you don't like... For example, if I leave the dying city, you won't kill me with lightning on the spot."
"Potentially the city can still be saved!" she almost cried out. "Its potential is enormous! I ask you to reconsider! If Atlantis survives, you'll get at your disposal not potentially, but a real advanced scientific and military base."
"Which didn't help you defeat even a more understandable enemy, the Wraith," I sighed. "And that was ten thousand years ago. And now the city's potency is not so..."
"You simply don't see the potential benefit from preserving Atlantis," Melia stated. "Afraid of potential problems you'll face."
"What other 'potential benefit'?" I was surprised. "Isn't it so hard to speak in my native language."
"No," she cut off. "I didn't make a mistake. You just can't understand your own and the city's full potential..."
Somehow a lot of potentiality in her speech. And "potentiys" too, though it's even not a Russian word, but...
I stood rooted to the spot, shifting my puzzled gaze to the hovering Melia in front of me.
How did she say? "Potentially the city can be saved"? "Potential benefit from preserving Atlantis"?
When hints weren't enough, she switched to almost overt prompts.
"Potential, you say?" Squinting, I asked. "I don't argue, the city has potential. And I stand for something. But if I weren't here alone, but say had a whole potential brotherhood ready to preserve my secrets and capabilities even at the cost of their lives... This castle would stand another ten thousand years."
Melia opened her mouth to say something in response, but froze. Blinking a couple of times, the Ascended timidly smiled and barely noticeably nodded to me. Showed that she understood what I understood her hints.
Potential answers this, and not hints.
The hint is more than transparent, and if not for my thoughts circling around energy problems and ZPM, I would never have understood it. Seems the Lantean understood this and prompted as much as she could. And then, seeing that I don't understand, purposefully distorted the word to launch an associative chain.
"You understood everything correctly," she said. "Save Atlantis, and any of your undertakings will be successful. The city..."
"... has great potential," I finished for her, smiling from ear to ear. Well, of course, what an idiot I am.
There is a chance to save the city. Moreover, the answer lay almost on the surface. And if I weren't so busy with reflection — I would have thought of it long ago.
"You're thinking correctly," as if reading my thoughts, the Ancient pronounced. "I'm glad that you understood the full significance of our legacy, and the threat coming from the unknown enemy in the Milky Way. I hope you agree to fulfill the mission you took upon yourself?"
Something tells me that the time for bargaining is over.
But the time for ultimatums hasn't passed.
"Agree," I assured. "But there are several conditions."
The smile disappeared from Melia's face immediately as she heard the first of them.
But she and her comrades had simply no opportunity to refuse.
***
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