Need to remove one crystal, swap it with the center one, and short with the center.
First time didn't work.
But as soon as the upper was in the middle's place, the console lit with internal lighting! And that's something!
Shorting crystals, frame from the series.
It worked. And didn't electrocute me. Good the circuit didn't burn. Oh, thanks builders for foreseeing durability margin. The door leaves swung open, showing me the empty room.
The formed water stream literally sucked me into the ZPM room. Hitting my head on the central triangular pedestal where the modules should be placed, cursing my own carelessness, I tried to stand. At the same time seriously glad for the stale but still air. More precisely, its remnants: despite the room's considerable size, water flooded in quite briskly. Need to stop this at any cost.
Fortunately for me, the shield helped resist the water this time too. But I managed to reach the console and lock the doors only when it could hardly help me anymore.
Looking around, I understood a bit of air remained under the very ceiling. Not resisting the buoyant force, I floated there, greedily inhaling air into my lungs.
All good, all good.
Just a little left!
Need only swap the ZPM and everything will be wonderful...
Oh, damn it!
It suddenly got cold. So much that I barely managed to close my mouth in the scream to not swallow water.
Body as if squeezed in a vise from all sides. So cold that even the warmth from the ZPM didn't help.
The buoyant force as if lost faith in itself.
As did I in the personal shield's reliability—thanks to the compartment lighting I could watch the device slowly sink. Clear, it discharged. Lovely, just lovely.
I had barely more than a minute to live.
Surfacing, I rewarded my lungs with a dose of oxygen, then pushed off the ceiling with my hand and dove.
Pinching my nose with free fingers, I "strained" into my head with all my might. For some reason I recalled that this "equalization" helps at great depths to get rid of excess pressure.
If it helped, I didn't notice.
Eyes stung and the way to the central pedestal was harder to find than a drunk graduate in summer.
But I still reached the ZPM receptacle.
ZPM room. Frame from the series. Man—Ancient named Janus. Woman—Earth expedition leader, Elizabeth Weir. Situation during the time travel episode. Center—Atlantis's main power node.
The air I managed to gulp would last me, well, a minute at most.
Therefore, without delay, I pushed off the power node and swam to the needed console. There are two in the room, but I need the one left of the entrance. Preparing for the ZPM quest I learned how to extract them from the installation.
A dozen seconds later, when air in my chest already burned, all three modules crawled upward. As expected, all three ZPMs didn't glow—no energy in them. Just three dull yellow crystals.
Swimming to them, I pulled the nearest upward, extracting it from the socket. Almost no air left, escape before drowning I won't make anyway. Only hope on the Ancients' algorithms and their short-circuit safety system.
I pulled the "Quindozium Treasure" brought from my bosom and immediately placed it in the empty socket.
Nothing. The crystal should glow when connected.
So why is this plague dark as my prospects?
Damn it! Dark spots already appearing in eyes. What if this ZPM is empty⁈ I didn't even think to check it before connecting!
Body almost stopped obeying, cramped with spasm. Consciousness clouded, even slow release of carbon dioxide from lungs didn't help. All done...
Idiot chunk! Need to lower it! Just press so it enters the socket! The expedition fell for this trick on first crystal replacement!
Lightly pressing the crystal, I felt it yield under my pressure and slide into the installation depths.
Excellent.
So, what next⁉
Ears pounded as if an unknown blacksmith intended to use my head as an anvil. Nothing changed, except lighting got brighter.
Something's not right. I missed something.
Need time to think.
I let the air lift me to the ceiling because arms and legs no longer obeyed. Preparing to gulp another dose of oxygen, I pursed my lips, ready for them to slip out of water...
But they just touched the ceiling. No air pocket anymore... Looks like hermeticity here isn't ideal.
Damn bitch!
After all, I made it! I got the ZPM! Why should I drown! Eyes darkening. Chest burning with fire, and no matter how I tried to prolong my agony by releasing air from mouth in a thin stream, understanding came that it was time to put a cross on my fate. Damn! So ineptly blow one's life! Such a chance! And such an end.
Damn these Ancients!
When all air left their lungs, and my almost breathless body settled on the room floor, amid the darkness before my eyes I saw a tiny point of light.
Well, played enough. Time to the light at the other end of the tunnel.
*
On the Lantean continent shore, the group of Ascended gathered again.
"That's all," Ganos Lal said. "As I assumed, he didn't cope."
"We all foresaw this," the Ascended Leader echoed her. "Shortsightedness doomed him."
"Launching the gate with the city computer was a big stupidity," Melia supported. "He had a ship with power reserve. Should have used it."
"Bragging about energy savings with parallel connected batteries, knowing it led to the expedition's death, but allowing such a disgraceful blunder," Ganos Lal shook her head. "Hippaforalkus overestimated the descendants of his genetic line too much."
"On the other hand," the leader said, "Mikhail obtained an almost fully charged ZPM. The shield is restoring. The central computer will soon launch the room drainage system."
"Pity this brave boy," from the height of her age, Melia, for whom, like all Ascended, time flowed quite differently, could afford such frivolity. "We could have intervened and saved him. With the Milky Way cut off, the Alterans won't stop us."
"We don't know if they perished. And until that's reliably clarified, there's a chance we'll be punished for interference. Our community doesn't need that. Therefore, I'll stop anyone who tries to break the Ascended rules!" the leader warned. "Because of one person's actions, all shouldn't suffer. Mikhail did his work according to our plan. The energy reserve will last almost three thousand years in standby mode. In that time, one of our descendants will come for the city..."
He turned and strode toward the forest, not finishing. The others followed, when suddenly the entire community stopped. Instantly they received a message about what happened.
Rules are being broken. Right now.
The leader turned, examining each present. Since one of them committed one of the highest violations, the leader preferred to keep them all in sight. After all, interference requires separating from the community.
And then it would immediately be clear who planned it. And who it was. No need to waste time searching for the guilty.
But all community members were here now.
While the rule was being broken.
The leader turned his gaze to the dimension occupied by the Ascended. He had a guess who exactly was to blame for this. But no, Ran, the only Ascended from the Asgard race, continued her affairs, ignoring what was happening.
Then who⁈
Peering intently into the ocean depths, the leader understood he missed the moment of higher energy influence on reality. He sharply turned his head and looked at Ganos Lal.
"What did you do?" he demanded an answer.
"I don't understand what you're talking about," she replied. "I merely prepared a program to search for addresses leading to weapons against the Ori."
"I know the plan!" the man said impatiently. "It was developed for our descendants! But why do I see the city starting to drain rooms! Now, not after the due time for automation⁉"
"It can't be!" Ganos looked toward the flooded city. "What... What's happening⁈ Who's doing this⁈"
"I think I know," Melia said. And her tone boded nothing good. "I think I'll need help from some of us to finally resolve the issue and..."
"Too late," Ganos Lal said with hatred in her voice, looking at the leader. "It's already done! We must intervene!"
The man looked long through the ocean thickness at the long-abandoned city that was returning to life.
"I'm sorry," he said, not hiding disappointment. "But we no longer have the right to that. It's done."
"Well-timed moment," Melia assessed. "When we decided everything was over, intervention happened."
"Again this," Ganos Lal said irritably. "Can't learn... We must do something!"
"Unfortunately," the leader repeated, "this is mortals' business. Interfere—we break rules. And the community will be under strike again. I won't allow it. We all made huge sacrifices to achieve enlightenment. Does anyone wish to renounce Ascension, eliminate the rule violation, and find the path to Ascension again? But independently, so no one can accuse us of bypassing rules."
Only a spiritually enlightened being could Ascend. Long ago this could be done exclusively independently. But only until one Ascended in the Milky Way found a way to bypass the rules. She began helping those close to Ascension to make the last step toward this state.
And horribly erred.
Now only she, as punishment, could help Ascend. And watch as billions die because of her mistake. But it's unknown if Oma Desala is alive. Therefore, the only option—comprehend the Ascension path independently. Which even for prepared takes most of life.
The leader looked at his charges. None intended to risk their position.
"So we just swallow this?" Ganos Lal inquired. "Create a precedent, instability within the community?"
"No," the leader replied. "We can't interfere. But we can do something. They won't fool us so easily. No more. I'll see to it."
***
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