The return to Atlantis could be called routine if not for two facts.
First: the number of city-ship inhabitants doubled exactly. Passing detailed instructions to her "deputies," Teyla decided to go with us to the "Ancestors' city." To partake, so to speak, of the cultural heritage.
Hmm... Asking Emmagan directly if her people would collapse without a leader somehow conscience didn't allow. But at the same time, she already did something similar in the events known to me. The Athosians coped quite well without her direct presence. And even more so they let her go with us without extra whining, tearful goodbyes and other parting scenes. Though they knew she wasn't just "visiting." Teyla is something between an Athosian diplomat, advisor on local cultures and planets, and a Jane of Pegasus variety soldier.
Considering I didn't want to breed snot and tears, pity and compassion in the future, recruiting Teyla into a kind of "first squad" here on Atlantis would be imprudent. For she's, though leader of her people, more a diplomat on agreement lines. If the question arises to abandon a dozen some peasants in a moment of danger and save ourselves or accept a deadly fight and fall into Wraith claws, Teyla will need to be abandoned. After shooting her first.
Joking, of course. If she dies—we'll have serious complications in dealings with Athosians. But fact is, this lady and her idealism will bring problems.
Alvar Jensen also followed us. After all, he and Teyla are needed to form a reconnaissance team on Pegasus galaxy worlds.
They're familiar with some local civilizations, can introduce us to others via "handshakes" tactic. It consists in you know someone who knows someone else useful, and that one in turn another... And so on. The main problem is that these "someones" are really useful, not ballast for which you'd have to stand up at every sneeze.
All the way to the gate, and after them to the "Jumpers" hangar, Chaya and I were silent. Jensen, though restraining his enthusiasm unlike Teyla, still occasionally asked questions about us and the city. Trivial ones like "Hope you don't have soft mattresses⁉" or "And to flush after me, do I have to call one of you or can I solve the problem myself?".
Teyla was more interested in whether her unfamiliarity with Ancient technologies would harm living in the city. She asked for a small room and a training room. Jensen supported her on the latter.
Good, everyone will have everything—there are plenty of empty premises in Atlantis. Just need to solve a few questions.
At first I thought there would be only one question. And it was based on the cargo in our "Jumper's" cargo hold. Fruits, vegetables, meat, greens... Not for five hundred people, of course, but enough for our four for some time. Not to mention there were ready meals, including aromatic smoked meat more like meat chips. Very tasty, by the way. Teyla even said from what animal the smoked meats are made, but I didn't remember. Main thing I understood—this is not rodents, not snakes, not birds. Some likeness of pigs or cows...
So the question was related to the personality of who would cook all this good.
The second arose already during approach to the gate: "And do we have where and on what to cook?". Seriously, somehow I didn't wonder if Atlantis has a kitchen, kitchen furniture, plates...
And after emerging from the gate and rising to the "Jumpers" hangar, leaving the ship, Chaya continued to be silent, it gave rise to a third question in me.
"What's going on?" I asked the girl, holding her back after our guests went to place their things in the assigned rooms of Atlantis's residential sector.
The girl looked at me with a shade of pain and hatred.
"Other Ancients?" she blurted out. "There are other Ancients in Pegasus?"
"Yes, and what does that change?" I asked.
"Everything!" she even stomped her foot. "Even without these memories, I can definitely say that I surely did what I did thinking that even if you save yourself, you won't be able to work! Because you need help handling Ancient technologies!"
So, understandable. One psychological trauma after another.
"Come with me," I ordered.
Interestingly, she obeyed.
When we returned to the control center I, mentally thanking Chaya for creating that translator program, brought up sensor readings on the monitor.
"Remember what this is?" I asked, pointing to the dots on the galaxy map. A very small number of dots, honestly. Come on, no hiding, just one if we're honest.
"Last data from the Lantean battlecruiser tracking system," Chaya answered mechanically. "That's the 'Aurora.' You ordered to turn off the system right after we decided to cooperate."
"Yes, that and a bunch of other systems that could only cause us problems," I explained. "But there's no guarantee the Wraith didn't detect the 'Aurora's' signal, who, surprise, not only fly to planets on 'Darts' but also drive their hives between worlds."
"I don't think they succeeded," Chaya said. "The ship is far in space, and not that many Wraith are awake. They could have missed this signal. Especially since they don't know for sure if the Lanteans are alive. So they've probably long stopped tracking our subspace transmitter frequencies."
"It would be good," I agreed. "So you inquired about ship details?"
"Yes, and I also looked at the Atlantis logs," as if not hearing me, Chaya replied. "It says the 'Aurora' went on a top-secret mission for reconnaissance. Deep into enemy territory. It was in the early years of the war, so it's most likely seriously damaged in battle, otherwise it would have returned to the city. Other ships like the 'Aurora' were destroyed or captured by the enemy."
So-so-so... And here are the missing puzzle pieces in the mosaic.
"According to my information, the 'Aurora's' crew might have survived," I explained. "The ship is badly damaged, so it's moving to Atlantis by inertia."
"Ten thousand years?" Chaya raised an eyebrow. "You have some wrong idea of Ancient lifespan. Even Lanteans didn't have such developed lifespan. Though there was a supposition that Lanteans as a result of a series of mutations and interbreeding with other races lost a number of their genetic advantages, but no proof."
Uh-huh... They just didn't know one Ancient spent millions of years in Antarctic ice on Earth. Worth warming her up by humans, she came right back to life.
"Stasis pods," I prompted.
"Foolishness," Chaya shook her head. "The 'Aurora' is a warship, not research. They didn't install them on..."
The girl fell silent. Thought for a couple seconds, then, pushing me from the console, switched the system to Lantean and began searching for something.
What exactly I learned a couple seconds later.
"I apologize," she said. "The 'Aurora' is the lead ship of the first starships of this type. They were built as research ships to study remote corners of the galaxy and beyond, where there were no Stargates. The hyperdrive on it was outdated and travel from one end of the galaxy to the other could take months, and between galaxies years. Preserving the crew in hibernation was necessary. The ship has a stasis system connected to virtual reality."
"And...?"
"It was done so the brain of those in stasis wouldn't suffer from sleep time. There were always few Ancients, so conditional months of stasis could always be spent usefully."
"For example, from stasis they could control the ship?"
"Not sure," Chaya admitted. "It was a very imperfect system, so they abandoned it even before the war with the Wraith began. I can say for sure they could interact with each other in virtual reality. But influence the ship... No, I don't think so. That would require much more energy expenditure. Orders of magnitude more."
"Is the virtual reality system resistant to hacks?" I asked.
"As much as programming allows, but it's not the most protected system, it's auxiliary," Chaya looked at me suspiciously. "Strange questions you have."
"Based on what I know," the girl seems forgot her offense and switched attention to this story. "In the events known to me the ship also responded to Atlantis's call. And the Wraith discovered it. They killed a crew member and replaced him to reveal hyperdrive secrets."
"Senseless," Chaya said. "During the war Wraith hyperdrives were similar to those on the 'Aurora.'"
"Yes, but not intergalactic..."
"Oh," the girl lit up. "That's a problem. We need to get to them as soon as possible and neutralize the Wraith."
"Absolutely agree," I nodded. "But there are a few problems. The first is the nearest Stargate to the ship. They're far from the ship, can't reach."
"You already checked the maps?" Chaya was surprised, switching to the console. A couple seconds of technogenic sorcery, and over the 'Aurora' location data appeared data on planets with Stargates. "Problem... But we could fly from the nearest on a shuttle, accelerate to max speed and go into drift. In a few months," she squinted, "correction, in forty-seven days we'll reach it. But approximate time, since I can't calculate the 'Aurora's' speed from here. I think it's within five..."
"Leave 'Atlantis' for a month and a half to our new friends?" I clarified.
Chaya gloomied. Seems as a human she has the innate trait of mad scientists—to dive headfirst into solving a problem, forgetting other problems.
"Don't forget about stasis," I said. "And ten thousand years spent in it."
"That's a big problem," Chaya gloomied.
"That's why I didn't tell you until I came up with at least some plan," I had to clarify my position.
"And what does it consist of?" Chaya asked. "Ask the Ascended for help?"
"Do you yourself believe it would work?" I smirked good-naturedly. "We need a ship with a hyperdrive."
"What's the argument about?" the Athosian and... Hmm, keep forgetting to ask Alvar the name of his home planet appeared on the lower level of the Gate Room.
"Come up," I waved my head.
It took a couple minutes to briefly retell the essence of the problem.
"Living Ancestors?" Teyla rounded her eyes. "I think they need to be saved. After all, they know and can do a lot. Their help would be invaluable in fighting the Wraith!"
"Their bodies are too old to wake them now," Chaya said. "Despite improved physiology, they probably won't live longer than a couple days, maybe a week."
"In that time we can really get them on their feet?" Alvar asked. "It's your technology, there must be a solution."
"Stasis wasn't developed for people to stay in it for millennia," Chaya objected. "Afraid we have very big problems."
"And again," I took the floor, "there's a way. Without guarantee, of course, but... Better than having a fridge full of slowly dying Ancients."
"Curious," Chaya was interested. "And what did you come up with?"
"About that later," I dodged the dangerous conversation. "First, we need to figure out where to get a starship with a hyperdrive."
"Build one," Jensen suggested. "You have a whole city stuffed with various Ancient gadgets. Surely no suitable parts for ships?"
Chaya and I exchanged glances.
"If it were that simple," she sighed.
*
"Last one," Jensen reported, dragging a bag closer to the food storage door with... well, I'll call it purple potatoes. True, looks like carrots, smells like onions, but if you know how to cook. "Big vegetable storage here, however."
"Built with reserve," I agreed, glancing at the room more resembling a small hangar cluttered with metal containers with... once these were products. Now—just traces of decomposed organics. "Teyla promised to help bring everything here in order."
The room the size of a soccer field and height of a two-story house was divided into two levels connected by a metal staircase. Shelves occupied all space from floor to ceiling, and each shelf had a universal container for storing products. Made of the same polymer as scanner casings, each container had a built-in content conditioning system. Like most devices like scanners, these had a built-in power system recharging wirelessly.
Think about it... If the Ancients turned off all unnecessary equipment in the city, perhaps no flooding would have happened. According to Chaya's estimates, if the bunker and its equipment were inactive the last ten thousand years, we'd have an extra week on the old ZPM. And that's just one compartment, damn it!
Thousands of them throughout Atlantis.
Chaya is now working on calculating places of highest energy consumption and starting shutdown of unnecessary city sectors. And that means most of Atlantis.
In those parts of the city-ship we don't use, emergency lighting will suffice—a couple lamps in corridors so as not to break legs in the dark. It would be great to turn them off too, but for that we'd have to rework half the city operating system. And unfortunately, this nut was not to Chaya's teeth—many protocols she hadn't even seen, despite being a physicist scientist, and not the last. For nothing that not Lantean.
Same for life support systems—can't just turn it off in unused city areas. At least Chaya can't. Claims for now, but...
***
If you wish to unlock full volumes of my crafts and read far ahead of public releases, support me on Patreon—currently there are 30+ chapters in advance:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan