"Are you sure you're all right?" Teyla asked. Concern and attention to what was happening with the passenger in the second row of seats of our "jumper" were visible in the girl's gaze.
Kirik was pale—and the whiteness of his face hadn't changed at all over the last fifteen hours of our flight. But credit where it's due to the former runner—he honorably endured his brain's pranks.
"Yes," he croaked. "I've sailed on a ship in the ocean several times. The sensations were about the same."
"You're seasick," Teyla explained. The girl looked at me:
"Mikhail, you said nothing like this would happen."
"Yes," I suppressed a yawn with all my might. "The ship has stabilization systems installed. Including an inertia damper. There's no rocking in principle."
"But that doesn't mean I don't imagine it," Kirik said.
"And the first twenty hours of the mission everything was fine," Teyla pondered.
"Correct," the runner agreed with her.
"But the mission has lasted twenty-five hours already," this time I couldn't suppress the body's urges. "And we've been in flight only fifteen."
And the first ten hours... Well, strangely as it is to say, but even in the Pegasus galaxy of another reality for me, they passed quite habitually. I'd even say familiarly. And no, in my past life I didn't live in Atlantis—far from it. Though sometimes the communal services didn't cope with their work and the district periodically flooded.
No, something else, much more "interesting" happened here. You can be reborn in a new world. You can even appear in a universe familiar and loved by you many years ago. You can admire that you ended up in a city that is the highest point of human knowledge development. Yes, not the one you belonged to in the past, but belong to now.
And you can also admire that even millions of years of evolution of different branches of humanity couldn't change the peculiarities of the female way of packing for "long trips."
Recalling the famous book, I'd like to paraphrase: "We had two 'jumpers,' five people in them, one huge naquadah reactor capable of powering a spaceship or city with energy, two ship chests half-filled with weapons, and a whole sea of various instruments, crystals, glassy wires, and switchable superconducting cables, as well as one restored Ermenian pilot military spacesuit, one miraculously preserved scientific spacesuit from there, a crate of ammunition, and supplies of everything necessary for twelve days. Not that all this was categorically necessary for the trip, but if you're already tackling the outskirts of the Lantean system, you need to approach it seriously."
All correct. Ten hours Chaya, even despite the fact that we knew in advance we'd go on this flight, packed her "jumper." Though she assured me she'd do everything in five minutes, since all the necessary she already packed on board the ship she favored.
And yet for the flight there she prepared from the very moment we concluded we still had to fly and the last satellite blood from the nose needed inspection. About how to use it, that's a separate conversation.
"You should sleep," Teyla dragged on the same tune as the last ten hours. On my "jumper" the only passengers were her and Kirik. Chaya and Alvar were moving on the second ship, a bit ahead of us.
"I'm afraid if I go to the side, our ship will go into uncontrolled drift," I explained the reason why, though not quite well, but still piloted the ship. And by the way, delivered it to the goal. "So we continue to endure. Chaya and Alvar's situation is no better than ours. But I hope after this business trip we'll have a chance to bolster the Atlantis team."
"At the expense of prisoners?" Kirik clarified. "We'll lock them up like those two in the cells, and during takeoff we'll send them to the freeze chambers?"
"Stasis," Teyla corrected.
"But they're frozen there, right?" the former runner clarified.
"Well... Yes," Emmagan admitted defeat in the battle against logic.
"So freeze chamber," Kirik shrugged.
On the outskirts of the Lantean system, we had two missions—on the satellite and on the planet. Accordingly, two groups were needed. Any of the missions didn't promise anything simple, so for the best, I decided to fly on two "jumpers." Chaya and Alvar were supposed to repair (or at least try to) the Ancient satellite. She is our only engineer with experience working with Ancient systems. So Sar was the only one who could make this mechanism work at all.
Alvar there too not for beauty. Among what he and Kirik managed to recapture in the last raid against the Genii were several light local production spacesuits.
On Ermen, they were used for short-term—no more than twelve hours—stay in space. Such spacesuits, or "skafy" as Alvar called them, were used by suborbital fighter pilots, one of which he was. As well as scientists studying space on a small space station in orbit. Unfortunately, neither the station nor the cosmonauts remained after the Wraith invasion.
But the Genii in their greed stumbled upon a warehouse with skafy and took them for themselves. As a result, we now have a dozen light military pilot skafy and the same number of scientific skafy. They didn't differ much from each other, some were damaged, but they could be restored or used for parts for the rest. Either way, it's better than not having them at all.
If only we could get at least one more or less intact Ermenian suborbital fighter—it would be great. But what isn't, isn't. We content ourselves with only numerous assembled debris stored in a separate warehouse-laboratory.
Why do we need fighters of another race? Yes, all very simple: the Ancients didn't have them in Pegasus at all. Only "jumpers" that served as both cargo and passenger small ships before the war with the Wraith. And after, they were equipped with a number of systems, including combat— a dozen self-guided projectiles.
Yes, the "jumper" in its technologicalness surpasses the Wraith "dart." But for small flying apparatus combat, it doesn't suit at all. Its invisibility technology turns off immediately after the first drone shot, meaning the advantage is lost at the very beginning of the battle. The amount of ammunition is limited, while the "darts" have none. Flight speed is lower than the "dart's," and the sensitivity to loss upon destruction of such a ship for us is higher than for the Wraith.
Not to mention that "jumpers" can only be controlled by ATA Gene carriers. At the moment, that's only me and Chaya.
Producing them is long and very expensive—colossal resources are needed, and there are no factories for manufacturing at all. The Lanteans generally lacked the concept of an industrial factory or something like that. They simply created the necessary parts in those workshops we discovered in Atlantis and assembled from them what they needed.
While the Wraith simply grew the necessary technologies in quite short terms.
Since Earthlings and their technologies haven't reached Pegasus yet, Earth ships equipped with Earth versions of space fighters won't appear here either. Therefore, if we ever encounter Wraith ships having our own Ancient spaceship, it won't be sweet for us.
According to the records in the Atlantis database, Lantean military tactics were built exclusively on drone use. But we don't have that many either. And making one such self-guided projectile requires energy. Discharging a ZPM to create a full Atlantis ammo load would be big stupidity.
On the black haze of space dotted with lights of distant stars, the contours of a metal structure emerged. Like a needle cushion, the "Satellite" was literally studded with numerous antennas of the most diverse shapes and constructions.
But... Maybe I'm nitpicking, but... It looks somehow too unhandy compared to other Ancient technologies in the Pegasus galaxy. As if it (at least the outer part) was assembled in a big hurry from what was at hand.
And on the other hand, what the hell difference does it make how this combat satellite looks?! Its task isn't to perform at Paris Fashion Week, but to waste pale-skinned white-haired Wraith posing as metalheads. The more, the better.
"What a monster!" Teyla exclaimed when the "Satellite's" surface more clearly outlined itself to the observers, gleaming in the rays of the local star. "It's bigger than a Wraith ship!"
"Well, that seemed to you out of fear," I assured the Athosian according to the canons of the Earth anecdote about the girl and sizes. And though I desperately wanted to sleep, but ahead of us was all the most fun. "Big, but not that big."
"Is that it?" Kirik's voice expressed sincere degree of admiration for what was seen through the jumper's viewport.
"It is," I confirmed, opening the communication channel. "'Jumper-II,' how are you? Ready to work?"
The second ship participating in this expedition overtook us and began approaching the massive structure looming ahead.
"As always, Misha, ready," Alvar responded.
"In a couple of minutes, we'll be ready for docking," Chaya seconded. Strange. According to her, my genetics are more developed than hers. But at the same time, the girl's voice sounds much more cheerful. "We've already put on spacesuits. There's no life support inside, gravity, or any power. As soon as we dock, I'll supply energy from the 'jumper' to the docking node. We'll enter, look around, connect the generator, launch internal systems, and start figuring it out. If the damage seen by the scout drone is the only one, the repair won't take much time. I think no longer than you'll spend on the surface."
"And from your voice, you wouldn't say the flight tired you," I said with some envy.
"It didn't tire me, of course," Chaya replied surprised. "I sent it on autopilot. We managed to rest. And you, didn't you?"
Cruel.
I felt two pairs of prying eyes on me.
"Continuing to endure?" Kirik clarified.
"They're not in better condition than us?" Teyla asked in an innocent voice.
"And no one prevented you from sleeping at all," I reminded. Actually, the guys managed to nap right after takeoff. I have a "uberwaffe" for hunting on the planet. And they, unfortunately, don't have personal shields and energy weapons. "So no complaints."
"Yes, what complaints..." Kirik fell silent, watching how we drifted next to the "Satellite" giant.
Chaya's "jumper" had already approached the satellite's docking node, turned around, and flew tail-first into the specially constructed airlock for such moments.
However, potentially it is stronger than any Wraith starship. And cruiser, and hive, not to mention the rest.
"And it can destroy Wraith ships?" Kirik asked, not taking his eyes off the satellite.
"Yeah."
"But it's hanging here, idle."
Ancient combat satellite.
"The Wraith damaged it during the battle for Atlantis. The rest, as I understand, they destroyed," our "jumper" froze in place, damping its speed and starting to scan frequencies. "We'll restore the satellite—we'll get quite a combat-ready protection from possible Wraith attack."
"You think they'll still figure out Atlantis isn't destroyed?" Kirik asked. "Ten thousand years have passed."
Little by little, but we were introducing our ally to the excursus of events that occurred. Some of the told confirmed legends and tales he knew, some he learned new...
"The Wraith knew that of all the planets and cities populated by Lanteans and their allies, only Atlantis survived," I explained. "While there aren't many witnesses of our return yet, but there are some. Very soon the Wraith will stop messing around and figure out where to look for us. And it's better to have better protection by then than a damaged city on the ocean floor."
"But it didn't let the Wraith reach Atlantis all this time," Kirik reminded. "Why not use the same tactic? Or does it not justify itself?"
"We don't have that many resources and people to stick to the same tactic as the Lanteans," Chaya's voice sounded in the cockpit. "We don't plan to advertise the satellite's restoration yet. We'll just study it, repair it, and bring it to combat-ready state. If I manage to connect engines, shields, and stabilization system from 'jumpers' to it, we can drag it from the system periphery to Lantea orbit."
"But then, if the Wraith come, it'll be right under their nose," Kirik continued asking questions.
"This problem I also intend to solve with 'jumpers' cloaking generators," Chaya said. "So, we've connected to the docking node and opened the passage to the satellite board. We'll need about half an hour to figure everything out here and connect the generator."
"Good," I replied. "We'll stay nearby just in case. As soon as your situation stabilizes, we'll get to our business."
"Okay," this was already Alvar. "Chaya left the ship. Now moving to the damaged control panels, intends to replace part of the wiring so as not to do it after launching the generator."
As we agreed earlier.
"I see her," I reported, spotting the tiny snow-white silhouette smoothly sliding along the massive satellite hull. Strapped with carabiners to her belt, a special bag with parts necessary for external repair dangled behind the girl. A tool bag dangled from the other side. A thin but strong tether trailed behind her too, not letting her fly far from the "jumper" in case of emergency. "Bringing the 'jumper' closer to back her up."
Essentially, if something happens to the girl now, hope is only on us. Without her, "jumper-2" is absolutely useless now and only the fact that she didn't disable its main systems allows Alvar to be there without extra problems. Otherwise, he would already start slowly freezing. But he can't control the ship under any circumstances.
"Reached the first damaged circuit," Chaya reported. "Opening the panel."
A second of silence.
"How bad is it?"
"The main distribution relay is destroyed, the primary power line is damaged," the girl determined. "Crystal matrices are broken or burned out, so the main power line isn't working. I think because of this the satellite couldn't switch to secondary and continue firing. Damage from relatively small energy charges. I assume the satellite was damaged by fire from a 'dart.'"
"Can you restore it?" I asked.
"Yes," the girl added after thinking a second. "But that's not the main thing. The main power source is destroyed by targeted fire. I think that was 'darts' too."
"So without the generator we can't launch it?" I asked.
"No," Chaya said. "Installing the naquadah reactor outside instead of the standard one is impractical— all power buses here are destroyed. I'll connect from inside, from the dispatch room, laying new main buses to the remains of the existing ones. It'll take work."
"I could help," Alvar spoke up. "Working together would be more convenient anyway."
"No need," Chaya objected. "There's not much space here even for one. No maintenance and repair convenience. So it was assembled in a hurry. And I think they didn't count much on servicing it."
"Will this be a problem for us in modernizing the satellite?" I asked.
"Yes," Chaya said after thinking. "We'll have to rebuild part of the external structures, lay some new power elements. I'm afraid we didn't even imagine what problems installing the cloaking device on this satellite would turn into."
"We'll solve problems as they arise," I said. "We won't distract you more."
"And for that thanks," Chaya replied. "So, starting wiring repair. Biting out the burned main channel along the entire length from fuses to relay..."
***
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