"And I thought you don't leave your lab," I addressed Chaya. The girl gazed thoughtfully into the distance, but I was sure the city's architecture and whimsical lighting in uninhabited parts interested her little.
"I did all I could to shut down excess power consumption in Atlantis," the Proculian said without tearing her gaze away. "But thousands of compartments still consume battery energy..."
"I think we agreed to call it ZPM," I settled beside her, shivering from the cold. Inside the city, life support maintained comfortable temperature, humidity, and air circulation. But outside... No wind here, seasons don't change, fact remains—icy temperature at ocean bottom affects.
"And is there a difference?" the girl asked. "I think when we find the Aurora's crew and bring them back to life, you'll negotiate not with me, but with Lanteans."
"Sure the crew consisted of them, not junior races?" I clarified.
"The database has little on starship crews during the war," Chaya said. "Only initial composition. The longer the war lasted, the more fragmentary the records became. Most typical phrase about crew roughly: 'Before departure, 70 people lost in previous battle were replenished.' No specifics, no names... But by war's end, Lanteans had lost almost all allies among junior races. So most likely it's them in stasis."
"We'll see," I said conciliatorily. "And yes, if you're interested, I too fear we'll have to stand aside when Lanteans come. I think the Ascended won't mind talking to their friends and explaining we two have little influence here on the surroundings."
"I don't," the girl corrected. "You, though a big thorn in their foot, still hard not to account for your genetics. You're Lantean—their flesh, blood, and mind development accordingly. General Hippaforalkus was a smart man. Likely he foresaw something like this, so gave you such a body."
"If he was foresighted, he'd send me here sooner, so city glitches don't make me swim and drown, and you—leave the Ascended," I noted.
"The city starting to sink isn't his fault," Chaya sighed, showing me some diagrams on the mini-monitor. "But yours. See these graphs?"
"Yes. And no, don't ask if I understand them. Likely I'm the most useless Lantean in the galaxy."
The girl smirked, then looked up.
"I knew more useless ones," she said. "But even they wouldn't open gates via city systems knowing energy shortage."
"Sorry?"
"When you went to Sudaria, you dialed the address using the city's dialing device," Chaya said. "That activated several additional systems."
"And I was praised for turning on few systems while reaching the control station," I lamented. "Did one dial suck that much energy?"
Remember, the Earth expedition arriving in the city turned on everything they could... And survived. Well, the second time.
"Honest answer or close to truth?" Chaya inquired.
"Of all people, didn't expect such options from you," I admitted. "Speak plainly. Now and always."
The last for if she forgot—we had such a talk.
"I checked the city computer's logs," Chaya said. "All three ZPMs were connected in parallel."
"So we're in that time frame when the first expedition version should arrive, city sank, time travel happened and so on," I concluded. "Tell me what I don't know."
"With parallel connection, all three ZPMs spent more energy than sequential," the girl said. "Result—you started with less energy in reserve."
"And that's no news."
"Next, General Hippaforalkus used city energy to create your body."
"And... big expenditure?" I somehow hadn't thought of that.
"Big enough to take the lion's share of remaining energy," Chaya explained. "So despite your savings, the shield started contracting, and the city—sinking."
"So creating my body spent more energy than a whole Earth research team turning on everything in the city and dialing addresses indiscriminately?"
When the Earth team arrived in Atlantis the second time (already after time travel), they went to Athos. There, part of the Earthlings were captured by Wraith and left with them through the gate. Earthlings remembered the symbols on the dialing device but not the order. So they had to brute-force the combination leading to the Wraith planet. One of 720 something.
Suspect they opened the gate several times, so...
"Exactly," Chaya said. "Besides, you didn't turn off the device, and it consumed energy. As did everything you didn't think to shut down before leaving. So they drained the ZPM until shields contracted to the Central Spire, and then even less."
"So I'm to blame for the city's flooding?"
"As you see. But if you'd raised the city to the surface, giving impulse with engines, you'd have reserve for a trip to Sudaria—I specially ran calculations."
"Don't recall any hints on the control panel like 'press here and city rises.'"
"And there were," Chaya sighed. "Apparently, the general managed to rearrange some crystals on main consoles. You just needed to press a couple keys... They were flashing, by the way."
"Awkward," I admitted. "Think the Ascended facepalmed themselves raw at that moment."
"Could be," Chaya shrugged. "There's only one truth—the Universe is infinite."
Something familiar scratched in my head.
"Proverb?"
"Old scientific axiom turned Ancients' proverb," Chaya said. "No matter how hard we try, due to its expansion, we'll never reach its edge. Same with us—no matter how hard we try, we can't have it all. I checked seventy Lantean outpost addresses across the galaxy—either endpoints destroyed, or nothing left there."
"Worried we won't gather many Ancient artifacts first?" I smirked.
"Afraid that by the time Lanteans kick us out of Atlantis, the only shelter we'll find is on New Athos or Ermen," Chaya sighed.
"Aren't you too pessimistic, my friend?" I inquired. "Looking at you, I see—the closer we get to new Ancients appearing in our city, the less joy you have."
"I already said what I fear."
"Don't think after ten thousand years frozen, Ancients will be so dumb to evict us in gratitude for saving them," I admitted.
"That's all you comfort yourself with?"
"And I have Lantean genetics," I reminded. "And surely their tricks like healing with hands, telepathy, telekinesis, and other phantasmagoria."
"No, otherwise they'd have manifested already," Chaya said.
"Why do you think so?"
"Because I know a bit about Ascension. Those powers you mention manifest in body state close to Ascension," Chaya explained. "And you're not as close to it as you might hope."
"Well," I sighed heavily. "So no supernatural powers for me, no Supreme Mage of Earth and all that."
"It's not magic," Chaya continued staring at one spot. "Just brain and body evolution allowing control of... Oh," the girl caught herself, looked at my smiling face, and timidly smiled too. "That was a joke. Sorry, didn't get it right away."
"I'm used to my jokes not being in high demand among the surroundings."
"We're representatives of five levels of human development," Chaya said, laying her head on my shoulder. "No wonder it's hard for us to find common ground."
And she's right. Her, me, Kirik, Teyla, Alvar—completely different cultures. And if in the Milky Way on different planets you can find something common with Earth culture—after all, most humans were seeded across the galaxy from Earth—then Pegasus... Here more cultural chasm between us all than unity on common origin grounds. After all, in this reality, humanity in all inhabited galaxies was created by Ancients exactly... Yeah, things...
"You know," I decided to support the girl fallen into inexplicable melancholy, "it's not yet fact we'll manage to bring them back to life. When I activated the ZPM, Aurora sent a signal. Wraith could pick it up..."
"I already said—unlikely," Chaya repeated. "Wraith activity in the galaxy is minimal. Besides, I retuned long-range scanners and highlighted that galaxy region. No Wraith ships near Aurora."
Wow... Looks like Lanteans' appearance puzzles the girl far more than I think. Interesting, what else she did in secret?
"Besides, we have no ship to get there, and even if we did, no parts to repair it. I told you about all Ancient battleships in the galaxy. All damaged."
"I reviewed Atlantis database data on Lantea-2," Chaya said, pressing against me so she practically lay on my chest. What's with her?! What's happening to her at all?! "And took readings from your Puddle Jumper. The planet has minerals we could use to power workshops. Silicon, for example. From it we can make a big stock of simple crystals. Ermen has a diamond mine, so better raw material too we can find. With metals... Problems, but not critical. If time and desire to mine them... We could produce some spare parts..."
And she's saying this only now?! However, the woman is quite melancholic, if she didn't tell such news right away. Looks like she's so worried about her place after Lanteans return that she decided to be frank only on the verge of total despair.
And what difference to her if they evict us? They can't do it right away, since we'll revive them one by one. And there's where to go—the same Athos already abandoned, and there are Ancient tech. We'll make it!
The longer I listen to her, the more doubt gnaws that Chaya worries not at all about Lanteans' return as such. Maybe thinks I'll forget her, acquiring 'new friends'? What nonsense.
Which is what I told the girl.
"Thanks," she said. "Always nice to be needed by someone as a technical specialist..."
She said it with some pain. Like real soul trauma. What happened to you, girl, to be so sad?
"After all," I stroked her head. "You said yourself—searched seventy outpost planets. And nowhere an interstellar ship in hangar. Dwarf stars too searched?"
The thing is, one Ancient ship was abandoned on volcanic planet Taranis in old outpost powered, like on Athos, from supervolcano geothermal energy.
And the second drifted abandoned in orbit of a dwarf star. An interesting race found it... The third ship was in flight at near-light speed far beyond Pegasus galaxy. But that's details.
"Found several hundred dwarf stars," Chaya said in the same colorless-sad tone. "Started parallel search by list of nearby Ancient ship missions. No matches yet. And in dwarf star systems hardly gates to fly to star orbit on Puddle Jumper..."
"Well, see, so no ships for us. And Lanteans' return is postponed. We searched but didn't find..."
"I didn't say that," Chaya said after a second pause.
"Sorry?"
"I searched dwarf stars. Among outposts with geothermal reactors and just outposts," the Proculian listed. "But if you'd told me there's a ship repair hangar there..."
Inside everything tightened into a tight knot.
"You mean...?"
"Yes, Misha," the girl rose and looked at me with a sad gaze. "Most likely I found Taranis. And the Hippaforalkus battleship..."