"It was wine," Teyla stood her ground firmly.
"I thought I was blind for two hours after waking up!" Kirik complained.
"I felt like my limbs had been cut off," Alvar confessed. "And my head. But not completely. And in my mouth, it was as if the Wraith had shit..."
"Exactly!" the second former Runner agreed.
"It was wine!" Emmagan insisted. "Probably... The berries we used for it weren't quite suitable."
We sat at the semicircular table glowing from within in the Council Chamber, having gathered toward the end of the current day. Not because the evening briefing was a matter of course.
Simply by this time, the participants of the binge had come to their senses and were able to communicate coherently. There would probably have been more problems if Chaya and I hadn't put all three on IV drips. Thanks to Ermen and his storage tanks for the saline solution!
"Alright, water under the bridge," I raised my hand, attracting attention. "What's done is done. The wine was really tasty, but... Teyla, this wine is probably too strong for ordinary people..."
"Possibly," Emmagan admitted. "I apologize to all of you. I think it was still the berries... We should be careful on the new world. But the berries were so similar to those that grow on Athos..."
Yes, that would be good. Considering that no one had been on the chosen world for a long time ago (or perhaps never), the Athosians' faith that wild berries are the same as those they planted on Athos for centuries is not quite what is needed for a long life. The planet needs to be thoroughly checked; what if some wolfberry is masquerading as a raspberry?
"In my world, marking for strong and weak alcohol is practiced," I shared my knowledge, passing the girl a symbol drawn from memory. "I think the wine from these berries should be marked with such a sign."
"Yes, of course," she swept a guilty glance over those present. "I apologize once again."
"No harm done," Kirik relented.
"But it shouldn't be repeated," Ermen acknowledged.
"Mikhail," Teyla became interested. "What does this symbol mean?"
"That the product marked by it is sufficiently... specific for everyone without exception to consume it," I improvised. "Strictly for the strong in spirit, body, and seasoned in handling such products."
"Well, imagine that..." Teyla admired. "Just one word, one drawing, and it means so much... We need to remember that the inscription 'Biohazard' means 'only for the strong in spirit...'"
"Exactly," not a muscle twitched on my face.
"Biohazard." The sign of biological danger.
Since I'm the only Earthling here, I think Teyla and the others will be a long time before they learn that the symbol is placed in places and on objects of possible contamination, storage, production, application of substances harmful to health. At first, I thought to "push" the use of the skull and crossbones on an orange background, as a symbol of a substance capable of causing severe damage to the body or human death.
But I thought it would be too obvious. This way, perhaps, we'll save lives... Good intentions and all that.
"I'm surprised Misha had no side effects," Alvar looked at me suspiciously.
"Lantean bodies are more advanced than those of ordinary people," I said without flinching. "Millions of years of evolution and all that."
They don't really need to know that I'm from another universe altogether. The official version is that I came from afar, as the last representative of Lantean society. Chaya's story, told to our comrades, differed little from the real one. Except that we omitted the probable negative attitude toward us from the Ascended.
The doors of the Council Chamber turned, letting Chaya inside. The girl was dressed in a simple field uniform of blue-gray color. It had become something like our everyday uniform. Practical and comfortable for daily wear.
"There you are," she greeted those present with a warm smile. Sitting down at the edge of the table, the Proculian laid out her Ancient laptop on the table. "Well, I have news."
"Good and bad?" I clarified.
"Exactly," the girl said with sadness. "I returned from Taranis."
"You went there alone?" Kirik tensed. "The locals could have set an ambush. I don't think the chancellor will give up so easily."
"I used the Jumper," the girl explained. "In cloaking mode, I scanned the space around the base. If they intend to take revenge, it won't be anytime soon. No people detected in the restricted zone."
"Perhaps for now they're just plotting and watching," Yensen voiced.
"Or they've come to terms with what happened and are busy with more pressing matters," Teyla shared her thoughts.
"In any case, for the moment, there are no problems with them," I concluded. "So I assume there's a Jumper bay at the outpost?"
Although, of course, the Gate is installed fairly close to the main entrance. The Lanteans could walk on foot.
"There is," Chaya confirmed. "Inside, I found five damaged Jumpers and one working. There's a chance to restore them, but it will take a lot of time—we need to manufacture parts."
"Later," I set the priority. "Right now, we have more working vehicles than pilots. So what's with the outpost? Problems with the generator?"
"No, problems were avoided," Chaya said. "I returned its operation to the original level and activated the lock chambers. Pressure in the magma chamber will drop, while the intake and refining system will begin to accumulate the materials we need from the lava. Unfortunately, the storage tanks you saw around the mountain are empty. Some are even damaged and need to be restored for airtightness. Then we can get a stock of necessary substances for producing hull plating and internal bulkheads."
"Wait," I frowned. "Lock chambers? Storage tanks? Lava refining? I don't recall that..."
"The operation of the geothermal generator leads to an increase in pressure inside the magma chamber," Chaya explained. "Even at minimum level, the generator can eventually lead to a volcanic eruption. To prevent this, and also to obtain substances melted in the magma, the Ancients built a magma intake system. It pumps magma out of the magma chamber, after which metals are separated from impurities, cooled, and turned into purified ore. Then they go into surface storage tanks. You saw the large cylindrical tanks around the outpost?"
I remember. More like tanks, surrounded by a grayish fence. They grouped roughly nine or ten at a time and were fenced with perimeter fences. Honestly, until now, I thought they were Taranian buildings. But now I realized that they don't look much like them. Especially since the stone-paved paths, similar to the stone from which the fences and small surface buildings are built, leading from the outpost to these storage tanks, just testified that all this was built by the Ancients.
"Yes, there were some like that," Kirik nodded. "Those are the storage tanks?"
"Correct," Chaya confirmed. "After raw materials enter them, they can be delivered to workshops inside the outpost and produce the necessary parts."
"I hope we won't have to carry them by hand?" Alvar grumbled. "We'll need tons of ore to smelt something big..."
"Hundreds or even thousands of tons," Chaya corrected. "And no, not necessary. There are conveyors for that. Not all are in working order, but I think I can fix them quickly—a few days, maximum a week."
And then we'll still have to melt, mix, and so on... The repair will be v-e-r-y long. Considering we have only one engineer. Something needs to be done about that. The Earthlings managed without any workshops. They just pressed buttons.
"So, we can fix the damage to Atlantis you talked about?" Teyla asked.
"We can," I agreed. "In time."
Yeah. The question is only about the malfunctions we didn't talk about. And there are about a hundred times more of them than the designated ones. The problem of airtightness and metal fatigue of the city-ship's structure is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, it can continue to be operated in this state; with sufficient energy, it won't fall apart thanks to the shields that absorb various physical impacts on the ancient structure. But in the end, I'm not going to repeat the mistakes of the Earth expedition where they can be avoided, right?
So Atlantis's safety comes first. The city suffered greatly during the siege and ten thousand years of hibernation. Not to mention that it was almost completely flooded. Yes, not all compartments lost airtightness, but in most corridors, water stood up to the ceiling. And salt water is not the best friend of wiring and electronics. Even if the latter is based not on microchips but on crystals.
"What about the ship?" I asked Chaya. Great hopes are pinned on this battleship for solving the problem with the Aurora's crew. Or at least getting to the ship.
"I was on board and managed to start the main systems," Chaya explained, connecting her laptop to the connectors hidden in the tabletop. However... And such things happen. "I got diagnostic data. See for yourselves," she pressed several buttons on her device's keyboard, and a hologram of the starship well known to me appeared in the center of the room. "Lantean battlecruiser class battleship named Hippaforalkus."
Hippaforalkus-type battleship.