"It was wine," Tayla insisted firmly.
"I thought I was blind for two hours after waking up!" Kirik complained.
"I felt like my limbs had been cut off," Alvar admitted. "And my head. But not completely. And my mouth felt like wraiths had craved in it..."
"Exactly!" the second former fugitive agreed.
"It was wine!" Emagan insisted. "Probably... the berries we used for them weren't quite right."
We were sitting at a semi-circular table, illuminated from within, in the Council Hall, having met at the end of the current day. Not because an evening briefing was a given.
It was simply that by this time all participants of the drinking party had sobered up and were able to communicate coherently. There would probably have been more problems if Chaya and I hadn't put all three of them on IV drips. Thanks to Ermen and his storage for the saline solution!
"Alright, let's move on," I said, raising my hand to get their attention. "What's done is done. The wine was indeed tasty, but... Tayla, this wine is probably too strong for ordinary people..."
"Perhaps," Emagan admitted. "I apologize to all of you. I think it was the berries... We should be careful on the new planet. But the berries looked so much like the ones that grow on Atos..."
Yes, that would be good. Considering that the chosen world had been uninhabited for a long time (and perhaps never had been), the Atosians' belief that wild berries are the same as those they had planted for centuries on Atos is not exactly conducive to a long life. We should thoroughly check their planet; what if, for example, wolfberries are disguised as raspberries?
"In my world, we use markings for strong and weak alcohol," I shared my knowledge, handing the girl a drawing from memory. "I think the wine from these berries should be marked with this symbol."
"Yes, of course," she cast a guilty glance around. "Once again, I apologize."
"It's nothing," Kirik relented.
"But we shouldn't repeat it," Ermen admitted.
"Mikhail," Tayla said, interested. "What does this symbol mean?"
"That the product marked with it is quite... specific, and should not be consumed by everyone without exception," I improvised. "Strictly for the strong of spirit, body, and those hardened in dealing with such products."
"Well, I never..." Tayla marveled. "Just one word, one drawing, and it signifies so much... I must remember that the inscription 'Biohazard' means 'only for the strong of spirit...'"
"Exactly," not a muscle on my face twitched.
"Biohazard." The biological hazard symbol.
Since I'm the only Earthling here, I think Tayla and the others will not know for a long time that the symbol is placed in places and on objects of possible contamination, storage, production, and use of biologically harmful substances. At first, I thought about "pushing" for the use of a skull and crossbones symbol on an orange background, as a symbol of a substance capable of causing severe damage to the body or death.
But then I thought it would be too obvious. This way, perhaps, we'll save lives... Good intentions and all that.
"I'm surprised Misha didn't have any side effects," Alvar said, looking at me suspiciously.
"The bodies of Lantians are more developed than those of ordinary humans," I said without flinching. "Millions of years of evolution and all that."
These guys don't really need to know that I'm from another universe. The official version is that I arrived from afar, as the last representative of Lantian society. Chaya's story, told to our comrades, was not much different from the truth. Except that we omitted the likely negative attitude towards us from the Ascended.
The doors of the Council Hall turned, letting Chaya in. The girl was dressed in a simple blue-gray field uniform. It had become something of our everyday uniform. Practical and comfortable for everyday wear.
"So, here you are," she greeted everyone with a warm smile. Sitting down at the edge of the table, the Proculucian laid her ancient laptop on the table. "Well, I have news."
"Good and bad?" I clarified.
"Exactly," the girl said sadly. "I've returned from Taranis."
"You went there alone?" Kirik became wary. "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. "I scanned the area around the base in stealth mode. If they intend to take revenge, it won't be anytime soon. No people were detected in the restricted zone."
"Perhaps they are just plotting and observing for now," Jensen said.
"Or they've accepted what happened and are busy with more pressing matters," Tayla shared her thoughts.
"In any case, there are no problems with them at the moment," I concluded. "So, I assume there's a hangar for 'jumpers' at the outpost?"
Although, of course, the gates are installed quite close to the main entrance. The Lantians could have walked there.
"There is," Chaya confirmed. "Inside, I found five damaged 'jumpers' and one working one. There's a chance to restore them, but it will take a lot of time – spare parts need to be manufactured."
"That's for later," I set the priority. "Right now, we have more working machines than pilots. So, what about the outpost? Are there any problems with the generator?"
"No, we managed to avoid problems," Chaya said. "I've returned its operation to the initial level and activated the sluice gates. The pressure in the magma chamber will decrease, while the intake and separation system will begin to accumulate the materials we need from the lava. Unfortunately, the storage facilities you saw around the mountain are empty. Some are damaged and need to be repaired for airtightness. Then we can get a supply of necessary substances for the production of hull parts and internal partitions."
"Wait," I frowned. "Sluice gates? Storage facilities? Lava separation? I don't remember that..."
"The operation of the geothermal generator leads to an increase in pressure inside the magma chamber," Chaya explained. "Even at the minimum level, the generator can eventually cause 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 the metals are separated from impurities, cooled, and turned into purified ore. Then they are sent to storage facilities on the surface. You saw the large cylindrical containers around the outpost, didn't you?"
I remember. More like tanks, surrounded by a gray fence. They were grouped in about nine or ten and enclosed by a perimeter fence. Honestly, until now, I thought they were Taranians' constructions. But now I realized that they didn't really look like them. Especially since the stone-paved paths, similar to the ones used for the fences and small buildings on the surface, leading from the outpost to these storage facilities, indicated that all this was built by the Ancients.
"Yes, there were some," Kirik nodded. "Are these the storage facilities?"
"Correct," Chaya confirmed. "After the raw materials are delivered to them, they can be transported to the workshops inside the outpost and the necessary parts can be manufactured."
"I hope we won't have to carry it manually?" Alvar grumbled. "We'll need tons of ore to smelt something big..."
"Hundreds, even thousands of tons," Chaya corrected. "And no, you won't have to. There are conveyors for that. Not all of them are in working order, but I think I can fix them quickly enough – a few days, a week at most."
And then there will still be melting, mixing, and so on... The repair will be ve-e-e-ery long. Considering we only have one engineer. We need to do something about this. The Earthlings managed without any workshops. They just pressed buttons.
"So, we can repair the damage to Atlantis that you mentioned?" Tayla 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 ones indicated. The problem of airtightness and metal fatigue of the ship-city's structure is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, it can continue to be operated in this condition; with enough energy, it won't fall apart thanks to the shields that mask 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, am I?
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, the airtightness of all compartments was not compromised, but in most corridors, water stood up to the ceiling. And saltwater 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. It is this dreadnought that carries most of our hopes that we can solve the problem with the 'Aurora's' crew. Or at least get to the ship.
"I visited the ship and managed to start the main systems," Chaya explained, connecting her laptop to the connectors hidden in the tabletop. However... There is also this. "I received the diagnostic data. See for yourselves," she pressed a few buttons on her device, and a hologram of a starship, well-known to me, appeared in the center of the room. "A Lantian dreadnought-class warship called 'Hippaphoralkus'."
For a few seconds, silence reigned in the room.
"And shouldn't it be..." Jensen hesitated.
"More aerodynamic?" Chaya clarified.
"Yes," Jensen confirmed. "If the ship is on the planet in a dock, it should somehow optimally enter the atmosphere so as not to break apart from friction with the dense layers and all that."
"Environmental resistance," Kirik recalled something.
"A valid point," Chaya said. "But thanks to shield technology, these physical phenomena can be neutralized. And otherwise... It's a spaceship. Its appearance, streamlining, and so on are not important in a vacuum. There is no medium in space, no resistance, and therefore, even if it were a piece of rock, it would still fly as far as it could."
Hmm... I wish I had a physics teacher like that in school.
"From what I've managed to learn, the ship participated in several battles in the final stage of the war with the wraiths and received serious damage," Chaya continued. "It was transferred to Taranis for repairs, however, an evacuation was announced, and the ship was abandoned. The outpost personnel went to Atlantis, and from here, as I understand it, to Earth."
"But you were one of the Ancients," Alvar said unexpectedly. "Do you really need to look at all sorts of magazines and databases to talk about something?"
A good question, but... I think I know the answer to Chaya's lack of knowledge.
"I'm a scientist," she reminded him. "Before the Ascension, I had my own tasks, my own laboratory, and I didn't interfere in military affairs. I don't think any of you knew what all your military personnel were doing."
"Agreed," Kirik supported. "Military secret. Not everyone needs to be told everything."
Alvar nodded slowly. Tayla remained silent.
In principle, I agree. Even if the Lantians were a united people, not a confederation of the titular race and junior races, there is still information that is not disclosed to ordinary citizens. And even to leading scientists. As far as I understood, Chaya was not among the trusted individuals for the Lantian government, and therefore cannot know everything.
"What are we dealing with?" I asked.
"The damage is significant, but it's clear that the starship was attempted to be repaired," Chaya continued. The ship's schematic turned various shades of red and green. "Green represents undamaged sections and systems. There are about forty percent of them. Orange means those that can work on secondary circuits, but it's not recommended for constant service. These are emergency systems, and they shouldn't be strained. Red, however... This is what needs to be repaired."
And half the ship is colored red. That's bad, actually.
"But can it fly?" I asked.
"After repairs – yes," the Proculucian said. "The sublight engines are damaged, and their repair is impossible without restoring a large number of systems. The hyperdrive also needs repair. The main power conduits are either destroyed or damaged. I found several places where local inhabitants attempted to repair the damage... Unfortunately, they only made it worse."
"Can you fix the engines?" I asked.
"There are no critical damages, I just need parts," the girl added after thinking. "A lot of parts. I've programmed the outpost workshops to produce the damaged parts. When they are ready, they will be delivered to the hangar. There, with the help of cargo cranes and other equipment, I will replace the most cumbersome parts."
"Manually, without automation?" I clarified.
"Only some mechanisms are automated," Chaya sighed. "Mostly, I'll have to do it manually."
I imagined it for a moment. A single Chaya lifting some spare part with a crane, hanging it over the required element of the ship, then lowering it, then running to the ship, starting to weld... If she doesn't die in a couple of days of such running around, she deserves a monument while she's alive.
"This could take a very long time," I shook my head. "Can we start the engines and the ship's hyperdrive on secondary circuits?"
Chaya frowned.
"Such a thing risks malfunctions," she warned. "The ship is old. Moreover, it's semi-civilian, so its safety margin is not that great. I can switch the damaged systems to backup ones. But when they fail, we might find ourselves in space with no possibility to fix the situation."
"'When'?" Alvar clarified. "Not 'if'?"
"No," Chaya looked at me cautiously. "I understand the desire to get to the 'Aurora' as quickly as possible, but this is a journey that will take more than a day. Anything can happen on a malfunctioning ship. A failure of the main systems, a failure of the backups – and we'll be able to fix very little in open space."
She's right, of course... But the Earthlings managed to fly and even fight on such malfunctioning ships.
We should think carefully about everything that has been said.
In the past, the Lantians had a rather large fleet, which included various starships. One way or another, they participated in the war with the wraiths. And almost all of them were destroyed.
In known events, the Earth expedition encountered 'Aurora' or 'Hippaphoralkus' type starships several times.
They first encountered these ships when they discovered the 'Aurora'. When the Earthlings acquired a ZPM, which they used to power Atlantis, the city sent signals to the ships, urging them to return to the city. The Earthlings went to the starship on their own ship, but the wraiths, who had awakened by then, discovered the 'Aurora' first. As a result, the already seriously damaged ship was destroyed.
The second starship found was the 'Hippaphoralkus'. It was also heavily damaged, but the team of scientists from Earth managed to partially restore its systems. It was destroyed in a battle with wraith hives because it could not simultaneously maintain shields and weapon systems.
The third ship discovered by the Earthlings was the 'Tria'. At that time, the Earthlings were building a space bridge from the stargates to travel from Pegasus to the Milky Way, so as not to expend the energy of Atlantis's ZPM or to send their only ship assigned to Pegasus across galaxies. On board the 'Tria' was a crew of Ancients. From their words, it became known that the ship had hyperdrive damage, and therefore, using the ZPM installed on board, it was moving towards Earth at near-light speed. Due to relativistic distortion, despite ten thousand years having passed for the entire galaxy, the crew aged only a few years. Honestly, I couldn't recall the fate of this starship, but the crew, after taking Atlantis from the Earthlings, perished at the hands of the Asuran replicators.
The fourth starship of this type was discovered by a faction of humans in Pegasus known as the Nomads. They had their own fleet of ships on which they lived. Discovering an 'Aurora' type ship in orbit around a dwarf star, they tried to launch it, but failed. Therefore, without their voluntary consent, they enlisted the help of one of the Earthlings, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard. Ultimately, when the 'Aterro' device was activated, which, as a side effect, exploded the activated stargates, this ship was destroyed along with the Nomads' colony planet.
The Asuran replicators – a race of nanomachines that evolved from weapons created by the Ancients – built similar ships. The latter actually tried to destroy them, but didn't finish the job. In the end, both the Asurans and their achievements, including warships, were destroyed by the Earthlings. The reason – the Asurans believed that humans should be exterminated. The reasons for this... It's not so straightforward. But the fact that intelligent machines copying the Ancients are not entirely friendly with their processors and are ready to kill people, as another manifestation of Lantian experiments, makes me stay away from them.
In general terms, Chaya knows about all these ships – I told her. That's why she was searching the galaxy for specific stars and ships that might be in their orbit.
Since there's no point in going to the Asurans (at least for now), the 'Tria' ship is unreachable for obvious reasons (we simply have no way to fly to it), the 'Aurora' itself is seriously damaged and unlikely to be capable of interstellar travel, the starship discovered by the Nomads, although it could make jumps between stars (at least it could do so during the events of the series, and that was at least three years in the future from the current moment), but it cannot be detected... The 'Hippaphoralkus' is the only option for our own interstellar ship that we can use.
And, one must assume, its repair will take a long time. By the way!
"How long will the repairs take us?" I asked.
"It's hard to say," Chaya admitted. "Some systems can be restored by replacing software crystals or re-soldering damaged wiring. Others require new parts, the manufacturing of which is hardly possible in ready form. I will remove the hull sealing repair from the work plan in those sections that we won't need for the flight to the 'Aurora' and back, but this is just one star in the Universe..."
I think the last phrase is an analogy to the Earth expression "a drop in the ocean."
"And, still?" I persisted.
"Months," she spread her hands. "Possibly even a year, if done thoroughly and independently. Unfortunately, I can't be in several places at once. And besides me, forgive me, but no one can even handle the correct selection of crystals. I'm not even talking about the fact that if something fails at the outpost, like the conveyors or workshop mechanisms, I'll have to be distracted to repair them..."
In other words, Chaya will first have to check the operability of some mechanisms, then smelt other parts, then install them in place, replace the wiring on half the ship, then test everything, eliminate possible problems...
And I'm not even considering the fact that even to smelt the crystals, which will then need to be programmed and changed, we first need to deliver a huge amount of sand from Lantea-2! And there's still wiring, mechanisms, and so on! If, for example, some processors burned out, or whatever the Ancients use to replace them, then we'll have to re-program all of this…
And all this must be done by just one person. To do it and not go insane. Just magnificent.
From the prospects — to patch up the ship quickly, fly to "Aurora", get several crew members out of stasis and revive them, get their consent to cooperate, and with their help, solve the remaining issues. I think even if we have at least a dozen technical specialists, they can significantly speed up all processes.
Not to mention that we'll at least have someone to leave on Taranis or Antlanida while we transport the crew of "Aurora" on the "Hippaphoralkus". Or look for other ships…
Overall, everything is limited by the availability of qualified technical personnel familiar with the technologies of the Ancients. If we had at least five people, it would be much easier…
"I think we can be shown how to perform some procedures," Alvar said. "After all, I think we can handle soldering contacts or replacing one device with a similar one."
"I will try very hard to do everything correctly," Tayla assured.
"I will need time to understand everything, but I am ready to try," Kirik declared. "Since the Ancient gene didn't take root in me, then, at least, if the rest doesn't work out, I'll bring the necessary parts to others."
I almost smiled, imagining Kirik carrying a twenty-ton ship reactor core on his back. Or something like that. But, in reality, it's a more than correct approach.
"It's not that simple," Chaya said. "Lantian technologies require significant precision and accuracy."
"For starters, I think we just need to show our comrades how they can help and see if they can handle it," I said, getting up from the table. "I'm sure there's work they'll do excellently."
Anyone can replace a conditionally burned-out crystal with a similar, but intact one. It's not that difficult.
"Yes," Chaya said, not with much joy on her face. "Of course, I'll show you what's needed…"
"One more thing," I said after thinking. "There are laboratories in the city, whose experiments we will definitely not return to," the same conditional "Ascension machine," which could bring a person closer to transitioning into pure energy, scared me to death. A good thing, but at the same time — dangerous. Because in the absolute majority of cases, it will turn the test subject into a flash of light and thus kill them. "We can take some equipment from them. The same crystals or wiring…"
The proculucian and I discovered and disabled at least a hundred such laboratories. The experiments conducted there by the Ancients are not just dangerous — in large part, they are immoral. I hope that for these reasons they were stopped and not implemented.
"Don't," Chaya said quickly. "Breaking one piece of equipment to restore another is not the best option. Just because we won't return to these experiments doesn't mean the equipment and its parts are subject to disassembly. Besides being very complex to manufacture and calibrate, it would take significantly longer to repurpose them than to make new ones. We shouldn't do that."
"As you say," I said to Chaya, walking past. "In that case, it's time to get to business. Go to Taranis. Perhaps among the Athosians, there will be someone else who will be useful."
"I doubt it," Chaya grumbled, but only I heard her. I understand, a justified doubt.
"And where are you going?" Alvar asked, seeing me approach the opened doors of the Hall of Gates.
"For a walk," I replied. "Besides, we need sand to make crystals, don't we?"
And we also need help.
It's just that I doubt anyone from the Ascended will respond to the call.