The "Jumper" slipped out of the gate, flew a dozen meters by inertia before its engines emerged from hidden nests. The ship accelerated, simultaneously enveloping itself in a cloaking field.
Invisible to everyone, insensitive to detection methods, the "jumper" rushed upwards so that the people on board would have a wide field of view.
"And…" Ihaar fell silent, peering at the scanning system readings on his laptop. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything is still deaf, destroyed, and desolate, as the scout drone showed us."
Before the mission, a drone was sent first for reconnaissance. And the footage it transmitted, including the scanning results, did not inspire much optimism.
"These guys clearly didn't get lucky," said Alvar, who was in the navigator's seat. "The Wraiths wiped their civilization to dust."
"If, of course, it was the Wraiths who did it," I corrected, steering the ship away from the scorched ruins.
"And who else is capable of such cruelty?" Teyla asked quietly. The girl, like the engineer, sat in the second row of pilot seats, looking at the bleak landscape of the post-apocalyptic present.
I didn't answer her question. We have no proof that the Ancients did it… And the sight of a dead city, not destroyed to the ground, doesn't fit with the might of the Ancients' weaponry.
They would have rather erased the only city from the face of the planet, not left hundreds of kilometers of ruins behind.
According to the scout drone, which arrived on the planet Salumai a week ago and has since been continuously plowing the skies, searching for traces of life, energy, or anything that would deviate from the criteria of a dead world, there was only one large settlement on the planet.
We called it the Capital for ease of identification.
And it was clearly not built by a civilization of farmers.
The main part of the Capital, although it consisted of numerous buildings from one to three-five stories high, also had plenty of so-called "skyscrapers" reaching a couple of hundred meters.
Occupying a territory within a radius of three hundred kilometers from the gate, the city presented the most obvious post-apocalyptic landscapes. Scorched buildings, devoid of glass, destroyed walls, explosion-pitted pavements, disfigured highway interchanges and maglev train lines, collapsed bridges, partially destroyed by precise hits, and partially fallen apart from time.
It was a highly advanced society, centuries ahead of Earth, or even more. And Salumai no longer exists.
The scout drone did not detect launch pads, spaceports, or huge planetary defense turrets. No matter how developed they were, space was clearly not their priority. There are no traces of space debris in orbit that could have remained from destroyed space stations or something similar. However, space is a very vast thing, and another group will scan the orbit.
The Capital of the planet Salumai.
"Jumper-2, any new data?" I asked the second ship. Their task was to reach orbit, deploy several more powerful satellites to scan the surface, and obtain detailed information.
After all, the scout drone was not designed to be a perfect observation tool. Even with all the desire, the necessary scanners could not fit into the small hull.
So we had to first assess the situation roughly. And only after confirming the absence of danger did we launch full reconnaissance groups. Powerful scanning satellites over the planet are our advantage in obtaining more information in a short period.
They were created directly using Ancient technologies, and the scanning equipment installed there is Ancient. More powerful than in the "jumpers." So the information obtained from them will be very useful if there is an underground city somewhere or something that we cannot detect from the atmosphere. After all, the "jumper" also has technological limits.
First of all, we were interested in the most unusual traces – energy, life signals, separately standing hidden structures. Logically, that's where we can find the most interesting things.
And if we don't find anything, we'll have to leave the second "jumper" here for more thorough reconnaissance.
"No, Mikhail," the pilot of the second ship replied to me. "There are no traces of battle in orbit, but we have just started working. We are deploying observation satellites; if anything appears, we will report it additionally."
"Understood," I agreed, sending the ship on its way to the outskirts of the Capital. Logically, if the local inhabitants had some kind of production, it should have been located outside the populated area. In fact, warehouses, military bases, and so on are also preferably located away from civilians.
In my opinion. What considerations guided this race will remain a mystery for a long time – until the first findings for sure.
According to Chaya's stories, the Salumai were humans. Surely, this is one of the races created by the Ancients. But neither in Atlantis's database nor anywhere else did we find even a remotely detailed description of this race, their technologies, or achievements.
Only a short and meaningless explanation next to the gate address: "Human race. First contact established. Further interaction deemed unpromising."
The knowledge of this universe suggests that the Ancients did not leave such concise records simply because brevity is the soul of wit. For example, the database contains the address of Asuras. And a note: "Work completed, complex abandoned." But in reality…
"Judging by the ruins, the Salumai were a very developed civilization," Teyla said.
"I agree," Alvar said. "Not every race can build buildings several hundred stories high from concrete and stone. Mikhail, is that how they do it on Earth?"
Here's something else interesting about the inhabitants of Salumai.
"In my Earth, they prefer to build tall buildings from metal structures," I recalled. "It's faster and more efficient."
"Who told you that?" Ihaar chimed in. "A large part of the Ancients' outposts and even buildings on Atlantis, for example, are built using a complex method."
"What's that?" Alvar asked.
"When you have concrete-811, why waste mountains of metal to build a building when you can cast it the good old-fashioned way?" the engineer pretended to answer. "Concrete-811 can be made from almost the dirt under your feet, the main thing is to irradiate it correctly. And then it will become lighter than metal, stronger, and more durable. It is not afraid of moisture, mold, corrosion…"
"It seems that on Salumai, the inhabitants built from the same material," Teyla noted as we flew past another destroyed skyscraper.
The building was striking not so much for its height and similarity in architecture to Earth, but for the fact that it looked like the notorious monolithic skyscrapers in my homeland. Concrete floors, walls, cladding… Of course, rebar occasionally stuck out in the destroyed walls, but… Such a height would clearly not have been built from concrete on Earth.
True, I have no doubt that the word "concrete" in Ihaar's words means exactly the same as on Earth.
I saw the thickness of the buildings on Atlantis, built from a material resembling reinforced concrete. No thicker than a palm, but it could only be destroyed if one tried very hard with a large-caliber cannon. Or something similar. Good material. Ihaar is right, and I, thinking about how to replace it in the whole city – no. Stronger than metal, slightly lighter… I must admit, the Ancients were not idiots when they built from it.
However, it is still unclear why only metal is used on ships, and metal and concrete in the ship-city. The Ancients I have with me explain in unison – these are the construction standards established by the Lantians.
Only Chaya tried to convey something like the fact that the notorious concrete-811 has a density and other physical properties that allow it to be practically indestructible for millennia. As well as not letting air, moisture through, shielding a significant part of known radiation, and so on. In short, a thing for centuries. I'm just not smart enough to understand all the advantages of the material. It's good to be a representative of the younger races – the Lantians said that you need to do it this way, black is black, white is white, you take it under your visor, live happily, don't ask questions…
"It seems we're just wasting time here," Alvar said. "Don't you have anything else to do besides driving us around other planets?"
"I do, but not as much as I'd like," I admitted. "But at the moment, I'm the only one with the Ancient gene who can pilot a 'jumper' and isn't too busy."
"We should have put Ihaar at the helm," Alvar said, looking at the senior engineer.
He, tearing himself away from his observations, grimaced:
"Yes, go ahead, mock me," he said. "Yes, I don't have a strong enough gene to pilot a ship and keep it in a constantly active state. So what? You can't even do that!"
"I piloted a battleship," Alvar reminded him with a chuckle. "An unforgettable feeling…"
"Can you stop comparing your piloting skills?" I asked. "We are, after all, one team and all that…"
"Ihaar just thinks we're criticizing him for his absent-mindedness," Teyla chimed in. "Selise said that's why he can't concentrate on piloting or constantly activating his equipment…"
"Thank you for that!" and from his voice, it's clear that he's not grateful to Teyla at all for what she said. "It's written in our infirmary: 'Tell everyone about a comrade's problem you heard about!' And anyway, I can, but I don't like piloting! In case of trouble, the pilot always dies first!"
Here's another demonstration of why the Ancients preferred to deal with fairly developed races – even for them, physiology did not always stably accept the Ancient gene and other manipulations. In the crew of 'Aurora', for example, there are many ordinary crew members whose gene is so weak that it is barely detected by the equipment. Not to mention those in whom it has stopped working over time.
Just like that, the dominant gene became recessive… Strange are your ways, Ancient genetics…
"Did you deal with those people on Taranis?" Alvar asked me.
The people on Taranis, who staged a sit-in hunger strike at the outpost, were dispersed by Ermen, Kirik, and the Athosians upon the arrival of the "Hippaphoralkus." They were, of course, very unhappy with what happened, but Allvar reminded them unequivocally that they could be killed on the spot for violating the perimeter.
Naturally, no one intended to kill anyone. It was obvious that there were certain breaches of obligations on our side. After all, the outpost had been without a single person for two weeks...
But that wasn't the biggest problem.
"Partially," I didn't sugarcoat the events. "I met with them while the drone was on reconnaissance. And, imagine, it turns out they're not merchants at all, as they claimed earlier."
"Supporters of Chancellor Leikos?" Allvar asked.
"You grasp things on the fly," I assessed. "The gray-haired bastard and his cronies want to get away. And the Taranis themselves, as Norana Pyro says, don't care at all about planets beyond the gates."
"And what do you intend to do?" Teila asked.
"Letting them go would be a big mistake," the Ermen advised. "They know the outpost's layout, the location of the villages, and the planet's resources well. If they fall into the hands of our enemies, such information will be very, very useful. But not to us."
"Yes, I thought about that."
"And if we hold them against their will, they will vent their dissatisfaction on others," the Athosian added her thoughts. "Little by little, they can gain more supporters and organize a rebellion."
"I thought about that too."
"And what have you decided?" Allvar continued to press.
"Nothing yet," I admitted. "When we return from this mission, we'll need to visit Norana and get more information from her."
"Or a candlelit dinner," Jensen chuckled. "We all remember the stories about how she wants to unite..."
"Or I'll send you for negotiations," I offered another option.
"Who's against it?" Allvar didn't bat an eye. "She's a bit foolish, of course, but cute..."
"Is only appearance important to you?" Teila defended the entire female gender.
"No," Jensen replied. "I'd also like her to be a good homemaker, a comrade-in-arms, not have hysterics, and not waste time on nonsense."
"Then take a closer look at Teila," advised Iha'ar, tearing himself away from his computer and approaching the ship's control panel. "I've detected energy traces."
"It's getting interesting," I perked up. "Direction?"
"One hundred and seven kilometers west of the city, a mountain range," Iha'ar showed a blinking dot on the pop-up display. "The 'Jumper' maneuvered and began to move away. Apparently, the rocks here are quite dense, the rock blocks signals and radiation. I don't think it can be detected from orbit..."
"We'll check now," I declared, activating the communication channel with the second ship. "Do you have anything?"
"No, Mikhail. No signals from the surface."
"And we have something, sending telemetry. We're going on reconnaissance. We'll report if we change location. If we don't make contact at the scheduled time, call the group from Atlantis."
Reconnaissance operatives on other planets must report to Atlantis every few hours according to Lantian time. They report news, work progress, and so on. If the control time is violated, a search group led by Kirik will be dispatched from Atlantis. Unlike Alvar, he is not just a fighter who became a fugitive a few years ago. He is a former tracker, who honed his stealth and pursuit skills for many years.
That's why he's in the reserve group, not the main one.
"Received the data, Mikhail. Rechecking with satellites... No, we don't detect any energy traces, only the general radiation background. Elevated compared to the rest of the area, but nothing more."
"Could you have made a mistake?" I asked Iha'ar.
"Do I have half my brain shot out so I can't read scanner data?" the Ancient asked, pointing to the pulsating signal on the monitor. "If anyone made a mistake, it's the 'Jumper's' scanners. But they work perfectly, I checked before takeoff. It's likely we only picked up the signal because we're close and because we have Ancient sensors."
"Either we're mistaken, or our orbital scanners aren't that good," I remarked, peering at the approaching rocks. "In any case, we'll find out soon enough."
As soon as we crossed the lifeless rocky ridges forming a kind of valley, the latter revealed itself in all its glory.
"Unexpected," Allvar stated, peering at the shrub- and tree-covered valley before us.
From here, the mountain slopes were already covered with vegetation, and streams could be seen running down the slopes, flowing into a rather large lake in the center of the natural formation. Quite decent vegetation for a planet whose surface is more suited for filming post-apocalyptic movies.
We sped around the formation in a circle, examining an object clearly built by intelligent hands. A small complex of ruined buildings connected to a dam that blocked one side of the lake. Slowing the ship, I saw a good stream of water flowing through the dam's locks. And it flowed into a huge chasm at the bottom of the formation.
Estimating our route, I realized that this was precisely where the river, which originated at the foot of the mountains we had just crossed, could be flowing from.
"Hydroelectric power station," Iha'ar determined. "Quite primitive, of course, for a developed civilization."
"Is it our energy source?" I asked. Could it be that the destroyed generating facility attracted the attention of our sensors?
"No," Iha'ar shook his head. "The source is significantly below the surface level. A hundred meters or so. Obviously, there are catacombs here..."
"Which," I changed the scanning mode, but still couldn't find anything indicating underground structures, "we don't see. The 'Jumper' is sure that besides the above-ground part and a couple of levels down, there's nothing here."
"I know," Iha'ar replied, puzzled. "That's what's strange... Either our sensors are being jammed by local radiation, or the underground object is shielded. Shields, radiation, or just dense walls – we won't know until we go down."
"This structure doesn't look safe," Allvar commented.
"Agreed," Teila supported. "Are you sure we should explore this complex?"
The complex on Salumai.
"If something can hide from our sensors, then this technology must be studied," Iha'ar stated categorically. "The complex looks very old, possibly thousands of years old. Who knows, maybe the hydroelectric power station is just a cover for something more interesting and large-scale?"
"We're going on reconnaissance," I decided, landing the "Jumper" on a suitable-sized lawn in front of the complex. The soil looks quite solid, it's unlikely the ship will collapse into the maw of the nearest abyss.
While my companions armed themselves, I informed Chaya and the second "Jumper" about our discovery.
"We see you from orbit," the latter reported. "We have news too, Mikhail. At an equidistant point," this is a Lagrange point in the scientific language of the Ancients, "we've found debris of a space object. It wasn't built by Wraiths; the construction is clearly human. Judging by the presence of stellar radiation collectors – and these, therefore, are solar panels – it was some kind of station. It's thoroughly destroyed, not a single intact compartment. We're studying the debris, maybe we'll find something interesting."
"Understood," I replied. "Chaya, give us a few hours to figure everything out. Then we'll contact you."
"Understood," the Proculucian replied. "Kirik and the rescue team will be on standby. But I wouldn't advise taking too many risks..."
And this woman suggested I blow up planets! "The spirit of adventure has left us!"
"But it's worth studying this object," Iha'ar intervened in our conversation. "I analyzed the radiation traces. It's slightly above normal and won't cause harm, but the rock here is quite dense. And that indicates..."
"...deposits of naquadah," the Ancient understood instantly. "Sounds promising."
"I think the complex is either part of naquadah mining shafts or was created to hide it," Iha'ar continued his thought. "In any case, if we don't find knowledge about the local genetic experiments on the planet, an additional energy source won't hurt us. Or at least a place where we can mine naquadah."
"Or it could be one of its unstable isotopes," Chaya objected. "And they are dangerous as energy sources."
"I know," Iha'ar winced. "But without detailed scanning, we won't get the answer to our questions."
"Are you finished?" I asked. "If not, we'll just wait until you discuss all your theories."
"Then let's not waste time," Iha'ar brightened up.
"I'll be waiting for your reports," Chaya reminded.
"We're moving out," I informed the others, breaking contact with Atlantis. With the "Jumper," we could use its internal communication system and talk through activated gates. Which is quite convenient, considering the possibility of not only audio but also video communication.
But with regular radios from Ermen, you can't get that...
However, it's not always necessary. Alvar's communication equipment from his homeworld also came in handy – especially for communication between group members.
After checking our equipment, supplies in tactical backpacks, and weapons, we set out towards the ruined complex.
Allvar moved at the vanguard, demonstrating that he was not just a pilot, but a commando skilled in reconnaissance. The sign language he used to inform us within visual range is very similar to that used by special forces on Earth.
I followed next, Iha'ar behind me. Teila covered our rear – after all, her warrior and hunter skills also made her quite prepared for the dangers of this galaxy.
The search of the building began on the floor where the main entrance was located. Nothing supernatural was found here – only the remnants of once-destroyed furniture and computer equipment. Traces of burning and scorching from energy weapons, not yet completely faded, were visible.
"Strange," Iha'ar muttered. "Wraiths don't use lethal weapons for infantry. But here it's as if they were exterminating all living things."
"We don't know yet if it was the Wraiths who did this," I reminded. "Maybe the locals didn't share something with each other?"
"For people to fight people?" Teila clarified. "What kind of animals do you have to be to do something like that."
"The ways of humanity are inscrutable," I replied diplomatically. I think if Earth had an enemy like the Wraiths, we would also find better things to do than a couple of World Wars.
However... it's still unknown what's better – fighting each other, or hiding in burrows and waiting for guys who can take your life to arrive. And take it in every sense.
"Not concrete-811, of course, but quite close to it," Iha'ar concluded when we finished searching the above-ground part of the complex.
The senior engineer scanned the walls and their debris to understand the material from which the structures were built. Based on the results, we had to decide whether we would go down further.
"Will it fall on our heads when we go underground?" I asked. As expected, there was practically nothing to search for in the above-ground part of the complex – everything that could be reached was destroyed here. The unknown ones crushed everything as if they hated mechanisms with fanatical devotion to some other ideals.
The hydroelectric power station generators were destroyed, as were the control mechanisms. Water from the lake simply flowed through the broken locks when the lake level reached the required mark. Judging by how everything was set up here, the locals had clearly used such a structure before.
If so, there should be a lot of interesting things somewhere on the planet.
"It won't fall," Iha'ar sighed. "Despite the damage, the structure is quite strong. Neither time nor Wraith shelling led to anything like this..."
"So, it was the Wraiths after all?" Teila asked.
"Yes, and most likely several thousand years ago, during the war with them or shortly after," Iha'ar said, throwing a piece of concrete he was studying aside. "At least this little stone has been lying here since then. I think the locals would have repaired their facility if they had survived the attack."
"Wraiths don't destroy civilizations, they prefer to feed on them," I reminded.
"But they kill those who are dangerous to them," Allvar countered. "Perhaps the locals are from the same category of people."
"Did you find a passage to the catacombs?" I asked Iha'ar.
"It's somewhere in the basement," he shrugged. "Only... There are residual traces of Wraith energy weapons. Most likely, the object was attacked by 'arrows' or shelled from orbit... But if they landed a landing party, then... There might be a trap."
"We'll find out," Allvar said, grabbing his rifle and heading towards the complex where we noticed the passage to the lower levels.
"What if it's all mined?" Iha'ar shouted after him.
"Then we need to be more attentive," I concluded, following him. "After all, we're on reconnaissance, aren't we?"
"I'd really not like this to be my first and last one!" Iha'ar declared.