"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked the alien.
She merely cast a cold glance at me, continuing to look somewhere through us.
"It seems she's not inclined to talk," Teyla said. "And what are we going to do?"
"Kill her," Ihaar said decisively. "I'll figure out what it is later."
"After such a decision, I'm not even surprised that the Ancients are actually strikingly different from what the legends say," Alvar grumbled. "She's not showing aggression!"
The events of the series "Stargate: Atlantis" chronologically began in the "Stargate" universe in the eighth year of Earth's galactic exploration program. If memory serves, the full "series" start of events began in 1997.
And in 2004, Earthlings reached the Pegasus galaxy.
Logically, since eight months had passed since the Earth expedition should have reached Atlantis, it was no later than 2005 in the universe. Still quite a long way from my present, of course…
But for me, the next twenty years were still there. Yes, 2025 became fatal for me and the beginning of a new life. Not everyone gets this at thirty-six, but…
Looking at the naked young woman, shrouded in a web of wires and regarding us with complete indifference, for a moment it seemed to me that I saw 2008 and the pilot episode of the series "Terminator: The Battle for the Future" flash before my eyes. Otherwise known as "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."
According to the narrative logic, the series ignored the absurd third part of the film universe, replacing it with itself. And according to the plot, another terminator is sent to the young and happy-go-lucky John Connor. In the future, it is simply known to everyone how the young savior of humanity spends all his time saving people, not caring about his personal life.
Therefore, a new terminator-nanny designated "Cameron" from the T-900 model line arrived in a female shell. With the appearance of actress Summer Glau. And, I must say, for an eighteen-year-old boy at the time, this lady, and the entire series as a whole, had a significant impact.
But first and foremost, I remembered her now as the only terminator in a female "wrapper," who was unequivocally positive. At least in the first season.
And it was this image – a young, beautiful, and deadly dangerous girl whose eyes shone with a blue light – that came to my mind now, as soon as I saw our guest.
True, our "guest" looked more like a machine than the terminators from the universe of the same name. And she reeked of soullessness from a mile away.
"Is she just going to stand there?" Ihaari asked, shivering from the presence of the "terminator."
"You can offer her to sit down," Alvar chuckled.
"Why didn't you warn us earlier?" I asked Jensen.
"I watched her for a couple of minutes while she watched you," Alvar explained. "If it's a machine, then it seems to be broken. She just came here and stood. Listened, watched us, but showed no aggression."
Summer Glau as the Terminator Cameron.
"And what if she had attacked?" Ihaari asked with a hint of panic in his voice. "If it's a machine, then it's faster than all of us! And deadlier!"
"She has no weapon," Tayla noted.
"If it's a machine, or a cyborg like they produced here, then it hardly needs a weapon," I said, examining the "guest." "At best, every part of her body is a weapon. At worst, she'll kill one of us to get it."
"Or she won't attack," Alvar continued, still aiming at the... woman. "If she wanted to kill, she would have already done it."
"If she wanted to talk, she would have already talked!" Ihaari retorted. "Do you really think something in this place doesn't want to kill us?"
"And do you really think opening fire first on someone else's territory, without understanding what's happening, is a good idea?" I asked. "No, we need to understand who she is, what she is, and what's going on here."
"Well, let's conduct an interview," Ihaari suggested. "Oh, yes, I forgot! She doesn't even answer simple questions!"
"I wouldn't want people to talk as if I weren't there in my presence," Tayla admitted, not taking her eyes off the "guest." "Ihaari, couldn't you connect to the computer and find out who she is?"
"And how? I only copied what that mad pseudo-intelligence couldn't manage to erase!"
"You said there were cryo-chambers on the base," I recalled. "Could she be one of the locals? Say, a scientist who went into their version of stasis to wake up at a better time?"
"Well, then she missed the date," Ihaari was clearly nervous. "I haven't seen any mention of anyone being frozen here currently."
"She hasn't been standing next door for several thousand years," I pointed out the obvious gap in logic. "She's preserved too well for a race that is technologically inferior to the Ancients."
"Well, she doesn't look exemplary either," Ihaari objected. "Look at her face, body, skin. She's clearly lost subcutaneous fat and her skeleton is protruding. So their technology is imperfect..."
"I don't care anymore!" I said sharply, stepping forward past Tayla and Ihaari. My personal shield activated, covering me with greenish energy. "We're in a situation where any move could lead to a probable meat grinder!"
"She's blocking the exit from here," Alvar agreed, figuring out why I stepped forward. The Ermen quickly moved back. Now, if anything were to start here, I would take the first blow. I wouldn't want to suffer too much, but at the same time, only I have a good chance of not dying from the cyborg's first strike.
And it became clear that the lady in front of us was a direct symbiosis of flesh and technology, as soon as I got close to her.
There were bruises on her skin where reinforced tubes of various diameters dug into her body. In some places, metal elements peeked out from under the skin.
Neck, torso, limbs – the tubes were everywhere. I don't know why they would bring a fluid circulation system to the surface of the body, but I couldn't distinguish any reservoirs anywhere to understand what exactly was flowing through this network of thin pipes.
And yes, Ihaari is really right – the lady looks more like a fan of anorexic leisure than a super-soldier. Or like Arnie from "The Terminator." Yes, she had abs, around which part of the tubes passed. But the muscles in her arms and legs were clearly deficient. You could say "skin and bones"...
Her eyes, accustomed to the semi-darkness, allowed me to see her more clearly. The lady had hair braided into hundreds of thin dreadlocks and gathered at the back of her head. Her skin on her body in places was almost sagging, indicating a deficiency of subcutaneous fat and tissue.
But at the same time, the unknown woman stood straight, not swaying. As if her discomfort didn't bother her at all.
"How long are we going to stand here like this?" Ihaari asked, for some reason in a whisper.
"As long as it takes not to make more stupid mistakes," Alvar hissed at him.
"We actually have a communication session soon," the Ancient reminded us. "If we don't connect with Atlantis, a team will come for us."
The cyborg's head turned, and now the unknown woman was looking directly at Ihaari.
"What's up with her?" the latter asked.
"It seems you said something that caught her attention," I guessed, stepping aside slightly. Did I imagine it, or is there some inscription on the cyborg's temple? No, I didn't imagine it. There was something that looked like a tattoo. The letter "X," but the "tails" were spread wide apart.
"I'm not happy about attracting her attention," Ihaari admitted. "I don't really like things I'm unfamiliar with!"
"We need to decide something," Tayla said. "We can't just stand here forever."
"Agreed," Alvar said. "I don't think she'll get bored."
"I can try to disable her with my stunner," Alvar suggested.
Good idea. Except, since she's partly a mechanism, won't that kill her? And it's not even about whether I feel sorry for her or not. It's just... By the laws of the genre, these things should have a self-destruct system in case of capture or mission failure.
So... There's only one question – will we be able to get out of here before she explodes?
"Ihaari, scan her," I ordered.
"Why?" he asked, surprised.
"I want to understand if there's a bomb inside her or a reactor that will go haywire if we disable her with energy weapons," I explained.
The cyborg turned her head towards me.
Her glowing eyes literally made me feel extremely uncomfortable. As if I were being examined under a microscope... It's a disgusting feeling – to be a guinea pig.
"Yes, now," the Ancient said, putting away his weapon and grabbing his scanner. "I need to find the right frequency to scan her..."
"Don't do that."
The female voice that sounded was as devoid of emotion as the gaze of the unknown woman herself.
And, frankly, I almost pulled the trigger when she opened her mouth.
"Holy heavens," Alvar's heavy exhale was heard. "She's talking... I almost shot."
"Me too," Tayla admitted.
"Do you understand us?" I asked the cyborg. She blinked, as if her artificial eyes needed it, and nodded affirmatively.
"Now I understand," she said. "My processor was damaged after being in the cryo-capsule. Combat protocols are loaded, but not active. I need help."
"Ugh," Ihaari exhaled. "We're always happy to help!"
"Be quiet," Alvar punched the Ancient in the ribs. "And think about what she said!"
"First of all, who are you?" I asked.
"Object-41," the cyborg introduced herself.
"That doesn't tell me anything."
"I am the forty-first specimen of the second generation of improved soldiers for fighting Wraiths, project 'Saiia'," she said... it said... In any case, an answer was received.
"A machine," Ihaari stated. "A hybrid of organic and mechanical."
"A cyborg," I determined.
"Correct," said the lady with the tubes. "Call me Object-41."
"In my homeland, guys who call themselves by numbers usually get hanged by court decision," I muttered. "You don't mind if we call you 'Saiia'?"
"I don't care," the cyborg stated flatly. "I need help."
Object-41, also known as "Saiia."
"Yes, we do too," I admitted. "And you can help us."
"How?" the cyborg asked, shifting all her attention to me.
"We need to get out of here," I said. "And you're standing in the passage. My friends are nervous. How about we get to the surface and talk about how we can be useful to each other?"
"Unacceptable," the cyborg cut off. "I cannot allow you to leave the facility."
"That doesn't sound very good," Tayla commented.
"Why?" I asked.
"The pseudo-intelligence of this base has designated you as hostile subjects," the cyborg said. "You have infiltrated a restricted facility. You have violated security protocols. You have gained unauthorized access to the database. You must be destroyed."
"And now can we destroy her?" Ihaari asked quietly.
Thoughts danced the tectonic in my head. What kind of madhouse is this?!
"I don't mind," Alvar said.
"Me neither," Emagan added quietly.
"Quiet," I ordered, feeling my finger sweat on the trigger. "Something is happening here."
"Yes, they want to kill us," Ihaari "suggested" the essence of the unfolding events. "I'm for us killing her first!"
"I support that," Alvar approved.
The cyborg, meanwhile, didn't take her eyes off me.
I... was thinking.
The virtual intelligence that Ihaari had erased to hell and back had identified us as a threat. Because we are outsiders here. And we've caused as much harm as we could.
But... why didn't she kill us immediately? Why did she wait? Why did she analyze us? Clearly, Saiia wasn't waiting for the right moment – it was lost from the moment we discovered her. The element of surprise was gone.
So... what does that mean?!
What did she say first? Well, before she announced that she was actually our executioner?
"You said you needed help," I reminded her.
"Correct."
"With what exactly?"
"The platform was damaged during cryogenic freezing," Saiia explained. "Combat protocols cannot be implemented due to the failure of several systems. Repair is required. I analyzed your speech and actions. You can fix me so that I can complete the pseudo-intelligence's mission."
"She wants us to fix her so she can kill us!" Ihaari simplified. "I told you, the local programmers are psychopaths! Who in their right mind would write such logic for a combat unit?!"
And here I have to agree.
Whatever broke on her, she could have simply beaten us to death with her hands and feet. Well, at least tried to do it.
So why didn't she?
"The platform was damaged during cryogenic freezing," Object-41 repeated. "I cannot implement combat protocols."
"Nonsense," Jensen voiced his opinion.
And he's damn right.
No matter how specialized the locals were in augmentation and creating super-soldiers, with such fighters, it's not surprising that they lost to the Wraiths. I agree with Ihaari – whoever wrote the historical chronicle on this base clearly lied that the Salumai super-soldiers destroyed millions of Wraiths.
"And what will happen if we don't help you?" I asked.
"In that case, the self-destruct system will activate," Saiia replied. "I have already overloaded the generators. They will explode in five minutes."
"Are you kidding me?!" Ihaari flared up, burying his face in his scanner. "Oraev in my family! She's right – the base's generators are starting to accumulate energy! The explosion will not only detonate them, but it will also be amplified by naquadah!"
"And what will be the consequences?" I asked, continuing to play stare-down with the cyborg.
"Does it make a difference to us?" the agitated engineer asked. "We'll die in the detonation of the reactors!"
"Ihaari!" I hissed at the Ancient. "That wasn't the question asked!"
"Naquadah will act as a catalyst for the explosion, amplifying it a hundredfold, if I understand its deposits under our feet even slightly correctly," Ihaari quickly stated. "We're talking about the explosion of an entire planet! A chain reaction, at best, will evaporate half of this world, and the rest will simply fall apart! We need to get out of here!"
"You will not leave the complex," Saiia repeated. "My mission..."
"Can I shoot her in the head now?" Jensen asked.
"Don't," I gritted out.
"Why not?" Ihaari exclaimed. "We're at a dead end!"
"Not quite," I said, looking into her soulless eyes. "Actually, we have a super-soldier in front of us..."
"A very problematic super-soldier!" Ihaari reminded me. "Who wants to kill us! And if we keep dragging this out, she'll kill us by blowing up the planet! I understand you want to get a sample of a Salumai super-soldier because I lost the database! But, in the end, she's going to kill us! We need to do something!"
"Then do it," I said with emphasis. "Come here and help me fix her."
"Are you crazy?!" Ihaari exclaimed, taken aback.
"I have the same question," Alvar admitted.
"Only a little bit," I said. "Saiia, how long will your repair take?"
"The problem is mechanical," she replied. "The containment controllers need to be disabled to restore mobility to the joints and servos. A short circuit occurred in the power circuit. The controllers did not disengage. Implementing combat protocols is impossible."
It's clear that nothing is clear... Wait, hold on!
"Controllers, are those the things that run all over your body?" I clarified, referring to the reinforced hoses.
"Correct," Saiia touched one of them demonstratively. "For proper hibernation, they connect to the internal network and control the operation of internal organs and mechanisms. I cannot disconnect them myself, as mechanical disconnection would lead to the failure of the control circuit..."
"I didn't understand anything," Tayla admitted.
"This web of wires on her is a special device, without which she would have died in the stasis pod," I translated. "The device is connected to something inside her. And it didn't disconnect properly."
"So why didn't she just rip it out?" Alvar asked. "She's going to blow everything up anyway."
"I think that in that case, she won't be functional," I said. "And she needs to ensure that none of us escape from here. Am I right?"
Otherwise, it made no sense for her to stand in our way and do nothing.
"You correctly understand the tasks assigned to me," the cyborg stated flatly. "There are three minutes and forty seconds left until the explosion. I will shorten the countdown if you continue to mislead me and waste time!"
"Ihaari!" I shouted at the Ancient.
"I will not fix my future killer!" he stubbornly refused.
Damn, which one of us is a representative of the advanced version of humanity?! Why did I immediately understand what needed to be done, and he still doesn't?!
"You don't need to fix it," I gritted out through my teeth, nodding towards the cyborg. Hinting as much as I could! I just hope she doesn't understand! "Just do what you do best with their technology! Well, do you understand now?!"
The Ancient blinked a couple of times, then broke into a smile.
"Yes, I understand!" he confirmed, stepping out from behind Tayla and Alvar. "I need my portable computer and scanner. I can connect to you for diagnostics, right?"
"I indicated the malfunction," the cyborg said, watching the senior engineer approach. "No other malfunctions were detected, and no further intervention is required."
"We don't want you to fail your mission, do we?" I asked. "To avoid messing up, we need to understand how you work and do it right. And it's because of our ignorance that the base's systems were damaged. You don't want us to damage you through our own stupidity, do you?"
"Logical conclusion," the cyborg said after thinking, raising her right hand when Ihaari approached her. "Diagnostic connectors are located on the fourth rib."
"Convenient," Ihaari muttered, using his equipment to connect the laptop and Saiia's software. "Hyperspace window! What kind of horror do you have instead of an operating system?"
"This is the most perfect version of the program," Object-41 informed him. "It is simple and easy to use."
"Uh-huh," Ihaari mumbled. "Unless it was written by a computer pervert for his fetish buddies. Okay, I'm connected, analyzing the problem..."
"Do you have enough time for this?" I asked in as innocent a tone as possible. I think James Cameron, if he knew about such "cyborg-killers," would just hug himself and cry. And John Connor would have defeated "Skynet" with a single slingshot as a teenager.
"Okay, two and a half minutes left," Ihaari stated. "No, not enough. The problem is with the software."
"You'll have to give us more time," I said to the cyborg. "We won't have time to fix you."
"Unacceptable," Saiia replied. "I cannot change the countdown upwards without disabling your guaranteed destruction..."
The light in her eyes went out, and the cyborg leaned forward. Instinctively, I caught her and grunted in surprise. Heavy...
"That's it, I've disabled her processor," the Ancient announced. "She's alive, but incapable of active action."
"Let's go!" Alvar grabbed Tayla and with a single leap was in the corridor. Only there did he allow the stunned Athosian to get on her feet. "How much time do we have? Two minutes?"
"Twelve," Ihaari said, disconnecting from the cyborg's body. "She couldn't give us more time because with the energy accumulators running, it's simply impossible. And the mission parameters didn't allow her to disable what would have guaranteed our destruction. But I used her programs to do it. We have an extra ten minutes to get out of here. The accumulators, even when disabled, have already started the reaction. As soon as their cores begin to decay without cooling, everything here will explode!"
"Alvar, help me lift her," I ordered, throwing the cyborg's arm over my shoulder. Yeah, she looks thin, but she weighs about a hundred kilograms. Is she entirely made of metal inside? "Tayla, run to the exit and warn the second 'jumper' via radio to get out of here. Ihaari – you're with her. Try to start the ship and bring it closer to the exit."
"You want to take this scrap metal with you?" the Ancient asked, surprised. "Why?! She wanted to kill us!"
"And we'll study her, including her blood and technology," I announced. "And where the Salumai failed, we will succeed. Since she has a chip with the program in her head, she can be reprogrammed! Get it?"
"Everything's going to explode right now!" the Ancient exclaimed.
"Then don't waste time," Alvar said, handing over his weapon. "Did you hear the order? Execute it, engineer. This isn't civilian life, you're in the army!"
"Because of you, we'll all die!" the Ancient said before Tayla dragged him by the sleeve towards the exit.
"I hope he's wrong, Commander," Jensen said quietly to me, throwing the cyborg's other arm over his shoulder.
"Yeah," I had to agree with him. "Me too. Let's go!"
We almost made it.
"Registering an explosion at the base location!" Ihaari shouted the moment the "jumper" of the second group, flying a few kilometers ahead of us, entered the event horizon of the stargate.
Clenching the steering wheel so hard my hands hurt, I squeezed everything out of the machine that it was capable of. And a little more.
Internally praying for the strength of the Ancient technology and wishing long life to the creator of this particular "jumper," I tried to ignore the multiplying red warnings filling the virtual screen in front of me. To hell with what's happening around us!
The main thing now is to make it into the gate!
And almost everything worked out!
Tayla warned the second group. Ihaari, on the second try, managed to overtake the "jumper," and Alva and I, almost running, dragged the cyborg to the ship and shoved the unconscious carcass into the cargo bay.
We had three minutes left!
But something went wrong – only the first minute had passed, and the planet was already exploding behind us.
"The Earth's crust is cracking!" Ihaari reported. "The soil is unstable!"
"Mikhail, the second 'jumper' has arrived," Chaya informed us. "Where are you?"
"Approaching," I gritted out. "Soon..."
"Oh, no!" Ihaari whispered, even standing up from his seat.
"Damn it all!" Alvar cursed.
"Oh, Ancestors," Tayla folded her hands in a prayer gesture.
And there was a reason to grieve.
The platform on which the gate was installed cracked. Tectonic shifts and the violation of soil integrity could not pass without consequences for the twenty-five-ton gate.
The "ring" under its own weight sank into the parted earth more than halfway.
And it got stuck there.
The option of flying into the gate with a "jumper" in this situation is impossible. Moreover, if we disconnect the gate to re-enter the Atlantis address and burn off excess soil with an unstable hyper-tunnel vortex, it won't work! The tunnel will not be established if there is anything inside the ring that interferes with the formation of the event horizon!
That's why in ancient times, when hyperdrives were very weak, people got rid of enemies who came through the gates by burying the latter. Thus, they could never be opened from either side.
Our only chance of survival is to stop near the gate and jump into the open part of the event horizon. But this will take a lot of time: a few seconds! And at a distance of ten meters behind the "jumper," the soil is already exploding! There's simply not enough time!
"We need to go into space!" Ihaari said. "The 'Hippaphoralkus' will arrive here in a week and a half..."
"We'll die of thirst faster," I countered, closing my eyes. "Hold on!"
"Don't even think about ramming it!" the Ancient shouted.
And I wasn't going to.
Two glowing yellow dots detached from the "jumper's" main engines mounted on the sides. A moment – and the homing missiles entered the damaged soil in the area that had buried the gate. They went in like a hot knife through butter...
A powerful explosion literally vaporized an area the size of a basketball court in front of the gate. The "Ring of the Ancestors" finally fell to the rear, opening the event horizon for us.
The virtual screen beeped, outlining the ship's stern as an area with significant damage. For better aerodynamics, we had to fly without shields... and the energy was entirely spent on engines and control systems...
The ship shook violently from the explosion behind it. Some systems shut down, and numerous dents appeared in the aft section.
The engines began to choke, but, thanks to the engineers, the main engines retracted into the hull as soon as we were near the gate.
"We're going!" I warned Chaya a second before we plunged into the stargate, which began to sink deeper into the soil.
And three seconds later, we emerged from the Atlantis gate. The damaged "jumper" flew further than intended, nearly smashing to pieces the staircase connecting the two levels of the control room with its welcoming inscriptions in the Ancient language. But we were intercepted—it seemed something like this was expected, as those on duty at the control panels manually activated the hangar's landing system above our heads.
"Close the gate!" I shouted into the comms, as soon as I realized the catastrophe had been averted.
"Raise the shield!" Chaya ordered, running from the control room to the stairs.
The "jumper," no longer under my full control, began to slowly turn its stern towards the stairs to ascend to the hangar level. I saw an energy shield surrounding the Atlantis stargate, resembling frozen water with intricate patterns. For a moment, the event horizon inside the shield glowed brightly—the hyper-tunnel had carried the energy flows of the exploding planet in its wake. If it overcame the shield, the destructive force of the exploded Salumai would follow us.
Atlantis wouldn't survive that.
And then everything went dark—the hyper-tunnel was ruptured. The gate shut down. The danger had passed.
"Everyone alright?" Chaya's voice came from the hidden speaker in the "jumper's" panel. "Any wounded?"
"Just a slightly singed ego," I admitted, leaning back in my chair. "If I ever want to take such a risk again to get questionable technology, shoot me in the leg."
"Better the head," Alvar grumbled. "I'm sure only Chaya will regret your loss."
"And Trebal," Teila added.
"What makes you think that?" I turned to the Athosian.
Emagan, with a strained smile, pointed a finger at the jumper's observation window. Turning my head, I saw the Dorandian woman frozen before the ship that had landed on the landing pad.
And judging by her expression, the commander of the "Hippaphoralkus" wouldn't mind showing someone a couple of educational kicks to the head.
How good it is that we have a tamed wraith! It'll do, won't it? It'll do⁈