Dinner seemed to portend no trouble.
Delicious pieces of Atlantean goat meat, marinated with carefully selected spices... Mmm, delicious.
I look at this meat splendor, part of which literally melts in my mouth, and I wonder. Either goats on Earth are different, or I've encountered not the luckiest options, but Atlantean young goats...
They taste like something between young beef and lamb, but without the characteristic lamb aftertaste, which I personally never liked. The meat is firm, not tough after marinating under pressure, tender, juicy, and literally falls apart into fibers.
I remembered the story of a farmer from whom I bought goat meat, that in ancient times goat meat was considered medicinal, and in European countries it is valued much more than lamb or beef, not to mention pork. I haven't been to Europe, I haven't tried goat dishes there, so I have nothing to compare.
It's a pity that the old man died about three years before I myself passed away. I don't know what he did with his goats, but unlike the ones I bought later from other farmers, his meat didn't stink with a stench that made my eyes water. And it looked clearly fresh. At first, I thought something was wrong with me, but after cooking and trying it twice, I realized there was a reason to visit the old farmer's grave and thank him for his work.
Enjoying the roasted goat meat, I mentally reviewed information that I thought I didn't know. The old farmer said that goat meat surpasses other types of meat precisely because of the nature of goats themselves.
Goats are clean animals. They don't eat from the ground, they won't touch food that is dirty or smells bad, they don't mix their eating area with their toilet. Thanks to such animal behavior, goat meat contains a lot of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids that are extremely important for humans. Their meat never has parasites, it is perfectly absorbed, has low calorie content, and is suitable for allergy sufferers.
He was a talkative and educated old farmer. It's a pity that I only asked him about the meat, and not about how, what, and in what way he fed and cared for his farm. Perhaps I could have told the Taranian, Ephean, and Atlantean people something they didn't know about household management.
However, at the moment, after an exhausting day, I was least concerned about agriculture on other planets. But goat shashlik...
I wasn't allergic, I didn't count calories, the taste and doneness of the meat were excellent, so... Well, what could spoil a wonderful dinner, huh?
"Making two parallel deals is a bad idea," Chaya said, sitting to my right, and that was her phrase.
"Especially when the bitch doesn't know that Asan is playing on her side," Trebal supported her, sitting opposite me and brazenly taking my cutlery and raiding my pile of goat pieces. "I don't trust her, and I don't trust either of them at all."
To Trebal's left, Tayla settled at the table, meeting my gaze with a traditionally slightly guilty smile.
"Ladies," I said, after chewing, looking at the girls in the order they disrupted my solitude. "Has anyone told you that disturbing a man's meditation while he's eating shashlik will cost you in your next life. Karma, she's a wicked bitch."
"Another bitch we don't know about?" Trebal dipped a piece of meat and sent it to her mouth. "And whose tribe is this Karma from, yours?"
I liked her better just as a bitch, without the "jealous" addendum. The worst thing is that both Ancients took their appearance in my apartment and the fact of waking up in my bed as a signal to move to the next step. Both of them. Only Chaya has barely changed, but Trebal...
I'm incredibly pleased that the girls at least stopped their conversations, hearing which Adolf Hitler would have shed tears saying, "My girls!" But somewhere we went wrong... It seems that our cultural differences are telling me "no, they are not yours yet," and them "girlfriend, well, well, if you didn't kick him out and covered him with a blanket, then he's definitely yours!"
Is this a problem?
Yes, because conversations like this happen. In which, to my surprise, I also saw Tayla.
"Karma is the sum of all our actions in life, which after death determine our future incarnation," I explained as best I could. "It's from one of Earth's religions. The universal law of soul reincarnation."
"Nonsense," Trebal stated. "Judging by what you've told me about your past life, who you are in this one is clearly not the result of Karma's actions."
"Leave other people's religions alone," Chaya, who had suffered from Trebal for no reason, defended Indian beliefs.
"I agree," Tayla supported her. "Faith is personal. And it should not be a subject of condemnation, ridicule, or insult."
"The Crusaders wouldn't agree with you," I sighed, watching Trebal devour my dinner. Eh, at least she could have left the onion puree! As if she had arrived from a starving land.
"I think we need another portion," Chaya said, seeing how the food was disappearing from the plate. Sar got up from the table and headed for the kitchen automatons. "I'll bring it, don't worry."
"Thank you," I said sincerely, realizing that only berry juice from Taranis was left. It's somewhat similar to cranberries, only yellow. "At least some of you still have manners."
"Sorry," a little sympathy appeared in Trebal's eyes for me, whose dinner she was destroying as methodically as if she were facing a wraith base. "It's so delicious, I can't stop. And I've been hungry all day. Tayla," she looked at the Atlantean. "Your people are excellent at their job."
Uh-huh. And the fact that I prepared twenty kilograms of goat shashlik on the balcony in almost sub-zero temperatures on three different grills, and only Fren and Seliz helped me, she decided not to take into account. Special thanks to Kirik for the spices — he found familiar herbs on the continent, somewhat similar to parsley, dill, and other greens familiar to me. Which, by the way, look very much like Earth ones.
I suspect that the Ancients didn't just populate planets with life, but also interfered well with the biomes of the worlds they inhabited.
"My people know how to raise goats," Tayla chimed in. "Young goats at one year of age undergo a purification ritual so that the meat does not spoil its taste and smell."
"Purification ritual?" Trebal froze with a practically full mouth. "You don't summon a monk, a priest, or some other spiritual person to the goats?"
"Oh, no," Emagan laughed. "It's not a spiritual rite."
"Then it's fine," the Dorandan began to finish the rest of my shashlik.
"They are castrated," Tayla added. "So that the goat grows purebred and the meat is not tainted by foreign tastes and smells."
Trebal froze with a full mouth, looked at me as if seeking an answer to the eternal question: "What to do?"
"Chew, my dear," I said as kindly as possible. "For mom, for dad, and for the crew of the 'Aurora'."
I don't know what terrible thing she heard for herself, but our glorious combat officer has a hang-up on words related to self-mutilation. Or did she not know that livestock needs to be raised, fed, and made so that it is tasty after death?
Hmm... considering that the Ancients massively used kitchen appliances that turned meat, fruits, grains, and so on into various kinds of mushy substances, I wouldn't be surprised if Trebal and many others believe that ready-made food appears in refrigerators by itself.
"Morsik?" I kindly offered the girl. Trebal made an effort and continued eating.
"Did I miss something?" Chaya asked, returning with a plate filled with the same dinner as mine.
"We were discussing castration," I shared. Sar looked at us with the gaze of an adequate person who found herself in the company of psychopaths, and remained silent. "But I think we should return to pressing matters. You may not agree with my decision, but the fact remains. We will try to get the ship back peacefully. For starters."
"Do you think Larrin and Asan won't cope with the task?" Tayla clarified, understanding the subtext.
"I suspect they will do everything in their power not to lose contact with us. Both of them like the idea of settling on planets and having a resource base nearby. But most of all, they like the idea that we will provide them with our capabilities to replenish their lost potential. However, I don't think they will succeed. Most likely, after they start convincing the Council that it has no right to our ship, and the advantages of a deal with us are greater than trying to sort out the situation alone, they will have the ship taken away. Or they will try to do it."
"And for this reason, you gave them both the frequencies of your subspace transmitter?" Chaya clarified. "So that they can report their failure?"
"Not exactly," I said, looking at Trebal. "Ready to fight a little?"
"I am," she replied in a detached voice. "But the 'Hippaphoralkus' is not. Not enough ammunition, not enough energy for a prolonged battle."
"You didn't expect them to be able to negotiate," Tayla understood.
"In my homeland, they say: 'Trust, but verify'," I showed off my knowledge of proverbs. "I would like to believe these guys. But Larrin herself said: if she had the opportunity to capture one of us, this meeting wouldn't have happened. They would have caught a person with the Ancient gene and forced him to cooperate. Negotiating from a position of strength is much easier than doing it by telling the opponent everything you own."
"That's why the 'Hippaphoralkus' is still in orbit around Atos," Trebal concluded. "You still put a tracker on their ship, didn't you?"
"On both," I informed them. "The guys, both pilots and technicians, did jewelry work on the 'jumpers'. Under camouflage, they approached the starships as closely as possible, expanded the field, technicians went into open space, installed the necessary equipment on board their ships, and flew away."
"We use camouflage technology too often," Trebal said. "It can't become our only trump card."
"Not the only one, but the one that works well for us," I corrected. "Earthlings used jumper camouflage technology to hide the city on the surface when the enemy was nearby."
"Replacing shields with camouflage," Chaya understood. "We did the opposite on the 'jumpers', giving them an energy field. And we plan to install such camouflage on its shields as well, after the work on the 'Satellite' is finally completed."
"I've been thinking about trying something similar on our large ships. Disappearing from enemy scanners, sneaking up on them, and striking from under camouflage is a very valuable tactical solution."
"I can't disagree," Trebal nodded. "After all, the outpost in Emeg is also hidden using camouflage technology."
That's why the scout Kaspar Fry didn't see it, mistaking the extension to the hangar warehouse for a wing, not a lost corridor that connected the buildings with a tower built by the Ancients.
It will be a pity to eliminate this outpost.
We can't dismantle the entire Ancient structure and move it to a new location — we can only take the equipment that was delivered there. And this is the control panel for the shield and camouflage generator, scanners, and sensors that we managed to repair. In fact, from this place, we can control any movement of objects near Atos.
And Atos is one of our "decoys."
The Ancient outpost in Old Town on Atos.
The defense system of the necessary gates redirects the incoming wormhole with the object inside it within a hundred or two gates from Atos, so that the star map does not differ significantly from the one on the desired planet. Similarly, it works for New Atos and our other planets. The program is designed so that if you try to enter a protected planet ten times in a row without a recognition bracelet, the eleventh hyper-tunnel will send the persistent guest directly into our trap on Proculus. So far, no such persistent intelligent beings have been encountered. But, I'm sure, the Jenai continue their attempts.
Now, the laboratory for communicating with the cyborg is being dismantled on Atos. Since Saya is now on our side, a special laboratory is no longer needed. And, given the intentions of Tayla's people to return to their homeworld, it is pointless for us to stay there. As soon as we take everything we need, we will remove the protection from the gates of Atos and New Atos.
"How is our project to train the 'Aurora' crew in combat skills progressing?" I asked Chaya.
"We finished setting up the entire network just an hour ago," she said. "Now all our people, while in hibernation, can practice wielding weapons and hand-to-hand combat skills without problems. Kirik is delighted with this — both skills appear, and people are not injured. The ship's security service liked this."
Well, of course.
In Trebal's words, they are the most "primitive." These guys don't have the active Ancient gene, but some part of them still wants to be useful to the common cause. That's why they train.
The rest... There will be problems with them. For now, their position is waiting, but when they get bodies... Well, I think I know what to do with them.
"While I was on Atos, I managed to find a dozen loyal young and strong men," Tayla said, taking advantage of the silence at the table. "They want to serve Atlantis, but I haven't made any promises to them yet. Unfortunately, most people from my people just want to be left alone. But the number of those who would like to return to Atos is growing."
"I think our scientific team on Taranis could use reinforcements," I said. "The complex is huge, and it needs to be guarded. These guys will stay there for now, learn military affairs."
"They could be useful in the ground missions we are planning," Trebal reminded about the traps. "We won't hurt to have extra firepower."
"These men know how to fight, but they are not familiar with firearms," Tayla warned. "I'm sure they'll learn quickly."
"We'll see," I promised. "Let them learn first."
"This is wonderful, of course," Trebal said. "But you have planned a combat mission against the Nomads. Perhaps," she emphasized the word, "everything will go peacefully and they will give us the ship. But most likely, there will be an abordage. And there we will need people with weapons in their hands."
"We've already sent freshly trained soldiers against those who kill without flinching," I winced at the memory of the slaughter on the platform. "The Nomads are not nice guys and not old friends. They see a target — they open fire. And the last thing we need is for our new guys to get caught in the bullets. I don't want to express condolences to their relatives and friends if they die a couple of days after joining us."
"In that case, we have a very small number of people who can participate in the abordage," Chaya concluded. "Alvar, Kirik, Saya, Tayla, Mikhail himself," she looked at me. "You won't be persuaded to stay away from the roar of cannons, will you?"
"That's right," I confirmed. "I don't have much scientific knowledge, but I know how to handle weapons. And besides, I always have a shield at hand. And there's clearly a shortage of people for ground operations. Speaking of which — how are things going with the wraith subspace beacon?"
"Not as fast as I'd like," Chaya admitted. "The frequencies and sub-frequencies are encrypted, I'm cracking them as fast as I can. But at the moment, there's no information about new transmitters."
"Perhaps it's a futile endeavor," Trebal voiced her opinion.
"Perhaps," I agreed. "But it's worth checking. Our two former 'fugitives' are doing very well and are showing good results in the service of Atlantis."
"Except Alvar prefers piloting a 'strela'," Trebal noted. "And Kirik, although he doesn't complain, finds it difficult to ensure the safety of a city that scares him. And in which he understands little and can do even less. He learns quickly, but... I see in his eyes — he would gladly return to the battlefield and shoot wraiths."
"Yes, I noticed that too," Tayla supported her. "He's not comfortable staying in the city all the time. He's a man of action."
"Many are uncomfortable," Chaya assured. "Even technicians who understand normal processes. Being at the bottom of the ocean puts a lot of pressure on the psyche. Seliz reported to me that at least a third of our technicians have already approached her for antidepressants. The city literally weighs on them."
Three pairs of eyes converged on me.
"Keeping the city underwater is very convenient in terms of protecting it from shelling and invasions," I explained my logic.
"And it's also an additional load on the ZPM," Chaya objected. "Environmental impact discharges it faster than if we raised it to the surface in case of danger."
"Can the drill take over the shield power?"
"When it reaches full capacity — yes, possibly, we don't know the state of its systems at their peak, so I can't promise anything. At the moment, it's producing ten percent of its capacity, and I've already started switching systems to power from it to reduce the load on the ZPM."
"Will it also deplete slower under wraith fire than underwater?" I asked.
"It depends on the intensity of the shelling," Chaya warned. "The number of ships, the power of their weapons, and so on. However, we will launch the 'Satellite' very soon."
"And we have a combat ship with a small, but still, supply of ammunition," Trebal interjected.
"Perhaps there will be a second one soon," Tayla added. "Perhaps all this will be enough to defend ourselves?"
"Besides," Trebal added, "you said that Earthlings managed to connect an invisibility generator to the shield. We have long-range sensors that will detect ships approaching us long before we need to raise the shield. With two ships and a supply of drones, we can fight them far from the Lantian system."
"With three ships," Chaya said. "The wraith starship, although slowly, is recovering. Without Tayla, of course, it practically doesn't function, but at the same time, I think we will be able to raise it into orbit soon. After major work, of course."
"That's details," I sighed. "When we're ready, we'll raise it. In this whole situation, what worries me most right now is that if the wraiths come to the city once, they will clearly continue to do so."
"On the other hand," Teila countered. "Many weeks have passed since the battle with the wraiths near the Aurora. And the wraiths haven't appeared."
"And they haven't even shown up on scanners," Chaya confirmed. "It's likely they have other ideas about who we are and why the Ancient ship was near the Aurora."
"Or perhaps the super-hive destroyed the regular hive and the information was lost," Trebal suggested. "Wraiths are not the kind of creatures to procrastinate. And here – no scout, no ship to check. I don't think we should worry. We should definitely go to the surface of the planet."
To breathe fresh air, to bask in the rays of the local "sun"... It sounds tempting.
"First – we will do everything possible to ensure the defense of Atlantis on the surface," I stated. "A new ship, a satellite, and all that. And only then do we go to the surface. Not before. And for now – we will focus all our attention on preparing for the operation to rescue the battleship. Trebal – prepare the ship, take Ihaar at your disposal. Gather spare parts for the internal systems from what we have from the Aurora. Very soon Larrin and Asan will arrive at their people, and we will have to set off. Just as we fly there, they will have time to talk, argue, and we will arrive at the curtain of the performance."
"It will be an impressive end to the negotiations, what can I say," Trebal sighed.
The only funny thing in this situation was that by the end of the discussion, the extra portion brought by Chaya remained untouched.