And what, I ask, was I hoping for when I forbade Chaya to work during her recovery? Logically, that the Ancient would obey, rest, and not kick up a fuss.
How wrong I was, I realized literally on the tenth trip from Ermen over the next day. As soon as I surfaced from the 'puddle' of Atlantis's Stargate, I immediately saw the Proculucian standing on the small balcony of the command center.
If Alvar had been next to me, he would have said something ironic about it. But the Ermen stayed on his home planet — coordinating the Athosians in the matter of looting the Capital. And I, for now, was acting as a courier, transporting the honestly looted goods from one planet to another.
My index finger pressed a small black 'drop' that extended as a speaker into the ear canal, and I inquired:
"I should have guessed you were sabotaging orders."
"Such is my nature," the girl repeated the motion, activating her wireless headset.
It differed little from the ones used on Earth in my time. However, it was produced on Ermen. And yes, it came with a booster radio with a built-in charging port for the communicator. Essentially, a wireless earpiece paired with a microphone, and with tactile controls. Nothing new for me, but for Alvar it was one of the newest technologies. For the Athosians, it was outright a gift from the gods. But Chaya, having received one, only lamented that it would take some time to improve it and integrate it into the city's overall communication system. Simply because the material from which Atlantis was built shouldn't reduce the reception and transmission range. But that's technical details.
"And aren't you afraid that our prisoners will find a way to escape?"
"Even if they are smart enough to get out of the cells, I recoded the lock to each separate cell room in the brig," the Proculucian informed. "If the cells open but there's no confirmation of an Ancient genome scan, the life support system will suck all the air out of there in ten seconds. And you and I will get an alarm signal on our scanners from Atlantis's central computer."
Recalling the thickness of the walls in the prison section, I considered the solution acceptable. And I thought again about how we lacked trusted people to populate the city. Many times I had considered searching for any Ancient ships that might be flyable, but then remembered that I had no idea how to reach any of them. And yes, the only vessel suitable for these purposes was on a planet whose name (surprise) didn't match any in the database. To keep Chaya occupied with something truly useful in her condition, I shared with her some of my thoughts on how to find the planet we needed. And while we transported what was necessary, she was scouring the database. Only the search by categories 'supervolcanoes', 'outpost', 'geothermal energy' turned out not very helpful. The city computer simply gave two thousand addresses. Which needed to be checked. Even if we went one at a time, it would take an enormous amount of time. And moreover, I could imagine what the repair of that one ship, which we could find with minimal problems, would cost us. Of course, if they were still alive...
"Then, come up to the hangar," I suggested. "We'll take another Jumper and go."
The mechanism for delivering the honestly looted property remained the same: thanks to Alvar, the Athosians found and carried out loot, but now to the planet's surface. There we loaded them into the Jumper, filling it with everything most needed (and there was nothing else here). Then came the flight to Atlantis, switching Jumpers, new loading, and so on ad infinitum. Well, as ad infinitum — until all the Jumpers were loaded. Then came time for unloading.
Usually, Teyla went with me on the second-to-last ship loaded for Atlantis. I would pick up the sixth Puddle Jumper, and she would unload at least half of one of the occupied ones. Yes, I could have called one of the Athosians to help her, but the sobering encounter with the Genii reminded me that among any people there could be their spies.
Bringing them here so they could then betray the location and everything they'd seen wasn't very appealing. Those little bastards could come up with something even worse.
However, in any case, the idea of settling Atlantis needed to be accelerated. I had several options, but... They all ran into the problem of finding the right ship. And there weren't that many in our vicinity. Yes, there was a Wraith cruiser practically right under our noses. I think we could raise it and repair it. But only a Wraith could control it, like many other high technologies of the life-suckers. Or a human with Wraith genes. That was actually why I decided to contact the Athosians — there were a few among them.
For now, the best way to bolster our numbers was to rely on Teyla, who promised to select the most loyal Athosians. We still needed at least a small security detail in the city. I'd even say it was vitally necessary. But turning Athosians into soldiers was... Well, it wouldn't work out like bullets. At least not anytime soon.
"Are there Genii on the planet?" Chaya asked.
"There are," I admitted reluctantly, launching a new ship. "From the Puddle Jumper, I spotted several groups near the Capital; they must have come after the disappearance of Tyrus's team. We killed a couple of them. And took back what they stole."
"Information carriers?"
"Unfortunately, no. Only weapons. Not to mention that the enemy blew up several storage facilities when they realized we would soon capture them."
"I see," Chaya said.
The girl had moved away from her dresses and now wore Ermen uniform. Even with protective elements. Now we looked more like a team. Even Teyla and Alvar had dressed up. That was, in fact, the purpose of our looting.
"So, I take it you weren't lying under the healing radiation, meditating and enjoying peace," I said, lowering the Puddle Jumper to gate level and flying the ship into the "puddle" waiting for us.
"No," Chaya replied just as calmly on the other side. "I worked on our gate problem." She showed a small box studded with transparent crystals on the inside. "I made an exception to set only two addresses from Ermen: Atlantis and New Athos. Any incoming wormholes, as we agreed, currently lead to the orbit of Proculus."
"In that case, it's time we set up our decoy," I suggested, landing the Puddle Jumper not far from the gate.
The gate on Chaya's home planet was in space. So if anyone became interested in Ermen, the most they'd get was lungs full of vacuum and interstellar emptiness as far as the eye could see. The Genii (and I think only they, besides us, were interested in the planet) had no spaceships. The Wraith were another matter... But for that, we always had Athosian sentries at the gate and in the ruins who would warn us of an approaching enemy.
"What is this?" Chaya asked, stepping out of the ship, curious about the meaning of the cluster of barrels and numerous boxes with unfamiliar markings stacked near the gate.
"Fuel," I explained. "Also generators, some equipment, weapons, and ammunition. We're setting it aside for the Athosians. We don't need fuel generators and dynamos, but the Athosians will need them to improve their new settlement."
"There's quite a lot here," Chaya looked at me.
"While some are loading the Puddle Jumper for us, others are preparing cargo nets for the Athosians," I explained. "Before flying through the gate to Atlantis, I drop off what our allies need, then leave. While I'm away, and especially while unloading, the Athosians open the gate to their new home and send useful cargo there."
"We need more pilots," the girl sighed, approaching the gate dialing device.
"You understand the risk," I said. "And it's not just about pilots. We're short on everything. Including protection for Atlantis. Not just inside, but outside as well. It's only a matter of time before the Wraith decide to visit Atlantis. It would be best if by then we already had the Satellite up and running. Or better yet, a dozen of them."
Chaya opened the control panel, ignoring the dozen Athosians watching her actions with interest. They guarded the passage to the gate and monitored the surroundings. All of them, wearing Ermen uniforms, were our last line of defense on the central square. Several more patrol squads and "secret posts" were located in the ruins.
"I collected some spare parts from the disassembled Puddle Jumpers," she reported. "I think they'll work for repairing the external damage we found on the satellite. But without a power source, repairing it is a waste of time."
"It seems 'rest' is a strange word not only in the Athosian language," Teyla said with a smile as she approached. I must say, the uniform suited her better than anyone else from her people.
"I feel better when I'm working," Chaya said, replacing several crystals inside the "mushroom." I thought she'd just connect the whole box. "Done. Now from here, you can only dial New Athos and Atlantis. And likewise, you can only reach here from those places."
"Mikhail," Teyla addressed me. "If you don't mind, I'd like to handle shipping the cargo to Athos. Also, we need medicine — many of my people are sick."
"Is it serious?" Chaya asked with concern.
"Take what you need," I allowed. "The medications we delivered to Atlantis and plan to deliver will last us hundreds of years. Though a significant portion of the leftover meds are more for field medicine. But there's also plenty of 'general' medicines stored. But Chaya is right, if it's something serious."
"Nothing more than a bad cold," Teyla said. "While settling into the new place, many fell ill from the cold. I think a little medicine and warmth in the new houses will quickly get everyone back on their feet."
"New... houses?" I asked.
"Yes," Teyla pointed at two dozen large crates. "These are inflatable houses. Alvar said they used these to set up field camps. Inside each small house, several dozen people can live in warmth; inside the large ones, between a hundred and two hundred. There are panels that heat up when powered by generators we've already delivered."
"Something like rapid-assembly structures with heating systems," Chaya realized. "I suspect there are more than just basic amenities. Yes, we could use those too. We could set up field camps or planetary research labs. Mining camps, for example."
"Alvar allowed us to take everything from two warehouses," Teyla said, disappointed. Though she didn't show it much, Chaya's words troubled her. It seemed she was counting heavily on those "houses." And we couldn't blame her for that — the Athosians still had to get used to the new climate on the new planet. Good thing there weren't any tyrannosaurs around.
"And he did the right thing," I assured her. "We've already relocated you to a new planet. So we should make sure you live no worse there than you did on the old one."
"Thank you," Teyla smiled, heading toward another group of arriving Athosians. They were carrying, in huge sacks and bags, more luxury items of the extinct race. I didn't know what was inside, and I wasn't going to inspect them. After all, we were allies. That means we should share what we have. We couldn't "swallow" it all anyway.
"I was thinking about setting up a few labs outside Atlantis," Chaya explained as we returned to the Jumper. "Experiments with naquadah aren't the safest."
"But on the other hand, we have the abandoned Athos," I reminded her. "And the Ancient outpost on that planet. With a geothermal energy source."
"I thought we were going to use it for our own drilling rig," the Ancient frowned.
"If we can revive the Ermen technology and build their naquadah generators, then in the short term we simply won't need to build our own drilling platform." I preferred not to mention how much effort and resources that would take. "Especially since one already exists. We just need to deal with the queen and the ship. And also the fact that the former could blow up the latter."
"Resisting the Wraith on the mental plane is very difficult," Chaya said quietly. "Only the Lanteans were advanced enough for that. And even then, the first generation of Wraith brought them to their knees too. That's why the war went off-plan almost immediately — they were able to extract a lot from the Lantean minds that they then used against us."
"That's exactly why I'm not eager to go to the second planet in the Lantean system," I had to admit. "The Wraith that might still be alive there is clearly one of those that attacked Atlantis. Which means it could be stronger than anything we can handle."
"Wraith commanders are much weaker on the mental plane than queens," the girl said as we approached a huge crater. At its bottom, people were bustling about, stacking on the ground the achievements of the fallen civilization discovered in the tunnels. "Their matriarchal society structure is largely built on that."
"Also, they can exchange telepathic commands with each other," I recalled, landing the ship. "We could get into trouble if that Wraith and the queen communicate and come up with a way to trick us. Just four intelligent beings in a huge city aren't something you can oppose a bloodthirsty monster in terms of strength. Because if we set up a prison for it somewhere outside Atlantis, there's no guarantee it couldn't escape from there."
"The only prison you're sure of is the Atlantis brig?" the Ancient clarified.
"Exactly," I confirmed. "Wherever we turn, we're carrying a suitcase without a handle. We lack people, resources, ships... And without one, you can't get the other... And so on."
"And again we come to the idea that, at least for a start, we need more people," Chaya sighed. "And we can't get the Lanteans because your plan to bring them back to life involves a Wraith, doesn't it?"
"Yes," I admitted, following the girl out of the ship. "You know, I have an idea for how to increase our soldier numbers. From among those who, one way or another, hate the Wraith and would never cooperate with them."
"Really?" Chaya was intrigued. "Unexpected. Not just that you came up with such an idea, but that you wanted to share it."
"We agreed to start from a clean slate, remember?" I clarified, spotting Jensen approaching. "How are things going?"
"Good in some places, bad in others," he admitted. "I and the Athosians did a quick survey of all the small storage facilities in the tunnel network under the Capital."
"Already?" I was surprised.
"I had time," Alvar shrugged. "We ran into the Genii a few times, but we flushed them out and finished them. In three places, the bombardment had destroyed the tunnels — that's how they got inside."
"So what about the knowledge repositories?" Chaya asked. "I'd like to inspect them."
"Well, follow me," Jensen smirked. "Leave the ship here. Let the Athosians at least rest — they've been working like crazy."
"Fair enough."
* * *
"What do you think?" Jensen asked after Chaya finished scanning the server cabinet. For the last ten minutes, she had been visually inspecting the structure, but enlightenment wasn't visible on her face.
"It's just scrap metal," she sighed. "I'm afraid the Genii didn't immediately understand what your people's information storage devices looked like. And besides, their method of extracting computer components..."
"Method?" I was surprised. "They were just breaking out the parts!"
"Well, that's a method too," Jensen noted reasonably. "Almost all the storages under the capital are in that condition."
"Almost?" Chaya repeated.
"In some, everything was removed safely enough — either they cut out the boards at the solder points, or they cut through the mounts."
The Proculucian took a thin microchip, similar to an Earth one, between two fingers. Actually, it was just a fragment, but... As soon as Chaya pressed a small plate on the contact group, the component popped out of its slots and ended up in her hand. The girl looked at us with a skeptical expression.
"Fifteen seconds," she said. "That's exactly how long it took me to figure out how your ancestors secured the boards. It's not hard if you've ever removed the cover of a system unit and seen what's inside."
"Probably soldiers did it," Alvar suggested. "That lot isn't the smartest."
"I'd agree," Chaya said, sticking her hand inside the server and pulling something back and forth, then showed us a crumpled piece of metal. A very characteristic piece. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, Alvar. They weren't extracting instruments and data. They were destroying them."
Then she handed the Ermen a flattened, full-metal-jacket bullet.
"Eight-millimeter bullet," he examined the remains. "Genii caliber."
"So, if the Genii were interested in information, why destroy the servers?" Chaya asked aloud.
"Maybe there was information they didn't need on them?" Alvar guessed.
"I think that's not the reason," I replied after thinking. "I think they actually didn't understand what they were dealing with. But at the same time, they saw what we were doing. I suspect the destruction was deliberate."
"Stupid," Chaya said. "Why destroy information if you don't know what's on the server?"
"Because they sent people here but couldn't contact them," Alvar realized. "They sent new ones, those saw the bodies, started investigating, reached the tunnels. And then they met us. Yes, that's how we found out they were here — there were firefights in the tunnels. But then they pulled back — we drove them away from the storages."
"And then we started hunting them, and the Genii decided to take revenge," I summed up. "They realized they couldn't escape the planet and went all out."
"This isn't an army, it's some kind of rabble," Jensen grimaced. "Not defenders, but pests."
"And it's also a great way to cover their tracks," Chaya said. "We can't know exactly what information they took from here. And we don't know what they destroyed. Consequently, all we know is no more than Tyrus's words. And he might not have been the only commander here."
"We can't rule out various possibilities," I said. "There are other cities, other repositories."
"And Genii squads that have either already been there or are heading there," Alvar suggested. "I don't think the Genii wasted time here after our destruction."
"Strange that you didn't run into them after your return," I said. "Though, those guys know how to hide."
"We can't rule out the possibility that some of the disks might be with the fleeing squads," Chaya said.
"Yeah, and you said yourself that the data might not survive that much time in storage," Jensen waved his hand. "Seems like we're chasing ghosts. It would be really stupid to waste a bunch of time and distract people from unloading to run after the Genii across the whole planet, only to find out they have information about grandmother's pie recipes or a method of filtering water in a river."
"Strange words from someone who, not long ago, wanted to kill all the Genii," I remarked.
"Yes, kill them," Alvar blurted out. "But not chase them like Wraith chasing runners! How much time would we waste on that? Days? Weeks? I could spend years trying to teach the Athosians to be soldiers. But only a few of them will become soldiers. We had over forty firefights in the Capital alone. And about a hundred wounded Athosians. Six died from their injuries before we could evacuate them. They aren't soldiers. Yes, a militia that knows which end of the rifle to point, but they certainly won't become soldiers today or tomorrow. I simply can't split myself between training Athosians and helping here. And as I understand, because of our lack of military strength, we can't move forward."
"I'd say a month," Chaya said. Seeing our confusion, she turned the screen of her scanner toward us and explained: "That's about how long it would take to scan the planet and find the Genii." The girl looked sad. "During my last visit, I didn't even think to look at the planet's data. But even if I reconfigure the Puddle Jumper's sensors to increase their coverage, even if Mikhail and I are in the air around the clock, searching a planet like Ermen, which is three times larger than Lantea, would be very difficult. Not to mention that upgrading the systems would lead to a sharp increase in power consumption."
And we're back to the point that our poor ZPM would be giving up energy faster than MMM issued vouchers. That's an unacceptable expenditure to track down even a thousand Genii. After all, when we leave here, they simply won't be able to return to their home planet. Whatever they have left of what they stole.
"Let's say we stop tracking them because we'll take everything we need from here," I said. "But the fact remains: we need the Ermen research to learn how to make generators ourselves."
"Actually, we just need naquadah," Chaya corrected. "I think I can assemble a few generators on my own. But it will be Lantean technology, so..."
"Unlikely we'll use them outside the city," I realized. "But... do we even need that? At least for now."
After a few minutes of silence, we came to a conclusion that was obvious. What the Genii took, we couldn't get back — at least with our current forces. Sure, we could arm all male Athosians and send them to storm the Genii homeworld, but there was a certain problem: their philosophy.
If Teyla doesn't understand why people should fight each other when there's a more dangerous enemy that wants to exterminate humanity for sustenance, how can you explain it to other Athosians? Yes, they understand self-defense — when the Genii attacked, they defended themselves. At first they tried to negotiate — those who died were among the talkers. Fight against Wraith — no problem. Against humans — only defend.
The most we can get from the Athosians is food and the occasional information they bring from other planets after negotiations. And maybe they wouldn't mind working in mines to extract useful minerals. Yeah... it would be easier to build ourselves a robot army. But Chaya is categorically against it — she's afraid of anything related to autonomous machines that even remotely perform human-like functions.
It's also impossible to know exactly what the Genii took for themselves. The bastards made sure we got only a little of what was in the storages. According to Chaya, it's unlikely we can get anything from the fragments — at least if we're not talking about complete knowledge.
So, it won't be possible to just start producing weapons, grenades, mines, ammo, and so on. We'll have to disassemble samples and recreate copies by trial and error. It'll take time, but... We have time.
Besides, we've only just begun to exhaust the Capital's supplies, and there are more in other cities. But we haven't gotten to them yet. And it's unlikely we can. Alvar didn't know where the storages were in other cities, so our only way to find more surviving knowledge is to search the ruins there.
However, the need for that disappeared once we flew to those cities. The destruction in the Capital was nothing compared to what we saw in two other cities. The Wraith didn't just raze them to the ground — you couldn't even find voids under the ruins. No corridors, no rooms. Only a few basements or miraculously surviving sections of corridors.
"But... why weren't the tunnels under the Capital destroyed?" Alvar asked when he recovered from the shock of what he saw.
"The Stargate," Chaya guessed. "The naquadah contained in it could, upon detonation, damage the Wraith starship itself. So they were more cautious."
No words, only emotions.
Ermen, which had seemed to me like that "deus ex machina" that would allow us to significantly improve our situation, turned out to be nothing more than the aftertaste of a tempting aroma. In reality, we had practically no knowledge inherited by the locals from the Sekkari race, no technologies, no production specifications. We only had supplies, which were valuable but could only be replenished by spending a huge amount of resources on reverse engineering experiments and precious energy.
It didn't even console us that from the air we could detect several more groups of Genii. Three shells were enough to scatter them, and my and Alvar's participation to track and destroy them. But all they had on them was weapons and some Genii technology. Compared to what we got from the Ermen, it was a joke.
Still, we shouldn't be discouraged.
The goal from the beginning was to get something — at least weapons. Now all the available large rooms in the central spire on Atlantis were packed with the loot. The only disappointing thing was that the volumes would only decrease. So, essentially, we should be happy.
The Athosians on a new planet unknown to the Wraith. We obtained a large amount of resources, weapons, and much more that would allow us not to waste Lantean technology on ordinary needs.
We got coordinates of naquadah mines and there were real opportunities to obtain the energy sources we so desperately needed. Yes, we didn't get the maximum, we made enemies of the Genii (but that's a prospect for the distant future, since it's unlikely that the homeworld of these people knows about our involvement in what happened), but we're still alive, we've become stronger... In a few weeks, we'll finish the final exploration of the tunnels, extract from the planet everything that could be useful for studying the technology of Ermen, and think about what to do next.
However, I already had one thought on that matter.
I decided to voice it after all four of us returned to Atlantis. Oddly, our prisoners hadn't even starved to death during our two-day absence. Tenacious bastards.
"My people are grateful to you for everything you've done and are doing for us," Chaya assured. "New, even if temporary, homes, generators, energy, lighting, water desalination, weapons, clothing, ammunition, medicine... I don't even know how to thank you. We have never been so confident in the future. Finally, we have stopped fearing the Wraith and considering ourselves doomed in advance. Of course, there is still a lot of work to find technology in the ruins, but more and more of my people, men and even children, are interested in it. We know how to be grateful. As soon as the first harvest on the new planet ripens, you will all be our most welcome guests."
"I'm glad that my people's heritage can help you in some way," Alvar said. "As soon as we sort things out here, I think I'll get back to training them. From the last storage, we pulled out fifty launchers and plenty of shells for them. I think now the Wraith 'darts' won't fly so comfortably in the skies."
Yes, MANPADS were a great find. Apparently they were remembered last, because instead of the usual "a bit of everything," the storage found in the Capital was filled with ammunition and launchers to repel enemy attacks. Judging by the fact that we found only large fragments of "darts" on the surface and no large components or assemblies, the enemy had nothing to "catch" upon impact.
However, there were a few more warehouses that Alvar wanted to report on later — they were locked with passwords and well-armored doors. Not like the one that blocked access to the main repository servers, but not simple like the others. There was clearly something valuable there. But Teyla, who brought this news, would clearly be disappointed if we interrupted the now-traditional evening debriefing and went to grab the loot. Oh, how I hope this is a server storage. Or, for example, generators... Just not uniforms, please. We have so many now that we gladly shared with the Athosians. They especially loved the three-layer membrane suits. Much better than what they had before.
"There's at least one well-preserved mine on Ermen," I said. "If your people are willing to help us there, once we check it all out and confirm it's safe, we can invite them to work there."
"Naquadah in ore form, and even separated from impurities and enriched, doesn't emit radiation," Chaya corrected me. "Without directed detonation, it's safe."
"All the better," I sighed. "Well, we solved some problems. But we've come to the point that we don't have enough soldiers to operate on multiple missions simultaneously."
"Do you have a proposal?" Alvar asked with interest.