"Want to recruit Sora and Tyrus to our side?" Emmagan asked with interest.
"Tell me you don't want to create servant replicators again," Chaya pleaded.
"No," at least not now. "But thanks to Alvar we know that in this galaxy there are soldiers who fight the Wraiths exceptionally well… And they'd pay dearly to be rid of pursuit, to get blood, food, and a place where they'll always be welcomed with open arms."
"Hm?" Chaya perked up.
"I can't think of anyone."
"You're joking, right?" Jensen clarified. "The overwhelming majority of them are sociopaths and loners."
"That's exactly why I intend to find them," I had to explain. "At the very least, they have no reason to cooperate with the Wraiths or any of our other enemies. Like the Genii."
"I'd like to know who you're talking about," Chaya admitted.
"The Runners," I explained. "If we need soldiers to fight the Wraiths, we definitely won't find anyone better."
Looking at the massive construction, completely covered in wires, blinking sensors, relays, and other technical paraphernalia whose names I didn't even roughly know, a vague doubt crept in…
"And for this we spent a week scavenging junk on Ermen?" I asked.
"Not junk, but leftover technology," Chaya corrected me. A week after we'd discussed the plan to find the Runners and the Proculucian had started working on it, she looked almost better than before. After all, sleeping under regenerative radiation in the medbay was a brilliant idea.
Too bad we couldn't do the same — the equipment was closely tied to specific physiological development and cellular structure of the recovering organism. For humans it was almost lethal — at least with prolonged exposure, your brains would definitely leak out of your ears.
The maximum for our allies was a few minutes under the radiation. Followed by gastrointestinal disorders, bone aches, headaches, and so on… Yes, this was just a theoretical assumption — none of us risked our bodies to test the endurance limit and the possible effectiveness of retuning the equipment.
In short, we hadn't stocked up on medicine on Ermen for nothing.
"That's right, to be honest, but seeing a girl inside a huge cage covered in something like a metal mesh didn't sit well with me." "Are you sure this is safe?"
Chaya looked at me with sympathy.
"Does the lack of knowledge about high-energy physics, subspace fluctuations, and direction finding turn my actions into magic for you?" she asked.
"Not just for him," Alvar chimed in. "This construction reminds me of the electric cube they used to execute state enemies on Ermen."
"And what was that?" Chaya asked with interest.
"A metal cage where they shoved the condemned," Alvar readily shared his knowledge. "And then they connected power from the nearest reactor, gradually increasing the voltage. In five minutes, only bones remained. But often, even those exploded."
A vivid story about how to vaporize a living creature using a reactor. Oh, this brave new world.
But… Compared to what Alvar had told us, the electric chair was practically foreplay.
For experiments with the subspace beacon extracted from Jensen, Chaya had chosen another empty laboratory. A couple of tables, a couple of computer terminals.
And a monstrous cage assembled by the Ancient from samples of technology we'd scavenged on Ermen. It reminded me that in known events, one Ancient built a one-time-use Stargate from a toaster.
And here Chaya, from scraps of household appliances, wires torn out of the underground, and other electrical gadgets, had assembled… Hm… Wasn't it with this thing that Dr. Frankenstein brought his monster to life?
"No, this construction is completely safe," Chaya assured us, locking the tiny door from the inside. The girl remained alone inside the device, powered by a massive glowing structure in the corner of the lab. And all she had beside her was a lab table, a scanner, and an Ancient portable computer. "I created it to shield the transmitter's signal on subspace and other frequencies. But at the same time, if it works, I'll be able to get data on the communication channel."
"And that's how we'll find other Runners?" Emmagan asked.
"Yes, I think I'll be able to find other Runners by their subspace beacons. If, of course," Chaya looked at me, "the discharge didn't destroy everything possible. In that case, I'll need a little miracle to restore it. If that's even possible after the discharge. A significant part of the transmitter's nerve fibers just got fried."
Well, yeah, blame me.
"I was saving a man's life, actually," I reminded her.
"And I'm grateful to him for that," Alvar spoke up. "And for the record — the idea of recruiting Runners isn't the best."
"Aren't they good warriors?" Teyla asked.
"If they're still alive — then yes, they're good fighters," Alvar countered. "But not all of them are good people. Runners aren't hated just because they bring the Wraiths after them. But also because many of them are extortionists, murderers, bandits, or just thieves. When your goal is survival, moral questions can take a back seat."
"I'm not planning to organize a boy band out of all the Runners in the galaxy," I had to remind them. "And I understand perfectly well that they haven't been grooming pink ponies or picking flowers all this time. We need experienced soldiers. And not just an army unit that knows how to dig trenches, build houses, or charge into battle shouting 'Short — stab!' But exactly a mobile reconnaissance and sabotage squad. Ideally, several. But only those we can trust, not fear that they'll stick a knife in our backs."
In a galaxy where survival at any cost is raised to an absolute, betrayal isn't that hard. But the value of friendship with those who can save you from the unenviable fate of an animal in a pen shouldn't be underestimated either.
Same goes for the presence of "lawless ones" and people working for the Wraiths.
"Connecting power," Chaya announced, attaching a thin wire tendril to the tiny subspace transmitter.
At first nothing happened, but then the multicolored blinking of the indicators on the cage stopped. Tiny diodes manufactured on Ermen lit up with a steady glow.
"The blocking cage is working." Chaya shifted her gaze to her computer monitors. Linked to the scanner, it displayed a lot of not-very-understandable data. "Well… The device is damaged, of course, but not as badly as I thought. It seems it was designed with a certain safety margin. The peripheral contacts and power source burned out, but the sensor itself is intact. Same with the subspace antenna. I'm registering the frequency it operates on… Oh, it's a two-way communication channel. How interesting. I thought it was a simple beacon with a pulsing signal. But it turns out things are much more interesting…"
"The Wraiths won't be able to track Atlantis by this signal, will they?" Teyla worried.
"They find Runners even at the other end of the galaxy," Jensen reminded.
"No, the isolation cage works and dampens the signal with an electromagnetic field," Chaya said, examining the scanner screen as she passed it over the beacon. "Hm… This technology is more advanced than what existed ten thousand years ago."
"You had Runners too?" I was surprised.
"No," said Chaya. "The Wraiths made the beacons in the form of souvenirs. And through people who were in their service, they gave them to the Ancients. Supposedly as gifts or under some other pretext. Before we understood exactly how they were finding our outposts under construction, shipyards, and so on, the military facilities were destroyed by the Wraiths. Thousands of installations across the galaxy… Largely after that, the Lantians decided to retreat to Atlantis. Well, and that's actually when we learned about these beacons — when the Wraiths headed for the city."
"Ingenious trap," Jensen assessed.
"The Wraiths are hard to deny that," Chaya agreed. "This beacon," she pointed at the device, "is a very insidious thing. Besides the main power source, it has a number of fibers that grow into the body over time."
"That's why I didn't try to remove it, just knocked it out."
"And rightly so," Chaya noted, pointing a lab probe at the tiny black tentacles extending from the bottom of the device. "The fibers are programmed to fuse with the skeleton and nervous system. Priority targets: the spine, spinal cord, ribcage."
"And after that, removing the device becomes impossible?" I asked.
"I think that's the idea," the girl said. "The human body generates a certain voltage, and the device uses it to get power for its development. The growth is slow, but the more energy in the body, the faster it happens. If I'm right, this beacon was supposed to replace the bone tissue in several thoracic vertebrae with its own, fuse with the spinal cord, and…"
"Brutal," Teyla assessed. Even though Alvar and I said nothing, we essentially agreed with her.
"I'm done." Chaya detached the wire tendrils from the subspace transmitter, then hooked a massive terminal to it. The wire to the terminal came from that same glowing structure.
Flicking a tiny switch on the terminal, Chaya covered her eyes with her hand as the Wraith device flared blindingly.
When I'd blinked away the spots, I asked:
"And what was that?"
The girl was just climbing out of the Faraday-cage-like structure, holding the Ancient equipment.
"I got all the data I could need from the device," she reminded me. "So it's best to destroy it completely. The short circuit from the generator burned out its organic circuits. And now, with certainty, I can say it will never work again."
"We'd better toss it into the vortex when the Stargate activates," I suggested. The energy whirlpool created when establishing a stable wormhole guaranteed to disintegrate everything, from stones to spaceships.
"That's an option." Chaya placed her devices on another table and connected them to a horseshoe-shaped Lantean console. Her thin fingers danced over the futuristic keyboard.
A horseshoe-shaped console.
"So," after a couple of minutes, a two-dimensional map of the galaxy appeared on the nearest monitor. Dotted with blue planet markers, it also had blinking markers. "The long-range sensors equipped on Atlantis cover only a small part of the galaxy. But I reconfigured them to operate only on a specific frequency… Thanks to that, we increased the sensor coverage area. I also isolated the feedback channel from the beacon to the tracking device. We can observe the Runners' positions in the galaxy in real time. At least in the tenth part of it from us. That's the maximum I can offer for now. But a little later, I'll write a program for constant tracking with a directed beam. That way we'll save energy and be able to scan the galaxy."
The girl looked at me with warmth in her eyes.
"Thank you for the tip on how to do this quickly and efficiently," she thanked me.
"Glad to help the common cause."
The fact that I told her how it was done in the events I knew didn't diminish my contribution at all.
"Not much," Alvar said, examining the five blinking dots. "I heard there weren't that many Runners, but for it to be this few…"
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed too.
I remember that in the known events, there were an order of magnitude more. Yes, five is good too. But if you figure out how many of them might agree to work with us, and not turn out to be connected to the Wraith's service, you can safely divide by two.
"There's no guarantee that we're only seeing Runner beacons," Chaya warned. "In the past, we've encountered cases where the Wraiths put them on each other too. Besides, this is only one subspace channel. If I understand its coding correctly, it's merely secondary."
"What do you mean?" I frowned.
"It's like dedicated frequencies of one direction," said Chaya. "Imagine there's a group of frequencies in a certain range that the subspace transmitter operates on. The ones we found work on one, let's say, sub-frequency within that range. Maybe it's allocated for Runners, maybe it's used by a specific hive ship. I can't retune to all of them right now, because the transmitter only gives us access to this one sub-frequency. The others have something like encryption…"
With a short audio signal, two dots disappeared. A second passed, then another…
"Equipment malfunction?" Teyla asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not," Chaya said slowly. "The devices shut down suddenly. Either their carriers died, or the transmitters were simply destroyed…"
While she was saying this, another one disappeared.
Alvar and I exchanged glances.
"I think we should move out," I suggested.
"Agreed. While we're sitting here admiring blinking dots, those people might be dying," Jensen said.
"Give me a few minutes, I'll match their spatial coordinates with planetary coordinates," said Chaya. "If there are Stargates there, we'll find them…"
"Let's go." I slapped Alvar on the shoulder. "You and I have things to do."
"I'm coming with you," Teyla said. "I think whoever these Runners are, they've heard of the Athosians. Maybe my presence will help you negotiate with them."
"Makes sense," I agreed. "Chaya…"
The girl kept working at the control console.
"Don't worry about me," she replied. "I'm almost finished. While you're gone, I'll work on the Naquadah generator prototype."
I glanced at the glowing vertical monstrosity. Assembled from both Lantean and Ermen technologies, it looked less like a generator and more like a futuristic doomsday machine.
Though in essence, it was just a rework of a dynamo from the storeroom using a small amount of Naquadah we'd collected over the past week on Ermen. Not a very rich ore body, but the mine we'd chosen still needed restoration. For now, we took what we could find literally in the adits. Chaya assured me this would be enough for a while. She also said something about this prototype helping her enrich the available ore — she just needed to solve the problem with heat dissipation, non-linear power drops, atomic density of the substance, and… I think she just wanted me to stop asking questions.
Chaya's Naquadah generator prototype.
"Excellent," I assessed. "I just wanted to ask you not to handle enriched Naquadah with your bare hands. I don't want you to start glowing. You'd give us away right from the ocean floor."
The Ancient finally looked away from the monitor and… smiled. Genuinely, kindly.
"I'm flattered that you care about preserving the naturalness of my body's radiation background, but I assure you — I've worked with more dangerous types of energy sources. Everything will be fine. I know what I'm doing."
"Those are usually the words that, for us simple humans, lead to very nasty trouble," I noted.
"Should I remind you of the difference between us and humans?" Chaya asked.
"No need," I assured her. "Comparing how humans mess up versus Ancients — it's not even worth trying to compete."
Chaya's smile faded. The girl pulled away from the computer, then walked to the wall. A decorative panel slid aside, and she took out a small tray with something that looked like futuristic wristbands. But made from something resembling rubber.
"Recognition bracelets," she said dryly, shoving the tray into my hands. "For now, these are prototypes with the function of transmitting an individual code to the Atlantis gate shield. They're powered by electricity emitted by the human body and are individually calibrated. They don't work if removed or on a dead body. I called it a recognition bracelet. And disguised it as wrist protection."
Recognition bracelets. A picture from the internet.
"Additional security for passing through the Atlantis gate?" I clarified.
"Yes," the Proculucian confirmed. "I think we can already trust Alvar and Teyla to go through the gate without our participation. I repeat, these are just prototypes with a single function. Without them, you won't be able to exit or enter Atlantis — the shield won't allow it."
"Now if only we could add a cloaking device or a personal shield to it," I said dreamily.
"I'm working on studying the records of the latter," Chaya assured me. "But you need to understand that it works exclusively on carriers of the Ancient gene. I can, of course, try to remove that function, but it's key for such advanced technologies."
"Agreed. I wouldn't want a personal shield to fall into the hands of our enemies."
"Exactly," Chaya agreed. The gloom on her face seemed to have passed. I wonder what that was about? "Since we've made enemies, it's worth thinking about how to solve this problem. I've already worked on gate security; that should be enough for now."
"And what about the recognition of our physiological features that you installed in the gate program earlier?" I asked.
"They'll stay," Chaya said firmly. "Finding them and removing them from the program would be stupid. We need to have a backup in case we find ourselves cut off from the gate or from Atlantis through the gate."
Hm… So it wasn't in vain that I told her how many times the expedition had been on the verge of failure because of their capricious incoming wormhole security system.
"Interesting," I admitted. "A device powered by electricity from the human body that transmits a special signal… It's not connected to the Wraith transmitter, is it?"
"Only in the conceptual idea of recharging from the human body," said Chaya. "I'll refine them a little later and add other useful functions. And yes, aren't you late?"
"I suspect they won't leave without me." I put on one of the bracelets. I felt some warmth at first, but within a second it passed. Either it was my imagination, or the initialization system had activated.
Meanwhile, the bracelet tightened slightly and sat quite firmly on my wrist, as if glued to the skin. But it didn't hinder the movement of my hand, and the density of the material was impressive.
I pried it off fairly easily, then put it back on. Convenient.
"While you get ready for the mission, I'll write a program to find the Runner and upload it to the jumper," said Chaya. "It's essentially ready, but I need a little time to adapt the frequencies. Also," she handed me a small connector with a port for connecting to the Ancient scanner. Which was also present. "You'll need to find the transmitter, plug the contact into it, and run the program I wrote on this scanner. According to the plan, it should analyze the Runner's device and calculate the exact energy charge to burn out the transmitting antenna."
"But the transmitter itself will keep working?"
"Until we extract it. But without the antenna, it's harmless to us."
"Probably. However, I have a proposal. As soon as we find him and neutralize the tracker, we'll head to a neutral planet. From there, we'll contact you, you'll fly out on the jumper and extract the device…"
Chaya shook her head.
"I used a stationary surgical device for the extraction. I'm afraid I'm not a doctor to do it in field conditions. It would be better if you burned the antenna, but without damaging the power sources. Alvar was lucky, but in reality this could lead to health problems. Strong energy discharges aren't good for the body."
And she says so matter-of-factly about how I almost killed a good man… Well, the Genii are all bastards anyway.
Well-ll, things are…
"Have I told you you're a great person and an irreplaceable comrade?"
Chaya laughed softly and smiled.
"Repeat that three times a day, and your head won't hurt."
"Is that a joke?" I asked warily.
"No," the Ancient assured me. "Just remind yourself that I'm qualified enough to work with these kinds of devices and not to worry about it. Because it gives you a headache, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," I agreed, taking the rest of the bracelets. "Among other things."
* * *
"Looks like a cheap trinket," Alvar grimaced as he put his bracelet on his wrist. Teyla had already finished, and both inhabitants of the Pegasus galaxy were now testing the mobility of that part.
"In our people's tradition, it's common to weave identical bracelets or ornaments for members of one family," said Teyla. "With such ornaments, we look like one family. Or a clan."
"Sounds good enough to tell anyone who asks," I decided, steering the jumper through the hangar bay door.
The Stargate was already activated, but I noticed Chaya standing on the balcony near the control center.
Touching the ship's communication system control panel, I asked:
"Houston, do we have a problem?"
"Does Chaya have another name?" Emmagan asked Alvar in surprise.
"No, it's some expression from his home planet," Jensen suggested, listening for the answer.
"Another dot just disappeared," said the Proculucian. "It looks like the Wraiths decided to get rid of their Runners."
"That's bad," Alvar and I said simultaneously.
"Most likely, we'll encounter a large number of Wraiths on the planet," the Ermen man explained his thought.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
"But we managed to open the gate to that planet where he is, didn't we?" Teyla clarified. "So they haven't attacked yet."
"Logical," I assessed. "Chaya, can we keep the gate open while we search?"
"The maximum time I can keep the gate open without additional power is thirty-eight minutes," the Ancient replied. "After that, the address would need to be dialed again. The reconnaissance probe indicates there are no Wraiths near the gate. You'll retrieve it on the way back, right?"
This was still our only scout drone, assembled from parts of Ermen equipment.
"Yes, we'll bring it back," I promised.
And one thought kept spinning in my head…
"But we can keep the gate open by powering it from a ZPM, right?" I dug into my memory. On Earth, and not only there, in known events, something like this had worked.
"We can," Chaya confirmed my suspicions. "And you're right, only with a ZPM. The generator can't do it — the energy output isn't stable enough. Are you sure you want to drain our only ZPM for a person who might not even work out?"
A fair point. Spending energy to search an entire planet for a person who might not join us, or might even turn out to be a potential traitor… There were characters like that in known events too. Seemingly eager Wraith hunters, but actually rotten to the core.
"No," I said. "We'll fly to the other side, camouflage ourselves there, and search. If there are Wraiths on the planet, we'll grab the person, just wait it out under cloak in energy-saving mode — we have a week's worth of supplies. They're unlikely to stay there longer."
"I uploaded the search program to the ship," Chaya informed me. Indeed, a new program window appeared on the virtual screen. "You can go. If the Wraiths have already targeted the planet, it's not worth alerting them with a long delay in dialing the address. Especially since the planet where the second-to-last beacon disappeared isn't that far from you. Six or seven hours with a Wraith hyperdrive — and they'll be there."
"Then we should get moving," I concluded, steering the jumper into the puddle.
Wait for us, mysterious Runner. I hope you're a fierce and loyal guy with dreads.