The Runner looked at me the way a hardened physicist would look at a schoolboy who'd explained the theory of relativity in his own words — with a correction for his own idea of the universe, cultivated on Japanese cartoons about tentacles.
"Kirik," he said after a few seconds of silence.
"Meaning?"
"My name is Kirik," the Runner said. Ah... so my memory had let me down a little with his name. Well, it happens. Considering that in the events I knew, he was only a hero of a single episode in a five-season series, I think a mistake was forgivable. I'd even gotten all the letters of his name in the right order. Just added a couple... "What do you mean, you know me? I have a good memory for faces. We've never met."
The Runner Kirik.
"Personally — never," I admitted. "But I know the Wraiths made you a Runner by taking you from your homeworld."
"They do that a lot."
"And you also visited one world that was later destroyed by the Wraiths."
"That sort of thing is common enough," Alvar chimed in. "I think all Runners experience it."
"Yes, but do all Runners save a miraculously surviving child from those planets?" I asked.
The man standing in front of me tensed up. Noticeably so. It was obvious he didn't like the fact that some random nobody knew more about him than he should. In his place, I wouldn't have liked it either.
Kirik was silent, and I wondered if I'd guessed wrong.
To be honest, when I set out on this mission, I'd hoped the Runner would turn out to be the future Khal, the Satedan Ronon Dex, in the likeness of the actor Jason Momoa. But the universe hadn't been so kind to my wishes.
Instead of a Satedan, we'd met another Runner. The second and last one shown over five seasons of the series about the adventures of dim-witted but brave Earthlings in the Pegasus Galaxy. And if I could say I knew Dex like the back of my hand, since a lot of time had been devoted to developing his character, then this "Runner-father."..
One fact really bothered me. At the time of his debut in the series, this Runner had a device of an unknown race that allowed short-range teleportation. When I realized we'd found the wrong 'boy' we were looking for, I'd thought at least a portable teleporter would be handy for us. Such a convenient plot device could have been on hand...
But nothing like that had been found on the Runner's body, or near him, or on his person. Which made me doubt that the events in this reality matched the ones I knew in every detail. Who knows, maybe because the expedition hadn't arrived, their actions hadn't affected some order of things? And the fact that Kirik hadn't acquired such a device wasn't the biggest problem, hmm?
I had to figure this out. If history had already been thrown under the knife — and that was most likely the case — then I needed to hurry and get my hands on at least what was still waiting: ships, bases, outposts of the Ancients.
Chaya was working on my leads in Atlantis's databases in our absence, but so far there was no progress. We'd found the Aurora, and if we had a ship, we'd get to her. But I knew there were at least three more relatively combat-capable battleships of that type in the galaxy. Losing them would be a huge mistake. Not to mention other objects of the Ancients' legacy.
"We don't intend to harm you or your friend," Teyla, the master negotiator, joined the dialogue. "I am the leader of the Athosian people. Perhaps you've heard of us."
"I heard," Kirik replied. "You're gatherers, hunters, information traders, and you help others in the fields. You don't have technology like that." He pointed at the ship and at me. Though I think he was more interested in my personal shield.
"That's right, this is technology from other worlds," Alvar said. "The clothes, armor, and weapons are from my world."
"The ship, and also the protective field that stopped you from breaking my jaw twice and damaging my torso — that's from the place I came from," I had to add an explanation too.
"And what kind of place is that?" Kirik asked. "Where do people who can easily kill Wraiths but don't do so live?"
Here we go again...
"My world was destroyed by the Wraiths," Alvar took the floor. "All that remains of my people is me alone. The Wraiths made me a Runner, just like you. And Misha" he nodded in my direction — "helped get rid of that burden."
"So you work for them?" Kirik asked.
"He doesn't work for me," I corrected. "He and Teyla work together with me. I hope you will too."
"And why would I do that?" the Runner asked.
"How many places in the galaxy can you hide without fearing the Wraiths will come, find you, capture you, and make you a Runner again?" I asked.
"There are no such places in the entire galaxy."
"You're mistaken," Teyla took the floor. "My people were recently attacked by the Wraiths. Many died. But Mikhail and his... friend helped us find a new world that the Wraiths don't know about."
"But they didn't help your kin, did they?" Kirik asked Alvar. The Ermen nodded in confirmation. "So what's the point? Help in one out of two cases?"
"My world and my countrymen were exterminated by the Wraiths long before I met Misha," Alvar explained. "There's no fault of his in Ermen's destruction."
"Whose fault is there, then?" Kirik became interested.
"I think the Genii had a hand in it," Jensen voiced.
"If all this," Kirik pointed at our clothes, "is from your world, then I doubt a bunch of farmers could have done you that much harm."
"The Genii are not what they appear to be to the visitors of their world," Teyla explained. "They are much more advanced and..."
"That's enough," the Runner interrupted. "I'm not interested in the Genii. I have a responsibility."
"To the girl you saved," I realized.
"Her name is Seliza," Kirik clarified, looking at me. "And yes, you're right. I became the reason everyone she knew died. I took her with me because at least that way she had a chance to survive."
"And what chance does a little girl have of surviving in a galaxy full of Wraiths, when her only friend and protector is a Runner the Wraiths want to kill?" I inquired. "Your transmitter is disabled. It's fused with your spinal cord, partially replaced one of the vertebrae with its own tissue. In field conditions, it definitely can't be removed..."
"So you lied to me about getting rid of that thing?" The sword in Kirik's hand twitched toward my throat.
"The transmitter is a device," I explained. "Just like the Wraiths' weapons are also biological in nature. But it's different, as different from their other technologies as you are from me..."
"Don't talk to me like a child," Kirik cut me off sharply. "My world was advanced enough to understand what you're saying without extra explanations."
"In that case, I'll simplify my story to the facts," I exhaled. "Using this device" pulling an Ancient scanner from my thigh pocket, I showed it to the former Runner — "I found where your transmitter is. I dealt with its power cell and subspace antenna. Pulling this thing out would cripple you. But the Wraiths won't be able to track you anymore."
"What makes you say that?" Kirik inquired.
"Alvar," I addressed my comrade. And within a second, he tossed me a portable computer built into a wrist cuff. Very similar to Lantean technology, but with no connection to it whatsoever.
I handed the device to our new acquaintance.
"Recognize the gadget?"
"Wraith tracking system," Kirik said. "Every Wraith Hunter has one. They use it to track the Runners' location on the planet. Judging by the fact that I'm not on the map, you really did disable the transmitter."
Wraith tracking system.
One glance was all Kirik needed to figure out what was what. He finally lowered his weapon and placed the "cuff," as we called it, on the nearest seat in the cockpit.
"Now to the main point," he declared. "Judging by how you're acting, either you're well hidden, or you're not afraid of the Wraiths. They're swarming all around here."
"On this ship, there are supplies of weapons, food, and medicine for a small war," I said. "And yes, you're right. The Wraiths left. An hour ago — as soon as we disabled your beacon, hovering over the cliff above the mountain river."
"Why?" the Runner asked.
"We wanted them to think you were dead," Teyla explained. "Right after that, we went to the mountains where we found you when we first arrived on the planet."
"And all this time you watched but didn't intervene?" Kirik frowned. Without further conversation, he walked past me, carefully went around Teyla, but stopped when Alvar blocked his path.
For a second, the men drilled each other with stares. Kirik intended to leave, Jensen wanted him to stay a while longer.
"We haven't finished talking, Runner," the Ermen explained.
"Easy to talk about something when a frightened little girl isn't waiting for you in a cave for several hours," our new acquaintance hissed. "Step aside, big guy."
"Or what?" Jensen measured him with a look. By the way, he was half a head taller than Kirik. And I think about five to ten kilograms heavier. But as for combat training, especially hand-to-hand in confined spaces, I think we'll find out who's worth what soon enough.
Teyla shot me a warning glance.
Or maybe not soon.
"Alvar, let him pass," I ordered. "Kirik — big white button to the right of the rear bulkhead."
The Runners sized each other up once more, after which our new acquaintance unceremoniously headed to the ramp of the Puddle Jumper. Grabbing what he called outer clothes and a Wraith pistol along the way, he hit the ramp release key.
With the familiar sound, the drives engaged and the back wall of the ship turned into a gentle ramp, down which the Runner escaped outside. Nodding to my comrades, I pointed them to the exit.
As expected, seeing the girl sleeping on a pile of their belongings, the Runner looked at us with an angry glare.
Little (she looked about ten) girl with a round face and slightly bulging eyes was lying on top of a couple of big bags. When we found her in the cave after Alvar fried the transmitter of the fellow Runner, the girl didn't really want to talk. She huddled against the cave walls, tried to threaten us sometimes with a scary-looking doll, sometimes with something like a pocket knife.
But Teyla, the well-known diplomat of our group, managed to find common ground with the girl. And while we were moving together with the unconscious Runner (yeah, I need to tell Chaya to adjust the stunner settings after all) to the clearing, the "girls" managed to become friends. As much as possible under the circumstances.
Seliza.
"You left a child alone in the open?" he asked furiously. "She's only wearing light clothes! She could get sick!"
"She could also die from three or four diseases we found in her when we scanned her," I retorted. "And yeah, don't mention it. She was given medicine and now she's sleeping. She's sleeping and guarding your belongings, because she told us you'd definitely tell us to leave when you woke up. Both blankets, new clothes, a small supply of medicine and food that we put in the bags just in case, you can keep. Consider it compensation for us, such barbarians, saving your life, taking the girl from a damp cave, preventing pneumonia from developing in her, and so on down the list. And you can consider yourself Stepfather of the Year. Because stuffing a girl for several days in a dark, damp cave filled with a bunch of microorganisms and bacteria required a good effort not to use your head. Spoiler — you succeeded, Kirik. But yes, you're right. The villains here are exclusively us."
But from the former Runner's face, it became clear that he did realize he was wrong.
"Why didn't you leave her in your ship, or at least keep the hatch open?" Kirik was still looking at us with suspicion.
"First learn not to yell in your delirium," Alvar muttered, waving his hand and heading into the cockpit. "Useless, Misha. Let them go their own way."
"Not only Seliza was sick," Teyla said, approaching Kirik. "The scanner showed you have a fever and your health isn't all well."
"After the last attempt to cut out the transmitter, I've been feeling unwell," the Runner admitted. "I thought it was a common cold."
"Well, if sepsis is called that here, then yes," I agreed. "Whoever that butcher you went to was, don't do that again. Unless you want to die before the girl learns to at least braid her own hair. And yes, I almost forgot. Along with the medicine, there are instructions on what, in what doses, and for how long to inject you and her in order to recover. I don't advise breaking the treatment schedule — otherwise the illnesses will return."
We spoke, albeit emotionally, but still in a low voice. It was somehow awkward to argue near the girl. Brave beyond her years, by the way. If not for Kirik's loud delirium during and after the operation, plus the medication course including field drainage of a couple of abscesses on his back, we wouldn't have even thought of isolating ourselves from the girl.
Yes, it all looks pretty bad. There are wild animals in the forest and all that. But even the Wraiths would need time to break through the energy shield spread across the entire clearing. No, not a cloak — a normal shield against any types of attacks, both kinetic and energy.
Of course, I admit the solution isn't the best, but until his condition stabilized, one of us was always next to the girl. She's having a hard time too. The life of a Runner isn't easy. And children who have barely tasted life with a full spoon — even more so.
Therefore, in order not to frighten the girl with the fact that her protector was thrashing in delirium, screaming bloody murder and crying, lamenting how many people died because of his mistake, it was decided to do it as we did. In this situation, the last thing I wanted was to scare the child with something like that. And keeping her, for example, in the jumper, in another compartment, would be even more foolish: we would have to close the bulkheads for soundproofing and continue to keep the ship on idle. One careless movement from a girl who accidentally wakes up, and the ship could throw out some kind of surprise.
In short, awkward as it was, I bet that the girl's comfort, health, and opinion would be a priority for our guest. Let's see if the investment pays off.
"Thank you." Kirik adjusted the blanket on the girl, touching his lips to her forehead for a moment. "Her fever has almost passed."
"Antibiotics," I explained. "A single round won't defeat all the infection in her; you need to complete the full course... You have the supply, so if you want to go — go ahead, we're not holding anyone."
"But it would be safer with us," Teyla assured him. "The place we come from is protected from the Wraiths. There's shelter, food, and a way to get cleaned up. There, Seliza and you will receive all necessary help."
"A safe harbor to lie low?" Kirik asked.
"A new home where you don't have to think every day about how to save yourself and keep the child from dying," I specified. "Full board, plus the opportunity to learn the sciences. For Seliza, I think it would be better to hear about how this world works than such a life."
"Besides, you didn't have a choice before," Teyla continued. "But now that the transmitter isn't working..."
"Enough," Kirik interrupted us. "I've heard enough."
"It's your business." Well, I did what I could. It seems Fortune showed us her back twice — both when we found him and when we tried to earn his trust with good deeds.
Pulling out my palmtop, I used it to disable the force field around the clearing.
"The camp's protection is down." My explanation to the puzzled Runner coincided with the awakened girl throwing herself around his neck. "You can go wherever and whenever you want."
However, the Runner wasn't even listening to me anymore.
"Kirik! You're alive!"
"Yes." The stern Runner's voice gained a paternal warmth. "I'm fine. How are you?"
"Everything is fine!" The girl's eyes shone with joy. "Apparently I was sick. And they," she looked warmly at Teyla, "gave me several completely painless shots! I slept and now I feel better. Is it true that the Wraiths are no longer chasing you?"
Kirik looked at me once more.
"Yes, it's true." He stroked the girl's head. "Could you pack our things?"
"Are we leaving?" Seliza looked him in the eyes.
"Exactly. The sooner, the better," Kirik said.
"We're leaving too," I said. Too bad it didn't work. "If you want, we can drop you off at the Stargate."
"The Gate?" Kirik repeated.
"Ring of the Ancients," Teyla explained.
"Ah, right," the former Runner nodded, matching the terms. "I have another suggestion..."
* * *
"Enemy hive activity in our sector of the galaxy does not exceed the norm for the Keepers," reported the first officer. "From which I conclude that besides ours, no other Hive Ship or object was attacked with nuclear weapons."
"And that already leads to certain thoughts," Styx said. "Why were we specifically the target of a nuclear bomb sabotage?"
"I assume competing hives are behind the attack," the first officer put forward a version. "Our ship is potentially more powerful and dangerous than any other Hive Ship in the galaxy."
"Yes, but without the Lantean power source, all those changes and improvements that are over ten thousand years old are worthless," Styx objected. "I don't need to remind you of that."
"Perhaps the Keepers fear we have something that can power long-inactive systems and weapons," the first officer speculated. "If so, they might consider us a threat to the other hives."
"In that case, the Keepers would have awakened the Queens and informed them of this information," Styx countered. "My Hive Ship has been the only one in the galaxy of such size and with upgraded equipment for hundreds of years. If they wanted to destroy it, they would have done so during the active period, not hibernation."
"Perhaps their people didn't have nuclear weapons before. Analysis of the warhead shows it's a makeshift prototype."
"That's exactly what points to the plan's imperfection," Styx declared. "Without a decision from the Hive Queen, the Keepers would not have attacked us. And no Queen would risk acting with an untested weapon that exists in a single copy. Something doesn't add up here."
"Nevertheless, my commander, only one version explains the reason for the attempt to blow us up," the first officer insisted. "Someone from one of the hives tracked our location and directed their admirers there to carry out the sabotage... Nothing except Hive Ships is capable of tracking the position of other Hive Ships."
In fact, that was far from true.
But the first officer's version seemed logical.
At first glance.
Yes, the idea of using people to destroy the most dangerous Hive Ship in the galaxy seemed attractive. That way, the Hive Queen who plotted this would remain beyond suspicion.
However, why now?
Over the past millennia, the Wraiths had destroyed hundreds, if not thousands, of civilizations possessing even more destructive weapons. Admirers could have been among them too. And the plan could have been implemented much earlier.
But the move was made just now.
The logic of the plan — that some hive, perhaps even the Cunning Blade, decided to get rid of them by someone else's hands — was based on only one assertion. Which couldn't be an axiom in its essence: the location of his hive had been revealed by other Wraiths.
Theoretically, the Keepers could have done it — those Wraiths from any hive that monitor the peace of the sleeping ones. But such actions require great courage from the Keepers. And without coordination with the Hive Queen, such actions are practically impossible. The adverse consequences are too great — terrorism of one hive against another, even one without a Queen, could lead to civil war. More than once, the other Wraiths rallied against such instigators and completely destroyed them.
Simply to discourage others from acting in the same way. Now, while the hives are in hibernation, the Wraiths have enough food. An explosion of any hive or any other attack will only cause the other Wraiths to awaken. And they will be very angry when they learn that the human herd cannot feed them.
And then the internecine strife and war of all against all will begin.
No one needs that.
It's illogical. While his ship was on the planet, healing wounds sustained in a clash with another hive, any fleet of Wraiths wishing to destroy Styx's faction could easily attack them from orbit. That would be simpler and more reliable for victory.
Nuclear weapons brought on board... That's not the scale of destruction. The bomb, though a dangerous creation, is still imperfect. If the Wraiths were behind such an attack, they would have advised their admirers on how to strengthen it. And how to mine the other hive in a more proper way.
Moreover, to blow up from the inside a hive such as Styx had at his disposal, it would be better to use several bombs — to be sure.
His ship, just over ten thousand years ago, was upgraded using a battery — a zero-point energy source of the Lanteans. No one except the members of his hive knew how much the shell had hardened, the internal bulkheads reinforced, the structure and many other things strengthened by using such a hybrid of technologies. Yes, now they no longer have the battery, and a significant part of the superhive's systems have been turned off. And a long time ago at that.
But again, this fact could only be confirmed or refuted by members of his crew. And there were no traitors among them — otherwise Styx would have detected them in advance.
Consequently, there were no guarantees that a single prototype bomb could destroy Styx and his faction.
Or was the bet that because of the sabotage attempt, Styx would awaken the other Wraiths across the entire galaxy? A threat of such magnitude should not be ignored — that's the rule.
And if it turned out that there was no real threat to all the hives, the awakened ones could start hunting him and his hive. Was that the plan?
Unlikely. If other Wraiths were behind the attack, they would understand that after the sabotage attempt, the attacked hive would first go to the planet that struck. And try to resolve the crisis on its own. Which, in fact, they successfully did.
Only if the threat from the world that made the atomic bomb was excessive would the attacked hive be able to awaken the others without consequences for itself. But Styx handled it on his own.
If the Wraiths were involved here, they would understand that the population of Ermen could not be perceived as a galactic-scale threat to all Wraiths. Even morons from the newer generations of Wraiths would know that.
The data doesn't come together into one picture.
Too bad they never managed to interrogate the saboteurs.
"I don't believe this was the action of other Wraiths," Styx summed up his reasoning. "There is another reason the saboteurs knew where and when to find us. Find it."
"Yes, commander."
Even though the first officer disagreed with his commander's decision, he was obliged to obey.
"Commander," a new second officer entered the room. "Information has come in from the hunting teams about the last Runner."
"Is he destroyed?" Styx clarified.
What was happening around his hive didn't please the commander. So he decided to do everything to prepare his soldiers for a possible war. And what better way than by hunting Runners?
"The Runner is dead," the second officer confirmed. "But our hunters or soldiers did not kill him."
"Explain!" Styx demanded.
"His beacon signal was lost over a mountain river gorge," the second officer reported. "The hunters concluded the Runner died due to his own carelessness."
"Unlikely, but such cases have occurred before," Styx said after thinking. "Do we have data on his actions?"
"Yes, commander," the second officer assured. "I studied it and concluded the hunters were mistaken. I think the Runner is alive, and someone helped him hide from us."
"What gives you the right to say that?" the first officer protested.
"According to the hunt data, on the last leg of his journey before his 'death', the Runner traveled at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour."
"Had he ever before shown a movement speed beyond human physiology?" Styx became interested.
"Never, commander. I think he was on a ship that we could not detect," the second officer suggested.
Styx looked thoughtfully at his first officer.
"The situation repeats itself," the latter pronounced. "Our hunt, a Runner, the appearance of a cloaked ship, transmitters stop sending signal. This cannot be a simple coincidence."
"I agree," Styx nodded. "Someone is deliberately freeing our Runners."
"Yes, but why?" the second officer wondered.
"Probably, they're preparing an army against our hive," Styx speculated after thinking. "Which means," he threw a warning glance at the first officer, "we should speed up the work on researching the dialing device from Sudaria. And send a team to the planet where the last Runner disappeared. I want to know who used the Gate after we left there. I think we can find some commonality in this data..."
And, immediately after that, as soon as his ship's wounds heal and the flow of information about the Gate address is sifted into a convenient sample, Styx will go after his enemies.