The return to the Taranian outpost's control room was marked by several facts.
Fact one — there were about thirty guards here, packed tight.
Fact two — Kirik, Teyla, and Chaya were now standing pressed against the control room's viewing window.
Fact three — in the first two's hands were Alash rifles.
Fact four — in the hands of a dozen guards standing opposite them were also firearms.
Fact five — a piercing siren was wailing in the air. Very similar to the self-destruct sound of Atlantis.
"What's going on here?" Norana Pyro inquired, scanning the crowd with her eyes for someone who could answer.
"I'd like to know that too," I admitted, spotting in the crowd the one person who least fit the category of armed guard. "Chancellor Leikos, would you be so kind as to explain…?"
The ruler of Taranis shot me a venomous glare. Then, addressing the guards accompanying me and his chief scientist, he barked:
"Seize him!"
Oh… this is bad.
Both guards put their hands on my shoulders and started pushing down… Out of the corner of my eye, I even saw guns aimed at me.
"And?" I asked the guards. "Is it working — putting me on my knees?"
Judging by the vein bulging on one thug's forehead and the beads of sweat on the other's, they were trying their hardest.
"You should give that up," I advised them. "Go be farmers…"
"Misha." Chaya drew attention to herself. "They tried to capture me…!"
"And I thought, Chancellor, that we could reach an agreement," I sighed.
"Knock him out!" Leikos ordered. "He's their leader!"
One of the guards raised his pistol to strike me on the back of the head with the butt. He wound up properly and…
The next second, his howl rang out — the weapon ricocheted off its bolt carrier straight into his face.
"Well, the guy was going places," I commented, taking hold of the second guard's hand. He still had it on my shoulder, staring dumbfounded at what had happened to his partner. And a moment later, writhing in pain, he collapsed to his knees, dropping his weapon.
We had a game when we were young — during a handshake, you'd squeeze each other's wrists, and whoever held out longest won. I managed to win two times out of five — there were guys in the yard who were stronger than me.
"W-what did you do?" Leikos was taken aback.
"I shook his hand," I replied. "We have a custom like that — showing we mean no harm to the person we're talking to. If I recall, Chancellor, you didn't shake my hand when we met..."
"I don't know how you're doing this, but if even one of my men gets hurt, I'll order your people killed!" Leikos warned.
"Just like that?" I asked. The charge in my personal shield would last a while longer. Even if they all decided to shoot me. "Maybe you can tell me what's going on here?"
"I'd like to know that too," the lead scientist with the mannerisms of a young woman chimed in.
"Your woman did something to our base!" Leikos jabbed a finger at the main monitor, which was covered in blinking red symbols. "I ordered her detained for sabotage!"
"Liar!" Chaya shouted, looking at me. "He intended to kidnap me so I'd teach them how to work with our technologies!"
"I said you'd be our guest!" Leikos retorted. "And after that, we would have let you go!"
"You wanted to take me hostage!" The dark-skinned girl's face was filled with rage and a grimace of disgust. "And when I ran out of your office, you ordered me captured by any means necessary! If I hadn't made it to my friends, I don't know what would have happened!"
Ah... Now I get how all three of them ended up here. Yeah, the local guards' reaction time is even worse than I thought.
But that only works in our favor.
"It's the least you can do in exchange for the insults you leveled at my people!" Leikos flared up.
"Is that true?" I asked Chaya.
"Yes!" she said. "I just told him there's nothing complicated about pressing buttons that are already labeled to be pressed!"
"You compared us to animals!"
"And who else is going to take hostage those who came to them with peaceful intentions?" Teyla clarified.
"I think 'terrorism' is a better fit here," I concluded, piecing it all together. "Chaya, did you do everything as agreed?"
"Yes," she replied. "The generator is putting out five hundred percent power and running at maximum..."
"What?" the chancellor was stunned. "Y-you planned all this in advance?"
"Did you think," I wagged a finger at the guard who'd started to step between me and the chancellor, "that we came here unprepared? No, dear Chancellor, we had a backup plan. For some reason I had a feeling that the moment you learned of the Ancients' return, your shitty sense of self-importance would override any rationality and mutual cooperation."
"So you've decided to insult me too?" the chancellor exclaimed. "I won't forget this, Mikhail!"
"Well, go ahead," I shrugged, pulling an energy pistol from a hidden holster. I aimed it to the side and pulled the trigger. The next second, a massive coffin-like object, similar to the Taranian computer, turned into smoking, melted scraps of metal. "The next person who tries to threaten me or my people will get to see a hole in their body. But only for a couple of seconds."
"Why only a couple?" Norana asked quietly.
"Because then he'll die, you idiot!" the chancellor snapped.
"Well, you're right about that, Leikos," I said, brushing past the guards, pushing a couple aside with my shoulder, and stopping right in front of the Taranian leader. The crystal emitter of my weapon was aimed straight at his gut. "Go on, Chancellor! Give me a reason! I'd be happy to fry your guts!"
"You're acting like thugs!" he hissed.
"Look who's talking," Kirik snickered.
"We came to take what's ours," I clarified. "And, let me remind you — the backup plan, where we send the geothermal generator into overload, activating the supervolcano, turning your planet into a branch of a thermonuclear desert in a post-apocalyptic winter version with clouds of ash in the atmosphere, was developed precisely for the case where you suddenly decided to 'shelter' one of us."
"You planned all this in advance!" Leikos hissed.
"Well, tell me, did the idea of taking one of the Ancients into your hospitable embrace come to you just yesterday, when we contacted you through the gate and communications system?" I nodded toward the main screen.
After Chaya had opened up on the balcony, it took a day to work out the diplomatic process. Not that I was immediately going to fly off the handle, but I understood that scenario was possible.
In the events I knew, the chancellor was a stubborn piece of work. And, honestly, I was planning to simulate a supervolcano eruption just to get all the locals out of here and take Taranis for myself. Along with the outpost, the dock, and the ship.
If we couldn't come to a friendly agreement, of course.
And I genuinely believed we could pull it off.
Kirik and Alvar insisted on the abstract backup plan. Alvar, by the way, stayed on Atlantis. And was ready at any moment to bring in a heavily armed group of Athosians. That would happen in about two hours if we didn't return. The whole group, of course.
"I'm acting in the interests of my people!" Leikos declared.
"You're an idiot who thinks he knows what he's doing," Chaya blurted out. "You ordered the siren turned off that warned the pressure in the magma chamber was rising! You ordered the shields strengthened, which aren't designed for continuous operation! And the Wraith just flew past! Fifty light-years from Taranis!"
"Ah...?" Norana spoke up.
"A light-year is the distance light travels in one year," I explained. "The speed of light is a little less than three hundred million meters per second. Or three hundred thousand kilometers. You use kilometers as a thousand meters, same as us, right?"
"Oh," the lead specialist's eyes went wide. "That means... The Wraith flew..."
She fell silent. Yeah, you can't calculate that in your head that fast.
"I can imagine what he'd do if a real threat appeared," Kirik chuckled. "Besides soiling himself, I mean."
"You're insulting us again!" Leikos raised his head proudly. Or thought he did. "You must be punished for this!"
"Want me to kill you all right here and not even break a sweat?" I offered an alternative. "Taking a hostage also calls for punishment. And if the leader of an entire nation gives that order, then all its representatives should suffer, shouldn't they? I think we should wait a while until the eruption happens and your entire people die."
"What?!" Leikos took a step back. "I... I..."
"Magnetic coil from the buoy!" Chaya said, pressing a couple of keys on her scanner.
No one present even flinched, which was telling. Though her movements were very, very provocative. Then again, the local guards had already seen they couldn't hurt me. As I'd hoped, they'd gotten the impression that I wasn't the only one with protection.
The siren went silent.
But the red warning messages and symbols on the monitor remained.
"Did you stop the cataclysm?" the chancellor asked quietly.
"No, I just turned off the siren," Chaya said coldly. "The generator will return to normal only when Mikhail gives me that order."
"Do it!" the chancellor squeaked, looking at me.
"And why should I?" I asked. "You decided to capture or kill all of us here. And didn't think about the consequences. Why should I meet you halfway, Chancellor?"
"I accept your proposal," he said quickly. "You can have access to our outpost and inspect the ship..."
"No."
Teyla looked at me in surprise. Come on, doesn't she know what to do in a situation like this? Some leader of a people she is.
"But that's exactly what you wanted!" the chancellor exclaimed. "You talked about it when you came here and..."
"When we came here, you hadn't taken my companions prisoner," I reminded him. "You hadn't pointed weapons at them, threatened them, and so on. I recall you also mentioned compensation..."
Leikos licked his lips.
"You can take the ship," he 'graciously' conceded. "You won't be hindered in leaving Taranis."
"Getting warmer," I hinted.
"What?" the chancellor was surprised.
"I said, your planet is getting warmer with every bit of nonsense you speak," I explained.
"You're not satisfied with these terms?" the chancellor was confused.
"Chaya," I turned to the girl. "Tell me if I'm wrong. This outpost wasn't built for nothing, was it?"
"If you mean whether it's a scientific one, then no," Chaya said. "It's a military facility."
"So it was built to service the hangar inside the complex," I continued my line of thought.
"It's not a hangar, it's a dry dock," the girl corrected me. "Designed for repairing large ships. It was built in the final period of the war, when Atlantis was already underwater. And it could no longer accept combat ships."
Well, well. You can land military ships like the Aurora class on Atlantis? Wonderful revelations. And in front of extra ears.
But it makes sense, I guess. By the end of the siege, the Wraith probably hadn't destroyed all the Ancient ships. And since the remaining starships couldn't break through the Wraith fleet, they needed somewhere to be repaired.
So the Lanteans quickly assembled a dock where the Wraith hadn't reached yet. Judging by the lead scientist's story, they'd never even heard of the Wraith. I think that's true — otherwise the life-eaters would have been interested in Ancient constructions.
Hard to imagine what they could have done if they'd figured out this outpost's technology! Or gotten an Ancient ship! At minimum, operating the outpost doesn't require the Ancient gene, so the Wraith could have... Oh, holy crap...
I suspect the other ships drifting around the galaxy were abandoned for exactly that reason — there was nowhere to tow them for repairs. Atlantis underwater, other strongholds or outposts destroyed, and the only dock on Taranis holds the heavily damaged (I remember this from the series events) battleship Hippaforalkus...
How many more outposts like Taranis might be scattered around the galaxy?
"Let's sum it up," I said. "This outpost is an Ancient military base. Designed to service Ancient warships. We are the Ancients. So... What conclusion follows from that, Chancellor?"
"That you won't blow up the planet!" he narrowed his eyes. "You need this place! Just like we do!"
"You don't need it at all," I corrected him delicately. "You haven't evolved enough to work with this type of technology. Maybe someday... But certainly not in your lifetime or under your rule. Am I making myself clear?"
"You want my people to overthrow me?" he hissed.
"Do you want to see a supervolcano eruption from the front row?" I asked.
"Are you giving me an ultimatum, Mikhail?" The man, who in my previous life could have been my father, tried to pull himself together.
Father... I think if I'd had a dad like that, I'd have suffocated him with a pillow in his sleep.
"That's right, Chancellor," I confirmed. "An ultimatum. You step down from your position. This outpost, the ship Hippaforalkus, and all technology on Taranis belonging to our ancestors, pass into our uncompensated control. Any settlements or approach of your people closer than one hundred and fifty kilometers to the outpost is forbidden. Do it, and we'll be very upset. I hope that's clear, lead scientist?"
"Four, seven, three, zero..." Norana muttered. Noticing everyone was looking at her, she startled. "What did you say, Mikhail?"
Oh my god, why do I have to deal with this...
I had to repeat myself.
"Oh, yes, of course," she looked around absentmindedly. "Ah... Why are you telling me this?"
"Because he wants to see you at the head of our nation, you fool," Leikos hissed, glaring at the woman with hatred.
"Oh!" the young-acting lady even lit up. "Mikhail, I'm so glad! We must urgently discuss all the details in private! Over dinner tonight, for example!"
Teyla coughed. Kirik's face twitched with mild panic. And I wanted to pull the trigger on the blaster. Just point it at one lady's head...
"There's a supervolcano about to explode under your feet, and you're talking about a date?" Chaya grimaced.
"What?" Pyro snapped to attention. "Supervolcano? Where?"
"Were you even listening to us?" Teyla asked.
"Oh, yes, of course," Norana said absently. "And I was calculating the distance between us and the passing Wraith ship..."
Wow, damn it... If this didn't ruin the moment, I'd definitely give myself a facepalm. It seems my idea of setting up a puppet government here slightly (just a tiny bit) smells like handing a monkey a nuclear briefcase. Open, with the inscription "Press Here!" on a big red button...
Okay, I'll deal with that later.
"The people of Taranis will never forgive you for this," Leikos promised me.
"I think they will when we tell them what happened here and offer a sincere apology," I promised. "Chaya, how long until the supervolcano eruption?"
"Three hours," she announced. "The pressure in the magma chamber has already reached its maximum. Structural damage is beginning..."
"Enough information," I assured, looking at the chancellor. "And now — you have one hour to get off the premises. Pack your things and take your lackeys. The complex will be sealed. And, by the Ascended, if we find even one hidden bastard in it, I will personally find you, Leikos, and make you answer for yet another lie. Is that clear?"
"Our people have already started traveling through the gate!" he stubbornly insisted. "If you take the complex for yourselves, how will they do that?"
"That's no longer your concern, Chancellor," I remarked, glancing at Norana Pyro standing beside me with gleaming eyes. "Get out of here. Everyone except Miss Pyro."
"Miss," she squeaked, stepping aside to let the guards heading for the exit pass.
Was I surprised that at her age she was still "miss"? No, not really.
But the fact that Taranis used forms of address from my homeland... I think I should learn more about these people.
Just not from this clingy woman.
* * *
When all four emerged from the gate, Alvar finally let out a breath.
"Another fifteen minutes, and I'd have gone to the Athosians," he reminded them, looking at his comrades.
Mikhail was lost in thought, like Chaya; Kirik was alert, but Teyla...
"Did you really intend to blow up their world?" Emmagan blurted out, glaring angrily at Mikhail and Chaya. The Ancients exchanged glances, then burst out laughing simultaneously. "Is the life of an entire people, the existence of a planet where the Wraith never come, a joke to you?"
"Well, I see you don't think small," Jensen whistled, exchanging looks with Kirik. "Were they really going to blow up the planet?"
"At least that's what they said," Kirik said uncertainly, watching the laughing pair. "But now I'm not so sure..."
"I thought they'd shoot me before you got there," Chaya said through her laughter.
"I thought they'd kill all three of you," Mikhail ran his hands through his hair. "Did you see how the chancellor nearly burst with rage? I swear, I thought he wouldn't buy it..."
"Did you sell something there?" Alvar didn't understand.
Kirik briefly described the negotiations that had just taken place.
Jensen, listening to the end, uttered an untranslatable verbal construct with both a swearish and an excessively expressive coloring on his home planet, tinged with admiration and shock.
"Threaten to blow up a planet to take a ship and a bunch of corridors over a supervolcano about to erupt?" Alvar clarified, looking at Chaya and Mikhail, who had stopped laughing. "Ancients, you're out of your minds!"
"That's exactly what I wanted to say!" Teyla backed him up. "You accused the chancellor of terrorism, yet you yourselves were prepared for mass casualties! The destruction of an entire planet! The entire population of Taranis!"
"They're a bunch of bastards, sure," Kirik muttered, "but... yeah, now it doesn't seem so funny."
"Take a breath," Mikhail advised. "Kirik, you were the one who suggested preparing a backup plan."
"Yes," he glanced at Alvar. "A couple hundred armed Athosians and Jensen as commander... What's not to like?"
"My people would have come to bring me back!" Teyla declared hotly.
"Sure," Mikhail nodded. "And me with a personal shield," he opened the edge of his jacket, showing a green-glowing crystal attached to his shirt, "I had nothing to fear at all. The only risk was Chaya reaching you two in time. So we'd all be in one place..."
"I wasn't taking much risk either," the girl said sheepishly, also pulling aside the edge of her jacket. There, you could see a device similar to Misha's. Only it glowed with a rich blue light. "Put it together in my spare time... Not as powerful as Mikhail's, but still... It's even better in some ways."
"It only stretches to a radius of five meters," Mikhail waved his hand. "Insurance for Kirik and Teyla in case the Taranians started shooting."
"Could have used a shield myself," Kirik said.
"Agreed," Jensen backed him up.
"How does that justify your actions to blow up someone else's world?" Emmagan asked.
"There's not going to be any explosion," Chaya sighed. "When we got to the outpost, I connected to its internal network. Changed a bunch of display and warning messages. And when I realized we had nothing going for us except captivity, I activated the pre-made setup."
"The siren was screaming like crazy," Kirik admitted.
Teyla looked at both Ancients distrustfully.
"So you weren't going to blow up their generator?" she asked.
"No," Mikhail chuckled.
"If Alvar hadn't made it, a second program would have activated and in five hours the generator really would have gone into overload," Chaya said.
"I don't get it," Misha paled. "Did you actually want to blow up an entire planet?"
"Just a backup plan," Chaya spread her hands. "For the absolute worst-case scenario. But first, all the doors in the complex would open so Alvar and the Athosians could get inside. And all exits except the main one would lock."
"So nobody could get out," Mikhail realized.
"Basically, yeah," Chaya shrugged. "And I set up voice control, so it could all be canceled at any moment... Or we could detonate the reactor and blow up the complex."
In the ensuing silence, the event horizon of the Atlantis stargate dissolved with a whoosh.
Then Chaya's laughter rang out. For some reason, it made everyone else laugh too. Only she was laughing because she thought it was funny. The rest — from nerves.
"You should have seen your faces," the Ancient said when she'd stopped laughing. "Of course there was no plan within a plan. I wasn't going to blow anything up."
"Whoo-oo-osh," Mikhail, Kirik, and Alvar exhaled in unison.
"Some jokes you've got," Mikhail said, adjusting the collar of his shirt that was choking him.
"Never do that again," Alvar pleaded. "I thought I'd go gray."
"I need a drink," Kirik said.
"Come on," Teyla said, casting a disapproving look at Chaya. "I have a pitcher of strong Athosian wine in my quarters."
"I'm with you," Alvar said, shaking his head and catching up with the pair. "I think we need something stronger than wine..."
"Then we'll get a second pitcher," Teyla said decisively. "I just want to forget this day."
"Agreed," Kirik supported grimly.
"I'm sorry!" Chaya's voice carried after them. "It was a joke..."
"To hell with jokes like that," Alvar muttered as their trio disappeared around the corner. "I don't even want to know what other Ancients will joke like when they show up here."
"We can always take shelter on New Athos, right?" Kirik asked Teyla.
"I'm no longer sure," she said quietly, just as Mikhail ran up to them. "Misha, we're not offended, but..."
"To hell with being offended," he muttered. "Let's go get drunk. I think I've sprouted my first gray hairs."