When the last crystal clicked into place, I stepped back from the control panel and glanced at Chaya, who looked frozen. The girl sat at the control console, silently staring straight ahead. But her gaze told me her thoughts were a million miles away.
"I think it's time to start it up." It took a second try to get her attention. The girl looked at me, nodded silently, and ran her fingers over the workstation's buttons. "And it would be good to tell the others we're ready."
Chaya paused for a moment, then her hand moved to the edge of the console and pressed a button.
"Engineering speaking," she announced. "We are preparing to start the reactor. Finish your work and report immediately."
Releasing the button, she looked at me without a hint of regret.
She really doesn't like our reluctant ally.
At this point, the Athosians and Taranians had finished their part of the work. Their job had been to replace the designated faulty crystals on several decks. Thanks to that, and to Koschei's work on-site, the power circuits in the living quarters, galley, sanitary areas, and hangar were now restored. Not to mention that the subspace transmitter, scanners, and artificial gravity were working again.
The fact that the ship's auxiliary bridge had been completely cut off from even secondary systems due to damaged control channels is not even worth mentioning. The main bridge, the place from which the ship is normally controlled, was functioning solely on backup circuits. Koschei was currently working on repairing those.
The voltage there is such that getting shocked wouldn't just hurt — it would cremate you in seconds. After all, operating a ship like this requires a colossal amount of energy. Even for the secondary systems.
"Alvar speaking," a voice came from the hidden speakers. "The Wraith is done with the last section of damaged wiring. Fuses are in place, the circuit is glowing white."
The Ancients had a very interesting fault indicator system. If the equipment is working correctly, its internal backlight is white. If there is damage in the main system, it's dim. If the main circuit is destroyed, blocking its function, it's red. If there is no power in the network or a fault in the main, backup, and emergency circuits, there's no light at all. Pretty convenient — you remove the protective cover and calmly observe whether the system in a specific section is in order.
When the backlight shows a fault, it's easy to find with a scanner or even visually. The crystals the Ancients used in their devices, as it turns out, function not only as microchips, but also as relays, fuses, power controllers, and other protective and regulatory mechanisms. So it's usually them that fail, not the entire wiring. Chaya said something about swapping crystals being much easier than opening walls and repairing wiring. The Ancient crystals were deliberately made the so-called "weak link." It's actually quite pragmatic — it's easier to replace an element that's easy to pull out than to disassemble half a structure. Or to rearrange crystals so that an auxiliary or backup system starts up in place of the damaged main one.
This explains why, in the events I know of, the Terrans quite often "repaired" damaged Ancient technology (and that of other races using the same technological principles) by swapping crystals. And very rarely did they fix damaged wiring. And yes, this sometimes led to catastrophic consequences. Well, sometimes… practically always.
But I don't have a technically competent world-saving team at my disposal, so we have to work on fixing everything that can be repaired. Without any optimistic hopes that it will just work and work out, like it did for the Terrans in the events I know.
The panel in front of me, just like the other twenty where I had to replace more than half the crystals, filled with light. The crystals glowed like a garland on a Christmas tree. Though they didn't start blinking, settling for a steady luminescence and a barely audible hum.
"Looks like it's working." I looked at my scanner's screen, running it along the row of open consoles. The smart device didn't detect any faults in any of the crystal slots. "What about you?"
"The reactor has reached minimum power," Chaya said. "Energy is being transmitted to all compartments… Starting diagnostics."
Her voice sounded somehow joyless. Though there's plenty here to celebrate!
In less than two weeks, we managed to bring this tub into a godly state. We fixed the main systems where they were running on secondary circuits, partially got the main and backup systems working in critically damaged areas, corrected the power output on several damaged shield projector sections…
We now have main engines, shields, weapons, life support, and much more! And it's all running on proper, albeit repaired, circuits, not on temporary fixes! The ship is restored in less than a month!
Yes, we still need to work on the hyperdrive, but the most extensive work is done. We'll get to the hyperdrive later — the necessary spare parts and super-dense crystals are being made now. If ordinary crystals can be made from silicon, though not just any silicon, then the hyperdrive… Like other highly technological Ancient mechanisms requiring jeweler-like precision in tuning and operation, this equipment needed a completely different type of crystal. Toughness, optical clarity, and a good dozen other characteristics to consider during manufacturing.
And diamonds are needed, too. A lot of them.
The Athosians are mining them on Ermen, but Chaya rejected about eighty percent of the diamonds found. Said they were completely wrong. Though, what difference does it make if we're loading them into the workshop's fabrication unit for melting and refining?
Yes, I had to accept as fact that diamonds can not only be polished, but also melted down, turning into the most expensive glass I've ever seen. I figure that for a couple of the crystals needed to restore the hyperdrive, you could buy one or two planets on the galactic black market. Probably even with their inhabitants.
For about an hour, while I collected tools and damaged parts from all over the compartment, sorting them into ones we could still use and ones to be sent for melting, Chaya stared unblinkingly at the ship's color schematic displayed on a large monitor.
"Everything is ready," Chaya announced. "In two ammunition storage compartments, there are power fluctuations in the lighting and power systems, but they're not critical for flight. I disconnected them from the grid; they won't cause any more problems."
"Excellent," I winked at the girl. "Time to head back to the bridge. We'll talk to the others, get some rest, and tomorrow we'll start repairing the hyperdrive. You said we could handle it in a couple of days, right?"
"A day for disassembly and detailed fault inspection, the same for programming the new crystals and repair," Chaya confirmed, leaving the compartment first. Tired or not, gallantry shouldn't be forgotten.
"We managed it in under a month," I said as we walked. "And we practically restored the ship to a combat-ready state. It's strange the Ancients didn't do it."
"They could have," Chaya said. "Taranis's resources would have allowed them to smelt and replace all the damaged hull elements or fix mechanical damage. However, the planet lacks deposits of the necessary minerals to repair the wiring damage and create the required crystals for the main systems. Even for the auxiliary systems, the local silicon isn't very suitable either. We would have had to run tens of tons of material through separators to create what we made in a few weeks."
Makes sense, considering that Lantea-2, where we got resources for the regular systems, became inaccessible to the Ancients during the war.
"Besides," Chaya said sadly, "this is just one ship. And, as the Wraith said, it was a former exploration vessel converted into a combat one. Even with a ZPM on board, it wouldn't have played a big role in a war that was ending. It was simply left for better times."
"Well, it's a good thing it wasn't repaired and wasn't destroyed during a fight with the Wraith," I noted. "Now we have an operational warship."
"It will only be operational once we repair the hyperdrive," the Proculucian corrected me.
"That won't be a problem," I assured her. "Speaking of which, did you check Koschei's claim that several versions of this type of battleship existed?"
"Yes," Chaya replied. "I had to hack into several military databases on Atlantis, but… He's right. For most of the war, the Ancients only used former exploration starships converted for military use. They were not well-suited for confronting the numerically superior Wraith starships. Only in the last decades of the conflict did the Atlantis Council order the development of purely military starships based on the data gathered during the conflict. But there simply weren't enough of them to turn the tide of battle. From what I understand, the Ancients underestimated the Wraith threat for a long time. Koschei was right — they sent their starships unescorted deeper and deeper into Wraith territory, relying on the power of their weapons and technology. This is what turned the tide of the war — the Wraith lured hundreds, even thousands of diverse starships into an ambush, lost dozens of times more ships, but managed to strip Atlantis of its advantage. After that, they launched a counterattack. That's just surface information; a detailed analysis of the Wraith war chronicles would require thousands of hours of free time."
"I think we'll have that time after we save the Aurora's crew," I said. "Right now, we simply don't have the manpower to get distracted by history ten thousand years old."
"That is true," Chaya confirmed, her voice full of longing and fatigue. "We are critically short of competent beings. I am sure that if we had even a hundred competent Taranian scientists, you wouldn't have involved the Wraith."
So that's it… And she knew he would work for us. But the moment she came face-to-face with the pre-discussed facts, she backtracked, showing her unwillingness to cooperate with him in every way. Even the fact that the Wraith, for safety's sake, only worked on systems where he couldn't harm us or pull any tricks — systems she herself designated for him — still didn't satisfy the Proculucian.
So how am I supposed to deal with this?
Finally, tired of her reaction and her worsening mood, I asked the question I wanted answered.
"What's going on? You knew he would be working with us. You agreed it was the right thing to do…"
"We only talked about him helping to restore the other Lantians," Chaya's voice became firmer and more confident. Apparently, all these half-truths were annoying her too. And as soon as she had the chance to clear the air, she decided to speak her mind. "I agreed to that, but I didn't think you would bring him to repair the ship! Do you have any idea how dangerous this is!"
"But you check and double-check his work yourself," I reminded her. "And you said he hasn't done anything that could harm us."
"That's what I think. But knowing how treacherous these beings are, I can't rule out… that the danger will be waiting for us in open space!" The girl stopped in the middle of the corridor and looked at me accusingly.
"And what do you suggest?" Now I was getting annoyed. "Sit back and wait while we spend a year or so restoring a single starship? Does anyone even know what could happen in that time? We don't have enough people!"
"I could start training the Athosians…"
"So you trust people who might carry Wraith genes more than you trust a Wraith?"
"Yes!" lightning flashed in Chaya's eyes. "At least they didn't go around draining the life from people I knew and cared about! We are cooperating with an enemy who is just waiting for the moment to stab us in the back!"
Here we go again…
"We've already discussed this," I reminded her. "Without him, the plan won't work."
"And do we even need a plan that makes us dependent on a Wraith, that brings beings back to the city who might kick us out of Atlantis or even become enemies?" the furious Chaya clarified. "If you haven't forgotten, the Ascended are closer to them than you or I are. And the Aurora's crew certainly doesn't have a bone to pick with the Ascended the way you and I do!"
"So, in your opinion, it would be better to spend decades teaching Athosians or someone else the knowledge of the Ancients, rather than bringing the Ancients themselves back to life?" Her "Baba Yaga says no" act was starting to get on my nerves. Even piss me off.
"Once more, yes!" Chaya said. "In my opinion, it's much more practical than trusting a Wraith responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not millions, and hoping he won't betray us…"
No, I understand all the danger of this kind of behavior. But at the same time, this is a bit much for worrying about every little thing. She worried less about the information about the Queen of Death being right next to us!
I have a feeling there's something else here… Something more personal.
And it's definitely not the fear of being kicked out of Atlantis — we can find ourselves somewhere else, no problem. Yes, it won't be Atlantis, but… After all, there are dozens of Ancient installations scattered across the galaxy. We'll find ourselves in some of them for sure. Not to mention that we could live quite comfortably and wonderfully on Taranis itself. Or Athos… In short, there are no hopeless situations. Or I just can't see them. And Chaya can't name any either, even though, as smarter (no shame in admitting that) and more competent in dealing with the Lantians, she should know what to expect from them.
Not to mention that it's not even a fact that the crew is made up of Lantians. We have no data on that, so all things considered, I'd rather not waste time on nonsense and just act.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
"You're not telling me something," I stated. "You have a personal reason for not wanting to meet the Aurora's crew, don't you?"
"That's my personal business!" Chaya snapped. "I've outlined the threats for you, but if you think the risk justifies the possible consequences, then it's your decision to make. After all, you're the idea generator here, and I'm just an engineer, a master of technology! You said it — I did it! And now, I need to work on the hyperdrive!"
Without another word, the girl grabbed a tool bag and walked off down the corridor. But she immediately turned into one of the side passages and disappeared from my field of view.
What the hell is going on here, I'd like to know?
* * *
"You're leaving, aren't you?" Seliz quietly asked, watching Kirik pack his few belongings into a travel bag.
"We're leaving tomorrow," he informed her, folding a second set of clothes and several spare weapon options. Sure, the ship had an arsenal of firearms equipped, and everyone would carry at least a pistol or assault rifle, but life had taught the former fugitive to approach potentially lengthy trips with due care. "The final preparations and checks are happening while we're talking. The ship has already made test flights from Taranis to Atlantis, and everything is fine. Mikhail doesn't want to wait."
"So why doesn't he go alone?" Seliz asked. "You said Chaya flew between planets by herself."
Kirik sighed heavily.
"Not entirely alone," he admitted. "Mikhail was with her, learning to pilot the ship. He says it's no harder than flying a jumper. But… that's their business, the Ancients' business."
"Have they made up?"
"I don't think so. Otherwise, Chaya would be flying with us, instead of deciding to stay on Atlantis."
"I see," Seliz sighed. "If she were flying, I would have stayed with Teyla's people. They're good people."
"They have a lot of work right now," Kirik reminded her. "Everyone, even the children, is involved in clearing new fields. I would have liked you to stay there too, but Chaya said you need to review the material you've covered. Since you decided to become a doctor…"
He didn't mention that Sar had uncompromisingly taken the girl under her wing and guardianship the moment it became known that the Ancient gene had taken hold in her. Nor did he mention that the gene was very weak and there was no hope that one day Celise might take him for a ride in a "jumper." She would, however, be able to use the most basic Ancestor technologies. And she had taken a very strong interest in medicine.
"I promised you I'd become a doctor and take that thing out of your back," Celise said, growing serious.
"I remember," Kirik said, unable to hold back a wide grin. "I'm sure you'll manage. But now that the gene has taken, you're going to have to study even harder."
Celise looked sad. While Athosian children were playing with each other or working in the fields, she was languishing under hundreds of meters of ocean depths in an empty city. And for company she'd have only Chaya Sar, who'd grown irritable. Though, after the gene had taken, the Ancient had become more attentive to the girl. Almost caring.
"Can I come with you?" the girl asked. "I don't want to sit here alone..."
Kirik tossed the last thing he wanted to take into his bag. He looked at his ward, smiled, and walked over to the bed. Celise was sitting on the edge, legs dangling, hugging the rag doll he'd made for her some time ago.
He crouched in front of the girl and, out of habit, touched her nose, still smiling.
"You won't be alone," he assured her. "Chaya is staying with you. She promised to look after you while we're away. So you have nothing to fear."
"I'm scared," the girl admitted. "It's so empty here... Everything glows, no one's around, and I don't know what to do."
"But you're studying," Kirik reminded her. "Chaya says you're doing well with what the computer teaches you."
"It's interesting," the girl confirmed. "But there's still so much to learn. Chaya said it could take a whole lifetime, because the Ancients had so much knowledge. If I want to be useful, I'll have to study a lot while I'm little."
"But that's better than running from Wraiths, isn't it?" Kirik clarified.
"Yes," Celise admitted. "And the food here is good."
The former runner ruffled her hair and stood up.
"Then everything's fine," he said. "You won't even have time to miss me before I'm back."
"And will there be more people in the city?" Celise perked up.
"If everything goes well," Kirik confirmed.
"Will there be anyone to play with?"
Kirik didn't like lying to his ward. But he had reasonable doubts that on an Ancient warship there would be anyone interested in playing with a girl from a primitive — by their standards — world.
So he needed to redirect the child's attention.
"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" I said, pretending to frown. "You've decided that because you beat me at checkers three times, I'm not fun to play with anymore?"
The game Mikhail had shown her had really hooked Celise. So much so that she could play it for days straight. But finding playmates was hard — Athosian children preferred playing Wraiths to slapping round pieces around a checkered board.
* * *
Contrary to what Chaya had promised, the hyperdrive repair took not two days, but only one and a half. At first I thought the worst — maybe the woman had planted some kind of trick for us — but the onboard computer and scan systems, including independent ones, showed that the mechanism was working properly.
This was confirmed by our independent expert and cannibal, Koschei. He also double-checked and confirmed the accuracy of the jump coordinates Chaya had provided. Yes, a Wraith wasn't the most reliable source of information, but after her démarche a day ago, Chaya had essentially reduced our communication to a "boss-subordinate" level. For what reason, and what demons in her head got along well enough to cause such a performance, the Proculucian woman refused to say. Along with talking about anything other than the mission.
And I had no other data sources. This kind of behavior was starting to annoy me. And I figured that after returning from the expedition, I'd need to solve the question of my own usefulness myself. Having the Ancient gene but not their knowledge, being an errand boy — I was frankly sick of it.
The Hippaforalkus was practically fully repaired and ready to head out to the Aurora. So there was no point in delaying. Right now, provisions were being loaded on board for the small crew that was going on the expedition. Me, Kirik, Alvar, Teyla, and a dozen Athosians to serve as jailers and guards for Koschei, who was also flying with us.
"Dynamic diagnostics have not identified any malfunctions," Chaya said monotonously. Besides the two of us, there was no one else on board the Hippaforalkus. The rest of the crew was currently at their stations — the Athosians standing watch near the generator room, the backup bridge, life support systems, storage rooms, and so on. Or they were just getting ready to come on board with the cargo. "All systems are operating optimally."
The fact that the ship had a transporter — exactly the same kind of chamber as the network on Atlantis — made life a whole lot easier. No shuttling around in "jumpers." A few seconds, and you go from the ocean floor to being on board a spaceship.
"You have a third of the standard ammunition stock, but that's enough to fight off an entire squadron. I've set the pulse cannons to defensive mode, so you'll have something to fight off the 'Darts.' But again, it's unlikely you'll encounter any enemy at the Aurora."
"Is the Wraith mental power inhibitor working without issues?" I asked. After dozens of attempts to talk to her about other topics, I'd given up. She didn't want to — fine, then. I didn't know if it was female or professional jealousy, but the fact remained that my relationship with Chaya had changed for the worse. No logical argument to get her to come with us had gotten through to her. So I had to make do with the numerous spare parts and complete ship schematics. If something went wrong, we could handle small repairs.
And honestly, the ship's control systems weren't any more complicated than a "jumper's." From the command chair, you could control the starship with your thoughts, and the smart onboard computers would handle everything themselves. It was just that launching projectiles from outside the special compartment was pretty problematic. But getting from the bridge to the right room took only a couple of minutes. There was no way our shields would be breached in that time. At least not if we were talking about Wraith technology.
Yes, Chaya said she'd added a control line from the chair that launched projectiles to my console, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.
"Everything is working normally," Chaya replied dryly. "Once you reach the ship, just think about docking. The battleship will match speeds and dock with the Aurora on its own. Just in case, you have five spacesuits. I've copied the Aurora's schematics to your scanner and to the Hippaforalkus's database, so you'll be able to configure things on board yourself. The stasis pods installed on board are easily removable and have a day's worth of power. That's plenty of time for you to move them to the Hippaforalkus and connect them to its power system in the storage rooms from two through ten. If the Wraith can revive any of the crew members, I'd suggest starting with the captain, the chief engineer, or the senior officer — they have the most complete information about the ship and the technology on board. At least they should."
"Good," I nodded. "Any more advice?"
"Don't forget to activate the inertial dampeners before turning on the engines," Sar said.
"Got it," I said — yeah, I wasn't keen on experiencing G-forces either. "Anything else?"
"Kill the Wraith the moment you think he's deceiving you," Chaya said coldly. "Because he will be."
"I'll keep that in mind," I promised. "Take care of yourself, Celise, the city, and everything we have while we're away. We'll be back soon enough..."
Chaya didn't respond to that. She just nodded to Kirik and Alvar as they entered the bridge, then left us. The guys took their seats at the consoles, whose systems Chaya had taught them to operate using an express method during loading, and acted like they hadn't noticed anything.
"Teyla will join us soon," Alvar said, looking at the endless space opening up before us. "She decided to check the posts..."
I closed my eyes, letting my mind connect to the ship's systems. The Hippaforalkus, like a "jumper," had no intelligence of its own or anything like it. It's hard to describe what you feel when connecting to such systems... Like a trained dog sitting calmly, waiting for your command.
"I think it's time to start," I said, after getting confirmation from the ship that Chaya had left the battleship. Keeping her on board against her will would have been utter stupidity. There was still a chance to mend relations, so it wasn't worth making a fuss.
"Everything's calm on board," came Teyla's voice as she stepped onto the bridge. She slipped into the auxiliary systems console and, like Kirik and Alvar, fastened her seat belts. Non-standard equipment, incidentally. Apparently the Ancients weren't in the habit of "buckling up."
"Koschei is in a cell. We stunned him and hooked him up to an IV with sedatives."
Our supplies would be enough for the round trip. The method that worked when transporting him to Atlantis would work now too.
"Well then," I gave a mental command to activate the inertial dampeners and the standard protocol systems. "As they say, 'here we go'..."
A pale-green, ink-blot-like window into hyperspace opened before the Hippaforalkus's nose. And in a second, the starship was inside a glowing tunnel. My first interstellar flight had begun.
The Hippaforalkus enters hyperspace.