Head tilted slightly to the right, a motherly, caring gaze, a polite smile, smoothed hair...
A model of modesty, virtue, and care.
Ganos Lal.
That's how she remembered her.
"I'm no longer that naive Proculucian girl I was ten thousand years ago," Chaya warned. "And I don't believe in the kindness of the Ascended."
"Yes, you fancy yourself a Lantian," a smile appeared on Ganos's lips. "That theory of territorial identity of yours... It's amusing. Only unlike them, you're smart. Impulsive, but smart. You know that it doesn't work with words. And genetically, you can't become better."
"I'm satisfied with who I am," the girl declared.
"A problem for everyone around you?" Lal smiled the same way.
Chaya couldn't find an answer.
"Come now," the Ascended continued to smile falsely. "You perfectly understand that you don't belong among them. Yes, your genetics aren't as developed, but your mind, your scientific streak, your spirituality... You've Ascended once already."
"I was helped," Chaya frowned.
"They can help again," Lal assured her. "We have time to talk and correct an unfortunate mistake."
"A mistake?" Chaya repeated mechanically. "What are you talking about?"
"About your stay among mortals," Ganos answered. "Don't you see that you don't fit in with them?"
"I don't understand what you're talking about," Sar said, gathering all her willpower. Her mental development training should help protect her mind...
But the girl was too flustered by the sudden appearance of the Ascended. In the circumstances known to her, it seemed unthinkable.
"You do understand," Lal wasn't fooled. "Everything happening now is your fault. And you realize that. Just as you realize that trying to fix the situation, solving the problem radically, won't lead to anything good."
"So far everything is fine."
"So far," Lal's thin eyebrows rose slightly. "Because you don't know that. There's a battle happening at the edge of the galaxy right now."
"That's how it's supposed to be..."
"Everything went off plan," the Lantian woman said.
"According to you."
"Have I ever lied to you?" Lal wondered. "My girl, I've always been frank with you."
"No," Sar said firmly. "What I've learned about the Lantians now... There was never any frankness. You were a member of the Council! You knew everything Atlantis did in the galaxy! You knew what the gene was for! You knew what was happening! And you kept silent!"
"And again your impulsiveness," Lal sighed with a hint of irritation. "Don't you have enough intelligence to realize that?"
"Did you come to lecture me?" Sar asked the Ascended suspiciously.
"I came to help," Ganos said. "To take you where you belong. To the higher plane of existence. To all of us."
"No," Chaya shook her head. "Not after what I've learned."
"As if it's the first time," Lal sighed.
"What are you talking about?" Chaya grew wary. Something in the Ascended's words caught at her... But her heart was beating so fast, thoughts flying apart, that she just couldn't figure out what it was.
"You don't understand this because your human essence prevents you from thinking clearly," Ganos said.
"Then help me understand!"
"I'm not here for that."
"I don't want Ascension!"
"You do."
"No."
The Ascended shook her head.
"Chaya Sar, you are a grown, unreasonable child," she said with the same reproach she used during training. "You refuse to acknowledge obvious facts because you place the personal above the common."
"No," Chaya repeated stubbornly.
"Yes," Lal countered. "And you realize yourself that if not for your interference, if not for the weight of your failures, these people would be living much more peacefully. Your fears resulted in the Wraiths hunting you. And not just any Wraiths, but the very consort of the Queen of Death. That's one big problem. And it happened because of you."
Chaya felt her face flush.
"You, like all our children, want good, prosperity, development, and achievement," Lal's voice burbled like the melody of a mountain stream. Insinuatingly, slightly ringing, soothing. "Do you remember what I told you about revolutionary and evolutionary development of society and consciousness?"
"Revolutionary development requires that society and public consciousness be largely ready for it, understanding and accepting responsibility for their actions," Chaya answered mechanically.
"Exactly, my girl," Ganos confirmed. "The people you've entangled yourself with don't understand this. Because they are in the wrong place and the wrong time. This is not meant for them. Not for you."
And... she's right... Chaya is superfluous here.
"For Earthlings?" she asked quietly. "You left Atlantis for people from Earth?"
"Correct," Lal nodded. "For descendants who understand us. Who know what they want, who don't reduce their existence to survival. This population that settled our city contrary to the plan is not viable. It's a mistake. General Hippaforalkus was wrong, and you believed he was right."
"He was always right."
"Maybe then he wouldn't have died because of his mistakes?" the Ascended clarified.
"He didn't die," Chaya corrected. "He Ascended. And he helped me do the same."
"Ten thousand years ago," Ganos said. "And even then, his actions were condemned. The Consensus thought he had reformed, but no. He continued making mistakes, one after another, one after another... And it's because of the last that he ceased to exist."
"You deprived him of Ascension?" Chaya was horrified.
"He is no longer in the Consensus," Lal answered evasively. "I don't know what happened to him. And the others won't let me find out for a number of reasons."
"What reasons?"
"You know."
"No!"
"You do. But those memories are blocked for you. Such are the rules."
"No one can use the knowledge of the Ascended while remaining mortal," Chaya nodded. "But there are cases..."
"We're not dealing with those cases now," Lal grimaced. "We're talking about you. And we're running out of time. We must leave together."
"Why? I had a reason to reject Ascension! Why should I break my decision and return?"
"You know why."
"I don't!"
"That knowledge is in your head. Yes, it's blocked, but emotions, feelings... You have them. And," Ganos Lal smiled a little more kindly than basic politeness required. "After all, you're still a smart girl. Even if you forgot, you'll understand..."
"Mikhail," Chaya blurted.
"A man from another universe," Lal confirmed.
"He's the reason I rejected Ascension?"
"All of us sometimes do the wrong things we shouldn't have done," Lal's voice sounded somehow special. As if she knew well what she was talking about. "And every mistake has a price."
"I know enough to understand that if I voluntarily returned to mortal existence, I could have kept memories of Ascension," Chaya said. "At least some part... But not the few crumbs I can recall."
"Your memories of everything concerning your existence as an Ascended are blocked by you yourself," Lal said reluctantly.
"Nonsense. I wouldn't have done that," Chaya declared.
"But you did."
"No! If I regained my humanity in order to be with a man, to save him, then I wouldn't have given up the knowledge of the universe!"
"Even if it would have brought the wrath of the Ascended down upon you?" Ganos Lal clarified. "No one is allowed to carry the knowledge of the Universe into a mortal body."
"You're wrong," Chaya protested. "And you know that I know about Moros, Orlin..."
"Not in our galaxy, my girl," Lal cut her off dryly. "The leniencies that were in the Milky Way don't work here. However, you can't know that—you never visited that galaxy."
"Mikhail said I was punished and bound to my world."
"Actions and consequences," Lal confirmed.
"And also, you shouldn't tell me something I can't know," Chaya narrowed her eyes. "But you just did."
"Because it's just a small fluctuation of changes," Ganos Lal readily answered. "If we touch something more significant, it will draw the attention of the Consensus. And then they will stop me."
"I'm starting to understand why Mikhail finds the rules of Ascension annoying," Chaya muttered.
"Not only him," Lal's voice turned icy. "But the conversation now is not about him."
"It is about him," Chaya said firmly. "Do you think I don't see what you're doing? You say he's in danger, mentioning that the operation went off plan. You say that because of him I rejected Ascension. You point to humanity as something faded, drab, like leaves after rain stuck to a sole. That's insulting!"
"Maybe," Ganos Lal agreed easily. "But the emotional coloring of information perception cannot contradict the facts. He appeared, and you lost it."
"Maybe because you wanted to kill him?"
"Kill?" Lal was surprised. "My girl, the Ascended do not interfere in mortal affairs. That's..."
"The basic rule, I know," Sar began to get angry. "But he would have drowned if I hadn't intervened. Right?"
"Yes, and the violation of universal harmony would have been resolved with his death."
"Do you hear yourself?" Chaya flared up. "You essentially watched as a man capable of preserving your legacy, a man you asked to deal with problems in the Milky Way, drowned!"
"He's not as important as the general thought," Ganos Lal cut her off. "Especially since he's not doing anything to solve the problems."
"Because he needs to ensure the safety of Atlantis before heading to the Milky Way!"
"That's his point of view," Lal remarked calmly. "Others maybe don't see it, or prefer to ignore the little bug, but I understand what he's doing. He placates our attention with words that he'll soon get to his task, but at the first opportunity he shirks it. Do you think he's so interested in reviving the Aurora crew? Believe me, no. He's just finding an excuse not to do what he promised."
"Do you even hear yourself?" Sar was horrified. "You gave him a task and calmly watched him die! And after that you want him to rush to the Milky Way at the first opportunity?"
"Perfectly workable plan," Lal noted calmly. "And the longer he ignores the hints, the worse it will be for him."
"So you are still involved in what's happening," Chaya concluded.
"The Ascended cannot interfere in mortal affairs," Lal shook her head with a smile.
"But they can do it indirectly, like you now," the Proculucian noted. "Your frankness here is not accidental, is it?"
"I want to bring you back."
"I already told you I won't return. I trust my decision to leave the higher plane of existence."
"Is that so?" Lal was surprised. "Brave. Pretentious. And selfish. Shall I tell you why I emphasized the last?"
"Because it's my desire," Chaya sighed. "My personal one. My action."
"But everyone will share the responsibility," the Lantian woman noted. "Every action of yours exceeds what these people can do. Where they would have suffered defeat and learned a lesson that would make them many times stronger, your scientific knowledge spares them the mistake. And they are quite confident that this is the normal course of things. But at the same time, they don't notice or prefer to ignore the fact that without you, they would be better off. And safer."
"No."
"Your egoism ceases to be amusing."
"They need me!"
"Oh, that unfulfilled feeling of guardianship," Lal laughed quietly. "You couldn't protect your own people, but you strive to protect someone else. A specific man, your community, humanity... Chaya, a whole civilization that gave birth to life in this galaxy didn't succeed at that. You can't be smarter than all generations of Lantians. No matter how hard you try—your actions lead to sad, far-reaching consequences. You do remember where good intentions lead, don't you?"
That old saying from school days again...
"Good intentions lead us to the Ori," the proverb slipped from her lips. "That's not the same thing."
"Right, 'it's different'," Lal laughed.
"I don't see anything funny," Chaya admitted.
"For you—no," Ganos confirmed. "But the man might find my emphasis on the last words worthy of a smirk."
"The man has a name," the Proculucian reminded.
"The mere fact of its existence isn't enough for me to remember it," Lal shrugged. "I'm not here for that."
"I'm tired of repeating—I won't return."
"You must return," the sharp tone of the words, literally spat through gritted teeth, stunned Chaya. "Now. Time is almost up!"
"You haven't given a single valid argument yet."
"You're driven by egoism that must be cast aside!" Lal insisted. "Cast it aside and you'll see you're hindering these people!"
"Whose side are you even fighting for?" Chaya wondered. "First you say the people around me don't interest you, then you insist that without me they'd be better off. What business is it of yours?"
"I'm looking at the situation from the position of an independent judge," Ganos explained. "And since this man didn't die, since he started to achieve something, then let him keep floundering. He doesn't interest me, only you."
"Why?"
"You don't belong with them," anger sounded in Lal's voice. "He... An abomination! A violation of the laws of the universe! Immoral!"
"Expressive, egoistic, pretentious," a smile played on Chaya's lips. "Familiar, isn't it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," the Ascended answered coldly.
"You do," Chaya saw it in her eyes. "Mikhail told me a lot."
"But not everything," the Ancient said warily.
"Enough for me to draw conclusions," Sar leaned forward, demonstrating that she had seized the lead in this conversation. "Dreams to the Athosians, passivity regarding Mikhail, the attempt to return me to the Ascended... You're afraid of him!"
"Not him," Lal grimaced. "But what he does in his unreasonableness. And unpredictability. You are a faction of egoists that does nothing for the common good. The Consensus does not believe in your good intentions. And one day you will play too far with free will—they will stop you. All of you at once. The only thing I can do to prevent that from happening to you is to help you Ascend."
"Regardless of the fact that I don't want it?"
"You want to Ascend! You desired it with all your heart your whole life! Ascension is a way to become equal with others..."
"With those who wiped their feet on the Lesser Races, keeping them in the position of slaves and laboratory animals?" Chaya clarified. "No, thank you, I don't want to."
"That didn't stop you before," Ganos Lal remarked. "But the man..."
"Mikhail," Sar corrected. "He has a name."
"He's a filthy animal!" The girl was momentarily frightened, hearing the jumper's bulkheads groan. The Ascended had exerted her considerable strength, interfering in the real plane of existence.
And nothing happened.
"Don't you see what's happening?" Lal pulled herself together. "Falling in love with a human is, of course, not a vice. Even if it's immoral nonsense to have a relationship with one's own descendants..."
"There are no descendants of mine in this galaxy or any other," the Proculucian cut in. "There was no one who considered me a worthy partner. For everyone, I was just an element, a tool, a puppet. The same as all the Lesser Races."
"You don't understand," Lal shook her head. "He is a mistake. Wild, primitive, with many complexes... Think for yourself, what Lantian woman would agree to share her partner with another?"
"Is that why Janus surrounded himself with lovers from the Lesser Races?" Chaya jabbed. "Oh yes, he had Melia... Why don't you ask her if Atlantis's chief scientist was faithful after he bound himself to her with bonds...?"
"Enough," Ganos Lal cut her off. For a moment she sat with her eyes closed. "Please, my girl, let's go. This is your last chance to Ascend."
"No," Chaya cut in. "I trust myself. If I decided to become human, then the man for whom I did it is more than worthy. After all, I didn't do this in the events known to Mikhail for another Earthling. Specifically that Earthling who was supposed to come here but didn't."
"Don't judge, because you don't know the reason..."
"I don't need to know," Sar cut in. "For too long I was a toy in someone else's hands. Blind, fooled, used... Does it disgust you that I share him with Trebal? Do you grimace at the thought that a more developed version of a Lantian could become the father of a child whose mother is half-Lantian?"
"All of this... is an abomination!"
"Because it doesn't fit into your plans?" Chaya clarified.
Ganos opened her mouth to answer but held back.
"That's what I thought," Chaya nodded to her thoughts. "What is allowed to Lantians is not allowed to Lesser Races. You flaunt rules, but you learned long ago how to circumvent them. You had a plan, developed many thousands, even millions of years ago. And you implemented it, pushing Earthlings to come here, to find the answers left for them. And it gnaws at you that the plan failed."
"You don't understand."
"Is that so?" Chaya clarified. "Mikhail told me how in the events known to him, you pretended to be a training hologram to give the right answers to people from Earth. And thereby helped them move forward in their search for a weapon against the Ori. You broke the rules, but they didn't return you to mortal form. After all, you helped people find a weapon against the power of the Ori. The Ark of Truth, which the Alterans created to reveal the truth about who the Ori really are. And after that, you entered into battle with the last of the Ascended Ori. Engaged her in an equal battle on the higher planes of existence, as Oma Desala did earlier against Anubis. Was that your punishment for helping people? An eternal battle of Ascended, where defeat is death."
"My sacrifice helped people of two galaxies get rid of the influence of the Ori!"
"From influence?" Chaya clarified. "Or was it not a sacrifice? Was it a plan, and the one who broke the rules fell into it? The one who considered herself above the rules and sought to help people so that what was intended would come to pass?"
"You don't know what you're saying."
Can a being made of pure energy turn pale?
"No, I understand," confidence rang in Chaya's voice. And a smile played on her lips. "You said and did exactly what I hoped for. Thank you, my first teacher, I have received my last lesson."
The smile on Ganos Lal's face vanished.
"What are you talking about?" she asked with a hint of threat.
"No need for special effects and primitive emotions, Ascended," Chaya leaned back in her chair, placed her hands on the armrests. And for the first time in thousands of years, she allowed herself a smile that made her whole being rejoice. "You can't harm me anyway. As long as there remains at least one chance that your plans will be realized, you are still needed by the Consensus of Ascended of Pegasus. That's why you're here—to take me away. To remove the key factor of easy success that my beloved has."
Steel appeared in Lal's eyes.
"Dreams for the Athosians, manipulation of Mikhail, subtle injections of information that could play on my impulsive nature and desire to protect everyone," Chaya continued. Even though she didn't want it, her voice became ruthless. "I don't know if you did this personally, or if it was the Consensus's design, but this is what you were after. You cast a line with bait that the old Chaya Sar would not have resisted. Headlong, abandoning everything and everyone, she would have rushed to the other end of the galaxy to obtain what she desired, to use it, to rid everyone of danger and pain. All to close the void inside herself. To defeat her demons, to convince herself that I was needed, that I was loved, that I wasn't just an appendage to something, but capable of doing something for which I would never be forgotten. You manipulated my guilt complex. You watched over our shoulders as we slowly unraveled your ball of abomination and immorality. The two of us—the one who can ask the right questions, and the one who can find answers. You can't convince Mikhail to back down. So you went after me. Coming to me on Atlantis was dangerous, because then everything could have spiraled out of control. Someone could have seen, scanners could have detected an energy spike... Or one of the many laboratories would have triggered. The holographic hall, after all, is the only place in the city extremely shielded from detection by an Ascended, isn't it? You don't have to answer," Chaya allowed. "I know this. You worked with young minds. You instilled in them what turned them into servants. They came to you like moths to a light, not knowing that the lamp was held in the hands of a parasite more fearsome than many. There is only one truth, isn't there?" the girl looked into the Ascended's eyes without fear, demonstrating that everything was going according to her plan. "'The Universe is infinite.' As infinite as the iterations of our actions and their motives. As infinite as your egoism and selfishness, which does not fade with millennia."
"You don't know what you're saying."
"Then correct my mistakes, my first teacher," Chaya said with a cocky smile she had seen many times on Mikhail. What a simple facial gesture, and how much inner strength it adds to the speaker! "You won't, because you can't interfere. Directly, at least. And all of you," Chaya grimaced disgustedly, looking at the Ascended and glancing around the space around herself, understanding that other Ascended might be present and watching. "All of you talk about the common cause, about the future, about how the plan must be followed. But this is YOUR plan. Not mine. Not the plan of those people who believed in you and were thrown by you to the margins of life because you wanted to live longer!"
"You don't understand..."
"Maybe," Chaya nodded. "Maybe it's impulsiveness speaking in me, not a scientific approach, but I already understand the general outline. The Wraiths are your experiment. Maybe not specifically yours, Ganos Lal, or those who lived during the war, I haven't figured that out yet. But it's a Lantian experiment. You wanted to live as long as possible... And I even have a guess why."
A sardonic smile of a mad genius, confident in his rightness, appeared on her lips.
"Ascension isn't as interesting as it seemed, is it?" she clarified. "It's a dead end. Perhaps not as simple as a human might think. I'm sure there are dozens, if not more, levels of Ascension, and you haven't reached the final station. But it will come. Everything has a limit. Even the Universe is finite — we only believe otherwise because we can't comprehend it empirically."
Lal was now staring at her with outright hostility.
"But there's another hypothesis," Chaya 'delighted' her. "Ascension isn't a mechanical but a spiritual process. Purity of soul, thoughts, aspirations. And you have big problems with that. That's why you studied how to prolong your lives. Studied energy-based life. Studied the mechanism of Ascension, accelerated technogenic evolution. But you couldn't do what was done in the Milky Way. Millions of Ancients died, and only hundreds, maybe thousands, Ascended. The process isn't perfect and doesn't suit everyone. That's why you needed a backup plan — to prolong life so you'd have time for everything. And when, instead of longevity, you got monsters that feed on life itself, you decided to shut down the project. Destroy it, like you did with the Asurans. By the way, a question. Were the Asurans destroyed because they disagreed with you, like dozens of other lesser races, more developed than the Dorandans but less so than the Ytranci? Or was it really about the nanites?"
Ganos Lal's face no longer glowed.
It was white as chalk.
Chaya demonstratively stretched out her long, tanned legs and crossed one over the other.
Then, after a moment's thought, she crossed her arms over her chest.
And kept smiling.
"There is only one path, the Lantean path," she said. "And whoever doesn't fit that path is destroyed. There can be no compromises."
Lal's figure began to be covered in white flame.
"Do you have any idea that because of your stubbornness and egoism, the Wraiths have annihilated billions?" Chaya said with disgust. "Instead of finding ways to solve the problems that were clearly easier for you to solve than for us, you chose to erase what was written rather than correct the mistakes... How many victims are on your hands? How much blood have you spilled? And why," Chaya jumped to her feet, "why did you Ascend and consider yourselves a model of morality?"
"I suspected you were my greatest mistake," Ganos Lal also stood up. And now her figure wasn't just covered in snow-white flame. She had become it. "You're coming with me. Right now."
"Make me," Chaya said defiantly. "You don't have the strength for that."
"I still have a little time while the others..."
"You have no time," another voice rang out in the Jumper.
"Get out, Melia," Lal hissed, beginning to glow brighter. "This must end here and now! She's coming with me!"
"If she wants to, then let her," the second Ascended, but looking human, calmly walked from the cargo compartment of the ship into the passenger section and stood between the two women, facing Ganos Lal. "But she already said she wouldn't."
"Just a foolish girl!"
"It's her choice," every phrase from Melia sounded like a whip crack. "Interfere and you'll be brought back. Or something even worse."
"I must save her!" Lal moved forward...
And the next moment, something invisible but powerful yanked her out of reality, leaving no trace behind.
"How foolish," Melia sighed feignedly, turning to the Proculussian. "Satisfied with yourself?"
"Will she be punished?" Chaya asked quietly.
"That's not for me to decide," she replied in a calm tone. "If it were up to me, you'd already be torn apart into subatomic particles."
At these words and how matter-of-factly they were spoken, Chaya felt herself falling into the event horizon of a black hole.
"I forgot what a sweetheart you are," she barely managed to control her voice. And even tried to force a semblance of a smile.
"And I haven't forgotten what a petty, spiteful little wretch you are," Melia replied just as indifferently, looking around. "Ugh, what shoddy repairs. If I were you, I'd replace the secondary drive crystals."
"You're not supposed to tell me that..."
"So I'm not doing anything," her voice and words were frankly frightening. "Well, you've asserted yourself that you can find an idiot among us who is less restrained than you. Was that pleasant?"
"Until the very finale — yes," Chaya swallowed the lump in her throat. "I... I thought that she..."
"Would become human and you'd sit holding hands on the pier, watching the sunset and arguing about the philosophy of the observer, like in the good old days?" Melia's eyebrow shot up with reproach and contempt. "Grow up, Sar, you're not twenty anymore. Think with your own head and take responsibility for your actions."
"That's so... hypocritical," Chaya winced. "You're blatantly breaking the rules, giving advice, instructions..."
Melia looked at her with the gaze of someone who had seen everything. Literally everything.
"File a complaint with the Ascended Consensus," she advised. "In triplicate, and don't forget to have the copies certified at the Alteran secretariat."
"You already told me that..." Chaya shuddered.
"And you still can't get over it," Melia smirked. "It's all happened, Sar. Live on. And pray to the Ascended that I have time to keep an eye on you. And on your mistake in particular."
"I'll pray that you look in the opposite direction from Mikhail," Chaya admitted.
Melia smiled.
"Correct, girl, do that," the smile, along with all the good nature, vanished from her face. "Because if I find the time to deal with you..."
"You know," Chaya found the strength. "I know why you're so angry. We both know. The size and the skill..."
Melia thought for a moment.
Then, to Chaya's great surprise, she nodded affirmatively.
"I'm telling you — pray that he doesn't interest me."
And she disappeared.
Chaya collapsed into the pilot's seat, powerless, unable to suppress the violent trembling that wracked her body.