And what, I ask myself, was I hoping for when I forbade Chaya from working during her recovery? Naturally, I hoped the Ancient would listen, rest, and not go looking for trouble.
I realized exactly how wrong I was on literally the tenth trip from Ermen over the next twenty-four hours. No sooner had I emerged from the "puddle" of the Atlantis Stargate than I saw the Proculus woman standing on the balcony of the control center.
Had Alvar been beside me, he would surely have said something ironic about it. Но the Ermen man had stayed on his home planet, coordinating the Athosians' looting of the Capital.
In the meantime, I was acting as courier, transporting legally-looted goods from one planet to another.
Resting an index finger on the small black "droplet" of a speaker in my ear canal, I asked:
"I should have guessed you'd sabotage the order."
"That's just my nature," the girl replied, repeating the gesture to activate her wireless headset.
It wasn't much different from the ones used on Earth in my time. However, it had been manufactured on Ermen. And yes, it came with a radio-amplifier base that had a built-in charging dock for the comm-piece.
In fact, it was a wireless earpiece paired with a microphone, and tactilely controlled to boot. Nothing new for me, but for Alvar, it was cutting-edge tech. For the Athosians, it was practically a gift from the gods.
Chaya, upon receiving one, merely lamented that it would take a little time to improve it and integrate it into the city's general communication system. Simply to ensure the material Atlantis was built from wouldn't shorten the transmission and reception range. But those were technical details.
"And aren't you afraid our prisoners will find a way to escape?"
"Even if they are smart enough to get out of the cells, I re-encoded the lock to each individual box room in the brig," the Proculus woman reported. "If the cells open without a confirming scan of the Ancient gene, the life support system will suck all the air out of there in ten seconds. And both you and I will receive an alarm signal from the Atlantis central computer on our scanners."
Recalling the thickness of the walls in the prison section, I deemed the solution acceptable. And I thought once again that we lacked trusted people to populate the city. For the umpteenth time, I wondered about searching for any Ancient ships that might still be airworthy, then remembered I had no idea how to get to any of them.
And yes, the only suitable vessel for those purposes was on a planet whose name (surprise, surprise) didn't match any in the database. To keep Chaya occupied with something truly useful in her condition, I shared a few of my thoughts on how to locate the planet we needed.
And while we were transporting the necessary supplies, she spent her time scouring the database. However, searching by categories like "supervolcanoes," "outpost," and "geothermal energy" hadn't been very helpful. The city computer simply spat out two thousand addresses. Which needed to be checked. Even if we acted one by one, it would take an age.
And besides, I could imagine what the repairs on the only ship we could find with minimal trouble would cost us. Assuming they were even still alive...
"Then come up to the hangar," I suggested. "We'll take another Jumper and head out."
The mechanism for delivering the honestly-looted property remained the same: thanks to Alvar, the Athosians located and brought items out, but only to the planet's surface. There, we loaded them into a Jumper, piling it high with the most essential gear (and there was nothing else here). That was followed by a flight to Atlantis, a change of Jumpers, a new loading, and so on ad infinitum.
Well, not exactly ad infinitum—only until all the Jumpers were loaded. Then came time for unloading.
Usually, Teyla would head to Atlantis with me on the second-to-last loaded ship. I would take the sixth Jumper, while she unloaded at least half of one of the occupied ones. Yes, we could have called some of the Athosians to help her, but the sobering encounter with the Genii reminded me that there could be spies among any people.
Bringing them here, only for them to later betray the location and everything they'd seen, was not a prospect I relished. Those little bastards could come up with something even worse.
Regardless, the idea of populating Atlantis needed to be accelerated. I had a few options, but... they all boiled down to finding the right ship. And there weren't exactly many of those around us. Yes, there was a Wraith cruiser literally right next door. I thought it could be raised and repaired. Except only a Wraith can pilot it, like many other high-tech items of the life-suckers. Or a human with Wraith genes. That was actually why I'd decided to make contact with the Athosians—there were several of those among them.
For now, the most optimal way to replenish our ranks was to rely on Teyla, who had promised to select the most loyal Athosians. We still needed at least a small security staff in the city. I'd even say it was vital. But turning Athosians into soldiers was... well, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. At least not in the near future.
"Are there Genii on the planet?" Chaya inquired.
"There are," I admitted reluctantly, powering up a new ship. "From the Jumper, I spotted several groups near the Capital; they must have arrived after Tyrus's group went missing. We killed a couple of them. And took back what they'd stolen."
"Data carriers?"
"Unfortunately, no. Only weapons. Not to mention the enemy blew up several storage rooms when they realized we would soon capture them."
"I see," Chaya said.
The girl had moved on from her dresses and now wore an Ermen uniform. Even with protective elements. Now we looked more and more like a single team. Even Teyla and Alvar had dressed up. That was actually why we were looting.
"So, I assume you weren't lying under the healing radiation, meditating and enjoying the peace," I lowered the Jumper to the level of the gate and sent the ship into the "puddle" waiting for us.
"No," Chaya answered just as calmly on the other side. "I was working on our gate problem," she demonstrated a small box, bristling with transparent crystals inside. "And I made an exception for dialing only two addresses from Ermen—Atlantis and New Athos. Any incoming wormholes, as we discussed, lead to Proculus orbit for now."
"In that case, it's time we set up our decoy," I suggested, setting the Jumper down not far from the gate.
The gate on Chaya's home planet was in space, so if anyone took an interest in Ermen, the most they would get was a lungful of vacuum and interstellar void as far as the eye could see. The Genii (who, besides us, I assumed were the only ones interested in the planet) lacked spaceships. The Wraith were another matter... but for that eventuality, we always had Athosian sentries at the gate and in the ruins to warn of an approaching enemy.
"What is this?" stepping out of the ship, Chaya asked me about the meaning of the pile of barrels and numerous crates with markings unfamiliar to her stacked near the gate.
"Fuel," I explained. "And generators, some equipment, weapons, and ammunition. We're sorting it for the Athosians right away. We don't need fuel generators and dynamos, but the Athosians will find them useful for improving their new settlement."
"There's quite a lot of it here," Chaya looked at me.
"While some are loading the Jumper for us, others are preparing a cargo net for the Athosians," I explained. "Before flying through the gate to Atlantis, I unload what our allies need, then fly out. While I'm away, and especially while the unloading is happening, the Athosians open the gate to their new home and send the useful cargo there."
"We need more pilots," the girl sighed, approaching the gate's dialing device.
"You know the risk," I said. "And it's not just about pilots. We lack absolutely everyone. Including defenses for Atlantis. Not just inside, but outside too. We can only guess when the Wraith will decide to visit Atlantis. It would be best if we had the Satellite operational by then. Or better yet, a dozen of them."
Chaya opened the control panel, ignoring the dozen Athosians watching her actions with interest. They were guarding the passage to the gate and keeping an eye on the surroundings. All of them dressed in Ermen uniforms, they were our last line of defense in the central square. Several more patrol squads and "listening posts" were positioned in the ruins.
"I've gathered some spare parts from dismantled Jumpers," she reported. "I think they'll do for repairing the external damage found on the satellite. However, without a power source, repairing it is a waste of time."
"It seems 'rest' is a strange word in the Athosian language too," Teyla said with a smile as she approached us. I had to say, the uniform suited the girl better than anyone else of her people.
"I feel better when I'm working," Chaya informed us, replacing several crystals inside the "mushroom." Well, well, I'd thought she'd just plug in the whole box. "Done. Now you can only dial the coordinates for New Athos and Atlantis from here. Likewise, you can only get here from there."
"Mikhail," Teyla addressed me. "If you don't mind, I would like to oversee the shipping of cargo to Athos. Besides, we need medicine—many of my people are sick."
"Is it anything serious?" Chaya asked, concerned.
"Take whatever you need," I permitted. The medicine we'd brought to Atlantis, and what we still planned to bring, would last us for hundreds of years. Granted, a significant portion of the medicine left behind was more suited to field medicine. But quite a few "general" drugs were stocked here as well. "But Chaya's right, if it's anything serious."
"Nothing more than a heavy cold," Teyla said. "While settling in the new place, many fell ill in the cold. I think a little medicine and warmth in the new houses will soon have everyone back on their feet."
"New... houses?" I asked.
"Yes," Teyla pointed to twenty or so large crates. "These are inflatable houses. Alvar said they were used for setting up field camps. Several dozen people can live in warmth inside each small house, and between a hundred and two hundred inside the large ones. There are panels that heat up when powered by the generators we've already delivered."
"Something like rapidly deployable structures with heating systems," Chaya realized. I suspected they had more than just minimal amenities. "Yes, we could use those too. They could be used for setting up field camps or laboratories for planetary study. Mining camps, for example."
"Alvar let us take everything from two storage rooms," Teyla said, sounding a bit down. Though she didn't show it much, Chaya's words had unsettled her. It seemed she had been counting heavily on those "houses." And she couldn't be blamed—on the new planet, the Athosians still had to get used to the new climate. It was a good thing there weren't various Tyrannosaurs wandering around.
"And he was absolutely right to do so," I assured her. "We've moved you to a new planet regardless. So we should ensure your life in the new place is no worse than in the old one."
"Thank you," Teyla smiled, heading toward another group of arriving Athosians. They were dragging more luxury items of the dead race in huge sacks and bags. I didn't know what was inside, and I didn't intend to start inspections. We were allies, after all. That meant we had to share what we had. We couldn't "swallow" it all anyway.
"I was thinking of setting up several laboratories outside Atlantis," Chaya explained her words as we returned to the Jumper. "Experiments with naquadah aren't exactly safe."
"On the other hand, we have the abandoned Athos," I reminded her. "And the Ancient outpost on the planet. With a geothermal power source."
"I thought we'd use it for our own drilling rig," the Ancient frowned.
"If we can revive the Ermen technology and build their naquadah generators, then in the short term, we simply won't need to build our own drilling platform," I chose not to mention how much effort and resources that construction would consume. "Especially since one already exists. We just need to resolve the issue with the Queen and the ship. As well as the fact that the former could blow up the latter."
"Resisting the Wraith mentally is very difficult," Chaya said quietly. "Only the Lanteans were developed enough for that. And even then, the first generation of Wraith brought them to their knees. Which is why the war went off-plan almost immediately—they were able to glean a great deal from the Lanteans' minds that they used against us."
"That's exactly why I'm not eager to head to the second planet of the Lantean system," I had to admit. "The Wraith that might still be alive there is clearly one of those who attacked Atlantis. Which means he might be stronger than anything we can handle."
"Wraith commanders are much weaker than Queens mentally," the girl said as we flew over a massive crater. People were scurrying at the bottom, stacking the achievements of the dead civilization found in the tunnels on the ground. "Their matriarchal social structure is largely based on that."
"They are also capable of exchanging telepathic commands with each other," I recalled, landing the ship. "We could get ourselves in deep trouble if that Wraith and the Queen link up and figure out how to bamboozle us. Only four sentient beings in a massive city is not exactly a force to be reckoned with against a bloodthirsty monster. Because if we set up a prison for him somewhere outside Atlantis, there's no guarantee he won't be able to escape."
"Is the only prison you trust the Atlantis brig?" the Ancient clarified.
"Exactly," I confirmed. "Whichever way you look at it, we're like someone carrying a suitcase without a handle. We lack people, resources, ships... and you can't get one without the other... and so on."
"And once again we come back to the idea that we need more people, at least to start with," Chaya sighed. "And we can't get Lanteans, because your plan to bring them back to life involves a Wraith, doesn't it?"
"It does," I admitted, following the girl out of the ship. "You know, I have an idea how to increase our soldier count. From among those who hate the Wraith one way or another and would never cooperate with them."
"Really?" Chaya was interested. "Unexpected. Not even that you had such an idea, but that you wanted to share it."
"We agreed to start with a clean slate, remember?" I asked, spotting Jensen approaching us. "How are things going?"
"Good in some places, bad in others," he admitted. "The Athosians and I have done a cursory sweep of all the small storage rooms in the tunnel network under the Capital."
"Already?" I was surprised.
"I had time," Alvar shrugged. "We ran into Genii a few times, but smoked them out and finished them off. In three places, the bombardment had collapsed the tunnels—that's how they got inside."
"So what about the knowledge repositories?" Chaya asked. "I'd like to examine them."
"Well, follow me," Jensen smirked. "Leave the ship here. Let the Athosians at least rest; they've been working like demons."
"Fair enough."
* * *
"What do you think?" Jensen asked after Chaya finished scanning a server rack. For the last ten minutes, she had been inspecting the structure visually, but no enlightenment was visible on her face.
"It's just scrap metal," she sighed. "I'm afraid the Genii didn't immediately realize what your people's data storage devices looked like. And besides, their method of extracting computer components..."
"Method?" I was surprised. "They were just ripping the parts out!"
"Well, that's a method too," Jensen noted reasonably. "Under the capital, almost all the repositories are in this state."
"Almost?" Chaya asked.
"In some, everything was removed quite safely—either they cut the boards at the solder points or cut the mountings."
The Proculus woman took a thin microchip, similar to an Earth one, between two fingers. It was only a fragment, but... no sooner had Chaya pressed a small plate on the contact group than the element popped out of its slots and ended up in her hand. The girl gave us a skeptical look.
"Fifteen seconds," she said. "That's exactly how long it took me to figure out how your ancestors secured the boards. It's not hard if you've ever taken the casing off a system unit and seen what's inside."
"It was probably done by soldiers," Alvar suggested. "That lot aren't the brightest."
"I agree," Chaya, reaching inside the server, began pulling something from side to side, then showed us a crumpled piece of metal. A very distinctive piece. "I'm afraid you're wrong, Alvar. They weren't seizing the devices and data. They were destroying them."
With that, she handed the Ermen man a flattened, jacketless bullet.
"An eight-millimeter bullet," he examined the remains of the ammunition. "Genii caliber."
"So if the Genii were interested in information, why destroy the servers?" Chaya asked aloud.
"Maybe they contained information they didn't need?" Alvar suggested.
"I still don't think that's why," I replied after a moment's thought. "I think they actually didn't understand what they were dealing with. But at the same time, they saw what we were doing. I suspect the destruction was deliberate."
"Stupid," Chaya said. "Why destroy information if you don't know what's on the server?"
"Because they sent people here but couldn't contact them," Alvar realized. "They sent new ones, who saw the bodies, began investigating, and reached the tunnels. And there they met us. Yes, that's how we found out they were here—skirmishes started in the tunnels, but then they withdrew—we drove them away from the repositories."
"And then we started hunting them, and the Genii decided to retaliate," I summed up. "They realized they wouldn't get off the planet and went all out."
"They're not an army, they're a rabble," Jensen grimaced. "Not defenders, but vandals."
"And it's also a perfect way to cover their tracks," Chaya said. "We can't know exactly what they took from here in terms of information. And we don't know exactly what they destroyed. Consequently, everything we know is nothing more than Tyrus's word. And he might not have been the only commander here."
"We can't rule out different options," I said. "There are other cities, after all, other repositories."
"And Genii squads that have almost certainly either been there before or are on their way there now," Alvar suggested. "I don't think the Genii wasted time here after we were destroyed."
"Strange you didn't run into them after your return," I said. "Then again, those guys know how to hide."
"We can't rule out that the escaping squads might have some of the disks with them," Chaya said.
"Yeah, and you said yourself the data might not survive so much time in storage," Jensen waved a hand. "It looks like we're chasing ghosts. It would be utterly foolish to waste a ton of time and pull people away from unloading to chase Genii all over the planet, only to find out they have information on Grandma's pie recipes or how to filter river water."
"Strange words from someone who wanted to kill all the Genii not long ago," I remarked.
"Yes, kill them," Alvar blurted out. "But not chase them like the Wraith chase Runners! How much time would we kill doing that? Days? Weeks? I could spend years trying to teach Athosians to be soldiers. But only a few of them will ever become ones. We've had over forty skirmishes in the Capital alone. And about a hundred wounded Athosians. Six died from their wounds before we could get them out of here. They aren't soldiers. Yes, a militia that knows which way the rifle barrel should be pointed, but they certainly won't be soldiers today or tomorrow. I simply can't split myself between training Athosians and providing assistance here. And as I understand it, we can't move forward due to a lack of military force."
"I think a month," Chaya said. Seeing our confusion, she turned the screen of her scanner toward us and explained:
"That's roughly how long it would take to scan the planet and find the Genii," the girl looked saddened. "On my last visit, I didn't even think to look at the planetary data. But even if I reconfigure the Jumper sensors to increase their coverage, even if Mikhail and I are in the air around the clock, searching a planet like Ermen, which is three times the size of Lantea, will be very difficult. Not to mention that improving the systems will lead to a brief increase in power consumption."
And once again we come back to the fact that our poor ZPM will be giving up energy faster than MMM issued vouchers. That's an unacceptable cost just to track down even a thousand Genii. After all, once we leave here, they simply won't be able to return to their home planet. Regardless of what stolen goods they might have with them.
"Let's say we stop tracking them, since we'll take everything most essential from here," I said. "But the fact remains—we need the Ermen research to learn how to make generators ourselves."
"Actually, we just need naquadah," Chaya corrected. "I think I can assemble a few generators on my own. But that will be Lantean technology, so..."
"Unlikely we'll use them outside the city," I caught on. "But... do we even need that? At least for now."
After a few minutes' silence, we reached the conclusion that was staring us in the face. What the Genii had taken was gone—at least with our current forces. We could, of course, arm every male Athosian and send them to storm the Genii homeworld, but there was a certain problem. Their philosophy.
If Teyla didn't understand why people should fight each other when there's a more dangerous enemy wanting to exterminate humanity for food, how do you explain that to the other Athosians? Yes, they understand self-defense—when the Genii attacked, they defended themselves. And they tried to negotiate first—those who died were among the talkers. Fighting the Wraith—no problem. Against humans—only in defense.
The most you can get from the Athosians is food and information they occasionally bring from other planets after negotiations. And perhaps they won't mind working in the mines, digging up minerals for us. Great... it's easier to build ourselves a robot army. But Chaya is dead against that—she's afraid of anything remotely related to autonomous devices that perform human-like functions.
Figuring out exactly what the Genii dragged away is also impossible. The bastards made sure we'd only get a fraction of what was in the repositories. According to Chaya, it's unlikely anything can be salvaged from the fragments—at least not in terms of complete knowledge.
Which means simply starting production of weapons, grenades, mines, ammunition, and so on won't work. We'll have to dismantle samples and recreate copies through trial and error. It's a long process, of course, but... we have time.
Moreover, we've only just begun to exhaust the Capital's stockpiles, and there are more in other cities. But their turn hasn't come yet. And it's unlikely we'll be able to do it. Alvar knew nothing about where the repositories in other cities were located, so our only way to find any surviving knowledge is to search the ruins there.
However, the need for that vanished as soon as we flew to those cities. The destruction in the Capital was nothing compared to what we saw in the two other cities. The Wraith hadn't just razed them to the ground—you couldn't even find any voids under the ruins. No corridors, no rooms. Only a few basements or miraculously surviving sections of corridor.
"But... why weren't the tunnels under the capital destroyed?" Alvar asked after he'd recovered from the shock of what he saw.
"The Stargate," Chaya suggested. "The naquadah it contains could have damaged the Wraith starship itself if it detonated. So they were more cautious."
I have no words, only emotions.
Ermen, which had seemed to me like that "deus ex machina" that would significantly improve our situation, turned out in fact to be no more than the aftertaste of a beckoning aroma. In reality, we have virtually no knowledge left to the locals by the Sekkari race, no technology, no production specifications. We only have stockpiles, which are valuable, but replenishing them will only be possible by spending a heap of resources on reverse-engineering experiments and precious energy.
It wasn't even comforting that we were able to spot several more Genii squads from the air. It took three missiles to scatter them, and Alvar's and my involvement to track and eliminate them. But they only had weapons and some Genii technology on them. Compared to what we got from the Ermen, it was a joke.
Still, we shouldn't despair.
The goal was initially to get anything—at least weapons. Now all the available large rooms of the central spire on Atlantis are packed with the goods we obtained. And the only pity is that the volumes will only decrease. So, in essence, we should be happy.
The Athosians are on a new planet unknown to the Wraith. We've obtained a large amount of resources, weapons, and much more that will allow us not to waste Lantean technology on everyday needs.
We've got the coordinates of naquadah mines, and there are very real possibilities of getting the energy sources we so badly needed. Yes, we didn't get everything, we've made enemies of the Genii (but that's a distant future prospect, since it's unlikely the people on their homeworld know of our involvement in what happened), but we're still alive, we've become stronger... In a few weeks, we'll finish exploring the tunnels for good, haul everything from the planet that might be useful for studying Ermen technology, and think about what to do next.
Actually, I already had one thought on that score.
I decided to voice it after the four of us returned to Atlantis. Curiously, our prisoners hadn't even died of hunger during our two-day absence. Tough bastards.
"My people are grateful for everything you have done and are doing for us," Chaya assured us. "New, albeit temporary houses, generators, power, lighting, water desalinators, weapons, clothes, ammunition, medicine... I don't even know how to thank you. We have never been so confident in the future. Finally, we have stopped fearing the Wraith and considering ourselves doomed in advance. There is still much work to be done searching for technology in the ruins, of course, but more and more of my people, men and even children, are interested in it. We know how to be grateful. As soon as the first harvest on the new planet ripens, you are all our most welcome guests."
"I'm glad my people's legacy can help you in some way," Alvar said. "As soon as we're done with the business here, I think I'll go back to training them. We got fifty launchers and quite a few missiles for them from the last repository. I think Wraith darts won't find it so comfortable flying in the skies now."
Yes, MANPADS are an excellent find. Apparently they were thought of last of all, since instead of the usual "a little bit of everything," the repository found in the Capital was filled with ammunition and launchers for repelling enemy attacks. Judging by the fact that we only found large fragments of darts on the surface and no large components or assemblies, the enemy has absolutely nothing to gain when hit.
However, there were a few more storage rooms Alvar wanted to report on later—they were blocked by passwords and heavily armored doors. Not like the one blocking access to the main repository servers, but not simple like the others either. There's clearly something valuable there. But Teyla, who brought the news, will clearly be disappointed if we break the now-traditional evening debrief and go off to loot the find. Oh, how I hope it's a server repository. Or generators, for instance... just not uniforms, please. We have so many now that we gladly shared them with the Athosians. Three-layer membrane suits went down a treat with them. Certainly better than what they had before.
"There is at least one well-preserved mine on Ermen," I said. "If your people don't mind helping us there, as soon as we check everything and ensure its safety, we can invite them to work there."
"Naquadah in ore form, and even separated from impurities and enriched, doesn't emit radiation," Chaya corrected me. "It's safe without a directed detonation."
"All the better," I sighed. "Well, we've solved some problems. But we've come to the point where we lack soldiers to operate on several missions simultaneously."
"Do you have a proposal?" Alvar asked, interested.
"Do you want to win Sora and Tyrus over to your side?" Emmagan asked, curious.
"Tell me you don't want to create Replicator servants again," Chaya pleaded.
"No," at least not for now. "However, thanks to Alvar, we know there are soldiers in this galaxy who fight the Wraith exceptionally well... and they would give a lot to get rid of the pursuit, get blood, food, and a place where they'll always be welcomed with open arms."
"Hm?" Chaya was intrigued.
"Nothing even comes to mind."
"You're joking, right?" Jensen asked. "The vast majority of them are sociopaths and loners."
"That's exactly why I intend to track them down," I had to explain. "At the very least, they have no reason to cooperate with the Wraith or any of our other enemies. Like the Genii, for instance."
"I'd like to know who you're talking about," Chaya admitted.
"Runners," I explained. "Since we need soldiers against the Wraith, we certainly won't find anyone better than them."