And I'm not burning with desire to resettle the Athosians to Atlantis — in the events known to me, they've already managed to "stir things up."
"What if you don't have to fear Wraith attacks?" Chaya asked. Yes, she ignored my under-table kick.
"Pardon?" Emmagan was astonished. "How can one not fear the Wraith when they come through the Ancestors' Ring. We're not able to prevent that."
"Whereas our good friends, I think, can," Alvar looked at me appraisingly, leaning on the table so as to sit half-sideways to us. "Or am I wrong, Misha, and your ship has nothing to do with Ancestor technology?"
"Ship?" Teyla asked. "What ship is being discussed?"
"You have an Ancestor ship?" The other Athosians took interest. "They possessed great power! You could protect us!"
What the hell...
I looked at the smirking Jensen.
Think you've backed me into a corner, leaving no choice? Clever, kid. He wanted answers upon our parting. And decided to get them this way.
"Alright," I said. "I think we can talk more openly. But only the four of us."
"That won't fly," one of the young Athosians rose. "Teyla won't stay with strangers..."
"I can stand up for myself," Emmagan said softly but unequivocally. "Leave us. And see to it that we're not disturbed."
A couple of minutes, and the "yurt" emptied.
"Don't take offense," Alvar said when no living soul remained inside besides the four of us. "But I see you want help from these people. And from me. I won't work with someone I don't trust. And it's hard to trust someone who hides the truth from me. So, let's lay it all out."
"Ah, let's," I agreed. "But you understand that our secrets you'll have to take to your grave?"
"You took the words right out of my mouth," the former fugitive smirked.
"On behalf of my people, I promise everything you say won't leave this hut," Teyla promised.
Though she tried to hide her interest, she couldn't fool me.
"Well then..." I exhaled. "Perhaps I'll start by telling who we are..."
***
"All?" Jensen asked me skeptically after an hour of conversation and three mugs of tea.
"In broad strokes," I nodded.
"Astonishing," Teyla exhaled, looking at me and Chaya with delight. The latter even got embarrassed. "You — living Ancestors! This... This is a miracle! We thought you were long gone."
"Strictly speaking, we're not quite the Ancients," I clarified. "We simply have direct connection to them."
"Those you call Ancestors — that's a confederation of many peoples," Chaya explained.
"For my people, that's not so important," Emmagan said. "Just imagine... You live in the Ancestors' city, operate their technologies..."
"I wouldn't say with full confidence," Jensen said. "I've seen how Misha flies. Embarrassing."
"Experience comes with practice," I said. "In time, it'll improve."
"Can you provide us security?" Emmagan asked. "Settle us in your city and protect from the Wraith? My people revere the Ancestors and all things related to them. We won't cause you trouble, I promise."
For the adults, she can vouch.
But the children... How to watch over them? In my memory, it was precisely an Athosian child that caused the energy-sucking entity to be unleashed in Atlantis, which caused no small problems.
And how many more it could cause, given the danger of most Atlantis labs?
I told her the latter without any hard feelings.
"It's not necessary to house them in the city," Chaya said. "On Lantea there's a continent. We could relocate the Athosians there and help them get settled in the new place. That way it would be much simpler."
"Yes, but the city is underwater," I reminded. "If something happens, say a hurricane, we'll have to evacuate people from there to the city. And we have only two people who can pilot "Jumpers." Which means hundreds of trips, and that's time and energy expenditure."
Not to mention we have only one "Jumper" boasting full operability. The rest need servicing, repairs... Parts are scarce, so the only option is to cannibalize some Jumpers for parts for the others. And once again, it all boils down to time — Chaya is the only person I know who could handle Ancient tech repairs.
"Yes, that's a problem," she admitted.
"Moreover, my people are traders," Teyla reminded. "We can't forgo trade with our other partners. We'll need fertilizers, tools, many other things."
"Which means free access to the gates," Alvar concluded. "The city should be a secure facility. We can't regularly schedule trips to other planets. Plus, at least one of your ships will need to constantly shuttle to the mainland to pick up traders, bring them to the city, and send them through the gates to other planets."
"But there's a solution," I said. "What if we find a planet with gates for the Athosians, but one the Wraith don't visit?"
"Does such a one even exist?" Alvar doubted. "The galaxy is swarming with them. I don't know a single race that hasn't run into the Wraith."
"It doesn't have to be inhabited," Chaya warmed to the idea. "From what I know of planetary colonization principles, the Lanteans strove to create identical living conditions on them. So, if nothing's changed, the Athosians could find suitable conditions in almost any world. The problem is just clearing land for fields, building houses and other infrastructure. Plus, I can figure something out for gate defense and an early warning system for approaching Wraith."
"Proposing to install a long-range sensor array on the new planet?" I asked. "That'll be quite resource-intensive."
Long-range sensors allowed Atlantis to detect ship movements, including in hyperspace. Not galaxy-wide, but in a specific, quite substantial area-volume sector of Pegasus.
I don't know how many resources a sensor complex requires, but one thing's certain — ones like those on Lantean city-ships don't exist anywhere else in the galaxy.
"On that point, I agree," Chaya said. "However, we could use simple satellites for that. If we procure the materials, I'll build simple satellites that will at least warn people of ships entering orbit a couple dozen minutes before they drop out of hyperspace. If the settlement's close to the gates, it'll help evade the Wraith."
"Can't you put some big gun here to shoot down the Wraith?" Alvar asked.
I didn't miss Chaya flinching at the question. Looks like she's no fan of big calibers.
"No," she said. "Installing a universal weapon effective against both fighters and capital ships would take a very long time."
"Well, one exists, since the Wraith are hibernating," Jensen shrugged.
"And it'd require highly efficient power sources," Chaya continued.
"I presume portable generators like those used on my planet to power military camps electrically won't cut it here?" the former fugitive specified.
"If they're at least capable of tapping zero-point energy, then yes, they would," Chaya looked at the man with such kindness and faint smile that I wanted to applaud and announce to all that the first Ancient sarcasm of my life had just been voiced.
Zero-point energy... Sounds akin to the zero-point module. Probably no coincidence. I need to at least broadly discuss with her how Lantean tech works in general. Can't just keep mashing buttons without grasping the elementary mechanics of what I'm doing?
At minimum, it won't hurt.
"Zero-point energy?" Teyla posed a very timely question. But to me.
"Precisely," I confirmed straight-faced. And immediately, realizing I couldn't answer, looked to Chaya. "Couldn't you..."
"No," the Ancient said categorically. "It's enough that this is one of the highest tiers of energy generation in the Universe. And we lack resources to power a planetary defense installation."
"What about cloaking the planet?" Alvar asked. "Your ship can turn invisible, after all."
"Is that true?" Teyla seemed to be having one catharsis after another today.
"Yes, it's true," I said. "Truly invisible to scanning systems, but still physically real. If Wraith who know about Athos fly here and don't find the planet where it should be, get surprised and decide to take a potshot at curiosity's sake, it won't prevent destruction. I'm not even mentioning how hard it is to generate a cloaking field that size..."
"Simple," Chaya replied.
"...and power it," I finished.
"So it all boils down to power sources?" Jensen asked.
"As always," I agreed.
"Let's raid a Wraith outpost," he proposed. "They've got to have generators."
"Their efficiency is much lower than what we need," Chaya rejected. "Relocating to another planet is the only sensible option in your case. This place is too dangerous."
"If your plan works and we get weapons," Teyla hinted meaningfully at the already discussed, "our home won't be so dangerous."
"You work with Ancestor tech," Jensen supported her. "So you know how to make the Ring not admit Wraith."
"That won't help when they arrive by ship," I objected. "I get you don't want to move planets. But we're offering you a chance to live in peace and safety. At least for the foreseeable future. Once we can secure Athos, we'll certainly do so."
"We won't," Chaya interrupted. "Your planet's a dangerous place to live."
"Sorry," Teyla smiled strainedly. "But we've lived here for generations. And, the Wraith aside, Athos is a wonderful place."
"Yes," I agreed. "It's lovely here..."
"Until the supervolcano whose caldera holds your settlement, the entire surrounding valley, and the city ruins across the river wakes up," Chaya showed those present her handheld. The screen featured several diagrams and pulsing points. There were jagged edges of something very much like a volcanic caldera. Just enormous. "Since we're being frank, your planet threatens you and your children. A supervolcano's eruption could not only kill you all with lava flows or volcanic gas blasts but annihilate the entire biosphere."
"I think you're exaggerating," Alvar said. "I've seen several volcanic eruptions on my home planet. Yes, scary and unpleasant to be near, but they didn't threaten the whole planet."
"This volcano's caldera spans thousands of settlements like yours in radius," Chaya explained. "Once the supervolcano erupts, ash spewed in short order will fill the atmosphere opaque to the local star's light. No light means no heat. Thus, the surface cools, plants and animals gradually die off. Then it'll be your turn."
Emmagan looked shell-shocked. You don't meet your Ancestors — or rather their descendants, as Chaya and I presented ourselves — every day. And least expect that encounter to feature a vivid account of your civilization's end.
Even I had nothing to say.
"We can always evacuate through the Ancestors' Ring if danger looms," Jensen suggested.
"The gates are made of a material called naquadah," Chaya said. Her voice held an odd intensity. From the moment she revealed the colossal problem beneath our feet, it was like she'd been swapped. Usually calm and unflappable, now she spoke as if convincing the Athosians to leave was her life's mission. Which was odd... But staging an inquisition in front of outsiders wasn't planned. Seems after losing her own people, the girl developed a people-saving complex she's implementing full-throttle here. Fine, I won't hinder — not because debating someone smarter is dumb. I've my own stakes in this. "This substance's density impacts its mass. Once the bedrock underfoot destabilizes, the gates will plunge straight into magma. You won't use them again and will be trapped on the planet. You'd be extremely fortunate if we have a hyperdrive ship able to enter atmosphere and board all refugees by then. Otherwise, casualties will number..."
Chaya trailed off, gazing at those present like a teacher explaining to classroom kids that naming Christmas Xmas isn't ideal.
***
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