The return to the control room of the Taranian outpost was marked by several facts.
Fact one – there are about thirty guards here, it's crowded.
Fact two – Kirik, Tayla, and Chaya are now standing, pressed against the observation glass of the control room.
Fact three – the first two have "Alasha" in their hands.
Fact four – the guards standing opposite also have firearms in their hands.
Fact five – a piercing siren is sounding in the air. Very similar to the sounds of Atlantis self-destructing.
"What's going on here?" Norana Piro asked, searching with her eyes for someone who could give an answer.
"I'd like to know too," I admitted, spotting someone in the crowd who least fit the category of an armed guard. "Chancellor Leikos, would you be so kind as to explain…?"
The ruler of Taranis gave me a malevolent glance. And then, addressing the guards accompanying me and his chief scientist, he barked:
"Take him!"
Oh… how bad things are.
Both guards put their hands on my shoulders and began to press down… I even saw pistols aimed at me out of the corner of my eye.
"And how?" I asked the guards. "Are you managing to bring me to my knees?"
Judging by the fact that a vein appeared on the forehead of one of the brutes, and sweat droplets on the other, they were trying hard.
"You should give up," I advised. "You should go be farmers…"
"Misha," Chaya drew attention to herself. "They wanted to capture me…!"
"And I thought, Chancellor, that we could reach an agreement," I sighed.
"Knock him out!" Leikos ordered. "He's their leader!"
One of the guards raised his pistol to hit me on the back of the head with the handle. He swung hard and…
The next second, his howl was heard – the weapon ricocheted straight into his face with the bolt carrier.
"And the guy was going for success," I commented, taking the second guard's hand. He was still holding it on my shoulder, staring dumbfounded at what had happened to his comrade. And after a few moments, writhing in pain, he fell to his knees, dropping his weapon.
We had such a game in our youth – during a handshake, we squeezed each other's hands, whoever held on longer. In two out of five cases, I managed to win – there were guys in the yard stronger than me.
"W-what did you do?" Leikos was taken aback.
"I shook his hand," I replied. "We have such a custom – we show that we mean no harm to our interlocutor. I recall, when we met, Chancellor, you didn't shake my hand…"
"I don't know how you do it, but if even one of my men gets hurt, I'll order your people killed!" Leikos warned.
"Right away?" I asked. The charge in my personal shield will last for a long time. Even if they all decide to shoot me. "Maybe you'll tell me what's going on here?"
"I'd like to know that too," the lead scientist with the mannerisms of a young woman chimed in.
"Your woman did something to our base!" Leikos pointed at the main monitor, covered in blinking red symbols. "I ordered her detained for sabotage!"
"Liar!" Chaya shouted, looking at me. "He intended to kidnap me so I would teach them how to work with our technologies!"
"I said you would be our guest!" Leikos objected. "And after that, we would let you go!"
"You wanted me to be your hostage!" the dark-skinned girl's face showed rage and a grimace of disgust. "And when I ran out of your office, you ordered me captured by any means! If I hadn't reached my friends, I don't know what would have happened!"
Ah… Now it's clear how all three of them ended up here. Yes, the reaction of the local guards is even worse than I thought.
But this is only to our advantage.
"This is the least you can do in exchange for the insults you've hurled at my people!" Leikos flared up.
"Is that true?" I clarified with Chaya.
"Yes!" she said. "I just told him that there's nothing complicated about turning on buttons that are already marked for activation!"
"You compared us to animals!"
"And who else is going to take hostage those who came to them with peaceful intentions?" Tayla clarified.
"I think 'terrorism' is a more appropriate term here," I concluded, comparing what was said. "Chaya, did you do everything as agreed?"
"Yes," she replied. "The generator is operating at five hundred percent capacity and is at its limit…"
"What?" the chancellor was taken aback. "Y-you planned all this in advance?!"
"And you thought," I wagged my finger at a guard who had tried to get between me and the chancellor, "that we came here unprepared? No, dear chancellor, we took precautions. For some reason, I had a feeling that as soon as you learned about the return of the Ancients, your asshole sense of self-importance would override the bar of adequacy and cooperation."
"Are you also going to insult me?!" the chancellor exclaimed. "I won't forget this, Mikhail!"
"Well, come on," I shrugged, pulling an energy pistol from a hidden holster. I aimed it to the side and pulled the trigger. The next second, a massive coffin, resembling a Taranian computer, turned into smoking, melted pieces of scrap metal. "The next one who tries to threaten me or my people will see a hole in their body. But only for a couple of seconds."
"And why only a couple?" Norana asked quietly.
"Because then he'll die, you idiot!" the chancellor exploded.
"And you're right about that, Leikos," I said, pushing past the guards and standing directly in front of the Taranian leader. The crystal emitter of my weapon was aimed directly at his stomach. "Come on, Chancellor! Just give me a reason! I'll gladly fry your guts!"
"You're behaving like bandits!" he hissed.
"Says you," Kirik chuckled.
"We came to take what's ours," I clarified. "And, mind you, the backup plan, in which we overload the geothermal generator, thereby activating the supervolcano, turning your planet into a branch of a thermonuclear desert in a post-apocalyptic winter version with clouds of ash in the atmosphere in a couple of minutes, was developed precisely in case you suddenly decide to 'host' someone from us."
"You planned all this in advance!" Leikos hissed.
"Well, tell me about how the idea of taking one of the Ancients into your hospitable embrace didn't occur to you yesterday, when we contacted you through the gates and communication system," I nodded towards the main screen.
After Chaya got candid on the balcony, it took a day to think through the diplomatic process. It's not that I was immediately going to get into a fight, but I understood that such an option was possible.
In the events known to me, the chancellor was quite an unyielding asshole. And, frankly, I was planning to simulate a supervolcano eruption to drive all the locals out of here and take Tarannis for myself. Along with the outpost, the dock, and the ship.
If I couldn't reach an agreement amicably, of course.
And I honestly believed that we would succeed.
Kirik and Alvar insisted on the abstract backup option. The latter, by the way, remained on Atlantis. And is ready to bring heavily armed Athosians here at any moment. This will happen in about two hours if we don't return. In full force, of course.
"I am acting in the interests of my people!" Leikos declared.
"You are an idiot who thinks he understands what he is doing," Chaya blurted out. "You ordered the siren that warned of increasing pressure in the magma chamber to be turned off! You ordered the shields, which are not designed for continuous operation, to be strengthened! And the Wraiths only flew by! Fifty light-years from Tarannis!"
"Ah…?" Norana's voice sounded.
"A light-year is the distance light travels in one year," I explained. "The speed of light is slightly less than three hundred million meters per second. Or three hundred thousand kilometers. You have a kilometer as a thousand meters, right, like us?"
"Oh," the lead specialist's eyes widened. "That means… it turns out the Wraiths flew from us…"
And she fell silent. Well, you can't calculate that quickly in your head.
"I can imagine what he would have done if a real threat had appeared," Kirik grinned. "Well, besides shitting himself."
"You are insulting us again!" Leikos proudly raised his head. Or at least he thought he did. "You must be punished for this!"
"Do you want me to kill you all here, and not even break a sweat?" I offered an alternative. "After all, there is also a punishment for taking hostages. And, since the order for this was given by the head of an entire nation, then all their representatives should suffer, shouldn't they? I think we should wait a while until the eruption occurs and your entire people perishes."
"What?!" Leikos took a step back. "I… I…"
"A magnetic coil from a buoy!" Chaya said, pressing a couple of keys on her scanner.
What's characteristic is that none of those present even flinched. Although her movements were very, very provocative. On the other hand, the local guards had already seen that they could not harm me. As I had hoped, they had the impression that I wasn't the only one with protection.
The siren went silent.
But the red warning signs and symbols on the monitor remained.
"Did you stop the cataclysm?" the chancellor asked quietly.
"No, I just turned off the siren," Chaya said coldly. "The generator will return to normal only when Mikhail gives me such an order."
"Do it!" the chancellor shrieked, looking at me.
"And why should I?" I asked. "You decided to capture and kill all of us here. And you didn't think about the consequences. Why should I meet you halfway, Chancellor?"
"I agree to your offer," he said quickly. "You can get access to our outpost and inspect the ship…"
"No."
Tayla looked at me with surprise. Come on, doesn't she know what to do in this situation? Well, she's a tribal leader.
"But you wanted exactly that?!" the chancellor was surprised. "You said so when you came here and…"
"When we came here, you didn't take my comrades hostage," I reminded him. "You didn't aim weapons at them, didn't threaten them, and so on. I recall you also mentioned compensation…"
Leikos licked his lips.
"You can take the ship," he "graciously" said. "You will not be hindered in leaving Tarannis."
"Getting warmer," I prompted.
"What?" the chancellor was surprised.
"I'm saying, it's getting warmer on your planet with every nonsense you utter," I explained.
"Are these conditions not satisfactory?" the chancellor was confused.
"Chaya," I addressed the girl. "Tell me where I'm wrong. This outpost wasn't created just like that, was it?"
"If you mean, is it not scientific, then no," Chaya said. "It's for military purposes."
"So it was created to service the hangar inside the complex," I continued to develop my thought.
"It's not a hangar, but a dry dock," the girl corrected me. "It was intended for repairing large ships. It was built in the final period of the war, when Atlantis was already underwater. And it no longer had the capacity to receive warships."
Well, I'll be. Can military ships like "Auroras" land on Atlantis? Wonderful revelations. And with extra ears.
But, in general, it's logical. Surely the Wraiths didn't destroy all the Ancient ships by the end of the siege. And since the remaining starships couldn't break through the Wraith fleet, they had to be repaired somewhere.
So the Lanteans quickly assembled a dock where the Wraiths hadn't yet passed. Judging by the lead scientist's story, they had never even heard of the Wraiths. I think that's true – otherwise, the life-eaters would have been interested in the Ancients' constructions.
It's hard to imagine what they could have done if they had figured out the technologies of this outpost! Or obtained an Ancient ship! At least, you don't need an Ancient gene to operate the outpost, which means the Wraiths could also… Oh, damn it…
I suspect that the other ships floating around the galaxy were abandoned precisely for this reason – they simply had nowhere to take them for repair. Atlantis is underwater, other outposts or forward bases are destroyed, and in the only dock on Taranis, there is a considerably (I remember this from the events of the series) damaged battleship "Hippophoralcus"…
And how many more such outposts as Taranis might there be scattered across the galaxy?
"Let's summarize," I said. "This outpost is a military base of the Ancients. It is intended for servicing Ancient warships. We are Ancients. So… What conclusion follows from this, Chancellor?"
"That you won't blow up the planet!" he squinted. "You need this place! Just like we do!"
"You absolutely don't need it," I corrected him delicately. "You haven't evolved enough yet to work with this type of technology. Perhaps one day… But certainly not in your lifetime and not under your rule. Am I being clear?"
"Do you want my people to overthrow me?" he hissed.
"Do you want to see the supervolcano eruption from the front rows?" I asked.
"Are you giving me an ultimatum, Mikhail?" the man, who in my previous life would have been my father, tried to pull himself together.
Father… I think if I had such a father, I would have strangled him in his sleep with a pillow.
"That's right, Chancellor," I confirmed. "An ultimatum. You renounce your position. This outpost, the ship 'Hippophoralcus,' as well as all technologies on Taranis belonging to our ancestors, are transferred to our gratuitous disposal. Any settlements and any approach of your people to the outpost within a hundred and fifty kilometers are unacceptable. If you do this – we will be very upset. I hope this is clear, lead scientist?"
"Four, seven, three, zero…" Norana muttered. Noticing that everyone was looking at her, she perked up. "What did you say, Mikhail?"
God, why me…
I had to repeat myself.
"Yes, of course," she said distractedly, looking around. "And… Why are you telling me this?"
"Because he wants to see you at the head of our nation, you idiot," Leikos hissed, looking at the woman with hatred.
"Oh!" the youthful lady even beamed. "Mikhail, I'm so glad! We must urgently discuss all the details in private! At dinner tonight, for example!"
Tayla coughed. A flicker of panic crossed Kirik's face. And I wanted to pull the trigger of my blaster. Just aim it at the head of one lady…
"You have a supervolcano about to explode under your feet, and you're talking about a date?" Chaya grimaced.
"What?" Piro exclaimed, startled. "Supervolcano? Where?"
"Were you listening to us at all?" Tayla clarified.
"Yes, of course," Norana said distractedly. "And I was calculating the distance between us and the Wraith ship that flew by…"
Damn, if only this wouldn't spoil the moment, I would have slapped my forehead. It seems my idea to establish a puppet government here is slightly (just a little bit) reminiscent of handing a nuclear briefcase to a monkey. Open, with the inscription "Press here!" on a big red button…
Well, we'll deal with that later.
"The people of Taranis will not forgive you for this," Leikos promised me.
"I think they will forgive us when we tell them what happened here and offer worthy apologies," I promised. "Chaya, how much time until the supervolcano eruption begins?"
"Three hours," she announced. "The pressure in the magma chamber has already reached its maximum. Destructions are beginning…"
"Enough information," I assured him, looking at the chancellor. "And now – you have an hour to get off the territory. Pack your things and take your cronies. The complex will be sealed. And, God forbid, we find even one hidden scumbag in it – I will personally find you, Leikos, and make you answer for another deception. Is that clear?"
"Our people have already started traveling through the gates!" he stubbornly said. "If you take the complex for yourselves, how will they do it?"
"And that's none of your concern anymore, Chancellor," I remarked, looking at Norana Piro, who stood beside me with burning eyes. "Get out of here. Everyone except Mrs. Piro."
"Miss," she squeaked, stepping aside to let the guards moving towards the exit pass.
Am I surprised that at her age she is still "Miss"? No, not really.
But the fact that they use addresses from my homeland on Taranis… I think I should learn more about this people.
But not from this clingy one.
When all four appeared from the gate, Alvar could finally exhale.
"Another fifteen minutes, and I would have gone to the Athosians," he reminded them, looking at his companions.
Mikhail was thoughtful, as was Chaya. Kirik was cheerful, but Tayla...
"You were actually going to blow up their world!" Emagan blurted out, looking at Mikhail and Chaya with anger. The Ancients exchanged glances, then simultaneously burst into laughter. "For you, the life of an entire people, the existence of a planet where Wraiths don't go, is a joke?"
"And you, I see, don't mince words," Jensen whistled, exchanging glances with Kirik. "They really wanted to blow up the planet?"
"At least that's what they said," the latter said uncertainly, looking at the laughing pair. "But now I'm not so sure..."
"I thought they would shoot me before you arrived," Chaya said, through laughter.
"I thought they would finish all three of you," Mikhail smoothed his hair with his hands. "You saw how the chancellor almost burst with anger. Honestly, I thought she wouldn't buy it..."
"Did you sell them something?" Alvar didn't understand.
Kirik briefly outlined the past negotiations.
Jensen, having listened to the end, with a hint of admiration and shock, uttered an untranslatable verbal construction that, on his home planet, had both a derogatory and an excessively expressive meaning.
"Threaten to blow up the planet to take a ship and a bunch of corridors over a supervolcano ready to explode?" Alvar clarified, looking at the laughing Chaya and Mikhail. "Ancients, you're crazy!"
"That's exactly what I wanted to say!" Tayla supported. "You accused the chancellor of terrorism, and you yourselves were ready for mass casualties! The murder of an entire planet! The entire population of Taranis!"
"They are, of course, quite the bastards," Kirik muttered, "but... Yes, it doesn't seem fun to me now."
"Breathe out," Mikhail advised. "Kirik, you yourself advised preparing a backup plan."
"Yes," he glanced at Alvar. "A couple of hundred armed Athosians and Jensen as commander... Isn't that an option?"
"My people would come to get me back!" Tayla declared hotly.
"Well, yes," Mikhail nodded. "And with my personal protective field," he opened the edge of his jacket and showed a glowing green crystal attached to his t-shirt, "I had nothing to fear. The only risk was that Chaya would manage to reach the two of you. So that everyone would be in one place..."
"I didn't risk too much either," the girl said shyly, also pushing aside the edge of her jacket. There, a device similar to Mikhail's could be distinguished. Only it glowed with a rich blue light. "I put it together in my spare time... Not as powerful as Mikhail's, but still... In some ways, it's better."
"It just stretches out to a radius of five meters," Mikhail waved his hand. "Insurance for Kirik and Tayla, if the Taranthians started shooting."
"I could use a shield too," Kirik stated.
"Agreed," Jensen supported.
"How does that justify your actions of blowing up someone else's world?" Emagan asked.
"There won't be any explosion," Chaya sighed. "When we arrived at the outpost, I connected to its internal network. I changed a number of demonstration and warning messages. And when I realized that we had no chance, except for captivity, I activated the preparation."
"The siren was screaming like hell," Kirik admitted.
Tayla looked at both Ancients with disbelief.
"So you weren't going to blow up their generator?" she asked.
"No," Mikhail grinned.
"If Alvar hadn't succeeded, the second program would have activated, and in five hours the generator would have really gone haywire," Chaya said.
"I don't understand," Misha turned pale. "Did you really want to blow up a whole planet?"
"Just a backup," Chaya shrugged. "For the most extreme case. But first, all the doors in the complex would have opened so that Alvar and the Athosians could get inside. And all the exits except the central one would have been blocked."
"So that no one could get out," Mikhail figured out.
"Well, yes," Chaya shrugged. "And anyway, I set up voice control there, so at any moment I could cancel everything... Or detonate the reactor and blow up the complex."
In the ensuing silence, the event horizon of the Atlantis stargate dissolved with a roar.
And then Chaya's laughter rang out. For some reason, it made the others laugh too. Only the first one laughed because she was happy. And the others – out of nerves.
"You should have seen your faces," the Ancient said, having laughed. "Of course, there was no plan within the plan. I wasn't going to blow anything up."
"F-f-f-f-u-u-u-u-h," Mikhail, Kirik, and Alvar exhaled at the same time.
"What a sense of humor you have," Mikhail said, adjusting the choking collar of his t-shirt.
"Never do that again," Alvar asked. "I thought I'd go gray."
"I need a drink," Kirik said.
"Let's go," Tayla said, casting a disapproving glance at Chaya. "I have a jug of strong Athosian wine in my cabin."
"I'm with you," Alvar said, shaking his head and catching up with the pair. "I think we'll need something stronger than wine..."
"Then we'll get a second jug," Tayla said decisively. "I just want to forget this day."
"Agreed," Kirik grumbled in support.
"Sorry!" Chaya's voice was heard. "It was a joke..."
"To the Wraiths with such jokes," Alvar muttered as the trio disappeared around the corner. "I don't even want to know how other Ancients will joke when they appear here."
"We can always take refuge on New Athos, right?" Kirik asked Tayla.
"I'm not sure anymore," she said quietly at the moment Mikhail ran up to them. "Misha, we're not offended, but..."
"To hell with the offenses," he muttered. "Let's get drunk. I think I've got my first gray hairs."