"Ihaar, did I do everything right?" Tela asked, standing opposite the backup control panel.
Tela and the backup control panel.
"Yes," the Ancient's voice was heard. "The supply has been stopped, the blocking valves worked as needed... I've patched the breach, and now you don't have to worry about anything. Imagine, this bitch damaged the local automation, so the safety system didn't activate! Otherwise, the valves would have stopped the supply, despite the lack of signals from the control room!"
The Athosian looked at the massive control panel, its numerous keys and switches glowing with multi-colored lights.
"You know," she said into the comm, "I'm surprised that such advanced beings as the Ancients invented technology that can be disabled by cutting a few wires."
"It's a series connection!" Ihaar exclaimed indignantly. "The platform was built in the midst of war! Resources were not abundant, so they saved where they could. Normal Lantian technologies have parallel connections for main and auxiliary systems, so..."
Suddenly, a scream of pain and the roar of automatic gunfire broke into the earpiece.
"She's here!" Tela recognized the voice of one of her kin, full of horror. "The Queen... Arghr..."
"Kovan!" the Athosian exclaimed in alarm. "Kovan, what's happening, where are you⁉"
But in response, only automatic gunfire, screams of pain, despair, and suffering could be heard...
And also – a growl and roar of a triumphant Wraith.
"Ihaar!" Tela rushed to the exit of the backup command post. "Where are they? Tell me, I'm coming to help⁈"
"They are in the fifth corridor, section three, where the Queen damaged the power and control channels," the Ancient said quickly. "Tela, no, you're not going there! You and I are returning to the control room!"
"These are my people, Ihaar! I have to be with them!"
"Because of your people, this all started!" the Dorandan suddenly roared. "I have my person there too! And I'm sure she killed him one of the first! And my person is in the control room, and he's all alone there!"
"I'll intercept her on the way!" the Athosian declared, weaving through the corridors. "I need to go around a few rooms, and I'll be there!"
"Teyla!" Ihaarr shouted. "Stop! There were four of them! Four! And she killed them!"
"You don't know that!"
"I do!" he retorted. "The technician from the control room told me there's only one life sign in the fifth corridor! Until she cut the wiring again! Teyla, she killed everyone there! What can you do alone?!"
"Do we have shields, like Mikhail and Trebal?" Teyla asked, running towards the exit of their corridor. But she noticed too late that the doorway was adorned with white glowing elements.
The girl crashed into an invisible wall at full speed.
It was as if lightning struck her. An unknown force threw the Athosian leader back into the corridor she had come from.
"We don't have personal shields!" Ihaarr roared. "They require diominide to make! Chaya scraped enough for one shield from the damaged systems of Atlantis, but we have no other shields! Except for those that were raised from the control room at my command!"
"Ihaarr!"
"No, Teyla!" the senior engineer replied categorically. "Mikhail and Trebal are not responding! The technician from the control room didn't have time to see them on the scanners, but the second docking bay is now filled with water! Something happened there, and I'm not sure it was anything good! Return to the control room! I'm already near it! If we're lucky, the queen stayed behind the platform's shields!"
***
Ancient force shields, designed for indoor use. The green color is from the ocean behind the shield)) A frame from the series.
Teyla got up from the floor and looked at the corridor branch that was not blocked by the Ancient force shield.
The only path this corridor could lead her through was past the control room. And it circled the central part of the platform.
The Athosian rushed towards the backup command post. Perhaps she could handle the systems herself...
Right in front of her face, the heavy door to the desired room closed.
"Teyla!" Ihaarr's voice sounded angry. "I understand what it's like to act on autopilot. You think your participation can change something, even if you're alone. It's not like that! If there are only three of us, we need to stick together, see what we can come up with. And the best thing we can do now is just wait for help from Atlantis. Do you understand me?"
Teyla punched the locked door, kicked it in despair. And, finally, rested her head against the metal, powerless to do anything.
"I understand, Ihaarr," she whispered into the radio. "We have an ancient law: only an Athosian has the right to fix the bad that another Athosian has done. I should have..."
"And how will you fix it if even fifteen of your countrymen couldn't?" Ihaarr asked. "My technician had an impulse pistol with him, but even he couldn't finish that beast! I told you – the Queen of Death is no toy! You should have bombed the creature along with the planet!"
"I'm coming to you," Teyla said resolutely, raising her weapon. "Can you track life signs in the corridors?"
"I'm afraid only with a handheld scanner," Ihaarr admitted. "And, if she's behind the shields..."
"Let her be behind the shields," Teyla pleaded, disengaging the safety on her weapon. "I'll kill her. Ihaarr, I'll search one compartment after another. Seal them with shields behind me. If she's here, at least we'll trap her in a small space for someone else to kill."
"Teyla!"
"Don't argue," she asked. "I can't join you in the control room! If Misha and Trebal are dead, then you and the technician are the only ones who can get the Queen out of here! Barricade yourselves in the control room and under no circumstances open the door for me until the team from Atlantis confirms that the Queen of Death is dead."
Ihaarr understood what she meant.
If the queen could so easily control Athosian minds, then Teyla, with her Wraith DNA, could become an even more tempting and easy target for her. And if she were inside the control room...
Therefore, she wouldn't be there!
***
To feel oneself lying on something hard and cold, and also wet, was... disgusting.
Even worse was that I could hear someone's ugly mumbling.
"... may I have to overhaul a hyperdrive alone," the sounds formed words, and they, like drums, beat directly into my brain. "Please come to. Get up, you bastard! I'm begging you, just don't die! Come on, open your eyes, you scoundrel! Come to, I'll even give you a blowjob..."
"No need," I croaked, having regained control of my body and getting up from the floor. My clothes were soaked through, and my body was trembling violently. "You'll still gnaw on it out of inexperience and..."
"Bastard!" Trebal, sitting with her back to the passage, shot me a lightning glance. "Move! We need to open the shield while I'm still alive!"
Shaking my head, finally coming to my senses, I picked up the personal shield projector that had flown off me from the floor. Resembling an archaic jewel, the stone was dull.
But as soon as it was in my hands, it lit up, and a greenish energy wave ran through me.
"What happened?" I asked, sloshing through the puddles of water at my feet.
"Death tore down half the wall," Trebal shook her head. "The compartment started flooding, you were swept away by the wave before I reacted and extended the shield to the doorway. The water carried you out, and then the shield in the compartment activated! And now I'm trapped between the door shield and my own! Move! My charge is running out!"
"What do I need to do?" I asked, looking around. I had no weapon, it was probably washed away by the water.
As were the communication devices.
And the Ancient scanner.
And God knows what else.
"Use your brain!" Trebal hissed. Looking closer, I understood the reason for her indignation.
Chaya's shield, unlike mine, could expand to a certain size. In fact, it could block the entire compartment and hold back the water coming from outside. But only for a while.
As the girl said, she was trapped between her own shield, which was holding back the water flow, and the shield that activated at the doorway. It seemed she had extended the first one earlier, and some of the water in front of her had gone into the corridor before the second one activated.
As a result, she was now sitting up to her neck in icy water. And the oxygen supply in the small air pocket above her head was clearly dwindling.
If her shield failed, she would drown. The only way to save her was to deactivate the internal shield, drag her inside, and reactivate it. And, incidentally, figure out the minor details, like how to do it.
"Who activated the door shield?" I asked, approaching the energy curtain separating me and Trebal.
"I don't know," she said. "Maybe the automation, maybe someone from the control room. I can't contact anyone – the radio short-circuited when I extended the shield to the doorway. Please, hurry. I'm freezing, my whole body is numb, and there's not much energy left..."
"Tell me what to do," I said, not particularly worrying about the integrity of the decorative panel next to the shield projector. "In front of me are six vertical crystals in a row, two blue ones – top and bottom, three amber cylindrical ones, and eight white flat ones..."
"Swap the top and bottom blue ones," Trebal said after thinking, snorting into the water. "Hurry, please. It looks like there's a leak somewhere, and water is coming to me."
"Done," I moved the crystals. But the shield remained in place. "What next?"
"The bottom amber one," the girl stretched her head up so that the incoming water wouldn't get into her mouth. "Take it out and short the top ones with it, if the shield doesn't deactivate on its own..."
With a crackle and a flash of light, the shield disappeared as soon as I removed the necessary crystal. At the same moment, a stream of icy water washed over my legs. I almost screamed from the burning cold.
And Trebal had been in this water for so long?! And didn't lose consciousness?! It seemed the girl was literally made of iron.
Ancient personal shields are controlled by a mental pointer – they turn on and off by thought. But if the owner is threatened, for example, by starvation or lack of air, the automation will deactivate the shield. No exceptions.
But either Trebal is so good that she overcame her fears, or Chaya's shield is different from mine.
"Okay," I said, approaching the girl, who was wet from head to toe. Her teeth were chattering, she was trembling like an autumn leaf in the wind. The skin under her nails had turned white-blue, as did her lips. Her fingers were waterlogged... Poor girl. "Will the shield adjust to the dimensions of the room as soon as they change?"
Trebal formed something like a small curved lens behind her so that its edges covered the doorway. If the shield could only maintain this shape, I couldn't imagine how to get her out.
But if I pulled her forward and the shield automatically changed its shape, adjusting to the doorway...
"N-no," Trebal said. "I-i-it o-o-only h-h-has a f-f-f-few s-s-shapes. Y-y-you'll h-h-have t-t-to p-p-pull me i-i-inside."
"And activate the door shield," I understood.
Trebal, although now in warmth, was still experiencing the consequences of her body's hypothermia.
"T-t-two m-m-minutes l-l-left," she said. "C-c-change t-t-the b-b-blue ones l-l-like b-b-before..."
Two minutes until her shield completely discharged.
I had to hurry. And her trembling voice didn't help much with the speed of information transfer.
"I'm swapping the blue crystals, I'll pull you, then I'll put the amber crystal back in place, and the door shield will activate?" I needed to clarify if I was thinking correctly.
Otherwise, when I drag her inside and the water rushes in behind her, there will be no time for questions. Not to mention that a new stream of icy ocean water could simply knock her out.
The worst thing in this situation is that as long as her shield is on her, I can't activate mine for her. Well, let me be washed away, at least she could do everything right. I'm not sugar, I won't melt.
After swapping the blue crystals, I scanned the corridor nearby. There was nothing to grab onto except the edge of the doorway itself, and the niche with the crystals. As soon as the water rushes in, it will be extremely difficult.
"The shield will only activate if the crystal is fully inserted into the socket, right?" I clarified.
Trebal nodded, looking at me with pleading eyes. Only now did I realize why she wasn't running or standing up herself – her arms and legs were simply numb. And they wouldn't recover in the remaining time.
It seemed she was really in a bad way. How much time was left?
Ah, screw it.
I need to act.
And I have everything I need for it now.
Pushing the orange crystal into its socket, but not all the way, so that it needed to be pushed slightly again, I grabbed the edge of the crystal niche, and reached out to the girl.
It seemed the charge poles of our shields were the same, as I couldn't grab her on the first try. I had to improvise a little. And then it dawned on me – yes, the shield doesn't let any matter through, only gas, like air. And it also allows the ambient temperature to affect the body perfectly. Otherwise, she wouldn't have frozen. Otherwise, I myself wouldn't have felt the water flowing over my legs. Strangely, in the series, a person who experienced the shield poured a mug of hot coffee on himself and nothing... What if, the more the shield discharges, the less its protective properties⁈
Most likely, there are no other explanations.
As a result, I managed to grab Trebal by the hand, lifting it so that my fingers clasped her wrist.
"On 'three'," I warned, looking her in the eyes. "When I say 'three', I'll pull you, you'll deactivate the shield and be inside. I'll immediately push the crystal in, and the shield will activate. Take a breath! As much as possible! Do you understand me? If yes, nod!"
Trebal gulped air. Once, twice... And immediately looked at me with a frightened gaze...
And at that very moment, the blue haze behind her flickered, and I felt the resistance of her shield disappear under mine.
"Three!" the stream of water rushed in with such force that I almost tore off the edge of the wall I was holding onto.
Trebal, finding herself inside, hit the wall and immediately disappeared under the streams of water. It was a little easier for me, but even so, I felt myself being swept away by the force. N-yes, and I was surprised why I was swept away by the current the first time.
And now I was swept away the second time!
Desperately clinging to the edge of the crystal niche, I fought against the water, the pressure of which seemed to be getting even stronger. It had already filled the corridor halfway, making it difficult to reach the necessary crystal.
Just a couple of centimeters!
It seems the inertial dampers of the shield do not extend to the surrounding environment. Which, in general, is logical! This is, damn it, local technology, aimed at the protection and safety of what is inside, not for comfort outside!
Fighting the flow, I pulled myself up a little and reached for the necessary crystal before the water flooded the niche...
My finger touched the necessary crystal, and at the same moment, the stream of water from the destroyed compartment was cut off as if by a knife. The door shield activated, taking on a greenish hue of the oceanic water it was containing.
But I was no longer interested in that.
Icy water spread through the corridors of the platform, its level decreasing, but still high. However, there was no longer any time to wait for it to recede naturally. Trebal had not yet risen from the water, which meant that during the minutes I fought with...
However, I already saw Trebal's body and lifted the girl out of the water.
Unconscious, with streams of water flowing from her nose and mouth. The blow had knocked the air out of her lungs, which meant she was practically drowning.
"Come on, girl, don't you dare!" I muttered, turning her over and placing her on my knee, stomach down. Tilting her head and torso down, I rejoiced when water poured out of her mouth. But she didn't regain consciousness. "No-no-no, you won't die. You promised me something, you damn nymphomaniac!"
I couldn't feel a pulse on her carotid artery, which meant the chances of starting her fiery engine were rapidly decreasing.
Laying her on her back, I removed my shield and began to perform indirect chest compressions. I had seen it done a few times. And for some reason, I remembered it clearly.
Hands on chest, crossed...
"Let's go," I said to myself, counting the seconds.
One, two, three – and with each – a press on the chest in the heart area.
Twenty-nine, thirty.
Taking a deep breath, I pinched my nose and touched her bluish lips with mine. A stream of air entered her mouth, ran down her throat... Air again! Nothing.
Let's go again. One, two, three... Twenty-nine, thirty.
Air into the lungs again. Once more!
Nothing!
Damn it, why don't you want to live?!
Again!
One, two, three! Press every second!
Twenty-nine, thirty!
And again, life-giving air into the lungs... The second time! Nothing again!
Damn-damn-damn!
My hands pumped like an automaton, my lips touched, forcing air into her lifeless lips. I had stopped counting how many times I had done it, starting to despair, when suddenly...
A cough and drops of water spurted from Trebal's mouth simultaneously as the girl instinctively rolled onto her side, freeing her lungs from the liquid that didn't belong there. Like an experienced smoker who had taken a breath of fresh air, the girl arched her body, trying to get rid of the water inside her.
"She's alive," I sighed with relief, smiling at Trebal when she turned to me, having coughed. Patting the girl on the wet fabric of her thigh, I grinned, seeing that she had still kept her weapon. "Didn't your mother teach you not to drink cold bottom water from the ocean?!"
Trebal's lips curved into a traditional contemptuous smile, her mouth opened to say something...
And then I saw her eyes widen, looking at something behind me. And I even knew what.
My hands twitched towards the only reliable option, my brain strained to erect an energy shield... But the blow was so powerful that I was thrown back a good ten meters.
Crashing into the wall at the far end of the corridor, I felt something crack in my shoulder and landed face down on the floor.
Just as the triumphant roar of the Queen of Death and Trebal's cry full of pain and suffering echoed in the corridor.
The Wraith began to feed.