"Picturesque place," sarcasm practically dripped from Alvar's lips as we crossed the city limits. "I don't know what kind of psycho you'd have to be to settle here."
A deafening clap of thunder echoed in the sky. A flash of lightning, filling everything around with light, momentarily dispelled the prevailing darkness, illuminating the walls of the buildings surrounding us.
The houses, grim despite being finished with light plaster, with their massive frame beams, and the entire medieval town, looked like they were cut from a Tim Burton movie.
Twisted streets paved with cobblestones. Stone houses of two or three stories, adjacent to the local version of half-timbered. Wooden ones, frankly rotten in the local fog and crazy humidity. Dry, leafless trees, stretching their claw-like branches towards the travelers. A rough staircase leading into one of the houses literally screamed that it hadn't known visitors in a long time.
The cliffs hanging over us in the distance further amplified the psychological pressure. I think I agree with Alvar—this is quite a place to live.
"Perhaps we've come at an unfortunate time," I suggested after another rumble of thunder overhead.
"When Charin told me the address of the planet where the Taken came from, I came here," Tayla admitted. She usually looked braver, and her voice wasn't so muffled. But it seemed the atmosphere was even disheartening her. "And it was the same here..." she paused, as if trying to find words. "Gloomy. And uncomfortable."
"And deserted," added Ihaary, following us. The senior engineer was staring intently at the scanner monitor, as if afraid of missing any mark on the screen. However, judging by how fearfully he glanced around at every thunderclap in the sky, it was clear he just needed something to focus on to avoid panicking.
Just like me.
Icy shivers from this place literally wouldn't leave my body. Even Alvar, trying to appear cheerful and confident, flinched from time to time. This place literally instilled fear.
"The city looks intact," I noted as we passed several houses. "Except for the broken doors, windows, scorch marks," I pointed to the remains of a couple of carts burned near a house wall, "it looks like everyone left, not that they were exterminated by the Wraiths."
"Charin said some survived," Tayla reminded me.
"The people who lived here are clearly not technically similar to those who could pose a threat to the Wraiths," Alvar remarked, approaching the wall of another house. He examined the dents on it for a while before returning to the group. "I thought they were bullet marks, but no. The plaster just crumbled with time."
"I wouldn't recommend going into the houses," Ihaary said, scanning one of the buildings. "It's strange that they've held up so long in the first place, considering the people who lived here died many years ago. Given the humidity and other conditions, this is a frankly terrible place to live and a headache for those who were supposed to repair them."
"The drone showed that there are no settlements here anymore," I reminded him of the report from the 'jumper' crew. The technicians on it were still surveying the planet, but the data already spoke for itself—the life that existed here clearly had nothing to do with the concept of 'intelligent.' Wild animals, a few birds, maybe rodents, and other critters. But not people. And no traces of any culture that would inhabit beyond this settlement. "And in general, it's hard to get out of this valley. Without a spaceship or climbing gear, I mean."
"Doesn't this principle seem familiar to you?" Alvar asked as we moved from one street to another. There were only three of them here. Which is quite a lot for a settlement of thirty houses.
I licked my dry lips.
"Painfully familiar," I admitted, looking around. "Ihaary, did you find any energy traces?"
"Very weak ones," he said, gesturing towards some very ancient ruins in the western part of the settlement. The only notable thing there was a lot of stone ruins, crumbled by time, bordering a dense forest on one side and closely approaching the cliffs on the other. "In that direction. Considering there's nothing here that could generate energy even in the most primitive ways, I think this is what we're looking for."
"Let's move out," I ordered. "Alvar first, then Ihaary. Tayla and I will be the rear guard."
The Ermen, raising his assault rifle, moved stealthily along the outskirts of the city, looking around. Despite the fact that I had explained at the briefing that no living soul had been found on this planet by humans in known events, the former commando never relaxed.
And frankly, considering the realities that diverged from what I knew about this galaxy and its inhabitants, we should follow his example.
"Thank you," Tayla said, barely audible, but knowing for sure that her words would reach me.
"For what?" I asked, not understanding.
"For coming here with me," Emagan said. "When I came here, I couldn't last half an hour."
"It's good that you had the sense to ask for a 'jumper' from Atlantis then," I chuckled grimly, looking towards where they were left a dozen kilometers behind us. "Otherwise, it would have been very difficult to get back."
"That's true," Tayla shivered, realizing she might not have returned if she had gone on foot. "Alvar said this place should be familiar to you. What did he mean?"
"Proculus," I replied, feeling a gnawing sensation in my stomach.
"And what about it?"
"Almost exactly like here," I admitted reluctantly, looking around. "I can assume we are in the crater of a long-extinct volcano. The cliffs surrounding us are too high for anyone to get out of here. The gate is installed at the edge of this strange," I flinched when a deafening rumble of thunder, louder than before, sounded, "valley. There is no dial-home device. There is only a habitat area that allows people to survive if they are able to do so. And we know that the Wraiths operated in this place."
"Do you think they built this city for the locals?" Tayla asked, glancing over her shoulder at the ruins behind us.
"Altruistic Wraiths?" I scoffed. "No, Tayla. I think the Taken are not a specific stable human civilization. They are many people who somehow ended up on this planet. And they built their own homes."
"So," Ihaary turned around with a crooked grin, "you mean to say that the cunning Wraiths gathered the conditional people on several conditional planets, conditionally delivered them here, and gave them conditional tools to build a whole town?"
"Too many conditions," I winced. "But yes. Because that's the only way I can explain the presence of houses in three architectural styles in one town."
Ihaary raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Oh, aren't they all the same?"
Seriously?
"Are you a scientist or what?" I asked. "You scanned the houses! Some are made of stone, others—of piles with filler between them, and the third are simply built of wood. These are three different approaches to construction, three different levels of technological progress. And there are three streets in the city too. Each is dominated by one type of building, but others are also found. This indicates that at some point, three groups of people lived here who didn't like sharing knowledge too much and, despite their unity, strived for individuality of communities based on a key characteristic—their world of origin."
Ihaary, continuing to walk backward, hiccuped in surprise.
"And you realized this just by looking at the houses?" Tayla asked.
"I thought it was logical," I shrugged. "If it was one people, one community, then why are the houses of different construction? If the type of house—stone, half-timbered, or simply log cabins—is an indicator of class stratification, then who allowed them to mix with each other? If it was the weakness of one or two city administrators, then why weren't the buildings demolished later? We saw that there was no battle here, everything is done quite well for its level. So people lived together, since they managed without gallows. From which I draw only one conclusion—there was something for which they lived together."
"And what is it?" Teila asked.
"Survival instinct," Ihaari suggested. "If they were forcibly thrown here by the wraiths, then no matter how much they quarreled with each other, they would still have to unite in order to survive. Right, Mikhail?"
"Something like that," I replied dryly.
I didn't consider it right to voice my hypothesis yet. Because there was no evidence.
Except for logic.
An isolated biome capable of sustaining life in humans, houses where one can live, rest, raise children. At least three different peoples who found themselves here...
And wraiths who tried to make humans tastier.
Moreover, if I'm right, then the wraith's laboratory is right next to the city. And its entrance is at ground level, if you believe the series. Which is quite dangerous for a wraith traveling on foot, isn't it? And completely foolish from his point of view to move like that on a planet without a recruitment device. After all, the locals might just stick a pitchfork in your side.
The most likely reason for the absence of a recruitment device is the wraith's use of a "dart." But the Earthlings found nothing on the planet except an abandoned laboratory and a wraith "flash drive." Not even a second floor... Ah, to hell with it. It's unlikely that the series would show something that didn't affect the necessary plot. And how would the presence of a second, third, or hundredth floor at an abandoned wraith base affect it? I don't think it would.
And in general, I need to stop thinking about the events I know in greater measure as having self-sufficient answers. What I knew, or thought I knew, does not fully correspond to reality.
Either this is an alternate universe, not the one I saw in the series, or the known events only covered the tip of the iceberg.
"It's here," we approached the base of the cliff. Ihaari pointed his finger at a piece of rock in front of us. "The energy traces lead there."
"And you didn't find a passage through the solid rock?" Alvar asked, touching it for confirmation. "It's just a rock."
"Not quite," I corrected him, looking at Teila. "You need to touch it and press slightly with your whole body."
"You mean she can pass through rocks?" Alvar wondered.
"Or these rocks are mostly a disguise that will only dissipate before a carrier of wraith genes," Ihaari immediately understood my words. "This makes sense if you want to hide the location of your laboratory from the natives. Even if they know where you passed through the rock, they won't be able to repeat it. Well," he hesitated, looking at the Athosian woman who approached the rock, "until you graft your own DNA onto them."
"When I go in," Teila looked at me with apprehension, "how do I open the passage for you?"
"Most likely, the disguise will be removed for a while," Ihaari suggested. "And we will enter."
"Just think about leaving," I advised.
"Well, or that," the Ancient agreed, ignoring the Ermenian's chuckle.
"Okay," Teila turned to face the piece of rock, slinging her assault rifle across her chest. Spreading her arms, she touched the lifeless and seemingly impenetrable surface. "I'll do it."
As soon as she shifted her body weight, the rock in front of her trembled. It rippled like an object thrown into a pond.
The next moment, it became light under her hands, and the girl, against her will, leaned forward. At one point, my gaze caught how effectively the Ermenian uniform emphasized the slimness of her body in certain places.
And immediately Teila disappeared, passing through the rock.
"If I had known this way to get rid of a woman five years ago, I wouldn't have had to get married," Alvar chuckled.
"Agreed," I nodded. "David Copperfield and his passing through the Great Wall of China are resting."
Teila repeats the trick of the great, but not street magician.
"Do you have people on Earth who walk through walls?" Ihaari wondered.
"Of course," I said, without flinching. "Don't you?"
"No," the Ancient swallowed.
"Strange," I sighed. "You just need to get people to run faster and dress them more securely. Although, I once read a book about a boy who ran fast enough to pass through a wall into another world."
"Stop, what?" Ihaari was horrified. "Did this child have sub-light engines of the Lantians and MNT?"
"No, why do you think so?"
"Because to achieve such a speed for a material object other than a particle, for example, a photon, an unimaginably powerful energy source and the most advanced sub-light engines I know would be required!" Ihaari explained. "And even then, it's unlikely that the speed would be exactly the speed of light, but rather close to it. After all, the greater the speed, the greater the mass of the object and the more energy is required for acceleration! That's why we use hyperdrives! It's possible to overcome the speed of light through linear acceleration, but the costs for such a thing would be unimaginable! What of the listed things did the boy have?"
I honestly dug into my memory.
"A luggage cart."
Ihaari looked at me with the gaze of a person whose life values had just been destroyed.
"Perhaps his speed was increased by the experience of communicating with a huge bearded man who told Harry that he was a wizard," I took pity on Ihaari, in whose eyes the traces of destruction of knowledge about the fundamental laws of nature were visible.
"You mean he was running away from this..." he furrowed his brow. "What did you say... Ah! Oh!" his face lit up. "This boy of yours, Harry, was he running away from a pedophile, right? Purely technically, it's possible to assume that hidden reserves of the body could provide acceleration, but it's unlikely..."
And now it was my turn to freeze like "Windows Millennium" when connecting augmented reality glasses. I had never thought about whether Hagrid had a hidden interest in showing kindness to children, regardless of gender. Although, on the other hand, a boy, a girl—what the hell difference does it make?
"I don't think he was interested in children in that sense," I grimaced. "That man preferred to spend time with animals..."
"A zoophile, perhaps?" Alva asked. "Why are you looking at me like that? That's the only explanation for why an adult can spend more time with animals than with people."
I was saved from having to answer the question by the shimmering of the stone. With a lilac glow, the piece of rock literally dissolved, revealing a slightly tense Teila.
It's magic, Teila!
"Quite a trick," Alva approved of the disappearance of an entire section of the rock.
"What happened?" the Athosian woman asked, looking at me. "I passed through the rock and found myself in a corridor. Then I started looking for an exit, as you warned, and then the rock disappeared!"
"It's magic, Teila," I smiled, showing the girl that what I said was just a joke. "Ihaari, can you give a scientific explanation?"
"Am I a walking database?" he grumbled. "We need to look at the projector of this barrier to understand whether it was molecular deconstruction, or, for example, a dense hologram, or not a device, but a physical property of certain natural elements..."
"You'll deal with the reasoning later!" Alva interrupted him, squeezing past him and Teila into the corridor visible behind her. Holding his assault rifle in front of him, he took control of the space. "I see a corridor. It looks like the ones on the wraith ship when I was captured."
I peeked inside.
"Yes, this place was clearly built by wraiths. Let's move. You first, I and Ihaari behind you, Teila bringing up the rear."
Corridor inside the wraith laboratory.
The series didn't show any shots of Earthlings searching the wraith laboratory. And this could mean anything—from a long but monotonous battle for every meter to a boring walk through a long-abandoned facility. The last thing we wanted now was to send Teila ahead—we don't need any suddenly activated wraith hidden mechanisms yet.
And if we triggered some kind of alarm here, it would be best for Teila to be closer to the exit so that she could be the first to detect the approach of wraiths. After all, for some reason, Earthlings never came to this planet again? But if there was no threat here, then the abandoned wraith base, and the town that had survived more or less, could have been a backup planet. All that would be needed is to leave a "jumper" and an energy source.
The searches took a long time. As I suspected, there is not one floor here, not even a couple. A whole dozen different levels, with a large number of compartments. And everything looked as if the owners of this place had left in perfect order, without finishing their business.
Or maybe they just forgot to untie about ten people from their laboratory tables, and they died, decomposing. What's interesting is that there's no smell of decomposition here, nor staleness, nor dampness... the climate control is definitely preserved and gives the entire complex very fresh and oxygen-rich air.
Until now, it seemed to me that wraiths didn't abandon their planets just like that. But it seems they were disgusted by this place where their brethren conducted their version of eugenics experiments. Because I can't immediately find a reason why this place isn't destroyed.
"So, does anyone have any news?" I asked when we finally finished searching the ancient wraith sanctuary. The group, working in pairs, gathered in a large hall, previously designated for this purpose.
What role this room played for the wraiths is unknown, but at least there was no vivisection equipment, no equipment of a nightmarish appearance resembling dissected internal organs and skeletal remains. It's suitable for information exchange.
"Actually, yes," Ihaari approached a metal table embedded in the floor and began to lay out various items from his backpack. "Teila and I searched several laboratories."
"And we found a hangar," I boasted. "And yes, there are no 'darts' in it. It's completely empty, even the equipment is missing."
"Then what made you think it was a hangar?" Ihaari asked.
"And what else could be a room the size of a hangar, located at the edge of a cliff and having a disguised exit from within?" Alva clarified. "Those stone jokes from the inside have a lilac backlight. And if these are not disguised exits, then I have no other guesses."
"Ah, yes, those are them," Ihaari nodded. "Teila and I found about a dozen similar exits. Both into the valley and beyond. I think the base is built into the rock, and from here the wraiths could get in and out on both sides of the rocks without much trouble. More precisely, one wraith."
"Only one wraith worked at this base?" Alva clarified.
"Yes, and a very smart, but very crazy type," Ihaari took a wraith data storage device out of his backpack. "It's something like a data drive. Like a memory crystal. I took it from the main console."
"And what's on it?" Alva asked.
"We only briefly looked through the records," Teila said. "The translator program couldn't decipher the entire volume of data."
"But what we have is already enough," Ihaari said. "Mikhail was right—the wraiths conducted experiments on humans who were once part of Athosian society. They are likely on other planets too, but that's not the point."
"Well," Teila gave a bitter smile. "You won't find out that you are actually a part of a wraith. Among the people of Pegasus, they kill for such things. The Taken left a bad reputation behind them. And no one wants such a thing to happen again. Wraith DNA drives you crazy..."
"And you don't seem crazy to me," I assured her. "And I don't think a tiny piece of wraith DNA makes you or anyone else a psychopath."
"I'm not a biologist or a geneticist, but I'm inclined to agree with Mikhail," said Ihaari, placing his laptop on the table. It took him a couple of seconds to connect the wraith data drive to it via an adapter. "I bet that those Taken who staged bloody showdowns were initially a little crazy. Or not a little. They worshipped wraiths and therefore participated in experiments."
"What, excuse me?" I asked.
"You didn't know," Ihaari stated.
"No, I knew that there were those in the galaxy who worshipped wraiths, but not that the Taken were among them."
"Wraith worshippers are one of the most despised categories of people in Pegasus," Teila shared. "They kill on the spot for serving wraiths."
"You have a cheerful society," Ihaari shivered. "So, from what I've learned, Mikhail was right. The wraiths transported three groups of people here, their followers from different worlds."
"Wraiths?" Alva repeated. "Didn't you say it was one wraith?"
"At first there were many," Ihaari said. "There was one scientist, and a few soldiers. But they are mentioned at the inventory level, so technically, one wraith was in charge of everything here. You know, Chaiya's translator program is very effective. Without it, I would have lost all these subtleties of the wraith language. Their symbols can hide two or even three meanings."
"Let's skip the details," I asked. "What did you find out?"
"This base was built by one of the hives in the midst of the war with Atlantis," Ihaari said. "Here they interrogated captured Lantians, as well as representatives of lesser races. At some point, the wraiths began to use feeding as a method of delivery, rewarding with reverse feeding for valuable information. Then the hives acted together, and this data went to everyone. However, over time, there were fewer and fewer Ancients. The war ended, effective food disappeared. This hive suffered heavy losses in the struggle for feeding grounds. Only one biologist-scientist survived, who fled to this base. I understand they didn't tell other wraiths about it. In short, he brought groups of followers here who worshipped his hive."
"He made a food reserve," I understood.
"And he also wanted to develop something that would allow him to enter a new hive," Ihaari said. "For some reason, this was important to him."
"A wraith who is afraid of loneliness," Alva chuckled. "Funny."
"It's more of a social or biological need," Ihaari said. "It seems they are used to living in packs..."
"Hives," I corrected. "Like beetles, from which they originated."
"Maybe," Ihaari waved his hand. "I'm not a biologist..."
"Can you continue?" Teila asked with a hint of pain in her voice. "I want to know everything."
"It will take time to decipher the entire drive," the senior engineer warned. "For now, this is just general data..."
"Ihaari!" I growled at the Ancient.
"This wraith came up with the idea that since the DNA of the Ancients is already lost—they were either exterminated or gathered and fed upon—why not try to enhance the 'caloric content' of humans by grafting part of the wraith DNA onto them," the engineer said. "Here," he pointed to the screen, which had thousands of symbols, "there is a lot of data on human physiology. But, as I understood, the wraith's goal was to enhance the mentality of humans. It's somehow related to the fact that during feeding, wraiths value not only life force but also the sensation of their victim's feelings. Ancients are more mentally developed, which is why their minds provided pleasure to the wraiths during feeding. Simple humans have not gone through this stage of evolution. In essence, if the records are correct, the wraiths, after the war with Atlantis, left only very primitive societies alive."
"They eliminated the threat of armed resistance while they were strong," I understood. "And what next? We know that he achieved a certain result."
"He did, and decided to contact his brethren to show them the results of his actions. He invited them for culling... And everything went according to plan," Ihaari chuckled. "It seems that the other wraiths did not appreciate what happened. I think the wraith and his soldiers were killed, and the humans were rounded up and eaten. However, here," he pointed to a few lines of symbols, "there is an indication that during the selection, gates were activated. It is likely that some of the Taken managed to escape to another world one way or another. And from there, they spread throughout the galaxy."
"Why didn't the wraiths find this place?" I asked.
"The scientist never brought them here," Ihaari shrugged, pointing to the monitor again. "If we didn't have the super-sensitive Lantian scanner, we wouldn't have found it either. And the wraith scanners are far from ours, even at their peak. There is no data here that anyone entered the base except for the wraiths who were part of his team and us."
"Does the base track everyone who enters it?" Alva became alert.
"Yes, it's a good guard system," Ihaari confirmed. "Only it doesn't report it to anyone. The transmitter is turned off, and has been for a very, very long time. It literally dried up and decomposed over time."
"And who would it report to if the wraith scientist was here all the time, and his hive was destroyed," I understood. "How powerful is the energy source here?"
"And how powerful can thunderstorms be?" Ihaari asked.
"Does this base run on lightning?" I was surprised.
"Yes," the engineer nodded. "Around this valley, but on the other side of the rocks, there are hundreds of sensors and lightning arresters. They capture charges and transmit them to organic capacitors. And they convert them into suitable power for the base."
"Inventive," I appreciated. "Is the system still working?"
"Some part of it—yes. But over the years, the high-voltage lightning discharges have thoroughly roasted the lightning arresters, so it's not as good here as it could be. I suspect that the wraiths either searched for this planet for a long time, or did something to its weather themselves. Can lightning strike here constantly?"
"Maybe it can," I suggested, touching the radio. "Jumper, is everything okay? Local lightning is very dangerous."
"Mikhail, we're holding a high orbit, scanning the planet," the pilot reported. "Lightning is indeed a problem, but we've found a quiet spot to get into space. The atmosphere is literally charged with electricity. This interferes with scanning, so we had to boost the sensors."
"Anything?" I asked.
"Is a small, but extremely rich naquadah deposit considered?" the pilot inquired.
"Very much so," I assured him. "Return, it's time to report the news to Atlantis."
"We'll be there in ten minutes," the pilot assured me. "Just after I eject the satellite into orbit."