"Is Siegfried's betrothed alive there?" the voice rang melodically, echoing off the steel of the knight's armor. "This blade of mine, though forged of pure light, also knows fatigue, unlike the steel shadow that dances before me."
"Oh, this ancient, forgotten miracle of technology," sighed Brunhilda, "its interface is a tangle of snakes, where the treasured buttons are hidden so cunningly that you have to go around the machine like a hedgehog around an anthill."
"Verbosity is the bane of the bored." And at that moment, as if intertwined with my words, the blade of the holographic guard pierced my side. IT PAINFUL, as if a worm of doubt had crawled under my skin. Going into a deep defensive posture, I merely parried his attacks, the sword unabated. "He can be stopped, but only when he's at full strength. The locals crowding outside the gates see only my pathetic dance with a ghost."
"Has the Knight disappeared?" Brunhilde's gaze was hungry.
"No." A ghostly whisper escaped my chest, and my blade rushed back.
"Amazing! It must be the password. The combinations are legion, and the computer only responds to the pitch of the keys. Like a bird that sings only when its crest touches the sky."
"Teleport Thor here, for God's sake! He's as quiet as spring snow," I pleaded, crawling away from the relentless enemy like a worm driven away by the sun.
"Not at all," Brunhilda objected, "he chatters on and on. He once told a joke that lasted an entire hour, like a river that knows no fatigue."
I, appealing to the program's weaknesses, rushed up the steps. It was a temporary shield until it acquired the gift of teleportation. After all, it was just a toy in the hands of the combat protocol, which could be turned on or off at will. If it had started appearing anywhere, I would have ended up in the underworld. Although, frankly, I'm there now.
"Hey, why does Merlin need this archaic interface? Millions of years have passed since the Ancients first set foot on Avalon. It's like trying to pick at a rock with a toothpick when you've got a star battleship at your fingertips."
"The computer has been modified, Lord Szarekh." "Bastard," the blade flashed again, but I parried. "Its computing power surpasses even the Asgardian ones."
I darted behind the counter, preparing for a ruse. The knight, like a predator, lunged after me, trying to overturn the table. At that moment, like lightning, my blow struck his chest before he could even raise his sword. He disintegrated into a myriad of photons, like dissipating fog. Returning to the library, I descended into the basement, where Brunhilde was working her magic on the interface.
- You defeated the knight.
"Aha. And yet, I don't think it's a guardian. Otherwise, he would have materialized with the sword in my heart. I see this as a test for the worthy, for without knowledge of the language of the Ancients, without understanding its code, victory is impossible. One man alone cannot do it. Now all that remains is to return the sword to its place, to awaken the teleporter in the ancient vault."
"I've already activated it," Brunhilde said, pointing to the gold that shimmered around her.
"No, something's wrong. I spoke with Antonius. According to their records, Merlin simply appeared to the Archivist one day, handed over the key, and disappeared forever, asking him to give it to Arthur. Arthur and the knights never returned. So, this whole thing was created solely so that Arthur, or another knight, could obtain the information. The great warrior..."
"I've turned off Merlin's recording," Brunhilde said. "She said the Grail is before our very eyes. Riddles that will confuse the young race. He hardly let Arthur in on all his secrets. What was in that vault?"
"The device I gave to the Asgardians, an ancient communications device, a book, and a sea of gold. But that's most likely for the knights' operating expenses."
- And the computer?
"No. This is my base now. I'm sure they have beam teleportation technology there, but I'm even more sure I wouldn't understand it even if it fell on my head. So I use the storage facility merely as a warehouse for Earth goods."
– Something had to control this technology.
"I have eternity to figure it out. But if you want, I can show you. I'll go and return it to the stone."
When I returned, I saw a hologram of Merlin appear.
"Arthur, Morgana and I have come to an agreement. The entire project is being shut down. I have deleted all data on the Grail—it was part of my agreement with the Others. Rule this place as you wish, and make it worthy. Your planet is far from the Goa'uld Empire; they will not find you or your people. The gate's address is classified. Recall the colonists from other worlds. I fear we will never see each other again, my friend, my son. Farewell."
"Should I use the symbiotic voice to make a sarcastic remark about being 'distant from the Goa'uld Empire'?" I asked Brunnhilde.
"So, the weapon has been destroyed, as has all the research associated with it," the Asgardian concluded.
"That's up to you. Then the High Council and I will have a long debate about who owns this computer."
Suddenly, the beam teleporter's light flared, and a book appeared in an ancient language. Opening it, I saw images of a computer.
"I'm sure it's an instruction manual. Arthur had to control it somehow. And the comment about the son is funny. Although it was believed that Merlin only helped Arthur be born, I suspect it was genetic manipulation. How much crap that madman left us... Speaking of crap, can you teleport me clean of the dirt? I was rolling in manure when I ran away from that knight."
Brunhilde ran her hand over her wrist device, and the teleporter washed over me, washing away all the dirt. I glanced at the pictures in the instructions and pressed two stones. A holographic keyboard and a holographic monitor appeared.
We bent over them together with the Asgardian.
"Merlin, you bastard," we said at the same time.
The villagers chose this moment to enter. Luckily, Brunhilda had managed to don a disguise so as not to frighten the people with the sight of the gray humanoid.
"Is the Black Knight gone?" they asked.
"Yes, I defeated him. It wasn't a curse, but a test for Arthur or one of the knights. Brun, launch it."
The hologram of Merlin appeared again and delivered his speech.
"It's not a ghost, but a very advanced form of note. I'm afraid I'll disappoint you. Arthur is most likely dead, because he should have returned thousands of years ago. Also, they created the Grail themselves, not searched for it. More is still unknown. Sorry to shatter your faith, but this is what we just discovered. On the bright side, none of us need the gold, you can take it."
"What is this?" young Antonius turned his attention to the stone block.
"It was what controlled the knight, and it was also Merlin's tool for various actions." I called up a holographic screen and entered the local Word app. There was a pen icon—I think the Ancient One redesigned the icons so a medieval person could understand. Then I started writing some text. I wasn't very fluent in Ancient yet, but there was English: 'The Black Knight was defeated by Lord Szarekh and Captain Brunhilda.' Then I used various tools, like centering the text on a sheet of paper. Basically, it was a fully functional Word app, though with far more features. As soon as I pressed a button, a light flashed, startling even me, not just the locals. They'd found that very text.
"There's a materializer here," Brunhilde replied. "I'll contact the High Council, disable it before it teleports itself into space."
After listening to it, I decided to stop playing with the Ancients' "Word", otherwise I might end up killing myself.
"We'll step away for a moment. You can take everything except Merlin's texts. I'll come by later, copy them, and give you the originals. But don't play with that pedestal. Otherwise, you'll turn on the knight again."
"But you defeated him," Antonius said, perplexed.
"It's a wind-up toy. The fact that I pierced it only means it's out of power. It can be wound up again." I tried to use terms understandable to medieval people. "So don't touch that pedestal."
I also learned that Arthur and his knights set out on a journey to the Grail on the planets Castian, Sagal, and Wagonbray. I have no idea how to find their addresses. Besides Wagonbray, I need to find the sword from the picture there—Gawain's sword.
After which we went out into the forest, teleported to Brunhilde's ship, and contacted the High Council of Asgard.
– Captain Brunhilda, Junior Lord Szarekh, what can you tell me about the weapon capable of destroying an Ascended being?
"We have solid evidence that it was destroyed. The Others stopped Merlin, making some kind of pact with him. His library contains only books and a computer, an extremely advanced one. He controlled a dense hologram in the form of a knight. It was a test for a man named Arthur, who was to return and rule this planet, using the computer as he saw fit. Merlin completely formatted his computer; only basic programs remain. But these programs include a teleportation system, an advanced shield, and a materializer."
"Don't forget about dense holograms. If they'd given the Goa'uld something like that, the rape rate would have skyrocketed," I said sarcastically. The Asgard looked at me. "Yeah, come on, the Goa'uld are bastards, they enjoy seeing suffering."
– The Asgard High Council is ready to compensate you, junior lord, for the beam teleport technology.
"Yes, yes. It would be presumptuous to expect you to give me such technology. Then let me show you where Avalon—Merlin's vault—is. Then I'll exchange two beam teleport systems for the information."
- What information?
"I already have some ideas for translating the Ancient language, but I need a full-fledged Ancient-to-Goa'uldish translator. I also need a phonetic translation of the symbols on the gates. I know that for the Ancients, gate addresses were words. Considering you were their allies, they could have shared with you such a convenient way to identify planets..."
— How did you hear about this possibility?
"The Ancients were a fiercely rationalistic society, the pinnacle of civilizational evolution, but devoid of unnecessary complications. They forged their own paths through the stargates, creating them for themselves. At first, I blamed the digital codes, but you must admit, even the most ornate address doesn't exceed twelve digits—that's excessive, even for a powerful race with an intelligence beyond our own. And then the Chinese language, the brainchild of the Elder Lord of Systems Yu, came to my aid. In it, a symbol isn't a sound, but an action. Thus, phonetically different dialects, while remaining mutually incomprehensible, are easily read. Uniformity, there you have it! And then I thought: couldn't the Ancients have created something similar? A unified system tied to their language. Besides, you've just fueled my suspicions."
The Asgardians exchanged glances.
- Such information can be provided.
"But I'm taking the computer. Brunhilda confirmed it's just a formatted drive with programs, stripped of unnecessary information. It will allow me to work more productively on my projects."
- Okay, the computer will be yours.
"Excellent! Now we can move on from the boring matter of resource allocation to something truly important. I have discovered a race of energy beings capable of self-transformation. My scientists have been studying them for some time, and I would like to enlist the Asgard's help in defending this world. I must admit, encountering such beings is a rare event, as few of us encounter energy life forms. I know of the Ascended, but this is definitely not them. This race has a "body"—a crystal that absorbs starlight through the electromagnetic field of its planet. They do not fare well on other worlds, remaining confined to their homeworld. And I suppose I don't need to remind you of the Goa'uld's initial reaction to any non-human race.
— What do you suggest?
"Protect the gate zone with an energy field, saturating it with toxic substances, so that any system will signal the planet's contamination. Scientists will know it's a lie and will pass through to contact those who call themselves 'Unity.'"
- We will look into this issue.
- Great.
"Now, we can return to the planet to retrieve all the equipment. I want to play with my new computer. This thing will fly, after all, the Cheops computer, still remembering the war with the Alliance, spent most of its life inside it."
"We're sorry about your difficulties," said one of the advisers.
— Who taught you sarcasm?
We've been disconnected. O'Neill is right, it's annoying.
"Do they talk to you like that too?" he asked Brunhilda.
"They usually send me written orders, and they have too much to do to waste time on the idle chatter that the Goa'uld are so fond of.
"Absolutely every race I know loves idle chatter," he added after a moment's thought. "There was a second personality, Morgana. The glyphs on the computer also have Pyramid glyphs as reference points. But that's from the gate Ra brought, not the original first gate of Earth. They were excavated in Egypt only 20 years ago, and the US Army experimented with them back in the 1940s; they even managed to activate the Heliopolis set by sending a human there."
— What happened to him?
"I stunned him and placed him in stasis, and at the same time learned the address of Heliopolis. The place where you met the Ancients, Nox and Ferling. I would have brought him back, but if I brought him back... the US will understand what this is and will start looking to the stars for power. And considering how much the two factions hate each other, how the Chinese Communist Party is encroaching on the Republican forces... And let's add the gate to that. I like Earth, but I don't want to see another global war start there. So here's my point: Merlin clearly used a ship, because he was a Descended Ascended. His enemy, Morgana, was also a Descended.
"That's logical. And they carried out the entire plot together. But I don't understand why Morgana didn't strike immediately?" Brunhilda asked. "She allowed him to carry out his plan from the very beginning, the formation of Camelot and its transfer to this planet. Why wait?"
"Morgana could have appeared as a response to Merlin's use of phase-shifting technology. The Ascended aren't fools. Even they couldn't see what this 'scientist' was doing. They must have realized he wanted to conceal the information. So an agent made of flesh and blood was needed. Someone who could strike without being bound by the rules. Someone who could kill him."
"That's a bit extreme for the Ascended," Brunhilde wasn't convinced.
"The Ascended follow the cardinal rule—non-interference with lesser species. This is very rational thinking. Because beings of such power are capable of building religions, empires, and overthrowing civilizations in a short time. But where is the line drawn? After all, disagreements can arise among the Ascended. They can also become gods no less powerful than the Goa'uld. And then someone breaks this rule. I know of one civilization that was destroyed by the Ascended. Of course, the credibility of the source remains questionable. Seeing the Goa'uld advancing, one of the Ascended gave the humans weapons; they destroyed the fleet, and then began to think about conquest. Then the Ascended intervened. That, of course, is if the source was sane, which I can't guarantee.
"Interesting. We knew about the possibility of Ascension, but none of us were able to ascend."
— It happens. I'm sure there are some records of those other planets Arthur went to. We have the beginning: Merlin created Arthur and the Knights for his own purposes. Merlin shut down the entire program—the end. We're missing the middle. How could medieval knights have helped Merlin? Not in developing a device whose complexity is beyond anything your kind or mine knows. I'll read some books, maybe I can learn something. Will you be my companion, or is this case closed?
"The High Council has confirmed that you will not be able to obtain Merlin's weapon, so the case is closed," Brunhilda said.
"Oh, come on! You're interested in what the story is. And yeah, I wasn't interested in a weapon capable of killing an Ascended, because... Hey, they're the good guys. They don't interfere most of the time. Because with their intervention, even free will disappeared as a concept. It would be a dictatorship of gods, far more real than the Goa'uld."
The Asgardian tilted her head, looking at me with interest.
- When I have free time.
— I enjoyed working with you, except for those times when you were slow to save me from the hologram sword.
"I was in a hurry," Brunhilda answered calmly.
"Yes, I know. Short stature, and it's all Merlin's fault. I have a feeling this will become a common phrase on our journey."
— We can be grateful to Merlin for the device.
— And to one good Goa'uld named Szareh.
The Asgardian sent me away with one glance.
- Oh, I'm a little hungry. You can conjure a hamburger.
Brunhilda bowed her head.
"1904, Earth. The World's Fair. The Times called the hamburger a fairground food vendor's innovation," he replied, catching a puzzled look. "I'm a bibliophile; I read a lot, a lot. The Goa'uld don't produce even a millionth of the literature that Earth does. It's mostly nonsense explaining why they're gods, and parochial stories in the style of 'Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece.' It's deadly boring."
— So you read newspapers from 40 years ago? What a strange hobby.
— The history of the hamburger.
Brunhilda teleported the hot hamburger, apparently by contacting the database.
"Oh, yes! Just what I need after heavy physical exertion and a couple of phantom wounds." I bit into the hamburger, then thought about it. No, not the taste. It was quite precise, and the "patty" was still hot. "I still don't understand the purpose of all this? Why not turn to you? You're one of the closest races to the Ancients. Why all this playing at knights?"
— Perhaps people had something that he needed.
"Ignorance," I replied, deciding to reveal some of my cards. "Merlin's book doesn't say why the Altereans left their galaxy. Doesn't that seem odd? If it were an expedition, they would have spoken of it with pride. If it were a catastrophe on the level of a collision between two galaxies, that would have been mentioned too. But why did the Altereans come here? And why was there a communication device based on mind transfer stored in the vault?"
"What did you say?" asked Brunhilda.
"Mind transfer. That's what the communication device I found does. You need special stones, it said so in the book."
— Merlin needed people to be agents, but you're saying that this could have been sent... by minds?
"A communication system based on mind transfer isn't a technology superior to the Asgard. It offers more tactical military potential, as well as a tool for encrypted communications. Therefore, I don't want the Asgard to try to take this device from me in any way. I won't sell it, but I will allow you to study it. But yes, I suspect that's exactly what happened. Merlin has been using his agents somewhere, who, if captured, are not supposed to give up much information."
"To some extent, this is logical, but for now it's just a theory. And we don't yet have the resources to test these claims."
"And if there's something the Ancient One feared, I don't want to go there. He'll roast my tail without any mercy."
"A wise choice," Brunnhilde agreed.
"I really didn't want to meet the Ori, plus it's unclear how this device would affect the Goa'uld. Sensibly, destroying the communication system would be a good idea, but that's not a short-sighted decision, since the Ori could still be found one day. I don't know if Moros traveled with Janus in the time machine and, with his actions, created a self-fulfilling prophecy. No, he couldn't have been that stupid, especially as an Ascended, where his analysis surpassed any of my tools, meaning there must be another way the Ori discovered this galaxy. However, that remains to be seen.