“What happened?” Allan tried to sit up.

“Father! You are alive.” Chloe threw herself to him.

“I'm alive.” Agreed senator with pain in the heart.

“Not for long.” I assured him. “You have a heart problem and broken ribs, so you'll be dead in a couple of hours.”

“What?” Chloe stopped being happy. “But... you resurrected him.” She looked at me with madness in her eyes.

“Yeah. I repaired his head.” I nodded. “A healing of his heart is additional cost.”

“What do you want for his healing?” Girl asked with insane hope in her voice.

“Chloe, what? Daughter?” The Senator said.

“You will have sex with Matthew Scott in public.” I chose the next lucky one. “There he is.”

Chloe didn't even look at him.

“I agree.”

“What?” The Senator protested. “Chloe, you don't have to...”

He could not finish the sentence, clutching his heart.

"Behold the power of the Sacred Tree of Life!” I shouted, raising the pot over my head again.

The performance was repeated, and in a minute the Senator was surprised to feel himself. All pain in his chest stopped, and his common health condition improved.

“I'll collect payment tomorrow. And today you need to focus on saving your lives. This ship is badly damaged, and if you don't hurry, you won't live to see the morning.”

I raised my head and looked into Nicholas rush's eyes. He looked at me with bulging eyes. More precisely, not on me, but on my 'Tree of Life', which continued to glow slightly pleasant green light. Well, seems here will be fun.

The main problem facing the internally displaced was the general deterioration of the ship and the multiple injuries caused by alien life forms. Before arrival of the people on the ship there was no atmosphere. Now the air came from the reserves, but quickly evaporated, because in some places the hull of the ship was broken, and only the force fields kept the atmosphere inside.

The second problem was the non-working state of the life support system, which removes carbon dioxide from the air and replaces it with oxygen. Even now, people could hardly breathe. Well, it was worth adding a small supply of drinking water and barely living sewer. In general, were many problems, and any of them could lead to the death of all passengers.

But first of all, the people are not engaged in their salvation, but finding out who is in charge. About a dozen experts was engaged in it and the rest is cooked in its own juice, spreading crazy rumors one and another.

I have shielded myself from all these problems by first searching for the main control room of the ship, and then checking all the information available in the computer. The history of the ship was much more interesting than what was shown in the series.

Originally, it was sent by the Ancients as a repair coordination station to accompany the gate installers. Such ships were sent more than a hundred. When the Ancients decided to escape from the Ori, they opened the gates to this ship and pretended as disenfranchised passengers. To do this, they disabled the authorization system based on the recognition of the DNA of the Ancients.

After flying several galaxies, the Ancients reached the milky way, where they settled. The ship continued its movement. For the Ori, ships behavior and reports were no different from those of the other ships, so they simply did not know where the remains of the Ancients had gone.

Now the ship was still flying aimlessly in a given direction, helping the gate installers to set up Stargates on habitable planets. Destiny's resources were exhausted, so it could not repair not only the gate installer, but even itself.

There was no particularly interesting information on the ship, but, as I had hoped, the gate installer had a full base of Stargate technology. So, I just needed to spend some time here without going crazy with these neighbors.

Having learned everything necessary, I went to conduct a personal audit of the ship, and for one and its crew. To my surprise, three people had new souls in their bodies. Apparently, they were Game figures. I checked the entire structure of the research base not so long ago, and found no deviations. So, it was obvious that the substitution of a soul occurred at the time of transition through the gate or right after.

The first lucky man was Dr. Nicholas Rush. My phrase about swarming worms he understood somewhat incorrectly, referring to the 'greatness of the moment' is not to the arrival of the ship of the Ancients, but as the beginning of a new game. The second figure was Colonel Everett Yang, the head of the military, now lying unconscious under the supervision of a doctor. And the last donor of the body was Camilla Ray - an employee of the International Supervisory Board for the supervision of the program 'Stargate'.

I did not quite understand the purpose of this game, but rather the conditions for winning. So, I decided to question the tongue. Nicholas Rush, at my approach, dropped everything and watched me, as if waiting for the attack at any moment. Such suspicion seemed strange to me, but I attributed it to the fact that he recognized me as a game figure, and therefore feared a set-up.

Given my failure with the resurrection of the Senator, the best conversation subject was Colonel Yang. Until arrival he had been unconscious, and therefore was not aware of the incident of miracles.

I went to the infirmary, under which was allocated one of the rooms next to the hall of the gate. I distracted the doctor with a simple spell, then went to the unconscious Young and began to scan his memory. Alas, it was of little use. His brains and astral body contained the memory of the donor, but the memories of the figure were stored in the soul, and there I could not climb there without risking to turn a man into a vegetable or feed his soul to the symbiont.

I had to impose on the victim a slight healing spell which allowed him to regain consciousness and to realize his plight. He felt nothing below his waist because of the bruise on his spine.

“Greetings, a protege of the Players.” I turned to the Colonel. “How you feeling? Are your leg hurt?”

“What is going on? I can't feel my feet.” Colonel squeezed out words.

“You were badly injured and now you're paralyzed. If I do not provide urgent assistance, you will be forced to spend the whole game, sitting in the same room, unable to somehow affect to something.”

“Who are you?” Young began to look around, but he could only see the metal walls of the room.

“I'm Imhotep. Another Game figure. If you tell me the rules of this game, I'll cure you.”

“Rules should be known to all. Are you kidding me?” Colonel suspected something was wrong.

"If you don't tell me everything you know, I'll cut off your arms and legs. Let's see how you play without them.”

“You are not dare!”

“Really? Look.”

I ran my finger over the victim's right arm around the elbow and cut it off with a power blade. Then I took the limb and put it in his left hand so the patient could see that it was real. And then he started singing like a nightingale, telling me everything he knew.

It was Young's first game. Before that, he lived in a technologically underdeveloped world, not like the Earth. The magic didn’t exist there, and science was developed in the seventeenth to eighteenth century. The essence of the game was to seize power on the ship and 'recruit' in his team as many people as possible. And returning to Earth was a kind of Jack-pot, immediately determining the winner. Thus, it was important the sequence of passage through the gate. Winner will be who first stepped to the Earth.

Prohibited to kill the enemy or severely harm his health. But to leave the loser on one of the planets is not forbidden. Also, from time to time, the figures had to receive 'quests', the performance of which was counted as the presence of a certain number of people in the team.

In general, the game could be interesting, if not for the dull environment. There were no resources as such. It is unclear for what they need to fight. How to keep people interested - is unclear. Similar to spider nest, which could be reduced to a banal universal massacre. Why? No man, no problem. Collect a dozen like-minded people and cut out all the others. And the remaining figures can be put behind bars and slowly starved.

According to the results of the brainstorming, I decided not to interfere in local disassembly and do not help to anyone. However, the healing of the Young could make an exception. I sewed his hand back and healed from all of the wounds received during the transition.

Then I went straight to Nicholas Rush. Now, knowing the rules of the game, I could talk to him honestly.

“Hey, let's go outside.” I turned to the scientist, finding him for picking in the terminal of the ship.

He looked at me as wolf, and then at Sergeant Greer, who seemed to be watching the scientist, suspecting him of all the imaginable sins. The Sergeant snatched the gun back, pointed it at me, and aimed the bonsai pot.

“He's not going anywhere. And if you try that potty trick again, I'll put a dozen holes in your head.”

In response, I cast a paralysis spell on the soldier, causing him to freeze in place, unable to move. After that, I slowly walked up to him, picked up the pot with both hands and swung it down on Greer's head, instantly knocking him out.

“There are no more witnesses, so we can talk here.” I told the dumbass Rush.

“You killed him?” He asked fearfully.

“No. Just stunned. Tell me.” I hurried him, playing with the pot.

“Tell you what?” The scientist didn't understand.

“All. How did you end up like this? What a game it is for you and all that. And don't lie. Or my sacred bonsai will crush your skull. Believe me, I can do so that you will continue to live without a brain in your head. I'll turn you into a zombie and see how you will collect like-minded people.”

This story was a little more interesting. It was rush's second game. In the first he was a vampire who lived on Earth in the eighties of the twentieth century. Tellingly, that same world was his mother, and before the game he didn't even know about the presence of around vampires, werewolves, mages and Holy Inquisition. From the previous game he had not obtained any ability, so here he relied on the study of Ancient technology, to win with them.

While I was listening to this story, Lieutenant Matthew Scott walked into the room. He looked at me suspiciously at first, then noticed the unconscious Greer and rushed to him. Finding that he was breathing and just unconscious, he presented the results of the latest research of the ship.

In one of the compartments was a Shuttle, which was a gaping hole, through which the air leaking. It was impossible to isolate this compartment from other parts of the ship because of the jammed door. It was urgent to find a solution to this problem, otherwise all the air in the residential part of the ship threatened to leak into interstellar space.

“Imhotep, can you help us with this problem?” Rush asked.

“It's not a problem for me. I can survive without air. But I know how this problem can be solved. Send someone get in that Shuttle and close the doors from the inside. He will die and you will survive.”

In the original story, Senator Armstrong sacrificed himself. Now he was more alive than all the living and even took an active part in the race for power. So, the question of self-sacrifice was particularly acute. The local contingent was not eager to die for the sake of others. On the contrary, there were plenty of people ready to kill everyone for the sake of ephemeral gains.

There was a general meeting at which my 'plan of salvation' discussed. No volunteers were found, and a long debate began, which resulted in only a loss of time and valuable air. In the end, when it became difficult to breathe because of the fallen pressure, regained consciousness sergeant Ronald Greer volunteered. Under the eyes of the frightened townsfolk, he went to his death, saving their worthless lives.

After the Sergeant closed the Shuttle doors and fainted from lack of air, I teleported him back to the living quarters. All people standing nearby bulged their eyes as they watched as the kamikaze stand up to his feet.

“I helped you this time.” I said to sergeant. “But there won't be a second time. The more you try to save the lives of fools, the greater the chances that the most intelligent and valuable members of society will die. However, this is not my problem.”

On this I turned around and teleported to an isolated part of the ship, which could only be reached with a spacesuit. There I set up a laboratory in which I was engaged in experiments. I didn't even get out to see how Chloe fulfilled her promise to me by arranging a public porn with the participation of two fellows. They tried to get away from this honor, but I threw a spell of sexual arousal at them, after which they literally lost their minds and arranged a continuous fuck for two hours.

After that, I stopped watching what was happening on the ship. I returned to the mortal reality, only when the ‘Destiny’ was attacked by aliens who opened fire. Apparently, like in the canon, Young left Rush on the planet without letting him pass through the gate. Rush tried to fix the alien ship, but aliens found a him, extracted information from his memory about the Ancient ship and decided to capture it.

Appearing next to the 'Destiny', the aliens released fighter-attack aircraft, which were to deliver troops to our ship. Colonel Young tried to organize resistance, but the ship's weapons systems simply refused to work. Rush set it up so that only he could activate them.

While Everett was arguing with Eli about who was to blame, I showed up in the auxiliary control room where they were.

“Imhotep? You alive?” Eli was surprised.

“Is that really life?” I answered. “You got rid of Nicholas Rush, and in return received aggressive aliens. Young, your stupidity is amazing.”

With these words, I lifted up bonsai and casted sacred magic, then teleported Rush to the hall. One second ago Rush was in the tank with a biological fluid, so that he was pretty pathetic appearance.

The next miracle was the destruction of the alien ship. I decided to test a spell based on spider magic that used ancient technology. The invisible construct of the spell flew the distance between the ships in one millisecond, penetrated the target, passed all kinds of protection, and then activated, transforming all matters around to a special state.

This 'weapon' was based on the study of the Ancients about the special states of matter. It turned the atoms of matter into quantum liquid, which spontaneously began to rotate, generating electric and magnetic fields.

In just a few seconds spectators on Destiny saw how the enemy ship exploded with jumble of spinning rings and spirals passing through each other. The image was completely psychedelic. And after half a minute the entire alien ship turned into liquid helium, which immediately began to fly apart, evaporating in the vacuum of space.

Frightened fighters in a panic began to rush in different directions, but they were overtaken by spells simpler that simply detonated reactors. Just a minute from the beginning of the aggressors were destroyed.

“Learn, boys. The magic of the sacred tree is irresistible.” With these words, I once again teleported back to my lab.

About a month later, the ship suddenly came out of the jump. We were in orbit of the star around which the planet revolved. What is most strange, in the database of the ship there was no information about this star, not to mention a planet with quite ideal biosphere.

After getting closer I realized that this whole system was one big illusion. It resembled the ability of chakra converted into matter. The planet was material. The plants on it were alive. But all of them was illusion that able disappear in just a few minutes.

After thinking, I decided to send my clone there. It was too risky personal visit to this Paradise. Other Game figures did not dare to visit the planet. After all, if someone flies there, the remaining can simply 'forget' to send a Shuttle to pick them back.

The detailed study of the planet showed that obelisk is only real here. And if from a material point of view, it was just a big piece of stone, but on the astral level around it raged whole storms of energies, even I did not dare to get in. Even on board the ship, I felt like a feather standing on the edge of a swirling whirlpool.

A month later we left this system, leaving to Obelisk several victim volunteers who decided to settle on the illusory planet. Watching creatures of this level, I realized how insignificant I am in the universe.

Moving away from the planet, I stood on one of the observation decks of the ship and watched the receding local sun. Rush approached me joined to contemplation. Finally, 'Destiny' moved far enough away from the star and activated the superluminal displacement mode.

“When you observe a phenomenon of this magnitude, you feel like a small speck of dust.” Like a scientist read my mind. "But I believe that one day people will be able to know all the secrets of the universe.”

“Empty dreams.” I broke it. “You haven't even dealt with the banal quantum physics. Your limit of knowledge is Newton's mechanics and classical electrodynamics. Something even a monkey can understand.”

“What do you mean? Quantum physics is used in many practical developments.” Rush protested.

“That's what I'm saying. What do you mean, 'physics in use'? There's nothing used. You just guessed some patterns using the method of scientific fingering. And all your theories are delusions and illusions.”

"So, you know how it really works?" The great theoretical physicist was offended.

“Of course. I have all knowledge of the Ancients. Here we take the elementary phenomenon - photon. For you it is either a particle or a wave spreading at a fixed speed. In reality, a photon is not an object, but an event. There is only the fact of instantaneous energy transfer from one point to another with some time delay. In other words, the photon is not going anywhere. He has no intermediate state.”

"Then how is the energy absorption point determined?" Rush asked. “Because it is in the future.”

"The future is just another dimension of space. We can assume that the future is predetermined, although there everything is, of course, much more complicated. In fact, your scientists have long since discovered that photons do not exist. But you can't officially admit it, because it will refute your basic religious beliefs. For example, that the future depends only on the past, and not vice versa.”

“How did we know there were no photons?”

“A simple experiment. Interference of light. If a coherent stream of light passes through two holes, then the permissible absorption points of the photon behind the obstacle are distributed in space in a special way. But this effect is manifested even if the light source emits single photons. That is, it turns out that the particle flies through two holes at once.”

“It's called wave-particle duality of light.” Rush didn't fail to put in a clever phrase.

“This is called a ‘limited perception of reality’. The wave is a wave, that it exists as an extended perturbation in space. Look at the water wave. It is not absorbed at one point. Imagine a point source of photons in a vacuum. The “waves” emitted by him have a spherical shape. That is, a photon can appear at any point in space. Moreover, it knows in advance where it can fly because of the presence of obstacles like diffraction slits, and where it cannot. In other words, the picture I described is just nonsense, having no logical explanation from the point of view of your theories. You simply gave the name to this delirium, thus moving it beyond the provability line. Well, such a phenomenon. Do not you understand what it is? Here is your logic. If we assume that a photon is an event, and it has no “intermediate” state, but the future is predetermined, then everything becomes clear and obvious. At the moment of photon radiation, the universe immediately "calculates" the possible energy absorption point, focusing on the quantum probability of different outcomes. Of course, no probabilities exist either, just this combination of words remotely describes the essence of what is happening.”

I fell silent, admiring the overflows of the protective field of the ship.

“What is next?” Rush asked.

“What's next? Nothing further. Absolutely all your theories of the level of quantum physics are one hundred percent nonsense. Yes, even the famous theory of relativity - nonsense, because its basic postulate is wrong. As we have already established, a photon is an instantaneous event. It has no travel speed. At best, we can talk about the speed of the photon relative to the absorption point. Here it is equal to a certain value, characterized by the refractive angle of a multidimensional space in an electric field. And for all other points in the universe, the photon doesn't exist. That is, we cannot say that the speed of the photon flight past a certain observer is equal to something. Because just the same, nothing is flying anywhere.”

“And what then measured experiments that record the speed of light?”

“All these experiments included a system of mirrors. The light moved from the source to the mirror, reflected and returned to the sensor, where the delay was measured. Only you have registered two independent phenomena - the 'flight' of one photon from the source to the mirror and the 'flight' of another from the mirror to the sensor. After that, these values were added and the arithmetic mean was calculated. You measured something nonsense, and the result was appropriate. In general, your earthly science is just another form of religion, where the dogmas and opinions of the ignorant are much more important than real knowledge. Look, the church also 'studies God', and even achieved in this field some practical success. You're no better.”

On this I left the spat scientist to realize the futility of his efforts to study anything and teleported to my laboratory.

Finally, more than a year after my arrival on the ship, destiny began docking with one of the gate installers. The ship came out of the jump and began to approach another ship of similar design. Young tried to activate the guns to shoot a suspicious target, but naturally could not do anything. I assumed such a development, and therefore blocked the control of the ship.

Finally, the ships came closer and clashed with each other. I sent my clone to the gate installer and went to the observation deck to say goodbye to the crew.

“Hi, everyone. I'm going to move on this ship. Who with me?” I stunned people with my statement.

“What is it?” Eli asked.

“Nothing special. Just another flying coffin. But it has an important advantage - there are no crowds of primitive people.”

“I'll pass.” Young refused. "I have no intention of leaving the ship at all.

Rush didn't say anything.

"If someone comes with me, I will give him my sacred bonsai." I made an offer that was hard to refuse.

But the people still refused, ignoring my royal offer. Finally, Rush gave me a meaningful look and left the observation deck. I waited a few seconds and went after him.

“Do you know something?” Nicholas asked me as we stopped in one of the empty rooms. He knew that the whole ship was in my control. After all, every time he tried to activate some 'forbidden' function, using the main terminal on the bridge, he received a message like 'Access is limited. Contact Imhotep for permission.'

“Well, for those who believe in me, will open the way to Earth.”

“So, you're going to win this way?”

“No. I'm not going to win, and I'm not going back to Earth. I have my own tasks.”

“But can you help me to win?”

“It's possible. So what? Will you take my bonsai?”

Rush thought for a moment, assessing the options. He didn't have a single crew member under him now. For 'victory' fought Colonel Young and Camilla Ray.

“I will take.” Finally, the scientist agreed.

“Okay.” I said, teleporting us to another ship. “This is yours. I handed the pot to its new owner. “Water it every three days, feed fertilizer once a year.”

“What about my things?” Rush was worried when he found himself in an unfamiliar room.

“Forget them. You can buy new things in Earth. I'll give you the normal conditions of life without them.”

I formed an instant death combat spell and cast it. The spell wave destroyed all the alien life forms that were hiding on the ship. After that, all I had to do was get to the control room, where Rush started to live, and I connected to the central computer.

Without wasting a second, I reached the Stargate knowledge base. Quickly downloading it to myself, I have five more minutes spent on the analysis. The findings were not the most inspiring.

I should start from the history of civilization of the Ancients. Once a scientist conducted experiments in the field of physics of force fields and accidentally stumbled upon an unusual phenomenon. When a specific configuration of energy fields assembled then the two-dimensional field appeared which can completely destroy matter.

The strangest thing about this phenomenon was not even a violation of the law of conservation of energy, but a complete lack of connection between the nature of the energy fields used and the final phenomenon. In other words, the opened portal was not the result of the work of some laws of physics. Rather, the configuration of the force fields was a kind of key that activates an unknown mechanism of Universe.

Further studies have shown that the portal does not destroy the matter, but transform it into information, which can be then returned to the state of matter. Scientist didn’t able to transmission of packets with this information, but he learned to 'hide' objects in the data drive, and then extract them back.

After a few years of slow experimentation, some of the energy Entities contacted with the Ancient with question interested in the emerging 'glitches in reality'. It was the first contact of the Ancients with the Ori. The ascendants happily shared their knowledge with his brothers in mind. One of the gifts was the technology of using the portal to move over a distance.

Actually, scientist mastered the first part of work. He was able to turn objects into information and even came up with a kind of 'virtual reality', where the object could exist. But to move the data package, it was necessary to create a different configuration of energy fields, which allowed to 'transfer' the information to another carrier located at the specified coordinates. Again, there was no reasonable explanation for this phenomenon. It just worked, that's all.

The coordinates of the point of destination it was impossible to calculate, but can be measured with the aid of a 'magic spell'. As a result, a fairly simple technology was formed. At the point of departure, an event horizon was formed that turned objects into information. At the point of arrival opened the same portal and at the same time read information about the current coordinates. This information was just a set of numbers, so it was transmitted to the outgoing gate, where it was used to 'teleport' packets of data to the receiving gate, which unpacked the objects and spat them out.

Actually, I knew all this before, although not with such details. But base on this ship contained the explanation of why all this heresy actually works. The explanation was given by the Ori, who transmitted this technology to the Ancients.

The essence of this phenomenon was that all the planets, worlds and universes were a kind of virtual reality. Within worlds acted certain laws of physics, there was matter and energy. And 'outside' was only information about all this, processed by some analogue of the computer in the broadest sense of the word.

Stargate portal was a kind of 'cheat', allowing to violate any laws of physics. It was enough just to repeat the right combination of rituals, and it resulted to working mechanisms of 'High Universe', that does all the work. That is, to be honest, the Stargate was not a technology, but a typical 'sorcery'. There was instruction on how to use them, and there was no explanation as to why it worked.

Although the Stargate mechanism used an existing portal to obtain and materialize the object, it was possible to open the gate to some place, even if there was no equipment. It was enough to know the correct coordinates. Just had to make another 'sorcery', which in the normal Stargate was not used as unnecessary.

In addition to this information, there was another important point. The fact is that each Universe has a log of where and when particular person’s actions. That is, if you move to a completely different world, you could get there at any time. Inside the world, you could only move to present time or into the future. A move into the past was banned, unless it was not self-consistent on special events.

When you left a world, even though you were no longer in it, information about your soul was preserved. And when you came back, you had the same limitation on causation. It was impossible to move to the same line of events in the past and change something there.

In general, from all this description, I came to the conclusion that time as such does not exist. The universe, from the moment of its creation to its destruction, was one continuous multidimensional canvas on which we drew the story of our life. Each universe had its own time. Just like every soul had its own personal history. But, going beyond the world, we were beyond its time.

It could well be a situation where someone lived in the world for a period of time, then came out of it to another world, there met with you and told about the events. You used the portal and were transported to the past of this world, where your knowledge became a prophecy. As a result, you drew your story in this world without being able to change what your interlocutor saw. If you still managed to overcome the resistance of the whole world and change something, it just created another parallel version of the universe, which could turn into a separate world, and could merge with the original, when all your changes will be only minor information garbage in the folds of history.

Having found out all the necessary details, I began to translate the opening of portals to magic and chakra. I did not need to repeat exactly all the force fields, but it was enough to reproduce a certain code combination. In other words, I could transmit the Morse code signal with a flashing flashlight, tap it on the door, or draw it on the wall. But once the universe is determined the presence of 'cheat', it committed the action.

After just a couple of days, I was able to open the portal and transfer the item through it, using only magic. I could not determine the coordinates of an unknown point, but I could create a beacon from which these coordinates could be read remotely. The distance didn't matter to the portal, but the farther away the arrival point was, the more complex the coordinates became. And their 'tapping with Morse code' using ancient technology was becoming increasingly expensive.

Just a week later I was ready to move to any place of the universe, the coordinates of which will familiar to me. As a final test, I decided to move Nicholas Rush to Earth using only the chakra. I had some Hiraishin labels there. I used one of them to move the fuinjutsu into it, determining the coordinates, then read the information and opened the portal from my side. After that, I solemnly declared Rush as winner, gave him a bonsai and kicked him in the ass and sent to the destination. The transition was completed successfully, and the game figure were on the Earth safe and sound.

I expected the Being to appear beside me immediately, but it was another month before I felt its presence.

“What a mess you've made.” It said to me without even saying hello. “Well at least I had the sense to cast on you a cloaking spell, which hide you from other Players. Judge under played to me too and didn’t revealed you. But I haven't laughed so much in a couple of thousand years. Players still trying to find out who is winner in this game - Asgards or the Replicators. Even postponed the end of the game because of this.”

“Why Ascendeds did not win?” I was surprised.

“Why? All the Ori are destroyed.” Being surprised even more.

“So, I have created the astral body of Loki with the use of technologies of Ascendeds. So technically, he's an Asgard who betrayed his homeland and turned to the Ascended. And the fact that he has a body of replicators - it's all a minor detail. Although, I also don't understand why the Earthlings didn't win. I gave my ship to Jack, which alone can bring to the entire galaxy to knees, and able to destroy the existence of all the replicators, ascended, goa’ulds and other creatures. And yet, somewhere in the ship stored the original replicators, which have stuck to the soul of the Fifth. And if he gets free, he can take control over the ship. But if he decides to remake it badly, then the security mechanism will work, which will destroy all replicators on board of ship and will transfer the ship to an autonomous mode, where it does not obey anyone. And then, it may well turn out that no one won, because all the game pieces and their troops will be destroyed.”

The Being listened to me with all the attention, and I even got the impression that at times it was noting my explanations.

“I'm going to be rich!” It is viciously laughed. “There are so many bets I can make, I can beat all money from other Players, and in the end also to take the jackpot, guessing the outcome of the game.”

His presence disappeared and I was again alone on board the spacecraft. The second time the Being appeared a couple of months later, spreading waves of complacency from the successfully executed fraud of the century.

“I see, you already mastered the technique of teleportation between worlds.” It said. “Listen to my brilliant plan. I can't publicly put you in the game because the bets against you are going to drop. But there is one tricky leak in the rules. In games in the space worlds of the galactic scale, the joining of a new figure does not require the notification of other Players, if this figure does not belong to any of the parties to the conflict, enters the world literally naked, having only his own body, and appears in open space at a distance of more than a million kilometers from the nearest inhabited planet, space station or ship. And most importantly, such an appearance should occur on the initiative of the figure as a result of its own efforts. Now, you satisfy all these conditions. So, take this coordinate and teleport to them when you're ready. Just don't stay too long. Is that clear?”

“What I need to do in that world?” I asked, studying the coordinates.

“Oh, right. Before you get there, I can tell you. This world known to you as 'Mass Effect'. Your task is to survive the Harvest. It won't last long there. Maybe a couple thousand years. Or you can destroy the Reaper and all the other races in the galaxy. I repeat, you don't have to help the existing races. You're on your own against the entire galaxy. And you can be sure the whole galaxy will be against you too. Okay, go.”

The Being was gone, leaving me to think about my fate. To survive the Harvest lasting two thousand years? I wasn't in danger because I had a parasite in my soul that would eat me in less than a thousand years. So, I have only one option – to destroy all the Reapers and go to the next game, where I maybe can find a remedy against the parasite.

In general, the task, in my opinion was not impossible. All I need to do is create a couple of hundred blocks of replicators. After that, they will multiply, organize and destroy not only the Reapers, but the entire galaxy. At the end there will be only stars, gas giants and... replicators. I don't even have to strain myself. Well, the brilliant plan is ready, so it remains only to veni, vidi, vici.