(Disclaimer: I do not own the Stargate universe or it's characters. This fanfiction is just written for fun, and is not meant in any way to challenge anyone's copyright. All honor to those who have created this wonderful setting which bring me so much joy and inspiration.)
He Allowed Himself One Tear
The dead wraith Queen lay on the cold, hard Hive ship floor. The large, bald male, the hive's former Commander had carried her here after he had been ordered to remove her from the throne room by the usurper and her tall, lean pet. Kneeling down besides his queen the bald wraith examined her wound, a knife stab to the neck. The commander gently turned the female's head to the side to inspect the gaping cut. It had been expertly inflicted. Anything but massive damage would not kill a wraith, and especially not one as powerful as the dead woman on the floor. The Queen's spinal cord had been cut by a stab to her upper neck. The commander's yellow eyes narrowed, the usurper though she moved like a warrior, she just did not seam strong enough to inflict this kind of massive damage, was there more to the story than the former commander had been told?
Gently the large wraith did what he could to set his queen's neck and spine right, then he ran a tender hand over her hair. The black mass of her mane was still warm from when it had been lying against her living body. Closing his eyes the commander reached behind the Queen's neck and unclasped her necklace, slowly removing the red stoned pendant with the hidden alarm function which his Queen had so favored. Now with her chest bare the old wraith looked down at the feeding slit in his right hand. The slightly slanted opening which ran from just below his first and second finger to the center of his palm. An opening which was the harbinger of death but which also could give the Gift of Life, brining life back to the dead. The commander knew that if what he was attempting was discovered by the usurper or her pet then he would probably be put to death, but the old wraith did not care, if his Queen needed his life then he would gladly lie it down for her. He had to try to revive her if there was even a shadow of a chance that it would work.
The former commander put his large feeding hand gently on the small, frail looking female's chest. Spikes in a circle around his feeding slit came out and bit into the Queen's dead skin, then the feeding organ itself made a larger tear in her flesh. Immediately the commander was overwhelmed by the utter lack of life. The spark had left his Queen's body. The old wraith had to force his hand to remain on the Queen's chest, when every instinct in his body told him to recoil from this dead thing. Closing his eyes the Commander begun to push his own stolen life force into the smaller wraith's body. As he knelt there letting his very life essence flow into the Queen's corpse memories flooded his mind.
It was so long ago. How old had he been the day she had first left him? Nine, he had been nine, his right palm had been smooth and unbroken, and he had still lived off meat, bread and other foodstuffs. The dangerous life of an adult wraith had still been years away, and yet his future had already been decided from the moment he was taken out of the pod which had served as his womb. The day she had left his young life had begun like any other, with breakfast in the Hive ship's nursery. The little boy who would one day grow into the large, bald headed wraith now kneeling beside his dead Queen sat eating a bowl of thick green porridge. For every spoon the child would throw his head back to let the food pour down his throat. The even, pointed teeth in his mouth had very limited use in chewing, so the wraith children was depended on taking small bites and just letting the food slide down. His head was still bent backwards when she entered the room. The Hive's pride, a female offspring. The young wraith boy held out his hand and waved the few years older girl closer.
"I have been waiting for you. Come I saved you a seat."
The boy exclaimed happily, glad his friend had finally made it to breakfast. That the two of them should be friends was strange. The girl would one day be the Queen of a Hive, while the young boy, stocky built and muscular, would be a warrior, just one step above the drones in the wraith hierarchy. The boy could see that the more sleek and slender children who would one day be technicians and scientists glared at him, jealous of his friendship with the female child.
The girl quickly crossed the room and took a seat beside the young warrior child. Smiling slightly. The boy pushed a bowl of green porridge and bread towards her.
"Here, eat it before it gets cold."
But the young wraith girl pushed to bowl aside.
"No my friend, I do not need that any more."
She said, her voice carrying a hint of pride which had not been there before. Looking more closely at his friend the boy noticed that she looked differently. She was longer wearing the dark gray jumpsuit which he and the other children was wearing, now a tight fitting leather dress caressed the girl's body. Her long black hair hung loose around her sharp, triangle shaped face. On two of her pale fingers where the elaborate shield rings that the adult wraith wore as a sign of status. Confused the young warrior took in his friend's new visage.
"What have happened to you."
The young boy exclaimed. His friend held up her right hand and slowly uncurled her fingers. In the center of the girl's small palm was a slitted opening. Her feeding organ had opened, signaling the the girl was no longer a child, but now a fully adult wraith.
"I grew up."
The young Queen said as she looked at her few years younger friend. The boy grinned as he begun to bombard the girl with questions.
"Did it hurt when it opened? The feeding slit I mean, have you fed? How did it feel?"
The female wraith took her friend's hands in hers.
"You will get an answer to your questions in a few years time when the same happens to you. But for now you must stop and listen to me. I came to say goodbye."
The wraith boy's yellow eyes widened in shock.
"Goodbye, what do you mean? Where are you going?"
The young Queen looked sad for a moment then she answered.
"I am an adult now my friend. I am a Queen. There can not be two Queens on one ship. I am being sent to an allied Hive which have lost their Queen in battle with the Lanteans."
Tears welled up in the young boy's eyes. The threw his arms around his friend.
"No, I do not want you to go. Who will go sneaking through the air ducts with me, and who will I explore the dart bay with if you are not here?"
The young Queen gently pushed the boy away, in a mildly reprimanding voice she said.
"I am a Queen now, I can not run around like a child anymore, nor can I allow you to treat me as just your friend, those days have passed. Dry your tears my friend, dry them and never let them fall again. Always hold your head high and keep your dignity, for one day I will be the Primary of a great alliance, and you will be my commander."
The boy lifted his hands to dry his tears, then he nodded. Looking around he noticed that all the other little boys had risen and where standing with their head's bowed in respect for the young Queen. Slowly the boy stood. Bowing deeply he tried to banish the sadness over the loss of a childhood friend, trying instead to feel only pride that the young Queen had such a high opinion of him. Smiling slightly he said.
"I will never let my tears fall again, and I will count the days until I see you again my frie---my Queen."
The young boy had then watched his childhood friend walk out of the nursery dining room and towards the dart bay and her future life as the Queen of a Hive.
The commander looked down at the dead body who had once been his friend. He closed his eyes again, his feeding hand felt afire with the amount of life force he pumped into the small wraith woman's body. The Queen's eyes fluttered slightly, but there was no other life signs. The old warrior took a deep breath and even if hunger was beginning to gnaw at him he gave more of his life to the female on the floor. More memories flooded his tired mind. Memories of his life, and memories of his Queen.
Years had passed and the young wraith boy became a man. For a while he was just a warrior, a lesser officer who was little more than cannon fodder for his Hive. His slender, white haired brothers looked at his stocky, bald form with contempt, and the warrior could not always hide his jealousy. The Lantean war eventually ended, centuries passed. Endless cycles of hibernation and wake periods went by. Then the warrior's Hive went into alliance with two other Hives. As the warrior stood with his fellow officers and swore his alliance to the Primary of the new alliance he suddenly saw his old friend again. She was the the Queen of the other Hives in the alliance. By some wonder the Queen recognized the young warrior also, and she kept her promise, she got the young wraith transferred to her ship and made him her commander. Him, a mere warrior, was now the commander of a Hive, who would ever have believed it?
Over the years the Queen had grown hard as bone. The little girl who had sat on a dart bay walkway, dangling her feet and giggled at his jokes was no where to be seen in the powerful creature who now ruled her Hive with an iron fist, but then there was not much of the young boy who had offered his friend a bowl of porridge in the rugged wraith warrior either. There was not few times the new commander had to bear the blunt of his Queen's wrath, but he was just glad to serve her, and her aggressiveness and zero tolerance for failure or questioning of her authority just made the commander more proud to stand at his Queen's side.
Five hundred year after the founding of the alliance the warrior's still rather young Queen murdered the Primary and took over control of the alliance. The warrior supported his Queen every step of the way, not out of a lust for power, but out of loyalty to her. Being one of the few males the Queen would speak with he had a unique position with her. Years passed and the alliance grew in power. Times where good, food was in healthy supply and wraith enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity. Then again came the time for hibernation. The warrior remember that he stood beside his Queen's pod, watching her sleep, guarding her until every wraith on the Hive was asleep, then and only then did the warrior find his own pod and closed his eyes to let the centuries pass as he rested.
But things did not go according to plan. Hibernation periods was carefully planned and calculated to allow the galaxy's human population time to regrow their numbers before the next period of cullings. But nearly fifty years before the date when the Hives should spring to life again the warrior awoke, a scream in his mind from the Caretaker, the Queen of the one Hive left awake to tend the rest. The wise thing would have been for the alliance to just feed and go back to sleep, but other alliances where stirring and the wraith, always suspicious of their own kind and fearful of treachery did not want to put them self in a position of weakness which other Hives and alliances could exploit. The hibernation periods worked because every Hive but one went into the deep sleep at the same time, no one was willing to trust the others, no one was willing to take the first step and send their Hives back into hibernation alone, so the wraith became active fifty years to early, the result was to many active wraith to a to small human population, facing starvation the wraith begun a bloody civil war, it was Hive against Hive, alliance against alliance, and in the chaos the warrior's alliance grew to become one of the most dominant.
But now the heart of that alliance lay dead on the floor. The commander slowly removed his feeding hand from his Queen's chest, his palm was sticky with her black, cold blood. The Queen was to far gone, the commander had given all he had to give, he would die himself soon if he did not feed, and yet if he had believed it would save her he would have gladly given it all and died at her feet. In a moment of overwhelming emotion he hoisted the dead Queen's body into his arms and took her right hand and pressed it against his own chest.
"Please my Queen, wake, feed, please..."
The old wraith whispered, but his Queen did not move, nor did her feeding organ bite into the flesh on his chest. The commander longed for the earth shattering pain which would signal his Queen taking taking his life, but no pain came. He had tried everything and his Queen was truly dead. He could not save her. The old wraith let go of his Queen's limp hand and slowly stood, lifting the dead wraith up into his arms. With even, purposeful steps the commander carried the dead female to the nearest airlock. Kneeling down in the small closed space the commander placed the Queen on the floor, with shaking fingers he put her pendant back around her neck. Standing the wraith went outside and closed the airlock doors. Hesitating for one moment, he then activated the controls. The outer door opened with a slight hiss and the Queen's body was sucked out into the vacuum of space. The old wraith bowed his head deeply. One yellow tinted tear flowed from the corner of his eye and hit the deck at his feet. One tear, he would allow himself no more, Wraith children cried just like human children did, and even the adults had tear canals, but no adult wraith would show such weakness as to let their tears fall. A wraith had to be hard to survive, there was no room for compassion or love in a wraith's life. But the commander could not help shedding one wet drop, one drop for the woman who had been his life. The usurper would pay for this, she and her rugged haired commander. The old wraith was not able to give his Queen back her life, but he would give her revenge.
As the commander watched the body of his Queen vanish in the vastness of space he muttered the words he had once told a young girl. His head still bowed as a sign of respect. "I will never let my tears fall again, and I will count the days until I see you again my Queen."
Lifting his head, his eyes burning with anger and purpose the commander turned and walked into the belly of the Hive ship, setting his course towards the bridge. Yes, he wold find some weakness in the usurper, and then he would destroy her, he just had to bide his time until he got the chance to strike. His Queen would be avenged!