Author's disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis and its associated characters. MGM does, for which, for the most part, they have my utmost respect. No copyright infringement is intended in writing these stories.
My deepest respect also goes to the talented actors that brought to life the characters we see in Stargate Atlantis. My portrayal of the characters here is based on my perception of the work of Joe Flanigan, Jason Momoa, Rachel Luttrell, Paul McGillion, David Hewlett, Amanda Tapping, Robert Picardo and Connor Trinneer. Without these people and those that came before them, there would have been no Atlantis as we know it today.
Other assorted original characters (i.e. those that don't really appear in the show) are my own creation, and they, along with the original material presented here are © Eirian Phillips 2008.
Story is rated for mature readers, according to whatever rating system is adopted these days for Fan Fiction. It changes on a site by site basis… It was so much easier way back when…
There may be other virtual seasons of SGA out there in cyberspace. Some may even be unofficially official. However, as a writer, I don't believe that this should discourage others from having their own ideas about things. Mine are presented here.
I can be reached at Feedback is always welcome and emails are usually answered.
Characters and events are purely fictitious, and any similarity to anyone living, transformed, dead, cloned or in any alternate universe or timeline is entirely coincidental.
Stargate Atlantis
Mantle
Knowledge Is Power.
"… it was the turning point. It was the key to everything. Once Michael had that baby, he was able to complete his research and perfect the hybrids."
Rodney McKay – The Last Man
Previously on Stargate Atlantis:
Todd struggled slowly to his feet. His blood boiled and his belly churned in the sickness of need – of hunger that was not all his own – already the Queen had moved past him… he had been dismissed and knew that delay would only anger her again.
Quickly he started toward the door, and almost stumbled when the grasp of her mind tightened around his again, turning him back to her even as she turned to face him.
"What of the other?" she hissed slowly, her eyes again narrowing in barely contained fury.
Slowly he shook his head. There was no sign of the one of whom she spoke…
**
"Where are you taking her?" Teyla demanded hotly.
Michael glanced at her, answering, "She will go with the others."
"Go where?" Vega demanded, struggling with them as Michael's soldiers took her by the arms, and all but carried her, crying out in protest for every step they took. "Please… where are you taking me?"
**
A scuffle by the doorway to the laboratory made Todd look up from watching the simulation he was running.
=You said your work would be easier with subjects on which to experiment=
Behind the Queen, pairs of warriors dragged between them three unconscious figures.
He lifted the head of one of the prisoners, staring with near revulsion at the almost human face – the traces of Wraith ancillary features, and engorged veins, clear on their pallid skin.
~they will be most helpful, I'm sure~
He moved to the last of the prisoners she brought him and wound his hand almost angrily into the long dark hair, to pull back the head and study the hybrid subject as he had the others, but instead he frowned in confusion, looking into the unblemished face of the young human woman.
**
She felt Michael's hand close in her hair and a moment later he pulled her head back, painfully, until she looked up into his eyes. Terrified she started to reach for his hand with her own that was not pinned to her side by his nearness. She struggled to free herself, but he slapped her hand away, and then caught her wrist to pin her to the bulkhead.
"Wrong choice, Captain," he told her, towering over her, appearing massive, deadly. "Let's not make this any more unpleasant than it needs to be."
Her imagination began to weave images of hideous experiments, vivid and lurid impressions of pain and suffering; of what would be once he was done with her – finished with and left to live with what was, instead of made to die. Her knees weakened and she pressed backwards, ignoring the pain as the movement pulled at the roots of her hair, as far away from him as she could get. Then, as quickly as her near paralysed muscles would allow she reached inside her shirt and plucked the memory module from her undergarment. She held it out toward him.
Slowly he unwound his fingers from her hair as he took the component from her trembling hand. Then without another word to her, he turned and started to the door.
"Wait," she called after him, "What… what are you going to do to me?"
He paused in the doorway and looked back at her over his shoulder. The cold amusement in his eyes withered what was left of her spirit.
"It is already done," he told her.
**
He walked toward Lisstha, a cat stalking his prey and as he came into the light, even though each of her nerves and senses screamed at her to back away, her defiant resolve made her stand in place; accept his touch as he ran his fingertips over her face.
"So naïve," he said quietly, "for all these years your Haradian masters have kept from you, by their own servitude, the most fearful of terrors and you do not even know…" he shook his head then. "Such a shame it cannot continue."
"Why are you doing this?" she finally asked him.
For a moment she thought, like all her other questions, he would refuse to answer, but then he began speaking quietly again, and almost, she thought, with regret. "There are times when matters that were once… unknown by many, must be brought into the light." Then he tipped his head back a little, as if coming suddenly awake, and in a tone more clipped and final than before said, "It is a necessary step to complete my work."
"Your work?"
"You wouldn't understand," he told her, and began to turn away again, to return to his watchfulness.
"I'm not stupid!" she told him, fear driving her to be angry. When he did not offer more, she demanded, "What do you want from me?"
"Absolutely nothing," he said without turning.
"Then free me," she pleaded.
He turned back to her then, his head tilted, and a frown of confusion barely visible through the shadows in which he stood. "Where would you go?" he asked. "You cannot return to your people. They consider you to be a traitor and if I released you to those who would take you to their masters, you would not survive. You are no longer useful to them." He regarded her for a moment after in silence, his eyes burning in a way that chilled to the core, before he said, "No. I have learned to value what resources I might gather."
"But you said—"
"I said I wanted nothing from you," he corrected her before she even finished the sentence, "but I may yet find a use for you."
**
Feeling hollow, as the meaning of everything that had happened trickled through her consciousness, to seep into her limbs and fill them with lethargy; dull the beating of her heart, she turned and completed the dialling sequence. Waiting with tears beginning to gather inside of her, tears she refused to shed, until the initial rush of the wormhole had died away to a shimmering stability, she leaned against the DHD.
"Teyla, wait!" Sheppard yelled.
She took a step toward the Stargate, and with a glance up the trail she stepped within.
**
Rodney said, "With the information we have in the recovered data, the DNA samples we managed to bring back from M3X-667, and… some… data we hold here in our systems, I think we may be looking at some of the oldest, if not the oldest, Wraith still alive." He cleared his throat, "I've asked Doctor Keller to take a look at the DNA, for a second opinion."
"Why?" Woolsey asked, "Does it matter?"
Rodney shrugged a little uncomfortably. "Just… playing a hunch." he said softly.
**
"You know that old saying, 'Don't ask questions unless you really want to know the answers?'"
"No, but go on anyway." he said.
Taking a deep breath, Jennifer reached to the back of the file, and picked up the results of a PCR test and handed it to him, before handing him a second sheet. "I ran a comparison between that, and the one I made from some blood and tissue samples I took from Teyla when we first got her back from Michael. Those are the results." she said.
Rodney looked back and forth between the two, frowning as he studied them. The more he looked, the deeper he frowned until he couldn't deny what his eyes were telling him any longer.
**
"You are not like the others," he said. His fingers travelled from her shoulders, down the length of her arms to find her hands, to guide her suddenly quiescent fingers into relinquishing their hold on the P90 they contained. "There. Much better," he said softly, as the weapon clattered to the floor of the chamber.
"Let go of me!" she demanded, pulling against where his hands still covered hers.
"I will admit, when first I sensed you, I was surprised to discover than any of your kind still lived. I thought you had all been eradicated, either by my own kind or by yours. Either way, it is… interesting to see the result of it all made flesh."
"Take your hands off me," she snarled.
"Make me."
-Make me- -make me- - make me-
Suddenly she spun away from him, twisting his hand and pulling him closer again before she shifted her balance and brought her knee upward toward his middle. He let one knee bend beneath him, allowing him to turn and take the blow against his hip, at the same time releasing the hand he still held, and quickly bringing his arm across to defend against the blow she aimed at him with the other.
She used the momentum of the blocked attack to all but somersault over his left shoulder; to put herself behind him. He continued his own descent, and turned quickly on one knee, his long white hair flying behind him as he did.
This time he came at her, and he was pulling no punches. His hands were a blur that she fought to keep up with; hurried to block the incoming blows as she was forced to give ground.
"Good," he murmured, hardly out of breath, as hers came tremulously, her body fighting fatigue. Step by step he forced her toward the bulkhead wall until she had nowhere left to go, until her arms burned with the effort of holding back his blows… her eyes darting to find an opening, to make an attack of her own. He encouraged her, "Yes…"
She lashed out suddenly, sensing an opening – but it was a trick of her tired mind – and he easily caught her wrist, pressed her against the wall with the whole of him. His fingers grazed her wrist, and then passed over her palm to entwine with her own and hold her in place. His right hand pressed against her chest.
Her breathing came in startled, terrified snatches, but all the same there was something primal, almost needful in the sensations travelling through her in that moment.
"There are two possibilities from this point," he told her, capturing her eyes with his as he tilted his head, continuing in a whisper, "What are we…to do?"
**
Michael growled, in fury, and then coming to one knee behind the kneeling Wraith he grasped his hair, and pulled back his head. Pushing his own knife into Todd's hand, he hissed dangerously against the Wraith's cheek, "Tell her… I defy her!"
**
Teyla took another step away from him… What had happened to the others was all her fault. If she had been more careful, if she had listened to Sam instead of chasing half remembered dreams that she knew now to be a lie she—
"No," Michael told her, taking a halting step towards her. "When I reached out to you there was not a word spoken that was a lie. You must come with me, Teyla. I need—"
She wrapped her arm protectively around her belly, using the fear she had for her son to try and quash all thoughts of the way her stomach suddenly tightened at his words. She cut him off. "He is my child, Michael. I will not allow you to use him."
**
"—you must go with him," Kanaan continued.
"Kanaan—?" she started, but her voice cracked and stopped the rest of the sentence before it began as she saw the gun in his hand. "No, I can't, I—"
"You must." Kanaan said darkly.
The pain was only fleeting - a burning heat that began somewhere in her chest as the rhythm of her heart faltered. It spread outwards through all of her limbs, draining her strength. She managed to turn her head toward a sound she had barely registered – high pitched and harsh. Kanaan still stood with his weapon raised, and pointed in her direction.
"No… Kanaan," she whispered, and as the blue lights of the cruiser began to darken around her, she reached for the one person who had only ever been true to his words to her.
Michael caught her flailing hand and guided it to his shoulder as his arm came around her, supportive and strong. He gently lowered her to the deck and did not let go of her.
She whispered his name.
-Don't speak-
"That was unnecessary," he was still angry. His tone clipped.
-You're safe-
"She would have fought you," Kanaan's voice held none of the warmth she remembered from their childhood, their friendship. "I know Teyla."
"You overreach yourself!" Michael snapped, his voice a whip this time. "Go and join the others. You have work to do."
"Michael…" she whispered, and tried to move her hand along his shoulder, to touch his cheek, but as she tried, he slowly released his hold on her consciousness. Her hand slipped and fell across his arm as he gently picked her up. She barely registered their movement as he carried her from the area.
**
Todd could almost taste the anticipation as the Cascade Beam raced across the distance between his cruiser and that of the Abomination. He mentally counted the seconds until with an almost snarling hiss he watched the shields of the other cruiser flare brightly. Any moment they would collapse inward. The energy of the beam would feed back through the nodes that generated the shields and would disable them and the comm. array and would send a cascading overload throughout all the systems of the ship, destroying it from the inside out and there would be nothing to be done to prevent it.
Seconds passed and a frown, born of confusion, found its way to his face as his sensors failed, the chatter of Dart telemetry falling silent on the bridge. He grasped the controls, letting his mind fall into oneness with the cruiser's interface and ran a diagnostic program to try and find the cause of the failure. As the answer came to him the blood in his veins chilled and slowed.
"That's not possible," he said aloud, and abandoned his position to race to the forward viewing port. Even before he saw the leading edge of the approaching wave, he felt the cold touch of a thought inside his head that did not come from any one of his brothers.
-Did you think I would forget?-
**
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Michael said softly, almost calmly in warning. "If my hand leaves its place, we will both of us be dead and locked inside this rocky tomb."
"I find it hard to believe that you would sacrifice yourself, and so many years of toil, simply to prevent me from achieving what I came here to do," Todd said.
"If that is a risk you wish to take; is what you choose to believe," Michael almost purred, adding in bitter sarcasm, "then go ahead, pull the trigger… take your prize back to your Queen."
"Come now," Todd moved with him, circling in the same direction, to keep the same distance between them, more than aware of how dangerous this individual could be. "Surely we can settle this like civilised—"
"What?" Michael spat bitterly, spreading his arms to either side of him, "Wraith?"
"Hardly," Todd said coldly.
**
The resigned almost bewildered look of hurt still lingered on his face as he looked up to meet the confused expression that momentarily creased her brow. "I may not be foolish enough to consider us friends, but… we do have a history." She couldn't take her eyes from his as she listened to his words, the frown deepened as if she were trying to make sense of them, "And even though you've betrayed me repeatedly, you're still the only one, Human or Wraith, who's ever come close to understanding what I've been through."
"Really?" she asked, tremulously, trying to deny his words.
"We're not that different, Teyla."
**
"I will live the rest of my life as I choose. But I can't do it alone."
Michael – Vengeance
Act 1
Old habits die hard. Teyla couldn't help but recall the saying that Jennifer had once explained to her as she stepped from the Gate and immediately checked the cloudless, blue sky for presence of danger. The only things darting and flying in the air around her were the many coloured birds that graced the planet.
Suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the months since her capture by Michael, she leaned heavily against the DHD and began to dial a random address from her memory. With each symbol she pressed, the anger and the hurt stabbed more deeply into her heart until she could barely see what symbols she pressed. The loss of her son, the doubt of her friends, Kanaan – dead and still lying on some unnamed world… Woolsey… being treated little better than some rabid beast…
As the wormhole rushed into being, she sobbed loudly and, feeling suddenly nauseous, bent almost double as she gripped the side of the DHD. She tried to count the seconds that the wormhole had been active, but in the end, reached with a trembling hand to shut down the Gate. She had to find rest soon, and it was a long walk from the Gate to the village where she would find her friend.
The quiet scuff of a footstep behind her sent every sense spiralling into alert. She felt her heart begin pounding once more in her chest as her adrenaline surged within her, leaving her instantly breathless, almost panting as panic replaced the exhaustion. She spun around, dropped into a half crouch, but her tired muscles could not hold her, not without rest, and, unbalanced, she toppled backwards, to land in the dirt beside the gate.
The girl, for that was who stood before her as she turned, gasped softly and took a step back. She looked as though she would bolt. There was something familiar about the way the girl's auburn hair curled around a delicate chin, and about the startled green eyes that stared at her, and Teyla couldn't help but level an open hand toward the girl.
"I am sorry," she said, trying to speak through the thickness in the back of her throat.
"Teyla?" the girl said. Her light voice was full of surprise and concern both at the same time. When Teyla frowned as she tried to remember how the girl might know her, and why she could not give a name to the familiar face. The child went on, "It is Chaya… my mother is Raisa. Do you not remember us?"
The soft, innocent question proved too much for Teyla, and at last she let go of all the tears that had gathered inside of her. Sobbing, she could not answer… and weakened, she could not rise. She reached out and gripped the supporting cylinder of the DHD and managed a single word. "Help!"
"Oh, Teyla, you are sick. I will fetch my mother," Chaya said, and the sympathy, the loving care in her voice only added to Teyla's overwhelming emotion.
**
He still moved a little stiffly, and with the slightest of limps, for he had not allowed himself to fully sate the hunger his injuries had brought him, nor to forget the debt he owed to the Renegade – Abomination.
Todd let out a sigh, but in the grip of the memory of his defeat within the ancient laboratory, it became more of a snarling hiss as he stalked toward the Queen's chamber. He could not put off the delivery of the message to her any longer, he knew, and was fully prepared for whatever she might use in castigating him for his failure. He expected it… perhaps even welcomed it. It would only serve to fuel the fire he harboured inside, a burning antagonism he had always felt with that one, even when he had still been Wraith.
His Queen had been specific. They were to treat their visitors with dignity, as allies. They would, after all, be working closely together to try and find a weapon with which they could combat the Lanteans, but still… he resented the presence of another scientist. He should have been enough for his Queen.
The incoming Dart set down three Wraith and he tried to work out which of them was the scientist, sent by the other Hive.
Their Queens had been deep in conversation for many days in a neutral location, before each had returned to their own Hives to make arrangements for this… but still, even with his devotion to his Queen, he did not want this usurper's help.
-bring me to your laboratory-
The touch within his mind was cold and hard, but with an undeniable edge that he recognised as the spark of the other's acute intelligence. There was a certain pattern to the firing of the neurons. Before moving he looked over the newcomer, taking in the sight of him, and the two guards that attended him.
The other scientist was unmarked, as least as far as he could see. His features were finely chiselled and sharp, as sharp as his eyes which, he knew, were also taking in the sights around him.
~of course~
He stood to one side and waved his hand along the walkway in the Dart Bay of the Hive.
~this way~
-my Queen informs me that we are to work together. Will you not even trust enough to walk at my side?-
~will you not trust enough to leave behind your guards?~
There was an unmistakeable edge of sarcasm to the chuckle that escaped the other scientist's lips at that…and his answer was to proceed along the walkway with his guards behind him, leaving his host to follow as if he were some kind of subordinate...
But… he realised now, that had been his choice, and he had been manipulated into it. The arrogance of it brought a new wave of burning resentment flushing through him. He growled again, loudly, as he continued on his way.
The Queen had already sent a summoning touch against his mind three times before he turned into the hallway leading to her Chamber. Her constant nagging, pushing at those private spaces in his mind, began to irritate him more and more as the days passed, but he was realistic enough to know that if he were to achieve his aim, he needed the resources he could use on the Hive, and the influence she possessed, and for now that far outbalanced his desire to plunge his dagger into her chest and rip out her still beating heart. But for this Queen—
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as the guards before her door crossed their staff weapons in his path. He snarled in momentary irritation.
~she has summoned me – stand aside~
Then his irritation faded as he looked beyond them to watch as the Queen lounged provocatively on her throne, tended by her trusted handmaidens. He tilted his head, looking from one of them to the other. As humans went they were not unpleasing to the eye, and he understood the clarity that could be gained from the physical satisfaction they could bring. His eyes drifted once more to find their Lantean captive, where she stood behind the Queen, pouring oil onto the Elder Wraith's naked shoulder and with her delicate fingers, massaging away the tension. He could not help but see the irony of it, planted, as she was, in their midst by the one the Queen sought to capture – a ticking bomb among them.
Shaking his head, he chuckled slightly.
**
"Michael," she laid her head against his shoulder as he carried her, "I can't…"
-Teyla-
"This is as it must be," he told her as he almost tenderly set her down, propped against the pillows.
"Why?" she clung to him as he arranged the pillows behind her. Another pain gripped her, stealing the rest of the question from her lips.
"Because I need him," he told her, and he sounded almost apologetic as he freed himself from her grasp. "What must be done cannot be done without him."
At his words, tears of fear and anger came to her eyes and she looked away. He must have seen because he reached to cup the side of her face in his hand, to make her look at him again. "I will not harm him. Why can't you just accept that?"
"Because—" she started, and was forced to stop again as another pain stole her breath. Her anger evaporated. He was the only one who could help her. She reached for him again, and gasped, "Michael, please…!"
He pushed aside her hands as she pleaded with him and said, "We must do this, and then you must rest… trust me…" For barely a heartbeat he caught one of her flailing hands, and laid it, beneath his own, against his chest. His heart beat strongly beneath her fingers, even as the tight wave of pain came crashing over her.
-trust-
…why…?
"Tell me why?" She voiced the thought that gripped her mind so hard.
The hard edge in his eyes softened and for a moment he looked as though he would speak. His lips shaped her name…
"Yes… please, Michael!"
"Gently, Teyla, gently," A soft, warm hand closed over her bare shoulder as the quiet, familiar voice almost sang the words to her when she came awake, gasping with the memory of the dream.
As her eyes began to focus, she found herself looking into Raisa's concerned face. The Laquoian woman was exactly as she remembered her. That fact alone almost brought fresh tears to her eyes.
"Chaya found you near the Ring of the Ancestors. When I came to you, you were burning with fever. I have given you medicine." Her friend tenderly brushed the hair back from her face. "How do you feel now?"
Teyla considered the question. She still felt heavy with sleep and her head ached a little, but the soft blankets felt pleasant against her naked skin, she was warm, comfortable and feeling for the first time in as long as she could remember, almost safe.
"Better," she said at last, "Raisa, thank you."
"I have done no more for you than you once did for me, my friend," Raisa said. "There is food, if you are hungry and, beside you, there are fresh clothes. There is little I could do to save the old."
Teyla shook her head, "It does not matter," she said of the clothes, and surprised herself by feeling relieved to be rid of the reminder of Atlantis, at least for a while. "And I am… quite hungry."
"Good," her friend smiled again, an open and genuine smile. "Chaya and I must close up the animals in their pen for the night. We will leave you to rise, and then we will share a meal together." Raisa stood up from where she knelt at the side of the bed, and walked toward the door, where she stopped and turned back to face the Athosian. "I am glad that you came to me, Teyla."
**
"No, no, no," Zelenka frowned and went to stop one of the technicians working on the bridge of the Daedalus from taking apart the wrong control panel, he moved to the side and indicated another bank of controls with the sweep of his hand. "This one."
He walked away, his eyes fixed on the tablet he held, muttering to himself in his native tongue, heading for the next area that needed urgent attention.
"Doctor Zelenka!"
He turned, almost colliding with the bulkhead, as he heard Colonel Caldwell calling his name.
"Colonel," he nodded in greeting to the other man. "The repairs are well under way. We should have the main drive rebooted in under an hour. The beaming technology is going to take longer, I'm afraid. Without access to the transversion coil, we have to regrow the original crystal almost from scratch. However, weapons and shields are almost fully repaired and we've incorporated Rodney's safety protocol into the shield generators."
Caldwell stood waiting until the scientist came up for air, before interrupting. "Where is Doctor McKay?" he asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Colonel Caldwell," Zelenka answered with a shrug, "I'm not certain whether he's still pouring over old Wraith data, or back on M4G-584 with Bravo team, still sifting through the rubble they found after the explosion, or indeed where he i—"
"Well, I'll tell you where he's supposed to be," Caldwell interrupted. "He's meant to be at a senior staff meeting in the conference room."
"Zapomněl jsem o tom," Zelenka muttered, and ran his hand through his hair, and before Caldwell could say anything more, hurried off toward the airlock.
**
The pattern of lights on the ground swirled in oranges and reds beneath his feet, and he tensed in anticipation of her anger. She hadn't kept him waiting outside for long, barely long enough to gather his dignity before the staves in front of him uncrossed and the pressure in his mind beckoned him forwards.
=So, you are amused=
"My Queen," he bowed his head then, fixing his eyes firmly onto the floor of her chamber and there he remained, even as he felt her stalking toward him.
"I see you have returned without that which you promised me," she snarled as she reached him.
Her mind was like a whip, lashing out and raking against the pain receptors of his brain and sending fire along the most sensitive of his nerves. He let out a long, slow breath, but refused to yield to her torment. He gathered all the faculties of his defences around him and, for a moment, considered retaliating in kind, but it was a momentary notion only. Such treatment of any Queen could lead only one of two ways, and with this Queen he was neither ready, nor willing, for either eventuality.
~there is a message~
Even for him to deliver the Renegade's threatening message was a risk, but he could not – would not – remain mute before her, and allow her to interpret his actions and his attitude as weakness.
Abruptly her mental assault ended, and he could not help but gasp at the relief of its absence, almost staggering as his tense muscles no longer had reason to fight.
"Speak," she instructed with a wave of her hand as she turned and walked a few steps away.
"Tell her, I defy her," he quoted dispassionately, then watched almost in amusement as she spun, snarling, to face him again. He felt her disbelief.
"Defy?" she questioned.
"Those were its words, my Queen." he said.
The red and orange lights deepened to a near blood red hue, which seeped across the chamber floor as her fury infected the ship. She let out a long vehement hiss of displeasure that echoed through his mind and, he knew, the minds of the others of the Hive.
Todd could not help but glance toward Vega. He saw her curled beside the Queen's throne with her arms wrapped around herself, in pain as the Queen's emotions flowed through her. He frowned. It was not unusual for human followers to become so linked to their Wraith masters that they shared such things, but if the Queen saw it as weakness, she would dispose of the Lantean and, for the moment, it did not fit his agenda for her to do so. He needed to find an excuse to get her out of the chamber.
With the Queen distracted by her anger he quickly mounted the steps and closed a hand around Vega's upper arm to pull her to her feet. He gestured to the other handmaiden to come to them.
"Take her," he commanded, "Draw your Queen a bath to soothe her tension."
He watched as they disappeared through the doorway behind the throne, before returning to the Queen's side. He could already feel that the storm of her emotions was quickly playing itself out, anger subsiding again.
"So audacious," she hissed as he came to stand before her.
"My Queen?" his heart lurched a little in concern that she had not been as distracted as he had believed.
"The Renegade thinks it has the strength to defy me." she sighed softly, and then looked past Todd. "Why did you send them away?"
"Forgive me, my Queen," he said with a slight inclination of his head, "I sought to anticipate your need, and sent them to your bathing chambers."
She tilted her head then, and almost smiled…
=Such consideration=
…but there was almost sadness in the touch of her mind in his.
"Something troubles you," he said, not quite a question, into the ensuing silence.
"This other that I have often times felt," she said, unguarded and open as she began to circle him, her hand on the apex of his shoulder. "It begins to seem as though she has greater influence than I first believed."
"I am certain that she is… no match for you, my Queen," he said quietly, holding his breath as she stepped up close behind him.
=we must find her=
She let out a long, slow hiss right against the nape of his neck. He could not help but shiver.
**
"…and the scientists accompanying my team have been able to find little of use among the wreckage they've been able to reach, unfortunately, but we have continued the excavations, just to be certain there's nothing we've missed." Lieutenant Birkle looked nervously around the room. "It's been much easier since the Wraith withdrew of course. It's almost like they've lost interest in the place."
"I'm certain they have," Woolsey said, his voice clipped, "Now that Michael has no reason to be there."
Sheppard glared at Woolsey, about to open his mouth and call the man on his insinuations, but a rather flustered Zelenka bustled into the conference room and began to murmur apologies to each person he passed on the way to the vacant seat at the table.
"Doctor Zelenka," Woolsey greeted him with a questioning tone in his voice, "this is a briefing for senior staff and—"
"I'm aware of that, Mister Woolsey," Zelenka answered, "Doctor McKay deputised me to attend in his place if he was delayed by his work."
"I see," Woolsey said, looking around as though he expected McKay to have suddenly appeared. Finally, he nodded, "Very well. You were saying, Lieutenant Birkle?"
"Mostly, I'd finished, Mister Woolsey. The clean up is almost finished, the scientists are combing over the remains of Michael's hidden laboratory, and the Wraith have pulled out." he shrugged, "That's pretty much it."
Woolsey nodded his thanks, and turned to raise an eyebrow at Sheppard, who still had a scowl on his face. "Colonel?"
Sheppard jumped a little, still seething slightly from Woolsey's dogged, tacit insistence of Teyla's involvement with Michael. How does it feel, Colonel Sheppard, to know that it's me she calls for…?
"Daedalus has arrived back," he reported, trying to distract himself from his dark thoughts, "Limping slightly, but still in one piece. Charlie and Delta are out in the field investigating a number of leads… they've had limited engagements with small scouting parties either belonging to the Wraith, or to Michael's armies. The two seem to be playing some kind of cat and mouse game with each other right now and that suits us just fine. The Commander of the Delta team reported that the Wraith they encountered appear to be looking for someone… most likely Michael."
"But there could be other possibilities?" Woolsey suggested, only half questioning.
"No, there couldn't be other possibilities." Sheppard said. The irritation was plain in his voice, even to himself.
"And Teyla?" Woolsey asked, "Are we any closer to finding out where she could have gone?"
Sheppard shook his head, opening his mouth to answer, but Ronon got in first, "McKay was going to see if there was anything he could pull from the buffer on M4G-584—"
"It's unlikely he will," Zelenka warned.
"—Sheppard and I decided we'd go talk to Halling, see if he can think of anywhere she'd go," Ronon finished.
"If he'll even talk to us," Sheppard added, petulantly.
"Colonel Sheppard," Woolsey finally snapped, "Do we have a problem?"
"Hell, yes, we have a problem," Sheppard answered. "You. You're the problem. You—"
"Gentlemen! Stop!" Keller raised her voice, repeating herself until Sheppard took a breath and settled. "Look, it's been a difficult time for all of us. We've each been involved in events that would test anyone's resolve, but let's not take it out on each other. Let's keep the facts in sight, please. We need to find Michael if we've got any hope of getting the baby back, but at this stage I think we're probably all thinking the same thing. We need to find him or his research if I'm going to be able to help Lorne, or Doctor Beckett, and we need to find Teyla. She's sick…" Sheppard frowned again, and Jennifer held up her hand to stop him from interrupting her, "Post Traumatic Stress, Colonel Sheppard, especially of the kind that Teyla's suffering, is a very serious matter."
Sheppard took a breath. He had to concede to that.
Woolsey sighed, "I apologise. It was a difficult few hours for me as well. It's not every day you get used as a hostage."
"Yeah, sorry about the…" Sheppard said, grudgingly and mimed the punch he'd given Woolsey. "So… me and Ronon will… visit with the Athosians, figure out where Teyla might go. Charlie and Delta Teams are checking Intel, and from what I gather," he glanced at Zelenka, "the technical guys are searching for subspace signatures that might lead us where we need to be, right?"
"Right," Zelenka confirmed, nervously pushing up his glasses. "We have a sensor sweep rotating on a four hourly basis, that's as much as we can manage right now. So far it hasn't picked up very much that has deviated from anything we've been tracking for a long time. There are no new congregations of Hive ships, and the Mother Hive seems to have gone to ground somewhere before we began searching… We've been unable to find any of the cruisers with the same resonance signature that we know as Michael's, so it would seem that he's gone into hiding as well."
Woolsey sighed, "And the Daedalus?"
"Repairs are well under way," Zelenka added. "The beaming technology is going to take the longest to recover, because we're having to regrow the crystal. Otherwise, it's nothing we can't handle."
"All right," Woolsey said, "Then I guess, for the time being, we all know our priorities. Doctor Keller, any word about Major Hollick or Captain Warsh?"
"The captain came through surgery very well, he's recovering in sick bay and should be back to active duty in a week or so. Major Hollick is still in intensive care. He lost a lot of blood before the duty sergeant could get him to the infirmary, so I can't give any promises or guarantees."
Sheppard looked over at the doctor, and her face was very grim… but beneath it, there was a nervousness that she usually wore when she had something else on her mind.
**
McKay looked behind him several times before he settled down in front of the DHD and removed the front panel. Every sound around him made him start with nervousness. He expected each rustle of vegetation to be the scuttling of chitinous claws on rocks as a whole nest of Iratus bugs came to feed on him, or worse, the scrape of a Wraith boot as the creature came to do the same. There was something about being able to talk to something that ate you that just made him feel cold all over.
"There's nothing there, McKay," he said to himself as he clipped the computer tablet to the circuits inside the DHD and began downloading the data. He watched the dialogue box tell him that it had completed three percent of the download and realised it was going to take a very long time. With a sigh he took out his handgun, turned his back to rest against the DHD and peered out into the darkness.
He sighed again and, after a while, turned to trying to watch the symbols flying across his screen and put together a gate address, any gate address that Teyla could have used. With what he'd seen he had to get to Teyla, and soon.
He finally looked up from the PCRs and caught Jennifer's eyes. "Is there any way this could be wrong?" he asked.
"I doubt it, Rodney. I ran the test four times," Jennifer sighed, "without the comparative DNA…"
She shrugged and looked at him as though it hurt him not to be able to tell him that it was all wrong…and everything was normal.
"What if I brought you Kanaan's body?" he asked.
"Rodney, even supposing you could get Kanaan's body back into the city without being spotted, which I doubt, I'm not a forensic scientist, and what I'm doing here is pushing me almost beyond the extent of my expertise in genetics."
"But supposing I could," he pressed.
"And what if it just confirms this?" She said, flicking the edge of the PCR in his left hand.
"Well then… then…" he faltered, did he really want that, "At least we'd know… At least you'd have the answer for when she called you on it all being a lie!"
Rodney McKay sighed, and uncharacteristically picked up a rock and hurled it into the darkness. "Damn you, Michael!" he spat.
**
It comforted Michael, to some degree, to know that as he walked into this, perhaps the most heavily protected and concealed of his facilities, that at least here, all was in order. All was at it should be.
Without breaking stride he took the Wraith tablet from one of his hybrid lieutenants that brought it to him, and read the contents of it as he walked. He sighed… another of the laboratories compromised, but at least the failsafe would have destroyed anything useful to the intruder, or damaging to his plans.
"When they have rested, send the company aboard the second cruiser to the Frotarin home world." he paused long enough to allow the many possibilities of what to do with them to find their way into his mind and be categorised. They had proven useful, and while he hated to lose the support they had given, it was undeniable that they were a threat, should they be compromised. "Bring those identified as Primary men and women aboard the cruiser."
"And the others?" the hybrid lieutenant asked.
"Neutralise them." he said, and handed back the tablet.
He knew that Frotari would not be the only place that he would have to treat in this way, but he was confident that… soon, it would not matter. He turned around a bend in the corridor and, for a time, felt a momentary tremor pass through his frame. There was much he had to do before he could take the next, necessary steps. He took a deep breath to calm himself. It would not do for him to appear unsettled in front of his followers. He knew his orders would be followed to the letter and, whatever he must come through, he would face, as he had everything else.
He began walking again, keying the access code on one of the door panels to allow him entry. Almost as soon as he was inside his eyes sought out the readings on the monitor there. He did not relax until he saw the rapid but steady readings. Then he crossed toward a covered chamber at the side of the room, which was linked to the monitors. Keying another code, he released the chamber's lock, and opened it to reach inside.
**
Todd had never really been squeamish, but, when he looked in on the effects of the latest of his serums on his hybrid subject, he couldn't help but shiver, and take a step back. It was irrational. There was an organic barrier between them, the thing within the chamber could not reach him, but the revulsion that flooded through him, destroying his scientific objectivity in its wake, left him almost trembling.
"It did not work?" the Queen only half asked, walking up behind him and also looking in on the creature.
"I will need to take a sample of its blood to be certain of why, but I would assume that the Wraith cells in its DNA mutated far too quickly to be stable." Todd answered.
The Queen frowned at him. "Mutated? Why?"
Todd sighed and shook his head. "Without access to the original research that created these… hybrids in the first place," he said, "It is impossible to say."
"Surely you have taken a baseline blood sample," she tilted her head as she looked at him when he turned away from the creature.
"Of course I did," he said, failing to keep the irritation from his voice. Luckily, the Queen's scientific curiosity quelled her tendency to find being spoken to in such a way offensive, and she actually chuckled softly.
"Of course you did," she repeated. "You are, after all, chief among my scientists."
"And I will compare the two once I have obtained a new sample," he snapped. He would not ordinarily risk having made the same 'mistake' a second time, but in the moment she repeated his words, unguardedly her thoughts washed over him.
=So alike… and yet… so different=
Her hand trailed across his back, and the touch of her mind and of her hand angered him. He was aware that in that moment she was comparing him to the one they now reviled as a renegade, a thing that stalked them, but which had once been Wraith – and brilliant – and deadly.
"I have work to do," he said.
"I have offended you," she replied. "It was not my intention. I merely express an interest in the work of my scientist."
Todd took a deep and steadying breath. He heard the tension in her voice, the curiosity was fading, which meant she would once again become impatient, demanding.
"Of course, My Queen," he said, forcing himself to let go of the resentment, the antagonism, "Forgive my frustration… I had thought this serum would work."
At the Queen's side he once more turned and looked on the mutated hybrid. It was still humanoid, though bent and twisted as though the frame on which its flesh hung had somehow buckled. One of its hands had swollen, and was club-like, bruised and blackened. The hair that hung from its head was lank and colourless, as though bleached… and was patchy where the mutant had scratched at its misshapen head, but it was the eyes that were most chilling… Wraithlike, no more the pale, colourless orbs the hybrids usually seemed to have, but bloodshot as though in great hunger.
**
"And you remember nothing of that time?" her friend asked softly. As Teyla had almost finished her food, Raisa nodded at the pot of stew still warming over the hearth. Teyla started to get up, but Raisa stopped her, and filled her bowl once more before the Athosian woman could move very far.
"Very little," Teyla said, "Snippets only, and those I do recall are disjointed and confused, as they come to me mostly in dreams."
"But you are afraid that something terrible has been done to you," Raisa said. "Without even knowing you the way I do, it's obvious. This creature… this monster—"
"Raisa, please, I know you will not understand this, but…" Teyla stopped, and sighed heavily. How could she explain to her friend the complex relationship between the two of them?
"Teyla, you know I will not judge you. Tell me." Raisa said.
"I share a connection with Michael." She put down her food and wrapped her arms around herself as if she were suddenly cold. One hand pressed against the middle of her chest, as though there was great pain there. "I feel him… even now."
"Now?" Raisa looked around, as though fearful this creature she'd heard so much about in the last few hours would suddenly leap from the shadows, feed on them all – or worse, now that he no longer fed.
Teyla closed her eyes and sighed, to be able to admit to someone, to speak the words aloud that she had long denied even to herself, terrified her.
"He worries," she said absently. "There is concern in him, and a great and terrible resolve." Slowly she breathed out, her mind reaching for that place of stillness where began their bond, even before she realised what she was doing. She continued, almost a whisper, "And tired… he is so tired…"
He paused in front of a heavy looking door, and keyed a number into the keypad there. For a moment he remained where he was, balancing a tray on one hand, while the other reached for the handle, and he waited, taking in a deep breath.
Teyla gasped suddenly, and Raisa jumped, reaching for her as she almost fell forward, to rest a hand on her shoulder.
"I am all right," Teyla told her. "I am sorry, I should not—"
"I asked you, Teyla. You do not need to apologise." When Teyla nodded, Raisa slowly took her hand away from her shoulder.
"I am afraid, Raisa," she confessed at last, "Of all the things I cannot understand and do not know, but more… of the things I know."
**
He knew he had to hurry. He was lucky to have found the control room unoccupied as it was, given that it was supposed to be manned twenty-four-seven. He didn't imagine that the Gate Technician would have gone very far.
Quickly his hands flew over the controls that would silence the alarms and allow him to dial the Gate without waking the whole of the city. Then he went to the control desk and began to punch in the sequence of symbols that would take him where he wanted—no, he corrected himself, where he needed to be.
"Doctor McKay?"
He swore inwardly as the soft voice of the Gate Technician broke in on his hurried recitation of the required symbols. He broke off to say, "I wasn't here – you didn't see me."
"I'm sure you're aware that all Gate travel is to be logged," she answered.
"I wasn't here – you didn't see me," he repeated, without stopping dialling. A moment later the wormhole rushed in on the Gate Room before stabilising to the shimmering blue pool, which in the near darkness of the sleeping city was almost eerie. He turned, picked up a small silver case, as well as a large, cylindrical black bag, and started toward the stairs.
"At least tell me when you'll be back," The beleaguered technician asked his retreating back.
"I wasn't here – you didn't see me," was the only answer he gave. He hurried down toward the waiting gate, but after only a few steps, turned and mounted them again to add, "Oh, and you might want to turn the alarms back on once I've gone."
The technician gave an awkward kind of shrug and said, "You weren't here. I didn't see you."
McKay gave a little humourless laugh. "Huh… yes… quite. You're good," he said, and this time made it all the way, to disappear into the wormhole.
**
He stumbled a little as he stepped from the event horizon. It didn't exactly surprise him, he didn't know the terrain. The last time they'd been here they'd travelled aboard the Daedalus, and then by Jumper. He was just glad that the planet had a gate at all, even if it was miles away from his destination.
With that thought fresh in his mind he pulled out the rough map he'd managed to create after downloading the passive sensor data from the Daedalus' computer, and the compass, each from a pocket in his coat, and began to consult them both.
"All right," he said, speaking aloud to try and embolden himself. "River… river… river should be…." he looked up and pointed, as though interpreting the map for someone else, "That way."
He set off, walking briskly in the direction indicated on his map. After only a short while he found himself standing on the edge of a steep ravine, looking down at the canyon floor below.
"Or not," he said, and turning away from the edge he set down the case, and opened it, to take out a small, hand held detector. "To hell with the map! Who needs a map anyway when you have one of these? See Rodney, just like I said. The River is this way." And once again he set off, this time in the right direction.
**
Michael took a deep breath and then pushed open the unlocked door. He braced himself for whatever the little woman would try to throw at him… literally, or so he understood. The reports from his hybrids, who had been tending this one in his absence, had been that she had become violent, in her captivity.
As soon as he closed the door behind him, she almost jumped to her feet, and retreated to the far side of the room. For a moment he paid no attention to her, simply set the tray down on the table, and stepped back. Only then did he look over at her. She was flat against the wall, almost gripping it with her fingertips.
"You must be hungry," he said at last. He could tell, by the way her eyes darted to the food on the tray, and then away quickly, and the way she trembled, that she was. Even without bothering to push into her mind. He tilted his head. "If so… why do you not eat?" When she did not answer, he went on, "It is something that has always puzzled me; that you humans deny yourselves the one thing that you truly need when you believe you are in peril from another."
"How are you feeling?" She smiled at him softly.
"Hungry." he answered.
"I will see about getting your some food."
"I'm very hungry," Lisstha said softly, she sounded hoarse. Her lip trembled as she spoke and she inched along the wall to put an even greater distance between them. "But… I'm afraid."
He frowned and tilted his head the other way. "Have my soldiers been… mistreating you?" he asked. She shook her head. "Then you have no reason to be afraid. Come." He lowered his eyes to the table for a moment before looking back at the young woman. "Eat."
Hesitantly she began to cross the room toward the table, like a startled animal, almost moving sideways to keep him in sight. He took another step backwards, to give her the comfort of space.
He did not speak again until she had begun to eat and he was pleased to see that she ate well. While she did, he made a visual examination of her condition. Her hands were bruised, and her knuckles scraped as though she had tried to pry the bricks from the wall. It took him a moment to realise that she had stopped eating, and when he shifted his gaze, he saw that she was looking at him, a little less startled now, but not much less fearfully.
"They must be sore," he nodded toward her hands.
"Yes," she said, looking down.
"Would you allow me to tend them for you?" he suggested softly, and when she frowned at him, he said, "At least allow me to send for hot water and towels so that you may bathe them – and yourself if you wish."
Already he had summoned a hybrid to bring the water, cloths for washing and drying, and fresh clothes, so that she could be comfortable. It would not be long before the sedative in the food took effect, and she would go to a more comfortable rest. He needed her to be strong.
"You'd do that?" she blinked at him.
"What do you care about my well-being?" she spat.
"I care a great deal." he answered.
"Of course," he said, frowning a little in transferred hurt.
"Please," she told him, "I would like that… and perhaps—" she broke off, shaking her head.
"Yes?" he prompted.
She pushed her cup across the table toward him. "Perhaps something more to drink?" she said.
**
He pulled the small, inflatable boat up onto the shore, and fastened the rope to a nearby rock. He had no idea if the river was a tidal one, and the last thing he needed was for his only means of transportation back to the gate to float away if it were.
As he straightened up and looked around at the compound, he shivered. It was even creepier in the dead of night. He could not allow it to intimidate him. He came here to do something and he meant to do it to the best of his ability – no matter how gruesome it might prove to be.
Again he shuddered, this time at the thought of the state in which he might find the body after all this time. He tried to recall the standard rate of decay of a corpse of any kind, but his very unscientific fear of such things as ghosts and ghouls and long legged beasties, as Beckett would have it, completely denied him access to even the most rudimentary scientific fact.
Switching on his flashlight, he began to scan the compound for the correct building, before darting from shadow to shadow in search of his gruesome prize.
**
Once she had knocked on the door, he returned inside, having allowed her the privacy to bathe in peace. In truth it mattered little to him. Scientific curiosity, perhaps, might have drawn some comparison between one form and the next, but, in truth, he had too many other things on his mind to worry now if he had made an appropriate selection – if this choice was a wise one.
Still… for appearances… for the process to begin, he must at least seem to be concerned, even caring – affectionate…
She yawned as he came inside, and stumbled a little. With his usual speed, his hand flashed out and he caught her elbow in support, holding her only until she was steady, before letting go and suggesting, "Perhaps you should sit."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, "I don't know what came over me. I'm just so tired now."
"I am certain it is merely because you have eaten your fill, and now are clean and comfortable," he said, putting a smile onto his face as he followed her toward the table and chair, where she sat down again. "Let me see." She blinked at him in confusion. "Your hands."
She held them out before her on the table top… without a touch he examined them, before crossing to the storage locker that was mounted on the side wall of the room. There was a simple medical kit inside and this he brought back with him to the table. Taking a cotton swab, he began to clean the scrapes and cuts on the back of her hands with the antiseptic. She winced a little.
"I apologise for you discomfort," he said, watching as her eyes drooped a little bit, before she forced herself awake, jumping a little and with a light gasp.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, her words beginning to slur a little.
"You must believe me when I tell you that neither I, nor anyone here, intend harm to you, Lisstha," he said softly, catching her as she began to slump forward. Effortlessly he picked her up and carried her the short distance toward the metal framed bed at the side of the room. "In fact," he continued, "In time, I think you will come to understand that I, of all people, mean to nurture you completely."
-mean to nurture you- -nurture you- -nurture-
As he covered her with the blanket, he felt the hybrid that appeared at his shoulder.
"The area is prepared," the soldier told him, "and the cradle for the woman placed at the centre of it, as you have instructed."
Michael breathed out softly, and nodded. "We will allow her a few hours. If she is to be strong she will need to rest." For a long moment he closed his eyes, sighing softly, before he added, "As do I."
**
-We're not that different, Teyla- -different, Teyla- -Teyla-
She wandered the same hallway, nothing to stop her, no one between her and the chamber door. A calling gripped her, a pulling, and she couldn't resist…
It was dark within, but for a pin point of light, a deep… dark red that pulsed as in a heartbeat. The heat enveloped her as soon as she crossed the threshold… a thick humidity that left her skin slickened, her body wanting…
…where are you…?
She turned around…first one way and then the other, peering into the darkness. She could feel him; almost hear him breathe…
-Don't… turn around- -Don't turn- -Don't-
…Michael…
She tried to turn her head to see him, suddenly filled with a spiralling need that pulled at the centre of her; stole her breath. Before she could move, he had wrapped her tightly, almost savagely, in his arms.
-NO!-
His mental voice was a command.
…Michael, please…
-You should not be here-
…why…?
-You are dreaming… rest-
She sighed and tried to turn again, rolling to face the other way in the bed, her arm falling across her face, her skin covered in a light sheen of perspiration.
She broke away from him then…turned… but as she turned, the scene changed… shifted… the lightless room spun around her to become the painful brightness, bathed in the sharp whiteness of lights from above.
They held her, Ronon and Sheppard, as she writhed and twisted against the restraints in the infirmary on Atlantis. She growled at them… snarled and spat abuse… threatened to feed on them…
Suddenly the restraint around her right hand broke as she looked beyond the two of them, to see a third had joined her, standing so close to the foot of her bed, everything inside of him calling to her… wanting her… longing for her…
…Michael…!
She was fast… faster than the others… and thrust forward with her hand, caught him unawares and pulled him closer… he could take away her pain… all she had to do was feed…
She made claws of her hands against the covers of her bed, her body tense… aching… as though in the grip of some terrible fever.
Dizzy, the scene spun again… something hard was against her back, and a strong hand closed painfully around her wrist…
He moved and pressed her against the wall with the whole of him. His fingers grazed her wrist, and then passed over her palm to entwine with her own and hold her in place. His right hand pressed against her chest.
Her breathing came in startled, terrified snatches, but all the same there was something primal, almost needful in the sensations travelling through her in that moment.
"There are two possibilities from this point," he told her, capturing her eyes with his as he tilted his head, continuing in a whisper, "What are we…to do?"
"Michael…" she whispered breathlessly.
-You are dreaming… rest-
She pressed her fingers against the top of her chest, where she could feel his touch…
He was fast… faster than the others… and thrust forward with his hand, caught her unawares and pulled her closer… his golden eyes bore into her, his mind tearing into hers… Suddenly he threw back his head and roared in the most primal way…deeply animal, deeply needful… deeply sexual, and it made her ache for him…
Her own hand lashed forward, slapped hard against his chest, though whether to escape his touch, or to stay close to it, she did not know. Her mind reeled and she made a claw of her hand as the pain began – she cried out… snarled as they pulled her away from him.
-…Queen!-
"No!" she fought with the orderlies that held her. "Carson, please…stop! You're killing him!"
"He's gotten inside her head! Someone get her the hell out of here!" Beckett's voice sounded harsh above the Wraith's agonised cries.
"No… Carson, don't…" she gasped and turned her head from side to side… breathing in gasps, she fought against imaginary hands that held her.
-Relax…rest-
Warm hands closed over the fists she had made of hers.
-It's just a dream-
She let out a tremulous breath, and leaned back, resting her cheek against the warmth there… opening her hands beneath his. He slid his fingers over hers, between hers, entwining them…
Fire kindled inside of her, "Don't…" she whispered, pleading, "…please…"
-She will come for you-
…I don't care about her…
-You must!-
…But…
"Teyla, please… listen," he leaned down until he could rest the side of his face against her temple. "Listen to me, and if you never believe another word I utter, please… hear me. You. Must. Care."
The shock of him actually speaking to her in the dream made her turn suddenly in his arms, only to find nothing and no one there…
"Why!" She cried out as she sat up, and could not stop the tears, "Why!"
-Because I cannot- -I cannot- -cannot-
"No!" she lashed out, fighting the hand that reached for her, tried to calm her, soothe her.
"Teyla… Teyla… it's all right… It's all right…" Raisa finally caught her arms and drew her close, holding her as she would have Chaya. "It's all right… it was just a dream."
Teyla shook her head. "I cannot stay here, Raisa – every moment I am here I put you and your child in danger – I have to leave."
"Teyla," Raisa cupped the Athosian woman's cheek in her hand and made her look into her eyes. "It is the dark of night. No one knows you are here. Please… rest."
**
Sheppard set his tray down, and looked at the exhaustion on the technician's face. He guessed she had just come off the night shift.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked.
"Not at all, Colonel," she said, and then added, "though I can't guarantee I'll be good company."
"Long night?" Ronon asked, and settled on the other side of her, almost immediately starting to tuck into his breakfast. For a moment, Sheppard frowned at him, and then turned his attention to the technician again.
"Word has it that you're the 'go to' guy around here, Banks – it is Banks, isn't it?" he said.
"Yes, Sir," she frowned slightly. "Go to, Sir?"
"Say… if two people were looking to find Rodney?"
"Well… thing is, Sir – word isn't always terribly reliable," she said, starting to get up.
"Oh, come on, Banks, throw me a bone here." Sheppard gently, but firmly caught her wrist as she reached to pick up her tray. "He's out there, somewhere, without backup."
"I didn't see him—" she started, frowning in worry.
"Amelia," Ronon said, his mouth finally empty. "We wouldn't ask, only—"
"—but someone dialled my gate at Oh two fifty six," she leaned closer and added, "and while that someone turned off the alarm, they forgot to disable the log."
**
The Queen had spent much of the night pacing, and all Vega could recall of it was the constant waves of alternating curiosity, anger and jealousy. She wished she could understand what, or who it was kindled such feelings in the Queen, and why… and also why in God's name the Queen decided that she had to share it.
Vega moaned softly as she felt the touch of the summons from the Queen. She had barely slept. All night long she felt as though someone were smothering her with a feather pillow, and no matter which way she turned, she could not get comfortable. Her head pounded, as though an army of little men inside were mining for naquedah, and the whole of her body ached.
And yet… she had no choice but to answer, and to go to the Queen.