The nearly invisible camera followed the four humans from Atlantis as they wove their way around trees and crumbled buildings, transmitting them in real-time. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and Ronan Dex took positions on either side of a male Wraith with Teyla Emmagan behind them and Doctor Rodney McKay trailed behind the whole group.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Sheppard needled again, face carefully neutral. "I mean, it looks like we've passed this pillar before."
The Wraith snarled at Sheppard. "This is the right way, Sheppard. It all depends on if they are in the mood to speak to us."
"So we are going in circles."
Shaking her head at the feed, Jamie Cameron self-consciously shrugged her black, chain mail like gown into place. They'd shown up over an hour ago, but she and her friends had been busy preparing part of their ship for their arrival. It was a slight inconvenience of having a real Wraith allied with them, but they'd learned to deal with it over the past five years. Her blue eyes re-focused on the screen again.
"You know, the longer we tramp around out here, the more I'm thinking that these so-called 'Exile' Wraith don't exist," McKay was complaining to Teyla, his face twisted into one of disgust.
"I do not believe Todd would go to this much trouble if he made them up, Rodney." Teyla's voice was a murmur, most likely to avoid the Wraith's attention. "Still, I do agree that the notion of Wraith actually protecting a planet's humans...unsettling and difficult to believe."
"'Difficult?' How about impossible?" Rodney's voice was rising despite himself. "For one thing, how do the Wraith keep themselves fed?"
The Wraith they named "Todd" snorted and an almost-human smirk appeared on his face. "They travel to other planets and take their worst prisoners to feed on. During many of my visits I was forced to do the same." His voice held contempt, but with a small bit of respect to it, probably because he was on their turf, not his.
"You mean death-row inmates?" Sheppard asked incredulously.
"Indeed."
There was a tap on Jamie's shoulder and she whirled around to see Taurus standing at her side. Grinning sheepishly, she turned off the screen. "Do you always walk so quiet?"
The commander-class former wraith smirked, though his expression was more relaxed and natural than Todd's. "Only when you aren't paying attention. Everyone's ready to escort them into the base, although Orion still thinks we should just let them be on their way."
Sighing fondly at the ever-present concern of the head of security, Jamie shrugged. "Normally, I'd agree with him, especially when most of them are from Atlantis, but this Wraith wouldn't come all this way for no reason. I guess we'll just have to hope that they don't get curious and start poking their noses where they shouldn't."
"From what I've heard of Colonel Sheppard and his team, I doubt they will stay stated for long if they get suspicious," Taurus shot back, but he was good-natured about the whole thing. "If we managed to deceive the Wraith in question, then the humans shouldn't be a problem."
"You have a happy nature," Jamie muttered but she smiled and briefly touched his arm as she strode past him.
"And you are too used to your own suspicious nature," came Taurus' gentle rejoinder. He fell into step on her right side, towering over her by at least head and shoulders. The black leather of his natural Wraith outfit looked out of place in the gold-sided walls, but was nonetheless impressive.
Jamie herself was quite comfortable in her own Wraith-like gown: it was several layers of black leather and mail with thick, knee-height boots. It was a change from her preferred clothes, but in its own way it was comfortable. Several times before then it had served as a reminder to the actual Wraith that, even though she was a human, she was the reason for all of the spies in the Wraith's ranks. It also allowed her to hide several knives in places no one would search for them.
Several hallways later, two other Wraith joined them. A smaller-stature scientist-class and a burly field-commander-class; Leo and Ursus. "Don't even think about complaining," Ursus interjected before Jamie could even begin to speak. "After the last time He came here, we would all feel better if you are accompanied at all times until they leave." Ursus was just as dedicated to security and planning as Orion, but he preferred a straight fight to Orion's pre-planning.
"And if anything goes wrong..." Leo held out a hand and revealed a thin needle.
"Which treatment is that one?"
An almost-grin appeared on Leo's face. "The one we used on Ursus and Stagg. I'd rather not take any chances."
Ursus merely grunted at the jibe and fell in on Jamie's left.
Despite the wary feeling about their guests, Jamie's pride and a warm feeling overrode that. It wasn't too long ago that none of them got along, having come from different hives. It was necessary for the success of Jamie's plan, of course, but the prejudices of their former lives were hard to let go when many of them had lived for at least a few thousand years. Taurus had been the first to come to his senses and the first one the treatment worked successfully on. Once he had proven to the others, they had all, albeit somewhat reluctantly, put aside their differences. Some, like Leo and Ursus, continued to jibe each other whenever they got the chance, but Jamie contributed it to their individual personalities rather than any inter-hive rivalries.
Without another word, the four entered a lift that took them down into the Wraith cruiser-like part of the complex. Jamie reached up to a pendant on a choker she wore and twisted the black pendant. It was a device she'd brought with her to Pegasus galaxy that changed her voice into a completely different, but with the trace of her normal voice, sound. She desperately hoped that none of the people from Atlantis had heard of her before otherwise their cover was ruined. Just before the door opened to the Wraith corridor, she felt Taurus' hand on her shoulder and her heart warmed from the open gesture.
Of all the former Wraith in their small community, Taurus was closer to her than any of the others. He always seemed to know what she was thinking and how she was feeling before even she knew. Jamie could connect to him more so than the others; at times she thought it was because they both experienced the loss of Kelsha the second year Jamie was in Pegasus. On a rare occasion when she was by herself, Jamie even dared to think that there was more to their closeness than either would admit, but then she would usually banish that with a self-conscious blush.
Forcing herself to return to the present, Jamie, flanked by Taurus, Leo, and Ursus, put on a confident face and strode down the dark corridors with a confident air that was mostly faked. Other former Wraith were going about their daily business—some carrying out operations that they insisted Jamie not know about unless necessary, due to their differing ideas about getting their goals accomplished. Today, for some reason, Jamie noticed that some stopped, stood aside, and even dipped their heads a little as she passed. It disturbed her more than she wanted to admit. She didn't give them the gift of not having to feed on humans only to have them see her as their new queen! She had to talk to Taurus about that later to prevent anyone from getting false impressions about her.
Orion met up with them halfway to the meeting room. "I've searched them for explosives or other such devices, but they all came away clean," he informed them, a scowl on his face as he did so. Ever since Todd had nearly killed Jamie and several of the others, he'd taken it as a personal insult.
"What of the former Runner?" Ursus grunted, eyes narrow.
At this, Orion bared his teeth in a quiet snarl. "I pulled so many visible weapons off of him that I wouldn't be surprised if he has several more in places we didn't search."
"Well, at least he didn't bring a suicide drone this time," Jamie interjected into the conversation, hoping to cool Orion's hot temper before Taurus had to. "Plus he brought along Colonel Sheppard and his team, which means that whatever he told them has them concerned enough to risk coming here."
"And what concerns them is worth at least listening to." Even though he was more of a scientist, Leo was also more willing to try and see the good in any situation he was in. He and the youngest former Wraith, Draco, were often the peacemakers among the numerous Alpha personalities.
Orion nodded grudgingly. "I know, which is why I didn't shoot them on sight," he muttered, turned around, and led them the rest of the way down the halls.
Jamie had to bite her cheek to keep her alter ego face on. If there ever was a hotheaded Wraith, Orion was it, but he was the best at what he did, so they all put up with him. He probably won't be happy with them until he's put them under every weapon-detector imaginable and even then, I doubt he'd be fully happy, she thought with an inner smile.
The sounds of a barely-controlled argument reached her ears before they reached the room:
"I thought you said you knew them." That was definitely Sheppard and he was undoubtedly irritated.
"Know them, yes. On comfortable speaking terms, probably not." Thanks to living with former Wraith for five years, Jamie could tell that Todd was putting on a front to hide his acute embarrassment.
"Well, we're just lucky that they haven't fed on all of us yet," whined McKay.
"What'd you do this time?" Ronan grunted, enjoying Todd's discomfort. "Double-cross them like you did us?"
"Actually, one of his warriors attempted to activate the self-destruct in its armor," Jamie replied, her altered voice drawing everyone's attention as she entered the room. The team was at the far end of the room watched by three of Orion's best guards. Leo, Ursus, and Orion fanned out to either side of her while Taurus stayed right behind her. "Thankfully the drone was stupid enough to activate it in sight of one of the security details and they managed to destroy the device before any damage was done."
"Why'm I not surprised?" Ronon muttered with a dark look at Todd.
A corner of the Wraith's mouth turned upward in a sneer. "If you were in my position you would understand the need for such precaution."
"If we hadn't been persuaded otherwise, your 'precaution' would have ended in the destruction of your entire alliance," Orion shot back, clearly unable to resist needling Todd a little.
Before it could get ugly, Taurus stepped forward. "Enough of your posturing. Explain to us why you came to this planet without authorization. Quickly," he added, eyeing Ronan cautiously.
Sheppard's shifting drew everyone's eyes to him. "How do we know that we won't become dinner if you don't like what we have to say?"
Jamie shook her head. "You're in no danger here unless you use your weapons, I promise you that. We're not in the business of killing potential clients." She winced inside. That promise only went to the point when the male Wraith testosterone levels between Todd and Orion got too high without monitoring. If Orion lost it, it would get very nasty.
Very reluctantly, Sheppard nodded, though Jamie suspected that it was more out of the realization that they wouldn't have a chance at all of escaping a compound of Wraith in the first place. "A week ago we found two settlements on two different planets completely abandoned."
"This concerns us how?" Ursus grunted.
Glaring, Sheppard jerked his head at Rodney. "Show 'em."
Gulping visibly, McKay pulled out a computer tablet and pressed a few buttons. "Ah, we…uh…we found this in one of the buildings," he stumbled, trying to sound like his usual self and failing. He scooted the tablet across the table separating them.
Taurus caught it and held it up so both he and Jamie could see. Jamie fought the urge to bite her cheek: It was a set of Wraith Hive sigils that she recognized…and surrounding it, filling the entire interior of the windowless building, were Iratus bugs. "The entire population was killed by these insects, then?" She managed to ask mildly as Taurus handed the tablet around.
"That was what we thought until we literally walked into a Wraith outpost a mile out of town."
"And what's your part in this?" Jamie fired at Todd, raising an eyebrow.
Drawing himself up, Todd met her stare for stare. "My hive was also investigating the disappearances, although for different reasons. We encountered each other on the second planet and because several of Sheppard's people were taken, they demanded explanations." He bared his teeth a little. "That was when I told them about you and they insisted on being led here."
Great, just bloody great. Jamie thought with several choice Goa'uld curse words to boot. "And what do you expect us to do about it?"
"Well, tell us which hive did this so we can take them out, for one," Sheppard fired back dryly, "and it would be nice of you to tell us where our people were taken. According to him, you've got your fingers in every hiveship in the galaxy. You must've heard something."
Jamie shared a look with all of her friends. From the looks in their eyes, they had to have a serious discussion about this. Nodding slightly, she turned back to the others. "We'll think about this. Until we reach a decision, though, you'll have to remain here. I'll make sure that food and water are sent to you in a while." Turning around, she made a hasty exit.