DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of any of the Stargate Universe. I just twist their plots around to make people I don't know happy.
Chapter One
The city quaked, nearly stealing the ground from beneath Jennifer Keller's feet. Her hands flung out to catch herself against the lab table. The Wraith prisoner in the background swiftly wrapped his arms around a tray of test tubes in a desperate attempt to stop them from falling to the floor. When the motion ceased, they and the two armed guards present in the room looked at one another in confusion.
"What the hell was that?" Keller asked, breathing fast as she looked between the others. The sound of the Atlantean alarm system answered her question. The guards radios crackled to life, recalling them to the gate room, but not before they refastened the steel glove over the Wraith's feeding hand. As Atlantis shuddered once more, they instructed the pair to remain in the room until the situation was resolved.
"Your city appears to be under attack," the Wraith scientist observed, his mouth hanging partially open as he stared up at the ceiling as though answers would fall from it.
Jennifer shot him a glare.
"The timing is rather convenient, isn't it Todd?" she spat, rounding on him and watching as he, too, turned to face her. "The serum is nearly complete. Now would be the perfect time for your kind to lay first strike."
The Wraith seemed genuinely offended as he came into her space in two quick strides. His towering height intimidated her almost as much as did the slitted yellow eyes boring into her own. In spite of his offense, the Wraith's hands remained at his sides as he spoke.
"I assure you, Doctor Kell-err, that I know nothing of this attack. Our agreement ensured I would be returned to my Hive once the serum had proven successful. Why would I attack and steal when I could easily possess the serum with your leaders' permission?"
The woman's elbows had come to rest against the surface of the table as she leaned back to put as much space between them as she could. Her eyes wavered back and forth between each of his own, straining to determine the validity of his words. His chest quickly rose and fell in the same anger and frustration Jennifer herself was feeling, and she realized after another moment of observation that he was telling the truth. She gave a single, brusque nod and righted herself, bringing their faces close together. His eyes narrowed and refused to release hers for yet another long moment, and then, finally, he dipped his head and stepped back.
"I knew you would come to see it my way," he breathed, turning away from her and placing his hands behind his back.
The building shook again, harder this time, and the lab tables collapsed. Todd made a mad snatch for the test tubes, but he only managed to save one. The others crashed to the floor, their contents splashing out across the floor. The Wraith rose up from one knee, his free hand quivering as he held the vial up before his eyes. Jennifer, her own eyes wide and panicked, watched him.
Another strike rocked the city, and sparks flew from one of the consoles on the lab wall from behind Jennifer's position. Hot metal landed on her uniform, quickly burning through it and burying the flecks into her skin. She cried out and fell to the ground, covering the wounds with her hand, as another console exploded. She saw Todd flinch and duck before his eyes locked on the closed door, and then back on the woman nearby.
"This sample cannot be damaged. It is all that is left."
Jennifer, her arm throbbing in pain, looked up at him.
"Atlantis is the safest place for—"
"Your precious Atlantis is at war, Doctor Kell-err. No doubt it is the Replicators at work here, and they simply cannot be allowed to possess this serum." Todd's anger was palpable, the veins in his skull showing more prominently and indicating his skin had paled.
Another tone abruptly split the room, and Jennifer's stomach dropped.
The self-destruct sequence.
Todd seemed to have noticed her change in appearance, and his own breathing hitched.
"What is it?"
"They've armed the city's self-destruct," she whispered, her lips quivering as she sat up.
The Wraith scientist's mouth stayed open again, as it tended to do when he was stressed or frustrated, and he squeezed the vial more tightly in his hand. Swiftly, he righted himself and shoved the vial into the pocket of his trench coat and slammed his body against the door. With his right hand hampered by the steel glove, he could use both hands to pry open the door.
"If the Replicators destroy this facility, everything we have worked for...all the progress we have made...it will all have been for nothing! Human and Wraith alike will be obliterated...I cannot allow that to happen." He looked at her now, his eyes wide. "How long until the sequence is complete?"
The woman got to her feet now, still holding her arm and gritting her teeth in pain.
"Seven minutes."
Todd stepped forward.
"Remove my restraint."
"Why?"
The Wraith growled and curled his lips into a snarl.
"Because I cannot open the door with only one hand, Doctor."
"I...I can't let you go," Jennifer responded, grimacing as another wave of pain swept through her arm and the city quaked again. "Your kind is aggressive and volatile. I have no way to know that you will revise the serum and find a way to use it against humans."
Annoyed, the Wraith stepped to her and grabbed her by her good arm.
"Then, by all means, come along, if it will so appease you. Now, remove this infernal contraption so that I may use my hands to help us escape!"
With the self-destruct alarm ringing in their ears and the Wraith holding her in a death grip, Jennifer released her own arm and retrieved the ring of keys from her belt loop. With quivering hands and the Wraith tilting his head menacingly from one side to the next as she fumbled, he undid the lock and the steel glove fell to the floor. He smiled down at her, his sharp teeth exposed, and flexed his feeding hand. Keller's eyes met his as she felt his hand tighten down on her arm.
For a moment, the fact that he had pulled back his feeding hand left her in doubt of his promise of escape for them both. She shrank backward, pulling against him, and a low, slow chuckle emerged from his throat.
"Fear not, Doctor Kell-err," he purred, pulling her forward now. "I am nothing if not a Wraith of my word." With that, he released her, and pried open the door.
The moment they stepped through the doorway, the corridor before them exploded. Shards of metal and chunks of rock spewed forth, the pair of them ducking and sheltering their heads as they ran. Jennifer didn't know where Todd was taking them, but she knew she didn't have a choice but to follow him. Colonel Carter would never have activated the self-destruct unless this battle could not be won. They wound their way through the wreckage of the city, until Jennifer at last came to recognize where they were headed.
"The Jumper Bay?" she gasped as they ran, but she was suddenly halted by an arm having been flung out before her. Todd had stopped and stood very still, listening through the alarm for something Jennifer could not detect. After a moment, he looked over his shoulder and gave her a nod of acknowledgement.
"Yes..." he whispered, his stance tense. "My cruiser is still in tact, I can sense it."
Jennifer stopped again, straining to catch her breath as she glared at the departing Wraith's cloaked back.
"And...where are we going to go once we get to your cruiser?"
The alien stopped and straightened, rounding on her.
"You are welcome to stay here, Doctor, if you so wish it." He sneered at the fright he saw in her expression. "I didn't think so. Now, unless you have some maniacal desire to risk not only your own life but the research we have so labored over these past months, you will come with me."
He grabbed for her arm again, this time latching onto the bad arm, but he ignored her cries of pain as he dragged her toward the Jumper Bay. When they reached it, he practically threw her into the cruiser and made his way to the control console.
The Jumper Bay doors opened, and the Wraith seemed completely at ease as he raised the cruiser out of the hanger and pressed the machine forward and into motion. Two rogue blasts skimmed the rear of the ship and caused it to spiral once, but the inertial dampeners—or whatever it was Rodney had called them—were obviously at work. The duo inside the ship felt nothing, and within moments, they were out of weapons range and the cruiser was piercing through the uppermost layers of the atmosphere.