Deliverance

by Eirian1

Keller works with Todd to cure Sheppard, but the research reveals a questionable course of action, wherein ethics and loyalties become strained. contains themes some may find disturbing. You have a back button! Virtual Season 5 Episode 8 NC-17

1. Act 1

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, Robert Picardo, Connor Trinneer and Christopher Heyerdahl. Without these people and those that came before them, there would have been no Atlantis as we know it today.

With the exception of personal interpretation and expansions, extracts from existing episodes of the series remain the copyright of the story and teleplay writers: Joe Malozzi, Paul Mullie, Brad Wright, Robert C Cooper, Martin Gero, Mary Kaiser, Damian Kindler, Peter DeLuise, Jill Blotevogel, Carl Binder, Kerry Glover, Sean Carley, Treena Hancock, Melissa R. Byer, Joe Flanigan, Ken Cuperus, Don Whitehead, Holly Henderson, Ken Cuperus, Scott Nimerfro, Alan McCullough, Alex Levine, and David Schmidt.

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 2009.

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

Deliverance

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

"…Which is, as we know, exactly how the Wraith evolved. I mean, iratus bug bites human, human DNA mixes with theirs, a thousand years go by, Wraith."

"So, what? They're tryin' to create more Wraith?"

"That doesn't make any more sense. If they wanted to create more Wraith, wouldn't it be easier to get a male and female to, you know, get a room?"

"It doesn't work that way with the Wraith, all right? At least, we don't think it does. We're not entirely sure as to the Wraiths' reproductive methods."

McKay, Dex and Sheppard – Vengeance

Previously On Stargate Atlantis:

"What does the Queen want?" Vega asked suddenly

Michael let out a throaty little half chuckle. "Now we come to it."

"Well, do you blame me?" she asked emotionally. "You said this was your Hive. You've probably known her longer than anyone else here. Why the hell does she keep us around? Okay, we pamper her, fetch and carry, but half the time she pushes us into the arms of her commanders who are just as likely to kill us as… anything else." She swallowed hard at the look he gave her; somewhere between wry amusement and, she thought, sorrowful recollection. "She obviously wants something from you because like you said, if she didn't you'd already be dead, but… Vain as she is, I find it hard to believe she just… keeps us around for the mere… indulgence of having on demand comfort. Hedonistic she might be, but she's not that vacuous."

"To understand that," he answered darkly, "you must first understand the evolution of the Wraith."

**

Todd let out the low rumbling that Vega had come to know was his sound of agreement, before he said, "I told you that the Queen seeks evolution. She has been… preparing herself, plans to further her own bloodline with the production of a Queen, her… daughter, as you would say."

She turned to him then, frowning. Almost angrily, accusatorily, she asked, "You didn't!"

Todd blinked, then looked at her seriously for a moment before he put back his head, and laughed.

"My dear Alicia," he said, sobering quickly, "she has someone far removed from me in mind for that task, I can assure you."

**

Todd turned back, his body automatically inclined to put his head lower than the Queen's. She did not move, nor speak until the Hive Commander had turned the corner at the end of the hallway, then she came to Todd, sliding her hands from his belly to the tops of his shoulders and he straightened at her touch.

"You understand more than you have spoken…" she said.

=of my purpose= =my purpose= =purpose=

Her voice dripped amused, yet threatening tones over him. He fought to keep his own responses from driving him to act. He was Wraith, yes, but he refused to be a creature of instinct. Besides which, she was right – still, his own, stubborn pride would not allow her to toy with him like that, and as he had once before, he grasped her wrists, and spun her around in his arms, pulling her closer, and holding her through her struggles.

"I understand you have another in mind," he growled against the side of her head. "But first you must subdue him…"

~to your will~ ~your will~ ~will~

**

"You're insane," Sheppard growled, and struggled even more with the restraints. Dread filled his gut, threatened to suffocate him, and he began to feel the bile rising in his throat, seeking a way out. He clenched his teeth against the rising nausea.

"So I have been told," Michael said, and began to cross the room toward him. "You should save your strength, Colonel. You will need it in the hours to come. Doctor Keller…"

"Please, Sheppard, listen to him," she came closer to him, laid a hand on his arm as though she thought that would convince him to acquiesce. "I can give you a sedative. Make it easier on y—"

"Don't you dare!" he snapped, turning his head toward her so quickly it sent a shooting pain down the entire side of his body. "There's no way I'm becoming one of this maniac's creatures, I—"

He stopped as he felt Michael's hand press against the side of his head, holding it to the side, facing Keller.

"So be it," he said calmly.

"Michael, don't!" Sheppard cried out as he felt the cold sting of the needle against his neck. "Not—"

He felt as though Michael had injected liquid fire into his bloodstream as the serum raced through his veins, igniting the inferno in his brain that stole the oxygen from his lungs. Even so he somehow managed the agonised cry that escaped his lips as his muscles tensed and his body began to convulse. He bit his tongue, and tasted blood in his mouth.

"You motherfu—" he growled, unable to finish as a wave of pain stole what little breath he had managed to snatch, until he could manage another sharply indrawn breath, "I'm gonna kill you!"

**

"Please, Todd," she whispered, her voice full of pain and fear, "don't let me die."

Todd breathed out long and slow. He frowned, and barely tilted his head at her appeal. It would be easy to do that – to turn the situation around and report to the Queen that The Abomination had planted a poisoned apple in their midst and that he had been the instrument of the Queen's salvation, the removal of the threat to her, in discovering the infection in the girl.

"Please…" she whispered again.

On the other hand, her death would weaken his position; his ability could be called into question, and perhaps his resources limited only to those he needed in connection with his work for the Queen. He would no longer have the satisfaction of knowing that at any moment the Queen could make a fatal mistake and that his could be the power to save her, and displace all those that would come before him.

Todd unfastened the clasp on his coat and shrugged off the heavy garment, beginning to roll up one of the sleeves of the shirt he wore underneath. As he did he approached the alcove where the hybrid was still chained in place, and passed his hand over the sensor to release the lock. "You will have to help me…"

**

…She barely felt him lift her against him, his hand behind her head, holding her close against his shoulder, and wrapping his other arm behind her back. She shuddered against him, her fingers making claws against his arms as she clung to him, crying out as the beating of her heart sent the burning serum through her body.

"Kill or cure…" she heard the hybrid's words echo round the room, "the only two possibilities in nature."

**

Another thought occurred to him. He had no notion of whence it came, or why in that moment he should begin to wonder on it, but it was a thought that profoundly disturbed him. He could not afford the distraction this concubine had become, and yet, with this new line of reasoning, neither could he afford not to follow the enquiry to its conclusion. Leaving the computer to work on the simulation following the initial stages of manipulation of the retrovirus, he reached for the vial of Vega's blood he had in stasis, and began to run an exhaustive genetic analysis, which he could then compare with that of Wraith.

He let out another long, almost hissed sigh, on the end of the breath he finally voiced his thoughts. "Alicia Vega, what are you to me?"

**

"She warned you then?" the Hive Commander spat bitterly by way of an answer.

"Of course she did," Todd answered, not putting up any pretence of ignorance as to the Commander's words. "Why wouldn't she?"

"I would have thought that, by now, she would have learned to keep her silence in matters between Wraith." the Hive Commander growled, taking a step toward Todd.

"It just goes to prove that you know so very little about Humans," he said, and carefully, without making any obvious movements, slipped the knife from the sheath at his back hidden in the layers of his coat.

"I know enough about that Human to know that she is not at all what she seems," the Hive Commander said coldly, "And I assure you—"

"Don't make promises you cannot keep," Todd interrupted with more than a little sarcasm colouring his voice and his thoughts.

Angered, the Hive Commander's barely held self-control snapped and he flew at Todd. Todd responded with an upward sweep of his arm, revealing the knife in his hand as he did so, and the Hive Commander barely had time to raise a defensive arm, before falling back to drop into a half crouch, drawing both of his own knives as he did so, but not before he had blotted at the bloody slice to the underside of his chin.

**

"I know what you're going to say, Todd. The Queen… sent me to you, so that we, well… you know." she blushed and couldn't bring herself to say it.

"So that we would have the opportunity to engage in sexual activities… Yes."

She swallowed. He was so matter of fact about something so… intimate to her, that she couldn't help colouring from the tips of her ears to the soles of her feet. "Such a romantic," she joked, trying to cover her embarrassment.

"Romance is a human notion, Alicia Vega," he said softly.

Vega flinched as Todd's hands settled on her shoulders, and he swept her loose hair aside. Behind her he leaned closer, and she jumped again as she felt his breath against the side of her cheek.

"I thought I said to trust me," he said very softly.

"Yes, but," she whimpered a little as his right hand moved across the top of her chest, the warmed metal scraping slightly against her skin. "Why like this?"

"Wraith males will always first approach a female in this way."

The flicker of an image, never clear, as if through a fog, began to form in her mind before it was snatched away suddenly, before Todd raised her wrist to meet the light nip of his teeth against the softness of her flesh.

She gasped and then moaned as he repeated the gesture. She found herself almost falling into only the awareness of the heat of it, the slight sharpness that burned the length of her, and in sudden fear of where it might lead, she pulled away.

**

"Stay where you are, Alicia. Do not come any closer." He stopped at the side of the workbench and leaned on it, breathing deeply, even as he held out his hand to signal that she should stop.

She froze at his words, and frowned as she watched him visibly fighting with something, struggling to pull himself together.

"I have just come from the Queen," he rumbled. "I cannot guarantee that you are safe from me. At a time like this, being in close proximity to a Queen can drive Wraith to madness. A commander among Wraith, those of us with individuality…" he paused to take a breath, "…those of us with the ability to…"

His voice trailed away into nothing, and he closed his eyes. He stood very still, and Vega began to worry even more as she tried to make sense of everything that he had only halfway said, and everything else that had gone before.

**

"Todd, stop! Stop!" she struggled with him. It was futile as he was far stronger than she could ever hope to master. In the end, pinned as she was, she did the only thing she could to try and shock him out of his stupor.

Her free hand flashed up under his incoming arm and she grabbed his chin, pulling his face down toward hers. Then, standing on the tips of her toes, all but falling against him, she pressed a sudden, fierce kiss against his lips.

**

"You accuse me of actions beyond my ability," he told her, his voice low.

"But—" she started. "I don't understand. I felt her in my mind… pulling at everything I felt. That was private, it—"

She turned and walked away from him, further into the bathing chamber, wrapping her arms around herself. Frustrated tears began to spill onto her cheeks. She felt him follow, and for a moment tensed as he slid his hands down her arms, to slide beneath them and enfold her in his embrace, his hands against her waist.

"No, my little one, you do not," he said softly, gently.

"Then, please, Todd," she breathed, leaning back into his arms, craving his warmth as a protection from her confusion, "explain it to me."

"You and I do not share such a bond that would allow me to touch your mind from such a distance as we were from one another," he said softly. "Look at me, Alicia. Your fear binds you. You believe that simply because I am Wraith, I will hurt you."

She shook her head, afraid to turn, afraid of what might become of her if she allowed but one moment of madness to overcome the resistance of logic against the press of emotion; to break down the warring of the two inside of her. What the one wanted, the other repelled.

"Our two species are not…" he purred in her ear, cutting off the voice of her fear.

~mutually exclusive~ ~mutually exclusive~ ~mutually exclusive~

**

"I need to know how you did it; where you found your solution."

The Renegade's nostrils flared, his chest rising and falling in rapid succession under Todd's hand.

"…can't…" he gasped.

"I think you can," Todd said. "Otherwise I will have no choice but to give you the strength you need… to take the treatment again."

"No," he whispered.

"Then tell me."

The Renegade closed his eyes, and breathed out a soft, resigned sigh, before he said, "Eighteen, zero-five, forty-eight – negative thirty, twenty-five, twenty-six."

"Spatial Coordinates – very good," Todd said and climbing to his feet he gestured to the two drones waiting by the door.

**

"The order for the destruction of the human settlement came not from me, but from the Queen. She—"

"Oh, sure, that's right," Keller said, "Hide behind the Queen – just following orders… Very—"

She broke off with a small scream that was echoed by the repeating trill of Ronon's blaster as the Satedan stepped forward, menacing Todd who caught her flailing hand and her against him. He held her, one hand against her chest, the other curled beneath her chin.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Todd advised. If he was intimidated by the Satedan's blaster pointing at his face, he didn't show it. "If you shoot me, I may not have time to feed on her, but… a slight twitch of my hand—"

Keller felt as though she was going to pass out at any moment, or shake herself apart with trembling. The Wraith's fingers pinched against her neck and chin as they moved, travelling along the corridor to the outside air, and the metal at one fingertip dug in painfully, until she had to close her fingers around his wrist to try and ease the pressure he exerted. His hand at the top of her chest curled slightly, pressing still more painfully against her flesh.

"Forgive the necessity," he murmured into her hair, and as he let her go, she felt him press something small and hard into her left hand and close her fingers over it. Then he gave her a sudden push, and she stumbled away from him. She fell to her knees and dry-heaved into the dirt.

**

"Todd gave me some kind of serum to stop the spread of the retrovirus Michael injected me with." He had to stop as another wave of pain hit him. Through gritted teeth he took several deep breaths trying to banish the pain before he said, "The Gate or coming back here seems to have neutralised it. Keller, you have to synthesise i—"

He broke off as the pain became blinding, for a moment reaching right from his gut to the middle of his brain. Every one of his muscles clenched against the fire flowing through him, much worse than before, but he refused to give in to it, growling to push it away he forced out the rest of the words, "…And fast! God! And someone needs to get… to New Athos… to check on Teyla."

"Teyla?" Woolsey frowned, lost in the confusion of Sheppard's words.

Ronon however frowned at him as though he had just suggested the most terrible thing in the world.

"I just wanna be sure," Sheppard gasped, throwing back his head.

**

"Mister Woolsey… Colonel," Amelia interrupted softly, "We've received a coded subspace message. It came via the relay station on M5G-227."

Sheppard exchanged a worried frown, first with Amelia, and then with McKay and Ronon.

"From… Todd?" he asked, shivering a little at the horrible sense of coincidence.

"Yes," Amelia answered nodding, "from Todd. He wants to meet with you, Colonel."

**

For a time, Todd stood watching in silence as the Wraith Guardian, and the Young Queen remained locked in the desperation of her condition. Finally he spoke.

"I should simply kill you where you stand for your failure, your weakness," he addressed the Guardian, "and put your queen out of her misery."

As soon as he heard the voice out of the darkness, the Guardian turned, striking with the knife toward Todd's face. It was an easy attack for Todd to counter, and he grabbed the Wraith Guardian's wrist, slapping the weapon away with the other hand. Then he twisted the wrist he held and swept the Wraith's supporting leg out from under him with his foot, bringing the weakened commander to his knees before him.

As a signal of his superiority, Todd thrust his feeding hand against the Guardian's chest, and then halting all motion, said, "Instead I offer you a proposal."

~I offer you a proposal~ ~offer a proposal~ ~proposal~

"What is it you want?" the Wraith Guardian hissed.

"Surrender yourself to my command." Todd demanded softly.

"Why should I listen to you?" the Guardian growled bitterly, and Todd could tell that he was already considering the benefits of such a proposal. "What could you possibly offer in return for such a gift?"

Todd tilted his head, looking past the Wraith Guardian, to the pale Young Queen sitting on her pauper's, rock carved throne and growled his answer softly into the darkness.

"Deliverance from this miserable existence, a Hive… and life for your Queen."

***

"There is much about Wraith that you do not know…"

Todd, Common Ground.

Act 1

Sheppard glanced over at Keller. She sat in the back of the Jumper across from where he lay on the other bench. She was tense, on edge. Clearly she didn't want to be here and he wasn't really surprised. The last time she'd seen Todd he'd grabbed her to use as a hostage. It was the kind of thing guaranteed to spook a girl, but Woolsey had insisted as soon as Sheppard had made it clear that he was going to be there at the meeting with Todd whether the base commander liked it or not.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," he said, leaning up on his elbows a little bit.

"He's a Wraith," Keller answered. "How can you just trust him like this?"

"He's Todd," Sheppard answered, with a bit of a shrug, then finding it too painful to be that way, and wanting to save what strength he had to be able to meet with Todd on his feet, he lay back down with a sigh.

"You need something for the pain?" Keller asked, coming across the small gap toward him, but he shook his head.

"I need to be alert when we meet with Todd," he said.

"I thought you said it'd be okay," Keller said, and her voice trembled a little bit.

"And it will," Sheppard said, "but like you said, he's a Wraith, and it doesn't hurt to… be alert."

"Don't worry, Jennifer," Ronon said, stepping into the back of the Jumper from his latest patrol of the area. "Todd makes a move toward anyone he'll answer to me."

Sheppard pushed away Keller's hands and started to sit up, glaring at Ronon. "There'll be no 'answering to' anyone," he said sharply, "We're here to find out what the deal is; what he wants, and remembering that we need his help too, we—"

"We don't need anything from him," Ronon interrupted. "Jennifer is just as capable of dealing with this. We should let her do that, not go… running to the enemy."

"Todd's not… necessarily… the enemy," Sheppard said. He was fighting the griping pains that had begun in his gut again. It may be that he would have to ask Keller for another shot.

"He's a Wraith!" Ronon said, the exasperation clear in his voice. "When will you people lear—?"

"We need. His help!" Sheppard said again, interrupting.

"I hate to say it, Ronon," Jennifer said softly before Ronon could argue again, "But John might be right this time. Even with the sample of his blood, whatever the other Todd gave him was already terribly degraded by the time I got to analyse it, just like the serum that Michael was giving to Beckett. I—"

"Gate's activating!" McKay called from the front of the Jumper.

"We're still cloaked, right?" Sheppard suddenly worried.

"Yes, yes… we're still cloaked, why do you ask?" McKay gave Sheppard a worried look, and then turned back to the console, typing commands and cross referencing with the computer tablet that he had in his lap. It seemed to be a perpetual attachment to the scientist, even more so in recent weeks.

Sheppard had looked past him, out of the Jumper window to watch as the Wraith Dart came through the, now active, Stargate and settled lightly onto the ground a little way from the clear space in front of it. Barely a second later Todd, and two Wraith sub-commanders, materialised beside the Dart, all but looking in their direction.

"Oh just… asking," Sheppard said. "May as well de-cloak now in any case. He's gonna know where we are the minute we step from the Jumper."

**

The thought of it filled Jennifer with a growing dread. Swallowing she spoke up. "But if we de-cloak, what if he decides to use the Dart's weapons to… to fire on the Jumper we—"

"Jennifer," Sheppard turned and took her by the arms, leaning down to look into her eyes, as if he were trying to steady her. "We'll be all right. He contacted us, remember?"

"Right… yes…"

She took a deep breath to pull herself together, but it was a struggle, and evidently Sheppard saw that and said quietly, "Look, maybe it'd be better if you… stayed in the Jumper – just until we find out what it is he wants."

"No. No, I…" she said, pushing a strand of hair back from her face, "I'm good, and if you say it'll be fine, then… I'm sure it will be. It's just that… he's a Wraith, and—"

"You just gotta remember he's Todd too," Sheppard said, obviously trying to lighten the atmosphere with his tone. "Me and this guy… we go way back."

"Sure you do," Jennifer agreed, giving his arm a squeeze as she took another breath. She only wished she could feel more comforted by that fact than she did. "So… we going to do this?"

"Rodney," Sheppard ordered.

"I'm on it," McKay answered, and Jennifer, watching past McKay's shoulder, saw the Wraith straighten as the Jumper de-cloaked. Even with the relative safety of distance she couldn't help but swallow hard as she looked on Todd.

She remembered his scent, a dangerously biting mix of cinnamon spice and warmed leather – the hardness of his body as he held her, the menace and the power in it, in him.

Keller felt as though she was going to pass out at any moment, or shake herself apart with trembling. The Wraith's fingers pinched against her neck and chin as they moved, and the metal at one fingertip dug in painfully, until she had to close her fingers around his wrist to try and ease the pressure he exerted. His hand at the top of her chest curled slightly, pressing still more painfully against her flesh.

She remembered feeling the pulse of his blood beneath her fingertips as she grasped his wrist, the answering shock that ran through hers, and the accompanying, almost immediate response in her body as his breath had flowed over her, as he craved her absolution.

"Forgive the necessity," he murmured into her hair, and as he let her go, she felt him press something small and hard into her left hand and close her fingers over it. Then he gave her a sudden push, and she stumbled away from him. She fell to her knees and dry-heaved into the dirt, and Ronon and Sheppard both came to her side.

It had been that, more than the very real fear that he was going to feed on her, that had filled her with nausea as soon as he had gone. Seeing him now, real and as large as life brought it all rushing back.

"Hey, Jennifer," Ronon's call brought her back to the present with a jolt. "You coming?"

Jennifer fixed a smile onto her face, and nodding, followed him out.

**

Todd stood motionless watching as the four of them approached his small party of Wraith, appraising them in light of all that had passed between them these past years. The scientist, McKay, was clearly on edge, defensive and kept glancing at Sheppard in concern. There was something wrong. In fact he could almost smell the fear and tension in the air.

His eyes shifted to regard Sheppard. He was pale. Around his eyes the skin was almost grey and there was evidence of stress in the way the veins around his face and neck seemed swollen. Todd narrowed his eyes, recognising, but not believing what he was seeing. How could such a thing be possible?

The scuff of a boot on the dried mud of the space between them drew him from his contemplation of Sheppard's condition, and he turned his head to watch as Ronon, at the woman's side, approached the others, blaster already clear of its holder and pointed his way. He could not help but let out a single chuckle as they came to a halt, face to face.

He tilted his head just slightly to take in the sight of the woman at the runner's side. Petite as he remember from when he had all but carried her from The Abomination's laboratory, her hair spilling over her shoulders, she stood resolute beside the others, though he could sense her reluctance, smell her fear as he felt her eyes on him. It would seem he had made quite the impression already.

Fixing a serious expression on his face to hide the wry amusement at that thought, he gave a slight bow, his eyes fixed on hers.

"Doctor Keller," he said softly, before rising from the bow, and though not taking his eyes from her, continued, "Colonel Sheppard, thank you for coming."

**

Keller shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as his eyes settled on her, as his voice went through her. She was confused at the greeting though. Oh not the words, but the way he had almost respectfully inclined his head to her. It made little sense to her. Unconsciously she took a step back as Todd moved to regard Sheppard.

"Your message said you wanted to meet with us," Sheppard said, "and with Doctor Keller to discuss the data you sent her regarding the Hoffan protein. So talk. What is it that you want?"

Todd nodded, and turned his head back to Keller. She straightened up even though her stomach clenched fiercely to be under his scrutiny again.

"I have been working with various premises concerning the amino acid chain I showed you, and have now reached the limits of my investigations. I would appreciate a second pair of eyes to look over the data, and could think of no one more suited to the task than you, Doctor Keller," he purred.

Keller swallowed hard, then forcing herself to appear calm held out her hand, palm up, in Todd's direction.

"If you give me the data I'll be sure to look it over and get back to you," she said.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Todd said, his voice just the other side of a breathy whisper, and he took a step toward her.

Keller backed up another step, even though she tried to hold her ground. Her breath caught in her chest. She was somewhat comforted by the fact that, beside her, Ronon tightened his grip on his blaster and raised it a little more toward Todd's head.

"What do you mean?" she said, trying not to let her voice squeak.

"Some of the data is… sensitive," he explained, "and simply cannot be removed from the Hive."

"So what," McKay interrupted, and Keller glanced at him to see him glaring at the side of Todd's head, "You expect her to just… go with you? Look at it there?" McKay barely paused before he snapped, "In your dreams, pal!"

"Wraith… have no need to dream, Doctor McKay," Todd said, answering McKay, though he never once took his eyes from her. From seemingly out of nowhere, he held up a clear Wraith data chip.

"What's that?" Keller asked, curious in spite of her growing disquiet.

"I managed to download some of the data to this storage device," Todd answered, "I thought perhaps, if you were to examine it, and then were willing to investigate further…"

Keller's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "You're giving this to me?"

"Why not?" Todd shrugged, "It is of little use to me. As I said, I have reached the limits of my discoveries with this particular data, though… I am certain that there is more to be found. With the right avenue of investigation, of course."

Keller took a deep breath, and once again held out a hand. It trembled slightly and she willed it to stop. He did not move to give her the data chip.

"All right, I'll take a look," she told him. In truth she was eager to examine the data, having reached her own dead end with the single image of the amino acid. The possibilities were exciting, but she had been unable to extrapolate the necessary part of the nucleotide to take the research any further. Still though, just because she was willing to look at this data, did not mean she was willing to do more than that, so she added quickly, "but I'm not making any promises."

"Of course not," Todd purred, "though, it seems to me that perhaps there is… something that I might be able to help you with in return?"

For the first time since beginning to speak to her of the reasons for his message Todd turned his eyes away from her to look at Sheppard.

"Don't you try and use me as a lever, you son-of-a-bitch," Sheppard spat, and as she too turned, she saw Sheppard move closer by a step or two to the Wraith, before he stopped.

"You wound me, Sheppard," Todd said softly, "and if my understanding of the situation is correct, you need all the help you can get, and if I am willing to give that help—"

"Are you?" Sheppard asked, "I mean, without any… exchanges or conditions?"

Todd tilted his head quickly, first one way, and then the other before he said, "I might be. Though, truly, I do not see the harm in pursuing a reciprocal arrangement. We would both benefit, after all."

"What?" Ronon hissed, and Jennifer could tell that he was at the limits of his patience with the Wraith. "How?"

"Ronon," Sheppard said in a warning tone, and then gasped softly. Jennifer started to step toward him as he pressed his forearm across his belly, but he shook his head, and she could see the effort he was making as he drew himself up straight once more.

"No." Ronon turned and walked toward Sheppard to growl at him in a low, almost confidential way. "You explain to me how making it possible for the Wraith to start feeding again is any benefit to the Humans of this Galaxy."

Sheppard opened his mouth to answer, but Todd got there first, his tone one of wry amusement. "Oh I rather think you'd get the better end of any deal we might make: The ability to cure those of your kind stricken with the sickness the Hoffan Protein causes and the ability to restore Colonel Sheppard to his former self…?"

"We don't need your help for that," Ronon snarled, raising his weapon Todd's way once more, "We—"

Todd raised his voice then, as though he tired of Ronon's constant bickering. Keller jumped at first, but the Wraith was turned away from her, his irritation aimed at the big Satedan.

"Then why is it that the retrovirus still runs freely in his body, assaulting his cells, his DNA – changing him."

In spite of how she felt, Keller took a step forward. Whatever happened they couldn't keep playing with each other this way. They needed his help and Todd knew it, and he had asked for their help, so, where was the harm in making at least a show of good faith.

"Look, all right!" she said, and took a deep breath as Todd turned to face her, his expression settling to a neutral one quickly, his head tilted slightly to one side as he regarded her. "Some of the nucleotides in the imposed RNA don't make any sense. If anyone were to help with understanding of Wraith RNA, it stands to reason—"

"It would be Wraith," Todd agreed. "Of course it would be easier to do if you were to come aboard my Hive, but—"

"I've already said, I'll look over your data, see what I can do, but no guarantees, no promises." She held out her hand again for him to give her the clear crystal chip on which the Wraith stored their data, unable, this time, to prevent the slight tremor even she saw in it.

"Very well," Todd said in that almost arrogant tone of voice he had so often used. He reached out to lay the data chip into the palm of Keller's hand. The crystal was smooth and slightly warmed from being held in his hand for so long. He dropped it into her hand deliberately slowly, and inclined his head in another almost respectful bow. As he withdrew his fingers, she started slightly, and almost gasped as the scrape of his fingernails, very light, almost imperceptible, save for the sudden blossoming heat that flushed her entire body, passed along the side of her hand.

She all but dropped the chip to the ground in the trembling that accompanied the heat at the unexpected contact and made her feel unsteady, that same frightened humming that rushed through her, and only tightened as he said softly, "You know how to contact me... if you change your mind."

**

He sat, absolutely motionless except for the rapid flashing of his fingers around the metal piece he turned in them, and over them and around them. If she could have seen his eyes she would have known that they were staring straight ahead, over the top of where he spun the finger-piece over and over, into the middle distance. She did not see. She did not need to see to know that this Wraith she served, the Hive's Second, was deep in thought.

Carefully she set down the comb she had been running through his long hair, bringing the silk of it into her hands to ensure the knots, evidence of his more recent altercation, were gone, and then her nimble fingers flew through its fine white length as she braided it close to his scalp.

Rumours in the Hive's Lower Station, where the worshippers had their quarters, were that his fight had been a vicious and brutal one and the evidence of the wounds, still healing even after he had fed, supported the stories of a poisoned blade. An angry bruising around the line of a healed cut stretched almost the entire width of his broad shoulders. The same greyish-red tint lay around scratches on his wrist and the backs of his long fingered hand, and disturbed the intricately entwined Wraith characters that graced the top of his chest, and the side of his neck.

She would gently apply a healing balm, as he had instructed, before she soothed him to his rest. She sighed. Already feeling the touch of his skin, the resistance of his muscles under her fingers, Isla reached forward to pick up the straight razor with which she would shave away the regrowth from the patterns in his braided hair. It was a task she performed often and with practised ease. She was his body servant, his personal maid, and – when he saw fit to grave her with the greater honour – warmed his bed to relieve such stresses and pressures as bothered him. She belonged to him, and was more than content in that.

Another sigh passed her lips as the thought of change passed through her mind again. A small tremor followed in its wake and the blade in her hand slipped.

**

He felt the sting against the back of his neck, drew in a short, sharp breath and stilled the turning of his finger armour in his hand.

"Stop," he ordered, and though the word was lightly spoken, he had confidence in his absolute control over this Human. "Come here."

He indicated the place to which she should move with a barely perceptible movement of his head. He watched as she moved to stand where he had told her. The blade was still held in her hand. He reached out slowly to take it from her, and inspected the single drop of his blood that still hung on the edge of it.

"Explain," he said in the same, light tone.

"Forgive me, Lord, I—"

"I did not ask you crave my forgiveness, Isla. Explain," he stretched out his hand, the blade extended, and raised her chin on the side of it. She kept her eyes downcast as he did.

"I— it is nothing, Lord, I—"

"And yet suddenly you become clumsy enough to cut me?" he cut her off, "I think not. Explain yourself – I will not ask you again."

In response of him she let out a small, distressed sound, even though only slightly, and he heard a fearful trembling in her voice as she told him, "I breed."

He let out a long, slow hiss that did not match his displeasure at the news and in a fluid movement, came to his feet. He did not remove the blade with which he forced her head up still higher as he came to his full height before her, and turned the razor just enough that the sharp edge rested against her skin.

"You are certain?" he demanded softly, frowning at the thought that she could have disobeyed him. Not that he had forbidden her seek the attention of one of her own kind, but neither had he given her leave. It was her disobedience that angered him – nothing more.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Whose?"

"Taevun," she squeaked.

He regarded her through the veil of his quiet but growing fury. He knew the Human she named; a Handler, a Human with a position of responsibility for others of his kind that served the Wraith. A Human with ideas far above his station, and now it seemed that his personal servant, his servant aided and abetted his transgression.

"But, I— he—" she began, and her further lapse pushed the Hive Second beyond the limit of his considerable patience and self control.

"I did not give you leave to speak!" he roared, pitching both tones low, and following with the lash of his mind.

{no leave to speak} {to speak} {speak}

Clearly panicking she backed away from him, heedless of the blade still at her throat, stumbling against the low desk on which the supplies she had been using stood as the pain of the cut reached her, and her blood started to fall. She pressed the palm of one hand to the gash, weeping openly now, and with the other trembling hand tried to pick up the items that had scattered when she fell against the desk.

"Leave it!" he commanded harshly, striding the distance between them to grab her by the hair and pull back her head, exposing her bloodied throat to him. He growled sibilantly deep in the back of his throat, and set down the blade before drawing back his feeding hand, pausing momentarily to catch her eyes with his, before he thrust his flattened hand hard against her chest.

He saw acquiescence, obedience and relief at the contact as the flow of her life began to strengthen him, and felt a momentary confusion before the pieces fell into place in his sharp mind…

"But I— he—"

…and he reversed the direction of the surge, giving to her more than he had taken. He let go of her hair, and felt her reach up to grasp his arms for support, in the same desperation as when, on rare occasions, he favoured her, and crying out for him in near rapture to match the moment.

Growling still, he leaned down to breathe deeply of her responses, and at the same time, reached for the straight blade and pressed the handle of it into her palm, closing her fingers around its hardness.

On the edge of the breath, he hissed, "Bring me his heart."

{heart} {heart} {heart} {heart} {heart}

**

"I thought you would like to know," Todd said. He strode into the laboratory where they were holding The Abomination as the drones were dragging the pitiful thing that had once been so feared and hated in the Pegasus galaxy toward the bio-testing couch. "I have investigated your supposed… key. There is nothing there. No one—"

"You are lying."

That The Abomination had answered at all surprised Todd. His voice, barely a broken and sibilant whisper, raised in challenge as it was, surprised Todd even more. As Todd approached him, to see to the fastening of the restraints, he cocked his head in query.

"If you had been anywhere near the planet," the whisper continued, forced and sounding painful, "you would, in no way, casually suggest—"

Todd cut him off, leaning down and clamping a hand around his throat.

"Suppose you tell me. Save me the trouble," he growled, all effort to dissemble gone in a sudden rising irritation. "What is so important about this place; its people? How did you reach your solution?"

"What… makes you believe… there is a solution?" The Abomination gasped.

"You do. Your hybrids," Todd said, his anger getting the better of him, making him spit the words in accusation at The Abomination. "Each of them that we captured shows the Hoffan Protein in their system, in their blood, and yes, in the Human woman. The key to relieving her symptoms was in the amino acid chains and nucleotides in her blood, but it was no cure! It did not neutralise the poison in her system."

A rasping chuckle came from the pitiful figure on the bio-testing couch.

"Oh, which unfortunate rival did you eliminate in your test of her? How many have died in your futile attempt to give your people respite from my—?"

"What will I find when I travel to your miserable testing ground!" Todd demanded. At the same time he flipped a switch on the side of the console, sending massive amounts of the Hive's neuro-chemically generated energy coursing through The Abomination's body.

The pain of it cut off the miserable creature's words and came streaming, perceptible, dangerously so, through the mental link with which The Abomination had connected, catching the unguarded drones off guard, to send them lurching away in their shared agony.

Todd quickly raised his own mental defences, but not before the fiery lick of it had touched his own mind, and gasping softly with the effort of holding it back, he deactivated the tortuous flow of energy.

"Oh, very clever," he purred in amusement at the irony of it once he had caught his breath. "I can see your willingness to cooperate has not improved. Let us see if I cannot remind you to take greater care as to your needs."

Todd gestured to one of the drone guards at the door and the masked Wraith led forth a slight, though pleasant enough looking member of the Hive's worshipper community.

The woman – well, barely grown a woman by Human standards, Todd noticed – was clearly terrified, filled with dread at being brought before this thing. She dragged her feet.

"Come, girl," Todd snapped and at his command she hurried to stand at his side, eyes downcast as he would expect from one of the Elder's – from any Hive's – Purebreds. He reached out and, grasping her chin, raised her face and turned her toward The Abomination. "Pleasing enough, don't you think?"

"If you have a point—" The Abomination began.

Letting go of the girl, Todd began to circle around her, speaking as he moved.

"It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the reason for your refusal to feed is that you fear reprisals for the troubles your past actions have caused us. That someone might," he paused to gesture around at the remains of the last sub-commander that had been left as a reminder of the deaths his refusal was causing, "slip you a poisoned apple, as it were."

Todd saw The Abomination's eyes narrow and assumed he was correct in his assessment. Without a warning to the unfortunate worshipper he turned on her, thrusting forward with his feeding hand and, catching her completely unawares, snarled in deep satisfaction as he fed.

**

Michael sighed.

"You are wasting your time," he rasped. "It has nothing to do with fear… of reprisal and everything to do… with the… rejection of your weakness!"

He watched dispassionately as the worshipper's struggles against The Scientist's restraining hold began to falter, and then ceased altogether as she threw back her head in rapture when the Wraith reversed the feeding process. Then, Michael looked away.

"Weakness," the Scientist rumbled and broke off the process. Michael could sense the change in the feeling of the nearby neural presences, and slowly turned his head back to face the Wraith. "I think not."

"When your existence depends on a single food source, that is so… vulnerable, so… open to disease and manipulation," Michael fixed the Scientist with as steady a gaze as he could, "How can you not consider it weakness? You are no fool – you must have seen the truth… as a commander you cannot… fail to have seen."

**

Keller paused, and pulled away from staring at the computer screen, to look into the microscope, where she had extrapolated a sample of the amino acid chain that Todd's original data had suggested as the key to the curing or immunising against the effects of infection with the Hoffan Protein. After several moments she pulled away from the microscope to close her eyes and squeeze the bridge of her nose. She had been staring back and forth between the sample and the computer model for the better part of the afternoon and long into the night, mapping each aspect of the genome.

The scuff of a footfall made her open her eyes and look in the direction of the sound. She was surprised to see Zelenka, his hair a dishevelled shock on top of his head, somehow drawing attention to the worried, slightly startled expression on his face.

"Doctor Zelenka," she greeted him, regarding him with a concerned frown, "Is something wrong?"

"Doctor Keller, you're wanted in the Control Room, immediately," he answered her.

She started to get up quickly, meaning to reach for a med kit and follow him, assuming that someone was hurt. "What is it? What happened?" she asked.

"Oh, no, no, no," Zelenka stuttered, "it is nothing like that. There is… a message for you."

"For me?" Keller frowned, confused at the sudden feeling of butterflies she got in her belly. "A message?"

"Well,, a subspace video transmission actually but—"

"Why didn't you radio me," she reached up to her ear. It was second nature now to check for the presence of the radio headset. It remained in place just as it should.

"I didn't think you'd want this broadcast on an open channel," Zelenka told her, somewhat archly. "Wouldn't want to draw attention to it. Please, we're keeping him waiting."

"Him?" she asked, the flittering of winged creatures inside her becoming the beginnings of a huge knot.

"Please, Doctor Keller," Zelenka said, the worry on his face increasing as he looked around, suddenly, as if he expected the room to suddenly fill with something dangerous; that what he was saying was some great secret. "You'll see when we get there,"

Still frowning, and fighting back the feeling she was getting, Keller grabbed the tablet on which she had downloaded some of the data from her findings that she had meant to take with her to her quarters when she had stopped for the night, and followed him from the lab. It wasn't much, a single chromosome that appeared degraded in the sample of amino acids that she had synthesised, and in the appended information of the image that Todd had sent her. The next step of course was two-fold: to analyse that particular chromosome in a sample taken from someone who was infected with the Hoffan drug, and that of the corresponding amino acid chain of the Wraith.

She sighed. She had no idea how she might obtain that piece of information – at least not until she set eyes on the screen in the surprisingly empty Control Room.

"We… sent everyone away," Banks told her, and she realised she must have looked terribly confused.

Keller peered at the image of the Wraith, Todd, that dominated the screen – dominated the Control Room with its electronic presence.

"Can he see us?" Keller asked, the knot of butterflies making a triumphant return to her belly, bringing nausea with them as a gift.

Banks shook her head. "We froze the transmission until you got here, but he was insistent on seeing you right away. Said it was a matter of the 'gravest importance.'

Keller snorted a little, both in defiance of the news, and of the squirrelly feeling inside of her.

"Doctor?" Banks asked.

"I don't suppose there's any way—"

"He said he would wait," Zelenka told her. "And we are having a hard enough time keeping the room clear as it is."

Taking a deep breath, Keller nodded and drew herself up as tall as she could in front of the screen.

"All right," she said. "Put him on."

"Ah, Doctor Keller," he said almost as soon as the image, once frozen on the screen, came to life. "I trust your people impressed upon you the urgency with which I wish to speak with you. I would not have otherwise interrupted your work."

Todd nodded toward the tablet she held in her hand, and almost defensively, Keller raised the screen of it to rest against her chest.

"I'm listening," she said, trying not to allow her emotions to show in her voice.

"It recently came to my attention that certain RNA sequences among some of those infected with the Hoffan protein, when exposed to open nucleotides, begin to reassert themselves in apparently random places in the DNA of the victims."

He spoke softly, earnestly, fixing her with a serious and concerned expression, and she leaned toward the screen a little to catch his words. As she listened, a frown started to deepen on her face.

"That's not possible," she told him, and she pulled the tablet away from her chest to look down at a specific set of results. At once she saw what he was talking about. A cluster of the Hoffan protein's RNA appeared to be annealed with the primary DNA, and the spacing of the RNA did appear to be random.

She looked up at Todd, and saw that he was patiently waiting for her to review her data. As she met his eyes, the butterflies began again, only this time, she thought they must have been wearing hobnail boots. What if this discovery were somehow pivotal? What if they really could solve this?

"Doctor?" he prompted after a while.

"I'll agree with you that the adhesion seems as though it has no pattern, there have to be specific conditions under which the RNA will splice itself into the nucleotides of the host during self replication," she argued. "What we need to do is examine the nods and figure out what those conditions are. Doing that—"

"I knew I was correct in bringing this to your attention. I believe that if anyone could help to unravel the truth in this, it would be you. You have, after all, done so much already."

Keller shivered a little, and tried to focus her attention on the tablet as she said, "Empty praise. I've done very little, and mostly been unsuccessful at that."

"Not so, Doctor Keller," Todd purred. "Your reputation precedes you. Your… humanitarian efforts on the Jetarin home world for example; they speak very highly of you and it is not without notice."

Keller couldn't help blushing, very flattered that a scientist of his calibre would say so. She couldn't let it blind her to anything she might miss in the data she already had, but… looking at it a second time she knew they might be approaching something that might actually be viable as a counter agent to the Hoffan protein. She couldn't help but wonder how much more effective they might have been if they pooled resources – worked together.

"What I need is—"

"Yes?"

The tone in his voice made her look up at him again, to be captured by his golden eyes that seemed to see right through her.

"It's nothing," she decided in a moment that she was insane – to even consider the notion of working together… even talking together was the most dangerously foolish thing she could think of…

"No, please, Doctor Keller," Todd's voice was quiet, filled with just the edge of enquiry. "If there is something you need – something that I can… provide – you have only to ask for it, and I—"

"To really compare; to understand the annealement completely it occurs to me that I need a sample of DNA from a Wraith with exposure to the Hoffan protein, but—"

"Very well," he told her, nodding his head, "I will see what I can do."

"But you can't do that!" she told him, her voice nervously indignant. "The Wraith will die, he—"

"Compassion?"

"Basic Human rights," she said, not forgetting to whom she was speaking but having no other way to express it.

"Hardly, Doctor Keller. We are Wraith."

"Common decency then," she amended.

"It is hardly an assault to common decency should I use the body and blood of one of my own kind that has already fallen to… carelessness in his attention to discovery," Todd said. "In fact, not to do so and to let such a death go to waste when it could further the advancement of a cure…?"

"You have a point," Keller admitted, though she was still uncomfortable with the idea. "But still, I'm not…entirely comfortable with the idea."

"I understand," he told her, bowing his head just slightly. "Perhaps… I have a proposal then."

"Go on," she said, before she could change her mind.

"An exchange of data. If we cannot yet work together, then perhaps we can… support each other's investigations by… ratifying the research, augmenting it with our own and allowing it to advance our own theories in return."

Keller thought about that for a moment, and in all honesty did not take all that long to decide. She realised, blushing against that it was this she had hoped for since the beginning of the video conference, and then nodded, handing her tablet to Radek.

"Send him the data that's on this tablet," she instructed. "And prepare a—"

"Non-networked, firewalled computer," Zelenka finished for her, "Yes, I know the procedure."

She nodded her apology to Zelenka and then turned her attention back to Todd, who gave another little bow of his head, and then quite obviously keyed a computer terminal in front of him.

"I trust my further data will be of as much use to you as will yours in my research," Todd said, his voice almost a hum across the video transmission. "In the meantime, I will see what I can do about securing you that sample."

"I have the file," Zelenka told them both.

"As do I," Todd purred, and then added, "Rest well, Doctor Keller."

**

Todd wasted no time in analysing the data that the Human doctor had sent to him, hurrying from the little used communications terminal he had commandeered and encrypted for his own personal use, back to his laboratory so that he could compare their findings.

He scrolled through the data at an unnatural speed, his golden eyes flashing across the lines of Wraith text that appeared to drip down over the screen, a fall of disturbing information. His mind, already racing over the many possibilities, beginning to wonder how he might secure the Wraith sample that Keller had said she required without further exposing his Alicia to the trauma of feeding.

The flaring of activity toward the proto-neural centres deep within him pushed an almost involuntary burst along the synaptic pathways of his brain, evoking an almost immediate response to reach out with his mind. Growling, he pushed it aside, and regained control.

Damn the Queen for holding to such a futile desire. She should just take her mate and be done with it – the Hive Commander was more than ready to comply, and if not that one, then certainly the Hive Second would obey. He did not need this distraction. He had work to attend to. Work that would prove to be the salvation of his people from this insidious, creeping death that The Abomination would thrust upon them, and the key – he was certain – lay within the discoveries he had made in the blood of the 'Lantean Captain with whom his life had become… dangerously intertwined.

Hot on the heels of such thoughts, Todd retrieved the analysis files of the blood samples he had taken from Vega during his treatment of her infection, and just following her cure, beginning to make a detailed comparison with the numerous samples that Keller had sent as part of her research. Time and again, he saw the same apparently random pattern of the placement of the virus chromosomes within the human host. He had to admit that Keller was right. DNA by its very nature was not random, but programmed to respond in a specific way. Therefore they must, as a matter of urgency, examine the points at which the Hoffan protein annealed with the Human proteins and amino acids at a more detailed, microcellular level. He had already begun to do so with Vega's DNA – though for different reasons than in respect of the Hoffan Protein….

A thought occurred to him. He had no notion of whence it came, or why in that moment he should begin to wonder on it, but it was a thought that profoundly disturbed him.

… yet he had not been able to find the time to make the genetic comparisons that he had wanted to, with that of Wraith DNA.

Weary, after hours of staring at scrolling data and mapped genomes he was about to close down the computers and retreat to the relative peace of his personal quarters when something struck him – hard – the sight of two almost identical genome maps, one from a survivor of the Hoffan plague and one from an unfortunate victim. He saw in the one the self-same indicator of an existing active radical as he had seen in Vega's DNA, one that was disturbingly familiar to him, and he was convinced now, more than ever, that it not only had something to do with the solution to the Hoffan situation, but also to something vastly more important to the survival of the Wraith.

"Well now, Doctor Keller… I wonder…" he purred into the otherwise silent laboratory, and shrugging off his coat to toss it carelessly to the cot at the side of the room, began to take a blood sample of his own.

**

Sheppard leaned against the conference table and squeezed the bridge of his nose. The headache that had begun a while ago was returning with a vengeance, and all of the argument too and fro was not helping in the slightest.

"For crying out loud, Jennifer," he snapped, "I just don't see your problem. It's Todd, and as far as I can see he's been pretty straight with us from the get-go."

He pulled his pale and shaking hand away from his face, thrusting it under the conference table before Woolsey and Varnerin could give him any more pointed looks and make any further comments about his fitness for duty.

"It isn't that," Keller said, looking still more uncomfortable.

"Then please, explain it to me," Sheppard breathed out a heavy sigh and sat back in his seat, looking in annoyance at Keller. "Because from where I sit, we've worked with him before on several occasions and with very few exceptions, the science parts have been just fine. He's offering to share research, resources, he's already shared data which you yourself have said is pretty darned useful – and it's not as if you'd be going by yourself!"

"I take it from your argument, Colonel," Woolsey said lightly, "that you believe our best interests would be served by agreeing to his request and sending personnel aboard Todd's Hive to conduct this research?"

"What gave you that impression, Sherlock?" Sheppard answered sarcastically.

"No," Ronon rumbled, drawing all eyes, including Sheppard's, his way.

"What do you mean, no?" Sheppard said.

"I mean – no! We shouldn't go. We have the research, Jennifer can do this by herself, we don't need Todd, we don't need any damn Wraith," Ronon said, once again making his position pretty clear.

"Ronon…" Sheppard started, but McKay interrupted.

"I hate to say it, Sheppard, but I'm with the big guy on this one," McKay said. "At least… kinda. Bring him to Atlantis if you must, if we have to work with him, but… going to his Hive?"

"It seems to me, gentlemen," Varnerin said, "that the decision we are trying to make here is further complicated by the fact that it is, in actuality, two questions. Firstly, do we need to accept the Wraith Scientist's – this Todd's involvement in the research, and then secondly, if that is the case, should we do so on his territory, as it were."

Ronon folded his arms. "Well I say the answer's no – to both questions."

"Doctor Keller?" Varnerin prompted.

Sheppard watched as Keller took a deep breath. He watched the different emotions flashing over her face and tried to understand them. The fear he got – that he could understand, and perhaps the disappointment too, but there were several other things he saw that he could not reconcile, especially in the face of the first: a certain curiosity and admiration, but then again, the Wraith was a brilliant scientist. They'd seen that in his work with McKay.

"In respect of the Hoffan virus," Keller started slowly, "I'm not saying I couldn't ever solve the problem, especially not with the information I have now, and the knowledge of where to possibly start looking, but could I do so quickly? No. If we worked with Todd on this the potential for saving lives is… huge. I can't deny that."

"But?" Woolsey asked.

"But," Keller sighed, "I'm just not comfortable putting myself in a situation where I'd be cut off from help, from our own people as I would be aboard a Wraith Hive."

"You wouldn't be cut off," Sheppard said with controlled patience, "You know the deal, McKay'd be with you, I'd be with you, and—"

"Due respect, Colonel," Keller said, "You're hardly in a position to single handed fight off the entire population of a Wraith Hive ship if Todd changes his mind and decides he didn't want us there any more."

"But he wouldn't!" Sheppard couldn't stand it any more. He got up from his seat and began pacing the conference room. "Todd might be a self serving son-of-a-bitch, he might be a lot of things, but he does have a strong sense of honour."

"Honour?" Ronon got to his feet too, "You call bringing an entire Wraith fleet to what was supposed to be a private meeting just to flush out Michael honourable?"

"That wasn't Todd – that was the… Queen he'd gotten himself involved with." Sheppard pointed out. "And need I remind you who it was called her off?"

"And what if this Queen decides to put in another appearance?" Ronon asked, raising his voice, "Decides she doesn't like one of her own… playing with his food!"

"Hardly playing, besi—" Sheppard tried to say more, but Keller spoke again.

"There's nothing to suggest that this Queen of his knows anything about this, but that's beside the point," she said. "The point is that, no matter how useful his help would be on the research and in helping to reverse the effects of the retrovirus on Sheppard and Lorne, aboard his ship, we'd be vulnerable, and I'm not comfortable with that."

Woolsey shrugged and said, "Then we bring him to Atlantis."

Sheppard swung round to face Woolsey. "He's already said that's a no go. He won't come here again, not after the way we treated him the last time he was here."

"I thought he was treated with great courtesy," Woolsey countered.

"As a prisoner, maybe," Sheppard said sarcastically, "but as he rightly pointed out, that's not at all the nature of this agreement."

"So basically it's his way or the highway!" McKay snapped. "That just proves he's up to something."

"It proves he's pissed at being put in chains when all he's trying to do is help!" Sheppard all but shouted and ran his fingers through his hair, not sure why he was getting so worked up, especially as a large part of him agreed with what McKay was saying.

"He's trying to feather his own nest is wha—!" Ronon started. He also raised his voice and turning angrily toward Sheppard as the discussion all but descended into a brawl.

"Gentlemen!"

Varnerin's crow call cut the room to silent glowering between the three men and the all but cowering doctor.

"I rather think fighting between ourselves is more than a little counter-productive when the final decision must, in fact, lie with Doctor Keller. She is the one that must work most closely with the Wraith after all," the psychologist said.

Sheppard turned slowly to face Keller, who was at that moment looking down at her hands.

"I just don't feel comfortable with it, John," she said apologetically. "I'm sorry."

**

As he turned to pick up a new slide from the case on the other side of the bench, Todd noticed the light blinking on his tablet that indicated he had an incoming transmission from his Hive awaiting his attention.

Securing the research for the moment, and moving to lock the door to his laboratory, he moved to the computer to access the encrypted communications array, carefully opening a channel to access the incoming subspace transmission. Before too long, the serious, somewhat exasperated expression on his Hive Second's face became visible to him.

"Yes?" he snapped.

"The Young Queen and her Guardian, Commander," his Second told him the reason for the call, and Todd could guess what the rest of the message would be about. Still he decided he would ask.

"What about them?" he said.

"They have been taken aboard the Hive and are now installed in their quarters."

"And?" Todd growled. His second was a loyal and trusted member of his crew with a sharp mind and excellent tactical skills, however, he did have the annoying habit of relaying only part of the required information at any one time, and without extensive questioning one was unlikely to come to the point of his communication. He did not have the time.

"She has been… asking for you, Commander," his Second said at last.

"I see," he rumbled, sighing softly. No doubt that was her guardian's influence, though at least it was something that the miserable Wraith sub-commander was attempting to guide her in the appropriate protocol aboard a Hive. "And what did you tell her?"

"As you instructed, Commander," his Second answered with a slight frown, "that you were away on important Hive business and would return in due course."

"Then why have you bothered me with this?" Todd demanded, becoming more irritated at the disturbance to his work, and his Second's continued obstinacy. For what imagined ill was his trusted underling attempting to rebuke him?

"She… is displaying signs," his Second said, "and the crew—"

"Already?" Todd frowned. He had not anticipated it would be so soon. In fact, it was a distinct inconvenience that it was.

"Yes, Commander. I believe it would be prudent for you to schedule your return to the Hive with all due expedition."

"Indeed," Todd growled, and could not help but chuckle at the uncomfortable expression on his Second's face. "Do what you can to forestall her enquiries. I will be with you when I can."

He cut the transmission before his Second could argue with him and attempt to remind him of the duties of a Hive Commander in such a situation. Todd had other priorities. However, if he were to ensure his control over the young queen he would, as his Second had suggested, have to return to his Hive - and soon.

Looking back at his research, he growled in annoyance, now was not the time to have to abandon his lines of investigation.

**

Keller rolled her head first one way, and then the other. She knew she should have been in bed hours ago. Her body was telling her so in no uncertain terms, but the information, the research was compelling. Trying to analyse and examine in the minutest detail the amino acid chains and chromosomes of both survivors and victims, and the virus itself, trying to find a commonality, trying to find the cause of the apparent random scattering of the nucleotides.

Finally her curiosity came to be too great and she opened up many of the other files that Todd had sent to her when he contacted her privately and began comparing his work with her own. Some of the leaps he had made in his theoretical research were astounding, as if his mind were thinking in four dimensions – which she supposed, for such a long lived species as the Wraith, was not beyond the realms of possibility. Humans tended to think along linear strands, and only one at a time. Todd's research suggested an agile mind that reached for possibilities in an almost spiralling pattern, and as a consequence his data encompassed much that she could have overlooked or simply dismissed as irrelevant when it clearly wasn't.

Her stomach constricted again as the thoughts finally fell into place within her, and key among them, as much as she hated it, as much as she was terrified of what could happen if anything went wrong, she knew that she needed him. That if there were to be any quick solution to the problem, and any chance at all of curing Sheppard and Lorne, then his scientific prowess could very well be the difference between success and failure.

Before she could change her mind, she reached up to her ear to key her mic.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Doctor Keller, respond please," she said tremulously.

"Go ahead, Jennifer," Sheppard came back, sounding as though he were in pain.

"Just tell me that you and Rodney are going to take care of me up there," she asked softly.

"It's Todd. You'll be fine," he told her.

"Promise me," she said again, shaking her head, though she knew he wouldn't see that.

"You have my word," he said.

"Then we have a go," she said, swallowing hard. "Contact Todd and tell him we'll be joining him aboard his Hive."

**

"Leave us."

Todd did not wait for the worshipper to withdraw before approaching The Abomination. He was supremely confident that she would not disobey. So much so that he picked up the syringe containing the serum almost before she was out of reach.

"So, Scientist," The Abomination spat, turning his narrowed golden eyes Todd's way, "you have come to torment me still further. Inject me with your retrovirus to see how much closer to Wraith you can drag my DNA."

"Mmm, perhaps not," Todd said lightly, setting down the syringe again onto the silver instrument tray within The Abomination's line of sight.

"But that is what your Queen expects," The Abomination said, forcing the words from his lips in as sarcastic a tone as Todd had ever heard. "How would you dare to disobey?"

"You were hers – she was your Queen before ever she was mine," Todd answered.

"I was never hers," The Abomination hissed, "nor will ever be."

With deadly speed and accuracy, Todd unsheathed the blade at his back, turned it in his hand and plunged it home, clean through The Abomination's shoulder to embed itself, sparking slightly with bio-energy, into the treatment bed on which the prisoner lay.

The Abomination cried out in renewed agony, gripping the sides of the bed with his one good hand and forcing the other to stillness. Todd pulled on the blade enough to be able to twist it, drawing another dreadful cry from The Abomination.

"I should kill you for such blasphemy!" Todd snarled.

The edge of the cry turned to a strange, rasping laughter, tainted with the breath of madness that threatened all who had suffered such continued torture as this one had so far withstood.

"If you believed that," he accused as his laughter faded to harsh breaths, "I would already be long dead."

Todd could not deny the truth of the words, but would not confess. Rather he turned to the reason for his visit to the laboratory.

"I am curious," he said. He did not want to ask too much, in case this sharp minded scientist, provided of course the torture had not truly destroyed what was left of his intelligence, made the connections and worked out that there was more to his investigations than simply to find a cure to the problem of Wraith feeding on Humans infected with the Hoffan protein. With a well worded question, however, it might lead the way forward and allow him to finally begin to understand what he was seeing in the several samples he was mapping. "Your hybrids – their creation – what DNA did you splice upon the retrovirus? Some Wraith? Your own? What?"

The Abomination looked on him, contempt clear in his eyes. "What makes you think," he said, his voice dripping with the liquid essence of that expression, "that I used anything so crude as a splice?"

**

Oh, it had begun with the intention to use a genetic splice, though Michael would no more confess that than he would confess using his own DNA to provide the hybridising cell. However, he had very quickly found the mutative strand within the iratus queen's DNA that had subsumed the single stranded retrovirus, and merged it with both its own, and the donor strand of DNA he had taken from himself. After that it had just been a matter of controlling the mutation, and control it he had. It had not been easy, and several of those to whom he gave the treatment had suffered such severe abreaction to the process, that there had been nothing he could do to prevent their deaths, which had been grossly inconvenient, as it seemed to be those in whom the reaction to infection with the Hoffan protein had been most dangerous and which had taken a good deal of his resources to treat. Further along in the process, he had begun to allow the Hoffan protein to be a 'litmus test' as to an individual's candidacy for hybridisation. He did not have the resources, or the time to waste on those who would not be useful to his cause.

"Something more complex then," the Scientist leaned closer. "Interesting… and the DNA?"

Michael closed his eyes. He had no intention of telling this one anything, especially as he believed that the Scientist already knew the answer.

He braced himself for another stab of physical agony from whatever instrument of torture this scientist – Queen's pawn – would decide to try and use to loosen his tongue. After several minutes, nothing came but the soft tones of the other's voice.

"Tell me something… Michael…"

He could not have prepared himself for the wash of emotional pain that came with hearing that name on this one's lips. He felt the shock of it bubbling inside of him, tight against his chest as though trying to escape...

"…all those centuries ago… when you took the Humans of this galaxy to experiment on… Did you use your own DNA then as well?"

The bubbling inside of him pushed and pushed until it became a gurgling chuckle that he could no longer hold inside. It pushed aside even the pain of the knife twisting in his shoulder as the other, irritated by his apparent mirth, sought to punish him for it.

"When you began the line of manipulations that resulted in your little… natural hybrid playing…" The Scientist purred, "…your… Teyla…"

Anger joined the pain, intensified triple fold by the mention of her name, and still chuckling, and though restrained, he sought to lash out. He would kill this poor excuse for Wraith.

"It matters not," The Scientist turned and indifference streaming off him in waves, he began to walk toward the door once more. As The Scientist reached the far terminal he pressed a button, in passing, and the restraints on the bio-genetic bed sprang open, leaving Michael pinned only by the knife through his shoulder. He reached for it at once, to try and pull it free; free himself and plunge it deep into the other's back.

His hand closed around the hilt and he pulled with all of his remaining strength, feeling the barbs of it beginning to tear through his flesh and sinews… the pain still nothing against the agony of the bubbling, insane laughter that possessed him.

The Scientist paused by the door, though he did not look back. He merely spoke softly one more time, damning Michael with his words.

"…idle curiosity… for the lost."

The laughter broke, tightened around him stealing his breath, contracting, becoming less as the pain became greater, until his breath was coming in short, hiccupping bursts; all his strength flown, he curled onto his side, the knife in his shoulder forgotten, save for the added pain with each wracking sob that shook his body as he burned with her loss.

**

He headed toward the private quarters adjacent to his laboratory, weary, though deep in thought, burying himself in every unsolved strand of the Hoffan protein situation – anything to fight the rising answer to the call of instinct within him as the Queen rapidly approached her zenith.

The entire Hive could feel it and all were tense, edgy – the fertile commanders and their subs virtually at each others' throats, and the unfortunate worshippers, on whom they sought to relieve themselves, barely surviving the onslaught of the aftermath of the vicious passions of Wraith.

At that time the Hive was a dangerous place to be.

"And soon I must leave," he purred aloud to none but himself and the lonely corridor. He had little choice. He knew he would force no answers from The Abomination as to the truth of the outer planet to which the coordinates he had given him led. If he were to discover anything of why that place was so important to The Abomination and his work, then he would have to travel there, and while he was certain that the Queen would happily divert her Hive to do so, should he explain his reasons for wishing to go, he would prefer to make the discovery himself .

Besides which, now that his second had informed him that the young queen was adequately installed in her place aboard his own Hive, he must, of necessity, attend to such matters as concerned that one… that one and his own… relationship to her.

Todd sighed, at least with her being so young he had the possibility to mould her as he saw fit, and not to cast himself in the subservient male role that instinct – which he despised – dictated for those of his kind. If he must play Commander to any Queen, he would have it be one of his own design, and this one would do as well as any.

And that left but one consideration. Alicia Vega.

To request the company of a concubine on a mission such as he would present the reason for his absence was not unheard of, however, with the Hive Commander reacting to the Queen's approaching zenith and his suspicions already roused it would draw further attention to them, something that Todd did not wish to do.

In spite of this, he was loathe to leave her by herself aboard a Hive as volatile as this, and doubted she would even survive being placed with the Worshippers temporarily during his absence. The Hive Commander had already once decided to try and assert his authority over what he obviously saw as the errant Human, as well as to use her to make a covert attack against him. He growled softly as he reached the door to the laboratory and started inside. That he could not allow.

"Todd," Vega turned to face him as soon as he stepped through the door, the worry etched clearly on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?" he frowned in confusion, "Did the message say there was anything wrong?"

"No, I—" she stopped and looked at him as he approached her. She held her ground, almost leaning in to the touch of his hand as he brushed the back of his fingers delicately down the side of her face.

"Ah, my little Alicia," he purred. "You think that simply because I send for you there is something wrong?"

"Then what is it?" she said, her voice squeaking a little at the beginning of her question.

"A small matter," he said casually, turning to gesture toward the workbench. "I wanted to compare a new blood sample with the one I took from you just after your cure."

It wasn't quite the truth, but neither was it entirely a lie. He walked toward the bench and began to prepare a small needle and vial, certain she would agree.

"So there is something wrong?" she asked suddenly fearful and coming to his side.

"No, no…" he soothed, drawing her to sit on the nearby stool, and for a moment running his hand over her hair. "I just wish to see how the annealment has settled in your blood. As I said, it is but a small matter."

"All right," she said, and he could feel her eyes on him as he carefully drew the blood from her to place into stasis along with the other.

**

She could not take her eyes off his fingers as he worked to take her blood. The precise way he held the syringe, the careful, measured motion. She supposed it came from his prowess as a scientist, but, even so…

With the other she crested his shoulder, slowly sliding the softness of her soapy skin over his chest as far as she could reach, drawing from him another rumbling growl, until he trapped her hand beneath his, against the hammering of his heart. Todd turned his head beneath the press of her own and raised her wrist to meet the light nip of his teeth against the softness of her flesh.

She gasped and then moaned as he repeated the gesture. She found herself almost falling into only the awareness of the heat of it, the slight sharpness that burned the length of her, and in sudden fear of where it might lead, she pulled away.

"What is it that you need me to do?" she whispered, hiding behind the practicality of their situation, but he was not to be distracted. He let go of her hand and reached up to run his fingers into her hair, drawing her down to meet his waiting kiss.

He possessed her entirely with the intensity of it. His lips parted hers and the warm taste of him exploded inside of her as his tongue quested against hers, seeking to know her, to map the delicacies of her mouth, his teeth a counterpoint of sharpness against her lips, leaving them sensitive and tingling as he pulled away, leaving her aching for him, and trembling with the uncertainty of her desire.

…she felt him still, almost suddenly, and realised that she had pulled against the touch of his hand on her wrist that steadied her arm while he took the sample, and looking up she found him watching her, almost intently.

"Did I cause you discomfort?" he asked softly, as he withdrew the needle, and gave her a small square of a gauzelike cloth to hold against the wound for a moment.

"No, I… I was," she couldn't help but blush, before she finished, "thinking."

**

The Hive Second rarely paced, in fact he had to be highly agitated to do more than merely shift from one of his feet to the other, and yet the Hive reeked of Zenith; of a queen who sought to artificially delay the inevitable necessity that this one was approaching, and he, in turn, felt the primal answering of it in his blood.

He burned.

The Commander should have acted by now, against her orders if necessary. Her condition was dangerous – for the Hive, for its commanders, for—

A light footfall caught his notice, but it was not that which caught his attention and brought him to a halt. One among the worshippers was the cause. Her difference was as clear to him as if she wore a sign, but… it was not possible – to find one such out here – and he was profoundly confused. Confused and concerned, as the implications of it began to run through his mind like lines of Wraith text over a screen.

She was the Queen's handmaiden and The Scientist's concubine, though the latter in name and appearances only, he knew – for while they may have tricked the Queen, distracted as she was by her own machinations, it had been obvious to him at once that no such connection existed between them. He had wondered at the time why The Scientist had committed such a blatantly disloyal act against the Queen. Now it all made a perfect, if somewhat surprising sense.

Like the Wraith of the Hive, she too was being affected by the Queen's condition. He could sense it, feel it, smell it on her like a beacon. It did not help in his desire to pace, though he held his place, his eyes fixed like brands on the figure of the petite Human woman.

As she ventured closer to the Queen's chamber, the other handmaiden, one of the Purebred, exited and reached out a hand to halt the girl. There was little kindness on her face, and the Hive Second frowned, recognising the Hive Commander's encouragement in her mocking tones as she spoke.

"Our Queen desires your company," the worshipper said. "Be sure you attend her well – while you can."

On the last three words, the Hive Second turned, and hurried away, if there was one thing clear in his mind it was that he could not allow the Hive Commander to make a mistake he might later regret. When the time came, it would be the Hive Second that would reward such an action.

**

"This is the second time I return to my private laboratory and find you here, rifling among my things," Todd growled in irritation at the Hive Commander's back.

The Hive Commander did not turn, he merely picked up yet another sample and rumbled, "And why should I not? This is my Hive after all."

"That does not give you license to interfere among areas clearly under the auspices of science!" Todd raised his voice, stepping fully into the laboratory. His blood was boiling, particularly as he saw the Hive Commander had called up his research data concerning Vega.

At his raised voice the Hive Commander turned, murder clearly written in his narrowed yellow eyes.

"What I choose to investigate aboard this Hive is my prerogative entirely!" he roared, and as he did, tossed a tablet at Todd's feet, a blinking light in the bottom corner of the tablet clearly visible.

"I've told you before," Todd kicked the tablet aside rather than retrieve it. He knew what the Hive Commander was insinuating. "As a Hive Commander in my own right it is essential I maintain contact with my own Hive!"

"On an encrypted channel?" the other accused.

"To prevent interception by rival Hives," Todd explained, speaking as though to a child. "Your paranoia speaks of insecurity, Hive Commander."

"I have held this Hive for Millennia," the Hive Commander snarled, "and I will continue to do so long after you are gone from it!"

"We'll see which of us—" Todd did not get further with his sentence before the Hive Commander came at him, throwing the sample he was holding ahead of him, to bounce harmlessly off Todd's shoulder.

Less harmless was the blade in his off hand that was leading his attack just in front of the Hive Commander's feeding hand. It was a well practised gambit among Wraith, and Todd was not distracted by it in the slightest. Far too many lesser Wraith, and almost always Human victims, fell to its dual threat. They reacted to the knife and ignored the danger of being fed upon.

Not so Todd.

Ignoring the knife, he delivered a crushing blow to the wrist of the outstretched feeding hand. The Commander responded by turning the knife to lash out at the attacking fist, slicing across Todd's own hand, bouncing off the finger guard to slip in his grasp.

Todd spun in toward the Commander then, driving home a punch that sent him reeling away, moving to be ready for the counter attack. It never came.

"Commander," The Hive Second's soft voice spread like a balm over the tense atmosphere of the laboratory. "We are approaching the last known position of one of our subordinate Hives."

"And?" The Hive Commander snapped.

"And under the circumstance I believe that you would wish to see the bridge telemetry," the Hive Second purred.

Todd watched as the Hive Commander straightened again to his full height and sheathed the knife as though nothing that had come before meant anything to him. The Hive Commander began to stride toward the door, without a further word to his second, and past him, to return to the bridge. As he did the Hive Second bowed to his commander, but on rising, met Todd's eyes.

Todd felt examined, scrutinised, and frowned suspiciously.

The Hive Second inclined his head in an almost respectful way, and said softly, "I will send your concubine to see to your injury."

Todd glanced at his hand, dripping blood to the laboratory floor. It was not deep, however painful it was and would heal quickly. It was nothing.

"Thank you for your consideration," he said, "but it is unnecessary."

"You must be tended," the Hive Second insisted quietly, and turning, left the doorway.

**

Sheppard wasn't about to admit to anyone that he didn't like it. Todd had been insistent. They would Gate to the world where the rendezvous would take place, and they would travel to the Hive by Wraith transport ship. He would have been happier with a Jumper or two up his sleeve.

McKay paced. The scientist was clearly agitated and every few steps checked his pockets for the many different pieces of computer equipment he had hidden about his person.

"Relax, McKay, it'll be… f-ine."

The last of his words came out as more of a grunt as another wash of pain flashed through him.

"John?" Keller asked softly, laying a hand on his arm.

He could only shake his head and breathe deeply for several moments until the pain subsided.

"I'm fine," he said at least, though he could feel the beads of sweat cooling against his brow.

"Sheppard," McKay said in warning as the low droning sounds of the Wraith transport ship because audible and before much longer came into view.

"I guess this is it," Jennifer said softly as the ship set down.

"If you're having second thoughts, we can always—" McKay started.

"No we can't," Sheppard said. "Eleventh hour changes of heart are the kinds of things that make Todd nervous. If he gets nervous things could get a little hairy so… let's just… stick with the plan."

Both Keller and McKay moved closer to him as the transport ship opened and several drones stepped out. Sheppard drew himself up taller, ready to meet Todd without a hint of weakness. However, it was not Todd that stepped from the ship, but his second in command – Kenny.

"Wait a minute," Sheppard rumbled as the Wraith came to a halt in front of them. "Where is he? Where's Todd?"

"If you are referring to my commander," Kenny answered, "he will meet us shortly aboard the Hive."

Sheppard frowned, unable to express, even to himself the concern this latest turn of events wrought within him.

"He was supposed to be here to meet us," Sheppard said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"And was unavoidably delayed," Kenny answered. "As I said, he will meet us shortly aboard the Hive."

Kenny turned then to give a small, but quite respectful bow to Doctor Keller. "He sends his apologies, Doctor Keller, but the matter was of the upmost importance. Perhaps we can help you with your equipment."

Before Keller could answer, at Kenny's gesture, the drones began to move forward to pick up the silver cases that stood on the ground at Keller's side.

"Just hold on—" Sheppard started to protest, but Kenny had already started to move toward the transport ship, and clearly expected them to follow him. He started to move, meaning to protest, when another wave of pain made him double over.

"It's all right, John," Keller's hand settled softly against his back. "We need to do this."

**

Vega had to grip the back of the Queen's throne to stop her hand from trembling. She felt edgy, as if she'd had too much caffeine. She could not help but take a deep breath before reaching out to continue braiding the Queen's long, bone white hair.

"You… had a disagreement," the Queen as much stated as asked.

"My Queen?" Vega asked, sounding as genuine as she could, as loyal and obedient, as Todd had stressed she must be during his absence…

"Listen to me, my little Alicia," his voice rumbled through her, through the contact of where he held her in his arms, her back to his chest. "What I am to tell you, you will not like, but it is important that you do as I tell you."

"Todd?" she tried to turn, to see him, but his arms around her prevented it. Instead he leaned his head closer beside hers, nipping lightly at the side of her neck, behind her ear.

Alicia gasped softly as a spiral of feeling began to uncoil inside of her. Her breathing quickened and it was as though everything she had been feeling gathered to be a whirling dance in her belly.

"Until I return," he said as he pulled away a little, "you must stay close to the Queen. Do not leave her side."

The gathered feeling became a sudden panicked lurch and she stiffened.

"You're going away?" she said fearfully.

"I must," he explained. "There are matters I must attend to on my own Hive. Stay close to the Queen, and if there is trouble, seek out the Hive Second."

"The Secon-- Are you mad? I—" She felt sick, the thought of being on the Hive without his being there terrified her. "Please, Todd, take me with you."

Todd breathed out, long and slow.

"My Alicia," he said at last. "Were it within my power to do such a thing, I would never have you leave my side."

"Then why?" she felt as though she were going to cry, and felt him turn her almost gently in his arms, guiding her face to tilt upward, to look at him.

"Because it cannot be," he said firmly and before she could argue, he captured her lips beneath his, nipping at their softness with his teeth as he deepened the kiss.

…"With the other of my women," the Queen answered, breaking in on her thoughts.

"It… was nothing, My Queen," Vega said softly, finishing another braid. "A simple misunderstanding, nothing more."

"See that it remains as such," the Queen instructed.

"Yes, my Queen," Vega whispered obediently as she began another braid. She would never tell, not even Todd, what the argument had been about… that Hanna had suggested that Vega was trying, somehow, to entice all Wraith, especially the commanders, to fall at her feet… of somehow showing disloyalty to Todd, in the way other Wraith behaved around her. She had done nothing, and the accusation had upset her greatly.

As suddenly as he had begun it, Todd broke the kiss, and began to move away.

"Don't… please, don't go," she said, reaching for him again.

"I must, my Alicia, because I fear if I do not now, then I will… prove my word to you untrue" he breathed deeply to control himself, "and I do not yet feel that it is what you wish.

**

"Look, I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason and we—"

"Oh, come on, Sheppard," McKay spat, spinning round to face the man. "I know you have… blinders when it comes to Todd, but this is ridiculous! We were supposed to stay together."

"According to the second in command, Rodney, there are quarters next to the laboratory… it does make a kind of sense," Sheppard said, though McKay was sure that he detected a hint of uncertainty in Sheppard's voice.

"You don't believe that any more than I do," McKay said, voicing his suspicions.

"I have to, Rodney," Sheppard answered seriously, looking at him. "But if you're that worried I'll talk to him, to Todd, get him to—"

"Is there something wrong?" the light voice from the doorway as Todd came to join them again made McKay jump. "Something you need, that we have not provided?"

"No, just—" Sheppard started, but McKay cut him off, rattling the nervous sentence out of his mouth before his brain could stop him.

"Yes! Matter of fact, there's something wrong. Something very wrong—"

"Rodney," Sheppard tried to stop him.

"—the fact that you've separated us from Jennifer for starters that—"

"Do you mean the fact of Doctor Keller's accommodations being adjacent to the laboratory, while yours are here?" Todd asked, tilting his head curiously.

"Yeah, very convenient," McKay snapped, "Very effective way of—"

"There will be times when the doctor's research will span more than the length of a single day." The Wraith frowned and said, "I merely tried to be considerate of the doctor's needs and provide her with a place where the doctor can rest in the meantime. I would have thought such a thing would have been important to you also."

McKay opened his mouth to protest, and closed it again. Seething at his own stupidity – that he had allowed himself to be manipulated by a Wraith – backed into a corner where he had to agree, or be seen as unreasonable, making a fuss.

"Well… of course her comfort is important," he said, and frowned.

"I understand your suspicions, Doctor McKay," Todd continued softly, "and in your place would share them."

"You'll have to excuse McKay, he—" Sheppard started, and McKay frowned in his direction, then flinched as Todd raised his hand, trying to compose himself a moment later when he realised that the Wraith had done so in order to interrupt Sheppard.

"No. No, Colonel Sheppard, as I said I understand his concerns and take no offense in what is, after all, and understandable reaction." Todd said, and then turned in McKay's direction to say, "However, I can assure you, Doctor McKay, I have no intention of harming Doctor Keller. I simply require her… assistance with my research."

"But… Sheppard," McKay said sharply, causing the other man to look his way, almost reaching for the weapon at his side, "What about Sheppard. If you're gonna work together to cure him then—"

"Then he will be called to the laboratory at the appropriate time. There is much preliminary work that we must do before we are ready for that eventuality." Todd growled. "In the meantime, I suggest you rest… relax… and if there is anything further that you need, feel free to request it."

**

Todd growled softly as he watched the Guardian, standing, while his young queen paced the floor of her chamber, as though he was a helpless, mindless drone, and his contempt for the other spiralled in intensity.

He took a moment and shifted his gaze to look at the young Queen as she hurried to and fro. Even in the short time she had been aboard she had matured considerably and he had no reason to doubt his second's assessment of her condition. However, he was also very aware of the lingering effects of such proximity to the Elder Queen as he had enjoyed, in whom there was no doubt as to her Approach. If this young Queen was as she appeared to be, how was it possible that her Guardian did not respond?

A ripple among the shadows at the side of the room, Todd surged, swift and silent toward the immotile Wraith. A predator, deadly in his intent, he reached out with a growl as he stepped into the light, wrapping the fingers of his left hand into the suddenly struggling Wraith's hair to pull back his head.

With a shriek, the young Queen turned to face him. Had she spoken – uttered even a word in protest – she might have mitigated her impotent Guardian Commander's actions; saved his miserable life. Instead she stepped back, raising her hands in shock toward the terrible expression she wore on her face.

Todd snarled as he closed his hand around the hilt of his blade. He had seen behaviour more befitting of a Queen in the Humans of his acquaintance, and it disgusted him that this ineffectual thing that struggled with him like some grounded fish, could allow such a thing – worse still, that he could be the cause of it. He knew then that he had much work to do, and more still to undo.

Without a hint of mercy, he pressed the sharp serrated blade against the Guardian's neck, pulling back his head still further, and drove the knife home, cutting flesh and gristly sinew, his anger barely sated by the spray of bright arterial blood that filled the air with a deep musk-and-copper scent, and fell hot against his hand, the side of his own neck and face as he became bathed in it. Not until he felt the rasp of metal against bone did he cease the relentless pulling and allow the lifeless Guardian to fall at his feet.

"You killed him!" the young Queen screeched, her yellow eyes wide with panic. "My Guardian, my Guide, you—"

Stepping over the body of the fallen Wraith, Todd grabbed the young Queen's flailing arm by the wrist, twisted her arm behind her back, and pulled her toward him. He trapped her against his chest. He grabbed her hair and pulled back her head, forcing her to look at him. She struggled with him, against his restraining grasp, but was, as yet, no match for his strength.

"You lied!" she snarled amid the struggles. "You murdered him! You said that we would have a place here, a Hive."

"And you have," Todd growled, not easing up on the way in which he held her. "But that one was weak, ineffectual. How would he Guide you to your true power as Queen; your true purpose, when he could not even recognise your immediate needs?"

He leaned down to her then, breathing in deeply, running the scent of her over his tongue, drawing her through the sensory pits and confirming, without a doubt, the changes within her.

"But I need—"

"You need for nothing!" he roared at her, glaring into her eyes and reaching with his mind to subdue her racing panicked thoughts. He felt her struggling begin to subside. "I told you – I grant you survival; belonging; a Hive. You have no need of that one, for I am here."

~I am here~ ~here~ ~here~ ~here~ ~here~

For several moments longer he held her tightly against him, allowing the time for his words to penetrate her mind, for understanding to grow within her. As she calmed, as her striving with him ceased he loosened his hold on her, let go of the handful of hair with which he controlled her head and began to draw back away from her; away from the autonomic reaction they had each begun to display, and which he had no intention of allowing. When he serviced this Queen, it would be by his design, at his behest, not hers, and definitely under his control.

She stood, regarding him as he stepped back and he saw her breath came in short, visible snatches as her own body's reaction, recognising him for what he was, gripped her tightly. Finally, cautious and slow, she reached out her feeding hand to lay her palm acquiescent against his chest.

He stood unflinching, tolerant of her touch, expecting the gesture – demanding it.

"My Commander," she said, almost softly echoing her acceptance of him.

He took another step back, and while stopping short of lowering himself to one knee before her, inclined his body into a low bow.

"Welcome to your Hive… my Queen."

**

Keller sat on the side of the low cot that graced the corner of the laboratory, her hand in her lap, staring at the Wraith drones by the door, and around at the equipment that lined the various benches around the room, to which she had added her own, more familiar gear.

Having unpacked and ensure that the samples she had transported with her had arrived intact, there had been little she could do. She had retreated to the cot, and a deep unease had settled over her. Not that any of the Wraith had done anything to cause it, save for being Wraith, but being separated from McKay and Sheppard disturbed her, wrapped that tight little spiral of doubt around her.

When Todd stepped through the door, between her Wraith guards, and stopped before coming more than two steps, Keller almost jumped to her feet and moved to a more open space.

"Doctor Keller," he greeted her, and gave a low bow. "Before another word passes between us, I feel compelled to impress upon you the sincerity of my apology concerning our previous… encounter… at the facility belonging to the one you call Michael. It was never my intention to harm you."

"You were using me as a shield!" she found she couldn't hold the anger and the flaring bite of nervousness inside, both at once, and the words exploded from her. "How the hell is that not harming me?"

She had not expected he would once again grace her with a low bow. "I accept your reprimand, Doctor, and ask forgiveness. I realise it must have been an… unsettling experience for you, but hope you understand that it was done of necessity, not with malice."

"I recognise the fact that you scared the crap out of me," she said, and her voice sounded shrill even to her own ears. "I had no idea… thought you were going to feed on me or—"

He started to move closer, and she backed away, moving until he stopped after only a step or two was taken.

"Allow me to assuage that fear," he said softly, "You have my word that while you are aboard my Hive, neither I, nor any of those answerable to me will do such a thing. You are here as my guest, and I sincerely hope that you and I can put our… earlier history… behind us in order to more effectively work together on solving these problems."

"Yeah, well I— You—" she stammered.

"Come now, Doctor Keller," he said, "my presence is not so intimidating, and once we are immersed in our work together, you will hardly notice that I am Wraith or anything other than a fellow scientist with whom you are sharing the benefit of your considerable experience."

He began to move again, coming more fully into the laboratory, and looking over the benches and equipment as though inspecting everything. In those moments he did appear somewhat less threatening, even though she turned to keep him in her sight.

"I kind of doubt that," she said as he moved, catlike and graceful, though it was a deadly kind of grace. Quickly she added, "No offense."

"None taken," he purred, drawing out the words. Then stopping beside a computer display screen he touched the control panel to activate the interface, calling up a number of records.

Keller crept a little closer as she saw the image of several turning spirals on the screen. "What's that?" she asked.

"These are some of the genome maps I should like to analyse with your help," he told her. "I regret there is a small matter I must attend to before we can begin our work together, but in the meantime, if you would like to begin examining my research data…"

He left the end of the sentence hanging, merely gestured toward the now active terminal.

"I'll… take a look," she said, inching closer still. The thought of being able to start work, to analyse what she could see, even from where she stood, would be a fascinating mapping, began to tease at the edges of her trepidation. Here was familiar ground. If only—

"In the meantime," Todd interrupted her thoughts, "if there is anything you think you may require, please tell me. I will see to it that it is provided at once. Whatever you need."

Keller glanced at the two drones by the door, and began softly, "Well… you said I was your guest, but…"

Todd turned his head to look in the direction of her gaze, and a moment later the two drones turned and left.

"They were merely assigned for your protection," he said. "As a visiting… diplomat, it would be unspeakable should anything happen to endanger you. Anything else?"

"What about…? Where are Sheppard and McKay?" she pushed, testing his willingness to comply.

"They have their own quarters closer to the other Human residents of the Hive. Why do you ask? You may visit with them whenever you wish," he answered.

"Well, aren't we going to want Sheppard up here? I mean—"

"Colonel Sheppard will join us when we have begun to find a solution, once our research together begins to yield results," he said. "Until then, I thought it would be best for him to continue resting in his quarters. Speaking of which, I trust the facilities I have provided for you are… adequate."

"Excuse me?" Keller blinked at him in confusion.

"Your quarters," he said, and frowned in confusion of his own, written as it was on his face. He turned to cross the laboratory, to press against a small panel in the wall, and a doorway opened with an organic rattle, lights illuminating in the room on the other side of the portal, to reveal what appeared a spacious and well appointed room. She came to his side, to peer into the room and visually examine the comforts that had been provided for her.

"Oh," she swallowed and looked up at him then, "I… thank you, I—"

"I told you, Doctor Keller," he purred, softening his expression into something approaching a smile. "You are my guest here. If there is something you feel you need, I will see to it that I do my best to provide it."

Keller took in a deep breath, and regarded the Wraith in front of her. Uncomfortable in the strange fluttering she felt inside at the dominant strength he displayed in his unyielding, uncompromising authority. Ordinarily it was something she hated - feared deeply - and yet, in this alien before her it began to penetrated the shield of frightened rebellion she held close against her in defence.

Finally she nodded, and placed a tentative hand onto his forearm. "Thank you," she said. "I… appreciate the efforts you've made. If you don't mind, I'd like to… freshen up before I take a look at the data."

"Of course," he said with a respectful nod, and stepped back, removing his arm from beneath her touch, so that she could access the room. "If you will excuse me?"

He did not wait for her answer. He merely gave another little bow, and then turned and left the laboratory.

**

He tilted his head as he regarded the scene below, trying to take account, to form an opinion of this prisoner they now called 'The Abomination' and to make sense of all he knew of this Hive, its commanders… this Queen and her self serving plans for the future.

"I don't understand," The young worshipper's voice was light, trembled slightly as she spoke to the creature to whom she had been given in service. "It does you no good to ignore your hunger. How will you heal?"

"Is that what you really want?" the creature answered her, and turned his head slowly towards her. She backed up a step. "For me to feed on you; take your life?"

"It is what he wants," she answered, "what has been asked of me in service of my Queen."

"Don't you get tired," the creature asked wearily, "Day in, day out… never a thought of your own…?"

The Hive Second remembered this one from before the Hive Queen had sent him away; sent him to do her bidding among the other, subordinate Hives. He had followed their daily arguments back and forth and had watched – waiting – ready to act should the moment have arisen. It never did. This one was careful, this one had always been a step ahead of her madness, and it was madness. Of the four, she was the least stable.

"My thoughts are my own," she argued. "Only I know that it is better to obey than to defy and—"

"And what?" the creature asked, "Obey them now and there is no 'and'… you will live… no more."

He saw her shake her head. "You were Wraith once. You know how it is, how it must be."

"Much has changed… since then," the creature rasped.

Did any of that justify this one's choices, this one's existence; this one's arrogance at taking on the mantle of Queens in what he so obviously had seen, since the beginning. How did he come to know?

As the question filtered across the stillness of his mind, the Hive Second could not help but feel a certain kindred with the creature that suffered below.

When the Second had realised the extent of this one's knowledge, it had been too late for him to approach The Scientist. The Hive Queen had already sent him to begin the task of bringing the other Queens to her side. If only she had seen how futile an endeavour it would be… as his Matron had seen….

The summons had been quick and sharp in his mind, and he had immediately turned from the preparations he was overseeing, passing the control-rod into the hands of his sub-commander and without explanation – there was little need for words between them – turned to leave.

She would not tolerate a tardy arrival, and nor did he desire to give one, and so he hurried. There would be time enough to compose himself within the pool as he approached. Still, he felt the grateful amusement touch his mind as she understood his purpose.

As he stepped from the comfort of the filtered atmosphere, into the acrid environment of the red half-light outside the compound he let out a long, slow hiss. He welcomed the tingling that pricked along his skin, it served to remind him that he lived; of the achievements his kind had made, even after the devastation the invaders had caused; to remind him what it meant to be Wraith.

One of the many silent attendants met him as he arrived at The Mound, shrouded against the acidity in the world's atmosphere, and yet still, as they reached to take the leather coat from him as he shrugged it off, he saw the beginnings of the damage on their pale hybrid hide. It would not be long before they would have to be replaced, and he made a mental note to do so. Perhaps if it was done soon enough, these few could be saved. He did so detest waste. However, if not – no matter. They were little more than the prey they farmed in the nearby facilities.

He stood, immobile and emotionless as their cold hands moved over him, removing the garments that shielded him from the harshness of his world, only stepping forward as the light touch against his ankle craved him to do so, so that he could be rendered naked, to be cleansed by the pool.

The liquid was a cool, soothing balm after the harshness of the outside. As he descended the steps into its thick, gelatinous depths, he felt the action of the primal organisms that gave it mass renewing and refreshing his body, cleansing him of weight of all that was outside of these hallowed walls. This was the lifeblood that flowed through the sinews and strands that wove together, knitted flesh to cover the frames that made their shelters; their nests… the means of their dissemination.

He waded through, knowing that others waited for him beyond this pool; attendants to dress him, to make him fit to go before the Matriarch, Matron, Queen.

They swaddled him with the fine silk of robes befitting his station, their touch so light it was almost insubstantial, ghostlike. Their silence was comforting and respectful, and when they were finished they melted away, allowing him to continue without fuss or hindrance.

It was not much further to reach his goal, and around him he began to hear the rustling of the tendrils that slipped over the rock walls to allow his passage. It was darker here, a strange kind of black-light that accentuated the pale qualities of his skin, and the veins that ran through his flesh.

He heard her breathing before he saw her… sitting in her throne-like chair, nourished and nourishing her charges through the action of the tendrils that surrounded her, caressed her silk clad body in their questing search over her.

He stopped in the middle of the chamber and lowered himself to one knee, his head bowed, as she began to move and the tendrils fell away. He had no need to watch to know the deadly grace with which she moved.

"My Matron," he said softly, barely above a whisper. "You sent for me."

Her long fingered hand curled and uncurled before him before she reached to cup his chin in their heated grasp and raise his eyes to hers. As he did, he saw her gravid form, swollen and beautiful with the new life seeded within her – life that awaited transference.

The markings over her almost white-green flesh were almost mesmeric as they entwined her body – their darkness showing through the light coloured silk she wore – accenting her form, spiralling over her arms, and reflected in the dark golden burning of her eyes as he met them at last.

Her answer was an emotion, sensation, a whisper around him and through his mind.

::they have spawned and now have Hives of their own.::

At the unvoiced pressure of her mind guiding him to rise, to support her, and warmed by her presence, her closeness, her trust; as her hand clasped over his forearm and she leaned against him as they moved, he felt her sudden rush of concern for those of her progeny whose existence and whose lines existed on the satellite worlds of the one on which he stood.

"Something is wrong, My Queen?"

::Go to them… guide them... be with them…::

…seen and sent him to curb the damage that their individuality, their ambition could have and had caused. Somewhere, in the chain of events that had led to their creation, and the migration of the Wraith; somewhere in the chaos left behind in their ordered society after the others had wreaked the ineffectual attempts at genocide; somewhere in the wake of it all, were left some few individuals who understood and he must be the one to bring them home.

"Why not just… submit? Save yourself all of this?" the young worshipper's voice carried up to him as he refocused his mind on the two of them below.

"She wants only one thing," what remained of the former scientist answered bitterly. The second moved a little closer to the open space, to fix his eyes on the twisted, tortured almost-wraith.

"And you still will never give it to her," The Second whispered softly to himself, adding darkly, "will you?"

**

The organic hum of the Hive's hyperdrive, the vibration beneath her feet had become a comfort to Jennifer, in spite of her initial fears as they had entered the subspace on their way to a world that may yield many secrets concerning the nature of, and possible cure for, the Hoffan drug. She had thrown herself into the work, alternating between studies of the problems associated with the Hoffan Protein, and providing Todd with a complete mapping of several DNA samples she had taken from Sheppard in order that they could find a way to halt and reverse the effects of the retrovirus.

Keller turned again from her deep study of the images on her screen. In the many days they had been working together, she had taken many pages of scribbled notes, and was fascinated by the state of DNA seen in some of the samples.

She watched Todd working for a moment, the way he was concentrating almost entirely on the delicate dissection he was performing. She couldn't help but recall his earlier words to her, and finding some truth in them, at least for the moment, she let out a small harrumph. After only another moment, finished with what he was doing, he turned to face her.

Before he could question her about the sound, she asked, "What are these anyway?" She gestured toward her screen.

"A visual representation of DNA belonging to a Human woman, suffering the systemic failure associated with exposure to the Hoffan Protein, whom I was able to… save," he told her.

Keller blinked. The news shocked her deeply. "You cured her?"

"I prevented her death," he corrected her. "Though it was hardly a cure. The treatment in itself almost ended her life."

"How?" Keller asked, coming closer to him, curious. "What did you do?"

"I used a modified amino acid chain from the opposite rhesus factor that is found in your Human blood," he told her.

Keller frowned. "You deliberately caused her to suffer Rhesus Factor Immunological problems?"

She couldn't begin to imagine what that must have been like for the poor woman, through actually she could and it did not warrant thinking on the effects, possible side effects and how life threatening such an action was.

"Introducing the serum into her system, catalysed by direct exposure to Wraith enzymes, caused the surface of the cells in the Hoffan Protein to mutate and finally bond with the appropriate blood cells belonging to the woman in question, while her immune system dealt with the introduced cells. Extreme, perhaps, but effective," he said with a shrug.

"Are you suggesting a rhesus factor commonality between those that get sick?" she asked, frowning as her mind made the leap toward that as a possibility, an avenue of investigation opened before her.

Again Todd shrugged, "I have not had access to sufficient numbers of sufferers in order to make that determination, Doctor," he said.

"But…" She took another step in his direction, asking in mounting excitement, "but if there is that would be a breakthrough in terms of finding a cure, wouldn't it?"

"Perhaps so," he purred. "If you have a moment, Doctor Keller, I require your assistance."

"What is it?" she asked, watching as he picked up a syringe from the top of the table in front of him.

"In order to make any comparisons, when the time comes, we require a control sample," he said softly. "I assume you have not had direct exposure to any pathogens or other similar substances. I thought perhaps…"

"You want a sample of my blood?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"For comparison purposes only," he reiterated. "If you would rather not, I can instruct one of my worshippers—"

"No, no," she shook her head and crossed the rest of the way to where he stood, turning the syringe lightly in his hand. "It's fine. It makes sense. I'm here after all."

She tried to be casual about the way she shrugged off her uniform jacket, but she could feel his eyes on her, couldn't help but wonder what was running through his head as he looked on the light blue undershirt she wore. Taking a breath she lay down her jacket before perching on the nearby stool, and presenting her arm to him along the table top.

She jumped as his fingers closed around her arm, lifting it slightly to reposition it before him. His fingertips, moving along the line of her veins, were warmer than she had expected, and the lightness of his touch along the sensitive inside of her arm almost burned.

"Wait," she said and pulled back her arm as he applied pressure to a place on her forearm. He looked up at her quizzically. She asked, "You have done this before, right?"

He gave a slightly sideways nod of confirmation. "I have done this before."

She took a deep breath, and let it out in a rush as she said, "Okay."

"Surely you are not… squeamish?" he questioned, applying the pressure again.

"Not when it comes to other people's blood, no," she answered, and couldn't help but give an embarrassed little smile. "When it comes to my own, though, and people taking it—"

"I shall endeavour," he said softly, "to be gentle."

Even so she winced as he inserted the needle, and bit her lip. Slowly he reduced the pressure behind the needle, allowing her blood to flow freely into the vial, carefully supporting her arm with the sure grasp of his hand.

"Forgive me… Jennifer," he rumbled quietly. "Did I hurt you?"

Keller swallowed, and shook her head. His use of her first name was unexpected, personal, yet no less respectful than he had addressed her before.

"No, no," she managed to force the words out, "like I said, when it's my blood…"

"The procedure is almost complete," he told her, and reached for a small swab with which to prevent bleeding when he withdrew the needle. As he did, his fingertips grazed her wrist, entirely accidental, and she blushed at her own reaction.

Apparently oblivious, Todd laid the small white square of material over the needle puncture as he withdrew the syringe, and nodded to her to take over the application of the pressure while he finalised the storage of the sample.

"Perhaps it would be beneficial if we were both to rest," he said, his voice light. "There is still much to do, and I should hate for either of us to make mistakes due to fatigue."

"No, I… I'm all right," she told him, examining the wound, and satisfied that there was no more bleeding. "I'd like to continue with the samples, for a while at least, but… if you have something you need to do, I can… close up shop for the day."

He regarded her for a moment, looking puzzled, and she supposed he must have been trying to work out the Human idiom. Just as she was about to explain, he spoke.

"Very well," he said. "I need to return to the bridge to ensure that all is well. If I am not too long with my subordinates, I may return later, otherwise, rest well, Jennifer. We will begin again after we have slept."

**

"Mister Dex!"

Ronon growled as Varnerin's voice reached him along the corridor.

"Ronon," he said, correcting the man for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Of course," Varnerin said as he caught up. "Ronon. I wondered if I might have a word."

"You already are, it looks like," Ronon answered, not at all slowing his steps. When the professor didn't continue, he said, "What do you need?"

Varnerin sighed. "I've been thinking about something Colonel Sheppard said."

"What part? He said a lot of things," Ronon said, hoping that he sounded as bored as he was with the psychologist's machinations.

"About Teyla."

Ronon stopped walking then, and rounded on the other man, stepping menacingly toward him.

"Whatever you're about to say about Teyla, you better be real careful," he warned.

Professor Varnerin held up his hands, meant as a calming gesture. "I was only going to say that I saw some merit in suggesting that someone should go and check on her." He stood straighter, guiltless. Momentarily confused, Ronon did not react to the suggestion more than to cock an eyebrow.

"It has been quite some time since we heard from any of the Athosians, let alone from Teyla herself, and with the current escalating conflict I began to think it would be wise if Atlantis were to… check up on her allies from time to time – make sure they're safe." Varnerin said.

Ronon folded his arms. In spite of his own growing worries for Teyla and her people, he was not in the slightest bit taken in by the act that Varnerin was giving for his benefit. The man was up to something.

"Woolsey know that's how you feel?" he asked.

"What Richard does or doesn't know about the way I feel is irrelevant, Miste—Ronon," Varnerin answered. "What matters is that you and I both know that, particularly in this instance, standing orders concerning limiting our involvement with the inhabitants of this galaxy are, quite frankly, a crock."

Ronon's eyebrow shot even higher, and he shook his head. "I'm not falling for it, Varnerin."

"I'm not your enemy, Ronon," Varnerin answered. "There's no it to fall for."

Ronon sighed, and Varnerin waited for a moment before he spoke again.

"Just think about it, Ronon." He said. "Anything could be happening out there."

**

Todd watched as Keller half straightened up from the microscope to stretch her back, reaching up and behind her to rub at the back of her neck. He could feel her fatigue, but after several days of working with the Human, he knew her tenacity. She would not stop until she was satisfied with the notes she had made.

Letting out a long, quiet hiss, he turned his attention back to the surprising results the computer analysis of the latest DNA sample revealed. He looked over at Keller again, and let out another soft growl from the back of his throat as he deactivated the computer, and started across the room.

**

She ached. She had been hunched over the microscope, or over the preparation of her samples the entire day, lost in her work, forgetting the passage of time. It wouldn't be long before she would have to call it a night.

She straightened up again to stretch her back, meaning to flex her shoulders, but before she could move, she felt heat behind her, the presence of another, before the touch of Todd's hand on her shoulder, the pressure of his thumb against the tight muscle at the base of her neck brought an almost painful relief.

"You should rest… Jennifer." His voice was low, a quiet rumble in the hushed lab. The strength in his fingers found the most knotted of her muscles, and he purred, "Allow me…"

She let out a small sound, and tilted her head to stretch the muscle as he applied the pressure, and jumped as she felt the stirring of the air above her shoulder and the heat of him behind her, closer now, before she felt light scrape of metal against the skin of her neck as he swept her hair side, baring her neck.