"Si-ric! You in?"
Nerisha's voice was light and musical, but with an undertone of unease, which worried Rodney even more. If she was apprehensive about something down here, it meant he should be terrified. Nerisha had led him down dark, creepy corridors with her nails steadily digging into his shoulder. Finally, she had stopped him outside a darkened room. Rodney's imagination went into overdrive. She was going to torture him for information on Atlantis. Argh! Probably with strange and horrific means. Argh! Or wraith! There were lots of them around and they all seemed to obey her. She was going to use a wraith on him, just like Koyla did to Sheppard. Argh!
"What?" The voice was harsh. Rodney couldn't see its owner, probably the resident torturer.
"Now, Siric," lilted Nerisha, dragging Rodney into the darkened room, "I brought you some presents. Least you could do is be nice."
There was a growl and, oh crap, there was defiantly a wraith in the room. Rodney tried to dig his heels into the floor, but his body wasn't responding. Now he could see it, silhouetted against the dim light of several monitor screens. It turned towards them, its face shadowed by the large hood of its robe.
"Why have you brought me a human?" growled the wraith, Siric, not that Rodney was going to think of him as anything other than a big scary life-sucking monster. The wraith growled again. Oh crap, it must have read his mind! Could it do that? Was it only able to read his thoughts or could it see right inside his head? Would it be able to just pull the information it wanted right out of his head. Rodney tried to think of pink elephants in order to screen his thoughts.
"You think very loudly for a human," the wraith said, making Nerisha chuckle. The wraith sighed, "You implied multiple items?"
Nerisha went over to the cluttered table in the middle of the room and upended a bag she had been carrying. Out fell all of their kit and everything else the team had been carrying, including Rodney noticed, Ronon's beloved gun. He sidled alongside the table, hoping that he could get to it (not that it would be much use, he was a terribly shot, not that he would admit that), then stopped as he saw the wraith examining the objects. It wasn't just the close presence of the wraith that stopped him, it was its appearance.
It was holding up one of the guns awkwardly and Rodney saw why.
Its right arm was withered.
It put down the gun and picked up a scanner, turning it over while Rodney stood there paralyzed. What had happened to it? Could it still feed? If not, how the heck wasn't it dead from starvation yet? It turned to Rodney, brandishing the scanner, snapping him out of his trance.
"This, "it hissed at him, "is Lantian."
"Umm," Rodney wasn't sure how to reply to the snarling wraith, "yeah?"
"Where did you find it?" the wraith snapped. Rodney took a step back. Just his luck to get trapped with a psychotic starved wraith. In his retreat, Rodney fell onto a couch-cum-bed thing. Oh great, now he was really trapped. The wraith snarled again.
"Siric!"
The wraith turned. Rodney had completely forgotten about Nerisha. She was standing close to them, her face a mix of disapproval and anxiety.
"I brought ," she glanced down at something written on her hand, "Dr Rodney McKay to you because he's a," she read another word off her hand, "sigh-en-tist, not a play-thing for you to break."
The wraith snorted and returned to the table. Rodney got up slowly. He didn't like the idea of being some sort of – he didn't know what, but he didn't like it. The wraith sighed heavily, leaning on the table.
"Alright," it said wearily, "I shall find some use for it."
"That's better." smiled Nerisha, "Can't have my Whisper-Master breaking every new informant I bring you. Not yet anyway."
Rodney gulped at this last statement. He didn't like the implications. Nerisha headed towards the door.
"I'll be back later, got to go talk to some other guests." She winked at the two of them, "Play nicely now." The door shut behind her with an ominous groan.
He was trapped.
Rodney almost shrieked as the wraith came up behind him. Did the wraith have no concept of personal space? He turned to it and his eyes widened.
It wasn't just the wraith's arm that was damaged. The whole right side of its face was traced out in withered scars.
"I suppose I must find you something to do." he grumbled, "Try to keep out of my way."
"Okay," Rodney replied, inwardly cringing at how high his voice was.
The wraith smiled, not a pretty sight on a healthy wraith, but on this one it had an extra layer of menace.
I'm doomed, he thought.
"Not yet, Dr McKay. Not yet."
