A/N: Here you go, another chapter that's been embellished to make it even better then the first one. Not much has changed with this one other then I added a scene to make it longer and changes some words and sentences around. Other than that, it's pretty much the same but the scene I added has lots of Todd/Kate goodness so I hope you all enjoy it and if you do, I want to hear about it so, when you're done, don't forget to review. Happy reading and cheers!
Episode IX: Lost in Space
"Are you absolutely sure that this is a good idea?" Rodney asked as he leaned forwards and looked out the front windshield of the jumper at the stationary hive. "I mean, think about what happened last time we tried this out on the wraith. It didn't end so well."
"Yes, thank you Rodney," John said, steering the jumper to the left a bit as they neared the forward most dart bay. "But your wife's gene therapy is still the best idea we have to end the threat of the wraith," John paused and then shook his head. "God, that still sounds weird."
"Well, I know, I mean Jennifer's been working on it for…" Rodney trailed off, "What sounds weird?"
"Nothing," John said as they cleared the outer hull of the hive and began the landing process. "It's just, well…I'm still getting used to the fact that you're a married man."
"I got married two months ago!" Rodney sputtered indignantly.
"It is still a lot to adjust to Rodney," Teyla soothed, "I must admit that I too was rather shocked that you actually went through with it."
Rodney puffed up like an indignant peacock. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Teyla, realizing that she had said something to anger the scientist, attempted to correct her mistake. "It is nothing Rodney, only that I cannot imagine that you are the easiest person to live with. Marriage is a great compromise and - since I've known you - compromise is not something you handle particularly well."
"She's got a point," Ronon interjected.
Rodney looked sobered. "Oh, well yes I realize I've been rather arrogant in the past but Jennifer's more than worth not getting my way all the time."
John snorted. "You see, that's another thing," he twisted around in his chair to look back at the scientist as he gently lowered the jumper into an empty dart space, "Ever since you've gotten together with Jennifer we've all been wondering how you did it."
Rodney glared at him as Teyla and Ronon stood to exit the craft. "What do you mean?"
John smirked as Teyla opened the hatch release and he followed her and Ronon out into the landing bay. "Well you see," he said as he looked up and watched Kate land the second jumper, "It's just that you're the nerdy scientist guy and your type never gets the girl."
Rodney glared at him. "What are we, in grade school? This is real life Sheppard not one of your corny science fiction movies."
"They're not corny," John said defensively before they were joined by Kate and the now Jennifer McKay, "Hello ladies; pleasant trip?"
Kate gave her brother a look. "Yes actually," she said in a hyper sounding falsetto, "I got to talk about things, personal things, without you biting my head off."
John winced, the memory of how he'd grilled his sister after her date last week filtering through his head. He'd apologized true, but then he'd made the mistake of bringing it up later in a less then supportive tone which she was now mad at him for. Fortunately for him, the colonel was saved the trouble of stammering up an acceptable apology as a squad of drones came round the corner thus heralding Todd's impending arrival.
The wraith that appeared out of the gloom, however; was not Todd.
"Kenny!" John called cheerily turning towards the wraith as he approached them.
The Hive Second stopped just short of the humans and sighed, lifting his eyes briefly towards the ceiling before once again lowering them to their faces. "Must you call me that?" he hissed, annoyed.
John shrugged. "Well," he began, "You could always tell us your real name and then we could call you that."
The Second snorted in derision and disgust. "Few humans have ever proven themselves worthy enough to know the names of wraith," he sneered at the gathered group in front of him. "I doubt you and yours will ever earn such a right."
"Well then, Kenny is just gonna have to do then," John responded with a toss of his shoulders as if to suggest that he didn't care at all one way or the other.
Kenny rolled his eyes, wondering as he did how it was that the Hive Commander ever found the patience to be around such as these for any length of time. "Come," he bid them follow as he turned and stalked back towards the living portions of the hive.
As they walked down the corridor, Kate stuck close to the back of the group and took the opportunity to thoroughly look over her surroundings. This wasn't her first time on a hive; it wasn't even her first time on this hive, but last time she hadn't left the dart bay and the two times before that the hive had been earth bound. Here, in space, floating in the black the organic ship seemed to seep energy, the very walls themselves pulsing with different colored lights and the whole of the hive buzzed with its own unique life force. Kate wondered, as they rounded a corner, if her brother or any of his team had ever stopped to observe their surroundings enough to notice any of this; probably not.
"So where's Todd?" John asked Kenny as they walked along the hallways towards what he assumed was the meeting chamber they'd been in the last couple of times, the one with the fruit bowel and the candles.
"The Hive Commander is tending to important issues and has been, regrettably, detained. He sends his apologies for not meeting you," Kenny answered dutifully, repeating the missive that his commander had instructed him to provide for the humans should they inquire after him.
John frowned, the distinct impression that Kenny wasn't telling him something singing through him in response to the explanation the wraith gave them. "Everything alright?" he asked.
Kenny scowled. Why was it that these humans were more inquisitive then all of the others in the galaxy combined? "Yes, everything is fine," he copied the colonel's terminology hoping that this reassurance was enough to placate them.
The rest of the journey was silent and as soon as they got to the antechamber directly off the bridge, Kenny bowed them into the room before quickly scurrying off with the excuse that he was gone to fetch the commander. Looking about the room, John and his expanded team settled in for the wait, arranging themselves around the long, solid wood table that sat perched in the center of the small chamber.
Kate took a seat near the door after walking around the circumference of the room once, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up. "So, Kenny's hiding something," she announced after she'd gotten comfortable, looking around the table to notice that everyone else had done the same.
Ronon grunted, taking his gun from its holster at his side and laying it on the table top in front of him. "Yeah, got that."
John frowned slightly. "Wouldn't be the first time," he glanced down the length of the wooden slab and smirked at his sister, "So what'd you think?"
Kate looked around once more before turning back to her brother. "It's nice," she said sardonically, her eyes taking in the detail which had gone into the arrangement they now sat at, "Wonder who lit the candles?"
"Worshippers most likely," Teyla informed her releasing a sigh that she had not been aware of previously holding. "There are several hundred in almost every hive. They reside in the lower levels and act as servants for the ranking wraith."
"Ranking?" Rodney asked, casually playing with his wife's hand were it lay in his lap, "What they have ranks now?"
Teyla nodded. "Yes. When I was queen I was required to learn the different ranks by sight. There are many and the rank of the officer often depends on his age. A hive commander cannot be any younger than ten thousand."
"Good to know," Ronon deadpanned, playing with his weapon and spinning it on the tabletop.
Teyla looked towards Kate knowing that the young woman was interested in such things. "The social structure of wraith is a fair bit more complicated then at first we thought," she said. "The instruction that Todd gave to me was not boring and was actually quite riveting at times."
Kate smirked. "I can imagine."
The Athosian smiled at her. "Yes, if you would like -"
Her words were cut short by the sound of stomping footfalls that announced better than anything the approaching arrival of wraith. Creasing all conversation and looking instinctively towards the door, the team held their breaths as the sounds neared, collectively releasing their stored breathes as soon as Todd's large and intimidating form darkened the doorway.
"Ah, Colonel," the wraith commander greeted, much more cheer in his voice than normal, "I see you have made yourselves comfortable."
John nodded. "Just waiting for you."
Todd hissed lightly, amused. "I apologize for my delay in meeting with you; there were…things to do."
"I bet," John answered, his voice clearly betraying his skepticism of this fact.
Todd let the human's impertinence slide as he walked fully into the chamber and looked around at its occupants. Sheppard sat easily at the table's foot with both doctor's McKay to his right while the runner and Teyla sat to his right. The last member of their party, Katherine whom he was quite pleased to see, looked the most comfortable out of the six and sat in a chair one removed from the runner. Pulling out the chair at the head of the table, Todd gestured for his second to sit to his left before leaning back and regarding the male opposite him.
"Now," Todd began, "As I understand it, you are here to discuss an advancement in the gene therapy that we tried once before. I trust that I need not remind you of the disaster that befell me and mine the last time we ventured down this road."
John frowned. "No, I think I remember just fine," he ground out before turning towards the doc and nodding for her to explain.
"Actually," Jennifer started, looking nervously at the wraith as if afraid that he'd try to eat her if she told him the compromise she'd had to make in order to make the treatment work, "I've been working on that specific part of the therapy for quite some time now and I think I've come up with a solution."
Todd's interest peaked and he glanced at his second to see that even he, impassive as he was, was just slightly curious. "Oh?"
"Yes," Jennifer continued, still slightly nervous about having to present her finding to the wraith at all so soon after discovering that it wouldn't outright kill him. "The problem with our previous attempt was that the shock of suddenly having to rely on solid food was too much for your systems to handle all at once so I…slowed down the process a bit."
"In what way?" Todd questioned, truly curious to hear what the humans had come up with this time. Really the humans of Atlantis were an ingenious race; it was too bad that they were so impatient; quick to take action without thought or consequence to the result of so rash a decision or its total fallout. These humans, like their ancestors, thought very little of the results of their various impetuous decisions unless they directly affected them. They rarely spared a moment's thought to how the rest of the world, planet or galaxy would cope with some of their more drastic actions.
"Um, well," Jenn stammered as she fumbled on the edge of telling him what she'd managed to come up with. "I've been able to develop a series of treatments that slowly alters your eternal composition and chemistry so that your body accepts the ability to consume and process food."
"And how is this any different from the last method?" Todd inquired, wondering as he did why the human female seemed so nervous.
Jennifer blushed and looked down at the table for second as she pondered a way of explaining it so that he'd understand. "Okay," she said after a while, "The problem last time, as I said, was that we tried to do too much too fast. Your digestive system did activate but your body didn't accept the changes to your system like we thought it would and that's what made you sick. This new treatment takes much longer but it was the only way I could be certain that there wouldn't be any nasty side effects."
Todd tilted his head to the side. Ah, so this is why the doctor was so nervous because she believed that he would not be willing to trial the treatment if it did not produce instant results. When would these humans learn that he was infallibly more apt at waiting, if in the end his goals were achieved, then they were?
"How long?" the wraith asked after a moment in which he thought of the humorous nature that was they're fear of him having to wait in order to gain something.
"Well," Jenn continued, "You'd have to get a shot once every two months roughly for the next two years. The shots are staged, each one containing a more potent dose of the serum then the last with the object being to slowly adapt your body to the various components involved in consuming and digesting food. For example one of the first shots turns the glands in your stomach on that produce the chemicals needed to break down food. Another shot farther down the line turns on your…waste processing system."
Todd looked at her.
"It means that you're gonna have to learn how to pee standing up," John called out and watched comprehension dawn on the alien's face.
"Ah," Todd said and then looked at the doctor, "Will it work?"
"Well, it hasn't killed our test subject yet so my guess is yeah, it'll work," Jennifer said confidently.
"Test subject?" Todd quirked a brow ridge and looked askew at Sheppard.
"First mission Kate went on, she saved our asses and we got to take a wraith home to play with," John explained. "Well, he's not dead yet so we figure that it's working. Actually, he's rather fond of vanilla pudding come to think of it."
"Is he now?" Todd smirked and turned towards Katherine, regarding her appreciatively.
Kate offered the predator a small smile and John frowned. He wasn't the only one, apparently Kenny thought his commander's actions towards Kate were strange too because the wraith second was busy glancing between the two of them as if trying to sort out something and being unable to do so due to lack of evidence. Nether John's nor Kenny's contemplation lasted long however as without warning, the whole hive lurched forwards.
"Shit!" John exclaimed as the table began to slide towards, everyone else scrambling away from the heavy wooden monstrosity as the whole of the ship tilted. Cursing, John threw himself to the side just as the table crashed against the far wall of the room.
"What the hell is going on?" Rodney screamed as the hive shook again and then everyone was thrown back the other way. The lights went out and then everybody heard a crash and the splintering of wood before everything went still.
John groaned and rolled over, opening his eyes to a flood of eerie orange and purple light. He'd landed on Rodney and the scientist was grumbling loudly about it. Sitting up, he looked around. Everyone was on either on the floor or, in Jennifer's case, on top of somebody else. The doc had landed on top of Ronon and John didn't immediately see his sister but figured that she had to be around here somewhere. She had been sitting closest to Todd by the door, maybe she was in the hall. John turned and saw that the table had managed to turn itself on its side and was currently barricading the doorway.
"Everyone okay?" John called out, holding his head in one hand as he stood shakily. "Sound off."
"No, I'm not okay," Rodney complained, "You fell on top of me Sheppard and I'll have you know that you're far from light."
John glared down at him. "Everyone else?"
"Fine," Ronon grunted, helping Jennifer to her feet before going over to assist Teyla whose head had cracked against the wall.
"I am well, John," Teyla answered as Ronon gripped her forearm and hauled her to her feet. Her head was throbbing a bit but she saw no reason to worry the Colonel and so remained silent on the account.
"Me too," Jennifer answered before she crossed the room and began to check her husband for injuries. Satisfied that Rodney was unharmed, despite his insistence to the contrary, she moved on to Teyla.
"Kate?" John called out as he turned towards the outside hallway and began to pick his way through what was left of the chairs and candles.
Because she'd been sitting so close to the entrance when the ship had lurched forwards both she and Todd had toppled out of the room. Fortunately they'd managed to avoid getting crushed by the table but, and Kate couldn't decide if this was good or not, that meant that Todd was now on top of her and for some reason he hadn't moved yet.
"Kate!" John called out, with more urgency this time and Kate's brain finally wrapped it's self around the fact that Todd's weight didn't feel all that bad. In fact…
"KATE!"
She shook herself out of the stupor she was in and groaned. "I'm fine!" she yelled as she felt Todd began to push himself up. Opening her eyes, she flashed them to the wraith's face and saw that he was eyeing her strangely.
"You are uninjured?" Todd asked; his multi-toned voice reverberating deeply within his chest as his mind rushed forwards to trap the memory of her beneath him and preserve it.
Kate's breath caught. "I'm -" she began as he drew away from her completely and settled into a crouch by her side, still peering heatedly down at her.
"Having fun down there are we?" the inquisitive and highly amused voice of her brother sounded above her and both Kate and Todd turned to eye the man who was currently looking down at them; his arms crossed and resting on the edge of the overturned table.
Kate glared at him. "Yes, we're having oh such fun," she announced scathingly knowing that she would have to play off their situation as one of un-comfortableness or risk another interrogation from her overprotective brother. "I love being thrown from a room, narrowly avoiding a renegade table that could possibly crush me only to get squashed by a wraith."
John quirked an eyebrow and turned towards Todd noting as he did that, unlike previous instances where he'd come into physical contact with Kate, the wraith did not look in the least bit guilty about it. "Landed on top of her did you?"
"It was not intentional, Sheppard," Todd said as he gracefully rose to his feet and held out a hand to aid Katherine in returning to a once again vertical position.
John's eyes widened at the gesture knowing for a fact that the wraith had certainly never offered to help any of them stand up before. He seemed to have done it unthinkingly which was even more disturbing.
Kate continued to give her brother a cold shoulder as she let the wraith pull her to her feet. "Thanks," she muttered and Todd nodded, the dark consuming expression in his eyes now gone, before she turned towards her brother, "What happened?"
The fact that Kate had actually, for a time, held Todd's hand - his feeding hand too which was way beyond creepy - temporarily conquered John's mind and impeded upon his ability to speak.
"John?" Kate called waving her hand in front of her brother's face.
"Colonel?" Todd mimicked Katherine's tone and expression if not her concern.
John snapped out of it. "So," he said, turning to the wraith and putting the whole thing into the back of his mind as something that he was reading way too much into, "What happened, ya think?"
Todd shook his head. "I do not know. Perhaps something to do with the engines," he paused and looked at Sheppard. "Stay here. I must see to matters and will then return to you."
"You do that," John muttered, stepping back so that Ronon could shove the table away from the door enough so that Kate could get back into the room and Kenny could slip out of it, following his commander as the former stalked towards the bridge. "We'll, just wait here."
John heard Todd grunt from down the hall and turned around to face his team. "Okay, Chewie," he called out to Ronon, "Help me fix this table, I'd like to sit down while I wait…"
~xXx~
"What do you mean we're stuck?" Rodney exclaimed, glaring at the wraith.
Todd sighed and restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "My hive was recently involved in a battle between my alliance and another faction. We sustained heavy damage but I had believed all that to have been repaired before I agreed to meet with you. Apparently this was not the case as there was a malfunction in one of the engines. We still have sub-light propulsion but we are - by my calculations - some three weeks away from the nearest gated planet."
"So we're stuck here!" Rodney demanded.
"That is what I just said, yes," Todd growled at the human before turning to the doctor, "And you wish to remain mated to this one for life?"
Jennifer snorted and looked at the floor. "He has his moments," she said meekly.
Todd harrumphed before turning to Sheppard. "I have arranged quarters for you and your companions in the lower section of my hive. If you will follow me," he turned abruptly and left the humans no choice but to follow or be left behind. The sounds of footsteps behind him let him know that they'd decided to follow and, eager to have them stowed away so that he could return to more important issues, he quickened his stride.
When his Engineering officer had first told him that they would not be going anywhere anytime soon, Todd's first thoughts as to what to do with the humans was to stash them away with the worshippers. A quick assessment of the variances in personality between the Atlantians and those humans that inhabited his hive and worry over their reception and treatment made him change his mind. His hive's worshippers would not understand the independence and individuality of Sheppard and his team and the Atlantians would not in turn be willing to understand the ways of those that were not like them. Katherine might, the Athosian perhaps but Todd could see nothing but strife coming from the others.
As a result, the chambers he led them to were spare rooms in the lower station usually reserved for the lowest chaste of the hive's crew. Because rank depended on age, these quarters were small, fitting two bodies into one room and did not contain any extra facilities such as bathing chambers or amenities. If the humans wished to bathe then they would be forced to use the public pools on the level above them and he indicated to them were the nearest lavatory was before he left them to their own devices.
"So what now?" Ronon asked Sheppard who was standing next to him in the hallway.
John shrugged and took the chance to look around. The corridor they were in reminded him of the steerage section of an old cruise liner. The movie Titanic popped into mind as being the most similar to the location they now found themselves in and John had to say that he honestly wasn't impressed.
"At least we're not with the worshippers," Rodney observed as he trotted over to one of the doors that Todd had indicated them to choose from. Keying in the combination that the wraith had given them, he poked his head inside as soon as the door slid open. "God, these things are tiny!" he complained, looking around the Spartan room in disgust.
Kate snorted, walking over to open another one of the doors and actually walked inside. "What did you expect?" she asked, taking in the bare space and the two narrow beds that looked more like oblong nests in that their frames were growing right out of the floor. She moved forwards, testing the cushioning of their potential sleeping arrangements by sitting down on one of them. She smiled; it was surprisingly soft and molded to her frame like one of those Temperpedic beds back on Earth.
"Better than this," Rodney exclaimed loudly. "I mean, we are here as guests."
Teyla sighed, already growing tired of Rodney's complaining. "I think we should be grateful that, as you said, we are not with the worshippers," she said, entering the room that Kate had ventured into and unhooking her P-90 from her vest, laying it down on the trunk standing at the foot of the bed.
John had to agree. "Yeah," he breathed and turned towards Ronon, Rodney and Jennifer, "Alright, we pair up. You with your wife, Chewie you're with me, Teyla with Kate. Let's get some rest and hope that somebody comes to get us when it's time to eat."
His team nodded and went to their assigned rooms, closing the doors and locking themselves inside.
~xXx~
"Commander."
Todd looked up from the terminal at which he was working, trying to get the communications systems online. "Yes?" he inquired of the wraith, head of human affairs, who stood before him.
The wraith took a step towards his commander and bowed. "Commander, one of the Atlantians has been asking questions."
Todd's eyes narrowed. His ship had been stationary in space for over a week now and this was the first he had heard of his guests. Personally, he was surprised that they had not caused more trouble by now. "Questions?" he repeated. "What do they wish to know?"
The wraith sneered at the memory of the black-haired female asking him how a hive was structured. "She wishes to know the social structure within a hive; how it works," he growled. "She is most inquisitive."
"She…" Todd hissed, knowing instinctively which of his human guests would be inclined to make such inquiries. "Katherine."
"Which is that?" The officer asked, having not troubled himself to learn the names of the humans and wondered over the fact that his commander would have bothered.
Todd's mind retracted and fled to the recent memory of what she had felt like under him before he abruptly pulled back, turning his attention back to the matter at hand. "Katherine," he repeated her name and then pressed a description of her into his subordinate's mind.
The wraith nodded. "Yes, that is her."
"I thought as much," Todd completed the coding he had been compiling and shut down the terminal. "Have you answered her?"
The tone in which the commander made his inquiry gave the younger wraith the impression that he did not mind her asking questions. This confused the wraith as it was beyond him why a human, particularly an Atlantian, should be instructed into the intricacies of hive life. "I have not," he answered truthfully, knowing what the consequences would be if he were to lie.
Todd nodded. "Good," he replied and then looked towards his officer. "Do you know her location?"
Again his commander's tone surprised him and made him wonder. "She is in the bath I believe. The humans, at least the females, usually are at this time," he smirked. "They are very modest these Atlantians."
Todd's expression darkened at the thought that any one of his crew might have seen Katherine less then properly attired and he scolded himself for neglecting his duty to check up on them before now. Seeking to rectify this oversight he stepped down from the terminal platform and stood commandingly before the subordinate.
"Have a female worshiper go and fetch Katherine," he instructed, "Bring her to me."
The wraith bowed in submission to his elder. "And you will be, Commander?"
Todd considered were it would be appropriate to take her without arousing any undue questions. "I will await her in my quarters," he levied. "Have her brought to me there."
The wraith knew better then to question his commander but found it odd that he would request her to be brought to him there when, as far as he could tell, the commander had no intention of claiming her. Humans were taken to the living chambers of high ranking wraith for one of two reasons either to serve as a valet in the case of a male or for the release of carnal tensions in the case of a female. To his knowledge, the Commander frowned on the practice of taking females for such reasons and, searching his memory, the wraith knew that no human regardless of sex had thus far been taken to or been in the Hive Commander's quarters.
"It will be done," the wraith answered his Elder and, pushing his thoughts aside, went to do as he had been bid.
Todd relaxed as soon as the other's presence left him and he made a quick retreat to the bridge to inquire over their position with his second before incarcerating himself into his rooms with the order not to be disturbed. He had heard the questions in the subordinate's head, seen the uncertainty. While he supposed that it was correct in assuming that his room was probably not the best place to have Katherine brought it was nonetheless private which, for the moment, he cared more about then any of the rumors that would certainly flood his ranks upon learning that he had had a female sent to his chambers.
Stepping back and looking around his living space, Todd compared it to his guest quarters in Atlantis. The space was certainly larger, not to mention filled near to bursting with the odds and ends that had taken his fancy over the millennia. His chamber in the Lantean city was bare and reflected nothing of himself whereas the room in which he now stood could be described more or less as a visual representation of his thoughts and dispositions; an extension of himself as it were.
His musings were cut short as he felt the approaching awareness of the subordinate wraith and, turning, he stood ready in the center of the main chamber as the doors were opened and his underling marched in. The wraith stopped and bowed low to his commander and then stepped back, allowing Todd his first view of Katherine since he had escorted she and her team to their rooms their first day here.
"You may go," he commanded the other wraith whose eyes, unlike Katherine's that stayed fixed to his, had never left the floor. The wraith retreated and Todd began to circle the woman left with him, his eyes drinking her in. "You have been asking questions," he observed, pausing at her back and taking stock of the fact that she was no longer attired as an Atlantian but was now garbed in a gown no doubt provided for her by one of the female worshippers. As with the majority of their costumes, her outfit left much of her skin bare but was actually quite modest in terms of what the others wore. Todd let his eyes slide over her skin as this was the first time he had ever seen this much of her.
Kate nodded, her eyes darting about the room she had been brought to and examining its contents, drawing the conclusion that she had been brought to Todd's room.
He circled her again, coming to stand once more in front of her. "What is it you wish to know?"
Kate sighed and offered him a teasing smile. "Everything?"
Todd laughed before moving away from her and gesturing at one of the seating arrangements concealed by a partition and tucked away into a corner of his room. "Sit," he instructed her, watching her walk over and do as she was told before retreating to yet another crevice and retrieving a number of books and other manuals that might prove beneficial. Returning to her, he set those things he had gathered down on the empty cushions near to where she sat.
"You may stay here and look over these materials at your leisure," he stepped back, a pleased look on his face as she had already selected a script to read and had begun to scan it eagerly.
Kate looked up. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"I must return to matters concerning the integrity of this ship," he answered, taking a step before pausing and turning back. "I will be on the bridge for the foreseeable future. If, when you are done, you wish to find me, I will be there."
He watched her nod absentmindedly before letting out a soft hiss and turning on his heel to stalk towards the bridge. As he walked, the humming life of the hive buzzing around him with every purposeful step he took, he contemplated the wisdom in his decision to allow her to stay in his quarters. True, that if he were to put her in one of the common areas of the hive he would most likely be subjecting her to scrutiny and sexual advances made on the part by his crew. Still, leaving her in his private command quarters was a risk although more for him then for her. He could well picture Sheppard shooting him if the human were to find out were exactly his sister was but in light of the alternative rather thought it was worth the risk.
The thought of bodily harm coming to him as a result of Sheppard's protectiveness of the woman now curled up in his chambers reading, made the wraith commander sigh. Never before in his life had he found human females to be attractive in anything more than the base sense of the word. In point of fact, outward appearance was not enough to draw his attention or interest in anything but the smallest instinctive amount that was unavoidable given his sex. Attractiveness, beauty and the quality of allure were all things that increased depending on certain traits of personality. It was these attributes that were capable of drawing his attention and keeping it, the length of which depending on their potency.
In the past, those females of his own kind with which he had kept company with for any notable length of time tended to be rather headstrong, stubborn, passionate, intelligent enough to keep up with him in conversation, strong enough of body to put up a decent fight, and in most cases had a bit of a temper. It was his longstanding opinion backed by thousands of years of observation that none of these traits could be located in a female human in sufficient enough quantities to be of any note or worth.
Unfortunately for him, Katherine seemed to be the exception and had displayed, on more than one occasion, large quantities of each. All in all, her attributes were not subjects on which he liked to dwell because the simple fact of the matter was that she was a human from another galaxy and was also, in relation, John Sheppard's sister. Those two things, although he would admit that it was more specifically the latter one which caused him grief, made her something which he could not touch and should not, if he had any sense at all, even entertain wanting.
The memory of her beneath him sprang unbidden to mind and Todd cursed his own lack of self control at his inability to suppress that particular retention and keep it from flitting across his brain at the worst possible times. It was in instances such as this, when the remembrance of her warmth and the exact manner in which the curves of her body fit perfectly to the angles of his, that his good sense decided to take leave of him. With a snarl that startled a good number of his officers that were busy working on various operations in need of renovation, Todd inserted himself into the thick of the repairs needing something, anything to draw his attention and mind away, ignoring his crewmembers' looks of interest and inquiry.
~xXx~
The book was fascinating and Kate was sure that the fact that she thought so was candid proof that there was something wrong with her. No one should find so much enjoyment from reading a book about how a hive was structured but Kate quickly found that, while extremely analytical and oft times overly technical, the way in which Todd described things was riveting. Kate was so engrossed by what she was reading that, in hardly now time at all - or at least, what seemed like no time at all - she was done and had read the whole volume through. With a sigh, she closed the handwritten account and placed it off to the side before reaching for another. She paused however before she could select a different text and took time to consider where exactly she was.
As she'd previously discerned, she was in Todd's room which were the command quarters on the hive but unlike her last encounter with him in his room while she and Lorne had been on a different hive, these set of rooms appeared to be the ones in which he actually lived and spent time rather than just slept in. Getting up from her seat on the couch looking thing she'd been seated on that was shaped sort of like a U and concealed partially behind a partition, she made her way out into the room proper and looked around. It occurred to her that Todd might not like to have her poking around his personal space but, Kate decided, he wouldn't have left her hear by herself if he didn't trust her enough to do so. Thus, the curious woman let herself walk around the large, oddly mist-free space and tried very hard to take in all that she was seeing.
Todd was, apparently, just as messy as most other males she knew and there were heaps and piles of various things all over the place. She wandered over to the far side of the room and climbed the two wide steps that led upwards to where his bed was situated in a corner, the bedclothes and other coverings thrown everywhere haphazardly; there was even a pillow on the floor. The sight brought a smile to the corners of her mouth and she continued on in her exploration after only a moment's pause.
There was a doorway off to the right, opposite the foot of the bed which itself looked like it had been grown right out of the floor and, after stepping through it, Kate found herself in what must be a bathroom of some kind. Various lights and other illuminations turned on as they sensed her presence within their walls and, looking about, Kate espied a rather large tub that had been sunk into the floor of the hive over in a corner. Upon farther examination she realized that the pool looked a lot like a hot tub in that it had various seats arranged around the outside of it as well as a multitude of water jets spurting out of the sides and bottom of the tub in various patterns and arrangements. Briefly she wondered if the tub would fill with the same green tinted mineral water that filled the bathing pool down in the lower portions of the hive if she stepped into it. She decided against it however and turned away, walking back out into Todd's bedchamber and then back out into the main room.
She turned to her left and saw that there was a table there along with three chairs that, like the bed in the other room, appeared to have been grown directly out of the floor. There was, like every other flat surface in the room, a great many things piled up on top of the table top including but not limited to a wraith stunner which had been taken apart and was in about eighty pieces, a pair of bracers that looked a little different than the ones Todd normally wore, about two dozen viewing screens all of which were currently not displaying anything, a map, three books and three of those finger guard things that she knew the wraith sometimes wore. Fascinated, she wandered back over to the couch she'd abandoned, settled back down into it and then picked up another book that looked promising - this one was about the social structure of a hive - and started reading.
About three hours later, Kate had worked through over half of the books that Todd had selected for her and was getting kind of tired not to mention hungry. With a dramatic sigh because, really, she didn't want to stop and reverently wished she could just tell her body to suck it up and stop making grumbling noises, she closed the volume she'd started on not twenty minutes previously and put it aside; preparing to extract herself from the cozy little next she'd made for herself. The sound of the door opening, however, stayed her and she settled back down and listened intently wondering if it was Todd that was coming back or if it was perhaps someone else.
Todd was in a bad mood. Not only were the repairs to his much damaged hive not going as well nor as smoothly as he might like but there was also the pressing fact that he had apparently grossly overestimated the intelligence of his officers. The whole insignificant lot of them were moving wretchedly slowly and no matter how many times he tried to explain how to effect the necessary repairs both faster and more efficiently, his efforts seemed to be wasted. Simply put, he was very nearly ready to simply slaughter all of them for their stupidity and the elder wraith was so agitated over his underlings lack of common sense and basic understanding that he, at first, forgot that when he had left his quarters hours previously, Katherine had been in them. He was reminded of that fact however as, three steps into his chambers, her scent assaulted him and the awareness of her presence tingled at the back of his mind.
He walked towards the spot where he had left her, vaguely realizing that she must have moved and walked about because, while her smell was strongest in the farthest corner of his room, the ghost of it lingered everywhere. Todd swallowed hard, perhaps having her in his quarters for so long a time had not been the wisest of ideas.
"You are still here," he said bluntly when, at last his eyes landed on her. She was curled up on the seating arrangement, her legs tucked under her, her skirts pooled about around her and two stack of books one to either side of her. He eyed the larger of the two piles. "You have read all of these?"
Kate nodded. "I have."
Todd quirked an eye ridge. "And?"
Kate shrugged and looked down at her lap. "I liked them."
Her behavior seemed out of place to him and Todd cocked his head to once side as he studied her. "What is wrong?" he inquired after a moments contemplation, frowning.
Kate looked up at him. "Nothing," she said, dropping her eyes again. "It's just, you seem…annoyed. Maybe I should go -"
"No," Todd said quickly, startling her and causing her to look up at him in question. "Forgive me," he apologized, looking down on her. "I have simply…had a very trying day."
Since Todd apologizing and Todd talking about the tedium of his daily life were things that had never happened before, Kate considered how best to respond. She was curious and admittedly, she wanted to know what had happened to him since he'd left her in his room but she wasn't quite sure how to ask. Casually conversing with Todd was not something that she'd had much practice at and, the one time they had talked like it looked like they were about to, Lorne had been with her and they'd been in Atlantis in her room and not on a hive in his.
For a moment, Todd thought that he might have allowed himself to become too familiar with her in disclosing the origin of his mood but, then Katherine surprised him. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked innocently, genuinely seeming to be interested in what trials he had gone through during the time in which they'd been apart. Her regard and interest begged of him to answer honestly and so, after sinking down onto the end of the cushioned bench upon which Katherine herself rested, he sighed and began to speak.
"I have cause to reconsider the intelligence of my officers," he said dryly, scowling at the memory of their inability to grasp a simple concept that he had diligently explained to them he didn't care to remember how many times.
Kate smiled softly. "I'm sorry," she said, meaning it despite her amusement over the fact that Todd had apparently decided that he did want to talk about it. "What did they do?"
Todd's scowl deepened and he crossed his arms and sat angrily back against the back of the divan. "The repairs are talking longer than expected mostly due to a great many of my officer's incompetence. I have explained how to progress things countless times and yet they still do not understand. I do not know how much more plain I can make my instructions before I must do it for them."
Kate frowned and shifted in her seat, bringing her knees up to her chest whilst she wrapped her arms around them. "Maybe it's not their fault," she suggested, eyeing the still very evidently annoyed wraith. "You are smarter than probably any other wraith alive, maybe what makes perfect sense to you is still a bit complicated to everyone else."
Todd had not thought of that and, when he said as much, Katherine smiled and turned her head away and told him that most people with genius IQ's habitually forget that not everyone around them is as smart as they are. The two of them fell silent after that and Todd was content to let them stay that way if not for the odd rumbling sound that suddenly came from Katherine even though her mouth did not move at all. "What was that?" the wraith asked, curious and concerned that something may be wrong.
Kate smirked. "It's my stomach; it's telling me to eat something," she released her knees and made to rise only to have Todd rise with her. She dropped her eyes down t the floor. "I should go," she said softly, her voice betraying the fact that she didn't truly want to leave yet no matter how loudly her stomach growled it's instance that she put something in it.
Todd eyed her, sensing her reluctance to depart from his company. The knowledge brought a warm feeling to him that he didn't care to try to explain. "Stay," he beseeched her, taking a step towards her. "I will have food brought for you."
Kate looked up at him. "I wouldn't want to impose," she stammered, not quite sure why he was offering; he couldn't possibly want her to stay that much could he. "I've been here for over five hours and you've probably got better things to do then sit and talk with m -"
"I assure you that I do not," Todd interrupted her curious as to why she wished to get away from him when he had been sure that, not moments before, she had not wanted to leave. "Please, Katherine," she looked up and their eyes met. "Stay, I would enjoy your company after having to deal with those that I did today."
Hearing Todd say 'please' caught Kate so off guard that she immediately consented and sat back down on the settee. Across from her, Todd lowered himself back down into a sitting position as well and then turned to regard her. "What is it you would like to consume?"
Kate blinked and opened her mouth. "A-anything, I'm not picky."
Todd nodded and sent the mental command to the officer in charge of human affairs who had first brought Katherine's inquiries to his attention before returning his own attentions onto the female sitting only a few feet away from him. "I trust my texts have adequately answered your questions?" he inquired, once more opening himself up to a conversation with her that he would not otherwise have with any other human.
Kate nodded absentmindedly. "Mostly."
Todd frowned. "Mostly?" he repeated, echoing her. "What else is there that you would wish to know that is not covered in these volumes?"
Kate, again shrugged, feeling like she'd insulted him somehow by insinuating that, while she'd read almost all of his books, she still had yet more questions. "It's nothing," she said softly. "Forget I said anything."
Todd didn't want to forget; her curiosity concerning his race was one of the many things that endeared her to him and if he could, he would have her know as much as her heart truly desired. "Do not think of your inquires as a bother to me," he informed her. "I would not have offered to assuage your curiosity if I had minded," he gazed at her. "Ask your questions Katherine; I shall answer them to the best of my ability."
Kate couldn't believe that he was being so compliant and immediately asked the first question that sprang to her mind. "How, exactly, did the whole thing with wraith worshipers start?"
Todd considered how best to answer her as he was not all too sure of the exact details himself. "I do not know who, exactly, began the practice but I can guess as to how the situation came about," he looked up and saw that he had Katherine's utmost attention which he decided that he rather liked. "During the war with the Lanteans, we wraith came into contact with many cultures of humans that had not previously known that we existed and who, like we ourselves had been centuries before, did not possess anything like the type of technology we wielded. These humans already regarded the Lanteans to be close to if not the same as gods and so, that we were their equals, meant that we must be as well."
He paused and frowned. "I do not know which queen it was that turned the situation to her advantage but I do know which one was responsible for learning how to convert an unwilling human into our serve. She was punished for it I assure you."
Kate made a face. "Why?" she asked, frowning just slightly.
Todd blinked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, not quite sure why she sounded surprised that the queen responsible for inventing such a procedure was aptly punished for her transgression.
Kate shrugged. "It's just, it seems odd to me that any of the wraith would care how a worshiper was converted as long as they were."
"Perhaps not all would and indeed, there were many that did not care but I did," Todd informed her, understanding her confusion. Katherine looked up at him in confusion and he explained. "I was High Commander of all wraith during the war and I did not believe and still do not believe in forcing anyone, human, wraith or otherwise into doing something that they are not already freely willing to do."
Kate pondered this, morbid curiosity welling up inside of her. "What'd you do to her?" she asked before she could stop herself.
Todd breathed a heavy sigh. "I beheaded her."
Kate looked at him. "You beheaded her?"
He nodded. "I did."
Kate fell silent and looked down at her lap, thinking about what he had just told her. As High Commander, Todd could've easily gotten somebody else to kill the queen for him but the fact that he'd done it himself meant that he's cared enough to see to the matter personally. It spoke volumes about him as an individual and Kate was still pondering over the connotations of it all when the door opened and a male worshiper walked inside. He was holding a tray of food and, at the sight of it, Kate's stomach let out a mighty growl that literally echoed.
Todd glanced at her in amusement and mentally commanded the worshiper to put the tray on the table and then to leave. Once the door had closed behind him, Todd stood and offered his hand to Katherine to help her do the same feeling the still as of yet unexplained warmth spread through him as he felt her hand slid into his. "Your meal," he announced to her as he brought her to the table and released her hand only after she has seated herself. Moving away, he walked around to the other side of the table and sat down in one of the other chairs. Only then did he realize that Katherine's tray had been placed in what was probably the only clear part of a flat surface that existed in the entirety of his quarters.
Kate noticed as well. "Funny," she said, as she picked up her fork which was actually more accurately a spork and dug it into the stew that had been delivered for her. "I didn't think there was any place to put a try in here."
Todd shifted uneasily, feeling mild embarrassment wash over him at the state his quarters were in. He did not normally entertain in them and so had no reason to clean up after himself and in truth, if it were anyone else, he would not care what they thought but it was not. It was Katherine and he suddenly realized that he cared a great deal about what she thought of him in all situations and in all areas. "My apologies," he began, stiffening as he attempted to explain the haphazard mess that was strewn about them. "I do not usually have -"
Kate waved him silent. "It's fine," she told him, finding it cute that he would care what she thought about his living space. "I've seen worse."
Todd cocked his head to one side. "Have you?"
Kate nodded. "When I was a kid, I swear john and David had a competition going as to which one of their rooms could get the most messy before dad came and ordered them to clean it."
Todd frowned. "David?" he asked, having never heard ether she nor Sheppard discuss such a person before.
Kate nodded. "Yeah David, he's my…" she trailed off, a thought occurring to her. "John's never told you that we have another brother has he?"
The wraith shook his head. "No, I was unaware that there was a third Sheppard sibling."
Kate rolled her shoulders and took another bite. "David's the oldest then John and then me," she swallowed and looked up at him, a curious expression on her face. "Do the wraith have brothers and sisters like we do or is everyone related to everyone else?"
Dr. McKay had once asked him a similar question and while he hadn't been inclined at the time to answer the human he felt inclined to now answer Katherine. "We have bloodlines, families, the same as you humans do or, at least, we did. There are still some bloodlines that are pure but, as you suggested, there are many wraith who have many relations most of whom they have never and will never meet."
"And you?" Kate asked, and intense curiosity prodding her to probe deeper into this line of questioning. "What about your bloodline?"
Todd smirked. It had been many hundreds of years since anyone had asked him questions about his bloodline but, regardless of time elapsed, his pedigree was impeccable. "I was my motem and sire's first born and the eldest of six," he informed her, noting the way her eyes lit up at the knowledge; apparently he was a favorite subject of hers. "I have two brothers and three sisters. My motem was the High Queen both before and during the war with the Lanteans."
Kate's eyes got wide. "So you're like, wraith royalty?"
Todd inclined his head. "I am highborn, yes."
"So if your mother, motem," she corrected herself, using his word for mother and ingraining the term into her head, "was the high queen then, you really are the king of the wraith."
Todd grinned, her analogy of his importance and standing amusing him both in its correctness and in how she seemed to react to it. "Sheppard's epithet for me is correct enough I would suppose to being a close proximate of my actual importance and standing."
Kate sat back in her chair, awed. She was about to say more when the door to Todd's quarters opened and Kenny walked in. the much younger wraith too about three steps and then stopped, his eyes looking up from the screen he was holding to lock onto her and stare at her in open and unabashed shock. Clearly he was surprised to see her where she was.
"Yes?" Todd inquired, breaking through his second's stupor. Kenny looked at him and pushed all manner of surprise to the side and bowed respectfully.
"Commander," he said reverently, coming out of his bow and stepping towards his commanding officer, holding out the viewing screen to the elder wraith to take. "The list of repairs still in need of your immediate attention."
Kate caught the emphasis on the word 'immediate' and took it as her cue to leave. "I'll just go now," she said, standing and moving away from the table as Todd looked up at her but remained seated. He didn't look happy to have her leave but seemed to know that their time together was indeed at an end.
"Here," he said, picking up a book from the table and holding it out to her. "For you to occupy yourself with while my attentions are occupied elsewhere and I am unable to answer your inquiries."
Kate took the offered volume and, holding it tightly to her chest, took her leave from them room.
Todd watched her go and felt saddened at her departure; he would have dearly liked for her to remain in his company for quite a bit longer.
Kenny looked down on his commander. "Is it wise, Commander, to allow the female Sheppard to spend any amount of time in your quarters?"
Todd's head snapped up and he glared at his second. Standing he bared down on the youngling. "Are these not my quarters and am I not commander of this hive?" he asked, his voice low and clearly betraying his agitation at the younger wraith for asking such a stupid question.
Kenny bowed once again and took several steps backwards before raising himself and looking directly at his commander. "You are but, her presence here will be seen as suspicious given the normal reasons why female humans are sent to or allowed to spend time in a commanders quarters."
Todd snorted, affronted that this would be the conclusion to which everyone jumped. "That was not why she was here."
Kenny inclined his head. "I know this but, should Sheppard discover that his sister stayed for any length of time in your chambers might make him even more…difficult to deal with."
Todd snarled and stalked past his second angrily. "I entrust you to make sure that he does not become aware that we have spent this time together," he charged his second before he swept from his room and made his way towards the engineering level of his hive.
Kenny followed at a sedate pace, content that he had belayed any more quality time that his commander might be inclined to spend with the female human from Atlantis. The wraith second in command had observed his the Eldest's inclination towards her and knew that it would be best for all involved if his fascination with her was stemmed now before it was allowed to fester. If allowed to grow and develop farther, Kenny did not which to think about the amount of complications and troubles it could and most certainly would cause. He would do everything in his power to keep any amity from developing between the Eldest and Katherine of Atlantis.
Absolutely everything.
~xXx~
After two weeks, the Atlantians had been fairly successful in finding their places within the structure of hive life. The doctor spent her days in the medical bay with both the medical officers and those wraith who were in charge of human affairs. The woman, Jennifer, had been easily persuaded to expand and compound the knowledge of those two groups and Kenny was now under the impression that this hive knew more about human behavior and biology than any other in the galaxy. The insufferable McKay, why the mild mannered doctor would choose him for a mate escaped him, had ended up - after only a few days of doing nothing - assisting them with their repairs.
The remaining four more physically fit members of the Atlantian team had taken to spending their days with the crew ranks of wraith in their daily activities. In the mornings they would eat their meal in the worshiper's hall and then they would train for the rest of the day. In the evenings they would sometimes be included in group activities - there was one table game that the officers liked to play that Sheppard has said was similar to a human game called Risk. Both he and his sister Katherine were fairly good at it and had won their fair share of matches much to the surprise of the crew.
At the moment it was midday and as such, Kenny had wandered down from the upper decks to observe the crew as they practiced their battle skills. In the ring now were two of the younger sub-commanders and the female Sheppard. Kenny had to admit that the woman was good. Every blow she blocked and every attack she countered as she danced round and round across the sparring floor taking out each of her opponents with fluidity and grace that the Hive Second had never before known a human to possess.
"She is very skilled."
Kenny looked up, craning his neck in order to see whom had spoken and espied the Commander standing just above him. "She is," Kenny agreed as he lowered his head back to the fighting floor bemoaning the fact that the commander was here to see her at all. So far, his plan on separation had been successful but now, with the commander here to observe her, Kenny had a very good inclination that all of his effort was about to be for not. It seemed as though the Eldest was as captivated by her as ever.
Todd grunted in response and moved past his Second so that he could take a seat besides him. The training chamber of his hive was larger than most probably because he insisted on large amounts of physical training as well as mental stimulations. Too many hives were lax in their physical prowess and as a result Todd had taken it upon himself to correct this flaw at least in those hives that he controlled. He was actually quite proud of his arena and, as he leaned back against the wall, lifting one of his booted feet up to rest on the seat in front of him, contented himself with the watching of Katherine Sheppard.
Her session ended eventually, the outcome being that she managed to best the younger of the two wraith whilst she and the older came to a standstill. A draw was better than a loss and after bowing to her opponents in gratitude; she walked off the playing field and handed her stave to the runner who was up next. Todd contemplated leaving before she could see him but decided against it, willing himself to remain calm as his dealings with Atlantis would no doubt provide frequent contact with her in the future and now was as good a time as any to regain equilibrium in her presence.
Contrary to his suspicions, she did look up and about the chamber and see him, but she did not seek to join him. Instead she simply nodded to him formally in acknowledgment of his presence and then went to sit besides one of the wraith with whom she had just spared. Todd frowned, his eyes narrowing as she and the young wraith leaned towards each other in conversation.
"Something troubles you?" Kenny asked, the unpleasant feeling of having failed washing though him as he knew before he had even asked his question, what troubled his commander.
Todd's eyes flashed away from Katherine to rest on the curious face of his Second. "Why do you ask?" he queried wondering if perhaps he had let something of his inner emotions slip.
Kenny rolled his shoulders, a gesture that he had learned from his commander and that his commander had learned - ironically - from these humans. "You have been watching her since you arrived," he commented offhandedly, careful to keep any accusation from his voice and thoughts lest his commander hear him; he did not want the elder wraith to know of his attempts to keep him away from the female seated below them. "Is she so captivating?"
Todd let out a long, low hiss that conveyed some but not all of his confusion over the emotions and feelings that the woman below them stirred within him. "Words cannot say," he muttered eventually fully aware of what emotions his Second must be reading from him. "She is an enigma."
Kenny eyed his commander, the years in which he had been in service to this particular wraith affording him the knowledge that the female must truly be complicated if so ancient a wraith had not worked her out by now. His commander was not called the Eldest for nothing and his age had afforded him a great many things including insight into the inner workings of the human species collected and expanded upon by thousands of years of observation and study. If still the woman Katherine bade him pause and gave him thought to ponder on then Kenny was willing to wager that she was unique out of all humans alive.
That did not mean that he was inclined to look past his commander's unhealthy obsession with her. Unique she might be, but she was still human and that would never change.
When the runner's turn was up and Sheppard refused the stave Todd thought that perhaps he had been still and idle for too long. Standing, he made his way towards the arena floor and gave the signal that he was to fight. As he was not dressed for spar he compensated by removing his battle coat and leather robe handing both off to one of his officers before selecting his weapons of choice and stepping forwards into the circle.
The gathered wraith all held their breaths wondering which one of them the Hive Commander would choose as his battle partner. There were legends surrounding this one, the wraith that they all served. He was ancient, older than even the most senior queens and had thus earned the rank of elder. He had been high commander during the Great War and was rumored to be the greatest warrior to have lived. The task of fighting him, even in a spar, was not a comfortable one and each wraith wished that he would not choose them.
Todd smiled at the apprehension on each of his officer's faces. No, they did not want to fight him, they dreaded it and even Sheppard and the runner looked reluctant to try their hand at undoing him regardless of how great he knew their desire was to cause him injury. Indeed, the only one that held his gaze and did not look away as his eyes flickered over them was Katherine. She looked neither intimidated nor afraid of the weapons he had chosen and so, when he walked up to her and handed her a matching set of the fighting daggers he had picked, she did not look away, did not flinch and instead accepted both blades and rose gracefully to her feet. Entering the circle, she stood opposite him and took up her ready stance, her body as tense and as perfectly controlled as his.
Kate honestly wasn't surprised that Todd had chosen her as his opponent although she couldn't say the same for her brother, Ronon or any of the other wraith. They all looked floored and, as she and Todd circled each other, she could feel the collective anticipation and trepidation in the room as the two of them moved.
Todd lunged first, spinning in towards her almost too fast for her to catch but she did. Raising her arms she blocked both the upwards and the downwards cuts from each of his daggers respectively, the strength of his blows causing her arms to reverberate before going numb as her mind focused all its concentration on the fight at hand. She knew, as she blocked him yet again, that he was testing her and suspected that he had wanted to do this since watching her fight Ford. Not wanting to disappoint him, after he made another swipe at her, she pivoted on her right foot and planted her left booted heel against his chest and kicked, sending him away from her.
Todd recovered quickly and then ducked as she finally came after him, waiting for her to get within range and then reached out to lock her neck into place within the crock of his elbow. Her response was a low blow to his stomach with the butt end of her left dagger before she dropped down into a crouch and swiped his feet out from under him.
He landed on his back and had to roll out of the way as she brought her dagger down and embedded it cleanly into the ground were his head had been seconds before. Regaining his feet, he used her position to attack only to get kicked again as Katherine successfully pulled her weapon free from the floor and proceed to stand, ready once more.
A grin spread over Kate's face as Todd came at her again this time managing to collide with her so that she dropped both her daggers. Not to be outdone she back flipped away from him landing in a splits position, grasping both her daggers from the floor where they'd fallen, coming up just in time to strike. As she pulled back she took note and satisfaction in the fact that the wraith was now sporting a long gash over his chest from one shoulder downwards almost to his hip.
Somewhere someone, Todd thought it was Sheppard but he couldn't tell who, yelled and with renewed fever he looked up from the mark on his chest that had already begun to heal towards the woman who had put it there.
"First blood Katherine," he hissed, his eyes dark with battle lust, drinking in the matching expression on her face.
Kate smirked darkly. "Point to me," she breathed, rushing him and embroiling them both into locked combat.
They were evenly matched and, while Kate knew that he was holding back some of his strength, he was not doing the same with his skill. Back and forth they moved, covering every inch of the sparring floor before finally one of his blows landed and Kate felt a sharp pain travel over her arm followed by the sensation that was blood dripping from her wound down the length of her arm. Pulling away only long enough to survey the damage, she cringed at the long slice that was now running down her right appendage from shoulder to elbow.
"My apologies Katherine," Todd growled, his voice deep and reverberating through the silent chamber. "We may stop if you wish."
Her darkened eyes, now a deep charcoal rather than her normal storm grey, flashed up to his and she snarled. "I don't think so," she hissed as she made her next attack and, catching him off guard for the briefest of seconds, stuck him twice in quick succession before drawing back for another shot.
Todd had to admit that goading her was probably not the best idea in the world but he found, that he could not help it. The fervor she had for combat, the fire in her eyes that had caused them to darken to a shade only one or two hues lighter then black, the fact that she had been the one to draw first blood, heightened every sense he had as he suddenly became aware of conditions that would not normally fall under his blanket of observation. Like how her skin was flushed from their battle and appeared to contain more pigmentation then usual or how the sheen of perspiration accented her form and served to draw his eyes to the ever enticing bow and dip of her physique which was, in itself, perfectly poised and taut; ready and able to do onto him a substantial measure of harm in but a moment's time. All of this in combination with the range of emotions that he had already developed for her - respect, trust, amity and a kind of affection that he could not yet name - increased the amount of pull she had on him already so that now, admittedly, he was enthralled. She was beautiful in her deadliness, exotic, wild and so very passionate that Todd could no longer deny the fact that he wanted her.
As he felt first one and then another of her strikes land on him, felt her blades slice at him and saw the fire in her eyes flash and then blaze more brightly in the wake of her triumph, the wraith backed away from her and discarded both of his daggers - several people yelped and ducked as the blades flew over their heads. Coming back towards her unarmed, he rendered her bladeless in one stroke and used his strength to turn her about and hold her still, one arm across her chest and the other grasping tightly to her shoulder with enough force to draw blood from the pressure of his nails digging into her skin.
Kate let out a hiss of pain and responded to this new assault by flexing both of her elbows back, gouging them into his sides and causing his hold on her to weaken enough for her to twist away from him. He caught her by the hip and spun her back towards him just as she ducked and hooked her right leg around his using the combined momentum of her move and his pull to send them both crashing to the ground. She maneuvered quickly, one leg trapped under him, and reached out to grab one of her fallen daggers and, pressing her knee into his sternum brought the blade swiftly to his throat and held.
"Yield," she commanded of him, pressing the blade farther to his throat and waiting to see what move he would make next.
Todd was breathing heavily and could feel the deliciousness of her weight atop of him even as he felt the edge of her dagger nick the skin of his neck. Flicking his eyes back up to hers, he allowed his body to relax in a show of submission to her victory.
"I yield," he hissed feeling the desire that had began to build as he'd fought her peak. Before he could act upon it however; she pulled away and, upon reflection, he concluded that her retreat had been for the better. Sitting up, he rested his forearms on his bent knees and regarded the reactions to his loss at Katherine's hands in the chamber about him, the awareness of the others coming back to him in a rush as the distance between Katherine and himself widened. She had retreated back to the company of her brother and teammates whilst his wraith had begun to look at one another in contemplation and curiosity; some of the braver individuals amongst his crew even daring to whisper to one another amongst themselves. This action worried him slightly and, as he stood, he sent out his mind to collect the thoughts of those about him and gauge their reactions to his defeat. What he found soothed him and caused his concern to bleed away: his crew's opinion of him was in no way diminished by his loss at the hands of a human female as they all, with the notable exception of his second in command, thought that he had been holding back.
Which, he supposed, was true to an extent. He had not utilized the full intensity of his strength but, contrary to what the rest of his crew believed, that was the only thing that he had not used to his full ability. All his skill and grace, his finesse and flare for combat had been employed in their spar and still Katherine had beaten him. Wraith did not like to admit defeat to those who were less than they were and so, that she had emerged triumphant against him only furthered the belief that he had made upon their first meeting that Katherine was, truly, his only equal among the humans of Atlantis. Shaking his head to clear it, Todd left the arena floor and went to the place where he'd lain his outer garments to rest. The situation he now found himself in with Katherine was a delicate one and would have to be treated as such if he choose to proceed and, at this stage in his realizations, he was not so sure that such a move would be either wise or worth it.
More information would have to be gathered before such a decision could be made with any certainty.
As Todd was busy getting redressed, John was busy examining his sister's arms, neck and abdomen for the various cuts, nicks and gashes that her little tiff with Todd had rewarded her with. "What on earth were you thinking?" he demanded as he forced her to sit and then promptly grabbed her right arm and proceeded to go over the two very frightening cuts that ran down its length. "Were you thinking?"
Kate snatched her arm away. "I'm fine," she tried to tell him, not at all in the mood to be subject to her brother's over protectiveness. Not when adrenaline was still coursing through her veins with such force or while her mind was still focused on what Todd looked like underneath all his leather. That last thought left a flush upon her skin that had nothing to do with her exertion.
"You are not fine," Teyla interrupted before John could argue with her as the Athosian rather thought that stating simple fact would serve better as persuasion then simply arguing. "Come," she insisted, "You must go see Jennifer."
Kate huffed and stood, backing away from her friend's suffocating hands. "I'm fine, really," she assured them all, "I was made to take stuff like this remember?" she retreated more; "I'm just going to go take a bath and then get some rest. I'll see you all at dinner."
"But-" unfortunately for John she disappeared before he could comment farther and so, without his sister to harp on about the wisdom of accepting a challenge from Todd, the colonel instead marched over to the wraith who had challenged her and began to interrogate him.
Ronon watched him go, his mind going back to the look Todd had pegged Kate with before she had left him and come back to them. "Think we should tell Sheppard?" he asked Teyla knowing that the observant woman wouldn't need any more of an explanation to know what he was talking about.
She sighed. "Do you mean should we tell John that humans and wraith are compatible?" at his slight nod she sighed yet again. "No Ronon I do not."
The former runner looked her over before turning his attention back to Sheppard who was currently threatening to shoot a smug looking Todd who was only too happy to remind the colonel that he didn't have a gun and was furthermore on his hive surrounded by wraith. "Think we should tell him the other thing?" he asked after a while.
To this, Teyla had to honestly think. "No," she said eventually after going over all of their options and their possible outcomes in her head. "I see no reason why we should inform the Colonel of Todd's interest in Kate."
Ronon grunted. "Interest?" he turned towards her as she looked up at him. "That," he pointed to the now empty arena floor for emphasis, "That wasn't interest, Teyla you saw the way he was looking at her," Ronon sighed. "That was desire. He wants her."
It was Teyla's turn to eye the floor before she cast her gaze up to her fellow native. "Yes," she said evenly, "He does, but I do not see what good could come from telling John of this."
The Setedan snorted. "It'll give Sheppard reason to shoot him, seems like a good enough reason to me."
"Even you will have to admit that Todd has been the best ally we have had against the wraith," she hissed, careful to keep her tone low so as not to alert either of the arguing males standing some twenty feet to their right to the subject matter of their conversation.
"He is wraith," Ronon stressed, feeling the need to drive this point home. "He only helps us when it's in his best interest," he took a step towards Teyla and lowered his voice still farther. "What happens when he finally does take control of all the hives in the galaxy?"
Teyla's breath hitched. "We do not know that that is his eventual goal," she countered.
"The hell it isn't," Ronon bit out. "Todd's the greediest son of a bitch that I've ever met. He always wants more power, why do you think he puts up with us and keeps helping us take out other factions of wraith? He doesn't want there to be anyone around that could challenge him and when the rest of the wraith are either gone or under his control who do you think he'll turn on?"
Teyla couldn't deny that his reasoning was sound based on what they knew of the wraith but since her subterfuge as queen; she had come to view Todd as being different then his fellows. "He is not the same as all wraith Ronon," she said with conviction. "He will not turn on us."
Ronon resisted the urge to growl. "So you're willing to stake Kate on the fact that he won't turn on us?" he demanded.
Teyla looked fearfully at him. "What are you talking abo-"
"A wraith that wants a human companion isn't going to just let her go because she's an ally," he said, leaning forwards. "If he can't get her to come to him willingly then you know as well as me that there's nothing to stop him from using force."
"Todd is not like other wraith," she stressed again. "He does not find human females to be attractive and the only reason he takes exception to Kate is because she is his equal. Ronon," her voice calmed, "During my time as queen he told me what he thinks of the companion trade. Trust me when I say that he does not approve."
Ronon growled quietly. "And you're willing to bet her life on the fact that Todd won't force her?"
Teyla nodded, knowing this to be true. "He may be many things Ronon but he is steadfast in his opinions and beliefs. He is not going to change them for her. Believe that he will not move forward, that he will not pursue her. She is colonel Sheppard's sister, an Atlantian, and you would be fooling yourself if you think that he is not fully aware of those facts. Pursing her would not be in his best interests. Desire passes and fades with time. He will do nothing."
Ronon sighed, willing for the moment to grant Teyla his acquiescence. "Fine," he agreed, "We won't tell Sheppard," he turned on her, "But if he does anything, makes any advance -"
"Then I will concede that you were right and that I was mistaken," Teyla snapped.
"Fine," Ronon repeated, he and Teyla moving off to go extract Colonel Sheppard from his argument with Todd before he forgot that he was on a hive full of wraith and did something stupid.
~xXx~
For the next few days Todd stayed away from the humans as he did not want or need to have another confrontation with Sheppard. He did, however, send a worshipper to tend to Katherine after their rather vigorous spar and to report back to him her condition. He was pleased to learn that she suffered no serious injury and that what wounds he had inflicted upon her were superficial. The lacerations that she had given him had already healed by the time he'd managed to return to his room that day.
The repairs to his hive were going smoothly and for the first time in a long while, Todd had to admit that the pressing matter of maintenance was not enough to hold his interest for any length of time. Instead, he found that his mind would often wander back to his confrontation with Katherine or to any other of the various memories he had with her in them. She was becoming a distraction and, unlike in previous years when such as this had happened, he did not find that he particularly minded all that much. To dwell on her was quickly becoming his favorite pastime and so it was that against the better judgment of his Second, on the eleventh day of their stay onboard his hive, he sought her out.
As he recalled from his conversation with the head of human affairs so many days pervious, Katherine would most likely be bathing at this time and so steered his steps towards the public washing chamber. Along the way he was cast several strange looks from his crew and officers which he choose to ignore as he felt he owed them nothing by way of an explanation for his actions. Also during the walk he took the liberty of calling one of the worshipers to him. As it was uncommon for any of the worshipers to see him even though they knew of his presence and had ingrained it into their daily lives, the young woman that answered his mental call looked positively terrified as she stood before him outside of the bathing room.
"You need not fear me," Todd rumbled in an attempt to draw crease to her constant trembling. "Now, I require assistance from you."
The woman gulped. "W-what assistance might that b-be my Lord?" she asked shakily.
Todd sighed, his attempt at waylaying her fear obviously having failed. "You will go and find the Atlantian named Katherine. You will ask her if she has any plans for this evening and, should her answer be no, you will tell her that upon completion of her bath she is to come to me," he looked down on his servant's bowed head and sneered, "And do not call me Lord."
"Yes, my-" she gulped and paused, uncertain as to what to call him now and so settled on using his rank, "Hive Commander."
Todd nodded his head in approval before sending the messenger on her way, turning on his heel and stalking back up to the wraith occupied portions of his hive. He had heard rumors from his officers that both Katherine and Sheppard were relatively skilled in the table game employed by wraith as a way to test their tactical skills. He had been surprised to be told this and now he thought that asking Katherine to play such a game with him would be a suitable alternative to asking her to once again spar with him. He did not need another lecture from Sheppard nor the slight guilt he had retained over causing her injury and so had settled upon this next course of action.
He would also not make the mistake of taking her to his room again as that too had earned him an interrogation although not from Sheppard but rather, from Kenny who had consistently and continually argued with him about his having let Katherine stay in his quarters for any length of time and what the connotations of it all was. Apparently there were many and Kenny had been only too pleased to list them all off; Todd had started to ignore and then evade his second after the younger wraith had reached his sixtieth reason for which his commander's free time should not be spent in the company of Katherine Sheppard. No, instead he would take her to the officer's lounge; a large well furnished and comfortably adorned room just below the bridge that was reserved for the leisure activities of the highest ranking officers on the hive. As that number was sitting at a comfortable six excluding himself and his Second and as he knew that three of his highest officers had other evening engagements in which they liked to participate involving worshippers, he knew that her presence there would not cause so large an alarm or suspicion.
His motivation for the actions that he had already put into motion was, simply, the sudden and overwhelming desire to spend time with her which such an activity as this would easily accomplish. Where his longing sprung from, Todd neither knew nor cared but he found himself a slave to it and that, for the first time in his life, was not so terrible a thought to him. In fact, he found that he looked forwards to once more having a conversation with Katherine quite a bit more then he looked forwards to doing anything else.
As he entered the leisure room and chose a seat in one of the back corners of the room, the hive commander sat down and soon found himself impatient, inwardly wondering how long it would before Katherine was brought to him. He did not have to wait long and, moments later, found his mind was filled with the questions and curiosities of those few wraith that were currently sharing the room with him. Looking up, he caught sight of her as the female worshipper hesitantly brought her forwards. Unlike her guide, the Atlantian woman did not look afraid to suddenly find herself amongst so many powerful wraith and was instead curious while the woman whom she followed was visibly shaking in fear. The difference between the two human females made the Hive Commander smile slightly as he stood and turned to greet her.
"Katherine," he hissed lowly, sketching her a slight but formal bow.
Kate eyed him. "You wanted to see me," she responded to his formal greeting not bothering to keep the minor surprise nor the intense curiosity from her voice.
Todd nodded and sank back down into the cushioned seat upon which he had previously sat. Relaxing himself and allowing more insouciance to show in his posture then he ever had when in the presence of his Atlantian allies before, he waved a hand over the likewise pillowed seats across from him. "Please," he enticed her, "Sit."
Kate sat and had to admit that she was more than slightly confused by the way he was behaving. For starters he looked relaxed which, if she remembered correctly, Evan had told her was something Todd just didn't do. He was always stoic and stiffly impassive; rigid and uncompromising in body language and speech. He did not lean, did not slouch and did not do anything like what he was doing now. Apparently she wasn't the only one that found his behavior a little off, a quick glance around at his wraith found them looking at him oddly too.
His head bobbed slightly as he watched her look around before settling her eyes back on him. "Does my manner confuse you?" he asked her teasingly.
Kate looked at him and deciding to skip the word games and get right down to the point. "Why am I here?" she asked him bluntly.
Todd sighed. "You are here because I would that we were to know each other more adequately," he looked her over noting how, once more, she was wearing clothing representative of his culture rather then her own. He found that he preferred her in fashions native to his stars then in ones native to hers, they complimented her better and enticed his eyes to wonder for freely then they could when she was dressed in her uniform or some other earth made garment.
"You are different then the other Atlantians," he offered anew, feeling that he at least owed her a partial explanation if not one of full disclosure, "You do not see me and mine as simply creatures that you must destroy. You have, in the past, asked numerous questions as to hint at your desire to know of the wraith as a people rather than just a faceless enemy."
Kate snorted. "Is that all?" she asked feeling as though she wasn't quite deserving of the honor he was now giving her.
"You do not feel worthy of my acquaintance, Katherine?" he asked, wondering if he was correctly interpreting the downcast to her features as inadequacy.
"I'm human, you're wraith," her response proved him correct.
He frowned. "And does this fact matter so much to you?" he inquired.
She shook her head. "Not to me, no," she admitted.
"Ah," he breathed, "Then you are concerned for the reactions of your peers?"
She looked around. "Yours too," she nodded towards two of his wraith who had been watching, and she suspected listening, to them since she'd sat down. "To the humans of this galaxy you aren't anything more than nameless if regrettably not faceless tyrants who rule over them with iron fists. To us in Atlantis you're mostly just faceless enemies that need to be exterminated. On the other hand, humans to you regardless of origin are just lesser intelligent cattle that can be herded and corralled at will."
Todd's eyes swept over his wraith, narrowing and giving them silent orders to go back to their own business before he returned his gaze to Katherine. "My wraith are long dead Katherine," he informed her truthfully. "Those whom think and behave as I do are long since dust; very few of them remain. Trust me when I say that I do not care what those that live now think of me."
Kate let out a breath that came out in a hiss. "Be that as it may," she began, "You might be different but those that serve you -"
"Do as I say," Todd interrupted her patiently, "Most wraith seek to be led whether it be by a queen or by a strong commander. Do not concern yourself with them; they will abide by my ruling."
She shook her head, a wiry smirk of disbelief at his arrogance smearing her face. "How about your other hives?" she asked plainly, "Do they do as you say when you aren't there to rule them?"
Todd observed her quizzically, wondering where she was going with this line of questioning. "They would be foolish not to," he informed her, his eyes searching her face for any sign as to what she was thinking only to draw blank. "I am curious" he asked her, leaning forwards just slightly, "Why you care so much about how I conduct my hives."
Kate snorted. "It's proven fact that the majority of wraith think little or nothing of humans -"
"I am not all wraith," Todd asserted, an angry tone to his voice that betrayed his displeasure at once more being compared and likened to 'most wraith'.
Kate bowed her head in leniency. "I know that," she soothed him, "That's not my point. My point is that since humans are food at best to the vast majority of wraith in general, when we're not proving sustenance we're just creatures to be either overlooked and ignored or to be destroyed and exterminated because we dare to challenge you. The wraith have a long history of destroying those worlds that challenge them not for food but for pride. How then, does this make you any different than the Ancients?"
She paused and studied his face. He didn't look like he could decide whether to be mad at her for comparing him or any other wraith to the Ancient's they so hated or whether he was intrigued or not by what she had to say. Taking a deep breath, she continued.
"The Ancients liked to play God. They liked to be the ones to decide who advanced and who didn't, who lived where and who got to live at all. They were admittedly brilliant there's no contesting that, but they were also arrogant and completely consumed by the belief that they knew best for everyone. In my world that's called tyranny and from what I've seen of the wraith as a whole, they're not much different," she concluded.
Todd didn't know what part of her speech made him more angry. That the wraith should be compared to those who had tried so very hard to wipe them from existence or that in the very farthest parts of his mind he had the sinking feeling that she was right. "The only reason you humans fear us," he began in rebuttal, "Is because we cull."
Kate offered him a one off smile that quickly dissolved off her face. "Not exactly," she argued. "If you just culled us, for food, then yes you would be feared just like any other prey fears it's hunters but you don't. The wraith use their method of feeding to inflict pain, convert unwilling humans into their service, and destroy entire civilizations just because they dare to challenge you. All life as the right to enough food to live, but you take in excess and that is wrong by natural law not just some moral guide that we brought with us from Earth."
For the first time in a long while Todd was feeling decidedly guilty which was not a feeling he was used to entertaining in any conceivable sense of the word. Katherine had a decent point and faced with this new evidence her earlier comment about his race being no different from those they hated suddenly seemed more plausible and entirely more dissatisfying. "I will concede that the leveling of worlds that look to challenge us is a bit tyrannical," he allowed with a slight and respectful nod of his head, "But beyond that-"
"What?" Kate interrupted him defiantly, "Your race depends on mine to survive and that's fine. Like I said, every creature that breaths is entitled the right to eat in order to survive. If the wraith only fed when they needed to there would be a hell of a lot more humans out there then there are. You use your feeding as a weapon, a weapon used to exert control over everyone who is not one of you."
"And this is why you and yours seek to take that power away from us?" he concluded, his voice a dark hiss. "Your gene therapy would remove this weapon from our arsenal."
Kate nodded. "Yes. Granted, it probably won't stop the lot of you from destroying worlds that would defy you but it would certainly make lives better for most of us."
His eyes narrowed. "How would it improve our lives?" he questioned, "Your reasons for doing this are self serving and nothing more."
"Who are you to decide who has the right to live or die? Who has the right to advance or not?" her eyes flashed, "The Ancients, both ascended and non with the exception of maybe one, like to think of themselves as beings of some higher and greater worthiness; like they're better than us and everyone else simply for being. Compared to them however, your arrogance is far more condescending."
Todd leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms and growled. This was not the conversation he had brought her here to discuss and yet somehow they had managed to get into not only a moral debate but a historical one as well. There were various reasons why the wraith culled and she'd pointed out a fair number of them none of which were the original reasons why his species had taken to their current feeding arrangement. Sitting here, comparing the then and the now in his head, the ancient wraith was forced to face the conclusion that his race had gotten rather egotistical about their own importance. Wraith, however, were prideful creatures and did not like to admit to being wrong or to having made mistakes. That their entire culture, which had come to completely revolve around their cullings, was one big terrible mistake was not something that Todd was willing to entertain and so he slipped into the same reasoning that the rest of his race upheld whenever faced with this particular moral dilemma: he was right and she was simply misinformed and therefore wrong.
Kate didn't need her brother's briefly lived mind reading ability to know that she'd managed to piss Todd off. The wraith was glaring at her with his arms crossed wearing an expression that he usually reserved for either her brother or Woolsey. Fortunately for her, she didn't care if her words made him mad becasue he'd needed to hear them. For as long as she'd known him, which she'd admit wasn't long, he'd shown deep derision for the arrogance of the Ancients and yet he and his were just as guilty of playing God as they were. She wouldn't deny that they had the right to feed to live and if they only used humans in this manner then there wouldn't be a problem but they didn't and it was those other reasons that made the wraith so hated. Unfortunately she knew that she wasn't going to change his mind on this overnight and so, after sighing heavily, she stood.
Todd looked up. "Where are you going?" he demanded, more brusquely then perhaps he meant to but his anger was still mostly in control of his attitude. Still, he did not desire for her to leave.
Kate looked down on the sulking wraith. "I think I've overstayed my welcome don't you?" she asked plainly holding her gaze to his evenly.
His hard gaze softened. While he would admit that she certainly had more sense of when to fold then her brother did, he also had to admit that were she any other human he would have already dismissed her with a growl and a hiss. The fact remained however, that all through their by now lengthy discussion not once had she condemned him for the fact that his survival revolved around the painful termination of members of her own species. Sheppard had often damned him for this fact claiming that he was wrong for no other reason than his chosen food happened to be able to think and didn't want to die. Katherine did not judge him for this, did not hold it against him that in order to live he had to take the lives of humans to do so.
Above him, she held his gaze for a fraction of a second longer before turning to take her leave. Todd rumbled his displeasure - which was not quite a growl - and stood quickly, darting out a hand to stay her and wrapping his fingers around her wrist before she could completely distance herself from him.
Kate gasped, her eyes widening a fraction as she felt Todd's vice like digits close around the skin of her right wrist and hold her in place. His skin, despite being cool to the touch, seared her with from their contact and she turned to him; question burning in her eyes.
"Stay," Todd breathed, unwilling to release her from his hold until he was certain she would not try to depart from him.
She searched his face and found nothing but sincerity reflected back at her. "But you're angry with me," she argued, not quite sure why he would wish for her to remain after the turn their conversation had taken.
He hissed. "You are as much entitled to your beliefs as am I," he brushed away her objections. "Stay, Katherine. We do not have to discuss such matters, believe me it is not the reason for which I summoned you."
She held his gaze and narrowed her eyes in curiosity. "Why did you summon me?" she asked him.
Todd let out a low rumbling noise that could almost be called a purr. Stepping closer to her he willed her back into a sitting position before releasing her wrist and retaking his seat. Looking at her across from him, he gestured towards two of his officers who were engaged in the same game he had intended for them to play. "My officers tell me you are familiar with the intricacies of this diversion," he watched for her reaction, saw her relax somewhat from her alert state and settle back into a comfortable position.
"Yes," she answered slowly, finding it hard to believe that playing a game was the reason he'd originally had for asking her to be brought to him.
Todd smiled. "Would you consent to play, as my opponent?
Her breath caught at the thought that should she say yes she would be spending time with him in an activity that didn't involve weapons, war, him needing something, something going wrong or anything else other then leisure and fun. It actually wasn't so terrible an idea and if she were honest with herself she knew that it was a scenario she had often played for herself over and over again in her mind.
"Katherine?" Todd's inquisitive voice woke her from her thoughts.
She looked up. "I would like that," she said sincerely and watched his face break into true pleasure for the first time since she'd met him.
"Good," he hissed and waved his hand in indication for a table to be brought to them. The playing surface was arranged between them by one of the male worshipers that lined the walls and stood ready to do the bidding of he and his officers.
When all was ready and the pieces arranged, he looked up at her and saw that her eyes were already alight with the endless possibilities that lay spread before her. Settling back and turning his own mind to the game at hand, he knew without even having played the first move that for the first time in a long while he was about to be truly challenged. Smiling, he reached forwards and moved his first piece across the board before moving back and allowing Katherine to do the same.
~xXx~
"So it's been fun," John said to the wraith who stood at the end of the ramp leading up to his transport. "Really, but let's not do it again anytime soon."
Todd snorted in amusement. "Agreed," he hissed, "I have had quite enough of you, Sheppard, to last a very long while."
John grinned. "Glad we agree," he looked back on his team all of whom were waiting rather impatiently for him to finish up his conversation with Todd so that they could dial the gate and go home. He turned back, "So, in light of all this, I shouldn't expect to see you any time soon right? Say, at least a month?"
This time the wraith outright laughed. "You shall see me whenever the situation arises, Sheppard," he informed the human who frowned. "I will however, endeavor to make sure that a sufficient amount of time has passed before I subject you once more to my presence."
"Oh good," John breathed a sigh of relief and then turned once more to his eagerly awaiting team. "Okay guys," he called out, "Say good-bye to Todd. We won't be seeing him for a while."
Rodney looked like Christmas had just come early. "Oh thank God," he exclaimed, "I've had quite enough of wraith thank you."
"Rodney," Jennifer scolded her husband and nodded towards the now smirking wraith. "Not when he can hear you."
The doctor's manners and mild personality personally made her less irritable then the other humans and Todd felt the need to repay the kindness that she always offered him. "Do not concern yourself with my feelings, doctor," he soothed her, "I assure you that I am as eager to be rid of your mate as he is of me."
Jennifer felt better and nodded her appreciation to the wraith who nodded back.
Teyla was next to offer her good-byes and did so with a formal bow that was the way of those native to this galaxy and that included the wraith. Similarities between customs whether they be human, wraith or other life form were unanimous throughout the Pegasus galaxy even if they did sometimes have variations. She was rewarded by a low and graceful nod of his head which she supposed was the closest a wraith would ever get to actually bowing to a human.
Ronon was less formal. "I won't miss you," he told the stoic, leather clad creature who sneered in response.
"I wouldn't expect you to," Todd glared at the Setedan before his gaze turned to Katherine. "And you?" he asked, curious as to what manner of farewell she would give him if any.
Kate smiled at him. "I won't miss you either," she lied through her teeth and saw his face fall but a fraction that she was willing to bet went unnoticed by everyone but her. "But I wouldn't be opposed to seeing you again sometime soon."
So, she would not long for his company but unlike the others she would be against his appearance in the near future. Todd supposed that in some manner this was encouraging although not as blatant as he would have liked to hear from her. Nonetheless, he offered her a bow of valediction same as he had offered the Athosian only more pronounced as he bowed from his waist as if he were sending off an equal which he was. The surprise over his action was evident on the faces of both Teyla and the runner while the significance of what he had just done was lost on everyone else. Holding his pose for a fraction of a second, he straightened and turned back to Sheppard.
"Until we meet again," he rumbled, still pleased with Katherine's farewell.
John nodded. "Yeah," he answered dispassionately.
"Can we go now?" Ronon yelled, his irritation over this whole good-bye session grating at him almost as much as Todd's bowing to Kate.
John sighed and turned away from the wraith and started walking towards his team. "Yeah, we can go," he turned to Rodney, "Dial the gate."
The Canadian scientist jumped at the chance and scrambled over to the DHD and began inputting the symbols to Atlantis' address. The gate activated and John pulled out his IDC, punched in his code and then waited for the radio contact that he knew was to come. On cue, Woolsey's voice filtered into his ear just as the sound of Todd's transport's engine roared to life signaling the wraith's departure back to his hive.
"Colonel Sheppard, is that you?" Woolsey asked.
John sighed. "Yeah," he replied, "It's me."
There was a pause and then, "We were beginning to give up hope. Where have you been?"
"Todd's hive," was his response, "Listen, I'd love to tell you all about it after we all get a shower and some rest."
"Understood," Woolsey replied, "I'm lowering the shield. You do know that you and your team will have to be checked out in the infirmary first?"
"Yeah, we got know," John said irritably, "Security and all that jazz."
"Right," Woolsey answered, "Shield's down Colonel, come on home."
"Oh thank God," John muttered under his breath and then turned to his team. "Right guys, it's infirmary first and then bed. Come on, let's move out."
Teyla, Rodney, Jennifer, Ronon and Kate were only too happy to comply.
~xXx~
After an hour in the infirmary, a bath - sixteen days worth of not taking showers on board a hive had all more or less turned the whole group of them off of taking showers - a couple hours of sleep and then the debriefing from hell and Kate was back in her room reading through Todd's journal again. Having spent so much time on a hive, learning how it worked and how it's society was structured, made his descriptions and just the overall ambiance of his written words take on new and profound meaning to her. Not to mention she'd now read the damned thing enough that she no longer needed to translate anything and was pretty certain that she could speak wraith as well as read it.
A knock on her door drew her from her thoughts and she put the leather bound tome down on her bedside table before getting up to answer the door. "Hey Evan," she greeted, standing back to allow her best friend and fellow major to enter the room baring a tub of ice cream and two spoons.
He flashed her a grin. "Hey," he responded in kind and held up the frozen treat that he'd pilfered from the kitchen. "Feel up to some company?"
Kate smiled and led the way over to her bed and sat down, moving the journal to her bedside table as Lorne took a seat opposite her and crossed his legs Indian style. "So?" she asked, taking the carton from his hands and prying the lid off before taking up the spoon he offered her and digging into the delicious strawberry goodness.
Lorne looked at her for a moment before picking up his own spoon and likewise digging in. They sat in silence for a few minutes just eating ice cream and enjoying each other's company before the major could no longer take it. "So you were on a hive for two weeks," he began, "What was that like?"
The woman across from him laughed and smiled. "Strange would be the word I'd use if I had to pick one," she informed him, taking another bite.
"And if you could use more than one?" he prompted.
She let out a sigh. "Enlightening, eye-opening, curious," she paused and looked down, eyeing her bedspread with intense concentration. "Fun."
"Fun?" Lorne repeated; his voice incredulous. "How is spending sixteen days on a hive surrounded by wraith fun?"
"It wasn't all that bad really," she assured him, "Once we settled into a routine, we spent most of the day sparing and training with the crew."
Lorne snorted. "Bet Ronon loved that; a legitimate excuse to pound the shit out of a whole bunch of wraith."
"Yeah he was in heaven," Kate agreed and then sobered, "John nearly had a heart attack when I sparred with Todd."
Lorne almost spit out his ice cream. "You what?" he demanded, shocked and slightly impressed despite his better judgment telling him that that probably hadn't been a good idea.
Kate nodded slowly. "Yeah," she smirked, "I drew first blood. Sliced him from his right shoulder all the way across his chest to his left hip."
Lorne digested this information. "So," he started, "I take it you are now aware of what a wraith looks like when not cocooned in absurd amounts of leather?"
A blush tinted her cheeks and she grinned girlishly. "Yep," she confirmed.
Her friend looked at her carefully. "Is he as solid as he looks?" he inquired honestly curious.
She nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah," she breathed heavily, "Most of the wraith, from what we saw, are well built but fairly thin and lanky. Todd's…not. Yeah he's tall but his shoulders are wide and he's built more like Ronon."
"Huge and bulky," Lorne concluded and received a nod before studying her, "I take it you approved?"
Again her cheeks stained pink. "Boy did I," she confessed, "I think he got me more flustered then the exercise," her mind flashed back over how he had looked, bared to the waist, as he'd circled her. "His entire back's covered with tattoo's," she informed her friend, "And he's got another one on his right shoulder that goes down almost to his elbow," a silly grin plastered itself onto her face. "It's nice."
Lorne sensed trouble coming from all of this and his mind traveled back to the conversation they'd had over this issue not too long ago. "But," he started apprehensively, "You're still not gonna pursue anything right?"
Kate laughed and looked up at her friend. "Yeah right," she chuckled, "Like you could see me chasing after a wraith," she snorted, generally amused by his apparent concern over this. "Rest assured Evan, no I'm not gonna go asking Todd out on a date. Besides, this is an entirely one sided thing. The chances of him actually liking me, like liking me, are slim to none."
God I hope so, Lorne thought to himself as he washed the worry from his expression and settled back to talk of other things. "So," he picked up again, "Other than the fact that you think Todd's got a really nice upper body, what else happened?"
Kate smiled, took another bite of ice cream and went on.
~xXx~
"You wished to see me Commander?"
Todd looked up from the map of space that his alliance controlled and turned towards his respectfully waiting Second who stood just inside the door to his private quarters. "Yes," he answered the other, motioning him towards him with a simple flex of his wrist.
The Second walked towards him slowly, coming to a rest besides his commander and waited patiently for the elder to speak. When he did not, Kenny concluded that he was lost in thought and so sought to pull him from his reverie. "Commander?" he questioned lightly and as unobtrusively as he could.
The senior wraith's thoughts snapped and he looked up to his second in command and comrade whose opinion and council he had every reason to trust unquestionably. "Tell me," he began, "Why do the wraith cull?"
Kenny eyed his commander in confusion, confounded by the question that was being asked of him. "Commander?"
Todd sighed and tried a more direct approach. "Do you know why it is that we cull the humans as we do? Do you know the reasons for which this practice was begun?"
The second considered his options, his mid traveling over what he has been told of wraith history and what he had learned of it from this very ancient individual. "I do not know the reasons for which the practice was begun," he admitted slowly and watched his commander nod guessing that the elder had most likely expected this answer from him. "But as for the reason we continue, I would suspect that besides the obvious need to nourish ourselves we do it to maintain control over those that are weaker and less able then us."
Todd took this answer and it's reasoning in stride, his mind flashing back to the words Katherine had spoken to him some few days pervious. "And who are we," he asked of the much younger wraith before him, "To decide who is beneath us?"
Now Kenny was really confused as he had no idea as to the reason or understanding behind these questions. He suspected, however, that the Atlantians had something to do with it and, inwardly, he cursed them their self righteous morals which bade them condemn their ways as wrong. "The humans are less able bodied then are we," he reasoned using the arguments that wraith had used for thousands of years and that were taught to the young as fact. "Their minds are less developed then ours, they are unable to reach the same levels of intelligence as are we. They are crude and for the most part witless. They do not possess our years nor can they obtain them. By all evidence they are lesser beings."
"It is not a fault of theirs nor one that they control that limits their age advancement," Todd countered and watched his second think this one through, "We cannot hold that against them."
Kenny nodded, supposing that his commander was right on that account. "But the others -"
"Yes they are less able bodied in most cases, some factions of humans bare more strength of arm and leg then others," he continued, interrupting his second, his own mind working out these reasoning's that he had often gone over since his conversation with Katherine. "As for their intelligence; it is not that they are unable to learn it is simply that the wealth of knowledge we possess is not available to them. Given time and proper instruction they could well become as knowledgeable as are we."
"Commander?" Kenny was now more than fairly concerned. "What has brought this contemplation on?"
Todd turned to him. "A conversation I had with Katherine," he informed his subordinate offhandedly. "I am beginning to think that she is more correct then I first assumed."
Kenny gulped, almost fearing the answer to his next inquiry but felling the pressing need to ask it regardless of the answer. "And what do you plan to do with this…new way of thinking?"
The ancient wraith really hadn't thought much beyond having reached this particular set of conclusions. "I do not know," he muttered, turning his eyes back to his map. "I do know that the wraith have changed much since my youth and, should they continue on the path that they have chosen, we are in grave danger of becoming too like those that once sought to destroy us."
"We are nothing like the Lanteans!" Kenny hissed defiantly.
Todd sighed. "Oh but we are," he turned back towards his Second. "We become more and more like them with each human world we destroy simply to appease our own pride. The wraith are dying, the young as you have shown me no longer possess the knowledge of why we do as we do. We are not Gods to lord over all other beings in this galaxy and we are fools to try. Our arrogance will be our downfall."
Kenny stared at this most ancient of wraith and felt the truth of his words pull at his own reasoning of what was and was not fact. "What can we do?" he asked, fearing for the survival of his race most keenly.
"We must change," Todd answered, "Adapt. The humans may be our food source but they are not our lessers because of it. They have as much a right to live and flourish as do we."
Knowing what was coming but deciding to ask anyway, Kenny took a tentative step towards his commander. "This means that we will once again accept the gene therapy offered to us by the Atlantians?"
The elder wraith nodded. "Yes. Yes, I believe we will."
Kenny sighed. "And how will this change things?" he asked, "How will this one thing continue our race?"
"It will stop the wars," Todd answered him. "The wraith do battle with one another not out of disagreement but out of dispute over feeding grounds. We will eventually starve if we do not find an alternative source of nourishment. Ending our need to feed will stop the need to fight amongst ourselves. It will save thousands upon thousands of wraith lives."
"Is this your only motivation?" Kenny asked his leader, "Do you agree to this simply out of benefit for our own race or do you seek to aid the humans as well? You know that they believe that once we no longer require the need to feed then we will crease our attacks against them."
"And we will," Todd said commandingly. "As I have said, we have no more right to decide the fate of a civilization's development then the Lanteans did. Their war with us was begun because they feared the day we would equal them in technology and resources. For us to level human worlds because we fear the same makes us no better then they."
After making this avowal, Kenny was dismissed from his Commander's presence and sent back to his duties on the bridge. As he walked, his steps distancing himself from the contemplative wraith still locked in his quarters staring at a map, the Hive's Second in Command knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that his Commander was right and the guilt he felt as a result of all his life acting on principals that made him no different or better then the beings his race hated with a passion churned within him.
Katherine of Atlantis, sister to Colonel John Sheppard, was responsible for this enlightenment and, knowing it, made him realize that she possessed as much intelligence as he or any other wraith did. She had done what her brother and many other humans before her had failed to do and that was show the wraith that her race was something more than mindless cattle. One woman, one human female, had changed the mind of the oldest wraith alive whom was more set in his ways than any other living. She had changed everything and, despite her humanity, Kenny knew that it was for the better.
A/N: Hello! if you liked it please let me know. Reviews are the only way fanfiction authors get paid so please, push the button and make my day. I hope to hear from you all soon, cheers!
