Part: 10/?
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John leant forward to peer through the tiny porthole, set down the corridor from the airlock, as the ship shifted closer to the Hastos, matching its drifting alignment. Above John's head the cloudy atmosphere of the planet turned slowly. John looked up at the planet, which had only a few minutes ago been below his eye line. For a few moments his human brain and senses battled with that fact; that what had been 'below' before was now 'above' and yet he hadn't felt any change. John had flown many aircraft over the years in which he had pulled inverted moves, and he still found it a thrill not to feel any Gs in a spacecraft. In a way he missed it, but even if there wasn't that overwhelming pressure and adrenaline rush of the Gs, it still didn't stop his stomach from momentarily considering whether to empty itself. He returned his gaze to the Hastos, falling back into his training to stop the nauseous reaction.
The Hastos looked as sleek and deadly as the one on which he stood. John studied the vessel as it grew even closer; looking for signs of weapons fire or any other damage other than the missing engine. He saw nothing that told of any recent battles or damage, and as the Hastos filled up the porthole entirely he shifted his attention to the outer airlock on the other ship where they would connect up and board her. John had never been all that comfortable with the new transporter technology from Earth, but it was a very useful tool that had saved his and others' life many times in the past. He wondered why the Alliance didn't have anything like that.
John turned from the porthole to look down the corridor towards the airlock. The corridor was full of the Elite warriors, their darkly dressed heavily armoured bodies filling up the space. Emmagan stood a foot or so away from John and he watched as she leant forward towards the porthole, her shoulder passing only an inch away from his chest as she looked out at the Hastos. John peered around her to look out again.
"She looks like a good ship," John offered.
"Yes, she is," Emmagan replied.
"Same design as this ship?" he asked trying to pull her into a little conversation.
Emmagan turned her head to look up at him, bringing their faces very close together. The odd light of the far too close planet and the dull shine off the closing Hastos cast her complexion a pale grey glow.
"The Hastos and Sythus were constructed together," she confirmed before she turned away to look out at the ship again.
"Hastos and Sythus," John murmured the names to himself.
Emmagan straightened from the porthole and John saw that the airlocks had aligned. Someone down the corridor triggered the connection and John watched through the porthole as the airlock extended towards the Hastos.
Emmagan began to check her weapons, as did the rest of the corridor. Subdued sounds of blades being withdrawn and the clicking checks of guns echoed quietly down the corridor. John's hand fell to the energy weapon he had been given, as well as two knives both sheathed up against his back, hanging from his belt with a comforting weight.
"Hastos and Sythus were twins, one male one female," Emmagan said as she worked on securing her weaponry. "They were born into a powerful family with the prospect of a comfortable future. They were intelligent and naturally gifted in all things, but it was their fighting skills that distinguished them above all others." John watched her slide knife after knife back into their secure homes. Outside the light shifted as the two ships linked up, and the reflected light from the planet below was cut off, dimming the light inside the corridor. As John's eyes adjusted he saw the sparkle of the overhead lights shining off the weaponry around him.
"It was said that the ancient gods themselves were impressed by the twins' skills and so one day they called them up to live among their number, in the celestial home of the gods. There they had every whim satisfied and a full eternal life to enjoy. The twins lived happily enough," Emmagan continued and though she was speaking softly, her voice carried down the corridor. "Until a time came when, out of idle curiosity, they turned their attention back to the world they had left behind. There they saw the horror the Wraith had wrought upon their once powerful family. All of their friends and family had been killed or chased from their homes in fear as the planet had been ravaged by Wraith culling. Hastos and Sythus asked the gods to help, but were told that it was not for them to be concerned about any further. Humans lived their lives as they should and no god should interfere in that life.
"Hastos and Sythus disagreed and wished to return to the human world, but the gods would not allow it. However, the twins possessed powers of their own, from their birth and from those gifted to them in the celestial heavens. They waited until the right moment and broke free from their eternal home and returned to their people, carrying with them the stolen gifts of the gods."
The shoulders of the Elite filling the corridor appeared to have grown wider around John, as if the story itself were a preparation filling them with confidence.
"Hastos and Sythus declared war on the Wraith. They forged out into the stars and battled against them, using what they had stolen from the gods to destroy as many Wraith as they could."
"I'm guessing the gods didn't approve?" John asked getting that sinking feeling you got when you were watching a movie and your favourite character walked off alone down a dark alleyway.
"No they did not. The gods struck at Hastos and Sythus, but gifted as the twins were they resisted and battled on two fronts; against the Wraith and against their own gods. The gods won."
John glanced out of the porthole at the dark metallic hull of the Hastos pressed so close to the porthole.
"But, the actions of Hastos and Sythus had forever changed their people. No longer would they sit back and allow the Wraith to kill indiscriminately. Since that day no one ever believed again that they were destined simply to be the cattle of the Wraith. We will not allow our families, our children and our worlds to be terrorised. It is possible to fight and to win over the darkness." She looked over her shoulder at John and he saw the same determination in her eyes that saturated the atmosphere around him. "The Elite were formed in honour of the twins by the first few that had followed them into battle." She smiled then, abruptly changing the atmosphere. "At least, that is what legend says." To her left Si snorted out a chuckle of agreement.
John narrowed his eyes at them, wondering if they had been teasing him, but Emmagan's smile softened to a grim one as she turned her attention back to her weaponry. She pulled out her stunner as up the corridor the background hissing of the airlock stopped abruptly; it was time.
John reached down to his hip and pulled out his own stunner. He checked, for the hundredth time it felt, that it was indeed set on 'stun' and not 'kill'. Red was for kill; the universal language of humans, the colour of blood.
"Don't shoot any of us with that," Oneakka muttered from John's left.
"I'll try not to," John replied sarcastically "but, I can't make any promises."
Oneakka snorted as he adjusted his long curved knife set against his right thigh and pulled out two stunners, holding them ready, one in each hand.
A light flashed above the airlock up ahead at which someone jabbed a button and the airlock hatch slid open.
As one unit the Elite moved forward with a unity of step that threw John off for a moment. Everything was silent as they moved, not one scuff of a boot, or heavy breath. John wrapped both his hands around the butt of his stunner and followed closely behind Emmagan. The shape of her scabbards stood out through the dim light of the airlock as they moved out of the Sythus and into the Hastos.
The corridor on the other side was pretty much identical to the Sythus as John followed Emmagan out into it. The emergency lighting was a pale grey colour coating everything with a ghostly affect, painting only darker shadows over the Elite around John.
There was a series of rapid hand gestures from a female Elite and in response the Elite split up into their pre-arrange groups. John and Emmagan had been teamed up with Halling and Oneakka, which John wasn't too upset about. Emmagan led the way for their small group, leading them on their mission to check out the two lone life signs near the damaged engine room. The other two groups split off to seek out the two other clusters of life signs.
John stuck to Emmagan's heels, Oneakka and Halling taking up the rear. Emmagan moved swiftly and silently, her stunner leading the way. Each time they reached a corner or open hatch she and the others moved as a well oiled machine to check and cover every possible avenue of attack. John found himself easily falling into place with their techniques. After they had gone through that routine a few times John was aware that Oneakka had pulled back slightly, no longer brushing the backs of John's heels as he walked. John guessed he had proven he was capable of watching their asses with the rest of them.
"Team One," a voice called out over the small radio device set around John's ear, which was very similar to the ones they used on Atlantis, except that it fitted more comfortably around his ear. Emmagan paused as she tapped her ear piece to open the communications.
"Team One," she responded in a whispered voice, as they all paused, holding guard around each other.
"One life sign is moving away from the engine section now," the disembodied voice reported.
"Which way is it going?" Emmagan asked.
"At present it is moving across to the other side of the vessel through the corridors on the same level."
"Have you been able to count life signs yet?" Halling asked.
"We are reading a total of twenty one life signs," the voice replied.
John watched Emmagan exchange a grim look with Halling and he guessed that was a considerably lower number than were normally stationed on the Hastos.
"Understood. Keep tracking the moving life sign. We will continue to the engine section," Halling said softly over the connection before he disconnected and they began moving down the corridor again.
"Shouldn't we go after the moving signal?" John whispered to Emmagan's back as they headed down the long out lining corridor that mirrored the one on the Sythus.
"If there has been sabotage then we must secure the engine sections. If the other signal moves too close to any vital stations the Sythus will inform us," Emmagan whispered back.
They reached the now familiar lift doors, but Emmagan moved to a large panel set by the door and pulled it away to reveal a ladder. John peered down the long shaft as Emmagan climbed in and began to descend the ladder. He followed her, pausing only to look upwards to see that the ladder disappeared up into the gloom above him. Emmagan stopped her descent about four levels down, stepping off the ladder into a small alcove on the inside of the panel she would have to open. She waited until John reached the level with her, and he crowded in beside her in the alcove. He pointed the barrel of his stunner up and ready as she eased the panel out into the corridor. Nothing moved, so she stuck her head out and then moved quickly out. John followed immediately taking up position to guard her back, as they waited for the other two to get down and out into the corridor. Halling and Oneakka pulled themselves out of the panel space with surprising speed and grace for such large men.
All in place they headed off down the corridor, once again following Emmagan. They reached the first corner, but already John could tell they had hit the right level. There were several large burn marks across two walls and as they peered around the corner, there were even more. There had been a fire fight here and the smell in the air suggested it hadn't been that long ago. A short piece of corridor led to another corner at which they found three dead bodies, all shot with high powered energy weapons by the looks of the burn marks. Oddly two of them were slaves. The third was dressed like an Elite warrior. Oneakka swore quietly as he crouched down by their fallen comrade.
John watched the man reach down and lay one hand on the fallen male warrior's burnt chest. After a moment Oneakka pulled out a small knife from the warrior's belt and John watched him slid it into his own belt with a contained look of anger and sorrow. It was always hard losing people, especially if they became more than just 'people you worked with' becoming friends. John caught himself thinking back to the siege of Atlantis only months ago. They had lost a lot of good people, but it had been the loss of Elizabeth that had hurt them all the most.
Halling stepped forward, a small hand scanner lighting his face in a green glow amidst the emergency lighting. "One life sign up ahead in the control room," he whispered. Oneakka stood up abruptly, his face struggling to express all the forcefully emotions he was clearly feeling.
Emmagan flowed forward, Oneakka keeping his place despite his fury. It was clear to John had they had reached the site of the engine explosion, as the corridor up ahead had a heavy emergency bulkhead blocking it, but there was an open doorway just this side of it. Halling indicated the room and the four of them performed their routine checking around the doorway.
There were several burned and bloodied bodies inside, most of them slaves John noted again. He began to wonder if there had been some sort of slave revolt. In the centre of the mass, near a broken flashing console lay an Elite warrior. Her laboured breathing sounded loud through the small room. Emmagan rushed through the bodies towards the woman, Oneakka pushing past John to join her. Halling stepped forward with his scanner, so John took up position at the door.
Emmagan and Halling crouched down on either side of the woman, Oneakka standing over her. John heard the woman gasp as she saw them and he looked over quickly to see a blood covered hand reaching up to Emmagan.
"Mera, what has happened here?" Emmagan asked softly. John didn't need to see the screen of Halling's scanner to know that it was a miracle the woman was still alive.
"Emmagan?" A weak voice asked with a gut wrenching mixture of pain and hope.
"Yes, Mera, it is me. What happened?"
Oneakka stalked away from the fallen warrior and John looked away, keeping his attention on their six and besides he could hear everything across the small room that had seen the end of so many.
"Looks like the over load was issued from this console," Oneakka reported.
"Yes, it was the…only way I…to stop…" Mera gasped loudly.
"To stop firing on the Sythus?" Emmagan asked.
"Yes…and to stop…him."
The atmosphere shifted a little colder.
"Him? Who is responsible for this?" Emmagan pushed.
Mera groaned before she began coughing. There was a shuffling of movement from inside the room, but John kept his eyes on the corridor. Now he knew for sure that there someone to blame for all this, he wasn't going to let his guard down. They might be on board, most likely the lone life sign.
"This will help with the pain, Mera," Halling said softly. A few moments passed before Mera began talking again and this time her voice sounded slightly less pain filled.
"He tricked us…shut the others away during late meal…locked…inside."
"Who was it?" Oneakka demanded with as gentle a voice as John guessed he could manage. "Was it Breack?" There was no reply and John looked round to see the dying woman was nodding. Oneakka cursed loudly. "I told you we should have killed him!"
"I am…to blame…" Mera said. "I be…believed him."
"He is part of the Elite; we trust one another," Emmagan whispered, supplying their colleague with an explanation and excuse. "You could not have known."
"This will be Iketani's doing," Oneakka spat out as he began to pace around the room, peering down at each of the dead in the room.
"He…said nothing…about her…"
"Two of these were his slaves," Oneakka reported, "but this one belongs to Massa I think."
"…several slaves helped…him. All his…really I think," Mera's voice was growing weaker, her breathing growing more shallow and rapid. "You must stop him!" She cried and John looked round briefly to see she had her blood stained hands around Emmagan's arms. "Stop…him…Emmag…Kill," Mera voice died away with a last gasping breath. There was a light thud as the woman's head hit the floor, her hands drooping down from Emmagan.
"The other single life sign is moving up the vessel," Halling reported quietly from his scanner. "It is almost out of range of my scanner."
"Where does he think he can go to escape us?" Oneakka demanded to the room at large.
"He might not know that Mera lived long enough to tell us of his betrayal," Emmagan said carefully as she stood up. John's radio buzzed lightly in his ear indicating she had activated the radio links. "All Elite, alert code. Transfer to secure channel." John hastily pulled out the small device clipped to the inside of his jacket collar and switched the tiny button that locked the radio into the prearranged secure channel. Emmagan's voice echoed in his ear, but it didn't matter as she was only a few feet away from him. "We have one Elite traitor; Breack. He is responsible for Mera and Tyhm's deaths, as well as for firing on us. We suspect he is the lone life sign moving through the ship. Check in your positions and situations."
"This is Team Two," Si's heavy voice rebounded immediately. John could hear the shock and anger in the man's voice. "We are currently cutting our way through the sealed Canteen hatchway. The controls are burned shut and the manual release has been disabled. We should be inside in two minutes."
"Breack trapped most of the Elite in there last night. The other trapped group are presumably the slaves and other crew."
"That would make sense. I am pretty sure I can hear Massa swearing through the door," Si added with a touch of grim amusement. "He will not be happy when he is free."
"Especially when he learns of Mera's fate," Halling added sadly.
"Team Three?" Emmagan asked over the air waves.
"We are similarly cutting through a sealed door to a crew quarters room in which we estimate to be at least fourteen people," an Elite female voice reported that John recognised as the stern woman; he really should learn her name.
"Then we will track the life sign," Oneakka stated as he strode across the room towards the doorway. John stepped out of the way, not wanting to block so much angry muscle and besides it wasn't his place to curb in the guy.
"Oneakka," Halling called quietly as he followed. John waited for Emmagan to leave the room ahead of him and then followed the three Elite away from the control room. They reached the corner again with the other dead Elite warrior and John could feel Oneakka's anger increasing.
"Where is Breack going?" Oneakka demanded.
Halling reached his side and looked at his scanner. "He is moving up a ladder still, I would say up to the central station level." That brought out a worrying thought and as a unit the three Elite all started forward rushing down the corridor heading across the ship. John hurried after them, keeping his duties at the back going. There might not be any life signs behind them, but John had been snuck up on far too many times to take that for granted.
They reached another lift and the panel beside it was already open, with one dead slave lying in front of it. Oneakka rushed up the ladder and the others followed quickly. John followed the Elite up the ladder, their boots ringing out above him, working hard to keep up with their pace. In his mind he tried to estimate where he was in relation to the bridge; that was if the Hastos' layout was the same as the Sythus. He guessed this Breack, if it was him, would have enough time to reach the bridge before they got up to the right level.
"We can not know for sure that the life sign is Breack," Halling was saying from above.
"Anyone else would have contacted us before now," Emmagan replied and John was more than a little pleased to hear that they were a little out of breath as well.
"It's him," Oneakka spat out from above.
The ship abruptly shuddered and John gripped onto the ladder tightly. He looked up at Emmagan's boots a good six rungs above him and saw that she had a secure hold. "What was that?" John asked.
"Teams, Hastos is firing its emergency power in its one engine, we are being pulled with it," someone reported from the Sythus.
Oneakka growled from above and John could see him hurrying his climbing up the shaft. Judging by the lone light source above, that presumably had to be the open hatch on the bridge level, Oneakka was almost there.
"Hastos is emitting a signal," Sythus reported.
"What signal?" Si demanded over the radio. Judging from the sounds behind him they had cut through the canteen door and indeed the Elite behind it did not sound impressed.
"It was a flash broadcast through subspace, we are analysing it now," the Sythus crew reported.
"We have freed the Hastos Elite," Si reported.
"Get them back to the Sythus," Emmagan reported, "Breack may be attempting to damage the ship." On cue the ship shuddered again and there was a brief moment when the gravity shifted. John stopped his climb to take a breath, but fortunately the inertial dampeners had kicked back in, so he climbed onwards.
"We will capture that traitor ourselves," a heavy loud male voice reported over the radio.
"Massa, you must get your people out of here," Emmagan replied, but there wasn't much conviction in her voice. Above them Oneakka had reached the bridge level and had disappeared out of the shaft. John hurried to keep up as Halling disappeared as well.
"We have freed the slaves and crew," stern woman's voice reported, "We will get them to the Sythus."
"Be advised, Mera reported that several slaves assisted Breack. Not all of those slaves may be loyal," Halling warned.
"They will be kept under guard for now," the woman responded.
Emmagan had left the shaft and John took another moment to reach it. Emmagan and Halling reached in and assisted him quickly out through the panel. John nodded his thanks, seeing that Oneakka was halfway down the corridor already and looking impatient.
They headed down the corridor at a fast pace. Halling kept checking his scanner, as apparently the life sign hadn't moved. The ship shuddered repeatedly under them as they all cautiously ran down the hallway until they reached the bridge, only to find, unsurprisingly, the hatchway shut. Oneakka shoved his shoulder against it, as if pure aggression alone would open it for him. That didn't work so he set to work on the controls beside it.
"He has sealed the controls."
"Let me," Halling replied as he ripped a narrow panel off the wall and began pulling out cables.
Behind them there was the sound of heavy feet and John turned, weapon raised as Nalla and an unknown Elite man arrived around the corner. John lowered his weapon and turned back to the locked door.
"Si and Jobrill are at the other door," Nalla reported as she reached their side.
Emmagan looked round at them. "Massa is returning to the Sythus?"
"Yes, he is collecting Mera's body on the way," Nalla replied as she pushed past them, reaching for the door and bizarrely she pressed herself flat up against it.
"It is Breack," Nalla announced after a moment, "I recognise the emotional configuration."
Halling muttered as he cut through several wires creating a few bright sparks.
"He is worried…" Nalla added.
"He better be," Oneakka growled.
"But he is also…there is anticipation. He is waiting for something."
"He may have called in support," Emmagan suggested, "With that broadcast he sent out."
"Or he is waiting to break away from Sythus," the new Elite member added.
"Sythus, status?" Emmagan asked over the radio.
"We are easily matching Hastos' course changes now as we have latched on two clamps."
Halling hissed as he reached into the panel again, his arm disappearing up to his shoulder. "He has deactivated most of these. If I can reach…"
The ship shuddered violently this time and all of them staggered to keep on their feet.
"Hastos!" The Sythus crew member reported with alarm in their voice. "A Wraith cruiser has jumped in out of hyperspace!"
"They have crossed the border!" Nalla gasped.
"He called them here!" Oneakka shouted at the closed door. "Open it Halling!"
"No Elite would willingly bring Wraith into our space!" Nalla replied.
"They are firing on us," the Sythus reported before the ship shook again.
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TBC