After much deliberation the team finally decided that regardless of what they believed, something needed to be done, action needed to be taken. The prospect of a fresh Wraith specimen, a queen at that, was too good to pass up. The simplest way to prove the validity of the girl's world was to test it, and they prepared a set of jumpers to find and investigate the cruiser the girl spoke of.
Whether or not she would receive a shuttle as compensation in case she was telling the truth had conveniently been neglected, but the girl didn't press them for any commitment.
Dr. Zalenka prepared a Hoffan bomb that was remotely detonatable. The plan was to go in two shuttles. The first to deliver and position the bomb for maximum effect in case anything went wrong, and the second to deliver Rodney and Carson to accomplish their respective tasks of, as Sheppard had put it, to do their thing.
In the jumper bay, as the teams suited up, the girl demanded her knives, refusing to accompany them unarmed.
The major procured them, and held them out to her, but pulled them away just as she was about to grab them.
"If you stab anyone on my team with them..." he said as he raised an eyebrow "I'll kill you!"
She nodded in agreement, and was allowed to have them.
The shuttle trip to the cruiser had been filled with a nervousness as members of the crew exchanged glances, with her, with each other, and with the nothingness on the other-side of the window. She hoped she had been able to accurately reproduce the gate address the Wraith had made her memorize. And would have breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the cruiser as it first appeared through the shuttle's window, if the sight of it hadn't reminded her of what she was about to do.
Once the first team had gotten into position and planted the bomb. The second team entered through the dart bay and met up with the first, before she lead the way to the Queen's chamber. The location where she had claimed to have killed her. The team followed her reluctantly deeper and deeper into the colossal craft.
When the cruiser stirred less than the plan had called for, she took a short detour, and entered the large hibernation chamber that housed the majority of the higher ranking Wraith. Rodney introduced himself to the controls.
"Look." he said "This is amazing, all the Wraith are hibernating. It's like they all just decided to go away for a while."
"Aren't they going to wake up?" She shot at him in a half whisper.
"Well I hope not!" He replied as he manipulated the controls. Moments transpired, the display flickered between views of this and views of that.
"There..." he said finally "Now the only way to wake them up is from this control station."
John motioned to the girl and she lead them further.
She paused in front of the large membrane doors that barred the entrance to the Queen's personal hibernation chamber. She hadn't had the opportunity to delay any further, and from what Rodney had said gathered that she required an entirely different plan. Why hadn't they already awakened? Why hadn't the proximity detectors worked? Where were the tripwires. And what, in the name of her constellation, had gone wrong?
After an awkwardly silent pause John had nudged her, and Teyla reprimanded him. The girl was shaking and Teyla understood, she knew how scary the Wraith could be, she knew the girl needed more time.
With a deep breath she passed her hand on the door's mechanism and entered the chamber. The team followed.
With their gun mounted lights they inspected the dimly lit inside. Ronon was the first to find what they were looking for; the Queen's hibernation pod.
"Found it." He yelled over his shoulder, and Carson appeared by his side.
"Great Scott." he exclaimed as he inspected the body. "She's not dead!"
Sheppard immediately bolted for the door. Just in time to see the girl slip through it as it slithered shut behind her. On the other side she stabbed a knife into the door controls in a way she knew would keep them closed for a while, and doubled back to the main hibernation chamber. There she thrashed wildly at the controls she had never used before. At controls she wasn't sure did anything at all.
A siren erupted from within the ship as one by one the Wraith awakened. Screams and gunfire reported from the Queen's chamber. No doubt she had awakened as well, and Shepard's team to the stark realization that they had been betrayed.
Katelyn ran down a hallway she believed could lead her to the first team's shuttle, but slid to a halt and changed direction as the shadow of a group of Wraith drones marched in her direction. Her side hadn't healed yet, and she couldn't risk an encounter that would leave her in a worse state.
A Wraith stunner hit her midriff and diffused over her chest, as she stumbled back through another corridor, back to the entrance of the Queen's chamber. With no where to turn, the sound of Wraith footsteps in her ears, and only the sliver of hope that the Queen was indeed deader than dead she yanked the knife that had kept the doors closed out of the wall before her.
She was met by a Ronon that seethed with a passionate anger and that dealt with it in the only way he knew how. Followed by the comparably angry but much more composed major who raised his weapon in her direction. The girl dropped her dagger, slid to the floor, and threw her arms over her face in something she hoped could count as an apology. Shock ran up her spine as she trembled at the sound of gunfire.
The sound of shots that hadn't however been meant for her, and that found their mark instead in the body of the Wraith drone behind her.
Teyla grabbed her by the shoulder of her vest as the others rushed passed and all but dragged her to the nearest shuttle. The rest of the team, screaming, shouting, and firing in hot pursuit. They abandoned the first shuttle in favour of the second closer one. Both teams piled into a craft designed to carry one.
Sheppard sent the ship veering into the air, spinning about face so fast that it almost sent a marine flying back out the back, as he told everyone to hold on, and claimed that the ride would be a bumpy one. Stunner blasts pelted the shuttles hull. Sparks shot from the ceiling and Carson quickly adjusted the settings of the force field that shielded the ship as he shouted to the rear for someone to "get that bloody hatch closing". Teyla relieved the distraught girl of her remaining knives and cuffed her to a strut behind the bench that ran the length of the shuttle.
The girl, not having been feeling well since the adventure began, still nauseous from the snacks and soft drinks experience the night before, and now in a state of absolute psychological mayhem at the thought of what she had done. At how she could never face the Wraith again, or at what they would do to her if they ever found her. At what could possibly have happened to make this botched plan go so horribly wrong. Deposited the remnants of her breakfast on the shoes of the soldier that stood before her.
Coarse words and exclamations filled the confines of the overcrowded shuttle as they made their way back to Atlantis, many of them directed at her. One marine called her a traitor. Another swore all manner of things, words she had never heard before but still understood. To her relief Sheppard silenced them all, "Stow it hot shot!" He had yelled. "She'll get what's coming to her soon enough."
He couldn't stop the mumbling murmurs though, not that anyone could understand them, tar and feathers were involved.
Back on Atlantis she had allot of explaining to do, and apologized profusely for having betrayed them. She told of how she had been a servant to the Wraith. And of how the occurrences of the past days had been the result of the Queens scheme to capture the Lantean team. She thanked them and expressed her gratitude for them having done away with her. She kept her story as close to skirting the truth as she wagered possible, finding it more and more difficult to dodge their probing questions.
Finally she returned the remote for the bomb into major Sheppard's hands. She had swiped it in the confusion and used it when she realized she couldn't save herself any-more.
Expressing now only her desire to return to her home world, she pleaded with them, and offered to make good on her original offer, the cruiser whose halls were by now strewn with dead Wraith, and the body of a Queen, asking now, only for her freedom in exchange. But still they were unwilling to let her go. Dr. Carson insisted that she stay, the leadership of Atlantis scrutinized every word she said, most wanted her gone, and the general feeling of distrust stung in a way she had never experienced before.
Finally they had decided. She was to be allowed to leave, but not unconditionally. For the time being she would be taken to the alpha site. There an Athosian family had agreed to take her in. And although she detested the idea she accepted the compromise at the prospect of getting off world, and packed her backpack with the remainder of her things before following her escorts to the gate. There the team stood to bid her farewell. Dr. Weir insisted that she let them know if she needed anything. Sheppard requested once more that she contact them if she remembered anything about Lieutenant Katelyn. And Teyla insisted that she harboured no ill feelings for the stunt she had pulled, while Ronon stood around not quite knowing what to say.
"Katelyn..." She said the name, tasting the syllables on the tip of her tongue, as the puddle plumed from the gate. "What was she like?"
"She was kickass." Ronon murmured, and Teyla clarified the foreign term. "She could take care of herself. She was just" the woman paused "Just unlucky."
"Well" The girl began, wondering if it would be alright to say she felt relieved that the name had a good meaning. "I... I hope I live up to the name."
She stepped through the gate, towards an unknown future, remembering all the experiences she had had, and couldn't subdue the beginnings of a coy smile that had crept up on her.
Sheppard had assembled his team immediately and departed after the girl had left Atlantis. He piloted a shuttle to clean up the mess they had started. Together with Ronon and Teyla he would provide security while Rodney yanked the core drive from the ship and eventually drove it back home. All the while Dr. Keller would record any information about the effects of the Hoffan drug on the cruiser as a whole. It was only a short trip to the cruiser, and he flew his puddle jumper absentmindedly, yet no less skillfully.
Rodney played copilot, and he turned to open his mouth as if to say something, but changed his mind half way, exhaling audibly when he found himself at odds about what to say.
"If you're going to say something just say it Rodney." Sheppard complained as he re-gripped the controls.
"Don't you think the girl was a bit..." He found it hard to place the feeling.
"I thought she was cute!" Dr. Keller filled in the gap, remembering having worked on her with Carson when the girl had first arrived. She had reluctantly joined the expedition as a substitute for Carson, the only person she felt really qualified to study the effects of the Hoffan drug. But who had at the time of their departure been delayed.
"A bit Wraithy!" Rodney corrected.
"Come on Rodney." Ronon objected "You're just upset she managed to dial the gate by accident."
This was true. Dialing a specific address by accident was a statistical improbability that only he should have been capable of accomplishing. But it didn't make her behavior appear any less Wraith-like to him.
"Well..." Teyla began as she recollected the past events. "She did have a habit of hissing at people."
Sheppard was lost in thought as he remembered the girl, of how she had stuck him with one of her knifes, come to Atlantis, barfed all over his bathroom, had finally revealed her plan, screwed up that plan, and then finally puked once more in his shuttle. When Rodney's pervasively annoying voice interrupted him.
"Aren't we there yet?"
"Son of a bitch!" He swore in a way he only occasionally did, unable and unwilling to fathom what his eyes told him.
The cruiser was not where it should have been. In fact it wasn't there at all. Instead the Hoffan bomb, intact and undetonated, floated and gyrated ever so slowly, occupying its place.
The girl had stabbed him, lied to him, tricked him, and now stolen from him. And he. He had bid her farewell and let her walk out of Atlantis without a scratch.
Instantly Sheppard used his radio, bellowing commands for the girl's immediate apprehension, only to be told after a short delay, that the girl had slipped away.
