Reading Key: Thoughts and emphasis are in italics. Telepathic conversation is underlined.
Continuity info, etc. can be found at the top of chapter one, disclaimer is at the bottom of chapter one.
Author's Note: No reviews at all? Ouch. Ah well, I love these characters, so the story will continue. This chapter is quite a bit shorter than other recent ones. Mostly so my other stories don't have to wait longer for this chapter to be finished in order to get updated.
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"What?"
The one word question was out of John's mouth the second after Ronon stiffened. The Satedan had been standing in the open doorway to the small house they were occupying for hours now, watching the Wraith go about their activities outside. His eyes had narrowed any time one of them had gotten within twenty feet of the building, but this was the first time he'd straightened from his aggressive slouch.
"Not sure," Ronon replied. "They all suddenly stopped what they were doing and most have now headed inside their houses."
John frowned and joined the taller man in looking out at the rest of the settlement. There were a lot less of the Wraith milling about, and those that were outside were quiet… unnaturally so. For a moment he considered that the approaching dusk had ended their day, but something didn't feel right about that assumption. John turned to Teyla, who had moved to one of the windows to see what her teammates were looking at.
"Can you sense anything?"
Teyla frowned slightly. "I will try again. Earlier I could not sense much from them. There is something different about their minds."
"I don't think it's just their minds," John commented, his eyes focused on a male fifty feet away whose short hair appeared to be an extremely pale brown in color. "Most of them don't look like any Wraith I've ever seen. Thale has black hair, just for starters."
"They're abominations," Ronon bit out.
"Huh?"
"They have mixed blood… human and Wraith," Ronon answered John's monosyllabic confusion. "Saw one once when I was a Runner. The ones chasing me killed it."
"I did not know it was possible for a human and a Wraith to procreate," Teyla said quietly.
John shrugged. "Makes sense to me. If they're genetically similar enough for gene therapy to make them human, they have to be biologically compatible."
A disgusted growl rolled from Ronon's throat.
John ignored him and glanced questioningly at Teyla, who dipped her head, her eyes closing in concentration. Several seconds later, she was shaking her head and opening her eyes to look at him with a slight frown.
"They are worried, afraid," Teyla reported. "I cannot get any more than that."
The Earth-born man looked outside again. Some of the Wraith had moved to the open space in the center of the settlement, others coming out to join them as he and his team members watched. A few of the Wraith were holding things. Some had weapons; others carried what looked like clothes of the typical Wraith design, black leather and a lot of it. Which he thought was odd, since few of the Wraith here actually dressed that way.
John frowned. "Maybe we should go over there and ask what's going on."
"I believe it is our only option," Teyla agreed, ignoring Ronon's derisive snort.
Teyla followed when John left the house. He glanced back at Ronon.
"You coming?"
Ronon shrugged but did start following when John continued on his way. Some of the Wraith turned to watch them as they approached, many of them with wary expressions.
"Mind if we ask what's going on?" John asked as they came within earshot of the group, not really aiming his question at one particular individual since Thale was not among them.
The two Wraith closest to them shared a look before one of them said, "A scouting party has come through the Ring. Your companion has a plan to attempt to deal with them without violence."
John's brow furrowed, at first because he wasn't sure who his 'companion' was… he realized after a moment that it had to be Nycole… and then because he was confused. "Why without violence?"
"If the scouting party does not report back, the hive will send a ship to discover what has gone wrong," the same Wraith spoke again. "We would have to abandon this planet much sooner, and leaving most of our possessions behind would be necessary."
John nodded understanding, tensing slightly when an invisible but strong ripple seemed to flow through the group. He opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to ask, but closed it again when he spotted two figures running into the center of the settlement. Thale and Nycole.
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Nycole spotted her father and his two teammates standing on the far edge of the group of Wraith as she and Thale approached. She ignored them. Not only was she still mad at her father for not trusting her, but she was sure that if she attempted to explain what she was about to do, he'd fight her on it. And she didn't have time for that.
Taking mental direction from Thale, Nycole moved closer to a group of females holding the articles of clothing she would need to help her pull this off. Swallowing her trepidation at being undressed and then re-clothed in front of this many eyes, Nycole nodded to the closest woman.
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John's eyes widened when a few of the Wraith began stripping the clothes from his daughter… luckily they left her undergarments on… and then paled when the full extent of the scars on her body became visible. He didn't have much time to further contemplate the old wounds, however, as they began dressing her in the leather of a Wraith uniform moments later. Nycole was covered again in little more than a minute. One of the males close to her strapped a weapon holster around her waist, a smaller version of the Wraith stunner sitting conveniently on her hip. The last part of her makeover involved a couple of the females undoing her ponytail and combing through her hair quickly with their nails.
Nycole turned and looked directly at him then. "Don't react."
He recognized the short phrase as an order and a warning, and frowned again. This time at the odd sight of all of the Wraith around them lowering their heads as if in prayer. All except Thale, who had his hands cupping Nycole's head, a look of concentration on his face. Despite Nycole's words, he immediately pulled his gun when she staggered.
x FNM x
Suddenly being connected to so many minds made Nycole dizzy for a moment. It didn't help that the group had no Queen to act as a mental anchor. Now that she was in on the 'hive' wavelength, Nycole couldn't help feeling impressed. For all of them… at least those with enough Wraith DNA to do so… to maintain the connection without a Queen was extremely difficult, and because most of them were hybrids, it was even more so for them. If there had been too many more of them, she wasn't sure she would have been able to handle being part of it.
It reminded her of when she had first been made a part of Ben's hive, before the Bond. The Queen had still been recovering when it had happened, and the sheer pressure of so many other psyches touching hers at the same time had caused Nycole to blackout. Oddly, the difficulty she'd faced then seemed to have made her more capable of navigating telepathically than most humans, and it had helped her immensely when the Bond had been initiated.
A ripple of unease and anger from the Wraith closest to her father snapped her out of her introspection. Shrugging off Thale's steadying hand, Nycole turned toward the Atlantis team. She picked up the Alteran bag from where she had dropped it, reaching John in several long strides.
"I'm fine," she told her father, staring at him pointedly until he holstered his weapon. "If the three of you want to come and observe, you can, but you have to stay back when you're told to do so. This won't work if you're seen."
"What are you going to do?" Teyla asked.
Nycole glanced back at Thale, communicating silently with him to get his permission to share what she could. "We're going to convince the scouting party that there is nothing of value on this planet and to leave without any conflict."
"How are you going to do that?" John responded.
"By making them believe this planet is already claimed by another hive," Nycole answered, touching the tattoo below her eye with obvious meaning. "We don't have any more time for this, we need to intercept them. Here."
She thrust the bag at him. John took it, obviously more out of instinct than anything. He reached for the closure on the bag, but Nycole stopped him with a hand on his.
"Don't," she warned him. "Put it in the house and then catch up."
He opened his mouth, but she held up a quelling hand and swiveled on her heel, stalking away with six of the Wraith following.
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Hoping that doing what she'd told him to would go at least part of the way to making her less angry with him, John took the bag Nycole had given him and ran for the structure he'd left so short a time ago. He considered just leaving the bag inside the doorway, but her reaction to him almost opening the bag in front of everyone had his curious. Stepping inside and out of sight, John quickly looked in the bag.
He sucked in a breath when he saw the ZPM nestled among what looked like spare parts from a jumper. While he'd been busy worrying about how their mission had been sidetracked, Nycole had gone ahead and completed it. And from what she'd told them of its location, he knew it couldn't have been too easy. He looked up to see Teyla and Ronon watching him. John tossed the case to Ronon.
"You two stay here with that."
"Sheppard," Ronon tried to argue.
John cut him a glare and headed out, jogging in the direction he'd seen Nycole leave with her entourage of Wraith. They were a couple miles away when he caught up. Nycole looked at him with both eyebrows raised when he maneuvered to walk next to her.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Nycole nodded once and turned her attention ahead again. John couldn't help noticing how serious and intent she looked… like Elizabeth going into a negotiation she knew would be difficult. He almost smiled at the thought but didn't want to be a distraction. A few minutes later, Nycole stopped walking, John falling back with her automatically.
"Wait here," Nycole told him.
John glanced around. "There's no cover here."
"The grass will have to do. They should be too focused on us to bother with you. Do not interfere, no matter what."
John huffed. "I'm not going to stay out of the fight if something goes wrong."
Nycole laughed lightly. "Alright. But only if I call you."
He grudgingly agreed and watched her walk over to where the Wraith were waiting. When Nycole looked back at him with a frown, John moved into a sniper's low prone position. His vision was mostly obscured by the tall grass, but he could still see Nycole and the Wraith from the center of her back and up. Thale and another obvious hybrid stood on either side of her, though a step behind, while the four that John thought looked full-blooded took flanking positions, two on either side. Thale and other one close to Nycole bore no weapons while the other four had the same small weapon as Nycole strapped to their hips. They were also carrying the full size Wraith stunners. John just hoped the weapons wouldn't be needed.
To be continued…