Chapter 12

The hive was on the move. Ronon could feel the vibrations rippling through his body as he sat on one of the bunks, his back resting against the wall. He was not really surprised. It would have been more surprising if Todd had remained in orbit around Atlantis given what happened there to one of his previous hives.

Ronon had tried to sleep but after a few fitful naps, he had given up. Too many thoughts, too much emotion was surging through his brain. A quick glance over to the other bunk told him that Collins was having no such problem. The gentle rise and fall of his chest proof that he was fast asleep.

Closing his eyes, Ronon thought back to their earlier conversation. They had sat at the table and eaten the food that had been provided. He had been wary of the liquid in the jug until Collins pointed out that if the wraith had wanted to drug or poison them, it could just have easily been in the food. Besides which, he had asked, why bring them here just to kill them?

Ronon didn't have an answer to that logic so they had sat in silence until Collins started shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "I know you've been part of Colonel Sheppard's team for a long time and I'm just a newcomer here, but I share your commitment to finding him."

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd be here if you didn't."

Again Collins shifted in his chair. "I'm not just here to learn about wraith although that would be useful in itself. Thing is, I don't really know why he wanted me to come with you because I doubt we'll find any new Ancient technology or ruins. I can handle myself in a fight but I'm not a soldier."

"He's not interested in your fighting skills, you're here because he thinks you'll be useful."

"Useful. Right. You think he still wants to find the ZPM technology?" Collins asked.

Ronon nodded. "He's dishonest, devious, and treacherous, and'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. And he wants ZPMs. Helping find Sheppard is just a way to help that happen."

"Mmmm, you're probably right. He seems to be treating us well though," Collins mused as he reached over to take another piece of bread. "This food is quite good."

A smile spread across Ronon's face."Of course I'm right. He's a wraith, the only reason he looks after humans is because of what he can get out of them."

But now, looking around the room they'd been assigned, Ronon realised that Collins was probably right too. Based on his previous experiences on hive ships, they were being treated quite well. To a degree anyway.

They had been allowed to keep their weapons, thereby saving Ronon the trouble of making it an issue when the wraith tried to take them. Rather than being locked in one of the cells he had so often occupied, their room had no door although five wraith warriors stood guard in the corridor outside. His initial instinct had been to challenge them but a more reasoned assessment told him it would achieve nothing. No, Collins was right. Todd was showing a degree of trust that was unexpected although Ronon had no doubt it was for Collins' benefit rather than his.

Any further reflections were interrupted by the arrival of a tall wraith, but not the one who had accompanied them here. The air of authority he carried was less obvious, indicating his position as one of the lower underlings. He stopped in the middle of the room, casting a cursory glance at Ronon before walking over to the still figure on the other bunk.

Turning back to Ronon, he growled. "Wake him."

"You wake him," Ronon grunted in reply.

"I have been ordered not to lay a hand on either of you," the wraith declared with a sneer.

Ronon laughed. Obviously wraith had little experience in waking each other. Rather than feeling any sympathy, it just made him more determined to do nothing to help. "You'll have to be more creative then."

The wraith growled again as he turned back to Collins and walked closer. Ronon sat up and swung his legs off his bunk, ready to take action if the wraith got a little too creative. But the creature just gingerly lifted a foot and nudged Collins in the ribs. It had the desired effect with Collins sitting bolt upright almost immediately.

"You will come with me," the wraith stated before turning to Ronon. "You will remain here."

Ronon shook his head emphatically as he arose from the bunk and walked over to confront the wraith. "Not going to happen. Where he goes, I go."

The creature was a similar height and he turned to look Ronon straight in the eyes. "These are the Commander's orders and they will be obeyed."

Collins, now fully awake, stood and moved quickly to place himself between the antagonists. "It's okay Ronon, I'll be fine. Remember why we're here, we were invited so they're not going to harm me. I can handle this myself."

Ronon wasn't convinced. He had a bad feeling about this but then he had a bad feeling about everything involving Todd. Still, truth was, he wasn't there as Collins' minder so he just stood back, albeit reluctantly, as wraith and human left the room.

x-X-x

"Colonel, wake up. Colonel, wake up. Colonel, wake up."

Like an endless echo, the words were repeated over and over again by a voice that sounded disjointed and distant. Despite searching every room of the large house, Sheppard was unable to find its owner. Then he woke up with a start.

"Thank goodness, I thought you would never wake up."

Tanus was standing over him, his face shaded with concern. Never good with people he knew well and liked invading his personal space, Sheppard's first reaction was to push the Ancient away. "Back off," he said coldly.

"I am sorry, but it is important that you wake up. I believe we are in quite a bit of trouble."

Sheppard rubbed his eyes before swinging his legs over the edge of the bunk he occupied. Looking down at the bedding he began to get an inkling of why Tanus was worried. He might have been extremely tired when he fell asleep, but he knew that this wasn't the bunk he had settled into last night.

"What the…" he stopped.

As he looked around the room, a wave of apprehension flooded his mind. This cold, stark room bore no resemblance to the bedroom in Terian and Luce's house. For a start the furniture, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, and a wash stand, were gone. There were no curtains, in fact, there were no windows, just a solid door in the middle of one wall. There was a single bare lightbulb rather than candles. Even though there were no bars, if he didn't know better, he would think this was some sort of holding cell. The wave turned into a tsunami.

"Oh, crap!"

"I tried the door but it is locked."

"Yeah, no surprises there." Sheppard walked over and tried the door handle. It didn't move. "I don't suppose you banged on it, made a bit of noise, that sort of thing?"

"No. I thought it best if we were both awake before we tried to attract attention. That is why I woke you."

Sheppard nodded. Maybe this Ancient wasn't quite as naive as he'd first thought. "Good idea." He started knocking forcefully on the door. "Hey, anyone there? What's going on? Hello? Anyone there?"

"What has happened Colonel? Where are we? How did we get here? They seemed quite friendly last night so why have we been taken prisoner?" As the questions tumbled out, Tanus' expression of concern deepened.

Sheppard stopped knocking. "They're all good questions but, look, I'm in here with you, not out there with whoever's out there, so really I know as much about this as you do. All we can do is wait."

Despite this advice, and even though he'd been in more tight situations than he cared to remember, Sheppard was worried. He really hated waiting when he knew something bad was coming. And he was sure that what ever was happening here, it was going to end up badly, probably with a capital B. Remembering his inklings of wariness about their hosts last night, he wished he had paid more attention to his gut feelings. Obviously his sudden, overwhelming tiredness had been caused by something that had been put in their food. But why?

He tried to think who their captors could be. They didn't look like Genii but that race had shown themselves to be expert chameleons so you could never tell. Although he hadn't mentioned Atlantis, it was possible that Terian and Luce already knew exactly who he was and where he was from. But why didn't they say something? He certainly had no recollection of ever visiting this world but then again, that was probably irrelevant. Now-a-days Atlantis teams were always visiting new worlds where their reputation as visitors from another galaxy was well known.

He was just about to return to his bunk when a key sounded in the lock and the door opened. Terian and Luce walked in, their faces devoid of any emotion. They now carried weapons and any trace of welcome was well and truly gone.

"Colonel Sheppard, I trust you slept well?" Terian stepped forward as he asked the question.

"Yeah, with a bit of help from you I'm thinking. We both got a bit of a surprise when we woke up though. Care to explain what's going on here?"

Terian shook his head and raised his weapon. Sheppard looked at the hand gun. It certainly wasn't one of the familiar Genii firearms so that probably answered one of his questions.

"You will come with us."

As Sheppard looked over at Tanus, the Ancient shrugged. "What else can we do Colonel?" he asked quietly.

Putting up his hands in a semi-defensive pose, Sheppard moved towards the door. "Okay," he stated with a degree of confidence he knew sounded false. "No need for weapons here, just put them down and lead the way."

They walked a short distance along a narrow corridor before coming to a large, well lit room. Sheppard stopped abruptly in the doorway. He didn't need to look around for all his worst fears to be realised. Sitting at a long table in the middle of the room were two wraith, standing around the walls were several of the faceless warriors.

He spun round to face Terian and Luce. "You're worshippers!" he spat out, unable to hide his disgust.

"No, we are survivors. Unlike you, we do not have the power of the Ancients to protect us so we do what is necessary to protect our people and stay alive."

A wraith's multilayered voice echoed through the room before Sheppard had chance to reply. "Good morning Colonel Sheppard."

With a final contemptuous look at Terian, he turned and walked further into the room. "So you know who I am."

"Oh, yes, we know all about you. But you are not important here," the wraith turned his attention to Tanus. "It was not your coming that attracted our attention. It was the arrival of a Lantean, a member of the race we thought we had banished long ago, that triggered our alarm systems."

"Of course," Tanus whispered. "Just as our facilities were protected against wraith, it makes sense they would have mechanisms at their facilities to alerted them to our presence."

The wraith stood and walked around to face Tanus. "Naturally. But we have far more important things to discuss. How did you get here? And, more importantly, where have you been since the war ended?"

"That is not your concern." Tanus stated with a defiance that took Sheppard by surprise.

"Ah," the wraith growled softly. "As arrogant as ever I see. Such attitudes did not help your race win the war and they will do little to help you now. Take them to the laboratory and I will deal with them at my leisure."

x-X-x

Collins was expecting to be taken to the bridge of the hive, the place he considered the natural environment of a ship's commander. But instead they stopped outside a closed door. The leading wraith passed his hand over a control pad that was well hidden in the wall and the door slid open. Then he was gone, together with his warrior escort and Collins was alone.

He took a deep breath and glanced around before walking cautiously through the door. It immediately slid closed behind him causing his heart to plummet to the bottom of his stomach. "Well," he whispered to himself, "that's it then."

"Ah, Dr Collins, there is no need to be concerned, you are quite safe." Todd's voice accompanied him out of the shadows at the far end of the room.

Despite this assurance, Collins remained close to the door, surveying the room. It was far larger than the room he and Ronon were occupying although the items of furniture were similar. There was just more of it. There was a long table but it was pushed up against a wall rather being in the middle of the room. The two high-back chairs looked far more comfortable that the basic wooden versions he had used earlier. A large bunk stood in one corner, covered with furs rather than harsh woollen blankets. Overall, it was a room designed for comfort rather than the basic utilitarian space he shared with Ronon.

"This is your first visit to a hive and I am sure you are curious about our ways."

"Er, yes, I am."

Curious? Well, that was an understatement if ever he'd heard one. So many questions it was hard to know where to begin.

Todd walked over and gestured towards the two chairs that Collins noticed were upholstered in some quite luxurious looking fabric. "Please, come, sit down," the wraith purred. "I collected these extremely comfortable chairs from one of the human settlements we visited. They were surplus to their owner's requirements."

Collins suddenly felt a good deal of sympathy for that previous owner. Nevertheless, he cautiously took a seat and continued to look around.

"I thought wraith didn't sleep so why the bunk?"

Todd nodded. "Not the first question I expected but you are quite right. We do not need sleep in the way you humans do, we revive ourselves with the energy we receive when we feed. But feeding does not nourish our thought processes so we do take time to relax, to meditate. Many of us find it more conducive to do this when lying down."

Collins nodded in return. That made sense although the idea of creatures who survived by stealing the life from other races taking solace through meditation was jarring to say the least. Not wanting to pursue the subject further, he turned his attention to the long table. It was covered with objects of different shapes and sizes. They demanded closer attention but having been invited to sit down, he was reluctant to just get up and have a look.

"Those are the artefacts I mentioned at our first meeting. I am sure you will find some of them quite interesting if you care to look more closely."

It was an invitation Collins doubted would ever be offered again so he stood and walked over to the table. The diversity of the array of items was not what he'd expected to find on a wraith ship.

"My collection was once much larger but an unfortunate accident caused me to be separated from my kind for an extended period so I had to start again," Todd whispered wistfully.

Collins glanced back at the wraith, surprised at the latent emotion expressed in the statement. But there were no visible signs of it and Collins realised that unlike humans, it was impossible to read a wraith's more subtle feelings by his facial expressions. He returned to inspecting the artefacts. Just as he had suspected, most of the collection was human in origin. Pottery, some surprisingly delicate glassware, books, items of technology that had obviously outlived their purpose. It was the books that surprised and interested him the most though.

But as he reached out to pick one up, it dawned on him that he was being played. His lack of knowledge about Pegasus and its inhabitants was being used to get inside his head and develop a connection between him and the wily creature who just sat watching his every move. And he was falling for it, forgetting that there were far more important questions that needed answers. Much as the artefacts tweaked his archeological interests, he needed to exert some control over this conversation and he needed to do it now. So, leaving the book on the table, he walked back to the seat opposite Todd.

"You didn't bring me here to discuss artefacts. What do you want from me?"

Todd growled softly and rested his head against the back of the chair, his face set in the stark, emotionless mask that Collins had seen before. He suddenly felt like a specimen in a petri dish being examined by a curious scientist. It was not a comfortable feeling. If he'd been having this conversation with another human, he might have followed up on this question but now, having asserted himself, he just waited for Todd to speak.

Finally, the wraith nodded slowly. "Very well, enough of the human niceties. I can see I underestimated you."

"You thought I'd be happy to talk about artefacts and learn about wraith," Collins declared, suddenly feeling annoyed with both himself and Todd.

immediately, the atmosphere in the room changed as Todd stood and walked closer to his human visitor. "No," he hissed. "I said I underestimated you, not that I took you for a fool. I will admit that when I asked you to join the search for Sheppard, I was unsure of exactly what your role might be. But my thoughts are clearer now. We do not know Sheppard's present location, but based on the fact that he disappeared from a Lantean facility, it is not beyond belief that he might have been transported to another such place. If this is indeed the case then your knowledge and expertise will be invaluable in securing his release."

Finding a previously unknown level of courage, Collins refused to be intimidated and remained in his chair. "He could still be somewhere inside that facility."

"No, if that were the case he would be dead and I know he is alive."

"Really? What makes you so sure?"

"Because I sense his aura is still active. I have a bond with Sheppard that he is unaware of, formed when our paths first crossed. The strength of it fluctuates but it will only be extinguished when one of us ceases to exist. Trust me Dr Collins, I would know if he was dead and I would not be wasting my time explaining myself to mere human."