Home Affairs.
Author's note: Sigils in use for easier identification of wraiths now. Hive ship galore. I wrote a better piece but the file became corrupted. It is just a cross sectional portrayal of life in a Hive ship.
Disclaimer: the Stargate franchise and aliens that they created are the property of MGM. This is just a fictional story made out of fun and has no profit or commercial value derived from it. The OCs are mine.
Space. The great void. Dim lights scattered across the vast emptiness. Their kine were gathered in orbit. Tiny shimmering specks of dark bone bodies against the terrestrial planet below them. Like nests. Two irregular shaped natural orbital satellites, grey bodies of space rocks, reflected the light of the yellow dwarf star. Half covered in darkness, half a deep blue ocean with scattered land mass. Stars glittered around like shining jewels in the primodial soup of nothingness and silence. Debris laid floating about in its deadly vacuum. A battle was fought and the victors determined. Swarms of Wraith fighters which resembled tiny insects flying forth. They were on culling missions of the trapped inhabitants. Such was the prize of victory. There was no way to escape. Except by death. Death came by many forms. A tiny naquadah ring was in space with fighters standing guard. A few beams shot out from the dark bone bodies in the inner orbits. Extraction beams for either humans or minerals.
The grapplers fixed into place. A groan was heard as the tendril like docking port went towards the Destroyer. The merging of two ships was completed. The parent and its childer. Power feeding started as the technicians rotated the conduits to crystalline energy units. The crew of the Destroyer clambered down the walls of the pulsating port into the top deck. Exchanging their places were the clevermen with their large toolboxes and diagnostic equipments. Maintenance and repairs were due for the Destroyer.
Good to be back on Ascension. Firebolt felt her walls as though to greet the Flagship of their Hive fleet. He is the Lead Cruiser Commander of the Destroyer. The other blades from the Destroyer filed through. They were making their way to the recreational area on the fifth deck.
Other clevermen were swarming within her on different levels. Her healers. Ascension pulsated to their touch and thoughts. Her purpose was to be their home. Their stronghold. Their fortress. She had damages to be fixed, parts to grow, wounds to heal and part of her hull was now regenerating. Little seedling parts were bathing in the organic biopolymer gelatinous baths of Ascension's laboratory. The inseparable Wraiths, Thunder and Lightning, were carefully cultivating grafts made to order by priority and programming her organometallic parts. Tangent was preparing for another neural circuit regrowth. It was a delicate job which required pure surgical expertise. Her Queen's Lead clevermen. They patted Ascension's walls. Ascension, our good ship. A praise to Ascension's purpose. Ascension purred in return.
Her Queen was on the bridge looking through damage reports on the visual interface. My poor Ascension, aft section needs to be prioritised. Her thoughts transferred from her hands to the neural interface. Ascension pulsated gratefully to her touch. They came out of a fierce battle. Ascension taken in a few drone damages. On the aft section. The damaged hull was regenerating.
Feed on the dead ship... Her Queen's comforting hands eased Ascension over to the battered Lantean ship. Ascension's external grappling tendrils tore through the metallic hull of the mechanical dead ship, absorbing the necessary nutrients for fixing the non bio-organic parts of her. The same powerful grappling tendrils could harvest asteroids and fling them into the enemies. There was another Hive ship, Infinite, scavenging parts of the remains.
Light Wind, her Queen's Consort was entering the ship womb in the inner heavily shielded areas of Ascension. The maturation and birthing pods were there. The two little ones of her Queen were climbing Ascension's organic walls, much to the chagrin of the two exasperated biological clevermen, Dusk and Stonewall.
You. Get off the ceiling... and you...come down now. Light Wind ordered both the little ones down.
No. His scarlet hair Queen-in-waiting was adamant.
Then she clambered to side and slashed the wall with a scalpel. The organic sticky ooze started to appear. Ascension started to sigh at the wall. It did not hurt but it was an annoyance to draw power and regenerate. The other young one immediately let go of the ceiling and fell with a thud. A male Wraith child. He was frightened of Light Wind because Light Wind was ranked above his sire.
Light Wind went up and promptly pulled the young Queen-in-waiting off sternly.
Behave yourself. Ascension is a living ship. You cannot just injure her at will. A REAL Queen does not do that.
The young Queen-in-waiting looked bewildered as the two clevermen rushed to the tear with their kits. Dusk prepared the organic sealant while Stonewall held the oozing bits together. Dusk applied it to the tear delicately and sealed off. He inspected his work. Light Wind was particular about quality of maintenance and he was scrutinizing Dusk's work. Acceptable.
Light Wind took the young Queen-in-waiting's small hand and placed it on the wall. And the young male Wraith also placed his hand on the organic wall when Light Wind beckoned. Feel Ascension. She is my work.
Ascension purred to the young ones' touch. Light Wind was her chief engineer when she was created. Every critical system and auxiliary controls were designed and implemented by him. Besides her Queen, only Light Wind could override the most crucial commands. He was in a way Ascension's nurturer.
The young Queen-in-waiting looked at her sire in wonderment. Ascension can purr.
Both children patted Ascension fondly. They learnt something new. Their home is a living home. Ascension pulsated in response. They were her purpose for existence.
A command came through Ascension's system. Automatic docking sequence for a returning swarm from culling was activated. The neural algorithms released the shields and dropped the doors. Parking sequence was loaded for each fighters with the option of dematerialising their cargo at specified destinations. The Holding cells were now filled with fresh prey while the worshippers were waiting patiently at the cargo hold inspection area as their supplies rematerialised behind the cloned Wraith guards and the Wraith officers in charge of checking the items.
Ascension felt the webbed cage being pulled. A prey was trying to get out. One was trying to use a knife to saw through her bone cages. Another threw sharp objects near the release panel trying to free themselves. The forcefield was activated near the panel immediately as Ascension started a localised sequenced alarm to warn the Wraith blades on duty. Stun blasts went through her bone cages. They did not hurt Ascension. The impact of the stun blasts were merely reabsorbed by her organometallic structures and grounded.
The prey were stunned as the Wraith blades started dragging the unconscious into the feedlots. The others in another holding cell started whimpering and crying. Reminded of their own mortality. Their fates were sealed.
"Helpppp..." a weak voice begged from a cocoon as a Wraith was dragging the prey down. He stopped to growl at the prey. A few other voices cried weakly and piteously from the cocoons.
If they don't shut up, the Queen gets them. And a feeding hand by the Queen is far worse than mine, the Wraith blade was amused. Not the fault of female Wraiths. Nature made them absorb lifeforce more violently than the males. They fed on more than the males. Another three more blades were dragging two unconscious prey each past him.
There were plenty of places in the designated feedlots for the cocooning to start. The Wraiths started weaving cocoons around their prey into the individual feeding lot. Ascension released a biochemical into each feedlot to sedate the prey. One took his fill from a strong struggler and chucked his husk aside for a cloned Wraith to drag out.
The cloned Wraith took the husk and started dragging the dried out corpse through the corridors into the biocycler room. He opened the biocycler door and lifted the corpse into the dispensor. A press of the button. The dispensor slid in and dropped the corpse into the segregator. This was where a part of Ascension's power source was. The husk was turned into a form of biofuel, absorbed by Ascension's organic permeator conduits that ran into her auxiliary power cells for energy storage.
A few worshippers were queuing behind the cloned Wraith now. Each holding a sealed organic container of wastes from the kitchen and uniform makers' section for the dispensor. Other conduits flowed from Wraith and worshippers' quarters. Nothing was wasted.
One of the worshippers finished discarding the organic container and scurried towards the transporter system. She activated the level by flashing her subcutaneous transmitter against the panel. Ascension's automated system recognised it and the beam caught her then rematerialize her into transporter on the level of the worshipper's quarters. All worshippers had a subcutaneous transmitter which is recognised by Ascension's DNA coding system. There were forcefields which was activated by the DNA system to ensure that no accidental intrusion of worshippers would occur in Wraith only areas. Only Clavia, her Queen's Head worshipper had access to more areas than others. Favored worshippers only had access to their personal master's quarters. Access could only be given by her Queen or the top Wraith Commanders.
All Wraiths had access to the worshipper's areas. There were a few blades flirting with the female worshippers. Ascension's automated radio-ionic particulate detector detected burning in the kitchen. The blades stopped as they sniffed the air. Something was on fire. They immediately moved out towards the corridors leading to their quarters, leaving behind the confused worshippers at their sudden leave.
Ascension's algorithms immediately channelled large amounts of cool mists into the organometallic pipes above and the condensers started converting water vapours into liquid form. The release valves opened under the pressure pouring water on the now screaming worshippers drenching the entire hall and kitchen. A signal was being delivered to nearest cleverman's tablet to inform him of the automated action taken. Tracer heard the beep on his data tablet and acknowledged the action. He was three corridors away completing the biocircuitry realignment. He quickly sealed up his incision and made his way to the worshipper's area. It was fortunate that he brought his emergency tissue plate.
Tracer was greeted by the sight of unhappy worshippers soaked to the skin. Fortunately they are not soaked female Wraiths. He chuckled at that thought as he moved across gracefully across the grumpy crowd of bodies. The cook was beside herself. This cycle's dinner for all soaked. Some worshippers were busy drying the foodstuff.
Tracer growled. "What happened?"
"A wee bit of smoke and the ship went tava beans on us, ay," the cook grumbled.
He inspected a small blackened part of Ascension's wall. The wee bit of smoke had some fire which the cook conveniently forgot the mention. No wonder the ship dumped water on them, he thought.
He caressed Ascension's unharmed wall. That was naughty. Ascension pulsated to his caress. The area needed debridement. He took out his repair set and rolled it out as the worshippers gathered to watch. Three scalpels, two manual retractors, a biopolymer sealing pipe, forceps, a grafter and a pipette of organomatrix protein setter were now on display. He pulled out the tissue plate where a ready made graft was floating in the biogel.
Studying the burn, his hand picked up the scalpel and he skillfully debrided Ascension's burnt organic wall. Into the open pot of Tazerian stew. Much to the cook's dismay. She did not know if the ship was edible but she did not want to take the chance of poisoning the entire worshipper population. He placed his scalpel down and took the plate to measure the shape of the graft to cover. It was acceptable. He took out the cover and on his off hand, picked up the biopolymer sealing pipe to apply it to the now raw debrided area. Masterfully, he shaped the graft and applied the organomatrix protein setter around the edges. His hands smoothed the area of the graft.
"No more cooking here until I fix a physical shield around." He looked at the cook who was now displeased.
"But..."
"No buts, unless you...need another cleansing ritual" He raised his ridgebrow at the cook and turned to look at his now adoring audience of still damp looking worshippers. It made him shudder. They had a predatory look as though they were going to jump on him. He quickly packed his items systematically into his kit. Females...they made him uncomfortable. He never understood the blades' fascination with them. Then again, he is sterile. So thank Iratus, he will never desire contact with females. Only his Queen, his mind was binded to her. The only Queen, so far, who allowed clevermen to do as they wish and promoted them when recognition was due. Most Queens looked down on steriles, his Queen did not.
He quickly scurried away down the corridor. His duties were over. He handed over instructions via the ship interface for another cleverman to fix a physical shield around the cooking area. Damn worshippers and their need for dead cooked food. Time to go to the recreation room. A tournament with Wraiths from another Hive under his Queen was beckoning. He stopped at an access panel to enter his communication code. That should let the rest start. Ascension's communication array started transmitting a signal for Strategem to Infinite's sensors. Strategem was the latest craze. Highly strategic game where there were infinite possiblities ranging from actions.
Where are you? Hurry up, we hooked your data tablet in. Cipher asked Tracer from the recreational area.
Light Wind, their Queen's Consort was also in the area. He had won the last round for their team. Now it was Infinite's request for a rematch. Coldmind was there relaxing with the rest of the clevermen for a break before he starts on calibrating the weapons system. They had done most of the repairs and now it was up to Ascension's regenerative capabilities. Next cycle was only a touch up.
Cipher started keying his codes to load from Ascension's array system. They isolated a communication node and secured it to play Strategem. Infinite was now spuriously transmitting the counter moves from the other Wraith team there. The Wraith clevermen were now in full force, tapping away at their data tablets and entering attack codes in Strategem. Then a thud from on the organometallic wall...blades were finding their own entertainment in sparring next door.
Solar Flare came over and peeped. His wounds were sealing from the spar. Light Wind saw him and offered him a data tablet. This blade was of his lineage, a long distant cousin. Solar Flare bowed but politely refused. He was combat training with Firestar, Inert and Flash. He returned to the blade recreational area.
A dagger flew past him as he re entered the combat area and lodged itself into the organic wall of Ascension. A slight whine was heard. It hit the neural circuitry.
Who by the dumb son of Iratus did that? He demanded. A whole bunch of clevermen next door will not be happy to come over and fix a blade's mistake.
Torrid, a young fighter pilot, grimaced. He was in trouble. Me.
You mangled web of Iratus...there is a reason why there is a segregated room for weapons training. Solar Flare growled loudly at him.
Solar Flare quickly took out the emergency kit set aside in the hollow wall and pulled out its contents. He had fixed a severed neural circuit before. Nothing a good old biopolymer sealant could not do. He rumaged through the kit. Yes. A organomatrix protein setter. Even better. He growled at Torrid to help. Firestar and Inert were helping to retract the tissue of the wall. They needed to fix before the clevermen found out.
Ascension pulled power to regenerate in response to severing of the neural circuits. Bypasses were automatically made to bridge the biocircuits. The blades were busy getting themselves messy fixing the severed circuit.
Then a signal came into her systems. A recognised scout ship from Ascension's fleet was signalling their Hive. Ascension's algorithm loaded. It was not going to bypass into automatic docking procedures. The Hivemaster immediately transmitted the docking instructions to the scout ship from the controls. Hangar shields dropped. The door opened to the invited scout ship. The Algorithm now loaded the directions to the empty lot in the bay. The Hivemaster and his Wraith Officers were now moving up the path of the hangar to greet their visitors. Wraith visitors who have no access to Ascension's Hive telepathic communication system. A security measure Light Wind made after Ascension was created. At her creation, any Wraith could telepathically interface with her. Now it was restricted. There were two channels. One open which channelled Wraith thoughts to one another. The other closed only to the members of their fleet.
The visitors consisted of an Old Wraith who roared with glee as he gave a strong appreciative pat on Ascension. And six other Wraith Commanders. Infinite was the old Wraith's Hive ship. Slightly larger than Ascension.
Always like coming to your flagship. Very nicely designed. Unlike the new bigger clumsier models. He grinned to Dark Waters, the Hive master. Both were old allies.
Dark Waters nodded and led the Old Wraith towards the Meeting room in Ascension.
Then another signal came on. Six fighters. The Third Commander, the eldest Queen-in-waiting and four other blades returned from hunting. Automated docking system loaded. Hangar shields dropped again and the doors opened to welcome the hunting party. The eldest Queen-in-waiting was trying to override the docking system. Ascension denied access and locked her out on her fighter. Automated parking sequence now ran. The fighters automatically parked on their loaded lots.
WHY CAN'T I TRY TO DOCK AND LAND THE FIGHTER MYSELF, HISSY ? She got out stomping her feet on Ascension's hangar floor.
The Third Commander, Stormy Sky sighed as he got out of his fighter. He is still graceful despite his age. Except for his nickname Hissy. Tantrums of a teenage female Wraith whose feeding slit has not opened.
Because like everyone else, you are not invincible. This is Ascension's safety protocol. He shook his head. Youth always think that they are invincible and worse...young Queens also tend to think that they are infallible. She stormed off into the corridors as the other blades moved out of her way. Off to sleep after she finds her mother to complain to. It was now mid cycle. Ascension's power usage declined slightly as most Wraiths started finding their way into their beds under their furs. Some wandered off the feedlots for a midcycle snack on schedule.
On the weapons sections of Ascension, blades were on mid cycle duties, polishing her bolt blast guns. Clevermen on duty, were testing the power charging properties of the automated and manual weapons systems. Consistency was required. Inconsistent charging meant less damage on enemy ship. It was unacceptable as fluctuations were detected on Coldmind's scanner. He calibrated the system, adding compensatory variables for the rotary switching algorithm and patiently waited for a test charge. He looked out at the targetting window, fascinated by the view of dim lights. Another beep. Perfect. Now for the others. He yawned showing his sharp teeth, as a blade walked past to get another proteomic cleanser. Cipher would perform the other half of the calibrations after he takes over Coldmind's duties. He entered the log on a side interface detailing the actions and work completed.
Ah...the stars, what a view. He thought of it nicely, stretching his feeding hand. Curling under tthe furs and drifting off to sleep next to space. His cleverman passed him the data tablet of completed weapons diagnostics. So far so good.
Coldmind, Sonar here, navigation sensors are a little off.
Coldmind hissed. Another job beckons in navigation controls. This was the Master of Planetary Sciences. Of Gryphon lineage, like him. If it was others, he would think that it is their error.
How off is off?
0.01 variance off. Spatial incongruity detected. Sonar was tense.
He had been trying to calibrate sensors and work out where the error was. It was not the subelectron sensors. He had asked for a report on the sensor clusters on Ascension's nose. They were fine. He had been trying to work out step by step where the error laid. Even to the point of checking the circuitry. Coldmind strolled in and stopped at the hilarious sight. Sonar appeared tangled with the biocircuitry under a navigational interface. Each neural subcircuit was tagged neatly.
Cocooned by Ascension? You look like a victim of the Iratus. He snuffed a laugh at the now focused Sonar.
No. More of mangled by Ascension's systems. Spatial incongruity is detected. I compared it with Destroyer's and other cruiser's system. No spatial incongruity there.
Sonar snorted. That or they had an invisible black hole. He had not slept for an entire cycle because of this strange reading.
Alright. Get out of the biocircuitry. Let me work this out. Coldmind grinned. Sonar is the expert in planetary science but he is the expert of biocircuit relays.
Sonar untangled himself from the organic wiring and fumbled for his data tablet to pass to Coldmind. Coldmind took it and looked through carefully. He went up to the main navigational control interface to load a full scale diagnostics of Ascension's sensor arrays. The only logical thing was to eliminate one possibility at a time. That meant a long time. From this mid cycle to the next cycle.
Everything was near silent in Ascension. As always with peaceful mid cycles. Some blades were on watch patrol. Some lights were now shut as with the other Hive ships. Only the Destroyer was on watch duty. Fully lit. All visitors had departed. The hangar doors were shut.
Origin of Fire stretched herself as she cosied up to Dark Waters, her hive master who was purring by her side fast asleep. Her Consort was on duty running the systems. He and Dark Waters had settled their watch schedule of her. Rather than watching her, she usually watched them fall asleep. Two more cycles and it was her Consort's turn.
She brushed Dark Waters silvery white hair and smelled his musky neck. Their nest was growing bigger. Not by her choice.
Dark Waters and her had checked their eldest daughter earlier. She was sleeping soundly under her furs. The maturation pods were secured. Dark Waters told her two young Wraith children a bed time story of old Wraith history. Inert had dropped by to say good sleep to his son. The Wraith children had clambered into the pods after being scared by the horrors of Lantean scientists and outrageous experimentation. Dusk was on first watch then Stonewall.
It was a busy cycle today. The old Wraith leader came by his regular schedule to keep up the appearance to other Queens. One other Queen had been making covert enquiries about his Hives under Origin of Fire. Something about old traditions of leaving a feeding scar on his Wraith Commander. Six presented. She had to choose one to cycle lifeforce. Old tradition of surrendering power to a Queen. An obeisance. Her feeding hand stretched. The old Wraith Leader had picked Surgeforce.
Kneel. Her mind commanded Surgeforce who stood before her. He instantly dropped to his knees. There was no resistance. No strain on her mind.
He willingly undid his uniform and bared his chest. She was well fed fortunately.
DO IT. Dark Waters roared at her. She must never hesitate as a Queen. He sensed hesitation. Old ways pertaining to Queens must be obeyed.
She pushed her feeding hand into Surgeforce and watched his face struggling not to contort in pain as her mandibles sliced into his flesh and the enzyme started injecting into his system. Then she took a little as his teeth gritted in agony. And cycled a bit more into him before breaking contact. Surgeforce nearly toppled over but his off hand supported him.
Your strength is different. From other Queens. Not weak but all consuming. Surgeforce whispered into her mind.
Fires consume. She answered without hesitancy. He got up and bowed to her. Somehow it was as though the old Wraith was testing her strength through Surgeforce. She saw a glimpse of it. Intrigues bored her. She had no need of politics or power.
She did not like the tradition. The agreement was on being equals. So a way was found around it. She balked at the idea of making a Wraith who did no offence to her, kneel. It was their way. Queen's way of showing power. She rather have it uncomplicated. A nest with her mates and their young but the Lanteans destroyed those ways.
Food. Still thinking? Dark Waters buried his face into her neck.
Yes. Of our home. She curled up next to him and closed her eyes.
Ascension was their home now. A living mobile nest of a Hive. After the war, they would return to homeground. Their Hive will lock themselves away from the complications and complexities of Wraith politics. Just stick to home affairs. For now, war was the only way to ensure their survival as a race.
Home. Hive. Protect. Ascension purred. That was its purpose and its ultimate affair.