Two and a half years ago to this day, was the day that changed her life forever. After coming up with a brilliant idea and a prototype that was almost finished, Saphira had thought that the Genii leaders would be pleased with the development after years of trying to build an explosive weapon against the wraith. She could not be more wrong, as on that day Cowen declared her to be banished and to never associate herself with the Genii. She could not understand why this happened; she wandered the galaxy to continue her mission. And that was to build pilotless fighters to fight back against the wraith. Everywhere she went, people were more scared of that idea then the excitement of freedom. Only a few thought her ideas were grand, but they did not have the technology could help her proceed with her idea. It took three months of traveling before she settled on an abandoned world, it used to have the Genii living here, but it was mostly destroyed. It was here Saphira discovered a few wraith darts that were in good enough condition to use for her plan. She did figure out quickly that in order to do anything to these ships, she would need to learn the language. And learn it she did, it took her a year to read it fluently with determination driving her. She continued to reach out to the galaxy of her plan, but was rejected time and time again until she no longer cared if the wraith hunted them. She didn't even care if they found her, she felt at least the wraith were honorable as they hunt them for food, and remain committed to that.
And we reach the current time, Saphira had finished creating an external control system a few weeks ago and she now was able to connect it with the ship wirelessly. The console was basic, so Saphira could really only turn on the ship, raise it and land it as moving the ship required a camera. She was focused on the task, checking her written material to make sure she had everything correct before flipping a few switches. The loud hum of the dart engine roared to life, making Saphira smile with glee at the progress she had made.
"Alright, now let's see if you can lift off," Saphira spoke nervously to no one but the dart, brushing strands of black hair out of her green eyes. It might be odd, but she liked it could not talk back.
She flipped another switch before lifting a lever slowly, watching the ship lift off the ground. She was about to jump up with joy when the ship stopped running suddenly and fell to the ground with a loud bang. Saphira huffed, but she still declared this to be a winner.
"Hmm…might need to calibrate the engines," She mutters, looking back at her notes. She looked through them, wrote a few extra notes before standing and walking over to the dart. "Oof! A bit of heat from the engine like that is nice and toasty."
She stood by the back of the dart, the heat of the engine was still radiating from it despite only being on for a short time. She reached in a slot above the engine exhaust, felt around and pulled a level, causing the exhaust to fall to the ground. She dragged it away a little so she had room to look inside, humming softly and looked at what she had to do.
A snap of a branch caught her attention. She glanced to her right, and she was startled to see a group of wraith looking at her. Four guards and one maskless wraith. A tall wraith dressed in a black robe with hair almost white as snow with a tinge of blue, striking blue eyes and skin that deceivingly looked cold due to its pale blue color, it was almost as pale as her skin. Saphira was surprised that the wraith showed up over two years later, she did doubt they knew she was here creating such a machine.
The wraith commander smirked at her, stalking towards her slowly. "What do you have there? I believe that is our property," He said, sneering at Saphira with a malicious smile, flashing his teeth at her to try to intimidate her.
Saphira glanced at the dart for a moment. "It is, I apologize for doing stuff to it." She shrugged casually and looked back at the wraith. "You can have it back; it's still got damage from when it fell many years before I got here."
The commander tilts his head, his eyes gazing towards the control console as curiosity takes over. He was angry she was able to use the dart. "What is this idea you have? It won't work no we're here."
"Oh, well, I had come up with the idea to build pilotless fighters," Saphira explained casually. The wraith looked at her with a surprised frown at her telling them so freely and without a threat. "I had almost finished a working prototype before the Genii kicked me out."
The commander rose an eyebrow. "Genii hey? I would have thought they would love the idea."
"Honestly, I thought so too," Saphira said, stretching her back and leaned against the ship. This was too casual even for the wraith. "But no, they were too scared. In fact, most of the galaxy are. You can continue this idea for yourselves."
"For ourselves? Why would you want us to have this idea?" The commander said curiously. "In fact, you are not even scared. I sense your nervousness, but no fear. You do know I will feed on you when you tell me everything."
"That's precisely why I am telling you," She responds, spreading her hands slightly in frustration. "I don't care if you kill me or the people of the galaxy, you don't have the choice of your diet and that I can respect and understand." She paused while looking at the dart, not noticing the astonished expression on the commander's face. She shrugged casually and looked back at him. "But the Genii were not the only people to reject my idea, in fact majority of the galaxy thought my idea would bring destruction on them. And it might have, but there was no harm in building the ships and attempting it of course, but humans seem to get so scared of something that has not yet happened. I have come to realize that no matter how good of an idea someone has in this galaxy, the people determine if it is worth their courage to face up to someone they deem as an enemy."
The wraith listened to Saphira quietly as they were rather interested about what she was saying. The commander himself did not pick up any deception coming from the girl and the fact she was angry at the galaxy itself for rejecting her idea was somewhat amusing and something he could understand. Of course, she could no longer be a part of this process, as much as she would be an asset to this project.
He sighed deeply, walking toward the dart and placing a hand on the side. He looked at Saphira with a softer expression, one she didn't know wraith could have. "I can see why you are angry. You are right, humans are more afraid of the unknown then they are of advancing themselves," He said in a polite, and somewhat gentle tone. "I respect your effort, and your reasoning to give this information to us. However, you cannot be a part of it anymore."
Moving her head side to side slightly, Saphira pulled her shirt some to rip so he would have access to her chest. "Yeah, yeah, get it over with," She said in a solemn voice. "There isn't anything for me to go back to, so you may as well feed. You worry I will spread your knowledge of this to everyone in the galaxy, when I honestly would sit back and watch gleefully at their defeat."
The commander raised his hand for a moment before he glanced at it and clenched it, it was as if he was conflicted about this for the moment even if it was a short hesitation. He looked at Saphira curiously. "What is your name? Even though I must do this, your vengeance against the galaxy should not go unheard and naming the ships after you would not make this in vain."
She blinked in confusion, the wraith just offered her a chance to be named for something that would be used to cull and attack human worlds as a form on vengeance for her. "Um…that's awfully generous of you," She smiled at him. "My name is Saphira."
"Saphira…we will come up with a name from that," He said, raising his right hand.
She clenched her eyes shut, knowing what as coming and she tensed feeling his hand slam onto her chest. And it hurt, that was going to leave a bruise and the claws on the wraith due into her skin some also hurt. But, nothing else happened. Saphira opened one eye slightly to see the commander with a confused expression. He tried again, pressing his hand on her chest trying to feed from her. She opened both eyes with a raised eyebrow, watching the commander trying to feed from her. She wondered if something was wrong with him, she said nothing as one of the masked wraith walked over and slammed his hand onto her chest, and it was harder than the commander, making her whine in surprise and trying not to fall over. Again, she felt nothing, and she was confused.
"Um…why aren't you, uh, feeding?" Saphira questions with a confused frown. "Currently, the bruise and claw wounds are going to hurt more, and I am not understanding this."
The commander sighed deeply. "Step away," He commands the masked wraith. The wraith huffed and turned away to let the commander back in. "It seems you are not going to be fed on."
"I don't understand," Saphira said, glancing down at her chest. She widened her eyes at the claw red handprint on her chest and the claw marks from the nails.
"It is extremely rare, it seems you are immune to our feeding." Saphira looked up at the commander in shock and surprise, she was not expecting him to say that. "It's an exceedingly rare genetic trait that prevents us from feeding on humans. We have only had ten humans that we know of who were immune to wraith feeding."
Saphira blinked a few times and realized that the Hoffans were trying to recreate the same gene due to an ancestor they had years ago. Luckily they did not know or she would be a guinea pig right now. "I only knew about one, the Hoffans had an ancestor that they said was immune. I never thought I would be one as I thought it might be a lie."
"It is no lie, and that means you have to come with us," The commander said, grabbing her arm. He looked at the four masked wraith. "Gather all the material she has written regarding this machine and understanding our language, we will take her before our queen."
They nod and begin gathering the paper while the commander forced her to walk towards the stargate. "What exactly will happen to me?"
"I am not able to answer that, some of the humans where were immune were either released, killed or enslaved," He responds.
"Oh…well, what if I offer a different course of action?" She asked curiously with a smirk. "As I am the one who came up with the idea, I would have no problem in working for you to build them. I may also come up with other ideas to benefit wraith."
The commander sighed deeply, not sure how he should answer the girl. "I will be honest, there is no way I can answer that. If the queen has an interest in allowing you to stay, the decision goes to the high queen and a vote is decided among the queens, and some lead commanders on queenless hives. Expect the queen to try feed on you again and for her to make a decision. I do believe you will at least be given a chance by my queen, but I cannot promise what the others will think. You being immune is a risk, especially your knowledge of our language means you could steal our knowledge and tell the rest of the humans to destroy us."
Saphira understood the reasoning. The wraith wanted to remain predators, and someone immune could jeopardize their reign over the galaxy. Saphira did not want to do that, the commander seems to think she is telling the truth and she knew wraith were able to sense emotions in humans, so they probably could pick up on a lie. She was not entirely sure. She was nervous about it all though, she thought she would be dead by now, but she had no idea what would happen afterward. She was starting to feel scared of what might happen. She tried to hide it, but the wraith said nothing of it upon reaching the gate and dialing the device to head to the world they came from. She was curious as to why they went to her planet, but decided she would ask that question much later.