Black and White.
Chapter Seven
Disclaimers as per previous chapters.
This chapter was written as "The Lost Boys" aired in the UK. Nice to see canon confirming Wraith infighting!
The firing of the weapon from Beckett's POV.
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Carson Beckett was not aware but he was moaning aloud as his mind tried to deal with the onslaught upon it. The human mind is poorly equipped for any telepathic contact not least as brutal and alien a force as this – the vicious, churning presence of the Wraith.
There was also his forced use of the weapon. Beckett had the ancient gene but it did not give him the control that someone such as Sheppard possessed. Using it was a great effort for him, requiring concentration and strength. Currently he was being pushed beyond all the limits that he had previously encountered and it hurt.
The weapon was now fully powered. He could feel it. He had enabled the arming and aiming mechanisms to lock onto a target. For a moment the Wraith leader released the pressure that it had held him under and Carson mentally and physically sagged in the Chair.
He was dimly aware of the Wraith communicating with each other.
"We are ready?" The leader turned and grinned at his circle of followers. They all reported what their consoles were telling them, what Beckett could feel through his connection to the Weapon.
"Let our revenge commence. I will pay a visit to our unknowing victims and show them the extent of their dishonour!"
Carson felt the Wraith return to his mind – he could not free himself from its thoughts that pulled so strongly at his. In laboratory conditions being able to see into the mind of a Wraith would be so invaluable but the reality was so awful that it was all Carson could do to hold onto his sanity.
He now seemed to find himself in a different place, somewhere with dark corridors where many Wraith were walking past him as though he could not be seen. Beckett struggled to understand – was he seeing a Hive ship through the eyes of a Wraith? This vision certainly seemed to tie in with Teyla's description of her telepathic joining with them. The Hive mind was around him, he could hear and see and feel hundreds of the creatures. Feel the hunger that drove one towards the storage pods where thousands of human beings were encased, trapped alive and in a state of utmost terror. This ship had been culling planet after planet, stocking its holds with food, the instinctive response to their reawakening. Carson was learning this involuntarily as the Wraith in control of his mind swept through the ship looking for one mind in particular.
It was a Hive queen. Carson felt her surprise as she recognised the mental signature of the Wraith that was linked with Beckett.
"You are alive …and your fellows! It was your beacon that has been responded to? I had not thought any survived from that ship." The mind voice was cold, imperial.
The leader of the planet Wraith responded with anger and bitterness. "Some of us survived the debacle that was the assault upon the Ancient city. Survived your foolish strategy that lost the new feeding grounds seemingly for ever. Our Hive ship destroyed, we have joined with another… …no you are not aware of our location for good reason. We have discovered that the route to the new galaxy still exists but it has been determined that you are a liability in reaching that goal. Atlantis was not the first time that you have been responsible for losing a chance to destroy our enemies."
Carson seemed to see memories then of a battle far away in time and space when the Wraith had suffered a setback in their struggle with the Ancients.
"You will not jeopardise our new plans…indeed you will not live beyond the next few moments.
"It has been determined that you are not worthy to face an end at the hands of fellow Wraith. Your destruction shall be by the hand of the Ancients – their weapons and their descendants!"
The Wraith leader allowed the Queen to "see" Carson and the existence of the weapon on the planet thousands of miles below.
Even as he felt the Queen react with horror, calling for ship shields and defensive action, Beckett found himself mentally back in the Chair, aware again of the control chamber around him. The Wraith, still standing in front of him, pushed savagely at Beckett's mind – urging him to fire the energy weapon. He resisted desperately – the orbiting Hive ship did not just hold Wraith in their hundreds but thousands of captured humans. He must not kill them…could not…it was unbearable.
But he did.
The energy surge of the weapon firing shook the whole base for many long seconds. All the Wraith in the control chamber were using their telepathic abilities to listen to the burning death of the Hive that that they had condemned and were howling in triumph. Horror gripped Carson, he could feel them dying through the link – it was all too much - he felt himself greying out into blissful unconsciousness.
TBC
AN: Och will she ever let the poor wee lad out of that Chair! Not yet – still got some whumping to do.