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Chapter 9: Escape from the hive.

A gunshot ran out disrupting the silence around him and Ronon immediately ran into the queen's chamber, only to find that the queen was dead – well he assumed that she was dead – and Todd was bent over Sheppard. It looked like the wraith was feeding on his friend. He was about to pull the Wraith off Sheppard when Todd stopped and stood up. Looking down at his friend he realised that John was young and whole – well almost whole.

"Come we must go. My queen is dead, so others will soon come looking for us." Todd hissed while helping John to his feet.

"I'd have to agree with Todd, big guy because the last thing I need to be is lunch – again."

He looked at his commanding officer and he was positive that he was injured in some way, but perhaps now wasn't the time to discuss it, "Sure Sheppard, you can tell me what happened later."

"I'm not sure I want to talk about it, buddy. It's a good job that Todd killed the queen because I probably told her a little too much. I've been able to resist queens poking around in my brain before, but today she managed to get in."

"Don't forget that this queen is from the future and if she managed to create super Wraith drones, she probably managed to strengthen herself as well," Todd reminded them.

"Thanks, Todd that makes me feel a lot better," Sheppard commented as a look of relief crossed his face.

Ronon looked at John and he wondered whether the man was injured. He'd had a Wraith queen poking around in his mind and there was blood all other his face and ears, so it was a distinct possibility. "Hey Sheppard, are you injured?"

"Don't worry Chewie, I have a bit of a headache; it could have something to do with the fact that Tom threw me against a wall."

Before he had a chance to reply to his friend Todd turned his stunner on the queen and something that he had never seen before happened, Todd fired, and the queen's body disintegrated.

"Wow! I've never seen a Wraith stunner do that before," John commented, "you must have got some tips from the Go'uald."

"Future technology," Todd told them before placing a finger on his lips, "Shh…someone's coming."

Ronon started to back into the corner of the room and John soon followed, while Todd stood in the centre of the room, and it wasn't long before two large wraith came into the chamber.

"Where is my queen?" One of them asked.

"I have no idea; I just got here and found these two humans in the chamber," Todd replied.

"John Sheppard must have done something to her, with the help of this other human." The other one replied.

"Perhaps we should feed on John Sheppard and his friend, what the queen doesn't know won't hurt her," the first wraith replied.

"These are my humans, and no one will feed on them except me, "Todd hissed before pulling out his gun and disintegrating both of them.

Ronon knew that it was time to go and judging by Sheppard's pale face the sooner the better, "right let's get going."

Todd smiled at them, showing his crooked yellow teeth, "I'm going to walk behind you, in case we come across anymore Wraith, but do not worry I will not shoot you."

"I suppose we don't have much of a choice do we, "John mumbled, before standing in front of Todd.

Ronon was beginning to worry about Sheppard, he looked as white as a ghost and looking at the back of his head he noticed a lump and his hair was matted with blood. Carson was definitely not going to be happy when he saw him, and he hoped that Carson wouldn't insist on them going back to Atlantis before they could complete their mission.

"Are you ready Ronon," Todd hissed?

Before he had a chance to reply two large wraith came into the room and one of them stunned him in the chest, he heard Sheppard mumble, "Tom and Gerry," and then everything went back

oOo

A loud rumbling sound awoke Teyla from her slumber and for a moment she thought that she was back on Athos in the middle of a fierce thunderstorm. When she managed to slowly open her eyes, she wasn't surprised to see that she was on Arastica, and the rumbling sound was Rodney snoring which was nothing new because as long as he had someone to watch his back, he could sleep anywhere – although he barely ever slept on Atlantis.

Looking around the room she soon realised that Carson and she were the only ones awake, which was a bit of a problem because she knew that Dave and Torren had work to do. Carson seemed to be checking his medical supplies out, which was something he always did when he was bored.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"About three hours Luv. The others fell asleep an hour ago, so I thought that I'd leave them a bit longer."

"Have you heard from John or Ronon?"

"I'm sorry Teyla, but there's been no word and I'd have to admit I'm becoming worried about them. Unfortunately, John always seems to be in trouble through no fault of his own."

"I know what you mean Carson and I am thankful that you are always there to help him. You are an excellent healer and Atlantis is lucky to have you."

"Thank you, Lass," Carson replied, and Teyla didn't miss the redness in his cheeks.

A voice from the other side of the room, interrupted their conversation, "Hey guys what's happening?"

Teyla was forceful in her reply, "we are waking for you, Dave, and Torren to wake up and get to work. The sooner you get your calculations finished the sooner we can go back in time and fix this mess!"

For a moment Rodney looked hurt and stood in the middle of the room with his mouth open, but that didn't last long, "well then I guess I better wake Torren and Dave since I can't do this alone."

Five minutes later Dave, Torren and Rodney were all buried in their work and all she could do was sit around, wait and worry.

"Carson, do you think that we should go and look for John and Ronon?"

"Perhaps we will wait a little longer."

She nodded her head knowing that Carson was right because the last thing they needed was for her to go missing too. She knew that Ronon and John could look after themselves and if they had Todd to help, they were probably okay – not that it stopped her from worrying.

Sighing she sat next down next to Carson and watched the three scientists working, she had no idea how long it would take them to do their calculations, but she hoped that by the time they had finished John and Ronon would be back.

oOo

Pins and needles in his hands and feet greeted John on awakening for the second time that day – well he had no idea how long he'd been held prisoner, so he could have been on the hive for days by now. A lot had happened since he'd been on Sheppard's planet after all. He lay on his back wondering what Teyla and the others were up to, had they already finished their calculations and were waiting for him to sit in the chair to open the anomaly? Were they worried about him, or hadn't it been that long?

Moaning and opening his eyes, it didn't take him long to realise that he was back in a wraith cell again and that seemed to be the story of his life. The only difference was that this time Ronon was in there with him, and he was already awake and pacing the tiny cell.

His headache was bordering on a migraine – not to mention he felt nauseous – so he needed Ronon to stop the pacing, "Hey, Buddy, do you think that you can stop pacing as I think my head is about to explode?"

When Ronon finally decided to stop John tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness came over him, so in the end, he decided to stay lying on the floor.

"Sheppard, are you okay?"

Of course, he wasn't okay, but he didn't want Ronon to know that, so he decided to change the subject, "Situation report?"

"I don't know how long we've been here, but I've been awake for quite a while, and I haven't seen Todd in that time?"

"What about Tom and Gerry?"

Ronon looked at him with a look of confusion, "huh?"

"The two guards that stunned us."

"You call them Tom and Gerry?" Ronon asked, before answering his question, "Nope, I haven't seen them either."

"Well in that case Chewie, I guess it's up to us to get ourselves out of here. Do you have any knives?"

He rolled his eyes as Ronon pulled a knife out of his dreadlocks – he had no idea how he didn't stab himself in the head with it.

"Great Chewie, do you think that you could use it to get us out of here?"

Before he had a chance to do anything a hissing filled the room, "there is no reason to. I have eliminated as many wraith as I can, so I will get you out of here and then you must go to Arastica and go back in time and make sure that this ship never crashes on this planet and the queen never infects the city, since the future depends on it."

Ronon was across the cell and to the door in a flash, "why do you care what happens? This is your hive after all. Surely you would benefit if it became strong and powerful?" Ronon paused for a moment and a look of confusion crossed his face – at least that was what it looked like to John, "and why did you murder your own queen?"

"I still believe that the best future for the wraith is to learn to work with humans to develop a retro-virus so that they don't ever have to feed on humans again."

John had heard future Todd mention the same thing, but he was a little surprised to hear this Todd talking the same way, future Todd had also mentioned that he would need to eliminate his queen as she did not share his aims for an alliance between wraith and humans. Although was this the future Todd? When this hive ship had gone through the anomaly in the future, he was fairly sure that Todd wasn't on it, but did Todd somehow follow Torren and Dave through the anomaly and end up in this time?

"Are you the Todd from the future?"

"It took you long enough to figure it out, John Sheppard. I followed Dave and Torren through the anomaly that they created in my dart as I had to be here to help put the timeline right."

"So where is the you from this time?" Ronon asked and John thought he had a point.

"I have no idea, but I was the one who met Torren and Dave on the desert planet in this time and I was the Todd who came to Atlantis. I'm sure that I'll turn up eventually though."

"Why did you try and pass yourself off as the Todd from the present?" Ronon asked and again John thought that it was a valid question.

"I wanted to see how long it would take for someone to work it out and I must admit it was a fun game, although I thought that John Sheppard would have realised sooner."

By this time John was beginning to feel better, so he somehow managed to get to his feet and cross the cell, "as wonderful as this conversation is shouldn't we get going?"

"Yes John Sheppard, I agree," Todd stated while he was opening the door.

He was about to follow Ronon out the door when a wave of dizziness overcame him and he was grateful that Ronon grabbed his arm, so that he didn't face plant. His headache had diminished for a while when he'd been sitting down, but now it had reached epic proportions again. Carson was not going to be happy with him, but he didn't have time to think about that now because they had a mission to complete, but when it was over, he would be happy to do whatever Carson told him to if it meant that the incessant pounding in his head would stop.

"Sheppard let me help you?"

The thought crossed his mind to refuse his friend's help, but when another wave of dizziness struck, he relented and would have nodded his head if it weren't so painful.

For the next five minutes, he walked in silence his head pounding with every step. He was relieved that Ronon had a hold of his arm the entire time – if he hadn't, he would have face planted a long time ago. By the time they left the ship and were in the fresh air, his stomach felt so nauseous that it began to rebel and all he could do was fall to his knees and lose what little food he had in his stomach, he then began to retch, and he kept retching until he thought that his stomach would turn itself inside out. Once he had finished, he sat on the ground and looked up at Ronon and Todd, "My head hurts," he muttered before the encroaching darkness claimed him again.

oOo

Carson had been awake for half an hour and already he was fed up with listening to Rodney, Torren and Dave talking about their calculations. From what he could ascertain they would be ready to go within an hour, so they needed Sheppard back by then. He was beside himself with worry by this time because he would have expected Todd and Ronon to be back with the wayward pilot by now. Judging by the way that Teyla was pacing back and forth he suspected that she was just as worried and bored as he was. Maybe it was time to stretch his legs and go for a walk outside and perhaps he would ask Teyla to accompany him. If nothing else a nice breath of fresh air would be better than the stuffiness of the room, they were in – and he didn't mean the scientists.

"Teyla, would you like to go for a walk with me?"

"I thought that you'd never ask Carson." Teyla replied and he didn't miss the eye roll she gave in the direction of the three scientists.

Holding his hand out for her he stood to his feet and when she'd grabbed hold of his arm they proceeded towards the entrance where they'd come in, but first, he thought he'd mention it to the others – although they probably wouldn't notice that they were missing.

"Rodney, Teyla and I are going for a walk, we'll be back in around half an hour."

Rather than reply, Rodney just waved his hand, so Carson had no idea whether he'd been heard or not.

The only reason he wanted to go for a walk was to see if he could see any sign of the others. He was worried that if John or Ronon were injured that they may have to go back to Atlantis and would have to put the mission on hold. Although he knew that both men would tell him they were fine even if they'd had a limb chewed off by a wild beast.

The air was cool when they exited Arastica and the secondary sun was low on the horizon, so there was little light to see by. In the distance, he could see the faint outline of the hive in the fading light and there appeared to be no sign of life.

Teyla shivered beside him, and he wasn't sure whether she was cold, so he put his arm around her, hoping to keep her warm or offer her comfort if she needed it. He knew that she and John had just become a couple and how they felt about each other, so for her sake, he hoped that John was okay. He chuckled to himself, at what point had he become so worried about John Sheppard. Ronon could be injured for all he knew, but he hadn't given him a single thought. Perhaps Rodney was right when he called Colonel Sheppard, Colonel Calamity, or Colonel catastrophe.

Finally, he spied someone in the distance and although he couldn't be sure it looked like Todd, but if it were Todd, why weren't John or Ronon with him.

He watched as the figure came closer and the closer it got the more, he was convinced that it was Todd.

Within a few minutes he knew without a doubt that it was Todd and with Teyla running beside him, he ran out to meet him.

"Dr Beckett, my Queen," Todd said on approach, "what is going on here and why has my hive crashed on the planet?"

He looked at the wraith and suddenly felt suspicious, "Todd, where are Colonel Sheppard and Ronon?"

"I have no idea; all I know is that I detected my hive crashed on this planet and came to investigate. And do you know what is strange? I left my hive one hour ago and it was flying through space."

Carson just stood and stared at him, hadn't they had this conversation a few days ago?

Teyla looked at the wraith and a look of mistrust crossed her face, "Todd, I would like you to tell me where John and Ronon are since you were supposed to go and find John?"

Before he had a chance to take the conversation any further Ronon and John came out from behind a rock and what was confusing was that Todd followed them out as well.

"I knew I'd turn up sooner or later, "the Todd with Ronon and John said.

Carson stood and looked at both the Todd's and, in his mind, they looked exactly the same, but he knew one of them must be from the future, so he turned to the Todd standing next to John and Ronon, "I take it you're from the future?"

When he nodded the other Wraith looked at him and grinned, "so the rumour is true, the ancients were experimenting with time travel here?"

Future Todd came up and stood in front of his past self and spoke to him forcefully, "you really need to go. Trust me you don't need to be caught up in any of this!"

Present Todd, sneered at his future self, "I do not know if I trust you, but technically you are me, so perhaps I should listen to you. I think that I will leave for now," he turned to John before continuing," but I shall want an explanation from you soon John Sheppard. I will meet you here in three days and then I will expect answers."

Future Todd turned to look at John, "do not worry I will keep an eye on him, but when you return to this time, I would like to go back to the future so that I can finish my work."

John nodded at the big Wraith and Carson didn't miss the pain that the action caused, so he looked closely at the pilot, and it looked like he had a headache. The thing he couldn't work out though was it from an injury or not.

"Colonel Sheppard, are you injured, you look like you have a bit of a headache?"

"Don't worry about me doc, I'm fine. Now, how are the others going on the calculations?"

"I believe that they are almost finished," Teyla answered, and Carson didn't miss the look of concern on her face.

"Okay, I'm heading down to the chair room then," John told them before beginning to walk in the direction of Arastica.

Carson watched as John walked off and he didn't miss the matted blood in his hair. He was tempted to run after him and insist on looking at his injury, but before he had a chance to follow Teyla spoke up.

"I will go and keep an eye on him."

Before she walked off, he grabbed her arm," Teyla can you please check the back of his head out and report back to me?"

"Don't worry about him Doc, he'll be alright," Ronon answered as he walked off towards Arastica.

"Do not worry Carson I will have a look at his injury and let you know what is going on, but I am sure that Arastica will heal him – if not I will tell you."

He stood and watched as Teyla walked away and it was only then that he realised that he was standing outside in the dark. He knew that there were two moons on Arastica, but only one of them was in the sky and it was just peering over the horizon so there wasn't much light to see by.

Taking one last look at the view he turned around and headed back into the city.

oOo

His head was pounding with every step, but John knew that he needed to get to the chair room as soon as possible. He needed to be ready when Torren and Dave had finished their calculations. The plan was that once the calculations were complete, he would connect with Arastica, and the city would open the anomaly. He knew that Torren had tried to open an anomaly in the future without using the chair and it just didn't work. For some reason, they could close it down without using the chair, but they just couldn't open one.

As he approached the chair room, he felt himself becoming dizzy, so he knew that he had to hurry since the last thing he needed to do right now was fall flat on his face. He knew that Carson was on to him and if the doctor had his way he would end up in the infirmary under observation and he wouldn't be able to complete the mission.

A voice from behind him caught his attention and brought him back to awareness, "John are you really, okay? Do not think that Carson did not notice the wound on the back of your head."

He stopped and turned around to face her, "look Teyla I was thrown against a concrete wall, then the queen interrogated me and then Todd disintegrated the queen, but I am fine. So, if you would let me go to the chair room, I will be able to ask Arastica to heal me and then maybe I can open an anomaly and we can get this mission over with."

"In that case, I will accompany you."

"Fine but can we hurry up."

Turning his back on her he continued to the gateroom and within a few minutes, he was approaching the control chair. Immediately he could hear her humming to him, but he also knew that something wasn't quite right. Obviously, the wraith virus was already in her systems, but it wasn't as strong as it had been in the future. So, for the moment they had managed to stop the wraith from infecting her a second time.

Laying back in the chair he reached out with his mind, and he found himself standing on one of his favourite balconies on Atlantis. Arastica knew him well and when he had asked Torren how she could communicate with him through time Torren had told him that he didn't know, and he was still trying to figure it out.

"Arastica, are you there?"

An image of Elizabeth, walked onto the balcony to join him, "Yes, John Sheppard I am here."

"How is it you know who I am, but we haven't even met yet? I would also like to know how you communicated with me through time."

"Before you left me in the future, I was able to plant images in your brain of the reality that was caused by the wraith ship landing on this planet ten thousand years ago. The ones you call ancients left me with the ability to scan realities and time streams, so I was able to see this. By planting these images in your brain, I also left a piece of my AI behind and that is what your doctor detected when he scanned your brain."

"Why is the wraith virus not affecting you in this period the same way it did in the future?"

"The Wraith queen would have infected me again if the Wraith you call Todd had not killed her. I am still not well, so you will still need to prevent the queen from infecting me in the past."

"I am sure that Torren will be ready with his calculations shortly. But can you heal the back of my head?"

"I do not have the power at the moment. Although I may seem normal to you there is still a virus in my system. I believe that Dave and Torren have connected another two full ZPMs but there is still damage to my systems."

"Don't worry about it Arastica."

"I am becoming weak John Sheppard, so I will not be able to communicate with you much longer as I need to rest."

"Goodbye then Arastica, we'll talk soon."

He watched the image of Elizabeth walking away and then everything faded to black….

TBC…