AN: Two for one Wednesday! was incredibly finicky bout uploading today but I think I got it.
The Importance of Queens
Halfway to the stasis room Sheppard bounded up and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Come with me," he growled to Todd. John rushed along the corridors ignoring the huffs of the squad keeping pace with him and their prisoner. Taking a sharp left the pair stumbled out onto a balcony where he shoved Todd down on the floor. Todd hissed in disapproval but before he could object, John shouted at the Marines. "You're dismissed until I call, that's an order!" punctuating his demand by locking the door.
"What are we doing here, Sheppard?" he asked, now curious.
"This is the best place to see the stars," John shrugged. "I know you probably want to sleep, but I think you need some fresh air; and I've got beer."
"Beer?" he asked, tilted his head.
"Fermented grain beverage, humans have been making it for thousands of years. Probably the first great achievement we had," John bragged as he opened a bottle. "Alcohol won't kill you, right?"
"Does it matter?" he smirked. He held back a laugh at his human counterpart's glare and took the bottle from his hand. "Many Wraith find pleasure in the sensations of human food and drink. I do not indulge in such things often. I deem it a waste of time. Under the circumstances, there is nothing better to do." Opening the bottle, he took a long drink. "You have low standards of achievement Sheppard. The flavor is not unpleasant, but hardly worthy of note."
"Jerk," John sneered. "I think what you mean is, 'thanks, John, this is a nice treat.' But I'm not up to date on my Wraith etiquette so what do I know?" he gulped down half-a-bottle of his own beer and sat down next to his ally and foe. "Maybe the alcohol will help dull the hunger, it does for us."
"Thank you, for trying, John Sheppard."
"You're welcome, Todd."
"Why do you call me that?" he asked as he finished the bottle.
John sighed. "You've never offered your name and I have to call you something. I knew a very pale guy in college named Todd. It fits."
"Among Wraith a name is intimate. It is rare to share them outside our hives," he answered his voice low and gruff. "To do so indicates an unbreakable bond of trust and brotherhood."
"Todd it is then," John laughed, passing another beer to his companion.
"Does Todd have a meaning?" he asked as he raised the new bottle to his lips.
"Fox," John answered. "The fox is one of the trickiest predators on this planet. Hard to track, small, fast, and will do anything to get out of a trap. It's near impossible to catch one in the wild without multiple dogs and people."
A feral smile split his lips exposing his teeth. "I will take it as a compliment even if you don't mean it, Sheppard."
"Suit yourself. Stars should be out any minute now," John sighed. The two men sat peacefully for hours watching the stars over San Francisco Bay. John rattling off the names of constellations and their origins; all while handing Todd beers. "Do Wraith name constellations?"
"No. We don't have the same need to give everything in life a unique identity," he mocked.
John leaned his head against the wall. "I'm not surprised. After all, all you do is cull, sleep, and invent things to kill rival Wraith. Creativity must not run high on the Wraith priorities."
He hissed in disgust. "I have told you before there is much you do not know about Wraith."
"I remember." John snarled. "Are you drunk yet?"
"I am not."
"I only have one more," John stated.
"I do not begrudge you the pleasure," he huffed.
"No, take it," John ordered, tossing the bottle.
Not wanting to leave the cool salty breeze yet, he drank. "Why did you allow Doctor McKay to become Doctor Keller's chosen?"
"I honestly have no idea what the hell you're talking about," John sputtered.
He grunted and closed his eyes for patience. "I noticed the rings they wore and asked about them. I can't understand why McKay is considered an acceptable candidate to be Doctor Keller's chosen. Why did you permit it?"
"Todd, first: Neither McKay nor Keller are in any of Earth's militaries, they can choose anyone they want and chose each other. Second, in my part of Earth people don't tell other people who they can and cannot marry. Third, I can't even get McKay to shut up, how do you think I could stop him from marrying Jen?"
"Why not kill him," he shrugged. "How can McKay protect and please a powerful queen like Doctor Keller. Only one part of his mind is useful, the rest of his being is as worthless as any I have encountered in ten thousand years. Doctor Keller deserves better, even your 'runner' is more worthy of her."
"His name is Ronan!" John roared rage pouring through his eyes. "I don't care how Wraith arrange their families; you don't get to judge us! I'm the first to admit Rodney's a giant pain in the ass, and he has no people skills, but he's saved this city, my life, and yours, more times than I can count so just shut up. They love each other that's all that matters."
"Is it really so simple?" he asked as he stared into the sky. "I suppose your lives are too short for anything deeper."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" John muttered, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
"I mean humans live too few years to truly be grateful for what they have," he sighed. "How many queens are on this planet compared to males?"
John shook his head at the shocking question. "It's roughly a fifty-fifty split between men and women. What does that have to do with anything?"
He bolted to his feet, pacing the length of the narrow balcony with predatory grace, his breathing harsh and shallow. "Ungrateful, immature, ignorant. Why did I think you could possibly be made to understand? For every male on your planet there is a queen. This planet never needs to fear their nourishment will go extinct. For Wraith, it can be thousands of years before a queen is born. For Wraith, entire hives die a long slow death when their queens are lost. For Wraith, there is the never-ending struggle to feed and propagate. Why do you think our technology is the same as it was when we won the war against your Ancients? Why do you think we constantly war with ourselves? Humans see us as monsters, but do they behave differently when they are threatened? Once, many thousands of years ago, my hive orbited a planet where the men threw their queens at my feet. Each and every male willing to give us their queens, young, old, healthy, sick, every one of them, as long as they could live. They said, 'females are easy to get,' as if their queens had no value beyond procreation. As if—" he stopped and took a deep breath for control. "A Wraith Queen provides protection, nurturing and stability to a hive. She gives purpose, she provides guidance. She is leader, guardian, sister, mother, friend, mate, and beloved." As his calm returned, he slumped to the floor and lay looking at the stars. "I'm sorry humans cannot understand."
John stared into the sky. "What happened on the planet where they offered the women to your hive?"
"We took the men. Left the women and all the children. My Queen's wrath burned brightly that day," he answered with a feral grin.
"I can't say I wouldn't have wanted to do the same thing," John admitted. "Look, I'm the first to admit Earth would seem like a paradise to most of the Pegasus Galaxy, and that humans can be just as brutal, evil, and vicious as any other alien. However, just because the Wraith need to feed on humans doesn't mean humans shouldn't have the right to defend themselves."
"We did not choose our need to feed, Sheppard. Why is your life worth more than mine?"
"Yours as an individual? Well, aside from your lies of omission I'd say my life isn't worth any more than anyone else's. I still have a right to defend it if you decide to try and eat me again." John picked up the beer bottles, stuffing them in the pockets of his cargo pants. "If I really wanted the genocide of your entire race, I'd be advocating the biologists around here to create a better Hoffan drug, not wake you up to help with Keller's gene therapy."
"We both know that you'd love to have such a weapon in case we fail with the therapy," he retorted.
Nodding John shrugged. "And we both know that if it came down to feeding on me or imminent death, you'd do your best to feed."
"I can't provide for my people if I am dead. Doctor McKay said that you also lost your Queen some time ago and today is a day of grief. I remember a female voice the first time I was brought to feed on you, it wasn't Colonel Carter's."
"I think you might be on to something with killing Rodney. How mad can Jen possibly get? She wouldn't have to put up with his snoring and sleep-talking," John huffed. "She was nothing like a Wraith Queen. She was goodness, she believed in peace and cooperation, she hated war and violence. She'd walk into her deadliest enemy's stronghold unarmed and keep talking until they saw reason. She'd watch you suck me dry and not bend when a psycho like Kolya made his sick demands. She'd try to help anyone who hurt her or this city if it meant protecting and promoting peace. She would give everything she had to do her duty. If it wasn't for her, I would never have come to Atlantis, and I won't let her dreams for Atlantis die here on Earth." John stopped, gripping the railing his knuckles white from his death grip. He screwed his eyes shut against the tears demanding to be shed and sighed.
He stared at the stars so strange from the ones he loved. Yet, here with this young human he felt less alone for the first time in thousands of years. Two born enemies sharing the same tragedies. "I wish I could have met her. She sounds like the most intriguing human I could have met."
"If you think I would have let you anywhere near her, you're out of your mind," John growled.
Holding back a howl of rage he kept his voice soothing and smooth. "If I meant you or Atlantis any harm you would be dead. Did you ever wonder why I work so often with you? Do you ever wonder why I never used the recon information I took from Atlantis against you or this planet? I could have done so many, many times. I know you know this."
John released his death grip from the railing and faced the other exhausted man. "I'm not stupid, Todd. Working with us gives you an advantage over the other Wraith, and you're capable of anything where your self-interest is involved. I told you, you're as crafty and ruthless as a fox."
A dark grumble vibrated deep in his chest, filling his throat. "That may be, Sheppard, but if you think my motivation is merely my own ego, you're more of a child than I thought."
Schooling his face into his flyboy smartass smirk John answered. "See, I figure it this way you help us with the gene therapy, and your hive is less or completely independent of feeding on humans, giving you more time to develop scary things to take control of all Wraith territory and then all Pegasus. Eventually, you'll try for this galaxy, but I'm gonna have to kill you before you can start galactic conquest. Sorry."
He shook his head sadly. "You're wrong, Sheppard. Conquest is not my aim. Every move, every choice, every breath I have taken since we escaped from that Genii prison have been to one purpose, the salvation of my people. I also had a Queen who dreamed, and I will not rest until I have made them true. I mentioned before of the young Queen leading a small faction of Wraith who saw we would eventually suffer from too many and not enough resources. She saw us trapped by stagnation and in-fighting, with no opportunity to unite and develop into a great culture. You only have to look at our hyperspace technology to see she predicted rightly. Even if we hadn't been woken early, eventually, the hives will tear each other apart for dominance and we will die out. I won't let that happen. If my hive can survive without feeding on humans we will have the advantage yes, but I have no desire to rule, Sheppard. I want my people united to grow and coexist with all the peoples in my home galaxy. Not because I have any love for humanity, but because if we do not, it means the end of Wraith. It means my Queen's life was in vain."
John could count on one hand the times his heartbeat fast and hard enough to hurt worse than a bullet. This time used up his ring-finger. "Do you really expect me to believe you?" he asked proud his voice betrayed nothing.
"Not tonight. I do expect you to think about it. Please, promise me that if I do die in this galaxy my body can go home."
"We're not there yet," John snapped. "Let's get you back to the pod. As it is, Woolsey is going to bust my ass for bringing you out, ditching security, and turning off my com. I broke about a zillion regulations so you could stargaze and drink my beer!"
He stood slowly letting his lungs fill with cool salty air. "We both know you enjoy trouble. But I do thank you."
John rolled his eyes. "Don't go soft on me, I'd still rather shoot you."