Here we go, another chapter ^^
A big Thank you! to Armand, for looking it over.
Preparing himself for an instinctual defense reaction, John slowly raises his hands to place them on the wraith's shoulders, intending to give him a good shake. The guards aren't any happier about his course of action than they were the first time he did this, but he keeps ignoring the grim faces behind the barrels of the P90 that are aimed at Todd through the planks that frame the wraith's cell.
His hands touch worn leather, but before he can truly shake the wraith, Todd's head snaps up and the yellow eyes hone in on him like an ATR system. And yet Todd seems to be looking as much at John as he is looking right through him.
"A spark will always draw a moth's attention, when will the moth decide to come too close and be burned? The light is pulsing in the dark but, for now, they keep circling. Space is wide and cold. The moth does not mind. Sleeping. Waiting. A cocoon is a safe place for one but a deathbed for others. One day you will have to decide if you go to sleep, John Sheppard. But not now," the wraith says. "Not now."
"Yeah, now I'd like to have your full attention," John tells him. He stores the wraith's words in the back of his mind, but he can't see any sense in them right now. Schrödinger's hive ship is at the forefront of his mind and he wants to know if the threat of wraith out there has become bigger or not. Todd just blinks at him, silently waiting for John to continue.
"You said only part of the hives were awake until recently, but it should have been all of them. What if I told you the Genii tried out a nuclear bomb on a hibernating hive ship. Could that have woken only a fraction of the wraith?"
Todd closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly. When he opens his eyes again the wide blown slit pupils are back to their normal size and the shrewd glint in the wraith's gaze is back, immediately reminding John that, once you have his full attention, Todd is not to be underestimated.
"On which planet did they find the hive and attempted to destroy it?"
Hearing the wraith's question, John turns to throw a questioning look at McKay, who had followed him down here, curious and confused. Though by now the Canadian has caught on to what John's sudden dash to the brig is about.
"I think we stored that info somewhere." He shrugs.
"Well, then let's go look it up," John says, deactivating the force field and motioning for someone to pass him Todd's restraints. "Maybe if we can find out which wraith are where, and if they are currently fighting among themselves, we can find an advantage to use in the future."
Up in the labs, they bend over McKay's shoulder to peer at his monitor. The scientist is decidedly uncomfortable with Todd this close in his personal space but tries not to show it, concentrating on the info on his screen. Todd is focusing on the screen as well, for once not trying to bait McKay.
"There," McKay says, pointing at a gate address. "We even have a few pictures of the place, the Genii documented the blast crater." He calls up the scans of a few sepia photographs. John squints his eyes at the noisy picture. Todd next to him laughs.
"What is it?" John asks while McKay flinches at the rattling sound.
"That is no blast crater. That is the hollow in which the hive rested. The ship has lifted off," the wraith tells them with glee.
"Seems like the Genii didn't stay around to watch the actual explosion," John says. "Was it damaged at all?"
"It doesn't seem like it." Todd cocks his head to the side as he analyzes the landscape on the pictures. "Raising a hive ship is a difficult task in the best conditions. Had it been damaged they would have either remained grounded or done a lot more damage to the surroundings of the hollow while lifting off. I am guessing they found the Genii's bomb before it could detonate and decided remaining there was unsafe. Leaving the planet would be much more favorable, especially if the ruling Primary was still asleep and could not hinder the plans of this ship's queen." He frowns, but does not speak further.
"What?" John asks, frowning as well. "What are you not saying?"
"One hive ship made it to earth. It carried the one who killed you in the desert." John feels a little sick at the casual mentioning of his demise. He still doesn't like to remember the price for every beat his heart has made ever since that fateful day. Todd throws him a glance that says he knows what John is thinking but continues without commenting on it.
"I am suspecting that hive was of the same alliance as the one which rested on this planet." There's a soft clink from his chains when he attempts to point at the pictures on the screen. "They woke, gained information, and made plans to keep earth to themselves if this information could be confirmed. Though they underestimated your planet, sending only one ship as an advance party. The ship didn't come back, they have no idea if the hyperdrive couldn't take the long journey or if you destroyed it. All they know is that the next ship they send has to be a lot stronger."
"Can you find out if your theory is true? If they have allies out there and if they have earth's coordinates?!" Rodney blurts in panic. "They could be planning another invasion as we speak!"
"Captain Shepard!" The lot of them turned around to see Dr. Weir coming up to them, Major Ford on her heels. She looks quite angry to John.
"What is the wraith doing up here?!" she asks, glaring at them in her stern manner.
"He's providing some intel on a problem we just noticed," John answers her calmly, hoping to maybe calm her, too.
"And it did not occur to you to ask me for permission to move him here, or ask Major Ford, who is currently not only your CO but also the highest ranked officer in Atlantis?!"
"Ahhh…." It didn't. John scratches the back of his head. He has been a lone wolf in Vegas for too long, no longer used to asking permission. Being the negotiator between Todd and the Atlantis Expedition had left him with so much leeway regarding the wraith, he doesn't always remember that Todd is not just his responsibility. And while he doesn't mind following a good CO, following Ford is hard. He might be a good officer but he never put John in his place when John had overriden the younger man, falling back into Major Sheppard mode.
"I was thinking about recommending you to General O'Neill, for you to be promoted back to major, but maybe I need to change my mind!" Weir continues.
"I'm sorry, and it won't happen again," John says, looking her in the eyes. She knows he means it probably would, but he'll keep trying to remember he's not at the top of the food chain.
"Could you argue about the pecking order sometime later, we might just have wraith on our doorstep!" McKay interrupts.
"Why that?" Weir asks, turning away from John with a look that tells him he's off the hook for the moment, but only for the moment. John grimaces a smile and then tries an apologetic look for Ford. Ford looks thoughtful, then turns to McKay as well.
"Apparently the hive ship that found its way to earth might have had allies. The one that Sheppard tracked down in Nevada might have built his communication device to reach not just any wraith, but the rest of the alliance he belonged to. In that case, he might not have been trying to only broadcast the position, but mainly a warning for the others to come in numbers and well armed. His alliance could already have the position of earth and be planning a bigger scale attack," Rodney rambles on as he keeps typing commands into the PC, trying to see if their scanners can pick up anything like a hive ship fleet out in space.
"Can we prove this in any way?" Weir asks, frowning.
"I'm trying," McKay says.
"Todd?" John asks. "Any useful input?"
Todd just silently looks at him. The wraith seems thoughtful, probably running through a thousand scenarios in that strange mind of his.
"Right. What would be your incentive to keep the wraith from running over the earth?" John asks, rhetorically. Todd raises a hairless brow, waiting. Apparently, he actually wants to hear some suggestions from John. So Sheppard starts thinking.
"For one, what advantage would that bring? You'd have a feast to gorge on for a while, but in the aftermath of that Earth's economy and other systems will break down, causing famine and war and more that will decimate the population further. So, in the end, you will be left with a rock just as barren as all the other planets out there. But before that, you will fight among yourselves for the last scraps of that feast. So what advantage do you gain by invading earth? You live long, I'm sure the pleasures of a full buffet will be but a moment for you before the repercussions hit. The hives you lose to tame earth, the hives you lose fighting for dominance among each other… is that worth it? Certainly not in the long run. And you can't just go to sleep and wait for the earth to regain population because earth will not only rebuild in human numbers but in weaponry too. Let them live and they'll fight back, eliminate them and you have no food. Again, is that worth it? Isn't trying to find a solution with us so much better in the long run?" He rolls his eyes. "Not to mention Earth would owe you one for saving their asses. Earth owing a wraith, wouldn't that be fun?"
And Todd grins. "Truly, all Sheppards know how to talk to me."
He turns, pointing at the screen as well as he can with his hands bound. "This is where we'll find most of the information you need."
John waits for Ford's command to ready a Puddlejumper.
Once again, the planet Todd has led them to is uncomfortably warm. But, this time, it's not the relatively dry heat of a desert but the moist heat of the jungle, leaving them feeling as sticky as a bottle of glue that got into the hands of a three-year-old who liked squeezing his toys.
At least this time, Todd seems a little bothered as well. The wraith has opted to leave his coat in Atlantis' brig and is moving about in his pants and a black, sleeveless top only. It sticks to his body as much as Sheppard's shirt sticks to John's own body, though the bullet holes probably grant a better ventilation than the stiff fabric of John's air-force shirt. Still, Todd doesn't seem all that amused about their trip. Adding a cranky McKay, their little troop is definitely not a merry band.
And yet John's mood isn't as bad as it could be. He is distracted by watching how the people around him make their way through the thick vegetation of the place. He likes to think that he himself cuts his way through the plants somewhat skillfully, while Rodney alternates between using John's already freed path or hacking his own way into whatever direction currently seems interesting to him. Stackhouse and Markham bring up the rear, watching the groups back and using John's path to move forward without needing to pay more attention to their steps than their surroundings. Todd and Teyla are in the front. Neither of them has a knife, they just weave through the plants in their way. Teyla moves like a huntsman well acquainted with nature, Todd like the silent ambush predator he is.
When Teyla and Todd stop, it is in front of something that looks like a big ball of roots. The mass of green and brownish, intertwined plants doesn't look all that natural.
"What is this?!" Rodney asks, staring at the clump of plants.
"My dart. Or at least what is left of it after it was blasted out of the sky," Todd amends after a short pause. "Though it has recovered well," he continues, stalking over to the vaguely dart shaped vegetation to inspect it. His hands are chained, as usual, but they had taken off the restraints on his feet once they had opened the back latch of the jumper and had been faced with the impracticable jungle path.
"Recovered?!" Rodney asks, while John finally begins to fully make out the small ship hidden in the greenery. It is almost fully cocooned in plants, but his pilot's eye can make out the parts of the slim machine very well. There is indeed one of the small jet-like fighters in there, because…
"They are organic. And just like you, they can take energy from other living things…" he concludes.
Todd inclines his head in acknowledgment. "Indeed, they can. Not as effectively as the wraith, but still, parking a broken dart where it can connect to a hive or a rich vegetation can greatly help with repairs. This one has been left to rest for many years, I would have to fix little to get it working again. But that is not what we came for." He awkwardly leans against the ship to compensate for his short reach and sticks his hand into the heap of green leaves and liana, pushing something own. John is ready to empty his clip into the wraith but restraints his trigger finger when the only thing happening is the plants sliding off the dart's canopy as the ship buzzes to life for a moment.
"There, you should be able to connect your data storage module and gain all the knowledge it has," Todd explains, as the canopy opens up, revealing the dart's cockpit.
"We couldn't extract anything from the darts we salvaged on earth," Rodney says, "but then barely anything was left of those. And of course, you just had to steal and crash the only dart I had put some hopes in..." Rodney continues to grumble as he climbs into the cockpit, fumbling with the machinery in there until he manages to connect an external hard drive to one of the consoles.
"Their pilots probably had the good sense to erase their data when they realized they would be downed," Todd surmises.
And that's when John feels a tiny little prick in his neck. His hand moves to his neck on its own accord, finding a tiny little dart with a red feather. He looks up, surprised. And while his vision goes black he sees McKay already slumped over the darts' console while Teyla stumbles and falls to the ground. A P90 somewhere behind John rattles off a few shots before going silent again. As his eyes close, he realizes that Todd is gone. Then, everything is quiet.