Chapter 3 – The Determined Protector
Every reading worried Long Sleep.
It seemed as if the worries had started to build from the moment he had set boot on this new Hive he had pledged his allegiance to only a few short weeks ago. Not only was this Hive dominated by a thick-headed and overly aggressive Hive Primary, who appeared to have taken a dislike to Long Sleep, but their new Great Queen had not once stepped outside her Throne Room.
The only time Long Sleep had seen her at all was during that first, and only, audience with her. Even then she had been almost entirely concealed behind a membrane curtain. She was apparently a new type of Queen bred from the different lineages into a new greater Queen. Long Sleep had his doubts about that as, from what he knew of the genetics of his kind, he could not understand how different Queen lineages could be combined biologically and effectively.
Whatever she was from that strange beginning, Long Sleep was almost certain that she was physically unusual too, for he had sneaked a glance at her silhouetted outline during that single audience. He had seen enough to suggest that her limbs were abnormally long and that she had only three fingers on each hand. Perhaps it was that alteration from normal that explained why she hid herself away.
But her presence was most certainly felt. Her mind was immensely impressive. Almost all the warriors and drones in the Hive were fellow survivors, and they all felt desperate relief in being welcomed and to once again feel the wondrous mental presence of a Queen. However, Long Sleep had started to feel somewhat guarded about the Great Queen's vast overseeing mind.
He had always had a tendency to think independently, his mutated batch having given him a dramatically fast and varied mind. Most of his batch brothers had not survived their birthing, but all of his brothers that had survived, and not so mutated as to be killed by that first Queen, had all been 'different'. It was perhaps that difference that had allowed him, and his batch brothers, to be able to operate well without a Queen. He always felt the deep unnatural absence in his heart when without a Queen, but he did not need one as most warriors and drones required.
So, perhaps it was his innate independence that allowed him such concerns, and yet also enabled him to be able to wrap up his wayward thoughts deep within his busy mind. If the Queen, and especially her Hive Primary, were aware of his doubts and suspicions, he would no doubt be killed. After all, it did not serve to be different among Wraith. His batch had proven that, for only one of his brothers remained and his mind felt weak and troubled in the far distance of the emptied network.
This left Long Sleep very much alone on this ship with mounting concerns and uncertainties building around him.
Such as the Queen's new drive.
He had no idea what it was exactly or who had created it - perhaps it had been the Queen herself - but it had required a new specialised housing to be grown out of two extra drive pods. Merged together now, the pods had formed one excessive protrusion from the Hive. The rest of the ship's hull had also had to grow to accommodate this, thickening and expanding to ensure that the Hive remained in one piece when moving in hyperspace or when using the new drive.
Yet, despite the massiveness to the housing, none were allowed to see the drive held inside. Only the Hive Primary had had access to it while the housing had been grown and, now fully grown and the drive activated, the section was sealed off. In his first days aboard, Long Sleep had repeatedly expressed his concerns since it was clear to him that the Hive itself was not meshing well with the new drive technology. His concerns had been aggressively rejected by the Hive Primary, and Long Sleep had been assigned to work as a Keeper.
Thousands of years of experience in command and strategy, and now he was a Keeper – focused only on keeping the Hive maintained and functioning properly. He spent his days watching power line flow, nutritional fluid levels, and repairing torn webbing that failed to heal appropriately.
But, if it had been the intention to hide Long Sleep away, his position as a Keeper had actually provided him with a new useful perspective of the Hive. And what he saw worried him, and those worries increased with each passing hour.
Since the new drive had been activated and tested for the first time, a strange new radiation had started penetrating the Hive. There were small variations to almost all the Hive's readings, not so much to be a problem yet, but, as the new drive was now kept permanently powered, there clearly was a slow and steadily growing strain on the Hive's systems in reaction to the radiation.
No one else seemed concerned though, and especially not the Hive Primary. They were all too excessively ecstatic over the first successful test, even though it had resulted in no culling and therefore the Hive remained devoid of food.
Long Sleep sighed, aware of a creeping tiredness in his body. He had not fed in weeks and the worries did not help, and keeping his mind tightly contained took focus.
There was the promise of a culling soon to replenish and restock the Hive on the next jumps into the Armoured Herd's territory, but those promises had yet to be fulfilled.
Why had the Queen not allowed a culling to a planet outside of the Armoured Herd's territory? There were plenty out here unguarded.
Why did she keep this new drive powered, thereby constantly creating this new strange radiation?
The Hive Primary and the Great Queen had promised a great victory against their enemies with this new technology, that there would be vengeance satisfied and food aplenty, but Long Sleep worried.
Everything seemed to worry him of late.
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There was no way he could be able to tell that the Sythus was in space dock, but Oneakka swore that he could tell when the Sythus was in motion and when it lay berthed as it had been all these long weeks. As he moved around his quarters onboard, it felt like the Sythus had a strange sense of inertia, like it was sickly and essentially useless.
Or maybe he was just projecting his own mood on the Sythus around him.
He prodded the tiny control to open up a drawer of clothes and frowned down at the resulting half empty drawer that slid out of the wall. Most of his clothes and armour had made its way to his Facility quarters it seemed. It wasn't the first time that he'd lived between different quarters, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but it itched at him today.
If he had been able to persuade Halling to also station himself on the Facility, then this back and forth between the Facility and the Sythus wouldn't be necessary.
He grabbed out a long-sleeved shirt from the drawer and pulled it on roughly. Several ribs on his right side complained at the sudden movement.
Damn Wraith on Sol.
Shirt half on, Oneakka twisted to look down at his right ribs where the Wraith had landed on him back in that cold dark forest. Damn thing had practically flown through the air! With thorny brushes digging into one side and the Wraith slamming into the other, Oneakka had been lucky he'd reacted as fast as he had in shooting the thing.
It had probably helped that the Wraith had been missing its right arm. The other Wraith on Sol had probably been feeding it with second-hand life-force from the locals they'd killed. The Mad Moon had theories about whether right-handed Wraith could become left-handed feeders in such situations. Oneakka didn't care. Elite were trained to disable both hands and move on.
His ribs looked lightly bruised, but a few prods and deep breaths confirmed, from experience, that nothing was broken.
He frowned at that as he tugged his shirt on the rest of the way and headed back to where he'd left his body armour on the end of his bed. He tugged it back on, the ribs catching a little, but not enough to be a problem.
He needed to be fighting fit if he was going to make sure that Sitayi' prophecy about Halling wasn't going to end up with the wrong result.
That damned prophecy was practically all he thought about for weeks now. Its vagueness annoyed him constantly. All Sitayi had been able to impart was that Halling was going to end up alone and in a 'dark place' where he would either live or die. If he died, then apparently that would spell the end for the rest of the galaxy too, as some ancient enemy would return to kill everything, even Sheppard's galaxy too.
Which gave Oneakka absolutely nothing to go on.
He'd worked tirelessly, around the occasional mission like on Sol, to find a clue – any clue – as to what this ancient enemy was and where it was coming from. Halling had at least been committed to helping, but, as the weeks had passed, it was clear to Oneakka that his friend had run out of some passion for the search. It felt like it was only Oneakka's repeated reminder that Halling's fate would doom the rest of the galaxy that seemed to inspire Halling.
That pissed Oneakka off – Halling clearly wasn't doing well and Oneakka was fast running out of ways to help. They'd found nothing helpful at all so far.
If he knew who the enemy was, could be pointed at them, Oneakka knew he could sort this out for Halling.
But he knew nothing.
He would keep looking though, and he would keep pestering Halling to move to the Facility. If Halling as in the Facility then Oneakka could ensure he was away from any potential battle. They could research the matter for hours together, and Oneakka could make sure his friend was eating and training enough.
Not sat alone and depressed in his quarters while the Sythus underwent its structural repairs.
Oneakka let out a frustrated sigh as he picked up his holster, strapped it back around him and began sliding all his weapons back into place. He'd come here straight after the mission on Sol had finished, worried that Halling was okay after three days alone. Well, Nalla and the Sythus crew were still onboard, but with all the other Elite off ship, Halling was socially alone. Who knew what could happen in three short days away. But, Oneakka had gotten here and seen quickly that nothing had happened, so he'd come back to his quarters to shower and change his clothes before visiting Halling.
And also have the chance to calm himself a little.
He felt useless in helping Halling; just like the Sythus hanging in empty space dock, he felt grounded without direction. He was a weapon of war, but the battle was nowhere in sight. Each time he was given a short mission, he feared that he would be away when Halling needed him. When that fateful moment would arrive.
Panic rushed up Oneakka's throat, squeezing tight. He coughed it out, angry at himself.
He wasn't used to panic. He was used to every other emotion under whatever sun, and could rise above them all, but panic...it took him back to old memories; of striding across the dead remains of his destroyed homeworld and into a Hive Base that he had set on fire from the inside out.
He wasn't going to let Halling be killed.
He was determined to make sure it never happened.
He wasn't going to lose his best friend. Nothing in this universe was going to stop him from being by Halling's side when the moment came. And if that damn prophecy said Halling really would be by himself in that moment, well, Oneakka would be just outside and would be storming into that 'dark place' to kick whatever's backside for even thinking of hurting Halling.
This standing around worrying certainly wasn't going to achieve anything.
Changed and weapons in place, he strode back across his increasingly emptying quarters, to the door to head out to find Halling. He tapped his daily code into the inside security panel and the door slid open, to reveal the Belkan goat sat outside waiting for him.
He had no idea how the creature knew when he came onboard, but it always somehow turned up regardless of the time of day he visited Halling.
He frowned at the happy looking goat as it stood up and moved towards him. It appeared that the crew were continuing to overfeed the thing.
"You're looking fatter," Oneakka told it as he tapped his code into the outside panel of his quarters as the door slid shut. The goat snuffled at his trouser pocket. "There's no food in there," Oneakka brushed the soft goat nose away, and then ran his hand over the animal's fluffy spotty head.
"How can you be bigger in just three days?" He demanded of the creature. "Who is feeding you?" He'd told the gardeners in the Hydroponics Bay to make sure the goat didn't eat too much, but as the goat had a tendency to wander wherever it wanted on the ship, the crew had taken to giving it 'extras'. The crew were all probably bored from being stuck in space dock for so long, so were probably even visiting the goat in the Hydroponics Bay.
The goat snuffled loudly at his holster.
"There's no food; you're just smelling an alien forest," he told it as he moved away, heading down the corridor, knowing the goat would follow. It always did.
A glance back confirmed the waddling goat was following him on its strangely quiet toes.
He returned his thoughts to how to persuade Halling to move to the Facility. He had already contacted Jobrill, who was due to finish her rotation on the Military Council today, checking whether she could take Halling's place stationed on the Sythus.
Oneakka jabbed at the control to the level's transporter and the doors slid open immediately. He stepped inside and waited for the goat to move in next to him, and then he triggered the level for Halling's quarters.
The goat's soft nose nuzzled at his hand, so he stroked its cheek. "Maybe you should come back to the Facility too. You're eating too much here."
The transporter's doors slid open to Halling's level, but Oneakka paused. The panic threatened to creep up from his chest again, the old memories stirring. His life experience was unfortunately filled with plenty of examples of when he'd been unable to save people. He knew he couldn't save everyone in a crisis, and that sometimes a wall just collapsed, people lost their grip on ledges, and the Wraith sweeper beams nearly always caught some people. He hated it, but it was a fact of the Elite life that you saw those who hadn't been able to run fast enough or just happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He'd never heard the last screams of his own people...of his family...but his nightmares created them for him using the echoes of those he had heard over his years fighting the Wraith.
It didn't mean he was going to lose Halling too. He would give everything to save Halling, even if that meant throwing himself into that 'dark place' in Halling's stead.
To save Halling, his brother from another world.
And to save two galaxies.
Control regained, he strode decisively down the corridor to Halling's door and jabbed the button to announce his presence.
The door opened and Halling appeared, smiling. He really was still alive and well.
"How was the mission?" Halling asked, his eyes sliding to Oneakka's forehead where the thorn scratches and a small bruise were healing. "Eventual, I see."
"As always," Oneakka responded as he stepped inside and assessed his friend closely.
He didn't seem to have the solemn look of depression anymore, but there was still that darkness under his eyes that spoke of lack of sleep.
"Any news?" Oneakka asked as he headed to his usual chair.
"Nothing new in the searches," Halling replied softly as he petted the goat's head and then moved to his usual spot across the low table from Oneakka.
There were several stacks of pads on his table, along with his tablet computer that displayed the Sythus' standard report screen. "I have turned my attention to looking throughout archived history notations," Halling reported as he sat down, "to see if there is any reference to an old enemy of which we are unaware."
Oneakka snorted at that prospect as he settled back in the wonderfully soft Athosian chair. It was the most comfortable thing he had sat on for days. "Find anything?" He asked, but sensed he knew the answer.
"It's the same problem as before - it is difficult to separate the different names and terms for the Wraith themselves from anything else," Halling uttered as he picked up one pad.
Oneakka thought his friend's hand looked thinner than before, or was it simply the reduced lighting in here?
"Why don't you have the lights on full?" Oneakka demanded.
"They are making alterations on the power systems today and they're rotating shutdowns across various sections; we're on secondary power," Halling explained with little interest as he checked the pad.
Oneakka frowned. That would explain why the air had felt colder in his quarters, but the air felt warm enough in here. "The lights were set at half the last time I was here," he pointed out.
Halling's dark eyes slid from the pad finally. "That was because it was the middle of the night when you felt the need to visit me before you left for your mission."
"I couldn't be certain how long I'd be away," Oneakka explained.
"A message or link would have been sufficient," Halling replied before he sighed and set the pad down. "If you want babysitting duties, you should volunteer some time to help Massa."
Oneakka frowned. "Why? What's wrong with baby Aki?"
"Nothing, only that he is not sleeping all that well," Halling reported. "How is Teyla?"
Oneakka looked away to find the goat at his side, looking up at him with its strange alien eyes and a look of goaty affection on its face. He reached out and stroked the animal's head and it moved even closer, settling its chin on his leg.
"If you want to know how Emmagan is, ask her yourself," Oneakka challenged. "But, then you'd have to actually speak to her to do that and you're busy avoiding her."
"I am not avoiding Teyla," Halling dropped his eyes to the pad.
There was definitely some extra darkness under his eyes, and his cheeks looked more gaunt that before.
"Are you training everyday still?" Oneakka asked. "You have to stay in fighting shape for when this battle kicks off."
Halling sighed. "I promised I would."
"That is not an answer," Oneakka pushed.
"Yes, I am training."
"Not enough," Oneakka stated. "You've lost body weight and muscle mass since I last saw you."
"That was only three days ago," Halling argued.
"Doesn't make it untrue," Oneakka pushed, aware that he was letting his frustration and anger at the situation get the best of him again. "Jobrill is free of her duties with the Military Council and she is willing to take your place on duty here on the Sythus. You need to come and stay at the Facility and get back into shape. We can work on this project together and make sure you are ready to meet this stupid ancient enemy when it finally decides to step out of the cowardly fog."
"It would be good to see Massa and Aki," Halling considered.
Oneakka held his breath, surprised at the sudden turnaround. Had his pestering finally paid off?
"I could even look after Aki a little," Halling considered. "It would good to spend some time with the boy while I can."
Oneakka's pleasure at the prospect died a little at that suspicious comment.
"It would be good to see everyone there," Halling continued. Was Halling simply planning to do the things he wanted before he died – was that what he meant?
Oneakka held still, waiting, his own feelings tumbling.
"We haven't had much of a chance to spar and spend time together either," Halling smiled.
Oneakka tried to smile at the nice sentiment, but it was tinged with the implication that Halling wanted to spend time with him because he thought it might be their last. But, Oneakka needed him in the Facility, so arguing about that wouldn't help get Halling to the Facility.
"Good," Oneakka replied, working to make his smile wider. "I'll contact Jobrill."
"I can arrange things, Oneakka," Halling replied, warning in his tone. "I am not a child."
Oneakka bit back his words at that, but as he glanced to the goat again, he couldn't help but mutter, "You behave like one sometimes."
Halling gave him a glare.
Oneakka pretended not to notice. He stroked the goat's neck. "I'm contemplating taking the goat back with me too. This overfeeding is getting too much. It can stay in the Facility's Hydroponics fields."
"You didn't get my message then," Halling said.
Oneakka looked round. "What message? When did you send it?" He hadn't gotten a message from Halling on his daily dial outs from Sol. It was imperative that he receive messages instantly from Halling, that he be alerted immediately if Halling needed him.
"Relax, Oneakka," Halling instructed, "I sent it to your Facility computer terminal, as I thought you would return there first after your mission."
"What was in the message?"
Halling smiled and settled back against the cushions of his sofa. "After your last shouting session at the Hydroponic gardeners-"
"I didn't shout at them," Oneakka interrupted. "I rarely shout."
"You're right, you have an amazing gift to make quiet aggressive words feel like being shouted at," Halling returned.
Oneakka ignored that and waited for Halling to get on with his message.
"The gardeners called in an animal specialist to assess our goat here, and it turns out that she is not simply overeating; she is pregnant."
Oneakka looked round at the goat sat beside him. "She's a she?"
"You didn't realise she was female?" Halling asked.
"What does it matter? Why didn't the Healers pick up on her pregnancy when she first came onboard?"
"They're specialists on humans, not goats, Oneakka," Halling argued. "It didn't occur to you that an animal getting that big that fast might be female and may be pregnant?" He was starting to sound annoyingly condescending.
Oneakka stroked the goat's head with more feeling now. "Do they know how many are in there?" He asked instead of answering Halling.
"The animal specialist scanned her, or as much as she allowed him to, as she was not overly accommodating; I wonder where she might have picked that up from."
"Maybe she didn't want to be poked and prodded. Just because a creature is wilful doesn't mean it's bad," he defended the goat.
Halling smiled though. "You would say that. The animal specialist believes she's likely to have six young."
"Six?!" Oneakka looked back down at the goat's belly.
"I suspect we now know why that Belkan farmer was so happy to trade her away. Not only is she untrainable, but she is about to bring more of her kind into this world. He no doubt didn't want the trouble."
"She is trainable," Oneakka objected. "She has stopped eating the plants she isn't allowed to eat in Hydroponics and she knows when standard feeding times are."
"I'm not insulting the goat, Oneakka," Halling explained.
"I know," Oneakka defended quickly.
He felt faintly embarrassed that he hadn't considered that the goat might be pregnant before now. He faintly remembered wondering if it was male or female when it had first come onboard, but he hadn't been about to poke around the animal's nether regions just to satisfy his curiosity. It was quite fluffy around its belly and he had just assumed anything male might have been concealed. A goat was a goat for the Hydroponics Bay; it didn't matter to him what gender it was.
"The animal specialist thinks this also explains why she's been touring the ship, and maybe why she joined us through the Portal in the first place," Halling supplied. "He believes she's looking for the best place for her young to be born and grow, and perhaps it was only once she felt secure here and the Sythus remained still in space dock that her pregnancy accelerated. Some animals are able to halt their pregnancies in times of difficulty."
Oneakka nodded at the logic. "I should definitely take her to the Training Facility. She can live in Hydroponics there and get the best care. We can't have her on a battleship with a family."
He looked up to see Halling smiling. "I'm sure you'll be a great father."
Oneakka narrowed his eyes at the comment. "Stop that."
"It was just a joke, Oneakka."
"No, I mean that talk," Oneakka glared at him. "Like you're not going to be around in the future."
Halling lowered his eyes and sighed. "Sitayi is never wrong."
"She said you may be killed by this enemy, but that you could survive. She said that if you do fall, then it will mean disaster for all of us, so stop this self-serving surrender talk and help me save you and all of us."
"There is nothing wrong with facing one's possible end with contemplation," Halling said back a new harshness in his tone. Oneakka was glad to hear there was still some fight in him.
"You do not need to tell me about facing death, Halling," Oneakka argued. "But, we both know that if a warrior goes into a fight expecting to die, they'll probably manage it."
"I do not want to die, Oneakka."
"Are you sure, because you're not making this easier on any of us."
"You are angry at the situation, and I was as well, but we need to be logical about this. Sitayi says I will face an 'ancient enemy' in an unknown place, that I will be alone and in the dark, perhaps literally or figuratively. That it will be that moment that will decide my fate, and, yes, perhaps the galaxy's as well. What it does tell us is that I will be in that moment, regardless of what I do and what the outcome will be. I have accepted that fact."
"I don't accept it," Oneakka argued.
"Sitayi has literally never been wrong."
"Well, you may be alone in that moment, but you are guaranteed that I will be very close by and will save you."
Halling smiled. "I know you want to."
"You have done the same for me many times," Oneakka argued, feeling the panic rising again.
"Hopefully we will be successful. The fate of the galaxy is important."
"As is your life, Halling," Oneakka stressed. "We should tell the others that this is about saving you; it'll help motivate them."
"No," Halling's face darkened. "I will not put them in danger by telling them. You know it'll change how they'll treat me and make them think of me first rather than themselves perhaps in a crucial moment. No, this is something I am facing and I will not see others die in my place."
"Telling the others may help us save you and the galaxy," Oneakka pointed out.
"Or it may lead to the situation where I cannot be saved," Halling returned. "We cannot know which is right."
"It makes sense to have more people involved."
Halling let out a heavy breath. "If we do not find anything in all our searches, then maybe, but for now, they can do no better than the research we are undertaking."
Oneakka didn't like it, but they'd had this argument enough times now. Halling was right that any choice could push things the wrong way, or they could push things the right way.
This was why he hated prophecies.
"Besides, there is more than enough for the Military and Elite to focus on right now with the Cruisers that survived the Nest System battle," Halling added. "Did you see the latest reports from out along the border?"
Within a few weeks of the Nest System battle, a collection of Cruisers that had escaped had started up brief strike attacks across the border, forcing the Fleet to spread its resources thinly to defend the new territory line.
"I saw the report on the last series of attack runs; the Cruisers are clearly working co-ordinated attacks," Oneakka checked.
"The Fleet Commanders are concerned," Halling reported. "We dealt the Wraith a decisive blow and they are not happy."
"Good," Oneakka concluded as he returned his attention to the goat as he stroked her fluffy head. He would need to find the animal specialist the gardeners had called in and ask him to visit the goat in the Facility. She would need good care. He would also dig out the original research he had done on the wild Belkan goats and their domesticated cousins, of which this goat was a hybrid. He wondered if her young's father had been a wild goat, a domesticated one, or another hybrid.
"I will make contact with Jobrill and see when she can take my duty station here," Halling said into the short silence.
"Okay," Oneakka agreed, aware of a wave of tiredness settling in his body sat in this comfortable chair. He needed a good night's sleep after Sol, but he would head back to the Facility. He needed to get the goat settled and make sure that Seeal hadn't destroyed anything at the Facility while he'd been gone.
He glanced across to Halling, who was looking through several pads. "Has Massa been in contact with you?" He asked, remembering Emmagan's teasing comments on Sol.
Halling glanced up and back down. "Just briefly; we discussed Aki and Teyla's approaching stay in Atlantis."
Oneakka nodded. "Massa say anything else?"
Halling shook his head and looked up with a frown that suggested he had no idea what Oneakka was hinting at. "Like what?"
"Nothing," Oneakka shrugged, playing it casual.
He wasn't going to ask about Seeal, to check that she hadn't been set upon by any Recruits again while he was gone or anything. Not that any of the Recruits appeared in anyway inclined to try their luck again challenging her after the now infamous fight, but some young males could be stupid when they met a strong female who bested them.
If something had happened in the Facility, Halling would probably have heard and mentioned it already anyway.
Besides, Oneakka suspected, if he kept mentioning Seeal too often people would start getting the wrong idea; like Massa.
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TBC