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Chapter 16 – The Cold Morning
Her first night alone in Atlantis had felt very long and broken. She knew she had slept deeply enough to dream, the imagery being the usual assortment of twisted battle memories and fears of losing those she loved, but Teyla remembered waking many times. The quarters had been deeply dark each time, the only light had emanated from the faintly glowing Ancestor crystals by the doors. Ketra's snores had been soft and steady from the mattress across the floor, and nothing else had stirred.
Perhaps it was the new room, the unusual smells and the faint coolness in the air which had kept waking her. Each time she had risen up onto one elbow, blinking into the dark as if seeking something. There had been nothing in the large quarters to worry her though, and each time she had settled back down and fallen asleep almost immediately.
Only when she woke to the first hints of early sunlight around the curtains over the Ancestor windows did she finally sit up. Everything had still been silent; Ketra was spread across her mattress, her long tail draped off along the floor, and her belly had been rising and lowering with a deep and steady sleep.
There had been no sounds from John's room either, the adjoining doorway between their quarters still open, and her electronic pad, connected to Si' a room away, remained dark.
The hour was still early, even by Atlantis' clock, but she had felt ready to rise. She had had enough sleep to replenish her enough and lying in bed any longer was not going to bring any further rest. So, she had padded quietly across her new room to her bathroom.
Leaning forward towards the slightly steamed mirror from her brief wash, Teyla considered her morning's attempt at braiding her hair. It looked good enough to be presentable, but she could see the faint touches of tiredness across her face. Presumably further nights staying here would help her relax to gain some proper sleep while in Atlantis. This had never been a problem during her last stay, but then she had not slept alone.
She ran a faintly damp hand over her hair, helping tuck away stray strands and considered her outfit in the bathroom mirror. She had selected one of her lighter outfits, since she had been a little overly warm here in the city yesterday. She was pleased that she had thought to bring a good assortment of clothing for this visit, and she planned to leave some of it here for her next stay.
It struck her, looking at her reflection peering back, that the outfit she had chosen today felt quite removed from her more Elite style of dressing and far more of Athos. There was no reason why that would matter to those of Atlantis, but she felt acutely aware of the fact herself. Though the point of her Political Marriage had been for the Alliance as a whole, within the contract she now represented Athos as much as she did the Elite. Today's outfit seemed to reinforce that truth for her.
It was probably the strangely broken night and the odd feeling of faint homesickness that made her over think too much on the subject. She had brought the small kettle in here with her, so she filled it with fresh water from the tap and waved her hand over the single crystal for the bathroom's door.
The room outside remained as silent at before, with no new sounds from John's room, but there was one thing missing. Ketra was gone from the mattress. A brief glance around the quarters confirmed that Ketra was nowhere to be seen, which meant that there was only one place she could be.
Smiling faintly to herself, Teyla set the kettle onto its holder, triggered it to boil, and then moved quietly across the large empty floor to reach the open doorway into John's quarters. There was the hushed deep silence of sleep inside even before she reached the threshold into his space.
As predicted, Ketra was in there, though she had restrained herself from climbing up onto John's bed; instead, Ketra had elected to lie on the floor alongside his bed, her chin resting on the edge of his mattress and she appeared to be asleep again. John was sleeping on his side, his back turned to the doorway and Ketra, but it was clear from the slow and steady rise and fall of his side that he had not been disturbed awake by Ketra's arrival.
Leaning her shoulder against the doorframe, Teyla considered whether there was any need to call Ketra away from him. Ketra clearly hadn't disturbed him, and John always seemed to enjoy Ketra's company, even if that had involved the creature taking over much of his mattress on occasion. He hadn't appeared to be upset at Ketra's insistent scratching at his door last night either, for which Teyla was grateful. Fortunately, John's suggestion of keeping the adjoining door open had resolved the problem and Ketra had, as far as Teyla was aware, slept the rest of the night on her own mattress.
So, it was probably fine to let Ketra stay by John's side for awhile.
And perhaps allow herself to take in the sights of John's space.
Teyla let her gaze slide away, running her eyes around the details of his new quarters. The low light level meant that she could not see everything, but she could recognise quite a few objects from his previous quarters. She smiled at the bag of his golf clubs, recalling Si' confused question about them last night.
She returned her gaze to John, watching his side move with his breath.
She could recall all too vividly what it felt like to feel him breathing against her, to hear his heart beating through his chest to her ear. He had always felt warm and comfortable against her when they had shared a bed to sleep, and one of his arms had nearly always been draped over her, regardless of the position they had been sleeping in.
The soft memories felt oddly sharp in detail as if they had been only yesterday, when in truth it had been many long and tense weeks since she had last shared a bed with John.
Much had been repaired in those weeks, but the distance, as small as it might appear to some perhaps, felt achingly vast between them still.
She had been nervous to come here, to stay in Atlantis, not because of where the City was or the political weight of her stay, but because this was John's home. Though he was from a distant planet in another galaxy that she would likely never see, she knew that he felt Atlantis to be his home. During her visits here before, whether brief or on her longer stay for the Non-Aggression Treaty talks, it had been obvious to her how much more relaxed John was here.
That fact had been particularly evident last night as they had said goodnight to each other. He had appeared through the adjoining doorway dressed for bed. Dressed in dark soft clothing which had hugged close to the lines of his lean strong form, his hair slightly more dishevelled than normal, he had smiled at her with darkened, kind, and peaceful eyes. The lines of his shoulders had been low and relaxed, his smile easy, and his feet bare against the decorated Ancestor floor.
She could not recall him appearing so much his true self as last night, and in his good humour and patience with Ketra, he only made himself seem more...tempting. Somehow he had been able to tell of her slight disquiet in feeling out of place here, and his clear and intuitive insight into her had made her want to step forward into the obvious promise of his embrace even more.
She had held back, but the brief light touch of his fingers against her elbow had been enough to spark the remembered power between them. Despite all the angry words, the bitter truths of the mistakes they had made and the fears of future problems if they returned to the love they had shared... Despite them all, the moment had held full of potential again and the temptation of the warmth between them.
Yes, that had been what she had feared in coming here. She had fooled herself to think it might have been simply been awkwardness of the new politics of their marriage that had made her cautious, or that she was going to have to stay so long in this alien city. Yet, she had stayed in all manner of places alien and still maintain her calm. Even on the edge of a battlefield she had been able to relax enough to rest to replenish her energies.
No, here, the battleground was over her own feelings.
It was in that war that she had managed to step away from him last night, but she feared at her resilience in holding back for another six days in the City with John.
Yet, despite these very thoughts, here she stood watching him sleep.
Yes, this battle was with herself far more than it was with facts and fears over what her and John could face as a couple again.
And she had seen in his eyes last night that he was considering the same.
She forced herself to pull her shoulder away from the doorframe and turn away from his sleeping peace. Away from her own temptation.
What kind of war was it where both sides secretly wanted to surrender!
She moved away from the doorway, leaving Ketra to be the one to sleep at John's side, and stood alone in the quiet darkness of her own room. She took a deep breath and forced her mind to focus on her work. She had another day ahead of political conversations, trade discussions, and polite smiles.
She moved towards the low table and turned the kettle back on as she had missed its first boil. Settling herself down onto the floor, she poured fresh bubbling water over a large pinch of her Athosian tea leaves. She inhaled the fragrance, which was just slightly different here, no doubt due to the water in Atlantis. Last night's tea had tasted lovely, but she was aware of the difference still. But, it was still the smell of her own home and her usual morning rituals.
Settling her legs into a comfortable crossed position and readied herself for her morning meditation. It was standard procedure for all Seekers to meditate at least once a day, to sink into the part of them that could feel the Wraith. She had no doubt that there would a complete lack of a Wraith mind in Atlantis, but it was still procedure and wise to undertake.
She closed her eyes, drawing her mind away from the confused and sensitive thoughts of John, away from the soft empty places of her body, and the air across her bare arms, and sank down inside of herself.
The coolness slowly drifted up over her, filling her consciousness, and awareness of the room around her slid away. Like lowering into water chilled by a long night, Teyla dropped further down into the deepening cold. She no longer feared that coldness, having been entering this place within herself for decades now.
As always, she envisioned this space as a deep ocean around her, and she opened her eyes into the imagery, looking out into the dark blue of the water. Moving her arms through the slim shards of light piecing through from the water's surface above her, she turned, sweeping her mind and her gaze through the water. Nothing stirred, as expected, and she leant forward, tilting herself to swim down deeper.
She imagined sweeping her arms forward, propelling herself further down into the ocean, feeling the cold growing against her skin, but she felt no panic. There was no fear here anymore, for she knew this place well enough now. Sliding down through the ocean, the vast emptiness instead felt peaceful.
Yet, somewhere, she felt something moving.
She halted her descent, holding still in the water, swinging her arms around her as she sought out the direction of the movement.
There, just brushing up against the edge of her awareness, she felt the touch of another's mind.
But, it was a familiar and peaceful presence. Si.
He was heading up from the depths of his own seeking meditation and their minds brushed one another as he did. She felt him send a sense of acknowledgement and care for her, and also then a questioning sense. There were no real ways to describe to a non-Seeker the sensations of mind and emotions she felt in this place, but she had long ago accepted the language of it here.
She sent Si a sense of reassurance and greeting towards him, and felt his resulting satisfaction. And then he was sliding away, lifting up out of his meditation to his own room next door. She knew that he would now wash and have his own morning tea, as was his ritual.
But, for her, she had some further meditation to complete, and returned her attention to swimming down further.
The light from above barely penetrated these depths, though she could always see clearly enough, and the chill and pressure of ocean grew stronger the deeper she swam. However, none of that disturbed her here.
After some time, she reached a ledge jutting out over a deeper chasm and she imagined touching her feet down to the strangely warm sand of the ledge. Sweeping her arms calmly out to her sides, she held still and looked out into the ocean around her. Si would already have done this, and clearly he had sensed no Wraith, but she still undertook the same procedure.
There was a faint shimmer in feeling on the very edge of the distant waters, but it was so far away that she knew it was no threat. So she simply drew in the peaceful quiet. She closed her eyes to the waters and drank in the sense of comfort.
After an immeasurable passing of time, she felt a sense of something at the edge of her awareness. A familiar feeling that she knew was Ketra close to her meditating body. Opening her eyes to the water, she was able to draw her awareness of Ketra into her meditation.
The ocean became a warm summer's day in the old forest camp in the Athosian forest. In the open glen, the tents behind her, Teyla felt the warm ground under her and felt Ketra's chin rest on her distant leg. So, she allowed that imagery into her meditation and imagined settling her hand along Ketra's sun-warmed back. The smells of Athos filled her senses, the incense on the breeze, the steaming cooking pots, the scent of the dry soil, and the soft distant sense of her people moving around nearby.
Except, perhaps not so distant.
She became aware of something else, just on the edge of her awareness. She imagined turning her face from the Athosian sun and looking to her left to where the trees and tents began.
She became aware, somehow, that it was John and that he was stood in the adjoining doorway between their rooms, but suddenly he was also here in her meditation. He was not much more than a warm shape within her mind's sense of him, but she had never drawn anyone else other than Ketra or a fellow Seeker into this space before.
He was moving now, pulling back and turning away, and she knew that he had returned to his room. He would simply have seen her sitting crossed legged and meditating, so he was returning to his morning preparations and was noticeably quiet in doing so.
She watched the sun drenched shape of him within her mind, imagining him moving along the tree-line, stepping into their shared tent-
She pulled away from that thought, drawing her mind back suddenly into the ocean. Cold replaced warm Athosian sun, and the deep empty sea in place of the family of the forest camp.
Calm returned, but she felt Ketra stir slightly against her leg. A sense of needing to draw this meditation to a close came to her, that the day was soon to start and so she needed to start to draw her awareness back to her quarters.
She took one last moment to draw in the cold space and then pushed off the sandy ledge. Sweeping her arms ahead of her and kicking her feet, she rose slowly up through the space of her mind and sunlight began to filter down to her.
As she rose up further, she became gradually more aware of her body, of Ketra's shoulder shifting against the outside of her leg and faint sounds that were probably John in his room. The promise of the day ahead shone above as she kicked harder, propelling herself faster until she burst up out of the cold, breaching up into the sunlight and open air once again.
She fluttered open her heavy eyelids to the sight of the low table and her mug of untouched tea in front of her. She cleared her throat faintly and reached for the mug. It was far cooler against her fingers, telling of the length of time she had been meditating.
As she swallowed down a sweet mouthful of the tea, she stroked her free hand along Ketra's back, and looked off towards the open doorway into John's room. She could definitely hear him moving around now and the curtains had been lifted from his windows, filling his room with bright sunlight.
"Good morning, John," she called to him, her voice slightly softer than expected from her relaxation.
John appeared into the doorway almost immediately, his head and shoulders only at first. He grinned at her and the rest of him appeared into view. He was dressed in his uniform and looked ready for the day ahead.
"Mornin'," he smiled. "I didn't disturb you, did I?" He indicated where she sat as he took a few steps forward across the threshold into her room.
"No," she assured him. "I hope Ketra did not wake you?" She asked in turn.
"Nah," John waved it away. "It's not a normal day with you two if I don't wake up to staring up a dragon's nostril."
She could do nothing back laugh at the truth of that comment, as joking as it had been. It made her feel ever so happy that he didn't mind Ketra, and that, in fact, the two appeared to care a great deal for each other.
"You sleep okay?" He asked.
"Mostly," she told him honestly. "Would you like some morning tea?" She offered.
"I would," he started to answer, "but we're due to go to the political breakfast thingy in five minutes." He checked his watch timepiece. "Actually four minutes."
She nodded and climbed up from the floor. She really had been meditating for a long time this morning. "Then we should depart."
Her legs felt faintly achy as she stood and moved across the room to her things. She secured her holster around her waist and slid the stunner into it, before reaching for her single sword scabbard for her back.
"You look nice," John commented from her right, surprising her, and she looked round at him to see that he looked a little surprised himself. "I mean, more Athosian," he explained as he indicated her. She realised he was referring to her clothes.
He had noticed so quickly.
"Thank you," she replied as she secured her sword in place. It occurred to her only now that the cropped edge of her top revealed some of her bare waist. John probably considered that the 'nice' part.
"Not that you don't always look nice," he added.
"Not so much in my "Elite get up", as I recall you referred to it," she queried, amused as she pressed her feet into her boots.
"Um," John replied hesitantly, no doubt worrying that his previous comments had insulted her. They had not.
She smiled round at him to let him know that she was teasing him. "In moving the contents of my wardrobe into my new quarters in the Governing Complex, I rediscovered some clothing I had forgotten I had made a few years ago during a recovery stay with my family," she explained.
"Would that be out of the wardrobe I hid in that time?" He checked.
She had to smile at that memory as she rolled her shoulders, dressed and ready to depart for her second day in Atlantis. Except there was one more morning ritual to perform.
She moved towards John and lifted her hands up towards his shoulders to initiate their now common sharing of her people's greeting. She saw that he understood what she was intending, but there had been a moment where he had stilled, perhaps thinking that she was moving to embrace him instead.
His hands lifted to her shoulders willingly though and he smiled as they dipped their heads forward to touch their foreheads together.
"Good morning, Husband," she stated as she touched her forehead to his, paused a moment, and then drew her head back again.
"Morning, Wife," he grinned. "You ready for another thrilling day in Atlantis?"
His shoulders felt warm and his shirt crisp and clean under her fingers as she slid her hands unwillingly from him.
His hands slid from her shoulders a second later, though she thought that they had trailed a little further down her arms than usual. But it was probably just her imagination.
He was very close again, closer than last night.
She made herself step back from him, turning so to make it appear that she was simply going to lead them towards the exit out of her quarters.
"I am sure it will, indeed, be thrilling," she smiled up at him, using his own tool of humour to help soothe the moment.
He moved forward with her though, smiling as they walked towards the door. "It'll have golf in it," he lifted his eyebrows with exaggerated excitement.
She chuckled as she reached for the crystals at the doorway, but a sense of reluctance passed through her. Once the doors opened, they would need to once again play their roles of Political Husband and Wife. Despite her own warring feelings, she knew she would far prefer to stay in here with him all day, talking, laughing and sitting a little closer than they had been of late.
She waved her hand over the door crystals – no, perhaps it was better that she focus her attention on their work.
But, then the likely boring political day ahead would soon lead to another shared evening together anyway.
That was some comfort at least.
0000
The room was crowded around Halling, but reports and opinions were expressed without chaos or arrogance. Such was the way with his fellow Elite. Efficient reporting and then brief comments back and forth were the normal. It was not always that way with the rest of the Alliance Military of course, but that was not Halling's current concern. Instead, he remained the Lead for the night, coordinating the Alliance's highest level of alert for their entire territory.
Following the unusually short culling on Atreus, there had been no further sighting of the Hive in question. Though that was positive news in some respects, it had not lessened the concern and anxiety across the Alliance's many Governments and the two Councils.
What had been depressingly well timed had been the news from Amduat's sector. The scout bot had returned scans of the region with enough clarity to show that Amduat was no longer there. There was instead a vast spread of debris and the same radiation as detected over Atreus.
The conclusion was obvious, though exact evidence was in short supply. The Hive that attacked Atreus had used some new form of tech, which presumably was what was emitting the new strange radiation, and it explained how Amduat could be attacked so easily. In its position – former position – Amduat's sensitive detectors would have registered any normal approach, but this new tech had allowed the Hive to reach Amduat without triggering a distress signal or warning.
Though, the question had already been posed as to whether it would have been the exact same Hive that attacked Atreus. There was no immediate way of telling, but, as there had been no other cullings since, the best estimate was that there was one single Hive using a new piece of tech. If so, then there was just one Hive to deal with.
For now though, the immediate concern was on preparing and protecting the Alliance's vast number of planets, moons, and space stations from further attack. They had at least found some radio link frequencies that could cut through most of the new radiation's interference, and the very best scientists were gathering and analysing all the readings captured from Atreus and from the scout bot near Amduat.
Halling ran his eyes over his monitors which were feeding information in to him from various planets and military bases. Elite were being stationed on as many planets and moons as possible, and a large contingency had joined Deployment Station. Everything was pretty much in place, but the truth was that they were still uncertain what they were up against.
"...Deployment Station is fully stocked, all battalions are primed and ready," someone was reporting the latest update to the crowded room, but Halling kept his gaze running over the latest data analysis.
"Can we not spare any more of the Fleet's ships?" Young Isen asked from across the room. It was an obvious question and an obvious answer, but his youth and lesser experience allowed him to express the concern.
"No," Massa was the one to answer with a shake of his head as he watched his own monitors.
"We are extended as far along the border as possible," a voice emanated up from a speaker, spoken from the Satedan Fleet ship The Ballista, which was working with the Hastos Son in coordinating the Military Fleet. "The Cruisers attacked en mass along the border here at precisely the same time as the Hive arrived over Atreus," the Satedan Commander reported.
"Is the Hive from the former Nest System?" Isen asked.
"No," Halling reported as he finally looked up from his monitors. "The scans confirm that it is a newly identified Hive, even taking into account the clear adaptations to its hull."
Isen nodded, but Halling saw the man's frown. Halling tapped a command on the main terminal in front of him, sending the link to the latest scan comparisons to Isen's personal electronic pad for his own analysis. Other Elite would simply look, but Isen was not yet sure of his place.
"That the Cruisers are still conducting running raids worries us," the Satedan voice added.
Every Elite head in the small room all nodded in agreement.
"We have every non-planetary defence ship ready for deployment, but as we do not know where the Hive could reappear," Halling left the rest of the unnecessary sentence unspoken.
A light shone up from a smaller screen, but Maja quickly reported what Halling saw. "Atreus is back on link, now through the Portal."
"Put them through to us," Halling ordered. "This is Facility," Halling said into the quiet room as soon as Maja nodded. "Halling as Lead."
"Koyo here," the female's familiar voice rose up from a speaker set into the large central console. Knowing Atreus well and having been the Elite to work with the Government there during the culling, she was now the assigned Elite to Atreus for this crisis.
"Latest?" Halling requested.
"Nothing new," Oneakka's voice was the one to answer over the Link though. He had remained on Atreus with Koyo, helping with the clean up of the crashed Wraith fighters.
"Any further fighters or ground troops?" Halling checked. The Wraith had been known to occasionally leave warriors behind to attack a population later.
"Nothing," Oneakka confirmed. "The civilian Seekers you sent in have confirmed it."
Halling nodded. "Understood."
"We have managed to download further scan readings from the individual Atreus Defence ships' databases," Koyo put in. "I'm sending through what we have. We are currently working on the sentry satellite data, but those closest to where the Hive arrived were purposefully targeted by Wraith weapons fire. However, we have recovered several database recorders from the debris and Atreus scientists are retrieving what they can. As soon as we have anything further, we will send it through."
"Understood," Halling replied as he tapped one screen, authorising the direct download of the data from Atreus via the Portal. "Data receiving," he confirmed and added the command for its immediate relay to those analysing everything received from Atreus and Amduat so far.
"We still have strong radiation readings in orbit and especially in the region where the Hive arrived and then departed," Koyo continued.
"So, nothing new," Oneakka repeated his assessment again.
"We have some new information to add to it though," Halling reported to the speakers.
"Another attack?" Koyo asked worriedly.
"Nothing since Atreus, but we have now received back the data scans from the scout bot that was sent in to scan Amduat's sector," Halling told them. "We have confirmed that the radiation that was blocking readings of Amduat is the same as the Hive emitted above Atreus."
"And Amduat?" Oneakka's voice sounded as if he already knew what the answer would be.
Halling let out a breath. "Completely destroyed."
"Amduat is half the galaxy's distance away from Atreus!" Oneakka stated. It was a slight exaggeration, but the essence of the comment was true enough.
"The scout bot did not detect any Wraith ships, and the radiation levels recorded there had noticeably reduced by the end of the bot's journey as compared with initial readings. The technicians here are working on calculations to judge the reduction speed of the radiation. If you can send us regular readings of the radiation over Atreus, it will help."
"Not a problem," Koyo replied and there was some faint chatter.
"Anything new on how the Hive arrived here?" Oneakka asked over the background discussion.
Halling returned his attention to the latest analysis results on his screen – nothing had changed in the last few minutes. "We have confirmed, again, that the Hive was not registered crossing any border and was not detected on any sentry satellites anywhere else until it appeared over Atreus. We are assuming that the radiation is emitted by this new tech, and since we have not detected it anywhere else in our territory, it implies that the Hive did not sneak in."
"Unless the radiation is produced only when they uncloak themselves from this concealing tech?" Koyo suggested.
"If so, why uncloak at all?" Massa asked to the room from Halling's left. "They had the upper hand, and showing themselves gave Atreus warning."
"Perhaps they could not launch their fighters while cloaked?" Someone else suggested.
Halling tapped into the latest running data from the scientific team out of the Mad Moon that was analysing what they had so far on the new tech. "Actually," he informed the room, "the latest analysis of what little we managed to capture shows readings closer to that of a Portal than anything else."
"A wormhole drive?" Massa asked doubtfully as he too read the report.
"Those are purely theoretical, at best," the Ballista's Commander entered back into the conversation.
"Everything is theoretical until someone makes it work," Oneakka put in.
"Wormhole drives are theoretically possible," Halling read out from the screen.
"If they could work, why did the Ancestors not use them?" Isen posed the question.
"Halling," Koyo said through the speaker, "the latest orbital radiation scans are coming through now."
"Receiving," Halling reported as he tapped confirmation for the download and, again, redirected the data to go immediately to the technicians.
"If the tech uses wormholes, why have we never detected similar radiation from the Portal system?" The Satedan Commander demanded.
"The technical questions will be addressed by our scientists," Halling cut in to keep matters focused. "For now, we are going with the assumption that the new abnormal growth near one of the Hive's drive pods, is the new tech," Halling addressed the room.
"The growth was noted during the orbital battle," Koyo reported, "It was targeted, but the super reinforced hull showed little sign of damage. Far better results were gained by firing on the still standard fighter bay entrances. There were signs of real damage taken on the left flank bay before the Hive disappeared."
"Good," Halling nodded, knowing his voice would be heard by almost all Elite listening in now and later on recording. "Then that will be our target on any further attack; we need to exploit that same weak point. We have shared out across the Alliance the link frequencies that cut through the radiation most efficiently on Atreus. The only problem is that will restrict the number of link frequencies that can be used during an attack. Therefore, strict control of frequencies must be initiated."
"That is assuming that there is only one Hive with this tech," Oneakka voiced the worryingly unknown.
"True," Halling conceded. "But until we know further, our response will be no different. Everyone has their assignments and any and all new information on the scans, radiation, or Hive will be immediately communicated to all."
All eyes in the room lifted to him.
"This meeting is concluded," Halling signed off and reached forward to end the official recording. Lights began flickering off signalling the many Elite having been listening in now ending their link in. One light still shone. "Oneakka?" Halling asked into the speaker.
"Here," Oneakka replied immediately.
"How is Atreus?" Halling asked.
"Considering what's happened, its calm enough here. Most civilians are still down in the tunnel networks. They'll probably stay there for another day, just in case the Hive returns here."
"Good," Halling agreed.
"This doesn't make sense," Oneakka muttered. "Why attack and destroy Amduat?"
"It is a powerful listening post," Halling considered. "Perhaps they wanted to take it out first."
"If their new tech can deliver them into the middle of our territory without being detected, what's the point?" Oneakka asked logically.
"Maybe attacking Amduat was a safe attack point for their first use of the tech," Halling considered. "Or perhaps removing the listening post will allow further Wraith ships to arrive that are not using the new tech."
"Maybe," Oneakka muttered, but Halling could tell Oneakka was not convinced.
"The Amduat region would be a good point of attack, considering that it is on the edge of the galaxy and our territory."
"Flank us from there as well as the other sides of our border?" Oneakka considered. "Maybe. But even if that is the case, by destroying Amduat, they're just drawing more attention to that sector. We've got ships headed there now and they will watch the surrounding areas closely enough."
"True," Halling replied, but he wasn't sure what other theory he could suggest right now. "Are you staying on Atreus?" He checked.
"There's not much else to do here. Koyo will stay as the assigned Elite, so I'll head back in to the Facility soon," Oneakka replied.
"Good," Halling replied. "I have a scheduled Link to the Military Council in a few minutes, so I will see you here shortly."
"Understood," Oneakka replied. "Still doesn't make much sense," Halling heard him mutter just before the link closed.
Halling straightened up from the monitors and took the free moment to stretch his back. Massa moved closer, leaning one hand on the top of the consoles.
"A wormhole drive?" Massa said worriedly as he shook his head.
"I pray to the Ancestors that is not the case," Halling sighed.
"That kind of drive could change everything," Massa said quietly. "Imagine the Wraith being able to jump into our territory anywhere they wanted." He sighed loudly. "I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I'm hoping the Wraith have cloaking tech instead."
Halling had to agree. Though, preferably, he'd rather the Wraith had neither.
Considering the impending appearance of the unknown ancient enemy Sitayi had warned him about, the last thing the Alliance needed was for the Wraith to develop some new dangerous game changing tech.
If he was still alive to worry about it by then.
00000
TBC