Chapter 22 – The Reveal
Oneakka listened to the back and forth brainstorming session in front of him. The two upmost experts on engine systems and Wraith spore-grown tech had arrived in the Incident Room only an hour ago, having been working on the Mad Moon research into the Wraith hull samples from above Atreus. The testing and results from that complete, the two experts – Silvar and Heka - had arrived here and had dominated the science corner of the Incident Room since.
Silvar had started up a group discussion with all the scientific experts present, and Oneakka had worked to keep up with the technically detailed conversation. He really needed to catch up on the latest quantum research being done on the Mad Moon.
Though he was more likely to be sat amongst the group discussing the strategic tactics for the next battle with the target Hive, he'd preferred to sit with this collection of brains. Because, what else was there to analyse right now? There was little more he could add to the tried and tested strategies used against the Wraith, but this group was where some real advancement was likely.
Except it had become clear that even these brains had run out of ideas. Without any new data from the target Hive, they had little more to go on, so the discussions had started to turn in circles. He'd pointed that out to the group, which had appeared to unnerve them. Still, best to keep the scientists active and alert.
After Oneakka had made his comment, Silvar had turned the discussion back to their best practical idea so far – they were looking at how to modify the Elite tracker devices to work in the radiation field of the target Hive. The trackers were attached to the outer hull of a target ship and would monitor and record every bit of data it could from the ship, including its relative position in relation to the closest Alliance sentry satellites. The trackers could then be removed from the ship, or programmed to detach after a set time, and be recovered by the Elite. The data would then provide information on where the target had travelled and details on the ship itself. The trackers were one of the best pieces of covert tech the Elite used against the Wraith.
The only problem with using them on the new target Hive was the radiation, which would interfere with the trackers' ability to monitor the Hive and keep clean recordings. There was also the problem of keeping the tracker on the hull given the radiation's destabilising effects on local tech. But, the experts here were coming up with some ideas on how to counter it for the trackers.
"The problem is testing," Silvar said from his casual perch on a tall stool to one side of the group. Silvar was one of the oldest in the room, but was far from elderly. He had worked for the Elite for decades, having been born on Rosenthal and been part of the development of the first Alliance own ship engine prototypes developed from the Traveller engine tech. He was now the Elite's foremost expert on alien engines, but was also one of the three science Leads of the Mad Moon.
Heka, a far younger expert, had been working for the Elite since she had graduated the top of her entire planet, which admittedly was a small planet but was part of the respected Athosian associated worlds. Her passion and single focus was the study of how the Wraith spores grew into tech. Her labs in the Mad Moon were something of creepy legend, being full of Wraith spores allowed to grow under strict control.
"I think the best method," Heka stated, "is to modify as many different versions of the trackers as we can and plant them all on the target Hive ship."
"If we can even get them to stay on the hull, given the radiation's likely destructive effects on the bonding strips," someone replied. He was a radiation expert in from Xinda, being the science governor of the planet's nuclear based power systems and occasional adviser for the Elite on radiation science.
"I suggest physical bolts be used," Heka replied. "Drill the trackers into the hull, then the integrity of the strips shouldn't be an issue."
"Drilling into the hull will take time," Aedii uttered, who was the only other Elite listening in on the science discussion. A highly respected strategist, Aedii was now a non-active Elite having been badly injured in battle several years ago. The full prosthetic leg that Aedii used was bright silver and was never hidden under any clothing. "Automatic drilling fixtures would be better," Aedii concluded.
"I suggest we use the tech the asteroid miners use for sampling and tracking," Silvar nodded.
"I'll get some ordered in now," Aedii nodded and lifted a large electronic pad and started tapping in the order. With the high alert, anything ordered by the Elite would be through the Portal within the hour.
"We just need to find a way of capturing data and ensuring its survival in the radiation field," Heka uttered, sounding slightly tired and a little despondent.
The conversation turned towards effects of radiation on tech components, which held little interest for Oneakka now. He glanced away, looking out across the busy room to find Halling. The room held just as many people as it had an hour ago, but the level of urgency had reduced. The conversations were more on details and ensuring that preparations for the next attack remained in place. Everyone was waiting for the target Hive to reappear, and, until then, there wasn't much to do except try to predict where the next attack would be and how to take down the Hive when it did.
Oneakka spotted Halling heading back towards his Lead console, the large image of the Hive turning on the large screens behind him. Oneakka headed towards him, checking the time displayed on the console as he arrived at Halling's side. It was easily time for midday meal and Oneakka suspected that Halling hadn't eaten much today.
"Anything new?" Halling asked as he looked round from the latest updates from across the Alliance.
"They're working out how to best keep the trackers working in the Hive's radiation," Oneakka summarised. "They're getting in some asteroid self-drilling probes to use for the tracker deployment."
"Sounds like some advancement," Halling nodded.
He looked tired, but then he had been Lead all through the night and the first half of the day. It was well past time that he handed over to another Elite as Lead.
"How about the dissonant frequency idea to destabilise the new drive?" Halling asked, his attention back down on the console.
"They're working on it, but I don't think they know enough about this new tech to make it work yet," Oneakka reported from earlier in the brainstorming session. "They've got people working on it." He looked off towards several banks of consoles in the scientist corner of the room. There were several scientists and technicians crowded around working on that particular issue. In theory, if they could find a frequency that disrupted the new tech's departure 'window' from opening, then they could prevent the Hive from disappearing again.
Oneakka turned his attention back to Halling. The dark areas under Halling's eyes were even more apparent than normal of late and his complexion was slightly pale.
Halling sighed and looked up from the console. "I know what you're going to say."
It didn't surprise Oneakka that his friend knew what the next part of this conversation was going to be; how often had they had this very discussion over the years?
"You've been Lead too long," Oneakka still said the words. "You haven't eaten-"
"I had food before the briefing with the High Council," Halling argued.
Oneakka consulted the time again. "That was over four hours ago," he pointed out.
Halling frowned down at the console. "Oh."
"There are important reasons why we all share the Lead position. You know that without proper rest and food your attention span and reflex response times diminish," Oneakka quoted the Elite rulebook, taking particular relish in the words since Halling had used them on him a number of times. "Your brain needs sustenance. Hand over Lead to Aedii or Massa, if he's still here," Oneakka glanced round the room. He hadn't seen Massa for a bit.
"He's talking deployment figures with the Military Council in the Emergency Response Station," Halling reported. "While feeding Aki."
"So Aedii, or someone else as Lead," Oneakka dismissed the detail as he settled one hand on the top of Halling's console, "we'll be in the canteen and contactable in seconds when the damned Hive decides to come out of hiding."
"We can eat in here," Halling pointed out.
Oneakka frowned at Halling's insistence. It wasn't like there weren't plenty of people in here who could respond instantly to the next appearance of the Hive, and the canteen was minutes away. In truth it was Battle Station and Deployment Station that were the initial response points to an alert anyway, so Halling's stubbornness was unnecessary. But, Oneakka still understood. He'd been Lead plenty of times and, especially when you were first to lead, you often took on a personal responsibility to see the event through, but this one had gone on too long now. If he didn't get Halling off being Lead, someone else would. Massa would likely do it, if not one of the more mature non-active Elite in the room.
"You want me to quote more of the rulebook at you?" Oneakka asked. "Because you've read it line-by-line to me loads of times and I'm happy to return the favour."
A faint smile creased Halling's face. "I haven't quoted it line-for-line."
"Liar," Oneakka countered.
"That's only because you're so stubborn and don't listen to reason," Halling pointed out finally looking up properly from his console.
"How many hours have you been Lead?" Oneakka asked logically.
Halling sighed and glanced back to the console, but Oneakka could tell that he'd won; still it didn't hurt to still push the point.
"How many hours over the rulebook limit is that?" Oneakka asked.
"Fine," Halling conceded. "I am hungry."
"Good," Oneakka slapped a hand to the back of Halling's closest shoulder. "Let's go."
"I'll go handover to Aedii," Halling replied as he tapped in several commands on the console, officially conceding over Lead position.
Oneakka headed away, leaving Halling to confer with Aedii. Moving through the Incident Room towards the exit, Oneakka exchanged nods with the Elite spread around the room, only to spot Maja stood off to the left with the communications consoles. Oneakka headed towards her.
All the screens around her were active, faces looking back from various places across the Alliance, and a technician was talking with each, sharing strategy decisions and ensuring correct deployment of ships in and around the Alliance that weren't part of the Fleet.
Maja was stood by one station, listening in to a discussion between someone on Atreus and a technician talking about the ongoing monitoring of the radiation above Atreus. Oneakka stepped up next to Maja, angling himself so that he stood behind her shoulder.
"Aren't you off rotation?" He asked her. It was Edfu's turn on rotation, since she had worked all night, but here she was, back on duty. It was like her, but it didn't hurt to make sure she wasn't overworking like Halling. As she was one of the joint Security Leads of the Facility, only Elite could ensure she and Edfu looked after themselves.
Maja looked round, her serious expression shifting to slight surprise. "I got my required sleep, Honoured Elite," she replied.
He nodded, though didn't press her on her definition of 'required'; he'd let that go. He shifted his gaze to the Atreus screen.
"Latest from Atreus?" He asked.
"The radiation levels have significantly lowered," she reported. "The defence ships that engaged the Hive the longest are showing tiny signs of damage to their outer hulls."
"Radiation," Oneakka nodded, aware of that expected result from listening into the scientists' brainstorming; Heka believed that the Hive itself would be far more susceptible to the radiation than the Alliance's metal hulls. Her theory was that was partly why the Hive had such a thick outer hull.
Maja nodded. "Anything useful from the brainy corner?" She asked.
"Other than possible ways to counteract the radiation for the trackers, no," Oneakka informed her. "No one has anything new."
"As frustrating as it is to say," Maja uttered with a lowered voice, "we need the Hive to attack again."
Oneakka nodded, spotting Halling headed towards him now. Halling's eyes slid to Maja with a light frown that held the same thoughts about her being back on duty already, but he didn't say anything as he reached them.
"Aedii is now Lead," Halling reported.
"Yes, Honoured Elite," Maja nodded. "I assume you're both getting food." It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Oneakka confirmed, a little surprised he was included in that little order.
"Good," Maja concluded and turned back to listening into the discussion with Atreus.
Oneakka headed away from her and the slightly mothering comment, but focused on finally leading Halling out of the Incident Room and into the empty hallways.
The Recruits were still under lockdown, but were allowed to visit the canteens to collect food or to workout in the gyms. Oneakka wasn't fooled by the empty hallways though, as he remembered lockdowns when he had been young and in training. The Recruits over the age of 14 cycles were allowed to be without supervision, so would be busy partying, gossiping, competing in the gyms, and flirting. The worry over what the Elite were facing against the Wraith would only add to the nervous excitement for the Recruits.
A bleep from Halling's side drew Oneakka's attention to one of the centrally connected larger computer pads that Halling had decided to bring with him. No doubt so he could stay as up-to-date as possible. Oneakka didn't comment on that, since it would be useful to know what was going on from the canteen.
"The mining probes are already through the Portal," Halling reported from the screen.
"That was fast," Oneakka remarked, impressed.
"They're sending two thirds to Deployment Station to be fitted with the trackers," Halling continued, running his eyes over the lines of text as they appeared. Oneakka pressed his right shoulder against Halling's to guide him around the right hand turn into the canteen. "Our third are being brought here for the scientists to test their best guesses on programming or shielding against the radiation on the probe and tracker combos," Halling continued, not having looked up from the pad as he followed Oneakka's physical guidance.
"Where we giving them for the work?" Oneakka asked as he steered Halling in the direction of the canteen's meal selection.
"There's a free project room," Halling reported as he finally lowered the computer screen and considered the food Oneakka had led him towards. Oneakka could already predict what Halling was going to go for. Food that was easy to pick up and take with you was best in situations like this. As Oneakka predicted, Halling reached for a handful of sweetgrain bread and then piled a large spoonful of an Athosian salted bean paste that he liked. Once they were sat down, Halling would layer the paste between the bread slices making a portable meal should the emergency alert go out again.
Oneakka considered his own choice and decided the sweetgrain slices looked good, but he selected some salad leaves and a spicy sauce that he would use to make his own bread sandwich. He added some strips of dried tabo fruit, Halling having taken some as well, and then reached for a cup.
"The non-fleet deployment is still holding well," Halling reported from his pad, which he was studying again as he placed a newly poured cup of tea on his tray. He only spilled a few drops with the distracted move.
Oneakka poured out some kita juice for himself, picked up his tray and turned to the sea of canteen tables. There were more people eating in here than he'd expected, but they were all Facility staff on their midday meal breaks off rotation. And Seeal.
She was sat at the usual table, but was focused down to the floor at her side. Oneakka moved to head towards her, only to pause.
He felt a sudden strange moment of caution to talk to her.
He frowned at that unexpected reaction.
The last time he'd seen her had been in his quarters when she'd expertly found her way to old wounds, and he'd gone and told her about his people's belief in him.
He'd not seen pity in her eyes before then, and he didn't want to see it again.
Still, he wasn't going to avoid her because of that. It was hardly the first time people had that look around him.
Determinedly, he strode across the canteen towards her. He was halfway across the large room when he remembered that Halling was here with him. Oneakka looked over his shoulder back towards the food selection, only to find that Halling had been following close behind. Well, it was a wandering distracted following, for Halling's gaze was switching between navigating between the canteen tables and something overly interesting on his pad.
A new update? Oneakka waited for Halling reach him. "Something new?" Oneakka checked.
"It's the latest analysis report on the sensor readings off the Hive," Halling explained. Oneakka glimpsed a series of graphs and text on the pad's screen. He'd probably heard most of it from the scientist brainstorming session, so he continued on towards Seeal.
The source of her interest became obvious as Oneakka approached the table. The goat was sat leant against Seeal's chair leg and Seeal was feeding it from her food tray.
He was almost certain that the goat's belly was visibly bigger than it was yesterday; how the creature could be comfortable was anyone's guess.
As he reached the table, Seeal finally looked up, clearly having already been aware of his and Halling's approach. Oneakka looked pointedly at her tray of leftovers and then down at the goat.
"It's all goat appropriate food," Seeal argued as he moved around the table to his usual seat next to her.
"Isn't it supposed to be your food?" Oneakka asked as he set his tray down.
"She's eating for seven," Seeal countered as she picked up a piece of Xindan flowering leaf lettuce from her tray and leant away to feed it to the goat.
Oneakka sat down in his chair as Halling set his tray down opposite and distractedly pulled out his chair. Obviously the report was pretty detailed.
"So," Seeal looked back round from the goat, "are we still under attack?" She asked him.
Her eye contact was direct and bold as usual, with no hint of any sad pity in her deeply dark eyes. He felt a very real rush of relief that she didn't appear to be treating him any different. Women had a way of doing that sometimes once they found out more about his history. Even his fellow Elite, and even Pampata in the past, all clearly stepped carefully around the subjects of family around him. Some days he was deeply grateful for that, while others it annoyed him that they thought him so sensitive about it.
He realised that he hadn't answered her question and was just looking at her. "When aren't we under attack?" He replied quickly.
She pulled a face as she shook her head. "Only an Elite warrior would smile about that."
He'd smiled at her?
Her gaze switched across to Halling, who had finally put down his pad with its report.
"Anything new and interesting?" Oneakka checked, pleased to see Halling finally turn his attention to his food. As Oneakka had predicted, Halling started layering the bean paste between two thick slices of sweetgrain bread.
"Not really," Halling reported. "It's mostly just summarising the analysis and theories so far; nothing constructive."
Which was exactly what Oneakka had expected. He turned his attention to his own food, and followed Halling's lead in layering up sweetgrain.
"So that Hive ship is still out there?" Seeal asked, clearly fishing for information. She'd been doing that earlier when he'd let her follow him into his quarters. Clearly the woman didn't like not knowing what was going on, but then, he guessed, that made sense considering her former career as a Security Lead. Security Leads always knew everything going on, with the case in point being Maja back on duty too early.
"Yes," Oneakka confirmed that small detail that she could probably tell from the news links anyway.
"Any luck tracking it?" She pushed.
"Raven, it's not yours to worry about," Oneakka repeated his earlier reassurance before he took a big bite of his constructed sandwich. It tasted ever so good. He was hungrier than he'd realised.
"I thought we'd already agreed earlier that it is something for me to worry about," she countered. "If a Hive can appear overhead at any moment, that's something to worry about."
"There's plenty of experts working on the problem," he replied as he wiped his chin. He realised that he'd forgotten to shave this morning, the faint stubble grazing against the napkin. He'd only had time enough to wash quickly with Seeal poking around in his quarters outside the washroom. He'd only let her in because he'd considered handing over the small gift he'd finally finished working on the day before. With her clearly fishing for information and not liking being left out of the current intel here, he'd considered using the gift as a bribe for sorts to distract her.
Instead she'd brought up Myrtle and started finding raw wounds, so he'd just put the gift in a back pocket of his holster to use in case of emergency. He was quickly suspecting that he was going to have to use it today.
"I'm an expert," she argued. "I would think after everything that happened on the Sythus, that I'm considered an expert on the slug robots."
Oneakka paused mid-chew, frowning at her point. Of all the things she was expert at with coding and security, he had no idea why she'd chosen the slug robots as reason to use her for the research into the Hive. Maybe she'd just assumed the Elite had encountered the weird tech again since.
Across the table, Halling frowned at her as well. "If we find any more of the robots, then I'm sure we will ask you," he replied with a tone that seemed slightly condescending to Oneakka's ear.
He wasn't entirely certain, but he'd gotten the impression that Halling didn't quite like Seeal all that much. He'd not asked, since it wasn't a problem, but this new tone kind of added to the evidence.
"There's no slug robots involved?" Seeal asked.
"No slug robots," Oneakka confirmed for her before Halling did. "We haven't seen any more since that time on the Sythus."
"Oh," Seeal replied. "Then I'll just keep my nose out of it," she concluded casually as if it didn't matter to her. Oneakka suspected otherwise.
A light bleep echoed from Halling's pad lying on the table by his elbow. All eyes went to it.
"The probes are being moved into a project room," Halling reported.
"Probes?" Seeal picked up on that quickly.
"Leave it alone," Oneakka told her.
"Fine," she agreed, holding her palms up.
Halling tapped on his pad as another small alert appeared at the top. "Massa has reported the Military Council are agreeing to contact Atlantis."
"Good," Oneakka nodded as he took another bite of his sandwich. "Maybe they've seen the Hive their side of things."
"Maybe we should recall Emmagan and Si," Halling considered, and not for the first time.
"We have more than enough boots on ground and ship," Oneakka disagreed. "They can probably do by more liaising with Atlantis while they're there."
"Mmm," Halling uttered noncommittally as he chewed on more of his food. He'd almost finished, clearly confirming that he'd not eaten enough this morning.
Oneakka reached for his kita juice and glanced round at Seeal, surprised she was keeping quiet so long.
She was picking at the last of the lettuce on her tray, but her attention across the table, furtively looking at Halling's pad's screen.
Oneakka cleared his throat loudly.
She looked round with a clearly guilty look. "I wasn't doing anything."
He was going to have to talk to her about this kind of thing. Just because she worked here, didn't mean she could have access to any information here. The Facility was full of confidential intel and she was not allowed to go spying on things.
Maybe he'd describe it as 'visual hacking' – she'd probably understand that better.
He switched his own gaze to Halling's screen, but it only showed the Hive readings report, so simply showed lines of data and a large graph. Nothing she would do any harm by seeing for now, and, besides, it was all upside down from her view.
He gave her another warning look to make his point.
"I'm just trying to be helpful," she muttered with a faint shrug.
"You're not a Security Lead anymore," he reminded her, as he had in his quarters earlier.
She gave him her own glare now – that was better. Better that she be combative again rather than looking all disappointed at being left out of the crisis. Most people would prefer to be kept out of such things.
"You keep saying that," Seeal told him, "like I don't know."
She returned her attention to the lettuce she was picking at on her tray. At the edge of the table, Oneakka could see the goat's nose snuffling into view. Seeal passed the last of the lettuce to the waiting goat. Except, as she sat back again, Oneakka saw her gaze slide back to Halling's screen.
Oneakka sighed.
This was usually the point where she decided to do something stupid, like hack into the computers to find out for herself what was going on.
He nudged her elbow with his, and she looked round slightly startled. He glared at her and then the screen and back again.
She looked away, her lips pursed together.
She only wanted to help, he could understand that, but she was going to have to learn that she couldn't be involved with everything. Just because they were sitting with her, didn't mean that she was now privy to all Elite information.
Maja would probably shout at him to know that Seeal even had access to seeing an Elite's computer pad. Halling clearly didn't realise how subtle and persistent Seeal could be. Maybe he should mention that to Halling later. Only he didn't really want to give Halling more reasons not to like her.
Not that it mattered if Halling approved of her.
Oneakka frowned down at his food, annoyed with his own turning thoughts.
Another beep from Halling's screen drew Oneakka's attention.
"Just the latest standard update from the Fleet," Halling reported.
Oneakka glanced at Seeal to see if she was looking at the screen, but she was looking away across the canteen, very obviously showing that she wasn't spying.
He watched her stroking the top of the goat's head, the two backward-curved goat horns just visible above the line of the table.
Maybe it was best to use the distraction/gift now.
He wiped his hands on his napkin and reached round into the small pocket towards the back of his holster. A quick dig into the pocket and his fingertips found the small data drive.
He set his elbow on the table between him and Seeal and held up the little drive.
Seeal looked round, her eyes immediately landing on the drive. All annoyed disappointment was instantly replaced by curiosity.
"What's that?" She asked.
"A data drive," he supplied unhelpfully.
She rolled her eyes and frowned at him – a much better reaction. "What's on it?" She asked.
"Something," he replied, aware he was pushing her towards their more usual banter.
She didn't disappoint. She looked away with feigned disinterest. "Is that all?" She played along.
"If you don't want it-" he baited.
Her head swung back round. "It's for me?"
He nodded.
Her eyes narrowed. "If it's the latest update of the rules and regulations again, I'm going to kick you in your shins."
He chuckled at the threat. "It's not," he promised as he waggled the drive towards her, tempting her to take it.
Her eyes returned to the drive. She was really interested now.
She reached for it, giving him a suspicious look as she did.
As she set her fingers around the drive, he tightened his hold slightly. She gave him a glare as she had to pull the small piece of tech from his grasp.
"What's on it then?" she asked as she turned the drive over in her fingers, though there was clearly nothing to see from the outside.
"Music," he told her finally.
Her face lit up at that. "Really?" She asked with a smile, clearly appreciating the addition to her obsessive music collection.
"From Earth," he supplied the really important detail.
"Sheppard's planet?" She asked, clearly surprised.
He nodded.
She smiled down at the drive. "Music from another galaxy," she said wistfully.
"I got it from Sheppard at the Athosian Conference before my last mission," Oneakka told her, "but I needed to transfer the data onto one of our drives that you can't use to hack into anything," he explained pointedly.
"So you think," she uttered just loud enough for him to hear, but she was still smiling, clearly pleased with the gift. "Have you listened to any of it?" She asked him.
He shook his head. "Just the first second or so of one or two just to make sure they had transferred properly. Sheppard says Earth has more music than even you could listen to in a lifetime."
"Really?" she said, her eyes wide at the prospect. "I wonder what he picked for me."
"I told him to pick music that's like you," Oneakka replied as he picked up his last sandwich. "Loud, noisy, and difficult to ignore." He lied. He'd actually asked Sheppard to pick some of the most well known music on his world and that she could dance to.
Seeal gave him a long glare for that.
Pleased with that reaction, Oneakka looked away, only to find Halling frowning at him.
"What? Something else happened?" Oneakka checked, glancing back to the pad at Halling's elbow.
Halling looked down at his pad and shook his head. "No," he supplied and then looked away to pick up his still steaming tea.
Oneakka assessed Halling's tray – he'd eaten everything but one strip of dried fruit. Good.
"Maybe we should take some snacks back to the Incident Room with us," Oneakka suggested.
Halling nodded over his tea as he sipped at it.
"Just to be absolutely certain," Seeal put in, drawing their attention to her, "there's no slug robots involved with this whole vanishing Hive problem?"
Clearly the distraction of his gift hadn't worked for very long.
Oneakka frowned at her continuing on this subject. Why was she so fixated on the slug robots of all things? It was hardly her favourite subject considering one tried to kill her and that she'd almost sacrificed her life to take it out.
"There's no slug robots involved," Halling was the one to answer her, irritation edging his voice. He was tired.
"Okay," Seeal replied slightly defensively.
Except her eyes dropped back to Halling's screen, a deep frown forming across her face.
"Maybe we should head back to the Incident Room," Halling suggested across the table.
Oneakka kept his eyes on Seeal though; he realised that he'd seen that look on her face before. It was the confused look she had when she thought she knew something other people didn't.
"Why are you asking about the slug robots?" Oneakka asked her.
She looked round at him. "Because of the frequency readings," she replied as she pointed towards Halling's pad.
Oneakka snapped his attention to the pad, which Halling picked up.
"This is the scan of the Hive's output, not the slug robots," Halling explained the graph and lines of data showing on the screen. "There's no correlation with the robots."
Seeal didn't look convinced though.
"We've already run comparisons to all other recorded tech," Oneakka informed her. "We didn't find anything."
She blinked at him, but the confused frown remained.
"Why would you think there was a correlation?" Halling asked as he looked at the report again himself.
"On the graph there's a similar pattern," Seeal explained to him.
Oneakka frowned at that. She'd recognised a pattern on a graph she'd been reading upside down?
Halling tapped away on his pad, probably drawing up the correlation tests on all the tech that were initially run against the target Hive's more unusual readings.
"We already checked on comparisons," Oneakka explained again. "The computers can run everything in minutes."
"Computers only look for what they've been told to look for," Seeal argued.
He frowned at that.
"Here," Halling turned his pad, showing two sets of graphs. "This is the Hive and this is the slug robot. It's a tiny percentage correlation result, negligible."
"We already thought of this considering the Seed Ship the robots came from had a similar flight pattern to jump from one point to another," Oneakka explained further to her, and making sure Halling understood why she might think along the slug robot lines. "But that tech didn't display the same things as we are seeing from this Hive." For one thing there had been no gaping jump windows as they'd seen with the new target Hive, and there had been no hint of the same radiation.
"Fair enough," Seeal replied, "and I'm no expert on Wraith tech, but whatever new tech they're using it has a similar flavour to what the robots used to communicate with each other and to hack into the Sythus computers."
Oneakka lowered his sandwich. "Flavour?"
"Tech puts out tons of different energies and signatures," she explained what they already knew well enough, "that's how we can hide hacks and secret communications, like Karthig did." She had added that to make the point that the Elite had missed Karthig's hidden messages, and therefore that their analysis wasn't always perfect. She had been the one to spot what Karthig had been hiding.
Oneakka sat up a little straighter. Had she actually found something on the graph?
"If by flavour you mean a pattern," Halling put in, "then yes, we know that and that's what the computer looks for."
"Except they compare overall for a percentage match, whereas it's just this little frequency cluster here," she reached out and tapped her index fingernail against the pad's screen. "See, here and here, the signatures have a strange similar little pattern in the deep ultra range, and here," she tapped further along the graph, "this little blip here."
Oneakka leant forward to see the detail on the screen, Halling doing the same over the pad.
"It's one tiny reading among many," Halling commented, but he was sounding more interested now.
"Yes, but it's the same on both," she ran her finger from one to the other. "Have you got the Seed Ship's scans from the Sythus?"
Halling turned the pad and tapped away, calling up the readings from the Facility's database.
"Why do those tiny readings, among all the other readings, stand out as distinctive to you?" Oneakka asked her.
She shrugged. "I notice flavours."
"You know that flavours usually come from food," Oneakka pointed out, but his mind was turning on the idea. If there really was a link with the Seed Ship, then it put a slightly different spin on things. The recovered pieces of the Seed Ship and the slug robots had been found to be very old tech, though unseen before from the Wraith. Maybe the new Hive wasn't using a new prototype, but instead a piece of old tech that had never been properly adopted by the Wraith; maybe because of the damaging radiation...
Halling turned the pad. "There's the same blips," he had already noticed.
Seeal tapped her finger against the new third graph on the screen. "See," she ran her finger over the same little bars on the screen. "I know they don't look the same overall, but all three have this small heavy weighting down this deep ultra end again, and that lone blip here. The robots' signals on the Sythus combined to attack the Sythus computer together, and I remember thinking it's possible this blip shows some method of cutting through subspace somehow, not that other subspace readings we usually see show here."
Oneakka snapped his gaze to Halling. "We need to take this to the brainy corner," he said, using Maja's phrase.
Halling nodded and stood up quickly and turned to lead the way out. Oneakka grabbed up his strips of dried tabo fruit as he moved around the table to follow.
"Did I help?" Seeal asked, sounding eager.
"Maybe," Oneakka confirmed to her and hurried after Halling.
"I can help more," Seeal called after him, but he had caught up with Halling.
"I'm sending the graphs through to them now," Halling reported so that the information would reach the Incident Room ahead of them.
"Maybe this new tech is actually old tech then," Oneakka shared his theory.
Halling nodded. "Old tech the Wraith have started using again."
"Or found," Oneakka suggested.
Whether it panned out to be something useful wasn't certain yet, but it was, at least, something new to look at rather than just sitting around waiting for the next attack.
00000
Teyla smiled as she watched the brightly coloured bird wander along the tabletop in front of her. Sparrow knew Teyla had seeds in her hand and the small creature's greed was slowly winning over its caution.
Teyla picked out one of the larger seeds from her hand and held it out for the bird.
Sparrow turned his head, examining the offering with one eye, and then turned his head to check the seed with his other eye.
Teyla waited with patience that was easy for her, honed from years, decades, of being a warrior. Many believed a life spent in warfare was continuously eventful, but the truth was that much of her life was spent travelling, or waiting for, a battle. Most of her life was spent being patient, and then a smaller part was spent in frenzied action.
So, she had all the time for the small animal to approach her.
Sparrow, seeming to sense that she was prepared to remain still, began to move forward. To walk, the bird had to lift one large clawed foot up at a time, taking careful measured small steps, the claws clipping against the tabletop.
Teyla held still and waited as Sparrow approached from a sideways angle across the table. Reaching close enough for its liking, the bird stretched its body towards Teyla's fingers and the offered seed. Sparrow paused a couple of times, eyeing her closely with his small active round eyes. Teyla held still.
Sparrow finally made contact with the very tip of his beak and the seed was swiftly removed from Teyla's fingertips. Seeming very pleased with himself, Sparrow backed up a few steps before stopping and taking the seed in one of his feet. Teyla smiled as she watched Sparrow snack on the seed.
Today had been a series of successes; this morning had gone well with John, and Dr Petri had been a very gracious host. Teyla turned on her stool by Dr Petri's lab table, and watched as Ketra performed the latest in a series of experimental tests for the scientist. Ketra seemed quite taken with the somewhat eccentric, but friendly, woman.
Currently, Dr Petri had hidden flower treats under different coloured pots and was showing Ketra pictures of the corresponding colours. When Ketra saw the colour, she went to push over the corresponding coloured pot and quickly devoured the treat underneath it.
Teyla hadn't realised that Ketra could identify colours so well. Clearly the food motivation was working and Ketra seemed very willing to go through all Dr Petri' little experiments. It surprised Teyla somewhat, since Ketra was often very cautious with strangers. Maybe it was solely all the free food, or perhaps Ketra could pick up how fascinating Dr Petri found her. Dr Petri appearing to have an unending about of enthusiasm and spoke to Ketra cheerfully and clearly, and Ketra gave her full attention in return.
It was clear to Teyla that the Doctor was very respectful and seemed very caring and devoted towards animal care as well as study, and Teyla felt quite relaxed in allowing the Doctor free-rein in all these tests. However, it was becoming slightly boring for Teyla. It had been many hours since John had left for his mission. She glanced up towards the Earth style timepiece hung on the wall of Dr Petri' lab. Hopefully John would be returning soon, if he had not already returned and was undergoing his mission debrief. She glanced towards the door out of the lab, as if that would be bring him back any sooner.
She needed something to focus on besides counting the minutes that passed. Perhaps she could leave Ketra with Dr Petri and go visit Si' training sessions in Atlantis' gym. She could at least then stretch her legs and perhaps study more about Earth fighting skills.
Sparrow appeared in Teyla's peripheral vision, the bird's attention locked on her palm full of seeds. Smiling, Teyla offered another treat to the bird. This time he moved in far faster to collect the seed.
Movement in the far doorway made her look round quickly, eager for it to be John, but instead it was one of the guards from outside the doorway. She did not know the man, and had shared little more than a hello this morning, but she could tell that something was wrong.
Dropping the pile of seeds on the table for Sparrow, Teyla stood away from her stool and headed towards the approaching man.
"Ma'am, could you please come with me?" He requested politely.
"What has happened?" Teyla asked.
"Colonel Carter has requested that we take you up to the Control Room immediately," he replied simply.
Teyla did not bother to ask for further details; there would be little point, for this man would not tell her.
Moving back to her stool, Teyla looked to where Dr Petri was now watching, looking a little worried.
"Dr Petri, I have been called to the Control Room urgently," Teyla informed her.
"Would you like me to keep Ketra here with me?" The woman offered.
"Yes, please," Teyla smiled, grateful. "I should not be too long."
"She will be fine here," the Doctor answered.
"Thank you," Teyla smiled at her and then looked across the room to where Ketra was knocking over all the remaining pots in case there were more snacks waiting. "Ketra?" Teyla called and Ketra looked round. "Stay here with Dr Petri," Teyla instructed her, gesturing towards the Doctor.
Ketra in good care, Teyla turned and headed out of the room, following the fast paced steps of the Earth soldier. Once outside the lab, the other guard quickly fell into step with them as they strode down the corridor.
Teyla's mind worked hurriedly. Had something happened back home and Father or the Elite had dialled in? Was Atlantis under attack in some way?
Or had something happened during John's mission?
The trip up to the Control Room was fast paced, and Teyla tried to memorise the route in case she needed to make her way back to retrieve Ketra alone. Perhaps she should have brought Ketra with her. If something were to happen to Atlantis, she would need to find Ketra.
The corridor that led into Atlantis' Portal Room was busy and it was immediately apparent to her that there was a high feeling of alert in the air. There were also far more armed Earth warriors than normal in the large room as she entered to the view of the Portal standing silent.
Knowing the way from here, she strode ahead from her escorts, moving around to look up the large sweeping staircase up to the Control Room. Si was stood at the top clearly waiting for her. She jogged up the steps, assessing his expression quickly. Something was very wrong.
"What has happened?" She called up to him.
"Someone has taken Sheppard," Si reported, his face grim.
Alarm almost made her steps falter as she hurried up to meet him. "Who?" She demanded. Someone had captured her John?
"Unclear," Si reported as he turned and led her towards the short steps up to the Control Room, where Colonel Carter stood waiting for her. The room behind the city's Lead was full of personnel, again far more than was normal from what Teyla had seen before.
"They are holding him hostage," Si added.
"In return for what?" Teyla asked hurriedly. At least that news meant that John was alive. For now.
"They have demanded that we evacuate Atlantis and turn it over to them," Colonel Carter supplied as they reached her.
Teyla looked to Si next to her as they followed the female Lead into the Control Room. Teyla spotted Dr McKay and Lieutenant Ford stood at an Ancestral console near the back of the room, both looking well but clearly worried. The entire room appeared to be watching her and Si with worried anxiety.
"Major Sheppard and his team were attacked on their way back to the Gate following a routine mission with known local peoples on a planet we call M1K 177," Colonel Carter began her report as she led them towards a large Ancestral screen.
Teyla focused on the screen's display of a planet glowing among a larger map of a section of the galaxy. "I do not recognise it," she reported.
"Neither did I," Si agreed. "Whoever they were, they shot at Sheppard's team with Alliance weaponry."
Teyla looked round at him, eyes wide. Someone from the Alliance had taken John? Leverage to rescind the contract? No, that was not possible. Besides, the demands had not been directed to her, but to Atlantis.
A short man with ruffled hair and glasses stepped forward. She had seen him before around the city but could not recall his name. He set an Earth computer in front of her. "These are the readings we captured of the weapons damage they left behind. Scan details and visual images," his accent was heavy, but Teyla understood him. She leant in to examine the screen. The man indicated which button she needed to use to move through the details and pictures.
"These look Litan to me and this one is probably Satedan," Si put in, pointing to images and Teyla nodded her agreement.
"If they are demanding Atlantis, then they could be from one of the Ancestral worshipper groups," Teyla considered. "They would have access to all these weapons."
"This damage looks more likely to be one of the Travellers' heavy energy weapons," Si added on the next image. "While these-"
"Are Genii," Teyla identified it quickly from the highly burn edges of the scorch-mark that was often distinctive of their weapons. He stood up from the computer.
"I think there's enough variation to suggest there were at least three Genii weapons used," Si added, tapping his way quickly through the rest of the images.
If there were slightly more Genii weapons, then perhaps... Teyla turned to Colonel Carter. "Was it Kolya?" She asked.
"He didn't appear and none of them were dressed in the usual Genii uniform that we've seen even outside your space," the Colonel replied.
"But he's our prime suspect," Colonel Sumner added as he stepped forward. "The first attack by Kolya on this city was to take it for himself; seems he still wants it."
"Do you have a recording of the communication?" Teyla asked. "We can run their faces against our databases. If they are Genii, we will be able to identify them."
Colonel Carter nodded. "I was hoping you were going to say that. They also made a comment about us being able to track where they were dialling from. Are the Elite able to identify the source of a wormhole? The only way we can do that is by sending through a probe and orientating its position in known space."
"We have methods of identifying background static and frequencies on incoming radio and visual communications that can assist in identifying the area of the galaxy the outgoing Portal is located," Teyla replied. Colonel Carter looked impressed.
"They only have playback," Si reported.
Teyla turned to him. "We might still be able to detect what is in the background if their recording captured enough range of frequencies, otherwise we will need to wait until they dial in here again." She turned back to Colonel Carter. "Have they said when they will contact you again?"
There was a heavy pause and Colonel Carter glanced aside to Si and back. There was something they hadn't told her.
"What is it?" Teyla asked directly.
"They are not threatening Major Sheppard with any standard weapons," the Colonel reported, her expression darkening. "Instead, they used..." she paused with a worried frown.
Teyla swore her heard stopped in her chest for a moment.
"They used a Wraith," the Colonel continued. "It fed on him for a few seconds."
Teyla's heart restarted, but it was with a slamming hard rhythm.
John!
She had never heard of a Wraith being used that way. No one outside of the Elite had been able to hold a Wraith, at least not for long before the things usually escaped or had to be killed.
"He's okay," Colonel Carter continued, "but clearly the Wraith took some of his life."
Teyla felt the rage pouring up through her middle, sending fiery anger up into her head and she clenched her teeth tightly in an effort to hold it in.
Someone had fed John to a Wraith!
"They have given us," Colonel Carter glanced at her wrist timepiece, "two hours and forty eight minutes until they say he will be strong enough for them to use the Wraith on him again. They've given us that long to evacuate the city."
Teyla forced herself to think, to breathe and focus.
"Obviously, we cannot hand over Atlantis," the Colonel added carefully.
Teyla turned to Si stood close to her side. "Dial into the Facility and get us backup," she stated and he nodded, his dark eyes worried and studying her intently.
She turned back to Colonel Carter. "Show me the recording."
0000
This time the hard concrete floor felt real good. John pressed one cheek to the cool supporting surface and worked on breathing.
In and out.
The pain had pretty much passed, but there was a deep hard ache in his chest that made him want to panic if he focused on it too much.
Like there was a hole in him – not just the stinging pain from the feeding mark, but as if that thing had reached in and scooped out part of his chest.
How much of his life had it taken? Maybe he looked like an old man already.
He opened his eyes and drew one arm up across the floor into view and examined his hand. It looked normal, though it felt slightly achy, like he'd had had a big workout in the gym.
He reached with the normal hand to his, hopefully still normal, face. He couldn't feel any big heavy old skin wrinkles or anything, but his skin did feel somehow different.
Crap.
How much of his life had he lost?
Okay, the panic was rising again.
He dropped his palm to the cold floor and pushed himself up onto his side. That deep aching hurt flared again and he groaned out loud. He needed to sit up, but his spine didn't feel like cooperating. The wall was pretty close, so he dragged himself the few feet to it and managed to slump up against it.
That felt better.
The ache in his chest had lessened a bit too. Hopefully that was a good sign.
If he was going to get out of this shithole, he was going to need to at least be able to stand up by himself.
A shift of noise from the next cell drew his attention – at least he still had some company.
"You are in pain," the weak voice drifted in through the open bars above John's head.
"Yeah, well, I just got fed on by a Wraith," John shared. He wished he could pretend that nightmares coming to life weren't so bizarre, but life here in Pegasus always seemed to have more to throw at you.
A thought occurred to John.
"They done the same to you?" He asked of his depressed fellow prisoner.
"No," the voice replied. John thought the guy sounded a little stronger than last time; or maybe he was just closer to the bars. "They called you Sheppard," the man added.
"Yeah, that's my name," John huffed out as he shifted on the floor, stretching out one leg to get a bit more feeling back into it. The aching sensation was definitely wearing off, but he still felt odd.
"I didn't think anything could hurt that much," he muttered as he flexed his hands.
He paused and refocused on the backs of his hands. They did look different, just a bit; the natural creases around his knuckles look deeper and his skin looked faintly lighter. Or was that just the bad lighting in here?
"You are still alive," the man next door reported, which was the most positive thing John had heard him say yet.
"Yeah," John had to agree. "I don't know how many years that darn thing took off my life, but it was ready to take all of it. If it hadn't been for Kolya's guys..." John decided not to finish that thought. Where the damn hell was Kolya anyway? If he didn't show his face soon, John was going to start taking it personally.
"Kolya is their leader, yes?" the other guy asked.
"Yeah," John muttered. "Though these guys aren't wearing their usual uniforms."
"They recently changed their clothing."
"Really?" John considered that and the answer was obvious. "They don't want Atlantis to know they're Genii." And they had gagged him to stop him spilling the beans too.
Pushing his back away from the wall, John ran his hands down the back of his neck and found that slightly slack feeling to his skin appeared to be everywhere.
"They're trying to take Atlantis again," he pondered out loud. "Seems a real stupid way of doing it though."
It didn't make sense. Kolya had to know that Colonel Carter wouldn't just pull everyone out of the city.
"Something else has to be going on here," he muttered. Did his voice sound slightly rougher or was that just the sound in here? Maybe it was from all the screaming he'd done into the gag.
"You are from Atlantis?"
"Uh, yeah," John confirmed for him. "And look," he pushed up off the floor, groaning out loud like an old man, and stood up, "like I said before, I've got people looking for me." John turned and leant against the wall and looked through the double lines of bars into the other cell. It was still dark in there, but this time John could make out the shape of the other prisoner. He was a tall guy and was standing in the shadows off to the side of his cell.
"When they get here, you can come with us," John offered to him again. "Or, if we work together, maybe we can get a head-start on getting out of here."
The dark shape of the prisoner shifted, the guy's head tilting to one side slightly. Some of the low overhead light shone slightly around the guy's head, showing that some of the outline was a large mane of long hair. How long had he been down here?
"I doubt that you'd want my help," the man answered.
There was something odd about his tone, almost like he found the idea funny. That could happen with long term prisoners – they started to think escape was impossible for them.
"Look, you want out of here, don't you?" John pushed. He needed this guy on his side, not all depressed and negative. "You want to get back up on ground?"
There was a heavy sigh from the shadows in the next cell. "I struggle to remember what the stars look like anymore."
"The only chance of you seeing them again, is if we work together to get out of here," John leant closer to the bars on his side of the 'window' between the cells. "You've been here a long time, so you know the layout of this place, don't you?"
There was a long pause.
"They have weapons," the man replied.
"So we take out a couple of them and then we'll have weapons too," John pointed out the obvious.
The dark shape shifted, moving closer. Finally.
"Are you so certain, Sheppard, that you could fight your way out after the feeding?"
There had been something eerie about the way the guy had said John's name. In fact, now John thought about it...
"When did you hear them call me Sheppard?" He asked, suspicions occurring. Had Kolya planted someone in the next cell to get information out of him?
The stranger was still moving closer, but slowly.
"They have mentioned your name many times, when they didn't think I could hear them," the approaching shape answered. He definitely sounded stronger than last time. "They have been planning your capture for some time."
"Good to know you're wanted," John muttered, but not overly surprised; Kolya had been out to get him for awhile now.
"But," the other guy added, almost out of the shadows. John angled his head to peer further through the bars. "I also heard them call you Sheppard," the man finally moved into the light of his cell, "just before I began to feed."
00000
TBC