Chapter 31 – The Resonance
The destruction of the node had been far more efficient than Long Sleep had anticipated. The housing had contained the majority of the initial explosive force, but, weakened by the effects of the radiation, the outer encasement had fractured apart dramatically, embedding large shards of the bone casing into the walls of neighbouring chambers. After that, the flooring beneath the former node had abruptly collapsed, sending the still burning remains down several floors below.
Surely many warriors and drones had been caught in the destruction, but Long Sleep didn't have time to dwell on that fact, for the entire section of the Hive had plummeted into darkness with the abrupt and complete power failure from the node's explosion.
Even though the emergency cells flickered into a low limited light, it was the burning hole in the maintenance chamber's wall that provided Long Sleep with the light he needed to see the results of his sabotage. Behind him, the other Keeper groaned as he struggled up off the floor, dark liquid seeping from his forehead.
Waving the thick smoke away from his face, Long Sleep squeezed around the large shard of node housing protruding through the chamber wall and reached down to help the other Keeper to his feet.
"What happened?" The Keeper stuttered as Long Sleep helped him out of the chamber and into the only faintly less smoke-filled corridor outside.
The floor off to the left was partially caved in and the lip of the gaping hole was noticeably melting from a fire below. Several warriors were dealing with it though. Despite their fogged and slowing sick minds, they were still able to know that fire was dangerous and had to be dealt with immediately.
Long Sleep headed the other way, practically carrying the dazed Keeper along with him. The emergency lighting glowed down through the haze of the smoke filling corridor, and there were several warriors lying on one side of the walk-space, as if they had been dragged there to be out of the way.
Up ahead more warriors came into view, all gathered around a section of collapsed wall. They seemed unsure what to do and were attempting to push it back up into place.
"Help put the fire out back there," Long Sleep ordered them with as much command as he could muster through his sore throat. The warriors, appearing grateful for some clear instructions, headed off to help with the real problem. No amount of propping up the corridor wall was going to help now.
A large intersection appeared out of the now thinning smoke and the Long Sleep spied the entranceway into a storage area ahead. At his mental touch, the webbing covering the entranceway slid apart, the space inside gratefully clear of smoke and the thick stench of burning webbing.
Long Sleep carried in the Keeper and the stunned looking warrior leant heavily against the wall with clear relief. Moving on from him, Long Sleep headed towards the chamber's sole interface. The chamber would normally be filled with stored sleeping prey, but thanks to the Poison Queen, there was no sustenance to be found in here anymore.
The interface was what Long Sleep needed right now though. He slid his soot-covered hand across the console, willing it to have enough emergency power to still work. Fortunately, it did react, but it was a slow and sluggish response as it worked to use its limited power.
As he waited for it to find the information he requested, he wiped some of the soot from his face and coughed sharply, spitting out some of the stinking taste in his mouth. He could feel the damage to his airways from the hot smoke he'd inhaled, but the Primary's recently shared life-force was repairing the injury. He glanced round to the other Keeper only to see that the warrior had slumped down to the floor. Long Sleep felt a faint wince of guilt at what his actions had done, but it would be far worse for the Hive if the evil drive was activated again.
The interface finally showed him the information he'd asked for, displaying a dim and slightly shaky diagram of the Hive's current power distribution.
With a burst of deep satisfaction, Long Sleep smiled at what he saw; both main engines were starved of power, the ship essentially grounded, and, more importantly, the evil drive had been completely shutdown.
And the poisonous radiation was no longer registering.
He let out a grateful sigh of relief. He had been successful.
He searched the interface for the status of the power flows across the rest of the Hive, needing to ensure that the regional node's explosion hadn't damaged the central areas.
The interface shakily displayed the Hive's central node, which should be unaffected by his sabotage; except the power readings from the node were wavering, registering as unstable.
That was not good. With power down in the entire back quarters of the Hive, the central node had to maintain its power to keep essential systems working.
Had his sabotage set off a chain reaction further forward in the Hive, damaging the central node as well?
Long Sleep requested more detailed information on the central node's power flow from the interface, but, again, it was frustratingly slow in responding. He clenched his teeth as he waited for the console to access the information.
The results finally flickered across the display.
Long Sleep frowned at the readings. The instability in the power flow wasn't from any damage; it was because of rerouting commands. Power was being incorrectly rerouted from the essential central node.
Were the Keepers up there foolishly attempting to divert power back here? Didn't they realise the extensive and irreparable damage of this local node?!
He would need to get up there and make sure the sickly Keeper minds were not about to drain the most vital systems in their attempt to restart the main engines.
The interface shifted under his touch, showing further detail of the rerouting commands, and Long Sleep caught his breath. No.
They were trying to reroute the central node's power to the evil drive! Trying to restart it.
The power systems couldn't handle that; the poison drive would easily devour all that power and that would leave the Hive without basic life support! The air would not be filtered or circulated, and even the artificial gravity systems would be starved of power.
And if they powered the drive, another jump would rip the Hive apart.
He had to stop this.
He turned from the console and rushed out of the chamber into the lingering smoke outside. Taking a sharp right, he powered forward, racing down the corridor.
He had to get across almost half of the Hive and up several levels to the central node as quickly as possible. His mind worked on the problem as he ran flat out, taking corners at a dangerous speed, but he couldn't waste a single second.
If he used the transport sweep chambers up through the Hive and then down one of the central spinal corridors...yes, he could maybe get there in time before those Keepers up there single-handedly killed the Hive and all onboard.
His lungs burned in his chest as he ran, his body needing more time to completely repair the smoke damage, but he had to get to that node before the Hive was destroyed.
Racing around a particularly tight corner, colliding partly with two warriors in his way, Long Sleep ran into a more brightly lit section of the Hive where the power was still strong. Only, there was a massive crack through one wall of the corridor here, the damage having scattered dead membranes, webbing, and fluid across the floor. Drones were trying to constrict the leaking fluid tubules shut, but Long Sleep had no time to help them.
He instead focused on leaping over every wet risky piece of organic matter that could take his feet out from under him and ploughed onwards. He considered that perhaps-
Loud blaring noise cut through his head, shocking him into almost faltering in his run, but he quickly recovered as the blaring continued.
The intruder alarm?
Did that mean that the Armoured Herd had arrived? That there were armoured prey on the ship?
Or was it a malfunction of the Hive' systems, tripped by internal damage and fluctuating power?
He didn't have time to stop and find out; he had one mission to focus on and he had to give it everything he had or the Hive could be torn apart at any moment, dooming them all.
00000
Ladon stepped out into the hallway and looked both ways down the empty passageway.
It had been awhile since he'd seen anyone passing by the open doorway of the construction room. To stay out of sight of Cowen, and to ensure that he kept as low a profile as possible right now, Ladon had stayed focused on his work with his satellite construction team. However, with Hulte off-world on Athos, it meant that he had to rely on Tyrus and General Maloo bringing him updates of developments in Kolya's capture of Major Sheppard. The last he'd heard from either of them had been a very short worried report of another Alliance wide high alert. According to Tyrus, the rogue Hive in Alliance territory was nowhere near Genii space, but it was still concerning.
As was the unusual quiet hallways around him.
He hadn't even heard the usual guard patrols walk past the doorway for some time. Or had he just been too focused on his work when they had walked by? Did he normally notice them most days?
It was possible he was being paranoid.
Straining his hearing, Ladon couldn't detect anything, not even distant voices. This wasn't the busiest of sections of the complex, but there were usually people moving around and voices in the distance. It felt strangely silent.
And three of his technicians hadn't returned from their rest break either. It was possible that they'd just gotten distracted with talk about the latest in the Alliance-wide high alert, but he'd still sent Sora to find them.
She hadn't come back yet.
He consulted the time on the corner of his electronic pad. It was well past any meal time, so it wouldn't be that everyone was eating. Perhaps there really was a new development in the latest high alert.
He tapped his pad's screen, calling up the news links headline announcements, but there was nothing new. Nor was there any electronic message sent to him by Maloo or Tyrus. It was probably that the two of them were caught up in however Cowen was currently reacting to the crisis.
Cowen probably had sequestered himself in his office again, respecting only his most trusted Commander General Reed, while the rest of his Generals were expected to just listen and do as ordered.
Ladon just wished he knew what was happening between Kolya and Atlantis, but he had no way to find out unless Tyrus or Maloo supplied him with any new information.
It was simply a matter of waiting, and keeping his head down so as not to appear suspicious.
Except he couldn't stop himself worrying over Cowen's question about Dahlia. It was entirely possible that Cowen had been simply been attempting to show fake interest in Ladon's family during the rather uncomfortable one-to-one meeting earlier.
Or had it been a threat?
Did Cowen suspect him?
There were others in their conspiracy circle that Ladon could ask, but he didn't really trust them; they were all far too obsessively loyal to Kolya. With Hulte on Athos, that reduced those Ladon trusted down to a worryingly low number.
Of course it could be that everything was actually unfolding as planned, and Cowen was quiet because he was heading off-world as per Kolya's original plan?
Except Ladon had never really believed Cowen would do that in a crisis.
A slight sound caught Ladon's attention, and he stilled, focusing on the far-away noise.
Footsteps.
Coming this way.
He moved back into the open entrance of the construction room, glancing back over his shoulder. The team were working away busily and appeared unaware of anything going on.
Ladon turned back to the hallway and listened to the approaching footsteps. They echoed loudly against the flagstones, growing steadily closer. Whoever it was approaching was walking at a fast but steady rate; measured to be quick but not so much as to draw attention.
Sora?
He was almost certain of it, but he held still, watching off to the far right to see who would appear around the bend.
After a few more long moments, the footsteps reached the bend and Sora came into view.
Ladon let out a sigh of relief and headed quickly to meet her in the corridor away from the entrance into the construction room.
"What did you find?" He asked quietly as they reached each other.
She brushed a stray strand of red hair behind her left ear as she met his eyes. "I can't find the missing technicians," she supplied, clearly unhappy at her lack of success.
"The hallways are quiet," Ladon said pointedly.
She nodded. "Some people are in their offices, but I didn't spot a single guard on the way through the complex."
"Has Cowen gone off-world?" Ladon asked quietly, and rather hopefully.
"No, apparently he's still here," Sora reported softly with a deep worried frown. "Do you want me to go into the governing areas, see if I can find something out?"
"No," Ladon shook his head as he glanced back over his shoulder towards the open doorway and then back to Sora. "I need you to do something else for me."
"Anything," Sora stated quickly.
"I need you to find Dahlia and take her down to our secondary meet point underground," he instructed her.
"You're worried Cowen knows."
"If he knew the truth then we would already be in custody, if not dead," Ladon tried to reassure her. "But I need to know that Dahlia's safe, and I only trust you to see to that."
Sora crushed her lips together, clearly holding in her objections. "Father can take her down there."
"No, Tyrus is better placed on his security detail to hear what is happening," Ladon argued. "It needs to be you."
Sora glanced away, unhappy at the assignment. "I found out one thing from my contact in communications," she reported, still not having agreed to his request.
"I need you to make sure Dahlia is safe, Sora," Ladon insisted as firmly as he could while keeping his voice low. He reached up and cupped her shoulders in his hands. "We both know that, even if we're successful, Dahlia can still be used against me by those loyal to either Cowen or Kolya. I need to be sure that she is safe until I know how best to protect her going forward."
Sora's shoulders were tight in his hands so he brushed his thumbs over the thin layer of her uniform jacket.
"You are the only one I truly trust, Sora," he stressed. "Please."
He held her gaze, aware that he was trusting the emotional ties that had built between, despite their time together having been centred around sex and conspiracy.
Sora crushed her lips harder together, pouting them slightly. "Alright," she begrudgingly agreed. "For you." Sora had never really liked Dahlia's company all that much, but he understood it was her loyalty to him and their long held plans that made her reluctant to leave him to protect his sister.
"Thank you," he told her gratefully and squeezed her shoulders before letting go of her.
Sora nodded, saying nothing else. He knew he could trust her to get Dahlia to safety. Her somewhat unpredictable and churlish nature aside, Sora was a dedicated soldier. She just preferred to be on the front line of the action.
"What did you find out from your communications contact?" He returned to the subject now he had her promise. Had Atlantis been back in contact perhaps?
"He said that the Elite are searching our interfaces into the links network," Sora supplied.
"What?" Ladon asked, shocked at the news. "Why?"
"He didn't know, but apparently it's all the Confederation worlds."
"They're looking for something," Ladon considered.
"Could it be us?" Sora asked, clearly concerned.
"If they knew about our circle we would already have Elite warriors at our door," Ladon disagreed.
Sora angled her rosy cheeked face. "I suppose, but I don't like it."
"Perhaps Kolya has been tapping into the links network to communicate with others a part of his plan," he wondered aloud. It would surely be a stupid thing to do, considering that the links network could easily be searched...
"If he is, he hasn't told us about it," Sora complained.
"Did your contact suggest that the Elite had found anything?"
"Communications only know that the Elite have used their access to the Confederation networks and are searching them thoroughly," Sora replied. "But this isn't secret information. Communications told Cowen."
"When?"
"Not even a quarter standard hour ago," Sora replied.
"Maybe that explains the quiet around here," Ladon suggested. "He might be in conference with his Generals and security." It would certainly explain why Maloo and Tyrus hadn't visited or even sent him a message yet.
It was difficult to predict exactly how Cowen would react to the news that the Elite were sniffing around the Confederation's links into the main Alliance network. Would Cowen perhaps go off-world to speak with them? Except that couldn't be Kolya's plan, because there was no way he could know which planet Cowen might meet Elite warriors, and he certainly wouldn't be able to hide the explosive device on an Elite held planet.
Perhaps then, Cowen might run and hide. If he felt threatened, would he leave to go to the Primary planet, as per Kolya's original plan, and stay there out of the apparent reach of the Elite?
Ladon shook his head at the thoughts circling around his head. If the Elite were about to bring a political storm down upon Cowen, running away wasn't going to solve that. If the Elite wanted to talk with someone, there was nothing to stop them. An Elite had apparently single-handedly found and extracted someone out of Sula's Portal City recently, which was where the sleaziest and most criminal within the Alliance went to disappear. Cowen wasn't stupid enough to think he could run and hide from the Elite, so how exactly did Kolya think he was going to get Cowen off-world? It was the part of the plan that had never quite sat right with Ladon.
"I haven't heard from Father in awhile," Sora asked.
"He was here a short while ago," Ladon lied to reassure her. "He or Maloo will brief me again as soon as they are able, but I need you to go find Dahlia now."
She nodded. "Alright. I'll go straight to the meet point with her and wait for you and Father to contact us."
"Thank you," Ladon repeated to her. "Take the hidden tunnels; don't risk being seen anywhere."
"I will get her to safety, but if you or Father need me back here, contact me," she demanded as she turned.
"I will," Ladon told her, though, truthfully, it would take her far too long to get back up to the surface from the planned meet point deep within the old underground city beneath First City. But reminding her of that fact wasn't going to help ensure she got Dahlia to safety.
As he listened to her clipped quick footsteps echoing away down the otherwise empty hallway, he headed back towards the entrance to the construction room.
He glanced inside, but everyone was busy on the same work as before, showing complete disinterest in his return.
Except for the three that had not returned; where had they gone?
0000
The warm aroma of incense wafted into his awareness, stirring him awake.
A faint refreshing coolness ghosted across his cheek, the air full of the soft fragrances of Athos. In the distance outside the open window of her quarters, he could hear the sound of Tjaru going about its usual business. It was a gentle mix of voices too distant to be discernible, with laughter, someone calling a name, and the occasional snip of a gardener trimming back branches and shrubs in the courtyard a storey down below the window.
John fluttered his eyelids open to the glowing daylight, blinking into the initial brightness until his vision gently sharpened.
The sweet curve of her naked golden neck came into focus just in front of him, her hair curling across the turquoise pillow they were sharing.
He slid his head further across the warm softness of the pillow until his nose and lips met her skin. The scent of sweet flowers filled his nose as he nuzzled into the crook of her neck, her skin warm and arousing against him lips.
She stirred a little, just a little, her shoulder lifting faintly, her cheek turning slightly within his limited close view of her. He felt her take a deeper breath beneath his arm resting over her side, and he heard her murmur a soft contented sound.
Pleased, and so unbelievably comfortable, he drew in her scent again and pressed his lips softly to her skin.
This was the way to wake up. Every day.
"Sheppard."
Though he realised he wasn't sure how long they had been sleeping. Were the others from the team looking for him already, recalling him from his 'political and military discussion' with Elite Emmagan while Woolsey did the actual work?
"Sheppard."
John lifted his head to look into the soft glowing space of Teyla's bedroom. Was it his radio?
He frowned towards the open window at the end of the room.
Hadn't Teyla moved quarters? Why were they back in her old bedroom?
"Sheppard!"
The dream broke apart in a sharp instant, the images and warmth sliding away from him.
John blinked open his eyes to the far less enjoyable sight of a mottled concrete floor.
His body hurt.
It wasn't a sharp pain, or anything that implied he'd been injured.
No, he'd been fed on.
And Teyla had just been a dream.
As reality delivered all the nasty memories, he lifted his head from the cold floor of his prison cell. The hurt now registered as a cramped up discomfort, probably from the half slumped position he'd been sleeping in. Or, possibly, had passed out.
"Sheppard!" The Wraith called again from above.
"Yeah, I'm awake already," John protested as he struggled to get his legs moving. He felt like he'd been asleep for a day or more and his body had frozen up on him. But, his legs moved on command, which was a real win right now.
The wall was nice and close, so he shifted back a little until his upper back met the support, and he let out a relieved sigh. Above him, through the open space between the cells, he heard the Wraith let out breath.
The memories were all too clear from that last trip to the dentist chair, including its surprising conclusion. He couldn't remember coming back into his cell, so presumably they'd just dragged him back in here. That might explain some of the stinging in his lower legs, or maybe it was just having been almost killed by the Wraith who had just woken him from a very nice dream.
He'd give just about anything to be living that dream right now.
Except the reality was that he was still stuck in here, but he wasn't dead at least. That had come as something of a surprise.
"You know, I could have sworn I was gonna to wake up dead today," he muttered to the listening Wraith.
"You are strong," the Wraith's voice echoed down from above. "Stronger than any Human I have ever feed upon."
John guessed that was a compliment or maybe it just meant that the Wraith didn't want to eat all his food at once. Still, its voice sounded different somehow, sort of thoughtful. Or maybe it was early onset hearing loss from being fed on so much.
"You stopped yourself," John recalled, able to remember that point clearly.
"Yes," the Wraith replied simply, the single word drawn out and full of subtext to John's aged ear.
"Why?" John asked.
"Because, the longer I feed, the weaker you become," it answered. "And we will need what strength you have left," its voice softened, "to escape."
John almost snorted at that, surprised at the sudden turnaround. "Now, he wants to escape," he muttered.
"We do not have much time," the Wraith added.
That was something of an understatement considering the circumstances. "Yeah, well, that depends how much of me you took," John replied.
"No," the Wraith disagreed, "something has changed among these prey."
John shifted his head against the cell wall so that he could look up towards the bars. "Changed how?"
"They have been unnerved since the last conversation with your people, and I have heard whispers of a Hive," the Wraith's voice shifted as it talked, sounding like it was turning away from the bars.
"Great," John muttered. "Just what I need right now, more Wraith."
"But something else has changed," the Wraith continued, "they are afraid of discovery now."
That caught John's attention, and he felt a burst of adrenaline hit his weakened system, his heart pumping harder in his chest. "As in rescue?" He worked to sit up, every muscle in his body resisting initially.
"I do not think anyone has arrived to save you yet, but they are afraid of something new," the Wraith answered. "They have retreated further into this place, out of my earshot."
"So now's the time to break out," John guessed as he successfully achieved a fully sat up position.
"I believe so," the Wraith replied, its voice low and somehow thoughtful again.
The only problem was whether John actually had the physical strength to put up a good fight. He flexed his arms and shook out his legs. He felt tired, real tired, but everything appeared to be working.
He looked at the cell door.
Teyla had been in Atlantis and had threatened Pranos pretty damn well, but clearly she wasn't kicking down the door just yet. If Pranos and his fellow goons were freaked out about someone coming to get them, it was probably Teyla. And it meant they were likely distracted so the Wraith was right, they needed to act now to take advantage of the opportunity.
Except the 'opportunity' involved working with a Wraith. It had already taken god knows how much of John's life, so what was going to stop it from taking the rest during the escape?
Was he actually going to trust this Wraith to keep its word to help and not kill him?
John worked to struggle upright, leaning his weight almost entirely against the cell wall as he slowly stood up and looked through the bars at the Wraith.
The strange alien slit eyes watched him, but there did seem something different about the creature now. It looked almost...apologetic? No, that couldn't be right. Unless it was feeling guilty about only now deciding to work together to get out of here. If it had just agreed before the last feeding, John would have been in a far stronger place to fight his way out.
But that wasn't worth dwelling on right now. They had a mission, and if either of them had a chance of getting out of here alive, they needed to trust each other.
For now.
"Okay," John agreed. "Can you hear how many of them are in the local vicinity?"
The Wraith angled its head as if intently listening. "There are just the two guards outside within hearing range."
"Good."
"They are afraid," the Wraith added, its eyes turned towards the far doorway out of the prison.
"You can tell that from here?" John asked doubtfully.
"Yes," the Wraith said with an amused, and slightly creepy, tone.
"O-kay," John logged that unsettling Wraith fact away for now as he looked towards the exit outside of which the guards were apparently stood. "Presumably they have the keys to the cells?"
"They do," the Wraith confirmed. John didn't ask whether the Wraith knew that from watching them lock and unlock the doors or because he could hear the keys jangling on their belts or something.
The plan was obvious then: they needed to lure the two guards in here, incapacitate them, and get the keys.
John looked back to the Wraith. "I suggest we go for the 'help, he's dying routine'."
The Wraith let out a low deep chuckle, clearly understanding the concept right away. "Yes, that might work."
00000
By the time Long Sleep reached the spinal corridor on the same level as the central node, he was no longer the only one running through the hallways. Warriors and drones raced with him, but their destination was to engage the intruders who were, worryingly, also on this same level.
How they had gotten onboard was unclear, but that wasn't important. What was important was the very obvious sound of distant rapid blasts of stunner fire that proved that the intruders were making worrying progress though the Hive, and that they were apparently two of the Armoured Herd's Queen Killers.
The Queen Killers were infamous for their attacks on Hives and Cruisers, and Long Sleep suspected it was more than likely that the Killers were in this area of the Hive with the intention of controlling the central node's power distribution.
Fortunately though, it seemed as if the majority of the Hive were rushing forward to engage the Queen Killers, to the point that they were jamming up the corridor and creating a fast stumbling flow of constant motion. With all their bodies and minds sickened by the effects of the radiation, most of them seemed to believe that simply charging towards the Queen Killers would lead to victory.
Long Sleep had no intention of going with them to meet the intruders; his exit off the spinal corridor to get to the maintenance chamber for the central node was up ahead. The problem was getting out of the fast, near stampede, moving force of the warriors and drones.
A distant explosive blast caused the lighting to flicker, which suggested that the Queen Killers were indeed targeting the power flows. At this rate, if the Keepers didn't destroy the Hive with their foolish rerouting plan, the enemy would end up blowing up the node and shutting off the Hive's life support. He couldn't worry about that eventuality now; he needed to focus on stopping his own Keeper kin first.
The exit off the spinal corridor ahead, he started pushing and elbowing his way through to the edge of the stampede, ready to escape into the side corridor that was his target. Except there was one particularly massive drone in his way, so he had to squeeze around the large creature's thick arm to get to his exit. Only, the drone didn't like being pushed at and a large hand grasped at Long Sleep's shoulder and he was flung aside against the wall. Fortunately, his shoulder hit the corner of the turnoff he had been aiming for so he twisted to tumble down into the side corridor. Bits of dead webbing tangled around his shoulders as he hit the floor, but he was out of the wild fury flow and once again had space around him.
Wiping the wet membranes from his shoulders, he clambered up onto his feet. Then the floor rocked violently.
Long Sleep grabbed at the closest wall, but his hand met more of the wet dying membranes. The vibration repeated as he managed to brace himself.
Those had been physical impacts to the ship!
Another shake sent pieces of the wall down to the floor around his boots.
The Hive was under attack and it was presumably the Armoured Herd's ships arriving in the wake of their Queen Killers.
Because there were not enough threats for him to deal with! With the Hive's weakened structural stability, repetitive weapons fire was not going to help the situation.
But that wasn't a problem he could resolve right now.
Pushing onwards down this new piece of corridor, Long Sleep ran until the grateful sight of the entranceway into the central node's maintenance chamber came into view. Only the entranceway was blocked with warriors looking into the chamber.
Long Sleep slid to a stop behind the sea of backs and looked over their shoulders to see that there were far too many Keepers all crammed into the small chamber.
"Let me through!" He commanded loudly and forcefully as he got his elbows into the sides of some Keepers. Worried eyes all turned towards him, all appearing panicked.
Shoulders quickly parted now that they recognised him and he shoved his way into the middle of the packed chamber to spot two of the Keepers working on the consoles, clearly the ones responsible for the power rerouting.
"What are you doing?" He demanded as he pulled one Keeper roughly away from one console. The chamber stank of sickly sweat and fear.
"The Hive Primary commands that we re-power the drive," the Keeper explained, its pale clammy face stricken with confusion. It was probably because their minds were so damaged already that they hadn't been able to remember how to best reroute the power.
"The drive is responsible for all this damage, it must not be re-powered," Long Sleep ordered them as he turned to the Keeper at the other console and physically pulled the male's hands from the interface.
"But the Queen-"
"You hear those sounds of battle?" Long Sleep interrupted him as he slid his own hand against the console's interface to undo their foolish rerouting.
The full chamber of Keepers all looked worriedly over their shoulders towards the corridor outside the entranceway, the sounds of the battle with the Queen Killers easily audible between the blares of the intruder alarm. Another small explosion echoed and the roaring rage of the attacking warriors engaging the Killers rose in response.
"There are Queen Killers only corridors away from here," Long Sleep told them as he shutdown the last rerouting and the central node's power started to stabilise. Though, the Killer's were causing disruption to the power flow further out from the node.
"Then we must do as the Primary wishes; we must escape!" One Keeper stated fearfully.
"We use that drive one more time and the Hive will be torn apart," Long Sleep explained the seemingly obvious as he ran an analysis of the central node. He needed to find a way to seal off the flow back towards the evil drive, ensure no rerouting to it was possible.
"But the Armoured Herd are attacking!" Someone else added as the floor shook with another impact. "We must escape!"
Long Sleep shook his head at the foolishness, but focused on his work. "I need a splicing tool," he ordered as he withdrew his touch from the console's interface. "You, get me one. You, work that other interface to reroute non-essential systems to regeneration to help structural integrity."
The direct orders cut through their confused minds and they immediately did what he told them. He had led these Keepers for a short time, but they trusted his knowledge and reacted without question.
"One of the manoeuvring thrusters' cells is underpowered," another Keeper reported.
"We don't need thrusters anymore," Long Sleep answered as a splicing tool was handed to him. "Once we stabilise the node and power, we all need to evacuate the Hive."
He turned from the shocked lowered jaws and pulled away the protective webbing around one of the main fluid tubules that encircled the central node in the next chamber. He lifted the sharp splicing tool and cut into the bud end of the tubule, stimulating an instant response from the tissue to grow a further new tubule. The node needed more cooling nourishing fluid right now, so he moved along to the other end of the tubule access, pushing Keepers out of his way as he did.
"The non-essential power is redirected," someone reported.
"Good, now-"
The room rocked violently and Long Sleep almost slipped and tore the splice tool into the fluid tube.
"Shouldn't we redirect more power to weapons?" One Keeper suggested.
"There's no point," Long Sleep argued as he spliced into another bud. "We can only stabilise this node and then the hull long enough for us to escape," he told them.
"But we've grown the hull so thick so it will-," a Keeper argued.
"It's thick but the inner layers supporting it are damaged by the radiation," Long Sleep explained hurriedly as he worked.
"Radiation?"
Long Sleep gave up explaining anything to them; their minds were practically lost. "Just go, find fighters and get off the Hive."
"But we can't leave the Queen unprotected!"
He almost rolled his eyes at that. He had no idea where the Poison Queen was, for he certainly couldn't feel the overriding pressure of her mind anymore. Perhaps it was because she was focusing on the attack rather than her Hive of prisoners, or maybe she had already slipped away in her private escape ship. Either way, there was no need to hide the truth from the others now.
"She doesn't care about any of us," Long Sleep told them angrily as he reached back towards the interface to increase the fluid pumps ready for the new tubules once they were grown. "She did this to all of us and she's not even-"
A loud roar cut through the rest of his revelation, and Long Sleep spun round to see several Keepers being pulled out of the entranceway of the chamber and the Hive Primary filled their place.
"TRAITOR!" The Primary roared at Long Sleep, the male's eyes wide and wild as he tore into the chamber.
The Keepers tried to get out of the Primary's way, but with so many of them crowded into the small space, they had nowhere to go but to fall down and away from him. The Hive Primary didn't care about them scrambling and falling around him; he just climbed up onto them and launched himself through the air at Long Sleep.
Long Sleep dropped down and to the side, only narrowly avoiding the Primary's reaching claws and feeding hand. Keepers collapsed under Long Sleep as they all crashed to the chamber's floor in a heap.
Long Sleep turned on his bed of scrambling Keepers, his eyes fixing on the Primary as the massive male crashed into a console. It didn't stop him though.
There were too many Keepers still in here, even as they all fought to escape, and the room was too small. There wasn't enough time or space for Long Sleep to get away from the Primary.
He had to fight.
He realised he still had the splicing tool in his hand. It was thin for a weapon, but it was half a hand's length long beyond the bone handle and had a sharp point, and it was all he had against the muscular and frighteningly strong Hive Primary.
Holding himself up against the partially broken console he'd landed on, the Hive Primary struck out one large boot at Long Sleep.
Sliding more than actively moving, Long Sleep threw himself to one side, falling off the remaining pile of struggling Keepers and he hit the chamber floor finally.
The Primary hissed loudly as his boot cracked loudly into the leg of another Keeper.
Long Sleep quickly got his feet under him in the tiny free space he'd fallen into and, without much thought, he threw himself at the Primary's back, the splicing tool a hard biting sensation in his feeding hand.
The Primary was too fast though and his massive arm struck out. The bony end of his elbow hit Long Sleep in his upper chest and knocked him back. Long Sleep tumbled against the side wall of the chamber and gasped in broken breaths.
"You will die as my sacrifice to the Great Queen," the Primary shouted around the blaring alarm and the distant blasting sounds of warfare.
Long Sleep's vision steadied as his lungs pulled in full breaths, and he saw that he still held the splicing tool tightly in his hand. His grip had cramped around its handle so hard that he might never be able to let go of it.
"I will feed on every last drop of your life and I will tell of your death to everyone single warrior and drone I meet," the Primary hissed as he stepped towards Long Sleep, the other Keepers almost all out of view now.
The lights flickered above, the floor shifting slightly under Long Sleep, and he felt a bursting, fiery rage pour up through him.
"YOU are the traitor," he shouted at the Primary. "You betrayed us all to that thing! She is NO Queen!"
The floor shook again and Long Sleep had to brace himself against the wall behind him to keep his footing.
"You are poisonous mutated thing," the Primary shouted back, spit dripping down his chin. "You think yourself better than our Great Queen!" He roared and his body tensed in the flickering light.
Long Sleep tensed in return, watching as the Primary seemed to move in slow motion as he launched himself off the floor with his big thick legs, his hands reaching for Long Sleep's neck.
Long Sleep roared violently and threw himself into the attack, swinging the splicing tool forward with him.
The Primary's hands reached Long Sleep's throat first, the teeth of his feeding bite almost immediately grazing at Long Sleep's skin, and the force of the collision drove Long Sleep back into the wall behind him, the Primary crushing him against it.
But the momentum had helped Long Sleep; it had helped drive the splicing tool deep into the Primary's eye socket.
The moment held as Long Sleep drew in a desperately needed breath, his back painful from the impact with the wall, and his hand still around the handle of the splicing tool.
Then the Primary wavered on his feet, his hands dropping from Long Sleep and he staggered back, the splicing tool protruding from his left eye socket.
Long Sleep struck.
His feeding bite latched onto the side of the Primary's throat and the rush of the Primary's already dying life-force rushed into him.
Long Sleep followed the Primary as he fell backwards to the chamber floor, crouching over the Primary's dying body. Long Sleep took every last bit of life-force he could, draining the Primary of every drop of all those prey he had so greedily kept for him himself.
0000
TBC