Chapter 33 – The Error
John moved as silently as he could down the hallway, the Wraith moving with eerily silence ahead of him.
There hadn't been any helpful side corridors or stairs immediately outside the cells, so they'd had to follow the same route that had previously taken them to the room with the dentist torture chair.
Fortunately, there were no guards outside that particular fateful door, but as the Wraith led him quietly forward, John started to hear distant voices.
The Wraith paused and looked back at him, lifting one long pale finger up and it pointed off to the far right ahead. John peered around the Wraith's shoulder in the direction of the pointed clawed finger; part of a closed door was just about visible ahead. John was almost certain that as where the voices were coming from.
The Wraith lowered his pointing finger and then waved the way forward. Apparently the gesture meant 'follow me' even for the Wraith.
Clutching his Genii stunner tightly, John nodded and the Wraith led the way into a small intersection, off which the closed noisy door stood to the right. The Wraith led the way to the left though, down the only other available corridor. John followed closely, but not too close, while trying to watch all directions at once. The closed door was tempting him to keep looking at it though. If this was a movie, the door would probably abruptly open and a random Genii would wander out needing the bathroom or something and happen upon their escape.
The door stayed closed though as John followed the Wraith quietly away from the door, though John managed to overhear a few bits of the conversation inside the room.
"...madness! We should kill them and leave," a voice rose louder over the general rumble of worried voices from the other side of the door.
"Kolya says this will be seen through; the Elite will not find us here," another voice answered, perhaps Pranos?
John wondered if would be better to storm the room and take the Genii by surprise, but he had no idea how many were behind the door or how far below ground he and the Wraith were. As the door grew further away, John decided this was the better option and looked forward around the Wraith to see the hopeful sight of a flight of stairs headed upwards.
The Wraith slipped to the edge of the stairs, peering up them carefully. John tucked in close behind the creature's shoulder, keeping his attention focused mainly on the way they had come. The closed door had remained closed, but he was too far away now to overhear any more intel. The Genii were afraid of the Elite, but it sounded like they also didn't think the Elite would find them. That had to be idiotic thinking – from what John had seen, the Elite didn't fail at much. Hopefully Teyla was close to finding this place, and he might even run into her breaking-in while he and the Wraith were breaking out.
It occurred to him that she probably would think him teaming up with a Wraith as kind of crazy. She would have a point, not that the Wraith super-hearing wasn't real useful right now.
The Wraith shifted next to him and started quietly up the stairs. Gun high, John followed, noticing that the steps were made of concrete and had been painted in white, which was clearly very old, the paint dirty and peeling in places.
The Wraith reached the top couple of steps and paused, tilting its head like a dog listening to distant fireworks.
John crept up next to him, and the Wraith looked round. It held up two pale fingers, inadvertently making a gesture that was anything but friendly. John ignored the unintended impolite meaning, understanding that the Wraith meant that there were two Genii somewhere close by on the next level. The pale hand then pointed off to the left at the top of the stairs.
Two Genii up around the left hand side.
John nodded that he understood and the Wraith nodded back before it started forward, leading the way up onto the next level.
The new corridor was painting in the same old white paint, with a red band along the walls at waist height.
The Wraith moved forward to a corner ahead and rested its shoulder against the wall. John slid in behind it, and could already hear the scuff if boots on the floor around the corner. A Genii guard, and it sounded like he was walking along the corridor with the bored pace of sentry duty.
John glanced to the Wraith, only to find the muzzle of a Genii gun pointed right at him. Except he saw immediately that the Wraith was simply looking over the weapon with confused curiosity. John pushed the muzzle of the gun away from him and shook his head at the Wraith. They needed to do this as quietly as possible.
He slid his gun into Marcos' holster and pulled out the knife instead, holding it up for the Wraith to see and made a 'shush' gesture with his other hand against his lips.
The Wraith angled its head with possible confusion, but John just moved around the creature to lean out around the corner.
The Wraith abruptly gripped his shoulder, stopping him. John looked to the Wraith to see it lift a hand, asking for him to wait. John waited, aware that the guard's footsteps were growing close, except they then stopped, shifted on the spot and the footsteps started going away from them.
The Wraith let go of his shoulder, and John nodded his thanks for the warning. This trusting a Wraith really was bizarre, but they were making a decent team so far. John carefully leaned around the corner, trying to show as little of himself as he could.
The back of a Genii guard, this one in the more usual greenish Genii uniform, was pacing away from them. Beyond him, the corridor carried on ahead to then curve off to the left, where John saw a shadow shifting suggesting the other Genii as pacing away just out of view.
There was no time to be too careful though.
John lowered his left hand to the Genii radio on his belt and, the knife in his right hand, he slipped quickly around the corner, moving up behind the Genii.
It wasn't a big distance to cover, but the chances of him being seen were pretty high. Holding his breath, John got to within a few feet of the guard and then briefly triggered Marcos' radio with his left hand.
The Genii paused and glanced down at the resulting faint burst of noise from his radio.
John struck.
It was a technique he'd been taught a long time ago from the types of elite forces back home that preferred people didn't know how easily and frequently they could kill people. It was designed to be efficiently quick and hopefully quiet.
He reached round the Genii' neck with his left hand grabbing the guy by his chin, covering his mouth with the hold, and pulled the guy's head sharply to the left; at the same time, he brought the knife around and down over the Genii' right shoulder and into the top of his chest.
The Genii was taken completely by surprise and had no time to react; all he could do was try to shake John off him, but the knife was already in his lungs and heart.
Unfortunately, the guard in the next section of corridor chose that moment to appear. He was clearly bored of his patrolling and it took him a second to realise something was wrong.
The Genii' decidedly non-energy powered gun rose up, but the Wraith was already moving, racing past John towards the new threat. The Wraith, like some sort of flying squirrel, leapt at the guard.
John saw the guard's face pull into an expression of complete panic at the Wraith flying at him, but he still managed to fire off a couple of rounds before the Wraith landed on him.
The sound of the gunfire echoed loudly around the narrow corridor, which was followed swiftly by the snap of what was likely the guard's neck in the hands of the Wraith. John lowered his own victim to the corridor floor, pulling the knife free, and hurried forward.
"Where is that gunfire coming from?" Pranos' voice demanded out of John's stolen radio and also from the two other radios lying on the corridor floor. Damn it.
John ran after where the Wraith was now disappearing down the corridor. Jumping over the neck-snapped Genii, John felt his right hip and knee almost threaten to give out, but he pushed on. The running felt harder than normal though, making him feel short of breath as he hurried after the Wraith.
"Someone answer me!" Pranos demanded from the radio, so John lowered his hand to the radio and ran his fingers over the dial that was the volume level, lowering Pranos' voice to a far more subtle level.
The Wraith was at another flight of stairs and paused, waiting for him apparently. As John arrived beside the Wraith, the creature held up three fingers this time and pointed to the top of the stairs.
Subtly was gone now, so using the element of surprise was all they had. John swapped the knife for Marcos' gun again and nodded.
Together they ran up the stairs, but the Wraith was faster than him and John heard it roar as it leapt up out of view. Gunfire blasted loudly as John reached the top of the stairs and held still, sighting along his gun as he carefully rose up onto the new level.
There were three Genii targets in the small room up here, two of which the Wraith had pinned against one wall, and it was feeding on one of them. The third Genii was flat on his back on the floor, presumably having been knocked down by the Wraith; however, he had some fight in him and was rolling towards the Wraith. Gun fire blasted and John saw the Wraith flinch, but it didn't stop his feeding.
John fired on the third Genii, taking him out of the equation. Only, through a doorway ahead, another Genii appeared and started firing. John shuffled quickly to one side, getting out of the guy's direct line of sight through the doorway, while simultaneously firing back. His energy blasts hit part of the doorframe, but one must have hit home as the gunfire abruptly ceased.
The Wraith roared to the right though and more bullets fired. John swung round to see that the second Genii the Wraith had against the wall while it fed on his colleague had gotten his gun out and was firing into the side of the Wraith. John took a wide lunge to the right so he got a clear line of sight over the Wraith's right shoulder and fired two quick shots at the Genii.
The Genii slumped within the Wraith's grip, stunned. Or perhaps dead, John wasn't sure about the settings on these guns. He'd put it at its highest setting, but whether that was a deep stun or a kill shot, he didn't know.
The Wraith dropped both bodies and turned, though it slightly waived on its feet. There was blood pouring out of its sides.
"You okay?" John asked as he headed for the doorway out of here.
"It will heal," the Wraith replied.
"Come on then," John headed through the doorway, passing the stunned/dead Genii lying in the middle of the next smallish room. The walls and design of the place looked different up on this level. The paint looked fresher and there was an almost decorative metal shade around the light fixtures John ran under as he led the Wraith into the next room along. There were no more Genii yet – which was odd.
"We going the right way?" He asked the Wraith as he stepped quickly through the next door, sweeping his gun around the new room. There were only stacks of wooden crates to one side and a lone door directly ahead. This level of the bunker was weird – it just seemed to be a series of interconnected rooms in a line, all with their doors open to each other.
The Wraith grunted behind John as he followed.
John moved quickly across this new room to the next doorway.
"The prisoners have escaped!" Echoed up from John's waist. He paused, back against the doorframe into the next room in this series of weird storerooms. The Wraith stopped next to him, clutching its side.
"Both of them?" Pranos voice asked.
"Two down on level two," someone else added.
"Find them!" Pranos ordered angrily. "Kill the Wraith on sight, but try and capture Sheppard alive."
John looked round to the Wraith. "That's interesting for two reasons," he whispered quietly to it. "First, clearly they like me better than you." The Wraith huffed a quiet laugh, but the laugh seemed to catch its wounded sides. "And second, if there's only one way out of here, why are they already on our six? Surely it's obvious which way we've gone."
The Wraith angled its head and there was a faint wince to its face. If it was a Human, John would have read that look as awkward embarrassment.
"You do know the way out of here, right?" John checked.
The Wraith looked back the way they'd come and then round again. "These places are all similar enough."
"All these places?" John repeated in growing disbelief. "What does that mean? You said you know the layout."
"They have moved me to different prisons over the years," the Wraith replied, looking back the way they had come again. "They are similar enough."
"How long have you been in this one?" John asked.
The Wraith grunted and did a sort of shrug thing. "I believe they brought me here the day of your capture."
John's heart dropped and he closed his eyes for a beat. "Great, John. Trusting a Wraith," he cursed quietly.
"It was not my intention to deceive you," the Wraith offered as if it cared.
John shook his head. But then it didn't really matter ultimately, as it wasn't like they wouldn't have escaped if the Wraith had told him that earlier. "Maybe then the reason why they haven't found us yet is because this probably isn't the damn way out."
"No, the air is growing fresher this way," the Wraith replied, looking away again. "They are coming up the last stairs."
Right, no more standing round chatting.
John led the way into the next room, moving as fast as he dared while looking out for more guards ahead. Though, that might not matter because if this wasn't the right way, then they were pretty much screwed.
0000
Long Sleep rose up from the Hive Primary's body and, despite the floor shuddering under him and the growing sounds of explosions and battle not far away outside, he closed his eyes.
The Hive Primary had been excessively well fed, even while the rest of the Hive had been starved. That life-force now flowed throughout Long Sleep, filling in all the formerly ravenous empty places inside him. His veins and sinews were full, his flesh filling out where before he had been hungrily shrivelled. He could feel his very bones becoming stronger, his muscles growing back to former strength, and he stood taller than he had in an age.
He had thought himself far more clear-thinking than the others on this Hive, and that his brief patch of life-force the Primary had given him before had helped repair him. However, now he understood how untrue that had been. He had been far sicker than even he had realised.
For now, like after waking from his usual overly extended long hibernations, a thick fog had cleared from his thoughts. It was as if his mind had been sat in thick cloud and was only now shining bright again.
How sickly he had been, and how close to death he had been living. Lack of feeding was not enough to explain it in so short a time; no it had clearly been the work of the evil drive's radiation.
Now though...now, he could think clearly and he was strong once again.
A loud forceful explosion crashed from behind and he turned, looking over his shoulder to the open entranceway behind him. Several Keepers were stood in the corridor outside, their eyes wide and fearful. He suspected their nervousness was not just due to how close the Queen Killers were to them, for they looked in at him with equal fear in their eyes. They were huddling outside the entranceway, afraid and too sickly to know how to save themselves.
"Go!" He shouted at them. "Find fighters and leave!"
They didn't seem to need more than that, as they immediately disappeared to the left, while another smaller explosive force shook the air.
Abruptly more warriors and drones appeared, racing past the entranceway to the left, all wide-eyed and escaping the battle behind them.
He had no time.
He rushed out to join the flow, heading down the narrow corridor back towards where it intersected with the spinal corridor.
He needed to get off the Hive, but how to do so without being destroyed by the enemy outside the hull? If the others were leaving in fighters to fight the enemy, then he might be able to slide a fighter down under the belly of the Hive and somehow escape away from the battle. There were planets in this system, which, though without useful life, could be a safe haven. But how to get to them from the Hive without being destroyed?
The floor vibrated dramatically under him as the spinal corridor appeared ahead, and the warriors around him all stumbled against walls and the floor. Pieces of the ceiling started to patter down over them all, and Long Sleep paused to look up at the structural weakness above him. The webbing was dead and the bone structures were fractured and unsupported.
Warriors brushed against both his sides as they rushed around him to get to the spinal corridor.
It occurred to Long Sleep that the same damage affecting the Hive would be occurring to the fighters, so any fighter he took would be damaged. Which was why the Poison Queen had given so much power to her private escape ship on the underside of the Hive...
If he could get to that, it would be a far stronger vessel to use to escape himself. Except, had the Poison Skerti gotten to it already?
He hurried forward as a loud snap and hiss echoed at the end of the corridor behind him, the air suddenly smelling strongly of smoke and dirt.
He slipped into the spinal corridor, turning to the left to head back up the corridor. There was a maintenance chamber up here for the left side thrusters, so there would be an interface.
Warriors and drones were amassing in the corridor here, getting in his way, but a light push against them easily removed them from his path. They stumbled away like weakened prey at the edge of death. Why they were amassing here instead of escaping was foolish. They simply needed to follow the spinal corridor down the Hive to reach the left fighter bay.
Ignoring them and their damaged minds, he triggered open the entranceway into the thrusters maintenance chamber. The console inside lit up for him the second his fingertips touched it. The lazy responses to his touch previously had not been like that, so had it perhaps been his own mind that had reduced the speed of the interface before?
He slid his mind against the Hive's basic consciousness and swore he could feel it recognise him. It occurred to him then that this might be why it had used the dead soil to communicate with him about the Skerti, because he had been too sickly to hear the Hive properly. It clearly recognised him now though and information flowed to him without request.
The Queen's Chamber appeared in the glowing display, but it was empty, except the display quickly shifted down several more floors to show a bright dot of a life-form moving along a corridor. Was it the Skerti Queen? Was she moving along the ceiling of the corridor?
He hadn't asked the interface to show her to him, but it had. Was it possible that the Hive wanted him to kill the Skerti, or perhaps it was responding to his own latent hatred? If it were in his power, he would kill the Poison Queen, for she was not only responsible for all of this, but also to ensure that she could not do the same again.
Except, her mind had been so powerful. How could he fight against that?
If he stole her escape ship though, that would trap her on the Hive perhaps. The Queen Killers could then deal with her...
The display shifted to the escape ship at his request, and he saw that it was still fully powered and awaiting the Skerti descending through the Hive to get to it.
The problem with stealing her ship was that it would mean he'd have to face her and win. In the old legends, no Wraith had ever survived an encounter with a Skerti. Surely that was warning enough. There were no pictures or descriptions of the Skerti for no Wraith had survived to share what they had learned.
It would be foolish to fight her.
The option of the escape ship wasn't going to work.
A sudden explosion rocked the chamber and part of the wall near him exploded outwards, throwing him from the console and the chamber dropped into complete darkness.
He lifted his head from the floor, shaking away the effects of the impact, the feeding easily repairing the daze and his vision sharpened to see a small fire in the corridor outside. He blinked through the darkness at it, watching as a drone started patting at the fire, its own hands catching fire.
Long Sleep shifted himself upright. Power was completely down, and the explanation was obvious. The Queen Killers had taken down the central node.
He climbed up to his feet in the dark chamber and turned back towards the console. The power line in the wall by the interface had exploded outwards, no doubt a ripple effect from the damage to the node, and the console was completely dark.
He was out of options.
The emergency lighting glowed to life through the entranceway from the corridor outside. The power line in this chamber had been too damaged so even emergency power wasn't possible in here.
The Hive was truly lost now.
He felt a burst of deep regret. The Hive had reached out to him to save it, and he had failed. There was nothing else he could do but escape and hope to live long enough to warn others of his kin of the Skerti threat.
He stepped back out into the spinal corridor, seeing that more warriors and drones had joined the massive group at the corner to the node's corridor and, with loud furious hissing roars, they starting rushing back into that corridor. They were attacking the Queen Killers en mass again.
Fools.
He needed to get past them, head down the spinal corridor to the fighter bay –
Energy fire started blasting out from the node's corridor pelting the wall of the spinal corridor opposite.
Long Sleep slid to a halt. He needed to cross that space to get down the corridor.
Roaring and blasting filled the air, the warriors and drones throwing themselves down the corridor at the Killers.
Long Sleep hissed with annoyance and looked back up the spinal corridor. There was no quick way to get to the fighter bay on this level. He would need to go back some distance and find a sweeper chamber...except they were likely without power.
He needed to go this way, but he needed to cross the line of fire.
Clearly the others were not blocking enough of the shots with their bodies as they rushed the Killers, and they were not achieving any success judging by the pure amount of rapid fire and howling death cries he could hear.
He edged towards the open space, wondering if he could risk rushing across it. Several energy blasts powered past his nose and slammed into the wall to his left.
Long Sleep pulled back sharply, taking large long steps back from the path of destruction.
Several bodies fell out of the entrance into the corridor, littering the floor now across to freedom.
The blasts had stopped hitting the wall.
Several others stood near him, all of them clearly preferring to stay out of the node's corridor now.
Long Sleep stepped towards the right hand wall and rested his back against the slimy dying wall. He could go back and work his way down the levels. But, the enemy ships were outside and were perhaps sending more Queen Killers aboard, so the more time he wasted onboard the more likely he would be killed.
Two of the warriors to his right decided to abruptly risk rushing across the line of fire. Two direct and very precise blasts took them down.
The Queen Killers were said to have deadly aim, but Long Sleep had never seen anything like that before!
He glanced to the three other warriors pressed against the wall to his right. They looked panicked and almost wild.
"Don't do it," Long Sleep warned them.
It was useless though, they couldn't think clearly anymore.
Two launched themselves across the open space, electing to try leaping across the distance to the safe side down the spinal corridor.
Several blasts tracked them easily.
They landed on the other side successfully, but not alive enough to keep going. Long Sleep watched them die quickly.
After all these thousands of years, of his special mutated batch's uniqueness, this was how he was to die? Shot down in a fraction of a second by a Queen Killer?
It would leave his brother as the last of their batch, and how long might he live in the face of the Killers and the Armoured Herd?
The lone warrior to Long Sleep's right started to lower himself to the floor, moving up to the edge of the corner of the node corridor. He had a stunner and was clutching it tightly. Didn't he remember that the stunners didn't work on Queen Killers?
Long Sleep opened his mouth to hopelessly warn the warrior, but the fool decided to try his luck.
He leant around the corner and started firing the stunner down at the Killer.
Two loud shots hit the warrior squarely in his face and he dropped back to the floor by Long Sleep.
Now he was the only one left.
Hissing out a breath to calm himself, he focused his hearing on the Humans. Only, he realised that he could only hear one set of boots moving down the corridor, and a single creak of armour as the Human moved.
There was only one Queen Killer in the node's corridor.
Where was the other one?
Long Sleep darted his eyes back up the spinal corridor – was the other one coming in from another direction?
Or was it headed elsewhere...
The Queen.
The Queen Killers always took out the Queen.
A thought occurred to Long Sleep.
It was crazy and unlikely to succeed, but the Human was getting too close to the end of the node corridor now. Even if he ran back up the spinal corridor, there were no others to distract the Killer stepping around the corner and firing at his back. He had to fight, or be more creative.
He took a breath and looked towards the dark corner around which the enemy was approaching.
"Human?" He called out loudly. "Do you hear me?"
000000
Mind Song peered around the cold wall, listening intently.
"Well?" Sheppard asked, the prey communication device sending out quiet static from his hand. "Any idea where we're going?" The Human challenged.
"The air smells better ahead," Mind Song replied. "The surface cannot be far away." There was something else as well. "There are other sounds."
"What sounds?" Sheppard asked.
The communication device sounded again from Sheppard's hand. "They've been up the side fourth level," a prey voice stated.
Mind Song hissed. "I cannot hear with that noise."
"We need to know where they are," Sheppard argued. "Plus they haven't mentioned the Gate yet."
"The Portal?" Mind Song checked his understanding.
"Yes," Sheppard replied slightly testily. The Human was tiring, holding his body slightly forward and his breathing had gotten shallower with their fast pace.
Mind Song had considered feeding on him, using the last drops of Lantean power in Sheppard to help repair the wounds in both his sides. The wounds were deep and, if he did not feed soon, then it was likely that he would die before they escaped this prison.
Sheppard might provide some sustenance, but then he would be alone in this fight, and Sheppard had appeared to keep to his word so far in working together.
They needed each other, as Sheppard had put it.
"Why haven't they said anything about guarding the Gate to stop us escaping?" Sheppard whispered thoughtfully.
"Perhaps we are some distance from it on the surface," Mind Song considered as he peered back around the wall. There was one long hallway on the other side, with no obvious turnings off it. He couldn't hear any prey moving around down its length, but then there were the other sounds.
"We're headed up on surface and will head over to the side entrance," a voice announced out of the communications device.
"I think they're trying to cut off our route out," Sheppard decided.
Mind Song nodded his agreement. "Which means we are close." He slipped round into the hallway, moving carefully forward. His right side throbbed deep. At this point he rather hoped they did encounter more prey so that he could feed.
"If they're headed up, we can trap them," another voice stated from Sheppard's hand behind Mind Song.
The strange sounds were growing louder and Mind Song tried to locate which direction they were. It sounded like many voices, at different distances, overlapping with other noises, but all muffled, presumably by distance above?
He slowed, aware that the sounds had dimmed slightly.
He stopped, and felt Sheppard almost walk into him.
"What is it?" Sheppard whispered.
Mind Song took several steps backwards, the air growing lighter and the sounds grew faintly louder. He turned to the wall, seeing it was cut with long lines.
"There is a way through here, I think," he shared with Sheppard.
The Human slid his hands over the wall. "A hidden entrance in a hidden bunker? Only a Genii would think of that," Sheppard muttered.
A new sound echoed in the near distance. Mind Song pulled back. "They are coming,"
"Shit," Sheppard cursed. "You sure there's a damn door here?"
Mind Song returned his attention to the wall, pushing his palms against it until suddenly he felt one panel give. "Here," he said with a relief as he pushed hard.
A doorway pushed open as weapons fire suddenly echoed loudly from down the hallway.
"Go! Go!" Sheppard shouted, pushing at him and firing back at the prey.
Mind Song rushed into the tight space beyond the door, his shoulders brushing against both walls has he hurried in and around a tight, almost concealed, turning to the right and a narrow set of steep stairs were revealed heading up.
He could smell fresh air for certain now and those noises were louder.
"This way," he called to Sheppard behind him, who had shut the concealed doorway, but with nothing to block it shut, there was nothing to slow the enemy following them.
As Mind Song rushed up the narrow steps, Sheppard right behind him, he heard the concealed door slam open below them.
His sides were excessively painful now and he had to almost drag himself up the steep narrow steps. The stairs were completely enclosed, clearly cut directly into the cold stone ground of this planet, but at the top, casting in from the top left, there was sunlight. Panting with the exertion, Mind Song reached the top step only to find the way off to the left blocked by a mesh metal door. He shoved against it, but it didn't move, only then he realised there was a large heavy bolt holding it closed. He pulled hard on the metal bar, sliding it aside as Sheppard was firing down the stairs to the enemy below them.
The mesh door swung open easily now and Mind Song practically fell into the room beyond it. Scrambling forward on his belly, he crawled quickly through the metal doorframe, Sheppard partly over his legs.
"Get in," Sheppard was ordering while firing down the stairs.
Mind Song got up onto his knees and reached for the mesh door, swinging it back round to shut it again, Sheppard scrambling inside in time.
The metal door clamoured loudly as it shut, but the bolt to close it was on the other side!
"We need to fuse it shut," Sheppard gasped. "Here." He pushed in, setting the point of his energy weapon against the seal of the door and its thick metal frame.
Mind Song pulled back, unsure if Sheppard's plan would work. Sheppard, on his feet, set one boot against the door, holding it shut, and started blasting at the edge of the door with the weapon, hoping to melt the door in against the frame.
Leaving him to that, Mind Song turned to examine the room they were in. It was small, but had a high ceiling and, like the stairs had been, it was clearly cut directly into the bedrock. It reminded him of the many tunnels and hiding places Humans had designed to hide from his own kind.
He twisted to look back at the mesh door. He had seen the design before – they were designed to dissipate Wraith stunner fire. This was a bunker to hide from a culling, which was why the mesh door locked from the inside. Which meant...
He got up onto his feet, but had to stagger against the wall. His sides felt empty of blood and life, but he forced himself to move further down the room and, sure enough, in the right wall, there was another mesh door.
"There is another door here," Mind Song announced to Sheppard.
"I can't believe that worked," Sheppard muttered from behind, his weapon quiet. "I've got part of it melted into the frame," he explained. "Melted into the bolt too."
Mind Song nodded, but he was moving towards the other door that was their way out. As he staggered down the room, he realised that the sunlight in here was coming from a series of tiny windows set right at the top of one wall where it met the high ceiling. That was the surface! They were almost there and the sounds he could hear were from up there.
Mind Song reached the other mesh door, almost crashing into it he was starting to feel so weak.
It was shut.
He reached down to the bolt, but it wasn't there. He looked through the tight metal mesh with angry realisation.
The bolt had been moved to the outside!
Mind Song hissed in frustration and tried to get his fingers into the tight metal mesh to get a hold of the door, but the metal was woven too tightly and it cut into his fingertips.
Roaring a pain-filled cry, Mind Song tried next to slam his shoulder into the mesh door, hoping brute force would make it give way, but the bolt and frame were heavy and he was weak.
He stumbled back on a rebound.
Sheppard appeared into view, kicking out with one foot and his boot hit the mesh door hard, but it, again, only caused the door to shake within its thick metal frame.
Sheppard tried kicking at it again.
Mind Song reached up to run his fingers around the frame, but it was indeed thick metal and had been securely bolted deep into the very bedrock. There was not even the slightest edge for him to get his claws into and try and force any of it apart.
It had clearly been designed to hold back his own kind.
"Damn it!" Sheppard cursed angrily, his attempts to kick the door open obviously unsuccessful. The bolt on the other side was too thick and strong.
The Human bent forward, his hands on his legs, and panted with exhaustion.
They were trapped.
00000
These Wraith really weren't right.
Not only did they look sick, they were behaving irrationally, and were dying far faster from their wounds than normal. As they continued with their previous technique to just hurl themselves at him, most of them looked like they were already at death's door; so Oneakka helped them over that threshold.
Wraith had always tended to employ the 'rush at the enemy' technique. It was borne from being the apex predators of the galaxy for so long and from not instinctively fearing counterattack from their prey. With their larger numbers, heightened speed and strength, they had always had the advantage; until the last decade or so when Alliance tech and strategy had really started hitting back. For creatures that could be thousands of years old, that had not been long enough for them to adapt.
Some Hives had tried to fight back more effectively, trying new weapons against the Elite, especially when they boarded Hives and Cruisers, but the Elite could adapt far faster than the Wraith were prepared to do. Plus, since most of the Wraith that faced Elite died, they didn't have the chance to share what they'd learnt from the encounter, whereas Elite developed, cooperated, and evolved.
Clearly this Hive was not the type to evolve beyond patching in an excessively dangerous new piece of tech. The damage from that choice was evident in everything here, including the Wraith's own minds. He'd never faced Wraith so stupid before. They just ran at him wildly, reaching out towards him desperately, as if they hadn't fed for years.
They certainly weren't thinking about their attack. They hadn't even attempted to move through the Hive to attack him from behind. He had kept a close eye on the pad on the back of his left hand, checking for any sneak attacks. None came and instead they just rushed at him, falling easily under his weapons fire.
They fell easily under his rapid firing. As the pile of Wraith built up in the corridor, providing a natural obstacle for them to get over, they just clambered over their fallen, slowing their attack and making them easier to target.
As the length of the corridor increased that they needed to navigate, he had time to keep checking his pad. He adjusted the display, seeking out Halling's personal beacon signal within the Hive.
Halling was already two floors down and moving down to the third. He'd have found a sweeper chamber and would be cutting down through the floors; that's what Oneakka would do.
Shifting the pad's display back to his current local area, he fired down the length of the corridor, taking out the last group of Wraith still standing at the end of the corridor. Though two Wraith abruptly tried to nip across the end of the corridor.
He took them down with two shots.
He checked his pad. There were three life-signs hidden around the left corner at the end of the corridor.
He checked the state of the ceiling of the corridor ahead of him and it wasn't dripping pieces of webbing anymore or collapsing that he could see. He checked the power reading on his two primary weapons and decided to swap the right one out for his right secondary gun, allowing the primary to cool down a bit.
As he pulled out the secondary weapon, two of the life-signs attempted to leap across the end of the corridor.
The new secondary weapon took them down easily.
That left two.
He'd deal with them and then go after Halling, since this had gone quicker than he'd expected.
Stepping over and around the littered Wraith, firing on two that showed faint life readings and who weakly tried to grab at his ankles to feed on him.
He saw a shadow shift at the end of the corridor – one life-sign was edging to the corner.
He lifted his right weapon and sighted down it.
The Wraith leant out and started to fire a stunner.
One shot, followed by a second for good measure, took it out.
That left just one, still hidden out of view.
Oneakka moved forward again, easily splitting his attention between where he was walking and the view ahead. Why the last Wraith didn't just run away was anyone's guess; but the radiation had clearly done some real damage to their brains. He suspected that, even if he hadn't killed this lot, they probably won't have lasted much longer anyway. Perhaps the threat of this Hive hadn't been quite as bad as they had all feared. It was the new drive tech that was the real threat, clearly not the Wraith using it.
He rolled one dead Wraith drone aside with his boot so that he had a small open space to stand. He checked the pad again; none of them lying around him showed even the faintest hint of life; there was just the one still hiding around the corner.
Oneakka adjusted his pad's range again, looking for Halling's beacon.
He was five floors down now.
There was a large warm life-sign reading not far ahead of Halling's beacon. He had almost chased down the Queen.
He was clearly going to get that tattoo he wanted for his left arm's design.
"Human?" A voice called out from around the far corner.
Oneakka glanced up from his pad.
"Do you hear me?" The voice called again.
The Wraith's voice was stronger than Oneakka would have expected considering the damage from the radiation. He checked the pad, calling up further details. The reading on the one around the corner was stronger than the others' had been. Interesting.
Maybe there were some Wraith who could withstand the radiation effects better.
Or maybe this Wraith had fed on more of the unfortunate civilians the Hive's fighters had managed to sweep up on Atreus.
Oneakka lifted his weapon, pointing towards the corner at estimated Wraith head height, waiting for whatever plan the Wraith was playing out to unfold.
"Human?" The voice called again, sounding a little desperate now.
Interesting.
"Yes?" Oneakka replied out of pure curiosity.
"I am not your enemy here," the voice stated.
"Sure you're not," Oneakka countered sarcastically.
"We were all tricked," the voice replied. "We were led here by a false Queen. She is escaping as we speak."
"She won't be getting away," Oneakka promised confidently.
It was interesting though; he'd never heard of a Wraith attempting to turn Elite on its Queen to save itself. Normally Wraith would do anything to protect their Queen, and when she was taken out, they often felt confused and lost for awhile afterwards.
"Your kin might be hunting her," the voice replied, "but she is not what you think. She is not even Wraith."
Oneakka frowned at that announcement.
He glanced at the pad out the corner of his eye and back to the corner. The life-sign of the Queen had been a little unusual in its heat signature.
"I am the only one who knows the truth of what she is," the voice continued. "We were all fooled by her, and her mind is too strong. I had thought the ancient stories were just legends spread by the Lanteans. But, they're real and she is one of them. Their name has not been uttered for thousands of years."
Oneakka froze, his skin chilling.
"She is your true enemy, and if her kind have truly returned, then we are all doomed, Human."
The ancient evil returned.
Halling had gone after her alone!
Sitayi' prediction was happening. Happening now!
Oneakka turned and ran, leaping over bodies and rushing around the corner back into the wide intersection where he raced towards the corridor down which he'd last seen Halling disappear. He jabbed at his links, but static was still all that echoed in his ear.
He should have stayed with him, should have trusted his instincts not to let Halling out of his sight.
The panic he'd been fighting for all these weeks seemed to clamber up through Oneakka's throat, fighting with his already panting breathing as he ran down the hallway.
He lifted his pad, the display hard to read while running so fast, but he could see enough to know there were no Wraith ahead, but Halling he was now on the same level as-
As his foot hit the floor with his next stride, it abruptly started giving way under him.
He tried to correct himself, but suddenly everything was collapsing under him, the corridor disappearing and the air filling with empty space around him.
He was aware of falling, hitting something hard, tumbling away and dropping violently into blackness.
00000
TBC