Chapter 35 – The Betrayal
Ladon had run as quickly as he had dared down into the tunnels that led through into the subterranean levels below the Palace. Only those with the highest security level knew the exact route through up into the basement levels under the Palace, but Ladon knew the route well due to having been responsible for installing the security tech features that lined the tunnels that led up to Cowen's personal residence and offices.
The entire populace of the Confederation were led to believe that Cowen lived above ground in the Palace, as a shining example to his people that the Genii no longer needed to fear cullings. However, the truth was that Cowen actually lived, and kept his personal offices, in the basement levels below the large Palace. The floors above ground actually served as storage space, offices for security, kitchen staff, and barracks for emergencies. Cowen instead followed the older traditions of hiding in the bunker levels below the shining example above him. It was another perfect example of how Cowen did exactly the opposite of what he said he did.
After this was over - hopefully with all of First City left intact - Cowen would no doubt tell everyone that he had spent every last moment of the crisis in his Parliamentary offices. Instead, he had in fact gone to ground under the Palace.
Which would, if Ladon was correct, be Cowen's ultimate downfall. Kolya would have predicted this and if he had been able to smuggle Ladon's explosive device back onto the homeworld...
Ladon had to find it and disarm it before Kolya could enact his horrendous plan.
Nothing was worth the loss of so much life.
Why had he created something so powerful? He had only ever meant it to be used against the Wraith, but he had been fooled, along with the others in the conspiracy, by Kolya's strength to stand up to Cowen. Instead, they had not considered Kolya's deviousness and his most recent detachment from reality that had had him actually challenging the Elite by killing Major Sheppard. Kolya had been away from the homeworld for too long and had been corrupted by the same need for power that he hated in Cowen.
But Ladon had the power to stop it.
Initially he, Hulte, and then General Maloo as well, had planned to ensure Kolya didn't rise to power after Cowen's fall but now Ladon was only interested in saving First City.
He had run past his lab on the way down here and had collected a computer pad that he had used when working on the explosive device for Kolya. He had shielded the weapon very well, but it should leave some residual readings that this pad's sensors would detect.
The problem was that the walls of the Palace's basement levels under the Palace were thick and well reinforced, so he might not be able to pick up residual readings all that clearly. Though, the process would be quicker if he got the Palace security staff to help by searching every room and cupboard. Cowen had retreated to the Palace with all his Generals, security, and his own battalion, so there should be plenty motivated to help find the device. The reasonable explanations as to why he suspected there was such a device was going to have to wait until after the crisis, but for now he just needed to focus on finding it.
He had finally reached the last tunnel up to the underground entrance to the Palace basement levels, and he looked up towards where he knew there were hidden surveillance cameras and sensors and waved at them, hoping to draw attention before he reached the entrance.
He turned the last bend and the two large doors into the basement levels appeared...
They stood open and there were no guards.
Ladon slowed as he approached the open doorway. There were always guards here.
Unless...
What if Kolya had warned those secretly loyal to him and they had abandoned their stations to get down into the underground city before the explosion?
Ladon hurried through the unsecured entrance into the cleaner lines of the deepest concrete-lined basement level.
There was no one in the long corridor ahead either.
There were usually two more sentry points along this corridor, especially stationed at the weapons and tech detector Ladon had helped install here. He walked through the detector, the various sensors attached to the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridor around him, but clearly nothing was turned on. Normally it would light up and alarms would sound at someone walking through it with any kind of tech or weaponry.
Ladon's heart pounded in his chest.
He started running down the long entrance tunnel.
There were doors off it to the left, leading to the guards' rest rooms, a kitchen, and sleeping quarters. Each door was open and there was no one inside.
They were all gone.
How could Kolya have so many on his side? Or, Ladon realised, it was more likely that Kolya had a security lead on his side who had ordered away the guards. They wouldn't know it yet, but the guards had been saved by being sent away.
Pendrick. It had to be him. He was obsessively loyal to Kolya and, though part of the conspiracy, clearly he had known the true plan. He had ensured that his security staff were safe from the blast, but he had failed to tell Ladon or others in the circle.
Ladon dropped his eyes to his sensor pad. There was still nothing showing up.
If Pendrick had helped Kolya slip the device in here, maybe disguised it in some piece of tech or even in kitchen supplies wheeled in, security may not have blinked at its arrival.
Ladon ran on, his attention switching hurriedly from each open security door to his pad and back.
There were no readings other than the standard power readings of the light fittings and power lines hung along the concrete lined walls.
Where would Kolya hide the device? As long as it was in the Palace it would be enough to take out all the building, but surely Kolya would put it in these lower levels to ensure that Cowen wouldn't survive it.
Which meant it could be anywhere in any of the basement rooms!
The first intersection was ahead, again devoid of security sentries, and Ladon ran up into the open space. He turned on the spot, looking down each of the four corridors that led off it.
All of them appeared empty.
And they were all lined with closed doors, behind which any room could hold the concealed device!
00000
The red dot flashed, then again.
Without moving.
The red pulsed again.
A small series of Ancestral numbers ran next to the red dot.
Inifee had translated them as the frequency for Oneakka's personal beacon.
The other red dot was moving - Elite Halling's beacon - and was facing off against a line of pulsing blue dots – Wraith.
Oneakka's dot was alone.
And hadn't moved.
"Shouldn't we try to contact them again?" Seeal asked Inifee from just behind his shoulder.
She was stood, ready to head down the ship to open up the back hatch of the Ancestral ship for the returning Elite, but clearly that duty wasn't going to be needed anytime soon. Halling was moving through a small sea of Wraith, and Oneakka was still.
A single, unmoving dot.
"They already double-clicked back," Inifee repeated his explanation from their first attempt to contact the Elite the second they'd gotten back into the Hive's fighter bay and back up to the empty platform in the high corner of the bay.
It had taken longer than planned to get back in here, thanks to most of the Wraith heading out in the opposite direction. The numbers of Wraith life-signs in the Hive was shockingly less than when they'd dropped off Oneakka and Halling. Most of those life-signs were probably on the fighters that had already left to stupidly engage the Fleet ships, but she suspected some of the reduced numbers would be due to Oneakka and Halling's work.
Which Halling's signal was continuing to do. Seeal watched several more blue dots disappear and Halling's red dot move into their previously occupied space.
"We can't contact them again without risking them," Inifee continued his repeated explanation as to why they couldn't talk to the Elite. They'd tried, Inifee using the ship's advanced communications to boost the links signal to the Elite, but there had only been a double click of a response, telling them to keep silent as the Elite were engaging in live fire and dangerous circumstances.
It made sense.
It was logical.
But why was Oneakka's dot all alone and still in the same damn place it had been when they'd arrived?
"It's only been a few minutes," Inifee added, turning his head slightly so she could see more of his dark cheek. His grin had gone and, though he gave the appearance of experience and calm, she could tell he was worried. He had to keep to Elite protocol though and calling out over links again could give away the Elite's position in a vital and dangerous moment.
It made perfect sense.
But...
She fixed her eyes back on the lone red dot.
"Move," she quietly ordered it.
There were no blue dots close to him, so why was Oneakka holding position like that?
"Can't you detect more detailed life-signs readings through the beacons?" Seeal asked, annoyed that they couldn't.
"They're just locator beacons and identity readers," Inifee replied as he reached to the piloting controls again and the section of the Hive with Oneakka's lone red dot expanded. "He's definitely showing up as a life-sign on sensors as well as the beacon's signal."
So he was definitely alive.
"Is it a healthy life-sign?" Seeal checked.
"The ship's sensors can't show that level of detail at this distance," Inifee replied as the display of the Hive pulled back again to show the wider view including Halling's beacon. More blue dots had disappeared ahead of it, but there were plenty more ahead of him.
Seeal focused back on Oneakka's signal.
"I think he might have moved, slightly," Inifee suggested, though he didn't sound very convinced. "He may be holding a defensive position while Honoured Elite Halling deals with the others, perhaps the Queen; he's currently only one floor up from the Queen's escape craft. Queens often try and escape a Hive that has been grounded."
That made sense. Halling was clearly cutting through a lot of Wraith, probably hunting the Queen. It seemed very 'Elite'.
Oneakka standing entirely alone floors up from Halling didn't seem very 'Elite' to her, and it wasn't like Oneakka to stay out of a fight.
Unless he was injured.
"Can't we contact just Oneakka but not Halling?" She asked.
"I've heard double-clicks, and neither of them have contacted me since, so I'm not supposed to make any further contact now until they contact me."
The red dot pulsed.
Some Ancestral lettering passed over another area of the Hive's outline.
"Vibrations indicative of structural collapse within the Hive," Inifee interpreted it for her.
"If the ship is collapsing from the inside, the Elite should just get out of the Hive now," Seeal stated the seemingly obvious. "They've sabotaged the ship's power, so why stay in there?" Even if Halling was dealing with the Queen situation by himself, then Oneakka should be heading back here.
"We can't know the details of the situation in there. Once they are free to do so, the Elite will retreat back here," Inifee replied calmly.
He hadn't said 'Honoured Elite' though; he was definitely worried.
Seeal paced across the tiny width of the aisle between the front seats, her eyes fixed on Oneakka's lone red dot.
"There's no Wraith anywhere near Oneakka," Seeal pointed out again.
"These sensors can't tell us the exact detail of the Hive's layout inside. The outer hull is so misshapen it may be indicative of an altered layout inside too. Those dots are somewhat close to him, but they could be on different floors or in different rooms on the same level as him."
She didn't know Elite protocol. Maybe they did hold strategically important positions while the other went after the Queen.
It could make sense.
She chewed on the inside of her lip.
The red dot flashed as she watched it.
Had it moved a little?
He could be stationed at an important Wraith console or stood somewhere important for his and Halling's retreat.
It seemed logical...maybe.
The red dot pulsed.
She rubbed her noticeably cold fingers against her forehead.
The Elite knew what they were doing.
But loads of them died in battle.
Oneakka had told her that a third of the new Recruits wouldn't live five yearly cycles after they graduated.
All those crazy stories and myths she'd heard about the Elite over the years had turned out to be far closer to reality than she'd given them credit. The Elite didn't eat Wraith flesh, but they had lived up to the crazy heroes that so many of those stories had painted. The problem was that there was always one constant in all those stories: that Elite died in battle all the time.
Because they were just people too.
Brave and crazy heroes who died just as easily as everyone else.
The red dot pulsed again.
Same place as last time.
She let out a stressed, anxious breath.
She couldn't stop thinking about that slug robot that had tried to kill her on the Sythus, how it had been dragging her down from her weakening grip. She'd let go, planning to take the robot with her, but Oneakka had materialised out of nowhere and had caught her.
If he'd not gone down through the Sythus to find her...
She owed him so much.
What if he was injured...or trapped? He could be trapped in somewhere by some structural collapse.
What if he was waiting for rescue? He could be running out of oxygen even.
What if his links weren't working and that was the real reason why he hadn't replied?
Or he could be simply waiting by a console for Halling to get back.
There were no damn answers.
She looked away from the Ancestral display, looking over her shoulder into the back compartment of the ship. There were boxes up in the nets that she'd seen the Elite pull weapons out of earlier.
She looked back towards the display.
She couldn't actually be thinking about doing this, could she?
She wouldn't be that stupid.
The red dot flashed in the exact same place.
"Damn it," she cursed as she spun away and strode into the back compartment of the tube-like ship. "Are there any of the Elite sensor pads up here?" She called to Inifee as she reached up to the netting hanging along the right side of the ship.
She hauled a large grey box out of the netting and dumped it down on the bench. She pulled open the lid only to find small bladed weapons inside. She pulled out one and pushed the short knife into a slot at the back of her borrowed holster.
"In the blue box on the left side of those nets," Inifee replied from the front section.
She looked back up at the netting. There was a blue box tucked into the back left. She set one boot up on the bench and stretched up and into the netting. "Aren't you going to talk me out of this?" She asked Inifee as she tugged the blue box out and down to the bench next to the grey box.
"You're forgetting who I work for," Inifee called back. "Who we both work for."
The blue box held a collection of pads inside, all sat vertically within foam lined slots. She pulled out one and tapped it with her thumb. It came instantly awake and the main screen looked like the ones she'd seen Oneakka using plenty of times before.
"You need to call up the standard Hive schematic," Inifee instructed from the front. "Press the central button and select plans."
She did as he instructed and a list appeared in the Alliance technical language.
"Got it," she called back to him as she pressed what she remembered might be the term for a Hive ship. The outline of a Hive appeared across the screen. She touched the vague area of the Hive she estimated to be this fighter bay and the image slid into the Hive outline. A flashing line of Alliance text told her to align the outline to the architecture around her. She'd have to do that once she was in the Hive.
Was she actually going to do something this crazy?
"There are links with earpieces in the small red boxes set above the benches," Inifee continued his instructions.
She had spotted the small boxes before and reached for one now, only to find it was fixed to the wall, so she freed the side clasp and the door opened to reveal a line of small links boxes. She pulled one out and found another smaller clear case clipped to it that held an earpiece. She pulled the case open and pushed the earpiece into her right ear as she turned back towards the front of the ship.
The display in front of Inifee was exactly the same – Oneakka still hadn't moved.
"You need to start up the links box and attach it to you," Inifee explained as he looked back at her, taking his eyes off the display for the first time since they'd arrived back in the bay.
"I know," she replied. "We used similar ones on Dreamstation," she shared.
"Elite tech?" Inifee asked, his eyebrows rising.
"Alliance military tech," she corrected as she heard the receiving signal of the earpiece confirming it was working with the links box. She clipped the tiny box to her holster as she didn't have a coat collar that would support its weight; the earpiece held a supplementary audio pickup, so Inifee would hear her.
"I'm receiving your links signal here," Inifee called as she turned and headed towards the back hatch.
She couldn't believe she was about to do this.
It was a Hive ship! With Wraith in it.
It was like the stuff of nightmares and she was willingly going into one?!
"I've got you on a separate frequency so I can help guide you without disturbing the Elite. The Elite beacons should show up automatically on the sensor pad."
"Understood," she called back, aware that her breathing was feeling loud and fast as she activated the hatch control and the back of the ship started to open.
The same view as before appeared outside and the weird smell wafted in with it.
"I can do this," she whispered.
Sure, because heading into a Wraith Hive ship completely by herself was something she did all the time!
The hatch lowered as an extension of the ship's floor and then lowered a little further to create a slight slope down into the Hive. She edged out onto the hatch with faint trepidation, not quite believing that the unsupported hatch would hold her weight. It had held two big Elite earlier, so it easily held hers.
As she moved further out of the ship, the air shifted and her ears threatened to pop. The back wall of the bay was a few metres ahead and the platform was only a few feet below the hatch's lowest point. She moved towards the end of the hatch, crouching down and easing to the edge.
In position to jump down, she paused, checking around her once again. No Wraith in the immediate area.
She could do this.
Clearly she was completely mad.
She jumped off the hatch.
000
His wounds were deep.
The bleeding had stopped, but the internal damage was too extensive.
They had gotten so close to escape. Sat on the floor across from the small glass-filled portals at the top of the opposite wall, he was afforded the sight of sunlight, but he could not see the sky.
He wished that it were dark outside, then perhaps he might be able to see some hints of the stars one last time.
A clunk reverberating up from the floor below. The prey Humans were dragging something along the floor; most likely their means to cut through the mesh metal doorway to storm in here.
"You hear something?" Sheppard asked from the far end of the small room. He too had decided to sit on the floor, his long legs extended along the cold floor.
Mind Song looked round at the Human. He was not as injured as Mind Song was, but the exhaustion and reduced life-force was obvious. Sheppard was attempting to hide his weakness, but Mind Song could see it in the slumping of his shoulders and the way his breathing was still a little too fast despite some time resting.
"They are bringing up something heavy," Mind Song reported.
"Probably a cutting torch," Sheppard concluded the same as he had.
"Mmm," Mind Song nodded his agreement, but even that movement pulled at his sides and he couldn't stop himself from groaning faintly and clutching at his right side.
"Stay with me," Sheppard ordered. "I'm not going to be able to take them all down alone."
Mind Song chuckled at the strange comment, which had been somehow both sarcastic and hopeful at the same time.
"I will not survive another fight," Mind Song concluded the obvious. "If I do not feed soon..." He left the end of the sentence to hang, wincing at his side again.
"Don't go looking at me," Sheppard warned, but again it was with a touch of sarcasm.
Mind Song looked at Sheppard and chuckled again. How strange it was to have formed this connection with a Human.
Mind Song had interacted with many Human worshippers over the centuries, and though some had been almost friendly, none of them had held the strength and determination that he saw in Sheppard. Perhaps it was borne of Sheppard's Lantean blood, or, perhaps more likely, because he had lived most of his life in another galaxy where Mind Song's kin had not threatened him. The stories he had heard about the newly occupied Atlantis among the prey here were not understated it seemed.
"Hopefully Pranos will be part of the group that storm in here," Sheppard considered, his eyes on the sealed metal door to Mind Song's left. "If he is, try and feed on him first."
Mind Song nodded, agreeing with that sentiment, but the reality was not hopeful for him. Even if he could fight against them and escape this place somehow, there were far too many Humans on the surface. They would easily track him down and kill him.
"Even if we were to escape from here," Mind Song voiced the truth, "we would not get far on the surface."
"That's defeatist talk," Sheppard scorned. "There's still time for my people to find me." His blind faith still remained in his unseen rescuers.
"It will be no rescue for me," Mind Song stated, looking back up at the glass. The sunlight held a brightness that in no way hinted at the coming, helpful concealment of night.
"Hey," Sheppard called to him and Mind Song looked back down at the Human, "we had a deal remember? We both get out of here."
Mind Song frowned at Sheppard's unexpected insistence in keeping to their agreement. Did it truly mean that Sheppard would defend him against the other Humans? Mind Song had to doubt that, considering who they both were, but Sheppard held his gaze with determination.
"And if we were to escape and then run into each other again in the future?" Mind Song asked out of interest.
Sheppard's expression shifted, betraying warring internal thoughts; considering how drained of life-force Sheppard currently was, perhaps he was doubting his own future survival.
Still, there could be enough life in Sheppard to help them win the fast approaching fight.
After it was over, then Mind Song would see if he too would keep to the deal between them.
Letting Sheppard live after this was perhaps as much a potential threat to him as his own survival was to Sheppard and his prey kind.
Could a Wraith and a Human truly keep to a promise to each other considering the natural battle between them? Mind Song saw that reality play in Sheppard's aged face.
Sheppard took a breath. "Then all bets are off," he concluded.
Mind Song chuckled at the honest response, but, again, the movement pulled at his torn insides. He felt a deep and drawing sensation that was his flesh dying, starved of blood, oxygen, and life. He was growing too close to the point of having to feed or die on this cold, alien floor.
"You got a name?" Sheppard asked.
Mind Song opened his eyes, which he had closed against the rush of pain and weakness. He took a breath and let it out heavily.
Wraith names were sacred and not to be shared, so he simply looked away from Sheppard to the mesh metal door again. The sounds on the floor below were growing far closer, and there were more voices now. Had he more life in him, Mind Song was almost certain he would be able to hear the details exchanged.
"How about 'Todd'?" Sheppard continued in the conversation with himself.
Mind Song glanced round at him.
"I've gotta call you something," Sheppard insisted. "I knew a guy called Todd in college; you kind of remind me of him." Mind Song could not imagine that any Human would look like a Wraith and so returned his attention to listening to the noises below.
"Very pale," Sheppard uttered quietly to himself.
The heavy scrapes were growing closer.
"They are almost at the base of the stairs," Mind Song reported to Sheppard.
"With their cutting torch?" Sheppard asked as he worked to get up off the floor, groaning with the effort.
Mind Song nodded as he set his own hands on the floor and worked to push himself up onto his feet. It took too much work and his body almost collapsed back down from the pain, but he managed to get up onto his feet. One hand against the cold stone-worked wall, he shuffled towards the metal door, his ears focused.
"...take only seconds to cut through the seal," one voice discussed.
"Go in fast, weapons first," the female prey animal from before ordered. "Torch up first, the rest behind it."
"They are about to breach the door," Mind Song turned to look towards Sheppard.
Sheppard was stood in the middle of the room, an energy weapon out and ready at his side. "Okay. What about the other door?" He asked of the locked mesh door that had prevented their complete escape.
"I do not hear them that way yet," Mind Song reported, but it was perhaps because of his reduced acuity rather than there being no threat in that direction.
"...you three stay down here as a second wave, and the others behind the turn in case they fire down the stairs," the discussions continued below.
That meant that at least six or more prey were preparing to attack.
Mind Song moved back from the metal door, moving towards Sheppard, but keeping his attention focused on the voices.
"They are about to start up the stairs," Mind Song informed Sheppard.
"How many?" Sheppard asked, his attention forward, the air smelling faintly of his nervousness.
"Too many," Mind Song concluded as he reached level with Sheppard.
"Great," Sheppard muttered as he glanced down at his weapon, shifting his grip and checking the power reading on its side.
Another noise registered on the edge of Mind Song's hearing - movement above and beyond the second locked door.
"They are moving on the surface down towards the exit door," Mind Song reported to Sheppard.
"So they're gonna come in from both directions. We're gonna have to just keep firing, take out as many as possible. Not let them get the chance to fire back."
"That could work," Mind Song lied. "But there is another way."
Sheppard looked round as the clang of something heavy and metal reverberated up the stairs. The cutting torch almost up to where it would be used against them.
Mind Song almost felt the urge to apologise before he struck.
Sheppard wasn't prepared for the attack, and with his prey reflexes weakened from the previous feedings, he could do nothing to stop Mind Song latching onto the previous feeding mark.
The burst of life-force flowed into Mind Song as he followed Sheppard down to the floor, the rush of Lantean blood powering up into his middle and instantly repairing his wounds.
Sheppard tried to struggle as his life flowed out of him, but his body could no longer defend him. But Mind Song would use it well.
As he watched Sheppard's face shrink into his skull, the last dregs of his life-force almost running out, Mind Song pulled his feeding teeth free and pulled back.
Life flowed through him, powering up his heart, his blood, his hearing, and he heard the searing heat of the cutting torch behind him.
He swung round to see the prey hand and protected weakened eyes behind the torch, the bright sparks flying as the metal was cut.
Mind Song ran at the door, his newly healing body flooding with power and he slammed both his hands into the mesh. With its seal almost cut, his push broke it free and the door swung out hard on its hinges and slammed into the Human with the torch. The prey cried out as he started falling away, but Mind Song snatched out of him from his fall and pulled him through the doorway.
The prey screamed in panic and weapons fire blasted from behind him.
Mind Song felt a bullet slice through the edge of his right arm, but the Human in his hands took most of the brunt of the fire. Mind Song latched his feeding hand onto the prey's shoulder, quickly draining the last of the dying Human's life as another prey appeared at the edge of his vision.
Mind Song threw the partially fed-upon and near dead Human at the rest. They tried to move out the way, but the stairwell was too confined. Mind Song stepped out of the doorway and onto the top of the steps and reached down for two of the falling Humans.
Their weapons blasted off the stone walls, the metal door still banging loudly against the wall behind him in its open position and he was aware that a small fire had started at the bottom of the stairs – probably from the fallen torch. Mind Song threw one of his captured Humans down at the others, knocking them further down the stairs again, and threw the other Human into the stone room towards where Sheppard lay flat on his back.
A blast of flaring light hit the wall just past Mind Song's left shoulder, energy weapons fire that could have killed him, so he climbed back up into the room, reached for the mesh door and pulled it back shut, but this time he started twisting it. Though these mesh metal doors were designed to stand strong in their frame, now this door was open, he could get his hands around the edges of the door and force it out of shape. A bullet smashed into his back, the Human he had thrown into the room with him, fighting back.
Mind Song stepped back and lashed out, smashing the Human away and against the side wall, and then returned his attention to bending the mesh door to his will. He bent the top corner so that it pointed into the room as he shut the door and then he forced the top corner against the frame and twisted the bottom corner outwards around the frame, blocking the doorway and preventing more prey from entering. There were gaps around the twisted edges though, through which weapons fire could get through, but he could hear screaming below the stairs and the smell of burning Human flesh.
It would not take them long to get back up here though, so he did not have much time.
He spun round to see that the other locked door remained un-breached by the prey, but he was aware that he could hear shouting and commotion up on the surface. They would be down here in no time; his time was too short, so he stalked quickly over to the prey he had thrown against the wall. The Human was slumped against the floor, unconscious.
He crouched quickly down by the prey and latched quickly onto it, life-force instantly flooding up into him. He growled in delight as it filled him, almost brimming with too much life, more than he had felt in a very long time. He could feel his body becoming even stronger, his thoughts clearing even further than before, and he felt his mind instantly touching against the network.
There were no hints of Wraith nearby though, so the sounds of weapons fire he now heard from the surface were not the Hive he had heard the prey whispering about. A shame.
However, the shouting increased as he drew the last drops of life from the prey animal in his clasp, and he heard a door slam open at the surface.
"Surrender immediately!" A voice shouted from the surface exit. "This is the Athosian Honour Guard; in the name of the Honoured Elite and the Alliance you will not be harmed if you surrender now!"
Sheppard's Queen had sent her forces; his faith was not so blind after all it seemed.
Mind Song detached himself from the dead prey and stood up, his body feeling larger and more powerful than he had even with Sheppard's previous contributions.
He moved to the left, looking through the locked mesh door to see sunlight was indeed now filling the narrow space beyond it and he watched as two armed male Humans appeared around a corner, their weapons high.
The instant they saw him the front one fired, but the mesh door dissipated the blast. Mind Song still backed away from the door. Only, the other prey had once again climbed back up the first stairwell and bullets fired across the room at him. The aim was way off though, since the prey was firing through a tiny space around the twisted mesh door.
"Genii!" Sheppard's people shouted in response beyond the locked mesh door, having wisely realised he was not the current threat. "This is the Athosian Honour Guard of Major Sheppard," the front Human shouted angrily. "You will cease all violence now! The Elite and Atlantis forces are here. Surrender yourselves and mercy will be shown!"
The threat worked well, for Mind Song heard the prey whispering fearfully as they immediately pounded back down the stairs.
Mind Song chuckled in pleased victory. The enemy was running away, clearly preferring to attempt escape from the Elite and Atlantis than fight him again.
Mind Song turned back to the mesh door.
Sheppard's 'Honour Guard' were fast approaching down the narrow space outside the last mesh door. Once they reached it, they simply had to pull aside the bolt that locked it and they would be upon him.
"Stay back, Wraith," the lead male ordered, but his threats were empty to Mind Song while the mesh door stood between them.
"I am not your current enemy," Mind Song informed them as he turned away. His initial plan to hold to his deal with Sheppard appeared to be certain now.
He moved quickly across the small room and crouched down by Sheppard's side.
"Stand back from the Major!" The lead Human commanded.
Mind Song ignored him as he looked down at Sheppard's bleary eyes. Though he was on the edge of fading away, Sheppard's eyes focused faintly on him.
Mind Song smiled in bemusement at his own choices as he reached down and set his feeding teeth around the clotted former feeding mark. He latched onto Sheppard once again and felt the barely present life-force remaining.
Drawing up from inside of himself, Mind Song pulled on the empowered force he had taken from Sheppard, combined with some that he had taken from the other prey, and pushed life back into his most unlikely of colleagues.
00000
Ladon had given up looking in any of the bunker's rooms; there were far too many and there was not enough time, so he'd focused on getting up two floors to Cowen's main residence level and seeking assistance from his security, the Generals, and the battalion.
As he climbed up the ladder to the residence level, he was desperately grateful to finally hear voices. He stepped off the emergency ladder and stepped out onto the far more maintained and decorated level of the Palace's underground bunker.
Two security sentries turned instantly as he appeared, both of them lifting their weapons towards him.
"Where is Cowen?" Ladon demanded as he walked towards them, ignoring their weapons. They all knew him, and he was betting on his tone of authority and casual determination to override their caution.
"What are you going here?" One guard demanded, very wary.
Ladon just kept walking towards them. "We've had intelligence that someone's planted an explosive device in the Palace," he told them. "The Parliamentary buildings are being evacuated too, but we didn't want to announce the warning over links and spook the enemy."
The two guards exchanged worried looks, their weapons lowering.
"I'm running a scan of the basement levels, but I need as many as possible to help me run a room-by-room sweep," Ladon instructed as he reached them. "How many of the battalion and personal guard can be spared?"
"You'll have to ask Commander General Reed," one guard answered.
"Where is he?" Ladon asked, lowering his eyes to his pad. There were no signs of the device here.
"He's outside the Supreme Leader's office," the guard reported.
"Good," Ladon pushed past the guards. "Tell Reed I'm on my way and tell all the other guards to check all the rooms around their stations and report anything suspicious immediately."
He jogged onwards, not waiting for their assurance that they were do as he had ordered. In truth he had no authority over them, but he had worked with most of the security members over the years. As a science focused lead, he'd not really drawn much suspicion or competition from any in the halls of power or among the security forces that protected them. Hopefully that would pay off for him here.
He jogged around a corner, a thin fur-like carpet now lining the floor and cushioning the sounds of his footsteps.
The two guards ahead had clearly been warned his was coming and they immediately stepped back out of his way.
Another corner brought him to a large collection of Cowen's battalion and two Generals that he recognised; though neither Reed nor Maloo were among them.
"Where's Commander General Reed?" Ladon called as he hurried towards them.
"Is that Ladon?" Another voice called out though, cutting off any response regarding Reed.
"Yes, Cowen," one General replied through an open doorway in the left wall – Cowen's office. "He has some concerns about Palace security."
Clearly his warning wasn't believed yet, but he didn't need to persuade the Generals, just Cowen. And Cowen could easily be persuaded that he was in danger.
"Get in here, Ladon!" Cowen shouted and Ladon turned into the doorway, somewhat out of breath as he entered the large office.
"We need to evacuate," Ladon told Cowen as he walked into the overtly decorated office. The office, and this part of the Palace in general, were very different to what was usually seen on the homeworld. Where there was usually dark tones and austere decor, Cowen's office held golden door handles, a large oval ornate mirror across the room, excessively decorated designs across the walls, and a large heavy-looking gold-leaf lined desk to one side.
"What?" Cowen demanded from where he stood behind his desk, his big fists set wide apart on the tabletop. There was several large paper maps spread over the surface of the desk, with various coloured glass paperweights holding them down.
"We've had intelligence that an explosive device has been planted in the Palace," Ladon told him frankly. "We need to evacuate everyone now."
"No one's brought anything in here," Cowen disagreed instantly. "I've kept this place locked up tighter than anything."
"I just walked in through the entrance from the tunnels below without being stopped once. There are no guards down there."
"They've run?" Cowen straightened up from his desk. "Our people used to face war with strength."
Ladon blinked. "What war?"
"This one, against Atlantis and the Elite helping them," Cowen answered. "This is all because of Kolya's failed assault on Atlantis and they've harboured a grudge against us ever since."
Ladon decided not to remind Cowen that it had actually been his order that had sent Kolya on that failed attack on the Ancestral City.
"Atlantis has just sent a party through the Portal to 'talk' with me," Cowen reported, "and the Elite won't be far behind. Kolya thinks he can turn the Elite on me, well, he's gravely mistaken," Cowen stated angrily, one finger jabbing down onto a map. "And if the Elite want to start a war over this, then we'll give them a war."
This was madness! Did he really think the Elite wanted a war with them, and, even if they did, that the Genii would have a chance against the might and experience of the Elite?
"They chose Atlantis over us for the Political Marriage and now they're siding with them again, spying on our links network," Cowen continued in his rant. "This could even be about those mining moons – the Elite have wanted all that ore for years, and this way they can finally take it."
"This isn't about mining moons, Cowen!" Ladon interrupted him loudly. "This is about saving First City! We need to evacuate everyone and search every room in the Palace. If we can find the device, I'm certain I can deactivate it."
That seemed to finally get some of Cowen's attention. "No, we would have seen anything like that."
Ladon took a breath, trying to work out how to get through to Cowen. "What if Kolya has someone on the inside? We know he has old associations with fellow trainees, military Generals he has worked alongside for decades. What if one of them has betrayed you to Kolya and wants the Elite to overthrow you?"
Cowen's face darkened, the premise clearly hitting home. "Reed, get in here!" He bellowed towards the open office door. "What kind of device are we talking about, Ladon?"
Ladon lowered his eyes to his pad, but the pad had still not found the pattern he was seeking. "If it's radioactive in anyway, I can detect it with this." He turned on the spot, scanning Cowen's office. There weren't any cupboards or adjoining rooms that could hold anything as big as the device, but...
There was a secret emergency tunnel out of the office that Ladon recalled from the security tech instalment. It was a narrow tunnel that wasn't included on any schematic anywhere and allowed Cowen to escape out of his office and down to the lower tunnels. The entrance to it was hidden in the corner. It was a very narrow tunnel, but if Kolya's loyalists had smuggled the device down to the lower tunnels, they wouldn't have had to get past security. They could have carried the device into the narrow tunnel by hand. Perhaps even widened the tunnel in places? Kolya had been planning this for a long time, what if the device had already been here for months?
"Have you been through your escape tunnel recently?" Ladon asked Cowen as he headed towards the corner where the line of the tunnel's doorway was cleverly concealed within the decorative lines on the wall. A low table blocking the entrance also helped to fool the eye.
Ladon couldn't detect anything here, but the doorway to the tunnel was purposefully thick. He moved aside the table and scanned the edges of the tunnel's door, but there was nothing indicating any kind of trip wire or explosive on the other side.
"No, I haven't been down there in months," Cowen answered him. "Where's Reed?" Cowen shouted out to the guards outside. "Get him in here now!"
Ladon pulled open the escape tunnel's entrance. Like the one that he had used to get to Hulte's meetings, this tunnel was just as roughly cut. The edges were unfinished, the floor completely uneven and the air musty.
The light of Cowen's office glowed around Ladon as he looked into the tunnel's darkness and lifted his sensor pad.
There was no sign of the device's signature.
Nothing.
It was a long and deep tunnel though; the device could be right at the other end of it. But, surely he'd be reading something from it.
He turned back towards Cowen.
"Have you had anything newly delivered to the Palace recently?" Ladon checked next. "A new piece of furniture or large piece of tech?"
"I don't keep check of every little thing, Ladon," Cowen argued. "Don't you monitor all new tech?" The question was tinged with suspicion now.
"We need to get every guard and every pair of hands in the Palace checking every room, every cupboard," Ladon pushed. "We can't waste time."
"And that will leave me with a reduced security force won't it, Ladon," Cowen replied with a frown from behind his desk. He probably had at least one weapon concealed back there. "You were part of Kolya's strike force into Atlantis."
"Cowen, we don't have time for this," Ladon approached him, but not moving too fast. "I am trying to save lives, including yours."
The office doors abruptly slammed shut.
Ladon spun round towards them.
"Guards?" Cowen called out, clearly surprised himself. "What's going on?"
Ladon's heart dropped. Had someone out there heard his warning and was attempting to stop him from saving Cowen? From stopping the device?
Ladon hurried towards the doors, but Cowen got there first, swinging around his desk and to the golden handles in quick time.
"Guards!" Cowen shouted as he pulled hard on the doors, but they didn't budge. "Open these doors IMMEDIATELY!" Cowen shouted as he pounded a fist against the doors.
The air shifted faintly behind Ladon with a coolness that belatedly reminded him that he had left the escape tunnel's door open. Adrenaline surged into his veins as a primitive part of his brain registered someone else had entered the room and he started to turn back round towards the tunnel.
And as he did, he saw the last person he ever expected to see step out of the tunnel's entrance.
"Hello, Ladon," Kolya announced from behind two raised weapons.
00000
TBC