CHAPTER TWO - HALYN'S POV
A gasp of awe escaped me as we stepped thought the gate. It felt weird to travel without wind whipping in my face, or the fiery burn in my back after a long days patrol flight.
"Wow," I whispered to Kallista, She nodded in agreement.
"I never dreamed we'd step right though the Ancestral Ring!" I shivered as I looked back at the ring I had just stepped through, having only seen its kind from the sky. Before today.
"If you think thats impressive," John scoffed, "you should take a look around."
"Its even better than the paintings," Kallista exclaimed she turned to me, her emerald green eyes gleaming with excitement.
I nodded my crimson red eyes gleamed just as brightly, we knew what each other was thinking a lot of the time, this happened to be one of those times.
"Wait! dont go anywhere," John advised as we both stepped forward.
"What are talking about?" I asked innocently, when we both stopped. He gave us a look.
"We we weren't going anywhere, what in Sakatoshi would make you think that?" Kallista added innocently.
"Look if you would like a guided tour I know someone who would be glad to give you one.
He's completely capable, he's smart, he thinks he's good looking though he is slightly conceited. Oh and he once shared a body with a woman, Rodney" he concluded.
Kallista and I heard chuckles from Ronon and Teyla, while john smirked satisfied with his subtle insults.
"What! No!" Rodney cried in surprised by that.
"Whats wrong, not use to being around beautiful woman," I teased. I flipped my long black hair back mockingly, and Kallista and I laughed. Yes it was immature, but it was fun.
"Okay, fine I'll give them a tour," Rodney said unhappily.
"And maybe after that they can spar with Teyla and Ronon," John suggested.
I looked over at Ronon, a huge man built like a machine, a very good looking,make-you-want-to-dump-your-currant-boyfriend, machine.
"Spar? Him?"
It was going to be a challenge but I was up for it. I looked at Teyla. She was smaller but well built and sturdy. She would be a fair opponent, and still a fair challenge.
Kallista turned to John "we cant have only two opponents, would you spar with us as well?"
He looked a little surprised by that "me?" he asked, sounding confused yet honored...slightly.
"No! the scruffy looking man behind you," she retorted. She rolled her eyes either in amusement, or annoyance.
"Scruffy?" he replied looking amused, i"nteresting choice of words." When he noticed
Kallista giving him an impatient look, he ,added, "yeah I will."
"Well now that, that's over can we go?" I asked urgently.
"Well we should go," Teyla said, "We have many things to do."
"Have fun you three play it safe," John added. The three of them chucked as they left.
"Oh ha ha," Rodney retorted weakly to their backs..
He pointed up to a platform above us where people were sitting with odd machines in front of them. Their fingers were moving quickly along the machines bases.
Occasionally they would stop and look at the ancestral ring, and at us but then they would look back at the pads nd upright rectangles attached to them.
"Thats the control room where we moniter all incoming and outgoing wormwholes going through the stargate." He explained
"Stargate?" Kallista inquired curiously.
"Yeah, you know, the stargate. The big, blue,Glowy-thing, that we just came though," he offered.
We hesitated finding his simple minded explanation both insulting and amusing.
"The Ancestral Ring I offered" smirking, Me and Kallista exchanged glances.
"Yeah, that," he replied waving his hand as if a fly were buzzing in his ear. When he saw our glance, his face contorted to indiginance, but he continued. We met some of the military people, we met Dr. Zelenka, who was like his science rival. We met Dr. Beckett who was the actual doctor,he's the type of the type of person who will really draw a person in and make them want to stay a little longer to chat. Well at least that's how I felt. We met some of the other times, Major Lorne's, Colonel Caldwell, from the Daedalus, we met the odd little creature called an Asguard that works on the Daedalus. And last for some reason we met Dr. Weir the leader of the people on Atlantis.
She proposed to get to know about Atlantis a bit better that we would be able to join Sheppards team for a week to see what assets Atlantis may have for us, and our planet.
We agreed enthusiastically, the next day we left with them to another planet, through the Ancestral ring, or Stargate as they called it.
SGA-SGA
As soon as we stepped out of the ring I was really cold. I wrapped my arms around me hugging myself to keep away the cold, the frigid air seeped into my nostrils, and between my fingers to settle on me. I shivered, my planet was never subjected to this kind of weather. I looked and saw trees in the distance, but everywhere else was white. The sky was a pale shade of grey with a yellow sun glinting overhead in the west.
We could see for miles with no hills or mountains to block our view.
"Wow," Kallista remarked, this place is pretty boring is'nt it.
"Yeah, John replied, remind you of anything Rodney." He stood there thinking for few minutes.
"Winter in Saskatchewan. That province has beautiful rolling hills, but there are places that look as boring as this, even the sky. Now Manitoba has lots of farms and animals and mountains and lakes, its beautiful."
"But B.C. is a great province, you have'nt seen mountains until you've seen the Rockies in B.C..
Alberta is ok but not one of my favorite provinces. He was still starring down at the LSD and ranting about strange unheard of places waving his one hand for emphasis.
Now dont get me started on Calgary..."
"Rodney," John snapped cutting him off after his joke became more serious than he anticipated. His expression of amusement soon became slightly bemused, than completely annoyed, until he snapped Mckay out of his rambling state.
What, Rodney demanded. Now sounding annoyed.
"If I let you keep rambling like that were going to be here until midnight," John told him.
"The sun was still in the sky when you started, and now its almost gone."
"It's still in the sky its just a little more to the west that's all, Hey it was noon in Atlantis wasn't it?"
"Yes it was", Teyla answered trying not to look to bemused by Rodney's rant as the rest of us did.
"Ya it still would be if you had stopped before it got to late," John muttered.
Rodney rolled his eyes, "Americans your all so impatient."
"Canadians, your all so..."
"Wait I'm detecting some life signs," Rodney interrupted before he could say anything bad about Canadians.
"I see something," I announced.
I stared at the huge trees squinting with my enhanced vision. There was a figure in front of one of the large trees, I could make out long white hair and long black clothes. It looked human. Though nothing else was clear. I turned to Kallista who was starring in the same direction.
"See it?" I asked.
"Yeah,?" She replied
"What do they look like?" John asked
"It has some white, but mostly black, I can only make out one," I answered.
"Same here," Kallista added, she turned to John.
"Would you like us to check it out?"
"He turned to Rodney before answering." How many on the LSD?
"Two."
John nodded to Kallista and me. "Okay, but stay above the trees and out of sight. We'll keep track of you from here, as a sort of back up, Got it?"
"Yep," we answered eager to get up in the air and stretch our wings. We ran about twenty paces staying a bit more than ten feet apart from each other, we snapped our wings out and flapped vigorously to gain altitude. We flew over the barren land to get to the trees. With our hair in ponytails it was unable to get in our faces and block our view. The muscles in our back were working hard, as they usually did, to keep our momentum.
As we passed over the person that was at the edge of the forest I started to wonder why we had been told to stay out of sight. Was it just a precaution? What did they think these people were. I was debating with myself for a few minutes when my curiosity took hold and overpowered my consciousness. I turned to Kallista and opened my mouth, but she shook her head before I could suggest anything stupid.
"But why not," I demanded.
"We don't know if these things are human!" She retorted. 'Besides, you heard what the colonel said. We have to stay out of sight," she insisted.
"We're higher ranked than him! He's a colonel we're class Dragon Rider!" I insisted
"Wrong. Here he is higher than us. for one they dont have a Dragon Rider Class. Two we are the ones visiting Atlantis making us their responsibility, and we are to listen to them."
"Says you," I argued in a stubborn childish voice. "I still say that we're higher than him." Before she could respond, I bent my wings a bit, pointed downwards and dive-bombed.
Once I was a ways into the trees I snapped my wings out to see if I could find one of those people that we had seen earlier. Rodney said there were two, but they obviously hadn't been together. So it shouldn't be to hard.
"Halyn!" Kallista yelled after me. Her voice sounded distant so I must of dove farther down than I thought. That meant she couldnt come after me.
SGA-SGA
Kallista called Halyn multiple times but still heard no response. After a few minutes of searching and silence she decided to get backup. She wasn't willing to let those creatures - whatever they were - to find out that there was more than one Icarii in the woods.
"That idiot," she spat in anger. She hovered in place a few more seconds, searching for Halyns black wings to appear among the green foliage before turning and flying back to the team.
"Did you get a closer look?"
Teyla asked as Kallista landed, she shook her head.
"Where's Halyn?" Ronon asked.
Kallista's eyes flashed with anger at the name.
"I don't know." She huffed angrily. "She wanted to get a closer look at the creatures. We passed over the closer one and it had green skin, that doesn't seem very human like to me." She looked over to John.
"What are they? Why did you tell us to stay away from them? Everyone looked at him expectantly."
"You know those wingless ships you talked about before we came here. These creatures are called wraiths, they are the ones who operated the ships that we refer to as darts."
"Wraith? we have heard of them, what are they exactly?"
"They're wraith, is'nt it obvious? Its what they are," Rodney said imitating the queen. They all ignored him.
" life sucking aliens, they suck the life out of any species they can, even their own." Teyla told her as everyone headed towards the forest.
SGA-SGA
TSEW
The noise came from behind me. I twisted around to see where it was coming from just as a blue ball soared inches from my stomach, but I did'nt see anyone behind me. I grabbed my clanty gun from my hip and flew to a thick branch in one of the huge trees. I tucked my wings in and hid behind the trunk. I turned and looked at the other trees. I saw a flash of white among them, but it quickly disappeared behind a tree.
"HELLO!" I called, I waited, but there was no answer. "I mean you no harm!" I continued.
"All I wish is to obtain information, but know this if I must I will defend myself. Understand?"
The air was silent except for the creaking of these great trees.
"Understood." A voice finally responded.
I heard boots on the soft ground stepping heavily out from behind a tree. I put my clanty back in its holster and peered cautiously around the trunk.
I saw the person, only it was'nt human. His skin had a pale tinge of green to it, it looked sick. His eyes were pale orange and had slits for pupils. It wore a big black coat,
lack pants, and boots. It had stringy white hair that went down to its shoulders.
"I have placed my gun in its holster, please lower you weapon as well" I said
I saw the creature lower its gun and kick it away. I stepped out from behind the tree cautiously, I jumped down from my branch landing neatly on my feet.
I stood at least 50 paces away from it and i moved forward 10 paces.
"what are you"" I said tentatively, looking at it closely.
"Wraith" it hissed simply taking a step forward.
"I do not know about your kind" I answered thoughtfully
"What is that?"
There was a flash of surprise in its eyes, but then it sent me a kind of smile.
"The wraith are my people, we are a peaceful race, although we must feed off the humans, they are our food. That is however a last resort for us."
The creature looked sadly at his hands as if they were making him sick. When he looked up again he look genuinely sad
"We try so hard to be peacful, but are misjudged, by all the humans. We eat whatever else we can as a substitute, but... there are times when, that is not enough, we become savages" he said turning away in shame.
"That's awful" I said empathetical
"Yes" he agreed " It feels awful" He clenched his fists "I am a savage, please don't look at me"
"A savage?" I repeated, your not a savage, you simply do what you must to survive. We all do.
I walked toward him close enough to be at arms , reached and put my hand comfortably on his back.
His fists slowly unclenched and he looked up at me
"Really" he hissed opening his eyes wide.
I nodded and rubbed my hand on the back of his coat
"Of course you wouldn't kill if you didn't have to"
He hesitated and I assumed he was pondering this. His eyes met mine then they looked over my shoulder and widened "NO" he screamed
He raised his left hand in the air which then came rushing towards me. I jumped back in surprise, and instinct at that, but he stepped forward grabbing my arms and raising his hand to me again.
Tsew
The familiar noise came from behind me, and I wrenched myself out of the wraiths grip in time to leap out of the way.
Just as a blue light shot past me and hit the wraith. It fell to the ground with a loud thump in a heap.
I looked behind me at the source of the blue light and saw
another wraith. I lept behind a tree when it shot at me again. The weapon this one had was differant than a gun but it still shot the same blue light. It had a long shaft and had two thick ends, one of which was pointing at me.
I pulled out my clanty gun and peered around the corner at the wraith. I aimed carefully before pulling the trigger. There was a loud bang and a long stream of light escaped the barrel, it hit the wraith who shrieked in pain and annoyance. But it didn't die.
Simply lost its ballance from the hard impact and fell to the ground. It quickly stood grabbing its gun.
"Fool" it exclaimed, Ecstasy coating its raspy voice.
"You truly belive we are a peacful race?"
"We are the most feared beings in the Pegasus Galaxy!"
I spread my wings and leapt up, and out from behind the tree, shooting at the wraith multiple times with the clanty, but still he simply just lost his balance. I flaped hard to gain altitude, but since i hadn't run to gain momentum it was harder to do. I was almost above the treeline when I heard another..
Tsew
Something hit my left wing and I began to fall back though the thick foliage. I tried to flap my wings, i felt no holes in them, but they wouldn't move. My heart was beating frantically in my chest.
I tried to open my mouth to yell a warning to Kallista, but that air was taken right out of me.
I hit the snow laden ground and was instantly winded.
The wraith was moving toward me, slowly to increase the tension. My heart beat faster and more painfully with each one of his steps. He stopped beside me and crouched down at my side.
"interesting" It said, examining my wings.
He touched my feathers and stroked them. I tried to do something, anything, but I was to frozen in fear and confusion to make my limbs work.
The wraith grabbed my shirt and hauled me up, it looked down at the presumably dead wraith.
"Looks like you didn't win friend" It turned back to me "your all mine"
Another..
Tsew
caught my ears and behind the wraith, I saw a red light coming our way. It hit the wraith in the back. It roared on pain and slumped to the ground dead, I fell along with it.
Ronon pointed his gun at the other wraith on the ground away from us and pulled the trigger. Another red light shot from the gun, the wraith convulsed once and died.
Ronons strong hands gripped me around the waist, I looked at him in surprise. He lazily slung me over his shoulders.
"Lets go" he said
"Hey careful with the merchandise" Kallista said indignantly.
"That's my friend you carrying, not a sack of doron.
they looked at Kallsita questioningly
" fruit, doron fruit" she answered.
"well feels more like the alternative" Ronon replied
I shifted my body uncomfortably on his shoulder, I was perfectly capable of walking, but was in no way about to inform them about it. Why not enjoy being carried by this good looking machine of a man. Why ruin the party.
"Muscle weighs more than fat" Kallista retorted in my defense.
Rodney dialed the ancestral ring, and we stepped though back to Atlantis.
TBC...