Chapter 2
The evacuee took up residence in a corner of the 'jumper by the hatch and huddled there with his arms around his knees glaring at everyone. The woman had been steadily returning his glare for the past twenty minutes of hyper-drive travel, apparently without blinking. She was beginning to remind him of the hybrids more then the two other….creatures….wraith. Her face-oh it was definitely human when you took the time to study it properly. But you had to look past the long black dread-locks that were just short of her waist, the eerie smile that didn't touch her eyes, showed teeth filed to points and something dark that spread in a bold abstract pattern round her left eye. She wore a dark leather coat, battered and patched that reached below her knees, with a stunner that looked too large for her propped casually against her thigh.
The pilot sighed. "It was your idea to save him." He reminded her, speaking aloud for politeness' sake.
Meredith let out a frustrated hiss. "Can't I change my mind?"
The evacuee glanced at the others, his eyes skimmed quickly over the man on the floor; human, wounded leg, possibly a partial hit from a stunner. He looked Athosian but dressed like a strange mix between Traveller and Genii with his hair tied back into a pony tail at the nape of his neck and his beard cut to little more then a whisp beneath his lip. Then there was the…wraith. It, for the evacuee couldn't bring himself to give Don a gender, had yellow eyes, green-tinged skin and short white hair that stuck out from its skull as if it was static. The other one, the pilot, who had only deigned to look at him once, had paler skin and longer coarser hair, like a mane.
His gaze focused on the gunner as a voice of reason. The evacuee felt he could relate to this man, if only by process of elimination; he was human, physically similar even if his eyes were an odd shape, his dark hair was a sensible length and he had the sense to be wearing a troubled expression. True he was wearing a dark leather coat similar to the woman's, but compared to the others……
"Sir-" He began.
"Don't look at me; I was all for leaving you behind." The gunner told him casually before turning to the pilot. "We're in range."
"I'd noticed."
"So why haven't you radioed ahead?"
The pilot's head tilted an unnatural degree to his right. "I am not entirely sure, perhaps it is something to do with the very conscious and entirely troublesome stray that we appear to have somehow acquired."
The gunner, who had spent enough time around Wraith to be well used to their particular brand of sarcasm, rolled his eyes. "What's he going to do? Turn into Kenmore?"
"He has not been properly searched-"
"We don't have the time or equipment-"
"And he should not have survived." The Wraith continued in his irritatingly calm tone. "You saw how many of Kenmore's vermin were there, one human with a rifle could not have survived for long enough to get so far from the Stargate."
"I was lucky-" The evacuee started to explain.
"He recovered far too fast,"
"I've come round quicker then that!" The gunner protested.
"Yes but you have fought with Crevazi long enough to have built up a tolerance to stunner fire, and I would expect that if our guest was similarly experienced he would know enough not to try attacking them with bullets. Unless he was dropped on his head after birth. Repeatedly."
"You want to stun him." The gunner guessed.
"I would gladly give Meredith the honour."
"Do you trust anyone who isn't Hive?"
"Yes, the Keeper of the Traveller ship in quadrant 16-beta-C is an extremely capable man."
"He's just one imdezzca," The gunner said dismissively. "What's the harm?"
"You don't remember the last time the Genii-"
"Oh yeah-that."
There was an awkward silence while the crew, with the notable exception of Meredith and her unnaturally wide grin, tried to look as if they were not mulling over the pros and cons of stunning the man they'd just rescued.
"We should-" Don began.
"Yes." The pilot agreed.
The 'jumper slowed significantly. The woman's head bowed slightly. After a short while she hissed, the pilot blinked and the 'jumper accelerated again.
"Well?"
"We're to go in and dock in the quarantine area as normal." The pilot said before thoughtfully adding. "The Keeper sees no reason why he can not remain conscious as we are going into quarantine for three days anyway, but the matter is apparently at our discretion."
"Which means?"
"If we want to kill him after an hour in quarantine they would prefer if we stunned him instead."
The evacuee considered protesting, but a glance at Meredith and the chance to absorb the way she was stroking her stunner stopped him. The 'jumper glided silently through space took a final hyper-drive leap and- The ship appeared, colossal as an asteroid, striped grey and blue, Ancient and Wraith. It looked rather like a cross between an Asgard cruiser, and an inventively conjoined Hive ship rammed into the mould of an Aurora class. It was exceptionally ugly.
"That looks-" The evacuee began.
"How she looks is not important." Don informed him. "She works."
"Most of the time." The pilot observed. "Gate-ship eight, pilot requesting permission to dock at quarantine bay one. Captain?"
A woman's voice came over the radio. "Granted. Bring her in Avon."
The gunner shifted to his own radio. "'Jumper eight, gunner, requesting permission to dock at quarantine bay one, Queen?"
The second voice was deeper, with a low hissing undertone. "Yes."
The puddle-jumper glided into dock.
oOo
"Uh, finally." The gunner made it out of the jumper before any of his ship-mates, despite being the furthest from the hatch. He yawned, stretching until his back clicked and took up residence on a sofa.
The pilot sighed. Don hoisted his wounded ship-mate on to a shoulder and helped him out. Meredith followed them, taking the time to hiss at the evacuee as she passed. He stayed curled in his corner of the jumper as the Wraith soldier deposited Colin on a chair and rolled up his trouser leg.
"Partial stunner hit and a twisted ankle."
"Great-" He trailed off. "We didn't get in for long enough-"
"What were you doing?" The evacuee interrupted.
"Correcting the mistakes of our ancestors." Avon informed him.
"You could just answer him-"
"I don't believe in encouraging idiots." He turned, head tilting to one side so those unblinking yellow eyes drilled into the unfortunate evacuee. "Why were you using a rifle? It is an ineffective and heavy weapon, why not simply drop it and run?"
"They were going to kill me!"
"They were going to kill you whether you wasted bullets on them or not. Would it not have-extended your life somewhat- if you had not aggravated them?"
"I didn't-"
"Of course you didn't, hybrids call back their Hive ships from half a solar system away on a whim."
"I didn't-"
"What's your name?" Colin interrupted catching the man off guard.
"What-"
"Your name." Avon repeated in a tone reserved for the terminally stupid. "I assume you have one human?"
"Where are you from?" Don asked before the man had a chance to answer. "You're not Athosian-"
"And you don't look like a Traveller-" Colin continued.
"Or Balkan-" Don added.
"You're not Genii are you? If you are you," Colin stopped and frowned. "What'd you reckon his odds are Tom?"
"Oh I don't know," The gunner replied. "Four to one, three and a half may be. What do you think Meredith?"
"Two to one."
"That low huh?"
"He was only childer." She replied evenly.
"But it was at least a year ago-"
"What are they-" The evacuee started.
"Odds of you getting thrown out of an air lock." Colin told him casually.
"I'm not a Genii!" The man protested.
"Which only leaves forty other persisting human tribes who wish to see us dead." Avon observed.
Their interrogation was interrupted as the communications system stuttered into life. The gunner staggered upright with a barely repressed groan, and joined the pilot in front of the screen. With considerable effort he straightened, standing to attention with his hands clasped behind his back, a mirror of the Wraith at his side. For a moment they stared at their Captain and their Queen, then the woman sighed.
"The Queen tells me your mission was a complete failure." She stated blandly.
"That depends on your definition of failure Ma'am." The gunner replied. "We haven't lost anything, save a few drones, and we brought down four,"
"Five." The pilot corrected.
"Five darts." Tom confirmed. "Granted the security round their lab will be tighter now but-"
"Captain, the situation that led to this was completely beyond our control-"
"-with Stanley's pheromone spray I'm sure we could find a way to-"
"-once the hybrids discovered their presence there was no sensible course of action but to retreat without the data-"
"-and it should take out their security systems in around ten minutes, at least that's what Colin keeps telling me-"
"-whether he's carrying the virus or not one less human in their labs is one less Crevazi for us to kill-"
"-there can't be more then five hundred-a thousand tops-"
"-you always say we should not leave men behind Captain-"
"Are you two quite finished?"
They fell silent for a moment. The gunner glanced behind him at their entirely unhappy 'damsel' in distress; the pilot stared at the corner of the room.
"Our communications do not function to anywhere near an adequate-"
"Will you shut up about the bloody radios!"
The pilot ignored him. "My Queen I fail to see how we can be expected to coordinate the infiltration of an entirely Crevazi planet when they routinely jam our frequencies and search for signs of us communicating through our mind. Surely Atlantis could spare-"
"Avon!" The Captain snapped. "Now is not the time to-"
"Dwell on technological flaws." The Queen supplied.
There was another short awkward silence, then Meredith sighed and approached the screen.
"It was my fault," She addressed the Queen with her head bowed. "I saw him fighting the Crevazi and made the decision to assist him."
The debriefing only went down hill from there.
oOo