Chapter 1 - Danger
"We are getting an incoming message." A sergeant reported to Doctor Weir, who was standing in the main Control Room opposite the massive, grey ring of the Stargate. Her eyes wore a moony, tired look as she was staring at the huge circle. The sergeant needed a minute to remark, for she did not catch the meaning of his sentence, she was so deep in her thoughts. He began to explain it: "It's the report from the Daedalus about the strange ship they found."
The word "Daedalus" dragged her out of her melancholy.
"Call Rodney and Radek. They should run through the report to analyze it," she ordered briskly, and then hurried up the stairs. "We must find out something about that bizarre ship."
A few moments passed until the scientists arrived at the hall. They were arguing about some details of a plan to rerun the program of the detectors.
"No, Radek, you don't get the point," McKay retorted. "You are too slow to catch up with me..."
"Wait, wait, wait. What did you just say to me? Slow?"
"We have no time for childish debates," Weir silenced them, and pointed in the direction of the interface showing the technical report got from the Daedalus.
"He called me slow," Zelenka lamented.
"Because you are," Rodney added scornfully.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Could you two, please, just run through the report? Colonel Caldwell is waiting for our feedback."
The two scientists leaned over the interface so curiously that they forgot their previous contest at once.
"Oh, no," McKay groaned as he read through the last paragraph of the report. "No, no, no..."
"Rodney?" Elizabeth Weir asked with raised eyebrows.
"We are in trouble." He seemed startled. He threw down the interface onto the shelf next to him, and then rushed to a control panel. "I have to check, if..."
"Rodney, what's the problem?" Weir demanded impatiently.
"The parameters of that ship..." He pressed quickly some keys on the board, and then looked at the monitor where he examined the appearing picture of the inner parts of a giant space-ship. "Oh, gosh! The Orion..."
Doctor Weir did not understand the words he uttered, but she frowned anxiously, for she recognized the look on his face which showed up every time when their lives were in great danger.
"Okay, okay." McKay turned to Elizabeth. "The Daedalus detected a Wraith hive, but not just a simple hive. It's different. It's a super-ship with Asgardian technology in it, mixed with construction parts from the Orion. I suppose they found the wreck of the blown-up Orion, and some parts of it were still usable. This ship is larger than any other hive, stronger, faster and almost undestructible. It's the perfect weapon against Atlantis, against the whole Pegasus galaxy. I... I can risk the surmise that it's able to reach the Earth as well in a few weeks."
Doctor Weir tried to say something, but the only response she could pronounce was a quiet "uhh". She needed a moment to think it through. As she found her voice again, she turned to the sergeant standing next to her. "Get me in touch with the Daedalus. I need to share with them the info Rodney told us."
She braced against the side of the main panel as she was waiting for Colonel Caldwell's voice to echo through the Control Room.
"I have told you a million times," Rodney explained feverishly to Sheppard, "this super-hive means big danger for..."
"Okay, I understand, and I'm sure the only solution for us is to eliminate it."
"Do you think I'd like to keep it for my personal hive-collection? First we must find a way to do it."
"Well, that does not exactly sound like a holiday-program," Sheppard's mouth squirmed. "I guess you already have a plan to stop it."
"No! Don't you understand what I'm speaking about?" Rodney snapped. "We have no chance to fight against that hive. I have no idea how to cause the slightest damage to it."
"You always solve the impossible problems."
"If you think that flattery will solve this situation..." McKay's angry retort came to a halt, because the automatic door of the conference room opened, and Doctor Weir stepped in followed by Colonel Caldwell. John could clearly see from the expressions on their faces that it was not only McKay and him who were arguing about their current problems. Both Weir and Caldwell seemed irritated, but they did not go on about their previous topic, they just sat down next to the conference table.
"Where are Teyla and Ronon?" Elizabeth asked as an attempt to ignore her desire to punch Caldwell.
"No idea," John shrugged. "They should be here, I guess."
Doctor Weir switched on her radio-headset with a sigh. "Teyla, Ronon?"
Ronon's answer came instantly. "I'm nearly there. I was at the other part of the city when you called me."
"Is Teyla with you?"
"No. I haven't seen her since breakfast."
Weir broke the line. "John, could you, please, go, and fetch Teyla? She's given no response."
Sheppard got up from the table. "I'll be right back," he promised lightly, and left, feeling sorry for Rodney who stayed there, alone, with the two edgy, tired, not particularly amusing leaders.
He passed through the corridors whistling a Johnny Cash-song, and in his thoughts he went through every reasonable place where he should seek for Teyla. He decided to try her private room first because it seemed the most probable case that Teyla was meditating so deep that she did not even hear Weir's calls. It had never happened before, so he found it weird, but it was still the most imaginable reason he could think of.
As he got to Teyla's place, he stopped by the door, and knocked firmly.
"Teyla? Are you in?"
He got no answer. He waited there for a minute or two, and then he turned, going on with his search. He visited the gym hall, the canteen, the Control Room, and checked the greatest balcony-complex, the favorite of Teyla if she wanted to stay alone with her thoughts. He could not find her. He questioned everyone he met, but no one had seen her since breakfast-time. His radio-set buzzed, and Weir's impatient voice became audible.
"John, what's taking so long?" she asked apprehensively. "We have important matters to discuss here."
"I can't find Teyla," he admitted. "I went through her favorite places, I asked everyone, but no one saw her. I suppose she traveled to the shore to visit her people."
"I don't think so," Elizabeth opposed to Sheppard's idea. "She always informs me if she plans to go there, and she did not mention it this time."
"Okay, but where else can she be?"
"I'll try to call her by the speakerphone system of the Control Room. Now come up here, we need to start the talks. Weir out." She broke the line.
John sighed, and turned in the direction of the conference room.
That afternoon turned out to be one of the most boring, useless and time-wasting afternoons. McKay and Zelenka tried to come up with plans how to harm the super-hive, but as soon as one of them began to explain a theory, the other one objected at once, and pointed out why the idea was a foolish one. Weir and Caldwell pattered with their fingers on the surface of the table; it was obvious that they wished the two debating scientists into the cornfield, but it was clear that if anyone was able to solve the problem, it would be Rodney McKay and Radek Zelenka. Sheppard interjected once or twice with the idea of blowing up a sun in the neighborhood of the super-hive, or setting a herd of other Wraith hives upon the super one, but the scientists silenced him with disdainful waves of the hand. Ronon leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and seemed to fall asleep. Doctor Weir left the room every half an hour, and called Teyla on the speakerphone, but she gave no sign.
"Okay, I'm ending the talks for today," Elizabeth decided at six o'clock in the evening. "I'll send a jumper out to keep an eye on the super-hive. If it gets closer to Atlantis, we will start the hiding system. Rodney, Radek, it would be really nice if you found a way for our detectors to signal that ship. That's your job for tomorrow. If you have any idea about destroying the super-hive as well, please, inform me. Ronon, I'd like to ask you to travel to the shore after dinner and search for Teyla. I'm going to her room now; maybe she left some message for us there."
She got up from the table, and stretched her back. Sheppard joined her on her way down the stairs. She could see from the corner of her eye the strange, cold glance that was shot at the two of them by Caldwell.
"It's so queer," Sheppard was talking about Teyla's disappearance. "It's unlike her. I'm getting worried."
"Well, I'm already worried," Doctor Weir moaned. "I don't think that she traveled to the shore."
"Do you suppose that some kind of accident happened?"
"I don't know. I hope not."
As they reached Teyla's room, John knocked on the door, and called for her again, but he got no answer.
"Okay, I'm going in." Elizabeth stepped forward, touching the electric panel on the wall. The door opened, and she went into the room. Sheppard - who was standing outside - could only see her coming to a sudden halt and her body stiffening.
"What the hell...?" He followed her in, and caught sight of the inner parts of the room.
"Oh, my God," Doctor Weir whispered staring at the floor.
There was a huge chaos of broken candles, torn canvas, and ruby blood stains all over the ground. The carpet was crumpled in a pile, the blankets were thrown away from the bed and the walls were covered with blood-drops. A torn-out mop of copper-blonde hair was lying in the middle of a blood-pool.