Chapter 17 – Question Of Trust
Doctor Beckett stopped not far from the entrance of the great room containing Claire's cell. He hesitated for a moment, searching for the best words to start the conversation with, then he slowly entered the hall. Claire was sitting in the corner of her cell, reading the volume about chinchillas. She did not look up from the book, and she did not react to his presence either, when Carson inched even closer to her.
"Did you hear the great bang about half an hour ago?" the doctor started the conversation with a casual question, hoping that she would not detect his uneasiness.
"I did." She still fastened her grey, unreadable eyes on the book.
"And the walls are shaking constantly. Do you feel it?" he went on carefully.
"I do."
An embarrassingly cold silence fell onto the room. Doctor Beckett nervously adjusted the band of his watch.
"The super-hive attacked us," he gave the explanation finally, though she did not inquire about the reason. She did not respond, there was no sign of either shock or malice on her face, she just sat there, keeping the volume on her knees, staring at the picture of an albino chinchilla.
"Er," Doctor Beckett cleared his throat. "Your associates will destroy our city and kill everyone."
She turned back to the text of the book, and, with inscrutable emptiness, she ran her eyes on the lines of characters.
"So... so... we could really do with some help..." The doctor started stammering, embarrassed by her behavior. "Some help... to... to do something... to stop this somehow... to..." He fell silent because he began to surmise how insincere the calmness on her face was.
"Why don't you say a thing?" Carson asked timidly, clearing his throat again. "You surely have an opinion..."
The Wraith continued to mime reading the book, she even put her forefinger to a long sentence about the drinking-troughs appropriate for rodents, and she followed the words with her blackish nail.
"I... I guess you found out that I'd come to ask for your help," the doctor faltered out. "I know that you are... er... a Wraith... but..."
Suddenly, Claire sprang up from the floor, and she threw her book against the wall of her cell with such force that it split into two. Paper pages were floating in the air with silent rustling. The raven-like blackness of her hair made a great contrast with her pale, greenish skin, as the blue light of the neon lamp fell on her features.
"You told me that we wouldn't talk about hives and Wraith technology," she murmured in front of herself in a strikingly quiet, even painful tone of voice. Carson understood now what the cause of her strange reactions was.
"I'm sorry, my child, I'm so sorry," the doctor on the other side of the wall of the cell mumbled shamefacedly. "I really wanted to keep my promise, but things turned so bad..."
"You lied to me," she hissed. An emerald green vein on the back of her hand started pulsating as she bent her fingers forcefully. "I should have known better..."
"No!" Carson stepped closer to her, now there was only the electric shield separating them from each other. "I meant to keep my words, and now I just want to prevent you from suffering. My friends are planning to hurt you, if you don't help."
"I'm sure you don't give a damn about my comfort, so spare me your see-through lies!" she spat the words bitterly. "Don't pretend that you are surprised at this turn of events, you knew very well that we would come to this. You shouldn't have made me believe that you truly cared for me. You've just been waiting for the opportunity when I might let out useful information!"
"That's not true. I'm well disposed towards you, and I trust in you. I can prove it."
Claire exhaled sharply, her nostrils were trembling. "I don't believe you; you are just poisoning me with your insidious lies. I won't listen to you anymore. I'm not afraid of the abject ways of your friends to hurt me, there's no such pain that could make me talk. Go, and tell them that they can come and do to me whatever they want. They are pathetic, and you are pathetic as well with your smarmy efforts to outwit me. I despise all of you equally... Go!"
"I can prove that I'm well disposed towards you and I trust in you," the doctor repeated with more confidence, totally ignoring her answer.
"No, you can't."
"Yes, I can."
"Damn it." She turned on her heel, now she was facing the wall of the room, not the doctor anymore. "Go away! I don't want you to talk to me. Get out of here!"
Doctor Beckett stepped to the lock panel of Claire's cell, and he pressed a combination of buttons, making the protective shield of the cell open up. The two soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the hall lifted their weapons and pointed them worryingly in the direction of the Wraith.
"Dare not shoot," The doctor told the guards serenely, "I know what I'm doing."
He walked into the cell and stopped beside her. Claire looked at him in astonishment. She was motionless for a while, then suddenly she gripped him by the neck of his medical robe, and she pushed him against the wall with such force that the dash echoed in the room.
"Can we shoot her down now?" One of the guards asked Beckett with a slightly trembling voice, but the doctor lifted up his right hand to sign them not to do anything, though he could not say a word, he struggled for breath from the pain of the collision. Claire stood in front him, her eyes burnt with furious, wild glitter.
"I could kill you before they even blink," she gritted her teeth. "I could kill you right now."
"Oh, you won't kill me," he answered with a faint smile.
"Do you have an idea how hungry I am?"
"You won't feed on me either."
The Wraith's eyes opened wide. "You shouldn't be so sure," she growled.
"Yeah, I am. More than sure."
"Why?"
"Because we are friends, and friends don't hurt each other." He reached out for her and took her cold, slippery hands. "You see? I trust in you."
She inclined her head to look at his fingers clenching softly on her cool, greenish palms.
"Do you believe me now?" he asked silently.
She just glared at his hands wordlessly. Moments passed, then long minutes, and she did not stir. Carson started to lack confidence more and more as he realized the reason of her standstill: even Claire herself had no idea what she would do. What she should do... And that meant that any minute she might decide to seize him and drain all the life out of him. The doctor felt the coldness of the fear crawl in his veins and make his flesh creep. His fingers trembled around hers. He could clearly imagine the horrors of the Wraith's nails tearing up the skin on his chest and rupturing the thoracic muscle while she was stealing away the life from him...
He forced himself to stop thinking of it. He knew that he had to trust her, he had no other choice, and neither did she. She had to see that he came to help her... She had to feel it... At least, he hoped that she was able to assume it.
He wished his fingers stopped shaking because it made his doubts too obvious. He wished he could be cool, pretending that he had no queries, that he pinned his faith on her, but he did not manage to fake it. As time passed, his fears just got worse.
Finally, she heaved a deep sigh.
"If I help you destroy the super-hive, will you let me free with my necklace?" she whispered, still keeping her gaze on his hands wrapped around hers.
"I promise you we will."
"I believe you." She looked him in the eye now. "You can tell your leader that I will help you, but I'll need to get in touch with the tribe aboard the super-hive, I'll have to join their lines of communication. You must trust me, I just need it to find the weakest link in the system of their hive."
"Erm," Carson ducked. "I'm pretty sure that Doctor Weir won't be glad to hear it, I don't think she will allow us to try it."
"You need to convince her."
He rolled his eyes; he started to get tired of being the mediator. "Okay, okay, I'll do my best," he said resignedly.
"Elizabeth, we wouldn't risk a thing," Carson told Weir emphatically. They were standing in her office next to her desk. "The Wraiths aboard the super-hive already know about us, she can't give away any important information."
"Why does she want to communicate with them, then?" Elizabeth asked with suspicion in her voice. "Maybe she got to know the coordinates of the Earth somehow."
"No, no, no. She really wants to help us."
"How do you know?"
"I know her, she decided to help us. I know it for sure."
"Would you trust her with anything in the whole universe?"
The doctor's response was calm, "I would."
Doctor Weir nodded slowly, "Go, then. Escort her out of her cell to a place where she can get in touch with her associates, but be careful, take at least four soldiers with you, and don't forget about her shackles. Oh, and be quick before it comes to the knowledge of John, Ronon or Colonel Caldwell what you are planning to do, for I don't feel like spending the remaining few hours of my life arguing with them because of you and your Claire."
"Thank you for trusting me," the doctor told her happily, and he made a gesture as if he were about to hug her, but Weir lifted up her hands to stop him. "Go, and do it quickly." And then she added with a sad smile, "You don't need to thank me for it."
Carson arrived at Claire's cell running, out of breath. The four armed soldiers he chose to follow him were waiting in the background.
"How could you convince your leader?" Claire asked wonderingly, when she saw the shackles in the hands of one of the cadets.
"I'm not sure whether I really convinced her..."
"But she let you escort me out of my cell, didn't she?
"Yes, though I think she still has fears that you will let us down."
"Why did she let me go out of here, then?" Claire asked at a loss to understand.
"She takes the risk of my decision."
The Wraith stood there tongue-tied for a few moments, and then she remarked silently, "You were right when we were talking at the beginning of my captivity - you humans are really not simple. You are the weirdest creatures of the Galaxy."
"We need to take those stairs up to the roof of the building-complex," the Wraith directed the soldiers by her side.
"Claire, we've been circling round in the city for ten minutes now," Doctor Beckett warned her.
"If you opened the shield, I could freely communicate with my folk," she delivered her riposte coldly, "But I have an intense suspicion that this possibility would not please you either. So we need to search for the proper point where I can join the lines of their communication, and it's not that easy, believe me."
"Okay, okay," the doctor answered with resignation. "Just keep it in mind that not all of my friends would be overjoyed if they got to know our plan..."
"Alright, I'm trying to find the place as quickly as possible."
When they reached the top of the stairs, and they walked out on the flat, shiny roof of the building, she stopped. She took in the sight of the purple rings of flames dancing on the shield above the city as the shots of the super-hive hit the surface. The violet-colored whirls mixed with the silvery glitter of the arch of the protecting system.
"It looks wonderful," Carson whispered, looking up at the sky as well.
"It's a good place for me to try to capture their communication," Claire said dispassionately.
"Okay. Try it, please, right now."
"Will you hold my hand?" she asked suddenly. Doctor Beckett looked at her astonished at her request. "It's a very difficult thing for me to communicate with my folk without letting them know my own position and my own thoughts. You can support me by holding my hands," she explained without any emotions in her voice. Carson smiled and reached out for her cold fingers.
She raised her head, closing her eyes. First, her features froze, and she stood there motionless, but after a while he could see the tics contorting her face, and her chained hands kept the doctor's soft fingers stronger and stronger, it was almost painful. Carson pressed her palms encouragingly. He hoped that the whole procedure with the secret communication did not cause her pain, though the amorphous snarl appearing on her face showed him that it could not be the most pleasant experience for her.
Abruptly, her expression loosened, she opened her eyes, and she turned to the doctor.
"Alright," she said hurriedly, "I made up a plan how you could destroy that hive, but it won't be easy..."