Chapter 22 – Imprisoned
The amorphous rails were blocking the entrance of the cell as the Wraith soldiers locked it by pressing a combination of buttons at the outer panel. They took away Colonel Caldwell's uniform jacket plus all the weapons they found on their captives, and they left with a heavy tread.
First, Doctor Weir walked around in the cell, and she examined the walls, but she could not see anything else, just the reddish black tissue of the hive. At some places, she could recognize thin branches running around in the web of the meat-like, organic material like veins in a human body.
"It's my fault," she whispered. She stepped to the colonel, putting her hand to Caldwell's right arm and looking him in the eye with sorrow. "I shouldn't have let you come here with me. You should've stayed aboard the Daedalus."
"No. It's alright," he answered, breaking the eye contact by turning his head away. "The point is that you should've listened to me when I told you not to trust a Wraith."
Doctor Weir got angry for he started again his pugnacity. "We did not have a better idea!" she replied fretfully. "If you'd had a reasonable plan how to stop this damned super-hive, I would not have cooperated with a Wraith. You should've told me a better way to solve the situation, not just always find faults! It's easy to judge the others' work if you do nothing."
"Well, it's still better than getting ourselves killed for nothing," he retorted.
"It seemed to be our only chance to destroy this hive before it blows up Atlantis. You have no responsibility for the citizens of Atlantis, well, of course, it was not so urgent for you to find a solution. For the Earth, the matter was still far away, in another Galaxy. You are just interested in the problems which cut the U.S. army to the quick! A distant city in the Pegasus, far away from the Earth means only a unique, interesting chance to find new weapons and a useful alien technique, but if..."
Caldwell seized her arms and cornered her against the moist wall of their cell with such force that she panted for breath in surprise.
"Don't you dare speak to me like that again," he snarled. "How the hell can you accuse me of having no interest in keeping Atlantis? I've already risked my ship and my own life many times for the city. I've battled against hives with the help of the Daedalus, I've hazarded the lives of everyone aboard my ship just to correct some stupid mistakes that you and your beloved Sheppard made!"
"Oh, I'm sure you're the greatest hero I've ever met," Weir cut him off sarcastically, "but I don't think that feeding your ego would change the fact that you did not have a single idea how to destroy this hive, you just kept on fussing and demurring all the time! If you think that it helped, I'm clueing you up now: you just made my life more difficult! That was the only thing you achieved with your behavior."
"I see," Caldwell still held her rough against the wall, "You suppose that the good reactions in danger are those when someone, like your dear Sheppard, risks an idiotic, suicidal plan."
"Firstly, I've had enough of your innuendos! John Sheppard is neither beloved nor dear to me in a way you suggest; he is only a good friend of mine. Anyway, my relationship to him is none of your business, so, please, stop hinting at it! Secondly, I don't like risky, foolish plans either, but there are situations when we must do something, and if we have no other choice, we have to venture the only plan we have. Thirdly, in such a case, if I make a hard decision which should inevitably be made, it is not the most pleasant thing if there is an argumentative colonel who spends his days constantly questioning my decision and playing the role of an affronted martyr!"
Caldwell did not answer, but he kept his strong grip so tightly that it began to cause pain in Weir's arms, or maybe it had already caused much pain, but until that moment she had not realized it, she was so deeply engaged in her rage. Now she winced and tried to free herself. Caldwell stirred, looking down at his hands holding Elizabeth roughly; it was obvious that - till this moment - he had not sensed either how forcefully he grabbed her.
"Sorry," he told her quietly, letting her free.
"It's okay," she answered, rubbing the painful spots on her arms. Caldwell turned away from her, and he sat down in the most distant corner of the cell; Doctor Weir leaned against the wall. They saw that staying silent would be the most delectable option for both of them.
For a while, they kept quiet, but then, suddenly, Caldwell quickened. He pulled a metal object out of his left pocket.
"I've nearly forgotten..." he muttered. "I have a pocket-knife with me which was overlooked by the Wraith who searched us for weapons." He opened the little knife. "We should make a plan how to use it for breaking free from this cell."
"That's impossible," Weir shook her head. "What the hell do you want to do with a tiny knife against these monsters and their complex technology?"
"I have no idea, but maybe we can find it out..." His voice faded, because a couple of Wraith soldiers appeared around the corner of the passage leading to their cell. Behind them, the Wraith captain came, his dark cloak was rustling around his ankles with every step he took.
"Colonel, please, put that knife away. If the Wraiths catch sight of it, they will shoot you down," Elizabeth whispered to Caldwell.
"It would be no problem for you, would it?" he asked coldly, but he obeyed, folding up the pocket-knife and slipping it back into his pocket.
"Arrogant jerk," Weir seethed, tilting her head to the side in a provocative manner. Caldwell got up from the corner, and he stepped indignantly in her direction. It seemed that they would have started arguing again, if the Wraiths had not reached their cell in time. The Wraith captain opened the entrance of their cell and went in, followed by his inferiors. Weir and Caldwell took a few steps backwards instinctively.
"I'm telling you what your situation is here," the captain said in a raspy, hostile voice. "We will take you and torture you until you tell us the coordinates where your fellows landed aboard our hive. Yes, we know about it, you don't need to pretend there was no virus planned to get sent into our system. You'd better take it from me: we have horrid ways to interrogate humans like you two. In the end, all the same how much willpower you have, you will tell us what we want. It's useless for you to go through that much pain for nothing. I'm giving you an alternative: you can tell me the coordinates now, in which case we won't hurt you at all. That's your only chance to avoid meaningless sufferings. So come on, give me the coordinates."
Weir and Caldwell looked at each other apprehensively, but they both stayed silent.
"You do not have much time to decide," the Wraith told them coolly. "I'll count to ten. If you don't tell me the coordinates in this time-period, I'll take away one of you for a debriefing... Believe me; you don't want it at all."
"We won't tell them to you," Doctor Weir answered in an immovable tone, "You don't need to count, that won't make us change our mind."
"Well, alright. Then, who will be the first to come with us?" The Wraith captain turned his monster-face to the two captives with an evil gleam in his eyes.
To Doctor Weir's greatest astonishment, at the very moment the question was asked, Caldwell stepped protectively between the Wraiths and her, with no hesitation at all.
"Take me," he told the captain.
"No!" Elizabeth protested instantly, and she stood beside him. She did not even think through what she was doing, she just acted according to her first emotional reaction. "Take me."
Caldwell shot a resentful glance at her. "Stay out of this," he told her coldly, "They should take me."
"No, I won't let it happen. I want them to torture me, not you!"
Caldwell turned to the Wraiths again. "Well, she doesn't know the proper coordinates, so if you want to get the real ones to find our associates, you should take me," he improvised.
"That's not true!" Doctor Weir shook her head. "I know the coordinates. You should take me. He is a tough soldier, so you won't ever get a word from him. Take me; I'm just a weak woman."
"Don't do this," Caldwell hissed at her angrily. "I don't want you to get tortured."
He pulled her forcefully behind him, shielding her from the Wraiths.
"And I don't want you to get tortured either," she answered in a feverish whisper, tugging Caldwell backwards, and she hustled in front of him, but at the same moment he pushed her back to her former place again. "Take me. Please, take me instead of him," she begged the Wraith captain.
"Shut up," Caldwell snarled and tried to keep her away from the Wraiths, but she fought really hard to change the position and to get back in front of him. Their hustle began to turn into a real fight as they both struggled more and more forcefully to have their will.
"How pathetic you human beings are," the Wraith captain growled. "I see that it's better if I make a decision." He gestured to his inferiors, "Bring the female one."
The soldiers grabbed Doctor Weir by her arms, and they drew her out of the cell. Caldwell stepped forward with the intention to attack the Wraiths, but Elizabeth told him calmly, "Don't do a thing." She seemed grotesquely happy that the Wraiths chose her instead of the colonel. "Let them take me away, I'm gonna be alright. I won't say a thing to them."
"We'll see," the Wraith captain snorted. "I guess you've never been tortured by Wraiths."
Caldwell pushed the Wraith to the moist wall, but the monster hit him back so fiercely that he flew across the cell and collapsed in the corner.
"Colonel!" Doctor Weir tried to rush to him to see if he was alright, but the Wraiths held her back, pulling her in the other direction.
The Wraith captain locked the cell. "You don't have to be impatient," he told Caldwell derisively. "If she dies from her torments, you'll be the next."
"You sick son of a bitch," Caldwell sat up, cursing. "If I ever get free, I will kill you with my own hands."
The Wraith turned away, following his inferiors, who were dragging Doctor Weir through the corridor. They carried the woman in the opposite room at the end of the passage. It was dark there, Caldwell could not see from his cell what that chamber exactly looked like. The curtain of meat-colored offshoots closed behind the Wraiths and their captive.
Two Wraith guards arrived at the end of the corridor to keep an eye on Caldwell. He got up from the floor, feeling the pain from the collision all over his body, but he did not care. He went to the entrance of the cell and hit the crooked, misshapen rails. It caused an electric discharge at the point where his palms touched the surface, and it burnt his hands.
He saw there was no use banging the rails, but the helpless anger in his heart made him wish he could break something into tiny pieces. He looked down at his palms, his skin turned into a shade of blood-red where the rails burnt them.
A shrill scream was audible from the opposite chamber, which showed Caldwell that the Wraiths were truly torturing Elizabeth Weir. He felt the blood freeze in his veins, he closed his eyes. Her screams were full of shrewd pain as they were echoing in the dun corridors. He hit the bars again. "Please, don't hurt her," he cried out, but he knew that it did not matter. The Wraith guards were standing still at the end of the passage.
He stood there for a while, just staring at the rails with dark repulsion. As some time passed, the numb bitterness of his powerlessness filled his heart; he flopped down onto the floor and pressed his hands on his ears not to hear her agonized shrieks. In his thoughts, he was begging Fate to end this suffering.
Later he grabbed his pocket-knife, and he tried to make plans again and again how to get out of the cell. If he broke free, maybe he could have a chance to save Doctor Weir as well...