Chapter 26 – Wraiths
The shades were gathering on the reddish-blue tissue of the walls. The noise of the engines was droning monotonously under the great hall of the super-hive's throne-room, the organic projections of the ship were vaporizing miasmatic steam into the air. The queen leaned back on her throne; her red hair was running down on her shoulders like fresh blood from a slashed artery.
Michael made a deep bow to her as he was walking down the hall.
"You called me," he started circumspectly, keeping his eyes carefully on the queen, as if she had been a dangerous beast ready to attack him anytime she felt like.
She slowly lifted her left hand to her chin, supporting her head lazily, while Michael was inching closer to her.
"It's about the captive of the humans, your trapped Wraith servant," she gave her reason for citing him to the throne room. "She escaped from the humans somehow."
Michael looked up at her in sheer surprise; he would never have believed Claire to regain her freedom in any way. The queen pressed a flat, orange-colored button with her bony fingers on the armrest of her throne, and a monitor appeared between two branches on the wall. The picture of Claire became visible on the screen as she was leisurely leaning against the console of the jumper stolen from Atlantis, pattering with the tip of her dark nails on the surface of the control panel bored.
"She asked for our permission to land aboard our hive," the queen explained to Michael, getting up and starting to walk down the organic stairs supporting her throne. "She had been ordered to serve you before she got captured, so now it's your task to decide if she can return to us or not."
Michael frowned. "I'm not sure if she deserves our trust anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"I couldn't see her exact thoughts, so I'm not certain if she tried to deceive us or what she really planned to achieve, but..."
"Well, she has always been cunning and dangerous," she nodded.
"I think we should simply kill her with a shot of the hive."
"Are you afraid of her?" the queen asked tauntingly. The question made Michael wince.
"I'm afraid of no one!" he barked at her resentfully, "Especially not of this calculating bitch!"
"Then, why don't you welcome her aboard our hive and try to find out her true intention?"
The half-Wraith shrugged, "I just don't think that she can be of any use to us."
The queen turned her eyes to the picture of Claire. "It's your job to decide if you want to let her come back or if you choose to kill her," she said, "but I want you to weigh every fact up."
Michael started to regret showing his negative attitude towards the humans' captive because he saw that the queen sympathized with her.
"The vanquished queen," she murmured, keeping her eyes on the screen.
"Don't call her a queen, she's not a queen anymore," Michael said acidly. "She was once the queen of a legion, but now she's just one of the servants."
"Don't underestimate her." She tilted her head slowly to the right side. "She still has the craft and the artifice she needed to control her army and to make the right decisions in sticky situations. She's cleverer than you suppose her to be."
"She can't be smarter than me! I have the talents of both the humans and the Wraiths."
"Albeit she has that pathetic affection for her necklace, she's clear-sighted in most circumstances. Be careful with her."
Michael shook his head. "Let me handle it, I know her. Let me talk to her."
The queen beckoned with approval, and she walked back to her throne. "If this is what you want, I'm giving you my permission. Go, and talk to her."
Michael was already furious since his plan had gone awry because Rodney McKay and the soldiers escorting the scientist arrived at a different place, not where Michael had supposed them to arrive at, what was more, they had not been found yet, and now the mysterious returning of Claire made him even more troubled. What the hell can that sly whore be up to? He wondered, cursing loud, as he was thinking of the dubious plan she had made up for the city of Atlantis. What was her true intention?
When he arrived at the lot where the Darts were resting, he slowed down and he disguised his previous thoughts. Claire was waiting for him at the left-hand side of the puddle jumper; the metal surface was mirroring the unfathomable lines of her face.
"So you're back, are you?" Michael asked with perceptible sharpness in his voice.
"I am." It was her only response.
"How could you escape from the humans?" I made sure that you would never make it through, he added in his thoughts ironically, I even told that idiotic doctor that you were the one to blame for the doom of his friends...
"They are as stupid and petty-minded as we have always suspected," she said quietly. "I easily found a way to leave."
Suddenly, the calmness disappeared from the face of the half-Wraith, and he pounced on her arms, dragging her after him across the narrow bridges connecting the Darts until they reached the entrance. He pushed her against the wall, making her head hit the frame.
"Did you think you could hide your pathetic plan from me?" he snapped at her. "You meant to help the humans! You tried to lead them aboard our hive!"
"Look at me," Claire replied coldly. "They even took away my necklace, the only thing I've ever cared for in my whole life - they destroyed it. You have no idea how much I hate them."
Michael turned his eyes to her bare neck, and his fury passed away instantly. "Oh, poor girl," he told her mockingly. "They took away your little treasure. What a pity. What can you do without it now?"
She gnashed her teeth. "You know how important it was for me," she said with loathing on her face, "And they took it away from me. You should believe me; I'd never do anything to help those bastards."
Michael knew very well how much she worshipped the pendant, and he felt sure now that she would never try to save Atlantis, if the humans were really dumb enough to destruct her beloved jewel. "You were once the queen of a Wraith legion," he whispered, "If there hadn't been that accidental crash of the two mother ships of your army in the northern battle, you would still be the leader of the greatest force in our alliance. I appreciate that you still keep on fighting, even though you lost everything in that unfortunate battle, but sometimes it makes me wonder what is really left for you..."
"The only thing that kept me alive was my necklace, otherwise I would have killed myself after the loss of my army like any other queen would have done in my place, but... but I had that jewel... It made me feel special. It was the only thing that mattered to me."
"Alright, I believe you," he told her silently, letting her free. His nails left bluish snicks in her skin, making thin blood-streams leak down on her arms. She did not show any sign of feeling the pain of it, she stepped next to the half-Wraith calmly.
"All I want is to see them suffer," she whispered, sneering. "Can you show me where you keep your captives? I want to see them get killed."
"Yes, you deserve a bit of fun," Michael smiled at her with the same cruelty. "If you wish, you can kill one of them with your own hands, I'll leave the pleasure of it to you. The others are mine."
She burst into a contented, mordant laughter, "I don't know how to thank you for your gratefulness. I can't wait to see their misery." She took away the stun gun from one of the guards standing in the doorway, and she followed Michael out of the lot for the Darts, along a shady, damp passage.