Monarchy

AN: This chapter's been almost-finished for a long time. Now it's all-finished. By the way, any Wraith cultural references and/or names I use in this chapter are actually canon. I'm going to be using as much as I can from what little we've learned from the Sixth Season books. Not 'cause I'm not creative or anything, but...yeah. Um. Who are you again?

Chapter Two: Silence

Their eyes locked intently, roiling anger piercing a cool, calm lake of contempt. Todd's feeding hand trembled inches from Teyla's collar, barely restrained by its owner. He had his other hand on the back of the throne, snarling down at her.

"Clearly, you are well aware that killing me means you will die, surely as I," she said to him fearlessly. "You must either tell them about our plan to deceive them from the beginning, or admit to traitorously murdering their new Queen. Which offense do you believe they would consider the lesser evil?"

With a bark of frustration, the old commander pushed away and turned his back on her. He curled his hand into a calculated fist. "I am not going to simply stand by and witness you relish the deaths of my brethren!" he snapped.

"Why would I be happy that your Hive ship was destroyed?" she demanded, irritation lacing her voice.

This surprised him. Greatly. He did not hide his dubious astonishment as her turned his face back to the false queen sitting upon a dead queen's throne. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I say, and do not ask me to repeat myself, for I do not take kindly to such pointlessness," she hissed through her teeth.

Unperturbed, he glanced her over with reproachful yellow eyes. "You would mourn the loss of Wraith lives?"

"Every Wraith who dies means more innocent people are spared, this I will not deny I find comforting. But if you are suggesting that I revel in the deaths of thousands of potential allies simply out of spite for your kind, then you are a fool. Did I not have the chance to escape with my team and return to Atlantis?"

After a long pause, he said, "Yes, you did."

"And did I not choose instead to return here, to continue this charade despite knowing the risks involved?"

"Indeed," he replied slowly.

"Then tell me if you still doubt my intention to carry through with the mission as we agreed. If that is not convincing enough, then I may as well take my leave now."

Chilling silence filled the queen's chamber and he finally nodded his head. "That will not be necessary. I no longer have a Hive ship where I can return to lick my wounds in peace, or postulate my Queen's existence from my kind. For now, we must...extend our arrangement."

She stared at him coolly.

"But," he went on more forcefully. "To be a Queen for a day is one matter. Queen for two days another. If you are to be Wraith, you must begin to think like Wraith. You must act like Wraith. Most importantly, you must rule over all matters a Wraith Queen is expected to rule. There is much you must learn that I doubt you will understand. Now, let us start at the beginning!"

The trip back to Atlantis had been very quiet.

Since leaving the Hive ship, having no choice but to escape before they were captured a second time, Sheppard had been unable to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth. His teeth ached. His head was throbbing. Everything had pretty much gone to hell, and their attempt to rescue their missing teammate had only ended in expensive repairs to Caldwell's ship and the loss of Todd's 'friendly' Wraith allies.

Not to mention Teyla.

The Daedalus had beamed them to the nearest planet with a Stargate, and they had 'gated back to Atlantis. It wasn't normal procedure, to make the ship go hours out of its way just to send them home, but the circumstances were special. They had to get back to the city and debrief, start looking for leads, plan a rescue, that sort of thing.

Blue puddle. Disorientation. Atlantis.

"Tell me what you've got, Doc," said Sheppard, moments after stepping out of the event horizon into the Gate room. Zelenka, his go-to guy since they'd established a connection back on the Daedalus, was already pacing towards him.

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but the long-range scanners are still not picking up Todd's sub-space transmitter. They could be out of range, but-"

"They weren't out of range this morning," the Colonel finished as he stopped in his tracks.

"Yes. The likelihood that a Hive ship could travel outside the long-range scanners grid in less than a day is..."

"Yeah, I get it." Sheppard couldn't, or wouldn't blame Radek for not being able to locate Teyla straight away. Still, he was starting to wish he had put his foot down when he insisted Teyla bring her own transmitter along. He hated the idea of sending her into that Hive without a backup plan, and sure enough, now it was biting them in the ass. Hard. He looked over at McKay. "Rodney."

McKay had his computer in his hands already and the two scientists joined Sheppard as they climbed the stairs together—Ronon was being pulled away for his minor injuries by Dr. Keller. Woolsey was already waiting for them and Sheppard stopped him before he could say a word.

"I know you want to start debriefing now, Woolsey, but Dr. McKay and Zelenka need to act now. Teyla's life depends on this."

Maybe it was the harshness of they way he spoke, the determined 'do not resist' tone he took when saying it, but for once Richard Woolsey didn't push pull back on the leadership tug-of-war. "All right," he said instead, looking grim. "But I expect full reports from each member of your team—all of them, when this is through. Also, you and I are going to discuss the mission now. Briefing room in five, Colonel."

That gave Sheppard enough time to get back to Rodney and Zelenka, who were working furiously side-by-side. With minimal chatter. That alone was unsettling, because when those two worked together without arguing it meant the situation had to be serious. Which it was. "Come on guys, keep me up to speed."

"Colonel, it's hard enough trying to pinpoint the last known location of dead or dying subspace transmitter down to a reasonable margin of error within oh, say fifty million square kilometers without your constant nagging," Rodney snapped at him. He hadn't taken his eyes off the screen he was working on or his fingers off the console. He added, muttering pessimistically, "Even if we do find it, it's not like it's going to give us any clue as to where to start looking."

"No, but we know Todd disabled it after they jumped away. Their ship is damaged. They won't be able to jump again for a while."

"That's assuming he did disable it after they jumped. We don't know how long they were in hyperspace! Or how badly their ship was damaged. He could have disabled it while they were jumping! And by the way, if he did, then not only is it going to be next to impossible to find the last known location, but it will also be completely and utterly useless to us."

Sheppard didn't bite back. It was pointless to bother. One, because Rodney was mostly right. Todd was in serious trouble and the only way out of it for him was Teyla, the 'Queen' of now destroyed Hive of buddies. There was now way in hell he'd let them track them down this easily when it meant his cover would be blown.

And two, because finding Teyla was just the first step. It was practically a footnote in the book of rescuing a lost teammate.

"Fine," he sighed. His voice felt raspy for some reason. "Radek, can you get your people working on an analysis of the Hive's damage? I don't think we had time for a full scan, but—"

"It is already being done," the Czech scientist assured him, offering the weakest flash of a smile he could over his shoulder. "We will find her, Colonel."

He could feel a dozen eyes staring at him, expecting him to do just that, wondering what his next move would be, and Sheppard found himself wondering if finding her would be enough.

Guide had learned from his recent dealings with his human 'allies' a great deal about human females that he almost wished he could forget. It was rare to find two human females who were even remotely alike. Not only in appearance, but the manner in which they behaved varied to an extreme most irritating. For Dr. Keller's naive, deer-like antics to Dr. Weir's poised, remarkably unshakable bearing. This human unpredictability was what made Atlantis so very dangerous, and yet so very useful.

Another important lesson to bear in mind was their hierarchy. There was so very many females, but their Queens were few. They had blade and clevermen plenty, but they also had...the extras. Classes of humans who had no clear reason to exist. A blade was a blade, meant to defend his queen in the name of his honor and rank. Clevermen like himself were meant to lead by example, create and dismantle. The cloned drones were their first battery of defense, and the reason Wraith had prevailed over Lanteans ten thousand years ago.

Farmers. Craftsmen. Priests. Children. Merchants. Politicians.

The Young Queen had assimilated to his new round of instructions with a great deal of impatience. She had snapped at him on more than one occasion, once threatening to summon other blades to remove him from her presence. There was no questioning who was in charge and she knew very well the extent of her power over him. Despite this, she had ceased trying to sense his thoughts since the time of his—former—Hive's demise. This in itself was a purely human reaction. He would have to make her see reason.

When he returned to the queen's chambers, he brought with him a parcel swaddled in cloth. He was not particularly surprised to find her pacing the length of the room. Good. She was doubting herself, her decision to remain on board. It would do well to have her reminded that reckless decisions had adverse results.

"The ship's repairs are proceeding well," he informed her as he stood in the center of the chamber to watch her move. "Are you hungry?"

Teyla whirled on him with a flash of incredibly anger; clearly, she thought his question was some fashion of jest about her appearance as a Wraith Queen. He mad a disgruntled sound. "There is on board this ship an ample supply of preserved human foods. It is not so unusual for a Queen to send for one of the more pleasing delicacies. Female Wraith are raised on human food, and they acquire a...taste for such things."

It had been nearly a full day since she last ate, and her hunger was no doubt strong. It would be greedy hunger, of course, as the body craves the food it is accustomed to daily. True hunger would not set in for some many days. Still, she stared him down defiantly and made no move to take parcel from him.

"Leave it," she stated flatly, instead.

With no more drive to take offense from her actions, he tilted his head. "As you wish," he replied and turned to leave. After a few paced, he slowly turned back. "This Hive ship's crew is growing restless," he reported and made his impatience clear in his voice. "The recent string of events has led them to believe that you are too young a Queen to guide this alliance. There has been talk of the end of the alliance, and returning to the old ways. We must summon the heads of each faction to your presence and make no more delay of it." His eyes flickered over her, grudgingly. "I suggest you eat and increase your strength. You will need it."

The doors to the chamber hissed closed behind him as the Young Queen lashed a wave of mental wrath in his wake. Despite his sorrow, Guide chuckled dryly at her foolishness and walked down the dark corridor.

TBC