John felt sticky, hot and filthy as he trudged along a step behind Todd. His pants clung to the front of his thighs and his under shirt was plastered to his torso so well that he was sure that it would have to be surgically removed when he go back to Atlantis. That was if he got back, and it was starting to look like a big if. He was beginning to get that funny little inkling that Todd was going to screw them over at any second.
In front of him, the Wraith walked along at a casual but brisk pace. He didn't seem bothered by the heat, other than the slightly damp look his hair had started to take on and the sweat beading around his hairline. It was moments like these that he sorely wished Teyla was with him. She had gotten pretty good at seeing past Todd's bullshit.
What was he thinking? He had a Wraith right behind him. With a little sweet talk, he might just get her to pull some alien mind tricks and find out what his brother is really up to. He just needed a break to get her away from Jennifer for a bit, and out of ear shot of Todd.
He looks over his shoulder to see her still arm locked with Jennifer. Rodney had caught up to them and the three were talking, though far too softly for him to catch anything but half words. Not enough for him to know what they were talking about.
"Do you think he had anything to do with those monsters?" Jennifer asks.
"I doubt it. The facility is controlled by the Alliance. It would be idiotic to destroy one of their facilities," the Wraith murmurs in reply.
She reaches down and tears the hem of her robe, pulling away a thick strip of the off-white cloth. Briefly releasing Jennifer's arm, she ties it over the woman's head to keep her scalp from burning. "Do you know which Queen he follows?"
"He's pretty much the head of the Alliance, unless he found a Queen since we last met up," Rodney replies, taking note from the Wraith and pulling off his jacket to cover the top of his already red scalp.
"Really?" she asks, surprised and fighting the urge to snicker at the man who had tied his jacket by the sleeves under his chin.
"Yeah, he used one of our people to take over."
The Wraith frowns and looks at Todd, who paused in mid stride to shake something with eight legs from his foot before continuing. "He is a strange breed. How does his crew function without the Queen to control the cycles and web flow?"
Jennifer wasn't sure what cycles she was talking about, but assumed she had meant the mating cycles. "They seem to be fine, from what we've seen."
"Hey," John says, slowing his pace so he came within earshot of the three. "What are you all plotting back here?"
"We're just trying to figure out what Todd is up to," Jennifer says quietly, glancing past John at Todd's broad shouldered back. He had not seemed to noticed Sheppard's absence, or did not care.
"Good luck with that," he mutters and falls in closer to them. He felt a sense of safeness in a group. The Wraith behind him added to that security, and he found it odd that he thought of her in that manner. She could just as easily knock the shit out of him and turn him into a happy meal in a second.
"Hey Oli…"
"Helena," the Wraith interrupts, before he can get the whole name out.
"Helena?" he asks, looking pointedly at Rodney.
She nods and offers him a tight lipped smile. "If you insist on giving me a name, then I would like to be called something of my liking. Your Doctor McKay substituted a pleasant sounding label."
"Okie dokie then, Helena, can I talk to you in private for a second?" he asks, then looks at Rodney, "Could you distract Todd for a few?"
The Wraith narrows her eyes in thought as she looks down at the scruffy haired human. Eventually, she inclines her head and falls back, letting Rodney and Jennifer ahead of her to catch up to Todd.
"What is it?" she asks as Sheppard walks beside her, smelling very heavily of sweat and some chemical odor coming from his hair. To be honest, she found it extremely offensive, but gave no indication of her discomfort with his proximity.
"Both you and I know Todd is bound to be up to something, and it's rubbing me the wrong way. With all those kids dead and those monsters, what would he want huh?"
She furrows her brows and looks past the two humans ahead of her at Todd, who was speaking to Rodney. "I would not have been so inclined to think ill of him if he had not come alone."
"Exactly. I know the old bastard can take care of himself, but going into something like that is iffy."
"Is this all you wanted to discuss with me, your distrust in him?"
"No. I wanted to ask you a favor," John says, giving her a side long glance.
"And what will I get in return for this favor?"
"Isn't a way off this planet good enough?"
"I would have eventually found my way to a more hospitable location whether you showed up or not."
John sighs and rubs his hand over his face. "What do you want?"
"In addition to safe passage, I would like to be escorted to a breeding facility."
"You really like taking care of kids, huh?"
The Wraith tilts her head in a half nod, "I have no desire to become a Queen. Now, what is this favor you want?"
"I want you to find out what he's up to."
"How?"
John looks at her, perplexed. "Aren't you Wraith telepathic?"
"Yes."
"Well, do your mind search thing and fish out the motive."
The Wraith frowns at him and sighs, "I cannot just delve into another Wraith's mind without him opening it to me willingly. A human is easy to read because they lack the mental capabilities to block out an intrusion."
Jennifer stifles a yawn as she listens to Rodney and Todd discuss the accelerated growth chambers of the cloning facility they had destroyed a six months ago. She looks over her shoulder at Helena. Mama Helena, she giggles inwardly at the name, finding it fitting. The Wraith looked exasperated while she spoke, like a preschool teacher who was a month away from retiring.
"How do you know if a Queen will give birth to a female?" she asks, cutting Rodney off. Todd's responses were starting to become snappy. She blamed the heat, since he seemed to be able to put up with Rodney for hours back on air conditioned Atlantis.
"The process it takes to create a female is different;" Todd says flatly then growls in warning as Rodney mutters "obviously," "A Drone requires no fertilization to create, while a viable male and female do. Males only require a week cycle's worth of nutrients to develop, and the females have need of it for their entire development."
"So it's costly to make one in a Hive?"
He nods curtly before shaking his head to clear his neck of the hair that began to cling to it. "You brought enough rations to sustain yourselves for more than a day, yes?"
"We have some power bars and water," Rodney mutters, still upset over the ban of bringing chocolate bars off world.
Todd sighs, just a slight exhale of air from his wide nostrils, and looks at Sheppard and the female. "Inform your Colonel Sheppard that we will need to take shelter until nightfall."
The sun was directly overhead when they found a suitable location. It was Rodney, to everyone's surprise, who found it. With a rather shrill yelp, he had dropped waist deep into a well hidden cave tucked between two of the red conical rocks.
It was cramped, with a ceiling only five feet high, but it provided protection from the blistering heat.
While Rodney sat off to one corner with Jennifer, red faced and complaining; John had sidled up by Todd and Helena. The female had pulled off her white over robe and shook it out before placing it behind her as a cushion. John couldn't help but admire her slender form squeezed into that tight black suit.
He thought himself sly, absorbing her from the corner of his eye as he pretended to watch the cave entrance. Her breasts were beautifully curved, but small. He preferred them to be bigger, a nice bouncy D cup, but she was thin; so much so that he could see the smooth bumps of her hip bones through the mystery fabric. What was that anyway? It couldn't be leather.
Her face wasn't as nice. Her features were strong, though they suited her personality, but he just couldn't think of her face as lovely. The Queens he had seen before were slight, with delicate features and plump lips. Helena had a long nose, with narrow nostrils framed by large sensory pits. Her lips were thin and dry and not at all kissable. Those creepy eyes turned and looked directly at him, narrowing. She lifts her hairless brows as if to ask 'what?'
Shit.
"What are those suits made out of?" he asks quickly.
Helena frowns, "It is a synthetic fabric made in the supply factories, it is heat resistant and durable enough to withstand the sandstorms here, among many things."
She leans forward, close to his face. "Go sit with your friends Colonel," she hisses softly. Her breath was foul, like sour milk and rancid meat. "If you want me to glean anything from him, I'd prefer you not within proximity."
John got it and fought back the strong urge to gag. Didn't Wraith brush their teeth? No. No, he didn't think so, not with the way those nasty fangs looked. Like a fucking shark from hell.
He obligingly shuffles over to the other side of the small cave. He could hear Helena's voice behind him, the soft wavering murmur between her and Todd. She had gotten to work fast. That was good.
"What'd she get on you about?" Jennifer asks.
"Looking at her tits."
"She's a Wraith," Rodney states, as if disgusted.
"So? They have all the same parts. Don't they?"
"Actually…" Jennifer starts to say before John cuts her off with a "You know, never mind, I really don't want to know."
"They just have a vestigial ovipositor where the clitoral hood should but, but it's the males who are more different," she finishes with a hidden grin. "Well, Todd is at least."
"What?" Rodney gasps, "How do you know?"
"I've had to examine him, Rodney. Woolsey's orders."
"Did you really have to look…down there?"
John bit back a snort of laughter.
"With his past history of hiding weapons, yeah, I did Rodney."
"Trust me, Rodney; I wouldn't want that anywhere near me," she assures him.
"You've know these humans long?" Helena asks, glancing over to the group across from them.
Todd's answer was a low, thrumming, "Mmhm."
She sighs inwardly. She had only managed to get one or two word answers from him so far. Her Overseer had been talkative and very open. The memory triggered a knot in her stomach to rise to her throat, almost choking her. Helena, not in her years would she have considered that her day would be spent sharing a cave with a Commander and a trio of humans.
The change in emotion seemed to have drawn his attention. "You feel loss over possible rivals?" he asks her, his head tilted every so slightly in her direction.
"I have not been chosen in over a decade, I doubt I'd ever see…have seen them as rivals," she says sharply.
"So you would waste the resource you could bring to our race to become a Keeper?"
She narrows her eyes. "I'd rather live my life with purpose and not be some ignorant, pampered, brood Queen."
Todd gave the Wraith equivalent of an eye roll, "Is that what your Overseer has been feeding you?" he chuckles hoarsely. "He must have wanted you to himself."
"He would never," she hisses, leaning towards him with her teeth bared.
"A proper Overseer can negotiate for the worst of females," he says flatly, not flinching under her aggressive display. It was all a load of hot air, and he had seen it far more times than he cared to count. Only the old Queens posed a threat, for they were taught in the proper manner. These young females were far too soft, too domesticated.
Helena wrinkles her nose and slumps back in her spot. She could not think of a biting comeback and she did not know him well enough to find what would hurt him most. "How far is it to the gate?" she asks finally.
"At a human's pace, a four hour walk."