The muse is impatiently singing an aria. I can't keep up.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Angel returned to the room about four minutes after leaving, bearing a large vial of something. A bracket was grown on the wall, and she put the vial in the bracket before drawing a small amount with an injector.
"What is that stuff?" Max asked, concerned.
"Adrenaline," Angel replied dismissively, "It works similar to a cup of coffee, but far faster and doesn't need creamer." So saying, she carefully injected Sheppard with a portion of adrenaline, causing his to wake up rather quickly.
After he calmed down somewhat, remembering everything that had happened, Angel injected McKay, who said something about firewalls and Wraith programming before rolling over and going back to sleep.
"He's a heavy sleeper," Sheppard shrugged, grinning.
"I can see that..." Angel said, injecting the other two. They woke, combat ready before settling down at a word from Sheppard. "What can you tell me about the Replicator labs on Atlantis?"
Sheppard raised an eyebrow. "What?" She was about to repeat herself, but Sheppard stopped her, "I know what you said, why do you want to know?"
"Because I need a batch of Replicators," Angel stated simply, "It is likely that they will be able to be adapted to my needs far easier than other pieces of equipment."
"And why do you need them?" Sheppard asked.
"You have a thing for details, don't you John?" Angel asked.
"I like details," Sheppard defended. Behind him, Max smirked, barely holding in her chuckles of laughter.
"I need to be able to communicate with Atlantis without having her commandeer someone's body to speak with me. If we were to do that, it's likely that Atlantis would slowly destroy the souls of whoever she commandeers to speak with me. Do you understand now?" Angel asked with clearly exaggerated patience.
"Yes, I do," Sheppard said smugly, "Thank you."
Angel just rolled her eyes before going back to the large vial and refilling the injector with adrenaline. Once again, she stuck it in McKay, and this time, she pushed the full load of the injector into his bloodstream, causing him to fly off the bed.
"Hiiiiiii-ya!" he cried, landing on another bed and bouncing back up.
"Who knew he was a ninja?" Angel mused.
"With stealth like that he's not," Max said, chuckling.
"Total amateur," Fang agreed.
"Very funny," McKay sneered.
"Calm down, McKay." Angel said. "We're all friends here."
"And friends don't let friends rag on friends!" McKay retorted.
"I have no adequate response to that..." Iggy said sagely.
"I need your help with some work involving the Replicators," Angel said seriously. That brought everybody out of the joking mood.
"What, are they loose in this galaxy?" he asked. "I thought they were all shut down."
"You misunderstand," Angel said, "I need some for myself."
"You want to rig up communications between yourself and Atlantis, using Nanites as the go-between!" McKay said, snapping his fingers. "And there are labs on Atlantis for Nanites!"
"You got it!" Angel replied.
"So what was the injection made of?" McKay asked, apprehension creeping into his voice, "Because if it was citrus, then you should know that I'm deathly alergic."
"The injection was straight adrenaline, it counteracts the sedative agent I used to make you fall asleep before administering the gene therapy. Also, you're not allergic to citrus!" Angel announced proudly.
"Wait, I'm not? Since when?" McKay asked. "You fixed it?"
"Yes McKay, I fixed it. Now can we get back to more important things?" Angel asked impatiently.
"Sure!" McKay said.
"Due to the range of my telepathic abilities, I performed a close pass by the star, so as to collect more energy." Angel said, as the group filed out of the chamber. "I've been working on my aircraft contingent for some time now. I think you'll like them. I've also been working on a lab for McKay, a lab away from lab so to speak."
"Isn't it 'home away from home'?" Sheppard asked, slightly confused.
"Yes, but McKay spends so much time in his lab that it's become his home, so I just switched home for lab," Angel explained. They entered a rather large room, almost as large as the hangar the Jumpers were in.
"Welcome to the bridge!" she said, sweeping her arm out in a grand motion.
"That looks…that looks like a…That's a drone control chair!" Sheppard said.
"And we have a winner.." McKay said sarcastically.
There were some differences in the chair; namely, it was grown as a part of the ship, green, and had two trapezoidal holes in it where the wings would be if the user was a human-avian hybrid. Forward of the chair there were two consoles, five feet apart from each other, while aft of the chair were another five consoles, four blended, facing towards the wall, and the fifth facing towards the chair.
There were three doors on the opposite wall, and two doors on the side the group was standing on. The floor seemed to be split in two sections. The outer ring was canted rather strongly front-to-back, while the center section, where the chair and the two forward consoles were, was flat. The lighting was a heavy blue, and somewhat dim.
The group got to the center of the room, where McKay proceeded to slowly look around the entire room.
"Let me guess," he said, "you took the idea from yesterday's Enterprise?"
Angel just raised an eyebrow with a slight grin, "Maybe..."
Max cautiously sat down in the drone chair, and relaxed slightly, it was far more comfortable than it appeared.
"Why isn't it reclining?" Sheppard asked.
"Because we aren't in a combat situation, so for now it's just the captain's chair," Angel replied.
Gazzy and Iggy sat down in front of the forward consoles, which illuminated and began scrolling text.
Nudge moved to the console behind the chair, and tapped it, whereupon it lit up, also scrolling text.
"Come on," Angel said, walking around the back of the room, "I want to show you what's been done in the hangar."
Those who weren't manning a console followed Angel as the doors opened. It lead to a circular room, filled with a pulsing blue-green light. As soon as they were all inside, Angel touched a node by the door and the pod dropped quickly before slowing to a stop and then sliding sideways. When it stopped again, the doors opened to a hallway.
Angel led the group down the hall another fifty feet before opening another door. "Welcome to the hangar!~" she said happily. Ledges had been grown out of he aft bulkhead, and two of the ledges were occupied by Jumpers. Resting on the deck a new spacecraft, bearing a strange resemblance to the fighter planes of Earth, gleaming in the lights.
"Wow..." Sheppard managed at last.
"Now you've got a fighter instead of a minivan," Angel joked. "It carries four plasma cannons, can dial and fly through Stargates, seats three, and has a culling beam with enough storage for three hundred Wraith. If you manage to pick some up, I have a good use for them."
"Like what?" McKay asked, curious.
"Not telling," Angel replied firmly. "Don't bother trying to wear me down, it won't work."
"Damn..." McKay sulked.
"We'll look at crew quarters later, but they mainly consist of a small compartments suitable for fragile things, a space for clothes to be hung, and a bed," Angel said. "Right now, we need to return to Atlantis."
"Yeah, I forgot to call in when I woke up. I imagine Dr. Wier is starting to get anxious," Sheppard said facetiously.
"Nah, I told her what was going on; she's cool about it," Angel said casually. "But we really do need to return. There's some discussion that needs to be done."
"Okay…" Sheppard said at last, "that's not creepy at all."
A small platform was waiting at the ground level to transport the group up to the second level. It lumbered up to the second level with Sheppard's team and Iggy aboard.
After a few moments, the Jumpers powered up and dropped down to the lower level where Max and her family boarded Iggy's Jumper, and then the doors opened to an airlock. There the Jumpers paused while the inner doors cycled closed and the outer hull doors opened.
The Jumpers landed in the Atlantis hangar without incident, though Iggy realized he could actually see shortly after his hand left the yoke.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
The group settled into chairs in the conference room, and Dr. Wier joined them moments later.
"It is my understanding that you have all been genetically altered slightly?" Dr. Wier asked.
"That is correct," Teyla said. "Angel explained the process to us, and we agreed, of our free will, to have the procedure done."
"Have you seen any changes?" Dr. Wier asked.
"Aside from the fact that I feel like I'm on top of the world, not really," Sheppard said, leaning back. He scratched at his neck for a moment. "Add a slight itch," he muttered.
"May I see it?" Dr. Wier asked, interested.
"It's just an itch," Sheppard protested.
"More likely it's your tattoo," Dr. Wier said, leaning forward.
"It's just an itch!" Sheppard said firmly.
"I am experiencing a similar sensation on my neck as well." Teyla said, leaning forward.
"Me too," Ronon replied.
"And I'm guessing that you are also feeling an itch, McKay?" Wier asked.
"Yes…" McKay said, mystified. "I'm surprised I didn't noticed it earlier."
The Flock were whispering among each other. "We all seem to be feeling it, but it's just a minor annoyance."
"Yeah, that's your tattoo, more than likely," Dr. Wier said. "Angel told me about it. I just wanted to see it now so I wouldn't be asking what seemed to be a stupid question later."
Sheppard just shook his head in annoyance, and it was Ronon who turned so that Wier could see. It was a feather, with nasty-looking barbs on it, and a drop of blood just hanging onto the calamus.
Dr. Wier turned an incredulous eye towards where the illusion of Angel was sitting. Angel just casually shrugged.
"Ok..." Dr. Wier said. "So what do you know so far?"
"I know that the Wraith empire is fractured, much the Goa'uld were in the Milky Way. They've got too many people vying for food, and there has been cannibalism amongst the various factions," Angel announced. "I also know that I am stronger than any other hive. I can stay in hyperspace for about an hour longer than any other hive in the galaxy, and I am capable of mentally overwhelming their troops, or at least blocking their queens. I know that you see the Angel that was here before, Dr. Wier, but I feel the need deep within my core to end them, and I don't particularly care how I go about doing so. You can either help me or reject me, but the war against the Wraith just got far uglier for them. Also, I need help with your Replicator labs."
"What sort of help?" Dr. Wier asked briskly.
"I need about five pounds of Replicator Nanites," Angel replied smoothly. "I cannot communicate well with Atlantis, and I need to have that back. The link will be a little more mechanical in nature, but will serve the same purpose."
"I see..." Dr. Wier replied.
"I'll see to it that McKay gets the coding needed for the object," Angel said. "I just need a communication device that Atlantis will be able to recognize."
There was a long pause as everyone seemed to be wrapped up in their own thoughts. At last, Angel spoke again. "I am sending you all the data I have on Wraith technology, physiology, tactics, weapons…everything. You should be able to use the information to create an even bigger advantage."
"It's starting to sound like this won't be a war anymore Angel, just a one-sided pummeling," Dr. Wier said with a slight smile.
Angel looked coldly at Dr. Wier. "The Wraith are a blight that must be exterminated. I don't care if it does end up one-sided, so long as we win. They know there's a 'promised land' of sorts, and they are looking for it. They want Earth, and that's not something I'll allow. Have I made myself clear?"
Dr. Wier blinked, surprised. "Yes," she said, "I didn't know you felt that strongly about it."
Angel softened somewhat. "Look at it this way," she said, "I'm one part human-avian hybrid, whose mission has been to assist in the saving of the world, which has been done multiple times on the internal front, rather than the galactic front. I am one part Lantean city-ship, whose mission has been to prevent the Wraith from accessing Earth, and I am one part Wraith Hive ship. The first part shows in how I present myself to you, the other two parts account for the changes in my character, and the last part shows in my current physical form. There is little left in me that is human Dr. Wier, meaning that I have little to no use for politics. I will put up
with it, when it's the only way, but I would rather not play with politics at all if possible. I have a mission, and I will fulfill it by any means necessary."
Dr. Wier shuddered. "Remind me to never get on your bad side..." she muttered.
"On a different topic entirely, will someone open the garage door? I'm bringing down the craft I showed Sheppard earlier."
Sheppard exited the room quickly, returning several moments later. "Okay, the door's open."
"So what does it look like?" Dr Wier queried.
"A strange cross between an F-22 and a TIE fighter." McKay said. "With Wraith design elements thrown in for good measure."
"Sounds interesting," Dr. Wier said. "How many does it seat?"
"Front seat, back seat, and passenger," Angel replied, "with storage space for three hundred. It can outdo a standard Dart in maneuvering, speed, firepower, and survivability, while an F-302 would be hard pressed to keep up. Jumpers are largely inferior except in the overall internal size class. A Jumper can hold quite a bit of gear, while my craft would have to lock onto an organic target such as a human or a Wraith in order to pick up gear such as scientific instruments or weapons. Additionally, it could severely screw up scientific equipment."
"Do you have a name for it?" Dr. Wier asked.
"Blood Eagle," Angel said. "But if you'd prefer a military designation…F/I-1220."
"F.I.?" John asked.
"Fighter-Interceptor." Angel replied.
"Oh…right."
The meeting broke up, with everyone going their separate ways, though Angel merely dissipated, returning her attention to herself.
She now had her bridge crew, and provided nothing serious were to happen, that would have been more than enough. However, she was a full-grown Hive, and there was no way in hell she was going to be relegated to cargo work around backwater planets to avoid detection. No, she had made her mission clear, and she just had to finish polishing her plans before destroying the Wraith.
There was one disadvantage that she had to iron out, which was the fact that she could not tap into her crew for healing the way a standard Hive could. She hoped that it would never come to that, but began storing energy everywhere she could as a backup plan in case she couldn't come up with anything else.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
That's done, now for Answers to Readers:
GallifreyanGhostGirl: Glad to have you back on the reviewer list! As far as the 'bedhead' comment goes, The Layman used it before, and I thought it was cool so I used it.
Forsaken By All: I apologize to all those reading this, apparently, I have killed awesomeness, which means that nothing will ever be awesome again, with possible exception to Chuck Norris, who is capable of preserving a small pocket of awesomeness around himself.
And now for The Layman's snide comment of the day!
I'm actually surprised you haven't been using more of the things I put in the original six chapters, but I'm glad someone still gets a kick out of it.