Chapter 8
Helena's fingers move skillfully through the fine strands, as she works Ivory's hair back into a braid. It's still a bit wavy from being tied for a long time. After securing her work with a hair tie, she runs her hands over Ivory's exposed shoulders.
She's wearing her bodice, but substituted the skirt for her usual leather pants.
"Oh, my beloved," Helena breathes against her neck. "how beautiful you are."
Ivory turns her head to the side, and responds by planting a kiss on her lover's nose.
"You have been swooning over me all night, love." she scolds. "I cannot leave you alone ever again, if you're all over me like this when I return."
"That accomplishes all my goals." Helena purrs, but shifts back to let Ivory stand up. "Regardless... we should go to the bridge. I'm sure, Erinya will be delighted to see you."
"So, she's home?" Ivory inquires, while slipping into her boots.
"Mhm. Along with Guide. We 'hold him prisoner', for Atlantis." Helena confirms, and peels herself off the bed as well.
"You successfully conned your way to their trust. I am impressed." There's a playful glint in Ivory's eye; Helena knows, she didn't doubt her for a second.
"As I do."
She smiles, hooks her arm with Ivory's, and they leave their quarters together.
Most of the crew gets up and turns toward them, when they reach the bridge, save for Erinya and Guide, who still brood over Ivory's data.
"Ah, good to see you, Ivory." Erinya greets her. "Or do I address you with 'your Majesty' now?"
"Please do not. I have enough of that on my Hive." she responds. "I see, you... both have recovered?"
Erinya nods, and Guide finally lifts his eyes from the data.
"We have, together." he responds, sounding very much like he's not willing to linger on that subject. "I have been analyzing your data ever since I got here. It makes no sense. None of this even remotely suggests use for something tangible."
"I know." Ivory walks up behind them as she speaks, so she can read along. "My clevermen came to the same conclusion. It is something, but nobody knows what."
"Which is precisely why we're headed for the outer areas of Queen Death's territory." Helena adds, taking her Captain's Seat. "I hope to gather more readings on another Hive of hers."
Guide looks up.
"She will not tolerate our trespassing." he informs her sharply, and Helena shrugs.
"She wants us dead already, what more can she do?" she responds. "We'll act carefully, and remain camouflaged."
"Camouflage?" he inquires, cocking his head to the side. "That's Ancient technology, is it not?"
Erinya lightly places a hand on his wrist.
"It's... inspired by the Ancients, yes, but it works differently." she explains softly. "We have altered our hull in a way that prevents light from reflecting off it, meaning, we may not be undetectable by sensors, but we are invisible to the naked eye. It'll buy us enough time to collect at least some readings, because this... is hardly helpful."
The Wraith growls in displeasure.
"They will tear us apart as soon as they detect us." he says, but makes no effort to remove Erinya's hand from his arm.
"They won't. Our sensor range is longer than theirs, I have confirmed that with Ivory earlier. We may be smaller than a Hive, and less dangerous overall, but our range is a lot longer." Helena assures him, just as the hyperspace window swallows the ship.
"We need to know what it is they're about to unleash on the Galaxy, Guide." Ivory softly explains. "We are all well aware of the risk we are taking, but it needs to be done."
He doesn't respond,just leans back in his seat, and lets out another disapproving noise. With a frown, Erinya studies him, unsure of how to convince him that her people's plan isn't a death sentence. After all, she hates seeing him upset, for whatever reason.
"How long will it take us to get there?" she eventually asks, and Helena looks over her shoulder.
"A few hours, presumably." the Captain replies, and Erinya nudges Guide, nodding toward the door.
He gives her a long glare, but eventually gets up and follows her.
The door slides closed behind them, and her stops in his tracks, crossing his arms, looking at her expectantly.
Taking a moment to draw a deep breath.
"I wasn't going to make you admit this in front of the rest, but I know that you're afraid." she drops the bomb on him, and his eyes narrow briefly.
"Whether or not I fear Queen Death is irrelevant. This is a foolish plan." Neither denying nor admitting, he shifts his weight from one side to the other.
"Making a complete fool of Atlantis while in weapons range was also foolish. Or, I don't know, offering yourself as a prisoner in the first place, but I didn't see you complaining about that." Erinya's bold move draws a snarl from him.
"That is something entirely different. I knew they would not have dared kill me." he counters, visibly agitated. His voice has gained sharpness, and his underlying hiss is more prominent.
"But you also knew they wouldn't sacrifice another human to feed you, nor did you know that we were going to get you out, did you?" Erinya stands firm against his defense. "What I mean to say is, you endorsed other high risk-high reward plots. The only thing that's different now, is Queen Death."
For a second, Erinya is certain that Guide is going to whip around, and leave her standing there without another comment, but instead, he just hisses again, before allowing his expression to soften.
"Would you understand? The closest any of you have ever come to a true Queen is Ivory." he finally speaks. "And she is hardly comparable to Death. Even Helena, who has met her in person, does not understand."
"What doesn't she understand?"
"Just how dangerous she really is. And how far she is willing to go to achieve her goals. You are all underestimating her. Severely so."
Erinya sighs, reaches forward, and takes his feeding hand. Her thumb presses against the slit, and she steps closer, looking up to his face, establishing eye-contact.
"And you underestimate us, Guide." she speaks, her tone firm and unshakable. "I understand that, I do. You were born to submit to someone like Death, and we all look human to you. Believe me, I understand your doubts, but I can assure you that we're up for the task."
"Then leave me to my doubts." he demands. "I cannot rid myself of them, and if you truly understand me, than you will accept this."
"I do. I just don't like seeing you like this." She releases his hand, and he raises it to rest it on her chest. Her heat, the endless life in her body beckons to him, and he closes his eyes, recalling her standing in his cell, lock pick in hand, radiating raw power to his parched form.
"I know." he finally says, lingering in this position for a few heartbeats, before backing away, and returning to the bridge.
The remainder of the journey is spent in silence, both of them re-reading Ivory's data over and over again, without coming to any further conclusions. In a way, Erinya is happy about that, as it justifies this endeavor to Guide, who grows increasingly frustrated with the lack of results from his work. Multiple times, he gets up to pace in the hallway, and she lets him go alone.
"We have arrived. Exiting hyperspace, and engaging stealth protocol." Ivory reports, having taken her seat on the master console, near Helena.
"Any signs of Death's fleet?" she asks, and Ivory nods briefly.
"Ahead, but faint. I presume, it is only one Hive." she says, and Erinya feels Guide tense beside her. His hands clench into fists over the console's keys, but his face remains neutral.
"Excellent. Let us approach, then. Carefully."
Minutes pass in tense silence, and Erinya sees a stream of new data appear on her screen. She skims it hurriedly, but it doesn't seem to make much more sense than the previous set.
"Stop. I'm detecting something odd." Guide snaps, his voice almost making her flinch.
"New readings?" Helena inquires, and gestures at the young vampire operating the ship's engines to stop.
"Yes, but that isn't what I mean." Guide's eyes flicker to Ivory, who has stiffened in her seat, brows furrowed.
Helena notices it too, and gets up, stepping toward Erinya and Guide.
"Talk to me. What are you sensing?"
He flexes his feeding hand, and shakes his head.
"I can't quite... discern it." He's so tense, he physically trembles. "We need to turn back right now."
"Captain? I don't... I don't feel so good." a flimsy, little voice chimes in, and Helena barely has time to turn around before it hits her too.
And it hits hard, like a tidal wave.
Her vision goes red, a flaring, searing pain spreads from her chest all over her body. She cries out, and feels her knees hitting the ground, curling up into fetal position.
The pain throbs and pulses, convulsions running through her body as her veins shrivel and dry up.
Erinya shoots to her feet, while her Captains goes down before her, and Guide cringes, and falls off his seat beside her. Looking up, the entire bridge is in disarray like this, Vampires jamming their fangs into their own wrists, some passed out on the ground, others curled up like Helena, shivering, and drawing rattling breaths.
Ivory is on her knees, folded up and breathing heavily.
Panicked, she looks around herself, realizing that she's alone.
There's a painful twinge in back back of her throat, but whatever effect this is, her healing ability staves it off.
Her glance shifts down to Guide, who stares at her like she's the first rainfall in a desert, his feeding hand clamped shut.
Erinya takes a deep breath, and makes her way over to the navigator's console, stepping over him. He's stopped moving, she realizes with terror, but forces herself to focus in the task at hand. Pressing the necessary buttons, she sets a course to their previous location, where they met up with Ivory's Hive, and enters hyperspace.
As the blue glow fills the room, people begin to rouse.
Ivory is the first to get to her feet again, but Erinya is already back at Guide's side. He looks better somehow, releasing the tension in his body, and fighting himself to his feet again. She reaches out, and helps him up, then resorts to just staring at him with great concern.
"Are you... alright?" she inquires, terror still shaking her voice.
"I am now." he croaks, and sinks back into his seat, surveying the situation.
Helena is up, and kneels beside the young navigator, fingers pressed on a pulse point.
"We've got a casualty." she announces, her voice akin to an open grave.
"He died?" Guide asks.
"Yes, Guide. He died." Helena responds, still with a very grim tone, and gets up. "What was that?"
"I do not know." Guide responds. "I only know what you do."
"What happened to you all? You all just... knelt over for no reason." Erinya dares to ask.
"Not without reason." Guide explains. "I was starving."
"What? But... you fed just this morning!"
He straightens his posture, and seeks eye contact with Helena.
"You felt it too." he assumes, and she nods.
"I believe it was the same for all of us." her glance anxiously shifts to Ivory, who still reels from the assault. "Hunger. Sudden and excruciating. It killed one of my crew members."
Finally, Ivory joins the small group.
"I initially thought it to be an illusion when I first senses it." she says, her voice a hoarse whisper. "But this child's demise proves me wrong. Guide, you and I sensed it first."
"It's telepathy of some form, but stronger than anything I have ever come in contact with." he confirms. "Helena. I believe we have found Death's fabled weapon."
The Captain glares over to the cleanup crew collecting the body.
"He starved to death, in a matter of minutes. We may have suffered the same fate, had we not fed recently." she breathes. "Ivory, set up a group to search the ship for more bodies. Preserve them, for examination. We need a way to counter this, because this prevents us from even getting close to our adversary."
While Ivory begins rounding up Vampires for her search party, Erinya feels Guide's cool hand close around hers. He gently leads her outside, and into his quarters, passing the hallway without saying a word.
Once the door closes, he pins her to the wall, and slams his hand on her chest.
It hardly even hurts at this point.
Erinya inhales sharply, and pulls him closer by his hair as he feeds. Willingly obliging, Guide rests his head against the wall next to her face, pressing against her.
"You were unaffected." he whispers.
"Had I been affected, we would have died." she responds, placing her hand over his, and holding it in place.
"Is my fear justified to you now?" he rasps, and she nods, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It has been all this time." Her hand wanders up his back and tangles in his hair.
It takes several minutes for him to release her, but when he does, he looks a lot calmer.
"Did it have lasting effects?" she asks, as he backs away from her, wiping the blood off his palm.
"Not physically." is his brief response, and Erinya swallows hard.
Starvation is a touchy subject with him, and she genuinely believes him to suffer from some form of post-traumatic stress, due to his years of suffering in Genii custody.
Reaching for his hand, she gets closer again.
"You don't need to hold back, if you don't want to. You know, it doesn't harm me." she implores him.
"No. I will be fine." he refuses, and withdraws his hand from her grip. "You are not my personal food supply, and I don't want to treat you like it."