Chapter 10

The three have been working for five hours straight.

Erinya's head hurts, but not necessarily because of the data she's brooding over, and also not because of Guide silently correcting her calculations whenever she makes a mistake, no.

It's the more obvious issue that gives her headaches.

"If you continue reverse-engineering the weapon, you will never develop a way to immunize." Silverlight explains monotonously. "I do not understand why you even bother to translate the data. It works perfectly fine in Wraith."

"I'm translating it to access the vampiric parts of it, Silverlight." Erinya hisses at him, through clenched teeth. "The core is vampiric, I thought we established that much already."

"How are you going to reach that layer, if you keep wasting time translating the surrounding data?" he counters.

"I need to do this, because I want to reverse the effect." Erinya tells him, for the third time now.

"Your reversal will not work. You cannot evoke the opposite of starvation by addressing the instinctual parts of our brains." Silverlight says, and she sighs.

"Fine. I'll bite. Do you have a different idea to counter it, then?" she asks him, and actually looksup to make eye contact.

Silverlight crosses his arms, moments of complete silence pass, and eventually, he just flatly says "No."

With a groan, Erinya throws her hands up, jumps out of her seat, and begins walking out the room.

"No. That's it. I'm done. I'm out. Do it yourself."

Her steps thunder down the corridor, and the two Wraith sit in silence for a few seconds. Silverlight looks at Guide, obviously expecting him to take his side, but the desired response never comes.

Instead, Guide just turns back to his work without saying a word. He can feel Silverlight's gaze linger for a while, until he also turns back to the task at hand.

Internally, Guide snickers at Erinya's furious exit. She'll come back, he knows her that well. For the moment, he comforts himself with the mental image of her pacing angrily in her quarters, swearing profusely.

–

"They didn't take kindly to my announcement, but I do think they'll let us in. Or at least, near the city without firing." Helena explains. "Seemed very concerned for my safety, too."

She's sitting on Ivory's throne, with her on her lap, so she feels her laughing before she hears it.

"Oh, they should be. I might eat you." she purrs and leans in to nibble at Helena's earlobe. She grins and nudges her cheek with her nose.

"Keep in mind, Atlantis still thinks I'm human." she reminds her, and Ivory leans back again.

"They haven't seen you in person yet, have they?" she inquires.

"Mh, no. Only video feeds, in heavy makeup and colored contacts." Helena says. "I wonder if my disguise will hold."

Ivory shifts on her lap and hums.

"Perhaps you should stay on the ship, then. If they discover that you tricked them while you are on their grounds, they might incarcerate you." she suggests, her voice soft and gentle, but Helena can hear the worry regardless.

"No cell can hold me." she assures her.

Before Ivory can say anything in response, the doors to her throne room slide open, and a younger Blade, the one she put in charge of not slamming the skip into the next planet, enters.
He clears his throat, and bows, giving them a careful glance.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asks, respectful in every way, and Ivory slides off Helena's lap.
"No, be at ease." she consoles him. "What is it?"

"We are in communications range of the Ancient City, my Queen. I took the liberty to send them your consorts identification code already, but they request to speak to you... both." He sounds nervous, as nervous as a deep, raspy Wraith voice can sound.

Helena bounces off the throne, and leisurely catches up to Ivory.
"Well, time to get into character, I suppose." she announces. "Remember – we are not dating, I don't trust you, and I'm also a weak, frail little human. Try to look at me like I'm delicious."

"You are delicious, my love." Ivory teases, and strides past the young Blade, who is seemingly disturbed by their demeanor.

The three make their way to the bridge, the Blade keeping a respectful distance behind them, and eventually line up in front of the Hive's main screen.

Atlantis' usual suspects are already on screen, looking somewhat impatient.

"Helena, good to see you are well." says Teyla, being the first to speak up.

"Thank you." Helena replies, smiling gently at her, and taking a demonstrative step away from Ivory. "This is my contact, as you may have guessed." She makes an introductory gesture at her.

"Does she have a name?" Sheppard wants to know, and Ivory gives him a toothy smile.

"I do. But that does not mean that I will give it to you. At least not yet."

She's just baiting him, Helena thinks to herself. She wants a damn nickname.

Sheppard delivers.

"Right – Britney, then." he elects, and takes a step toward his screen. "Helena sounded pretty darn insistent on you personally meeting us. Why is that?"

Ivory gives him a half-shrug.

"I know things." she replies. "Helena has been relying on my cooperation for a while now. She believes, I could develop a mutually beneficial relationship with your city as well."

"Well, I don't know if she mentioned that particular thing, but we don't really like you guys." Sheppard lets her know. "Especially your Queens. Had some bad experiences, you know."

Ivory raises her feeding hand, and shows its palm to the camera.

"I can imagine. Of course, I will understand if you do not want me to set foot in your city. Helena will fill in for me." she offers.

"Oh no no no, we want you down here. Might dissuade your Hive from blasting us into oblivion, y'know." Sheppard denies, actually wagging his finger at her. Helena suppresses a chuckle.

"Right." Ivory shrugs again. "But, and I will only say this once: I will not let you shackle me, lock me up, or push me around like an animal. You will treat me as your equal, if you expect me to do the same for you."

"You ain't our equal." the large man behind Teyla scoffs, causing her to look over her shoulder, up to him.

"Ah. You are the former runner, yes?" Ivory addresses him, causing him to glare at her angrily. "I understand your disdain. However, I will not tolerate it. Keep yourself together, and I will stop myself from sucking the life out of you."

"You're welcome to try." he growls.

"Ronon, this isn't productive." Teyla chimes in. "We won't hurt you, if you don't hurt us. That's as much as we can promise."

"I can accept that. Helena and I will arrive in a shuttle shortly." Ivory nods to her side, to signal her Blades to cut the connection.

"Britney." is Helena's first comment.

"It is a ritual for him. I did not believe him to be ready for the knowledge that we do have names. Like... people." Ivory smirks. "If giving me a funny name makes him more comfortable with me, I will comply."

–

Including preparation time, it takes them about an hour to make their way down to the city. When they step out of their shuttle, they are immediately greeted with several gun muzzles. Ivory pays them no heed, and casually walks past the marines pointing their weapons at her.
Helena follows, feeling very anxious for her lover, now that things are getting serious.

The soldiers escort them wordlessly to the Gate room, where Sheppard, his team, and Woolsey await them.

Ivory allows herself to greet them with a genuinely friendly smile.

"Thank you for having me here." she opens, taking most of them by surprise. Sheppard, Teyla, also McKay, who had all interacted with true Queens before. Ronon, somewhat. He mostly just stands there grinding his teeth, and playing with his blaster's handle.

Helena just gives them a tiny wave, and enters the conference room behind Ivory.

Once they're all seated, Sheppard opens, before Woolsey can.

"Now. You said you had information." he asks, in a very matter-of-fact way. Ivory gives him a long look before responding.

"I do. I managed to place a spy into Queen Death's Hive, and he has been sending me occasional reports." she explains. "And we have discovered a rather... concerning development."

"Go on?" Sheppard leans forward, ignoring the glances his team shoots him.

"It's a telepathic weapon." Ivory continues. "It assaults a Wraith's mind, and drives them mad, simulating starvation to a degree that makes our bodies actually experience symptoms thereof. I myself have fallen prey to this before, so I do know how powerful it is."

"Oh, great. Lots of hungry Wraith." McKay mumbles. "As if we haven't dealt with that enough."

"It gets worse." Ivory adds. "I have put some of my best scientists on the task of figuring this weapon out, in order to create a way to immunize us. They have also kept me up to date on their progress, and we have reason to assume that it targets the human parts of our genome. Which in return means, that..."

"...it can harm us directly, too." Teyla finishes her sentence.

"Exactly." Ivory confirms. "In addition to that, Death wishes to rule that Galaxy, and she has been rather ruthless with her own kin, who have refused to bow to her. I speak from experience in this regard. Atlantis will be a target sooner or later."

"Why'd you care? Don't you want us gone?" Ronon asks her, and she makes brief eye contact.

"I care because she will not attempt to destroy this city. She will attempt to conquer it. And that will make her a lot more powerful than I am equipped to deal with." she calmly explains. "Your survival is necessary for mine."

Helena has been listening to her quietly this entire time, mostly because speaking will make it harder for her to hide her fangs, so she's the first to notice the sudden shift in Ivory's demeanor.

She presses her finger against the small button in her ear, and her pupils dilate.

"What? What is it?" Sheppard inquires hurriedly, and Ivory shoots to her feet.

"My Hive is detecting three additional ones." she lets them know. "None of which are of my fleet, and-..."

She cuts off, before Helena feels it, and sinks to her knees, both hands clamped shut tightly. Helena's eyes widen, and she does her best to brace herself in the brief grace period before the effect takes her mind as well.

Teyla goes wide-eyed as well, her Wraith DNA likely making her more susceptible to the effect, and then, all hell breaks loose.