Chapter Forty-Three: Grace Under Pressure
Sunday, 13th August 2000.
Hermione did not want to open the door in front of her.
Harry squeezed her hand and she turned to see him looking at her supportively. They had drawn the proverbial short straw with Luna being elected to remain aboard Vir and monitor them so that they could be immediately beamed back if anything went wrong. Thanks to Isis's ability to seemingly sense when these Wraith were awake, it made her the best choice to keep an eye on their prisoner while they were on the planet.
Neville was in the other section of the ship a few miles away, checking the power generation system, which left herself and Harry to check this compartment. And if their readings were correct, opening it would leave her with nightmares.
"We don't have to look inside," Harry said and she glanced at him.
"Yes, we do. If we might end up fighting these things, we need to know what we're up against. There is a reason this room was so heavily shielded. We need to see it for ourselves."
"Are you sure?" He asked softly.
Hermione nodded and lifted her right hand, wand clutched tightly in her fingers. It had taken almost fifteen minutes aboard the Wraith Cruiser to figure out that the ships had no manual controls for their doors. Evidently, the Wraith had some form of psychic ability that they used to safeguard their designs. However, Hermione had figured out that using magic could partially fake that interface, at least for the doors.
With a slow hiss, the wide doorway stretched open and Hermione saw what lay inside.
The compartment was massive, stretching way back beyond clear sight. Only inside, the normally fleshy walls were replaced by something far more horrifying. These walls were covered in cocoons, each one occupied by a long-dead human figure. Some had decayed completely away to skeletons that looked like a single breath would be sufficient to cause them to fall to dust. Some looked almost… fresher was the disturbing word her mind chose to describe it, which she thought was even worse.
Every few dozen metres, the walls curved inwards before curving back to meet the edge of the compartment once more, creating an odd passage down the centre of the room. And she completely understood why Vir's computer estimated this vessel as a supply ship.
"They really do eat humans." Harry mused, more to himself, but it made Hermione feel sick to hear it acknowledged out loud.
"It's disgusting." She replied.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to…" She pulled him close and hugged him firmly, cutting him off as she tried to take comfort in his arms. "Honestly, things like this, it's the kind of stuff I'd expect that Anubis left in Padma's head. The worst sort of images it's possible to imagine."
"I couldn't have imagined this. It's too wrong."
"Evolution is a weird thing," Harry noted before he pulled back and looked into her eyes. "You can stay here if it's too much. I'll go check myself."
"I am not staying here by myself, not in this tomb." She said immediately.
"Luna is keeping watch. She'll beam us out instantly if any other lifeforms are detected."
"I'm not afraid of that. I am going to have nightmares now no matter what. But this whole room gives me the creeps. I am not staying here alone." She said adamantly.
"Alright. Pop a vulta and we'll have it count the capacity. I don't think either of us wants to look that closely at them."
Hermione nodded again and pulled free a vulta from her belt. It worried her that Harry appeared to still be keeping some of his visions a secret from her, as he did not seem to be as bothered by this sight as she was. Just what had he seen passed on from that demented monster's mind that this did not compare?
The two walked silently through the cavernous room, occasionally glancing at the wall as they got an idea of the scale of this space. This ship was meant to sustain the Wraith forces besieging the city. Portable food storage, bringing their meal right to them. It explained the lack of proper armament. This was a support ship, meant to fly as part of a more complete fleet. The smaller cruisers would defend it from attack. Its sole purpose was to bring fresh food to the Wraith troops.
Perched at regular intervals every two segments, where the curved walls reached the outer edge once more, they found smaller power generators that Hermione assumed were meant to ensure the food was kept fresh for as long as possible. And likely explained how their new guest had survived ten thousand years trapped on this world without starving. Especially given that this compartment was miles away from the main power generators the ship had once possessed.
When they finally reached the far end, Hermione could bear it no longer. "Can we go now? I've seen more than enough to last me a lifetime."
Harry turned and nodded to her, giving her hand another squeeze. "Do you want me to try and remove it?"
Hermione understood the offer. He was asking if she wanted this memory gone forever so that she did not need to go on dreading that one day she might wake up in one of those cocoons.
"No. It's graphic, but it's not so bad I can't handle it. It's the being here that is affecting me the most. We're surrounded by millennia of death, and I just cant look at it anymore."
"Alright then," Harry said, pulling her close and activating the beam.
They did not return to the bridge as usual, instead going straight to their quarters. While far smaller than those in Atlantis and Aedis, they were still large and comfortable for a spaceship thanks to Vir's enormous size. Hermione immediately headed for the small door on the right wall and passed quickly into the en suite.
A powerful vanishing spell destroyed her clothing enough to fall away, though not quite enough to outright destroy the resilient material it was made from. Hermione never wanted to wear that outfit again, and be forced to recall what she had just seen. And Harry finished the job for her as he followed.
She stepped into the odd shower-like contraption the Alterans had used for personal cleaning in space. It did not use running water gushing out of an overhead nozzle. Even for the Aetherial, who could conjure it up magically or via the matter converter, water was a precious resource aboard a starship. Instead, it emitted a fine gravity-defying mist from all around her, the warm fluid beading up on her body as she shook silently from the sobs that racked her body.
Hermione felt Harry's arms wrap softly around her and she leant back into his embrace, the horrible sight below seared into her memory, and coming to the forefront every time she closed her eyes. It was awful to think of how long those people might have suffered, trapped in that endless nightmare, only to finally wake up to find you are about to be something else's dinner.
"It's ok, Hermione. Let it out." Harry said, running his fingers through her hair as she mourned the dead she had never known.
ϟ
Tuesday, 15th August 2000.
Elizabeth watched quietly from her chair, the same one that Hermione had fashioned for her the week before, tucked under the table she had been at the last time she'd attended one of these meetings, thousands of years earlier.
It felt odd to sit in on another council meeting in this room and she started as she heard the sound of the stargate activating in the control room next door. The others seemed unfazed by the sound, though Harry did tap on his wrist remote for a moment before he looked up. But by then, Weir was distracted by something else entirely.
She was becoming used to holograms now that these people had occupied the city, but to see two perfectly realistic human beings appear in front of her, the occasional shimmering the only sign they hadn't simply spawned into being, was quite the sight to behold.
"Mum, Dad. It's so good to actually see you." Hermione said, staring longingly at the newcomers.
"The stargate does work, Hermione. You could step through and see us anytime you like." Her father said, turning to face Weir. "And you must be the unexpected guest. Richard and Natalie Granger. A pleasure to meet you."
As with all the others, they spoke in perfect Ancient, though they had informed her that the language was actually called Alteran from the name the race had first held millions of years before when they first arrived in the Milky Way. Elizabeth tried her best to respond in kind.
"And you as well. My name is Elizabeth Weir."
"Finding the Doctor here was a pleasant surprise," Harry said, "but definitely not unwelcome. We've already learned a lot from her. But for now, to business. We're already technically a day late holding this, but there were extenuating circumstances, I think we'll all agree."
The group nodded and Luna must have noticed the look of confusion on her face as she smiled and explained. "The plan was to hold a council meeting on the second Monday of each month. Though this would have been only the second one we've actually held on that schedule."
Weir nodded, understanding as the others continued.
"Any change in Earth's status?" Harry asked, looking pointedly at the Grangers.
"Nothing so far. It's been days and still nothing." Richard replied. "Our new ship is still several weeks from being complete. But Idun sent us a message last night indicating their second unmanned probe should be arriving late tomorrow in the solar system, after the first one vanished almost immediately. So we should have a better idea by then."
"I have, however, pinpointed the moment it began," Natalie added. "Merlin was running several long-range communication diagnostic tests. Ways of communicating data between outposts without using the stargates and their limited transmission window. The suite that was running the Friday afternoon all cut out at the exact same nanosecond. Which would make this day eleven."
"I was talking to Merlin that day as well," Harry said. "He suddenly disconnected the wormhole without warning. I guess he detected this anomaly as it was forming and cut the connection."
"Well," Luna mused aloud, "at least we know it's not an attack. Merlin would have mentioned such a thing, rather than shutting off the connection without comment."
"I still wish there was something more we could actually do," Harry muttered, and Weir understood what he meant. She still wished there was some way she could return to her timeline and save her expedition. Not knowing if anyone else had managed to escape to the surface, perhaps now trapped on a planet almost entirely covered in ocean…
"We just have to wait and see what the Asgard find. Then we can decide how to proceed or if our assistance is required." Neville said, and the others seemed to agree with his sentiments for the moment. "Onto Pegasus matters. The cruisers remain on course at the same pace. We expect them to arrive in seven days."
This seemed to sober them all up, and Elizabeth could understand why. They had allowed her free access to the database, and what she had seen in there about these Wraith utterly terrified her. What had been a couple of oral stories from the Lanteans, and an odd encounter where all she had was radio chatter and a few coloured blips to tell what was happening, had not adequately translated just how much of a threat these creatures were.
The fact that there were now two of them being held prisoner in the city scared her even more. She felt like they were invading her dreams.
"Thankfully," Luna continued, breaking the silence. "The scans we have taken, and the data we scoured out of the supply ship and cruiser show us that while they will be able to detect Atlantis's presence under the ocean, they will not be able to detect its power levels. Nor the state of the shield beyond active or failed."
"So the plan remains to just stay hidden and wait for them to leave?" Richard asked, looking antsy, as though he wanted to act against something.
"It seems the best option," Harry said. "Any aggressive action will simply confirm their current suspicions. Even if we destroy both ships before either can send off a message, others will then come to see what happened to them. We'd just advertise our existence and be back in the same situation the Lanteans were when they called it quits and left for Earth."
His eyes drifted to her and Elizabeth felt the weight of his gaze, despite all of them being so young. She could tell that all of her companions had been through incredible trials.
"I would definitely recommend against any course of action that leads to that," Elizabeth remarked. "It was hard to tell exactly what was up there from the displays in the short time I spent with the Lanteans, but those numbers seemed overwhelming. The Wraith utterly destroyed that transport ship and the people down here could do nothing but watch."
"And given that we now know for sure that they will be able to detect the city's presence," Carson said, leaning forwards, "we can't just mount up and leave either. If the city were to vanish, that would leave them asking questions as well."
"Vir and Aurora?" Natalie asked.
"From our sensor test on the cruiser," Cyla said, "Wraith scanners are completely blind to a cloaked ship. Not even with both ships inside the envelope and running at full power as noisily as possible."
"Unless the Wraith have made some serious upgrades since these two ships crashed, we should be safe if we just stay hidden." Neville finished.
"And given the presence of both our prisoners in the system," Luna commented, "one of whom was aboard a ship broadcasting a distress signal, I think it is safe to say this is likely the first time the Wraith have returned to Lantea since the end of the siege."
The two Grangers looked at one another and seemed to have a silent conversation before Natalie turned to face the council once more.
"Alright, if there is a vote needed, we vote for this course. Leave Atlantis where it is and cloak the two ships in orbit."
Without comment, the others all raised their hands in agreement, even Carson and Cyla, who Elizabeth understood were not actually council members. When Harry turned to stare at her, she became confused.
"Doctor Weir? Your opinion?" He asked as the others turned to face her as well.
She was thrown and looked at them all startled. "I, ah, didn't realize that I had a vote."
Harry smiled. "I'm not so arrogant as to ignore advice when it is given. Everyone here is at risk under this plan, I want to know everyone's perspective. And you are a practised diplomat. If you believe this course to be foolish, speak up and we will listen."
Weir was surprised but after a few moments of consideration, she simply lifted her arm, though not nearly as high as the others, given her weaker constitution these days.
"Alright, we're all in agreement. Unless something else comes to light that suggests we should do otherwise, Atlantis will remain where it is with the shield up at full strength and we shall cloak the two ships in orbit. Now for the prisoners."
A hush fell over the table as everyone lowered their hands. None of them seemed to want to address this new topic. It was several long awkward moments before Carson again leant forwards.
"I've taken copious samples from both of them. I think it's safe to say that they have superior strength and stamina to regular human levels. And, as evidenced by their continued existence, if properly fed, they will not age and die as we do."
"Fed on humans," Richard noted and several of the group shuddered visibly.
"Aye, and nothing that we've provided for sustenance so far seems to have any effect. I even tried an intravenous drip when they refused to eat any of the food we provided. From the little I was able to garner from the people aboard the supply ship, it seems they can only be sustained by… draining the life energy out of their victims."
"If the records I found are accurate," Hermione said, "the Wraith evolved from a creature called the Iratus bug feeding on humans. The Lanteans happened across the planet and, finding this curiosity, they helped to spur on its development. Hoping to see where evolution took it. Do you think it might be possible to separate out those portions of their makeup and make them human again? Or human now, given the prisoners likely weren't originally ever human themselves."
Carson sighed heavily. "Given enough time, and plenty of research, perhaps. Right now, I wouldn't hold my breath on such an outcome."
"Certainly not before those ships get here," Neville noted.
"Aye, that too. I will look into it, but I can make no promises."
"Alright, I guess that is the best we can hope for at present," Harry said. "Figure out everything you can about them, Doctor. The more data we have, the better informed we can be when making our decisions. The last thing on the docket is the crew of the Aurora."
Neville immediately piped up this time. "The ship herself is pretty much back to fighting form. Comparing her to the schematics in the city, she is fitter than ever, now we've added a few of our own upgrades."
"But we can't possibly revive the crew?" Natalie asked.
"No," Cyla said quietly, and Weir felt her heart go out to the woman at the look on her face. "My brethren's bodies are far too degraded. They may continue in stasis for some time yet, but eventually, we will need to end their suffering."
"Let's not be too hasty," Richard said, leaning forward and almost seeming to lean on the table, even though he wasn't really there. "You still haven't been able to remotely tap into the virtual environment yet, have you?"
"To be honest, we haven't been all that focused on it. The four Wraith ships sort of took up all of our attention until now." Harry said.
"So we figure out how to do that," Natalie said. "Once we know the state of them, perhaps we can devise an alternative to continued stasis or death. They might even be able to help with ideas."
"I have a few very rough thoughts on the topic, but I doubt I could finish any of them before the arrival next week," Hermione said, nodding to Luna. "If you help, we might be able to have a proper plan in place by late next week, provided everything goes according to plan."
"I'd love to," Luna said with a smile.
Elizabeth was still wary of the blonde girl. Carson had explained the odd headband the girl wore the day before and knowing she was sitting across the table from a goa'uld symbiote was unsettling after her experience with the System Lords back at the SGC. But Harry had assured her that Luna was in absolute control and that the headband would alert every one of them if it went off or was removed. So Elizabeth bit her tongue and remained quiet on the topic.
"If that's the case, we'll shelve this topic for the moment until we have more information," Harry said, and Weir was rather impressed by how well the young man took the responsibility on his shoulders.
"For now," Harry continued, "we will focus our research on the prisoners and the crew until the arrival. Then we can start making further plans. Any objections?"
The council shook their heads and Harry once again looked to Elizabeth for a moment before she too shook her head. It was weird sitting here as no more than a guest when for her, only a few months before she was poised to run this city.
But it was hard to argue when they had brought the city back to life and even improved several things since moving in. And they seemed to have a plan in place to deal with the Wraith for the time being. Which was well more than she could say for herself.
ϟ
Thursday, 17th August 2000 - Anomaly Day 13.
Luna looked at the figure silently, watching him stare back at her, his mouth wide and sneering as saliva drooled slowly down its chin, occasionally staining the two small lengths of hair that grew out from the chin.
"What are you doing, human? I will not tell you what you wish to know." The Wraith said quietly. It had been a surprise that the Wraith could speak Alteran, but it was not that unusual given they must have interacted with the Lanteans at some point during their existence.
"We'll see." She replied simply, just smiling quietly as she watched it seeth behind the bars of its cell.
It was odd to match them in these strange staring matches, but it was a task that Luna was now uniquely suited to. The last time that Neville had tried to interrogate the female, he had blacked out when the woman had used her apparently significant psychic abilities against him.
Thankfully the training they had been doing to protect against goa'uld influence had hardened his mind enough to resist, but he had been unable to cope under the strain and his mind had shut down to prevent damage before the city whisked him out of the viewing area for losing consciousness.
Luna, however, had two advantages the others lacked. The albeit reluctant support of Isis in her mind helped to boost her own mental acuity. And the chaotic state of her mind to begin with. What had begun as a child's way of dealing with seeing the death of her mother in a tragic accident had developed into a natural mental defence mechanism. It was that same mechanism that the training had enhanced to the point that stepping into it shredded Isis's mental form until she returned to the safe space Luna had offered her.
Isis had tried to take advantage of the intrusion at first, hoping that the distraction would allow her free reign over Luna's body, but had found herself rebuffed just as hard by the foreign entity, and unlike Luna's mind, this one seemed to reject the symbiote entirely.
Now it was a matter of spite that drove the goa'uld to aid her efforts to see this diseased species removed from the universe entirely.
Luna smiled at the thought and the Wraith's scowl faltered.
With the Wraith's momentary loss of confidence, she struck, flicking her wand upwards and triggering the spell she intended. While normally she was kept unarmed, this particular field of magic was a lot easier to perform with a well-matched magical focus.
The Wraith instantly fell to its knees as flashes of memory and knowledge spilled free of their mind under the legilimency spell. It roared in pain and anger, but that did not dissuade Luna from her action, and she began to dig deeper.
Normally, ferreting about in a mind as dangerous and depraved as a Wraith would have been a terrible idea, but Luna used one of her advantages to reduce the risk. She funnelled all the memories from the Wraith's mind directly to Isis, only accessing the knowledge as it passed through, not the memories themselves.
The goa'uld already had a depraved mind, so it would do her no harm to see into the memories of a Wraith.
"Get… out… human…" The Wraith commander growled and Luna smiled that she now knew that to be its rank. It was the third in command of the ship that had crashed, and while many others had survived initially, it had been cunning enough to survive when they had not.
A momentary flash of memory that managed to catch on her own mind as it went in threw off Luna's concentration completely, and she gasped as the spell faltered and the Wraith was able to regain control of its mind once more.
Luna panted hard as she turned to face the wall, trying to clear the image of feeding on one of the defenceless humans trapped in their cocoon from her vision. She could feel the life energy leaving the human and coursing into her body. The screams and terror of the victim only added to the flavour and she found herself retching at the memory.
"Pitiful. Do that again, and I will rip your pathetic mind to shreds." The commander said, slowly standing behind her.
Luna coughed as she cleared the vision from her mind, burying it deep within the other memories she didn't like to see. After a few deep breaths, she stood once more and turned to face the Wraith, only to find it standing right at the edge of the energy field between the bars.
"I am going to enjoy draining your life. Defiance always tastes sweeter." It said, the demented toothy smirk back on its features.
Luna centred herself and raised her left arm. Keeping her eyes locked on the defiant one in the cell, she tapped in the command to repeatedly hit it with stun energy until it was well and truly out cold.
As she lowered her arm, the field around the cell pulsed and the Wraith rushed back. It growled at her as the first burst struck it and after three more it collapsed to the floor, still twitching slightly as it tried to resist the effect. Luna did not turn her gaze away, instead watching as the Wraith struggled before finally succumbing to the effect of the repeated waves.
"Harry was right. We need to boost the strength of those." She said dispassionately, feeling no pity for the monster that took such delight in the torture that was its feeding process.
After a moment, her usual bright mood returned and she swivelled on her heel, before remembering that the door was sealed and she beamed out of the cell block instead.
ϟ
Saturday, 19th August 2000.
"We have a problem," Luna said as she walked into the chair room, Harry leaning up suddenly at the interruption.
"What's wrong?" He said, shaking off the daze of having been in the chair for several hours and looking at her curiously.
It was strange seeing Luna appear shaken, as normally she looked as unflappable as anyone he knew. But right now, she was truly concerned. And Harry's eyes flicked to where Cyla had joined Luna, her face very different to the one she usually wore when watching his progress in the chair. She too was very worried.
"It took me a few days to sort through it, most of that being getting Isis to cooperate, but we've gone through the important facts I got out of the commander. The problem is that he has memories of every single one of us. Including Cyla and Neville."
Luna left the sentence there, as though it explained everything Harry needed to know, but he was left even more confused than before. He turned to Cyla and noticed her face had dropped further. "What is it?"
Cyla looked back at him and he could see a glimmer of fear in her eyes. "I've never laid eyes on the Wraith commander. Only the queen when we were checking if I could feel her mental power and whether she could tell I was Alteran."
Harry turned back to Luna as what they were suggesting sank in. "You think…?"
"We knew they had psychic abilities. We'd just been assuming that they were limited to personal range like legilimency. If they can send full memories between one another from one side of the city to the other…"
Harry groaned, "They might be able to send messages to the Wraith in the approaching cruisers. Bugger it."
Harry leant back in the chair and closed his eyes for a moment before several startled figures began shimmering into existence around the room.
"Ah, what's going on?" Natalie asked, a cup of tea halfway to her face as she stared at the others in a semi-circle around the chair.
"Sorry to interrupt. But Luna just pointed out we have a massive problem. The two Wraith here can communicate and share memories without being in proximity. Which means they can probably do the same to the Wraith that are on the way." Harry explained.
"Great. So what do we do? We can't have them communicate with the ships or there goes the whole plan." Neville said exasperated.
"We might have to…" Hermione began to suggest, trailing off before she got to the obvious conclusion.
"I'd prefer we didn't just murder our prisoners," Carson argued. "Not only does it go against everything I believe to do so, but if we're going to have any chance of finding a medical solution, then I will need them to be alive."
"No one wants to do that, Doctor Beckett." Harry said "We're exploring our options. If you have an alternative that guarantees they remain silent during the flyover, I'm open to suggestions."
Carson looked at the figures, his eyes coming to rest on Elizabeth and Cyla for a long moment. "Maybe. I would need to do some checks, and I'd probably need a volunteer."
"A volunteer? What for?"
"Depending on what state it actually puts them into, the stasis chambers might be a solution. Freeze them until the danger passes. I would need to check whether the stasis technology we have access to properly silences the mental pathways to be sure."
"Alright then, I volunteer," Harry said, almost getting out of the chair immediately before realizing that it would end the odd conversation.
"Harry!" Hermione said, drawing his eye and looking like they would be having words.
"Look, we have three days until those ships get here. And we have no idea what the range of that ability is. Luna is the best we have at legilimency, so she will need to remain outside to test how active my mind is."
"I know, but anyone can be in the pod."
"Luna knows me. I trust her completely with my mind. I will probably even be open to her in ways others won't be. We need to test this as soon as possible, Hermione." Harry said, almost pleading for Hermione to agree. "And look over there. Cyla and Elizabeth have been in stasis before. It's perfectly safe."
"Fine, but we will talk more when I get back." She said, glaring at him, though far softer than he had expected. He was a little glad she and Neville were off checking the rest of the planets in the system for any other surprises aboard Vir. Not that it meant much, as Vir could be back at Lantea within an hour even at sublight speeds. No matter where in the system they were.
"Ok. Carson, please meet me and Luna here," Harry said, using the chair to indicate a stasis pod they knew to be in full working order roughly an equal distance from the both of them.
"Aye," Carson replied and Harry sat up, climbing out of the chair as the others faded from view.
"Let's go freeze me." He said to the two girls and headed from the room.
ϟ
Sunday, 20th August 2000.
Hermione checked the status of the module carefully on her remote as she and Carson stood waiting for the final checks to register. It had taken all night to properly alter the pod to the point where they were satisfied it would completely prevent any mental activity in the two Wraith, and she worried that they might already be cutting things close.
The cruisers were rapidly approaching the star system and would be dropping out of hyperspace for their second-to-last pause soon.
Her remote beeped and she let out a deep breath as the results came back positive.
"Thank goodness for that," Carson said, noting the response on her remote for himself.
Hermione nodded, entering another command string into her remote and the pair waited several tense moments. Hermione gripped the handle of her blaster as a figure beamed into the room, laying completely still on the floor.
She tried not to laugh as the Wraith commander lay face down on the solid surface. Carson stepped halfway towards the figure, using the small handheld scanner to check it was truly unconscious.
They had immediately stunned both Wraith after the discovery and part of Hermione's beam command had included inundating the commander with a dozen more stun blasts so they could be as certain as possible that it was out when they froze it. Not only for their own safety while loading the monster, but to hopefully decrease the possibility of any subconscious communication as well.
"It's out," Carson confirmed and Hermione released the grip on her weapon and moved to pull her wand instead.
She noticed Carson suddenly step back as she swung her wand through the air, giving the precise swish and flick that Flitwick had ingrained in them all those years ago. "You thought we were going to manhandle them into it?" She asked, stepping to the side of the pod as she guided the limp figure into place.
"Er, this works too." He replied, watching as she maneuvered the still figure.
With a heavy conscious effort, she brought up her free hand and snapped her fingers, watching as the Wraith was jolted as several pre-applied sticking charm runes on the back and sides of the pod activated, holding it firmly in place inside the pod, without either her or Carson needing to get any closer than absolutely necessary.
"Alright." She said, centring herself one more time as she channelled as much power as she could muster. She took half a step forward, extending her entire body towards the pod, leading with her wand and she shouted the incantation. "STUPEFY!"
The spell struck true and she dropped to one knee, drained from the effort she had applied to the attack. As Carson stepped over to help her, she waved him away and pointed to the controls.
"Quickly. I have all night to recover. Activate it." She panted softly.
Carson immediately followed her instruction, rushing to the panel and activating the pod. She watched from up under her hair as the pod came to life, lights glowing as it activated and the crystalline structure flowed over the unconscious Wraith, hopefully sealing it away body and mind until they were ready to deal with it again.
With the task complete, Hermione let the exhaustion flow through her and she collapsed in place, rolling as she fell so that she was now lying on her back on the firm floor of the lab.
"Are you alright, love?" Carson asked, kneeling over her, waving the small scanner as he went.
"I'll be fine. Just really tired. Using that much magic after an all-nighter… good way to give yourself a migraine." She said, swallowing heavily. "In fact…"
Hermione struggled to raise her left arm and Carson helped her lift it before she dropped it on her stomach and groaned. "Tell me what you need and I'll get it."
She gave him a weak smile. "Activate subroutine thirteen on my remote, please. It will send me to bed."
Carson gave her a wry smile as he quickly found the command on her remote and activated it, the white light filling her vision as she was whisked away to her quarters where the exhaustion would at last win and she would likely fall asleep before she could even climb into the covers.
ϟ
Luna watched the two boys carefully as they levitated the figure between them. The pale green skin looked even more sallow than usual, but she kept both her wand and training blaster focused on her as they moved.
While Hermione had prepared the stasis pod in Atlantis for the Wraith commander, Luna had been working on the one here aboard Vir. From what she felt off both Wraith, the females were far more dangerous than the males psychically. They were going to freeze her in the pod and then fly Vir and Aurora away from Lantea until they received the all-clear.
The idea of having her aboard the ships terrified them all, but based on the information they had, they could not trust that she wouldn't find a way to ruin the existing plan if she was in the system with the cruisers.
"Easy, Harry. We don't want to accidentally bump her awake." Neville said, guiding the queen upright as Harry gestured her backwards into the pod.
"I know. Even unconscious, it feels like she's fighting against us." Harry said, straining as he pushed her deeper into the pod.
Luna thought it was telling that they had three of their four magic wielders handling the queen while leaving Hermione only muggles to aid her in freezing the commander. "She's almost in, just a smidge further," Luna noted, checking to see when she could safely activate the cluster behind the figure.
As Harry gave one last push, Luna felt a lance of psychic energy press outwards from the pod and the two boys dropped immediately to their knees in pain. Luna lashed out with her wand twice as the wave hit her and even with her small advantage, the energy of the attack knocked her back a few steps.
But when she steadied on her feet and looked to the pod, she saw her effort had not been in vain. The still seemingly sleeping figure of the Wraith queen was upright in the pod, stuck to the cluster inlaid into the back, holding her where Luna's banishing charm had knocked her before the levitation could wear off.
With her at least momentarily secured, Luna turned to her friends and helped them up, one by one.
"Are you alright?" She asked as Neville shook his head repeatedly.
Harry was already standing and training his wand on the pod once more, but Neville was not quite as used to having his mind attacked like that. "I'll be fine. You and Harry… finish things off."
Luna stared at her friend for a moment before she nodded and turned to face the queen once more. Done with her nonsense for now, she lifted her weapon and fired a dozen full-power stun blasts into the figure, watching as it twitched with every single shot. She was panting by the time she had finished, and Harry was watching her with a crooked grin.
"Satisfied?" He asked, and Luna replied by firing another two shots.
"Now I am. Let's freeze this bitch."
Harry chuckled as he stepped over to the panel that controlled the pod and hesitated for a moment. His wand arm came up and pointed at the pod, Neville mirroring the action from the floor sluggishly. Luna worried for a moment that somehow the queen had gotten into their minds. Before she could lift her weapon again, the boys both shouted, "STUPEFY!"
The shard of magic that left Harry's wand was at least three inches thick and a foot long. The two spells slammed into the queen so hard that she almost came free of the sticking charms at the back of the pod. The moment she stopped swaying, Harry slammed his left hand down on the controls and the crystalline filling pushed forwards, surrounding the hopefully insensate Wraith.
He shook his head once and turned to face Luna, leaning back against the terminal. "I think, for the time being, we keep her locked in there." He finally said, panting heavily from the magical exertion he had just gone through. "How's Neville?'
Luna turned away from Harry to find Neville had slumped to the floor from the effort and was looking up at them weakly. He gave a half-hearted wave from the floor, his arm barely lifting off the ground.
"He's tough," Luna said, wondering how she would have fared had she not been hosting Isis right now. "But we're not done."
Harry pointed at her, his arm movement sluggish for the former Seeker. "Right, you are. Hold on there, Nev. We'll be done in a jiffy." Harry said, keying his remote and beaming all three of them to the bridge.
His aim had been ok for himself as he fell backwards upon landing, ending up in the control chair at the centre of the bridge. Luna managed to keep her feet, stretching out to grab the nearby terminal to help keep her from tumbling, but she heard a crash as Neville did not fare so well from his already seated position.
"Ow." He groaned, and Luna turned to see him having rolled once and bashed head-first into the rear wall of the bridge.
"Sorry," Harry said, apologetically, and Luna could see the regret on his face.
He didn't let it stop him though as he used the controls built into the arm of the chair to activate the cloak and the shield. Luna watched the field shimmer into place over the hull, though the technology and magic embedded in the dome kept it visible from the inside.
While they had allowed Luna to wield weapons on the few occasions they had needed to deal with the Wraith directly, she was still locked out from actually flying their ships, leaving Harry to handle their departure, given Neville's present state. With a few more strokes, Harry opened a hyperspace window and the once again tethered ships launched into it, vanishing from the system in the opposite direction to the approaching cruisers.
Harry laid back heavily into the chair, groaning in pain and relief as the preprogrammed course took them deep into space, as far as possible from any Wraith signals that they could detect. A course that if followed, would lead them out of the galaxy in less than two days, even carrying the Aurora.
"Can you…" Harry paused as he coughed twice. "That hurts. Can you send a message to the others? I think that I am going to take a nap right here."
Luna smiled at him and walked over to the control chair, waving her wand and securing Harry into the chair. He smiled softly at her for a moment before his eyes closed and he began to snore. She did not envy him the headache he would wake with tomorrow, but Harry was stowed away for now.
Turning to the lump by the back wall, she walked over and helped Neville to a seated position once more. "Sleepy." He mumbled, and Luna grinned at his behaviour.
Neville was a stubborn boy, and he often tried his best to keep up with Harry in most exercises. For the most part, he succeeded, as he was an exceptionally talented and powerful wizard now he had thrown off his own self-doubt. But Harry had endured more than any of them, and it still left him with an edge that most of them could not match when it came to resolutely enduring things that the human body was not meant to endure.
Luna carefully laid Neville onto his back, making sure his wand was undamaged after his two unfortunate tumbles and used her remote to send him to his quarters. She would walk back there and check on him in a few minutes, once she informed the city that they had secured the queen and were on their way to the designated waiting point.
Though to be honest, the further they managed to take this bitch from the other Wraith, the safer Luna felt.
