"I'm really not comfortable being so far under water." McKay commented.
AG 1 was investigating a newly discovered geothermal drilling station on the ocean floor. They had taken a jumper down and were several miles below the ocean surface.
"I'm not feeling too great myself." Xander answered. "Sheppard almost became a bug monster. I almost became a fish monster. If I had, I'd probably feel very comfortable right now."
"I am feeling something as well." Teyla said. "It reminds of the feeling I get when a Wraith is near. But different. I can not explain it. Something feels wrong."
"Everyone keep an eye out. It's possible something from the ocean made its way in here, we should be alert."
"I hope you're just being paranoid." McKay said, as they made their way thru the station, looking for a control room.
Ronan grunted. "Feels like I'm being hunted."
Xander was feeling that way too. "I prefer to be the hunter, personally. Come on, let's find McKay a new toy to play with so he doesn't get cranky."
"I don't do cranky, I do grumpy, there's a difference."
"I'm sure the distinction is lost on your subordinates." Sheppard said, as they found the control room.
"Teyla, you stay here and guard McKay, we'll check out the rest of the place."
Outside the control room was a four way junction point. They knew what was behind them. Sheppard signaled Xander one side, Ronan the other and went straight himself.
Which is how Xander came to be face to face with a Wraith Queen. "Sheppard, Wraith Queen." He yelled into his radio and fired his P90 at her. It had little effect. She just jerked with each hit and then knocked it out of his hands. One of her hands wrapped around his throat and squeezed, hard. The other tore open his jacket and shirt and latched onto his chest. And Xander knew what D. J. had felt each time that monster of a scientist allowed her to be fed on. He clamped his hands around the wrist of the hand on his chest and squeezed it. The Queen's body began to jerk violently and then she screamed, just as Sheppard and Ronan appeared.
The Queen fell back away from Xander and screamed as violent spasms wracked her body. She died screaming.
A feeding mark could be seen on Xander's chest. He hadn't aged. As Sheppard and Ronan approached, his eyes rolled up into his head and he slid down the wall and lay on the floor. Sheppard bent down and checked his pulse.
"He's alive. Pick him up, let's get him to the jumper." He said to Ronan and grabbed his radio. "McKay, meet us at the jumper. Xander ran into a Wraith Queen and she tried to feed on him."
McKay looked at Teyla. "Tried to feed on him?"
"The treatment the Hoffans created was based on a protein that descended from Lex, remember? Xander is Lex, same protein."
"Oh, yeah. That's why he was offering his proteins as a substitute for the retrovirus."
The two made their way back to the jumper, Sheppard and Ronan arrived a few minutes later, with Ronan carrying Xander.
Once everyone was aboard, Sheppard took off, heading for Atlantis. He radioed ahead to have a med team waiting for them. And that's when they discovered Xander connection to Atlantis went both ways.
"Atlantis' hologram interface just told us he'd been injured and that his vitals indicated unconsciousness. What happened?" Elizabeth asked.
"There was a Wraith Queen in the drilling platform. I have no idea how she got there. She tried to feed on Xander. Aside from being unconscious, he seems fine and hasn't aged. The Queen died screaming."
"Screaming?!"
"Screaming, like it was in pain. Whatever happened to it, happened fast. We should send someone to retrieve the body for study."
"Agreed. I'll send Major Castleman and AG 3. Dr. Keller and a team are waiting in the docking bay."
Later, Dr. Keller, a young woman in her mid twenties told AG 1, Elizabeth and Cordelia what she had found, both in Xander and in her examination of the Queen's body.
"The protein the Hoffans were using drifted slightly from the original, not only that, Merrel had only a small number of them in his system. After 10,000 years it appeared less and less in Lex's descendants. But Xander has a large quantity of the proteins in their original form. And the original appears much more potent then the weaker descendant version. Basically, the Queen received a massive dose of a poison that overwhelmed her entire system and shut everything down. Xander will be fine, his heightened healing factor has already healed most of the damage. He was unconscious because his own system was shocked by the Wraith enzyme they use in the feeding process. His system didn't like it. It's currently flushing it out."
"That's good news. Major Castleman and AG 3 found where the Queen came from. There's a hive ship on the ocean floor, badly damaged. Apparently, like the male Wraith discovered last year on that other planet in this system, she hibernated and occasionally fed on her crew. Like that Wraith, she managed to survive for 10,000 years doing that."
"Damn, these suckers are resilient." Xander commented.
"They certainly seem to be." Elizabeth agreed. "But I have additional news. After I informed Earth about this, the IOA sent a request. They want you to report to the Gamma site in the Milky Way. The scientists there are going to take samples from you and begin working on synthesizing it. They've decided to go ahead with using them to make a weapon. As soon as you recover, you're to 'gate to Earth and then to the Gamma site. You'll probably be gone for about a day."
