Chapter Text
The woman was small and slim, almost tiny compared to him, but she glared at him like a true Queen as she looked up at him with her hazel-colored eyes, her chin raised defiantly despite the fear that stained her natural scent with the sharp taste of acid. Hunger twisted his guts with a meal within such close reach, a hunger so raw and burning so hot in his veins that his knees almost gave in beneath him, but he kept himself upright with the last shreds of his self-control. His dignity was all that was left for him, and he wouldn't let this woman know how low he'd sunken and how desperate he was – even more as she belonged to the New Lanteans and regarded him with such arrogant disdain as if he was some kind of nasty insect crawling at her feet. He'd heard stories about these impudent new residents of Atlantis before, but until now he'd never encountered one of her kind himself, never met one of those humans who had come from a galaxy so far away – just to turn his home upside down within the ridiculous time span of little more than five years.
They'd claimed to be the rightful heirs of the sunken ancient city of the Lanteans, the biggest enemy his own kin had ever known before their young brothers and sisters had found their way to Atlantis from across the huge gap between their star isles. The new inhabitants of the city had challenged and defeated the Asurans, the artificial species which possessed the full knowledge and technology of their creators and were not only vast in their numbers, but also seemingly unlimited in their cruel and merciless efficiency.
The Asurans had even been worse than the Lanteans ten thousand years ago, not contenting themselves with the task of destroying every single Wraith Hiveship to wipe his race out from existence in the whole galaxy, but going for their food source instead and extinguishing entire human populations faster than his own brethren could try to stop them from doing so. And yet the few hundred people living in the old Lantean city had achieved the unthinkable and formed a temporary alliance with his own kin and other human populations to erase the Replicators from Pegasus for once and all.
The New Lanteans had awoken all of his brethren at once shortly after their first arrival in Pegasus, each single Hive in the whole galaxy, and one should think that several dozens of Hives with thousands of Wraith should have been able to expunge the threat those few humans were for his kin – or at least send them back to where they'd come from. But instead of finding a new vastly rich feeding ground on Earth for so many hungry Wraith, the people this impudent woman belonged to had not only destroyed the Super-Hive, but also come back to Pegasus again with the Lantean city they had conquered so easily, apparently determined to stay and resume their fight against his brethren until there would be no Wraith left alive in the whole galaxy.
He should kill her, kill her right away to take revenge for his fallen brothers and sate the raging beast his hunger had become, but something in her eyes, something about the way she met his gaze so fearlessly, fascinated him more than he wanted to admit. His situation was desperate, and her life would restore his own until the next culling, but he simply couldn't bring himself to slam his feeding hand against her chest under the ugly gray uniform jacket she wore, no matter how hard he told himself that taking her life to ease the pain his hunger caused him was the best thing he could. She seemed to sense his indecision, tilting her head in thought when curiosity replaced some of her initial panic and her shoulders straightened with new confidence.
“I'm Dr. Jennifer Keller. My friends will come looking for me,” she said even though he hadn't allowed her to speak yet, and he bared his teeth to an angry hiss and took a step forward, raising his hand in threat. She blinked and flinched a bit, but she remained where she was, glaring up at him and daring him to feed on her with her eyes.
“Your friends do not concern me, human,” he hissed at her, feeling that the control over the situation was slipping from him if he didn't stop her boldness right here and now.
“But they should concern you. Your kind has underestimated us before, and look what it did to you and where you are now.” She glanced to the side to take in the sight of his bridge, and the poor state of his vessel clearly wasn't lost on her, even though she couldn't be an expert in Wraith technology.
“You are the Commander of this ship, right? Where are the others you have... collected together with me?” she demanded to know, and the bitter taste of failure rose in his throat. This small woman had been one of the dozen people still hiding in the village when he'd sent his six remaining Fighters to pick up the left overs of the humans the two hostile Hives hadn't caught during their culling. This was all he and his crew could do, waiting for other Hives to cull worlds and hoping that some humans would be left for them to collect afterwards. It was a life full of shame and disgrace, but their hunger burnt more than their sense of honor did as close as they all were to starvation.
Her uniform had given her true origin as one of the people from Earth away when they'd re-materialized their prey, so he'd ordered the officer who watched over their human captives to bring her to the bridge. The other eleven humans were gathered in the only prison cell that was still intact in his heavily damaged ship, and it was only owed to the possibility that they could be survivors of the disease the hybrid Michael had spread throughout the entire galaxy that they were still alive and not already drained by his hungry crew.
His Wraith had obeyed his orders for the time being, but grudgingly so, and it was only a matter of time until they would rebel against him, he knew that. But he was still their Commander, responsible for their lives and their well-being, and he simply couldn't bear losing any more of his crew, not a single Wraith of the small number that had been left after he'd lost his Hive and his Queen.
Hiding between the stars and secretly following in the wake of other Hives to take advantage of the chaos that always broke loose during the cullings and collect the few remaining humans that were left in the cities and villages afterwards was his new life and harsh reality now, and he'd wished more than only once that he'd died together with his Hive and his former Queen, but here he was, still alive and shame and dishonor the only companions he knew these days. The days of power and glory were gone, fading more and more to a distant memory with every cycle that passed, and he cursed the oath he'd sworn to his adored Queen and which kept him from following her into death to end his misery and loneliness.
“Commander?” the woman's voice voice drew him back to the present and he gazed down at her face and her fascinating eyes. She was pale under the rosiness of her human skin, bluish circles under her eyes and the thin lines around her mouth speaking of an exhaustion that must have been her constant companion for a rather long time already. Her long blond hair was falling in disheveled strands over her back and her creased uniform, but she was not unpleasant to look at, and she seemed to be still very young even for human standards.
“What did you do to them?” she insisted when she had his full attention again, her chin raised defiantly and her eyes sparkling. She did her best to look taller than she was and folded her arms protectively before her chest – as if that would keep him from feasting on her delicious strength when he decided that she'd bothered him enough with her impudent questions.
“They're still alive,” he heard himself answer to her, much to his own surprise, and the grateful smile she gifted him with at his words caught him off-guard and made him feel uncomfortable.
“Thank God,” she murmured, more to herself than to him, “we're of more value to you alive than dead. My friends will come when they find that I'm no longer there, and I can put in a good word for you and keep them from destroying your ship, but only if you'll let the villagers live.”
“What makes you think that I need your help, woman? I don't fear your friends or their ships. Apart from that – they'll yet have to find me before they can try to destroy my ship – if they will truly come for you, that is,” he snarled back at her, baring his teeth to another hiss, but her only reaction was to let her gaze travel over the damaged walls and consoles beside her.
“You can't know that, but I've been infected with the organic structure that builds and grows your ships two years ago. I was actually the heart of the Hive that grew out of me and around me, and I have never fully lost the ability to sense your ships and connect with them to a small part. Yours is rather small – probably not a real Hiveship, but more a cruiser if I had to guess, and it's clearly damaged and malfunctioning. You're defenseless, and you will definitely need my help when my people have found us. We don't leave one of us behind, that was one of the first lessons I learned when I came to Atlantis. Where's your Queen – did she leave it up to you to talk to us? Do you even have a Queen, because your ship really needs repairs as I can see...”
Her voice trailed off when he just stared at her with angrily glowing eyes, but she didn't lower her head down or flinch away from his wrath. Talking seemed to calm her down as he could see in her changed appearance and smell in her changed scent as well, now less acrid and more the tempting fragrance of a healthy young woman. There was still exhaustion underlaying it, but her scent was much more pleasant now than it had been a couple of minutes ago.
That she could sense his ship was a surprise and troubled him more than he cared to admit, but she was a single woman, a small powerless human being, and she couldn't cause any more serious damage than what he and his crew had already gone through.
“You're talking too much, woman,” he hissed, eager to get rid of her so he could clear his thoughts and contemplate his next steps in peace and quiet. Keeping his inner turmoil hidden from his crew and the bond they all shared through the Hivemind was already difficult enough without her adding to his annoyance and anxiety, and he waved at the two silent drones guarding the exit to have her brought back to the cell where the settlers were awaiting the fate they'd soon suffer from the hands of their hungry Wraith masters.
“It's Dr. Keller, not 'woman',” she declared, apparently unaware how close he was to draining her dry just to silence her. “I'm a doctor, a physician, you know. You look sick and malnourished, I could help you and your crew...” She – Dr. Keller – stopped herself abruptly when she realized what she'd just said, blushing deep red before her face turned white when he grinned wolfishly at her and raised his feeding hand playfully as if to suck her life out with the next beat of her racing heart.
The thought was so tempting, but unfortunately she was right about the state of his ship and his crew, and she would be of more value to him alive until he knew whether or not she was right about her friends from Atlantis coming after her. She was still snow-white when the drones grabbed her arms to drag her into the gloomy corridor, but she turned her head to throw a last accusing glance at him over her shoulder before she disappeared around the corner, and he was left alone standing on his bridge wishing that he hadn't been so stupid to send his Fighters to the planet and beam her into the storage in the first place.
*~*~*
The organic bars closed behind her, and Jennifer found eleven pairs of fearful eyes directed at her. She crossed the small cell to kneel down beside the villagers who were sitting on the floor huddled together, four women, five men and two children. They were all that was left from the former big village with far more than two hundreds of settlers, and Jennifer's heart clenched when she let her eyes roam over each of them, anxiously checking them for any serious damage or injuries.
After her breakup with Rodney and the return to Pegasus she'd needed to put some space and distance between herself and the city that had become her home since she'd set foot into Atlantis almost four years ago, and she'd volunteered to help treating the settlers of an allied world after the outbreak of a measles-like disease. The eleven people crouching in front of her had been the last patients she'd tended to in the hospital right before the Darts had come through the Stargate, and Jennifer had refused to leave them alone and helped them to hide in the basement of the hospital until the Wraith had left the planet again.
None of them had expected the Wraith to return, and she chided herself for her carelessness now, but how could she have known that there would be a second attack?
“Is anyone hurt? Did they harm you?” she asked, and Nyla, the oldest one of the women, shook her head. She was ten years older than Jennifer, something in her thirties, and the nurse who'd helped Jennifer over the past couple of weeks. She'd refused to leave her and their patients alone when the first attack had begun, helping Jennifer with the weakest and sickest ones when they'd stumbled their way down the stairs to the underground below the hospital to hide there. She radiated calm, and Jennifer was deeply grateful for her presence.
“No, they didn't. Two Wraith brought us here, together with four of their masked warriors. They were rude but didn't touch us.” Nyla paused, her arm wrapped protectively around Tallin and Igor, the young girl and boy who were sitting at her right side cuddled up together. Their parents must have been taken by the Wraith of the first attack, and Jennifer felt a lump in her throat when she saw their tears-filled eyes looking so pleadingly at her. She smiled at them - hoping that her expression carried hope and reassurance rather than the fear she actually felt.
“Something is strange about these Wraith,” Nyla now continued to voice her thoughts out loud, “they look starved and desperate, but they didn't even try to feed on us, even though they really looked hungry. And their ship – it's clearly in bad shape, too.”
Jennifer nodded her head. “I've got the same impression. I had a talk with the Commander, and you're right, there's something strange about him and his ship. I don't think that he belongs to the Wraith who attacked us first, and he really seems to be desperate and starved.” She swallowed at the memory of the tall male, so alien and fearsome and yet so fascinating at the same time. Jennifer thought that he must be younger than Todd, but still several centuries or perhaps even millennia old, and there had been an aura of melancholy and hopelessness surrounding him that had affected her pretty much, her throat tightening with sympathy when she'd sensed his despair beneath the hostility.
His face with the strict ageless features was still clear in her mind, the tattoo sitting above his left eye shaped like a stylized Stargate catching her attention every time she'd looked at him. His long white hair almost reached down to his waist, tied back at the sides of his head to keep it out of the way when he worked like most Wraith preferred to wear their hair as far as she knew. His heavy coat looked as worn out as his whole appearance was, the former rich black color faded to a dull dark gray over the course of time and whatever mishaps and misfortunes had crossed his way in the past.
“They left us your bags, Dr. Keller,” Nyla now interrupted her memories, pointing at something Jennifer hadn't noticed before. It was the two large bags with medicine and equipment she'd packed in a hurry when the first Fighters had come through the gate, and she'd actually thought that they had been lost when the bright beam of more Darts had de-materialized them on their hasty flight through the destroyed village towards the Stargate to seek safety in Atlantis.
“Oh well, that's good news, isn't it?” Jennifer turned to check her equipment, finding it intact much to her joy and relief. They needed to be careful with the supplies of medicine, but her habit of always packing much more than was strictly necessary and wise when going on an off-world mission according to Sheppard would come in handy now. She handed one of the water bottles to Nyla and took another one to help the exhausted settlers drink from the bottles before allowing herself a few sips from the precious liquid, as well.
Tallin and Igor had fallen asleep in Nyla's arms by the time she'd checked all of them for a second time, and as there was nothing she could do other than wait for the Commander to make the next move, Jennifer finally settled down on the cool organic floor next to her charges to take a nap. Facing the Wraith who held her life or death in his hands – literally – as sleep-deprived as she was at the moment wouldn't help her cause, and the wait for their next encounter would certainly be less dreadful if she simply slept through it.
The memory of the Commander's green-golden cat's eyes followed her into her fitful slumber and her dreams, thought, bringing more worries and complicated feelings rather than the rest she'd been seeking.