John began to stir. He looked around him, he was in his F302, and he seemed to be flying in hyperspace with 2 wraith hive ships. The last thing he remembered was trying to avoid two wraith darts that were coming to attack him from behind. Oh yeah, and the hive ships had also started to open hyperspace windows. He must has gotten knocked out when his ship was thrown around in the creation of the hyperspace window.
"Good" he said to himself as he started punching numbers on the computer of his F302, "You must not know I'm here", he said to the two hive ships. "Where are we?" he asked as he punched up more data on his computer, "We're in the middle of no where?" As realization dawned on him, so did shock and horror, "in the middle of nowhere between Pegasus and the Milky Way!" His fingers hurriedly ran over the controls, gathering data about destination, time, what he could do. As he gathered as much data as possible, he muttered under his breath, "Teyla was right...."
"How long will it take to get there?" He found himself wishing the computer would talk back to him. He grumbled, "...longer than I have life support."
---
"How's it coming Radek?" Dr. Weir asked the scientist as he entered the Atlantis control room.
"Ve're having problems."
"What kind of problems?" She asked with frustration.
"All kinds of problems," Dr. Zelenka responded. "It's not zat ze ZPM won't power ze gate, it's just zat we're having trouble establishing a connection."
"Earth isn't..." Elizabeth hesitated.
"Don't worry; it is impossible zat ze Wraith could have gotten zer so quickly."
"So, then what's the problem?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, there are a number of different possibilities; they could be having unrelated trouble on their end." He fidgeted nervously as he spoke, "They mentioned somezing about an Ori supergate in the last contact, maybe it's causing interference, maybe the Ori have started making use of it, so zer's too much intergalactic gate travel zat it's interfering with our connection, or maybe the Ori have already beat ze Wraith to ze punch..."
"Ok!" Weir interrupted, "Let's assume for the moment that there is still an Earth! We can't do anything about the Ori here, the WRAITH are our responsibility! Can you boost the gate's power to establish a connection?"
"We could, and we might get through for a very limited amount of time..."
Weir folded her arms.
"But zere's no telling how long that will take. Depending on vhat's happening on zer end, we don't know when we'll be able to make contact." Zelenka said with a sigh.
"Dr. Weir," the Canadian technician interrupted, "The Daedalus has arrived."
"Open a channel."
"Dr. Weir," said Col. Caldwell over the comm., "the plan went south."
"We know." Elizabeth told him. "Dr. Zelenka found a virus in Wraith data. What happened?"
"When we dropped out of hyperspace, BOTH Wraith ships open fire on us. They almost destroyed us, but they went to hyperspace before finishing us off."
"Colonel," Elizabeth said with a tone that silenced the room. "The Wraith virus uploaded two pieces of data from us." Caldwell waited patiently. "The Aurora mission reports" she paused, "and our planetary database."
The Daedalus commander took a deep breath before asking, "Have you contacted the SGC?"
"No, Dr. Zelenka has been having trouble establishing a connection, if you could have Rodney..."
"He --..." Caldwell interrupted but hesitated.
Elizabeth froze. "He-... did they..." she stopped.
Caldwell's pause before responding only made it hard for Elizabeth to breathe. "They never activated their transponders. We can only assume that Dr. McKay and Ronon Dex are being held captive on the hive ships."
Elizabeth closed her eyes as she sighed. Meanwhile Radek was muttering something in Czech. After a pause, Elizabeth asked, "Any casualties?"
"Yes," Caldwell responded grimly. From the way he said that, she could almost guess who. She held her breath. "We lost seven F-302s... including Sheppard's." The console could no longer support her, but fortunately, there was a chair near by. The colonel tried to bring words of comfort, "we can only confirm the destruction of 5 of them. I wouldn't put it past Sheppard..." He decided that words of comfort wasn't his specialty and changed the subject to bigger matters. "Doctor, if I may." He said, "Whether we can contact Earth or not, the Daedalus might be our best chance. We might be able to catch up before the Wraith even make it to the Milky Way Galaxy."
"Yes, Dat's vhat I vas thinking," Zelenka added. Dr. Weir turned to him and waited. "You see, once we establish a connection to Earth, zen what are we going to do? You see, because we have one more thing we can offer Earth: ze ZPM. We can't take ze ZPM through the gate because we can't power ze gate without it, but we could use the ZPM to try to boost ze Daedulus to beat ze Wraith to Earth. And then we can use it to power the Antartic base."
"We took a lot of damage, it might take some time for us to get repaired enough to be ready for the trip." Caldwell inputted.
"What about the Orion?" Elizabeth said.
"I really don't think it's ready for intergalactic travel yet." Said Zelenka.
"It would probably be best if we kept it here," said Caldwell. "That way Dr. Zelenka's engineers can work on repairing it and protect Atlantis while we're gone."
"I think we can get ze Daedalus repaired in a few days. With ze ZPM, we should still be able to catch up with ze Wraith."
"What about getting a message to Earth? A warning?" Elizabeth asked him.
The scientist shook his head, "We don't know how long it will be before we can make a connection. But we can try until ze Daedalus is ready to leave."
"Ok, then lets do it." Weir said. "Ok Colonel, find the people you need, let's get to work."
---
Somewhere in the void between two galaxies, an F302 was moving closer to one of two hive ships traveling through hyperspace. On board that hiveship, the wraith leaders gathered for a meeting.
"What do you mean we can't go as fast as the Lantian ships?!" The Queen hissed at her scientist. "You said with the reports we stole you would be able to do it!"
"It's incredible that we've been able to get these modifications we have made so quickly!" he hissed back.
"If we don't improve our rate, it's possible that the humans will catch up to us before we make it to their galaxy." The Queen sneered.
"How long is it going to take?" asked Michael, who remained the most calm.
"Several weeks," responded the scientist. "We don't have anyone who has the proper understanding of Lantian technology to implement it so quickly! Besides, I told you before, it took the Lantian ships just about as long to travel between galaxies. So, unless you know someone who is an expert with Lantian technology..."
"I thought you were supposed to be." She sneered.
"I know someone." Michael spoke up. The other wraith looked at him with interest. "The human scientist, Dr. McKay."
"And I suppose you think he's interested in helping us?" asked the Queen.
"There might be some way he could be... persuaded..."
"You mean like torture?"
"No," the scientist interrupted, "I've worked with him, he's a sniveling gizka. If we tortured him he would spend more time whining then helping us."
"What about his companion, the angry one?" Asked the Queen, "what if we used him to get to the scientist?" The Scientist cocked an eyebrow.
Michael said, "Ronon Dex would have a very high tolerance for torture, and as long as we needed McKay, we would have to keep Dex alive in order to keep threatening to kill him."
"Even then, he could not be trusted," added the scientist. "I'm amazed he is as smart as he is, being a human. He could very well be helping us, but find ways to plot against us at the same time."
"He's right. Dr. McKay would try to find ways to be loyal."
"There is a way..." the scientist started mischievously. The Queen looked to him with interest. "The human doctor's retrovirus. Some of my scientists have been working on analyzing it. They believe they have found ways to... modify it." The Queen waited for him to get to his point. "What I mean is, we could reverse it, use it on the human."
"Would that work?" the Queen asked with interest.
"I believe it is worth a try," said the scientist.
Michael looked at the others in disbelief, "That won't work! Changing the man's genetics will no affect his loyalty to his people!"
"But he will not be able to resist his instincts as a wraith, you have proven that," stated the Queen.
"No! I have only proven that this retrovirus cannot change who someone is!"
"We can test loyalties on his companion," suggested the scientist, ignoring Michael. "I believe it is worth a try."
The queen gave a nod and Michael watched with disagreement on his face as the two left.
--
The wraith scientist and several warrior wraith approached Ronon and Rodney, who were bound to the wall of the wraith ship. Ronon just sneered at them.
"Oh hello," said Rodney dripping with sarcasm, "nice to see you. How are things going? Are we there yet?"
The scientist stopped in front of Rodney and just looked at him as if we hadn't said a thing.
"Oh, well, I'm doing fine, thanks for asking," Rodney continued nervously. Suddenly the wraith released Rodney from the cocoon that was holding him. "Oh, whoah, hey, what's going on?" Rodney got that look that he always has whenever he remembers that he is not mortal.
Without saying anything, the wraith scientist pulled out a syringe and stabbed it into Rodney's arm, who screamed.
"Hey!" Ronon yelled, "leave him alone. You wanna play with someone, play with me! Come on." Ronon egged and challenged the wraith, who just ignored him.
The warrior wraiths grabbed the moaning Rodney and started dragging him. "Hey, what did you do to me, what was that needle? What's going on?!" Rodney whined as he was dragged off.
Meanwhile Ronon was yelling, "Leave him alone!"
---
"Doctor's orders!" Dr. Beckett said as he led Weir into the mess hall of the Daedalus. "Nae sit down and relax while I make you some coffee."
Elizabeth complied, but she looked antsy sitting in that chair, suddenly she said, "I still can't believe we couldn't get a message through to Earth...There must have been a way." She sat anxiously for a moment. "What if they are taking a different route to the Milky Way..." She stood up and started pacing bordering on frantic, "we need to make sure that we can find which way they went...."
Carson stopped her, "Don't worry about it, Col. Caldwell and his officers know what they aire doin. And Dr. Zelenka is working hard to maximize the ships capabilities with the zero point module." Carson motioned her to sit back down. He grabbed the coffee and sat down across from her. "Nae, let's talk about something else."
There was silence. She was uneasy and her mind was wandering. Finally Beckett said, "Elizabeth, I'm sure he's fine. You heard Hermiod, there's a chance that his F302 got caught in the hive ships' wake. If he's alive, we'll find him."
She looked down and nodded her head, "I never should have let them go."
"Hey, they'll be alright." He tried to soothe. But it didn't work, tears started to swell in her eyes.
"I should have known better than to enter into that agreement. I've begun taking too many unnecessary risks!"
"Elizabeth..." he soothed. "Don't worry, they're all very resourceful guys. This isn't your fault, they knew what they were getting into. John has gotten into situations like this before..."
"Blast John!" Elizabeth yelled, "He keeps doing this! He rushes in to save the day! We need him! He can't keep putting himself at risk like this!" She was no longer sitting. After some silent pacing she asked, "How's the ZPM coming?"
Carson chuckled, "Radek's been getting frustrated with Hermiod, can't understand how Rodney was able to work with him!" Carson's chuckle died down, but he kept his smile. "I think even Hermiod misses Rodney."
Suddenly Elizabeth yelled again. "Blast Rodney too!" Carson looked at her in shock, he didn't think he'd ever seen her like this before. "He had to be so eager to put himself in danger! Now I'm at risk at loosing all three! And Ronon! I haven't even got the chance to really get to know him yet!" She felt like she needed to blame him too.
"And ye will get another chance! Nae sit down and drink yer coffee." The doctor ordered.
She complied, once again. After a sip she said softly, "Do you know what the last thing Rodney said to me was?" She looked up at Carson and answered, "'Dr. Weir.'"
Beckett looked at her like he didn't understand.
"He came to my office to work out some details before he and Ronon left for the hive ship. I didn't even realize I had done it, but after he knocked on the entrance, I looked up and said, `ah, come in Dr. McKay.'"
Carson folded his arms and waited for her to continue.
"He must have been so thrown off balance after being called by his title after we had been on a first name basis for so long. He rushed through the items he wanted to and I gave it my go, and he left with, `ok... Dr. Weir.' I didn't realize I had offended him until he did that."
Carson waited patiently and said nothing.
"After he left, I thought about how our friendship hasn't been the same lately, not like it was last year, and he knows it. I'm just worried about Rodney. Ronon and John know how to get out of sticky situations. Rodney's smart...but..."
Carson reached across the table to put a hand on her arm, "They be alright, and if I know them at all, they'll find away to help each other get out of it." He smiled, "I don't know how they'd do it, but they always find away." She shyly smiled back.
---
Michael moved into a room with several wraith and there is seen the back of a head of short white hair connected to a body which was being held down by two wraith. Michael pulled out something to use as a mirror and put it in front of the head. Rodney looked at the strange reflection staring back at him. Pale-face, flat nosed, sharp-tooth, wraithafied.
McKay looked divided, between his terrified self, and a new, angry wraith side. The wraith side came out and he growled at Michael, who smiled insincerely, showing his sharp teeth, "How does it feel? You're the experiment now doctor."
"Who are you?" A new, deep, echoy voice came from Rodney's mouth. "What have you done to me!?"
Michael looked at the new Wraith in disbelief. "Who am I?"
Rodney's eyes darted back and forth, "Who are you? And, um, while you're at it, you wanna tell me who I am?!"
Michael simply folded his arms and cocked an eye brow.
---
The scientist and Michael marched a group of Wraith soldiers down the hallway of the hiveship. Amid the group was Rodney, dressed in wraith attire, looking cynical. The group stopped in front of the cocoon that held Ronon Dex, who greeted the Wraith with his usual sneer.
"Tell me," the Wraith scientist said with a smirk, "Do you know this human?"
Rodney-Wraith stepped out so that Ronon could see him. Horror crossed Ronon's face when he saw what had become of his friend. The former human stepped up and looked Ronon over. He glowered at him before saying, "No, should I know him?"
"If he means nothing to you, then you should have no reason not to feed on him." The scientist commanded. Michael said nothing and watched.
Rodney hissed. Ronon glowered at him and said, "McKay! Don't do this, you're human!" Rodney ignored him, he hissed again, his hand rose up, he thrust it toward Ronon's chest...
"Stop!" Ronon was shocked that he wasn't the one who said it. The scientist, Rodney and Ronon all looked at Michael. "He could be useful yet." Michael moved closer to Ronon, "perhaps we should try the experiment on him as well..."
Ronon grunted, struggling against his binding, wishing he could hurt the wraith.
"He would be a formidable warrior," Michael continued, "and it would be a nice... how would your people say it... poetic justice?" The wraith and the human glowered at each other for a moment before Michael left.
The scientist nodded to his men to take Ronon to the lab. He then turned to Rodney, "Despite your memory problems, we'd like to see what you can do."
---
Dr. Weir entered the command deck of the Daedalus. There she found officers scurrying about, and Teyla, in a far corner, watching. She seemed deep in thought when Elizabeth approached.
"Hey." She said sweetly.
Teyla looked at her and gave a half-hearted smile.
"So, how are we doing?"
"Well, Col. Caldwell estimates that we will be at the edge of the your galaxy in 72 hours."
Weir gave a nod. "Good." She said with a worried sigh.
"They are still unsure if the Wraith will have gotten there yet, it may be difficult to locate them. I do believe Hermiod and Dr. Zelenka are trying to estimate when the Wraith will arrive at the galaxy and the most likely route they will take. They were scanning the whole way here, but there are great voids between galaxies, they could be anywhere."
"Could you..." Elizabeth asked, "sense them?"
"At these distances, it would be difficult."
Weir nodded. There was an awkward pause before she asked, "How do you think Ronon is doing... assuming the Wraith are keeping him captive?"
Teyla sighed, "Not well, I imagine. He has a fierce anger against the Wraith, a prejudice, even more so than I must admit that I have."
"He's strong." Weir comforted.
"I cannot help but feel responsible." Teyla lowered her head.
"He's really been fortunate, working with you." Elizabeth said. Teyla looked at her with interest. "You've really helped him adapt to living in Atlantis. You've looked out for him, even though that was supposed to be John's job." She said with a smirk.
"I suppose I cannot always be successful in keeping them out of trouble."
"Especially when these boys seem to go looking for it. Particularly John." Weir shook her head in a mix of despair and frustration.
"Agreed. Col. Sheppard seems to make a habit of it." Teyla sighed. "And now I am the only member of my team who is not captured, missing or... dead."
Elizabeth put her hand on Teyla's shoulder, "don't give up hope."
Teyla gave a weak smile, "I never do."
---
A dark, agile figure moved through the wraith hive ship. While trying to avoid detection, there was one wraith he didn't except to run into. Sheppard could hear two wraith coming, one told the other to work on a panel near where Sheppard was, so he moved to hide as quickly as possible. Just when he thought he was safe and far enough away from them, the Wraith startled him.
"Sheppard?!" The voice was wraith, but familiar.
"Rodney?!" Sheppard said shocked, temporarily dumbfounded, "What the hell did they do to you?!"
They both stood bewildered for a moment. Suddenly Rodney hissed, his hand went to Sheppard's throat and he forced him to the wall.
"They made me stronger!"
"McKay-" John gasped for breath, "This isn't you, you're human!"
"Can't you see? I'm better like this!" Rodney hesitated. Then, like he was still deciding what he was doing, he thrust Sheppard into a cocoon. Rodney stormed off.
Sheppard called after him, struggling against the cocoon's trapping field, "Rodney! Listen to me, this isn't you!"
Rodney-Wraith stopped, turned around and said simply, "Shut up!"
Rodney returned to work.
---
The most recent wraith created was growling, it took several warriors to hold him down. Michael approached him. Wraith-Ronon just glared. "The hate still exists? Now you have to loath yourself? What are you going to do now? Throw yourself up against the wall?"
"You make me look like a wraith," Ronon said in a deep, echoy, angry voice, "but I'll NEVER be like you! You proved that yourself!"
Michael folded his arms, "I see there's nothing wrong with your memory..."
"You'll find I'm very strong willed!" Ronon sneered. He broke free of one of the warriors grip long enough to try to grab at Michael.
"Interesting..." He said calmly, "I thought you'd be more grateful to someone who saved your life." And he left the room
"You call this saving it?!" Ronon yelled after him.
---
"He has made a lot of good suggestions for boosting the speed of our vessel." The scientist told the queen.
"Really?" The queen asked. "How can we be sure we can trust him?"
"I think the best way to prove that he is truly wraith now is to have him feed on one of his former kind," the scientist sneered.
The scientist marched Rodney to a cocoon with a middle-aged human female.
"It is time for your first feeding," the wraith scientist hissed at the hybrid.
The woman looked so peaceful in her hibernating state. McKay studied her thoughtfully and the looked at the palm of his right hand with the same thoughtfulness. After looking back at the girl for a couple of beats, Rodney drew back his hand with eagerness and sprung his hand towards the victim, only to suddenly halt just before touching her.
"Why do you hesitate?" Rodney's lanky companion demanded.
Rodney studied his hand again in confusion and worry. "I'm not sure," the former human glanced between his hand and the wraith next to him. In his eye could be seen a glimmer of the trademark McKay-fear. "For some reason I hesitated, why? Is there something wrong with me? I--I--first wake up with amnesia and now I can't even feed? God knows I'm starving!"
"What is Amnesia?" The wraith regarded him suspiciously.
Rodney started waving his hand around in his explanatory manner, "It's-its what you call it when you can't remember anything li..." McKay glanced at his companion, "why did I just call it that? I said it as though it was fact, but if you've never heard of it--" Rodney eyed the scientist, "you know something, don't you! Everyone has been watching me, I can see it through their eyes through the telepathic link! And-and feeding and the whole seeing through everyone's eyes should come naturally to me but it doesn't! What's wrong with me!" McKay yelled, getting into his companion's face, "why am I not like everyone else?! I know you know!"
"It is not my place to tell." The wraith replied simply.
"So what you're saying is, I used to be one those scrawny little... livestock?" Dr. McKay questioned, now much calmer here in the private room with the Scientist, Queen, and Michael.
"Yesss," the Queen replied. Everyone was studying Rodney's reaction to the revelation.
"So instead of feeding on me you changed me so you could use my knowledge?"
"Yes."
Rodney nodded, taking it all in, "so, that's why I'm hesitant to feed? Because I'm still part human? Because of a restraint my old self had against such thing? Because of I've never done it before? I didn't have a problem with the big guy earlier." Rodney looked to them for answers.
"Maybe you only had a problem harming innocent looking females in your past life," Michael said from his dark corner where he leaned against the wall, arms folded. Rodney raised his eyebrows as if the idea probably made sense. "Maybe we can start you off on a meaner-looking male."
Rodney looked up at him, his eyes doing a lot of thinking, but no other reaction was readable.
---
Michael led the group down the hallways of the occasional occupied stasis pod until he found an older male human.
Rodney stood in front of his victim as the eyes of the others burned into his back. He took a deep breath, extremely aware of his need to prove himself to his fellow wraith. A moment later Rodney thrust his hand out and it landed on his victim, his mouth widening, baring his sharp teeth. He had never before looked so much like a wraith.
Rodney's dinner screamed out in horror and pain as his lifeforce drained into Rodney who finally felt his nagging hunger subside until he yanked his hand away. Rodney looked at his hand, blood on it now, and looked to his companions, "well the scream was a little unsettling."
"How do you feel?" the Queen inquired.
"Well, I feel, not hungry, and that's always a good feeling," Rodney responded after taking a breath to relieve the nervous energy. "So, now what? Cause if I'm good to go back to work there was a power conduit in the hall on the way here that I saw that I thought I could fix before we started anything else?"
---
Deep in some wraith equipment, Rodney-Wraith was excitedly working with boosting the engines. "See! Because of the way your engines are built, you actually have the potential to go WAY faster than the Ancients!"
The Scientist looked about as intrigued as he was capable of. "'Ancients?'"
The hand that wasn't holding a piece of equipment started waving, "You know, um, ancestors, Lantians...You see, because of the bio-mechanical nature of this ship, the engines draw on that bio-energy, which can be... REALLY powerful." His smile showed his sharp teeth. "I REALLY have to learn more about this."
"How fast can you make it go?"
"Hmm... I'd say... faster than an Ancient warship with a ZedMP powering its engines."
---
"You'll be happy to know that Dr. McKay has made excellent improvements to our system." Michael told Ronon as he went to visit the prisoner.
From within his cell, Wraith-Ronon just glared through the bars
"The queen is very pleased." Michael told him.
Ronon's eyes bore into Michael's, "but you aren't?"
Michael didn't respond at first. "I'm not as eager to trust you doctor friend as the others."
Ronon said sarcastically, "Not ready to let him roam through your ship even if he has guard escorts?"
Michael smirked, "Yes, we wouldn't want that mistake to be made twice." He stopped and looked at the prisoner, "well, I guess I can see the queen's point of view, seeing as Dr. McKay is basically sacrificing his galaxy to us."
"Are you so confident that you can beat their people?"
"My race is not the only one prone to over confidence, or are you so quick to forget how easily your people are deceived?"
Ronon rolled his eyes angrily and looked away from Michael.
Michael smirked, "I think you know we have more in common than you care to admit."
Ronon looked at the other, as if trying to think of another insult to match that one.
Michael released the locking mechanism on the cell. The wraith warriors who were on guard moved to stop him. Michael raised his hand, "Don't worry, I just think our prisoner needs his exercise." Michael found four rods and threw two of them to Ronon. The wraith beckoned to Ronon to leave the prison cell to an open area nearby. He stood poised, sticks at the ready. Ronon, hesitant, not sure what Michael was going to do next. Michael turned to the wraith on duty, "Whatever happens, don't interfere." Finally, Ronon gave in and started the sparring match.
The spat moved slow at first, with Ronon slowly taking swings that were easy for Michael to block. As both got comfortable, the sticks started moving faster and harder. Ronon took a swing that Michael missed, and hitting him in the arm, causing him to drop one rod. Michael quickly responded with hitting Ronan in the leg with his other rod to cause him to loose balance long enough to grab reclaim his weapon. Both quickly recovered and returned to a ready pose.
"Don't go easy on me, Ronon." Michael said to him, warningly.
Ronon half glared at him, half smiled, like he was going to eat him. He lunged forward and the two began a heated battle. Finally, Michael was on the floor and Ronon had him pinned. Ronon hesitated as he looked up at the wraith on duty, who, behind the masks, it was hard to tell if they were even paying attention. Michael took the opportunity to beat Ronon back until the former human was the one on the floor with Michael's rods at Ronon's throat threateningly. "I said `don't go easy on me'!" Michael yelled at him. Michael then nodded to the guards to return the prisoner to his cell.
---
When the Queen entered the command center, Rodney noticed her commanding presence and quickly went on a spill of information, as if by habit. "Looking at the star patterns of this galaxy as we near it, I've begun to recognize portions of it and I do believe the nearest populated planet would be..." he tinkered on the controls "here." He pointed at the map of the Milky-way galaxy.
"Populated? By whom? I thought the new ones were primarily from Earth." The Queen sneered at the galaxy.
"I think that's the origin planet, but they got spread out," Rodney replied.
"What kind of defenses would these planets have?" the Scientist Wraith asked.
"Very little, Earth would probably be the only one you'd have trouble with... actually, I don't even think they're much of a threat either. I seem to remember feeling particularly concerned about that planet's vulnerability."
"Unless they have their ships like the one at Atlantis," Michael countered.
"Atlantis has a ship?" Rodney inquired, "I thought they only had a city."
"Yes, they have at least one ship," Michael snapped.
"Oh...well...were they any match for us?"
"No, not with only the one," the Scientist responded.
"Then I doubt there'd be a problem," Rodney shrugged.
"This had better not be a trap!" Michael began.
"Silence!" the Queen demanded. Her underlings obeyed. "I would like to know as soon as we are within scanning distance."
"Oh, we already are by now," Rodney turned to the consol and zoomed the map in on the edge of the galaxy they were approaching. "We weren't at the beginning of the conversation but, as you see..." Rodney stepped back and let the leaders examine the planet.
"Readings?" the Queen asked a wraith whom Rodney had yet to think of as having any significance.
"It is habitable and..." the wraith officer studied his findings "looks to have a noteworthy civilization of human."
"Excellent." The Queen grinned toothily. "Ready the darts!" she called to others in the command center before turning to McKay. "You have done well. I am very pleased," she cooed as she caresses his jawline with the back of her finger. The wraith formerly known as Doctor Rodney McKay smiled smugly at one once called Michael Kenmore.
---
John Sheppard had no idea how long he had been asleep. In fact, he had no idea how long he had been in this cocoon-thing. As consciousness started to settle in, John realized he must have been woken by something.
"Sheppard!" a bristly voice whispered for the second time.
John, still slightly disoriented, was startled when the figure stepped into view "Yyaahhg!"
"What?" McKay demanded, "This isn't the first time you've seen me like this!"
"Yeah, well, it wasn't too pleasant that time either," John rebutted, somewhat off balance by the situation.
"Come on, you need to hurry." Rodney worked John free of his captive state.
John didn't hold back any confused expressions, "wait a minute; I thought you said you liked being a wraith!" John eyed Rodney with a grain of suspicion, "took you a while to have a change of heart if it was something *I* said."
"Don't flatter yourself colonel," McKay said as he gave his companion a shoulder while use of his legs returned. "I couldn't risk you blowing my cover."
"What cover?? Besides the obvious makeover?"
Rodney's eyes were constantly darting around making sure they were alone. "Amnesia! Hurry up! You need to hurry up and get to a dart without being seen!"
"A dart? Why?"
"Because you need to get down to the planet with the rest of the raiding party, fake engine trouble or pilot error and crash near the stargate."
"Crash?" John was walking, and sneaking on his own now.
"Feigning troubles would explain why you veered away from the village." Rodney explained as if it were obvious. "Here's the in-galaxy address for Earth." Rodney handed John something that passed for paper. John looked up at him, not sure what to make of all of this. "Get to gate, Sheppard! Warn them! Warn Earth!"
---
Sheppard found faking the crash easy, infact, rather unavoidable. As Sheppard stumbled out of the wreckage that was once his dart, he made his way to the stargate. Once he dialed the address, he readied his radio.
"SGC, this is Col. John Sheppard of the Altantis Expedition, come in," he called through his radio as soon as the gate established.
"This is the SGC," Sgt. Harriman responded, "can you give us some sort of proof that you are who you say you are?"
"I've got my Atlantis IDC, will that do?" John punched his IDC while he said it.
"Proceed through, Colonel," General Landry's voice came over the radio.
---
"And this all because you made this... alliance?" Landry questioned the colonel.
"Yes, but if we got some reinforcements I think we could take..."
"We can't." Landry interrupted.
"What?!"
"All of our ships are currently battling the Ori." The general responded solemnly, "Or, at least, what we have left."
"Oh," Sheppard said quietly.
---
Weir entered the command deck where Caldwell was giving commands. "Colonel?"
"Dr. Weir, we entered the Milky Way Galaxy just a few minutes ago. In a couple more minutes we'll drop out of hyperspace near a planet we know has a stargate."
"Good." Weir said with some relief in her voice. "Any sign of the wraith?"
"No, but it's going to take a while to find them. Once in contact with Earth, I hope to establish some sort of perimeter" Caldwell said as Elizabeth gave a nod.
"Approaching PWZ-042 sir," an officer told her commander.
"Drop out of Hyperspace," ordered Caldwell. He turned to another office, "Sergeant, I need that ZPM."
---
Rodney was busily working on something when the Queen came storming in followed by several warriors.
"They are not humans!" The queen hissed at him.
"Hmm?" Rodney-Wraith looked up from his work.
"That species on that planet! My warriors landed and tried to feed on them and they were unable too! Now I am loosing men in a battle to these formidable warriors!"
"Hmm... I didn't know you couldn't feed on Jaffa," Rodney responded thoughtfully.
"What?"
"Oh hey, I figured out the solution to your delivery system!" Rodney told her excitedly.
"What?"
"For the um, you know, the retrovirus."
"What, we don't care about that anymore! We have a galaxy full of humans!" The Queen hissed.
"Oh, it's really great! Here, I'll show you!" Rodney lifted up a device with a button and pushed it before the queen could grab it. In seconds, the whole ship was flooded with a gas. All the wraith started gagging and screaming in pain. To Rodney's surprise, he wasn't. He wasn't turning into humans like the rest were. He didn't know why, he'd figure it out later. So he picked up the nearest wraith's weapon and shot all the wraith in the room while they were gagging for breath. Then he turned to his console, pushed some buttons and ran out of the room.
---
Ronon's cell door opened shortly after all the wraith started screaming in pain. Since he was strong while a human, being a wraith taking on wraith-turning-into-humans, it was easy for him to break through the guards. He ran down the hall.
"Ronon!" McKay called.
Ronon froze. McKay threw Ronon his favorite gun. Ronon thought for a second and then raised the gun to Rodney's head.
"Hey!"
"You turned into one of them!"
"No! That was just a show to give me access to the systems!"
"You were going to feed on me!"
McKay pfftted, "I knew you couldn't be fed on, they didn't! So it would have made me look loyal without you being hurt." Rodney smiled, which was still disturbing since he had the wraith teeth.
Ronon lowered the gun.
"Listen, we need to get control of the ship. Many of the warriors are still on the planet getting wiped out by Jaffa they can't even feed on. We need to move quickly to stop the ones on the ship here with us before they finish the transformation."
Ronon nodded and they went opposite directions.
McKay got to the control center of the wraith ship and shot all the wraith in there, who were too busy bending over in agony. He reached a control panel and said, "hmm, let's see what we can do from here. Why don't we set the auto-destruct."
Ronon found his way to the bridge. "What's that noise?"
"That's the alarm for the self-destruct."
"Self-destruct?!"
"Don't worry, I know how to stop it. I figured it was the easiest way to get all the wraith off the ship."
"But now there's a whole bunch of wraith darts out there!"
"Not for long."
Ronon raised an eyebrow to him.
"We're going to go to hyperspace here shortly."
"Why?"
"Because the other hive ship is going to explode and... I don't want to stick around for that."
"Why is the ship going to explode?"
"Because I sent them a nice... virus," Rodney said with joy. Rodney move all around, pushing buttons while he spoke.
The ship started shaking.
"What's that?" asked Ronon-Wraith.
"The other hive is attacking us." Rodney McKay waved a hand toward the other side of the room, "Look for something that looks like guns and shoot at them in the meantime, will ya?"
Ronon just blinked.
---
Weir and Caldwell materialized in a flash of light, on the ground, near the quiet planet's stargate. Caldwell went to the DHD and dialed.
"SGC, this is Col. Steven Caldwell and Dr. Elizabeth Weir." He waited for a response.
"Colonel, this is the SGC," Sgt. Walter Harriman's voice came over the comm..
"I need to speak to your commander immediately," Weir stepped in. "The Wraith-"
"We know." General Landry's voice came through.
General Landry met the pair in the gateroom, "welcome back, Dr. Weir. I'm sorry we had to meet again under such circumstances."
Elizabeth held out the ZMP, "Here."
"Don't you need this to power your cloak?" Landry asked.
"We felt your needs out weighed ours."
"Thanks, but I hope we don't have to use it..." Landry stopped and Weir nodded. "Listen, on a different note, there's someone here who'd like to see you."
On cue, Sheppard entered the gateroom. Elizabeth and Steven stood bewildered. John opened his arms and smiled, "Missed me?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and pretended to be mad, but her smile came through. "Don't you dare do that again!" John's expression said `whaa-` and she responded, "Making me think you were dead! I can only take so much."
"Where's Dr. McKay and Ronon Dex?" Caldwell asked.
"On the hive, McKay was able to help me escape, I'll explain it all later..." He turned to Elizabeth disappointed, "Don't I get a hug?" He asked cockily. She just gave him an evil glare mixed with a smirk.
"General," Caldwell interrupted, "what about the wraith?"
"I'm sorry, but we can't spare any ships right now from the battle with the Ori, but, thanks to Sheppard, we do know where the wraith are right now."
Caldwell raised an intrigued eyebrow.
"General!" Walter called over the speakers from the control room, "we just got a message from our sources, there's been a massive explosion near PY9-227."
"The wraith?" The General asked. Walter shook his head unknowingly.
"PY0-227?" Caldwell asked, "That's a short jump from PWZ-042, isn't it?"
"... I guess..." Sheppard said.
"Let's get back to the Daedalus then," Weir said. Landry nodded to Walter who began dialing the gate.
---
When Sheppard entered the command deck of the Daedalus, he was greeted by a glowing Teyla. He gave her a half-hug as he told her what happened.
The Daedalus dropped out of hyperspace into a debris field.
Caldwell turned to his officers, "Report."
"Dart debris... and hive debris." The officer said.
"Any survivors?" Caldwell asked.
The officer looked at his computer, he hesitated, and then shook his head.
"Sir," another officer interrupted, "Our contact on the planet says that they saw the two hive ships start attacking each other and then the explosion. If one exploded and the other was too close..." he stopped. Caldwell nodded and looked at Weir.
Her eyes went distant and then she said, "looks like our work here is done."
---
Rodney raced around the control room of the hive.
"How long is it going to take to get back to Atlantis?" Ronon asked, while watching the busy bee.
"I don't know, the adjustments I made to the hyperdrive seem to have gotten damaged in the battle." Rodney hurried around as he spoke.
Ronon just stood still. He looked at the palm of his hand. "Why didn't we change when the others did?"
"I um, don't know, the retrovirus that was already in our system must have something to do with it. I can only hope that, when we get back, Beckett can figure something out." Rodney spoke as he fiddled around at a console.
"You think they'll trust us?"
McKay didn't respond. Suddenly, he slammed the panel. "Damn this! I can't fix it! I can't do any of it!"
Ronon cocked what would have-been eyebrow, "You were able to make the ship go extremely fast, I'm sure you could fix it now."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Rodney said sarcastically. Suddenly he sat down on the floor and put his face in his hands. Then he looked at the palm of his hands. Ronon said nothing and watched. "I can't believe it." McKay stuttered. "I-I killed a man." He said looking at the slit in his palm.
Ronon stiffened. "You did?"
"I-I had no choice! I wish there had been some other way. That-that screaming..." Rodney put his hands to his head, hoping to will the screaming away.
Ronon did nothing for a moment. Then he moved to sit next to him. "Well, you also killed whatever few humans were on the other hive ship too when you blew it up."
Rodney gave him a dirty look and sighed, "well, at least we saved a few on this ship."
"When we get back to Atlantis, we might be able to find their homes." The larger individual pondered pessimistically for a moment. "What about that world they were culling?" Ronon asked with a slightly disgusted expression threatening to surface on his face.
"They weren't human," Rodney explained, surprisingly patient rather than defensive, "they are a, a spin-off race, genetically engineered from humans. It was a gamble," Rodney sighed guiltily, "I'm just really glad it paid off and they weren't able to feed on them. A nice plus is the fact that the Jaffa are excellent warriors, albeit unlikely that they'd have a mothership on the edge of the galaxy, but their staff weapons and zats can hold their own"
Ronon Dex didn't understand most of that, but he couldn't help but admire Dr. Rodney McKay, coward extraordinaire, his dedication through the last week or two, huge risks made in desperation, all paid off.
"I must say, I am impressed, and strangely, not overly disappointed."
Ronon and Rodney both swung their heads around towards the doorway. In less than a heartbeat Ronon had his gun to the intruder's head.
"I have no weapon." The clam Michael could exhibit when the Satedean's favorite gun was pressed against forehead really irked Ronon. "So, was there a part to that conversation that I missed where you talked about why we haven't transformed the same as the others? Because I only was able to find you after I heard Doctor McKay's yelling and whining." Michael appeared more human than Dex and McKay.
"Hey!"
Michael and Ronon glared at each other for a while longer until Ronon relaxed his gun slightly and took and step back.
---
"So the fates of Dr. McKay and Specialist Dex still remain a mystery?" The meeting head inquired.
"Unless they either make contact with Atlantis or Earth, we have no way of knowing what their fates," Teyla confirmed.
"However we doubt they survived," Caldwell admitted the bad news.
General Landry finished circling the conference table and sat on the end between Weir and Caldwell. "I suppose there are a lot of unanswered questions at this point," Landry stated.
"Like what the people we all have to report to are going to say about all of this," Sheppard offered.
"Well, there are bigger problems that currently have them distracted," Landry turned to his right, "Dr. Weir, do you want the ZPM back? Given the reports we've been getting, I doubt it'll do much good here."
"Atlantis hasn't detected any new wraith movement by this point," Elizabeth responded, "so Michael and his queen must have kept Atlantis's secret just between their two hives in their alliance. The ZPM has a much greater chance of being useful out here. We can gamble a while longer out there."
"One that note general..." Colonel Caldwell spoke up, leaning forward, hands clasped on the table, "I'd like to offer the Deadelus's services here, however we can help."
---
In Stargate Command's gateroom, all those who had been aboard the Daedalus that were not crewmembers were departing back to Atlantis, the ZPM being on this end this time.
"I'm sorry your first visit on Earth could not have been under better circumstances," General Landry said to Teyla.
"Perhaps we will yet meet again General," she smiled kindly.
"Good luck, Colonel," Sheppard was saying to Caldwell, adding in an earnest salute. Caldwell returned the gesture and then presented his hand. Sheppard firmly shook his hand and a knowing look was exchanged between them as the understanding that Sheppard would do his best to fill in with the Orion while the Deadelus was away.
Caldwell turned to Dr Weir. "I hope to see you soon," she said honestly to him as the stargate locked in the eighth chevron and the wormhole opened. "Be careful."
Caldwell grinned, "I'll be back to being an annoying thorn in your side soon enough, Doctor."
---
That evening, back on Atlantis, John entered the mess hall. He didn't expect to find anyone there. In the corner, he could hear someone sniffling.
John approached her gently. When Elizabeth saw John, she tried to act like nothing was wrong and tried to dry the tears. John said nothing and sat in a chair near her.
Finally she spoke, "I try, I really try not to let my emotions..." she choked, "Before, I had hope to hang on to... no real proof that any of you were...I mean... I'm glad the wraith were stopped...Ro- but I can't help thinking they had something to do with it-" she couldn't speak anymore.
"Hey," John said gently. He moved next to her and put his arms around her as he let her wet his sleeve.
---
It had been a couple weeks since they left the Milky Way Galaxy. Things were back to normal, well, as much as they can be with two crucial people of the expedition missing. She hadn't even noticed that she had been avoiding Zelenka. It just wasn't the same, having him run up, excited to explain new findings to her. She just couldn't help but feel... responsible.
"Dr. Weir," the Canadian technician called over the comm, "long range sensors have detected a Hive ship."
She sighed, "So our cover was blown. I'm surprised things were so uneventful here while we were gone." She went to join the technician in the control room.
John came running up too. "Maybe I can take the Orion out for a spin to check it out?" he asked. "They got a lot of work done on it. Of course, I would have rather had McKay's seal of approval."
"Doctor," the technician interrupted, "I think I'm getting a signal from the hive ship."
"From that distance? I didn't think they could." John added. Elizabeth looked to the technician with curiosity.
"-Atlantis... come in." The voice was wraithy, but vaguely familiar. "Atlantis, this is McKay, come in please."
"Rodney?!" John asked with disbelief.
"Can we get a visual?" Elizabeth asked the technician with excitement. He pushed some buttons and Rodney, who was looking a little less wraith, but not by much, appeared on the screen.
"Oh my god," Weir said softly at the sight.
"You're looking good yourself, Lizabeth," Rodney grinned his best McKay-smirk without it appearing too wraith-y. Behind him, they could see Ronan, looking as disgruntled as ever. "How to you like the wraith hive ship I brought home?"
Dr. Weir couldn't help but smile broadly. The atmosphere of the room was alive with excitement. Knowledge about Rodney's wraithiness was already publicly known at Atlantis, thanks to John, but seeing Ronon and Rodney alive was a welcome surprise.
"McKay, how did--?" John started to ask skeptically.
"Colonel if you don't mind," Rodney interrupted, "we were hoping to ask that as soon as we are in range for you to beam Ronon and I over so we can hurry up and get to the medbay. I'm sure you'll want to ready your security... we are what we are, just for standard procedure or something..."
"Hold on Rodney..." Elizabeth rose her hands to calm him. "We can't beam up, Col. Caldwell stayed in the Milky Way with the Dadaelus. But I can have John meet you with a jumper." She turned to Sheppard who nodded approvingly.
"Oh, Alright. Well, tell Carson to get ready to try and get us back to normal as soon as he can and to have a large buffet waiting in the infirmary for us, because, believe it or not, the wraith don't keep much in the way of food around here!"
Weir smiled, "Will do. In the mean time," Weir smiled, "tell us what happened." McKay smirked, and Ronon stepped forward to make sure he didn't stray too far from the truth.
---
Dr. Weir, Teyla and Dr. Zelenka met Sheppard's puddlejumper in the bay. Teyla ran to greet Ronan. He attempted to hide his appearance from her, but she approached him and placed her hands on his broad shoulders. He mustered a smile for her acceptance of him and put his head to hers.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth looked Rodney-wraith over with a half-smirk, half-laugh. "I can't see any difference," John remarked.
Rodney rolled his eyes and said, "ha ha."
Weir raised an eyebrow and said, "The yellow eyes look good on you." He glowered at her. "Come on, Carson's waiting for you."
Elizabeth started walking with McKay to the infirmary, when she noticed someone else on the puddlejumper. The security team that had gone with Sheppard escorted Michael out of the jumper. He and Teyla exchanged glances before she escorted Ronon to the infirmary.
"So, Lizabeth..." Rodney muttered, "What food did they get us...?"
"My, Rodney looks pathetic even as a wraith." Zelenka said. He and Sheppard, watched as the ladies escorted Ronon and Rodney until the silence between them got awkward.
"So..." John broke the silence. He cocked an eyebrow and said, "...how `bout that hive ship?"
"Yeah, let's check it out," said Radek, and they did.
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