Cedarfiction.net - Beyond the Third

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Act 4

The rear hatch of the modified Jumper lowered far too quickly for Sheppard's taste, particularly as the small party – just himself, McKay and Ronon, in spite of Kanaan's insistence otherwise – found themselves face to face with four of the biggest Wraith warriors Sheppard thought he'd ever seen.

Immediately Ronon drew and charged his weapon, as if he meant to take them on all by himself.

"Ronon," Sheppard warned, but he got no further, for the movement of shadows distracted him from telling the volatile Satedan to lower his weapon. The shadows resolved themselves into the massive bulky form of Todd, but unlike any incarnation – and he'd seen a few – of that particular Wraith that Sheppard had ever seen. It was the livid scar that began above his right eye and stretched down to the middle of the Wraith's cheek that was the most striking. It lent the already deadly looking Wraith the impression of a mean streak a mile wide.

"John Sheppard," Todd growled. The sound of it sent ice coursing down Sheppard's back. Todd seemed none too pleased to see him. "Our… friendship ended many years ago. By what right do you dare demand my cooperation?"

"As I understand it," Sheppard said, trying to sound surer of himself than he felt, "the John Sheppard that was your… friend – his life ended many years ago."

The Wraith tilted his head and let out a low rumbling sound from the back of his throat. Sheppard hoped he was considering the words against whatever course of action he was planning. Sheppard's second hope followed barely a second later when another biting pain seized his gut as Michael's retrovirus fought back against the serum they'd given him aboard the Daedalus. He tried not to react; not to give anything away in front of the unfamiliar Wraith he stood before, but the cramping in his belly was so severe that he couldn't stifle the moan, nor could he resist the urge to double over, holding his hands over the painful area as if trying to protect himself.

Unable to answer, Sheppard looked on helplessly as Ronon, threatening as ever, pushed his way past the Wraith drones to brandish his weapon in Todd's face. Todd did not move, save to raise a hand in a restraining gesture against reprisals by his drones.

"Look," Ronon snapped, "Sheppard had a run-in with Michael and it didn't turn out well. Some people we were talking to said you did some kind of research to make something that could counter this. So are you gonna help us, or do I have to kill you and have McKay take the data back to Beckett anyway?"

Todd was silent for a moment, staring at the Satedan with open malice in his expression, until, a moment later, he rumbled, "Well now, why didn't you say so before? If this… meeting can go some way toward thwarting that Queenless bastard's plans, perhaps we have something to discuss after all."

Todd turned to his second and ordered him to take the ship into hyperspace, and then, completely ignoring Ronon's still raised gun, he began to lead the way deeper into the Hive ship.

Sheppard felt his arms taken in support, and glanced at his friends as they led him along in Todd's wake.

Vega watched the retreating figures of the worshipper and her charge before she turned away and began pacing the chamber. She was nervous. It had been so long since she had seen any of the former Atlantis Command that she didn't know how she would feel about them any more. Todd guarded her jealously from any outside influences – any harm – at least that not of his own doing. It was rarely deliberate, and he always saw to the healing of any serious injuries, but Todd liked to play, and play hard, and Vega had the bruises to prove it.

The sound of voices drawing nearer pulled her away from the memory of the ache in her thighs, left over from last night's games. She quickly pulled the gauzy flowing robe closed over the rest of her clothing and moved to take her place at the side of the Hive Queen's Throne. The throne, however, had accommodated no Queen in many years, but was the command post for the leader of this alliance of Wraith that was, so far successfully, holding its own against The Tainted One's army; his campaign.

Since the knowledge of Colonel Sheppard's death at Michael's hands, the daydreams, the imaginings of what she would say to the colonel, should he ever discover her here among the Wraith, had long since faded to resignation of her fate to remain at Todd's side. She could think of worse fates that could befall her, and worried perhaps that one of those might now come to pass once Sheppard and the others had seen that she was here.

In all of her former daydreaming, however, she had never seen Sheppard as she did now. He was pale, almost grey, and barely able to walk for what appeared to be crippling pains.

"Sheppard!" she could not help but let out the exclamation and started to descend the steps toward where Ronon and McKay lowered him carefully to sit on the edge of one of the tiers of the dais. She barely managed to take a step before Todd caught her arm in a vicelike grip.

It wasn't until Sheppard had given assurances of his wellbeing that he realised who it was that he was talking to. Then he frowned at the way Todd was treating her.

Get a grip, John, he admonished himself, then winced as Ronon once more stepped toward Todd.

Todd chuckled in answer and drew Vega in front of him, wrapping his arms around the top of her chest.

"Ronon," Sheppard reached out a hand in Ronon's direction, stopping him. "Please…"

Sheppard looked up to where Todd stood, still holding Vega. He shuddered, wondering what kind of mind control Todd had over her that she wouldn't even try to move away. In fact, the more he watched them, the more Vega seemed to be leaning in to the Wraith's embrace.

"Captain Vega," Sheppard said, trying to sound as official as possible. "Move away from the Wraith."

"That's an order, Captain," Sheppard said and started to struggle to get to his feet again. Beside him McKay reached out to support him. The chamber in the Hive around him began to spin and he had no choice but to lean on the man. "I said—"

"I heard what you said, John," Vega said, "but I'm afraid I don't take orders, not from you, not any more."

"You see, Sheppard," Todd purred and finally let go of Vega. "There are many things about this universe that you do not know."

He looked up as Todd came to a halt in front of him. He staggered as McKay let go and involuntarily stepped back. Unable to support himself, Sheppard would have fallen if Todd hadn't caught him. He had no choice other than to brace himself against the Wraith.

"One thing I know," he repeated, barely a whisper. "If you can't help me – I'm finished."

The Wraith gave no warning of his intent, he said nothing else at all, he simply slammed his feeding hand against Sheppard's chest.

If the pain of Michael's retrovirus was almost more than he could bear, the searing heat from the biting touch of the Wraith's hand intensified it tenfold. He could do nothing but cry out as everything around him faded into the far depths of his awareness.

Vaguely he heard McKay and Ronon calling for him, and heard the trill of the Satedan's gun charging, before all conscious awareness faded from his mind.

As the Wraith slammed his slightly curled feeding hand against his friend's chest, the Satedan echoed the scientist's cry, but leaped toward Todd with his weapon charging just as Sheppard's strength failed him and the Wraith relinquished him to the two drones that had appeared from nowhere.

Todd turned and snarled at Ronon, oblivious to the deadly nature of Ronon's weapon, which the Satedan flipped to its highest setting.

"What did you do to him?" Ronon yelled, trying to pierce the miasma of instinct that was coursing through the Wraith. Ronon jumped at the light touch of a hand on his arm.

Vega pressed against the strength in Ronon's arm to encourage him to lower his weapon. Ronon glanced down at the young captain. She seemed to be none the worse for having spent so many years among the Wraith. True he saw evidence of slight scarring on her face – barely perceptible to a lesser man, but to Ronon a clear signpost to belying the evidence of first impressions. His already seething, simmering temper began to spur toward boiling point once more.

"And you?" he asked, resisting the pressure of her touch against his arm. He still wasn't convinced that the Wraith didn't deserve to be shot.

He looked away from the earnest expression on Vega's face as McKay called his name. The Wraith drones were all but dragging Sheppard away.

"Where are they taking him?" he demanded. He grabbed Todd by the arm and shook off Vega's almost reassuring touch to thrust his gun in the Wraith's now much calmer face.

"To rest," Todd assured him. "If I am to help him at all, he will need what strength I have given him."

"Erm, hello…?" McKay sidestepped the Wraith to come to Ronon's side. The big Satedan stepped closer to the smaller man as the Wraith turned his burning, hungry eyes the scientist's way.

"Not that we're not… grateful for…" McKay stretched out his arm a little bit in parody of what Todd had evidently just given to Sheppard, "…all that, but, well… why?"

"Yeah, why?" McKay said. "I mean, yeah, we came here to ask for your help, but didn't necessarily expect to get it – not so easily at least."

"I gave Sheppard the strength he needs in order to continue fighting the Abomination's insidious transformation. Call it… a show of good faith while we… commence negotiations," Todd said.

"If you did," Todd purred, holding out a hand toward Vega. Ronon frowned as she put her hand in his and allowed him to draw her to his side. "Then any chance Sheppard might have – any… cure for his hybridisation – would die with me."

Todd raised a challenging eye ridge, evidently waiting for Ronon to lower his weapon.

"Besides which," Todd continued, "if you were to fire on me now, neither you, nor Doctor McKay would make it out of this chamber alive."

The note of surprise, mingled with shocked confusion in McKay's voice drew Ronon's attention away from the Wraith, back to the woman at Todd's side, and then to the weapon she held that was aimed squarely at his chest.

"I told Colonel Sheppard," Vega answered McKay, never once taking her eyes off Ronon. "I don't take orders from Atlantis any more. Things change."

Before Vega could answer, Todd interrupted, "I know you have little love for my kind, Runner, but there are worse fates in this galaxy than have befallen my Alicia."

Ronon bristled to hear a Wraith – any Wraith, but worse still that it was this treacherous, double crossing son-of-a-bitch – referring to a human in such a manner.

"So why don't we all put away our weapons, make ourselves more comfortable, and discuss just what it is that we might be able to do for one another?" Todd finished.

Todd stepped away from the semi-conscious Sheppard and watched as the pronounced effect of Michael's retrovirus began to fade from the man's body.

"He is lucky," Todd observed to the hovering Satedan. "Much longer and even my counter-serum would have been ineffective."

"Doctor Keller and I were working to produce a genetic treatment to counter the hybridisation process, and we enjoyed some reasonable success before Atlantis fell. However, it would seem that The Tainted One has made significant advances since then."

"So this treatment has succeeded in partial reversion to his fully human form and halted further integration of the artificially imposed Wraith RNA into Sheppard's chromosomal make-up."

Todd considered the request for a moment, before he said, "he will change no further. However you will need to have your Doctor Keller investigate how to fully cure your Colonel Sheppard."

"I have done all that I am able," Todd said and truly felt a pang of regret, "for now at least."

"Just what I said," Todd spread his hands. "In the current circumstances I have my hands full with keeping the Abomination's forces at bay. Anything that took my attention from that task would harm my alliance and without the Wraith Alliance, this galaxy would fall."

The Satedan sounded hesitant, but Todd recognised the overtures he was making, and understood the effort on the Runner's part. He waited patiently for the man to finish.

"Supposing we could put you in touch with the human resistance fighters against Michael's forces – what then?"

"Supposing you could do that," Todd began, meaning to tell the Satedan that it might make sufficient difference to allow him to make improvements to the serum and completely cure Sheppard. However, McKay interrupted.

"Listen, Todd, don't mean to pile on the demands, but… Zelenka said that you and I – well you and my counterpart from this universe – had been working together as well, researching subspace wormholes and Gate technology," he said.

Todd shrugged. It was of little interest to him at that time. He had, as he'd told them, his hands more than full with coordinating the Alliance against The Abomination.

"By all means, Doctor McKay." He gestured toward one of the consoles at the side of the room. He turned back to face the Satedan then, tilting his head as he said, "If you can truly help me to coordinate those humans that still oppose The Tainted One, it might release sufficient of my time for me to continue to free John Sheppard from this enforced transformation, and I suspect, to assist Doctor McKay to find a way to return you all to your own universe – which I think would be for the better, don't you?"

Now that he had seen them, even had Sheppard been fully himself, fully well, it became clear to Ronon that none of them belonged in this universe. They were not equipped to deal with all of the things that were so obviously different from their own, and their presence here could do nothing but upset the precarious balance that had taken so many years to cultivate.

"Absolutely," it was McKay that answered. "The sooner we get home, the better. No offence."

"None taken," Todd nodded at the doctor, and then looked once more toward the other man, who seemed to be having some difficulty wrestling with his conscience. After a while, he asked, "Well?"

"All right," the Runner said at last. "Drop out of hyperspace and let us send a message to the resistance. I'll set up a meet and greet. It'll be up to you to convince them to work with you though… and I warn you, it's not going to be easy."

Todd tilted his head to one side and purred, "Good enough," before he turned and headed for the bridge.

Sheppard moaned softly. The griping pains had settled to a dull ache in his belly and his head no longer felt as though it was being ripped into tiny pieces. Gingerly he opened his eyes in time to see Ronon hurrying to his side.

"Sheppard," Ronon said softly, and took hold of his arm as Sheppard tried to sit up. The middle of his chest stung like the devil, and he remembered Todd feeding on him… no, he reminded himself, not feeding…

"Son-of-a-bitch gave me the Gift of Life," he breathed, and watched as Ronon nodded.

"He said you needed the strength to keep fighting the hybridisation," Ronon said.

"Wasn't wrong," Sheppard said, and groaned a bit as he tried to get to his feet. "I feel… weird."

"Great," Sheppard shook his head and leaned against Ronon until he got his balance, "So not only do I owe this Todd, but I owe him twice over."

"I shouldn't worry too much about that," McKay said, glancing round from where he was standing at a computer terminal. Sheppard turned his way and frowned.

"If I'm reading this data right, I think I know what happened to bring us here, and theoretically at least, how to get back," McKay answered.

"Easy, big man, don't get so excited just yet," McKay answered, and Sheppard thought he had that tone in his voice where the good news became not bad news, but terrible news, and made it an impossibility for them to do what they needed to do. He frowned, and waited for McKay to drop the bombshell.

He also knew that McKay was about to launch into lengthy explanations which would mean very little, except to point out, yet again, how intellectually superior McKay thought he was.

"Look," McKay came away from the computer console, to join Sheppard and Ronon. "We already know that the Stargates operate by the formation of a stable wormhole between two points in the galaxy or galaxies by way of an address extrapolated from the intercession of seven constellation addresses, including a point of origin – a stable wormhole is established and once it is, can be maintained by energy from either the originating or destination Gate… that said it's theoretically possible that it could also be affected by fluctuation in that energy from either side as well.

We also know that an outgoing wormhole can be affected by exterior effects such as electromagnetic or gravitational forces, which can cause the wormhole to miss its intended target and lock to a different Gate, so—"

"Wait a second," Sheppard interrupted, surprisingly following the mile-a-minute pace McKay always used in his scientific explanations. "We didn't miss the intended Stargate. I assume you dialled Atlantis, right?"

"Good point," McKay went on, undeterred, barely even pausing for breath. Sheppard wondered how the hell he did that. McKay held up a finger, "However, even though we ended up in Atlantis, we didn't quite end up in our Atlantis, so technically speaking it wasn't the target Gate."

"Also a very good point," McKay nodded. He seemed pleased that both of them were keeping up with him. "But we also know that time shift effects can be caused by outside influences too – like the solar flare that pushed Sheppard into the future."

"So what you're saying is that something… something pretty powerful acted on the formation of the wormhole to push it out of time and space alignment." Sheppard ran a hand over his forehead. This was making his head ache, "with its intended destination, I mean."

"Well… what?" Sheppard asked, frowning. "It would have to be something pretty powerful to—"

"Open a space-time rift in subspace," McKay interrupted. "Something like… say… a naquadah generated overload from the originating end of a stable wormhole travelling in the opposite direction to the one intended by the recipient Stargate – yeah!"

"When I talked to Zelenka, when he told me how the McKay from this universe… you know…" McKay squirmed uncomfortably.

"Yeah, well, he was trying to give Ronon and the others time to get through the Gate away from Atlantis… Michael was coming after them… the only way he could stop that was to overload the Gate in order to disable it," McKay said, "which is what he did."

"Rodney," Sheppard said with an overly patient sigh. He didn't want to blow holes in McKay's theory. He wanted him to be right. He wanted to get home, but there was just no way that what McKay was suggesting was possible. "A naquadah explosion would have taken out the entire Gate Room."

"I'm not talking about an explosion, just an overload generated by the build-up of energy from the naquadah in the Gate, and if the majority of that energy went into the event horizon," McKay said. "And judging from the fact that Zelenka said that McKay survived the overload…"

"Yeah," McKay said, "And I'm also pretty sure that the address they were dialling at the time was M3F-227."

"Which is where we were dialling from to get back to Atlantis," Sheppard said.

"Of course the only way to know for sure would be to check the logs in the DHD… and for that we'd need to actually be in Atlantis," McKay said mournfully. "And even if it were the case, there's no way to recreate the original accident and use its effects to get back. The best we can hope for is that the rift in the subspace corridor between this universe's Atlantis Gate and the third Gate on M3F-227 in our universe is a permanent one… and even then, we'd still have to be using the Atlantis Gate here for travel and… well

"Crap!" Sheppard spat, realising the full implications of what McKay was saying, "We are so screwed."

Still catching his breath, Todd rolled languidly onto his back and drew Alicia into his arms. She ran her fingers over the muscles on his chest before she pillowed her head there, also breathless, the both of them glowing in the aftermath of their passions.

Todd growled softly, and ran his fingers through her hair, his sharp nails scraping over her scalp, teasing, enlivening her again. She nipped his chest where her lips rested.

His indrawn breath was loud in the otherwise breathless silence of his chambers, and she looked up at him with a grin.

"Have a care, my little Alicia," he told her, his voice rumbling in his chest. "Unless you wish that I test your stamina again."

She settled then and looked up at him, at the thoughtful look on his face. Usually when she saw that face, there was trouble soon afterwards.

"But you said it wasn't safe anywhere else," Vega leaned up on her elbow so that she could look into his eyes. She tried not to get emotional, to panic, but… it was hard. "…that it would be safer here on the Hive."

"Given recent developments, I may have been wrong," he answered, fixing her with a tender, but firmly commanding stare.

"Sheppard and the others," Vega guessed, not without certain bitterness in her voice.

"Then send them away," she demanded. "You do not want them here anyway, and now that Ronon has arranged the meeting between you and the resistance, you do not need them any—"

His hand closed around her throat, and in a smooth movement he both sat up, and pushed her down onto her back once more, looming over her as she was pinned by the throat against the bed.

"Do not seek to command me," he reminded her, and his voice was fully the powerful Wraith he had been when they first met, "you are not my queen… even if you are my mate."

"You have been loyal enough to me," he cut her off, "and for that, I allow you this position, but do not presume upon our relationship."

"Please…" she gasped, beginning to see the edges of her vision fading. "Todd…"

As if he knew exactly how long to hold her, to have her just on the point of losing consciousness, he held her firmly in place for a moment more, before letting go with his hand, though he did not move away. She took in a deep breath as he let go, reaching for him as she did, as though to assure herself of her presence – in his bed; and in his affections as she ran her hands once more down the muscles of his still heated chest. He growled softly in the pleasure of her touch.

"I don't mean to make you angry," she told him, her voice still breathy, "It's just that she—"

"I understand your affections, Alicia," he told her in the same, firm, rumbling tone, but then both his voice and his manner softened as he reached out to caress her. Beginning to move over her again, as she opened to him, he said gently, "We shall see."

Sheppard shifted uncomfortably on the bridge of the ship as they prepared to come out of hyperspace at the rendezvous point that Daedalus had specified for the meeting with Todd's Hive. He couldn't explain it, but he had a bad feeling; something that was nagging at the back of his mind.

"Do I have something to be nervous about?" Sheppard countered, trying to appear stronger than he felt.

"Only if your resistance friends decide that they would fire on me instead of talking," Todd warned.

With that comment, Sheppard's heart leaped into his mouth. He knew that Teyla had no love for the Wraith, and that it was entirely possible that she would use this opportunity to fracture the Wraith Alliance, and begin to take out the Wraith before turning her attention back to Michael and his army.

"Like Ronon said, it's up to you to persuade them to work with you," Sheppard answered as confidently as he could.

"He's with McKay," Sheppard said, and challenging Todd to say otherwise concerning the matter, added, "Like I asked him."

Todd opened his mouth to reply, but as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, it was instantly rocked by an explosion. Once the brightness of it faded and the screen cleared, Sheppard, as all the Wraith present on the bridge, could see the clear image of another Hive. It had been waiting for them.

As the image of the Hive ship came into focus on his screen, Todd rounded on Sheppard.

"What? You think I had something to do with this?" Sheppard asked, and Todd did not miss the panicked note of disbelief in his voice.

"Ronon sent it," Sheppard reminded him, "to the resistance! And newsflash, Todd old friend – that's a Hive ship out there firing on you."

"It is still a remarkable coincidence," he said. Todd was not certain, but nor was he willing to give this human the benefit of any doubt that might remain in his mind. The facts were clear. Sheppard had come to him infected with The Abomination's retrovirus, his companions had persuaded the Wraith to allow them to contact what they had said was the resistance forces, and now, as his Hive had emerged from hyperspace at the given coordinates, they were being fired upon – by a Wraith ship, admittedly, but that didn't mean there were Wraith aboard.

As if in confirmation of his fears, one of his lieutenants said, "It is The Abomination's Ship, Commander."

Advancing closer to Sheppard, who had nowhere left to which he could back away, Todd said angrily, "You have betrayed me, John Sheppard; lured me into a trap like that bitch queen of his!"

He grabbed Sheppard, pulling him closer and wanted to snap him like the brittle twig these humans were compared to Wraith, as the memory of that time flooded through him.

The deck of the bridge rocked under Sheppard's feet again as Michael's Hive turned and fired another salvo at Todd's ship, startling the angry Wraith commander out of his remembrances.

"Todd, I swear to you, I had nothing to do with this," Sheppard said as the Wraith advanced on him.

"Then explain to me how it is that as soon as we emerge from hyperspace we are attacked by the very one we were to meet with the resistance to discuss!" Todd demanded.

"I can't," Sheppard admitted, "and I can see how you think it would be suspicious, but why would we come to you for help like this if we just intended to have Michael blow the crap out of you. It doesn't make sense and–"

"Return fire!" Todd turned away from Sheppard, apparently considering his words to have merit and Sheppard breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't think he was strong enough to pit himself against an angry Wraith no matter how important it was to him to survive. He turned and stared out of the view screen at the other Hive ship.

Silently Sheppard willed the woman who, in his own universe was one of his closest friends, to hurry up and arrive. If the Daedalus were here to shift the balance of power...

"Commander, there is another hyperspace window forming," Todd’s second announced urgently.

"Thank god!" Sheppard hissed under his breath, though aloud he answered Todd, "Let’s hope so."

He peered past the Wraith’s shoulder to the view screen which had been brought to focus on an area of space where the tell tale blue lightning was beginning to spiral into a hyperspace window. Sheppard breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar squat nose of the Daedalus emerged.

Sheppard's relief was short lived. As soon as the Daedalus came within range, she opened fire with her forward beam weapons against Todd's Hive.

"Damn it!" he hissed, and moving toward Todd's lieutenant, he demanded, "Get me an open channel to that ship!"

The Wraith looked toward his commander for confirmation and Todd made a small growl of confirmation. A moment later the Wraith nodded in Sheppard's direction.

"Teyla, this is Sheppard," he said, grabbing hold of the side of one of the Wraith consoles to steady himself as the ship rocked against another explosion. "Stand down – I repeat, stand down. You're firing on the wrong ship!"

There was something about the sounds of explosions, and the stable deck of the ship on which he was standing rocking beneath his feet, that invariably spurred McKay to work more quickly, more urgently. It didn't help that Ronon was so twitchy either.

"McKay," the Satedan barked in his direction, "whatever you're doing, leave it. We have to get to Sheppard. Something's gone wrong and I—"

"Not a chance," McKay answered, his hands flying over the keys of the computer. "I need this data."

"I thought you said you'd figured out what happened, and what we could do to get back," Ronon snapped in answer.

"I did. I have," McKay glanced up at the Satedan, "but if the rift in the subspace corridor isn't permanent between the two Gates, I need to be able to make a plan."

"You're not going to make any kind of plan if you wind up dead!" Ronon argued. "Leave it, McKay."

Ronon began tugging on his arm, trying to pull him away from the data terminal, but he resisted; fought with everything he could.

Ronon let go and paced away. McKay watched him for a second before he went back to his frantic review of the data. If he was reading things correctly, and he was sure that he was, then there might be a way to reprogram the Atlantis crystal so that the Gate would effectively dial itself, the feedback from the looped wormhole should then create its own rift in subspace and allow them to get back to their own time; their own galaxy.

"What's so important anyways?" Ronon asked him. He had paced back to his side and grabbed hold of him as a particularly strong explosion upset his balance and threatened to spill him to the floor.

"This is. It's incredible," McKay breathed as he read the data a second and then a third time. "I'm a genius!"

"McKay!" The sharpness in Ronon's voice drew him from his self-appreciation. He blinked. Ronon had asked a question. He looked over at him sheepishly. Ronon reminded him, "Important?"

"Yeah, right," McKay said. "According to this data, it should be possible to reprogram the control crystal to allow the Atlantis Gate to dial itself and..."

He frowned as he trailed off, suddenly wondering why that had been included, seemingly as an aside, in the research that he and Todd had been doing together and that of course led him to wonder why they had been working together at all. Subspace... Stargate technology... wormhole physics...

"What is it?" Ronon asked, not missing the fear and coming back to his side again from where he had paced back to the doorway. Rodney had to admit to himself that Ronon's pacing was getting to him as much as the ship still rocking under fire, and the realisation of what the data could mean. "What's wrong?"

"He was trying to improve their FTL drives using wormhole physics," McKay breathed, horrified. "I've been speculating whether such a thing was possible – arguing myself blue in the face with Zelenka actually but—"

"McKay, what are you talking about?" Ronon snapped, staggering as the deck tilted to almost forty-five degrees before the inertial dampeners could kick in. He made a grab for the nearby console to hold himself steady.

"I'm talking about Wraith with ships so fast it'd make Gate travel seem like walking!" McKay said, his voice shrill with panic. "I can't believe I wa— He was so stupid as to not see what Todd was doing and—"

McKay stopped when he saw the clueless, but irritated look on Ronon's face. The Satedan obviously didn't understand the implications of using Gate technology to create a massive subspace corridor through which a ship could pass at an extraordinarily fast pace due to their relative mass.

"Never mind," he said with a sigh, and started snatching up the glasslike Wraith data storage chips from the console and dropping them to the floor to grind them under foot. "Just... help me to—"

He broke off and almost jumped away when a moment later, Ronon's gun charging, and the high pitched trill of the shots Ronon fired, split the air a moment before the data chips, and the console both erupted into flames.

"Would you—" McKay protested, brushing himself down and adding in irritation, "You could have warned me!"

"You told me to help." Ronon shrugged and, grabbing him by the shoulder of his jacket, started to pull him toward the door.

"Teyla, this is Sheppard, respond!" Sheppard was becoming increasingly agitated as there was still no response from the Daedalus. He turned his head urgently to say hurriedly to Todd, "Something's wrong, if Teyla's not answering my hails—"

Todd growled and pushed his second-in-command away from the console as he snapped, "Move aside!"

As soon as the Wraith Commander grasped the controls he manoeuvred the ship, causing a steep pitch in order to avoid a barrage of weapons' fire. The movement of the deck sent the unsuspecting Sheppard skittering almost out of control towards the bridge forward bulkhead walls.

"Teyla!" he called out, trying one last time to raise her personally before, crawling his way back to stand before the view screen, he said, "Daedalus, this is Sheppard, anyone on board, respond," and for good measure added, "That's an order!"

At another incoming salvo, and another twisting lurch of the ship, Sheppard grabbed at the console, glancing the Wraith's way. He was in time to see McKay practically fall onto the bridge, with Ronon not far behind. He reached out to grab McKay.

"What's going on?" the scientist asked, and frowned in confusion. "Hey, isn't that the Daedalus?"

"Yes, Rodney, that's the Daedalus," Sheppard answered, growling the words as he put all the pieces together. "Seems like maybe someone aboard is not quite as resistant to Michael's influence after all. Looks like Teyla's command's been compromised."

He ran his hand through his hair, his imagination filling him with all the gruesome details of what must have occurred aboard Daedalus. It was not a pretty sight and the only thing he could think was that it must have been one of the two they brought from New Lantea. In frustration he slammed his hand against the nearby console.

The ship lurched again as a barrage of weapons fire made it through the defensive screen of Darts that Todd had launched, drawing Sheppard's attention back to the view screen. He watched the slow change in attitude of Michael's ship, and the way the nose of the Daedalus was swinging around, as if she was coming in for another pass. It took him a moment to realise what was going on, but when he did, his heart lurched and his stomach dropped.

"Oh crap!" he said and turning to the Wraith, called to him in warning, "Todd, they're moving in. We gotta move, get out now before they—"

"I see it!" the Wraith growled, and began wrenching the nose of the Hive around in an attempt to avoid the pincer movement. At the same time he gave orders to his bridge crew. "Fire all batteries!"

"It's not enough!" Sheppard warned, watching Michael's Darts intercept the weapons' fire, and the too slow movement of Todd's Hive in space meant that they were going to be caught between the two attacking ships. "Get us out of here! It's the only chance we've got."

"Atlantis!" McKay interrupted. Both Sheppard and Todd looked at him as though he had lost his mind. "No, seriously, think about it. It's the last place he'd expect you to go, and besides, even if he does figure it out—"

"Which is more than likely," Todd argued with him, his voice the crack of a whip across the bridge.

"Well if he does, don't they say that attack is the best form of defence?" McKay insisted.

"Just get me close enough and give me a subspace transmitter and I can take care of that," McKay said urgently.

Sheppard was just about to take up the argument against travel to Atlantis when he caught the look in McKay's eyes. He frowned, and raised a querying eyebrow at his friend, but the scientist barely shook his head.

"Whatever you're gonna do, better do it fast," Ronon's voice rumbled into the awkward stall into which the conversation had fallen, and he nodded toward the view screen. The two enemy ships were almost in position to cut off any possible escape route.

"Give me the coordinates!" Todd roared, and Sheppard saw McKay jump before the man hurried across the bridge toward Todd, tapping at the screen of his hand-held computer as he went.

Michael looked up from the console at which he was working to look at his main view screen. He smiled in grim sarcasm as he saw the attitude of the Wraith's Hive ship.

"So," he purred, "the Wraith was not so distracted by his guests, after all, that he did not notice the danger to his ship – excellent."

He returned his attention to the console and turned the ship so that his portside weapons' array was available to fire on the Hive, while his forward weapons' ports could put paid to attacks of the incoming Darts.

"Direct hit," one of his men announced. "No damage. He's pulling above the Earth ship, firing his lower forward weapons' array."

Michael's head snapped up to the view screen again. He watched with a deepening frown as the Wraith Hive fired on the Daedalus, most of its attacks dissipating harmlessly against the ship's shields. It did not take long for realisation to enter his mind.

"He's running," he announced with self-satisfied vindictiveness. "Target the ventral hyperdrive generator."

He moved his hands over the console, into the hand-grips to match the yaw of his Hive to that of the Wraith's, attempting to provide his crew with the best possible angle to make the necessary shot, but the Wraith proved cunning, and reversed his roll as he came through the two ships, glancing the Hive's starboard side fin off the topside of the Daedalus, penetrating her weakened shields, and sending the brightness of an explosion to wash out the view on the screen.

"Track it!" he ordered, his voice like a gunshot across the hushed bridge, but barely a glance toward the hybrid operating the console where sensor telemetry would guide them. The order was unnecessary, as his vicelike grip on the minds of his soldiers was unwavering, but he had come to realise that they were the more acquiescent if verbal orders were also given. "Continue firing."

As the view on the screen became clear once more, he saw the Daedalus limping into a turn and firing her Asgard weapons toward the escaping Hive ship, but even with the both of them targeting the fleeing ship, it was already too late. The tell-tale spider web of the transition between space and subspace was becoming visible and within seconds the ship would be gone.

Todd knew the moment The Abomination realised that he was attempting to make the jump to hyperspace he would begin to target his hyperdrive generators, and so with a sudden flick of both mind and wrist against the controls he sent the Hive into a reversed spin as he came through the narrowing gap between the enemy Hive and the Resistance's ship. It was a risky move as it brought the fin of his Hive into contact with the Daedalus' shields, and could tear that section of the ship in two.

The impact sent the human scientist sprawling against his console, the small computer he held bounced out of his hands and across the bridge floor. The other humans made sudden, desperate grabs to latch themselves onto other stations around the bridge, and stared with frowning concern at the view of their Earth ship engulfed in the explosion caused by the impact. He had been lucky. The sharp, right fin had penetrated the shields of the enemy vessel and impacted hard against the top side of one of the arms of the ship.

His own Hive shuddered under the force of the explosion that rippled along its side and Todd felt the tingling feedback of distress through the mental contact he shared with the Hive consciousness.

"Damn it, Todd. That was not what I had in mind!" Sheppard spat in his direction, clearly still worried for those aboard the Daedalus in spite of their obvious duplicity and betrayal of Sheppard and the others.

"What would you have me do?" the Wraith roared. "The moment I made my break the one you call Michael would have realised we were running. He will be trying to target my ship to prevent that."

Even as he spoke the deck of the bridge bucked again as weapons' fire began bombarding the Hive.

"My peo— my friends are aboard that ship," Sheppard protested. Todd could not help but think he sounded angrier than he had a right to do so. "You could have—"

"But I didn't!" he snarled, and then turning the snarl the scientist's way, he added, "The coordinates, Doctor."

The human practically scampered to retrieve his fallen computer; to show it to him along with the star map as though the man thought he could not read human text. It surprised him when he did. All the years he had been speculating; probing his concubine's mind for clues as to the city's location and it had been virtually under his nose the whole of the time.

As if in retribution against all humans for Alicia keeping him from the truth, he fired an additional salvo at the stricken human vessel as he passed over the top of the ship, heading for the subspace window that was opening the door to his hyperspace escape.

It sounded as though every alarm possible was filling the air with its shrill cacophony as Teyla rushed back toward the bridge after her abortive search for Zelenka. The man was nowhere to be found, and things were coming apart.

She fell heavily against the bulkhead as the ship shook under the onslaught of another explosion. The shields hadn't held against the collision with the Wraith Hive, and now they failed to keep out the Wraith's parting shots. This could not be happening, and there could only be one explanation for it. Yet, for all that, she couldn't believe that anyone could ever have sided with him. Her orders had been clear – no quarters – they were to lure him here and then—

"Where is Radek?" she demanded as she made her way onto the bridge. She meant to say more, but when she saw Lorne, leaning over an unconscious Marks, she flew at the former Major. "I should have watched you more closely!"

She grabbed the man by the jacket and threw him away from her with such a force that the off-guard man had been caught with her follow through attack before he could regain his balance.

She meant to advance, to neutralise the threat, but at the same moment that she took a step, another figure came rushing at her from the side. His body impacted hers hard, stealing her breath and taking her down to the floor of the bridge, but she rolled away before he could get her pinned, coming to her feet in a crouch facing the two men, both with terrible expressions on their faces.

"Teyla, he went to deal with the shield gen failure," Lorne said and his expression softened into a lighter frown and he threw out his hand toward the other man, who stood tense, ready for combat, passing a knife between one hand and the other. "Stand down, Kanaan! That's an order!"

"Go to hell!" Kanaan spat. "It's time I took care of this bitch once and for all."

Teyla growled and sprang toward him, after all this time; after all that they had shared; after everything he knew...

"How could you!" she snarled at him, catching his arm by the wrist as he swung the knife toward her, and then delivering a forearm smash to his vulnerable face.

Reeling backwards, he turned the question back on her. "You... After everything, you can ask me that?"

"It had to be," she slammed his hand against the console trying to make him lose his grip on the knife. "We had a chance, a real chance to take him out of the equation! The other would wait!"

She saw Lorne from the corner of her eye. He was circling behind her. She tried to turn as well, before they both had the chance to corner her, as she had trapped herself into the fight with Kanaan.

Michael watched, his face drawing into a scowl as the fleeing Wraith Hive ship fired a full salvo against the Daedalus, and penetrated what was left of their shields and left her on fire, obviously venting atmosphere. In the next moment the Hive ship disappeared in to the hyperspace window.

Michael snarled. He turned away from the view screen and relinquished control of his station to one of his waiting hybrids, to pace across the bridge, thinking as he moved.

"Where would he go?" he hissed under his breath, turning again to watch the now empty area of space where once subspace had met standard space.

"No," Michael argued, "he is not the type to go running blind and with the others aboard, he would not head for any of his Alliance strongholds. Where...?"

For a moment he closed his eyes in a long slow blink, and realisation began to dawn like the sun over Atlantis, cold and brutal in its revealing light.

"We're being hailed," his lieutenant informed him, cutting in on his private thoughts, and Michael swung around to face him with a deep scowl on his already frowning features. "It's Atlantis."

With a dismissive shake of his head, Michael said, "Tell Nethaiye to surface the city and order him to prepare the south pier landing pad to receive the Daedalus. He's then to transfer all available power to the city's shields. Prepare my scout ship and as soon as I'm away, set coordinates for Atlantis and make the jump to hyperspace."

Michael tilted his head, and allowed his face to relax into a self satisfied expression.

They both rushed her at once, and she spun frantically to keep both Kanaan's knife, and Lorne's reaching grasp at bay. She succeeded in knocking Lorne back for a second time, and was able to turn Kanaan's second blow aside, but not before the tip of his knife had left a long slice across her cheek. She could feel its sting, and the slow trickle of blood that began to make its way in meticulous lines down her snarling face.

Her former lover leaped at her again, even as she ducked under Lorne's next flying tackle. She punched upward as he sailed overhead, winding him, so that the ex-major landed heavily and slid across the floor of the bridge to come to a halt at the base of the command console. However, her actions had cost her the chance to avoid Kanaan and his shoulder impacted against her and drove her to her back on the floor.

She cried out, and quickly reached up to block and grasp the wrist of the hand in which he still held the knife which he was still trying to bring to bear against her and the two of them became locked in a battle of will and strength – a battle for survival.

The deck of the ship jumped beneath them as if struck by another blast of weapons' fire, or rocked by another explosion. It jarred the two of them apart momentarily, and allowed Teyla to free the hand that was trapped beneath Kanaan's knee.

Physically he was stronger than she was, had always been and it had been a constant running joke between them at the best of times, but this was not the best of times, and as angry as she was, as betrayed as she felt she used all of it to match his strength, his emotion for her turned to hatred as each of them had been touched by the mind of the one they shared in common, and yet felt so differently about.

Grappling with him, struggling there beneath him, she began to tire. The knife he held began to inch closer and closer to her face.

The whine of a shot fired from a stunner split the air, cutting across the sentence he was spitting, like poison into her face and he became a dead weight on top of her, held up only by the hand against which she had been straining. To throw him off was reflex, as was turning toward where Lorne was beginning to get unsteadily to his feet.

The whine of the stunner sounded again, and she felt the tingling cold of the beam pass across the top of her shoulder, striking the former major dead centre of his chest, to send him spilling back down to the flood.

This time, Teyla spun around to find herself staring into the business end of the stunner, held in an all too familiar hand.

Sheppard paced while McKay watched the telemetry readings coming in on the console as he stood before it, giving his companions a blow-by-blow account of their journey.

"McKay?" Sheppard asked, unable to keep the worried, warning tone from his voice.

"Todd, hold it!" Sheppard snapped urgently, cutting off his friend. "Turn this ship around and find some way to mask our approach."

"It is already too late for that," Todd purred, and Sheppard turned to watch, horrified as the glowing forms of several drones came streaming out of the dark of space toward them.

"Damn it!" Sheppard yelled and punched the nearest console, turning to McKay to add, "I thought you said he wouldn't work it out."

Before McKay could answer, Todd said calmly, "I knew you had underestimated The Abomination. Their drone weapons are of no consequence. I already anticipated this."

As Sheppard watched, several of Todd's Darts came streaming out of the bay directly into the path of the incoming drones; sacrificing themselves in order to save the Hive.

"I suggest you start thinking of a way to disable their shields, Doctor McKay," Todd growled and Sheppard felt the surge of the Hive as Todd sent it speeding toward Atlantis.

"Oh, of course," McKay's sarcastic reply came back, "because when it comes to crippling Atlantis, I'm the go to guy."

"McKay," Sheppard warned, watching New Lantea beginning to loom large in the view screen.

"I'm on it, all right?" the scientist answered irritably, and continued mumbling to himself, "Anyone would think it didn't take absolute genius and more than a working knowledge of the city's systems to—"

"Any time, Doctor," Todd interjected, bringing the Hive into a geostationary orbit around the planet and sending more of his Darts streaming toward the city. "Or this is going to be a very short visit."

"Oh, ye of little faith!" McKay snapped back, turning around to fix the Wraith with triumphant expression. "All I had to do was—"

"Oh, this is so not good," Sheppard cut off McKay's explanation of his brilliance, and not for the usual reason that it bored him rigid. He happened to glance at the view screen as Todd and McKay argued back and forth, and so he alone had caught sight of the Wraith Hive coming out of hyperspace, barely 5 klicks away from establishing its own orbit off their port fin. Instantly the Hive ship launched a fleet of Darts streaming toward them like angry wasps. "We've got incoming!"

With the shields down, the battle for Atlantis had moved to the city itself as Wraith and hybrid alike were beamed in by Dart culling beams, the hybrids in support of Nethaiye and Michael's forces already in the city, and Todd's Wraith against them.

"We've got you this far," Sheppard argued with Todd as they stood on the threshold of the Dart Bay. "All I'm asking is one lousy pilot to fly us in in one of those things. Once we're inside, before we leave, I promise you, McKay will do everything he can to make sure your people have the edge over Michael's. You have my word."

"I will?" McKay queried nervously, "'Cause the way I see it, I'm barely going to have enough time to fix the Gate, reprogram the crystal, and rig the overload again, if I'm lucky."

"Yes, Rodney, you will," Sheppard said patiently, "Because I just gave my word."

"Right," McKay said, "And like I said, when it comes to crippling Atlantis, I'm the—"

"I will hold you to your word, John Sheppard," Todd rumbled, and gestured to one of the drone pilots. "Any assistance you are able, Doctor, that is all I ask."

Sheppard grabbed McKay by the arm before the scientist could argue with the Wraith, and together with Ronon, the two of them made for the centre of the walkway. Before they had even reached half way, Sheppard felt the tingling cold of the Wraith dematerialiser sweep over him, and in the next moment of awareness, one of the balconies of the city of Atlantis came into focus around him.

"Where the hell are we?" The words fell out of his mouth before he really had a chance to get his bearings.

"Control Room is just the other side of those doors," McKay answered, pointing to the doorway. Sheppard started to walk toward the doors, but stopped when they did not open. "Power, remember? Michael completely re-routed the power from the main control room when he took control of the city. We're going to have to open it manua—"

McKay stopped speaking and from behind him, Sheppard could hear the grunting and straining that had caused the scientist's silence. He turned in time to see Ronon trying to pry the door open with his fingers.

"Erm, Ronon?" Sheppard said and when the Satedan turned his head to look at him he gestured to the panel that was used to trigger the manual override. "Why not let McKay..."

The scientist was already moving to strip the panel of its cover and attach the leads from the tablet he'd retrieved from Todd's ship to the crystals inside. The door soon released with a slight sigh, allowing Ronon and Sheppard to pull them open and get inside.

"We better do what we have to do quickly," Sheppard said even as McKay began to move past him, toward the consoles. "From what we saw on Todd's Hive, Michael's people are tracking anyone that isn't theirs that come inside. It's only a matter of time before they figure out we're here and come after us."

"It's going to take a little time to get any power to these consoles, let alone anything else," McKay yelped back at him. "If they show up, you're going to have to—"

"If?" Sheppard said. He watched as McKay started frantically pulling panels from the bases and backs of desks. He turned his head to watch as Ronon descended the stairs to the floor of the Gate Room, knowing that he too should be checking their perimeter, but he was reluctant to leave McKay without backup.

"All right," McKay snapped, his irritation, Sheppard knew, fuelled by his fear. "When. Just... I need time."

Ronon came back, taking the stairs two at a time. "We'll give you as much time as we can, McKay, but from what I can gather that isn't gonna be much. How can we help?"

"You can't," McKay answered. He knelt beside one of the consoles, practically sticking his head inside it, trying to locate the power node that had been deactivated. "Just keep them off me. The minute this thing goes live, even if they hadn't found us before, they'll know where we are then."

This was pure insanity and Ronon knew it. Even if McKay did manage his technical jiggery pokery it was still an outside chance that it would even work, they could end up splattered molecules across the surface of subspace – if it even had a surface. Better to go out fighting in his opinion.

There was the slightest rustle of sound from ahead, and Ronon flattened himself against the wall of the corridor, listening hard. It came again, the sounds of muffled footfalls, as though tentative creeping steps were being made toward his position. He wondered at the best course of action. Whether to make his way back to the Gate Room and warn the others, or to engage the hybrids here and now, and keep them away from his friends in that way.

In the end the decision was made for him as a second group of hybrids came unexpectedly out of an adjoining corridor. The two parties, Ronon on the one hand, and the hybrids on the other, stared at each other in surprise for barely a second, before one of the hybrids raised his weapon and took an unaimed shot at the still immobile Satedan.

Ronon drew his weapon, and almost immediately began firing back, retreating as he did so towards the Gate Room.

From half way up the stairs to the Jumper Bay, Sheppard easily heard Michael's forces heading their way. He quickly flattened himself against the side of the stairwell and started firing up at them before they had the chance to be the first to start raining gunfire down on them.

"Make it fast, McKay," he called down as the hybrids appeared at the head of the stairs. He continued firing up the stairs as safely as he could from what was a very precarious position. "I don't know how long I can keep them off you."

"I'm almost there!" he said, grabbing one of them and making a slice into the insulation that sent sparks flying. "All I need is a couple of minutes and I'll have power to the DHD and I can start reprogramming the control crystal."

"You're not going to get those couple of minutes," Ronon called frantically, appearing at the head of the stairs down to the Gate Room. "Make it faster!"

Sheppard glanced behind him and noticed the second group of hybrids entering the Gate Room on what would be Ronon's blind side.

"Ronon!" Sheppard called a warning to the Satedan and then saw Rodney peek around the side of the desk. If Ronon did not move he would find himself pinned down. His only cover would be the ruined Jumper, and even that was vulnerable to fire from the first group of hybrids. He knew that Ronon would hold out, but if the second group made their way very far into the Gate Room, he would be cornered, and none of them would have any chance of escape.

"I see 'em!" Ronon called while he fired relentlessly into the oncoming hybrids.

Rodney pulled back his head, and frantically began working. His mind was racing. Even if he did manage to reprogram the control crystal, dial the Gate and make a stable wormhole, which he had little doubt that he could, it would still leave the same problem that his counterpart in this universe had experienced, and which ultimately had proven his downfall. All the hybrids would need to do would be to get up to the Control Room and redial. The only way he knew to prevent that was to create another overload in the Gate, and he had no desire to see history repeating itself. Altruistic self-sacrifice was definitely not his thing.

"I got it!" McKay cried as he managed to splice in one of the redundant cables and reroute the power to the DHD, and beyond it, to the Gate itself. Quickly he attached his computer tablet to the console and to the control crystal inside its base, and began to rapidly type on the screen, trying to keep up with the flashing symbols and encryption keys the crystal was bombarding him with. The Ancients certainly didn't like a guy messing with their stuff.

"McKay, we gotta go!" Sheppard called out to him, letting off a rapid stream of fire toward the head of the stairs.

McKay risked glancing that way, and saw that unless they moved soon, there would be no way they would be able to escape the way they'd planned – down the stairs and out through the Gate.

"Almost there," he called up to Sheppard, redoubling his efforts to get the crystal reprogrammed so that he could dial the Gate... dial Atlantis, even as Sheppard was forced to back down the stairs one at a time, firing every step of the way.

Suddenly, just when McKay was beginning to lose hope, his computer tablet let out a satisfying bleep.

"Yes!" he cried out, and looked up at Sheppard before reaching up to begin punching in the Atlantis Gate address. "Go! Get to the Gate Room!"

As he came around, Lorne looked over to Kanaan as the Athosian man spoke. Shaking his head as he sat up, he said, "I'm sorry. I should have listened to you. Where are we?"

He took Kanaan's hand as he reached down to help him to his feet. In answer to Lorne, he said, "You were not to know. No one would. As to where we are, other than the brig, I have no idea. We landed some little while ago."

"None that I have been able to tell," Kanaan answered. "At least not in this immediate area."

Lorne nodded, a slight smile appearing on his face. "Seems like genius is not always all it's cracked up to be."

"What are you talking about?" Kanaan paced away from him and went to the closed door of the room in which they were locked.

Rather than explain himself, Lorne shook his head, and began searching the deck plating for the panel he was looking for. If he could cause a shorting of the power circuits enough to start a fire in the under-floor conduits, the fire safety protocols would take care of the rest.

In the Gate Room below the wormhole rushed into existence. If they went at that moment, Ronon and Sheppard could reach the Gate as planned, no matter what. All McKay had to do was to rig the feedback that would disable the Gate, and then get down to the Gate Room himself. First though, he had to deliver on the promise Sheppard had made to Todd. He turned and ripped the back off the control computer, and tearing the leads of the tablet from the control crystal, he linked the computer to the circuit board. It would take him a minute or two to program the lockout, and he doubted it would hold Michael and his forces for long, but it would at least give Todd a chance.

"Sheppard, go!" McKay yelled as he noticed the man hesitate, "Go with Ronon. There's nothing more you can do here. You have to make the Gate before those hybrids make the Gate Room – Go!"

"What about—" Sheppard started to argue. He still hadn't descended a single step.

"I'm fine!" McKay said and started to pull the cover from one of the other control panels – to put in the final level of encryption. "Heroic suicide is your thing, not mine. Believe me, I run really fast when I'm cornered."

The colonel shook his head and waited for another moment, watching McKay as he worked with the computer tablet. McKay could guess what was going through his head, because the longer he worked at the task, the less likely it was that he would survive or make the Gate. His words to Sheppard of the moment before took on a heavy significance, and McKay sighed under the weight of them.

"Come with me, McKay!" Sheppard yelled, and let off another burst of gunfire as the hybrids made the half way point of the stairs. Then he came to the scientist's side. McKay felt Sheppard tugging at his arm.

"No." McKay pushed him away. "You said it to Todd yourself: the only chance the people in this universe have of ever defeating Michael is if we can stop his easily accessing the Stargate. I have to complete an overload. Believe me, as soon as it's building I'm down those stairs and through the Gate with you and Ronon."

"I'll make it!" McKay argued, pushing at his friend once more. "I told you, I—"

"—run really fast when you're cornered, yeah," Sheppard said sorrowfully. "McKay—"

Finally, Sheppard nodded, and rushed toward the stairs down to the Gate Room still firing up past McKay into the stairs that led up to the Jumper Bay, trying to give him cover from the incoming hybrids for as long as he could. McKay was touched.

For what seemed like an age, he crouched there, cowered there, entering one encryption code after another before finally the computer in his hand bleeped once, and he ripped the wires free. He didn't even bother to replace the back panel of the desk, simply gathered his courage – or was that stupidity – in both of his hands and made a dash for the stairs down to the Gate Room.

"Go!" he yelled at the others as he all but fell down the steps, losing his balance in trying to dodge the gunfire.

"Go!" McKay slid into cover beside them and virtually pushed Sheppard with the added momentum of the slide. "We have to make it through the Gate. I've rigged it to overload."

"Ronon, move!" Sheppard suddenly yelled, as if realisation of what McKay had just said had penetrated into his understanding. He pushed the Satedan, and then reached round to grab McKay and push him in front of him toward the Gate.

Sheppard was the last to make the break. He was running backwards, firing one way and then another as he got nearer and nearer to the Gate. He would never know what made McKay turn his head, but the scientist did, drawing all three of them to a halt just in front of the Gate. Sheppard turned slowly, and his heart found its uncomfortable way into his mouth as he saw Michael in the Control Room with a gun to Zelenka's head.

The Czech scientist looked down into the Gate Room, an apologetic expression on his face as he began working at the console, obviously trying to undo the damage that McKay had done.

"Oh no you don't!" McKay breathed from behind him and moved to access the small grate in the floor beside the Gate, to do what he could from there to stop Zelenka.

"McKay!" Sheppard yelled and tried to reach him and push him through the Gate, but the scientist dodged aside.

"I'm right behind you. I already sent an identification code of sorts. Not quite an IDC, but… should be good enough. You and Ronon, go!" McKay yelled.

"You're right in front of me," Sheppard corrected him, but McKay shook his head.

"We go together or not at all," Sheppard snapped, and crouched beside McKay, returning fire at the hybrids that were trying to take them down. "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing, just," McKay sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "all right just make sure that no one hits this computer... or me... getting stunned is not on my agenda right now, I have to make this happen."

"I hear you," Sheppard said, and clapped him on the shoulder, as he and Ronon moved to give him cover; giving him the chance to do what he knew he must. McKay leaned down and attached his computer to the single circuit that lay inside the grate he had accessed.

Already Sheppard could hear the energy building up in the Gate area and feel the heat beginning to come from the ring itself as McKay fought his cyber battle with Zelenka to keep the Czech out for long enough to complete his plan.

It was only then that he realised that no one was firing at them. As he turned to look up into the Control Room, he saw that confused hybrids were ringing the Gate Room. Yes, their weapons were pointed in their direction, but none of them were firing. He swallowed hard. That could mean only one thing…

He looked up into the Control Room again, and confirming his suspicion he saw that Michael was no longer at Zelenka's side. He called up to the scientist.

"I can't let you do this, Radek!" He glanced at McKay with his computer, and watched, for a moment the bitter tango of code and counter-code as they fought for supremacy of control over the Gate.

"You can't stop him, Colonel Sheppard," Michael's softly menacing voice came from some little way in front of him, where the Wraith-Human hybrid had stopped, a safe distance from the Gate. "Your little resistance was doomed from the beginning, and your attempt at escape will fail. If you wish to live, you'll do as you're told. Cooperate."

"Live?" Sheppard gestured toward the hybrids behind Michael. "You call that living?"

"I call it the same courtesy you once gave to me," Michael answered, his voice dripping with irony.

As he spoke, a second figure detached itself from the shadows beside the ruined Jumper, came out where Sheppard could see, as Teyla came to Michael's side, a Wraith blaster in her hand, pointing in his direction.

"Oh, Teyla," Sheppard said. He felt like he had been kicked in the privates as she came to a halt beside the Wraith-Human hybrid and let her free hand come to rest on his shoulder. "No."

"I am sorry, John, but given the circumstances, and given the way I feel, it was the only sensible action to take," Teyla told him softly. "It was the only way."

"It was all for show, wasn't it? You rescuing me from him? Agreeing to contact Todd? Asking for his help? You let him do this to me! What did he promise you, Teyla? That he'd leave you alone – let you go free?" Sheppard spat at her, the bitter taste of bile filling his mouth. He felt utterly betrayed – worse than that – she had been his friend. "That he'd make you his qu—"

"Disable the overload, Doctor," Michael did not comment on the exchange between Teyla and Sheppard, he simply looked beyond Sheppard to state his demands to the scientist.

"We're safe so long as I don't," McKay pointed out to Michael. "The minute I do as you say, we're history."

"Not at all," Michael said. "You have value. As my treatment of Colonel Sheppard demonstrates, there is a place for those such as you within my organisation."

Michael sighed, then shrugged, and held out his hand for Teyla's weapon. She gave it to him with almost a sorrowful glance at McKay, but she gave it to him all the same.

"If you insist," Michael said quietly, but added more strongly as he raised the weapon in McKay's direction, "One last chance, Doctor McKay."

McKay didn't get any further in his refusal of Michael's offer, and nor did Michael pull the trigger.

It was as she glanced at McKay before giving Michael her weapon that she noticed them, hurrying from one meagre patch of cover to the next, trying to move closer, trying to get to them before Michael could complete his capture of the others. They were too close, and as distracted as he was with McKay and Sheppard, Michael had left himself vulnerable.

Barely moving, so as not to alert any of the others to the fact that she had seen something, Teyla reached down and carefully drew her knife from the sheath on her thigh and tucked it up against her wrist with the handle head within the circle of her fist.

Out of the shadows of his cover, Kanaan surged forward, passing the startled hybrids in a single leap and was on Michael before anyone had a chance to react – anyone but Teyla.

Without even a sound of warning to Michael she stepped into Kanaan's path, flinging her arm out in an arc in front of her, and only the sudden spray of bright red that bathed the area revealed the truth of the weapon she bore in her still outstretched hand.

"Teyla..." Kanaan gasped, and fell away from her as the first of the hybrids turned and fired at Lorne, who was following his fallen friend.

It took another moment for her to register the pain – a deep burning pain that was spreading from her belly; seeping in to her limbs and stealing her breath. She tried to take a step, and staggered a little, reaching out to clasp Michael's forearm to steady herself.

From far away she heard his voice, felt his arms close around her in support as he drew her closer to him.

"Michael," she whispered, as the pain closed in the walls of the tunnel her vision had become around her.

McKay had to fight to hold on to the content of his stomach as Kanaan's life blood sprayed over the space in front of the Gate and landed in splatters against each of them. Only as Kanaan fell did McKay see the bloodied knife the Athosian man held in his hand.

"Oh, God!" he exclaimed as he saw Teyla take a staggering step and all but fall against Michael. "Teyla!"

Up in the Control Room, Radek raised his hands and nodded, taking a step away from the console. McKay suspected that, like himself, Radek figured that Michael's involvement in this fight would end when Teyla fell... either that or every living thing in the vicinity of the Gate would be the target of his vengeance.

"Sheppard," McKay yelled above the sound of the blasters that even now were still firing across the Gate Room, though Lorne had long since fallen. They only added to the din of the building overload, which had accelerated even in the few seconds since Zelenka had stepped away. "We have to go! We have to go now!"

"Teyla," Sheppard murmured absently, and started to take a step toward where Michael had begun supporting Teyla, lowering her gently to the floor.

"She's gone!" he told the man and gave the strongest push he could toward the shimmering blue-white puddle in the middle of the Gate. "There's nothing you can do!"

Luck was on his side. Sheppard hadn't expected it and off balance, moved with the momentum of the push, all but stumbling into the wormhole. Gate physics did the rest, whisking Sheppard away to safety.

"Ronon, we gotta go!" McKay yelled coming to the big Satedan's side. "Any second now the Gate is going to—"

"You go!" Ronon yelled over the now almost deafening sound, "I'll be right behind you. I have to make sure that he—"

McKay glanced the way Ronon was looking, to watch as Michael was all but curled in what looked like anguished emotion over Teyla's limp and bleeding form. Ronon had drawn his blaster and was pointing it Michael's way.

"There's no time," McKay yelled, understanding Ronon's desire – shared it – but if they didn't go now, the Gate would complete the overload, the wormhole would collapse and all hope they had of getting home would be lost. "Go!"

Ronon glanced at the Gate, and must have realised the danger they were in, and albeit with great reluctance, turned and took the single step he needed to enter the event horizon.

Behind McKay, the overloading Gate began to sound its death knell, but it was not dying alone. Sparking energy exploded from the chevron marker nearest to one of the primary shield generation nodes, and a finger of rosy energy leaped from the chevron, empowering the shield generator, sending fingers of deadly golden-red lightning out into the Gate Room.

Most of it grounded against the ruined Jumper, powering the remains of the ship to hover momentarily in the air, but one single stream of energy sent a fatal caress toward the creator of the Gate's demise.

Almost fascinated, McKay watched the naquadah powered lightning leap from one section of the Gate Room to the next, until the deadly finger of energy sped past him, a mere breath away from his face, to ground itself in the dark shape of his tablet. The computer leaped and spun as the power from the Gate speared it and it exploded into dust.

The explosion broke McKay's inaction, and with frantic realisation of the imminent collapse of the wormhole, McKay launched himself toward it, literally leaping into its shrinking maw. As he dived toward the avenue of his escape, he turned in the air, in time to see Michael, with Teyla in his arms, engulfed in a bright beam of white light.

Act 5

"As soon as they have her stabilised enough to move, have her transferred here, to my laboratory," Michael ordered as he strode along the corridor of the Hive, already heading there himself. "Then make the jump to hyperspace."

"Follow all the usual protocols," Michael instructed, his voice more clipped as he turned into the laboratory doorway, "and see to it that I remain undisturbed."

The hybrid nodded once, almost giving a small bow, and then turned to take his leave.

Even before he reached them Michael sent a metal command to the research consoles to activate them. He had done this, he had caused this change in himself and he could undo it just the same.

The consoles remained dark, refusing to obey his mental call. Michael frowned and immediately stopped walking. His head tilted to one side as first he listened, and then began to reach out with his mind.

After only a moment he said softly, and with menace, "You are getting better – to be able to block me from my own Hive... impressive. I shall have to watch you."

From the shadows at the side of the laboratory there was movement, and Nethaiye stepped out into the light. Michael tensed as he saw what Nethaiye had in his arms. He began to circle the opposite way around the laboratory as Nethaiye, waiting for the other to speak.

Nethaiye simply moved, staring down at the squirming bundle he carried, still actively blocking Michael's mental access to the Hive neural interface. After circling almost the entire laboratory he finally looked up and fixed Michael with a bitter stare.

"I have often wondered what it would feel like," he said softly. "It... is a curious sensation."

Michael took a step forward, it was a risk, but one he had to take. "Give the child to me."

Nethaiye stepped back toward one of the benches, reaching for an implement from the top of it. At the same time his voice rang out across the laboratory like a gunshot. "No!" In his distress, Nethaiye's voice held the double tone of a Wraith. "You will not. Divert my purpose... father."

Michael froze as Nethaiye revealed the blade in his hand, and at the sarcasm that dripped from the clone's voice as he called him by the human appellation.

"And your purpose is what?" Michael said softly, yet uncompromising, "to harm a worthless biogenetic organism?"

"Oh, no," Nethaiye almost sang the words, and ran the tip of the blade over the wrappings covering his infant self. "The clone will always recognise its genetic origins. You programmed us that way. I feel him... inside me."

Michael tilted his head, beginning to circle again around the room as Nethaiye began to move.

"I feel his strength. I feel the strands you took from our shared DNA to wrap around the template you blanked from... what... another Athosian woman?" Nethaiye challenged.

"Does it matter?" Michael asked mildly, trying to keep a hold of his irritation. He didn't have time for this. He had to access his research and find a way to undo the genetic change he had initiated in himself to eliminate the feeding process. He knew he didn't have long. Already he could feel the faltering flicker of Teyla's life within his mind.

"It matters to me!" Nethaiye snarled, his sudden anger causing Michael to take another hurried step forward, until the clone warned, "Don't!"

"What do you hope to achieve?" Michael asked him, his worry and annoyance at the situation, and at the obstacle that stood between him and his ability to save Teyla leaking into his voice. "What good could possibly come to you from destroying your genetic origin? You think it will upset me? Thwart some purpose of mine as you imagine exists... punish me?"

"She. Was. My. Woman!" Nethaiye cried out, his instability coming to the fore in that moment. Michael sighed as he continued, raving in his emotional state. "I have so rarely asked you for anything and yet the... one time. The one thing... I ask of you and you destroy any hope of love I—"

"Love?" Michael snarled in response. "Spare me! Is that what she told you? Is that what you believe?" He turned away, almost dismissively, and with utter contempt said, "You are more damaged than I believed."

"Don't you turn your back to me!" Nethaiye yelled. "You killed her, and now you're going to know what it feels like too!"

Michael turned back slowly and spread his arms to either side. "What will you do, Nethaiye? Kill the baby? Go ahead. Prevent me from accessing the data that will help me to save his mother? Try. Kill me? You can't."

Michael was through indulging this one, wasting time and allowing him to play out his emotions served no purpose. There came a point when a tool outlived its usefulness; became a hindrance and it seemed that Nethaiye had reached that point. He had needed the adult DNA to perfect his hybrids and eliminate the outstanding issues that remained in the conflict between control and individuality and so had allowed the biogenetic entity he had created from the infant Nethaiye's DNA to develop to maturity in the tanks as he had previously done with the clone of Doctor Beckett. In the creation of Nethaiye he had, at first, hesitated to include the failsafe, but something had made him go back at the last moment and make the adjustment.

"All of it!" Nethaiye growled, spittle flecking his lips. "The brat, the bitch and when you've nothing left—"

Michael walked across the room, directly toward Nethaiye then, his face set in a neutral expression, but his eyes... his eyes burned with angry resolve.

"Keller became a liability," he said, his voice almost a physical presence between them. "You know that I will not, will. Not. Tolerate dissention."

Nethaiye raised the blade as Michael advanced, gripping it tightly in a fist that began to shake as he held it poised over the infant in his arms.

Michael tipped his head to the side and said in a deadly and quiet tone. "Truth hurts, Nethaiye."

"No," Michael said mildly, "because you are forgetting one thing... you're mine. I made you..."

Nethaiye's hand trembled still further, and Michael could feel him fighting the mental hold he had on him. Due to the abilities Michael had deliberately brought out in him through his breeding, and the additional manipulation he had done during Teyla's pregnancy, Nethaiye, the infant that this unstable, inferior copy of the near perfection he believed the child to be—

He stopped himself from following that line of thought. He could not allow himself that indulgence.

"Let me speculate... every part of you wants nothing more than to plunge the knife into the child's belly right now," Michael said softly, pushing against Nethaiye's mind, against the control on the hand that held the blade. "You want to gut him like a fish, and then turn the knife on me."

"Yes," Nethaiye gasped, as the knife began to turn in his hand, away from the child, away from Michael, until the tip of it hovered, trembling, dangerously close to his face.

"It's a constant source of confusion to me," he said quietly, as he gently plucked the child from Nethaiye's arms and starting to walk away, toward the stasis unit from which Nethaiye had taken the infant, "that even after having known me so long... those closest to me continue, time and again, to underestimate me."

He quickly prepared the baby and returned him to the stasis pod before turning to look at Nethaiye in something approaching curiosity, his head tilted to one side. The man was on his knees now, gripping the hilt of the knife in one hand and the wrist of his arm with the other, fighting the advance of the blade toward his eye.

Vega couldn't help but cringe when the drones forced the Czech scientist to his knees in front of Todd in the wreckage of the Gate Room. Whatever had happened in the nerve centre of Atlantis, the Gate Room and the Control Room had borne the brunt of it.

She wanted to speak out for Zelenka, to ask Todd to grant him clemency, to ask he deal gently with the mild mannered Zelenka, but she knew better than to expect to be heard in front of Todd's underlings and to try would only earn her his anger. Instead, from beside the Wraith, she fixed Zelenka with an apologetic look of sympathy. He stared back at her with a look of horrified disbelief that made her pull back behind Todd.

Todd glanced behind him and raised the ridge of his brow at Vega in question. She shook her head but knew he had noticed the exchange that passed between her and Zelenka. The Wraith's expression told her they would speak about it later, and she shivered, part in fear, part in anticipation.

"You see," he purred, as he turned back to Zelenka, "I am not unreasonable. Your life here could be... most rewarding and certainly... productive. There are many things here that require repairs."

Zelenka stared up at Todd with an expression of defiance in his eyes that Vega knew would only bring trouble. The scientist let out a string of words in his native language, and it was quite clear from their tone that they were meant as no compliment to the Wraith commander.

Losing patience, Todd snarled at the scientist, and drew back his feeding hand, holding it almost quivering with tension, claw-like and partly curled.

"Tell me what McKay did to the Portal!" he snarled angrily. "I can't tell you what I don't know!" Zelenka's defiance crumbled as Todd's feeding hand flew toward him, halted barely inches from his chest by his desperate answer.

"Well he clearly did something," Todd half turned and pointed to what few components were recognisable still amid the dust that was the remains of a computer tablet.

"It was his plan all along to disable the Stargate," Zelenka stuttered, "But I do not know what, or how... and even if I did—"

"If I could find out what he did," Zelenka answered in the same terrified tone, "but even if I did it would do you little good without the control crystal and from the wreckage the feedback from the Gate caused to the DHD, I'd be surprised if you'd find it among the chaos the explosion left of the Control Room, and if you did, it's probably not even intact."

Even though he knelt behind the gurney on which they had delivered her to the laboratory, his head bowed, almost resting on its pillowed surface beside hers, Michael could barely feel Teyla's presence in his mind. Even across ten thousand light years of space the contact had been stronger than it was in that moment.

His head and his body was a mass of fire from the many desperate attempts he had made to reverse the manipulation he had performed on his own DNA in order to eliminate his need to feed. It was to no avail. Every failsafe he had built in to the action of the retrovirus by which he had excised those elements of his own genome that he no longer wished to be a part of himself held and he remained strong and true to his own design.

Privately he wept the bitter tears of irony. In acting to save himself from the actions and the wishes of the Elder Queen, he had condemned his own, Evolutionary Queen and now, in order to save her he must make an arrangement with the Elder. Even before he approached her with his demands he knew what she would ask, beyond her freedom of course, it would be given that she would demand that. No, he knew she would ask from him that which she had always wanted – the T475 marker that still ran strong in his RNA – to impregnate herself with his seed.

He felt, then heard, the Queen before the hybrids he had sent to bring her to his laboratory reached the door, and quickly stood up, moved away from the gurney to meet them in the middle of the lab.

She snarled as soon as she saw him, and tried to reach out with her weakened mind to push at him to do her bidding and order the hybrids to release her.

His order was like a whip across the room and for a moment she staggered before drawing herself up to her full height as he approached.

"Kill me or let me go!" she demanded of him. "This captivity grows tiresome. So do your constant threats."

"As do yours," he snapped sharply and, direct in his urgency, he said, "There is a way you may earn your freedom."

"In doing your bidding?" she questioned sarcastically. "After your tests and your torture? I think not."

Michael grasped the chain that bound the Queen's hands and pulled it harshly toward him so that she had no choice but to follow. Relentlessly he dragged her to where Teyla lay, all but lifeless, on the gurney and with the controlling chain around the Queen's neck, forced her to look at Teyla.

"The only thing standing between you and an agonising deathlessness as the next of those on whom I test the latest serum is that you can restore—"

"What makes you think your threats have any meaning to me?" she snarled, "or that I would help you even if I—"

Michael cut her off as he suddenly thrust the long needle of the syringe he held concealed in his free hand into the side of the Queen's neck.

"One chance," he snarled, a terrible biting viciousness in his voice. "All I need do is press and—"

"And risk that I might capitulate after the fact?" she struggled lightly in his grasp, "I do not think so."

"There was a time when you said those words to me and meant them," she answered. "When you would willingly have done my bidding; given to me what I desired."

"Oh, but you have," he growled, "and even now are calculating just what you will demand in return."

"You already know what it is that I want," she answered and he felt the brush of her mind in his – the whisper of a touch, bearing an image, a sensation, long forgotten, and memory stirred…

"So be it," he said at last, obvious in his reluctance. "Restore Teyla and I will give you that which you desire."

"And freedom," he confirmed, and slowly began to withdraw the needle from the side of her patterned neck.

For long moments the two stared at each other in open hostility before she said, "not good enough. So you think me a fool? First you give me what I wish and then I will restore her."

"There is always time," she purred, stepping closer, almost seductive in spite of the chains.

Michael pushed her away in disgust, until she stumbled and was caught by his hybrids.

"Take her. See that she is given the chance to feed and then bring her to the auxiliary laboratory." With an almost sardonic bow to the Queen, he added, "I will be with you shortly… my Queen."

The young Wraith had easily escaped the Human assigned as her guardian and in her boredom her steps took her wandering toward the centre of the city – where she was not supposed to be. Her sire had warned her, countless times, against approaching the ruins there and so, naturally, possessing more than was healthy a dose of her sire's rebellious nature, not to mention the curiosity of the one that birthed her, it was the only place where she longed to be.

An expression of wonder entered her entire being as she set eyes on the twisted and buckled hull of what remained of a ship. It rested like defeated prey before the still majestic ring that marked the portal.

Her footsteps guided her to the scorched stairway, leading to where she could see the light sparkling off the broken shards of glass on the balcony. That was where she wished to be. That would be where treasures and trinkets would be found.

Glancing behind her with almost every step, as though she expected her sire to come storming upon her at any moment – and she could feel him searching – she ascended the staircase. Her booted feet crunched on broken glass and sent it tumbling, with a delightful tinkling sound, to the floor of the portal's room.

The machines in the nerve centre she found at the head of the stairs were not like those of her sire's Hive. When she ran her tiny fingers over them they did not leave them tingling in response. They were dead, lifeless, uninteresting. Idly she pressed the pads of her fingers against the triangular buttons of one of those machines, momentarily enjoying the tones made by the release of residual energy. Instinctively she looked toward the portal, but when her actions elicited no response from the mighty portal, that console, too, lost interest to her. There was nowhere in this Human city that held the slightest excitement or appeal.

Sighing heavily, she began to turn to leave, but, as she did, the light glinted off something amid the broken glass, reflecting in myriad colours, calling to her. She hurried to it, a tooled piece of crystal that hummed with the mysteries of times long past in her young mind. Quickly she slipped it inside the bodice of her dress, against her skin where it would be safe, where she could warm its cold surface and it, in turn, could whisper its secrets to her.

The Queen turned and snarled at The Abomination as he propelled her further into the main laboratory once more; bringing her to keep her side of the bargain they had struck. She knew though that their temporary truce would soon be at an end and that the Queen she now held within her body – that she had made of his seed – would create Wraith Commanders and Drones with but a single purpose: the destruction of the Abomination. It was irony, then, that she would be the one to heal her rival, the one with whom he intended to create his opposing force.

She growled softly. Of course he was still within her mind. It had been necessary to allow it to achieve what she had intended.

As they came to a halt beside the gurney that held the failing young woman, she could not help the bite of jealous anger that swelled inside her, but for this woman she could have won him back, brought him to understand the error of his ways. She looked down on the figure – what had he called her – Teyla? Her head tilted to one side as she ran her eyes over the too still, barely breathing Human woman. She began to fear that she truly was not strong enough to survive even the healing of a Queen. She would have to have a care.

She could not help but privately acknowledge that the woman's actions in that moment truly were those of a queen for her chosen consort. A queen must protect the one that could allow her to bring the future of her people, even as he must protect his Queen, the life of his Hive. The momentary respect she felt for the woman was uncomfortable to the Queen and her jealousy flared again when the Renegade walked to crouch behind the gurney, trailing his fingers, so obviously gentle, through the woman's hair.

"There is little time," The Renegade's voice disturbed the silence. "I can barely reach her."

The Queen tilted her head as he looked up at her, impatient expectation in his face. Slowly she nodded, and lowered herself beside the gurney, raising her hand, to skim the tips of her fingers over the woman's pale face. She felt the stirrings of satisfaction as she watched The Renegade tense as she touched her.

She let her hand trail down over the woman's face and neck, hardly feeling the pulse in her neck as she did. She was using the action in deliberate torment now, delaying the moment, testing his patience. In the end though there was nothing more she could do to delay without angering him – and she still had to get off his ship. So she pressed her feeding hand hard against the woman's chest, and as the contact was established, Queen to would-be-queen, she pushed the strength of her essence into the sickened woman, following the flow of it, finding the injury and winding her energies around the healing of it.

Connected as she was, she felt the momentary panic in the woman when the healing had reached the point at which awareness, if not consciousness, was restored. Her jealousy returned full force as she caught the echo of his mental caress against the woman's mind, soothing and calming – affection. It had once been hers, and the loss of it burned, and almost… almost… she began to draw back, draw away the flow of her life's strength, meaning to feed instead.

The woman's mind, as much connected with the Queen's own, picked up her intent, and cried out in warning to The Renegade.

His head snapped up, fixing the Queen with a murderous expression as his hand flashed forward and grabbed her by the throat. He did not speak to her, nor even touch her mind with his, but the cold threat in his eyes was enough to deter her. He had shown her, in no uncertain terms, when they had been together in the other laboratory, that there were many experiences he could, and would, give to her that would be much worse than death if she were to, in any way, harm the woman on whom she had just thought to feed.

Taking another breath, she fell back inside of herself, redoubling her efforts to complete the healing now, and now that the woman was no longer at the threshold of death, she no longer needed to take much care over it. The healing had begun, and would continue now, with the energy to sustain it.

In a sudden, overwhelming stream, the Queen threw back her head and forced the remaining necessary energy through the contact. She was gratified, more than that she was elated when she heard the woman's rasping intake of breath and felt the arching of her back beneath her hand.

It began as tightness in her breathing and a dull pain that began to flutter at the edges of her awareness. That dull pain became a sudden, sharp bite, and inhaling, crying out even as the woman from whom she tore her hand did likewise, the Queen stumbled backwards.

"I would imagine that about now, you have begun to feel the pain of it," The Renegade said quietly, almost absently as he tended to his Human lover, "A biting pain deep in your belly."

"What is this!" the Queen demanded, snarling at him and instinctively raising her hand, mantling, ready to feed in order to take away the deepening pain.

"As an Elder among Queens," he continued, rising from where he had settled his woman to sleep, "you might be able to sustain yourself – find someone on which to feed and you might live long enough to find some way to make your healing efforts permanent, but either way, I doubt very much that you would be able to do that and still incubate the one you carry inside of you." He caught her feeding hand and twisted it painfully behind her back and then, stepping up closer behind her, purred into her ear, "It becomes a matter of choice: your life, or hers."

"Deceiver!" She flailed, struggled with him, but to no avail. "Abomination! You planned this! How could you do this to your own child?"

"I know better than to believe," he hissed, "that she would be any child of mine. No. I did not do this. You did. In your arrogance you allowed yourself to become blind to the dangers. You believed, still, that you could bend my design to your will." He leaned closer to whisper, "I told you once before – never again."

She heard the soft footfall of his approaching minions the moment before he turned her and all but threw her into the arms of the hybrids.

"Escort her to the Dart Bay, put her aboard a scout ship and send her on her way," he said, in a clipped tone, already retreating to return to the Human woman's side. He turned his head to regard her over his shoulder and warned her, "Should our paths cross again, my Queen, do not expect this to change anything."

Todd watched, curious, as the fiery streak sped toward the watery horizon. Even though he heard the movement behind him, he did little to acknowledge it, aware that he had left her… at an inopportune moment, but still unrepentant for it. The words – the contact still burning in his mind…

Alicia's hand ran up along the ridges of his spine, in spite of his distraction sending a flicker of fire to lap at his base, stirring his desire once more. She leaned against his back as he growled slightly.

"Come back to bed," she murmured, and he could tell that she was standing on the tips of her toes by the way her balance shifted against him.

He breathed in deeply, and tilted his head, running it so that it made a caress against the side of her face and neck. He couldn't miss her indrawn breath at the gesture… her arousal flooding in to completely rekindle his own as he opened his mind to her, drawing from their interrupted intimacy.

He turned suddenly and lifted her against the cold of the window, kissing her deeply as he linked their fingers and pressed her hand against the wall beside her head. As he broke the kiss, and sank his teeth to nip against the side of her neck, she wrapped her legs around him, gripping the back of his shoulders with her free hand. Even as she gasped, then cried out for him, the echo of another cry called out in his mind.

Something wasn't right. In coming through the wormhole, the pains in his gut worsened again. Had Todd lied? Had whatever he had given to him only temporarily staved off the painful transformation, or was some other, unknown, factor at work.

As he cleared the event horizon, he tried to raise his hands to stop the security officers from shooting before they recognised him, but his knees buckled and he was, before he knew what was happening, little more than a ball of pain on the floor of the Gate Room. He hadn't even been able to see if McKay had been successful.

"Get a medical team!" He heard one of the SOs calling out as he fell, but still was not comforted and tried to get up off the floor. What if this still wasn't their Atlantis, but some other parallel universe?

"Someone get Keller down here!" Woolsey's voice added to the confusion of calls. Sheppard tried to sit up, tried to speak, to get someone's attention, but Woolsey just kept on shouting. "Ronon, what the hell happened? It's been almost seven weeks since we lost contact with you!"

"Look," Ronon answered, "I can't explain. Wait for McKay. He was right behind me! All I know is that right now, Sheppard's in trouble."

Instead of Woolsey answering, Keller's voice took up the frantic conversation, "I can see that," she said.

Sheppard felt her cool hand against his burning forehead, and he saw her look toward Ronon for explanation, a horrified expression on her face.

"Blood," he repeated before finally managing a sentence. "You have to take a blood sample."

The effort almost exhausted him and he gestured to Ronon meaning for him to explain. She looked up at Ronon, but Ronon shook his head, and as Sheppard looked up too, he saw the look in Ronon's eyes that cautioned against further talk on the subject in front of Woolsey.

She seemed to understand because in the next moment she said, "All right, let's get him on the gurney. I need to get him to the infirmary; stabilise his condition."

Just as they began to move him, a figure came flying toward them out of the event horizon, turning in midair as it did. Barely a second later, the Stargate shut down.

McKay landed with an unhealthy sounding slap against the side of the gurney they were wheeling in for Sheppard.

"Oh… God!" McKay gasped, winded by his fall. Evidently then he noticed what was happening with Sheppard because he added, "No… no this can't be possible. This… Todd—"

"What does Todd have to do with this?" Woolsey demanded, and when no one spoke, McKay having realised the error he had made in opening his mouth, the base commander added, "Someone is going to answer my questions or so help me—"

"Todd gave me some kind of serum to stop the spread of the virus Michael injected me with." He had to stop as another wave of pain hit him. Through gritted teeth he took several deep breaths trying to banish the pain before he said, "The Gate or coming back here seems to have neutralised it. Keller, you have to synthesise i—"

He broke off as the pain became blinding, for a moment reaching right from his gut to the middle of his brain. Every one of his muscles clenched against the fire flowing through him, much worse than before, but he refused to give in to it, growling to push it away he forced out the rest of the words, "…And fast! God! And someone needs to get… to New Athos… to check on Teyla."

Ronon however frowned at him as though he had just suggested the most terrible thing in the world.

"Maybe if we were to contact Todd, here I mean. Contact our Todd," McKay suggested, looking as though climbing to his feet was more difficult than scaling Everest.

"Why?" Ronon growled, and Sheppard knew it was unlikely that Ronon would readily agree to trust the Wraith commander more than was necessary.

"Well it stands to reason that if the Todd there knew about this kind of thing, our Todd woul—"

"No it doesn't!" Ronon snapped. "We have no reason to believe that the two of them are even remotely alike. Besides—"

"Ronon, please," McKay yelped, and gestured toward Sheppard. "We already know he's been working on finding a way to counter the Hoffan Protein, why not this?"

"What is this exactly?" Woolsey asked, but Sheppard and the others ignored him completely.

"Jennifer," Sheppard gasped, reaching for her hand and gripping it tightly. "If you can't…. if you… if…"

"And in the meantime," McKay said firmly, uncharacteristically staring Ronon down. "We contact Todd, just… to put out some feelers. See if he migh—"

"Mister Woolsey… Colonel," Amelia interrupted softly, "We've received a coded subspace message. It came via the relay station on M5G-227."

Sheppard exchanged a worried frown, first with Amelia, and then with McKay and Ronon.

"From… Todd?" he asked, shivering a little at the horrible sense of coincidence.

"Yes," Amelia answered nodding, "from Todd. He wants to meet with you, Colonel."

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