"Thanks," Kirik adjusted the blanket on the girl, touching her forehead with his lips for a moment. "Her fever has almost gone."
"Antibiotics," I explained. "You can't beat all the infection in her at once, you need to complete the course... You have a supply, so if you want to go—go ahead, we're not holding anyone."
"But it would be safer with us," Teyla assured him. "The place we came from is protected from the Wraith. There's somewhere to hide, something to eat, get yourself in order. There, Seliza and you will receive all the necessary help."
"A safe harbor where you can hole up?" Kirik asked.
"A new home where you don't have to think every day about how to save yourself and not let the child die," I clarified. "Full board, plus the opportunity to learn sciences. For Seliza, I think, it would be better to listen to how this world is arranged than such a life."
"Moreover, you didn't have a choice before," Teyla picked up. "But now, when the transmitter isn't working..."
"Enough," Kirik interrupted us. "I've heard enough."
"Your business," well, I did what I could. It seems fortune turned her ass to us twice—when we found him, and when we tried to win his trust with good deeds.
Taking out the handheld, I disabled the force field around the clearing through it.
"Camp protection lifted," the explanation to the puzzled runner coincided with the awakened girl throwing herself around his neck. "You can leave wherever and whenever you want."
However, the runner wasn't listening to me anymore.
"Kirik! You're alive!"
"Yes," a paternal warmth appeared in the stern runner's voice. "I'm fine. How are you?"
"All good!" the girl's eyes burned with joy. "Turns out I was sick. And they," she looked warmly at Teyla, "gave me a few completely painless injections! I slept and now feel better. True, now the Wraith aren't chasing you?"
Kirik looked at me once more.
"Yes, true," he stroked the girl's head. "Couldn't you gather our things?"
"Are we leaving?" Seliza looked into his eyes.
"Exactly. The sooner, the better," Kirik said.
"We're leaving too," I said. Pity, it didn't work. "If you wish, we can give you a ride to the Stargate."
"Gates?" Kirik asked.
"Ancestors' Ring," Teyla explained.
"Ah, right," the former runner nodded, matching the terms. "I have another proposal..."
* * *
"Enemy hive activity in our sector of the galaxy does not exceed the usual for the Keepers," the first officer reported. "From which I conclude that besides ours, no other hive ship or object was attacked with nuclear weapons."
"And that already suggests certain thoughts," Styx said. "Why was our ship the target of the sabotage with the nuclear bomb?"
"I assume the attack was carried out by competing hives," the first officer offered a version. "Our ship is potentially more powerful and dangerous than any other hive ship in the galaxy."
"Yes, but without a Lantean power source, all these changes and improvements, which are over ten thousand years old, are worth nothing," Styx objected. "I don't need to remind you of that."
"Probably the Keepers fear we have something that can power long-inactive systems and weapons," the first officer suggested. "If so, they may consider us a threat to the other hives."
"In that case, the Keepers would awaken the queens and report this information to them," Styx objected. "My hive ship has been the only one in the galaxy for hundreds of years with such size and improved equipment. If they wanted to destroy it, they would have done so during active periods, not hibernation."
"Perhaps their people didn't have nuclear weapons before. Analysis of the warhead shows it's a homemade prototype."
"That's what points to the imperfection of the plan," Styx stated. "Without the hive queen's decision, the Keepers wouldn't attack us. And no queen would risk using untested weapons available in a single copy. Something doesn't add up here."
"And yet, my commander, only one version explains the reason for trying to blow us up," the first officer insisted. "Someone from the hives tracked our location, directed their worshippers there to carry out the sabotage... Nothing but hive ships can track the position of other hive ships."
In fact, it was far from that.
But the first officer's version seemed logical.
At first glance.
Yes, the idea of using people to destroy the most dangerous hive ship in the galaxy seemed attractive. Thus, the hive queen who planned it would remain beyond suspicion.
However, why now?
Over the past millennia, the Wraith destroyed hundreds, if not thousands, of civilizations possessing even more destructive weapons. Worshippers could be among them. And the plan could have been implemented much earlier.
But the move was made exactly now.
The logic of the plan that some hive, possibly even the Cunning Blade, decided to get rid of them with others' hands was based only on one assertion. Which couldn't be an axiom by its nature: the location of his hive was revealed to other Wraith.
Purely theoretically, the Keepers could have done this—those Wraith from any hive who monitor the sleeping ones. But such actions require great courage from the Keepers. And without coordination with the hive queen, such actions are practically impossible. The adverse consequences are too great—terrorism of one hive against another, even without a queen, can lead to civil war. More than once or twice, the other Wraith united against such initiators and completely destroyed them.
Simply to discourage others from acting similarly. Now, while the hives are in hibernation, the Wraith have enough food. Exploding any hive or any other attack will only lead to the other Wraith awakening. And they will be very angry, learning that the human herd can't feed them.
And then internecine strife and war of all against all will begin.
No one needs that.
It's illogical. While his ship was on the planet, healing wounds from the clash with another hive, any Wraith fleet wishing to destroy Styx's faction could easily attack them from orbit. That would be simpler and more reliable for victory.
Nuclear weapons smuggled aboard... That's not the scale of destruction at all. The bomb, though a dangerous creation, is still imperfect. If the Wraith stood behind such an attack, they would have given their worshippers advice on how to enhance it. And how to mine someone else's hive more worthily.
Moreover, to blow up such a hive as Styx had at his disposal from the inside, it would be better to use several bombs—for guarantee.
His ship a little over ten thousand years ago was modernized using a battery—a Lantean zero-point energy source. No one except members of his hive knew how much the hull had been strengthened, internal bulkheads reinforced, structure and much more using such a hybrid of technologies. Yes, now they no longer had the battery and a significant part of the super-hive's systems was disabled. Long ago.
But again, this fact could only be confirmed or refuted by members of his team. And there were no traitors among them—otherwise Styx would have discovered them beforehand.
Therefore, there were no guarantees that one prototype bomb could destroy Styx and his faction.
Or perhaps the bet was that due to the sabotage attempt, Styx would awaken the other Wraith across the galaxy? A threat of such scale shouldn't be ignored—that's the rule.
And if it turned out there was no real threat to all hives, the awakened ones could start hunting him and his hive. Was that the plan?
Unlikely. If other Wraith stood behind the attack, they would understand that after the sabotage attempt, the attacked hive would first go to the planet that struck. And try to resolve the crisis on its own. Which they successfully did.
Only if the threat from the world that made the atomic bomb was excessive could the attacked hive awaken the others without consequences for itself. But Styx handled it on his own.
If the Wraith were involved, they would understand that the Ermen population couldn't be perceived as a galactic-scale threat to all Wraith. Even dimwits from fresh Wraith generations would know that.
The data doesn't add up into one picture.
It's a pity the saboteurs couldn't be interrogated.
"I don't believe it was the actions of other Wraith," Styx summed up his conclusions. "There's another reason the saboteurs learned where and when to find us. Find it."
"Yes, commander."
Even if the first officer didn't agree with his commander's decision, he was obliged to obey.
"Commander," a new second officer entered the room. "Reports from hunting teams on the last runner have come in."
"Is he destroyed?" Styx clarified.
What was happening around his hive didn't please the commander. So he decided to do everything to prepare his soldiers for possible war. And what's the best way to do that, if not hunting runners?
"The runner is dead," the second officer confirmed. "But not our hunters or soldiers killed him."
"Explain!" Styx demanded.
"His beacon signal cut off over a mountain river gorge," the second officer reported. "The hunters thought the runner died due to his own carelessness."
"Unlikely, but such cases have happened before," Styx said thoughtfully. "Do we have data on his actions?"
"Yes, commander," the second officer assured. "I studied them and came to the conclusion that the hunters were wrong. I think the runner is alive, and someone helped him hide from us."
"What gives you the right to say that?" the first officer was indignant.
"According to the hunt data, the last segment of the path before his 'death,' the runner covered at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour."
"Has he ever shown superhuman physiology speed before?" Styx became interested.
"Never, commander. I think he was on a ship we couldn't detect," the second officer suggested.
Styx thoughtfully looked at his first officer.
"The situation is repeating," the latter said. "Our hunt, runner, appearance of a cloaked ship, transmitters stop transmitting. This can't be a simple coincidence."
"I agree," Styx nodded. "Someone is deliberately freeing our runners."
"Yes, but why?" the second officer was surprised.
"Probably preparing an army against our hive," Styx suggested thoughtfully. "And that means," he threw a warning glance at the first officer, "we should accelerate work on studying the dialing device from Sudaria. And send a team to that planet where the last runner disappeared. I want to know who used the gate after we left there. I think we can find something in common in this data..."
And right after that, as soon as his ship's wounds heal and the stream of gate address information is sifted to a convenient sample, Styx will go after his enemies.
***
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