Hundreds of years lived give an understanding of one immutable truth: you cannot trust your own kind.
Especially if you are a Wraith.
Treacherous Blade entered the bridge of her Hive ship, eyeing the commander with complete indifference:
"Speak!" she ordered.
"In three minutes, we will exit hyperspace," he said. "The scanners show that two Ancient ships are waiting for us."
Treacherous Blade hissed, showing her irritation.
"How is that possible?"
"I do not know," the commander did not mince words. "It is possible that someone is using Ancient technology. One of them is heavily damaged. The other—less so. They could have remained from the time of the war..."
"Fool!" the Queen snarled at her dim-witted subordinate. "An Ancient ship cannot be started without the Ancient gene! These cannot be some animals that happened upon an abandoned starship!"
```
"There are no Stargates nearby."
"The only logical explanation is that one ship came for the other," the Queen said, narrowing her eyes.
"Or that the ship belongs to the Artificials," the Wraith Commander remarked.
"Impossible," Trebal dismissed the theory. "They have been sitting on their planet for ten thousand years. The attack program was irrevocably deactivated. And they cannot interfere with their own programming code."
"In that case, there is only one explanation, my Queen."
"The ship is under the control of the Ancients," Trebal said with anticipation. She seemed to savor the words.
Her entire being trembled at the prospect of fighting those who had seeded the galaxy. It would not be a simple battle. But even at the cost of great losses, she would secure victory. And that, in turn, would increase her influence among the Keepers.
Influence was a chance to strengthen her Hive among the others.
"Prepare for battle!" the Queen ordered. "None of them must escape into hyperspace! I want the crew taken prisoner!"
"As you wish, my Queen," the Commander agreed submissively.
Trebal looked at the sensor screen.
She belonged to a younger generation of Wraith and had not taken part in the Great War. She had not fed on the Ancients, had not seen how their starships fought, or how their cities burned.
But she had witnessed how, after the disappearance of the Ancients, those whom her Hive called the Artificials entered the galaxy.
Despite the fact that they resembled the Ancients in every way, they were fundamentally different. It was impossible to feed on them; they were not made of flesh and blood, and they knew no fear.
Machines in the guise of food.
Predators pretending to be prey.
Deadly predators.
The worst-case scenario for her now would be to encounter even a single ship of the Artificials. A fully functional and armed Ancient warship could easily destroy her entire fleet.
And so, she was ready to retreat the very moment she realized she could not handle the task at hand.
But to retreat now, without trying to win... would be foolish.
The Scavenger had damaged her authority within the Hive, and it needed to be restored. Destroying the Ancient ships would be quite enough. And if she could capture the crew and the ship...
It was hard to imagine what the Ancients could do for her ships once she broke their resistance and forced them to serve her.
She was warmed by the thought of turning the Ancients—at least a couple of them—into her Worshipers, as she had done on dozens of worlds. Spies and saboteurs, they were useful. They could find out the number of animals on planets she had only just targeted for annexation into her feeding grounds, for example. Or blow themselves up aboard another Hive that encroached on her territory.
There were a multitude of uses for these pets. But none would be as useful as an Ancient-Worshiper.
The Ancients created magnificent power sources, and their weapons were simply unsurpassed. When the Wraith managed to capture several Ancient warships and their power sources, they created armadas and armies thousands of times larger than anything the Ancients could ever oppose them with.
However, the offensive of the Artificials had nullified all of that.
She had seen with her own eyes how hundreds and thousands of ships with Wraith on board perished upon encountering the fleets of the Artificials. She had seen how they sterilized entire worlds of humans and Wraith alike, seeing no difference between them.
All the achievements her kin had managed to secure during the long Great War, the Artificials had wiped away.
Currently, there was only one Hive ship in the galaxy grown in those distant times. Enhanced armor, a vast number of powerful weapons, chambers and bays for thousands upon thousands of Wraith, storage vaults for tens of thousands of units of food... Such a ship, were it in perfect condition, could become the dominant force in the galaxy!
A single ship capable of destroying several Hive ship fleets and their escorts without outside help...
But the Scavenger had quite skillfully slipped through her cunning nets. However, without an Ancient power source, the starship was little more than a burden...
But now, she had a chance to get everything she desired...
"As soon as we drop out of hyperspace, send the cruisers in first," Trebal ordered. "I want to watch them crush the Ancients' technology."
"As you wish, my Queen."
Furthermore, she very much wanted to live. And she understood that whether it was the Ancients, the Artificials, or anyone else under attack, they would destroy those cruisers first. Wasting their precious self-guided projectiles.
And then the Hive would have a chance to survive this encounter and bring her plans to life.
"Exiting hyperspace," the Wraith Commander reported. "The Ancient ships are positioned with their upper hemispheres toward each other."
"Protecting the bridges," Trebal realized. "They have grown smarter in ten thousand years."
"Cruisers are moving into attack formation... First volley... It's a hit. Queen? What is wrong with you?"
But Trebal did not bother to answer that question.
"Scavenger?!" she growled in a rage. "The Scavenger is on board that ship!"
***
As soon as the light before my eyes cleared and the doors of the teleportation chamber slid open, the piercing wail of a siren tore into my ears.
"Alvar, we're on board!" I said into the radio. "Raise shields! Get us out of here!"
"Did you stop for a rest or something?!" the former runner grumbled. "We've taken three hits to the lower section of the ship!"
"How bad is it?!"
"We need to get out of here as fast as possible!" Ikhaar shouted. He had somehow ended up next to the nearest console. "You've turned on the shields, but without a battery, they won't hold against four Wraith starships! We've already taken serious damage!"
"How serious?!" I repeated the question to him. The fact that the starship had stopped shaking from hull impacts was encouraging.
The chief engineer looked at me, pursing his lips.
"The small aft hold is destroyed!" he said. "They were clearly aiming for the hyperdrive! On an Aurora, it's located there, but on this ship, it's shifted deeper and..."
And all the stasis chambers that were there. Two of my people were dead.
Damn it...
"How many did we lose?" I realized the gist of his words.
"Two of my people died in that section," he said irritably. "Ten pods from the last batch were already connected there, the rest weren't, and..."
"Were they blown into space?" I asked. "Can we pick them up?"
"Do you understand anything at all about the physics of Wraith energy weapons?!" Ikhaar fumed.
"Ikhaar!" I barked at him.
"They were incinerated!" the Ancient raised his voice in response. "It's high-temperature energy, like plasma, but of a different nature and..."
"Go and check," I ordered, handing him the bag of crystals. "Put these somewhere useful on the way."
The angry engineer obeyed in silence.
"Is this ship going to explode too?" Kiryk asked regarding the siren, casting an angry look at me. Well, not exactly at me. At the contents of my shoulder. And no, I don't mean the bag of crystals.
Behind him, a wheezing laugh and the characteristic crunch of bones being set back into place rang out.
"Primitive creature," Koschei snorted. "That is a battle alert signal. It triggers upon detecting starships of my race... They are close, and soon you will all..."
"That's right," I realized, looking at the Wraith. "Are your kin close enough for you to send them a message?"
"As of now, we have only identified each other," Koschei said. "They are led into battle by a Queen who was born after me. And the majesty of my mind shocked her. She is confused..."
"Well, let's make her even more shocked," I replied, looking him in the eye. "Tell her that these ships are your prey! Tell her to get lost before your Hive blows everything to hell! Only you are allowed to feed on the Ancients on these ships! Tell her word for word!"
"My Hive? Feed on the Ancients?" the Wraith wondered. And then he literally beamed. "Well, well... The path of deception!"
His gaze went glassy for a moment.
"Done," he replied. "But she will not yield. She is angry, irritated, she hates me... It seems she took me for another Wraith with whom she recently had a conflict."
"And did you clear up her misunderstanding?"
"No, but..."
"Good man," I praised, knocking the Wraith out with an energy shock weapon. "Kiryk, and you, Kanon," I addressed another victim of a certain lady's rampage. "Take him to the brig. And make sure he doesn't wake up!"
"I am Canaan!" the brewer protested.
"Move!" I growled at both of them. "The space beneath our feet is literally about to burn!"
While my comrades dragged the unconscious and shackled Wraith to his living quarters, I lowered Trebal to the wall with a jerk. But I miscalculated slightly...
There was a distinct, loud thud.
After checking if her head was bleeding from the contact with the wall, I positioned her in a semi-sitting pose. Funnily enough, after the skull-durability test, her perpetually frowning expression actually became more... human, I suppose...
"Sorry, girl," I said, at the limit of my guilty feelings, laying her on the floor and tucking my jacket under her head. "The Ascended are my witness, I thought you were heavier all the way from the Aurora."
***
"Never in the last ten thousand years has the Aurora been so deserted," the ship's commander said.
With a sad smile, he looked into the faces of nineteen of his closest and most trusted beings in the entire galaxy. Young, focused faces, devoid of even a hint of panic or cowardice.
Comrades-in-arms and true friends.
"I have had reason to be proud of you many times, but today I cannot find the words to describe how proud I am of you and your decision to support me," the captain continued.
On the bridge of the Aurora.
"Though we may not return to Atlantis, though we may never see our loved ones again or finish our work, we will do our duty," the Lantean said firmly. "I am proud to have served with you. I give you my word—the sacrifice we are prepared to make here and now for the chance of a better future, for the sake of saving our comrades, will not be forgotten. Our last combat sortie into space ends here, now... But the memory of us will live on in the hearts of those we saved!"
Inhaling non-existent air one last time, the commander of the Aurora spoke the battle cry of those who died but never surrendered:
"Noo eternus!"
"Noo eternus!" his brothers-in-arms echoed.
***
Despite the fact that the Hippaphoralkus had moved away from the Aurora's hull, the problems didn't end there.
"Shields at twenty percent!" Alvar reported. "We lost ten percent in half a minute!"
And I even knew why.
While the Hippaphoralkus and the Aurora hung over each other, the Wraith had formed something like an attack formation. Three cruisers moved in a wedge ahead and slightly "above" the Hive. At the same time, it was the cruisers and their Darts that took the damage from our automatic ship guns. The Hive ship, however, was firing under what were essentially firing-range conditions.
We couldn't reach it—the range of the pulse cannons wasn't enough. Furthermore, there was no way to close the distance. We had moved about two or three hull lengths away from the Aurora, but the starship was drifting, refusing to engage sublight engines.
Not only was the ship unable to output maximum power, but the shield projectors had been repaired just enough to save us from a skirmish, not to hold up in a full-blown fight. And it wasn't Chaya's fault—there's a limit to what just one person with limited resources can do.
"Our weapons are firing," Kiryk pointed to the yellowish streaks of energy that were hunting the endless Wraith Darts.
"Maybe we should stand and fight?" Teyla suggested.
I had neither the time nor the desire to answer the question.
We had only moved a short distance from the Aurora. The engines, though receiving the necessary power, were for some reason malfunctioning. It seemed the hits had caused far more trouble than Ikhaar had anticipated.
"We have problems," the chief engineer appeared. "It's worse than I thought."
"How much?"
"Judging by the destruction, it wasn't the cruisers shooting at us, but the Hive," he said. "In addition to the destroyed compartment, part of the main wiring feeding the hyperdrive and sublight engines was damaged. Power is flowing, but only a small part gets through because of a short circuit..."
"Can you fix it or not?!" I asked. "In a minute, we won't have any shields left to withstand the Aurora's explosion!"
"What?!" a shout came over the radio. "Are you out of your mind?! Move the ship away from the Aurora immediately. Without a battery, or whatever you call it..."
"ZPM," I prompted.
"Yes! Without a ZPM, we won't survive the ship's self-destruction! And even with it, the chances are seventy-two to twenty-eight. And survival is the latter number! When the Aurora explodes, such a volume of zero-point energy will be released that the very metric of space-time..."
"We need engine power!" I cut him off. "Without it, we're just targets!"
"We can release some energy from the auxiliary systems," one of the Ancients in the bridge informed me. I hadn't even noticed them. Just a couple of people, but...
"Ten percent shield!" Alvar shouted.
"Do it," I authorized.
"Reroute power from the backup life support to the shields," one Ancient immediately ordered the other.
"Bypassing the security circuit, redistributing," the hands of both literally glided over the keyboard. It was almost as mesmerizing as watching recognized virtuosos play the piano or grand piano... "Done!"
"Fifteen percent!" Alvar warned. "It helped."
"Ikhaar!" I reminded the chief engineer of my presence. "Get us out of here!"
"I am not Ascended!" Ikhaar reminded me. "I cannot fix what can only be repaired in open space! All the circuits are exposed and..."
"Think of something!"
A silence fell.
"I'll reroute power from the pulse cannons to the shields," he said. "That will give us an extra minute..."
Is he joking?! Everything here is about to be...
"We won't need shields," a voice rang out behind me that made my very soul turn cold.
Opening my eyes, I met Trebal's gaze. And I think if it weren't for the threat of death or capture by the Wraith (though the former was more likely), she would have killed me on the spot.
"Yield," she demanded of me.
Well, there was no need for extra questions here.
As soon as I stood up, the girl was in the command chair. A quick glance at the countdown—we had fifteen seconds left.
"Ikhaar, listen to me," she ordered. "Divert power to the sublight and aft shield. Short the crystal lattice protection circuits so they feed directly..."
"Have you lost your mind?!" the chief engineer's howl came through. "Instant discharge! We'll burn out the sublight engines!"
"Either them or we die," I cut in. "Choose—death from the explosion or from a Wraith boarding party?!"
"Psychopaths!" the panicking chief engineer answered us. "It'll be ready in seven seconds!"
"Hold on," Trebal ordered, closing her eyes.
At that same moment, the deck went out from under my feet, and the picture of the stars outside the bridge began to change rapidly.
The only thing I managed to do to avoid flying into the wall was to grab the command chair with both hands. And I pressed my face against something extremely soft and pleasant-smelling...
***
"What are they doing?!" Trebal grew worried.
The cruisers had driven one Ancient ship away from the damaged one. This allowed a scout with a boarding party to land on the hangar deck. Also, more than twenty Darts used beams to transport up to a hundred Wraith soldiers on board the ship.
Guarding their prize, two cruisers hovered next to the damaged Ancient starship, while the third drove the second ship straight toward the Hive ship.
The continuous bombardment led to the desired result—the shields went down, and three energy projectiles bit into the protruding bow of the Ancient battleship. The Commander, without needing a reminder, gave the order to strike the ship's bridge...
But the next volley hit empty space.
The Ancient battleship, as if there were no living being inside capable of surviving such inertia, lunged to the side, pulling a loop. Now, on the contrary, it was approaching the damaged starship!
"They want to destroy our trophy!" Trebal realized. "All power to the engines! Have the third cruiser give chase!"
Repeating the Ancient ship's maneuver, though less sharply, the third cruiser found itself two hundred hull lengths from the bow sensor protrusion of the Hive ship. It continued to fire at the fleeing enemy but achieved no success.
"The Ancient starship's shields have been restored at the stern," the Wraith Commander stated.
The Queen watched in silence as the second ship "dived" under the first, accelerating all the while. The cruiser followed it, the other two supporting with fire. The Hive ship also kept pace.
But due to targeting system errors, it was dangerous to open fire on the fugitives—she risked damaging or even destroying the damaged ship. And, by all appearances, that was the trophy of the Scavenger, who had suddenly demanded she back off!
Trebal had practically resigned herself to the fact that she had lost the second starship—it had simply vanished from the scanner screens.
"No hyperspace window was recorded," the Wraith Commander said, puzzled.
"How is that possible? Where did they go!"
"The only explanation is they accelerated to near-light speed and... Energy surge on the damaged ship!" he shouted, showing his surprise and even panic.
And in the next moment, everything vanished.
An explosion resembling the birth of a supernova incinerated all three cruisers that were holding near the damaged starship in the blink of an eye. An area of expanding energy radiation appeared on the monitors, rapidly approaching the Hive ship...
The Aurora's farewell.
"Get us out of here!" the Queen commanded.
"Impossible, my Queen..." was all the Commander had time to say.
In the next moment, a massive impact threw Trebal from behind the control panel she was at. Hitting an organic bulkhead, the last thing she saw was the Hive ship's schematic rapidly turning red.
And then the Wraith Commander's body flew into her, and a new explosion inside the Hive cut off her consciousness.
***
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