Jo Graham - The Furies

Ardent cried out something Steelflower did not understand in the heat of battle, pivoting to take the fourth drone who rushed against Guide from behind while he was engaged with the fifth. Her kick caught him neatly in the back of the knee and he fell, the blade of Guide’s pike coming down across him.

*Get her!* the senior blade shrieked, and still Ardent hesitated. The last drone did not, but the butt of Guide’s pike caught him full in the chest, sending him staggering backwards into Ardent.

*You!* Steelflower shouted, whirling to face the senior blade. *You are the one calling for my death, a treachery that only the least worthy of blades would consider! Will you not stand against me yourself? Must you stand back, coward, throwing drones at me in a man’s place?*

His face was a study in dismay, and a slow green flush rose in it, but his hand was steady on a long knife.

*Yield to me or die!* Steelflower said, her mind cold and tight as a vise. It closed around him like claws, like nails digging into his flesh, her will sharp and battle hardened.

*I will not,* he dredged from some part of his being even as his knees gave way, even as he dropped to the floor in front of her, the knife still in his hand.

Her eyes did not leave his.

His face contorted as slowly, slowly the knife rose, rotating hilt foremost. His hands shook. His mouth twisted. With an exhalation, he plunged the knife into his own chest, falling forward upon it.

Ardent let out some strangled sound.

Steelflower turned about, blood a darker emerald down her embroidered coat. *Will you yield?* she said, and her voice was iron.

*I will,* Ardent said, and dropped his dagger, his eyes glittering with admiration and desire.

*That is wise,* Guide said. His breath came heavily in his chest.

*Are you injured, my Guide?* she asked.

His mind voice was tinged with wry amusement. *No. Only old.*

*If that is all,* she said. Her eyes swept over Ardent. *Stand aside and hinder me no more.*

*Yes, my queen,* he said, and his eyes fell in rapt confusion as her hand lifted to his cheek, leaving a trail of blood along his jaw.

*Very good,* she said. With the whisper of leather on silk Steelflower swept from the chamber, leaving Ardent alone with the injured and the dead.

They were pinned down almost the second they left the dart bay.

Bad plan, John thought. This was not working.

Blue streaks of stunner fire crisscrossed the corridor, flashes bright and solid enough to be almost blinding. There must be thirty or forty Wraith backed up. No matter how many they hit with gunfire, the Wraith could keep coming. John glanced back from where he crouched behind the farthest forward obstruction. Cadman was right behind him, covering Radek who could make himself very small and flat indeed against the wall, the reflection of stunner fire crawling in his glasses. Back, at the turn of the corridor fifteen feet away, now separated by a no man’s land of open space, Jennifer sheltered in a doorway, Ronon at her back. He had pivoted, firing shot after shot down the hall behind them toward Wraith coming from the other direction.

“This is not going to work!” Ronon shouted into his radio.

“I see that!” John shouted back. “You get an opening of any kind, you take it.” He glanced behind. “Radek, can you do anything with the wall panel there?”

The scientist was flat against the wall, an irised control panel almost under his elbow. “I do not know!” he said.

“Try!”

Radek worked his way around as John fired off another round of shots, scattering across the junction at different heights, Cadman covering him. Radek was swearing in Czech as he slipped a thin knife into the biotech circuits, prizing up a knot of fleshy cables like muscles. “I have no idea what these do,” he said. Another stun beam hissed past him, plowing into the wall inches from Cadman. With an oath, he plunged the knife through, severing strands.

Down the hall, just beyond the juncture, a blast door irised shut, cutting all but two of the Wraith off from them. “Great!” John began, just as another irised shut between them and Ronon.

Cadman lunged out, P90 spitting, sending the two drones still on their side of the door spinning. She came up with her face tight, looking suddenly like Carter. “Now what?”

“Ronon?” John yelled into the radio.

“I’ve got a clear side corridor,” Ronon said back. “But I can’t get through this door. I think it’s a pressure door.”

In case the dart bay depressurized. It made sense that the corridors around it could be sealed against vacuum. They weren’t going to get anywhere trying to shoot through that. “Radek?”

Radek looked up from the knot of fibers and shook his head, his glasses on the end of his nose. “I do not know what any of these go to. I am guessing.”

“Ok.” What he needed was Teyla, who could talk to the ship. But she wasn’t here. Time for plan B. “Ronon, you and Keller go aft to the labs and go after Rodney. Keller’s got the sedative, so you can stun him and she can keep him out. As soon as you’ve got him, have the Hammond beam you out.”

“Got it.” Ronon didn’t sound particularly worried. “Where are you going, Sheppard?”

“Forward to the power hub where Zelenka said it was most likely they’ve got the ZPM. Don’t wait for us, clear? As soon as you get Rodney, beam out.” John put his hand on Radek’s shoulder. “Ok, leave those alone. Let’s get to the power hub.” Teyla would be with Todd. Like Ronon, she’d find her own way out.

*This way,* Guide said, moving unerringly through the dim corridors of the hive ship. About them alarms blared, the high pitched wail for pilots to the dart bay and the almost subsonic rumble of general quarters. Once or twice drones hurried into them, but none tried to hinder them. Steelflower was a queen, and to attack her without specific orders unthinkable. The merest touch of her mind on theirs assured it.

*Where do we go?* she asked.

*You wanted McKay,* he said.

*Wait.* Steelflower put a hand to his wrist, drew him back. *That is where the team goes, where they go already. I would find Death.*

She felt his surprise, though it did not show in his face. *You seek her out?*

*That is the only way this will end,* Steelflower said. *The only way. You know that, Guide. Queen to queen.*

His mouth opened and shut, as though he wished to say something aloud, but Guide did not, and he felt her will hard as iron against him, a fragile flower, yes, but wrought of steel. *Then we will go this way,* he said. *To her chambers.*

“Come on.” Ronon led Jennifer through the maze of corridors that wound upon each other, twisting around until she had no idea where she was. But at least people had stopped shooting at them.

“Why aren’t they after us?” she asked as Ronon slipped through yet another junction, pausing to look in all directions.

“After Sheppard,” Ronon said. “Or Teyla.” He looked back at her. “We get Rodney. That’s the plan. They can take care of themselves.”

“Ok.” Maybe it was just the stress that caused the world to suddenly wobble in front of her eyes, and Jennifer paused, grabbing the wall. Her stomach rose. No. Absolutely not. She was not going to act like some green kid in front of Ronon. She’d been on missions before. She was not going to do this.

“You ok?” Ronon looked back over his shoulder frowning.

“Fine,” Jennifer said. Step where the floor is, not where you see it pitching. Keep moving. It will all settle down in a minute. It’s just nerves. Squaring her jaw, Jennifer followed Ronon through the maze.

It was only at the doors to her chambers that drones hindered them, four with pikes coming forward to bar the way into Death’s chambers. “What business have you?” the blade who was the doorwarden asked, coming forward to speak with Steelflower. His name was Green, and Guide knew him only slightly, but before he could so much as phrase a polite question Steelflower’s mind was on him.