Melissa Scott - Allegiance

“Blue Flight, Blue Leader,” she said. “Nice shooting.”

“Blue Leader, this is Atlantis.” She didn’t know the voice, only that it wasn’t Sheppard’s. “We show all Darts destroyed. No further waves incoming.”

“Thanks, Atlantis,” she said. “You need us to stick around?”

“Negative, Blue Leader. It looks like Hammond could use some help.”

Mel glanced at her HUD again, pressed the toggle to select the larger picture. Daedalus was still dead in the water, no more than a few thousand meters from where they’d left her. Hammond had come closer to the planet, the hive in pursuit. From the numbers on the screen, she was taking a pounding.

“Colonel Carter would appreciate any distraction you can provide,” Atlantis continued.

Crap. “Roger that,” Mel said. “Blue Flight, Blue Leader. We’re going after the hive.”

Lorne switched over to long-range sensors for a moment as the 302s peeled away, just to see that Hammond was apparently still holding her own, but he didn’t have the luxury of sitting and watching. It hadn’t sounded good up there, Colonel Carter’s voice too deadly calm as she requested assistance, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment.

“Teyla, what have we got?”

“I do not sense the Wraith,” Teyla said over the radio. “We are continuing our security sweep, but I do not think any Wraith are within the city.”

“There are no signs that any Wraith beamed off of the Darts,” Radek said from his station behind Lorne. “At least we may not have that problem to worry about at the moment.”

“That’s one,” Lorne said. They had plenty of other problems. He wrestled with his chair for a moment, trying to find some way to sit close enough to the console that didn’t involve running his bad leg into it every time he turned to look at somebody, and decided there wasn’t one.

“I have damage reports coming in,” Salawi said. “Some windows broken by debris, some minor structural damage. No reports of casualties yet.”

“We need to get everybody clear of any damaged areas,” Lorne said. “We don’t want a building falling on anybody.”

“No, that would be bad,” Radek agreed absently. He shook his head. “The hive has sustained damage, but it is still perfectly capable of attacking the city.”

“It hasn’t got a lot of other choice, unless it can get its hyperdrive engines back online,” Lorne said. “Where else are they going to go?”

“What’s going on up there?” Ronon said over the radio.

“Security teams, please stay in position,” Lorne said as a city-wide announcement rather than answering Ronon directly. “The incoming Darts have been destroyed, but there are probably going to be more. If you’re not on a security team, and you’re not evacuating an area of the city that’s taken structural damage, please stay where you are and keep the radio chatter to a minimum.”

Beside him, Banks was giving a quick account of the space battle so far over her radio. Probably to Ronon, who didn’t have any reason to need to know at the moment other than being frustrated by not knowing, but Lorne didn’t know that for sure, so he let it go.

“This is Sheppard,” Colonel Sheppard said over the radio. “Get some of the security teams up to the gateroom. I don’t know if Hammond can hold off that hive ship forever, and if they get here, they’re going to want to bring in reinforcements.”

“Yes, sir,” Lorne said. “Ronon’s team, Captain Cadman’s team, fall back to the gateroom to protect the Stargate. Dr. Zelenka — ”

“Yes, I am locking down the dialing computer,” Radek said without looking up from his console. “There is no telling how long that will hold them if they gain access to the main computer system, but since it is not likely that they have Rodney with them, maybe at least a little while.”

“Let’s hope a little while is all we need,” Lorne said.

“Personally I am still hoping that the Wraith do not invade the city,” Radek said. “Call me an optimist.”

“Me, too,” Lorne said, and not just because he suspected that getting into a firefight with the Wraith when he couldn’t walk without crutches was going to end badly. If the Wraith made it to the city, it was probably going to be because they’d lost Hammond . Colonel Carter would do everything in her power to stop them, and if that wasn’t enough…

He pulled up long-range sensors again, hoping Hocken and her 302s were enough to turn the tide. If they could get in a few solid hits on the hive, take out its power generation or its sublight engines, that would do it.

Below in the gateroom, Ronon had arrived and was directing the security already stationed there into a different formation as his own team took up their positions. Lorne didn’t argue with that; Ronon was the one who was going to be down there in a position to see what was happening if the Wraith beamed troops in.

“We’re in position,” Ronon said over the radio.

“I have nothing incoming yet,” Radek said.

“Come on,” Lorne said under his breath, watching the Hammond trying to evade the hive ship as it rolled out from behind the cover of the cruiser, firing as it came.

Sam scowled at the engineering console, wishing she could will it into better readings. The ventral shield was fluctuating wildly, an emitter on the verge of blowing out; the other shields were all below thirty percent and falling. Hyperdrive was still good, not that it would be much help at the moment, and she touched keys, transferring its power to the maneuver engines and the weapons array. The duty engineer gave her a wild look — she was the junior, red flecks of burns on her face and neck from the same explosion that had sent Harting to the infirmary — but her voice was steady enough.

“Should I re-route power to the shields, too, ma’am?”

“No,” Sam answered. “You’ll blow the ventral emitter. When it goes — yes, do it then. But not before.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the sergeant answered and Sam pushed past a repair team to take her place behind the chair. The air was hazed with smoke, life support starved for power and running at about forty percent, but that would hold them a little longer.

“Anything from Daedalus ?” she asked quietly, and Franklin shook his head.

“No, ma’am. Atlantis reports the 302s are on the way — ”

Another explosion rocked the bridge, and lights flared red on the pilot’s console. Chandler winced, hands racing, and the lights faded. “Colonel, we’ve lost main controls. I’ve switched to auxiliary.”

“Understood,” Sam said. She did, that was the problem. They had to stop the hive, destroy it somehow, or it would come down on Atlantis like a ton of bricks, and that would be the end of everything. They had McKay, and were making use of his knowledge, and the next stop would be the Milky Way —

She shoved that thought back down into the box where she kept those things, focused on the immediate tactical problem. Daedalus was out of the picture; the 302s could harass, but they’d have to be beyond lucky to do the hive any serious damage. And the cruiser was no longer any real protection.

“Get me Atlantis,” she said, and Jarrett touched keys.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Atlantis, this is Hammond ,” Sam said. “We’ll be in beaming range of the city in about four minutes. I’ll be sending off injured and non-essential personnel as soon as we’re in range.”

Franklin looked over his shoulder at that, but she ignored him. Lorne’s voice was perfectly calm, even though he must have understood the implications as well as Franklin had.