James Swallow - Halcyon

Kelfer nodded to the technician, who said something rude under his breath and walked away. "We are merely keeping an eye on your progress, nothing more."

"Is that so?" He tap-tapped the silver Atlantis laptop that Kelfer's men had produced just after his arrival. "And were you `keeping an eye' on this when your monkeys tried to break my computer?"

The other scientist colored a little. "We were interested in your cogitator device."

Rodney's laptop had been taken along with the rest of his gear when Lord Daus's covert squad of soldiers had abducted him from the dolmen, but there were clear knife marks around the hinges where someone had manhandled it in a vain attempt to boot up the machine. "Yeah, well you almost broke it completely." He sneered, and pantomimed an idea occurring to him. "Kelfer, here's a thought. Try to stay with me on this one, I know you find it hard to deal with sentences that have a lot of words in them-but how about, in future, you people just leave stuff alone that you're too dumb to understand?" He pointed at the laptop and then the controls in the Hive Ship's nexus chamber. "That goes for anything, Earth tech, Wraith or Ancient! If you'd had that in mind, we wouldn't be in this mess today!"

"Forgive us," Kelfer bit out, sarcasm boiling from his words, "we poor fools on Halcyon do not have the breadth of experience of such a genius as you. Please do take pity on us, oh wise one, and grant us some your magnificent knowledge." The man came closer, his fists balling. "Or perhaps I will have you struck about the head until your disrespect for my high office is beaten from you!"

Rodney managed a weak grin, a little afraid that he might have gone a bit too far. "I don't disrespect your rank, Kelfer," he replied, "it's just you I can't abide." McKay turned his back on the Halcyon chief scientist and frowned at the read outs on his computer. Under other circumstances, he might have been enthused by the chance to tap directly into the core systems of a Wraith Hive Ship, with the chance to learn more about the aliens and their technology from the very source itself. Not so today, however; through the patchy interface he'd forged via the crude Halcyonite electronics to the Wraith organic matrix, Rodney had already passed by whole storehouses of data on weapons, drive systems and bio-ware. He was concentrating on the matter of the Hive Ship's complex hibernation systems, and with every keystroke the thought of his teammates was there in the back of his mind. McKay was sure that Daus would have Sheppard and the others killed if he decided it would motivate Rodney's efforts, and he didn't want to have that on his conscience.

The detached, clinical element of McKay's analytical mind found the Wraith fascinating in their own way. A lethal merging of the human organism with the malleable DNA of the predatory Iratus insect, they were formidable. The accelerated regenerative abilities they showed and the basic toughness of the Wraith were factored directly into the hibernation systems of the ship. It was highly unlikely a regular person could have survived for long in the torpid cold-sleep of the hive, but the Wraith on this craft had been dormant for millennia. These guys had been settling in for a nap around the same time that Rodney's distant ancestors were living in mud huts and trying to perfect that wheel thing.

But not any more. They were waking up, here and now, and not for the first time in the last eighteen months McKay was wishing the whole Atlantis expedition had never even happened. But, he reflected, the Wraith would have woken up again one day, especially with idiots like Keifer poking sticks into their nests. It was better that they were here in the Pegasus Galaxy to do something about it, than being none the wiser back on Earth until the day the sky turned black with Hive fleets. If only he could do something about this ship, right here and right now. The other, bigger, fate-of-the-human-race stuff he could get to later on.

Data streamed past his eyes, each line of dense Wraith code revealing more than the next, gradually compounding and confirming McKay's worst speculations. He had never wanted to be so wrong in all his life, and yet there it was. "Oh. Crap." The awakening Wraith were just the tip of the iceberg.

A wet hiss drew Rodney from his work and he turned at the sound of the nexus chamber's main hatch. He didn't think he could feel any worse about the situation, but as Vekken and Daus entered the control center, he realized that wasn't true at all. Suddenly his worries contracted to surviving the next few minutes without being shot or skewered with a sword.

The Lord Magnate said something low and fierce to Kelfer and then strode across the room, homing in on McKay. Other robed scientists and lackeys scattered to get out of their ruler's path, obviously afraid to be anywhere near him.

"Doctor," began the Magnate, with chilly, false humor, "please forgive the manner in which you were brought here. It was for your own protection, and for the good of the Halcyon nation."

For a moment, Rodney found himself thinking of someone else's well being instead of his own. "You ordered the raid on the dolmen. Those men in the gray were yours, and you let them shoot at your own daughter." The words had no weight. They were just a bald, hard statement of fact. McKay searched Daus's eyes and saw one tiny glimmer of emotion, but then it was gone so fast he thought he might have imagined it.

"Affairs of state often compel a man to do things that he might otherwise wish to avoid," offered the ruler, "as you now understand I must compel you."

"Why…" He shook his head. "Why didn't you just ask us for help? We would have come here freely, with dozens of people, we would have helped you deal with this! You didn't have to shoot me and threaten the lives of my friends!"

Vekken inclined his head. "What must your world be like, Doctor? Is it so open that no man must conceal his strengths from another? On Halcyon we cannot be so naked before the enemies of our clan."

"None must know of this vessel," said Daus. "It has been the most closely guarded secret of the Fourth Dynast. It is the root of our power."

"Does Erony know about it?" Rodney demanded.

Daus frowned. "Not the whole truth."

McKay felt disgust rising inside him. "You even lie to her."

A nerve in the Magnate's jaw twitched with repressed annoyance. "Do not dare judge me, outworlder. I hold your life in my grip." He pushed forward to peer at the computer. "What progress have you made in suspending the Wraith's awakenings?"

When the scientist didn't speak, Vekken made a show of revealing the hilt of his sword. "The Magnate asked you a question. You will respond to it. What progress have you made?"

The answer burst from him in an exasperated rush. "None! Okay? None at all, not a bloody bit!"

Kelfer gritted his teeth. "So much for your superior knowledge."

"Oh yeah, like you could do any better-" Rodney's words were choked off as Daus's arm came up in a flash of motion, and the Magnate's thick fingers gripped his throat. "Ack!"

"You dare to defy my will?" he roared. "Weakling, intellectual fool! I demand that you put the Wraith back to their slumber, and by the blades, you will do it!"

McKay coughed and wrenched himself free. He gave a ragged-throated cry. "I can't! Don't you understand, it's already too late!" Rodney turned to the laptop and drew a series of windows on to the screen. In turn, the largest of the glassy Wraith monitor panels illuminated with strings of alien text. "The hibernation system runs from a central command cluster, and once it reaches a point of, uh, critical mass, the hive cells start a total shutdown. We are too far along in the process to halt it." Rodney threw up his hands. "The truth is, you were too far along a year ago! Now there's no way to stop them all defrosting!"