Hundreds of years of life give an understanding of one immutable truth: you cannot trust your own kind.
Especially if you are a Wraith.
Cunning Blade entered the bridge of her hive ship, giving the commander a look of complete indifference:
"Speak!" she ordered.
"In three minutes, we will exit hyperspace," he said. "Scanners show that two Ancient ships are waiting for us."
Cunning Blade hissed, showing her irritation.
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know," the commander didn't lie. "It's possible that someone is using Ancient technology. One of them is severely damaged. The second is less so. They could be from the war..."
"Fool!" the queen snapped at her incompetent subordinate. "An Ancient ship cannot be launched without the Ancient gene! It can't be some animals that stumbled upon an abandoned starship!"
"Completely agree," the commander replied politely. "There are no stargates nearby."
"The only reasonable explanation is that one ship came for the other," the queen narrowed her eyes.
"Or that the ship belongs to the Artificials," the Wraith commander noted.
"Impossible," Cunning Blade dismissed the theory. "They've been sitting on their planet for ten thousand years. The attack program was irrevocably disabled. And they cannot interfere with their own program code."
"In that case, there is only one explanation, my queen."
"The ship is under the control of the Ancients," Cunning Blade said with anticipation. She seemed to be tasting the words.
Her entire being trembled at the thought of fighting those who had populated the galaxy. It wouldn't be an easy battle. But even at the cost of heavy losses, she would achieve victory. And that, in turn, would increase her influence among the Keepers.
Influence is a chance to strengthen your hive among others.
"Prepare for battle!" the queen ordered. "None of them must escape into hyperspace! I want to capture the crew!"
"As you wish, my queen," the commander agreed submissively.
Cunning Blade looked at the sensor screen.
She belonged to a younger generation of Wraiths and had not participated in the Great War. She had not fed on Ancients, had not seen how their starships fought, how their cities burned.
But she lived to see the arrival of those whom her hive called the Artificials in the galaxy after the disappearance of the Ancients.
Despite the fact that they resembled the Ancients in every way, they were fundamentally different from them. They could not be fed on, they were not made of flesh and blood, they knew no fear.
Machines in the guise of food.
Predators pretending to be prey.
Deadly predators.
The worst scenario for her would be to encounter even one Artificial ship right now. A fully functional and armed Ancient combat starship could easily destroy her entire fleet.
And so, she was ready to retreat the moment she realized she couldn't handle the task.
But to retreat now, without trying to win... would be foolish.
The Scavenger had lowered her authority among 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's hard to imagine what the Ancients could do to her ships once she broke their resistance and forced them to serve her.
The thought of creating her own followers from the Ancients, at least a couple, warmed her, 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 just marked for annexation to her lands, for example. Or blow themselves up aboard another hive that dared to encroach on her territory.
There were many ways to use these domestic animals. But none of them would be as useful as an Ancient follower.
The Ancients created excellent energy sources, and their weapons were simply unsurpassed. When the Wraiths managed to capture several Ancient combat starships and their energy sources, they created armadas and armies thousands of times larger than the Ancients could ever have fielded.
However, the advance of the Artificials nullified all of this.
She had seen with her own eyes how hundreds and thousands of ships with Wraiths on board perished from encounters with Artificial fleets. She had seen them sterilize entire worlds of humans and Wraiths, seeing no difference between them.
All the achievements that her kin had managed to gain during the long Great War were nullified by the Artificials.
Now, there was only one hive ship in the galaxy, grown in that distant time. Improved armor, a large number of powerful weapons, compartments and chambers for thousands upon thousands of Wraiths, storage chambers for tens of thousands of units of food... Such a ship, if it were in perfect condition, could become a dominant force in the galaxy!
One ship, capable of destroying several fleets of hive ships and their escorts without external help...
But the Scavenger had skillfully evaded her cunning nets. However, without an Ancient power source, the starship was nothing more than a burden...
However, now she had a chance to get everything she desired...
"As soon as we exit hyperspace, send the cruisers first," Cunning Blade ordered. "I want to watch them crush the Ancient technology."
"As you wish, my queen."
And she also desperately wanted to live. And she understood that the Ancients, the Artificials, or whoever else was attacked by the cruisers, would first and foremost destroy these very cruisers. Wasting their valuable homing missiles.
And then the hive would have a chance to survive this encounter and realize her plans.
"We are exiting hyperspace," the Wraith commander announced. "The Ancient ships are positioned with their upper hemispheres facing each other."
"Protecting the command bridges," Cunning Blade understood. "They've gotten smarter in ten thousand years."
"The cruisers are reconfiguring into an attack formation... First volley... Hit confirmed. Queen? What's wrong?"
But Cunning Blade didn't deign to answer this question.
"Scavenger?!" she roared in fury. "The Scavenger is on board this ship!"
As soon as the light in my eyes cleared, and the doors of the teleportation chamber opened, a desperate siren sound flooded my ears.
"Alvaar, we're on board!" I said into the radio. "Raise shields! Get us out of here!"
"Did you stop for a rest?" the former fugitive grumbled. "We have three hits on the lower part of the ship!"
"How bad is it?"
"We need to get out of here as quickly as possible!" Ihaarr shouted. He had somehow ended up next to the nearest console. "You've activated the shields, but without the battery, they won't withstand four Wraith starships! We've already sustained serious damage!"
"How serious?!" I repeated the question to him. The fact that the starship had stopped shaking from hits to the hull was a relief.
The chief engineer looked at me, pursing his lips.
"The small aft cargo hold is destroyed!" he said. "They were clearly aiming for the hyperdrive! On the 'Aurora' it's located there, but on this ship, it's shifted deeper and..."
And all the stasis pods that were there. Two of my people died.
Damn it...
"How many did we lose?" I understood the gist of his words.
"Two of my people died in that compartment," he said irritably. "Ten pods from the last batch were already connected there, the rest weren't and..."
"Were they ejected into space?" I asked. "Can we pick them up?"
"Do you even understand the physics of Wraith energy weapons?!" Ihaarr exclaimed indignantly.
"Ihaarr!" I roared 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 with the crystals. "Find a place for it on the way."
The angry engineer silently obeyed.
"And is this ship also going to explode?" Kirik asked, glancing at me with an angry look. However, not entirely at me. But at the contents of my shoulder. And no, I'm not talking about the bag of crystals.
A hoarse laugh and the characteristic crunch of resetting bones echoed from behind him.
"A primitive creature," Koschei snorted. "This is a combat alert signal. It activates upon detection of starships of my race... They are close, and soon all of you..."
"Oh, right," I remembered, looking at the Wraith. "Are your kin close enough for you to transmit a message to them?"
"We've only just identified each other," Koschei said. "They are led into battle by a queen who was born after me. And the greatness of my mind shocked her. She is confused..."
"Well, let her be even more stunned," I replied, looking her in the eyes. "Tell her that these ships are your prey! Let her get out of here 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 was surprised. And then he literally beamed. "Well, I'll be... The Path of Deception!"
His gaze became glassy for a moment.
"Done," he replied. "But she won't compromise. She's angry, irritated, hates me... It seems she mistook me for another Wraith with whom she had a recent conflict."
"And did you dispel her misconceptions?"
"No, but..."
"Well done," I praised, disabling the wraith with an energy shock weapon. "Kirik and you, Canon," I addressed another victim of one lady's rampage. "Take him to the brig. And make sure he doesn't wake up!"
"I'm Canaan!" the brewer protested indignantly.
"Move it!" I snarled at both of them. "We're literally going to have space burning under our feet soon!"
While my comrades dragged the unconscious, chain-bound wraith to its holding area, I yanked Trebal to the wall. But I miscalculated slightly…
A distinct, loud thud echoed.
After checking if my head was wet with blood from hitting the wall, I positioned her in a semi-reclined position. Amusingly, after testing her skull's durability, her perpetually frowning expression even became more... human-like, perhaps...
"Sorry, girl," I said, my guilt at its peak, laying her on the floor and tucking my jacket under her head. "The Ascended know, all the way from the 'Aurora,' I thought you were heavier."
"Never in the last ten thousand years has the 'Aurora' been so deserted," the ship's commander remarked.
With a sad smile, he looked at 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.
Battle comrades and true friends.
"I've had many reasons to be proud of you, but today I can't find words to describe how proud I am of you and your decision to support me," the captain continued.
On the bridge of the 'Aurora.'
"Even if we don't return to Atlantis, never see our loved ones again, or finish our business, we will fulfill our duty," the Lantian stated firmly. "I am proud to have served with you. I give you my word – the sacrifice we are ready to make here and now for a chance at a better future, for the salvation of 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!"
Taking a final, nonexistent breath, the commander of the 'Aurora' uttered the battle cry of those who died but never surrendered:
"Noo eternus!"
"Noo eternus!" his brothers-in-arms echoed.
Despite the 'Hippaphoralkus' moving away from the 'Aurora's' hull, the problems didn't end there.
"Shields at twenty percent!" Alvar reported. "We lost ten percent in thirty seconds!"
And I even know why.
While the 'Hippaphoralkus' and the 'Aurora' hung over each other, the wraiths formed something like an attacking formation. Three cruisers moved in a wedge formation ahead and slightly "above" the hive ship. The cruisers and their "arrows" took the brunt of the damage from our automatic ship cannons. The hive ship, however, fired in what were practically training conditions.
We couldn't reach it – our pulse cannons lacked the range. And besides, we couldn't get close enough. We moved away from the 'Aurora' by about two or three ship lengths, but the starship drifted, refusing to engage its sublight engines.
Not only was the ship unable to output maximum power, but the shield projectors were also repaired to protect us from a firefight, not to withstand a blow in one. And Chaya wasn't to blame – there's a limit to what one person with limited resources can do.
"Our weapons are working," Kirik pointed to the yellowish streaks of energy that hunted the wraiths' endless "arrows."
"Should we engage?" Teyla suggested.
There was neither time nor desire to answer the question.
We had moved away from the 'Aurora' only a short distance. Despite receiving the necessary power, the engines were malfunctioning for some reason. It seemed the hits had caused far more damage than Ihaari had anticipated.
"We have problems," the chief engineer announced. "It's worse than I thought."
"How bad?"
"Judging by the damage, it wasn't the cruisers that shot us, but the hive ship," he said. "Besides the destroyed compartment, part of the main wiring powering the hyperdrive and sublight engines was damaged. Power is flowing, but only a small portion is getting through due to 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 voice shrieked from the comms. "Are you insane?! Get the ship away from the 'Aurora' immediately. Without the battery, or whatever you call it…"
"MNT," I supplied.
"Yes! Without the MNT, we won't survive the ship's self-destruction! And even with it, the chances are seventy-two to twenty-eight. And salvation is the last digit! When the 'Aurora' explodes, such a volume of zero-point energy will be released that the very fabric of spacetime…"
"We need engine power!" I interrupted him. "Without it, we're just targets!"
"We can divert some energy from auxiliary systems," one of the Ancients in the cockpit informed me. I hadn't noticed them before. Just a couple of people, but…
"Ten percent shields!" Alvar yelled.
"Do it," I authorized.
"Divert energy from the redundant LSS to power the shields," one Ancient immediately ordered another.
"Bypassing the protective circuit, redistributing," their hands literally glided over the keyboard. It was as mesmerizing as watching recognized virtuosos play the piano or grand piano… "Done!"
"Fifteen percent!" Alvar warned. "It helped."
"Ihaari!" I reminded the chief engineer of my presence. "Get us out of here!"
"I'm not an Ascended!" Ihaari reminded me. "I can't fix what can only be repaired in open space! All the circuits are exposed and…"
"Figure something out!"
Silence hung in the air.
"I'll divert energy from the pulse cannons to the shields," he said. "That will give us an extra minute…"
Is he joking?! Everything here will be…
"We won't need shields," a voice from behind me said, chilling me to the bone.
My eyes flew open, and I met Trebal's gaze. And I think, if it weren't for the threat of death or capture by the wraiths (but the former was more obvious), she would have killed me on the spot.
"Move aside," she demanded.
Well, there was no need to ask any further questions.
As soon as I stood up, the girl was in the command chair. A quick glance at the countdown – we had fifteen seconds left.
"Ihaari, listen to me," she commanded. "Divert energy to the sublight and stern shields. Short the crystalline lattice protection circuits so they're powered directly…"
"Are you out of your mind?!" the chief engineer's shriek echoed. "Instant discharge! We'll burn out the sublight engines!"
"Either them or we die," I cut him off. "Choose – death by explosion or by wraith boarding?!"
"Psychopaths!" the panicked chief engineer replied. "It'll be ready in seven seconds!"
"Hold on," Trebal commanded, closing her eyes.
At that moment, the deck disappeared from under my feet, and the view 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 grip the command chair with both hands. And press my face against something extremely soft and fragrant…
"What are they doing?!" the Cunning Blade exclaimed, worried.
The cruisers had pushed a whole ship of Ancients away from the damaged one. This allowed a scout with an boarding party to land on the hangar deck. Also, over twenty "arrows" used beams to transfer about a hundred wraith soldiers aboard the ship.
Guarding their prize, two cruisers froze next to the damaged Ancient starship, while the third drove the second ship straight towards the hive ship.
The incessant bombardment yielded the desired result – the shields went down, and three energy projectiles pierced the protruding bow of the Ancient dreadnought. Without a reminder, the commander gave the order to hit the ship's bridge…
But the next volley hit empty space.
The Ancient dreadnought, as if there was no one alive inside capable of surviving such inertia, veered away, executing a loop. Now, it was approaching the damaged starship instead!
"They want to destroy our trophy!" the Cunning Blade realized. "All power to the engines! The third cruiser, pursue them!"
Repeating the Ancient ship's maneuver, but less steeply, the third cruiser found itself two hundred ship lengths from the hive ship's forward sensor protrusion. It continued to fire at the fleeing enemy, but without success.
"The Ancient starship's stern shields have been restored," the wraith commander stated.
The Queen silently watched as the second ship "ducked" under the first, accelerating all the while. The cruiser followed it, the other two providing fire support. The hive ship also kept pace.
But due to aiming system inaccuracies, it was dangerous to fire at the fugitives – she risked damaging or even destroying the damaged ship. And, judging by everything, it was the Scavenger's trophy, who suddenly demanded she back off!
The Cunning Blade had almost resigned herself to losing the second starship – it had simply disappeared from the scanner screens.
"No hyperjump window was detected," the wraith commander said, puzzled.
"How is that possible? Where did they go!"
"The only explanation is they accelerated to near light speed and… An energy surge on the damaged ship!" he exclaimed loudly, showing his surprise and even panic.
And in the next moment, everything vanished.
A supernova-like explosion instantly incinerated all three cruisers that had been near the damaged starship. An expanding radiation area appeared on the monitors, rapidly approaching the hive ship…
The 'Aurora's' Farewell.
"We're leaving!" the Queen commanded.
"Impossible, my Queen…" the commander managed to say.
At the next moment, a powerful impact threw the Cunning Blade from the control panel she was behind. 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 hit her, and another explosion inside the hive extinguished her consciousness.