In Wraith society, there are plenty of entertainments.
A significant part of them involve animals, humans, whose only purpose is to be food for the most perfect form of life in all known galaxies.
But none of that compares to the feeling of total superiority when life leaves an animal, flowing through the feeding appendage into the Wraith's body.
The Queen of Death, despite the numerous murders and feedings she had committed on board this station, felt such an intoxicating sensation for the first time. The last time she had felt something like this was ten thousand years ago, when she fed on the Lantians.
Strength, defiance, will… And all of it, amplified by enzymes, only stoked the fire inside the Queen. Looking into the eyes of her victim, paralyzed by their own horror and pain from the awareness of a dwindling life, was priceless.
"Strong," the Queen of Death brought her face close to the woman the man had brought back to consciousness a minute ago. Her skin was losing its former elasticity, turning flabby and wrinkled. And the Lantian woman could do nothing about it — the enzyme gave her strength, but the Wraith's physiology wouldn't allow her to move even a finger. All that was left for her was to watch with pain and hatred as the Queen of Death rolled her eyes from the euphoria overtaking her.
Feeding on Ancients was so much more pleasant than on those inferior humans she had drained on the station. But even the half-Ancient, the technician she had drunk first from the last group, wasn't as strong and wonderful. But this woman… This old woman… Yes, she was exactly what the Queen of Death called an "exquisite dish."
And once again, Death praised herself for her insight. She had immediately understood that the people left in the control room, who had cut her off from the central part of the platform, could wait. But the fact that the platform wasn't being flooded after her sabotage needed to be checked…
Probably one of that pair had survived.
She had watched them save each other, stop the water flow… And how the boy selflessly tried to resuscitate his friend. So absorbed in the process that he didn't even hear the soft splash of water as the Queen of Death approached him from behind.
The personal shield he was wearing was practically depleted. She had realized this while watching the people from the ventilation. The way he had shuddered, turning off the door shield and feeling the cold on his legs, she had noted with her sharp gaze.
And she had put all her strength into her blow.
He was lying unconscious now — she had looked at the human right after feeding. He would be her next prey. And then, she would use their weapons to break through the shields, enter the control room, and have a feast…
Her victim's eyes glazed over with a white film, which meant there wasn't much time left; she could take the last of it. It was pointless to ask her anything anyway — she wouldn't tell.
A proud Lantian woman… No, she wasn't that strong. Most likely a half-breed, of which the Queen had drained plenty. She'd just confused things over the long years…
The Queen prepared to savor the last drops of the half-breed's life when something wet and angular pressed against the base of her skull.
"Know the riddle about two chairs?" she heard a young male voice.
That same voice that had been muttering absurdities while reviving her future victim.
The Queen grimaced, realizing the intoxicating feeling had made her lose her vigilance.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, frantically looking for a way out.
"On the first chair — a quick death," the guy announced. "On the second — a chance to live a little longer. Which chair will you choose for yourself, and which will you give my friend?"
The Queen snarled in rage. She was being given an ultimatum.
"You took advantage of my weakness!"
"That's right, you sucking bitch," the boy's voice was full of malice. "I've watched Koschei feed enough to know — during it, you're clearly vulnerable. And Trebal," that seemed to be his victim's name — "is a tempting enough treat that you'd save her for later. Looks like you confused who's the most dangerous here."
"I'll drain you both," the Queen of Death promised.
"Shoot," the old woman lying under her hand whispered. "Kill… us."
The angular body of the impulse pistol dug even harder into the back of the Wraith Queen's head.
"Give back what you took," the man ordered.
The Queen bared her teeth.
Stupid humans and their stupid desire to save cattle just like themselves. But this particular animal had managed to exploit her weak side. And had gotten a weapon from somewhere.
The Queen lowered her eyes, seeing that the holster on her victim's thigh was torn. It seemed the boy had snatched the weapon and been thrown back by her blow. He should have died! But it seemed he was stronger than he looked.
Well, this wasn't a defeat yet.
"And what do I get in return?" the Queen began to negotiate. "One little effort is enough for me to end her life."
"And for me — just a slight squeeze of the trigger, and instead of your head, there will be nothing," the man countered.
"And you'll kill your female!" the euphoria from the absorbed powerful life still prevented the Queen of Death from thinking clearly.
The feeling of intoxication from the overflowing life force of the humans she had drained had played a nasty trick on her. But she couldn't stop herself.
Her hunger was unstoppable, and her physiology demanded she be sated… Only she had taken too much "in reserve," not knowing when she would get to eat again.
"She's as good as dead anyway. If you're not going to give her back her youth, there's no point in regretting it. Besides, she asked for an easy death herself," the guy concluded. "But you can still save yourself."
"You'll let me go?" the Queen of Death asked distrustfully.
"I'm ready to discuss your proposal," the guy said evasively. "I think you mentioned neutrality," the Queen twitched her neck slightly, but the boy was alert. "Don't even think about it. My patience isn't unlimited. Especially since Trebal is categorically for me finishing you both off. Well!"
He accompanied his last statement by pressing the weapon even harder into the Queen of Death's head.
"Why should I trust you?" she gave her final argument.
"And why should I trust that you'll bring Trebal back to life and not just finish her off?" he countered.
"Fair enough," the Queen of Death admitted, finally forming her plan.
Looking at the barely breathing victim, the Queen concentrated on the feeling of the life energy overflowing within her. Over the centuries of war with the Lantians, she hadn't saved many of her kind from death using reverse feeding.
And she had never used it to save animals. Only for torture and turning them into her agents.
But now… She would have to take the risk and become a little weaker. But only to finally win the battle.
Steeling herself, she began to transfer life energy from herself into the decrepit body of the human female.
But she did it slowly, using the parts of her brain free from this process to control the situation and prepare for the decisive battle.
* * *
"Ihaar," Teyla used the radio. "I've checked all the corridors and rooms inside the safe zone. She's not here."
"I know already," the Chief Engineer admitted reluctantly. "A 'jumper' has arrived from Atlantis. They detected the Wraith and two human life signals in the corridor next to the destroyed second docking bay."
"How did they know it was a Wraith?" Teyla had already made her decision and sprinted toward the needed corridor.
"Why else would two of our people be there?" the Chief Engineer asked. "If there were no Wraith, they would have already gone to either bay and tried to restore the intercoms!"
"True," Teyla said. "And it's probably Mich and Trebal?"
"Just a guess!"
"Not just!" the Athosian woman retorted. "The Queen of Death killed everyone else easily! But here, for some reason, two are still alive! Either she's trying to break their resistance, or they've captured her and are bandaging wounds! I have to go to them!"
The girl stopped in front of a stationary shield.
"Ihaar, please!"
The Chief Engineer thought for a split second. A crack, a flash of white light — and the path was clear.
"Alvar and Kirik are leading a group of technicians through the second corridor," he reported. "They brought the 'jumper' right up to the surface hatch opening and stuck the ship's stern into it."
"You managed to open the hatch for them?" Teyla was surprised, sprinting straight through the large puddles on the corridor floor.
"I sent a technician to the backup command post and we're controlling what we can from there," Ihaar admitted reluctantly.
Teyla suppressed the resentment inside her. So for her he hadn't dared to do it, but when people arrived...?
The Athosian woman swallowed her resentment and kept running.
Ihaar had done everything right. And he had only done it when she had secured the path from the control room to the CP. That was right — no risk at all.
"I'll be there in five minutes," the Athosian woman reported, praying she wouldn't get lost in these corridors.
She also prayed that one of those three survivors would be Mikhail — only then could she somehow try to justify her people before Atlantis. Otherwise...
Truth be told, she really didn't want to know what would happen if Atlantis stopped cooperating with the Athosians because of her people's inexplicable démarche.
* * *
The fog in her head was clearing, and the half-blood was getting younger and younger… The gray hair vanished, her body grew rounder, the veil over her eyes no longer hid the desire to kill the Queen of Death.
The Wraith, no matter how hard she tried to stall, understood that time was slipping away irrevocably. She could already sense other people nearby. One, very similar to a Wraith — obviously that mutant who could sense them — was too close. And at least seven more — all with fairly powerful minds, possibly all Ancients, a bit farther away.
In any case, she couldn't stall any longer.
The Queen of Death could clearly see that her victim was in no state to resist — the return of life energy was acting on her like a powerful drug. And that meant this was the moment — when her consciousness had cleared of excess, and one of her opponents couldn't help the other.
To be sure, the Queen of Death poured a bit more energy into the victim than she had taken. And noticed that the woman's eyes grew moist and glossy, her pupils slightly unfocused…
Enough!
Just as she had sensed, the boy was distracted by resurrecting his friend.
The Queen of Death put all her speed into the lunge. Spinning on her knees, she lashed out with her leg while simultaneously knocking the weapon out of the boy's hand. The impulse blaster flew further down the corridor, melting part of the wall and slicing off her left ear, along with some skin on her body. If she had been a bit slower, he would have finished her off!
Roaring with pain and fury, she lunged at the boy lying on the floor, intending to crush his rib cage with a single blow. No time to feed — time to kill!
To her surprise, the man rolled aside and sprang to his feet. His leg shot upward. Pain and a flash of light sent the Queen of Death stumbling back, but she managed to slash her sharp claws across the man's leg. A masterful strike — she severed his artery. He screamed in pain, collapsing to the floor, drenching it in blood.
That was it — he was no longer a fighter. Either he'd bleed out or be busy bandaging himself. Either way, only the female remained.
The Queen recoiled, rising to her feet. She snapped her broken jaw back into place with a single motion, noting that the flash she'd seen had come at the exact moment of the blow. And her own optic organs were to blame!
Spitting knocked-out teeth and fragments of the others onto the floor, she charged with a roar at the boy struggling to get up. Kill! Here, now…
She hadn't expected the lightning-fast movement that struck her legs and sent her crashing to the floor. Nor the powerful kick that followed from her recent victim — a straightened leg driving upward from below. The human female's heel slammed between her shoulder blades, making the Queen of Death's nose crack. Suffering another broken jaw that immediately began to regenerate, the Queen pushed off the floor and leaped back to the wall, assessing her position.
The victim, blinking rapidly and struggling to compose herself, stood beside the man wounded by Death. Frozen in a combat stance, the female showed her readiness to fight to the death to protect the male who had risked everything to save her.
"I will kill you in the most horrific way!" the Queen of Death promised, bracing herself to attack.
She most likely couldn't kill the ones rushing toward her anymore. But this pair of Lantian blood bearers — she would definitely kill them.
"Mumble that again!" the woman shouted, lunging forward.
The Queen was ready for her to come at her with fists, but… Instead, the human female jumped forward, planted her hands on the floor, arched her body to shift her weight, and with both feet striking the Queen's chest, sent her hurtling further down the corridor. Twisting in midair and landing on her feet, the Queen spread her arms to maintain balance.
Her gaze landed on the impulse blaster lying nearby — the one she had knocked out of the male's hands…
"Trebal!" the latter shouted. "She's got the impulse blaster!"
The Queen lunged for the weapon, but didn't make it. The female slammed into her from the side, knocking her away from the weapon. Her foot kicked the blaster toward the man in one swift motion. And instantly the female drove her knee into the Queen of Death's face.
The Wraith had been expecting this. Grabbing the woman by the torso, the Queen spun hard on her heels and hurled her into the wall. Screaming in pain, the one called Trebal slid down the wall. But a second later, ignoring the blood streaming from her split temple, she was back on her feet.
The Queen measured her with a glance, understanding that she saw the same thirst for murder in the woman's eyes as in her own.
"If you were a Wraith, I would name you my daughter," she admitted honestly, circling in for an attack from a new angle. "A true queen…"
She didn't get to finish — the female dove at her legs. The Queen focused on avoiding an immobilizing hold… And immediately took a heavy-booted foot to the face. Stumbling back a couple of steps, she caught a sideways kick to the head and went flying to the floor. Landing, she rolled aside, avoiding the human female's pounce onto her chest.
Slashing her bone claws across the woman's legs, she felt them come away slick with blood — red splashes appeared on the floor. Seeing the woman overcome the pain and step back, the Queen licked her claws with undisguised pleasure, preparing to go on the offensive.
"Sweet blood," she noted. "You must be nauseated by the enzyme, female. I've cut your major vessels and a vein — the blood is leaving you. Along with your strength. You can't fight anymore…"
"But I can!" With these words, the Queen barely had time to jerk back as a beam of energy incinerated her right arm below the elbow. Along with the fingers of her left.
Screaming in pain, the Queen struck the charging human female with her mutilated left hand. She flew to the side, hit the back of her head against the wall, and crumpled unconscious.
The Queen dodged the next shot and knocked the young whelp off his feet. His weapon flew aside, just as she had planned, and she sank her teeth into his forearm. Nothing more would help him now. He had managed to bandage his wounded leg with a piece of pant leg and thought he could shoot the Wraith. But like all Lantians, he didn't understand that their destructive weapon was too slow!
Knocking him down, the Queen backhanded him across the face with the stump of her left arm and tried to pierce his throat with what remained of her right elbow joint. Opening her mouth wide, she aimed to sink her disfigured jaws directly into the exposed neck of the Lantian…
A powerful punch to the temple disoriented her and knocked the Queen of Death off the man. The man struggled up onto his elbow. The Queen mirrored the maneuver, but immediately took a blow to the jaw from that same bitten hand. And another, and another, and another…
She fell face-first to the floor, and the man was on her back. Her damaged left arm, on which one finger phalanx had almost grown back, was twisted behind the Queen's back. Pain shot through her body, but the man seemed far from done. He yanked the arm sharply upward, dislocating it from the joint and tearing muscles and tendons.
The Queen screamed in pain. Her headdress was torn off by the man's hands. Her wet hair pulled her head back as he grabbed it.
"Don't! You! Dare! Touch! My! People! You! Stupid! Bitch!" the man shouted.
And each word, each pause between them, was punctuated by her face smashing into the hard floor. The nasal bones shattered completely, the facial bones cracked and deformed… Her cheekbone shifted, popping out an eye that smeared across the floor.
Blood flooded the Queen of Death's remaining eye and filled her mouth. The mangled jawbone pierced the skin in several places, but the Queen of Death wouldn't give up that easily. She had suffered worse injuries.
Timing it perfectly, she jerked her body, bracing on her shoulders and lifting her hips. Throwing the man off, she scrambled aside, rose to her knees, and lunged to her feet. Her first blow with her bare foot struck him in the stomach — the most painful spot on animals. With the second, she aimed to crush his face.
Even though she no longer understood what she was saying or trying to say to her enemy, she was simply obliged to kill him.
Raising her leg to cave in the man's face, the Queen of Death saw a flickering shadow from the direction where the supposedly defeated female should have been. Changing her intentions, Death used her useless left arm to strike the female Trebal like a whip. This time the blow was picture-perfect. The woman hit her head against the wall and something in her body cracked.
The Queen, knowing the mutant was practically upon her, slammed her foot into the man's face, causing terrible pain and disorientation. Her entire essence as a female, as a queen, demanded she kill the most dangerous of her enemies. At least him.
Turning to the fallen female and sensing she was still alive, the Queen approached her and dropped her full weight onto her. Positioning her legs to press her knee against the fragile neck of the human woman, she shifted all her weight onto that spot. A little more, just a little more — she would die soon, but she would take this defiant woman with her…
The blow to the back of her head was strong, painful, and for a moment the Queen of Death lost consciousness. She came to from another jolt of pain and pressure on her torso. Opening her surviving eye, she saw the human man sitting astride her. His face was twisted with fury and pain. His strong fingers, like steel clamps, gripped her neck, crushing her airway.
"Don't touch my people, you monster!" he roared in her face, yanking her head toward him. "Die! Die! Die!"
And then her head slammed hard against the floor. And again, and again, and again…
The Queen of Death's consciousness faded after the tenth blow, as she heard the crack of her own skull and the wet, squelching sounds when her head came down on the floor for the last time.
And then there was darkness and the unsatisfied desire to kill her enemies.
* * *
"Die! Die! Die!"
The animalistic cries and sounds of impact, accompanied by inhuman cracking and squelching, Emmagan had been hearing for the last thirty seconds. The young woman, thoroughly terrified, nevertheless didn't betray herself and didn't stop. Whatever was happening where she was heading, her sense of duty left no room for cowardice.
When Teyla reached the corridor adjacent to the second docking bay, she hesitated against her will. Just as Ihaar had said, she found three people here. And an enormous amount of blood. On the floor, on the walls, even on the ceiling.
Trebal was slumped against the wall, blood seeping from under her head. Next to her, like a broken doll, lay the Queen of Death, the murderer of her people. Though the only way to tell this was the sole Wraith on the mobile drilling platform was by the mutilated torso and legs. On top of her, unconscious, lay Mikhail, gripping the Wraith queen's neck in a steely hold. And above the neck…
Against her will, Teyla screamed, covering her mouth with her hand. Never in her life had she seen such a bloody nightmare. Not from Wraiths, and certainly not from humans.
"Teyla!" Alvar was beside her, grabbing her. If he hadn't, the Athosian woman would have collapsed, her legs giving out. "What's…?"
Alvar looked at the corridor, the bodies, squinted…
"Bloody hell!" he repeated with feeling the swear word Mikhail often muttered under his breath. "What happened here?! How is this even possible?!"
Kirik, who burst into the corridor with two pistols raised, froze like a statue, staring at the carnage. Teyla, unable to utter a word, trembled in horror at what was before her eyes. Kirik seemed to start reciting some prayer for protection from evil spirits. And Teyla would have joined him… if she could remember even one.
The Ancient technicians who arrived a second later reacted in a more human way. They started vomiting at the sight of the Queen of Death's crushed skull and the scattered pieces of her cranium and brains. And a second later, Teyla and Kirik joined them.
Only Alvar, fighting back his own gag reflex, rushed to the unconscious people, calling the chief engineer as he went. Whether any of the people involved in this slaughter could be saved, Teyla never managed to understand. She lost consciousness.