"Queen," Chaya said, her voice quiet but firm.
For a moment, the girl was surprised at how calm she was in this situation.
"Ancient," the Wraith Queen's lips twitched, baring her teeth in a snarl of disgust and rage.
"Well, now we've met," Chaya said, stepping to the side, away from the cave entrance. But she didn't take her eyes off the Queen, didn't look down at her feet. Her peripheral vision was enough to keep her from tripping or missing a beat.
Their eyes continued to bore into each other, but neither crossed the invisible line that held them both back from attacking.
"What are you doing here?" the Queen asked. "Your people fell in battle against mine many thousands of years ago."
"I'm resilient," Chaya said. "And just so you know — if you twitch, I'll burn a hole through you, and a chunk of this cave along with you."
The girl's finger touched the power regulator on her weapon. Now, she really would burn a hole through her.
"I mean you no harm," the Queen was young. Pale blue skin, small breasts, but a womanly formed body. Interesting — could they even be children? "Not to you, nor to anyone else."
"Tell that to the people who come here for healing," Chaya hissed. "The picture is coming together now. A Wraith ship. A Bride who can heal heart defects... Reverse Feeding?"
"You know much about my people," the Queen said, her eyes never leaving Chaya's as she slowly paced along the cave. To assess the safety of the place, Chaya was scanning the entire cave with a narrow, directed beam. So far, she'd found nothing that indicated hiding spots or weapons right here. But the caves below her were very, very unsettling.
What unsettled her even more was the second life-sign mark on the scanner. A second mark in the caves. Barely ten meters from where they were.
"How many of you are here?" Chaya asked. "How many survived the shipwreck?"
"Are you planning to kill us?" the Queen stood still, but followed Chaya with her eyes.
"I haven't decided yet," Chaya admitted. "Have the second one come out. Unarmed."
The girl positioned herself so she could shoot the Wraith the moment he appeared from the side corridor. The light filtering into the cave was enough to tell whether the guest would be armed or not.
The Wraiths had nothing that could immediately punch through her shield. So even if she missed, her second shot would definitely finish them off. Both Wraiths.
"No," the Queen said.
"You're going to argue with someone holding a pulse rifle?" Chaya asked. "Don't be foolish. You may be young, but not so young that you don't know what Lantian weapons can do."
"Only from stories," the Queen stated. "Nothing more."
"Then you understand the danger if you don't do what I say. Have them come out. Now!"
The Queen seemed to hesitate. Her eyes darted, her gaze going slightly out of focus...
"Nope," the girl drawled. "Try using your mental tricks on me again, and I'll kill you."
"Your mind is closed to me," the Queen said, stunned. "But... how? I was told that even the Lantians didn't have absolute protection..."
"Maybe you're just weak?" the scientist suggested, trying to provoke the Queen into talking. She had no intention of mentioning the Wraith mental ability blocker sitting in her backpack. "That's why you can't do anything."
"I am young, but not weak," the Queen said thoughtfully. "It must be some kind of device..."
Chaya just glanced at her scanner, panicking slightly as the second point moved toward her rapidly. And then the first one twitched too...
But neither of them approached the Ancient.
The Queen stepped between her and whoever had come running from the side tunnel.
It took a colossal effort for Chaya Sar not to pull the trigger. Or rather, not to squeeze it past the slack.
Now, exhaling slowly, she relaxed her index finger, her gaze fixed on the scene before her.
A boy, about five years old, dressed in the same simple clothes as the children in the settlement, was hiding behind the Queen's legs, peeking out fearfully from behind her thigh. His long white hair fell over his shoulders, and although the Queen was trying to shove the little boy behind her with her hand, she couldn't hide the most important thing.
"A child?" Chaya's voice wavered.
She wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger and destroy the Queen, a soldier, or any other adult Wraith. But a child...
The boy was clearly afraid of her, pressing against the Queen and hugging her knees. At one point, the redhead pried his hand from her leg and tried to push that behind her too... A few seconds of struggle, but Chaya saw it.
"Where's his feeding appendage?" she asked, not seeing the vertical slit on the boy's right palm. Apart from his pale skin and characteristic pupils, in every other way, he was a normal boy. A human boy. "What did you do to the child? What kind of experiments?"
"No experiments, Ancient," the young Queen's voice wavered... with fear and concern. "This child is my son."
"Well, shit," Chaya thought.
* * *
In that moment, when the Wraith shot one of her group members, leaving her with only one companion, Teyla knew it was now or never.
"Misha!" she shouted.
"I'm almost empty!" he replied. The girl noticed the Athosian covering the human, rummaging through the vest pockets of his stunned fellow for ammunition.
"I have two more magazines!" Ihaar, who had also joined the firefight, took cover behind a console, pulling a magazine for his Alash from his vest. "Mikhail!"
"One minute!" the Lantian leader threw his last grenade into the corridor and ducked behind the wall. Catching the thrown magazine with one hand, he slammed it into the receiver of his rifle.
Teyla did the same, but she knew their time was running out.
The Wraith advanced forward, ignoring their losses. Yes, when the corridor was already blocked by a pile of downed soldiers, they slowed down, giving the people a chance to catch their breath and replenish their ammo.
But literally everything was running out.
Energy cells for the Frequency Guns, crystals for the Lantian pulse rifles, ammunition for the Ermen rifles and pistols. Teyla was already afraid of slipping on the spent shell casings.
How many Wraith they'd killed, only the Ancients knew, but they just kept coming.
Silently, like a ghost, a Wraith appeared right in the doorway the moment Mikhail was reloading. With a sweep of his arm, he knocked the Athosian aside and grabbed the Lantian by the chest.
Mikhail punched the soldier in the jaw, then jumped up just as the soldier raised his hand to feed. He immediately brought his forearm down on the soldier's face mask, knocking him to the ground. Teyla raised her weapon to finish him off, but Mikhail had already driven a knife into the soldier's neck and, with a swift motion, severed his carotid artery. Black blood sprayed everywhere.
The soldier fell, but another took his place, hitting Mikhail with a stunner, then firing at Ihaar as he tried to attack...
Both men collapsed to the floor. The Athosian, distracted by the commotion, was also hit by a stunner, and Wraith flooded the control room. Teyla felt their triumph at victory, their joy at the feeding to come...
She screamed in horror as she saw a Wraith rip open the armor vest and then the jacket on Mikhail's chest, raise his hand for the strike that preceded feeding...
Her scream was a shriek, pain, despair, fear, terror, disbelief at what was happening. Everything she felt in that moment — she poured it all into that scream.
Into a scream, and something more.
The soldier about to feed on Mikhail suddenly stopped. As did the other Wraith soldiers nearby.
"Stop!" she shouted, pouring all her strength into that single word. Physical, emotional, mental.
And the Wraith soldiers froze.
They turned their faceless masks in bewilderment toward the girl crying out in helplessness, as if looking at some strange creature.
This lasted for exactly one second, long enough for Teyla to feel a flicker of hope that she might have prevented the irreversible.
Then the soldiers moved toward her.
* * *
Chaya couldn't hear the Queen's thoughts, but her appearance was enough to understand. The girl tensed, trying to gather her thoughts.
A Wraith child? Without a feeding appendage? How did he even survive? How had they both survived? Where were the sensory slits on his cheeks... Ah, there they were, barely visible.
Or was this something else?
The redhead was afraid. So afraid she was starting to tremble. Even her sharp fangs chattered slightly, not quite meeting.
And it clearly wasn't because the icy wind from the sea was blowing into the cave.
The Wraith child shivered.
"I beg for mercy," the Queen's voice trembled with anxiety and fear. "I don't want to fight or cause pain. If you want to kill me — kill me, but not in front of him. All I want is to say goodbye to him."
"Why?"
"To give him guidance," the Queen said. "So he can live the way we've lived until now. He's too young to regenerate or feed. He won't harm anyone for many years. Please — don't kill him."
"As if I could," Chaya almost wailed in despair.
Images of Dorandan flashed before her eyes — the city being destroyed and burned by the transparent yellow energy of the Arcturus project. Men, women, young and old... Children... She blamed herself most of all for the children.
Tiny particles of life that never learned simple truths, never made their first life mistakes, never built their first reactor...
Children she had killed.
Innocent children.
Like this little one, who had the misfortune of being born a Wraith. Who wasn't to blame for his biology, his very essence. He had never harmed anyone, never fed, never hunted, never killed...
He was a Wraith, an enemy of humans, but... he was a child.
"Well, shit," the Proculucian screamed in her head.
Her throat began to ache — a clear sign she was about to cry. Can't-can't-can't! Not here, not in front of the Queen!
"What is going on here?" she hissed. "What is a Wraith doing here? And where's the weapon?"
Panic flickered in the Queen's eyes.
"The Hyperion weapon," her lips trembled. "Y-you came for it?"
"I don't even know what Ori I'm doing here anymore!" the scientist wanted to scream, but she had to hold herself together.
It had cost her too much effort to find her way here.
All she'd had at the very beginning were Koschei's words. In a bout of tenderness toward Celise, he had told her that the first Wraith had stolen a weapon from the Lantians — one capable of exterminating them. And they had fled to a planet with orbital gates, where some of them had hidden that weapon.
And the mollusks... Here, they had found mollusks, which they later used to start building their technology.
Well, not from the mollusks themselves exactly — the DNA of the cruiser and transport ship contained only a small fragment of the DNA of an unknown mollusk that lived only on this planet. Apparently, the first Wraith had also gained access to the gate database and planetary surveys, which is why they came here and used mollusks with incredible radiation resistance, regeneration, energy conductivity, and...
Or they just got incredibly lucky.
One of the assumptions was correct. And which one was right would determine the answer to the question — how old was the Wraith race?
Chaya assumed that since the Ancients favored only their specific descendants — and from Mikhail's stories, that's exactly how it was — they had definitely done or were doing everything to ensure their legacy eventually fell into the hands of the "rightful heirs." And, since they believed their plan was still working, they would try to stop her if she was on the right track to finding the doomsday weapon.
And that's exactly what happened.
She had played on her own limitations, and the Ascended hadn't accounted for her ability to do her homework. Nor for the fact that she had...
"I came here because of it," Chaya said firmly. After a moment's thought, she holstered her weapon, deactivating her shield with a mental command for the duration of the action. "But not to use it."
The Queen looked surprised.
Her pale, bluish eyebrow arched.
"Who are you?" she asked in a tone full of curiosity. And respect. She would hardly have met an armed person who wouldn't have started shooting at the first sight of a Wraith. Especially if they knew what they were facing.
"My name is Chaya Sar," the Proculucian introduced herself.
The young Queen shook her head. She seemed even more surprised...
"You gave me your name," the Queen said. "I thought you'd call yourself something else."
"Because Wraiths don't give their names to strangers?" Chaya clarified, wondering if she'd done the right thing.
Yes, by the Ori, it was right! Because she knew — she couldn't kill a child. Even if it was a Wraith.
And she couldn't kill this Wraith. This specific Wraith, whom the people above didn't seem to hate. They weren't even Wraith worshippers, because they weren't shy about talking about their "masters." And this place was clearly supposed to have a whole planet of worshippers if they came here for healing.
"Correct," the Queen seemed to relax, seeing that, at least for now, they weren't going to be killed. She shook her head again, her long red hair half-hiding the child. "I was told that the Ancients kill us at every opportunity. I've seen it. You are different."
"Yes, I'm a bit cracked," a nervous laugh escaped Chaya's lips. "Wait a minute... How could you have seen Lantian cruelty if you have the white-blue skin of a young Wraith? You're far too young to have such knowledge!"
"My name is Alabaster," the Queen gave a slight bow of respect. "Here I am called the Bride of the Lord of the Dead. I am the Keeper of this Sanctuary. And I am of the Osprey line."
"That doesn't tell me much," Chaya admitted. "Especially the name of your line. I'm... not exactly a Wraith specialist."
"I can see that," a timid smile appeared on the Queen's lips.
Meanwhile, the silent child shifted his gaze from one woman to the other. Then he tugged slightly at her dress.
"Mother, I'm scared. This woman frightens me."
"And I haven't even told her what I did in my past life," Chaya thought. "Wonderful. Chaya Sar, the one Wraith children are frightened of. So do we win."
"It's alright, child," the Queen stroked the boy's head.
"Child?" Chaya repeated. "Doesn't he have a name?"
"He is too young to receive one," the Queen explained. "And, since you don't wish to end our lives right now, tell me: what do you need the Hyperion weapon for?"
Her yellow eyes were unreadable, assessing, but her train of thought was visible on her face. Curiosity warring with fear.
"I've made many mistakes that cost millions of lives," Chaya admitted. "And all with the best of intentions. The Hyperion weapon, as you call it... It's supposed to kill all Wraiths, isn't it?"
"It works by destroying the mind, burning everything our abilities touch, everything that carries our genetic code, leaving nothing behind but a mindless body," Alabaster said carefully.
So, that meant ships, bases, structures, tools, Wraiths, their beacons... and Teyla, Kanaan, and the thousands of people who had been the result of that mad scientist Wraith's experiments.
Thousands of strangers who simply had the misfortune of being born with that DNA.
"How do you know that?" Chaya asked.
The Queen slowly, clearly so as not to trigger any nervous reactions, touched her temple.
"The memories of Osprey," she explained, as if it were obvious. "She hid the weapon here. My people searched for it for thousands and thousands of years, to destroy it."
"Is that why you ended up here?"
The redhead shook her head.
"My mother's ship was attacked," she said. "We broke off the pursuit but were shipwrecked. I managed to escape, and I've been living here ever since, I gave birth to a son..."
"How long has it been since then?"
"Almost twenty years," the Queen replied.
"But he's not even ten yet!" Chaya exclaimed, looking at the child. "No, don't tell me there was a human man who..."
The Queen looked puzzled, then laughed.
"His father is a Wraith," she said. "But Wraith children grow slowly. He looks young and is young in mind. I can see you want to ask, but you're hesitating. No, he does not feed on humans. The villagers bring fruit as offerings, and that's what he eats."
"And you?" Chaya suddenly tensed. Fool! She'd let her guard down! This was a Wraith, for fuck's sake!
"I made a pact with the people above," Alabaster said. "The Reverse Feeding you mentioned. It exists to sustain..."
"Your kin and followers," Chaya said, fighting the urge to draw her weapon. "She's a Wraith in front of you, you fool! Kill her!"
"You know much about my people," Alabaster acknowledged.
"I have a consultant," Chaya said with a strained smile.
"A captive Wraith?"
"Reverse Feeding," Chaya reminded her.
The red-haired Queen obediently bowed her head.
"People come here with those who are ill," she explained. "Truly ill. Deadly diseases, congenital illnesses, infections they can't cure."
"But you can."
"Not all," the Queen shook her head. "But when I can, I offer a deal. The one who asks for intercession gives me a part of their life. Just enough so I can restore the person they're pleading for, and keep a little for myself."
"And since there are many of them, even if you take a year or two extra from each one, you still come out ahead," Chaya understood.
The Queen was using these people. She had effectively made them dependent on her. They probably worshipped her on a religious level, essentially being her followers. But she was smart enough to understand that she couldn't leave the planet, so wiping out the people would be stupid. But pulling something like this...
Yes, this way she could stay here for generations, never aging, teaching her little one, all without arousing the locals' disgust.
A very pragmatic lady.
Chaya felt disgust. But not toward Alabaster. Toward her past self. Who had done the same... just to save her own.
And the Wraith Queen was doing exactly the same thing — buying time, protecting her child. Just as...
Chaya forcibly pushed the thought away.
"I want to see the weapon."
"What for?" Alabaster asked with the same wariness.
"An alliance is forming against my people," Chaya admitted reluctantly. "An ancient Wraith, the consort of the Queen of Death, is building an alliance to destroy the remnants of the Ancients. My..." she hesitated, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted to say.
"Blade Commander?" Alabaster clarified. "The commander of your hive?"
"I don't have a hive," Chaya grimaced. "My people were exterminated by yours."
"But not by me," Alabaster said. "I've been here for twenty-one years. And before that, I never encountered any worlds inhabited by the Ancients."
"Proculus," Chaya explained. "I'm from Proculus."
"I am not familiar with that world," Alabaster said.
"You wouldn't be. The Wraith cleansed it about six months ago. They gathered every person in my world."
"How stupid," Alabaster grimaced.
"Feeding on people is stupid in general."
"It is our nature," the Queen grimaced. "And the memory of Osprey tells me that we did not choose to become this. Your people made us what we are."
"But not me," said Chaya.
"Not you," Alabaster confirmed. "Too young to be one of the Fighters."
Chaya gave a bitter smirk.
"Who are the Fighters?"
"The Lantians," Alabaster said, baring her teeth. "They made us this way. And then they wanted to exterminate us. Osprey and the other First Wraiths realized the threat and fled. They killed the Lantian, Hyperion, who created all of this, seized the weapon that was supposed to destroy us all, and ran as far from that world as they could. They came here to hide…"
"Because they knew there were no humans here?" Chaya clarified.
"That I don't know," Alabaster admitted. "But they wanted to hide the weapon where the Ancients would never find it. And they wanted to run even farther. Live on ships, always moving, avoiding contact with Lantians…"
Ironic that in the end, that fate fell to one of the human races, the Nomads. Ironic and cruel. The Lantians — what you really were…
"You said you've killed many," Alabaster continued. "You are a strong queen."
"Queen?" Chaya panicked. She instinctively glanced at her own right palm. No, there was no feeding organ there. "I'm not a queen…"
"But you are a woman," the redhead said, surprised. "Women always guide men. And they always save them from foolishness. Your husband decided to wage war against the Wraith threatening you. And you came here for a weapon that would guarantee your victory. Only a wise queen acts so selflessly."
"Or a fool," Chaya thought to herself with sadness and honest self-assessment.
"I know Lantean technology well enough, especially if it concerns mass destruction," Chaya admitted. "Regardless of whether the mass murder was planned from the start or is a side effect. And whatever Hyperion may have invented, I seriously doubt it works the way it's supposed to."
"But you need a weapon," Alabaster pressed on.
"I need anything that will help us win," Chaya sighed. "But… You said Hyperion's weapon kills everything that has Wraith DNA?"
"Osprey thought so. I doubt she considered it that dangerous for no reason."
"A few generations ago, a Wraith scientist decided to make humans 'tastier,'" Chaya shared. "And spliced Wraith DNA into them. Those people are in danger now too, even though they don't know it. If the weapon is activated, there will be deaths on both sides."
"And you don't want that?"
"I don't believe it works, but I do believe it can be used to scare one of the Ancient Wraiths, who definitely knows what it is."
"I don't think he knows it personally," Alabaster shook her head. "If he's the husband of the Queen of Death, then he's from the Death lineage. They weren't allowed access to the secret of the weapon's location — only the Osprey line was."
"But he knows such a weapon exists?"
"Yes, of course. All the First know it exists, what it looks like, and what it's meant for. But… there are almost no First left."
"Right, and we have one in prison while another flies around on a Superhive," Chaya thought.
"I need it," said Chaya.
"For a threat, not to kill all the Wraiths?" Alabaster clarified.
"I already told you," Chaya sighed. "I don't believe it works. And if it does, not the way it should. Neither I nor my… hive," she found the right word for Atlantis, "are aiming for total genocide. We don't intend to wage war, but at the same time, we don't plan on becoming victims either."
"And after?" Alabaster asked. "After you repel the attack, scare them off? What do you intend to do with Hyperion's weapon?"
"I don't know," Chaya admitted. "Anything except use it."
She had no intention of revealing that she was by no means a Lantian and couldn't possibly understand a mechanism older than she could fathom. But on the other hand… Why not keep this weapon on Atlantis, as a scare tactic against the Wraiths? They don't know it might never work.
Alabaster pondered for a while, then leaned toward the boy and quietly said something to him. He, clearly delighted by his mother's attention, smiled and ran off into the cave corridor.
"What did you tell him?" Chaya asked, worried.
"I told him to go play in his cave," Alabaster explained. "Come, I'll take you to Hyperion's weapon."