The Wraith soldiers advanced slowly.
And just as slowly, Teyla backed away.
The Wraiths didn't try to attack her, didn't try to feed on her. And the Athosian woman, though she was no coward, had completely forgotten that the Wraiths could and should be resisted.
Teyla had studied many combat techniques that her people had honed to perfection. But few of them were suitable for fighting against three opponents. And against the twenty who now filled the control room of the Hive Ship, not a single one was suitable.
The girl raised her weapon, aiming it at the nearest Wraith soldier. He didn't even flinch.
What's more, some of them didn't even have a stunner or a knife in their hands! They wanted to take her alive! And judging by the fact that not a single Wraith, as far as she could see, thought to touch the stunned Lanteans or Athosians, she wasn't the only one.
"The Demon planned to take the Ancients prisoner and bargain for concessions from the Scavenger. It seems that Smart One who prevented Ihaar from connecting to the ship also decided to execute a similar plan."
"Oh no, not this time."
The Athosian aimed her "Alash" at the head of the nearest Wraith. He didn't even flinch. They all just seemed to be trying to overwhelm her with their mass, which was completely illogical. They just slowly pressed in, as if...
The girl emptied her last magazine into the first rank of Wraiths. She fired from a distance of a couple of meters, where even if she had wanted to miss the soldier's head, she couldn't have.
Well, almost.
A dozen Wraiths in the first line and three in the second silently collapsed to the floor of the bridge and didn't get up. Well, of course — their heads were practically hollowed out into bowls. Ermen ammunition is merciless.
But the rest simply stepped over the corpses and kept pressing.
Teyla stepped back again, then again.
And so on until her back hit the throne for the Queen. Or chair?
The Wraiths began to surround her. They didn't just fill the space in front of her, but went around the chair, encircling her. And not a single cry, not a single loud sound that would indicate that other people had been hurt...
The Wraiths were so close she could have cut them all with a knife, since the ammunition was gone.
She switched her grip on the rifle and drove the stock straight into the mask of a soldier. He dutifully took the hit, but the second one simply blocked it. And the Wraith next to him tore the weapon from her hands.
Her attempt to use her pistol, grabbing it by the barrel and using the heavy grip for a stronger blow, also didn't succeed. The Wraiths simply tore the weapon from her hands.
She managed to fatally slash three of them, opening their throats, and slashed one's feeding hand, but this ended with her knife being predictably taken away. Then her second knife, but by then she had already killed five.
The Wraiths didn't care.
They literally stood on the corpses of their fallen brethren, staring at her as if she meant something.
And it scared her so much she couldn't imagine ever being so afraid before. The Wraiths are ruthless, even with important prisoners. They grab quickly and drag them to prison cells to...
A couple of Wraiths suddenly lunged forward, and the Athosian, lost in her thoughts, simply recoiled.
Forgetting what was behind her.
Her body tipped over, and Teyla fell onto the Hive Queen's throne.
A second, another, nothing happened as she, shocked, tried to understand how bad things really were...
And then it got very bad.
And very, very painful.
Unable to hold back, Teyla screamed with all the power in her lungs.
* * *
"Abomination!" the Senior Scientist hissed, looking at the data coming into the command center. "This is simply an abomination!"
He had more than once heard talk that once, two or three big harvests ago, one Wraith Smart One had decided to experiment on humans, injecting them with the DNA of his own people. For such stupidity he was executed, and his test subjects were either taken away or resettled among human worlds. Over time, without the admixture of Wraith blood, the implanted DNA was supposed to weaken and disappear.
But it seemed someone had severely miscalculated.
Lucky for him!
The Wraith purred with pleasure, ordering the soldiers to crowd the human female and force her to sit on the Queen's throne. There, neural channels connected to her, and he was able to properly analyze what was happening.
Distracted by the soldiers' "incorrect" behavior, this abomination couldn't resist the neural shunts that connected to her nervous system. Yes, it was wrong to use the Queen's property for researching the abomination, but the Queen was dead.
But this abomination could be useful... Very useful!
The Smart One glanced at the hyperdrive charge indicator. Almost ninety percent. Excellent!
Using his command code as the senior commander aboard the Hive Ship, he opened a communication channel with the ship he was interested in.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" the Scavenger measured him with an indifferent glance.
"I am the Senior Smart One from the Hive Ship that was under the Demon's control," the Wraith explained.
"Go on."
"The Demon discovered an old Ancient distress decoy in active state. And sent squads to check them..."
"Get to the point, Smart One," the Scavenger growled. "I'm losing patience."
"The Ancients tried to board our Hive," the Wraith scientist spoke quickly. "I outsmarted them and locked them on our ship."
"And you want a reward from me for the Ancients?" the Scavenger squinted.
"Only to serve you," the Senior Smart One grinned with an ingratiating smile. "Perhaps as the Chief Smart One in the biological sciences section of your mighty Hive... Of course, if the position is vacant, my future Commander."
"It is vacant," Deimos said after a moment's thought. "Where are you?"
"My Hive Ship is ready to depart to you at any moment..."
"I don't repeat myself twice, Smart One," Deimos said with a threat. "I'm waiting for an answer."
"I'm sending you our coordinates, Commander," the Senior Smart One transmitted the necessary data. "Furthermore, I wanted to say that along with the Ancients, I captured an abomination. The fruit of genetic experiments dating back centuries."
"What exactly is this abomination?"
"A human female with the DNA of our species," the Smart One paused, waiting for a reaction.
"Truly an abomination," the Scavenger agreed. "Kill her."
"Certainly, Commander," the Senior Smart One assured. "But I discovered that this female is capable of establishing a mental connection with our soldiers. If we work on her properly, we will have a suitable incubator for soldiers, thereby relieving your Queen of this burden..."
The Scavenger thought for a while.
"Colossal genome modifications will be required," he pronounced. "This proposal is immoral..." the Senior Smart One froze, stunned by the tone of his new Commander. If even the Scavenger didn't support his idea, he would simply be killed upon arrival. "But it might work. We need many soldiers, and the Queens are unable to produce them in large batches simultaneously and frequently without harm to themselves. Your option might work, my Magister of Biological Sciences."
The former Senior Smart One of the Hive experienced something akin to ecstasy upon hearing the praise. Not as blissful as if a Queen had caressed him with the touch of her mind, but the latter rarely allowed anyone to receive such a favor.
"Lock up the prisoners and place enhanced guards on them," Commander Styx ordered. Now it was exactly that. "My fleet will arrive to you as soon as possible. By then, prepare your ship and fix all the damage. My plan requires every combat-ready starship. And," the face of Commander Styx on the screen drew closer, "don't you dare fail me, Magister of Biological Sciences."
"Never, my Commander," the Smart One bowed respectfully.
When the image of his new Commander of his new Hive disappeared from the monitor, the Senior Smart One approached another console to make sure his words were accurate. One group of Ancients was locked in the prison cell, a second was barely holding out in the hangars, a third, the most numerous, was blocked and now already defeated. Same as the group on the bridge. There was very little left, he just needed to fix what the Ancient Smart One had done to his system, and isolate the abomination's consciousness. Now she no longer needed to be connected to the ship's network — he had gotten everything he wanted from her thanks to the ship's mind.
And the hyperdrive had now accumulated enough energy to transfer her to recovery in other parts. The jump was no longer needed and...
With a crunch that couldn't be real, since it indicated fractures in the bony ribs that formed the basis for the membranes of the internal bulkheads...
It took him two seconds to understand what was happening. Grabbing his stun pistol, he spun around...
Only to have his weapon leave his hand, breaking his fingers. A backhand to the face broke his nose. But that was nothing. The Wraith lunged at the woman who had invaded the command center, but without unnecessary words or movements, she intercepted his weapon hand and broke his wrist with a sharp motion.
Jerking the Wraith, who hadn't been particularly skilled in fighting anyway, towards her, she punched him in the throat, crushing his larynx and trachea.
Maybe the Wraiths didn't need to eat the same garbage as their human cattle, but breathing? Yes. They definitely needed to breathe. And with a crushed throat, that was very difficult.
But no matter, he had fed recently and his regeneration...
It seemed the woman with blazing red eyes, unnatural for a simple human animal, knew perfectly well about his regeneration.
Because she stood over the fallen Wraith and crushed his kneecaps with vertical stomps of her heavy boots. The Wraith wheezed. Not from pain — pain is familiar when you're almost a thousand years old. Even such sharp and strong pain from atypical body damage...
And then the woman in the gray uniform simply tore off both his hands, after which she delicately bandaged the bleeding wrists. And she performed the exact same procedure on his feet.
Regrowing such damage would be impossible even if he had his full reserve of life force. The most he could do was try to somehow restore his feeding hand. For example, if he applied it to the damaged wrist, it would take much less energy for it to reattach...
The strange and terrifying human woman tried to cause maximum damage to his severed stumps by stomping on them. Then, grabbing the Wraith by his regenerated throat, she threw him out into the bridge corridor.
Falling onto the deck, the newly appointed Magister of Biological Sciences saw in horror the torn bodies of his guards. Twenty Wraith soldiers had been destroyed so quickly that they made neither noise nor shot.
"Who are you?" the Smart One asked, as the terrifying woman, now with blue glowing eyes, grabbed him by the stump of his leg and dragged him somewhere. Judging by the corridors, she navigated the Hive Ship perfectly and was heading straight for the bridge.
Purposefully and silently.
With the same terrifying silence, awakening unreal scientific curiosity, she had killed all the soldiers who were holding the abomination on the bridge and had already moved the captured Ancients to the food storage chambers.
All twenty-eight elite Wraith soldiers.
Without weapons.
She simply tore them to pieces.
* * *
The feeling upon waking was specific.
."..tchy cats," I muttered, trying to get rid of the taste in my mouth characteristic of every morning-after-drinking wake-up. Body aches and nausea came as a package deal. Obviously given as a bonus for being stunned by Wraith stunners. "What the...? Oh, no..."
Warm, cozy, a little damp, no feeling of hunger? Seems pleasant and comfortable, right? Yes. But not when you're lying in one of the food storage chambers aboard a Hive Ship.
Chambers for holding humans.
Vertical, and tilted slightly back, they resembled a coffin about two and a half meters long. The role of the lid was played by an organic and frankly disgusting-to-the-touch membrane, as if woven from several intestines, tendons, and membranes, preventing the body from falling out. Not to mention that it prevents you from getting out of this thing.
"Shit," I grumbled, sticking my face through a small window in the organic matter to look around. I couldn't see much. A corridor, along the wall of which was a long row of such chambers. And I was right in the middle. To the left, all the chambers were empty, but people had clearly been there — shreds of organic matter were still hanging. Which doesn't form if there was no one in the chamber. But if a person was put there...
To my right was a good dozen chambers, in which I could see the faces of Athosians from my squad. And the person closest to me...
"Ihaar!" I hissed at the Ancient. But he remained unconscious. "Iha-a-a-ar!"
No emotion.
"Well, great..." I held back, realizing the guy wasn't to blame at all. He was stunned, and I didn't know the time difference between the shots that hit us. Not to mention that we could have been hit by a different number of charges... Well, I guess the stun time would be different too. "I need to get out of here."
A search of my pockets yielded nothing.
No weapon, no knife, no shield... Nothing at all! Oh, wait! The fucking Ancients' nutrition bar! Good God, why did they take everything except you? Don't tell me the Wraiths also know you're a piece of shit?
When they come back — I'll offer them a bar to snack on, instead of me.
Sigh... We were on our way to success, and then this...
Footsteps sounded in the corridor to the right, adjacent to ours. Well, hello Peter. And goodbye.
Closing my eyes, I pretended to be asleep. That way I'd have a chance to attack suddenly after being cut out of the chamber. I hope they cut me out, rather than feed through this organic abomination.
No, guys, Slavs don't surrender without a fight.
The footsteps approached. It seemed there was only one Wraith. And, as I guessed, they stopped in front of me. There was the sound of tearing organic matter, my body leaned forward and was carefully taken into caring hands... Well, you asked for it.
Taking advantage of the fact that I was still hanging on the Wraith's right arm, I quickly swung my leg behind his, pushing with my whole body for a trip. Gotcha, bitch! Physics is a real bitch, taste gravity, you piece of shi...
"Saya?!" I gaped, staring into her glowing blue eyes.
"Commander," the cyborg girl lay on the deck, I lay on top of the cyborg girl, we looked at each other and... Cyberpunk awkwardness, I guess.
"Well, I'm glad it's you and not the Wraiths," I said, getting to my feet. I extended a hand and helped the cyborg up... Heavy lady. "We need to free the others and get the hell out while we have a chance."
"Get the hell out?" she repeated, tilting her head.
"Yeah," I hissed, approaching Ihaar's chamber. "We're leaving the ship. Grab everyone we can carry before the Wraith come."
"Why should the Wraith come?" the cyborg kept pressing. But, to give credit where it's due. Even though her whole uniform was drenched in Wraith blood, the girl talked and worked, tearing at Ihaar's organic bonds.
"We were taken prisoner, we're on their ship, unarmed, and all that."
"All that," the cyborg girl confirmed, pulling Ihaar from the capsule's captivity.
"That's what I'm saying," I gave up, having failed to tear a single organic pleura. I asked, "Got a knife?"
"Of course. Don't you?"
"Funny," I acknowledged the joke she didn't get. And I began carving the Athosian out of the trap. "Did you see anyone else from our team? Teyla, Alvar, Kaspar, Kirik?"
"Teyla is unconscious in the command room, Alvar is there in the same state. Kaspar Fry and Officer Kirik are controlling the return of the Wraiths to the stasis chambers."
"The fuck...?" The knife easily cut through the organic matter, and the stunned Athosian collapsed onto me. Thanks to Saya for whooping my ass (and not just that) in virtual reality. My reflexes had improved. So had my stability on decks.
Catching the man, I carefully lowered him to the floor.
"Again. The Wraiths are going back into stasis chambers?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Teyla ordered them to."
"When?"
"When I killed the Wraiths on the bridge. And then in the hangar. And another fifteen in the engine bay. All those who didn't obey her orders and didn't return to the stasis pods," she stated as if it were a matter of fact. "The Senior Smart One is also in a stasis chamber. I took him prisoner for subsequent interrogation."
"So... Wait, I can't wrap my head around it," I massaged my temples. "The Hive Ship is ours?"
"The Hive Ship was created by the Wraiths," said the cyborg. "Humans don't have bio-technology at that level."
"For fuck's sake... the augmentics! We control this ship?"
"It is currently under the control of Captain Larrin. She is on the bridge."
"How long was I out?"
"Twenty-seven minutes and six seconds."
"And... in that time you..."
"I killed three hundred and eleven Wraiths."
"What a good girl," I said, completely dumbfounded. "And... Where were we supposed to take these people?"
"To the hangar," the cyborg reported. "They're being loaded onto the jumpers and sent to Atlantis for recovery."
"Did we lose many?"
"Seven Athosians the Wraiths managed to feed on," the girl said, shifting the unconscious body of Ihaar from one shoulder to the other without any apparent effort. "We need to hurry."
"Then why are you doing this alone?"
"The others are busy working on the Hive Ship. There are certain problems with synchronization and control of the starship. Captain Larrin can give you more details. I think you need to return to command. You weren't taken out of this chamber to avoid convulsive syndrome from multiple hits by Wraith stunners."
"Of course," I muttered, looking at the Athosian. "I'll head straight to the bridge, just let me help you drag this guy..."
"I can manage," the cyborg, with Ihaar on one shoulder, squatted next to the Athosian, grabbed him by the belt with one hand, then threw him over her other shoulder. "You urgently need to report to the bridge of the Hive Ship."
Now that's a... machine. She'd walk into a burning Atlantis and stop a Wraith mid-pounce... And, I think if necessary, she'd literally do it.
"Well, I'd better get going," I muttered. "Just show me the way..."
* * *
"Finally," Larrin said instead of a greeting, glancing at me, tearing herself away from whatever Nevik, a scientist in Kaspar Fry's group, was explaining to her while referencing data on his tablet. "Maybe you can kick her out of here."
"Who are you talking about?" I asked.
But, seeing the direction the Nomad was pointing, I saw Teyla, pale as death.
The girl was sitting on the deck, leaning against a throne that looked disgusting even to the eye. She was trembling slightly, her gaze unfocused.
"Teyla?" I crouched down in front of her.
In the dim light and from a distance, it wasn't visible... But noticing the piece of her shirt soaked in blood clenched in her fingers, white-knuckled, I saw poorly wiped traces of blood under her nose.
Following a hunch, I pushed her hair aside, baring her neck and the side of her head. As I thought, blood was also coming from her ears. So profusely that it had seeped into her clothes. Damn darkness, you think it's a shadow, but it turns out to be a bloodstain.
"Teyla?" I gently tapped her cheek to get her attention.
It helped, her unfocused gaze focused on me.
"Mikhail," a slight smile touched her lips. "I'm glad you're alright."
"Yeah, but you're not," I noticed. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"I can't," the girl whispered.
"And why not?" I asked.
"Power drop in sector six!" Ihaar announced.
"The main power plant is reducing energy output," one of the technicians fiddling with another Wraith console echoed him. "Engine restoration has stopped..."
"Engines?" I repeated, looking at Larrin.
"Well, excuse me," she made an indignant face and threw up her hands. "How was I supposed to know you had your own little slaughterhouse going on here? We saw the Hive Ship start to accelerate and prepare for a jump. So we hit the stern..."
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"Half the engines are gone," Teyla said quietly. "And the hyperdrive too. Breaches in all major sections, the main reactor is damaged, but it's gradually recovering using the secondary ones."
"Larrin!"
"Oh, go ahead and scold me for stopping this ship from fleeing into an unknown part of the galaxy!"
"Larrin!"
"Ask Teyla — that Wraith used an emergency code and you would have gone into hyperspace as soon as he..."
"Larrin," I said, softer this time. "Thank you." I looked around at those present and added, "Thank you all. You saved us."
"Oh..." The Nomad was slightly embarrassed. Or maybe it was just the lighting. "So that's what you wanted to say. You're welcome."
"Absolutely," I confirmed, sliding my hands under Teyla to lift her as carefully as possible. "Contact the hangar. We need to get to Atlantis immediately."
"We can't," Teyla said. "The Hive Ship... I have to stay... It's... scared... In pain... It needs a Queen to fly again... It needs me..."
"I can stun her," Larrin offered, approaching me. "That's what we wanted to do, but without her, we couldn't start a single primary system."
"We should have ditched this scrap metal and left," I said bitterly. "We're not going to intercept the Superhive in time anyway. I don't know what she's done to herself, but bleeding from every orifice is not normal."
"I'd make a joke about the difference between boys and girls, but I'll keep quiet," Larrin said. "Teyla volunteered herself, because when that Wraith scientist that Saya crippled connected her to the Queen's chair, she ended up linked to the ship's brain, or computer. When they disconnected her, Teyla said the Smart One contacted the Scavenger. And he's on his way here."
"We'll talk later about the proper sequence for delivering important news," I promised. "Do we know what we're up against?"
"Ares' scanners show at least ten ships — cruisers, hives, and the Superhive, of course."
"Shit," I spat, looking at Teyla's eyes rolling back. "Where the hell did he get them all, that hunched-over bastard."
"Looks like he recruited however he could," Larrin said. "Trebal and I decided this was the best way to resolve the situation. The Hippaforalkus is already moving here at maximum acceleration. Asan and Labrea are squeezing everything they can out of their ships, but there's little chance they'll make it in time. Only if we finish off the stragglers... So we decided that restoring the Hive Ship would be a suitable idea. Even if just as a moving target..."
"Trebal's battleship doesn't have the power to get here in time," I realized. "Teyla's going to fall into a coma soon from contact with the Hive... Strange that Chaya didn't talk you out of this madness."
"Speaking of which," Larrin inhaled, stopping abruptly in the middle of the corridor and looking me in the eye. "Promise you won't kill her. Neither her nor Trebal. I haven't taken either side, but I think you'd better show a little patience."
"I don't like the way this is starting... What's going on?"
"Well... She's a little... Let's just say..." It was the first time I'd seen Larrin at a loss for words. "Chaya's been a bit of a handful."