HONOR--An Atlantis scientist meets the Wraiths. Up close.

[Laura Dove]

I didn't do much writing, except to plan the next episode, however I do have a surprise. I hope you like it.
Elena (in the dress given to her by the Commander on his ship) and the Commander himself.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/...06050bff_o.jpg

It's lovely! Heh, Elena has good tastes when it comes to wraith: This Commander looks darn good!

[MCH]

I didn't do much writing, except to plan the next episode, however I do have a surprise. I hope you like it.

Elena (in the dress given to her by the Commander on his ship) and the Commander himself.

Spoiler:

Beautiful picture and it nice to put faces to the names. It is a lovely picture. Thank you.

Your Commander looks how I thought. Drop dead gorgeous!!!!!
Plus he got good taste in Elene, it just that the penny not dropped yet for him of how important she is to him.

"It is better to have loved than not love at all" I wonder if the Wraith Commander will ever realise that. - That's a human speaking but a Wraith would see it differently.

MCH

[MCH]

LOL! I kind of lean towards the last statement. It would be so... arrogantly Wraith.

As I write about those two, there's always this hum in my ear about how they feel when they see her. So far, they certainly come off as ambivalent (spelling?)about it.

Ambivalent comes from Ambiguity:- The state or quality of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty of the signification of events or a person.

To my mind they look at Elena both with suspiction and a certain level of fascination.

"Yes we wouldn't existed without HER.....but but but she HUMAN"..

MCH

[keeperofthehive]

I didn't do much writing, except to plan the next episode, however I do have a surprise. I hope you like it.

Elena (in the dress given to her by the Commander on his ship) and the Commander himself.

Spoiler:

You've captured the scene perfectly! (Or should i say that your writing described it perfectly?) The Commander looks as if he is not sure what he has gotten himself into with Elena.

[MCH]

You've captured the scene perfectly! (Or should i say that your writing described it perfectly?) The Commander looks as if he is not sure what he has gotten himself into with Elena.

Oooooohooo

Spoiler:

Well he not dealing with your average Wraith Queen here with typical Wraith Queen behaviour. So a brand new experience and he's made some mistakes male ideas about female mistakes!!!!.

Elene is human with human ideas he have seen those ideas in her mind when took he took the DNA from her. He may have theought he understood her but he doesn't hence the fact he is wondering what he going to happen next look in the picture.

MCH

[Traveler64]

I've been delinquent in thanking everyone for the great comments on my attempt to provide a visualization of the Commander--yes, he's drop dead gorgeous in my mind; a gorgeous Wraith; I'm so weird...

Thank you for the greens--Naam, Laura, Masterling.

MCH--always with wonderful comments and compliments and always with great ideas

I am glad that I was able to convey in my picture the Commander's 'what the heck have I got here' kind of look. I just painted it without much forethought, but apparently that's what came out.

And now the amazing part--over 10,000 visitors to this thread! if only 10 percent bothered to read it... WOW. I am stunned. The Wraith sure attract, don't they? Drop dead gorgeous, that's why.

So, thank you everyone, those who've made me a gift of their comments and praises and thoughts, and those who just read and moved on.

[Lonely Goldfish]

Well it is easy to see why your page got so many people. It's a great fan fic, with stunning charactors. Also; you don't describe your wraith as flat un-developed creatures that only wish to feed on the first moving thing in their "tunel visiom". I believe you've done more honour for the Wraith then SGA. Thanks for the story

Goldfish

[MCH]

Well it is easy to see why your page got so many people. It's a great fan fic, with stunning charactors. Also; you don't describe your wraith as flat un-developed creatures that only wish to feed on the first moving thing in their "tunel visiom". I believe you've done more honour for the Wraith then SGA. Thanks for the story

Goldfish

I second, third and fourth LOnely Goldfish's comment

MCH

[Traveler64]

Well it is easy to see why your page got so many people. It's a great fan fic, with stunning charactors. Also; you don't describe your wraith as flat un-developed creatures that only wish to feed on the first moving thing in their "tunel visiom". I believe you've done more honour for the Wraith then SGA. Thanks for the story

Goldfish

Thank you so very much! That I made the Wraith so real and compelling, is the greatest compliment. I truly appreciate that. There's more to the story, and I hope you'll return for the coming episodes until the end of the story.

[MCH]

Thank you so very much! That I made the Wraith so real and compelling, is the greatest compliment. I truly appreciate that. There's more to the story, and I hope you'll return for the coming episodes until the end of the story.

If the Commander and Elene, Santos, Feng will let you!!!! Finish I mean..

MCH

[Traveler64]

I the Commander and Elene santos Feng will let you!!!! Finish I mean..

MCH

I'm hurdling through the next episode. Ooooooooh... you're going to like this one.

[Sevenofnine]

I'm hurdling through the next episode. Ooooooooh... you're going to like this one.

Your keeping us in suspense!
Seven

[Traveler64]

your keeping us in suspense!
Seven

yes!

[Traveler64]

Guess what? NEW EPISODES!

Merry Christmas!

Spoiler:

I held on to the device, the glow in the slit fading. The heat dissipated. A deep, black veil came over me and I sunk into its chasm.###


When I came to, my eyes opened upon the sight of a cluster of lightless hives, their forms visible only as the reflection of the moon glowing above a darkly red planet. Coming upon a hive in space, beholding their massive proportions and their size, it is always impressive and eerie, and a revelation of their absolute alien-ness. They inspired more than simple fear; it was the primeval fear of humans that went back to the dawn of time; the fear of being eaten alive by something unknown and unexplainable; and implacable. Coming upon these hives, however, I felt as if I was gazing into the ultimate chasm of one’s existence. It felt like a hole inside me; a hole into which I could drop any time; the same hole that some called insanity. The sight of these hives was unsettling beyond the feeling of facing raw and ruthless power, of a mind incomprehensible to a human, and thus doubly dangerous and deadly; it was the usual feeling of inevitable death. These hives exuded something else with their dark and motionless presence. Malevolence of a different kind seemed to seep into space from these behemoths facing me.

All this crossed my mind in the instant I beheld the hives, in particular the middle one; the largest of them all, deeply black and lightless, so black that it seemed like a cutout in the void of space; it felt as if it was a blackhole. And my dart was unmistakably heading that way, speeding through space like a small atom attracted by a whole planet.

By the time a fully regained awareness of myself and what was around me, the dart was at the entrance of one of the hive’s bays. The portals parted and the dart entered a black chasm, its length and width vaguely revealed by the pale light filtering through the bay doors opened towards the pale sun. All this time, I sat there helpless in the dart’s cabin, clutched in the chair, holding the device in my lap, my hands clasped tightly around it.

I felt the dart settle on a floor I could not see, and as soon as it shuddered to a stop, the bay doors closed and the interior of the bay started to glow with a very pale red luminosity that was obviously more visible to a Wraith’s sensitive eye. The hatch of the dart opened and I was hit by a shale of old, musty air. My eyes began to make out the walls rising around me to the ceiling; or rather what I suspected to have been a ceiling once. All there was now was a like a reverted chasm of broken shafts that seemed to go into infinity. The walls around me were in shreds and collapsed, hanging from ribbings of gnarled black matter, the red glow given off by a few panels that still retained their shape. It looked to me as if I was inside a desiccated whale, the flesh and skin turned to parchment fluttering and rustling in a wind generated by emptiness.

I knew at that moment, without a doubt, that I was inside one of the dying hives. It was not dead yet, or perhaps it had not completely decomposed in space; I could not tell. But what I could surmise—given the law of probabilities that a little dart ejected into space would end up in the midst of the very hives I inquired about—that this was not chance or coincidence. It appeared to me, that the Commander, or my Ship Wraith (I kept calling him ‘my’, I mused sardonically) had already taken the path to the graveyard of these hives and we were close enough for a dart to reach them. Darts also had a nerve center that was controlled by the Wraith and the hive. The question was: had this dart been drawn to this hive by whatever power was left in this enormous dying body, or had the Commander actually commanded this dart to arrive here.

I leaned towards the second. The why, that was another question.

I got off the dart, now my eyes used to the light and able to discern my surroundings. Ahead of me, leading to the far entrance to the main part of the hive—my sense of direction told me I was in the aft part of the ship—was a walkway cutting across the skeleton of the collapsed floor. The silence around me was utter; with the exception of the occasional rustle of a piece falling into the chasm below.

As for me… I took in a deep breath. I was in the dress the Commander gave me, a shimmering, luxurious confection of soft fabric and silver, torn in places from the flight to the dart and dusty with the ashes of this dying hive; a useless outfit that provided me neither protection nor comfort. I was unarmed, except for the device in my hand. I was alone, I was abandoned; and I could’ve killed for a glass of water and a rare steak with mushrooms. And I wanted my Wraith back—sharp teeth, slit, amber pupils, feeding hand and pale green skin; and for all I knew, with a wasp’s sting where human males had their prized possession.

That last thought made me let out a giggle, after which I started to bawl without restraint. I was all alone, so might as well let it rip and all hang out. I blubbered all the way to the portal to the main part of the ship and continued to sob as I walked along the faintly glowing walls, barely a flicker, no more than a brittle skeleton with dried up, shredded walls. A faint smell filled the air. Had it been stronger, it would’ve been nauseating. As it was it was putting me off the thought of a steak with mushrooms.

As I reached a large chamber—one I recognized as leading to the hibernation pods on one side and the quarters of the worshippers on the other side, my sobbing was replaced by mounting anger, focused like a beam on Feng. It was he, and he alone who was the cause of where I was. Perhaps it made no sense; perhaps it had no logic, but that was where my anger aimed. It was helpless, desperate anger because I knew I could not act on it and could not change anything.

I kicked a column with all the force I could give it. My foot crushed the surface and dug into the brittle, amber like material. I had been most unsatisfying. So, I proceeded to punch more columns and kick them and then threw the device at the wall, while screaming at the top of my voice every foul word I knew and gathered through the gutters of my youth.

While I did this, and beginning to feel some of my backbone return, I was vaguely aware of the device rolling away. I stopped in the middle of a particularly profane pronouncement that involved highly improbable actions when I noticed that a device light started to flicker. I bounded to it, just as one of my feet broke the floor and got caught, sending me forward on my face. When I finally reached the infernal object, the light was still blinking, but it had a kind of somnolent, indolent feel about it.

“Well, Doctor Vries,” I spoke to myself, my voice muffled by the hanging shreds, “you better figure this thing out.” I cradled it in my arms and pondered where I could find some more light. “Even a genius like you—and you are a genius, as proven by the situation you’re in—cannot do it by mental reverse osmosis and needs light.”

The one place where I could find light was the worshippers quarters; although I was not keen at all to venture there. I shrugged. This hive was empty. All I would find would be human skeletons strewn inside the hive’s skeleton.

[Traveler64]

HONOR, Episode 44

Spoiler:

I took some long, twisted corridors, which I could only describe as very creepy, and reached indeed the complex of cells and chambers where worshippers worked for the Wraith, the various gates broken and fallen. Somewhere, some place there had to be candles or some lamps. I had seen them with the worshippers in the Commander’s hive. I entered a chamber that resembled the one where I had found the worshippers engaged in some ritual of worship. I looked around me and started. Deep in the far recesses, between columns that had collapsed unto themselves I saw several crouching figures.

“Hello!” I called absurdly.

The only answer I received was the rustling of something skidding across the floor. I jumped around, my heart in my mouth. All I saw was emptiness.

Slowly, cautious with each step, I approached the crouched shadows. I looked down on them and in the pale light I saw the vague outline of their dead, decomposing faces. I yelped and jumped back, my nose assailed with the sweet, cloying, gagging smell of death.

This was recent… Very recent. As I stepped back, my foot crushed into something that broke under my heel. A smell of bitter almonds reached me; blessedly covering the smell of death, but also warning me of my own, if I didn’t get out of there—cyanide. I backed away even further. I had stepped into a bowl that had contained cyanide. The worshippers had killed themselves with cyanide.

This time I gagged and retched, delivering to the broken floor the little I had in my stomach. I touched the wall and realized that what I thought to be dried up sheets of the ship’s skin, was actually still soft and pliable, like old silk.

I stirred into action. There had to be a command room that still had some instruments still functioning; there had to be systems on this hive that could be marginally brought back on line. I needed light and I need food and water.

I scoured the cells and chambers and found what I needed—fruit, slightly over ripe, or rotting if that was your pleasure, but food nevertheless; I found water. I gulped down the fruit and drank the water, wondering for a moment if they were not poisoned, but then dismissing the thought. The rotting fruit would probably upset my stomach, but I shrugged that away as well. The water was stale, but it was water.

“Idiot Wraith,” I mumbled. At least they could do is to keep some refrigeration on board for their worshippers. Yeah, right.

Some of my energy recovered, I quickly left worshippers quarters, my sense of smell telling me that the group that I had seen was not the only one that had chosen to die with the hive. The thought of how recent this must have been got tucked away in one of the compartments of the scientific side of my brain.

I rushed through the corridors and maze of columns that was a hive, in the general direction of where the core of the hive was, knowing that all roads in a hive ship led to the command room and to the Queen’s chamber. My step slowed down at the last thought. A Queen… But no, the Queen definitely had to be dead; or she had left this hive; or never been on it. And where were the Wraith? My step slowed down even more. The device blinked lazily. What was it doing? Why did it suddenly start to blink? Was it transmitting something somewhere? Was it detecting something? Was it arming?

I walked through the halls, chambers and corridors, keeping my face in the direction I knew the command room would be, on the upper levels. I took paths winding upwards and something that looked like staircases, the steps broken. As I approached the core, there seemed to be less damage; but damage nevertheless.

I stopped and held my breath. For just a solitary moment I felt as if something or someone was following me; watching me. I looked around the wide, long chamber that led to the command room. It was silent and barely lit by a distant panel that glowed red. I started as a soft shudder rippled under my feet. I took a few steps forward and the feeling that something was walking alongside with me returned. I swerved around a caught a translucent blue tendril reach for me. But it was slow, tentative and retracted as I took a step away. I thought I heard a whisper, but that too passed.

I turned on my heels and ran down the long chamber, crashed through the brittle lattice of a gate and rushed into the control room. I stopped startled, petrified at the sight that met me. Several Wraith were strewn on the floor, one that was obviously the commander, draped over the command console; except that instead of being face down, he was face up, bent over, his arms reaching up. I looked down on a Wraith at my feet—his face had deep cuts, blood dried in the gashes. His hands were poised over his face, the blades of his finger guards caked in blood. I shirked from the sight and a felt my gut wrenched again, even more than it had at the sight of the worshippers. I looked at the other Wraith, especially at the commander. His face was also cut deeply, as if he had sustained a frenzied attack. Except, the realization came to me, the frenzied attack had been at his own hand.

Down deep I began to understand what had happened on this hive. Down deep I began to understand that it had been my Wraith, the Commander who had sent me here, and it had not been the hive that had attracted the dart. My heart became small in my chest with fright and sorrow. I never knew that a heart could hurt; but it did.

I froze. The door behind me wooshed and closed. Suddenly, I felt that presence again. But now it was clearly malevolent, threatening and deadly; and very angry. It felt insane. Whatever was insane in this hive, I did not want to face.

In panic, I called my Wraith’s name—the golds and blues, the scents and the perfumes, the amber and the veils of what was his name. The malevolent threat seemed to falter a bit. I sensed in my mind the swirls of a different color than that of the Commander. It was purple and green, very pale and slow. There was another scent that I could not describe.

A Ship Wraith! There was a Ship Wraith on this hive!