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

[keeperofthehive]

You have to load it up in a site like Flickr that provides a URL and embedding code--you know, the http: thingy. You cannot paste it from your C: drive and a www in front of it doesn't do it. So, if you have a Flicker account (which is very easy to open) you can download your pic there, and then use the link there. The ones you saw me load were done like that.

Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/

Thank you T64.

I will look at the flickr link. In the meantime i went over to Gateworld FAQ and actually (gasp!) read the instructions.

Spoiler:

It's a Green Metallic bee on the flower of a Fuerte avocado tree (they-the fruits-are black when mature, and very glossy and oily.) The trees are flowering and all the pollinators were tricked into coming out last weekend before the temp dropped again.

Have to go to sleep now. Working tomorrow. Thanks and goodnight!

[Traveler64]

Thank you T64.

I will look at the flickr link. In the meantime i went over to Gateworld FAQ and actually (gasp!) read the instructions.

Spoiler:

It's a Green Metallic bee on the flower of a Fuerte avocado tree (they-the fruits-are black when mature, and very glossy and oily.) The trees are flowering and all the pollinators were tricked into coming out last weekend before the temp dropped again.

Have to go to sleep now. Working tomorrow. Thanks and goodnight!

Gosh, it sounds beautiful! Now you HAVE to load it up!

[Traveler64]

...as we wait for the next episodes to be posted and inspired by Keeperofthehive, there's 'just a thought'





(taken in the gardens of the Mission San Juan Capistrano)

[Norvely]

That's beautiful! I suppose I can be patient a little longer just for that ^^.

[Norvely]

*sigh*....I'm hyped on chocolate and came looking for good story inspirations...*crys*....*then on chocolate craze, goes running after wraith....then types a bit...drinks mocha....runs around in circles after wraith....eats a piece of chicken...because chicken is yummy....runs around...* time for a nap! ZZZzzzz

[Traveler64]

*sigh*....I'm hyped on chocolate and came looking for good story inspirations...*crys*....*then on chocolate craze, goes running after wraith....then types a bit...drinks mocha....runs around in circles after wraith....eats a piece of chicken...because chicken is yummy....runs around...* time for a nap! ZZZzzzz

Keep the chocolate handy!

The story of Elena and Amber is finished. Now I just have to let it sit for a day or so and re-read it. I will post it over the weekend, probably Sunday.

I have to say that I was a bit sad when I wrote the last word. Well, more than a little sad. I had not realized how much I was attached to those two; and how much I am enjoying this and especially everyone's company.

What will I do? What will I become?


I DON"T WANT THIS TO END!

[CedrusTuri]

Keep the chocolate handy!

The story of Elena and Amber is finished. Now I just have to let it sit for a day or so and re-read it. I will post it over the weekend, probably Sunday.

One writer to another - well done. It's an achievement...

I have to say that I was a bit sad when I wrote the last word. Well, more than a little sad. I had not realized how much I was attached to those two; and how much I am enjoying this and especially everyone's company.

I'm not surprised at you being a bit sad... I know the feeling well. As a good writer I think you do get attached to your characters - come to care about them...

And the company of others is always good.

What will I do? What will I become?

You'll find a nice little plot bunny from somewhere - adopt it - let it run around in your garden for a while... and then.... then....

*cracks whip*

I DON"T WANT THIS TO END!

Aha! Bitten by the writers' bug.

[mommygonenuts]

I will be sad to see it end too. I am hoping there is a happy ending. (keeping my fingers crossed)

[Sevenofnine]

Congrats on finishing it T64, now we just have to wait till your Sunday, as my Sunday comes first (Time zone difference) bah!

[keeperofthehive]

...as we wait for the next episodes to be posted and inspired by Keeperofthehive, there's 'just a thought'





(taken in the gardens of the Mission San Juan Capistrano)

OOOOh, your cactus blossom is really breathtaking, T64. It looks so very fragile and delicate, while creating new life in such a very harsh environment. Also the bees are in the air, but not blurred. Thank you for sharing.

Btw, i did enjoy

Spoiler:

how in Chp. 62 Elena was able to "shield" herself long enough to surprise the Amber Wraith. On the bridge, one would expect him to be most alert for any possible danger to his hive. That was a nice touch that showed just how far Elena has developed.

Oh, i just noticed the ladybug below the flower!

[Traveler64]

OOOOh, your cactus blossom is really breathtaking, T64. It looks so very fragile and delicate, while creating new life in such a very harsh environment. Also the bees are in the air, but not blurred. Thank you for sharing.

Btw, i did enjoy

Spoiler:

how in Chp. 62 Elena was able to "shield" herself long enough to surprise the Amber Wraith. On the bridge, one would expect him to be most alert for any possible danger to his hive. That was a nice touch that showed just how far Elena has developed.

Oh, i just noticed the ladybug below the flower!

This was one of my rare successful photos. I am a complete duffus with the camera. But that flower and those bees were just waiting there. The whole garden was in bloom and the cactus were going crazy with flowers. But this one was so different because of its color.

Lady bug? Where?

***runs to photoalbum, zooms in... where is it?***

As for Elena--sometimes I throw the kitchen sink in there and now and then it works. Just kidding. What you felt as you read is what I meant to convey. So... this is good.

[Traveler64]

One writer to another - well done. It's an achievement...



I'm not surprised at you being a bit sad... I know the feeling well. As a good writer I think you do get attached to your characters - come to care about them...

And the company of others is always good.



You'll find a nice little plot bunny from somewhere - adopt it - let it run around in your garden for a while... and then.... then....

*cracks whip*



Aha! Bitten by the writers' bug.

Actually, I am really hot to trot with a sci fi story that I've been mulling over. HONOR has inspired me to create my own story universe. All this 'arguments' I had with the SGA universe for the Wraith has pushed me over the brink here.

[Norvely]

*Dreading tomorrow*.....>.< its ends.....noooooooooooo....
*supply of tissues and chocolate recovery unit ready* I am looking forward to it though. After I will probably reread it all ^^. Thank you for all your hard work on it. Gratz on finishing it. It was a good go.
Hmmm...as far as the new universe, any hints? Going to post bits on a forum?

[Traveler64]

*Dreading tomorrow*.....>.< its ends.....noooooooooooo....
*supply of tissues and chocolate recovery unit ready* I am looking forward to it though. After I will probably reread it all ^^. Thank you for all your hard work on it. Gratz on finishing it. It was a good go.
Hmmm...as far as the new universe, any hints? Going to post bits on a forum?

Hankies at the ready!

Yeah, I dread posting it also. In some ways I feel closure; in other ways... ***where is that darn chocolate?!***

As for the other universe story--it's a long process. It's quite different from the Wraith universe, although there's a distant kernel inspired by the Wraith. There is long hair, though. LOL.

I don't know what forum to post in. One of these days I might create an website for myself. One of these days... If I can convince someone to teach me how to do it. LIke the one Cedrus has. ***grin***

[Traveler64]

No use agonizing over it any more. Here it goes.

HONOR

EPISODE 64

Spoiler:

His gaze of amber veiled me; or was it his thoughts and his name? “I am now honor bound to ensure that the Queen will have a Ship Wraith to establish her position of Primary.” He squared his shoulders. “It will be done.”



###


This time I was not escorted to my suite of alcoves perched high on the wall of that conical chamber, but to a long hall with burnished, translucent floor that looked like luminous glass and walls that were like mosaics of flowing light layered with the embroidery of the blue amber that was the ship’s structural skeleton. At the far end, the wall, from floor to ceiling and from side to side, had turned transparent, the ribbons, swirls and spirals of stars and galaxies glimmering in black space.

I was seated at the opposite end of the hall, facing the window, on a throne-like bench with high back and arms, soft and warm around me, yet looking as if made of hard metal and amber. The outfit with which the worshippers had robed me, was a very deep red trimmed with black metal and beads of amber.

Four worshippers—two on each side of me—were seated in the shadows, their eyes, as the old books would say, ‘fixed on the hands of their mistress’. Beyond them, along the walls, stood faced Wraith, their head inclined, and masked warriors, shadowy presences that suddenly did not feel like a threat. They were not guarding me; they were in attendance.

I searched for the familiar form of the Amber Wraith. He was not among them. Somehow, I had not expected him to be.

The silence struck me again. There was no echo, no shuffling, no rustling; not even the sound of a breath, in spite of the fact that the hall was not empty of breathing and moving beings. I mulled over that silence as I considered that a hive, without a Ship Wraith, was terribly silent, lacking even a distant whisper from its core. It was lonely without a Ship Wraith. The Blue Wraith had kept me constant company, even when silent; so had the Amber Wraith, when he had been a Ship Wraith. He had continuously been around me, softly touching my mind and even me, taking away the loneliness of a human with the strange companionship of a Wraith.

I had made my decision. There was no turning back.

I closed my eyes. The colors and distant scent of heather of the Blue Wraith drifted in my mind; not from outside, as it had been when he was alive, but from the lonely recesses of my own mind. I thought of all the things he had said, some mocking, some brutal, some haunting; some even kind. I thought of that Ancient woman, whose name I did not know, whose face I wanted to conjure but all I could see in the eye of my mind was a vague masque; I thought of what she had felt and wondered how close it had been to what I felt. She had given her life for the Blue Wraith; she had given her life to save him. How and why and what—I didn’t know the details. Perhaps they didn’t matter. However, the parallel with what I was doing struck me now like a bullet in the heart. Perhaps, she and I had been the only human women in the universe to have captured a Wraith in this manner; it seemed, using this poor statistical basis of two, that the outcome for such a victory was death. A high price… The Wraith were expensive.

I smiled at the thought. But that moment of mirth faded quickly as I realized that the price the Ancient woman had paid—at least in her mind—was far greater: she had also renounced ascension, that obsession of the Ancients for which they had trampled much and many.

My mind drifted in some kind of reverie that focused on that one thought—ascension. Did the Ancients really ascend? The Blue Wraith had said that they had just turned to dust. He had said it with conviction; he had snarled but he had not said it in irony. He had said that the Wraith were a result of that bid for ascension; for immortality. The Ancients wanted to be gods. Instead, they created the Wraith. In some absurd twist, the Wraith became the gods of the Ancients—capricious, cunning and clever, ruthless and avenging, destroyers of the Ancient arrogance.

The Ancients had turned into dust; the Wraith even if not strictly immortal because they could be killed; they were the closest one could get to immortality. Even the universe sooner or later would twinkle out of existence.

Dust and immortality.

Victory and death.

Dust. Nothing.

What will my Amber Wraith do with my body?

I flinched.

Shoot it out the airlock, you fool!

What do they do with the husks of those they’ve used?

I opened my eyes, nausea rising in my gut.

A worshipper was kneeled in front of me, holding in offering a cup of liquid, steam rising from it with a herbal aroma.

I knocked it out of her hand, the cup flying through the air, the liquid splashing over her. The cup hit the steps with a tiny noise against the organic surface and rolled away.

“I’m sorry,” I exclaimed, startled by my own violent gesture.

The worshipper scampered away, out of my line of vision. I followed with my gaze the path of the cup as it rolled away and stopped. My gaze kept moving forward, across the burnished floor, towards the galaxies and starts filling the great window at the far end.

A warm flicker touched my heart.

The Amber Wraith was seated at the window on a long bench, facing the stars, his back to me. He was motionless and seemed to be in some kind of meditation. I’ve heard of Wraith drawing themselves into far and deep thought, perhaps communing with the essence of their very existence. Was there a soul there, after all?

They were an Ancient experiment gone too far; no soul; just immortality. But Death still came to them. And then they turned to dust. Just like me. Just like the Ancients.

I stood up and descended the steps. I walked slowly down the long hall, passing the guarding Wraith, their head inclining deeper as I passed. What were they thinking of this human they had to honor? Were they even thinking or was the communal thinking of the hive the same as that of its Commander, its former Ship Wraith? Was that what a Ship Wraith did? Create a communal thinking with the hive and the Queen? Why couldn’t Lothar be the Ship Wraith of this hive? Was it because the Amber Wraith was still a Ship Wraith and he could not be controlled?

He said that there will be a Ship Wraith for the Queen we will create.

What will become of my Amber Wraith? A wanderer, alone… Would he be allowed to hibernate in this hive?

Would he find another hive, a Queen to take him in? Would any hive take a Ship Wraith who had lost his hive? There was no pity for the fallen, no room for the loser.

Would they kill him if he lingered too long in this hive? Would Lothar kill him?

If that was the way of the Wraith, yes, he would.

What a tangled madness. Had he not had to kill his Queens because of me; had he not had to reveal his position to Atlantis because of me; had I eliminated Feng the day I heard of his treachery…

But a Wraith is immortal. They are so because they survive and have an instinct to survive unimpeded by sentimental and emotional claptrap and drivel. They live for thousands upon thousands of years; they survive thousands of years of strife, battle and treachery and power plays because they are unsentimental in their quest for ways to survive. Their energy and creativity is focused on surviving, and they value, in some strange way, life more than those who are short lived; like me. They do not die for others; and they do not die with others, given the choice. They do more than survive; they prevail.

I stopped behind my Amber Wraith and softly stroke the hair falling on his back. Its silken touch flowed against the skin of my palm and sent a shiver through me. It was not like human hair, cold and dead. It seemed to have life in it, to caress back. I lifted the hair with my both hands and let it fall in a slow, silvery veil. My hands felt it vibrate with delight.

I walked around the bench and stood in front of him. His head was slightly bent, his gaze on his hands, fingers joined at the tips.

He lifted his gaze to me. “You are full of thoughts,” he said.

“Do you know what they are?” I asked.

“No.”

I looked into the amber eyes and I was not sure what I saw there, but all the sardonic flippancy, all the anger and confusion I felt was replaced with the desire—absurd, I told myself; you’re dealing with a Wraith—to comfort whatever darkness troubled him. Had anyone ever shown a Wraith tender comfort? Of course not.

Perhaps the Ancient woman had to the Blue Wraith.

“And what are you thinking of, my love?” I said softly.

The pupil widened just a fraction and only for a moment. “I am thinking of the Wraith name I will give you.”

And the thought fills you with the darkness a Wraith would call sadness.

“You will give me such a name?” I echoed.

“So that you can hear me when I call.”

I sat down next to him, although I had no idea if that would be the acceptable thing to do.

“I like red,” I said. “And the smell of violets.” He would not know what a violet is. “It’s a flower on earth.” Very small and dainty and fragrant.

I spied a vague smile on his lips. He nodded softly.

I arranged a long strand of his white hair on his shoulder.

“You like to do that,” he mused.

“It feels alive. It’s different than human hair.” I played with the wisps of hair, feeling their caress between my fingers.

“It is different,” he answered. “I can feel you touch it and the warmth of your hand; and you.”

I contemplated the ribbon of hair draped on my palm.

“The Ship Wraith—the one you call the Blue Wraith,” he said, “told me that the Ancient woman he knew also liked to play with his hair.”

I placed the strand of hair back, neatly along the other neatly combed strands of his hair. Did he comb it, or did it arrange itself like that? Suddenly, I thought of that hair alive, moving. “What did he tell you about her?” I asked as I watched intently the hair to see if it moved.

It didn’t, of course.

“He told me that she died for him.”

I was silent of a few seconds. “Did he tell you how it came to be?”

“I would’ve thought you would ask me why.”

“I don’t need to.”

“The Guards of the Ancients were pursuing and hunting down the Early Wraith, the ones who had rebelled. She hid the Blue Wraith from them.. She shielded him with her own existence and gave him time to escape when he was discovered.”

“She caught the fire meant for him,” I mused.

“No. The penalty for concealing and abating a Wraith was death.”