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

[toomuchcaf]

T64 you are definitely evil for leaving us hanging
Looking forward for the next chapter. They just keep getting better and better!

[MCH]

You really describe the hive ship and the Queens quarters.

How he neatly maneuvered her into giving him what he needs.

I have so many ideas buzzing around in my head.

Need her essence/DNA/ancient gene- will the process kill her? Will she be the new Queen - (Beckett retrovirus Wraith to human, human to Wraith) Will she survive, and returned to Atlantis........


BUT you didn't finish it...... That finger better get better soon or else I'll send the boys round.
On second theought I don't send the boys round until the story gets finished.....

Thanks MCH

[Traveler64]

T64 you are definitely evil for leaving us hanging
Looking forward for the next chapter. They just keep getting better and better!

Next chapter coming. I got it all buzzing in my mind. I went through better than half the Mass this morning with no idea what was going on because of all those WRaiths dancing in my head in the Pegasus Galaxy.

[Traveler64]

You really describe the hive ship and the Queens quarters.

How he neatly maneuvered her into giving him what he needs.

I have so many ideas buzzing around in my head.

Need her essence/DNA/ancient gene- will the process kill her? Will she be the new Queen - (Beckett retrovirus Wraith to human, human to Wraith) Will she survive, and returned to Atlantis........


BUT you didn't finish it...... That finger better get better soon or else I'll send the boys round.
On second theought I don't send the boys round until the story gets finished.....

Thanks MCH

My lips are sealed... Mum's the word... and that kind of stuff. I am really grateful to all your ideas and questions--it's directing my writing so that it stays ingeneous (spelling!!!!) and interesting.

I am diverging from canon here and there, but who cares! I am really creating my own.

Finger a lot better, Todd kissed the booboo and it is healing.


As for the boys--yes, wait until I'm done. That would be my reward. I think... It would be, right?

I'll have to think about that.

[MCH]

My lips are sealed... Mum's the word... and that kind of stuff. I am really grateful to all your ideas and questions--it's directing my writing so that it stays ingeneous (spelling!!!!) and interesting.

I am diverging from canon here and there, but who cares! I am really creating my own.

Finger a lot better, Todd kissed the booboo and it is healing.


As for the boys--yes, wait until I'm done. That would be my reward. I think... It would be, right?

I'll have to think about that.

Don't think about it toooooo much - the boys coming round I mean - Story first please boys next. OK.

MCH

[Traveler64]

don't think about it toooooo much - the boys coming round i mean - story first please boys next. Ok.

Mch

ok. :d

[Traveler64]

HONOR
by Traveler64

This episode took longer to write because... I had to rewrite it to avoid introducing the canon characters. I am not good at imitating others' characters and also it would have detracted from the originality of the Wraith Commander. Anyway, here it is. More will come tonight.

EPISODE 11

Spoiler:

His hand came at me so quickly that I did not even have time to flinch. The tip of his finger guards ripped the silk of my tunic. At the very moment his fingers gripped, I became numb, my mind winding down in a spiral. I thought I heard myself say: “I want to feed upon ten Godiva chocolate cheese cake slices,” my voice as if a soundtrack on slow.
#####
I clamped my jaws against the expectation of the brutality of a Wraith feeding on a human and in anticipation of the horror and revulsion of a roach-like nibbling and crawling on my skin.

But none of what I had anticipated or feared came to pass. Instead, I felt his hand settle on my skin like a gentle moth, soft and silky in its touch, its wings fluttering against my breast. I saw it in my mind with golden wings tipped with brilliant red and deep black. A knob of heat formed in the very middle of my heart. Then it irradiated exquisitely slowly from that spot to the very tip of my fingers and toes. It was like the most pleasurable massage I had ever had. I drifted away to some very happy and contended place.

If I am going to hear a Chopin nocturne, I’m going to scream!

I sank in a blue depth, only shadows moving around me. I was aware of the Wraith’s presence, looming over me, dissolved in that blue silk.

Suddenly, I knew his name, his Wraith name. My mind opened to it in surprise and thrall. It was the most fascinating thing I had ever experienced. It was not a spoken name but one of images, colors and scents. It was intoxicating like wine. For a brief moment I wanted to escape it, like a butterfly caught in spider’s web, but the struggle was unconvinced, more from the fading mind than emotion, as I was drawn in it all. I basked in it and wrapped myself in it.

I felt something cold up my spine, something squirming in my abdomen, none of it unpleasant in the middle of that whirl of colors and scents; just a bit startling. But that was only for a second, no more than a little quiver. The silk was warm and I floated; and floated. All that time, the fluttering form of the Wraith loomed; but it was welcome as I drew in the colors and perfume of his name.

I was suspended in it, hanging there, swinging softly, being lulled into soft sleep. From behind the screen of that slumber, through the veils of blue, I saw the luminous column and the Commander. He held in one hand a small, gleaming finial of glass and metal that contained in its middle a glowing drop of amber. Another Wraith, his white hair moving like a spot of light, placed in the Commander’s feeding hand another finial, this one containing a drop of red. He raised the two finials and they glowed against the blue of the column. His hands seemed to enter the blue light inside the column as he poured the contents of the finials into it. The two drops of amber and red swirled and danced like two fire flies, until they joined and spiraled upwards.

And then the shadow of the Commander came back to me and I felt my hand in his, the drop of heat in my palm. I drifted away, everything disappearing around me as I receded into the depth of a sweet blue sleep. All consciousness of the world left me.

***

I woke up with a start under the night sky filled with the solitary crescent of a red moon. I gained consciousness suddenly and fully, my mind aware of everything with one sweep of my gaze, my next action formulated before I finished looking around me.

I was on the shore of a black lake and in front of me rose a stargate, its circle dark and looming, the far horizon visible through its portal. The dialing console, gleaming softly, as if waiting for my command.

I stood up quickly and my reflection in the surface of the water rose with me, for a second startling me by the unreality of its vision—I was still in the black leather Wraith outfit, my hair loosened, flowing around my face.

Dial Atlantis. The symbols flashed through my mind, in their order. The console lit up and on its own, as if moved by my mind, the dialing symbols lit up, one by one. When the last one glowed and depressed, the stargate filled with the blue light, burst forward and then shimmered, crackling in the silence. I ran into it. I slithered through the wormhole and came out through the Atlantis portal running, the off world activation alarm clamoring in my ear.

I stopped and took a breath. The Marines standing on both sides, with weapons trained on the gate, aimed at me.

“Hold fire!” I heard the call.

“Glad to hear that,” I grinned.

I looked at the time readout shimmering behind the glass of the control room above. I had been gone for three weeks, during which time, except for two days, I had been floating in a blue ocean accompanied by an amber butterfly.

[Laura Dove]

Ah, this chapter is so short, and it brings more questions than answers. More, please!

[Traveler64]

HONOR

EPISODE 12

Spoiler:

FIVE YEARS LATER.


I stood on the terrace of my quarters bathed in the light of the twin moons rising from the whispering ocean, the breeze passing its fingers through my hair, which I still kept long and free when not on duty. I took a sip of the cool, blue-green drink in a tall glass, and considered the significance of the day.

It was five years to the day since I returned to Atlantis from what everyone called my captivity in the Wraith hive ship; what I called the very strange interlude in my otherwise very human human life. It was not that I haven’t thought of that day and what had preceded it until this anniversary I kept for myself. Every evening, once the duties of the day were done, I would come out on this terrace and look at the sky and wonder what had really happened and where that Wraith, whose name I knew, could possibly be. Every time we encountered a hive ship, I would wonder—and hope—that it was his. But, all these years, we never encountered it. The day I returned to Atlantis, his hive had disappeared without a trace. Simply vanished from our monitoring horizon.

After I returned to Atlantis, night after night, I sat in my rooms, the lights low, the ocean of Atlantis glowing in the windows, and could not find sleep. I felt terribly alone and strangely abandoned. I walked through the long hallways of Atlantis with no real purpose on my mind other than to disperse my thoughts to the night. The corridors lit as I moved through them, the beautiful glass panels gleaming at me. I would walk unto the terraces filled with the breeze of the ocean and bathed with the light of the moons. I would breathe in the quiet and the beauty and with it the colors and scents of the Commander’s name came to me. Strange, how I could remember it, the colors and scents actually forming in my mind, combining in their particular pattern—amber with golden scents, sapphires with the blue scent of the sky. That was what so strangely filled that little hole of loneliness in my heart.

Until I returned to Earth. Two months after my return to Atlantis, I was recalled back to Earth. It was in many ways at my instigation. I expressed concern, which was backed up by the other scientists, about the knowledge spreading among Wraiths of a human possessing the rare Ancient gene required to create a Wraith Queen. I did not know if the Commander had been successful in creating a Queen with my DNA, and I was most uneasy about what exactly he had used for what he called ‘my full DNA and essence.’ If he had succeeded, and he used this knowledge for ascendancy over other hives, it could very well be that I was in danger of either being killed by a rival Queen, or being kidnapped for my DNA.

“I don’t cherish the thought,” I quipped, “of emitting pheromones that attract Wraiths from across the galaxy; like a freaking female moth attracting all the male moths in the jungle.”

What I didn’t tell anyone—and to this day I am not sure from whence this reticence came—was that I was more concerned that I knew the Wrath’s name. I could be an imprint in my brain waves that could be detected by a Wraith, like a homing device that would bring them in.

My stay on Earth lasted three years. I became the head of the scientific group at Stargate Command and because my perceived knowledge of the Wraiths, member at large of the International Overseeing Committee. For the three years I was on Earth, my nights felt just as lonely. But, I did not have the whisper of the ocean to sing to me; and I could not remember his name. I longed for Atlantis until I doubled up with the pain of it.

Until one morning, when I received orders to return to Atlantis as its head. It had been the military’s decision, approved by the President, and the IOC approved it without a question. I found that very bizarre, but I so wanted to return to Atlantis that I spared them my smartass and hardass remarks.

As soon as I returned to Atlantis, I recalled the Commander’s name.

In the five years that had passed, not once did Atlantis detect his hive or track it. Not once did anyone encounter him or hear of him and his hive. He had not appeared in any of the worlds we knew. The Wraiths were just as impregnable and as unknown as ever. However, an odd kind of co-existence had come to be with the Wraiths that were under our observation. We had no idea if these hives—and the six queens associated with them—were allies of ‘my’ Wraith, the Commander as we all called him—and respected the terms of the alliance with him, or we had simply reached a balance. It became a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ understanding—the Wraiths kept away from planets with human populations known to Atlantis. Where they culled, it was outside of our ‘hearing.’ Also, their numbers dwindled. At the end of the fourth year, we only counted four queens (and I was glad that I had not become like a female moth attracting Wraiths like male moths from the far ends of the galaxy).

In the meantime, I was acutely aware that there could be a Wraith Queen out there with my DNA. But then, what’s a little DNA among allies…

[MCH]

Travler64

"Short but sweet" the story and for Elena as well. Not sure what I expect what happened but then neither did Elena......

Spoiler:

The Commander returned her to Atlantis having taken what he needed..... but where is the infant Queen? In the blue column on the hive or with Elena back in Atlantis.

Oh does he honour their deal about the worshippers. I wondered it they would be happy to leave after what some of them kill the male wraith Elena first met

I like the way you don't paint yourself into a corner at the end of each chapter. You have a very descriptive of writing and when setting up the hive ship or the planet it doesn't get in the way of the action.

Thank you once again for another great chapter.

MCH

A much more gentle chapter, informative about how Elena felt and her sense of loss. and her return as leader of Atlantis.The calm before the storm.

Spoiler:

The Commander is lurking in her theoughts. What's in a name in particular a Wrath's name, cos they don't usually tell humans their name. A gift the only one he could give.

Nice one

[Traveler64]

EPISODE 13

Spoiler:

As for the Wraith worshippers on the Commander’s hive ship—he kept his side of the deal. He dropped them, displaying an unexpected capacity for dark irony, on the doorstep of the Athosian colony; after he scared the bejesus out of them with a cloud of darts, each throwing down a beam of blue light, leaving behind a bewildered human.

Not unexpectedly, the Athosians could not bear to have worshippers around them. Also, we did not know if they were not going to bring the Wraiths down on them.

No one wanted the worshippers. To put them near human habitations would’ve put them in peril as much as being placed near a Wraith hive. And the worshippers did not want to be near the ‘others’ either. At the end, they did not want to be outside the hive.

We found a nice little, uninhabited planet for them and set up a settlement. But, it was not use. They did not eat; they did not drink. They gave no food to their children. They started to starve themselves, spending their day and nights gathered in a clearing, staring at the sky and chanting towards it. Dara’s hostility towards me was burning fiercer than ever. It was pure hate. In her mind I had taken her place in the Commander’s graces and I have thrown her out of paradise.

A week later, Wraiths came and took them. They left behind only a couple of human husks, but the rest were simply taken away. Moira, who had attached herself to me as if I were a surrogate Wraith, was the only one who escaped. Whether it was the Commander claiming back his worshippers—afterall, the deal was to give them to me, but it said nothing of not ever touching them; a flexible interpretation typical of the Wraiths—or it was a rogue hive that took the opportunity to enrich itself, we would never know.

Moira came to Atlantis. For the three years I was back on Earth, being programmed by the Wraiths ‘to serve’, she became a natural in the infirmary and an asset. However, when I returned as the head of Atlantis, she refused to do anything until I allowed her to serve me as she had served her master. I called her my personal ‘personal assistant.’

She turned out to be a fountain of wisdom about the Wraiths. We often spent the hour before nightfall, while she fussed around my quarters, discussing the never ending enigma of the Wraiths; and in particular one enigmatic Wraith—the Commander. I had no human name for him; and would not give him one. Everyone was still ignorant of my knowledge of the Commander’s Wraith name.

I did however ask Moira, my fountain of Wraith knowledge, if any of the Worshippers would be given the Wraith’s name.

“No, never!” she exclaimed and shook her head as if I had blasphemed. “Only a Queen knows the name of her Wraiths.” She looked at me long. “It is a mortal thing to know. And no human can know it. It cannot be given or repeated in human terms.”

No, indeed. I could describe it to another human in words, but it would not reproduce the patterns of colors and especially those of scent. I could tell them that it is a combination of amber and the smell of a marigold. But the image and the scent would not combine in the mind to call his name. And this was only two of the colors and mostly unknown scents of the name.

From that day on, Moira seemed to shiver around me.

One evening, as she watered the plants on the terrace, I asked her: “Did Dara feel affection for her master? Or… love?”

Moira did not stop watering the plants, but the stream of water was slower. “Dara had given her soul to him. I suppose that would be love. But, affection for a Wraith is not possible. Even the worshippers born to it, such as the children you saw, have no affection. Such a feeling does not exist among Wraiths, and they do not draw it from others. They do not know it and do not expect it, or recognize it if given. I don’t know how they would interpret it.”

“They are sentient beings, there must be something on the other side of their darkness.”

“Not in the terms we humans understand. A balance of dark and light is a human concept and gift.”

“It is the very essence of the universe.”

“There is more darkness than light in the Universe.”

“But, the light is so much more beautiful, when we encounter it in darkness.”

She regarded me carefully. “This Wraith who was my master, this Commander as you call him, his actions were driven only by his need for power and dominance over other hives. And that need was drawn from the need to feed. He did what he had to do, according to the Wraiths’ way of doing things; except this one was more clever and cunning than most. Doctor Vries, don’t ever imagine that you were more than a tool he used for his power. Even his keeping his side of the bargain had a Wraith’s purpose in it.”

I bristled, a reaction to cover up the absurd little hope buried inside me that there was some kind of ‘feeling’; it was a hope I would not admit to. How could I? I understood better than anyone else that this had been a cold calculation; to what end… there were still questions. “I wasn’t speaking of affection for me, Moira; I was speaking of affection for him. I am afraid that perhaps, in some way he turned me.” My voice trailed in a question.

She shook her head. “No, he did not.” She smiled, her strange, serious smile. “That was not his purpose. He struck a bargain with you as he would with another Wraith. Wraiths do not bargain with humans they have made worshippers.” She looked away. “You should be greatly feared.” She picked at a leaf. “You are the only one who can speak to the Wraiths.”

“Why?”

“Because you know the name of one.” She turned away and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

I had one more question of her. But, I never dared to ask.

And here I was, five years later, standing on that same terrace, still wondering what had happened and why the Wraith with amber eyes had done what he had done. That he simply needed a Queen and I provided the gene did not explain his behavior. I had no illusion that he could’ve taken what he wanted without giving me anything. It all circled back to that Wraith in the forest, the one I unchained and allowed to die like a free Wraith. That act may have been enough to save my life; but, I doubted that had been enough.

I shook my head. I always ended up in the same spot—coming up with answers I did not trust.

I went to my chest of drawers and opened the bottom drawer. I parted the tissue paper and looked at the outfit of leather and silver with which I had returned to Atlantis five years before.

Did Wraiths have a light side of their dark feelings?

A tinkle in my ear drew me out of my nocturnal rumination.

“Doctor Vries,” the voice spoke in my ear piece. “Please come to the control room immediately. We have an un-identified off world activation.”

[Traveler64]

EPISODE 14

Spoiler:

I slammed shut the drawer and quickly left my quarters. Moira appeared behind me like a shadow that had peeled off the wall. Sometimes she made me feel as if I was walking through a hive ship.

When I reached the control room, the main screen was filled with light and the portal was shimmering.

“It’s a message for you Doctor Vries,” the man on duty said. Then he added. “It’s from a hive ship. They asked for you by name.”

It was not the first time a hive ship had sent a communication to us; but, they did not normally ask for me by name. Actually, none ever did.

I stood staring at the screen, frozen.

“They’re asking permission for a visual.”

I drew out of my thoughts. “Let it through. Use an off main frame connection.”

“Yes.”

The screen shimmered again and an image wavered then settled.

“Doctor Vries,” the Wraith standing in the middle of what looked like a control chamber spoke, his voice humming. He was a dark form against the glowing background, his long white hair shimmering.

Before I even saw the patterns on his face, I knew who it was. My heart stopped for a moment.

“It’s been a long time, Commander,” I answered. “Five years, to the day. An interesting coincidence.”

Are you counting the years?

“You are well I take it,” he said, his voice clipped and void of any fluctuation that would indicate any feeling recognizable by a human. Why did I think there would be one? This was a Wraith that had taken strange human characteristics only in my mind, augmented by the passing years. “I hear that you are now the leader of Atlantis.”

“You are well informed.”

He inclined his head, as if he was pleased with himself.

“What can I do for you, Commander?”

“We need to complete the terms of our alliance.”

“I was under the impression that they were established and agreed upon.”

“That was only the preparation for the final resolution of our agreement.”

Well, once a tricky Wraith, always a tricky Wraith.

“What are you proposing?”

“I am proposing a meeting between yourself and my Queen.”

I felt my heart in my chest.

“I will be present, of course,” he added.

“Doctor Vries,” an urgent voice rang in my ear piece. “Look outside.”

I turned my head and I stared. Through the tall glass panels opening unto the ocean and sky I saw, against the stars of the night, an armada of hive ships popping out of hyperspace.

I swerved to face the screen.

“Do you call that armada up there a meeting proposal?”

A small smile appeared on his face. “I am sure that your scanners are telling you by now that we have not fired up our weapons.”

I turned to the Colonel. He nodded in agreement.

“Also,” the Commander contintued, “I am sure that by now you have placed your four battle ships above us. Also, I notice that you have raised all the shields.” He came closer and now I could see the details of his face and his black coat. For a second I saw the yellow glow in his eyes. “I just wanted to present to you the alliance.”

“Impressive,” I quipped. “And where do you propose to meet?”

“On Atlantis, of course. I would not think that you would want to try my hive ship again.”

His Wraith name flashed through my mind, unbidden.

He inclined his head. “You remember it, Doctor Vries.”

At the realization that he had ‘heard’ his name in my mind, the level of unease reached the point of discomfort.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Commander.”

He smiled. “I am not.” He straightened up. “Are we in agreement?”

The last time he had asked me that question I ended up on the wrong side of the answer.

“We shall see.”

“My Queen is particularly interested in visiting Atlantis and speaking with you.”

You clever *******! That is, if Wraiths had *******s… so to speak…

“You may come to Atlantis under the following conditions—your armada of hive ships moves away where I can’t see you with my naked eyed. There will be only the Queen and you.”

“I would like to bring two of my scientists with me. Unarmed.”

“You are going to leave your feeding hands behind?”

I received a snort in reply.

“Human humor,” I said.

He looked aside, as if reading a screen, then at me: “My hive ships will move out and Atlantis will lower its shields.”

“Atlantis keeps its shields up.”

“You have my Queen and me in Atlantis. They would not attack while we are in your hands.”

“I think they might. They are Wraiths.”

He was silent for a few seconds while staring at me. “Very well. We are quibbling over unimportant things.”

“I agree,” I said. “You may bring two of your Wraiths.”

The screen went dark.

I turned to the people standing behind me. “Colonel, prepare an honor guard; armed to the teeth.”

The Colonel grinned.

“We are going to receive them with courtesy,” I responded to that grin. “Within limits,” I added. “Not that they have a concept of it.” I sighed. “This is going to be strange.”

Stranger still was my very deeply buried happiness at seeing the Wraith.

[Laura Dove]

The more you write, the more I love your story. The wraith commander is so fascinating -- alien and mysterious. The only criticism I have is that I found it a bit confusing to follow what happened when during the 5 years ellipsis, but other than that, your writing is as amazing as always.

[MCH]

As you can see I didn't go away........ like your comment on the Wraith and their worshippers.

The Worshippers give their life and skills to the Wraith, who take it with no feelings or thanks with one hand and return it with the other- the Gift of Life.

But it is a gift that stops them being fully human, they belong totually to the Wraith, heart soul and mind. They cannot imagine a life without the Wraith, I expect they did not go willing from the hive. So life for the Commander worshippers meant they didn't want to survive. To them the worse punishment was to be banished.

Spoiler:

Tyre in Broken Ties. He found it hard outside the hive

Moria,

Spoiler:

she does live but she can only survive by serving first Atlantis, then Elena on her return as she would if she was on the hive. She knows that Elena knows the Commander name. That means power to Elena.
As Todd said to Shepherd in Common Ground I think Shepherd was more like a Wraith than he knows. Maybe Todds observation applies to Elena.

Woo hoo the storm is about to break..... Thank you for two more amazing chapters. MCH

[naamiaiset]

^ they've said it all, and again, I love the descriptions you used.

this part is priceless:

Spoiler:

“I would like to bring two of my scientists with me. Unarmed.”

“You are going to leave your feeding hands behind?”