The Wraith hive ship wails with the unending echo of millennia-long preying upon culled worlds. Family members witnessing one another's demise. Strangers mourning strangers and their own dismal fates. Of late, whole lineages have been silenced. The Wraith are famished.
The hive's drones stand guard over the livestock to keep discipline and rationing while the dumb brutes themselves starve. All wasting away, those too week to resist are cannibalized for the good of the hive. Numbers dwindling, some from the more intelligent class are pressed into service as well.
The queen strokes down the back of her maiden
Wraith worshipper. She leans in to smell
the young woman's hair.
QUEEN: How long have you lived with us?
WORSHIPPER: I think three generations
of my people my queen.
QUEEN: You have served me well in that time.
Alerted me to all insurrections.
All attempts to leave this world on mass.
Already averting her gaze the young
woman looks straight down.
WORSHIPPER: Yes, my queen.
QUEEN: How have you
enjoyed eternal life?
WORSHIPPER: I miss my brothers.
QUEEN: But you could not
persuade them to follow you.
WORSHIPPER: No.
QUEEN: A pity.
Beneath the queen's white fingers the
maiden worshipper begins to tremble from
tears and gently turned by the Wraith's hand.
QUEEN: Perhaps you would
like to see them again?
The young woman smiles at her and
in the next moment the queen begins
to feed. In short order the Wraith takes
back what she had long ago stored away.
She hisses with euphoric satisfaction.
She turns and there John Sheppard
kneels before the queen.
JOHN: Seems like I should have been
on the menu before her.
QUEEN: You will find I hold another
fate in store for you.
A new Wraith enters and bows
with his telepathic message.
QUEEN: Speak.
WRAITH: The last of this world
have been culled.
QUEEN: I disposed of the worshipper.
She cannot be an agent to
oblivion. See to her once you
have secured Major Shepard.
WRAITH: At once, my queen.
JOHN: It's colonel, you know.
JOHN: It's colonel, you know.
He directs two other drones to enter
and take Colonel Shepard away and
remains behind after they leave.
WRAITH: The last of the worshippers?
How will we obtain more?
QUEEN: They are a needless fancy.
The time for subtle methods
are behind us now.
WRAITH: Then why have you
ordered the procedure?
QUEEN: You question me?
WRAITH: I do not understand the orders.
We deplete a world while on the brink
of starvation. And instead of moving on
in search of new feeding grounds
you threaten to defile us.
QUEEN: There are no more.
WRAITH: What could you
mean, my queen?
QUEEN: I mean what has long
been in the coming.
We are finished.
WRAITH: Then feed on Shepard.
Save us, my queen!
QUEEN: Shepard's first blow was
deadly enough to us all.
I see no worlds to cull.
I only see revenge.
WRAITH: What you speak of is to
wound our dignity. You would
make him a runner.
QUEEN: The Pegasus survivors will despise him.
He will be shunned. Perhaps hunted.
WRAITH: And maybe lead us to more of them.
But the practice is prone to decadence
and deviance. To make runners of
humans is too much a luxury.
I advise, the hive may turn.
QUEEN: He is the tormentor of all Wraith.
Tag him and send him through the gate.
WRAITH: At once... my queen.
Her underling leaves.
QUEEN: I will feed. And I will
have it accentuated.
On the operating table, one Wraith holds Colonel Shepard with concentrated telepathy. He is immobilized, but surprised to discover there is no pain. When finished, he is made to sit up and discovers the reason. The queen's advisor stands off with the P-90.
WRAITH: You know what has been done to you?
JOHN: Yeah. Happened to my friend, once.
WRAITH: You will be sent through the gate.
You will not load this before you do.
JOHN: Got it. Thanks... uh, for that.
WRAITH: You will not be given time
to recover. I will not have you spoiled
as a runner. Do not doubt I will
kill you when I see you again.
JOHN: I think the feeling's mutual.
The Wraith hisses a smile.
An honor guard stands before
Shepard at the hive's internal gate.
JOHN: This becoming standard for you guys?
The gate is dialed without an answer.
WRAITH: Normally you'd receive so many days ahead
as dictated by the arrangement. But on this occasion
you will not be able to travel to other worlds.
The wormhole will be maintained.
And given the queen's vendetta
I would not even count
on having one day.
JOHN: I'll keep that in mind.
The wormhole is established and the hive tremors.
Outside, the Daedalus pounds away with their
railguns lest they forfeit Shepard's life.
A radio is on the advisor's person.
CALDWELL: Shepard? If you can hear me,
head through the gate. We'll pick you
up on the surface. Caldwell, out.
Shepard snatches the radio from
the Wraith's belt and runs for the gate.
WRAITH: Seize him!
Colonel Shepard blazes through the honor guard
with the P-90 and disappears through the gate.
Beyond the grasp of conscious thought, Colonel Shepard undergoes a "prolonged" journey. Though a local wormhole, the temporal odyssey always bears the perception of instantaneousness. Now he twists and tumbles and for a fraction of a moment knows the fear of being cast out the side of the wormhole into the endless void, but this will abruptly be forgotten; along with the musing if whether every trip through the gate was similar to the terror of this one.
Out the other side, Shepard is thrown 12 feet from the gate and grazed by stunner fire. He is chilled to the bone, flash frozen. Awake and on his feet, his left leg is numb and eyes cloud as they rest on the event horizon. Whereas Shepard thought he was being sent back to the forested surface of the planet the hive had been in orbit over, now he finds himself on a vast desert plain of stony red earth.
CALDWELL: Shepard? Shepard, where are you?
Three Wraith soldiers come through the gate. Shepard drops to a knee and shoots in single-fire, aiming for their heads. He misses badly from the stunner blast creeping over him, threatening grave unconsciousness. But finally each foe is felled by a couple bullets without an ounce of regenerative reserve. The Colonel waits a moment for more.
JOHN: I'm through the gate.
It didn't send me to the surface.
The connection isn't local.
CALDWELL: Colonel Shepard, be advised.
We have confirmed the connection
to be local. You must be somewhere
on the surface. Identify your position.
JOHN: No. This is all wrong.
It doesn't look right.
CALDWELL: We are still engaging the hive
and trying to find a way to beam the remaining
people out. They are jamming our signal.
JOHN: Heads up, Colonel. They're desperate.
I saw the queen feed on a worshipper. I don't think
they intend to leave any survivors this time for later.
they intend to leave any survivors this time for later.
CALDWELL: Acknowledged. We'll continue to try
to get a fix on your position. Caldwell, out.
A lone drone wanders through the gate,
dropped by Shepard and falls back to
be half enveloped by the horizon.
Shepard rises from his crouched position and
begins to limp away from the gate to a low-lying ridge.
At a distance now, an untold number of Wraith
pour through and fire on Shepard's position.
He is still climbing the face of the slope
to reach greater cover on the other side.
There is static over his radio.
The attempted message doesn't come through.
Shepard reaches the top
and lies across the other side.
JOHN: This is Colonel Shepard, come in.
No reply.
Two Wraith darts burst through
the gate and scream into the sky.
JOHN: Daedalus, darts! I need some kind
of air support or I'm not going to make it.
The darts fix on Colonel Shepard for a steep dive,
but then bank straight up far out of sight.
COMMANDER: Colonel Shepard, do you
require assistance?
JOHN: Who is this?
COMMANDER: We're sending you a Kodiak.
Stand-by.
JOHN: What's a Kodiak?
Two meteors streak across the sky
and the wreckage crashes miles
from the stargate.
A shuttle descends in their wake
and proceeds to land near Shepard.
A dozen or so fully armored soldiers
pour out from the small craft and begin
to lay down covering fire to keep the
Wraith at bay who by now have taken
cover at the base of the ridge.
One notable addition to the team is a large
toad with a blue crest who barrels toward
John, scoops him and delivers him inside
the shuttle where they squeeze in the cramped
compartment and take off to leave the
Wraith behind in the desert dust.
COMMANDER: I'm Commander Sheppard.
And I want to know what I
just saved you from.
JOHN: Did you see my ship
or their ship in orbit?
COMMANDER: There's no one else here
but us and whoever's coming
through that wormhole.
JOHN: I'm sorry, Commander.
I'm a little confused about
where I am. Who are you?
where I am. Who are you?
COMMANDER: We're from Earth.
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