“Fenrir,” said the Queen, noting without comment that the human female Teyla — the one whose genetic matrix had been marked by one of the other clans — stood behind him. She had been slightly disappointed when the woman had not been given to her as the other humans had; but it was becoming clear to the Queen that the Asgard viewed these lessers as some sort of pets. Perhaps this Teyla was his favorite…
“I will hear what you wish to say to me,” said the Asgard, without preamble. “Under truce, as you requested.”
The Queen gave the scientist a sideways glance and he nodded. Everything was proceeding as she had expected it would. “I will speak to Fenrir,” she replied. “Only to Fenrir.”
“Whatever you have to say can be heard by Teyla Emmagan,” said the Asgard. “In the interests of balance, I will hear you both.”
The Queen flicked at a long, talon-like nail. “Very well. But I will not address you from a distance. If I must speak to you in this manner, it will only be face to face.”
“I cannot accommodate you,” retorted the spindly humanoid. “I can communicate only through this avatar —”
“And I have only the word of a simulation that it is indeed the real Fenrir!” Her voice rose. “I trust nothing,” she continued, “only the evidence of my own eyes. Face to face, Asgard, or you will never know what I have to offer you.”
There was a long moment when the image froze, and briefly the Queen entertained the thought that she might have misread the little alien’s emotional state; but then Fenrir’s avatar flickered and changed, nodding once. “Very well,” it replied, “but none other than you.”
“That is all that will be needed,” she noted. The screen went black and she turned quickly to the scientist. “You know what to do. No thrusters, use only —”
The rest of her command disappeared into the humming rush of a teleport discharge.
Teyla watched the Queen bow stiffly toward the Asgard and in turn Fenrir’s avatar inclined its head. She stood nearby and did nothing, never taking her eyes off the alien female. Her nostrils twitched; the moment the Wraith appeared in the teleporter flash, she had detected the faint odor of blood — but Wraith blood, not human. She wondered what might have transpired on the Hive Ship and fought down the desire to shout out and demand to know the fate of Sheppard, Carter and the others.
“Speak,” said the avatar.
The Wraith Queen glanced casually at the Risar standing about the chamber and walked toward the cryogenic capsule. “Fascinating technology,” she began. “Your flesh-form is in suspended animation, yes? And yet you are capable of communication through this instrumentality,” she nodded at the holograph, “and these organic drones. Your knowledge is far superior to ours. We Wraith are utterly dormant when we enter a slumbering state.”
“I will not grant you that technology,” Fenrir replied. “The Asgard do not share their knowledge with strangers.”
“But you shared it with the humans,” she noted. “And ‘the Asgard’? Do you mean the High Council, Fenrir?”
Teyla saw his dark eyes narrow at the mention of his peers.
The Queen continued. “They are dead, my friend. All that is Asgard exists here now.” She chuckled. “You can decide what is and is not to be shared, or with whom.”
“The Wraith want only to feed and to rule,” snapped Teyla, no longer able to remain silent. “Anything you give them will be turned to that goal!”
To her surprise, the Queen gave a slight nod. “The human is almost correct. Yes, we do seek superiority, but only against our enemies. We wish to end our war with the Asurans, the Replicators. You could help us do that. With this ship.” She licked her lips. “With the isa device.”
“How do you know of that?” Fenrir demanded. The Risar mumbled the same words beneath their breath, coming forward in a threatening manner.
“Does it matter? The humans were careless. I know that you have the power to blind suns. If you granted that to my clan, we would be able to wipe out the Asurans in weeks.” She inclined her head. “Think of it, Fenrir. The Replicators, the scourge of galaxies, finally wiped out forever! Is that not fitting?” The Queen came closer, her voice thickening with venom. “After all that they took from you, after all the destruction they wrought across the worlds of your kind, is it not right that a child of Asgard extinguishes their blighted kind from the universe?”
Fenrir’s image trembled. “I… Am the last…”
“You cannot give them the collapsar!” cried Teyla. “Once they have destroyed the Asurans, what then? Will the Wraith stand down, or will they use your technology to plunder? The hunt… The cull is all they know!” She moved toward the avatar. “Pegasus will burn in their wake, and no life will be safe from them. They will claw across the void and pillage every world they find.”
“We have no interest in empires!” snarled the Queen. “Only justice for our dead and an end to the Replicator menace!”
“She lies!”
“And she is afraid!”
“You will both be silent,” growled Fenrir. “I… Have made my choice.” He wandered to the oval screen, where a vast intergalactic map was displayed, a red line showing the course the Aegis had taken on its penal cruise, from the Othala star cluster, through the Kalium and Andromeda galaxies to distant Pegasus. The Asgard seemed lost in the image. “My world is dead. My people gone. There is nothing here for me now.”
With those words, Teyla sensed some terrible fraction of the distance in Fenrir’s heart, and it robbed her of her breath.
On the screen, the red line extended, moving up and away into the starless void between galaxies, projecting a course into an infinite dark. “You will both be put off my vessel. I will leave this quadrant of space and never return.” He paused. “I want nothing more to do with war. Perhaps I will find solace in other places… Other universes…”
“A pity,” said the Wraith, glancing at the Athosian. “That was not the answer I had hoped for. But in truth, I suspected the human cattle might have swayed you.”
“Fenrir’s choice was his own!” Teyla retorted.
“Do not attempt to employ force against me,” warned Fenrir. “My Risar have completed repairs on the weapons systems of the Aegis. I can disable your Hive Ship with a single command.”
The Queen gave a long, staged sigh. “Yes, I noted the damage to your vessel… I wonder what systems still do not function? Matter transporters? Force shields?” She grinned. “Internal sensors?”
“What do you mean?” Teyla whirled as the oval screen morphed into a display of the ship’s interior; as before, may parts were still blacked out.
“I took advantage of your weakness, Asgard,” she purred. “While we have spoken, my clan has inserted clusters of warriors aboard this ship.”
“I have detected nothing. This is a bluff.”
The Queen wandered toward the centre of the room, the Risar moving to encircle her. “Believe that if you wish. But the reality is, my clan will not let this ship or its bounty slip from our grasp. We are going to take the Aegis, with or without you.” She reached down and undid her tunic as she spoke, pressing at a bulge in her stomach. “This prize will ensure our mastery of all Wraith…”
In the depths of Teyla’s mind there was a sudden jolt of pure, black emotion, resonating out from the thoughts of the Queen. “No —”
“That victory,” said the alien, “is worth any sacrifice.” With a strangled yell, she twisted the knot of flesh in her gut and leapt toward the cryogenic capsule.