“Will you not stay and talk with me a little?” Waterlight asked. “Surely if you name me sister…”
Her head whipped around at the same moment as Steelflower’s, both their ships registering surprise at the same moment, Thorn’s a millisecond later.
“There is another hive ship coming out of hyperspace,” Thorn said. He turned to look at Steelflower, his voice as dry as ever. “Perhaps it is Queen Death, and you may show me your alliance.”
Waterlight gulped.
The third blade reported very correctly. “There is a transmission coming in. Shall I put it on the screen here?”
“Yes,” Waterlight said, her back straight as Steelflower’s beside her, the human crouching at her knees, almost touching her leg. “Sister,” she said.
“I do not fear her,” Steelflower whispered. “And neither must you.”
The image on the screen resolved. Not Queen Death as she had feared, but an older blade, his face seamed with age, a star tattoo about one eye. For a moment, a moment only, he hesitated, seeing the queens together. “My beloved queen,” he said, dropping his head in deep respect. “I have come to rendezvous with you as you directed. It is my honor to serve you, and my pleasure to see that you are well.”
Steelflower did not blink. “My dear Guide,” she said evenly. “You are as always the model consort.”
“Four hundred men,” Thorn said tightly. “We are reading four hundred men aboard your hive, and shields are raised. Is this how you bring alliance?”
“Guide is tender of my safety,” Steelflower said. “And sometimes overzealous. Guide, drop your shields immediately so that Queen Waterlight may see that I intend no betrayal.” So intent was she upon her consort that perhaps she did not even notice that the human’s hand had tightened on her ankle.
For a moment Guide hesitated as though he would not obey, but then he bent his head in deep respect again. “As Queen Steelflower requires,” he said.
“Shields are dropping,” Bronze said at the sensors.
Steelflower looked at Waterlight. “I thought it best if I came to talk to you alone, rather than with Guide and a full hive. I thought that would seem as though I wished to intimidate you, rather than speak as queen to queen. And so I asked my consort to follow after. But I fear he values me rather too much, and did not wait as long as I said.”
Waterlight’s eyes were shining. “What other would do as you do?” she asked, “To come alone and speak with me as kin, when you might have had me beneath your guns and simply demanded my compliance?”
“That would be the act of an enemy, not a sister,” Steelflower said.
“Then gladly I name you sister and ally,” Waterlight said.
“As I name you,” Steelflower replied.
“My Queen?” Guide said. “Will you not come aboard your ship?”
“I would prefer to travel aboard the Eternal,” Steelflower said coolly. “Come to me there and make your report.”
“As my queen wishes,” he said, and the transmission ended.
“I must return to my ship,” Steelflower said to Waterlight. “I would hope that we may yet speak further, but it seems my consort is eager to speak with me. No doubt some matter has arisen he feels needs my attention.”
“Of course,” Waterlight said.
Guide met them in the corridor outside the docking port, and there were many expressions of respect all around, Thorn to Guide, Waterlight to Steelflower, before the portal closed and they stood within the skin of the cruiser Eternal, Steelflower, Guide, and the human John Sheppard.
Guide watched as the portal iris closed, and the cruiser disconnected from the Promised Return, floating free between the two hive ships.
“What in the hell is going on here?” Sheppard demanded.
“I was about to say the same thing,” Guide echoed.
“I am surprised you ask,” Teyla said, turning to Guide, her long coat like a blade’s swirling around her. “Since you are the one who told me where Colonel Sheppard was.”
“This was not what I had thought Carter would do,” Guide began. “It is…”
“Wait.” Sheppard held a hand up. “Todd, you told Teyla where I was?”
“I told Colonel Carter where you were,” he corrected. “Though I had no doubt that she would share that information with the Young Queen. And that she would take steps to insure your release.” He swung back to Teyla. “What are you playing at with Waterlight and Thorn? Do you have any idea the stinger’s nest you are getting into?”
“Wait,” Sheppard said again.
Guide stopped, his eyes on his face. “Yes?”
“Thanks.” Sheppard was disheveled and dirty, but his back was straight and his eyes level. “I appreciate it.”
Guide huffed, almost a laugh. “It was nothing, I believe the expression is.” He shook his head, turning back toward Teyla, looming a foot over her, and yet she looked as though it didn’t even occur to her to step back, unarmed and inches from his feeding hand. “But this masquerade is unexpected, and throws all into disarray.” He shook his head again. She was Steelflower to the core, and though he knew it was false he could not fail to respond to her as though she were the Queen she pretended. She might wear a human body, but there was no mistaking the strength of mind that dwelled within. Were she Wraith indeed, she might have been a great queen. “I do not know what you hope to gain.”
“Besides Colonel Sheppard’s release?” She lifted her head, her beautiful hair rippling at the movement in the soft shiplight. “We have tried and failed to gain access to Dr. McKay. Perhaps Steelflower can prevail where Teyla Emmagan failed.”
“Not now that you have now branded yourself enemy to Queen Death!” Guide snapped, not disguising the fear in his mind, not from her. “And myself as well! Do you not see that this is the cruiser Eternal, and now Thorn knows so as well, he and all his crew? This is one of Death’s ships.”
“Not any longer,” Teyla said, her chin rising proudly. “It met with an accident.”
“And I shall have to explain to Queen Death why my queen is raiding her scoutships!” Guide exploded. “She will hear of it, and then she will want your head!”
“She can come and get it,” Teyla said.
“And she will not have to look far for mine, or that of my men!” Guide snapped. “But that is nothing to you. We are Wraith. If you were Steelflower, you would have a care for the men of your own that you thus condemn to death.” He stalked away, finding some respite in motion that took him away from her. “You will disappear again, and I shall dwell with your folly. I gave you all you needed to do this cleanly, as I did with McKay!”
“You didn’t tell us McKay was Wraith,” Sheppard said.
“I did not know that,” Guide snapped. “Do you think that I am Death’s Consort, to be privy to all her secrets? I have gone too far as it is.”
“And not far enough,” Teyla said, taking a step after him, her hand rising as though she meant to take his wrist. She glanced back at Sheppard, her golden eyes inscrutable. “We cannot be half allies, Guide, as we have tried to be.”
He swung around wondering what madness she and Sheppard had concocted between them, but Sheppard looked as baffled as he.
Her hand closed on his wrist, her mind touch firm and strong as a queen’s, intimate as a lover’s, not compelling but simply persuading him of her honesty. “We must be allies or enemies, Guide.” Her eyes held his. “Queen Death will destroy us all if we do not stand together against her.”
“Allies?”
“All of our counters unmasked on the board,” she said.
He looked at Sheppard behind her. “And you think I will believe that you will put all your counters on the board?”
“As much as you will,” Sheppard said.