"I don't think it matters," the Wraith said. He looked deeply relieved himself. "I will start cutting the connectors, just to be sure."
"Yes," Radek said, already snipping wires.
“We are losing life support,” Bronze said.
Waterlight pursed her lips. The ship was shrieking in her mind, bleeding air from twenty wounds, precious fluids leaking into vacuum. Queen Death's hive ship rotated nearby, almost on top of them, point blank range for their weapons. Promised Return was dying.
“We have no choice,” Thorn said in her mind.
“I will not surrender!” Waterlight replied. “What mercy do you think we will find if I do?”
”Not surrender,” Thorn said, the shade of his mind grim. “Grapple and board. It is our only hope.”
Waterlight blinked. Yes, they were within range. And there was a docking port. The umbilicals still responded to her mind. “Grapple and board,” she said. She looked at Bronze, his wild elation tempered with fear held in check. “And give me your knife. We must make this queen to queen.”
The cruiser was responding at last, slower than Eternal had been, but finally willing. Teyla circled back around Atlantis's bulk, surveying viewscreen and tactical displays. Atlantis was surrounded by a swarm of Darts, Death's men and Guide's locked in combat above the shield; beyond the city, Death's hive heeled over, exposing its underside as a second, smaller hive battened onto it. The smaller ship looked familiar — Promised Return, Teyla thought, the young queen Waterlight's hive. It was in no shape to attack, and surely Waterlight didn't have enough men to board — and if she was making the attempt, she must feel she had no choice. Teyla toggled her radio.
"Major Lorne."
"Teyla?" Lorne's voice was tight, but the Pride of the Genii did not seem particularly hard-pressed at the moment.
"I am going to board Death's hive in support of Promised Return," Teyla said, the plan taking shape almost as she spoke. "Can you get a team on board as well?"
"Hold on," General O'Neill said. "Teyla, you don't have enough men to try that."
"Queen Death must be defeated face to face," Teyla said. "This is the best chance, now that Promised Return has begun the attack."
"I have a boarding party ready," a new voice said — Ladon Radim, cool as ever. "Major Lorne says he can deliver us."
"All right," O'Neill said. "We'll keep the other ships off you. Guide! Did you hear that?"
Teyla closed her mind to the acknowledgement, to the rest of the conversation, focused her will to bring the cruiser around again. She could see where the other access port lay, how she would have to turn to come alongside, and the cruiser took the course from her mind, rolling over in response. Teyla touched her radio again. "Dr. Robinson. I want you to take Dr. Zelenka and Ember back to Atlantis."
"No, no," Radek interrupted. "I will stay. The engines —"
"Your cleverman and I are needed here," Ember said, in almost the same moment.
Teyla glanced at the engineering console. They were both right, the engine controls were unstable, and she nodded. "Very well."
"I'd rather stay here myself," Eva Robinson said. She sounded surprisingly calm, under the circumstances. "I'm not really comfortable flying into that mess."
"Very well," Teyla said again. "Lieutenant Sheffield, take your men to the airlock, here. I'll join you as soon as we're alongside."
The cruiser knew its business. It followed her commands almost before she could form them, dodging a drifting ship and a tangle of Darts to come smoothly alongside Death's hive. The grapples fired, pulling the ships together, and Teyla felt the hulls touch, the ports matching smoothly.
"We've got green lights on the airlock," Sheffield reported. "We're through and the corridor is clear."
"Wait for me there," Teyla ordered. She seized her P90 and ran to join them.
Cadman flattened herself against the uneven wall of the hiveship, looked across the corridor to Johnson on point. He lifted his hand to signal all clear, and she swept forward, weapon ready, stopped at the next cross corridor to consult her tablet. The Genii filled in behind her, and Ladon Radim leaned over her shoulder.
"Well?"
"We're here," she said, pointing. They were about at the midpoint of the hive, just astern of the point where it divided around the central opening. "Teyla's further up the right side, I think — she came aboard here. Heading for the control room. I guess the other Wraith are headed that way, too."
Radim nodded. "Join up with her, or take out the engines?"
You're asking me? Cadman swallowed the words, and touched her radio. "Teyla, this is Cadman. Can you hear me?"
There was a moment's silence, and then the familiar voice sounded in her ear. "I hear you, Captain."
"I'm on the hive with Chief Radim and forty men. Do you need support?"
"If you can spare any, yes. But it's crucial that you disable the hyperdrive."
"Copy that," Cadman said. She glanced over her shoulder. "Johnson, Peebles. Chief Radim, can you spare some of your men?"
"Yes." Radim began pointing, sorting out a group, and Cadman took a deep breath.
"Johnson, take these men to join Ms. Emmagan. You're under her command. The rest of you — with me." She touched the radio. "Teyla, I have ten men coming to you."
"Thank you, Captain," Teyla answered.
Cadman looked back at her tablet. It looked as though there was one quick and obvious way to the hive's engineering spaces, and even if the Wraith were waiting for them, she couldn't see a better way. Radim nodded as though he'd read her thought, and pointed to the same corridor.
"This way," he said, and gave her a wry smile. "Sometimes you just have to attack head-on."
"That's what Marines are for, sir," Cadman said. "Johnson! Move out!"
Radek glanced around the cruiser's engine room, squinting in the dim light. About half the consoles were dead, and the others shimmered with caution lights, warning of hull damage and crushed maneuvering vents and dropping power levels throughout the ship. The Wraith — Ember, Teyla had called him — was busy at a secondary console, and a moment later a larger overhead screen lit, showing a series of images from what Radek guessed were the main sensors. Atlantis was still moving toward them, but there were fewer Darts surrounding it, and it looked as though the rest of Death's ships were finally on the defensive.
"What else can we do?" he asked, and Ember glanced at him.
"You see the power drain."
"Yes."
"That is Death's hive, fighting us. We must block it, if we can, or attack in kind."
That made a weird sort of sense, considering that the Wraith ships were in some sense alive, and Radek nodded. "Show me what to do."
There were Wraith ahead of them, Teyla knew, nearly a dozen drones and a pair of blades, but she couldn't pin down the location. Somewhere beyond the next bulkhead, she thought, and waved for Sheffield to slow down. Before she could warn him, however, the bulkhead to her left burst open, and the first pair of drones emerged. Sheffield swung, firing, caught them in the chest; Ramirez, an Atlantis veteran, aimed for the legs, and brought the second pair down kicking, for the next man to finish off. Teyla fired past them, hoping to catch the controlling blades, but they were staying back behind the drones. One of the Marines went down, screaming as a drone fed; the woman behind him leaped to try to rescue him, but another drone batted her aside. She went flying across the corridor and collapsed against the opposite wall. One of the Genii interposed himself, firing his repeating rifle, and then someone hit a blade, and the drones staggered, momentarily uncontrolled. Teyla swung her P90, raking the first rank, and the Marines took out the rest, leaving only bodies. There were still Wraith ahead, Teyla thought, but none alive here.