Seldom-Seen opened his eyes. He looked haggard, as if in pain. Probably he was; the hive was still protesting its injuries strongly enough that even Guide felt it like a faint discordant whine in the back of his mind, and he was far less attuned to its moods. For Seldom-Seen, the damage to the hive probably felt like an open wound. *What do you want, Guide?*
*What do you know about the Asuran sensor capabilities?*
*A reasonable amount,* Seldom-Seen said. He shook his head as if trying to clear it and raised one hand from the neural contacts, although he left the other one in place. *What do you want to know?*
*Suppose I wanted to conceal several darts and men aboard a Lantean freighter and make it appear to be abandoned,* Guide said. *At what range would the Asurans be able to tell we weren’t what we appeared to be?*
Seldom-Seen put his head to one side, considering. There was little resemblance between Seldom-Seen and his sister in the cast of their features, but despite that, for a moment he looked very much like Snow. *They’d have to be fairly close to detect the men,* he said. *Close enough to pick up thermal variations within the ship, or to pick up audio that made it clear there were people aboard. But the darts are made of different materials than a freighter. Reasonable enough for cargo, but their shapes will be distinctive on any kind of scan.*
*What can we do about it?*
The light of interest kindled in Seldom-Seen’s eyes despite his discomfort. He had made a particular study of all forms of concealment, not only those that used his own individual gift. *A number of things,* he said. *For concealing the men, you’ll either need to lower their apparent body temperatures — a protective suit with cooling features would do it — or surround them with warmer objects to confuse the thermal imagery. Audio is even easier to mask with a white noise generator. I can build you what you need.*
*And the darts?*
*You’re going to need to break up their silhouettes. Cover them in similar materials to create different shapes, and surround them with a variety of cargo if you can. The more confusing the sensor readouts are, the more time you can buy.* He chewed on one claw thoughtfully. *Let me talk to Spark,* he said. *If we know what particular features of darts the Asuran sensors are designed to look for, we may be able to actually make some structural alterations that will slow them down in identifying what they’re seeing as darts. The Asurans may be complicated machines, but they’re still machines. They’re slower than we are at pattern recognition.*
Guide sensed hesitation behind his words. *But?*
*But I can only buy you time. No matter what you do, they’ll see through the deception eventually. And you’ll never be able to use the same trick again.*
*Time is what I need,* Guide said. *If Spark isn’t exaggerating what he can do.*
*Spark doesn’t usually exaggerate.* Seldom-Seen shook his head at Guide’s expression. *He tells the truth about what he can do. He’s just not modest. Or tactful. But he’s very, very good.*
*You actually like him.*
*Yes, I do. I think he’s good for the hive. And good for the other clevermen, even when he sets them on their ears. It means they stretch themselves trying to keep up with him.*
*You support him as Consort, then?*
Seldom-Seen looked as if he were choosing his words with great care. *I would like to see this matter settled,* he said finally. *Without anyone leaving the hive. You won’t find another specialist in the physical sciences as good as Spark. But there’s not another blade aboard who men will follow the way they’ll follow you.* He shrugged. *And if you go, your cousin Seeker will go, and we haven’t got another specialist in the biological sciences who can match him.*
*I don’t want anyone to leave the hive.*
*Don’t you?*
Guide dug his claws into his palms, but the answer was the same as before. The good of the hive came first. *No.*
*Then maybe it won’t come to that.* Seldom-Seen put his head to one side again in that expression so much like Snow’s. *He’d make a useful ally, if the two of you ever stopped wanting to kill each other.*
*As Master of Sciences Physical?*
Seldom-Seen shrugged. *He’d be good at the job. And that would leave Seeker for Master of Sciences Biological — *
*And you as Hivemaster.*
*Which would leave you Consort.*
*With your support?*
*I would support an alliance of the three of you,* Seldom-Seen said very carefully.
*An alliance of the four of us would be unbreakable. Who would dare challenge us?*
*No one. But allying myself with rivals who are at each other’s throats is less attractive. Work out who’s going to be Consort, don’t get Spark and Seeker killed on this lunatic mission, and you have my support, for what it’s worth.*
*The support of the Hivemaster is worth a great deal.*
Seldom-Seen nodded, acknowledging that. *Then bring them back alive.*
The cargo ship looked persuasively like a heap of junk. Spark prowled around the echoing cargo bay, hoping that its pitted doors would remain intact until they reached their destination and then open when they needed them. The queen would be unamused if they failed at their mission because they had to blast their way out of their own ship.
*I trust that won’t be necessary,* Snow said, stepping through the cargo bay doors. Spark swept a bow, inwardly kicking himself for having been so absorbed in his preparations that he hadn’t noticed the queen’s approach.
*I’m sure it won’t,* he said.
*How sure?*
*You can rely on me,* he said. He looked around, shaking his head at the ship. He found Lantean technology interesting — it had taken skill for them to build spaceworthy ships out of dead metal alone, without any of the biotechnology that made a hive ship live and grow. And their power systems were still worlds beyond anything the Wraith could possibly match.
But this was not a battleship, fueled by a ZPM and fitted out with the flower of Lantean technology. Even in the days when the Lanteans had dominated the galaxy, this had never been more than a workhorse freighter, entrusted to some human pilot to ferry grain or ore between worlds more easily than it could be moved through a Stargate. It had been abandoned on a world that had been heavily culled; the few humans who lived there now made their living scavenging in the wreckage, and had no interest in spaceships.
*But you can make it fly?* Snow asked, following his thoughts.
*I can make it fly.*
Spark turned his attention to the dart, considering it critically. They’d modified the nose and the wings considerably, making its general shape blunter but adding jagged spikes that broke up its clean lines. The result was an aesthetic nightmare, and wouldn’t handle as well as an unmodified dart, but it should take the Asurans a few precious minutes to recognize it with certainty as Wraith.
The other two darts were already in their storage containers, boxy and hard-lined as the Lanteans and most humans preferred, and filled with the same materials that made up the darts themselves. It should buy them time. He wished he knew how much.
*And conceal our presence?*
*I’ve modified the hull and the interior bulkheads to mask our thermal signatures. It will be uncomfortably hot, but not harmful. Seldom-Seen’s devices will mask our sound, although we should try not to make noise. It should work.*
Snow ran her hand over the new angles of the dart’s wing. *You’re not just saying this to impress me.*
*I’m saying it because it’s true.*
*And are you doing all this to impress me?*
*Which answer would you prefer?* he replied. He refrained from saying that it was unlikely to matter, as odds were none of them were coming back.
*The truth,* she said.
*I’m doing it because it’s our best ch
ance,* he said. *And to impress you.*
Snow smiled a little. It softened the sharp lines of her face, and he dared to catch at her sleeve, offering her his mental picture of the two of them together, lightning flashing in the distance through silently drifting snow.
*Spark,* she said, freeing her sleeve running her claws across the back of his hand. *You don’t really want to be Consort.*
*Yes, I do.*
*To spend all your time overseeing the dart wings and mediating quarrels between bickering blades? That would be a waste of your talents.*
*There are hives with clevermen as Consorts. It’s been done.*
*I’m not afraid of doing things that haven’t been done before,* Snow said. *But think it through. How much time would you have for your laboratory, your work? What chance would you have to experiment? Other people’s quarrels tire you.*
*My own quarrels tire me,* Spark admitted. It was entertaining to bait Guide, and sometimes irresistible, but they were locked now in a rivalry as wearying as a stalemated game of Towers; he could hold his own, but saw no way to secure the victory.
*You don’t want to be Consort.*
*No,* he said slowly. *But I want you.*
*And if I chose to make my most troublesome pallax Master of Sciences Physical?*
*I would accept, of course.*
*It would displease me were you to leave the hive.* Were he to leave her, he thought she meant. Or at least hoped.
*Then wish us luck,* he said.
Guide slid into the control chair of the human ship with distaste; it was no pleasure to fly such a vessel, but its operation was clear enough. The controls were simple enough for even the human pets of the Lanteans to master.
Spark and Seeker were quarreling without heat, and had been doing so since they came aboard, in what he supposed was their way of working out their nerves. It did nothing for his own, and he tried his best to ignore them.
*And where is the other man you promised to bring?* Seeker said. *If you believe me to be an expert at computer programming, you are mistaken.*
*I thought you considered yourself an expert on everything,* Spark said. *But all you have to do is input the code when I tell you to. The hard part will be dealing with whatever security they have protecting the main core, and Glisten is coming to help me with that. He’s on his way.*
*He is not,* Snow said, stepping through the hatchway from the cargo compartment. She was dressed for battle, in a long leather coat that came only to her ankles instead of sweeping the floor, a stunner belted at her side. *I am here instead.*
Seeker spoke as Guide was still rising from his seat in shock. *Surely you don’t mean to come with us.*
Her eyes were on Spark. *Will I not serve as well as your man?*
*You are as good a programmer,* he said, and then seemed entirely at a loss for how to continue. His own eyes sought Guide’s, as if even the most unlikely of allies might help him at that moment.
*You can’t,* Guide said.
Snow turned on him at once, and he felt the force of her mind bearing him down like crushing ice. He staggered, struggling to resist sinking to his knees. *Will you now instruct your queen?*
*No,* he said hoarsely. The pressure eased a fraction, and he went down to his knees voluntarily at her feet, turning his face up to her. *I am yours to command. Always, until death. But our queen is the life of the hive.* He shook his head, his eyes on her face. *What will this victory profit us if you die achieving it? It will be the end of the hive as surely as if we failed.*
*But not the end of the Wraith,* Snow said. *If the Asurans are not stopped, they will consume us to the last man, and feast on our bones. They will achieve what the Lanteans could not — to wipe the Wraith from the face of the galaxy as if we had never been.* She raised her chin and walked fearlessly to the command chair, not a desperate girl now, but a great queen, at peace with the road that lay before her. *If that is our fate, we will buy the lives of our brothers and sisters, and they will remember our names.*
He turned his face away, unable to speak, and she reached to touch his cheek. *My Guide,* she said, in a tone that she had not before used when anyone else could hear. *And my clever lords of the zenana. If I lost you all, what hope would there be for the hive even if I lived?* She let her hand fall, and the touch of her mind was a steadying wind, now, bearing him up on its cold wings as he stood. *But I do not mean for us to die.*
He stepped back and bowed low, motioning her to take the command chair. *My queen.*
Snow settled into the chair, arranging the skirts of her coat around her. *Let us go,* she said, and touched the controls that would set their course for Asuras.
There was little to do on the journey, and Seeker found that it was indeed uncomfortably hot. Once they reached the outer edges of the Asurans home system, Spark forbade all unnecessary movement, even shifting away from overheated bulkheads and interior furnishings. *Seldom-Seen’s devices are good, but let’s not push them.*
Snow cut their thrust at what Spark judged to be the outer limits of the Asurans’ sensor range, and left them drifting on a course that would bring them within dart range of Asuras. Guide stood, ignoring Spark’s glare, and went back to the cargo hold to ensure that the pilots were ready. Seeker followed, glad of any excuse to move about, and Spark narrowed his eyes.
The pilots were stationed by their darts, ready for the signal to pull away the crating that surrounded them and prepare them for flight. Seeker exchanged a measuring glance with Thunder, and a more neutral one with Obsidian, who he barely knew. The third was Flicker, and Seeker winced to see that his left eye was still clouded and misshapen.
*I doubt he has full vision,* he said to Guide, keeping the thought firmly between the two of them.
*The dart can compensate,* Guide said just as privately. *And who else would you have me choose?*
Seeker gestured acknowledgment of the point; they had few enough choices left, and Guide was the best judge of his remaining men. Still, he hoped for another pilot himself.
*We’re coming into sensor range,* Snow said, and they all froze; despite trusting Seldom-Seen’s devices, Seeker found himself reluctant to breathe.
Guide’s expression was watchful, as if counting off the seconds until they came into dart range. Seeker could only wait, trying to resist the temptation to chew his claws.
*Still no sign of Asuran activity,* Spark said. *Maybe — no, here they come.*
*I see it,* Snow said. *A small ship moving toward us at no great speed.*
*They haven’t recognized us as Wraith,* Spark said in satisfaction.
*Yet,* Guide said. *Ready the darts.*
*Once you do, we’ve lost the element of surprise.*
*Guide is right,* Snow said. *There is no more time. We cannot risk being discovered before we launch the darts.*
The blades were already moving, stripping the casing away from the darts. Snow came through the hatchway from the bridge, followed by Spark, as the pilots climbed into their darts and closed the canopies.
*I’ve modified each of our stunners to use a different energy signature,* Spark said. *You’ll get two or three good shots apiece, no more. After that, the Asurans will adapt.*
*We know,* Guide said. He nodded to his pilots. *You know what to do.*
Seeker stiffened against his will. He had seen the culling beams used many times, but never experienced them himself, and he flinched at the prospect despite knowing he would feel nothing while in the pattern buffer until he reached the surface. If he ever reached the surface. To die without ever being aware of it, to be energy and then to be nothing —
The culling beam touched him, and then he was in an unfamiliar corridor, with high bright walls of blue glass that looked out over a vast city. Far above, a dart was pulling out of a dive, i
ts wings flashing against blue sky. He let out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding and turned to look for their target.
The Asuran city was cold and painfully bright. Guide shivered in the sudden chill as he looked around. The others were all there, although Seeker looked unsteady and Snow bemused. He doubted anyone had ever risked using the culling beams on the queen before.
Spark bounced on his heels with what might have been either eagerness or nerves, his thoughts crackling like his namesake. *This way,* he said, and set off up the nearest stairs.
Snow flanked him with Seeker a step behind, and Guide followed to cover their rear. Once they halted on a landing, frozen by the sound of footsteps in the corridor beyond, but no one came to investigate.
*We don’t have much time,* Spark said. *They’re going to run an internal scan eventually and notice that we’re here.*
Guide could feel Snow’s frown. *How much farther?*
*The next landing,* Spark said, and they hurried their pace.
At the next landing, Snow looked out and pronounced the corridor clear. *Which way?*
*Straight across,* Spark said.
They crossed into a room flooded with colored light. High windows bathed the room in blue, and the Asuran computer core glowed like a fire, plated in many-colored glass. Whether that served some function or was their idea of ornament, he didn’t know, and now wasn’t the time for curiosity. *Get to work.*
The walls were lined with computer consoles, and Spark approached one at once, with Snow following at a second station. Seeker took up a third, running his fingers dubiously over the input device. *What do you want me to do?*
Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis - Far Horizons Page 20
