“I don’t know why you need my statement on this Sam. I wasn’t even in the room when this happened. Do you have any idea what a colossal waste of my time it is to be in here right now when I could be working on the replicator coding. Which apparently, I’m going to be doing on my own again for the foreseeable future, because something is wrong with the wraith. I mean, I’m not saying I couldn’t do it by myself, but his contributions do speed things along, any word on when medical is going to release him?” ~ Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, interview excerpt.

It started out like a normal day on Atlantis. Or, what passed for normal anyway. The sun glittered off the spires as the city’s occupants began to arise from their rest and start their day. AR-1 didn’t have any off world missions planned for the day, but John still rose at 5 am for his morning workout, followed by a run with Ronon. Teyla meditated, drank her morning brew of tea and headed down to the gym area for a warm up, then sparred with Major Lorne. Rodney, lifted his head from the keyboard where he’d fallen asleep only a few hours prior, the wraith’s low chuckle causing him to look up in alarm.

He breathed easy at the sight of the four marine’s stationed in the room, their weapons held at guard as the wraith merrily typed away at the nanite coding, a length of heavy chain connected a steel manacle to the steel leg of the desk where he stood.

“Damnit,” he muttered, his heartrate returning to normal. “Your voice is not the first thing I want to hear in the morning.”

“You insisted you could remain alert in the lab with enough of your coffee,” the wraith rasped out. A not so subtle hint that he had nothing to replenish his own energy stores, and a pointed reminder that Rodney had not been able to stay awake.

“Well, I guess coffee is no substitute for wraith endurance,” McKay sighed, pushing himself away from the keyboard. He waved a hand at the wraith, who for some reason had evaded Sheppard’s habit of giving them names. The wraith backed away from his non networked terminal, the chain clinking and growing taut as he walked to the farthest length he could reach. The marines vigilantly kept their eyes trained on the wraith as he moved.

McKay hadn’t noticed how security had loosened around the wraith in tiny increments over the weeks he had been working with them on the anti-Asuran coding, but he had noticed how it had tightened back up since their return from Earth and the “accident” which had resulted in the death of Henry Wallace and the wraith’s improved mood.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

He knew he should feel bad the man had died under the wraith’s palm, but he still remembered Jeannie’s terror with the knowledge that the nanites in her body would erase her brain to cure a medical condition she had safely managed her whole life. It was hard to feel sorry for the man who had caused that to happen to her. The memory of bringing a hammer down and breaking his own sister’s legs to keep the nanites busy caused a scowl to cross his face. It was very hard to feel bad about it.

McKay plugged a flashdrive into the terminal and ran the antivirus programs stored inside to make sure the wraith hadn’t slipped a virus into the code. Red lights flashed across the screen as it flagged some suspicious codes, just as it always did. The wraith always tried to sneak something through. McKay would have been worried if there hadn’t been an attempt. He quarantined the suspicious code, and unplugged the tablet, copying the work over to a blank one. He plugged the new tablet into the wraith’s terminal and waved him back over.

He yawned and placed the tablet onto the table next to his own terminal, he would go through the wraith’s code, make sure that no viruses remained, then upload it into the current configuration, run the antivirus software again, before he could add it to the live code. The wraith was almost as smart as McKay himself, but working with him was an absolute pain due to the security requirements. The wraith’s chain clinked as he returned to his terminal and continued his coding.

Neither of them paid much attention when Katie Brown came into the lab, wheeling a cart full of plants and enough cups of hot coffee for all the humans in the room. She left the cart near the door, well outside the painted line on the floor which marked the farthest reach of the wraith if he was at the farthest length of his chain. The four marines came one by one to take the proffered cups, while their comrades remained alert. McKay remained oblivious, although at one point the wraith looked up and watched a marine make his way back across the room with his insulated cup.

She took the cup she had prepared for McKay and carried it gently over to his terminal.

“You look like you could use this,” she proffered the cup to him. He did his best not to squeal when he jumped out of his skin.

“Katie! What are you doing here?” he demanded. His look of anger quickly faded as her bright expression faltered. A weary smile flitted over his face. He took her arm, leading her back to the door and guiding her into his personal office. “Sorry, it’s not you, but you know the labs aren’t safe right now, what with our guest and all.”

“Rodney,” she replied with some exasperation. “Atlantis is never safe.”

The door closed behind them with a definitive click.