Atlantis Dreaming

happiness

Happiness
Something new and unknown
Such a strange feeling
Filled with joy and
Happiness

It had been eight days since I had arrived at Atlantis, and I was starting to feel comfortable. Everyone had been so welcoming. Elizabeth had allowed me space to re-acclimatise to my newfound freedom from the wraith. Teyla helped me with clothing. Carson had helped me with sleeping pills when I couldn't sleep through the night. Rodney tried to teach me all about galaxies. John showed me how to use their weapons and to work in a team. And Ronon.... Ronon had been amazing.

He had given me a private tour of the city, and had been there when the sleeping pills couldn't keep the nightmates at bay. He had sparred with me daily and shielded me from curious looks in the cafeteria. He had declined going on any new missions with his team while I was still getting settled. He was also there when I finally spoke to Elizabeth again about my background.

We were in the conference room again. Ronon sat beside me, with Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Teyla and Carson sitting opposite. It was incredibly intimidating, but I felt better with Ronon beside me. He hadn't asked me any questions during the while week. When I'd asked him why, he said the past didn't matter anymore, and there was no point in dwelling on that which we couldn't change.

Elizabeth cleared her throat and leant forward. "Alkira, last time you were telling us about the wraith, how they came to your planet, Ketiva. Would you care to continue?"

"Right, of course." I nervously rubbed my hands up and down my thighs. "Well, I'd been training with my father's soldiers since I was ten, so of course I wanted to fight with them. Father refused and tried to hide me in our basement. I was so stubborn and determined that I escaped, found some weapons and armour and started fighting back. I caught the attention of one of the wraith and he... he subdued and captured me. The last thing I saw was Ketiva burning."

Ronon reached out and squeezed my hand, giving me the strength to continue. "When I woke up, I was on a wraith hive ship. They... they beat me, they fed upon me. Fed upon me until I was nearly drained then they would return my years to me. When I was considered compliant, they took me to have a tracker inserted. They attempted this several times before they succeeded."

Rodney leaned forward. "What do you mean? Why did it take them so long to put a tracker in?"

"Because, there were more items to be used as weapons in the insertion room. I fought back." I smirked at the look of disbelief on his face. "Once they had the tracker in, they tried to make me run."

"Tried?" Telya tilted her head to one side.

"They had nothing to motivate me, for a while. My family was gone, my home was gone, I didn't have anything left to fight for." I swallowed past the lump in my throat, grateful for Ronon's warm presence beside me. "Once they figured out beating me wouldn't work, they began to threaten other worlds. They told me that if I ran for them, if I made an interesting game for them, that they would not slaughter whole planets, but just take what they needed to survive. I believed them for the first couple of years, until I learnt that if I allowed people to help me, they got hurt. Then I discovered that they were still slaughtering planets, just not while I was there. I refused to play the game like they wanted. I began killing every wraith I could, whether they were hunting me or not. They never caught me. I'm twenty-four now."

There was silence as I finished speaking. It seemed like no-one really knew what to say. I glanced at Ronon to see him smiling, fierce and proud, and smiled back.

"Was there a stargate on Ketiva?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Yes, of course."

"If you would like, we can try and find Ketiva, and see... see if there were any survivors. Do you remember the address?"