HALF-BREED: CH. 12 - "ARRIVAL"

Summary: Autumn is not happy to be in Atlantis.

Autumn woke up with a throbbing headache and blinked, her eyes trying to adjust to the bright lights of the room she was in.

“Ah, sleeping beauty awakes,” observed Carson Beckett.

“Where am I?” asked Autumn.

“You are in Atlantis, in the infirmary,” Beckett replied. “You assaulted a military officer so he rendered you unconscious.”

“My head hurts. Why am I here?”

Beckett walked over to a cabinet and took out a small container and a bottle of water, then went over to Autumn and stood next to the bed she was in.

“Here is something to help you with the pain,” he stated, opening the container and taking out one of the pills before giving her the water. “Other than your headache, how are you feeling?

Autumn looked at the pill in her hand.

“How do I know you are not trying to poison me?”

"Oh lovely lady, I am trying to HELP you, not poison you!” laughed Beckett. “Our military team just rescued you from a Wraith compound.”

Autumn's head was pounding so she swallowed the pill and then glared at Beckett.

“They RESCUED me?” She looked incredulous. “No, they KIDNAPPED me! I didn't want to go with them!”

“Oh dear, the Sergeant must've hit you harder than I thought,” Beckett opined. “You were a Wraith prisoner but now you are safe, here in Atlantis. My name is Dr. Carson Beckett. What's yours?”

Beckett already knew her name because Dunn told him, but he wanted to try and get her talking so he played stupid hoping he could pull some more answers from her.

“I already told that other creep...what was his name? DUMB?” she explained with more than just a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “My name is Autumn. Autumn Noxx. I am a Wraith worshiper! And I demand to see my Commander!”

Beckett looked at her in disbelief then shook his head.

“Pardon me, dearie. I must go check on something,” he said. “You just stay here and rest.”

Autumn said nothing and just watched him leave the room. After he left, she looked around, hoping to find something she could use as a weapon to help her escape. She spotted a pair of surgical scissors on a counter across the room, scurried over and took them then went back to the bed, hiding the scissors in the waistband of her pants.

Out in the hallway, Beckett was speaking to some team members.

“She's a WHAT?!!” Major John Sheppard exclaimed.

“Wraith Worshiper,” Beckett replied. “Dunn said he found her walking around the ship looking for her Commander and that she didn't want to answer any of his questions. She hit him in the face so he had to...neutralize her.”

“What the hell is a Wraith worshiper?” Elizabeth Weir queried. “Who would want to worship a race of space vampires who suck the life out of people? Is she alert? I would like to question her.”

“She seems fine, just a bit of a headache,” added Beckett.

Weir nodded at Beckett then went into the infirmary. Autumn was sitting up on the bed.

“Doctor Beckett said your name is Autumn. I am Elizabeth Weir, leader of this expedition. No one wants to harm you. I would just like to ask you a few questions.”

“Yay, I'm being interrogated by my kidnappers,” Autumn retorted. “What is this place that you call Atlantis?”

“Atlantis - the lost city of the Ancients who were powerful beings that seeded life in this galaxy. We came here as peaceful explorers through the Stargate that they created to travel back and forth to different worlds.”

“The Stargate?” Autumn repeated. “You mean the giant ring? Is that what it's called?”

“Yes, you are familiar with it?”

“There was one on the planet where I was born. The Wraith attacked us and I ran with my mother to the giant ring – the STARGATE – but was caught in a culling beam just after my mom jumped through the....gate.”

“But you....LIKE these Wraith?”

“Not at first but I grew to like them. I became the personal worshiper of the Commander of the hive that I lived on.”

“And what does that mean? What does a....WORSHIPER do?”

“Whatever the Commander tells me to do,” Autumn replied. Weir's interrogation was getting on her nerves and she did not want to give her any more information until she could figure out whether or not she could even trust this woman named Weir - so Autumn quickly changed the subject. “Hey, I am hungry. Do you have any food?”

“Sure, though I'm afraid the selection is limited at the moment. What do you usually eat?”

“Do you have bread and butter? Or fruit? I also like nuts. And cheese. I love cheese.”

“Yes, I think that we could accommodate that request,” Weir replied. She started speaking into her headset. “Andrew, could you bring a cheese & turkey sandwich down here to the infirmary. And also some water.”

“Oh, I don't eat meat,” Autumn interrupted.

“Andrew, kill the cheese and turkey,” Weir clarified. “Make it a grilled cheese with tomato instead.” She continued her questioning. “Tell me more about this...Commander. What is he like?”

“He's a weird-looking albino...thing,” came the voice of Major John Sheppard. He walked into the room with Sergeant Dunn and overheard the last part of the conversation. “We met him. Interesting guy. Has a bad temper though. Oh and he killed some of my men.”

“Don't speak about him that way!” Autumn protested. “My mentor is strong, intelligent, handsome and I love him!” Weir, Sheppard and Dunn looked horrified. “And HE loves ME so he will come looking for me and you will all pay for what you've done!”

“We saved your delusional ass back there!” shouted Sheppard. “Why did you assault the Sergeant?”

“I did NOT want to go with him and he put his hands on me,” Autumn replied. “No man puts his hands on me without consequences! Only my Commander is allowed to touch me!”

“You are in love with a murderer! The Wraith have wiped out entire worlds!” Dunn fired back.

“I have no need to explain myself to you Sergeant.....DUMB, was it?” Weir and Sheppard exchanged surprised looks with each other and Dunn just looked disgusted. “No I am NOT crazy!”

They simultaneously turned to Autumn, astonished looks on their faces.

“Wait, you can read minds?” asked Weir.

“Yes, I am telepathic, like my mother.”

Weir turned to Sheppard and Dunn.

“Her mother was lost during a Wraith attack.”

“You're in love with a guy who was responsible for the attack on your world and the disappearance of your mother?” Dunn angrily noted. “Sorry, but that IS crazy!”

Suddenly, a very tan-looking woman with a muscular build appeared at the door. It was Teyla Emmagen, leader of a race of people called the Athosians who were taking refuge in Atlantis after their world was attacked by the Wraith.

“She is not crazy, John,” replied Teyla. “She is...part Wraith.”

“Oh please tell me you are joking,” said Sheppard.

“I could sense the Wraith in her all the way from the other side of the city,” explained Teyla. “She has Wraith DNA. I am sure of it.” Teyla began walking towards the trio standing by the bed. “I have brought that sandwich.”

Teyla put a small plate with the grilled cheese sandwich on the table next to the bed along with a plastic bottle of water. Sheppard looked back and forth between Autumn, Weir and Dunn.

“Well that explains a whole lot then!” declared the Major.

“Stop talking about me like I am not here!” demanded Autumn. “I am still human! I am just a very STRONG human now.”

“Hmmm...explains how you managed to assault a military officer,” Sheppard noted as he gave Dunn a sympathetic look.

Autumn took the sandwich off the plate and started eating it.

“Teyla, could I have a word with you out there?” asked Weir motioning towards the door. Teyla nodded, turned around and walked away with Weir following behind her.

“I feel like we are getting nowhere with this questioning,” explained Weir. “Can you try talking to her? She is telepathic like you so maybe you could use it as an icebreaker.”

“I will try,” answered Teyla, who then nodded and went back into the room. She gasped at what she saw. Autumn had the surgical scissors held up against Sheppard's neck.

Dunn looked at Weir and Teyla. “It happened so fast I didn't have time to react,” explained Dunn. “I thought I saw something and turned my back just for a few seconds....she said she would cut the Major's throat, Ma'am.”

“Her Wraith half made you see things that are not there, it is not your fault, Sergeant,” Teyla replied. She turned to Autumn. “Let him go. You do not want to do this.”

“Not until you agree to bring me back to the hive compound!” Autumn shouted.

“That ship is gone, Autumn,” Weir declared. “It was blown up right after we evacuated our people. It is nothing but a huge crater now.”

Autumn looked like she was about to cry.

“You are lying!” Autumn could still sense the Commander so she knew he was still alive and out there somewhere. “Why must I stay here? I want to go home!”

“Well, you don't have a home to go to anymore,” Sheppard affirmed. “So you may as well settle in and get used to it. And you may as well let me GO now. There is nowhere else for YOU to go right now.”

Autumn let out a disgusted sigh then dropped the scissors on the floor and pushed Sheppard who went flying across the room, bouncing off a wall and then onto the floor. Dunn aimed his rifle at her.

“Teyla, can you get Beckett in here? NOW!” Weir shrieked. “Dunn, stand down!”

Dunn apprehensively lowered his weapon and let out an exasperated sigh. A few minutes later, Beckett came into the room.

“What the bloody hell is going on here, Weir?”

“I think our new guest is a little uptight,” said Sheppard as he got up and staggered. He was standing by the door now, staring down Autumn who was looking at him menacingly.

“Aye, gotcha,” said Beckett, winking at the Major.

Beckett fumbled around in a drawer in one of the cabinets until he found what he was looking for: a syringe. He took a small glass vial from a shelf above and filled the syringe with it, then turned around and started walking towards Autumn.

“No, I don't think so!” she protested. “You're not sticking me with ANYTHING!” She started to get up but Dunn and Sheppard held her down. “Get that fucking thing away from me! What are you doing?!! This isn't right!”

On and on she screamed until Beckett was finally able to get at her arm where he stuck the needle on the inside of her elbow. Within five minutes, she was high as a kite and giggling.

“Consequences! There will be repercussions for this! Wait, what IS this anyway? I'm so glad I don't have to sleep in that stupid coffin anymore. My Commander is so proud of me. I'm being a good girl and I get rewarded....Mmm...yes I polished his stunner until it was shiny!”

Teyla was watching her intently and then her eyes started fluttering. She made contact with Autumn's mind. Random images of Autumn's life began to appear in Teyla's mind: running around in a forest with kids who had crazy hair with flowers in it. Nox. Picking flowers with her mother in the meadow behind their house. Mother showing her how to make healing teas and tinctures from plants and flowers. Wraith DARTS. Running scared toward a stargate. A Wraith Commander staring and glaring. Rape. Pain. Pleasure. Hunger. Fear. Sex. A sensory deprivation chamber. Claustrophobia. Hanging from a pole and being whipped and paddled. Depraved sexual acts. Slavery. Infatuation.

Suddenly Teyla opened her eyes and stared at Autumn. She was still babbling but slurring her words, talking nonsense. Then her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

“Teyla, you look...anxious,” noted Weir. “What did you see?”

“This is a very troubled young girl. I saw that same Wraith Commander who took Colonel Sumner. He was doing...horrible...awful things to her. Things that no one should ever have to experience.”

Sheppard was intrigued.

“What kind of things?” he queried.

“I must sit down,” replied Teyla. “The images were so strong that I feel like I was just hit with a P-90. My heart...it is beating very fast.”

“Are you OK, Teyla?” asked Dunn.

“I am fine, thank you Sergeant,” she replied. “Autumn is not. She is in love with a Wraith Commander who beat her, tortured her and raped her over and over for years.”

“She said she was his personal worshiper,” added Sheppard. “What does that mean?”

Teyla took a deep breath.

“That is what the Wraith call it. But she was...a sex slave...who became addicted to the sex and fell in love with her abuser.”

“Stockholm Syndrome,” said Weir. “On our world – on Earth – there is a psychological disorder where captives sympathize with their captors. In Stockholm, Sweden, bank employees were held hostage for five days. The victims became emotionally attached to their captors and even defended them after they were set free. It sounds like something very similar to what you have described seeing. I am going to have Dr. Heightmeyer talk with her tomorrow. She may be able to find out more of the details and then figure out how to help this young lady.”

“She's a Wraith sympathizer!” Dunn exclaimed heatedly. “That means she could be a security risk here. You should assign someone to guard her until the Headshrinker feels it's safe!”

Weir shot him a dirty look.

“She was held prisoner on a Wraith Hive Ship with a sociopath Wraith Commander who abused her for years,” she asserted. “Now that she has been freed, you think we should keep her a prisoner here in Atlantis? Forgive me for being blunt, Sergeant, but I think that is a terrible idea and will just makes things worse – for her and for US.”

“Dunn has a valid point,” Sheppard interjected. “It's probably not the right thing to do, however, you and I are responsible for the lives of everyone in this city and at the moment, this...WRAITH WORSHIPER...is a threat to the security of this floating metropolis. So until Dr. Heightmeyer suggests otherwise, I also think it would a good idea to just keep an eye on her and assign her a personal escort. Let's not make a big deal of it, OK? We're just following standard protocol and there's nothing wrong with THAT.”

“No, I suppose not,” Weir sighed. She turned to Beckett. “Doctor, I am going to leave her in your care for now. Just as a safety precaution I'm going have a guard stationed outside that door. And if ANYTHING...I mean ANYTHING happens, please notify me immediately.”

“Sure thing, love,” Beckett replied. “But I don't think anything's gonna happen. She's out like a light. She'll be out for a while.”

“Very good then,” said Weir. “OK gentlemen, let's go. We are having problems with the power source that controls this city.”

Sheppard and Dunn followed her out of the infirmary.

Disclaimer: The Wraith, Carson Beckett, Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagen, John Sheppard, Dr. Heightmeyer & Stargate Atlantis are owned by MGM. Autumn Noxx and Sergeant Dunn are original characters that belong to me.