Title: On Common Ground
Disclaimers: I earn no money from this, I write only for pleasure. I own no part of the Stargate world or any quoted lines from the show. I only own the characters that I create.
Spoilers: Set in established AU world, at an equivalent time as late season 3. Please note the warnings below. This story calls heavily on the events of the previous fics in this saga and probably won't make much sense if you haven't read them.
Summary: ALLIANCE FIC – Things are going well for Atlantis and the Alliance, with Teyla about to start her first official stay in Atlantis as John's Political Wife, but forces are moving unseen – a Hive seeking vengeance, a horrific prophecy for Halling, and a Genii plot about to unfold.

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Warnings: Established Character death, violence, deviousness, and sexual content.

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Note: Hello Everyone. It has been some time since my last posting, but it has been an exceptionally busy year or so. Plus, I have been studying for, and then taking, a work exam (yay, I passed), which has taken up a great deal of my limited free time this last year. Now finally free of that exam, though I have another to start studying for next year, I finally have time to get this fic published. I have written it in its entirety, so it's just a matter of editing and posting chapters regularly – no unfinished fic here.

I want to say thank you to all those who have contacted me over the last year with queries and gentle nudges for the continuation of this series. Well, here I am. This is another big fic, so hold onto something, things are about to get interesting...

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Chapter 1 – Prologue

The view was spectacular. Swirls of gases hung in seeming stillness across the vastness of the vacuum. The colours, barely discernible with the human eye, glittered between the stars; flashes of ice particles and interacting gases, all dancing an elaborate existence with few living beings to ever witness them.

Peuch had been very lucky to have looked out on this same view for the last six standard yearly cycles. He started and finished each day looking out on this majestic interstellar view, and he never tired of it.

Some, which included most of his family, could not understand how he could stay on such long rotations out here, but he loved his work and the location. On the outermost edge of the galaxy, there were no planets here, the closest several days' hyperspace travel away. There was nothing in this region but fabulous nebulae and the floating asteroids passing by on their generations-long slow tumbling journey. A newly revealed supernova within sensor reach was probably the most dramatic event of late, but Peuch still loved it here.

Having graduated as one of his planet's top students in structural and systems engineering, he had had his choice of assignments, and he had chosen this. Station 1642, or 'Amduat' as its crew had named it, had been brand new then, hanging alone in this vast empty region, but it was also vitally important. The scientific research at the edge of the galaxy was fascinating, but it was the station's extraordinary sensitive sensors that made it vital for the Alliance. Away from the overlapping and widespread interference from the Alliance links network, and the various radio and energy disturbances created by highly populated planets, Amduat could detect far further than any other sensor system. It could detect hyperspace windows opening over several sectors and the distant signals of space ships even further away. Not that the Wraith had anything to draw their attention here, but occasionally the sensors detected them passing in the far distance, or the occasional Traveller ship manoeuvring close to this distant peripheral corner of Alliance territory. The station's sensor reach was still expanding as well, the technology advancing under the intelligent and passionate care of Amduat's scientific crew.

Peuch's duties were to look after Amduat itself – to maintain its structural integrity and ensure smooth running of all station systems. It was work that would not necessarily end up in a scientific book, but it kept all the crew and their sensor systems safe from the vacuum only a bulkhead or glass sheet away. That vitally important truth aside, little happened here on Amduat at any speed, instead everything moved via the slow and steady pace of the astronomical.

Which included the ability to communicate with the rest of the Alliance. Peuch turned from his wondrous view and checked the station's time display. As there was no local star to determine their days, Amduat ran via Alliance standard time, which was helpful when communicating with distant family.

Peuch crossed to his desk and sat down in front of his communication screen. Communications with even the deepest areas of the Alliance was simple via digital messages, but the vast distance and all manner of interstellar phenomena this close to the galaxy's edge could influence live link contact. It was only by having established and plotted all the known interference phenomena precisely, that a schedule of windows through to the Alliance was possible in order to establish stable live link feeds. Each crew member had small time slots allocated to them and it was almost time for his slot...

A buzz from the display lit it awake and he tapped the screen immediately, knowing every second was valuable. The live link feed would not last long.

The screen danced in static and then his Mother's face filled the view.

"Peuch!" She screamed delightfully at him, her joy in speaking with him never having dimmed in all the yearly cycles he had lived on Amduat.

"Great Mother," he grinned back at her.

She clapped her hands together in happiness. "Great Son!" She greeted him in turn and then twisted away in her seat and shouted behind her, "Peuch is on the screen!"

It was the usual routine. His Father would now be asking what she was shouting at him about.

"Peuch is on the screen!" Mother repeated her loud report and then she returned her full attention back to him. He was able to speak with them live every thirty days or so, and there was a constant flow of electronic letters to and from his family between those days. Yet, seeing his mother's reaction, one would think she had not seen or heard from him in over a year.

"Are you healthy, Great Son?" She asked, always kind and worried for him.

"Yes, Great Mother," Peuch assured her, as he did every time. "How are all the family?"

"Did you get my last message?" She demanded. "Your sister had a son. We are so happy."

"Yes, Great Mother," he assured her. He had replied to her as much at the time.

"He is so small; I could gobble him up!"

Peuch laughed.

"What?" Father could be heard calling from behind Mother.

"Your Great Son is on the screen, First Husband!" Mother shouted over her shoulder and then she leant closer to the screen and lowered her voice. "I have told your Great Father that he needs to start taking better care of his health. You must tell him too."

"Yes, Great Mother," Peuch promised obediently.

"Did you get my message about my Great Third Husband's second cousin's friend who wishes to meet you?" She continued at a normal volume.

"Great Mother," Peuch sighed, wishing his Father would speed up his appearance. "We have discussed this before; I am happy to be by himself currently."

"We never see you. When does this rotation end? When will you see your new Great Nephew?"

"Soon," Peuch promised, pleased to the sight of his Father approaching in the distance.

"Great Son!" Father exclaimed as he arrived behind Mother.

"Greetings, Great Father," Peuch grinned at his aging blood father, Mother's First Husband. "I understand your health is not so well of late?" Peuch asked, as instructed.

"Did your Great Mother tell you that?" Father asked as he leant over Mother's shoulder. "Have you told him about the cousin's friend?" He asked her.

"Yes, he says he is on rotation and does not have time for such things. Honestly, Great Son, when are we to be able to hug you again?"

Peuch smiled at his two adoring parents. "My current yearly rotation will last a further fourteen months," Peuch reminded them. "But," he considered, "I do have some extra time allowing to me for leisure time. I may be able to extend my next short break away from Amduat for a month."

Mother began clapping excitedly. "Yes! I shall tell your Great Sister; she will be thrilled. We can all go walking on the mountainside again, take your new Great Nephew to the ancestral altar and sit all together again."

Peuch nodded, his eyes glancing to the time displayed below his loving parents. The prescribed window for this link feed was nearing its end, interstellar interference likely to destabilise it soon. "We are almost out of time and I am due for the early meeting. Tell me, did you receive the annual celebration's gifts I shipped to you?"

"Yes, we have stored them aside," his mother replied. "When will your next break be taken?"

"It will not be for another three months, so I will not be there for the annual celebration."

"We understand," Great Father replied, one aged hand touching on Mother's shoulder. "We will convey your regrets and pass out your gifts to the family."

"I will speak with my Station Lead and see if I can swap with someone for a live link that day," Peuch promised. "It will depend on the schedule and interstellar conditions. I will look into it."

"Moiloi will let you," Mother nodded with confidence.

"Moiloi cannot control interstellar phenomena, Great Mother."

"She knows how important the annual celebration is to our people; Moiloi will understand," Great Father said confidently.

"I will speak to her this morning," Peuch promised. A warning light flashed. "We only have a few moments left."

"May the Ancestors walk with you each day," Great Mother stated, as always, "May they watch over you, care for you, and stand by you when you sleep."

Peuch almost said the familiar words along with her, but he didn't. "Thank you, Great Mother and Great Father. May the Ancestors walk with you both each day-"

The link feed cut off, the time complete, the scheduled link over. His parents understood, as so often their short conversations ended so abruptly.

They understood his career choices and, though he was away from his homeworld, he knew they were proud of his accomplishments. They were not so happy that he had not built up a family of his own. Most his own age had several wives or husbands by this stage of life.

It sounded like far too much work to him, and he could not dedicate enough time around his work on Amduat anyway.

Work to which he now had to return. He closed down his communication screen and gathered up his electronic pads for the early meeting and his day ahead. Stepping out into the impeccably clean station hallway from his quarters, he breathed in the soft cool air of Amduat. As he walked, he took in another deep breath and he was almost certain that he could tell that the oxygen ratio remained correct. The station's small Hydroponics Bay was working as efficiently as always.

He tapped alive one electronic pad and checked his day's planned schedule. Yes, he was due to check on the rain and light cycles in the Hydroponics Bay today. After that he and his team would run the second monthly assessment of the artificial gravity twin drives, then the back-up second rotation engine, and then run the routine check of the display panels up in the Central Station. Another full and useful day on Amduat.

He made his way up the station's main staircase up to Central Station, ensuring his pace was quick as all of the crew were encouraged to maintain good cardiovascular health while living in artificially generated gravity.

As he reached Central Station, he saw that the other two department Leads were already in the glass walled room towards the back. He was in good time for the early meeting then. As he walked in, the two looked round with their usual smiles of greeting. Moiloi, the Station's Lead, was yet to appear though, her office set off the main area of Central Station. She would be running her own morning checks.

"How is your family?" Moksa, Lead Interstellar Scientist, asked as Peuch approached the small meeting table.

"They are all well, thank you."

"Is there any news on your new nephew?" Wrana asked as he settled into his seat next to Moksa. Wrana was Lead Sensor Controller, and had worked here as long as Peuch.

"Great Mother reports the new babe is so cute that she wants to 'gobble him all up'," Peuch reported.

"Awww," Moksa grinned as she pushed the morning's fresh pot of Athosian tea towards Peuch. Moksa, being from Cador, a local neighbour to the Athosian worlds, had brought the drink onto the station with her and it had become a firm favourite among their small group of department Leads.

The three of them had worked together for almost five yearly cycles now and they were his closest friends.

"I imagine she has found another possible female for you?" Moksa asked next over her steaming cup.

"Of course," Peuch smiled as he poured his tea.

"Greetings to all," Moiloi stated as she marched into the room. "Apologies for being tardy, but did you all see the flash announcement earlier?"

Peuch had read it prior to his link feed with Mother and Father; it hadn't seemed too alarming. Newly detected readings were common enough here.

"Another possible new supernova?" Moksa suggested with clear hope.

"You don't get two new supernovae per rotation, Moksa," Wrana teased her. "You'll make the other scientists on the other stations jealous."

"They're already jealous of that last journal article," Moksa grinned. She was making more scientific advances on Amduat than most her age.

"No supernova," Moiloi confirmed as she picked up the pot of Athosian tea and poured the hot liquid into the cup she had brought in with her from her office. "Our latest theory is some sort of zero field energy."

All of them snapped their attention to their Lead as she settled down in her chair.

"Really?" Moksa asked.

Moiloi smiled as she brushed her long silver hair, gathered together in its long thick plait, back over her shoulder. She wore a silvery grey jacket over her dark red Amduat uniform. She always wore something silver or grey, those being her favourite colours, and they offset her smooth golden Vancet complexion, which was as elegant in her fifty cycle years as in any. There were many who suspected that the Ancestors had altered the genetics of those from Vancet, for almost all from their world were beautiful and handsome.

"The readings are intermittent and initiated without any precursors – at least none that we have identified so far," Moiloi reported. "The levels are inconsistent, but so low that it may not be what we think."

"Why start so suddenly?" Wrana asked out loud, as always simply brain storming his thoughts out loud.

"Perhaps something initiated it on a subspace level," Moksa considered.

"There are far more questions than answers right now," Moiloi smiled. "I have scheduled a midday meeting for all of us and sensor and science staff to gather and assess the latest readings and theories. Peuch, could you ponder further on the new sensor array extension and see if it can be installed earlier than planned?"

"I will think on it," Peuch promised, his mind already turning. If they delayed the Hydroponics system checks, then his small staff could focus on the array sooner.

"I assume your Great Parents are well?" Moiloi asked him.

"Yes, thank you," Peuch smiled at his superior.

"Good. So, other than their usual plans to marry Peuch away from us, is there anything new for this meeting regarding the day's schedule?" She asked the group.

"I was scheduled for the rebuild of the new sublight experiment," Wrana started, "but I would prefer to look at this new zero field data."

Moiloi rolled her eyes. "There is plenty of time for analysis of the new data; the others are already on it. We will all discuss the data together at the midday meeting. Until then, I suggest-"

The alarm blared so loudly that Peuch's entire body jolted and his tea slopped over the edge of his cup and splattered across the silver meeting table. In an expanding fraction of a millisecond, he watched the pool of tea expand across the table as the lights flashed into emergency setting above them, casting the light tea into dark shades.

Moiloi, Moksa, and Wrana shot up from their seats, a second ahead of Peuch as he rose, the alarm seeming unfamiliar in his shock.

"Lead Moiloi!" A voice shouted between the blares of the alarm, shouted by the technician on duty at the front of Central Station.

Moiloi was already fast on her way towards the panicked male. "What alarm is that?" Moiloi demanded and Peuch was momentarily glad that she too hadn't recognised it any quicker than he. The alarm blaring was far louder and more constant than the usual alerts, though he had heard it before among the brief weekly alarm testing.

"Collision alarm sounding," the technician supplied between the blares.

"Collision?" Moiloi asked, understandably surprised. "An asteroid?"

"Nothing physical on sensors," Wrana reported quickly. "We would have detected anything heading our way long ago."

As Peuch raced to his engineering console, set among the other lead consoles, he found himself looking out of the large front viewport out into space. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but there was nothing observable to the eye.

He slid his hands over the screens of his console, years of experience and familiarity allowing information to flow into his mind quickly, whilst simultaneously listening as the others conversed loudly between the blaring alarms.

"Can we shut off the alarm or lower the volume?" Moiloi shouted.

Peuch tapped one screen among the many on his console, working several enquiries of the station's computer at once. "Acting on it," he reported as he worked.

"We're detecting an unknown form of radiation," Moksa shouted over the alarm. "Readings are- this can't be right?"

"The unusual radiation is increasing, location as three degrees of left anterior," Wrana yelled. "Increasing substantially."

Peuch found the alarm setting, but there was no volume setting for this alarm. He assumed there was none because of the immediacy of the alert. He made a note to look at changing that later.

"Peuch, get the rotation engines moving us away from that location as fast as you can move Amduat," Moiloi ordered him.

"Acting," he confirmed. "We are getting strange interference, but engines are firing." The vibration started immediately moving up through the deck plating under him, the abrupt and forceful emergency push from the engines overpowering the inertial dampening effects.

"The unknown radiation is increasing exponentially!" Moksa reported, worried confusion clear in her voice.

"If these readings are right there will soon be substantial damage to Amduat," Peuch reported from his screens.

A sudden violent shudder shook Central Station. Peuch fortunately had braced himself against the safety supports of his console, but he felt something ping painfully in his shoulder. He ignored it as he tapped through his screens and all of them were flashing emergency warnings.

"All systems are reporting damage," which could not be right. "I think the radiation may be triggering faults in our electrical systems," he shouted.

"The radiation is definitely penetrating the station's hull," Wrana shouted as the station shuddered again.

New flashing warnings filled Peuch's view. "I'm detecting physical damage to the left anterior array."

"What is causing it?" Moiloi asked, her eyes focused down on her Lead console. "Why are we not moving away?"

"Engines are firing, but we do not seem to be able to pull away from-" Peuch started to explain, but the rest of his report was knocked from him as Amduat rocked violently and he was thrown down towards the station's floor.

His left kneecap hit and scraped down the length of his console's support, stealing his breath with pain before he dropped onto his back on the floor. Clutching his lower leg, Peuch worked to breathe and focus on getting back up.

"By the Ancestors!" He heard Moiloi shout. "Evacuation procedures!"

Peuch scrambled to get up off the floor, his left leg mostly useless, but he grabbed hold of his console's safety supports and dragged himself upright.

His eyes instantly locked onto the view through the wide front viewport. Where usually there was the glittering spread of distant stars and a collection of tumbling asteroids, now there was the dark crushingly close hull of a ship.

It took a moment for Peuch to identify what it was.

"How?" He asked, the multiple alarms blaring, dark red lights flashing, as the Wraith Hive's hull crashed into Amduat.

In the breath before the front viewport cracked, Peuch thought of his family, of how he would not be there for the trip to the ancestral altar or to hold his new Great Nephew.

As the front of Amduat was crushed, air exploding out, Peuch could do nothing but scream his anger at how the Hive had gotten here undetected and that it was destroying his beloved station and friends.

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Drip...

His focus broke slightly at the sound, but he forced his tired mind back to the connection he had lost. Drifting into the replenishing emptiness of the now rarely populated network, he breathed it into his body.

It was not hibernation, but it was as close as he could safely stray and still remain awake in the world.

Not that he was not tempted to leave it all behind.

Hunger burned hot and deep, eating away at his physical insides, but in the network, he could find some peace. He was not entirely alone there, though his distant Brother's mind felt out of reach and distressed.

He suspected he probably seemed the same to his batch Brother's mind.

Drip...

Mind Song sighed at the repeated disturbance to his struggling focus, and squeezed his eyes more tightly closed.

Drip...

Drip...

With a frustrated growl, Mind Song's focus failed. Full awareness returned to the cold dank space around him. The floor under his knees and boots was solid, but empty of life. How long had it been since he'd felt surrounded by the living warm walls of a Hive ship?

Too long.

Drip...

Why did Humans choose such cold places to hide? Nothing lived down in this prison – well, except for his captors. He had been imprisoned in various cells like this, moved at his captors' will and forced to their obedience, so that he now had no concept of how long he had been a prisoner.

All he knew for certain was the burning hunger that would be his death. That end had only been staved off so long because of the occasional small meal of a Human captor, fed to him like he was a plaything.

He sighed angrily at his distracted emotions.

If he could only properly feed; regain his strength. It had been so long since he had felt whole; felt strong.

Drip...

Drip...

He growled again at the continuous dripping of water in the far corner of his current cold walled prison.

There were times when the other adjoining cells were full, but not of late. He didn't even have the entertainment of listening to his fellow captive Wraith swear vengeance and death upon their captors. They always started like that when they arrived, newly captured; full of spite, sharp of claw and hand, ready to tear life out of a guard stood too close. The guards never stood too close though, and so many Wraith had wasted hours waiting for a small chance of a snatched meal.

All of those others were gone; all had been killed. Now he remained, alone and starving.

Mind Song wasn't too sure what this small group of Humans hoped to gain from his and his fellow Wraith's capture. Clearly they had been testing the feeding process, and Mind Song had seen some blood samples taken from dead Wraith before their bodies were dragged away.

No doubt his own corpse would soon be treated the same.

Some days, or perhaps it was night above, he considered forcing the Humans' hands. Their leader, an intelligent and uncompromising Human, would not tolerate violence against his group. Any captive that tried to feed off their guards was killed and their dead remains dragged away. Mind Song suspected the only reason he had outlived so many was because of his agreement to be used as a plaything; to feed when asked and stop when prodded.

It was an agreement that he reassessed each time, and his weakened hungry mind honestly considered breaking each time. Then he could escape this never-ending torture.

Drip...

Drip, Drip...

A new sound registered in the distance, Human footfalls and the whispering of voices.

One advantage of Mind Song's long tenure in these prisons, and his willingness to keep to the arrangement so far, meant that many of the guards had long ago forgotten to worry that he might be listening; or perhaps they underestimated the distance of Wraith hearing down such empty hallways?

"...you hear?" one voice whispered, slightly out of breath, from the corridor beyond the cells.

"Yes," another replied, his voice colder, less interested in the subject matter.

Mind Song kept his eyes closed, but focused his attention more acutely on the distant whispers.

"It could be any day," the first uttered, clear Human excitement in his voice.

"The same has been said for weeks now."

"Then why is the Commander preparing now? If they're readying to transport him, then it must be soon."

"The Commander is always ready."

"But if they capture Sheppard-."

"The Commander will tell us when that day arrives."

"Are you not interested in returning home? To pushing that despot Cowen from his throne?"

"Of course,"

"It could be any day!"

Mind Song pulled his attention away from the exchange, losing interest. Human affairs.

He took a deep breath and prepared to attempt to raise his conscious back to the network, to seek some solace and repair his body just that fraction possible by that connection.

Only, a squeak of old metal hinges in the far distance and then the soft touch of leather on stone told him one particular Human was on the move outside. He moved with a different pattern and carefulness compared to the other Humans.

Mind Song kept his attention on the approaching sounds, the guards outside now silent. The steps grew closer down the corridor outside, and then turned into the entrance to the prison cells.

Mind Song kept his place knelt on the floor, his eyes closed, but listened to the prey's approach beyond the metal bars. Then the heavy weight of the Human's predatory stare itched at him.

The Human leader had arrived.

Mind Song kept his eyes closed. "Something is keeping you awake?" He asked casually.

Leather shifted and a breath released into the still air outside the cell. "You appear especially hungry tonight."

The Human liked to taunt, but Mind Song could smell the adrenaline in the air. Something indeed was imminent.

"I imagine that the hunger must be very painful towards the end, from what I've seen of the others," the Human baited.

"Life is painful," Mind Song remarked.

The Human uttered a deep chuckle at that. "True enough."

Silence descended. Mind Song waited. He might be this creature's prisoner and pet, but he did not have to play the role of weakling.

Boots shifted on stone and the Human began to move, pacing closer towards the cell's bars. He knew how close he could approach to remain just beyond Mind Song's reach through those bars.

The Human reached the unseen line, but then moved over it.

Mind Song felt his heart-rate increase without his permission; his body responding to the mere chance of food in his starving state.

"You haven't fed in some time; you're very near to death," the Human remarked.

"It would not be the first time," Mind Song replied honestly, chuckling to himself to think of one particular time. That ancient Lantean, he could run and hide like no creature Mind Song had met before. There were some days he rather missed the Ancestor race who had fought for so long, only to drown their city in a vast deep ocean.

Perhaps then, they had won after all.

"We shall shortly be acquiring a new visitor," the Human leader supplied.

The whispers had been correct then.

"And you wish me to keep to our former arrangement," Mind Song supplied as he finally opened his eyes.

"You get to feed, but only on orders," the Human repeated.

Once again, Mind Song considered saying no, but his innate desperation to survive was stronger than his will now. By agreeing, at least he could quell this burning hunger a little.

"Agreed," Mind Song intoned into the cold space around him.

He knew this Human had no intention of freeing him, regardless of how long and efficiently he obeyed in the feeding. But, if these Humans intended to return to their homeworld as was so often whispered as their aim, perhaps a day would come when he could take advantage of a moment.

"Good," the Human replied, his sharp gaze and assessing. "It shouldn't be too long now."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away. "Try not to die before he arrives," the Human added before he disappeared from view.

Mind Song parted his lips in a snarl, but it took too much energy.

At the twitch of an atrophying muscle in his leg, he sighed out a long breath and closed his eyes again, trying to focus on returning his mind to the network.

He just needed to survive long enough for his next tiny morsel of food.

Oh, for the days when he had freely taken his fill on powerful Lantean lives...

Drip...

Drip...

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TBC