Beyond the Stars
By Dragons' Daughter 1980
Disclaimer: Other than being a fan, I have nothing to do with Stargate: Atlantis.
Author's Note: As always, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wonderful beta reader and cheerleader, willowr. To my readers, I hope you enjoy my first story of the New Year.
Though lovers be lost, Love shall not;
And Death shall have no dominion.
~ Dylan Thomas
Let me tell you a story.
She was the youngest of three daughters and a son. Her father was a doctor and she knew only the world of healing and medicine. She was always cautious in her life, except for one reckless plunge: she gave her heart away to a soldier she met in the city on the sea.
He was the firstborn of two sons to a soldier and a nurse. When he became the head of his father's household in a time of war, he sent his brother to safety while he dove into danger. He was always the reckless one. When he was wounded, he found refuge in a city on the sea.
Against her mother's wishes, she loved the young commander and married him before he returned to his duties. She bid him safe travels and made him vow always to return to her if she ever called for him. He kissed her farewell, and made her swear to leave for safety if he ever asked her to.
The city fell.
She fled.
He never met his son.
*
He was the youngest of seven children, three sons and four daughters of a landed nobleman and his haughty French wife. His fortune made his own responsibility, he followed the call of the Church, a restless spirit on a path of prayer and charity in the name of his faith. Meeting his spiritual companions in a city by the sea, he looked twice at his colleague's beautiful wife, and said nothing more.
She was the firstborn of two sons and three daughters. Her minister father's favorite, she was given into marriage and taken abroad to live under an unfamiliar sky in answer to a higher calling. She told herself to pay no mind to her husband's young colleague who joined them on the journey at a city by the sea.
They were friends, companions of a sort, thrown together as family in a foreign land. She was as intelligent as she was beautiful and he was as generous as he was compassionate. There was nothing more between them; they kept fast to their vows: she to her husband, he to his Lord. When her husband died of sickness, he held her hand and spoke the eulogy for a good man of the cloth. When she called for him, he held her hand and vowed to raise her children to know their parents—both of them—before she breathed her last in this world.
He took her son and her daughter back to her homeland and raised them to respect their parents' memories. He saw her children safely to adulthood and blessed their happy marriages with all the joy in his heart, for he saw her laughter in their eyes each time he looked at her living legacy.
He died in his sleep at the age of sixty-one, a venerable emissary of the faith, beloved by his flock and the children who came to call him "Father." He was buried in the land of his birth, far away from the warm soil in which she slept.
She never knew that her son would become a learned scholar who unraveled the mysteries of Ancient Greece. She never knew that her daughter would become wife to a prosperous merchant named Sheppard.
Or perhaps she did.
*
She was the first and only child of her parents' line. Bright and determined as a young woman, she became a renowned scholar of language, both verbal and silent, and came to the attention of powerful men, for better and for worse. When she was thirty-four, she found herself living under alien moons, and fell in love with a soldier in a city on the sea.
He was the firstborn of two sons, but never his father's Prodigal Son until it was too late to be one. Stubborn and driven, he became a pilot, sworn to touch the sky and protect his people. When he was thirty-four, he left his ghosts behind for the stars of another galaxy, and fell in love with a diplomat in a city on the sea.
They argued. They flirted. They fought.
They shared their secrets and the burden of their command. They saw the line between them and dared to touch it, to cross it for brief moments in time. They lived together as leaders in a war against impossible odds. When he was lost, she was his homeward star. When she was tired, he was her constant rock. They could never be more, they believed, but they would never be less. It would be enough for them, to live like this for the rest of their lives. So they believed.
They died worlds apart, in space and time, until their memory faded into a romantic tale, passed from ear to ear, though no one truly believed that a soldier could deeply love a diplomat and be loved in equal measure. She had become the enemy, and he was a man who did his duty. He always asked more of himself than anyone under his command, and that made his men and women loyal to him beyond measure. However much it rankled, it was not a surprise to his soldiers that he sent them to safety with a lie, and fell with those who had died following his orders.
Yet there were minds among the masses of faceless, nameless mourners at his funeral who would always wonder if he chose his fate to save his family or to save himself. His wife would never say, and neither would their children. He was a good husband, a good father, a good man. That was all that mattered. His family never spoke of a photograph in his study, a memory of another family long dead and gone, or of the ghost that stood beside the man they called husband and father, the image of a woman who laughed as the sun rose over a city on the sea. He was a soldier. He did his duty. He saved his people. He deserved to take some truths to his grave.
It was not their time.
Not yet.
*
Wait.
*
Somewhere on Earth, a restless baby cries in his mother's arms. His name is Johan. He will be the first of two sons and a daughter. When he is twenty-one, he will find himself walking under unfamiliar stars, living in a city on the sea.
Somewhere in Pegasus, a newborn baby sleeps in a warm cradle by her father's side. Her name is Eleisa. She will be the first and only of her mother's line. When she is twenty, she will apprentice with her mother's sister, moving to reside in a city on the sea.
There, under the moonlight and stars of another world, he will meet a young woman he has loved before, and she a man she has known before. They will see each other as strangers and know the other for who they are. They will fight; they will court; they will love. There will be tears. There will be laughter. There will be a life together.
They will meet again, as they have met throughout the centuries.
They will find each other, as always, in a city on the sea.