A Kind of Singularity

Chapter Ten

Luca

Silence and tension crackled around the eight people seated around the conference room table. Cassie sat with her back to the windows peering down on the Stargate, Marco and Luca beside her in a line. Across the table, SG-1 sometimes made eye contact and other times stared resolutely at the varnished wood table. General Landry waited at the head of the table, glaring at each person in turn, as if daring them to break the silence.

The last half hour seemed a blur to Cassie. She could hardly piece together how events had unfolded. She remembered Landry giving the order to seize Luca, and her own intervention. A more reasonable voice – Daniel, probably – had recommended they talk about this first before they went throwing people into holding cells.

So here they were, sitting in the SGC conference room – five aliens, three not – waiting for two more to arrive and balance out their numbers. Not that Cassie thought arguments would fall along those lines. Teal'c would invariably defer to Jack's opinion. Vala was a swing vote – if only the USAF believed in voting on its decisions.

The brilliant white beam transported Jack and Sam into the conference room. Whatever pleasantries might have been exchanged died with a single moment of eye contact and recognition.

"You!" Jack and Luca exclaimed in unison.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Hank," Jack began jauntily, "but don't we usually arrest felons."

"Felon?" Luca demanded. "I've – "

"Yes, felon. Kidnapping a United States Air Force officer is a felony on this planet."

"Maybe this isn't the best way to begin," Daniel interjected, glancing tentatively between Jack and Luca. "We all heard or read Janet's mission report and testimony. I think we're agreed there were certain mitigating circumstances. Right, Jack?"

A moment passed before Jack grudgingly agreed by taking a seat to General Landry's right. Sam claimed the chair opposite Cassie, and the brief look they shared tingled with worry and resolution.

"I only came here to get my son," Luca said gruffly. "Marco was supposed to be back three weeks ago, but he never showed up, so I came to get him. I don't want any trouble. I just want my son to come home."

"We've already made him that offer, Captain Beyash," Landry said, "but Marco doesn't want to go."

He threw Cassie a disapproving glance, and she could see that Luca interpreted the look correctly from the gentle arching of his brow and tiny smile in the corner of his mouth. His eyes searched the corners of the room, and Cassie knew he was expecting her mom to step out of the shadows. There had been no time to tell him that their time together had come and gone. Janet Fraiser would never be a member of the Savarna's crew.

"How did you find – "

"She's not here," Cassie said bluntly, interrupting Sam mid-question. "She died six years ago on an off world mission. She was saving a man's life when a staff blast hit her. Three weeks after you met her."

All movement stopped, as if someone had hit the pause button. The tapping of shoes and rustling of clothes ceased in the same moment and did not resume for several heartbeats. Heads dropped to conceal emotions and shoulders sagged under the weight of memory, but none as deeply as Luca's.

The magnitude of his sorrow sent a ripple of empathy around the room. They had found a connection to Luca, however tenuous, through mutual loss. Cassie could see Jack's discomfort. He would be expected to arrest Luca now. His eyes found hers down the length of the table, and she saw in the steely glare that half a lifetime of personal favors had come to an end.

Over the years, Cassie's requests had grown more and more significant until she had, eventually, asked him to overrule a two star General. It had been the proverbial straw, and now Luca's future hung in the balance with no way for Cassie to influence the outcome.

"I … I'm sorry to hear that," Luca said quietly. "I'd hoped …."

Silence stretched, but Luca didn't finish his statement.

"You have two choices," Jack said finally. "You can leave now and take your ship out of Earth orbit. Or you can spend the rest of your life in a cell at Area 51." He shrugged at Teal'c's pointed look. "If I can set up Harry Maybourne on another planet, I can let Janet's friend go home to his. There's not a lot of time, Luca. The IOA will get wind of this soon, and then it'll be out of my hands."

Cassie felt her heart flip over in her chest. This was no favor to her. Jack was a good man who tried to do the right thing.

"I'm not going without my son," Luca repeated stubbornly.

"We've already told you, he's free to go. Please take him," Landry retorted.

Marco shifted in his chair suddenly and broke his silence. "I'm not going without Cassie."

A beat prefaced an outburst from around the table. "What! – not going anywhere! – have a Dr. Fraiser on board after all? – don't count on it – advisable at this time – if she wants – romantic!"

Only Cassie and Marco had refrained from saying anything in the bedlam of voices. Their eyes met, and Cassie gave the slightest of nods to say that she had not changed her mind. Whatever happened here, she would be on board the Savarna soon.

"Not gonna happen!" Jack's shouted. The other protests or celebrations trailed off. "Two options only. None of them include taking Cassie."

"Jack …," she began, but her cut her off abruptly. "No, Cassie! I've given you more latitude than anyone else ever, whether they were under my command or not. You are not leaving this planet. Not with him and not until you're a member of this program, which you won't be for another three years."

"Then I'm not going either," Marco declared.

Cassie felt a swelling sensation in her chest and a warm glow spreading through her. Her eyes fixed on a Marco, and she felt a giddy smile on her lips that soon faded into a concerned frown. Luca and Jack looked on the verge of having fits.

"You can't stay here, Marco. You belong in space with the Kaldarri."

"So do you," he argued.

"For the first time in my life, I do know where I belong," Cassie said, "but I can't ask you to stay here just because I can't leave with you. Go with your father."

"Give them their transporter devices," Jack ordered. "Then you're both going to go back to your ship and fly away from Earth and never come back."

When the SFs entered the room with two silver transporter bands, Luca hauled Marco away from the table. Having used the devices before, Cassie knew they required some space to function properly. She climbed to her feet and wrapped Marco in a tight embrace. As she did so, she leaned in and whispered a farewell.

Next moment, Luca and Marco Beyash disappeared in a whirl of color.

"Major Marks reports the Kaldarri tel'tac is moving off," Sam reported, touching her ear piece. "They're gone."

o o o

Vala perched on top of Daniel's work table, her legs swinging wildly over the side as she flipped through the pages of Vogue. Beside her, but in a chair, Cassie's index finger traced a line of Goa'uld text.

"I don't know why you think I can do this, Daniel," she said, exasperation clogging her voice. "I haven't read Goa'uld since I was twelve, and twelve-year-olds don't read any better on Hanka than on Earth."

Daniel peered around his computer screen to answer. "I'm sorry? Didn't you come to me and ask to learn Goa'uld while you wait for your test results?"

"Yes," Cassie grumbled, "but only because Dr. Lam kicked me out of the infirmary and told me to take a break while I could. She said my residency would be killer enough, and I didn't need to get a head start on it."

Vala tossed aside the finished fashion magazine. It landed on a pile of translations littering Daniel's office. "So you're really doing it, then?"

Cassie nodded once. "If I passed the test, then I'm going to California for my residency where I'll learn all about genetics. When I've studied Earth genes enough, I'll come back to the SGC and start my research on alien physiologies."

Awkward silence filled the room, and Cassie looked up just in time to see Daniel and Vala's exchange. The archeologist came out from behind his computer and joined the women at the high table.

"We've been talking," Vala prefaced.

"You're talking to two people who know all about feeling like they don't belong. Everyone gets that feeling sometimes, so maybe Jack and Sam and Teal'c kind of understand, but we really know."

A sly smile learned from Jack hitched itself to Cassie's expression. "Shall we talk about our feelings, then? Because I had something a little different in mind …."