Well, I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written. But it was fun! I hope it's a good thing, and you enjoy it. :) Please let me know what you think, and thanks so much for reading! Until next weekend...

Chapter 35

After a little while, Daniel reluctantly made himself lay Vala down. She was still out cold, and he wanted to be here when she awoke, but right now he had something he needed to do. Quietly--just in case--he slipped out of the room and down to the infirmary.

It wasn't a pretty sight. It appeared that not only the two men from the 'gate room, but the guards from outside had also been bitten or stung. The locusts were on Earth by now too. The infirmary was almost full with moaning soldiers, and even a few of the civilian employees, who must have been outside when the creatures attacked. The nursing staff was on full alert, and it was easy to tell which were believers even without glancing at their foreheads. Those who didn't know for sure what were happening were nervous and frightened, flitting from patient to patient on nerves.

Those who knew the truth walked more slowly, attending to their duties with a solemn sadness and sympathy.

Daniel spotted Carolyn Lam pacing near her office door, and made his way over to her. "Hey…how's it going?"

She shook her head. "Not well. I don't know what we're going to do with them if this goes on for five months."

He grimaced. "Ten."

"What?"

"Haven't you looked at Dr. Ben-Judah's web site this week?" he asked more quietly.

"I haven't had the chance. You do know that web site is illegal now, don't you?" Carolyn answered just as softly.

Daniel's eyes rolled. "How could I have missed it? The news channels played Matthews's announcement every ten minutes for two days. 'Supreme Pontif' my foot."

Despite themselves, Carolyn snickered at that, and he let himself join her for a fraction of a moment, before it quickly died. Nothing seemed as funny anymore; not in the world they lived in now.

"'My foot?' Is that the current Christian substitute for 'my you-know-what'?"

He shrugged. "My dad used to say that sometimes. I think he got it from my grandmother."

"Ah, I see…so…where are you getting ten months?"

"Well, we can't be sure, but Dr. Ben-Judah thinks that not only will the victims suffer for five months, but that the locusts will have five months to search for and attack victims. Therefore, the people bitten toward the end…"

"Will be suffering for five months after they leave. Wonderful," Carolyn sighed in exasperation. "I mean, I hope that it will get more people to believe the truth, but I just wish it wasn't so harsh," she frowned.

"I know what you mean," Daniel winced.

She looked at him sympathetically, and he stared at his feet. "How's Vala?"

A hand came up to rub the back of his neck. "Uhm…unconscious…at the moment…" He cleared his throat quickly, fearing of his throat clogging up again. Carolyn remained silent until he was sure he was okay, and then he glanced at her. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do for them?" he asked anxiously.

She shook her head slowly. "It's my job, so I'm having the nurses try whatever they can, but nothing's helping. I didn't think anything would."

Daniel swallowed. "Yeah." He felt a hand on his arm and looked up again.

"It'll be all right," she told him gently. "And I'll do everything I can."

"Thanks. I guess I'd better go now though…if there's nothing I can find here…" She nodded, and he slipped dejectedly away again and back to Vala's room. She was still out, so Daniel sat on his heels beside the bed and watched her. She tossed and turned fitfully, still in pain. He wondered if his being here would even make any difference when she woke up.

When she'd left Daniel and Vala, Sam had gone straight back to General Landry's office, wanting to know how he was handling yet another new emergency situation.

"It's everywhere again," the general had grumbled. "One came through with you so we know it's not just Earth, and they're all over here, according to the news. We can only assume it's everywhere, as usual." It was almost sarcastic, but she knew he meant it.

"Yes sir," she nodded in agreement. "It would be everywhere, just like the other judgments. She wondered how the jaffa were faring.

Landry gave her an unreadable look and shook his head. "We may have to lock down the base."

Her head snapped back up. "Sir?"

"Too many people have been bitten by those…those things already, and more were bitten just trying to bring inside the men that were stung out there, and close the doors. We can't risk opening them again unless we have a way to keep them out, or they're gone."

Sam swallowed and came from the doorway to sit down in one of the chairs across from the general's desk. "Sir…we only have enough supplies on the base for three months, or maybe four if we stretch, but not five."

He looked at her. "Five?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes sir; that's how long they'll be here."

Landry stared at her for a long moment before sighing. "I hate to admit it, but the lot of you have never been wrong about these things before."

Sam just shrugged. "I agree that we should take precautions when going in and out of the mountain, and anyone going outside should wear protective clothing. But there's no reason to completely shut the base down. The rest of the world--the galaxy--is going to have to function with those things out there on the rampage. We'll have to."

"I suppose you're right about that, too. But we'll see what The Powers That Be have to say about it, and I'll let you know." With that, he looked back at the top of his desk, frowning.

As usual, there didn't seem much use in talking with him anymore. He wouldn't listen to anymore, and she knew it.

Vala was awake, and she knew it. The pain was pressing into her mind again, but she didn't want to acknowledge it. She kept still, kept her eyes closed.

It didn't help.

She felt movement by her left arm, bit back a groan, and opened her eyes. It was Daniel. His head was in his arms on top of the bed, and he was apparently on his knees next to it. He was also asleep.

Vala couldn't help but give a small smile, and weakly ran her fingers over and through his limp hair. She wondered if what he'd said before she'd passed out had meant what she thought it did…

Either the hand on his head, or her harsh breathing now that she was awake must have gotten to him, because he stirred. She almost regretted it. Daniel was even cuter asleep, in her opinion. The deeper lines in his face that had developed since the beginning of this whole 'Tribulation' thing were smoothed out then, mostly.

After a moment he lifted his head, disoriented, and focused on her. "Hey…"

She looked at him for a moment. "You're still here."

"Of course I am," he answered tiredly--but sincerely, as he sat up, bringing himself closer to her. "I'm not going anywhere, Vala."

Now why was that making her tear up all of a sudden. For a moment she said nothing. "I….I-I…" She had to stop to cry out a little, and Daniel was up on the bed sitting beside her in an instant. He pulled her into his arms again, and she borrowed herself into them gratefully. When she could, she spoke again, hanging onto his sleeve more out of fear than pain.

"Really? You mean it?" Vala asked anxiously.

Daniel held onto her gently, and she heard his voice, muffled just a bit by her hair. "I mean it."

Sam wasn't able to get out of the SGC until several days after the initial locust attack, when the swarms thinned. The smoke from the object that had hit the Earth, releasing them, dissipated, but the bugs stayed. It was hard to tell where all of them were at any given time, but things turned out to be much as she'd expected.

There were plans to begin running planes and such again soon, but with tight airlocks between buildings and air vehicles at all times, and same such methods for getting from building into ground vehicles. People would stay inside as much as they could, and wear bulky protective clothing outside. Sam had to put on such clothing for General Landry to let her out of the base, finally, no matter how much she insisted that believers could not be stung. In the end, she supposed it made sense to do what anyone else would. There was no need to raise suspicions about herself and the other who didn't already know they were believers.

She called ahead to let Simon know she was coming, and he was right inside the door when she arrived. As soon as the door was shut he scooped her up into a tight embrace and kissed her, and she could tell how much he had just wanted to run out to meet her. But again, it would have raised suspicion, when everyone else on the street was staying inside.

"I'm glad you're okay," she sighed, holding onto him for a moment. "What's it been like out here?"

"It's hard to say," he answered. "I haven't gone anywhere, but I've stayed busy enough. There's a new wave of responses on the website--people wanting to know the truth."

"That's good."

"And that's not all."

Sam finally pulled back some and looked at him. "What?"

"Well, most who were stung have family to take care of them, but that sweet elderly woman next door---"

"Mrs. Farla? She's been my neighbor since I moved to Colorado….Oh no, did she get bitten too? She's in her late eight, for goodness sakes; her health has already been getting worse…"

Simon nodded and sighed. "I'm afraid so. She was having trouble, so I moved her over here with us, and I've been looking after her. With the locusts out, her son probably won't be able to come to help her with things. I hope you don't mind…"

She shook her head. "No, no of course I don't mind…" She chewed on her lip a moment. "I'm just sorry she's one of the victims. I know she hasn't been listening to the truth, but she's always been kind. Back when she could still drive and get out easily we'd go to lunch sometimes."

"I'm sorry…but there was nothing I could do about that part. We can only help her and pray, and…I 'have' been speaking with her while she's been here. I think that maybe she is close to accepting."

"Where is she?"

"She's in the guest room, but she is still sleeping, I believe. As little of it as she gets, I don't want to wake her."

Sam nodded, sighed heavily and held onto him again, her head against his chest.

All over the world, those afflicted by the demon locusts tried to kill themselves, when the pain became too much. They tried to drown themselves, slit their wrists, jump off of building, or sit in closed car garages with the engine running…but none died. For the first time in recent human history, there was a day when no-one died. There would be five months of days when no-one died.

Stargate Command was never put on lockdown, but it was as close to being in lockdown as it could be without actually being in one. There was little traffic in our out, from the surface or the stargate. 'Gate travel was suspended until further notice--most likely until the bugs were completely gone. And that would be a while.

Sam went back and forth as much as she was allowed, spending time at home with her husband and Mrs. Farla, and then time at the SGC with her friends, and helping with Vala and the others that had been stung. In spare time she helped Simon and the eastern Trib Force on Ben-Judah's website, and worked on plans for the off-world co-op. Daniel stayed with Vala. There wasn't a day where he wasn't sitting with her in her room, talking with her--or to her, when she was hurting to much to speak--or reading to her, or just sitting, holding her hand. After a few weeks, she started to let him read the Bible to her instead of fiction. More often than not he slept on her couch.

Siler, with no family in the first place, and Reynolds, having had no family since the rapture--his children had been taken, and his wife killed in one of millions of car crashes--stayed on the base with no complaints, and helped where they could, doing whatever they could. When not talking to her father, Carolyn spent a good deal of time in the infirmary caring for the afflicted there, but after only a month or two, it was obvious that it was getting to her. What had been funny before the Tribulation began, and a little bit humorous before the locusts first attacked, now wasn't funny at all, to any of them. Things just weren't the same anymore.

Jack, Sara, and Gavin were still in New Babylon. Business in general was slow there, with much of the population suffering from locust bites, but Carpathia was just as vibrant as ever, if not more so. It was work to dodge being suspected, and Mac, David Hassid, and the new co-pilot for Carpathia's plane--a Christian Mac had brought in named Abdullah Smith--all felt it too. A couple of the others faked locust bites, and it worked, but the O'Neills had been shut in their apartment during the initial attack, and after that took the usual 'precautions' like everyone else, so there was no need. They all managed one way or another.

Gavin grew and changed like a weed. He grew taller, could walk steadily, and his small vocabulary grew. He was almost eighteen months old when Buck Williams finally got back to the states, and Chloe had their child. The baby was a boy, and was given the name Kenneth Bruce for two of their dear friends who had died since the rapture. Bruce the Tribulation Force SG-1 had known as well, and all of them were happy with the name, though it was saddening as well. It made them remember their own absent friends.

On the positive side, Mrs. Farla become a Christian after a few weeks of suffering, but listening to Sam and Simon. At the SGC, the believers led more unbelievers to Christ. It was more about choice than anything, now. After everything else, and then that voice from the heavens announcing the forthcoming woes, no one could say that God did not exist. They could only refuse to acknowledge Him.

It had been over a month since the original locust attack. Sam and Simon had just finished Bible study with Mrs. Farla that afternoon, and the woman had retreated to unconsiousness again, encouraged. Sam set down the Bible they had given her, which she had been reading to her, and quietly followed Simon out, arms crossed tight.

"I'm glad this will be over soon," she sighed once the door to the guest room was closed. "It's great that's she's growing as a believer even though she has to deal with that, but…well, I'm just glad it won't be much longer."

Simon looked worried. "But her health still grows worse, even during this time. I worry whether she'll survive much longer afterward."

Sam grimaced. "Would it be such a bad thing if she didn't? I love her a lot, but, well…"

"I know," he nodded, putting an arm around her shoulder as they came out of the hallway into the living room.

She would have said something, but suddenly there was a sharp knock on the door. Sam glanced up quickly. "Now who…?" She reluctantly stepped out from under Simon's arm and over to the door. "Maybe it's Daniel, or one of the other believers from the SGC…" she muttered. She swung the door open, and had to resist the urge to gape.

It was a teenage girl, covered head to toe in long pants, sweatshirt, and gloves. Dressed like that, she probably wasn't a believer, so Sam quickly pulled her inside and shut the door before any locusts could find her, if they were near.

"I-I'm sorry," the girl stammered before Sam or Simon could even open their mouth. She pulled back her hood and they saw that she was not, in fact, a believer. "I know you don't know me; I was just walking, I…" She looked at them, almost frightened.

Simon smiled kindly. "There's no reason to be scared. We're not going to run you off."

"What's your name?" Sam asked gently.

"Jenny…my name is Jenny," she said hesitantly.

"Well I'm Simon, and this is my wife Samantha; would you like to tell us what you're doing wondering around by yourself out there at a time like this?"

Jenny swallowed and stared at the floor "I just…well…almost everyone else in my house has been bitten by one of those horrible things…either when they came first or since, and…I just had to get out of there for a while. It's too much," she said quietly. "I didn't really know where I was going or why I was feeling crazy enough to go out when they could be lurking around, but I just went. I guess….my feet just kind of brought me here."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"It sounds silly, doesn't it? I felt like I needed to find something…but I don't know what. I just ended up here. If you want me to I'll just go…"

Simon exchanged a meaningful glance with Sam, who was wondering the same thing she was sure he was: Was this God's doing? He held out a hand. "No need. We want to hear more. Do you want to take a seat?"

"Well, a couple of my younger siblings disappeared when everyone else did," Jenny shared half an hour or so later, after a warm drink and some lighter conversation. Finally they had gotten back around to how she had ended up on their doorstep. She grimaced at the memory.

"We all lost someone when that happened," Sam told her quietly. "But they're not gone forever."

The girl shrugged, but seemed like she was listening. "I hear that's what some people think….I heard it just after it happened. I'd heard about something like that 'before' it happened, really, but I didn't know the details and didn't think it was possible. But then Matt and Elsie were gone and--" She stopped and took a deep breath.

"It's all right," Simon said gently. "You don't have to tell us right now."

"No, I want to," she gulped. "It's just that…after that, Nicolae Carpathia popped up, and I thought he had all the answers. I let myself just listen to what he had to say about everything for a long time. It was easier. But I'm realizing…he doesn't know it all. There's something else going on here." Jenny looked up, eyes just a little moist. "And I want to know what it is. I don't even know what I'm asking, really, but can you help me?"

Sam smiled. "If you'll listen, I think we can. Or rather--we know someone else who can."

She blinked in interest and sat up straighter. "You do?"

Jenny did listen attentively to what they had to say. When the desperate girl learned that she could see her brother and sister again, she wept. She accepted Christ there, in their living room, and Sam sent up prayer after prayer of thanks.

"What's that on your forehead!" Jenny gasped after praying her own prayer. "It wasn't there a minute ago…"

"It was; you just couldn't see it," Simon chuckled.

When Jenny heard also that the locusts could not harm believers, she begged them to come back to her home with her to share the truth with her family. They checked in on Mrs. Farla, found her still asleep, left a note to say where they had gone, and went. Jenny keep her hood down, and didn't bother to put her gloves back on.

From there, things happened almost too fast for Sam and Simon to believe it could all be true. Jenny's suffering mother also became a believer on the spot, and within a couple of weeks, her older siblings had come around. Excited for the truth, all of them insisted on going around to the neighboring houses to share the gospel, Jenny leading the pack. Even so, when, a month later, more people from the neighborhood had become believers in a few short weeks than in the entire years since the rapture, the Docketts were drafted as their spiritual leader. With the large SGC group unable to meet because of the travel restrictions with the locusts being about, they had no reason to say no.

They had to be careful; with no-one but believers daring to go outside unprotected, there were few large groups of people gathering anywhere on the planet at this point in time, and the GC had control of all state-of-the-art satellites. But still the new group grew, and all Sam could do was thank God for the chance to help bring so many more people into the family.

The phone rang over and over, but there was no answer. It wasn't until the answering machine picked up that Jack realized he shouldn't be calling Daniel's office. Even four months after the first attack of the locusts, sometimes he forgot that Daniel was almost always in Vala's room, because usually he was in his office. He pressed the button on the phone base, and dialed again, adding a different extension number on the end for that room. At first, it didn't seem like he was going to answer that either, but finally there was a click, and his friend's groggy voice.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Daniel, it's me."

There was a yawn on the other end of the line. "Hi, Jack. How are things over there? Is there a specific reason you called, or…?"

"No, no specific reason. Everything's…well, the same, over here. Half the people are stuck in bed, and the other half run around like scared chickens when they're not in a secure building, but whatever…" Absently Jack twisted the phone cord around his hands, hoping he wouldn't be blocked out, as usual. Daniel had gotten better at letting other people help him, since he'd become a Christian, but recently he'd begun reverting to clamming up again. It had a lot to do not only with the fact that Vala was suffering, but also that she still had not become a believer.

"Yeah…Uh, I'm fine, Jack."

"You sure? You sound tired."

"Vala's out; I just dozed off," he answered a little too quickly.

Jack sighed. "Daniel, you're spending way too much time awake. I'm not even there, and I can tell that."

"I won't have to anymore in a month or so."

"That's beside the point." He saw Sara glancing over at him from the kitchen, through the doorway into the living room. She had a concerned look on her face, and all he could do was shrug to say I'm working on him. She sighed and turned back to whate she was cooking.

"Well what else am I supposed to do, Jack? She can't even talk anymore; I'm not going to leave her alone," Daniel protested wearily.

"That's not what I'm saying. Even if it you do just sleep on that couch, do it more often for cryin' out loud," he huffed.

"I'll try…"

They talked for a few more minutes, until Gavin wandered over and looked up him. "Daddy phone?"

Jack covered the receiver with a hand. "Yeah, buddy. Daddy's on the phone with Uncle Daniel."

The little boy started hopping up and down. He hadn't seen Daniel for a year, but there must have been a vague memory of him in there somewhere, because he always wanted in when Jack and Sara were talking to any of the people back home. "Unca Danl! Talk Unca Danl!"

He smiled at the kid. "Okay, just a minute." He uncovered the receiver. "Hey, Daniel, wanna talk to Gavin? He's jumping up and down over here." Not to mention that he thought it was a wonderful idea at the moment. Maybe talking to the uppity eighteen-month-old for a minute would help pull him out of that stupor of his.

"Uh, sure."

"Great! Here." Jack handed the phone over to his son, to grabbed it eagerly and pressed it to his head, not quite in the right lace. But it worked for the purpose.

"Hi Unca Danl!" So he hadn't quite gotten the pronunciation yet. But hey--he was still really good at talking for his age. And he was such a sunny kid, even in the world he lived in. Jack found himself more and more grateful for his family--and his friends/extended family every day.

And he couldn't wait until they were all together again.

Daniel had to pull the phone almost away from his ear for a second when Gavin yelled an enthusiastic hello into his ear.

"Hey, Gavin," he answered, smiling just a little despite himself.

"Unca Danl good?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he lied. "How about you?"

"Good! Ant V good?"

Whatever of that small smile that was left vanished, and he sighed. He tried not to look at her, lying there on the bed. After four months of suffering, just like the others who had been afflicted, she was pale and thin. When she was fully conscious--which at times was too much and at others not enough--she only tossed and turned and groaned, sometimes shouting or even screaming. She drank little water, and ate less.

Vala had said almost nothing for the last eight weeks. She didn't protest when he read to her, when she was even aware enough to notice, but she didn't seem eager about it either. Daniel couldn't tell at all what was going on in her mind, if much of anything was going on in it at all. Sometimes, she looked a bit thoughtful, but about what he couldn't know. The last time he had been able to really talk to her about anything, she had still seemed to think herself unworthy of salvation. He knew he should leave it up to God, but he worried about her every day.

"Uhm, no, Gavin, Aunt Vala is still sick; but she'll be okay soon."

"Pray. Unca Danl pray?"

Daniel stared at the floor in front of the chair he was sitting in beside the bed and swallowed. The stress of the past so many weeks were too much. If he didn't stop worrying about Vala so much, and leave the burden in God's hands, he would never get through until the end.

The boy talked to him for another moment or two, before handing the phone back to his father. Sara was busy, so Jack bid him farewell, and hung up. Daniel looked at Vala for a moment or so; she was starting to wake up again, and he could hear her whimpering as consciousness returned--or what passed for consciousness in her condition. But he knew she still wouldn't really be awake for a while longer.

Without another thought, he got down on his knees again. It was time to have faith.

Was she waking up? Or was it her dreams playing mean tricks on her again? She couldn't even escape the pain while sleeping. It hurt too much to talk, or eat much, or even open her eyes at times…Now was one of those times.

Vala lay as still as she could, not daring to move for fear of tempting it to become worse. Now that she was awake, she could feel her chest starting to heave in harsh breaths, and she had to resist the urge to cry out. Daniel was undoubtedly here somewhere, and she didn't want to worry him any more than she had to….

Why was he always there? The others came to see her when they could, see knew. She couldn't talk to them anymore, and probably not until this was over--would it ever be--but Daniel was always there. She wondered if he ever left the room. Sometimes he just sat, sometimes he talked to her, sometimes read from the Bible, sometimes other books. It was helpful, and Vala wished she had the strength to thank him.

Sometimes, too, she would wake to hear him praying quietly beside the bed, and as she gained a little more awareness, she realized that she could hear his murmuring voice now, off to her left and down. Was it really her he was praying for, all of those times she heard him? Did he care that much what she decided to believe? What did she believe?

She couldn't deny that God existed up there. Everything Daniel and his friends said would happen had happened. Even this. And the more she heard all of the details from Daniel, the more he read to her, the more sense it all made, the whole being forgiven so you could go to heaven thing. It made sense that people needed that because they weren't perfect. If anyone knew that people weren't perfect, she did. She supposed she believed it--what he did. But it couldn't be true that God would still want her, not after everything…It was better to forget it all. It was too late for her. If she went to hell, it was entirely her fault. Not Daniel's, no matter how much he might think so.

And still she wondered why Daniel stayed so close. So he cared about her….that much she knew. He had told her not to say it when she said he didn't lover her, but what did that mean? Since that day, he had said nothing on the subject, and she hadn't dared to bring it up back when she could still talk to him. Vala knew she loved him; she'd told him that much that day four months ago, and he seemed to have listened. But did he truly love her in return? What was she going to do once this was over? What would they do?

It seemed there was more thinking to be done, over that and….the other thing. It seemed to matter so much to Daniel, that it deserved thinking on more. Not to mention that she had almost another entire month where she would be able to do nothing else, if even that, because of this pain.

There was a new sound, beside the bed. Vala listen as hard as her scattered mind would let her, and finally realized that it, too, was coming from Daniel, in his voice. Was he….was he crying? With every bit of splintered concentration she had, she tried to listen to what he was saying. He was speaking softly, his voice broken by tears and slightly muffled, maybe by the edge of the bedspread at the side of the bed. She could feel it pulling in that direction a bit, as if he were leaning against the side while he was kneeling, as she knew he was. He always did that.

"God…I don't know what else to do. I've shared the truth with her…so many times. But she doesn't understand that she would be accepted by you, no matter what she's done, if she would only ask…I don't know how to get through to her. But…I'm not the one who's supposed to, am I? We're supposed to share the truth, but in the end it's all up to you, and I just…I forgot that sometimes. But please…open her heart. I just…" he trailed off for longer this time, before pulling in a shuddering breath. "I don't want to sound selfish, Lord, but I don't want to spend eternity without her, either. I…I love her."

Vala didn't hear much else after that. The world started to fade out again, and her head was spinning from what Daniel had said. Was it true? All of it?

Hank Landry shooed the technicians out of his office once they had finished moving the holographic receivers and transmitters that had been in the control room. Then he sat down at his desk, waiting for the call that would tell him Carpathia was ready to being transmitting. With the locusts out there, he couldn't easily have Landry come there, so the Potentate would meet with him this way. Apparently he had something important to discuss with the general, but Landry had no idea what. He hoped it was nothing negative; going the past four months with no 'gate travel to keep them busy, and having an infirmary full of sting victims had been stressful enough.

But no matter what it was, he was apprehensive about the 'meeting'. His suspicions about Carpathia had started not long ago, but they were growing quickly enough.

The phone rang, shaking him from his thoughts, and he picked it up. It was Leon Fortunato on the other end, telling him that the transmitting/receiving would begin shortly. Then the 'Supreme Commander' (now who had come up with 'that'?) hung up, and Landry was left sitting again, but not for long. A moment later, the holographic transmitters crackled to like, and Nicolae Carpathia was standing in front of him.

He stood. "Your Excellency," he nodded. He didn't particularly like the new name anymore, but he was expected to use it. Oh well.

Carpathia smiled. "Ah, general. How nice to 'see' you again. I do so enjoy this technology."

"It does come quite in handy, doesn't it?"

"Indeed." The Potentate sat down in his office on the other side of the world, but judged it just right so it looked like he was sitting in one of the chairs across from Landry's desk. "Now--we have an important issue or two to discuss."

Landry nodded. "Your request for a meeting did seem urgent. Is something wrong, Your Excellency?"

"There might be, General Landry. There just may be. You see, Global community satellites have picked up an unusually large amount of gathering and activity in a community near the edge of Colorado Springs, near this mountain of yours. We suspect subversive activity." The Potentate reached behind him, and brought into the hologram a

Map of Colorado Springs, with a certain section circled in red. Landry leaned over his desk a bit to get a closer look.

"But…that's where Samantha and Simon Dockett live."

Carpathia's eyebrows went up. "We know this, general."

Landry frowned. "I've known Sam for years, sir. She would never do anything you might be trying to accuse her of." He had to remember to keep the anger out of his voice. It was hard, even considering who he was talking to.

"I know you like to think that of people you know, General Landry," Carpathia sighed. "But in case you do not remember, I have even had people I believed to be good friends turn against me and my cause--Mr. Stonogal and Mr. Cothran, for instance. I would never have believed them capable of such deception. Yet they plotted against me."

"I remember, but you don't know her. She wouldn't--"

"General, please. Samantha Dockett is not a registered member or Enigma Babylon One World Faith, and her husband is on record as the pastor of an unauthorized Christian church, full of those that follow the teachings of Tsion Ben-Judah. Doubtlessly, she believes these things too. This society is attempting to be tolerant of their difference in belief, but these 'Christians' have caused endless trouble for our new way of life since the disappearances."

Hank was still frowning. "Well, just what do you think they're doing over there?"

Carpathia sat forward, putting the map away, out of the hologram. "After watching the location for over a month, and tapping into several phone calls, we believe that they are planning actions against the established government."

Landry had to fight to keep his face straight and his tone semi-respectful. "Your Excellency, with all due respect: That is ludicrous. And tapping into their phone lines? That's…that's just not--"

"We do what we must to protect the future of this new world, general," Carpathia interrupted, his voice not as kind as before.

"Interfering in the private affairs of innocent citizens?"

"They may not be innocent," the Potentate shot back sharply. "I am ordering you to find out. And if there are any more these…these Judah-ites under your command, I demand to be informed the moment you know."

"But, Your Excellency…"

"While what I said at the Wailing Wall during the time of darkness is still valid, I will not stand for allowing the legs of the Global Community to be swept out from under it before it has even fully stood tall, general, and I am counting on you to be sure that that is not done from here. I have been able to trust you implicitly in the past, and I hope that you do not prove me wrong in this. Is that understood, General Landry?" Carpathia glared.

Hank looked at him and resisted the urge to swallow. "Yes sir."

Moments later, Carpathia's image was gone, and Landry sat down again. He didn't believe the same thing Carolyn and her friends did, and he knew that Sam and her husband would never do anything as drastic as what Carpathia had said, but…what if he didn't do what he had been ordered?

It didn't take long to firmly decide that he didn't care. It didn't matter what he believed; he wouldn't betray his friends.