Chapter Two: Gate Travel

Sam Carter let the background noise of the mess wash over her. Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill were dining together a few tables over. They apparently hadn't noticed she was sitting here, which was just as well. Much as she enjoyed their company, she just had too much work to do to bother being distracted by their bantering.

"How's your day been, Daniel?"

"All right. I was researching the strange symbols that SG-4 brought back from that planet …"

"Which planet?"

"You know, the one with the …"

"Oh, that planet."

"Very funny, Jack."

"No, I mean it, I know exactly what you're talking about. That planet. It had a sky, right, and these people, with hair, and teeth, and they wore clothes."

"Are you finished?"

"I guess so."

"Good. So I was researching the strange symbols that SG-4 brought back from that planet – P24-910 –"

"Oh, that's supposed to help?"

"We were briefed on it, Jack …"

"Oh, very funny, Daniel."

"You know what? Never mind. I'm just not going to talk to you about this anymore."

Sam glanced at the ceiling, trying not to laugh. All right, she thought, so she wasn't getting a lot of work done. But it was great having friends around, even if they didn't know you were there.

"Good afternoon, Major Carter."

Sam looked up and smiled. "Hi, Teal'c."

Her teammate was carrying a tray, on which was more macaroni and cheese than she hoped she'd ever see in one place again.

He sat down. "Are you prepared for today's briefing on P3X-R35?" he inquired, with his usual flawlessly measured courtesy.

Sam made a face. "Well, I'm getting there," she said. "I've still got to finish the analysis on SG-2's report, though. Evidently there's something peculiar introduced to their water there that SG-2 thinks we ought to check out …"

"I am certain your analysis will prove most informative, Major Carter," Teal'c said, inclining his head to her. He seemed subtly amused about something, but then again, Teal'c often did.

"Thanks," Sam said. "If I ever finish it, that is … how's your macaroni?"

Teal'c looked down at it. "Tastes of chicken," he proclaimed, absolutely deadpan.

But before Sam could react, the klaxons that indicated unauthorized off-world activation rang out through the command center.

"That's odd," Sam heard Daniel say a few tables over. "Are we expecting anybody?"

"Well, unless Hammond's got a dinner party going he hasn't told us about …" Jack said, getting up.

"Uh … Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"You've got some whipped cream on your nose," Daniel said, in a long-suffering tone.

"Oh. Doesn't do anything for my complexion?" Jack frowned, wiping the tip of his nose off on the back of his hand.

"No, not really," Daniel said.

"I bet sometimes he wonders why he ever came back," Sam muttered cheerfully, as SG-1 converged on the entrance and headed for the gate-room.

But nobody seemed to hear her.

***

"General, we're getting an IDC," the sergeant on duty said suddenly, staring down at his screens with an expression of shock. "It's … it's the old Tollan code, sir."

Sam drew in her breath sharply. " … Tollan?" she asked. Her voice was fainter than it ought to have been.

Colonel O'Neill looked puzzled. "Hey, weren't they all toast?"

As ever, the soul of tact: the wry thought balanced precariously over a sea of teeming wonderment and old emotions that Sam hadn't thought of in quite some time … could it be?

General Hammond hesitated for only the briefest of moments. "Open the iris," he said.

"But what if someone captured one of the Tollan and got ahold of the code?" Jack said. "I was pretty sure Tanith fried most of their asses …"

"Jack, if one of them happened to survive and found a way to contact us," Daniel started to say.

"After all this time?" Jack said, as ever skeptical.

"Yes, we know what you're saying, Jack," Daniel said, getting annoyed, "but if it should happen to be one of the Tollan we don't want to take the risk of them being dead on impact with our iris."

"If it's the Tollan I don't see what they need us to open the iris for anyway," Jack grumped. "They can just walk through it with their belt doohickeys, can't they?"

"Gentlemen," General Hammond said mildly, "as fascinating as your discussion is, perhaps you'd like to continue it another time."

For a lean, haggard figure had stepped through the gate.

He hadn't shaved recently and it didn't look like he'd been getting enough to eat. He also looked quite pale – paler than usual, even – and it seemed that he was not entirely steady on his feet, as though he'd been sitting for a very long time and hadn't quite worked out how to move his legs properly for bipedal locomotion … but the lean orange cat sprawled complacently in his arms was more than enough to identify him to Samantha Carter.

"Narim!" she exclaimed, her face white with shock. "General Hammond, it's Narim … he's alive."

"Well, well," Jack said, peering intently down at the newcomer. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"It looks as though he is bringing the cat, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c pointed out. His grasp of the Tau'ri way of speaking had grown excellently over the years, but sometimes it seemed as though the Jaffa treated misinterpreting Jack's slang like a sort of game. "Neither appear to be in the best of health."

"He looks like hell," Daniel murmured in agreement.

"Well," General Hammond said, glancing around at SG-1, "I'm sure you're anxious to greet our guest …"

***

As usual, Colonel O'Neill demonstrated the height of courtesy and tact: "Hi, buddy. You look like hell?"

"Is there an echo in here?" Daniel Jackson wondered aloud. "Good to see you again, Narim."

Teal'c gave him a little half-bow and said, in a voice that expressed volumes without using more than the least amount of words, "I am pleased to see you alive, Narim."

And two words from the woman he loved more than anything else in the world, in ways that even he had yet to comprehend … simple words, yes, but they were worth more to him than a thousand spoken by any other voice. "Hi, Narim." All right, so it lacked eloquence … but what was there to say?

He liked the sound of her voice. He'd programmed his computer to speak to him with it, back on the world that had become the Tollan home. But that was all in the past.

Narim gave them all an earnest smile. Although he felt only a shadow of his old, sophisticated self, being here among the Tau'ri left him feeling rejuvenated. He'd had the vague idea that he might be received pleasantly, but he had strong memories of the circumstances in which he'd last seen these four people, and to find the welcome here with no trace of the dark shadow under which he'd lost them was … beyond pleasant.

"Thank you," he said. "To say that I'm glad to be here would be … an understatement, in the very least."

"What happened to you?" asked Samantha, quietly concerned.

Narim stroked Schrödinger's ears absent-mindedly as he answered, beginning with a soft smile on his lips reserved only for Sam. "Mine was not the only ship to escape Tanith's massacre," he said, "but the communications equipment aboard my own was damaged beyond possibility of repair and I lost track of them on the sensor array shortly after I left Tollana … and I wandered ever since. I landed at the first inhabited planet I came across and gated here."

"What, that's all?" Colonel O'Neill looked surprised. "It's been …" His brow furrowed as he dredged through his memory. "Like years."

Narim gave him a wry look. "Space is quite large, Colonel O'Neill, and my ship was damaged when I took flight … I made the best time I could."

"You must be exhausted," Sam said.

"Rest would be welcome," Narim admitted, "although I'd much rather stay in your company, Samantha."

Sam was blushing a little. "Er," she said, "right, but … I'm afraid I'm kind of busy right now … you know, with …"

Jack snickered in a way that Narim thought was a little juvenile, but of course his was a young race. Teal'c was looking at him with an upraised brow, indicating amused surprise.

Daniel Jackson seemed mildly exasperated with the Colonel, although from what Narim recalled of their previous association this was not an entirely unusual occurrence. "I'm sure we can dig up someplace for you to stay around here," he said, pointedly ignoring Jack.

"Thank you, Dr. Jackson," Narim said, weary but mild. "That would be much appreciated."