--- --- The Return --- ---
Karan looked at him with those careful eyes whose sharpness had saved Barol so many times during all of those years.
"Spit it out, Karan. What is it?"
"What do you know about the RFS?"
"The 'Revolutional Front of Sandrana'? Those guys are not exactly happy with the end of the war. They want the old regime re-established. You can't really blame them. The President hasn't been doing his job lately, has he? The farmers grow as much as they can but still the food doesn't seem to be enough. I'm not sure how he wants to get us through the next winter. Rumor has it that he's selling the food to gain wealth. I talked to a trader some months ago and he tried to assure me that it wasn't the case. We'll see, I suppose. But what has that to do with the RFS?"
Barol watched his friend with wary eyes. The other man approached in a stealthy way that showed his long military training. His eyes sized Barol up for a moment, until he started in a low voice.
"Everything I'm going to tell you has to stay in this room."
Karan waited until he signaled his assent and then continued, his voice so low it could have been a whisper.
"The President is not selling the food. It is a treaty that the President was forced to give in to. Not long ago, when the war came to an end, some human-like creatures allied with a mighty alien force threatened to enslave our planet. The President saved us by signing this treaty. I've worked under cover at the RFS. They've found out about this treaty and want to tell the people. Can you imagine the chaos that would arise? A friend whom I believed to be loyal blew my cover and now they're on my heels. I need your help. I'm not sure how many they've set on my trail. My guess is they'll be here this evening, maybe tomorrow. I know no one who flies a space fighter like you do. I need your help to escape."
"You have no right to ask that of me. I've got nothing to do with this any longer. I'm out of the business."
His voice barely hid the anger that was boiling inside of him. How dare he ask that of him, bringing him in on this one, the voice inside of him kept repeating. Unable to stand still any longer, Barol pushed himself from the counter of his kitchen and paced the room. He had left that life months ago. But he knew, no matter how angry he was he would eventually help Karan. He was his friend and he needed help.
"Barol. They've already found out who you are. They'll be here and whether they find me or not, they won't be too friendly to you. I'm sorry, but you're already in this."
"You don't know what you're asking of me."
He snapped back, a little sharper than he had wanted to. Karan had seen what he had seen. He should know why Barol was so hesitant to return. The look of absolute horror on the child's face...
"I am sorry, Barol."
Karan's voice sounded genuinely repentant and Barol let out a soft sigh. His friend had problems and needed his help. No matter what he did from now on, he was already in on this game of hide and seek.
"They'll be here in a couple of hours, huh? What about giving them a warm welcome?"
Leaving a relieved Karan behind, he made his way over to the small shed next to his house. The locked closet in there held all the things he despised. The things he had hoped to never bring to the light of day - or night - again. Yet he didn't really have a choice, did he? The RFS would kill both of them, should they ever find them. While he did what had to be done, he forced himself not to think of the people that would die and the families they would leave behind.
--- --- --- --- ---
Jack watched Carter knock a second time but still there was no answer. Maybe 'he' wasn't there, he thought to himself. He still had problems with that alternate reality crap. Carter knocked a third time and shook him out of his thoughts about this Sam and this Jack. He still wondered how the two of them had managed to keep apart for such a long time. Despite everything that had been standing in their way in his reality, he and Sammy had done it. But here, where both were free to do, as they wanted, they just kept apart from each other.
After a few minutes and no response to a fourth knock, he tried the handle only to find the door unlocked. He looked over at Carter and pushed the door open when she nodded 'yes'.
The door opened silently and Jack stepped carefully inside.
"Hello?"
Her voice echoed through the rooms but there was no answer. Slowly, he took another step into the house, calling out for someone to answer. The house was so similar to his own that he stopped for some seconds. Sammy had moved in with him directly after the knee incident. First, she'd simply watched out for him, played the nurse. They had followed the rules strictly, none of them wanting to spoil anything until the day of his retirement. Well, she had never moved out again.
"Home sweet home."
Carter simply gave him a look as she brushed past him. Obviously, impatience had gotten the better of her. The wooden floor squeaked under her weight and his heart stopped beating at that moment. His arm darted out to stop her.
"Don't move. Didn't you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
Her nervousness was palpable and increasing, mirrored by a similar feeling in his own stomach.
"Didn't you hear the 'click' when the floor board squeaked?"
"'Click' as in...?"
"Yeah, Carter. 'Click' as in 'boom'."
Forcing himself to stay calm, he took some deep breaths. He was trained for this; he could do this.
"What now?"
Her voice was shrill, displaying the fear she normally hid so well.
"Stand still. And DON'T MOVE. That's an order, Colonel."
She stilled immediately, years of training kicking in. With a loud popping sound in his knee, he settled next to her. He started searching through his backpack as soon as he had unfastened it. Pleased to find what he had been looking for, he pulled out a knife.
Tremors shook her body as she strove to stand still. He used the knife to pry the next board over out of the floor, revealing a black hole underneath. A glimpse of metal caught his eyes and he felt his stomach turn to knots as he leaned into the hole to get a better look.
"What do you see?"
"It's a mine. It seems someone was waiting for us. Someone who doesn't want us to find him."
"Can you defuse it?"
Hell, had that been her voice? He had hardly seen her like that but, then, she probably didn't face death that often nowadays. From what he had been told, it had been years since she'd gone through the Stargate the last time.
"Jack?"
"I know the type and, yes, I can defuse it. But... Carter, I know the type because I invented it on a mission to Russia."
It took her some time to process his words, her face turning even paler.
"But why would he want to kill us?"
"I don't know. Hold your breath. It's been some time since I did this kind of thing."
"Well, thank you, Jack. That's a calming thought."
He snorted at her irreverence and searched his pack again until he found the right tools. With a flashlight in his mouth, he lay flat on the floor, directly in front of the hole. His hands shook slightly and he cursed himself for his own weakness when he should have been concentrating on defusing the mine.
His breath came out in small gasps and sweat started running down his temple from the effort of keeping his hands still as he cut some wires. When he cut the last, he let out a long breath. He had done it. He was already starting to get back on his knees, which took him so much longer nowadays, when from somewhere below him, he heard a soft 'click'.
"Get outta here."
He dragged her along as they both flew down the steps. They'd just reached the front door when, behind them, the house exploded with a loud 'boom'. The shockwave pushed them to the ground, heat flaring over them.
"You ok?"
His breathing was heavy and she nodded, too stunned to say anything. To be blown up had been the last thing he had expected. Damn. He should have figured that 'he' would do something like that. He would have done it if he wanted to get rid of someone. He should have seen the second circuit too, disguised by the first one.
"Why, Jack? Why did he do that?"
He saw tears rising in her eyes and he rubbed her back gently as they both sat up again. Behind them, the house was burning bright; the red flames melting into the red sky.
"I don't know, Carter."
--- --- --- --- ---
The darkness surrounded him and he stared unseeing into the vast expanse that was space. The three suns of the Sandrana system had long ago faded as their ship drifted like a fortress through the vacuum. He had no idea where Karan had found such a ship; it was unlike anything Barol had ever seen. Outside, he saw the stars sparkle just as he remembered them, without a layer of dusty light.
Tiny white dots burned themselves into his eyes and he felt his lids slid shut under their calming light. Exhaustion finally caught up with him; today's events bringing back a life that he had wanted to forget so dearly. The life of a warrior, a warrior doing unspeakable things for a greater good. The boy's face welled up inside of him and he shook his head furiously to get rid of the image. But he couldn't. Instead, his thoughts returned to what he had done today. He had sent those poor people to death. Once again, he had played God. He wasn't proud of what he had done but it was necessary to save a friend's life. They had left in such a hurry that he hadn't even had the time to say goodbye to Tharyl.
His mind refused to rest but his body won in this silent war. Sleep enveloped him slowly, offering him the gentle bliss of forgetfulness. First, he reveled in darkness but soon her - Sam's - face started to drift behind his closed eyes. Her face, glowing in the light of a red sun he had never seen. She was talking to him, fiercely making her point, though he couldn't hear her voice. Behind her, he could see smoke rising into the red sky. It spiraled up from the remnants of something he thought to be some kind of rocket.
Suddenly, the expression on her face changed, her hair plastered flat to her head from ounces and ounces of water that poured itself into a golden corridor. Her face showed fear as the water rose steadily. Soon, the water was too high for them to breathe and he saw her blurred features watching him through the cold water.
Setting changed again, her face was now smeared with dirt and grimacing in pain. The air was hot and hardly breathable. There were other people there but he didn't care. His eyes remained on her. Peripherally aware of a stabbing pain in his knee, all he could see was Sam's face. Her face as it shifted through hundreds of emotions and settings, each showing him a new fragment in the puzzle that she was.
Sometimes, he saw one of the other guys, but most of the time, it was just Sam. Then the four of them were all standing in front of a huge window. Strange symbols covered the walls in narrow lines. A big golden box was the center of the room, a smaller box standing directly in front of a triangular window. They were all wearing black clothes, her cute blonde locks covered by a black hat. Outside the window was a planet, not Sandrana, but strangely familiar. It shimmered blue in the darkness of space. His look once again settled on her, the blue eyes wide with shock. This wonderful mouth of hers started moving but, though he couldn't hear her voice, he knew instinctively what she was saying.
"Sir."
The word rushed through him. For some reason, he didn't like that word.
"Sir."
He saw the word on her mouth as he fell to the ground, a huge spacecraft flying over him. Detonations were exploding all around him and pain shot through him like fire. His chest felt like it had been hit by a Lamro deer. The pain grew more intense and, with a shock, he shook out of his sleep.
Everything had felt so real. So damn real. Unconsciously, he rubbed his hand over his chest. It still hurt. When he opened his shirt, he saw the huge scar exactly where the pain had hit him moments ago. Logic told him that he had gotten the scar when his training craft had crashed down, over thirty years ago. Still, his dream seemed to be far more real than reality.
"Barol? You ok?"
He was still panting but he managed a short reply to calm Karan who came rushing onto to the bridge at that moment.
"It's all right."
Sweat still poured down his face, and Barol brushed it away with shaky hands.
"Bad dream, huh?"
"Yeah."
Karan smiled encouragingly at him, understanding shining through his eyes.
"The war."
The statement hung for some time in the room and Barol nodded absentmindedly. Somehow, he didn't feel comfortable telling Karan the truth. The pictures he had seen were taken from a different war, though he wasn't sure whether he had ever participated in it.
When his heartbeat finally returned to normal, his gaze fell on the bridge's walls. He hadn't even noticed the golden symbols lining them before he fell asleep. The bridge looked, in fact, pretty similar to some of the rooms he had seen in his dream. He was sitting on one of two chairs, a red glowing ball in front of him.
When Karan had shown him the ship, he had found himself reaching out for the ball. Without conscious effort, he had known what to do with it, how to touch it to make the ship darting out into the pitch black darkness. Now, he wondered how he had known how to fly such a thing. The fighters he had flown for most of his life definitely used a different technique.
"Karan, who gave you this ship?"
His voice didn't even tremble as he watched his old friend warily. He could see Karan's shoulders straighten and heard the sharp intake of breath. Anyone else might not have noticed but Barol knew this man far too well. Karan's eyes narrowed on him and he could hear a hint of suspicion in his voice, belying his studied indifference.
"Why do you want to know?"
Barol shrugged as an answer, tying to brush it off like Karan did.
"Just curious. Dunno. The design looks familiar."
Next to him, Karan turned slowly around, the violet eyes solely focused on Barol. Suddenly, a flash illuminated those very eyes and his senses went into overdrive, all alarm bells ringing clearly. Out of the blue, he heard his mind screaming just one word. 'Goa'uld'.
--- --- TBC --- ---