For notes, warnings and disclaimers see chapter 1

Chapter 6: Dreams On A Broken World
(Sam's POV)

I am trying to wrap my mind around what this sudden realization actually entails even as I try to remind myself of the fact that this is not what this is all about. Yes, it's true that --at least going by what we know-- there are quite a few things in the Tollan's story that just don't make sense but for the time being there are other things that have to take precedence. that doesn't mean, of course, that I won't be trying to make some sort of sense out of it later.

The thing is that I know that for the past few hours I've been looking for every conceivable excuse to avoid thinking about what happened with Narim but the bottom line is that sooner or later I'm going to have no choice but to face it and --as unpleasant as it may be-- I might as well get it over with. Still, bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand is not an easy thing for me to do, especially when I have a way out that is easily within my reach. In fact even now Daniel isn't trying to force the conversation back to its original topic... so maybe it can wait a while, especially because I'd really like to understand this whole thing a little better.

"In other words, it is probably safe to assume that the Tollan's home world hasn't exactly met our definition of inhabitable for a very long time," he says.

"That's the thing, when the probe went through, shortly before we did, the atmosphere still read as mostly breathable but if the flora had been decimated that should have been impossible," I remind him.

"Maybe they had some means to maintain their atmosphere in spite of that fact," Daniel suggests.

"Perhaps, but the question is why bother. I mean, Narim told me that what doomed their world was the destruction of Sureeta. That's what caused the planet's orbit to shift in the first place and that didn't exactly sound like a recent event so, if that's what caused the destruction of their flora and fauna, that happened generations ago so why not evacuate back then? I mean they certainly had the technology to do so, so why wait until the last possible second?" I ask, not really expecting an answer but rather thinking out loud.

"I don't know, perhaps they thought that there might be some way for them to reverse the process, after all I don't think the Tollan were all that comfortable with the notion that there were some things that remained beyond the reach of their science."

"That is possible, I guess, but it's still not logical. If you have a readily available solution why go for one that is, at least for the time being, technically impossible?" I insist.

"Well, maybe it was because their culture was rooted on that world," says Daniel before going on. "Let's face it, even though here on earth humans have been dreaming about the possibility of traveling to other worlds for decades if not centuries the truth is that if you were to conduct a poll asking people if they'd be willing to leave this planet if they were given the opportunity to do so most of them wouldn't hesitate to say 'no'... and quite a few of them would say no regardless of what you promised them."

"The thing is that I'm not sure we are a valid reference for the Tollan," I remind him. "I mean, they didn't seem like they would let their emotions overrule their logic... especially not Omoc."

"Actually I'm not so sure about that."

"Why not?"

"You told me that Narim said that when he first saw you he thought you were an angel, right?"

"Well, he didn't exactly call me that. He said he thought I was a Sher'mau, but I think the concept was basically the same."

"Exactly. The thing is that that would seem to suggest that --for all their technology-- the Tollan still followed a set of beliefs that had been passed down to them through the generations, though the relevance of those beliefs may well have been minimal in terms of their everyday life. The point is that if those ancestral beliefs were somehow tied to their own home world..."

"Then that could possibly explain their decision to try to fight for that world until it was almost too late," I reluctantly agree, still far from convinced.

"It's weird to be on the other side, isn't it?" asks Daniel with a smile, out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just that I think the Tollan see us as we see the inhabitants of other worlds... and we see them as they see us. I mean, sure, we realize they aren't gods, we understand they are merely more advanced than we are from a technological perspective and we can even accept that on a rational level but at the same time we can't even begin to comprehend how their technology works and that is making it hard for us to understand their society and their perspective. For instance, with the Shavadai we could see them and we could say that their culture was rooted in that of the Mongols and then we could try to make sense out of it from that perspective. In fact even with the Goa'uld, the Egyptian connection is immediately apparent but with the Tollan we just had no frame of reference and that was what made it so hard for us to understand them."

"In other words we can look back and understand where another civilization stands without too much trouble but when we are in a position of having to look forward and having to try to imagine where we will someday be we find the whole thing to be far more complicated?" I ask.

"Something like that," Daniel agrees. "I mean, we can understand that we are emotionally attached to our planet and we can understand that if we were ever to find ourselves in a position of having no choice but to leave it behind we would not consider that an easy decision to make, regardless of the circumstances, but at the same time we have a hard time accepting the fact that the Tollan may have faced a similar difficulty when it came to abandoning their own home world. Sure we can rationalize it by saying that our world was the cradle of mankind and that makes it special in our eyes but that doesn't mean that other cultures can't be as attached to their own home planets as we are."

Well, I guess that is probably as close to a reasonable explanation as I'm likely to find here on earth and --seeing how Narim is gone and I have no means to ask him about it-- it will just have to do. Besides, whether I like it or not, I think its time for me to steer this conversation back to its original topic... especially because I'd really like to get it over with once and for all.


Author's notes: Hi guys, okay I want to apologize for this chapter. This was no what I wanted to write but the thing was that when I was watching 'Enigma' again I couldn't help but feel that the plot holes were just too glaring for Sam and Daniel not to notice them sooner or later so I decided to try to patch them as best I could. Hopefully things will go better next week.

Thanks for sticking with me though. I definitely appreciate it,

Alec