"Merrin, what do you do for fun?"
"Fun?" Merrin repeated the word. She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to a side, contemplating the meaning of the word.
"You do know what fun is, right?" O'Neill asked as the silence was getting longer. Merrin shook her head.
"Ok, fun is…what you do to make yourself happy," tried to explain the SG-1 leader. "Like music, games. It's whatever you do when you're not learning to be a rocket scientist."
Merrin seemed deep in thought as she formulated her answer. The only sound at the table was Barbara furiously typing on her translator. Makepeace and Carter were overlooking the events unfolding at the table, not contributing yet.
"I am here to 'teach' Major Carter about the reactor."
"Sounds like fun to me," added cheerfully Carter, smiling, and holding her thumbs up.
"On the Earth, it is common for children to do something else, not only to acquire knowledge. In some of the games, they move their bodies in unconventional ways, like Twister, hopscotch. There are some games used to develop strategies like chess, Monopoly, Risk. Some of the children like to create things, like drawing, playing music."
"It sounds… different… to what we do on Orban," at the end concluded Merrin. She then glanced at her finished food and then at Major Carter.
"You are done, right?" confirmed Carter and after getting a nod from Merrin continued. "Okay, then let's get back to the lab."
"But what happens after the Averium?" the question caught Merrin just as she picked up her tray.
"The usual."
"What do you mean the usual?" blurted O'Neill.
"My nanites will be shared among my people," Merrin answered looking at O'Neill.
"But what about you?" colonel Makepeace joined in. He as well as the rest of the SG teams leaders read some of the retypes provided by Barbara for the SG-1, as they heavily futured the star-flag team of the SGC. As it was termed then – just in case. He was not looking towards the file codenamed 'Foothold'.
"I will be taken care of," she turned to look at the other colonel. Merrin could see that her answer was confusing the occupants of the table, but she should not figure in what way. Major seeing that the conversation came to a kind of a conclusion quickly led the girl back to her lab where Merrin will try again to explain to her the naquada reactor.
As both scientists left the mess Barbara quickly typed a message before showing it to O'Neill.
"Oh, don't worry Barbie. I am going to do it again," confirmed the salt-and-pepper-haired man, patting her head. Then he furrowed his eyebrows and scrunched his nose. "Is it really again if I have never done it, but another version of me did it?"
Barbara didn't have to glance at colonel Makepeace to know that he had just face-palmed. She was really tempted to join him.
Fun?
She was having fun. The book was very interesting, and she had recently learned how to climb the olive tree in the school courtyard, so she was very comfortable. She had recently moved here and still didn't speak the local language much. She had the kids offer her to join them in some of the games at the beginning but soon the offers ran dry. The boy who was helping with translations for her was busy playing with his friends, so she couldn't really join him.
She was having fun.
She was sitting at her table; her books open around her and her left hand quickly typing on the calculator. They were having a free time period, so she was trying to do most of her homework. Some of the students were sitting around the classroom in groups. Her own group she was usually talking to was sitting and laughing at something, but Barbara was fine. Loud metal in her earphones and another answer is written in her notebook.
She was having fun. Wasn't she?
The school bus was loud, but she barely heard that over the 'Barber from Seville' in her earphones. It was another free period, and the rest of her classmates were discussing the coming school party. The bitterness over not being involved had stopped bothering her long ago. She understood that her previous disinterest in such activities had proven to people that she would not be fun to have at the party. And she herself didn't really enjoy it.
But she was not having fun.
Barbara followed SG-3 as they exited the elevator at Level 1. Makepeace and his team led her to a checkpoint where they had to register as "Off Base – Earth" before being able to leave the base for the promised tour around the city of Colorado Springs. Barbara was not required to fill in any papers (and it was not only due to her inability to write in English – all her attempts turned out to be in Ancient, leaving Daniel as the only one who could read it. Somehow. Sometimes.). And that left her the only free enough to see as O'Neill expertly, in her opinion, snuck Merrin past the checkpoint. He flashed his ID at the soldier who just nodded at colonel O'Neill and then turned back to their group. As the soldier was continuing to deal with SG-3, the SG-1 leader led Merrin out, constantly changing his position and covering the alien girl from the soldiers with his body. Just before the pair left Jack turned around and winked at Barbara who kept trailing them. She smirked at the audacity of the man.
"Barbara, we are ready to go."
The voice startled the girl as she kept looking at the exit before turning to look at SG-3. All the members were coming to this outing. Feeling a bit out of place with the group she smiled as they also left the base.
"The area of Colorado Springs is usually visited for the landscapes and the parks surrounding the area," Lieutenant Johnson voice boomed as the officer was driving down Colorado Avenue. "But the Old City is also very popular with the tourists for its calm atmosphere and variety shops, cafes and breweries."
They had grabbed a vehicle large enough for all of them, letting Barbara to sit next to the driver to get a better look at the city. They entered the city from the south and soon they were in the center. The Avenue they were on was a huge 5-lane road with trees around it. At first, there were family houses, one of which even belonged to Colonel Makepeace, as was pointed out by Major Warren. The city here was made of low red buildings and it seemed to her that the city was trying to take as much territory as it could.
"So what is the plan?" Barbara typed on her translator, turning in her place to look at the officers sitting behind her.
A/N:
Hello.
Thank you for reading!
As you might have guessed from the long absence, the updates are going to become sporadic. But I can promise you that I will finish the story.