"—won't wake up!"
"Do something—"
Through an endless abyss of darkness, Makepeace was aware of being shaken. Strong fingers dug into his shoulders. It hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain he had fled, the pain of a murdered world. His murdered world—his crime—his loss. There was more shaking. The violent motion disturbed him, jarred his consciousness, prompted memory. He wished it would stop.
After a moment, it did, and he sank into warm oblivion.
"What? I'm open to suggestions—"
A sharp slap to one cheek brought him back to semi-awareness, but this time he felt only irritation. Why wouldn't they just leave him alone? Was there something he had forgotten? Did it matter?
He started to drift again, back into forgetfulness.
"Jesus, Lieutenant, what are you doing?"
"You said to do something."
"I didn't mean that—"
Another slap, harder this time.
"Come on, Colonel, wake up!"
The next slap rattled his teeth. Weren't there rules against hitting a superior officer? Then he was being shaken again.
"God damn it, Bob, don't do this to us!"
Johnson sounded really worried. Makepeace couldn't understand why. He was only sleeping, wasn't he? He supposed he ought to let the Three Stooges know he was all right, before they called out the riot squad or something.
He struggled to open his eyes, but it was an awful lot of work, and they remained closed.
"—think he's coming out of it. His eyelids twitched— See? They did it again."
"Thank God. Colonel? Colonel, can you hear me?"
Makepeace made a Herculean effort, and managed to crack one eye open. Success bred success, and his other eye opened as well. There was a large, dark blur right in front of him. Makepeace blinked several times to clear his vision. The blur resolved into Johnson's face. The lieutenant broke out into a huge grin.
"Welcome back, sir!"
Two more faces appeared in his field of vision. Henderson and Andrews. They all looked relieved about something, and were grinning like idiots.
"Jesus," Makepeace muttered, "can't a guy get some sleep around here?"
"Sorry, sir, but no sleep allowed for colonels who keep scaring us," quipped Andrews.
"Scaring you?" He was slouched in an armchair. The position was uncomfortable, so he moved to straighten up, but his body was sluggish and unresponsive. Grunting with effort, he managed it anyway. He felt chilled, and rubbed his arms, asking, "Is it cold in here?"
"No, sir." Henderson leaned over him, pressing two fingers to his throat. "Pulse and respiration seem okay now," he reported to Johnson.
That got his attention. Makepeace stared at them. "What was that all about? I thought you said the meditation thing was safe?"
"It usually is," Johnson replied, "but this wasn't...normal. I've never seen anything like it."
"What happened? Why am I cold?"
The trio exchanged a glance. Henderson said, "It looked like you had another seizure. You're cold because your metabolism dropped. Your pulse and respiration went way down. They're fine now, though."
"Oh." Makepeace closed his eyes, remembering the end of his too-vivid dream. He murmured, "Vara shut down." Apparently, he had tried to shut down, too. He wrapped his arms around his chest at the thought. Would he have died? He looked up at Johnson. "Was that you hitting me?"
The lieutenant looked guilty. "You wouldn't wake up, sir," he said by way of explanation.
"It's okay, Johnson." Makepeace blew out a loud breath. "More than okay. Thank you. I mean it."
Johnson smiled. "You're welcome, Colonel."
Makepeace pushed himself out of the chair and started pacing, getting his circulation going again.
"Sir, maybe you ought to take it easy," Henderson said.
Makepeace responded, "I'm okay now, and this helps." He could feel his body warming and returning to normal with the exercise.
Henderson nodded but kept an eye on him. "You said Vara shut down. What did you mean?"
Still pacing, Makepeace said, "At the end of my dream, Vara shut itself down. It had nothing left to live for..." He stopped dead. "Jesus fucking Christ!"
"Sir?"
"Fuck fuck fuck! Godfrey!" he bellowed. "Godfrey, get your ass in here! Now!"
The butler hologram shimmered into view. "Did you require something, sir?" it asked in its snooty voice.
"Yes! I want to talk to Vara! Now!"
Johnson caught Makepeace's arm. "Sir, what's the matter? What did you remember?"
"Vara killed its own world!" Makepeace snarled. "That thing is insane. Godfrey, did you hear me? You tell Vara to talk to us, or let us go. Do you understand that?"
"I will relay your request, sir," Godfrey replied calmly. It vanished.
"Colonel, what do you mean?" Johnson asked. "Colonel! What was in that dream? Tell us."
Makepeace inhaled deeply, forcing himself to calm down. He faced his men. "Vara's not just a computer. It's so advanced it's some kind of artificial lifeform. It gets its power from the planet's core—geothermal energy on a huge scale. The whole thing was created to be—I don't know—I guess it's a combination of controller and caretaker for this world."
"How so?"
"It's integrated with the whole damn planet. It controls the weather, earthquakes, equipment and machinery, food production, everything. But the people who built it were intensely xenophobic." He looked Andrews in the eye. "You were right the other night, Mike. About how these people might not be like us, just because their sky is empty. There are no visible stars in the sky, just the sun and a few comets and meteor showers. Maybe there are some other planets—I don't know, that wasn't clear. The people here didn't particularly care about anything beyond their own world. They thought they were all alone." He paused, then said to Andrews, "You were right about that, too."
"I hate being right," Andrews responded.
"What are you two talking about?" Johnson asked.
"The colonel and I had a talk during third watch the other night, about the aliens who lived here, and how the night sky might have affected them. It was nothing, really, just a way to pass some time—"
"But you were right," Makepeace repeated. "These people never saw the stars, and just like you thought, they didn't have any idea there was a universe beyond this system." He shook his head. "They were already an advanced technological civilization when the aliens placed the Stargate here. More advanced than we are now, from what I saw. But at first they couldn't handle the truth about the universe. The Stargate almost tore their culture apart. I don't think they ever really recovered from it."
Makepeace returned to his chair and sat down. He raked his fingers through his hair and related everything he had recalled, leaving out no detail, making a point of describing the complacency and denial that had led to the loss of this world's space defenses, and the devastation of Sitala's viral attack. As he talked, his panic faded but didn't leave him entirely.
He finished with, "Vara's every bit as xenophobic as its creators. It went crazy when Sitala wiped out the native population. It decided that the only way to get rid of all traces of the virus was to sterilize the entire planet with ionizing radiation. Nothing's alive here except us. There isn't so much as a single native microbe left."
"Fuck," muttered Andrews.
"No shit."
Henderson said, "But, sir, all that radiation—that must have really screwed up the atmosphere, left radioactive traces in the soil and water... Why is this planet still livable?"
"You're asking me?" Makepeace shrugged. "Vara takes care of it. I don't know why or how. Maybe it's some kind of automatic thing."
"You said Vara shut itself down," Johnson said. "What happened? Why is it awake now?"
Andrews speculated, "The Stargate activation must have woke it up somehow."
"That must be what happened," said Makepeace. "It has a pretty elaborate system in place for monitoring the Stargate. For whatever godforsaken reason, it allowed us out of the access building so we wouldn't go home. It started up the transportation system and even offered us a ride, remember? When we didn't take the bait, it captured us and brought us here." Another of those odd, alien impressions struck him. "This place, the whole city...Vara rebuilt it in a single day, the day we arrived." He saw it all, the rise of the glittering city from nothing, growing upwards, building upon itself. Like a movie of melting ice being run in reverse.
His men looked shocked, and he couldn't blame them. Andrews asked, "Was that in your nightmare, too?"
"No, no, the nightmare ended with Vara shutting down. But I know it, like I knew Vara was an AI. It just came to me—I can see it happening in my head. Look at how it's remodeled the place for us, human furniture and facilities, all in just a few hours, like magic." Makepeace shook his head at the power, the technology... The fury. "At first... At first, I think it was still angry, especially when it thought we were Goa'uld, but now..."
"Wouldn't it have killed us outright?" Andrews asked. "I mean, Sitala murdered its people, right? That's what drove it nuts."
They were all silent, considering that. Henderson said, "Yesterday, in that audience chamber, Vara said it wanted to talk to us, even though it thought we were Goa'uld. It sounded kind of weird."
"Colonel, this morning you said it was lonely," Johnson pointed out.
Makepeace nodded slowly, sorting through the tangible evidence as well as the alien memories and emotions Varayimshaeta had bequeathed him. "Yeah. This is only a guess, but I think it's decided it's been alone long enough. I think it wants some company. And it looks like we're it."
"Oh, lucky us," Andrews moaned. "At least we know why it's treating us so nice. We're house guests."
"More like house pets," Johnson said, scowling. "This isn't exactly a voluntary visit, you know."