"Fortune seldom repeats; troubles never occur alone." - chinese proverb
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The nest day, SAM woke up early. He was on an alien planet, and even though he was tired already of the "negotiations", he was still excited about what he could do today. He looked around and saw that his dad wasn't up yet, and oddly neither was his uncle. It must have been really early then. He looked at his watch, but rolled his eyes when he saw that it said 2:00, a lot of good it would do him, it was Earth time.
He grabbed his green BDU jacket, he actually liked the military uniform, and he found it comfortable. He also grabbed his camera bag, made sure he had his knife and a radio, and slipped out of the room quietly and headed down to level 2 of the building. That was where they had cafeteria-style dinner last night. It was either that or order room service, like Goran had informed them was what the Ministers and ambassadors did. He, however, wanted to go out and see things while he could. He was hoping to try to run into the Chief Guard this morning to see if he could set up a tour of the city or something.
As he entered the large room, he noticed that he wasn't the only one there. There was a group of Tyrean ambassadors in a far corner.
Odd, I thought that they didn't come down here.
He surreptitiously kept an eye on the group as he walked up to a counter that held the food-dispensing machine. It wasn't quite like a vending machine, because you could choose from a list of foods and it would make it in very little time, then it would lift a compartment door, and you got your food out of there, hot and ready to eat. The food wasn't too different from Earth's but their eggs, or equivalent, were green. Upon seeing this, he couldn't help but chuckle as the children's book popped into his head. There were also some weird fruits, or what he thought was a fruit. Oh well, might as well try it. He had grown up in China, and had been sent all over the globe on assignment, he was used to eating weird things.
He brought his tray over to a bench and sat down so that he could see both the door and the ambassadors.
They seemed so into their discussion, that they didn't notice SAM. He tried to hear what they were saying, but it was useless. They were speaking in a different language that he had never heard before. Duh! Alien Planet! Or so he kept reminding himself.
It wasn't long, however, until one of them looked up, spotted him, and informed his colleagues. The chatter abruptly ceased, and they stood up and quickly left the room.
"How sociable," SAM muttered to himself at their departure. He was definitely suspicious, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do until his family woke up, then he would tell them his suspicions. The Tyreans were plotting something.
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Jack woke up and stretched. His back and knees popped, which sounded really loud in the quiet of his room. Luckily though, he no longer experienced any pain, thanks to Thor. During their long trip, Mac had suggested that Thor heal his wounds similar to the way that he had done to SAM. However, he wasn't so bad off that he had to go into a pod, Thor had just waved his jeweled hand and his aches and pains from the past month were gone.
He dressed quickly in a new pair of BDU's and slipped out of his room into the common area of their accommodations. Everyone had their own separate sections, though they didn't have doors, that they sleep in, but they were all connected to a large circular area with a fire pit in the middle. It must get cold in the winter he figured. He went to see if anyone else was up, but he had his doubts about his brother. Mac usually slept in late; the joys of civilian life. He was correct in his assumptions and headed to where he saw SAM retire to last night, but he saw that SAM wasn't there.
A jolt of panic raced through him before he could push it down. What if he was taken? They were off world and just that alone was sufficient enough for worry. SAM was his own man, though young, Mac told him that he had been alone for a long time and had proven that he could take care of himself. He went back to where his brother was sleeping and woke him up… just in case. He still was worried.
"Mac, wake up!"
"What?" Mac responded immediately to the tone in his twin's voice, "What's wrong?"
"SAM's gone,"
"What!?" Mac jumped out of bed and ran to his son's "room" to make sure for himself. Upon seeing the empty bed, he went back to the common area to search for any clues.
After a moment of worried searching, he sighed, relieved at what he found, or rather, didn't find.
"It's okay Jack,"
"How do you know?"
"His camera bag… it's not here. Which means that he wasn't kidnapped if he was able to take it. I told you, he always has it with him."
"Oh,"
Mac then walked back into his room and returned with a radio in hand. Jack looked sheepish. Why hadn't he thought of that?
"SAM? You there?"
"Yeah Dad? You're up already? Wow,"
"Yup, I had a…wake up call," he said throwing Jack a semi-annoyed, teasing look.
"Oh,"
"Hey, where are you? Jack kinda got worried here," Of course, he hadn't been worried one bit, nope, not at all.
"Oops, sorry Uncle Jack,"
"'S okay kiddo, just next time, leave a note. Or, better yet, wake me up," he said, taking the comm. unit from Mac.
"'Kay. So, you guys gonna come down to eat or what?"
"We'll be right there."
"Roger that, over."
SAM chuckled; he had always wanted to say that.
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Meanwhile, the two adults rolled their eyes. They both had matching grins on their faces though; SAM was definitely from their side of the family. There were no doubts about that.
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It wasn't long until the two twins rounded the corner into the cafeteria. SAM had already finished his green eggs and his fruit, which tasted like a kiwi banana…maybe a kabana or a biwi? Whatever it was, he was positive that his dad was going to like it.
There were now a few more people in the room who had also come early for breakfast, though not as early as SAM had been.
"What took you both so long?" SAM called in way of greeting as his family approached with their own trays full of food.
"Mac got lost," Jack said as he slipped into the seat across from his nephew while chuckling at his own plate of green eggs. SAM smiled, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
"I did not! I saw something cool and detoured," MacGyver sat down next to his son.
"Yeah sure,"
"It was!"
"What was it?" SAM asked, intrigued at what his father might call "cool".
"DON'T ask SAM," Jack cried, "I just shut him up! He talked my ear off about conduits and interfaces and a whole bunch of other technobable. Enough's enough!"
"Okay….well, anyway, I um, I gotta tell you something."
They both changed from being relaxed with their playful banter to alert and cautious when they saw how SAM suddenly looked around and lowered his voice.
"What?"
"When I first came down here, I saw the Tyrean ambassadors, talking. They looked kinda shifty," both twins found that odd, since they too remembered what Goran had told them last night about the VIP's usual dining habits. "They're up to something, I know it. It's like a bad feeling in my stomach, something's gonna happen."
"Did you hear what they were saying?" Mac asked.
"Naw, they were speaking some other language, I didn't get anything. But they didn't see me right away, cause when they did, they left in a big hurry."
"That's sooo not good," Jack stated.
None of them had gotten good vibes from the Tyreans since their introductions yesterday. It was also clear that Goran didn't like them, though he was supposed to be unbiased, it was hard to remain so.
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After breakfast, Mac had wandered around the capitol building for a little while before he had to return to the top floor of the capitol building to resume the peace talks, while Jack went with SAM on his tour of the city. Goran, as he had hoped, had been able to rustle up a guide, and SAM was excited. Jack just didn't want the kid to be on his own after his scare this morning.
He entered the top room without trouble, the Guard, having recognized him from the day before, let him in with his own nod of salutations. Henron and his ambassador assistants were already there, and like yesterday, greeted him with enthusiasm.
"Good day MacGyver. Did you rest finely?"
"Yes I did, Minister," he said with a slight bow, "and yourself?"
"Wonderfully, now that we have mediators. I have feared that Klax would act soon, but now, our future is bright. I want to circumvent war. I love my country and do not want to see it suffer. That is why I have had to work hard to match Tyrea with its ordnance."
"Well, hopefully, those weapons can be dismantled and we can avoid war." Though he was optimistic by nature, he also had a healthy hold on reality. Tyrea wanted to go to war, or so the guys had decided over breakfast. Mac's job was to figure out why and see if he could find something to appease them with.
They all took their seats at the table while they waited for Minister Klax and the other Tyrean representatives to show.
Twenty minutes passed.
They were a no show.
Henron was starting to get nervous. If the talks stalled, he was the one who had the most to lose. He didn't want to fight; it was a last option for him. He knew that there was nothing that really kept the Tyreans at the table. He was holding an empty hand.
Finally the door opened and one of the ambassadors walked in. He had a grim smile on his face as he announced,
"Minister Klax has withdrawn from negotiations. He sees no benefit to the country of Tyrea by staying here. He has been summoned back to our capitol city of Menautos to deal with Tyrean business. He has not time to waste here." Then the man spun on his heels and left as suddenly as he came.
This was not good.
Mac looked beside him at Minister Henron who looked pale. Klax had just called their bluff.
Not good at all.