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Old legs tremble as I push myself to run the last 100 yards to the Great Building's entrance. The young child who has brought me the news of the invasion and fighting jogs light of foot beside me while I find myself fighting to draw breath to continue this pace I have set for myself.
Ra? The God risen from the dead once more? It must be so or why else would the warrior O'Neill come back through the Chappa'ai?
I force foot before foot to climb the pathway into the rough, worn stone chamber where my family - son, daughter and husband, have made their home. Fear clutches itself around my fast heart. Hear my prayers, My God. Have them be safe. Have them be safe!
The final turning into the main room tears the hope from my soul. The smell of blood and fire overwhelms the scent of food and life that is the usual odor of this place. Broken and bleeding bodies lay cast aside as straw dolls on the rock floor… some now the silent, lifeless outer coverings that held within the souls of those I knew. My friends. Those who I am responsible for.
My people.
They came to me by ones, by twos.. reaching out to touch, to know that another life was here with them to share their grief, to become part of their loss. And they have told me that Dan-yel, my son, has left through the Chappa'ai, that he left with his tribe - O'Neill's tribe, with Kowalsky, with Ferretti; with the others who came with O'Neill. That he has gone to find his wife and his brother who have been taken by the False Gods.
First Shau'ri and my Skaara. And now my gentle son. He does not realize that now I am without family for not only have I lost my first born son and my dearest daughter, but I have lost him as well. For thought he is not of my loins, Dan-yel is my son by my heart's choice. He would have been my son had he not taken Shau'ri to wife and to his bed. He is a good man, a kind man. An unassuming man. And one who could never see his own heart … his own worth. But if anyone can find my children it will be him. And O'Neill. A man who's heart is that of a warrior, but who's soul weeps for the pain that gathers around him. A man who I have come to see as part of my tribe as well, when he wishes to find a home and rest at last.
Karna tells me of what Dan-yel told them … what he made him - made all of them promise - that they would bury the Chappa'ai. That they were to rest a large heavy stone upon it so that no one … No One … could ever come through again. That nothing good could ever come from the Chappa'ai.
But he is wrong, my Son is most wrong. For he came through and he is goodness and kindness. And a honor to my name and my family.
I have told those that we will do as he has asked. We will cover the Chappa'ai with stones, with dirt, with all that we can find and we will top it with a large heavy stone. And as he has requested, in one year we will remove the covering that so that he and my daughter and my son Skaara may once again come home.
He said one year. And if he did not return, to bury it forever. Oh, my Good Son, dear child of my heart, with that wish I can not agree. In one year to this day we will uncover the Chappa'ai. For one day . For one day and a day. For one day and all the days thereafter.
We will leave the Gate to the Stars open until you find your way home to us, my Dan-yel.
Until you return home again ... to your people and to me.
{the end}
DECLASSIFIED MISSION BRIEFING
RETURN TO SGC
OFF BASE
