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Sunday, August 24th, 2008 10:53 am
Title: Halfway into the Forest
Fandom: Stargate SG-1; AU: Broken Wings by [livejournal.com profile] synecdochic
Length/Rating: 437 words, PG, Gen
SPOILERS: Tag for a howling in the factory yard. Which if you haven't read you need to go read! (Plus everything else she's ever written, but that's beside the point. ^_~ *grin*)
Summary: And then there was one... (Chen POV, because darned if the Russian speaking, Chinese national who listens to K-pop doesn't need more love. Srsly!) ((Mouse-overs for quote sources, translations, and full notes at the bottom).


It is a senseless, dirty business, this life-- He's never been the first one in; that honor's reserved for Nielson (or Virta in the Days-Before-Nielson), and the sense of 'wrong' is strong enough he's expecting it when the network rejects him.

Something happened yesterday, in those last few hours, and he's been waiting for that shoe to drop. Nothing this good lasts long. Палачествуйте осла после его закончил его работу на стане-- won't be the first time grandmother was right, but it might be the last.

He shouldn't have come, but FMI was comfortable, settled, closer to 'home' than he's ever felt in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang (for those few terrifying weeks on loan). That's life --with nothing to do but to fear death-- and he's tired of it.

He's already made plans, and back-up plans --Oh, enchanting dream-- Escape routes layered six miles deep that would have carried them all to the closest thing to safety he could find. Because he'd liked them, Suzukimo, Cacirelli, Virta, even Neilson, as distant as they were, as distant as they all had to be --there is no greater sorrow than to know another's secret when you cannot help them.

It only takes a second to move from realization to action, but when he looks up Rickowski's at the door, looking tired and lost, and somehow that's more terrifying than his missing teammates. --everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its place-- Rickowski's who's played minder, tewu, шпионка; who's always one step ahead of them (inside these walls, but rarely out).

If this was what he thought it was, Rickowski wouldn't be here at all, unless he's read the man wrong; мокрое дело leaves stains if you knew where to look. Which means this might not end with Chen's name added to the list of missing. But corporate espionage is just as dangerous a game as anything else he's done, so he waits, balancing his options against threats that might or might not exist.

"I sent Cacirelli home," Rickowski hasn't moved from the doorframe, "I need help, and you're all I've got."

One in four; which means everything he hadn't wanted to hear, except Rickowski is asking, not Schroeder, not Baalim, and that means 'gone' not 'dead'. --when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly-- Three-fifths of the team-- and if they were as good as he thought they were, they didn't leave empty handed. Which leaves Rickowski-- leaves Chen --Используйте силу ограничивать силу-- to pick up the pieces of home.

"What do you need me to do?"

_____________________________


    Notes
  1. Quote text is from The Project Gutenberg eBook of Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov; translated by Marian Fell.
  2. Uncle Vanya comes from Chen's irc handle <@unclevanya> in "ii. february". And darned [livejournal.com profile] synecdochic for making me read such a depressing play! I was tempted to invoke some Tennessee Williams in revenge, but Chekhov by himself is more than enough.
  3. Cacirelli was not listed as someone JD recognized when he gassed the snakes, so I am assuming he wasn't one. Since JD recognized he wasn't on the same technical level as the others, I'm guessing he was an inside plant, Schroeder keeping an eye on the folks who could do the most damage internally. - And lo, [livejournal.com profile] synecdochic has shared enlightenment in comments below! *grin*
  4. I am also assuming that Suzukimo took advantage of the chaos and left that night (or during the op).
  5. Chen is a Chinese national, prefers to communicate in Russian (message boards), and understands Korean (or at least enjoys K-Pop). The chances of him being a Chinese plant are high, give the languages he apparently knows, but probabilities are better than he's a turned double-agent are better. The chance of Ba'al having three undetected spies in one department is a bit much.

    Quotes and Translations
  1. "You can only go halfway into the darkest forest; then you are coming out the other side." - Chinese proverb.
  2. "It is a senseless, dirty business, this life" - ASTROFF, ACT I, Uncle Vanya.
  3. Палачествуйте осла после его закончил его работу на стане - Should be "Butcher the donkey after it finished his job on the mill." (I'm relying on Babelfish, so please correct me if I'm wrong!) which is a Chinese Proverb, per multiple internet quote repositories.
  4. "with nothing to do but to fear death" - SEREBRAKOFF, ACT II, Uncle Vanya.
  5. "Oh, enchanting dream" - VOITSKI, ACT II, Uncle Vanya.
  6. "there is no greater sorrow than to know another's secret when you cannot help them" - HELENA, ACT III, Uncle Vanya.
  7. "everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its place" - ASTROFF, ACT III, Uncle Vanya.
  8. tewu - (lit. special agent), blanket Chinese term for spy (per Wikitionary) and referenced as a term for the Chinese secret service in the description for THE CHINESE SECRET SERVICE: Kang Sheng and The Shadow Government in Red China by Roger Faligot and Remi Kauffe.
  9. шпионка - Russian for spy (although further exploration suggests шпионский would also be appropriate?)
  10. мокрое дело - Russian, "wet job"; euphemism for murder or assassination. Wikipedia
  11. "when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly" - SONIA, ACT IV, Uncle Vanya
  12. "Используйте силу ограничивать силу" - Should be "Use power to curb power.", another Russian translation of a Chinese Proverb (although one that's more universal in nature).

_______________________________

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