TITLE: Polaris

AUTHOR: Fawe (fawe@mastershouse.freeserve.co.uk)

CATEGORY: S/J, bit of angst

RATING: Um, universal. Does that translate as a G? There's no swearing or adult content or anything.

SUMMARY: Jack stares up at the stars one night. It's quite short.

ARCHIVE: SJA if they'll have it, Heliopolis if they want it, anyone else who tells me where they put it (so basically, help yourself)

DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and all related trademarks ain't mine etc etc wish they were etc etc I have no money so don't sue me etc etc plot's mine though.

FEEDBACK: Would be appreciated. Please don't flame me, I've got enough of a reputation for being a pyromaniac as it is.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Um, this was going to be something else, but after the first sentence I changed my mind. The original idea may turn up soon.
 
 
 

He was staring out of the window into the falling dusk. His left hand leant against the window frame, the right held a beer.
 

Venus. The evening star. There she was, inconsistent as all the planets and the moon. The planets moved through the night sky, only the stars stayed constant, or nearly constant. They changed throughout the year, and gently rotated around the pole star during the night, but they were more constant than the moon and the planets. Polaris was the only true constant. He had but to look north, and there it was. Not like the planets.
 

In some ways, he was like a planet, constantly moving among the stars. Or no, more like a comet. A planet orbits an individual star, a fairly constant distance from it at a fairly constant speed. A comet moves in an ellipse, often not coming close to the star they vaguely orbit for decades. Accelerating as they draw closer to the star, slowing as they move away, like a young child rushing home at night and reluctantly leaving for school in the morning.
 

He took a long sip from the beer, not taking his eyes away from the stars. His gaze roamed the heavens, taking in all the great constellations. Ursa Minor. Hercules. Ursa Major. Orion. Canis Major. And all the others.
 

She might be up there. Orbiting one of those stars. She had to be up there somewhere. Alive or dead, he did not know.
 

His eyes strayed back to Polaris. The constant that he took comfort in. She had sometimes helped him find that star, when they were out exploring the heavens.
 

She had been his constant, his Pole Star. And now she was gone. Sometimes he awoke in a cold sweat, afraid that he couldn't remember the face he had studied so often, the eyes he had stared so deeply into, the lips he had so longed to kiss.
 

Had they searched Polaris' system? They had covered so many worlds in their desperate search for her, had they searched those that orbited the star that had saved the lives of so many throughout the centuries? Had they searched for one of his constants in the company of the other? Could her life now be added to the infinite number of lives saved by that star? He had to find out.
 

He knew he wouldn't sleep that night. He drained the can of beer, and felt the table behind him for another. Then he returned all his attention to the Star of the North, and hoped he would be going there soon.
 

**Fin**
 

Hope you liked it.

Fawe