(Untitled)

[ranger_alone]

Marcus was sitting under a tree, within view of the compound he had no intention of entering. He had been walking, pondering everything and nothing, when he realised that the island had taken his last real friend when it sent Teyla back to…where ever it was people went when they left. Everyone he had loved, with the exception of Evey, had gone.

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[mutant_gi_jesus]

Cable sat down to meditate, with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, not far from the tree where Marcus was.

After a little while he opened his eyes to give the other man a nod of acknowledgment.

"Afternoon."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"Oh, space travel is perfectly possible in my own time-line," Cable replied. "But Earth's relationship with the other races has never been particularly good. It's generally thought that investing too heavily in space travel would be a lot like painting a bulls-eye on the planet."

[ranger_alone]

Marcus flashed a wry smile. "We've had our moments, too. Space can be a rather hostile place."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"Exactly," Cable agreed. "And I've never needed to go that far to find hostility."

[ranger_alone]

"Sadly I think that most of us could say that. Seems to be something inherit in human nature to fear anything we do not understand...including each other. I grew up on a colony, and for awhile I thought perhaps it was the harshness of the place that coloured people's behaviour. Having ventured out I soon learnt it was everywhere. Where there are sentient beings, there is hostility."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"I've seen my fair share of hostility and violence," Cable replied.

"More than anybody should," he added in a softer tone before going back to his stronger lecturing tone.

"But I'm not sure I believe in human nature. We are products of our environment. Change that and you change the people produced."

[ranger_alone]

Marcus noted the change in tone, and wondered momentarily what the story behind it might be. Although the current topic of conversation proved to be more tempting.

"To a certain extent I'm sure that's true. Although I have known angels who came from hell, just as I've known devils who came from heaven, metaphorically speaking."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"Don't misunderstand me," Cable continued, his voice slipping into the eager, serious tones of the true believer, "I have no desire to ignore the importance of choice, people choose to be hopeful or fearful and violent or kind, but nor do I like to be so cynical as to assume that the tendency towards violence is inherent to the human race. Under different leadership, if given a different vision of the way world works, I think people will be able to work out a new way of coping with old problems."

[ranger_alone]

Marcus nodded his agreement. "I hope you're right. I think, in general, we very much need some new ways of looking at old problems."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"That was always at the core of my plans," Cable replied. "But I'm not sure how much I managed to achieve. Hope can be a scary thing to try and learn."

[ranger_alone]

"You were in some position to incite change, back where you came from?" He wondered what that might have been.

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"Yes," Cable confirmed. "I was a leader."

"I tried to save the world."

[ranger_alone]

Say whatever you like about the island, it has a taste for heros, Marcus thought. Heros coming out of the woodwork. "Was there a specific threat?"

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"There didn't need to be. So many wars, they were tearing themselves apart. People were crying out for a change," Cable replied sadly. "All I wanted to do was give them hope and they came after me with guns and bombs. Good men and women but they couldn't see past their own fear."

[ranger_alone]

"I'm afraid that story is all too familiar." he said, sadness in his voice. "You could have been talking about my world."