“It’s a remote control panel,” Daniel suggested. “Like the Anunnaki stars.”
They walked over to Inanna and showed her the pendant. She didn’t recognize it, but found it interesting that only Jack and John could awaken it.
“Aba is with my sister,” she told them. “Don’t disturb him, my sister is very ill, but talk with him the next time you see him. There’s probably a lot more you can do with this; I’m guessing the words can be used in various combinations.”
Zu burbled something and Inanna, Daniel, and Shara looked at him. Sam saw the intense meeting and wandered over.
“Really?” Inanna asked, taking a closer look at the pendant. She turned it over. “By this seal, when I speak, listen. By this seal, when I call, answer, for I will break your bonds.”
“Well.” She sat back, gazing at what looked like water flowing from a plant.
Jack looked at her. “Okay, call it age or a blond moment, but I’m not getting it,” he said.
“It’s a control panel,” she said. “Like ours.” Daniel gave Jack a light shove. “Col. Sheppard, you are able to awaken this?” He stroked the edges and it lit up. “We know he’s able to light up the chair almost by looking at it. Atlantis began to power up the moment he stepped inside it.”
“Lots of things happen when I walk into a room,” John said, slightly embarrassed. “I think things are reacting to the presence of a person, but nothing happens when other people walk in. Other than lights and stuff coming on.”
“He doesn’t just light up a chair,” Daniel said. “It goes into full functional mode the moment he touches it. Others can do it, but with effort.”
They all looked speculatively at an increasingly uncomfortable colonel.
“Well, I suppose it’s possible,” Inanna said thoughtfully.
“What’s possible?” Jack asked.
“Out of seven plus billion people, what are the odds of only you having this genetic sequence?” she asked. Jack’s mouth shut with a click.
“Colonel, what’s your ancestry?” Sam asked. He lifted an eyebrow.
“Scottish, Irish, a little Manx. Why?”
Jack held up a hand. “Colonel, why don’t you go have some fun, and let me think about this? Where are the rest of these?” He held up the necklace. “How many?”
“Uh, about a dozen. They’re back on Atlantis,” John said. “Dr. Weir has them under lock and key, but I’m the only one who’s been able to turn them on.”
Jack put the necklace over his head and tucked it into his shirt. “I’ll keep this one, if you don’t mind,” he said. He shooed Sheppard away, much to the man’s irritation. “Okay, I want an Asgard tag on him,” Jack said once the colonel was gone.
“I will send a message and update Thor,” Inanna told him.
“Sam….”
“I’ll get a full panel on him. I'm going to bet you two share ancestry somewhere in the far past. This isn’t as bad as it sounds,” Sam said. “If anything happens to you, God forbid, he can be pulled in. He doesn’t have the downloads, but he can work the equipment that only you’ve been able to.”
“Zu, does he have Ancient genes?” Daniel asked the bird.
“Anna,” Zu said with a bob. He went on for a moment.
“He said the equipment is caste sensitive,” Inanna told Jack and Sam. “I know what he means. It’s all programmed to respond to genetics; general equipment which anyone can use, certain types of weapons and security equipment which only someone with the gene can use, and then there is equipment that is programmed for only those with the Ancient genetic sequence. Like you, Jack. And it looks like we’ve discovered a second person. I’m wondering if some of the equipment has secret triggers which only someone like you can use. The mikku for instance; anyone with the gene can get it to work, but I wonder what would happen if you sat behind it for a while and started pressing buttons.”
Jack considered her for a moment. “Sam, when we get back, remind me to upgrade Sheppard’s security,” he said as he turned to watch the man walking away from them.
Chapter 41
“How come you don’t let more people see that smile?” Daniel asked, playing with Jack’s hair, smiling in response to the soft, open smile on Jack’s face, touching a dimple with the tip of a finger. When Jack opened his eyes in the morning, he automatically smiled sweetly at seeing Daniel watching him.
“Because I’m the big, bad general and I’m not supposed to be human,” Jack said, stretching until his spine cracked.
“You’re so full of it,” Daniel informed him. “Do you think Ms. Thing is awake?”
“Don’t know,” Jack managed to say. He wrapped his arms around Daniel’s waist. “We have a few more days until we can play with her, anyway. There’s soap and water, though; no reason she can’t play, too.”
A hand reached over and managed to smack Daniel on the butt.
“This is Me time,” they heard.
“Is that all I get?” Daniel asked. “One smack? Come on, Sam, don’t tell me you’ve never had the desire to redden my ass.”
She peaked at them from under a pillow. Before he knew it, she had jumped him and started bongos on his butt. Daniel screeched in laughter and tried to get away, but Jack held him down. They rolled around on the large bed, getting the sheets all tangled and pillows thrown to the floor.
“Wait!” Jack called out. The other two paused. “Isn’t it someone’s birthday next week?”
Two sets of blue eyes widened.
“No!”
“Why, Jack, I do believe you’re right. For once.” The men turned to Sam. She tried to untangle herself from the bedding.
“Don’t you dare!”
The men tackled her and turned her over.
“Wait!” Daniel’s hand paused in midair and he looked at Jack. “Twenty-one each but how do we divide the one?”
Jack thought about it. “Make it one each, that way she knows she’s special.”
Before Sam could kick out at either of them, one hand each landed gently on her butt.
“One!” they yelled. And released her. She waited but nothing happened. She spun over in their arms.
“Well, honey, I said one each,” Jack said reasonably.
“That’s what he said, I heard him,” Daniel agreed.
Sam squeaked, jumped up and swung at both of them. “Oh, you….!”
The men jumped out of range and off the bed.
“You two get back here!”
Jack picked up his dressing robe and followed Daniel to the bathroom.
“Daniel, as an older man with more years of experience than you, I hope I can give you a little advice,” Jack said, tossing a companionable arm around Daniel’s shoulders.
“Sure, Jack,” Daniel responded gravely.
“This PMS stuff never changes,” Jack advised him. “You will never be able to please them when they’re in this kinda mood, so don’t even try. We’ll find some chocolate, rub her back, rub her belly, rub her feet, whatever she wants rubbed. We will even go fishing, if that’s what she wants. Ooof.” A pillow hit them. “It will be a sacrifice, but we can do it.”
Daniel nodded soberly. “You are a wise man, O’Neill.” Jack gave him a pat.
“I know where you boys sleep!”
As they showered, shaved, and brushed suspicious smells from their mouths, the kids were being fed breakfast by Maggie, and Sam was getting the baby up. Jack listened to the chatter of happy kids as he kissed Maggie’s cheek and put together a plate of fruit and muffins.
“Good morning, dear,” he said, pecking Sam’s cheek.
“Brat,” she informed him and yanked on his ear for a proper kiss. “Mom, how did you keep him in line?”
“By continually reminding him that I brought him into this world, I could take him out,” Maggie said.
“Well, I didn’t bring him into the world, but I can certainly take him out,” Sam commented. Jack smiled.
“Yes, dear.”
“Daddy
, are you a brat, too?” Stacy asked.
“More often than not,” Daniel told her. He gnawed on her neck and she giggled, twisting away from him.
“Dad, Mason said he’d help me train for my purple belt this morning,” Katie said. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” Jack nodded. “Matty, eat what’s on your plate before getting more.”
“How come you guys don’t like each other?” Matthew asked, looking at his heaped plate and then at the platters of food. The boy couldn’t seem to get enough food and then spent the day running it off.
“It’s just a personality thing,” Jack said. “Don’t worry about it. He’s your cousin, you can like him. Have you been telling him about your JROTC?”
“Uh huh,” Katie and Matthew both nodded. “He said Mom and Grandpa would have been proud of us,” Matthew said.
“They were always proud of you,” Maggie said, touching his hair as she walked by.
“We’re all proud of you two,” Jack said with a nod. “You made a commitment and you both stuck with it; a lot of kids don’t make it this far, so you can be proud of yourselves. Matty, I promised you a ride, if you kept your grades up, and looks like they’re still up. Katie, do you want a treat, too?”
“Can I watch a surgery?” she asked hopefully.
Jack paused in bringing a piece of jam covered bread to his mouth. “You want to do what?”
“Watch a surgery,” she repeated. “I keep watching shows on TV about surgeries and I want to see one up close. I want to watch an autopsy, too.”
“You really are interested in medicine, aren’t you?” The news was finally registering on him. He put down the dark red jam covered bread.
“Yeah, it’s fascinating!” she exclaimed excitedly. “All these little pieces have to come together and work together in order for a body to be alive!”
“Is this your influence?” Jack cocked an eyebrow at Sam.
“Not me,” she said, shaking her head. “She came to us this way.”
“Pleeeeezzzzzz?”
“I’ll talk with Dr. Warner when we get home,” Jack said. Katie jumped up with a squeak and tossed her arms around his neck for a loud kiss on his cheek. “No promises!” he called after her as she ran to find her shoes. “Warner’s a pill, he might say No!”
“He is not a pill,” Sam reprimanded him. “He’s a little on the serious side, but he isn’t a pill.”
“I’m doing good, can I have something special?” David asked, slouched in his chair. He was still a little sleepy, morning not being his most favorite time of the day.
“You are doing very well,” Jack agreed. “Sit up. What would you like?”
David scooted into a seated position. “I want to ride a camel.”
Jack smiled at him. “I think I’ll hand you over to Uncle Danny for that one.”
“We can go camel riding,” Daniel said with a nod. “Camels are nasty creatures, though,” he warned. “They bite and spit.”
The boy was much happier as he sat up and finished his breakfast.
“And what about Stacy?” Jack asked. “What would you like for your fifth year graduation? Another year and you’ll be in junior high.”
Stacy shrugged and finished her juice. “Can we go camping this summer?” she asked.
“Of course,” Jack said. “Is that all?”
“That’s all.” She asked to be excused, it was granted, and she ran outside.
“She wants a puppy.”
The adults looked at Davy. He used a finger to scrape up some runaway jam from his plate and licked his finger clean.
“She’s mentioned puppies before. What puppy?” Daniel asked.
“From Mr. and Mrs. Weber,” the boy said. “They have brand new puppies. Stacy wants one.”
Jack looked at Sam and Daniel. “They have what? Pugs?”
“English bulldogs; so ugly, they’re cute,” Sam said. “Sweet dispositions.”
“We’ll take a look at the pups when we get home and see if any of them fit in,” Jack said. His partners agreed.
“When are we going home?” Davy asked.
“This afternoon,” Jack said. “You guys have school tomorrow. Are you going to visit with the horses before we leave?”
“Uh huh,” Davy nodded. “I like riding with Jonathan and Shara. It’s fun. Can we get a horse?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Jack said. “We don’t have the room for a horse. But I think there are stables on the other side of town, so we can see if the owners will let you ride once in a while. No promises.”
“Okay!” Davy hurriedly wiped his mouth and ran out the door. He ran into someone coming in. “Sorry, Ninurta!” and scurried around the warrior.
“Good morning,” Ninurta said, coming into the room. He stood more formally than usual. “Ereshkigal Ascended during the night. Jack, when you are ready for the day, Inanna would like to see you.”
Jack sat back and nodded soberly.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” Daniel said. “Is there anything we can do?”
“No, not at this time,” Ninurta said. “Thank you, though.”
“What does that mean? Ascended?” Maggie asked, looking at them.
“Inanna’s sister died last night, Mom,” Jack said. “I can come now,” he said to Ninurta, pushing his chair back. They found Inanna in her family’s section of the building, in a sitting room. She was standing at the window, looking out over the lake and the children playing.
“You okay?” Jack asked quietly. She glanced over her shoulder with a half smile.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said. “I was thinking that this is the first death for this new world. She gave the last of her energy for us and the planet took her as a sacrifice.”
“I don’t understand,” Jack said. He leaned against the wall next to the window and looked at her. “What do you mean? Sacrifice?”
“I tend to anthropomorphize,” she said. “My sister was the oldest of us. It takes energy to use our so-called gifts, just like it takes energy to walk and talk. Both Aba and Ki were needed to rebuild this planet. Their talents were mirror opposites; Aba builds, Ki ends. She was already sapped before we were caught in that temporal field, and to come out after all that time, with no time to replenish herself with the energy of life, she put what energy she had left into the formation of this world. We asked her not to, we could find an appropriate planet that was ready for us, but she insisted that we needed to be here. She had no energy left when she was done; not even enough to keep her alive. We all tried, but we couldn’t give her energy. Erra came to us this morning and announced her Ascension during the night.”
Jack had forgotten –Erra was Ereshkigal’s consort. “How is he?”
“In mourning,” Inanna said. “He will be alright. Ninurta and I will take care of him. There are four of us left, myself, Aba, Ninurta, and Gula, our healer. Unfortunately, none of us are capable of procreation. Ninurta had fathered several children before Aba changed him. Those lines have been lost, though. He made beautiful children.”
“Did you ever have children?” Jack asked, following her away from the window. She took an apple from the bowl on the table and cut it in half, handing half to him.
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “I was always too busy with the army or with politics. I regret it now. I’ve adopted a few, but Ninurta always ended up raising them. Not that he minded; he loves kids. I mind, though. I think I was never ‘mother’ material.”
She shook herself and turned to him, smiling regally. “Enough of that,” she pronounced. “I spoke with Aba last night regarding Col. Sheppard; he agreed that it would be quite possible that there are more with this particular genetic code living on Earth. He suspects that it took this long for the code to show up again in this sequence. The circle has come back around. I listened to Sheppard’s heart and he is a good man, Jack. He has a high moral code, like you. He just needs a little more ‘fermenting’ as it were. To settle him. And he will settle, in
time. He's still young. It’s probably a good thing that he is in a different galaxy most of the time. More like the two of you will probably start to make themselves known, likely through their deeds. I’m not sure how to test for them, though; there are a lot of people on Earth. It would take a long time to test each individual.”
“We usually just hand people a toy and see if it will turn on,” Jack said. “It’s faster than a DNA test which takes about a month. The list is growing.”
Inanna nodded thoughtfully. “Now that Sheppard has been identified, it is possible that the specific gene can be sequenced by comparing yours and his, and then sought out in others. It’s a little time-consuming, though. And I’ll get Sam a program for a genetic test that only takes minutes. And I don’t agree with the gene therapy Atlantis is using to initialize it in the general population, it defeats the main purpose, but that’s my opinion.”
Jack looked at her for a moment longer and then stepped close, putting his arms around her. Inanna caught her breath and was stiff with inner struggle before allowing her head to fall onto his shoulder. She held on tight and Jack was still, letting her cry as he held her. When she began to calm, she stepped back, holding a wrist to her nose.
“I’m sorry,” she said huskily. She turned away, wiping her eyes. “I don’t even have her body to bury. You’d think after all these centuries a death wouldn’t bother me.” She pulled a piece of cloth from a pocket and blew her nose.
“When Daniel Ascended… the first time…. we didn’t have his body to bury, either.” Jack poured a glass of water from a jar and handed it to her. “It was rough. We boxed up his apartment and put everything in storage until we could figure out what to do with it. I kept a few odds and ends that reminded me of him. Something told me he was still around, though; probably because he kept visiting me. He didn’t even have family of his own to mourn for him, it was just us. The second time he Ascended, I refused to let anyone do anything; I knew he’d be back. He keeps turning up naked. Kind of amusing, actually.”
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 6
