“Jack, you not only gave me my wife back, but you saved us. Again,” Hayes told him. “My God, Jack, when I think of how close we were to having Goa’uld in positions of power….. Well, we got you a little present. Sort of a thank you. Hope you like it.”
He fumbled in his pocket and came up with a small box.
“You didn’t need to…..” Jack lost his voice when he opened the box.
“I polished those myself. Once you’re back in uniform, you can put those stars next to the others, Lieutenant-General,” Hayes told him.
Chapter 43
Once more, Enki needed to help Jack ‘shut off.’ The old man seemed pleased, however, with Jack’s progress.
Jack had insisted on returning home after spending a day in the VIP suite of the naval hospital in Maryland. The attention was nice, all the Joint Chiefs paid him a visit, but it wasn’t his thing to hang out with VIPs; he needed his family around him. The bed rest at home was irritating him, though. His partners kept hovering. There really wasn’t a need for the bed rest, but for some reason people seemed to think that mental fatigue required a bed. Thankfully, Enki came in and rousted Jack’s butt.
“The snow is gone, go take care of the yard,” the old man ordered. “Getting your hands in the dirt will heal you better than anything else.”
So Jack went outside and started to rake the yard and trim the shrubs along the front of the house. He had stepped back, looked at the shrubs, and decided to take them out. The children came out, took his hands, dragged him away from the pile of dirt and wood, and up the street to the Weber’s. Jack took one look at the puppies, looked long at the parents, and back at the pups.
“They’re ugly,” he pronounced.
Rhonda Weber laughed. “Yes, they are, but come on, Jack, you have to admit they’re a cute ugly,” she said.
Both Stacy and David were on the floor playing with the puppies, laughing and rolling around as they were licked.
“This one, Adda,” Stacy said, picking up one of the pups.
“Are you serious?” he asked. The pup looked at him, one snaggled tooth sticking up from the bottom jaw and a slightly crossed eye. Most of the dog was an off-white, the paws were black socks and there was a black patch that surrounded the crossed eye. The pup wagged its tail and tried to swipe a tongue at Jack.
“Is it a boy or girl?” Davy asked.
“That one is a boy,” Rhonda told him with a patient smile. Jack thought he saw a longing in her eyes and wondered if Rhonda or Carl had a problem in the fertility department.
“His name is Fang,” Stacy declared and gave the pup a hug.
Mrs. Weber refused money; although a pure bred, the pup was flawed, and sent the happy girl off with her new puppy and resigned stepfather. When Enki and Zu stopped by, Zu took one look at the Thing and spat out a long diatribe at Jack which he didn’t understand a word of.
Daniel was surprisingly no help; he had never owned a dog. Jack found that astounding.
“I wouldn’t mind a cat,” Daniel said.
“A what?” Jack was sure he didn’t hear that right.
“They’re smarter than dogs,” Daniel said. He couldn’t have heard Daniel correctly.
“I’m not picking up dog poop from the yard,” Jerrie warned them.
“It’s Stacy’s dog, she will learn,” Jack said.
They put a baby-gate on the front and back steps to the wrap-around porch and put the pup out there with papers, water, and food. Olivia scooted her way to the screen door and watched the puppy tear up the paper. She screeched at it and held out a finger. Jerrie frowned.
“Jack, she’s eight months old, right?” she asked.
“Almost nine, yes,” he said.
“Now, I could be minus a fry in my happy meal, but seems to me she keeps responding to situations and to speech,” Jerrie said. “She shouldn’t be able to understand, cognitively, what’s going on, so how is she responding? She just reprimanded the pup. That’s about a year and a half early.”
Jack looked at the baby and thought about it. “Livie, where’s the bad dog?”
Olivia looked at Jack and then turned to the door.
“Interesting,” Jack commented.
“Da!” the baby declared, clearly proud of herself. Two gleaming white teeth grinned at him.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed. “Mary, it’s Jack. Thank you. I have a question. Harley is what? Two? Two and a half? Is he doing anything beyond his age?” He watched Olivia as he listened. “Yeah, it probably is. No, just checking with someone else who has a baby in the house. Thanks, Mary. Oh, how’s Connie? She is. Good. Thanks.”
“Mary Reynolds says Harley is spelling with his blocks,” Jack told Jerrie. “Harley is two and a half.”
Out of curiosity, Jack put the pup on a leash, the baby on his back, found a pad and pen, and went for a walk. Stacy and David ran around him, encouraging the pup to learn to love his new leash while Jack had to keep tugging to make the pup pay attention. Olivia babbled at him, bouncing in her carrier as she patted him on the head and shoulders. Enki had left earlier and Jack saw no reason to call him back just for an oddity with the kids.
“Well, if the older kids are doing things advanced for their age, it makes sense that babies are developing earlier, too,” Daniel had said around the pencil in his mouth as he typed on his computer. “Don’t send her out to find a job just yet.” Olivia made noises at him and held her chubby arms out. Daniel smiled at her, took the pencil from his mouth, and kissed her noisily.
As Jack was making notes from various families in the neighborhood, his phone rang. He tapped it on and adjusted the Blu-tooth on his ear. “O’Neill.”
“The premier is requesting your presence.”
“What premier?”
“The Chinese premier,” Davis clarified. “He managed to get a private message to me. He’d like to meet someplace that guarantees no bugs.”
“Interesting. Is Daedalus still upstairs?”
Twenty minutes later, Davis called him again. It was done.
“How’s the weather up there?” Jack asked.
“A little breezy, the barometer is fluctuating.”
He shooed the kids back home and they went, disappointed. There were SF nearby in the neighborhood, discretely concealed; they’d make sure the kids got home. “Okay, beam me up.”
Davis looked at the sweatpants, sneakers, baby, and puppy. He didn’t say anything as he led the way. People on the way glanced at them and also didn’t say anything. “Isn’t the meeting room back that way?” Jack asked, pointing behind with a thumb.
“Yes, sir, but one of the gentlemen had a small heart flutter from the shock of the transporter.”
Feeling a tinge of guilt, Jack picked up the pace. Once they got to the medical wing, he noticed that several of the SF in the area happened to be of Chinese decent and Davis had beamed up a team from the delegation’s own security. The Chinese soldiers were uncomfortable in their unarmed state, but they stood straight and kept their eyes on the SF.
“How is he?” Jack asked, nodding toward the man on the bed as they entered the medical bay.
“He’ll be fine, sir,” Dr. Perez said. He glanced at the pup and baby. Olivia noticed Sam and held her arms out. After a look from Jack, Sam took her.
“Who’s this?” Sam asked, nodding toward the puppy.
“This is Fang,” Jack said. “We were taking a walk when the colonel called. He’s Stacy’s.”
Sam did a quick mental jump and understood the object and its ownership.
Jack introduced himself to the men standing near the bed “I’m sorry for the problem. We have excellent medical facilities, top notch, so please trust in the good doctor’s hands.”
“General O’Neill, may I present President Hsin Tien and Premier Yuan Shao. Vice President Li Chan MuRong is the gentleman in the bed. And you already know Ambassadors Jin Duan and Brent Fleury.”
Jack gave an easy Jaffa bow toward the men.
“General O’Neill, would it be pointless if I requested a private word?” Ambassador Fleury, the American ambassador to China asked. The relations between the two countries were tenuous at best, so Jack was actually surprised to see him with the group.
A quick reach told Jack that Hayes and Maynard were having heart palpitations back at their offices. The Chinese government was also hiding their true feelings behind the patented Asian stare; anger, awe, a little fear, and outrage.
“Not at all,” Jack said. “How about we walk a little, first, though, okay? Come on, I’ll show you around while the doc does his doctor stuff with Mr MuRong.”
As they walked, Jack did his best with the history of the ship and how the 303s came to be. He made sure his arm swings were wide, made it a point to look the men in the eyes, and touched arms and shoulders when he could. Paul couldn’t get any whiter around the gills so he stopped trying to get Jack’s attention. The puppy wasn’t helping as he sniffed excitedly at everything in their path. When they got to the engine room…..
“What is that?”
Jack turned to the little alien behind the console.
“This is Fang,” Jack said. “Fang, that’s Hermiod. Don’t pee on him. This is a dog, Hermie. Actually, it’s a puppy. That’s a baby dog.”
“I know,” Hermiod drew out. “Why is it on the ship?”
“Because I was taking a walk with him and my kids when Colonel Davis called me,” Jack said patiently. “He isn’t my dog, he belongs to my daughter, Stacy. Actually, she’s my step-daughter. She belongs to Daniel. I guess you could say she belongs to all three of us, since we’re all raising her and she does call me Daddy and Sam Mom. What am I saying? You know Stacy. I know he’s ugly, but Stacy insists that he’s cute, so what could I do? You know how little girls wrap Daddy around their fingers…. no, maybe you don’t…..”
“O’Neill.”
“Yes?”
“Please remove the animal from the ship,” Hermiod politely asked.
Jack tilted his head in consideration. “Well, since he’s part of the family, now, I don’t think I can exclude him on these outings. Sorry. But I promise to clean up any pee or poopie spots. We just got him this morning, so it’ll take a while for him to learn proper manners. Oh, would you mind tagging him?”
He was almost sure the Asgard’s black eyes rolled and tightened.
The men behind Jack were staring at the alien and Jack belatedly introduced them. Hermiod made a politely phrased murmur in Chinese and Jack looked at him.
“How do you people learn our different languages?” he asked.
“You’ve been broadcasting for decades,” Hermiod said. “How can we not learn them when you are polluting space with them? Besides. Tau’ri languages are relatively easy. Very little imagination.”
“General O’Neill,” Fleury broke in impatiently. “This is all very impressive but we really must speak on the issues at hand.”
A small imperious finger pointed at the man and Sam shifted Olivia to another hip. Jack blinked at the ambassador.
“I thought we were,” Jack said. “These gentlemen have been asking to see a 303, so I’m showing them a 303. Mr. MuRong will be well enough to go home when his buddies are ready to leave.”
“General, I believe you are unaware of the international incident you have created,” Fleury informed him.
Jack handed the leash to Sheppard who had been quietly following in the background with several SF.
“There is very little I am unaware of, Mr. Ambassador,” he said, the cavalier attitude suddenly gone. “We could not have known Mr MuRong would have such a reaction to the transporter; no one else has. And you’re the ones who asked for this meeting. China has been aware of our little project for a long time, they were in on the initial show-and-tell many years ago, and they are the ones who chose to not cooperate with it. They could have been in on this since the beginning. We are here, so how can I help you? Or would you like to reschedule?”
Tien tightened his chin. “General, we wish to make use of the naquadah generators. Surely you understand our need.”
It didn’t take much of a reach… “Actually, I understand more than you know, Mr President.” Weapons were on the premier’s mind. “Colonel Davis?”
Davis switched on a wall monitor, showing them a real-time image of China from high above.
“Yes, sir. There is currently a dark cloud of pollution over China,” Davis said, “making their need for a naquadah generator a legitimate need. It is in concentrations of carbon monoxide at an altitude of roughly eighteen thousand feet in the atmosphere off the coast of Asia and out over the Pacific Ocean. During the early part of the year, there is considerable outflow of pollution from China and southeast Asia.
“Water borne diseases affect not only people but also wild life. About three thousand plants are in danger of extinction. China is the native homeland for approximately twelve percent of the world's flora. No plants means no oxygen. One city produces approximately eighty-six thousand tons of pollution per day; only twelve thousand of that is organic. Within China alone, there have been epidemics of water borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery.”
The scenes changed to images of people in the country-side; thin, gaunt, enlarged bellies.
“Despite a few positive steps, no attempt has been made to introduce the fundamental legal and institutional reforms necessary to bring an end to serious human rights violations. Tens of thousands of people continue to be detained or imprisoned in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association, and are at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment. Thousands of people have been sentenced to death or executed. Thousands of people have been detained or imprisoned for so-called “separatist” or “terrorist” offenses. China continues to use the international “war against terrorism” as a pretext for cracking down on peaceful dissent.
“Authorities take an increasingly hard line against people protesting against house demolitions and evictions, particularly in large cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, where demolitions of old homes were accelerated by Beijing’s preparations for hosting the Olympics in 2008. Scores of peaceful protesters were detained and lawyers assisting in such cases were at risk of arrest or intimidation.
“Increasing openness on health issues after the outbreak of SARS appeared to result in greater official concern for those affected by HIV/AIDS, but the authorities failed to meet demands for full transparency and accountability in the context of the spread of the virus. Official figures of 840,000 people infected with HIV and eighty thousand AIDS patients were considered to be serious underestimates. Medical specialists and others who attempted to raise public awareness of the issue were arrested or intimidated.
“People living with HIV/AIDS continued to suffer because of a lack of specialized medical treatment and some were detained and beaten after participating in protests relating to lack of access to medical care.
“Members of unofficial spiritual or religious groups, including some Qi Gong groups and unregistered Christian groups, continued to be arbitrarily detained, tortured and ill-treated. Detained Falun Gong practitioners, including large numbers of women, were at risk of torture, including sexual abuse, particularly if they refused to renounce their beliefs.
“Torture and ill-treatment remained widespread in many state institutions. Common methods included kicking, beating, electric shocks, suspension by the arms, shackling in painful positions, and sleep and food deprivation. Women in detention are vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse.”
There was complete silence as the scenes ended. Davis turned to the Chinese leaders.
“Gentlemen. To answer your unvoiced concerns, no, we do not spend our time putting China under a microscope. Quite honestly, we have better things to do. And no, this isn’t an attempt to force you into capitulation. You can keep your population in the dark all you’d like, but let’s not pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t know the facts. We admire your intellectu
al property; we do not admire the treatment of your people or the eco-sphere. The pollution your country is generating affects the entire world, not just China, therefore, this is our business.
“For the past ten months, Russia has been adapting their power grid to naquadah generators. They are about seventy percent complete. Their pollution rate has dropped almost twenty-three percent and it continues to fall. The ruble is up, people are beginning to prosper, people are healthier and happier. Mexico has recently acquired a generator and there is already a marked difference in the ozone above them. Several US states are having their power grids readied for generators after seeing the success in Nevada where we experimented with the first public use generator.”
Jack didn’t know where Paul came up with his information; he always seemed to know what was going on and where the party was happening. The men standing before them were hiding shame and anger, outrage and suspicion.
“On just about a daily basis, I get a call or note from my government asking that China once more be considered for membership in HomeWorld Security.” Jack took a few pacing steps. “I am still refusing, and I’m doing it to your face. Membership does not stipulate type of government; communism is not an automatic veto, so that isn’t my concern. Membership has been refused because of how you treat your people and what you are doing to your environment, and to the rest of the planet. Sure, the generators would help, but you have done nothing to help yourselves. You refuse to clean up the factories and vehicle emissions. Get your act together, gentlemen, and membership will be reconsidered.”
“I must protest, General O’Neill,” Duan said, shaking slightly in anger. “China has a right to self-protection and yet America is once more holding the ‘big gun.’”
“Self-protection against what? Who?” Jack asked, spreading his arms in question. “Certainly not us. If you want help, that’s one thing: you can ask for help, and we will do our best to give help. That isn’t what you are asking, however. You know damned well what those generators can do, and that’s what you want, and you just confirmed it, Mr Duan.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 11
