According to Jonathan, the Tollan were not happy campers. They didn’t understand why they didn’t Ascend with the Nox. They refused to believe that Daniel Ascended not just once, but twice. Daniel Jackson. A Tau’ri. Inanna offered them space, but they decided to stay on the Nox home world since the city was already developed. Jack had snorted. “Figures,” he said. And no, the Tollan were not interested in joining the unified worlds. Jack had a feeling someone other than Narim was making the decisions for the council. Narim had never struck Jack as an idiot. A little naive, but not stupid. Let them get a taste of those pirates that had come out of hiding after the Goa’uld had begun disappearing. They’ll come running.
Daniel had been walking around with a cell phone in his ear, talking rapidly in Arabic dialects. Both the Iraqi and Egyptian Department of Antiquities were interested in having representation on Daniel’s Earth-based teams. Iran was still a little skittish, but they were at least making an attempt at playing nice. Fundamentalists of all religions were having issues with the entire year’s happenings, but at least the new Iranian president was listening. The Iranian representative to HomeSec, Shahin Zarif, told Jack privately that their president was caught between his beliefs, the common sense of his eyes, and the tribal mentality of his people. Shahin had seen too much during his time at HomeSec; he believed in the push for unity that was being made. He had seen firsthand that Jack didn’t care how someone worshipped, as long as others were given the freedom to worship as they pleased. As for Jack’s rudeness, well, Jack was rude to everyone. He was an equal opportunity offender.
Jack didn’t try to be deliberately rude, he just became quickly irritated with ignorance. At least he was learning to shut up and have someone else take over when he felt himself starting to snap. Usually. He had to admit that the Chinese seriously irritated him. Tien was playing much nicer, though. Saving his grandson may have had something to do with that.
The world was still shaken over the bombing of Seoul. Only the bombing of the World Trade Center rivaled the horror of the moment. No one knew what the issue was; Kim and his entire government had been killed by their own people, long fed up with the slow, torturous death they had been under. Jack scanned the initial reports from his 303 commanders. Most of the people they had picked up seemed to think the gods had returned. The translators had a hard time convincing them otherwise. No longer under the thumb of ignorance, the refugees were getting a quick lesson in current world affairs. Being told strange tales and not believing them was one thing; actually seeing these things was a whole other matter. Most of the people wanted nothing more than to find the remainder of family members and get back to farming their land. Death was not a new concept to them; they expected it. Their land was dead, though, and there was nothing to get back to, except new land in Russia. They were assured that homes were being built for them.
“Jack. Are you alright?” Daniel stood at the kitchen doorway holding a glass of water.
“Fine,” Jack said. “I thought I was going to read for a while, but my mind is wandering.”
Daniel walked slowly to him. “If you need alone time, you can go downstairs,” he suggested.
“I know. There’s been so much happening lately that my brain doesn’t know where to settle.”
Daniel considered him for a moment and then put his glass down. He pressed the gas button on the fireplace, lighting the logs.
“Come on,” Daniel said, sitting and patting the tiled floor space that circled the front of the fireplace. Jack put his book down and joined Daniel on the floor, his back to the fire. “Close your eyes. Imagine your spine glowing. Give the glow whatever color is calming for you. White, yellow, or light blue works well. Imagine that glow extending beyond your body. Going down into the floor and up through the roof. The line needs to be straight. If it isn’t, just work at it. Don’t force it. Bring the flow of color up from the floor, up from the ground beneath the house. Bring it up slowly, gently. Tap at any kinks in the line with it. Let the energy drop back down, refresh itself, and bring it back up again. Little by little those kinks in the line will straighten out. When you can feel it flowing smoothly all the way up to your head, let it extend beyond the top of your head, through the roof, and into the sky. One straight line of glowing energy, moving gently from the center of the earth, through you, and into space. As it moves through your body, allow all those niggly irritations to attach to the energy. Put all those worries and fears into the energy, just like rain through a gutter, washing out all the clutter. Know that those irritations and worries are now returned to their pure energy form and they are no longer a hindrance to you or to anyone else. They have been neutralized. You are calm, centered, and at peace.”
When Jack opened his eyes, he felt light-headed. He had never meditated in his life before meeting Teal’c and Daniel; he had always pushed it aside as fruity nonsense. He was beginning to understand why a couple billion people meditated every day.
“How come it’s sometimes out and other times it’s inside?” he asked. It took Daniel a moment.
“Depends on the effect you’re after,” he said. “Feel better?” Jack nodded. “Good. Want to come back to bed?”
They shut off lights and made sure doors were locked before heading back to bed. Daniel curled up behind him, Jack curled into Sam, and he knew he was well protected. For the first time in weeks, Jack slept without war in his head.
He had a vague sense of being pecked on the head before waking up. A door closed and he looked blurrily at the clock. He was alone in bed. He picked up the phone and dialed as he cleared his throat.
“This is General O’Neill,” he said huskily when it was answered. “I need flowers sent. Colonel Samantha Carter. Groom Lake. Congratulations. Play nice and don’t hog the ball. Love, Jack and Daniel. And put a teddy bear with it. Make another card. To Mom / Aunt Sam, we’re proud of you. Love, the kids and Fang. He’s a puppy. Thank you.”
When he stumbled into the kitchen, he found Daniel at the table, reading the newspaper while Olivia played in her swing. Fang looked at him and thumped his tail on the floor before his attention was re-taken by the rawhide bone he was chewing on. The rest of the house was quiet.
“I had an SF take the kids to school,” Daniel told him. “I figured you needed to sleep.”
Jack grunted and poured coffee. “Does he need to go out?” he asked, looking at the pup.
“We just got back from a walk,” Daniel told him. “A ride, actually. Took a little bike ride around the block. Olivia likes the breeze. Jack, I’m not happy about Sam back in Nevada.”
“Neither am I,” Jack said, feeling his body waking up with the caffeine. “She’ll be using the arches, though, so she’ll be home every day. And we can go through to see her. She thinks she’s got the mechanics figured out.”
“Does she?”
Jack found a piece of ham in the fridge and shoved it into his mouth. “I think so,” he said. “The specs seemed to click when I looked at them. Ninurta agreed when he saw them.”
“Cool,” Daniel commented.
“You think people are pissed at me, wait until the oil and automobile companies find out they are now obsolete,” Jack said, lifting a knowing eyebrow. Daniel looked up from the paper.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” he said with a chuckle.
“She’s so happy figuring these things out, I hesitate to hold her back,” Jack said.
“Is she going to make general?” Daniel asked, eying him seriously.
“Looks like it,” Jack said. “She needs a large command, though, before she’ll be considered. There’s a few doubts going around the upper echelon, so this was the compromise. Give her a few years at Area 51 before kicking her upstairs. She doesn’t need to know all that.”
“Well, then, I’d say it’s her choice to remain in the military,” Daniel said. “If she gets command of the department, she’ll be able to guide it better than if she were a civilian.”
Jack nodded thoughtful
ly to himself. “I’m going to be home today, so you don’t need to take Livie with you,” Jack told him.
“I wasn’t going to,” Daniel informed him. “Your mother watches her when Jerrie isn’t here. Connie or Mary takes her once in a while. Doing anything in particular for the day?”
“Nope,” Jack said, leaning back in the chair. “I’ll work from my computer here. If I need to sign anything, they can run it over to me. Otherwise, I’m vegging. I’m going to work on the hot tub, I think. The deck and foundation need to be replaced before it can be used. The screen on the front door needs to be fixed, too.”
“Sounds like work to me,” Daniel said. He put his plate in the dishwasher, found his briefcase, and bent for his kisses from both the big baby and the little one before heading out the door. Olivia watched him leave and the door shut behind him. Her lower lip began to tremble, giving her a sudden resemblance to her oldest sister. Jack picked her up and held her high before bringing her down and buzzing her noisily on her cheek. She sparkled at him.
“Da!”
He put her stroller together, sat her in it, put Fang on his new leash, and headed out, jogging easily around the neighborhood as he pushed the stroller, then walking for a cool-down when his chest began to ache a little. Fang soon tired, so Jack sat him in the under-carriage. Carl Weber spotted them and waved.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked, seeing the pup getting a ride.
“He’s still a baby,” Jack said, stretching his legs. There was a slight wobbly feeling in his muscles, but the stretching felt good, as did the fresh air in his lungs. Carl squatted and made noises at the human baby.
“How’s the world, Jack?” Carl asked, standing up.
“A mess,” Jack said. “It may get worse before it gets better, but it’ll get better. Just hang in there.” The men shook hands and went their ways.
The next stop was the Giorgetti home. All around the neighborhood, Jack spotted inconspicuous SF who acknowledged him by standing more vigilant while he was in sight. Several of his regular SF had taken homes in the area, which made their jobs easier. The small, quiet, rural town along the wooded roads that led to and from Cheyenne Mountain seemed to be filling up with more and more military and civilians who were attached to HomeSec or the SGC in one way or another.
“Mornin’, Jack,” Mandy said, giving him a wave as he came up to the house. Mandy was getting ready to head out to work. His wife, Maria, came out to the porch, still in her bathrobe.
“How are you, Mandy? Maria?” Jack asked, taking their hands. Maria took Olivia out of the stroller and cooed at her. “Mandy, can your sister come into town tomorrow? Too soon?”
Mandy’s eyes lit up. “Tomorrow? No, that’s fine. Are you sure, Jack? We know there’s a lot going on.”
“Tomorrow is as good a time as any,” Jack assured him. “The clean-up crews are heading out to Asia, there isn’t really much that anyone can do except to let nature take care of the mess. Most of my pilots are out there doing what they can. It’s real quiet here, so if your sister is feeling up to it, get her down here and I’ll give her the guided tour.” Overjoyed, Mandy gave profuse thanks and promised to call his sister right away.
Once they were back home, Jack put Olivia on the living room floor to let her crawl around, let Fang off his leash, and found a printed report that he needed to read. Stacy was not happy about the porch leash and keeping Fang in a kennel during the night and when they were gone. Jack pointed out that they were living next to a forest; did she want bears, wolves, or mountain lions coming down and eating the dog? Or torn apart by other dogs? Or even him running out into the street and getting hit by a car? No, she didn’t. Jack told her that this would help to teach Fang manners so that bad things wouldn’t happen to him.
Giggles were coming from the floor and Jack looked. The puppy was on his belly, trying to understand his strange, hairless sibling. He put his cold nose to her head and she giggled again. Olivia made her way across the floor, determined to get to her daddy. She found his legs and pulled herself up. Jack looked again and discovered his baby grinning at him, proud of herself.
“Stinker,” he told her, setting the papers aside and picking her up. “I see we’re going to have to Olivia-proof the house sooner than we realized. You’ll be running around here by the end of June.”
“Da!”
He called his mother and told her Olivia’s latest accomplishment.
“Jack, you’ve been without a baby in the house for too long,” she told him. “They usually start to find their feet around ten months. She’s almost ten months.”
“She’s special,” he insisted.
“Of course, she is,” Maggie agreed.
He set the playpen on the front porch and started to work on the screen door. He had most of it done by the time his next visitor came around.
“Pastor Earl Cohen,” the man introduced himself. Jack paused.
“Pastor and Cohen don’t usually get strung on the same name,” he commented, glancing at the uniform, with its stars, and then at the official car at the curb. The pastor, about forty or so, a few inches shorter than Jack, smiled pleasantly and nodded.
“I know, I get that all the time,” he said. “I’m the newly appointed Air Force Chief of Chaplains.”
“I see that,” Jack nodded. “Congratulations.” He put down the screwdriver, wiped his hands, and shook the pastor’s hand. “That’s Olivia and Fang. Would you like something to drink?”
“Water would be fine, thank you.”
Jack picked up the baby and ushered the man into the house.
“You’re probably here to talk with Daniel,” Jack said. “He’s at the SGC today.”
Pastor Cohen took the glass of water and sat. “Actually, I’d like to speak with you, if you don’t mind, General,” he said. “Your office told me you were at home today.”
Jack picked up his cell phone and frowned. He had left it on vibrate. He hadn’t heard the six missed calls. He was going to speak smartly at whoever allowed the General Pastor through to his home.
“I’m on kid-duty today. What can I do for you, Pastor?”
The man smiled as he sipped his water. “To the point,” he observed. “I was warned about you. Alright, General, here it is: we understand that this is a changed world. The very concepts that created spirituality as we know it today have been altered to where we hardly recognize them. The military chaplains are getting bombarded from our flocks and we don’t know how to respond.”
Jack stared at him. “Really, Pastor, you want Daniel for this, not me.”
“No, I want you,” Cohen assured him. “You speak the language of the common man, and I don’t mean that as a slight. How do you see the future of spirituality in the military?”
“I don’t,” Jack shrugged. “I’m not a spiritual person, so I don’t think about it at all. At least, I don’t unless one of my kids brings it up. Or Daniel. Or my brother. How about my brother? He’s a Catholic priest. I can call him over and you two can…..”
Cohen held out a piece of paper. Jack took it and opened it.
“Jack, play nice with the good friar. HH,” he read. He sighed and put the note down. “I think I know what job I’ll give him,” Jack grumbled to himself as he rubbed his face. “Look, padre, I don’t know how I can be of help on this subject, I think Henry sent you to the wrong guy. All I know is a lot of people drop their religion once they’ve spent time off-world. I know other people who are spiritual, but it’s turned into a personal thing and doesn’t equate well with anything organized.”
Cohen nodded as he considered Jack. Olivia crawled over and patted Cohen’s leg.
“She wants up,” Jack interpreted. Cohen lifted her with experienced hands and settled her on his lap.
“You may have hit the nail, as it were,” the pastor said, letting the baby take his fingers. “Religion is the organization of spirituality. We do our best to make them compatible; in the best of both worlds, they are compatible. I
admit that sometimes they are not.”
Someone beamed in and Cohen jumped. Olivia grinned and clapped.
“Pardon,” Shara said, inclining his head at the stranger. He held out a palm-sized notepad to Jack and took Olivia who had her arms out to him. Jack frowned as he scrolled through the pad. Olivia played with Shara’s beard and screeched when he captured her fingers between his lips.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. Shara looked at him, a small hand in his mouth. “Of course, you are. Find Daniel, let him deal with it. I will call Daedalus and have Colonel Caldwell release Colonel Sheppard to Daniel. I want Sheppard to command the mission. Daniel is in the middle of something, so if he wants to assign someone in his place, that’s fine.” He made his notes, signed the pad and hit the tab for a new blank page. He wrote something with the stylus stick and signed it, too. “Make sure Inanna gets that to the council.” He exchanged the notepad for the baby. Shara beamed out.
Jack took one look at the pastor and added a shot of Kahlua next to the man’s glass of water.
“Sorry for the interruption, where were we?” Jack said. “Oh, right. Religion. Our children learn comparative religions from Daniel and a number of our friends. Their grandfather, my brother, is a Catholic priest. It’s a long story. Michael certainly gets his point of view in. They spend a weekend here and there with the Anunnaki on their world. The man that beamed in was Shara, consort to Ninurta. Ninurta is Inanna’s consort. You may know those names from your own studies. My oldest son is currently Shara’s consort, and believe me, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one. They recently made me a grandfather. They adopted that little guy, there, on the wall. Dakarai. Enki is playing grandpa to our kids and father to Daniel. The kids play with other allies, the Jaffa, the Tok’ra, Sua, a bird of unknown origin, among others. The kids are learning tolerance and acceptance of others while they form their own opinions and their own beliefs. My son and nephew, Matthew, another long story, is almost fifteen and still attends church. He likes it. He’s happy, so I’m happy. Wouldn’t surprise me if he became a priest or something to the equivalent. Stacy is a little pagan in her outlook, but doesn’t believe in deity. Maybe a Buddhist streak in her. She met the Dali Lama and they hit it off. He’s on her pen-pal list. The other kids don’t really have opinions, yet, and that’s okay, too. You want my advice on all this? Promote tolerance and education, and let the individual take care of the soul aspect. That part is between the person and their god and no one else.”
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 21
