The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story

by Michele Briere

  The uniforms were hanging on the back of the bedroom door, still in their plastic wrap from the cleaners. Jack took his down and started to dress. His voice had jumped around for a while, sometimes settling into a husky frog that he couldn’t clear from his throat. He remembered that Michael, already an adult, didn’t tease him; instead, he tried to help Jack by offering advice such as sucking on lemons or not talking at all. None of it seemed to make a difference, but at least Michael stood by him. Jack paused in sliding the belt through the hoops, wondering why he hadn’t remembered that before.

  Sam came out of the shower and began her own dressing.

  “Is the new array ready?” he asked.

  “I believe it is,” she said from upside down. She had bent over, shaking her damp hair out and using a dry towel to soak up the water. “Prometheus tested it at the Alpha Site. Colonel Markham seems happy with it.”

  “Good,” Jack nodded. “Matty’s coming with us. His voice just broke, so he’s a little embarrassed.”

  She flipped her hair back and started combing it out.

  “This should be an interesting summer,” she commented. “Cass took Stacey shopping and they bought a couple of training bras.”

  “I thought something was looking different,” he said, straightening his tie. “I didn’t think she needed one.”

  “Neither did I, but Stacey was feeling a little weird about the bumps.”

  Daniel came in and tossed his clothes on the bed. “Should I talk about it with her?” he asked, hearing the last of the conversation. Sam shrugged.

  “I don’t see why you need to,” she said. “You can if you want to. I would have been too humiliated to have my Dad talking to me about bras when I was eleven. I could now, but not at eleven. She’s been eying some pretty dresses; why don’t you take her out and get her something pretty?”

  “Why does she need a dress?” Daniel asked, not understanding. “She’s always running and playing.”

  Sam was putting on pantyhose, something the men found to be a rigorous thing to watch, unlike the elegant rolling on (and off) of stockings.

  “Danny, she’s becoming a young lady,” Sam informed him. “Running is good, but she’s a girl. She needs pretty things as well as play things. Buy her a pretty dress, pantyhose, and shoes to go with the dress. Let Stacey pick out things herself, you just sit patiently and wait for her. Most of the store staff will be willing to help. Then take her out for dinner someplace nice so she can wear her new dress and shoes.”

  Daniel put a dark suit on the door hanger.

  “But….. she’s going on a dig with me this summer,” he said, still not getting it.

  “That’s alright, she still needs girl clothes,” Sam said. “You have dress up clothes and play clothes, she needs dress up clothes and play clothes. If it makes you feel better, you can buy her dig clothes at the same time.”

  “Daniel, it’s a female thing,” Jack said. “Just go along with it.”

  He went to Sam and straightened her tie. She smiled and straightened his. There was a knock at the door. A quick look at each other -everyone was dressed, “Come in,” they called.

  Matthew walked in, tugging at his pants. “My pants are too short.”

  The adults looked down. The cuff was riding a little high.

  “Wear your JROTC uniform,” Jack said. The boy was sure to hit over six foot by an inch or two.

  As soon as they were ready, Jack called and had them beamed up to Prometheus. Jack called Michael and had him beamed up, also. Michael tugged nervously at his collar and formal black suit.

  “Michael, I think that the older Matthew gets, the more he looks like you, not Jack,” Daniel commented, watching the two tugging at themselves. Michael glanced at his grandson and smoothed a stray lock in the boy’s hair.

  “I can see Megan in him,” Michael said. “He has her eyes. Ours, too, I guess.”

  General Maynard approached the group. He gave Jack the Eye and Jack excused himself.

  “Is there any particular reason you insist on bringing family to official affairs?” Maynard asked quietly once they were away from the group.

  “Well, I’m trying to learn how to play nice with my brother, and he is a Catholic priest, so I thought he’d like to visit with the pope. They got along nicely over dinner. And Matthew has an interest in religion and philosophy. Both the pope and the Dalai Lama seemed to enjoy his presence before, so….”

  “Alright, never mind,” Maynard said, waving a hand. “I’m sorry I asked. I wanted to tell you that your request to allow troops who are under your command to wear identifying insignia has been approved.” He pulled a box from his pocket and handed it to Jack. “This is now part of your uniform.”

  Jack opened the box and saw a small Tau’ri pin. “It’s almost the same design as the one Helen Alberts created,” he said. Maynard nodded.

  “It’s based on it,” he said. “We bought the template. And don’t worry, she was well compensated.” He told Jack where it was to be properly displayed and Jack pinned it to his uniform.

  “Thank you, Francis,” Jack said. “This will mean a lot to our kids.”

  “You’re welcome. Shipments are being sent out to Colorado and the Yards, and a shipment of them is on board. I thought you might like to pass them out to the flagship, first. There are boxes in your quarters.”

  Jack went to find the boxes. They were sitting on the small table in the corner of the room. He took a handful of the pins and put them into his pocket before calling stores up to take the rest of them and start passing the pins out. He found Sam and Daniel talking with delegates from various countries. He made nice and shook hands before putting a pin on Sam’s uniform.

  “It’s now official uniform,” he murmured. She looked at it and gave it a rub. Jack turned and Sam stopped him. She raised her hand to her forehead. Jack stilled and returned the honors, searching her eyes. He then pinned one to Daniel’s lapel before finding Col. Markham and going around the room to pass out pins to the crew as he greeted people. He managed the appropriate condolence that Daniel had taught him to say to the Korean ambassadors from the UN, and he didn’t think he made too bad a hash of it.

  Markham excused himself to go and find a box; he wanted to give them to his officers, himself. It might have been Jack’s imagination, but the troops seemed to stand a little straighter.

  “What was that for?” Jack asked in Sam’s ear when he was done.

  “Because it’s been a long time since I saluted you and I wanted you to know that I respect the officer,” she whispered back. “We worked hard, Jack, we earned this recognition. This past year has been unreal and you made it happen. You pushed and bulldozed your way across the world, and you made it happen.”

  Jack shook his head. “No, Sam; I made a lot of mistakes. I would do everything differently, if I could. You and Daniel have been trying to teach me to be a little more tactful….”

  “And you are,” she assured him. “When you need to be. If we had a problem with you, we’d let you know. Now, you go out there and take charge of this circus.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Walking past the door, Jack paused and turned; he would have sworn he saw something red run past. He thought about it. No, it wasn’t flying, which was a good thing…..

  After Daniel spoke in Jack’s ear, the Swiss Guard was allowed to bring firearms on board. Jack had been refusing all armed escorts and it was creating a quiet furor. Everyone was present and accounted for, self-important delegates strutting throughout the ship and making demands they had no right to be making such as ridiculous requests to the galley. One person wanted to know if they had any alien oysters. With Jack’s approval, Markham put a quick halt to that one. Jack nodded for Daniel to take over.

  “Everyone,” Daniel said quietly after stepping up in front of the main screen. Their guests settled. The Catholic delegation was on Daniel’s right and the Buddhist delegation was on his left. All the red and yellow among the black and
Air Force blue made for a colorful crowd. The two groups were doing their best to stay away from touchy issues, and be friendly with each other. Heads of State were in the middle, separating the two religious groups. There had been a few arguments from various other religions, all demanding a say in the ceremony. Jack tuned them out.

  “Eight days ago, a great and terrible thing happened,” Daniel said. “The worst day this world has ever seen. Has it been only a week? It seems an eternity has gone by since one person killed eleven million people. In a single day. In a single minute. Men and women die on battlefields every day, but this wasn’t a battle. It was a slaughter of innocents. There is no one left to bury the dead or mourn them. There are millions of bodies unaccounted for because they were burned into ashes in an instant. Americans, I believe, are in a position to understand this concept. For those that remain…. let’s just say that summer has begun.”

  He turned to look out the window, absently noticing that the pilot had taken his request to make sure the ship was facing the peninsula from the east, looking toward the west. The guests didn’t quite know what to make of all the aliens ships in the area; they knew a few ships had come in to help but not that many. Ships of various sizes, as large as the Tau’ri ships down to ha’tak size were in nearby orbits.

  “Princess Pari was the seventh daughter of the king,” he said. “He was exasperated at having all daughters, and his exasperation turned to anger. When the king was dying of disease, Princess Pari tried everything to find a cure for him despite his attitude toward his daughters. She finally managed to get hold of some holy water which was only obtainable from the world of the dead. Given the water, the king revived and experienced a new cycle of life.

  “Just as Princess Pari held true to her pure heart and forgave her father, may we learn from her, strive for her strength, and forgive the anger of others. May Changsung grant the holy water and allow these souls their new life.”

  Murmurs of response from the various traditions echoed through the room and Daniel stepped aside. Both delegations came forward and began their preparations, each working independently and yet mindful of each other’s space and needs. Daniel moved gently through the groups, soothing ruffled feathers with quiet words.

  Someone whispered into Jack’s ear and he gave a nod.

  Prometheus hung low over the center of Korea. Not low enough for details, but low enough to see the destruction. Chants were sung in various languages, water was sprinkled around the room, incense waved, and candles lit. The ship’s fire system had been temporarily turned off. The two groups took turns in the steps and prayers of their rituals. Daniel seemed to have a little more problem with the Catholic side of the room than the Buddhist side as he took egos to task.

  Henry sat next to Jack and leaned over.

  “You’re a magician,” he said.

  Jack shook his head. “Daniel put this together, I’m just letting them use the ship.”

  “Jack, it’s only been eight days; how long ago was this started?” Henry asked.

  Jack thought about it. “Two days ago, I think? You don’t understand, Henry -when Daniel wants it to happen, it happens. Have a talk with my ass, if you don’t believe me.”

  Hayes covered his mouth, holding in the inappropriate laughter.

  “Really; I barely made it out of the shower in one piece last night. And then he went for Sam. You should see the size of the hicky under her left breast.”

  Henry choked and looked around before tapping Jack on the leg. “Show a little respect, Jack,” he whispered in reprimand.

  “Oh, Daniel is definitely worthy of respect, Henry.”

  Henry quickly stood and left the room before he lost it and disturbed the ceremony.

  The man in question was looking completely innocent with his freshly shaved face and properly somber mourning suit. He glanced at the entrance and the escaping man before looking at Jack, knowing that something was said. Jack gave an “I don’t know” shrug.

  There was much carrying on with hymns and chanting before the ceremony closed. Jack tried to nap, but he was edgy around all the guns that he didn’t authorize. There were also people around him who knew better, so they made it a point to bump into him from time to time or to whisper something at him. Matthew watched the ceremony from nearby and sometimes perched at Jack’s knee or shoulder.

  “They’re doing the same thing,” Matthew whispered late in the ritual. Jack looked at him. “Both groups claim to be different but they’re doing the same thing. Both are using earth, air, fire, and water to set their space, both are using …. sound, and both are encouraging the souls of the dead to pass beyond. So why do they argue with each other?”

  “Not my area, son,” Jack whispered back. “You’re ahead of me on that one; I don’t understand any of it.”

  It took a moment to realize all the chanting and prayers were done. The quiet was deafening as Daniel once more stepped to the front. His hands were clasped in front of him as he looked at the floor. He then looked up and around the room.

  “It was pointed out to us that with so many millions dead, the land and water could become more contaminated than what the blast had already caused. It would be nearly impossible to manually bury the dead. How could we deal with this? So an idea was borrowed from one of our alien allies. Colonel Carter’s team of engineers rigged the ship’s weapons array, temporarily, with an energy beam that will disintegrate everything it touches. It will turn everything to ash. Much like the blast did, but this will leave no residual radiation. It can target one body or thousands at a time. This was the best option we could come up with. It was discussed with both the Chinese and Japanese governments, and with the Korean ambassadors to the UN, who are present with us today. We hope that the souls of the victims will understand this desperate measure.” He bowed low to the Korean ambassadors and stepped aside.

  Actually, Sam’s team had figured out how to use the zat technology on a wide beam setting and set it on an automatic three. Everything would disappear, leaving the ground bare. They couldn’t trust Earth with a weapon that would make someone disappear, so this one was ‘borrowed,’ and would be ‘set’ for the dead instead of clearing the ground for farming. Jack knew someone would figure out they were up to something and deduce that the clean-up equipment could be used for more nefarious purposes, but it would take that someone quite a while to figure out how to make a zat. If they could first figure out how to get hold of naquadah and then turn it into liquid.

  A potential headache in the making was the rumors out of Area 51 that they were working on integrating zat technology into the ships’ weapons systems, basically turning them into one big zat. If that happened, who knew what alien enemies would do when they understood that the Tau’ri ships could not only shoot at them, but disintegrate them. Off-worlders weren’t ignorant of the zat technology. Jack wasn’t all that sure they should go that far in the advancements. He probably needed to talk it over with an annoying old man.

  The image on the front screen changed, zooming in on the ground. People gasped at the piles of rotting corpses. Human and animal corpses covered the ground for miles, except for the center of the blast. The center of the blast zone had no bodies to see; they had been turned to ashes upon the bomb’s impact.

  Beginning from the east, Prometheus began to zat the ground, leaving behind empty land. Although there were quiet sobs from a few of the women present, several men stood stoically and swallowed back the rocks in their throats. Daniel stood next to Sam, holding her hand while Jack made sure Matthew was alright, keeping the boy close by his side. The wet cheeks actually made Jack feel better than seeing the boy silent and still.

  A couple of the Buddhist contingent began to sing a song of mourning in Korean. Jack looked closely at them and realized they were of Korean descent. The ambassadors joined them.

  Slowly, people began to drift away from the room and found the food that was set out for them. One of the kitchen staff apologized for the lack of fruit;
it seemed that something had gotten into the stores and quite a bit of the fresh fruit had small teeth marks.

  “Why do people eat at memorials and funerals?” Jack asked.

  “Because it reminds us that life goes on,” Daniel said, taking a slice of melon. He tweaked Matthew’s tie and winked at the boy.

  “You look very nice, Matthew,” Sam said. “Very handsome.”

  “Thank you,” he said, flushing. No one had said anything about his voice cracking once in a while, but a few of the men who heard him had silently acknowledged it with a sympathetic wince. Some of the crew who knew Matty commented on his uniform, praising him for honoring his father by wearing it. Matty didn’t think it was the time to tell them that he only wore it because his other dress slacks had become too short. But he held himself straighter, discovering that, in some strange way, he was beginning to fit in with Uncle Dad’s world.

  As Jack tried to find a way out of listening to a discourse on the bowel problems of French President Lowther’s poodle, he noticed someone had come in and was murmuring into Sam’s ear. She glanced at him.

  “Mr. President, would you excuse me?” Jack asked. “My… oldest son just came in and it looks like he needs me.”

  Lowther looked over and saw an older teenager with a ponytail and the air of a mature man standing next to Sam and Daniel. Jonathan had at least changed into a formal human suit, instead of the leathers they had gotten used to seeing him in.

  “What’s up?” Jack asked quietly, once he was with them.

  “Nothing to get alarmed about,” Jonathan said. “You remember Lord Yu’s First Prime? Oshu? He’s turned up. Alive. He wants to present himself to Thanatos, and before we make it happen, I thought you’d like to talk with him. Now isn’t a good time, but….” He glanced around the room, mirroring Jack’s barely concealed impatience at having to participate in an event he’d rather not be at.