“Cool off before you get in,” she called to them. “The water’s a little chilly and you’ll get muscular cramps if you’re too warm.”
“Yes, Mother,” Daniel called back. He fell back onto the dirt and huffed at the sky.
After about fifteen minutes, their bodies were at ‘room’ temperature and they began to undress. Sam came out of the water, dripping wet, Aphrodite stepping out from the foam as the sunlight sparkled from the drops of water clinging to her skin. She straddled Daniel’s legs and he fell back to the dirt.
“We have an anniversary next month,” she informed him.
“Yes?” Daniel caressed her cool, wet back.
“Are we adding five years to the contract?” she asked. Jack leaned on an elbow, watching them.
“I’d like that very much,” Daniel said. Sam leaned down and brushed their mouths together. Daniel relaxed, offering whatever she wanted to take.
“I’m ovulating,” she told them after a moment. “Are we going to do anything about that, too?”
Jack brought himself closer and put a hand on Sam’s lower back. He kissed a nearby hip and then Daniel’s mouth. He looked into Daniel’s eyes for a moment and then up at Sam.
“Is this what you want?” he asked her. Sam took a deep breath and nodded.
“It is,” she said emphatically. “Clock is ticking and I’d like to have a baby at least once in my life. I have a desk job and I’m not running around the galaxy anymore. This is the time.”
“We do have that report from the Tok’ra,” he reminded her.
“I know,” she said. “We have thirty-two SG teams, now, not to mention our new Unified Worlds. We are a power. I’ll go on the mission if you need me to, but I’m needed here more than I’m needed in the field. We’ve handled a baby, four children, and our jobs for a year, we can handle another baby. If I get pregnant in the next few days, the baby will be born around May. Olivia will be in preschool next fall. We can deal with two babies for the summer, with Jerrie’s help. If you guys are not ready for another baby, it’s okay, I understand.”
Jack nuzzled her belly and licked a drop of lake water. He felt fingers on his back and looked at Daniel. The younger man smiled at him and pulled him down for kisses before turning their attention to Sam.
When Sam was ready, Daniel helped her onto Jack. She rode him, gently, firmly, taking him, her mind centered on their connection. Part of her imagined energy flowing from him into her. She felt the energy flowing from them and into her. Even more strangely, a greater energy wrapped around all three of them, fusing their energies together, gaining strength as she switched partners.
“Are you doing that?” she whispered to Jack, looking into his dark eyes. Her own blue eyes were darkened with passion as Daniel caressed her from the inside out.
“No, honey,” Jack said. “We’re doing it.”
The morning was spent loving, swimming, talking, and just being together. It had been a long time since they had spent quality time without interruptions. Sam had dibs on their little wigglers. Come hell or high water… or snakes….. she was going to be pregnant by the time they left the lake.
“I have a request,” she said, being lazy and staring at the sky. Jack had thoughtfully found a small log and brought it over for her to raise her legs. She insisted that there was no medical evidence that raising the legs made the little swimmers flow faster, but Jack wasn’t taking chances.
“Another one?” Jack asked. He turned his head, blinking sleepily. She made a half-hearted swipe at him.
“If we have a boy, I’d like to name him Jacob.”
Jack smiled and took her hand, lacing their fingers.
“I thought that was a given,” he said.
“Jacob Charles?” she said, turning to look at him. Jack stilled and then leaned over to brush her lips.
“Thank you.”
“And if it’s a girl, Claire Marie,” Sam continued. Daniel spread a hand across her belly and nuzzled her shoulder.
“Last name Carter?” he asked.
“Would it bother you?”
“No,” Daniel said. Jack echoed him and leaned over to press his mouth along Daniel’s spine. “This is new territory for us. Two men, one woman -it makes sense for the baby to have the mother’s name. Jack?”
“I'm fine with it.”
Daniel lay his head close to hers, smiling as Jack couldn’t decide whose skin to lick. “What do you remember about your mother?” he asked.
Surprised, Sam considered it. “I remember that she was beautiful,” she said. “I always felt like an ugly duckling next to her, but she insisted I was her greatest creation. She liked to paint. She wasn’t very good, but it made her happy to paint. She was better with gardens. And she could sew. She made a lot of my dresses and jumpers. She also made the curtains and bedspreads. I remember that she would go on a sewing spree during the summer and donate things for the Christmas clothing drive. She despaired that I didn’t have a talent for fabric.
“I remember her being sad and angry that Dad was away so much, and when he was home he couldn’t talk about his work. I remember that family get-togethers were always a little weird. My grandmother, mom’s mother, was Jewish, and there was always an argument breaking out between a Jew and a Christian. I went to classes for both religions just to please both sides of the family, but I didn’t want to go. One time when Dad was home, I told him I didn’t want to go to the classes and he told Mom I didn’t have to go. They fought over it but in the end Dad won. He said he wasn’t going to fight for the Constitution only to have his kids be denied their rights. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I can see why Mom was so frustrated. She was home, raising us, making the decisions, only to have Dad come home and over-turn everything when he didn’t know what was going on in our lives.”
Jack squeezed her hand. “She should have been around to know the man he eventually became,” he said gently.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, he turned out pretty good. Selmak did a good job raising him.”
The men chuckled in agreement, remembering the odd arguments between the man and his symbiote.
“And how did Mark fit into everything?” Jack asked. Sam stopped smiling.
“Not well,” she said. “He understood even less why Dad wasn’t home. He wanted to do father-son things, like the other boys on the street. Dad always made promises and then Mark would get stood up. I’ve tried. It was hard for me to get together with him after I became involved with the Stargate. When I was home I would call him and invite him over. Spend some time together. He was always busy with his own work. I guess Dad did teach him something. I may have helped.”
Daniel leaned up to look at her. “No, Sam,” he said. “Mark is a big boy, he makes his own choices. Don’t give up on him. Keep trying. Have you told him what you just told us?”
Sam thought about it and shook her head. “No, I don’t think I have,” she admitted. “We were never very communicative.”
“Maybe someone needs to make the first move,” Daniel suggested.
“Dad and I tried, just after Selmak healed him,” she said. “But with Dad off-world so much, Mark went back to his old self.”
“Alright, so keep trying,” Daniel told her. “He knows why you two were distant, now make him understand that you need him, too.”
“Why don’t you invite him and Susan to be godparents to the baby?” Jack suggested. “I'm thinking of asking Mike, but there’s no rule that says there can be only two godparents.”
“If I can get through the first trimester, I’ll ask Mark and Susan if they’d like to participate,” Sam said.
Jack covered her stomach with his hand and then leaned down to nuzzle at the silky skin. “Did you talk with the doctor about getting pregnant?”
“Yes, I did,” Sam nodded. “She said I’m fine and my uterus is healthy. I had Carolyn run tests and she said all the hormone replacements are out of my system. My hormones are normal.”
By the end of the week, the
men were exhausted from doing their ‘duty’ for their wife. By the end of the week, Sam was ready to declare a moratorium on sex. The kids were happy that school was starting and they wouldn’t need to shut their eyes whenever they entered a room. The parents had been weird all week.
The Tok’ra reported in and told them that the new Goa’uld leader was calling himself Vishnu. Everyone in the meeting looked at Daniel.
“Hindu,” he said. “Vishnu was one of the Trinity in the Hindu pantheon. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Vishnu was the Preserver god. One of his aspects was also Hari, the Remover. He rests on the bed of the powerful, coiled serpent, Seshanag, who represents the sleeping universe.”
“So we are looking at possibly three Goa’uld,” Landry said. Daniel shrugged.
“It’s possible,” he said. “Then again, the Hindu pantheon has about three hundred gods. If the Goa’uld are using a new pantheon…”
“Why our gods?” Landry asked. “I mean the gods from Earth legends? How about picking on other worlds?”
“There are very few worlds that developed their own legends,” Daniel said. “Most worlds were subject to the Goa’uld, so the people didn’t invent deity. We did because our enslavement ended before most legends were written down. Also, remember that the Goa’uld deliberately kept their slaves from growing too much.”
Landry looked around the table. “Well, I guess that makes as much sense as anything else,” he said. “Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Malek, would you be so kind as to outline the location of these new Goa’uld?”
“Certainly.” Malek stood and went to the star map. “Tau’ri is here. Along this border is what you call the Pegasus galaxy, this is the galaxy Ida which belongs to the Asgard, and the Masharu are here. The Goa’uld Vishnu is taking control here.” He put a marker along a far border, on the opposite side of the known galaxy in which they lived.
“Do we have any images of this Vishnu?” Jack asked.
“We do,” Malek said. He took out a small camera, one of the few Tau’ri toys the Tok’ra conceded was usable. Sam plugged it into the computer and they looked through the frames. Daniel frowned and looked closer.
“The hosts look Indian,” he commented. “East Indian, not American. Someone’s been raiding us.”
“Not with the updates we’ve been putting into the mikku,” Jack said firmly.
“This would have been long before we got our hands on it,” Sam told him. “But the Indian population is probably where the Goa’uld got the idea of Hindu gods.” Daniel had to agree.
“The planet in question has many of these people,” Malek said as he flipped through the images. “They appear to have been there for quite some time, as Col. Carter suggests. Their gate no longer exists although there is an area far from the villages where the soil has a high concentration of refined naquadah. It is not natural to the planet. We have a theory that a gate once existed there, but it was destroyed.”
“And the naquadah is the remnants of it,” Sam pieced together.
“Correct,” Malek said.
“Wait,” Jack raised a hand. “How can a primitive people destroy a stargate?”
Malek cocked his head. “We don’t know.”
“Do we know anyone on the other side of that border?” Landry asked, tapping on the map.
“We have explored partially over the border,” Malek said. “We found no inhabited planets. There may be more farther in, but our ships do not have the energy.”
“And ours do,” Jack said. He stepped up to the map, studying it as something gnawed at him. He tapped on a planet. “Isn’t this Aschen territory?”
Sam looked closely at the ID. “I think it is,” she said. Daniel looked at them and then at the map.
“Soooo…. how did those people keep the Aschen away?” he asked.
“And yet get taken by a new Goa’uld,” Sam said.
“Maybe the Goa’uld was there all along,” Daniel said. They looked at him. “Someone had to get them from here to there, and if they’ve grown so much, it was quite a while ago. Look, guys, we’ve found several here on this planet. Locked in stasis. Set was running around for a couple thousand years. Why couldn’t there be one or more in stasis on that planet?”
Jack pointed to the images of the natives. “Do you think those people were capable of capturing a Goa’uld and locking it up?”
“No,” Daniel said. “Who locked up the ones left here? I got the impression that they locked themselves up when they saw the writing on the wall. After the rest of the Family left, they were supposed to come out of hiding and take over. Keep this planet for themselves. Why couldn’t something like that have happened there? Set was smart enough to blend into the crowd and make himself at home for a couple of millennium.”
Jack paced as he thought about it. “Do we have anyone of Indian descent on a team?” he asked.
“Yes,” Landry and Reynolds said together. Reynolds sent an apologetic look at Landry. The general tapped the computer. “Lt. Tarik Bhat, Capt. Dharmasena Sharma, Dr. Rakesh Shastri, and Lt. Yashodhara Mahadevan.” Landry was pretty sure his tongue was going to twist off. “Wow,” he breathed. “If we’re going to put in a team of entirely Indian personnel, I’d like a colonel in there. We don’t have an Indian colonel.”
Jack nodded to Sam and she brought up the national database. “We have six colonels of Indian descent,” she said. “None are currently SGC trained.”
“Only six?” Daniel asked. Sam tilted a shoulder.
“For some reason, we don’t have a lot of Indians in our military,” she commented.
“Let’s talk with General Singh,” Jack said, arms crossed thoughtfully as he stared at the map. “India is a problem at the moment, but Singh has been arguing our case. He knows his officers; let’s see if he can recommend a colonel.”
After waiting for daytime in India, General Singh came up with three colonels for the offering bowl. Mythili Bhusnurmath, Narendar Pani, and Bodhisatva Ganguly. Singh was shocked at the reason why Jack wanted a colonel on board at the SGC. He was sending all three for immediate training.
So far, the new Goa’uld were staying in their own backyard; the SGC had time to get their act together while UW ships secretly patrolled the infected quadrant. The Goa’uld didn’t seem to have ships and the UW wasn’t quite sure what the Aschen were up to or why the Aschen avoided the planet that was currently under surveillance.
While Jack drove them to HomeSec, Daniel looked at his cell, frowning at the missed message, and pressed the green button to play the video. His daughter’s face was close to the screen.
“Daddy,” she hissed quietly, not wanting to be overheard. “Our new health class teacher is making us sign a piece of paper saying we will all stay virgins until we’re married. I realize that I’m not ready to do that stuff, but I don’t think she should be making us sign this. Look at it.” She held a paper up, but Daniel couldn’t see it. Jessica Bosco and a few other girls moved in close behind Stacey to look into the camera.
“Yeah, Dr. J,” Jessie said. “Bogus!”
“Bogus!” the girls echoed.
Jack turned the corner instead of continuing straight to their offices. They checked in with school security and walked to the principal’s office. A few kids in the halls saw them and stood wide-eyed, watching them.
“Uh oh, all three?” Mrs. Herbert questioned when they entered her office. “What’s wrong?”
Daniel played Stacey’s message for her. Her face fell and she shook her head.
“I’m very sorry,” she said. “Mrs. Talmidge is new and a little conservative. I will speak to her.”
“And no signing pieces of paper without us first getting a chance to look them over,” Daniel insisted.
“Yes, of course,” she nodded. “This should never have happened, Dr. Jackson; I’m terribly sorry. You’re right; this is something that should have been taken to the parents first.”
The door burst open and a woman hurried in, stopping short at the sight of th
e crowded office.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, irritated. “I need a little help. My class….. well, they’re staging a sit-in.”
“A what?” Mrs. Herbert stood.
“A sit-in!” the woman hissed. “That….. Jackson girl is behind it!”
Mrs. Herbert bit her lips hard to stop from laughing as she looked at her other guests. “Mrs. Talmidge, this is Dr. Jackson, Colonel Carter, and General O’Neill. I’m sure they can help.”
Daniel crossed his arms and peered at the woman. “And you feel that my eleven year old daughter is in danger of losing her virginity because…..?” He waved a hand in confusion.
The woman was even more flustered and patted her perfect hair. “Pre-teen children are having sex, Dr. Jackson. Thirteen year olds are having babies and STD’s! If the parents cannot control their children and guide them on the right path, then it needs to be done here and early enough to stop them.”
“I see,” Daniel nodded. “Well, that’s … presumptuous of you. Number one. And two, you did not get permission to even be discussing sex ed with my daughter much less have her sign a pledge, and three, if you had bothered to ask, my daughter could probably teach a sex ed class. It wouldn’t be the first time, just ask a few of the other kids. Where did you say she was?”
The small parade made their way through the halls and up a flight of stairs. They looked through the window of the classroom door and saw all the kids sitting on the floor under the windows across the room.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have let her watch Hair,” Jack said. They went in and stopped in the middle of the room. A few of the kids, SGC kids, saw Jack and gulped before toughening up and straightening their backs against the wall. Stacey saw all three of them and knew she was in trouble.
Daniel looked on the desk and found a pile of papers. “No one is signing anything,” he said. The kids looked at each other and began to relax. Daniel made sure the papers were the right ones and tore them up. Mrs. Talmidge was quickly silenced by the principal.
“Daddy….”
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 43
