“Really?” Daniel took a more interested look at him.
“I’ll pass on the tapes to you,” Gabriel promised.
“Later, Daniel,” Jack said, knowing that look.
“They also seem to be localized,” Gabriel told him. “Not all the countries are doing that well south of the border. Mexico is having a hard time of it, but the more south you go, the better it gets. Colombia is pretty bad. Honduras, San Salvador, Venezuela, and Argentina are also bad. The other countries are taking it better. It could be because they’ve kept much of their local traditions in tact, which were always heavy in traditional magic. Any of the tribal areas take magical acts in stride. It’s everyday life for them. If we jump to Asia, Thailand is doing well, as are most of the more inland tribes in other countries of the region. China’s mainland area is bad, the countryside could be better if they weren’t so overrun with corruption. The Arab States are not doing well at all, but surprisingly the tribes, such as the Bedouins, are doing well with it. Gypsies everywhere are dancing and singing their hearts out about it.”
“How do gypsies being happy with the magic help us?” Landry asked, leaning in to look into the computer screen. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against them, but it isn’t like we can put them to work on diagnostics.”
“No, of course not,” Gabriel agreed. “What I’m getting at is that because the tribal peoples are more open to it, it’s happening faster in those areas. They think their gods are happy with them, so the children are being blessed. We need to show the cities and orthodox peoples that this is a good thing. And to get to Jack’s request, I believe we have more than enough footage to fascinate the general public.”
“Good, thank you,” Jack said, waving an irritated hand at him. “Alright, you and Sam get your prize hens together, run it by Paul for content, and we’ll get it distributed. And put an emphasis on healing. Get some of the limelight off me.”
“I want to help.” They looked at the stairs. Katie stood at the top, her night robe pulled together. She came down, frowning in a familiar, thoughtful O’Neill pose.
“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “You’re….”
“I’m a kid, I know,” she said, huffing in agitation. “So you’ve told me often enough, lately. But I was adult enough to help off-world, and adult enough to help with the radiation victims from Korea. Let me be adult enough to show people who I really am. I’m not the only one, Dad; I’ve kept in contact with other ‘kids’ who can do things. We can all help. We’re not kids anymore.”
“That’s another thing, Jack,” Gabriel said from the screen. “The teenagers seem to be maturing, emotionally, a few years earlier. If I were to use other seventeen-year old talents as an example, Katie’s development is that of a twenty-one-year old. I’ll bet Matthew’s been thinking like an eighteen year old.”
Jack considered arguing and then thought about it. “Now that you mention it,” he reluctantly said. “And now that I think about it. Is their physical development changing?”
“No,” Gabriel said, shaking his head, much to Jack’s relief. “Just emotional catching up with physical. Brains, body, and emotional development have been out of kilter for a very long time, and they are now beginning to sync. I’m not trying to tell you what to do with your daughter, just letting you know that her emotional development just might be up for it.”
“Let me think about it,” Jack said. Katie bid them good-night, knowing that he really would consider it.
“Oh, my God,” Jack groaned, putting his face into his hands. “Just what we need –mature teenagers. Next thing you know, they’ll want legal rights to marry at thirteen. Couldn’t this go the other way? Hold off on the physical changes until their brains are ready?”
The others chuckled at him and Daniel patted his thigh. “That part of the brain is too ancient,” Daniel said. “This makes more sense. It’ll mean they don’t have to wait until middle age to be adapt at their careers. They should be about thirty, instead of forty-five or fifty. They’ll work longer and enjoy a youthful life longer. Eventually, school will need to be altered so that they graduate at sixteen instead of eighteen.”
“So, do we reroute the ships?” Hammond asked, trying to get to the original meeting.
“Give me a week and I think my team can have another arch ready,” Sam said. “We can put it here in the house. If someone is caught here, they can escape to HomeSec or Area 51. It’s easy enough, the kids can use it without a problem.”
It took two weeks for the new arch to be ready. Two of them, actually; the fourth was for the SGC. Sam tested them time and again, making sure nothing would go wrong with the traveler. The last thing they wanted was for one of the kids to emerge from the other end inside out. Each arch would be programmed for seven locations. Three blocks at either side of the arch entrance would hold the ID for another arch. The seventh could be operated in an emergency and would take the traveler directly to a central location, yet to be determined. The arch was protected by a security ID which only certain people would know, so that the wrong people couldn’t use it.
“Sort of a speed dial,” Daniel commented, watching the arch being put together around the front door. “With a home-owner’s security code.”
“Exactly,” Sam said, giving him a pat. The front door would be replaced with a door that was arch shaped. All in all, it was a nice, decorative door, if no one knew what else it was.
“Why can’t it be door shaped?” Jack asked. “We wouldn’t have to replace our door.”
“The shape is part of its conductive properties,” Sam told him. “It needs to be that shape.”
Daniel frowned at his coffee cup. “Jerrie, did you clean the coffee pot? Tastes like vinegar.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “You like the sludge so I don’t clean it.” The cup was once more tasted and once more frowned at.
“Da!” Jack looked down at the baby who was holding her arms out. “Uh….p.”
“Stinker,” he informed her as he picked her up. Now that Jack was listening for it, Gabriel had been correct in that Olivia would be talking slightly above the previous average for a one-year old. Her six tiny white seedling teeth shone brightly as she grinned at him.
Once the arch was set and the test signal verified, one of the techs activated it and stepped through, disappearing. The phone rang moments later.
“He’s safely at the lab,” Sam said, hanging up. “We have a working arch.” The tech was back an instant later. Sam ushered Jerrie and the kids over and went through the routine of making the arch work and what the security code was to activate it, stressing to the kids that no one, absolutely no one, was to know the code. Do not write it down; memorize it. The kids promised.
“Can we use it to go to school?” Stacey asked.
“No, Miss Lazy, you can’t,” Sam informed her.
“You know Henry’s going to want one,” Jack said.
“There are more in the works,” she said. “I’ve been concentrating on the new ships, or this would have been done sooner. I think we need to discuss who gets them. I can’t see them in every home.”
“Why not?” Daniel asked. “It would cut down on ambulance time if these were standard features. Make the civilian arches for medical emergency use. People won’t have to wait for EMS, they can go directly to the hospital from their home.”
Jack and Sam considered it and nodded. “Alright, get an arch for the Academy Hospital and program one of these last three for the hospital. Good idea,” Jack said. “Can we change these from seven to ten?” he asked Sam. She shrugged and nodded.
“No problem,” she said. “We limited them so that everyone wasn’t trying to remember thirty-six symbols and all their permutations. We can make it eleven. Ten for personal use and the eleventh for our central emergency location.”
“I don’t think the general public needs to know about that one,” Jack said. “Most people know computer programmers have back doors, right?”
/> “We can do that,” Sam said.
Daniel looked once more at his cup and decided to put it down. A moment later, Jack handed the baby to Sam. Both men abruptly rushed from the room and could be heard throwing up in the bathroom. Sam and the kids looked toward the guest bath. She went into the master bath and looked at the stick on the counter.
“We’re pregnant!”
Chapter 61
Sam dug hungrily into her bowl of cottage cheese and fruit while the men stared white-faced at the curds. They forced their stomachs to behave.
“Here.” Maggie put dry toast in front of the men. “It’ll help settle your stomachs.”
“This isn’t fair,” Jack muttered. “We’re not supposed to be sick.”
“It’s only a few more weeks,” Maggie told him. “Big baby. You always were a pain in the butt when you were sick.”
“But morning sickness?” Daniel whined. He winced as Maggie tweaked his ear.
“You two can play, but you can’t pay?” she demanded. “Get your ya-ya’s off and sit back?”
“Mom!” Jack put his toast down, shocked. Matthew stuck a finger in one ear while he ate his cereal with the other hand.
“Guys, I’m sorry you’re the ones who are sick,” Sam said, putting her spoon down. “I’ve heard that this happens but I didn’t expect it. I thought I’d be sick.”
“No,” Daniel said, standing. He walked behind her and put an arm around her, pecking the top of her head. “You have nothing to apologize for. We’re being whiny. I’m sorry.”
“Me, too,” Jack said, giving her his sad dog face. A strange look crossed his face and he bit into the toast. This didn’t happen when Sara was pregnant. He had heard about the odd reaction of some men, but didn’t really believe it.
Upon informing Jack’s mother that Sam was pregnant, Maggie was ecstatic. She was still a little confused over the paternity issue, but Jack assured her that the child would be her grandchild no matter who was the father.
“But whose name will be on the birth certificate?” she asked, trying to understand.
“Just Sam’s,” Jack told her. “The baby will have her name. We’ll probably have a fight with the hospital over it, but this is how we are dealing with it. If we fail with the hospital, we will have the baby’s name changed in court to Carter. There is no law that says a child must have the father’s name. Our handfasting contract covers this, both our Wills are being changed to cover this; Daniel and I will both be father to the baby. Just like Olivia is calling both of us Daddy, so will this baby.”
Jack then had to argue with Sam about using the arch to get to work. He didn’t want hers and the baby’s molecules scrambled.
“Inanna and Enki AND Thor said it was alright!” she insisted once more. “And there is nothing in our computations that say it would harm the baby.”
“Jack, let’s think about this,” Daniel said calmly, getting between them. “Will the two of you compromise on something?” He waited until he had a reluctant nod from each of them. “Sam, just for the next couple days, you take the al'kesh to work. Jack, you get into some serious head space and dig into those buried archives and find out if there is anything that warns against gate travel during pregnancy. And, Jack, remember this –she’d been using the arch every day during the past six weeks, so if there’s going to be a problem, it would already have occurred. Can you both do that?”
“Alright,” they grumbled.
“And the ultrasound shows a perfectly formed six week old fetus,” Sam reminded Jack.
The kids were excited and promised to help Sam. Even Fang displayed curious behavior as he kept sniffing at Sam’s stomach.
“He smells the baby,” Daniel told the kids when they asked why Fang was doing that. “Animals can do that. They have good sniffers.”
They marked the kitchen calendar with her due date, June 4th, and Stacey and Davy took turns marking off the days. Stacey was especially excited because this was going to be a real sibling. Daniel reminded her that the other kids were her real siblings, but he understood. To the surprise of the adults, Jerrie started knitting a blanket.
“Just because I’m a dyke doesn’t mean I can’t do arts and crafts,” she told them. They raised hands in surrender and let her knit in peace.
The Pentagon was making a fuss over the arches. They wanted toys, too, and they were salivating over the arches and the new bug stunners. All the major powers wanted arches, once the word got out. Sam assured them that more were in the works and everyone would have arches. She and Jack also swore that ten was the limit on programmed addresses. Even the paperwork said the arches could hold only ten. The few techs who worked on that part of the arches also swore to ten addresses. The military wanted to know if the arches were portable. Can they be taken on missions? No, Jack told them; they needed to be a permanent fixture or the coordinates would be thrown off and who knows where someone would end up, if they reappear at all. The arches were also set with blocking codes, in the same way the Stargate had a doorbell. Someone had to call beforehand and ring the bell, before being let in. That eased the military minds a little. No one would be invading through their arches. Jack didn’t point out to them that that was the same reason they had asked for portable arches. Maynard knew when Jack was rewriting information and didn’t bother to question him; he had learned that Jack had good reasons. Jack wasn’t hiding behind rose-colored glasses, he fully expected someone in a government think tank to realize that the arches could be moved and could hold more addresses. Before that happened, though, he hoped to have laws put into effect that would govern the use of the arches. He sent a private recommendation to Henry.
The general population was taking things well, considering. They surprised Jack who thought there would be more of an outcry over all the alien stuff and new technology that was suddenly appearing. When Jack told the Yards to express fun and enjoyment, and let their communities see the happenings, he didn’t realize that it would work so well. Another thing Daniel was right about. It was the religious community that was having issues. Attendance in churches, temples, and mosques were down by almost seventy percent. Of course fingers were pointed in Jack’s direction. According to Rabbi Melnik, however, only a handful of those people had given up on religion. Most of them had continued with their own spiritual quest. The Rav found it humorous -“God is not found in a building,” he said, chuckling at himself. “Christians are finally hearing the words of Jesus.” Jack liked the short rabbi with the scraggly beard; he didn’t take himself too seriously and thought that life was the funniest thing he had ever run across.
After dinner, Jack and Daniel got into the hot tub, which was finally fixed, and Sam stood looking at them.
“I feel like I’d be boiling an egg,” she said, spreading her hand across her stomach. “You guys enjoy it. And Matthew wants to know if it’s safe for him to come out.”
“Sure,” Jack said after looking at Daniel. The men just wanted to relax after spending the day nibbling on crackers. “You feeling okay?”
“I’m good,” Sam said, giving him a smile and leaning over the edge to kiss him. “I’m still in high altitude. Also a little worried that something will go wrong.”
Daniel reached over his shoulder and took her hand. “This is a planned pregnancy, you have a healthy uterus, and you’re completely in tip-top shape,” he told her. He glanced over his shoulder, letting his eyes wander. “Very tip-top shape.”
Sam laughed and took her hand away, smacking playfully at his chest.
“Ow,” he complained, rubbing delicately. “Nipples are sore.”
“Really?” Jack asked, giving his own chest a rub. “Mine, too.”
Sam looked at them. “You guys are too much. I’m sending Matty out, so don’t start anything.”
“Aren’t you having any symptoms?” Jack asked her. Sam thought about it.
“No,” she said cheerfully and walked back into the house.
“I don’t care what Mom says, this
is so not fair,” Jack muttered. He looked at the offending points hiding in the fur.
Matthew stuck his head out the door and Jack waved him over.
“Want to get in?” Jack asked. Matty looked down at his clothes. “Just take them off and get in,” Jack said. “It’s a guy thing. It’s okay.”
“No, that’s okay,” Matty said, a little reticent. He looked around and pulled a chair up. “I uh, I’m not sure how… remember when we talked about me going to Kalam for a while?”
“Sure,” Jack nodded. Daniel leaned his head back and shut his eyes, letting the hot water and bubbles get to the back of his neck.
“I’m uh, wondering if…. something is wrong with me,” Matthew said.
“What makes you think that?’ Jack asked.
“Because it… doesn’t interest me all that much,” Matthew said.
“What doesn’t?”
Matty shrugged and tried to look anywhere except at Jack. “Sex. Stuff.”
Jack frowned. “What do you mean? Can you tell me what you’re feeling?”
Matthew slouched in the chair, letting his gangly legs stretch out. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t know the words, I guess.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully and reached out a feeler. “Maybe the words you want are not exactly disinterest, but maybe your mind is preoccupied,” he suggested. The boy thought about it and seemed a little relieved.
“Yes, I think so,” Matty said. “I mean, I like kissing girls and stuff, but I keep thinking there’s something more important I should be doing.”
“Like what?” Jack asked. “Matt, you don’t need to get torqued over this; some guys don’t get interested until they’re a little older.”
Daniel opened an eye and Jack offered him the conversation.
“Matty, can you give us an example of what goes through your mind when you’re with your girlfriend?”
Matthew held out his hands. “I don’t know how to explain it,” he said.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 47
