Stargate SG-1 30 - Insurrection

by Sally Malcolm

  “Indeed.”

  The ship dropped lower and Jack said, “It’s coming in to land.” Then, in a yell, “Get back! It’s trying to land!”

  There was a scuffling as the Arbellan’s drew back, Aedan’s people darting up toward the tree line, stopping halfway to watch as the engine noise reached them and the Al’kesh scorched down the length of the valley toward the Stargate.

  “I hope the brakes are working,” Daniel said, taking a nervous—useless—step back. “It’s going down!”

  And a couple seconds later it hit the ground, bounced, hit again, spun around, kicking up dirt—radioactive dirt, Daniel remembered with a wince—and skidded a couple hundred yards until it stopped amid a cloud of smoke at the far end of the battlefield.

  For a long beat, everyone stared.

  General Bailey shot Daniel a look as if to say, Now what?

  He could only shrug in reply.

  Then something on the ship moved, a door opening to reveal a figure standing amid the smoke. And Jack was moving, walking steadily through the milling crowd toward the ship.

  Daniel felt his pulse kick as he followed, Teal’c at his shoulder. Jack started to run as the person stumbled down the ramp on unsteady legs, smoke and dirt clogging the air. And Jack was still running and he didn’t stop until he collided with the figure, spun her around and just held on.

  Daniel laughed, half choked by the smoke and his own relief because, yes, it was her. It was Sam.

  For the longest time she and Jack just stood there together, foreheads touching, and Daniel thought, Yep—new world, new rules.

  He glanced at Teal’c who merely lifted an eyebrow.

  Clapping him on the shoulder, Daniel grinned and headed over to join the rest of his team. Against all the odds, SG-1 had survived, they were together and they were safe.

  That was something worth celebrating.

  Breaking away from Jack, Sam said, “Daniel,” and put her arms around him, holding him close. “I tried to save her.” There was only one person she could be talking about. “I tried, Daniel… But all I could do was bring her home.”

  “That’s all she’d have wanted, Sam.” Daniel looked around at his team, the four of them united in grief and hope, and right then he realized that Sam had got it right. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t go back, because this team, SG-1, was his family, and this Earth, broken and bleeding, was his Earth. And these people, the Arbellans, Aedan’s folk in the hills, Hunter’s people in the Shacks, they were his people.

  So, no, SG-1 couldn’t go back. But they didn’t have to; they were already home.

  Chapter 20

  Stargate Command, Earth — One year later

  The transformation was incredible.

  What had once been a rubble—filled silo now looked something like the gate room Jack remembered. The control room was gone, but that didn’t matter because they had an actual DHD hooked up to the Stargate for now. Carter was talking about integrating Ancient technology she’d persuaded Earthborn to allow her to ‘borrow’ from Atlantis in order to create a better dialing program, but as far as Jack was concerned, the DHD did the job.

  The Stargate itself sat in its old position at the center of the room. It even had a ramp instead of steps. Jack had insisted on that, for old time’s sake.

  Standing at the foot of that ramp now, with Daniel at one shoulder, Carter at the other, he felt a heavy beat of nostalgia. The long year since they’d defeated Hecate and buried Janet hadn’t been easy, but the truth was, given the choice between going back to his old life and living his new one, he wasn’t sure which he’d choose.

  There was something about living on the edge, in a place with no rules, no real government, a place where everything was being made anew that gave Jack a sense of purpose he’d not felt since he was a young cadet going out in search of adventure.

  Well, that adventure had brought him here and he couldn’t say he was sorry. To reshape a world, to see it begin to thrive once more? He wasn’t sure anything in his old life could have topped that. And then there was Carter…

  He threw her a look and she returned a tight smile. “Any time now,” she said.

  On cue, the gate began to turn. It wasn’t the very first time they’d gotten it working, but it was close enough that the sound sent a thrill down the length of Jack’s spine.

  “I wish Janet could have seen this,” Daniel said with a sigh. “And General Hammond.”

  “They never lost faith,” Carter said. “They always knew we’d come back.”

  Jack took a breath as the chevrons locked, one after the other, the air filling with that static ozone smell that brought back vivid memories of the SGC, of Hammond and Fraiser. All of them. “I think they’d be proud,” he decided.

  “I concur,” said Teal’c.

  As the final chevron locked and the gate engaged, Jack found himself holding his breath in anticipation. And then it happened: the wild blue eruption of light surging out into the gate room. Just like always. He couldn’t help but smile, and when he looked at his team he saw them smiling too. “Yeah,” he said. “The SGC is back in business.”

  A moment later, General Bailey and President Jones stepped through the gate. Bailey offered a formal salute, which Jack returned even though he didn’t consider himself military now. But the Arbellan’s liked their protocols and he was still USAF enough to understand.

  “Colonel O’Neill,” Jones said, formally, “permission to bring my people through?”

  “Have at it, Mr. President,” he said. “And welcome to Earth—we need all the help we can get.”

  And so Jack stood back and watched as the people of Arbella—Earth’s refugees a century before—came home. Led by James O’Kane and his wife, Caroline, they brought with them medicine, technology, agricultural know-how, military discipline—everything the impoverished people of Earth needed to recover from the violence that had been done to them.

  “This is good,” Daniel said as he watched the wondering faces of Earth’s new settlers. “This feels right.”

  “Yeah,” Jack agreed. “Yeah, it does.”

  Daniel cast him a sideways look. “Talking of people coming home,” he said and lifted an enquiring eyebrow.

  At his other side, he heard Carter let out a quiet breath. It was more resignation than anything else; she wasn’t one hundred percent onboard with the whole plan, but a deal was a deal. To Daniel, Jack said, “I’ll take a gate-ship up tonight. We’ll leave for Pegasus in the morning.”

  “I am willing to accompany you,” Teal’c offered—not for the first time.

  “We all are,” said Daniel.

  But they’d had this discussion already and Jack was resolved. “I know you guys want a vacation,” he said, “but no deal. Someone has to keep an eye on things around here while I’m gone. I want a planet to come home to, okay?”

  Daniel smiled, nodded. It wasn’t really an argument. “Don’t worry,” he said, “we’ll keep the lights on.”

  “You’d better.”

  “Couple weeks there,” Carter said, doing a good job of sounding positive. “And Sting says you can gate right back to the SGC from Atlantis.”

  Hopefully.

  “See?” Jack shared his smile between them all. “You’ll hardly know I’m gone.”

  “It will be quieter,” Teal’c observed.

  Carter nodded. “Actually, I’m hoping to catch up on my reading. We’ve downloaded so much from Atlantis and I just haven’t had time to look at half of it yet.”

  “Right,” Daniel agreed. “Hey, actually, there was something I wanted to ask you…”

  Jack let them carry on—his team, his family—and watched the continuing flow of people arriving from Arbella.

  All in all, life was pretty good. There was just one more thing he needed to do before he left for Pegasus, but that couldn’t be done from here—for that, he needed Atlantis.

  Atlantis — 2098

  Under the careful scrutiny of Earth
born and Sting, Jack sank into the command chair of the Ancient city. It was familiar now, after a year of preparation, although the thrill hadn’t abated. To govern so much raw power with just a thought was quite something—he’d probably miss it when this mission was over. Assuming he hadn’t been used as trail mix en route.

  But, no, he wasn’t afraid. Not much.

  The Wraith were what they were, but he trusted Earthborn to keep her word and Sting to protect him if necessary. He looked down at the brown planet that was Earth and thought that, perhaps, he could see a hint of blue in its swirling, dirty atmosphere. Wishful thinking, maybe. Or maybe he was just optimistic about its future. But one day, he knew, it would be that beautiful blue globe he remembered. He hoped he’d live long enough to see it, but if not then he hoped his children would—or his grandchildren.

  And that was a thought with which to conjure.

  In that spirit of optimism, he closed his eyes and went about his last task before taking Earthborn and the Wraith back home where they belonged. Sinking down into the city’s systems, he found the comms channel and told it to broadcast as far and wide as possible. It was only then, when it came to it, that he realized he hadn’t figured out exactly what to say. He thought for a moment—short and sweet usually worked best when it came to speeches—and said, aloud:

  “This is Colonel Jack O’Neill from the planet Earth. If you can hear this, then know that Earth is back and open for business—we want your trade, we want your friendship, and we want your support. We know that we can stand alone if we must, but we would rather stand together as friends and allies. Stand with us now, help us now, and we won’t turn our backs on you again.”

  He didn’t know whether anyone was listening—whether anyone friendly was listening—but that didn’t matter. Maybourne had thought the future lay in turning in on themselves, in abusing their allies and standing in isolation, but he’d been so very wrong. For good or ill, Earth was part of the wild and crazy galaxy and their only option was to greet it with arms open.

  Jack was looking forward to what came next.