“I understand,” Teal’c said as he frowned. “There will be many that will not understand and will resist. Dakkara is a sacred place to all Jaffa.”
“It’s a sacred place for us, too, T,” Daniel said. “Those First Primes were from Earth. They are our ancestors, too, and by resisting the Goa’uld they saved the First World from further occupation. They will be honored for their sacrifices. In fact, I think a memorial of some kind should be created. Maybe a statue to stand in front of the main council building or a memorial wall showing the stages of Jaffa enslavement and development. It can be concluded with Bre’tac’s story.” He looked meaningfully at Jack and then around the table.
“Wonderful idea, Daniel,” Inanna said, reaching over to pat his shoulder. “Teal’c, how about telling the Jaffa council that if they will donate the planet to us, we will hire their best artist to create an appropriate memorial for the original First Primes, and the Jaffa Nation will have their own section of offices and living quarters? Will that help to ease the way between us?”
“It might,” Teal’c said thoughtfully. “Could you provide images of such memorials from Earth?”
“I’ll get them for you,” Daniel promised.
There was agreement around the table and murmurs of discussion.
“Good,” Inanna declared, signaling the next order of business as Ninurta completed his notes. “For some unpleasant news. We have a complaint from citizens of Balistar. This complaint was smuggled out to us by an underground organization which says that there are quite a few missing persons. Coincidentally, these missing persons are all people who oppose their government’s action of disappearing people who oppose the government.”
“Are they still on probation?” Jack asked.
“They are,” Inanna nodded.
“Get a team in there and get to the bottom of it.”
She held up a finger to mark a point in the air. “Which brings us to something I would like to discuss with the council. As most of you know, there are a few people who are developing more advanced mental abilities. Should we set up a special force made up of these people, and if so, how do we set limits to what they can and cannot do? We may start with good intentions, but how do we keep from creating monsters?”
“How many are available to us at this time?” asked Kendra from Cimmeria.
“That information shouldn’t be made available,” Jack said before anyone else could speak. “For security reasons. We wouldn’t want someone getting hold of you and forcing you to talk. We will identify those individuals who show promise, work out protocols for them, and figure out the internal policing. As for Balistar, we can throw a team together and send them in for an inspection. Has anyone taken the liberty of starting some notes on security?”
“I have,” Jonathan said.
“Good. You can head up security,” Jack said, not surprised. It’s the first thing he would have done. “Put together a list and we’ll discuss it.” Jonathan’s eyes flashed for a moment and then settled.
When the council was concluded, Jonathan cornered him.
“I’m going to ask nicely that you stop giving me orders,” he said quietly. Jack paused.
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” he admitted. “Are you up for taking command of security?”
“I don’t know,” Jonathan said. “I’m actually happy doing some farming, teaching, and taking care of Daka and Rushell, once we get her home. I don’t want to get involved in bureaucracy again. I’m doing this as a favor until Hayes can get here.”
“Well, I certainly can’t force you to do anything,” Jack said. “I think you’re bullshittin’ yourself, though. We both know you won’t be able to sit still if something happens and we both know you’ll kick yourself from one end of the galaxy to the other if something happens and you could have prevented it. If you still need time, you take your time. I have a lot of it. I’ll ask Jonas to do psychic investigator if you’ll forward me your list of recommendations. I’d rather get the list from you.”
Jonathan gave a nod and turned.
“Hey.” He turned back. “Who’s Rushell?”
“Little girl,” Jonathan said. “She’s about six, from some small mining colony. Most were wiped out in an earthquake. She’s deaf. Enki said it looks as though her eardrums were destroyed. Don’t know if it was an accident or not, but it’s an old wound. He’s going to grow her new ones.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully. “Was she treated well?” he asked.
“Not really,” Jonathan said. “A disability in a mining colony makes for a waste of food and space.”
“Well, bring her around so we can help her forget,” Jack said. Jonathan gave a nod and turned again. “Jonathan.” Jack waited. “I’m sorry. You deserve to be a father, too.”
Jack yanked on the back of his neck as he walked through the village to find a drinking mug filled with anything. He spotted Rya’c and a few other Jaffa and joined them, crashing his head onto the table. Someone put a mug in front of him and he felt a hand caress his back before someone sat next to him.
“That was a good meeting,” Daniel said. “I didn’t realize so much had been accomplished already. Sam’s concept went over well.”
“Is it possible that Jonathan really doesn’t want to work with us in this?” Jack mumbled from the table top.
“Yes, it is,” Daniel said. “He has a different soul, remember? He could do the job, he certainly knows how, but it wouldn’t make him happy. Self-determination, Jack.”
Jack took a long drink from the mug, making a face at the raw taste of the local hooch.
“We’re getting a new grandchild,” he commented. “Little girl named Rushell. She’s deaf. Until Enki can fix her.”
Daniel reached out and examined the bowls of fruit and bread before choosing a purple sphere that he knew was sweet and juicy.
“He is happy.”
They looked at Teal’c who had come quietly to the table.
“Jonathan,” he said. “He is happy. He is no longer you, O’Neill; he has become himself. Caring for his son and his new family makes him happy. He is the center of their home.”
“Happy?” Jack looked at him. “T, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk like that before.”
“Were it not for the Goa’uld, caring for our families are where we all would have been,” Teal’c said. “I wish that I had been here to watch Rya’c grow up and to help him. His mother suffered greatly in my absence.”
“Father, you were always here when I needed you here,” Rya’c said, not looking at his father who stood behind him. “You are here now. I miss mother and I wish you would have been with us when I was a child, but you are here now.”
Teal’c gave Rya’c shoulder a squeeze and took a piece of bread and cheese as Jack looked around. SG personnel strolled casually through the village with Jaffa friends, children ran and played with wooden training staves, non-human aliens wandered around greeting new friends, Grant was taking lessons in the training circle, a group of smaller children were chasing a familiar red bird through the nearby woods, Sam took Daka from Jonathan’s back to hug the child, and a Mulakma was giving rides to squealing children while parents watched with slight looks of concern. Jack drank the rest of his fermented juice and leaned backwards until he was against the ground. Daniel and Teal’c looked down at him and went about their conversing with the rest of the table.
“Jack, Enki said you wanted to talk with him. He has time now, if you want,” Inanna told him. Jack got up from the dusty ground with a groan, tweaked Daka’s side, making the boy giggle, and excused himself, walking back to the conference room with the queen.
Most of the council representatives had left the meeting room to socialize and stop by Bre’tac’s home. Jack took a look around, noted those still present, and sat across from Enki.
“You need to practice the shields, Jack,” Enki told him. “You’re broadcasting very loudly. And I think I may know what’s happening with you.”
; Jack was blank. “I didn’t tell you what the problem was,” he said.
“I just told you you’re broadcasting,” Enki said to the simple child. “Here’s what’s happening. You know about timelines, right? Of course, you do. The closer we get to a particular timeline, the most likely timeline that we will take, the more you are picking up on it. Some timelines are nodes within time; events that happen on multiple timelines. Think about it as a live electrical current that you can sense. Remember that time doesn’t exist on the quantum level, so, in the right light, the past, present, and future are all in existence in the now. The closer you get to the future-now, the more you are able to sense its presence.”
“I’m clairvoyant?” Jack questioned, not quite believing it.
“No, just good at reading the writing on the wall,” Enki said.
Jack considered it and knew he’d have to sleep on it. For many nights. “Is that how you guys turn up at conspicuous times?”
“Sometimes,” Enki admitted with a quirk of his mouth as he re-lit his cigar. “It gets easier after a thousand years or so.”
Jack pursed his lips as he thought. “Is there anything I could have done to help Bre’tac?”
“No,” Inanna said, leaning over and touching Jack’s arm. “He was old, Jack; it was his time. Only a sarcophagus and a symbiote would have helped, and you know he wouldn’t have wanted that. He was ready.”
Jack nodded and tilted his chair back, shutting his eyes with a groan. “Alright. So how’s our boy, Grant, doing?”
“He’s no longer walking around and jumping at shadows,” Ninurta said. “We’re having to use a little tough-love to teach him not to intrude, but he’s learning. You were right to send him to us, Jack, he’s a walking disaster. He’s giving all of us shielding practice.”
“And if he’s unable to learn?” Jack asked.
“Then I will deal with him,” Enki said. His grave look was all Jack needed to know.
“He’s a good kid, don’t get me wrong,” Ninurta said. “He just isn’t used to controlling his own mind and this is a unique experience. He was flying a little high on himself until he caught his buddy, Jonathan, in the middle of a romp with us. It did cause him a moment of introspection, though.” There were snickers from Shara, Gibil, and Erra, and a smile from Jonas. The men had their heads together over a list of potential security people. Considering the needs, the list wasn’t very long and contained a mostly Anunnaki contingent, with a couple of Tau’ri and Langaren names. The Furlings seemed to be guiding, but not really interfering, which meant Enki, Inanna, and Ninurta wouldn’t be on the psi-patrol.
“Did I hear my name?” Jonathan came in and added a name to the list. Ninurta summarized the conversation and Jonathan nodded. “Yes, that one did rock his world a little. He knew I was with Shara, but knowing and seeing are sometimes two different things. His spirituality makes him more open to alternative pairings than most people would accept, so he didn’t wig out.”
“Have you corrupted him yet?” Jack asked.
“Not quite,” Jonathan said. “He’s questioning himself, at the moment. He sees that it’s fun and pleasurable, but he isn’t sure if he wants to go there. I did kiss him. He wanted some empirical evidence. He admitted that it wasn’t bad. A little weird, but not bad. I related.”
“Jack? He knows,” Jonathan confessed.
“He knows what?”
“About us,” Jonathan said. Jack frowned. “He took it from my head before we got a clamp on him. In fact, it’s the main issue that made Aba threaten to wipe his entire mind and make it a blank slate. Grant’s been behaving himself since then. He slips from time to time, but he’s doing better.”
Jack strummed the table top with the tips of his fingers. “Alright. I don’t want him on security until he proves he’s completely reliable. His ethics are still in play and I want to be able to trust him.” The men at the other end of the table scratched through Grant’s name which was at the top of their short list.
“We do have someone that is almost as good,” Ninurta said. “There is a Langaren woman, Jenessa, who is able to pick up immediate thoughts. She is highly ethical and she’s been practicing for a while. Her talents are much like Zu’s in that she hears immediate thoughts the way he sees immediate images.”
Jack looked at Jonas. “She’s from a small mountain community,” Jonas said. “She’s their local wise-woman. When she heard what was going on with the unification, she came in and introduced herself to me. Said the ancestors told her to do it. I wasn’t going to argue with the ancestors.”
“Her heart is an honest one, Jack,” Enki said. “We approve of her. In fact, she’s been helping with Grant. She actually whomped him on the head a couple of times when he slipped.”
“She reminds me a lot of Mom,” Jonathan said with a smile.
As their security list was negotiated, Jack signed off on several reports handed to him by Ninurta. Pirates had begun taking advantage of worlds unsupported by Goa’uld masters and the new UW had stepped in a couple of times to chase the pirates off. Jack told his security boys that they also needed to come up with a prison planet; scattering the flies won’t do anything except bring them back to the feeding ground. A prison planet needed a court of law. Jack felt a headache coming on and understood Jonathan’s bureaucracy comment. Inanna recommended a high court of twelve legal experts from membership planets. Member worlds could have the choice of prosecuting in their own courts, each world being under their own laws, for the most part, or they could request a trial by the high court. Jack was finding new respect for the Founding Fathers of the US.
Another problem they would need to deal with was the Aschen pirates. The group in a far corner of the galaxy was slowly growing as they captured worlds. The report said that one of these worlds had entered a zero-population growth. Jack made a note to have Landry send a team to check it out, and to have someone check out the planets in Aschen space and see if any would be supportive of a UW outpost.
He signed off on a list of new member worlds, pausing as he noted Edora had signed the treaty as a protectorate. He signed them in. Many worlds with under a million citizens had agreed to the treaty. Many had not. Earth didn’t have a perfect record with some of those worlds, and others were either xenophobic or simply wanted to be left on their own and attempt to go it alone. The Unified Worlds would keep an eye on those and wait for a signal that they would be open to talks once more.
Many other abandoned planets, whether to extinction of the race or to disease and pollution, had been claimed by UW teams for future colonization. Science teams were excavating whatever the previous civilization had left and any diseases that were still present were being treated with new anti-viruses. They were then left to the natural forces of the planet until they were needed. Hanka, Cassandra’s homeworld, was one of those planets being decontaminated. All of Niriti’s toys needed to be rooted out before anyone would be allowed to live there. Technically, Cassandra was the ‘owner’ of the planet, being the only survivor of the colony. Jack made a note to see if she wanted to do anything with it; knowing her, though, he was sure she’d look at him as though he were out of his mind and turn the planet over to the UW.
Hands slid over his shoulders. They reached down over his pecs and to his stomach. Jack halted the hands before they reached any lower.
“We can either go home and have sex or I can drag you out into the forest and bend you over a log.” There were snickers around the room as Daniel nuzzled Jack’s neck.
“I recommend logs,” Shara commented.
“Yes, they do have their uses,” Jonathan agreed. The others also murmured their agreements.
“Oooooh,” Shara paused, his eyes widening. “Over the lower rim of the Stargate.”
“That could be a rush,” Erra agreed. “Who knows when someone will dial in?”
“Especially a busy gate like the Chulak gate,” Shara said. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”
“Wait unti
l the guests are gone,” Inanna told the boys. “You’ll scare some of them.”
Daniel tipped Jack’s head backwards and pecked his mouth upside down. “Ignore those reprobates,” Daniel told him. “If you are done signing that thing, let’s go. One would think that with all their talents, one of them would have learned to forge your signature.”
“Actually, he has a very easy signature,” Ninurta said. “I do have a few manners, though.”
Jack signed the remainder of the reports and handed the tablet back to Inanna.
“Alright,” he sighed. “Since I’m a kept man, I suppose I should pay for my upkeep. It’s a chore, but someone has to do it. I’ll take one for the team.”
“Just one?” Daniel asked. “And here I had gone out and bought flavored oils.”
Chapter 58
A soft clattering sound came from the direction of the sink. Jack looked out from the shower.
“Whatcha doin’, buddy?” he asked Davy. The boy had carried a chair in and knelt up against the sink to see into the mirror. Jack rinsed and turned the shower off. He gave himself a quick rub down with the towel and wrapped it around his waist before stepping out of the shower. Davy had a can of shaving cream out.
“Shaving,” Davy told him.
“Oh, I see,” Jack nodded. He took a clean razor, left the protective cap on it, and waited until Davy had his smooth face covered in white foam. Jack stepped behind the boy and held the razor to Davy’s cheeks. He carefully instructed the boy in the art of shaving, leaving the smooth skin gleaming. Davy rinsed his face and studied himself proudly. Jack wiped foam from his ears and lifted the boy down.
“My turn,” Jack said as he pushed the chair out of the way. Davy rushed off, patting his cheeks. Jack smiled and shook his head as he spread foam on his own face.
“What was he doing?” Daniel asked as he stumbled in. He used his head against the wall to prop himself up as he leaned over the toilet.
Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5 Page 13
