Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5

by Michele Briere

  Around the dining room table sat Michael, Maggie, Sam, Cassie, and Harper. Blood had drained from Michael’s face leaving him ghostly white.

  Daniel leaned into Jack and said quietly, “And for the same reason Enki withholds information from you, you withhold information from others. You are going to destroy a hell of a lot, if you don’t make a few changes. I will deal with this, you go find a quiet corner and take a time out. Get a grip, Jack.”

  The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt his brother. Which was exactly what he did. Jack left out the back door and headed toward the woods. Daniel was right; he needed head-space. He wasn’t sure what was making him so angry; the old man was always withholding information and although it was irritating, Jack usually enjoyed working it out and playing with the new ability it usually brought. He considered the hormone factor and acknowledged the possibility of his mental processes being affected by it, and then decided that it was too early to be having hormonal temper tantrums.

  He was about two miles from the house when he finally sat and rested back against a tree. The back of his head made contact with the bark of the trunk and he shut his eyes. When he opened them again, the light made him look around. Something was different. The sun was at a different angle. He must have taken a nap. Small movement caught his drowsy attention and he watched a dark pod wiggle on the thin branch that it was attached to. It tore open and a brightly colored wing appeared. The new butterfly fell to the ground and hobbled upright, spreading its wings to dry before it could use its weak, newborn strength to fly. Jack looked around, making sure there were no hungry creatures waiting to take advantage of the hatchling. An hour later it stretched its wings and took its first haltering flight. Hesitant at first, it grew more daring and flew away.

  “Have a nice flight,” he told his fellow flier. He stood and slowly walked back to the house. The house was quiet. There was no one in the living room or around the dining table. He found Sam in the study working at the computer.

  “Are you alright?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I’m sorry if I interrupted anything.”

  “We were going over wedding plans,” she told him. “Only five weeks until Cass is married. She’s a little upset. She wants to lose a couple of pounds for her dress.”

  Jack frowned. “Lose a couple pounds from where?”

  “It’s a bride thing,” she told him.

  “Oh. Where are the kids?”

  “Out playing. Mom has the baby. Daniel’s downstairs. And I think Michael will be alright. He knew you were hiding something from him, something to do with religion. I think he was beginning to guess, and was in denial. Are you alright?”

  Jack thought about it. “I think I need to be in Truth-space,” he confessed. Sam shut the computer off and took his hand. They went downstairs where Daniel was also working on a computer. His desk was covered in old papers and a few artifacts. He looked over the top of his glasses at Jack and Sam.

  “Feeling better?” he asked.

  “Feeling…. distant,” Jack said, considering his condition. Sam told Daniel what Jack wanted and the computer was turned off while Jack began to take his clothes off. There was always a slight chill in the air of the den, which was technically underground. Daniel usually had a dehumidifier running to keep the moisture from his collection. Jack sat between Daniel’s legs and relaxed into the warmth of his body. He positioned his legs over Daniel’s while Sam sat in front of them.

  “Alright,” Daniel said once Jack was settled. “What’s got your knickers in a twist?”

  Jack pillowed his head against Daniel’s shoulder and clenched his fingers around Daniel’s knees.

  “I don’t want to leave you two,” he said. Daniel tiled his head away to look at Jack.

  “You planning on a trip?”

  “Only a major head trip.”

  Daniel looked at Sam as he considered. “The files in your head,” Daniel guessed. “You’re afraid you’ll fry your brain if you open the files.”

  “Twice bitten,” Jack said.

  “Jack, you’ve had access to those files for quite a while now,” Daniel said. “Besides the fact that the CT scans show your brain to be wired in ways no one has ever seen before, you speak fluent Ancient, you’ve been doing mechanical drawings of things Sam’s spent years trying to figure out, and you can do things that science fiction writers can only dream about. You made one of my ties the same color as my eyes.”

  “And if I open those files completely, what will happen to me?” Jack asked. “I can’t handle that much information, we proved it before.”

  Daniel slid his arms around Jack’s chest. “Jack, you’re not thinking it through. I told you –your brain is able to handle it. The wiring is there. It’s in place. The computer has been built, you only need to access it.”

  “And how much more will I need to keep my mouth shut about?” Jack asked irritably.

  “You’re afraid,” Daniel pieced together. “You don’t want to access those files because you’re afraid.”

  “I’m not….!”

  “You’re afraid, Jack. Scared. That thing no military officer should feel, no warrior should feel. Admit it, Jack. Say it!”

  “I’m not…..!”Jack spit out, struggling against the arms that held him tight. “Let me go! Who the fuck are you to call me a coward! Let me up! I won’t…. I’m not…… God, dammit!” A fist grabbed the top of his head and Daniel’s legs abruptly changed places with Jack’s, putting Jack into a body lock.

  “Say it! I’m scared! Say it!!”

  Sam watched, stealing herself to remain focused and not respond to Jack’s struggles. Jack choked, fighting the arms and legs that held him. Daniel pulled the fist of hair tight, putting his mouth next to Jack’s ear to whisper gently, “Say it. It’s okay, we have you. Just say it.”

  The internal fighting blackened his thoughts as a whirlwind spun within. The small voice within told Jack that this was exactly why he put himself into Daniel’s arms, so why was he fighting it? He wasn’t a coward, he put himself on the frontline time and time again! You’re scared, not a coward, he told himself. Daniel never called you a coward, Jack O’Neill, so just admit to what he wants to hear. You’re afraid and that’s the truth of it.

  “I… don’t want to lose myself,” he whispered. The hand gripping his hair eased and caressed. “I… don’t want to not be human. I’m afraid… of not being me. I’ll still be in my middle age when you two are at the end of your lives. I’ll see five or six generations of grandchildren, if the rest of the world allows me to live here that long. Part of me isn’t human anymore and I’m not sure I’m happy about it. I’m afraid that if I access my brain my remaining humanity will be gone.”

  Sam went to them and curled up around them, helping Daniel to hold Jack. “Whatever happens, we will be at your side,” she promised. “You need to do it, Jack. If you don’t, the pressure will grow and grow until it reaches a critical threshold and blows up. Release the pressure a little at a time. Find a way to access the information in bits and pieces. Like the internet. Search a word or phrase and see what comes up.”

  “Control it,” Daniel told him. “Don’t let it control you. Find a way to bring it in line and offer information at your bidding.”

  Jack closed his eyes and leaned back. “This shouldn’t have been me,” he said quietly. “I don’t deserve this. You or Daniel should have it. I’m not…. I’m just a grunt.”

  “Don’t pull that,” Daniel told him. “I couldn’t use this kind of information, I’m bad at leadership. We all know what happened when I was shown an alternate future. I blew us up after I became lost in the power. I couldn’t do this.”

  “And I couldn’t because I’m not the same kind of leader you are,” Sam told Jack. “I’m only just now learning how to lead. Jack, sometimes we can’t think clearly around all the information in our heads. We become so focused on one thing that we’re blind toward everything else. You know how we get sometimes.”


  “And am I supposed to sit on the information I get?” Jack asked. Daniel tightened his arms and pressed his mouth to Jack’s head.

  “No, you help guide us,” Sam told him. “Like you’ve done for years. Jack, we aren’t the Ancients. We might be in the future, but we aren't now. We shouldn’t create technology just like theirs. So you can come up with all the schematics, does that mean we should follow them exactly? I wouldn’t. We can, however, use the schematics to adapt technology we already have and make it user-friendly. As for the history, who cares? Sorry, Daniel. The history of the Ancients has very little to do with us, at this present time. Only about ten thousand years of history belong to us, anything before that is of a different culture. A different species. Sure, it’s interesting to learn about it, but it doesn’t help us. I don’t care when and where the Ancients came from; I care about our children and their future.”

  Jack breathed, feeling calmer, and leaned over to put his head on Sam’s stomach. There was a small, hard spot just below her belly-button, big enough to be felt and yet small enough not to be showing. He kissed the spot. Sam caressed his hair.

  “When can we find out if we have a Jake or Clair?” he asked huskily.

  “Gender is visible at about fourteen weeks,” Sam told him. He could hear the smile in her voice. “We have about eight weeks.”

  Daniel turned onto his hip and slid his legs around Jack’s. “Does it really matter to you why we were created?” he asked. “For all we know, we’ve already accomplished the task. If the problem is centuries in the future, we still don’t need to worry about it. All we can do is our best to make a decent planet for our kids.”

  “I don’t like that old man’s advice,” Jack said, scowling. “I refuse to be that cold.”

  He felt Daniel’s forehead against his shoulder. “Jack, I think he’s been trying to make you find your humanity. Even in the myths, Enki pushed people. You really should read some of those stories. He was a bastard, mainly to Inanna and Ninurta. He’s the king of psychological warfare and he’s been taking it easy with you. In case you haven’t noticed, he hasn’t once reprimanded you for doing things opposite of his advice. He knows if he pushes one way, you’re going to head in the other direction. He doesn’t hold hands; he expects people to stand on their own two feet and be the best person they can be, and if he has to goad you into it, that’s what he’s going to do.”

  Jack thought about it. “So, does he want me to dig out the information or not?”

  “That’s up to you,” Daniel said. “Either way, I don’t see that it makes a difference. The difference comes in what you decide to do with the information. If it’s important to you to know what the Ancients were doing, dig it out. Otherwise, just stick to schematics and help Sam get the planet’s pollution problem under control.”

  “Don’t you want to know about them?” Jack asked, sliding his arms around Sam’s waist and warming himself between his partners.

  “Sure,” Daniel said, shifting to cover Jack’s back. “But it’s an intellectual curiosity, not something necessary for existence. We no longer need to go searching for Ancient weapons, you can design them, so there’s no need for me to put puzzles together. I wouldn’t mind a history of the Ancients. I can live without it. Who knows; we might see it happen in the future.”

  “You’re trying to make me feel better,” Jack accused.

  “Yes,” Daniel admitted. “But I’m also being honest. That site in Orkney? If it needs to remain an enigma, so be it. I’ll live. Stonehenge? I’ll live. Pyramids around the world? I’ll live. What I’m finding more interesting is that people with these new talents that are cropping up tend to be accentuated when they spend any extended time around Olivia. Have you noticed?”

  Chapter 62

  Just before sunrise, Jack got out of bed and took a hot shower. As he dressed, he looked at Sam and Daniel, curled into each other, still fast asleep. He gently pecked both of them and then pecked Sam’s stomach. She turned, her hand finding his hair.

  “What?” she murmured. Daniel pried open an eye.

  “I’m going to Kalam,” Jack told them. They blinked sleepily and roused themselves.

  “Are you sure?” Daniel asked, knowing what Jack was going to do.

  “Hell, no,” Jack told him. “I’m going anyway. I need to. I want someone around just in case I take a dive.”

  “Alright,” Daniel said. “Want us to come with?”

  “No,” Jack shook his head. “Stay. Sleep. If I’m going to be late, I’ll send word.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Daniel told him. Jack didn’t need to consider it.

  “Yes, I do,” he said. “This is a fear I need to face. I’m tired of tripping over myself and everyone around me.”

  An hour later, Jack was leaning against a wooden fence, watching a colt prance around its mother. A presence was soon at his side, calmly blowing non-carcinogenic cigar smoke into the afternoon air.

  “I want this done,” Jack said, hearing himself through a loud silence in his head. “I want to be in control of it. If I do this, will I still be me?”

  “I promise, Ahu.”

  Whatever Jack was expecting, it wasn’t to be taken into the baths and stripped of his clothes. “Trust,” Ninurta told him, smiling gently when he handed Jack over to three male servants. Jack bit his tongue and got into the hot bath.

  “Why?” Jack asked. None of the men responded except to scrub him. He relaxed slightly when he realized that their touch was impersonal, and the humming under their breath reminded him of Daniel’s humming during their initial love-making. When they were done, they put a robe on him and took him to another room where Ninurta and Enki were waiting. They had both changed into their formal white robes.

  “Did I smell or something?” Jack asked. “I did shower before I came here.”

  “No, it wasn’t that,” Ninurta told him. “Since logic hasn’t been working on you, we needed you in ritual space.”

  “I’m not spiritual,” Jack said, confused. It was odd, though; although not religious by any means, he felt as though he had stepped into church, which had nothing to do with religion itself because every sacred place gave him that same sensation. That he had crossed boundaries into something the profane had never touched.

  “More than you realize, Jack,” Enki said. “You don’t seem to understand –spiritual is about what’s on the inside. The spiritual transforms the transcendent and makes it immanent. And this isn’t really about spirituality. Not all ritual is spiritual in nature.”

  “We need to get you out of your head before we can get you into your head,” Ninurta told him. Jack didn’t understand either of them.

  Enki stood in front of Jack, looking carefully at him. “Jack, your brain has completely adapted to the downloads. Your tests have proved that the neural connections are all there. It’s only your own fears, a phobia if you will, that’s keeping you from accessing them as easily as you access your own memories. We understand why those fears are in place, you had two rather bad experiences with this that threatened your life. I can put your brain on hold, if anything starts to go wrong. Just like the Asgard. Would you feel better if we called them?”

  “No,” Jack said, giving his head a shake. “I’m still a little pissed at you guys, but I’ll admit that you haven’t steered me wrong. First Daniel, then Ninurta, and now this. I’ll try it. And if it doesn’t work, if I start to deteriorate, I’m going to trust you to get rid of all the bullshit in my head.”

  “All or nothing,” Enki agreed. He raised a hand and gestured toward the fireplace and the rug on the floor. “Take off your robe and sit facing the fire. Ninurta is going to sit behind you and guide you. I will monitor and pull you out if I need to.”

  Jack looked at the rug. “What are we doing?”

  “Always so suspicious,” Ninurta said, a kindness in his dark eyes. “The fire is for a focus. The point of the skin is because you are uncomfortable without your shields.” He touched the
robe. “Being in your skin will force you into an ultra self-awareness. It’s a state of being you will need in order to complete this exercise. Do you remember how we all traveled together on the ship and discovered the smoke-aliens? We are going to travel inside of your head. I won’t gain any knowledge from you; I will only show you the route to take. I will light your way, if you will.”

  With the setting of guards and the closing of the door, Jack knew no one would be interrupting them. He sat on the rug, facing the fire, and slid the robe off his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor around him. There was a roaring in his head and he felt slightly ill as faces and, surprisingly, body scents, entered the front of his head. So many people he might never see again.…..

  “Jack, shush,” he heard inside his head. Ninurta knelt behind him, the warmth of his body as intimate as Daniel's naked body behind him. “Focus, Jack,” Ninurta told him, a quiet humor in his voice. “Please don’t reach for Daniel in this; you need to be completely present.”

  “Let’s just do it,” Jack bit out, fixing his legs and arms into comfortable positions. The flames before him began to sere his eyes so he closed them.

  “Follow me,” he heard whispered inside his head…….

  A stinging made him smack his neck. Buzzing and birds singing caught his attention and he looked around. A lake lay in front of him, dark and familiar.

  “This is Minnesota,” he commented. “Our family cabin. How’d I get here?”

  “We’re not here,” he heard next to him. He turned to see Ninurta cast out a fishing line and sitting back in the old wooden lounge chair, taking a long sip from a beer. Ninurta grimaced. “How do you drink this crap? We need to teach you how to make proper beer.”

  “What do you mean, we’re not here?” He smacked another mosquito.

  “We’re in your head, Jack,” Ninurta reminded him. “This is your safe place. That pond is your subconscious. It’s your locked closet. Relax, Jack; toss a few lines out.”

  Hours later, Jack once again brought his line in and looked at the empty hook.