“That narrator inside my head,” Jack said, pointing to his head. “It’s telling me how to alter the growth of an entire species. I’m not understanding any of it, but it’s giving me the instructions. It isn’t happy with you,” he informed Enki.
Actually, his head was talking non-stop, as though it had been lonesome for a long time and suddenly found a friend. Most of the noise was in the background but when he concentrated on something, it became louder, getting his attention. And for some reason, the narrator seemed to be in a pond which became opaque to show him images while a fish narrated. He wondered if he should mention it. He decided not to as a padded white room came to mind.
“You know, if we had the schematics for the pukku, I could try and make a wide-beam and attach it to the hull of the ships,” Sam suggested. The schematics immediately came to the forefront of Jack’s head.
“Paper,” Jack groaned.
While Daniel dug into his stuff for paper and pencil, Sam began to laugh.
“What?” Jack asked, his heart light at her smile.
“Can you picture McKay’s face when he discovers you not only have the schematics for all the Ancient devices in your head, but you also know what everything is for?”
Jack began to smile and then paused as a familiar wave began. Daniel also paused. They both began to turn green. Enki went to the table and poured two cups of tea. Sam lifted her shirt and pointed at her stomach. “I got a bump,” she informed Jack with a proud grin. Jack saw there was indeed a small roundness on her lower belly. He touched it, feeling the hardness of it, and kissed it.
“Listen, buddy,” he told the bump. “The Dads love you, so don’t take this the wrong way when I tell you that we will be much happier after this trimester.”
Daniel snorted. “You got off easy,” he said. “I’ve had fifteen days of morning sickness that you didn’t.”
Katie and Matthew ran in, hearing that Jack was up and about. They threw their arms around him for hugs, relieved to see he was alright. They smelled of sunshine and hay and horses.
“Aunt Sam and Uncle Danny have been making us do schoolwork,” Matthew complained. “We’re not home, so do we have to do work?”
“Yes, you do,” Jack informed them. “This isn’t a vacation.”
The kids pouted about it as they went back outside.
“We had their schools put a curriculum together,” Sam told him. “Technically, Daniel and I are both teachers, I don’t do a lot of classes, but I teach at the Academy once in a while, so the school board approved us as home school teachers.”
“Good,” Jack nodded. “At least they’re not getting lazy.”
“It’s been tricky teaching David,” Daniel commented thoughtfully. “I didn’t realize what a time his teachers were having with him until we tried teaching him. His attention span isn’t the classical ADD; he has a great attention span, it’s just… with him being continually in the now, and that makes teaching him an interesting experience. On our part, not his.”
“Does he need a special school?” Jack asked, looking at them intently.
Daniel shrugged and Sam echoed him. “No, I don’t think so,” Daniel said. “He’s happy to learn, and as long as we take the time to explain things, he’ll eventually get it. Teaching him hands-on seems to work best. When he experiences something in real-time, it makes more sense to him.”
“I’ve been teaching him math by letting him help with technological designs,” Sam told Jack. “He’s learning fractions by learning how to cook. Daniel’s been using a made-up dig to teach him geology and geography.”
“I get it,” Jack nodded. “Well, as long as he’s learning, we can deal with it. Daniel, what about your classes?”
“Canceled for this semester,” he said despondently. “The board understands, given the circumstances. Ninurta’s been going over for a lecture tour, and poking around unobtrusively, so the universities are happy. I left instructions with my students to take careful notes when Ninurta gets to our campus. And if Ninurta happens to request their presence while he’s there, so much the better. Ronnie and Nyan are assisting him.”
“Sam, your office?”
“I head to the office through the arch once every few days,” she said. “If we use the arches, no one outside the office knows we’re there and our people are keeping their mouths shut. So far, we’ve kept to business as usual. Everyone suspects we’re off-world, but it hasn’t been confirmed. To explain your absence, they think I’m having a difficult pregnancy and you and Daniel are nurse-maiding me. If you’re feeling up to it, you can gate to the SGC, arch to your office, check in with Paul, sign a few papers, and come back here. You’re still the Number One target on Earth, so the entire council, on-world and off, wants you off-world. A sighting would throw people off track, though, if you let someone see you once in a while. The Generals have been here to check on you a few times while you were out of it; Henry, too. We put an arch in his private quarters so no one knows when he’s not home.”
Jack began to ask her something and then changed his mind. “Where’s Inanna?” he asked, not having seen her.
“With the Tok’ra,” Enki said. “She has a team with her to find out about this new Goa’uld. She reported in a couple days ago, she should be home soon.”
“Zu is missing,” Daniel told Jack. “No one’s seen him for quite a while and he isn’t responding to hails.”
Jack held out an arm. “Zu, to me!” He waited. Nothing happened.
“We’re not worried,” Enki told him. “He’s done this before. Sometimes he’s gone for years and then returns without an explanation.”
“He….” Jack paused, his eyes widening as he listened to a sudden spat of information. “Oh, my….”
“What?” Sam and Daniel asked.
Jack’s mouth opened and shut in surprise. “Old man, I’m beginning to understand why you keep things from us and make us work for it. Zu… there’s a file on him.”
Even Enki’s eyes widened in surprise. “The Ancients had a file on Zu? What does it say?”
“You really don’t know who, or what, he is?” Jack asked, watching Enki carefully.
“Really,” he said. “Not a clue. He’s been with us for several thousand years, and he won’t tell us how he does it or where he’s from.”
Jack began to chuckle as he relaxed back into his chair. “A case of who’s watching the watchers,” he said, finding great humor in the information he was fed. “Daniel, do you remember...... no, of course you don’t but you know it anyway. Daniel, it was your choice to return from Ascension into your old self. You could have chosen a different form, if you wanted to.”
It took a moment before Daniel’s mouth dropped. “Zu’s an Ancient?!”
Chapter 63
“I am getting married.”
Cassie stood with her arms crossed, daring anyone to contradict her as she glared at the group. “My wedding is in two days and I will be on my honeymoon in three days. We can herd everyone through the gate and do it here or we can go home, triangulate those three warships around the planet, have Mr. Potato Head keep an ear out for bad guys, and Jack will walk me down that aisle if I have to put a leash on him and drag him with me!”
“Grant is trying to find our leak,” Jack reminded her. He reached over and knocked the snickering Daniel on the arm. “Don’t call him that. Can’t you postpone? A month?”
“Absolutely not,” she declared. “Half of the SGC and HomeSec will be watching, several aliens including Teal’c and a Jaffa squad, you and Grant will be there to monitor the guests, all my friends, and grandma Frasier. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen grandma?”
Jack sat back, wiping his mouth on his napkin. “Cass, we have an unsub running around with God knows what kind of information on all of us. He, or she, knew I went off-world and knew I was vulnerable. Even I didn’t know what I was doing until I did it. Who knows what this person knows about you.”
Cassie came closer an
d squatted next to him, taking his hand. “Jack, if it isn’t one thing, it’ll be another. I appreciate you protecting me, protecting all of us, and I love you for it, but we need to get on with things. We need to show whoever this person is that we are not afraid of them. Please go and scan the city for bad guys so I can get married.”
While the adults went home to get set up for the wedding, leaving the kids at home under the watchful eye of Jerrie and a squad of SF, Jack went to his office, surprising the staff and letting them know that he was fine and Colonel Carter was feeling much better. He had gone in a couple of times from Kalam, for no more than a couple of hours and to let his face be seen. Paul was at his desk, passing papers to Jonathan who was signing Jack’s name to them.
Added SF were wandering the city, as were visiting Jaffa and Anunnaki warriors. Grant Kendrick, their brilliant mind-reader, was set up in an al'kesh, cloaked, hovering over the city. His reach and focus had strengthened considerably under the tutelage of the Furlings. He had even offered Jack a sincere apology for any brain-diving that was done before he understood the concept of mental privacy. Jack was happy the young man was stationed off-world. He hoped that Grant was the only oddity showing up. He couldn’t deal with anyone flying around in colorful tights or shooting ray beams from their eyes. X-ray vision could be fun…… Much to Jack’s dismay, the fish in his head began to lecture him as to why it wouldn’t be possible. He told it to shut up.
“You’re approving a fund-raiser for the Children’s Hospital,” Jonathan told him, signing Jack’s name. “Very generous of you, Jack, thank you, you’ll make a great host. You’re considering Hammond for the Santa suit. He doesn’t know. By the way, you spooked the staff the last time you came in. They were swearing one of your new talents was invisibility.” He handed the clipboard back to Paul.
“I was considering the joys of x-ray vision, but that irritating trout in my head informed me otherwise. I’m considering trout for dinner. Cass put her foot down, so we’re home,” Jack said. He took the clipboard to see what Jonathan was signing. “Kids are remaining there until I’m sure it’s relatively safe. She’s getting married this weekend come hell or high water. Or bombs and bullets.” Nothing exciting on the clipboard, not that Paul would give Jonathan anything serious to sign. The fund-raiser was something he would have approved.
“Look at it this way,” Jonathan said. “With everyone gathered for her wedding, it might be what it takes to lure the traitor out of the woodwork.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Kendrick’s in a cloaked al'kesh overhead,” he said. “The town is flooded with aliens, and Sam is in semi-panic mode because her gown is a little snug around the middle. If this doesn’t make someone do something stupid, I don’t know what will.”
Paul was looking closely at him, studying him. Jack leaned in. “Boo,” he said dryly. Paul had the grace to flush. “I’m me,” Jack told him. “My head is full of stuff I’ll probably never use, but I’m still me. Except I can’t have alcohol anymore. Or aspirin. I really need a beer. Where’s Nick?”
“He won’t tell me,” Paul said in irritation. “He could be in town, he could be halfway around the planet. I don’t know. I thought I heard someone speaking in Arabic, the last time he checked in, but for all I know he could be getting falafel in Manhattan.”
Jack sat in the seat vacated by Paul and twirled a finger.
“China is not happy with all the changes, and is trying to crack down on any information about the leaping process. The reports are telling us that the cities are in turmoil, but the countryside is apparently so used to working for warmongers that they are actually happier with an emperor. Some interesting satellite images have been coming in. The new government still has it in for you, though, sir.”
“Anything on this emperor?” Jack asked. Paul took a few thoughtful steps.
“Shih Huang Ti. It’s difficult to determine if that’s his real name, since we don’t have access to their vital statistics. It’s unlikely that’s his birth name. We have a grainy pic of him which we’re trying to match up, but no luck, yet.”
“Where is it?” Jack asked. Paul pulled a file out and handed it to him.
“We estimate him to be around fifty,” Paul said. “Average height and weight. So far, his public appearances have been under heavy guard in highly secured areas.”
Jack looked hard at the picture and closed his eyes, sending his awareness out across the planet. Since his ‘awakening,’ it was much easier to scan the planet. He still got only emotions from people, but it was easier to sense and translate them, and easier to find a specific person as long as he knew what the person looked like and their approximate location. Ti was probably in Beijing, as far as he could tell; it was difficult to judge, though, never having met the man. There was a certain ‘scent’ to people, he had discovered, and that scent made it easy to pinpoint that person. He wasn’t able to tell who was who, though, as he zeroed in on crowded Beijing.
There was fear from the entire population of China, and a lot of resentment. A few pockets of resistance, but no one in a position to do anything about it. Jack went to the hanging touch-screen and tapped it on. He looked thoughtfully at the real-time satellite images that winked in and out of different cities.
“Is there any reason we can’t offer China a deal?”
Paul and Jonathan waited, wondering what Jack was up to.
“What kind of deal?” Paul asked.
“Well, what if we offer China Lord Yu’s old planet? Tell them we will transport anyone who wishes to leave Earth, if they want to populate Yu’s planet. The home of their god-king. They can have it free of charge, set up their own government, their own laws. The planet would belong to them. Tell them his spirit offered it to them. I mean, unlike Christians, Jews, or Muslims, the Chinese don’t have any ideology that tells them their land is sacred to them. Do they?”
“No, they don’t,” Paul said thoughtfully.
“Yu’s palace has been emptied, hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Paul said.
“All naquadah was removed,” Jonathan said. “The toy box is at Area 51, the general stuff, staves and zats, hand-ribbons, were distributed to Jaffa and Tok’ra. We kept a few odds and ends, ships were shared. The planet is empty except for a couple of research teams. Lots of empty buildings that can easily hold almost half a million people. That’s just one continent. They can colonize the rest.”
“Forward the suggestion to the council,” Jack told him. “If they’re good with it, I will make the offer to king what’s-his-face.”
Jack went down to the labs and got the chair powered up. The files in his head immediately brought up the schematics for the mikku. He was beginning to wish his brain was hooked up to a printer. The overhead called Jack to the phone and he swore before ordering a tech to keep an eye on China. A moment later, he was walking through the arch into the SGC.
“SG-17 has reported in,” Landry told him. “Thought you’d like to hear about it.”
Eight men sat at the table in the conference room and stood as Jack and Landry entered. Bryce, Franklin, Bradshaw, and Shao with Bhusnurmath, Pani, Ganguly from the Indian Army, and Gaafar as an interpreter for the Indians.
“Khalid, how’d your mother’s surgery go?” Jack asked, much to Gaafar’s surprise. Daniel kept Jack and Sam updated on everything he knew about people, rambling on during meals and whenever he could. Jack appreciated the information. One never knew when something seemingly innocent could turn into important data.
“It went well, sir, thank you,” he said. “Single bypass. She’s feeling much better.”
“Good. Let me know if she needs anything.”
“Alright, Major, what have you got for us?” Landry asked, nodding for Bryce to begin his report.
After a rapid week of training the Indian officers to the technology and how the SGC worked, they gated to a planet nearest to Vishnu and caught a ship the rest of the way. While SG-17 waited anxiously on the hidden Tau’ri owne
d ha’tak, the Indian team and Gaafar, dark enough to be mistaken for one of them, found their way into the society on the planet below. They got away with their bad accents by telling people they were from the other side of the world. They confirmed the presence of snakes with the hand-held MRI. Most of the upper caste was under Goa’uld control.
Pretending to be lower caste slaves, they made their way into the palace as servants. Gaafar earned himself a beating after he ‘bumped’ into the strange blond woman in a hallway. He slipped a locator onto her clothing and she disappeared several hours later when she was alone for a moment. During the ensuing confusion, they found a locked room that contained a queen Goa’uld. Gaafar tagged her tank and that disappeared, too. With the two disappearances, Vishnu himself went into hiding. All of Linea’s lab equipment and the tank of baby snakes were beamed away.
Erra came and took Linea after rendering her unconscious, and all the snakes were destroyed after obtaining samples of them. The team on the planet each grabbed a person, two with Goa’uld and two without, and beamed back up to the ship. The Furlings kept Linea, refusing to even allow her access to Earth by being in a cell in Area 51’s vast underground. The equipment and the Goa’uld bodies were sent to Area 51 to be put under microscopes. Sam was called at the same time Jack was.
Jack pressed the speed dial on the computer to Area 51.
“What do we have?” he asked when Sam’s face came to the screen.
“We’re working on it,” she said. “Our initial look seems to be showing genetic manipulation, but we don’t know how or why yet.”
“What do you mean, genetic manipulation?”
“I mean that both the body of the queen and the baby Goa’uld all show signs of genetic splicing in their cells,” she told him. “We need more time.” We’ve only had them for a couple of hours, will you chill? He could hear her admonition in his head and knew she’d be giving him evil looks when they got home. Her current look was bland, but he could see the glint in her eyes.
“Alright. Yesterday, please.”
Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5 Page 25
