Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5

by Michele Briere

  Michael. He had to deal with Michael. His brother was once more in seclusion since he found out what Jack had been hiding from him. There were times when Jack really wanted to smack Michael silly. None of the other clergy in town were acting weird, so Jack could only assume that Michael was keeping his mouth shut. Matthew was of the opinion that it was the message of peace that mattered, not the stories behind the various spiritualities. Daniel was proud of the boy. Matthew often sat in Daniel’s library with a dictionary, trying to find the words that would best verbalize his thoughts and feelings. Daniel had warned them that spirituality was once more reaching a head and would implode or explode. Jack’s narrator agreed, scenes and words speeding through his brain at light-speed as the fish examined the evidence.

  The bean-counters in DC were still bitching about the lack of advanced weapons for the US military. The ships were very nice, but the US needed them, too. Jack was still refusing and still promising to move the entire program off world if they continued to kick up sand. The US was NOT going to have toys to threaten the rest of the world with. No bullies allowed. Since Jack could prove that there were several other worlds willing to host them, many politicians and military leaders were gnawing at the bit.

  Jack’s attention was abruptly swung away as the fish caught wind of a subconscious image and made a suggestion. He sat up, careful to not wake Daniel, and reached out to the man in the image. The man was asleep. Jack couldn’t get much from a sleeping mind.

  “Kendrick.”

  “Here, sir,” he heard in his head.

  “What are you doing right now?”

  “Taking notes from Ti’s head,” Kendrick said. “It’s the middle of the night, so I didn’t want to wake you up.”

  “You found him? Good. Stop for a moment and pick through this man.” Jack sent him a clear image and a name. He felt surprise from the young man.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Tell me one thing,” Jack said. “Is Ti a Goa’uld?”

  “Not that I can tell, sir,” Kendrick said. “Just a major ego and delusions of grandeur.”

  Jack was actually disappointed; he really wanted Ti to be a snake so he had an excuse to take the man out.

  He left his bed and went to find a glass of wine. There was no wine. He remembered that all the alcohol was taken out of the house so that his partners could support his sudden allergy to it. The closest he got was grape juice. He wrinkled his nose and took a can of soda. Fang looked up from his blanket on the porch and thumped his tail.

  “Did I wake you, boy?” Jack whispered as he leaned down and scratched the dog. “I’m sorry. Go back to sleep.” He sat on the porch swing and listened to the nighttime insects.

  The door opened and Daniel stepped out, rubbing at his eyes.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  Jack nodded. “I’m good,” he said. “Can’t sleep.”

  “You haven’t been sleeping well for while,” Daniel noted as he sat next to Jack.

  “It’s the brain,” Jack told him. “I’m not sure if I need to learn how to turn off or if I just don’t need as much sleep. Go back to bed. You can sleep even if I can’t.”

  Daniel took his hand, letting the swing sway a little. “Wanna go down to the dock and fool around?”

  Jack smiled and kissed him. “No, not now,” he said. “Too preoccupied.”

  “Sir?”

  Jack held up a hand, silencing Daniel.

  “Here. What’d you find?”

  “He’s the one, sir. There’s a small group within the Pentagon, an outcropping of something called the NID. I have names for you. And your home is bugged, sir. I couldn’t get locations; he gave the order to place the bugs but not where.”

  “I will deal with it,” Jack told him. “Unless Ti is doing anything immediate that I should know about, see if you can get anything else.”

  He pulled Daniel close and whispered into his ear. Startled, Daniel gave a nod. No longer trusting the phones, Jack silently changed into street clothes and took off in his truck. Once across town, Jack knocked on a door. Since the household was asleep, it took a few knocks to get someone up.

  “Jack? What….?” Mason wiped the sleep from his eyes. “Is Sam alright?”

  “She’s fine. I need to take Keith home with me.”

  Mason stilled and looked at him. “Is this official?”

  “Very.”

  Mason’s younger son was awakened and came to the door in his shorts. Since discovering that Keith’s talent made him sensitive to electricity, Jack allowed their home to be put on a separate naquadah generator. Keith’s room was additionally shielded from any electrical interference with a Tok’ra design which was placed in the walls. Keith had been much happier and more able to deal with the world as long as he had a sanctuary to return to. Before Keith could say anything, Jack shushed him and whispered into his ear.

  “No, nothing unusual,” Keith said quietly.

  Jack motioned Mason close. “Go to your box and shut the house off,” he whispered. Mason lifted an eyebrow, and went to find the crystal box.

  “Go into each room and listen,” Jack whispered to the boy. “Pick up the phones, too, including cell phones. If you get any weirdness, you tell me like this.” He raised a hand and showed Keith the appropriate signal. Mason came in and gave a nod. They followed Keith as the boy nervously began in the living room, poking his nose around as though smelling for the location of an unusual scent. He looked at the men and shook his head.

  He raised his hand twice; once in Mason’s bedroom, where they quickly silenced a surprised Melanie, and once at Mason’s cell phone. Jack shushed him and motioned him outside.

  “Leave things for now,” Jack whispered. “I’ll send an extraction team in the morning. Not your fault. I need Keith to come home with me and find the bugs in my house.”

  Keith got dressed and rode with Jack back to his house. The boy wanted to ask questions, but Jack kept him quiet. The power was already off at his house and the kids and Jerrie silently beamed out by Prometheus. The SF were on guard as Sam waited on the front lawn.

  The moment Keith stepped onto the front porch, his radar went up. Jack took careful notes of where each bug was placed. Sam looked at the tiny dot attached to the inside of the phone in the living room. Since the SF would never have allowed anyone close to the house, they assumed it was someone who came in as a tech or maintenance person. By the time Keith was done, they had tagged twenty transmitters.

  “In the morning, take him to my mother’s house and have him do the same thing,” Jack whispered to Mason on the sidewalk. “Michael’s, too, but I’ll be surprised if he finds anything at either house. I’ll have a list ready by then; I want all key people’s houses checked.”

  Mason took his son home for the rest of the night while Jack, Sam, and Daniel beamed up to Prometheus to reassure the kids.

  “Kendrick.” Jack opened a link to the cloaked ship. “Is he still in bed?”

  “Yes, sir,” Kendrick said.

  Jack gave a nod and Col. Markham himself triggered the beam. Moments later, a man was laying on the floor, awakening in a confused state and finding himself surrounded by SF holding guns and zats on him. Jack stepped forward.

  “General Robert Allegash, you are under arrest for conspiracy, espionage, and treason. To start with.”

  “What?” Allegash struggled to his feet, shocked. He jumped when someone else beamed in. Guards caught him and held fast to his arms.

  “He doesn’t know a name, only the contact information,” Grant reported, staring at the General. “A face. I don’t know the man. Hammond and Landry’s homes, Dr. Lam and Dr. Warner, SG-1 and 3, Col. Davis, Maynard.” Grant went on, naming one person after another, much to the horror of Allegash who stared at the strange young man in alien leathers. His mind opened, his fear caused one person after another to be brought up; people being watched, members of his deeply hidden cabal.

  “You are the traitor!” Allegash shouted at Jac
k. “You are a US Air Force General; it was your job to protect your country! You failed! You sided with aliens and left your people to defend themselves! It is you who should be executed! I have been doing the job you should have been doing!”

  “Put him in lockup,” Jack ordered. The SF led the man away. Grant found a chair and began writing names and notes. The sun was rising over the east coast of the United States. Jack had to wake up the Joint Chiefs and the president.

  “Orders, sir?” Markham quietly requested. Jack paused, noting the man’s stance and unspoken offering of complete support.

  “Stand by,” Jack said, appreciating the colonel’s strength. “We may be filling up detention.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Kendrick.” Grant looked up, giving Jack his attention. “I’m going to beam up my chief of security. I want you to talk to him.” Jack went to the console and brought up Nick’s ID. He was in Italy. Nick was standing inside the ship moments later, surprise glancing off his face in the blink of an eye.

  “You rang?” Nick drawled. Jack quickly filled him in.

  “Kendrick is going to show you a face we have no name for,” Jack told him. “Tell me if you know him.” Grant impressed the image into Nick’s head, once more startling the man. Nick recovered quickly. Zu had done it to him a couple of times.

  “I know him,” Nick said grimly. “He doesn’t do a lot of hands-on; he has a small team he farms out to. He moves around a lot; the latest rumor is that his operations comes out of Columbia. Drugs, arms, information.”

  Jack brought Columbia up on the screen and Grant stared at it.

  “How do I…?”

  Jack showed him how to zoom in and out. Grant took over and zoomed in closer until cities were in view. He kept zooming in until he had one house in view.

  “Are you sure?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Grant nodded. As he spoke, armed guards came around the house, on patrol in the early morning hours. They waited as the sun rose. People began to appear in and out of the house.

  “That’s him,” Grant and Nick both said as a man stepped out onto the balcony. Jack nodded and the man was beamed up. Down below, it took a second for the guards to realize that their employer disappeared and began shouting and drawing guns. As soon as the man appeared on the floor, SF took him into custody, ignoring his yelling and superstitious fears.

  “Two down, one to go,” Jack said. Sam and Daniel looked at him, not bothering to tell him that he was beyond protocols. The screen swung around to China, already midway through the day. Once more, Grant zoomed around until he found the location of the mental signature.

  “I believe he’s alone, sir,” Grant said. “He’s commenting on his lunch. He usually eats lunch alone. It’s his meditation time.”

  “Bring him up.”

  Emperor Ti fell flat on his butt, having been taken from a chair. Daniel shot Jack a look and quickly stepped forward to offer a hand to the emperor. The man began spouting angrily, slapping Daniel’s hand away as he got to his feet.

  “I’m O’Neill. We need to talk. And you cannot tell me a worldly man like yourself doesn’t speak English.”

  “I will have your hide!” the man hissed.

  “Whatever. We made an offer of an entire planet. I want to know if it’s being accepted.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed.

  “It’s a pretty planet, no pollution; we can even show you pictures.” Jack twirled a finger and stock footage of Yu’s palace was put on the screen. The emperor’s eyes were so narrow, they were dark line slits. “Now enough farting around. All this can be yours for the asking price of……. one million American dollars. That’s the cost of using the ships to transport your people. And it’s extremely cheap. Very under budget. We are willing to transport up to one million people. Willing people. That’s a dollar a person. You get this beautiful palace and an entire city, empty of people but still supporting livable homes. We will even throw in the energy battery to run the place. Only one –if you want more, you’ll need to figure it out on your own. We will give you all the literature we have about the planet, tell you all about weather patterns, edible plants and animals, and which predators to watch out for. You may rule there as you see fit with no interference from us.”

  “He’s weakening,” he heard Grant say.

  “This palace belonged to Lord Yu himself,” Jack continued. The screen showed Yu in action. “Owner of over one hundred thousand slaves. Although he was on the enemy’s side, he was honorable. His slaves served him because they wanted to, not because they were forced. You can see by how well the planet was kept that Lord Yu respected nature. He was very long lived, proud, noble to the cause. Whatever cause he had. We haven’t taken over the planet because, well, we don’t have a leader worthy of it. We’re offering it to you.”

  “He’s going to prance around about it to save face, but he’ll accept it.”

  “How about we let you sleep on it?” Jack offered. “Dr. Jackson here has the contract and treaty; I’ll get it to you for you to look over. Sleep on it. I will keep the offer open for two weeks. Fourteen days.”

  Emperor Ti was sent home with a lot to think about.

  “Fucking politics,” Jack muttered. “No more bullshit. Daniel, would you please make up a treaty for that asshole?” He excused himself and beamed down to Maynard’s office.

  By the time most of the day was over, houses had been overturned for bugs, offices swept through for traitors, and several threats from angry Colombians had been dealt with. Even the fish in his head had been silenced from sheer amazement. It made an attempt at informing Jack about procedure, but didn’t make it too far after Jack snarled at it. The shocked public was told that a conspiracy had been uncovered and they didn’t need to know anything else. Henry went on air to condemn the traitors and praise Jack and his team for uncovering them. Since it was alien related, HomeSec rules came into play. All the people rounded up were to be taken off world for trials and judgment. Lawyers all over the country protested. The HomeSec rules were being pushed into questionable territory but no one needed to know. There was no way these particular people would spend any jail time, if they were left to American courts, so the alien aspect was pushed forward into the spotlight. Jack knew he was playing with fire, but dammit he was done with all the crap.

  Three days later, with the kids on Kalam until things were calmer, Jack sent Keith through the house once more. Everything was cleared and Jack allowed Sam and Daniel to come home. The SGC and Area 51 were two of the few places that were clean of bugs, so they slept on base. With Jack’s permission, Daniel went on air to explain the treaty that was being used to condemn the prisoners. The lengthy debate also included the United Worlds treaty and the new treaty that, much to the shock of the world, Emperor Ti announced he would accept. Few legal experts could find fault with any of the treaties, other than nit-picking.

  Instead of beaming in, Ninurta ‘knocked’ by calling on the comm, requesting permission to beam into the house.

  “Come on in,” Jack said wearily, holding a cold glass to his forehead. Ninurta, Inanna, and Enki beamed in. They stood looking at him, not quite sure what to make of him.

  “When you decide to clean house, you really clean house,” Inanna commented.

  “How do you feel?” Enki asked curiously.

  “I’m fine,” Jack said. He took a peeled orange from Daniel’s hand.

  “Are you up to hearing about Goa’uld?” Ninurta asked delicately.

  “Only if it’s good news,” Jack said. Sam sat next to him, a reassuring comfort.

  “Well, we had to quarantine Taklede,” Ninurta told him. “Karoly’s been de-snaked. He’s completely beside himself about getting taken. There were a couple other representatives that were also freed, their planets are alright. We rigged the ha’taks with the new pukku-shielding sequence that Sam sent to us and it worked. Jaffa and Tok’ra are working on the Aschen before heading over to Vishnu. From what we can tell, the Aschen
are grateful for the freedom, but they still want to take over the galaxy.”

  “Good. Easier to deal with the Aschen than it is a Goa’uld infested Aschen,” Jack said.

  “Will you be staying for Cassie’s wedding?” Daniel asked tiredly. “She postponed it because of the emergency, it’ll be happening tomorrow before anything else interferes.”

  “We will stay, thank you,” Inanna assured him.

  The Furlings left and Jack found himself in Sam’s arms. She smiled, sniffled, and wiped her face.

  “I’m very proud of you,” she informed him huskily.

  Daniel engulfed them both in his long arms. “Me three,” he said.

  In the morning, kids were bathed and dressed into their wedding clothes and hustled out of the house. Harper and Grandma Frasier were keeping Cassie as calm as they could. Jonathan came in and made comments until she laughed. Since Cassie wasn’t known to have alien friends, Teal’c and the Furlings were almost unrecognized in their Tau’ri clothes.

  “Dad, someone at the door for you,” Katie told Jack as he watched the crowd with paternal eyes. “Uncle Danny and Aunt Sam, too.”

  Jack lifted an eyebrow and motioned for the other two. Whoever it was must have good ID to have gotten past the SF.

  “Can I help you?” Jack asked the woman at the door.

  “General O’Neill, I’m sorry to bother you at this time,” the woman said. “My name is Imelda Sigurdssen. I represent the Nobel Committee. I have invitations for you and your family for the upcoming awards in December. Congratulations, sir.” She handed him three envelopes and left. Confused, Jack handed two out and opened his.