Chapter 19

In the morning, Daniel’s lip was a little swollen and he had a little bit of a black eye. Stacy was upset over it, but the adults assured her that he earned it in honorable combat. Since no one else was upset, she tried to relax. The kids were piled into the Jeep and taken to school by Daniel.

Jack looked at the IM that popped onto his screen an hour later.

“Are the kids in school?”

“Yes,” he typed back.

“Is Davis here?”

“Yes.”

“Anyone else or anyone expected?”

“No.”

“Major, you’ve been working hard, why don’t you take a long lunch?” Jack suggested.

“Sir?”

“A very long lunch.”

Paul wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was behind the expression on Jack’s face, but he turned his computer off.

“Yes, sir. Can I bring you back anything?”

“No, thank you, Major, I’m sure I’ll be well satisfied by the time you get back.”

Davis considered that and nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll return in…. two hours?”

“That should be fine.”

Davis escaped and Jack typed, “He’s gone.”

A few minutes later, Sam sauntered into his study holding a uniform. She was wearing her dress blues and high heels.

“Why, Colonel Carter, what ARE you suggesting?” Jack purred. 

She draped his uniform across his desk. “Flyboy.”

Jack flew out of his chair at the speed of light and began to quickly change clothes while she cleared his desk of papers and laptop.

It wasn’t the first time Davis had been asked to excuse himself while one of Jack’s partners were home during the day. He hadn’t figured out which of the three were more insatiable and he never expected the general to be so…. gung-ho about it; the general had more stamina than a prime bull.

Matthew’s month with them went by fast. When Mathew went three weeks without a problem, and a clean pee-test, Jack took him out to the new offices which were being filled in with furniture and personnel under the supervision of Major Davis who tossed orders around like a pro. 

Jack had a treat for the boy. He took Matthew to the locker room, handed him a flight suit, and put his own on. Matthew didn’t know why because there weren’t any planes nearby. They went out to the back field, the size of ten football fields, and were met by Sam who was also in a flight suit.

“Keys are in the ignition, General,” she said snappily, tossing him a small device.

“Even your wife has to call you by your rank?” Matthew asked, leaning in.

“It’s protocol,” Jack told him. “When on the job, yes, she does. Believe me, she makes me pay for it later.” Sam grinned at him, and her co-pilot, Col. Jeffries, hid a smile. He had taken to being her flying partner when she was at Area 51. He was quick, had a talent for accurately second-guessing his partner, and had an excellent flight record in the Bosnian-Serb war prior to taking out a few death gliders. Jack approved of the man.

Matthew still didn’t see where they were going other than walking into a field. Jack pressed a button on the device Sam gave him and from one blink to another, two ships sitting in the field.

“Whoa,” Matthew breathed, wide-eyed, coming to a sudden stop. “Are those….?”

“302s,” Jack said, giving Sam a proud papa pat on the shoulder. “Come on, Matty, we’re going to play.”

The boy was practically hyperventilating as Jack got him buckled into the back seat. The space in the cockpit was so small that Matthew began to understand the differences he was seeing between pilots and ground troops; pilots tended to be thinner, less bulky muscles and more sinewy muscles. 

Jack got himself buckled in, checked in with Sam and Jeffries, warned Matthew not to touch anything except the JC bars, and cleared them for flight.

They were in space faster than Matthew expected and he couldn’t believe it. Earth was below them, blue and green and beautiful. Jack and Sam played tag around the planet, taking pot-shots at each other with Sam’s version of paint balls; energy beams which registered only on the computer. Jack told Matthew it was one of the training tools they used for the 302s and 303s. Matthew then gasped when a large ship de-cloaked just ahead of them.

“Daedalus, this is O’Neill. Permission to board?”

“This is Col. Caldwell, General; welcome, sir,” the deep, baritone voice of Caldwell responded.

To Matthew’s amazement, they approached the large ship and Jack expertly docked, with Sam and Jeffries just behind them. The waiting bay crew watched the boy carefully make his way down the side of the craft. Matthew was a little shaky on his feet when he stood on the deck. There were 302s docked in rows deep into the bay, some of them with pieces sitting on the deck where technicians were working on them.

“Take a minute, get your sea legs,” Jack told him. “You get used to it.”

They were met by a bald man standing tall and proud, hands comfortably behind his back.

“Colonel, thank you for indulging us,” Jack said. He returned the salute and introduced Matthew to Col. Caldwell, commanding the Daedalus. Caldwell didn’t ask why Jack had brought his teenage nephew up, and in a 302, at that. He shook the young man’s hand.

Caldwell showed them around the ship, taking pride in her. Sam resisted tweaking a few things as they walked, but made mental notes to ask the engineer about them, just in case there was a good reason for the changes. She asked Caldwell a few specifics, which went right over not only Matthew’s head but also Jack’s. When they got to the engine room, Matthew had another shock. There was a little gray alien standing behind a console.

“Hermiod, having fun?” Jack asked. The Asgard muttered. “Language, little buddy,” Jack chuckled. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice before telling Thor he’s a little overweight. You know how sensitive he is.”

“I called him a fat-head, O’Neill, not fat,” Hermiod informed him.

“Not what he said, but that’s between you guys,” Jack said. He assumed Hermiod was a guy….

“Is that why he got babysitting detail?” Caldwell asked, amused.

“Oh, yeah,” Jack nodded. “You should have heard Thor. He was so angry I thought I heard his voice raise.”

The chief engineer was a tall, thin woman, seemingly scattered. She looked at Jack and hiccupped. Hermiod sighed and shook his head, saying something to her in another language. She snapped something back at him.

“Relax, Novak,” Caldwell told her.

“Yes, hic sir.”

“Nervous – hiccups,” he quietly told Jack.

“Ah,” Jack nodded. “Dr. Novak, this is my nephew, Matthew. Matty, tell her I’m a pussycat.”

Matthew looked at him and then at the lady. And back to Jack. Silent. Jack swatted his arm.

“Even Sua cubs can push him around,” Matthew finally smiled and told her. Startled, Novak gave a small laugh. And hiccupped.

“Not,” Jack said indignantly.

“Uncle Jack, you haven’t once said no to T’Keet and made it stick,” Matthew told him.

“Have, too,” Jack insisted. He ignored Sam’s snort.

“Name one thing,” Matthew dared him.

Jack tried a few times. “She’s a baby,” he finally said. Sam gave a gentle push at his shoulder and he swatted at her.

At least Novak had stopped hiccupping.

“Dr. Jackson has asthma problems,” Sam commented to her. “He used to sneeze every time he changed climates. Try avoiding THAT on gate travel. He’s on meds for it, now, but sometimes it still happens.”

Novak laughed, more relaxed, and went back to her tinkering. As the men walked on, Sam paused to ask her about the settings she had observed.

Caldwell quietly updated Jack on recent Jaffa activity, particularly the issues on Dakkara where a small uprising was happening over leadership among the rebel Jaffa. There was also a drug trade being run by non-Earth humans in another sector that had been cleansed of Goa’uld. Without the overseers, laws were nonexistent. There were people out there who were wondering what role Earth would be playing, since most of the System Lords had been killed by Earth forces. It’s being assumed that Earth would be taking over as new leaders.

“That isn’t our role,” Jack said quietly, not wanting to be overheard by the crew.

“Yes, Sir, but most of those inhabited planets have no leadership, now,” Caldwell told him. “Very few have managed to develop well enough to be self-sufficient and direct their own destinies, and most of those don’t have space travel simply because it was safer to stay out of sight of the Goa’uld. The others don’t know what to do without leadership. 

“Whenever they see an Earth ship, or an SG team, they seek council with Earth. The Jaffa are having their own problems, at the moment, and don’t have the resources to patrol freed space. What are we supposed to do except offer what advice we can?”

Jack wrinkled his nose in frustration. “What does Landry say?”

“He says to do what we can, short of giving out technology,” Caldwell told him. “And we are, of course, following those orders. There are diplomatic requests piling up at the SGC, Sir, and, pardon my presumption, General, the pile-up is coming from the Pentagon.”

Jack promised to look into it. He knew better than most how much red tape the government had, especially when someone couldn’t seem to make a decision.

The tour of the ship ended on the bridge where they watched the solar system fly by on the main screen, inspecting Saturn’s rings from within them, looking down the eye of Jupiter’s hurricane, watched solar flares, and blasted a few rocks before returning to Earth. Matthew almost didn’t recognize it.

“It’s upside down!” he exclaimed.

“No, we are,” Sam said with a smile. She nodded and the pilot, who was playing with the kid, righted the ship.

“Wow, how come it doesn’t feel like we’re upside down?” Matthew asked as the planet spun in front of them.

Sam explained inertial dampeners and the fact that gravity didn’t have the same immediate effect on them when they were in space. The North Pole was only at the top of the planet because of customs, not because it was actually the top of the world. It was northern Europeans who were the first navigators to make maps to track their voyages, compasses pointed up, so Europe was placed at the top half of the planet, putting the North Pole at the very top. For people south of the equator, the South Pole was ‘up’.

Matthew was completely in love by the time they left the Daedalus. Jack and Sam both told him what it took to become a 302 pilot, confirmed by Col. Jeffries and Col. Caldwell. Katie had already joined junior ROTC, which would do just as well as junior AFROTC. 

Both were leadership training programs, not an automatic entrance into the military, so Matthew qualified on that part. He’d have to pass the rest of the exam, which was mostly physical, and Jack was sure he’d have no problem providing the drugs were in the past. 

Rules say he had to keep a grade point average of 2.0, but Jack wanted him, and his sister, to be at 3.0 or above. They had it in them to be 4.0. He’d have to make it on his own; Uncle Jack wasn’t going to play favorites. In fact, Matthew and Katie both would have to do better than average BECAUSE of their uncle, and if he passed 9th grade with a 3.5 or above, Jack would take him up in the 302 again. Matthew promised. 

Katie’s interest lay more on the technical side of things. She wanted to either play with Sam’s toys or do something with the aliens; she wasn’t sure, yet. Jack told Matthew if he and his sister kept their grades up, he’d pay their scholarship.

On their way home, Jack gave him careful instructions and let Matthew take the controls. After a few tricky starts, Matthew guided the 302 around the planet. Jack took the controls back to take them through the atmosphere and landed them back home. 

Matthew was breathless when he climbed out of the ship. He threw his arms around Jack and hugged him hard. When they got to the house, the boy was immediately on the phone and online telling all about his adventure. After getting permission to talk about it, of course.

Jack went into his study and called Maynard.

“Honestly, Jack, the main problem is the lack of protocols,” Maynard told him after a moment of silence. “The UN is arguing that just because the United States has the gate and is running the program, doesn’t mean we can make blanket decisions. Those other worlds see Earth as a whole, not individual countries, and when the SGC tells an alien something, those aliens see it as coming from Earth, not the US. Since HomeWorld Security has been authorized to deal with all things alien, the UN feels that the protocols should come from you.”

Jack scowled. “I deal with aliens and Earth, not aliens on their own turf,” he reminded the general. “I don’t make the rules for what happens off-world.”

“Well, Jack, the SGC is winging it out there,” Maynard said. “This is no longer a top-secret project, and a non-military auditing panel clearly didn’t work, so something else needs to be put into place for off-world protocols. 

“We have some notes, a rough draft of notes based on, God help us, Star Trek directives. I was going to rough it out a little more before getting your input. Since the SGC looks to you, I am happy to put the problem in your lap. Let me know when you have something worth the Pentagon’s –AND- the UN’s attention.” 

Maynard hung up and Jack’s email chimed. “Fuck.”

“DANIEL!”