Chapter 26

Jack brought Bre’tac home for dinner, much to the delight of the children. He was introduced to Jerrie and he bowed politely to her.

“Major Bryce’s sister,” Jack told him. 

Bre’tac’s eyes lit up. “Ah, yes,” he said. “I have fought beside your brother. He is a most skilled warrior.”

After dinner, Bre’tac told the children stories. The older ones were beyond bedtime stories, but they listened avidly while pretending to do homework. 

After a while, Jack stole Bre’tac, amidst protests, and he and Sam left for the SGC, picked up Davis on their way out, and had an impromptu meeting with Landry and Reynolds once they settled into the Mountain. 

They brought up the star charts and Bre’tac pinpointed where Baal was last known to be holding fort. Reynolds nodded in agreement, confirming the rumors he and SG-1 had been hearing on their own excursions. Jack had Sam highlight the worlds they knew in the area that would need added protection. He frowned; there were a lot and Baal had been busy stealing more slaves from unprotected worlds. And from the positioning of Baal’s fleet, he was preparing to reclaim territory that had been freed by Jaffa and Tau’ri.

“Do you know where the Tok’ra are at the moment?” he asked Bre’tac. The old warrior gave the last known coordinates and Sam marked it off. “Where is Thanatos’ fleet?” Again, Sam marked it on the chart. She highlighted each world they knew had space flight, and each world with a friendly military. Once the star chart was lit up with all of Jack’s requests, the universe didn’t look so daunting. Even Bre’tac’s face was lit up as he looked at the star chart. They were not as alone as they thought they were; Baal could be taken.

Jack called Maynard and requested a special meeting with the Joint Chiefs, and asked that they come to him for the meeting. It was highly irregular, but Maynard agreed after Jack promised to send his al'kesh to pick them up. Jack made a list and sent Davis to start dialing numbers.

The next day HomeSec was under heavy guard as military leaders from around the world were brought in. To their even greater surprise, they were joined by military leaders from off-world, including Jaffa, Tok’ra, Masharu, Langaran, Serakkin (the reptilian people caused the Tau’ri to gulp harder than their first up-close look at the Sua who had joined them from the Heaven’s Bow), Sua, and Anunnaki. Some wanted to know where the Asgard were, so Jack had to explain the Asgard non-involvement. The Tau’ri were amazed, not comprehending the extent of their galactic allies until they saw all the different representatives in one place. 

That the sky was filled with various types of alien ships was quickly reported and the press descended upon HomeWorld Security for explanations. Demands fell on deaf ears.

The star chart was brought out and broken down for those unfamiliar with space coordinates. A few of the military leaders who prided themselves on astrophysics were having a difficult time with the fact that they could get across the galaxy in a week, instead of hundreds of years. 

More information was highlighted after input from Masharu, Anunnaki, and Serakkin. They brain-stormed for six days straight, with Thanatos and Camulus giving inside information on Goa’uld techniques and Baal’s possible current thinking patterns, and finally came to an agreement. 

The HomeSec council informed their governments, blessings were received. All 303s were recalled home and all 302 pilots were recalled from vacations. 

The press took note and were still left in the dark. 

Jack sent word to Thor of their plans, putting the Asgard on alert. Word got out and non-flight friendlies sent their pledges of support for anything the Alliance needed; O’Neill had saved their butts, so they would make good on that favor. All the non-Tau’ri allies were looking to Jack as the leader, and Tau’ri generals and admirals quickly swallowed their pride and fell in line.

The 303s came home and were immediately restocked and loaded for battle. Almost all civilians on board were replaced with troops. By the time all the allied ships arrived, there were over a thousand ships in orbit and waiting around the solar system. No explanation had yet been given to the people of Earth, except that they were friendly and not to worry.

Jack insisted on taking a day off in the middle of the war plans. He gathered his family together and explained to the children why he had to leave, and promised that he would be back as soon as he could. 

He set out pictures of Megan and his father, and he talked with the children about their mother and how much he missed her and Papa. He got Katie, Matthew, and Davy to talk and to tell stories, and even Stacy helped by telling a story about time spent with Megan and Grandpa Tom. Jack made the children all hold hands and promise to help each other and listen to whatever Sam and Daniel told them.

While storming through his office at HomeSec, Mrs. Clark was a little weepy as she worried for Jack and Davis. She and Mrs. Arthur got together and informed Jack that he had better come back or ELSE.

“Or else what?” Jack asked. The women nodded sagely.

“Exactly,” Mrs. Arthur informed him. Neither of the men understood, but Sam seemed to as she agreed with the older women. 

When Daniel asked around the SGC, personnel all agreed that Jack had better return; none of them wanted to answer to Mrs. A if he didn’t. Even General Landry quickly agreed. What worried Daniel more was that the female personnel all seemed to understand the vague threat. He was beginning to think that the female language was never going to be deciphered.

Jack sent Jerrie and the kids all shopping and told her to take a few hours. She didn’t ask as she loaded the kids into her SUV. Jack, Sam, and Daniel took their time making love to each other.

Inanna and her crew transferred and split up between the 303s, and left a rudimentary crew on the Heaven’s Bow. At least the planet would have a certain amount of protection. Just in case.

Jack put Earth at DefCon 2.

Those who knew Jack were not surprised when he put his ‘son’ on his war council. Nate had shown up at the war council meeting, surprising everyone in his Anunnaki leathers, centered and at peace. And he reminded everyone that he was now ‘Jonathan’.

Jonathan pulled his hair back into a ponytail and got to work. Only a few Tau’ri considered questioning it, and being military they knew when to not ask questions; especially when long-time SGC personnel gave them looks that told them to keep it shut. Jonathan could often be found without a shirt or vest on, wearing only leather boots and the kilt. The deep, grooved scars on his chest, still reddish-pink from healing, had earned him respect in the eyes of the Jaffa. Jack wasn’t sure he wanted to know how his clone got the scars. 

The tattoos of Tau’ri and Anunnaki on each upper arm proclaimed his dual allegiance, and several Anunnaki also had new ink. There was a little commentary about Goa’uld tattoos, but it was quickly canceled out as more and more people showed up with new ink on their arms. Humans had been inking themselves since time immemorial, so there wasn’t anything new about their need to proclaim themselves. 

The main question of the day was, “Where exactly is Baal?”

Jack and the war council stared at the star chart, discussing various locations where Baal had supposedly been sighted. Going on a hunch, “There.” Everyone looked as both Jack and Jonathan pointed at the same spot at the same time.

“How do you know?” Malek asked, looking from one to the other.

“We have to start someplace,” Jack said mildly, not looking at his younger self.

Battle plans were created and discussed with the troop leaders. Inanna tore the plans down. 

“They are common,” she told the surrounding military leaders. “Baal will know these strategies. We need something that will surprise him. Take him unawares.” She and Ninurta, working side by side, quickly drew up plans from ancient battles. The plans were sneaky and underhanded. They were approved.

Jack put Hammond in temporary charge of HomeSec, and made the Prometheus his flag ship. Many tried to convince Jack to remain on Earth, but he had waited too long for this day; he needed to be on the field, and he wanted Baal. 

Several squads remained on Earth to guard home base. Jack left Col. Chekhov in charge of them, much to the vocal disapproval of the Joint Chiefs.

“General Hammond,” Jack called over the open radio. “Let’s hear it, sir.”

Standing next to Landry who lifted a quizzed, hairy eyebrow, Hammond smiled and everyone in the control room turned to look at him. 

“God’s speed, people.”

News from behind the lines was that Baal was on the defense when he became aware of the size of the amassed fleet headed his way from three different directions, with a Tau’ri battle cruiser leading each of the three fronts.

The first month was a hard, bloody battle. Allies were picked up along the way, hundreds of lives were lost, mostly locals on various planets. Troops put down on allied planets for rest and refilling of the food stocks. A hundred or so non-flight worlds honored their debts to the Tau’ri, proud to step in where they could to help even if was just for a hot meal. They had been scared; Baal had been gathering the remaining Goa’uld to him and had begun taking slaves once more. 

Jack refused to be a desk jockey, and took turns in the cockpit of 302s along with everyone else. He took Teal’c as his partner. Jack’s personal guards were not happy about him going into battle along with everyone else, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. Generals were supposed to remain behind and direct. If Inanna was going into battle, so was Jack; she wasn’t going to get all the fun.

Ship by ship, Baal’s fleet was picked off. Col. Reynolds came in at one point, carrying a silver platter with a domed hood. He entered the bridge of the Prometheus with a shit-eating grin.

“How much do you love me, Jack?” he cooed. Jack’s ears would have twitched if they could. Bridge crew turned to look. Even Markham slowly turned his center seat around, an eyebrow raised at Reynolds’ tone. Markham was still getting used to Jack’s form of command.

“That depends,” Jack said cautiously as he straightened up from behind the battle board. “Is that a steak?”

“Even better,” Reynolds said. He lifted the lid. A bloody head sat on the platter with a dead symbiote next to it. A rebel yell rocked the bridge. Jack was happy to report to the troops that Enlil was officially dead. Moral was lifted high and a renewed effort was made on the battle front. 

Goa’uld heads began to be delivered to Jack as they became available. It was a little gruesome, but it was making the troops happy. A few sticklers for propriety made commentary about the rules of warfare.

“What rules?” Jack snapped. “This is war, not a football game.”

Inanna requested a private viewing of the head for a memorial. Enlil wasn’t at fault for the actions of the symbiote, and they wanted to remember their older brother as he used to be. Their grief quickly cooled the celebrations of everyone else.

Like a tidal wave, Alliance ships swept across the galaxy. They found a few inhabited worlds that were under siege by Goa’uld slavers, and a couple squads took the time to quickly dispatch the mothership hovering over each world. Alien worlds that had yet to be met by SG teams, but had heard of the Tau’ri named O’Neill, joined in the fight, introducing themselves with gunfire as they flew side by side with Alliance ships.

After several ‘hunches’ had proved correct, and after talking with a few SG troops who had worked with Jack and witnessed his ‘hunches’ in action, Enki took Jack AND Jonathan aside for a chat. Since many correct hunches happened prior to the first time Jack had an Ancient repository downloaded into his brain, forcing open most of his brain’s pathways and forming new ones, he must have inherited the Celtic ‘spooky’ gene from his parents. The old man helped them find the correct area of their brain to use it at will. Jack’s reputation had grown when word got out that he was interrogating prisoners by reading their minds. He wasn’t really, but if it triggered the prisoners to talk, who was he to deny it?

Anunnaki interrogators spread themselves out to other ships. Captives began killing themselves rather than being taken before one of these interrogators. Only Jack had the horrifying snake stick, though. Tok’ra had taken to being completely honest with him after the first time they witnessed what the pukku could do. Malek had tried telling them.

Jack’s reputation was also growing about the time he spent walking through the infirmaries. There was a hushed whisper that people touched by him tended to heal faster than others with the same wounds who were not touched. Jack thought it was nonsense when he heard about it, scoffing with a wave of his hand. Bre’tac and Teal’c didn’t comment; Jack didn’t remember healing Bre’tac after a deadly knife wound. It had happened when the second repository download completely took over Jack’s brain years earlier.

There was only so much kel’no’reeming a man could do, so Jack was running on caffeine most of the time. When he did agree to get a little rest, he rarely made it to his quarters and usually ended up in one of the make-shift group rooms. 

With all the extra people on board the ships, a few of the larger rec-rooms were cleared of furniture and the floors were covered in pillows, blankets, and anything else people could sleep on. He would crash in a group room and more than once woke up in a tangle of arms and legs. After spending almost a year getting used to multiple people in his own bed, he slept better when surrounded by people. 

Most of the groups were non-Tau’ri; Jack’s own people were still a little self-conscious about groups, and were rarely out of the male-female pairing. Jack was usually in the Anunnaki’s room where anything goes. He no longer cared what people were doing next to him Col. Reynolds and SG-1 weren’t questioning it, so neither did anyone else. The crew was discovering that if they took their cues from SG-1, they worked easier with their unpredictable general.

After the first month, the no sex policy went quickly out the door once people learned that Jack didn’t care as long as jobs were done to the best of their abilities and no jealous duels were started over assumed territory. He saw the example on alien ships; the connection made them closer and more likely to fight harder for each other, as well as releasing tension. Let people be people, he decided. 

Jack insisted that the crew spend off-duty time in as much recreation as possible, to off-set their on-duty time. Being confined in such tight quarters 24/7, play-time was important or people would blow up. Read, watch movies, play; he didn’t care, just do something to work out the tension. Too many soldiers returned home, only to commit suicide. 

Most intelligent beings were cooperative, Enki told him; cooperative beings had brains that told them to cooperate, not kill each other. When soldiers were abruptly dropped from the battlefield and back into peaceful territory, their brain was unable to adjust to the atrocities committed in the line of duty, and they imploded. Jack didn’t want any ‘implosions’ from his command. Play, people, get it out of your system.

Col. Markham gave him looks and made small comments under his breath about protocol, but Jack told him to chill and think of it as an experiment. Major Davis was keeping a quiet watch on statistics, letting Jack know that performance stats were up while stress related issues were down. There had been a few blow-ups over women, but Jack didn’t need to step in; the women themselves dealt with it. They were not property, they would spend time with whomever they pleased, and if the men didn’t like it, they were put on the social no-contact list. The Anunnaki women were all supportive of their baby sisters.

Much to Jack’s embarrassment, Jonathan had taken to being the entertainment during what little down-time they had. More often than not, he could be found with his guitar, fronting a home-made band and getting people to dance. Once or twice Jonathan had goaded Jack into a song, much to the good-natured enthusiasm of the troops. 

During one of their 303 commander meetings, Jack was surprised when Col. Caldwell also jumped up onto the stage and helped Jonathan rock the house down. The man was a pretty good, slightly raspy baritone. Caldwell blamed it on the cigarettes he had smoked for years. Until he was put on the 303. Smokers didn’t stay smokers, once they were put into space. Even Col. Markham had to admit that the crew was more together after such events. 

The Sua had to wait for landfall until they could build bonfires for their drums. They tried to build a bonfire on a cargo deck after bringing in wood from one of the planets they visited, and were startled when the ship’s fire system took over.

Such events were few and far between on some stretches of the battle. There were many weeks when all they did was fight enemy ships without let-up. Entire motherships had been taken, and smaller vessels took them over as home ports. The cramped spaces on the other ships were relieved as personnel transferred to the ha’taks. The closer they got to Baal’s position, the more desperate Baal’s fleet fought.

Baal sent a message that he wanted to talk truce, but Jack refused; he knew better than to believe a Goa’uld would keep the truce. His council agreed with him. 

Other calls came in, requests for asylum. After questioning, Thanatos confirmed that many were hidden Masharu. Jack reminded him of free-will and not to trust someone just because they say one thing. Interrogators took over and a few of the asylum seekers had been executed. 

Most Jaffa willingly surrendered to Bre’tac, and slaves were offered the chance to fight or sit it out in a ha’tak until they could be returned to their home worlds. Many chose to fight.

A few battles were fought on the ground of one planet or another. Jack more than once found himself on the back of a race called Ras that served on Thanatos’ ship. They reminded Jack of centaurs; half horse and half human. Pony sized, not full horse sized. And they didn’t mind carrying riders. Jack got to know one called Mitraka and they became regular partners when they were on ground. Teal’c’s Ras was called Pashly. The troops were startled, at first, when the Ras were brought out of hiding, but quickly got used to them, as they did with any other alien race. The Goa’uld Jaffa seemed outraged that the Tau’ri would resort to ground fighting on something other than their feet.

Reports were sent back to Earth, and Jack was relieved to hear that Earth was still safe. A world-wide party was being had after he sent news back that Enlil was dead. News of the space battle with the Goa’uld was smuggled into the general population, and everyone was avidly eating up the images being sent back from the 303 cameras. The Pentagon tried to stop the public from viewing it, but Hammond convinced them that the public deserved to know. 

The public found it strange to watch the space battle; after years of movies, they automatically expected sound effects. All they got was dead silence. Sound didn’t travel in space. Not much more than a few inches, anyway. Neither did fire. Ships that blew up or were hit were simply whole one minute and drifting with debris the next. Any fires were confined to the internal portion of ships, anyplace with oxygen present.

All the kids sent messages and Jack kept pictures of them plastered all over his quarters. Olivia had discovered her toes. Jack recorded stories for her to watch, so that she would know his voice and his face. Many mommies and daddies sent recorded story-time messages, and story books were circulated throughout the ships so that they had new stories to share.

More Goa’uld surrendered to the Alliance. Jack used the pukku on them and found that Camulus had been right; when the Goa’uld was dead, the host quickly died, too, having been host too long. Sometimes there was a brief moment of horrifying clarity for the host, and death was the blessing. Jack sent many of the images to Baal. Over an open channel, of course.

The ground battles were the worst. All too often they left a planet flowing with rivers of blood. Mostly red, a few dashes of orange, purple, green, and blue. Jack found it hard to believe that the natives were thanking them for freeing them from the Goa’uld, when they were hip deep in the dead and dying. 

In the middle of the second month, Jack had found himself no longer able to feel after burying one child after another. It seemed that not a day went by when he wasn’t burying someone or pulling a sheet over someone’s head. 

Only seven weeks had gone by, and it seemed like an eternity. All Jack could smell was blood and the dead. He was a ghost when he walked through the Prometheus to his quarters. Someone must have whispered a word to his private council because he didn’t even hear his door chime until Ninurta sat on the side of his bed.

“You’re a mess, ahu,” the warrior told him gently. He touched the soot on Jack’s face and looked over the blood and bruises. A section of hair was matted down with blood and dirt, but the wound had been minor and was encrusted over. 

“Come on.” He stood and took Jack’s hand, giving it a gentle tug. Jack stood without a word. Ninurta herded him into the shower. Jack was gently scrubbed from head to foot, taken out, dried, and put to bed. 

Jack lay back on his bunk, an arm over his face. Seven weeks; they had been at it for only seven weeks and he had seen more blood and death than he had seen in his lifetime. Were they doing the right thing?

Dead bodies rose up to greet him. They gibbered at him, threw blood on him, hit him with torn off limbs and entrails. Children looked up at him with dead, hollow eyes. Daniel, Sam, and all their children spoke to him in the dual voice of a host. Snake after snake lunged at him until his body was splitting at the seams with all the snakes in him. Charlie stood in front of him, a symbiote head weaving in and out of his belly. Jack yelled and clawed at the bed.

“Jack!”

He refused to hear the voice, shaking his head. He was roughly shaken and he sat up quickly, fists raised. 

“It’s me, Jack!” Ninurta said loudly, grasping his wrists, struggling with him. Taking a deep, shocked breath, Jack yanked himself free and turned away, his whole body shaking. 

“You’re alright,” the warrior said quietly. “Let it go.” Whether it was the calm acceptance in the warrior’s voice or his partners, somewhere in the back of his mind, Jack found the strength to wail into the thin mattress.

When he was worn out, Ninurta handed him his t-shirt. Jack wiped his face and blew his nose before tossing it to the floor and putting an arm over his eyes.

“Do you believe in a soul?” Ninurta asked as he sat on the floor, his back against the bed frame where he had been watching over his friend.

“Yes.” 

“Then believe that those souls are not lost,” Ninurta said. “They will return. Let them know of your sorrow for them, ask their forgiveness, and beg them to return in a new body. It is also time to forgive yourself, ahu. You are the only one holding you responsible for Charlie.”

Jack was silent for a while, contemplating his inner eyelids. “You’ve done this for thousands of years?” he asked after a while.

“It was hard, at first; there was a time when our feelings were shut off,” Ninurta confessed. “All that death and quite a bit of it unnecessary. The innocents are the hardest. 

“When we discovered that we were faced with becoming like the Goa’uld or destroying the remainder of our race through our own internal fighting, the Nox smacked us upside the head. They were still interfering way back then; this holier than thou thing they have going on is relatively new. They told us to cut the crap, love each other, don’t fight each other, and open our hearts to even the most horrific of things. Say YES to everything. Even when we must say NO, stop and say YES. That is the acceptance of life. Death is part of life. When we say NO to death and destruction, we deny life Her due. By saying YES, we stand in a place of beauty. Do you know why death, destruction, carnage is beautiful?”

Jack shook his head, staring at the dark, black hair of the man on the floor. 

“Because it is a direct reminder of the miracle of life. Feel, Jack. Always. One hundred percent of the time. Feel. Never stop. Scream, laugh, cry, but feel it. For every drop of blood spilt, say YES to life. This is why we love so fiercely; we cling to each other, insisting that we feel and celebrate life to its fullest. 

“We are not immortal, Jack, we age and we die. We simply age much slower than you. After the first thousand years, we have seen all and we’ve done all. There is no more discovery. Many choose to die, instead of waiting for death to choose them. Those of us who remain do so either listening to the seconds tick by or we shut off all feeling. I have learned to listen to the seconds. We love each other. We touch, we hit, we caress, we scream and yell, we laugh, cry, speak our minds, our hearts, we kiss, we sing, dance, we look into each other’s eyes and praise each other. We do this as a reminder that we are alive.”

Jack was staring at him. “Do you always talk so much?” he asked.

Ninurta chuckled. “Yes,” he admitted.

“What does your name mean?” Jack asked. “Daniel said ‘Nin’ means Lady.”

Ninurta smiled. “It does,” he said. “It also means Lord. My language doesn’t really break down into gender specific categories, unlike the Semitic languages such as Arabic or Hebrew. ‘Nin’ is just a polite, general honorific for male OR female. Like Ma’am or Sir. ‘Urta’ is an earth reference. Aba’s name mostly means the same thing. ‘En’ is also an honorific which means Lord. More of a leadership honorific, than a general one. ‘Ki’ means earth. Lord of the Earth. Different kinds of earth, though. Ki refers to the living earth, the earth that grows. Urta is the plants and growing things. Apparently I grew like a weed.”

Jack burst out laughing. Ninurta smiled, pleased.

“Jonathan means Gift of God,” Ninurta continued. “You think of yourself as Jack, though, and Jack means the Lord is Gracious. You are gracious, Jack; you have a tremendous heart. You have opened your home, your life, to five children. You see injustice and you’re the first person to stand up and point it out. The galaxy comes calling for help, and you rally the troops. It’s been too long since we met anyone with a heart such as yours, Jack, and we honor you for it.”

Jack leaned up on his elbows, looking at him.

“I don’t know what to say,” he quietly admitted.

Ninurta shook his head. “You don’t need to say anything. I proudly call you brother as well as friend. Aba has declared Daniel his own, a rare thing, by the way, so that makes you my brother, too. Know we are your family, Jack, and as family, you have the right of family. All of our people know this.”

He turned to look at Jack, his black eyes glowing with an inner light. “You should also make peace with Jonathan, Jack. He is very courageous; he could have taken the easy path and ended his life. It was an exceedingly cruel thing Loki did, creating him without a thought for the person. I don’t think anyone can even contemplate the true horror of Loki’s work. 

“Jonathan is a living person, he has his own soul, and yet Loki treated him as a thing. Your body and mind may have been duplicated, but his soul is his own. Jonathan has chosen to explore his soul, the only thing he has that is NOT yours. That is why he has found himself happy with our family. 

“You could not be happy in his place because that is not who you are. He is a consort, you are a lord. Those aspects come from the heart and the soul. He is at peace now. He can now grow and become his own person to the full extent of his soul.”

He had to admit that Jonathan had begun to grow on him; sometimes even forgetting that Jonathan was his clone. The young man had deliberately taken paths not chosen by Jack, therefore sending himself into new territory and a new life. It took courage, Jack could see that. He would consider Ninurta’s words.

Before Ninurta left, he told Jack to join them in their room once in a while; he would be among peers who understood him more than he knew.

The ship alarms then went off, sending Jack leaping from his bed to get dressed. The two men ran out the door, rushed through the halls and onto the bridge when they saw they had come to another planet that was surrounded by Goa’uld al'kesh. The Goa’uld were keeping with their M.O; they were terrorizing villagers who were not yet industrialized. 

302s exited the ships like angry bees from a hive, and dove at the planet. The villagers were terrified when the new ships buzzed angrily into their skies. Their terror began to turn into hope when they noticed that the new ships were firing upon the others, instead of the village.

The 302s landed and Jack and Teal’c jumped out, chasing Jaffa into the forest. Jack winced and slapped a hand to the side of his face as something whizzed past him, and went down with an even greater pain in his leg; close calls from a staff. His face ached and he bled a bit, but it wasn’t anything he knew wouldn’t heal. Several men stopped and checked on him. The leg wound would also heal. Teal’c growled and blasted the Jaffa who aimed at Jack. They ran down Jaffa for half the day and then returned to the main village, weary and sore. Crying and sniffling punctuated the air as the locals gathered up their dead and wounded.

“General!” Jack looked around. Harper was waving him down. Jack went over, limping. A man was cradling his wife, his eyes terrified.

“A snake just shot into her,” Harper said, his zat pointed at the woman. “It came out of one of the dead.”

Jack pulled his MRI from his pocket and looked at the woman through it. He took the pukku from his utility belt and aimed it, watching through the MRI. Harper watched over his shoulder as Teal’c kept a zat on her.

“It’s gone,” Jack told the husband. “She’ll be alright.” He went around and MRI’d others, disintegrating any living snakes. Once more, he wished the thing could be reverse engineered so that others could have one, too. He helped to gather up the children, cradling them and singing silly nursery songs to them as their adults scurried around them. These children were still alive; he could deal with a few nursery songs.

The villagers were nowhere near equipped to head out into space with them; farming was their primary concern. Reynolds was having a pow-wow with the village elders, every once in a while looking toward Jack as they spoke. The fields were mostly destroyed. The villagers were going to starve until the next crops could be harvested. Jack looked around, taking note of various animal hides, and motioned to a few pilots.

“Each of you take a local,” he told them. “Find out how much food will be needed until the next harvest, and get some game in here.” They acknowledged him and went out for a little hunting with 302s.

By nightfall, there was a pile of dead animals ready to be skinned and their meat dried. Experienced hands were brought down from the ships to help with the skinning and smoking so that the meat wouldn’t go bad. It took two days to make sure the village was set up; the meat was hanging, the grateful locals could take it from there.

Back on the Prometheus, triage helpers insisted on escorting him to sickbay for his own repairs. Once his face was fixed, Jack touched his cheek and worked his jaw. The side of his face was still a little numb from the anesthetic and surgical glue, but the doctor told him he would be fine. When he got his BDU’s off, Jack whitened. The doctor pushed him back down.

“Two more inches, and my wife AND our husband would have been without their favorite play toy,” he told the doctor. The nurse reddened and handed the doctor a syringe filled with more surgical glue.