Chapter 29

Jack was still sound asleep in the morning. They straightened his covers and tucked him in. Sam checked his pulse, slightly worried at all his sleeping, but she shook her head at Daniel’s look. He was fine, as far as she could tell.

The kids clamored for breakfast, including one hungry baby, so Daniel and Sam got them settled. A neighbor stopped and picked up Matty for church. They had dealt with Father Joe when Matthew started becoming a regular at St. Peter’s. The Father was a little concerned that Matthew might be getting negative messages from the family, and so was more than once welcomed to meals at the house. He left bemused, enjoying his lively conversations with Daniel, convinced that the family supported Matthew’s decision to continue with the Church, and respectful of those who did not wish to join him. 

Now that Jack’s mother was in town, she, too, began joining her great-grandson at St. Peter’s. Sometimes a few of Daniel’s SGC geeks would come over to the house and Matthew enjoyed some of the conversations he would get from Khalid. Although two different religions, Khalid respected the boy and was teaching him that it was okay to Believe and still live in the modern world.

Stacy enjoyed language day in their house when SGC translators and Daniel’s class all came over. Everyone took turns trying out words and phrases on her, but she picked up whatever she heard. It wasn’t unusual for students to drop in at odd hours, if something was bugging them. 

Sam had visitors, too, when something technical came up, but Jack had misgivings about blowing the house up so Sam usually did her consulting on-line. Everyone was told that if they were going to bother the family at home, they’d better be prepared to pitch in. The traffic had lessened since the baby came to the house, but a few brave souls still managed.

The university wasn’t sure about Daniel’s teaching methods. He used testing only because the board insisted, rarely used a text book, and rarely used the classroom. Daniel had taken the text books, edited them, returned them to the board, and told them that when the authors got it right, he’d use them.

While Jack was still sleeping, alright maybe unconscious would be a better word, Maggie and Fr. Joe came in with Matthew just in time for lunch. There was a screech of laughter from the front yard and Daniel stuck his head out the door. Davy, Stacy, and, surprisingly T’Keet, were pelting snowballs at several warriors and children that had popped in to play in the snow. One snowball hit a neighbor.

“Manners!” Daniel shouted. “Ooof!” A cold, white blob had hit him square in the chest. He shouted a challenge and jumped down, rolling and ducking for cover as he put together some ammo of his own.

Paul had come up the sidewalk, took in the scene, and decided that the kids needed help more, so he joined their ranks.

“Traitor!” Daniel shouted.

Something red flew past.

“Zu!” the children shouted in delight. “Erra and Zu are back!”

Zu landed close to Daniel, turned, and scratched at the snow, sending a flurry of snow flying at Daniel. Zu snickered at the sputtering and flew back into the house. A warrior stuck his head out.

“Erra! Be on our side!” the kids shouted. Erra dove at them and started shooting balls across the yard.

“Hey! No fair!” Daniel shouted.

“And three men against a couple of kids is fair?” Erra asked. “I’d say things are evened out, now.” He shot a snowball and it landed on a neighbor. “I’m Erra! Nothing personal!”

“Where have you been?” Daniel called out.

“Destroying archaeological evidence!”

Several snowballs were volleyed at him. Matty and Katie came out. Katie went to Paul and Matty went to Daniel.

More people appeared in the yard and chose their teams. The children had discovered that they could sneak around the grownups and shove snow down sweaters and pants. The ship’s kids came down and joined up. Neighborhood kids heard the commotion and came out for the fun, too. A couple of people from Daniel’s class came up and also joined in.

Jack stuck his head out the door, watched blurrily for a moment, grunted, and went back to bed. Maggie tucked him back in, worriedly kissed his head, and went back into the living room. Zu came in and was pecking hungrily at a bowl of fruit Sam quickly put out for him.

“What have you been doing?” she asked him.

“Wooorkkking,” he croaked and spit out a piece of orange rind. Fr. Joe glanced up from his coffee and looked at the bird.

“I gathered that,” Sam said. “Working at what?”

“Ppppressent forrrr youuuu,” he said.

“For me? Where is it?” she asked, surprised.

“Commmming,” he assured her. He looked over at Olivia in Maggie’s arms. “Haapppyyy cubbbb,” he commented. Sam looked at the baby and smiled.

“Yes, she is,” she agreed.

“Nexxxt gennnerrrationnnn,” Zu said. “Trrraaaain herrrr welllll.”

“Next generation? What do you mean, Zu?” Sam asked, frowning.

“Daaaltuuu. Ezzzibbbb shhhhaaaa.”

“What? Zu, I don’t speak Sumerian,” Sam reminded him. He flew to the back of the chair Maggie was in, rubbed his beak against Olivia’s cheek and preened the fuzz on her head before disappearing. She gurgled and waved a hand at him.

“You, uh, have interesting guests,” Fr. Joe said, a little pale.

“Who, Zu? Exasperating is a better word, I think,” Sam commented. She made a note to ask Daniel the meaning of the words. There was a squawk from outside. Zu popped back in, shook snow off his back, looked out the window as he planned his strategy, and popped back out again.

Inanna beamed in. She looked out the window and shook her head.

“I had wondered where our children had gotten to,” she said. “A few big kids, too, I see. Ah, well.” She touched her comm and informed the ship. Moments later, Ninurta, Shara, Gibil, and Jonathan beamed in and were out the door. Enki and cigar sat on the porch, which was declared neutral territory.

It wasn’t exactly what Daniel and Sam had in mind for the day, but everyone needed the break. Daniel came in after a while and was conned into playing his piano after his fingers thawed, and told Enki about all the sleep Jack had been doing.

Enki checked on Jack and assured his partners that he was fine. He had several experiences with new, open sections of his brain while on the Prometheus, and all of Jack’s energy was being sapped by the open circuits so the sleep was good; it was replenishing his energy which had been growing dangerously low.

It was dark when Jack woke up. He listened. The house was quiet. He was quiet on the inside, too, feeling like he had been muffled with cotton. He looked over and saw Sam and Daniel asleep next to him. He got up, peed, and made the rounds. Everyone was asleep. He found food and sat in his office to work for a while. 

When it was light, he took a long, hot shower, shaved off the three-day beard, and made breakfast for the kids. Everyone was glad to see him up and he assured them he was fine. Sam headed out for the final week of the forensic seminar and Daniel took the kids to school while Jerrie got Olivia up and fed. Jack needed to go to DC for a meeting.

It was unusual for Jack to be a willing participant in a government meeting, so when he actually initiated one, Hayes and Maynard made time in their schedules. Jack sat down and told them about the proposal of unified worlds.

“My God, Jack, we can’t get our own world to cooperate,” Hayes said, stunned.

“I know and I told them that,” Jack said. “Look, I’m saying that I don’t know what to do about this. I’m flattered that they want me to lead this thing, but at the same time, I have a family to raise. I’ve been away from them too much as it is. I missed Davy’s eleventh birthday and Christmas. 

“If there is someone you feel should be offered the position of Tau’ri representative, that’s fine. I’m willing to be standby, in case a decision breaker needs to be made. They want me whether or not Earth is involved. The Heaven’s Bow will be leaving tomorrow for their new home world. Inanna doesn’t want to lead this thing, she wants to rebuild a world. I’d suggest Hammond for the post but I’m also thinking he’d be great as the new Air Force Academy Commander.”

“We’re already considering him for that post,” Maynard said from the window. “How do we get Earth together to do this?”

“They said it doesn’t matter what a single planet does within its own borders,” Jack told him. “There will be a compact for the union, and there will be a sentient rights statement which the planet will need to follow, but other than that…..”

“I’m rackin’ my brain here, Jack, and the only person that comes to mind for this is you,” Hayes said. “You’re already known, your record speaks for itself. There isn’t another person on this planet that can even match you, as much as it pains my own ego to say it.”

“Since the next governing body is the UN, I suggest calling an emergency meeting and letting the other nations in on this,” Jack said. “We need to find out the general mood of the planet. I can call a meeting with the HomeSec council. We can’t force everyone into this; there would be calls of dictatorship. We need to move fast, though, the galaxy is looking to this tiny, xenophobic planet to head up this thing.”

“If they want Earth to do this, shouldn’t we be the ones to write the compact?” Hurley asked.

“There are still planets chiming in with their preliminary vote for inclusion,” Jack said. “The protocols haven’t even been written, yet; Bre’tac is collecting lists of wants and needs. We need to wait and see what everyone has to say; we cannot walk in and take over, imposing our Western standards on the galaxy. If we step in and abolish the things we don’t like, we would be acting like the settlers did with the Native Americans. 

“No matter what I personally feel about those acts, I’m not willing to turn a society upside down and force them to follow an alien protocol. They want Earth to participate and me to lead the council. I would be the voice of the council, the tie-breaker, not the king. The union will be run by council, not by Earth.”

Jack stood and walked to the bar, poured himself a glass of water.

“Look, guys, this is a major step they’re taking out there,” he said, gesturing toward the sky with his glass. “They have been living in fear for thousands of years and they suddenly have their freedom. Sure, a few planets are going a little wild, and a few don’t know what to do without someone telling them, but all in all, the fact that they are looking to each other for support is a positive step. Some of them are just as xenophobic as Earth, but we’re getting past it. We need to be looking at the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is out there.”