Chapter 54

Jerrie was bending over them, gently shaking Jack’s shoulder.

“Sir, urgent call,” she whispered, holding out the phone. Jack took it from her.

“What?” he grunted into the phone. A moment later he sat up. “That has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve heard in a while,” he said as he shook Daniel awake. “Bring home whoever is nearby and have them wait for my call.” He handed the phone back to Jerrie and looked at the other side of the bed, just to make sure. Sam was definitely not in bed.

“What’s going on?” Daniel asked, rubbing his eyes and searching for his glasses. Jack had jumped out of bed and began hauling his clothes on.

“Apparently someone let Major Coulter onto the base and he’s locked himself and Sam in her office.”

Daniel hopped out of bed and also began to dress. “Who’s in the solar system?”

“Europa, I think. They can be here in about an hour,” Jack said. “They need to round up their scientists from a couple of moons at Saturn.”

They left Jerrie holding the fort and sped out to HomeSec. Jack used a few back roads, kicking up dirt. Local police considered stopping him but decided that there must be something happening for the general to be driving recklessly. 

They ran through a side-door, into the building, and down to the lab. The arch was already up and waiting for them. Jack and Daniel ran through and came out at the Area 51 lab.

“Someone turn the shields off and report!” Jack shouted.

“Sir, Major Coulter is demanding his record cleared and an honorable discharge,” Lt. Wilson said as she jogged alongside the men.

“How’d he get in?” Jack asked.

“He convinced a few friends on staff that he left personal belongings in the office and he needed them back. He waited until I took a short break, sir,” she reported.

“Everyone deserves a pee-break, Lieutenant,” Jack said. “I’m not blaming you for this. I do want the names of those ‘friends’ of his, though.”

The SF outside Sam’s office stood aside for the general and let him in. Jack held up a hand, halting those behind him. He quickly felt around for Sam’s energy pattern within himself. She was alive and a little irritated, but not afraid.

“She’s fine,” he told them. Wilson didn’t understand but Daniel did. Jack hesitated and then opened the intercom to Sam’s office. “Major? It’s General O’Neill. You’ve got my colonel and wife in there. You know how this will end, so how about we cut to the chase?”

“The charges against me are bogus, General,” came the major’s voice through the intercom. “I want them dropped and I want an honorable discharge.”

“Major, it ain’t gonna happen,” Jack told him. “Especially not if you continue to hold Colonel Carter hostage. I’m not negotiating, Major. You release her, and then you and I will talk.” He pulled Daniel close and whispered. Daniel gave a nod and left the room.

“Major, both your wife and your daughter have been treated multiple times for bruises and sprains,” Jack said. “How do you explain that?”

“I wouldn’t hurt my family, sir,” Coulter said. “My wife is clumsy, sir. It wasn’t me.”

“There are several reports from your neighbors about loud fights,” Jack said.

“We argue, sir,” Coulter said. “All married couples argue.”

“Yes, they do,” Jack admitted. “Most married couples don’t end up in the emergency room, though. The colonel in there can tell you we argue, just ask her. But we have never lifted a hand to each other. Are you going to tell me that you’ve never hit your wife? Maybe gotten a little pissed with her and put her back in her place?”

“That isn’t abuse, General; it’s my right to reprimand her,” Coulter insisted. “My marriage is not the business of the military. I love my wife, and you and everyone else are out of line interfering in my business.”

“Spousal and child abuse is the business of the military, Major,” Jack said. “Under the Family Advocacy Program: each branch of the military services has a Family Advocacy Program that operates in accordance with DoD Directive 6400.1. They are designed to prevent child and spousal abuse, to promote early identification and intervention in cases of alleged child and spousal abuse, and to provide programs of rehabilitation and treatment for child and spousal abuse problems. To the maximum extent possible, DoD cooperates with responsible civilian authorities in efforts to address the problems to which this Directive applies. Each branch of service maintains a central registry containing data on reports of alleged child and spousal abuse.”

As Jack continued to quote military regulations at Coulter via the intercom, he kept looking at his watch. He stopped in mid-sentence after hearing a crash in the room.

“Major? What’s going on in there?” Jack called out.

“Coming out,” he heard Sam call. The door opened. Sam tugged on her jacket and smoothed her hair into place. She had a scratch on her cheek, but nothing more. “You can take him, now,” she said. “He’s probably going to have a doozy of a headache when he wakes up.” She looked at her nails and frowned before buffing them on her uniform.

The SF went in and cuffed the man lying on the floor before shaking him awake. Jack looked at him.

“What took you so long?” he asked.

“He had a gun on me and I couldn’t reach him,” she said. “He started pacing when you wouldn’t shut up, and when he came near I kicked him in the groin and punched the side of his head. He went out like a light.”

Jack canceled the Europa and had Coulter taken downstairs into the dungeon. He sent Daniel down to monitor the deposition that Barrett would be conducting via the Tok’ra memory device. He hated that nasty toy, but it did come in handy.

“Did you have breakfast yet?” Jack asked Sam.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “But I can use some lunch.”

Her admin looked from one to the other and decided to take Colonel Davis’ advice and not ask.

While Sam got her office back in order Jack went down to the dungeon to check on Daniel. Ex-NID Agent Barrett was sitting with Daniel. Jack didn’t like the look on their faces. Barrett motioned and Jack bent down.

“This man is deep undercover,” Barrett whispered. “He’s Trust. We’re extracting as much information as we can. I’d like to take him off-world to Delta site.”

“What’s Delta site?” Jack whispered. Barrett gave him a look.

“His wife and daughter are caught in the middle; I suggest telling them he’s been killed in an accident. Nothing left of his body.” He handed Jack Coulter’s tags.

“Alright,” Jack said and put the tags in his pocket. “Keep him on ice until Prometheus can get here; I don’t want him anywhere near the SGC. And find out how he got in this far.”

“Working on it,” Barrett said. “He’s been programmed pretty well.”

“Great,” Jack said, puffing noisily. He thought hard and then hit a speed dial on his cell phone. “Did you find anything unusual in Coulter’s background? He’s a mole. The Trust. No, Barrett is taking him to Delta site. You and Paul take your week. I insist. Nick, you’re allowed to miss one, now and again.”

“He got by Nick’s background check?” Daniel asked. “Someone has talent in creating paper-trails.”

Jack scratched at his nose before tugging thoughtfully on it. “Barrett, find out if Coulter and a young lady named Brynn Sheely are working for the same people.”

“The woman you tried out as a nanny?” Barrett asked.

“Yes,” Jack nodded, not surprised that Barrett knew about it. “She’s in an Irish prison. Sam can get you the files.”

“Jack,” Daniel began, hating the dirty tricks aspect of interrogation. He was pacing a little, his arms wrapped around himself.

“Daniel, we need to know,” Jack said, knowing what was bothering Daniel. “If this was a simple case of stupidity, I’d let it go, but it isn’t. He’s been programmed. We need to find out what that programming is. I’m not asking you to participate, but you need to understand why it needs to be done.”

Daniel wasn’t happy about it, but he did understand.

“Where’s the ship?” Jack asked, giving Daniel’s shoulder a squeeze. Daniel left with Jack, leaving Coulter in Barrett’s hands, and led Jack through the underground maze to a large bay holding the ancient jumper that they had brought over from Austria.

Scientists dressed in white suits buzzed around the ship, some writing on hand-held boards and others talking into recorders.

“Who’s in charge?” Jack asked. Daniel looked at him. “I mean, who’s in charge when you’re not here.”

“Dr. Frito,” Daniel said. Jack returned the look. “Don’t, please. Just Fritz. She’s over there.”

Jack looked across the room and spotted the professor, an older woman with frizzy white hair flying away from the pins attempting to hold it captive. She absently pushed coke-bottle glasses back to the top of her nose and then pulled them down again to look over the top of them.

“Fritz,” Daniel called, waving an arm. She blinked blankly and then smiled.

“Where do you find them?” Jack whispered. Daniel ignored him and went across the room with Jack tagging behind.

“Hello, Daniel,” she said. “Is the fire out?”

“We’re good,” Daniel assured Fritz. “How’s it going with the ship?”

She turned to the ship, tossing her arms out wide to encompass the vessel. Jack jumped out of the way of the clipboard.

“It’s been quite fascinating,” she informed them. “I don’t believe this ship is necessarily older than the current ones, but I do believe its purpose was different than the others. Come, come….” she waved at them to follow her.

Inside the ship, someone, or several someones, had plastered the panels and walls with sticky notes. Jack looked closely at them. Most were written in various languages, and a few had multiple languages on single pieces of paper. They reminded him of Daniel’s notebooks.

“Most of this is Ancient technology,” Fritz said, stepping over feet sticking out from under a console. “There are aspects that don’t fit, however. Someone had attempted to force the crystal technology with a gaseous technology, hence the hollow tubing. The gas has long since dissipated. What’s been interesting, though, is that the main function of the ship remained.” She pushed on her glasses, waiting. Daniel pushed at his own glasses.

“I don’t read minds, Doctor, spill it,” Jack finally said. She blinked at him, having forgotten his presence.

“It’s a gigantic tape-recorder,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“It has been the witness to our entire civilization,” she said, the clipboard once more sailing through the air. “Everything that has ever happened on this planet has been recorded. We haven’t actually been able to turn on the replay but we know it’s recording. From the amount of stored data, we estimate it has approximately ten thousand years worth of history recorded. It’s still recording.”

Jack touched a side panel and sat on the small seat that extended. Several people looked at him, not having realized that the seat was there. He clasped his hands between his knees, looking at the floor as his mind raced. Daniel ran his hands over his face and locked his fingers behind his neck as he paced in thought.

“Did Colonel Sheppard go over the ship?” Jack asked.

“Just a cursory exam,” Daniel said. “Mainly to check for weapons.”

Jack stood. “Everyone out.” The scientists paused, looking from him to Fritz. “Out. Now.” Daniel jerked his head toward the door and motioned them out. He closed the door behind them, ignoring their protests.

“This could destroy the planet,” Jack said. Considering all the historical mysteries, past and present, secular and theistic, having facts presented to the world could ignite Armageddon.

“I agree. Are you prepared to make this decision on your own?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “I was expecting to fight weapons, not knowledge.” He stood and paced, yanking on the back of his neck as he looked around. “We need to get this ship off the planet before I consider mentioning it to people.”

“I think I’d like to know who did this before we do anything else,” Daniel said. “If the Ancients didn’t put it here, who did? It isn’t Furling, definitely not Nox or Asgard.”

They opened the door and went out.

“No one goes in there,” Jack ordered. He palmed the door shut and locked it. “I want all data sent to my office immediately. Including any secret copies that anyone was hoping to make money on. Don’t think I won’t know if anyone ‘forgets’ a piece of paper.”

“But, General!” Fritz protested, her eyes even bigger behind the glasses. “You can’t do this!”

“It’s done, Doctor,” he said. “Daniel, I want everyone who isn’t here, brought here. Get them out of their bath, their blow-job, their after lunch shit, I don’t care. Here. Now. Everyone should be tagged; get the Europa back here.”

Daniel inclined his head, not arguing. Jack called Sam down and then called Michael. 

“Michael, I need to ask you something,” he said when the line was answered. “If you were offered absolute, physical proof that your religion was true, or not, would you be willing to hear the answer? What if that answer wasn’t what your heart wanted to hear?” Jack waited. “I can feel your panic, Mike. No, I’m not making the offer, I’m just asking.”

“What’s going on?” Sam asked when he hung up.

“That jumper has been recording Earth history for about ten thousand years,” he told her. She immediately pieced together the puzzle.

“Oh, my,” she breathed, wide-eyed. “But the analysis of the mountain puts the ship there millions of years ago.” Confusion crossed her face. 

Jack nodded. “We can work on that later; it was probably beamed in. I’ve put the ship off-limits for the time being,” he told her. “Daniel is gathering up all off-duty personnel. Dr. Fritz hasn’t been able to get the replay button to work. I’m pretty sure I can.”

He sat across from her, stretching his long legs out as he tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling.

“I’d like your thoughts on this,” he said. “Your personal feelings.”

She leaned back, lacing her fingers over her stomach. “Personally, it won’t bother me one way or the other,” she said. “Whatever the reality, it won’t affect my work. On a broader level, though, billions of people will feel the effect.”

“It’s a powder keg,” Jack agreed. He palmed the door open and let Daniel back into the ship, much to the irritation of the scientists hanging around and scowling. They had tried to get the door open and succeeded only in fraying tempers.

“Are we sure this isn’t an Ancient ship?” Jack asked.

“We’re sure,” Daniel said. “We have a small dilemma. Enki was here about 10,000 years ago, I made a quick call, and he didn’t notice anything happening in Europe. There really wasn’t anything to watch happening, in that time period.

“The Neolithic Revolution - introducing village life, the cultivation of crops and the rearing of animals - arrived in Greece in about 7000 BCE from its region of origin in the Middle East. It would take about 3000 years to spread to the Atlantic coast and Britain, pushing back the way of life of the hunter-gatherers at an average rate of slightly more than a mile a year. 

“Tribes speaking Indo-European languages, and living as nomadic herdsmen, were well established by about 2000 BCE in the steppes which stretch from the Ukraine eastwards, to the regions north of the Black and the Caspian Seas.

“Over the coming centuries they steadily infiltrate the more appealing regions to the south and west - the Caspian -occasionally in something akin to open warfare, and invariably no doubt with violence. But the process is much more gradual than our modern notions of an invading force. In Europe the first Indo-European tribes to make significant inroads became the Greeks. They move south into Greece and the Aegean from the 18th century BCE.” He paused and looked at them.

“So who the hell was in Europe in 8,000 BCE?” he asked them. “We have cavemen and agronomists meeting up with…. who? The Ancients were gone by then. As a race, anyway, and the Sumerians didn’t show up in the Middle East until about 4,000 BCE.”

Sam nodded. “True,” she said, not surprised at his knowledge. “I have a question: We know that the Ancients were escaping from something. They went from here to the Pegasus Galaxy where they accidentally created the Wraith, and back to here where they died out. So, who were they originally running from?”

“Is this relevant to the ship?” Jack asked.

Sam shrugged. “It might be, I don’t know. Maybe whoever they were running from put the ship in the mountain, and said mountain dates to millions of years old. Maybe whoever it belonged to timed it in and got stuck inside the mountain?”

“Good idea,” Jack said. “It may be relevant. I’d like to discuss the information this ship quite possibly holds, anyway, and how we are to deal with it. We have three major religions that will blow up, if this box says what I think it will say. Those three major religions are pretty much in control of most of the world. Do I honor truth and let the information out, or do I leave them in ignorant peace? Such as it is, considering the state of war out there. I asked my brother how he would feel about learning facts that may not be to his liking; he pretty much had a melt-down, and I hadn’t even gotten to the good part. That’s just one man.”

“Jack, how do you know they never existed?” Sam asked. They looked at her as she stood to watch the scientists out the front window. “Playing devil’s advocate…..  Let’s ignore the question of whether or not the God of Abraham existed. Did Abraham exist? If he did, all three of those religions are still legitimate. Their message is still appropriate. All three have messages of peace and love and kindness. Granted, all three also have messages of violence, but I think that might be politics talking through the authors, not the spirit of their deity. If you decide to release the truth, can it be released in a certain manner?”

“Kicking their crutch out from under them, any way it’s done, will still have the same effect,” Jack said. “They will fall on their asses and start blaming each other for the kick. They can’t play nice now, what makes you think they’ll play nice when they’re in full-blown panic?”

“I think you should destroy the ship.”

They slowly turned to Daniel.

“Did you say something, Dr. The-Sky-Is-Falling-Save-The-Clouds?” Jack asked.

Daniel nodded and waved a wrist. “I know, I know…..” He put his hands over his face for a moment. “You’re right, Jack; the tribes of Abraham will destroy themselves and half the planet if they find out that their God was no more and no less than any other god. Send the ship into a sun and destroy it.”

“I have to disagree with you, Daniel,” Sam said. “Now, hear me out on this….. You have spent almost a year being open and honest with the kids. You have preached on and on about having them grow up with open minds. Now you are faced with the ultimate truth and you’re NOT going to tell them? How does that work?”

“It would be a loving-kindness to keep this from them,” Daniel said.

“It would be a loving-kindness for their kids to grow up in a world without war,” Sam said.

“There is no easy answer for this one,” Jack said, breaking the silence. “We need to have a talk with this world’s religious leaders. If for no other reason then for the UW’s rule, and the UN’s laws, of self-determination.”

“Jack, I think we need to take a look at the history before making any decision,” Daniel said. “We could be panicking for no reason.”

Jack puffed noisily into his hands and then nodded. He turned and looked over the console, hesitantly putting out a hand. Sheppard wouldn’t have known to look for it and it was highly unlikely any of the scientists outside would have the necessary gene for it. A brief thought entered his head –he wondered if he could get his TV to work on mental power…..

“Well, if it’s still recording, it would make sense that it’s kept up with language shifts…. World map,” Jack said mainly to himself before raising his voice slightly. The screen shifted to an image of the planet.

“Here,” Jack said, touching the screen. The Middle East was brought into focus. “Daniel, what date are we looking at?”

“Try 2000 BCE,” Daniel said. “To start with. Move forward from there.”

Jack called out the date and new locations as Daniel prompted him.

“Can we find out who killed Kennedy?” Jack asked him. The screen abruptly changed. “No, go back!” he ordered. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”

They watched for several hours, the silence punctuated now and again by new commands from Jack. By the time he told the ship to stop, Sam was wiping her face.

“Jack, you can’t make this decision on your own or with us,” she said, clearing her throat. Daniel handed her a paper towel from a nearby kit that was left on the floor.

“I know,” he said quietly. “Daniel, make me a list of relevant world leaders and invite them to a very private meeting. Sam, no one goes near this ship. Collect all documentation on it and prepare to expunge all of it. Depending on the outcome of the meeting.”

“What are we doing in the meantime?” Sam asked.

“We will continue with our lives and deal with this tomorrow. The ship isn’t going anywhere; this doesn’t need to be done now.”

“Jack, one more thing?” Daniel asked. “Ask the ship who created it.”

The group waited, a little abashed that no one had thought to ask the simple question. Jack asked the ship the question.

“Lanta’ana,” the ship said after a moment. The vocal speakers hadn’t been used in a long time..

“Hmmm. Could be a form of Atlantean,” Daniel said. “Or Lantian, as the Atlantis team is calling them.” Sam agreed.

“The Atlanteans are the Ancients,” Jack said. “The Ancients made the ships the Goa’uld and Jaffa have been using, so who created the hybrid form of this ship?”

“Lanta’ana.”

“It may have been programmed to say that,” Daniel commented. “How about asking it to show us its creators?”

Jack asked. “Looks like an Ancient to me,” he said in thought as they stared at the screen. “Maybe the those crystal tubes and the gas were part of the recording aspect? The gas is gone, though…” His voice tapered off while thinking out loud.

“If the ship was jumped back in time, maybe it wasn’t meant to be inside a mountain and it got there from a malfunction in equipment? We don’t know if those tubes were an original part of the ship, or if they were an attempt by the crew to get out of the mountain and it didn’t work,” Sam suggested.

“Well,” Jack stood, “it doesn’t really matter. We know jumping is a bad idea, so we are not keeping this thing. Let’s get everything on this ship rounded up.”

Dr. Frito was not happy upon being told to shut down the project and turn in all materials. Jack threatened to wipe her brain of all knowledge and reduce her to a sniveling toddler in droopy diapers. Dr. Frito had heard that such a device existed. The promise was given. Jack locked the ship and had his own SF brought in to see to the shut-down.