Chapter 55

 Chapter 55

“Hey.”

Jack looked up to see Mason sticking his head in the door.

“Come in,” he said. Mason went into the work room, holding his hat in his hand.

“Sergeant Emmerson’s house went down last night,” Mason said after greeting Sam. “Little girl’s in pretty bad shape.”

Jack shook his head and pulled his wallet out. There were a handful of bills in it and he put them into the hat. He looked up at the others in the room and more wallets were taken out.

“Do they know the cause?” he asked.

“Fire chief is saying a short in a wire,” Mason said. Jack took the hat from him and put it on a table.

“Stand on that,” Jack said, pointing at a platform sitting in the floor. Before Mason knew what hit him, several technicians had surrounded him and were helping him into a flight suit. The addition of a parachute and air tank gave him pause.

“Open the hatch!” Jack called out as Sam gave Mason a quick tour of the control panel. Mason looked up and saw the roof retracting. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun.

“Up you go,” Jack told him. The controls were almost identical to the controls in a glider, so it wasn’t too difficult to get them activated. The platform began to slowly rise from the floor and Mason quickly grabbed the small railings on the sides of the panel. Much to his surprise, he didn’t feel any movement.

“Inertia?” he called down.

“Same system as the ships,” Sam said. “It’s built into the control panel’s body. There is also a shield that will come up in about…..”

Click…

“….now.”

Mason gave an experimental poke and found that he was indeed isolated.

“How far up am I going?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“Take it up to the space station,” Jack said. “There’s a glider waiting for you up there to bring you back down. You’re leaving the platform up there. It’s new equipment to help with walk-abouts and repairs on the satellites.”

“And you can’t have a ship take this up because…..?” Mason waved a hand, waiting as he looked over the edge at Jack who was getting smaller by the moment.

“Just curious,” Jack said.

“Uh huh.”

“Come on, Marine, it’s a new toy,” Jack said encouragingly. “Where’s your enthusiasm?”

“It became a little more careful after that Jaffa incident,” Mason told him.

“I’ll watch your hat for you,” Jack promised.

“Is this some sort of revenge, Jack?” Mason called down. “Because I think it’s my turn!”

They watched Mason ascend into the air until they could no longer see him clearly. Jack hopped onto the mikku and tuned into the magic flying carpet. Mason was adjusting his oxygen tank as he came nearer to the outer atmosphere. Just above the Earth, several gliders were also keeping an eye on him.

“I wanted to do it,” Sam complained to Jack.

“You can take up the next one,” Jack said. She looked at him. “Alright, so sue me,” he said. “I don’t want you falling.”

“But it’s okay for your cousin to fall,” she said.

“It’s okay for Mason to fall, yes,” Jack nodded. Sam shook her head at him. “Mom doesn’t need to know about this.”

“Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this,” she informed him, leaning back against a table.

“Tell me what?”

“I don’t know,” she contemplated. “You’re a little too cocky; after this…..”

Jack looked quickly toward her stomach.

“No, not that,” she said.

“Bummer. Tell me, woman,” he commanded, getting in close. Her techs carefully ignored them as he nuzzled her neck. Sam smiled and slid her arms around his waist.

“We came up with another Level 9,” she whispered into his ear. Jack lifted his head.

“What?”

“In Scotland,” she said. “A woman this time. From Orkney. She says her family traces their lineage a thousand years back to the Bay of Skaill. I don’t know about that, but… there’s an ancient village there called…. Skara Brae.” She waited, watching him closely. He pulled back and sat down. “Her name is Kaid Ryrie and she has a two year old son. His name is Skae.”

“Oh my God,” he muttered. His face paled and she handed him a glass of water.

“I was going to ask Daniel to check it out when he comes back from Oregon.”

“Yes,” Jack nodded. “How much does she know?”

“Not much,” Sam shrugged. “She knows that the Ancients made their home in Northern Europe, for the most part, and that some humans still have Ancient DNA; just what everyone else knows. She’s been told that’s why her family has a tradition of doing weird things. We told her that we’re tracking the DNA to see if we can pinpoint the location of the original Ancient home here on Earth. She wants to know if there’s some sort of reward for having this DNA. Apparently their village needs a new roof and heater for the school. She’s the Head Teacher; their form of Principal.”

“Get them their roof and heater,” Jack immediately said. “Take it out of my private funds, if you need to.”

He took a long drink of water.

“Does Keir know?”

“Not yet,” Sam said. “He’s going to burst buttons when he finds….”

“Not yet,” Jack said. “I need to think. We might just leave her where she is. If Keir finds out, he’ll out her from sheer pride. I don’t want that. Yet.”

“Does he know about our Johns?” she asked.

“He knows that Jonathan is first batter up with Sheppard as second,” Jack said. “God help us. He’s curious about Jonathan. No one has satisfied that curiosity.” Jack scratched at the top of his head. “A fourth Level 9. We need to bring in this woman. Let me work on the logistics. I don’t know what I want to do with her, yet.”

“And if she refuses to play?”

Jack looked at her.

“It’s a possibility,” Sam said. “Not all women are going to fall at your feet just because you gaze at them with those pretty browns.”

Jack shrugged. “Then I’ll sic Daniel on her. He speaks Gaelic.” He blinked his pretty browns at her. She sent him back upstairs to his reports.

After dinner Jack fumed as he looked at the email. Someone broke silence about the unknown ship.

“Don’t respond, Jack,” Daniel told him. “Ignore it completely. Look what happened over that DiVinci Code book when the Vatican had a hissy. Hundreds of other books with the same topic, and they were ignored. The Vatican takes an interest and the entire world also takes an interest. Just ignore it.”

“Alright,” Jack reluctantly said. He began writing a memo to send out to everyone. “Hey, do you think there’s anything to that DiVinci stuff?”

“I don’t think so, but we can look through the ship’s log, if you’d really like to know,” Daniel said. “I’m thinking that the so-called Royal Blood is actually the Ancient DNA, though. I think that if Jesus did exist, he was an Ancient. He had all the characteristics. Lots of mythological figures had the Ancient characteristics.”

“But in the Middle East?” Jack asked, leaning back in his chair as he watched Daniel on the screen.

“Red haired mummies dressed in tartan were found in China,” Daniel pointed out. “There’s always a weird exception to any rule.”

“What do you make of the weird DNA from the ship’s mummies?” Jack asked, bringing up the report the labs had sent him.

“Not sure, yet,” Daniel admitted. “Definitely Ancient, but we don’t know what the other part is. Some sort of hybrid, maybe. Like us.”

“I sent it out to Thor,” Jack said. “See if there’s anything in his files. They’re the hybrid experts.”

“Maybe they were the ones who came up  with the pukku and mikku?” he then suggested. 

Daniel agreed to put it on his list of questionable artifacts.

“How’s it going with the family?” Jack asked, bringing the box with Daniel’s face in it back onto the main screen. Daniel smiled. He and Stacey had been with Martin and Joy for a week, meeting the rest of the extended family.

“It’s going well,” he said. “Most of them are very accepting. No lectures about sin. A couple of the old men tried to corner me, and I ended that real fast. They did try to add us to the Mormon roster. That ended quickly, too. All in all, it’s been a pleasant week. I’ve been helping Martin with his landscaping and Stacey is learning how to be the little woman of the house. Oh, and she wants to go to Pompeii to see Roman bathhouse frescoes. I’m not sure she’s ready for that kind of reality.”

Jack laughed. “I’m glad to know she isn’t being completely corrupted.”

“I miss you.” Daniel smiled, unaware that Jack had taken a wash-able marker and was drawing horns and cat whiskers on Daniel’s face on the screen.

“We miss you, too.”

Jack shut his computer off and went upstairs. He collapsed onto the bed, his face landing between Sam’s breasts.

“Yes?” she questioned, tugging gently on the cowlick that refused to stay down.

“I miss our Danny,” came his muffled voice.

“Our Danny will be coming home tomorrow night,” she reminded him. She stroked his hair and pressed her mouth to the top of his head.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” they called out. Jack turned onto his side. Katie looked in.

“Bad time?” she asked. The adults shook their heads and she came into the room. “Can we talk about boys?”

“Of course,” they said. Sam patted the mattress space next to her and Katie curled up next to her. It had taken Katie a while to relax, and once she understood that Sam wasn’t going to try and take her mother’s place, Sam became more of a big sister. Jack was glad Katie had a female to talk with, and with Maggie, Cassie, and Jerrie, Katie had a sisterhood to lean on.

“Josh Reynolds asked me to go out with him,” she said.

“Josh is a nice young man,” Jack said with an approving nod. “Do you want to go out with him?”

“Yes,” Katie said. She picked at the bedding. “I think I may want to do more with him.”

“Do you like him that much?” Sam asked, giving her hair a stroke.

“Yes. He hasn’t said anything about that. I mean, we haven’t done more than… kiss a little,” Katie confessed, her face reddening. “He…. well…..”

“Turns you on?” Sam teased gently. Katie buried her face in a pillow. Jack reached into the bedside drawer and put several small square wrappers into Katie’s hand.

“Honey, you know we won’t judge you, no matter what you decide,” he told her. “If you feel the time is right, at least be protected. No glove, no love. And remember the M-SAT’s. School starts in a couple of weeks; if your grades suffer when school starts, we will be discussing this again. No dates on a school night.”

Still red-faced, Katie kissed their cheeks and bid them good night.

Sam looked at Jack who groaned and hid his face in the pillow. She chuckled and poked at his head. “Are you going to do bed-check or am I?”

“I’ll do it.” 

Matthew was told to sign off the internet. Jack didn’t know what kids had to talk about online, when they spent all day together talking, but they sure spent a lot of time talking about it. He checked in on Davy and found the boy asleep. Jack took the plastic light saber and turned it off, tucked the boy in, and closed the door. Olivia wasn’t quite asleep; she saw Jack poke his head in and grinned at him, offering him her bottle of water. He went to the crib and picked her up.

“Please tell me you’re not interested in boys, yet,” he pleaded softly with her. She stilled for a moment, studying his face before bouncing on his arm. A rather loud sound issued from below and she laughed at him.

“I’m glad you’re so expressive,” he told her. “Please –don’t hold back, tell me what you really think.”

She babbled at him and patted his cheeks with one hand and a bottle. Jack puckered up and she allowed the buzzing kiss.

He went into the kitchen and looked out the window. Fang was chasing a rabbit around the yard. The leash runner was the only thing keeping him from the fuzzy animal. The rabbit seemed to know this and hopped in circles just outside Fang’s reach.

“Jack, everything alright?” he heard Jerrie ask softly.

“Everything is fine,” he said. “Just checking in. How are you? Any midnight conversations we need to have?”

“No, I’m good,” she said with an understanding smile. Some days midnight was the only time he had to talk. “Can I make an observation, though?”

“Sure.”

“Seems to me you get a little restless just before something fairly substantial happens.”

Jack thought about it. “Like what?”

Jerrie came into the kitchen and leaned against the frame as she hugged her bathrobe to herself. “Well, the day before Korea nuked itself, you were wandering around and checking in with people. The day before you were shot in DC, you wandered. I don’t know how restless you were in Reykjavik, but from Sam’s commentary, you were a little unfocused the day before she had that problem. This may all be coincidence, but could you keep your guard up tomorrow?”

Jack scratched at his chest and handed the baby to her. “Maybe I should make my wanderings a little more global tonight.”

He hadn’t tried a world-wide sweep since his melt-down after the first time. None of the other ‘walkers’ were nearby to keep watch on him, so he began to head down into Daniel’s den. A mental reminder made him stop, turn around, and head back to his bedroom.

“Sam,” he gently touched her shoulder. She snuffled and turned. “Are you awake enough to come down to the den?”

“What? Why? Is something wrong?” she sat up, pushing her hair as she turned the lamp on.

“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “Jerrie just pointed something out and I think it’s worth a walk around the planet. I want you to sit with me and keep an eye on me. Just in case.”

She nodded, stretching as she slid out of bed and followed him into the living room and down into Daniel’s private space. The closing of the door seemed to shut out all time and space, giving them the sense of being between the worlds. Jack sat on the floor and tried to find his center. After the third try, he groaned and leaned his head back against the couch.

“Push up a little,” Sam said, tapping him between his shoulder blades. He moved forward a few inches and she slid down behind him, catching him between her legs. “Alright, lean back against me.”

Jack settled against her chest, finding comfort. “Good,” she said. She reached around and smoothed his brow with gentle fingers. His hands rested on her thighs and he felt himself begin to drift.

His first stops were with family members. Everyone was fine. He’d have to talk with his mother, though; she was hiding quite a bit of depression. He realized that his father and Megan had died almost a year before. The town was basically alright, just the usual riff-raff out and about. …. Daniel was fine as was Stacey and everyone else in the Applegate house. He considered teasing Daniel, but not with a little girl sleeping next to him.

Jack used a mental image of a world map to navigate his way around the country. He had seen the Earth from space enough times to have a clear image in his head. He mapped it as though on a search mission, stopping to concentrate at key locations. Some of the stops didn’t make sense to him, but his mind wanted to stop anyway. Nothing seemed to be happening there, except his brain acting like the puppy sniffing out some invisible object. He made side-notes on possible problems in the Middle East, but that was nothing new. He found himself being shaken.

“What?” he asked, his tongue feeling a little thick.

“You really need to learn how to breathe when you do that,” Sam said in his ear. Jack took a deep breath and relaxed further into her. She slid her arms around his waist. “Anything?”

“No, I don’t think so,” he said, giving his head a shake. “The usual crap here and there.”

“Well, maybe try again tomorrow,” she suggested. “There may not be anything happening yet. I think Jerrie has a point –you do get restless just before something happens. You may be unconsciously picking up on someone’s intentions.”

“Honey, I tuck the kids in all the time,” he said. “I go for a glass of water, and I check in on them. I am frequently up in the middle of the night and nothing happens.”

“Nothing?” she questioned.

“Well….. nothing I’d consider alerting the media about,” he said. “I do get jumped, once in a while, through no fault of my own….”

Sam slid her hands across his stomach and into the silky silver fur. His body may have rejuvenated, but for some reason his hair remained gray and on its way to silver. The coloring was a sharp contrast to his tanned skin. Many women, and a few men, tended to follow him with their eyes as he walked through town. 

“I wouldn’t say you’re entirely blameless,” she told him. She pressed soft kisses along his jaw line.