One by one, the children placed flowers on the grave. Only the baby toddled around on the grass while the rest of the family was mindful of Michael saying prayers for his father and daughter over Megan’s grave. It was hard, remembering those lost while celebrating Olivia’s first year, a miracle herself. Jack had an arm around his mother’s shoulder and held Katie’s hand with the other hand. Daniel kept Davy close, standing behind him, his arms over the boy’s shoulders and hands gripped while Sam held Stacey’s hand and Fang’s leash.
Matthew stood, sullen, at the back of their small crowd, his hands buried in his pants pockets. Jack knew the boy was upset. He also knew Matty would come to him when he was ready. Except at that moment. Matty turned and began to run. Fang gave a woof and Michael paused, looked at his grandson and then at Jack.
“Let him run it off,” Jack told them, watching the boy run away. There seemed to be an unusual number of police near the cemetery. “He knows where we’ll be.” He called the SF that were waiting unobtrusively at the far end of the cemetery and had one of them follow Matthew and keep an eye on him. They’d be at Cousin Joey’s house for lunch, if the boy had not returned by the time they left. By the time Michael concluded the family business in the cemetery, Matthew had still not returned. Jack sensed for him.
“He’s a few blocks away,” he finally told them. “Let him work it out.”
“He’s a child, Jack,” Maggie frowned at him. “You need to go after him.”
“He’s fifteen, Mom, he doesn’t need his new manhood babied,” Jack told her. “He needs to work it out for himself. When he’s ready, he’ll talk. It’s a guy thing, Ma, trust me.”
Jack kept Katie under his wing on the way to Joey and Rita’s house. Davy wasn’t completely sure of what was happening and was content to have Daniel’s attention. For all their delicate probing of what Davy did and didn’t understand, they found that he lived mostly in the Now. The past was an abstract subject for him and he didn’t understand questions about the future. He did miss his mother and he was sure she was still around and watching over them, so his grief didn’t take the same form as Matthew or Katie’s. They knew he was sad when he carried his mangled red feather around, which he was gripping tightly.
Daniel was pretty sure she didn’t Ascend, since they had seen her body in the casket. If having his mother’s spirit around made David feel good, no one was going to make him believe otherwise. He even wore a locket containing her picture. Michael questioned the wisdom of such a feminine thing, but Davy wanted it out of his mother’s jewelry box and Jack didn’t have an issue with it.
If anything surprised them, it was Davy’s request for a picture of Sam for the other side of the locket where he had torn out his father Andrew’s image. Daniel commented privately, and with humor, that the boy was well on his way to worship of the Feminine Divine. They decided not to mention it to Michael.
Katie had been sniffling throughout their trip up north and all morning. Her nose was red and her face was blotchy. She alternated dampening the shoulders of all the adults. Jack was drying out, so she was on his shoulder. He felt a strong feeling from her and instinctively reached to find out what it was. Smarty-pants, he thought to himself. She’s learning how to focus. She wanted him to know without alerting the others that she feared for the return of her father.
He lifted her chin, looked into her reddened eyes, and gave a slight shake of his head before pecking her forehead and stroking her hair. He had already given the SF orders to be on the lookout for Andrew, just in case he decided to show his face. Jack highly doubted he would, the cowardly piece of shit excuse for a man.
The afternoon was spent at Joey and Rita’s home with some of the family who came to celebrate a birthday instead of a death. The SF brought Matthew to them and he was quietly sent to nap with Olivia until he was ready.
The family got their stories and Daniel signed books. His book had hit the stands and immediately went to the top of the charts. People all over the world were clamoring for his attention. The conspiracy nuts were typing at light speed across the internet. The nuts in Sam and Daniel’s labs, those that knew more than they should, were keeping track of the theories and making bets on which of the wackos got closest to any hidden facts. So far, there was an Aussie in Sydney who seemed to have a talent for reading between the lines. He was put on a watch list.
The day with their cousins seemed to show the children that although family will always be there for them, they couldn’t go back to the past. Their old neighborhood was no longer their home and the al'kesh flight back to Colorado Springs was bitter-sweet.
As they settled in back home, Daniel was preoccupied with a phone call. He argued with his lab and finally ordered them to send the information to his computer. While he disappeared into his den, Matthew disappeared into his own room.
Jack looked from one end of the house to the other and decided to head upstairs first. Matthew was belly-down, getting his music situated and his headphones untangled. Jack watched and then took the headphones, dangling them until they unwound and then handed them back to the boy.
“Do I have to go to school tomorrow?” Matthew asked.
“Yup.”
After a moment, Jack gave Matty’s back a rub. “Want to go fishing this weekend? In the mountains, not out back. See if there’s any trout around.”
That got a little more response and there seemed to be a small spark of interest.
“I guess so.”
Jack gave a nod and touched the boy’s hair. Matthew was sore inside; he’d be alright, though. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for the kids to visit their mother’s grave so soon. Opening wounds was never the first choice.
“Should we have skipped this?” Jack asked when he went into the kitchen. Sam and Jerrie looked at him and continued to get the younger kids a snack.
“They’ll be fine,” Jerrie told him. “Pretending the day never happened is unhealthy. Learning that life and death are equal partners is more important. Just be present for them and let them sort it out.”
“I didn’t visit my mother’s grave until I was an adult,” Sam said, putting applesauce in front of Olivia. The baby happily stuck her fingers into the bowl, making “ap ap” sounds.
“I had the idea that if I didn’t see her grave, then she really wasn’t dead. Thinking about it now, I would have liked to have spent time there, talking to her, spilling my teenager girl’s heart to her whenever I needed my Mom. Next year, ask the kids what they want to do. Maybe just Livie’s birthday would be fine. If they want to go and visit their mother, they can do that, too.”
Daniel came into the kitchen, scowling at a piece of paper. He stopped short. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No,” Jack shrugged. “What’s going on?”
“This,” Daniel said, waving the paper. “That site in Orkney. The excavators must have gotten their data wrong or else decided that the readings were out of whack. It…. that….”
They looked at Jerrie.
“I think I left my radio on,” she said and left the room.
Daniel began to pace the room. “Now, we know that the Ancients were the first round of humanoids on this planet. So where is all the evidence of their past here? Where are all the cities?”
Sam also frowned as she read the paper. Jack looked over her shoulder and decided he wasn’t going to get anywhere that way.
“This is saying Skara Brae is over….. 600,000 years old,” Sam said, looking up in astonishment. Daniel nodded hard enough for his head to almost fall off.
“Yes, yes! And there was lots of life around, then, but there is no evidence of people in Europe until about 500,000 years ago and this was only in the form of flints and stuff. Very primitive. And if I hadn’t known better, and if I were one of the excavators and I saw that carbon dating, I would have thought something was wrong with the equipment or the formula!” They noticed Jack’s eyes.
“There was a major greenhouse warming that occurred around that time,” Daniel said, bringing it down a little, “warming the oceans to a point where even Antarctica was green. The entire planet was balmy. There is no reason humans couldn’t have lived here.”
“Who’s to say this was the Ancients’ original home anyway?” Sam asked. “Maybe they did come from somewhere else and live in domes which they took down when they left? Atlantis is an entire city that is capable of space travel.”
Jack found a beer and contemplated things as he opened it and took a sip. “So… are you suggesting that this Skara Brae is a leftover from the Ancients?”
“Uh, yes and no,” Daniel said. “First, it shows no signs of being something that belonged to the Ancients and there was no evidence of any technology, writings, or hidden stashes. Neanderthals were around early on, but they didn’t get much further than hardened-tipped spears.”
“Daniel, what are you trying to say?” Jack asked, becoming exasperated. Daniel pulled at his hair as he paced.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “According to everything we know about how people spread out across the world, there should NOT have been anyone in northern Scotland before 7,000 BCE, unless you want to count a caveman or two, and no one knows where they came from, but their left-over buildings look a little like those from Crete. Celts came to Europe about 1,000 BCE and England wasn’t officially an island until about 2,000 BCE, if that helps with perspective.
“Now. Supposedly the Ancients left because of some sort of disease that swept through the galaxy. I think you got a dose of it when I was Ascended.” Jack nodded and grimaced. He also remembered what happened while he was still with Kanan and the Tok'ra; he went on a mission and was captured by Baal who tortured him to death, literally, and then would use a sarcophagus to heal him, only to torture him again. Jack had been ready to die, but Daniel visited him in spirit form while Ascended. He was angry with Daniel, then, actually hated him, for not helping him out of the situation. Daniel kept telling him to trust. Soon after, Sam, Teal'c, and Jonas discovered Baal's planet, and rescued him. Jack never told Daniel about it. If Daniel remembered, one day, then they would talk about it.
“We didn’t figure out what it was, but the Tok’ra cured it,” Sam commented.
“A nasty cure,” Jack said. “I don’t recommend it on a regular basis.”
Daniel waited for them. “Okay, so what if a few of the Ancients remained behind?” he suggested. “I’m guessing that they didn’t start off as an entire society of equal classes, I’m sure they worked up to it just like we are doing. Remember that they weren’t Ascending yet. What if they left behind a few, shall we say, unwanted individuals? Look, I know that we think that the Ancients evolved here on this planet, but where is there any documentation that says that? How do we know they didn’t come here from someplace else and just settle in? Enki messed with us, or we wouldn’t be here. So how could the Ancients have evolved here long before the dinosaurs? It doesn’t make sense. I think this assumption about the Ancients evolving here is wrong.”
“Forget the Ancients’ evolution, what about that building in Scotland?” Jack asked, waving his arms for Daniel’s attention.
“I’m not sure, Jack,” Daniel said. “That place is dating from the middle Paleolithic and it shouldn’t be.”
“What about….” Sam looked at the ceiling, thinking hard. “Look, that hopper we just got rid of…. the very existence of it doesn’t make sense, either, right? What if… okay, this is completely out of the ball park, but what if the owners of that ship hid themselves in time? What if they sent themselves backward to a point where no one would find them and whatever they were doing? What if the Ancients did evolve here, but in another timeline and somehow ended up in our timeline?”
“Wouldn’t that mess with our present?” Jack asked. They had certainly had their own share of time jumping. Sam shook her head.
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said. “A small group of people would probably have died out within a couple of generations.”
“Look, we’ve been told that the Ancients were running from a virus,” Daniel said, speaking excitedly at the ceiling. “What if that virus wasn’t started in this timeline but in their original timeline, and during their run, they ended up here? What if...”
Sam's face was on fire with an inner light. "What if...! They are from the future, not the past?! What if.... OH MY GOD! What if WE are the Ancients!!!"
“Alright, alright!” Jack called out, waving his arms. “This is all a little too convoluted for me; run it by Asgard and Furling brains and the Atlantis computers. Get me proof. Without anything else to go by, I’m not down with it.”
In the morning, Daniel sent a flurry of messages to Kalam, Orilla, and Atlantis. McKay decided that Daniel had finally fallen off his rock. McKay also wanted to know who really came up with the schematics for the ZPMs because it sure as hell wasn’t O’Neill.
“Just query the computers, Rodney,” Daniel sighed. He was exhausted, having been awake all night contemplating the possibility of humans, pre-humanoid primates, tinkered with by Enki in the past, and becoming the Ancients in the future, who then went to the past to hide themselves from something unknown that frightened even them. The complex dynamics were hurting his head.
The phone rang and he looked daggers at it before answering. “Mrs. Herbert. What did my daughter do now? Oh. Let him spin; it’s his way of dealing with feelings. It’s the first anniversary of his mother’s death, so give him a little space. He should be ready in about an hour.”
“Davy?”
Daniel jumped. “Jack. Wear a bell or something, please? Yes, Davy.”
Jack went into Daniel’s office and looked at the photos on the walls. Mostly pictures of their family, hand-fasting pictures from Kelowna and from their recent, more private renewal which was just immediate family and dinner. A few new pictures of his cousin and their family. Jack didn’t remember Daniel having many pictures when they were at the SGC. One or two of the team, one of Sha’re. Daniel’s dead wife from Abydos. He stared at a picture of the two of them puckering up playfully at each other, and smiled.
“Yeah, Mrs. A keeps making an effort to ignore that one when she cleans,” Daniel said, seeing which of the pictures Jack stopped at. Jack glanced at him. “She’s harmless. I’m happy so she’s happy. It’ll be a another generation or two before the planet gets beyond all the puritanical nonsense. At least she isn’t out to build a pyre with us and she does like you.”
“I know she does,” Jack said, patting his stomach. “Between her and Abigail, I’m fighting a losing battle.” He leaned over and pecked Daniel on the mouth.
“You know that alternate timeline of ours where we spent it in Egypt?” Jack asked, sitting on the edge of the desk. “There were four of us and we haven’t found any anomalies from it, have we?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” Daniel said. “If there were, I probably wouldn’t recognize it anyway, so I’m not going to stress over it. Between us and the Celts, it might explain that odd blue-eyed Egyptian or generic Arab that shows up, though. Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything.”
Jack thought about it and nodded. “And those other us’s that we’ve met. If one of us weren’t alive, the other could have lived their life out here, right?”
“Yes,” Daniel nodded.
“So if the Ancients were from another Earth timeline, and they somehow came into this timeline, all those thousands of years ago, we really wouldn’t be able to tell what timeline or even what time in history they came from.”
“Not if they took their cities with them,” Daniel said, “just like they took Atlantis.” He knew Jack would catch up, given the time he had to contemplate it.
“And when they came back, they came to stay so they lived as the locals do,” Jack continued.
“Correct,” Daniel said. “And I think they may have been surprised at the growth of humans, considering that they thought we were going to die out. So they contributed a little, just bits and pieces, enough for the locals to figure it out for themselves, which would explain those sudden leaps throughout early history.”
“And this was after the Goa’uld left?”
“We think so,” Daniel said. “None of the Ancient weapons had the Goa’uld in mind. Humans were advanced enough for the Ancients to blend into society by then and there weren’t enough of them left to create a social structure of their own. Not without some serious inbreeding. Jack, this is something you may want to meditate on. There’s no reason the history shouldn’t be in your head, not if everything else Ancient is.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully again and walked slowly from the room. Daniel was next to him a moment later. “Sam emailed. The latest ship is ready for a name.” They went to the HomeSec Gate room, and walked into Area 51.
The deck was where the ships were built. Most of their section of the desert had a hollowed out underground complex for the large ships, instead of subjecting workers to the temperatures of the desert floor. They found Sam with her head inside a box of wires on the side of a ship. Jack looked into the box from over her shoulder, listening to her mumbling to herself. Sam straightened and jumped when she bumped into him.
“Jack! Don’t do that!”
“Whatcha doin’?” he asked, not sure he wanted to know.
“Trying to find a short in the wires,” she said. “It’s been driving us crazy. Hi, Daniel.” He pecked her cheek. “Want to throw a name into the hat for this ship?”
“What’s it for?” Daniel asked, taking a step back to look at the thing.
“Science vessel,” she said. “We also have two of the new classes over there.” She pointed across the three miles of space toward the other ships being built.
“How about the Hawking?” he suggested. Sam was stunned.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” she asked. “Shame on me. I’ll invite him over, see if he wants a tour.”
“Colonel Carter!” someone shouted. Sam looked over at her crew. One of the men pointed to the new 304 skeleton towering over them. “How about Cuchulainn?”
Jack looked at Daniel. “Celtic. Champion of the Red Branch,” Daniel said. “Court of Ulster. Cuchulainn was the son of Lugh, the sun god, his grandmother was of the sidech, one of the fairy folk. Cuchulainn’s acts were mostly done during the winter, which makes him a champion of the dark. Or over the dark. His name was actually Setanta. He wrestled a savage dog when he was a child, saving a lot of people gathered for a banquet, and took the dog’s place as the shepherd watcher until a new dog was raised for the job. Cathbad the Druid changed his name to Cu Culann. Culann’s Dog. He’s the Celtic version of Hercules.”
Jack looked at the ship. “Is this a good thing?” he asked.
“It’s a very good thing,” Daniel said.
“Okay,” Jack agreed.
“Cuchulainn it is!” Sam informed the crew. They gave a cheer and went back to work. Someone quickly scribbled the name on a piece of sheeting and hung it on the ship’s hull.
“The science vessel is the Hawking,” Sam informed her crew. Another name tag was made and applied.
“How about the third ship?” Daniel asked, looking out at the second 304 skeleton. “What is it? Exploration?”
“Yes, it is,” Sam said with a nod.
“Hmmmmm….. Galileo?” he suggested. Sam thought about it and gave it a thumbs up. Each of the Yards named the ships they built, with Sam having the final okay. It was run by Jack, but he usually left it to Sam and her people. Sam knew his guidelines and he didn’t need to do her job.
Sam called out the new name and the crew was a merry crew. A few of the more superstitious of the lot felt that the ships should have names so that the energy of the name went into the ship while it was being built. Start them off with a good personality and intent, they said. Daniel looked at his watch.
“Oooh, I need to go,” he said. “I have class in an hour. Seventeen shiny young faces to temp to the Force. I’ll see you tonight.” He kissed them both and ran to security, the new home for the arch.
“He’s running everywhere,” Jack informed Sam. “This is your fault.”
Once Jack returned home a few hours later, he drove up just as Jerrie was returning from picking the kids up from school. Katie took his arm and steered him away.
“Need to talk,” she said.
“Okay.” Jack took them around back to their new deck overlooking the pond. Katie was a little nervous about something.
“I might be sleeping with Josh this weekend,” she told him. Jack sat down.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I won’t lock you up, but at the same time I’d like to remind you about the MSATs.”
“I know,” she said, leaning against the railing and looking at the ducks. “I want to do this. I think I love him. If love is this ringing in my ears and this weird feeling in my stomach. And you should know that he won’t be around for long; he signed up with the Marines. He wants to get into the SGC. I know long distance relationships don’t work, so I want this part of him before he leaves.”
Jack leaned forward, dangling his hands between his knees and looking at the deck as he thought about it. A quick poke told him that Katie was indeed feeling love. A passionate, womanly love. She wasn’t a little girl anymore.
“Alright,” he said. “You have protection?”
“I’m on the pill and he has condoms,” she told him. She turned toward him and sat next to him, putting her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for being a cool father.”
“Thank your cousin Charlie,” he told her, pecking the top of her head. “My mistakes with him taught me a lot. I’m not going to tell you I’m happy about this, nor will I order you not to do it; I will ask you not to. Ultimately, it’s your body and you’re old enough to make this decision on your own. Come to us if there’s a problem or if you need to talk.”
They went inside and discovered Olivia laughing and toddling around Davy who lay on the floor. Davy gently pushed her away and the baby screeched. Fang woofed, cocking his head as he watched the human pup fall, pause in amazement, and laugh at herself. Olivia quickly righted herself and once more attacked her big brother, throwing herself onto him and attempting to gnaw on his face. Davy laughed and wiped baby drool from his face with his sleeve. The phone rang and a moment later Jerrie handed it to Jack.
“O’Neill. What? What the hell do they want? Well, send them away. Alright, I’ll call the sheriff.” He hit the disconnect and looked at Jerrie as he redialed. “Battle stations,” he said. “The troops are marching on the Healer’s home. Take the kids to Paul’s house.” He alerted the sheriff’s office, irritated that his SF didn’t have legal authority on home ground. He then called Sam and Daniel, warning them before they came home and found a madhouse.
“Hang tight,” Sam told him. “I’ll bring Alvin and pick you up.”
“No, we’ll deal with it,” he told her. “The cavalry is surrounding the house. We knew this was going to happen, so we deal with it. No one is going to run me out of my home.”
“Alright,” Sam said reluctantly. “I’ll be home soon.”
The flood of mail from around the world was bad enough, to say nothing of the server shutting his public email down because of the overload, and now people are about to knock on his door.
Jack hoisted a bag of charcoal out and started the grill. He squirted lighter fluid on the coals and found satisfaction at the sudden high flame. The chicken was half cooked by the time the first of the crowd got through the neighborhood watch and the police. Jack glanced at the growing crowd.
“Sorry,” he said, using the tongs to gesture toward the meat. “I bought only enough for my family.”
They stopped, not expecting to see him cooking. There was desperation in them, their fear and need almost overpowering him. He had sensed it from afar and now it was in his backyard. Jack took a centering breath and forced himself not to respond as a cornered soldier.
A woman opened her mouth to speak.
“No,” Jack said before she could. “I won’t go with you to visit whatever relative is sick. No, I won’t touch a piece of whatever. No, I’m not going to make the dead walk. Go home, people. If you frighten my kids, I won’t be a happy camper.”
“God is working through you,” a woman said, daring to step up to him. “We need you. So many people need you.”
“No one is working through me,” Jack told her. “In case you’ve missed the 5 o’clock news break, the human race is going through something. A lot of people are doing a lot of unusual things. If you have someone who needs help, you should be at their side, not mine.”
“Please, General,” a man said. “People are in pain and crying out for help. My son. The cancer….”
“I’m sorry,” Jack said, hardening himself. “Besides the fact that all I can cure is my kids’ cuts and scrapes, cancer is a fact of the human body, according to the science geeks, and certain chemicals can trigger it; maybe you should be getting angry at the people who are causing cancer, and fight to stop it from continuing. This poor-me attitude doesn’t work on me. Get off your asses and quit looking for an outside cause. There is no God, there is no devil. Get over it. When you need an alien rousted, let me know.”
The crowd wasn’t sure what to make of this unexpected position and uncertainty began to cross a few faces.
“And if one of your kids had cancer?” the man angrily asked. Jack flipped a chicken breast and tested a potato.
“I’d be as angry as you are,” he told the man. “And I’d be trusting in the doctors to do all they can. I’ve lost a child, I do know how it feels. Your kid needs you. Your kid is scared and where are you? Holding his hand? Reading him a story? Kissing his owies? No, you’re here interrupting my family time. Go be with your kid, mister. That’s all I’m trying to do.”
A small arm slid around Jack’s waist and he looked down. The people were startled, not having noticed the boy come through them.
“David,” Jack began, worried for his safety. He shot a warning look at the crowd.
“I’m hungry,” Davy said, leaning into Jack’s side. “They’re scared, Daddy.”
“I know,” Jack said. “I just don’t want them scaring you.”
“I’m not scared,” Davy told him. He rubbed at his nose and poked a finger toward the potatoes. Jack rapped his hand.
“Germs,” he said with a frown.
Davy put the hand behind his back. “Why are you scared?” he asked the man with the sick child. The man found himself staring into Davy’s dark eyes.
“I…. don’t want my son to die,” the man told him. “He’s very sick.”
“My mommy died,” Davy unexpectedly told him. “We went to see her at the cemetery yesterday. My sister Olivia was born when mommy died. She’s just a baby. Will someone be born when your son dies?”
“No one should have to die,” the man told him in a quivering voice. “Not children.”
Davy tilted his head to consider it. “Uncle Danny says if no one dies, no one can live because there wouldn’t be enough room or food for everyone. Do you want all of us to not be here ever again?”
“I would die for my son to live,” the man told him.
“Would that make your son happy?” Davy asked.
The man choked and held himself from hitting the boy. Jack felt for the BUG in his pocket.
“Uncle Danny says we each have our time,” Davy said. “If we didn’t, nothing could live. I’m sorry about your son. When I’m sick, I like my Daddy to hold me. Maybe if you hold your son, it’ll make him feel better, too.”
They jumped at the sound of a siren. Richardson and his deputies came in and quickly rounded everyone up.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” Andy said over the protests. Sam and Daniel came in through the people, both of them holding new BUGs. Daniel lifted Davy and settled him on his back, turning to place Davy in the center of their three-point guard.
“You guys alright?” Sam asked.
“We’re fine,” Jack assured her.
“They’re scared, Aunt Sam,” Davy told her.
“I know they are, sweetie,” she said.
“We were on a crash site across town, Jack,” Andy told them. “We’ll find out who they are. Do you want to press charges?”
“No,” Jack shook his head. “They’re desperate. Just send them home. Listen, Andy, this is probably going to happen again. Honestly, I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t want my home turning into a Mecca for these people.”
Andy took his hat off and scratched at his head. He turned his head to watch his deputies and SF take the people back to their cars.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “I know you, Jack. Your neighbors know you. To those people, you’re a hero. You protect them from aliens, your ships come in and save people from bombs, and now you have the band-aid businesses on the run. You’re larger than life, Jack.”
“So, maybe I should move everyone off-world,” Jack suggested with a frown.
“No.” They looked at Daniel. “Immersion therapy.”
“You want us to go swimming?” Jack asked.
“No,” Daniel said patiently. “Let’s do a little show and tell. If people realize that you’re not the only weird one, maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
“I’m not weird,” Jack said, frowning.
“Yes, you are,” his partners said.
After dinner, once the kids were in bed, the trio sat in the living room with Hammond, Landry, Paul, and Nick. Gabriel was present via the computer. Hammond and Landry wanted to reroute one of the ships for a convenient upgrade. Also for a quick getaway. Paul and Nick were agreeing.
“No,” Jack said. “Not yet. Gabriel and Sam –do we have footage of other people with significant advances?”
The two looked at each other and nodded. Both their teams had been collecting odds and ends tape of people doing things a little more out of the ordinary than most.
“Anything really spectacular?” Jack asked. “Disappearing acts? Card tricks?”
Gabriel wasn’t sure if Jack was serious.
“No,” Sam told him. “No changing students into ferrets.”
Gabriel’s brow cleared. “I’ve found a few more people who can diagnose by looking at someone,” he said. “Some are rural healers. Local faith-healer stuff. A few teenagers and young adults. While our generation seems to be improving talents we already possess, the next generation seems to be the one coming up with the new, overt talents. Medicine seems to be the main focus. For our groups, anyway.”
Sam nodded. “We’re finding that, too,” she said. “More than medicine, it seems to be science that’s the main focus.”
“That would make sense,” Daniel said. “Brains expanding their networks have always brought leaps in the field of science. Those leaps bring the more sociological advances.”
“So it’s no coincidence that we have more eggheads than military?” Jack asked.
“Correct,” Sam said and tossed a pillow in his direction. “And quit knocking the eggheads. We keep the Gate and ships functioning, you just remember that.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, crooking the side of his mouth up. “Alright, so do we have enough people to put a good clip together?”
“Well, a lot of the problem we’ve been running into is that there are a many people coming from uneducated areas,” Gabriel said, frowning at the dilemma. “You were right about the problem in South America, Daniel; tribal peoples seem to be handling it well. They’ve been elevating their ‘special’ people to shaman status. There seems to be a revival of some of the old traditions. The cities have a heightened death rate, especially among children.”
“Please tell me they’re not sacrificing hearts,” Daniel begged.
“Not that we’ve noticed,” Gabriel said, understanding his concern. “No, not those tribal traditions. They’re combining the more spiritual aspects of their local religions, mostly Catholicism, with the older religions. The new ‘shamans’ are teaching the peaceful aspects in conjunction with their old gods.”
“Really?” Daniel took a more interested look at him.
“I’ll pass on the tapes to you,” Gabriel promised.
“Later, Daniel,” Jack said, knowing that look.
“They also seem to be localized,” Gabriel told him. “Not all the countries are doing that well south of the border. Mexico is having a hard time of it, but the more south you go, the better it gets. Colombia is pretty bad. Honduras, San Salvador, Venezuela, and Argentina are also bad. The other countries are taking it better. It could be because they’ve kept much of their local traditions, which were always heavy in traditional magic. Any of the tribal areas take magical acts in stride. It’s everyday life for them.
“If we jump to Asia, Thailand is doing well, as are most of the more inland tribes in other countries of the region. China’s mainland area is bad, the countryside could be better if they weren’t so overrun with corruption. The Arab States are not doing well at all, but surprisingly the tribes, such as the Bedouins, are doing well with it. Gypsies everywhere are dancing and singing their hearts out about it.”
“How do gypsies being happy with the magic help us?” Landry asked, leaning in to look into the computer screen. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against them, but it isn’t like we can put them to work on diagnostics.”
“No, of course not,” Gabriel agreed. “What I’m getting at is that because the tribal peoples are more open to it, it’s happening faster in those areas. They think their gods are happy with them, so the children are being blessed. We need to show the cities and orthodox peoples that this is a good thing. And to get to Jack’s request, I believe we have more than enough footage to fascinate the general public.”
“Good, thank you,” Jack said, waving an irritated hand at him. “Alright, you and Sam get your prize hens together, run it by Paul for content, and we’ll get it distributed. And put an emphasis on healing. Get some of the limelight off me.”
“I want to help.” They looked at the stairs. Katie stood at the top, her night robe pulled together. She came down, frowning in a familiar, thoughtful O’Neill pose.
“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “You’re….”
“I’m a kid, I know,” she said, huffing in agitation. “So you’ve told me often enough, lately. But I was adult enough to help off-world, and adult enough to help with the radiation victims from Korea. Let me be adult enough to show people who I really am. I’m not the only one, Dad; I’ve kept in contact with other ‘kids’ who can do things. We can all help. We’re not kids anymore.”
“That’s another thing, Jack,” Gabriel said from the screen. “The teenagers seem to be maturing, emotionally, a few years earlier. Their frontal lobes are maturing sooner. If I were to use other seventeen-year old talents as an example, Katie’s development is that of a twenty-one-year old. I’ll bet Matthew’s been thinking like an eighteen-year old.”
Jack considered arguing and then thought about it. “Now that you mention it,” he reluctantly said. “And now that I think about it. Is their physical development changing?”
“No,” Gabriel said, shaking his head, much to Jack’s relief. “Just emotional catching up with physical. Brains, body, and emotional development have been out of kilter for a very long time, and they are now beginning to sync. I’m not trying to tell you what to do with your daughter, just letting you know that her emotional development just might be up for it.”
“Let me think about it,” Jack said. Katie bid them good-night, knowing that he really would consider it.
“Oh my God,” Jack groaned, putting his face into his hands. “Just what we need –mature teenagers. Next thing you know, they’ll want legal rights to marry at thirteen. Couldn’t this go the other way? Hold off on the physical changes until their brains are ready?”
The others chuckled at him and Daniel patted his thigh. “The frontal lobe is where their brains are maturing.” Daniel said. “This makes more sense. It’ll mean they don’t have to wait until middle age to be adapt at their careers. They should be about thirty, instead of forty-five or fifty. They’ll work longer and enjoy a youthful life longer. Eventually, school will need to be altered so that they graduate at sixteen instead of eighteen.”
“So, do we reroute the ships?” Hammond asked, trying to get to the original meeting.
“Give me a week and I think my team can have another arch ready,” Sam said. “We can put it here in the house. If someone is caught here, they can escape to HomeSec or Area 51. It’s easy enough, the kids can use it without a problem.”
It took two weeks for the new arch to be ready. Two of them, actually; the fourth was for the SGC. Sam tested them time and again, making sure nothing would go wrong with the traveler. The last thing they wanted was for one of the kids to emerge from the other end inside out. Each arch would be programmed for seven locations. Three blocks at either side of the arch entrance would hold the ID for another arch. The seventh could be operated in an emergency and would take the traveler directly to a central location, yet to be determined. The arch was protected by a security ID which only certain people would know, so that the wrong people couldn’t use it.
“Sort of a speed dial,” Daniel commented, watching the arch being put together around the front door. “With a home-owner’s security code.”
“Exactly,” Sam said, giving him a pat. The front door would be replaced with a door that was arch shaped. All in all, it was a nice, decorative door, if no one knew what else it was.
“Why can’t it be door shaped?” Jack asked. “We wouldn’t have to replace our door.”
“The shape is part of its conductive properties,” Sam told him. “It needs to be that shape.”
Daniel frowned at his coffee cup. “Jerrie, did you clean the coffee pot? Tastes like vinegar.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “You like the sludge so I don’t clean it.” The cup was once more tasted and once more frowned at.
“Da!” Jack looked down at the baby who was holding her arms out. “Uh….p.”
“Stinker,” he informed her as he picked her up. Now that Jack was listening for it, Gabriel had been correct in that Olivia would be talking slightly above the previous average for a one-year old. Her six tiny white seedling teeth shone brightly as she grinned at him.
Once the arch was set and the test signal verified, one of the techs activated it and stepped through, disappearing. The phone rang moments later.
“He’s safely at the lab,” Sam said, hanging up. “We have a working arch.” The tech was back an instant later. Sam ushered Jerrie and the kids over and went through the routine of making the arch work and what the security code was to activate it, stressing to the kids that no one, absolutely no one, was to know the code. Do not write it down; memorize it. The kids promised.
“Can we use it to go to school?” Stacey asked.
“No, Miss Lazy, you can’t,” Sam informed her.
“You know Henry’s going to want one,” Jack said.
“There are more in the works,” she said. “I’ve been concentrating on the new ships, or this would have been done sooner. I think we need to discuss who gets them. I can’t see them in every home.”
“Why not?” Daniel asked. “It would cut down on ambulance time if these were standard features. Make the civilian arches for medical emergency use. People won’t have to wait for EMS, they can go directly to the hospital from their home.”
Jack and Sam considered it and nodded. “Alright, get an arch for the Academy Hospital and program one of these last three for the hospital. Good idea,” Jack said. “Can we change these from seven to ten?” he asked Sam. She shrugged and nodded.
“No problem,” she said. “We limited them so that everyone wasn’t trying to remember thirty-six symbols and all their permutations. We can make it eleven. Ten for personal use and the eleventh for our central emergency location.”
“I don’t think the general public needs to know about that one,” Jack said. “Most people know computer programmers have back doors, right?”
“We can do that,” Sam said.
Daniel looked once more at his cup and decided to put it down. A moment later, Jack handed the baby to Sam. Both men abruptly rushed from the room and could be heard throwing up in the bathroom. Sam and the kids looked toward the guest bath. She went into the master bath and looked at the stick on the counter.
“We’re pregnant!”
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