The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story

by Michele Briere

  “Wass-up?” Jack asked, hitting the send button. The warrior sat in a chair in front of his desk and made himself comfortable.

  “I think that’s my line,” Ninurta said. “Anything you’d like to discuss?”

  Jack glanced at him. After a moment of silent pushing and pulling, he leaned back, stretching his arms and neck.

  “How did you find out?”

  “Someone tossed this morning’s paper through the gate,” Ninurta confessed with quiet amusement. “Jonathan was highly entertained.”

  “I have no idea what came over me,” Jack finally said. “The house was quiet, just me and Katie, and I just did it.”

  Ninurta nodded. “Aba said you scanned the planet.”

  Jack told him what had happened and Ninurta listened closely, nodding once in a while.

  “Yes, that’s what Aba said,” he commented. “That was a major step, Jack. Aba said you are now fully open. There really isn’t anything you can’t do. You could even bring up the Ancient memories, if you wanted to. Have you remembered any of them?”

  “No.” Jack picked up a pencil and fiddled with it.

  “Then it’s your own stubbornness that is keeping it from rising,” Ninurta told him.

  Jack swung his chair as he slouched in it. “I had no idea so many people were afraid,” he confessed. “Not little fears, but afraid of life itself. They take each day as a challenge, instead of living it. I guess I just wanted to hug everyone and tell them that they’ll be fine. Is that what you guys get? How do you deal with it?”

  “Inanna does it mostly,” Ninurta said. “It was hard on her, at first. Not a day went by when she didn’t go to bed and spend some time crying. When I do it, which isn’t too often, I try to not take anything personally. Don’t hold the emotions of others; stand back and observe them. Just say Yes, accept their reality, and let it go.”

  “Easier said than done,” Jack told him.

  “Well, I’m here to inform you that my queen is officially turning over Earth to you for monitoring,” Ninurta told him, brushing at his vest. “You need to follow the rules, Jack; no ‘helping.’ They still need to do it on their own. Remember: if you keep holding the baby’s hands, it’ll never learn to walk on its own.”

  “Why me?” Jack whined.

  Ninurta gave him a look. “Because you have surpassed the Tau’ri. Don’t whine. You don’t count as a Fifth Race member, your DNA is coded for Ancient.”

  “That isn’t what the Asgard said,” Jack countered.

  “The Asgard didn’t know about the Ancient gene in you when they discovered you,” Ninurta said. “This was an unforeseen event. And may all the gods help us, if we have to accept Sheppard as one of you.”

  Jack chuckled as he nodded. “If Col. Caldwell can’t whip him into shape, I just might be sending Sheppard to you. Oh, hey; all his touching the toys brought up something interesting.” Jack and Ninurta walked down to Sam’s playroom. Ninurta pecked a friendly, brotherly kiss to her cheek.

  “Where’s that disk thing?” Jack asked. He took it from the table and slid it into the slot in the chair before sitting. Ninurta watched the presentation with an intent curiosity, nodding from time to time.

  “Yes, we wondered if something like this would be discovered,” he said when Jack shut it off. “It makes sense that persons in a privileged position would key their notes to specific individuals. They used a lot of non-Ancients for workers, so of course they would need to make sure certain things remained private.”

  “They locked the filing cabinet so the staff wouldn’t get into it?” Jack asked.

  “Pretty much,” Ninurta nodded. He frowned in thought. “Jack, Sheppard doesn’t have your Ancient memories, obviously, so I’m curious as to exactly which way he’ll develop. When he reaches his potential, I believe he should be able to read people much like you do, and he does have a talent for strategy. He needs to quit fooling around, though, and push himself to work up to his own best effort. He slides because he would quickly surpass everyone else on Atlantis. He wants to run while the others are crawling. He’s rarely challenged. As a strategist, I mean. Jack, if something happens again, in the future, where you need a war council, you may want to consider putting Sheppard on it. But enough of this, I’m hungry; it’s lunch time here, right?”

  Jack called the commissary and ordered lunch. Halfway through lunch and a discussion on current baby trends, Cassie called in and said Matthew was there. Jack looked at the clock, surprised, and told her to send him in. He had a friend in tow; Tommy, if Jack remembered the boy’s name correctly. Matthew greeted Ninurta and turned to Jack.

  “Dad, this was important,” Matty said, explaining his school absence. “Go on, Tommy, tell him.” He nudged his friend who was staring at the warrior. “Ninurta’s cool; just tell my dad what you told me.”

  “Come here, son,” Jack said gently, waving the boy to his side of the conference table where they were eating. Matthew browsed the table and came up with half of a roast beef sandwich and stole the pickle spear off Jack’s plate. “What’s going on?”

  Tommy shifted his feet, unsure. “Sir, I…. I don’t like my mom’s boyfriend,” he spouted. “He hurts her and I don’t know how to help. I’m not very strong.” He looked down at the floor, rubbing absently at his thin arms.

  “Does he hurt you, too?” Jack asked, he and the warrior paying more attention.

  Tommy shrugged. “He yells a lot,” he said. “Calls me names and stuff. But I don’t care about me, I want him to stop hitting my mom. He calls her names, too. He wouldn’t let her work here, and he uses her money to buy beer and stuff. One of our neighbors moved last month and gave my mom some nice furniture because ours was all torn and everything, and he took the good stuff to his place. I don’t know how to help my mom.”

  Jack had wondered why Tommy’s mother didn’t apply when he offered; she had seemed interested.

  “What’s this guy’s name, son?” Jack asked.

  “Conrad Neville,” Tommy told him. “But, sir, if he finds out I told on him, he’ll hurt me and Mom.”

  “No one will be hurting anyone,” Jack promised.

  “Come here, little brother.” Tommy was startled that the alien warrior would be speaking to him. “You are brave to come forward,” Ninurta told him, setting his large, weathered hands on the boy’s thin shoulders. “When you are a man, then you can take care of your mother properly; it is no shame to ask for help. Jack, I will deal with this. It’s been a while since I had any fun. A week or so. Your cousin was slightly fun.”

  “Just don’t kill him,” Jack told him. The boy jerked his head, wide-eyed. “Tommy, can you reach your mom now? Ask her if you can stay the night at my place. Tell her you and Matthew are studying and I said you could stay the night. Matthew needs help with his math; you can help him. And don’t worry.”

  Jack sent them back to school with an SF escort.

  “That boy is… delicate, shall we say?” Ninurta commented.

  “I know,” Jack nodded. “I sensed his crush on Matty a while back. Matty never returned anything except friendship, so the crush is gone. Matty hasn’t said anything, so I think Tommy is keeping things to himself.”

  “Jack, there’s gay and then there is delicate,” Ninurta said, giving Jack a knowing eye. “He’s pretty which means he’ll need protection, if he doesn’t learn to take care of himself.”

  Jack tossed his arms up. “I can’t send every kid to a self-defense class,” he declared. “I can ask Matty to keep an eye on him.”

  The warrior changed into Tau’ri clothes and took Kearney with him to find Tommy’s mother’s oppressor. Jack sent Kearney along to drive and to make sure Ninurta left the man alive. High-jacking the Chinese would be nothing, if word got out that one of Jack’s alien buddies went hunting in town.

  Hayes called to rib Jack a little more about his letter. When Jack mentioned that an Anunnaki warrior was in town, Hayes immediately pressed for a meeting. The list of Anunnaki tha
t would be visiting Jack was short.

  “I tell you what, Henry,” Jack said. “How about I have you and the Missus beamed up and over to my place in a few hours? No one needs to know you’re gone, and my neighborhood is surrounded by top SF. How long has it been since you guys have had a decent, home-cooked meal? Tell your chief of security to chill and let me handle your security for a couple of hours.”

  When he called Daniel and told him who was coming for dinner, Daniel swore and hung up. Sam immediately began to panic after Jack went down and told her.

  “The house is a mess,” she insisted.

  “No, it isn’t,” Jack said, shaking his head. “It’s a house with four kids, a baby, and a new puppy. It’s fine; Jerrie keeps it clean. How’s the arch coming?”

  Sam’s attention was diverted and she lit up. “Calculations add up by computer, we just need to try it in real time,” she said. Jack looked at the white boards that dotted the room. He didn’t understand why Sam’s people needed them, when they had computers on every desk. They seemed to enjoy the act of writing things out the long way, he guessed. He looked at the drawing on a board. Without thinking about it, he picked up a marker and changed a line.

  “Why’d you do that?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jack shrugged. “Sorry if I messed it up.” He felt a wave of faintness and leaned against the table. Sam quickly took him by the arms, looking carefully into his face. “I’m okay,” he said. “I just…. Ninurta said Enki said I’m completely open.” He looked around and spoke softly, but no one was close enough to overhear. Sam understood.

  “So there will be a few things coming to the surface,” she concluded. “Jack, you’re doing all this and you’re still speaking English. I think you’ll be alright. We will tell you the moment you do something weird, like speaking Ancient.”

  “He also said Inanna’s turning the job over to me,” he continued, his head spinning as it all hit him. “She wants me to monitor Earth. Sam, this might be too much. I don’t want to be responsible for a planet. Playing guard dog is one thing, but this….”

  Disregarding protocol, she put her arms around him for a moment.

  “It won’t be too much,” she told him. “The mikku will monitor the sky, you just spend a day or two each month doing a quick scan. If you need more down time, we can pick up any slack. Give Paul more responsibilities; I think he just might make general someday, so start training him for it. And remember that Cassie will have a hand in all this at some point in the future, so keep her involved.” She put her hands on his face. “You can do this.”

  Sam did have a point, Jack told himself. Davis had surprisingly risen to the challenge of assisting him. During the years Jack had known him through the SGC, Davis had the thankless job of telling Hammond what couldn’t be done which forced Hammond to think outside the box. Davis did the same with Jack, when he needed to, and he handled all the day to day necessities of running HomeWorld Security. Jack went back to his office and started the paperwork for making his ‘light’ colonel a full colonel. He then went home a little early to help Jerrie prepare dinner for their guests. Daniel was already home and the kitchen was organized chaos.

  “Did you really need to do this tonight?” Daniel asked, irritated, as he wielded a sharp knife on a helpless chicken corpse.

  “Henry wants to meet Ninurta,” Jack said. “So yes, it needed to be tonight. Sorry for the short notice. What are we having?”

  “Food.”

  Jack considered escaping. Instead, he went up to Daniel and lowered his forehead to Daniel’s back. Daniel paused, took a deep breath, and forced himself to relax.

  “I could have called for take-out or taken Ninurta to Washington,” Jack said after a moment. “I can cancel this and take Ninurta to Henry.”

  “No,” Daniel said, putting the knife down and turning. “I need the break from work. I need to be in three different places and I can’t.”

  “Where do you need to be?” Jack asked, sliding arms around Daniel’s waist.

  “China, Chile, and Florida,” Daniel told him.

  “Well, I think China takes priority,” Jack said. “How about sending Ronnie to Florida, see if SG-1 is available to go with her, and send Nyan to Chile with SG-3? Bosco is home taking care of Connie, so the rest of his team is just sitting around. Would that work?”

  In the end, Ninurta volunteered his ship and crew for the Chile assignment, which meant that Nyan could help Ronnie in Florida. Sheppard made the mistake of calling and telling Jack that he wasn’t having any fun with his family, so Jack sent him to Chile, also. Not that Sheppard had much of a family; his father and a few distant cousins.

  Atis had already notified Davis that he would be available in a couple of days, and agreed that negotiating with a feudal lord could be tricky.

  Keir Ravenscroft called and asked Jack if he could borrow the mikku.

  “What for?” Jack asked.

  “My home government would like to put the argument of Loch Ness to rest once and for all,” Keir told him. “I just want to take a look around the lake.”

  “Oh. Sure, I guess so,” Jack said. “You’re gonna lose a tourist industry, though. Have whoever’s driving take a look at Lake Champlain, too.” Jack called HomeSec. “Sam, what are the mikku riders doing when they’re not looking at the sky?”

  “Helping out with everything else, why?”

  “We have a few mysteries here on this planet, so how about assigning someone to help out with that?” he asked, shooing the puppy away from his sneaker laces.

  “Sure, we can do that,” she said.

  “Oh, and Ravenscroft has a request. I okay’d it.”

  “Can I borrow it, too?” Daniel asked when Jack mentioned what Keir wanted.

  “Hunting for lost temples?” Jack guessed. Daniel bit into a celery stick after making a mark in the air. “You’ll make enemies out of all the Indiana Jones wanna-bes.”

  “They’re already pissed at me,” Daniel said. “May as well make it worth the energy.”

  Sam had already settled one issue with the mikku –the area in and around Roswell, New Mexico held traces of naquadah in the amounts that a small, crashed ship would have left. They already knew that the Asgard did lose a small scout ship there, but this was concrete proof that something had happened. When Jack tried to get the Air Force records of the incident, he received shamed faces of people who didn’t know anything about records and people who knew that the official records no longer existed. They had been blacked out so badly that no one could make sense of them. An attempt to ‘de-blacken’ one sheet of paper succeeded in destroying the paper. Someone, several someones, had made bad decisions along the way, and the information was no longer available.

  A knock was on the door, and David raced to answer it while Jack showed Stacy how to begin training Fang.

  “Daddy, it’s Mr. Giorgetti,” Davy called out. Jack sent Stacy and Fang outside.

  “Mandy, come in,” Jack said, holding his hand out.

  “Hi, Jack, hope this isn’t a bad time,” the neighbor said, ruffling Davy’s hair with the other hand.

  “Not at all, come in,” Jack said, ushering him in. They sat in the living room and Jerrie brought in glasses of tea. A few of Jack’s old neighbors had moved away, a silent statement of their disapproval of his new lifestyle, but some like Armando and Maria Giorgetti, and Carl and Rhonda Weber, had stayed close by.

  “I have a favor to ask, Jack,” Mandy said, slightly subdued in Italian honor. “It’s really big and I’ll understand if you say no. I have a little sister, Lydia; she’s twenty-three. She’s real sick. Liver cancer. We haven’t been able to find a matched donor. She’s always been a big believer in all this ET stuff and I’d like for her to see your Stargate before she dies. Maybe she can touch it. She doesn’t have much longer, Jack. Is there any possibility of doing this for her?”

  Jack leaned forward and put a hand on Mandy’s arm. “Yeah, we can do it, Mandy,” he promised. “I
’m sorry to hear about this. Is she here in town?”

  “She lives just outside of Ft. Collins,” Mandy said, relief evident on his face. “Are you sure this won’t be a problem?”

  “No problem at all,” Jack said. “I’d be honored to do this for you.” Daniel picked up the phone and went into the kitchen.

  The moment the children got home from school, Sam herded them into showers and fresh clothes while Daniel completed dinner. By the time Ninurta was brought back by Kearney, Hayes and his wife had been sitting on the couch for about a half hour talking with Cassie and Harper. Jack refused to go all-out for his guests; Henry needed a reality check with a real family. Jerrie wanted to clean and polish everything, and Jack had to order her to put the dusting supplies down and leave the kid toys where they were. Jack liked his home looking lived-in and alive with children and love. Henry was seated on a couch with scattered coloring books, and handed a baby and bottle.

  “Everyone pitches in around here,” Jack said. Hayes chuckled and turned on the grandpa charm. Mrs. Hayes (Judy, please!), insisted once more on hugging Jack for saving her. She was still in talks with Dr. Edmond, and was horrified by the memories of carrying a symbiote. She had begun a strong campaign to win the support of the conservatives that were still quietly grumbling about Jack and the entire alien business. To say nothing of the sex business. She blinked when Daniel kissed Jack and patted his butt, and bravely accepted it. Henry rolled his eyes and jiggled the baby, making nonsensical noises.

  “If we have to put up with it, so do our guests, sir,” Katie told Hayes, also rolling her eyes. She offered a tray of vegetables and dip. “If they tell us to talk a long walk, I recommend doing it.”

  “None-a that,” Jack said, tapping her on the head as he walked by. “Don’t worry, Henry, we’ll wait until you’re gone.”

  Matty’s friend Tommy had the unexpected treat of being on hand to meet the president and his wife. With permission, Matty ran around taking pictures with the digital camera. Tommy was too shy to ask, but Matty wasn’t. Tommy got his picture taken with all the stars of the day.