“Sleep,” came a mumbled statement. She wiggled and found more of Jack to snuggle into.
“You can’t sleep, the kids have presents for you,” Daniel told her.
“Alright, presents and then sleep,” she said. Jack tightened his arm around her shoulders and pressed his mouth to the top of her head. Daniel sat on the side of the bed again.
“Jack, I consulted with the universe last night and came to a decision,” he said. Jack and Sam both cranked open an eye.
“He probably did,” Sam muttered into Jack’s chest.
“I need to expand my department to include Earth-based sites. Can HomeSec fund an anthropology department? I would like teams for off-world and on-world. I would over-see both and appoint a department chair for each section.”
“Why do you feel Earth needs another anthropology department?” Jack asked. “Can’t you use Chicago’s?”
“No, they have other funding and are under the auspices of the university,” Daniel said. “Jack, you and Zu only found those Goa’uld because they were awake in a host. What about those that may still be in stasis? I’ve been scanning through myths from around the world, and I think there were more than we realize. With what we have learned over the years, I’m reading the myths in a whole new light and I think there’s more to the origins of aliens on Earth than meets the eye. Most of what we do know has been told to us second and third hand, so we don’t know how accurate the information is. Thanatos and Inanna have both said they lack specifics, and some of their information is guess work. Now, we have that list of sites on the planet that have minute readings of naquadah; enough to say someone has been there, not that we have any naquadah here to mine. We can’t have just any team from any college or museum digging around those sites, so I’d like teams of my own to deal with them, teams specially trained to deal with alien technology and possible symbiote contact.”
“Send me a memo and I’ll run it by the committee,” Jack said, not promising anything. “I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t know what the current budget looks like.”
That was good enough for Daniel, and kissed them both and hurried from the room. The two remaining looked at each other. “Kids,” they said. Groaning, they began to greet the day.
“Dad, I need new jeans,” Matthew said when Jack went into the kitchen. Matthew held out a leg and Jack looked, noticing the extra inch between cuff and ankle. Jack took his wallet out and handed a card to Jerrie. “Can’t you take me?” Matthew asked, disappointed.
“I can, but it will need to wait until after dinner,” Jack warned. Matty could wait.
Jerrie put extra eggs and bacon on Tommy’s plate and handed Jack’s card back.
“Where’d Sam go?” he asked her, noticing a missing person.
“Dealing with the girls,” Jerrie said, turning her chin toward upstairs. “They were arguing over bathroom time. Again. Stacy is discovering the bathroom.”
“Great,” Jack said dryly. “Well, they’re going to have to work it out. They need to share; I’m not having another bathroom built.”
“Dad, since it’s going to take Davy a few more years to catch up to me, can I give my old jeans to Tommy?” Matty asked, not understanding girls and bathrooms. “He isn’t quite as tall as me, yet, so they should fit him, and it’s better than throwing them away.”
“If Tommy wants your cruddy ol’ jeans, he can have them,” Jack said agreeably. “Tommy, be polite and take them, and if you want to use them for rags later, I wouldn’t blame you.” Matthew’s jeans were in good shape compared to Tommy’s.
Lunch money was handed out, including to a surprised Tommy, and the kids were hustled into the van. Tommy jumped out and ran back toward Jack, stopping hesitantly a few feet from him.
“Th… thank you, General,” he said. Jack didn’t have to try hard to discover the need in the boy. He put a hand on the boy’s cheek and seethed at the automatic flinch in the boy’s brown eyes which seemed to take up half his thin face. Ninurta was right; the boy was too pretty.
“You’re welcome, son,” he returned gently. “Tommy, you are always welcome here. Let your mom know. Even on school nights, if you need to be someplace, you can be here. And you can always come to us and talk. About anything. Matty can tell you, we don’t forbid any subject. Alright?”
“Yes, sir.”
Jack watched Jerrie drive away with Fang walking excitedly over all the kids to see out all the windows at the same time, locked up and got into his truck with Sam.
“That boy is starved for positive attention,” she commented.
“Let’s hope Ninurta and the guys can do something about that,” Jack said.
“It is a good idea for Daniel to have an Earth-based department,” she commented. “He needs a counter-part department here just like he has at the SGC. Archaeologists all over the world are looking for alien things, and look what happened when one researcher untrained on things alien got hold of a stasis chamber? Now there are three sites that need to be examined AND Daniel needs to go off-world. He can’t be in four places at the same time. This needs to be regulated with trained teams.” Jack had to agree, but unless he could convince the people with the purse-strings to fork over the funds, there wasn’t much he could do.
Ninurta was hanging around Cassie’s desk, making her smile as he told her about Jonathan learning to be a farmer and rancher in between his teaching and engineering time.
“Jack, did you ever want to be a farmer or rancher?” she asked when he came in.
He snorted. “No,” he declared. “I tell you, that boy is missing an ace in his deck. It’s the Asgard’s fault. Farm living is not the life for me. Fishing poles and Starbucks, yes, horse poop, no.”
“Can I go to Kalam for a couple days, Jack?” she asked.
“Sure, but can it wait until Abigail is back?” he asked. It had taken a long time for Cass to get over the fear of being off-world; even after Niriti had died, Cassie was afraid that the Goa’uld was still alive, somehow, and would come after her if she knew Cass was off-world. Everyone understood the fear. Jack was beginning to see a new, more mature young lady, and had to reluctantly consider that maybe Harper had something to do with it.
Jack paused and turned back to Ninurta. “Did you happen to help me when I was trying to scan my brain into mush? I thought I heard your voice.”
“No, not me,” Ninurta said. Jack shook his head and continued to his office, with Ninurta at his heels. “I spoke with Trish this morning –Tommy’s mother,” he clarified at Jack’s blank look. Jack gave a grunt of understanding. “She and Tommy will be coming to Kalam with me…”
The bat phone rang and Jack picked it up, a finger up to halt Ninurta.
“O’Neill.”
Moments later, the alarm was ringing all through HomeSec and the SGC. Jack called the Daedalus and gave orders to start beaming up everyone who was on the ground, starting with Caldwell.
“What’s going on?” Cass asked, standing wide-eyed in the door.
“North Korea just bombed Seoul,” Jack said, grim as he yanked his jacket off the hanger. The warrior tapped for a beam out up to Heaven’s Bow to prepare to assist.
“Crazy son of a bitch,” he muttered, swearing at the insane leader of North Korea. He picked up the phone again. “Hank, North Korea dropped an eight ton on Seoul. No, so far no one else has been targeted. As far as we know. Have Daniel and Davis gone off-world yet? No, get them back. I need Davis with me and tell Daniel he’s on kid-duty. I’m heading over to DC. No, Ninurta is here with the Heaven’s Bow.”
China, Japan, and Russia were all on alert for their borders, but so far N. Korea showed no signs of readying another bomb. Jack wondered what pissed them off so badly that Seoul needed to be wiped from the map. The moment Jack was in the air, he turned on the viewer and targeted their satellite for information. The image that came through showed a mushroom-shaped cloud dissipating over S. Korea. Jack leaned against the console, his head bowed for a moment. The readou
t on the side of the screen began to scroll with reports. His comm beeped.
“General, this is Caldwell,” he heard. “Your orders, sir?”
“Witness for the dead, Colonel,” Jack said quietly.
“Yes, sir.”
There wasn’t much anyone could do, now that the explosion had happened. Most of South Korea was gone and much of North Korea would be radioactive in a short time. It apparently hadn’t occurred to them that dropping a nuke on Seoul, so close to the border of N. Korea, would spread the poison of the bomb to the north. The Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan were also affected as the cloud spread across the land and water. Millions of people who depended upon trolling the sea for food were as dead as those that were caught in the bomb’s range.
Jack called the Daedalus back on line. “Colonel, start evacuating people from the immediate vicinity of the coming cloud. And call the rest of our 303s home.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marine One was waiting for Jack when he landed, and transported him to the Pentagon which was buzzing like a hive of angry bees.
“I don’t suppose you have any toys in your toy bag for something like this?” Maynard asked Jack when he entered the war room.
“Nothing for after the fact,” Jack said. “Daedalus has begun evacuations, Heaven’s Bow is here and helping with the evacs, other ships are inbound. That’s the best we can do.” Everyone who heard it began to relax, now that survivors were being dealt with, and concentrated on their work.
“Any official statements issued?” Jack asked.
“Nothing, yet,” Maynard said. “The ambassadors for the Koreas don’t know anything.”
Jack considered that. “Where are they?” Maynard told him. “Got a camera on them?” Maynard was suddenly on Jack’s waves and nodded. He led Jack to a row of monitors and dismissed the people around them.
“Go ahead,” Maynard said quietly. Jack sat and focused on one of the men on a camera.
“Scared,” Jack said after a moment and then looked at the other one. “He’s scared, too, but… he may be aware of something. There’s a sense of guilt about something.”
Maynard picked up a phone and gave a quiet order.
“How’s the view on Pyongyang?” Jack asked. Maynard gestured toward another monitor. The image was glowing green from the night-vision on the satellite.
“A lot of static from the nuke, but the palace is still standing,” Maynard said. “The winds are blowing southeast; Japan is already on alert. Everyone south of Osaka is heading out to Manila. We have ships heading out there to pick up small boats. With the 303s evacuating people in the immediate path of the cloud, let’s pray that the loss of lives is minimal.”
Jack tapped his comm. “Colonel, how’s the evac going?”
“We’re filling up, sir,” Caldwell reported. “Europa will be here within five minutes, Argos, and then Prometheus. Col. Chekhov checked in; the Korolev can fly and transport, not much else. They’re on their way, also, along with as many helicopters as they can get. The infirmary is packed already; people who have been irradiated are getting scrubbed and treated as best we can. Everyone is scared, sir; they don’t understand what’s happening, and we have no one on board who speaks Korean and these are mostly peasants who speak no English. We could use a translator, sir.”
Maynard looked around the room. “Round up all Korean speakers!” he called out. Pull ‘em off the streets, if you have to! Call universities and hospitals!” There was a hustle as several people bolted from the room to get it done.
“Colonel Chekhov, this is O’Neill,” Jack said into his radio. “Caldwell said you’ve got the Korolev heading out. Get to Japan and evacuate everyone south of Osaka who are not already on boats or planes. Get them out of the wind. Is your call sign on-line? Good. Report in every half hour.” He tapped his comm again. “The Russian yard has their first ship in the air,” he said. “Col. Chekhov is on board. Get the Korolev entered so we can pick it up here.” Within minutes, the HomeSec screens flickered and were replaced with five images instead of four.
Someone beamed in and every gun in the room was drawn.
“Stand down!” Jack barked.
“Ninurta, is there anything your people can do about this?” Maynard asked, stepping toward the warrior to clasp forearms.
“Not after the fact,” Ninurta said, his dark eyes grave. “My ship is assisting with the evacuations and immediate medical needs; that is the best we can do.”
It wasn’t too long after Ninurta appeared that Paul beamed in; the military weren’t as jumpy the second time around, but a few looked a little wild around the eyes as they witnessed something they had only been hearing about. Somewhere, an old-timer muttered about un-American happenings. Paul stood next to Jack and concentrated on the screens. As Korean speakers and medical personnel were found, Paul contacted the ships and had them beamed up.
“Did Daniel make it home?” Jack asked.
“Yes, sir,” Paul nodded. “He said to remember that you’re not God and he’ll call Teal’c if you forget.”
Ninurta snorted behind them.
“Sirs?” All the upper echelon looked toward a major standing in front of a screen. “Am I seeing this right?” He hit a few buttons and the satellite zoomed in. People in torn and tattered clothing were closing in on a large palace.
“That’s the palace in Pyongyang,” Paul quietly commented as he watched the screen.
Many of the people were already falling sick, their skin turning red and blotchy from the radiation poisoning from the fallout. Palace guards fired on them and many fell as others continued, stepping over the fallen, waving sticks, pitchforks, and anything else that extended their reach.
“Tell me we are recording this,” Maynard breathed, growing more and more wide-eyed as the scene continued.
“Yes, sir,” someone confirmed. A poor farmer rammed his pitchfork through the throat of a guard.
“Make sure this is being piped through to China, Japan, and Russia,” Maynard ordered.
“Get to those governments,” Jack told Paul. “Make sure they are seeing this and do everything you can to keep them from opening fire. Korea is gone, don’t waste any more lives. And if these images somehow make it to the public news stations around the world, and all over the internet, I’m sure I don’t know how it happened.” Paul didn’t say anything as he made his way to the bank of phones.
People began to cheer as the peasants stormed the palace amidst gunfire. They had spent their lives in fear and had reached the end of the rope; they were going to die anyway, so they would take their devil with them.
“They’re emaciated,” someone quietly commented as they watched the North Koreans running across the screen.
“Look at that,” someone else said, pointing to a figure in a field. A woman was waving a feathered stick as several other women danced with knives.
“Shaman,” Paul commented, a hand over the speaker of the phone and a small smile poking at the corner of his mouth. “The magicians, or priests, in Korean folk religions are traditionally women.”
Other women were fighting alongside the men, using whatever they could get their hands on to use as weapons. The peasants seemed to come out of bushes, large rocks, and the forests themselves. They walked over the bodies of the fallen to get a chance at a guard with a gun. Many people had covered their faces with mud to stop the moonlight from shining on their skin and more than one guard was taken by surprise.
“General,” Maynard leaned toward Jack. “Tell the 303 commanders to leave the people around Pyongyang there; let them do what they need to do.” Jack nodded to Davis and the message was relayed. Jack thought hard on all the technology they had gained, knowing that something was nagging at the back of his mind, something that could clean the radiation from the sky.
“Stand firm,” Ninurta whispered in Goa’uld from behind. “I know this is hard, but if you clean up the atmosphere and the land, they won’t learn. They must go through this, Jack.
”
“Get out of my head,” Jack snarled over his shoulder. Somewhere in his mind, he heard a loud whomp, and there was quiet his head. He sensed approval in Ninurta rather than irritation at having the door slammed in his face. Others around them heard him snap at the alien warrior and took an uneasy step away.
“Fire,” someone called out. There was a lick of flame emerging from the palace, and people in the command center cheered.
“Sir,” an aide said, getting Maynard’s attention. Major Ellsinore, Maynard’s aide, held his hand over the phone. “China is offering to take refugees, but they don’t know how to reach the ships.”
“General O’Neill will handle it,” Maynard said. Ellsinore looked at Jack.
“Tell China to set up a staging area and the ships will beam those people down when the area is ready,” Jack said. “We’ll need an exact GPS location.”
“Sir,” Paul leaned over and whispered a suggestion to Jack.
“And tell China we are grateful for their generosity,” Jack appended. Paul looked at Ellsinore and gave a nod. In assistant short-hand, Ellsinore was told he could fix the message.
Jack tapped his comm. “This is O’Neill,” he announced to his ships. “China is setting up staging areas for your guests. They have offered aide. Start preparing to beam people down as soon as we have a location. Out.”
The smaller islands dotting the Pacific Ocean were already evacuating as the radioactive particles drifted their way. A call to Chekhov told Jack that he was sending people to the medical center on Kamchatka, having taken the initiative and contacted the administrator directly from the Korolev.
“Are you sure about this?” General Hauser of the Joint Chief’s asked Jack. “China isn’t exactly known for its humanitarianism.”
“At the moment, we don’t have much of a choice,” Jack said. “No, I don’t trust them. I read them the riot act recently, though, so let’s see what they do with it. They know the world is watching.”
Hauser arched an eyebrow. “So that’s true?” he asked. “You really are the reason their government’s been blustering lately?”
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 16