Jonathan stepped up to him and put his hands on Jack’s shoulders, giving him a shake. “This is your life, Jack. Schedule your make-out sessions, schedule your walks, schedule in time to breathe and forbid anyone, including marauders, from taking that time from you. Come on.”
He led Jack through the ship until they were on the bridge. Only two people were sitting quietly on the bridge, monitoring the controls. Jonathan hit a few buttons and the front screen changed to multiple views.
“Look,” he said, gesturing toward the screen. Jack recognized city sky-lines from all over the world. “The entire world is on hold, waiting to see what’s going to happen. Almost no one alive has seen, really, what happens when a nuke is dropped on a large, occupied city; most vets who saw what happened in Japan are gone. Another generation is seeing it now. Look at Seoul.” He hit a button and the image of the destroyed city came on the screen. “This is what the world is seeing, Jack. This is reality. This. Not black and white, grainy images from the past, but a real city with a bloody past. This time the blood has been obliterated. These generations will be gone before anyone will be able to live here again.”
He punched up other images. “This is Iran,” he said. “They may be a little hard with the rhetoric but they’re keeping their promise, Jack, they’re dealing with their power grid, suspending their nuclear stations for you, Jack, for your promise of a naquadah generator. Even India and Pakistan are standing still today, waiting to see the outcome of this disaster. My God, Jack, today made history! Except for a few tribal places that have no TV or radio, no one is fighting! Stand up and accept your place in it.”
Jack took a deep breath and gave a shuddering nod, forcing himself to straighten up. Jonathan beamed him down and Jack found himself standing in front of the startled White House Press. Armed guards were quickly waved down as Jack leaned in for a heated whisper with Henry and the Secretary of Defense. They reluctantly agreed and Jack stepped up to the microphone. The press quieted, waiting.
“We can no longer afford war,” he said quietly. “Several million innocent people are in the process of dying a terrible death today, animals and plants will be forever mutated just as it is still happening in Chernobyl. I have seen death from radiation. I never wanted to see it again, but I am seeing it. It was pointed out to me just minutes ago that no one is fighting at this moment. I am a soldier, ladies and gentlemen, and I am asking you to not resume fighting. I’m tired and I want my guns to start collecting dust. I want to go home, play with my children, clean up puppy pee, and make love with my partners. I want to sit on my front porch and wave at the neighbors, maybe have tea with my mother while my baby daughter learns to crawl.
“Iran is currently dismantling their nuclear grid so that they can begin using one of our generators. Several other countries who have been on the verge of nuclear war are at a standstill while the events of today play out. I am urging those countries to stand down permanently. One small nuke has made a wasteland of a very old country. Even those who pressed the button are dead. No one wins when nukes are used.”
Jack paused, leaning over the podium for a moment as he thought.
“Words are not my strong suit,” he said. “I stick my foot in it quite often. So people will just need to forgive me if this old soldier is a little too blunt. I will say this again, and I will say it to you: I may be a General in the United States Air Force, but I work for this entire planet. No one holds my strings. So, Mr. President, I’m going to make this request –as a show of good faith, I am requesting that the United States make the effort and lead the world. Start dismantling all nuclear weapons and nuclear power. HomeWorld Security will provide naquadah generators for any country, membership or not, that leaves the nuclear age behind. These generators are clean, no pollution output, and one will last for several generations.
“The Koreas will be uninhabitable for a long time, people, all because of one small bomb. The radioactive cloud has changed direction and is beginning to rain down on China. Suspend all nuclear development.”
Before the press could start yelling questions at him, Jack strode off the stage, pushing past military, secret service, and aides. He found a room, snarled at people to get out, and collapsed onto a couch, tossing an arm over his face. He heard the door open and knew it was Henry and the Secretary of Defense, Ken Baker. Henry sat on the coffee table in front of the couch, making faces while he contemplated what to say.
“That was irresponsible of you, General O’Neill,” Baker informed him. “Today was a bad day, I agree, but you have placed this country in a corner. I will be recommending to the Joint Chiefs that you be stripped of your rank. You should retire now, show a little dignity.”
“Ken,” Henry said, waving him down. “Jack, I agree with you that the nukes need to go, but I cannot disarm the United States all because some idiot across the world bombed himself. You are overwrought. We all are, Jack. But you’re going to need to back down. Get off-world, if you need to, but back down.”
“Jack.”
He hit the comm. “Not now,” he said.
“Now, Jack,” Daniel insisted. “President Tien is ready to discuss the Unification Treaty.”
Chapter 46
While the rest of the world gathered to care for the fall-out victims, first aid responders converging on south-east Asia, the Chinese representatives transferred to Geneva. Jack spent most of the night discussing the treaty with Tien and his council. They were suspicious of the United States governing from behind, and it was all Jack and Daniel could do to convince them that nothing was further from the truth. Inanna and Lord Atis were brought in on the negotiations. The sight of the walking, talking dragon caused several of the negotiators to faint.
Tien was then informed that his family was transferred to Kamchatka. Talks were put on hold as Jack called up and had himself and Tien beamed to the Russian peninsula. The hospital was a madhouse with sick people piled up in hallways and corners, and medical personnel rushing to take care of the worst of them. After the Chernobyl accident many years earlier, Russian hospitals knew how to take care of radiation poisoning. Jack spotted a HomeSec pilot in uniform helping to direct traffic and keep what order they could.
“Airman! Where is President Tien’s family?”
“Sir!” The pilot saluted and led them to another floor.
People overflowed everywhere; hallways, nursing lounges, not even the VIP suites were private rooms. In a small room at the top of the hospital, what looked to be an administrative office that had been taken over for the emergency, an older woman stood as Tien and Jack entered. Tien went to her and listened as she spoke low, her dignity barely hanging on.
“My youngest grandson,” Tien told Jack. “He ran out onto the balcony to watch.” They went further into the room where a small boy, about four, lay covered in bandages on the bed. Other people stood as Jack entered. Probably the boy’s parents. The child saw Tien and tried not to cry. Tien touched the child’s head and murmured to him. The boy gave a nod. Jack stayed in the background and reached. The child was in shock, clinging to the last of his pride so that he wouldn’t shame his grandfather.
“Pull the curtain and tell your family to stay on the other side,” Jack whispered to Tien. The president scowled at him. “Will you cut the crap and please do it?” Narrow eyes narrowed to a slit. Finally, Tien growled at his family. Clearly disapproving, they stepped back and pulled the curtain around the bed. Jack stepped up to the bed.
“Hi, buddy,” he said gently to the boy. He gave a wave. “Hi. I know you don’t feel good, but let’s see if we can make you feel a little better, okay?”
He put one hand on the boy’s chest and the other hand on the black hair, gently stroking as he soothed the boy with hummed sounds. An IV extended to the boy’s left arm, giving him the medication he needed for the radiation. Jack wasn’t sure if it would work on radiation wounds, especially since the radiation was still coursing through his body.. The boy would probably live on his own, h
e didn’t look nearly as bad as Daniel did a few years before, but Jack needed to try and do something with all the tissue that was damaged, give the body a boost to help fight the poison. After several minutes, Tien drew a shocked breath. Red blotches on the boy’s face and hands had begun to disappear. The boy started to relax and fall asleep.
“Miracle?” Tien whispered.
“No,” Jack said, stroking the soft black hair. “The World Health Organization sent you information on evolutionary changes. It’s all true. This is just something that’s happening with me, so I help when I can. I can’t help everyone; I’m one person, so I’m asking that you keep it to yourself. I apologize for my behavior before. I’m making the first gesture toward trust, Hsin. I don’t give a crap about proper procedure or who has the biggest toys; all of this proves that we need to get beyond that kind of thinking because we need each other. It’s your turn.”
Tien allowed himself a small shudder before touching his grandson’s face and hands.
When they returned to Geneva, Jack and Daniel beamed back to the Pentagon, leaving the professional HomeSec mediators, and Inanna and Atis, to deal with the details. Jack confessed and Daniel wasn’t sure exposing himself to Tien like that had been a good thing to do but it was done. They were exhausted as Jack went to find Sam in Vidrine’s office and Daniel went to find food. Vidrine’s personnel were red-eyed and pale, carrying on with their work. The general had been officially removed from life-support late the previous evening. Jack murmured condolences to everyone and went into the office. Sam looked up in irritation at the interruption and then fell back into the chair when she saw her husband.
“Oh, my God, Jack, how do you do this every day?” she asked, trying not to mess her mascara as she rubbed at her eyes. “It’s all I can do to keep projects going. I’m supposed to be signing things, but I have no idea what I’m signing or even if I should be signing.”
“Has Davis been in to help?” he asked.
“A couple of times,” she said. “I’m trying not to call him with every little thing; he’s your assistant, not mine. I asked him to get with Major Ellsinore to take care of the details of the memorial for General Vidrine.”
“That’s fine,” Jack said. “Sam, listen to me.” He sat on the edge of her desk. “Colonel Taylor is currently packing up his office. He’s being given his stars so that he can take this office. The Joint Chiefs considered you; I talked them out of it. I wanted you to hear it from me.”
He watched her considering the information as she leaned back in the chair and tugged self-consciously at her uniform.
“Can I ask why?” she carefully asked.
“Because you don’t have experience with large commands,” he said. “You have team and departmental commands under you. Taylor has commanded a base for eight years. You are going to be groomed for this spot, though, so you will be taking over as the CO of Area 51 as of Monday. You can use the arches to come home for the night.”
At least she wasn’t yelling at him or giving him accusing looks. Some orders even out-ranked him. Instead, she was quiet as she looked at her uniform, desk, hands.
“Thank you,” she finally said. “For being honest with me. I agree that I’m not ready for this chair, and I feel better knowing it isn’t mine. Yet.”
Jack gave her a smile and leaned down to kiss her.
“You’ll make General some day,” he promised. “Happy birthday?”
She stood and put her arms around his neck for a hug.
“Come on, let’s go home,” he said, patting her back. “It’s Saturday and we really are not needed here; the people who are dealing with this mess in Asia don’t need us getting in the way. Daniel is getting something from the commissary; we can find him on the way out. We need cake and ice cream and presents and get in some time with our kids.”
She agreed and kissed him. He tightened his arms, feeling the familiar warmth start to tingle as they tasted each other. Until a throat was cleared behind them.
“Major?” Sam questioned, not releasing Jack’s neck as she leaned her chin on his shoulder to look over.
“Uh, sorry, ma’am. Sir.” Ellsinore wasn’t sure about the protocol breech when it came to married couples. “Did, uh, is there anything I can do? What I mean is…..”
Sam’s eyes sparkled with humor, and Jack stood and turned. The poor major was trying not to shift nervously.
“At ease, Major,” Jack said. “Did General Maynard talk with you?”
“Yes, sir,” Ellsinore said, glad to have a specific topic. “The memorial for General Vidrine will be on Tuesday, sir. Christ Hope Church. Colonel Taylor will have his promotion by then, and he will speak at the memorial. Will you and Colonel Carter be attending?”
“Of course,” they both said. “Major, was there an autopsy?” Jack asked.
“It’s in the process, sir,” Ellsinore said, considering him. “Do you suspect something, sir?”
“No, not really,” Jack said thoughtfully. “I’d like to have a copy of the results.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sam gathered her things and left the major to take care of Vidrine’s office.
“Ma’am?” She turned to Ellsinore. “Would it be presumptuous to offer a well-done, even though it was only one day with bad, extenuating circumstances?”
“Thank you, Major,” Sam said, and accepted his honors.
They found Daniel and helped him with the hamburger which he watched disappear. Not in a rush, they took a car to Andrews. Most of the base personnel were on duty seeing to the needs of VIP’s who were landing and taking off to help deal with the crisis in Asia. As they hopped off the jeep that took them out to a far field where the al'kesh was being closely guarded, there was a small pop in the air. Jack paused and then fell to the ground.
“JACK! Medics!” Sam shouted as she hunched over Jack’s still form, holding her hands tightly over the bleeding hole in his chest. Daniel ran to the al'kesh and jumped inside. He returned a moment later, a zat in hand as he crouched over Sam, zat ready to take out whoever shoots in their direction. Personnel scrambled, guns drawn as the sniper was searched for, and the medical personnel were shielded on their way out to the al'kesh. SF quickly estimated the direction of the bullet and began running out to the field on the far side of the runway. Daniel hit his comm.
“Europa, this is Dr. Jackson! General O’Neill is down! Sniper at Andrews Air Base! Get us up and have medical standing by, the general’s been hit in the chest!”
The entire party was immediately beamed up and put down in the infirmary, a small circle of blacktop and gravel on the floor, which was beamed up with them. Maintenance people will find a corresponding circle on the ground and scratch their heads as they studied it in the morning.
“Call Heaven’s Bow!” Sam shouted as medical teams came running. “Get Jonathan O’Neill over here NOW!” The EMT’s from the base stepped back to allow the ship’s doctors and nurses to take over and prep Jack for surgery. The moment Jonathan beamed in and saw the action, he put himself on a bed and stripped off the leather so that his arms and veins could be gotten to with an IV. There was a standing order to use the two men as transplants for each other, no questions asked. So no one asked.
“What the hell happened?!” Jonathan demanded as nurses began digging for a vein. They glanced at him and then each other, not used to hearing such command from a teenager. Daniel told him while Sam looked at the blood covering her hands. She went to a sink and began to wash. Someone put clean scrubs next to her.
Jonathan searched for his comm and informed his ship of the happenings. A clipped response came through and Jonathan tossed the comm down, leaning back on the bed at the insistence of the nurse.
As the operation commenced, Daniel called home. Paul assured him that the air base was being scoured, every rock turned over, every blade of grass searched. The SF from their neighborhood closed in to guard the house and the kids. Michael would tell the kids that Jack was hurt and in surgery and
they were not to worry. Michael must have been holding the baby because Daniel heard a rush of babbling and a raspberry spit.
Daniel stood behind Sam as they watched from the gallery. She took his hands and wrapped herself in his arms.
“I don’t like this birthday present,” she whispered.
Twelve hours later, Dr. Warner looked over at them and held up a thumb. Being familiar with Jack’s sliced open anatomy, he had been beamed up after the first time Jack arrested. Jack had arrested twice during surgery and then they had a hard time getting his right lung re-inflated.
“This is strange,” Warner said when they got to the infirmary. The doctor tugged on the stethoscope around his neck as he considered Jack recovering on a bed. “It’s almost as though his own body was fighting us. Even his vital signs are better than they should be for twenty minutes out of heavy surgery. I’m not complaining, certainly; it’s possible that these developments he’s been going through have something to do with the variations.”
“Could they have caused the arrests?” Sam asked, gently taking one of Jack’s hands and sitting at his side.
“Possibly,” Warner admitted. “If we were interfering with a normal function. Normal now, that is. Colonel, he really needs to get in for a full physical, once he’s on his feet. Obviously there have been changes and we need to record them so that we can treat him properly in the future.”
“Let’s get him back to his old obnoxious self before we deal with that, Doctor,” Daniel said. Warner agreed and moved to read the monitors once more, frowning as he made notes.
“Daniel,” Sam whispered. “See if you can find him. You know…”
He nodded and leaned in close to Jack’s still form, taking a limp hand. “I’m not good at initiating,” he warned her.
“That’s alright, just try,” she said, needing to know.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 18