“Don’t you want to know about them?” Jack asked, sliding his arms around Sam’s waist and warming himself between his partners.
“Sure,” Daniel said, shifting to cover Jack’s back. “But it’s an intellectual curiosity, not something necessary for existence. We no longer need to go searching for Ancient weapons, you can design them, so there’s no need for me to put puzzles together. I wouldn’t mind a history of the Ancients. I can live without it. Who knows; we might see it happen in the future.”
“You’re trying to make me feel better,” Jack accused.
“Yes,” Daniel admitted. “But I’m also being honest. That site in Orkney? If it needs to remain an enigma, so be it. I’ll live. Stonehenge? I’ll live. Pyramids around the world? I’ll live. What I’m finding more interesting is that people with these new talents that are cropping up tend to be accentuated when they spend any extended time around Olivia. Have you noticed?”
Chapter 62
Just before sunrise, Jack got out of bed and took a hot shower. As he dressed, he looked at Sam and Daniel, curled into each other, still fast asleep. He gently pecked both of them and then pecked Sam’s stomach. She turned, her hand finding his hair.
“What?” she murmured. Daniel pried open an eye.
“I’m going to Kalam,” Jack told them. They blinked sleepily and roused themselves.
“Are you sure?” Daniel asked, knowing what Jack was going to do.
“Hell, no,” Jack told him. “I’m going anyway. I need to. I want someone around just in case I take a dive.”
“Alright,” Daniel said. “Want us to come with?”
“No,” Jack shook his head. “Stay. Sleep. If I’m going to be late, I’ll send word.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Daniel told him. Jack didn’t need to consider it.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “This is a fear I need to face. I’m tired of tripping over myself and everyone around me.”
An hour later, Jack was leaning against a wooden fence, watching a colt prance around its mother. A presence was soon at his side, calmly blowing non-carcinogenic cigar smoke into the afternoon air.
“I want this done,” Jack said, hearing himself through a loud silence in his head. “I want to be in control of it. If I do this, will I still be me?”
“I promise, Ahu.”
Whatever Jack was expecting, it wasn’t to be taken into the baths and stripped of his clothes. “Trust,” Ninurta told him, smiling gently when he handed Jack over to three male servants. Jack bit his tongue and got into the hot bath.
“Why?” Jack asked. None of the men responded except to scrub him. He relaxed slightly when he realized that their touch was impersonal, and the humming under their breath reminded him of Daniel’s humming during their initial love-making. When they were done, they put a robe on him and took him to another room where Ninurta and Enki were waiting. They had both changed into their formal white robes.
“Did I smell or something?” Jack asked. “I did shower before I came here.”
“No, it wasn’t that,” Ninurta told him. “Since logic hasn’t been working on you, we needed you in ritual space.”
“I’m not spiritual,” Jack said, confused. It was odd, though; although not religious by any means, he felt as though he had stepped into church, which had nothing to do with religion itself because every sacred place gave him that same sensation. That he had crossed boundaries into something the profane had never touched.
“More than you realize, Jack,” Enki said. “You don’t seem to understand –spiritual is about what’s on the inside. The spiritual transforms the transcendent and makes it immanent. And this isn’t really about spirituality. Not all ritual is spiritual in nature.”
“We need to get you out of your head before we can get you into your head,” Ninurta told him. Jack didn’t understand either of them.
Enki stood in front of Jack, looking carefully at him. “Jack, your brain has completely adapted to the downloads. Your tests have proved that the neural connections are all there. It’s only your own fears, a phobia if you will, that’s keeping you from accessing them as easily as you access your own memories. We understand why those fears are in place, you had two rather bad experiences with this that threatened your life. I can put your brain on hold, if anything starts to go wrong. Just like the Asgard. Would you feel better if we called them?”
“No,” Jack said, giving his head a shake. “I’m still a little pissed at you guys, but I’ll admit that you haven’t steered me wrong. First Daniel, then Ninurta, and now this. I’ll try it. And if it doesn’t work, if I start to deteriorate, I’m going to trust you to get rid of all the bullshit in my head.”
“All or nothing,” Enki agreed. He raised a hand and gestured toward the fireplace and the rug on the floor. “Take off your robe and sit facing the fire. Ninurta is going to sit behind you and guide you. I will monitor and pull you out if I need to.”
Jack looked at the rug. “What are we doing?”
“Always so suspicious,” Ninurta said, a kindness in his dark eyes. “The fire is for a focus. The point of the skin is because you are uncomfortable without your shields.” He touched the robe. “Being in your skin will force you into an ultra self-awareness. It’s a state of being you will need in order to complete this exercise. Do you remember how we all traveled together on the ship and discovered the smoke-aliens? We are going to travel inside of your head. I won’t gain any knowledge from you; I will only show you the route to take. I will light your way, if you will.”
With the setting of guards and the closing of the door, Jack knew no one would be interrupting them. He sat on the rug, facing the fire, and slid the robe off his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor around him. There was a roaring in his head and he felt slightly ill as faces and, surprisingly, body scents, entered the front of his head. So many people he might never see again.…..
“Jack, shush,” he heard inside his head. Ninurta knelt behind him, the warmth of his body as intimate as Daniel's naked body behind him. “Focus, Jack,” Ninurta told him, a quiet humor in his voice. “Please don’t reach for Daniel in this; you need to be completely present.”
“Let’s just do it,” Jack bit out, fixing his legs and arms into comfortable positions. The flames before him began to sere his eyes so he closed them.
“Follow me,” he heard whispered inside his head…….
A stinging made him smack his neck. Buzzing and birds singing caught his attention and he looked around. A lake lay in front of him, dark and familiar.
“This is Minnesota,” he commented. “Our family cabin. How’d I get here?”
“We’re not here,” he heard next to him. He turned to see Ninurta cast out a fishing line and sitting back in the old wooden lounge chair, taking a long sip from a beer. Ninurta grimaced. “How do you drink this crap? We need to teach you how to make proper beer.”
“What do you mean, we’re not here?” He smacked another mosquito.
“We’re in your head, Jack,” Ninurta reminded him. “This is your safe place. That pond is your subconscious. It’s your locked closet. Relax, Jack; toss a few lines out.”
Hours later, Jack once again brought his line in and looked at the empty hook.
“Just think about what you want on the line and bring it in,” Ninurta told him. He kept reeling in one fish after another, throwing them back after making happy faces them.
“How about a nice rainbow trout?” Jack asked, eying the fish in the warrior’s hand. Ninurta was making kissy noises at it before tossing it back into the water. “I’m hungry.” His line tugged, taking him by surprise. He reeled it in and stared at the wiggling trout. “That isn’t possible,” he said. “There are no trout here.”
“Don’t tell me about it,” Ninurta shrugged. “Find out from the fish.”
Jack considered it. “Ask the fish why it’s here?”
“Sure. Isn’t that life’s most fundamental question? Just because you and it
are two different species doesn’t make it any less important.”
After posing the insane question to the slippery fish, his attention was captured by a ripple on the water. It took him a moment to recognize the close-up face of a man. His father, much younger than he remembered. Tom O’Neill yelled across the lawn and the image turned to see a boy running after a cat and scaring it up a tree. A thumb came into view and disappeared into close range. Jack realized that the boy on the lawn was Michael, about age ten. Jack would have been about three years old. His father was holding him on one arm while turning fish on a grill.
Jack threw the trout back into the pond.
“That wasn’t fair,” he said gruffly.
“It was nice,” Ninurta said gently. “Your father loved you very much. Thank you for sharing it with me. Why don’t you try asking a question and then casting out? Try the shadow under the tree.”
“Make a wish?”
“If you want to put it that way.”
Feeling as silly as asking a fish the meaning of life, which he still didn’t understand, Jack squeezed his eyes shut and then cast his line out. It tugged a moment later. Instead of bringing a fish up, the water rippled into another image. Bodies. One after another carefully, lovingly placed into crematories. Why? Jack sent the thought. What happened? He had seen bodies piled up like that during catastrophes. Instead of the radiation burns and blast wounds, though, such as the Koreans had, these people were pale and gaunt. They looked familiar. A voice began to speak, narrating the scenes.
……..Jack opened his eyes, blinking away the blurriness. It wasn’t a fireplace in front of his eyes, but a whiteness. Was he blind? No. Rafters decoratively placed while being useful. A softness was beneath his head. He was in a bed. A warmth was at his side and he turned his head. Olivia and Davy slept next to him. Jack was confused. This wasn’t his bedroom; he knew he was still on Kalam.
“Daddy, Mommy, Adda’s awake!” he heard Stacey call from just outside the room. She came in and jumped up onto the bed. “Are you better, adda?” she asked.
“I think so,” Jack said slowly. “What are you guys all doing here?”
“Rip Van Winkle awakes,” Daniel said from the door. He and Sam came into the room, concern behind their smiles.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked. He could feel the weakness in his body and the soreness in his back, in his bones, from long-term bed rest.
“You’ve been asleep for fifteen days,” Daniel told him as Sam checked his eyes and his pulse. Dr. Lam came into the room, having insisted on being on hand to keep watch over him despite the fact that the Furlings could do better. Sam moved and Lam began to examine Jack. He discovered that he had IV lines in his arms. And, if the sensation was correct, one of those damned things in his dick. He moved carefully to look over the side of the bed. Yep. Damn….
“Fifteen…. no,” Jack shook his head.
“Oh, yes,” Daniel said. “Ninurta brought you up here and called us. Dr. Lam says you’ve been in a coma, and Ninurta says you’ve been reviewing archives.”
“Coma,” Dr. Lam insisted, taking the stethoscope from Jack’s chest. She expected to hear small rattles in his lungs, considering the length of time he’d been lying there. His lungs were clear.
“Carolyn, you know the scans showed his brain has been incredibly active,” Sam said.
“Do we need to do this now?” Daniel asked the women. They both looked guilty and backed off.
Davy woke up and saw everyone around the bed. He jumped over his baby sister and snuggled into Jack’s chest. Jack winced and wrapped his arms around the boy. At a look from him, Daniel reached down and lifted Davy away.
“Daddy’s not that strong, yet,” Daniel told him. “Why don’t you give him a kiss and then go play? He’ll be alright.” Davy bent down and pecked Jack on the mouth. Daniel set him down and Davy ran from the room to tell the rest of his siblings.
“What the hell happened?” Jack asked. Olivia snuffled and turned her head in her sleep. Jack lowered his voice. “I was fishing. In Minnesota.”
“Minnesota?” The others in the room stood looking at him.
Jack waved. “Never mind. My head feels like it’s ready to split open.”
“No aspirin,” Enki warned from the door. “Consider yourself allergic to it.”
“Why?” Lam quickly jerked her head toward him.
“Because I’m…. changed.” They looked at Jack. He could sense a shift in his perception.
“You’re still you, Jack, we promised,” Enki told him as he came into the room. “The Ancient DNA is now in the forefront of your own, that’s all. Aspirin doesn’t react well with Ancient DNA. Go herbal.”
“Aspirin comes from willow tree bark,” Sam said with a confused frown.
“Willow bark tea is fine,” Enki told her. “So is the bark in powdered form. He can chew it, if he’s really desperate. The processing of the medication is where it becomes bad for him.”
“What happens if he has aspirin?” Dr. Lam asked.
“Fever and convulsions,” Enki told her. “Akin to encephalitis.” Dr. Lam made a note.
“Jack, do you remember anything that happened?” Enki asked, coming to the end of the bed. Jack rubbed his eyes.
“A little,” he admitted. He could sense that his brain was full of information, stuff he felt as though he had always known, and yet it was new. He even understood Sam's scientific explanations. He remembered every word he had ever read, every sight he had ever seen. “It’s mostly like watching a million TVs all at the same time.”
“What did you find out?” Sam asked, sitting on the side of the bed and holding his hand.
“Everything,” he told her. “You guys were right in that the history doesn’t really matter to us. It doesn’t actually have much to do with us at all.”
“Jonathan!” Maggie rushed into the room and swept him into her arms, mindful of the IVs.
“Mom. I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
Jack looked at the others over his mother’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
They looked at each other and Jack was sure something had happened.
“Five days ago, President Tien was assassinated,” Sam told him. “China is in a state of revolution.”
“It’s terrible, Jack,” Maggie said tearfully. “They are saying they’re bringing back the old ways and that they have the rightful emperor of China. They said the aliens and all these new things happening are evil and will destroy us. They said you brought this to us.”
The looks on everyone’s face told him his mother was right. Jack lay back, giving his face another rub. He was stubbly and he needed a bath. A long, hot bath. He shuddered to think of what was happening with his intestines during the fifteen days. The swearing in his head was in a surprising number of languages. He’d have to try them out on Daniel.
“Paul is at HomeSec,” Sam told him. “General Hammond and General Landry are in constant contact with him, helping him when he needs help. We go back and forth, carefully, when we need to. The US is on high alert, but so far there’s been no attack. General Maynard strongly advised that we get off-world until this is settled. All the kids are here, Mom and Michael, Cassie is here, too, as well as Jerrie. Jonathan is on the Heaven’s Bow in orbit around Earth, keeping watch and signing your name to a few minor things to keep up appearances, Prometheus is also in orbit. The Daedalus is on its way home.”
Jack swore under his breath. He picked his head up again at a sudden thought.
“Linea is…..”
“She’s here,” Daniel said, sorrow momentarily highlighting his face. “We drugged her, bound her, and had Prometheus beam her out of security and into the gateroom before she knew what was happening, and we brought her here. Jack, she destroyed Vyus.”
“Everyone?”
Daniel gave him a nod. “There’s a haz-mat team there now, making a detailed report.”
“I'm sorry, Daniel, I know you had hopes for her. Damn. Wa
sn’t it dangerous to bring her here?” Jack asked pointedly.
“She is…. incapacitated,” Enki said delicately. “Erra is dealing with her. Pity her, Jack, don’t condemn her. Her wires are extremely…. crossed. The amnesia gave her a time of reprieve, but ultimately the wiring turned itself back on.”
“What’s Erra doing with her?” Jack asked.
“Are you sure you want to know?” Enki responded.
“I think I can wait,” Jack said. “What about the Vishnu planet?”
“What planet?” Maggie asked, not comprehending the conversation. Jack motioned for her to move and he tried to swing his legs out of the bed. Dr. Lam wasn’t happy about it, but she took the IVs out of his arms and bandaged him. He assumed the IVs were giving him nutrients until he could eat on his own. He’d been there before. Sam took a robe from the dresser and held it out for a sense of privacy while Daniel helped him to stand. Jack glared at the damned hollow cord sticking out from a place it had no business being, and Carolyn removed it without a blink, gathering the bag of urine from the bottom of the bed along with it. Jack’s legs almost gave out and he sat for a moment while Sam quickly put the robe around him.
“Take it easy,” Daniel told him. “You’re muscles are weak.”
“I need a specimen of the Goa’uld in order to determine its origin,” Enki told him. “The Tok’ra are going to kidnap one of them for me. Don’t give me that look, Jack, our ethics are a little different and mine work for me. And since our UW terms say the Goa’uld are forbidden to play God, we are obeying the letter of the contract.”
Daniel gave him a sharp look. “That’s cutting a fine line,” he commented. Jack tried getting up again and Sam slid a shoulder under his arm to support him.
“Never mind that now,” Jack said, silently ordering his muscles to knock off the crap as his partners walked slowly with him to the main family room. “What’s going on at home?”
It was a timed raid against the government, he was told. From the strength of the group, the plans must have been happening for years, long before the truth of the SGC came out. Individuals from a highly secret group had gained converts from the country peoples, people already hundreds of years behind current times and most susceptible to a new warlord and a new mythology that encompassed beliefs that the people retained after centuries. The Army of Emperor Shih Huang Ti, a descendent of Lord Yu, supposedly, began to declare that it was re-establishing order to the country of Ch’in. All outsiders were immediately given forty-eight hours to leave voluntarily. Anyone caught within Ch’in’s borders after forty-eight hours would be jailed, forcibly tossed out, or shot on sight no questions asked.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 3: A Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 50