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

by Michele Briere

  Paul was looking closely at him, studying him. Jack leaned in. “Boo,” he said dryly. Paul had the grace to flush. “I’m me,” Jack told him. “My head is full of stuff I’ll probably never use, but I’m still me. Except I can’t have alcohol anymore. Or aspirin. I really need a beer. Where’s Nick?”

  “He won’t tell me,” Paul said in irritation. “He could be in town, he could be halfway around the planet. I don’t know. I thought I heard someone speaking in Arabic, the last time he checked in, but for all I know he could be getting falafel in Manhattan.”

  Jack sat in the seat vacated by Paul and twirled a finger.

  “China is not happy with all the changes, and is trying to crack down on any information about the leaping process. The reports are telling us that the cities are in turmoil, but the countryside is apparently so used to working for warmongers that they are actually happier with an emperor. Some interesting satellite images have been coming in. The new government still has it in for you, though, sir.”

  “Anything on this emperor?” Jack asked. Paul took a few thoughtful steps.

  “Shih Huang Ti. It’s difficult to determine if that’s his real name, since we don’t have access to their vital statistics. It’s unlikely that’s his birth name. We have a grainy pic of him which we’re trying to match up, but no luck, yet.”

  “Where is it?” Jack asked. Paul pulled a file out and handed it to him.

  “We estimate him to be around fifty,” Paul said. “Average height and weight. So far, his public appearances have been under heavy guard in highly secured areas.”

  Jack looked hard at the picture and closed his eyes, sending his awareness out across the planet. Since his ‘awakening,’ it was much easier to scan the planet. He still got only emotions from people, but it was easier to sense and translate them, and easier to find a specific person as long as he knew what the person looked like and their approximate location. Ti was probably in Beijing, as far as he could tell; it was difficult to judge, though, never having met the man. There was a certain ‘scent’ to people, he had discovered, and that scent made it easy to pinpoint that person. He wasn’t able to tell who was who, though, as he zeroed in on crowded Beijing.

  There was fear from the entire population of China, and a lot of resentment. A few pockets of resistance, but no one in a position to do anything about it. Jack went to the hanging touch-screen and tapped it on. He looked thoughtfully at the real-time satellite images that winked in and out of different cities.

  “Is there any reason we can’t offer China a deal?”

  Paul and Jonathan waited, wondering what Jack was up to.

  “What kind of deal?” Paul asked.

  “Well, what if we offer China Lord Yu’s old planet? Tell them we will transport anyone who wishes to leave Earth, if they want to populate Yu’s planet. The home of their god-king. They can have it free of charge, set up their own government, their own laws. The planet would belong to them. Tell them his spirit offered it to them. I mean, unlike Christians, Jews, or Muslims, the Chinese don’t have any ideology that tells them their land is sacred to them. Do they?”

  “No, they don’t,” Paul said thoughtfully.

  “Yu’s palace has been emptied, hasn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Paul said.

  “All naquadah was removed,” Jonathan said. “The toy box is at Area 51, the general stuff, staves and zats, hand-ribbons, were distributed to Jaffa and Tok’ra. We kept a few odds and ends, ships were shared. The planet is empty except for a couple of research teams. Lots of empty buildings that can easily hold almost half a million people. That’s just one continent. They can colonize the rest.”

  “Forward the suggestion to the council,” Jack told him. “If they’re good with it, I will make the offer to king what’s-his-face.”

  Jack went down to the labs and got the chair powered up. The files in his head immediately brought up the schematics for the mikku. He was beginning to wish his brain was hooked up to a printer. The overhead called Jack to the phone and he swore before ordering a tech to keep an eye on China. A moment later, he was walking through the arch into the SGC.

  “SG-17 has reported in,” Landry told him. “Thought you’d like to hear about it.”

  Eight men sat at the table in the conference room and stood as Jack and Landry entered. Bryce, Franklin, Bradshaw, and Shao with Bhusnurmath, Pani, Ganguly from the Indian Army, and Gaafar as an interpreter for the Indians.

  “Khalid, how’d your mother’s surgery go?” Jack asked, much to Gaafar’s surprise. Daniel kept Jack and Sam updated on everything he knew about people, rambling on during meals and whenever he could. Jack appreciated the information. One never knew when something seemingly innocent could turn into important data.

  “It went well, sir, thank you,” he said. “Single bypass. She’s feeling much better.”

  “Good. Let me know if she needs anything.”

  “Alright, Major, what have you got for us?” Landry asked, nodding for Bryce to begin his report.

  After a rapid week of training the Indian officers to the technology and how the SGC worked, they gated to a planet nearest to Vishnu and caught a ship the rest of the way. While SG-17 waited anxiously on the hidden Tau’ri owned ha’tak, the Indian team and Gaafar, dark enough to be mistaken for one of them, found their way into the society on the planet below. They got away with their bad accents by telling people they were from the other side of the world. They confirmed the presence of snakes with the hand-held MRI. Most of the upper caste was under Goa’uld control.

  Pretending to be lower caste slaves, they made their way into the palace as servants. Gaafar earned himself a beating after he ‘bumped’ into the strange blond woman in a hallway. He slipped a locator onto her clothing and she disappeared several hours later when she was alone for a moment. During the ensuing confusion, they found a locked room that contained a queen Goa’uld. Gaafar tagged her tank and that disappeared, too. With the two disappearances, Vishnu himself went into hiding. All of Linea’s lab equipment and the tank of baby snakes were beamed away.

  Erra came and took Linea after rendering her unconscious, and all the snakes were destroyed after obtaining samples of them. The team on the planet each grabbed a person, two with Goa’uld and two without, and beamed back up to the ship. The Furlings kept Linea, refusing to even allow her access to Earth by being in a cell in Area 51’s vast underground. The equipment and the Goa’uld bodies were sent to Area 51 to be put under microscopes. Sam was called at the same time Jack was.

  Jack pressed the speed dial on the computer to Area 51.

  “What do we have?” he asked when Sam’s face came to the screen.

  “We’re working on it,” she said. “Our initial look seems to be showing genetic manipulation, but we don’t know how or why yet.”

  “What do you mean, genetic manipulation?”

  “I mean that both the body of the queen and the baby Goa’uld all show signs of genetic splicing in their cells,” she told him. “We need more time.” We’ve only had them for a couple of hours, will you chill? He could hear her admonition in his head and knew she’d be giving him evil looks when they got home. Her current look was bland, but he could see the glint in her eyes.

  “Alright. Yesterday, please.”

  “Do we have anything from the prisoners?” he asked the table.

  “We managed to scare the unoccupied ones nearly out of their wits,” Bryce said, “but according to them, Vishnu has been there for as long as they can remember and the people have served him; the light-haired woman showed up only a couple years ago.”

  “No other glowing-eyed beasties?” Jack asked.

  “None, sir,” Bryce confirmed. “Not until after the woman got there.”

  Jack tapped the table. “So, he was stuck there,” he said to himself. “Just like Set was stuck here. His presence kept the Aschen away. Maybe made some kind of deal with them. Where did the queen come from?”

  “They don�
�t know,” Bryce said, knowing Jack was speaking to himself and not the team. “They didn’t know about a queen. The occupied persons went Goa’uld on us when they were questioned.”

  “Could the queen have been created there?” Jack asked. That damned fish immediately began giving him the instructions for creating a queen for a queenless species. He rubbed his temples in irritation and grabbed a paper and pen, copying the diagram in his head while the others waited in polite confusion. He then brought Area 51 back up on the computer. Sam was trying to be patient with him. He held up the diagram. “Does this make sense to you?”

  “Closer, please,” she said, squinting at the screen. Jack pushed it closer. “Could you fax it to me?” She sounded excited so he assumed it was understandable. Jack held it out to the SF at the door and told him to fax it.

  “Do I want to know?” Landry asked.

  “No,” Jack said, shaking his head. “No, you don’t.”

  He shook hands with their temporary spies and thanked them. One of the men started to say something and then turned to Gaafar who listened and nodded.

  “Sir, he wants to know how he can make this a permanent assignment,” Khalid translated.

  “He can put in a transfer request through HomeSec,” Jack told him. “He would be under my authority, and Gen. Landry’s, though, not his superiors in India. He needs to talk to his commanding officer.”

  On his way to the arch to head back to his office, the incoming alarm sounded.

  “It’s the Tok’ra, sir,” Walter said to Landry when they got to the command room. Landry waved a hand and the iris opened. Malek was walking though moments later, along with several more Tok’ra and a captive.

  “Who’s this?” Jack asked, walking through the SF who had their guns pointed at the strange man.

  “Perhaps a more private room?” Malek suggested. Jack agreed and they moved to an interrogation room.

  “He’s carrying a Goa’uld,” Malek told him once they were settled. Jack immediately sent out a feeler, confirming the presence. “He’s Aschen, Jack.”

  Jack picked up a phone and dialed. “Bring the pukku to SGC detention.”

  “Come on,” Jack said to the Tok’ra after hanging up, motioning them to the door. “We’ll get rid of the snake and then we can question the host. Maybe he’ll be grateful and provide answers.”

  “I will tell you nothing,” the Goa’uld snarled at them.

  Jack turned to look blandly at him. “Of course you won’t,” he agreed. “I’m not even going to bother trying. Which is why I will destroy you and then question the host. I’m a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”

  It curled its lip. “Stupid you must be, if you think anything of the host survives.”

  Jack considered it. “Tell me this –do you snakes actually believe that? Is it part of your training? Or do you all have the same book of really bad quotations? Because if you do, you really need a rewrite.”

  Jack turned his back and left the room, locking the door after the Tok’ra. “Mal, Sam’s pregnant. I’d like to buy her something special. Know any good market places?”

  “Congratulations. Kauppa has interesting goods in their market places; they trade with several planets. They are a protectorate.”

  “Great!” Jack patted his shoulder. “Leave the coordinates, will you?”

  “Human!”

  A flash of memory struck Jack and he paused. “You don’t get to call me that,” he informed the Goa’uld in the cell. “I am General O’Neill. What?”

  “Release me. The Aschen will take me from you, if you do not.”

  Jack chuckled, much to the Goa’uld’s surprise. “Let them try,” he said. “There’s a score I’d like to settle.”

  Malek followed Jack while the other Tok’ra stayed behind as guards. With the unknown Goa’uld strain, they didn’t trust the SF to be as vigilant as they should be.

  “So Vishnu’s people are now off-world,” Jack stated. He took his cell phone out and called his office. “Get our spy-in-the-sky working on our guests in detention. I’m going to find some food.”

  “Yes,” Malek said. “That entire sector is at risk. Jack, I didn’t want to say this in front of your guards –we were unable to detect the Goa’uld. It was by chance that we used one of your scanners.”

  Jack halted in mid-stride. “Repeat that,” he ordered, staring into Malek’s eyes.

  “We were unable to sense them. We cannot sense that one,” he said, jerking his head toward detention. He pulled an MRI out of his pocket and held it up.

  Jack picked up the intercom from the wall. “Get someone into holding room eight and take a sample from the Goa’uld in there. I want to know if there’s something weird with his blood. Page me when you have the results.” He began walking again as he dialed from his cell phone. “Anything on those dead specimens? Listen, Malek just said the Tok’ra were unable to sense the Goa’ulds. Yeah, check for naquadah. Dr. Lam is going to test living blood. I don’t know; could Linea have spliced it out of them? You said the cells looked messed with. Okay, page me.”

  “The Aschen are certainly divided,” Malek said. “They are hiding it well from those they continue to torment. The pirates are even evading Aschen home space. We questioned a few people from Aschen worlds; most seem to be Goa’uld-free. It is the Aschen leadership that is beginning to noticeably change.”

  Jack frowned as he thought about it. “I guess it would make sense….. come on, sarge,” he wheedled at the man behind the counter and held out his tray, “I’m a growing boy, here.” The sergeant added more enchiladas to his plate and Jack thanked him sweetly before moving to a table. “The lead snake would need to establish his court before getting their Jaffa and slaves together.”

  “Correct,” Malek said, looking curiously at his own plate. The smells of the spices were strong and he wondered if his stomach lining was strong enough to handle them. “From what we have been able to determine, most of the old Goa’uld are dead. Those we did not kill were killed by their own slaves. There are very few Goa’uld left. A few were Masharu and went with Thanatos.”

  Jack felt a wave of nausea and looked at his plate of spicy Mexican food.

  “Is something wrong?” Malek asked, seeing that Jack’s attention was elsewhere. He was pretty sure green wasn’t natural to the various Tau’ri races.

  “I think the baby doesn’t like spicy.”

  Malek looked at Jack’s stomach.

  “Not me -Sam,” Jack said. “Daniel and I…. come on, don’t your women get morning sickness?”

  “Women with a symbiote don’t become pregnant,” Malek reminded him. “Harsesis children are forbidden.”

  Jack grimaced and rubbed his stomach. “Well, once in a while, a Tau’ri man will get sympathetic morning sickness.”

  “I see,” Malek said, nodding in comprehension. “The bonding.”

  “Does everyone know about this except me?” Jack whined.

  “Apparently,” Malek said. The food was even spicier than it smelled, and host was surprised when symbiote seemed to enjoy it. Jack scowled and took a homemade herb pill out of his pocket, tossing it back into his mouth.

  They were called to the infirmary and told that, somehow, the naquadah was taken out of the cells of the incarcerated Goa’uld. The SGC scientists were at a loss and were all scrambling to find answers. Grant called in and told Jack that the Aschen in custody was screaming in one section of his brain while a Goa’uld was prancing in another. Many leaders on the Aschen homeworld were Goa’uld, as were several ships’ commanders. From the man in the cell, Koort, they knew that the Goa’uld were a recent addition to the Aschen. Unfortunately, Koort didn’t know how the Goa’uld got to the Aschen other than his own symbiote self, named Sayre, which was forced upon him while asleep on board the ship where he was an officer. From Grant’s description, the symbiotes took on their own personalities and knowledge from the host’s mind instead of being born with all the knowledge of previous symbiotes
. Malek found that interesting and wondered if it had something to do with the unknown queen; if she had been created in a lab, it would make sense that she had no memories to pass on.

  Once the pill kicked in, Jack managed to finish his lunch. They then headed back to detention where he stood in front of Koort/Sayre’s cell, holding the pukku against his shoulder as he studied the man. Malek and the other Tok’ra took a cautious step away, giving the pukku a wide berth.

  “Well, human, are you prepared to become a host?” it snarled. “We will put the knowledge in your brain to very good use.”

  “I told you not to call me that,” Jack informed it. He brought the pukku down and shook it at the Goa’uld. “Just for that, I’m not even going to give you a final meal. Your host, however, will get whatever he wants as long as he talks to us. Bye-bye.”

  Before the snake knew what was happening, Jack turned the curious, innocent looking wand toward the cell. Malek watched through a scanner and gave Jack a nod when the snake was gone. The door was opened and Dr. Lam rushed in with medics to take care of the fallen Aschen.

  “Wait!” the man, Koort, called out huskily. Jack squatted next to him, holding up a hand toward the medics. “You are O’Neill. I cannot be sent back. Please. I will be killed.”

  Jack nodded. “You give a full report, and we will scan your mind for honesty, then we can discuss a new home for you.”

  Koort thrust out a proud chin and gave a nod; the rumors of Tau’ri psychics were true.

  “I will submit to your probes,” he said. “Thank you for my freedom.”

  “And that report includes everything you know and what you’ve done concerning the Aschen’s treatment and intent of the worlds they have claimed,” Jack warned. “We will pull it from your head by force, if we need to.” Koort agreed.

  “If he makes one wrong move, shoot him,” Jack told the SF.

  Since they had the Aschen under control, the Tok’ra decided to leave and see what they could do with the rest of the Vishnu-Aschen issue. Two SG teams of Marines were placed on guard at Koort’s side, and an interrogator would begin as soon as the medics were done with the Aschen.