Jack shrugged. “Of all the worlds and cultures I have seen, only a few have been divided. Governments take a strong stand against all weapons except the hand to hand, personal safety weapons. Knives and small pistols, or their equivalent, are fine, larger weapons, those made for mass destruction, are mostly outlawed except for extreme cases of country-wide protection. The governments appropriate funds more reasonably; the needs of the citizens comes first, not the pockets of the leaders. Most worlds take care of their environment by using anything other than fossil fuels. You should see some of the planets we’ve been to where the use of fossil fuels has completely destroyed the planet. Literally. The people of those worlds either colonized off-world, or they are dead.”
The reporter asked about the energy output of the Yards and the fuel use of the ships.
“No fuel,” Jack said. “We use alien generators and crystal technology. Completely waste-free and completely safe.”
“Will Earth be getting these generators for public use?” he was asked.
“Not yet,” Jack said. “The problem is the mineral used to make them. Naquadah. Earth doesn’t have the mineral and it’s pretty rare on most planets. We already have alternate forms of energy available; stop putting the money into the oil companies, and start backing alternatives. My family uses electric for local driving. With all the water on this planet, I’d really like to see the hydro take off. There should be a way to use hydro-electric and clean the water at the same time.”
They stopped at the main infirmary for the long-term care patients, and Jack ignored the reporter and camera to talk with the men and women laying in beds or sitting in wheelchairs. They brightened at Jack’s entrance and took his hand, if they could. If not, Jack made sure to touch them. A shoulder, a leg, anywhere. They had sacrificed greatly, and they needed to know they were not alone.
Jack’s next interview was two days later in DC with another news show, this one live. He knew his words about religion and fuels were going to add to the fire, and he was ready for it when a senator and a religious leader were brought on to counter him. Thanks to Daniel and Paul, he was able to fight them with their own words. He threatened to go out and find a Goa’uld named Jehovah, and the religious leader walked off the set. Back in the White House, Hayes groaned into his hands.
The next interview was a week away and was conducted at their home and the SGC. Jack was actually a little scared of that one; the woman had a reputation for turning even the hardest of men into little boys blubbering for their mommies. Jack, Sam, and Daniel were all interviewed. Sam told her about Jacob and his role in everything, and Daniel stood in front of the Stargate and told her about its birth. Walter turned the gate on and the woman and her camera crew almost fainted. She wanted to know about the children and how they deal with it all, so Jack let her ask them. It irritated them, sometimes, that the parents were always occupied with alien stuff, but someone was always home and they got lots of attention. Especially after report cards came out.
Two weeks later came the last interview Jack agreed to do only because Teal’c begged him with large, silent, dark eyes. It was on TV, in front of a live audience. Teal’c came out onto the stage with the others, and handed Oprah a large bouquet of flowers along with a deep bow. Jack had to explain that she and Dr. Phil were Teal’c most favorite Earth people.
Aliens and the Jack/Sam/Daniel relationship were the main topics. Oprah looked at their rings as Daniel discoursed on spirituality, love, and the concept of togetherness. She asked Teal’c about the alien thought on marriage and partners.
“Humans are stubborn,” he rumbled disapprovingly. “They have a short life which they waste arguing about someone else’s life. I do not understand.” He also didn’t understand the applause he received, but after a look from Jack, he graciously accepted it.
Parts of their hand-fasting ceremony were played, much to the delight of the audience. Jack covered his face at the recording of him singing to Daniel.
“You’re dead,” Jack told him after all the laughter and applause.
“What? I like it when you sing to me,” Daniel said innocently.
There were many ooohs and aaahs at the kissing and ring presentations, gasps at the sight of obvious aliens, and more gasps at the sight of double moons in the sky.
“Now, your kids were there,” Oprah commented. “Do they visit alien worlds often?”
“They’ve been out a few times,” Jack nodded. “And that was before the baby was born; her mother was my niece. Megan and my father died in a car accident on her way to her final check-up before delivery. I adopted my great-nieces and nephews.”
A hand went to her throat. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Was this long ago?”
“During the summer,” Jack said. “Olivia is almost six months, now. I’m Dad, Sam is Mom, and Daniel is Uncle Danny, except Olivia’s been identifying him as da da, also, which is fine with me. Daniel’s daughter, Stacy, calls me Dad, too. Actually, she uses the word Adda. One of Daniel’s languages is Sumerian, and it means Daddy. Sam is Mom to Stacy, too.”
“Soooo, they basically see all of you as their parents,” she said, glancing out at the front of the audience.
“Yes,” Jack nodded. “I know I’m in trouble when someone calls me Uncle Jack instead of Dad.”
Everyone laughed.
“Now, don’t you have another son?” she asked, frowning in thought. “Our research said you have an older teenager.”
“My oldest was Charlie,” Jack said. “He died in an accident about twelve years ago. Jonathan is new to me; he was a surprise that showed up on my doorstep a few years ago.”
More condolences were expressed. “And Jonathan didn’t come with you today?” she asked. “Just the younger kids?”
“He’s actually on another planet,” Jack said. “He’s eighteen, out of school, so I wasn’t going to argue. Hey, playback the ceremony?” he asked, looking around in the shadows of the production crew. “The long-haired irritation playing guitar.” The image was quickly found and played for the audience. “Yeah, that’s him,” he told Oprah.
The audience laughed as they watched Jonathan scamper around with his guitar, Shara always watching him. Jack looked at Daniel and Sam; they had completely missed the looks of affection coming from the warrior. Jack had a feeling he needed to talk with his clone.
“He’s a cutie, Jack,” Oprah said.
Before anyone could say anything, someone in the audience stood up and came down the isle.
“Cut!” the director yelled. “Hey, buddy, you can’t….” There were screams as the man pulled a gun from the back of his jacket. Jack jumped, shoved Oprah down behind the couch, and stood at the front of the stage.
“Nooo, nooo…..,” he could hear the man whispering in terror to himself. Jack looked into the man’s face; it was contorted as he struggled with himself. Jack made a slight hand signal and the man was abruptly on the floor. The audience continued to scream and scramble away.
“Quiet!” Jack yelled. No one was paying attention. He put two fingers into his mouth and whistled. “Pipe down and sit down!” he ordered. Shocked, the audience slowly returned to their seats. He jumped off the stage and went to the downed man to check his pulse. He took the gun and looked at it. “Lieutenant,” he called over an SF who had been in the wings and gave the man orders. The SF holstered the zat and several other SF came out to help haul the man off. Teal’c went with them.
“Oh, dear Lord, what was that?” Oprah asked, her eyes wide, body trembling. The stage manager, director, and producer were all on the stage seeing to her. Daniel handed her back into her seat and poured a glass of water for her while Sam went to the children; she took the screaming baby and walked off, holding Olivia close and murmuring to her.
“Is he dead?” Oprah asked in shock.
“No, he isn’t,” Jack assured her. He turned to the audience. “He isn’t dead. My men only stunned him. From the look on his face, he was probably brain-washed int
o doing this. We’ll get him fixed and he will be sent back home.”
“He tried to kill you!” she protested.
“Well, you can press charges if you want, but I won’t,” Jack told her. He gave her shoulder a pat and sat back down. “Alright, calm down, it’s okay,” he once more assured the audience. “We’ve seen it before; someone gets captured at some point and gets brainwashed. They don’t even remember it happening. When the trigger is pulled, the person is aware of their actions, but they have no control over their actions. They are being forced into doing whatever it is they are doing. I saw his face; he didn’t want to be doing that, he was terrified. We will do our best to repair the damage to his brain, and he will be returned home. The bad guy in this is the person who did the brainwashing; this man was only a victim.”
Sam returned. Olivia was down to sniffles and a little whimpering.
“She’s okay, just scared,” Sam said. She sat and held the baby close. “Katie, bring me a bottle?” she asked. Katie dug one out of the bag and brought it up onto the stage. “Thank you.”
“Are the rest of you kids alright?” Oprah asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Katie said politely. She returned to her seat with her brothers and sister.
“Look, can I suggest a break?” Jack asked. “Get things calmed down, order reestablished, and we can continue.”
Oprah thought that was a great idea and called for a break. The police were soon on the scene and Jack pulled them aside. The police soon left.
“How long do you think he’s been in waiting?” Daniel asked quietly.
“Hard to say,” Jack said. “It would take months to check the rest of the audience for zatargs, so we’ll just have to wing it. Should have thought of scanners, though; that gun was a Glock.”
“Ceramic,” Sam commented. “Got through the metal detectors.” Jack nodded.
“It did look like you were the target,” Daniel said. “He was looking directly at you.”
“Wonder what the trigger was?” Jack asked thoughtfully. “Sam, do you have an MRI on you? Give it to an SF and have him scan the rest of the audience. Won’t spot a zatarg, but it’ll pick up weapons. If anyone protests, it’s HomeWorld Security. If they still protest, they’re welcome to leave.”
Jack had a talk with the director and producer; if any cameras were rolling, the footage needed to be cut and sent to his office. If any footage escaped, Jack would take it personally and none of the production staff would never work again. Oprah ordered it done and production reluctantly agreed. Jack tried his own brand of scanning, but came up with only frightened people; if any more zatargs were in the audience, they were not yet triggered and the information was buried deep enough that Jack couldn’t read it.
Most of the audience returned and the show went on. Jack had given their hostess a few topics to pursue, so the subject of medicine was taken up which Sam readily jumped into. She talked about the recent distribution of protocols to health officials and then mentioned some of the more interesting medicines that they had been privately working on, such as diabetic and heart related medicines. The audience perked up.
Jack mentioned that Sam was the mother of Earth’s ships, and attention was permanently turned away from him.
When the taping was finally complete, Jack assured their hostess that she did a great job at keeping it together.
“Do you deal with this all the time?” she asked, fanning herself with a magazine.
“Actually, this was a fairly good day,” he said.
The main topic of discussion was General Jack’s attitude toward everything from weapons to religion to child rearing to sexuality. A private phone call with Hayes told him that there was a quiet buzz happening in DC over the public’s attitude; the country seemed to be fairly divided as to whether or not Jack needed to be strung up or crowned king. The oil industry was on a warpath as, overnight, people began demanding that research into alternative fuels be made completely public. They didn’t believe the industry had been honest with them about the value of alternative fuels.
“Duh,” Jack informed Hayes.
“Jack,” Hayes hesitated. “I’ve been rereading the SG-1 reports, listening to your speeches and interviews. You’re really sincere, aren’t you? Although we are technologically more advanced than a lot of other worlds, we’re behind socially, aren’t we? In my position, there really isn’t much I can do to make changes happen globally, and because of how our government is set up, I can’t take a leak without getting someone’s permission. Listen, Jack…. If I don’t run for the next term, is there something I can do from your end? I loved being out on the Prometheus and meeting representatives from other worlds. My God, Jack, listening to them talk about galactic issues was incredible. I felt like a child learning something from my grandpa’s knee. Earth could be learning so much from other worlds. I’d really like to be in on all that, but I don’t know where or what I could do to help.”
Jack looked at the phone. “That’s an interesting offer, Henry,” he said. “I honestly don’t know what you could do, they’re pretty much putting this together out there; they only come here when they need an issue straightened out. Let me think about it, see if there’s a specific format all this is headed toward, and I’ll let you know.”
Jack knew Hayes himself was sincere when, two days later, the papers and news channels were exploding with the news that President Hayes had fired all his religious advisors and replaced them with a couple of comparative religions professors, both of whom practiced no specific denomination themselves.
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,” Hayes was quoted. “As per the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, and many other documents stating the intent of the Founding Fathers, this administration will stand in support of the separation of church and state. Jesus himself said not to pray in public, as the hypocrites do. We are the first country in the world to establish a secular government, and that is our strength and that was the official intent our Founding Fathers had for this country.”
Daniel chuckled to himself as he turned the TV stations.
Jack continued to deal with visiting aliens. This time it was Thanatos that was requesting permission to ring in to HomeSec.
“Sure!” Jack said, tossing a hand in the air. He went down to the ring room to meet him. His technicians were staring when Jack got there. Thanatos had a horse with him. A horse with a human, sorta, upper half. Jack took Thanatos’ forearm in a friendly clasp.
“Jack, may I introduce Frayn, the Ras representative to the Milky Way galaxy?”
Jack put his hands behind his back and gave a formal bow. The Ras echoed the movement, a pleased shiver to his withers.
“Welcome to Earth,” Jack said. “I trust your journey was uneventful?”
“The journey was peaceful,” Frayn said with an incline of his head. “I am told you took the time to care for my people during the recent unpleasantness. My government wishes to give thanks. Although we are strangers to you, you made no distinction.”
Jack ushered them out of the ring room. “Hey, listen, your people didn’t have to help us, this was our problem not yours, so it’s us who should be expressing gratitude.”
People jumped out of the way of the centaur walking the halls and talking pleasantries with their general. Paul came out and greeted Thanatos and was introduced to Frayn. He ordered up refreshments to the main meeting room.
“Our people monitor our galaxy just as you do here,” Frayn said. “Or should I say, as your people are preparing to. Although we do not interfere with other galaxies, we are aware of our neighbors and we have outposts along the galactic borders. Our galaxy borders yours here.” He traced the side of a spiral galaxy that sat near the Milky Way on the galactic map that was hanging on the wall. “I can tell you that these two galaxies hold several presences that are not friendly, this old galaxy is fairly empty, and the far galaxy, although old, still contains a few friendly races.” Frayne
touched each galaxy on the map as he spoke.
“I do not wish to presume, only suggest; if you are to patrol your galaxy, border outposts are wise.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully and glanced at Paul who was taking notes. “I appreciate the information and advice,” Jack said. “I don’t believe we have been to the borders, yet. Major?”
“No, sir, we haven’t,” Paul told him. “We’ve been concentrating on gate worlds.”
Jack tapped the map. “This galaxy is what we call the Pegasus galaxy,” he said. “We do have an outpost there and we are aware of the threat from that galaxy. Our people accidentally woke up the hives so we have begun working to fix that problem.”
“Indeed,” Frayn gave an interested incline of his head. “May I inquire as to how they fair?”
“They are fairing well,” Jack said. “It’s been a little hard, but we are learning to use ancient technology and the creatures we call wraith are being fought off with a degree of success.”
“Thanatos mentioned that Tau’ri are gaining knowledge of the ancient devices. Impressive,” Frayn commented. “We have discovered a few items in our galaxy, but have had no success with any of them.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Really. Feel like sharing?”
The Ras wanted coffee beans for planting. Jack had no idea how Earth coffee beans got off-world, much less into another galaxy, but he rounded up a ton of plantable beans and someone to give instruction on the care of coffee bean plants, as well as the multitude of uses humans have for the beans. Jack sent the new toys to Sam.
When he got home, Jack cornered Daniel and they fell onto the couch, lips locked. Stacy and Davy giggled from the kitchen table where Jerrie was helping with homework.
“I have students downstairs,” Daniel got out. Jack took advantage and slid his tongue in. Daniel dropped his notepad and slid his arms around Jack’s back. “There are children in the room,” Daniel managed around the active mouth.
“Alright, alright,” Jack grumped. He took a nibble from Daniel’s neck and then got up. “The children will be going to bed early tonight, right?” he asked the room.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 2: A Staraget SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 20