Much to Daniel’s surprise, his previously recorded seminars were making money. The camera loved him and he spoke well. Someone was sending him profits in the form of checks. The best selling seminar was the children’s seminar recorded at Stacy’s old school. It had been aired on public TV several times, all with high ratings, and schools around the world had requested permission to show it in class. The current seminar was handed over to Paul for whatever it was he did with them.
Since Jack couldn’t take off for unification meetings, he had one of the meeting rooms at HomeSec turned into private space. Word was sent that if anyone needed him, to see him there during office hours. Nyan had sent Jack more information on the Mulakma, and the more Jack read, the more he realized that the big four-legged birds lived in a society that hadn’t existed on Earth for hundreds of years. Most definitely a feudal society, they had a strict code of honor that Jack could appreciate. Their females weren’t part of the ruling class, but they didn’t seem to want to be. Jack found the culture to be almost a complete opposite of the Sua. Unlike Europe’s feudal years, though, the Mulakma had advanced technologically almost to Earth’s modern standards. Jack couldn’t figure out how the hell they did that, walking on all fours and having claws instead of fingers, but they certainly had their own space ships and were certainly experts at flying them. It seemed that there was a faction of the populace that felt using the ships in their atmosphere was not honorable and that any fighting should be done the old-fashioned way; flight with their own wings in hand to hand combat. The ships should be used for off-world only. So far, the ruling party was in agreement on that score.
Jack wondered how the cats and birds would get along.
After the announcement from WHO, scientists all over the world had something new to yell about. A flurry of debates raged across the globe faster than light speed, which Jack ignored and went about his daily business. His current business was a strange request from a community representative in the Bahamas. Another boat had gone missing and they were a little tired of it; did HomeSec have any nifty toys that could scan their waters for whatever had been taking boats and planes? Jack called Sam.
“The Bermuda Triangle? Seriously?” she asked, incredulous. “Sure, we can turn the mikku toward the planet and see if anything is cloaked.”
On the video conference link, Jack watched the image as the mikku scanned the waters off the Bahamas Grand Island.
“What the hell is that?” Jack asked, leaning forward, staring at a black spot. Paul leaned over Jack’s shoulder, squinting at it.
“Have no idea.” Sam was clearly as surprised as they were to actually find an anomaly. Jack looked at his wizard, and Paul called an admiral. Jack had yet to figure out how his major kept all the names, ranks, phone numbers, and current locations in his head.
“Think you can dislodge whatever that is?” Jack asked Sam.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I need to know what it is, first. I’d like to take some equipment out there.”
“I knew you would,” Jack said. He looked at the screen Davis pulled up on his computer. “Contact Admiral Williams in Fort Lauderdale, a ship will be waiting for you. And I’d like to see you back for dinner this week, not in a hundred or so years, please.”
“I’ll be careful,” she promised with a smile.
She called him two days later. “Need you out here,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because we’re getting life signs from it,” she said. “And I don’t mean people screaming for help. I think that thing is alive.”
Jack packed up his SF and hopped over to Florida in the al'kesh. Before leaving, Paul rapped his knuckles and reminded him to inform Daniel.
“The Bermuda Triangle?” Daniel questioned. “It’s bad enough you let Sam go, and now you’re going?”
“Daniel, she thinks whatever that black spot is, is alive,” Jack told him.
“Doesn’t that make it my territory?” Daniel asked.
“I think she wants me to give it the heave-ho. Okay, okay, I can feel you thinking bad thoughts about me from across town,” Jack sighed. “Come with.”
Jack notified the SF that were set up around the neighborhood that they were all out of town; the SF would make sure Jerrie and the kids were well guarded. Jack refused to live in a house that was surrounded by guards, so he compromised; the SF could set up posts, discretely, throughout the neighborhood and the surrounding woods. The neighbors weren’t wild about it, and then began to appreciate the guards when other neighborhoods had a rash of vandalism. Women and children could walk around at night without having to worry about abductions or attacks. Daniel pouted that he couldn’t get in any attacks of his own while walking through the woods with Jack or Sam.
Jack and Daniel, and SF entourage, were in Florida an hour later. The personnel at the Navy base watched in awe as the al'kesh settled and dislodged people. One man in Navy khaki stepped forward and offered a salute.
“General O’Neill, Commander Dattner, sir.” Jack returned the salute and shook his hand. He introduced Daniel and they walked quickly to the nearby buildings. Sam was waiting for them in a conference room, along with Adm. Williams and other staff.
“Do you remember that black cloud you dislodged in Rome?” Sam asked him. Navy people were blank. Jack nodded. “I think this is the same thing. Or same type of thing.”
“It’s one of those clouds?” he asked.
Sam wrinkled her face. “No, more like a collection of them,” she said. “It’s very dense… Do you remember watching 2001: Space Odyssey? With that black monolith? At the end, that guy went into it and ended up in another dimension? I think this black spot is like that. All our equipment signals disappear into it just as if it were a black hole.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully.
“And there’s nothing indicating a life form?” Daniel asked. “That black cloud was pretty angry.” The admiral and commander stared back and forth at them, and then at each other. They were talking about clouds. Angry clouds.
“If it’s noticed us at all, it isn’t reacting,” she said. “We tried all the settings we could find on the mikku; I even called Inanna and she confirmed that, as far as she was aware, there wasn’t anything else we could do with it. She doesn't even know what it could be. No one wants to risk sending in divers or even a full vessel.”
“How about something unmanned?” Jack suggested.
“We tried that,” Williams said. “It disappeared and none of the readings that were sent back were of any use.”
“I checked them,” Sam nodded. “The submersible readings were as ineffective as ours were.”
“Do animals disappear in there?” Daniel suddenly asked. Navy people thought about it.
“Like fish?” Dattner asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Fish, dolphins, whales….”
“We’d have to check stats, but I don’t recall hearing about schools or pods disappearing,” Dattner said. Others around him agreed.
Jack took a deep breath. “I haven’t tried this from this distance, before,” he warned. Sam understood, although the Navy people didn’t. Jack sat down and closed his eyes. A moment later he was gasping for breath. Sam quickly shoved his head between his knees and gave the back of his neck calming strokes. The navel officers nearby blinked in confusion.
“Breathe,” she told him. “Slow and deep, in through your nose, out through your mouth.” A medic stepped in and took Jack’s wrist, counting his pulse. Jack shook them off and leaned his head back, shooting puffs at the ceiling and scrunching his eyes.
“Okay, I’m okay,” he finally told them. Williams and his people watched with concern. Neither the colonel nor Dr. Jackson were stressing, though…..
“Admiral Williams, may I suggest you prepare your people for an emergency,” Jack told the man. “If I’m right, you’re going to need a hell of a lot of space for evacuees.” He took out his cell phone and dialed. He stepped outside and briefed Maynard on the situation
. Maynard opened a conference call with Hayes, the Florida governor, and the head of FEMA. Jack repeated the problem. Two out of four people reacted with disbelief. Jack expected it.
“Carl, if General O’Neill says it’s going to happen, believe it,” Hayes told the governor. “I’m authorizing it, Jack, do what you need to do. Florida and FEMA will give you their complete cooperation. Ms Rosario, please make sure FEMA is ready at all points of the triangle for any possibility. Jack, how long do they have to prepare?”
Jack shrugged. “It’s been sitting out there for how long? How about dawn, does that work for everyone?” Everyone agreed. Both the governor and FEMA needed time to get their ends situated. Jack went back into the building.
“We do this at dawn,” he told them. “Admiral, we will return at 0500 and get the show on the road at 0600. If that’s alright with you?” It was alright with the slightly puzzled admiral. “Great. You should be receiving a brief from General Maynard on your email shortly.”
Jack, Sam, and Daniel took their SF and jumped back home. They packed clothes, just in case, and rounded up Dr. Lam and her team, along with equipment. Landry was kind enough to authorize several SG teams to accompany them. By 0500, the SGC and HomeWorld Security descended upon the Florida east coast. Naval personnel stood back and watched their base swarm with men and women with the Tau’ri sigil on their jackets. The Joint Chiefs had asked pretty please if Adm. Williams would mind too terribly if their general took over for a few hours. Williams had squinted in confusion and agreed. Jack knew he was on touchy ground so he made sure to defer to the admiral and show due respect when they got to the base. Salutes were offered to the admiral and then went about the business of getting Dr. Lam and her team set up in the emergency area Williams had arranged.
“We may need more than that,” Jack commented quietly to Lam as they looked at the emptied warehouse.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked him.
“No,” he admitted. “Just a hunch. And since I don’t do hunches, I’d say that says something.”
He called Gov. Montblank and then Ms Rosario at FEMA, double-checking; both had their parties prepared for the moment Jack said the word. The Prometheus was standing by, monitoring the ocean for signs of people. Williams had ships standing by at all three corners of the Triangle. Jack took a seat overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Sam was behind him with her equipment and a computer with an open line to the Yard and Captain Boggs who was her best assistant with the more advanced toys.
“Go easy, Jack,” Daniel asked quietly. “We don’t know if by blowing that thing away, anyone else that may be caught in it will also be blown away. Try and feel your way around before you do anything.”
“I know, Daniel,” Jack said, annoyed. “If anyone is alive in there, I want them out, too.”
“Ready, Captain?” Sam asked quietly into a microphone. The video feed from inside the sphere of the chair was visible, along with a clear image of the black spot.
“Ready, Colonel,” a voice said. She nodded to Jack and he settled himself in.
The dense, suffocating quality of the mass had almost choked him the day before, but he was almost sure he had sensed multiple people in it. Almost what he felt when he opened up to a room full of people. The multitude of emotions that bombarded him, almost too loud for him to handle. Jack reached out, forcing himself to skirt around the edges, trying to find a way in. Something blasted him out and he was thrown from his chair, startling the military. The general didn't fall from the chair, he was clearly pushed! Hands quickly reached for him.
“I’m fine!” he shouted, dusting himself off. He snarled and swore under his breath. “Get Kalam on the horn!”
Reynolds quickly called Prometheus, and Markham patched Enki through several minutes later. Jack updated him on the situation.
“Fucking thing blasted me right out of my seat!” he told the old man angrily as he paced. His own people waited while Navy personnel stood back and watched wide-eyed. The Navy was a little miffed at not having a reason for being in on any of the previous battles and so had no idea what was going on.
“I have never heard of this entity before,” Enki admitted. “Can you wait for me to arrive? I will come through the gate.”
“Sure.” Jack slammed the radio down. “I need two aspirin and a couple hours,” he told the room. Dr Lam handed him the aspirin.
“I'm waiting for backup,” he told Adm. Williams after he took a couple of minutes to calm down. “One of those things I could handle. However many that is, is too many for me. My backup is on another planet; he’ll come through the Stargate.”
“May I ask exactly what it is you’re trying to do?” Williams asked. “I don’t understand.”
Jack leaned forward, hanging his head as he waited for the aspirin to kick in. “You know all that leap stuff?” he asked. “Some people are starting to do weird things?” The admiral nodded. “I can do weird things.” The admiral wasn't any clearer on the subject.
Enki and Ninurta both arrived two hours later in the al'kesh Jack had an SF take back to the SGC. They looked at the spot in the ocean from the view off Sam’s computer. Enki talked with the captain and had him rotate the mikku to different views, and nodded thoughtfully as Sam reported on the various ways they had attempted to make way into the black spot. He then listened to Daniel’s recital of the events in Rome.
“Yes, yes, I agree,” he finally said. “This does seem to be the base for these entities, whatever they are. I spoke with Thor on our way here, and he also has not heard of these things. He’s here, Jack, just in case.” Enki gestured up.
“Welcome to the party, Thor,” Jack spoke to the ceiling. “Okay, let’s coordinate,” he said to Enki and Ninurta. Most of their coordinating was incomprehensible to the Navy. Jack’s own people were used to it and waited.
“You can do this, Jack,” Enki told him. “Just stay with us.”
Jack, Enki, and Ninurta planted themselves firmly on the deck, hands clasped tightly together. Jack knew when he was out of his league, so he let Enki lead the way. Once more, Jack skirted the edges of the thing. When the blast came, they flinched and stood their ground. As the blast radiated out, Enki took them in. Unknown to them, they collapsed onto the floor. Concerned medics rushed forward and Reynolds ordered everyone back. The medics knelt over the trio and checked pulses as they straightened the men out.
“Leave them for now,” Dr Lam ordered. “They don’t seem to be in any distress, so give them time.”
Jack found himself standing under a dome. Hundreds upon hundreds of coffin sized canisters were lined up, each containing a person. Some of them were clearly dead, desiccated and crumbling to bone. Others were in various states of decay. Jack pushed his senses out until he found a section that seemed to be emanating with emotions. The three flew through the dome until they came to another section of coffins.
“These people are alive,” Ninurta commented. “I wonder if these canisters are waterproof and will float? Let’s find the main hub.”
Jack sensed an angry presence the further they went.
“I feel it, too, Jack,” Enki said. They made their way through the dome until the presence was close. A black cloud tried to lunge at them and missed; their bodies weren’t actually present. It snarled in frustration. Jack felt a great hunger from it and knew that it had been feeding off the life energy of the people it had taken.
Enki felt around and they flew across the dome again. Jack saw a huge graveyard filled with ships and planes.
“Oh, my God,” Jack breathed. “They’re all here.” Vessels from current to ages past all lay together in as varying stages of decay as their previous owners. They had obviously been dumped on top of each other in a junk pile; something had consciously pulled the ships in from various parts of the ocean and dumped them. Dark specks flew around them; more of the individual entities, he saw.
“Concentrate, Jack,” Enki warned him. “Stay with us, worry about that later.”
“Over here, Aba,” Ninurta said. He pulled them to another section. He had found control panels.
“Can we do physical work in this state?” Jack asked.
“No,” Enki admitted. “But we can take a good look.”
Before even being aware that he thought about it, Jack found himself inside the equipment. It had a partial crystal structure, much like the Ancient technology, but quite a bit of it seemed to be made up of gases which he guessed made sense, if the entities were clouds.
“Wait, let me see….” Enki muttered under his breath as he poked around. “Yes, yes, I think I see…… Let’s get back.”
The three were abruptly conscious and sprawled out on the floor. Jack groaned and rolled over as Enki jumped to his feet and shouted. No one seemed to understand the strange language but Daniel thrust his notebook at him. Enki started scribbling.
“No, stay down,” Dr. Lam ordered Jack as he tried to sit up. He was glad to stay down when his stomach threatened to rebel. Vomiting on the admiral’s boat would not be conducive to relations.
“You want what?!” Sam was looking at Enki as though he had grown a second head. “Do I look like Mr. Wizard? Okay, okay, I’ll…. how the hell….. we don’t have… Col. Markham, I need to see Thor.” Sam was beamed out. Navy personnel took another step back.
“Reestablish your central line,” Ninurta told Jack. “Kel’no’reem, Jack; force yourself to begin, it’ll center you and calm the storm.”
Jack floundered and rolled onto his back. Ninurta put his hand on the center of Jack’s chest.
“Feel it,” he told Jack. “Breathe, yes.”
Jack felt the line Ninurta sent and grabbed at it. He steadied and felt his awareness sitting in the center of his chest. His storm inside began to settle. As Ninurta slowly withdrew, Jack was able to follow the familiar path. Soon, he was able to slowly sit up without the entire world threatening to evacuate through his stomach. He found Daniel kneeling next to him, waiting anxiously.
“I’m okay,” Jack whispered hoarsely. “Got a craving for chocolate.” A candy bar appeared from out of the crowd. Dr Lam shoved a needle into his arm. He didn’t care.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 2: A Staraget SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 28