“Why don’t you invite him and Susan to be godparents to the baby?” Jack suggested. “I'm thinking of asking Mike, but there’s no rule that says there can be only two godparents.”
“If I can get through the first trimester, I’ll ask Mark and Susan if they’d like to participate,” Sam said.
Jack covered her stomach with his hand and then leaned down to nuzzle at the silky skin. “Did you talk with the doctor about getting pregnant?”
“Yes, I did,” Sam nodded. “She said I’m fine and my uterus is healthy. I had Carolyn run tests and she said all the hormone replacements are out of my system. My hormones are normal.”
By the end of the week, the men were exhausted from doing their ‘duty’ for their wife. By the end of the week, Sam was ready to declare a moratorium on sex. The kids were happy that school was starting and they wouldn’t need to shut their eyes whenever they entered a room. The parents had been weird all week.
The Tok’ra reported in and told them that the new Goa’uld leader was calling himself Vishnu. Everyone in the meeting looked at Daniel.
“Hindu,” he said. “Vishnu was one of the Trinity in the Hindu pantheon. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Vishnu was the Preserver god. One of his aspects was also Hari, the Remover. He rests on the bed of the powerful, coiled serpent, Seshanag, who represents the sleeping universe.”
“So we are looking at possibly three Goa’uld,” Landry said. Daniel shrugged.
“It’s possible,” he said. “Then again, the Hindu pantheon has about three hundred gods. If the Goa’uld are using a new pantheon…”
“Why our gods?” Landry asked. “I mean the gods from Earth legends? How about picking on other worlds?”
“There are very few worlds that developed their own legends,” Daniel said. “Most worlds were subject to the Goa’uld, so the people didn’t invent deity. We did because our enslavement ended before most legends were written down. Also, remember that the Goa’uld deliberately kept their slaves from growing too much.”
Landry looked around the table. “Well, I guess that makes as much sense as anything else,” he said. “Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Malek, would you be so kind as to outline the location of these new Goa’uld?”
“Certainly.” Malek stood and went to the star map. “Tau’ri is here. Along this border is what you call the Pegasus galaxy, this is the galaxy Ida which belongs to the Asgard, and the Masharu are here. The Goa’uld Vishnu is taking control here.” He put a marker along a far border, on the opposite side of the known galaxy in which they lived.
“Do we have any images of this Vishnu?” Jack asked.
“We do,” Malek said. He took out a small camera, one of the few Tau’ri toys the Tok’ra conceded was usable. Sam plugged it into the computer and they looked through the frames. Daniel frowned and looked closer.
“The hosts look Indian,” he commented. “East Indian, not American. Someone’s been raiding us.”
“Not with the updates we’ve been putting into the mikku,” Jack said firmly.
“This would have been long before we got our hands on it,” Sam told him. “But the Indian population is probably where the Goa’uld got the idea of Hindu gods.” Daniel had to agree.
“The planet in question has many of these people,” Malek said as he flipped through the images. “They appear to have been there for quite some time, as Col. Carter suggests. Their gate no longer exists although there is an area far from the villages where the soil has a high concentration of refined naquadah. It is not natural to the planet. We have a theory that a gate once existed there, but it was destroyed.”
“And the naquadah is the remnants of it,” Sam pieced together.
“Correct,” Malek said.
“Wait,” Jack raised a hand. “How can a primitive people destroy a stargate?”
Malek cocked his head. “We don’t know.”
“Do we know anyone on the other side of that border?” Landry asked, tapping on the map.
“We have explored partially over the border,” Malek said. “We found no inhabited planets. There may be more farther in, but our ships do not have the energy.”
“And ours do,” Jack said. He stepped up to the map, studying it as something gnawed at him. He tapped on a planet. “Isn’t this Aschen territory?”
Sam looked closely at the ID. “I think it is,” she said. Daniel looked at them and then at the map.
“Soooo…. how did those people keep the Aschen away?” he asked.
“And yet get taken by a new Goa’uld,” Sam said.
“Maybe the Goa’uld was there all along,” Daniel said. They looked at him. “Someone had to get them from here to there, and if they’ve grown so much, it was quite a while ago. Look, guys, we’ve found several here on this planet. Locked in stasis. Set was running around for a couple thousand years. Why couldn’t there be one or more in stasis on that planet?”
Jack pointed to the images of the natives. “Do you think those people were capable of capturing a Goa’uld and locking it up?”
“No,” Daniel said. “Who locked up the ones left here? I got the impression that they locked themselves up when they saw the writing on the wall. After the rest of the Family left, they were supposed to come out of hiding and take over. Keep this planet for themselves. Why couldn’t something like that have happened there? Set was smart enough to blend into the crowd and make himself at home for a couple of millennium.”
Jack paced as he thought about it. “Do we have anyone of Indian descent on a team?” he asked.
“Yes,” Landry and Reynolds said together. Reynolds sent an apologetic look at Landry. The general tapped the computer. “Lt. Tarik Bhat, Capt. Dharmasena Sharma, Dr. Rakesh Shastri, and Lt. Yashodhara Mahadevan.” Landry was pretty sure his tongue was going to twist off. “Wow,” he breathed. “If we’re going to put in a team of entirely Indian personnel, I’d like a colonel in there. We don’t have an Indian colonel.”
Jack nodded to Sam and she brought up the national database. “We have six colonels of Indian descent,” she said. “None are currently SGC trained.”
“Only six?” Daniel asked. Sam tilted a shoulder.
“For some reason, we don’t have a lot of Indians in our military,” she commented.
“Let’s talk with General Singh,” Jack said, arms crossed thoughtfully as he stared at the map. “India is a problem at the moment, but Singh has been arguing our case. He knows his officers; let’s see if he can recommend a colonel.”
After waiting for daytime in India, General Singh came up with three colonels for the offering bowl. Mythili Bhusnurmath, Narendar Pani, and Bodhisatva Ganguly. Singh was shocked at the reason why Jack wanted a colonel on board at the SGC. He was sending all three for immediate training.
So far, the new Goa’uld were staying in their own backyard; the SGC had time to get their act together while UW ships secretly patrolled the infected quadrant. The Goa’uld didn’t seem to have ships and the UW wasn’t quite sure what the Aschen were up to or why the Aschen avoided the planet that was currently under surveillance.
While Jack drove them to HomeSec, Daniel looked at his cell, frowning at the missed message, and pressed the green button to play the video. His daughter’s face was close to the screen.
“Daddy,” she hissed quietly, not wanting to be overheard. “Our new health class teacher is making us sign a piece of paper saying we will all stay virgins until we’re married. I realize that I’m not ready to do that stuff, but I don’t think she should be making us sign this. Look at it.” She held a paper up, but Daniel couldn’t see it. Jessica Bosco and a few other girls moved in close behind Stacey to look into the camera.
“Yeah, Dr. J,” Jessie said. “Bogus!”
“Bogus!” the girls echoed.
Jack turned the corner instead of continuing straight to their offices. They checked in with school security and walked to the principal’s office. A few kids in the halls saw them and stood wide-eyed, watching them.
Daniel played Stacey’s message for her. Her face fell and she shook her head.
“I’m very sorry,” she said. “Mrs. Talmidge is new and a little conservative. I will speak to her.”
“And no signing pieces of paper without us first getting a chance to look them over,” Daniel insisted.
“Yes, of course,” she nodded. “This should never have happened, Dr. Jackson; I’m terribly sorry. You’re right; this is something that should have been taken to the parents first.”
The door burst open and a woman hurried in, stopping short at the sight of the crowded office.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, irritated. “I need a little help. My class….. well, they’re staging a sit-in.”
“A what?” Mrs. Herbert stood.
“A sit-in!” the woman hissed. “That….. Jackson girl is behind it!”
Mrs. Herbert bit her lips hard to stop from laughing as she looked at her other guests. “Mrs. Talmidge, this is Dr. Jackson, Colonel Carter, and General O’Neill. I’m sure they can help.”
Daniel crossed his arms and peered at the woman. “And you feel that my eleven year old daughter is in danger of losing her virginity because…..?” He waved a hand in confusion.
The woman was even more flustered and patted her perfect hair. “Pre-teen children are having sex, Dr. Jackson. Thirteen year olds are having babies and STD’s! If the parents cannot control their children and guide them on the right path, then it needs to be done here and early enough to stop them.”
“I see,” Daniel nodded. “Well, that’s … presumptuous of you. Number one. And two, you did not get permission to even be discussing sex ed with my daughter much less have her sign a pledge, and three, if you had bothered to ask, my daughter could probably teach a sex ed class. It wouldn’t be the first time, just ask a few of the other kids. Where did you say she was?”
The small parade made their way through the halls and up a flight of stairs. They looked through the window of the classroom door and saw all the kids sitting on the floor under the windows across the room.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have let her watch Hair,” Jack said. They went in and stopped in the middle of the room. A few of the kids, SGC kids, saw Jack and gulped before toughening up and straightening their backs against the wall. Stacey saw all three of them and knew she was in trouble.
Daniel looked on the desk and found a pile of papers. “No one is signing anything,” he said. The kids looked at each other and began to relax. Daniel made sure the papers were the right ones and tore them up. Mrs. Talmidge was quickly silenced by the principal.
“Daddy….”
“No,” Daniel held up a hand. “It’s the first week of school. You couldn’t have waited at least a month before resurrecting Che Guevara? Negotiations and contracts first, revolution last. You’ll apologize to Mrs. Talmidge for disrupting her class.”
Back in the car, Sam looked at Jack and then in the mirror to see Daniel in the back seat. They both laughed.
“What?” Daniel asked, still pissy.
“She’s definitely your kid,” Jack said, chuckling as he shook his head. Daniel shoved his glasses up.
“Revolution is not always the first answer to a situation,” he said, obviously. “Besides. I think she gets this from you. I talk, you act.”
Once at the office, Sam used the arch to get to her own office and hustle her staff into getting the newest ships readied. Around the world, there were three yards with the new 304’s almost ready for trial launches. The ships were slightly smaller, but packed more power in their punches. They were being made for battle, not cruising the galaxy. Japan, still not a member of HomeWorld Security, protested, insisting that the US had plans on usurping its authority by aiming the ships at unaligned countries. Jack ignored Japan, treating the island as though it didn’t exist which succeeded in infuriating the Japanese Prime Minister even more. After the horror of WWII and then the Korean incident, Japan had begun to revert to its ever-present superiority complex and was taking it out on Jack. What Japan didn’t know was that Jack was closely monitoring the PM and knew the middle-aged man was having health issues. The man most likely to secede him was healthy and secretly pro-HomeSec, as were most of the younger generations. Jack was discovering that his new talent was an interesting thing to have on hand when it came to funding issues. Sending an unexpected birthday card or a get-well card to some unsuspecting fence-sitter got unexpected results.
“I’m heading to Scotland,” Daniel informed him. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with?”
“No, go on,” Jack said. “The lady seems to be more your territory, than mine. Don’t tell her much. If she doesn’t agree to join us, I don’t want her having information to spill.”
“And all the Skaara stuff?” Daniel gently asked, remembering his wife's pup-friendly little brother..
Jack shrugged. “I scanned the kid,” he said. “If our Skaara is in there, I couldn’t sense him. It’s probably a coincidence.”
“You don’t believe in reincarnation, anyway,” Daniel said.
“This is true. De-ascending yes, reincarnation no.”
“Something about those pics the Tok’ra brought in are bugging me,” Daniel said. “I’d like to take them with me.” Jack handed him the small recorder. Daniel smiled and pecked Jack’s mouth before heading off with a couple of SF to the al'kesh.
“Colonel,” Jack said as he went into Davis’ office.
“Good morning, sir,” Paul said.
“Good morning. Colonel, I promised to pass on a message. You’re scaring the neighbors.”
Paul wrinkled his forehead. “Sir?”
“You and Nick, playing in the wide outdoors,” Jack said. “Apparently, the neighbors are having a problem explaining to their kids why they can’t play in the woods anymore. Outdoors is fun, I’m all for it, just try and take it a little more out of the way. We’re having to take the same advice, so don’t feel picked on.”
“Yes, sir,” Paul said, slightly red-faced.
“Let’s talk about Goa’uld.” Surprised, Paul nodded and leaned back to listen. He was shaking his head an hour later and rubbed his face.
“This really isn’t what we need,” he said. Jack had to agree.
“We have time,” Jack said. “So far, they are only showing up on that planet. I’m sure there are other Goa’uld still out there; they’ve been keeping their heads down with Jaffa that haven’ left them. I’m concerned about these because of the Aschen.”
Paul slowly nodded. “The combination,” he began and then shuddered.
“We can’t let that happen,” Jack said. He hesitated, drumming his fingers against the arm of the chair. “Listen, Paul…. This doesn’t go anywhere. Sam is trying to get pregnant. If she does, and whatever is going to happen does happen out there, I won’t be going. I won’t leave her pregnant or trying to deal with two babies in the house. Any action will be a UW mission and I trust our commanders to deal with this. So far, I don’t see a necessity for me to be there.”
“Will you be sending me?” Paul asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Jack said. “We have three Indian colonels coming in for SGC training. India-Indian. They will possibly be heading an away mission, undercover, to find out what’s going on. We’ll decide a plan of action when they get back. We’re not in a rush, so life goes on.”
“Yes, sir. And best wishes for a baby.”
“Thank you.” Jack smiled, suddenly realizing that by the following summer there might be a little Jake or Claire in the house.
“Sir?” Paul leaned back in his chair, tilting it far back as he thought. “Why now?”
“Sam wants a baby,” Jack began.
“No, sir; that new Goa’uld,” Paul said, tapping a pencil thoughtfully against his mouth. “Where’s he been? Why haven’t the Aschen taken over that planet? You said there’s no ev
idence of Goa’uld technology, so how were the locals protected from the Aschen while a new Goa’uld could get in and take over?”
“Those questions are being worked on,” Jack told him. “Daniel is speculating that there was a stasis chamber.”
Davis nodded. “That would make sense, I guess,” he said, not quite convinced.
“You don’t think so?” Jack asked, hearing the doubt.
“I’m not sure,” Paul said. “Daniel’s the archaeologist, not me, though, it’s just…. something isn’t clicking. We should know by now that the Goa’uld aren’t always what they seem.”
“Well, let’s see what our new agents come up with,” Jack said. He had to agree –something was going on. More than what the Tok’ra had realized.
As he walked the short distance back to his office, he found himself stopping to check in with people. Cassie smiled prettily and pecked his cheek, Abigail had papers spread out everywhere in organized chaos, Mrs. Arthur was settling into Daniel’s offices and making sure all of his nick-knacks were in perfect condition as she dusted. She looked at Jack’s eyes and handed him a pear. Other admin assistants hustled about through the halls, getting their daily work done, while lab techs wandered around the military, discussing everything from particles and quanta to the latest episodes of something called Tripping the Rift and Eureka. As Jack walked, pausing to sign things or settle something, he realized he was edgy. He considered the ‘vibes’ and decided to give Jerrie’s idea a try. He found a quiet conference room and ordered an SF to make sure he wasn’t disturbed.
It was easier to visualize the planet by using a satellite pointed at Earth. Jack brought up one of the satellites on a monitor and relaxed into a chair. There was nothing unusual happening in his own country, Canada was its usual happy, laid-back self, Mexico, South America, various islands, a few small upsets in Africa, England was settling at the end of a work day, western Europe fine, the Middle East was being their usual cranky selves, General Singh in India was up late, worrying, Russia was feeling more self-assured as their role in the modern world continued to grow, China…..
Jack jumped to his feet and picked up the phone.
Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5 Page 17