“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 G
oa’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.
Jack could probably do all of it himself if it weren’t for his expanded brain making him understand why people had to experience life themselves in order to grow. He kept telling himself to delegate the authority. It was very strange, his head. The chatty fish seemed eager, if not outright excited, to have someone to tell all its secrets to. No subject seemed to be completed before another was jumped into. Whenever Jack’s thoughts wandered to a subject, the fish began with a subject closely related. He tried countering the stale dialogue with memories of love with his partners. The fish agreed that sharing love was a thing of an expanded mind and went on to tell Jack about races who also loved openly and who happened to advance rapidly. Although some races petered out just as quickly after deciding that love was all they needed and so their technology didn’t advance. Jack took it as a warning and decided to keep a small notebook in his pocket for anything interesting that Sam or Daniel might be able to use.
“Jack.” He turned to see Landry coming down the hall.
“Hank. I was just on my way to see you.” Jack waited for him. Landry looked at him for a moment and then jerked his head.
“Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Jack followed him into a meeting room. “I’m sorry the Mountain is overrun with snakes today.”
Landry waved a hand and shut the door behind them. “Oh, believe me, this is the most excitement we’ve had since NORAD moved out over the summer. Most of our people here are post-Invasion and they’ve been a little bitter over not being subjected to the alien of the week crisis. Jack….. I understand if you can’t say anything, but if you can…. well, if something’s going on and I can possibly help you, I’d like to help.”
Jack picked up the coffee pot and suddenly remembered, putting it down and sighing over the glass of water.
“Thanks, Hank, I appreciate it. Alright, something is going on. There isn’t anything you can help with, but I’ll tell you anyway. And it needs to stay here. Not even the Joint Chiefs have been told and certainly not the HomeSec council.” Landry promised and sat back, giving Jack his attention.
“I went to Kalam to get help in triggering my downloaded memories. Files. Whatever. My DNA is now more Ancient than human.”
Landry’s face was blank for a moment. “Are you telling me you’re no longer human?”
“Kinda,” Jack acknowledged. “It would take a full genetic workup to spot the differences, but yes, according to our Furling buddies I am, for all intent and purposes, an Ancient. Hank, I look at the Stargate and the schematics come into my head. I know how all the technology is made. I know their history, I know our history. I know what killed them, I know how and why we live. And because humans need to grow up, I can’t tell anyone what I know. Was a time I would have argued about it, but I now understand. And I agree with the secrecy.”
“My God, Jack……”
“Hank, humans have the potential to be the greatest of all the races. Surpassing the Ancients. If keeping my mouth shut will make it happen, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Landry stood and looked out to the gate room as his mind raced. “Does Carolyn know?”
“No,” Jack said giving his head a shake. “And she doesn’t need to know. Not at this time. I won’t have the regular medical needs, so if anything comes up, the Furlings will deal with it.”
“You’re going to need to explain that to the Joint Chiefs,” Landry warned him. “Yearly physical is mandatory.”
Jack shrugged. “A physical is fine,” he said. “The doctors won’t find anything. My immune system has become incredibly strong, so I won’t be getting ill. Other than morning sickness.” He dug for another pill. Landry chuckled, relaxing.
“How’s Col. Carter?”
“She’s happily eating everything in sight without one twinge of nausea,” Jack informed him with disgust.
“Carolyn’s mother had only a few weeks of morning sickness, but she had food cravings at the damnedest hours. Mint ice cream with creamed spinach.”
Jack looked horrified. “If I start to get weird cravings, I’ll kill myself.”
“I doubt it,” Landry said, humored. “Do you have names picked out?”
“Jacob or Claire. Carter.”
Landry looked closely at him. “And you really are okay with that?”
Jack’s mouth twitched and he sat, stretching his legs out. “I’m actually fine with it,” he said. “From what the files tell me, the Ancients were matrilineal. The kid belonged to the mother and had her name. And I can tell you that the conception itself was a little weird, so we really have no idea who the father is. Not without a genetic test.”
“There was a news story about a man who wants laws changed so that a husband can take the wife’s name as easily as a wife takes her husband’s name,” Landry commented. “There is no need to go to court for a newly married woman to change her name, but if a man wants to change his, it still goes through court. The world isn’t the one we grew up in.”
Jack snorted. “Tell me.” He made his way to the gate room, and arched home. As soon as he stepped through the front door arch, Fang ran by, something stuck in his mouth
. Behind him came a naked baby, toddling swiftly and screeching at the running dog.
“Whoa, nelly!” Jack declared, intersecting the baby and lifting her high. Jerrie was moments away, bringing a handful of clothing and exasperation.
“Sorry, Jack,” she said, taking Olivia from him and wrapping her in a towel. Olivia snuffled unhappily into Jerrie’s shoulder. “Fang. Bad boy,” Jerrie scolded. She reached down and plucked the thing from his mouth.
“What is it?” Jack asked, not having seen the little yellow thing clearly.
“Livie's binky,” Jerrie said, waving the pacifier. “He took it right from her mouth. He’s been a little rambunctious today; he knocked her into a mud puddle. He’s just playing, but he doesn’t understand that she isn’t ready to play that rough.”
“If you see Stacey before I do, have her take him for a long walk and tire him out,” Jack told her. He wasn’t surprised that it was taking the entire family to deal with Fang; what child in the history of children and dogs actually took their vows seriously?
He brought Sam up on the computer while he changed clothes and freshened up in preparation to dinner at Cassie’s house.
“What have you got for me?” he asked when she came on screen.
“The cells seem to have been genetically engineered. The queen was engineered and so were the offspring. The cells from the one at the SGC show the nucleus of the cells were changed out. Since the queen was empty, so to speak, I’m thinking that Linea took DNA from a known Goa’uld, more than likely dead Goa’uld, and spliced it into the empty nucleus.”
Jack thought hard for a moment. The talking trout was going on about something scientific, using words and concepts that Jack was still getting used to. “She cloned them?”
“Yes,” Sam nodded.
“Who?”
“We don’t know,” she shrugged. “I’m thinking no one very important, since none of them are declaring themselves Apophis or Baal. Yet.”
“How’s the zapper coming for the ships?” he asked.
“I think we can do it,” Sam said, brightening. “We’re going to try hooking it up to the ship’s shields. If we can reverse the shields so that they expand outward instead of around the ships, I think we can get the pukku to work on a wide-scale.”
Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5 Page 26