Reading Time: 138 Minutes

Title: Another Country
Author: Daisy May
Fandom: Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: Action Adventure, Crossover, Drama, Episode Related, Romance, Time Travel
Relationship(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Other pairings
Content Rating: R
Warnings: Murder (minor character), violence-canon level, character bashing, Discussion-rape
Alpha: Ed Ronhia
Word Count: 156,874
Summary: When Jack O’Neill found himself fourteen years in the past, he had to work out why he’d been sent back to this point. The ‘how’ was uncertain, and probably irrelevant, he decided, for the moment at least. Now all he had to do was change the things he thought were important, preferably without killing his Grandad – ‘or was it killing my Granny? For cryin’ out loud, I wish I’d listened better to Carter!’
Artist: Mizu Sage

---

---

 

Chapter Twenty-One

Jack drove them both to the mountain, something they’d previously avoided doing to dodge questions they weren’t yet prepared to answer.

‘And you don’t remember anything about a Richard Flemming?’ Daniel asked him again.

Jack shook his head, but concentrated on the road, though they encountered little traffic at that time in the morning . ‘No, nothing.’

‘Did you at least warn the general we were coming in?’

‘Danny, you heard me make the call!’

‘Did I?’ Daniel yawned. ‘Sorry, I’m still half asleep. Did you call the others as well?’

‘I called John, and I could hear Rodders in the background bitching about being woken in the middle of the night. John said he’d get Teal’c and meet us in the briefing room.’

‘I hope someone thought to make coffee.’

‘God, so do I!’

Thankfully, Walter and his special senses had woken up and organised coffee and rather dry-looking pastries.

‘Fresh pastries won’t be available for another couple of hours,’ he told them, placing two of the four coffee pots in front of Daniel and Rodney, one for each of them. ‘And here’s the file you’ll need, sir,’ he said to Jack, passing him a fawn folder which Jack opened and spread out the contents on the conference table.

‘Doctor Richard Flemming, biologist, formerly a professor of advanced genetics at Stanford,’ Daniel read out loud, but Jack put a hand on his arm.

‘Better wait until George gets here.’

‘George is already here,’ Hammond said dryly, entering the room and taking his seat at the head of the table. ‘Now, what’s all this about? Dr Jackson?’

‘Yes, sir. I received a call from a Dr Richard Flemming at around 2am to say Adrian Conrad never shut down the project he began to look into how a Goa’uld symbiote might cure an incurable disease – in his case, Berchart’s Syndrome.’

‘If you recall, sir, Conrad was the nutjob who kidnapped Carter last September,’ Jack added, ‘to find out how a symbiote worked. And his company was Zetatron Industries. He disapp—son of a bitch!’ Jack slapped the side of his head. ‘Fucking idiot!’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Hammond was wearing his shocked expression. Damn it!

‘No, sir, not you. I’ve just remembered something I forgot!’

Hammond’s frosty expression thawed a little. ‘Carry on, Colonel.’

‘Conrad disappeared after we rescued Carter from that hospital in Seattle—’

‘Saint Christina’s,’ Danial interjected.

‘Yeah, whatever.’ Jack shook his head, losing the thread of his thoughts at the same time as John raised his hand.

‘Umm, ‘scuse me, but I’m not familiar with the details of Carter’s kidnapping.’

‘And neither am I,’ Rodney added. ‘Although the name Conrad rings a few bells.’

‘Adrian Conrad.’ Daniel continued reading the file. ‘A billionaire who specialised in fibre optic host channel adapters – I never knew that. Where on earth does Walter get his information from?’ Daniel shook his head, then, as Hammond raised an eyebrow, he hurriedly kept reading. ‘Umm. So, Conrad got his hands on a Goa’uld symbiote and had himself implanted with it to cure himself of Berchart’s Syndrome.’

‘That’s an autoimmune disease, isn’t it?’ Rodney said, nodding. ‘That’s how I heard of it, because of Adrian Conrad, but I’ve never heard of it in connection to a Richard Flemming.’

Jack sighed. ‘I did wonder if you remembered it. John? Any thoughts, memories?’

John shook his head. ‘I don’t recall anything about Berchart’s Syndrome or Richard Flemming. Adrian Conrad, yes, but the details are hazy. None of the earlier history of the programme was really relevant to Atlantis, or me, so while I did read all the mission reports, I couldn’t give you much detail of them.’

‘Jack?’ Hammond asked. ‘D’you want to carry on?’

He nodded, still annoyed with himself for forgetting about Conrad. ‘So, Conrad disappeared after we rescued Carter, and I thought at first Maybourne had taken him, but it turned out that Frank Simmons had him in an NID safe-house in North Dakota. In the other time-line, Simmons was arrested after the kerfuffle over Teal’c being stuck in the gate. Sorry to remind you, Rodders.’ He gave Rodney what he hoped was a sincere smile. I know he’s still hurt over that whole mess. ‘But because we avoided all that, Simmons was never arrested. Also, there was a whole thing about Prometheus getting hi-jacked by the NID, but I can’t remember when exactly that was because we’ve changed so much.

‘Anyway, the hi-jacking was a means to get Simmons and Conrad out of jail, and, long story short, both Simmons and Conrad got themselves killed. So, Simmons is still out there, probably still high up in the NID, and he’s still got Conrad who’s still snaked. What another fucking mess!’

‘How is Simmons connected to Dr Flemming?’ Hammond asked, cutting through all of Jack’s information and getting to the salient point.

‘I don’t know,’ Jack admitted, scrubbing his face with his hands, and noting absently that he needed a shave. ‘I have no memories about a Dr Flemming.’

‘Then it’s likely something which didn’t happen last time?’

‘…Possibly,’ Jack said, at length, and sighed, tipping his head back and closing his eyes. ‘But I was off-world for several weeks following our discovery of Ayiana. I had to—’ He swallowed the bile rising in his throat. It still bothers me years after the event. ‘Ayiana…The Ancient contagion…She couldn’t heal me so they—I had to—’ He swallowed again. ‘A Tok’ra symbiote cured me.’

Daniel gripped his arm and Hammond stared at him, appalled. Jack’s hatred of the Goa’uld and of symbiotes in particular was no secret in the mountain, not after Hathor forcibly implanted him with a symbiote in 1999. The knowledge he’d had a second one forcibly implanted – because he’d never have agreed to accept one voluntarily – shocked the people here who knew him.

‘So something connected to Flemming might have occurred while you were…unavailable, and you either didn’t know the details, or have forgotten them,’ John said, in summation.

Jack nodded. ‘Especially as I ended up in Ba’al’s hands after—’ Jack waved his hand, unable to bring himself to say it again, ‘and the fucker tortured and murdered me, then shoved me in a sarcophagus so he could start again. It’s no wonder I don’t recall being told what happened while I was…away.’

Hammond cleared his throat. ‘Let’s take a few minutes’ break, shall we? I’ll get Walter to—’

The briefing room door opened to admit Walter, carefully balancing a laden tray, and the general gave him a warm smile.

‘Just what we needed, son. Thank you.’

While Walter laid fresh cups, saucers, and plates on the table, Jack hurried to the bathroom to rinse his mouth, which still tasted of bile. When he stood up from washing his face, he saw Daniel’s reflection in the mirror, and his friend – lover – stepped forward to hug him from behind.

‘Jack. I had no idea…You didn’t mention—’

‘Because I can barely bring myself to remember it without throwing up,’ Jack said, resting his hands on the arms encircling him and watching Daniel in the mirror.

‘But you got through it.’

‘Only because of you,’ Jack said softly. ‘You were the reason I didn’t give up.’

‘Your thoughts of me?’ Daniel’s reflection looked puzzled. ‘But I thought you and Sam—’

‘Not thoughts, Danny. You. You were ascended for the whole of that year, remember? Well, not that you’d remember, but I did tell—’

Daniel placed his fingers over Jack’s mouth. ‘Hush. I know what you mean. Did I visit your dreams then? You said I did that occasionally.’

‘No, you came to me in my cell. Some stupid antigravity cell Ba’al threw me in.’

‘You mean you floated?’ Daniel looked puzzled.

‘Nah, it kept turning round, so the ceiling became a wall, or the door was where the ceiling should be.’

‘Okay. Did I help you?’

‘Not help, as in help me escape, you couldn’t – weren’t allowed to – but just having…company, I guess, helped me. It kept me alive until Teal’c and Carter, and Jonas came to rescue me.’ He gazed into the reflection of the blue eyes he’d come to love. ‘I think you might have nudged them to work out where to find me.’

‘I’d always find you, Jack. Leave no man behind. That’s the SGC unwritten rule, isn’t it?’

Jack nodded. ‘And it’s why I knew I could trust John Sheppard, because it’s his unwritten rule, too.’

*****

It was clear the short break had revitalised everyone, and the fresh coffee – with water for Teal’c – and pastries finished the job.

‘Now, Dr Jackson,’ Hammond said, wiping his sticky fingers with a napkin. ‘What can you tell us about Dr Flemming and his 02:00 telephone call? We can connect it all up with Jack’s information later on.’

‘All this background stuff is actually curtesy of Walter, sir. All I’ve done is make a couple of phone calls.’

‘Noted, son.’ Hammond said. ‘Go on.’

‘Two years ago, Dr Flemming left Stanford University,’ Daniel began, ‘and went to work for Immunitech Research, a wholly owned subsidiary of Conrad’s company, Zetatron Industries. After Conrad disappeared, Immunitech relocated to Steveston, Oregon, and their operations were scaled back quite drastically. Per the Oregon police, the remains of Flemming’s car were discovered not far from Steveston, which ties in with the phone call he made to me, but the police say there was no sign of his body.’

General Hammond considered that for a moment, then looked over to Jack. ‘Thoughts, Colonel?’

‘I think the first question we must ask is who is actually running Conrad’s companies at the moment as Conrad’s still missing, probably still in Simmons’ or the NID’s custody. It’s highly likely Simmons is running them, probably through that secretary of Conrad’s…’

‘Mendez,’ Daniel supplied, reading from Walter’s notes. ‘Diana Mendez. And from these notes, it looks like she’s the one who might be in charge. She’s certainly the one who’s dealing with the finances as Walter’s listed several large payments to overseas accounts.’

‘I can get Miko to have a look where that money’s going,’ Rodney suggested, making a note on his tablet. ‘She’d probably be able to get inside the company records as well, if we want.’

Hammond held up a hand. ‘Don’t tell me about any illegal acts she’s going to commit, please, Dr McKay, then I won’t have to report them, or lie about not knowing.’

‘Understood, sir.’ Rodney grinned at him.

Hammond smiled back, then gestured to Jack to continue.

‘Right, so Flemming told Danny they didn’t shut the project down, that it had got out of hand, and he mentioned symbiotes in the town. I assume he meant Steveston, especially since his car was found near there. They could be anyone, but is likely to be the NID, and even more likely to be Simmons and or Mendez.’ Jack poured himself a glass of water and took a long drink.

‘Simmons definitely needs to answer a few questions, but I’m not going to see him because the fucker kept me waiting for two hours last year. You’d be the best one, sir.’ He nodded to the general. ‘You out rank him, for a start. We need to go and find Conrad and see if he is still sitting in a cell in North Dakota. I could do that as I know where the house is, but it might be an idea to bring in someone else to go with me, aside from you, Danny, so don’t panic. An official of some kind – who’s read in – would be our best choice. Then someone needs to go and see exactly what’s happening in Oregon.’ He heaved a sigh of relief as he ended his briefing.

‘I agree on all counts,’ Hammond said firmly. ‘Jack, you and Dr Jackson can go to North Dakota. I’ll arrange travel for you as you can’t use a transport plane. And have a think who you can trust to go with you.’

‘Don’t have to think, sir,’ Jack answered. ‘NID Agent Malcolm Barrett. He’s totally clean, and he’ll have the authority to have Conrad released if he’s under guard, which he will be if it’s anything like last time. We’ll take Zats with us though, so we don’t have to kill them. You never know, they might have other useful information.’

‘Then contact Barrett and make arrangements to meet him in North Dakota, but don’t give him any further details over the phone. We need to keep this to ourselves, at least at first.’ Hammond turned to John and Rodney. ‘Feel up for a trip to Oregon, John? You, Teal’c, and Rodney can take care of whatever’s in the town, and if it is Goa’uld related, Teal’c’s the best person to have with you. You can fly yourself if you wish, and I can arrange paperwork to say you’re on official Air Force business. I’ll take care of Simmons.’ Hammond’s smile held both the promise of retribution for Simmons, and the pleasure he’d take in delivering it.

*****

After discussing the situation with Patrick, who came to the mountain ostensibly to discuss the production of various of the discoveries made by the programme now the secrecy orders and patents had been released, George decided to hold off on a confrontation with Simmons for a few days as Dave thought he was getting close to the membership of the Committee, and maybe even an invitation for him to join them.

‘It’d be better all round if we can take down the members of the Committee at the same time as we take down Simmons,’ Patrick told George. ‘Your thoughts, Dave?’

Dave turned from his inspection of the Stargate through the window of the briefing room. ‘It’s a fascinating thing, General, but do you ever wonder if you opened Pandora’s Box?’

‘Frequently, but it was opened before I joined the programme, and, as we’ve subsequently learned, we were always in danger from the Goa’uld, with or without the gate being opened. We had a couple of Goa’uld hiding on Earth – Hathor and Osiris, both of whom were accidentally released from their captivity, and Setesh, or Seth, was leading a cult in Washington state. Keeping the gate hidden wouldn’t have kept us safe, and by using it, we’ve made several off-world allies who’ve helped us, both on earth and in the wider galaxy.’

‘And the argument that it should be used to benefit Earth, or possibly just the US, as we’re the ones who control and pay for it?’

George and Patrick exchanged glances. This had always been their fear: that Dave would be swayed into believing the propaganda spouted by the Committee. Patrick raised his eyebrows in a silent offer of help, but George shook his head. He’d been defending ownership and use of the gate for the last five years and was quite used to it.

Thus, after a pause, George spoke quietly, but firmly. ‘None of us exist in a vacuum, son, but some are more fortunate than others. You got an expensive education, but its cost doesn’t make you better than anyone else. It’s how you use that education, especially in how it benefits other folk. I also believe there are no rights without corresponding obligations, and just as we wouldn’t simply march into Canada and seize their…their power stations, for example, we equally can’t go out into the galaxy and seize things which don’t belong to us.

‘The people who’ll tell you it’s our right to take whatever technology we want for the benefit of our country, are the same people who’ll produce and sell that technology to the highest bidder, no matter if they’re in the United States, or North Korea.’

‘Thank you, General,’ Dave said, returning to the table. ‘I wasn’t convinced by their arguments, but I was interested in your views, as I’m sure you’ve had to defend the very existence of the SGC many times.’

‘You’re welcome,’ George said, his shoulders relaxing slightly. ‘There have been, and I understand from Colonel O’Neill there will continue to be, suggestions that we hand over control of the gate to the UN, but, and I’m almost ashamed of admitting this, I don’t trust them. There are far too many vested interests within the UN – as there will be within any large organisation, especially an international one. I’m afraid there’s only a handful of people I’d trust with the responsibility of the gate. Jack O’Neill is one, and your father is another.’

‘Me?’ Patrick said, physically recoiling. He took a breath, but when he spoke, his voice was a little shaky. ‘I’m honoured, George. Surprised, but honoured that you’d trust me so much.’

‘I never had a brother,’ George said, his mouth slightly down turned. ‘But you’ve come to take the place of the one I might have had.’

Patrick was forced to blink back tears. ‘You’ve almost made me cry, you bastard!’ The smile he gave took away any insult from his words. ‘The feeling’s mutual, but I think you know that. I’ve trusted you with my youngest son, and son-in-law, and let my eldest be drawn into the madness and mayhem as well.’

‘And I’ll look after them as best I can.’

Dave cleared his throat, and when he had their attention, made a dramatic wipe of his eyes. ‘You’ve both made me cry. I may never forgive either of you. But back to me, please.’ Both Patrick and George laughed at his theatrics, and Dave smiled at them. ‘You need have no fear I’ll go over to the dark side, Dad, General. I’m as committed to bringing down the bad guys as you both are, and I’ll do whatever you need me to.’

‘Good.’ George gave him a firm nod. ‘I’m going to bring in SG-1 – which includes John and Rodney – to discuss what happens next. I don’t think you’ve met the other members, have you?’

‘I’ve not met any members of the programme so far,’ Dave told him. ‘I was thinking I’d never get to meet them.’

Walter entered at that moment, bearing a tray of coffee and sandwiches. ‘They’re on their way, sir,’ he told George, and nodded at Patrick. ‘Afternoon, Admiral. Nice to see you again.’ He set down the tray, and looked up and smiled at Dave. ‘You look very much like your brother, Mr Sheppard, I—’ He broke off and tilted his head, then smiled. ‘They’re just coming, General.’

With a wave, or possibly an almost-salute, Walter smiled again and disappeared down a spiral staircase Dave hadn’t noticed in a corner of the room. Within seconds, five men, one of them immensely tall and muscular, filed into the room.

‘Dave!’ John said, hugging his brother. ‘What are you doing here?’ Before Dave had a chance to reply, however, John was introducing his teammates. ‘This is Dr Daniel Jackson, archeologist, anthropologist, and linguist extraordinaire; Colonel Jack O’Neill is our silver fox, and the muscle mountain is Teal’c, our resident Jaffa, and former First Prime to Apophis.’

‘Until he saw the light,’ Jack added, holding out his hand to Dave. ‘Welcome to the SGC, Mr Sheppard, and thank-you for helping us with a pest problem.’

Dave’s head was swimming with introductions to people he’d heard of, sights and sounds he was trying to assimilate, and the decidedly odd things – like Walter – he was trying to comprehend. He managed to smile and repeat the names he’d heard his father and John speak of, but most of all, he wanted to grab his brother and give him a good shake. The bastard’s come back in time! Why didn’t he tell me?

‘I—You’re welcome, J—Colonel O’Neill.’

‘Call me Jack,’ he said, sliding into a chair beside Daniel and pulling a plate of sandwiches towards him and giving a couple to Daniel with a frown. ‘Eat. You didn’t have breakfast and have had Thor only knows how much coffee. You’re heading for an ulcer if you don’t take care.’

‘I get an ulcer?’ Daniel asked with a start.

‘No, you might get an ulcer if you don’t begin to eat properly.’

Daniel’s relief was evident, and he picked up a sandwich and bit into it without argument.

‘At least I don’t usually have to worry that Rodney doesn’t eat,’ John said with a grin. ‘Not unless he’s hip deep in an engine!’

‘Fuck you!’ Rodney managed to say with a full mouth, and without covering those near him in half-masticated crumbs.

‘Help yourself to something, Dave,’ George told him. ‘I’m afraid it’s every man for himself when it comes to eating. We’ve all had far too many half-eaten dinners due to emergencies. Good manners often get forgotten.’

Four of the five members of SG-1 paused and exchanged glances. Only Rodney continued to eat.

‘Sorry, sir.’ Jack spoke on his team’s behalf, his sandwich paused half-way to his mouth. ‘We all only got back a couple of hours ago and none of us have had time for anything to eat yet.’

‘Here, Dave.’ Daniel passed a small plate down the table to where John’s brother was sitting next to their father, while John passed him a rather denuded plate of sandwiches.

Fortunately, Walter arrived with more sandwiches and pastries, which he placed well away from Rodney.

‘I believe Agent Barrett is on his way down, sir,’ Walter told the general. ‘I’ll bring in extra coffee as soon as it’s brewed.’

‘Agent Barrett?’ George asked, his brow creased. ‘Was I—’

‘Sorry, sir.’ Jack held up a hand and wiggled his fingers. ‘I invited him as I knew we were going to discuss taking down the Committee. He was a great help in North Dakota, and I thought his participation would help us. I just forgot to tell you. Sorry.’

”That’s fine, son. We just need to remember to keep away from any mention of what will happen, and make it what might happen.’

Dave watched the interchange between superior and subordinate with interest. The Sheppard family had a strong military history, and he was used to contact with a mixture of ranks from a young age. None of his experience, however, had involved such a relaxed command, with casual chatter and social interchange between ranks. His father had tried to explain how the SGC ran, but Dave hadn’t appreciated just how linear it was, while still maintaining authority and respect.

Walter entered with Agent Barrett, extra food, coffee, and bottles of water, one of which he placed in front of Daniel with a nod – which Daniel returned with a scowl. Once introductions had been made and plates filled – more than once in Rodney’s case – General Hammond called the room to order.

‘First, welcome to the SGC, Agent Barrett, and thank you for giving up your Sunday to help us plan this mission.’ He smiled at Barrett, who returned it a little shyly. ‘Now, Mr Sheppard has been invited to a business meeting tomorrow evening by his contact, Ainsley Westeron, in Denver. We think this might be a meeting of the Committee as there’s no other reason to hold a meeting there, other than it being close to the SGC.’

‘I’d have expected them to meet in DC,’ Jack said with a frown. ‘How can we be certain this is them?’

‘We can’t,’ Hammond admitted, ‘but I’d rather us be prepared, in case it is. If it isn’t, we’ll already have a plan in place when the meeting does take place.’ He looked around the table, meeting everyone’s eyes, then nodded. ‘Colonel O’Neill, I believe you have a plan?’

‘Yessir, or rather, John and I have a plan. If we wait…’

Dave switched off as Jack laid out the plan for Barrett’s benefit. He knew his part would be straightforward: go to the meeting wearing a wire, and keep out of the line of fire when Jack and John burst in. I never saw my baby brother as part of a special operations unit, but I guess that’s what the SGC, and SG-1, is, though it’s difficult to imagine Rodney as one. John and Rodney both back in time. That’s still messing with my head, and I can’t believe Dad and I had no contact with John for so many years. Or that Dad died. I think my brain’s hurting just having the information in my head!

‘…so is everyone clear?’ Hammond was asking, and Dave blinked when he realised he’d been cogitating for twenty minutes.

Nods and sounds of agreement came from around the table, and Dave found himself nodding with the others. I hope to God my part’s what I think it is.

The meeting then broke up, and Dave found himself ensconced in an armchair in a small but comfortable sitting room, along with the members of SG-1. His father, the general, and Agent Barrett were nowhere to be seen.

‘Umm, where am I?’ Dave asked hesitantly.

‘At the SGC,’ Rodney told him, only to get his ear flicked by John.

‘In the gate team’s sitting room,’ John told him. ‘We thought you’d rather hang out with us than with Dad and the general, and their epic bromance.’

‘There isn’t anything other than a friendship between them, is there?’ Dave asked carefully, only a little worried about the answer.

‘No, nothing at all,’ Jack answered. ‘George is as straight as a plank, but he’s been lonely since his wife died in 1993. Apart from his daughter and granddaughters who live in Alexandria, he has no family, and his rank makes it difficult to make close friends.’

‘And since Dad’s in a similar position,’ John added, ‘aside from him being retired from the Navy, they sort of glommed onto each other and became BFFs.’

‘I think it’s nice,’ Daniel commented, curling up on a sofa next to Jack, while John and Rodney took up residence on the other sofa, with Teal’c in an armchair.

‘We’re not saying it isn’t.’ Jack put his arm around Daniel a little hesitantly , and Dave got the impression their relationship was still quite new, unlike that of John and Rodney, who, while sitting next to each other, didn’t see the need to cuddle.

‘This is a nice room,’ Dave said after a short silence. ‘Do all teams get their own sitting rooms?’

‘This isn’t exclusively ours,’ John said, grinning at his brother. ‘We have thirty-odd gate teams: the mountain’s not that big! There are three or four, all on different levels, but this is our favourite as it’s close to the mess for when Rodney gets hungry.’ He laughed as his partner poked him in the ribs. ‘Hey! Bully!’

‘They are a new innovation, though,’ Daniel explained to Dave. ‘It was John’s idea to begin with, as our quarters aren’t big enough for the whole team, and hanging out in the mess isn’t ideal. John said they’d foster team spirit and co-operation, which is how the general got the funding for them, although once we begin marketing and selling our the stuff we’ve developed, the money side will be easier.’

‘No, it won’t,’ Jack told him. ‘Financing the SGC is going to take a lot of work, and we’ll never be entirely self-financing, as salaries will still be paid by the DoD. They have to be, otherwise we’re running our own private army.’

‘I think Dad mentioned something about money being an issue in the future,’ Dave said, trying to remember just what the conversation was.

‘Money is always an issue,’ Jack replied, ‘but I think Patrick was referring to the international oversight committee which was established to…police us, I guess is as good a description as another. Vested interests were far too engrained with it – both personal, and group and national interests. There was also an overlap between the IOA and the Trust – the successor to the Committee – which didn’t help. We know about the Trust, this time, though, so can keep an eye on the people who were part of it last time.’

‘I thought my mission was to take down the Committee?’ Dave said, a little confused.

‘It is, don’t worry,’ John said, leaning over and patting his leg. ‘But we doubt we’ll get all of them, and there’re probably members we know nothing about.’

‘You just concentrate on your part, Dave,’ Jack told him. ‘Let us take care of the rest. That’s our job, that’s what we do.’

*****

The room on the 23^rd floor was filled with light from the windows on two walls, proof that corner offices were always desirable. Eight men were seated around the conference-style table, with spare seats for Westeron and Dave, opposite each other.

Dave selected the seat from where he could see the door, and would thus see the strike team enter. As he reached out to pour himself a glass of water, he noticed how steady his hand was – the opposite of the mad beating of his heart.

The Chairman – or at least the man at the head of the table – stood to open the meeting, but hadn’t got beyond ‘welcome’ when the window to the side of Dave smashed in with glass flying everywhere accompanied by a blinding flash and an ear-splitting ‘bang’, causing great confusion, disorientation, and sheer pain.

He saw six black-clad men, faces concealed with balaclavas leaving only their eyes visible, swing into the room on ropes, and he was pretty certain they were speaking as their masks were moving where their mouths were, but he couldn’t hear a thing over the loud buzzing in his ears, so loud he could almost taste it. Within seconds Dave found himself pushed unceremoniously to the floor, and his hands tied with a cable tie which bit into his wrists. ‘Hey!’ He exclaimed. ‘I’m not—’

‘Shut the fuck up!’ a voice barked out, which sounded a lot like his brother’s voice, except harder and…more aggressive than he’d ever heard John be before.

Someone dragged him to his feet, and in a glance he saw all ten of the men at the table, including himself and Westeron, were being pushed up against the wall, facing the room, and kept in place by a tall and well-built man – Teal’c? – holding an odd weapon Dave didn’t recognise. It looked a little like an upright, curved snake, which was ridiculous, but the other cuffed men were eying it warily so they obviously recognised its threat.

A further two black-clad and face-covered men came into the room from the corridor, and one began gathering up all the loose papers and emptying briefcases into a large holdall, while the other man – and Dave was certain this was Rodney – was searching through the laptops on the table, and removing their hard-drives, where possible, then they too went into a holdall.

In mere minutes, the room was stripped of anything which might have been brought in from outside, then one of the black-clad men went around the room holding a scanner of some sort, sweeping it up and down the walls, and pictures, paying special attention to the light fittings. He gave a grunt of satisfaction when the scanner bleeped at the wall lights, and possibly-Rodney went to take the first light-fitting apart. He obviously found what he was looking for, and patted the first man on the back, clearly pleased with his discoveries, but Dave couldn’t see exactly what they’d found.

At a command from one of the men, small, sticky discs were slapped onto the back of each prisoner’s shoulders – Dave could see the one on Westeron’s shoulder – and the ten men were linked with a rope threaded through their cuffs. While Dave was puzzling over this development, there was a second blinding flash – this time without the noise – and a brief tingle of…something ran through him. When Dave blinked away the bright light, he saw they were now standing on a metal floor in a room with white walls. Wait, are they metal walls? Where the hell—

Another flash later, and the group of prisoners with two guards were in the briefing room at the SGC, but this time the view of the Stargate was hidden by a blind of some kind. Have we just been beamed? The remaining black-clad men suddenly appeared – yep, we were beamed – and the small sacks Dave hadn’t noticed on the table were pulled over the heads of all the members of the Committee except himself. He alone was released from his cuffs, and the other men, still strung together, were led away, tripping and stumbling because of the sacks over their heads.

Once the captives had been led away, maybe-John pulled off his ski mask, grinned at his brother, and ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Am I glad to be out of that! I’d forgotten how awful they are.’

‘And claustrophobic,’ possibly-Rodney complained. ‘Urg! I feel like I need a shower. How on earth did you manage to wear—’

His question was cut off by John’s hand across his mouth. ‘Need to know, Rodney, remember?’

‘This wasn’t your first time in a hit squad, was it?’ Dave asked John. My baby brother! I remember holding him for the first time when Mom and Dad came home from the hospital. How could that tiny babe grow up into someone who regularly wears a black ski mask to hide his identity?

John rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Not exactly, although they weren’t hit squads as such, but I really can’t talk about it.’

‘I feel as though I barely know you, and I’m not talking about your travelling thing.’

‘Dave, I’m sorry—’

‘No. God, no, don’t apologise. I should be the one apologising, not you. It’s—I knew you’d served overseas, of course, but I never—I thought you were a pilot; you just flew planes. I had no idea…’

Jack came across to them and put his hand on John’s shoulder. ‘Pilots of your brother’s calibre don’t just do anything. We wouldn’t have brought him into the Programme if he was just a pilot. He’s a highly trained, highly qualified special operations pilot. In the other timeline, he commanded a remote base of five hundred military assets, with around the same number of civilians, mostly scientists. He’s never been just anything in his life, Dave. What he is, is a goddamned hero. They don’t give out the Medal of Honour to just a pilot.’

‘And Jack should know, since he’s got one as well,’ Daniel added, joining his partner, while Rodney slipped his hand into John’s.

‘The SGC has the highest number of serving military who hold the Medal of Honour than any other military branch or division in the country, throughout time,’ Rodney told him. ‘What we do is dangerous, beyond dangerous, but I doubt all the details will ever be declassified in our lifetime, so it’ll remain unknown to most of the country, of the world, but we still do it.’

Dave looked at the men surrounding him and did the only thing he could think of. He pulled himself up straight and looked into the eyes of all five men. ‘Thank you for your service.’

*****

With the information they’d collected from the Committee – both digital and paper – SG-1 had enough to tie Simmons into the Committee, and once again Thor helped by beaming them into Simmons’ exclusive apartment in the Colonnade, in DC. He was alone – they’d checked that – and he leapt up from a sofa when they appeared in a flash of light, swearing, and lurched towards a table with a drawer. Both Jack and John moved to intercept him, but while Jack went to grab his shoulder, John simply kicked him in the balls. With all his weight behind the kick.

Simmons doubled over with a high-pitched shriek most women of John’s acquaintance would have been ashamed to utter, even in childbirth, clutching his assets, and moaning as Jack kicked him onto his stomach to get cable-ties on him. The most difficult part was getting him to let go of his testes long enough to get the cuffs on, but after John had landed a second, gentler kick, he merely whimpered as he disappeared into the beam with Teal’c and Daniel.

‘Why’d you kick him?’ Jack asked curiously.

‘For what he did to Rodney in the other timeline.

‘Cool.’

*****

Further perusal of the information they’d collected from both the Committee and Simmons’ apartment gave them sufficient evidence to convict Kinsey and all the people on his list, except many of them were unknown to the SGC.

‘We need your dad,’ Jack sighed as he rubbed his eyes. ‘I don’t recognise half these names, and I have no idea if they support or oppose us. Patrick’ll know, I’m certain.’

‘Then let’s hand it all over to Dad and George,’ John suggested from where he was stretched out on the floor of Jack’s office – now moved from Level 24 to a larger one not far from Hammond’s, although Jack still used the one on Level 24 occasionally, just to mess with people, and it was a good excuse for going missing periodically. John also occasionally used it, for the same reasons. ‘We’ve surely worked on this for as long as we can. Both Rodney and Daniel are fast asleep, and while Teal’c’s eyes are open, he’s not tracking.’

‘He’s doing the Jaffa kel no’reem thing,’ Jack told him, leaning back in his chair. ‘They don’t actually need to sleep with a symbiote.’

‘They sleep with symbiotes?’ John repeated, and screwed up his nose. ‘That’s disgusting.’

‘No, not sleep with a symbiote, they sleeep with a symbiote.’

‘I think I must be mostly asleep, as that didn’t sound any different.’

‘Yeah, okay.’

Walter, sent to find the missing flag-ship gate team the following morning, or, rather, later that same morning, found them all fast asleep, and couldn’t help himself. Digital cameras were all the rage and had featured in most people’s Christmas stockings. Walter went to fetch his own and called his chum Siler to join him. Only after they’d each taken several photos of the sleeping team did Walter wake them up.

By the time the team made it to the general’s office half an hour later, a dozen or more photos were spread across Hammond’s desk. Daniel and Rodney were pictured with their arms around each other, cuddling, while Jack was asleep with his head on his desk, the papers beneath his head damp from drool. Teal’c was his usual solid, immovable self, while John was laid perfectly straight, his hands folded across his chest like a corpse.

‘I had to check you weren’t actually dead, sir,’ Walter told him.

‘Was that before or after you took the photograph, Master Sergeant?’

‘Oh, after, sir. Why?’

John rolled his eyes and sighed when his teammates clutched each other and wept with laughter. Except for Teal’c, who merely raised an eyebrow.

‘Sir,’ John asked the general, ‘can I have a new gate team?’

‘No.’

‘Hrmph.’ John folded his arms and put on his best pout while the others dried their eyes.

‘How did you get on with the information from Simmons’ apartment?’ Hammond asked the team when he was once more capable of speech.

‘You’ve seen how we got on,’ Jack said, pointing to the photographs. ‘I think you need someone used to looking through this stuff to see what is and isn’t important. There’s enough to sink Kinsey, but there’s other stuff in there that looks bad at first sight, but when you look into it, might be pretty innocuous. I think Simmons was blackmailing a large percentage of the beltway. No wonder he could afford the apartment he had.’

‘And the rest of his property,’ Rodney added, the inevitable tablet in his hand. ‘So far we’ve discovered property in several US cities, in Columbia, Peru, and…yep, and in France.’

‘The ones in Columbia and Cuba will be to escape extradition. We don’t have treaties with them,’ Daniel commented. ‘It’d be worth searching those properties, as he might have stashed some stuff there.’

‘I can get Miko to look at the digital stuff, but it may be worth asking her if there’s anyone she knows we can trust to go through it,’ Rodney suggested. ‘There’re months of work for just one person, and she’s already loaded with her own work.’

‘Is it time to bring in the NCIS team we talked about?’ Jack asked Hammond, raising his brows. ‘We’d have to read them in, of course, but we need to do it now while Tom Morrow is still Director, because he’ll leave soon to go to Homeland, and they’ll get a corrupt director who almost finishes the agency.’

‘An agent afloat would make more sense than AFOSI,’ Hammond agreed, tapping his desk with a pencil.

‘And it’d help if we take one to Pegasus with us straight off, especially if they’re multi-skilled.’

‘Jethro Gibbs is a master carpenter,’ Jack said thoughtfully. ‘He’s also an expert sniper, which could be useful for you.’

‘I’m not having Gibbs on his own,’ John said flatly. ‘He needs his sidekick, whatshisname? The Italian. He’s the only one who can control and corral Gibbs.’

‘DiNozzo?’ Hammond asked. ‘I’ll run it by Neville—SecNav, I mean.’

John grinned. ‘My Godfather?’

‘Your Godfather is the SecNav?’ Jack asked, and shook his head. ‘Every time I think I’ve got you sussed, you chuck another curved ball. How…’

‘He’s my father’s best friend. They went through Annapolis together.’

‘We need to wrap this up, gentlemen,’ Hammond said suddenly. ‘Rodney is asleep, and Dr Jackson isn’t far behind.’

”M’fine,’ Daniel protested, his head drooping, then he gave a wide yawn which set off Jack and John.

‘Go to bed, gentlemen,’ the general ordered. ‘I’ll speak to John’s Godfather and the SecAir and see what we can come up with. Now go!’

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jack’s sitting room was almost a standing room with SG-1, General Hammond, Patrick and Dave Sheppard as well as the SecNav, Neville Delauder crowded into it. Rodney claimed a seat, citing his bad back, while John made do with the floor, leaning back against Rodney’s legs. Teal’c, meanwhile, sat cross-legged, with his spine erect and his shoulders held back in a flawless posture.

‘…so while there will be trials, due to the classified nature of the Stargate Programme, they’ll be held in secret, and the verdicts are already pretty much decided,’ Neville finished, and took a long drink of the beer Jack had just passed to him.

‘What will happen to them?’ Dave asked.

General Hammond cleared his throat. ‘We’re building an off-world facility where they’ll all serve full life sentences, and we’ll also transfer the other people connected to the Programme who’re convicted of treason, like the ones caught when Jack went undercover with the NID.’

‘It’s the only way we can be certain future government officials, or politicians with sufficient clout. Don’t let them out,’ Jack explained as Dave frowned.

‘What happened to their constitutional rights?’ Dave, the lawyer, asked. ‘Surely what you’re doing is illegal.’

‘Oh, totally,’ Jack said, leaning back and taking a pull of water – he’d switched from beer after his second bottle. ‘But this is far bigger than ‘constitutional rights’.’ He made quotes with his fingers. ‘When not just national security, but Intergalactic security is at stake, we need to make sure those fuckers aren’t getting out, and, as Harry Maybourne once told me, administrations change.’

‘I still don’t like it,’ Dave said, shaking his head and dropping his eyes.

‘We don’t care,’ Jack returned.

‘Gentlemen?’ Neville leaned forward and looked between the two men. ‘If I may?’ Jack waved a hand while Dave gave a tight nod. ‘Since the charge for most of those convicted is, or will be, treason – for both ‘levying war’ and ‘giving aid’ to our enemies – they’ve relinquished any rights they might have had, and, if we so desired, we could have them all executed. Is that a better option?’

Dave looked away from the man he’d called ‘uncle’ all his life. ‘No, sir,’ he said in a low voice, then sighed and looked back at Neville. ‘I understand, I do, but…There’s no provision for repentance if they’re in an off-world jail.’

‘There’s no provision for repentance if they’re dead, either,’ Jack said dryly. ‘I’m afraid this is just one of those things you’re going to have to accept, Dave.’

Dave gave a huff and nodded. ‘Yeah. Suck it up, buttercup, right?’

‘Indeed, as my friend would say,’ Jack said with a grin, then turned to Neville. ‘I do have a question, though, sir?’

Neville inclined his head. ‘Go on.’

‘What about Kinsey? Do you have enough on him to throw his ass in the slammer? And if you do, can we watch?’ he added as an afterthought.

Any remaining tension from Dave’s questions vanished, and there was general laughter around the room, and several people altered position or stretched their legs.

Neville waited until everyone settled down. ‘Robert Kinsey is manipulative and vindictive, but he’s also covered his tracks very well—’ He held up a hand as Jack opened his mouth. ‘No, no, hear me out. Almost all his…sponsors and supporters, I guess, are going to jail. While we don’t have enough yet, yet, to convict him, his network of influential men – as they’re all male, which makes its own statement about him – his entire network of influence and cronyism has been shattered, and he’s also been made to look a fool. Now, while he’ll no doubt try to spin it to his own advantage – taken in, deceived, we can expect all of these claims – he’s damaged his image, possibly irrevocably. Few people will trust him again, and as he’s also up for election next year, he’s likely to lose his seat in the Senate as most of his financial support has gone.’

‘So there’s a chance we may find enough to convict him?’

‘Absolutely. NCIS is on the case, as the SGC is largely made up of Marines, and they have a new recruit who’s apparently a wizard at forensic accounting. In fact—’ Neville turned to look at the general. ‘With your permission, sir, I’d like to introduce him to Dr Kusanagi. I think Agent McGee will adore her, and she might be able to teach him some of her own tricks.’

‘Rodney?’ Hammond asked. ‘You know her best. Is it something she’d agree to?’

He hummed a little, then nodded. ‘It’s certainly worth asking her, but if he gives her any attitude, he can expect to hear all about himself.’

‘Understood, and I’ll make sure he knows that.’

‘Just warn him Miko does her fighting with both IT and swords,’ John added. ‘I’ve seen hard-nosed Marines run away from her, screaming. It was fun for us, though,’ he added, making the others laugh.

‘So.’ Neville rubbed his hands together and looked expectantly at General Hammond. ‘Have I earned my space flight? ‘Cause that’s what Patrick promised me if I got this all sorted discreetly.’

The general smiled at him. ‘And you’ve certainly done that, but you’ll have to ask Rodney about the flight. He knows the schedule for Prometheus.’

‘It’s decided, then?’ Daniel asked, having remained silent for most of the discussion.

‘Yes.’ Hammond nodded. ‘Prometheus. SecAir made the decision earlier today.

‘It’s a Greek tragedy,’ Jack complained – again.

‘Prometheus also represents human striving,’ Daniel told Jack, slipping into lecture mode. ‘And in particular, the quest for scientific knowledge, as well as the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences. I’d say he’s a lesson we in the Stargate Programme should take to heart.’

‘I did not know that,’ Jack said in a deadpan tone. ‘Maybe we should put it on our letter-head.’ He then ducked as Daniel made a swipe at him.

‘I think that might be one of your “unintended consequences”, Jack,’ General Hammond told him.

*****

Things suddenly started to happen. Peter Grodin – a future member of the Atlantis expedition – was brought to the SGC ahead of time and added to Radek Zelenka’s growing Engineering Department. As Rodney had once suggested, he recommended Dr Anne Stewart, a British geneticist, be brought in to look at Thor’s creation of an ATA gene-modifier, and work out its components, with a view to producing it in quantity after strict testing and peer review.

Since Thor had already done, the majority of the work entailed, Stewart had a working gene-modifier, fully tested and reviewed, by the end of July, with the roll-out to members of the SGC and Area 51 beginning on the first Monday in August. Testing was mandatory for the military, but civilians were given the option of refusing it if they wished, but, unsurprisingly, no one refused to test for the ability to use the growing number of Ancient artefacts brought back to the SGC by the gate teams.

To ensure the scientists at Area 51 weren’t ignored, Rodney decreed that 50% of all artefacts brought back to Earth should be sent to Area 51 for testing and logging – but not before he’d gone through them to see if there was anything he wished to keep.

‘It’s a matter of safety and common sense,’ he told Radek after Radek had questioned his impartiality. ‘I know the most about Ancient technology and any technology I recognise as dangerous must be removed and passed over to the military. I can always ask John or Jack to do it if you think I’m being unreasonable.’

Radek demurred, as Rodney knew he would, and he continued to keep anything he was particularly interested in. The scientists there’re already being treated fairer than last time, he decided, and while his conscience niggled him occasionally, he pushed it firmly away.

The testing of the military brought forth several natural gene carriers, and the gene-modifier produced more.

‘It has around a 50% success rate,’ Rodney informed weekly briefing meeting, which is a few per cent more than Carson’s did.’

‘Do you consider that significant?’ Hammond asked him.

‘I think we’re picking up more of the lower end of the scale,’ Rodney hedged. ‘We won’t know their aptitude until we either get them in a Puddle Jumper or in the control chair at the outpost.’

‘Sorry, Rodney.’ Daniel waggled his fingers in the air. ‘Why do you need to get them in a Puddle Jumper or the chair? What will that tell you?’

‘We worked out a ranking system,’ John explained, leaning slightly forward. ‘It was based on how easily someone could fly a Jumper or could use the control chair. While Bill Smith might have the gene, it’s no good if he can’t use it. So when Rodney talks about their aptitude, he means how well they can use it.’

‘So who has the highest aptitude?” Daniel asked, looking at his teammates.

‘John,’ Rodney answered immediately. ‘Possibly because he trusts his gene and is willing to let go of himself in the control chair, so he lets it guide him, rather than him trying to dominate the interface.’

‘And also because I was exposed to far more Ancient tech on Atlantis than Jack has, or will be,’ John added, with a smile at his friend.

‘No.’ Jack shook his head. ‘Rodney’s right. You’re able to let go when you’re in the chair, John. I can’t. Maybe it’s because I’m older, or have a harder time trusting. I don’t know.’

‘But is the significance of discovering lower-aptitude ATA Gene holders important, Dr McKay?’ Hammond brought the discussion back to the point.

‘Not really, but, again, we won’t know until we have access to either the chair or a Jumper. What is important, though, is that we’re way ahead of schedule in testing for the ATA gene. In the other timeline, Earth didn’t begin testing for it until they got Carson’s gene therapy, in mid-2005. Discovering the gene holders sooner gives us more options with the Outpost, when it’s found. Before, only Jack and John could use it, and you had to recall John a couple of times from Atlantis to use it in Earth’s defence, which is clearly not ideal. Now, we may find a strong enough gene holder on Earth to use it.’

‘Good.’ The general smiled at his staff. ‘I’m loathe to say it, but things just might be going our way.’

‘They were, but you’ve probably jinxed them now,’ Jack sighed. ‘Thanks a lot, sir.’

*****

On their third or fourth – Jack had lost count – visit to Kheb, SG-1 finally met Oma Desala again.

‘Have you been deliberately hiding from us?’ Jack asked, narrowing his eyes. ‘And don’t give me any of that ‘if a candle is burning it’s time to fix the roof’ crap.’

Seeing her eyes narrow, Daniel tried to backtrack. ‘He means we’ve been seeking your enlightened wisdom, and would ask for—’

‘No, he doesn’t,’ Jack snapped. ‘I want to know what she’s going to do to fix her mistake.’

‘My mistake?’ Oma asked, not allowing any emotion to interrupt her composure.

‘We know what happened with Anubis,’ Daniel told her, elbowing Jack in the stomach to shut him up. ‘That you helped him to ascend before realising he only wanted access and the means to use Ancient technology. He’s going to kill thousands, maybe millions, of people in this galaxy if you don’t stop him, you know.’

‘What would you have me do?’

They’d found her in the temple in the wooded valley, just as they did on the first occasion they visited the planet. On the last three – four? – visits, they hadn’t even been able to find the temple, big as it was, so it was clear she’d allowed them to find her this time.

Jack eyed her thoughtfully. He knew the only way to defeat Anubis was for her to engage him in perpetual battle. That’s too simple an answer, so what does she want? What would make her agree? ‘We know about the Ori,’ he tried, but her demeanour didn’t alter. ‘We also know how to destroy them.’ Now that’s got her attention.

‘Course, that might destroy all ascended beings,’ he added, following John’s regular habit of leaning against the wall behind him, and letting his gaze wander around the room they were in. I’m going for nonchalant. Has she fallen for it?

‘That wouldn’t be much of a loss, though, would it?’ John enquired, playing up to him with all his worth, and joining him in holding up the wall with his shoulder. ‘And it’d solve the Anubis problem.’

‘That knowledge…’ Oma began, but trailed off, frowning as she tried to recover her chi. Though I don’t have a clue what a chi is, hers or anyone else’s.

‘How do you know this?’ she demanded. ‘We removed that knowledge from Anubis. No one else can have that knowledge.’

‘And yet…’ Jack let his words hang.

‘And just in case you think we’re bluffing,’ John added, ‘we know all about Arthur and Morgan Le Fay – or is she still calling herself Ganos Lal?’

That, more than his other words, convinced Oma Desala.

‘What do you think I can do?’ she asked, holding out her hands in supplication. ‘The Others will not allow Anubis to ascend, nor will they allow me to remove his knowledge, since that is my punishment.’

‘They’re pretty big on punishment,’ Rodney said, entering the fray. ‘Aren’t they? Except for themselves, of course. It’s fine for them to leave an entire galaxy to suffer from their mistakes.’

‘You also know of Atlantis?’ Oma whispered, growing even paler. ‘How?‘

‘None of your business,’ Rodney snapped, turning away from her, and Jack watched as he pressed his lips together while also tightening his grip on his P90 so much, his knuckles were white.

‘What do you think I can do?’ This time, as she said it, she focussed her attention on Jack, probably realising he was the leader. ‘Killing him is not good since he would then ascend, and the Others would simply send him back.’

‘You need to have a conversation with them,’ Jack told her. ‘Tell them what we know, and since it isn’t just we five who know it, killing us, or making us ascend, won’t help. It’d just make things worse for them, and you. At least we’ve come to negotiate and not just activated the Sangraal or the Ark.’ He straightened up, then stretched. How the hell does John do that leaning stuff all the time? My back’s killing me.

‘C’mon, campers, let’s get going. Wagons ho!’ He shot Oma a mocking salute. ‘So long, Oma. Don’t be a stranger. You know where we live.’

Bereft of speech, Oma Desala watched them leave without a backward glance.

*****

The next part of the plan had two parts. Part One, which SG-1 would take, was to return to Abydos and find the Lost City Tablet, which was hidden somewhere in the Temple of Ra. This would then, eventually, lead them to the gate address for Atlantis, and, indirectly, to the Eye of Ra, one of the six power sources to a superweapon Anubis built from the knowledge he retained from his short period of ascension.

‘Don’t forget I want to examine that Eye,’ Rodney told his teammates. ‘No one got the chance last time, but if Anubis did get the information from being ascended, it’s pretty certain the Ancients originally made them as power sources.’

‘What for?’ Daniel asked, pausing in checking his backpack as they readied themselves for the mission.

‘That’s what I want to find out.’

Part Two, the search for Telchak’s Device was, after rigorous discussion, being undertaken by SG-11, led by Colonel Edwards, with the newly arrived Captain Lorne on his team. The general, as well as Jack and John, wanted to see how Lorne performed under pressure, although with the search taking place twelve months sooner than last time, they hoped the device – the means to dealing with Anubis’ Kull Warriors – hadn’t yet been discovered by the Honduran Rebels who held it last time. That, and a team being sent rather than just Daniel and Bill Lee.

‘And whoever allowed that deserves to be shot!’ Jack had grumbled. ‘Who could possibly think sending Laurel and Hardy out with no back-up was a sound plan?’

He’d looked around when no one answered him. ‘Crap! Was it me? I can’t remember.’

Rodney had screwed up his eyes. ‘I think it was General Hammond, but I’d still suggest you keep those thoughts to yourself.’

‘It’s good advice,’ John had said, patting Jack’s shoulder. ‘Take it!’

Daniel, meanwhile, had refused to speak to him for several hours.

For now, however, SG-1 lined up at the foot of the ramp while Walter dialled the gate address for Abydos.

‘Feels a bit like déjà vu,’ Jack said, nudging Daniel. ‘At least you have meds for your asthma and hey-fever now.’

‘But I can never go to Abydos without remembering Sha’re,’ Daniel said quietly, and Jack gripped his shoulder with as much emotion as he’d allow himself in public on base. In private was a different matter.

‘God speed, SG-1,’ Hammond called out from the operations room, and when Jack looked over his shoulder, he saw Hammond had raised a hand in farewell.

Abydos was as hot and dusty as Jack remembered when they emerged from the temple in which the Stargate was situated, but John and Rodney looked around curiously. The entire planet was gone by the time John joined the Programme, its population helped to ascend by Oma Desala after Anubis tested his new superweapon on it.

Looking around for any sign of life, Jack waved a hand as he and Daniel set off towards Nagada, the primary city on Abydos.

‘Don’t you think it’s odd there was no one in the temple?’ Daniel asked Jack as they struggled through the sand, slipping back one step for every two steps forward.

‘I think it’s odd that no planet other than Earth appears to have horses, or something like a horse,’ Rodney grumbled.

‘You don’t like riding a horse,’ John told him. ‘Or not very much.’

‘I’d have the motive to improve if it meant not walking on fucking sand,’ Rodney snapped as he slid forward, arms flailing, and ended up on his ass. ‘Ow!’

‘The Abydonians have mastadge,’ Daniel said, looking around as though he expected one to spring up. ‘A large, hairy mammal which possibly evolved from a horse. It—Arg!’

His shriek was echoed by Rodney as a dozen or more robed figures suddenly emerged from the sand, all shouting and all holding weapons trained on the team.

Teal’c immediately brought up his staff weapon and primed it, while John aimed his P90, but kept the safety on until he knew if these people were friendly, or if they were enemies.

Jack, however, held up a hand. ‘Hold your fire!’

One man stepped forward and pulled his robe aside to reveal his face.

‘O’Nieer!’ he cried, opening his arms. ‘O’Nieer! Dan-yel! Dan-yel!’

‘Skaara!’ Daniel shouted and ran forward to hug the man. He began to jabber away in Abydonian, all the time guiding Skaara towards the others.

‘O’Nieer!’ Skaara cried again, flinging his arms around Jack, then he turned towards Teal’c and stepped back, saying something to Daniel while occasionally glancing at Teal’c, his face serious.

Daniel stepped forward and placed his hand on Teal’c’s shoulder, pulling him towards Skaara.

‘Teal’c killed Daniel’s wife, Sha’re,’ Jack explained to John and Rodney, ‘when she was possessed by Amaunet, Queen of Apophis who we killed by…well, we killed him, that’s all you need to know for the moment.’

‘Teal’c killed her?’ John repeated, frowning.

‘She was being controlled by Amaunet and was torturing Danny. Teal’c did the right thing,’ Jack said, shortly.

‘I’m not disputing that, but how did Daniel take it?’

‘Exactly as you’d expect: badly,’ Jack answered. ‘He considered leaving the programme for a while, but finally realised that Teal’c did the right thing. Skaara, Sha’re’s brother, though, might not see it quite the same way, but Daniel’s the only one of us who can make him accept Teal’c. I wanted T-man to sit this one out, but he said he had to make restitution to Sha’re’s family.’

‘Restitution.’

‘Yeah. I’ve no idea what he means, either.’

Whatever Daniel had told his brother-in-law, however, appeared to work as Skaara gripped Teal’c’s arm in a warrior salute while Daniel continued to speak to him.

Jack, John, and Rodney, meanwhile, lay back in the sand, taking their rest while they could. Experience told them they didn’t know when they’d be able to rest again.

After a while, Daniel called them over. ‘Skaara says they don’t bother keeping a guard in the temple any longer as no one’s come through the gate since…since Amaunet was killed.’ Daniel bit his lip and looked away for a moment, then took a deep breath. ‘Skaara hasn’t ever come across a hidden room or the Eye of Ra, but there are several mentions of it in the catacombs. He’s going to lead us there.’

When they returned to the temple, Jack sent Teal’c off with three of the young men accompanying Skaara to set a perimeter, and allowed Skaara to lead them into the catacombs to the walls with the mentions of the Eye of Ra.

‘Where’s the hidden room, Jack?’ Daniel asked, looking around with a smile. ‘Skaara and I have spent hours in here, trying to eke out every little bit of information we can from these wa—Jack?’

‘Daniel?’

‘Ja—’ Daniel began, before Rodney slapped both their shoulders.

‘No! You’re not going into that routine. We’ve got a serious job to do, remember?’

‘I wasn’t,’ Daniel protested. ‘I was just waiting for Jack to show us where this hidden room is.’

‘I don’t know.’

The others rounded on Jack.

‘What d’you mean, ‘you don’t know’?’ Rodney demanded. ‘You said you knew!’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Yeah, you did, Jack,’ Daniel sighed.

‘No. I did not.’

‘But you said…’ Daniel began, then inclined his head. ‘No, you didn’t. You said Sam and Jonas had found it while you were busy fighting off Anubis’ forces.’

Like Pavlovian dogs, they all looked up at the roof of the catacomb. Rodney was the first to shake himself.

‘So why are we here, Jack, if you don’t know where the room is?’

Jack shrugged. ‘Carter and Quinn worked it out. I thought you’d be able to do the same, but if you can’t…’ He let the sentence hang.

Rodney huffed, then shone his torch on another bit of wall, and Daniel joined him, carefully and gently running his hands over the writing and images etched there in past millennia.

‘That was cruel,’ John whispered to Jack.

‘It’ll work, though.’

*****

It did work, but it took much longer than it had before without the ascended Daniel’s assistance, but Jack considered it worth the wait as he watched Daniel’s face light up at the sight of artefacts in the room, unseen for possibly thousands of years.

‘There’s enough here to keep my entire department busy for the next ten years, he whispered, almost to himself. ‘Where do we start?’

‘With the Lost City tablet, and the Eye of Ra,’ Jack said, and his prosaic tone and manner brought Daniel back to earth with a bump.

‘There’s no romance in you whatsoever,’ he complained as he knelt to open a casket filled with jewels.

‘You didn’t say that last night,’ Jack murmured, just loud enough for Daniel to hear, who flushed at the memory.

‘Well, okay, you are sometimes,’ he allowed. ‘Now, what does this eye look like?’ He began sifting through the loose jewels and the actual jewellery.

‘Well, for a start, it’s not a real eye, and I don’t think they found it in one of these boxes. It was more difficult than that, I think.’

‘And what were you doing while Sam and Jonas Quinn were busy treasure hunting?’ Rodney demanded.

‘Fighting off Anubis’ Jaffa,’ Jack answered, frowning. ‘I wasn’t having a picnic, y’know!’

‘Here’s the tablet,’ John called out from the other side of the secret chamber, and Jack hurried to his side to read it with him.

‘Alterans, great plague, yada yada. Yeah, that’s it. Now we just need the eye.’ He looked around the room lit by torch flames that threw shadows across the stone walls and roof. ‘There was something else, I’m certain,’ he murmured, turning in a circle. ‘Something Carter told me about later, something she did…which she…knew…Danny wouldn’t…approve of…’ With a suddenness which made John jump, he straightened up. ‘Danny, Rodders, grab something and tap the walls,’ he ordered, pulling out his own K-bar and beginning to tap the wall lightly. ‘You too, John.’

‘Just be careful, all of you,’ Daniel begged them. ‘This is probably the most important cache of artefacts related to Ra we’ve come across.’

They tapped and touched for what felt like hours to Jack, but it was barely ten minutes before Rodney called out.

‘Here, there’s a hollow sound if I tap…’

Daniel hurried over and pushed Rodney out of the way.

‘Hey!’

‘It’s not like you’ve never done that to anyone, is it?’ John said, pulling him away from the wall to give Daniel space and light, then he switched on the light on his P90 and shone it on the place where Daniel was running his hands. ‘Does that help?’

‘Yeah, thanks,’ Daniel replied absently, all his attention on the wall. ‘There must be a way…’ he murmured, and the others had to strain to hear him.

‘D’you remember how they opened it last time?’ John asked Jack as Rodney joined Daniel in examining the wall inch by inch.

Jack shook his head. ‘No. I was occupied with fighting off Anubis’ thugs, and then…’. He paused and swallowed.

‘Then?’ John prompted, softly.

‘Then Skaara was injured, more badly that I realised at first. He…’ Jack swallowed again. ‘He…he ascended, right in front of me, just like Danny did.’ His voice trailed off as memories assailed him, but John touched his arm gently.

‘Jack?’

He gave himself a mental shake. ‘Yeah, I’m here, don’t worry. It’s just…so many pointless deaths, John. Lives wasted for no reason other than one…snakehead’s vainglory.’ He spat the last couple of words.

‘And we’ve been given the chance to change that, haven’t we?’ Jack opened his mouth to speak, but John continued. ‘We can save many of the lives we lost last time. Not all of them, but we can save some, and we can try to ensure that those who deserve it are caught and punished, right? We’ve made a good start, and now, hopefully, we can save Abydos. That’s what we’re doing, isn’t it? Saving the entire planet?’

Jack chuckled. ‘Yeah, that’s what we’re doing.’ He tried to pull himself together, a little ashamed he’d almost let his memories overtake him, and he touched John’s arm. ‘Thanks.’ It was all he needed to say. John knew what he meant.

They each smiled at the other, then noticed the argument on the other side of the chamber.

‘…not destroying it!’ Daniel. A rather heated Daniel from the sounds of it.

‘Daniel, don’t be so stupid! It’s the only way to get it open!’ And that was pure Rodders.

‘Problem, gentlemen?’ Jack asked as he and John joined them in staring at the wall.

‘No, no problem, because I’m not going to let anyone smash this wall and destroy the integrity of the chamber,’ Daniel said, glaring at Rodney.

Who was glaring right back. ‘Yes, there’s a problem, because this soft and squishy excuse for a scientist won’t let me break down the wall to get the Eye of Ra we came for!’

‘Are you sure there’s no other way to open wherever it is?’ John asked as he let his P90 hang on its strap and ran his hands over the part of the wall they were staring at and arguing over.

‘Positive,’ Rodney said.

‘No! We’re not certain!’ Daniel said at exactly the same moment.

‘I can feel a raised bit, which I suspect covers a small aperture,’ John told Jack, who stepped forward to feel the area for himself. ‘It’s probably too small to warrant a special opening mechanism,’ he added.

‘Yeah, I agree,’ Jack said with a sigh, knowing this was going to upset Daniel. ‘Sorry, Danny, but John’s right. I think it’s likely they made a hole in the plasterwork, put the eye in, and just plastered over it again. The only way to get the eye is to smash the plaster.’

‘Thank you,’ Rodney said, standing with his arms folded and the same air of superiority Jack recognised from the other timeline, the which had been largely absent this time, but as he opened his mouth to speak, John pulled Rodney aside, making him squawk with surprise.

‘Don’t be so arrogant!’ Jack heard John hiss. ‘And don’t rub it in. You’re better than this, Rodney. I know you are!’

For a moment Rodney scowled, but then he let his shoulders slump and dropped his eyes to the ground. ‘Sorry, Daniel,’ he said, looking up and meeting Daniel’s eyes. ‘I was rude and insensitive, and I know how much this stuff means to you. And I don’t for a minute think you’re an excuse for a scientist. You’re an archeologist and anthropologist, not a botanist.’

‘Rodney!’ John raised his eyes to the roof and shook his head, but Daniel was laughing.

‘Never change, Rodney,’ he said, making a pretence of wiping his eyes. ‘Never change.’

‘So, are we gonna do this?’ Jack demanded, holding out the butt of his P90.

Daniel cringed, but nodded to him. ‘Go ahead, but don’t smash more than you need to.’

It only took a couple of blows as the plaster over the opening wasn’t thick, and once Jack had brushed away the bits of plaster and the dust he’d made, he stepped back and swept out his arm.

‘Your privilege, I believe, Dr Jackson.’

‘Thank you, Colonel O’Neill,’ he answered, and reached into the aperture.

The Eye of Ra was a palm-sized crystal in a circular setting reminiscent of a Stargate. At first sight, it was colourless, but, as with most crystals, once exposed to a light source, its facets became multi-hued.

‘If this is originally an Ancient artefact, it’s just possible the crystal might contain information,’ Rodney said, thoughtfully, turning the crystal, so it caught the light. ‘We never got to examine it last time.’

Daniel neatly plucked it out of his hand. ‘Possibly, but I get to examine it first as it’s an important archeological artefact.’

Jack, seeing where this discussion might end, took the crystal from Daniel and dropped it into a pocket in his tac-vest. ‘I think I’ll keep hold of this for the moment. Danny, you can take the Lost City tablet. Now, is there anything else you want to take now?’

‘Jack! We can’t take anything. It has to remain as it is until we’ve had time to sketch and photograph the chamber properly.’

Sighing, and knowing he was going to infuriate his partner, Jack shook his head. ‘Danny, we have to take what we need now – the Eye and the tablet – and look into sending out a couple of teams to keep an eye on your geeks once we’ve briefed George. Don’t forget that Anubis is searching for the Eyes and he’s gonna come here at some point. I don’t want to put your people in a dangerous situation. I don’t want to put anyone in a dangerous situation, not if it’s avoidable.’

‘So what you’re saying is I can’t come back until we know Anubis is gone? Jack! That could be months! Years, even! And what if he destroys it in the meantime? You said he destroyed the entire planet last time!’ Daniel was working himself into an epic rage of the kind Jack had never seen since he had killed Reese, and the memory made him shiver.

‘Danny, calm down. You’ll make yourself sick. I’m sure we can come up with a workable plan, but I don’t want to lose you now I’ve found you.’ Jack stared at him, hating that he had to disappoint his friend, but he knew his duty. ‘I can’t do anything until we’ve had a proper discussion with George, and I’m sure you don’t want to put Sha’re’s family at risk, do you?’

Appealing to that side of Daniel did the trick, and Jack hadn’t lied. Kasuf and Skaara’s safety wasn’t worth risking for the sake of Daniel’s science, although Jack wondered if Rodney, in the same position, would have made the same decision if it were his sister and niece at risk. No, stop it! That’s unfair! He’s changed. We’ve all changed.

*****

‘And is this enough to save Abydos, do you think, Jack?’ Hammond asked, his attention fixed on Jack rather than the other members of the team around the briefing room table.

‘I’m…uncertain, sir,’ Jack admitted, leaning back in his seat and tapping the table with a pencil. ‘Last time, Anubis ‘tested’ his superweapon on Abydos, destroying it completely. Whether he’ll destroy it anyway when he doesn’t find the Eye there, we can’t be sure. He’s certainly vicious enough.’

‘What if we put it about that we have the Eye?’ John suggested. ‘Would that save Abydos, or just bring Anubis to our door instead?’

Jack considered this, then shook his head. ‘It’s well known in the galaxy that we have an interest in Abydos, even if folk don’t know why exactly. Anubis may decide to attack it to teach us a lesson, but the same could be said about several other planets as well.’ Edora. Lairissa. Fuck! ‘As for bringing Anubis to our door, that’s already his intention, no matter what we do. Our best hope is to destroy him first, or by putting so many spokes in his wheel that he decides it’s not worth it.’

‘Which reminds me,’ Hammond said, pulling a sheet of paper from a folder in front of him. ‘Major Carter has been in contact to say they’ve almost finished mapping the extent of the Outpost beneath the ice, and are ready to begin excavation as soon as the seasons change. She estimates they’ll be able to start at the begin of October.’

‘October?’ Jack repeated. ‘Why is it taking so long?’

‘Light,’ Rodney said succinctly. ‘And the temperature, perhaps. This is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, remember?’

‘Right.’ Jack sighed. ‘Should we have waited to send Carter down?’

‘No, because she’s had the time to set up a base and get all the equipment they’ll need in place,’ Rodney answered, then glanced at the general. ‘Sorry, sir. Am I stepping on your toes?’

‘No, son, you go ahead. You know far more about it than I do,’ Hammond replied, smiling at him.

Rodney nodded. ‘Then once they begin, they’ll have to test the structure continually. It’s a massive project Carter’s got.’

‘I swear it wasn’t this difficult last time,’ Jack grumbled.

‘Because we already had a way in,’ Rodney explained, and it was clear he was trying to be patient. ‘If truth be told, we shouldn’t have gone into the Outpost as soon as we did. There should have been far more testing of structural integrity than we did. We were actually very fortunate nothing bad happened.’

‘Why did you go in so quickly?’ John asked, and Jack remembered that the entire base was up and running by the time John began his regular supply flights.

‘Because of Elizabeth Weir,’ Rodney said with a sigh. ‘She either persuaded the President to press on, or he pushed the project forward because he knew he was going to remove her from the SGC as soon as Jack was…thawed out, and he felt guilty. ‘

‘I’d go for guilt,’ Jack said, nodding. ‘Just from the odd thing he said to me later. Kinsey either tricked him into appointing Weir, or blackmailed him. There was no reason, and certainly no precedent, to appoint a civilian as commander of a military base. I do know the Chiefs were furious with his decision, and I’m not sure he ever won their unwavering support.’

‘But we’ve still ‘discovered’ it a couple of years earlier than we managed last time,’ John reminded him. ‘Don’t be so hasty, master Hobbit!‘

Rodney laughed at his impression of Treebeard, and even Jack cracked a smile, while Daniel frowned.

‘What?’

‘I’ll tell you at Christmas,’ Jack told him. ‘It’s nothing important. Just Sheppard being a fool.’

John promptly stuck out his tongue, making the general sigh.

‘Gentlemen.’

‘I just want to get on,’ Jack told him, and sighed. ‘It feels like we’re dragging our heels.’

‘And yet we’ve made significant progress in the last few months,’ Rodney pointed out, reasonably. ‘The things we’re held back by are the things out of our control.’

‘Fine,’ Jack muttered, very aware of how close he was to pouting. ‘What about SG-11, sir? Any news from them?’

‘They believe they’ve found the right area in Honduras to search per your grandfather’s notes, Dr Jackson, but are struggling with the location of the waterfall and caves he spoke about.’

‘And it’s too early for Google maps to search for it via satellite,’ Rodney grumbled, making Hammond and Daniel frown at him.

‘What maps?’ Daniel asked. ‘Did you say Goggle?’

‘Google. It’s a fairly recent search engine, but the company will grow into one of the largest in the world, and its name, ‘Google’, itself becomes a verb. In the future, people will talk about ‘googling’ for information, even if they use a different search engine.’

‘But what’s it got to do with maps?’

‘Google launched a mapping platform, or will launch it,’ Rodney explained. ‘Basically, it’s satellite imagery of the whole world. It’s interactive, and eventually offered real-time images. Quite a few discoveries were made once it had mapped the entire world, especially in landscape archeology. My point is, that if we had satellite images of the relevant area, we could probably narrow the search area, or even pinpoint where they need to be.’

‘Can’t we get satellite images?’ John asked with a frown. ‘I mean, we have access to satellites, don’t we? And if we don’t, why don’t we? Surely we can justify the expense of one, or even more than one, in terms of an early warning system for an incursion into the Sol system?’

‘It’s not something that’s ever been raised,’ Hammond said, ‘but there’s a lot of sense in your idea.’

‘And both Miko and I have access to other satellites,’ Rodney said. ‘Legitimate access,’ he clarified when both Jack and John looked at him sceptically. ‘I’ll get on to it right away, but it is something we could easily do,’ he added, speaking to the general. ‘Prometheus will be starting her test flights shortly, and as soon as that happens, we can launch a satellite from the ship itself. I’ve done it before in Pegasus.’

‘From a Jumper, though,’ John added. ‘It’ll be more difficult to manoeuvre a B-303 into place. And a ship is female, so it’s herself.’

‘Then we build the satellite with thrusters we can use from the ship herself,’ Rodney said, scowling at John, who just leaned back in his chair and smirked.

‘Then we have a plan,’ Hammond said, leaning back himself. ‘Excellent.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

While Radek and Peter Grodin designed and then supervised the building of three satellites, Rodney, Jack and John went out to Nevada to supervise the initial testing of Prometheus. Daniel, meanwhile, had persuaded General Hammond and Jack – against his better judgement – to allow him to return to Abydos to record the secret chamber and its contents. Jack was unhappy letting Daniel off-world without him, but knew he couldn’t restrict the man simply because they were in a relationship, although Jack knew he’d restricted Daniel plenty in the other timeline when they weren’t in a relationship. Still, he wasn’t happy, and had insisted that Teal’c go with them and on hourly check-ins since the chamber and the gate were in the same complex.

Patrick and, surprisingly, Dave, met them on the runway when John flew them into Groom Lake – now his plane was authorised to land there.

‘We weren’t expecting you,’ John said as he returned his brother’s hug.

‘I’ve never seen a space ship, and seeing as it’s an SA project, I decided I’d come on the inaugural flight.’

‘Sorry to disappoint you, big bro, but a test flight isn’t an inaugural flight,’ John told him with a grin, then laughed at Dave’s disappointed face. ‘Still, I’m sure you can talk yourself into an invitation for the real inaugural flight. I’m sure it’s what most of the Air Force top brass will do.’

‘They did,’ Jack sighed. ‘But only for a trip around Sol. I didn’t trust myself not to space them if I took them any further.’

”I feel ya,’ John muttered in an undertone, then laughed at Dave’s look of horror when he overheard him.

Rodney was in his element running around, throwing out orders to everyone, including Jack and John, who mostly ignored them, and stopping occasionally to grab a drink or a bite to eat. Jack, John, Patrick, and Dave settled themselves on the bridge with Jack in the Commander’s seat, and John in the Pilot’s position, while Patrick and Dave respectively took weapons and communications.

‘Why are we waiting around?’ Dave demanded after an hour or so.

John looked up from plotting their path and noticed Jack appeared to be simply clicking though the ship’s systems. His father had, it appeared, fallen asleep.

‘This is normal for an initial test flight,’ Jack explained. ‘There’s ten hours of hanging around for each half hour of actual flight time.’

‘Have you done many test flights?’ Dave asked him, curiously.

Jack hummed. ‘A few, earlier in my career. John? Have you done any? I can’t remember.’

John looked up from his screen and grinned. ‘Not officially.’

‘What does that mean?’ Dave asked with a frown.

John didn’t answer, but his mouth was curved up, and his eyes were dancing.

‘Bastard,’ Jack muttered, then louder; ‘It means he’s done some, but if he told us about them, he’d have to kill us.’

‘Really?’ Dave asked his brother.

‘I can neither confirm nor deny your supposition,’ John answered, then smiled at his brother. ‘Seriously, Dave. I’m not allowed to talk about it. Not even to Jack, and his security clearance is the same as mine.’

Staring in wonder at his brother, Dave slowly shook his head. ‘It’s like I don’t even know you.’

‘Well, you don’t, not really. And it goes both ways, you know,’ John told him, giving him a sympathetic smile. ‘I don’t have a clue if you’re dating, for example. I don’t even know what your drink of choice is, but I’d guess that’s the same for many siblings. As we grow up, we grow away from our family. I mean, think about how much contact we had with our cousins from Mom’s side of the family. Do you even know where they live?’

‘Well, no, not without looking in my address book,’ Dave admitted.

‘There you go. Sometimes the closest family members are in the families we make for ourselves, and that’s particularly true in the Stargate Programme.’

‘Why is that?’ Dave asked. ‘I mean, I really want to know. What’s the relationship between you two, for example? Isn’t Jack your commanding officer? Why can you use his first name, then? You only ever call George Hammond, sir.’

Jack and John exchanged glances.

‘That’s a lot to unpack,’ John began, then almost sighed with relief as the radio crackled into action.

‘Váli’s finally here so we’re going to go ahead and fire the engines,’ Rodney announced from the engine room. ‘Fasten your seatbelts, gentlemen.’

Dave immediately felt around for a seatbelt and frowned when he couldn’t find one. ‘John?’

‘Calm down, Dave. He’s having you on,’ John told him with a grin. ‘The ship has both inertial dampeners and artificial gravity, so you don’t need them.’

‘But if we went to battle stations, safety straps would automatically be released,’ Patrick added, surprising them all as they’d thought he was asleep. ‘I was dozing and didn’t want to interrupt your conversation,’ he added defensively when he saw the scowls on John and Dave’s faces.

Before either of them could respond, however, Jack spoke.

‘Retract the roof,’ he ordered, and waited until he received confirmation from ground level the roof was open. ‘Power the engines and take us up, Mr Spock!’

‘Actually, Jack, Mr Sulu was helmsman,’ John told him absently as he manoeuvred the ship through the bay doors. ‘And the engines are already powered.’

Prometheus lifted above the surface of the desert and moved upwards in her very first ascent.

‘This is weird,’ Dave complained as he watched first the Nevada desert shrink from view, then North America, until they were at last in space and Earth was simply a large blue sphere hovering in space.

‘What’s weird?’ John asked his brother as soon as they were moving smoothly through space.

‘Lots of things,’ Dave replied with a laugh. ‘You being able to fly a spaceship. Where did you learn to do that? And the fact that I’m on a spaceship, travelling in space, and I can’t even feel it.’

‘Inertial dampeners,’ John said absently, his eyes on his console. He clicked his radio. ‘Rodney? Are we still keeping to the course I plotted out to Alpha Centauri?’

‘Yes. We want to test both the sublights and hyper-drive engines.’

Jack had been following their conversation, and he looked across to John. ‘Take us to Mars on the sublights, then plot a jump to Proxima Centauri, Colonel Sheppard.’

‘Aye, aye, Captain,’ John replied, playing along, and Dave watched as the red planet filled more and more of the big window.

‘Jesus fucking Christ!’ he muttered to himself. ‘I’m looking at fucking Mars!’ In a louder voice he asked, ‘What speed are we doing?’

‘About a third of the speed of light,’ Patrick answered as both Jack and John were busy with their consoles. ‘Around 60,000 miles per second, if you want a recognisable figure, as we’re just on sublight engines at present.’

‘And how fast is hyper-speed?’

‘It…doesn’t really work like that, Dave,’ John said, looking up from his console. ‘We travel through hyperspace to get to our destination, but…Right. Think of a sheet of paper, and how flat it is, and where the edges are, and run your finger from one edge to another. Then screw the paper into a ball. Those same edges are now closer together, right?’

‘I…I guess so.’ Dave wasn’t convinced of the explanation.

‘Well, that’s what hyperspace does, roughly. Approximately. Very approximately.’

‘I have all of John’s physics books at home, son,’ Patrick said, coming to John’s aid. ‘I’ll pass them on to you and you look up the answers yourself.’

‘Errm. Okay.’ Now Dave wished he’d never asked the question.

*****

With the first round of Prometheus tests done, SG-1 had a couple of days off. Daniel and Jack were going to Edora to check in with Laira and Lairissa, and to see how the mining operation was progressing – their excuse for the trip – while John and Rodney went home to Virginia to crash out, and plot their next moves. Rodney took the Eye of Ra with him to conduct a few experiments of his own, while John took the new Tom Clancy novel, Red Rabbit. Teal’c, meanwhile went off-world to the Alpha site, scene of a recent attack by an Ashrak assassin, hellbent on dividing the Jaffa who had been on the base for months, and the newly arrived Tok’ra, fleeing a Goa’uld attack.

The Ashrak had been discovered, but not before Bra’tac was attacked and left for dead, and while Teal’c had been assured his friend and former mentor was well, thanks to his symbiote, Teal’c wanted to make sure for himself.

Jack and Daniel returned from Edora full of stories about Lairissa who, at eighteen months was now walking and chattering away, and learning to call Jack Daddy.

‘I’ve never seen Jack so…content,’ Daniel confided in Rodney as they waited for their new coffee machine to build sufficient pressure to produce an espresso. ‘He goes all soft and gooey when he’s with her, and it’s getting more and more difficult to drag him home.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Rodney said, poking at the pump to make sure it was properly connected. ‘He’s lost one child already. Separating from his daughter every couple of weeks must feel like hell. Look. I think it’s doing something.’ He pointed to the machine they were standing over.

‘I can build a fucking spaceship,’ Rodney had ranted to John. ‘Why am I waiting for five years until a decent coffee maker is released?’

So, he’d collaborated with Daniel as to what they thought they needed in a coffee maker, and what they’d love to have in one, and then built it. And now they were waiting for the first cup to brew – and had already agreed they’d share it, rather than one of them having to wait for the second cup to be produced.

‘It’s not even regularly every two weeks,’ Daniel said with a sigh. ‘Too much other stuff keeps coming up. I sometimes think it’d be easier for both us and Laira if we just move to Edora, and comeback each day to work here. At least Jack would spend more time with his daughter. Oh, and you’ll never guess,’ Daniel said, turning to face Rodney rather than the machine, ‘she’s begun calling me Papa! Jack is Daddy, of course, but I’m a papa!’

It was impossible not to smile at Daniel’s enthusiasm. For a man who had immersed himself in his work in the other timeline, and who agonised over the responsibility he felt for the number of deaths caused by the Ori, blaming himself for leading them to this galaxy, he was grabbing onto fatherhood with both hands.

‘I’m pleased for you both,’ Rodney said with a smile, and sincerely meaning it. ‘You both deserve it.’

‘What about you and John? Do you have any plans for children?’

‘No.’ It was brief and to the point, but at Daniel’s raised eyebrows, Rodney sighed. ‘We see our lives as being in Pegasus, and as long as the Wraith are a threat, we can’t justify bringing children into it, even if we could persuade someone to carry a child for us.’

‘But the Pegasean natives have children, don’t they?’ Daniel asked with a frown.

‘Yes, and Teyla, our teammate, had Torran, and John, Ronon, and I were as uncles to him. We had our share of dirty nappies and sleepless nights when we baby sat for Teyla, so we’ve had some experience of babies.’ He gave a half smile, and his eyes became slightly unfocussed. ‘I just hope she has Torran this time as well. All the changes we’ve made may alter things, especially if we go out to Pegasus sooner than last time.’

The coffee machine suddenly began to bubble and release steam.

‘I think it’s ready,’ Daniel said, with an eager smile.

‘Then let’s get on with it!’

*****

‘I feel…apprehensive,’ John told Jack two days after Prometheus’ maiden flight in late August. ‘Nervous. As though something bad’s coming.’ His fingers were tapping on the doorframe where he leaned.

Jack put down his pencil and stared at his friend. ‘Funny you should say that.’

‘You feel it too?’ John came fully into Jack’s larger office, closed the door and threw himself into a chair, then immediately stood and prowled around the room.

‘Mmm. But I don’t know why.’

‘Rodney’s checked his list of what’s about to happen, and there isn’t anything on it round about now. Anubis is pretty quiet and there’s no sign of his Kull Warriors yet, and even if there was, we’ve already got Telchak’s Device to help us build the Kull Disrupter,’ John said, sitting back down again. ‘The rogue NID and Committee are all in prison, and even though we know we’ve missed some, we think we’ve taken the big hitters. Finding out the Secretary of Defence was a member of the Committee was huge, and we’ve surely given them a massive setback if nothing else.’

‘I agree,’ Jack said, leaning right back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.

‘So why do I feel so fucking…antsy?’ John demanded, rubbing his face with his hands and resting his elbows on his knees.

After a short while he spoke again, his voice now so low Jack had to strain to hear him. ‘I—I dreamt about Atlantis last night,’ he confided. ‘I’ve dreamt of her a few times recently.’

Jack sat bolt upright so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.

‘What?’ John asked looking hurriedly around. ‘What is it?’

‘Dreams have always been important at the SGC,’ Jack told him, his face now wearing its ‘serious business’ expression. ‘There’s been more than one occasion when we’ve had night time visits from the Others, or even from a Goa’uld on one occasion.’

‘From a Goa’uld? Can they dream walk or something?’ John was frowning now.

‘No, nothing like that. It turned out to be a Goa’uld with a ship in orbit who was ringing into Danny’s bedroom, trying to prompt him to do something, or go somewhere. I forget now. What exactly did you dream about Atlantis?’

John tipped back his head and closed his eyes, trying to remember exactly. ‘I was going through the gate with a group of people. Rodney was there, and I think Radek and Miko were. Daniel was there too, and…there’s a baby crying. It sounds like Torran, but I can’t see Teyla anywhere. That was last night, but one I had the other night had me and Rodney in a Jumper. We didn’t go through a gate, but we were in a desert, which was odd, because we never really found a desert planet in Pegasus. Atlantis was covered with sand when I went forward in time, but it still wasn’t a desert.’

‘Anything else?’ Jack asked, his mind working overtime to work out what John’s dreams meant.

‘Well…’ John began, then shook his head.

‘Go on, kid. Just spit it out. We can make sense of it later.’

‘Atlantis was on fire, but the fire came from her, not from a Hive or anything from space. It was as though…’. His voice dropped. ‘No. We never actually saw the lava as we were already in space and hitting a hyperspace window.’

‘John? What are you muttering about?’

‘Sorry. I was trying to remember if I’d ever been close to a volcano and was getting it mixed up with Atlantis. Sorry. I’m talking rubbish, aren’t I?’

‘Not…necessarily.’ Jack stared at Sheppard for so long, his junior began to shift uncomfortably. ‘Atlantis was on fire from below, you said?’

‘I…yeees. Yes. Yes! That’s it! She was on fire from below. I thought it was from within her, but she had her shields up, and the fires were from below.’

Jack stared in his direction again, but now John could see he wasn’t staring at anything. He was busy running plans and ideas through his mind. ‘We need to go and see Maybourne.’

John stared at him. ‘Harry Maybourne? I thought he was on the run?’

‘He is, but I know where he ends up. And that planet just happens to have a Time-jumper.’

‘We’re going time travelling again?’

‘No. Well, yes, actually, but we’ll also be using it now. In the here and now, that is.’

‘Why? Not that I’m opposed to having a Puddle Jumper to fly.’

Jack pointed a finger at him. ‘You have a plane to fly!’

John pointed a finger back at him. ‘Which I let you fly as well!’

‘Okay. I’ll let you fly the Jumper occasionally.’

‘We split flying it half and half.’

‘Fine!’ Jack scowled at him. ‘But I’m flying it back in time because I’ve done it before.’

‘That, I’ll let you have!’ John relaxed back in his seat, then frowned. ‘When’re we going back to?’

*****

‘…So you’re certain he’s on the planet you gave him the gate address for?’ Hammond asked Jack again.

‘Not one hundred per cent,’ Jack admitted, taking a sip of his whisky. ‘But I’m ninety-nine per cent sure.’

Hammond sighed and swirled around the liquid in his glass. ‘This is three years sooner than it happened last time, Jack. I’m not sure I can put all your lives in the hands of a convicted criminal.’

‘He’s not really a criminal. He’s…Okay, yeah, Maybourne’s a criminal who was on death row. But he’s a kind of…honest criminal?’

‘An honest criminal who was on death row,’ Hammond stated, blunt and to the point. ‘You can see why I have my doubts, Jack.’

‘I do, and I do understand your position. I’ve been in it myself, but John’s dreams all point to us needing the Time-jumper from P7X 492. He’s dreamt of Proclarush Taonis, which is almost entirely volcanos, and he’s also dreamt of us going for the ZPM in Ancient Egypt. Someone or something is sending him these dreams, plus…’

‘Plus?’ Hammond repeated.

Jack sighed and knocked back the rest of his drink. ‘John says he’s got a feeling something bad’s going to happen, and I’ve got the same feeling. Uneasy, apprehensive. Those feelings plus the dreams mean something, sir. You know I’m not one to go along with something based purely on feelings. All too often it just turns out to be wind! This is different.’

Hammond stared at him some more, then nodded. ‘Fair enough. Get the team ready, Jack, you have a go. You’ll gate out to Planet Maybourne first thing in the morning.’

*****

They went through the gate at 08:00, emerging into blue skies and a temperate climate. The trees around the gate were filled with bird song, and colourful flowers bloomed everywhere they looked.

‘This is Maybourne’s prison?’ Daniel asked sceptically as he looked around.

‘It’s one of the planets the Tok’ra suggested he move to,’ Jack answered vaguely, trying to remember if there was a path to the main settlement. ‘I wasn’t initially part of that mission. I only came out after they’d found the Jumper.’

‘Jack!’ John said suddenly in warning, and when Jack listened, he could hear footsteps approaching. Four beautiful young women, each dressed in colourful clothing, and carrying either pitchers or baskets, emerged from the undergrowth, and smiled widely when they saw the five men.

The woman leading the party quickened her pace, then knelt at the foot of the steps to the Stargate, just in front of Jack’s feet.

‘You are Esgeewon, friends of my Lord. In the name of King Arkhan, I greet you.’ She bowed her head low, and the other women followed suit.

‘I—ah—Yes, yes, we are SG-1,’ Jack stammered, glancing back with a mute appeal to the others, who had fallen into place slightly behind him. Thankfully, Daniel stepped forward, level with Jack.

‘King—uh—King Arkhan is expecting us?’ Daniel asked.

‘We have come to help you refresh from your long journey,’ one of the other women said, standing up and holding out squares of fabric, while the other women moved away from the steps and filled bowls from the baskets with water, ready for the team to, presumably, wash away the stains of their travel, then to eat from the plates the women filled with fruit.

The five men exchanged glances, then Jack shrugged and allowed himself to be pulled away from the gate and be ‘refreshed’ by the willing females.

‘No flirting and making them fall in love with you!’ Rodney told John sternly, pointing a finger at him. ‘Keep your Kirking ways to yourself!’

John huffed. ‘What Kirking ways? And I’ve never flirted with anyone except you, and it took you six years to notice!’

‘I’m just saying,’ Rodney retorted and allowed himself to be pulled away and cleansed by a giggling young woman.

It was late morning before they finally arrived at the settlement, and Harry Maybourne was waiting to greet them like old friends.

‘Jack, Teal’c, Daniel, welcome to Paradise,’ he exclaimed, stepping forward to hug Jack and Daniel, although he stopped short of hugging Teal’c and merely nodded to him, a greeting Teal’c returned with the Jaffa eyebrow of doom.

‘So who are your new friends, and where’s Sam?’ he asked, smiling genially at John and Rodney, and leading them all forward to places already set at a large table outside an equally large hall with a dais at the far end with a throne-like chair on it. ‘Come and eat. It’s all prepared for you.’

‘Um, Jack?’ Daniel asked in a low voice. ‘Is there something you forgot to tell us?’

Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. I was so excited at the prospect of getting the Puddle Jumper; I forgot about the prophecies. Except we’re three years earlier than last time.

‘You didn’t tell me why Sam isn’t here,’ Maybourne said once they were all seated and being plied with yet more food.

‘She’s leading a project elsewhere,’ Jack answered with deliberate vagueness. ‘Lt Col John Sheppard and Dr Rodney McKay are SG-1’s new members.’

‘It’s taken two of them to fill Sam’s shoes?’ Maybourne grinned at his own sally.

‘Not at all,’ Jack said hurriedly as Rodney began to scowl. ‘In fact, Rod—Dr McKay has three PhDs to Ca—Sam’s one.’ He swallowed another mouthful of the rather tasty ojun fruit. I wonder if we could trade for more of these? he thought before he noticed Rodney was leaning away from the bowl of ojun fruit, and eying them suspiciously. ‘Hey, d’you know if there’s any citrus in ojun?’

‘Citrus?’ Maybourne repeated. ‘I don’t think so. They’re a kind of cross between guava and mango.’

‘I can’t taste any citrus, Rodney,’ John told his partner. ‘And we’ve all got EpiPens if you do have a reaction. Try one. You’ll love them.’

‘Rodders is allergic to citrus,’ Jack explained. ‘We had an incident recently where he ingested some and almost died. You can understand why he’s hesitant to try one.’

John cut a small piece of ojun and offered it to Rodney, and they all watched as Rodney hesitated, then put it in his mouth. His expression changed from worry to pleasure, and the foot he’d been tapping on the ground stilled.

‘It’s delicious,’ he said once he’d swallowed the small slice, and he made grabby hands at a whole fruit. ‘Can we get some to take back with us?’ he asked, making the others laugh.

‘So, how come you were expecting us?’ Jack asked after his second ojun, and aware he needed to follow the script and get Harry to show them the ruins and the prophecies if he wanted to ‘find’ the Jumper.

‘King Arkhan is a prophet. He foresaw your arrival,’ one of Maybourne’s handmaidens told Jack.

‘You’re a prophet now, Harry?’ Jack asked with amusement.

‘He’s certainly something,’ Daniel muttered just loud enough for Jack to hear, although Maybourne shot him a frown, then his face cleared.

‘Let’s take a walk,’ he suggested, getting to his feet. ‘There’s something you need to see.’

He led them to a clearing in the thick woodlands, and the ruins of an ancient building of the same grey stone as the village they’d come from. Daniel gave a shriek a girl would be ashamed of and ran forward to run his hands over one of the many columns.

‘This writing is Ancient, Jack,’ Daniel called out, and Jack shared a glance with John and Rodney, and moved forward to join Daniel, while Teal’c stepped back and looked around, his staff weapon at the ready.

‘I will stand guard, O’Neill,’ he called out, and turned to face the forest, his back to the ruins.

The rest of SG-1 moved forward to Daniel’s side, although both Jack and John were aware of their surroundings, each of them with their hands on their weapons.

‘What’s the history of them?’ Daniel asked Maybourne, pulling out his small video recorder and filming the area, while Rodney took readings with the sensor he’d built on the same lines as the LSDs they’d found on Atlantis. It didn’t have the same settings or range, but it was an advance on any similar earth-built gadget currently available, and one Patrick was keen to put into production.

‘I’m getting high readings of naquadah,’ Rodney said, turning in a circle with the sensor in his hands. ‘Especially in that direction.’ He pointed to his left, away from Teal’c’s position.

‘The old naquadah mines,’ Maybourne said, nodding. ‘The locals avoid this area because of them. Their recent ancestors, within a generation or two, were enslaved by Ares, but when the mines ran dry a couple of hundred years ago, he withdrew his Jaffa and never returned.’

‘This is fascinating,’ Daniel said, so engrossed in the columns, Jack wasn’t certain he’d heard what Maybourne had just said.

‘If you think this is fascinating, come and look at this,’ Maybourne said, leading the way to another group of columns set slightly apart from the others.

Again, Daniel stepped forward and ran his finger over the writing. ‘It’s a—a history of the planet, exactly what Maybourne just said. ‘Lord Ares came…no. Not came.’ He turned to Jack. ‘Come and read this. You have a better understanding than I do.’

Aware of Maybourne’s curious gaze, Jack moved to Daniel’s side. ‘Lord Ares…will return, but…the warriors…of our…our own…bloodline.’ Jack frowned and turned to look at Maybourne. ‘This hasn’t happened yet, has it.’ It wasn’t a question.

Harry shook his head, his eyes on Jack. ‘No, and the other columns in this group also talk of things that will happen. It also has several mentions of ‘the ones of our bloodline’.’ He tilted his head to the side. ‘I wasn’t sure what the bloodline stuff meant, but I think it’s connected to you.’

‘Me?’ Jack pointed to himself.

‘You, yeah, but it also mentions the leader and the planner.’

‘Huh?’ What the fuck’s he talking about? Is he drunk? Stoned? I don’t remember Carter or Daniel mentioning this.

‘Listen, I’m not crazy, although I did wonder if I was when I first saw these,’ Maybourne admitted. ‘It’s…they’re…’ He sighed. ‘It’s stuff that’s going to happen, predictions.’

‘Okay.’

‘No, it’s real. It talked about ‘the oppressors of old’ returning, so I got everyone into the old mines, and sure enough, we got a visit from some Jaffa who hunted around but didn’t find us.’

‘So then they made you king.’ Jack stared at him, then gave a snort of laughter. ‘You never change, do you, Harry?’

Maybourne shrugged. ‘Why do I have to? These people love me, and in exchange, I take care of them.’

‘By pretending to be a prophet?’ John asked.

‘Hey! I saved them from an earthquake a few months back. A load of the buildings were damaged, but we didn’t get as much as a hangnail between us.’

‘You’re a real gent, Harry,’ Jack sighed. ‘Now. What’s this about me being connected?’

‘I said I think it’s connected to you.’

‘Go on.’

‘Jack.’ Daniel met his eyes, all signs of excitement gone. ‘I hate to say it, but I think he’s right. Look.’ He pointed at a panel on one of the columns. ”On the first moon of the…forty—forty-fifth cycle, the ground will tremble and devastation will be wrought’.’

‘That was the earthquake.’

‘Right, and here: ‘On the sixth moon of the forty-fifth cycle, the…the nautical, naval, maybe? The naval captain of the second bloodline will return with the first and his…planner?” Daniel looked at Maybourne. ‘Is this the bit you meant?’

‘Yeah, but I translated devisor as inventor, and ducis as leader. From Dux, you know,’ Harry told Daniel.

‘You’re kidding me,’ John said, rolling his eyes. ‘Duke? Really?’

‘I think I’m missing something,’ Daniel said, frowning. ‘Are calling Jack a naval captain, Maybourne? And John a duke? So does that make me or Rodney the planner or inventor?’

But Jack was still and silent as he watched and listened to them. This feels…prophetic? And not Maybourne’s pillars’ prophetic. A naval captain is the captain of a ship, and despite what Weir and the IOA might have thought, Sheppard was the leader of Atlantis, her first son. And Rodders was both her planner and inventor, and John’s planner and inventor, even if they didn’t get together until much later.

So what does this mean? Do I have to go to Atlantis to be her Captain? What about Earth? What about Daniel? And if both Sheppard and I are gone, who’ll use the weapons chair at the Outpost?

*****

The five men of SG-1 came through the gate with a mixture of scowls and frowns on their faces, and George’s heart sank. I knew it had been going too well. ‘Medicals and then the briefing room, please, gentlemen.’ He turned away before he got caught up in conversation with them. ‘Walter, break out the good coffee and that last box of chocolate cookies, will you? I think we’ll all need fortifying.’

George went up the staircase to the briefing room, and settled himself at the head of the table, pulling out the latest report from Supervisory Special Agent Gibbs on the information gleaned from the mass of data they’d dumped on him and his team. He smiled in satisfaction as he read there was proof Kinsey had either killed Airman Nick Luxton himself in August the previous year, or had ordered someone else to kill him. Luxton was acting as escort to Kinsey on an off-world visit to Aschen Prime, the homeworld of the Aschen, with whom Kinsey was negotiating a treaty on behalf of Earth.

On his return to Earth, Kinsey reported the Airman had deserted his post and had either disappeared into the Aschen population, or had escaped through the Stargate. No one at the SGC had believed or accepted this explanation, but as it was the word of a sitting Senator against theirs, Kinsey’s report was accepted. This meant Luxton’s young wife, who had recently had a baby, was denied the Survivors Pension benefit she was due, as well as the lump sum gratuity she would have received had he died on active service.

There was absolutely no reason for Kinsey’s lies about Luxton, other than sheer vindictiveness towards a member of the SGC. Somehow Simmons had got hold of a confession from Kinsey that he killed the Airman when he got a little too close to the truth about the Aschen, and, with the aid of the Aschens, had simply disposed of the body. Since Kinsey and Luxton were the only representatives from Earth on Aschen Prime, Kinsey could have passed off Luxton’s death as an accident and no one would have been any the wiser, but that wasn’t Kinsey’s way.

At least Anna and the baby can now get Luxton’s benefits paid to them, George thought to himself, although the Air Force will probably try to get out of it by claiming it would breach confidentiality clauses. I will fight for Luxton, though. I’ll fight for as long as it takes.

He was brought out from his musings by the arrival of SG-1, but it was a sombre SG-1. What on earth happened to them?

‘Take a seat, gentlemen.’ George nodded to the seats around the table as he gathered up the papers he’d been looking at. ‘Now, what went wrong? Why are you all looking so woebegone? Was the…the Time-jumper not there?’

Jack sighed heavily. ‘Nothing went wrong, exactly, and the Time-jumper was exactly where I remembered it being. We took it through the gate to Edora as planned, but…’ He sighed again and looked down at the tabletop.

‘Maybourne showed us some prophecies,’ Daniel tried to explain, but his words only brought a frown to the general’s face as well.

‘Prophecies? What kind of prophecies?’

‘The real kind of prophecy,’ Jack said bitterly, but his words only made George frown.

‘Start at the beginning, please, Dr Jackson. I think I need to hear the whole report…’

Several minutes later, he was staring at Daniel in bewilderment. ‘Let me get this right. You found dozens of prophecies carved into stone columns, some of which have already proved accurate.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Daniel answered, for once keeping his comments and theories to himself.

‘And because some have proved accurate, you believe the ones relating to the future.’

‘No, sir. They’ve all proved accurate to date,’ Daniel explained.

‘And why is this?’

‘It appears that the columns were carved in the last couple of hundred years, since the ruling Goa’uld, Ares, left the planet. We’re pretty certain the prophecies result from an Ancient making use of the Time-jumper and leaving a record of what he saw happening.’

‘I agree with Daniel’s estimates of when the columns were carved,’ Rodney added, holding up a hand. ‘The sensor readings I took match the dates Daniel deduced from the carvings.’

George frowned. ‘I’m sorry, Rodney, I don’t follow. How can science match physical carvings?’

Rodney tapped his lips for a moment as he thought. ‘The ruins themselves are ancient – ancient with a small ‘a’ – and the time traveller, who we think could be Janus, as he made a Time-jumper which he left on Atlantis, simply made new carvings on the old stone. My sensor was able to compare the newly exposed stone in the carvings to the older, un-carved stone, and suggested the weathering on the stone exposed by the carvings was between 200 and 250 years old.’

‘Thank you, Rodney.’ George nodded his head to the scientist. ‘I understand, but I don’t understand why this is a problem.’

The others waited for Jack to speak, but when he continued to stare at the table, John lifted his head.

‘Some of the—ah—the new—no, the future prophecies were pretty specific who they were talking about, and without trying to bore you, we think they referred to Jack, Rodney, and myself, and we…we also think they referred to…to Atlantis.’

George blinked and tried to process John’s explanation. ‘The future prophecies spoke of the three of you in relation to Atlantis?’

‘Yessir.’

‘Okay, I’m going to need that boring detail.’ George rubbed his face with his hands. Am I getting too old for this?

‘There was reference to someone of the second bloodline being the Nauarchus: nominative, singular, meaning ‘the master of a vessel or a ship’,’ Daniel explained. ‘The—’ He broke off as George held up a hand.

‘Not as much detail as that, Dr Jackson.’

‘Fine. Nauarchus, the master of a vessel or a ship; Ducis, leader, or maybe guide; and Deviser, one who plans or invents.’ Daniel sat back, scowling.

George raised his eyebrows and regarded Daniel, who sat up straighter and lost his scowl. He transferred his attention to John again. ‘So you think the ship is Atlantis; the master of her is Colonel O’Neill; Dr McKay is the planner, or inventor; and you are the leader or guide?’ He considered this a little more. ‘Why would Jack be the master and you the leader? Why not the other way round?’

John looked away, unable to meet George’s eyes, making the general frown.

‘Rodney?’ he asked. ‘Dr Jackson? Anyone?’ he asked a little more forcefully.

‘It’s about the ‘bloodlines’,’ Rodney said, making finger quotes. ‘When we were on Atlantis, the city…she always saw John as her favourite son.’

‘I’m still not following.’

‘Nor am I,’ Jack said suddenly, frowning at Rodney. ‘I don’t recall ever hearing or reading that.’

Rodney looked away. ‘You wouldn’t. It was something we kept strictly to ourselves as we were concerned the IOA, or Landry would kick up a stink if they thought John and the city were…getting too close. You remember what they were like, Jack? They needed to be in control of everything while at the same time never accepting responsibility for anything.’

‘That’s true,’ Jack admitted with a sigh.

‘I’m still not following,’ George said, raising his eyebrows and fixing his gaze on Rodney.

‘John’s ATA gene is the strongest we’ve come across, stronger even, than Jack’s, and he also has a…a preternatural skill with Ancient technology. When he used the control chair…Whenever he used the chair, Atlantis would create a report on what he’d done or not done, which was great, but she also referred to him as Primus, the first, and it was always capitalised. She also occasionally called him Filius Primus, first son. It was these references Radek, Miko and I used to delete, and after a while, Atlantis only used those titles in the copies of the reports she sent directly to me.’

‘Why was I never told this?’ John demanded, frowning at Rodney, who sighed.

‘Because you didn’t need to know.’ Rodney rubbed his temples and sighed again. ‘Look, Weir, the IOA, and Landry all made it pretty clear they’d rather not even have you on the city, let alone as Military Commander. We were worried they might use it as a reason to remove you.’

‘Weir didn’t want me there?’ John asked in confusion. ‘She was the one who fought to keep me after the first year. She forced my promotion through to keep me as Military Commander.’

‘No, she didn’t.’ Jack’s face was set, stern, his eyes slightly narrowed. ‘I got that promotion for you. Weir argued against it, and got the IOA on her side, but since most of the Battalion were American, we got to appoint the commander, and I thought you’d done a fantastic job in that first year and deserved to keep your command. Rodders helped by saying he felt safe with you in charge, that you understood the scientists, and that you’d kept them all alive, even going in to bat against Weir on occasion in their support.’

John’s brows were now drawn sharply together. ‘But…Weir told me she’d forced through my promotion, and that I kept my command thanks entirely to her.’

‘Then she lied,’ Rodney said simply. ‘She wanted you under her thumb, and preferably under her. She wanted in your pants, John. She even admitted to Peter Grodin, in the first year, that she’d love to have a baby by you.’

John jumped to his feet, his chair crashing over behind him, and his face pale. ‘What?! What the hell, Rodney? I—’ He turned away from the table and began pacing. ‘She wanted my baby?!’

‘Calm down, son,’ George said soothingly, going over to John and putting an arm around his shoulders. John still had enough about him not to throw it off, and he took several deep breaths before allowing George to manoeuvre him back to his seat, where Rodney gripped his hand.

‘She never got the chance, John.’ He gave a lopsided smile. ‘Didn’t you ever wonder why I spent so much time with you in those early weeks? Miko, Radek and I kept an eye on where you were on the city in relation to her, and if she looked as though she was getting a little close when you were on your own, I used to dash to wherever you were, and once Teyla joined our team and got used to the city, she’d do the same. You were rarely ever alone for long.’

‘I do recall that,’ John admitted, and shivered. ‘Christ! That woman!’

‘She’ll never even get close to the programme,’ Jack promised him, passing him a bottle of water. ‘Miko’s kept tabs on her ever since Rodney read her and Radek in to our time travel.’

‘Thanks.’ John took a long drink, then gave George a half smile. ‘Sorry, sir. I…’

‘No apology necessary, son.’ George looked at the rest of SG-1. ‘Right. Back to our prophecies. It’s pretty clear now that John is the…What did you call him, Rodney?’

‘First son.’

‘Thank you. If John is the first son, and the leader or guide, Jack, you’re the captain and…Dr Jackson, you were talking about the bloodlines?’

‘Yes, sir.’ Daniel nodded. ‘The captain, Jack, is of the second bloodline.’

‘Meaning?’

Daniel shook his head. ‘I don’t know for certain, but I’d guess he’s a descendant of the…the city deputy, maybe?’

George sat back and let his gaze wander over the five men before him – or four men and a Jaffa. Teal’c never said much, but it was clear he was paying attention.

‘Teal’c, what are your thoughts?’ he asked.

Teal’c inclined his head. ‘I, too, believe the words refer to O’Neill, Sheppard, and Rodney, and also Atlantis. There has long been a legend among the Jaffa, of Atlantis, one of the magnificent city-ships of the gate-builders.’

‘One of?’ Rodney demanded, sitting up straight. ‘Why haven’t you mentioned this before?’

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. ‘There was never the occasion to speak of it.’

‘What other Jaffa legends haven’t you mentioned, T-man?’ Jack asked, tilting his head to the side as he surveyed his friend.

‘As many as there are stars in the sky, O’Neill.’

‘Huh.’

Feeling this discussion could easily get out of hand, George cleared his throat. ‘What does your particular legend say, Teal’c?’

‘That while many of the Gate-builders took their main city-ship to a far off galaxy, many also remained, but retreated to their city-ships to evade the great plague which swept the galaxy.’

‘Which fits in with what we know about the Ancients,’ Daniel said. ‘Except the bit about the other city-ships.’

‘We know about one of them,’ Jack said suddenly. ‘Proclarush Taonis. That was why we went for the Time-jumper.’

‘Huh?’ Daniel asked inelegantly.

‘John mentioned a dream he’d had about Atlantis on fire, and a volcano.’ He threw John a half-grimace. ‘Sorry, but it is important. Well, I think his dream was about Proclarush Taonis, which was where the Alterans first landed when they came to this galaxy, and where they either built, or left, a city-ship when the planet became uninhabitable. They left the city with a ZPM to power it, though, and SG-1 went there in the last timeline to get that ZPM, as it still had some charge. We now need to get that ZPM.’

Chapter Twenty-Four

The sense of apprehension Jack and John had each felt earlier in the month was ramping up to urgency.

‘We don’t think we have much time left,’ Jack told George one evening at a meeting they were having at Jack’s house.

‘Time left for what?’ Patrick asked, taking another slice of pizza from one of the open boxes on the coffee table. He’d been briefed on the time-Jumper and the prophecies on Planet Maybourne, but still felt as though he was struggling to catch-up on information.

‘That’s the problem,’ Jack said, sighing in frustration. ‘We’re not sure. It could be one of many things, so we think we have to kick off several projects at once.’

‘That doesn’t sound…good,’ George said with a frown. ‘How many projects are we talking about, Jack, and how much manpower will be involved? Don’t forget we have other objectives to achieve.’

‘Some of them can be done simultaneously,’ Jack said, hoping to appease his CO a little, aware of the targets the Pentagon had set, such as discovering deposits of naquadah to mine, and even the number of Jaffa they expected Teal’c to turn or recruit for the Free Jaffa. Teal’c, for his part, took no notice of such targets. ‘John and I both think the expedition to Atlantis will need to be brought forward from its original departure date of September 2004, two years hence,’ Jack continued. ‘We think the date is more likely to be six months to a year from now.’

‘So, between March and September 2003,’ Patrick said thoughtfully. ‘Is that sufficient time to recruit and outfit an expedition?’

‘It’s more time than we had in the other timeline,’ Jack answered. ‘We found the Lost City tablet in February 2003, but it wasn’t until July the following year that Daniel finally found the gate address to Atlantis, with the Expedition leaving six weeks later, although, to be fair, a lot of the equipment had already been sourced as we know an expedition would be going at some point.’

‘And what do these preparations entail?’ George asked, ‘What didn’t you have last time which you want to take this time?’ He looked at Rodney and John, since they were part of that first wave.

‘We’ve already started our lists,’ Rodney admitted. ‘Of people and resources. Kay Spencer has offered to source all the equipment and food, etcetera, and she’ll also try to find all the people we’ve listed as wanting to take.’

‘Why does she need to find them?’ Patrick asked with a frown. ‘Or aren’t they in the programme yet?’

‘Either not in the programme, or not yet qualified to join us,’ John answered. ‘Several of the Marines I had last time are still doing basic training, or have just completed it and aren’t ready to be admitted to the programme. Likewise, some of the younger scientists Rodney had haven’t yet got the experience he wants them to have.’

‘Either way, Spencer’s going to be the go-to guy for Atlantis,’ Rodney said, flicking screens on his tablet.

‘Aside from Atlantis, I’ve also made a list of planets which need to be visited by a gate team, and what needs to be done there,’ Jack continued. ‘For example, there’s an Ancient Repository of Knowledge on P3X-439 which Anubis will go after at some point, and which we can’t allow him to find. We need to either find a way to move it, or to transfer the information and destroy it.’

Daniel let out a moan. ‘Jack, you can’t go around destroying artefacts like that. The structure it’s in might be just as important. We need—’

‘We need to destroy it, if necessary,’ Jack said firmly. ‘Anubis cannot get his hands on it. It’s that simple.’

Daniel looked away from him, deliberately ignoring him, and Jack sighed.

‘General, this is vitally important. Whichever gate team goes to find it must destroy it if it can’t be moved. Imagine another Goa’uld having the entire knowledge of the Ancients. The Others removed a lot of the knowledge Anubis he got when he ascended, and we know the threat he is with just half of it. The entire galaxy, no! The entire universe would be at risk if a Goa’uld got all the knowledge.’

‘I understand, Jack,’ George answered in a soothing tone. ‘My orders will be very clear despite what Dr Jackson might say.’

‘Thanks, sir.’ Jack gave him a nod. ‘We’ve a list of other things which would cause a lot of problems for the SGC and Earth as well, if they’re found, like a human-Goa’uld clone Anubis has created, or will create, and which is stupidly dangerous. That needs to be destroyed as soon as possible, because there’ll be someone on Earth who’ll think it’s a good idea to study it, and try to replicate it. It was the IOA last time, but you know there are idiots in various positions who’ll think they can control it.’

‘I certainly do,’ George sighed, ‘but why the lists? Why aren’t you planning to take care of it all?’

‘SG-1’s attention must be on Anubis now,’ Jack explained. ‘He’s a massive threat, and we need to ensure we’re able to defend ourselves if he attacks us like he did last time. We know from what Daniel discovered last time that Anubis promised the System Lords he’d destroy Earth in exchange for being allowed back into the fold, so to speak. We’ve foiled his attempts thus far, but there’s no saying how he might respond to all his failures. We need to stay one step ahead of him, more, if we can.’

‘And this urgency you and John have felt?’ Patrick asked. ‘How is that affecting what you do?’

John and Jack exchanged glances, and Jack gave his friend a slight nod.

‘It’s our driving force,’ John admitted. ‘For myself, I wake up each morning feeling closer to whatever’s going to happen, whenever that might be. We’ve covered reams of paper with lists and ideas, and we just have to hope we’ve covered the right ones since we’ve changed so much.’

‘Can’t you…I don’t know. Use the Time-jumper to go ahead in time to see what might be happening?’ Patrick suggested hesitantly, shrugging his shoulders.

‘It’s not possible,’ Rodney said succinctly. ‘Sam Carter posited the time-Jumper had a minimum range of around two hundred years.’

‘And how did she work that out?’

‘From the data logs in the Time-jumper. I haven’t had time to look at them myself, but if Carter determined it, I very much doubt she’s wrong.’

‘What about the Ancient who built the time-Jumper? He could go forward in time.’

‘But since it’s likely he lived several thousand years ago, he was more, much more, than the minimum two hundred. And, no, I’m not prepared to experiment with it.’

‘And thanks, Dad.’ John scowled at his father. ‘You just cost me a hundred bucks!’

Meanwhile, Rodney was grinning. ‘I said you’d ask if we could go forward just a bit,’ he told his father-in-law. ‘John bet me a hundred dollars you wouldn’t.’

‘I’m not sure if I should be complemented or insulted,’ Patrick admitted, grinning at his son-in-law. ‘I’m going with complemented.’

‘And can I suggest we send a team of archeologists and anthropologists to Planet Maybourne to translate all the columns?’ Daniel added quickly.

‘Draw up a plan of mission objectives, Dr Jackson, and I’ll take a look at it,’ George told him, then smiled at Daniel’s disgruntled expression. ‘You know the process to be followed, son,’ he added, then laughed as Daniel huffed, and turned back to Jack. ‘What’s your next step then, Jack?’

‘Take Prometheus and the Time-jumper to Proclarush Taonis,’ Jack answered promptly. ‘The city has a shield over it, but it’ll allow a Jumper though it, and then we can make a proper scan of what’s left of the city, although we’ll still need hazmat suits as the air on the city will be toxic until I can activate the environmental controls.’

‘Then you have a go as soon as we can contact Prometheus,’ Hammond said promptly. ‘How will you get the Time-jumper on board?’

‘John and I will go through the gate to Edora and wait until Prometheus is in the system,’ Jack told him. ‘We’ll then fly the Jumper up to the ship and continue on to Proclarush Taonis where, hopefully, we’ll find a ZPM.’

*****

They found more than just a ZPM.

Miko had worked out the position of the planet by using the syllables of ‘Proclarush’ as the glyphs in a gate address, just as Jack had in the other timeline. She then checked the resulting gate address with the list added to the SGC dialling computer by Jack when he had his first Ancient download in his head.

This gave them the necessary coordinates, and General Hammond dispatched Prometheus, along with Daniel and Rodney – Teal’c was off-world on Free Jaffa business – with orders to go first to Edora to collect Jack, John, and the Jumper. Colonel William Ronson, the commander of Prometheus, estimated it would take two days to reach Edora, so the two friends spent their time on Edora alternately playing with Lairissa, and playing with the little ship.

‘I’ve missed the jumpers most of all, I think,’ John admitted to his friend after they’d combined their activities and taken Lairissa for a tour of Edora’s star system. ‘I was very tempted to steal a Jumper from Atlantis before the IOA stripped and scrapped her, but I knew they would know it was me.’ He was silent for a while, and Jack left him to his memories as he pointed out the other planets to his excited daughter.

It didn’t take long, however, for the twenty-month-old toddler to get bored with sitting on her daddy’s knee, and she tried to climb down. Since there wasn’t anything she could be hurt by, or which she could hurt, Jack let her down and she ran into the rear compartment, squealing with excitement, and threw herself onto a bench.

Roused from his unhappy memories, John smiled as she ran around the Jumper, but when she accidentally touched the time device in the rear compartment, it lit up. Exchanging a glance of alarm with his friend, Jack leapt up and grabbed the baby before she could send them off to some other time period. With her back on his knee, Jack gave John a slight nod and John lifted his hands and deliberately withdrew from the ship’s controls. The Jumper shifted slightly, but when Jack placed Lairissa’s hands on the control panel, it began a series of erratic jumps until Jack lifted the baby’s hands, and John took control again.

‘Holy shit!’ John murmured, eyes wide as he stared between Jack and his daughter. ‘She has the gene, and it’s probably as strong as yours.’

‘Holy fuck in a dust cart!’ Jack cursed at the same time as John, closing his eyes while clasping his daughter to his chest.

‘We can’t tell anyone about this,’ John said suddenly.

‘I know. It’d put a massive target on her back.’

‘And we need to find another place to keep the Jumper,’ John added. ‘We can’t risk her even getting near it, and activating it by mistake. It’s far too dangerous, besides anyone else seeing her do it, not with folk from the SGC in and out.’

‘For fuck’s sake! Why do things like this always happen to us?’

John ignored his friend’s rhetorical question as Jack bent and kissed his daughter’s blond curls, a mix of his own once blond hair and her mother’s curly hair. She smells of baby. How come they all have the same scent, even on different planets?

‘D’you think I should move her?’ Jack asked. ‘To another planet, I mean.’

‘I doubt Laira would go for that, and you can’t take her away from her mother.’

‘No, you’re right,’ he sighed.

They sat in silence for a while, each buried in their own thoughts, and Jack realised Lairissa had gone to sleep in his arms, her head resting on his chest, and he held her close. You mean the world to me, and I’d do anything for you, he promised.

*****

The difference of eighteen months between now, and the date they’d gone to Proclarush Taonis in the other timeline, was significant regarding the decay of the city-ship. SG-1 ringing through the shield set off a chain of deterioration of the structure, which concluded with the collapse of the entire dome.

The time difference, or perhaps the use of a Jumper rather than transportation rings, meant the city remained stable enough for a little exploration before SG-1 returned to Prometheus. Since John had the most experience of flying the small ships, and of using their systems, Jack was forced to agree to him piloting the Jumper, leaving himself to play back-seat driver while John manoeuvred the little ship to a position above the city while Prometheus waited further out from the planet.

‘The shield’s covered by a shell of cooled lava, so I’m going to have to blast a hole big enough for us to pass through,’ John told the others, and waited for Rodney to nod.

‘I agree, and you need to hit the dome…here.’ Rodney, who’d connected his laptop to the systems of the Jumper as soon as he’d claimed the co-pilot seat, sent a diagram of the dome to the HUD display. ‘That’s the optimal point, but it looks like you only have a couple of hundred drones left, so be careful with them.’

‘A couple of hundred?’ Daniel repeated. ‘That sounds a lot.’

‘Not when a burst can have as many as fifty drones in it if John’s mental order to fire is too strong,’ Rodney explained. ‘Ancient technology is all intent based, you see. John’s skilled enough to fire off a single drone – or at least, he used to be. When I once flew a Jumper to get rid of an asteroid field – don’t ask, it’s a long story – I wasted most of my drones by not being able to fire only a few at a time.’

‘It was our first year on Atlantis, though, Rodney.’ John tried to placate him. ‘You got much better with practice.’

‘Which is entirely my point,’ Rodney retorted, but he reached over and patted John’s hand. ‘Just fire the drone, Sheppard.’

It took three drones to clear what John considered a large enough gap to pilot the Jumper through.

‘The shield will collapse as soon as we remove the ZPM powering it,’ Jack told the others. ‘At least, that’s what happened last time.’

‘Which is why I have a small naquadah generator to power the city before we remove the ZPM,’ Rodney answered. ‘Didn’t you notice me bringing it aboard?’

‘I wasn’t paying you that much attention, Rodders.’ Jack’s grin took away any sting in his comment, but Rodney still scowled at him, mostly out of habit.

‘I want to download as much of the information in the city database as possible,’ Rodney informed John. ‘If Teal’c’s right, and this is the first planet the Alterans settled on, I expect the soft scientists’ll be interested in it, and, you never know, there might be some stuff to interest us proper scientists!’

‘I’m not sure if I should kiss you or kick you,’ Daniel muttered to Rodney. ‘Kick, probably.’

By this time, John had passed through the shield, so Rodney ignored Daniel and peered out of the view port. ‘This is not a city-ship,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s only the size of the Antarctic outpost, or maybe the mobile drilling platform on Lantea.’

The surface area of the structure was not the snowflake-shape of Atlantis, but the shape of a bell, or an upturned U, and from above, resembled a bank of engines rather than a habitable construction.

‘If it is like the drilling platform, there should be a Puddle Jumper docking station,’ Rodney told John, peering between the view port and his laptop screen. ‘Over there.’ He pointed to an area of the structure they could see through the view port.

John manoeuvred the Jumper towards the area Rodney indicated, and as he drew close, an automated system took control of the small ship, just as Atlantis did when one of her jumpers approached. Much to their surprise and delight, two other jumpers were in the small docking station, and John and Rodney exchanged glances.

‘If they’ll open for us, we should definitely take them,’ Rodney said in answer to John’s unspoken question.

‘Hell, yes!’ Jack agreed from his seat behind John.

The four men pulled on Hazmat suits before exiting the Jumper, and as soon as John lowered the rear ramp, Jack raced for one of the other jumpers while Rodney pulled out his home-made sensor and poked at it.

‘According to my readings, the air is fine,’ he reported to the others, who exchanged glances and grinned self consciously, each wondering who would be the first to test Rodney’s readings. After a couple of seconds, Rodney huffed and pulled off his own hood, breathing freely.

A little red-faced, the others removed their hoods, and Jack finally got one of the jumpers in the bay to open for him. The little ship lit up as though it had been last used just the previous day, and Jack let out a shout of joy.

‘My own Jumper! My own personal Jumper and Bill Lee isn’t going to even get close to it, let alone take it apart!’

Rodney, meanwhile, had gone directly to the pilot’s position and was searching the whole of the lefthand side, then he too let out a shout of joy. ‘An LSD! Look, John, an LSD! Go check the other one!’ he ordered, waving his hand, but John already had the ramp of the other craft down.

‘Yep! Got one here, too,’ he shouted.

‘Fan-fucking-tastic,’ Jack sighed, and for once he meant it in a positive sense. ‘George is going to be over the moon!’

*****

With the naquadah generator hooked up to the central power system, Jack, John, and Rodney each flew a Jumper back to the waiting Prometheus, much to the surprise of Colonel Ronson.

‘I don’t suppose I can keep one of the gate ships?’ he asked, eying the three jumpers covetously, as SG-1 shared – most of – their findings with him.

Jack stared at him in shock. ‘What? No! You’ll have your own fleet of F-302s soon.’

‘But a gate ship would be very useful in—in reconnoitring a new planet, or—or shifting personnel between locations.’

‘What’s it worth to loan one to you, occasionally?’ Jack asked him calculatingly, his head tilted to one side as he surveyed the colonel.

Ronson narrowed his eyes. ‘I get to use it for ten days a month, and I forget there were three gate ships aboard Prometheus.’

‘They’re puddle jumpers, and five days a month, plus you need someone with the ATA gene, because neither John nor I come as standard!’

‘My XO, Peter Kirkland, has the gene, and how about seven days, and I say nothing about that little scanner Dr McKay’s been waving around.’

‘Done!’ Jack held out his hand, then withdrew it before Ronson could shake it. ‘The SGC allocates your days based on our mission schedule.’

‘The SGC allocates the days based on both our mission schedules,’ Ronson offered, pretty fairly, Jack decided.

‘Agreed.’

*****

The Prometheus left the entire team on Edora this time. Jack, John, and Rodney each flew a Jumper to the planet surface, and Laira produced a meal while they discussed where to hide the three jumpers.

‘We need to keep the Time-jumper well away from the SGC,’ Jack said firmly. ‘Aside from George and a very few others, I don’t trust any of them with it.’

‘That’s a bit harsh,’ Daniel began, but was quickly shouted down by the other members of his team.

‘I agree with Jack,’ Rodney said firmly. ‘Not even Hammond is immune to influence from external forces.’

‘Then where can we stash them?’ Jack asked, frustrated and annoyed at the thought of unreliable associates.

‘What’s wrong with leaving the Time-jumper here?’ Daniel asked, looking puzzled, then he frowned as Jack and John exchanged glances.

‘D’you have that LSD in your backpack, Rodney?’ John asked. ‘Pull it out, will you?’

‘I’m not giving this up either,’ Rodney warned him. ‘They can have the other one, but I’m keeping this, and we only admit to finding one.’

‘Fine, fine, just get it out, will you!’

Frowning slightly at John’s impatience, Rodney passed it to him, and, after commanding it to turn off, John passed it to Larissa, who was seated on Jack’s knee. The baby took it with a squeal of happiness, and the device lit up like a Christmas tree.

‘Oh, fuck!’ Rodney muttered, and that pretty much summed it up

In the end, Jack and Daniel took the Time-jumper through the gate to P3X-797, the Land of Light, and asked Tuplo, the leader of the people there, if they could hide the Jumper in one of the many caves on the dark side of the planet, explaining it was dangerous technology they didn’t want falling into the wrong hands. Tuplo, forever grateful to SG-1 for saving his people, and especially his daughter, was happy to help in such a minor – as he considered it – way.

Technology held little interest for the people of P3X-797, who, while happy to accept medical care from the SGC, required little else from Earth, happily advancing their society at a normal pace rather than be pushed into development by a more advanced society, much like the Edorans.

Since John and Rodney followed in a second craft, Jack could hide the Time-jumper in a series of caves high in the hills of the Land of Dark, and John then flew the four of them back to Edora, where Laira was waiting with Lairissa.

‘So how do we do this?’ John asked Jack as his friend picked up his daughter and threw her high into the air, making her squeal with happiness. ‘Do we keep a Jumper here and just take the one back to the SGC?’

‘Won’t that defeat the purpose of hiding the Time-jumper on a different planet?’ Daniel asked, a little confused at the motives of Jack and John regarding the puddle jumpers.

‘We can lock the jumpers,’ John said, showing him a small gadget much like a TV remote. ‘There’s only a slight chance Lairissa can get into it, but we didn’t want to risk her managing to get into the Time-jumper. None of us knows exactly how it works, and we’ve all bitten in the ass far too many times by Janus’s ‘experiments’ to risk it.’

‘We can hide the one we leave here in the forest, and cover it with branches, much like the way the Time-jumper was hidden on Planet Maybourne,’ Jack suggested, waving his hand towards the heavily wooded hillside. ‘No one’s likely to take Lairissa up there, so it’ll be safe, and the chances of anyone with a stronger gene than John’s finding it are low. Very low. We’ll hide one and then take the other back to the SGC.’

‘And ban the scientists from even touching it,’ Rodney added firmly. ‘I’ll threaten them all, then send Miko round as an enforcer.’

‘You really should stop using her as your muscle, McKay,’ John told him with a sigh.

‘Why? She enjoys it, and I’m all about keeping Miko happy.’

‘Good point.’

*****

Taking the Puddle Jumper back to the SGC caused as much excitement as SG-1 had feared. Both scientists and soldiers crowded around it on the ramp until John gave a piercing whistle, attracting everyone’s attention.

‘Back off, all of you, he ordered, and while the military contingent immediately took a step back, the scientists did not. Some scowled at him, some got even closer to the Jumper, but most of them simply ignored him. John sighed and glanced at Rodney, who simply shrugged, making John narrow his eyes.

‘Any unauthorised personnel still on the ramp by the time I count to three is fired,’ John announced, scowling at the crowd of assorted soldiers and scientists.

The soldiers moved quickly away, as, eventually, did the scientists after a glimpse at John’s face, although there was a fair amount of grumbling.

‘Will we get to study the…What is it called?’ asked one of the engineers.

‘It’s a gate ship, of course,’ another answered. ‘A ship which goes through the gate: Gate ship.’

‘It’s called a Puddle Jumper,’ Jack corrected him. ‘And you’ve just lost all naming rights, permanently,’ he added, blithely ignoring his own hypocrisy. ‘Now, beat it, the lot of you, unless your duty station actually is the embarkation room.’

The room quickly cleared, revealing General Hammond at the foot of the ramp, his arms folded.

‘Now what have you brought back?’ he asked with a sigh of resignation, ‘and how much of a headache is it going to cause me?’

‘We’ve found something which will delight you. You and the powers that be,’ Jack announced breezily. ‘Although you’ll have to warn them they’re not getting their hands on it.’ He lowered his voice until only his team and Hammond could hear him. ‘I’ve already had to agree to let Will Ronson have it for seven days a month to keep his mouth shut, although how we’re going to get it to him is another thing entirely.’

‘That’s not a problem,’ Rodney told him. ‘We get the Jumper out the same way we got the gate in.’

Both Jack and Hammond frowned.

‘How—’ Jack began before Rodney cut him off.

‘Former missile silo, remember? What came in must go out.’ When neither of them responded, Rodney rolled his eyes. ‘For the love of…’ he muttered and pointed up. ‘The ceiling retracts to get stuff in and out, yes?’

‘Yes.’ Jack nodded. ‘There’s a shaft up to the surface and…’

‘By jove, I think he’s got it!’ Rodney snarked to no one in particular. ‘And it’s surely easy enough to get a hole cut through the shaft? On to one of the unused levels?’ His words were met with blank faces. ‘We can make a bay for the Jumper on another level, then it can use the shaft to either get down here or up out of the mountain.’

‘Doh!’ Jack slapped his forehead. ‘It’s how Quinn suggested we get rid of the gate when Anubis…’ He twiddled his fingers. ‘That.’

Hammond stared at him for a moment, then shook his head and turned away. ‘Get Siler onto it,’ he called over his shoulder as he left the gate room. ‘Tell him I give my permission. Not that any of you care much about that,’ he added with a sigh. ‘What do I know? I’m just in charge of the place.’

The members of SG-1 stared at each other.

‘Did we just break the general?’ Jack asked. ‘Damn.’

*****

John clutched at his hair and tried not to pull at it, although with his hair as short as it was, pulling wasn’t actually possible. The lists of equipment and personnel to take to Atlantis were driving him crazy. Far too many of the soldiers he’d had last time weren’t yet experienced sufficiently to take to another galaxy, and he didn’t want another Aiden Ford – so new he still squeaked. I still don’t know what possessed Sumner to take him as his XO. Thankfully, Lorne’s ready to be my XO, even if we can’t get him promoted to Major before we leave. And I think that day is rapidly approaching. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, Jack agreed. Their sense of urgency was again ramping up.

‘But it makes no sense,’ Jack complained to him a week later as they both lay on their backs, staring at the star filled night-sky of Edora. ‘Why are we feeling so compelled to go? I don’t even want to go to Atlantis, not for more than a visit. My place is here, or rather on Earth. My daughter is in this galaxy, and I won’t leave her. I won’t, I can’t, lose another child,’ he added, almost to himself. He felt John’s hand grasp his arm and squeeze it, and thanked any higher being listening – except the fucking Ancients! – for a friend who knew when to keep his mouth shut.

Since Teal’c was still off-world, Daniel had joined his fellow archeologists in examining and deciphering the ruins on Planet Maybourne, and Rodney was busy with Radek checking out the ZPM they’d retrieved from Proclarush Taonis, Jack and John had returned to Edora for a couple of days to play with the Jumper and Lairissa, although their AARs would describe a site visit to the naquadah mines.

‘The pillars did speak about a triumvirate, though,’ John pointed out. ‘And so far, they’ve been pretty accurate.’

They had, something which bothered Jack more than he was willing to admit. ‘I just don’t see any circumstance where I’d willingly leave this galaxy,’ he said at length. ‘Besides, the Antarctic outpost needs either you or I to use the chair if Anubis, or anyone else, attacks Earth.’

‘No, it doesn’t.’ John sat upright. ‘I forgot to tell you. We’ve found someone with a gene strong enough to use it and the training to use it to the best advantage.’

‘Who?’ Jack demanded, still lying prone on the grass. ‘Anyone I might remember?’

‘Laura Cadman? USMC.’

‘Oh, I remember her. Rodders hated her, didn’t he? I can’t remember why.’

‘He didn’t hate her, they just had a…different kind of relationship. Cadman’s consciousness got transferred into Rodney after they both got beamed up by a Wraith dart. Afterwards, when we got them apart, they treated each other more like really close siblings as they had, literally read the other one’s mind, and like most siblings, they argued.’

‘Been there, done that, got the migraine,’ Jack remarked, sighing at the memory. ‘At least ours was between team and we all knew each other pretty well by then.’

‘Well, anyway, she’s apparently got a pretty strong gene, and her MOS is Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist. She’s also an expert in high temperature and energetic materials technology, so she’ll understand how and where to target a drone.’

‘Don’t you want her for Atlantis?’

John lay back down. ‘I’d like her, yes, but there are other EOD specialists while there aren’t that many gene holders with the knowledge to use the drones to their best advantage. Like Rodney told Daniel, it takes skill and experience to know where to fire a single drone to maximum effect.’

‘Can we get her transferred to the SGC?’

‘That’s the only drawback. She’s on TOD to the Secret Service at present, and I’d hate to pull her away from it as it’s a prime posting, and not one you get offered twice. We can ask when it ends, I suppose, but the Marine Corps aren’t likely to let us have her before her time’s up.’

‘Another reason for me to stay on Earth,’ Jack commented, then laughed. ‘I was beginning to think we might have to train up your dad as a standby, in case I’m tied up in something else at the critical moment.’

‘That’s not a bad idea, actually,’ John said, and when Jack turned his head, he could see his friend frowning as he thought about it. ‘His gene isn’t as strong as mine – which Dr Stewart thinks is because my mom also had the gene, meaning I got it from both parents – but Dad’s is certainly strong enough to let him use the control chair and he’s ex-military so understands what he needs to do, even if he hasn’t got any actual experience.’

‘No one has the experience except us two, and none of the PTB knows about that. D’you think Patrick would be willing to give it a go when we finally get the Outpost opened?’

‘I think so, yeah. I mean, who doesn’t want to fire a missile with their mind?’

‘Danny,’ Jack said immediately. ‘He doesn’t really even like firing his sidearm.’

‘But he has learned to.’ John sighed. ‘I wish it wasn’t necessary to arm and train the geeks, but I’m going to make that a rule for the Atlantis mission, and, thankfully, there’s no Elizabeth Weir to argue me down this time, or to persuade the IOA to back her and not me. I can think of half a dozen scientists who’d have lived if they’d known how to defend themselves properly. Bitch!’

‘Not gonna argue with you there, you know.’ Jack sighed, partly at the repercussions of Weir’s stupid decision making, and partly at the thought of the woman herself. ‘I never understood the rationale behind making a diplomat head of what was essentially a scientific mission. Even Danny, who always thinks the best of folk, thought it was stupid.’

‘And dangerous,’ John added. ‘I’m pretty certain I could have got Sumner back alive if she’d let me go when I first asked. I should have just taken a Jumper and gone, but I was trying my best not to fuck up again.’

Since John was beginning to sound a little maudlin, Jack changed the subject. ‘Are your equipment lists progressing? I’ve seen the requisition lists go through, but I’m not sure what you’ve actually got since I haven’t seen any supplies physically come into the mountain.’

‘And you won’t. We’ve hired an aircraft hanger to store everything in, and Prometheus beams everything over once a day, or she does when she’s in our system. I’ve driven a few wagons loaded with equipment to the airfield myself, and Radek’s done the same as he has a commercial driver’s license, as well.’

‘Why do you have a CDL? I kept meaning to ask.’

‘I got the opportunity to learn down at Maxwell, so I took it. I wasn’t sure when I might use it, but I fancied having a back-up career in case I couldn’t get myself transferred to the SGC, or I did something else against orders and got myself kicked out.’

‘It’s a shame you didn’t have a CO like George Hammond. I’d’ve been out on my ass a dozen times if he was as hard as some of your COs have been. Thank the gods your last one had the sense to send you to ACSC instead of throwing you back in the sandbox.’

‘I can’t argue with that. Plus, he’s the one who put me up for my promotion below-the-zone.’

The two friends lay in silence for a while, letting the calm of the planet and the spectacular panorama wash over them. Such occasions were few and far between for any serving officer, let alone one serving at the SGC.

‘Have you given any thought to who might lead the expedition?’ Jack asked, eventually.

‘No. Only that it mustn’t be a civilian with no experience of command, and no knowledge of the sciences practiced on Atlantis,’ John said, sighing yet again at Weir’s inadequacies. ‘She hadn’t a clue what Rodney’s people were doing, and with a less scrupulous CSO than Rodney, the scientists could have got away with murder, quite literally. Plus, because of her lack of knowledge, she made some really stupid decisions the IOA backed her on, like the Michael fiasco.’

‘Agreed,’ Jack muttered. ‘And in the first year, when she let Beckett go off-world to that planet trying to make their people immune to the Wraith.’

‘God, yes! Although Beckett himself had a lot to answer for, including making me turn into a bug.’ Jack felt John shudder at the memory.

‘So, thoughts?’

‘If it wasn’t for his daughter and grand-daughters, General Hammond would be perfect,’ John sighed.

‘Oh, he would,’ Jack agreed. ‘I wonder if he’d consider taking them with you?’

‘No, I wouldn’t want them on the city, not in the first year, at least. It’s far too dangerous.’

‘But it will be better with sufficient power. You’ve got the Taonis ZPM now.’

John rolled onto his side and frowned at Jack. ‘Won’t we need that to get us there?’

‘Crap! I’d forgotten. Yes. Unless Rodders can make something of the Eye of Ra.’

‘Crap fucking squared!’ John scowled. ‘I‘d forgotten about the city flooding.’

‘Huh?’

‘We found old Weir in a stasis pod, remember?’

‘Remind me.’

‘The first expedition’s arrival used up the last of the ZPM and the city began to flood. I, apparently, tried to fly the half a dozen survivors away in a Jumper, but didn’t know the one I chose was one of Janus’ Time-jumpers, and we ended up ten thousand years in the past, just as the last Ancients were evac’ing the city. Long story, but Weir stayed on the city to rotate the ZPMs so there was sufficient power for a fail-safe to raise the city ten thousand years later when the second expedition arrived. If we go to Pegasus before we did last time, it’s likely there’ll be no Weir, and therefore no fail-safe.’

‘Quadruple Crap! I’d forgotten that.’ Jack banged his head against the ground, then stopped. ‘Wait. If you go earlier than last time, won’t there be enough power to give Rodders time to get a power source connected?’

‘A naquadah generator?’ John asked, rolling onto his back again and covering his face with his hands. ‘I doubt it,’ he said indistinctly. ‘Shit and fuck! The fucking mission’s screwed before we even leave fucking Earth!’

From his position next to him, Jack could feel John’s combined anger and misery. He’s right. A naquadah generator takes time to hook up. Time they won’t have. Plus, would it power the shield? Is there any way round this?

Of course there is. There’s a ZPM in Ancient Egypt, and we have a time-travelling Puddle Jumper.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Knowing in advance what could happen in their search for the ZPM, John and Rodney remained in the Jumper and kept it cloaked on the ground in case a sandstorm came, which it did. There’s probably one a day, Jack decided as he followed Teal’c and Daniel into the pilgrim’s camp, just as before.

Everything went like clockwork. Teal’c, Jack, and Daniel got into the temple alongside the other pilgrims; Teal’c disguised himself as a Horus Guard and gained entry to Ra’s treasury, while Jack and Daniel hid themselves and waited for him to return. I wish we had radios to check in with each other, although they’d definitely give us away if we got caught. He touched the locator beacon in his pocket, the means by which John and Rodney could follow their progress on the ground. Should all three of us have had one? No. That would only increase the chance of us being found with them. Or would it? Damn it! My brain’s fried from this constant concentration: I can’t afford to drop my guard for an instant. I wonder how John and Rodders are doing.

They were doing fine. As soon as John spotted the telltale signs of a sky-high wall of pale golden air heading towards them at speed, he took the Jumper way up into the air, aware a sandstorm could reach as high as 20,000 feet in the right conditions. Since he’d flown mostly helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was strangely compelling to see the earth covered by rapidly moving clouds of golden brown instead of the usual grey of cloud cover.

‘I’m still tracking Jack’s location beacon,’ Rodney told him at regular intervals as he followed it on his laptop. ‘It’s stationary at present, which probably means Teal’c’s taking care of his part of the mission. I wish I could follow his movements as well, but we don’t have the subcu transmitters yet, and it was too dangerous to give them all a beacon.’

John smiled to himself at Rodney’s constant flow of information. The HUD showed him the exact position of the locator beacon, something Rodney hadn’t spotted since his attention was on his laptop, and John knew all about the subcutaneous transmitters the SGC and Atlantis would eventually implant in every member of a gate team. Still, Rodney’s babble was familiar, comforting even, and being with him on a mission, in a Jumper again, pacified his own concerns about the operation. He had no desire to live out his life in Ancient Egypt.

The sandstorm over, John landed the still-cloaked Jumper.

‘Why are you parking so close to the temple?’ Rodney demanded. ‘Doesn’t it increase the chances of us being discovered?’

‘Not really. We can always move if anyone gets too close.’

‘Well, what about the others? They think we’re further out in the desert. They might miss us entirely, and then we’d have to go looking for them, and neither you nor I have robes to cover our—’

‘Whoa, slow down, Rodney. Breath!’ John ordered. ‘I told Jack I’d get as close to the temple as I could in case they have to make a run for it. And Jack’ll have no trouble finding us. He can sense Ancient tech as well as I can.’

‘Not quite as well as you,’ Rodney said, more composed after John’s explanation, and the familiarity of John calming his excitability. ‘You have a greater aptitude than Jack, and have had right from the start. The one time I got Jack to sit in the Outpost control chair, I asked him to show me our solar system, and he couldn’t do it.’

John gave him a dopey smile at this memory of their first meeting. ‘I wanted to drag you into a supply closet as soon as I set eyes on you,’ he admitted. ‘Well, as soon as I set eyes on your ass!’

Rodney aimed a punch at his shoulder, and the resulting scuffle quickly turned into a make-out session until they were interrupted by a rapid bleeping. Jack, Daniel, and Teal’c were standing a few feet away from the front of the Jumper, looking around in confusion, not even Jack looking directly at the Jumper.

‘I know it’s close,’ Jack was saying as John activated the external acoustic sensors and lowered the ramp.

Rodney, after checking there was no one around to see him appear from nowhere, jogged around to the front of the Jumper. ‘This way, idiots!’ he called to them, and jogged back to the rear.

The others followed him, but weren’t fast enough to see him disappear into the craft. Jack walked into the side of the Jumper, while Daniel got himself turned around and he walked away from them. Only Teal’c accurately located the lowered ramp, and Jack caught hold of Daniel’s robes and dragged him to the spot where he’d seen his friend disappear.

‘So much for Jack’s ability to sense Ancient tech,’ Rodney muttered to John sotto voce. ‘Did you get the ZPM?’ he asked in his usual tone.

‘D’you think we’d dare come back if we didn’t?’ Daniel asked as he stripped off his robes. ‘Phew! They were hot on top of my normal clothes and tac-vest!’

Teal’c solemnly removed a reddish crystal from his robes and handed it to Rodney, who was making grabby hands towards it. He took it carefully from Teal’c’s hands and stroked it gently.

‘This is the difference between life and death for us on Atlantis,’ he said reverently, and none of the others could argue with his statement.

It was a perfect, flawless mission, but right up until the very last moment, the entire team expected something to go wrong.

‘It just feels too good to be true,’ Daniel said, as Rodney fiddled with the time-device, then ordered John to think about the date they’d left, putting into words the feelings of every one of them. ‘Nothing ever goes this smoothly.’ He turned to look at Jack as his partner groaned and found the others glaring at him. What?’

‘You couldn’t wait just half an hour until we’re in the present and back home?’ Jack demanded. ‘You’ve jinxed us good and proper, Danny-boy.’

As two of his three other teammates were also scowling at him – John over his shoulder – while the third raised a single eyebrow, Daniel huffed and folded his arms. ‘Rude. I simply said what we were all thinking.’

‘And you should know better after all this time,’ Jack scolded, but it was half-hearted at best. Danny was right. No mission ever goes this smoothly.

But it apparently did.

The Jumper flashed into existence in Earth’s atmosphere, sixty plus miles above the surface of the planet, and the sudden appearance of a multitude of points on the HUD, each one marking the presence of a satellite, bore witness to their return to the time period they’d left mere hours before, although night was falling in the northern hemisphere. John took them up into space, then down again to Cheyenne Mountain, making a second side to the triangle formed between three points: Egypt, space, and Colorado. They were home, in all senses of the word.

‘See?’ Daniel said as John lowered the Jumper down the former launch shaft and into its new station on Level 17, a previously undeveloped space. ‘A perfect mission, and you have to admit, we were due one.’

‘Perhaps,’ Jack allowed, yet he recognised the tightness of his chest. ‘But my sixth sense is warning me something huge is about to happen.’

‘I agree,’ John said as he withdrew both physically and mentally from the jumper’s controls. ‘I feel a little like Schrödinger’s cat. This huge bad thing Jack and I are expecting hasn’t happened until I lower the ramp. Or have I messed up the analogy?’

‘No, you haven’t.’ Rodney shook his head. ‘Besides, we all know what you mean. I’m feeling apprehensive myself.’

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes until Siler appeared in the view port. He was constructing a servicing and testing area on Level 17, where he could keep all his tools and apparatuses locked away, and to where all the powered machines and gadgets in the mountain could be brought when they needed fixing, rather than him having to lump his equipment around the mountain, losing bits of it when people ‘borrowed’, even though they’d promise it was just for a minute. With General Hammond’s full support, Siler had banned most people from even entering his ‘workshop’ except Radek, and, rather grudgingly, Rodney.

Right now, he was frowning at them, and gesturing to John to lower the ramp. ‘The general wants you.’

‘”Once more unto the breach, dear friends,”‘ Jack quoted as he got to his feet and pushed Daniel into the rear compartment.

‘”Or close the wall up with our English dead!”‘ Daniel finished. ‘Our American dead? Or maybe our SGC dead.’

‘I think we’re about to find out,’ Jack sighed as he pressed the switch in the rear compartment to lower the ramp.

General Hammond was waiting for them by the elevator on Level 17, his countenance grave.

‘Gear up for an off-world night op with night-vision and laser sights,’ he ordered. ‘You’re going straight through the gate.’ He paused for a moment, his gaze fixed on Jack. ‘We’ve had an emergency call about Edora. They’ve been attacked by unknown assailants.’

Jack felt himself sway, but Daniel on one side, and Teal’c on his other, each gripped an arm to steady him. ‘How—how long?’ he croaked, his voice almost giving up.

‘Half an hour since the message. SG-3, 4 and 17 have already gone through and are holding the gate. There’s only’ he glanced at his watch, ‘ten minutes or so left before we have to redial. Go get yourselves ready. SG-11 is prepping to go through with you. Major Fraiser is standing by to go through as soon as you give her the all-clear.’

Jack nodded and took a deep breath as he carefully withdrew his arms from Teal’c and Daniel’s grasp. ‘Let’s go!’

*****

They stepped through the gate into a battleground. The village was engulfed in fire; the flames reaching high into the night sky, and the timbers of the houses creaked and cracked as they collapsed. From all around, they could hear shouts of anger, screams of panic and terror, and the cries of the injured. Over it all, unnatural in this usual peaceful community, was the intermittent sound of gunfire.

For a moment the team froze, then, as SG-11 followed them through the wormhole, they were forced to step aside, and were suddenly engulfed in the chaos.

‘Over here, Colonel,’ the leader of SG-4, Major Boulton called from where he was busy dispatching the teams. ‘Major Peterson is tracking the unfriendlies, but we know several got through the gate.’

‘Hold the gate, Boulton,’ Jack ordered. ‘Dr Fraiser’s ready to come through on our word. Teal’c, John, with me. Daniel, Rodney, help where you can.’

He pulled down his NVDs and moved off, turning his head from side to side as he walked, and his gun already in firing position. Teal’c and John followed immediately behind, but John spared Rodney a nod of his head.

‘What are we supposed to do?’ Daniel demanded, but Rodney tugged him away from Boulton, who was watching with interest, even as he continued to despatch the other personnel.

‘We go with them, of course,’ Rodney hissed. ‘Can you use NVDs?’

Daniel gave him a scornful look and pulled his own NVDs down from his helmet while Rodney tugged out his recently acquired LSD from his tac-vest.

‘C’mon. We can follow them,’ he told Daniel as they jogged after Jack, Teal’c, and John. ‘I’ve already programmed this to show the ATA gene and naquadah, although Teal’c’s junior also shows up as well.’

‘Jack told us to help, not go with them.’

‘But John knows we’re on their six. Go back if you want, Daniel, but I’m backing up my partner.’ He glanced at his teammate, who remained at his side, jogging through the darkness, illuminated occasionally by burning houses. ‘Keep your weapon up. I can only use my pistol with this,’ and Rodney jerked his head down to the LSD despite Daniel not being able to see him.

The sudden distinctive sound of a staff weapon firing came from their left.

‘This way,’ Daniel said, turning abruptly, making Rodney stumble as he tried to change the direction of his step, and he dropped the LSD.

‘Shit!’ He felt around on the ground as the device had switched off the moment he let it go. ‘Where is the fucking thing? I can’t fucking see a fucking inch in front of me!’ he muttered to himself, then his hand came into contact with something which lit up. ‘Thank Christ!’ But as he got to his feet, he realised he was alone. ‘Fucking soft scientists! What happened to never leave a man behind?’ he chuntered to himself. ‘I can’t look at this and point a gun. Bastard’s going to get me killed, fucking soft scientist!’

Rodney came to an abrupt halt, almost stumbling again, as he saw two close points on his screen just ahead of him around the corner of a building, then he heard low voices. Low American voices.

‘—sign of her or the mother,’ villain number one.

‘The mother’s supposed to be the village leader.’ Two unfriendlies, then.

‘Leader of a fucking Stone Age village! What’s she look like?’ Idiot one.

‘How the fuck should I know? It’s black as fucking pitch! Can’t even see your face!’ Idiot two.

‘We can’t stay here. We need to get back to the gate.’ Idiot one again.

‘What about the kid?’ What kid?

‘Fuck the kid! Get to the gate!’

‘What’s the point? It’s bound to be guarded. Jakes said SG1 was on a mission. How the fuck did they get here?’ Who’s Jakes?

‘Smethers was supposed to be holding the gate.’ Smethers?

‘Fuck the gate! We’d be better off in the forest. Wait till they’ve all gone back.’

Maybe not an entire idiot, Rodney thought to himself, and he shifted position to see which direction they’d go in. He took a step to his right, but his foot caught the edge of something round. He slipped, his ankle turning. He felt himself falling, and couldn’t help the ‘ouff!’ which escaped as he landed.

‘What was that?’ idiot one demanded.

‘Over there,’ idiot two answered, and Rodney heard their footsteps come closer.

His ankle was throbbing, but he managed to turn himself. He dragged himself over to the wall, leaning back against it, and brought up his pistol. Me or them, me or them, he chanted under his breath, and waited until the first one came around the corner. Me or them, me or them.

The shape of a man appeared, blacker against the black of the night. Rodney saw him raise his gun. Me or him, me or him. Rodney aimed his pistol and fired, one, two, and rolled away, changing position before the other could get a shot off.

The black shape hit the ground. He heard the other man mutter ‘Jesus Christ!’, then receding footsteps. Definitely from Earth.

More shots from a P90 sounded around him; more screaming, the surrounding commotion getting louder, closer, deafening.

‘—odney! Rodney! McKay! Where the fuck—’

‘Here! Here, John! I’m here!’ Using the wall to lean against, Rodney scrambled to his feet, but his ankle wouldn’t straighten. Fuck! ‘Over here, John. Help! My ankle!’

The light from a P90 swept over the wall, picking him out, and a beloved figure started towards him, then tripped.

‘Careful! There’s a man. A body. A dead body. I killed—I shot—’ Rodney knew he was babbling, couldn’t stop himself, but just a moment later John was there. John was holding him. John was patting him.

‘Daniel said you were with him, but you weren’t. I couldn’t find you.’ John was babbling now, and Rodney leaned against him, thankfully.

‘I’ve hurt my ankle. Twisted it. I slipped and twisted my ankle and there were two idiots, but I shot one. I might have killed him.’ Rodney’s jabbering came to an abrupt halt. ‘I think I killed him.’

A clutch of P90 wielding shapes appeared, their lights illuminating the area, illuminating the body on the ground dressed in battle-fatigues, not the black of the SGC. Thank God! Someone pushed him over onto his back. The bullet hole was in the centre of his forehead. A perfect head-shot.

One shape whistled, and a voice said, ‘Great shot. Was it you, sir?’ It was Lorne.

‘No, Dr McKay,’ John answered. ‘Good shot, right?’

‘Brilliant shot, especially in the dark. Well done, Doc,’ Lorne said, and Rodney could picture his grin, making him suddenly homesick for Atlantis.

‘Thanks,’ he muttered gruffly, not sure quite what else to say. Luckily, John helped him out.

‘Go help with the clear up, now, you lot. Doc Fraiser’s here with the medical team for any injuries. Go!’ he ordered, and the group broke up into pairs. ‘Can you walk?’ John asked Rodney, gripping his arm.

‘It’s just a twist,’ Rodney answered, and tried to put his weight on the injured ankle, which immediately gave way, and he would have fallen were it not for John. ‘Argh! Maybe a sprain,’ he got out through gritted teeth.

John pushed him back against the wall and knelt down, shining the light of his P90 at Rodney’s foot. He touched the ankle lightly, and Rodney bit back a cry.

‘Maybe a bad sprain?’

‘More like a break,’ John sighed. ‘The whole ankle’s at an odd angle. Shit! I daren’t wrap it. Sorry.’ He glanced around, then got to his feet. ‘Think you can hop if I hold you up?’

Rodney considered how much John’s gentle touch had hurt compared to hopping over uneven ground. ‘Sure,’ he answered, all the while thinking, nope!

John pulled a ChemLight from his tac-vest and dropped it on the corpse, then slid his arm under Rodney’s armpit, and wrapped it around his shoulders, gripping him tightly.

‘Put your arm around me and hold on,’ he instructed. ‘We don’t have Ronon, unfortunately, but yell if it gets too much.’

Determined not to make a sound, Rodney held on, but it was going to be a torturous journey back to the gate. Teal’c found them after a couple of minutes, and he got Rodney’s other shoulder over his own, and the two men carried Rodney back to the gate, their way made clearer by the night sky turning into dawn.

There was a haphazard pile of bodies near the Stargate, and a line of covered bodies in a respectful line with adults and children crying over them, touching, and laying home spun rugs and blankets over them, along with the odd black of an SGC body bag. We use way too many of them.

‘Rodney!’ Daniel came hurrying over. ‘Are you alright? I lost you! What happened to you? One minute you—’

‘Whoa, Daniel!’ John held up his hand. ‘I think he’s broken his ankle, but he did get one of the unfriendlies.’

‘The other might’ve gone to the forest,’ Rodney told him, suddenly remembering the overheard conversation. ‘He also mentioned some names—’

‘Hold on until we’ve got you sorted. A couple of the teams are sweeping the forest. They’ll find anyone in there.’

This was a blatant untruth, but Rodney didn’t challenge John about it. He’d save it for later. His ankle was now aching, burning, and he needed to get it elevated. He remembered that much from the ‘first aid’ courses he’d been forced to attend. Fucking voodoo.

Daniel glanced back at the row of bodies, and with a shock, Rodney recognised a bent head of greying hair.

‘Is that…’ he began, unable to finish his sentence.

‘Laira’s dead.’

Rodney’s knees gave way, and had he not been supported by John and Teal’c, he’d have fallen. Don’t be a fucking idiot, he told himself. Jack needs their help, not you. ‘Go,’ he instructed John and Teal’c. ‘I can manage.’

John helped him to a seat, and propped the bad ankle on a box, squeezed his shoulder, and left him staring at the line of Edoran dead. They were looking for Lairissa, I’m certain. They mentioned the village leader, and I’m positive that’s Laira. Why do they want Lairissa? She’s just a baby. Why would—Oh. She has Jack’s gene.

*****

The sun rose on the smoking ruins of the village. Houses which only a few days ago had held smiling adults and laughing children were now a mass of blackened and smouldering timbers. A few people were making desultory efforts to rescue belongings from the wreckage, but the destruction was almost complete.

A small group of people emerged from the forest, and Rodney scanned them for anyone he knew, but there was no sign of Garan, Laira’s son, or his wife, Naytha, nor of Lairissa. Laira herself lay just a few feet away with the other members of SG-1 gathered around her. What a fucking stupid waste. And for what? A toddler with a gene she couldn’t yet control?

A man Rodney recognised come towards him, his fists clenched, and his chin jutted out.

‘You did this! You brought those people upon us!’

The worst of it was, Rodney couldn’t argue with the facts. We brought those people upon the Edorans. This didn’t happen last time, as Jack never knew about his daughter, so it must be our fault.

‘Year after year the fire rain comes, goes and harms no one,’ the man continued, now speaking to the other Edorans gathering around him.

Paynan, Haynan, Thaynan. What the fuck is his name?

‘Then the fire rain came and almost destroyed our village. Because of them! They took our people away through the ring. Many never returned!’

Varnan, Ardnan, Haynan. Already said that one. Darnan, Carnan.

‘Now they have brought death and destruction down upon us. Our village is destroyed, our people are dead.’

Farnan, Fernan, Lernan. Lernan, no! Linnan! That’s it. Linnan.

‘But some of us still live, Linnan,’ another man said. ‘And we can rebuild.’

‘Rebuild with what?! Everything is destroyed. We don’t have a single roof to shield our heads, nor food to nourish us.’

‘But we will help you. We will do everything we can to help you.’ Daniel. Thank Thor for Daniel Jackson.

‘Why would you help us when you are the cause of this?’ Linnan demanded, gesturing to the surrounding ruins. ‘And how can so few of us rebuild our homes? Even our children are gone.’

Rodney frowned and looked around. It was true. The only people he could see were adults, yet there had been any number of children the last time SG-1 paid a visit. Including a blond toddler with a curly mop of hair, who was nowhere to be seen. Did they get her?

‘Our children are safe,’ a third man said. ‘Garan took as many as he could through the stone ring to a place Laira had told him of, where they would protect our children.’

Earth? No, we’d have been told. Where did he take them?

Rodney felt a hand on his shoulder and he gave a start. John looked down at him.

‘Okay?’

‘Not in the least, but I…Come down here, idiot! I can’t shout at you.’

John knelt at his side. ‘What is it?’

‘Those two men I ran into. They were definitely American, and were talking about there being no sign of her or her mother, the village leader. They were looking for Lairissa, John.’

‘Dammit! Anything else?

‘Yes. They mentioned two names. Smethers, who was supposed to be guarding the gate, and someone called Jakes, or maybe Jake. It wasn’t clear, but he was the one who’d said we were off-world.’

John frowned. ‘Said who was off-world?’

‘Us! SG-1. Idiot One said Jakes had said SG-1 was on a mission.’ Thankfully, John knew enough about his partner not to ask who ‘Idiot One’ was. Rodney’s misnaming was legendary on Atlantis, and some Marines had proudly worn their moniker of ‘Science Grunt Four’. McKay knew who he was, just not who he was.

‘Anything else?’

‘Yes. That Edoran talking to Daniel, or yelling at Daniel, Linnan, I think. He said that Garan took most of the children off-world.’

‘Garan did?’

‘Will you stop repeating everything I say?! Garan, Lai—Laira’s son took most of the children ‘through the stone ring’.’

‘Where through the stone ring?’

‘If I knew that, I’d be telling you!’

‘Rodney! Not again!’ Janet Fraiser was standing in front of him, dark shadows under her eyes, and with a shock, Rodney realised it must be close to midday.

‘Now, what have you done?’

‘I think his ankle is broken,’ John told her, standing up, although that made him tower over her. ‘It’s certainly dislocated.’

Fraiser gave the ankle in question a quick glance. ‘Definitely broken. Can you walk, Rodney, or do you need a stretcher?’

‘I can hobble, with help.’

‘I can carry you,’ John offered, but Fraiser was already calling for a corpsman, and between the corpsman and John, they got Rodney safely through the gate.

A pair of scrubs, and an IV port later, and Rodney was safely away in dreamland.

*****

With Rodney tucked up safely in the Infirmary, John went back through the gate to Edora on the next dial-in, and quickly sought the rest of his team.

They’d got Jack away from Laira’s body and into Rodney’s former seat. Now Teal’c and Daniel, on either side of him, were trying to persuade him to eat an MRE, and drink a mug of something John suspected might be the industrial strength black coffee on which the Marine Corps appeared to thrive. Daniel looked up from his own mug as John settled down on the box which had recently supported Rodney’s broken ankle.

‘Is he okay?’

‘Broken ankle. He’ll be fine. They’re operating to pin it shortly.’

The other three nodded, and after a quick glance around, John bent his head closer to his teammates.

‘Listen, Rodney overheard two of the unfriendlies talking before he shot one of them.’

‘Rodney shot one?’ Daniel demanded. ‘How? Why?’

John frowned. ‘With his pistol, and because they were about to shoot him. He’s a very good shot.’

‘Yeah, sorry, sorry.’ Daniel grimaced. ‘I know he’s a good shot. I don’t know…Go on. He overheard…’

‘Two names: Smethers and Jake, or possibly Jakes. One of them, Jake, I think, had said SG-1 was away on a mission. That’s why they chose the time they did.’

‘And the other?’ Jack asked, his interest sparking a little.

‘Smethers was supposed to hold the gate. Presumably to stop anyone dialling out, except the Edorans don’t use the gate.’ John watched his friend for a moment. ‘Jack, Rodney also heard them mention a ‘her’ and ‘her mother the village leader’, which can only mean Laira. Rodney thinks they were after Lairissa.’

‘Who we are unable to find,’ Teal’c added. ‘Most of the children are missing, but some may have taken refuge in the caves.’

‘No.’ John shook his head. ‘Rodney also overheard Linnan say Garan took most of the children through the gate.’

‘Garan?’ Jack looked up. ‘Where to?’

‘That’s the problem. No one knows. And he won’t dare bring them back if he suspects those men are still here.’

‘Hold on.’ Daniel held up a hand. ‘If Smethers was supposed to be holding the gate, who called the SGC for help? They must have had a GDO or General Hammond wouldn’t have believed them.’

For a moment, John’s mind went back to Atlantis and the Genii invasion. But this is the reverse. Someone really did need help. ‘What did Hammond actually say when he first told us? It wasn’t ‘Edora called for help’, I’m certain.’ He sighed. ‘Just when we could do with Rodney…’

‘He said a call about Edora,’ Daniel said suddenly. ‘It was definitely ‘about’ because I noted the odd use of the word, but then everything went to hell. The call probably didn’t come from here.’

‘But would Garan have had the time to grab the GDO if the village was already under attack?’ John asked. ‘From my experience, it’s a mass of running and shouting people, and absolute chaos, although at least they didn’t have the Wraith firing on them from space.’

‘And if Smethers was holding the gate, he needed to be overpowered,’ Teal’c added. ‘A man with a group of children could not do that alone.’

‘That’s true,’ John said. ‘So who went with him? Who else is missing?’

Before any of the team could try to answer his question, Paynan, Jack’s old drinking buddy, joined them.

‘I offer you my sympathy, Jack,’ he said. ‘I know Laira was your woman.’

Jack stared at him for a moment, then gave an abrupt nod of his head.

‘Garan took our children through the stone ring. Can you tell us where they are, though there is little to bring them back to?’

‘I’m sorry, Paynan, but we don’t know—’ Daniel began before Jack suddenly looked up.

‘I know. And I also know where you can all safely shelter while you rebuild the village, because you’re right. You can’t stay here.’

Paynan’s face went blank. ‘We do not wish to join your people. They are the ones who attacked us without reason. Your allies may be no better.’

‘Gairwyn leads a village much like this one, and you’ll be safe with her and her people, I promise you.’

‘And our children?’ Paynan asked again.

‘I think Garan’s taken them to another ally: the Nox.’

*****

While Teal’c remained on Edora, arguing he was of more use there, the three remaining members of SG-1 went through the gate to the Nox homeworld, Gaia, in search of the missing Edorans. Opher, the eldest Nox the SGC had met, was waiting for them on the other side of the gate.

‘Welcome,’ he said, bowing his head. ‘Yet my news will be unwelcome.’

‘What’s happened?’ Daniel demanded as Jack sat down abruptly. ‘Where are the Edoran children? Did they come through the gate?’

‘Eight Edoran adults came through, but only seven lived.’ Opher tilted his head to the side. ‘I am sorry, Jack O’Neill. I was unable to heal Naytha, wife of Garan. They fired their weapons on her as she stepped through the Stargate,’ Orphan explained, and his usually bushy green hair became flat and lank.

‘But you can bring people back from being dead,’ Jack blurted out. ‘You brought me, brought the entire team back. Why couldn’t you bring Naytha back? She was carrying Laira’s grandchild.’ His voice broke on her name.

‘I see your love for her,’ Opher said quietly. ‘And your love and compassion will be rewarded, but not here.’

‘Not here?’ Jack gazed at Opher blankly and got to his feet with Daniel’s arm still around his shoulders. ‘Where are they?’

‘On Cimmeria, just as you wished.’

The four teammates exchanged wide-eyed glances.

‘How did you know that?’ Jack whispered.

‘We are the Nox,’ Opher answered, just as though that explained everything. Which maybe it does, Jack thought.

‘And the children are all safe?’ Jack demanded.

Opher’s features softened as he smiled. ‘Gairwyn welcomed the children just as she will the remaining Edorans.’

‘Did…did my…’ Jack began, unable to finish his question.

‘Your daughter went to Cimmeria with her brother,’ Opher said gently. ‘But she is not safe there.’

The four men stared at him in shock.

‘Then it was Lairissa they were searching for?’ Daniel asked, with a quick glance at Jack, who had his head in his hands. ‘Do—Do you know how…?’

Opher turned his head away from them and gazed at the forest. ‘That is hidden from us, but the child will not be safe on Cimmeria,’ he repeated. ‘You know where you must take her.’

*****

The three members of SG-1 gated directly back to the SGC, with very little discussion. They were all busy with their own thoughts, although John suspected they were all thinking about the same thing. A sombre George Hammond was waiting for them, and he led the way to the briefing room, not even sending them off to the Infirmary for a post-mission medical.

Do we know who the attackers were and why they were there? What they wanted?’ Hammond asked, getting directly to the point.

‘They wanted Lairissa, we think,’ John answered when it was clear Jack wasn’t going to, wasn’t able to speak. ‘Rodney overheard some bits of a conversation, a couple of names, but they were definitely looking for Laira’s daughter.’ He glanced quickly at Jack, not even certain he was following what was being said.

‘They—They killed Laira,’ John continued in a low voice. ‘And Naytha, her daughter-in-law. Garan led the children and some of the adults though to the Nox – Jack had apparently given Laira the gate address in case there was ever a problem.’ He cleared his throat and glanced again at Jack, who was still staring into space. ‘Unfortunately, Naytha was the last one through. She was hit, and the Nox couldn’t heal her, or save the baby as she was—was pregnant.’

‘Jesus fucking Christ!’ Hammond muttered, and John and Daniel stared at each other, open-mouthed. General Hammond never swears! ‘Right. Where are all the children now?’

‘On Cimmeria,’ Daniel answered. ‘It was odd. Teal’c had suggested we ask either Cimmeria or the Land of Light to take the survivors, as the Edorans aren’t interested in being a technological society, and Opher appeared to know this, although we didn’t mention it.’

‘Something else was odd, as well,’ John began, but was interrupted by the sound of an alarm, and the automated voice declaring an ‘Unscheduled gate activation’. Three of the four men exchanged glances, but Jack didn’t stir.

John and Daniel both ran down the spiral staircase to the Ops room, while the general followed briskly, but more carefully.

‘It’s Laira’s IDC,’ Walter said in a low voice, trying to see if General Hammond was behind Daniel, ‘but it’s coming from Cimmeria.’

‘Open the iris,’ Hammond ordered, and less than a minute later, Garan emerged from the event horizon, clutching a sleeping toddler against his chest.

Daniel gave an undignified squawk and ran down the staircase which led indirectly to the Embarkation room, and was at the bottom of the ramp in time to meet Garan. John, meanwhile, ran back up to the briefing room to fetch Jack, while Hammond simply watched, until the general came to his senses and ordered Daniel to escort Garan up to the briefing room, where, unceremoniously, he handed his baby sister over to Jack.

‘You are the reason my wife and mother are dead,’ Garan told Jack, shocking everyone in the room into silence. ‘I was glad when my mother found happiness, but first you left her, then you ignored the child she bore you, and now you have brought death and destruction down upon us all. Take your child, and tell your allies and your enemies alike that she is no longer on Edora.’

Without even waiting for Jack to answer him, Garan turned on his heel and retraced his steps, the two SFs who were escorting him running to catch up, while General Hammond grabbed the phone to give instructions to Walter. A few moments later, they all watched as the gate dialled, and Garan left without a backwards glance.

*****

Epilogue

Two Months Later

Four men leaned on the balustrade overlooking the sea and watched the sunset, and the planet’s two moons rose, one much bigger, or much closer, than the other.

‘I can’t quite believe I’m standing in the city of the gatebuilders,’ Daniel said with a small laugh. ‘I was convinced Jack wouldn’t let me come on the expedition.’

‘I didn’t,’ Jack admitted. ‘Last time, that is. And now all four of us are here.’

‘Five of us,’ Daniel corrected. ‘We have our daughter with us, don’t forget.’ The pride in his voice was unmistakable.

‘You decided, then?’ John asked with a sideways look at Jack. ‘Daniel’s down as her other father?’

Jack nodded. ‘It seemed like the best choice to make. Your father pushed through the paperwork for us, thankfully. We were both afraid of having to answer too many questions.’

‘To be fair, it is the first time we’ve had to register an off-world birth,’ Daniel pointed out.

‘And I hope it’s the last. Until the programme is declassified, at least.’

‘You think that’s coming?’ Rodney, now free from both plaster and crutches, asked Jack.

‘I think it isn’t too far off. I also think it’s how George and Patrick sold Patrick’s appointment to the President and the Chiefs of Staff. The post of Homeworld wasn’t created until after Anubis’ attack in 2004 last time, but it makes sense to have it now, with the Atlantis mission happening so much earlier. It also lightens George’s role, taking Area 51 off his plate and giving it to Patrick.’

‘I was surprised General Hammond didn’t take it,’ John said. ‘I thought he’d want to be closer to his daughter. And I really didn’t see Dad taking it on. That was entirely out of left field.’

‘Although it actually makes much more sense than last time,’ Rodney said, turning around to view the city with a little sigh of pleasure, and leaning back against the balustrade. ‘Your service heads have to be civilians, don’t they? For at least for the last five years? Then it makes sense that the Director of Homeworld Security is a civilian too.’

Daniel frowned. ‘But it’s not comparable with the Armed Services. If it’s comparable with anything, it’s Homeland Security.’

‘Don’t start arguing, you two,’ John sighed. ‘This is our first night back on Atlantis. Let’s try to enjoy it. Jack, Daniel, congratulations on becoming proud fathers. Jack, congratulations on your promotion to Brigadier General, on your retirement, and on your new appointment as Leader of the Atlantis Expedition.’

‘And congratulations on your new appointment as Chief Military Commander, and Rodders, as Chief Scientific Officer,’ Jack replied, smirking at his friends.

‘Have you all finished, now?’ Miko Kusanagi let the door to the upper balcony of the gateroom close behind her. ‘It’s like you have your own self-appreciation club.’ She joined them at the balustrade and looked out over the sea. ‘It’s so beautiful here, the city and the location. I felt as though I’d come home the moment I stepped onto her.’

‘Same,’ Rodney agreed. ‘I think it’s like that for all gene holders, but I didn’t get my gene activated until we’d been here a few days last time, so I didn’t get that initial welcome.’

‘But she is pleased to see us,’ John said softly. ‘And it’s more than just the full ZPM we were able to install. She’s more…she’s just more. More welcoming, more alive, more reactive. The lot. I can’t wait to sit in the chair.’

‘I’ve already checked the logs,’ Rodney admitted. ‘I couldn’t wait for you to sit in the chair. You’re still her Filius Primus, and her Ducis, John, and I’m her Ingeniātor, her Engineer.’

‘Ingeniātor,’ Daniel repeated. ‘It also means ‘has genius’, or, rather, the word ‘genius’ is part of the title.’

Rodney stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. ‘Moving on. Jack, you’re listed as her Navarche, her leader of ships, or Captain, or possibly, her Admiral.’

‘Admiral General Jonathon O’Neill,’ Jack said, trying out the title. ‘Hmm. I think I prefer General Jack.’

‘Certainly less of a mouthful,’ Miko agreed. ‘Is that how you wish to be addressed? General?’

‘I think so, even if I am retired. I’m the leader of the Tau’ri, from Terra where we have just recently discovered the Stargate – or Ancestor’s Ring? I can’t recall which we decided on. Rodders?’

‘Stargate,’ Rodney answered promptly. ‘And if questioned, we’ll admit to the four of us being direct descendants of the Alterans who brought Atlantis to this galaxy.’

‘The four of you?’ Miko tilted her head and frowned. ‘I didn’t think Dr Jackson had the gene.’

Rodney shook his head. ‘No, I meant the four of us, you, Jack, John, and I. We four have the strongest genes, and we need to take control of the narrative from the start. The four of us, and Jack and John in particular, could be Alterans. Our DNA , yours and mine, Miko, is well over 75% Alteran. John’s is 98%, and Jack’s is 96% according to Dr Stewart.’

‘Where do I fit in?’ Daniel asked plaintively. ‘Or am I just the adoring public?’

‘You’re the head of the Social Sciences,’ Rodney told him. ‘What more do you want? I can include Medical if you want?’ This was asked in such a hopeful manner, the others laughed.

‘And you do have a seat on the ruling council,’ Jack added. ‘You and Miko.’

‘About that.’ Daniel paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. ‘The prophecy on Planet Maybourne was very clear on it being a Triumvirate. You’ve now made it a Quinquevirate.’

‘We’ve made it a what-what?’ Jack demanded. ‘I can’t even say it, let alone be it!’

‘Let’s be a Governing Council, then we’re not tied in to just having five people,’ John suggested. ‘If the population of Atlantis grows, as we hope it will, the council will need to be expanded.’

Rodney frowned. ‘That’s our official policy, is it? I thought it was undecided.’

‘George, Patrick, and President Morris all agreed we needed as much self-determination as possible,’ Jack explained. ‘We’re here to build a society, not just rob the galaxy of its technology,’ he added. ‘I think Morris went for it as he’ll be stepping down next year, and he quite liked the idea of going down in history as the US President who colonised the Pegasus Galaxy.’

‘Except it’s unlikely our part of the programme will be declassified anytime soon,’ Daniel pointed out. ‘You said Atlantis was never disclosed last time.’

‘Not our problem,’ Jack responded immediately, then sighed. ‘Look, it’s unlikely the entire Trust will be caught and locked away, so Lairissa’s always going to be in danger on Earth. So if I—if we,’ he motioned to Daniel and himself, ‘can’t take her back to Earth for certainly the next ten or twelve years, I want her to grow up in a society, not just a mix of scientists and soldiers.

‘Getting the Athosians on our side will help, and we should think seriously about offering a home to the kids on Planet Suicide. Given that, we need the freedom to build a community, or, yes, a colony. So George, Patrick, and Morris wrote that into the Expedition Charter. Sure, they’ll appreciate any technology we can pass their way, but it’s not going to be the defining objective as it was under the IOA.’

‘Good.’ Rodney spoke for all of them. ‘And with the SGC having the Taonis ZPM, they can contact us in an emergency.’

‘Just as we can contact them with our full ZPM,’ John added. ‘Is it worth building the gate bridge again?’

‘Possibly,’ Rodney responded, just as Jack replied:

‘No.’

‘Something to discuss at the first Council meeting,’ Miko suggested. ‘Now, I came to fetch you all to the party. The rest of the Expedition were a little concerned that the four most important people on the city – because Lairissa’s tucked up in bed – were avoiding the ‘Welcome to Atlantis’ party, especially as there’s cake, General,’ she added slyly.

‘Then let’s go and eat cake,’ Jack said, clapping his hands. ‘Everything else can wait until morning. We’ve got all the time in the galaxy.’

Fin

---