Chapter 2: Preparing for Launch
-] Two Weeks Later - Cheyenne Mountain Complex [-
It had been a quick two weeks and yet it also felt like months had past. I now sat before General West. Catherine sat beside me. She was a frail woman reaching 70 years old but she still had spirit.
We were inside the Cheyenne Mountain Military base, home of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) which was a joint American/Canadian organization dedicated to the security of North American airspace. Its historic task was as watchman for the threat of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.
Cheyenne Mountain contained nearly a skyscraper's worth of floors underground. While the full extent of the facilities available to personnel within the complex was unknown to me for the moment, I was at least certain of several cafeterias and troop's barracks, at least one gym, a fully equipped infirmary, and several multi-purpose observation rooms. I remembered that they would be used for things such as complex surgery, interrogation, imprisonment, and volatile scientific experiments when Stargate Command was fully up and running.
"Commander," addressed General West to me. "We have chosen you to lead a possible mission for us. The president assures me that you are more than fit to lead the team we will choose."
"Thank you sir," I replied. That was another cool thing changed about me. Amy had given me a thorough background history for me that was real, at least in memory and records. Since coming here, I had become a Group Commander, which was a USAF rank and only a duty title. It applied to a commanding officer for a squadron. Apparently I was quite the pilot and had led a well-trained squad of pilots. That part had me excited as I loved to fly. I also had learned that in this world, despite my youthful looks, I was aged at 40. Four years younger than Jack had been. But I still looked to be in my mid 20's. Anyways, a Group Commander was the same as a colonel, but everyone called me Commander instead of my new official rank of Colonel, even after my transfer to work under General West, like I was part of the Navy. It seemed that Amy knew that out of all the ranks, Commander was my favourite. Had to do with playing Mass Effect so much; the rank had grown on me. It was even part of my gamer tag.
"I need you to accompany Catherine here to find Dr. Daniel Jackson. She's said that he's the best at understanding ancient writings. We've tracked him to New York where he's due to give a seminar the day after tomorrow. Major Charles Kawalsky will accompany you. You leave immediately. Dismissed."
-] Two Days Later - New York City [-
The flight over was alright. The first time I had ever caught a plane was in 2001. So seeing the deck for a plane in 1995 was interesting. We travelled in Business Class, which was very generous of the Air Force to provide. Most of the time I listened to some music on my Sony CD Walkman. That's right. No iPhone, no MP3 Player. It was nostalgic, to be sure. The first Walkman I had rocked was a cassette Walkman, and I loved it to bits. I could have bought a MD Walkman, but I wanted to wait until 2002 when the NetMD's came out. But, thanks to Amy, my computer and all my external hard drives were at my new home in Colorado Springs. So I still had my own music.
The home that Amy had set up for me was indeed the same place that Jack stayed at for almost the whole Stargate SG-1 series. It truly was a beautiful home. But I spent some time redecorating it to suit my style. Most of the stuff Amy had teleported here was currently locked in a secret basement underneath the house until a future time where it wouldn't look strange sitting around my place. This included my TV, Sony MUTEKI sound system, Super Slim PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, my new iPhone 5, all my games for both consoles and all the movies and TV series I had on physical DVD/BluRay disks.
So instead I had a large rear-projection TV in the lounge room with a PlayStation 1 hooked up to it. Seeing as Final Fantasy VII was still being considered for a Nintendo release and hadn't switched to CD-ROM and sequentially Sony yet, I couldn't put up any promotional posters yet. However in place of the Mars picture that hung up to the side of the main couch in the TV series, now there was an awesome CG picture of the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris. I was allowed that in the room as I could dismiss it as a good painting. A large stereo system with two big wooden speakers sat around the TV.
I had installed a ground pool in the back yard that was situated between the house and the large pond. I wasn't interested in fishing, but the scenery was very beautiful. There was a spa bath add on to the pool with a grey slate floor surrounding both, giving it a more natural look then the usual brick tiles. There was also a two meter high pile of large water polished rocks where water was pumped to the top and it cascaded down the rocks into a shishiodoshi in a separate pool before being pumped back up to the top. A few outdoor waterproof speakers were strung up under the veranda with a few deck chairs. There was a BBQ under a small shelter surrounded by greenery. It was a very beautiful property.
Catherine and I talked a bit about the project and we became friends on the flight. Catherine looked like her movie actress counterpart, Viveca Lindfors. I was glad as I liked this version better than the one in the TV series. Charles Kawalsky was an alright guy and he, too, looked like his movie version, John Diehl. He was still getting over his shock at Jack's suicide, so he didn't talk much. But he accepted me as squad leader well enough. And then we arrived in Rochester, New York, and caught a small limousine to the Park Plaza Hotel.
The hotel was large indeed. There were no lecture halls inside but there was a theatre room that was converted into a lecture hall for the day. Catherine and I walked to the room in question and slipped silently through the door. It seemed Daniel had already started. I was dressed in casual black cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket with a thick silver grey fur collar.
"When is the academic community going to accept the fact that the Pharaohs of the fourth dynasty did not build the Great Pyramids." There was a small amount of mumblings at this. The microphone whined a bit as Daniel adjusted it. "Look, inside the pyramids there are no writings, whatsoever. And..." here he was interrupted.
"Doctor Jackson, you've left out the fact that Colonel Vyse discovered inscriptions with Khufu's name."
"Uh, his discovery was a fraud," said Daniel while writing on the blackboard behind him. He looked like the SG-1 version of the guy, Michael Shanks. Which was good as I thought James Spader looked a little too much like a spineless nerd in the movie.
"I don't think you'll prove it," replied the same person.
"Well who do you think built the pyramids then?" asked another.
There was a lengthy pause before Daniel replied. "I don't have any idea who built them, I mean that..." here he was interrupted again.
"Maybe people from Atlantis? Or Martians perhaps?" said someone. This got several laughs.
'I wonder how much he'd freak to learn that "Martians" did at least help with the construction of them,' I thought amusedly.
"The point is not who built them, the point is when they were built," his words were falling on deaf ears as almost everyone was now beginning to leave. "I mean we all know," continued Daniel as if he didn't know this was happening. "That geological evidence dates the Sphinx back to a much earlier period and knowing this we have to re-evaluate everything we've come to accept about..." By now there was only one person still listening. We decided that we would wait for him in the limo.
Outside it had started to rain. We managed to get inside before the worst of it became to thunder down. Inside the limo the back had two seats facing each other. I was in the front while Catherine was facing me in the back.
"Well, he seems to be a nice guy," I said, brushing the small amount of water out of my hair.
"He's the foremost expert in his field. But his theories are too radical for the public to believe," answered Catherine. I grinned. "Well he'll get a blast out of this. If he accepts, that is."
Twenty minutes later Dr. Jackson appeared in the doorway. He looked around at the sky before he pulled the hood of his raincoat around him and stepped out. Kawalsky got out of our hired limo and called to Daniel.
After a few moments he walked over and Kawalsky opened the door. He stepped in and sat down next to Catherine.
"Jackson," said Catherine as she pulled out a photo. "Are these your parents?" she asked.
Daniel glanced from her to the photograph, his motion to lower his hood halted for a moment. "Foster parents," he replied back. There was a pause. "What is this all about?"
"A new job," I said. His attention turned to me and I waited as he looked me over a few times.
"Oh, sorry. Commander Josh Kitsuné," I introduced as I put forward my hand. He shook it.
"You don't look like a military man," he noted.
"I know. I get that allot," I replied. I then gestured to the old lady next to me. "This is Catherine Langford."
"Uh... nice to meet you," Daniel nodded at her. "So… what kind of a job?" he asked.
"Translation," answered Catherine. "Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs." She took off her glasses and looked at him. "Interested?"
"I-I'm going to go now," said Jackson, sounding a little spooked.
"Go where?" she laughed humourlessly. "You've just been evicted from your apartment. Your grants have run out. Everything you own are in those two bags." She then picked up a set of papers. "You want to prove your theories are correct? This is your chance." She then handed him the papers.
"What's this?" asked Daniel.
"Your plane ticket and travel papers," I replied. "I suggest you take the job. I promise you won't regret it." The door then opened and Kawalsky called out to him. Daniel took one last look at us before he got out of the car.
-] Three Days Later - Cheyenne Mountain Complex [-
I looked at myself in the mirror as I thought about the past three weeks. I still wore the same clothes from my first meeting with Daniel. I also wore a short, thin silver necklace around my neck with two dogtags attached for my name and rank. A second, longer necklace graced my chest, but this one was different. The chain was thicker and at the bottom hung a silver winged fox. I had my Cerberus necklace changed to this form as it suited me better.
I took a deep breath before a voice behind me made me jump in surprise.
"You ready?"
I turned around to see Amaterasu sitting on the edge of my bed. She was wearing a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. The last time I saw her she was wearing tight clothes, therefore her body shape was almost completely shown off. And now wasn't any different. She had a fantastic body, a nice hourglass figure. I had correctly judged her breasts to be a DD-cup and they were quite firm and perky looking. Her legs had a nicely toned shape to them with thick thighs. She also had a nicely rounded behind which the jeans hugged nicely. She had milky white skin, which looked flawless and smooth too. All boner inspiring sights aside, she was dressed totally out of character for an Ancient who called herself Amaterasu. If it wasn't for the subtle feeling of great power I could feel from her, I wouldn't believe it.
"Oh, hello there. I guess I'm ready. Any chance you can explain the changes you've made to me," I asked, still having no idea of just how extensive she had changed me. At least my personality was still the same.
"Well, you now have a very strong presence of the Ancient gene inside of you, ten times stronger than John Sheppard had," she explained.
"Wow! Really?" I asked in astonishment. "Anything else?"
"Yes. I've given you gifts to get through this journey. And you won't be alone. You'll have me to help you if things get too dicey for you and your team." I smiled at this.
"Thanks Amy. I'll try to make sure I won't need that kind of help, no offence. So what gifts did you give me?" I asked.
"The first is a hyper immune system, like Teal'c's without the snake-in-the-gut thing. This will protect you from all diseases and sicknesses. But it won't block sedatives. Can't make you god-like after all." I smiled at this.
"Second is accelerated healing. Light cuts and scratches will heal in minutes while injuries such as non-fatal bullet wounds heal within a few hours. This can't be reverse engineered from your blood so no-one will be able to gain this ability from blood samples. However it won't stop fatal wounds. But if you do get one, I will be there to heal you completely if necessary. I don't want you dying on me by accident."
"That'll piss off the NID," I commented.
"Very much. Third is that you're completely resistant to all methods of torture." I opened my mouth to ask something but Amy cut me off with a wide smile. "And no it doesn't cure your ticklish spots."
"Shit," I muttered.
"Fourth is that you can focus your Ancient gene power to heal minor injuries on others."
"Define minor," I asked.
"At most you can heal a broken ankle before it becomes too taxing on your focus," she explained. "It works the same as how you use Reiki."
"You know about that, huh?" I asked. Reiki was a spiritual healing practice based from Japan that was supposed to heal with just using your hands, by gathering Qi (Chi or Ki) from the universe and flowing it through your hands to heal. There was no scientific evidence that this method worked, but many patients who receive it claim that they feel different levels of betterness. I learned the first level when I was young, and though I never actively practiced, I never forgot how to perform the basics. "That'll be useful," I added after Amy nodded to my previous question.
"The last one is used with these." Here Amy gestured to her right and a large black case appeared in midair. My eyes widened before I looked at the camera in the corner of my room worriedly.
"Don't worry. I've used my powers to create an illusion in front of the camera. Security believes you are sleeping alone," said Amy, calming my worries. I then redirected my attention to the case which floated over to sit on my lap. I immediately opened the case and gasped.
Inside were two were triple-barrelled revolvers. They were sleek and beautiful. Both were roughly 16 inches long. They were ornamented with scrollwork patterns, had a small fox's head in place of the iron sights on each barrel, and a silver chain in the shape of a winged fox, exactly like my winged fox necklace, hanging from the end of the grip. One was black and the other was white with the patterns and fox heads on both done in silver. The handle grip was a light grey/dark grey material on the respective guns. Felt like the material on the grips on high grade cameras. I took out the white one and marvelled at the craftsmanship of the fox heads and the intricate decorative lines etched into it. It was also very light and I assumed the black one was too.
"These triple barrelled Cerberus class handguns are awesome!" I replied.
"As you've stated, these guns are the same as the Cerberus revolver that Vincent Valentine uses," explained Amy. "Each one is a semi-automatic, break loading revolver with three barrels and three cylinders. They are reloaded by a breaking mechanism that tilts the barrels and cylinders an angle, allowing the ejection of spent cartridges and the placement of fresh rounds, ending with a flick of the wrist that snaps the barrels back into place."
"Cool," I replied.
Amy nodded. "You'll notice that, in the way of ammo, there isn't much of it. 18 shots in total for each gun without reloading." I nodded back. "Well that's where your fifth gift comes into play. You're super humanly accurate with them so you'll mostly need one or two shots to kill. Later I'll upgrade the handguns to hold rechargeable power cells like used in Ronan's gun. You notice that they are also very light. I designed them to have no recoil as well."
I then took a closer look and saw that there was a small switch near where the hammer was. "What's this switch for?" I asked.
"At the moment that switch is used to switch between single shot and a three bullet shotgun type blast. Later, when the bullets are replaced with the power cells that switch will be used to switch between stun and kill, like a Zat gun." She then held up a strange object that had roughly 18 bullets stuck on one side. "You'll use these to reload. You'll need to replace the bullets on each one outside of battle, but they're used to reload quickly and easily. Just eject the spent cartridges, remove the empty clip and slot in a new clip to reload."
"Like how Vash and Knives reloaded their guns in their final fight in the last episode of Trigun," I replied, nodding in understanding.
Amy looked a little confused before she closed her eyes. I felt a slight tingling in my mind before she opened her eyes and smiled. "Exactly so."
"What did you just do?" I asked.
"I read what you were thinking about. Normally delving into one's mind is an invasion of privacy, but if an Ancient just reads the forefront thought only, and even then, only for general info and not personal info, then its ok. I hope you don't mind," she replied.
"Not at all. Just let me know so I can keep the thought in my head long enough for you to read it, ok?"
"Sure thing. So what do you think of them?" she asked.
"They're beautiful!" I said in awe of the guns in front of me. "Now to think of names for these babies. Hmmm... ... ... Ah, the white one is Oathkeeper and the black one is Oblivion!" I grinned.
"Good names," approved Amy. "Now, these guns can be summoned to your hands from wherever location other than at your side they may be. They're also indestructible."
"Great. Is there anything more I need to know?" I asked.
"A few things. Thanks to your advanced healing abilities and your resistance to sickness, you will completely resist the mind altering process that sarcophaguses do. By the time you're finished healing, the sarcophagus will have finished. You know Taekwondo. You're a multi-linguist like Daniel, but you don't know as many as him. Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese is all. I have a team of Ancients who work under me, creating a special ship for you to use on missions. It should be ready in a few years. All the new info from your 'new' past will become known to you at relevant points in time so you don't get overwhelmed. And finally, a present for you," here she opened a hand and a small wrapped up parcel appeared in her hand.
"You've already given me so much," I protested but Amy shook her head. "Those were essential. This is simply a nice gift."
"Ok," I replied before taking the box and removing the wrapping to reveal a leather bound box. I opened the lid and smiled widely when I saw the black harmonica inside. I turned to Amy and gave her a warm hug, to which she responded a little hesitantly. "Thank you Amy. Thank you so much," I said, my voice thick with emotion. It wasn't the harmonica, but the instrument was the trigger for everything Amy did to change my life.
"It's ok. I'm just trying to give you as much of a good chance as possible," replied Amy. I let go to see her slightly flushed from the contact. I guess she was a little embarrassed. "T-that harmonica is undetectable so it can't be taken from you as long as you have it."
I nodded but she wasn't finished. "Be careful," she added. "Don't do things too differently from the main story. If you do so, then future events will change, therefore rendering your knowledge of the events useless. Then you'll be flying by the seat of your pants the whole way. I can identify which events are tied to major plot changes so you'll have fair warning."
"I'll be careful," I said before the walkie talkie sitting on my bedside table crackled with a voice.
"Commander, Dr Jackson has just arrived. Escort him down to the cartouche room."
I walked over to the device and raised it to my mouth. "Understood," I said before I clipped it onto my belt. I then walked to the door. "See ya later, Amy," I said as I looked behind to see her dissolve into a white energy and fade from view.
'I'll be by your side all the time,' said her voice in my head. 'If you want to speak to me, just project your thoughts. I'll respond. And don't worry. I can't hear your thoughts as long as you don't project them. To project your thoughts, just think as if you were speaking and not thinking. Easy, right?'
'Yeah, can you hear this?' I asked in my head.
'Yes,' she replied.
How bout now? I asked again, this time doing what she suggested. From the silence I guess I did it properly. I then turned the handle and exited my room. I made my way up to the ground floor and waited next to the elevator. I didn't have to wait long before a car drove up to park near me and Daniel got out.
"Hello there!" I called out, waving to him. He looked over to me and waved back. I pressed the button to open the doors and we both got inside. "So, how are you feeling?" I asked.
Daniel was about to answer when he sneezed loudly. "Sorry," he said as he pulled out a hanky. "Allergies. Always happens when I travel."
"Eh, it's ok. I'm allergic to dogs and cats. It's the crap on their fur for me. Pisses me off cause I like dogs and cats," I replied.
We arrived at level B28 and we walked out of the elevator. As soon as we were out, Daniel was approached by Dr Gary Meyers. He was a scientist that was trying, unsuccessfully, to translate the symbols on the coverstones found on top of the Giza Stargate.
"Dr Jackson!" he called, gaining our attention. "Dr Gary Meyers; how are you?" he asked.
"Oh, hello," Daniel replied as we continued to head to the room with the coverstones and cartouche. "What is this place?" he asked me.
"It's the Cheyenne Mountain Military base; the home for NORAD. The floor we are on however is underneath NORAD," I supplied before another scientist, Dr Barbara Shore, butted in.
"I'm Barbara Shore, hi," she said.
"Hello," Daniel replied.
We then reached the room and I pushed open the doors to show Daniel the objects he would be working on for the next 2 weeks.
The guy was immediately mesmerised by the stones, and the hieroglyphs carved into them. He looked like a little kid with wide eyed curiosity.
"You should see you face," I grinned at him as he slowly approached the stones. At that point, Catherine joined our little group.
"Hello there," I greeted. I then pulled on Daniel's sleeve. He reluctantly pulled his eyes away and looked at the old woman.
"Hello Jackson," she smiled.
"Hey! Hello," he replied before turning back to the stones. "This is… where did you find this?" he asked, still awed by what he was seeing.
Catherine chuckled at Daniel's childlike wonder. "Giza Plateau in 1928," she replied.
"I've never seen anything like this before," Daniel said.
"Of course you haven't. No one has," she replied with another laugh.
"Now there are two lines of hieroglyphs," Meyers said, looking eager to show off his knowledge to the new guy. "Now the inner track has the classic figures, but the outer track is like the cartouche in the centre. It's got writing unlike we've ever found before."
"Those aren't hieroglyphs. Might be some form of hieratic or maybe cuneiform," Daniel mumbled to no-one in particular.
"Yeah," agreed Shore, though it sounded like he was just copying Daniel in order to sound like he knew what he was doing.
Daniel then moved over to the blackboard and studied the writings on it for a moment. "Well, the translation of the inner track is wrong. Must've used Budge. I don't know why they keep reprinting his books." He then began to rub out some of the translated words.
"Ex-excuse me. Wha-what are you doing? We've used every known technique," protested Meyers.
Daniel pointed to one of the untranslated hieroglyphs. "That's a curious word, to use, eh, 'Quebeh'?" he asked.
"Yeah…?" Meyers replied dubiously.
"Then an adverbial sedjem-en-ef with a cleft subject. Then 'Sealed and buried.'" Daniel continued to translate while crossing out a few pre-translated words.
"Ex-excuse me. Wha-what are you doing?" Meyers repeated, obviously very flustered as that was his work that Daniel was erasing, crossing out and re-translating.
"That's not coffin…'For all time.' Who the hell translated this?" Daniel eventually asked.
Catherine, Shore and I looked at Meyers in a deadpan way.
"Uh… I-I did," Meyers said, though without the superior tone he usually used.
Daniel sighed. "Well, this should read: 'A million years into the sky is Ra, sun god, sealed and buried for all time...' It's not 'door to heaven'," he wrote the final translation at the bottom.
Stargate
"Stargate," Daniel finished.
I laughed. "I believe that Meyers just got owned."
"Well, so why is the military so interested in 5,000 year old Egyptian tablets?" Daniel asked in a slightly cheerful and curious tone.
"Actually, carbon dating puts it at 10,000 years old," I replied.
"Seriously? 10,000 is ludicrous. I mean, Egyptian culture didn't even exist at that point," Daniel replied in a shocked tone.
"We know. But the carbon tests don't lie. Least as far as we know. We double checked to be sure. It's at 10,000 years," I replied.
"Well, these are cover stones. Was there a tomb underneath?" he asked.
"Well it-" I replied before Kawalsky, who had just entered the room, whispered something into my ear.
"General West has just put you in charge of Project Giza. It is no longer under Catherine's jurisdiction," he said.
"Shit. This is going to piss her off," I whispered back.
'You need to handle this just like O'Neill did in the movie,' Amy said in my head.
'Ok, Amy. Gotcha,' I replied before turning to Daniel. "Sorry, but that information just became classified." I then looked back at Kawalsky. "From now on, no information is to be passed on to non-military personnel without my express permission." Kawalsky nodded before we left the room together.
We had gotten maybe 7 steps out when Catherine called to me. I looked at Kawalsky. "I'll meet up with you later." He nodded before leaving the two of us.
"Josh, I think you owe me an explanation," she said, clearly not pleased.
"Sorry, but I just got orders that Project Giza is under my jurisdiction now," I explained.
"But why is the military now in charge?" she asked.
"In case you succeed," I replied simply. "Don't worry, you'll stay in the loop. I promise." I then walked away, leaving her standing in the corridor alone.