Chapter 4

After a thorough examination of the cube to ensure it wouldn't bring any harmful bacteria to Earth, Jackson was able to bring it to his office for further study. Out of context, it was really quite boring. It was about 6 inches in length and had writing on one face but was blank on the others. Again, the writing was mysterious and however many books Jackson read through he was unable to decipher its meaning.

Feeling somewhat disheartened, he left his office to find the small group working to translate the bit of Asgard they found on the monument. Upon entering the larger office, he saw four doctors busy at work, many marked by looks of confusion.

"Please tell me you guys have something." Daniel asked causing the group to jump having not realized that Jackson was even in the room.

"Well, we have something, I'm just not sure if it's really all that relevant." The chief scientist explained while readjusting his glasses. "I believe it says, 'To complete the circle and save the world."

"That's it?" Jackson asked, a little unnerved.

"If it makes a difference, it does say it a few times. Pretty cryptic really, we're trying to figure out if theres a code or something but so far, nothing." The scientist said with a shrug of his soldiers. Jackson nodded, knowing there was nothing he could personally do to ascertain more and headed to General Landry's office.

"...look General, I know you guys really want to figure this out and we're all for it but we really don't think it's a good idea to involve this girl." Jackson overheard Major Davis tell the General in a respectful yet assertive voice.

"Look major, from what you're telling me there's a girl who has a name and an address who we could go talk to and maybe find out the truth. Why are you so against it?" The general asked, growing more annoyed with each syllable.

"Because she doesn't have a good history with the government. The last time anyone tried, the team that attempted to bring her in was left unconscious and the girl shortly moved away never to be seen until 5 years later!" Davis breathed, "These vigilante's seem to be close to her, and right now we're all trying hard not to piss them off."

"What if we just talk to her? You know, a few of us, non threatening like? You never know, she might be willing to talk to us and its not like we want to unmask the guy." Jackson stepped in. Though he was new to the conversation he soon ascertained it was a good lead.

Davis shrugged his shoulders lazily, "There's really nothing I can do to stop you, is there? I'm just telling you all in advanced, this isn't some kid who happens to know a few secrets and you really don't want to get on her bad side." Davis gave a short salute to the General and then headed out of the mountain.

The General now faced Dr. Jackson, "Well, I figure you know what's going on, do you think he's right?"

"I think he's right that we need to tread carefully, but I think it would be worth it if we talked to the girl," he responded.

"I agree. However, we should heed Davis' warnings. I want all of SG-1 in Metropolis but I want only you and Sam to meet the girl. Try to persuade her to talk to us. In the mean time, I'll try and convince Jack to give her clearance. Maybe if she knows the truth about who we are she'll be more willing to tell us what she knows." The general summarized. Jackson left to inform the rest of SG-1 on the recent developments and then prepared for the upcoming adventure.

"Hold on a minute!" Chloe shouted as she stumbled out of her bedroom. After a late night helping the team stop some baddie on Kryptonite, she was happily sleeping in until a loud banging awoke her in the early afternoon. Annoyed and still in her pajamas with her hair looking god only knows how awful, she wearily approached the door.

"Hi. Are you Chloe Sullivan?" The pair asked after she opened the door. Now over the annoyance of waking up, she took in her two visitors. They were both innocent looking enough but she could tell they were both nervous and excited, and that worried her. Obviously not door to door salesmen, she thought.

"Yes. And you are?" She asked.

"I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Dr. Samantha Carter. We were hoping you could help us by answering a few question. May we come inside?" He asked hopefully. Chloe nodded and let them inside, red flags going off in her head.

"Hold on a moment." She said and went into her office to check out the security scans on the two. In addition to debugging the apartment, Oliver left a few gadgets of his own, all in the name of safety - none of which her nosy reporter room mate knew about. Only now did Chloe appreciate the weapons detector. She was somewhat surprised (and relieved) to find they were unarmed and entirely human. She headed back into her living room to confront the strangers and more than likely ask them to leave.

"So what do you want?" She asked bluntly. Daniel and Same looked somewhat surprised after being let in to be treated so hostilely.

"Well, please don't take this the wrong way, but we know that you have some connection to the Superhero community and," he began watching as her face attempted to stay neutral, "we had a few questions about Superman we were just hoping you could answer." Chloe was a little surprised. After Superman first entered the scene, she expected questions, or at least something. Now, months later, and two apparent academics are at her home asking her question.

"How do you know who I am?" She asked the first question that came to mind.

"We work for the Air Force." The female informed her, "I'm a Colonel, and Daniel here is a consultant. Our liaison is the one who found out who you were." Daniel cringed a little bit, worried about how knowledge of their connection to the military would affect her.

"Alright, so you're not FBI. Why do you want to know stuff about him? Do you not trust him?" Chloe asked, now getting somewhat curious.

"It's nothing like that." Jackson responded carefully. "We just want to figure out the legitimacy of the claims about him Lois Lane made in her article."

"Well why don't you ask her then?" She asked, wondering if they realized Lois was in fact her room mate.

"One of our colleagues already did." He told her. Then it clicked; these guys had something to do with the colonel who called Lois the other day. She now furrowed her eye brows if anything a little more confused about the two visitors in her home.

"So you guys don't believe Superman is really an alien? Why?" She asked and Dr. Jackson was about to answer when his phone went off.

"Sorry," he mumbled and it looked as though he was going to turn off the phone when he noticed who was calling. "I'm sorry, I have to answer this." He left the room and talked in hushed tones in the kitchen. While Chloe was curious, she knew with all the resources at her disposal she could easily learn the contents of this conversation at a later time. Finally, after a couple of minutes of awkward silence he reentered the room.

Sam looked up and gave Jackson a questioning look who then responded, "Jack said she's been given clearance, we can tell her everything."

"Tell me what?" As the words left her mouth she was grabbed by both Daniel and Sam. Suddenly, she was no longer in the living room of her apartment but in what appeared to be the bridge of a ship. She suddenly berated herself for not setting off any alerts in her apartment. "What the-?" She started to ask as she looked through a large window at what appeared to be Earth.

"Welcome aboard the USS Odyssey, Ms. Sullivan." Sam told her with a note of pride in her voice. "This is, as you may have guessed, an actual space ship. We are currently in geosynchronous orbit around Earth."

"So this is real? I haven't been drugged or placed in an alternate reality or anything?" Chloe asked skeptically.

Daniel chuckled, "This is in fact, very real. We pulled a few strings to get you clearance so we could tell you everything we do so you could understand why who Superman is matters to us."

"Are you trying to tell me something?" Chloe asked.

"Let's just say, if Superman is an alien he is not the first alien we've met." Daniel responded somewhat cryptically. He took in Chloe's look of awe and wonder as she absorbed that simple fact.

"In 1928, archaeologists in Giza uncovered an alien device known as the Stargate. Though it would lie unused for many years, in 1994 Dr. Jackson here uncovered the key to using it. We discovered it allowed near instantaneous transportation to thousands if not more planets in our galaxy as well as a few others." Sam started the long explanation. "We've met quite a few different races although truth be told most aliens we come across are actually human. Long story short, an evil parasitic race known as the Gou'ld used humans as both hosts and slaves and brought them to other planets via the Earth Stargate." Chloe nodded though neither doctors could be sure whether or not she truly understood.

"So you're telling me for over 10 years you all have been going to other planets and interacting with aliens?" Chloe asked dumbfounded. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this.

"Yes." Dr. Jackson responded simply. "We've also made a few enemies. Luckily, we've had quite a lot of success in eliminating them and more or less saving the world. However, there is one that has eluded us." He was now serious and looked at Chloe meaningfully, "One of these Gou'ld we mentioned before still eludes capture. His name is Ba'll and recent intel suggests he's in Metropolis. Since the Gou'ld are parasitic they naturally seek out the most powerful hosts. We therefore believe that he is hoping to somehow take Superman as a host. Of course, we are unsure of whether or not this could be done but it Ba'll were successful..."

"He could destroy the planet." Chloe finished his statement finally understanding, "The one thing I can tell you for sure is that Superman is most definitely an alien. I won't tell you anything more than that - not without his explicit permission."

"And you're sure he's not the result of an experiment or something along those lines?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure." Chloe responded simply, still taking in everything she had learned. She noticed Sam look toward Daniel who nodded and left the bridge. When he returned, he was carrying some object.

"We discovered this on a planet recently and were hoping you could tell us if you recognized this language." Daniel stated and then handed her the object.

"It's Kryptonian." She responded and then frowned, "I'm not fluent but I do recognize a few words. Here it says 'House of El', and I think it says 'thank you' though I'm not certain." Now Carter and Jackson both frowned, more confused than before. "Sorry, I usually don't have to translate this stuff."

"That's alright. How about you take that with you and give it to Superman. Think of it as a peace offering - it does have his symbol on it after all." Daniel said, wincing as he felt Sam's wide eyes on him.

"Alright. So. How do I get down there?" She asked, pointing at the Earth.

"Simple. We beam you down. But first, here's a phone number to contact us. We'd really appreciate meeting with Superman face to face - no strings attached. And also if you run into trouble that may be connected we would appreciate the call. No pressure, really." Sam told her before she was surrounded in a flash of light and found herself back in her living room - the only proof of the experience the Cube and a business card.

"Wow."