SIX
General Hammond looked around the room. He wasn't ready to let George leave just yet, but he was clearly at a loss about how to stop him. George was right about all those things. The way he had slung Teal'c around showed that he had tremendous strength.
He had already manipulated the Stargate twice. Without benefit of the computer controls set up for just that purpose. And he couldn't risk shooting George. That would be more disastrous than letting him leave.
"George, please," said Hammond, "give us some more time. We have to understand what's going on here."
"You know all you need to," said George. "I promised you ten minutes. That time has expired. If you will not allow me to complete my mission, I will have no choice but to take matters into my own hands."
Jack was strangely quiet. He seemed to be thinking about something. George turned and moved from the room. A nod from Hammond told the guards not to stop him. The guards parted to let George pass.
They all followed George into the Stargate room. The iris was once again closed and several guards stood around it. A wave of Hammonds' hand and the guards evacuated the room.
Sam's' sabotage of the control room had actually been minor. She had simply cut the main power to the control computer that had shut the computer down. It had taken the technicians only a few minutes to repair it.
"George, please," pleaded Hammond one last time. "There has to be another way. There's no sense in sacrificing yourself this way.
"He's right, George," said Sam. "If you go through with this, you'll be sacrificing yourself for nothing."
"There is no other choice," said George. "I must complete my mission. I cannot alter that. Please, activate the Stargate now."
"Lieutenant," ordered Hammond, without taking his eyes off George, "activate the Stargate for PX1217."
"But sir," responded the Lieutenant in the control room, "if I do that he'll . . . "
"Just follow orders, Lieutenant," said Hammond. "Activate the Stargate for the coordinates to PX1217."
"Yes, sir," said the Lieutenant.
Everyone in the room knew what Hammond was doing. PX1217 was not the Goa'Uld home world. It was a planet they had discovered early in the Stargate project. But the remote they had sent through had shown that the atmosphere of the planet had been destroyed. Perhaps by the Goa'Uld. At any rate, it was incapable of sustaining life.
No one liked what Hammond was doing, but they also understood he had no choice. Without the benefit of the remote, George would have no way of knowing what lay on the other side of the wormhole. Once he stepped through the Stargate, he wouldn't live more than a few seconds.
The seven chevrons locked into place and the Stargate activated. George turned toward the gate. He looked back at the group one last time. The look on his face suggested that what he was about to do truly saddened him.
"General," said Jack finally, "before we let George complete his mission I have a question for him."
"Very well, Colonel," said Hammond.
"George," said Jack. "You said you couldn't alter your programming."
"That is correct," said George. "It is clear you are unfamiliar with computers. If you were, you would understand that a computer can only do what it is programmed for. I am essentially a very sophisticated computer controlled bomb."
"I'm still not clear on something," said Jack. "What exactly were your instructions?"
"I have stated this already," said George.
"Humor me," said Jack. "I can be kind of thick headed sometimes. Please, just so I'm clear on this. What exactly were your instructions?"
"Upon my activation," said George, "I am to proceed immediately to the nearest Stargate. Once there, I am to transport myself to the Gim-Sho-Tu home world and destroy it and the Stargate network."
"I see," said Jack. "It would seem to me that you've already disregarded part of your orders. If you can disregard part of them, can't you disregard the rest of them?"
"You are mistaken," said George. "I am completing my mission."
"No," said Sam, suddenly realizing what Jack was doing, "Colonel O'Neill is right. You said your orders were to proceed IMMEDIATELY to the nearest Stargate. You didn't do that. You've stayed with us for several hours. You didn't proceed immediately to the Stargate."
"The situation required a minor adjustment to my instructions," said George. "It changes nothing."
"Well, you're right about one thing," said Jack. "I'm not much for computers. I leave that tech stuff to the experts. But it seems to me that if you can adjust your instructions once, you can do it again."
"Jack's right," said Daniel. "Based on the situation, you altered your mission instructions. Which means you aren't bound solely by your programming. You can make changes based on the situation."
George just looked at the group. His computer mind was racing, trying to sort out their logic. His programming told him that he could not ignore his instructions. He must complete his mission and destroy the enemy of his people.
But these people were also correct. He had altered part of his instructions because of the situation he had found. He had not gone immediately to the Stargate, as his instructions had dictated. There had to be some logical reason that would reconcile these conflicting situations.
"Like O'Neill," said Teal'c, "I know little of the technology of this world. But it occurs to me that if you are capable of altering your instructions, then you are clearly more than just a machine."
"That is not possible," said George. "I was created for a single purpose. I can be nothing more than what I was created to be."
"That's not exactly true," said Daniel. "George, you said your people prepared you for any contingency. Exactly how did they accomplish this?"
"I was programmed with the total of the knowledge of my people," said George. "I am, in essence, a library of everything my people had learned."
"Well, in a sense," said Daniel, "a newborn baby is little more than a biological machine. It has no memories, no skills, no training. Over the years, it begins to learn. At some point, the baby exceeds the sum of everything it's learned. It becomes self-aware.
"That may be what's happened here. You've been programmed with so much information, so much knowledge, that you've exceeded your programming. You're not just the computerized bomb your people designed. You've become a sentient being."
"That is not possible," said George. "I am a mechanism, nothing more."
"George," said Sam, "what do you want to do?"
"I must complete my mission," said George.
"No, George," said Sam, "what do you WANT to do? If you had your choice, what would you choose for yourself?"
"If given a choice," said George, "I would devote my life to reestablishing the culture of my people. Perhaps build a shrine to the great achievements they made."
"Then you ARE more than just a programmed bomb," said Daniel. "Your people made some great scientific advancements. Greater even than what we have here on Earth. How did your people define life?"
"Life," said George, "an organism which exists, reproduces, is aware of its' surroundings, is self aware, and possesses the capacity to alter itself or its' surroundings based on changing situations."
"Then I would submit," said Daniel, "that you fit the criteria for life."
"I am not capable of reproducing," said George.
"Maybe not," said Sam, "but Daniels' right. You exist. You know you're not where you were programmed to be, which means you are aware of your surroundings. You refer to yourself as 'I', which shows you to be self-aware. And you've already altered your basic programming because of the situation you found when we activated you."
"And being unable to reproduce is not necessarily a requirement," said Hammond. "I had an aunt when I was younger who was incapable of having children. But no one disputed that she was alive."
"Face it, George," said Jack, "you may not have come into the world in the usual way, but you are as much alive as anyone in this room. This means you have the right to make your own choices. Regardless of what programming your 'creators' might have given you."
George didn't move. His mind was absorbing the new information these others had just given him. What they said made sense. He DID fit the definition of a living organism defined by his people. And he was capable of rational thought and decision. The definition of intelligent life as defined by his people.
"What you say makes sense," said George. "But it does not alter my mission. I must destroy the enemy of my people. Would you not do the same to the enemies of your people?"
"If necessary, yes," said Jack. "But I wouldn't march into their headquarters and blow myself up. That doesn't accomplish anything. I think it was General Patton who once said, 'you don't win a war by dying for your country. You win a war by making the other poor sap die for his country.'"
"A very wise man, this General Patton," said Teal'c. "I would like to meet him."
Jack just looked annoyed at Teal'c.
"The point of all this, George," said Sam, "is that you aren't just a mindless automated bomb. You have the ability to make rational decisions. You can choose not to go through with your mission."
George considered everything he had been told. His programming was clear. But so was the logic of Sam and the others. If he was more than just the sum of his programming, then he was as much a sentient being as anyone in the room. Which meant he could choose his own fate; his own destiny.
"General Hammond," said George finally. "You may deactivate your Stargate. It would appear that I will not be going anywhere for the moment."
Silently, everyone sighed a sigh of relief. General Hammond ordered the Stargate shut down. The lieutenant gladly obeyed the General.