MEMOIRS OF
MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL
(Re-activated)
5. The SGC
Chapter One
By Arrietty
2031
After the Pegasus incident, life was pretty much uneventful for me. If you can say living many years with Sam and bringing two children into the world is uneventful.
Sam carried on at the SGC and I stayed retired for a long time. It worked for us, sometimes I was called in to chat to Thor or negotiate with some of our allies, but mostly I was a stay at home dad and I liked it.
Five years after we returned from Atlantis, the Stargate program went public. It threw the world into turmoil at first, but we had underestimated how adaptive the world could be to change. It pulled the different countries together and finally we had some form of peace between the nations. The Aschen technology that Sam had downloaded off the computer in the Aschen library had enabled us to build defences over the past few years that rivalled the Tollan space guns.
Sam and McKay managed to combine Atlantis and the Aschen technology to create a huge defence grid that circled the whole planet. The word got out that the Tau'ri were formidable and that trying to conquer Earth was not going to happen.
Sam and I continued to show no signs of aging; although Janet did say there were minuscule amounts of aging that only she could see under a microscope. We were relieved that our quirkiness hadn't been passed on down to our children. Our son is in the Air Force training to be a fighter pilot, but I can see him going a lot further than I ever did, but then he inherited his mother's brains. Our daughter, I can see will go far, but at only sixteen she has a few more years to decide what she wants to do with her life.
Janet and Daniel never had children, but they love Cassie and she has given them three grandchildren. I enjoy calling Daniel 'grandpa' he isn't always amused. Of course it is a lot funnier when you see a man of forty referred to as grandpa. At least I look like a grandpa even though I'm not one yet.
Anyway, I digress. Life changed drastically about one month ago. Baal turned up. He came to wreck vengeance on the Tau'ri. It was to be our time to rid the Universe of this snake once and for all.
2031
It was Wednesday morning, Sam had left for work at the crack of dawn and the kids for school a couple of hours ago and I was just loading up the dishwasher. Later that afternoon, I was due at the academy to deliver a lecture on Stargate travel. Even though I was a civilian now, they still called on me for this once in a while, usually, with a bunch of new recruits. That was one thing, since the programme had gone public, the Air Force had an increase in their recruit quota.
Someone banged on the door, I recognised the sound as military. It had been a long while since I'd had a visit like this, and it didn't bode well.
I was right, it was Major Satterfield. I hadn't seen her in a while as she had been spending most of her time on one of the outpost settlements off world.
"General O'Neill, you are required to come to the Pentagon immediately."
"Let me get my coat." I grabbed my leather jacket off the coat stand and pulled it on against the cold fall weather. The sun was bright so I took out my shades and slipped them on.
"Colonel Carter is waiting in the car, sir." I was a bit confused that she hadn't come in herself, but then its best not to question the machinations of the air force.
"Sam," I said when I sat down beside her in the back seat.
"Hi, Jack. We have trouble."
"What?"
She had a pile of folders on her lap and one of them was open. She slipped out one of the closed folders and gave it to me. "Take your pick."
I felt an old familiar sensation of dread seep into my innards.
I flipped open the cover just as the car drove away from our house. A photo of Baal was paper clipped to the top right hand corner. What was weird about his photo was he was wearing a t-shirt and a baseball cap with the New York symbol embroidered on the front. His name was listed as Michael Stevens and living currently in New York. He was a salesman for IBM. I pulled out another folder and again, Baal's photo was attached to the file, but this time he was wearing a business suit and he was a franchise owner for Granny's Apple Pies in California. His name was Richard Watkins.
"How many are there of these?" I asked.
"Fifteen at last count and we keep finding more. Baal is here and as far as I can tell these are clones. The biggest problem is we don't know which one is the original. What puzzles me is how did he get here?"
"Or more worrying is how long has he been on Earth," I added.
I took another file and it was much the same as the other ones, Baal with different clothes and with a different name and job.
"How long have they known about this?" I asked. I was annoyed that it had taken this long to come to my attention.
"I only found out this morning, but I gather they found the first Baal two weeks ago when his company bought out one of the largest public companies on Wall Street. Somehow this particular Baal is now one of the richest people in the United States and from what I can glean from these files his company has shares in every single business owned by his clones."
She flipped through the files and pulled out one and handed it to me and said, "This one worries me the most."
I opened it; Baal's smug face stared off into space somewhere. It was a candied shot. He was wearing camouflage fatigues and had what looked like an old P-90 in his hands. Job description was arms dealer. It just got worse and worse.
"Anymore nasty surprises in there," I asked pointing to the pile of folders.
"No that just about sums it up." She sighed.
"So what now? Do we go to each of the places of residence and remove the problems or what? I asked.
"I'm not sure what they want us to do, but I don't think that could be the full solution."
"Why?" It seemed pretty straight forward to me.
"I really don't know, Jack. I have an idea that the fact we know about these clones is part of Baal's plan."
She handed me a blue folder from the bottom of the pile. "This is a summary of what they've found out so far. It has taken me the past two hours to digest it all, but fortunately, we have a long flight ahead of us." She gave me a grin that didn't reach her eyes.
She was right this was no laughing matter. Both of us had history with this snake and this was definitely something that we'd left behind long ago, not something we wanted raked up again.
We arrived at the pentagon and met up with General Paul Davis who was in charge of the Stargate Program. He led us into an office bristling with medals and stars. I wasn't overawed, mainly because most of these men were way younger than us, plus I was retired.
It didn't take long for the general's in the room to start arguing with Paul's sensible suggestions. I totally admired the fact he stood by his decisions, but I didn't envy Davis one bit.
"…but, sirs. We need to get the Stargate under the mountain again, where we can contain anything that comes through it." Davis finished with a forceful, "I don't trust Baal."
I felt it was about time Paul needed a break from the pressure and backed him up. "General Davis is right; the Stargate needs to be in the Mountain. With Baal running around free, the Stargate access is too open."
For the first time, they acknowledged our presence in the room. Someone had called us in and it wasn't these guys for sure. Most probably it was Paul Davis. But, I was wrong.
Suddenly, everyone on the room stood. We didn't, because we hadn't sat down yet.
"Mr President."
I swivelled around on one foot and behind me by the door stood our Commander in Chief. Ah . . . now I knew who had called us in.
I glanced across to Sam. She gave me a quick smile. One that I knew; triumphant. Now we had a listening ear.
"Jack," he acknowledged me and then smiled at Sam.
"General Davis, your recommendations for this threat are?" he asked getting straight to the point.
Paul answered straight away. "We need to move the Stargate under Cheyenne Mountain. I know it has state of the art defence systems in place,' he acknowledged Sam with a brief glance, "But it won't be able to defend a direct attack from outer space."
"We have the satellite system in place for this, don't we?" The president asked. He had moved into the room now and stood in a place of command in front of the window.
"Yes, but from our intelligence we have gathered I don't think it will cope with what Baal has in store."
I looked hard at Paul, there was something else?
"What kind of intelligence?" The president beat me to the question by two seconds.
"A large armada is approaching Earth and will be here in three days. It is nothing like we've ever accounted before."
Goosebumps sprung up on the surface of my skin.
"What else do you recommend, General Davis?"
"I'd like to see Jack O'Neill come out of retirement and head this defence. He and Colonel Carter know more about Baal than anyone else on Earth. We need a hands on person, who knows how Baal thinks."
"Which one?" I asked, slightly sarcastically.
"We believe, Jack," Paul turned to me, "That the real Baal isn't even on Earth, but leading the armada here. The Baal clones are here to sabotage from within. We need to rid the Earth of all the clones simultaneously, 'before' Baal arrives."
I nodded in agreement and then turned to Sam. "Is there anyway you can soup up the satellite defence system within the next three days?"
"Yes, I believe I can, but then it depends on the size of the armada and there are no guarantees."
"What about the Antarctic outpost? Is there anyway you can get down there and use that?" asked one of the generals in the room.
The question was directed at me. So I answered him. "If you'd done your homework you'd know that the drones are depleted and it won't work anymore. Atlantis has a few, but not enough to spare some for us." I was frustrated with all this chatter; I wanted to get out there.
"Anything else, General Davis?" The president asked.
"No, sir that about sums it up for now."
"All right, done. General O'Neill you're recalled to duty and as of this moment, you are now Major General O'Neill and you answer only to me. Understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good, see all of General Davis' recommendations are seen to. Thank you, ma'am and gentlemen." He turned on his heel and walked out the room.
"Right," I clapped my hands together. "Any questions? Good," I said leaving no room for any. "Colonel Carter, General Davis, you're with me." I followed the president out of the room.
2031
Jack!
Jacob, when did you get here?
A couple of hours ago. I hear you and Baal had a run in.
You could say that.
Sam filled me in on what happened.
It is really good to see you, Jacob. It's been years; Sam and I were really beginning to get worried. I heard about Selmac, how is it?
What the transition to a new blending? Hard for both of us really, but we're getting there.
So how is tic-tac?
Ten'ack, you mean.
Yeah, him.
I'm fine thank you, General O'Neill. I am pleased to meet you.
Yeah, you too. . . Jacob, you there?
Yes, I am here, Jack.
I was wondering . . . you see, Sam tried the healing device on my leg and she couldn't quite do anything and I really need to be back on my feet and I was hoping you and Ten'ack could you know . . . If you could pass me the phone there, I'll ring for the healing device to be sent up.
What you mean this?
Jacob, you old . . .
Now, now, Jack.
2031
The SGC wasn't the same without the old staff there. I missed Siler and Walter who had left and even Dr. Lee was now in the Pegasus galaxy. Some had retired, while others had moved onto other pastures. Even though I still looked as young as I did twenty odd years ago, everyone surrounding me looked too young to be in the positions they were in.
"Major Satterfield, what is the progress on the Stargate?"
The strong woman stood before me, no nervousness showing from being in my presence, she'd known me for a long time and knew that it was just gruffness.
"Expected arrival to be at 2000 hours, sir."
"So, we've got four hours to get the place spic and span ready for its old home then." I smiled encouragingly at her.
"Yes, sir."
She saluted smartly and turned on her heel and left my office. I knew by the end of the day, the casualness will return, of which I didn't mind at all.
Paul Davis took that moment to pop into my office.
"We've got the teams ready for the extraction."
"How many in all?" I asked.
"Eighteen. A few more clones popped up on the radar. They seem to lead through to each other."
I nodded, "Excellent, I'll expect a report when done."
"Yes, sir." He smiled; I could see the anticipation of action excite him.
"Is the cell ready?"
"Yes, they've just finished welding the bars."
"Good work, Paul." I nodded for him to leave.
"Thank you, sir."
There was one other thing that I would like to find out how it was progressing and to find out, I needed to go to the source. I wanted to stretch my legs anyway.
Sam's lab was a hive of activity. Huge bits of machinery filled the benches and technicians were scurrying too and fro.
"Sam," I called, her head was buried inside a rather tatty looking doohickey.
"Hey." She turned her head around and flashed me one of her smiles that made my heart do flips.
"How's it going?"
"We've nearly got there, we needed to see if we could get them to a higher standard down here and then we can up-grade the rest in space."
"We?" I asked. A feeling of fear niggled in my gut.
She smiled again, "Well my team, no not me," she assured me. "I need to be here to co-ordinate everything."
"How much longer," I asked.
"Most probably," she looked at her watch, "By about 0200 hours."
"Thanks." I smiled, took a quick look around the lab and left. It was time to report to my Commander in Chief.
The following day, the teams were in space re-adjusting the satellite defence system. Sam looked exhausted, but then I could not of looked that flash either. We'd been up all night settling our new inmates into their custom built cells. They weren't happy campers either, much to my delight.
The Baals were ensconced together with a number written on each of the back of their hands in indelible ink so we could tell them apart. I had already interrogated three out of the eighteen, but hadn't got anywhere. Each one had claimed they were the original. Janet had taken blood samples, she hoped she could tell from that. This was a relief as they were just as puffed up as the original and it was just impossible to know. It took all my self control to restrain myself and not take a zat and send them all into oblivion.
After finding out nothing from the captured Baals we set about contacting the Asgard and the Tok'ra in the hope that they would come to our aid, but so far no response from anyone. We did receive a garbled message from Teal'c, but we had no idea what it was, whether they were able to come or not.
We were on our own.
More reports came in to say that the armada wasn't far off and would be arriving at the expected time. We had done as much as possible to reduce casualties, but unfortunately, we couldn't prevent them all.
We'd evacuated area surrounding the building that had housed the Stargate before it was returned to Cheyenne Mountain. This really was the best place; safe from bombing and we had all the defences we needed to prevent entry via the Stargate.
It was now a waiting game. I decided to try and get some shut-eye with an order to Davis to wake me if anything happened. I hoped nothing did.
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