April 11, 2003 – Hulett, WY
Jack still wasn't any better. In fact, he might have been a bit worse. He slept at least 12 hours a day now. He still collapsed without warning.
This isn't good. I hope I have time to get the bastards before this kills me.
When he's been awake, Hailey has filled him in on what she found, and didn't find, in the Aschen core. He took the time to come up with some rough plans on how to take out their buildings and harvesters, but he didn't know how they were going to get into these places, and he didn't know who was going to carry out these missions. They had to be simultaneous, so he would probably need at least forty men to get this done. As for getting onto the harvesters, to take the transporter right on board would be suicide, if even possible. And they still didn't know what was being done to control population growth. Jack remembered those newspapers from P3A-194. Those were pretty much the only unsearched lead they had at this point, and he didn't know of anyone that could translate them.
All of a sudden, a white beam of light enveloped the three of them, and they were standing on Thor's ship.
"Thor, buddy, it's about damn time!"
"I came as soon as I was able, O'Neill."
Hailey and Vala were looking on in awe.
"Thor, this is the former Lieutenant Jennifer Hailey, and this is Vala Mal Doran. They are friends of mine that have been working with me on this whole Aschen deal."
"It is my honor to meet such warriors and friends of O'Neill."
"Hey, could you send me back where you got us for one moment? I want to have you look at something."
Jack was beamed away, and a moment later, beamed back with the Volian newspapers in his hands.
"Can you translate this language?"
"I can, O'Neill. If you wish, I can have the ship translate the articles and display their contents in English."
Gotta love Thor!
"Let's do that, buddy."
There was the headline they were looking for.
Vaccine From Newcomers Causes Sterility
"Hailey, in that Aschen core, you can lay out a map of the distribution of the various vaccines over a map of the population growth statistics, right?"
"Yes, sir." She smiled. He rarely played dumb anymore. It was like he didn't have time for it, and well, he didn't.
"So just match them up, and we'll know which vaccine is doing the job."
Jack swayed on his feet and almost fell over.
"Jack, are you ok?" Hailey ran to his side and put an arm around him.
"Thor, could you take a look at Colonel O'Neill? He was experimented on by the Aschen and hasn't been well," Jen asked him.
Jack was beamed into an Asgard healing pod. A few minutes later, he reappeared.
"Uh, Thor, I don't feel a whole lot better."
"Unfortunately, O'Neill, it appears this drug you were given has damaged certain parts of your brain, and most of the damage is too long standing for me to repair. I have repaired the most recent damage, as well as halted the progress, so it should not get worse."
"Ok, well, can't worry about that now," Jack grumbled.
"So, Thor, what's the deal? Are you here by yourself? How much help can you offer?"
"I have actually convinced the Asgard High Council to render limited assistance. I will be joined by Kvasir shortly, and at least one of us will remain until we are no longer needed. We are not authorized to capture or attack these Aschen without the express request of your world's leaders, but we can offer other assistance."
"Like, for example, use of your beaming technology?"
"That would be acceptable."
"Great! Thor, you mind sending us back? I have plans to put together. Do you have one of those doohickeys that I can call you with?"
"Yes, O'Neill. Here is a communication stone, and I will send you back at once."
"Thanks, buddy."
Soon, they all reappeared in the bunker.
"Vala, you want to take the ship, go pick up Ferretti and Wilkins, bring them here?"
"I'll go right now." She smiled at him, and Jack nodded.
"Good. Hailey, let's see which vaccine is wiping out our existence."
They looked for a few minutes when Jen found the answer.
"It's the anti-aging vaccine. I got it when it was first offered to the Air Force," she said in a resigned tone.
"I'm sorry, Jen," he offered as he put an arm around her.
"We're going to figure out a way to fix it. First, though, we have to figure out how to get rid of these Aschen."
"Ok, sir."
"Now, you said the bioweapons are on the harvesters, right?"
"Yes, each harvester is armed with them in case we get too uppity."
"You know where the weapon is located from their plans?"
"Yes, sir."
"What about dampening fields to limit damage from an explosion?"
"They have those too, sir. But from the power room, the power for both the dampening fields and the automated weapons can be shut off. And the power room is where the power generator is, so that is where we would get the biggest secondary explosion as well."
"Excellent. We get beamed into the power room, disable the dampeners and automated defense, plant the C4 on their generator, make our way to the bioweapon, plant C4 on that, and get beamed out of there."
"Sounds like a plan, sir." She smiled at him in his element.
"Where are their automated defenses powered for their buildings on the ground?"
"I'm pretty sure from our power grid. I didn't see any plans for extra power generation."
"Well, then that's easy enough. We just cut the power lines manually before moving in. I'm going to need to get us a bunch of help to pull this off. I have an idea though. First, let's go back to Thor. He can check you out, and we can see what it will take to fix our sterile population."
"Ok."
"Beam us up, Thor."
"O'Neill, you are back so soon?"
"Yeah, Thor, we figured out which vaccine is sterilizing the public, and apparently Jen here has received it, so I wanted to know if you can see what damage was done, and then see about healing her."
"I will do what I can, O'Neill."
"You want me to let you have some privacy, Jen?"
"No, it's fine, Jack. You need to know anyway."
Thor scanned Hailey and brought up an internal image on the screen.
"Lieutenant Hailey, it appears you have significant scarring and damage to your ovaries. This damage is quite long standing, and we are unable to cure it short of cloning you a new reproductive system. Asgard medical technology is able to assist in healing short term injuries and illnesses, but as damage remains, it becomes a normal part of your body's functioning, and our equipment is unable to repair it at that point."
"I understand Thor, thank you," Jen replied, tears welling in her eyes.
"Thor, who the hell can heal this then? The Nox?" His voice was getting louder.
"They may or may not be able to heal Lieutenant Hailey, but they cannot heal billions of your people."
Jack scrubbed his face with his hand.
"So who then? Someone's got to be able to do something?" He was almost yelling now.
"The only race I know of would be the Ancients."
"Oh, that's great. If this was 20,000 years ago we'd be in business then," he spat, and then a thought occurred to him.
"Did they have any healing devices like these other races have? I haven't heard of one."
"They did, but I have not seen one in many centuries. It is unfortunate that we do not have the blueprint. Then I could have my ship produce it for us."
"You what? Your ship can create an object from blueprints?"
"It can indeed, O'Neill."
Jack was thinking hard now.
Blueprints. Ancients. God, my head hurts.
"Thor, when I had my head sucked by that Ancient… headsucker, I was able to draw plans and build devices that I needed even though I wasn't really conscious of doing it. I wonder if I stuck my head in again, if I would do the same thing again."
"It is impossible to know for certain, but it is likely, O'Neill."
"So I might be able to make us an Ancient device to heal everyone, or several devices, because it would be a long line if there was only one. Ok, Thor. Thanks, buddy. Send us back now."
When they were beamed back down, they were met by Ferretti, Wilkins, and Vala.
"Hey, Jack, it's been a while. Killed any Aschen doctors while we were gone?" Ferretti asked him.
Jack glared at him. "What?"
"Nothing. I got grilled by Colonel Carter a few weeks back. Apparently, they suspect you for murdering two Aschen doctors. I told her if you did do it, I would buy you a God damn beer. Needless to say, she wasn't happy."
"Christ, Lou, don't antagonize them. Every word you tell her is going to get back to the Aschen. Anyway kids, it looks like we can see light at the end of the tunnel from here. I need to go round up more manpower, guns, and some C4. The op is pretty much planned in my head. I just have to get it on paper, along with the aftermath.
I also need to get the headsucker we brought back from '272. I know they took it to Area 51, but who knows where it is now? Hailey, you want to get into their system and find that out?
We really need to have a cure for the infertility before overthrowing the Aschen, or there will be mayhem in the streets. Billions of people rioting isn't really a better situation than serving the Aschen for a little longer.
Anyone who has loose ends to tie up at home should do so now. I don't know yet when we'll be ready, but I know I want to move as soon as we are."