By the time Jack got to Atlantis, he was in a horrible mood.
Not only had he been forced to cancel his trip with Sam again, but the powers that be didn't even let him fly himself out to Pegasus because they didn't want the SGC to be down a jumper while he was gone. They made John Sheppard play chauffeur and Jack flashed back to the last time the pilot had flown him somewhere and they'd almost gotten killed by a rogue drone.
Nothing so drastic had happened this time, but he still had to stay in Atlantis while Sheppard got to go home to Earth. He got the feeling that both of them would have preferred to trade places.
Sheppard looked oddly reluctant to leave and even made a half-joking "I'd be happy to stick around and be your tour guide, General" comment as they parked the jumper. If it was Jack's decision, he might have let Sheppard stay. Unfortunately, he had to send him back on his way to Earth with the jumper that was more valuable than either of their preferences. He asked Sheppard to send his regards to everybody at the SGC, including those from his former SG team.
Richard Woolsey greeted Jack as soon as he arrived. The man looked relieved, as if Jack's arrival solved the problems he'd been having. If only Woolsey knew that he'd invited more problems onto himself by requesting help.
"General O'Neill, thanks for coming back. I hope we aren't interrupting anything important."
Jack grudgingly shook Woolsey's outstretched hand.
"Only my vacation with my girlfriend, Woolsey," he replied. "Of course hanging out with you because you couldn't get the job done on your own is so much better than laying out on the beach next to a beautiful woman. Perfect use of my time."
At Jack's words, it was almost like Woolsey folded back into himself. Jack knew that there were some things the man was good at, but he never should have been placed in the position of being Earth's representative. Jack had tried to argue for Elizabeth Weir, but the Lanteans didn't want her hanging around and he'd been overruled. The IOA thought Woolsey was the one.
Personally, Jack thought if the man couldn't hold his own with a pissed off General, there was no way he'd hold his own with another race of people.
He wasn't looking forward to having to be both the peacemaker and the hardass in these negotiations. Hopefully, Woolsey would contribute more than awkwardly putting his hand on Jack's arm when he objected to his word choice.
"Sorry about that," Woolsey finally managed.
Jack didn't feel like making the other man feel better so he just waved the man's apology away and got to work.
"So what's been the problem here?" he asked.
Woolsey frowned and adjusted his glasses.
"Well, when we came here last...That is, when they asked to talk to the leader who could speak for all of the people of Earth -"
"I remember."
That had been a hell of an awkward meeting, trying to balance the sunk costs of everything they'd put into Atlantis with the very real emotions of the Tria crew who just wanted to return home without interlopers there.
Jack wasn't looking forward to more of those discussions, especially if they veered back into the "Who is really responsible for the Wraith?" blame game.
"It seems they're under the impression that even though both of us came to Atlantis to represent the interests of Earth…" Woolsey trailed off.
"What is the problem?" Jack repeated.
Woolsey adjusted the sleeve of his suit.
"They're under the impression that I'm somewhat powerless," he admitted after a moment's pause. "They don't seem to like me much, General. They believe that you're the only one who can speak for the people of Earth."
The weight of that responsibility suddenly felt so heavy that Jack worried it was going to pull him under.
"Leader of Earth?" he replied instead, as he tugged slightly on his tie to loosen it. "Cool."
Woolsey didn't look like he thought it was cool at all.
Jack didn't think Woolsey deserved to be upset. If he'd done his job correctly, Jack would be on a flight with Carter right now. She'd be leaning against his side, reading some unpublished theoretical physics article and he'd be able to smell her shampoo. He'd be relaxed instead of feeling that the weight of the universe was on his shoulders.
"Why don't you show me to my room and brief me on where things are with the talks."
"Yes," Woolsey agreed as they started to walk towards the residential area of the city. "Things have been challenging. In fact, at this point I'm not certain why they allowed us to have a liaison in the first place. They don't seem to want to offer us much of anything in terms of knowledge or technology."
"So basically the same as every other advanced race we've come in contact with," Jack observed as Woolsey directed him towards a doorway and it opened automatically.
The room was spare and lacking even the small touches of home that had existed when the Atlantis team was here. At least they'd left the sheets and pillows.
Jack tossed his suitcase onto the bed.
"Yes," Woolsey admitted. "We've barely been able to broach the list of questions left by the Atlantis science team and they're very close-lipped about the additional new pieces of technology that I've seen them use since they arrived."
This sounded like it was going to be a headache and not the quick turnaround that he'd been hoping for. He might as well unpack.
"And what are they saying about a timeline for the return of Earth exploratory and military teams?"
Jack opened the suitcase and opened a drawer in a nearby dresser. He began the slow process of transferring items from one to another.
"They're saying twenty years."
Jack paused, straightened, and turned back to Woolsey. "Twenty years?"
The shock must have been evident in his voice because Woolsey grimaced before he nodded.
"If they don't want people from Earth back on Atlantis for two decades, why the hell are you and I here?"
Woolsey sighed, took off his glasses to rub the lenses against the fabric of his jacket, and placed them back on.
"I have no idea."
Jack couldn't help but think that at least Elizabeth Weir would have had more answers for him if she'd been the one who stayed.
He gave up trying to unpack and sat down on the bed.
"They haven't given you any reason for that timeline?" Jack asked. "What about when you talk to them outside of the formal negotiations, at meals or just around the city? What are they saying?"
Jack had been in a lot of situations where the most important information came up not during formal negotiations, but informal conversations.
Woolsey pulled up a nearby chair and sat down.
"They don't particularly like socializing with me. They're also busy reacquainting themselves with the city and restoring areas that have been damaged."
"Who have you been talking to then?" Jack asked. Woolsey had been the only person from Earth on Atlantis for a little over three weeks.
"It's fine. I have the check-ins with Landry and have been over to the Athosian settlement once. I brought a few books to read."
Oh god.
Jack really hoped that he wasn't going to have to be Richard Woolsey's friend.
"You have more books, right?"
"On the last one," Woolsey admitted. "I should have asked you to bring more."
Jack frowned. "Don't worry, we'll make you some friends. I'm sure the Ancients will like you once they get to know you."
Woolsey looked relieved and Jack was glad he didn't see through the lie. Three weeks was a long time. If the people on Atlantis didn't like the man yet, Jack wasn't sure how much he could do to change their mind.
There had to be at least one other person out there, though, who would talk to Richard so he didn't have to. If that didn't work, Jack hoped Woolsey's last book was a long one.
When they were done debriefing, Woolsey returned to his room and Jack finished unpacking.
At the bottom of the suitcase, he felt something hard. He grabbed the unexpected item and pulled it out.
Jack looked at it and let out a short laugh. His travel chess set. Sam must've packed it when he wasn't looking. He set it next to his deck of cards. At least he'd have a couple ways to entertain himself while the negotiations were ongoing.
It was better than nothing.
It, of course, was also far worse than being able to personally apply sunblock to Samantha Carter's fair skin, but life wasn't perfect.
He'd get through it and then go home.
On the second day of renewed talks, Jack finally realized why they were being rolled on negotiations. Helia and her people did want something from them, they just didn't want to give up anything in return. They were stonewalling and setting absurdly high negotiation anchor points so that by the time they gave on anything, Earth's representatives would be so grateful that they wouldn't realize they'd gotten the bad end of the deal.
He thought back to something Woolsey had said in that first meeting with the Ancients over a month ago, when they still thought they could form a collaborative alliance: There is so much that we can learn from you. And in return, we can offer supplies, manpower, the kind of support you'll need to restore Atlantis to its former glory.
They didn't seem to want the manpower, so Jack figured it was probably down to supplies and raw materials of some kind. He just didn't understand why they hadn't asked yet for what they wanted. Until they gave a hint of their priorities, these talks were just going to keep going in circles. As it was, Helia had started leaving most of the conversations to her second in command in favor of other responsibilities, which left Jack feeling like they were negotiating with the B team.
He wondered if this was what the Lanteans felt like when they'd been left to negotiate with Woolsey.
On the third day, Jack gave up on dressing formally and went back to wearing his more comfortable BDUs. He figured, as the supposed Leader of Earth and a man who was supposed to be on vacation, he could make his own rules. Rule number one was no tie if you had to spend more then a few days off-world.
A week later, he started to understand what the Ancients really wanted. They wanted information. They'd been out of touch for thousands of years and knew nothing about the current status of either the Pegasus or Milky Way galaxies. Woolsey, unknowingly, had been doling it out piece by piece, but they wanted it all. All of the intel, all of the gate addresses with civilized populations, all of the data on current stores of elements such as naquadah, naquadria, and trinium...they basically wanted everything that Stargate Command had earned with sweat and blood over the past decade for next to nothing.
Of course, they never said that outright. They only dropped hints about wanting to look in the SGC databases.
Jack O'Neill had never been a fan of subtlety.
The talks continued to drag on.
Then, one day, Helia interrupted the negotiations to announce that their long range sensors had picked up a Replicator ship heading their way.
In a bizarre twist, no one on Atlantis seemed concerned about that update. For a moment, he started to wonder if the Ancients were actually Replicators themselves. He knew they weren't - several of them had submitted to blood tests after their arrival - but for a crew that had been beaten so badly they got stuck on the other side of the universe, their confidence was really odd.
When it was time for their daily check in with the SGC, he and Woolsey stepped up to the console and the call connected.
"General!" he greeted.
"General," Landry replied.
Jack thought he spotted John Sheppard on the screen. He wondered how the man was liking working at the SGC.
"Is that Sheppard there with you?"
"Yes, sir," the man in question responded.
Jack was about to ask him a question when Woolsey spoke.
"Talks are proceeding at an acceptable pace, but the real news is that the Pegasus Replicators are heading back to Atlantis to make another run at the city."
Woolsey was putting a rosy spin on things. The talks were not proceeding at an acceptable pace. They were slow as hell and barely making any progress. Jack's addition had only marginally improved things. He'd been here for more than two weeks already, unable to do his real job or start making things up to Carter. It was completely unacceptable.
He'd been worried that she would get sent out to Atlantis and instead, he was stranded out here for the foreseeable future without her.
And now the Replicators were on their way to the city.
"They are?" Sheppard asked.
"No one here seems to be that worried about it," Jack replied. It was a fact that made Jack feel more than a little suspicious.
He wished he could go into more detail, but they didn't have a secure place to make calls here. For all he knew, the Ancients were listening in to each and every one of them.
"Why not?" Landry asked.
"They're Ancients," Jack replied with a shrug.
"Apparently these Replicators have a law in their base code that makes it impossible for them to harm their creators," Woolsey added.
It sounded a little too good to be true, as far as Jack was concerned.
"And they're expecting to find us," Sheppard filled in.
"According to Helia they're going to run into some kind of nasty surprise," Jack explained. He was still annoyed that the Ancients refused to elaborate on what might happen to the Replicators if they tried to invade.
"So you can pass it on to Doctor McKay that if you and he hadn't rescued the Ancients," Woolsey continued, "and returned Atlantis to their care -"
"Might've lost the city anyway," Sheppard realized.
"Right," Jack confirmed. "Well, we should get back to our talks...and talks and talks. O'Neill out."
Jack wasn't sure what was left to talk about. He walked away and headed towards the western pier, telling Woolsey to end the negotiations for the day or go without him. He'd been spending a lot of time on the pier, looking out on the ocean and pretending to fish.
At the check-in a couple days ago, Landry had been pulled away before the call concluded and Jack asked Sergeant Harriman to pass along a message to Carter that he'd only be here one more week. Woolsey, thankfully, had been talking to one of the Ancients at the time.
He crossed his fingers that he'd been telling the truth about the timeframe. He was tempted to just steal a jumper and head home now.
At this point, Jack hoped he and Carter were still dating by the time he returned to Earth.
When he was first sent out here, Jack thought it would only be a couple of days. A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks.
Now he was starting to wonder if the additional week he'd promised Carter had been overly optimistic. With the minutiae of the day's discussions and the Replicators on their way, he doubted the pace would pick up. The end of the week would mark a month and a half since the Atlantis team had left the city.
So little had been accomplished since then. The personal cost was too high.
Jack didn't want to end up spending the rest of his life pretending to fish all by himself.
He wasn't surprised when Woolsey sat down next to him half an hour later, book in hand.
"What are your thoughts about the Replicators returning?" Woolsey asked after spending about ten minutes attempting to read.
"I think it sounds too good to be true. Their information is ten thousand years out of date. They have no reason to be that confident that the Replicators don't pose a threat."
Woolsey placed his book to the side. "Yeah, I was wondering if you'd say something like that."
Jack wondered if they should 'gate home tomorrow just so they were out of harm's way in case the worst happened and it turned out that the Ancients underestimated the threat after all. He just wasn't sure if he could justify that choice and potentially causing negotiations to break down again just because he had a bad feeling.
If Sam were here, she would've helped him figure out the best path forward.
"Did you leave anybody at home, Richard?"
"Me?" the man asked, no doubt surprised that Jack was trying to have a personal conversation with him. "No. I'm divorced, no kids. Married to the job, as it were."
Jack made a soft, noncommittal noise.
"I was married to the job once. It's not worth as much as you might think."
He thought of all of the years he'd sacrificed being away from Charlie and Sara, and then all the years he sacrificed being close to Carter without being able to offer her what she deserved. He'd almost lost her so many times and now he was stuck in a different galaxy without her.
"You worried the girlfriend won't understand?"
Jack was a little surprised that Richard would broach the topic, but it wasn't like there were any other people from Earth here for either of them to talk to.
"She'll understand," he replied. Sam Carter was one of the few people on Earth who would. "I just wish she didn't have to."