Chapter 7

Two jeeps from Santini Air pulled into the driveway of the warehouse followed by a white limousine. Dom drove the lead jeep with Caitlin riding shotgun. Stringfellow Hawke drove the second with his brother Saint John Hawke in the passengers' seat. He decided it was time to confront Jack about his suspicions. After parking the vehicles they gathered outside the door. Michael Coldsmith-Briggs the Third or Archangel made his way with Marella by his side.

Archangel looked upon the face of a man the Firm seemed to be unable to find despite his best efforts. "Saint John," he offered a handshake. "I heard about the raid. I'm pleased the military was able to find and retrieve you and the other prisoners."

His shook his hand, "I'm not so sure about that. You are Archangel."

"Michael Coldsmith-Briggs the Third," he replied wondering what he meant. "You can call me 'Michael'. Archangel is simply a code name. I see no need to use code names in this new project."

String asked, "Do you know why Colonel Hammond asked us all to come?"

"I do not." he admitted. "Shall we?" He motioned to step through the door.

Once inside they spied the table and donuts at the far wall where everyone seemed to gather around. They made their way walking past KITT who was parked in the middle of the area with the door open and Sam sitting behind the wheel talking to the car like an old friend while sipping her coffee.

They reached the table and found George Hammond who was waiting for them to arrive. Archangel greeted his contact, "Colonel Hammond."

"Michael," he spoke loudly to get his voice over the crowd.

Both Michael Knight and Michael Coldsmith-Briggs the Third responded. Michael Knight asked, "Colonel?" He assumed he called his name.

Hammond then realized he two men who responded to the name Michael. He gave a sour look, "That Michael." He motioned towards Archangel.

Stringfellow Hawke looked to his friend, "You were saying Michael? No need for code names."

The old spy concluded, "Use my code name when we are all gathered together, Colonel."

Jack suggested, "Just call them by their last names."

Daniel stated, "You are going to call him 'Coldsmith-Briggs the Third', Jack?"

He pondered and asked, "How did you get that name anyways?"

He stated, "From my father, who got the name from his father who got the name from his father." He held up three finger, "The third."

Jack stated, "I like Archangel. We will call ya that."

"Very well, Colonel. So, what is this meeting about?" he asked.

Jack called, "Hey everyone! Gather around." He waited as the group gathered around him in a large circle. Sam emerged from the car with a huge grin on her face. She stepped up beside him and stood between Jack and Daniel. He looked at her, "You seem to be right your element over there, Carter." He referred to her talking with KITT.

She blushed, "I really like KITT and the car is pretty cool."

"You can't have it." he insisted.

She rolled her eyes annoyed, "I didn't even suggest it."

He smiled at her, "But you would." He then admitted, "The Trans Am is cool."

She countered, "Without KITT it's just a car, sir."

"I know." he agreed. He looked about, "Okay! This little wing ding is for clarity. We are all on the same team here and we need to get the team on the same page." He looked to Saint John Hawke. "You remember waking up on the ship, don't you?"

He confessed, "I remember something like that."

Jack started, "That whole memory implanting thing doesn't work on everybody. Thor doesn't like doing it. He did it at my request. We needed a cover story for how you and those other men were found and freed." he explained. "Don't blame Thor. He was helping you."

Saint John stated firmly, "What I saw was not human."

Jack agreed, "He's Asgard! He's not human. For that matter, Teal'c is Jaffa." He pointed towards his friend. "He's from another planet and is here to help us."

Teal'c clarified, "And in doing so help my people as well."

Marella's eyebrow lifted rather surprised. "Another planet?"

"I am from Chulak." he informed.

Archangel asked, "What is that…on your forehead?"

He explained, "It's symbol of Apophis. A false god who enslaved my people and rules over them with fear and terror tactics. I was forced to serve his military. That changed the day Colonel O'Neill arrived with Daniel Jackson. They gave us hope and the Free Jaffa will win."

Dom asked, "You mean Colonel O'Neill came to your planet and helped you?"

"Indeed." he confirmed.

The old fighter Ace asked Jack, "How did you get to his planet? Do we have space ships?"

"No, not yet." he shook his head. "We went there through the Star Gate."

String stated, "This is getting interesting. What is the Star Gate?"

Sam spoke up, "It's an alien device that creates a wormhole. The wormhole connects form one Star Gate to another. The one on Earth connects to the one on Chulak. They are seeded throughout the galaxy."

String asked, "Where did we get it from?"

She looked to Daniel, "You should explain that."

He gave a nod, "In 1928, Professor Paul Langford headed an archeological dig in Egypt. He uncovered the Gate which the ancient Egyptians buried after they rose up against Ra…another alien false god. That put Earth into isolation for six thousand years. The Gate system was made eons ago by another race called the Ancients. There was initially four great races that rules the galaxy fifty thousand years ago. The Ancients were advanced humans and made the Star Gate and seeded them through out the galaxy. Most died off in a plague. A few survived by means of ascension where they managed to let go of their physical bodies and become an energy based life form. In our religious text we refer to them as angels. The Nox are isolationist and don't want to get involved. The Furlings…we have no idea what happened to them. The Asgard are our friends. They help us, have trade deals with us and have dubbed us the fifth race. Thor is the Supreme Leader. The Asgard have ships and do not rely on the old Star Gate system. For them it's an antique. But he helps us. I have a lot to unpack. Listen carefully. Okay." he paused and looked over his audience.

String assured, "We're listening."

"Alright," he took a breath and chose his words. "There are number of races out there. Some are friends and some are not friends. The Goa'uld is a race that requires a host to survive. They look…not so appealing…in their natural form. They also have a god complex. They are programmed by the parent to think it's a god and have all the knowledge of the parent passed down genetically. They looked kind of like snake and can completely take control of the host. They suppress the host and since they are inside the body they can blend into the population."

Caitlin gulped, "That doesn't sound good. They can just take someone against their will."

"Yes," he nodded. He paused as he thought of his late wife for just a moment. "They can control the host. For the host it's a living nightmare. Trying to remove the Goa'uld is difficult. It can shed it's body and implant itself deep in the brain. We have one on Earth…Ba'al. His host is living a nightmare. I hate to say this but…" he looked at Jack for a moment, "Sometimes death is the most merciful way to deal with it. The only one who can remove the Goa'uld from the host currently is Thor. He has technology to do it."

Caitlin asked, "Is the host human? Do we have description?"

"We can get you a description. His host is human but from another planet. Unless, he took a new host. He's been three years now." Daniel informed.

"Three years!" Michael Knight stated. "Little late getting party going."

"We just got here." he told him. "We've been here only a few days now."

"What?" he asked confused.

Sam spoke up, "There is another element to the situation. The element of time. We were off world, on Thor's ship. He was assisting us. We were trying to secure an Ancient device. It's a warp drive engine. All vessels use hyperspace or subspace to travel. A warp drive engine would require far less energy. It uses gravity to wrap space and push a ship along. Ba'al got the engine. We were in pursuit on Thor's ship and we were in hyperspace when Ba'al activated the warp drive engine. That cause a massive rip in space. It created a wave and we rode that wave to Earth. In the process Ba'al also created a time dilation field. Normally time would slow down in such a field but due to us being in hyperspace he ripped a whole right through time and space and we came off that wave and landed seventeen years into the past. There is another, much younger version of me here already. I was a cadet in 1985."

Daniel added, "I was a student in college."

Janet stated, "I'm a med student right now."

Teal'c informed, "My younger self is enslaved to Apophis currently."

Jack fondly recalled, "My son was born. I was a Major."

String asked, "You have a family, Colonel?" He was concerned that perhaps Jack would not see his family again.

"Had," he sighed. "My son died. It was an accident. My wife left me. I can't blame her. I don't have a family anymore." he shook his head. He noticed how the room fell silent. He stated, "We all have taken loses. Daniel lost his wife to the Goa'uld. Carter lost her mom in an accident. Teal'c lost his wife because of the Goa'uld." He looked to Janet, "Frasier adapted an orphan from another planet after she lost the whole damn planet. We have all taken loses."

String asked, "Is that why you found my brother for me?"

"Thor found your brother." he informed. "He heard you talking with Carter over the comms that she installed in Airwolf. He wanted to help you since you were helping us. He found him in no time. Beamed him and the others up to his ship, fixed them up and beamed them back down. It was in an instant. That's why you don't remember the rescue. You were out in the blink of an eye." he told Saint John.

String asked, "We will get to meet Thor?"

Jack nodded, "He's agreed to beam down to speak to all of you." He looked over the audience, "I should warn ya. He doesn't look like us. He's about three foot tall, has a large head, large eyes, small mouth, is naked…"

"I think I should explain," Sam stated upon seeing the concerned expressions. "The Asgard were once more like us but they lost the ability to reproduce. They were victims of their own technology. So, they turned to cloning. Thing is each time you make a clone it's a little bit different. After thousand of years of cloning to just stay alive their appearance is far from what they used to be. The Asgard are suffering. They are a dying race. We are trying to help them but the problem is massive and affects the entire civilization." She then added, "Thor is actually stuck here with us. He can't go home because he's already there."

"Let me get all this straight." Michael Knight started, "You guys are from the future, you came here on a ship, you are part of a secret space program we have in the future, there are aliens on Earth and one in orbit above us right now."

Daniel and Jack traded glances. The archeologist gave a nod, "About sums it up."

String asked, "Star Gate Command is what?"

"Base that holds and operates the Star Gate." Jack told him. "Hammond is our C.O."

Hammond bragged, "I make General."

Devon spoke up, "I also have some news to add. I spoke with Wilton Knight this morning. He has pulled some favors in from the Pentagon…"

Daniel rolled his head back waiting for the bad news. "He didn't…"

"I'm afraid he did. He has the Star Gate coming to this warehouse and he had recruited Dr. Catherine Langford, daughter of Professor Paul Langford to run this program."

Daniel gasped, "He got Catherine!" He looked to his teammates.

Sam stated, "This completely changes the timeline. If we start dialing out we change the timeline of events."

Jack reminded them, "Ba'al has a warp drive engine and we don't know where he is. Which is worse?" he wondered.

Teal'c deemed, "Both are equally bad."

Colonel Hammond saw panic and concern set in Daniel's eyes. He stepped up, "Alright, SG-1. You are still under my command. Dr. Jackson, we will divide this mission up into two parts. An on Earth mission that find Ba'al and the engine and an off world mission to asses damage Ba'al may have created with the engine. You are our experts. You know what is out there and pitfalls. If this program is going to start early then I'm going to be a part of it. There may not be a Star Gate Command just yet but we function like there is one. Do I make myself clear?"

The audience watched as Hammond took control of the situation. Daniel seemed to sooth himself as if a parent had soothed a hyper child with re-assurance. Devon stepped closer to Archangel. He suggested, "We need to get Colonel Hammond that command now. Do you see how he just took control and how Dr. Jackson listened."

"I saw." he agreed. "Except, if the Pentagon takes over then they will put in charge whoever they choose and likely a General. We need to keep, Hammond here."

"And Colonel O'Neill's team." Devon agreed.