803 Lockdown

Bravado

There was no doubt about the 'O'Neill bravado' when he was going into battle. Who would follow him into battle if he questioned himself as leader or panicked at every disaster? How else could he rally his men to fight and believe they would succeed? Did Sara O'Neill realize it was a mask he had cultivated so well he seldom let anyone peek behind it? He had also managed to assume an air of indifference, nonchalance. It was a defense mechanism.

What would they have thought if they had seen him on Edora when he realized the Stargate was gone? The look of panic, defeat and hopelessness that overwhelmed him. So the next day he tried to find that mask and grabbed a shovel.

When they offered him the command of the base and the rank of brigadier, he removed his mask and told his team and asked their opinion, after all it would directly affect them as well. He had no one at home to tell, to be proud of his accomplishments, his rise in ranks. He had no one at home who cared.

And he knew when they put those stars on his shoulders he would have to put that mask on and wear it every day.

So he sat at his new desk, in his new comfy chair, in his new office with piles of reports and memos and his mask firmly in place.

Jack, the general, missed the outdoors, it was concrete by day and half the night. He didn't have time to view the night sky, barely time to sleep, never enough time. Gone were the days of complaining about trees.

All of them had spent so much time thinking about traveling among the stars they failed to take time to bask in the warmth of their own star.

Carter was popping out of a chair and standing to attention every time he walked in a room. Yeah, more distance with his former team - just what he needed. And he had to shoot Daniel - that didn't help. He almost didn't give them access through the Stargate when they were under fire.

He was lonely - maybe he should get a dog. In the past his crazy schedule, gone for days and, in his case, sometimes months, wouldn't have been fair to a dog. Now chained to a desk 14 hours a day, it wouldn't be fair to a dog. Sure as hell wouldn't be fair to a woman either.

O'Neill was wondering about his suitability to this command when the base was struck with a seeming contagion. It was Anubis. Why wouldn't that damned thing die already. Now in an incorporeal form, he passed from person to person leaving trauma in his wake. The Goa'uld needed a body to get off world and resume his path of domination and destruction. Anubis chose O'Neill, he was the base commander. Who would dare disobey him? Little did Anubis understand the people of Earth. Colonel Vaselov, who unwittingly brought Anubis to them, tricked the spector to again invade his ravaged body. And Carter sent him to his doom in a world lost in ice.

"You're getting Teal'c a place off base?" Daniel asked.

"Don't you think it's about time?" Jack said. "They're throwing all sorts of restrictions. A real pain. It's time to widen our thinking."

"What else, any thoughts about the Lost City?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"I was thinking about creating a new team to investigate sites here on Earth." said O'Neill.

"Have you been watching Ancient Aliens again?" Daniel asked.

"You Daniel?" Jack was amazed Daniel didn't jump on this bandwagon. "Don't you remember what was found in your alma mater? Osiris sound familiar? Or in Egypt or Honduras? Or Seth? Hmm?"

Sam asked "Won't we be intruding on the sovereignty of other countries?"

"We can do covet." Jack said. "Anyway there's probably enough to get started right here. You, Carter, need to go to Wright-Patt."

"Sir?"

"I need you to see what they may have lost in their basement."

Sam still looked confused.

"The Roswell remains were there first, then transported to Area 51. There's a good possibility a few odds and ends that may have been overlooked. But that will have to be put on the shelf until things have totally calmed down here." There were still some concerns over the battle over Antarctica. And cleaning up the debris of the crashed ships was so large a job it had been farmed out to some companies with military contracts.

"If things settle down it shouldn't be too long before we can poke around for more trouble." O'Neill said hopefully.