Jack O'Neill arrived in the gate room, in Cheyenne Mountain, from the entrance the SG teams would usually use. The briefcase and the drawing he had held before had vanished. So had the blue uniform.
The stargate was at its usual place in the room, with an event horizon inside. O'Neill approached its ramp and looked around. The wormhole he had come from wasn't there anymore. Two other stargates had appeared from nowhere below the control room. Each was at the end of a metallic ramp, like the gate at the usual place in the room. Each gate was activated. The opposite side of each ramp was directed to the man. The general looked at his body. He was wearing the black outfit he had on Ender, minus the baseball cap and the combat equipment. Jack looked at the bay window of the control room. It was empty. When the general thought he was alone, he sensed someone on his left. He glanced at his left and jumped when seeing Daniel, in a green BDU.
"Hi, Jack," Jackson greeted, relaxed.
"Daniel? When did you…" Jack started, but he quickly dropped his idea to know when Daniel had arrived. "Whatever. What's this?" he inquired, waiving his hands.
The answer didn't come from the archeologist, but from Teal'c. The man was standing in a green BDU without the jacket on Jack's right, arms crossed behind back. "It's time to make a choice, O'Neill."
Jack turned to Teal'c. "Make a choice about what?"
Daniel took over, "Your way, Jack."
"My way? What are you talking about, guys?" Jack asked, glancing at the two men.
Teal'c responded when Jack looked at him, "You've seen the possibilities, O'Neill. Now, you have to decide which one will be yours."
Jack was skeptical. "You realize they weren't real, right? Well, that's what seems to be... Even this, you - O'Neill pointed out the room and the two men - it's not real."
"Indeed," the former prime intoned, tilting his head.
Jack felt somehow relieved. All this situations wasn't real... Having said that, it also meant that Jack wasn't real either, which was quite a problem. And where did these situations come from? What was going to happen next?
Daniel stood in front of Jack, the control room was now behind the archeologist. He put his hands into his pants pockets. "We're here because you brought us here, Jack."
"Oh, please, Daniel, don't start the we're-the-product-of-your-mind speech," Jack implored, annoyed. "If you want to help me, just tell me how to get out of whatever this is."
Daniel smiled, and replied mysteriously, "You're the only one who can help you, Jack. All you need to do is choose."
"Again, what are you talking about? What do I have to choose, and why?"
Daniel's serenity and speech were increasing Jack's irritation. Why did the man with glasses have to make this difficult?
"Don't you remember?" Daniel asked, raising his eyebrows. "You said you missed her. You thought about making her come back to Washington. You spoke about regrets."
O'Neill's intuition had proved to be correct. Ender was the key. He answered, "Yes, I remember our conversation, in that hill. What I don't remember is what happened between this conversation and the next events, and when it happened. Does it have anything to do with these tables? Or the fire? Did Faron throw a magical ingredient in it?"
"That's not the point, Jack," Jackson interjected. "The point is that you have to choose the future you want and how she will fit in."
"So, this was a sort of inner journey? And I have to choose a conclusion?"
Daniel and Teal'c nodded.
Jack looked around and realized something. "Just one detail, guys. How am I supposed to choose?"
Indeed, there were three gates and three ramps similar to each other.
Teal'c replied, "Just look carefully at the gates, O'Neill."
Seriously, Teal'c? Jack inwardly replied. He looked around again. This time, there was something new. A circular high table was standing on each of the metallic ramps. An item was on it. Jack's blue jacket with four stars on the epaulets was hooked on the table on the left. A Medal of Honor was laid on the table on the right. Jack turned around to the gate at the usual place in the gate room. He saw a frame and inside the frame, the drawing Ellie had made. O'Neill faced Jackson again. He glanced at the two people dressed in green, and thought.
The cogitation didn't take long, actually. Jack knew the journey he wanted with Sam. Jack was sure. Neither Daniel nor Teal'c pronounced Sam's name, but there was no doubt that these realities were about Jack and Sam.
Jack O'Neill wanted to walk with Samantha Carter, not against her or without her. It had been very simple and clear in only one situation. The one where Sam and he had been doing this together. And it had felt good. Perhaps the way hadn't been without obstacles, but Sam and Jack had seemed to have found solutions. It meant that Jack and his Sam could make it in the real world.
Jack O'Neill walked to the table with the drawing laid on it. He took the paper, smiled, looked at the event horizon, and stepped through the gate.
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Cold. Darkness. Or more exactly, a thin shade of light becoming bigger as his eyes were getting used to this new environment. Something thick but not less comfortable beneath his body. Before him, a row of tables. Tables firmly tied to the ground. Tables... not really tables, but platforms on which a human being could lie. Platforms with a glass-like inner surface on the top. Pillars at a side of each platform. Pillars to support a console panel.
The something thick but not less comfortable beneath his body was the glass-like inner surface of one of these platforms. He was lying on it, on the right side of his body.
Jack O'Neill jumped and sat up straight, realizing.
He was inside that hill, on Ender.
He looked at his hands. No ring. He noticed he was wearing a black outfit. He looked around. Equipment from Earth connected by wires to the platform and the console panel. Medical equipment to monitor his brain activity and heart rate.
Bradley, standing at the other end of the platform. She had been keeping an eye on O'Neill from a seat and had jumped, seeing his abrupt movement. She was staring at him, surprised and relieved.
"Bradley?" O'Neill said, as surprised and relieved as her.
"General O'Neill? You're okay?" Bradley queried, now worried.
"Uh... I guess I am..." O'Neill responded, not convinced by his own answer.
Bradley pressed a button on her radio and spoke into it, "Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Carter, this is Bradley. I need you in the hill. General O'Neill's awoken."
Jack heard Mitchell's voice coming from the radio reply that he was on his way with Carter. When Bradley looked back at O'Neill, the man, still confused, said, "Colonel Carter?"
"She came back to Earth when her situation at Atlantis was over. She came here as soon as General Landry told her about you, sir. She and Doctor Lee had been trying to find a way to wake you up for a couple of days," Bradley explained and ended with a smile, "Glad to see you back, sir."
O'Neill's brain processed the information. He had so many questions, but they could wait. The place and Bradley had given him the key information.
Sam, Atlantis, situation over, back to Earth, here, finding a way to wake him up.
Him, Ender, no ring, Bradley glad to see him back.
Jack O'Neill was back to his reality.