In a parallel universe:
It was a good day. Jack's peace group had staged a protest in the parking lot of the NORAD facility outside of Colorado Springs. He chortled as he recalled the outraged expression on the face of his long-time nemesis, General Maybourne, when the group of old hippies invaded the base. As an added bonus, one of his tribe, an enigmatic foreign guy named Murray, had emptied the contents of the commune's 'honeypot' into his other long-term nemesis, Colonel Simmons's car. Sweet!
As he steered his ancient VW van past the entrance to Cheyenne Mountain he recalled the day the Air Force recruiter had visited his high school. For one brief moment he wondered how his life might had turned out if he had signed up that day.
'Why anything could have happened,' he thought. 'I could have risen through the ranks, gone to officer training school, maybe even made Colonel by now. Yeah, Colonel Jack O'Neill, leader of men.'
Jack remembered an article his friend Danny had recently read to him. Danny was a pretty decent guy, even if he did work as a civilian consultant in some mysterious job at Cheyenne Mountain. Jack often wondered exactly what the Air Force needed an archaeologist for, or why Daniel seemed to drop off the face of the earth for long time periods, but he had long since accepted the fact that Daniel would never tell him.
'What was that article about again, parallel universes or something?' Jack thought. 'Yeah, that was it. Danny claimed that there were an infinite number of parallel universes, some like our own, some completely different. Hey, what if I had joined the Air Force? What would that have been like? Could there possibly be a military Jack O'Neill out there somewhere?'
Jack suddenly had a vision of Colonel O'Neill, complete with dress uniform and a regulation haircut. Shuddering in horror, he ran his hand through his long gray ponytail.
'Nah, that's crazy. No way would any version of me every join the establishment,' he though as he popped an 8-track of Country Joe and the Fish album into player and headed back to the commune. 'It could never happen.'
The End.
It was a good day. Jack's peace group had staged a protest in the parking lot of the NORAD facility outside of Colorado Springs. He chortled as he recalled the outraged expression on the face of his long-time nemesis, General Maybourne, when the group of old hippies invaded the base. As an added bonus, one of his tribe, an enigmatic foreign guy named Murray, had emptied the contents of the commune's 'honeypot' into his other long-term nemesis, Colonel Simmons's car. Sweet!
As he steered his ancient VW van past the entrance to Cheyenne Mountain he recalled the day the Air Force recruiter had visited his high school. For one brief moment he wondered how his life might had turned out if he had signed up that day.
'Why anything could have happened,' he thought. 'I could have risen through the ranks, gone to officer training school, maybe even made Colonel by now. Yeah, Colonel Jack O'Neill, leader of men.'
Jack remembered an article his friend Danny had recently read to him. Danny was a pretty decent guy, even if he did work as a civilian consultant in some mysterious job at Cheyenne Mountain. Jack often wondered exactly what the Air Force needed an archaeologist for, or why Daniel seemed to drop off the face of the earth for long time periods, but he had long since accepted the fact that Daniel would never tell him.
'What was that article about again, parallel universes or something?' Jack thought. 'Yeah, that was it. Danny claimed that there were an infinite number of parallel universes, some like our own, some completely different. Hey, what if I had joined the Air Force? What would that have been like? Could there possibly be a military Jack O'Neill out there somewhere?'
Jack suddenly had a vision of Colonel O'Neill, complete with dress uniform and a regulation haircut. Shuddering in horror, he ran his hand through his long gray ponytail.
'Nah, that's crazy. No way would any version of me every join the establishment,' he though as he popped an 8-track of Country Joe and the Fish album into player and headed back to the commune. 'It could never happen.'
The End.