Thanks for the reviews guys. Hope you enjoy chapter 2 as much. There is a plot, I swear; it's building up gradually.
YESTERDAY.
by Lingren.
Italics...indicate the internal conversation between the host and his Tok'ra symbiote.
Previously:
"SG-1 report to the briefing room! SG-1 report to the briefing room!"
Chapter 2
A second later Jack hurried back to find Daniel still standing where he left him.
"What's up now?" Kanan asked seriously.
"How the hell should I know? I'm not psychic ya know!"
"You know Jack; you're so charming on occasions!"
"You know what you can do then? Get out of the kitchen if it's too hot!" Jack hissed.
Kanan sighed and retreated silently, leaving Jack to his thoughts.
Jack placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, tugging at him and muttering under his breath.
"C'mon Daniel, move it!"
"What's going on Jack?"
"How the hell do I know?" Jack yelled aloud this time, as he sped along the hallway.
Daniel hurried after his friend and they arrived in the designated room at the same time that Sam and Teal'c appeared, both climbing up the stairs from the control room.
When Sam's eyes caught and locked with Jack's, they couldn't help grinning widely at each other, and it was at that little exchange that Daniel had his assumption confirmed.
General Hammond emerged from his office two minutes later, ordering them to take a seat.
"What's up sir?" Jack asked, getting straight down to business.
"That's what I want to know too!" Kanan demanded.
Jack tuned his symbiote out while he wondered what was wrong this time, they were due to go off-world soon and he wondered if now it would be cancelled or deferred.
Hammond surveyed his best team, allowing his eyes to settle briefly over each one before he spoke.
"It's okay people, there's nothing amiss," he reassured them. "But I do have something important to tell you all," he paused for a moment, thinking about how he was going to break the news and how the team would take it, especially Jack. "I've had a request from the President. He's given his approval for a special VIP to visit the SGC. One who wants, more specifically, to meet with SG-1."
"General..." Jack began to interrupt, but Hammond held up a hand to fend his questions off.
"Is that it? So what's the big deal here? Why all the fuss?" Kanan gasped in astonishment.
"Try shutting up and then we'll both find out!" Jack snapped impatiently at his symbiote.
"I know what you're thinking Colonel, but without this man's earnest support, the SGC would have folded after the first few months. He is almost exclusively responsible for our continued finances."
"So just who are we talking about here sir?" Jack asked when Hammond had finished.
"His name is John Ryan. He's a big financier out there in the world of Wall Street. He's a very wealthy man."
"Isn't he that Billionaire philanthropist who's something of a recluse and rarely leaves his penthouse?" Daniel asked, vaguely recalling the name from somewhere.
Hammond nodded.
"He's not been seen in public much, if at all. He has several assistants who run all his errands for him. The fact that he's actually coming here to meet you is a little strange I'll admit, but he isn't getting any younger apparently and wishes to see you all before it's too late... His words not mine. He is reported to be in his seventies now, though I believe he is still spry for his age. Has a personal trainer and gym, so I heard. Of course the President wants him to be treated with the utmost respect, given his hold over the project's purse strings as it were."
"Oh here we go! As if Kinsey's interfering wasn't enough! Now we have to contend ourselves with another meddler? He'll probably decide he won't want to finance us any longer." Jack grumbled.
"You really think that he'll withdraw all the money which will in effect close the Stargate programme?" asked Kanan, worried about his host's future.
"It's possible. Who knows? What I do know is that you and I are not gonna find it comfortable living on Earth if they do," Jack growled.
"Why us? Why just SG-1?" Jack insisted aggrieved. "Why not the other teams? They're just as important too."
Hammond knew it was going to be a difficult request for Jack to accept. The Colonel hated all things that detracted from the job at hand. Talking with any VIP wasn't a strong point in O'Neill's book. He didn't have time for Financiers or Politicians alike.
"Jack, it's just for the afternoon. A few hours, that's all. Moreover, SG-1's exploits are his main concern. From what I can gather, he has read every one of SG-1's mission reports and is very knowledgeable about each and every one of you. Don't ask me how or why, but that's the way it is. Beyond that, I know absolutely nothing about him."
"When is his visit due sir?" Sam asked a little too enthusiastically. She was curious about the rather strange and obscure VIP. He intrigued her, and she loved a mystery, one where she was hoping to discover something about him if she could.
Jack turned and frowned at her seeming interest in some ancient fossil with more money than he could poke a stick at; and who pushed his nose in where it wasn't wanted.
"Next week Major. A couple of days after your return from P2Z 698. The whole of the SGC will have to be cleared of non-essential personnel that day. He wishes to remain anonymous, and it is not his desire to meet with anyone other than ourselves."
"If you ask me sir, he sounds a little eccentric. You know; a few fries short of a happy meal," Jack groaned. He really didn't like this idea. "This really sucks General. I mean; if we let one of those Bozos down here, then we'll have a whole bunch of them lining up to take a peek. It'll be like working in a zoo...sir! Did I mention this was a bad idea?"
"Rest assured Jack, this is a one off. I made that quite clear to the President, but he was adamant that we should 'humour' this man. Without him, you'd still be retired."
"Oh, I can't wait sir," Jack muttered, slumping back in his chair. He picked up his pen and twirled it with his long fingers, needing to take his irritability out on something.
"With what you said earlier, I don't think I want to know what he has in mind," Daniel muttered softly.
"Right!" Hammond sighed. He glanced down at his watch, time was getting on. "SG-1, you had best get yourselves geared up. Your mission is due to leave in less than 40 minutes. Dismissed."
"Yes sir!" Jack was up and on his way to the door before the words had left his mouth. He wasn't too keen on being looked over by a multi-millionaire like a pet poodle at a dog show. He wasn't exactly agreeable with the whole idea of letting people like 'him' into the complex or letting him in on the biggest secret in the world. No-one was supposed to know of the SGC's existence, except a very few politicians, the Joint Chiefs and the President himself.
"He sounds like a really pompous and pretentious old...shrub!" Jack muttered to the others as they waited for the elevator. The comment elicited grins on two of his team's faces and one raised eyebrow on the other.
OoOoOoOoO
SATURDAY 1100hrs.
The wormhole blinked out of existence, leaving SG-1 in sudden silence, and standing on the gate's stone platform amid a sea of tall grasses.
Far off to the north, or what could be classed as north on this planet, there was a range of low hills. That's where they were headed.
Jack stood poised on the threshold of the gate and surveyed the lie of the land. He couldn't see any sign of habitation or activity. Breathing a sigh of relief, he stepped from the dais and stood knee deep in long grass that rustled softly in the light breeze.
"Ya think the welcoming committee forgot to mow the lawn?"
"Then it's obvious that they don't get that many visitors sir," Sam speculated.
"It appears that no-one has travelled this way in many months. I see no sign of tracks," Teal'c's deep voice rumbled in the still atmosphere.
"Look on the bright side Jack; at least it's not raining!" Daniel added. After their last mission had been a fiasco of rain, hail, sleet, thunder and lightning, floods and seismic activity, this looked like paradise.
"There is that I guess!" Jack agreed wholeheartedly.
"I'm not picking up any signals sir. Maybe we're just too far away," Sam stated, looking at the palm sized scanner in her hand.
"Okay. So, no yellow brick road to follow huh?"
"No sir," she grinned.
"Teal'c you got our six. Carter, lead the way," Jack smirked, executing a deep bow with a flourish of his cap, making Sam giggle.
Daniel rolled his eyes, and their commander's gesture left Teal'c wondering if O'Neill was perhaps sickening for something.
They started off on their hike, though Jack's gaze was centred on the Major walking a metre or so in front of them. Daniel hurried to catch up to Jack and matched his steps to those of Jack's long strides, seemingly unhampered by the tall gently swaying grass.
"So, it was good then?" Daniel nudged his friend.
"Hmmm?" Jack murmured not taking his eye off Sam. "What?" he asked suddenly realising that Daniel had asked him 'that' question and turned to frown at his friend.
"You and Sam. It must have been good the way you two are...acting."
"You can say that again Danny boy!"
"Oh who woke you up? Butt out slime ass!"
"Well, if I could get a word in edgeways, I'd tell him for you..."
"Oh no you don't! It's none of his business! And neither is it any of yours!"
"You'd prefer that I found a woman of my own?"
Jack couldn't think of a suitable answer to that right now, but he could see the outcome very clearly. He didn't think Sam would be very pleased about the prospect of sharing his body with another woman even if Kanan was the one in charge at the time.
"Daniel, what part of 'I'm not telling you!' don't you understand?"
"It's more a case of not understanding why you're not telling me!" Daniel sighed.
Jack growled softly in frustration.
"I'm still not telling you, so forget it!"
"You know Jack…you're no fun. I want to see his face when you tell him about the..."
"No way! Not if you want to stay in this body you don't!"
"You wouldn't!"
"Wanna try me?"
"Well it was worth a try," Kanan sighed in defeat.
"You know Jack; you're no fun these days!" Daniel said with a sigh, unconsciously echoing Kanan's very words.
"We're on a mission Daniel!" he huffed, as if that explained everything; and which meant he really should survey the land and not Carter's...ahem. He dragged his eyes away with difficulty.
Daniel fell quiet and after a moment, Jack broke into the awkward silence, more to take his mind of last night, and help him concentrate on the job at hand.
"So, Daniel, tell me what these ruins are supposed to be like?" Jack asked, changing the subject. He knew, well he was hoping, that Daniel would forget all about his love life and concentrate on his favourite subject. Even if it did mean a boring journey ahead.
He was right.
Daniel droned on about how the settlement looked to be of Mayan origins or something like that, but Jack wasn't really paying him much attention.
TBC