Chapter 8: Spread All Over

Jack tried to say "I don't know," but all that came out was a croaking noise.

"Uh, Buffy, I think you're gonna have to let him breathe, if you want him to answer any questions," said Willow.

Jack was sure that Buffy was glaring up at him, but he couldn't really see her in the dark. She lowered him back down to the floor, and released his throat. Her hand reached under his jacket to grab his gun before he could try to go for it again himself—not that he was planning to. She twisted his arm around behind his back, and frog marched him into his living room. She spun him around, and forced him down into a chair. She stood over him in the dark. "Okay, let's try this again. What happened to my sister, Jack?"

Jack slowly moved a hand up to rub at his neck. He didn't want to make any sudden movements with Buffy there, and already pissed at him. "I don't know."

"What do you know?" asked Buffy.

"I can't tell you. It's classified."

Buffy grabbed the lapels of his uniform jacket, and half lifted him out of the chair. "I don't care about 'classified!' I just care about my sister. What happened to her?"

"We don't know!" said Jack. "We've been trying to figure that out all week! Nothing like this has ever happened before!"

"Nothing like what?" asked Buffy.

Jack closed his mouth. He had already said too much.

"You've got good security on your computer systems," said Willow. "I haven't been able to get very far into them, yet. I did get far enough to learn that you've got something you call a 'Stargate,' and I figure that has to have something to do with how Dawn's essence got spread around a dozen galaxies."

"What?" asked Jack. "How'd you—"

"The computer doesn't exist that can keep Willow out, if she sets her mind to it," said Buffy. "Give her a little more time, and she'll have everything, whether you tell us or not."

"No, not that— Well, yeah, that too— But how'd you come up with Dawn being spread over a dozen galaxies?"

"I did a locator spell," said Willow. Jack tried not to let his face show what he felt about the idea of a 'locator spell.' He was getting better at keeping his feelings off his face. Another side effect of the damn stars. He had to spend way too much time talking to politicians.

"The first one came up with this." Willow waved her hand, and Jack saw what looked like a holographic projection of a relief map of Colorado appear over his coffee table. Thousands of spokes of green light all converged on Cheyenne Mountain. He was impressed. He wondered where she had the projector hidden. Then he remembered all the things that he'd seen her doing on the island, without having anything hidden up her sleeves.

"I was expecting just one nice little green dot," said Willow, "but I got the spokes, so I had to reduce the scale to see where they went." Colorado started to shrink, and the curvature of the Earth became noticeable as the rest of the U.S. came into view. It kept shrinking, and the image became a globe.

The scale started to shrink more rapidly. The Earth shrank to a dot, and the sun seemed to enter through the wall. At first it filled the room with light, but it quickly shrank, and dimmed as it converged on the green nexus. The lines of green light still stretched outward. Stars started to appear, first through the walls, but then more started to rise up through the floor and fall through the ceiling, all of them moving inward toward that one central point of green light with the spokes emanating from it. Some of the green lines terminated at some of the new stars that appeared, and more nexuses sprang up, filling the room with a spider web of green light.

Stars fell into the room, faster and faster. More nexuses appeared. It became impossible to discern the individual spokes of green. The whole room was awash in green light. Patterns started to appear in the stars, bands in which they were spread more, or less densely. The bands compressed into a spiral of light. Jack could see the whole galaxy floating in his living room. It kept shrinking, until it was only a yard across.

A perfect replica of the Milky Way galaxy floated over Jack's coffee table. You couldn't see most of the individual stars anymore, just the bands of light where they were concentrated into the spiral arms. And it was all suffused with green light. Broad bands of green led away from it.

The galaxy continued to shrink. More galaxies started to appear in the room, linked to the Milky Way, and each other, by the bands of light. Soon there were a dozen of them, all inter-linked. The image froze.

"You get the picture," said Willow. "Those galaxies are full of Dawn. She's in them, and spread between them."

Jack pointed to one of the galaxies. "The Asgard." He pointed to another. "Pegasus."

"You know what they are," said Buffy.

"Yeah," said Jack. "I know what those two are."

"And the others?"

"Don't have a clue."

"So, just what are the Asgard, and Pegasus," asked Buffy. "Other than the place where that comic book Thor comes from, and a flying horse."

"You know, I really ought to show him one of those books," said Jack. "It might give him a kick."

"Huh?" asked Buffy.

"Thor," said Jack. "The Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet. If you subscribe to the Weekly World News you've seen him on the cover. He's the little grey guy with the big eyes…though actually it was Loki who inspired most of those pictures."

"What?"

"Look," said Jack. "I haven't slept for over forty-eight hours, and I expect that you two are pretty jet-lagged yourselves. I think we're going to need Carter to figure this out, and I already sent her to bed. She's gotten less sleep this week than I have. Why don't we get a good night's sleep, and we can all talk about this in the morning?"

"I don't want to wait until morning, Jack." Buffy grabbed hold of his lapel again, and pulled him toward her. "You somehow managed to spread my sister all over the damn universe. I want answers now!" She pulled her fist back, in preparation to hit him.

Willow laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Knocking Jack's head off won't get us any answers, Buffy."

"What she said," said Jack. He could remember her fighting that giant spider. She could knock his head off, if she wanted to. He wondered if she'd brought that weird axe-thing with her, but he didn't ask. He didn't want to give her any ideas.

"I don't want to knock his head off," said Buffy. "I just want to bruise it a bit."

"Miss Summers, please," said Jack. "I want to get Dawn back, almost as much as you do. Bruising me won't get that done."

"It might make me feel better though," said Buffy.

"Buff, we want his help. Whatever temporary good feeling you might get from hitting him, won't help Dawn. Let him go."

Buffy took a deep breath. She visibly relaxed, and let him go. "Alright, Jack. We'll try this your way."

Jack offered his guest room to Buffy and Willow. They declined. They had already made arrangements to stay elsewhere. Jack told them that if they came back at seven the next morning, he'd give them a ride up to the Mountain.

He saw them out the door. Buffy paused long enough to give him back his gun before she turned and walked away. Jack watched as they went down his driveway, and then to a car that was parked a little way down the street. Two other people appeared out of the darkness as they approached the car, but it was too dark for Jack to be able to get a good look at them. They both appeared to be girls, though. They talked quietly for a moment, before they all got in the car and drove off. Jack went back into his house, and made a call to the duty security officer at the base, to make arrangements to bring two guests into the Mountain the next morning. He also asked them to check out the car whose license plate number he gave them.