I'm so sorry. It took me forever to write this. It's because the end is near and I can't seem to be able to finish it :(
Here we go again!
M.
Chapter 24 - Kicked out
"That party was the start of our exile process."
"Exile?" Malcolm asked, looking at them in confusion
"Yes. Did you imagine we moved out of Earth out of our free will? To keep the kids safe or something else?"
"I… I… I never thought about it," Malcolm said puzzled
"No one ever does," they stated morosely. Malcolm took some time to digest the news. Once he was ready to go on, he cleared his throat.
"What happened during that party?"
2034
As soon as they noted the inebriated status of most of the council, they regretted deeply using the translation software of the Nox vessel as part of the enhancements produced by the security barrier, which was working around them.
They turned to see Jessame doing an awkward dance form. Thankfully, drunk Jessamy was also mute Jessame. Now, drunk Teegan and drunk Keegan, that was a mistake, with a capital M.
"Hey! Councilors! We should toast for the newest members of the council!" They shouted.
Jack and Sam prayed people around them didn't notice to whom they were toasting to, but apparently, the odds weren't in their favor.
"To Councilor Samantha Carter! To Councilor Jack O'Neill!"
From then…. Everything was downhill.
2050
"Well, drunk allies announced the world we were part of the Council," before Malcolm could ask more, Jack raised his hand to stop him. "Of a Council that our Earth allies didn't know existed, thus they couldn't approve or deny the representatives for it. It didn't help one bit that only 'Americans' knew of it."
"It didn't help that I was the current President, and Jack my SecDef, since the first thing it could cross someone's mind was…" she trailed off.
"That you 'selfishly' joined the Council as Councilors without checking with your allies," Malcolm completed promptly.
"Exactly."
2034
Sam and Jack found themselves petrified on their spot. What the aliens let out would be far more threatening if their Earth allies knew the reason behind their places in the council. A wave of panic shot throughout them both, and then they saw Bryjna looking at them.
Silence overtook the previously animated party, and Bryjna quickly deduced something was wrong. She turned around, searching for something that would give her a clue; her eyes fell on the newest members of the Council: Something terrified them.
She remembered the conversation they had on the ship and understood what was happening.
"Oh, Teegan! Keegan! I know they are your favorite candidates! However, it doesn't mean they have gained the place," Bryjna added. The moment she finished, the two drunks laughed at her.
"I'll take you to the sleeping pods, something tells me you both will need all the sleep you might get," with those words, a white light engulfed them, and the duo disappeared.
"I'm sorry for that," Bryjna said. "We shouldn't stop this party for their poor behavior."
The Earth power couple exchanged a glance; they knew that the intervention was far from a saving one; there was a chance it would only bury them deeper.
2050
"After they spilled out that we were Councilors, the mood of the party quickly decayed. It wasn't half an hour later when we were the only ones still there. Well, us and the sober part of our alien allies."
"Which was mainly Bryjna and Adalsteinn. Both Asgards felt the wine would not be easy on their superior brains or something like that and stuck to water."
2034
"For the results of the situation, we guessed your people didn't know about the Council?" Adalsteinn asked.
"Most of them know about the Council of the four races," Jack stated.
"Most of the people with enough clearance don't remember the council is of the five races. I guess they forgot all about that time when you made us Councilors."
"Will this bring suffering to Earth?"
"We don't know for sure. What I know is that most of the Governments will ask why they didn't know about the position that we hold in the council."
"They will assume we are taking control of the external allies to overcome any menace that could come from Earth's political situation."
"What's the worst it can happen?"
"Worst?" Sam asked. The alien couple nodded.
"The other countries will ally with each other to overthrow us. They'll kill our descendants and us to be sure we aren't a threat anymore, without ever knowing the reason they did it."
"That's not a bright future," Bryjna said.
"Nope… but the best-case scenario, they'll ask us why, we'll get to explain, and we'll all sit cross-legged with our arms entangled while singing Kumbaya around a bonfire."
The alien couple blinked at Jack's comment, Bryjna looked at Sam.
"Do we want to know?" Bryjna asked. Sam smiled brightly.
"Such a best-case scenario will not happen, so be relieved you only have to hear about it." Then Sam moved closer to Bryjna before adding in a whisper "… and that you don't even understand what he's talking about," Sam fell silent for a while, just thinking through the whole situation. Then she continued, "Reality is, I still have some length as President before they can kick me out since being relieved of my mandate at this point will be only more complicated than let me finish it. Therefore, whatever will happen, it will happen after January."
"What do you believe will happen?"
"I am not sure, in the meantime, we will think of all possible outcomes along with a way to get out of them."
2050
"The Councilors left after the party; they felt their presence would only bring discomfort to the other Governments."
"They dropped the bomb and ran before it exploded," Jack added.
"And how did it explode?"
"There were several interventions from most of our Earth Allies. They weren't sure why they would choose us. We explained to them the prepared reason behind it."
"What was that reason?"
"The councilors knew us better since we went around the Galaxy saving aliens butts," Jack shrugged the answer.
"They sort of believed it…"
"Sort of?" Malcolm asked
"Yeah."
"It was in a meeting, months after, when we said something we shouldn't have."
"And we got them looking on the right track."
2036
They still are ten days before we are finally free. We fixed and cleaned the Minnesota cabin, and we are counting the minutes left for us to jump on that helicopter, then hop on the plane and finally start the five hours car drive to the woods. We'll finally have time to forget about aliens, world peace and a specific council which keeps popping every meeting we get. Even considering how hard it is to move our not so little family around sounds way better than yet another meeting discussing the same topics yet again.
You know, for how this is going, I kind of pity the next guy.
"It came to our attention they made you Councilors on the same mission in which you returned looking younger."
"So what?"Jack asks, and I snort. 'Oh! They read! What a surprise,' I tell him using our mental connection.
"How can we be sure you are yourselves?" I'm sure that both of us almost facepalmed ourselves.
"You are kidding, right?"
"You must be joking."
We say at once, why on God's Earth someone would doubt about such a thing after four periods of us as the Presidential couple? No one uttered a single word. Which means...
"Holy Hannah! You are serious," I say in awe. "I'm coming to the end of my second term as a President. Jack is on his second term as SECDEF. Before that, he was the God damn President, and I was in charge of the Joint Chiefs! Even days after we were 'changed,' Jack was the Homeworld freaking Security CO, and I was the SGC freaking commander! And it's not until now that you are questioning our loyalties? Isn't that slightly far-fetched?"
"There's no need to get all riled up by that, Madame President."
"Riled up? Argh!" I groan and join Jack at pacing around the table. "I can believe of all the possible conclusions, they get to that but cannot read between the lines!" I mutter to Jack.
"Well, they are still calling you to fix most of the issues on the vessels you don't even design any longer," Jack says.
That exchange was something we should have done via a link and not by muttering while passing by.
"What do you mean with between the lines?" Someone dares to ask.
"Exactly that," we both say, and silence falls again.
"You know if there's nothing else to discuss here… we might as well finish this crap and do some work. There's plenty of stuff for us to be doing in the last days of the period, to be wasting time like this."
"We just need to make sure you are who you say you are," someone else said.
"Then, by all means, take blood and compare it with our genetics from before the change… or I don't know, read the medical results we got after passing two whole weeks inside the chez-isolation room, maybe?"
"Or you think those files are compromised too? Because that would mean we have a helluva safety situation on document handling."
"It's nothing like that, ma'am; we just want to sort this out."
"Do you? Or are you just looking for something finally get us down as most of your predecessors tried to?"
2050
"What do you mean by 'the right track'?"
"They read between the lines," Sam sighed.
"Sorry, but I don't understand what's that supposed to mean."
"Let's see what they knew. All the council members are couples."
"All of them can control the Race that they represent."
"I'm not following you…"
"They didn't either… not right away."
"Two months and a half passed before they kicked us out of Earth."
2036
Winter in Minnesota is hard; several inches of snow falling any day can prove that easily. The same amount of snow that is keeping us inside the cabin is preventing people from coming to find us.
Not that we were terrible neighbors or something like that. It's that being a public figure for so long makes you hide and avoid people if only to avoid being interrogated to death by almost unfamiliar people desperate to get to know you more. Going to the shop and playing twenty questions with your neighbors is exhausting.
It's not that we don't like our neighbors, we kind of like them with as many miles away from us as we can have. Otherwise, we would have sold the land before instead of buying more land in between the next neighbor and us.
So, we weren't expecting the knock on the door, the bright lights, and all that noise. All the ruckus wasn't a common occurrence. The smaller kids were already in bed. The oldest ones were on the second floor doing homework, which by that time of the day probably translated as playing online games.
Jack and I, seasoned with way too many bad experiences, signaled each other. It's funny we have our great link, but in cases like this, we still fall back to our military training. I open the door while he covers my back.
"Retired General Samantha Carter?" A brigadier general asks as I barely open the door.
"Yes?" I ask as I read his name, 'Brown.'
"It's Retired General Johnathan 'Jack' O'Neill at home?" He asks in a no-bullshit tone. Jack appears behind me.
"Yes," Jack says.
"May I come inside?" General Brown asks. Jack and I share a look, 'this might be it,' we think at the same time before we move away from the door to allow him inside.
The moment we close the door behind him, light engulfs us all, and we are now standing behind the energy barrier of the cells of one of our vessels. The same General looks at us with a major disdain.
"At this moment, I inform you, Samantha 'Sam Carter and Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill, that you have until the end of the month to leave Earth," he says and turns around to leave.
"WHAT?!" We shout.
No one answers. We look at each other; we know we are royally screwed up, and we don't even know why.
Jack makes some noise to cover my attempts to open the barrier panel to break ourselves out of this cell I designed when a young officer comes in.
"Terran?" Jack asks unbelievingly, and I turn around to find our son watching us, I leave what I was trying to do and walk closer to Jack while Terran lets out a sigh.
"Retired Generals Samantha 'Sam' Carter and Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill. I'm here to transport you to the people who will explain your current situation," Terran says firmly before he falters for a second. "I need to handcuff you before I can disable the barrier."
"Terran, what are you doing?" Jack tries, but I stop him by giving his arm a light press and a nod towards Terran.
We look at our son, his back ramrod straight, and his shoulders squared. His usually bright eyes are downcast and troubled. Something clicks in our heads as we notice his suffering.
"They send you so we would behave," I say, sounding a bit outraged. Our son gulps uncomfortably.
"We will do it," Jack says before adding. "Pass the cuffs."
2050
"They went as low as to send our son to handcuff us."
"And by then, we still didn't have any ideas of why."
2036
"Retired Generals Samantha 'Sam' Carter and Johnathan 'Jack' O'Neill. We brought you here to inform you of your rights."
"See, this makes little sense," Jack frowned.
"Why are we being requested to leave Earth?" Sam asked.
"After several meetings, it has been decided it is more dangerous to have you living here than on any other planet far away from our Galaxy. We will transfer you and your family to another world in six weeks from now. We will exchange your funds for gold or any other metal you deem necessary since you know more about currency exchange on other planets than we do."
Someone approached them, but they were too shocked to fight. Whoever approached them injected them something.
"GPS tracking. We will leave you time to grab your things and say goodbye to your loved ones who will remain here. We don't have issues with your kids, but we can't keep you on Earth and hope it will remain safe."
"You are kicking us because we saved the Galaxy?" Sam frowned.
"We are asking you to leave because you endanger Earth by living here."
"That's ridiculous!" They shout at once.
"It is what will happen."
"But why?"
"It came to our attention there is one reason behind you being chosen as the Earth representatives at the four races council."
"Really? What reason is that?" Jack asked sarcastically.
"You are a power couple, and you will always be a power couple. The mix of your skills saved many planets."
"So you still don't know why then," Jack muttered, and Sam rolled her eyes.
"What was that?"
'Jack, if they are already kicking us out without knowing the truth…' Sam told him using their link and keeping a blank expression on her face.
'Yeah, at least the kids can stay if they want to.' he answered in the same manner.
"We need to be home by ten," Sam stated. "The kids will check us by that time."
"We have one question when we leave, can our children stay or return if they want to?"
"Yes. You are the risk for our security, not them."
"Okay. We will be ready to go in six weeks from now."
"There's one more thing," General Brown chided.
Sam and Jack squinted at him, wondering what else could they possibly want from them. "We need you to keep in contact with Earth. We will need your expertise in the development of future technology."
"Then, we will have to set our intergalactic tech company to help Earth, " Jack said. Beside him, Sam nodded. Both smiled angrily at the thought. They were being kicked out for helping other planets, and they expected them to keep helping Earth after that, and free of charge?
2050
"It was funny that they kicked us out because they someone concluded we were the weak link."
"The weak link?" Malcolm asked.
"Yeah, they felt they couldn't protect us, and we couldn't protect ourselves."
"They also thought somehow someone would come searching for us and destroy Earth as they searched for us."
"Thankfully, they weren't even close to the real reason behind our place in the council."
"Probably they still aren't. However, because of Earth's current situation, there's a chance our kids need to let the real explanation out."
"Will you tell me what's the reason?"
"Perhaps tomorrow."