Hey, there! No, I didn't forget about you. Life was doing its own thing, so I was writing this piece on my phone as much as I could. Today, I finally could put it all together… so I hope you still enjoy it.
M.
Chapter 25 - Aila
"They told you, didn't they?" A soft voice that Malcolm recognizes its Aila's says to his back.
"They told me what exactly?" He asks without turning around. He was looking without seeing the beautiful weirdness of the constellations from this world as they shimmered over the ocean. He was too preoccupied with his thoughts to appreciate the beauty of the night.
"That the military to which they gave a huge chunk of their life forced them to leave. That they are Earth's first intergalactic exiled people," she says, positioning herself to look at his face, with her back supported by the terrace railing, pressing something on her left hand, something that was also unnoticed by him.
"Why would you say they told me?" Malcolm asks, turning slightly to his right to face her.
"I've seen enough people being told," she states with a shrug.
Moments later, her sigh interrupts the silence that took over before she continues.
"It's incredible, you know, people always react like you are doing now. I think by 'retiring to a resort-like world to raise their children', they made the all too mythical heroes more mundane, less dangerous."
"Somehow, when someone learns what happened. When people learn the government forced them to leave Earth with less than a thank you, even after all those years doing the best for the Earth's benefit, then, my parents become the flawed but mythical warriors again." She smiles sadly.
"It's surprising and terrifying how a slight turn on your base paradigm can change your whole belief system in a blink of an eye. I think that's what happens when someone learns their fate, which was also ours. But then again, I believe fate has its ways," she smiles.
"Do you remember anything?" She raises an eyebrow, looking exactly like her mother. "About Earth? About your departure?"
"I have a great expanse of memories. Sadly, I was way too young to remember much about Earth. I remember the feeling of home, the smell of the Minnesota cabin where we lived for those scarce eight or nine months before we left. I remember the wildness of those few days," she trailed off.
"When Irene and Salome were young, they took a project, they called it Project Memsa," she chuckles, remembering when her sisters introduced the project to the family. "It comprised making their version of the Tok'ra recall device, but adding a way to record the memory as you saw it."
"I don't see how this relates with," Malcolm starts. Aila smiles at him, ignoring his interruption.
"It took them a good month or two, but since then... we share memories to know what was like. Or to know each other experiences. It helps a lot when one of us is trying to fix something, and we can't. Now, whoever is working on it shares what already did, so we don't have to do it again. Anyhow, to answer your question: No, I recall nothing else from my memory about those days.".
"But you saw what it was like?"
"Yes, those were memories they shared after a lengthy discussion. The older ones believed we shouldn't experience such feelings at a young age. So, we can access them under our own risk."
"How was it?"
"Well, when our parents informed 'the kids' about what had transpired, they said the government asked them to leave Earth, and that we should remain calm and pack whatever we wanted to bring with us."
"But?"
2036
"Kids, family meeting in ten!" Jack shouted.
After that, it didn't pass long before the noise that came from a call to the family meeting made its appearance. Children from a wide range of ages sat in the living room of the Carter-O'Neill residence in Minnesota. "Kids, there's something we need to tell you."
"Oh no, it is true. Isn't it?" Irene said, "we will leave."
"You saw it?" Sam asked, taking the child on her lap. Irene nodded. "It's okay."
"Kids, they have invited us to leave Earth. We will go to another planet in six weeks from now," Jack announced.
"There's no need to be upset. We should remain calm. Living in another world can be beautiful, it will be an adventure of our own."
"Can I take my PS4?" Aidan asked concerned
"We can pack whatever we want to take with us," Sam smiled, then her smile turned to a sad one, "however, military police and scientist will check everything we take with us to ensure we aren't taking stuff we shouldn't."
2050
"Well, once they asked them to leave, they also let them know we could pack whatever we deemed necessary, but they would invite MPs and designated scientists to snoop around anything and everything we packed."
"Why would they do that?"
"Well, according to the memories of my siblings, it was to prevent we could endanger the galaxy with stuff that didn't belong outside Earth, like P-90's or game consoles. Game consoles can be dangerous," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Huh? So they just went through your family possessions and took whatever they wanted to protect the galaxy from the all-around galaxy saviors?"
"That was what it looked like in the young minds of my siblings. However, we all understood what happened after revisiting memories when we were older. It wasn't difficult to see."
2036
"Kids, now that you know what future holds, there's a favor we need to ask you," Sam said.
"Anything!" they agreed
"Both of us have been keeping journals of our lives. Your mother has some technological ones with thoughts, improvements, and even some schemas for new doohickeys." The kids looked at their parents in awe.
"We need you to read them and learn them as they are. Once you know them by heart, then you will burn the tome you got to read."
"Why, mom?"
"Because we can't risk such data falling into the wrong hands," Sam smiled sadly.
"It will be our family secret," Jack grinned, and the kids smiled, happy to help to keep them. Even the youngest of them knew that secrets and promises were the two things they needed to know how to keep.
2050
"See, if you ever talk with mom about the galaxy actuality, you'll learn that Earth's government is still asking her for counseling on tech. Two months after leaving Earth, Careill has provided 98% of the tech advances Earth is 'developing, ' and there are some perks of having part of the brain of Careill Tech working in several Earth's stations around the galaxy that should count too."
"What are you implying, Aila?"
"I'm not implying anything, I am merely stating facts," she said with a shrug. "Let's get back to '36. When the time came, there was no diary we hadn't learned and burned. Mom and dad made sure we had enough notepads to write them down once we were off-world. They were confident they wouldn't allow us to bring computers either."
2036
"Okay, we have taken ownership of all the laptops and desktop computers they had. What should we do with them?" The current SGC General asked the SecDef.
"Take them, Samantha Carter and her children are computer geniuses. I'm certain they can achieve things which could go unnoticed by you on a simple sweep."
"But they were all wiped clean, sir. It's like they knew we would check them," a scientist pointed out.
"Then, more reasons to retrieve whatever they had before."
Unknown to them was that those drives that seemed so empty carried something. If someone plugged any drives or computers to the military network, a software made to delete all the data left on Sam or Jack computers that were part of the military system would wipe clean whatever it could've remained there.
2050
"We saved all the pictures and important stuff like school or medical records in an encrypted drive that dad gave to our neighbor asking them to send it to Uncle Daniel's home thirty days after our departure. We wiped clean every piece of tech, including desktop pcs, cell phones, tablets, hell! Even the microwave memory! Then, with a software mom created, we filled every hard drive to max capacity, and wiped them clean several dozen times to prevent conventional document retrieval software from picking anything."
"Why would they go to such lengths?"
"Our first conclusion was, they felt betrayed, and it was a security mechanism taking place. That way, they would never be completely outcast; they would always need them for their tech knowledge and their expertise."
"You said ' the first conclusion,'" Malcolm stated, and Aila smiled sweetly
"Yes. Then, Careill came to life. What they created from scrap during the first two years, while dealing with moving around and getting a real home for us, it was beyond Earth's reasonable expectations at the moment."
"Well, your mom is one of the minds behind Earth understanding of most of the alien tech, why is that so surprising?" Aila smiled.
"One thing is to build something with refined parts you already have. It is entirely different from creating something from scratch. Think about the first computing machine ever made against a cell phone of '36. But it was surprising mostly because dad wrote half of the tech journals."
2045
"Mom?" Aila came searching for her mom with a deep frown on her brow.
"Yes, honey?"
"I was watching Irene's and Salome's memories and tech journals. It seems two different people wrote them. Salome's has your writing." Her mother smiled tenderly.
"Irene's doesn't look like mine," Sam whispered, patting the place beside her for Aila to join her.
"It doesn't look like your handwriting, mommy," Aila said, feeling that she was accusing her mother of lying.
"That's because it isn't mine, you should be familiar with the second handwriting too, honey," Aila crooked her head and frowned. Sam smiled, "your dad wrote the one Irene got."
"But how? Daddy, it's not a scientist."
"Daddy got his head stuck on Ancient repositories... twice," Jack added from his place at the end of the room and moving close to his girls. "I should find a third one and stick my head into it. You know what they said, third time's a charm," he grinned, gaining a slap on the back of his head by Sam and one: 'Don't you ever said that again, this time could definitively kill you,' berating in his mind.
"But... but, I thought Uncle Thor deleted all your memories," Aila frowned deeper, ignoring Jack's comments. That ability she inherited from Sam without a doubt.
"Not exactly, honey. Thor only stopped them from being recalled all together. Sometimes, words, smells, and stuff like that can make your dad remember the memories."
"I see."
"However, as dumb as your father makes you think he is. He has plenty of good ideas that come up as silly stuff."
"Like what?" Aila frowned.
"Do you remember the water-cooled engine that allows us to put a swimming pool in the ships?" Aila nodded. "Well, that was your daddy's big dumb idea."
"The air conditioning of that tin-can broke. I was tired, grumpy and really, really hot. So I said to your mom 'why in God's Earth can't we have a swimming pool inside this floating oven? At least would help to keep my body heat low.' That sparked your mommy's brain to add a water-coolers to the engines. But if that makes it my idea, what can I say? I'm a genius," he joked, making his girls laugh at his silliness.
2050
"I learned later on, that dad kept the memories from the repositories, but he couldn't access them unless something triggered it. Some journals came from those memories. Those are about high tech related to the Alterans. There also were journals from both, reading those tomes is like reading a bad case of brainstorming. It mixed their handwriting like a well-put puzzle, and the tech levels on those books it's very far from what most the people could dream of, and they are all possible." Aila said with a faraway look, "they were afraid of those falling on the wrong hands because most of them would only bring doomsday forward."
"How come?"
"The journals' contained sketches, steps, plans, and detailed information about stuff as simple as a coffee maker or a water heater to elaborate ones as a more powerful version of the disintegrating gun which was used to finish the Replicators. Other thoughts were even more potent than that. If things like those were to fall into the wrong hands... we would talk about the next big evil, the Goa'uld would look like a moth comparing to what they could have."
"Okay, I get it. They hid dangerous stuff in their journals. Is that related to their position? Do you know what they mean with 'they still believe that is the reason behind us being the Councilors'?"
"That truth," she smiled," is tough to unveil. It typically takes many years to get them to this point. You are close to the answer. They are waiting to see if you are worthy of knowing it."
"So you won't give me the answer either?" he asked hopefully.
"You must earn it or solve it yourself. It's not related to those journals or the tech they can bring to reality," Aila said, and Malcolm sighed.
"What about you? Do you think I am worthy?"
"Yes, but I am biased," she gave him a secretive smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know what it means. You are afraid to accept it. Similar to your doubt, you see it. But you are yet to understand it."
"Wha..." she silenced him, putting her index over his lips and smiled when he fell silent.
"Don't overthink it. The truth is usually more simple than we make it. Here," she said, giving him a tiny ball. "This is a modified version of your camera. I took the risk of saving what we talked about for you. Maybe you can use it in your documentary, you might not, too. Good night, Malcolm," she said and walked back into the house.
"Aila, wait!" He said, springing towards her. She stopped. "Why are you giving me this?"
"Because I like you, Malcolm, and I know you like me too."
"But... I'm too old... and your parents."
"My parents like you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be this close to unveiling the secret behind them, behind all of us."
He opened and closed his mouth several times, but nothing came to him. She smiled and gave him a quick peck on his lips, blushed furiously and ran away.
Later that night, when he was replaying Jack and Sam's interview. He saw something he hadn't noted before. Sam's eyes, when looking at Jack, were bright, just like Aila's. He looked at Jack's eyes and figured out one riddle that was thrown at him that night.
He was in love with Aila Careill, eh, Carter O'Neill... and she loved him back. The most outstanding of it all, her super mythical heroes of parents approved him.