Hey there! Once again, sorry for making you wait. Hopefully, you will enjoy yet another chapter. And hopefully, the muse will keep me company until I manage to wrap this one out.
Enjoy!
M
Chapter 26 - Blackmail?
He raised from where he fell asleep, partially over his equipment, not because of having fulfilled his beauty sleep quality time. Nope, he woke up with the shrilling noise, which seemed to be coming from all areas of the house. However, as soon as it started, it ended.
He went to the washroom and tried to make himself somewhat presentable before going down. He was pretty sure that such a sound was a form of a fire drill or something. Why else would you awake the manor at those lengths?
He was slowly walking down the stairs when he crossed with a version of Jack he hadn't met before.
"Morning Malcolm," this Jack said with a smirk that, if Malcolm didn't know they had (too) many kids. He would have said Jack grew old overnight. "The call woke you up, too, huh?"
"The call?"
"Yeah. From Earth. You know.. the annoying noise from earlier?" Aidan said, making that phrase sound exactly like Homer Simpson classic 'duh.' Malcolm nodded, "Communications between worlds so far apart are rather complicated. So, they upgraded the alert to all the grounds. That way, they can hear it from wherever they are, and the call doesn't get lost. It's a major pain in the ass when it sounds at 5 AM, but hey, it is their regular waking time. Sadly, it is my regular sleeping time," he smiled and continued up. "You probably will find them at their office. Gods know they do everything in their office! Sometimes I wonder how many of us they conceived in there!" He laughed at his comment and continued to get lost in the higher floors of the manor.
"I wonder who it was that one," Malcolm said to himself before following a different path and completing his descent.
"Good Morning, you must be the Malcolm," a woman said to him from the large screen now hanging in the middle of the floor. She looked familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint why until she gave him a crooked smile, her father's, and her blue eyes glimmered with that smirk. "In case you are still wondering, yup, I am, pretty much, my parent's daughter. However, since reports told us that you are an Earth citizen, I am also the POTUS, as they call me abroad."
"There we go, don't mind my twin; she just loves to publish her title. It's not like she's the first to hold it or something."
"Guys... it was a fair coin toss to know which one would be President and which Vice President," Alex said from the background, noticeably rolling her eyes. "Now, can we get back on track?"
"Aye, ma'am," both Jack and Sam mock saluted, which resulted in a grunt from Alex and giggling from the twins. Of course, the latter was contagious, and Sam was laughing too
"Hey! You all know the rules! No giggling!" Which resulted in a burst of full laughter. Alex just rolled her eyes even harder before saying
"You know, despite the enormous amount of time since that rule was put in place... it's good to know that some things never change."
Malcolm cleared his throat, obviously lost to whatever had just happened. The group sobered up.
"Where are you?" Malcolm asked, noticing the lack of lag between points.
"Earth, naturally," Sasha rolled her eyes, "Can't you tell by the amount of snow?"
"We are underground, you dumbass," her twin said, smacking her playfully on the back of her head.
"They are at a secret point," Sam said
"In Minnesota," Jack added proudly
"Secret place in Minnesota?" Malcolm asked, "your parents' house in the woods?" The clan nodded yes. "Why?"
"Hum. Communication was deemed necessary in the best of our possibilities?" The twins said in unison, simultaneously raising one of their eyebrows.
"Ehm... I ..." Malcolm trailed
Sam held her hand up in the galaxy known signal of stop and placed her other one on Malcolm's shoulder.
"Long time ago, when we started to learn things, we decided to add a secret room to the house. We also added a secret vault of sorts, in where we placed the things we thought we might need to have someday."
"But, they searched the house. Twice!" The journalist said, remembering his research.
"Yup and they found the first secret room, they just never thought of looking for a secret room inside the secret room. That's the room with access to the vault," Jack explained.
"Anyway, we left behind enough things to help them, so they could easily create improvements for commercially placed comms, and some other tech they know how to build," Sam added again.
"We built one call linker to call to the Careill satellite around Earth, which calls to the Careill ship that's far away enough not to be detected, but close enough not to experience lag. The ship establishes then a wormhole with another similar Careill ship. One that's close enough to where you are. Then the second ship connects the call to the satellite orbiting around Amyntas. Getting it finally transferred to the house," Alex said at once like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Easy, breezy, Careill tech!" Sasha added, "I might have picked that phrase from somewhere else" she grinned
"Wow," Malcolm said, in awe seeing all the ramifications of a single call.
"It's not as bad as it sounds. It takes less than 2 minutes for all that to happen, it will be less, as soon as Copper and Eve finish their new version of the calling soft." Jack and Sam smiled proudly, then snapped back to reality.
"As we were about to say to you, Terran left this morning, and Aidan and Nadia arrived already. "
"Good."
"Now, the actual reason behind this call?"
"Since, for a reason beyond the politician's control, we 'Carter-O'Neill's' are all in a position of authority," Sasha rolled her eyes. "They also noted that Careill Co. has a lot of businesses with our Government and other nations from Earth." The parents nodded.
"Somehow, they managed to add 2 + 2," Alex said before she left out a sigh, "And somehow they managed to get a five as a result." The kids collectively rolled their eyes. "They figured out that Careill stands for a short version of 'Carter O'Neill.' However, the public chaos comes from the Stargate exposure to the public, your involvement in the project since its beginning. Your participation in creating the tech company adds to the mix."
"Cut to the chase, kids."
"They are saying that Careill has been bullying its way into businesses, getting to the point of being called ' a nepotist union with the governments' "
"Okay, what's your plan?" Sam and Jack accepted the news quickly.
"We don't have one..." Sasha said sheepishly. "We think that maybe, you as Careill heads might want to make a holo declaration and sent it here?" she finished hopefully
"That sounds like a good idea. The only issue I see with it is the not quite looking the age part of ourselves?"
"Yeah, I think that will get even more attention to the so-called nepotism," Alli reasoned.
"But it might bring even more attention to us? I'm not sure such a risk would be wise at this moment, either." Sam said.
"What if... we do the statement thing. Just a short one, with the basics. Then, Malcolm has his chance to publish his interview..." Jack trailed, glancing at Sam
"We were getting into the leaving Earth part of our lives," Sam nodded.
"Awesome! We do have a plan now, Campers!" Sasha grinned.
"I might be lost here..." Malcolm said.
"Don't sweat future bro; the parents will get you up to date. We, meanwhile, do have to return to the mess that's called Earth politics," Alli sighed.
A bunch of byes, love you, see you soon, were exchanged before they considered the call done. The couple fell silent until the loud rumble of a stomach caught them, Sam blushed furiously
"I forgot to feed the dragon!" Jack exclaimed, before poking Sam side and smiling lovingly at her.
"You should, who knows? Maybe the dragon decides it doesn't like you anymore, and where would you go?" Sam joked as she led the way. Malcolm followed close.
"Malcolm, are you awake enough to start after breakfast?" He nodded in agreement.
Since breakfast still was a big event, they avoided the topic and centered on having an excellent breakfast with the kids.
"So you are the Malcolm," someone said on his back, and he raised his eyes to find that Aila blushed profusely.
"That's me," he said with a smile.
"Aidan, my dear twin, already told me all about your stairs encounter. Nicely done there," Nadia said with a wink.
"Aidan is here too?" Aila smiled.
"Yeah, you know him... his biological clock is backward."
"It does make you two an exceptional 24/7 team," Jack chimed in.
Malcolm examined her; she was the first one that he saw with black hair, green eyes, and tanned skin.
"Don't look at me like that! I know I am not the most mom-and-dad of them all, but I don't like to be scrutinized either."
"Sorry," Malcolm offered.
"They agreed that I look like our grandma, dad's side. I've seen the pictures. I do look like her. Sadly, my twin does look like them," she said, pointing to her parents. "We get confused with a couple all the time!"
"You bicker like an old couple," Aila pointed.
"Well, we are an old couple of twins. Twins that only could be more different is if we weren't twins at all. Anyway," she clapped once. "What's new from Earth? More troubles, I foresee?"
"We can talk about it later."
"Sure."
"Malcolm, wherever you finish, please join us in the office," Sam said, standing up. Ten minutes later they were all set up,
"So you are saying that, as we speak, people are deeming you as blackmailers back on Earth?" Both nodded. "I don't get how they are even considering such a thing?" Malcolm said quite surprised
"It's easy; both of us have held positions of power on Earth. Therefore, we both know secrets that could affect the balance of politics."
"You know, all the basics.. secrets, top-secret, ultra-secret folders which a President gets on day one."
"It isn't quite the surprise; we have been expecting this outcome for quite a long time since the Stagate Secret isn't the only one we know."
"However, now that the Stagate has come to light, people could think that was our negotiation tool. It's not impossible to think that we could have been blackmailing the governments involved with the potential threat of divulging confidential information."
"I understand," Malcolm said. Then he thought about his conversation with Aila. "I have a video from your daughter. She not only gave me an inside explanation about how you prepared to leave Earth. She also shared a couple of memories with me. Given the deep of the information, and the fact your daughter is underage for Earth standards, I will go with you over the facts, is that okay?"
"Yes," Jack said.
"Thank you," Sam added.
"Very well, you were asked to leave not only your loved ones behind but your home planet. Why?"
"The powers that ruled declared we weren't welcome anymore. They also declared we were needed alive," Sam explained.
"So, they decided to kick us to a place where they believed they could control us."
"What happened?"
2036
"We are sending you to P3LMX2. There, we already set a cottage for you. It has all the basic needs. We stocked it with the basics that should last you over a month. You will be visited once a month to get more provisions and medications if needed." Sam and Jack exchanged a look.
"Can we have a GDO in case of need?" Jack asked.
"No, you can call Earth if you need. We will give you a radio so you can communicate your needs." They nodded in understanding.
2050
"They told us they would send us to a 'vacation spot.' It was a lovely empty planet where they built us a cottage, stocked food, and meds."
"Let's not forget they had the kindness to give us a radio if we needed to request anything from Earth."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Malcolm said.
"A four rooms cottage for all of us... It was quite depressing."
"Well, I suppose that for a family used to certain commodities, a small house, food, and one radio sounds not quite the same as what you had on Earth."
"It's not the things they gave us. It's the things they took away from us," Sam explained. "But, we knew something like that could happen, and we came up with a preventive plan."
"At the end of the day, that radio was the best thing they gave us."
"How so?"
2036
"Well, we are here," Jack said, clapping his hands and moving his weight from his toes to his hills and back. The officer who gave them the tour was by them, next to the Gate control waiting for the wormhole to connect to return to Earth.
Once the officer was dialing home to get the okay to return, the kids slowly took action. They started to take their things up to the so-called house. As soon as the officer was back on Earth, the kids came running to their parents willing to complain about everything. Jack waited for them with a hand raised
"Dad!"
"Ack!"
"But..."
"Ack!"
Sam just smiled and walked to the gate control. She pressed the seven symbols that would link her with Dakara.
"Teal'c, are you there?" she radioed. "Thank goodness for the radio; I really can't imagine sending the box of tissues to Dakara," Jack laughed at this.
"T would have gotten that!"
"What would have I gotten, O'Neill?" came a break-in through the radio.
"T! What would you do if we send you a box of tissues."
"DanielJackson is back on Earth, O'Neill. I do not require a box of tissues."
"But, you would have known that I will be us."
"That would have served a purpose, yes. Why would you need to send me such a message? Is Earth in danger?"
"We were kicked out of Earth," Jack said, scratching the back of his head.
"Give me your coordinates."
"Watch out, coordinates going," Jack said, while Sam neared the wormhole, and passed a piece rock covered with a piece of paper to the other side.
2050
"We were pretty sure they wouldn't give us anything that could help us get out of there. They needed us under their control and close enough to help."
"Unknowingly, they helped us. With the radio at hand, we didn't need to come up with a way to send a message to Teal'c. We just needed to radio him."
"Lucky us, Teal'c never changes his communication channel, so we knew where to contact him."
"How did you get the coordinates?" Malcolm asked.
"We wrote down our coordinates, tied it on a rock, and sent it over to T."
"No, I mean, from the place on which you would find Teal'c."
"You are kidding, right?"Sam said Malcolm shook his head no. "We traveled to Dakara and Chulak enough times to know those addresses from the heart. We also know quite a few other addresses."
"Define, quite a few?"
"300 or 400… maybe more," Jack dismissed.
"They were crucial for our survival. Sometimes we wouldn't have enough time to send the IDC back to Earth. Since we knew other planets, we could skip somewhere else first."
"We needed those coordinates. Others that are stuck, because there's no way to forget the places that made or destroyed parts of your life."
"Helloooo… someone's home?" came a voice screaming, and then the office door was open, and two creamy skinned, brown-haired, goddesses entered the room.
"Mom! Dad! Here you are! You need to see the latest invention; it's so incredibly awesome! Ops! Sorry! We will be back later" Then the door was closed, and a burst of loud laughter echoed the hall.
"And those were the infamous Irene and Salome," Jack said with a proud grin.