Chapter 6

Jack kept his team occupied while waiting by directing them to get all their things picked up and packed away. Well at least those things that were outside the planetorium; he couldn't see a single good reason to expose his kids to that room again. The techies could pack everything in that room up themselves and would probably prefer toso that they didn't miss even a single, solitary potential clue. It hadn't been lost on him that their department's commissary table conversations were often heated dissections of the latest episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigations.

So they gathered all the scattered items of adult clothing that no longer fit and packed them into the two backpacks they had available. Fortunately Carter's was very capacious since her laptop and a lot of her other doohickeys were still inside the planetorium. Daniel, to Jack's surprise, was most creative in finding ways to fit things into the available space. Daniel solemnly explained that it was expensive to haul stuff out to dig sites, so it was important that you packed carefully.

A brief hiccup was caused by Sammi's reluctance to fetch her former underwear "because if boys see your underwear they laugh at you," as his former 2IC whispered to him as Teal'c and Daniel were deciding how to distribute the load. So Jack had given her a bandana to wrap the apparel in, which Sammi accepted with relief and ran off to procure the Highly Sensitive Garments. Frankly, Jack felt Sammi was far more likely to get amazed questions from Daniel and Teal'c than laughter, but he'd be just as happy not dealing with said questions, so maybe she had a point.

Once all items had been stowed away, including the potentially embarrassing ones, they still had some time to kill. So Jack led his now much-smaller team on a recce to evaluate the weather conditions. To his relief, the storm had completely passed and the sun was shining brightly. The kids were highly impressed by the evidence of the storm's intensity:Wetleaves plastered all over the south side of the building, broken off branches everywhere, downed trees, even a storm-caused river of muddy water rushing past on the east side. The last was a source of great fascination to Daniel and Sammi, and both of them wanted to go wading. Something that Jack firmly nixed; since shoes were en route there was no way Fraiser would spare his genitalia if he let them expose themselves to possible pathogens or parasites now.

The bright sunlight revealed additional details of his teammates' changed appearances. At first he thought they'd been restored to the hairstyle they'd had at this age during their original childhood, and the rumpled look that Daniel and Sammi shared was simply due to their hair being unbrushed. However, now he could see that in all of them their hair was distinctly uneven, being longer at some places than others and completely unshaped. The degree of this effect varied from one to the other, but all three of them were going to need haircuts.

The very curly texture of Teal'c's hair made this feature less noticeable with him, and since his hair was shortest the resulting variance was less. Neither the gold tattoo of a First Prime nor the regular black tattoo of a Jaffa was present. Whether that was because he was too young to have one at his current age or if the planetorium had removed it due to mysterious parameters of its own Jack couldn't say; he couldn't remember at which age a Jaffa usually received his tattoo. As a result he could pass as any strikingly handsome, lightish-skinned African-American boy, despite an exotic cast to his features. Adult Daniel had felt that some of Teal'c's ancestors were of Mayan stock.

In the child Daniel, the uneven hair was particularly obvious, with one particularly overlong patch in front that caused him to have to keep shaking or brushing hair out of his eyes. And in addition to now being golden blonde, his hair was far more curly than as an adult, almost forming ringlets at the ends of some of the longer locks, though at least some of that might be due to the high humidity. The yellower hair made his blue eyes look an even deeper blue, almost with a violet tinge. With his strong but delicate features, full lips, and large soulful eyes he looked like a mop-topped Botticelli angel.

Sammi had in some ways gotten off more lightly than Daniel in the hair department, paradoxically because her hair was longer overall. This disguised the unevenness at first glance, and it meant that it stayed out of her eyes better. The biggest surprise in her case was that Sammi had freckles! Not a lot or very dark ones; what his ex-wife Sara would have called a cinnamon-sugar dusting over her nose and cheeks. Also her eyelashes, while still long and thick, were as pale as her towheaded hair. The two changes made for quite a change in her appearance, giving a winsome, tomboy charm to a little girl whose huge eyes and rounded features would otherwise make her look like a porcelain collector doll. How much of this was due to the complete absence of Carter's usual make-up was an open question, though how--and why--the alien tech had removed her make-up was one for the techies to answer.

Speaking of which–-here came his relief team now! He checked his watch; only 45 minutes after they'd set out. Seeing the severity of the storm damage that was very good time. Also seeing the number of people involved. Damn, Hammond must have stripped both the hard and soft science departments. Well, since most of them reported to either Daniel or Carter, there were undoubtedly lots of volunteers. They had brought three F.R.E.D. units? Well, they should have all the gizmos and gadgets required then.

"Master Bra'tac!" cried Teal'c in delight as Bra'tac strode forward quickly, cloak swirling about him. Then as Bra'tac came closer, Teal'c registered the many changes in his appearance, and looked stunned.Yes, he knew he was "in the future," and that he'd had time to grow to adulthood and avenge his father, but given the far longer lifespan the Jaffa had, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for Bra'tac to have looked the same as when Teal'c last saw him.It brought home how very many years had passed, and Teal'c swallowed hard.

Bra'tac said with amusement, "No, I am not nearly as pretty as I was when last you appeared as you do now, hmm?" He laid a hand on Teal'c's shoulder and said, "But it is still good to see you whole and well, even though you have indeed lost much weight and look many years younger for it, as O'Neill puts it," he said with a wickedly humorous glance in Jack's direction. Jack gave him a grimace in return. Teal'c took a deep breath, then nodded and managed a smile for his "first teacher."

"Uncle George!" Sammi suddenly cried out, and Jack turned to see General Hammond approaching. The little girl started to run off barefoot toward the older man in the green BDUs and the painter's field cap.

Jack caught her elbow and said "Aht! I told you not until you have shoes!"

"Quite right, Colonel O'Neill," came a familiar voice firmly. Ahh, Janet Fraiser had come herself. Jack was glad of it, since it meant his kids would be taken care of properly. A brief look of pain crossed her face as the three children stared at her without recognition, but she mastered herself quickly and went into professional mode. "Colonel, I need somewhere to set up to do preliminary assessments. Do you have any suggestions?"

After that things began to get organized. Janet left followed by one of the F.R.E.D.s and two of the airmen to set up an impromptu clinic in a small room near the "facilities" (which fortunately were still in good working order, given the number of people who'd just arrived). Techies and linguists followed Jack's directions to the planetorium; presumably they found it without difficulty because no one came back plaintively asking for more precise directions.

Bra'tac drew Teal'c aside to "converse together, as old friends should do." Presumably, this would include introducing him to the concept that the Goa'uld were false gods. The two of them sat down on a built-in masonry bench apart from the rest of the action.

Hammond knelt down before Sammi and began connecting with her. At first she seemed shy of him, perhaps because of his older appearance. But he soon had her chattering away easily to him, and when he removed his cap theatrically to reveal his now-bald head, she pressed her hands to her face and burst into giggles.

Jack found his third charge had moved in close to his left leg, and was watching the research team move in and out of the building calling arcane instructions to each other, often pausing to stare in amazement at the three kids before moving briskly on. Daniel's entire posture was stiff and his expression was tensely alert; apparently the comfort of "having an adventure in the future" was having a hard time standing up to this invasion of large numbers of strange people.

To hell with Jack's knee, Fraiser could always give him a cortisone shot later. He knelt beside the boy and put his arm around him, drawing him in close. Damn, he could feel the kid's heart thumping like a jackhammer in his scrawny chest; the little guy must be terrified. Unlike Sammi and Teal'c there was no one here that he'd known before.

"Hey," said Jack softly, "are you okay?"

After a pause, the little boy solemnly nodded. Well, at least he wasn't claiming to be fine.