"Wow," Ford moaned as two hundred soldiers stood outside the base in four squares of fifty men. They were each wearing armour that looked like Kull armour. He'd seen pictures of them. The armour was different than the Kull's because it was coloured in camouflage and each soldier had a sharp edge on one arm and a shocker on the other. On their backs was a strange kind of rifle and in their left holster was a pistol like Ronon's. In their right holster was a radio. Their helmets were more rounded and had a dark blue taint in the form of a viewing screen. They each saluted as John walked in front of them. Like a Mexican wave. When he passed the final line and turned, the entire army went to the right ninety degrees.
He got onto a podium and said, "At ease." As one, they each stamped one foot down like a cannon going off. Ford thought he felt the vibrations hit him. "Stand easy." The soldiers eased up a little and Sheppard continued, "Fell free to ask questions while I'm talking, but put your hand up. Is that understood?" He smiled as the army stiffened, came to attention and each shouted, "Yes sir!" with a Dutch accent, then returned to at east, and standing easy. "As you know, most of our army has recently tried to sabotage the base and then escaped in some trust vessels. We were left with two thousand troops after that, and it wasn't enough. We are glad to welcome you to Pegasus Command."
A soldier, Ford hadn't seen before, appeared from the centre of the army and walked out. His armour was spiked in places, probably to show he was in charge. He stopped in front of the podium and saluted, then started to talk to Sheppard. His head bobbed up and down every now and again as he talked. He finally saluted and marched back to the centre front of the army, then performed an about turn to face the podium again.
"I must say, regrettably, while you are here, the USSF's command system will replace your current ranks. It gets too complicated with so many different super powers in one place." Sheppard said. "The IOA's orders, not mine." He said to clarify. "Your missions will be sent to your commander when we have them. We have stopped missions to gather our forces and to reorganise patrols of allied systems. And as a final note: Lunch is at two today." The army stiffened and their commander walked out in front of them. He shouted something in Dutch and, with a mutual stamp, saluted. They broke up into a crowd and walked off the parade square.
John walked back rubbing in throat. "I need to get that mike fixed." He croaked. "I'm not used to shouting so loud for so long."
Ford smiled. "How many troops are on base now?"
"About ten thousand." He replied casually. "None of them now who a shadow is and where they are. They know that there is a shadow army, but they don't know how big it is. People think it's our secret police." He chuckled. "That's the seventh Army from the Netherlands. In a week." He stretched. "Oh, and I never told you they made me general for the base, did they?"
"Really?" Ford smiled. "That deserves a beer." He saw a soldier of the army walk by. "What are those rifles?"
"New," Sheppard said. "Basically small rail-guns. Like the ones we used to defend Atlantis, but smaller and less powerful. They're standard arms now."
"Wow." Ford looked around the hallway. "Do you know where John Mellor is?"
"Should be on-" John cringed. "He next to me."
"Good welcoming speech." The disembodied voice of John Mellor said. "What do you want Ford?"
"Do you have a sister?" Ford asked. He didn't receive an answer straight away. "No, I mean, I met someone on Earth called Katie Mellor."
"Oh," He chuckled. "Yeah, she's a nurse. Why?"
"I met in the hospital." Ford added.
"What'd you do?"
"He died." Sheppard answered. "Heart attack."
"Ah, normally dead people don't wake up." He tapped Ford on the shoulder with an invisible hand. "You ascend or something?"
"No, came back to life." Ford said. "Then a doctor tried to turn me over to the authorities and she helped me get out of the hospital."
"She's been looking for a way to join the army." He said glumly. "Why'd they have to ask for medics?"
"Because we only have seventy medics on base." John answered. "And there are over ten thousand troops on the base now."
"Right." He said. "I'm not really used to the halls being so full again."
"You've got to hand it to 'em," Ford hadn't heard this voice before. "They know how to kill in style."
"Yeah Alex," John said. "Now keep moving."
"Yes sir." Alex said.
"Can I join them?" Ford asked.
"I'll see what I can do." John headed off to his office and Ford looked around. John's head appeared from around a corner. "Come on." His head disappeared.
"Coming!"
"This is a joke right?"O'Neil asked the guards as he was trying to get into the SGC. "I'm General O'Neil!"
"General O'Neil has already signed in sir." The guard replied as he showed Jack a list of names on a screen. "Three minutes ago."
"Did you see me?" O'Neil asked.
"No, I was sorting out a kid at the fence." He sighed. "he kept throwing stones at me, so I chased him away." He smiled. "I haven't seen him since."
"Damn that kid!" O'Neil said as he remembered of his clone. "Let me in."
"I can't do that sir." The soldier said. "You'll have to put your finger on the scanner."
O'Neil did as he was told and it went green.
"Oh, uh, must have been a glitch in the system." He pressed a button. "Come in General."
"Thank you!" he said while throwing his dignity away by running towards the lift.
He'd reached that age, where he looked just like O'Neil did when he was twenty. His faster aging helped along the process. He received a few looks and murmurs of, "He's done something off world I bet." Carter turned around a corner and he stopped.
Her shoulders came down and she sighed. "How did you get in?"
"Guess there's no point now." He said giving up. "The air force really didn't care much for me after high school." He looked around.
"Oh great, double trouble." Carter face-palmed her head. "Jack, you remember Jack right?"
Jack's, the 'real' one, face was one of 'not funny'. "Guards." He said. "Escort O'Neil out of the complex."
They looked at each other, shrugged, and then took the older Jack by the shoulders.
"Not me!" He said breaking them off. "Him." He pointed to Jack.
The guards looked from one Jack to the other and smiled. They walked off and left.
Older Jack watched them leave.
"Jack," Both looked at carter. "Older Jack-"
"No! Real Jack." He corrected pointing to his chest. "Fake Jack." He pointed to Younger Jack.
"I'd prefer younger." Young Jack said. "And why don't you like me?"
"Because you copy everything I do!"
"I am you!"
"Oh shut up both of you!" Carter said as she stepped between them. "Younger Jack, you do you want?"
"To join the USSF."
Carter and Jack, Older Jack, exchanged looks.
B
"What are doing here so fast?" John Mellor asked his sister as she stepped through the gate. The recruits looked around to see where the voice had come from. He whispered in her ear, "I'm cloaked at the minute on patrol, see me in the mess hall in one hour."
She looked around and waved her arms in the direction he had been.
"Nice going, you nearly blew our cover." Alex said as he continued on down the hallway from the gate. "So that's your sister?"
"You're too old for her." John replied.
"How old is she?" Alex asked as they walked through a door.
"Twenty nine." He replied.
"I'm only thirty two."
He knew John was giving him one of those looks which said 'you look bad for that age'.
"How old are you?" Alex asked.
"Thirty two."
"I got through the ranks quickly." He added, "With my father's help." quickly.
"Oh, you're one of those Colonels." John said half surprised half laughing. "Well I had to do it the old fashioned way."
"Yeah, well, I'm good at my job." He smiled behind his helmet. "And I was in the SAS."
"Ah, that kind of father."
"Yeah, woke up at four in the morning when I was six to do three laps of the field block. When I was twelve I was doing about seven times that far. By the time I joined the SAS I could lap our training officer twice each time we went around the base."
"You never told us about this." John said.
"It's kind of a touchy subject for me." He admitted. "Because I outdid everyone on the base, I had about two friends the whole time." His tone went grim. "Both of 'em died on our first mission."
"What happened?" John asked.
"Well, I'm not really allowed to tell you." He sniggered. "It was a secret mission."
"Ah,"
"Yeah, I'll make it short for you, and for me." He added in his head. "We were taking cover behind an upturned car when both of them were hit with a nail grenade. Frank died first, but Ben kept screaming. He had about ten nails in his chest, some of them had gone through the other side. I crawled off before another one could land nearby. Ben's last words to me were 'traitor'."
"Sorry, I, uh," He swallowed so loud Alex heard it over the radio. "Did you complete the mission?"
"Yeah, I had major leg wounds at the end of it. It's why I can't go as fast I used to." They turned into the Shadow's Operation Room, SOR, or as most called it, SWORE (Shadow's Worst Operations Room Ever) Because it belonged to Alex and Lauren's team. "See you later."
"You need to return the-" Alex was already a meter from the door and didn't catch the last of his words. He'd go on the roof to think things over. No one was ever up there.
"Well, it's not much of a date, but it'll do." Lauren said as they sat on top of the centre base. "At least you tried."
"Yeah well, I sneaked a few cans from the mess hall cooler." Edd chuckled. "Not many people know how to get up here you know."
"Yeah, I thought you were crazy when you said where we were going." She looked back at the APBW array's escape hatch. "I never knew that alarm was broken."
"It's easy to disable." He said. "Me and Alex put a playing card over the sensor."
"Yeah well," She started opening a can of beer. "It's a nice view."
"Better when you're around." Edd flirted with a smile.
"That's really cheesy." Lauren joked.
They both looked over as the escape hatch opened. It closed and they heard footsteps then one of the cans hovered up.
"You could have told me it was a three way date." Lauren mused. "I've never seen you drink before Alex."
"Bad memories." His invisible head became visible as he took his helmet off. "And, I am British. We invented the stuff." His head bobbed down as his body either crouched or sat. "Sorry to interrupt, but the others were taken." He said.
They looked to the other side of the base, over near the horizon, and saw two little dots against the fading sun. They looked to the only other visible Array and saw another two dots against a cloud.
"I guess I'm not so original." Edd said as he burped.
"At least you're not doing what the others are doing." Alex said as he took another gulp.
"Yeah, we just wanted a chill." Lauren said as she put her arm over Edd's shoulders and pecked him on the cheek. "Did you see the new arrivals?"
"Yeah, one of them's Mellor's little sister." Alex said. His voice always seemed to stay the same tone, a deep saddening one. His eyes flashed back and forth as if reading memories. He shook his head and looked away from them for a second. "See you." He got up and headed back to the escape hatch.
"Alex, wait!" Edd said. Alex stopped and turned his head halfway to face Edd. Edd got up and walked over. He started to whisper in his ear.
Alex whispered back.
Edd patted him on the back and whispered something else.
It was returned by something equally as quiet.
They went on like this for about ten minutes before Alex went down the ladder with a hint of a smile.
Edd came back and sat down next to Lauren.
"What's wrong with him?" Lauren asked.
"I'm not allowed to tell you." He said in the tone Alex had used before. "He and John had a conversation about his time in the SAS."
"Oh, did he loose someone close to him?"
"Yeah, Frankie, his girlfriend."
"I can't activate the shield sir!" The gate technician, Walter, shouted. "Someone's hacked the system!"
"Security to gate room!" Jack and Jack mutually cried as Older Jack pressed the button for the intercom. Older Jack said, "Stand over there."
A human female walked through the gate and stood in the centre of the room. She had long light brown curly hair and was wearing a brown leather, what looked like leather anyway, top with darker shaded leggings. She looked around in confusion then saw the people in the control room. Guards ran in and she was surrounded by troops.
"Who are you?" Jack asked sternly.
"Larrin," She replied in a brave tone. "Captain the Travelers' generation ship Legacy."
"How did you pass our gate shield?"
"I don't know." She replied. She seemed honest. "I walked through and found myself here."
"Do you know where you are?" Jack, the younger one, asked.
"No, but I think I can guess." She replied. "The tau'ri's Pegasus Command."
"You're half right." Jack said. How did she manage to travel to another galaxy? "This is the Tau'ri home world." Carter gave him a puzzled look. "Welcome to Earth."
