Part 5: Vacuum

Five months later…

The barbecue was smoking and shooting up flames. Jack tried to move the meat aside so it wouldn't burn. He was never very good at this. So why did people always give him this job?

Jack looked across the lawn filled with kids running around, neighbors talking in groups, and a picnic table filled with food. He finally spotted Sam just to the left of the oak tree. His heart pulled as it did without fail every time he looked her.

In some ways, Jack always felt a kind of commitment to her, long before they ever came to this place. But now, they were living a life together unlike anything he'd ever imagined. She was his wife, if not in official document, in every other way that mattered. Jack couldn't help the easy, settled, idyllic feeling that always accompanying those thoughts.

If only they were on Earth.

Jack tried, he really did, to forget that tiny, little detail of his existence that prevented perfection. But no matter how happy he was, he couldn't find it in himself to accept this. He wouldn't accept it for her sake, because Sam deserved better. She deserved to be among friends, to be able to contact her family, and to do work that was important to her.

He watched her across the lawn talking to a new acquaintance. Kara had once taught calculus at Georgetown until her and a colleague in Theology department, a man she'd only just started to date, were suddenly pulled away from work. They were asked to attend a top-secret meeting at the Pentagon.

Jack and Sam had learned that most of the couples here were married or at least in a pre-established relationship. They had suddenly been asked to a meeting where a number of men explained that the couple were being asked to do their duty and then were sent through the Stargate. Some of the couples already had children and they had been allowed come as well. It was the same story, over and over. Yet, Jack couldn't quite feel satisfied. He and Sam were missing something, a clue, a way home.

Jack finally was relieved of temporary BBQ duty when Jim, the neighbor hosting the Sunday afternoon party, returned from taking a leak.

"Thanks, Jack, here's a fresh beer for the trouble," Jim said.

"No problem."

Jack ambled over to Sam and Kara. He listened– well, not really– as the two discussed some formula they found fascinating until Jack could put up with it no longer and interrupted.

"Kara," he said, knowing this was only going to serve to annoy Sam and her friend by asking once again, but he couldn't help himself. Hey, Sam knew he was an ass the moment she met him. She should've known sleeping with him wasn't going to change that. "When they met with you, did they say anything about other Stargates on Earth?"

"Jack," Sam grumbled.

Kara sighed. "I've been over it a hundred times, it isn't going to change."

Jack replied, "I know, I just…"

"Leo and I want to get out of here," Kara said, "just as much as you do. But I don't see how rehashing it is going to help."

Sam gave Jack a look. "It's a nice day, can't we just enjoy?"

But Jack kept at it, "Or what about the days before the meeting, did anything strange happen? Out of the ordinary that–"

"Jack," Sam cut in, "enough for now."

Jack could tell he was at the end of her patience. They had come a long way from the subordinate military relationship they used to have. Now he was in essence her husband, and like all husbands on this or any other world, the last thing he wanted to deal with was an irritated wife. So he dropped it– for now.

It wasn't easy talking about the past. For most people living in Weston Heights, they needed to block the experience in order to survive. Still others thought that they might be punished by those running Weston Heights if they didn't cooperate.

Jack and Sam had learned these lessons the hard way. When they attempted unsuccessfully to power the gate and manually dial out, they'd caused a minor uprising. Most people here believed it was in the best interest to go along with the project, and not to try to fight it. They were being left alone, happy, well taken care of. Rocking the boat might change things for the worse.

Jack understood survival instinct. He also appreciated that these people hadn't been through the training to be able to handle psychological distress like he and Sam had. These people were simply doing the best that they could with what they had.

The rest of the afternoon picnic went on peacefully. Jack played baseball with plastic bats and a whiffle ball with some of the kids and found it way more fun than playing the traditional way with adults. Sam met and chatted with the latest addition to the neighborhood, Olive and Jerry Butler, previously of Manchester, England.

Just as the sun started to set and Sam and Jack were saying their goodbyes, Kara rushed over.

"Jack," she said, with a strange look on her face. "What you said earlier…"

"Yeah?"

"It made me remember something." Jack gave Sam a look. She knew she was going to have to hear 'I told you so' later.

Kara said, "I remembered there was something unusual that happened just a few days before… The university had an initiative. They said they had to take a sample of everyone's blood. They claimed it was for a test they were developing that could determine who was infected with a symbiote and who wasn't.

"But I thought it was strange the way it was mandatory, not volunteer. The science department had always asked for volunteers in the past. It was…" She suddenly seemed to second-guess herself and brush it off. "I'm sure it was nothing."

Over the next several days, Jack and Sam went back over the stories with each of the neighbors who were willing to talk. Sure enough, some kind of blood test was done on each in the days leading up to being chosen for the project.

Sam suggested that they visit their latest neighbors, and Jack suggested they bring cake. After arriving at the Butler's new home, Sam struck up an easy conversation about their lives back home. She also tried to answer many of their confused questions about Weston Heights.

After about 20 minutes of making small talk, Jack couldn't hold back any longer. "We all want to get home," he said, "and we believe that there is a connection between all of us, a blood test that was done in the days before coming here. We think it's important."

Jerry nodded. "We had several tests done at a fertility clinic. We were trying to conceive but we were having trouble."

Sam asked, "Did anyone say anything about the test during the meeting you had with those men?"

Olive replied, "One said… something about having a marker. That we were special."

Sam met Jack's eyes. She conveyed a message of caution and tact. There was no reason to scare these people and they could always come back and ask more questions later if they remained friendly now.

Jerry sounded worried, "Do you think there's something wrong with us?"

Sam smiled in a way she hoped was comforting. "No, everything is fine. I think you're right, they just wanted to make sure that all of us are healthy."

Olive looked a little weepy, but hopeful. "So you think the test showed that we can have a baby after all? We were told over and over it wasn't possible. But we tried this one last clinic anyway, in desperate hope…"

"It's alright, Love." Jerry comforted his wife.

That night, alone in their bedroom, Jack reviewed what they had learned. He and Sam never recalled having a blood test in the weeks or months before meeting Burns and company. But that didn't mean that their records from the SGC weren't in Burns' hands.

Jack added, "The… ah, what's that called? The reason I can make the chair work in Antarctica?"

"The ATA gene. You express it."

"Sam, I'm guessing you must have some of it too. It must be in our records."

Realization dawned, "Oh, God, I must be recessive."

"Whatever–"

Sam ignored him and kept going with what Jack affectionately labeled 'annoy-o-babble.'

She rationalized, "If that theory is correct, our children would have a 50/50 chance of expressing the gene and if they didn't, in the very least, they'd be a carrier as I am and pass it on to the next generation."

"So," Jack said, trying not to concern himself with the details. It all came down to one thing. "I'm guessing everyone here is either like me or like you."

"I read the reports," Sam kept going in 'babble voice.' In Jack's opinion, so not as good as her 'bedroom voice'

"There's been limited experimentation with gene therapy," she said. "But even if someone ever got it to work, well, the ATA gene would not be passed on to the next generation. Besides, why rely on science when you can just do it the old fashion way."

He interrupted and asked, "But what does it all mean?"

She answered, "This is a project not just to produce a future race of people, but a race that express the gene of the Ancients."

Sam met Jack's eyes in panic. Slowly she lowered them, placing a hand on her abdomen.

"Jack, I was going to wait until I was certain before I told you. But, I think there's a pretty good chance that I'm pregnant."