MEMOIRS OF

MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL

(Re-activated)

3. P4C-970

Chapter Three

By Arrietty

2008

That evening Mollem came for us. Two of his guards escorted us through the building out into the city. It was amazing. Tall sky scrapers, higher than I'd ever seen in New York towered above us some disappearing into the darkening mist. Lights winked at us through the thin fog as the sun sank below the city skyline.

Sam let out a small gasp of admiration at the architecture of the city. Monorail cars twirled their way around the tall circular buildings, small bug like cars whizzing through the air from building to building. The absence of colour, stark in the grey landscape. This was worse than the Tollens. At least they had a bit of life in them. Well, they used to before the goa'uld decimated their world.

I felt Sam's hand slip inside mine. It wasn't what we should do, the last thing the Aschen needed was another tool to get what they wanted, but I really didn't care. I found her hand a comfort and something precious to hold on to.

We were led into a large foyer in one of the skyscrapers. Here the colour was still grey and dull, like the people who lived here.

"Jack," Sam whispered. "I haven't seen anything alive except people."

"I haven't seen anything alive except you," I retorted staring Mollem in the eye. He flinched. Oh dear, I'd hurt his feelings, too bad. I grinned.

He gestured towards two double glass doors. We walked towards them and they opened as we approached. Mollem seemed surprised that we weren't. I wanted to taunt him with 'we're not that backward you know,' but I resisted. Maybe the gentle warning squeeze on my hand had helped.

Once we were through the doors, we found ourselves in a large room with six people seated along one side of a large table. Another three people were standing in front. They were Faxon, Daniel and Janet. Daniel and Janet, like us were holding hands but behind their backs, trying to conceal it from the panel at the table.

In my usual brash way I decided to flaunt our new found friendship to the world and lifted our joined hands in the air and waved at the only three members of our planet.

"Hi ya, guys."

Sam tried to tug her hand free, but she dismally failed. Daniel's mouth dropped open, Janet smirked and Faxon wobbled a bit on his feet. He didn't look to good.

We were ushered along side the others and turned to face the seated six which were now seven as Mollem had joined the throng. Borren was seated at the other end looking as boring as ever.

A man spoke with a deep voice, he was white haired, most probably the oldest in the room, including me. Then again, who knows with this lot with their long life medicine?

"You are our prisoners, you will be allowed to live in our city, but you will never be able to leave. Every six days you are to report to the Research Centre and be tested. You will work where we tell you to and do what we tell you at all times. You will have to wear these all the time." He lifted what looked like a house arrest bracelet. "If it is removed you WILL be found and eliminated. Do you understand?"

"So when do we get parole?" I asked.

He frowned.

Sam spoke up beside me. "What the General means is do we get to go home at all?"

He raised one eyebrow and leaned his head on one side.

In other words, No.

I sighed.

After the bracelets were fitted, we were ushered from the room and escorted over to a terminal. Small cars attached to the monorail zoomed into a stop and the guards pushed us into one. The doors swished shut and we sat down on the comfy seats. Not a moment to soon as the car shot off fast along the track with only a small vibration, but no sound except the wind whisking past.

We sat in stunned silence.

"Well that was different," came a sarcastic comment from Daniel.

I rubbed my hands over my face and looked at Sam. "So what now?" I asked everyone in general.

"We escape," was Daniel's response.

"Oh yeah, that'll be easy." 'Not.'

"I think we should see what is in the city and what we can find first before we try anything, I have the feeling that if we act and get caught, we won't get a second chance."

"Sam makes a lot of sense, Jack," Janet piped up.

I nodded, "I agree with Sam."

"I don't." Faxon sounded tired.

"Why not, Ambassador," Sam asked.

"Please, call me Joe." He smiled at her.

She nodded. "Why not, Joe?"

"Because, I tried that twice. The first time, they were going to execute me, but Borren convinced them that I was more useful alive. The second time, they were still waiting on results from their experiment and when they found out the results, they didn't care anymore."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I knew what the results were and they weren't good. "So, Sam and I got pumped full of this green stuff, is it what you were given."

"No, I don't think so. Mine was clear, but they won't be using that stuff again as it didn't work. And it was several years ago now. They've gone onto bigger things."

"Ours was blue," said Daniel.

I raised both eyebrows at him. "Blue. Wow blue blooded then," I joked. "We've got Vulcan blood now."

Faxon snorted. People didn't always surprise me, but this man did. Who'd have known he was a trekkie?

It didn't take long for Faxon to sober up a bit. "I'd better tell you where we're going. I have a small apartment in a building. They try and keep the prisoners apart as much as possible, but this time they put the five of us together. There are two bedrooms, lounge come dining room and a bathroom. The ladies can have one room; there are enough bunk beds in the other for us." He indicated Daniel, me and himself with his hand.

So much for quality time with Sam. I felt her squeeze my hand.

When we arrived it was as he had said. Two single beds in one room and a slightly larger room with two bunks on one side and a single bed on the other. The single looked like it was Faxon's as it was made up.

"They put the bunk beds in two days ago, so I knew you were coming."

He lifted down some sheets and quilts from a large closet in the ladies room. "Take your pick," he said and dumped them on one of the beds.

"Ooooh, I want the grey quilt," shouted Daniel.

Getting into the swing of things, I yelled out, "No, I want the grey one," and we both dived on one of the quilts at the same time. It ended up with Sam and Janet rolling each of us up in quilts and leaving us stranded on the floor without being able to get our hands free. We were rescued by Faxon.

"You're nuts," he said laughing. "I've really missed humour. Good honest Earth humour. Thank you." Faxon's voice broke at the end. Seven years imprisoned on a planet full of accountants must have been terrible. To break the moment I threw the quilt over his head and walked out the room to leave him to his emotions.

Work consisted of stacking food on supermarket shelves. And yes, you better believe it all the packets of food were labelled grey on white. Didn't they believe in any other colour? So far the only colour we had seen was the stuff they'd pumped into us when we were sedated. The food on the other hand was quite colourful, but not the stuff we were given to eat. Ours came in packets that you squeezed out of a small hole you cut into the corner of the box. It was colourless and tasteless mush, but it gave us all the nutrients we needed.

Faxon didn't work with us, he had the day shift in a box making factory. Daniel and Janet had early morning shift at the supermarket and came home around lunch time. We had the afternoon shift right through until late at night. So basically we all saw each other except for Faxon. Mainly because we were asleep when he left and when he arrived. We had one day off every eighteen days. That was when we would manage to catch up and fill each other in on what we had learned, which wasn't much.

I awoke in the middle of the night, cold. My body was racked with shivers and my head ached.

"Hush, it's going to be okay." I felt a cool hand on my forehead.

"Doc?"

"You have a fever, we're trying to get hold of Mollem to find out what is wrong."

"Sam." I wanted to know if she was okay.

"Yes, she has a fever as well."

I heard a slop of water. "Thanks Daniel, can you try and cool him and I'll do the same with Sam." Her voice even though steady had a sense of urgency about it. Memories of a similar experience came to mind. That time I'd ended up as Baal's dart board.

"Jack."

It was Sam's voice, she sounded worried. I opened my eyes; I was lying on Faxon's bed with one of the quilts over me. Sam was leaning over me, her face only inches from mine. I smiled at her. She returned my smile, moved away and sat on the side of the bed.

"We've been really ill," she announced.

I knew that. "How come you're up and about then?"

"I got better two days ago and convinced the Aschen to let me bring you home."

I opened my eyes a bit wider that comment. "How long has it been and more importantly where have we been?"

"Eight days. They took us back to the hospital." She shrugged, "I don't remember anything about the time in the hospital, but we were both out of the danger zone so we came home here."

"So, how long have I been here out of it?" I looked up to see an IV snaking its way into my arm.

"A couple of days longer than me. Janet has been monitoring your vitals and when she's at work, I've taken over."

"I could do with something to drink and I'm hungry too."

"That can be arranged." Sam stood and disappeared out of the room towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Sam," I called. "Just how much of a danger zone have we been in?"

She poked her head around the doorway. "Major one, like we both nearly died. Apparently, we made a break through. The last test subjects died within two days of receiving the drug. We lasted several days before getting sick and then we still lived." Her head disappeared again before I could ask anymore questions.

I yelled out to her, "I'm glad we make such good test subjects."

I heard a faint snort then a clatter as a plate was put down.

Sam came into the room bearing a tray with the usual slop in a bowl. Two slices of bread were leaning against the edge of the bowl.

"Do you want your food heated or left cold?" she asked.

"Cold thanks." The last thing I wanted was that disgusting mush heated. It just exaggerated the bland flavour.

I still felt a bit dizzy and the room dipped and swirled as I tried to sit up. Sam hoisted me up against the head board. "It'll pass soon. Once you've got some solid food into you." She dumped the tray down on my lap and walked back out into the kitchen. Sympathy seemed have fled with me regaining consciousness.

A few moments later she returned with two steaming mugs of something. Hopefully, coffee, though I didn't hold out any hope. There was nothing on this planet I'd seen so far that could resemble anything like coffee.

"The good news is," she said as she placed my drink down on my tray and then sat on the side of the bed, "That we get a whole three weeks off."

I raised one eyebrow.

"You know, to sight-see." She smiled.

We had already worked out that there was a very good chance we were being monitored in everything we'd said, and I was ninety-nine percent sure we were being watched as well. How? We hadn't worked out yet, but with all this down time, maybe Sam could find the source.

She was still looking at me intently, apparently, I'd missed something, but then again, I had just got over nearly dying. My brain needed time to catch up with the rest of me.

"We can go and explore the city." She looked at me hard.

"Ah," I got it. "Yes, that would be nice." We could find someway to escape. I can do cryptic.

"Maybe we could find some plant life," she said.

"Not likely here, and even if we do they'll be grey plants." I wasn't feeling my best at that point.

Sam left me alone to eat my sludge.

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