MEMOIRS OF

MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL

(Re-activated)

5. The SGC

Chapter Two

By Arrietty

2031

The following day

I was standing in the briefing room when Davis came in and announced that Baal had arrived. Sam wasn't far behind him and we moved through to the control room by the Stargate. Ships like the old Prometheus were concealed behind the moon waiting for Baal to arrive. We didn't want him to pick them off one by one as they left Earth.

The new up-dated F320's were ready; they had stealth as well as cloaking systems. They were far superior to Baal's fleet. I hoped. Then again, we'd had help from the Asgard and unbeknownst to them the Aschen too. Our biggest problem was sheer numbers, from what we had gleaned from the intelligence collected; Baal had managed to conquer just about every single system lord or goa'uld in any form of power. What the Tok'ra had feared all along had finally happened; one goa'uld was in control, no one to appose him, but us.

We had a large electronic, computerised map thingy on the back wall that showed the world. Radio reports were coming in from all directions and whenever a place was hit by one of Baal's weapons a red light showed up indicating just how far the devastation had spread. Likewise we also had another monitor that had all of Baal's ships showing as small grey glowy dots. A cheer went up when one of the dots blinked out as the satellite defence systems did their work. Sadness pervaded the room when one of our cities was hit. We were right in transferring the Stargate, the building it had been housed was the first hit and obliterated.

Sam was in the room monitoring the satellite defence systems and I stood by her shoulder. Janet and Daniel and taken Cassie, her family and our kids to a safe place. Off world. It was something I had insisted on. There was no way I could concentrate on saving the world if my own family was in danger. Sam felt the same, so we had left them in Janet and Daniel's charge and much to our son's increased protests about being treated like a baby, we sent them through the gate. This way we could now concentrate fully on our jobs, without any distractions.

I placed my hand on Sam's shoulder not only to reassure her, but to draw strength from her as well. It was tough to see our world being attacked by the snake that had caused us both so much anguish in our lives.

Sam didn't acknowledge my hand, but I knew she was aware. She was busy on the computer keeping track of all the systems in space making sure that they fired at Baal's ships and not ours. From the reports we were hearing there was full scale battle in space. It was hard being stuck down here in the SGC and not being in the thick of things. The joys of being a general.

There was no warning, but a tingling sensation and a flash of light. My first thought was, great, Thor has come, but it was quickly dashed when we arrived on the Pel'tak of a Ha'tak mother ship. Sam fell with a thump on the floor, as she had been sitting when we'd been beamed up. I lifted her to stand and we watched as several Kull warriors surrounded us pointing their weapons at us.

My gut twisted when I heard Baal's slimy snake infested arrogant voice come through the doorway.

"O'Neill, Colonel Carter, it is good to see you once again."

His smug smile curled up sideways. I felt a flutter against my hand as Sam was tempted to slip her hand in mine. An instinctive reaction, I wish we could, but once again, we couldn't give the enemy any more fuel than he already had on us.

"Or should I say Mr. and 'Mrs.' O'Neill?"

'Crap!' He knew.

Baal gave a nod and two Kull warriors grabbed Sam by her upper arms, too quick for me to do anything, not that I could have stopped them. She struggled and I moved forward to help her, but was stopped by a firm grip on my shoulders. I felt their pincer like fingers dig into the fleshy bit below my collar bone. My knees buckled with the pain and I fell to the floor with a thump. It hurt.

Sam wildly looked back towards me as they dragged her from the room.

"Kill her," said Baal.

He seemed to show no emotion on his face as he watched me closely. I hoped I'd managed to hide the fear churning in my gut, but I wasn't so sure after he gave a triumphant sneer. This snake still enjoyed other people's suffering.

"You'll get your comeuppance," I threatened.

He just raised an eyebrow and turned towards his throne. With two strides he reached it and with a flamboyant sweep of his cloak sat down and faced me.

I was seething inside, and I was one hundred percent sure I was showing it on my face.

Baal tilted his head on one side. "You and your lovely wife, don't look any different. You have a sarcophagus." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Something like that," I replied non committedly. Even though I wouldn't want to protect the Aschen, I certainly didn't want Baal to get his mockers on their technology.

The Kull warrior was still leaning on my shoulders and he was very heavy. I wriggled trying to get him to loosen his grip, but only managed to get him to tighten it further.

Suddenly, the super soldier leaned back and the pain receded. Baal pointed to the window.

"Look and see your world die," he said rather dramatically.

I painfully got to my feet, my knees protested loudly with a pop when I stood. With trepidation and a good dollop of dread, I walked toward the window and looked out towards the blue ball that is my planet. Surrounding it were thousands of black goa'uld ships of all shapes and sizes. Our fleet was already in full scale battle. I wondered when the rest were going to make their move from behind the moon. My heart sank, there was no way our ships could stop this onslaught. The Tok'ra had been right, we should never have let one single goa'uld get control of everything.

The ship I was on started to shake and shudder as the super weapon unfolded from the rest of the ship. With just a few well aimed blasts the satellite defence system was obliterated leaving behind a fine mist of particles in space. With dread I knew it wasn't over. Instinctively, I glanced towards the dark side of the moon. I needn't have worried about giving their position away as several of Baal's ships were already waiting for our hidden ships to arrive. It was as though he already knew.

I stood still, something wasn't right, something was different; this wasn't the usual let's blast the planet's inhabitants to smithereens, this was . . . I just couldn't put my finger on it. I turned and looked at Baal, he was smugly watching my reaction to the devastation.

"This is just the beginning," he announced.

I opened my mouth to retort with a smart comment, but I paused because he turned his head to one side and frowned. He looked up at four of the black warriors and nodded once. They quickly walked out through the door. Baal hadn't said a word. As if what was happening wasn't enough to send me into a downward spiral of depression, but to find out that there was a very good chance that Baal was linked telepathically to his army as well, almost made me want to give up. And I believe if Baal wasn't still frowning, I would have – right there and then.

The ship shuddered as if we'd been hit, but I couldn't see any Earth ships in our vicinity. Another shake and Baal leapt to his feet. I found myself forced to the ground onto my knees by one of the super soldiers. Pain spiked through the knee caps into my legs. I couldn't help but let out a gasp.

Baal stood over me, fuming with anger. "What have you done?" he demanded.

Seeing Baal so angry lifted my spirits.

"Things not going so well, Ball?" I asked. I let a small smirk lift the corner of my mouth.

He sneered before lifting his hand; I couldn't move out the way as I was locked in the grip of a Kull warrior. The hand device glowed and seared a red hot pain into my head. I felt my brain begin to turn into jell-o inside my Kull.

The ship shuddered again and I felt the pressure lift from my shoulders as the Kull warrior let me go. I fell forward onto my hands as Baal released his hold on me. My head pounded and I couldn't see for the bright lights that swam before my eyes.

Slowly my eyes came back into focus and I could see Baal standing by the large window; two Kull warriors flanked him either side. The rest of the room seemed empty. I stood shakily to my feet. The room spun a little, but at least it stayed the right way up.

I could just see between the goa'ulds out into space. Our fleet were being decimated by Baal's ships. So why was Baal not happy? I asked myself. Then I saw coming out of hyper space, numerous Ha'tak and cargo vessels.

Baal breathed out under his breath, "Sholva."

''Teal'c.'

Baal turned around and faced me. "The rebel Jaffa will not overpower me, I am a god!" He announced as though it was the first time I'd heard it.

"Really," I answered, my voice dripping with sarcasm. It wasn't lost on him either. He stepped towards me, anger making his eyes glow.

"Kneel before your god," he demanded.

I stood still and gave the best sneer I could. "No," I replied succinctly.

He was enraged, striding forwards he skidded to a halt in front of me. Without his weapons and super human strength, I'd have laid him out then and there, but he raised his hand and the orange glow burst from the palm of his hand and I fell to my knees.

"You will obey me, O'Neill."

The pain was more excruciating than before, I knew he controlled this with his mind; I just had to be stronger. Pulling on all my resources I fought back. His rage didn't dissipate but increased with my defiance. He strengthened his power and all thoughts of fighting back dissolved as my legs and body finally gave way and I could feel myself falling to the ground. The bright light began to fade into darkness.

The cold hard surface of the floor penetrated through my clothing as I lay still. The thrumming of the hand device burned into my Kull, pureeing my brain. This was it; I was going to die finally at the hands of this most hated goa'uld. My only regret was that Sam hadn't made it to safety with our children.

I heard a crash then the rapid fire of rifle fire. Baal released his hold on me and fell to the floor beside me. I watched mesmerised as his eyes glowed – stark pain showed and then surprise that he'd been hit. Then suddenly, without warning, someone grabbed my legs and whisked me out of the way, not a moment too soon as the symbiote shot out of the body beside it and landed on the cold hard floor. A large boot landed right on the head of the snake and ground it into the floor. Blue blood schwelched out from under the sides of the boot.

"O'Neill, are you well?"

I looked up at the owner of the boot and Teal'c's concerned face loomed above.

"I will be."

I turned back to look at the flattened symbiote. It seemed so innocuous now. Not the tyrant he'd been.

"A lot better that him," I said, pointing to the compressed symbiote.

'Sam.' I wanted to break down and cry on the spot, but that would have to wait until I was on my own.

Teal'c helped me to my feet. I wavered a bit, but managed to get my equilibrium quite quickly.

I pulled out a small plastic bag from my pocket and scooped up some blood and flesh from the puddle on the floor.

I wasn't up to long sentences, I was trying my hardest to bottle up my despair inside.

"Give," I asked, flicking my fingers towards his zat fixed to his belt.

As soon as I had the zat in my hand, I primed it, aimed it and fired three times into the squashed mess on the floor. I didn't want any chances that the Kull warriors or some other miss-led goa'uld would revive him.

"What about the clones?" I asked Teal'c.

He shook his head and then opened his mouth to speak, but something crashed into the ship and we nearly lost balance.

"What's happening, Teal'c," I asked.

"I do not know, O'Neill."

"Well, lets find out th . . ." I stopped in mid sentence. The three remaining Kull warriors were standing still, staring into space.

I walked between them and looked out over the battle field. All of Baal's ships weren't firing at anything and our ships combined with the rebel Jaffa were decimating Baal's attack fleet. Broken bits of Baal's fleet were careening into each other, making huge explosions that made the ship we were on rattle.

I stared back at the Kull warriors.

"Teal'c, I think . . ."

"You are correct, O'Neill. It seems Baal controlled the Kull warriors with his mind and now he is no more, they have no leader."

"Sweet."

"O'Neill, we need to leave this vessel, or we will be destroyed by our own ships."

"Yes, I agree, Teal'c, but I have to find Sam." I wasn't going to leave without her, even if we were only bringing back her body. Never again, would I leave her.

"She should be arriving soon, she wasn't far behind me."

I spun around on my heel and stared at Teal'c with my mouth open. "She's alive?" I asked incredulous and my heart began its usual fast thumping when Sam seemed to be involved.

"Jack!"

I turned back to face the doorway. Sam stood looking rather dishevelled with blood tracking down the side of her face, but she seemed whole and alive.

"We have to leave now. Or we'll go up with the ship."

"Good to see you, Sam." I gave a smile, belying my true feelings of what I really wanted to do. Which was to sweep her up into my arms and never let her go, but practically we didn't have time. She replied with a quick grin.

The three of us pelted down the corridor towards a large room. Sitting upright was a Stargate. Someone was standing by the DHD punching in the address to a planet. It was Baal.

"Where'd he come from?" I asked no one in particular.

Three more Baal clones stepped out from the shadows aiming zats at us.

"You just don't give up, do you, O'Neill?" One of them asked.

Another one walked over and said, "You two over there." He waved his zat to his left indicating Sam and Teal'c to move to the side. Each of these clones didn't have a hand device, I was relieved, I didn't think my brain could handle another roasting.

"You, I've had enough of you O'Neill. You are going to die, for once and for all; a horrible slow painful death this time." He smirked.

"What again?" I asked sarcastically.

Without warning, the other two Baal's grabbed my arms and forced me to the floor. The first Baal stood over me and looked me up and down, searching for a way to cause me the most pain. He came to a decision quite quickly as he jumped into the air and landed on one of my legs. I heard the crack as the bone broke in two places, the pain making me yell.

The Baals were so caught up in their petty revenge they forgot to watch Sam and Teal'c. In a moment, Teal'c and Sam had got hold of zat guns and had felled all three Baals – obliterating their remains with two more blasts of the zat guns. The only evidence left that they had been there, was me moaning in pain on the floor.

The ship shuddered and moved violently to one side.

"Quick, Teal'c get Jack," Sam called out.

Sam punched in an address on the DHD while Teal'c dragged me over one shoulder and hoisted me up into the air. My screams were drowned out by the event horizon bursting into the room and I blacked out.

I suppose this is the end of my story. They took me through the Stargate to the alpha site and then back here to the SGC. I don't remember much at all about the journey, but I do remember that Sam was alive and was with me all the way.

Over the past four weeks I have been slowly filled in what had happened. The Baal clones had been beamed up along with us and then scattered throughout Baal's fleet. The Baal that Teal'c had so unceremoniously destroyed was the original Baal; Janet had tested the tissue samples I'd collected. I was most relieved to hear she had destroyed all samples afterwards.

The Kull warriors had been telepathically linked to Baal and this was why we were able to destroy most of Baal's fleet when he was killed. Only the ships that had Baal clones were able to fight back.

When Sam had been taken through by the Kull warriors to be killed, she had managed to escape and beam Teal'c on board when his fleet of ships had arrived. Between them they had managed to get through Baal's defences and kill him – not a moment too soon either. Another two minutes and I'd have been fried.

Four hours after it was all over, the Asgard arrived. I suppose better late than never and they did help clean up the mess.

Thor visited me yesterday, he was most apologetic that they hadn't got here sooner, but they were still having trouble with the replicators. I wonder if the fight would ever end. He did say something about meeting the replicator Carter, I don't know what it was because I stuck my fingers in my ears. Thor wasn't impressed, but to be honest I really didn't and still don't care.

I have my Sam safe and sound, with our two children. I couldn't wish for anything more. Baal was dead, the system lords basically decimated by him before we finished him off. The Asgard seemed to have the replicator situation under control and our world was safe – once again.

It never got too old.

The End

"Jack, you ready to go?"

"Yes, just finished. Where's Jacob? I didn't get a chance to thank him properly for speeding up the healing time. I was slowly going nuts in this place."

"Not as much as the nurses were."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing."

"Did you bring a bag?"

"Yes, it is here. You haven't got much."

"Only a couple of things and this computer."

"Did you say you'd finished?"

"Yes, all done. Right up to date."

"You look mighty pleased with yourself."

"I am. It has taken me a long time to write all this down."

"So General O'Neill, what you going to do now? Retire . . . again?"

"No, I think I'll stay on here after my leave and see how things go. It has been quite fun."

"Really?"

"Yes, really . . . Sam?"

"Yes, Jack."

"Come here."

The End

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