THE HERE AND NOW
CHAPTER 18
Interlude
"SPECIAL"
The Air Force always kept their eyes out for special candidates. When Jack O'Neill joined the Air Force they hadn't believed him to be such a candidate and yet he had proved himself time and time again. And so he was among the few who were accepted to be special ops and black ops trained. He had become their special project. Special missions, infiltrations, assassinations and things they would never in a million years admit to doing.
He was the perfect candidate, followed orders and took well to lessons, with a bit of a rebel side to him, always a trouble maker but got the job done. Yeah, they needed people like him. He had a twisted sense of honor and duty which allowed him to go through with his missions, even if it conflicted with his moral code.
Operation Black Dawn, operation Snake Eyes and operation Shade. He had been part of them all and had taken down every single target assigned to him. Jack O'Neill, the black sheep was the go to guy and he was good at it. Until he reached the assignment where everything changed and he faced an opponent as good as he. It was the Phoenix Foundation's special agent Murdoc, a rebel, a rouge who had gone astray.
MacGiver Angus, was Jack's cover, special agent of the Phoenix Foundation. Go in get the bad seeds out and destroy Murdoc. Everything went according to plan except for one thing. The MacGiver character used for cover wasn't allowed to kill and Jack O'Neill went soft. He questioned every mission, refused to leave anyone behind and did not, would not kill women and children. Not anymore. And so he retired from the Special Ops unit and married, had a normal life.
His kid died and once more he changed and he was perfect for the Air Force's suicide mission. Officers like him had been pushed and prodded and even when a Captain Carter was called to be allowed to go through, they denied it. This was a one way trip and they needed her here on Earth where it was safe for her to continue to work on their projects. After all, Jack O'Neill was an old war dog and she was a genius who developed weapons people only saw in science fiction.
"General I worked on it for two years, I made the program that operates the damn thing, I should be…"
"This has been decided, Captain."
"General West, why?"
"This is not an exploration, or peaceful greeting. This is a threat assessment. If we find hostiles we need a team who can take them on."
"And I am not ready sir? I…"
"Captain Carter, understand this. Jack O'Neill and his team are the best of the best. Senior officers, years of service under their belts and you're just a Captain."
They were right. She had read Jack O'Neill's file, what was available, that is, a simple file mentioning his decorations and awards. His service record was nothing but blank and she knew to not keep digging. He had black ops and special ops printed on his training sheet. She had backed off and watched as the team headed off into the unknown. She had seen this Jack and wondered how he would deal with the unknown.
"Have you read the reports?"
"Huh?"
"Aliens do exist."
" What! Let me see that."
She read with fascination and excitement the words on the paper and imagined this man and his team fighting aliens with advanced technology and wining. Taking down a creature who's ships were as big as the pyramids and who impersonated a God and not just any good, but Ra, the king of the Egyptian Gods.
"Wow!"
"Yeah, you can say that again."
"Can't believe it! It's almost out of a movie!"
O'Neill had been crowned the hero. A few years passed, and it became known that he had faked the report and had saved his friend and a whole bunch of people who didn't deserve to die, and Samantha Carter got a first hand look at what kind of man he was, and what he would do to make amends for sins she knew nothing of.
For eight years she had known almost everything about the man and never had she asked him about his past. No, she could never have done that. Not after the feelings he had for her and the way they confused the hell out of her. She always believed in him and thought of him as a friend and an incredible man. Yet when she started to see him as something more, she got scared and ran.
She did so because part of her believed him to be like Jonas Hansen. A crazy ex black ops colonel, who was one short step from having a God complex. Even though Jack had shown he was nothing like that, Sam still kept her distance and wondered about what could possibly be behind such a man. What could make him be so honorable and gentle, what drove him to be a good soldier and not a cruel one? He was friends with everyone on base and everyone respected him.
His experiences had molded him to become the man she had seen before her for eight years and yet before that, she knew nothing of him and so she kept away.