A Set of Jacks

Chapter 2

The school year continued and MiniDaniel made a similar impression on the school that MiniJack did. The two friends were mostly inseparable, a fact that escaped no one's attention, especially when both Jacks spoke in their own secret language and MiniJack referred to MiniDaniel by several nicknames, including the seemingly-inexplicable Danny Boy.

MiniJack found his new life easy with MiniDaniel by his side. He was able to keep up with MiniDaniel's grades and improved his Ancient language skills. He also managed to impress many more people during a visit by recruiters of the five branches of the US Military. The school gathered in the gym as public relations officers from each branch spoke about the military, joined by many servicemen and servicewomen.

{"I'll bet you $50 that my other self did this."} MiniJack said.

{"Absolutely not, I was going to make the same bet."}

After the military representatives finished their presentations, recruiters from each branch invited students to spar to demonstrate the training involved. MiniJack quickly got out of his seat.

{"Don't show off."} MiniDaniel cautioned.

"Relax, Space Monkey," MiniJack responded. "I don't get many chances for this kind of exercise."

MiniJack got in line, but let others in front of him so he would be last. When it was his turn, he smiled at the marine approaching him and easily evaded all his moves. This marine had been able to defeat students in less than ten seconds. After forty seconds of fighting MiniJack, he was surprised, especially when MiniJack was able to get in a few blows. The attention of everyone in the gym turned to the sparring pair as they continued on for another minute.

"You're holding back," the marine said to MiniJack when he finally got distance between the two.

"Yes, I am," MiniJack replied as MiniDaniel rolled his eyes.

"You shouldn't," the marine told MiniJack as he tried to bring the teenager down.

MiniJack countered the marine's moves with a block, two punches, and a flip. The marine landed on his back. "Fine, I won't," MiniJack said. MiniJack turned to other military officers smiling an invitation. Encouraged by the gym's atmosphere and scattered cheering, sparring continued between MiniJack and four others. It took little effort to bring these four down quickly.

A serviceman gaped when he saw MiniJack's finishing move. "That's . . ."

MiniJack looked at the soldier, seeing recognition of the move in his eyes. "You know that move?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do. How do you know it?"

"Normally, I'd say it's classified, but I'm guessing you're an SF at a certain base if you know the move, so I'll just say I've sparred against a certain big Black bald guy with a golden forehead."

"You fought against . . . him?"

"Oh, yeah," MiniJack replied. "He taught me a lot."

"It shows."

"Who are you two talking about?" an Air Force representative asked.

"No one you ever want to mess with," replied to SF officer. He turned to MiniJack again. "How do you know about that base?"

MiniJack smiled. "Sorry, but that's classified."

Near the end of the school year, MiniJack and MiniDaniel sat in Mr. Hill's World History class, MiniDaniel's favorite. In turn, MiniDaniel was Mr. Hill's favorite student. He answered a thorough question about the Ottoman Empire when Mr. Hill noticed MiniJack sleeping. Mr. Hill approached MiniJack to wake him up, but failed to do so with his voice and with a tap. He shook MiniJack a bit and panicked when MiniJack began to fall over.

"Oh no no no," Mr. Hill kept on repeating as he laid MiniJack down on the carpet. "Becky! Go get the nurse and tell her to call an ambulance now!"

"No!" MiniDaniel interjected. By that time, he was already by MiniJack's side. "Mr. Hill, we need to call Jack's emergency contact. She'll send a medical team here." After Daniel updated MiniDaniel about the changes at SGC, both clones changed their emergency contact to Elizabeth Weir.

"Colorado Springs General is very close, Jack."

"I know, but Jack's medical history is classified. The Doctor that will come will be able to treat Jack much more effectively than anyone at Colorado Springs General. Please."

"All right. Becky, ask the nurse to come down here. On the way, both of you stop by the office and have someone there get in touch with Jack's emergency contact."

As Mr. Hill spoke his instructions, MiniDaniel put MiniJack's feet on a pile of textbooks. He then noticed that MiniJack was shivering.

"Jack!" MiniDaniel shouted. "Jack!"

MiniJack finally opened his eyes a little bit. "Space Monkey . . ." he began slowly. {"I'm so cold."}

"You'll be okay," MiniDaniel told him as he started to rub MiniJack's arms. MiniJack soon fell unconscious again.

Dr. Brightman eventually arrived at Mountain Springs with a few staff members. MiniDaniel spoke up as she and her team looked over MiniJack and put him on a gurney.

"Dr. Brightman, Jack was shivering. Earlier today, he was complaining of headaches and his mind racing."

"Did you notice anything else?"

"No, well yeah but it's not . . ."

"Anything could be relevant."

"He told me he was cold in a certain language, but he used a term that he shouldn't have known." MiniDaniel caught a glance from both Dr. Brightman and a staff member. "What is it?"

"You should come back to the base with us to be briefed on something that happened."

Later at SGC, MiniDaniel found out about Jack being in stasis after downloading the Ancient's repository of knowledge again. He got in contact with the Antarctic base and spoke to Daniel and Sam.

"Dr. Brightman thinks that Jack will be all right after a while," MiniDaniel said, referring to MiniJack. "His body temperature and pulse are still irregular, but they are steadying towards the norm."

"That's good to hear," Sam mentioned.

"So the two Jacks are linked?" Daniel asked.

"It must be the combination of their genes, the Ancients, and the incredible amount of stress," Sam suggested.

"If that's the case," MiniDaniel said, "I won't bother considering testing it out myself."

"Has anything like this ever happened before with Jack?" Sam asked.

"I never noticed anything like it," MiniDaniel answered.

A few days later, MiniJack regained consciousness with vague memories of the day he passed out. He also acquired vague memories belonging to Jack after they separated. Per Dr. Brightman's recommendation, he stayed in the infirmary for another couple of days. Sam did some research into the link between MiniJack and Jack to see if it could help Jack, but she ultimately left with Teal'c to Halla to get help from the Asgard.

MiniDaniel stayed with MiniJack during his free time to go over what MiniJack had missed in school. Within two weeks, MiniJack was back in school getting ready for the end of the school year and Jack had been revived and promoted in rank and position. Due to the events that had occurred during the past three weeks, Jack had become more comfortable with MiniJack and had eventually allowed him free rein at SGC during his free time to catch up with old acquaintances, spar with Teal'c, and occasionally provide some indirect input. The time that MiniJack spent at SGC made him long for the stargate, but travel through it remained off-limits. Knowing such, MiniDaniel easily convinced MiniJack to take a road trip to Minnesota with the stipulation that MiniJack would not coerce MiniDaniel into fishing. MiniDaniel also had access to the SGC and he frequently helped Daniel when the latter was swamped. However, MiniDaniel gave Daniel some distance periodically to establish boundaries for the benefit of both.

Thanks again for reading. The next chapter will be about a (very) minor adventure that happens along the way.