Note: This is the 3rd installment of a series. Please read Stargate Cadet and Stargate Academy prior to reading this installment.
Chapter 1
Two weeks had passed since the Pentagon pulled the new Star Gate Academy pilot program out of the old mountain base. Many officers and enlisted poured into the base as it was upgraded to be used as a military base once more.
Atlantis was closed to the public for safety reasons and placed under military control much to the objection of the general public and other nations of the world. Everyone knew something was wrong but no official announcement was made as the preparations for war began to roll out.
Due to Olivia's unusual predicament she was given a rank in the US Air Force of Lieutenant and allowed to live with her parents in base provided housing. Since all three in the family were exposed to the tainted coffee it was recommended that all stay in the same residence for evaluation.
Olivia and her mother had gone to the store to buy some groceries for the family. They got through the store and made it to the checkout line. Sam chose a line with an actual cashier for ironically she wasn't a fan of self checkout.
The young cashier was a male, about twenty years of age with dark hair and hazel eyes and wore the store uniform of tan slacks and a blue pullover shirt. He rang up the six pack of beer that Sam would normally buy for herself and Jack and then he looked to Sam and Olivia, cocked an eyebrow and stated, "You have I.D.?" The pair looked much like sisters as both wore jeans and matching red sweaters and appeared to be the same age.
Normally, Sam would relish in being asked to show her identification even if it wasn't necessary and simply the casher needing a date of birth to enter into the system. Instead, she found it irritating this time as she understood the casher did not think she was old enough to buy beer. She handed him her driver's license not enthused.
He gave a funny look, "This has to be fake. No way you are this woman."
Olivia mentioned, "She's my mom."
"No way!" he refused.
"She's General Samantha Carter of SG-1." Olivia told him.
He squinted, "There is no way."
Sam handed him her military I.D. card, "Happy?"
He looked at the card, "You are too young? General Carter is much older and she's famous."
"I was exposed to water contaminated by an alien device." she explained. "It affected me." She wagged her finger, "Just ring up my groceries."
"I can't sell you the beer." he insisted. "You are too young." He simply did not believe she was the famous General.
She looked him dead in the eye, "Look at what I am buying? Do two teenage girls come into a grocery store and buy two hundred dollars worth of food and one six pack of beer? Think about it."
The store manager came to the line as a scene was starting to emerge. She looked at Sam and recognized her. "Oh' my God. General Carter? Is that you?" She was about Sam's true age and had obviously dyed blonde hair and a rounded face.
"Yes," she nodded. "I was exposed to something of an alien nature and…" she pointed to herself.
The manager asked, "Can I have whatever you were exposed to?"
She sighed, "Trust me, Betty…being carded at our age because I look like I'm my daughter's age is not that much fun."
The boy gasped, "She's really General Carter of SG-1?"
Betty replied, "Yes! Let her buy the beer, Aaron."
The boy rung up the total, "That will be two hundred and ten dollar and sixteen cents." He stood gaping and wondered if he could ask her for a signature.
Sam swiped her credit card through the machine. She muttered, "I can't believe how expensive everything is getting."
Olivia stated, "Daniel can tell you why."
"Just get the bags." she told her. She grabbed the six pack of beer as if it was a prized possession.
Olivia suggested, "Might want to just get a case, Mom."
"Why? Your father and I don't drink that much." she replied.
"That way you don't have to worry about getting carded next week and if…you know who…comes…you're stocked up." she stated.
Sam pondered, "Ring me up for a case, Aaron."
"Yes Ma'am." he replied. He then whispered to Olivia, "Do you think she will give me her autograph?"
She shook her head, "I doubt it."
He soured, "I'll get the beer for you."
Short Time Later
Olivia rode shotgun in the car as her mother drove. Curiously she asked, "Can I drink now too?"
"You are not 21 yet." she nixed the idea.
"Neither are you." she laughed. "You got carded and the only reason you got the beer was because the manager knows you."
"It would be irresponsible of me to let you have beer." she determined.
Olivia shrugged, "Dad let me have one."
Sam gasped, "What! When?"
"At the cabin when I turned sixteen. He said I was old enough to handle it. Just don't be stupid about it." she recalled.
"Why that…" she muttered under her breath.
"Sure," Olivia complained, "project myself off world, take on a evil witch, not allowed to have a beer."
Sam huffed, "And you are not allowed to smoke either." She came suspicious, "Did you try that too?"
"Nah, that stuff is gross. Makes me gag." she waved off the idea of smoking. She looked ahead of the fast food signs on the roadway. "Hey, can get some take out?"
"Take out!" Sam gasped. "I just spent two hundred dollars on food."
"But I want french fries." she explained.
Sam rolled her eyes, "I am not getting take out." Her cell phone rang and she put the call through her car speakers. "Jack!"
"Hey while you are out, pick up some take out." he requested.
"I just got groceries." she replied.
"But I want some fries." he told her.
She gave in, "Fine! I will get take out." She hung up the call. "Honestly, you are just like your father at times."
Olivia admitted, "I don't know why I suddenly wanted french fries. Just popped in my head."
Sam pulled into the local fast food restaurant. She pondered, "I wonder if you are mentally picking something up."
Olivia shrugged, "No idea." She then removed an instant scratch off lotto ticket from her pocket that she purchased at the store. She read the instructions. "Fine three like amounts, win that amount."
Sam glanced over at her, "You got a scratch off? When did you start doing that?"
"Just today." she replied. "Just felt like buying one." She scratched the ticket while Sam placed the order over the intercom. Olivia grinned, "Hey I won!"
Sam wondered, "Win a dollar?"
She shook her head, "No…two hundred dollars." She handed the ticket to her mother.
Sam looked at the ticket, "I'll be damned. That's how much we just spent at the store."
"Cash it in." Olivia told her. "Put it towards the groceries."
She tucked the ticket in her purse and then stated, "Whatever you do…do not tell your father about this."
"Why not?" she wondered.
"He will be taking you to Vegas." she figured. She soon gathered the bags of food and proceeded home.
Jack was waiting at the door for his french fries. He spied the silver car pull into the drive as Sam arrived home. He made his way to the car looking for food. He got the window, "Get my fries?" he asked.
She handed him the bags through the window of the car. She stated, "Can you help me unload the bags."
"Sure," he replied digging into the food.
"Hungry?" she asked annoyed.
"Starving." he agreed. He ate an entire carton of fries in no time. He then threw out the empty bag in the garbage tote and went to the back of the car. He opened the door and spied the case of beer. "Why a whole case?" He then picked it up to bring inside, "Not that I am complaining…"
She emerged from the car and stated annoyed, "They made me show I.D. The kid thought it was fake. The manager had to vouch for me. So, I got a case so I don't go though that for a while." She then shifted her weight and accused, "You gave Livy beer at sixteen."
"I was drinking at sixteen." he countered. "Come on, all kids drink at sixteen, or before. I figured I would let her have some so that way if she goes out with friends who give her booze she will know how to handle it and not get sick. She not big on beer anyways."
Olivia agreed, "I'm more of a coffee person." She held a bag to bring into the house.
Jack added, "And Daniel got her hooked on that."
"Let's just get this stuff in." she sighed.
They managed to get all of the bags inside the home when Olivia's cell phone rang. She answered it, "Hey Chloe."
Chloe asked, "You want to come over and check out my base provided house?"
"You are staying with your dad." she figured.
"Yeah but he's at work." she explained. "I just decorated the whole house myself."
Olivia figured, "You are bored."
"Yes," she nodded. "I'm a lieutenant but I really don't do much. Rodney kind of takes things over and pushes off the paperwork onto me. Your mom will actually let me do hands on work." She continued, "I know this is going to be dumb question but are we allowed to do sleepovers?"
"Um," she pondered. "Let me ask. Hey mom, can Chloe and I do sleepovers?"
"Not technically." she informed. She stated, "You never got high school or had much for friends. If you and Chloe want to do a girls' night, you can."
"Mom says it's okay but we're not really supposed to." she explained.
Chloe figured, "Let's do a movie night."
"Movie night." she confirmed.
Jack suggested, "Just have Chloe come over here and she can watch a movie night with us."
"Dad says you can come over to my house and we can have a family movie night together." Olivia told her.
Chloe was so bored and didn't like being left alone after her exposure to the water. She jumped at the chance, "Great! I'll call my dad, let him know and then I'll run right over."
"See you soon." Olivia agreed and hung up the phone. She paused and asked her mother, "If Chloe and I were in high school together do you think we would have been having sleepovers all the time?"
She assured, "You two would have been inseparable. You are still only seventeen and so is Chloe. I'm so sorry they pulled the plug on the Academy. You two would have had such fun."
Olivia admitted, "She is my best friend."
Sam smiled, "I know."
"Can I invite Kyle over too?" she asked concerned.
She nodded, "I suppose. I'm kind of surprised."
"He's alone." she told her. "He's feeling it now. They didn't place him with his uncle. He's worried that there could be a side effect with the water and no one will be there."
"You are reading minds." Sam figured. "That's how come you suddenly wanted fries earlier."
She paused, "I guess I am. I don't know how to stop it."
Sam assured, "We will help Kyle. Have you seen Euryale in the last two weeks?"
She shook her head, "No."
"Let me know if that changes." Sam requested.
She agreed, "I will."