Chapter 3

Jack took his leave time from the Air Force and headed towards L.A. He decided to take on a temporary job as he would need to rent a hotel room during his stay. He answered an advertisement for a stunt pilot he found in a aviation publication on base.

He found himself driving his old red pickup from when he was a young Captain in the 80's. He smiled as he sat behind the wheel, "This is was best truck I ever owned." he recalled to himself. "I'm not selling it this time. Nope! Not selling it." he told himself. He pulled into the dirt driveway to Santini Air to speak about the stunt pilot job. He soon parked near the hangar and climbed out of the truck. He walked to the hangar with the help wanted advertisement in hand. He spied a man and a woman inside the hangar talking. He called out. "Excuse me."

Stringfellow Hawke was a man of average build and height. He sported light brown hair and a handsome face with blue eyes. He looked over at Jack who stood looking like the lead actor of a hit television show named MacGyver.

Caitlin O'Shannessy stood talking with String. She sported short blonde hair and a blue eyes with a western style shirt and blue jeans. She gasped, "Is that Richard Dean Anderson?"

"What?" String asked her.

"He looks like MacGyver!" she told him. "The TV show."

Jack walked over to the pair, "I'm looking for Dom. I spoke to him about the stunt pilot job on the phone."

Caitlin asked, "Can I have your autograph?"

"What?" Jack asked taken by surprise.

"You're that actor who plays MacGyver?" String asked him.

Jack's head rolled back annoyed. "No! I'm Jack O'Neill. Not that guy!" he huffed. "I'm a pilot. I'm Air Force and on leave and looking for a temporary job."

"Air Force, huh?" String cocked an eye. "Active duty?"

"I'm a Captain." he replied. He stressed on the rank as he was used to being called 'General.' "I need a job while I'm on leave."

"Dom is in the back office there, Captain." String informed and pointed the direction.

"Thanks." Jack gave a nod and walked to the back of the hangar.

"He looks just like MacGyver." Caitlin cheered. "I bet he could get a job as a stunt double for the show."

"We have some flying to do for the show." String agreed. "That guy could pass as the actor."

Catlin laughed, "He could! But…"

"What?"

She pondered, "He seems a bit grumpier than MacGyver."

String shook his head, chuckling under his breath.

"He could be grumpy MacGyver." Caitlin laughed.

"Ah-ha." he shook his head. "Help me finish this." He redirected her to finish the work at hand.

Jack stepped into the rear office. "Dom?" he asked upon spotting an older man sitting behind a desk wear a shiny blue jacket and red ball cap. He was a bit heavier and had gray hair and a rough face.

"Holy!" Dom gasped. "You're that actor."

"No!" Jack shook his head. "I'm Jack. We spoke on the phone."

"You're Captain O'Neill?" he gasped wide-eyed. "You look just like that actor in that hit TV show."

Jack rolled his eyes, "I know."

Dom stood up and offered a hand, "Please to meet you, Captain. Boy, I wasn't expecting you to look like a celebrity."

Jack gave a heavy sigh.

"Come on," he motioned. "I'll introduce you to the crew." He cheered, "Boy, Caitlin really likes that show. She is going to love this." He led Jack out the door and back to the mouth of the hangar. "String, Cait. Meet our new stunt pilot. Air Force Captain Jonathan O'Neill. He goes by Jack."

"We met." String told Dom.

"He's on leave and looking for a little work." Dom stated with a gleam in his eye. He turned and spoke to Jack, "I was Army Air Corp during W.W. Two. I flew Mustangs."

"Neat." Jack grinned for he liked Dom and respected the generation.

Dom asked, "You got a place to stay while you are here, Captain?"

"Not yet." he informed.

"You can stay with me." Dom offered his home.

String raised an eyebrow for Dom didn't offer his home to just anyone.

Dom noted String's expression. He stated, "He's Air Force. I hold a special place in my heart for our boys in blue."

"I appreciate that." Jack told him.

Caitlin looked on Jack's handsome face and let out a sigh for he looked just like her favorite actor from her favorite TV show. "He could stay with me too."

String gave a cockeyed look.

Jack told her, "I'm not MacGyver."

"I know that." she dismissed him.

He muttered, "She's as bad as Carter."

Few Days Later

Both Sam and Daniel had managed to get themselves moved to Janet's class by sabotaging their grades and adopting a "bad attitude" in the new school. The intent was to help Janet stand up to the bullies and to help her with her reading. The pair walked into Mr. Hinkley's class much to Janet's surprise for she didn't think they two would actually get themselves transferred to a class for troubled kids.

Mr. Hinckley stood at the front of the class wearing tan trousers, a white dress shirt and a brown blazer. He had curly blond hair and was informed that two students who were both very advanced were having difficulty adjusting and thus placed in his class.

He spoke, "You two must be Daniel and Sam. I was told you were being transferred in. Hopefully, this will only be temporary." he told the pair assuming they were simply having trouble adjusting to moving to a new city and school.

"Hopefully." Daniel agreed.

"Have a seat anywhere." he told the pair.

Tony asked, "Now our class has three geeks?" His head rolled back.

"They are new students who just need a little time to adjust, Tony." the teacher stated.

He rolled his eyes, "Our class is being taken over by nerds."

Karl crossed his arms and agreed. "Yeah man. This sucks."

Daniel had taken a seat and turned to Karl. He stated, "Would you believe that us nerds are actually adults, who were in the year 2025, were about to disclose aliens to the world when an alien artifact sent us back in time mentally to when we were kids?" He expected Karl to laugh in return.

Sam notice the teacher come to attention at the claim.

Karl stated, "Hell after that U.F.O. we saw that night in the desert, I will believe anything you say." He looked to his class. "Remember that night."

Rhonda stated, "Those lights made the bus stall."

Sam asked the class, "You guys had a U.F.O. encounter?"

Mr. Hinckley stated, "The whole class saw lights in the sky. The bus broke down. We were on a field trip."

Tony added, "And Mr. H. had walked to go get help and came back with that weird suitcase."

Janet nodded and recalld, "That was last year. We were all in the bus and lights were in the sky."

Sam and Daniel traded glances alarmed.

Tony stated amused, "So! Tell us about the future and aliens."

"Um…" Daniel looked to Sam.

Sam looked to Daniel in return. "They probably won't believe us."

"Probably." he agreed.

"Come on man. That was the best story we hard all year. Tell us." Tony urged the pair.

"Okay," Daniel figured no one would really believe him anyways and saw no harm in disclosing what he knew. "In 1928 a large stone ring was found on a dig in Egypt by Professor Paul Langford. The ring is an fact a gate that was made by an race of people called the Ancients. It creates a wormhole that connects from one planet to another. In the future, myself and Sam work in the program that runs the Gate and we would go off world and explore other planets. We met a number of other races and aliens. Some were friends and some were not so friendly. We worked with the military in a top secret program to explore space and reverse engineer the technology we brought back." He sat back in his chair and looked to the teacher as he was done.

"And?" Tony asked.

Karl added, "Come on man, What happens next? We like get space ships and stuff?"

Daniel continued, "We found Atlantis, which is actually a city and a ship and brought that back to Earth. We also have our own fleet of space ships and Sam was one of the ships' commanders. I was living and working on Atlantis myself."

"Atlantis!" Tony looked at his friends. "What was that?"

"Plato wrote the story of Atlantis." Daniel informed. "He was a Greek philosopher and poet."

Ralph had no idea if the story was true or completely made up but he saw an opportunity to educate the class. "Plato and Atlantis would make an excellent subject for the next class project." He expected the class to moan and complain but they did not.

"Let's go find this gate thing and Atlantis." Tony cheered.

"Now that sounds cool." Karl stated.

Sam stated, "We can't! Right now Atlantis is in the Pegasus system and underwater. And the Gate which is called a 'Star Gate' is under government control and in a warehouse right now."

Karl huffed, "Well that sucks! That could have been an awesome field trip."

Rhonda stated, "They are making this up. Come on, Karl. A Star Gate? Really!"

Karl rebutted, "Going to other planets through a Star Gate sounds a whole lot more fun than doing book reports and taking test."

Mr. Hinkley stated, "Maybe if you study real hard and get your grades up you could be working in that top secret program the government has in the future, Karl."

"But I want to see this Star Gate now." he told him. "Maybe find those aliens behind those lights from that night. Maybe find out who is the man in the red suit flying around."

Tony stated, "Mr. H. is the man in the red suit. The aliens gave him the suit that night in the desert. What do you think was in the case, Karl?"

Mr. Hinckley gulped, "Tony! What makes you think he's me?"

"You saw the aliens that night and you hang around with that FBI guy. And the guy has hair like yours and works with that FBI guy." he replied as if it was rather obvious.

He gave a sigh for Tony was right. It was indeed Mr. Ralph Hinkley flying around in a red suit that was given to him by aliens the night the class had the encounter. He decided to change the subject. "Alright class, Plato. We as a class are going to study the works of Plato and write a book report."

Karl groaned, "Ah, man. I suck at writing reports."

Daniel gave a simple synopsis to help the boy. "Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived in Athens during the classical period. He founded the Platonic Academy, in 387 B.C. in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years. Plato was a innovator of dialog and dialect forms in philosophy. He is most famous for his Theory of forms and Plato himself was a student of Socrates…"

Tony booed, "Boorriinng! Dork!"

Mr. Hinckley chastised, "You should listen to what Daniel has to say. He knows more about Plato than I do." He looked to Daniel, "Thank you for that, Daniel. You are very well versed."

Sam huffed at Tony, "Daniel is not a dork and if you call him that one more time…" she bit her bottom lip.

"Or what?" Tony challenged.

Daniel assured, "It's okay, Sam. I can take care of myself."

Tony laughed, "You got some chick sticking up for ya, huh Daniel."

Daniel replied as a matter of fact. "Sam's father is a Colonel in the Air Force and Sam knows hand-to-hand combat and can likely kick you ass in a fight. Hmm, I don't think I would want to be the boy who got my ass handed to me by a fifteen year old girl. Do you what to be that boy?"

Tony looked at Sam. "You know hand-to-hand combat."

"I was in the military too." she nodded. "I know hand-to-hand, how to field strip a rifle blind folded, how to dig fox holes and how to disarm bombs. I also fly fighter jets and had command of my own ship. I retired a three star General in the future."

"Okay." Tony wasn't sure how to respond to the claim.

Karl fully believed the claim. He asked Daniel, "So what was your rank in the military, Daniel?"

"I was a contractor. I was not actually in the military. I'm a linguist and a archeologist and hold two PhD's." he told the boy.

Karl asked, "What's a…P…H…D?"

"It's a Doctor of Philosophy." Daniel informed.

Karl asked, "You have to go to college for that?"

"Yes you do." Daniel nodded amused.

"How much college?" the boy wondered.

"Years." Daniel told him.

He miffed, "Oh' man."