Chapter 8

Colonel Jacob Carter had returned home with Sam after the meeting at Santini Air. Upon walking through the door he found his wife Debbie waiting for the pair and Mark was sitting on the sofa.

Debbie asked, "Where have you two been?" She wondered what was going on as Sam was also involved and that made her worry even more. She was used to being an officer's wife and understood the need for secrecy but now Sam was also involved and it alarmed her. She stood before the pair at the door in jeans and a red sweat shirt and sneakers.

Mark rose to his feet. He sported jeans and a green tee shirt and socks. He walked across the carpet to see what was going on. "Where you been, Dad?"

"Sammy and I have a…um…" he looked to Sam as he stumbled for an excuse. He could not just say that it was classified. Sam was directly involved and only fifteen.

"School project." she suggested.

Debbie wasn't buying the excuse. "School project? Really!" She crossed her arms and gave disbelieving look.

Sam figured if she simply told the truth then her mother and brother would just assume she made up a story and that could buy time for her father to come up with a much better cover. She stated, "Dad and I are involved in a top secret government space program."

Debbie looked to Jacob with a disturbed look. "What does the government want Sam for? What kind of space program? You are not sending her on that shuttle."

Much to Sam's surprise, Debbie believed her.

"No, nothing like that." Jacob assured. "It's a project for school. Her whole class is involved."

Mark squinted, "The retard class?"

Debbie looked to Sam. "How come you got downgraded to the special ed class, Sam? You were doing so well."

Sam looked at Mark and snorted, "Never us that word again."

"What word?" he laughed.

"You know what word." she chastised. "Special needs kids are not stupid or weird. And, no one in Mr. Hinckley's class has any issues like that. They are from troubled homes and some have reading issues."

Debbie asked Jacob, "Why is Sam in the special education class and why are they involved in this project you got going?"

Sam interrupted, "My friend Janet is in the class because she has dyslexia and she was getting bullied. So, I got myself transferred into the class so I could help her. But then Janet got exposed to the same alien artifact that I did and she remembered about the secret space program too. Then the class found out and since the timeline is now in flux, Daniel and I thought they would make a good contingency plan."

Debbie blinked, "You kind of lost me there."

Jacob sighed, "You and Mark are not going to understand this. Sam and I decided it was best to not tell you."

Mark cheered, "Wait! You mean there really is a secret space program?!"

Jacob let out a sigh, "Let's sit down at the table and I can explain." He motioned. He then led his family to the kitchen. They all sat down around the table of the yellow painted kitchen with avocado green appliances.

Sam wrinkled her nose as she really looked at the kitchen. "Boy, the seventies really had some bad interior designs."

"It's base housing, honey." her mother reminded her. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for whatever top secret nonsense that she was about to be exposed to.

Mark sat eager to find out the secrets. The boy asked, "Do we have aliens?"

"Not yet." Sam shook her head.

Jacob stated, "Sam can explain this better than I can. Start form the beginning, Sammy."

Sam decided she needed to start from the beginning as it was soon apparent that Jacob would not be able to hide what was going on from his family. She began, "I will be exposed to an alien device that will send me back in time mentally to when I was a teenager in the distant future. I'm living my life all over again. Forty years from now is when the exposure will happen. I was exposed along with two others. A third person will be exposed years earlier and she will also be living her life again too. None of us physically went through time, just mentally. In forty years from now, we were on the eve of disclosure. I was gathering artifacts to prepare for it when I, Jack and Daniel were all exposed. We all woke up forty years in the past. Initially, we were going to keep it a secret just between ourselves and not tell anyone. Then the very thing we were going to disclose, a large ring called a 'Star Gate' was stolen right out from under the government's nose. Colonel Hammond will be part of the secret space program in the future. So was I. The first year of operations we had a…hiccup…and myself, Daniel, Jack and a friend named Teal'c were sent back to 1969 physically. We met George Hammond then and he helped us get back to our right time. So, when the Star Gate was stolen, Colonel Hammond went looking to recruit a special task force to find and retrieve it. Jack was working at the place where Colonel Hammond went to recruit the task force. At that point Jack told him what happen after we got back and then we were all recruited to help retrieve it."

Mark stated, "This sounds complicated."

Jacob agreed, "I kind of is."

Sam looked upon him. "The guy flying around in the red suit."

Mark asked, "Aliens?"

"It's Mr. Hinkley. He had an alien encounter and they gave him the suit. He lost the instruction manual." she disclosed. "Thing is, forty years from now no one remembers anything about a guy in a red suit flying around like superman busting criminals. There is no record of him either. It's like everyone's memory was erased and the media reports. We are dealing with an alien race that will actually give the entire planet amnesia when they end whatever little experiment they got going. I know of a few races. I can't think of any races that would do that or have the ability to give wipe out everyone's memory including my own." She then concluded, "It's possible we maybe dealing with an alien threat, here on Earth and we don't even know they are here."

Jacob asked, "Who do you think might be on Earth, Sammy?"

"I really have no idea." she confessed. "We need to get the other Gate and get it operational to find out."

Debbie asked, "Other Gate, Sammy?"

"The Russians have the other Star Gate." she told her.

Debbie looked at Jacob, "The Russians?"

He suggested, "Maybe it's time we work with the Russians."

"They are communist." she rebutted.

"I'm not happy about it either." he told her.

Mark asked, "So…do we get to be part of this secret space program?"

Jacob looked to Sam. "It's her call."

Mark looked to Sam expectantly.

"You cannot tell anyone about it." she warned him.

"I won't tell a soul." he promised.

Jacob stated, "Not anyone, Mark. It has to be top secret."

Debbie figured, "You can't tell any of your friends, Mark."

"I only got one friend." he miffed.

Debbie shook her finger, "You can't tell Pete."

Sam cocked an eyebrow, "Pete?"

Debbie nodded, "Mark's made a new friend at school, Sammy. Pete Shanahan. He comes from a family of cops. Nice young man."

Sam sat and shook her head. "Do not tell, Pete!"

Jacob asked, "You know him, honey?"

"I nearly married him." she shivered.

Mark gasped shocked.

Jacob soothed, "Daniel is way better." He looked to Debbie's disturbed face. "You will like Daniel. He's nice young man and as smart as Sammy."

She gave a sigh letting her father think she married Daniel for she figured that if he knew the truth he would forbid her from working with Jack.

Mark asked, "Do I get married?"

She nodded, "You do and have two great girls." She gave a smile, "My nieces are cool young women. They are both going into the Academy and are going to work with the Star Gate."

"What do I do?" he wondered.

"You are a retried cop." she told him.

Jacob stated, "We kind of figured you would become a cop, Mark."

The boy sounded a bit jealous, "But she gets to be in a top secret space program."

"And?" Jacob asked.

"That's way cooler, Dad." he complained.

Sam stated, "That's okay, Mark. You can be part of the contingency plan. We can train you along with the rest of the class incase my team screws up beyond repair."

"Cool!" he cheered. "Do we get secret code names?"

"SG-2." she nodded "Star Gate Two."

"SG-2?" he asked thinking. "What would be Star Gate One?"

She smirked at him, "My team."

He crossed his arms, sat back in his chair and pouted, "That's not fair."

Meanwhile

Daniel stayed in the hangar along with his parents long after the briefing had disbursed. He found himself being the only teenager left in the hangar as his parents spoke with Dom, String and Caitlin. Jack was also present as Dom had given him a spare bedroom in the back of the hangar to use.

Clair Jackson was explaining a theory to Dom. "It's called ancient alien theory. There is a minority of archeologist, myself included, who do believe that many of our religious text and mythology is based on alien encounters. For example, Greek Gods could in fact be aliens who came to Earth eons ago."

Dom laughed, "You mean like Apollo? Maybe he was an alien?"

She shrugged, "We can't disprove it."

Melvin added, "And by the same token some artifacts written about could be alien. Like the Ark of the Covenant."

Daniel stood in his parent's shadow and nodded in agreement.

Jack noticed how quiet Daniel was when his parents were talking. At first it was heavenly to the man but then he realized Daniel got his gift of gab from his parents and together they chatted up a storm and drowned him out. He asked his friend, "You got anything on the Ark of the Covenant, Daniel?"

All eye fell on the teenager.

He nodded, "I do! I found references to it in the Atlantis data banks. I think it would be another repository but armed." he concluded.

Caitlin spoke, "Like in the movie? Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the end it turned into a weapon and melted all the bad guys."

Daniel let out a deep sigh as once again Indiana Jones took away the conversation.

Jack saw a way of teasing his old friend. "Daniel is the original Indiana Jones."

Daniel squinted at him and asked, "What?"

Jack then embellished a story. "Like that time we ended up in the 40's and you wore that hat and leather jacket and bullwhip and we were battling Nazis."

"That never happened?" he balked.

Jack further the tale. "Sure it did! That year you did that…thing and you don't remember."

"Wait! What?" Daniel still had problems recalling the year he had ascended.

"There was that trip we took and you went by Doctor Jones." he flatly lied keeping a straight face.

"When I did my thing?" he questioned for he didn't recall that year entirely. Maybe there was a tip to World War Two after all.

Jack kidded, "Daniel is a regular Indiana Jones."

"I am not." he shook his head in total disbelief.

Dom grinned believing the tale. "I got just thing for you, son." He wandered back of the hangar and opened a closet. He retrieved an old hat box from his youth. He opened the box to reveal a fedora hat much like the actor wore in the movie. He dusted it off and then plopped it on Daniel's head. "Few more years you will grow into it." He noticed it was a bit big on Daniel.

Daniel stood in total disbelief. "Thanks." he replied unenthused.

Melvin stated, "That's a nice hat, son. It belonged to Mr. Santini. You should be grateful."

Daniel grasped the old hat in his hands, "You're right. Thank you, Mr. Santini."

"You can call me, 'Dom'." he informed grinning.

String then removed his flight jacket and then stood behind Daniel and held it up. "Here, put this on."

"Your jacket?" Daniel asked. He let String put the jacket on his frail teenage frame.

Dom cheered, "Now you look like Indiana Jones."

Daniel quipped, "A blind Indiana Jones." He referred to his glasses.

Jack teased him, "Just need a bullwhip and a 38 revolver, Daniel. Then, you will be all set."

Clair gasped, "I don't think we need to give Daniel a gun, Captain."

Melvin stated, "I taught him how to handle a gun. He knows."

Daniel then looked at Jack. "Off world our ammunitions will be useless. We will need Sam's formula early."

"We won't have P-90's either." Jack agreed. "M-16's will be harder to get as this little program is more civilian." He then concluded, "Need the M1."

Dom stated, "That's a heavy duty round, Jack."

"They have armor and some aliens have armor that our ammunitions cannot penetrate." Jack told him. "We need something like what you guys in World War Two."

Daniel's mind went back to the Ark. "You know, Jack. That Ark could still be on Earth. If it's a Ancient repository…we could our hands on a lot of information."

"Ya think?" he pondered the possibility.

"Just don't get your head stuck in it this time, Jack." he reminded him.

He smirked at him, "Right…Indy."

Daniel glared back, "You are doing this because you keep getting mistaken for MacGyver, aren't you?"

He smiled a bit. "If I'm MacGyver than you can be Indiana Jones."

Daniel then asked, "So, what 80's icon will you saddle Sam with?"

"That's one is a toughie." he confessed. "She's kind of a cross between Wonder Woman and Sarah Connor."

Daniel smirked, "Let's go with Sarah Connor."

"Why?" Jack wondered.

"She can shoot your ass." he remarked.