Chapter 24, part 2.

Alice dropped onto the couch with a relieved little oof!

"Well, it wasn't that bad, was it?" Deanna asked, amused, hauling a number of bags onto the coffee table. "You survived four hours of shopping with us!"

Alice smiled weakly. She hadn't told Deanna about her recent brush with death, nor about her injuries, so she couldn't admit now that her whole body was screaming in pain, even though Dalia had insisted on carrying most of the heavy stuff. Alice could feel the tightening in her chest and worried a little about her ribs, but decided to give herself a few hours to rest before she made the trek up to the SGC's infirmary for another X-ray. She hated making a fuss, but she was supposed to go offworld on Monday—only on a routine round of selling and buying, but one could never know what would happen—and she needed to be getting better, not worse.

"Can you please never torture me like that again?" She joked to cover up her true feelings.

"No promises," Deanna replied with a brilliant smile. "And, Dalia, how are you feeling after your first shopping spree?"

The girl had deposited her burden of bags on the floor and sat down in the armchair. "Dazzled," she admitted. Throughout the entire outing, she had been uncharacteristically quiet—but her eyes were huge as she had taken in everything that surrounded her: the cars, the buildings, the stores, and especially the sheer number of people hurrying hither and thither. "I've never seen anything like that before. So much choice!"

Deanna laughed gleefully. "Oh I bet you haven't! But I hope you're happy with your choices so far?"

"Oh, yes, all of these are amazing!" Dalia enthused, dropping onto her knees to dig around the shopping bags. "I mean, look at this dress!" She pulled out a piece of fabric Alice barely remembered buying for her.

"Well, you better take it all up to your room and start putting it away," Alice said.

Dalia grinned at her happily—looking very unlike the sourly girl she'd been at the beginning of her stay at the SGC—gathered as many bags as she could and traipsed away.

"She's cute," Deanna commented when the teenager left the room. "It's incredible how little she knows of the world, though."

"Well, can you blame her?" Alice shook her head convincingly. "Taking the circumstances she was raised in into consideration?"

"Not at all!" The younger woman agreed. "Still, it's kinda adorable watching her discover it all. Though her upbringing must have been tragic."

Alice shrugged and regretted it immediately. "I don't know. From what she'd told me, the first twelve years or so weren't bad, though I'm sure it was difficult growing without parents."

"Poor girl." Deanna sighed.

Alice smiled crookedly. "Alright, I'll better take the rest of these up to her, it doesn't seem like she's coming back for them."

"D'you need any help?"

Alice grimaced a little, wondering if the question was borne out of politeness, or if Deanna had noticed how weak and hurt Alice was. She shook her head, steeled herself and picked up the remaining bags to bring them to Dalia's room.

Until the day before, it had been their spare bedroom—intended for guests, though the only people who stayed there were Alice's mom when she'd come over for Alice's promotion months ago and Tobey during his house hunt. For that reason the decoration was a little bland—a bit hotel-roomish. They'd bought new bedding, pillows and curtains, though—picked by Dalia herself—so Alice was hoping it would gain some personality soon—and the longer the girl lived there, the more her would it become.

Dalia was wearing the dress she had shown them a few minutes before and admiring herself in the mirror when Alice came in.

"It suits you," Alice complimented her, depositing the bags next to the others which still sat on the floor near the bed where Dalia had put them.

"Doesn't it?" The girl twirled around, making the skirt flutter around her. "When I first came here I thought you all dressed really weird, and frankly I still do, but I've gotta admit it, some things are really pretty."

Alice smirked. "Wait until you get to California."

A little crease appeared between Dalia's eyebrows. "California… it's a state on the western coast of the USA, right?"

"Right. It's where I grew up, in a city called Los Angeles. Well, actually, in a town called Cerritos which is next to Los Angeles. It's all just one big metropolitan area." She saw Dalia's uncomprehending look and she waved dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I'll take you there sometime. It is very different from Colorado Springs."

"In what way?"

Alice snickered. "In every way." And then something caught her eye. On top of the dresser, a number of pieces of fabric were laid out—and they looked familiar. She stepped there and picked one up—it had part of the Dead Man's Eyes' logo on it. "What have you done to this shirt?" She asked, aghast.

Dalia was by her side in a flash. She snatched the tattered shirt out of her grasp, her face strangely embarrassed. "I cut it, can't you see?"

"But… why?!"

"I just needed it, okay!" Dalia turned around to grab the other scraps. Some of them seemed to be a bit wet—it was as if she had laid them out in this fashion to let them dry.

And then it clicked. "Oh." Alice sighed. Of course. That was one thing she had not explained, and of course Dalia wouldn't ask. "Come with me, Dalia."

The girl first stuffed her pieces of fabric into a drawer protectively and then followed Alice out.

There were two bathrooms on this level of the house: one was adjacent to Alice's room (which was technically a 'master bedroom'), and the other one in the corridor—Deanna and Dalia were going to have to share this one. Alice led the girl into it, reached into the cabinet beneath the sink and pulled out a basket full of hygienic products—panty liners, pads, tampons. She showed it to Dalia and explained what they were for, how to use them and how to dispose of them. Throughout her little monologue Dalia turned crimson—apparently a woman's cycle was not a thing widely spoken about on Rayah, or anywhere in the galaxy—and fled as soon as Alice allowed her. She did promise not to ruin any more clothing, though, and use the stash under the sink or ask if it was running low.

Thinking she had embarrassed the teenager enough for one day, Alice left her alone for the time being and retired to her own room. She stretched on her bed with a sigh of relief, but she barely had the time to take a few deep breaths—trying to ascertain what, if any, further damage to her ribs she had done by overexerting herself—when the door bell rang out.

"I'll get it!" Deanna called out from downstairs, there was a moment of silence, and then another call: "Alice!"

Alice sighed heavily, hauled herself off the bed and stumbled down to the corridor, wondering who could it be. She didn't usually get unexpected visitors.

"Tobey!" She exclaimed as she recognized the medium-height, wiry form and dark hair, bushy brows and little brown eyes of her cousin. "What a surprise!"

"Hey, Allie!" He grinned at her happily. "How ya doing? Hope I'm not intruding? I've been in the area and I decided to drop in." He sent her a wink. Alice didn't know how to interpret it—it could mean anything, really, so she decided to ignore it altogether.

"Oh, good. I've actually been meaning to talk to you. Come in, let's go into the living room."

She led him there while Deanna politely disappeared into the kitchen to give them some privacy.

"So, how have you been?" Alice asked, nervous enough to start with chit-chat which she usually abhorred.

"Oh, good, very good, you?"

"I've been better," she admitted. "But overall, not too bad." Then she took a deep breath and decided she would have to get through it sooner or later. "So, there's something I need to tell you. Or, rather, there's someone I'd like you to meet," she revised and then called out: "Dalia! Can you come down here, please?!"

He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. They both waited for a minute before the girl ambled into the room, dressed in newly-bought jeans and blouse she was apparently trying out.

"Yes?"

Alice stood up and gestured at her. "Tobey, meet your second cousin, Dalia Donovan. Dalia, this is Tobey Boyd."

Tobey gaped at her for a moment, completely thrown. It was Dalia who stepped up to him with an outstretched hand.

"Hi. I'm Dalia, it's nice to meet you!" She said, side-eyeing Alice to check if the politeness form she'd used was okay. Alice nodded to her encouragingly.

Tobey blinked, shook her hand and cleared his throat. "Uh, hi! It's nice to meet you, too—but what the hell?" He directed that last part at Alice.

She sighed. "Alright, thanks, Dalia, you can go. You'll have plenty of time to get to know him better later, but I think I need to explain the situation first."

The girl shrugged. "Whatever." And then she pivoted around and was gone, apparently all too eager to get back to trying on clothes.

"A second cousin?" Tobey repeated, a bit wildly, looking at her with shocked eyes. "I don't remember any second cousins, except for Bridget and Colby?"

Alice nodded. "I know. To say that I was surprised when I found out would be a gross understatement," she lied, wondering if she was going to be able to convince him. So far she had had it easy—Deanna didn't really know her family, so she had no reason to question the veracity of Alice's words; Jake knew the truth; and Mom wasn't too familiar with her mother-in-law's siblings either—plus she was more interested in how Alice would bear the burden of raising a teenager than how said teenaged had come into her life. But Tobey was not only aware of all the family connections, but also very clever and perceptive. Convincing him was going to be a challenge.

"What do you mean?" He demanded.

"Well, a couple weeks ago I got a call from an FBI agent," she told him, trying to channel the same confidence she spoke with when she was Nova Ray; somehow, though, in her real life lying didn't come as easy as when she was undercover. "He asked me a lot of questions about grandma Astrid and then asked if I could come in to the field office. When I did the first thing he asked me was if I read about the Magnificent Light."

Tobey frowned. "That rings a bell. It was in the news a while back, wasn't it? Some church or something in Idaho…"

"Yeah, except it was a cult, not a church," Alice confirmed. That part was true—and reading about it in the paper was what had given Carter the idea to use it for Dalia's cover story. "Their guru was Frank Collins. He used to be a Wall Street broker. He stole a large amount of cash and disappeared when Johnny Law started after him. Turns out he changed his identity—called himself Father Francisco, now—bought a large plot of land with his stolen money and established a commune that quickly turned into a cult. That was twenty years ago. On the surface, it was all by the book, so the authorities couldn't touch him until a few months ago when an anonymous tip claimed Father Francisco was abusing young children. They sent people to check it out and it devolved into a standout between the cultists and the FBI."

"I remember now, three FBI guys were killed in the raid, right?"

"Yes, and five cultists. Not Frank Collins, though, he was too much of a coward—tried to escape while his sheep were fighting for him." Alice shook her head in disgust. "Anyway, they got him and everybody who was wielding a gun. They rescued something like twenty-five women and thirteen children. The women technically were there out of their own will, though they've been brainwashed, of course. Most of the kids had parents among the cultists."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with this purported second cousin of ours? Are you saying she was one of the cultists?"

Alice nodded soberly. "Her parents had joined the cult before she was born, when it was first formed twenty years ago. She was raised in that place."

"Wow." He shook his head, blinking quickly, trying to parse this information. "But how come we didn't know about her? Or her parents?"

"The FBI agent explained that, too. See, apparently great-grandpa Erik wasn't always faithful to his wife. Aside from grandma Astrid and her brother Colby Senior, he had a third, illegitimate child—a girl named Elin."

"Illegitimate child?" He repeated. "So she was grandma Astrid's half-sister?"

"Yes, and apparently great-grandpa Erik kept her existence hidden from his legitimate family. I mean, it kinda makes sense, if you think about—especially if you consider that it was all in the thirties."

"Wow." He looked up at the ceiling, as if he could penetrate it to see Dalia. "So this Elin went on to have a kid—and that was one of Dalia's parents?"

"Yes, her father. And as I said, he and his wife joined the Magnificent Light cult twenty years ago. Dalia was born after they'd been there for five years already—I'd imagine they were well and fully brainwashed by then. Something must have stirred them, though, when she was born, because a few months later they tried to leave—and were prevented. A few months after that they both died in a house fire."

He grimaced. "A bit suspect, isn't it?"

Alice nodded. "The agent I was talking to was pretty certain it wasn't an accidental fire, but at the time the investigation didn't come up with any definite proof of foul play, so it was closed."

"But Dalia survived the fire?"

"Ah, that's the interesting thing—she wasn't at the house at the time. Her neighbors had her overnight, they said it was to give the parents some alone time, but that's one of the reasons why the FBI guy suspects wrongdoing."

"So she stayed with the neighbors?"

Alice shook her head. "From what the agent told me, what they could gather so far, Dalia was raised by the whole community—not just those neighbors."

He nodded pensively and was silent for a moment. "You said there were reports of child abuse…?"

She licked her lips. "As far as I know, she wasn't personally abused—not sexually, anyway. But you've gotta understand—this was a two thousand acres of nothingness inhabited by sixty people. They had no electricity, no running water, no access to news, books, or education. She has never even seen a TV until she had been rescued. She has some rudimentary knowledge of basic geography and history, but nothing else. She can read and count, that's about all—though she is very clever in many other ways. She's just never really lived in our world. Can you imagine, growing up like that?"

He seemed shocked anew. "My God, that's… I don't even know what to say. Awful doesn't seem to be a fitting description."

"I know." She sighed. "But it's not entirely hopeless. She is very smart and surprisingly mature for a fifteen-year-old. And she catches things extremely quickly. So we're gonna work with her to teach her as much as possible in the coming months, and hopefully she can go to school next year. Probably will need to start in a lower grade, but I have no doubt she can catch up quickly."

"You know, for someone who's never really been around kids, not to mention teenagers, you sound pretty confident," he noted, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I give that impression, don't I?" She laughed, a bit hysterically. Yes, I know this is crazy! She thought. Everyone has been saying so for weeks now. But I don't have a choice! "Trust me, I don't feel confident at all. I just don't really see what else could I do except take her in."

"Yeah, about that—why you? I mean, why the FBI didn't contact anyone else? Me, for example?"

"Well, they did call Jake," she lied. "And he was ready to take her in, but the thing is—he's just moving to the Reserves now. He doesn't have a new job lined up yet, and he's currently living with Mom. Which is perfectly logical—I mean, I'm sure he'll move out pretty soon, I can't imagine he'd like to stay in our childhood home for long—but all this creates a lot of uncertainty in his life. And he's, you know, a guy. I really think Dalia could benefit from having a woman as a guardian."

He frowned. "Why?"

She sighed. "Because she knows nothing about anything. An hour ago I had to explain how to use a tampon."

"Oh." His face turned a little pink. "I see."

"And it's more than just that—it's the whole thing, you know, how to live in this world, what is she going to face as a young woman, this is not something even the most enlightened man could explain. No offense."

"None taken." He shrugged. "Though you know, there are single dads of girls out there and they seem to be doing fine."

"Yeah, but it's different when you raise a girl from a baby, and quite different when you have this half-formed teenager suddenly on your head." She sighed. "I'm not saying it couldn't be done, it's just that I have a better shot at it than Jake."

"And why not contact us? I mean, my dad is just as much grandma Astrid's kid as yours was—not to mention Bridget and Colby, what about them?"

"I don't know why the FBI didn't contact you. Perhaps they just started with us and since I agreed, they didn't look any further?" She shrugged carefully, bracing for the pain, but it still almost made her grimace. "Maybe they figured an Army general wouldn't have the time for a teenage girl? Maybe they thought you and Jodie were too young? I don't know. Frankly, I didn't ask. As for Bridget and Colby, you know they both have small children, adding another burden would be a tad unfair."

"Okay, I'll grant you Bridget and Colby, but I still don't get why not us. I mean, yeah, dad is a general, but he's also the oldest family member still alive, so wouldn't it make sense to contact him in the first place?" He asked, a bit suspiciously, she thought.

"I really don't know, Tobey. You would have to ask the FBI. All I know is that they asked me if I'd be willing to take her in, and I said yes."

"Why?"

She sighed. "Because I couldn't say no. I just… I thought about the way she was brought up—you know how much of an impact losing my dad had on me and Jake, I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been to grow up without either of your parents." She smiled crookedly. "When I told Deanna, her first reaction was of course you'd pick up another stray."

"Well, that's not untrue," he agreed, a little grudgingly. "You are very good to the people around you. I should know, I benefit from that goodness." He sent her a lopsided smirk.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, I'm a peach." She thought about how often she had been blowing up in rage over nothing lately—and usually Deanna, Aaron or Jake had to bear the brunt of it. It was easier to restrain herself at work, though even there her record wasn't entirely clean. "Anyway, so that's the story. You can tell Jodie the next time you speak with her and I'm sure she'll repeat it to your dad. You're still not talking?"

"Nope." Tobey shrugged. "And that is swell."

"I'm sure it's tough," she disagreed gently. "He can be a huge jackass, but he's still your dad."

"Whatever, I don't care," he contradicted with confidence that rang just a little bit fake.

Alice shook her head and sighed. "So why'd you come here in the first place? I know you didn't just stop by. You normally call."

"Yeah, I wasn't sure if I'd have the guts to come in," he admitted, suddenly sheepish.

She frowned. "Why? Am I that intimidating?" She quipped, trying to put him at ease.

His returning smile was wan to say the least. "No, but you are a superior officer."

She straightened out on the armchair. "Uh oh. This sounds serious."

"Yeah. You should know that I first came with this to my CO—and he laughed me out of his office." He grimaced. "So if it seems to you that what I'm saying is crazy, rest assured that I'll be feeling that way, too. Still, I don't know anyone else who could… I mean, if you—I mean—" He stopped, took a deep breath and continued a little more coherently: "What I mean to say is that I'm sure you have a very high clearance and you might know something that my CO doesn't, and perhaps make a connection that will make it all make sense. But, if you think I am crazy, just tell me, please."

"Okay." Her frown deepened. "So what is it?"

He took another deep breath, as if bracing himself. "So, a few days ago—Monday, to be exact—I was on duty in the Shack. That's what we call our Space Control building," he supplied helpfully. "There was a lull, my people were all busy with their thing so I sat down at one of the monitors and did what I usually do when I'm bored—play around with the parameters and see if I can find something interesting. And I did."

Alice didn't say anything, but a chill ran up her back. Monday was the space battle. Anytime a spacecraft—friend or foe, it didn't matter—appeared in the orbit or anywhere it could be detected by the Space Control, Major Griffin's unit's was supposed to redirect the other units' attention away or even black them out for a time. But that only worked if no clever young man were to play with the parameters of the equipment…

"The first thing I detected was some sort of disturbance," Tobey continued. "I tried to measure it, but it was just at the edge of registering. So, instead, I followed it—and it led me straight to something I can't—I mean—please don't laugh," he managed finally. "It looked like five… objects in the low Earth orbit. And they were huge. Something like two thousand feet long and almost as wide, and maybe half that in height… and they seemed like triangles—or, should I say, pyramids." He looked at her warily, perhaps expecting her to laugh after all.

She didn't, too caught up in thoughts about how many others might have registered the battle—allied militaries were not a problem, they all had the same instructions, neither was the NASA, but what about other civilian agencies around the world? There were sure to be both academic and commercial installations with equipment sensitive enough to spot it… But, she reminded herself, this wasn't news: the Program must have had some sort of procedure for making sure all these measurements and photographs never saw the light of day.

"You don't seem surprised," he noted with an air of incredulity.

She ignored it for the moment. "So what else did you detect? What did the objects… do?" She asked instead.

He blinked very quickly. "Well, I've tracked them for something like fifteen minutes, and they didn't seem to drift in space in the direction of Earth as you would expect something being pulled by gravity to do—instead, they flew together, almost like in formation, keeping the course and velocity… and then I've noted some more, uh, objects… smaller ones, but a mass of them—at least twenty, maybe thirty—and they sort of detached from these pyramidoid—things and flew away. And here's the kicker: they were met by more of similar small objects coming from below. I kept my attention there when suddenly there was this huge flash—I don't mean of light, but of energy. My equipment went haywire for a moment and when I managed to readjust it back, the big pyramids were there no more—just a lot of space junk floating around." He shook his head. "And I swear the smaller objects were acting just like fighters do in a dogfight. In fact I'm pretty sure a few of them zapped towards the Earth, though that's when I lost them from view." He frowned, puzzled by Alice's inscrutable expression and silence. "If I hadn't seen it on my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it, but, Alice, I'm almost sure this was a battle—in space. And that means one of two things: either there are aliens out there and we've just beaten them back; or we and some other world power possess space war capability that the larger public doesn't know about." He paused for a moment, but since Alice still kept her silence, he sighed and added: "Of course the less crazy theory is that it's all part of our space arms race with China or something. But if that is so, how come these five unidentified objects appeared out of the blue? They did not come from below. And why was there such an odd disturbance in the area? I've been analyzing this data for five days and the only thing I could figure out was that it's consistent with some theories on hyperspace I read about in school—but that's impossible, right? Hyperspace is a theoretical concept, never proven—even laughed at in most scientific circles. But then what was it? What were these objects? How come some of them seemed to be coming from below, from Earth?" He shook his head helplessly. "Am I crazy?"

Alice still didn't respond immediately. She meditated with half-closed eyes, trying to figure out what to tell him. She could deny everything, tell him he was being crazy and brush it off. But she didn't think it would work—Tobey was not only too ambitious to give up that easily, but also too pig-headed. In that, he resembled his father. He wanted to know the truth and he would not stop—not unless he was ordered to. And therein was her second choice: not tell him anything, order him to drop the subject and not dig any deeper, and in fact stop tinkering with the equipment altogether. That was a viable solution—he was stubborn, sure, but he wouldn't jeopardize his whole career by disobeying orders—or so she thought. Yes, it was viable—but also cruel. He was an intelligent, curious guy and shutting him off like this was like putting a large pillow into a small box—sure it would fit, but only if you squish and crumple it all up. But telling him the truth wasn't an option—she didn't have that authority, for one, and anyway that would not guarantee any change in his situation, any improvement of his chances, either as a presumptive astronaut candidate, nor as a potential new member of the Program. For that to happen it would have to be more organic—he needed to impress the right people, and not through her. What he'd found was impressive enough that it might get him noticed—if he played it well. And that really left only one path for her to take.

"I don't know," she answered cryptically after a good minute of further silence. "That's not my department. Do you know Major Griffin?"

He frowned, visibly confused. "Yeah, I think so, he heads another SC unit, but they're not based at the Shack, so we don't really intersect often. Why?"

"If I were you, I would gather all your research and data and talked to Major Griffin about it," she suggested. "I think you will find him a lot more open-minded than your CO."

He gaped at her for a long moment. "So, wait. So what you're saying… what you're saying is—I'm right. Or at least partially right. And Griffin knows something about it." He leaned in on the couch in Alice's direction. "And you do know something about it, too. You know. And I'm right—God!" He shook his head, the implication of it all hitting him in waves. He stood up and started pacing. "So this was a space battle—either between us and China, or us and—uh, I can't believe I'm saying it—us and aliens. So I was right. I was right that whatever you do, it's connected to space race—either way, it's more, much more advanced than what we have thought… I mean—we didn't even know we had any crewed spacecraft, I mean, aside from NASA's Space Shuttle, but that's civilian—I mean… God! These five pyramidoid objects—those were, what? Spaceships? And the smaller ones? Some sort of a weapon system? I—"

"Really, Tobey," Alice interrupted him; he was on the roll and there didn't seem to be an end in sight so she needed to put a stop to it. "Don't speculate. Just talk to Griffin. Though perhaps it would be best if you didn't mention me when you speak to him."

Ha halted on the other side of the room and looked at her, his eyebrows again pulled into a frown. "Why?"

"Just… trust me. Tell him you've heard he was an open-minded guy and that you wanted to simply check with him because your CO didn't give you a time of day. What rank is your CO?" She asked belatedly.

"Captain," he replied distractedly.

"Good." She nodded. If his Commanding Officer was of higher rank than Griffin, going to the major might have been seen as inappropriate. As it was, going around the CO's back to seek Griffin's advice still could be frowned upon, but that was the smallest of the potential problems. Griffin was an okay guy, as far as she could ascertain from the infrequent contact she'd had with the man; he was smart, disciplined and competent at what he did. If Tobey came to him with his revelation, Alice bet that Griffin would listen, send the boy away with nothing—and then report up the chain what Tobey had found. That might be enough to get him noticed by the right person. What would happen then was the big question, but he could not be faulted for doing his job well, so at worst, he would just stay where he was—and at best, who knew? Maybe he would get an invite to the Program after all. But at least he would've done it on his own, without her help—well, almost. Nobody could begrudge her for nudging him in the right direction, thought, could they?

He sat down on the couch again. "This has been one hell of day for crazy revelations," he muttered, but loud enough for her to hear.

"I know." She sighed. "You've got plenty to think about now." She almost forgot about Dalia after his confession. "I think it would be best if you go home and digest it before you talk to Dalia again. There's gonna be plenty of time for that later."

"Yeah." He agreed and rose again. "Well, thanks, Allie. I don't really know what to think about it all, but there's no doubt I owe you—again."

She smiled, walking him out into the corridor. "No you don't. I just gave you a tiny push in the right direction—or, rather, in a direction. Whether it is the right one remains to be seen. I cannot be sure what Griffin will tell you, if anything."

"I know. Still. Thank you."

"Sure. See you around."

"See you around."

Alice was sitting at her desk, her brow furrowed, tapping furiously at the keyboard. Paperwork was her least favorite part of the job, but it had to be done; still, this was the reason why she didn't mind Dalia sprawled over a chair nearby, with a book and her new shiny—and pink—laptop on the table in front of her. Alice got tired of constantly being interrupted with questions—though she tried not to show it—and showed the girl how to use the Internet instead. So now Dalia was reading her book—introduction to geometry, at this moment—and if she came to something she didn't understand, she was supposed to first try to google it. Alice suspected she'd spent quite more time on googling the wrong things than looking for answers, but this, too, was helpful; that way, Dalia was getting familiar with some other aspects of living on Earth that were not so easy to find in books.

A popup window in the corner of her screen alerted Alice to a new e-mail in her inbox. Glad to have an excuse to delay the paperwork, she clicked on it to read the message. A relieved smile appeared on her lips. She hit forward and added a few words on top before sending the message out.

A moment later her desk phone rang.

"Congratulations," was Carter's first word. "Not that I had any doubt, but it's still a great achievement to have your paper published in Science magazine!"

"It's not published yet, ma'am, just selected by the editor for the next step: peer review," she replied.

"Well, it's already been peer-reviewed within the Program, so there's no reason why it wouldn't pass through it again," Carter noted.

"The original paper was, ma'am, not the abridged version I'd sent. It's possible I've made some giant mistake or omission while trying to purge it from any questionable content," Alice admitted.

"Well, I don't believe you did—I read it before you sent it, remember? We would both have to have had a momentary blackout to miss something important," Carter quipped.

"That's true," Alice agreed, though she couldn't get rid of all the doubt.

"Anyway, that's not the only reason I'm calling. We were just on a conference call with the Secretary of Defense. He's put together a Task Force that's looking into lifting the military-wide ban on women in combat."

Alice blinked quickly. That was news to her. "Oh?" She couldn't think of anything else to say.

Carter's voice sounded as if she was smiling. "Yes—and right about time, wouldn't you agree?" She didn't wait for Alice to reply and continued immediately: "In fact, I know you agree because I read that in your interview in the Gazette. Anyway, the Task Force has been churning on for a couple weeks, gathering data, and now they want to hear some testimonials from women who have been in battle. The Defense Secretary asked me to nominate someone from the SGC to participate and I chose you."

Alice bit her lip to stop herself from replying with insolence. She took a deep breath, and asked: "Why? I'm sure they would rather hear from you, ma'am—I mean, look at all your experience—"

"They don't want to hear from me," the general interrupted her, again with a smile audible in her voice. "My combat days are mostly behind me. They want enlisted people and junior officers, field-grade max—people whose experience in combat is very recent, those who might still find themselves on the frontlines if the ban gets lifted."

"Well, then, there's plenty of other suitable candidates. Hailey, for one—"

"Hailey is a great officer but she doesn't have quite as much field experience as you do—not to mention that yours is much more diverse. She was part of the SGC for three years and then moved to Area 51 and spent the next seven there. She's only been back for six months. You, on the other hand, have been a 302 pilot for almost two years, then you spent three at AFIT, and then another three years at Atlantis, only to be reassigned to SGC six months ago. And before you try something else, yes, I know there are other women in our ranks, some of them with more experience than you have, but you are my choice and that's it."

Alice sighed heavily. "Yes, ma'am."

"Plus, the President really likes you," Carter added seriously. "There is a higher chance of this succeeding if your testimony is in the mix, because in the end, it will be his decision, even if it comes out from the DoD."

"Oh." Again, she wasn't sure what to say. It was nice that the President liked her—it certainly couldn't hurt her career—but she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with so much weight being put on her speaking to what was surely going to be a group of top generals. "Who's in this Task Force?"

"I don't know, the Secretary didn't say. I guess you'll find out soon enough. They're expecting you on Monday. I'll forward you the details via e-mail."

"Yes, ma'am." Alice agreed with a sigh.

"Good." Carter cleared her throat. "I have one more thing. Major Griffin reported a breach of security today."

"Oh?" Alice tried to sound blasé but she straightened up on her chair in anticipation.

"I think you know what I'm talking about. Don't you?" The general insisted.

Alice licked her lips. "I might have an inkling," she admitted, and then decided it would come out anyway, so she added: "I didn't tell him anything. It was Tobey who came to me with what he's found. All I did was to suggest he talked to Griffin. I don't want to get entangled in anything inappropriate." Not again, she didn't add, thinking about all the times she'd bent or blatantly broken the rules in the past.

"Good. Griffin was very impressed with your cousin's work—I haven't seen it, but apparently he was able to track the entire space battle, Ha'taks and Gliders and 302s and all?"

"That's what he told me, but he didn't show me any data. He's not allowed to bring it outside of the base," Alice reminded her.

"Right. Well, Griffin doesn't report to me—it's a different chain of command—but I'd seen what he's written in his report," Carter said and Alice wondered if it was cc'd to her—or maybe she saw it because it had landed on O'Neill's desk and he'd shared it with her? It didn't really matter, but she was curious. "He's done his due diligence—he spoke with your cousin's current and previous COs, checked his record, talked to some of his subordinates—and he recommends to move him to his unit. There's technically no open billets in the Program's Space Control unit, but he says it's best to make room for him and actually use his curiosity and zeal, rather than douse it by ordering him silent. Do you agree with his assessment?"

"Well, ma'am, I really think I shouldn't be involved in this."

"Why? Because he's your family? It's not like I'm asking you to make any decisions—but you know him well, I want your opinion."

"My opinion must be biased, though," Alice warned.

"Yes, I know," Carter acknowledged. "As all opinions are. Still, I want to hear it."

Alice sighed. "Well, ma'am, Tobey is a good guy. He's smart and competent, he knows how to follow orders, he's curious, determined and ambitious, but also a bit of a free spirit—and a hothead. He's always been my favorite cousin because he's so much more like us than the rest of his family."

"How so?"

"Well, his father is… let's say on the right side of the aisle, socio-politically," Alice explained warily. "He's the kind of strict military father you see sometimes depicted in TV. He likes to meddle in his kids' lives. When Tobey decided to do AFROTC, Simon almost disinherited him—in his mind, it wasn't manly enough, I guess. He wanted Tobey to go to West Point."

"Did Tobey choose the Air Force because of you?"

Alice snickered. "I don't think so. He wanted to be an astronaut."

"Oh, boy!" Carte chuckled, but then grew serious again. "And you think he'd manage to do that?"

"Not as a pilot, for sure," Alice opined. "He's not necessarily the physical type, either—though I have to say, he's improved a lot in the past few years. He's training very hard. And he's a great engineer, as much as I can ascertain. So, who knows? He certainly has enough stubbornness in him to be able to pull it off!" Alice shook her head, even though the general wouldn't be able to see. "Either way, I agree with Major Griffin that it's better to make room for him at the SPSC than just leave him hanging. If you order him to keep silent, he will—he's never revealed anything that he's witnessed or surmised from that incident in the Pentagon a few years ago—but you can't just switch off one's natural curiosity, and if it doesn't have an outlet, it will build until it's spilled. Plus, I do think he'd be an asset to the team there."

"Okay, good, thank you. I'll relay that to O'Neill for his consideration. He'll probably have the decision by mid next week."

"Sounds good, thank you, ma'am," Alice replied. She felt both a little uneasy about the possibility of appearing like she's inappropriately endorsing her family member—she abhorred any idea of nepotism—and happily hopeful for Tobey. Moving him to the Stargate Program Space Control would be a big step towards getting him into the SGC—though she wasn't sure if she wanted to have another family member at risk from aliens again; but it would surely be exciting for him.

"Good. And how's your alien ward?" Carter sounded amused.

"Oh, just peachy. I think she's fallen into the Wikipedia rabbit hole."

She heard Carter chuckle and Dalia's head whipped around.

"Hey! I'm learning stuff here!" She protested.

"Well, good luck with dragging her out in time for lunch," the general quipped. "See you later, Major."

"Yes, ma'am, have a good day."

Alice replaced the receiver, bearing Dalia's searing looks without reaction, and, with a sigh, went back to her paperwork.