Chapter 1
Colorado Springs, 1997…
An evening sky this close to a city was not the best place to stargaze, but one could do worse than here. The suburbs didn't suffer light pollution as badly as in the city, even nowadays.
Other people would look to the sky lately perhaps because of that massive impromptu air show that had happened a couple days ago. Jack at least knew about that from some of his buddies in the Air Force.
Plenty of complaining how pilots all over the nation had been called to be ready over nothing.
Bah! Probably just something the ruskies did. Happened plenty of times during the cold war and even now he didn't trust those guys in the east even a bit more, even if they had laid down the hammer and sickle. For now.
They all were still alive at the end of the day, Washington and Moscow remained unbombed, so he had waved it off.
He had more important things to worry about after all.
Like making sure his sausages didn't burn.
The grill made a sizzling noise when he flipped over the batch, wincing at a spot of grease flicking on his palm. He was lucky to pick these up for cheap, the supermarket was hosting a big sale for something or another. A local college kid got into an accident, if he remembered right, some friends were holding a fundraiser. Jack chipped in a few bucks out of his shopping budget, offsetting what he saved from the sale.
The rollover done, he turned down the heat then checked on his telescope. The alignment was off, getting it adjusted juuuuuust right was always a time consuming yet rewarding affair. Like sighting in a scope but more satisfying, and without the risk of dying.
Ah…. Astronomy. He'd be lying if he said that 50% of why he was doing this was simply to enjoy the gobsmacked look on people's faces whenever they saw an air force monkey like him accurately list stars and describe stellar phenomena. Even if he didn't really grasp the higher level physics parts, he knew a lot more about the stars than people assumed.
The other reason was that he wanted to be forewarned if the stars came calling some day.
Oh, and because they were genuinely beautiful of course. You don't spend some time on an alien ship and travel to other worlds without gaining a healthy appreciation for what was out there.
Of course, he couldn't exactly share that information. It was easier to find out what happened to Kennedy than to spill the beans about the so-called Project Blue Book.
The world would never know about the alien device buried deep within Cheyenne Mountain, that O'Neill and a select group had used it to travel to another world light years away from Earth, meeting an alien pretending to be an egyptian god, before subsequently blowing up a nuke in his face.
Probably for the best.
O'Neill took his sausages off the grill, popping a beer when he sat down. Were he feeling more ambitious he would make fries, but he was satisfied with just this. Just a simple meal with a view, he was happy with that.
Taking a bite, he was simultaneously glad to see that this brand of sausage was good, and that they weren't burnt. Excellent, and he had a possible star shower to look forward to.
The circle of star watchers he was part of had reported more than a few freak ones appearing and he was eager to see if also got to see some. According to rumors there was a meteor swarm passing by Earth recently, hence why there were so many flashes lately from all over. The East Coast, West, Britain, Italy, a few guys who had pals in Japan and Brazil said there were sightings there too.
The paranoid chunk of Jack's mind -honed by decades of special forces missions- insisted that something was up. There was too much activity, the military was acting like it was worried. Many overseas deployments were canceled yet leave wasn't being granted. News claimed that there were massive troop movements in China and India, while Europe was announcing plans for call ups.
At the same time there were a lot of talks going on, diplomats from all over were visiting Washington and elsewhere. A few nights ago a delegation visited Saddam of all people, without reporting what happened. It had the markings of a Cold War going hot, but who was the foe?
Sipping his beer, the rest of Jack's mind told that raving lunatic to stuff it. He was out of the service, fully retired this time. He had a pension, his health, a few hobbies so he wouldn't die of boredom. Hell, he might even start a small business. Maybe seeing if the Boy Scouts or the social services were hiring, helping kids sounded nice.
Another sip put that idea on the back burner, like his remaining sausages. Maybe he could even travel, it would be nice to see the world without being shot at-
The sound of a car pulling into his driveway caught Jack's attention. He looked up, it was late. Too late to be Jehovah's Witnesses, way too late to be the mailman. He was on good terms with his neighbors, he hadn't angered them that he knew of, and he hadn't gotten drunk enough to cause trouble in a long time.
Which left either his wife, or…
A knock on his front door, he could hear it from his spot. "Sir, there's a ladder over here."
Jack sighed, peering into his telescope. For a second he thought he saw a light moving across the sky at high speeds, a satellite? But it was cruising fast…
Footsteps came up his ladder, Jack avoided looking as long as he could. "Colonel Jack O'Neill?"
"Retired." Jack shot back, quietly cursing. The light was gone, where did it go?
"I'm Major Sammuels." The officer introduced, he sounded young. "I'm under orders to retrieve you sir."
"Air Force?" He couldn't find it, Jack leaned back with disappointment. "Let me tell you something, you wanna switch to NASA. That´s where all the action gonna be."
"I've been assigned to a top secret program. That's why I'm here sir."
That piqued his interest. Jack turned around slowly, unsurprised to see what the man looked like, but he was to see his grimace.
"I'm not authorized to tell you what it is sir. Only that you have experience with our mission that we need, badly. I need you to come with me sir." The major put his hand by his side, where a quite out of place holster hung. "I was told to bring you in sir, by any means necessary."
Jack slowly stood up. "What's going on Major? I'm retired." People in suits sure liked to throw around words like 'any means necessary'. Most of the time they didn't even realize what they meant.
"Something of extreme importance Colonel O'Neill. If you'll come along." He was silent for a moment, clearly uncomfortable with his unimpressed stare. "It concerns your expertise with the stargate project. Your experience is required yet again."
Jack was still for a moment, then took one more sip from his beer. He had the feeling this would be the last drink he would have for a while.
From the outside anyway.
In truth the paranoid brain had the driver's wheel now, and wasn't letting go. The light show, the military's odd announcements, all the diplomacy moves, it all fell into place. What it amounted to was something out of a cheesy 50s movie.
Except, of all people he knew there was life out there. Life that wasn't friendly. And he had more than enough experience with things here to suspect the worst.
"So…..I take someone knocked on through the gate then?" Considering how cities were not being nuked from orbit, one of those wannabee god-dinks didn't show up in one of their massive pyramid ships in orbit.
He´ll always will be the first to admire the beauty of planes like the F-15 and F-16, but he was fairly certain they didn´t have the capacity to strike targets in Orbit just yet.
"Not quite." Samuels gave him one heck of a false smile before gesturing to him to follow him. "If you would accompany me? Anything more will require extensive paperwork to be signed first."
"I assume I can´t really say no to this?" His eyes wandered to his grill. All his sausages were going to be cold by the time he came back here. If they were still there at all.
"It´s a matter of national security, Sir."
"Go figure."
Jack was pretty sure they violated at least 5 traffic laws on the way out of town. Either the driver was a former pilot who missed his old bird, or Samuels was more serious than he thought. Speaking of, the major was looking queasy beside him. For a bit Jack thought it was due to going 80 in a 55 zone, but then he saw how the man kept looking out the window. Towards the sky.
Cheyenne Mountain was not very impressive at nighttime, the base entrance even less so. Without daylight it was just a big dark mass with a well lit guard station in front, the view it offered was boring. Normally.
What Jack saw was a company of heavily armed MPs scurrying around, leveling a lot of big guns on their ride. The car finally slowed to be inspected, however urgent the mission was nobody seemed exempt from searches. Underneath the body, the engine, several guards shone lights into the cab. Blinking away spots, Jack did a double take.
Since when did they start putting Bradleys and Patriot batteries outside of NORAD's control center?
The interior was even worse, men in full combat gear watched them every step of the way. Samuels had authorization to speed through security, but it was still slow going.
Along the way Jack caught a glance at a passing unit of guards, toting enough weapons for a battle. The patches on their shoulders weren't Air Force, but Army. The 301st Combat Engineers, normally based in Denver. He had served alongside those guys' regiment before, they could put up a bridge under fire and level infrastructure in a retreat.
Something was fishy, in a really bad way. "Who are we at war with?"
"In a moment sir." The major brought him to an elevator out of the way of the main area, where a pair of armed guards inspected his credentials. "We're almost there sir, this elevator takes us to level 28-"
"I know, I've been here before. The security is tighter than last time." Jack noticed crates behind the men, MG storage. "Major, for real. What is going on? You guys are acting like the Reds are about to bust down the doors."
"That is a concern sir." The elevator dinged, sweeping him inside.
That more than anything caused Jack to raise an eyebrow. There was a legitimate threat to the Cheyenne Mountain complex and NORAD? Now, he wouldn't say that he wasn't a fan of Red Dawn, but that seemed a bit much, didn't it now?
From the stories he heard, the ruskies were hardly able to organize a parade through Moscow, nevermind threaten COINUS. Which…. Left only one other real option of what threat they were talking about. And he didn't mean the Chicoms.
Level 28 was just as heavily guarded as above, only the men down here were even more pale and anxious looking than the ones above. Being underground for too long wasn't healthy, these guys were pushing it. Even with how fast he was whisked to a conference room he could tell.
In the middle of worrying about what was happening, Jack did a double take again, leaving Samuels without a second thought. The several men at the conference table looked up as well, he ignored the others on the opposite side for the moment, seeing the man at the end rise.
"Long time no see Jack." He grinned.
"Kawalsky, where did they dig you up? Feretti?" Jack counted, it was ….. "What is this?"
"This…." A new voice began behind him, causing the - retired - colonel to look behind him. "Is X-Com. Welcome."
The speaker was a clean shaven twentyish man with a neat haircut, a calm, welcoming demeanor, and a thick green sweater. Jack stared at the sweater for a moment, wondering if Air Force regs had really plummeted that far in the short time he had been out. Shame too, he'd loved running around in something like that. Looked comfy! …not that he would ever admit it, Jack worked hard so that everyone always knew that he was a very serious person after all!
"I´m Central Officer John Bradford. It's an honor to have you on our Team."
