AU: Mark goes on an unexpected trip and learns a whole lot more than he ever expected to know.
TRIGGERS: Mention of Major Character Death, mention of kidnapping, firearms
Chapter 29: Closure
Wednesday, 23rd June 2004 – Afternoon – Stargate Command – Mark Carter
It was surreal. Here I was standing in an old missile silo staring at a massive metal ring. A gateway to other worlds, or so the enigmatic General Samantha Carter claimed. A small smile crept onto my face when I thought of her as a General. Although he didn't say as much to me, our father was inordinately proud of her.
So was I. If I really thought about it.
I didn't know why I had spent so long blaming the Air Force. I guess it was just easier to blame a faceless organisation. My constant denigration of the USAF festered and grew into blame for my father and then my sister because they were both attached to the USAF. When Sam told me that some experimental medical treatment funded by the Air Force had healed my father's cancer, every reason I concocted felt ill-conceived and wrong. Then Sam died and the blame reared its ugly head, but now thanks to two separate pieces of alien technology – under the governance of the USAF – I had my sister back.
Twice.
"Where's the General?" When I turned around to face Doctor Elizabeth Weir, she grinned. "Wow." The single worded comment made her sound surprised by my attire. A full olive drab BDU and combat boots.
"Oh, yeah." I chuckled. "My wife booked a late flight on Monday evening when I returned from work complaining bitterly about being harassed again, then practically pushed me out of the car at the drop off point for the early morning flight yesterday. I didn't pack anything." I replied sheepishly. She kind of smiled but said nothing. "Sam is on phone." I answered her question while thumbing over my shoulder then looked back out of the large pane window.
"Thanks." She muttered, then I heard the sound of shoes on the rough carpet and a knock on the door. Sam's response for her to enter sounded gruff and angry, which made me turn my head slightly to see her on the red phone.
"With all due respect, Sir… you put me in charge of this facility. The former VP and his cronies have put me in a very awkward position…" She said just as the door closed again turning the next part of her conversation into a jumble of muffled words that I could no longer understand.
The conversation seemed to go on for ages while I watched the technicians move around the room below, checking the electrical conductors, opening then closing what Sam had called the iris with a manual lever housed inside the cabinet on the wall.
"Sir. The General has asked that you accompany me." I turned to find Chief Master Sergeant Harriman standing with his arm up pointing to the set of stairs that led down into the control room. A place that I had been – so far – forbidden to go.
"It's just Mark." I corrected him, "I don't have clearance to be down there." I added.
"You do now." He replied, then grinned and gestured with his hand again. "The General will join us shortly." He prompted, because I still had not moved.
"Oh… OK." I replied with a furrowed brow, then looked over to Sam's office to find the red leather chair behind her desk empty, then figured that she must have left via the other door.
Slowly, I picked my way past the chair that I had been sitting in all morning while signing the ream of NDA's given to me the day before, then made my way down into the darkened control room with its myriads of coloured screens and buttons. The woman sitting to the left of the Chief Master Sergeant was a Lieutenant which technically meant she outranked him, however the conversation going on between them made it sound like he outranked her. She never called him Sir, but she asked if she should run a diagnostic rather than telling him to undertake that task.
"This way, please Mr Carter." The Sergeant directed me to another set of stairs.
"Really, you should just call me Mark." I said again, hoping he would stop with the formality since it made me feel a little uncomfortable.
"Walter." He responded with a smile, then held his hand out.
"Good. Glad that's sorted." I replied with a deep breath as we shook hands. "So, ah… this is the business end of things, hey?"
"Yeah. You could call it that." Walter replied, "The General is one hell of an officer." He commented with a massive smile, "She pretty much built this whole system when she was a Captain." He explained with a beaming smile full of pride.
"The diagnostic is running, Sergeant. Can I take my break now?" The Lieutenant asked, then stood and wheeled her chair in expectantly.
"Of course, Ma'am." Walter replied making my brain just about implode.
"OK. I am officially confused. Did she just ask you if she could take her break?" I knew my observation and question made me look like I had no clue, but right now, I felt like it. Walter chuckled as another Lieutenant came in and took the place of the first one.
"It's OK." He said then waved for me to follow him down the stairs into a corridor. "We have a very fine balance here. While Lieutenant's Campbell and Foster technically outrank an NCO like me, when it comes to the control room, I carry the authority. Which means they defer to me, though military rules dictate that I must still afford them the proper respect of a higher-ranking officer." He explained, as we made our way into a small room to the side of the corridor before the large blast doors. As we walked into the room, I stopped suddenly.
"Whoa." I said followed by a long whistle as I eyed a wall of submachine guns, pistols, even a few fully automatic machineguns, several very large staffs with flanged ends and a weapon that looked like a space ray gun. "What, no bazookas?" I asked in jest only to receive a drole look back from the woman standing with her hands clasped behind her back.
"They are next door, Sir." She responded drily without a whisper of a smile.
"This is Technical Sergeant Hoffman. She will kit you up." Walter said then turned to the young woman with dark hair pulled back into a tight bun and fierce features. "This is Mark Carter. He'll need the basic kit." Walter instructed then left the room.
"Yes, Sir." She replied then looked me up and down with a raised eyebrow. By the time we were done, I was wearing a black tactical vest, fingerless gloves, an empty thigh holster and a heavy camo ballistic helmet.
"Is this entirely necessary?" I complained about the helmet that felt like it would fall off if I turned my head too quickly. She stepped, put her hand on my cheek then pulled the chin strap hard until it almost bit into my skin. "Ow!"
"Would you prefer a bullet in the head, Sir?" She bit back then adjusted the helmet and chin strap until it didn't feel like it was cutting my circulation off. Without waiting for my reply, she turned around to retrieve my last piece of equipment.
A Beretta M9 from the locked cabinet against the wall.
"You know how to use one of these?" She asked as she went through the motions of checking its safety and that the chamber was empty, then giving me a hard look as she handed it over.
"Yes. Do I need it?" I replied gingerly, though still relieved her of the unloaded weapon and checked it myself just like Dad had taught me.
"Standard issue for all off-world missions." She responded, then held out two fully loaded magazines.
"Off-world? Oh no, you must be mistaken. I'm not…" I began to say but stopped when I saw the clearly amused yet begrudgingly annoyed look on her face. Rather than continue, I allowed her to lead me outside before she stopped to pull the heavy door closed. After that, we walked into the foyer where the Gate stood looming over me from its elevated position. It looked so much bigger from this angle.
"Wait here for the General." Sergeant Hoffman said, then stalked across the room and out the other blast door. The room buzzed with three technicians and six fully armed personnel standing at the ready along the back wall.
After about ten minutes, everyone in the room stopped and stood tall. The tallest man saluted with a 'Ma'am' then guided his crew out the door.
"Green suits you." I turned to find the General kitted up in the same battle dress as me except she was wearing an old ball cap that looked like it had seen better days, a combat knife strapped to her thigh, a pistol on her belt and a…
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the compact rifle she was holding.
"FN P90. It's a bullpup-designed submachine gun with a mag capacity of 50 rounds. It has a straight blowback system, low recoil, high accuracy, and is fully ambidextrous." She described the base features of the weapon from memory, then she unclipped it and handed it to me. "It has a single shot option or multi shot if you really want to ruin someone's day." She added with a smile and gleam in her eye.
"Whoa, that's light." I commented, weighing it in my hands though I knew the distaste was showing on my face. I had learned to shoot but decided it wasn't for me, much to my father's disapproval. Slowly, I handed it back and watched her clip it back in place.
"I don't have to carry one of those, do I?" I asked cautiously. She raised her eyebrows and smiled then shook her head.
"Sorry, I don't have time to train you in the proper technique." She said, then pointed to the Beretta M9 sitting snug on my thigh. "Remember how to use that?" She mirrored the question from the armoury sergeant who didn't know how to smile.
"Cuh… yeah." I scoffed. "Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean I forgot how to use them." I replied, probably a little more harshly than I should have, and maybe a little jealous because my sister had always beat my score at the range when Dad took us.
"Good. Glad to hear it." She replied, then looked up to the control room. "Walter, dial her up." She called out, then turned back to me. "When you go through the first time, you will feel cold and maybe a little motion sickness. Just look at the horizon and breathe." She instructed, tilting her flat star-fished hand from side to side in a gesture that I recognised as meaning dodgy or something wrong.
"Where are we going? I didn't think I had clearance for this." I asked for clarification.
"To be honest, I don't remember the designation anymore. I haven't been there in over five decades." She replied, "I got this there…" She lifted up her cap and fringe to reveal a jagged scar along her hairline. "Your Sam…" she looked at the Gate again as the fifth orange chevron lit up. "…she didn't come home. We used to call it the Alpha site. But there's nothing left now. As for clearance, I didn't give the President a choice." She looked sorrowfully at me, then back to the spinning Gate, the noise from the alarms almost drowning our words out.
"Wait. We are going there?" I asked, a little scared and a lot shocked. "Is it safe?"
"As safe as any alien planet that we visit." She said with a sideways smile that included a twinge of sadness. "I want to see it. If it's still there." She said rather cryptically.
"See what?" I pressed, but she nodded in the direction of the whirring Gate.
"Wait for it." She said with a sly smile just as an almighty kawooshing sound erupted along with a massive splash of vertical water that made me duck and cover my head with both hands. A not quite so manly squeal left my mouth at the same time. When I heard the rich laughter from everyone in the control room, I looked up from my crouching position to find Sam standing with her eyebrow raised and an amused look on her face while her hands rested together on the butt of her P90.
"Very funny, sis." I grumbled as I came back to my feet and looked to find a shimmering pool of what looked like water within the circle. "So, that's a wormhole."
"Nope. That's the event horizon. The wormhole begins on the other side of the puddle." She replied. I had to do a double take at my sister – Miss Theoretical Astrophysicist herself – calling it a puddle. She noticed my reaction and grinned. "It's a Jack thing. You'll get used it. Maybe."
"General Carter." A rich baritone voice said from behind my sister. She turned and smiled at the giant dark-skinned man called Teal'c.
"Teal'c." Sam greeted as she cast her eyes over to him. He was kitted up much the same way as us only he carried one of those elaborate looking staves I had seen in the armoury. The golden tattoo gleamed from the middle of his forehead, and it occurred to me that I had never asked about it.
"I shall take point." He stated, then walked past us and towards the 'puddle'.
"Is he a…"
"Yep." My sister cut me off as she followed him up the ramp. When we approached the pool, I stopped and hesitated. Sam stopped behind me and just looked as I took in the sight.
"It's not water. I won't drown." I said to myself as a way of psyching myself up to take that final step. Before I could do anything, I felt a hand in the middle of my back and a solid shove before an incredibly odd sensation of complete weightlessness.
When I came out the other side, I overstepped into a haphazard stumble but managed to catch myself. My initial instinct was to tear strips off Sam for the shove, but she was already several strides ahead of me, three steps behind Teal'c. The place was bright and sunny. A pile of rubble, rebar, and sandbags advertising the broken remains of a building sat off to my right while a swath of downed trees and turned up soil spread from the encampment for what looked like miles in all directions. Nothing but a few rocks and low laying scrub was left. Wiping the thin veneer of cold water from my face, I jog-trotted to catch up.
Soon enough, we had to slow down to pick our way across the downed trees. Eventually, we came through some scrub to an open patch of ground consisting entirely of white chalky looking rock with a mound of soil which appeared to be the edge of a crater running along the perimeter. Sam came to a stop several feet from a large rock in the middle of the clearing. She looked at Teal'c and he nodded, then stood guard while she slowly made her way around the other side and just looked down. Teal'c looked at me and with a silent nod, gave me permission to follow her.
As I approached, I saw her crouch down and lay her hand over a black patch of matted soil making my heart lurch in my chest.
"Jes…" I began but caught myself when I imagined Juanita smacking me over the back of my head, my harsh intake of breath causing Sam to look up from her position, tears rimming her eyes. Without saying a word, she went from crouching to kneeling and held her hand out toward me. With careful steps, I walked closer to discover that the patch was a deep red brown rather than black. It was the only sign that anyone had ever been here.
"It chased me for days. I hid behind this rock. Jack… my Jack shot it after my attempt to blow it up with a UAV missile failed. Even though I was dating Pete, he let lean on him beside that rock and put his arm around me. I never felt more loved than when I leaned on him." She confessed sadly while alternating her eyes between the patch of blood and the rock.
"So why didn't you stay with him?" I asked, hoping for an insight in my sisters thoughts and feelings about the man that she wasn't allowed to love.
"I was scared. Scared of the rules. Regulations. Scared that he didn't…" She huffed softly and closed her eyes. "I was stupid. I let my overthinking brain dictate my actions. He told me he loved me in a roundabout way, and I made him keep it in a room."
"But you fixed it." I said as I ran my hand over the darkened patch of soil, an image in my mind of the grey-haired man holding my sister while she bled out. It sent a chill through my body when I pictured having to do the same for Narelle. The pain was unimaginable.
"Did I?" She countered. "Doesn't feel like it sometimes."
"Sam?" I said and turned her to face me. "In the last 24-hours, you have quite literally blown my mind. I crossed four states with nothing but a photo and blind faith that what I had been told was correct despite not believing it. Now I have two sisters and a niece, and…" I laughed, "…a brother-in-law encased in ice."
She smiled broadly and laughed at my words. "He's not encased in ice. He's in stasis under the ice, and I..." She corrected, then paused. "I have to leave. I have to find an alien called Thor. You're not officially cleared to know this, but I'm telling you anyway. Dad's miraculous recovery wasn't an experimental cure. He has an alien symbiote…" She said, then hesitated while I collected myself. "Sel'mak, healed him. She co-exists with Dad and can talk through him."
"Wow. And Thor is one of these aliens." I assumed, shaking my head.
"No. Thor looks like a Roswell Grey. He is a different species, and an ally. He can help me help Jack. And I need Jack. Samantha needs Jack. So does Grace." I didn't quite know how to process that but after all I had heard over the last day, somehow it didn't seem all that strange. "And Teal'c?" I asked, motioning to the man who stood behind us.
"A Jaffa. A former First Prime of a Goa'uld called Apophis. He joined our side seven years ago your time when SG-1 went on a mission to save the people from a planet called Adydos. I trust him with my life. In fact, I trust him with everyone's life." She confessed with a smile, and I nodded slowly then looked sideways while biting my lip.
"Is that it? Or are you all secreted out." I asked with laughter in my tone. She smiled broadly again and raised her eyebrow.
"Not quite, but that will do for now, don'tcha think?"
"Oh yeah. Pete has no idea. He just kept rambling about you being a desk Major and turning tricks for your Colonel. He really wasn't very nice that last time I spoke to him." I confessed as we came back to our feet.
"No." Sam said in such a way that I looked at her trying to read in her tone what that meant. She looked at me and sighed. "OK. One more secret. Grace is part alien, but…" She held her finger up to stall my outburst, "…only because Jack is descended from a line of Ancient humans who left our galaxy ten thousand years ago. Grace has the gene from him. She has abilities that you are probably going to notice at some point, assuming you keep visiting." I baulked because of course I was going to keep visiting, though I didn't interrupt her. "At the moment, she struggles to control them."
"What kind of abilities?"
Sam smirked as we began our walk back to the Gate. "Healing, mind reading, memory sharing amongst others." She explained then gave me a stern look. "You can't tell anyone. Samantha's baby will probably also have the same abilities and maybe more."
"Why more?" I pressed.
"Because Samantha and Jack did IVF with one of my ova… well Sam's ovum. Sam and I both have an anomaly in our blood that we suspect might amplify the gene." She said, then looked with a furrowed brow out toward the Gate as if she were deciding if she had said too much. It almost felt like too much. Almost. Though I now had a much better understanding of why her job was classified.
Aliens. Other planets. Ancient human genes. Blood anomalies. Yeah, way too much.
"Mark." She said suddenly, then stopped and turned to face me. "Pete is dead." She said without preamble. "He was recruited to kidnap Grace. Without going too far into the story…"
"Which I'm probably not cleared for." I added as a way to stop from losing my mind over the fact that my best friend kidnapped my niece and proud that the dead part hadn't overwritten the thought that he kidnapped my niece!
"Which you most definitely are not cleared for, but I'm telling you anyway because he was your friend, and you deserve to know. Grace used his lifeforce, and the lifeforce of two other kidnappers to heal someone who was fatally shot." She explained without telling me who it was that Grace saved. Honestly it didn't matter.
"O-oh… w-well… I guess that's why he won't answer his phone." I responded drily then took a deep heavy breath. "Please tell me the base isn't dry." She smiled showing all her teeth and dimples.
"Oh, it's very dry. Good thing you know the General." She quipped then wrapped her hand across the top of my shoulder and squeezed. "C'mon, let's get out of here and put a dent in Uncle George's good Scotch before I take you to the airport." She offered as we continued our walk back to the Gate. Teal'c was already there with the reverse puddle waiting for us.
This whirlwind trip was so mind blowing that the confidential data I worked with day in, and day out looked like a normal set of completely legal accounting records. My boss loved to spout terms like National Security and Top Secret whenever he handed me a new case file.
He had no idea.