Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Life of a Major General ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter 17

Living Room, O’Neill’s Residence, Alexandria, VA
May 29, 2005
Evening

Jack kept the living room between himself and Cruise. He and the CIA Special Agent had clashed many times in the past six days. Cruise’s arrogance set Jack’s teeth on edge and the agent had no idea how many times he had come close to having his own teeth bashed in by a general whose temper was already on the edge of restraint.

The only thing that saved the CIA’s continual involvement in the situation—not that the agency knew it—was Burke who made a point of remained on premise even while off shift to keep his superior officer as far away from his old friend Jack as much as possible.

Burke glanced up from studying the chessboard between himself and Jack but as usual, was unable to discern the general’s thoughts from his stonewall expression. Nearly a full day had passed since the goa’uld’s phone call and Jack had gotten quieter and quieter with each passing hour. Burke just hoped he was not in the vicinity when Jack’s temper blew, knowing all too well that the quieter the general was the more deadly he became.

A ring tone had everyone but Jack flinching, but when those in the room identified the sounds as coming from Cruise’s cell phone, they relaxed.

“Agent Cruise,” the man greeted crisply having pulled the phone from his immaculately pressed suit.

The response was surprisingly audible to everyone in the room.

“This is Hel. Put O’Neill on,” a weirdly echoing voice ordered.

“Hell?” Cruise’s was taken aback. His was not the only reaction of surprise to an individual calling themselves after the place where the wicked were punished in Christian theology.

“Do as I said human,” the strange voice stated flatly.

“Give it to me!” Jack ordered fiercely, rising to his feet and holding out his hand towards Cruise. The CIA’s agent hesitated, so Jack growled his order again. “Give the phone to me. Now.”

Unable to disobey that voice of authority Cruise reluctantly handed the phone to the general. Jack took the device and stalked into the bathroom, locking the door behind him before turning the shower on full blast to drown out anything the agents might overhear.

“This is O’Neill. Can this conversation be recorded?”

“No,” Hel assured him. “While I am communicating through this device I am operating it on a different method than human technology does.”

That put Jack at easy, as it had been a concern of his considering the cell phone he was using belonged to a CIA agent.

“Hel, I need your help.” Jack stated bluntly.

“Does it concern the issue with such distance separating yourself and Líf and Lífthrasier?”

“Yes,” he answered bluntly then filled the asgärd in on the staged car accident, his minor injuries and hospital stay, and the current situation.

“I see.” Hel answered shortly after listening. “Do you wish for me to return the children to you?”

Jack desperately wanted to say ‘Yes’ but knew that if the Asgärd were involved in such a blatant way, too many of the wrong people would ask questions. More questions considering they had already been kidnapped. He forced himself to say, “No. It should be us the retrieves them to keep their heritage safe.”

“Very well.” Hel agreed. “Do you have your computer device turned on in your residence?”

“No, but I can turn it on.”

“Please do so. I will transmit the children’s coordinates to the device once my computers have finished calculating their precise location and leave their retrieval to you.”

“Thank you,” was Jack’s heartfelt response.

“It is my duty to assist you O’Neill. I shall continue monitoring from orbit,” the asgärd concluded, curtly ending the call.

Emerging from the bathroom Jack ignored the questions fired at him by the agents as he tossed Cruise’s phone back to him. Making his way upstairs to his office he powered up his laptop and settled down to wait for Hel’s message.

High above the planet Hel keyed a new command into Samantha Carter’s computers. Changing from the lunar orbit that the ship had been in when it had registered the distance between the O’Neill genetic signatures, to take up position over the area where Líf and Lífthrasier were to allow the computers to identify their location down to the tenth decimal place.

Only O’Neill’s command kept her fingers from the stone that would beam the children onboard the bridge and everyone in a five-mile radius into the cargo hold of her ship. To be sorted and dealt with at her leisure. The signature of the goa’ulds would be easy enough to identify from the beam and traces of the host’s DNA would rest upon whoever the creature interacted with, leading to easy identification of the goa’uld’s human assistants.

Thinking of creative methods of retribution in her head, Hel keyed in the commands to also locate any goa’uld genetic signatures and tag on the computer individuals that were often in its presence.

As the computer carried out her commands she began typing an urgent report for the Asgärd High Council about what she had discovered upon her return to the human’s galaxy having spent the past dagrs employing Samantha Carter on its shakedown cruise before its maiden intergalactic voyage from Ida.

It was not long after the message to the council was compiled and sent, that the locating program chimed to signify unusual readings. Examining the data Hel came to the conclusion that there were two, not one, goa’ulds within five miles of each other.

Leaving the program to its searching and tagging of beings in the children’s vicinity, she typed the order for the data to be transmitted to O’Neill’s computer. Making sure to translate the information into English, Hel also made a note emphasising that there were two goa’ulds within close proximity of Líf and Lífthrasier.

Activating the ship’s telescope system, she aimed it at the area where the children were, zooming in until the building that they were within was in full view. Recognising the pyramidal shape of the building shown in the third screen, she was reassured when the computers noted its construction of purely Earth materials.

She left the telescope at that zoom level and checked that O’Neill had accessed the translated data she had transmitted. Seeing that he had, Hel settled back and stared broodingly at the computer screen as the white characters produced by the genetic identification program continued to scroll past on one screen. Her black eyes periodically shifted to the second screen that projected the identified location of the O’Neill genetic material and goa’ulds.

Seeing that O’Neill was moving she was satisfied that there would soon be resolution to the current situation. O’Neill after all was now recognised by his own government as the superior warrior he was, with full access to the force that was so efficiently destroying the Goa’ulds. Whatever technology those two goa’ulds had should be easily dealt with by O’Neill and his men but just in case… she would keep an eye out.