Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Life of a Major General ❯ Chapter 22 ( Chapter 22 )

Chapter 22

Bridge of the Samantha Carter, Earth Orbit
June 2, 2005
Evening

“Hel,” Jack greeted as he was beamed onboard Samantha Carter from his Alexandrian home in Virginia. He and the children had flown home in the morning having spent yesterday at DET 3 debriefing from the situation with Kinsey and Mayfield—and passing orders to Masiello to order Carter home for some enforced rest.

“O’Neill.” Hel lifted a spindly finger and pointed to the two cylinder tanks, each with its own symbiote.

A mingled look of disgust and anger on his face Jack approached the two tanks and circled them. “So, which one came from which?”

“The one with bluish spots came from the human male. The symbiote with reddish strips came from the human female.”

“Are they… awake?” Jack waved vaguely at the two motionless serpentine bodies as they seem to hang suspended in their tanks.

“Their bodies are currently in a state of suspended animation but their minds are active.”

“Good.” Jack gave a nod of approval. “Were you able to do anything about my idea?”

“Indeed I was O’Neill,” Hel stated with a single nod of her large head. “I have merely to start the projection screen and you can begin. When a symbiote responds to you, you will only hear their voice through the speakers. When the symbiote is recalling an incident, you will view their memory as well as hear their thoughts at that time.”

“Like the memory recall device. Excellent,” Jack said with brutal satisfaction. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“There is no road here O’Neill,” Hel stated with puzzlement.

Jack waved his hand dismissing the point. “I’ll explain later.”

Taking a step closer to the cylinder tank housing the symbiote with bluish spots Jack tapped a finger hard against the glass like surface, “Hey Ocean, wakey, wakey.”

“O’Neill?! What is the meaning of this outrage?!” Oceanus’s voice blasted through the ship’s speakers.

Hel reached for a stone and adjusted the volume.

“Outrage?” Jack snorted. “I told you Ocean, either you told me of your own free will or we did it the hard way and I rip everything from your mind. Fitting isn’t it? Using Goa’uld tactics on a goa’uld.”

“You cannot do this! The Asgärd cannot interfere! We have a treaty!” Oceanus protested.

“You are mistaken.” Hel stated coolly. “By our laws a single person is legally permitted to aiding another individual of a different species with their own resources. As it is goa’uld, the treaty between our people has been negated.”

“What?” the incredulous demand came from both Oceanus and Athena.

Jack waved a hand dismissing the point, still angry about Weir fumbling that. You would think that if the woman had negotiated dozens of treaties on Earth between hostile nations she would not have made such a blunder when negotiating with aliens. He hoped she would not make such errors in the Pegasus Galaxy.

“So Ocean, why’d you kidnap my children?” Jack asked getting down to business.

“Because of your lover,” Oceanus was unable to keep himself from answering promptly and honestly.

“My lover?” Jack made a face before making the connection to Kerry. “What does Johnson have to do with this?”

A scene flickered to life on one of the monitors.

“That is for Athena, O’Neill,” Hel reported the identity of the memory’s origins.

Jack watched the scene, listening to Athena’s thoughts and the telephone conversation she’d had with Oceanus, and came to the conclusion that the kidnapping had been prompted by Kerry’s background check.

“So because Johnson got curious you thought to kidnap my kids?” It reassured him on one level, as apparently the goa’ulds had had no suspicions before then about the siblings’ heritage.

“Yes,” Oceanus answered.

“What would have happened after you kidnapped them?”

“I examined them using Nirrti’s lo’taur tester to determine genetic health,” Oceanus replied. “They proved to be superior human specimens and I decided to raise them to serve as lo’taurs and hosts.”

Jack hands clenched into fists at the coolly stated reason. “So taking them as future hosts wasn’t the main reason?”

“No,” Oceanus answered. “Securing them guaranteed that you would comply with our demands.”

“And your demands?”

The second screen flickered to life and Oceanus’s memories began to play.

Jack watched everything unfold intently. Every now and then he paced the length of the bridge and massaged his aching chest, still sore from the car accident. At times he asked the symbiotes to clarify certain memories on the screen and slowly he obtained the entire story from the two goa’ulds.

The near complete infiltration of the Trust after the symbiote poison fiasco and the various plans they had to conquer Earth. Most upsetting for Jack was learning that Ba’al had fled to Earth after his defeat over Dakara. Ba’al—beyond doing multiple Lokis—had also created the naquadah signature suppressing drug and now essentially controlled the Trust organisation as he worked on rebuilding his galactic domain.

Oceanus had his own dreams of domination that of course did not coincide with Ba’al’s, but Jack was pretty certain from the symbiote’s own memories that Oceanus was a minor player in the Trust network, valuable only because of his host and his host’s financial resources.

Neither Oceanus or Athena had ever been a major player amongst the Goa’uld.

Four hours after he had started his questioning, Jack was satisfied for the time being. “Thanks a bunch Ocean. That should help me nicely with hunting down your friends and old bounce.”

Hel flicked off the audio. “Are you satisfied O’Neill?”

“For the moment, I may have more questions later. But for now, knowing about Ba’al and who’s been infested should allow me to start the mop up.” Jack’s face was grim. Mop up was going to be a big problem, the Trust, as he was thinking of this group of Earth bound and organised goa’ulds, were more numerous than the CIA analysts had even considered. Far, far too many people were learning about or being impacted by the program. He did not think they would be able to keep it secret for much longer.

Not as long as asshole groups like the Trust kept interfering. If only he could make the program a military operation with no civilian groups they would not keep having such breaches in security. As it was, there were too many fingers in the proverbial pie.

It would be an argument he would take to the IOA at their next meeting. He had after all, ample evidence from Oceanus and Athena at just how far Trust tentacles stretched. Finances would be a problem but they always were an issue.

But it looked like he’d better order Areas 51 and 52 to switch off the grid to the naquadah generators… The program was about to get a surplus of the material after all, Jack mused as he thought about a certain tower in downtown Seattle that Athena had told him about. He would also investigate, now that Carter was there, if Area 51 was able to pump out some more reverse engineered technology into the Earth market to make more money…

“God, when did I become a politician?” Jack wondered aloud with a tired sigh as he turned to Hel to tell her he was ready to return home.