Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5 Read online

  “I T’Kt!”

  Everyone laughed. The cub paused and then stood on M’Net’s arm and patted him between the ears as she hooted and bounced in pleasure, shaking M’Net by the mane. He seemed resigned to the rough handling.

  “I think we may be in trouble once she, or he, becomes an adult,” Daniel commented. Jack agreed. Sam was spitting fur from her mouth.

  The civilian crowd mingled with the military and aliens, feeling free to walk up to people and ask questions. Although the townspeople were proud of their military, they tended to step aside, claiming respect for their space. They were really a little afraid of the strong presence that played with aliens and jumped across the galaxy on a whim. Seeing the military at play with their families present, the civilians relaxed. The aliens got the most attention, especially M’Net and T’Keet. Not that T’Keet was complaining about the attention.

  Sam leaned into Jack. “When I was on M’Net’s back, he said he wished I was a male. He was enjoying the biting.” Jack tossed his head back and laughed.

  His phone rang.

  “O’Neill. Hi, Francis, coming over to play? Naw, just having a little show and tell. How’d you hear about it? It isn’t live. Oh. Gotta love the military’s rumor mill. Just Jaffa and Sua. No, M’Net and T’Keet. Yeah, she’s got them eating out of her hands. Paws. No, they’ll be gone in a few hours. Sure.”

  He turned to Sam and paused as his belt was pulled from the back. Daniel leaned in from behind.

  “Three o’clock,” he said low. Jack and Sam turned.

  “Uh oh,” they muttered. Baring down on the group were protesters. From the signs being carried, it was everything from abortion to non-Christian aliens to gays to the poor abused children being raised by non-Christian gay aliens to aliens secretly in charge of the world. The news camera spotted them.

  “Andy.” Jack caught the sheriff’s attention and pointed. Andy spoke into his radio as he moved toward the approaching group. While the military technically had no jurisdiction over civilians, not allowed, by the US Constitution, to work on US soil without the president and congress putting martial law into effect with an emergency bill to temporarily suspend Constitutional Law, the SF nonetheless beat him to it and formed a line between the party and the on-coming. One old lady was halted by the new line. She glared up at the SF towering over her and popped him on the head with her sign.

  “That’s enough, Mrs. Willard,” Andy said. “Apologize to the nice young man.”

  “I won’t!” she spouted. “Disrespect to his elders! Getting in my way….. Move, you over-grown….!”

  “Mrs. Willard, don’t make me call the nursing home to come and get you,” Andy warned. “Why don’t you tell me what the problem is?”

  “I don’t wanna talk to you, Andrew Richardson, I want to talk to that…. that….. that!” Andy looked over his shoulder. She was pointing at Jack.

  “Jack, did you run over Mrs. Willard’s cat?” Andy asked.

  “Not me,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Although our pup was recently chasing something furry….”

  “Brought shame to this town!” Mrs. Willard declared, waving her sign. The others behind her cheered. A few Amens were shouted. “Consorting with men! Involving children in his torrid affairs, AND encouraging the rest of our boys and girls to do the same! And his own brother a PRIEST! Bringing aliens here and destroying our Christian values! For shaaaaame!”

  Sam stepped forward. There were a few mutters of warning from behind her.

  “If you want to discuss military issues, you can talk with the general,” she said quietly. “If you are going to get malicious about my family, you’ll need to take it up with me. Ma’am.”

  Mrs. Willard glared at her. “Hussy!”

  Jack hung off Daniel’s wide shoulders, relaxed. Mrs. Willard’s eyes were scrunched into cherry pits.

  “Daddy, why’s the lady angry at you?” Jack looked down. He squatted and Davy climbed onto his back.

  “Don’t know, son,” Jack said, standing up. He grabbed Daniel’s arm for balance. “Ooof. I think Aunt Sam is trying to figure it out.”

  A man came out of the protesters crowd and put a calming hand on the old lady’s arm. “Now, now, Mz. Charity, you’re getting ahead of things here.”

  “HA!” People looked around at the yelp.

  “Oh, was that me?” Jack asked innocently. “Sorry. Please continue.”

  The man stepped forward, edging carefully away from Sam.

  “General O’Neill, I’m Reverend Gilchrest,” the man said. “Our concern is that the influence of these aliens has begun to turn our people away from God, sir.”

  Before Jack could get out the diatribe that was on the tip of his tongue, Daniel stepped forward.

  “Jack, how about I handle this?” he suggested.

  “Good idea,” Jack agreed. “You do that. Me and Davy are going to play on the jungle-gym.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Jack and Daniel both turned to see Michael, arms crossed and waiting.

  “What?” Jack asked.

  “I’m pulling rank, Jack,” Michael said. “I’m the older brother, and I’m going to insist that you deal with this.”

  “Not,” Jack said, wondering what got into his brother.

  “Come here, David,” Michael said, holding his arms out. Davy slid off Jack’s back. “I don’t know what your problem is with all this, Jonathan, but you WILL deal with it. You force me to deal with my issues, I’m forcing you to deal with yours. Or I will call whomever in the universe I need to call to make you deal with it.”

  “I don’t have an issue, Michael, I just know better,” Jack told him. “And you know exactly where my knowledge comes from.” The pastor and his people, and anyone else within hearing, looked from one brother to the other, wondering what was going on.

  Michael stepped in close. “I don’t care how many times Daniel has died and returned, there is still a Higher Power,” he said in a low voice, unheard by anyone else. “You are ignoring that aspect of the entire situation.” He turned to the waiting reverend and held a hand out. “Michael O’Neill,” he introduced himself. “Reverend, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to you on this. My brother will be attending the next religious council meeting and I’d like to personally invite you along. This issue will be addressed.”

  The reverend agreed and took his party away. Jack spun and glared at his brother. “Boundary,” he snarled, pointing at the ground. “You’ve crossed it. No one has the authority to order me to a discussion on religion. No one! I don’t believe in it, Michael; you deal with it. Try giving me an order again, and I will personally ship you out to Hell. I know the address!”

  Jaffa and a few SG personnel winced. Unaware of doing so, Jack had switched to Ancient. Michael hadn’t understood a word of it, but he knew the tone. Jack was pissed.

  “Jack.” Daniel was looking at the ground. Between Jack and Michael, where Jack had pointed, a line about a yard long of grass had turned red.

  Chapter 52

  The neighborhood SF were all carefully watching for invasions of reporters or cross-bearing zealots as four-wheelers zoomed up and down the street. Kids and adults laughed and yelled to each other. A shop-owner from Denver showed up on Jack’s doorstep and asked if he could convince a few of his men to ride the four-wheelers in a commercial for the store. Jack said he’d think about it but first he wanted to give them a try. He called several SGC families, and twenty small buggies were soon racing around the neighborhood. Since most of the neighborhood along the route up Cheyenne had become the home to SGC and HomeSec families, there weren’t too many civilians who were complaining to the sheriff about the ruckus. Andy leaned against the hood of his car as he watched the kids playing. The small kids and the big kids. One four-wheeler came to a stop a couple yards from Andy.

  “Hi, sheriff!” Davy called out, waving excitedly. He sat in front of Jack, covered in protective gear and a helmet. He was tickled that Daddy was le
tting him steer.

  “Hello, David, how’s the ride?” Andy asked, returning the wave.

  “It’s SWEET!” the boy declared. Andy laughed and nodded. Katie and Matthew had their own rides and were racing with Reynolds’ teenagers, while Stacey was riding carefully in front of Daniel and arguing with him to let her ride it herself. He was considering it; the other kids her age were doing it on their own, and she did have a helmet and padding. Even Jessie Bosco was riding her own four-wheeler. Sam rode in close and said something to Daniel. He reluctantly stopped and got off the bike.

  “Be careful!” Daniel said worriedly as Stacey slowly started out on her own.

  Jack shook his head at them.

  “Is he always so…..?” Andy asked.

  “No,” Jack said. “I think he’s going through some growing pains. Captain Kaplan and his family moved in up the street. Stacey took one look at Kaplan’s thirteen-year old son, Simon, and was struck speechless. Daniel isn’t taking it well, which is actually funny considering his former stance on being an open and cool Dad.”

  Andy smiled. “Captain Kaplan? Say that three times fast.”

  Jack chuckled. “Yes, it's a bit of a tongue-twister; we’re working on a promotion for him. People trip over that every time.”

  There was a toot! behind him and he jumped out of the way.

  “Move it or loose it!” his mother yelled as she came speeding past him.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be chasing down speeders?” he asked Andy.

  After getting everyone to sign releases, the ATV owner went back to Denver a happy man. Having all the families playing on his toys went much better than just the military at play. Jack was set to buy all the kids (their own, not the neighbor’s) ATV’s but Daniel and Sam vetoed him. The kids had plenty to play with. They could even play off-world. With aliens. They didn’t need four-wheelers. “But...” Jack began. “No, Jack.”

  Leaving the kids with Jerrie, the adults left for HomeSec. Sam kissed her men and walked through the arch to her own office. Her office was in a quiet uproar over the sudden discharge of Major Coulter. Sam’s new admin, newly made 2Lt. Rusty Wilson, was wide-eyed at her unexpected promotion. Not only to second lieutenant, but as the new assistant to Colonel Carter! If talk was any indication, it won’t be boring. Rusty called Col. Davis for advice. He told her to expect the unexpected. Always. If the colonel disappeared in thin air, let him know, but don't worry unless he tells her to worry. He told her to keep in contact and email him whenever she had a question.

  Daniel was trying very hard to keep his patience with the person on the phone in Jack’s office. Jack was fairly sure he was gently patronizing the person in Hebrew. Jack wasn’t surprised, considering the latest insanity in the Middle East. Some idiot fired off a few rounds across the border and killed several Palestinians. Of course Palestine returned the fire. Jack called Henry and Henry called various leaders. No one was willing to meet with Jack. Henry’s personal opinion was that they were afraid of the mind-reading rumors. Henry didn’t tell them that Jack could read them from halfway across the globe.

  “Just a hot-head on the street,” Jack told Henry. “The government won’t say anything one way or another. Any excuses….. Henry, the UN really needs to take responsibility for their mess over there.”

  Henry sighed. “Won’t argue with you, there, Jack, but unfortunately you know as well as I do that it isn’t going to happen. Those two countries are going to have to learn to get along. The UN displaced a country once, they won’t do it again. We can't tell them about Enki's historical revisions, the entire place would go up in flames.”

  To Jack’s amusement, several shady government types had cornered him when the rumors began to circulate about his abilities. They were concerned about top secrets. Jack laughed and told one of the men to quit cheating on his wife with another man, and don’t tell him about keeping secrets. The man paled, refused to look at his partner, and left. Jack then had a private meeting with Henry and Maynard. Silent hell broke loose and quite a few ex-Personages were warned to keep their fingers out of any further dealings; the current Administration had a mess to clean up.

  There had been many questionable acts cleared up by Jack’s curiosity. The Middle East issue was only one of them. Various government-types had begun scrambling to clean up any incriminating evidence that was still lingering. It really didn’t help; Jack was looking into bodies, not paperwork. He discovered that it was easier as he practiced. He could do a light scan of the town while he was changing the baby. Jack had the dirt on everyone. A few were of concern to him, so he passed on ‘anonymous’ information to Andy. A couple of people tried to take shots at him. Nick dealt with them before bothering to tell Jack to keep his head down.

  “Jack, President Dayan wants to talk to you,” Daniel said, holding his hand over the speaker.

  “Tell President Diane…” Daniel held out the phone. “…..if he doesn’t cut the crap, I’m going to sanction him,” Jack responded, raising his voice to be heard. “I know damned well who ordered that soldier to fire and so far, I’ve kept it to myself.”

  Daniel and Sam had found that a Jack who knew everything was an irritating Jack. Unfortunately, Jack did have the right to sanction a nation belonging to HomeSec. He couldn’t interfere with the workings of a nation, but if they signed a pledge to behave, and they didn’t, Jack could take away their rights to participate in HomeWorld Security. The Middle East was already on a temporary pass; they could send people to serve aboard ships, but the countries would not have access to the technology. One word from Jack and the Middle East would be cut off completely. Any personnel already serving would be given the choice of returning home or aligning with another country.

  Israel had accused Jack of anti-Semitism on more than one occasion. Jack would laugh and tell them to get over themselves. On more than one occasion, Daniel expounded on Semitic languages and their relationship to modern Middle Eastern Arabic, Hebrew, Egyptian, and a few others. During one occasion, Jack opened his cell phone and hit the record button. The next time someone accused him of anti-Semitism, Jack sent them the recording of one of Daniel’s impromptu lectures.

  The one thing that had made the Middle East pause was not alien technology itself, but the fact that the technology was allowing the West to use something other than oil as their main energy. The citizens may not yet understand, but the leadership knew which way the wind was blowing and it wasn’t in the direction of their oil fields. Another irritation of Israel was the fact that the rest of the Middle East was reluctantly enjoying Jack’s directness when other country leaders were playing political games. When Jack told them something, they were learning to trust his word. Jack had something others didn’t –he had Daniel.

  Daniel hung up the phone and discovered Jack just inches away.

  “Yes?” Daniel questioned, slightly cross-eyed, looking at Jack so near.

  “I want to do it on my desk,” Jack told him, an evil twinkle in his eyes.

  “You have a one-track mind, do you know that?”

  “What’s your point?” Jack asked from Daniel’s neck.

  “Aren’t we supposed to be going over wedding plans?” Daniel asked.

  “We’re already married.”

  “Not our wedding, Paul’s wedding.”

  “Oh. Right. That’s a girl thing, Danny; I want to make out.”

  “I will have sex with you, right here, on one condition,” Daniel told him. Jack lifted his head from Daniel’s chest.

  “You’re bribing me for sex?” Jack couldn’t believe it.

  “Yup,” Daniel nodded.

  “What’s the condition?” Jack asked suspiciously.

  “For the next twenty-hour hours you speak nothing except Ancient,” Daniel said. And he said it in Ancient. Jack opened his mouth and Daniel held up a finger. “If you speak in English, or any other language, I won’t respond. And I will inform everyone else who speaks Ancient of the deal.”

  “That’s
low,” Jack grumbled.

  “What?” Daniel asked in Ancient.

  Jack scowled. “The deal is canceled in case of emergencies.”

  “Of course,” Daniel nodded. “But you summarize after, to me, in Ancient.”

  Jack considered the deal.

  “And you will NOT agree now only to renege when we’re done,” Daniel continued.

  “Not very romantic of you,” Jack grumbled.

  “Ana mish fahim,” Daniel said, shaking his head in non-understanding.

  “I said…..” Jack hesitated, knowing he was going to regret it. “Kwayis, mashi?”

  Daniel smiled. “Mashi.”

  Much to Jack’s enjoyment, Daniel was feisty during their playtime, too. The fact that a certain governor from California was being forced to cool his heels in the outer office was only more of a turn-on.

  Afterward, while Jack quickly brushed his teeth in the small washroom, Daniel chuckled, sucking gently on Jack’s neck.

  “Love you,” Daniel said softly.

  Jack spit. “Love you, too. Now go away.”

  “Ey?”

  Jack repeated it in Ancient.

  California wanted its own generator. With examples of Las Vegas, DC, Colorado Springs, and St. Petersburg all showing signs of better air and much lower electric bills, California was feeling left out. Jack promised that Los Angeles would get a generator. The governor went away happy despite the hickey on Jack’s neck and the image of a very happy Dr. Jackson that had left before hand. Jack called Sam.

  “Would you please set up…..”

  “Ey?”

  Jack sighed, knowing it was going to be a long day. There was no way he’d get around the deal, not with Sam. She’d tattle on him. He began again, switching languages.