MEMOIRS OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL JACK O’NEILL
(Retired)
Part I
Chapter Four
By Arrietty
2005
I am sure General Hammond didn’t have this much trouble, but then thinking about it…maybe he did. Daniel was being a right pain in the mikta, as per usual.
“Jack! You can’t go.”
“Why not? There isn’t anything here for me to do. All I do all day is sit on my butt and push papers around the desk.” I waved my arms in the general direction of the dreaded piles of paperwork.
Daniel looked at the neat piles that had been sorted out into order by my aide, raised one eyebrow and said sarcastically.
“Yes. I can see that.”
“Oh…for crying out loud.” Without thinking, in anger I started to pile the files back up into one pile again.
“Jack, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh Mister Know-it-all, gonna stick his nose in again?” Turning my head to look back over my shoulder, I saw Daniel smirk, lean back against the wall and fold his arms.
I never got a chance to say anything as all the files crashed to the floor.
“See, I told you. I am right about other things too, Jack.”
Swiveling around on the spot, before I had a chance to answer back, Daniel had made a very wise, hasty retreat out the door.
Pushing the door closed, I went back to my desk, picking my way over the files strewn across the floor. ‘Oh what a great way to start.’
~*~
The following day, he started on at me again. I was still trying to sort out the piles of endless paperwork and I hadn’t slept well the previous night - something that I felt was going to be an on going problem, maybe for a long time to come.
I heard his quiet footfall at my door. I refused to look up and tried to read the top secret document in my hand for the third time in the last ten minutes. He didn’t go away.
“What do you want, Daniel?” I asked, without looking up.
“One of these days, you’ll get it wrong and it will be someone else standing here and you will look a right nit.”
I slowly raised my head, followed by an eyebrow, and asked again, “What do you want, Daniel?” I couldn’t keep the tiredness out of my voice.
He walked into my office, frowned and announced, “You look like crap.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I retorted.
Daniel folded his arms across his chest for a moment before straightening them and leaning towards me while resting his hands on my desk. “Teal’c is leaving the SGC.”
“What!” I left at a run. I could hear Daniel scurrying along behind me as I made straight for Teal’c’s quarters.
“Jack, he’s not there,” I skidded to a halt and swiveled around on the spot, “Where?” I demanded not caring what the SGC personnel thought about me shouting at Daniel, though they should be used to this frequent occurrence by now.
“In the locker room, packing a few things.”
I changed my direction and made my way to the locker room.
~*~
I carefully peeked around the locker room door, checking the lay of the land so to speak and could see that, apart from Teal’c, the room was empty. He was busy carefully folding up some of his gym t-shirts and stuffing them into a sports bag. I was surprised to see his mouth guard follow the t-shirts. But then again, if your teeth are knocked out, it isn’t easy to find a decent dentist off world.
“Teal’c.” I sauntered into the room, trying not to sound to out of breath after my mad rush around the SGC corridors. “What ya doin’?”
“I am preparing to leave the SGC, O’Neill.”
“Yeah, I can see that… Why?”
He stopped pushing the last of his things in his bag and turned around to face me.
“Why are you leaving, O’Neill?”
“Because I… Hey, I asked first.”
He turned back to his bag and carefully closed the zipper, the sound grating on my nerves and I found myself rubbing my face with my hands. His voice was deep and vibrating as he started to speak.
“I first came to the SGC because I believed that you, O’Neill, could help me in the fight against the Goa’uld. But you are now leaving. I need to join my brothers so that we can completely free all Jaffa from the oppression of false gods.” He stood still, his face seeming to show no emotion, but I could see pain, hurt and betrayal in his eyes as he waited for my response.
I fought my emotions down and was afraid to show anything as I battled them. I knew to make any of my usual funny comments at this point, to detract from the serious moment, would most probably earn me a punch from Teal’c. I stuffed my hands in my pockets. “Anubis is defeated; Baal has gone and taken the system lords with him. We won, Teal’c.”
“The Tau’ri may have won, but the Jaffa have not. There are millions of Jaffa out there under the system lords’ rule. They need to be freed from their oppressors.
“There you go, we have the same idea. Find Baal and free the Jaffa.” I smiled with false confidence.
“You go to find Baal to seek revenge; I go to free my brethren. This time, O’Neill we will follow separate paths.” He turned, picked up his bag and a small portable CD player. “I will be leaving first thing in the morning.” He bowed his head slightly once and left the room.
More of my world fell from under me. Even with the seriousness of the moment, I couldn’t help myself. “I hope you have plenty of batteries for that thing?” I called after him. He did not answer.
I dragged my feet as I slowly left the room and found Daniel waiting in the corridor. “I don’t want to hear it, Daniel.” I quickly said, forestalling his comments.
“Jack, why don’t you stay? We need you here… I need you here,” he added.
My emotions were on a roller coaster to start with and now his resorting to emotional blackmail was a bit much. I was barely able to keep my pain and frustration of the conflict with Teal’c concealed.
“So why don’t you to come with me?” I demanded.
“You know how I feel about that, Jack.” I felt my eyes narrowing as I glared at him waiting for him to continue. “She’s gone, Baal’s gone; they’ve all gone. There’s no one to fight anymore, Jack.” He folded his arms across his chest before continuing, “There are ancient worlds that would take the rest of my life to explore and I would be only touching the surface. I can do all of that from here, Jack. I don’t need to go on some wild goose chase to find Baal. You and Jacob are just letting your emotions take control of your actions. I don’t want any of that.” He raised one hand and poked at my chest, without actually touching me, “If I had wanted revenge, I would have gone after Apophis long ago, but you talked me into staying and working at the SGC.” I had the insane urge to stuff my fingers in my ears and start singing, but I put my hands in my pockets instead.
“Have you finished, Daniel?” I asked.
“No I haven’t,” he replied. “You are both throwing your lives away for nothing, Jack. How long do you think you will last out there without a team to back you up?”
“Both? I thought there were three of us making this decision,” I quickly inserted into Daniel’s tirade.
He threw his hands up and walked off. “You’ll see, Jack. It won’t work,” he called back to me just before he rounded the corner.
I stalked off to the gym, pleased to find it empty, I shed my shirt and quickly wrapped my hands in tape. I mentally drew a picture of Baal on the boxing bag and made my first punch.
~*~
The next two weeks went by in a blur. Jacob and Selmac had unofficially resigned from the Tok’ra - they said that the Tok’ra owed them a break, so they were going to take it whether they liked it or not. Jacob helped me out quite a bit. Not only did I have the SGC to organize, but I had my personal belongings and house to sort out too. It was quite easy really, just time consuming. My belongings I had professionally packed and put into storage, I wasn’t really planning on coming back, but you just never know. The house I didn’t want to sell, so I put it up for rent.
A bonus that I found out was that they were still going to pay me. Even though I had officially resigned they, ‘the government’, wanted me to send back anything that I found in my travels that would give a technological advantage to Earth. I had pointed out that as they weren’t giving me a GDO, it would be rather hard to do that. It was worked out in the end; I was to rendezvous with different SG teams at known planets, using the elusive Tok’ra or Jonas Quinn as messengers. Even Selmac would have trouble finding them after several days, as they moved regularly.
The biggest surprise to me was who they were going to have to replace me at the SGC. I didn’t really know until the last day. I had expressed my concerns over the fact that they were bringing in someone who had no idea how things were run. They should have had at least a couple of weeks getting to know the ropes before I left, but no, the powers that be seemed to have it all under control. Paul Davis and I had talked it over at length; he said that he would stick around just in case.
Daniel was still angry with me, but he seemed to mellow with time and now he had other fish to fry. One of the planets had a fully occupied Aztec community living on it. He, with a team of geeks was going to spend several months living with these people. When I pointed out that the Aztecs seemed to enjoy sacrificing people, he just shrugged his shoulders and said. ‘And I could be run over by a bus tomorrow.’ Deciding to leave his geekiness alone, I didn’t say anymore.
Teal’c left. I wasn’t sure if he was still angry with me, or what his feelings were. I do know watching him walk off through the Stargate left me with a hollow pit in my stomach… or was it my heart?
~*~
I found myself walking backwards down the hallway, my replacement had come early.
“I am glad it is you, really I am, but…” I faltered as I nearly tripped over my feet.
“But what, Jack?”
“I’ve been so busy, you know with one thing and another.” I could see he was not fazed one little bit by my wheedling. I had tried my hardest to stop him from going to his new office, but nothing had deterred him. I had the feeling that he knew exactly what waited for him there. ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa files.’ Or should I say ‘Towers’?
I watched as he opened the door, leaning against the doorjamb I cautiously poked my head into the office. ‘How on Earth does the man do it?’ The desk was totally clear of files except for one, sitting in the middle of the blotter. George Hammond settled down in his chair, gave a small sigh and opened the file. Without looking up, he spoke.
“Is there anything else you wanted to say, Jack?”
“Nope, erm…no, sir.” Waving with one hand, I turned around and left the doorway.
I waited a couple of minutes, removed my boots and snuck back to the office. I had to find out what he had done with the files. I have to admit I did get a few queried glances, but no one approached me thankfully. In full special ops style I looked around the doorway into my old office. There was Hammond, he had one of the filing cabinets open and was pulling out all the files and dumping them on his desk. If I hadn’t seen…well, heard it with my own ears I would never have believed it. He was humming. Realizing fully that my aide was and never had been my aide, but George’s, I grinned to myself, turned and walked quickly off down the corridor stopping and pulling on my boots in the process.
~*~
It was a weird feeling waiting for the wormhole to lock. This time I knew that it might be the last time I would see the grey interior of the SGC. Though I was wearing fatigues, the Velcro patches on my uniform devoid of the SGC insignia made me feel vulnerable. This time I would not have the backing of my teams, no one to come and get me out if I got into trouble. On this mission I would be on my own. Well not really, as Jacob would be with me and there were three of us, if you counted Selmac. Not for the first time, I was grateful for Selmac’s presence, and most probably it wouldn’t be the last time either.
I stopped close to the event horizon, turned and faced General Hammond. I raised my right hand and gave him the best salute that I could give; he returned my salute with one of his own. With a quick turn of my heel I stepped through the gate.
Heliopolis Main Archive
A Stargate: SG-1 Fanfiction Site
Memoirs of Brigadier General Jack O'Neill (retired)
by ArriettySite Navigation
Support Heliopolis