Another Perspective
The knock on my front door came as a complete surprise, but the sight of the person doing the knocking was even more so.
“Hi, Uncle Jack.”
I stared, blurry eyed from too little sleep, at the teenage boy in front of me, complete with overfilled backpack.
Uncle Jack?
Unless I had a long lost sibling somewhere I knew nothing about, I was no one’s uncle.
Then my eyes began to clear and I took in the lanky, skinny form, and the dark brown eyes peering out from beneath an unruly head of brown hair.
“Matthew?”
My cousin Ben’s son gave me an embarrassed half smile, and nodded.
I moved to step around him, searching the front yard for his parents. Not a sign. Stepping back and opening the door wider, I gestured to him.
“You better come in and explain what’s going on.”
Settling myself on the lounge, I watched as he unhooked the pack from his back and sat, a soft sigh of relief his only verbal comment. He looked tired, footsore, and without asking I stood again, heading for the kitchen to return with a jug of juice and two glasses. I poured and pushed one across the coffee table towards him.
“Thanks.” He finished it in one long swallow.
“Now, want to tell me what you’re doing here?”
He held the glass, staring down at it. “Can I stay for a few days?”
This was the boy I had met only once before, a few months ago at my aunt’s funeral, and he wanted to come visit? I restrained my natural inclination to just give an outright ‘no.’
“Do your parents know you’re here, Matt?”
He shook his head before lifting his eyes to stare defiantly up at me. “Nope, but I’m eighteen. I’m not some sort of little kid.”
I snapped.
“Well, stop acting like one then, and tell me what the hell you’re doing here.”
It turned out that he’d had an argument with his parents about the normal things that all families with teenagers argue about – pushing his parents’ patience as much as possible. Then he’d walked out.
Why in god’s name he decided to come to me was what I couldn’t understand. Even the fact that he knew my address was a surprise.
I was on the phone to his parents when I caught him, staring at the framed awards above the fireplace, and I remembered the expression on his face when I met him at the funeral. A little case of hero worship, maybe?
I handed him the receiver, and sat listening to the one sided conversation that consisted of the usual teenage grunts.
“Dad wants to talk to you, Uncle Jack.”
And so I found myself with a house guest for the next three days until cousin Ben’s wife Sally could get time off work to come fetch her lost waif.
Oy!
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
I was putting on my shoes when I heard the bang of a cupboard door slamming shut.
Then another one.
Then the fridge.
Then another cupboard.
After a few minutes I couldn’t take it anymore and headed for the kitchen, sure that I didn’t have that many cupboards to open.
“I can’t find anything to eat.” Matt opened the cupboard above the sink and stared at the crockery.
Bang.
He frowned into the one next to it, the neat row of cans frowning back at him.
Bang.
The fridge obviously gave him no joy, holding only a carton of milk and some margarine.
Bang.
Back to the first cupboard.
What did he expect – that food had miraculously appeared in the few seconds since he last looked in there?
“I wasn’t expecting company, and I was going to shop after I got home tonight.” I tossed him a fifty from my wallet. “There’s a supermarket a few blocks north. Get whatever you want. I won’t be home until after six. We’ll order pizzas.”
“Great!” His face lit up at the idea of pizza, or it could have been the sight of the money. For a moment I wondered about the wisdom of leaving a teenager I knew nothing about alone in my home all day, but the sound of a car pulling up outside curtailed my thoughts.
“Sorry. I’ve got to go. Don’t…” I hesitated. “Just….don’t…ah…yeah, whatever.” And with that articulate comment I opened the door, picking up my briefcase from the hall.
“Cool!” The long black car with the driver standing to attention next to the open door finally was something that met with his approval.
I drove off, unable to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“General, thank goodness you’re here. The ambassadors from PL-009 are arguing again.” Walter handed me my coffee as I exited the elevator, a harried look on his face. “There’s a problem in the main lab – something about nanites, and the canteen chef is complaining again.” He thrust a pile of folders towards me, holding them up as if in accusation. “And I found these on your desk, sir. You haven’t even looked at them and the report needs to be in Washington by 1500 hours.”
I took a long, and very welcome sip of my coffee, waiting while he juggled the folders to open the door, and walked into my office.
Oh, the joys of command!
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“Unauthorised stargate activation!”
The klaxons sounded their warning as I pounded down the metal stairs to the Control Room.
“Any identification?”
The Lieutenant on duty kept his eyes on the computer screen in front of him as he answered. “No, sir, nothing.”
“Close the iris.” I mentally scanned through the list of teams currently offworld. None were due to contact base within the next ten hours, assuming of course that nothing had gone wrong. “Any ID yet, Sergeant?”
“No, sir.”
SG-1 was one of those teams.
“Originating planet?”
“PX4-823”
That nice sunny world I’d sent Carter, Daniel and Teal’c to. What is it about milkruns that curdles them so quickly?
“Incoming traveller!”
All the eyes in the room turned to me, and the sergeant gave me the information I wanted before I’d even asked it.
“No ID, sir.”
Damn.
They wouldn’t come through without sending their IDC first. They knew the consequences.
Big splat. Bug on wideshield time.
Unless, of course, they had been forced to leave without their GDO’s.
“General? Should I open the iris?”
Damn, damn, damn!
I shook my head. “No, Sergeant.” and felt my heart drop into my boots at the thud that seemed so loud in the silence.
One.
Thud.
Two.
Thud.
Three.
I waited, but no more came.
“Try and establish radio contact with SG-1.”
“Nothing, sir.”
If the mission was going to plan they shouldn’t be within communication range anyway, up in the hills at the nearest village. They weren’t due to report in for twenty-four hours.
I ordered a wormhole opened and scanned the immediate area of the gate with the MALP that was already on the planet. Nothing. Nice and sunny. No sign of life, except for some birds circling above.
I couldn’t justify sending another team through until we had more information.
“Thank you, Sergeant, try to contact them at hourly intervals. I want an analysis of the debris as soon as possible. I’ll be in my office.”
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Sitting around sucks.
I signed off on another equipment request from the research labs, placing it on the pile of completed work, and stretched, easing some of the tension from my shoulders. A glance at my watch told me it had been only thirty minutes since the stargate activated, but it felt like hours. I was picking up the next file when there was a knock on the door.
“Come.”
Doctor Lee entered, waving a page. He didn’t give me time to ask, launching into an excited explanation.
“It wasn’t SG-1, General. There were remains of possibly three life forms, but from the analysis it couldn’t be SG-1. The remnants show significant differences to either Earth humans or Jaffa.”
Thank god! I let out the breath I hadn’t realised I was holding, and nodded, keeping my face impassive. Regardless of the results, my team was still out there with who knew what between them and the gate. I dismissed the scientist with a few words of thanks, and got back to work.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Five hours later, SG-1 came home.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“Hey, guys. Where’ve you been?”
“On PX4-823, O’Neill.”
Gotta love that Jaffa humor. I looked at Teal’c and he just looked back, so I turned my attention to Colonel Carter, raising an eyebrow.
“The mission was uneventful, sir…” She paused at the snort of disbelief from Daniel. “Up to a certain point that is. The village was abandoned. It looked like it had been attacked sometime within the last year. There was no sign of any inhabitants.”
“That’s when it started to get interesting.” Daniel interrupted, but Carter ignored him, continuing with her report.
“We investigated the village as thoroughly as we were able, and determined there was nothing of interest.”
“So no big, honking Goa’uld killing weapons?”
“No, sir.” Carter smiled at my witty comment. She had to, I’m her boss. “I made the decision to return to the SGC early, and we headed back to the gate. We found it surrounded by large winged reptiles.”
Daniel began waving his arms around. “They were remarkably like the dragons of ancient folklore, Jack. Really big with leathery wings. Four legs. Big, very big teeth. Sharp teeth.”
“Did they breathe fire?” It was a serious question, but Daniel threw me a disgusted look anyway.
“No, O’Neill. They did not. However in appearance they were similar to the creature described in the book ‘The Hobbit’.”
“Cool!” My expansion of Teal’c’s reading list was paying off.
Carter put the briefing back on track. “We watched for a while, and eventually they left. We managed to get to the DHD and open the gate, but the sound must have attracted them, because they came back. We took cover again and several of the smaller creatures flew into the gate.”
“Three.” They all looked at me, and I explained. “There were three of them.”
“Ah.” Daniel was the only one that spoke, and even he only made a small sound of understanding. No one needed to spell it out.
“We detonated some C4 Teal’c planted some distance from our hiding place, and when they went to investigate, made another try at the gate. This time we got through.”
I smiled, and they smiled back. “Yes. Yes you did. You hungry? I was going to get something, want to join me?”
“I would be pleased to join you, O’Neill.”
“Sure, sir.”
“Lead the way.”
It was good to have them back.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
I had almost forgotten I had a guest. That was until I saw the state of my lounge room.
“Matthew!”
There was a startled yelp from the large bundle of smelly teenager on the couch. The pizza box slipped off his stomach, tipping cold pizza slices from it to join the beer bottles on the carpet.
“Hi, Uncle Jack.” He sat up, blurry eyed, rubbing his face. “I waited, but you didn’t come home and I didn’t have a number to contact you at, so I went ahead and ordered pizza. I got one for you too. I hope you like olives.” He gestured to the other chair, and I saw another pizza box, open, with a lone slice sitting in it. I picked it up, glaring at the grease stain on the chair fabric.
“Ah, sorry.” Matthew looked confused for moment, then his face cleared as if a memory had surfaced. “I was real hungry.”
“And thirsty I see.” I counted at least four empty bottles.
“So how was work, Uncle Jack?”
Diversionary Tactics 101, and he wasn’t even military.
“Good.”
He smiled, nodding, assuming it was working. “What did you do all day? Secret NORAD stuff?”
“No.” I bent, picking up the other box and placing it on top of the one I already held. “I mainly did paperwork in my office all day. Nothing exciting.” That’s if you don’t count exploding dragons messing up your workplace. “Now, how about you get this mess cleaned up.”
I don’t think he wanted to.
Well, too bad.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“What’s on the agenda for today, Walter?”
I yawned into my coffee. Being kept awake by screeching banshees spewing words I hadn’t heard since boot camp didn’t do anything to improve my alertness or my temper. What sort of name was ‘Slipknot’ for a band anyway? Although after an hour of listening to them I did feel like strangling them.
“The Russian and Chinese liaisons’ visit, General.”
“Oh god! Say it isn’t so!” I groaned into my hands.
Walter had the decency to look sympathetic. “Sorry, sir. They’re due at noon. For lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Yes, sir.” He reached into his folder and drew out a page, putting it on the desk. “You have to approve the menu.”
“Approve the menu?” I stared at it, hoping it would turn into something I actually understood. There, side by side, were two totally different and opposing food selections running over several paragraphs. Borsch or short soup? Chicken Kiev or Peking Duck? Maybe borsch and the duck? Would I be the cause of World War Three?
“And there’s a problem with the seating arrangements.”
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
This time the house was tidy. And quiet.
That’s because Matthew wasn’t in it.
I was very restrained. I didn’t call his parents. I was young once too, and he was eighteen. So I sat and waited, getting more and more annoyed. When he rolled in at 2am accompanied by two girls that my Aunt Beatrice would have called hussies, I was very restrained as well. I didn’t kill him. Apparently he had thoughtfully provided a girl for me too. Nice of him. The fact that they were all of twenty, with skirts short enough to show their navels sort of put me off. Funny that.
I told the girls to leave, and cleaned him up, hosing him down with cold water and taking great pleasure in the groans of protest. Then I poured him into bed and got a couple of hours sleep before my car came for me in the morning.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“You look a bit tired, Jack. Someone keeping you up?” I swear Daniel leered at me.
“You could say that.” I didn’t elaborate. I have never really talked about my private life to my team, and I had no intention of starting now. Let them think what they wanted. Anyway, Daniel was just annoyed at not having to translate at the meeting yesterday. He was even more annoyed that I had to explain a couple of points to him that the Chinese representative brought up. His Mandarin wasn’t quite up to the level of understanding complicated issues yet.
Poor boy – he’d get over it.
I pulled the stack of papers on the Briefing Room table towards me, looking at them even though I knew them by heart.
“Let’s begin, shall we?” The eight people seated around the table all looked up as I spoke. “Supreme Commander Thor is due to arrive in two hours and we have a lot to get through before that. We need to iron out some points in this proposal before Thor and I meet with the President this afternoon.”
It was going to be another long day.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Matthew took the plate I handed him, eyeing the large, rare steak with some trepidation. He still looked a little delicate after last night.
Good.
I served myself a smaller piece, somewhat full after afternoon tea at the White House with Thor and the President. Thor had brought some food with him, the President having made the mistake of showing interest in Asgard cuisine. I had tried to warn him, but he wouldn’t listen, and it wasn’t as if those yellow squares were actually poisonous. Just very, very horrible.
I could still feel them in my stomach, sitting there like large rocks. Combine them with the cream cakes and I was not in the mood for dinner.
“How was your day Matthew?” I swallowed a tiny bit of meat and tried to look interested in his answer. I had read him the riot act in a phone call when I decided he should be awake, and warned him that if he so much as set foot off of my property boundary I would tell his parents the full story of last night. Then I left him a list of chores. They had all been done.
“Boring, Uncle Jack. There isn’t much happening around here.”
“Nope. Guess not.”
We each munched on unhappily.
“What about your day?”
I put my fork down and took a sip of water. “I had a meeting to attend, so at least I got out of the office for a change.” Yeap – those Asgard transporter beams certainly made travelling to Washington a breeze.
“Cool.”
We lapsed into silence again.
I could hardly keep my eyes open. “I’m having an early night. Make sure you do the dishes before you go to bed, and keep the noise down. Okay?”
He sullenly nodded, and I limped off to my bedroom for hopefully the first decent night’s sleep I’d had in days.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Sally hugged her son to her. Despite only coming up to his armpit, she gave the impression of fierce protectiveness, and I didn’t see any hesitation as he hugged back.
“Thank your Uncle Jack for looking after you, Matthew.”
“That’s okay, Sally. It was a pleasure having him. He was no trouble.” I enjoyed the flush of embarrassment on his face at my comment.
“Yeah, thanks, Uncle Jack.” He mumbled very unenthusiastically.
“Did you have a good time, Matt? Maybe you could come back for a holiday if Jack doesn’t mind.”
Both Matthew and I looked at her, and I imagine my expression was identical to the one on his face – horrified.
“Ah…I think he found it a bit boring here, Sally. I lead a pretty unexciting life.”
“Yeah, Mom. All Uncle Jack does is do paperwork and go to meetings. And he goes to bed real early.”
Now it was Sally’s turn to look embarrassed. “I’m sure it can’t be that bad, Matt.”
“I’m afraid so. And I wouldn’t be able to take time off to show him around the Springs. Pity, but that’s the way it is.”
She smiled, obviously just happy to have her boy back safe and sound. “Thanks again, Jack. Ben and I really appreciate you letting him stay.”
“No problem.” I grabbed Matt’s bag. “Here, let me help you.”
Within a few minutes I was waving a farewell as they drove away.
Thank goodness. My life could get back to normal.
My cell rang just as I turned to go back inside.
“O’Neill.”
“Colonel Reynolds here, General. We have a problem with SG-4.”
SG-4. They were reconnoitring a mining operation on a Goa’uld held world. Hell!
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Just another boring day at the office.
The End
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