Chapter 15
Prof. Jackson's Office, University of Chicago, IL
September 7, 2010
Straightening the pile of applications on his desk Daniel found it difficult, now that the first day of the term was over, to concentrate on school matters. His mind drawing back as it often did to what Janet and Cassie had discovered and then what Janet and himself had discovered when they'd found Jack.
What still had him incredulous was that even more than Jack refusing to help—the man could hold grudges like few he knew—that Sam had refused to help as well. Sam who was—had been—his ally in science and—
A knock on his door interrupted Daniel's thoughts. Looking up from the papers he was still absently squaring off his hands froze at the sight of the man that had just opened his office door.
"Jack?" Daniel questioned incredulously.
"Daniel," Jack stepped into the room and with a few steps covered the distance between the door and the desk.
"How… Wh-what… what are you doing here? In Chicago?" Daniel asked in confusion. He had gotten the impression when he and Janet had left the O'Neill farmhouse that they would never see Jack and Sam again.
"Congratulations Daniel, you've been voted in," Jack declared as he set the file he carried in his hands onto the papers Daniel had been straightening, and thus on top of Daniel's hands.
"Wh-what?" Daniel repeated as he turned his attention to the plain, coil bound papers simply titled 'Veritas.' Automatically his mind translated the word from Latin to its meaning of 'Truth.'
"Read it." Jack said briskly. "You'll find us at the museum if you decide you really want to do something once you know what's in that."
"Us? Jack, wait, what's this about?" Daniel called after Jack's departing back.
"Just read it!" Jack called over his shoulder and exiting the office, closed the door, and left Daniel alone with the file.
Daniel looked at the title again and then taking a breath, turned the first page.
. . .
Several hours later Daniel closed the last page and leaned back in his chair. As he looked up at the arched ceiling of his office the tears of sorrow in his blue eyes misted his sight behind his glasses.
Truth was an accurate name for the file. For it was a brutally truthful report.
Reports on the Aschen conquest methods of confederated planets. Volia's report in particular stuck a particularly sensitive cord with Daniel as it had been Volians of Volia that had introduced them to the Aschen and their Confederation.
The Volia report, a combination of archaeological and archival investigation, revealed that the planet had once hosted a thriving urban civilisation approximating eighteen-century North America technological development when a flu pandemic killed millions. When the Aschen arrived in ships and offered a vaccine that saved their world, they were seen as heroes—just as on Earth. The Volians joined the Aschen Confederation only to discover almost two decades later that the Aschen vaccine caused sterility. Volia rioted only to be put down by the Aschen and in less than two hundred years the planet went from an urban civilisation of millions to a simple agrarian civilisation of thousands. All evidence of the once great society and the capital city buried underneath the farms the Aschen now had the Volians farm.
Most damning of all was the related to the Aschen reports concerning the implementation and sterilisation progress for each confederate planet. For Volians the flu pandemic and sterilisation had all been engineered by the Aschen.
He did not think he wanted to know what Jack had done to get those Aschen reports.
The Aschen believed in the superiority and purity of only humans born on Aschen Prime. It was Hitler all over again—only on a galactic scale.
Wiping at his eyes, Daniel removed and cleaned his glasses before standing. Taking the file in hand he rolled it up, tucked it under an arm, and exiting his office, locked the door. Squaring his shoulders he determinedly strode through the halls of the building that housed his office towards the Oriental Institute Museum.
Towards Jack.
Towards whatever fight Jack was planning for.
. . .
In their Chicago hotel room for the night, his sons lying on their bed in the double room absorbed in watching television, Jack finished transmitting notification to resistance groups and individuals that Daniel had been recruited.
The damning hardcopy Daniel had originally read had been reclaimed and Sam had given Daniel an Asgärd tablet and flash-drive containing the Veritas file. The tablet would also serve as a secured communicator with them.
Asgärd tech for sensitive materials and their communication devices was primarily used by the resistance simply because Earth and Aschen had access to their own technologies, and Goa'uld technology, which was used by essentially everyone else.
Powering off the communication stone Jack looked up as Sam emerged from the bathroom towelling her long hair dry. Rising from his chair Jack met her beside the second bed in the room that the O'Neill family would be sharing that night. Sam sat on the edge of the bed and Jack manoeuvred himself behind her on the mattress, his hands going to her lower back and began massaging the sore muscles there.
They did not trust themselves or their technology to Aschen transport terminals so they had had to drive from Turner to Chicago. That they were driving was why Jack had not wanted his wife to come to Chicago with him so late in her last term of pregnancy, even if she was carrying their third child as easily as she had carried their first two. Sam however had vetoed his decision and the family had taken four days, with plenty of breaks along the way whenever Sam had gotten uncomfortable sitting in the car for so long, to drive to the Windy City.
Josh and Matt had been excited about the trip and about doing their travel assignments from their teacher because of their absence from school. Some of which had been completed with their mom in the hours touring the Oriental Institution Museum while waiting for Daniel to read the Veritas file and make up his mind about what he would do.
It had not been a surprise that Daniel had elected to join the resistance for as Ishta had said weeks ago, the archaeologist never could tolerate oppression and deception and had always actively campaigned against them.
Now all the O'Neill family had to do was drive onto Washington and meet with Fraiser.
As Daniel had approached Jack in the company of Janet, it had been decided, and with many of the resistance members knowing Janet by reputation and feeling that her medical knowledge would be an asset, that she would be recruited as well.
For Jack it felt odd that after all these years that Teal'c and Daniel—and maybe Janet—would be joining the fight he and Sam had spend the last six or so years engineering. A bonus considering their dedication and skill, but still odd.
"What is it?" Sam murmured as she turned her head around to look at Jack, feeling the thoughtful nature of her husband even though the hands so blissfully kneading her lower back hadn't paused.
"Nothing really," Jack leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. "Just thinking that, in a sense, everyone is getting back together."
Sam nodded softly in understanding and turned her head forward again. "So, when we get back to the farm and confirm that Earth is now yellow, then what? Considering that earlier we wanted a green allied planet?"
"Then we pick a date." Jack said softly with steel in his eyes as his hands stopped their kneading and curled around to cradle her stomach and the baby within. "And quarantine begins."