Chapter 20
O'Neill Farmhouse, Blaine County, MT
October 10, 2010
Sam finished packing the last of the overnight bags for Matt to take with him onboard Iðavöllr having already packed Josh's. When Josh and Matt returned home from their sleepover party, her sons and husband would be beamed aboard the Asgärd command station and then travel to the rendezvous point where they would meet up with the resistance space forces.
Feeling the eyes of her husband on her Sam zipped up Matt's duffel bag and turned to the door to see Jack leaning against the frame.
"Well," Sam said softly, "the boys' bags are packed."
Jack nodded as he straightened from the doorframe and stepped further into the room. Sam stepped away from the bed where she'd been packing and into her husband's arms.
It felt a little unreal to Sam, even after all these years that they were finally taking action. Years of planning, strategising, recruiting, negotiating, and stockpiling.
Sam propped her chin on Jack's breastbone and gazed up at him. "So, everything's ready?"
"Yes," Jack rumbled softly, "the neighbours will check on the farm while we're 'gone' and I've moved everything you and Hope will need into the bunker."
"Thank you."
Jack gave Sam a squeeze before releasing her and started to reach for Matt's duffel bag. "They should be here shortly."
"Yeah," Sam agreed softly as she cast one last look around Matt's room. Satisfied that her youngest son had what he would need, and that all the replicator kiron-based toys had been removed from the room just in case Kinsey took offensive action and stormed the farmhouse so that there was no incriminating evidence.
The kiron toys were the only alien things in the house anyway, as they had ensured that all their technology was Earth manufactured with no alien components. She was not too sure that even if the government did storm the farmhouse they would be able to find anything with the current government's dependency on Aschen tech and the farm in a dead zone.
For if all went well, because of the dead zones distributed around Earth, Kinsey's government, especially the NID, would be unable to mobilise because of the loss of their Aschen tech.
Jack and Sam departed Matt's bedroom and made their way down the staircase to the living room where the rest of the bags and box of kiron toys were already waiting.
In the playpen in the living room their ten-day-old daughter was burbling happily away as Hope's dimpled hands grasped the air towards the infant mobile circling above her head.
Just as Jack set the duffel bag with the rest, they heard the sound of a vehicle in the yard. Sam leaned over the playpen and picked up Hope and along with Jack they made their way to the front porch where they were joined by the dogs.
Jack wrapped his arm around Sam and Hope as they watched Josh and Matt scamper out of the van that had delivered them home from their sleepover party at a friend's house. The boys waving one last goodbye to their school friends in the van as it turned around in their yard and headed back down the road from the O'Neill farm.
"Well, you ready?" Jack asked his sons when they reached the top of the front steps.
Both boys nodded enthusiastically as they greeted the dogs.
"Okay, put your things away and one last trip to the bathroom and we'll be on our way."
"'Kay Dad," Josh agreed before darting around the dogs, his parents, and new sister into the house. Kicking off his shoes he went to his room and dumped the dirty clothes into his hamper, stored his sleeping bag back underneath his bed, and then headed for the bathroom.
Matt headed to the bathroom first before doing what his brother had done and was waiting expectantly beside his duffel bag in the living room when the rest of his family joined him.
"Bye Mom," Matt chirped as he wrapped his arms around Sam's legs to give her a hug. Sam passed Hope to Jack to say farewell to her sons more properly.
"Bye Matt," Sam knelt down to give her youngest son a proper hug. "I love you."
"Love you too Mom," Matt replied.
"Bye Mom," Josh came forward to exchange hugs with his mother. "Love you."
"Love you too Josh," Sam returned, "And remember, you and Matt be good onboard. Try and keep out of your father's way."
"Yes Mom," Josh answered solemnly.
Sam stood and turned to Jack who stepped forward and after passing their daughter to Sam, gave her and Hope together one last hug.
"I love you," Jack whispered into his wife's ear. "Don't let anything happen to you or Hope."
"I won't," Sam vowed. "I love you too, and remember, Sally besides being your aid is acting as your proxy wife—when she says to eat and sleep, eat and sleep!"
"Yes Ma'am," Jack murmured with a crooked smile as he stepped back. Turning to his sons he asked again, "Ready to go?"
"Yeah!" both boys shouted.
Exchanging one last heartfelt look with Sam, who took three steps back from the three O'Neill males and their luggage; Jack took the white communication stone from his pocket and activated it.
. . .
When the white light that had filled the living room had cleared, the three O'Neill males found themselves on the bridge of an Asgärd ship. Sally and a dark skinned woman, who would be described as African on Earth, were waiting for them.
"Sir," Sally Kasdan greeted formally, as she stood at attention her bearing revealing her past military service.
"O'Neill," the dark skinned woman greeted from behind the console.
"Sally, Skuld," Jack greeted in return.
Skuld moved another stone on the console and the luggage that had accompanied them disappeared in a second transportation beam. "I have sent your luggage to your quarters."
"Thank you Skuld," Jack responded. "Josh, Matt, you go with Sally and find out where your rooms are, okay?"
Sally gave a courteous nod to the two boys and gestured down a corridor. Obediently and full of enthusiasm Josh and Matt followed her from the bridge.
"Now that you are onboard O'Neill," Skuld said gravely, "we are ready to activate Kvillar."
Jack inclined his head in permission.
Nodding her head towards Jack in response, Skuld activated the transporter once again and beamed them into the bay where a stargate, taken from a dead world, was housed. While both stargate and dialling device had been taken, the stargate was also connected to the ship's systems to allow computerised dialling.
Skuld nodded to the two other dark skinned females present in the room and their forms indicating, that like Skuld, they inhabited one of the original five humanoid replicators.
"Urðr," Skuld began, "please begin dialling."
Urðr nodded and touched a few runes on the console she was standing in front of. The chevrons of the stargate engaged and locked and then with another nod to Urðr from Jack, she activated Kvillar.
The stargate program designed by Sam was released into the network and would be rapidly passed along when the network did its periodic correlative updates and time stamped to activate with the commencement of Phase III. Kvillar had been created by Sam to safeguard worlds of the resistance that did not want contact from Aschen Confederation members or supporters, and was similar to the function of the lockout program of SGC's dialling computer. Kvillar however was also programmed so that specified stargate addresses could be quarantined from the rest of the network and that planet unable to dial out.
In this case, the planet designated as P4C-970 and known as Aschen Prime.