Chapter 30
Underground Bunker, O’Neill Farm, Blaine Country, MT
October 11, 2010
Hope asleep in her bassinet beside her, Sam teleconferenced with her eldest child as Josh described his view of the space battle over Aschen Prime. As they talked, she was pleased that while Josh had been understandably excited to see the battle and so many spaceships, he did have some understanding of the magnitude of the resistance’s actions and the cost it would have to people.
As mother and son concluded their conversation and wished each other a good night, Josh turned the chair he had been seated on over to Sally.
“How is he Sally?” Sam asked anxiously, the ‘he’ referring to her husband.
“He’s doing fine Sam,” Sally reassured. “The execution of Phase III for Aschen Prime under his command went as smoothly as any operation I’ve known.”
“And the other Phase II operations?” Sam inquired.
“Were all successful,” Sally reported.
Sam relaxed marginally, even though she knew that even if something was successful did not really mean there had not been problems or loss of life. She would wait either until she spoke with Jack, or like everyone else, wait until the debriefing of Phase II commanders. Those debriefings were scheduled to occur in the time before the deliberative assembly began.
“That ‘doing fine,’ is that his verdict or yours?” Sam pressed for details.
“Mine,” Sally replied, “I didn’t directly question him, knowing what he’d say.”
Sam gave a nod of understanding, well aware of her husband’s responses to questions about his well-being, especially emotional well-being.
“I have observed at times that both the commander and husband are missing you,” Sally continued, “but he seems to be following my orders to rest with the boys and eat well which I take from what Josh has told me, is because you ordered him to see me as a proxy wife?”
Sam chuckled and confirmed the information, “Yes, on the day they left I said as much to him. Not that before he really had any trouble balancing what was required of him by his work and his personal life. But this is just different and I want to make sure.”
Sally looked sympathetic, understanding that Sam was inferring to Jack’s known willingness to break for pie or cake and ability to separate his military life from his personal life and enjoy his downtime. But now, while this was military in action and execution, the resistance had become the life of the O’Neills and the situation was very much different for the amount and emotional investment they put into fighting the Aschen.
Hearing a chime in the background, Sally glanced over her shoulder at what was behind her off screen and then turned back to Sam. Straightening her posture subtly Sally stated formally, “The Commander will speak with you now ma’am.”
“Thank you Sally,” Sam responded as Sally rose from the chair and her husband took the other woman’s seat in front of the communication screen.
“Hi you,” Jack said softly as his dark brown eyes studied his wife’s face.
“Hi,” Sam responded softly as in turn, her blue eyes were studying his face closely, looking for the signs of fatigue, stress, or other emotional upset. He did look slightly worn, but not as much as she’d expected considering the magnitude of what he’d just commanded.
An uprising that, because of the Aschen’s use of the biological weapon against the System Lords, had been far greater than and just as impacting for the galaxy as the end of the Goa’uld.
“How are things?” Sam questioned quietly.
“Things could also be better,” Jack answered referring obliquely to the fact that no military action did not have its costs, “but better than I expected things to go.”
“And on Aschen Prime?”
Jack’s lips thinned as he raised a hand and rubbed at the back of his neck. “The Supreme Minister refused our offer of medics in the first few hours after knocking out all their technology.”
“The first few hours?” Sam inquired, picking up on his wording and wondering what had happened. She knew that Phase II on Aschen Prime had included the full deployment of zones on the planet and in the space around the planet that would effectively plunge Aschen Prime into a planetary blackout.
Jack held his wife’s eyes. “Seems today we weren’t the only ones playing coup leaders. A few hours later Iðavöllr was contacted by a new Supreme Minister, the understudy of the former Agricultural Minister if I remember correctly, to accept the offer of medics.”
“And how did that go?”
“Fine,” Jack responded honestly with a ghost of a smile in his eyes, “seems they aren’t any better at handling a miniature Napoleon than we are.”
Sam’s lips curved up slight as she shared her husband’s moment of humour.
“Taking Charlie’s group with her to treat the most serious, Fraiser’s medics dealt with the injuries and dispensed advice A few hours after getting everyone off the planet again we recalled a few of the zones from the residential areas and the generators that power them.”
“And the zones?” Sam inquired, wondering what shape they had come back in being in hostile territory for many hours even if their retrieval indicated they were operational—retrieval meant the gravity devices had been reversed and the zones had simply floated into space to be collected.
“The techs report tool marks on a less than a dozen, but considering that any devices they would have used on the zones were knocked out by the zones, that the Aschen didn’t do as much to them as we expected.”
Sam nodded her head and made a mental note to look at the techs reports. That a few of the zones had tool marks intrigued her simply because it meant that some Aschen had taken the initiative and attempted to discern things about the dead zones without using Aschen tech. Indicating that some individuals might not be as dependent on Aschen technology and philosophy as they thought.
“And yourself?” Jack inquired, his tone indicating that the question was personal and not about her command of Phase II on Earth.
Sam gave a soft reassuring smile to her husband as she reached to the side and pulled Hope’s bassinet into view for Jack before speaking. “Missing you getting up in the middle of the night to fetch her for me, but we’re doing fine.”
Jack’s expression softened as he looked at the sleeping face of his daughter tucked into her bassinet. He could not wait to return home but knew that his separation from wife and infant daughter would continue for a little bit of time yet. Phase I, II, and III of Operation Quarantine were complete and now came for the most difficult part really, Phase IV.
For the one thousand one hundred ninety-two planets and other planets of the Confederation to decide on a course of action in regards of the Aschen’s punishment. That was simply planets and did not taking into consideration the different nations on the planets that would have to be taken into consideration. Earth of course was the most divided of worlds, but there were other planets with other political factions that would have to be heard and taken into consideration.
A massive galactic deliberative assembly was being scheduled to take place on Alaris and Jack only hoped that the politics that followed did not make him regret freeing the Confederation from the Aschen.