T minus 60 days
Since having decent healer skills, Harry was currently partnered with Lya of the Nox and Jack as they brought about the end of the stasis cycle in their fifteenth pod this morning as a team. Harry hoped Jack did not know this was his second shift of the day so far. He really did not feel like being yelled at.
Once Harry finished manipulating the energies of the pod and the potions had been administered which allowed them to safely bring about the end of the stasis cycle, Jack and Lya would scoop up the child and hold them, sending both empathic and magical waves of belonging and love towards the slowly awakening child.
As this was being done Harry would use the equipment that had been relocated here to repair any cellular degradation and administer both a regenerative potion and at least one of the blue restoratives designed to boost a persons magical core, if the initial potions proved to not be enough.
After that it was reassure the child they were going to be ok and to introduce them to the family that would be fostering them for now.
Taking a breather before walking over to the next one, which happened to be two pods indicating siblings. "I want to thank you again Lya for your help, and your peoples help, without which we would not have been able to be as far along as we are." Harry told her as he took another swallow of the special concoction the healers had insisted that he drink for the next few days and to his surprise, everyone working on the pods were being told to drink it also.
Laying her hand on the cover of the pod she sent a mental caress to the occupant. "How could we not. Children are precious gifts, and with the genetic repository returned to us we can have as many children as we want.
Picking up the data pad on top of the pod holding the oldest child of the two Jack scanned the information contained on it pertaining to the two brothers, the older named Bryce who was fourteen and the younger ten year old brother Cadfael. It helped to know a bit about them as they became conscious, it helped them readjust to the land of the living.
Lantera walked over to where the Lord Commander was working, putting in longer hours than any others in his haste to get the children free of the stasis pods.
He was easy to pick out as he was finally convinced not to expend the energy to hide his badge of station, his glowing crown.
Taking the data pad from Jack, Harry looked up to see Lantera the previous head healer for the Cyrorar descending on them.
Smiling. "Are you going to be taking the boys under your wing?" Harry asked her knowing she would make a fantastic grandmother to the children she fostered.
Smiling with mischief, "Actually I and a group are going to be taking care of some of the infants that are going to be released after lunch I am here to ask a favor of you." Lantera told him, thinking that the plan she and Healer Pomfrey had come up with was the best way to get Harry to slow down. Poppy had been complaining once again this morning that Harry seemed to be pushing himself to the extremes yet again as he tried to speed up his carefully laid out plans when they all went to hell with the discovery of the Cyrorar.
Not complaining mind you as she like being alive and not some horrible nightmares dinner.
After hearing the two top healers talking about ways to get him to take a step back and slow down before he ended up making himself sick or worse, she made an observation from her years of experience going from one disaster to another.
She told them what he needed was a family to ground him, Putting the needs of a couple of active boys first would cause him to slow down, if for no other reason then he had to be able to see to their needs.
Every leader she had ever met that had a family, ended up being a better balanced person because of it. They always explained to her and her teams that they would never have been able to accomplish nearly what they could, if they had not learned to be a parent first.
She almost felt a pang of guilt, wondering if it was fair to the man who was instrumental of saving her people and the children from Tylene, as the other two healers latched on to the idea and seemed to take it as their own. But the more they became excited by the idea and stories were traded on the behaviors they hoped it would cure, the more she willingly helped orchestrate their plans.
It was she who had searched through the records of the children to find the two perfect candidates. Orphans well before the impending disaster had brought the plight of Tylene to the federations attention.
As an added bonus it seemed they scored high on energy manipulation abilities, adopting the word everyone else used for the mouth full of long scientific jargon, Magic. Those two boys were the front runner of the next evolution of the race all those years ago.
Harry wary of that smile on a healers face, he had learned that it usually meant he was about to be told the treatment really was not as bad as it really was, some horrible bedside manor they must all be taught during their apprenticeships he thought.
"It depends on what it is." Harry told her thinking that that was a safe answer
Laughing at how well he played the game she replied. "Well Lord Commander, Those two boys need someone like you to take care of them. We think you would be perfect for them."
Seeing the look of horror come across his face she kept the laughter inside lest she ruin the chances of their plan succeeding. "Bryce and Cadfael are closest in magical potential to you. They are what I truly believe is the next evolution of our people, which is what you in truth are."
"But.But I am way to busy trying to run things to look after children right now." Harry tried to explain.
Taking the data pad out of his hands Jack highlighted several passages most notably their orphan status. He knew this was playing dirty but felt it was the right thing to do, before he pushed it back into Harry's protesting hands so he could see it.
Groaning inwardly Harry thought even Jack was against him, but was holding out the slim hope that they would give up the notion.
Lya decided to help things along by sending out emotions designed to invoke parental protectiveness at Harry, as he once again tried to give an excuse for why he would not be a good parent right now.
Aloria laughed at the thoughts coming from Harry over the bond, after she got control she told him. 'You know you are going to do it so why are you arguing so much?"
'If they would have asked me I would have been ok with it, but they schemed behind my back trying to manipulate me into it.' Harry forced out.
'Your right.' Aloria told him ashamed that she forgot how he felt about being manipulated.
"Look, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you had the decency to ask first Harry would have more than likely jumped on the idea, you are trying to manipulate the Lord Commander to what you feel is best for him without even consulting him." Aloria's furious voice came out of Jacks belt communicator.
Lya stopped broadcasting immediately ashamed that for a moment she let her almost zealous need for children over power her reasoning. After all as the Lord Commander he must look at every one as his she thought.
Jack did not feel guilty in the least as he had no part in the planning, he just wanted to make sure Harry would not do something that he would later find out all the facts and go on a guilt trip over.
Placing his hand on Harry's shoulder he whispered in his ear. "They did it with the intentions of helping you, they want you to be happy. Besides all mothers think that their children need to experience the joys of parenthood before they can truly be happy."
Lantera paled with the realization that no matter what she had no right to force this on any body. " I am sorry Lord Commander I did not think, I got caught up in the whole thing I did not take into account."
Holding up his hand to stop her before she did or said any thing else. "It's ok. All you had to do was ask before hand and involve me from the get go." Harry said softly.
"I didn't put my name on the list because I figured that no one would want to foster any of the children to me, for fear I would not take the time to put them first, with my duties and all." Harry explained his reasoning's.
"I will give the two a good home, don't worry about that. But tell Poppy next time she wants me to do something that she had better just come out and ask and have a reasonable explanation or she will be introduced as my next dueling dummy." Harry said as he turned back to the pods to examine the readings.
For some reason Lantera was sweating bullets, never before had she met a planetary leader that could intimidate her with a soft spoken word, it must be because he is a Lord Commander she thought as she once again made her apologies and moved over to the teams releasing the infants.
"Sorry Harry, I did not know they were going to do that, though I do think you will make a great parent." Jack said softly.
Smiling over at him Harry said. "It's ok Jack, Aloria replayed the conversation that lot had this morning for me. I know they were just trying to get me to slow down and relax, they didn't mean to be manipulative, they just forgot the most important thing. Asking me." Harry said as he started to glow as he merged his mind and magic preparing to start the release cycle.
Placing his hands on the control panel he waited until Lya and Jack had moved to either side of the pod before merging his mind with the machine. This was truly the reason that those in dangerously long term stasis were able to be brought out safely.
Seeing that they were ready Harry sent his thought through the pod and subtly modified it so that the normal cycle was aborted and started stage one of the new one.
The grayish cast of solid energy stasis block fell away as it was reabsorbed back into the pod, as Harry said. "Deactivating stasis field."
The young man lay there bathed in the green energy field that Harry was sustaining as he motioned with his head for Jack to place the potion collar on the boys neck.
Voice somewhat lowered and with the quality of an echo Harry ordered as he kept one hand on the panel and the other on the boys foot. "Lya, the blue one now."
Jack ready for his part had already seated the vile of swirling white liquid into the collar just waiting for the final twist to dispense its contents watching "Jack the Gamma re-growth." Harry told him.
Turning his head to the side Harry willed the monitors to start and watched as they started to give him information as he fully collapsed the stasis field and shut the pod down.
Free to fully concentrate his magic on the boy in front of him Harry used his magic to double check that every thing was going like all the others before, nodding his head and saying. "Same as the rest then." Before pulling himself out of the extended state of the merge.
Now seeing that it was only a mater of the standard treatment Harry watched carefully the images showing the brain and other internal organs watching for the first sign of problems.
As Jack and Lya started to push home vial after vial of energy and regenerative potions needed to bring a person safely out of the pod Harry thought back to two days ago and the almost disaster when they learned that while the pods did work when they should not have, and yes they did keep the child alive, but they almost lost the first child when the whole system crashed when they tried to bring the child out of stasis.
If it had not been for the fact that Harry hated the pods to an almost fanatic level, and he therefore had taken the precautions of installing the equipment that would be found in a standard med bay in the field of the farm, they would have lost the teen.
It was only the fact that they had mixed magic and technology and the invention of the regeneration and re-growth potions that they were able to bring the teen out of danger.
After careful investigation they had come up with a plan that would safely allow them to drop the stasis fields without endangering the occupant.
The only problem was that it required a healer skilled in manipulating magic and the knowledge of the advanced systems here in the city.
So instead of a couple of days it was going to take over a week as they could not use the healers from the Cyrorar as originally planned, and just did not have enough people to do it any faster.
Shutting down the scanners and support equipment as the boy, No his name was Bryce according to the data pad started to stir Harry moved around to the foot of the pod and sat down near the middle of the bed.
Bryce fighting his way to consciousness gasped and suddenly sat up only to have arms wrap around him and feelings of comfort flood into him.
Opening his eyes he saw a man sitting next to him and fought hard with his instincts over the sudden surprise of some one sitting next to him, as the last thing he remembered was the pod activating as a woman moved away from him.
Feeling comforted by the embrace from behind and the feelings of comfort from his other side Bryce tried to ask. "Who." But had to stop, as his throat was so dry from disuse it hurt.
Jack handed the boy a glass of the high calorie drink, strawberry flavored this time. "Here drink this it will help, at least until we can get some food into you."
"Where." Bryce grimaced in pain as he once again tried to talk.
Reaching into his core Harry started to glow, and gently placed his hand on Bryce's chest allowing him to talk mentally with him.
'Is this better?' Harry thought at him
Surprised Bryce nodded his head to answer as he took a sip of the liquid and found he liked the flavor.
'You are aboard the Toria Ai Shas, we have rescued you and the others of the Cyrorar, a few days ago' Harry told him.
Feeling his confusion over the unfamiliar term describing time Harry told him. 'One day is the same as six cycles or one planetary rotation'
"Are you ok?' Harry asked.
Bryce nodded his head yes as he handed the now empty glass back to the man that moved from behind him as he released the hug he had held him in.
'Good now lets see about getting your brother out of the pod and then we can get some real food into you and answer all your questions.' Harry smiled as he told Bryce this and the boy smiled back shyly.
Jack helped Bryce down off of the pod and helped steady him as he stood for the first time in so long.
As soon as Bryce was safely away from the pod Harry banished the evil thing with a thought and moved to the pod holding Bryce's brother.
Placing the data pad on the pod Harry willed it to download the information from the pods memory banks. Picking up the data pad when it beeped Harry gave the medical section more than a quick skim, and seeing something that caught his attention Harry cycled it back to Bryce's medical scan report and smiled as he noticed neither one of the boys would need re-sequencing therapy.
Bryce watched in awe as the one that had talked to him with his mind started to glow, and he witnessed first hand the steps taken to bring someone safely out of a cobbled together stasis pod.
Bryce ever since their parents had died, had wanted to be a healer, to maybe one day save some child's parents so they did not have to grow up not knowing them. What he watched now made him want his dream to come true all the more.
Process over and as Harry moved to sit on the pod near Cadfael's side the young boy in question gave a lurch of fright and jumped at Harry throwing his arms around him and hugging him tight, holding on for dear life.
Not really empathic, Jack never the less saw the momentary look of longing cross Bryce's face as his brother was comforted in Harry's arms. Reaching out he pulled the other boy close enough so Harry could open his arms and pull him into a group hug and then cemented it by hugging everyone from behind trapping the two boys between them.
Family Jack thought, I have a family again. One that is mine, not the older Jack's.
XXXX
T Minus 53 Days
Washington DC - Pentagon - Office of Home World Security
"SHIT.SHIT.SHIT." Yelled Major General Jack O'Neill before throwing the report across the room.
Capt. Harrison knocked on the door to the Generals office before gingerly opening the door. While the General had only been here a year he was known as a pretty laid back sort, so whatever had happened to make him this angry he was not sure he wanted to know. "Sir is every thing all right?"
Holding up his hand to quiet his aide, General O'Neill unlocked the red phone on the corner of his desk.
Picking up the receiver Jack waited until he heard a voice on the other end. "This is General Jack O'Neill I need to speak to the President.
"Where is he then?" General O'Neill asked.
"Pass a message to him that I am on my way over and we have an emergency." General O'Neill told the little bureaucratic moron.
"Listen here, This is Major General Jack O'Neill of Home World Security." General O'Neill told him.
"Yes that Jack O'Neill." He growled.
"Tell the President I will be there in thirty five minutes, and if you personally do not want to be the cause of a war, you will find a way for the President to sneak away from the garden club." General O'Neill said before slamming down the phone.
"Damn prick telling me to make an appointment." General O'Neill growled under his breath.
"Harrison I need a car and driver down in front in five minutes." General O'Neill ordered as he picked up another phone.
"Yes sir." Capt. Harrison practically ran out of the room.
Waiting for some one to pick up on the other end General O'Neill gathered the report back into the folder marked Top Secret - Eyes Only.
"George, it's Jack." O'Neill said when Hammond picked up the other end.
"Listen is the Daedalus still in orbit?" General O'Neill asked.
"Good, Don't let her leave orbit. In fact I want Caldwell and the bridge crew that was involved in the Aurora incident At the SGC by the time I get there." General O'Neill told his friend.
"How soon, I am on my way out the door to see the president right now after that I will take the first F 117 I see at Andrews as soon as I finish with the president." General O'Neill informed him.
"George I don't have the time to explain, if you want to find out meet me at the SGC." General O'Neill said as he hung up, grabbed his jacket and file and ran out the door.
XXXX
Mr. President thank you for seeing me so quickly." General O'Neill said as he saluted the man.
"Jack, what's all the fuss my secretary was beside himself with fear after your phone call." The President said as he motioned General O'Neill to the chair in front of the desk.
Handing over the report that had gotten him so upset this morning General O'Neill said. "We may have a major incident with the Alteran's before we even finish signing the papers."
The president gave General O'Neill a funny look before sitting back in his chair and flipping open the cover and skimming the report.
Stopping mid way through his eyebrows rose up and he flipped back to the beginning and took a good long look at what was written.
Closing the folder and setting it down gently on the desk he asked quietly. "Tell me Jack, you've met the man and the people. Where do we go from here?"
Rubbing his hand across his eyes General O'Neill sighed. "Sir I have ordered Colonel Caldwell and the bridge crew to be brought to the SGC and I think we need to bring in McKay and Sheppard back from Atlantis and then proceed to hold an inquiry on board Toria Ai Shas with the Alteran's watching and the Lord Commander presiding."
"Are you sure this is the only way, I am not happy with the idea of handing over Americans to a foreign government no matter the gain." The president told him.
"Yes Sir, I know they have the ability to show a persons memory. By going to them first and letting Sheppard's memory of the Cruiser Captain ordering him to destroy the ship and crew before the Wraith got to them. Well sir it is the only way to keep peaceful interactions in my opinion." General O'Neill's reply was pleading.
Playing devils advocate the President asked. "And if the memories don't show the order, what then?"
"They are more interested in justice being done. If we assure them that if the memories don't prove their claims that we will punish them, I think the Lord Commander will be satisfied with that." General O'Neill sincerely hoped so at any rate.
Leaning back in his chair the President thought about what Jack had proposed. After a few minutes he sat up and pushed a button on the intercom. "Jackie get a message to Margaret, tell her some thing has come up and I will meet her tomorrow afternoon at Camp David and to cover for me. Then clear my calendar for the rest of the day."
"How were you planning on getting to Cheyenne?" The President asked.
"F 117 from Andrews, I can be there in two hours." General O'Neill replied hoping he was going to get the go ahead.
Coming to a decision the President stood up. "All right lets go. You now have a passenger."
XXXX
Cheyenne Mountain Colorado SGC
Walking into the SGC was something he had always wanted to do ever since taking office and learning about the Star-gate program.
Ignoring the salutes he walked across the briefing room to the window and looked down at the gate. "So Jack, this is it." The president said.
"Yes Sir that is the thing that started it all." General O'Neill told him.
Staring at the ring a few moments longer the President turned to see the rest of the room still standing at attention. "Sit.Sit" motioning for them to take their seats he sat down at the head of the table.
"Jack this is your show." The president said leaning back in the chair.
"Hank I need you to dial up Atlantis and get Dr. Weir to escort Rodney McKay and Col. Sheppard back to the SGC ASAP." General O'Neill told him.
"Right away Jack." General Landry went towards the control room.
"Jack, mind telling me what's going on?" George asked mindful of the President sitting in the same room.
Pulling the folder he had shown the president a few scant hours before out of his briefcase he slid it across the table to General Hammond.
Looking at the sentry posted near the door General O'Neill asked him. "Airmen when is the next group of volunteers scheduled to go through the gate?"
Glancing at his watch. "Twenty minutes sir." He replied.
"Yes, I have seen this Jack what's the problem?" George asked confused. "I mean it is a shame it had to happen but I understand that there was nothing any one could do."
Looking towards the president who nodded his permission General O'Neill took out another folder Labeled Top Secret Level twenty clearance, on the front and slid it over.
Curious George slit the seal and opened the folder and did a fast skim of the first few pages.
Then he paled, looked over to the president who nodded at him and then to Jack, before closing it and setting it down on the table with trembling hands.
Seeing so much brass in the room along with the president and taking in their expression Colonel Caldwell asked. "Sir can I ask what this is about?"
Seeing General O'Neill and the President staring at him General Hammond said softly. "Son, it seems that the Ancients or as they call themselves Alteran's are not as gone as we thought."
Tapping the first report General O'Neill had slid across the table to him George told him. "Which leads to a problem seeing as you blew up one of their cruisers a week ago."
"Shit." Colonel Caldwell said under his breath.
"They should be thanking us for doing what we did, they would have died anyway." One of the bridge crew muttered just a little to loudly.
"Enough." Colonel Caldwell bellowed at his officer, before asking. "What do you need us to do Sir?"
Pulling the folder back across the table to secure them back in his case. "I watched the Alteran's rescue a whole ship full of people and children that had been in stasis for almost eighteen thousand years and they were brought back successfully. I don't think your excuse as they had been in the pods to long will hold up Lieutenant." General O'Neill said sarcastically.
"Furthermore I watched one of their scout ships, no bigger then a gate ship, destroy a Wraith hive ship with one shot no bigger than a baseball. Add to the fact that their leader tells his crews to open fire by saying Vengeance is yours. Makes one a little leery of pissing them off." General O'Neill glared at the cringing man.
At this point General Landry walked back in the room and took his seat.
"Sorry, it took a bit longer than I thought it would. They had to track down Weir for me." Hank told him
"They are not too happy at being called back, seeing as until the Daedalus gets back they will not be able to use the gate for any inter galactic transmissions after this." Landry told them.
"To bad." General O'Neill told him.
"Off world activation." Came the voice over the speakers. "Receiving Atlantis IDC."
Standing up the president said. "George, Jack shall we."
Motioning for the Daedalus crew to follow him General O'Neill followed the President out of the briefing room and through the crowds waiting for the gate to send them to Toria Ai Shas.
Making his way through the crowd in time to see Weir and Sheppard exiting the event horizon, god he was even starting to call things by their proper names now, what ever happened to the big blue water holding thingy he used to use General O'Neill thought.
"Elizabeth I don't see what was so important that you had to drag me away, form very important work let me remind you, just to go off to see some bloody fool of a politician who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground." Rodney whined.
Oh that is so going to hurt General O'Neill thought as he took in the expression on the Presidents face.
Elizabeth ignoring Rodney's rants and whining as she was used to it looked over to see the President and a lot of military brass making their way towards her.
"RODNEY ENOUGH." Weir yelled at the ultimate whiner.
"But Elizabeth all I am." Rodney started but was totally ignored.
Extending her hand to the man standing at the bottom of the ramp. "Mr. President an honor to see you again." Elizabeth told him.
"Dr. Weir, a pleasure." The President said as he shock her hand. "Unfortunately we do not have time to fill you in fully on what is going on."
"Chevron one is engaged." A voice said as the ring continued to move.
"All right people you have all been fully briefed with this worlds greatest secret and yet it is our greatest hope also. You have been chosen because you are the best of the best." General Landry's voice came through the loud speaker.
"Sir?" Elizabeth was confused as she noticed Col. Caldwell and his bridge crew gathered to one side.
"Elizabeth, Long story short." Jack told her.
"Chevron seven is engaged." Came over the loud speakers
"Wait where are we going, the gate here does not have enough power with out a ZPM to go any where but our Galaxy." Rodney bounced looking for some one who would answer his questions.
"This is about the Ancient ship that all of you were involved in destroying last week. We." General O'Neill pointed between the two of them. "Now have to explain to those very same ancients why they did what they did and in the process keep them from not signing the treaty I have worked hard on getting the agreement to, theses past two weeks."
"Chevron eight engaged." Once again coming over the loudspeaker causing Rodney to throw a tantrum at being ignored.
"What?" Elizabeth turned in shock.
"Chevron Nine is locked." Accompanied the familiar sound and visual whoosh of the gate engaging.
"Not possible.Not possible." Rodney started to chant as row upon row of young people started to make their way through the gate, refusing to let go of his preconceived notions.
Scott lent me his most excellent editing skills for this chapter.