DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author. Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).
Chapter 1: General George Hammond
*I'm really getting too old for this. *
Not too long ago I was ready to retire, kick back and let Tessa and Kayla spoil old grandpop. Write memoirs that no one would ever read.and certainly wouldn't get shot for.and dream of nothing more Earth-shattering than UV rays and how to improve my golf swing.
Of course, that was before the Stargate sprang to life after a year of silence.spilling out Goa'ulds and Jaffa. Before Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill gave me that first shit-eating grin. And way before my perceptions of 'clear and present danger' were forever altered in the face of a universe suddenly much larger and much more dangerous than I had ever suspected it could be.
Things moved surprisingly quickly after that. Stargate Command was thrown together with all the finesse of a runaway train.necessity creating a sense of urgent purpose.held together with a lot of will and a collective prayer. But somehow we made it all work. The first few missions were a little.hell, a lot.rocky, but we got better at it. Better than better. This is without a doubt the finest group of people I've ever had the privilege to command. What we lack in finesse, we more than make up for in energy, commitment and heart. We may not always observe parade ground rules, but traveling to unknown sectors of the galaxy and facing dangers so surreal they could come straight out of the Twilight Zone, risking lives in ways so horrendous and alien.well that kind of forgives a missed salute on occasion. We pull out the company manners when we need to, the rest of the time we get the job done.
The SGC has been called the first line of defense against dangers few people on the planet are aware of and we're damn proud of that. A certain PhD once said we were the 'single most important human endeavor in the history of mankind'. Heady stuff that, but, by God, Doctor Daniel Jackson knows better than anyone the simplicity of truth in that statement.
When Dr. Jackson opened the Stargate the concept of 'mankind' took on a whole new meaning. It isn't just Earth anymore. There are literally millions of humans out there, stolen out of time by the Goa'uld and transplanted throughout the galaxy like seeds scattered in the wind.slaves and potential hosts for the most part. Sometimes still under Goa'uld control, other times simply people who were discarded and forgotten at the whim of a bunch of parasitic aliens who steal what they want with arrogant expectation and without a glimmer of regard for the lives they alter and destroy. We *are* the first line of defense for Earth and, over time, I'm discovering a very real sense of cosmic responsibility. Lord, that sounds like something Dr. Jackson would say. He's fought our military mindset from the very beginning, and somehow he's managed to drive the message home.at least to the best among us.that it is more than just what's best for Earth now.
Teal'c calls Earth the 'First World' and I've finally come to realize just how appropriate that is.it all started here. And the Goa'uld made damn sure it wouldn't end here.
From the first time the Stargate formed a wormhole at the bottom of Cheyenne Mountain a whole new can of worms was opened. *God, that sounds like one of Colonel O'Neill's bad puns.* Too bad we can't put the lid back on that can and forget we ever wanted to go fishing in the first place. No, I don't really mean that. Unlike certain shit-head senators and narrow-minded NID colonels I know for a certain-teed fact that it's thousands of years too late to reseal that can. The best we can hope for is to learn some new ways to fish.
And that's why it's so important we keep doing what we do. We are learning, we're making new allies, making life better more often than not for a lot of those offshoot societies that Dr. Jackson worries so much about. Now, I'm career military.my thinking tends to stay inside those admittedly pretty black and white lines.but I'm not stupid. It may have taken me awhile to figure out just how important this culture-science-goodwill stuff was, but I did figure it out.
*Not bad for an old country boy, hunh? *
What surprises me is the way Dr. Jackson has managed to win so many converts over to his Church of Universal Responsibility and Ethics. Even Colonel O'Neill has gotten a healthy dose of that particular philosophy. Yes, I mean the same Jack O'Neill who got picked to go on the first mission through the Stargate because he was the meanest SOB to ever grace the ranks of Covert Ops. And that would be the same Jack O'Neill who was ready and more than willing to blow up an entire planet and himself, taking a potential threat to Earth with him. And that's certainly the same Jack O'Neill who kept the truth of what really happened there to himself so a lot of innocent people could live in peace for the first time in millennia. And that would be the same Jack O'Neill who fought tooth and nail to keep that 'scientific crap' out of his missions. And that's definitely the same Jack O'Neill who would give his life for any member of his team, not to mention a whole lot of other folks out there in the universe. Yep, that's him. Three years later and he is nowhere near the same guy General West described as an 'accident waiting for a place to happen'. I've watched Jack O'Neill change from a distant and pretty damn flippant retired officer to one of the finest team leaders.and friends.in this facility. Which is only right I guess considering he heads the best damn team we've got.
Those first few weeks.that runaway train phase.I was as sure as I could be that SG1 would be our first train wreck. I never would have thought those four people would manage not to kill each other much less come to work together so effectively that sometimes it's downright scary to watch them operate.
A word, an eyebrow, a shrug. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but after awhile I figured out these people communicated on such a subtle non-verbal level they didn't even realize the rest of us weren't up to speed on SG1-ese. Not that they don't communicate pretty damn well.and pretty damn loud too.in the vocal range, but even there I can't seem to keep up as well as I'd like to. Colonel O'Neill and his cliché mangling tirades, Major Carter and her quasi-quantum-whatever-the hell's, Dr. Jackson .you'd think a linguist would recognize that 10-syllable words work better on paper than spoken out loud.. Sometimes I think Teal'c is the only one I can count on to make some measure of sense out of what the rest of them are saying. Worst part of that is that he mostly understands it, processes it, distills it, then gives me the short and sweet version all in the space of time it takes me to figure out that I don't have the slightest idea what's going on. They really are a pretty smart bunch of people all around.though Colonel O'Neill tends a little too heavily toward the smart 'ass' side of the equation for my sanity's sake sometimes. The simple fact of the matter is they are the best at what they do.
Which makes it all that much harder for me to walk into that briefing room and tell them I've got to split them up.