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CHAPTER THIRTY

Sitting in one of the chairs on the other side of Jack's desk, Daniel scribbled something in his notebook.  He looked up at Jack.  The man was in his dress blues, waiting for Thor, who would be going with him to a meeting with the president soon.

"You know, Sam is really not happy about what she had to do."

"Yes, I am aware of that, Daniel, but it had to be done.  Sometimes, we have to do things we don't want to.  When she gets back, take off for a couple of hours or so and chill her out."

Just then, Thor beamed into the chair next to Daniel's.

"Greetings," he said.  "I have spoken with the High Council, and we have decided that, to show our appreciation for all your aid, the Asgard wish to present your president with a token of our appreciation."

Jack smiled.  "Really?  You want to give the president a gift?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's really nice of you guys.  What kind of gift were you thinking of getting him?"

"We do not know what would be appropriate.  I am to ask your opinion on this matter."

"Hmm.  Well, a handmade pullover sweater might be nice, keep the pres warm during those cold D.C. winters."

"The Asgard do not knit, O'Neill."

"You should try it sometime.  I've heard it's very relaxing."  Thor did not respond.  "Okay, so no knitted products."  Jack thought about it for a few seconds.  "Umm . . . how about a hyperdrive for the Prometheus?"

"That is something I must discuss with the High Council."

"Thor, come on!  You said you wanted to get something nice for the president."

Just then, Sam came in.

"Hey, Carter," Jack greeted.  "So, what do you think?  Wouldn't a brand new hyperdrive for the Prometheus be a great gift for the president?"

Sam blinked.  "Excuse me, sir?"

"The Asgard want to show their appreciation for all our help," Daniel explained.

"Oh.  Um, Alec Colson called me.  He said that he wasn't going to give up, which leads me to believe that he's definitely got something else to reveal."

Daniel nodded.  "We think that he may have fragments of downed Goa'uld ships recovered from the Antarctic.  A subsidiary of his was involved in the salvage and the clean up."

"Are we just going to keep trying to discredit the man?  I mean, aren't we the ones a little delusional to think that we could cover up an attack of this scale?"

"What's the alternative?" Jack asked.

"How about tell the truth?"

The others stared at Sam in surprise.  Daniel and Jack exchanged a look.

"I mean to Colson," Sam clarified.  "Look, I know he's been profiled and deemed a security risk, and, obviously, that's an accurate assessment, but what have we got to lose at this point?  He's already trying to go public.  Let's show him why it's so important to keep the secret.  Besides, think of the benefits of having a man with his resources on our side."

"Well, Thor and I are meeting with the president in five minutes," Jack said.  "I'll bring it up."

"Five minutes?" Sam questioned in surprise.

Jack smiled.  "Oh, yeah."  He began buttoning his jacket.

At that moment, he and Thor beamed away.

"Right," Sam murmured.  She looked at Daniel, who just shrugged.

The archeologist got to his feet and approached her.  "How are you doing?"

"Feeling really guilty.  I listened to the radio.  A lot of people are already dragging Alec over the coals.  Theories are flying all over the place about why he'd create such a scam.  There's no doubt that Alec will lose his government contracts over this, and it's very possible that he'll lose a lot of private ones as well.  He gambled everything on this, and he's losing."

"I know.  Maybe if he agrees to drop this whole thing and work with us instead of against us, we can help him salvage something.  Like you said, having someone with his resources on our side would be a big benefit."  Daniel put his arm around her shoulders.  "Come on.  I'm betting you haven't eaten.  Let's go to the commissary."

Though she wasn't really feeling hungry, Sam went with him.  She just picked at her food.

"You like him, don't you," Daniel said, watching her.

"He's a good man.  He's been through a lot.  He lost his wife and daughter in a plane crash when he was only twenty-four.  It was because of that that he started Colson Aviation.  He wanted to do all he could to make flying as safe as possible.  From that beginning, he built an empire.  He really is a self-made millionaire, billionaire.  I have a great deal of respect for him and his ideals.  Actually, in some ways, he's like you.  He sticks to his principles and won't back down, no matter who's against him."

"Did you . . . ever go out with him?"

Sam smiled.  "Are you jealous, Daniel?"

"No . . . well, okay, maybe a little."

Sam leaned over the table and kissed him.  "Well, you have no reason to be.  Yes, Alec did ask me out, but I said no.  I wasn't interested in him like that.  And, even if I had been, that was in the past.  I happen to be crazy in love with a man whom I admire and respect far more than I ever could Alec Colson."

Daniel smiled.  "Oh?  Who's that?"

Sam grinned mischievously.  "Nobody you know."

Daniel's smile turned a bit wicked.  "Oh, really."  He got up and moved around the table to sit beside her.  Then his hand went under the table.  His fingers began drawing circles on the inside of her knee, a place he knew always turned her on.  "I bet I could make you tell me who he is," he whispered in her ear.

"Yes, I bet you could," she breathed.

Daniel grinned.  "How about if we go to our quarters, and I torture you for the information?"

"Okay," she agreed weakly.

They grabbed their trays and threw the remainder of their meals away, then left the commissary.  A few minutes later, they were falling upon their bed, kissing passionately.  Daniel already had Sam's top and bra off and was attacking her breasts with his mouth.

"If anyone knew we were doing this while on duty, we'd get in trouble," Sam panted.

"Actually, we're not on duty right now.  Jack told me to take off a couple of hours with you and chill you out when you got back.  He knew you weren't happy about what you had to do."  Daniel slid his hand between them to the juncture of her thighs, making Sam moan.  "So, technically, I'm following orders."

Sam pulled his head up.  "I've got news for you, Daniel.  There is definitely no 'chilling' going on here.  Just the opposite, in fact."

"I decided to put my own interpretation on the order."

"Hmm.  I really like your interpretation," Sam said with a smile.  Then she captured his mouth in a scorching kiss.

Sam found that Daniel was very good at torture.  There was more than one time during their lovemaking when she was begging him to stop teasing her and put an end to the exquisite torment.  He eventually answered her pleas and sent her rocketing into orbit . . . more than once.

Afterwards, they both lay still in recovery.  Daniel turned on his side and gazed down at her.

"So, have you had enough?  Will you tell me all your secrets now?"

"Mmm.  I'll never have enough of that.  Besides, you already know all my secrets, or at least the most important ones."

"Hmm.  Well, in that case, I'll have to continue the torture just on principle."

"Oh, I am soooo scared," Sam said in a mock terrified voice.

Daniel smiled with a wicked glint in his eyes.  "And so you should be," he said before swooping down on her mouth.


With a gasp, Daniel awakened, his body shaking.  For several seconds, he lay still as his pulse and respiration slowed.  He looked over at Sam, who was sleeping beside him.  Daniel glanced at the clock, seeing that they'd been asleep for a couple of hours.

Just then, the phone rang, waking Sam up.  Daniel answered it and had a brief conversation with the caller.

"Thanks.  We'll be there in a few minutes."  He hung up the phone.

"What's up?" Sam asked, rising to a sitting position.

"Jack called.  The president has agreed to let us tell Colson about the program, the Goa'uld, and anything else we feel is necessary.  He's going to be brought here."

"Good."

"The president doesn't want anyone to know where Colson is, so Thor's going to arrange transportation.  We need to get to the briefing room."

Sam got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to use the toilet and get dressed.  She picked up her scattered clothes along the way.  When she came back out, she found Daniel sitting fully dressed on the bed, frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"I had a dream, Sam."

"What did you see?"  The look in his eyes told her it was bad even before he replied.

"We have to stop Colson.  If we don't, it will be a catastrophe."


Alec Colson paced the confines of the lounge on his private jet.  He'd spent hours talking to people in D.C., telling them that, if they didn't recant their statements and come clean, he'd counter with revealing the rest of the proof he had.  Most of the time, he was met with claims that they didn't know what he was talking about or the equivalent of slammed doors in his face.  Alec knew that they couldn't threaten to prosecute him for revealing classified information.  Doing so would prove that he was telling the truth.  Brian was worried they'd do something else, like get rid of him and everyone else who knew what he did.  Alec didn't know how likely that was, but the possibility wasn't going to scare him off.

"Tomorrow, we're going to blow the lid off everything, Brian," Alec declared.  He turned to his best friend.  "Two o'clock, we go live with the pictures, pieces of the alien ship, everything we've got."

"Alec!  You're going to get us killed!" Brian exclaimed.

"If they try, they'll be proving that I was telling the truth.  Even if they made it look like an accident, there would be suspicions."

"Which wouldn't matter to us if we're dead."

"Relax, Brian.  Nothing's going to happen to us."

In the next instant, Alec found himself no longer on his plane but in some kind of conference or briefing room.  He gave a little start.  Then he saw what was beside him, and he started a second time.  It was an alien like the one his people had cloned.

"Uh. . . .  Okay.  What just happened?"  A voice behind him made him turn to see Daniel and Sam walking toward him.

"Well, in layman's terms, we beamed you up and then down again," the archeologist replied, sharing a look and a smile with Sam.

Alec looked around the room.  "Where am I?"

"Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado," Sam answered.  "You know Daniel, of course."

Colson shook the archeologist's hand.  "Yeah.  Hi."

Sam gestured at Thor.  "And this is Thor."

"Greetings," the Asgard said.

"Ah, so this is a real one," Colson said, fascinated.

"Yep," Sam confirmed.

"What happened to the clone?"

"It will become a host to an Asgard consciousness whose physical body is failing," Thor replied.

That statement created all kinds of questions in Alec's mind, but he was feeling a little overwhelmed, so all he said was, "Okay," smiling at the wonder of it all.

"Now, I must take my leave.  General O'Neill said he will see you all tomorrow."  The Asgard beamed away.

Reacting with a sound of surprise at seeing the alien vanish before his eyes, Alec turned back to the other two people in the room.

"I want to show you something," Sam said.  She walked up to the button for the blast shield and pressed it.  As the shield raised, Alec joined her at the window and stared at the sight that was revealed.  He then looked at Sam questioningly.

"We call it a Stargate," she said.

Alec gazed at the huge ring.  "What does it do?"

"It allows us to almost instantaneously travel to other planets, even other galaxies."

"You're joking."

"No, I'm quite serious."

Alec smiled and let out a laugh of delight.  "Amazing.  How does it work?"

Sam explained the workings of the gate.

"This is incredible," he said.  "So, where did it come from?"

Sam smiled and looked at Daniel.  "I'll let Daniel tell you that."

And so Daniel did, telling Colson about the Ancients, the Goa'uld, the revolt in Ancient Egypt, and the discovery of the gate.

"Then you were right," the billionaire said, "about the pyramids and aliens."

"Yes, I was right, though you don't know how many times I've wished that I wasn't."

Alec shook his head.  "This is all so much to take in."

"There's more, a lot more," Sam said.  "We've been doing more than just exploring the galaxy during these years.  We've also been fighting a galactic war against a species that would happily wipe us all off the face of the Earth."

Daniel and Sam told Alec the whole brutal truth about the battle against the Goa'uld, the depth of their evil and their thirst for power, the billions of humans who were enslaved by them, the billions more who had died at their hands.  Alec listened to it all mostly in silence, asking only a few questions.

Alec stroked his cheek thoughtfully.  "And these other aliens, the little gray ones."

"The Asgard," Daniel said.

"They seem friendly.  Obviously, they're friends of yours.  Can't they do something about these Goa'uld?"

"The Asgard and the Goa'uld have been enemies for millennia, but they're not at war.  They've been maintaining a fragile state of peace for a long time now.  Though the Asgard's technology is greater than that of the Goa'uld, they can't afford to get into a war with them.  They've been dealing with another enemy that has virtually decimated them.  They're not strong enough to fight the Goa'uld anymore, a fact that, fortunately, the Goa'uld don't know.  If the System Lords ever found out, we'd all be in very big trouble."

"And these ones you call Ancients?"

Daniel and Sam shared a glance.

"The Ancients will not involve themselves in the lives of lower forms of life," the archeologist replied, "and that includes us."

"So, you're saying that we're on our own in this."

Sam shook her head.  "No, not entirely.  We do have friends out there."

"Many of the Jaffa are rebelling against the Goa'uld and have become our allies," Daniel said.  "The Asgard have helped us even though they can't join the fight directly, partly by sharing advanced technology with us.  We've gained other allies as well."

"But the safety of Earth is still in our hands, and it's an ongoing battle that has almost been lost more than once," Sam said.

Alec was silent for a moment.  "This is quite a story you've told me.  Of course, I haven't seen any proof, well, except for that beaming trick."

Daniel and Sam looked at each other again.

"Okay, how would you like to take a little trip?" Sam asked.

Alec's eyes gleamed with interest.  "A trip?"

"Through the Stargate."

The billionaire grinned.  "Really?"

"Uh huh."

"Hell, yes!"

Sam nodded.  "Okay.  We'll head out first thing in the morning."  She looked at the time.  "It's late.  You should get some sleep  We've prepared a VIP room for you."

"You know, Brian is probably freaking out.  You guys . . . beamed me out right in front of him.  Will you let me call him?"

Sam nodded.  "But you can't tell him anything about this or where you are.  The call will be monitored, and if you utter a word about any of this—"

Alec held up his hand.  "I won't say a word . . . at least not over the phone.  I don't want to mess up my chance to go through the Stargate."

Alec had been right about Brian.  The man had obviously been frantic.  The billionaire assured him that everything was fine and told him he'd be back in a couple of days.

Early the next morning, Alec got a knock on the door of his quarters.  He called for the person to enter.  Sam came in, outfitted for off-world travel.

"Ready?" she asked.

Alec looked at her clothing.  "Whoa.  Look at you."

"Yeah, Soldier Sam."

"Ah."  Alec noticed the bundle of clothing under her arm.  "Oh, uh, I get a uniform, too?"

"Yep."  Sam tossed him the clothes.

"All right!" he said, grinning.  He got to his feet and headed for the bathroom.  "You can stay while I change."

"No thanks.  I'll meet you in the gate room."

"Ah," Alec said in understanding.  "You've got a boyfriend."

"Yes, I do, but, even if I didn't, I wouldn't stay."

"He's a lucky man, whoever he is."

"I'm the lucky one, Alec.  I definitely got the better end of the deal."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Sam.  You're a remarkable woman.  Any man would be lucky to have you."

"Thank you," Sam responded, "but there's a lot you don't know."

"So, who is this lucky guy?"

"Daniel."

Alec's eyebrows rose in surprise.  "Really?  I'd never have guessed that.  I wouldn't have thought he was your type."

Sam frowned.  "What do you mean by that?"

Alec saw the frown.  "Calm down.  I didn't say that as an insult to either you or Doctor Jackson.  He seems like a good man, and he's clearly very intelligent.  I just pictured you with someone who is more . . . ambitious and adventurous."

"You're right that Daniel isn't ambitious, but, though he may not be adventurous in the way you mean, he's gone on adventures you couldn't even dream of.  He is an amazing person."

"Okay, Sam," Alex said with a small nod.  "I'm sorry I made you feel like you needed to defend him.  You obviously love him very much."

"More than words can say."

"Then I'm happy for you.  Well, I'd better get dressed.  Don't want to be late for my first trip through the Stargate."

A few minutes later, Alec entered the gate room.  Sam was already there, standing near the foot of the ramp.  The inner ring of the Stargate was spinning.  Several of the things Sam had called chevrons were lit up.

Just then, a seventh chevron locked in place, and, with a tremendous roar, a blast of what looked like water erupted from the Stargate, making Alec flinch backwards, his hands instinctively covering his face.  He then stared in fascination at the rippling surface of the wormhole.

Carter smiled at him and started up the ramp.

Utterly amazed, Alex followed her up.  "So, uh . . . where are we going?"

"P4X-650.  We have an off-world base there."

"And how far away is that?"

"Six hundred and forty light years."

They stopped at the event horizon.

That blew Alec away.  "Really."

"Let's go."

With a feeling of excitement and a bit of trepidation, Alec walked with Sam into the event horizon.  Before he knew it, they were walking out the other side into what looked like another underground complex.  Alec looked back at the gate as it shut down, then gazed at Sam with amazement.

"Didn't feel a thing," he said.

"You were demolecularized."

An officer walked up to them.  "Welcome to the Alpha site."

Sam and Alec stepped down from the Stargate platform.

Sam introduced the men.  "Alec Colson, Captain Sheffield."

The two men shook hands.

Alec looked around.  "Well it's . . . it's nice."

"Our last Alpha Site was destroyed in an attack," Sam explained.  "We decided to build this one inside a mountain, like the SGC."

"This is all a bit spartan, but it's our home away from home," Sheffield said.

"I-I guess I was just expecting something a little more . . . I don't know . . . otherworldly," Alec responded as he followed Sam over to the far wall.

She ran a keycard through the door lock, and a pair of blast doors began to open.  Alec wasn't watching, his eyes looking about the gate room.  Still not really looking where he was going, he took a few steps forward with Sam.  Then he turned around and came to a sudden stop upon seeing what lay before him.

"Ho. . . .  Now that . . . that's more like it," he said.  They'd entered what looked like a storage room.  Beyond it, visible through a large doorway, was an aircraft unlike anything he'd ever seen.

"It's called the F-302," Sam told him as they walked toward it.  "Alien-human hybrid."

"So, this is what the MEC's were for."

"Yeah.  Thanks to you, it's capable of leaving the atmosphere and returning.  We used a number of these to defend Earth five months ago."

Alec reached up and touched the craft.

"This is just one of the many advancements we've made as a result of technology procured through the Stargate," Sam said.  She smiled.  "You wanna take a ride?"

Alec smiled and nodded.  There was nothing he wanted more at that moment.

When Sam decided to take Alec up for a ride, she had hoped that, by the time they landed, she would have succeeded in changing his mind about revealing what he knew to the world.  She tried to impress upon him the extent of the threat Earth faced, how lucky they'd been so far not to be destroyed, and that Earth's population wasn't ready for that knowledge, a fact that she now knew for a certainty, thanks to Daniel's vision of the future.  He hadn't told her what he'd seen, just that, if the truth got out, the Earth would be doomed.

Sam decided to let Alec take the controls for a while, which turned out to be a big mistake.  He deliberately put the craft into a steep dive, nearly over-stressing it and causing multiple alarms to sound off in the cockpit.  Sam was forced to take back control.  Angry, she landed the 302 and taxied it into the hanger.

As the cockpit opened, she and Alec took off their helmets.

"Well, that was reckless," Sam said, still angry.

"Ah, the 302 can handle it.  I know.  I may not have known its name but I helped you build it, remember?"

Sam got out of her seat.  "It was a joy ride.  I took you up for a little fun."  She climbed out of the cockpit and onto the wing.

"This isn't a game, Sam!  What you guys are doing up here, this is life and death, for . . . for all of us."

"We know that."

"It wasn't much fun feeling out of control like that, was it?"

Sam glared at him.  "You don't have to make your point with my life."

"Oh, come on!  We were never gonna crash."

Sam jumped off the wing and strode silently across the hanger, Alec hurried to catch up with her.

"All right, I'm sorry," he said.  "Maybe I did step over the line a little.  Look, Sam.  I don't know what all this has been for, but if you think that any of it is gonna prevent me from telling the world what they have a right to know, you're dead wrong."

Sam stared at him.  "No, Alec, you're the one who's dead wrong if you think that telling the world about everything won't cause irreparable damage.  Come on.  We're going back to Earth."

After changing out of their flight gear, they returned to the SGC and went up to the briefing room, where Daniel was waiting.  He caught Sam's eyes, and she gave him a brief shake of her head.

"Okay, it's obvious that the reason why you brought me here and told me everything was to illustrate the magnitude of this whole situation and hope that it would convince me to back off," Alec said.  "Well, it didn't work.  I'm more determined than ever that the rest of the world know about this.  They have a right to know about what's out there and what we've accomplished.         Intergalactic travel.  Advanced alien civilizations.  Humans living on other worlds.  I do realize that there may be bad guys out there, too."

"You have no idea how bad," Daniel said.

"But in the end, we have to believe in humanity.  I mean, who knows?  This . . . might bring us all together as a planet."

"If we knew it would play out that way, then. . . ." Sam's voice trailed off.  She wished that it really could be that way.

Alec studied her face.  "You're afraid that knowing about the Stargate would fracture the world more than it already is."

"Yeah, not just stop us fighting the Goa'uld, but end things for good.  We've seen it happen on other planets like Earth.  In one case, public revelation of the Stargate caused an apocalyptic world war."

"Oh, that would be the ultimate irony, wouldn't it.  You secretly save the world from destruction at the hands of alien invaders only for us to destroy ourselves out of fear, after the fact."

"Change your mind?" Sam asked hopefully.

"Not really.  I don't think it would happen."

"You're wrong," Daniel said in a hard voice.  Alec turned to him.  "You know that planet Sam mentioned?  I was there when it happened.  I lived through the whole thing.  I saw two nations virtually destroy each other.  I walked through the aftermath, saw the expressions of despair and anguish on the faces of the survivors.  And the whole time, I felt the guilt of knowing that if we had never stepped through their Stargate, if they had remained ignorant of what it was, that war might never have happened.  I've lived through that once, and I will not let it happen again.  I won't let Earth suffer a similar fate."

Alec stared at the man before him.  Gone was the soft-spoken archeologist.  It his place was a man whose blue eyes were fierce and hard as steel, who radiated an air of determination.  The transformation surprised Alec.  He realized that there was a whole lot more to Daniel Jackson than what he first believed.

"All right.  Why are you so certain something like that would happen here?" he asked.

"Because I saw it."

"You saw it?  I don't understand."

"Something happened to me over two years ago.  You know those Ancients we told you about?  Well, I became one, not actually an Ancient, but I ascended to the same higher plane of existence that they're on.  I'm not going to go into why or how it happened, just that I didn't do it on my own.  I had help from one of them."

Alec gave a disbelieving laugh.  "You can't expect me to believe that."

"Believe it, Alec," Sam said.  "It really happened.  I saw it with my own eyes."

Alec turned back to Daniel.  "Okay, so then why are you here?  You look human to me."

"Remember what I said about the Ancients, that they don't get involved with the lives of lower forms of life?  That is one of their highest laws.  I broke that law when I was among them because I couldn't sit back and do nothing while people I cared about were in danger.  I was punished and made human again."

"All right.  It's an interesting story, but what does that have to do with Earth being told the truth?"

"When I was returned to human form, I wasn't quite the same as I was before.  I was left with certain abilities, one of which is the power to see the future."

"Oh, now, come on.  This is going a little too far, don't you think?"

"It's the truth, Alec," Sam said.

Alec shook his head.  "I'm sorry, but, while I do believe in aliens and a lot of the other things you've told me, this whole thing about Daniel ascending and gaining psychic—"

Alec gasped and stumbled backward as a small fireball suddenly burst to life in the air before him.  It hovered there, defying gravity, its heat bringing perspiration to his brow.  The billionaire's eyes lifted from it to Daniel, who stood behind it.  The archeologist's expression was intense, the firelight eerily reflected in his glasses.  After a few seconds, he lifted his hand and closed his fist.  The fireball broke apart and vanished.

Daniel's gaze dropped to one of the chairs.  It rolled across the floor and came to a stop in front of an open-mouthed Alec.

"I think you'd better sit down," Daniel said.  "Or do you need more proof?"

"Personally, I think you should light his shoes on fire or something," said Jack from the doorway.  "Just to make sure he doesn't think the fire was another hologram."

"Hey, Jack," Daniel greeted, not surprised.  He'd sensed his friend's presence several seconds ago.

"You're back early, sir," Sam said.

"Yeah, well, when Daniel called and told me about his dream, I decided that hobnobbing with the president could wait."  Jack looked at Daniel.  "He sends his regards, by the way.  He'd love for you to come and have a nice, uneventful visit for a change."

"Sounds good," Daniel responded.  "We'll have to work something out."

Jack walked up to Alec and patted his shoulder.  "Hello there, Colson.  How ya doin'?"  He pulled the chair and the man over to the conference table.  "Now, why don't you sit down like a good boy and listen to Daniel here.  I learned quite some time ago that ignoring what he has to say is not a wise move.  Oh, I'm General Jack O'Neill, by the way," he held up two fingers, "two L's.  I run this place."

Still feeling a bit stunned, Alec took a seat.  The others did likewise.

"Okay, that was really quite something," the billionaire said, "but how do I know it wasn't done with advanced alien technology?"

Daniel lifted an eyebrow and turned to Jack, who shrugged.

"Be my guest," the general said.  "Just don't singe him too badly.  He's got to be kept in relatively good condition.  Don't want him whining to the press that we mistreated him."

Daniel focused his gaze back on Alec.

"Okay, okay!" the man quickly exclaimed.  "No more demonstrations please."  He looked at Sam.  "Is this real?  He really did that?"

Sam nodded.  "Yes, he did, and that wasn't even a fraction of what he can do."

"So, my advice to you is not to piss him off," Jack said.

Alec met Daniel's eyes, who stared back at him steadily.  He still wasn't certain if he believed what they were claiming, but, if it was true, he'd be wise to listen.  "Okay.  You said you saw the future."

Daniel nodded.  "I saw what would happen if you gave your proof to the world.  It was a disaster.  Investigations were mounted, and the U.S. government had no choice but to reveal everything.  The knowledge that Earth was in constant peril from an evil, advanced race of aliens that could not only kill us but could also take control of our bodies and make us their slaves created chaos.  The U.S. government was blamed for bringing this threat down on us, and all the other governments that know about the program were blamed as well because they kept the secret.  There were riots, bombings of federal buildings.  The U.S. had no choice but to declare martial law in many cities, as did a few other countries.  Hostilities between the countries that had known about the gate and those that hadn't resulted in a dramatic rise in terrorism, especially in the U.S.  Then something even worse happened."  Daniel's eyes went to Sam and Jack.  "I'm guessing that someone either smuggled a bomb into the SGC or rigged one of the Naquadah generators to overload."

"Oh no," Sam gasped, deeply shaken by the horrors the future held for them.

"The base was destroyed.  I don't know what happened to us."  Daniel turned back to Alec.  "Maybe, in time, things would have settled down, but with the Stargate gone and all contact with our off-world allies lost, we knew nothing about what was going on out in the rest of the galaxy."

"What happened?" Jack asked, knowing that it was really, really bad.

"The Replicators.  I didn't see why or how it happened.  All I saw was Earth being overrun by Replicators, millions of them.  They destroyed everything, slaughtered people by the tens of thousands."

"My God," Sam whispered.

"What are the Replicators?" Alec asked.

"An artificial lifeform.  It's the enemy that has come close to destroying the Asgard.  We've tangled with them several times, and they are an even deadlier threat than the Goa'uld.  We developed a weapon to combat them, but, apparently, that won't be enough to save Earth, if our future unfolds like Daniel saw."

"And what if it doesn't happen like that?  I'm not saying that I believe what Daniel is claiming, but, even if he really did have that vision, how can you be certain things will happen like that?"

"Because Daniel's visions always come true, always, unless we actively seek to change the course of events.  I'd be dead now, if it wasn't for Daniel's precognitive abilities, as would a lot of other people.  If he says something is going to happen, then it will happen, if something isn't done to stop it."

"And what would stop it this time is you keeping your trap shut about what you know," Jack said.

Alec stared at all of them.  "For all I know, this was all conceived to get me to change my mind."

"Dammit, Alec!" Sam exclaimed.  "Are you so determined that the world know the truth that you're willing to gamble the lives of every human being on the face of this planet?"

"You want proof?" Daniel asked.  "I'll give you proof."

"Daniel," Jack said, unsettled by the look on his friend's face.  "What are you planning?"

"I'm planning on making sure the future I saw never happens."

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