Chapter 39
Perimeter of the Diplomatic Encampment, Alaris
Day Seven of the Confederation Deliberative Assembly
As evening settled onto the encampment Jack sat on a rocky outcrop near the perimeter of the tent city and with eye on his sons, who were currently engaged in a rousing game of soccer with off-duty resistance soldiers, let his thoughts dwell on the events of the day’s assembly.
His thoughts were interrupted by a click sound from the communication stone that rested in the same spot over his left pectoral that his radio had when enlisted. “O’Neill.”
“Sir, the Earth US Ambassador is approaching your position from five-o’clock. Do you wish us to redirect him?” a voice from an on-duty sentry inquired.
Jack blew out a breath noisily but did not twist around in his seat to look behind him to locate the approaching ambassador himself. He would probably have to deal with the man sooner or later and maybe it would be better to do it now before it was the man’s turn to stand at the speaker’s podium. “Negative. Allow him to approach.”
“Yes Sir,” the sentry responded and a second click sounded, signalling that the transmission had concluded.
The US Ambassador’s arrival was announced long before he drew close enough to speak by the crunching of his feet as he walked and what sounded like a mumbled curse when, from the noise, he misstep while navigating the rocky formation of the outcrop.
Joseph Faxon stopped approaching when he was about a metre away from his target, on the rocks below the ledge Jack was seated upon. By remaining standing, the ambassador’s eyes were level with the resistance commander’s and the two men steadily regarded each other.
It was Faxon who spoke first, “O’Neill.”
“Faxon,” Jack returned evenly and fell into silence again. An unvoiced sign that if anything was to be spoken between them Joseph would have to be the one to start the conversation.
Even with all his service as a diplomat, Joseph could not quite mask his irritation at having to concede to Jack’s tactics. Jack assumed it was the man’s personal animosity towards him that had the usual polished diplomatic façade cracking.
Because the animosity between them was personal. Very personal.
Joseph turned slightly away to look towards the rowdy soccer match before speaking again. “I find it surprising that you would have brought your children to a combat zone.”
Jack was unperturbed by the dig and had the perfect retort of his own. “Worrisome isn’t it, that I would consider them safer with me than on Earth.”
“And yet you are not so worried about your wife’s safety—who is still on Earth,” Joseph bit back.
“My wife has always amply demonstrated her ability to ensure her own safety,” Jack responded. There was no need to go into the details of Sam’s security measures or her access to Earth resistance members and Maybourne’s soldiers.
Joseph’s mouth drew into a tight line as he turned his eyes from the soccer players back to Jack. “Why have you done this O’Neill?”
“Done what?” Jack inquired.
“Done this,” Joseph waved a hand about to encompass their surroundings. “Why have you conquered the Confederation and are now playing at being a diplomat?”
“I’ve done neither.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t have something else planned O’Neill. I know you. I know you resented me when I was negotiating with the Aschen. You hate anyone nosing into your territory and taking power from you,” Joseph’s voice growing louder with anger.
“You only think you know me Faxon,” Jack was unperturbed by the man’s verbal attack and tone as now he turned his eyes to the soccer players and sought out the forms of his two sons.
“No, O’Neill, it is you who fail to evaluate yourself clearly. This army you built up and conquering all Confederation planets and others proves my view to be true.”
Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes skyward at Joseph’s dogged insistence that he was some sort of villain. “Look, Faxon, if you don’t have something constructive to say about the assembly or anything else it’s getting late and Josh and Matt’s bedtime is coming up.”
Joseph looked further upset at the mention of the names of Jack’s sons. In his anger that had begun to grow upon learning that Sam was not a missing person as he had believed, like most of Earth, he was unable to keep himself from saying, “They could have been mine. That’s why you’ve ignored all the attempts at arranging meetings between us until now. You can’t stand the thought that they and Sam were mine until you tricked and stole her away.”
Jack snorted dismissingly as he continued watching his sons play, wondering at the ambassador’s self-delusion. The clearly disbelieving sound from Jack urged Joseph to further rage about his point.
“It’s only because you were her CO and abused your power by ordering her to go with you that she went. And then you abused her into a relationship with you! I know Sam and I know she would have never have left me!”
“I didn’t think you were dumb enough to believe Kinsey’s brainwashing lie. And if you really know Sam as you claim you do, you would know that no one could keep Sam by force.”
Joseph ground his teeth when he was unable to come up with a quick enough retort. After a moment, he could not keep himself from saying it again as he gestured to the two boys playing with resistance soldiers: “They would have been mine.”
“They never would have been yours,” Jack said flatly, as he looked from the players and challengingly locked gazes with Joseph.
“Of course they would have been,” Joseph nearly sneered. “I remember how you two fought about your stupid paranoia over the Aschen and it was me that she was dating and about to marry.”
“No, Faxon, they never would have been yours,” Jack repeated softly, “because just like the rest of SG-1, to demonstrate faith in the Aschen’s anti-ageing vaccine, Sam would have been vaccinated. And that would have sterilised her.”
Joseph looked away.
“What I really don’t get Faxon is why you agreed to let an alien race,” Jack paused as he searched for the correct way to phrase what he was attempting to say. Finally he just settled on the words he remembered Mollem saying ten years ago, “Curtail Earth’s population growth and never even inquired how they were going to do it. Just blithely accepted whatever their methods would be and however they implemented it without thinking about whom would be affected.”
“We did not know,” Joseph said stiffly.
“Don’t lie to me Faxon,” Jack said sharply. “Kinsey’s signature isn’t the only one on the section of the Alliance treaty detailing the sterilisation of Earth’s people. And if you claim you don’t know about or understand the clause then I’m going to assume you are very, very stupid.”
“They said it would only be thirty-percent,” Joseph muttered defensively. “And they were right; Earth’s population growth was unstable.”
“Unstable? Most developed countries on Earth—which were the first ones to get the vaccine—were already below population replacement rate. And they you guys went and reduced that to zero possibility of children.” Jack snorted derisively as he raised an arm and waved it towards the soccer players, the prearranged signal for his sons that game time was up for the evening. “I just hope you do a better job this time representing the US than you did with the Aschen. Americans don’t deserve to suffer the consequences of another one of your screw-ups.”
Joseph struggled to hold his tongue as the two O’Neill sons came bounding up the rocky outcropping. After saying exuberant hellos in passing to him, they clambered up to the ledge where their father was to excitedly speak to him about their game exploits.
Joseph watched the three O’Neills interact for a few minutes until his heart could not take it anymore. Turning around he began to carefully navigate his way off the outcrop and back to his tent. While he still believed what he had told O’Neill there were some things that the man had said that were true and it was time that he acknowledged a few points to himself.
Most of his anger at the man came from learning the fact that Sam had been with O’Neill since her disappearance ten years ago. Like the rest of Earth, he had believed her a missing person, and her disappearance when he had been on the verge of proposing to her had emotionally devastated him. To learn just weeks ago that she had run off, married, and had a family with a man he had not even only marginally viewed as a rival for her attention had turned that old devastation into fury.
No man liked being confronted with the success of a rival, and even less when one had thought that rival already defeated.