Ch.104

Jack said he was convinced but Lt.Colonel Samuels said it could be a trick. I asked him. "Would you like to try it then? Just touch the mirror. I'm sure I can find you a nice infested alien reality with big probes they stick up your-"

General Hammond stopped me and I shrugged while he sighed. "While I'm convinced, it may not be so easy to convince the senator that's coming."

I grunted. "Well, if it helps I'm sure the mirror goes to plenty of dead realities as well. I'm sure you can raid a few earths of gold and resources to find the program or maybe find alien technology there like Atlantis if you can get to that earth and find a way to dial Atlantis itself once you find the gate address. If not, I'm sure it'll be useful for collecting other things. Access to infinite alternate realities must be a gold mine to someone I'm sure, if they don't wind up on a goa'uld infested earth or there during a genocide."

Samuels smirked. "Well then we can just use your suit to protect us all. Isn't that what you did?"

I shook my head. "No you won't and no it isn't. What I did there was massacre thousands of Jaffa slaves forced into servitude by a parasitic race, not save anyone. I won't be doing the same thing here because I still have to live in this reality and I won't massacre an entire people to save some cowards like you paperwork."

He went to get in my face and I stood up growling. General Hammond told him to stand down and told me to meet him in his office. I headed there and he told Samuels that if he tries bait me into attacking him again he'll have him removed from this base. General Hammond told me the big issues. The pentagon was pressuring the president to hand me over or force me to interrogate Shek'l because was of right now they have nothing and nothing's worked.

He said they want the technology, but we need actionable intel as well. He said the Senator was pushing to have this place shut down. He finished by explaining that if we don't gain actionable intel by the time the senator leaves here, if the senator decides we're through, we are. I narrowed my eyes as he said he'd allow Teal'c and I off world after that at the cost of his position.

I shook my head. "It won't be necessary General Hammond. Where is Shek'l now?"

He grimaced. "At Area 51. I can have him transferred over, but I can't in good conscience order you to do this."

I sighed. "You haven't given an order and I haven't asked for one. You, Jack, Daniel, everyone is on earth and Sam…if what it takes to keep this world safe means doing whatever I have to, then I know no other way. It is who I am, not a mission or duty to do whatever I can to help those that need it. The fact that I have those I care about here on this planet means very little because I can take you all away if I have to and watch the world burn, but I just don't have that in me anymore, if I ever did."

He smiled. "If it helps, I don't think you ever did. You're a good man."

I snorted. "Hardly, but an ok friend is fine with me."

He sighed. "In that case call me George in private."

I nodded and I turned to leave before stopping. "I'll need Shek'l and senator Kinsey here at the same time. If I have to see everything in Shek'l's mind it might help if he's a witness to it."

He agreed. "I'll have him sent over immediately."

I walked out and asked Sam to come with me. As soon as we were alone in a bunk room, I pulled her clothes off, doing the same to mine and telling her I'd tell her later, I'd just rather not to think about what I have to do today. She nodded and didn't deny me anything. We shared our bodies and our souls in way before laying in a cuddle puddle on the bed.

I stroked her stomach while she stroked my arms and I spoke without prompting. "I'm going to do whatever's necessary to save this world Sam, even if I hate myself afterwards for it. I can't let you die when I can help it."

She sighed. "What brought this on?"

I grunted and told her the discussion I had with General Hammond and my plans for Shek'l. She shivered and said she doesn't blame me, not for one second. I sighed. "I can't just kill everyone that's coming Sam. They have lives and families and even as it happened there I felt sick to my stomach. The only reason I didn't throw up was because you'd shown up or your alternate self anyways. I'm responsible for thousands of deaths by jaffa who were forced to fight through slavery. I can't do that here. They aren't evil, they're just enslaved innocents with no choice."

She looked up to me and told me not to think about it, so I didn't and lost myself in her. When it was time, we went to the meeting room. Thankfully Senator Kinsey was a bit late, but Shek'l wasn't so he was brought in and I punched him, knocking him the fuck out. I set him in a chair and took out a modified neural transmitter.

I placed it on Shek'l as Senator Kinsey came in apologizing and mentioning a nameless congressman who didn't know how to take no for an answer. He saw Shek'l and asked with a frown. "What's he doing here?"

I grunted. "Senator Kinsey, meet Shek'l the second prime of Apophis and a captured enemy."

He snorted. "I'm well aware of who he is, just as I'm well aware of who you are."

I chuckled wryly. "Heard good things have you?"

He frowned. "Not really, no."

I shrugged. "Well in that case, you aren't going to like what you see here today, but you will understand the threat earth faces because you'll witness every memory Shek'l has ever had including his orders and all the secrets of the goa'uld he may or may not have directly heard."

He reluctantly sat down telling me to get on with the magic show. I dropped the fake good mood and growled. "You may not like me Senator, but you'd best damned well quit your fake ass attitude or it'll be your mind I rip through and leave in a drooling mess on the floor!"

His bodyguards stepped forwards and found themselves pinned to the ceiling until they passed out and fell to the floor. I turned back to the Senator and glared at his face. "Call my abilities or technology magic again and you'll find out first hand that it's not boy. I'll share your every dirty little secret with this world and assuming you have the mental fortitude to withstand it, you'll eat your own gun without me provoking it. I know decrepit greed and hypocrisy when I see it, I was a king for over eight thousand years after all and time doesn't change the greedy pricks beyond better clothes."

His red eyed expression was proof I'd gotten through to him as I grabbed Shak'l by the sides of his head. "Hopefully unconscious he won't be able to defend his own mind. Otherwise a bullet would be kind for him when this is over."

I tossed my watch into the center of the table and it morphed into a projector before I ripped into Shek'l's mind. He woke up screaming and fighting the restraints but he was screwed already because I tore through his defenses accessing the core of his being as memories began to play on the projector. I slowed the images down and showed him learning as a small boy.

I sped it up as they watched him grow, have intimate moments and begin his training as a Jaffa. It slowed as sound played over his training, day to day things passed as he began serving under Teal'c eventually, rising through the ranks, becoming second prime when Teal'c became a traitor. It showed he burned Teal'c's house down with a group of Jaffa. It showed him him serving Apophis, the orders he was given, the secrets of the goa'uld and military positioning, everything.

It played through his trip to Gaea the Nox home world and being temporarily captured. It showed his escape, everything down to Apophis ordering him to gather hosts for his loyal followers so that he and Klorel can have an entourage as they attack earth, to show off their power. He promised Shek'l he'd get to take Teal'c's head for his god and solidify his position when they burn earth to ashes.

Shek'l saw it all including the stargate being loaded to one of the hatak ships before he left to do his duty. There it was when we captured him, every sin, every action laid to bare down to the atrocities he'd done as a Jaffa happily for his god. There was no lies, just the truth of everything and when I released him his head lolled back as he stared blankly and drooled all over himself.

I turned and threw up, doing my best to mentally distance myself from the memories and emotions. I managed to get it in the trash can, puking my guts out before collapsing into a shivering mess, holding my head between my knees while I stripped the memories of emotion and purged what I could before locking away the rest. It took minutes from their perspective but years from my own because my mind moved so damned fast.

I stared coldly at Senator Kinsey before asking. "Is that proof enough of the threat that's on it's way? Or is your own god complex comparable to a goa'uld's?"

When he regained his voice he said it was just a trick to swindle the American people out of their money to run a stargate. I shook my head. "Well aren't you a dumbass? I'm an ancient, I don't need to swindle anyone to run a stargate, I can build my own damned gate. I couldn't give a fuck about your money or you."

General Hammond asked. "Is everything you just showed us recorded?"

I nodded grimly. "You can watch his life like a home movie if you'd like. Unfortunately the mind and soul don't mesh well when one is forced to compare them so Shek'l will likely remain a vegetable for the rest of his days. There's always a cost and he's paid it as will I if I ever intend to ascend again."

I tapped the projector and it turned into a memory card before I passed it to General Hammond. "Plug it in and it'll download all of Shek'l's memories for you or whoever to go through."

General Hammond sighed. "Could he have lied?"

I shook my head. "I tore apart his subconscious and conscious mind. All that was left was the truth from his eyes, no lies, no tricks and no games. He couldn't change what's in his core memories, no one can. They make up who you are as a person, good, bad and indifferent. Not even the others can change it that I'm aware of and I certainly don't have the power in human form."

General Hammond nodded and had Shek'l removed while he went to his office. Senator Kinsey went with him and his men woke up, eyeing me wearily. Sam pulled me away before we grabbed a shower. No kisses or good times were had because I was a wreck.

I could keep it together until judgement day in front of everyone else so long as my mind wasn't overrun with outside emotions and memories, but alone together I was as weak as any real man after what I'd done and she not only saw it all, she helped me get through it. When I was was back on my feet and no longer felt entirely like shaving my skin off, I got my shit together and we went back to the meeting room with the others as General Hammond and Senator Kinsey came out. Kinsey looked pissed like he'd swallowed a bucket of shit and found out he had to empty all the buckets in King's Landing.