“Yes, I will see you soon.” Kanaan turned to pick up the boxes. “Tell Teyla I hope she is well.”
“I will,” John said, and looked up at Salawi at the board above. “Airman, dial New Athos.”
Maybe it was that John was getting used to it, so much so that he didn’t even think about it. Which said something pretty scary, actually, if you thought about it too hard, which he tried not to.
Or maybe it was that he was thrown by the whole thing with Kanaan in the gateroom and wasn’t thinking at all.
In any event, John walked into the infirmary with Torren on his shoulder, not even thinking that Teyla would be in full Wraith drag, not even considering whether or not she wanted Torren to see her like that.
Jennifer was holding a mirror for her as she sat up on the edge of one of the beds, looking at the reapplied dental cap, her lips bared in a fanged grimace like something out of a nightmare. What could be scarier for a little kid than to see their mom transformed into the most frightening thing they could think of? This was worse than all the Wicked Witches of the West, all the bogeymen and chainsaw wielding freaks of John’s childhood, because these monsters were real. Even though he probably hadn’t heard that story yet, one day before long Torren would hear about his half brother, Kanaan’s son who had been fed on by the Wraith when he was eight years old.
Teyla looked up, and in her expression of absolute horror John saw it all. She had never wanted Torren to see her this way, had no idea Kanaan was returning him today. She would never want this. Never.
And it was too late. John was already ten steps inside the door, Torren on his shoulder facing forwards. He’d already seen. Even if John stopped dead in his tracks, even if he turned around and sprinted for the door, it was too late.
Torren’s forehead wrinkled, his face screwing up.
“Torren,” Teyla began in a low voice.
“Mama!” Torren stretched out his arms, his face clearing as he recognized her, breaking into a wide grin. “Mama!” He nearly lunged out of John’s grasp. John managed to put him down in time, flailing feet and all, and Torren dashed across the infirmary floor to plow into Teyla’s knees as she slid off the bed.
“Torren.” She went down on the floor beside him, her arms going around him as she clasped him tight.
“I gots frogs,” Torren said happily, burrowing into Teyla’s neck. “Papa said I could have them. So I gots them.”
“Oh, good,” Teyla said, burying her face in Torren.
“I’m sorry,” John said belatedly. “I didn’t think.”
Teyla pulled her head back, looking at Torren’s face beneath his mop of dark hair. “Torren, I don’t want to scare you.”
“Why be scared?” Torren said, his expression a study in perplexity. “It’s you.”
“General O’Neill, if you’ll stay for a moment?”
Jack paused, letting the other officers file out of the Oval Office ahead of him. When the President politely asked you to stay it wasn’t a request. “Of course, sir.”
The President waited until the last one pulled the door shut behind him, then leaned back against the edge of his desk, his tall, lanky form and deep voice somehow incongruous together. “How does Richard Woolsey like his assignment?” he asked.
“I think he’s pleased to be back in Atlantis, sir,” Jack said neutrally, wondering what was coming. Surely nobody could have any complaints yet! Woolsey had been gone only two days.
The President read his body language. “No crisis, Jack,” he said. “Just something I want you to start chewing on.”
“What’s that, Mr. President?”
“Disclosure.”
Jack’s mouth tightened, his cover under his arm. “Has there been another incident?”
“No.” The President unfastened his starched left cuff and began to carefully roll his sleeve up in precise creases. “But there will be.”
“Pardon?”
“How many people have been involved with the Stargate program in the last fifteen years? With the starships, or with the 302s? Counting support positions.”
“I couldn’t tell you exactly, sir,” Jack said. “I’d have to get that number for you.”
“Would you say 10,000 is in the ballpark?”
“Probably, yes,” Jack said slowly.
“And how many abroad, counting the IOA, the staff and military personnel of allied nations, and of course the technical people who worked or are working on the Korolev, the Sun Tzu, the Austerlitz, or the still unnamed Indian vessel? Another 5,000?”
“At least,” Jack said reluctantly.
The President unfastened his right cuff equally carefully. “There’s no such thing as a secret that can be kept by 15,000 people. And that number is growing every day.”
“We’ve had disclosure issues before.” Jack frowned.
“Yes. But there’s a big difference between one reporter on the scent, or a drunk soldier who tells his buddies about his tour of duty on an alien planet, and 15,000 people. Scientists, soldiers, doctors, politicians, psychologists, archaeologists and anthropologists, pilots…” The President spread his hands. “They’re not all nuts. This is going to come out. Even if we closed it all down tomorrow.” He saw Jack jerk, and raised a pacifying hand. “Not that we’re going to. Not that we can. Ten or twelve years ago that might have been possible. But it isn’t anymore. This is going to come out, the whole thing, sooner or later.”
“If it does,” Jack said slowly, trying to marshal his thoughts.
“When it does, it will change our society as profoundly as the Renaissance, or the discovery of the New World. It will alter our world forever. It will topple governments and scramble religions, create conflicts we can’t even imagine yet. The era of integration of our world into a galactic society will make globalization look like a walk in the park. We will see brand new criteria for oppression, brand new reasons for violence, and the probable displacement of millions of people. It will redefine science, and challenge the beliefs of every human being on Earth.” The President leaned back on the edge of his desk. “I’ve been thinking about it. A lot.”
“We’re not ready for that kind of thing,” Jack said. “We’ve already got two wars…”
“We’re not,” the President agreed. “And my predecessors made the call to keep it secret. But that’s not going to hold forever. So we have to get out in front of it. We have to start thinking about what we want. About how we want this to play out. We have to identify some best-case scenarios and think about how to get there. The worst choice is to just let it happen, however and whenever it does.”
Jack let out a long breath.
“I want you to start thinking about this. I want you to put together some scenarios,” the President said.
“Sir, that’s not me.” The words left his mouth before Jack was even aware they were there. The President’s eyebrows rose. “I’m not the guy you need on this.”
His eyebrows rose higher, if that was possible. “Then give me a name,” the President said mildly.
“Dr. Daniel Jackson.”
For a moment the President sat thoughtfully, mulling it over. “Who would have been Woolsey’s replacement? I’ve heard he’s shrewd. And he has credibility with the international community.”
“He’s a good man,” Jack said, meaning it as a generic endorsement.
The President smiled. “Is he? Well, that’s probably the most important qualification.”
“Yeah.” Jack smiled ruefully. “They used to call him my conscience.”
“Ok.” The President got up. “Put him on it. Get back to me in a couple of months with some thoughts. I don’t expect quick answers or easy ones. But it’s time to start talking about this.” He took a few steps toward the door and Jack followed. “We need to approach this methodically and carefully. The last thing we want is to be putting it together on the fly when something happens.”