Chapter Forty-One, A brief respite

O'Neills Cottage, United States, Earth, April 2016

The sun reflected of the still pond and into Cassandra's eyes. It was actually a nice day considering the past two months worth of events that had happened. And if she was honest with herself this relaxation was nice doubly so as it gave her time to not dwell on the people she knew who were now buried. She took a sip of the ice pop to get her thoughts away from that, the therapist who had talked to her a bit had suggested not dwelling on unpleasant thoughts if she could avoid it. Something about letting her move past it.

It was helping somewhat.

The good weather and company at the cottage was probably doing more for her mental well being than anything else. She leaned on the railing of Jack's cottage out in the Colorado wilderness, careful not to spill her drink. She then closed her eyes and let her mind just take in the sounds and feel the slight breeze on her face. It was, nice. A nice change from the past two months.

Though she really wished Jack, Sam and the rest of them weren't so tight lipped about what was happening in space and beyond. It was so frustrating knowing that the danger was out there but not knowing any of the details.

Of course that also tied in to the world somehow missing the battle in orbit, how she still didn't know. Maybe as time went on things would come out, but it was still weird. Maybe the fighting on the Korean peninsula was taking up everyone's attention as it was hard to turn on the news nowadays without hearing something about it. Latest useful news was that the NATO task force had finally made landfall and was quickly pushing outwards. And with the destruction of Anubis's assets there it wasn't likely to run into any serious opposition.

Which lead to school, was she ever going to go back to the Academy after it had been turned into a war-zone. The debate on that was still raging, opinions seemed to range from just rebuild it to it was a stupid idea in the first place and this just shows why. Either way she was probably going to miss out on going there again, well homeschooling it was then. Maybe she would go to a regular school in the fall.

If only she had been two years older she could have just straight up enlisted anyways and got around to actually making a difference. She took another sip to interrupt that line of thought, there was no use dwelling on something she had no control over.

"A nickel for your thoughts." She nearly jumped when the voice spoke out from beside her. Sasha was sitting in one of the chairs on the deck, somehow her ex-roommate had convinced Jack to let her tag along for the outing. She took a note of the notebook and pencil on Sasha's lap and wondered for a moment what they were doing in there.

"I thought it was a penny for your thoughts." She still wasn't sure how she felt about the silver, correction blonde haired girl tagging along. On the one hand she was somewhat of a constant in her life for the past, what was it almost a year now. But on the other she sorta felt like an outsider intruding in. Still the others didn't seem to have a problem with Sasha being here, or at least none that she had been able to pick up on.

"It was, until they discontinued the penny three years ago. And now the damn things are worth their weight in gold. I'm not paying that kind of money for some idle thoughts." She just looked on, there was something she was missing here, because as far as she knew penny's were still in circulation. Unless something had happened last night that she wasn't aware of. "Don't bother, it's a Canadian joke. No wonder comedy seems to stay in the culture it was created, no one outside gets the jokes or references." That made more sense than she wished it did.

"Okay then... what's in the book?"

"Just y thoughts, would you believe it's been eight months since I last wrote in it. Another more or so and there would have been people born who weren't even conceived when I wrote in it last."

"... That's hardly what most people would consider when they're writing.."

"I'm not most people."

"That is extremely obvious. But anything interesting in there." She took another sip, the others would probably be out soon, which meant lunch wasn't to far off.

"Just some stuff I'll have to nag Rodney about, plus some notes on calibrations for high powered rail cannons. Honestly anyone with American college level calculus could do it. Honestly Rodney may be smart but he overlooks so many small things that if he didn't have someone going over what he was doing half the things he did wouldn't have worked."

"I think you're selling him short, though he is an ass at times." Actually that last bit might have been an understatement. Wait why was Sasha helping Rodney.

"That he is, but I think he just doesn't know how to interact with people. Or at least interact normally with people so he defaults to being a jerk."

"Since when did you become a behavioural analyzer."

"And since when did you start with the big words. If you're not careful you might say something you don't know." Well that was a low one.

"This isn't grade-school you know." Sasha leaned back and let out a soft snort. "What now?"

"Just this whole conversation. We act like one of those old married couples in those cheesy movies."

She almost spit her drink out. "What?" Sasha responded with a laugh. "If anyone else hears you say that there'll be rumours."

Sasha only laughed harder. "I take it you didn't hear the ones floating around school then." She felt her face blush, people really couldn't really be spreading those kinds of rumours around. Could they, she had certainly heard enough to believe it...

Sasha was almost in hysterical fits. "Dammit take this seriously. You're part of this too."

Sasha managed to stop laughing for a few moments to reply to her. "Cassandra, there's rumours flying about every pair of people who've so much as said hello. And some concerning people who've never met. We were roommates, which meant that rumours would start up regardless. I take it you never heard the ones that went around about Ichika after his run in with Tatenashi, I think you were involved in that as well."

Her mind took a few moments to remember the moment in question. "I didn't think there was anyone else there..."

"Probably wasn't, our dear president probably started them all on her own." She could see Tatenashi doing that, or at least the Tatenashi before, that had happened.

Her mind flashed back to the scene of Sasha dropping Kanzashi's corpse into her sisters arms. She could probably pinpoint the exact moment when Tatenashi broke too. Two words that had brought one of the most self confident people she knew down. If any ever told her words were worthless she would laugh in their face.

"Sasha, just what happened with Kanzashi." The other girl blinked once then cast her eyes downwards while setting the note book on her lap. "Sasha?"

"I made a choice of who would live and who would die. I let Kanzashi die so that someone else could live. I thought she would be okay, but..." Sasha looked up to her, water at the edge of her eyes. "I should have stayed with her, if I had been there she could have survived."

"Who did you save?"

"Just some random students who weren't in the shelters. Fucking idiots thought they were safe from everything." She half considered bringing up that they were supposed to have been in the shelters as well. "They didn't even have the sense to stay down when the shots started flying, if they hadn't taken so damn long, then maybe I could have gotten back in time." Sasha then grumbled some things she couldn't make out.

Heh, what does one do there, no option but to let someone die. Just what did one do... "Knowing you it was the best you could have done. Which was honestly more than I probably could have done. I failed a little girl that day." This was the first time she was saying this to anyone. "It wasn't the first time I ran into her, the first time was at Christmas. She was with Nizru and her family, I think I made her year... Then she was there, I don't even know why... I wasn't fast enough, and she didn't make it."

"She wasn't the only one who didn't make it."

"I can't even remember her name, I couldn't even to that for her." She blinked for a few moments and noticed that she had slumped down onto the deck itself.

"Well it wasn't like this universe was fair or anything. Shit happens and we have to deal with it." She couldn't actually find anything to say to that.

She stood back up and looked over the pond. "And it's only going to get worse isn't it."

Sasha looked at her for a moment. "Can't say you're wrong on that one. Though things might actually get better latter on."

"I certainly hope so."

"Jeez it's not even noon yet and you two are groaning around like an old couple." She felt her face heat up a bit and turned to see John standing in the doorway, while Sasha had just started laughing.

"J-j-jhon. I-I didn't see you there." She managed to get control of herself after a few seconds. "How long have you been listening."

"Eh, not that long." She glared at him. "Okay since you started talking about your first fight."

"So, you um, ah heard all that." He gave her a look that said I just said that. Meanwhile Sasha had finished laughing.

Sasha got up from where she was sitting a made to move by the two of them. "I'm just going to give you two lovebirds some room." Her face went flush again while John laughed.

"Sasha!"

"Admit it, you have a crush on him. And with those abs I can't really blame ya... Almost enough to get me switching which team I'm batting for."

"Not helping."

"Wonder if we can cook lunch on them, they're certainly hot enough. And looks at those arms, damn... Must say you certainly know how to pick em." She felt the heat on her face, she hadn't thought it possible to be this embarrassed. John's laughing certainly wasn't helping. "He's even got a cute face."

She managed to look down, but even then she could feel the blush starting to crawl downwards. "Dammit Sasha." She muttered.

She was spared from further embarrassment by Jack coming out onto the deck. "And what's with all the yelling at this hour." Jack put his hand on his younger versions hair and messed it about. "He's not causing any problems is he." Sasha and John burst into another round of laughter. She just grit her teeth harder, this was not what she wanted to be dealing with. "Ah, something I'm too old for."

She let out a groan, why.

Later

Jack cast the line out over the pond dropping the hook as far out as he could manage, which wasn't as far as he could normally go. Well wasn't surprising since it hadn't even been a week since he had been frozen in a block of ice that Thor had to thaw him out of. And even then everything since jamming his head into ancient repository until he was thawed was a blur. He had gone out on a relatively routine trip and come back to learn that just about everything had been turned upside down.

Anubis had attacked, smashing most of the earth fleet and killing Hammond. And been on the verge of victory when he had fired an old weapons platform and Thor had shown up with a few Asgard ships in tow. And the media had somehow missed all of it. At this point he didn't even think crashing a starship into a major city would get them to notice.

As usual the bob just sat there on the water, he really should bet some fish to put into his pond at some point. But there was always some reason why he didn't. He watched out of the corner of his eye as another hook sailed past where his had plunged into the water and landed further out. His younger version self or whatever the term was, had a much easier time of it. He put it down to not having been frozen recently and not age.

He was then surprised when a third line joined the first two. He turned to see Cassandra's friend from school. Sandra, Sandy, Selia, no. Oh right Sasha. That was the girls name. Honestly having a girl around her own age around was probably good for Cassandra, besides the two seemed to get along fine. Honestly he had been fine with her coming along from the beginning, even if he had originally planned for this to be a 'family' only trip, for what little had been planned out.

He had also ended up with a fishing partner, clone non-withstanding. Which was different, as he hadn't managed to convince any of the others to ever join him save for Teal'c that one time. He had finally found someone else who understood what it meant to fish.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a few of the others watching from the shore shaking their heads occasionally. He sighed, none of them understood. None of them tried to understand. Fishing was just so relaxing. It let him take his mind off all his worries, when he was fishing he didn't need to worry about the fate of his squad, his country, his world. It was just him and the fish-less pond. He really should work on making that him, the pond and fish. He wondered what ones would be good to eat that he could fish for in his pond.

He shook his head, not the time to be thinking about that stuff, for now it was just him and the pond, and his fishing buddy or was it buddies. Huh, this clone thing was really hard on the vocabulary.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed but suddenly Sam was calling the three of them in for supper. Something grilled according to his nose. It took a few minutes for the two or was it three of them to gather the rods and hooks and all the other stuff they had been using and bring it back to the cottage proper.

Janet looked at the three of them with a disproving eye roll, he already knew how she felt about him fishing in a fish-less pond. Not impressed was an understatement. He quickly stored the few things that needed to be put away and headed inside, where Cassie was having a chat with her friend.

"You do realize there's absolutely no fish in that pond right?" Her friend nodded. "Then why?"

"Because catching fish isn't the point."

Cassie began to pull hair out. "But that's the whole point of fishing, if you're not there to catch fish then what are you there for?"

"One day you'll figure it out." Cassie just groaned and let her face fall into her hand. "Though I did learn it from a certain person... And no it wasn't Jack." Well it was good to know that there were others out there who understood.

"I would really like to meet this person, so I can knock some sense into them." Cassie muttered as she turned to head back into the kitchen.

He almost missed the response, he wasn't actually sure if he had heard it right. "Go find a mirror."

Area Fifty-One, Office of the Admiralty

The office was obviously freshly furnished, the lack of personalization being the most evident. But it was also the name, two days ago there hadn't been any sort of formal organization for the earth fleets, but now there was. It even showed in who the IOA had placed at the head of it, well at least they had taken someone who had actually commanded a starship before rather than just some random goon of theirs. So maybe this wouldn't be a complete disaster.

Colonel Steven Caldwell spared a glance at the man seated beside him, Penderghast still had a cast on his leg that made getting around a bit difficult. And across the desk from the two of them was Colonel Mirel Schinder, the now ex-CO of the German ship Marder. Truthfully they should have picked one of the longer serving captains as they would have the most experience handling things. But given the options available... politics was a bitch like that. The US would never let a Russian be in charge, and several other countries would agree, the opposite was also true as several countries wouldn't let the US be in charge.

"Well I suppose you two are wondering why I called you both here." He looked up to see the German Colonel looking at him. He gave a short nod in reply. "In essence I am of the opinion that I was promoted ahead of more experienced candidates for this position. The IOA has however disagreed with that assessment, and as such I have this position. So seeing as I am stuck here I will be doing the best possible job here. And that's where the two of you come in, while not the absolute most experienced ship commanders the two of you do have the most experience commanding our individual ship classes."

"So you want us as advisers? There are several other people I would recommend bringing in if that's the case..."

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I fully intend to bring others in, however at the moment I an admiral without a fleet. So what I can do at the moment is very limited, mainly getting a fleet because at the moment only the Yukikaze is available, though I'm told that the Daedalus will be finished in the drydocks soon." He gave a nod of his head, his ship had managed to get through the battle without being torn to pieces. "What I want is your opinion on this." She slid a small paper packet to each of them. "It's my suggestion as to what to do about the rest of the fleet, given it's current state."

He picked it up and began to read. It was in short a short summary on all of their current space born assets and what should be done with each of them. Most of it was what he expected, some of the earth ships had been beaten to the point where it was a waste of resources to try and repair them. Which made the fact that the Odyssey wasn't on that list interesting. Considering that the ship in question was barely more than a scrap heap at the moment.

"There are going to be some people who won't be happy with this." He lifted his head up from the paper when Penderghast started speaking. "A lot of countries put a fair amount of investment into these ships and they wouldn't want to lose it."

"I'm well aware of that, but the fact is our current estimates to repair those ships are nearly three times what it would take to build new ones. Nearly four times if we take into account what can be recycled into the new ships. And we need more ships, not national sentimentality. Now the only exception is the Odyssey as you two have probably noted, the Asgard say they want to try something with that ship and I'm inclined to let them."

"Did they say what."

"No, but the word upgrade was in there somewhere."

"I don't suppose they're going to let us keep it afterwords."

"They're going to be doing whatever they're going to be doing to the ship in one of our own ship bays, most likely one of the offworld ones. So at the very least we'll be able to observe what ever is going on. Though what the Asgard, or maybe just Thor in this case would want with a beaten down ship that's far far from they could build is beyond me." He couldn't disagree with that, all the typical reasons for wanting to get a hold of a latest generation ship fell flat due to the fact that the Asgard could easily build something far better. And anything tactical details could easily be picked up by their sensors, not to mention that they had helped build them.

"The IOA isn't going to be happy about a foreign power having access to one of our ships like that. Even if they are friendly and they probably know everything that could be learnt from one of our ships anyways. I would recommend wiping Odysseys codes first before the Asgard get it, that should curb some of the backlash." Schnider make a quick note. While Penderghast gave a short nod.

"One thing I was wondering about was the idea to modify more Al'Kesh into bombers."

"That, a stop gap measure to gives some more striking power while we get an actual fleet together. Not ideal but unless we suddenly gained a way to build ships much faster than before it's the best way to have something we can use in the field."

"The information the Asgard gave us from O'Neill..." Right that, not really a whole lot useful there.

"Is still mostly useless to us, and all of it's being used by the eggheads to get something useful out of it. Though we did manage to learn what's needed to operate the Antarctic weapons platform, while not part of my command I have been informed that people are working on getting what's needed. The last thing you may note is the decision to focus resources on those ships we can easily get into service quicker, I'm sure neither of you have an issue with that." Both he and Penderghast shook their heads. "One other thing that's come up is that we received a request from a group of several Goa'uld system lords requesting a meeting with us."

That got his attention. "Did they say about what?"

"All I have right now is that Ba'al is not on the list of those contacting us. From what I understand there is a general consensus to move ahead with it. And for that we'll need everyone watching out because I'm sure, and several others agree with me, that they'll try something."

"I suppose the question is what isn't it." Both Schnider and Penderghast nodded at his comment. This wasn't going to be easy.

"I'm going to be organizing a full meeting of all the current commanding officers in the fleet, it will be a good chance to try and figure out how to do better next time. And where do we go from here, it may also be good to try and figure out ways to improve our ships, as I think we now have a much better idea of what works and what doesn't." Both he and Penderghast gave a nod. "Dismissed." The three of them stood up and exchanged salutes before he and Penderghast left.

Out in the corridor. "Well that turned out far better than expected." He kept pace with Penderghasts awkward hobble.

"Yeah, looks like she'll be keeping the politics directly out of the fighting. I wonder if the IOA realized they picked someone who's not going to just bow down and do whatever they want in charge."

"I'd give em about a week or two. But they won't be able to go back on this without something drastic."

Unknown, United Kingdom

"We've confirmed the target. Final preparations are underway... Yes we're aware of that particular complication... Don't worry the Ducarion will be in our hands by the end of the operation... Yes I'm aware of that, and don't worry we have a suitable distraction prepared... It won't be a problem." There was a beep as the phone was shut off and her leader returned it to their pocket.

"So the raid is on then." Another one of their team spoke.

"Yeah, and soon one of those super IS will be ours. It will be interesting to learn how it was managed."

"I wonder if the most important thing won't be the IS itself, but rather the technology inside of it." She turned her head to the normally silent member of their troop.

"Ha, don't be silly. While it might be interesting it won't be anywhere near as valuable as the IS itself." A year ago she would have jumped on board with that, but now after the events that had happened since she wasn't so sure. "Anyways everything is ready, when the signal goes we get in grab the machine and get out. Oh and kill anyone who gets in our way." There were a few sounds of acknowledgement of orders. Then everyone went back to their preparations.

She spared a moment to grab at the pendant around her neck, an old memento of her father. A golden chevron with a dot at the point contained within a ring of silver metal. For what had to be the hundredth time in the past five years Elila Littlefield wondered how she had ended up as part of Phantom task. And all the pain and suffering she had caused because of it.

Unknown, Japan

Tabanae listened to the click as the phone line she had tapped went dead. Well this was certainly interesting, and something she would be watching. And wouldn't it be a pity if Task just so happened to not end up with the Ducarion, yes that would be such a pity. And all of those secrets she being left out of would be hers.

Graham Residence, United Kingdom

There was a beep as the phone went to the answering machine to catch the call, then a few moments later a woman's voice was heard emitting from the receiver. "Hey, so hope you get this, but I managed to get some vacation time. I'll be down in about a week. Yes, yes you wanted me to get some earlier, but we were all busy and I could not in good conscience take time off then. Anyways things have settled down for a bit so I can come down. So see you in a bit. And just where are you anyways, I know it's not nighttime over there!"

At a small bar several blocks away a greying man shivered in his seat, his two 'granddaughters' looking at him curiously.