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Stargate SG-1 | Gen Fanfiction | After Graduation

I followed the escorts to the elevator, thinking furiously.

Well, here I am, right where I want to be. I quickly suppressed the surge of nostalgia as the doors slid closed. Teenagers, after all, do not suffer from nostalgia, and I had to learn to be one.

I'd done my best to learn to fit in with Generation Y. I'd suffered through a few months of High School until I'd graduated again. I'd put up with teenage music. I'd even forced myself to watch World Idol - Pucchini it wasn't.

It had been a great vacation, and I needed it after what I'd been through.

But now I was ready to get back to the real world, our secret world, where we fought the good fight to save the muggles up there.

Oops, too much teenage reading. I mean, to save the people of Earth from the Goa'uld. But it is kind of like Harry Potter isn't it?

Anyway, the problem now was what I could actually do in the SGC. Of course, I had a few ideas. On what I didn't want to do, as much as on what I did. But there was still the problem of persuading the General to let me have my way.

So, time to try out my patented glare on the four SFs standing with me in the elevator.

I waited for it to have an effect.

Nothing. Not a quiver, let alone any withering, or turning into dust.

Well, I guess the 'die scum' look just doesn't have the same impact coming from a 16 year old. Yeah, well most of my friends used that look all the time - it's the default setting for a teenager.

Still, I had a few other tactics up my sleeve. I launched an eyebrow and twisted my face into the out-blanding look Teal'c had been working with me on.

Ditto, unfortunately on the lack of effect.

I told Teal'c it wouldn't work: Jaffa after all, were programmed to expect young looking bosses and respond to their command aura. Earth human's weren't.

Hell, Teal'c was still experiencing exactly the same problem that I was - at over one hundred years of age, he still looked to be in his early thirties. Under Apophis he'd been a General. On Earth, he was just another SG team member. We'd become a lot closer over the last few months since my creation. Or was it recreation? Which led one inevitably to...procreation, no, stop. Just the hormones getting away from me.

I resumed my contemplation of the more important problem as the lift ground its way down into the Mountain. So much for any idea of resuming a command position then. Oh the joys of being a sixteen year old clone.

At least the size and strength of the escort suggested that the General was taking me seriously.

Actually, it rankled a bit to have to be escorted into a facility that I was second in charge of. Had been second in charge of. Nope, it is Jack, my alter ego, that is second in command.

Repeat after me, I am just the knock-off copy.

Well the somewhat improved copy actually. After all, I have the same training, the same mind, the same memories as my 'brother', Colonel Jack O'Neill. But I have acquired a few extra skills over the last few months. Skills that might come in handy. And not just computing either.

Couple that with the MUCH better body. Damn, slipping again, got to get those hormones under control - only teenagers like puns. Anyway, more to the point, um. Moving right along.

The old speed and resilience back. No aches and pains, no leftover scars. And no snakehead needed to achieve it either.

Yep, there are certain advantages to being Jonathon O'Neill junior.

In fact, there's a certain irony in the fact that pretty soon, both of us will be out of the field, and having to find some other way of justifying our existence.

So really this little exploratory mission is just a way of helping good old Jack out, exploring the possibilities for his future as much as mine.

Sure, Jack will really appreciate the thought. Not.

If only Loki had been able to get me to the equivalent of even eighteen or twenty years old. Sixteen might be sweet but sweet just didn't cut it in the Air Force. And the Air Force was still where I wanted to be, at least while the war against the Goa'uld continued. Still, at least youth was curable. Eventually.

Which brings me back to my current dilemma.

So I've done the High School thing. What next?

I gathered together my thoughts in preparation for the coming 'discussion' with General Hammond.

Playing with computers was fun as a hobby. But I really don't want to get stuck with it as a profession. Maybe though, it could be a stepping-stone.

I first learnt computing back in the days when you punched cards to enter your program. It was a little FORTRAN program to calculate sidereal time for my astronomy. It was clumsy of course - it would have been much quicker to just use my slide rule, but it was the fun of the thing.

I've more or less kept up my computer skills, whatever impression I might have happened to give my team. But over the last few years I just hadn't had time to keep up with the latest trends, let alone get ahead of them. School though had given me the time to catch up. And more.

At the very least, it had gotten me where I wanted, back into the Mountain.

After I hacked into the SGC's systems and left my little calling card - just a little invitation to the folks to attend my High School graduation - I'd known it wouldn't take long for them to come and get me. And it hadn't.

I had of course gone meekly with them, doing my best 'who me, I'm just a geeky kid' impersonation.

Well, Ok, so I'd made a break for it first, just for form's sake. After all, only one of them had come to the front door of the apartment, and I was insulted.

They had, it turned out, been well briefed. One was around the back, the other two at the base of the stairs.

Not that I had been trying that hard to get away from them, just testing. After all, they wanted to take me to the SGC, and I wanted to go there.

As the doors of the elevator opened, I saw that Carter was waiting for me. She waved off the escort, somewhat to their disgruntlement, and stood next to me as we walked down the corridor to the General's office.

This was a turn-up for the books. Unlike Teal'c and Daniel, Carter had been actively avoiding me. Oh, we'd exchanged a few emails. But this was only the third time we'd actually spoken face to face since I'd started High School. I understood her discomfort, and wondered what had prompted her to make the effort.

Of course, as it turned out, I should have been wondering who had ordered her to make the effort.

"So, Sir, " she said, "Planning to take over my job, I gather."

She looked tense. She didn't reach out to touch me, even to shake my hand. I decided to try again with her. I couldn't let her get away with treating me as a stranger if I wanted to work in the SGC. We had to establish a new - and different - relationship.

So many possibilities...my eyes couldn't help assessing some of those possibilities. So shoot me, I do have teenage hormones after all.

I pulled myself together, drawing on the discipline of a lifetime.

"No danger of that, Sam, " I replied. "And please call me Jon. After all, do I look like a Sir?"

"Well no Colonel, but you still act like one. Well one particular one. If you know what I mean. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable calling you Jon."

"Go on, Sam, you can do it. It's not like I'm asking you to call me Jack after all. And I'm not a Colonel in this incarnation."

I said it lightly, but I was hanging on her response. I needed her to see me as a different person to Jack.

"Well, yes, OK I guess, JON" she eventually replied.

I set about relaxing her with anecdotes about my time at school. By the time we got to the office, she had laughed, but was obviously still worried. Well it was a start anyway. And at least she announced me to General Hammond as Jon.

The General, however, looked stern and unhappy when I entered his office. Alarmingly, his face had that reddish tinge that meant anger wasn't far away.

I had already decided attack was the best form of defense, so I stood at attention, and started talking before he could.

"General, I realize you are anxious to rectify the security weaknesses in the SGC's computer systems, so I'm ready to get started straightaway. I took the liberty of blocking the backdoor to the NID that was in place, I hope you don't mind?"

"No, of course not, Jack ah Jon, but..." he replied.

I could tell that he was hooked already, but his face had started to get redder, that warning shade that showed he was working himself to an explosion. I jumped in again before he could say anything I didn't want to hear.

"Here's Colonel O'Neill's written authorization to conduct a security test of the SGC's computer systems. Major Healey can verify its authenticity." I handed over the letter.

I'd made Jack get Major Healey, the General's staff officer to counter-sign it before he left on his latest mission. After all, the General knew perfectly well that I could 'forge' Jack's signature perfectly. One of the benefits of being a clone. It had come in pretty handy at school for sick days, permissions and the like.

"I think my graduation invitation more than demonstrated that there is a problem that requires attention?"

"You're right about that one son, " the General replied. "You can relax, Jon. I've already spoken with Jack."

I must have looked surprised, because he quickly went on.

"SG-1 returned early from their last mission, as I needed Major Carter's computer talents."

D'oh, I thought chagrined. Of course SG-1 were back - I spoke to Carter on the way in.

And we'd so carefully arranged for it all to take place while he was off-world: if I was going to be taken seriously, it had to be as me, not him. Jon, not Jack. Whatever.

I focused more closely on the General's words. So the General had recalled Carter rather than trusting that I would never damage the SGC's systems in any real way. That hurt.

I wasn't really taking in the words when the General started talking again; I was more focused on the re-emergence of that pink tinge to his face. He really needed to get some more exercise and lose a bit of weight or he was going to have a heart attack one of these days.

"Your little invitation aside, we've had a complete systems failure in the command and control communications systems that link us to the Pentagon, the President and the Command Center upstairs. If the Goa'uld had invaded us this morning, we'd have had to run everything manually."

I started paying attention again.

It didn't sound like the problem was related to the invitation to my High School graduation that I'd posted on the SGC's screens. It might, however, have to do with the security problem I had found and plugged. Or at least attempted to plug. This sounded very bad.

"Major Carter's leading the team examining our systems, but she hasn't been able to find anything yet. If our systems are vulnerable, this could be a prelude to someone trying an attack of some kind. I'd like you to give a hand if you would?"

"Of course, Sir, " I replied.

"I've got Jack working on recalling all teams to the Mountain and preparing in case we are attacked, so if you can take charge of getting our systems running again? Once we're past this crisis we can have a little chat about your invitation, " the General said, nodding his dismissal.

I left the room and hurried to the control room. I had a theory about what might have caused this shutdown. If I was right, we didn't have much time.

I could hear the swoosh of the Gate opening against the background of the alarm as I entered the cramped control room. That was a relief: at least the iris and DHD controller system was still functional. At least for the moment.

Looking around the tiny room, I saw that Sgt Walters was at the console, with Jack in the duty officer's chair. Carter sat at another console. He nodded at me as I came in and we all waited with baited breath for the GDO code.

"Receiving SG-10s IDC, Sir" Walters said.

"Open the iris, " Jack responded.

We all waited, watching to see the team emerge through the Gate, and for the SFs to stand down, before talking.

"That was the last team to be recalled from off-world, " Jack said. "We can shut down the computers now Carter. "

"Um, I wouldn't do that if I were you, " I interjected. Carter's fingers jerked up from the keyboard she had been about to tap. I watched as she looked at Jack for orders.

"I think the communications failure might have been programmed to occur when the backdoor to the systems I found was closed. If it were me, I would have put in a few more booby traps to stop you rectifying the problem."

"OK, belay that order, Carter, " Jack said. "So what do we do next Jon?"

"Let me take a look, " I replied. "I might be able to find a way to neutralize it."

It hadn't taken me long really - fifteen minutes to find the relevant lines of code, another hour to find a way around it. I'd been right: if Carter had deactivated the system, she would have set off the auto-destruct sequence.

It wasn't Carter's fault that she hadn't found it: she was a physicist not a computer programmer. Sure, she used computers as a tool, but I was willing to bet she spent her spare time keeping up on wormhole theory and cold fusion, not the latest techniques for hiding a computer virus.

It was also pretty clear that there were no aliens involved here - just your everyday evil nasty villains, aka the NID. Their fingerprints were all over it. Behind the auto-destruct sequence was another, cute little program. A program that would have frozen the countdown at boom minus ten seconds. The whole thing had been meant to scare, not destroy.

But it could have paralyzed Earth's frontline defenses at a critical moment.

Once I was sure it was safe, I took the whole system offline, and got a team to go over every line of code. It took another twenty-four hours, even with a dozen people working on it, but once they knew what they were looking for, it was relatively straightforward work.

Of course, I double-checked the most vulnerable parts of the system myself just to be sure.

I was pretty pleased at the way the team of systems analysts that Carter had rounded up had responded to my being in command. Of course, none of them were above 25. Computing was starting to look pretty good as a temporary profession.

My next step, of course, was revenge. I thought the NID deserved a little invitation too. Not of course, to my graduation, that was for friends.

No I thought they'd get a lot more out of a little music to inflame the savage breast. In fact, I was sure that they would need the not-so-soothing sounds of the new World Idol to listen to when they discovered that their computer wouldn't work at all.

And they were going to just love that gap-toothed smile as their screensaver. Particularly when they found that that was all that they could access on their computers.

Of course, I'd saved the best for last. I wished I could be a fly on the wall when they loaded up their back-ups, and discovered - courtesy of a little black ops venture on the part of an augmented SG-1 - the startling afro of the Australian idol, Guy Sebastian adorning their screens.

Yep, today at least it was good being Jonathon O'Neill junior.

Author's note: Thanks to Jezowen and Village Mystic for betaing
- their attempts to keep me to the first person are greatly appreciated!

© February 2004 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and
all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with
the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA
Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions
and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an
infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other
characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the
author.