Author Note: Yes, finally a new chapter. Please let me know if you enjoy it. It isn't the last, because there are a lot more stories to tell about General Jack.

Terminus

"Good morning, Sergeant Kelly." I smiled at one of the men behind the security desk, waiting for him to give me the sign in sheet.

The sergeant smiled back. "Good morning, General. It's good to see you again. Are you in town for long?" The sheet signed and returned, he typed something into his computer and stood, a scanner in his hand. I placed my palm on it and waited for the beep of approval.

"Unfortunately, yes. I've been assigned here again." It was impossible to keep the despondency from my voice. The scanner beeped and I moved forward to put my briefcase on the conveyor belt before stepping through the metal detector and collecting it on the other side. There was no need to worry, there was nothing but reports inside the case, nothing but far too much supposedly urgent paperwork.

"Sorry to hear that, sir." The other security personnel shot Kelly a startled look, but I just gave a small nod of unspoken agreement and moved on, following the rest of the arriving staff to an almost full elevator. The air inside the small space was close and far too personal. We all stood, avoiding each others' eyes, pretending we were in our own special place.

Suck it up, Jack. You knew this was looming like a large black cloud in your future. With General Hammond's retirement it had become inevitable. The President had warned me, but now it had actually happened.

Head of Homeworld Security.

It could have been worse. I could be heading for the pokey little office in Procurement where I had been sent as punishment a couple of years ago. This wasn't punishment. It wasn't. Really. It was an honor.

One plus, I thought as I left the elevator and waved my ID card in front of the reader at the side of the door to my department, was that I had one of the better offices in the building. I always envied George's view when I was stuck many floors underground at the SGC. Now it was mine.

Chairs scraped and a chorus of voices said, "Good morning, General O'Neill." Something else I had inherited, along with the view, was George's staff. I saw no reason to change them. They knew me and I knew them. No need to break in anybody new.

My aide, Captain Brookford, picked up an alarmingly large pile of papers and gave a vague wave toward my office. "Good morning, sir. Colonel Davis is standing in for you in the monthly meeting with the CIA and Homeland Security." He continued as we walked forward. "You have a meeting with the Joint Chiefs in an hour. They will want an update on this." Waiting until I settled myself into my chair, he placed a thick red-covered file in front of me.

"And that is?"

"The latest research results from Section 5."

"Ah." I nodded in understanding. I had not only inherited an office with a view and very competent staff from George Hammond, I'd also found myself in charge of some extremely peculiar facilities I had only heard vague rumors of before I took the position. From a seemingly pleasant small town to a vast warehouse in the middle of the desert, they were all my responsibility. I'd only been in the job a few days and was swamped by the sheer amount of work I had ahead of me, but I needed to fit in some visits to these places. Just reading about them wasn't enough.

Forty-five minutes and two cups of coffee later I was as ready as I'd ever be, my head overfilled with facts and figures. Twisting my neck a few times to loosen muscles aching from looking down too long, I yawned, loud and wide. It didn't do to look half asleep when meeting with your superiors. I stretched again and stood, walking around the desk to open my briefcase.

Everything went all tingly and wavy.

For a split second I thought I was having a stroke, then my vision cleared and I knew exactly what had happened. It was still a shock though.

"Greetings, O'Neill," Thor said, his hand raised in welcome.

"Thor," I replied, my thoughts racing. "It's been a while."

He blinked his large eyes, clearly sensing from my tone that I was not a happy camper. "I am sorry, O'Neill. I returned as soon as I could."

"Not to the Alpha Base, you didn't. You left me sitting in Pierce's office with no explanation. Why wasn't I warned about the Ghi'tain? What was it all about?" I went from annoyed to angry in the space of a few short seconds, throwing my hands up in exasperation. "Do you have any understanding of how I felt right then?"

He just blinked.

"Didn't it occur to you that I left Orilla because I couldn't trust you anymore?"

"Me, O'Neill?"

I turned on my heel and stared at the beautiful, and normally spellbinding, view of my own planet. All I could see were long claws and tongues and all I could feel was the acid bite of webs.

"You, your race, whatever." I turned back to face him. "You. My friend. At first I thought you had nothing to do with it. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I had been wrong. What was the real reason I was brought to Orilla? I doubt it was for my ambassadorial skills. It wasn't like I was allowed to do anything, was it? What were you hiding? Was I wrong to put my trust in you, Thor?"

"I have never lied to you, O'Neill."

"Lying by omission is still lying." I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. "Okay, let's start with something easy. Why wasn't I warned about the Ghi'tan?"

"The danger was uncertain. Kleminstad-"

I interrupted, shaking my head. "Kleminstad. Didn't do a good job of warning me, did he? Threw me to the wolves instead. I hope he was at least demoted for doing a piss poor job."

Thor blinked again before he answered. "He was not demoted."

"Typical." Taking a few steps to a nearby console, I leaned against it, my anger growing. "So why exactly didn't he warn me that my new playmate was the leader of a gang of space traveling vampire bugs?"

"He died."

My tirade came to a screeching halt. For the first time I stopped and really looked at Thor. He seemed thinner, diminished somehow. When he blinked up at me again, I knew there was something far more serious happening here than my hurt feelings.

"What's going on?"

"Much is going on, O'Neill. There is much I must tell you and little time in which to do it." He turned and began walking toward a door across the room. His strides were even more awkward than they usually were.

"Wait."

He stopped and turned back to face me. "Will you not listen to my explanation, O'Neill?" Could I hear a note of hurt in his tone? I wasn't sure.

"Yes, I'll listen to you, but I need to contact my superiors and let them know where I am. I was on my way to a meeting. My staff will have reported me missing by now."

"I understand. You may use this console." A group of lights blinked on the grey metal as he passed his hand over them. "Whom do you wish to speak with?"

"General Maynard."

"Very well. Stand here," he pointed to a spot a foot or so to my left and waited until I had moved before making another gesture over the lights.

I found myself standing in my own office at the Pentagon, the walls of the Asgard ship still surrounding me. General Maynard, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was behind my desk, sifting through the pile of papers with Captain Brookford standing close to his right shoulder. Before I could speak Brookford looked up, his gasp of surprise drawing Maynard's attention to my hologram.

"Sir, I'm on an Asgard ship," I reported. "Thor had me beamed up so he could explain a few things."

Maynard nodded, his concerned expression easing. "I'm glad to hear that, General O'Neill. Things were a little tense here when it was realized you had disappeared from your office. How long will you be?"

"I can't really say just yet, sir. Excuse me for one moment." Turning to Thor, I repeated the chairman's question.

"I will return you to Earth soon, General O'Neill," his voice was raised slightly so that Maynard could hear it.

Maynard nodded. "Very well, Supreme Commander." He looked at me. "I'll expect you to report to me for a debriefing as soon as you return, General."

"Certainly, sir," I replied, then addressing my still stunned looking aide, I asked him to clear my schedule for the rest of the day. I had barely finished speaking when my office vanished and I knew the communication with Earth had been cut.

"I am sorry, O'Neill, but we have much to discuss. Will you please come with me?"

He moved toward the door again. I followed him to a small room containing one Asgard and one human chair, but nothing else. We sat and the silence lasted until it became uncomfortable as Thor stared at me, as if trying to read something in me. What, I didn't know. For once I decided to let someone else make the first move.

"There is something you did not know."

I couldn't help a sarcastic snort at the understatement, but Thor carried on as if I hadn't made a sound.

"You are unique. You have survived two Ancient downloads and the gene is stronger in you than any member of any species we have encountered. We had hoped you would be the savior of our race."

"I know that. I also know it didn't work out that way," I interjected, but Thor ignored me and continued.

"Within you there was something our scientists had never seen before. Something, some element they could not identify. We needed to test this, to combine it with our own DNA to see if it was the key to our survival."

My heart sank a little. "And that's why you wanted me to go to Orilla with you."

Thor blinked a third time, a sign I took to be disagreement. "No. You are my friend, Jack. I took you to my home to help you and if you could help us then that would have been welcome, but never think it was the primary reason for my actions." This time he actually did shake his head. "However, the new discovery was not made until you were treated in our facilities for your illness. Your body chemistry had changed."

My emotions went from pleasure to disappointment within two sentences.

"Unfortunately my duties took me from our planet before I could discuss this with you. I left instructions for our chief geneticist, Kleminstad, to ask for your help."

"What happened?"

"We had been suspicious of the Ghi'tain for many years. They have always been a secretive race. Never before had one approached another species in the way the ambassador approached you. The High Council decided to keep you on Orilla for your own protection."

"More like to protect their precious resource, you mean." Sitting back, I crossed my arms and shut my eyes for a moment, wondering just how much I could believe of what my supposed friend was telling me.

"Yes, that is true."

I opened my eyes again, surprised at the admission. "Go on, tell me the rest."

"Kleminstad was to warn you of the danger the Ghi'tain presented, but he was taken ill. The Council chose to keep you ignorant of your importance to us." He hesitated, then spoke again. "They do not know you as I do, O'Neill. They were concerned you would assist the Ghi'tain instead of the Asgard."

"Assist the Ghi'tain?"

"They too are dying. We have since found that they have been harvesting humans with the Ancient gene for centuries to prolong their life span."

"That's what they were doing to me on their ship." I couldn't conceal a shudder. "Harvesting. . ." I felt sick. To think I let one of them into my home. . .

Thor pressed a button on the arm of his chair and spoke a short burst of Asgard. "I have requested we be brought water and some other refreshments."

It was less than a minute before the door swished softly open and one of the crew placed a tray on a small table that rose from the floor between us. Pouring myself a glass of water, I gratefully sipped it, letting the nausea retreat.

At least I now had an explanation for the way I had been treated, even if I didn't like it. I held the glass between my hands, the coolness on my palms helping to calm me a little.

"So," I said decisively, "I can help. Take what you need." I fixed Thor with a stare and repeated my words. "Take whatever you need." I knew what I was offering, but if it came down to a choice between a whole race and just one insignificant general there was only one right thing to do.

"I thank you, O'Neill, but it is too late. Kleminstad could not complete his experiments before he died. The High Council ordered another route be taken, one that was of much more risk. What we thought had succeeded, had failed."

I leaned forward until our knees were almost touching. "What happened?"

"Soon we will all be gone. The experiment failed. A disease was created instead and it is rapidly progressing. Kleminstad was the first death of many. Our degeneration will be swift and irrevocable. Nothing can be done to stop it."

No. His words took my breath away, leaving me none to deny what I was hearing.

"I came here to say farewell, O'Neill. Soon I will contact the SGC and ask them to come to Orilla to receive the store of Asgard knowledge that will be our legacy to the human race." He bent forward, his hand reaching out to touch my knee. I could feel his spindly fingers press against the fabric of my trousers. "I would ask you to also come to Orilla, to bear witness to our end."

I shook my head, still unable to speak.

"We cannot allow our technology to fall into the hands of those such as the Ori or be discovered in the future by races unable to properly understand the dangers. We will not make the same mistake the Ancients did when they left this physical existence. There is only one possible solution. We will destroy all Asgard planets and bases, and ourselves along with them."

My words finally broke free. "No. You can't do this." I rose, my hands flying out, beseeching him to reconsider. "There must be another way."

"There is not."

"You're talking about mass suicide." My voice shook and I was barely able to continue. "I can't, I won't allow that."

"It is not your choice to make, Jack. I would have thought you, of all people, would understand."

And with that my anger sparked into a raging fire. "Yes, I understand. I also understand that it's wrong. I was saved from my own actions by a twist of fate and I've never regretted it. There was another solution for me. There always is another solution." My voice rose to a shout. "Damn it, Thor, this is WRONG!"

He stood, putting his hand out to stop me, and I realized I had been furiously pacing across the small space. I halted a few feet from him and waited, still seething with emotions that were fast overtaking me.

"It is done, Jack. It is done." He spoke unemotionally, as if he was talking about the least important thing in the universe. Instead of the most important.

"No." I shook my head again. "No."

"Will you come to farewell us?"

"No, don't ask that of me. No."

"Then we must say goodbye."

I knelt, enfolding his bony body in my arms. "Please don't do this."

He pressed himself into me and I felt a tiny shiver, a trace of emotion as his body betrayed what his words did not. All he said was, "It is done."

I pulled back. "Then send me home."

We walked together back to the control room and he raised his hand in farewell.

"Goodbye, my friend."

There was nothing I could say. I just lifted my own hand to echo his gesture and the beam took me away.

Instead of the Pentagon, I found myself in the house I had recently bought in Arlington, standing in the middle of my lounge room. Garmr trotted in from the kitchen and I knelt on the carpet, held him tight, and wept for what I had lost, crying from the anguish of being unable to stop the inevitable.

And for Supreme Commander Thor.

My friend.

The End