May 10, 2008
Homeworld Security
Arlington County, Virginia

The last meeting of the day was over and Jack had quickly dashed out of the room. Or at least as quickly as his rank allowed since three-star generals weren't supposed to run down the corridors of the Pentagon. It helped that everyone already thought he was 'unconventional' as they oh so politely put it. It had been a long day and while he would happily leave and see some daylight there was still a pile of paperwork waiting for him in his office. Besides, Carter was still in the Pegasus Galaxy so home wasn't all that appealing anyway.

On his way to his highly classified and underground office Jack stopped by the commissary to get himself a piece of cake. When he finally plopped down into his chair his eyes fell on his laptop. Now that his schedule for the day was more or less cleared he figured he finally had time to check the message Carter had sent him earlier via the data burst during the scheduled contact with the SGC. They hadn't seen much of each other lately, both of them too busy with whatever was going on in their respective galaxies so he was curious to say the least. Two weeks ago had been the last time they'd had a personal video chat. Carter had mentioned being swamped and having a deadline for something computer-y, but they avoided talking about work.

As soon as he opened the file she'd sent a popup appeared, asking permission to install whatever it was Carter wanted him to see. Munching on his cake Jack waited for the program to install, all the while wondering what it could possibly be and if maybe this had something to do with that deadline she'd mentioned. A soft ping sounded just as he was eating the last crumbs and he reached over to open Carter's creation. He chuckled when a screen appeared with the main characters of The Simpsons and the show's tune. A short message followed as the program loaded.

Happy Whacking Day!

Here's a little something for you to play with in between doing your paperwork and going to boring meetings. Read the instructions and have fun!

Love, Sam

Jack's curiosity was piqued and he briefly glanced over the instructions before clicking start. The game's graphics were very basic but still beat Carter's own drawing capabilities. There were four little figurines, one with a cap, one with geeky glasses, one with blond hair and one with a stick - presumably representing a staff weapon - in his hands and Jack controlled the one with the cap. Instead of guns the three non-stick carrying figures had big hammers in their hands and were standing in what was appropriately called 'Goa'uld Town'. Using the arrow keys on his laptop Jack made the leader move forward, toward the center of the town and grinned when the other three fell in formation behind him. Suddenly something jumped out of the fountain and at his character.

"Whoa!" Jack exclaimed, quickly hitting the space on his keyboard and watching as the figurine's hammer whacked the creature. Once the snake was dead it glowed briefly before disappearing and a familiar symbol plus a number were left in its place, before they too disappeared and were added to his score. It didn't take him long to get his team to the center of the town, whacking every snake that crossed their path but unfortunately the character with the geeky glasses was jumped by a snake, to which the stick-carrying one whacked geek boy until he died and disappeared in a glowing orb.

"Aw shucks," Jack muttered as he watched glowy lower his score before disappearing. Just his luck Daniel had to die again! He waited until the other two characters fell into formation again behind his own and then got the trio safely to the town square. All of a sudden his character was unresponsive and Jack watched as the one with the tuft of blond hair turned to the leader.

"Sir, you killed two Tok'ra," the figurine said, the words appearing in a square above her head.

The leader looked at the stick-carrying one and then tossed his hammer aside. "They should have identified themselves then, for crying out loud!"

"Indeed," the one with the stick said, glancing between the blonde and the one with the cap.

Jack was smirking now, watching as several factors were processed into his score when the glowing orb came back and the leader stepped closer to the blonde.

"I've learned so much already," glowy said as he returned to his normal form with glasses. "Whacking Day was actually invented by an ancient race that was called..."

He let out a sigh of relief when the message was cut short because of the limited space, but the character's mouth kept moving to Jack's amusement.

"... as an excuse to rid the galaxy of the Goa'uld!"

The other three characters appeared unimpressed by this news and Jack could have sworn the leader actually shrugged, before wrapping an arm around the female character.

"Yeah well, let's not dwell," it said, before dipping the blonde and kissing her.

"Indeed, we have liberated my people and the entire galaxy of the Goa'uld today," the one with the stick said. "This momentous occasion must be celebrated."

The couple righted themselves just as little hearts floated above their heads. "I think we should go fishing," the blonde said.

"Excellent! Someone should bring cake!"

Jack chuckled as the four little characters all cheered on the screen and his final score appeared, with the names and symbols of all the Goa'uld - and the two Tok'ra - they had killed. He briefly wondered if there were different levels when his assistant came in and added more files to the pile of paperwork before leaving just as quickly again. Time to get back to work, he thought. Just as soon as he'd thought of a way to repay Carter...