Beating Time
I would like it put on record.
Jack O’Neill is pissed.
Mightily pissed.
We got back from PS7-G95 hot, sweaty and smelling. After visiting the showers and going through the obligatory medical, we scattered. I don’t think that Daniel, Carter, Teal’c and I would have been able to stand each other’s company for another five minutes. Eight days on a dusty, worthless, god-forsaken planet can do that.
They got to go do their thing.
I got to report to Hammond and then be briefed on the budget cuts.
Life is so unfair.
I think that George worked out that I was feeling a little hard done by after I snapped the third pencil in half. He looked from my hands, to the pencil, to the report papers and finally into my face. Then he shook his head slightly, sighed and told me to go take a break. And he didn’t just mean a five-minute coffee break. He meant a get out of the mountain and go catch some fish type break.
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I think that I broke the record for the fastest time from the bottom of the mountain to the exit. That race that Captain Mallor won last month came nowhere near my time. Admittedly, the rules had stated that stairs had to be used at all times, but I see that as a technicality.
I got home, changed into old jeans, T-shirt, and leather jacket, packed a bag and pulled the cover off my Harley. Within an hour I had left the Springs and headed - well, I wasn’t sure exactly where I was headed, but I just knew that it was as far from the base as possible.
The feeling of freedom was euphoric. And it lasted a total of two hours and twenty-seven minutes.
My cell vibrated against my chest.
I pulled to the side of the road and, hoping that it was just one of the guys calling to say “Have a good time”, I answered.
It was an unfamiliar voice, but his message was unmistakeable. Short, sharp and to the point. Just a code word and then, silence. I had to return to the mountain ASAP.
So here I was, facing back the way that I had come.
Pissed.
It was like I had been attached to an elastic band for months. I got just so far away before it drew tight and snapped me back.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
I was worried. Pissed and worried. Not a good combination.
I could think of any number of scenarios for my being recalled in this manner – none of them good.
The guard at the entrance to the base had been increased fourfold and there was a command centre set up in the parking lot.
Now I really was getting worried.
Tired, stressed, pissed and worried.
I left my bike in the middle of the access road and hurried towards the entrance. Of course I knew that I had to go through the correct procedure, so I walked straight over to the Marine Sergeant on guard duty. Before I had a chance to show my ID, he had accessed me as unimportant and reacted accordingly.
“You’ll have to turn back. The base is closed to all personnel.”
I could see Colonel Taylor from NORAD heading my way, a look of relief on his face.
I raised an eyebrow in a move that would have made my favorite Jaffa proud and glared at the Sergeant. “Perhaps I should show you my ID, Sergeant?”
He furtively glanced back over at the Harley. I could see him adding things up in his mind and finally coming up with the right answer. “Yes, Sir.”
I had just started to hold it out when Taylor reached us.
“What the hell is going on, Colonel?” The Sergeant stopped his hand from taking the ID and straightened up stiffly.
“Thank God you’re here, Sir!” Taylor looked almost as stressed as I felt. “Come with me and we’ll fill you in.”
Whatever had happened it obviously wasn’t something to be discussed in public. I nodded and turned back to the Sergeant.
“See that my bike is parked somewhere safe, Sergeant, And next time ask for ID first.”
I wasn’t in the mood to be nice.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
The command tent was filled with two Special Ops teams and other assorted personnel. There were plans of the SGC spread out on the table in the middle and a bank of radios, computers and assorted equipment along one wall. Everyone looked up when I entered. There were some puzzled glances at my civilian clothes from the people that didn’t know me, but most just had that same look on their faces that Taylor had when I had first arrived. Relief.
Damn.
I gave Colonel Taylor that “You better explain soon or I’m going to explode” look.
“We have been out of contact with the SGC for over six hours, General. Major Davis here..” With a twist of his head he indicated Davis, standing across the tent, and continued, “was speaking with General Hammond when the line went dead. All attempts to re-establish communications have failed.”
I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Memories of that truly horrific experience with the black hole surfaced and I shuddered inwardly. I hoped to God that it wasn’t something similar.
“Has anyone tried to enter the base?” I eyed the climbing equipment on the floor. At my question a Special Ops Colonel stepped forward.
“Colonel Roney, Sir. My team and I attempted to enter the base through the access shaft. We were stopped by some sort of force field. We estimated that it was at about level 12.”
I had a sudden thought. “Exactly when were you talking to General Hammond, Major?”
“0945, Sir. I noted the time as soon as communications were lost.”
I did a few calculations in my head and didn’t like the answer that I came up with. George had been planning to contact Davis at the Pentagon about the budget cuts. He had been reaching for the phone as I left his office. I had made the fastest exit from the SGC in living memory. I added it all up.
“Crap!”
“Sir?” Taylor looked startled. Davis didn’t – he knew me a bit better.
“Check the records and see when I signed out this morning.”
A Lieutenant keyed the appropriate commands into a computer and got me the answer.
“You signed out at 0943 Sir.”
There was silence. They all looked at me.
I had left the mountain exactly two minutes before what ever it was that had happened hit.
And I didn’t think that it was a coincidence.
Had it just missed catching me or had it waited until I was gone?
Only one way to find out. I had to get in.
I put my well-worn thinking cap back on my head and came up with the obvious solution. The only problem was the security issue.
But there wasn’t any other answer.
I knew that I couldn’t go alone. It could be a foothold situation. I had to have backup.
“Colonel Roney, I’d like you and your men to remain. You too, Major Davis. Everyone else wait outside.”
When we were alone, I looked over the nine men left. I knew that I could rely on Davis. He had proved himself more than once. The others were unknown to me, but I knew from my own time serving with Special Ops that they could be trusted to do anything that I asked of them.
“Major, get the President on the phone for me.” I turned back to the others. They were a mixed bunch. The major in charge of the second team was younger than Roney by about ten years, his men younger still. I had that same feeling that had crept up on me several times in the last few months – had everyone got younger or had I just got older?
Don’t go there, Jack.
“General O’Neill. The President.”
I took the receiver from Davis and explained what I was planning with a few well-chosen words. The President and I knew each other well often enough to not need long involved explanations. I was given permission to do anything that I needed to solve the problem.
It was time.
“Okay. Wait here. I’ll be back.” I could see the puzzled looks.
I activated the device on my wrist - the one that I hadn’t been without since my last visit with Ba’al and with a small smile, spoke the agreed phrase. “Beam me up.”
I get such a kick out of that.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
“Greetings, O’Neill.” Thor stood, silhouetted against the backdrop of Earth. It never failed to take my breath away, looking down at my own planet like this. I could see the clouds drifting across the Pacific, the white mass of Antarctica dominating the view.
I could have stood there forever.
With reluctance I turned away and explained my problem to my friend. He had no difficulty with my plan. I had known that I could count on him. It was only a few minutes later that I reappeared in the tent in a flash of light. Even Davis, knowing what to expect, flinched.
This never gets old.
“Alright, listen up. Major Davis, please remain here, ready to monitor our progress and report back. I want the rest of you to be ready to go in two minutes.” I glanced down at my watch and then watched as the men picked up their weapons and equipment and waited for further orders. I stayed silent, as the second hand moved around.
“Sir, how are we going to get past the barrier?” Colonel Roney was calm, doing exactly what I would have done in his position, trying to gain as much intelligence as possible. I didn’t have time to brief him. For all I knew every second counted.
Anyway, he would find out soon enough.
The beam caught us up and deposited us onto the bridge of the Asgard vessel. I watched the reactions of my men carefully. Each of them had his weapon at the ready, scanning the room for danger. I had asked Thor to stay out of sight until I called him. Wouldn’t want another unfortunate shooting of the Supreme Commander on my record. One was enough.
I saw their mouths drop open as they took in the vista in front of them. I was proud – not one of them lowered their weapon.
I stepped in front of them, my back to the window. “This is a space ship in orbit above our planet. We are going to be beamed into the base. To do that we had to be brought up here first.” I raised my voice. “Thor!”
The small alien walked around the bulkhead. “This is Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard fleet. He is an ally and is helping us. Lower your weapons.”
They did so immediately. I suppose my relaxed attitude helped. These days I was almost as at home on Thor’s ship as I was in the SGC.
Much though I would have liked to get all pensive here and think about the implications of that, I really couldn’t afford the time.
Time for Action Hero Jack to reassert himself.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Thor beamed us down into the SGC Briefing Room. The troops immediately fanned out, alert and ready.
It was empty.
I pulled out my radio and contacted Major Davis. No problem there. Then I had a brilliant thought and picked up the phone. No problem with that either.
The only problem was that the base was deserted.
Not a soul in sight.
Everywhere we searched there was evidence of everyday routine being suddenly cut off in mid action.
Papers lay on the briefing room table. Cups of coffee sat, untouched on desks. Half eaten meals cooled on the Mess Hall tables.
It was like the Marie Celeste.
The first thing that I had checked was the Control Room. To my relief, the iris was still in place over the gate. The computers were still flashing their little lights helplessly. The same mysterious beeps that I had heard for all these years were still softly whispering into the silence.
If I was that way inclined, I would have got scared.
Lucky that I’m not.
Nope.
Not me.
Never.
Okay, Jack. Time to do your Action Hero stuff.
I stood there. Nonplussed.
Nice word that – nonplussed. Sort of summed it up for me.
I had to get unnonplussed.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
I divided the teams up and sent them out to search the base for any clues. I gave the task of checking the computer records to one of the young Lieutenants.
Then I went to Carter’s lab.
Well I’m sorry, but if something mysterious has happened, Carter’s lab is the first place that I look for the reason. What alien doohickie had she played with this time?
Sure enough, there on her lab table was a large unidentifiable thing buzzing and chirping. It looked most impressive – lights flashing and liquids bubbling. Then I realised that it was Daniel’s coffee machine. Carter had promised to fix it for him.
Ummm – not that then!
Nothing else to be seen in the lab.
I rendezvoused with the others back in the Control Room.
No one had anything to report except an abandoned base. There was no record of anyone leaving through the Stargate – evacuating the base for some reason. In fact, the only traffic through the gate, according to the computer records, was SG-4 returning from a routine mission just before 0900.
It was a complete mystery.
I contacted the President and requested permission to keep the base locked down until a solution could be found.
Then I considered my options.
I contacted as many of our allies as I could and explained the situation. None of them had any answers. Hours had passed and I was still no further forward in finding my personnel than I had been when I first arrived. Colonel Roney had checked and found the force field still in place between the eleventh and twelfth floors. The people up top had wanted to send down scientists to investigate it, but I had vetoed that idea. There was no need to get any more people involved in what could be a potentially lethal situation.
I didn’t want to think of the lethal aspect of this. Didn’t want to consider that we couldn’t find anyone because there was nobody left to find.
The SGC was a very lonely place when that thought crossed my mind.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
It was the middle of the night on the surface when the first sign of a breakthrough came.
It wasn’t the way that I would have wished.
My radio crackled, breaking the almost deathly silence. I was sitting in George’s office searching through the papers on his desk for any clue – more in desperation than in the hope that I would find something, after all, what could have been written in the few minutes between the time that I left him and when he disappeared? The voice of Captain Evans was a welcome distraction.
“General O’Neill?” He had been searching the upper levels, mainly occupied by offices. “I’ve found something.”
“What is it, Evans?”
“A body, Sir.”
My heart raced. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
It only took me a few minutes to reach his position. He was crouching over the body of an SF sergeant, lying in an office entrance, his chest a bloody ruin. I recognised him as one of the regular gate room guards.
Captain Evans was white faced. “He wasn’t here, Sir. We searched here before. He wasn’t here.”
“When did you search this corridor, Captain?” I felt the Sergeant’s hand. He was still warm.
“Only five minutes ago, Sir.”
The man hadn’t been dead for five minutes. The blood was still running freely from his wound. I could see no sign of a struggle, no evidence of fighting and yet it was obvious that this man had died a violent death and within the last few minutes.
This was getting stranger by the minute and I had no clue as to what was going on.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
That was the start of the nightmare. One by one bodies began to appear, each with wounds that could only be accounted for by a battle. The body count was up to six and we were all beginning to jump at the slightest sound, when I had another call.
Would it be one of my team this time? George? The Doc?
But this time the person that had been found in the infirmary corridor wasn’t dead. Sergeant Davis was unconscious, his scalp torn. He looked like he had been through the wringer, but he was definitely alive.
I had him carried in and laid on one of the infirmary beds. Then I just sat beside him and waited. Waited and watched and hoped that no more bodies would be discovered before he woke up.
“General.” The quiet voice startled me out of my thoughts. Davis peered myopically up at me and I realised that I hadn’t even noticed that his glasses were missing.
“Hey, Davis.” I tried to not jump straight up and shake him yelling, “What is going on here!” I was calm. I smiled at him. I touched him gently on the arm.
And yelled, “Davis, what the hell is going on here?”
See – I didn’t shake him.
For a second he looked dazed, and then he began to explain.
Soon after I had left the base, communications went out. Personnel trying to exit had found that they could not get passed the twelfth floor. The base had been cut off from the outside world. Hours had gone by while every possibility was explored. All means of escape seemed to have been cut off, even the gate wouldn’t work – the iris stayed firmly closed no matter what anyone did.
Wait a minute! Hours?
“Sergeant. Are you telling me that everyone is still here?”
Davis looked around as if expecting people to start just showing up. “Yes, Sir. Why? Didn’t you come to rescue us?”
Oh for crying out loud!
“Yes, Davis. I did. But I haven’t.” This was getting more confusing by the second.
“But Sir. We have been here all the time.” Then I could see that he had thought of something that he didn’t like. Didn’t like at all. “What about the aliens?”
Colonel Roney and I exchanged horrified looks.
“Aliens, Davis?” I tried to stay calm. I tried.
“General. About two hours ago, we had reports of fighting on the upper levels. Teal’c and some Marines went to investigate and found a small number of aliens near the force field. They concluded that the aliens were attempting to leave the mountain. We managed to drive them back and the General placed guards around the barrier, but we’ve lost some men and its not looking good.”
Crap!
That explained the bodies.
I shivered, an eerie feeling of being watched setting the hairs on the back of my head twitching.
Where was Carter when I needed her?
It was as if Davis had read my mind. “Major Carter has a theory, Sir.”
I knew that I could trust Carter to figure it out.
“She thinks that the aliens have some how shifted the SGC in time phase. She mentioned something about the Replicators, General.”
Damn! There was a name that I never wanted to hear again! The Replicators still made frequent visits to my nightmares. The time dilation device that the Asgards had created had hopefully trapped them for long enough to work out a permanent solution.
I needed to think this through.
“Had the Major been able to come up with a answer, Sergeant?”
“Not as yet, Sir, but she is working on it. Most of the non-military personnel are holed up in the Mess Hall. The Control Room, Major Carter’s lab and here are the other main areas that the General ordered kept clear of the aliens.” He shook his head and looked down, “I’m sorry, Sir, the rest of the base is over run. There aren’t many of them, but our weapons seem to only have a limited impact. They recover from bullet wounds almost immediately and there just aren’t enough zats to go around.”
I left him with some consoling words and headed back to the Control Room leaving one of my men to watch him.
Halfway there I stopped. Colonel Roney almost ran into my back.
“Sir?”
“You return to the Control Room and keep in radio contact, Colonel. I’m going to head for Major Carter’s lab.” I gave him quick directions as to where it was and turned on my heels to head for the elevator. I couldn’t explain my actions to Roney. I couldn’t explain them to myself either.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
Carter’s lab was as silent as the rest of the base. I hadn’t really expected anything else, but I was disappointed none the less.
I walked around the benches and equipment to Carter’s stool.
It was like someone had just walked over my grave. The feeling that I had experienced before, with the hairs standing up on the back of my head, was multiplied tenfold. Ghostly, eerie - all those adjectives used to describe horror movies started running through my head. You’d think that all the odd things that had happened to me over the last few years would have made me immune to this sort of thing, but they hadn’t.
I eased myself onto the stool and had to stop myself from bolting back up straight away.
I just knew that Carter was there. Sitting exactly where I was sitting. Feeling exactly what I was feeling.
It was the weirdest feeling.
I could feel a headache building behind my eyes. As the pressure grew, I leant forward and sat with elbows on the table, my head in my hands.
How to get them out of this one?
The longer that I took, the more people would die. People that I knew and respected. I had to think.
Carter’s PC sat blinking in front of me, its screen saver cycling across the monitor.
I thought.
My headache grew. Maybe a reaction to my thinking too much? Or maybe not thinking enough? Had my brain finally said – “Enough, take me out of a walk or I’ll pee on the floor”?
I reached over and tapped at a key.
'General?'
Oh shit!
This time I did jump up, staggering against the edge of the table as I lurched.
Ouch! Damn it to Hell and gone!
Crap crap crap!
My bad knee was going to be reminding me of that little move for weeks to come.
I limped back to the screen.
Yeap – still there. 'General?'
There was only one thing to do.
'Carter?'
Okay – now the men in the white coats could come and get me. I’d go quietly.
'Yes, it’s me. Thank god. I thought that I was going crazy.'
Carter thought that she was going crazy? Isn’t that my line? I wasn’t going to question it – just go with the flow.
'Davis is here. He explained. What can we do?'
A flurry of messages later and we’d established that having the Doc knock everyone out was only a bandaid solution at best. At worst it would leave the Earth open to invasion by the aliens. Only Teal’c and his group of defenders were keeping the invaders from opening the barrier that they had created. All attempts at communication with them had failed. In fact, Daniel had been injured trying to contact them in the initial hours. Carter had hastened to reassure me that the injury was minor, but we both knew that lives had already been lost.
Carter thought that the difference between her time and the correct one was only a few seconds – just enough to stop them interacting with the outside world. It had obviously been planned to take the base by surprise, enabling the aliens to reach the surface without interference. They hadn’t reckoned on the tenacity of my people.
Now we just had to figure out a way to kill the invaders and get everyone back to the right time.
No problem.
'Carter?'
'Yes, Sir?'
'Why can we do this?'
'Why?'
'This computer stuff.'
There was no answer. I waited.
Then I panicked.
'CARTER'
'Still here, Sir – thinking.'
'Don’t do that.'
'Do what? Think?'
'No – take so long to answer.'
'Sorry.'
'Well?'
'I don’t know. Give me a bit more time. I’ll report to General Hammond and be back in ten minutes. Okay, Sir?'
'Yes, but try contacting me on the Control Room computer. I’ve set up my command centre there.'
'Yes, Sir.'
I can’t describe the feeling of relief that I was in contact with Carter and knew that SG-1 was safe. Now I knew that we had a chance to solve this.
I hurried down to the Control Room as quickly as I could while limping along on one leg; radioing ahead to arrange for the Special Ops teams to meet me there.
Apart from the man watching over Davis they were all waiting for me when I arrived. I explained about Carter. To say that they all looked at me as if I was a few sandwiches short of a picnic was an understatement. Remember – this was their first experience with the SGC.
By then the ten minutes were up. I sat down at one of the keyboards and typed 'Carter?'
'Here, Sir.'
You could have heard a pin drop. I ignored them. I had more important things to do than score points.
'Figured it out yet?'
'It has something to do with you, Sir.'
Okaaay? Uh?
Colonel Roney was reading over my shoulder and asked the obvious question.
“Huh?”
Can’t fault us military types for articulate speech.
'The aliens waited until you were off the base before making their move. Get someone else to type.'
'Don’t you like me anymore?'
'Just try it Jack. This is Hammond.'
I had just had a firm reminder that this was not a game.
'Yes, Sir.'
I gestured Roney to type something and then waited. Minutes passed.
'Sir?'
'Yes, Carter.'
'Nothing happened at this end.'
We had our answer.
I was the only one able to communicate.
So now we had two questions. Why and how?
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
I reported our progress to Major Davis. Now we had the best brains in the country working on it.
Trouble was that I knew that our best brain was right in the middle of the problem.
So I put my slightly less stellar one to work.
What was there that made me different to anyone else at the SGC?
“Thor!”
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
This is getting old! So old that it has grown legs and walked off.
Thor sat there in his cute throney pilot seat thing and looked inscrutable.
I wasn’t.
Inscrutable I wasn’t.
I was very scrutable.
I stood on the deck of the Asgard flagship and fumed.
It was that marker thing that the Asgard had put in me. Thor confirmed it. It made me different.
Different!
So different in fact that my presence sent up warning signals to alien invaders.
Invaders who didn’t want the Asgard to know what they were doing with stolen technology.
I think that the sight of an annoyed Asgard was one that I will remember for a very long time.
Thor’s eye twitched.
The excitement was almost too much to bear.
He beamed back down to the base with me and frightened the Special Ops soldiers out of ten years growth.
After a brief conference with Carter, Thor sent some instructions up to his ship and we sat back and waited. Within a few minutes people started appearing. The Control Room was getting extremely crowded by the time that George, Carter and Teal’c showed up. It was lucky that I’d had the foresight to make sure that everyone knew where and where not to stand or I would have ended up sitting in Carter’s lap – or was it Carter who would have been sitting in mine? Suffice it to say that that embarrassing event had been averted.
Seems that once the Asgard had been told exactly what had caused the time phase shift they had realised that it was their technology that had caused it. And once they knew that, they knew how to solve it.
When I asked what had happened to the alien invaders Thor became ominously silent.
Thinking about it – I really didn’t want to know. I was just glad that the Asgard were on our side.
o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o
If it hadn’t been for the loss of six of our people, the whole episode would have been nothing more than an annoying interlude. But they were six good people. Six soldiers, who died defending their planet.
Six heroes.
We farewelled them with a ceremony in the gate room the following week.
And we then got back to routine.
My knee hurt.
And I still hadn’t had my break.
The End
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