Baal's time machine was a marvel of engineering that she would have liked to take apart and put back together again in order to learn all of its intricate secrets. She settled for just figuring out how it worked and what it did because she wanted even more to put this long, unending mission behind her once and for all. It was time.
The Daniels wondered around like stray dogs while she studied the machine. There was little here to interest them. That troubled her. Once she understood Baal's weapon and how to use it they'd be faced with the choice of staying in this time and letting themselves be overwritten, returning to the alternate reality and making a place for themselves, or joining her in the past. It wasn't a choice she could make for them, but life hadn't beaten her so far down that she didn't wish a happy ending for them.
And for herself? The only conclusion to this whole mess that would make her happy was knowing that she'd been successful in stopping Baal from striking a blow with this time machine. So even though she would have liked to find a happy ever after for at least one of the Daniels, she didn't go looking for one. Soon after beginning the search for a solar flare that would send them back to the late 1930's, she found it anyway. Or at least the tantalizing possibility of one.
"Daniel," she said quietly and both of them looked up from where they'd plopped themselves sometime before when they'd grown tired of wandering the cavern. "I...uh...I've found something."
"Yeah?" they both asked climbing awkwardly to a stand and coming to curiously hover over her shoulders. "The right flare?"
"I guess that will depend on what you want to do with it."
"As in?"
"I can send you back ten years, Daniel." She waited expectantly for one of them to make the connection.
"As in ten years...you can send us back to Sha're?" one of them said in a stunned whisper.
"Why not?" the other said. "Ten years ago in this timeline, and who knows how many others, the original mission to Abydos never happened. She very well could be back there."
She didn't look at them as they exchanged looks and came to whatever decision they would come to. "There's only a short window of opportunity. You have to decide soon," she told them. "But you both could go you know--once you're in the past, you can Gate to the Mirror and both of you can find realities where she is still there."
"No," one of them said in a resolute voice, "you might need help back in 1939. Neither one of us is going to send you on without any backup. I'll stay, and he'll go." As that was more than she'd dared hope, she didn't protest.
"All right," she said. "Be ready to go through as soon as the Gate opens." She dialed in the coordinates, and he put a hand on her shoulder in farewell. She reached up and squeezed it.
"Take care," he said.
"You, too." The Gate kawhoosed open then, and he shuffled off to a future ten years in the past.
"Aren't you even curious which one of us left?" the remaining man asked from behind her shoulder.
Whatever she would have answered was lost when the Gate reactivated. "We have incoming!" she shouted as they both scrambled for their weapons. They hunkered beyond the scanty cover of the machine's control console and watched as several Jaffa marched through the Gate.
"Teal'c," Daniel breathed in a whisper of recognition and surprise near her ear.
He was right, but it was not the Teal'c that had fought beside them on SG-1 for ten years. This was the warrior, the loyal servant of the gods, and he was not pleased to find them there. There was an uncomfortable standoff between the Jaffa and the two humans.
It ended abruptly when transport rings appeared on one of the walkways beyond the machine. Sam and Daniel had both drawn in one last breath of air as they prepared to face a two-pronged attack, but when Teal'c's Jaffa opened fire it was at the newcomers. Throwing themselves to the narrow pathway at the base of the control console, they struggled to make sense of their predicament. They were pinned down in the cross fire of a battle between opposing Jaffa forces, and when one side emerged victorious...
She tried to push herself up to a stand, but Daniel pulled her back down. "You'll get killed!" he hissed at her.
"We've got to keep trying to find a flare! We'll never have this chance again!" she shouted at him trying to shake off his grip.
"Forget it," he told her. "Wait."
"No!" she shouted and tore herself from his hold. She kept as low as she could and still see the controls and machine readout. That wasn't low enough.
The staff blast hit her right side, tearing through her flack jacket and leaving behind it a wide swath of burned and bleeding skin. She held onto the console for dear life to keep the force of it from throwing her off the walkway and into the deep yawning cavern below. She fought against the shock of the injury to focus on the readout she'd just seen when she'd taken the hit.
The right flare was building up on a star 150,000 light years away. Well, not quite the right flare, but as close as they were going to get. Fighting vertigo and weakness, she dialed the Gate. Then, she collapsed down beside Daniel. He crouched over her trying to stanch the blood oozing from her side, but she shook him off.
"You've got to go. Get to the Gate. Stop Baal."
"Sam..." he began but she didn't let him finish.
"You'll have to wait a bit...three years. Give you time to figure out a way to stop him. Go." She motioned toward the Gate, and he recognized the futility of doing anything but obeying.
"I love you, Sam,"* he told her and then he scurried awkwardly away from her and toward the Gate. A good number of Teal'c's Jaffa had pushed past them to engage the opposing forces at close range so the way was clearer than it had been earlier. The clanging sounds of the opening StarGate were swallowed up by the sounds of the battle, and the kawhoosh caught most of the remaining warriors by surprise.
That left only two in Daniel's way. He rushed them with his pistol firing and one of them fell to his charge. He shambled past the other and dived head first into the Gate.
She watched his feet disappear into the swirling blue of the wormhole and waited to disappear.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The return of Gate Team 1 and the sole surviving member of SG-1 was a somber homecoming. The mission had been successful in that they had fulfilled the mission objective to find something with which to combat the Replicators. But, their losses had been high, perhaps too high. The debriefings were extensive and yielded less than satisfactory conclusions. Too little was known about who had captured the team or what their purpose had been; and even less on why the Replicators had massed on that one planet. It was grudgingly accepted that they would never really know what had happened on that desolate world.
No one took her innocence for granted. She spent a good deal of her recovery under suspicion...no phone calls, no outside contacts. Just questions and more questions until finally her name was cleared. Daniel had been right. Once they had allowed her to convince them she was not guilty of whatever had happened out there, she was the hero of the hour.
After expressing his condolences, General Landry came as close as she supposed he ever would to expressing his apologies as well. She accepted them humbly without any bitterness; after all he'd been right to distrust her. Every suspicion he'd harbored had been right on. He had no need to apologize.
And neither did she though he wouldn't have seen it that way if things had not taken such an unexpected turn. They'd both served their worlds well. And they were both experienced officers enough to know sometimes that was just as distasteful as not.
This was definitely one of those times. She convinced Dr. Frasier, the SGC's new CMO, she was fit for travel and went home.
~*~*~*~*~*~
He stretched his long legs over the railing and looked up at the stars. He thought that was where it would come. Whatever it was that had caused her to call him and say without preamble or explanation, "Take the boys to the lake, Jon."
There'd been no urgency in her voice only resignation so he'd understood whatever was coming wasn't something he could fight or outrun. There was nothing he could do protect his sons.
And he'd also understood she didn't believe whatever she was trying to do would save them either. She hadn't sent them to the boat for safety but because it would give her a measure of peace to think of them out on the lake with the waves gently rocking them. If whatever she was attempting failed, she wanted the end to come for them there where'd they'd enjoyed so many good times.
She had had nothing else to say. Just, "Take the boys to the lake, Jon," followed by a tight, "I love you all," and then she'd been gone. He hadn't wasted any time in packing up the few things they might need on the boat and heading out. Travis had protested missing practice but the younger boys had been more than excited to miss a day or two of school.
He'd fallen asleep watching the sky that first night and every night since. He wondered how long she expected him to sit out here waiting for the end and if he'd see it coming or if would sneak up on him. It was later in the fall than he usually took the boat out, but the weather had held. The night sky was clear and bright with stars as he watched it quietly while the boys slept in their bunks.
He thought if he woke up in the morning, it would be time to take their chances in the city. When you took three months vacation time every year to start with, there were only so many days you could afford to miss until you didn't have a job at all. He'd been pushing the limits already this year with the two trips he'd made to Antarctica to sit in that chair. The 'consultation fee' he'd received in compensation helped, but even with Maggie's paychecks supplementing his own, he wasn't planning on taken an early retirement.
And then there was school and practice and the piles of library books stacked under chairs and thrown in the corners of rooms all over his house accruing daily overdue fines. And there was still Charlie's visit coming up and all the extra cleaning and shopping to be done for it. If the world was still here tomorrow, he'd have to rejoin it. He couldn't wait around on the end forever.
He must have nodded off because the next time he was aware she was there watching him sleep.
"Hey," he said.
She smiled at him. Not with a big 'we just saved the world' grin which he thought didn't bode well. Just a 'hello, there' sort of smile. And not a particularly happy one at that.
"So," he said when she didn't volunteer any information, "what's up?"
"The weather's great and Charlie isn't coming for a few more days...how about a late boating trip?"
"Aren't you supposed to be reporting for duty in the morning?"
"I have a couple of days' medical leave," she said. He frowned at her but she wasn't volunteering any farther information so he knew he'd have to come at that one in a round about way.
"What about work and school?" he asked because they had been on his mind when he'd fallen asleep, not because he cared a thing about them at the moment. The real question was why hadn't she called and let him know she was still alive? Why hadn't she called to tell him he could quit sitting out here in the chilly night air waiting for the end of the world? He didn't bother asking because he didn't think he'd get a truthful answer if he did.
"I doubt they'll disappear in the next few days."
"Sure about that?"
She smiled again and this time he could see the relief behind it, "Sure as I can be." And that, he thought, would have to do him.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The sounds of the battle disappeared before she did. She lay in a triumphant, bloody heap and heard Teal'c's voice claiming victory against whomever he'd been battling.
"I die free," he called out. So do I, she thought. Daniel would stop Baal; their battle with time was over. She'd done all she could for both of the worlds she'd sworn to serve and for both of the men she loved. There was nothing more for her to do but wait for the end. She'd fought the good fight, lived with integrity and all that. There was no shame in letting time wipe her out of existence.
A flash and a concussive blast flared through the cavern. It buffeted her, but she was for the most part shielded by the control console. The air filled with the charred, bitter smell of burning flesh. She coughed painfully as it gagged her.
Time was taking its own sweet time in wiping her out of existence.
Wearily she struggled to her feet. Blood ran hot and thick down her side. She thought if time didn't hurry up, death would beat it to the punch. She clung to the console a moment, staring through the smoke at the dead bodies strewn over the pathways.
She looked numbly at the Gate symbols under her arms and suddenly this was not where she wanted it to end.
She'd go back, back to where it had all begun. Back to where she'd lost him. When time overtook her that was where she wanted to be.
She disconnected the time machine and dialed the numbers with a hand that was far from steady. Only her strength of will moved her up the walkway, past the remains of the Jaffa caught in the earlier kawhoosh, and finally into the open Gate on a one way trip to oblivion.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Somehow, though that wasn't where she emerged. As she stumbled out of the Gate, she had the briefest glimpse of the members of SG-1 spread out before her on the Gate platform. And at its base, looking up to see her come through-Jack, with a pleased grin on his face, his weapon cradled in his arms like a prized possession, and no spreading blood stain on his shoulder. Whole and unharmed. Alive.
"Whoa!" Daniel said, reaching out an arm and keeping her from falling on her face. She clung to him a second in bewilderment and awakening wonder. He helped her get her feet under her and asked, "Sam, something wrong?" She fought for breath in the sudden absence of the pain and weakness that had assailed her on the other side of the Gate and for understanding in the confusion of finding herself just as whole and unharmed as Jack here in this place among these people.
"You all right there, Carter?" Mitchell called casually, unconcerned over his shoulder as he moved away. Unconcerned because there was nothing alarming in her appearance to make any of them think she'd done anything more than to stumble going into the Gate. Her clothes and weapons matched theirs. Her clothes, her hair, everything about her matched up to how she'd looked stepping onto this planet two and a half years before.
Somehow, someway she hadn't been wiped out of time but merged back into it. She had the memories of the other timeline, of Jon and the boys, of choosing to save not just her world but both of them, of the Daniels, of the Replicator attack and losing Cam, of it all. Yet physically she was the Sam Carter who had arrived through this very Gate that long ago day.
It had to be the Gate...somehow being in transit when time reverted had kept her from disappearing with the altered timeline. Again. Like it had the three of them when this whole nightmare had begun. But, this time...something else had to have gone on.
Something in the Gate design must have recognized her particles and melded them with the rewritten Carter's. Even after all these years there was much still to be learned about the Gate's capabilities and fail-safes. Two individuals demolecularized in the system at the same time with the same signatures, same DNA, same personality matrixes, and same destination...the Gate might recognize a paradox and reconstitute them as one--using certain criteria such as the stronger physical signature to pick and choose what would be saved and what would be lost in the melding. If that were the case, it would go without saying that it would pick the mind with the most data as the default.
That was the best she could come up with at the moment. It might not bear up to close inspection, but it would do as a working hypothesis. Certainly she couldn't argue its plausibility because here she was where she'd started and he was standing at the base of the platform looking up at her with a welcoming grin.
"Sam?" Daniel asked quietly in her ear. He was not yet alarmed but growing concerned in her continued silence. Then he followed her gaze, gave a muffled 'oh' of comprehension, and with a smile and a shake of his head, he nimbly descended the stairs two at a time.
She couldn't take her eyes off of the man at the bottom of those steps. He was alive and unharmed and his grin only widened the longer it took her to find her voice. "You coming?" he called up to her, and she could tell he was delighted she wasn't doing a better job of hiding her joy in seeing him.
"General," Mitchell said in acknowledgement as he came to a stop beside him, and he 'Coloneled' him back while still watching her. Mitchell turned to scowl up at her and say, "Carter?"
"I'm coming," she said to both of them and forced her legs to move.
"Good. Let's go," Mitchell said striding off.
"What's his hurry?" Jack asked as he soundly thumped Daniel's back and clasped Teal'c's forearm in greeting.
"First extraction ceremony," Daniel said succinctly, and Jack gave an 'Ahh' of comprehension. She reached him then, and she could see the calculation going through his mind. What were the odds anyone here would care if he skipped the 'colonel' and went right to the hug and kiss? As always decorum won out as they both had known it would. He'd never reveal a weakness of that magnitude before the Tok'ra who he still viewed as more enemy than ally even after all the years they'd fought the Goa'uld together.
He nodded his head at her in a silent promise that there'd be time for that later after the debriefings and behind closed doors. They'd spent too many years practicing this dance to trip it up here...even though he was smart enough and she was experienced enough to know one day there might not be time for that after all.
"Ready?" he asked her.
"Yes, Sir," she responded even though she wasn't. She was still trying to come to grips with this unexpected reality. She should not be here. Only, of course, she should. That had after all been what these last few days had been all about. Getting back to this point in time, getting back to make sure he didn't die here by Baal's hand.
But she should not be walking beside him knowing what she knew, remembering what she did. Knowing that his blood had soaked into the soil of this planet, that he'd died here and there'd been nothing she could do to save him, that they'd already lived out this particular piece of time once before. She should not be here.
But she was. And though she should have informed him then that she'd been through a time shift, should have requested permission to go back to Earth and make her report, should have followed protocol and spoken up she didn't. Instead she grinned at him and walked beside him along the dusty path to the ceremony. There'd be time for that later as well. After she'd seen Baal's slimy existence spilled out into the dirt of this world.
He'd fidgeted and fussed through the hours of singing just like he had before. She wasn't fooled, he was as pleased as she was to be standing there side by side sneaking hungry glances at each other like school kids. Well, he was as pleased as she'd been that first time. He couldn't even begin to be as pleased as she was this time around.
Baal had trotted over to gloat just like he had before. As though it was their execution and not his own they were gathered there to celebrate. She looked into his smirking face and Mitchell's surprised, "Carter!" came an instant too late.
Jack looked down at Baal lying half stunned where her blow had put him and under his breath said, "Nice." He didn't know the half of it.
The Tok'ra pulled Baal up from the ground and dragged him to the extraction chamber. Without a word of explanation, she followed them over and double-checked the restraints behind them. They frowned at her but kept their own counsel. Doubtlessly everyone there with the possible exception of Vala would have loved to be the one who'd thrown that punch.
When she made her way back over to stand beside him, Jack leaned slightly towards her and said, "Down, girl." When she let that pass without an explanation or an apology, he said, "Something I should know about, Colonel?"
"Later, Sir," she'd answered him. "I want to watch this." They'd both focused their attention back to the ceremony then. When the Tok'ra dashed Baal to the ground, it was almost more than she could do to not stomp his slimy head with the heel of her boot and grind it into the dirt.
"That's it?" Mitchell asked when it was all over, and she fervently hoped so.
"Lunch?" Jack asked everyone hopefully. Once he mentioned he was paying the guys all agreed. Vala bowed out to hang with the Tok'ra and see how things went for Baal's last victim, and she didn't say anything.
The guys might all make it to Mallory's to make a dent in his expense account, but she'd be tied up in debriefings for the duration. Sooner or later, Walter would send her in a stale, dry sandwich but that was the most she could hope for. Not that she was complaining.
Walking beside him, laughing at one of his dumb wisecracks, she thought she would never complain again.
~~~~~~~
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*Lest anyone wonder, I am not insinuating a romantic love here. Certainly the love between two friends can be as strong and as binding as any: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13Site Navigation
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