Alternatives
spacegypsy1
Daniel and Vala end up in another alternative timeline/universe where they find things greatly different if somewhat still the same. They enlist the help of Jack and Sam to get home.
~0i0~
"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition."Rod Sterling, the Twilight Zone
~0i0~
Lungs on fire as well as his legs, Daniel raced ahead of the others for the Stargate. Vala was close on his heels. Ritt, the robed figure they'd been assigned to retrieve from the planet, was being coaxed, or more correctly, dragged along by Mitchell and Sam, while Teal'c had their six.
Sam was lamenting her decision to join them while her ship was in dry dock. Daniel didn't blame her one bit.
It briefly crossed his mind that after the fall of the Goa'uld as well as the Ori, he'd thought that dangerous escapes like this were a thing of the past. Not so. Some missions were just meant to be a disaster.
Hearing the firepower behind him, Daniel kept going, reaching the DHD and punching the symbols in record time. After more than a decade, they were forever etched on his memory. Or so he thought.
Once the Stargate opened he turned, P-90 raised and ready. Vala, out of breath, backed closer to him, her weapon trained on those chasing them. That's when their teammates, along with their mysterious guest, disappeared in a flash of light.
Daniel and Vala dove into the open Stargate.
"Well, crap!" Daniel mumbled, after tumbling head over heels and landing on his feet to find weapons pointed at him. That went well.
"Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel sighed and looked up with a shrug and a grimace towards the unrecognized technician in the control room.
Vala had a handful of his shirt and kept tugging. "Daniel?"
~0i0~
Time travel? Alternate Reality? Hit the wrong symbol in haste? He wasn't really sure. No doubt his companions had not been beamed by the Asgard, they'd long ago wiped themselves out. He couldn't think of any other friendlies of any kind that possessed beaming technology.
However, he was in some kind of bunker, deep underground. Just not Cheyenne Mountain? The uniforms were slightly different. The area looked different. If either General West or General Hammond was in command Daniel knew for sure they were screwed.
The horde of SFs took them off to the infirmary to some doctor he'd never seen before. He didn't recognize anyone and no one seemed interested in trying to communicate. Eventually after much poking and blood taking they'd dumped him in a holding cell and left him hours ago – with Vala in tow.
Strange. Now what? Focus on getting out, finding his wife and together they'd find the others. Yeah, right. Worrying about Vala wasn't helping his thought process either.
After another hour he had a headache from concentrating on options, none of which really made much sense, until someone arrived, boots tapping against stone floor as they approached.
Sitting cross legged with his back against the bars of his cell, nothing new there, he listened, waiting until the footsteps stopped behind him.
"Okay, this is new." The all too familiar voice spoke from behind him.
Daniel's head dropped and he let out a sigh. "Jack?"
"Yeah, but how'd you know that?"
"Oh, I'd know that voice in any scenario, here, there, everywhere. So. What's the story?"
"Who are you?"
"You don't know?" Daniel didn't bother raising his chin or turning around.
"Let's say I don't. So, you know me. And that would be…why?"
"Well, there was the decade of friendship, the alternate time lines, things like that. You know, Stargate travel, quantum mirrors, the '60's, SG-1, Antarctica. Tigers, lions, bears. Things are always different, yet not. You might be from Minnesota, married to Sara, maybe not. With or without a son named Charlie, in charge of the Stargate program. Retired. Or something altogether different. Who knows? I just want to know where my wife is and how to get out of here. Try to retrace my steps and find the others."
"Others being…?" Jack asked, sarcastically.
Ignoring the question, Daniel asked, "Where'd they take Vala?"
"She's safe, I promise. You'll see her soon."
"Sam, Teal'c, Mitchell? Anybody sound familiar?"
"Sam who, as in he Sam or she Sam?"
Daniel turned his head for a look. Jack O'Neill for sure. He sighed again and stood facing Jack. "Carter. Colonel Samantha Carter, full birds and all that – she came along just for the fun of it, jokes on her. And Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and Teal'c of Chulak - big guy, saved your ass a time or five hundred. Mitchell and Teal'c, Vala and of course yours truly are the current SG-1. The team I'm part of at Stargate Command on the planet Earth. Ever heard of that?"
"Earth? Yeah, so why are you here?"
"Dialed the Gate and here I am. From some alternate whatever you want to call it… you've heard of that, right? Alternate Universe? Alternate time? Alternative dimension? Alternative reality? You have a Sam Carter? She'd know."
"I have a Dr. Samantha O... Carter. I've heard of a Cam Mitchell. And possibly I might have had a run in with a Teal'c of Chulak. And you are?"
"Dr. Daniel Jackson, archeologist, linguist, etcetera, etcetera. Hey, you have some food? Water?"
Jack turned and nodded to the guard behind him. "Any Daniel Jackson I may or may not know isn't anywhere around here, isn't military, bulked up, short haired, rectangled glasses wearing, tough guy. So, go on."
"Is that a compliment? Could I speak to Dr. Carter? Not much else to tell you could actually understand."
"Nope. The doctor is on maternity leave. I'm the man in charge anyway. The Teal'c guy, big guy, bald head, big gold tattoo in his forehead, we've heard he's out rounding up friends in hopes of fighting… well, anyway. Mitchell's off in one of our new… well, he's out there somewhere," Jack waved a hand around. "He's not really connected with this program. Per se, at this time. We just keep an eye on the Stargate and not much else. That keeps us busy enough."
"Per se? Good for you, Jack. Could you call Sam… Dr. Carter? See if she'd agree to stop by and talk to me?"
"Not sure some astronaut could help. When did you leave Abydos?"
"Abydos?"
"Ah, yeah, Abydos. When did you leave?"
"I guess it was around 1995. What's with the astronaut thing?"
"Come on, I saw you... that man there in 1998."
"Nope. Not me, I left."
"Why? And where have you been, if indeed you are a certain other person that is that person or another person or a duplicate person?"
"Look, Jack, here's what happened in my reality. I left Abydos when you came to force me to leave. When Sha're was taken and infested with Ammunet I came to Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain and officially joined SG-1 to find her."
Dubious, Jack frowned. "What the hell is Cheyenne Mountain? Daniel, I can't help you if you don't tell me the truth."
"Jack, I can't help you if you won't get Sam. She can explain it. Didn't you, at some point in the last ten or so years, have some kind of contact with a quantum mirror? Alternate realities, out of phase experiences, something like that?"
There was no response from Jack, except for his signature blank stare.
"Come on Jack, you've got to know something is different here. I'm not your Daniel Jackson. And by the way, where is he?"
"If, and I stress IF, you are a certain Daniel Jackson, you're supposed to be on Abydos with your wife and kids for cryin out loud!"
Just the slightest twinge of lost possibilities waft through him. "No. I lost my wife, Sha're, to a Goa'uld. She was killed. Her child with Apophis, the Harcissis, left this physical plane long ago. My wife is Vala Mal Doran."
"You married Vala Mal Doran?" Jack flapped his hand around in agitation and Daniel's eyes caught the glint of a gold wedding band. "Daniel, I'm calling Sam. I'm done trying to make sense of all of this." Turning on his heels Jack waved at the guard to open the door.
Incredulous, Daniel called out, "You married Sam?"
Jack ignored him and closed the door.
~0i0~
"At last. Sam. You're still a scientist, right?"
Sam nodded.
Daniel sighed again, then looked up through the bars. "Right. You're someone who knows about Gate travel, astrophysics, stuff like that?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
"Of course. An astronaut? But I know you and I know what you know. Well, I think I know what you know. Let's see, your father is Jacob Carter, brother Mark. In my, er, universe I was brought into this, er, that Stargate program by Catherine Langford. I figured out the glyphs, we dialed Abydos, I stayed you guys left. The Goa'uld became a big problem, I was contacted on Abydos, retrieved. My wife Sha're was taken as a host, we went and found Teal'c, he saved us, became a part of the team with you, me, Jack and we fought, won, Sha're died, Jack went on to Washington, you eventually went on to Command Atlantis – in the Pegasus galaxy, flying city built by the Alterans...heard of them? After that you commanded the Hammond, big spaceship Daedalus-class battlecruiser, one of several ships we have."
"Holy Hannah! You really are from somewhere else aren't you?"
"Yes. Please let me see Vala. I'm worried about her."
"She's fine. Obviously not the same Vala Mal Doran we've run into."
Daniel scrunched up his face, hands waving too and fro. "Maybe, just no longer... anyway, when can I see her?"
Sam turned to the guard. "Bring Vala." Then she turned back to Daniel. "It's good to see you, him, I mean, that you are... what happened?"
"You're married to Jack? With a child?"
"Two."
"Holy buckets!" Daniel looked truly shocked. "You're an astronaut? Have you been through the Stargate? Do you dabble at all in astrophysics? Vala and I came through the Stargate, home, or at least we thought we were coming home. We've come through some switcheroo, as Jack would call it. Not for the first time. Anywho... our teammates, Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c along with our guest, were beamed away just as we got to the Gate. I think they were beamed, or something happened to them. We need to go back and find them. But I don't know how. How to fix this. To get back to our little slice of the universe."
"I dabble. We don't have any battlecruisers, spaceships, we do very rarely go through the Stargate. That's how we ran into Vala. It was a bit of a disaster to say the least."
"I can imagine. Look, Sam, we don't have much time. Can you help us?"
"I can try." Sam agreed, smiling with great interest.
When the outside door opened Daniel looked up. "Vala! Thank the gods you're alright."
"Hello, darling. Strange world you've brought us to. You may soon outnumber the times you've died with the times you've skipped over to some alternative thingie." Hands grasping the bars that separated her and Daniel, Vala grinned wide then puckered her lips and waited for his kiss.
Daniel obliged with a quick smack on her lips.
"Well, that was disappointing!" Vala turned to Sam. "Oh, Samantha, you look absolutely ravishing. I've never seen you look so happy, and glowing. And what's with the no uniform? Did you come from home? Where is Caro and General Landry? What's going on here?"
"We'll talk later. I'll recommend we move you two into secured quarters. Jack should be able to..."
"No time for that, Sam. We need to get back as soon as possible. Do you have a lab here?"
Brows diving downward, Sam answered. "Lab? Me? No. Dr. Lee..."
"Bill? Great! Get us out of here and let's go see him."
"I'll have to check with Jack."
Confused, Vala looked back and forth from Sam to Daniel. "What's going on?"
~0i0~
Bill Lee was deep in thought staring at the computer screen. Sam sat across from Daniel and Daniel stared over to where Vala was across the room.
"What's she so mad about?" Sam whispered to Daniel.
His gaze moved to Sam. "You have two kids. We have none... yet. She's not happy about that. My fault, we've been cleaning up a little mess after the Ori, and since she had Adria... very, very long story, she's been worried. I just wanted to wait a few more months. Carolyn, Dr. Lam, assures her she's fine. I shouldn't have insisted on waiting."
"Oh, boy. Sounds interesting. If we have time later, maybe you can tell me the, uhm, Ori/Adria story." Sam went back to the computer she was working on as Daniel looked over to where Vala stood with her back to them.
Voice low, Daniel asked. "Sam? Did you talk to Jack again?"
"Yes. Stop worrying. And, he assures me if this doesn't work, well, you and Vala will have a place here."
"We don't want to be here. No offense but we have to find you, er, her, Mitchell and Teal'c. We have a good life. We should be there. Not here."
"Bill and I are trying, Daniel. But there are no guarantees. I don't see how this is going to go quickly. There are Stargate diagnostics, some seriously detailed calculations – which I haven't done in years."
"That's wrong." Vala called from across the room.
"What? What's wrong?" Sam approached the board with Daniel not far behind.
"This little section of squiggles and numbers." Vala waved a finger back and forth over a long line of calculations. It's backwards. Don't you remember,Sam? Well of course you don't... but when you did this same sequence that time that... well, never mind that, anyway it's backwards because I remember. This part was in red, and it was the other way around. And there was something else on the end of it. Some kind of picture looking box thingie. And it's completely missing the part with the Naquadah symbols, those I know, too, and the blue part isn't there either. Where's the Naquadah bit? Where's the blue colored part that represents the blue crystal? Even if you don't have an actual DHD you have to have the blue crystal part and the Naquadah part in your equation or it's all totally useless." Hands on her hips Vala glared at Daniel and Sam.
Bill Lee began typing into the computer, looking back and forth from the board to the screen.
"Oh my God! That's it! Vala, you're a genius!"
"I love her. Love her like crazy." Daniel said, grinning.
~0i0~
Late that night, after spending hours talking to Sam, Daniel crawled into the bed, and snuggled close to Vala, kissing her neck.
"Darling? Don't you think it's really quite nice that in some other of the threads in the universe you are happy with Sha're, and I'm out having adventures in thievery, er, procurement and Sam and Jack are together, too? Maybe in another thread, I'm married and never was taken as a host. Or married to Tomin and raised Adria as a real child? It's all possible. But, I have to admit that I love the thread where you and I are married. It's the best of all the treads. I love you so very much. And I hope Daniel that when we go back tomorrow, that is if it all works, that the little thing that was growing when we left is still growing when we get back because I didn't tell you that I messed up on the whole birth control thingie. Because I thought you would be mad and think I did it on purpose, which I did not. I hope we find Cam and Teal'c and get back to real life." Vala laid very still waiting for Daniel to explode. She felt, somewhere in the middle of her admission, Daniel quit kissing her neck. However, shortly after her confession stopped she could feel his silent laughter.
"Vala?" He said with a note of happiness in his voice.
"Yes, Daniel?"
"Maybe we should see about planting something to grow, here, now, just in case."
"Yes, darling. Yes we should."
~0i0~~0i0~
"Where the hell have you two been!" Mitchell stood at the bottom of the ramp, glaring.
"Where the hell did you go?" Daniel returned Mitchell's glare.
"Where did we go? We didn't go anywhere."
"What? Yes you did. You disappeared in a flash of light and we dove through the Stargate."
Mitchell turned to Teal'c. "What'd Sam call it?"
"Electro-magnetic burst."
"Yeah, that. Momentarily stunned us. Like a super flash of lightening, but not deadly. Gave me a hell of a headache though. We dialed Earth... again and low and behold you weren't here. Where the hell were you?"
"Another time, another place, another life. The usual." Daniel said.
"Aw, damn. You two okay?"
"Perfectly." Vala answered with a wide grin spreading over her face. "We saw an alternate Jack and Sam. Sam was married to Jack, not you. And no you and no Muscles. No Landry. No Dr. Lam. Where is Caro? I need to talk to her."
After a very short look of consternation, Mitchell spoke. "Ah, damn, that's trouble. I'm sure you're gonna do more than talk. Now we have to verify you're our Daniel and Vala. This has to be the craziest job on Earth."
Vala stopped in her tracks as they all headed out of the Gateroom. "Muscles?"
"Yes, Vala Mal Doran?"
"Mal Doran? Are Daniel and I married in this reality?"
"You are not."
"Oops." Daniel said. "Here we go again."
Mitchell shook his head, "Son of a bitch! Where the hell is my Daniel?"
There was something in the way he said My Daniel that had the aforementioned yet other Daniel taking a sudden and awkward look at his Vala.
Vala's eyes widened then squinted. "No. Couldn't be. But then again, I suppose it could. Who would I have hooked up with? Muscles? Sam? Walter? Carolyn? Landry, Lindsey...?" And on and on she went.
~END