Disclaimer: I guess you already know that, but for the record, I don't own Stargate or any of the characters. So, no copyright infringement intended.
Spoilers: Set in season 7 before Chimera, so up until then.
Pairings: Come on, do you really have to ask? Sam/Jack as always. There might be hints of Daniel/Janet in future chapters, I'm not sure yet.
Rating: T to be safe.
A/N: This was written with the intention of maintaining the status quo between Sam and Jack, so don't expect any AU. I'm sorry people, that's what it is.
Back To The Future
"Unscheduled off-world activation! General Hammond to the control room!"
"It's SG-5, sir!" Sergeant Walter Harriman informed his CO as the General hurriedly made his way down the stairs.
"They're two hours early," Hammond commented, a streak of worry evident in his voice. "Open the iris."
"Yes, sir, opening iris."
The metal plate covering the Gate swooshed open to reveal a shimmering pool of blue, which was in fact the event horizon of an incoming wormhole.
The General watched with relief as all members of SG-5 made their way through, apparently unharmed. The last one to emerge, or so Hammond had thought, was Colonel Harper, commander of SG-5. But as soon as he was clear, Harper started gesturing in direction of the observation window, signaling the General to keep the iris open.
Just as Hammond opened his mouth to ask what the hell was that about, a man and a woman emerged from the puddle. Sergeant Harriman looked up at his CO, unsure about what to do, but the older man's eyes were glued on the newcomers. They were both dressed in what seemed to be standard issue BDUs, yet the General was positive he'd never seen them before.
The first thought to cross his mind was the obvious, they'd had aliens posing as military personnel before, and protocol was very clear on how to proceed in a situation like that. But the way SG-5 gathered around the couple, presumably to check on them, had him wonder whether they, too, weren't under some sort of alien influence. God knew it wouldn't have been the first time. Which meant they would require medical attention. And the woman had apparently suffered a serious injury, for she was leaning heavily against the man for support and despite her obvious effort to stand straight and hold her head up, her pale face was creased with pain.
Before anyone else could start asking questions, the General's command programming took over.
"Security and medical teams to the Gate room!"
o-O-o
Later that day Major Samantha Carter, along with the rest of SG-1, was sitting in the briefing room, waiting for General Hammond to show up. Daniel was trying to cover a monstrous yawn by bringing a steaming mug of coffee close to his lips. He'd been up all night working on his translation again, Sam thought. Colonel O'Neill was sitting restless next to her, fidgeting with a pen and complaining about not being able to finish his lunch, and Teal'c was impassive as always. Just as Sam's thoughts started to wander to a new power generator they'd found on P4X 673 the day before and that had kept her awake all night and she still couldn't figure it out, she heard General Hammond enter the room.
"As you were," he ordered before Sam or anyone else could stand up to greet him. Right after him, doctor Janet Fraiser came in and took a seat. Sam flashed her friend a questioning glance, Janet wasn't usually present during mission briefings, but the doctor seemed preoccupied. She was likely to have a good reason, too, SG-1 wasn't scheduled to go off-world for another day or so and mission briefings this much in advance certainly weren't common practice.
"Early this morning," the General began in a serious tone, overlooking his flagship team. "SG-5 discovered two humans on P7Y 248. They brought them back through the Gate and I had..."
"Sir, what's that to do with us? They found'em, they deal with'em." Colonel Jack O'Neill rudely interrupted the General, which would ordinarily be considered insubordination, but Colonel O'Neill was no ordinary officer. He was no ordinary man. Nope, to her, he was anything but that.
All of a sudden, Sam was painfully aware of the man sitting next to her, so close that they were almost touching. In that single unguarded moment, her mind was instantaneously flooded with images of her CO, of everything they'd been through together and how their relationship had changed over the past seven years. They'd started out as colleagues back in the early days of the Stargate programme when she'd felt the constant need to prove herself to him, to earn his respect, partly because she hero-worshipped him a little bit after the first Abydos mission, but mostly because he was a guy, another tough Air Force officer who apparently didn't believe a woman, a scientist, could be just as good a soldier as himself. And she managed to earn his respect, as both soldier and scientist. And, a tiny voice deep in her head whispered, as a woman, too.
She'd known from the very beginning she shouldn't be thinking about him as anything but her CO, and for quite some time she'd even been reasonably successful, despite their frequent friendly flirting and occasional glances and smiles. She wasn't really sure about the breaking point, the exact moment when she'd started seeing him as Jack rather than Colonel O'Neill, someone she would have liked to spend time with even if they weren't working together. She suspected it may have had something to do with their trip to Washington some five years ago. When she'd taken him on a tour around the city, because of his claim he'd never really had seen it properly, although she'd suspected otherwise; but then what harm was there in two colleagues, friends, taking a nice long walk around the monuments and talking about other things than just work. Yeah, right, what harm, she chided herself. Like it hadn't all gone downhill from there.
"…and they claim to be members of the SGC," General Hammond concluded with a sigh, his pale blue eyes deadly serious.
Sam flinched, having realized that her mind had wandered away and she'd obviously missed an important part of the briefing. This wasn't like her, but considering she hadn't slept for the past twenty-two or so hours and her last decent meal had been a bowl of cereal for breakfast the day before, she was still doing pretty well. Except for this minor lapse in concentration, that was. Daniel gave her a questioning look from across the table but she ignored it, her attention entirely on the briefing.
"Okay, here's a question!" the Colonel interrupted again, clearly angered by the fact that he was dragged away from his lunch to listen to this. "What reason do we have to trust them?"
Everyone in the room turned to the General, expecting an answer. Even though none of them would admit it out loud, the Colonel had voiced their common concern. Hammond just nodded once, acknowledging his 2IC's question and then nodded at Janet. "Doctor?"
Janet stood up immediately. Whatever this is about, it has to be big, Sam thought.
"First, I had to treat their injuries. The man," she paused, rummaging through her notes to find his name. "Mark Bishop, only had minor scratches and mild burns. His companion, however, hadn't been so lucky. Apart from some second degree burns on her chest, she suffered a severe injury to her right leg; judging by the nature of the wound, I'd say it was caused by a plasma weapon of some sort."
"Which would be consistent with their story," Daniel noted. "Right?" He added briskly as he noticed the Colonel eyeing him skeptically. Sam figured this wasn't the right time to ask what exactly their story was.
Janet ignored Daniel's remark and continued. "After that I took blood samples to run DNA tests as well as samples of the fabric their uniforms are made of. Just to be sure."
"And?" Colonel O'Neill asked, unconsciously leaning forward. Janet seemed to have caught his attention.
After just a moment Janet replied. "They're human, alright."
"And? But? So? Therefore?" Jack inquired, back in the typical O'Neill mode.
"Well, I analyzed their blood for traces of any elements or substances that would suggest extra terrestrial origin." Janet paused again. Somewhere in a far corner of her brain, Sam wondered if Janet realized what effect these momentary hesitations had on her audience. "There are none."
"Which means what exactly?" Daniel asked, bemused.
"Which means chances are pretty good that whoever they are, they were conceived, born and raised on Earth." Sam concluded and sent a barely noticeable reassuring smile to her obviously nervous doctor friend.
"And that's not all. Right now, I only have preliminary results of the fabric analysis. The materials are similar to those we use today, only they contain substances that we are unfamiliar with. Yet." Janet finished with a sigh.
"Are you suggesting they're from the future?" Sam asked incredulously.
Everyone looked at her as if a third eye had just grown on her forehead. Colonel O'Neill gave her a look that was one of both confusion and concern. Sam just shrugged a little in response.
"Well, that's what they're saying." Janet answered and although she didn't say it out loud, Sam could hear the 'Duh!' hanging at the end of the sentence all too well.
"Um, they say they're military, right?" Daniel rushed to save the situation, breaking the awkward silence. "So, uh, shouldn't they have dog tags or something that could… you know?" he trailed off, gesturing wildly with his hand to compensate for the lack of words.
Janet sighed again, apparently struggling to keep her report neutral. "As for that, the man's dog tags identified him as Lieutenant Colonel Mark Bishop, all data exactly the same as our test results."
Colonel O'Neill opened his mouth to say something but before he could do so, Janet continued.
"It gets better, the tags also give his birth date." She took a deep breath. "March 24, 2004."
The room fell silent as everyone tried to take in the information. Whoever these people were, they had certainly put themselves through a whole lot of trouble to make their story believable. Either that, or…
Sam was the first to speak up, as a scientist she had to at least admit it was possible. Not to mention her personal experience with time travel, the memory of which was still very vivid. "What about the woman? Do we have any means of identification?"
"She claims to be Bishop's subordinate, but no, no tags."
"Hah! There it goes!" Colonel O'Neill said with a victorious expression, waving his hands in front of him and finally pointing his index finger at the doctor. Satisfied that he'd made his point, he leaned back into the chair.
"I don't think so, Colonel," Janet opposed. "As I said before, the woman has some burns on her chest that might have been caused by hot metal. If her tags had been hit by a plasma weapon, she would have had to take them off."
Daniel remained skeptical. "That sounds a little too convenient, don't you think?"
"They may, however, be telling the truth," Teal'c, who'd been sitting in silence up until this moment, concluded.
General Hammond stood up. "And since you, SG-1, have first hand experience with time travel, I suggest you go see for yourselves."
To be continued...
Hope you liked the first chapter, if so, please, let me know. And if not... well, I'd like to know what could be improved.