STARGATE SG-1: The Grandfather Paradox

Summary: The Tok'ra enlist Jack's help to track down a Goa'uld who has mastered time travel.

Season: Any.

Spoilers: none that I can think of. If you spot any, let me know!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Stargate SG-1! (Shame really).

Author's Note: I was hoping to get this done in one chapter but I've ended up splitting it into 3 instead. Anyway, here's the first part. Hope you enjoy it! Please R&R as always. Thanx. Enjoy!

The Grandfather Paradox – Part 1.

19:30, August 10th.

The green light surrounding Jack faded away for the last time. He was home, and thankfully so. He glanced around his office in Cheyenne Mountain, relieved to see the familiar sight of paper work and paper aeroplanes all over the floor. He carefully set the Canopic Jar down on his desk.

Gradually, his heart rate began to slow to its natural pace, but he couldn't will the warmth back into his skin, nor stop every muscle in his body from shaking. His lungs had constricted to about a tenth of their normal capacity. Gasping for breath, Jack sank into the closest chair and ran the back of his hand across his forehead, removing a layer of cold sweat from his brow.

Had he just done what his senses were telling him he had done? Was that really how it happened?

Jack couldn't bring himself to even think about answering the myriad of questions that was swimming in his mind.

That's when he noticed his hands; still shaking from shock and the ride back. His palms were mottled with a crimson liquid, some dried and turning darker, but still warm none the less.

Blood.

He quickly glanced over his tired attire, horrified to see the same sight seeping into his over shirt and fatigues. He couldn't hold back anymore. His well trained military façade broke down and was replaced by the shock- ridden wreck that he truly was at this point.

He knew this was real ...

*

19:00, August 10th.

"Receiving Tok'ra IDC," Simmons announced over the PA. "Opening the iris."

Jack groaned quietly as the large metal shutter sprang back into wherever it was stored, exposing the shimmering blue light of the event horizon. After a moment, there was a slight disturbance – a ripple almost – before two men, dressed in beige, stepped onto the ramp of the earth Stargate.

Jack recognised one of them as Jacob Carter – father to his 2IC, Major Samantha Carter. The other man, he didn't know. This second man carried a box – not unlike the one that held the dreaded armbands.

'Great!' Jack thought to himself. 'More experiments. Might as well lock down the base and prep the infirmary now!'

He hated it when these guys showed up like this, although seeing Jacob with them this time was reassuring. Being from earth himself; being an ex- USAF General; and having his daughter on the frontline of this endless war, Jacob was more prone to see things their way, rather than the almost kamikaze-like attitude usually employed by the Tok'ra.

The usual welcomes were exchanged before Jacob and the other man were escorted to the briefing room.

With a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Jack followed General Hammond and the rest of SG-1 up the stairs to greet their newly arrived guests.

Carter – he noticed – was positively bounding up the stairs, clearly pleased to see her father. Although Jack shared her enthusiasm on seeing him, his scepticism for the Tok'ra's MO was heavily out-weighing his eagerness.

"Hey kid," Jacob said in greeting to his daughter.

It wasn't long before the informalities were over and the whole party was settled and ready to hear what grand suicide mission the Tok'ra had for them this time. Or, more specifically, for Jack.

"We have recently discovered a minor Goa'uld who has mastered time travel," Labras announced plainly. Jacob had introduced Labras, a little earlier as one of the many Tok'ra scientists who worked on ... well, Jack hadn't really been listening to what he worked on, but Carter seemed fascinated.

After his rather frank announcement, there was a stunned silence in the room for a moment, before Jack piped up.

"We've already done that," he said proudly.

"Without the use of a Stargate," Jacob clarified.

Jack raised his eyebrows. Why did he get the feeling he was going to hate what was coming next?

"The goa'uld in question, Wadjet, was thought to have been long dead," Jacob continued. "She had been an ally of Hathor in Ancient Egypt and when she was imprisoned, Wadjet was removed from her host and banished to an unpopulated world. No-one's quite sure where."

Jack could feel his eyes glazing over as the 'history' lesson continued. He glanced across the table to see Daniel absolutely enraptured by the story Jacob was retelling.

"It would seem that a few years ago, an explorer found her way there and unwittingly released Wadjet again."

"I'm sorry," Sam interrupted. "But how does any of this add up to time travel?" She was clearly still reeling from Labras' opening statement.

"The woman Wadjet took as host –"

"The explorer?" Sam clarified, stopping her father again.

Jacob nodded. "She was Makinian."

He was met by several bemused looks.

"They are an advanced race of humans. I think you may have met one of them before. Malakai?"

"On P4X-639," Daniel said indicating they knew who he was.

'Ah, good times!' Jack thought, remembering the eventful time loop.

"The Makinians have been experimenting with time travel for decades now, which is why Malakai was so interested in that planet," Labras continued from where Jacob had left off.

"And here we all thought it was for his wife," Jack interjected.

"Anyway, to cut the rest of the short, with the knowledge her new host had about time travel, combined with her own knowledge of Goa'uld technology, Wadjet was able to engineer this." Jacob opened the crate they had brought with them and delicately placed its contents on the table for all to see.

It was a hand device – of sorts. It resembled a Cobra with its neck fully open, as if ready to pounce. The main body of the snake looked as if it would rest across the back of the wearer's hand and up to the middle of their forearm, where the tail then wrapped around the arm and back towards the hand, finally coiling itself around the thumb to secure it in place. Its tongue was set to wrap around the middle finger, to give extra anchorage. The entire structure was completely flexible, giving the wearer full mobility of their hands – as per normal. On the main body of the snake were several jewels. Two bright green jewels for eyes, set near the top of the device. Further towards the wrist was a large blue diamond-shaped jewel, flanked by two triangular amber ones. Despite the fact that it was a piece of Goa'uld technology, the device was very beautiful to behold.

SG-1 and General Hammond stared at it wondrously.

"It's called a Cobra Hand Device," Jacob said, bringing the meeting back into focus.

"And it's a time machine?" Sam queried.

"Yes."

Sam looked dubious. Everyone looked dubious, for that matter.

"But it's tiny!" Trust Jack to voice everyone's thoughts in the simplest way possible.

"Works though," Jacob replied plainly.

Sam was still baffled. "How?!"

"It uses the same liquefied Naquaddah module that fires a Staff weapon to create a temporal fold in space time, large enough to send maybe two people to a specific time and place," Jacob informed her.

"Maybe two people?" jack queried.

Jacob sighed. "We know for sure it can send one person. We think it's capable of sending two, but we haven't tested it."

"Oh, but you've tested it for one, right?"

Jacob and Labras fell silent.

"I knew it!" Jack cooed. "You want us to be the lab rats again!"

"Actually, no we don't," Jacob said, slightly smugly. His victorious feeling didn't last long though as he knew he had to explain the rest of their plan now. And that included the screw up. On seeing the expectant looks around the table, he took a deep breath and began.

"As I said before, Wadjet had been in stasis for thousands of years, until a few years ago when she was released. In that time, as well as creating the Cobra Hand Device, she has been learning everything she can about the modern universe so she can go back to Ancient Egypt and become supreme ruler over the whole universe."

There was a stunned silence around the table, broken once again by Jack.

"Ambitious little snake, isn't she!" he quipped.

The rest of the group tried their hardest to ignore his comment.

"How is it you came across this device, Jacob Carter?" Teal'c asked.

'Here we go,' Jacob thought, taking another deep breath. "About a month ago, we managed to capture Wadjet and duplicate the device."

Jack knew there was more. "But ...?" he prompted.

Jacob held back for a moment.

"C'mon, Jake. What's the catch? Why are you telling us all of this?"

"She managed to escape last night. Taking her original device with her."

"So, one of us isn't just going on the test-run for this, are they? It'll be the clean-up-your-mess-run, right?" Jack added cynically. But he was right.

"More specifically, you," Jacob said, figuring he might as well lay the whole thing out in the open now.

"Excuse me?"

"The reason we're not sending one of our own operatives is because Wadjet will be naturally suspicious of anyone she senses has a symbiote, so that also puts Teal'c and Sam out of the question."

"But me?"

"Yeah," Daniel agreed. "Won't you need someone who can speak the language to go?!"

He was clearly itching for a chance to actually see Ancient Egypt.

"So far as we can tell, the device compensates for language differences, so whoever goes will be able to speak and understand the native language without realising it," Jacob clarified.

"BUT WHY ME?!"

"Because we need someone with your level of military experience. It's not like this is gonna be an easy one-stop-shop to kill this goa'uld. You'll need to find a way to infiltrate the palace first. So we need someone who can strategise and think on their feet."

Jack thought for a moment about what they were asking of him.

"Ok, say for a moment that I agree to go after this widget –"

"Wadjet!" Daniel corrected.

"I'm still gonna be screwing around with time here, right?"

"There's nothing we can do about that, I'm afraid. She's already gone back so –" Jacob was interrupted again, this time by Jack.

"Oh, now they tell us!"

"Look! Why else would we be here? ... The point is, we're running out of time here as it is. We need you on board for this to work at all, Jack."

'Wow!' Jack thought. 'Jacob actually sounded desperate.' He'd had a feeling this meeting wouldn't end well for him. And he hated it when he was right about these things. But what choice did he have? None, pretty much.

"OK," he said quietly. "I'm in. what do I do?"

Jacob and Labras visibly relaxed as his submission.

"Well, first you need to take off your watch," Jacob told him.

"Why?"

"Well, it's not gonna be much use to you in Egypt, is it? ... Plus, we're not sure what the transition will do to anything electrical, so it's probably best not to risk it."

Jack suddenly wasn't sure about his decision to do this, what with it being such an untested theory. There was also a slight look of apprehension in Jacob's eyes that was very unsettling indeed.

He glanced at his watch. 19:46, it read. He obediently handed it to Carter, albeit regretfully. He felt more or less lost without his watch at the best of times, and he was heading for what he was sure would be the worst of times.

"I'll put it in your office, sir," she said and soon disappeared down the spiral stairs.

"You'll also need a hand gun," Jacob continued, once his daughter had left.

Hammond nodded towards one of the airmen keeping watch over the proceedings. He too quickly exited in the direction of the armoury and promptly returned with the requested hand gun. Jack tucked the gun into his belt as Jacob strapped the device to his right arm.

"You press the blue jewel to activate the device," he told Jack. "Then a display will appear below its eyes. Then use the green jewels to programme your destination. The amber jewels will programme the time you want. Then press the blue jewel again to actually go."

Jack nodded, indicating he understood what he had to do. He followed Jacob's instructions for programming the device. He glanced around the room, a little disappointed that Carter hadn't made it back to see him off.

"Wish me luck," he said, his finger poised over the blue diamond.

"Godspeed, son," Hammond responded.

Jack pressed the blue jewel.

For a moment, not much seemed to happen, but the colours in the room seemed to bleed into each other. Suddenly, there was a cold blast of air that swept through and around Jack, causing his breath to catch in his chest. A bright green light illuminated around him. It was hot – almost unbearable. He felt the whole earth shake beneath him as if it was about to pull apart. Instead, he felt as if he was going to pull apart himself. As the green light grew in intensity, Jack felt his limbs contort into unbearably painful positions that would have been otherwise impossible for anyone to achieve.

The heat around him was also increasing, while the cold air kept chilling through his veins. He couldn't see anything but the light around him, nor hear anything but the rush of air.

After what could have been forever, the heat and the pain began to subside. His body was returned to its natural position. Finally, the green light faded away into nothing and Jack collapsed onto the ground.

But it wasn't a carpet that broke his fall. It was a marble floor – cold and hard.

Every muscle in his body was shaking from cold and from the effort of being contorted as they had been. He was drenched in cold sweat and his heart rate was dangerously high. He could barely move a muscle. He didn't know where he was. Or when. He could hear voices in a nearby corridor. Voices that grew louder with each passing second.

It wasn't long before a heavy door slid open at one end of the room he was in. Jack watched silently from the shadows as a young woman entered. Not Jaffa. Not Goa'uld. She wore the robes of a Lo'tar – a human slave to the Goa'uld. She was carrying a canopic jar in her hands.

Jack knew he had no chance of getting out of wherever he was on his own merits. She seemed to be his only chance at that time. But he could barely bring himself to move, let alone get her attention. The 'transition', as Jacob had put it, had drained all energy he had.

The young woman placed her load down on the alter opposite the door and turned to leave. It was now or never, Jack realised.

From his point in the shadows, he managed to muster enough energy and will power to reach out his hand. He caught her ankle. Startled, she turned to see who was there.

She didn't scream. She didn't call for help – which Jack was grateful for. She just looked at him with curiosity and pity.

"Help me," was all he could say, before he lost all consciousness and collapsed at her feet.

*******

Author's Note: Part two will be up soon. And don't worry! I haven't forgotten about the other series I've got going. They'll be updated soon too. Now, it's time for you to review! Thanx.