The planet was dark and dusty, and looked like an old cellar. They could tell it had been abandoned long ago. Scrutinizing the area, the team descended the stone steps, Cam whistling in mock appreciation, and making some smart ass comment about a fixer-upper that went unnoticed by the majority of his team.
There appeared to be several doorways leading into other rooms, most of which, based on what they were able to gather from the MALP, were filled with old artifacts.
Daniel took his time going from room to room and marveling at the vast selection of things to study. It seemed distinctly familiar to him; and then he remembered the planet on which they first discovered the quantum mirror: it looked much like this one.
While the two scientists settled in for a long study session, Cam and Teal'c surveyed the area, the former occasionally prodding curiously at a brightly colored or shiny looking doohinky in a very "Jack O'Neill-like" fashion.
Meanwhile, Vala discretely slipped away from the rest of the group, into a small unoccupied room in the far corner. While she was here she might as well do a little treasure hunting, she thought.
After checking numerous times to make sure Daniel and company were adequately distracted, the ex-thief casually went about opening various vases and clay pots, searching for something shiny she could fit into her vest pocket.
Then, something shimmered and caught her eye, and she found herself studying a large silver box. It seemed to have several layers of metal and was covered in various square-shaped panels as well as some kind of writing she couldn't make out. She raised her eyebrows in interest, and walked towards the artifact, leaving other old trinkets strewn disorderly about the dusty surface.
Curious, she reached out and grasped a more prominent silver dial on the side of the metal box. It moved easily in its designated crevice, and she slid it several inches in one direction, testing its motor ability.
She was unpleasantly shocked when the dark and quiet room was suddenly lit by a soft red glow emanating from the center of the device, and a dull hum broke the silence.
"Umm… Daniel?" she called out, nervously, but she could already hear his hurried footsteps approaching.
Frantic to correct her mistake before the archeologist came in waving his arms in a panicking rage; she reached forward and hit a bright red button, thinking 'turn off!'
Just as Daniel stormed into the room, armed with an un-amused expression and a finger prepared to lecture, a large window opened in front of Vala, like a knife had just ripped through the air and formed a portal, and she seemed to be sucked into it with a jerking motion.
"VALA!" Daniel screamed, but the portal had sealed itself, and she was gone.
Save for the hiss of falling ash and the occasional burst of a geyser, it was eerily quiet in the barren wasteland. A young woman walked amongst the rubble and blood red sky. It was unsafe, for despite the apparent lack of life anywhere, the volcanic ash was not the only danger here. In fact, the ash was considered nothing more then rain; a constant storm that never went away. It was not the atmosphere that scared her.
It was the openness. The land was so barren, she felt like a walking target… but someone had to collect food and supplies. It was all they required, but the risk of getting it made it seem like so much.
The others didn't want her out here, she knew. Anyone would have preferred to have done the task themselves if only to protect her; but this wasn't the first time she had gone out against their warnings. It was the least she could do to make herself feel as though she were part of this battle, not just a straggler hiding behind the protective barriers of her guardians.
Nearing her destination, she instinctively went into soldier mode, making herself as low to the ground as possible and moving quickly from boulder to boulder.
She dropped down on her knees in a large pothole where she was well hidden and began digging around in the dust and ash, uncovering bits of metal and, when she occasionally got lucky, old parts of machinery, which she shoved into a large canvas bag she had been carrying.
Food would have to wait, for it would not be found here. She would have to travel to the city, where they kept all their human slaves. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she turned to leave when a faint glow off in the distance caught her eye.
She squinted to get a better look. It brightened until it was glowing intensely, and then died out. Unable to restrain her natural curiosity, she walked cautiously towards the mysterious object.
When she was within 15 feet of it, she could make out a lump on the ground. Moving closer, she discovered it was actually a human body, sprawled out on its side in the rubble. Next to it was a large silver box that reflected the light of burning ashes. She found it entrancing, but was far more interested in the dark-haired woman lying before her.
She bent down beside her, grasping her weapon tightly, and laid two fingers on the side of her neck. Her own heart beat faster in nervous excitement when she found a slow, but steady pulse. Looking around, as though afraid someone was watching her, she contemplated what to do.
She looked back at the unconscious woman again, and for the first time noticed something distinctively familiar about her face. She couldn't explain it; the only people she ever knew lived with her in the underground bunker; but she definitely recognized this woman from somewhere.
Sighing deeply, she allowed her gut feelings to take over once more and, (with some amount of difficulty) slung the woman over her shoulder. Jack would not be happy.
In her first moments of consciousness, Vala had no memory of what had happened. She only knew that she had a throbbing head ache and couldn't feel her toes. Then, memories of the shiny box appeared in her mind and she groaned inwardly to herself. The next thing she noticed was that she was not alone in this… room, she decided, although her head was turned at an awkward angle and all she could see was a dull gray wall; but the fact that she could feel a thin mattress beneath her and she didn't feel any restraints was a pretty good sign.
'Anyway, back to those voices…' she thought, forcing herself to focus. It was a man and a woman's voice, and they seemed to be arguing in hushed voices. Turning her head, she saw dark outlines of their figures in the shadow of the doorway.
"…you don't even know who she is! What you did was nothing but reckless!"
"Jack…" Vala strained her ears at the sound of the voice. She could have sworn that sounded just like…
"Don't you 'Jack' me, young lady! For all you know she could be an enemy spy!"
"Why do you have to be so paranoid? Look at this and tell me she doesn't look exactly like the woman in this photo!"
One of the shadows brandished what appeared to be a thin piece of paper.
"Just because you have a picture of her in your little photo collection doesn't mean we can trust her!" The male voice said harshly, ignoring the piece of paper shoved in his face.
"It means this is worth looking into!"
'Ok…' Vala decided. 'That definitely sounded like…'
"Sam…?" The two figures froze and turned towards Vala. The man seemed to tense, but the woman eagerly came out of the shadows to stand at Vala's bedside. Everything seemed blurry now that it was close up and Vala struggled to get a good look at the concerned face. Sure enough, it was her friend. But something seemed different about her. She looked younger; her eyes were big and innocent…too innocent for someone with Sam's history… and her hair was long and tied into pigtails that hung over her shoulders like Vala's.
Sam reached out with both hands to touch Vala's neck, (this was what they always did during post mission check-ups—something Vala had yet to understand).
But Vala paid little attention to this, and Sam had to manually tilt her chin up to complete her evaluation. Vala's face etched in confusion.
"Sam, what happened?" she asked. "Where are we? Where're Daniel, Teal'c and Mitchell?"
Sam frowned, and she wore an expression of both sadness and concern as she turned back to the figure still looming suspiciously in the doorway.
"Jack, she's awake…" she said nervously, and he stepped into the room.
"I can see that," he said sarcastically, but held a rough expression of plain distrust.
Vala lifted her head slightly so her chin rested on her chest and she studied the man's face. "General O'Neill?" she asked.
She had seen the man once before in her life, but his face was unmistakable. However, this face appeared somewhat different as well… younger, less friendly then the one she had seen back at the SGC when they were being forced to pitch story ideas for that man, Marty's strange movie.
He held her gaze for several moments while Sam turned back and studied her quizzically. "General?" she asked, and Vala broke the man's gaze to look back at Sam.
"Yes… you told me that was his rank… General Jack O'Neill…" Sam's face remained confused and Vala felt her brow wrinkling as the bad feeling built up in the pit of her stomach. "Sam, what's going on?"
Sam dipped her head, refusing to make eye contact. "Look, I don't know how to tell you this, but…I'm not who you think I am," she admitted, and Vala felt her stomach lurch. "My name's Grace Carter. Sam Carter was my mother," she said.
Vala's heart sank at her words and she felt her face contorting as the realization formed in her mind. "…And where is your mother?" she asked, despite the choking feeling she was getting trying to hold back the frantic tears that just wouldn't come.
Grace looked up and into her eyes; mirroring the pain that Vala was sure was showing on her own face right now. "I…I think you may have somehow traveled into the future, and that's why everything seems so different to you… I don't really know how to say this either, but…" she looked away briefly to avoid the other woman's eyes. "…My mother, and the rest of SG-1… they're all dead."
Alone in her newly assigned private quarters, Vala collapsed onto her bed. Her head was spinning and her stomach was still caught in her throat. She was so stunned and horrified that she couldn't cry or speak or do anything, just stare blankly at the ceiling.
After several minutes, there was a knock on the door and Sa…Grace slipped into the room. Vala didn't look up or acknowledge her presence, but continued to look at the ceiling.
Grace walked over and sat on the edge of her bed, but didn't say anything either. They remained like that for some time, until Vala finally took pity on the younger woman's discomfort and spoke.
"Before I woke up here…" she began, and Grace looked up at her intently. "…I was on another planet. We were on a simple exploratory mission. Everyone was there with me, perfectly healthy and alive…" both women felt tears welling up in their eyes as Vala continued her heartfelt story. "…You don't know how hard it is to believe that they're gone… that everything I ever knew is gone…"
"I'm so sorry…"
"It's not you're fault, it's just… there must be some way to get back there."
Grace didn't respond, and there was a long moment of silence. Then, she reached into her vest pocket, (it was just then Vala realized everyone was wearing BDU's) and withdrew a small rectangular piece of paper, a photo, actually, and handed it to Vala.
Taking it, Vala realized it was a picture taken from Daniel's birthday the previous year. Everyone was gathered around the table. Vala was on the far right blowing on an obscure party favor, and wearing a silly hat. Daniel sat next to her, the cake in front of him and his face three shades of red. His hand covered his mouth to hide the ridiculous grin he was wearing. Sam stood behind him, leaning over a large bouquet of balloons to light the candles. Teal'c stood besides her in his regular stoic pose aside from the matching goofy hat he was wearing. He was also grinning widely. At the other end of the table, Cameron held a large glass of punch and leaned back in his chair. His expression showed pure amusement, then Vala remembered he had been teasing Daniel throughout the celebration.
Her eyes glistened with tears at the memory, and she ran a thumb fondly over the aged photo. She bit her lip and smiled, trying to hold back the tears. She still couldn't believe they were gone.
She was pulled out of her reminiscence by Grace's voice again. "I recognized you from my mum's old photos," she explained. "That's why I brought you back here. You're Vala, right?"
Vala nodded solemnly, wiping her arm over her eyes and sniffling. "You look exactly like her, you know?" Vala said, as she handed the photo back to its owner.
"So I've been told," Grace mused, returning it carefully to her vest pocket and turning her attention to Vala.
Vala was silent for a moment while she studied the young woman's lost expression. "You never really knew your mother, did you?" she asked.
Grace wrung her hands ashamedly, and didn't respond. Vala put a comforting hand over hers, and waited.
"After you touched that device," she began, and Vala listened intently. "You disappeared, Vala. SG-1 tried desperately to get you back… they took the device back to the SGC to work on it there.
"They tried for 4 years to get you back. Landry wouldn't let them try to go after you, though; said we couldn't afford to lose anyone else. It was only shortly after I was born that we caught wind of the Ori fleet headed our way.
"My mum worked on the ancient device, trying to use it to shield the planet the way she did in the alternate reality, but something went wrong.
"The crystals used to power the devices disappeared. We think they were stolen. Nothing was powerful enough to work and we needed all three devices to shield the planet."
Grace paused to look at her hands again and Vala urged her to go on.
"The Ori arrived the planet so suddenly after that my mum wasn't able to come up with an alternative plan. Earth was pretty much defenseless. We fought it out with all the ships we had, which wasn't much. Their ship landed and our ground troops became our first line of defense."
"But, the Stargate…"
"Some were able to evacuate before the attacks started, but as you can imagine most wanted to stay and fight. Others didn't have time to reach the 'gate before it was destroyed.
"We were overpowered easily, and SG-1 was publically executed as an example to everyone who wouldn't follow the Ori."
There was a long silence as Grace allowed the news to sink in.
"How many others died?"
"Anyone who resisted," she said simply. "Everyone else was enslaved. That's why we call ourselves the resistance. Me and Jack, the others in this bunker, we're Earth's last hope."
After the much needed talk, Vala was offered a tour of the bunker, which she eagerly accepted. 'Anything to get out of that room and away from that conversation,' she thought.
She knew that seeing it all would just make the reality more real to her, but she needed to know everything she could so she could propose a return trip to her own time.
So the two women walked down the narrow corridor, shoulder to shoulder in awkward silence. Vala had always thought that tours involved some commentary, but there didn't appear to be much to see.
The halls were much like that of the SGC, only far less inviting. The walls were cold concrete, and there was little heat. Dents, scratches, and graffiti covered the dull gray surface. The ceiling and floor seemed damaged as well. She had never felt so grateful for those little janitor men back at the real complex.
"So how many of you are, 'living' here?" she asked, shooting a disgusted look at a large bug in the corner that was eating a smaller bug.
"Oh, 10 or 12," Grace said, completely disregarding the skepticism in Vala's voice. "It varies. Every now and then we lose someone, or recruit a guy off the streets; of course we're very careful about who we trust. That's why Jack was so nervous about having you here… but it's a pretty tight community. We're all like family to each other."
Vala gave the younger woman a weak smile. She admired her optimism and gratitude; being content with so little. Perhaps the future only seemed so bleak to her. These people have never known anything else.
"So, about that man you were talking to earlier," she began, eager to change the subject. "Jack O'Neill?"
"Yes."
"No offense, but, if everyone who resisted was killed, what is he still doing here?"
"Oh," Grace exclaimed. "Well he's not the Jack O'Neill you know. No, he was killed along with everyone else. It's kind of complicated actually…"
"I was a member SG-1 with two of the world's top scientists. Try me."
Grace smirked. "O.K… were you ever told about the time Jack was kidnapped by a rogue Asgard and cloned?"
Vala frowned. "No, I don't believe so."
"Oh, well there was a malfunction in his clone and it ended up a much younger version of the original. That's the Jack O'Neill you saw in the infirmary, only with 25 years past he doesn't look all that different from when you last saw the original O'Neill."
Vala's eyes darted back and forth as she tried to process what she had just been told inside her head. "You're right. That is complicated… On second thought, I suppose I never did actually listen to any of the techno babble."
The younger woman smiled again. "Jack was the one who came to get me after my parents died," she explained. "After that, I was brought up by everyone here."
Vala nodded. "Just out of curiosity…" she began. "Who was your father?"
Grace paused as they turned a corner. "Everyone who knew that was killed with my mother."
There was a short silence in which Vala pondered the most sensitive way to ask a question. "No offense," she said. "But if there was so much resistance why did the Ori even leave the planet intact? I thought their principle was to destroy all non-believers, and not let it spread?"
"Well you're right," Grace said. "But you're forgetting who their leader is."
Vala frowned. "That doesn't make a difference. Adria's not merciful; in fact I bet she's destroyed more planets in the time she's been crusading then any of the priors before her."
"Adria may be an unmerciful, dictating, egocentric shrew," Grace said with distaste. "But that doesn't mean she'd kill her own mother."
"You mean…"
"She thinks you're still on the planet, and that we're keeping you hidden to save our own sorry butts. Of course, if it means sparing the planet we'll let her believe it."
By the time they had finished talking, they had reached the end of the corridor, leaving the explanation unfinished. Vala frowned and followed Grace through the open doorway.
The room they were in was much different from the lonely corridors they had just walked through in that it was large and buzzing with activity. It looked like a mix between the control room at the SGC and Sam's lab. Nearly every surface housed a computer or machine of sorts. Where there wasn't some piece of operational technology, spare parts and lost pieces cluttered the surfaces.
Several people sat busily working in front of a monitor. One of them, Vala noticed, was a middle aged amber haired woman whose eyes were sagging from numerous sleepless nights. Next to her was a young man of Hispanic background; his eyes were wide and pinned to his computer and his hands shook slightly from the caffeine high.
There were others, mostly young and middle aged intelligent looking people, all hard at work behind their large monitors that Vala couldn't quite see.
Standing near the back wall stood two men examining a large, poorly drawn map of sorts.
Before Vala could get a good look at them, though, Grace was motioning her over to the row of computer technicians. Arriving behind the amber-haired woman, Grace laid a hand on the back of her chair.
"Vala, this is Cassandra," she said, and the woman acknowledged her presence by smiling and giving a slight nod; however she didn't seem all too enthusiastic. "Cass, you've met Vala?" she asked.
"Oh yes, of course! Cassandra!" Vala exclaimed. "Sam introduced us. You were a teenager last I saw you!"
The woman gave a forced smile and returned to her work. Apparently mentioning Sam or anything from when Vala could remember was unacceptable around here.
Clearing her throat, Grace walked past the grumpy older woman and stood behind the young Hispanic man, who eagerly jumped up to shake Vala's hand as Grace made to introduce him.
"This is Chip," she said, and Chip gave her a large smile. "He doesn't speak much English," she informed, giving the man a light shove away from Vala and back into his chair when the vigorous hand shaking became awkward.
They moved down the line of people, Grace naming off people and Vala greeting them. She mostly got smiles or head nods, but occasionally someone returned a "hello."
Reaching the two men standing by the map, the first man, the younger of the two, (dark skinned, lean and muscular with curly black hair) looked up and strode over to greet them.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back and his feet spread shoulder length apart and gave a curt nod. The stance seemed incredibly familiar to Vala, and she had a hunch who the man was.
"I'm guessing you two might know one another?" Grace guessed.
"Indeed," the man said. "You are Vala Mal Doran. I believe we have met once before."
"Umm…"
"Ryac," Grace supplied, watching the exchange carefully.
"Right, Teal'c's son," Vala said, saying the name as lightly as possible, hoping not to cause any more disturbance. "Guess it's a small world after all."
Satisfied, Grace dismissed the Jaffa with a nod of her own and approached the other man. He was the larger and older of the two. He was heavyset and burly, but shorter then Vala; his muscles were impressive even for Teal'c. Vala guessed he must have been about 60. His hair was snow white and neatly cropped in a standard military cut. A small pair of spectacles balanced precariously on the bridge of his nose.
Hearing them approach, he put down his chalk and gave the young woman a friendly smile, the first Vala had seen since they arrived, (besides Chip) then turned to Vala. Peering into his rough face, Vala realized she knew this man from somewhere too. Then it occurred to her, and her jaw dropped several inches.
"Walter?"
The man smiled and nodded. "Miss Mal Doran," he greeted, holding his wrists lightly in front of him.
Vala studied him more closely, craning her neck to examine the man from every angle. "What happened to you?" she asked.
The ex-gate technician smiled and blushed, but was interrupted as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Grace!" came a cheery voice from behind and Vala turned to see who it was.
A young man, looking to be about Grace's age, (very handsome with dirty blond hair, she observed) was striding up to them, a grouchy looking O'Neill two steps behind him.
Grace smiled brightly in greeting. "Gabriel!"
She had said the name with a slight blush, and Vala felt herself inspecting the man, suddenly feeling the urge to step between the two to prevent any physical contact.
"And, you are?" she asked, pulling the two out of their own little worlds.
"Oh, Vala this is Gabriel," she said. "Gabriel, Vala…"
Gabriel smiled and Vala forced herself to do the same. 'Pretty-boy,' she thought.
"How we coming, campers?" Jack interrupted with staged enthusiasm.
Walter's head jerked up and his eyes popped open. "Oh, yes, umm…." he stammered, earning himself a raised eyebrow as he scurried back over to his work station. "Our latest Intel puts the Ori fleet here," he said, pointing to a portion of the map. "At the rate they're traveling they should be returning to home base within the next three days."
Jack nodded in satisfaction, and Walter visibly relaxed a little.
"I'm sorry," Vala interrupted. "Home base?"
"Our code name for the Ori fortress," Grace explained. "They send a fleet out every week to do security checks, continue searching for renegades, and make sure everyone's keeping up with their worship," she said with distaste.
"We try to keep track of where they are at all times, just to be on alert," Gabriel added.
"Anyways," Jack drawled with impatience, and the young woman rolled her eyes at his poor manners. "We need you in the infirmary," he said, on a more serious note. "Luke's come down with something; we think it might be Ori related."
Grace sighed and nodded her thanks before sweeping off to attend to the sickly man.
Vala frowned. From what she could remember, someone showing signs of an Ori plague was pretty serious. The one time it had spread to Earth they had to lock down the entire SGC. 'I guess times change,' she thought.
Later that night she lay in her cot, staring at the ceiling in deep thought.
She had to get back. She had to… but how could she ask for their help? Who knows how complicated getting back to her own time could be—from her experiences with SG-1 over the past two years, she knew things were never easy.
And how could she ask these people to risk everything to send her back? In the end, what difference would it make? This was the future. Whether she had been there or not, the Ori still would have attacked Earth. In fact, if she had been there, Adria would have taken her and destroyed the planet.
And these people were surviving on nothing but hope—all wasted for Vala knew the Ori would never leave this planet until Adria had what she came for—she was determined. And no matter what inspirational words of courage Grace could feed to the others, not even all the world's man power combined could take down the Ori army.
This was it—there was no hope for the future, only a chance to fix the past… and Vala could give them that chance.
Fuming, she sat bolt upright in her bed and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She had to talk to Grace.
She rushed through the darkened corridors, making her way towards the one room she knew would be occupied, for everyone worked the night shift here.
Upon entering, she found a small cluster of people standing in the far corner near the map. Jack had just joined them and appeared to be reporting news of something.
"Grace, Gabriel's missing," Jack said in a hushed tone.
Grace's expression became blank and Vala could tell, if not by Jack's news, that something was wrong.
"He's not in his quarters?"
"No, checked there. Trust me, if he were in the facility I'd know."
"Then lets send out a search party," Grace proposed, and began to walk past him but he caught her arm, forcing her to face him.
"Grace it won't do any good. He's gone."
She glared at him with a mixture of resentment and worry.
"I'm sorry, what do you mean he's gone? What's going on?" Vala interrupted concern evident in her tone.
Jack gave her a look that translated to 'stay out of this,' but Vala ignored it.
"If we go now we can still find him. He could be in trouble," Grace continued.
"Yeah, the hell he is," Jack said coldly.
"Jack…!"
"Grace, don't try to defend him! He betrayed us and you know it!"
Grace pulled her arm out of his grasp and backed away from him.
"No. Gabriel would never…"
"Never what?" Vala almost yelled, and it was Jack who answered.
"He's gone to report us to the Ori!"
The room fell silent. Grace looked to be on the verge of tears while Walter silently tried to console her. Ryac and Jack were fuming and everyone else looked terrified and in shock.
"Then we have to stop him!" Vala reasoned.
"We can't! It's too late…" Jack said, the last part fading away in defeat.
"So, what? That's it?"
Before he could respond, there was a loud sound from above and the earth beneath them shook violently, causing several people to lose their balance and topple over. A few of the female scientists shrieked in fear, then it was silent save for the dust that trickled down on them from cracks in the ceiling.
Everyone looked up expectantly, then several moments later the earth rumbled and shook again, This time Vala had to hold on to the back of a chair to stay standing.
"What's happening?" she demanded over the crashing of equipment hitting the ground.
"The Ori! Their attacking us from above! They must have pin-pointed our location!" Grace yelled back, before scrambling over to a large chest Ryac was already opening. From it, he withdrew an assortment of hand guns, P-90s, zats, and Ori stunners and staff weapons, and handed them out.
Vala was given a P-90 and a zat, which she quickly secured in their proper positions. Grace, arming herself with some kind of large Ori gun and strapping a handgun through her belt, grabbed Vala by the arm and began dragging her towards the exit followed by Ryac, Jack, Walter, and Chip.
"Come on! We have to go!" she yelled, urging a confused Vala to move faster.
Just then, a huge eruption was heard behind them as the ceiling collapsed and rocks and boulders tumbled into the large room. All they could do was stare as people screamed and disappeared into dust, and sparks shot into the air from the exploding computers.
"CASS!!!" Grace screamed, but Jack held her arm firmly to keep her from running into the rubble.
The team didn't even have time to recover as the moment the screaming stopped, a large thud echoed through the underground complex from an Ori ring platform hitting the ground.
"Aww, crap!" Jack cursed, and began dragging Grace down the corridors.
They had just turned the corner out of sight when Vala heard the rings being activated and the sound of armored footsteps.
O'Neill slowed unexpectantly mid-sprint and the others stopped with him.
"Go!" he ordered, and began shooting heavy P-90 fire towards the advancing enemy. Walter stepped up in line with him and began firing his own weapon.
The others frowned, but obliged none-the-less, Grace taking the lead and racing further down the corridors and away from the enemy, until she stopped at a grated metal box on the wall and pulled the cover off effortlessly.
She stood back to allow the others to pass, practically shoving Chip through the small entrance, followed by Vala. She didn't even try to push Ryac and hurried in behind the other woman as the tall man laid down cover fire with an Ori staff.
Within the small enclosed space, the three man team climbed quickly up the ladder towards the surface. Light streamed into the tunnel when Chip opened the top hatch and scrambled out, offering Vala a hand as he did so.
Once on the surface, Vala could see the future Earth for the first time in the real light…
The atmosphere was thick with smoke and it was hard to breathe. The ground was littered with rocks and rubble and geysers emitted thick clouds of foul-smelling steam. They were standing on a large pile of rubble that hid the secret exit they had just emerged from.
Vala's eyes watered and she wasn't sure if it was due to the smoke or the scene itself.
But she knew she couldn't stay in this state of denial anymore… her friends were dead, the Ori had won, and the only people that could possibly help her return to her own time were about to die because of her.
She could barely breathe. Her breath caught in her throat and she swallowed hard.
Behind her, Grace had climbed out of the tunnel and had her back against the steel hatch. She was breathing hard and staring off into space. Chip was anxiously peeking over a large boulder he was concealed behind.
Vala walked over and sat beside the young woman and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. "You ok?" she asked.
"No," she responded, shaking her head as though she was going to be sick.
"We have to keep moving," Vala urged, trying to take over the previously occupied role of friendly encourager.
"I can't," Grace gasped. "Jack and Cass… the others…" she stammered.
"I know. But we have to put that behind us now."
Grace looked away from her. She wanted to be angered by the words, but she knew they were true. They couldn't give up hope and they couldn't turn back; not yet and not until every member of the resistance was dead. It was now or never.
Chip crawled over and joined them, clutching his weapon close to his body.
"What we do?" he asked in a Spanish accent.
"I don't know," Grace said.
"Look, I know this may be bad timing…" Vala began. "But I can't let myself be captured. I have to return to my own time."
"I know. Any idea how you plan on doing that?"
"Hoped you might have some ideas."
Grace sighed. "You got here using that box, right?"
"Yes. The shiny one."
"Do you remember what you did that triggered it to send you 25 years into the future?"
"Umm… I think so…"
"I had to leave it at the ruins. It was too heavy to take back. If we can get there, it might work. And that's depending on whether or not you can reverse the time travel effect to send you back."
"I think I can."
"But…" Chip interrupted. "What about us?"
Grace looked away awkwardly, and Vala frowned.
"I'm sure we can take care of ourselves," she tried to reassure.
"No, Chip's right. I can't leave you here."
"You have no choice."
"Come back with me."
"Vala, this may not look like home to you but it is to us. We can't abandon our own time to seek refuge in yours. Besides, what good would that do? Not only would it screw up the time line in who knows how many ways, but it'd just be sending us back so we can witness the enslavement of Earth all over again."
"I guess that raises the same point for myself," Vala sighed.
"Yeah. Some choice, huh?"
"I think we're going at this all wrong," Vala said. "Remember when SG-1 screwed with the timeline in Ancient Egypt and had to go back and fix it?"
"Yeah, I read about it."
"Well that's what we have to do here! The only way to save Earth is to make sure that the Ori crusade here never happened!"
"Yeah, but the only reason we weren't able to stop the attack in the first place was because Merlin's devices lost power and we couldn't shield the planet. If we weren't able to solve something as simple as that 25 years ago why should we be able to do it now?"
Vala heaved a frustrated sigh. "You said it was because the crystals were stolen, right?"
"Yeah."
"Any idea who stole them?"
Grace began to shake her head, and then her eyes got large and she paused.
"What?"
"Gabriel's been an Ori worshipper all along," she said in shock.
"What do you mean?"
She seemed to shake out of her trance and looked at the older woman. "He's just been waiting for you to show up so he would have something to offer the Ori in exchange for his life," she explained, disgusted by the thought. "He knew you were going to show up! It was the only way he would have been prepared to run off so soon after your arrival."
"I'm sorry, what does this have to do with the missing crystals?"
"Did my mum ever tell you about the time SG-1 was sent back in time to 1969 when the 'gate malfunctioned?"
"Yes…"
"Well when they were trying to gate back to their own time their calculations were off and they ended up way far into the future. Cass had to send them back. And then my mum had to tell the younger Cassandra what had happened so she would know 60 or so years from then that she would have to send SG-1 back."
"What's your point?"
"It all makes sense!" she said excitedly. "If Gabriel were an Ori worshipper he would want to make sure the Ori succeeded 25 years ago, right?"
"Yes..."
"So he would have used the time travel device to go back and steal the crystals! Then he would have made sure he got a note that told his future self to steal the crystals in the first place, and when you would be showing up so he could report it to the Ori!"
Vala's head was whirling in confusion, but she understood the basic idea. Gabriel stole the crystals…
"So does he still have the crystals?" Vala asked, too excited to ask her to repeat herself slowly.
"I don't know. But we have to find him!" she said, getting up hastily. "If we can get those crystals, then you can send them back in time and make sure this never happened!"
Chip stood up along with the two women, his eyes darting back and forth between the pair in utter confusion. If Vala had a hard time understanding that, she certainly felt sorry for the poor man who didn't even speak fluent English.
"Where will we find him?" Vala asked, not wanting to waste any time.
"We have to head towards the city. That's where Adria is and that's where Gabriel would have gone."
"Right."
Grace turned to Chip finally and said something in Spanish to him. The young man nodded in comprehension and gripped his weapon to show his support. She nodded graciously, and turned back to Vala.
"Chip and I know this land like the back of our hands. Follow us, stay low, and stay quiet," she ordered, and Vala found herself nodding obediently.
Smiling with satisfaction, Grace turned sharply and began to descend the large embankment of rubble.
With a flash, Gabriel found himself standing in a room next to the device. He looked around, and was pleased to find he was alone. He was in a laboratory—Area 51, he guessed. This was where they would have kept the device after they gave up on it.
Working quickly, he moved over to the large safe where alien devices were locked up. Zatting it, he was able to open it easily. He searched the drawers until he found what he was looking for—a small round device of clearly alien construction. Lifting up the folds of his shirt, he carefully stuck it to his chest and felt himself changing form. Confident the transformation had worked, he concealed his weapon under his jacket and quietly swept out of the room.
After evading his way through countless corridors, he found the correct room. It turned out to be not too far from the room he had originally appeared in. No one had challenged him yet--They believed him to be Sgt. Davis. There was no reason to raise suspicion.
Glancing around to make sure no on-lookers were present, he turned the doorknob and pushed it open.
Inside, a woman sat working on a laptop connected to three alien devices. Gabriel could tell immediately who it was—Grace looked just like her. She looked up immediately when he closed the door behind him.
"Sergeant Davis?" she said, startled. "What are you…?"
But before she finished her sentence, Gabriel drew out his zat and fired.
The woman crumpled to the ground at the foot of the desk, and he stepped over her hastily. Examining the 3 devices before him, it wasn't hard to find the control crystals, which he removed and tucked safely into his vest pocket.
'Too easy,' he thought.
They had wandered some distance now and Vala was beginning to wonder if her friend's daughter had any of the same sense of direction she had. If not that, she could sure have her sense of stealthiness when she wanted to.
Grace and her eager cohort had moved so swiftly and quietly over the hard rock surface that Vala found herself wincing every time she accidentally kicked a rock.
She almost ran into her when she stopped suddenly and jerked Vala by the arm so she was crouching next to her behind a large rock formation. She stumbled a little and held onto the other woman until she regained her balance.
"Wha…" but Grace jammed the palm of her grubby hand over Vala's mouth, causing her to wrinkle her nose in disgust. The young woman looked sharply at her, and Vala silenced herself completely until Grace had released her death grip on her face.
Flexing her jaw bones, she followed her companions' lead, peeking over the rock surface at what had caused the pair to stop so suddenly.
She recognized the shine immediately. The silver box sat askew on its side several meters from their position, and in front of it, three Ori soldiers patrolled the area.
Reintegrating back onto the crumbling rock surface, Gabriel took two steps before he found himself facing the business end of a loaded pistol. He backed up a few steps, and angry blue eyes swam into view.
Wait, hadn't he just… no; this wasn't the woman he had just shot.
"Grace!" he exclaimed, sounding more surprised then he had hoped for. Looking around, the first thing he noticed were the three dead soldiers laying in awkward positions on the ground. Next, he noticed the familiar dark-haired woman: Vala, and Chip standing behind her. Neither looked at all happy.
"This isn't what you think!" he reasoned, backing away with his hands raised.
"Take off the copy device," Grace ordered.
Slowly, Gabriel reached under his jacket and removed the alien device from his chest, feeling his body morphing back to its regular form. Grace held out her hand and he tossed it to her. She pocketed it quickly and took hold of the gun with both hands again.
"Now," she said with a calmness that made the young man shiver. "Give us the crystals."
Gabriel frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. He knew it wouldn't be long. The others would show up soon, he just had to stall them.
"Cut the crap, Gabriel! Don't make me shoot you!"
"Come on, Grace. Just let me explain…" he said, reaching slowly for the gun.
Vala jerked her head around anxiously, watching for approaching enemies. "Grace, we don't have time for this!" she said.
Right on cue, a ship descended through the thick atmosphere and dropped a ring platform a short distance behind them. Grace spun around, her gun pointed towards the enemy just as the rings piled up on each other transporting its passengers onto the Earth.
Vala gaped when she saw the face hidden behind the armor of two Ori guards. Adria, looking as smug as ever, hadn't aged a day. Perhaps the only thing that had changed was her hair style, which was now tied in a waist length fancy braid thing.
Everything after that short moment in time seemed to happen so quickly that no one had time to think, just react.
The moment Grace let her guard down, firing the first chance she got at one of the Ori soldiers, Gabriel drew a gun and aimed at her back. Vala's eyes widened and she reacted at once.
The sound of the bullet was earsplitting. It impacted her flesh the same moment she shoved Grace to the ground, coming down on top of her.
"Mother!" Adria yelled, and even though Vala couldn't see her, she knew that smug little grin had been wiped from her face.
But the pain outweighed the satisfaction. She couldn't move her right shoulder and her arm felt like a limp extension, hanging uselessly to her side. She rolled to onto her back, clutching her shoulder just as the weight was released from on top of her and she heard more gunfire, both P-90 and Ori staff blasts.
She felt the energy rushing over her head and heard strangled screams along with the cling of several bullets hitting steel armor as well as the soft thuds of two unarmed bodies hitting ground.
She opened her eyes and let her head roll to the side so she could survey the damage. Chip was bent backward over a sharp looking boulder, smoke rising from a gaping wound in the center of his chest. Besides a very angry looking Adria, two soldiers lay dead on the ground, and a few feet from them, Gabriel's head was twisted at and awkward angle, his face flat against the dirt and his cold dead eyes level with Vala's.
Before the stench of blood could stimulate Vala's gag reflex, she felt herself being hauled to her feet by her uninjured arm and shoved roughly in the direction of the shiny box.
"Go! Now!" Grace commanded, shooting at the approaching Orisi only to have the bullets bounce off her ever present force shield.
Vala quickly retrieved the crystals from Gabriel's chest pocket and stuck them into her own, stumbling over towards the device. "But I don't know how!" she screamed at Grace, but it appeared she was already otherwise occupied.
Grace had lunged herself at the Ori commander, knife pointed at her heart. She broke through the personal force shield, but Adria caught her arm easily mid strike and held it there. Grace trembled with the force of trying to challenge her strength, and Adria grinned evilly at her.
Vala tried to drown out the background noises. Her eyes darted over the device, trying to force her mind to concentrate on the task at hand.
She recognized the two controls she had fiddled with: the big, red, square button and the sliding pusher thing.
'Of course!' Vala thought. 'The slidy pushy thing is like a dial that controls how many years you jump!'
Biting her bottom lip, she clutched the small dial and slid it several inches in its track so it was at approximately the same location she remembered it being before she had ever meddled with it.
The back of Adria's hand connected hard with Grace's cheek and she flew several feet, landing on her back. Apparently Adria had become more powerful over the last 25 years…
Vala's attention was lost momentarily when the younger woman hit the ground a few feet behind her.
"I cannot let you go, mother," Adria said calmly, raising her hand so her palm faced Vala. She braced herself for the impact, but after several seconds Adria's eyes widened and she tried opening and closing her fist forcefully, but to little effect.
"Lost something?" Grace asked from her position on the ground. Adria glared at her and she smiled, holding up the missing red medallion that was clutched in her fist.
Lost for words, Adria was only able to glare, and she pulled an energy weapon from beneath her cloak as Grace got to her feet, aiming her own.
"Vala go!" she yelled, firing a blank just as a blast from the energy weapon impacted her side and she was jerked backwards, collapsing on the ground with a scream.
Her fingers coiling into a tight fist, Vala punched the red button and felt herself being consumed by the sucking force of the portal.
Just as Daniel stormed into the room, armed with an un-amused expression and a finger prepared to lecture, a large window opened in front of Vala, like a knife had just ripped through the air and formed a portal, and she seemed to be sucked into it in a jerking motion.
"VALA!" Daniel screamed, but the portal had sealed itself, and she was gone.
Only a few moments passed allowing him to blink before the ripping sound broke the air again and Vala toppled into the room, looking dirty, disheveled, and clutching at a bloody arm.
Daniel, lost for words, rushed to her side where she was doubled over in a tight ball and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. As he did so, Sam stumbled awkwardly into the room, followed by Cam, who, distracted by the condition of the ex-thief, bumped into Sam, causing her to stumble a few more inches into the room. Teal'c appeared a few seconds later behind the pair.
They all exchanged confused looks, Sam and Cam asking "what happened" in chorus. Daniel shrugged, mouthing 'I don't know' and turned his attention back to Vala, rubbing her back soothingly.
"Daniel?" she asked, lifting her head enough so she could peer out of a sheath of black hair.
"Yeah, it's me," he assured. "What happened?"
Vala sighed, repositioning herself uncomfortably. "It's a long story…" she said, passing out in his arms.
A few days later, the team was congregated in Sam's lab contently sipping coffee and chatting over the recent events. Vala had tied her hair back in a tight ponytail and her arm was neatly bandaged, making herself feel extremely fresh.
"So you were actually sent into the future?" Sam questioned.
"Yup," Vala chirped, plopping herself into the stool beside Daniel with a grin.
"Wow, that must have been fascinating…" Daniel began, leaning closer with interest. "What was it like?"
"Rather depressing, actually," she admitted. "All of you were dead, and the world was enslaved by the Ori."
"Oh," Daniel said, straightening again. "That's a cheery thought."
"But then…" Sam began.
"Don't worry, taken care of! I brought back up crystals, remember?"
Sam looked slightly offended. "So, you're saying that this guy's going to come back to steal the crystals anyway and when he does it won't matter because we'll have the extra ones that he already stole?"
Vala frowned. There was that headache again. "Right. Well, that's how Grace explained it anyway."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Who is Grace?" he inquired.
"Oh, right! I haven't told you yet!"
"Told us what?" Cam asked.
"Well, you don't think I figured all this out by myself did you?"
"Umm…"
"Who helped you?"
Vala smiled brightly and looked at Sam. "Your daughter."