Sheppard was standing in the upper deck of the observation room, watching the three soldiers as they sat in the room. They had been down there for a few hours, doing pretty much nothing while everyone thought of what to do with them. Telya, Ronan and McKay had been watching from there as well all talking about what could be going on and why three new members of the Atlantis expedition they had never heard of were suddenly in their presence.

"This is so weird." McKay said out loud to no one in particular. "I don't remember General O'Neill mentioning anything about having a son."

"That's hard to imagine." Sheppard said with a glint of sarcasm, "With you two being so close and all…"

"Ha, very funny." McKay snipped back with a tinge of venom. "What I meant is General O'Neill doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would hide something like that. Why would he not want to tell people he's got a kid?"

"That's because he's dead." Everyone turned to see that Woolsey had entered the room and has quietly walked up behind them. He strolled up to the edge of the room and looked over into the room where the three men were sitting. "A few years back, I was asked to do detailed evaluations of everyone at the SGC for the Whitehouse. I had access to everyone's personal file, including Jack O'Neill's."

"Did that file mention anything about this son?" Sheppard asked.

"It did." Woolsey confirmed, "According to those files, Charles Zachary O'Neill, also known as Charlie died when he was five years old. He accidentally shot himself with the General's own service firearm which was not locked away."

"Oh my gaud." Rodney replied.

"How tragic that must have been for him." Telya said upon hearing the sad tale.

"It happened over a year before O'Neill joined the SGC." Woolsey continued to explain. "It was also what led to his divorce."

"That does present a bit of a wrinkle." Sheppard observed.

"It sure does." Ronan said as he never took his eyes of their guests. "Because that's a living, breathing dead man down there."

"Along with an entire Atlantis off world team we have no record of." Woolsey added.

"Any ideas on what we should do with them?" Rodney asked, "I mean good marines who know how to work the gate are hard to find."

Woolsey looked over at Sheppard. "I think it's time for a debriefing."

Sheppard nodded and then left the observation deck. He traveled down some stairs and past the guards at the door to walk into the room below to meet with the soldiers who had been waiting patiently in the empty room. When Sheppard walked into the room, the three men again jumped to attention to show their respect for his rank. "At ease, gentlemen. I'd like to talk do you about your mission."

O'Neill was the first to speak. "Yes, Sir. We were assigned to investigate a planet that was suspected to have been used by the ancients. Since it was not confirmed we went instead of your team since McKay's time was not wasted on stuff unless it was confirmed first." He paused for a moment and then continued. "We went over there to look for anything that could prove who lived there and were to bring back anything that could be identified that could warrant further trips back."

Sheppard was patient as he was taking this all in. "Who authorized this mission?"

All three men looked at each other and then whey they realized he was serious about the question it was Lt. Rogers who answered. "That would be you and Mr. Woolsey, Sir."

Sheppard didn't want to get into all that again. "Let's move past that for a moment. What happened on the planet? How did you get into trouble?"

O'Neill continued the debriefing. "Well, at first we were looking through what seemed to be a deserted outpost."

"Seemed to be deserted?" Sheppard repeated.

Sgt. Smith took over from there. "It was deserted right up to the point where it wasn't, Sir. It's kind of hard to explain."

"One moment there was no one home and the place looked like it hadn't been inhabited for centuries." Lt. Sanchos added, "And then before we knew it the place was tip top and full of hostiles. That's when the alarm when off and we were suddenly fighting for our lives."

"Just like that?" Sheppard asked as his snapped his fingers.

"Just like that, Sir." Rogers answered, "The place was dusty, old and full of cobwebs. Than suddenly there was a quick flash and the place was spotless and full of people who wanted us dead. We almost didn't make it out alive."

"We lost one of our own on our way to the gate." O'Neill said, "It just doesn't make any sense. One second there was nothing and another second it was like we were in a completely different place."

Sheppard was going to say something to console the commander as he knew what it was like to loose men on the field, but before he could say anything something caught the corner of his eye. Up above on the deck and waving his arms like a madman was Rodney, trying to get his attention. Sheppard used the radio in his ear to contact him. "What is it, Rodney?"

"Ask them if they saw a weird looking mirror before everything changed." Rodney quickly answered. Sheppard knew that tone of voice to mean that Rodney had a possible answer and wanted to see if the men could confirm it for him.

Sheppard took a deep breath, "I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I'll ask." He turned back to face the three soldiers. "This may sound really weird, but I have to ask. Did you guys at any point during the mission come across what McKay refers to as a funky looking mirror?

"Not that I'm aware of, Sir." Rogers answered.

"I don't remember seeing one either." O'Neill said, "But I can't speak for our fallen comrade. He may have bumped into anything and we wouldn't know it."

Sheppard nodded and padded O'Neill on the shoulder. "That's it for now guys. We need you guys to stay here for a while longer. We're going to have some grub and some magazines sent up to keep you guys busy. I'll get back to you when we have an idea of what's going on."

"Yes Sir!" All of them said as they stood up at attention again until Sheppard left the room.

Sheppard jogged back up the stairs to the observation deck to find out what the hell was going on. "All right Rodney." He started when he walked into the room, "I know you've got something spinning up there. Spill it. What is this funky mirror you're referring to?"

McKay had his usually 'I know something you don't' cock smile on his face when he started to spout of his theory. "Well, it's something I was working on when I was working at Area 51. One of the artifacts that I worked on with a group of scientists was a mirror that was recovered by the SG1 a long time ago. It was this amazing mirror that had the uncanny ability…"

"…to transport someone to an alternate universe." Woolsey finished for him. "I remember reading the mission report. You think this team may have come across one of those mirrors here in the Pegasus galaxy?"

"Precisely!" McKay said with a wide grin. "If they bumped into this mirror and touched it that would explain how everything in the room suddenly changed."

"But I remember from the report that only the person who touches the mirror travels to the alternate universe. How did the entire team travel without touching the mirror?" Woolsey quickly asked.

"There are a lot of ways to explain that away." McKay said, unwilling to let go of his theory. "It's possible that everyone in the room was transported if this mirror was fitted in the ship the right way. Anything is possible depending on how this was set up."

"It certainly explains how this O'Neill is alive and well." Telya said as she never took her eyes off the people below.

"Evidently in his world." Woolsey surmised, "Jack O'Neill was much safer with his firearms and the incident never occurred."

"There are theoretically an infinite amount of alternate universes." McKay tossed into the conversation, "So I guess there could be at least one world where it's possible that Gen. O'Neill's son never died and grew up to become..."

"A soldier." Ronan finished, "Just like his old man."

"We're going to have to contact Stargate Command." Woolsey said without hesitation. "I have a feeling they'll want to know about this development."

"I know one person who will want to know about this." Sheppard guessed.

McKay took a deep breath, "I guess we're going to have company."

"You think?" Sheppard shot back with heavy sarcasm.

"I wouldn't hesitate to cross the galaxy to see him." Telya responded, knowing exactly what they were talking about.

"That's going to make things very interesting." McKay observed.

"Nothing gets by you Rodney." Woolsey said as he left the room to make what was going to be a very awkward call to Stargate Command.