It's a bit later than I normally post, but it's been a busy week. I'm trying to post at least once a week, but I can't guarantee that all the time. I'm still trying. Anyways, hope you like this chapter. Enjoy!
The bouncy ball was back out as soon as Janet left. That is until an irate and tired Colonel snapped from the corner, "Can you cut that out?"
Daniel caught the ball quickly, turning a worried look towards Sam. He wasn't sure if it was the fatigue or the fact that she'd seen her long dead best friend that was making her angry, or both. He didn't really want to find out. They had run into an alternate Janet a couple of years ago, but he could see there was still pain lingering for all of them. Losing someone close to you was never easy.
After a moment, Jack walked over to her and slid along the wall to sit beside her. He spoke quietly so they could all hear, but Daniel had to strain to do so, "You should get some rest."
He gained a withering glare for that comment, but he didn't back down. She scoffed and pulled her knees up and resting her head on them. "Sorry, sir."
He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "It's okay to miss her, Sam. Even after all this time, but we have a mission to do, and I need you in top form. We've been questioned all morning, and we've now seen two ghosts. I think that warrants being tired and a little snappy, especially with how little rest you've gotten over the last week." He gave her a look and she smiled in response. "I know it's not all that comfy, but try to get some rest."
She leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Apparently General O'Neill gave Teal'c and Daniel a look too because when she opened them again, they were all sitting down, trying to get some rest on the hard concrete floors. She didn't mind when the bouncing of a ball started again a couple minutes later, this time lulling her into a light rest.
After a couple of hours with each of them getting some light sleep, Jack nudged Sam gently to wake her when he heard someone coming. She sat up quickly, indicating she hadn't been sleeping all that deeply, if at all. They all stood as whoever it was opened the door. An SF came in and told them that they were expected in the briefing room. Well, it was a start.
They walked out of the room, and down to the briefing room where they were told to wait just outside, while the SF went Hammond's office to inform them of their arrival. When they were allowed in, they weren't quite expecting the surprise of a younger SG-1 on the other side.
Colonel O'Neill stood quickly and let out a "What!" while Daniel jumped up in surprise, and what seemed to be a "Major" Carter sat up, frowning at each of them. Even Teal'c seemed to be glaring. All four of them were taking in the appearance of the duplicates until finally Colonel O'Neill turned to General Hammond, "I thought that mirror was destroyed."
Before General Hammond could respond, General O'Neill stepped in for him, "It was, don't worry. We're not from an alternate dimension or universe or whatever it is, if that's what you think. No, it's actually a bit more complicated than that." He ignored the wry smile Colonel Carter gave him.
The younger Daniel looked absolutely confused and dumbfounded, "How can it be more complicated than an alternate reality? Are you alien imposters or…? Why do you look so different?"
"Teal'c, what's with the hair?" Colonel O'Neill asked, staring at Teal'c who had a full head of hair and a white streak to add to it.
The elder team cracked smiles while General Hammond tried to calm SG-1 down, "Dr. Fraiser has at least confirmed some of their story. They say they are from the future, and it seems their blood indicates they may be some years older, but there is no doubt that they are you."
Major Carter finally piped up, coming out of her shock, "You can't do that. You should know you can't do that." She pointed an accusatory glare at herself. "You could change everything simply by being here."
Colonel Carter smiled and nodded, "Trust me, I know. We didn't have a choice in this. We're also taking… precautions. Can we…?" She gestured to the empty seats at the table, looking to General Hammond for permission. He nodded and they all sat at the end of the table.
General O'Neill looked around at the few SFs scattered around the room. "I hate to ask this, but can we have everyone else stand outside the room? The less people who hear anything we tell you, the better." When everyone paused, he blew out a breath slowly, wishing he was still in charge of this base and could just order them to do so. "Look, you have all of our weapons, and they'll be right outside if something happens. You have to trust us."
General Hammond nodded, gesturing for the SFs to leave and close the door. It wasn't completely private, but it would have to do for now. Colonel Carter figured it was best to ask first, "What have you told them?"
"Well, as you can see from their reactions, nothing. Not that you have told anyone but Dr. Fraiser anything at all. You said you'd talk to me and SG-1, so talk." The order was obvious, but in the end, the elder group didn't answer to General Hammond anymore.
Colonel Carter looked to General O'Neill who nodded for her to continue. She turned back to General Hammond and explained carefully, "We have to be careful about what we divulge to you. Like... I said," She gestured to her younger self, "we shouldn't be here. We have a device that can erase all memory of this when we're done, but it would be easier if there was less memory to erase, and less people who remembered us. What we need to know is the date and your last mission so we at least have an idea of what we can and cannot say."
Colonel O'Neill shook his head, looking a bit irritated, "You don't get to go making demands here, Carter. If you really are from the future, then you know how command works, and how this works. We ask questions and you answer."
"Actually, Colonel. You are not my superior officer, so I don't have to listen to your orders. Also, we only need this information so we don't give away information about your future that you could possibly change. Why don't I tell you what I can then we'll go from there." Colonel Carter gave him a steely look that bordered on a glare before again she glanced at General O'Neill, but he didn't seem keen to stop her. "If we landed on the right date then you" pointing at Major Carter, "have been a major for a few months. You recently defeated Hathor, Seth, and Sokar. You also recently met a Doctor Samantha Carter, and Major Kawolski from an alternate universe and helped them return home. Am I right so far?"
Major Carter nodded slowly. The elder Daniel interjected for Sam, giving her a bit of a break from the scowls they were all receiving, "Look, you can ask us any information you wish to know to prove who we are, but we need you to believe us. We're here to keep you safe. The reason we came back was to keep you all from getting killed."
"Daniel." A sharp warning came from General O'Neill. Colonel Carter shook her head and interjected quickly, "No sir, he's right. They need to know."
"Carter, you're the one who told me not to let them know too much" He was trying his best not to raise his voice, for now ignoring the bewildered looks of their younger selves.
"I did… but at this point I don't know what else to do, but tell them what they need to know in order to trust us. We don't know when that Goa'uld will try to strike. We're lucky it wasn't while they were off-world."
General O'Neill growled, shaking his head. He didn't know why he expected this mission to be anything but impossible. Colonel O'Neill spoke up, eyeing him warily, "Alright, let's start over then. How about that? Why don't you properly introduce yourselves? Name, rank, and why you're here then we'll go from there." He paused then continued while the older-looking team shared looks. "Like let's say Carter. Every time we meet you with long hair you're a doctor, so is it Doctor Carter then?"
Colonel Carter turned slowly towards him with an amused look, "No. I didn't leave the military. I simply decided to grow my hair out. It's Colonel."
He looked confused for a moment while Major Carter looked a bit surprised, "What?"
This time she smiled, and shook her head, "Colonel Samantha Carter, sir. This is Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. Same people, just some years added on."
General O'Neill chuckled when he heard himself whisper, "Lieutenant General…" sounding quite impressed.
The younger Doctor Jackson nodded thoughtfully, "That makes sense. You all look a fair bit older, and it's fair to assume both Sam and Jack would get promotions over the years. I assume that means Jack is no longer with SG-1 though, so why are you all here?"
General O'Neill shifted with a frown, "No, I'm not, and neither is Carter, but from the information we received this seemed like the best option for both gaining your trust, and stopping this Goa'uld."
They looked confused still or at least unsettled but continued on with another question from Jack, "Alright, but if some Goa'uld is trying to kill us, don't you think we could handle it ourselves? We've handled things so far, and obviously we do for years to come, so what gives?"
Everyone turned to Colonel Carter who understood this best, so she sighed and explained, "The Goa'uld has come back in time to kill you, and even if he doesn't kill you, he could wreak havoc on the timeline, changing things for better or for worse. We have no way of knowing so our best option was to travel back in time and either kill him or bring him back to the present where he can't do quite as much harm. Besides, this Goa'uld has technology and knowledge from the future. Without us, he'll be a step ahead of you at every turn."
They still didn't seem to believe them, making her sigh again, and turn to General O'Neill with a pointed look. She was far too tired for this. It took him a moment, but he nodded when he figured out what she wanted, other than for him to take over, "Why don't you let us show you some of what we brought as an example? At least bring our equipment back. I believe there was something in there…?" He looked to Colonel Carter questioningly, and she nodded in affirmation.
Daniel jumped in quickly before they could refuse the offer, "From the data we have from the Tok'ra, we have reason to believe that this Goa'uld brought much more than just the knowledge of the future with him. The technology and weapons he has will far surpass anything you currently have, and things that took us a lot of time and effort to make."
General O'Neill nodded to him. Honestly, he should just let Daniel do the talking. People tended to trust and believe him far more often. Even with all his dealings at the Pentagon, he still wasn't the best at negotiating so much as he was intimidating them into doing what needed to be done.
After a moment of whispered discussion at the younger end of the table, General Hammond told Major Carter to have their things brought here. They'd have to ensure nothing was taken, even if most of their stuff had been left back at the ship.
After a couple of moments of awkward silence, their things were brought to them. The zats were placed away from them, but everything else was given back. Colonel Carter quickly fished through her vest and pulled out the Super Soldier modulator that would be put in a gun. She had figured they'd need something to convince them, but she didn't want to carry around both the modulator and gun; therefore, modulator without the gun.
It shone colourfully under the briefing room lights. SG-1 looked at it in fascination, and Major Carter even reached out, wanting to inspect it. Colonel Carter held it away with a bit of an admonishing smile, "As much as I'd love for you to be able to look at this and know how to make this without all the pain it took, we both know I can't do that."
Major Carter paused, getting a similar reprimanding look from Colonel O'Neill. Colonel Carter continued, "In a couple of years there will be Goa'uld soldiers that cannot be killed by means of normal weapons. It took months and a lot of work and pain to make a device that can pierce through their armour in order to kill them. Now, we aren't sure if this Goa'uld has any, but there's a chance he might, in which case we want some way of defeating them. Understand?"
General Hammond nodded in agreement then turned to Colonel O'Neill, "Tell them about what's been happening and your last couple of missions."
Colonel O'Neill shifted uncomfortably then responded, "The last mission was to a lovely little planet called… Maiva? Maiv. Something like that. Before that if I remember correctly it was P2X-416. Honestly, how far back do you want us to go?" He received a glare from his three teammates, so he continued uncomfortably while the elder group tried to think of what he was talking about, but honestly they'd been on so many missions that it was hard to remember little missions or the coordinates.
Colonel O'Neill continued after clearing his throat, "Well I suppose what you would remember is the mission to Tollana. Kind of went sideways."
Colonel Carter tensed, looking right at him, although surprised when she felt a hand on her knee, trying to be comforting, "Which mission to Tollana?"
SG-1 looked at her nervously, not sure what she was saying since they hadn't had many bad missions to Tollana. General O'Neill was the one to respond, "The time I went undercover and pretended to go dark-side." Colonel Carter felt the hand gently squeeze her leg, an answer that no one else heard. They'd never really talked about what had happened then much, but it seemed he knew what she was thinking and feeling. "And before that when I was stuck for a hundred days. You've had a rough month. It's good to know though. That gives us an idea of what's going on."
Even Daniel looked a bit uncomfortable at the memory. He frowned down at the table, while an uncomfortable silence settled over all of them. Amazingly it was Colonel Carter who broke the silence, "Why now though? Technology is relatively low still, but why not before a couple Goa'uld had been knocked off the map, or before we met the Tok'ra? What's the point of coming now?"
Their Daniel responded, "Actually I have a theory about that. We're chasing after a minor Goa'uld after all, so perhaps he wanted us to get rid of some of the bigger powers so he could step in to fill their place or at least have less competition. He's a collector, so the less Goa'uld that are around, the more power he can gain. He also probably didn't have a lot of choice in when he came to unless he somehow had a ship like ours, which I doubt."
Nods of agreement went around the table, but the younger Teal'c asked solemnly, "Which Goa'uld have you come to hunt?"
Daniel responded quickly, "The Goa'uld Sopdu. We honestly haven't run into him until now, which is amazing considering. I'll tell you everything we know about him, but we need to spend our time figuring out where he is, so we can stop him. He could cause a lot of havoc in the past."
The rest of the briefing turned into a very brief overview of Sopdu, then a discussion of what needed to be done, which at this point, wasn't much. Unfortunately the most they could do was try to protect their younger selves, but it was also important they found Sopdu before he tried to destroy something else that could have the exact same effect as killing them.
When General Hammond dismissed them, General O'Neill quickly came around to his side, after patting Carter's knee softly. He spoke quietly, but still loud enough for them all to hear, "Look, I know you have little reason to trust us, and I get that, but I'd appreciate if we could get a place to properly rest. We honestly haven't slept much in days, and it'd be better to be well rested before we start all of this."
Colonel Carter protested before General Hammond could respond, "Sir, I'm fine, and we should really get to work…"
He shot a look at her, "We have time, Carter. I'd rather you at the top of your game than exhausted after a week with, what? Five hours of sleep?"
She sighed, knowing she wouldn't win this argument with him. General Hammond nodded and quickly had an airman arrange a room for them. Colonel O'Neill was asked into his office while the other three warily left the briefing room to do whatever they were going to do. General O'Neill came up beside his team, watching the meeting in the office that they couldn't hear through the closed door.
"He's telling him that he's in charge. He doesn't trust us, not yet. He knows better than to just accept what we tell him, so it's safer to put him in charge."
The others nodded in understanding. They'd run into a similar problem when the alternate teams had come through with one ending up having malicious intent. If they'd completely trusted them then there would have been a problem for sure.
Colonel O'Neill left with a glance towards them, likely heading off to talk with his team. They waited until an airman escorted them down to a room, grabbing all of their vests which they were graciously allowed to keep, but of course not the zats. The room had three beds waiting for them which made sense since staying together was a good idea. Two guards stood outside the door, however.
O'Neill walked over to one of the beds and laid down with a groan, "I don't think my body can take an adventurous adventure like this. You kids make it look so easy. Why did they send us again?"
Daniel responded with a chuckle, "Because if they hadn't whoever it was would definitely still be locked up, and eventually transferred to a psych ward. Honestly, what we're saying would sound absolutely insane if it weren't for the fact that there's two of us, and we look at least ten years older. Besides, Jack, Teal'c is far older than you are."
Teal'c nodded with a smirk, "Indeed."
Jack groaned, scowling at both of them, "Don't remind me. Help me out here, Carter."
She giggled, coming over to the bed he was lying on and sat on the edge, "Come on, Sir. You're not that old. In fact I remember that you often like to remind me of that." She flashed him a smile which he returned.
Daniel groaned, "If you two are going to flirt all night then me and Teal'c are going to go ask for another room."
Sam laughed, trying to hide the blush that rose in her cheeks. Jack continued to smile at her, feeling at least accomplished in making her relax a little, "Nah, we'll be good. We need to sleep anyways. All of us, that includes you, Teal'c."
Teal'c looked around at the three beds then rose an eyebrow at him, "O'Neill, is there not a bed missing?"
As if just realizing that there was three instead of four beds, he sat up, wondering why that would be. It dawned on Daniel first, "They don't know that you sleep now." Gesturing to Teal'c. "They would have no reason to assume otherwise. We can go ask them for an extra bed…"
Jack waved him off, "No, don't worry about it. We'll be fine on the same bed, even if they are a bit small." He ignored the look Carter gave the bed. "Come on, Carter. We've slept in worse conditions."
"We have… I'm more worried about someone catching us. As much as we've told them a lot of information, I want to avoid telling them what isn't necessary. Finding two officers cuddled up together in bed… well." She blushed again, which made him chuckle.
"I know, and I doubt they will take it well at this point in time. Granted, in a couple of months they're forced to admit their feelings, but that wasn't exactly a pleasant experience either." She grimaced at the memory. "Look, we'll try our best not to tell them too much, but if it comes out then it comes out. I know this is a bad time for them and the team. Honestly the timing makes this harder. Who knows, maybe that's why Ol' Sop chose this time. You didn't trust me anymore, at least not as much as you used to." His words were confirmed when she flinched, and Daniel and Teal'c looked away. "I'm not under the illusion that this will be easy, but it's good to know what to expect from them."
Sam nodded, dropping her vest to the side and nudging him to move off so they could get under the covers. Daniel and Teal'c did the same, all relaxing into the rather uncomfortable beds. Sam pulled the elastic bands out of her hair, placing them on the table before lying down with her head tucked against Jack's chest. He wrapped an arm around her with one hand on her back and one in her hair. Somehow they managed to both fit on the bed comfortably.
He asked softly and quietly, "Are you okay?"
She nodded, closing her eyes when he started to brush his hand carefully through her hair, "Yeah, just tired, I guess."
"Go to sleep then. Don't worry about all of this right now. We have time, and we can figure it out in the morning."
She cracked a smile, "Technically, it's morning right now, sir."
"Mm, I think I've said something against being cheeky, Colonel." She heard a smile in his voice.
She didn't get a chance to respond since Daniel did it for her, "I'm serious about finding another room if you two keep flirting. Go to sleep."
They both chuckled, but did as they were told and quickly fell to sleep.