Chapter 4: Numero Dos

First off, a feeling of awe washed over her, then she did the math and she had to bite back a groan. Shooting Mckay a look she saw that the other scientist was looking equally dispirited but was expertly refusing to look at her. 2024… they'd arrived too early; ten years early. Lexy would be… Sam glanced at her watch but it proved useless, the date still claiming it to be 2008.

"Hang on," the redhead said into the intercom, and the trio disappeared from the window.

"2024 huh?" Cam looked around the room as if the twelve-by-twelve concrete room was going to show him something new and exciting; one would have thought that going through the Stargate on a weekly base would be enough excitement for the man, but apparently not.

"That's early," Vala's eyes widened, panic spreading across her features as her gaze darted from Sam to Daniel in a rapid succession of movements, "we arrived early!"

Teal'c's eyebrow raised but he said nothing, if he had intended to he would have been cut off by the sound of the huge metal door sliding open; the grinding of the lock opening echoing around the room.

"Dawn Sullivan," the redhead said, smiling brightly, "um… I'm sure you know General Carter," she gestured to the woman on her left; her blonde hair was greying slightly, and far longer than Sam's own was, tied back into a neat ponytail, soft tendrils had come loose and framed her face.

"General?" Sam said, feeling a little breathless as she shook the proffered hand.

Carter smiled but Sam could see a darkness in her eyes that was unfamiliar and somewhat foreboding. She was shaken out of her reverie when Dawn continued.

"And Jack O'Neill,"

Leaning heavily on a cane but looking determined; as if he hadn't noticed and daring anyone else too he held out his free hand, shaking the nearest one offered firmly.

"If you don't uh… mind me asking, how did you know…?" Daniel asked as a somewhat uncomfortable silence followed.

Dawn smiled a little at him, her expression sort of torn between amusement, pride and sympathy as she answered his question with a suggestion of her own; "why don't we go to the briefing room. The General is expecting you,"

The corridors looked much the same even after sixteen years. The concrete walls as gray and cold as ever, and the briefing room looked little different. The blast shield over the window was down, making the room appear somewhat smaller than normal, but other than that, which was hardly something they had not seen before, it was the same. The same long table, the same chairs – though they had probably been replaced due to health and safety – and the flags still hanging softly from the flagpoles either side of the door to the General's office.

"If you want to take a seat…" Dawn said and it did not go unnoticed that the redheaded woman seemed to do most of the talking, she headed for the closed door of the General's office and rapped against it.

Carter was quiet and Sam found that despite herself, she was finding it very difficult not to look at her aged counterpart. The look in her eyes enticing but terrifying at the same time, the weary expression something that made a feeling of sincere unease settle in her stomach. The feelings seeing such an expression on a face so similar to her own elicited were uncontrollable, yet she stood no hope of understand them when she had no idea why they were there in the first place. Sixteen years is a long time. Sam found herself trying to catch Jack's eye but that was impossible, the crippled man leaning far to heavily on a his cane as he averted his gaze, focussing it only on following her other self around the room should he decide to focus it at all.

"Hello," the familiar drawl floated from the doorway to the General's office.

Sheppard was leaning casually on the door frame. His gravity-defying hair had not yet changed its behaviour save for the fact flecks of gray that wrought the dark strands and the lines around his eyes were more pronounced; he smiled genuinely at them, a certain fondness settling on his face, "it's good to see you,"

"General?" Mckay said in disbelief, eyes wide and his voice somewhat squeakier than normal

Despite the constant reminders from his team leader and friend when he had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and the high-risk, reckless behaviour of the other man hardly struck as General-like behaviour to the astrophysicist but these were soldiers not scientists, common sense and intelligence probably did not come into it.

Sheppard grinned "yup, nearly eleven years now," he said, his smug expression as real as anything else in the room, but seeming subsequently more authentic than any of the other faces that had been put on.

Something triggered in Sam's head and she turned to her counterpart. As if reading her mind – and Sam saw the irony in that turn of phrase – Carter answered almost instantly; "eleven years," a playful look was sent between herself and General Sheppard and silence followed once more.

Sheppard cleared his throat "why don't we all…" he gestured for the table and they moved to take their places.

"There's a lot to say," Carter started tactfully after a pointed look from the base Commander.

"Yeah," Jack scoffed gruffly "that's one way of putting it,"

Carter pursed her lips and gave him a poignant look.

"I think," Sheppard folded his hands on the desk, the sleeves of his BDUs rolled up to the elbow; he wasn't wearing dress blues which may or may not be significant, with Sheppard it as hard to tell, "the easiest way of doing this will be if you ask questions and we try and answer them as best we can,"

Cam nodded, "makes sense,"

"Fair enough," Sheppard said, "fire away,"

Suddenly thrust into a period they weren't yet supposed to see and given the unequivocal chance to ask anything they wanted, find out anything at all was somewhat overwhelming. It shouldn't be that easy, there should be ambiguous 'you can't know that's and 'I'm sorry I can't tell you's; not calm proclamations of 'fire away' and 'ask what you like'.

"How…" Sam began, glancing at Cam and nodding minutely at him to remain quiet for a moment "you can't tell us everything surely," she voiced her queries.

"Why are you here?" Dawn asked gently, her voice was soft and lilting, her skin lily-white against the radiant locks framing her face; she sounded like an elementary school teacher only without the condescension.

"Adria," Daniel answered; "we need to know how to defeat her,"

There seemed to be a war raging inside of him as Sheppard fought to keep his expression as calm as possible, but even as he won that, his gaze handed and his jaw became tense; "we haven't," he answered after a moment.

"You… you haven't?" Mckay all but squeaked "what?"

Sheppard sighed the sigh of a weary man, suddenly looking much older than he had before, this was much harder than he had imagined, and it would be. They had been expecting a visit, they knew it was coming and maybe that had been the light in the desolation that had reigned for many years; "Sam?" he asked.

Sam looked up but realised he was talking to her counterpart, his dark eyes boring into the greying blonde's.

Carter took a breath "why don't you tell us when exactly you're from that way our stories don't overlap? And I can pick up where you leave off,"

"2008," Cam put in at the same time as Sam attempted to repeat the question Daniel had asked earlier; it was very concerning that they knew to expect the team from their past, it meant that they had failed surely, that there was no answer.

"Right… so that means. You've just defeated the Ori correct?"

"Yeah,"

Teal'c watched the exchange studiously, lips pressed tightly together and his feet planted firmly on the floor. He was not relaxed, and doubted he would be until the completion of this mission. His eyes flicked away from the conversation when he felt someone looking at him, he frowned when he saw the mysterious redhead who had welcomed them avert her gaze. Quickly coming to the conclusion that it was irrelevant he blocked it from his thoughts and went back to watching his companions.

Carter took another steadying breath "have you been to the Summit yet?"

There were several nods.

"Okay," she started "sorry for all the questions but… are you still using Arthur's Mantle?"

More nods.

"Good," Sheppard's comment was short, "keep it that way,"

It was difficult to figure out how exactly to do this. To explain the changes that had taken place in the time between their guests' time and this one. There was so much to say, so much that shouldn't be said but so much that had to be. Carter continued; "five years ago we received a message that you would be coming. It was dated from for months time,"

"As in…?" Cam started.

"Yeah," Sheppard nodded but offered nothing more.

"That's how we knew you were coming," Dawn said, risking a glance at Vala, a strange look on her face.

The expression was sort of fond but lonely as well and there were a thousand other emotions that the Vala did not and could not identify. It was unique and Vala did not know what to make of it; of any of this for that matter. A slow ache burned in her chest as she took in her surroundings, the new faces that shouldn't be so new, because they looked old, not physically, Sheppard and Sam looked as spry as ever. Sam's hair was a fair bit longer and it softened her features but… something about them made them seem far more aged than they should have been. A jaded sense of purpose and desperation; they were not foreign sights but together with something that seemed too dark to be voiced it was somewhat unnerving.

This was the world her daughter had grown up in, her baby. The baby she should be at home with now, nursing, caring for, and playing with. But at the same time she should be here, the impossible clause of a Catch-22 situation, she couldn't have it both ways, neither way was perfect, both ways meant loss, this was just the lesser of two evils. She was actively trying to save her daughter, to rescue her from a fate she did not deserve but now, seeing this, the burning sense of urgency that branded her soul even as she sat impatiently waiting for a story to be told that should never take place. She could feel the weight of desperation settling on her shoulders. The despairing knowledge that this was what awaited them was devastating and made her feel sick. This couldn't happen but instead of feeling motivated to do something to prevent it; she felt extreme sadness seeing that there was little that could be done.

"A lot has happened," Carter felt stupid even as she said it, "I'm not sure where to start, what you need to know exactly,"

"We need to know how to stop Adria," Vala said abruptly, "without using Lexy,"

"We don't know," Dawn said sadly "Adria…" she trailed off, swallowing harshly and avoiding looking at Vala meticulously "Adria's done a lot of damage… a lot of …" she stopped and tried again, blinking harshly and looking up again but failing to articulate any words of use.

Teal'c took pity on her, deciding to try a question that might be answerable, triggering a response so as they could get somewhere other than stuttered replies and clumsy avoidances of questions that desperately needed answers "where is General Landry?"

"Psychiatric institution in Washington," Sheppard answered, his tone detached.

Cam's eyes widened "what happened?"

"Eleven years ago there was a siege. Adria and her soldiers attacked the base, one hundred and twelve fatalities, hundreds more casualties… General Landry was…" his expression hardened "General Landry was tortured but she didn't kill him. He was transferred to the Washington institution when General Mitchell and Doctor Lam moved there,"

"General?" Cam couldn't help but smile at that.

Sheppard nodded; "same time as me and General Carter,"

There was a momentary silence, though its reasons were many no one decided why. Perhaps to commemorate the lost men and women of the siege, or in sympathy of General Landry, maybe as the numbers added up and it dawned on them the timings of the promotions and the siege. It didn't matter, it could have been anything, so many things to be said, so many things to be heard, dozens more that bore no relevance to the situation but it was a fierce battle with what should be kept secret and what shouldn't. Surely if something so bad happened that it was nearly impossible to bare, by telling their past selves they could change it, make a difference.

"Perhaps they should see it," Jack said "the note,"

Sheppard glanced at Carter who nodded her agreement and he pulled a creased envelope from his pocket. Flattening it as best he could, he slid it across the table to Vala. His eyes catching hers for a split second, she was taken aback by the intensity of his gaze as he almost scrutinised her. He flinched when her fingers brushed against his and she almost jerked back in response, instead she swallowed, and glanced at the message in her hands, suddenly lost as to what to do. The shaky yet graceful penmanship flowed across the envelope, printing the words; 'For the eyes of the Commanding Officer of Stargate Command only'.

Seeing his wife freeze Daniel gently took the envelope from her, lifting the flap and pulling a piece of SGC stationary paper from inside, its creases were well worn as if it had been read many times, each delicate word poured over again and again as if their meaning was indecipherable.

FAO, Commanding Officer of Stargate Command,

I am unsure as to when you will get this. I don't have much time, so many are dead and even more are injured. We cannot help them. There is nothing we can do. On the 30th of June, 2024, a team consisting of Lt. Colonel Mitchell, Lt. Colonel Carter, Dr. Mckay, Teal'c, Dr. Jackson and Vala will visit you; I am unclear as to when exactly they come from. Help them. Trust them. Tell them what you can. Tell them they have too.

Dr. Dawn Sullivan, PhD.

November 12th 2024

His eyes flicked across it again, reading it once, twice, three times before he felt the burning gaze of his companions bore into him. He passed the note to Sam, she read it aloud.

"I tell you," Sheppard smiled as Sam finished, attempting to lighten the mood in some sort of obscure fashion, "the 'when' part has us all confused for weeks,"

"We're not using her," Vala said again, it was repetitive but not annoying, the urgency in her voice as fresh and cutting as each time before. "There is no way I'm letting them use her," she looked defiantly at Daniel, as if she were completely forgetting the audience they had.

Daniel however, did not forget and instead took her hand, squeezing her smaller fingers in his palm reassuringly. There were no words he could think of to reply to that, none worth saying anyway. She knew what his reply would be anyway. In this situation words were useless.

"What does it mean?" Mckay started "are you saying we have to put a baby in front of the Orisi and see what happens?" his sarcasm was not as biting as usual, instead it was tainted with fear, weakening it's intensity considerably.

Dawn looked taken aback as he snapped at her, "me?"

"Well you sent the letter," he accused.

"Four months from now!" she retorted hotly.

"Hey!" Cam cut in "knock it off," he gave Mckay a pointed look and the astrophysicist backed down looking decidedly disgruntled.

"The fact is we don't know," Dawn said, "Arthur's Mantle is failing; we literally have months left. Adria's forces are stronger than ever before, it's only a matter of time before she attacks and if she does we have no way of stopping her. Lexy is supposed to be the solution but she has no more idea than the rest of us and even if she did we have no right to expect her to do anything," she took a calming breath but it did no seem to work, her chest was heaving with pent up frustration.

"You really don't know?" Sam said, defeat heavy in the air, bearing down on them like a hungry darkness ready to engulf them all.

They shook their heads.

After an uncomfortable moment, Cam asked the inevitable; "where is Lexy?"

Next Chapter: They came to the future for information, but how do you draw the line between the information you need and the things you find out anyway?