Chapter 9
Alternate Universes Are Nothing But Trouble
(Even they know that)

The next few days that Victoria was trapped in the infirmary saw a rotation of the four members of SG-1 visiting the green girl at various times of the day, each taking a turn much like they did when one of them was laid up:

Jack would bring comics and various contraband sweets, as would Teal'c (but no-one suspected that he did), while Sam would talk science, teaching her the workings of the MALP, UAV and various other technologies of the base. The resident archeologist took to bringing photos of his latest artifact to show her, both for advice and the continuation of her impromptu Goa'uld lessons.

It was during one of Jack's visits, though, that the green girl decided to ask about something that had been nagging on her for a while.

"Jack?"

"Mmm?" the colonel grunted, not looking up from his Superman comic as he took a sip of coffee.

"Who's Sha're?" He choked on his coffee. Or rather, nearly did as he leaned forward, coughing as he braced himself on the side table. The girl's eyes widened and she moved to help him, taking the cup and book from him before giving him a sharp slap on the back.

"I'msorry!" the teen cried as he returned to his normal colour, "Ididn'."

Jack took a couple deep breaths and glanced at the girl, where could she have possibly…?

"Daniel was thinking about them a lot the other day," answering the unasked question.

The colonel was silent for a moment, pondering whether or not he should tell a story that wasn't his, when the girl quickly told him to forget she had asked and busied herself with a book.

"She was Daniel's wife." The teen looked up in surprise.

"His wife?" Jack leaned back in his chair, all joking gone from his voice.

"Yeah. They met on our first mission; she lived on the planet that we went to." Sand, as far as the eye can see assaulted her mind's eye. Friendly people, hulking beasts, a beautiful woman and her brother. "He stayed there after it was over." Shouts, explosions, blood, Daniel, glowing eyes, the woman, pain…pain. A bomb, a huge one, pain, Charlie, guns, death, Charlie, glowing rings, a ship, an explosion… a burden lifted somewhat. "We went back a year later and found them, living happily together with her people." A box of tissues, a note, cold, Daniel, smiles, the woman again, her brother again. "Sha're was captured by the Goa'uld and taken as a host." Goa'uld…the enemy, glowing eyes, death, sparkling gowns, dingy cells, distorted voices, glowing eyes, pain, Teal'c, hope, bittersweet victory.

The images stopped as soon as they had come, leaving Victoria blinking and attempting to process the amount of information she had just received.

"What happened to her?" She was almost scared to ask… Jack took a deep breath, a steadying one.

"She died. A couple months ago. Her snake was trying to kill Daniel so Teal'c had to shoot her."

The teen remained silent for a moment, her heart bleeding for her friend's loss as tears pricked at her eyes. "Then I guess I should be honoured," she sniffed weakly, voice uneven. At Jack's questioning gaze, she turned to him, a smile fighting to be seen on her lips. "He thinks I remind him of her."

The colonel softened and enveloped the girl in a hug, mindful of her wounds.

PAGEBREAK

The cycle of visitors was broken when General Hammond called for a briefing for SG-1's next mission.

"I take it you people haven't learned much about how our visitor might have gotten here?" he opened, casting a look around at his elite team.

"From what she's said, General, she doesn't even know how she got here, only that it might have had something to do with some sort of beam device produced by a major scientific research company in her universe," Daniel said, glancing at Sam for a more scientific explanation.

"So far as I can tell, sir, who ever was doing this was attempting to derive a globally controlled automata-like protocol for the perfect transmission of quantum information in a chain made up of qudits or a chain made up of harmonic oscillators—"

"Major?" the general cut her off, noticing the glazed looks in her teammates' eyes. "A simpler explanation, please?" She blinked.

"Sorry sir. Basically, I think that they were trying to open a portal to an alternate reality, just not this one."

"That makes sense." Five heads whipped around to look at a bedraggled teen dressed in too-large BDUs attempting to coax her hair into a rubber band.

"This is a highly classified briefing, young lady. Just what do you think you're doing here?" Hammond demanded.

"I figured that if you wanted more information of where I'm from, I could just tell you instead of you guys trying to be sneaky about it," Victoria replied, not even trying to look bashful about it. She felt a wave of guilt emanate from SG-1 and quickly sent them a reassuring vibe, showing she didn't hold it against them. "Besides, it's not like I'm ever going to go off base, so anyone I could possibly tell it to already knows."

Hammond pondered this for a moment before his 2IC broke in.

"She has a point, sir." Everyone turned to O'Neill. "It's probably easiest to find out anything we want by just…asking." The general nodded.

"Very well. Please have a seat," he gestured to the empty chairs.

Victoria barely contained a grin and walked around the table, taking a seat between Sam and Jack, casting a quick glance at Daniel, the colonel's words coming back to her. The archeologist, thankfully, didn't notice.

"So, what do you want to know, general?" He was taken aback by her openness for a moment, but recovered quickly.

"Where are you from?" To the point, much…?

"Jump City California, 84826."

They went through the usual rigmarole of "There is no such place," and "Yes there is," and "The Nazis had ray guns," and such.

"Do you know how any of this technology works?" Hammond asked.

"Kind of, not really. I used to help my Uncle Vic with the T-car, but my parents stopped letting me a couple of years ago." Her tone spoke of personal matters, so he dropped it, disappointed.

"Why did you say that it made sense that whoever was building this ray was trying to get to an alternate reality?"

"About ten years before I was born, the original Justice League had a run-in with a different group of heroes, called the Justice Lords. They were from an alternate universe very much like mine, with the exception that the Flash had been killed in action and, because of this, the League of that world took over, ruling the world with an iron fist. Or rather, a steel one." Darkness painted her voice for a moment, but was gone so quickly that they almost thought they imagined it. "This prompted a great interest in alternate realities, since now the world knew they existed." Victoria leaned back in her chair, staring in concentration at the ceiling. "Of course, nowadays I'm pretty sure there are laws against it because every time another reality got involved with ours, or vice versa, crap seemed to happen. The reason I was even there with my mother and uncle was because we heard he was dealing with dangerous stuff like this."

The assembled personnel sent glances at each other, and at General Hammond, mulling over the new information.

"If it's illegal, how come you're uncle's old company was making one?" Jack asked careful.

"Because Powers is a bastard who doesn't care about anything but profits," the teen responded without missing a beat.

Ooook, dropping it.

"Thank you for your help, Victoria. SG-1, your next mission briefing will be tomorrow at 0800," General Hammond said, gaining a measure of respect for the girl before him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more useful," she replied. He began to rise, but was stopped when the teen addressed him.

"General."

"Yes?" Deep violet eye locked with his.

"If you would permit me, I would like to help out around the base more. I believe I could be useful in the machine shop or somewhere similar." Hammond thought on this for a moment; they really had no idea of how long she would be stuck in their reality, and she did have...attributes…that could make her an asset in certain areas of the base.

He gave her a smile. "I'll see what I can do." She nodded her thanks and they all stood, the general retreating back into his office and SG-1 beginning to walk towards their 'team room' on 22, Victoria following.

As they were walking down the hall, however, they met with a slightly frazzled Dr. Frasier.

"Have you seen Victoria? She was supposed to have another examination today to see if she was well enough to move out of the infirmary."

The team looked at each other, and Sam noticed a small green monkey clinging to Daniel's back, giving her a pleading look.

"Uuuuum, not today, Janet," she said slowly, turning back to the CMO. The brunette let out a growl of frustration and pushed through, heading towards the elevators.

Had she turned back, she would have seen the green Capuchin jump from an unwitting Daniel to rest on Sam's shoulder, hugging the scientist's head as the blonde giggled.

Unfortunately for Victoria, her little stunt got her two extra days in the infirmary, along with an irate doctor reading her the riot act after she had finally tracked the teen down. (As it happened, she was in the rec. room playing Formula One with Jack and Teal'c, the latter of whom was wiping the floor with them.)

A small consolation was the fact that Colonel O'Neill was also chewed out, the rest of the team watching whilst Sam tried desperately not to snicker at her CO's expense.