Previously:

Getting sicker by the day, Kathryn has refused to host a Tok'ra symbiote to save her life so as not to divulge any of her technology. However, odd readings she took just before her shuttle exploded and a decline in the stargate power use seemed to indicate that, unbeknown to everybody, the two universes have remained connected according to Sam. The two women hypothesised that both Voyager's use of dilithium and the gates' naquadria are keeping the ink open. Faced with her ship being in potential danger, Janeway has taken the decision to go back to her universe to try and close that link.

NOTE: This chapter contains major character deaths.

Goodbyes

"It was an honour to work alongside you, Captain Janeway."

"Likewise, Teal'c. Live long and prosper, my friend."

The Jaffa tilted his head and smiled before walking back towards the second F-302 spacecraft waiting on the Alpha site runway. Its downward wings reminded Janeway of a Klingon Bird of Prey. She had to agree with Sam and O'Neill: the F-302 was a good-looking spacecraft. A pity she couldn't fly one of them solo. She was putting Sam's life in danger.

O'Neill lifted his sunglasses. "Well, Janeway, looks like today might be the day. Tell your folks we say hi, when you see them."

She could not help rolling her eyes. O'Neill and goodbyes obviously inhabited two completely different universes, never to meet.

"I will, Colonel." She rose on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you for what you've done for me." The early sunrise was chasing the shadows on the tarmac, but she thought he was blushing.

"It will be good not to have two people sciencing at me all the time. Gives me a headache in case you haven't noticed. Just one thing, though…" He pushed his sunglasses back on his nose.

She put a hand on his arm. "Don't worry. I'll make sure Sam ejects out of the flyer safely before we reach the solar flare. Just be there to catch her. There's only ten minutes of air in that spacesuit."

"I'm always there to catch her," he said, his tone serious. "But if it weren't for orders from higher up, I would abort this mission right now."

Hammond had ordered all the science heads Carter knew of to work on the hypothesis the link between the two universes was still opened. The slight decrease in the energy use of the Alpha site stargate had been confirmed, starting from when the shuttle had landed, and accelerating since it had been destroyed. A few neighbouring gates had also started to show the same problem according to the Tok'ra. A conservative estimate had calculated the drop in power would affect all gates in that sector of space within a couple of months. After that, we are doomed, McKay had announced, looking rather awestruck at meeting Janeway.

Janeway's mad plan to return to her ship and cut off the link from her end had been approved and fast-tracked with very little time to iron out the problems. She could understand O'Neill's misgivings.

"As soon as Sam engages the auto-pilot to fly the F-302 into the wormhole, I'll order her to activate her ejection seat. The team has replaced the canopy escape system which will make it easier for you to grab her."

"You can't order her, and you know she'll wait until the last minute before bailing out."

"Then I'll override the controls. You have my word. You won't lose her. I know she means a great deal to you."

O'Neill straightened his back, his eyes roaming the empty airfield. Apart from SG-3 waiting at the gate, all personnel had already been sent back to Earth. "She's a very valuable—"

"—member of your team. Trust me, I understand."

That earned her a thin smile from the man. She did understand the difference between losing a team member who had become a close friend, and losing somebody you couldn't live without. Although, if she hadn't been overly sensitive to the close bond that could emerge between two COs, she could have easily missed the signs that those two meant much more to each other than what was entirely appropriate in a military setting. It had been sobering, and somewhat depressing, to realise the same issues of professionalism and protocol existed in such different worlds.

"Remind me how we'll tell your plan has worked from our end," O'Neill asked.

She'd already explained that part during the last debriefing at the SGC, but Janeway suspected the colonel was using the question to move away from the personal subject that was Samantha Carter.

"The Alpha site stargate will be back to normal within milliseconds once the link has been broken. That's why we know our previous efforts at sending a message through the wormhole had failed."

Two days spent pushing modulated signals through the stargate had seen no changes in the gate's energy use. During that time the SGC had shipped over a couple of F-302s through the stargate from the Beta site and painstakingly re-assembled and tested them for space worthiness. The ejection system on Carter's flyer had been modified to only affect the pilot. Meanwhile, Janeway had had to bide her time, with Janet breathing down her neck and calling her four times a day now for another check-up.

"I still don't like it," O'Neill said.

"The alternative is to disable all stargates within a forty-light-year radius of the Alpha site, according to McKay's calculations. You know that's not possible."

"That's not what I meant. Carter's right. Your chances of making it alive are slim."

"I'll be fine. The cockpit will repressurised as soon as Carter is out. All I'll have to do it keep the flyer steady, and contact my ship once I am back in my universe. The worse thing that can happen to me is that I get pushed further back in time instead."

"From what I gather, the 1700s on Earth were not very pleasant, let alone being stranded here all by yourself."

Janeway shrugged with one shoulder. She was used to barren planets, and given her likely life span that scenario was a moot point.

All suited up in a bright white spacesuit, Sam came wobbling towards them, a large helmet under her arm. Even without most of the life support equipment and the oxygen tank missing, she looked like a penguin.

"Carter, you need a hand?"

"I would appreciate that, sir."

O'Neill took her helmet and placed one of her feet on the rungs of the ladder, guiding her up to the pilot's seat. Janeway climbed into the seat behind hers. She was now very adept at not using her left arm, which had turned numb and ashen grey from neck to wrist.

She was running out of time.

###

What these people called inertial dampeners reminded her of the bike ride to Sam's house. Not to mention the controls of the F-302 were about as sophisticated. The combination of Goa'uld technology and twenty-first-century human know-how did not make the flyer easy to master for somebody used to voice control and anti-gravs. She had reluctantly ceded the piloting to Sam after almost crashing the spacecraft into O'Neill's on their first sortie.

She retched what was left of the lining of her gut in a bag, then put the oxygen mask back on her nose, increasing the air flow to cover the stench. "Sorry," she mumbled on the internal comms channel for Sam's benefit. The smell was overpowering within the confines of the cockpit, seeping inside the helmets.

"That's okay. I still remember my first few flights on an F-16. It wasn't pretty," Sam answered from the front seat. "Any indication of more solar flares?"

"All quiet for the moment."

"Thanks for letting us access that early warning technology. It will make stargate travel much safer to be able to predict solar flares before we dial the gates."

"I didn't really give it to you. You already had all the knowledge and just needed a small push in the right direction."

"So, no transgression of your Prime Directive?"

Janeway thought she could hear a slight sarcasm in Sam's voice. The woman's CO's influence most likely. "None," she said. "Just an oversight of mine leaving those equations on your laptop. Nothing more."

Sam chuckled, before O'Neill's voice interrupted her. ~It's been six hours, folks. Let's go back to Kansas.~

Janeway flicked the flyer-to-flyer radio toggle open. "Predicting solar flares isn't an exact science with the equipment we managed to cobble together, Colonel. We should wait a bit longer."

~Doctor's orders, Captain. You are overdue for your daily medical check. We'll try again at sixteen hundred. Carter, you land first.~

"Yes, sir."

Frustrated, Janeway could only watch as Carter lined the flyer with the curved horizon of the planet and dipped the F-302 towards the surface.

A flurry of beeps jumped from the tricorder securely strapped to the instrument panel in front of her. "Solar flare in progress. Bearing—"

She rattled the figures showing on the screen. "This is a big one. And it should pass close enough to the matter stream this time." The flares she'd detected thus far had been too instable to intercept the stargate wormhole.

~How long before it reaches the planet's magnetic field?~ O'Neill asked.

"My calculations—"

~How long?~

"Seven minutes." Give or take.

~We are cutting it short, but we'll chance it. Blue Leader, we are go.~

"Roger that, Red Leader. Carter to SG-3."

~SG-3 here.~

"We have a solar flare in progress. Dial the gate and keep it engaged."

~Roger that, Major. The stargate will be kept open for thirty-eight minutes, starting…now.~

"Understood, SG-3. Thirty-eight minutes."

~General Hammond here, wanting to speak to Captain Janeway.~

Janeway hoped Hammond wasn't going to ground the whole mission. The Pentagon had not been ready to put resources into closing an hypothetical link between two universes which was only affecting an abandoned base. They had refused the General the use of the Prometheus, leaving him almost apoplectic. It suited Janeway that the big guns had not been called in as yet, but that meant there would be no backup if something went wrong.

She toggled the comm switch. "Janeway here, General."

~If this works, this universe will owe you our gratitude, Captain. Good luck and God's speed.~

Before Janeway had the time to thank him, small bleeps appeared on her radar. "We've got company."

~Goa'uld gliders,~ Teal'c said. ~They are not close enough to detect us.~

~What's wrong with them? Don't know when to call it quits?~ O'Neill said. ~Carter, how long before the solar flare?~

"Five minutes, sir. "

~We'll sit them out. I'll alert SG3 and the SGC to our situation. These babies didn't come here by themselves, so keep your eyes open for a Mother ship.~

"Yes, sir."

Janeway strained her neck to get a glimpse of the enemy flyers even though she knew they were too far away to be visible.

O'Neill's voice came back through the radio. ~Let's climb between those gliders and the sun. That should disrupt their sensors for a while longer.~

Another formation of Goa'uld spacecrafts appeared on the radar screen, coming straight for them.

~It seems we have been spotted, O'Neill.~

~Change of plan, Blue Leader. Return to the Alpha site and go back to the SGC. Teal'c and I will slow them down.~

"You can't take them all, sir. We'll back you up."

~Negative, Major.~ O'Neill's voice deepened.

~Three gliders at our six and closing,~ Teal'c announced. In response, O'Neill put his flyer in a sharp turn to face them, protecting Sam's back.

By the time, Sam had turned their F-302 around, O'Neill had already engaged the enemy, drawing them away. With more gliders coming into the mélée, it was not long before a flash of light burst from the rear of his flyer.

~We've been hit. Right thruster's down.~

The sharp sound of high velocity guns reverberated inside the F-302 cockpit as Carter let go a volley of shots. Janeway could have touched the underside of the Goa'uld glider which went tumbling past, smoke pouring out from its engines. Tracers of enemy fire illuminated the night in front of the flyer. Janeway glanced down at the radar, ignoring the sharp pain that was making its way throught her chest. "A much bigger ship approaching at three o'clock. Four hundred and twenty miles and closing."

~That's the Mother ship. Carter, return to base.~ O'Neill ordered.

Janeway interrupted. "Five more gliders at your six, Colonel."

"Too many of them. You'll never get out of there alive. We'll provide cover," Carter said.

~Negative, Major. Negative. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.~

Janeway hit the console with her good hand. There was no way they could leave O'Neill and Teal'c behind. "Colonel, there are other SGC teams ready to take our place. They know what to do."

~Damn it, Janeway. You and Carter are the best people to make this work.~

The safety belts bit into her shoulders and her vision narrowed as Sam flew the flyer into a sharp dive.

~Major, get yourselves back to Earth and try again another day. That's an order.~

"Radio's failing, sir," Sam shouted while dispatching another glider with deadly accuracy. As Sam's F-302 corrected to avoid slamming into the damaged enemy spacecraft, another pair of gliders opened fire on O'Neill's flyer. The glass canopy behind the Colonel's seat shattered under the assault, and Teal'c slumped over, smoke blowing out of the rear cockpit.

~Teal'c. Teal'c! Respond.~

"I can't shake them off your tail, Colonel."

~Controls are dead. Disengage, Cart—.~

O'Neill's flyer shuddered under the combined fire power of the remaining gliders. They veered off as the Tau'ri spacecraft blew up in silence against the blackness of space.

"Colonel!" Sam screamed.

Carter and Janeway flew through a burning cloud, high temperature plasma crackling against the hull. When they emerged from the smoke and fire, O'Neill's flyer was gone.

Sam's voice broke. "Jack..."

There was no trace of the doomed fighter. Both men were dead. For nothing. The vice over Janeway's chest tightened, the pressure cascading down her right arm.

She almost missed the tell-tale dots on the radar screen. "Enemy gliders converging on our position," she said, gasping for air.

The tricorder flashed a ten-second countdown warning. "The solar flare," Janeway whispered, as darkness engulfed her.

###

Sam flipped the switch cover up to arm the last warhead at her disposal.

Jack.

She aligned the nose of the flyer with the formation of gliders lined up in front of her like a wake of vultures waiting for the death throes to cease. They were close enough for her to see the end of their wing-mounted staff cannons opening like deadly blossoms.

Pressing the release, she watched the missile stream towards the Goa'uld.

For you.

The universe shifted around her.