Wow, the last time I updated was...two days ago. A record for me! Yay! Please review guys! I really need to know what you all think of the story to keep me going. The only reason I got this chapter done so fast was that I was extremely bored today. So please help me out and review. :)

Chapter 31

"So, any progress?" Jack asked immediately as he walked into Sam's lab, Danny trailing behind him.

Both Samantha Carters looked up from where they stood with Daniel, Sha're, and Mitchell and smiled when they saw Jackson. Danny smiled sheepishly back at them. He'd eaten breakfast, though he hadn't been in the mood for much more than cereal and now it almost past time for lunch, and Janet had given him more of what she'd given him the day before, which had banished the physical pain. Subtle phantom pains still came and went, but weren't proving to be too much of a bother. Overall, he felt much better, his confidence that he could make it through the day without any physical or emotional breakdowns renewed.

Jack, for one, was glad of it all, too, and again amazed at his friend's ability to bounce back from just about anything.

It was Daniel who answered. "Not much."

"What's the problem?" Danny asked, coming up beside his older self to look at the panel he and Sha're were leaning over.

"I second that," Jack added, peering curiously over Danny's shoulder. Jackson shrugged backwards, letting O'Neill know he was too close for the younger man's comfort, and stepped back. "Sorry."

Before Danny could respond, Sha're spoke up. "Translating Goa'uld in itself is not hard, but the problem is that there is not much of it."

"Yeah…and whatever is there is either cryptic or otherwise completely unhelpful," Daniel sighed.

"Oh…where are the Teal'cs?" Jack asked.

"There wasn't much they could do to help. None of this made sense to him either," Carter said.

"I think they're off kel-no-riming," Sam added, waving a hand in the direction of the corridor.

"Kel-no-what?" Mitchell asked, from where he leaned against a nearby desk.

Jack looked at him strangely. "You really haven't been with SG-1 very long, have you?"

Carter winced and pulled Mitchell away from O'Neill before he gave anything away.

"Kel-no-rim," she told him quietly. "It's a type of deep meditation used by jaffa. Teal'c used to have to do that instead of sleep a lot of the time when he still had his symbiote. But they don't know about Tritonin yet or that he doesn't have junior anymore, so just keep it on the down-low, okay?"

"Yeah, okay Sam, but…junior?"

She rolled her eyes. "General O'Neill started that. It's what he used to call the symbiote."

"Ah," Mitchell said, somewhat knowingly.

Carter smiled and patted his arm, then moved back to the rest of the group.

"Ok, so…what have you got?" Jack was asking.

Daniel motioned to one short inscription in front of him, which was just above one of the largest buttons on the device. "Well, this one says something along the lines of repair."

"Does it open some kind if instruction file on how to fix the thing?" Danny asked.

"We don't know," Sam said. "We haven't been authorized to actually press any of the buttons yet, or try to turn it on or anything. General Hammond doesn't want to take a risk like that just yet."

"I don't blame him," Mitchell said, crossing his arms.

"Besides, it could also mean return, or something similar," Sha're offered.

"What about the rest of it?" O'Neill questioned.

"A lot of it has been scratched out and re-written, scratched out and re-written again. It's kind of hard to tell, but it's obvious that this was a prototype of whatever they were trying to do. They weren't even sure what they were doing when they were building, testing, adjusting it. They weren't sure of exactly what to put, so none of it makes a lot of sense. In fact, this one repair, or return, or whatever it is is the only clear inscription, and even it doesn't really help us unless we can try it." Daniel said.

Sha're nodded. "It was this way when Apophis stole it from another Goa'uld--a minor one, not a system lord. Apparently that Goa'uld had once come across the Quantum Mirror on P3R-233, and had been studying it, but had to abandon it when yet another Goa'uld attacked, leaving the planet as you found it-which was recently here, if I understand correctly…"

"That's right. And?" Jack prodded.

She pursed her lips in that cute look of concentration that made both Danny and Daniel smile as they remembered it.

"Well, the Goa'uld Apophis took this device from brought with him what knowledge he had gained from the study of the mirror and tried to use it to create something similar, also adding element of an Ancient time device he had found, but ultimately was never able to make it function properly."

When she stopped when she saw both Jacksons smiling at her almost stupidly. "What?"

"Nothing," they said simultaneously, looking away and ending up looking at each other. They exchanged knowing smile before Jack planted himself between them.

"Okay, so now what?"

"I don't think there's much more we can do sir," Sam said. "Not until General Hammond allows us to experiment. But that will probably be a while. He wants us to exhaust all other options first."

"But you just said there wasn't anything else we could do," Mitchell protested. "That sounds like all other options have been exhausted to me--and it's only been a few hours since we-well, you guys, I haven't done much-started this. If you're already out of stuff to do, I'd say there's nothing useful here to work with."

"That's not exactly true. We can try to decipher the other inscriptions…can't we?" Danny asked.

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know."

"I do not either," Sha're sighed, setting the notebook in her hands down on the desk.

Danny smiled to himself when he saw notes scribbled in Abydonian on the paper around where she had copied the Goa'uld symbols from the device. Either writing English hadn't come as easily to her as speaking it, or she simply preferred to write in her own language. Either way, seeing her writing in the language he used to speak and write every day with her back on Abydos…He wasn't exactly sure how, and didn't really care, but somehow it made part of him feel warm.

Daniel saw his younger self's eyes lingering on the notebook, and from the expression on Danny's face could gather much of what he was thinking. His own reaction when he had first seen her writing that way had been similar, and perhaps even more knowing. It had helped to know that she too held onto the memory of Abydos. He wondered if it was for the same reason he did, because all he had left of her was what he had left of Abydos. All he had left of Abydos was what he had left of her.

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earlier that morning

Daniel sighed before taking another sip from the coffee mug in his hands. He'd gotten up early, after not being able to sleep much more once he'd woken up. He'd been in here, in Sam's lab, studying the device for almost an hour, and it would be at least another hour before everyone else showed up. He still had plenty of time to himself.

That, however, was when the door opened, letting the light from the lab spill out into the dim corridor and framing the small female figure that stood in the doorway.

Sha're looked up from her own cup as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

"Oh…Dan'iel. I did not think anyone else would be here yet…"

He smiled briefly at her. "Neither did I." He paused. "So…you took my place as the team's chronic coffee-drinker too, huh?"

She blinked. "What…?" Then she looked down at the warm mug in her hands and smiled back. "Oh, yes, I suppose I did."

Daniel's hands went to his hips. "I tried to give you coffee on Abydos once, and you said it was the most disgusting thing you'd ever tasted."

She laughed. "Well, you must admit, Dan'iel, that MRE coffee can't compare to the real thing."

He quirked an eyebrow. "That's true."

"And you did not have any sugar to put in it then, either."

"You drink yours sweet?" Of course you do…he thought, smiling.

Sha're nodded and took another sip, then set the cup down on the desk and pulled her notebook out from under her arm. When she looked at him again he was still smiling, looking at her, lost in memories.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Dan'iel?"

Daniel blinked and shook his head. "Sorry…I just can't help remembering…" he shrugged.

She patted him arm. "I know," she said quietly, smiling sadly. Then she picked up the notebook and opened it, flipping to where she had begun the day before to take notes on the device and moving around him to look at it again.

Daniel saw the notes written in Abydonian and smiled to himself again, more discretely this time, and sipped at his coffee some more.

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"Hey, earth to Space Monkey!" Jack O'Neill's voice came, bringing him back to the present, and Daniel felt a tap on his shoulder. Both he and his younger counterpart, however, turned to the colonel in annoyance.

"What, Jack?" they said.

Jack took a couple steps back and held up a finger. "Okay, you've got to stop doing that. It's scary."

"Which 'that'?" Danny asked.

"Staring off into space or saying things at the same time?" Daniel added.

"Both-but especially saying things at the same time. You and the Carters do it. And I actually haven't been around both Teal'cs at the same time much yet, but they probably say 'indeed' together every few minutes. So really, try not to do that, will ya?"

The Jacksons looked at each, then grinned wickedly and looked back at O'Neill.

"We'll try," they agreed at the same moment.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Thanks for all the help."

The colonel sighed and stepped away from Daniel, turning, only to hit the corner of the desk in the speed of the turn and be flung backwards, towards the device that sat not two feet away.

"Colonel, look out-!" Sam cried.

"Jack, don't-!" Daniel yelped, as both Jacksons reached out to catch him. But neither made it in time, and O'Neill fell against one of the panels.

Jack only had time to glance down at the compressed buttons and mutter a colorful word before the brilliant flash of light took them all.

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Oh…perfect. Just perfect, Daniel thought in dismay as he lowered his arms. The light died away to reveal a forest around them. They could be anywhere, any time. He slapped a hand to his forehead and moaned at the stupidity of it all: He'd tripped, and ended up here. Now all of them were…wherever here was, because Jack had bumped into Sam's desk.

"Ohhh, I cannot believe that just happened," he sighed.

"What did just happen?" Danny asked.

"I pushed a button," Jack frowned, straightening.

"And now we're somewhere…else," Mitchell added.

"Okay, Carters, where are?" O'Neill asked. He twisted around, crunching leaves under his feet, but all he could see were trees.

"Over here, sir," Sam called.

The colonel turned to look in the direction she was indicating, and saw that they weren't in just any forest, but a forest on a mountain, looking out over a very different, yet very familiar view.

"What the…"

"We're still at Cheyenne Mountain sir, just not inside it anymore," Carter said. "And, most definitely not in the same time anymore."

"You can say that again. What happened to the city?" Cameron asked, noting that Colorado Springs was gone.

"We're probably a few hundred years or more in the past, before it was built," Sam said.

"Or the very distant future," Daniel offered.

"Yeah yeah, okay, now how do we get back?" O'Neill asked.

"That is what we have been trying to figure out," Sha're said. "And if we had the rest of us would have gone home by now."

Jack winced. "Okay, so I take it we won't be home in time for dinner?"

"Probably not, sir," Sam said quietly.

"Nice one, Jack," Danny sighed.

"Ouch"

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With not much to do but stand around while the three Jacksons and two Carters worked on getting them back, Jack O'Neill and Cameron Mitchell soon became bored. The two SG-1 commanders sat nearby on the grass, staring out from the mountain over where Colorado Springs would supposedly be one day--or had been once, but they didn't want to think about that alternative.

Mitchell sighed. "Ya know, I kinda almost feel left out."

Jack looked at him. "Of what?"

He shrugged. "Half my team, and all the rest of yours have a counterpart to hang out with. Us, we've got..."

"Nothin'?"

"Pretty much."

"Ah," Jack nodded. "Yeah, well, I've already had to deal with another me once. Don't know if I'd want to do it again."

"Right. Harlan and his inorganic copies of the four of you--almost eight years ago.

O'Neill raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know that?"

"Read all the files."

"All of them?"

"Yes sir, every one."

"Huh…" Jack trailed off and sat up straighter when he heard rustling in the bushes a few feet away. He reached immediately for his sidearm but met only air and remembered that he hadn't planned this. He didn't have a weapon. "Darn it."

"Problem?" Cameron asked.

"Maybe…" Slowly he stood and made his way closer to the moving bushes.

"Jack, what is it?" Danny called, noticing what he was doing.

"Shhh!" O'Neill waved over his shoulder, quieting the rest of the group down. All of them stopped what they were doing and watched him and the bush curiously until, finally, a small animal about the height of the colonel's knees burst forth from inside it and ran around Jack's legs. "What the-" O'Neill muttered for second time since they'd been dropped here, as he stared in shock at whatever it was.

"Is that what I think it is?" Mitchell asked quietly, his eyes wide. The Jacksons and Carters had much the same expression except for Sha're, who was a bit confused.

"Dan'iel, what is wrong? What is it?" she asked.

Daniel licked his lips nervously. "It's a-it's a dinosaur."

"Uh oh," Danny said, paling

"Holy Hannah," Carter gulped.

"You can say that again. We're a whole lot farther back than we thought we were," Sam added.

"Oh boy," Jack sighed as the small two-legged creature ran off. "Okay, the rest of keep doing…whatever it is you do. Mitchell and I are going to go check the perimeter."

Danny crossed his arms. "What perimeter?"

"The one we're going to make and patrol to be sure we don't get eaten. You got a problem with that Danny-boy?"

The younger man's eyebrows went up. "Nope, no I don't have a problem with that. Go right ahead, please…"

Sha're looked around nervously as O'Neill and Mitchell moved off through the trees and brush. "Eaten? Dan'iel, what did he mean? I have heard some things about these dinosaurs that once lived on your planet long ago, but…"

Daniel briefly put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed. "It's okay. Hopefully we won't have to worry about it. If we can just figure out how to make this thing take us back…"

She nodded and sighed. "Right."

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"Wait a minute."

"What?" O'Neill asked, stopping and looking at Mitchell as they made their way quietly through the forest.

"Well…I'm no expert, but didn't those little ones usually run in packs?"

Jack shrugged. "The scientists could have been wrong."

"True…" He trailed off when just ahead of them several more of the little things came out of the bushed and ran around them. "Or they could have been right"

"Whatever," Jack said, and then started walking again. He stopped short once more, however, when he realized that they were just outside of a clearing, and that he could see something moving in the open space…something big.

The two men looked at each other, and then quietly peeked through the brush into the clearing.

What they saw there wasn't pretty, and jack had to struggle to keep from gasping and giving away their position. What looked like a Triceratops lay on the ground, dead, half of one of its sides gone. And over the bloody remains of that section of the dead dinosaur stood another one, even more frightening. A Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"Aww crap." Mitchell whispered. First we get thrown back in time, alternate past, meet dead people--now we're gonna be dead people…"

"Be quiet would you?" O'Neill whispered back fiercely. "We are not going to be dead people. We're not going to get eaten if I have anything to say about it. Now, back p slowly, and let's just go back to the others, quietly."

Mitchell nodded and carefully backed up a step, keeping the crunching of leaves to a minimum and hoping that what little sound they made wasn't heard. Jack watching him, praying the same thing.

Unfortunately, however, fortune didn't seem to be liking them much today. On the second step back Mitchell tripped on a root, sending him flailing backwards to the ground loudly with a gasp.

Jack's eyes closed. "Oh no…" Nervously he looked back toward the dinosaur as he helped Cameron up. Just as he'd feared, it had spotted them. It was staring at them through the hole in the underbrush they had made. "Okay…on the count of three, run." Mitchell nodded quickly, staring wide-eyed back at the huge animal. "One…two…"

But on two the T-Rex started toward them of it's own accord, letting out a roar that pierced the calmness of the forest.

"RUN!" Both men shouted, and then followed their own advice.

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Those members of SG-1 still gathered around the device looked up in alarm as the roar penetrated their ears, sending chills up their spines.

"That can't be good," Daniel simply.

"Ya think?" Carter said.

"Dan'iel?" Sha're asked, fear in her voice.

Jack and Cameron burst out of the trees, shouting for them to run. Crashing could be seen and heard behind them. Something big was following--something really big. A second later and they saw what it was.

"Uh, Sam, now would be a really good time to something!" Danny said urgently, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets at the sight as Mitchell and O'Neill neared them.

"I am going to do something! Wait until they get closer!" Sam said.

"What? Are you sure that'll work?" Carter asked.

"You're me; you I'm not, but what other choice do we have!"

"Good point."

"Closer? Why do they need to get closer what are you going to do?" Daniel yelped, pulling Sha're into his arms. Every instinct he had told him to run, but at the same time he trusted both Sam and her older counterpart.

Finally the two SG-1 commanders reached them. "What are you doing!" Jack cried. "Go!"

"Going sir!" Sam said, and before anyone could protest, both she and her older self had slammed their hands down on that return/repair button…

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Again the flash of light momentarily blinded them, and when it died down they found themselves…back in Sam's lab.

"Yes!" Jack said, punching a fist in the air. "Thank you!"

Daniel smiled, hugged Sha're more tightly to him for a moment and then let her go. She was smiling as well, and turned and hugged Danny as well.

Mitchell sighed and dropped into a chair. "Well. That's that."