Chapter 7
"Since you seem to know who I am, why don't you answer a question for me. Who the hell are you?" Sam demanded. "You don't feel like a Goa'uld and you sure as hell don't seem to look like one."
"My name is Jenna Reeyu," she replied. "I'm a cadet in the Interplanetary Transit Police Commission. Now what is a Goa'uld and what do they look like?"
Sam looked up the staff and stared the woman in the eye, taking her measure. She would have thought this woman was crazy if she hadn't witnessed the fact that she seemed to know how to operate the Stargate. Yet there were things about Jenna that confused her. It was clear that she knew the purpose and use of the gate yet she didn't know what a Goa'uld was. She spoke English and also had a clear representation of Earth's solar system on her arm. Sam had never heard of the Interplanetary Transit Police Commission, though the way Jenna casually mentioned it lead Sam to believe that this agency was real to her and she's assuming Sam was familiar with it to. Jenna could be a Goa'uld spy, but somehow Sam knew that wasn't true. She needed to get more information and had no intention of doing so on her back.
"Look, can I get up? I promise I won't try fight you or tie you up."
The staff she held at Sam's throat remained where it was for a moment as Jenna thought out the request. Then slowly she removed her foot and swung the staff to her side, stepping back to let Sam get up yet staying alert to any sudden movements.
Sam stood up carefully, rubbing her arm and the shoulder she'd landed on when she'd fallen. She watched Jenna warily as she planned her approach.
"You know," Jenna said returning Sam's wary look. She watched the discomfort Sam was experiencing and sighed. "I guess I should tell you that the pain can be relieved by just thinking it away."
Sam stared at her a moment longer before she 'thought' the pain away and let out her breath as the ache in her arm disappeared. "Thanks."
"Well? Will you answer my question?"
"A Goa'uld is a symbiotic parasite that takes over an unwilling host. The Goa'uld are pretty much hell bent on ruling the universe if they can and destroying any and all that get in their way."
"That sounds like the Tok'ra, but they are not an evil people. They've been Earth's guide to the planets for the past twenty years. Ever since we first made contact a few years after we started to actively use the Interplanetary Transit Device."
"The Stargate?"
"I suppose it could be called that. You should know this, Major. It is the military who initiate all interplanetary contact before relations are developed."
Sam paused absorbing what was said. She knew of the Tok'ra but not the Goa'uld and according to her, wormhole travel had been publicly used for some time. It's possible that, given past temporal experience with the wormhole, that Jenna may very well be from the future. It was minutely possible that she was pulled to the past by some mysterious means on Sam's last jaunt through the wormhole. If this were true then the facts surrounding her knowledge of the Goa'uld, or lack there of, could have been the future government's fault. They may not have wanted people to know of an enemy that had come so close to destroying the planet more than once. Sam paused a moment longer before asking, "What's the date?"
"Date? Don't you know?"
"Look, I think I can help you." At Jenna's incredulous look Sam continued. "It's in my best interest to help you, alright? I don't particularly like sharing my body with another person. So could you please just work with me and answer the question. Please, it's important."
"Fine. It's the first day in August 2002. Are you satisfied?"
"Say again?" This was not the answer she had expected and Sam had to close her mouth at the confusion it wrought.
"Really, Major, I think you heard me the first time. How is knowing the date going to help me?"
August 1, 2002? Her answer blew Sam's theory right out of the water, past Oz and beyond Kansas. She'd been certain that Jenna had somehow come from the future, yet she gave today's date. That left her with the only other possible conclusion. She was from a parallel universe. But how was that possible? The portal that Daniel had discovered as a gateway to parallel Earths was, as far as she knew, locked away somewhere in Area 51. So how did someone from a parallel Earth come to inhabit her mind? None of this was making any sense and probably wouldn't until she had all the facts.
"What was the last thing that you remember doing before you found yourself in my body?"
"Major, I don't understand where any of this is going," Jenna said waving her arms in exasperation, "and I will not answer anymore of your questions until you explain yourself." With that, Jenna recreated her armchair, plopped down into it, and propped the staff across the arms of the chair using it to rest her arms on.
Sam, not wishing to be the only one standing thought to sit to, bringing forth the first chair that popped into her mind. A regular swiveling office chair. She leaned forward onto her knees and tried to think of the best way to explain and gain the young woman's trust.
"Can I call you Jenna?"
"Sure. Sam," she replied, one corner of her mouth going up momentarily in mild amusement.
"Okay, Jenna, initially I had thought that you were from the future." Noting Jenna's silence and apparent willingness to hear her out, Sam continued to explain what she had first thought and what she knew of time travel in detail. She continued to explain her other theory and how it made sense but didn't fit with what little experience she had had with travel between parallel Earths for travel had always necessitated the use of the device. "That's why I need to know more about what happened to you before you showed up in my head."
Jenna contemplated what had been said. She had at first been skeptical, but Sam clearly knew what she was talking about, and it was really no stranger as her taking up residence in Sam's head.
"Look," Jenna sighed, finally answering, "when I first woke up inside your mind, I initially thought that me being in your body had been a dream. But once I realized that this wasn't so, all I could focus on was figuring how to get back to my body and since I had awaken in my own bed I figured that was where I had been when my mind left my body. It never occurred to me to think otherwise. And now that I think of it I truly don't know what I was doing before I found myself here."
"Try and remember, Jenna. It could be the answer to figuring out how to fix this." Sam got back up unable to contain her frustration sitting down. "How about you start by where you remember being last? You're wearing what I assume is your cadet's uniform? Perhaps you were in class or at your academy?"
"No, I was at home meditating before I had to leave for class," Jenna remembered as she closed her eyes in thought and used Sam's questions to guide her thoughts. "I can't quite see what I did next."
"Why don't you try to visualize the setting around you," Sam said, realizing how doing so was a convenient way for Jenna to share her memories. Around them pieces of furniture began to gradually appear. First an end table next to the armchair on the right where Jenna sat, then a lamp atop it. Various plants began to appear here and there, some as if they hung in mid air others upon oak plant stands of varying heights. Then a forest green carpet under their feet. Across from Jenna, behind Sam, a stone fireplace took shape with more plants atop the mantel. And finally, a couch with a coffee table in front of it.
Jenna opened her eyes and looked at what constituted as her living room. For the first time she realized how bear it was. Besides her plants she didn't have a single photo. It symbolized just how isolated she had kept herself. She hadn't cared to remember her father and it pained her to remember her mother. As for friends, she had none to pose for pictures with. Her thoughts were so focused on self-evaluation she didn't notice the distortion until Sam pointed it out.
Sam noticed how lonely the living room was without that lived in look that trinkets and photos normally brought a room. What caught her attention, though, was a distortion on the couch where the pattern was blurred and above that the air seemed to shimmer.
"Jenna, what is that?" Sam asked, pointing at the distortion.
"I don't know. I can't focus on it and I don't think I want to," she replied, an uneasy feeling beginning to overcome her.
"Try to."
"No. I won't." What ever that distortion was, It was beginning to scare Jenna. She'd never really felt fear like it before. It was different than the panic that she'd felt when she found herself in Sam's body. It felt more tangible. Sam began to pick up on her fear as it radiated from her body like ripples in water. It was very unnerving. She decided to distract Jenna for a bit by asking an unrelated question.
"Jenna? Is the academy or your home on Earth or another planet?"
"What? Earth?" she asked, focusing only half of her attention on Sam. "No, the academy and my home are located on the planet Kheb."
"What planet were you dialing when you were in the control room." Sam still felt the unnerving fear radiating from Jenna begin to dissipate as her attention was beginning to refocus on the new topic.
"I was dialing Kheb," Jenna replied, her attention now entirely focused on the new topic of discussion. She wondered how where she lived had any relevance to the discussion.
"Well, if your last memory is of being at home before going to class, then why would you be dialing Kheb and how did you know you weren't on it?"
"I just did…I guess. Wait…" Jenna looked down in thought. "I think I was running from something through the ITD, the Interplanetary Transit Device that is."
"What were you running from?"
"I don't know, but I suspect it was whatever I refuse to remember sitting on my couch."
At that point both of them stared at each other as if sensing something.
"They're waking you up," Jenna said. "I should be the one to wake up."
"And tell them what?" Sam said annoyed at the presumption to control Jenna was taking. "They won't trust you. You assaulted how many people? Five…?"
"Six. Eight if you count when Col. O'Niell and Teal'c apprehended me."
"Okay, eight. You're not exactly on good terms with the people who could possibly help you."
"Fine. I'll stay in here," Jenna replied, realizing that she had begun to trust Sam.
"Good." Sam said, then asked, "How is it that you know our names anyway?"
"Just because you didn't know I was here doesn't mean I wasn't watching and listening."
With that Sam faded from sight as she regained consciousness.