Chapter 2
AN: The dates are off from the episodes, I know. But you can pretend.
The General thought about the missing members of SG1 as he sat and listened to Daniel's weary explanation of the culture that he had discovered with SG8's expedition. He could still remember the day that the two remaining members of the team, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c had been deposited on the gate ramp missing all gear after three days radio silence from SG1 on PX6-666. He remembered the Colonel's joking comment about the planet's designation. Unfortunately he'd been correct, visiting the planet had lead to bad luck. The loss of two very valuable team members. Major Sam Carter and Colonel Jack O'Neill. MIA from February 19th 2001, 2 years ago. The rest of SG1, along with several other SG teams and the co-operation of many of the tech. crew had fought valiantly for a rescue mission and had even attempted to take over the base to try and rescue them. They'd succeeded as a matter of fact, but three days after they jumped through the gate to PX6-666 they were returned, missing all gear they had taken with them once again. All of the allies were contacted, but none of them could do anything or even give any information about the planet. Jacob Carter had tried going through the gate himself, much to the annoyance of the Tok'ra council, only to be deposited a few days later as Daniel and Teal'c had been.
Since the two soldiers had been declared MIA both the warrior and the scholar of SG1 were missing the vital enthusiasm that had made them so obviously part of the SGC's flagship team. Even Teal'c's minor facial expressions had been reduced to a permanent mask of calm disgust. They had both agreed to join specific SG teams as and when their expertise were needed in the field, but their lack of permanent fixture in any team was a quiet reminder that they hadn't given up on their friends.
The PA system interrupted the Doctor's presentation to announce an unidentified incoming traveller. The men rushed into the Command Centre of the SGC, curious as to who was knocking on the front door. As the General hurried down the stairs into the room Lieutenant Davis informed him of an incoming radio transmission even as the familiar voice came over the intercom.
"Sierra Golf Charlie, this is Dr. Carter and Colonel O'Neill requesting intel. Repeat Dr. Carter and Colonel O'Neill requesting intel. Come in Sierra Golf Charlie." There was a pause and a crackling of static over the radio. "Sierra Golf Charlie, this is Colonel..."
"We have you Major." The General interrupted, not quite sure why the Major was calling herself Dr. Carter.
"Thank God, sir. We're on an unknown planet but we have unrestricted access to a 'gate. We have no idea how we got here, sir. There's signs of other SGC personnel here, should we find them before we come back?"
"Negative Major. Everyone else is home safe. Send your signal through when you're ready and come on home. We've missed you back here."
"General, that's the second time you've..." Sam's voice was cut of be the Colonel's muffled shout in the background followed by gunfire. A Remote Signal was sent through moments later. Davis turned to the general.
"Their signal is wrong, sir."
"Of course it is lieutenant. They've been missing for the last two years, we've changed them since then. Now can you open the iris before our people land on it!?!" The annoyance in the General's voice was obvious and the Lieutenant decided to take the risk and explain later on. The iris grudgingly slid open, just moments before the two missing officers came rushing through the 'gate, shouting for the iris to be shut.
Several loud thumps against the solid titanium shield informed them of the successful interception of the large and angry alien captive that had chased them off the planet.
Seeing Sam in the Colonel's arms, the General mistook the situation and called for medical aid. Rushing into the gate room Daniel didn't hesitate in approaching his missing friends in front of the masses of weaponry aimed in their direction.
"Jack! Sam! God we missed you guys. What happened? Are you OK? Why were you missing for so long?"
"Daniel, calm down. How long have we been gone?" Sam asked, confused.
"Two years, almost exactly." The two shared a shocked glance, but any further questions were stemmed by a full medical team rushing into the gate room, lead by Janet Fraiser. Pre-empting the advancing medical attack Sam lifted her hands from around Jack's neck to wave the medics to a halt.
"Janet, I'm fine. Just a little confused." The Doctor paused her charge to look at the two, confused.
"Then why on earth is the Colonel carrying you?"
"I couldn't find the chair anywhere. It was the strangest thing, it wasn't with the rest of our stuff..." Jack responded.
"The chair...?" Sam and Jack shared a look of confusion at Janet's question.
"Yeah, you know, wheelchair. Annoying, bulky, awkward in a need it to get around way... Janet what's wrong?"
"Two years ago, the incident on PX8-512?" Jack prompted.
"You never visited PX8-512 Colonel. SGs' 5 and 8 opened a treaty with the village a few weeks after you two went missing. Dr. Jackson went with SG5, but you were missing, you weren't here." Sam and Jack shared another glance.
"Alternate Universe?"
"Possibly, it was too dark in that room to see anything, let alone a quantum mirror. But when would we have come in contact with one on Earth? I don't remember anything since the park." Interrupting the two, the General stepped in.
"Colonel, Major! Good to see you home safe." He exclaimed with a broad smile.
"I'm very sorry, sir, but I'm Doctor Carter. We think there might be alternate universes involved." The General sank visibly.
"Oh, I see. Well, wherever you're from, we need to make sure you are who you say you are. Dr., if you could handle that? Come to the briefing room when you're finished and we'll try and find out what's going on."
"Yes sir." Both responded automatically as they watched the General leave.
"Right. We need to get you both down to the infirmary. Um... Colonel, do you want the gurney or are you OK?" Jack looked down at Sam who was eyeing the trolley cautiously.
"Your call." He told her. "I know how you feel about those things." She lent into his shoulder for a minute then looked back up at him.
"You're not up to it, put me down."
"Are you sure?"
"You know it. Do it before I start screaming, that way I can get back off it as soon as possible." Jack frowned. "Just do it, Jack." He stepped forwards and laid her on the gurney gently, noticing how she tensed up as he stepped away again. Her hands gripped the sides so tightly her knuckles were white and her eyes were clenched shut. Stepping back up to the gurney he rested a hand on her shoulder, smiling as she relaxed slightly, and nodded to the nurses that they were ready to go.
On their way to the infirmary a nervous Daniel let his curiosity get the better of him.
"So, what is it about gurneys, Sam? Our Sam never had any problem."
"It's a recent thing, come from a few events that have happened in the last few years."
"The wonderful SG1 luck doesn't end when you leave SG1." Jack put in.
"Do you want to tell this? I have a feeling you can rationalise it better than I can. Plus I'm working on not throwing up at the moment." Sam offered him a weak grin.
"Well, there was that drug." Jack frowned, then grinned as Sam offered a long-winded name for said drug. "Yeah, that one. Well, seems she took so much of it when Jolinar was around she's now allergic to it. She was sat on this gurney in the hospital after the pre-op drug fest waiting for the operation and suddenly she starts seizing. Knocked the gurney all the way over - flattening Daniel, our Daniel, who was stood next to her - and gaining some beautiful bruises. She spent almost a week in hospital apologising to Daniel every five minutes because he was off duty for two weeks and someone had to take his place on the mission to... to PX6-233." There was a brief moment of pain in Jacks eyes as Sam reached up and squeezed his arm, offering open comfort for an obviously painful wound. Janet wondered for a moment what could have brought these two so close and allowed the Colonel to open up so much. Their Sam and Jack would never show such open emotion of any kind. It was obvious that the young Major Doctor had had an influence on the Colonel. It was interesting to see how well they interacted on a level separate to the military and it's rules and regulations. There was no doubt that the two were together and that the Colonel adored the woman. The smile they shared spoke volumes as Jack regained his composure and returned to his tale. "As it was, it was lucky he didn't go." His expression was filled with sadness, but he continued without a hitch. "After that incident there was another one a few months later when some kids who'd 'borrowed' another gurney came around a corner while she was on the way to the OR and knocked them all flying. Sam came out of that with a broken wrist and ankle. Of course with a broken wrist she was immobilised until it healed which she wasn't happy about."
"Would you be happy if your only way of getting around was trusting to these lot," she gestured at Jack and Daniel beside her, "for three months?"
"Well, anyway," Jack continued, offering her a grin, "Little miss capable here 'forgot' to tell us that the incidents had made her as nervous as hell. The next op. she had was one of the bizarre ones where they have you conscious all the way through and..."
"I had a panic attack on the way into theatre."
"We haven't been able to get her near the things since. Not until now, anyway." Janet was now about to burst with curiosity, having waited through their story to ask her question.
"What actually happened? Why do you need a wheelchair?" Sam and Jack shared another glance at the stream of questions from the doctor, curious this time. In a silent exchange Jack gave his go ahead.
"I was infected by a virus by the villagers on PX8-512. They had developed this drug which was debilitating to Gou'ald but wouldn't affect humans. They saw Teal'c and tried out this drug on us, which was fair enough. We were all human, it shouldn't have affected us. And it didn't at first. But when I got back the scans showed it was blowing out my nervous system. It was clever actually; it was activated by the protein marker so no normal human would be affected by it. It would have acted a lot faster on a Gou'ald, but they would have been able to heal its effects eventually. It would have killed me, but something else happened, something intervened. It just left me paraplegic instead. To this day we don't know what happened."
"How did your Sam and Jack go missing?" Sam asked as Janet and the nurses fussed around them in the infirmary.
"We went on a mission to PX6-666. The MALP showed an empty room with concrete looking walls. It looked quite a lot like our gate room, but emptied of everything. We don't know what happened when we were in there, but Teal'c and I woke up three days later back here missing all the stuff we'd taken with us and Sam and Jack. They never came back. We sent missions after them, Jacob tried to get in. Everyone woke up three days later having been sent back through the gate unconscious and missing all their gear. The MALP said you were coming from PX6-666, we assumed you were them. We were so... hopeful. It's going to be strange having you around again, but not... if you know what I mean."
"Oh, Daniel, I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to raise your hopes, of anyone here. I don't know how we got onto that planet. I don't even know how we got into this universe. Every theory I come up with, every viable theory has some obvious flaw."
"Try me."
"Ok then, the facts. At 1800 hours I met Jack at a local park, near to my house, at least a twenty minute drive from the base. A couple of minutes later we... I don't know how to explain it, we felt this extreme pain, like being zatted a couple of times in a row and still waking up again afterwards. Then we wake up in this room on... PX6-666." Sam frowned and turned to Jack, sat on the bed behind her.
"Do you remember PX6-666?"
"In our universe?"
"Yeah."
"Yes. I get the feeling we went there about the same time as this SG1, about two years ago. The same happened to us as to them, but we all came back through, three days later stripped of all gear. Do you remember? Janet spent ages with us afterwards because they were worried about something like Urgo happening again."
"Yes, I remember now. And if you sent other people in after your Sam and Jack it explains why there were so many pieces of kit in the storage room there."
"There was a storage room?"
"Yup, there were at least six sets of gear on the shelves which matched up with our room, they were all labeled." Jack answered.
"How do you think you got onto that planet?"
"I really don't know. I don't remember being attacked or anything, but we could have been shot, knocked out. Something must have happened, otherwise we couldn't have gotten off the planet and through a quantum mirror without us knowing about it."
"Do you think you could have had your memories wiped, and the last thing you remember is that day at the park?"
"That's a possibility. What do you make the time and date?"
"Just gone 7pm, February 16th." Sam frowned.
"OK, now this doesn't fit. Assuming out universes are following the same timeline... it's..."
"Tell me Sam, what doesn't fit?"
"2003, right?"
"That's right."
"How long ago did we get here?"
"Not more that half an hour ago, why?"
"I got home a little after 6pm, February 16th, earlier this evening. Say it was 6.10 when I met Jack in the park. 6.15 when we were hit by... whatever it was. We weren't wearing watches when we woke up, but I'd say Jack spent at least ten minutes looking around before he found the 'gate, an additional five minutes to get our message through and get the iris opened on this end. These are all guesses, but when in all that time did we have time to leave the planet and get through a quantum mirror? It just doesn't work. Even if we've only been here twenty minutes that's only ten minutes to spare. You couldn't get to the base in that time from my house." Daniel wandered over to the telephone in the corner of the infirmary and made a quick call to the control center.
"They say that you came through at exactly 6.31."
"You said there was a possibility that the times are different here to there?" Jack asked.
"That would make more sense, but still, why? Why bring us here? It would have had have been done purposefully, it wasn't an accident like when Daniel fell through the mirror the first time. And I haven't been off-world since the... accident. I haven't even been on the base."
"Why haven't you been on the base?"
"I'm a 'safety hazard'." You could almost hear the inverted commas around the word. "I can't use the emergency stairs."
"They took you out of the SGC for that!?! What about all the work you've done. How did they find a replacement?"
"Quite easily actually. Have you ever met a Lieutenant Jennifer Hailey?"
"Yes, I think so, but she was a cadet. About three, maybe four years ago. Our Sam took her on a mission, trying to persuade her to stop beating up other cadets or something. Chip on her shoulder the size of the U.S."
"That's her. She's loosing the chip slowly now, a couple of years with the Colonel will do wonders for anyone."
"Hey." Jack shouted across. Sam ignored him.
"She took my place on SG1 and we work closely together in labs out of the SGC."
"So there's no reason you'd be on base, or off-world? None what so ever?"
"Oh, wait, I have been off-world once. Thor had his transport device on some kind of one-touch setting. It was set to the old SG1, to pick us all up where ever we were in an emergency. I ended up laid out on the floor of Thor's ship trying to explain to him that I wasn't a part of SG1 any more. My neighbors told everyone I had been abducted by aliens. Which in a way I suppose I was, but I wasn't about to tell them that. Jack found the whole thing very funny."
"Could that have happened again?"
"Probably not, Thor changed the settings. But even if it had, why the universe jump, and why would we have had our memories wiped? None of this makes sense."
Sam turned again as Janet appeared with a set of blood test results.
"Well, your blood groups and finger prints match up. We won't get the DNA results for another couple of hours, until then I think it's safe to say you are who you say you are. We have a briefing to attend."