Disclaimer: Please see chapter one for full disclaimer.
Another Trip into Wonderland
Chapter Four
"What the…" muttered the man that had just stepped through the gate only to find himself targeted by four separate weapons.
"Sir, if I'm not mistaken, I would say that these are our counterparts from this reality," Sam told her commanding officer.
"Alright, stand down" the Colonel ordered as he cautiously lowered his weapon. "Keep an eye out for trouble," he quietly told Teal'c as they made their way to the debarkation ramp to meet the stunned people who had just stepped through the gate.
Inclining his head in silent acknowledgement of Jack's words, the Jaffa brought up the rear of the group, his hand steady on his staff weapon, poised to strike should the situation warrant it.
"So who the hell are you people and what are you doing here?" General O'Neill questioned coming straight to the point.
"I see we need to work on our introduction skills," muttered the Colonel as he came face to face with his counterpart. "The name's Jack O'Neill and as you're probably aware, this is Major Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c" he said pointing to each of his team members in turn.
"We're from an alternate reality and only arrived here a few hours ago" Major Carter elaborated seeing the confused looks on the newcomers faces.
"Samantha?" the General questioned, obviously confused by Sam's words.
"I don't know Jack," the woman answered. Turning to Sam, she stared at her for a moment. True, with the exception of a few cosmetic differences they looked the same. 'So this woman was promoted to the rank of Major' she thought to herself wondering at what point in the time line that would have happened. Aloud she said to the members of SG-1 "How can you be from an alternate reality? We destroyed our quantum mirror some time back."
"Uh, we didn't use the mirror" Daniel said stepping to the front of the group. "We ended up here as a result of a glitch in an alien artifact we were examining."
"Danny," the General said softly in a manner that was both questioning and disbelieving.
"Hi Jack," the archeologist said awkwardly, having previously been told by Sam and Jack that his counterpart had died a while back.
Realizing that everyone's attention was now focused on him, the General straightened himself up and merely replied "Good to see you again, so to speak."
"Thanks" Daniel responded with a small nod of his head.
"We were hoping to find out exactly what happened before we return to our own reality" Sam said looking at SG-1's counterparts. "We figured out a lot of it from the information in the computer files but…"
"Computer files?" questioned the General turning to look at Samantha. "I thought we had protocols to protect against anyone walking in and accessing information?"
"You do" assured the Colonel before Samantha could respond. "But this is Carter, or one of the Carter's or… whatever. Anyway, they both have this back door thingy that allows them to access the system, even if it is locked down."
"Back door?" the General asked turning again to Samantha for explanation.
"Yes Jack" she replied. Taking a deep breath she continued, "When I designed the system, I programmed a back door in case the main computer was ever compromised. This way we would be able to access the system remotely from anywhere on the base."
"I knew that" the Colonel said to no one in particular. Seeing the looks on everyone's faces and the glare from his 2IC, he shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "What?" he exclaimed to no one in particular.
"And you didn't think this would have helped us when Linea decided to take over the base computer?" the General asked.
"See" the Colonel said softly nudging Sam. "That's the same thing I said."
Shaking her head, Sam looked at her counterpart and merely said "Linea found a way to lock you out of the system too?"
"Yeah" Samantha muttered in disgust as she thought back to the events that had taken place during that mission.
"Well folks, this little reunion has been… nice, but we need to retrieve what we came for and be on our way. When did you say you were leaving?" the General asked, letting SG-1 know, in a not-so-subtle way, that their visit was at an end.
"Well, the device is about ready to go but there seems to be a problem with last part of the translation" Daniel said looking at his best friend's counterpart. "And we really were hoping to learn about what happened here before we left."
"Why?" the General asked not relishing the idea of recounting the morbid chain of events that had led to the destruction of his world.
"Well, because it might help us prevent the same outcome in our own reality" the young man replied.
"You don't even know that this whole mess will happen in your reality," the General countered.
"True, but we don't know that it won't happen either" Daniel argued. "Wouldn't it be better to know the details up front so that we have a chance of changing the outcome? Or do you really want to take the chance of another reality being wiped out by the Goa'uld?"
The General simply stared at Daniel for a long moment and then suddenly his face broke out in a smile. "I've missed you Danny," he said patting the archeologist on the back. "Things just haven't been the same since you… left."
"So, you'll tell us what happened?" Daniel asked.
"Why not?" the General asked. "But we need to make it quick. Samantha and I need to get back to base camp ASAP."
"Why don't we go to the briefing room," Samantha suggested. "We can talk there."
"And then you can tell me about this 'translation' problem" the Colonel said quietly to the archeologist. And as SG-1 followed their counterparts to the briefing room, they each felt a sense of dread at what they were about to discover.
TBC
Review???