Author's Note: Special Guest Star, Dr. Samantha Carter

Warnings: Mild Language and Violence

Causality
****SGC Infirmary, (October 13, 2026)****

Robin and Glenn sat in complete shock at what Danika had just said. "What do you mean home?" Sharp asked.

"Earth. 2002. Before all of this ever happened," she confirmed.

Sharp let go a disbelieving laugh, wondering if she was insane or playing a cruel joke on him. "I'm really not in the mood for this, Dani. I'm having a hard enough time grasping the fact that I have a daughter, let alone some prank about sending me back."

"This is not a prank," she assured him sternly. "Now I'll need you to get dressed, Glenn and I'll need both of you in the briefing room in an hour. And then, you'll get the answers to most, if not all your questions. I'll see you in an hour." Sharp and Robin simply acknowledged her order and watched as both Chandra and Danika exited the room to go prepare.

"Ok. Am I still sleeping? Is this some wacky, crazy dream?!" he asked.

"Well if it is, next time ask before you drag me into it, ok?" Robin responded.

Sharp smiled, "I'll do that. How much of this do you think is real?"

Robin shrugged, "I don't know. It's an awful lot to take in all at once. I mean to find out that your father isn't really dead, not to mention he only a few years older than you thanks to some time tunnel. And then on top of that, you're at the headquarters of an organization you thought died several years ago, talking with people who worked with your mother and the person who delivered you as a baby?"

"When you put it that way. it's worse," Sharp conceded. "But I guess it can't hurt to listen a little longer. After all they did save our butts."

"Yeah," she sighed. Then she looked up at him, "Glenn. I want you to know, no matter what happens. a part of me will always think of you as the father I never had."

They embraced once again, "I couldn't ask for a more wonderful child. My DNA or not, I'll love you as my own."

****New SGC Briefing Room (One hour later)****

Danika sat at the head of the table and watched the last few people trickle into the room. Glenn and Robin had been there for sometime, silently waiting for the explanation they had been promised. Precisely when the hour was up, Danika rose from her chair.

"Thank you all for coming, especially to Captain Sharp and Commander Michaels," she greeted. "As all of you know, we're here to discuss what we consider to be our last hope for final victory in this war against the Maldorians. With the help of our scientific teams and past work done at the old SGC, we believe we've come up with an ultimate, albeit dangerous plan to finally put an end to the fighting. Most of you have heard rumors or this plan. What most of you don't know is the price for the success of this mission." Danika took a deep breath and then continued, "our last hope resides in returning Captain Glenn Sharp to his own time so he can prevent this war before it starts."

The room came alive with murmurs and whispers. They'd always been instructed on matters related to time-space as black and white. Simply, you don't mess with the time line. Ever. To do so was a gross violation of the code of conduct of the SGC. Not that any of them had ever been in such a situation, but now they were. A situation that would jeopardize some of those people's very existence, whether the mission succeeded or not.

"I know most of you realize the moral and ethical dilemmas we faced in making this decision. We didn't come to this decision lightly. The bottom line is however, as a race, we're fast running of out of supplies, weapons, ships and hiding places. This is our last hope to survive as a species. Before I continue, I'll open the floor to any questions or concerns you might have."

All eyes in the room searched for the person who would stand up and give a dissenting opinion. The room remained silent until finally Sharp stood to voice one of his many questions, "I have something to ask. How the hell do you plan on doing this? I may not understand everything the doc told me, but I do understand that just sending me back in time doesn't fix this. You have to send me back the way I came."

Dani nodded, "We're aware of this, Captain. That is what we intend to do. If there are no other questions, I'll explain how." The room remained in an uneasy silence. "Very well then." Dani touched a control and a picture of a small device appeared on the screen behind her. "This is a schematic of a device called a time inversion wave emitter. TIWE for short. Shortly after Captain Sharp was shifted in time, Riley began studying the phenomenon using data gathered from the planet and a sampling of the younger Glenn's DNA. She was able to construct this device, which was supposed to be able to mimic the effects of the time inversion wave in a controlled environment. Unfortunately, her work was interrupted by the war and she was unable to finish. The device was recovered and brought along during the evacuation of the SGC in 2012 and we've had it in our possession ever since. Our research teams have been trying to comprehend the physics behind it and make it work and recently have succeeded."

"And you plan to use it on me?" Sharp interrupted.

Sam shook her head, "that would only work to displace someone. In order to correct a displacement, you would have to reenter the original time-space rift and exit at the appropriate point."

"Dr. Carter is right," Dani agreed. "The TIWE however gives us a baseline for testing... so that we can reopen the rift that brought you here and use it to send you back."

"Forgive me if I sound skeptical, but that sounds incredibly complicated," he interjected.

Sam smiled and shook her head, "it's not that bad actually. Just think of the rift as a tunnel th..."

"Thanks, Sam, but I don't need another headache today," he smiled back.

Sam shot him a crooked smile and a look that said she knew he wouldn't get it anyway, "yeah... sorry Glenn."

Dani quickly tried to regain control over the briefing, "the point is that it's the only plan we got left. Our best strategists say the longest we can hold out is just a few more months."

"Well it still doesn't sound like you think it will work," Sharp countered.

"Actually," Chandra spoke up, "it already has worked."

"Okay, can we cut the cryptic crap and have someone start explaining things?!" Sharp exclaimed, more than a little frustrated.

"I think it's time we told you exactly what has happened in the years you've been gone, Glenn," Dani agreed. She pulled a small data crystal from her pocket. "I believe Commander Michaels has seen the beginning of this already, but it will help to begin explaining things." She placed the crystal into a circular slot and the recording began playing. Sharp watched what Jackson had shown Robin earlier. The birthday party, the obviously relationship between him and Riley and... there was something in the background. Something Glenn couldn't make out at first and something Robin had not seen.

****The home of 'Major Zachary Glenn', (June 13, 2004)****

"Ok, let's get one of the happy family!" exclaimed Major Natalie Jackson.

"Where's our birthday girl?" the proud mommy asked.

Chris came out of the background with the young girl celebrating her first year of life and handed her to the beaming father, "here she is."

"There's our Mac!" Sharp smiled.

"Ok, everyone smile and look right into the camera. Zach! Hold Robin up so she's in the picture," Natalie said excitedly.

Sharp and Riley huddled in close and smiled, holding their baby girl. The smiles on their faces were contagious. Natalie focused the video camera for several seconds on the family. It was strange to see them smiling so much. They'd been through a lot lately. When it was found out Glenn and Riley had been seeing each other after being ordered not to, they were ready to throw them both out of the Air Force, but when they also found out Riley was pregnant, that was the last straw. They instead decided to keep them both in and simply forbid them to marry. They assigned Riley in a remote base in Alaska and Glenn was kept in isolation in a secure location under his new name, Major Zachary Glenn. Zachary was his middle name, but not many knew that, so it made a good alias. But that wouldn't keep them apart. Riley resigned and found her love living near Area 51. Soon after, their daughter was born, they continued the relationship as secretly as they could. And now they celebrated their daughter's birth. They had only invited a few friends they could trust. Ones that they knew could keep a secret. Glenn had taken care of his ever present watchdogs with a nice decoy. The guy owed him a favor and figured this was getting off easy. It was rare they could be a family this openly and they were enjoying every minute of it.

"Are you gonna hog the birthday girl all to yourself?" the young mother asked.

"I'm sure gonna try," Sharp smirked back at her.

Riley's look turned playfully threatening, "hon, hand our child over or her father is gonna disappear again, this time permanently." She immediately cracked a smile as Sharp handed Robin over. The infant smiled up at her mother, causing Riley to absolutely beam like Sharp already was.

"Battery is running low," Natalie called to them. "Let me get the backup." She switched off the camera.

****New SGC Briefing Room (October 13, 2026)****

"That recording is the last surviving evidence that you ever returned, Glenn. The rest was wiped out by the SGC," Danika said, removing the crystal. "And the only reason we still have this is because it was misfiled after it was confiscated."

"I have just a quick question," he said, lifting his arm slightly. "Why?"

"A couple of reasons, actually. One they didn't want it getting out where you'd been, so they contained the situation as much as possible and second, you informed the base commanders we'd been infiltrated by advanced Maldorian spies."

"Wait," Robin interrupted. "So what you're saying is that we've already sent Glenn back to the past and he warned the SGC?"

"Right," Chandra confirmed. "A few days later, we contacted the Asguard and to our surprise they offered a full alliance. Not long after, we starting incorporating Asguard technology into the SGC."

"Okay..." Robin said with a look of 'why don't you get it'. "Does it bother anyone else we're still sitting here?"

"You mean why the events that brought us here last time haven't been changed," Sam broke in. "That's something I'd like to know as well." She looked up at Dani.

"That's the part we're not sure about," Dani confessed. "The original plan was to set a trap at Argos, where Glenn told us they would attack first. Glenn was to lead a group of the new gliders to download the destroyer schematics so that we could develop more advanced weapons to fight them. Unfortunately, we under estimated them. We lost the entire colony, the O'Neill and all hands."

"So I was reactivated for that mission?" Sharp asked.

"At the request of the O'Neill's captain," Chandra answered. "It took a lot of favors on his part to get it done, but he thought you were the best man for the job. We lost contact during the battle and never found out what happened to you or your team."

"Ambush," he stated bluntly.

"What?" Dani and Chandra asked simultaneously.

"During one of my blackouts... I jumped back to that battle. I thought at first it was strange because all of the others I knew I had experienced. Anyway, I took the controls and once I realized what was going on, I tried to get out of there, but they were waiting for me. Almost as if they knew I'd be there."

"That doesn't make any sense, Glenn," Dani told him. "The whole thing was classified at the highest level. There was no way anyone could have known about it in time to warn anyone."

"Don't ask me, Dani," he said putting his hands up. "It's your past, but it's my future."

"We can't start second guessing ourselves," Chandra interjected. "It'll only make things worse."

"I beg to differ," Sharp said. "Obviously whatever plan we tried didn't work or we wouldn't be sitting here."

"Well do you have a better idea, Glenn?" Dani asked defensively.

"Not at the moment, but I think it's worth talking about our options before we do anything," he replied.

"We've been talking about this for months now," Chandra insisted. "We've considered every option, every plan, every idea. And we believe our plan has the best chance of success."

"Care to fill me in?" he asked curiously.

"The crux of the plan lies in getting those ship schematics to our scientists as soon as possible," Dani began. "Now the ambush at Argos obviously didn't work, but we did come up with another option. We know Argos will be their first target, because that's where we will supposedly set up our first colony. Only this time, instead of a colony, we'll have this." Sharp watched as the image of a advance communications base lit up the screen. "We'll have the O'Neill in orbit and once they have the information, the base will transmit that information to the SGC. Then everyone will be evacuated and the O'Neill will cover the retreat."

"No offense, Danika," Sharp said, not confident in her plan at all, "but what makes you think the O'Neill can last that long? And even beyond that, what's to keep them from blocking the transmission?"

"We've thought of both those problems, Glenn and we're confident that both the base and the O'Neill can get the job done," Chandra answered.

"With all due respect, you weren't there."

"Technically you haven't been there yet either," she responded.

Sharp could see he was getting no where fast and making everyone upset in the process. If he was gonna convince them, he was going to need something to back him up and a solution to take care of it. And he knew just the people to help him.

"Maybe we should take a break for now," Dani finally offered. "It's been a long week for all of us in one way or another."

The head around the table nodded and the bodies attached rose from the chairs. Robin and Sharp exchanged looks that communicated their need to talk and Robin then motioned for Chris, Luke and Paris to follow. Sharp on the other hand, approached Sam.

"You got a moment, Sam?" he asked her quietly

"Yeah, what's up, Glenn?" she answered, a bit curious.

Sharp looked over his shoulder to see who was observing, "what happened to that data crystal we recovered from Beta-1? Did we ever get anything else off of that thing?"

"It's still on board the Foxstar," she told him. "I was actually planning on getting it and letting the scientists here go over it. Maybe they could see something we missed."

"What about what we found?" he pressed.

"We found tons of information, just not anything we didn't already now, or that we could use. Ship schematics, history files, past battle plans, military propaganda,...."

"Wait... past battle plans?" he asked. "Including the attack on Argos?"

"Well yeah, that's why I thought it might help. If you're sure that they need more information to improve their plan, we could use this to do that."

"Not yet," Sharp shook his head.

"What?" Sam shook her head in confusion.

"I want you to show it to me first, before they look at it," he explained.

"Glenn, what are you up to?" she wanted to know.

"Just trust me on this, ok?"

"I don't like keeping information from them," she argued.

"It won't be for long. I just want first crack at it, ok?"

Sam gave Glenn a dissatisfied look. She didn't like this one bit, but she would trust him, because he'd earned it. "All right, but if we find /anything/ you'll going to tell them and then you're gonna let them take a look at it themselves, agreed?"

"Agreed," he nodded.

****Robin's Quarters, (a few minutes later)****

"What exactly are you asking us to do?" Corra asked the Foxstar commander.

"Nothing yet," Robin replied. "Glenn is doing some digging as we speak to figure this out. What I need from the three of you right now, is a commitment to back us up."

"You didn't have to bring us over here to tell us that, Mac," Paris assured her. "We'll back you one hundred percent."

"Absolutly," Stewart chimed in. "We didn't come all this way just to back down now. We're in this for the long haul."

Corra sighed and spoke up, "am I correct in assuming that General Scott and Colonel Sanders don't know about this meeting?"

"The minute we have something concrete, they'll know about it, but until then, no we don't want them involved," Robin explained. Corra sighed. "Do you have a problem with that, Luke?"

"I just thought we were all on the same side," he responded.

"We are," Paris broke in. "We all want to win this war, but there has to be more than just their way to do it. We're just exploring the options they refuse to explore."

Corra broke eye contact and sighed, "ok... I'm in... for now."

"Then it's agreed?" Robin asked.

The four in the room with her nodded consent.

****SGC Computer Lab, (five hours later)****

Sharp rubbed his face. It'd been a while since he'd slept, but for now this was more important. Something useful was in these files. He just knew it. "What's this here?"

"Just some historical documents. Propaganda really, about how them overthrew the evil alien oppressors and how they've proved all aliens are inferior. It just goes on and on and on."

"Well what's next?" he asked, ignoring most of what she said.

"Hold on..." she said pulling up the next files. "These are the battle plans of the original attack on Argos."

"Now we're getting somewhere," Sharp said excitedly.

"Except it doesn't really help us, Glenn," she explained. "Even if you could take these plans back to the past, just them being there could change things so dramatically they would become useless."

"How so?" he questioned.

"Think about it. Let's say for the moment that all this has happened before, like that video suggested. You came to the future, saw all this happening and went back to stop it. Obviously you would have been ready for whatever attack they had been planning at that point."

"I'm not seeing where you're going, Sam."

"Where I'm going is that something else must be at work here. If it was just a matter of you getting the right information to the right people, this should have been the last cycle."

"Ok, ok... you've lost me... cycle?"

"Have you ever heard of a causality loop, Glenn?"

Sharp wrinkled his face, "uhhh... no. What's that?"

"It's a theory about time travel. It states that future events can cause the events that led to the future event."

Sharp could feel the headache coming back, "you wanna try that in English?"

Sam smiled, "Think of it this way. Event A happens in the future causing someone or something to be sent back in time. That person or thing triggers event B, which then sets in motion a chain of events that lead to Event A and so on."

"So what exactly are you saying? That I had something to do with this future?" he asked a bit taken aback.

"Not you exactly," she said, trying to reassure him, "but maybe something you brought back with you, Glenn. Something that wasn't supposed to be there."

"So you're saying that by bringing back these plans, I could be creating the very event I want to stop?"

"I'm not saying that's what happened, but it's possible."

Sharp looked back at the screen to break eye contact and suddenly noticed something odd. A part of the file that wasn't translated. "What's this here?"

"We don't know. We weren't able to translate that part of the file. I even asked Paris, she couldn't figure it out," Sam shook her head. "We were actually kinda hoping that someone here would know what it was. It's almost as if it's an entirely different language."

Sharp looked over the cryptic symbols as if trying to look through them and discover some long lost secret. "Ok, let them take a look at it, but I want to know the minute you find out what that is." He then quickly turned and headed toward the door.

"Yes, Sir," Sam said rolling her eyes and under her breath. She picked the crystal up out of the computer and was halfway out of the room when the alarms sounded.

****SGC Control Room, (minutes later)****

"What's going on, Sergeant?"

"Unscheduled off-world activation, General."

"Which teams are off-world?" Dani asked.

"All teams are present and accounted for, Ma'am," the sergeant replied.

"Keep the iris closed then."

Just then Sharp entered the room, followed closely by Robin and Sam. "What's going on?"

"You should know the drill, Captain," Chandra turned to face him. "Bad guys try to come through the gate and the big metal iris stops them."

"General, I'm recieving an IDC," the sergeant said surprised.

Dani looked down at the Sergeant with a glare, "I thought you said all teams were off-world?"

"They are, Ma'am," he confirmed. "It's being recognized... as SGC intelligence, Ma'am."

"But that's a one time code. They wouldn't be using that unless it was an absolute emgergency," Chandra cut in.

"Open the iris!" Danika ordered. The Sergeant immediately complied and the large metal cover opened to reveal the blue, swirly wormhole opening underneath. All of them held their breath waiting for someone or something to come through.

They released their collective breaths when two petite girls stepped onto the ramp.

Sharp smiled through the glass and made his way to the gateroom with Corra and Stewart. "Sarah! Christine! Good to see you again!"

"It's good to see you too, Captain," Sarah said as Glenn hugged them both.

"What brings you two here?" Sharp asked. "Danika seems to think it must be pretty important for you to risk coming here."

"I'm afraid it's very serious," Christine confirmed. "We need to speak to you and General Scott right away."

****SGC Briefing Room, (10 minutes later)****

The briefing room that was full of personnel a few hours earlier was now occupied again, only this time the group was much smaller. Danika, Chandra and Captain Jackson, joined Sarah, Christine and Sharp to hear the information that the two young woman had thought important enough to bring in person.

"I wanted to keep this meeting as small as possible given Sarah's concerns about the sensativity of the information they're carrying," Danika explained. "Captain Sharp is here at her request. I've brought Colonel Sanders and Captain Jackson as advisors on the situation. You may begin your breifing when ready, Miss Sarah."

Sarah stood and moved to the front of the room. "For some time now, we've been tracking a man we believed to be dead for over a year. A man that myself, Christine and Captain Sharp are familiar with." Sarah touched a button and image appeared on the screen. Sharp shifted uneasily in his chair at what he saw.

"This is Robert Harris," Sarah continued. "Or that's what the Maldorians would like us to believe. In reality, Harris died on P9T-573 early last year."

"So if that's not Harris, who is he?" Jackson asked.

"And a better question, what does it have to do with us?" Chandra added.

Christine turned to face Sharp, "I'm sure Captain Sharp will notice that same difference we did which lead us to suspect what was going on."

"No scar," he stated simply. "He's a clone."

"More than just a clone," Sarah corrected. "A clone is only a duplication of the body. This... acts, talks, thinks and reasons just like the original Robert Harris in almost all respects."

"Almost all?" Danika questioned.

"The real Robert Harris would never have served the Maldorians," Christine explained. "While they have been able to completely replicate Harris, they did modify his personality to serve them."

"So you're saying they could replicate anyone and use them to infiltrate us," Chandra deduced.

"They may have something worse in mind," Sarah said touching the panel to show the next image.

"I don't understand," Sharp shook his head. "I don't remember having his picture taken."

"That's because it's not a picture of you, Captain," Sarah told him. "We believe the Maldorians used the information they extracted while they held you prisoner to create a replicant of you."

"But why Captain Sharp?" Jackson spoke up. "Forgive me for saying so, Captain, but why wouldn't they choose someone who's actually in a leadership position here at the SGC?"

Sarah looked over at Christine who looked back at her. Taking a deep breath before she spoke, she answered, "we don't believe their target is this command. Instead, they intend to send their replicant back to Captain Sharp's time."

"Without Captain Sharp to bring back that information, earth will be a sitting ducks for the Maldorian attacks," Jackson concluded.

"And all the things we've done to stop them over the years will never have happened," Danika added.

Sharp just shook his head, "something doesn't add up."

"What about it doesn't add up, Glenn?" Chandra asked, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.

"You said it yourself. In a few months, this whole thing will be over. There won't be enough bases, ships or people to mount any kind of resistance. Why go to all the trouble?"

"I don't see that it matters," Danika responded. "If they succeed, the past few years, and even this meeting will be pointless because it won't have happened. We have to stop them."

"I can have the fleet mobilized in under five hours, Ma'am," Jackson told her.

"Do it," she ordered. "I want everything we've got in orbit of P9T-573 when the Maldorians arrive. And get me a meeting with Commander Michaels. We're gonna need all the help we can get. Dismissed." Jackson nodded and was out the door. "Glenn, time for you to go home."

Sharp forced a smile and sat back in his chair as he watched the others leave. They were missing something. He was sure of it. He had to see if Sam and Paris had discovered anything.

****SGC, Level 14 Hallway, (Two Hours to Launch)****

"Glenn!" the familiar voice called from behind him. "Where have you been? I've looked everywhere for you."

Sharp turned to see the frustration on his daughter's face. "Sorry, Mac. I've been looking for Paris. Have you seen her?"

"Not since you were called into that second briefing with General Scott."

"Damn. We're running out of time," he sighed.

"Speaking of time, we're scheduled to leave in less than two hours and I've been trying to track you down for over an hour."

"I can't leave yet, Mac. There's more going on here then we're seeing. Did General Scott breif you on what Sarah and Christine told us?"

"Yes," Robin nodded. "I met with her less than a half hour after you did. She wants the Foxstar to lead the defense of the planet while the science ships prepare the planet to send you back. I told her we'd help in anyway we could."

Sharp nodded agreement, "that's probably best right now. Just be ready in case Sam comes up something, all right?"

"Yeah, of course. Glenn... Dad..." she looked up into his eyes.

"I know," he said taking her hands in his. "If this works, this could be the last time we see each other."

"Worse than that," she said doing a good job of holding back tears. "I won't even remember any of this. Hell, if this works, I may not even exist in the new timeline."

Sharp pulled her into a hug to hide his inability to hold in his tears any longer. "You'll always exist, Mac. No matter what happens, you'll always be my daughter. Your mom is gonna know all about you and be so proud of you. 'Cause I'm proud of you. And I love you."

Robin smiled and let the tears flows. It was a goodbye, but it was more than she got the first time she lost her father. "I have to go... They're waiting for me," she slowly pulled away.

Sharp just nodded his head and held her at arm's length. "Yeah, you better go then," he sniffed and then forced a smile. "You come home safe, ok?"

Robin rolled her eyes like a daughter would to an overprotective father. It felt good and made Sharp laugh. "Yes, dad," she finally said in a annoyed kid-like tone. Then she smiled and kissed her father on the cheek. Sharp watched her turn and head back down the hallway until she disappeared from sight.

****Abydos Bridge, (20 minutes to launch)****

General Scott turned the final corner and walked through the door leading to the bridge. She had some last minute instructions for Captain Jackson before she departed for her ship.

"This is quite a privledge, Ma'am," Jackson greeted her with a smile. "I think this is only the second time I've welcomed you to my bridge."

"Is there someplace private we can talk, Captain?" she said getting right to the point.

"Of course, Ma'am. Follow me." Jackson lead her to an empty room off the main bridge. "Will this do, Ma'am?"

"It'll do just fine, Captain," she smiled. "I have new orders for you," she said handing over a folder.

Jackson's face changed to one of confusion as he took the folder and began looking over the papers inside, "new orders?" He paused as he read and then looked up at Danika. "I assume this is a contingency plan, Ma'am?"

"That's exactly what it is, Captain," she confirmed. "If for some reason, Captain Sharp is unable to complete his misson to warn the SGC, you are to use the anomily to send this transmission containing all the details for the Argos ambush."

"They won't accept a random transmission, Ma'am," Jackson pointed out.

"Of course not," she agreed. "But all it needs to do is get their attention. Steer them to the appropriate channels who help them... us... figure out the rest."

"Understood, Ma'am," he snapped to attention and saluted. "You can count on me."

****SGC Computer Lab, (5 minutes to launch)****

"You're hovering, Glenn," Paris said beginning to become annoyed.

"I know... I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "But we're just about out of time."

"Yeah, well we're going as fast as we can. The minute we know something so will you."

Sharp began pacing anxiously, waiting for something to happen. Sam, Corra and Stewart all joined Robin on the Foxstar. Sam as the second in command and Corra and Stewart went as glider pilots. Paris agreed to stay behind to work on decyphering what was left on the data crystal. Sharp meanwhile was left to wait while the SGC science ships prepared the planet to produce the correct time inversion wave. Waiting... Sharp hated waiting. It was right up there with dying and dentists. After a few mintues, he listened as the collective fleet of the SGC started their journey to P9T-573. They'd be observing radio silence now. He'd run out of time.

"Oh my God... that's it!" Paris exclaimed.

Sharp jumped at least five feet when he heard her. Regaining his composure, he rushed over to see what had gotten Paris so excited. "What's it?!"

"Numbers, Glenn! They're numbers!"

"What?! Paris, explain... in English please."

"The symbols we weren't able to translate aren't words. They're numbers. We were looking for words and they're not," she explained.

"But I saw numbers that were translated on the rest of the crystal. How come you were able to translate those and not these?"

"Think about it, Glenn. We have two ways to write numbers. Using words and our arabic numerials. The numbers we translated were written out in the Maldorian language, but these here are the numeric variation," she continued.

"I guess that makes sense," he finally said. "So if they are numbers, what do they mean?"

"I'm not sure yet exactly, but I have a theory," he said as she began typing again. "One of the things really pecular about the files was the fact that none of them had any dates attached that we could find. If that's because they only use the numeric represenation of a date..." she trailed off for a moment and then got a huge smile on her face.

"I take it that means you were right?" he asked anxiously.

"Yes, they're dates. But they don't mean much to us as they are based off a foreign calender. I'll have to get with a historian to figure out the exact dates from our perspective." Paris stood and started to walk away to do just that.

"How long will that take?" he blurted out.

Paris stopped and turned to him, "as long as it takes, Glenn. You can resume pacing now." After a few moments, she smiled to let him know she was kidding before walking out of the room.

Sharp on the other hand, took the advice to heart and began pacing again.

****SGC Breifing Room, (An hour later)****

Sharp hadn't expected results so soon. However, from the way Paris asked him to join her, he was under the impression, they had found something most unexpected. He walked into the room, "so what's the story?"

"You're not gonna believe this, Glenn," she assured him, showing him exactly what they had found. "Apparently someone or something moved up the Maldorian timetable by quite a bit," she explained.

"I'll say," Sharp shook his head. "If this is right, the attacks weren't supposed to start for almost another hundred years."

"Well whatever it was, they thought it was important enough to do something about it before they were ready," she told him. "None of these plans were updated from their original version and from what we can tell, they went into battle with less than half of what they were planning. Almost as if something scared them into attacking." That's when it all came together for Sharp. His knees began to buckle and he collasped into a chair. "Glenn, what's wrong?"

Sharp slowly turned his head to look up at her. "That's the last piece of the puzzle, Paris. The part we were missing."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, wondering what he was babbling about.

"Just listen for a moment. We've always assumed the attacks had been planned to be launched at the exact time they were launced, but if this was a rush job like these file say it was, then our entire premise for stopping this is flawed."

"Glenn, start making sense, please," she urged him.

"You said it, Paris. They attacked because they were afraid of being attacked. Sam told me that there was no mention of attacks against us until approximately twenty-five years ago. Now I don't think it's coincidence that it was right after we formed our alliance with the Asguard."

"So you're saying that our alliance with the Asguard is what started all this?"

"No... because one more thing happened before all that. The only reason we talked to the Asguard was because I warned them it was going to happen." He paused to swallow.

"I was the trigger, Paris... I caused this timeline... All of this is my doing..."

****To Be Concluded in "The Road to Hell"****