.

PART 8: Explanations

.

Two days later and Jack was in his office.
He had all of the test results.
He had Carter's report (the unofficial one, not the typed formal one).
He'd heard her story.

And he wasn't sure what to do.

Because it was Charlie.
The boy's DNA matched both Jack and Sara.
The dental and other records agreed.

And Carter said it was Charlie.
Not a copy.
Not a clone.
Not an alternate universe Charlie.

No, Carter said this was -his- Charlie.

And, she'd explained why she'd been gone.

She'd gone to get Charlie.

His eyes glazed over on the details that Carter had explained. There was time travel... with some alien machine found by the Asgard… who'd asked Carter to give them a hand figuring it out. Apparently they had. Figured it out. And Carter had proposed this… idea… to the Asgard… and they'd gone along with it.

Carter had been sent back to the time of Charlie's death. He'd died, they couldn't change that because they couldn't mess with the timeline. So… Carter had… Carter had… taken his son's -body-… which meant that… that… his grave was actually empty. All those years that Jack had gone to visit his son's grave… and his son wasn't there. He was crying over an empty grave.

Jack hadn't paid much attention to how Carter had managed it all. There'd been mention of several pieces of Asgard technology that she'd had with her. And, somehow, she'd retrieved his body and brought it back with her.

But that's where things apparently went wrong. The alien time travel device shorted or malfunctioned and they'd ended up fifty-three plus years into the future. Back on the original Asgard planet that they'd started from. But fifty-two years from now.

The 'future' Asgards dealt with it with their usual aplomb. They revived Charlie with an Asgard-modified sarcophagus. Apparently that had been the original plan anyhow.

Charlie met Thor.
… and it did take them some explaining…
… as far as Charlie was concerned, Carter had basically kidnapped him.
But the Asgard were able to help with images and records from their files on Jack O'Neill. And they had extensive files.

Charlie now knows that he died… and that he's traveled to his future.
They had explained it all to him.
Carter said that he needed to know.
He'd shot himself and he needed to understand.
He needed to understand the ramifications and the cost.

His son had had to face harsh truths that no 8-year old should ever have to face.

But that was better than being dead.
And much better than staying dead.

Carter had prepared him for the fact that his parents were divorced.
That his parents would look older.
And that his parents would have a hard time adjusting to his return.

She had explained the Stargates to him of course.
She had explained wormholes and space travel.
She had explained the SGC and what his Dad did there.

….

They had worked on the alien time travel device and set it to send Carter and Charlie back to their own time. It apparently used some kind of hybrid between spatial wormhole physics and temporal mechanics. When used right, you should be able to travel across both time and space- as Carter had done when she'd initially gone from the Asgard world back in time to Earth.

But something had gone wrong on the return trip. A malfunction. Or something. They didn't know what. When all was said and done, portions of the machine were burnt out from their 'return' attempt. They replaced the fused and damaged parts. Tested the machine with small trips.

And it appeared to be fixed.

So they set it for a week or so after Carter's original departure but did not try to travel across space. They decided to just go straight back in time and then they could gate home from there.

Thor had sent them off but they hadn't arrived on the Asgard planet.

As near as Carter could determine they'd arrived approximately 6-7 months after her original departure.

That in and of itself wouldn't have been too bad.

No, the bad part was that they had not landed on the Asgard planet. They'd ended up somewhere else. On a planet that had ruins similar to the ones where they'd found the alien time machine.

There were ruins. And a Stargate. Only… it didn't work.

There had been some native people there. Cautious, but not hostile.

Technologically equivalent to Earth 40 years ago or so according to Carter. They apparently hadn't invented computers yet. And they hadn't figured out how to work the Stargate.

Carter spent almost a year helping them build technology and repair the Stargate. They had a DHD, but it was damaged and several crucial crystals were missing. Carter helped them jury-rig control panels and replacement parts. In some cases, she had to help them build the very tools that they needed to make the necessary doohickeys.

When they finally got it the 'Gate to work, she had chosen Edora because she knew that her old SG-1 code would have been locked out long ago. She knew people on Edora and she could use their GDO to 'Gate back to Earth.

And it -had- worked. However, the connection faltered as they were in transit and they were spit out of the 'Gate at high speed and had a rough landing. Carter had taken the brunt of it and that's where she'd broken her ribs. She wasn't sure, but she figured that their jury-rigged departure 'Gate had experienced a power surge somewhere in their cobbled-together assemblage.

When all the dust settled here at home, Carter wanted to try locking onto the 'Gate on the planet where they'd spent the past year. She said that the people there were eager to establish relations with Earth.

And, then they'd gated home.
To Earth. To the SGC.
Here.
Home.

They'd had almost a year for her to get Charlie prepared.
She'd re-explained it all over and over.
She'd told him stories of her father and edited exploits of SG-1.
She'd made him memorize the address for Earth just in case something happened to her.

She'd drawn him sketches of the gateroom so that he'd know what to expect.
She'd explained to him what happens when people arrive in the SGC gateroom.
She'd explained the soldier and the guns and the control room.

---------------

She'd apologized for taking so long getting back. They had thought she'd be back after just a week or so. 'They' being Carter and the Asgard. Who'd spawned this crazy plan… and then gone ahead and done it.

Jack had always thought that the Asgard were more careful than this… more cautious… Of course, Carter was the one who'd gone. And, she'd apparently had authorization from somewhere higher-up the chain of command here on Earth. She wasn't specific. And no one had told him anything after it had all gone haywire. They'd just let him believe that she was MIA… or dead.

Of course, he knew that it would have been hard to come to him and get him to accept that his 2IC had disappeared on a mission to bring his dead son back to life. She said that the authorization came because the 'higher-ups' believed that the Asgard could do anything… and that they were probably hoping that she'd be able to build time travel machines for them after it was all over. They were going to be very disappointed…

He ran it round and round.
A part of him couldn't believe that Carter would do such a thing.
Time travel and bring back his son and revive him with a sarcophagus.

When they'd been dumped back in 1969, she had been so clear about how they could not change the timeline. How they couldn't mess with things. And he'd sooooo wanted to. Just to say a few things to Michael and Jenny, for example.

When he'd questioned Carter about her more recent actions, she'd smiled and explained that she hadn't changed the past. Charlie had still died. And everyone had experienced all of the effects of that. She was only affecting their future. And she believed in free-will and did not believe in pre-destiny. They did have the power – and the right - to affect their future.

She'd looked at him and he could see the apology in her eyes. She couldn't change the past. She couldn't prevent Charlie from shooting himself and dying. She couldn't prevent all of the misery and heartache that Jack had gone through in the years since.

All she could do was bring Charlie to him now.

That's all. He couldn't believe that she was apologizing for it. Because that's all she could do. Just bring Charlie to him now.

Charlie was alive.

He still hadn't fully accepted it.
He was waiting for the Joker to pop-up and say 'April Fools.'

Carter was back.
And that was almost overshadowed by Charlie's presence.
And she didn't appear to mind.
Charlie had been her objective after all.

What -were- the Asgard thinking?

They'd never explained why they created his daughter for him either.

-Their- daughter he corrected himself.

And, just how was he going to bring that up?
Carter hadn't even adjusted to being back yet.

…

Carter -and- Charlie.

His life had suddenly become so much… better...
And so much more complicated.

.

====o0o==== End Part 8 ====o0o====

.