You probably know the drill by know: see previous chapter for the info and stuff.
In the depths of sleep, Sam takes a journey into a remarkable world.
Chapter Two: Discoveries
"Has anyone seen Major Carter?"
Daniel Jackson's head came up from the file he was reading on P5V-749 at General Hammonds question. All of SG-1, sans Sam, was seating around the briefing room table, ready to begin the briefing for their next offworld expedition. As absorbed as he had been in the briefing material, he hadn't noticed Sams absence until the General brought up the matter. "No, I haven't seen her. Teal'c? Jack?"
Teal'c responded with a simple shake of his bald head, his normally unreadable expression now clouded with a bit of concern for his fellow teammate; a trace of emotion no one but SG-1, Hammond, and a few other select people would be able to notice.
Jack was another matter. Jackson could see his best friend clench his jaw, undoubtably biting back some glib comment meant to lighten the mood. Obviously, he knew something about what was up with Sam. The fact that whatever it was was enough to dampen even HIS mood only increased Daniels worry.
Obviously, Hammond saw this change in his 2IC. "Colonel, do you know where Major Carter is?"
Jack looked up as though waking from his sleep. "Huh?"
Now Daniel was REALLY beginning to freak out. "Sam. Jack, where is Sam?"
The older man regarded his colleague with a look of curiousity. "Probably in her lab or quarters. Why?"
Hammond regarded his 2IC with a stern look. "Because she's seven minutes late for a briefing, that's why. I expect such behaviour every now and then from you, Colonel, but Major Carter has never been late by even ten seconds once in her entire career."
Daniel furrowed his brow in concern. Jack with that look of vacant, childlike innocence usually meant he was hiding something, be it a minor, insignificant detail or something larger. "Jack, what's going on?"
"Damnit Daniel, what makes you think that I know anything about why Carter would be late? It's like you said, sir," he gestured to General Hammond, "this isn't like Carter." Jack furrowed his brow in concentration. "And that's...significant...somehow."
Frustration building inside of him, Daniel pushed his chair away from the table. "I'm going to go see if Sam is in her quarters, find out if she's okay." He didn't even wait to see the nod of approval from General Hammond before quickly making his way out of the briefing room.
As he made a beeline down the corridors of the SGC, Daniel could only wonder what had happened that would make Sam miss out on a briefing: thoughts of deadly, flesh eating diseases, covert abductions by NID operatives, and just you plain, everyday car accident raced through his mind. The pounding of his heart against his chest and his feet against the floor were in sync; a rapid beat of drums marching towards some rising climax of inescapable danger for his dearest friend.
Abrupbtly, all desire to remain innocous vanished, and Daniel began to sprint down the corridors towards Sams quarters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world was formless; there was nothing, no where and no when. Sam found herself amidst a roiling cauldron of bluish-white strands of gaseous being, alight with an inner glow that was at once intense as a stellar core yet soft as a lunar reflection. She was astonished to learn that her senses were...condensed into a single mode of detection that locked on these phatom trails of light like a homing beacon.
She lay there, a consciousness unhooked from reality, floating in a soup of remarkable light that was at once both foreign and familiar to her. She touched a nearby strand she could sense and felt a brief section of past time come into view with crystal clarity. Memories! These were her memories.
Despite the vast, lonely emptiness that was half of the realm she found herself in, a sense of childish wonder and surreal joy came over her at this latest turn to what had been a saga of unrest and suffering. Each touch brought forth this surge of feeling that blossomed in her mind with a dazzling menagerie of memories. Despite the sometimes troubling contents of what she re-experienced, it was a wonderous experience.
So she sailed through an ocean of her thoughts, the cosmos of her mind. Thoughts and feelings, all types of memories flew by, none left unsampled. Every touch brought forth a new experience as old feelings and memories were relived in a way she knew that no human being had ever experienced before. They flared to life for one brilliant instant, encompasing her whole field of feelings, then faded back to their wispy forms.
During this entire remarkable experience, though, one feeling never left her side: the feeling, which gradualy grew into a cold hard certainty, that she was not alone.
Experimenting with her body (or seeming lack thereof), she discovered that the act of thought was heard and felt (after a fashion), making vocal cords unnecessary in the enigmatic place. She called with great force over the realms of thought to the unseen being that lurked at the recesses of her mind, looking in like a bird of prey watched the denizens of Earth: silent, invisible, patient, and ready.
Moments of millenia, eons of microseconds passed; no distinctive temporal order could discern which. Though the thoughts were her own, here was a place so lonely, so dark, so alien that is shook her to the core. If her body had been present, it would have been shaking from excitement, exhileration, and that strange unease which comes from being watched.
After who knew how long, a barely perceivable wisp of thought passed her line of sight. It seemed...important, somehow. Straining to reach it, incorporeal fingers brushed a strand of memory that gave birth to a spike of light and sound inside her mind. Abruptly, Sam remembered her thoughts upon awakening that morning, remembered the feeling of revelation that had dawned upon her after the dream had taken a new an unexpected turn. She remembered Grace.
'Grace?' The thought went out to the farthest reaches of this strange place, reverberating back at her almost instantaneously. Was her mind really that small that it would echo THAT fast?
A voice, or rather the idea of a voice, sailed gently into her mind. 'Not small,' came a tone of thought from somewhere, 'not of any size. All minds are infinite and nothing, especially ours.'
For a moment, she was too stunned to respond. The feel of the mind that touched hers in passing that message imparted an odd mixture of both fear and comfort to her. 'Grace? Is that you?'
As if in answer to her question, the wisps of thought energy moved unbeckoned in her gaze, forming lines and curves that reformed themselves endlessly in a rapid dance of shapeshifting movement. Each time a brief pause occured, she felt as though an impression were being made upon her, but she couldn't decipher the shapes of what she felt. All too quickly, it was over.
'Find them...my Hope.' With these last thoughts, the presence that could be none other than Grace vanished from the realm of Samantha Carters mind.
TBC
If you've ever experienced something like this...you need help. There are groups, usally ending with 'Anonymous.' Seek them out.
Well, I'm putting all this energy into my writing. The LEAST you can do is move you fingers a drop a review off. There's more coming folks, so stay tuned.
In the depths of sleep, Sam takes a journey into a remarkable world.
Chapter Two: Discoveries
"Has anyone seen Major Carter?"
Daniel Jackson's head came up from the file he was reading on P5V-749 at General Hammonds question. All of SG-1, sans Sam, was seating around the briefing room table, ready to begin the briefing for their next offworld expedition. As absorbed as he had been in the briefing material, he hadn't noticed Sams absence until the General brought up the matter. "No, I haven't seen her. Teal'c? Jack?"
Teal'c responded with a simple shake of his bald head, his normally unreadable expression now clouded with a bit of concern for his fellow teammate; a trace of emotion no one but SG-1, Hammond, and a few other select people would be able to notice.
Jack was another matter. Jackson could see his best friend clench his jaw, undoubtably biting back some glib comment meant to lighten the mood. Obviously, he knew something about what was up with Sam. The fact that whatever it was was enough to dampen even HIS mood only increased Daniels worry.
Obviously, Hammond saw this change in his 2IC. "Colonel, do you know where Major Carter is?"
Jack looked up as though waking from his sleep. "Huh?"
Now Daniel was REALLY beginning to freak out. "Sam. Jack, where is Sam?"
The older man regarded his colleague with a look of curiousity. "Probably in her lab or quarters. Why?"
Hammond regarded his 2IC with a stern look. "Because she's seven minutes late for a briefing, that's why. I expect such behaviour every now and then from you, Colonel, but Major Carter has never been late by even ten seconds once in her entire career."
Daniel furrowed his brow in concern. Jack with that look of vacant, childlike innocence usually meant he was hiding something, be it a minor, insignificant detail or something larger. "Jack, what's going on?"
"Damnit Daniel, what makes you think that I know anything about why Carter would be late? It's like you said, sir," he gestured to General Hammond, "this isn't like Carter." Jack furrowed his brow in concentration. "And that's...significant...somehow."
Frustration building inside of him, Daniel pushed his chair away from the table. "I'm going to go see if Sam is in her quarters, find out if she's okay." He didn't even wait to see the nod of approval from General Hammond before quickly making his way out of the briefing room.
As he made a beeline down the corridors of the SGC, Daniel could only wonder what had happened that would make Sam miss out on a briefing: thoughts of deadly, flesh eating diseases, covert abductions by NID operatives, and just you plain, everyday car accident raced through his mind. The pounding of his heart against his chest and his feet against the floor were in sync; a rapid beat of drums marching towards some rising climax of inescapable danger for his dearest friend.
Abrupbtly, all desire to remain innocous vanished, and Daniel began to sprint down the corridors towards Sams quarters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world was formless; there was nothing, no where and no when. Sam found herself amidst a roiling cauldron of bluish-white strands of gaseous being, alight with an inner glow that was at once intense as a stellar core yet soft as a lunar reflection. She was astonished to learn that her senses were...condensed into a single mode of detection that locked on these phatom trails of light like a homing beacon.
She lay there, a consciousness unhooked from reality, floating in a soup of remarkable light that was at once both foreign and familiar to her. She touched a nearby strand she could sense and felt a brief section of past time come into view with crystal clarity. Memories! These were her memories.
Despite the vast, lonely emptiness that was half of the realm she found herself in, a sense of childish wonder and surreal joy came over her at this latest turn to what had been a saga of unrest and suffering. Each touch brought forth this surge of feeling that blossomed in her mind with a dazzling menagerie of memories. Despite the sometimes troubling contents of what she re-experienced, it was a wonderous experience.
So she sailed through an ocean of her thoughts, the cosmos of her mind. Thoughts and feelings, all types of memories flew by, none left unsampled. Every touch brought forth a new experience as old feelings and memories were relived in a way she knew that no human being had ever experienced before. They flared to life for one brilliant instant, encompasing her whole field of feelings, then faded back to their wispy forms.
During this entire remarkable experience, though, one feeling never left her side: the feeling, which gradualy grew into a cold hard certainty, that she was not alone.
Experimenting with her body (or seeming lack thereof), she discovered that the act of thought was heard and felt (after a fashion), making vocal cords unnecessary in the enigmatic place. She called with great force over the realms of thought to the unseen being that lurked at the recesses of her mind, looking in like a bird of prey watched the denizens of Earth: silent, invisible, patient, and ready.
Moments of millenia, eons of microseconds passed; no distinctive temporal order could discern which. Though the thoughts were her own, here was a place so lonely, so dark, so alien that is shook her to the core. If her body had been present, it would have been shaking from excitement, exhileration, and that strange unease which comes from being watched.
After who knew how long, a barely perceivable wisp of thought passed her line of sight. It seemed...important, somehow. Straining to reach it, incorporeal fingers brushed a strand of memory that gave birth to a spike of light and sound inside her mind. Abruptly, Sam remembered her thoughts upon awakening that morning, remembered the feeling of revelation that had dawned upon her after the dream had taken a new an unexpected turn. She remembered Grace.
'Grace?' The thought went out to the farthest reaches of this strange place, reverberating back at her almost instantaneously. Was her mind really that small that it would echo THAT fast?
A voice, or rather the idea of a voice, sailed gently into her mind. 'Not small,' came a tone of thought from somewhere, 'not of any size. All minds are infinite and nothing, especially ours.'
For a moment, she was too stunned to respond. The feel of the mind that touched hers in passing that message imparted an odd mixture of both fear and comfort to her. 'Grace? Is that you?'
As if in answer to her question, the wisps of thought energy moved unbeckoned in her gaze, forming lines and curves that reformed themselves endlessly in a rapid dance of shapeshifting movement. Each time a brief pause occured, she felt as though an impression were being made upon her, but she couldn't decipher the shapes of what she felt. All too quickly, it was over.
'Find them...my Hope.' With these last thoughts, the presence that could be none other than Grace vanished from the realm of Samantha Carters mind.
TBC
If you've ever experienced something like this...you need help. There are groups, usally ending with 'Anonymous.' Seek them out.
Well, I'm putting all this energy into my writing. The LEAST you can do is move you fingers a drop a review off. There's more coming folks, so stay tuned.