General Hammond had been having one of those days. Their search and rescue mission for any survivors of P3R-118 had turned up a very unexpected group of refugees. Hammond had believed, as had everyone at the SGC, that Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and Samantha Carter had died more than a year ago in an unfortunate accident, one from which the fourth team-member, Teal'c, still sported an unknown fate. When the three individuals currently residing in the infirmary were brought back through the stargate, however, there was no doubt who the three of them were.

Except there was doubt, at least in their minds. Daniel Jackson had been their only clue concerning the possible shared state of the three-fourth remaining team since he was the only former member of SG-1 conscious at the time of their return but it was enough that there was no outburst of recognition for Doctor Fraiser or Hammond himself from the young man upon setting foot in the old, unchanged embarkation room. Daniel Jackson clearly didn't know them or the SGC.

After that miraculous, anticlimactic return word from the infirmary had gotten quiet. Janet had all but locked down her corner of the SGC and information coming out was sketchy and usually third-party from an off-duty nurse. When it became suspected that it was a likely case that none of SG-1 remembered their old friends or old lives Janet had ordered the number of people crowding them kept to a minimum for their own well-being. She didn't want to unduly stress them. Janet was proceeding with insanely meticulous care. The whole ordeal had obviously rattled the young doctor and Hammond had done his best not to heckle Fraiser. He knew she would report to him when she had enough information to warrant a briefing. Still, Hammond had been anxious and impatient to find out what was going on with their people who had, until a few hours ago, been believed killed in action.

Finally, Janet had called his office and told him everyone was awake and alert and he could come down to assess the situation. 'Assess the situation' seemed like a very cautious approach to the entire mess and Hammond decided he would take his lead from Janet in this matter.

And a situation it was, because the moment Hammond saw his old team come through the gate he was overcome with overwhelming relief and bone-deep, crushing shame. If they were alive then it meant they at the SGC had all abandoned SG-1 a long time ago, given up and believed them dead.

They'd left them behind.

It was an injustice and those people in the infirmary, whomever they thought they were, deserved better.

Doctor Fraiser was waiting for Hammond outside the infirmary door and when she saw him she straightened from her weary slouch and he recognized an encroaching quick run-down when he saw one.

Hammond stopped in front of the doctor and asked without preamble, "How are they?"

Janet was just as content to get straight to business. "Physically, nothing more serious than being a little underweight and a little tired. They could all use some time in the sun, but otherwise their bodies are fine. Mentally..." Janet frowned then sighed and it pulled at her entire frame. "Daniel's not a unique case. None of them remember who they are and you should be prepared for that, sir."

Hammond had feared as much when Daniel had stared blankly at him from the stargate ramp. He nodded grimly and asked, "What of the baby Doctor Jackson was carrying when they were brought back?"

"It's Sam's," Janet answered. Although in light of the scouting team's report there wasn't much chance it was else-wise, Hammond had to ask. Janet simply confirmed what he'd suspected from the start. "She's obviously given birth within the last six hours."

Hammond stood in the hallway with Janet a minute as he took the new facts into consideration. There was no precedent for this kind of event and Hammond had to create the operating procedure as they went along. "What is your recommendation, Doctor?" Hammond asked. "How should we proceed with this? Do we treat them like SG-1 or any other off-world refugee? Without their memories are they even really the same people we knew?"

"That's a difficult question to answer, sir. Intellectually, no, they're not Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, or Doctor Jackson, not as we knew them. That's not to say they're completely unknown people, however. Their personalities seem to be intact. Daniel's acting like Daniel even if he doesn't answer to the name."

"Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter?"

Janet frowned thoughtfully before she said, "I haven't had as much interaction with them so I'm not as certain, but from what I've been able to see the 'core' of what made them both the people we use to know is still there. It's a little tricky because the individuals who used to be Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter are coping with factors we never witnessed Colonel O'Neill or Major Carter experience." Janet looked almost aggrieved to admit that fact. She said reluctantly, "We never saw Major Carter as a mother so I'm not sure how our Sam would have acted and how that might differ from how she's acting now."

"Is it in their best interests or ours to tell them who they really are?" Hammond asked. Considering the amnesiatic state of the former members of SG-1 they were rendered, effectively, strangers and as commander of the facility Hammond had to think of the security of the base and the stargate program.

"I'm not sure what's caused them to lose their personal identities but I think their memories are still there, buried or suppressed, and I think they might reemerge once exposed to enough environmental catalysts."

"What makes you say that?"

Janet frowned. "It's a... feeling. I haven't had a chance to run any tests because I wasn't sure how you wanted me to handle telling them about their true identities, but I've been talking to Daniel and at times he seems a little more like Daniel, our old Daniel, than others. I know it's not a very scientific answer, sir, but it's the sense I get from him. He seems to almost recognize some things, sometimes I think he almost recognizes me and not just as 'the doctor' but from before."

"And the colonel and major? Are they appearing to experience these near-lapses into their old lives like Doctor Jackson?"

"Like I said, I haven't been in contact with them enough to really say," Janet paused and winced, "but then they do have a very real distraction that is wholly apart from everything they used to be here. They might not let themselves see the things Daniel seems to.

"Bottom line, sir, I think we should do everything we can to help them recover their memories. We have some technology I think we can successfully apply and if exposure to things in the SGC starts a chain-reaction of naturally recovering their memories then we stand a good chance of getting our people back."

It was enough for Hammond. "Very well, Doctor," he said, "let's go inside and talk to them."

Janet turned and led Hammond into the infirmary. It seemed almost vacant with the distinct lack of nursing staff and the only human life inside occupied the space allotted by two gurneys, a concentrated pocket of motion in stillness. Hammond's eyes fell at once on them. The first detail that jumped at him was to note that they were all clad in white rather than the orange they'd worn the last time he saw them. They looked marginally clean, wash-basin clean so it was clear Janet had obviously not seen fit yet to release them to go to the showers. Hair was still grimy and the men were unshaven, sporting rough stubble.

Eyes locked on Hammond as he drew near them and he felt the chill of being regarded by friends as a stranger. In every rare occasion it had happened at the SGC it was hauntingly unsettling.

Hammond looked over 'his people'.

On one of the gurneys, the one closer to the door, Sam Carter was reclining against the wall at the head of the medical bed. She was holding a white bundle to her chest and pulling it ever-so-faintly closer as Hammond and Janet got closer. Her hair was longer, unstyled, and it was the most readily apparent anomaly in an otherwise painfully 'Sam' face.

Perched on the foot of Sam's bed was Jack O'Neill. He was watching Hammond with that astutely tactical mind Hammond had known well in his second-in-command. Tainting what might have otherwise been an utterly familiar expression was an undisguised edge of distrust. As Hammond neared Jack bristled and his presence barbed. Hammond had seen Jack go on guard before, but always to off-world adversaries and the occasional Russian or NID lackey. It was a foreign (and profoundly disturbing) experience to be the target of that glare. Hammond would make it a point, for the sake of keeping this first crucial meeting from disintegrating into a confrontation, to let Jack stay between him and Sam and the infant.

Sitting side by side on the next gurney were Daniel Jackson and the slim, dark woman who had accompanied his erstwhile team from P3R-118. Daniel was studying Hammond but not as warily as Jack or Sam and right then Hammond understood how Janet could 'just have feeling' that Daniel was almost with them. The familiar, pensive purse to his lips and crease in his brow screamed that he was on the verge of knowing something.

Hammond and Janet stopped between the two beds and Janet ridiculously introduced SG-1 to the general. "This is the leader of our facility, General Hammond."

Hammond nodded and cut a glance at all of his old colleagues. Jack's eyes flickered and an unreadable look of confusion momentarily overtook the hostile wariness in his face as he lowered his gaze fractionally.

It was almost a relief that Daniel was the one to decide to act as greeter and spokesperson. It was exactly what the old Daniel would have done if he thought they were meeting an alien official. The young man slid off the bed and faced Hammond. "Um... hi, my name is Carlin. This is Kaegan, and that's Jonah and Thera."

Hammond's mood dampened just a little. He would try to remember the false names but it was hard to be introduced to people he knew very well. It was even harder for the pseudonyms to be offered so unerringly.

"Are you going to finally tell us what's going on?" Jonah asked bitterly in the short ensuing silence and Hammond couldn't help but at least smirk slightly. Their names were different but their personalities were indeed intact. That terse, annoyed, and commanding attitude was pure Jack O'Neill.

"As best I can," Hammond answered, "but first I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Jonah grew even more guarded and wary but he didn't outright protest and Hammond knew Jack well enough to know he'd play along for now... but only to a point. Normally Hammond would have that working in his favor, Jack on his side, but now he would have to pit himself against his former comrade. It was a prospect he did not relish.

"Do any of you know where you are?" Hammond asked.

The four conferred silently with one another, sharing perplexed looks at the strange question, then Carlin answered, "We think we're probably on another planet."

"You think?" Hammond prodded.

Carlin sighed and frowned. It was a classic Daniel-consternated face and it was so hard to remember that it wasn't exactly Daniel. "We didn't actually know what the Chappa-ai did or how it worked but we all just knew that it was some kind of transportation device. This place looks a lot different from any of the buildings we explored in the city so it must be on another planet."

"What about the planet where you come from?"

Carlin shrugged awkwardly and shifted on his feet.

"What were you doing there?" Jonah interjected, effectively freeing Carlin from the center of attention, though why inquiry into the planet would upset Carlin was beyond Hammond's comprehension.

Hammond turned his eyes to Jonah and answered, "We've had diplomatic relations with the inhabitants of the city on P3R-118 for more than a year. We'd been in fairly regular contact with the government for a number of months. When they failed to contact us for a trade negotiation we've been discussing we tried to reach them and discovered they'd been attacked. The city was devastated. We sent a few aerial probes through to scout for any signs of remaining enemy forces then we organized a search party to look for survivors. That's how and when you were all found."

"Were we the only ones?" Kaegan asked.

Hammond nodded sadly. "It looks that way, yes. We still have a team scouring the remainder of the city but it looks as though everyone else was lost. How did the four of you manage to escape the enemy?"

The four in question stilled and Carlin looked toward Jonah. Jonah was regarding Hammond, something deeply pensive and almost relenting in his gaze, then he looked at Carlin and gave a small nod.

Then Hammond got the full story on these people, Carlin, Thera, Jonah, and Kaegan. Carlin told them about their work underground, their lives as little more than slave labor, the machines and the mining and eventually the discovery of a tel'tac embedded in the rock. The pieces started to fall into place as Carlin recounted his accidental activation of some kind of broadcasting device and the description of the attack that would follow. Hammond and Janet listened, attentive, as they were told about the foursome hiding out in the tel'tac for almost six days then their excursion out of the mines, to the surface, then prowling the city for signs of life. The part of the story about their discovery of the stargate heralded a strange shift of pace and Carlin cast a number of glances at Thera. His account began to gloss and rush to the end until their capture was barely mentioned along with Thera giving birth.

When the tale was told there was a moment of silence as everyone digested the story. Even those who'd lived it seemed to only then think about what they had endured.

When someone dared to speak it was Thera. She looked between Janet and Hammond and asked, "What are you going to do with us?"

Hammond wanted to go to her bedside and reassure her everything would be all right with a small touch and a smile, but this wasn't Sam, the woman he'd known when she was but a small child, it was Thera. She would not be comforted the way Sam would have been by Hammond's gesture, and Jonah would not have appreciated the effort.

"You're safe here," Hammond promised them. He glanced once at Janet, who looked a little tense, and he knew the doctor was aware of the next order of business as much as he.

Hammond looked back at the group and said, "What I have to tell you all will no doubt sound unusual, perhaps even unbelievable, but before I get into that I want to know what if anything any of you remember about your lives before the underground work camp."

Carlin, Jonah, and Thera frowned. Kaegan shook her head and said, "I grew up in the caves; I've worked there all my life."

Hammond gently considered the dark woman. In his focus to deal with his former team he'd almost dismissed the quiet woman who had returned with them. "Yes, ma'am, I'm sure for you that may be true, but right now I'm really asking Jonah, Thera, and Carlin."

Kaegan looked to Carlin but he had only a peculiar frown to offer.

Jonah was the first to answer, rather tersely, "I worked in the mines."

"Doing what exactly?"

Jonah's eyes narrowed as he gave the smart reply, "I mined."

"What did you do before that? Do you remember? Do any of you remember anything clearly from before just over a year ago?"

Jonah, Thera, and Carlin exchanged glances with one another, looks that grew increasingly uneasy as the seconds passed. Hammond could see he'd struck a cord and it gave him hope. Apparently the memory gap, whatever had stolen their lives as Jack, Sam, and Daniel, had not created elaborate pasts for them as well. It was one less obstacle to combat. Without fallacious long-term memories in place maybe convincing them they were really and truly home would be made easier.

Hammond checked once more with Janet then (when he got a very small nod from her) turned to the three non-strangers said, "I know what I'm going to say will be difficult to accept but please, hear me out and try to keep an open mind.

"You are on a planet called Earth in a top secret military facility known as the SGC, or Stargate Command. We use a device, the stargate or, as you called it," Hammond spared a glance at Carlin, "the 'Chappai', to travel to other planets. We have a number of four-man teams that explore other worlds with the primary mission mandate to create alliances with people all over the galaxy and attempt to obtain technology we can use to help us defend ourselves against and fight our common enemy, the Gould."

Carlin's eyes widened and he blurted, "That's what Babi was!" At everyone's look Carlin simmered but said determinedly, "Sorry. The god I read about in those texts from the tel'tac; he was one of them, a... a Goa'uld."

Hammond nodded. "That's very likely, everything you've described fits the typical behavior of a Gould.

"As I was saying, we have teams of individuals who go through the stargate on a regular basis on missions off-world. More than a year ago the SGC's flagship team, SG-1, went through the gate to a planet we know by the designation P3R-118. Our team disappeared. Search efforts turned up nothing and after a few months all members of SG-1 were declared missing in action and eventually presumed dead." Hammond looked at Jonah, Thera, and Carlin, each listening closely and seeming almost primed for a physical reaction, tensed and on-edge. Hammond would dance around the topic no longer. With a meaningful look at each former member of his premiere team Hammond said, "You three are part of that missing team."

Stunned silence descended over the infirmary. Hammond and Janet stood there waiting, scarcely daring to breathe while they watched for the others' reactions. Kaegan's eyes widened and she looked instantly at Carlin then at Jonah and Thera as though seeking some indication of the veracity or falsehood of Hammond's proclamation. The three friends were all motionless. They looked shell-shocked.

Finally movement.

Jonah looked slowly at Thera then stood deliberately from the bed.

Thera watched him, as though in a stupor, then she turned her eyes to Hammond. He'd never seen such uncertain trepidation in her face. "Are you saying," she began in a weak voice, "that we're... we're home? That Jonah, Carlin, and I are all one of you?"

Hammond nodded. "Your name is Samantha Carter and you're a major in the United States Air Force."

The name and title seemed to resonate and Thera swallowed and turned her eyes almost furtively to Jonah. She, perhaps unknowingly, held her baby closer.

Hammond directed his gaze at Jonah to find the man standing squarely facing him. There was unquestionably a fire of resistance and confrontation in his bearing. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, Air Force," Hammond stated simply, part greeting and part imparting information. There was no outward reaction, Jonah's face was schooled, but the steely set to his jaw and the tight skin around his eyes spoke volumes.

Next Hammond turned to name properly Carlin. "Doctor Daniel Jackson."

Carlin blinked with mouth agape.

Jonah turned his back on the group and Carlin sat down slowly next to Kaegan. Thera's eyes fell and her fingers spread to encompass more of the swaddled infant she held.

"I know how shocking and overwhelming this must seem," Janet said after taking in all three pale faces (Jonah's only partially as he half-turned his head toward her, allotting only a profile view). "None of you have to worry, we'll do all we can to help you."

"Help us what?" Jonah asked in an even, overly-controlled voice.

"To help you remember," Janet answered and the blank, unenthusiastic faces with which she was met made her mentally stagger to realize she had never once asked herself if they would even want to regain their memories. Surely they would, who would chose an empty past over identity, but right then she wasn't so certain. Jonah, Thera, and Carlin were quiet and contemplative, not overjoyed.

Maybe it was just the shock of hearing the news.

"General," Janet said as she turned to face the SGC commander standing at her side. "I think we should give them some space and some time to acclimate to the idea."

Hammond considered the stony expressions, guarded to a fault, and he had to agree. "Very well, Doctor." Hammond looked one last time at the former SG-1 and said, "When any of you have any questions feel free to have Doctor Fraiser contact me." With a nod Hammond left the infirmary and three very stunned former SGC employees.