FOUR: MOEBIUS
(Set in Season Eight's Moebius. Obviously)
Colonel Jack O'Neill was trained for a good many things. His team had been handpicked by the best of the best, and he'd been given a combat-trained medical doctor who knew her way around all sorts of situations. The only problem was how on earth he was meant to give any sort of aid to a woman who was bleeding internally, and was the only medical doctor who'd have the faintest idea what to do. It didn't help that they were stuck in the year 5000 BC. Any chance of medical help was out of the question, and Colonel O'Neill did not want to watch this woman die.
"How's she doing?" Jack asked softly, looking at the other woman who'd been assigned to his team. Regardless of the fact that Doctor Samantha Carter wasn't military, he couldn't deny that he respected her. She'd pulled her weight and had managed to explain astrophysics to him in a way that he'd almost been able to understand.
"It doesn't look good," Sam Carter replied, tears in her eyes.
Jack sighed, glancing at the petite doctor who lay on a bed made of animal skins and sand. Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Janet Fraiser had been handpicked by Brigadier General George Hammond to join the mission to Chulak. Hammond had insisted that Doctor Fraiser was the most competent Doctor he'd ever met, and Jack completely agreed with him there.
Doctor Fraiser's current condition had arisen mainly because of the fact that she was so damned good at what she did. An outbreak of a virus throughout the camp that they'd been staying in had spurred the good doctor into action, despite the rest of the team's hesitation to help. They knew that messing with the timeline could have consequences for their future selves. The grandfather paradox was tricky and the slightest change could create havoc.
Fraiser had valiantly argued that perhaps not doing anything could change the timeline, and they'd be condemning themselves anyway. In the end, O'Neill hadn't been able to stop Fraiser from administering a supply of drugs to some of the locals, mostly treating the sick children that had been brought to them when their parents had learned that the outsiders had a cure.
Of course, the miracle cure had been heard of by the Goa'uld posing as Ra, the Sun God. Fraiser had been dragged before Ra, and when Ra had realised that she was not a local, he'd beaten her nearly to death before throwing her out of his pyramid, and leaving her to the elements.
The locals couldn't allow their saviour to die in such a fashion, and they'd brought her back to the encampment. Except the only person with the skills to save her was the very woman who lay dying.
"Jack," Doctor Daniel Jackson said softly, interrupting the Colonel's musing. "A word?"
Jack nodded, stepping out of the tent to listen to the archaeologist. It was strange to have met the same person twice, and to see two very different versions of them. The Daniel in front of him was a calm and collected man who was incredibly intelligent, and a strong strategist. The first Daniel that Jack had met had been a bumbling klutz with very little self-esteem, and a tendency to ramble when nervous. O'Neill had to admit that the future seemed to be worth saving if what this Daniel Jackson had told him.
"What's up?" Jack asked.
"I think you should use the time machine," Daniel said, not even bothering to try and smooth his way into the conversation. "Take Janet back to the future. It's the only chance she's got if you want her to live."
It was only Jack's military training that kept the Colonel's jaw from dropping.
"Woah, you and Carter both said that if we went back…or, actually, forward…in time, we'd already be there, and we'd mess everything up," Jack argued.
"Yes, we did," Daniel agreed. "Except there's something I didn't tell you guys. If I'm right, and we manage to get Ra to leave, without him taking the gate this time, then my timeline will be completely restored."
"Right…" Jack hedged.
"Right, so if my timeline is fixed…then Janet won't be alive after 2004," Daniel explained.
Jack's eyebrows furrowed in consternation. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that Janet was killed in action in 2004. And if you want her to live, then she needs proper medical attention. If we use the time machine to send her forward to any point in 2005, she'd have a very real chance at surviving," Daniel explained.
"Except that wouldn't be her timeline," Jack said, trying to keep the physics of this straight. "It would be yours."
"Exactly. I'm not saying that she could fill the role that she played in my timeline or anything, but…it's a way to save her," Daniel said.
Jack nodded, staring hard at the flaps covering the tent that housed the dying doctor. He couldn't just let her die. They'd spent the last five months living out of each other's pockets, and he respected the woman too much to let her die when there was another way out of this.
"Help me move her."
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Deep underground in Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter's lab, four people were crowded around several of the retrieved artefacts that had been recovered from the 1928 dig at Giza. Doctor Catherine Langford had left them to Daniel upon her death, and SG-1 along with General O'Neill had found some amazing items. The most peculiar thing found at the dig had been a stasis jar that had contained a camcorder tape, which was compatible with one of the newly released cameras out on the market. Carter had set up a link from the camera to a video monitor, and the team was crowded around the small television set, watching their own faces in fascination.
"Uh, Jack, you should say something here," the on-screen Daniel said, moving over so that the General could fit onto frame.
"Um, college football is played on Saturdays;
pro on Sundays; and there are no fish in my pond…at all…where I fish. Uh, I think that covers it for
me," the General said, looking towards the other two.
The tape went black, and Sam went to turn the television off. Except the screen flickered back to life, and the group watched in fascination as an uncharacteristically emotional O'Neill stepped into frame.
"My name is Colonel Jack O'Neill," the man said.
The group exchanged confused glances. A moment ago, it had been their own group, but this man was not the same as the one who'd already filmed his own message.
"A month ago, Brigadier General George Hammond sent me and a group of eight others on a mission to Chulak to convince an alien named Teal'c that he needed to betray his God and join forces with us. The only surviving team members are Doctor Samantha Carter, Teal'c, and Lieutenant Colonel Janet Fraiser."
SG-1 froze, and Sam found herself leaning towards the screen.
"Doctor Jackson, from a different timeline, assures me that we made the right choice. I've just returned from a trip to the future. Doctor Fraiser was dying. She was bleeding internally, and there was nothing that any of us could do for her. Doctor Jackson informed me that in his own timeline, and hopefully the same people who are watching this now, have a gap in their medical personnel. The date I have just returned from is September twelfth, 2005. Doctor Fraiser was admitted to a the Cairo hospital in Egypt with no identification, at 0830. So…Jack O'Neill, if you're watching this…she could really use a friend right about now."
The tape clicked off, and Sam was already on her feet.
"Sir?"
"September twelfth…that's tomorrow," Daniel said.
"Well…any bets on how fast we can get to Egypt?" Jack asked.
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It was a harried group that raced down the corridors of the Egyptian hospital, Daniel rapidly yelling sorry in Arabic as they bumped into people who tried valiantly to get out of their path. They pulled to a stop outside the Emergency Room admittance and Daniel swiftly questioned the desk clerk for any and all information on a woman who'd been admitted with no id and internal bleeding.
Their cover story was full of holes, but none of the team particularly cared about that at the moment. The woman they were caring for was a USAF officer who'd been taken prisoner in Iraq, and they'd heard that she was being flown to Egypt after the demands for her release had been met. Thankfully, the clerk asked very few questions, and within ten hours, Doctor Janet Fraiser was being cared for by the best medical personnel that the SGC had, and was being flown back to the United States.
Regardless of the fact that this wasn't their Doc Fraiser, none of them would even consider the possibility of not bringing her home and doing everything they possibly could to help her.
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A groggy Janet Fraiser opened her eyes, squinting painfully as her eyes adjusted to the overhead light. She shifted slightly, waking the sleeping Colonel who sat at her bedside.
"He-ey Sam," Janet whispered, her tired mind not quite processing her surroundings too well. "What happened?"
Sam felt tears prick her eyes at the familiar greeting. "We were hoping you could tell us," Sam replied. "You're in the infirmary at the SGC. The Stargate Command."
Janet's eyes widened as she suddenly realised that this was not where she'd last been.
"What year is it?" she asked, trying, and failing to sit up in her bed.
Sam gently eased the petite doctor into a sitting position, adjusting the pillows behind Janet to aid her in staying upright.
"It's 2005. And according to the tape we found, you, Colonel O'Neill, and Doctor Carter were the only surviving members of an expedition team that was sent through the gate," Sam said.
Janet nodded uncertainly. "So…you're not the Sam I met. You're Air Force for one thing. Helluva lot more confident for the other."
Sam chuckled a little and nodded.
"Colonel O'Neill said that they sent you forward because you were badly injured. Another few hours and you would have died," Sam explained.
"But…Sam and Daniel always said that we couldn't come back home. It's not our timeline, our future selves would exist here already," Janet said.
"Yeah, that's true. Or it's true for the Colonel, Daniel, Teal'c and I," Sam said. "From what little we got from the tape, Daniel's from a different timeline than you are. From my original timeline, really. Which means he knew that if things were changed back to how they should be…then our Doctor Fraiser was killed in action a little under a year ago."
Janet's eyes widened momentarily, uncertain how to take the news of the death of oneself.
"Oh, and completely off the record…when General O'Neill offers you a position on our medical staff, please don't say 'no' just because you'd feel uncomfortable staying in a place where your uh…alternate self, was killed. You're a damn fine doctor, Doctor. And I for one can't wait to get to know you."
That's all I've got for now. Knowing my slight obsession with Janet, I'm sure to think of a few more. Enjoy and please review!
Toodles.
DKG.