FIVE: THE MIRROR
Six minutes and forty seconds. Racing through the corridors of the SGC and risking a glance at her watch, she knew that if she didn't get to the secondary Gate controls, she was going to die. She had no idea if it would be slow or fast, but she knew she would die in the blast from the self-destruct mode if she wasn't out of the building in the next…six minutes and two seconds.
She swiped her access card, raced to the computer console and bent over the keyboard, typing rapidly to set co-ordinates and a timer for the Gate. She expertly locked out all the other computers controls. Only she controlled the Gate. She'd been hand-chosen as SG-1's tactician for a reason. She knew how to think on her feet, and how to execute a plan to keep the enemy guessing. She'd studied criminal psychology at college, and she knew how to get into the enemies heads. When they'd had the unique opportunity to befriend a Jaffa, she'd learnt an innumerable amount about them. She knew that they would blindly follow their gods, and that even though they could think as individuals, it was rare to find one who didn't follow their masters. She'd studied their culture extensively, and she was considered an expert on the mindset of both the Jaffa and the Goa'uld.
As for her plan of attack, it didn't hurt that Sam had taught her the backdoors, the security protocols, and probably a few other things that neither of them were supposed to know about the Gate. But Sam had been thorough in teaching her as soon as they'd realised that Ba'al was going to attack earth.
The main dialling computer was frozen. She'd programmed in familiar co-ordinates, the only planet she could think would actually help her in any way, seeing as the Alpha Site gate had been buried, just to be safe.
It had been Sam who had suggested this planet to her when everything had started. Sam had volunteered to be the one to stay behind, but it had been the astrophysicist that Ba'al's Jaffa had killed first. Sam had died in her arms, and extracted a promise that she would do everything in her power to survive. After Sam, it had been Daniel and Jack. She was the only member of SG-1 left. The survivors of Ba'al's initial attack had fled to the Alpha Site, and were burying the gate on their end for several days as a precautionary tactic.
Three minutes and four seconds. She was starting to forget why she'd volunteered to be the one to stay behind when the SGC had realised that Ba'al's mothership was paying them a visit. Then again, she had nothing left really. Sam, Daniel and Jack were dead. She was the sole surviving member of SG-1. She had no reason to fight for her life.
Except…she wouldn't allow a Goa'uld to get the better of her. Plus, Sam would have killed her if she allowed herself to give in to the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld were not to win. She double-checked her pocket to make sure the GDO was still there, its battery pack fully charged and ready to go. She had a sixteen-digit code running through her mind, the number drilled into her mind from the very beginning. It had been Sam's turn to choose the IDC for SG-1.
If the security cameras weren't lying, then the majority of Ba'al's Jaffa were stationed in the observation room above the Gate Room, trying to get the Stargate to dial out so they could escape the self-destruct. Gripping her zat tightly, she raced through the corridors. The Jaffa had done a cursory sweep of the base and found no signs of life whatsoever. They were confident that they were alone. Except, they were now panicking that they could not leave quickly enough.
The Gate was unguarded. She glanced at her watch. Seventy seconds. The blast doors began closing, hiding the gate room from the control room. Right on time. The two doors leading to the Gate Room began to close and she slipped through quietly, her P90 ready to attack anyone who managed to come through. The doors clicked shut, and she was alone. The first chevron engaged even as she heard the sounds of staff weapon blasts began shooting against the doors in an effort to get into the gate.
The doors would hold. She damn well hoped.
It would take forty-two seconds to dial and engage and for the vortex to settle into a stable wormhole. Which would leave her with five seconds to get through the Gate before the SGC imploded.
'Chevron seven…locked'
She couldn't help but hear the voice of the gate technician announcing the famous catchphrase even though it was only the voice in her head. She would miss hearing that. The event horizon settled back into the gate, the blue pool of the Stargate her only chance of survival.
"Self destruct in five seconds."
She raced up the mesh ramp and heard the doors to the room burst open, - "Four" - staff weapon blasts aiming directly at her.
"Three. Two."
A burst of white pain filled her, but instead of forcing her to the ground, she was shoved forward by the momentum of the staff blast, and she stumbled through the wormhole.
"One."
Ba'al and his forces were disintegrated in the explosion.
And on the other side of the galaxy, a wormhole disengaged, leaving a single figure laying awkwardly on the dusty floor, staring up at the empty Stargate in something akin to awe. She'd done it. Ba'al was destroyed. Earth was safe, and the SGC was no more. The Stargate on the Alpha Site would be dug up in two days. A throbbing ache in her lower thigh reminded her that she didn't have two days. She needed help. Now.
There was something that had made her choose this planet though. P3R-233. They'd explored this planet before, and they'd discovered something…incredible. This was her chance to see her friends again. Just once even. She knew the risks involved. Entropic cascade failure. It hurt like hell. But she was willing to risk it. She had nothing to live for anyway. It was worth the risk, and damn the consequences.
------------------------
"Unscheduled offworld activation," Sergeant Davis announced.
He heard the familiar trampling of footsteps coming up behind him, and he knew it was General Jack O'Neill and Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter behind him. The rest of SG-1 wasn't far behind.
"Receiving IDC," Davis said, glancing at the screen.
There were two teams offworld, both of which were scheduled to check in within the next hour. He was expecting the codes of either SG-7 or SG-14. What came up on screen was neither.
"It's…SG-1's new IDC sir," Davis said quietly.
O'Neill and Carter both stared at Davis in shock. Carter took the available seat beside Davis, staring at the IDC flashing on screen.
"SG-1? That code's only been active a week, who the hell coulda got their hands on it already?" O'Neill demanded.
"No idea sir," Davis replied.
O'Neill looked worried, but the new commander of the SGC had no choice. He nodded to the CO of SG-1 and gave the order to "open the iris."
Carter's hand slammed down on the iris control before the General had even managed to finish the sentence.
"Defence Team to the Gateroom," O'Neill announced over the PA.
Carter turned to stare at the General, even though logically she knew he was right to be cautious. But she definitely loved a mysterious challenge, and this may well be both.
The iris twisted open as the security team came to stand in flanking positions around the gate. And for several endless seconds, the personnel in the observation deck could only watch with baited breath until finally the event horizon shimmered, and a figure stepped through.
Although, stumbled through would have been more correct.
As the wormhole disengaged, the wounded traveller crumpled to the ground, and Carter was could only stare in wide-eyed shock. She'd been expecting to see an alternate version of any of the original four SG-1 team-members. Only this time, she recognised the petite figure of her best friend. Her dead best friend.
"Medical Team to the Gate Room," O'Neill paged, before quickly racing down to the gate for himself.
Sam knelt beside the collapsed woman, gently turning her onto her back. With trembling fingers, Sam checked her pulse, almost sobbing in relief as she found a slow, but steady beat beneath her fingers. Her mind was already racing with the possibilities of how this could have happened. Solar flares could create time fluctuations, so this could have been a Janet from the past. The quantum mirror had been returned to P3R-233 after the incident with the alternate Samantha Carter and Charles Kawalsky. It was safer to house the mirror in the abandoned facility, rather than to risk the security of ether the base, or Area 51.
Sam couldn't help but glance at the team patch on the woman's shoulder. SG-1. She was dressed in familiar green BDU pants and jacket, a tight black shirt and a black tac-vest, and looking smaller than Sam Carter had ever seen her friend. The wound on the back of her leg looked horrible, and Sam knew that it would only be with a lot of time that she would be healed properly.
Jack O'Neill could only stare in something akin to awe as he realised that it had indeed been Janet Fraiser who'd just stepped through the gate. He had no idea how this was possible, but with the strange occurrences that seemed to happen daily within the SGC, he really shouldn't have been shocked by now.
He knelt beside the unconscious woman and carefully lifted the dogtags that rested limply to the side.
Apparently things could get stranger.
"Lieutenant Colonel Janet E. Fraiser," he read. "No mention of her being a doctor."
Sam tore off the patch that was velcroed to Janet's shoulder, passing it to the General who looked at it in surprise.
"She was on SG-1, sir," Sam murmured in shock.
As the General and the Colonel were shoved aside by the medical team, the question that had been hounding the base for the last month was close to being answered.
"I think you've just got your fourth member for SG-1, Carter."
With any luck this one wasn't too confusing. It was late when I tried to change my original fic to fit a shorter one-shot, so I don't know if it translated too well. Hopefully it did. Enjoy, and much thanks for all your feedback on the other fics!
Toodles.
DKG.