It was a regularly scheduled activation and the proper code had been transmitted. The guards on duty in the gateroom did not have their rifles at ready and, truth be told, weren't paying real attention except for one extremely nervous young soldier. He was new to the Mountain and this was the first time he had drawn this duty. He wasn't feeling very well and had heavily self-medicated. He felt more than a little woozy even with all that, or perhaps because of it. He simply did not want to have to stand down from this first opportunity to see the gate in action. In some secret corner of his heart, he was afraid the whole fantastical gate to the stars thing was a colossal joke on him along the lines of "See what we can get that dope Jones to believe." However, as the liquid silver of the event horizon formed inside the gate, he began to wish he had reported in sick. Just the previous week, SG-9 had literally rolled through the gate struggling with a superior mass of very nasty and wild tribesmen. In addition to the wounded on SG-9 itself, one of the soldiers in the gateroom detail had suffered a nasty knife wound.
At the precise moment the man and woman stepped onto the ramp, Jones was the only one looking directly at them. They were not in uniform—clearly not SG-14. They appeared fit and dangerous to him, in their black leather jackets, their eyes hidden by dark glasses. The imposing young man was actually dressed completely in black leather. All this black leather triggered some long conditioned response about black leather clothes equaling bikers and other dangerous people. He gasped out loud and was immediately embarrassed by this visible nervousness. He only had one brief second to think about that embarrassment because the young man reached around behind him and Jones just knew he was drawing a gun. While the other members of the detail were coming to attention and the sergeant was rapping out a request for the newcomers to identify themselves, Jones whipped his rifle up and fired. His target moved at that precise moment and that, coupled with an imperfect aim, resulted in the shot hitting the woman, not the man.
As she fell, two children emerged from the event horizon, stumbling over her prone body. "Mamma, mamma," the little girl cried out and stopped in her tracks.
Her slightly older brother, perhaps 7 or 8, said, "Jake, what's going on? What happened to Mama?" as he scrambled to her side. Jones had been grabbed and disarmed by three other soldiers while the rest kept their rifles trained on the family in disarray on the ramp. He could only watch in horror as events unfolded.
Two more people came through the gate and immediately bumped into those already there. The newest arrivals, a teen-aged girl and man in dark glasses and a cap, both cried out, the girl saying, "Oh my God, Mamma," and the man crying out in anguish, "Mandy, darling," as he dropped to her side, his head bowed over her.
The young man in black leather they were calling Jake was standing with his hands raised, stiff and angry, like an attack dog that wants to go for your throat, but is being held back by some thin restraint of training. Jones could now see he was little more than a teen for all his size and attitude. "Jake what's happened to her?" the older man asked.
She moaned, coughed, and said, weakly, "Danny, Danny." The man who Jones assumed was Danny tenderly removed her dark glasses and she caught his hand.
The sergeant studying the face of the woman lying on the ramp said, "You shot Colonel Carter." He turned to one of his men. "Get the medics in here."
The man on the ramp looked up at the sound of the Sergeant's voice. "What the hell is going on here? When did the SGC start shooting its own people? Where's General Hammond?"
The sergeant had moved a few steps closer with recognition dawning on his face. "I'm really sorry Dr. Jackson. This is terrible. The medics are on the way. Sir, I have to ask, who are all these people and what happened to SG-14? They were the ones whose code was transmitted."
"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Sergeant." Jackson stopped and looked around, really looked around, while the Sergeant really looked at him. They both became alarmed. "I don't know who you are," the Sergeant spoke first. "You aren't really Daniel Jackson are you?" As the woman's baseball cap slid off and long blonde hair cascaded out, he added, "And she isn't Colonel Carter."
The young soldier had never seen Colonel Carter before, but Dr. Jackson had been pointed out to him in the cafeteria a couple of days ago. This man wasn't wearing glasses and had longer hair. There was a old scar, thin and white through an eyebrow.
"I most certainly am Daniel Jackson and my wife is Samantha Carter but she has never been in the military," the man on the ramp said, "and this isn't the SGC."
The medics had arrived and efficiently lifted the wounded woman to a gurney. She never let go of the man's hand.
"I don't know what's going on, but you are going to have to come with me," the Sergeant said when the man and the rest of the family started to accompany the woman to the infirmary.
"You just SHOT my wife for no reason and you want to separate her from her husband and children at a time like this?" the man was livid. "I don't think so."
The Sergeant bit his lip. He looked up as another squad came pelting into the gateroom, sent by the observers up in the control room. He handed the gateroom duty over to them and signaled his squad to accompany the party going to the infirmary. All, that is, except Private Jones, and two soldiers who escorted him to the brig. He never saw the gate again.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
SG-1 came down the ramp to find a very wary squad on guard duty. The rifles remained pointed in their direction even after the soldiers had plenty of time to recognize them. "Sergeant Martin," Mitchell called out. "What's up? It's just us."
"Can you prove that?"
"Excuse me?" Mitchell said.
"Last week I ran into you outside the cafeteria and we spoke for a couple of minutes. Do you remember what the topic of conversation was?"
"You ARE serious. I hope we're not going to have to start telling you about how various baseball teams are doing this year, like the sentries made them do in World War II. I don't think there's one of us who's been planetside enough this season to follow the sport." It was apparent the Sergeant was getting impatient. Mitchell lifted a hand in surrender and said, "It was something to do with Girl Scout cookies. You said you had a sign up thing on your locker and asked me if I wanted any."
"Bingo," Martin said. "And you are sure that this is really Teal'c, Colonel Carter, and Dr. Jackson?"
"Yes," he said without hesitation.
"What the deuce is this about?" Sam asked.
"A Dr. Jackson and a Samantha Carter came through the gate with four children who are apparently theirs earlier this afternoon and some trigger happy kid shot the other Carter. She's in the infirmary in very critical condition. The rest of them are all down there with her."
Without any more conversation SG-1 immediately took off at a rapid clip for the infirmary. "Even if she hadn't been wounded, the effect of coexisting with me should be starting to affect her soon," Sam said.
Daniel spoke for the first time. "So you are assuming this is an alternate universe thing instead of clones or shape shifters or something?"
She blew out a long breath. "You're right. There are other possibilities."
Daniel added, "As further evidence against the alternate universe theory, remember in every single alternate universe we've been to, you're with Jack and not me.
Teal'c said, "Indeed." The inflection was so strange that Sam found herself thinking that there was some coded content to his comment, particularly when she noticed a quick exchange of glances between the two men.
The entrance to the infirmary was marked by a knot of armed personnel. They moved through them to emerge into the outer room of the infirmary. A man was sitting with his head down and his arms around a little girl around 6 and a little boy a couple of years older. Two teenagers, a girl with long blonde hair and a boy, almost a man, were sitting stony faced on either side of the younger children and glaring at General Landry out of blue eyes just like their father's.
"I know this is a difficult time for you, but we need to get a handle on what's going on. If you are from an alternate universe, you and your wife are going to start experiencing serious problems shortly," Landry was saying. He sounded impatient and Sam thought alternate Daniel had been difficult in some way.
Mitchell and Teal'c were slightly ahead of Sam and Daniel. Two soldiers were between Daniel and Sam and the little group in front of Landry. The little girl looked up and her eyes got wide. She jumped down off the chair and barreled at Mitchell, squealing, "Uncle Cam, Uncle Cam." She threw herself at him and he was compelled to scoop her up to keep them both from winding up on the floor. "Uncle Cam, it's terrible. These bad men shot Mamma."
Alternate Daniel looked up and saw Mitchell. An expression of relief immediately showed on his face. "Thank God," he said and smiled warmly. "Yours is the first familiar face I've seen in this place. They tell me Janet's dead. That's a world of hurt for all of us. I'm sorry man." Sam was struck by the fact that this Daniel had a Southern accent so close to Mitchell's that she couldn't tell the difference. He also didn't act like he knew Teal'c.
Teal'c said, "Is the evidence indicating an alternate reality?"
"I've allowed myself and my children to be poked and prodded sufficiently for them to establish that we are not androids or clones or shapeshifters," alternate Daniel said. "I'm very aware of the temporal distortion to which you refer. I figure we have about a day, correct, before it starts to be lethal?"
Daniel and Sam stepped forward into full view. The children stared. Alternate Daniel looked taken aback and then immediately fascinated. "Hey," he said and then "Wow. I've met myself in about five other alternate realities but it just never gets old."
Landry started to speak and alternate Daniel lifted a hand. "We used a quantum mirror on those occasions. Today we merely went through the gate as we have hundreds of times before. My family and I were coming back from our home at the Alpha site on Abydos to attend Mandy's brother's wedding, take in a couple of soccer games, and let the kids have a chance to see their grandparents and the rest of the family back in North Carolina." His face cleared. "There you go. Either you've got the quantum mirror or I can show you where to find it. As soon as Mandy's condition stabilizes, I can just use it to locate our reality and we go home."
Landry started to answer but Sam interrupted without thinking, "My parents are still alive in your reality?"
He looked at sympathetically. "No, I'm sorry. Mary and Jacob died before I met you." He stopped abruptly, chagrined. "I meant before I met Mandy. You are clearly not her. In any case, I'm talking about my mother and stepfather."
Landry cleared his throat. "Sorry, sir," Sam apologized quickly.
"I'm afraid there are problems with the mirror." Sam imagined Landry was thinking that this was classified information and he didn't trust the man in front of him.
"And you don't trust me enough to tell me about them," alternate Daniel finished.
"Let's just say, it's not available at the moment to address this problem."
"Cam," alternate Daniel said, "can you help out here?" He took in the expression on Cam's face and threw up his hands. "That's right. You're not our Cameron Mitchell. Speaking of which, why don't you put my daughter down."
Cam complied and alternate Daniel said something to the little girl in another language. She looked upset and he repeated it again more forcefully.
"What was that?" Mitchell asked.
In a low voiced aside, Daniel said, "Egyptian the way it's spoken on Abydos. He's warning her that you aren't really her Uncle Cam and reminding her to be careful of strange men." Alternate Daniel wasn't paying attention to the conversation any more, his attention focused on Carolyn Lam as she emerged from the operating theater.
She looked at the tense family and said, very sadly, "We've done all we can, but we can't," she sighed and faltered. She'd told Sam once that telling people that the ones that they cared about weren't going to make it was the hardest part of her job. "We can't save her. She has very little time left. You need to say your good-byes." Sam felt a vise grab her insides. She had not even seen the woman so the fact that she was a version of herself was not real to her the way the duplication of Daniels was to Daniel standing beside her but it was still like hearing a death sentence for herself.
There were tears rolling down alternate Daniel's cheeks and the rest of the family except for Jake began to sob. Jake looked like he wanted to kill someone. His father dashed the tears away and said, very quietly, "We have to do this for your mother and we have to do it right. We want her to take the right memory of the last time she saw our faces to where she is going next." He looked at each of his children in turn, starting with the older two. "All right Jake? All right Mary Clare?" He leaned over to get more on a level with youngest. "All right Mitch? All right Catherine?"
The boy stopped crying, put his arm around his little sister, and said, "Come on Catherine. We can do it. She's going to go be with Jesus and the angels like Grandpa Mel and Grandpa Jacob, just like Miss Alice always says."
Alternate Daniel picked Catherine up and clapped a hand on Jake's shoulder, propelling him forward. Mary Clare took Mitch's hand and they went into the other room. Sam turned to General Landry. "Is there really a problem with the mirror? If we can't get that man back to where he belongs soon before temporal distortion gets serious, those kids are going to be orphans."