Title: It's a Small World – And Getting Smaller
Author: Carhop
Email: G
Pairing: Hints of S/J
Archive: SJD, yes' Heliopolis, yes; others please ask.
Summary: SG-1 comes home to an SGC in which floors and people are disappearing, but no one notices except the members of SG-1.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/ Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.
Spoilers: At least season three, only because Sam is a major; Point of View, There But For the Grace of God
Status: Prequel to Dream World
Notes: Feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks to my beta readers Eleri, StarShadowHE and Zoe.
Part 1
SAM
As we walked down the ramp into a sparsely populated gate room I reflected, 'It's so good to be home again.' P5X-650 was not my favorite type of mission – no people, no artifacts, no interesting minerals or plants to study. Just the Colonel's favorite, and I quote, "Trees, trees and more trees." The self-same Colonel was just behind me and waited wearily to hand his P-90 to the armory specialist. We were all tired after trooping through miles and miles of trees, rocks and grass.
General Hammond greeted us from the control room, "Welcome home SG-1. Mission debriefing is scheduled for 1000 tomorrow. After you make it through medical screening, get some sleep. I'm sure you've earned it."
We looked at each other. 'Sleep, what a wonderful idea.' I could practically see the thoughts going through my teammates' minds. We toss a coin for the locker room. I lose, so I head off to the infirmary first. Twenty minutes later, the three guys take their turn being prodded and poked, x-rayed and scanned by Janet's nurses just as I'm released. "My turn for the showers. Night guys, sir." Yes!
JACK
Showered and changed, used as a pincushion and released, I headed for my quarters with the express idea of staring at the inside of my eyelids for as long as I could. This last mission was dreary, dull, boring, uninteresting, tedious and monotonous. Did I mention boring? Nothing but green, right next to more green. Even Daniel was bored and couldn't even find some way to hurt himself. At least Dr. Frasier will be happy about how this turned out.
'Speaking of Doc F., where was she tonight?. She always met every homecoming team, no matter what the hour. Oh, well. Maybe it means someone we know might have a life outside the SGC. Sweet.'
TEAL'C
As always, four hours of Kel'no'reem refreshed and reinvigorated me. I tried to use the remaining time until my teammates were to meet me for breakfast to write my mission report. It was a very short report and left me with two hours to go, so I changed into the clothing designated by Tau'ri fashion as appropriate for exercise.
Considering the hour, it wasn't surprising the halls were clear of personnel. A small night shift was on duty, though I saw only one person between my quarters and the gymnasium. After an adequate exercise period, I showered again and returned to my quarters to dress for breakfast. Although it was almost 0700, the halls were still empty and strangely quiet.
SAM
I woke fairly refreshed and ready for breakfast. 'Coffee, I need coffee. Daniel's obsession with the drink is rubbing off. Maybe I should try herbal tea instead? All I need is Janet giving me that look again that says I'm not taking care of myself.'
After a quick shower, I was better able to face the day. I hurried out of the locker room on the way to my office and ran smack into the Colonel hurrying to take his. Embarrassed, we both blurted apologies and ran the other way. Distracted, I didn't notice how quiet things were as I quick-timed it to my office. 'If I can get my mission report done before we meet, I can start working on that mineral analysis from P2J-292. Once that's done, I can go shopping for Cassie's birthday present,' I thought as I jogged through the halls. Why weren't there more hours in the day?
DANIEL
I stumbled my way to the cafeteria just in time to meet the rest of SG-1 for breakfast. As usual, they'd all beaten me there, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and something unidentifiable but sweet-looking to tide me over until I could drink more coffee. Making my way up to pay, there was only one cashier, instead of the normal two and I had to wait longer than usual. Looking around, I could see that the cafeteria was unusually empty. 'Strange, maybe something's going around and people are off sick.' When I got up to the cashier, Georgina, I asked, "How's Mark? I usually see him here on the early shift."
She looked at me like I had two heads. "Who's Mark? I always work this shift by myself." I figured I'd remembered his name wrong so I just mumbled an apology and walked away juggling my breakfast and the day's paperwork.
Joining my teammates, we went through the mission one final time, like we usually do before the debriefing. It was a remarkably short conversation, so I brought up how few people I'd seen and my strange encounter with the cashier.
SAM
As soon as Daniel mentioned it, I remembered how quiet the halls and locker room seemed without the normal morning bustle of teams coming and going or technicians opening up labs for the day; women getting ready, changing clothes, checking make-up, and chatting about their lives. "You're right Daniel, where is everyone? Several of my techs are usually here by now checking on experiments, and there's always someone in the locker rooms."
Teal'c added, "I too have noticed the lack of personnel. When I went to exercise early, no one else was using the equipment or in the halls."
"Hey, and where was the Doc last night? She's always around after a mission," the Colonel piped up.
We stared at each other and around the sparsely populated commissary in confusion. Finally, we put it down to Daniel's mystery illness and figured we'd find out at the debriefing.
JACK
'Thank goodness this was such a boring mission. No real mission report necessary. No injuries to explain, no rocks or pottery to list, no new potential allies to describe. Nada, nothing. Just trees.' I finished my report in record time and went to drop it off at the General's office. 'Boy is he ever in for a surprise. For the first time ever, I'm early.'
Expecting to see the General's aide, I found the outer office empty and bare of the personal objects Lt. Gregory normally had on his desk. The General, however, was in, so I saluted smartly and handed him the report with a smile. Okay, it was a smirk, but ya can't blame a guy. "Morning, sir. I thought I'd deliver this one personally, since Gregory doesn't seem to be in yet."
"Gregory?" questioned Hammond.
"Yeah, your aide, sir. He's not in yet."
"I don't have an aide, Colonel, and haven't since I left the Pentagon. You're not drinking on duty are you, son?" Hammond's expression was less than serious.
"No… sir. But I could have sworn…"
"Sworn what, Colonel?" The General was starting to look concerned.
I was really confused now, but it never paid to let the brass see you sweat, "Nothing, sir. See you at the debriefing at 1000 hours." 'Whoa, think I need to see my team. Now.'
DANIEL
There were tablets in my office from an SG-12 mission to decipher. So I went searching for Robert to see if he could take them for me, but his lab wasn't there on level 19. I searched up and down the halls and, somehow, it was gone. Snagging an airman passing by, I asked where Dr. Rothman's lab was moved to. Again, I got "the look."
"Dr. Jackson, there's no one named Rothman here. I've been here since the project started and have never heard of a Dr. Rothman."
"He's an archaeologist like me. Dark hair, glasses, perpetually stuffed up, whines a lot. I need him to translate these tablets for me."
"But you're the only archaeologist assigned to the SGC, Dr. Jackson." S he walked away shaking her head at the crazy geek. The very puzzled geek.
JACK
"Carter, tell me if I'm goin' crazy, but doesn't the General have an aide?" I stood outside the lovely Major's lab.
"Well, I'm not qualified to say if you're crazy or not, sir," she teased, grinning, "But Lt. Gregory is the General's aide and has been for a couple of years. Why?"
"I just dropped off my report and the outer office was empty, as in never used. And Hammond said he didn't have an aide and hadn't since coming here." I was relieved she knew about Gregory too. I thought I'd lost it for a few there.
"That's strange. I wonder why he'd say that."
Before I could scrape together an answer, Daniel burst into the lab and blurted out the story of his encounter with the airman down the hall. "Sam, could we be in an alternate universe? I know there wasn't a mirror on P5X-650, and we certainly didn't all touch anything at the same time, but this sure is getting less like our SGC all the time."
Just then, Teal'c entered and heard some of Daniel's story. "Something is, in fact, not as it should be. I just tried to go to the surface and found the elevators no longer go above level 16."
SAM
"What?" Colonel O'Neill shouted with his usual subtlety. "But there are lots more floors above this one. Eleven sub-floors and seven levels between those and this one. For cryin' out loud. What's goin' on here?"
"Sir, if I may… Teal'c did you see how far down the floors go? Is the Gateroom level still there?" Fortunately, Teal'c nodded and we all breathed easier. If it was gone, our escape route was gone with it. "Has anyone shown any signs of noticing that the limits of the SGC are changing?"
"No, MajorCarter. There were no signs of alarm and fewer people around than usual at this time of day. I do not believe a virus could be the cause of what we have observed."
"It's time for the debrief, kids. Let's see if we can figure out what's going on here." Colonel O'Neill was looking pensive.
"Colonel, shouldn't we inform the General about what we've seen?" Hammond was one of the constants in my world. We always told him when something was wrong.
He pondered for a few seconds. "Not just yet. I think somehow that whatever is happening includes him too."
I nodded my understanding, if not my agreement, and we all left to meet with General Hammond.
JACK
The debriefing was mercifully short due to the extreme lack of anything to report. General Hammond, whether he was our general or not, accepted our recommendation that P5X-650 wasn't worth any further consideration.
Thinking to discover something about what was going on, I asked, "Sir, is Dr. Frasier out sick? I expected to see her in the infirmary last night."
"Colonel, who is Dr. Frasier?" asked a suspicious General. "You know we don't have more than one physician at this facility. There aren't enough people working here to assign anyone besides Dr. Warner."
"But…" I started, unable to come up with a convincing lie to cover my gaff.
"Colonel O'Neill, I suggest you take yourself to see Dr. Warner regarding these imaginary people you keep asking about. He may not be a psychiatrist, but he can tell me what you're on. Dismissed."
'Great. Now he thinks I'm high.' Feeling more than a little embarrassed, I led my team to Daniel's lab where we arranged ourselves for a strategy session.
Carter offered, "Sir, may I suggest you and Teal'c do a little reconnaissance to see what the boundaries of the SGC are now? Perhaps Daniel and I can come up with a working hypothesis, do some tests. I have a few ideas that I'd like to work on."
We agreed to meet back in her lab in 90 minutes. Teal'c and I took off to see what was left of the SGC.
SAM
Theories flashed through my mind like lightning bolts, each discarded before it was fully formed. 'Foothold situation? NID dirty tricks? An alien device? Drug-induced hallucinations?'
"Sam, about my alternate universe question…" Daniel interposed. "Could this be an alternate reality? Could there be another way between realities besides the mirrors?"
"Well, it stands to reason that if there's one way between universes, there's more. What I'm more concerned with is why this one is shrinking, and why no one but us has noticed," I answered. "Plus, how fast is the facility contracting and how long do we have? Most importantly, can we escape through the Stargate?"
"Um, what happens when an AU isn't unique anymore?" asked Daniel.
The question startled me out of the mental track I was on. "Well, since the existence of alternate universes has only been confirmed recently and is secret from most physicists, there aren't too many well-developed theories about that. Some have suggested that infinite growth in the number of universes couldn't be sustained. I've speculated that, if one reality were to perfectly match another, they would have to somehow merge or one would overlay the other. Is that what you think is happening, Daniel?"
"If the duplicate universe were to be gradually erased or merged into the other, would the inhabitants realize what was happening?" He answered my question with one of his own.
"Excellent question. I have no idea, but we should do some tests of items. You've given me some ideas. Let's grab some things from this level and take them down to my lab."
Continued in Part 2