Disclaimer: 'Stargate SG1' and all the characters associated with the show belong to someone who isn't me. As I doubt that the owners would be willing to trade their rights for some magic beans that aren't in any way magical, this is not going to change at any point in the foreseeable future.

Author's Note: Including the original duo, the Sams and Jacks of five different realities will be playing a part in this story. To avoid future confusion, the various Jacks and Sams are listed below, together with the name I will be referring to the character by.

1) Colonel Jack O'Neill - 'Jack'
Major Samantha Carter - 'Sam'

2) Doctor Samantha Carter-O'Neill (from 'Point of View') - 'Samantha'

3) Major Jack O'Neill - 'Major O'Neill'
Colonel Samantha Carter - 'Colonel Carter'

4) General Jack O'Neill - 'General O'Neill'

5) Doctor Jonathan O'Neill - 'Jonathan'
Doctor Samantha Carter - 'Dr Carter'

I don't know whether or not the alternate Sam who appeared in 'Point of View' used a hyphenated surname or not, but since I want to be able to distinguish her from the other Dr Carter, she does as of now.


Chapter Three: Rings

"I've spoken with the president." As his office was too small to comfortably accommodate all six of the new arrivals, Hammond had summoned them to the briefing room once he had hung up the red phone. He nodded towards Samantha. "You were already cleared, Doctor, and there should be no difficulty arranging the same clearance for the rest of you until we can send you back to your own worlds. Until then guest quarters have been prepared and I'm sure that Dr Jackson will be happy to help you in any way he can."

Once the general had dismissed them, Daniel led the group to the elevator, offering a shy smile as the numbers clocked down.

The previous week had been strange enough, between the alternate Kawalsky and Samantha, but that had been positively normal next to chaperoning half a dozen people who were both very familiar yet at the same time complete strangers.

"I guess you all know your way around pretty well already; I mean, the base is more or less the same in everybody's reality, right?" Daniel chattered awkwardly as he exited the elevator and, with a quick glance to make sure that he hadn't lost anybody, led them through the corridors to the quarters assigned to them.

"Major Carter's lab is on the nineteenth floor here." Dr Carter volunteered. "Ours is on the twenty-first."

"We started off on the nineteenth, though." Jonathan reminded her. "But we needed more space to work on both our projects."

"Your rooms are just here." Daniel stopped outside the first door, checking the list of rooms. "Samantha, you're in here. Dr O'Neill is opposite and Dr Carter..."

"We just need one room, thanks." Jonathan cut him off, grinning impishly.

Daniel caught a brief flash of something sparkly as Dr Carter swatted Jonathan lightly. He supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised, after all, the Sam and Jack of the reality he had unintentionally visited had been engaged too, and Samantha had been married to the O'Neill of her reality.

Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill did not say anything about how many rooms they would need, they both simply headed into the room Daniel had indicated for Colonel Carter.

"Uh, that just leaves you, General." Daniel addressed the last of the group. He opened the door to the room assigned to the other man. "Your quarters are here. If you need anything..."

"I don't need anything from you." General O'Neill marched into the room, closing the door and leaving a puzzled Daniel in his wake.

'I wonder what his problem is.'


The next morning

As the old adage went, two heads were better than one. Four heads were better still.

"The monitors in the lab registered a huge spike of energy when Colonel O'Neill hit the mirror, it only last a second or two, then the mirror went dead." Sam explained to the other three Carters.

"Breaking the mirror must have caused some kind of overload." Dr Carter caught on to her train of thought. "And that overload created a tear between the realties that brought us all here. Who knows how many of us would be here if it hadn't shut off so quickly."

"If you and O'Neill were the ones closest to the mirror when it was broken, that's probably why only different versions of you... us came through." Colonel Carter theorized.

"I wonder if there was any particular reason our four realities were the ones drawn through the mirror." Samantha mused. "Were either of you near the mirror physically before coming through?" Dr Carter and Colonel Carter shook their heads. "It must have been random, then. Our worlds are all pretty different."

"Tell me about it." Sam grumped. "All of you were able to figure out how to use the stargate. I couldn't."

"You would have." Samantha told her confidently. "I figured it out six days after your Daniel did."

"Jonathan was the one who spotted that the symbols were constellations." Dr Carter chipped in. "It would have taken me forever otherwise."

"And you're the only one to have built a working naquadah generator." Colonel Carter added.

"True." Sam assented, cheered by this. She made a mental note to ask General Hammond for permission to provide her other selves with details of her research if they found a way to send them back to their own realities.

'When.' She reminded herself sternly. 'Not if, when.'

It hadn't taken her and Samantha long to rebuild Colonel O'Neill's Asgard power core. Between the four of them, they'd figure out something.


"Engaged engaged?" Jack regarded Daniel with some skepticism. He, Daniel and Teal'c had congregated at SG-1's usual table for breakfast. Sam had been closeted in her lab with the other Carters since early in the morning and he had been unable to pry her away for breakfast.

In retrospect, he was glad that she wasn't present for Daniel's conversation topic of choice.

"That's what I said." Daniel told him patiently, finishing his second cup of coffee before polishing off the last few bites of his waffles. "Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill are together too."

"Now I know you're pulling my leg."

"Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill are indeed involved, O'Neill." Teal'c told him in a tone that left no room for argument. "They both wear the gold rings of a Tauri married couple."

"I didn't spot that." Daniel said, impressed by his friend's powers of observation. "Wow." He looked thoughtful. "That makes four realities. Do you think the universe is trying to tell us something?"

"Drop it, Daniel." Jack's tone was sharper than he had intended.

Some things were better off not discussed and this was one of them.

TBC.

Author's Note: Don't forget to review. As a matter of curiosity, does anybody have a favourite among the alternates or one that they'd like to see more of?