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.


Chapter Four: Mirror, Mirror...

"The Asgard were able to get every Jaffa on the planet off in minutes." Samantha's joy and relief were evident. "Thor promised that they would help us rebuild and he's going to try to have Earth included in the Protected Planets Treaty."

"You gotta love those guys." Jack grinned.

"I take it that you won't be able to cover the attack up." Sam said, conscious of the fact that they had been very lucky in that respect when Apophis had attacked Earth in this reality.

The few astronomy enthusiasts who had spotted the motherships had been successfully fobbed off with an explanation about unusual meteor activity but she very much doubted that the billion people left dead and the billions of others enslaved in Samantha's reality could be explained away.

"No." Samantha grimaced. "General Hammond and the President are hoping that we'll be able to get away with keeping the Stargate a secret but I don't know if we will. We'll definitely have to come clean about the existence of the Goa'uld and Asgard at the very least."

"Tough break." Jack commiserated.

"I know." Samantha brightened. "At least while I'm here, I don't have to deal with the press conferences."

"Are you Carters any closer to figuring out how to turn the mirror back on?" Jack's tone was hopeful.

"No, sir." Sam responded, shaking her head. "None of my equipment has been able to pick up any kind of energy readings from it. It'll be a while before we can repair it."

"If we ever do." Samantha said.

"D'oh!" Jack quipped, dismayed by this news.

Although he could live with having an extra three Carters around, he didn't think that the universe was big enough for four Jack O'Neills.


Lunchtime

"Do you think that I have leprosy in General O'Neill's reality?"

"What?" Jack gaped at the younger man and even Teal'c looked slightly surprised.

"He can't stand to be anywhere near me." Daniel said unnecessarily. The general had been eating lunch with Jack and Teal'c when Daniel had joined them and had taken his own tray and moved away without a word the second the archaeologist had sat down. "I wonder what I… the other me… could have done to make him so mad."

"The Teal'cs of both General O'Neill's reality and that of Samantha O'Neill took part in Apophis' attacks on Earth. The Teal'c of Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill's world remains in the service of Apophis." Teal'c remarked, either not noticing Jack's reaction to the name 'Samantha O'Neill' or choosing to ignore it. "None of them have demonstrated dislike for me."

His words did not seem to be much comfort to Daniel.

What could the Daniel Jackson of General O'Neill's reality possibly have done that was so much worse than trying to destroy Earth?


"I guess superglue wouldn't do the trick, would it?" Major O'Neill observed, tapping the mirror lightly.

Colonel Carter rolled her eyes. "I doubt it."

"Duct tape?"

She unsuccessfully smothered a laugh as she shook her head. "Although if nothing else works, we may end up trying that."

"Sweet!"

Sam averted her eyes as the two briefly touched hands before Major O'Neill left the room. Like Teal'c, she had seen the gold wedding bands the pair wore but had convinced herself - or at least tried to convince herself - that it didn't mean anything, that they could very well have been married to different people, but after a few minutes of observing them, she knew that this was not the case.

Watching the colonel and Samantha kiss a few days ago had not disturbed her half as much as the jealousy she had felt when she saw them.

It seemed to take every ounce of willpower Sam possessed to keep herself from asking questions like how Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill had been able to find a way around the frat regs and from thinking things best left unthought about her CO. She had to force her attention back to the quantum mirror and to the realm of science, where things were infinitely less complicated.


Later

"What is your problem?"

"I beg your pardon, Colonel?" General O'Neill pointedly emphasized the other man's lower rank, but even his dark scowl was ineffective.

Few people could intimidate Colonel Jack O'Neill and he did not count himself - any version - among that number.

Though initially inclined to suspect that Daniel was exaggerating slightly, Jack had been convinced when he saw the glares General O'Neill had directed at the younger man when he had delivered a message from General Hammond.

If looks could kill, Daniel would have been zatted three times over.

"Granted, he's a bit annoying." Jack conceded. "Especially when he's talking about one of his wonderful archaeological finds, but he's a nice guy and he's saved my ass more than once. Whatever happened in your world, cut this world's Daniel some slack."

"He's still a part of your team." It wasn't a question.

"Yes he…"

"Get rid of him."

"Excuse me?" Jack stared at the other man, unable to believe what he was hearing, that someone who was, to all intents and purposes, him would want him to drive a friend from his team.

"You can't count on him." General O'Neill's voice was quieter now, his warning genuine. "Get him off your team now, while you still can, or a time will come when you'll wish that you had."


"The outer frame is definitely naquadah." Sam observed, running a finger over it. "I'm not certain about the surface of the mirror itself. It could be a type of metal we haven't seen before."

"Or it could be a way of processing naquadah that we haven't seen before." Dr Carter suggested.

"Good point." Sam nodded acknowledgement. She sighed. "If we could contact the Asgard, maybe they would know more but we can't get in touch."

"Why not?" Colonel Carter asked.

"The device to give the stargate extra power is still in my reality." Samantha said sheepishly. "Sorry."

"SG-3 couldn't access the Hall of Thor's Might on Cimmeria." Sam added. "It seems to have been designed to be accessed only once. There wasn't anything brought back from P3X-233 that could help us, it was mostly artifacts, Daniel said that they were from different cultures and planets, but there were no 'gate addresses."

"An instruction manual would have been nice." Colonel Carter quipped.

"If wishes were horses." Samantha quoted.

"Ladies?" A cheerful voice called from the doorway to the lab. Jonathan walked in, carrying a laden tray. I come bearing blue jello." He announced with a grin, passing out the desserts together with cups of coffee, taking a fifth cup for himself and sitting down next to his fiancée. "How goes it?"

"Not great." Dr Carter responded honestly. Like her counterparts she was all too aware of the fact that the forty-eight hour grace period that had passed between

Samantha's first arrival in this reality and the beginning of entropic cascade failure was almost up and that they were no closer to finding a way to turn the mirror back on and sending everybody home than they had been when they had started.

"You'll figure it out." His tone was confident. "Between the four of you, how could you not?"

"I tempted to take Jack's idea and try duct tape." Colonel Carter said testily, setting her notes aside to tackle the jello.

"Don't knock duct tape." Jonathan chided her seriously. "Half of my equipment would have fallen apart by now if it weren't for duct tape."

"He's not kidding." Dr Carter informed the other three women. "Be careful!" She called, seeing Jonathan prod the mirror. "There's no tetanus shot for naquadah."

"Do you think that we'll all get seven years of bad luck for breaking this?" He joked.

"Technically, Colonel O'Neill is the one who broke the mirror." Sam pointed out.

"Then it'll be his problem… crap!" Jonathan swore as a large shard of the mirror came loose in his hand. "Better get the duct tape." He flicked it with one fingernail and was rewarded with a resonant clang. He turned it over in his hand and a grin spread across his face. "I found the 'Made In China' sign." He showed the six symbols engraved on the back of the shard. "I wonder if we can get a refund…" He was abruptly cut off when Dr Carter pulled him towards her and planted a kiss on his lips.

"You're a genius!" Dr Carter's eyes were bright as she turned to her counterparts. "Maybe we don't necessarily need to fix the mirror. If we can go to the planet it came from, maybe somebody there will be able to help us."

"For all we know there's another mirror there." Colonel Carter suggested.

"It's a start." Jonathan said, before grinning widely and spreading his arms wide. "Any chance of another three kisses?"

"Not unless you want to spend our wedding night sleeping on the couch."

TBC.

Author's Note: Please don't forget to review.