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 Seven: Questions and Answers

The next morning

"Rise and shine!" Major O'Neill called cheerfully as he pushed back the flap of the tent Jack and Daniel were sharing.

Jack pushed himself into a sitting position, blinking away any trace of sleepiness as he reached for his boots and put them on. "I'll rise, but I refuse to make any promises about shining."

"Fair enough." His counterpart agreed. "Dr Jackson?"

Daniel, who was definitely not a morning person, groaned, burying himself in his sleeping bag, seemingly determined to ignore the concept of 'morning'.

"Come on, Danny-boy." Jack poked the swaddled figure, none too gently. "Up and at 'em. There's probably coffee."

His friend poked his head out of his sleeping bag. "Coffee?" His nose twitched slightly, as though to sniff it out.

"Are you part bloodhound or something?" Jack asked, amused by the other man's all but legendary caffeine addiction.

"Everybody else is already up." Major O'Neill reported, a mischievous expression in his eyes that anybody acquainted with this universe's Jack O'Neill would have recognized instantly. "The general already has his coffee and Dr O'Neill is practically inhaling the stuff. As for the ladies…" He grinned. "Well, I know how much coffee my Sam can put away so between the four of them…"

Before he could finish, Daniel scrambled out of his sleeping bag and tore out of the tent, tugging one boot on and carrying the other, his glasses crooked.

Major O'Neill watched him leave, amused. "I wonder what they'd all do if we run out of coffee."

Jack glared at him. "Don't even joke about that."


"It won't be much longer." Sam said encouragingly, reaching out a hand to help Dr Carter when she stumbled. "The settlement the UAV picked up is only another five or six kilometers ahead. "We'll be there before lunch."

"The people here must be incredibly advanced if they were able to build something like the quantum mirror." Dr Carter said, cheering up at the prospect of discovering new alien technology. "Who knows what else they have."

"Remember that we want to get back to our own universe." Jonathan teased. "We do want to get back, right?"

"I know." Dr Carter looked slightly wistful. "But it won't hurt if we spend a little more time here now that entropic cascade failure isn't on the cards."

"As long as we're back in time for the wedding - it's in nearly three weeks, at the end of the month." Jonathan elaborated for Sam before giving a mock shudder. "And Jacob will castrate me if I'm late."

"He will not!"

"He said that he would - with a rusty knife!"

Sam suppressed a laugh. The threat sounded suspiciously like the ones her father had made her boyfriends when she was a teenager. She suspected that Mark had made similar threats but she had never been able to prove it.

"What about you and your O'Neill?" Dr Carter asked curiously. "Is there anything…"

"No." Sam cut her off hastily, feeling her cheeks grow warm. She looked around them, praying that none of her teammates - one in particular - had overheard.

"Why not?" Jonathan sounded slightly offended, as though this reflected badly on him. "We're pretty okay looking, aren't we? And we're smart and funny - tell her that we're funny." He demanded of his fiancée.

"They're funny."

"Colonel O'Neill is my commanding officer. Our relationship is strictly professional. There is nothing going on between us."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

"Be nice." Dr Carter admonished mildly.

"It's against regulations." Sam said, hoping against hope that this would end the uncomfortable conversation.

No such luck.

Jonathan simply pointed at Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill, who were walking a short distance ahead with Jack and Daniel. "That doesn't seem to be a problem for them."


"Major O'Neill?"

Hearing his name, the major turned to Daniel, who had spoken. "What's up?"

"You guys are married, right?" He nodded towards Colonel Carter, ignoring Jack's warning glare.

"We are."

"Almost five months now." Colonel Carter supplemented.

"Don't the frat regs exist in your world?" Jack demanded before he could stop himself.

"They do." Major O'Neill told him.

"Then how…"

"We were granted an exemption." Colonel Carter explained.

"After we stopped Apophis' attack and saved Earth. It was Air Medals all around for the whole team, another promotion for our lovely commander and President Kinsey, well he's a bit of a romantic and saw it before we did, so…"

"President Kinsey?" An astonished Daniel cut him off. "Robert Kinsey?"

"Are you trying to tell me that Kinsey's actually a nice guy in your world?" Jack asked incredulously.

Colonel Carter nodded, surprised by their astonishment. "He's one of the best friends the Stargate Program has."

"Okay," Jack exhaled slowly as he processed this information. "From now on, your reality will be referred to as 'The Twilight Zone'."

"What about you and Major Carter? Are you…"

"Don't start." Jack cut his counterpart off sharply.

Any ideas the presence of the couple may have given rise to were ruthlessly suppressed.

It would be a cold day in Hell before this reality's Robert Kinsey did anything to help him.


Later

The settlement they reached was fairly large, a town rather than a village, with houses and shops constructed primarily of wood spreading out from a big stone building at the center.

"The architecture looks similar to that of a Mayan temple but all the writing is in Latin." Daniel murmured. "It's fascinating. I wonder if the locals are descended from Mayans or Romans, or maybe they..."

"Jackson!" General O'Neill snapped his name. "We're not here as tourists."

Not wanting an argument, especially when he would need to convince the townspeople that they were peaceful, Daniel subsided, inwardly resolving never to complain about Jack's impatience with his archeology again.

A cluster of small children were the first to approach, their fascination with the near identical Carters and O'Neills outweighing any apprehension about the strangers, the bravest among them reaching out a tentative hand to touch the green material of Major O'Neill's BDUs.

The adults were warier, one or two parents clinging tightly to the hands of their children to prevent them moving any closer. They relaxed somewhat when Daniel launched into his often repeated 'peaceful explorers' speech but they continued to regard the Carters and O'Neills with mingled trepidation and fascination.

A loud, insistent voice spoke and the crowd parted to let the speaker, a portly man at least a head shorter than the Carters, through. The crown of his head had been shaved, leaving him with a ring of graying hair, similar to that of a tonsured monk, fringing his head. He wore a long robe of dark purple cloth and was clearly a leader in the community.

"I am Publius." He announced, as though they should have known of him and been honored by his mere presence. He squinted at the two quartets, whether out of curiosity or disapproval none of them could say. "There are many of you - not all of you belong."

"Just us." Jack indicated himself and Sam.

"We all belong." Samantha objected to Publius' choice of words. "We just don't all belong here."

"How came you to be here?" Publius demanded of Jack, ignoring Samantha entirely.

"It's a long story… well, not that long, I guess." Jack amended. "You see we hit a bit of a snag when we broke your quantum mirror."

Several of the villagers began keening and Publius' expression personified outrage. "A sacred mirror has been broken?"

"Yeah. Sorry." Jack apologized awkwardly, wincing as the keening intensified and Publius fell to his knees, praying loudly to his god. He glanced up at the rest of his group. "I'm guessing that this isn't good."

TBC.

Author's Note: That's all for now. I'll update as soon as I can.