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 Ten: Finding The Way

"At a time like this, a trail of breadcrumbs would really come in handy." For once, Jonathan's quip was half-hearted. "Do you think that Sam… that the others are safe?"

"We have no way of knowing."

"I hope so." Sam said gently, hoping to soften Teal'c's less than comforting answer. "Since none of us were hurt, there's no reason to think that any of the others were. They were probably just transported elsewhere."

"The question is where." Jonathan mused unhappily. "Are they still in the same reality? Are we?"

"I don't know."

"What do you suggest that we do now, Major Carter?" Teal'c enquired gravely as the small group reached the end of the corridor and found no doorway, just more mirrors.

"It was a mirror that transported us in here." Sam pointed out logically, remembering what Publius had said about mirrors to travel. "So my guess would be that some, if not all of the mirrors in here work the same way."

"It's not like there's a shortage of them." Jonathan agreed, frowning. "The guy who made this place had way too much free time on his hands."

"Indeed."

"It's a case of finding the right one. I think that we should all try together." Sam cautioned. "We don't want to get separated."

"That would be bad."

"On three." Sam said, choosing one of the mirrors at random and standing in front of it. "One… Two… Three."

A split second after the trio touched the mirror, they found themselves standing in front of another, less than twenty feet away.

Sam sighed. "This could take a while."


"Would it have killed the guy who built this place to put some labels on his mirrors." Major O'Neill groused. "Or to put up a nice, detailed map with a big red arrow and a 'You Are Here' sign?"

"I don't think that the maze was ever intended for anybody but himself." Samantha said pensively. "It was just him and his mirrors, all those years."

"It must have been incredibly lonely." Colonel Carter observed.

"He needed a hobby – besides mirror building." Major O'Neill added hastily, seeing that both women were ready to object.

The mirrors in the chamber glowed dimly as they passed, their surfaces shimmering briefly before images appeared.

Major O'Neill winced as he stood in front of one, which was showing himself being given a through dressing down. "General West really wasn't happy with me, was he? I'd forgotten how red his face could get when he got mad."

"Ferretti swears that he could hear him three levels away." Colonel Carter agreed, knowing how furious the general had been about being lied to. "It was lucky that he agreed to let you be part of the program." She stood in front of another mirror and, after watching the scene before her unfold for a few minutes, touched the surface with a tentative finger, allowing the sound to wash over her. "Jack?"

Major O'Neill looked up at the serious tone. "What's up?"

"If we ever meet a group called the Aschen, remind me to run the other way."

"Will do." He agreed.

"You should warn the people in your reality if you get the chance." Colonel Carter cautioned Samantha, clearly angry over what she had witnessed.

"I will." Samantha promised, her attention focused on another of the mirrors and the scene playing on it, resting her fingers against the surface of the mirror for a few minutes and then, determinedly swallowing the lump that was rapidly forming in her throat, willed herself to move away.

"We've got to get out of here." Major O'Neill said decidedly. "Or we'll all be driven out of our minds – and nobody look at that one." He commanded hastily, pointing to the deceptively innocuous-looking object.

"If there's a way in, then odds are there's a way out." Colonel Carter said. "I doubt that the maze would prove much of a challenge to the person who built it, he would have known exactly which mirrors to use."

"Since we don't, that could be a problem." Major O'Neill remarked.

"The mirrors we've tried have all shown us something from the past – or the future." Samantha said. "If one of them is going to be a way out, my best guess would be that it will be the one that shows the present."

"So we try them all." Colonel Carter confirmed, mentally cataloguing the number of mirrors lining the room."

"Fine." Major O'Neill was not exactly thrilled with the plan. "But if either of you see anything from my early days, look the other way."

It was bad enough that his mother insisted on regaling her daughter in law with stories of his embarrassing childhood exploits, the last thing he wanted was for his wife and her counterpart to witness them for themselves.


"I wonder if any of these are the mirror that protects the planet?" Dr Carter mused quietly, her keen blue eyes taking in every inch of the room in which they had found themselves.

"If you ever figure out how a mirror could manage that, let me know." Jack instructed, only half-listening to her words.

"If one of these mirrors was able to pull us into this reality and another to transport us here, anything is possible." General O'Neill said, giving Dr Carter a small smile.

"Right now, I'd settle for a way out." Jack stated.

"There has to be one." Dr Carter said, with more confidence than she felt. "Somebody built this place and he'd have had to have a way out in case he wound up in here by mistake."

"And for when he was building it." General O'Neill said encouragingly.

"He doesn't seem to have been a bad guy, not if his mirrors protected the people here." Her voice was soft as she thought of her fiancé. "He wouldn't have hurt them."

"Do you think that there's a secret passageway or something?" Daniel asked, checking the mirrors for any markings. "I can't find any writing in here, or on any of the mirrors."

"Try the mirrors themselves." Jack suggested, following his own advice and trying to activate the mirror closest to him. His efforts had no effect and all the mirror's surface showed was his reflection.

"Nothing from this one." Dr Carter reported.

"This one is active." General O'Neill's voice was slightly choked.

"It does?" Despite knowing of the other man's less than high regard for him, Daniel moved next to him, eager to see what he had learned. "What does it… Sha're?" He opened and closed his mouth a few times, unable to say anything else as he watched the scene play out in front of him.

"Daniel?" Jack moved behind his friend to see what the mirror was showing. "I don't see Sha're."

"She's right there, she's safe, she's… she's her." Daniel protested. His eyes were wide, hopeful. "Publius said that some of the mirrors showed the future – this must be one of them!"

General O'Neill's expression was pitying as he looked at the other man. "It's not."

"You can't know that!"

"How can you be so sure?" Jack asked.

"Because what I saw when I looked is something that will never happen, something that can never happen."

"'Mirrors that can see into your very soul.'" Dr Carter quoted Publius softly.

"It's showing you what you want to see." General O'Neill told Daniel.

"It's a distraction." Jack said flatly. "Daniel…" He tried to nudge his friend away.

"No, Jack!" Daniel scowled. "Even if it doesn't show the future, maybe it shows what I have to do, where I'll find Sha're and get the Goa'uld out."

"It won't show you anything useful." Jack said. "It's just a distraction."

"I don't think so." Dr Carter spoke up. "It's more than that." Her tone was confident. "It's out way out."


Samantha, Colonel Carter and Major O'Neill had beaten them to it.

"We were beginning to wonder when you guys would show up." Major O'Neill grinned at them. "Your Sam should probably figure it out any time now." He added to Jack, who was half ready to object to his choice of words, but did not want to call attention to them.

As if on cue, the three remaining members of the group rematerialized in the room.

"Finally!" Jonathan's usual good humour had been sorely tried by the number of travelling mirrors they had attempted to use. "Why is it that it's always the last one you try?"

Teal'c gave him a quizzical look. "Would you wish to continue trying once you had located the correct one?"

"Is everybody okay?" Jack asked, scanning the group, relieved to see everybody present and in one piece.

"Yes, sir." Sam confirmed.

"A bit nauseas." Jonathan volunteered.

"Thank you for sharing."

"I take it this is what we're looking for." Sam addressed her three counterparts, gesturing to the large mirror that stood in the center of the room.

"We didn't try it." Colonel Carter explained.

"We didn't want to do anything until everybody was here, just in case something happened." Samantha said.

"That was probably a good idea." Sam agreed, approaching the mirror and examining it critically, before laying her hand on it's surface to activate it.

Nothing happened.

"That was anti-climactic."

"Jonathan!" Dr Carter frowned reprovingly at her fiancée.

"Well it was."

"Carter, tell me that this one isn't broken too!" Jack demanded. If their journey had been for nothing, he was not going to be a happy camper.

"Wait a minute." Colonel Carter moved next to Sam. "May I?" Sam moved aside to allow her to place her hand on it's surface, which immediately shimmered to life, showing a room full of alien artefacts.

"That's the lab on P3X-233." Daniel said. "That's where the mirror was in this reality."

"The mirror didn't work for you, but you're already in your own reality." Dr Carter theorized aloud, addressing Sam. "It must be a safeguard of some sort."

"But can we be sure that this is our reality?" Major O'Neill asked, worried. "If not, we could end up anywhere."

"Entropic cascade failure may wind up back on the cards if that's the case." Colonel Carter said.

"I know how we can find out." Gesturing for the others to move aside, Samantha placed her own hand on the mirror. After a split second, she smiled. "That's my reality."

"How can you be so… is that a smiley face sticker on the other side?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Yes – right next to the sign Kawalsky put up so that we'd be able to find our way back if we ever got stuck in another reality again." She responded, remembering the major's efforts at making sure that their reality would be identifiable.

"Good thinking." Dr Carter complimented. "My turn now." Save for the locations of one or two artefacts, the lab that shimmered into existence when she touched the surface of the mirror was identical to the one Colonel Carter had shown.

"We've got radios and GDOs, you can contact your people to have them open the iris for you when you get to the other side." Jack told them.

"We'll leave the mirror on, you can let us know when they open the iris so that we can keep it set on the same reality until then." Sam suggested prudently.

"Three realities down." Jack motioned for General O'Neill to activate the mirror. "Your turn."

General O'Neill's expression turned grim once he saw what was on the other side and when they looked, the others mirrored his expression.

The mirror in his reality was underwater, half imbedded in what looked like the bottom of the ocean.

"Well," The general surprised all his counterparts by remaining relatively calm. "It seems that I won't be going back to my reality after all."

TBC.

Author's Note: The mirror Jack's group used was inspired by the Mirror of Erised from 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' by J K Rowling.

Author's Note II: Sorry this chapter is a bit late, I intended to have it finished earlier. This story should be finished in another chapter or two. In the mean time, reviews are, as always, very welcome.