Chapter 9

We headed toward an exit, me a little slower than Maybourne, mainly because I was carrying Sam. She fought to stay conscious with every ounce of her remaining strength.

"Just a little longer," I told her. "We're almost there."

Sam moved a little, staring up at me with glassy eyes. "We can't leave yet."

I stopped in my tracks, taken aback by what she had said. "Yes, we can," I said.

She shook her head. "No. There's a bomb."

The words rung in my head for a minute before the words took effect. I set off again, as fast as I possibly could. I swore to myself. "Maybourne!" I yelled to the guy ahead of me. "There's a bomb! We gotta go! Get out and call SGC!" He started at a run as well. "A bomb is a good reason to leave," I said more softly to Sam between labored breaths.

"You don't understand."

"I understand there's a bomb that's going to blow up in our face if we don't get out of here(!)"

"We've gotta go back and defuse it." She knew I wouldn't let her, so she stumbled out of my arms. My reflexes, not being what they were years ago, weren't fast enough to catch her. Sam hit the ground with such force that there was an audible smack of flesh on tiles and a crack that I hoped wasn't any bones breaking. I knelt down beside her. I had to admire her determination. She tried to continue on all fours.

"We've gotta get the device," she mumbled repeatedly. Her strength failed her.

I couldn't wait any longer. If there was a bomb about to go off, this was not the time to admire willpower. "Sam, we can't stay."Maybourne was long out of the building.

"Major Carter is right: you have to defuse the bomb."

I turned when I heard a familiar voice behind me. My eyes widened at what I saw. No, it couldn't be possibly. Another Sam Carter? Then I remembered. "You're a clone," I said simply.

"Not me," said the clone. "Us." I heard footsteps coming. I raised my gun, not afraid to shoot whoever was coming. But the gun wavered in my hand as I saw the faces of the people surrounding us. Every single one of them was Carter. I held the hand of the Sam lying on the floor just to be sure that she was still there. I didn't want to ever let go. Never.

Clone Carter 1 had seen me grip her hand. "It's OK; we're not going to clone you too." Damn. Did these people read minds? "We need to tell you something if you're going to find the bomb."

I was confused. Didn't these people want to see us die? I mean, they had tried to replace Sam at the SGC, for crying out loud! This was too weird.

"I assume if you're hear, our sister was successful in informing you of our whereabouts," she said matter-of-factly.

"What, you mean the other Carter that went to infiltrate the SGC?"

I saw the clones eyes widen. She knew something was wrong. "No, she came only to tell you where our mother was and to come as quickly as possible, on our behalf."

"OK, firstly, she's dead. The noise of the alarm got too much for her and apparently it destroyed her brain." There was a murmur among the clones. If I didn't know these heartless things better, I would have said they were sad. "Secondly, mother?"

"She is the one that gave us life. She is our mother."

I was still confused. They obviously noticed: I wondered if Sam's ability to know if I'm confused was carried over to her clones. "I guess we'll have to start from the beginning," said a second Clone Carter. Clone Carter 1 nodded her agreement.

"Samantha Carter is here subject to cloning tests by the one you know as X because he wanted an army. He wanted an army that would serve him only, and could easily infiltrate to do what we are trained to; a program called E.I.A – enter infiltrate, assassinate. Our first task was to kill her-" she pointed at Sam. "- and then to infiltrate the SGC and kill General Hammond. But we can murder neither our mother nor her friends. She has loyalty and a will to do what is right in her very DNA. We are loyal to her and her friends and only wish to do what is right.

"Our bodies are not yet perfect, as you have noticed. Our ears are far too sensitive. Too much noise channeled directly into our brain through the ear canal will, kill us. The device that makes cloning possible had not enough power to make us flawless. But it will."

"What does that mean?" I queried.

"It won't be destroyed in the explosion," said the original Sam weakly. "It'll only absorb the energy. The trinium-titanium alloy is too strong."

"She's right," said Carter Clone 2. "If this bomb goes off, he can collect the device later, and begin his work somewhere new. If that happens, he will be able to fix the branch of DNA that prevents us from turning against him and the flaw in our bodies."

I knew then that I either had to get the device or defuse the bomb, and quickly. Not for the sake of the clones, but for their 'mother'. I could barely hear her breathing.

"Where's the bomb?" I asked.

The clones looked at each other. "We don't know. We were kinda hoping that you would help us find it." My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"You don't know?" I demanded. "Why the hell am I standing here listening to this?"

"To stop the Stargate program and the entire world being overridden by clones."

With that, I couldn't really argue. "Do you have any ideas where it might be?"

"It's in this room," said Sam. I looked to the clones for confirmation. They shrugged.

"Where?"

"In the clock." In a clock? I had never come across somebody putting a bomb in a clock. I looked at a nearby digital one, its fluorescent numbers on a flat, black face. There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about this clock, except it was a bit slow. For a moment, I wondered if Sam was just delusional. I looked at my watch, then looked back at the clock to compare time. I froze. I could have been sure that a minute ago it had read 1300, now it only read 1247. I held my gaze. It was counting down.

I picked up Sam and hurried over to the device. I was about to inspect it, when something hit me in the face. I was thrown back, Sam landing on top of me. Confused, I got up only to be hooked around the ankles and fall over again. This was not good. I looked behind me for the clones, but they had disappeared. I quickly turned back to my attacker. My eyes widened.

"Oh my God."

It was me.

Another chapter coming soon. Sorry this one was so shi- ahem, bad.