Dilemmas
Summary: In an alternate reality, not so far away, at a time not so far in the future, an alliance split up the legendary SG-1…
Dr. Daniel Jackson stood pensively at the Terminal. Ten years. That's how long it had been since the Aschen alliance had been settled. Ten years. That's how long it had been since he had seen Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter. He closed his eyes in regret. He had allowed his stubbornness to drive a wedge between the members of the team. They all had.
"Daniel?" Janet asked, stepping onto the console.
"I'm coming."
He stepped beside her, and was instantly transported from Washington, D.C. to northern Minnesota.
--
Samantha Carter-O'Neill sat by the pond, watching her husband and son fish for the nearly non-existent fish in the pond as her two-year-old daughter slept inside. A slight fluttering in her stomach reminded her that their family was not yet complete. She smiled. Life was certainly slower and less complicated here in the forests of northern Minnesota. And she liked it the way it was.
Ten years ago, after making contact with the Aschen, Jack had retired. A short time later, they had gotten married and moved to his cabin in Minnesota.
She took a deep breath in melancholy thought. Ten years ago, they had severed all ties with the rest of the human race. Particularly General Hammond, Daniel, Janet and Teal'c.
She stood up, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. She missed them. All of them. But after the harsh words that had been exchanged by both sides, the road to reconciliation was nearly insurmountable.
She walked toward the cabin, wanting to distract herself from her present thoughts. But she soon realized that was impossible when she saw Daniel and Janet walking toward her.
"Daniel? Janet?" She asked, surprised.
"Hi, Sam." They responded, forcing smiles onto their faces.
There was an awkward pause as they just stared at one another. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh…" Daniel began. "We came to see you and Jack. How are you?"
"We're fine."
"Where is Jack?" Janet asked.
"In the back. Fishing."
"Oh."
"What do you need?" She asked, somewhat reserved. The last time she had heard from Janet, it had been to inform her that General Hammond had suffered a fatal heart attack. And that had been six years ago.
"Sam, we made a mistake." Daniel said, seriously.
She chewed the flesh on the inside of her cheek. "I'm sorry to hear that. Just which mistake are you referring to?"
"The alliance." Daniel said, looking at the ground.
"Don't like the taste of crow?" She asked, sounding much like her husband.
"Sam," Janet began.
Sam looked at her friend, bitterly. "Don't. I stood by Jack when he suggested that we should be more skeptical about our alliance with the Aschen. And as a result, I got put in the middle of a fire fight."
"Sam, it's not what you thought."
"Janet, neither one of you listened to either one of us long enough to know what we thought."
Jonathan ran around the side of the house where he found himself face to face with his mother, Daniel and Janet. "Mom! What's going on?"
Janet looked at Sam, somewhat shocked and then turned away.
"Jonathan, tell your father that there are some people here to see us."
The little boy nodded, obediently.
"How many kids?" Daniel asked, soberly.
"Two. And one on the way." She said, studying their reactions. "Jonathan and Grace."
Janet turned, and Sam could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I found out yesterday that I can't have kids."
Sam took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." She said, looking from Janet to Daniel. This was very awkward for her. Her best friend was unable to have children, and she had two and was pregnant with her third. Former best friend, she reminded herself as a lump formed in her throat.
Jack came around the corner, Jonathan walking quickly to keep up with his father's stride. He stopped when he saw who the visitors were. "Hi Jack." Daniel said with a slight hand wave.
"Daniel. What are you doing here?"
"Jonathan, go in the house." Sam said, looking at her son. "It's about time for Grace to wake up."
"Yes, Mom."
"Jack, we're here to apologize." Daniel began.
"Oh."
"We didn't listen to you. We're sorry."
Jack motioned for them to sit down in the chairs just outside of the cabin. "Things not going so well?"
"It's worse than you thought."
"Really?"
"We believe that they're sterilizing the population by way of the anti-aging vaccine." Janet said.
Jack pursed his lips and glanced over at his wife. "I see."
"No. No, Jack, you don't see." Daniel said, leaning forward in his chair. "The birth rate has been cut just over 90 percent. You and Sam are one of the only couples in the world who can still have children. Naturally or artificially."
"And you want us to do what?"
"Help us send a message to ourselves in the past."
Sam raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
"Come on, Sam. You remember what happened when we used the Stargate in conjunction with a solar flare." Daniel prodded.
"Whether I remember it or not has no bearing on whether or not I want to repeat it." She retorted.
"We know you're perfectly happy here, and we don't want to ruin that…"
"You're damn right, we're happy here!" Jack said, crossly.
Sam reached out and took his hand to calm him. "What we're saying is that we're not sure we want to have any part in this. As you've said yourself, Daniel, we have no right to play god."
Daniel closed his eyes. "We're not playing god."
"You're not? Seems to me that you're trying to change the past. That sounds like playing god to me, Danny boy." Jack said, heatedly.
"We know it's a fine line." Janet said, imploring her friends for help. "But if we don't do this, we will all live to see the end of the human race on Earth."
For some reason, her words stung Sam's mother heart. Here she sat, creating a new life, when the rest of the world could not. How selfish, she thought.
But on the other hand, how could Janet ask her to give up the motherhood she had so desperately yearned for. And what about her unborn child? Wasn't that child worthy of life as well?
She felt tears sting her eyes. What kind of life was life on the Aschen's terms?
"Sam?" Jack asked, voicing the concerns of everyone else there.
She stood up. "Go away. Please." She begged, retreating to the cabin.
"Jack, our chances are better…" Daniel began; he stopped when Jack turned back to him.
"Go away, Daniel. I will not have you upsetting my wife."
"Jack, we can't do this without you. You're the only thing standing in our way of fixing our mistakes."
Jack was halfway up the path back to the cabin by now. He turned, slowly. "What part of 'go away' don't you understand?"
He finished walking into the cabin when Daniel turned to Janet. "Well, I said there'd be no going back, didn't I?"
--
Sam sat on the bed, a handkerchief in one hand. Some friends, she thought, bitterly. They were not only asking her to risk her own life, they were asking her to give up the life of her unborn child. And all for a chance to rewrite the ten best years of her life.
"Wanna tell me what that was about?" Jack asked, leaning against the door frame with his arms folded across his chest.
She sniffled, dabbing the handkerchief idly at her nose. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
He closed the door. "Hey, don't apologize." He said, walking over and sitting next to her on the bed. "I'm just worried about you. Wanna tell me what's going on?"
She forced her teary blue eyes to look into his comforting brown ones. "I hate choosing between what's best for me and my family and what's best for the rest of the planet, galaxy and/or universe."
Jack didn't say anything, sensing her need to be heard.
"Honestly, Daniel and Janet have a point. What's a few lives in comparison to the fate of the entire planet? But…" She choked on the lump growing in her throat. "Jack, if you hadn't retired when you did, broken off ties with the SGC, I probably would have married Joseph Vaxin. And I probably would have been completely taken in by the Aschen."
She swallowed. "I honestly had no idea what this life could offer me that the worlds of science and technology couldn't."
"And that would be?" He prompted.
"Love. For and from you. For and from the kids. No matter how 'fun' a naquadah reactor could be, it couldn't put its arms around me and say in a few words something that would melt my heart into a pile of butter."
"If I had to do it again," She said, her prize-winning blue eyes looking into his, communicating a fear he had only seen in her eyes a couple of times before. "I'm afraid that I would choose my job over you. Not because I would rather be there than here, but because I wouldn't know what I would be missing."
Jack looked sideways at his wife. On one level he cursed Daniel and Janet for bringing them into this, and on the other, he cursed himself for putting her on one side against friends that had been like family to both of them. He also cursed the blasted Aschen. He hated the two-timing nature that they had. They were friends and then they turned on their allies with a vengeance. Much like SG-1 turned on each other, he thought.
Sam sniffled again, dabbing delicately at her nose. He didn't know what to do anymore than she did. But at least, while they were still together, they could be there for each other. He opened his side, by moving one arm out of the way. "C'mere."
She cuddled up to him, and he put his arms around her. "I love you." She whispered.
"I love you too."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Grace started to whimper outside their door. "Mommy!"
Sam moved to get up, but Jack gently pressed on her shoulders so that she'd stay down. "I'll get her."
She stayed sitting on the bed as Jack opened the door to reveal Grace and Jonathan. "And what do you want?" He asked, a sarcastic edge to his tone.
Sam could tell that he was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work. Grace burst into tears and Jonathan looked at Jack with a look that asked what he had done wrong. He was instantly sorry and bent down to pick up the crying two-year-old. "I'm sorry, Gracie. Daddy's just a little stressed."
"Who were those people?" Jonathan asked, walking toward his mom.
"Some old friends. They're having some problems that they want Mommy and Daddy to help them with." Sam said, making a place for her oldest son on the bed.
"You're going to help them, right?"
Sam chewed her lip, uncomfortably. "It's…it's more complicated than whether or not we want to help them. It's going to be very dangerous."
"And we don't want to leave you guys." Jack said, tickling the no-longer crying Grace.
"But they'd do it for you." The four-year-old said, sitting on his mother's lap.
Sam and Jack looked at one another. His words rang true, but they couldn't just abandon their kids, could they?
"How was your nap, Gracie?" Jack asked.
"Good."
"And how was fishing with your dad?" Sam asked.
"Good. But I still don't understand." Jonathan began.
Sam closed her eyes. For once, his questions were too much for her. Usually, she didn't mind explaining the various phenomena of the world around them to the four-year-old, after all, it gave her mind a chance to function at its old level of proficiency, but now, he was acting as her conscience, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that.
"Come on, kids. Mommy's tired. Let's let her rest." Jack said, motioning for Jonathan to follow him.
As they left and Sam laid down on the bed, Jack looked over at her. "Sam…"
She took a deep breath. "Call Thor. Maybe the Asgard can keep the kids while we deal with this…problem."
He nodded. "Get some rest." She smiled tightly as she closed her eyes and fell into a less than fitful sleep.
--
The rest of the world turned to the Aschen for help. There were Aschen doctors, Aschen babysitters, Aschen scientists…in short, the Aschen had become teachers and supervisors over every field of expertise.
But while the rest of the world blindly put their faith in the Aschen, the O'Neills placed turned to the time-tested goodwill of the Asgard. When Sam needed mental stimulation, she was beamed aboard Thor's ship to help solve some technical problem. Every once in a while, she would actually end up helping, but more often than not, she was like a four-year-old. Curious to a fault, she would try to learn from the more experienced aliens only to end up making some tiny mistake that would set their experiment back more than it helped accelerate the project.
The Asgard also kept tabs on the O'Neill household health. When Sam had gotten pregnant with Jonathan, she had been concerned with their lack of professional healthcare. Thor had immediately shown up and offered his assistance. Of course, their help was not without a price- for the benefit of the Asgard High Council. The O'Neills had offered their children for research into a key for the Asgard geneticists, with the understanding that the children would not be harmed and that all tests would be relatively painless. It had only taken two series of tests conducted at the births of both of the children to conclude that neither O'Neill child had the genetic code that would help the Asgard further their research.
They also conveniently stocked the O'Neill cabin with the necessities of life, and without Jack's knowledge, they stocked the pond with just enough fish to keep his interest in the art of fishing while allowing him to feel like he was actually providing for his family.
Jack fully realized that the last ten years would not have been possible without the help of their Asgard friends. He took the white stone in his hand and stared at it. After all that the Asgard had done for him and his family, could he really ask for their help with this war? Then again, he was just asking them to watch the kids, wasn't he?
At first, he and Sam had been hesitant to disclose the severity of their discomfort with the Alliance to the Asgard High Council. However, knowing that with the SGC behind the alliance, the Aschen had access to limitless information about the Asgard, they had decided to apprise Thor of the situation. The Asgard had almost instantly threatened to sever ties with Earth if they continued negotiations, having heard much about the Aschen and the worlds that they had decimated.
Earth had traded an alliance with the Asgard for an alliance with the Aschen. And it had been a fatal trade.
"Thor, if you can hear me, I need your help." He said, clutching the stone.
Almost immediately, the gray alien appeared as a holographic image before him. "O'Neill. Is there some way that I may be of assistance?"
"Maybe."
The alien waited.
"Daniel and Janet came and asked us for some help fixing Earth's mistake. Apparently, they're systematically sterilizing the population, and…well, we're not exactly okay with that."
"You wish us to help in your fight against the Aschen?"
"No." Jack said, clasping his hands in front of him. "Actually, we were wondering how you would feel about babysitting."
"You wish us to watch your children while you help to eradicate this problem."
"Yeah."
"How does Samantha feel about this?"
"She…she's on board with it."
"And the child she is carrying?"
"Uh…well…" Jack began. "If you could watch Sam while you're watching the kids, I'd appreciate it. You know…get her started on some project where she thinks she's helping, so that she forgets all about the real problem…"
"I believe she would see right through the ploy, O'Neill."
"Yeah, she probably would." He admitted.
"However, I do have another alternative."
"You do?"
"Perhaps it would be possible to put the fetus in a medical pod. There are some available which would provide a comparable environment to the prenatal environment to which it has become accustomed. After you are successful, the fetus could be returned to Samantha's womb."
Jack didn't say anything.
"I sense that Samantha's part in this is vital. You are torn between your places as parents to these children and your places as defenders of your world. I am offering you an opportunity to do both."
"Couldn't you just beam all of the Aschen up, leave their bioweapons behind, and…that's it? The end?"
"If what you say is true, the Aschen have already done their damage. The Tok'ra and Jaffa have sustained serious casualties due to the method of war they have waged. Countless millions of your own people are unable to ever propagate to ensure the survival of your species. If the Asgard were to become involved, it would merely serve to put our race at risk."
"But you guys already can't have kids!"
"That may be so, but the Aschen have other methods of attaining and maintaining their race's superiority. I am afraid that the Asgard cannot get involved in your planet's affairs."
"Hey, the cliché that best describes the Aschen is 'appearances can be deceiving.' Therefore, we know how evil they are, so, we have the advantage."
"I wish that were always the case. I must speak with Heimdall. He would be the one watching over the children."
"Thanks."
The hologram signal was terminated and Thor disappeared. Jack took a deep breath. This was getting more and more complicated the more involved he became.