Thanks for reviewing... I really appreciate it!
This chapter is long... thanks Sara for beta'ing! (Hug)
Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this chapter!
Alternate Reality
General Hammond opened the door to his office, sat his briefcase and coffee on his desk, and sighed. What would today's work bring?
He was about to begin the routine signing of forms when he spotted a severely wrinkled piece of paper. Pulling it to him, he was about to throw it away when his eyes drifted to the bottom and spotted a bold Jack O'Neill. As he read it, his expression changed to an unreadable mask.
"Airman!" He called.
The door opened and a female appeared.
"Sir?"
"When Colonel O'Neill arrives, have him sent to my office."
"Yes, sir."
"Dismissed."
Å
Jack sauntered through the entrance. After the last check in, he was about to head to his second-in-command's office when an Airman stopped him.
"Colonel O'Neill, sir. General Hammond would like you to report to him."
He nodded, half expecting the summons, and hurried to the elevator. Minutes later, he was knocking on the General's door.
"Enter!"
He pushed the door. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Close the door, Jack."
He shut it and was told to sit.
"I trust you know what this is about."
The Colonel gave a small nod.
"Jack, I can't accept this," He said, pointing to the wrinkled form.
Jack stared first at him then the paper. "What?"
General Hammond sighed. "I'm sorry, Jack, but I can't accept this. Neither will the Joint Chiefs."
"General, with all due respect-"
"Jack, right now, you're the best we have. Colonel Carter told me all about this Goa'uld Anubis. We need you. I'm sorry."
"General-"
"Jack, don't make this harder for me. I'm sorry," He repeated.
"But-"
"Dismissed."
Jack was almost out the door when the General added, "Please send Colonel Carter in."
Å
"Carter, the General wants you."
Carter looked up to see her CO looking at her, anger written across his face. "Sir? Is something wrong?"
He gave her a queer look. "General Hammond wants to see you," He repeated.
"Sir-"
He gave her a curt nod, spun on his heels, and was out of the room seconds later. She started after her CO for a minute before saving her work and heading to Hammond's office.
Å
"Enter!"
She pushed the door open and then closed it behind her. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes, Colonel. Please take a seat."
She obliged.
"The President wants to know if you would consider leading a team to meet these… Tok'ra."
"Me?"
"You know more about them than anyone on this planet."
Carter nodded. "Right. I'd love too, sir."
He smiled. "Good. Now, you said that the Asgard- the Roswell aliens- are a technologically advanced race and they have power enough to put us on a protected planet treaty... do you think we could get on the same thing?"
"To be on the protected planet treaty? Yes, sir... as long as we can get a hold of the Asgard."
"And how do we do that?"
She smiled. "I might be able to help you there."
Our reality
"Whatcha doin'?"
Sam looked up and gave her CO a sparkling smile. "I'm reading up on… well, my reports. Especially those of these Tok'ra and Asgard." She answered, gesturing to the piles of files on her desk. "I remembered Daniel saying I was blended with a symbiote and I wanted to…" She trailed off.
"Read about yourself?"
"Yeah." She picked up a thick folder. "In my former reality, we hadn't met a lot of these races. This Goa'uld, Anubis, scares me. And these… Replicators… you say that the Human Form Replicators are practically impossible to kill?"
"Not… impossible. Just… hard."
She nodded and set the folder back on the desk. "So… did you need something, sir?"
"Not really."
The Major smiled. "We have an upcoming mission, sir, don't we? Today?"
"You do… mission at one o'clock, briefing at ten. And one three days after that."
She grinned.
"Like being in charge?"
She shrugged. "It has its moments…"
He laughed. "Later, Carter."
"Bye, sir."
She watched him saunter out of the room and turned back to her work.
Å
"Ouch!"
Sam jumped away as her scalding hot coffee flowed over her desk, her lunch of pasta… and her. Muttering under her breath, she pushed all the paperwork not covered in the liquid away and looked around for something to dry it up. Not seeing anything, she pulled off her jacket and used it.
"Major Carter? Are you all right? Oh, god… you're scalded!"
Sam raised an eyebrow as a white-coated scientist rushed in, pulled off his coat, and threw it on the counter… and causing the liquid towards the tower of folders, sending him to push the folders onto the floor.
"Whew… looks like we saved that top-secret, highly important information," He gave a laugh. "Plans to save us from the Goa'uld?"
"More like reports from seven years ago," She said, looking with some displeasure at the papers now scattered all over the floor.
He looked at her arm. "Should I call a medical team? Do you feel faint? Uh… I uh…"
She followed his gaze. "I'm fine, Dr-" She stopped and checked his name tag, "Felger. It's just a burn."
"Let me call Dr. Carmichael-"
"No! Felger, I'm fine-"
It was too late… he was already on the phone.
She sank onto the floor and wondered how much more humiliated she would be in the next few minutes.
Å
"Jack!"
The General looked up from his desk on which he was carving his initials. "Daniel?"
Daniel was in the doorway, breathing heavily. "Carmichael called me and said a med team was on the way to Sam's lab."
"What?"
"Come on, let's go!"
Å
"Dr. Carmichael, I'm fine."
Carmichael waved Felger back and examined her arm. "Well, it's only a burn… I just need to-"
The doors burst open and two extremely worried men hurried in.
"Carter!" "Sam!"
"Hey guys!"
They slowed down.
"Carter?" Jack questioned. "Aren't you supposed to be like… dying?"
She closed her eyes. "It's just a burn, sir."
"Why the med team?"
She cleared her throat. "Felger, sir."
"He called a medical team to your lab for a burn?" Daniel asked incredulously.
"She looked faint," Felger defended himself.
"Always the hero," Jack said sarcastically. "Can Carter go, doc?"
"I have to take care of her burn first."
Daniel looked at the doctor. "We have a briefing in ten minutes."
"I'll have her there, Dr. Jackson. It's not a bad burn."
Jack nodded and gave her a small smile. "See ya in a bit, Carter."
She smiled back as he and Daniel filed off, followed by a cringing Felger.
"SG-1… never a dull moment, huh?" Carmichael asked.
She gave a short laugh and looked at her arm. "Never."
Alternate Reality
Jack stared. "You're joking. Sir."
Carter looked at her CO, not surprised by his reaction. "General Hammond approached me and asked if I would consider leading a mission to introduce you to the Tok'ra… and I agreed."
"Aren't these people the snakeheads you talked about?"
"Yes-"
"And they're Goa'uld's?"
"Basically, but they're goo-"
"They're good?" He interrupted. "Carter… there is no such thing as a good Goa'uld!"
"They're not Goa'uld, sir! They're Tok'ra! The Tok'ra oppose the Goa'uld. My father is a Tok'ra!"
Jack snorted but didn't say anything. He vaguely remembered Carter spouting off about her dad and these… snakeheads…
"Colonel Carter is correct," said Teal'c. "Such a people exist."
The male Colonel raised an eyebrow. "They're good Goa'uld's?"
"Like I said, sir," Carter muttered, slightly icily.
"That's-"
"Colonel O'Neill!"
Jack looked up to see the General giving him an annoyed glance. He mumbled an apology.
"Colonel Carter, as she's stated, has agreed to try and make contact with these Tok'ra…" Hammond trailed off. "I won't force any of you to go."
Teal'c solemnly nodded. "I will accompany Colonel Carter."
"I'll too," Daniel announced. "Sam was telling me about their Queen, Egeria. It was really fasci-"
"That's great, Daniel," Jack interrupted. "But if we want to reach Oz before sunset, we need to gear up… right, General?"
General Hammond nodded. "SG-1 departs in thirty minutes. Dismissed."
They all stood up and headed to the locker room to get ready. Thirty minutes later, they reported to the embarkation room, ready to go.
"Chevron six encoded!"
"I can't help but feel that this is a bad plan," Jack murmured.
Carter looked at her CO. "I realize that, sir, but the Tok'ra have been valuable allies."
"By which you mean a pain-in-the-butt?"
"A necessary one, sir."
Jack sighed as a wormhole was established. "I'm just saying…"
"SG-1, you have a go."
Jack gestured Sam to go first. The Colonel took a deep breath and stepped through the Stargate…
Å
Our reality
Sam pushed the briefing room door open twelve minutes later, to see all eyes on her.
"Sorry, sir," She apologized.
Jack shrugged. "Take your seat, Major. Daniel?"
The archeologist was up in a flash. "94X-223 is, by all accounts, a deserted planet. Two days ago, we launched an AUV to determine whether this site would work as Alpha site. Anyways, what it managed to find was this."
A picture appeared on the screen.
Sam stared. "That's the Stonehenge, Daniel."
"I know. It's a popular belief that the Celtics built the Stonehenge thou-"
"Daniel," Jack said in his 'let's-not-get-into-long-boring-briefings' voice.
He frowned at his friend before looking at Sam and Teal'c. "The AUV also recorded energy readings-"
"Daniel," interrupted Jack again, "Need I remind you that this is a twenty hour mission? SG-1 reports back to the SGC at 1100."
Daniel looked exasperated. "Do we have a go?"
He nodded. "SG-1 will leave as scheduled at 1500. SG-5 will accompany you and then gate to their own planet."
"Why, how very thrifty, Jack."
"Why thank you, Daniel."
Sam's cell phone rang.
"Dismissed," Jack called.
She gave him a brief smile, which faded as she checked the display. Excusing herself, she hurried to the elevator and waited until the doors closed before answering.
"Hi, Pete."
"Hey! How's it going?"
"Okay."
"Good… listen, I got us these hot tickets to this jazz concert and-"
"I can't come, Pete."
There was a brief moment of silence. "Why not?"
"We, SG-1 that is, is scheduled to leave in a little over an hour."
"Can't you cancel it?"
"You know I can't."
There was a period of more silence. "Is this how it's always going to be, Sam? Work over us?"
"Pete-"
"You can't have both, Sam. I hardly get to see you as it is!"
"I know, but-"
"I have to go- I just got a call. I'll talk to you later, Sam."
She stifled a sigh. "I'm sorry, Pete. Good bye."
The elevator doors opened as she closed her phone.
Well...
I hoped you liked it...!
Please review!