The SGC has had it's fair share of strange occurrences, from invisible alien invaders, to marauding infiltrators wearing holograms of SGC officers, to sentient microscopic aliens. Although, due to recent events, it probably wasn't unusual or unexpected that the particular situation plaguing Sam's mind revolved around their interactions with alternate versions of SGC officers. For the last several hours, she'd sat, staring at her computer screen and going over each related memory in her mind. Nothing really shed light onto their current situation.
So lost in her thoughts was she, that it took her several minutes to notice that the last diagnostic check she'd run on the dialing program (and related recorded information) had finished. Setting her thoughts to the side for now, Sam sat up quickly and began to go over the displayed results, paying specific attention to the moments they'd been in the wormhole between their destination planet and Earth. Surely enough, micro seconds before the recording showed them stepping out, she found a spike of energy. Just enough for the gate systems to pick it up, but not enough to really set off any alarms. She'd bet her job that those spikes signified the moment Kylee had entered the matter stream of the wormhole, as she couldn't have been more than a couple of steps behind them.
Sam recorded her findings before turning back to watch the video recording of the gateroom at that point. Kylee stumbled out of the wormhole, obviously tired and disoriented, then leaning on Teal'c's arm, reaching towards Sam, collapsing... them discussing while a gurney came in to take the newcomer away. It had all happened so fast, but had then been followed by two slow days of the girl sleeping off her trauma.
Something she seemed to be very good at, seeing as she was doing the exact same thing now. Then again, a sleeping recovery seemed about right for a girl her age, although even in her sleep she seemed to burning calories in a very not-normal way.
Sam absently smirked as she recalled how her father reacted to watching the rather petite girl shovel down three full portions of various foodstuffs and proceed to pass out almost immediately upon entering her new quarters. Needing time to process everything, Sam could definitely understand, especially given the extraordinary circumstances. Fighting something straight out of Lovecraft? She wasn't exactly familiar with the reading material (had always found better things to do with her time than read horror) but she knew enough to understand just about how far out there the whole idea was.
A hand settled on her shoulder and she looked up to see her father and gave a small smile.
"Hey Dad."
"How're you holding up?" Jacob asked.
"You sound apprehensive," Sam said suspiciously.
He shrugged. "It's not like your super-powered granddaughter from another universe happens stop by every day, and... I know this must be a lot to take in. It's a huge shock to us all, but you especially. Nobody could have predicted something like this happening."
Sam sighed. He wasn't wrong. "How am I doing?" she repeated, shaking her head. "I wish I had a good answer for that. I don't know where to start trying to figure out how I feel about this. Even with everything that goes on around here, most things don't exactly hit this close to home." How was she supposed to come to terms that out there, somewhere, another version of her had chosen to not have anything to do with the Air Force; who had chosen instead to settle down and have a family. It had boggled her mind when her alternate had confessed she hadn't joined the Air Force, but at least she'd still been a part of the Stargate program. At least she'd still chosen to dedicate herself to her work.
But this? As far as she knew, Kylee's mother – her alternate – had given all of that up. It wasn't like she thought of it as a bad choice, per se, just... different. So different that she couldn't really comprehend it, even if she felt she understood... and yet none of it really seemed to make sense in her mind.
That didn't even take into account the almost statistically impossible reality of superpowers. Where had Kylee gotten them? How? And how did her human body cope so well? What kind of genetics were they working with here?
Overwhelming didn't begin to cover it all.
"You're not the only one who doesn't really know what to think," Jacob pointed out wryly. "It certainly boggles my mind. Probably wouldn't have known what to do if I'd been around when another you popped by for help." Jacob rubbed her shoulder a bit, until she turned around.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say that's been on my mind all morning. It's... not exactly the same, but if the threat of entropic cascade failure hadn't made it impossible for her to exist in this reality, you'd have ended up with a second daughter," Sam admitted. "We're lucky we don't have to deal with those side effects now."
"I'll take your word for it on that one," Jacob replied, shuddering a little. Sam wasn't sure if her father knew what she was talking about, or if Selmak was the one who shuddered.
"Honestly, at this point I just hope that I'm not some secret mad scientist in her world. I mean, abilities like that have to come from somewhere. Unless I… I mean she, married an alien." Which honestly wasn't something she could readily dismiss. She had been smitten with more than one alien entity in the last few years. Martouf's death was a recent tragedy for her as well, so she wasn't exactly in the market for something new, but somehow, Sam doubted that would be the last incident regarding relationships with off-planet beings.
Jacob snorted lithly. "The Alien thing, I can see," then his voice turned softer, "but Sam, there's no universe I can imagine where you'd do that to a kid so don't you start worrying about that. Besides, I'm sure she'll tell you her story, if you ask. All I've seen so far is a young woman with obviously good intentions trying to cope with an unexpected occurrence and the consequences thereof." He held up a hand as if to stop a protest, even though Sam hadn't been about to say anything, "I know that we've been taken in before, but I really can't believe that that's the case here."
Sam couldn't help but relax at his firm words. "You're right, dad."
"I'm your father. I'm supposed to be right."
She sniggered and rolled her eyes at her father before sobering. "That doesn't stop it from being more than a little awkward." She sighed softly, realizing how that was the understatement of the year, well, outside of some of the things she's heard Col. O'Neill say.
After a few more moments of awkward silence, she looked down and checked the clock, seeing that it was only half an hour' til Kylee was due to meet General Hammond. The meeting in and of itself should be fairly brief as it was only to meet him, and for her to understand exactly what the situation was. It would also be the first and best opportunity she and Jacob would have to really get to talk to her about, well, everything.
"Are you going to the meeting?" she finally asked her father. He nodded and she returned the gesture.
"Alright, I'll go check up on her and meet you in the briefing room," she said as she stood.
"See you then," Jacob acknowledged, departing from the lab to attend to his own business. Sam knew he had a meeting with General Hammond to exchange intelligence. She wondered how much Tok'ra would allow him to divulge.
The reality off the situation – basically falling into the lap of a military outfit – had Kylee on high alert. It made her nervous, and maybe it was just that she'd already gone through hell that she was pacing the floor at a normal pace, arms crossed and chewing on her thumbnail. In contrast to her regular-speed pacing, her thoughts flew through her in rapid fire. There were so many things wrong with this and she had no idea how to address it. Just the fact that she had been somehow flung nearly twenty years in the past (according to Dr. Fraiser) was bad enough, but the dopplegangers and alternate realities? Things like those were supposed to be strictly sci-fi fodder.
Of course she'd figured a lot of those ideas were, in fact, possible ever since she'd gotten her powers, but that didn't mean she wasn't surprised - shocked even. There were so many complicated feelings she had to sort through right now. And what would happen to her? Would they use her as some sort of experiment? Dissect her? Try to lock her away as too dangerous despite the fact that she'd tried to be as helpful and honest as she could be?
Part of her knew that her fears were unfounded. They had to be just as worried and confused about her as she was about them. That didn't stop her imagination from running away with her.
Of course, that's when the Major walked into the room, reading through some papers on a clipboard like Dr. Fraiser tended to do. Then she glanced up and smiled reassuringly at Kylee. Seeing her mom's smile on someone else didn't do a whole lot to put her mind at ease, but she forced herself to return it as best she could.
"Well, let's get down to business, shall we?" the older blond asked. "When General Hammond gets here, we're going to go over some of the tests we'd like to run."
"W-what kind of tests are you going to do?" Kylee asked, unable to hide her worry. This was, after all, following over a year of nightmares of discovery happening in front of her. Could anyone really blame her?
Major Carter blinked. "Nothing that should hurt you," she said reassuringly. "You're still a human and you have rights."
Well, that did make her feel a bit better. "Okay," she said with a nod. "What do you need, then?"
Sam had watched Kylee for a while before entering the room. Gone was the outgoing 'just glad to be alive' attitude she had sported when the girl had been dismissed from the infirmary. Now, all Sam saw were raw nerves. Probably from reality hitting her like a freight train. It had to be rough, given all the rules they'd put on her already. And honestly, Sam doubted that was the end of it. The fact that there was no real guarantee they could get her back to her world undoubtedly didn't help. Still, Sam knew they were going to try to make the adjustment as easy as possible.
Watching this girl pace back and forth as though she was awaiting a jury's verdict though, Sam knew she needed to nip this (admittedly understandable) worry in the bud. So she walked into the room, trying to be as positive as possible and reassure her that they had no intention of infringing on her basic human rights.
"Okay," the girl said with a nod. "What do you need, then?"
Sam smiled and reached for the girl's shoulder, intending to reassure her, but instantly regretted it.
"Ow!" she yelled as pain shot through her hand. She pulled it back and took a couple of steps away. A spark of electricity had lashed out at her before she'd even been able to touch her.
Kylee's eyes went wide in horror. "Major! Oh, no... I am so sorry." She reached out towards Sam, who backed off a bit more, having no desire to feel that again. Looking rather lost, Kylee slowly drew her arms in close at the woman's reaction. She thinned her lips, moving her arms like she didn't know where to put them, then looking to Sam apologetically. "It... it happens sometimes when I get nervous... I... um..."
"No, it's okay," Sam said, mostly to placate the situation. It was an accident after all. She glanced down to the red spot on her hand then looked to Kylee. There wasn't much she could do at the moment aside from try to help her calm down. Well, that was one heck of a natural defense. But they'd touched her before without having any issues. Perhaps she lost control during high-stress? Hmm, they'd have to keep an eye on that, but for now, Sam was willing to look past it.
"Why don't you take a seat?" she offered, allowing her face to soften.
"I'd rather stand..." Kylee mumbled softly, meeting eyes with Sam before looking away.
"Okay…" Sam said (what else could she say right now?) before turning her head. Her father and the General were supposed to be here soon anyway. Thankfully, not a minute later (although the awkwardness made it feel much longer), Jacob and the General stepped into the room.
Her father sent her a smile before approaching Kylee and looked her over. Honestly, in the fatigues and air force tee she wore, she looked like she had managed to recover. Physically at least. Sam could tell that her father felt a bit sympathetic for her. Sam did too. The girl was, after all, lost, confused, and scared of an uncertain future. Hopefully they could help her with that.
"Hi, Kylee. I'm Jacob, Sam's father," he said with a bright smile that had always put Sam at ease.
Sam saw the surprise in the girl's eyes as she glanced between the two relatives. Then her eyes widened even further as she put two and two together.
The major couldn't help but wonder how long it would take before the girl took Sam up on her offer and just sat down.
"Hi, Kylee. I'm Jacob, Sam's father," the older man said with a kind smile that almost succeeded in putting her at ease. Almost.
It took her a couple of minutes to fit the puzzle pieces in her head, but when she did, she couldn't help her surprise. She'd never met her maternal grandfather... at least she didn't remember doing so. She been, what, two when he died? Something like that. She had a couple of pictures of her sitting on his lap, though. And they did look... similar. She had to shake the thought from her head, biting her lip as she pulled her mind into the here and now. These weren't the same as the people she knew back home. She had to remember that.
"And I'm… Kylee," she ventured, hoping she sounded more sure than she felt. "But you knew that already, 'cause you just said it and... um..." Well, what a great impression. And she doubted her first impression earlier had been much better. Joy.
"True, though it's nice to have a proper introduction," Jacob said diplomatically.
"Heh. S'pose so," Kylee responded with a weak smile. That seemed to be enough for the older man.
"Kylee, this is General Hammond. He's our commanding officer," Sam explained, gesturing to the other bald man in the room. He had an intimidating presence, but offered a kind smile and a hand.
"Good to meet you, miss."
"Aah," Kylee exhaled, drawing to center herself a little before she took the hand and shook it. She noticed Sam visibly tensing as they did so. She frowned. Did the Major honestly think that she had no control? That had been an accident. To get her point across, she shot the older woman a dry look.
When nothing happened, other than Ky's hair sticking up a little more than usual, Sam relaxed.
"You too?" Kylee said, returning her attention to the man in front of her before withdrawing the appendage and shoving her hands into her pockets.
"Please, be seated," General Hammond said, gesturing to one of the many seats around the table. Kylee met eyes with Sam for just a moment. The woman raised her eyebrows in amusement and nodded to the table. She could just imagine her actual mother saying, 'Time to play ball, kiddo.'
Withholding a sigh, she took the nearest chair – one that happened to be very near the head of the table where the General took his place – and carefully sat down. Everyone else seemed to follow her lead, with Jacob coming to sit on her left and Sam heading to the other side of the table and sitting across from her.
After a few moments of silence while everyone got situated, the General turned to her.
"Now, I understand that you may have had a difficult set of circumstances in your turning up here." Kylee couldn't help but nod ironically at that. The General kept his attention on her, speaking earnestly. "I assure you, we're doing everything in our power to make sure that you can recover and if possible, return to your original reality."
Kylee couldn't help but feel relieved at his words. She felt a great deal calmer than she had did mere moments ago in any case.
He went on. "I don't want to give your hopes up, but we've been discussing possible ways to get you home."
Her confusion must have shown on her face because Sam spoke up, still looking amused. "We've dealt with this sort of thing before."
"You've traveled to another reality and in time? Like, at the same time?" Kylee asked, unable to keep her skepticism out of her voice. That was sort of displacement was kind of hard to comprehend, and while Kylee was no expert on the subject, she did have a working understanding of it.
"Not exactly," Sam said, still sounding calm and confident. "Well, not simultaneously, but we have done both on separate occasions. I'm not going to lie to you, it might take some time – years even – but seeing as you made it here in one piece it has to be possible. If there is a way to do it, we'll find it."
"In the meantime you'll be given quarters and amenities here. However, due to the circumstances, I'm assigning an escort to you. There are areas of this base that will be off limits and for now, you will be confined to base. Do you understand?" General Hammond asked with a firm, audible authority that came with years of leadership experience.
Kylee didn't like the sound of that, but it was better than being locked in a room... or worse. This really was 'best case scenario' considering. "Yes…" She didn't have to call him sir, did she?
"For the time being that's the best we can do, but I want you to know that you are not a prisoner and we'll do our best to make your stay here with us as comfortable as possible under the circumstances," he assured.
"W-what if..." she started, then looked away, unable to voice her concerns. She really didn't want to say it.
Thankfully, he knew what she'd been asking. "In the event that you are unable to return home, we will assist in finding more permanent accommodations."
Kylee tried not to wince and instead forced herself to nod. This short conversation had already gone a long way to soothe a lot of her worry. Her previous experience in the hands of a military organization hadn't exactly been positive, but then again they had been practically aliens.
Of course, the last time she was in a facility like this – deep underground – she'd received super powers, and while that wasn't one of her favorite memories, she wouldn't trade it for the world.
"Thank you, General Hammond," she finally said, smiling at the older man. "I appreciate that."
The General nodded and glanced at the other two people at the table. Kylee followed his gaze, her own landing on the woman sitting across from her. This woman who looked so familiar yet was so different. It was almost like looking at an old photograph of her mom, given that there was a twenty year difference. The corners of her lips tugged somewhat as Sam's eyes met hers before Kylee turned
away.
Sam saw the girl glance at her before looking away. She didn't know exactly what that look was, something of a mix of grief and uncertainty? Yeah, she really felt for the kid. After a moment, she turned to address her father.
"Is there anything the Tok'ra can do?"
Jacob shook his head. "Nothing that I or Selmak can think of. If anything comes up you'll be the first to know," he said, studying the girl, whose bright blue eyes were turned down towards the floor, carefully.
"Um," Kylee spoke quietly, "who's Selmak?"
Sam exchanged looks with the two bald men.
"We'll explain later," she assured.
"If there's nothing else," the General said.
Sam shook her head and went to stand.
"General," her father spoke up, surprising both of them. "If it's possible can we have some time alone to talk to Kylee?"
Sam blinked for a moment, then bit her lip at that request. When the General turned to her, eyebrows raised in question, she nodded in agreement. She had questions, and she thought maybe it was time to have a less 'official' talk with her. Try to calm her nerves about all of this.
"Of course. Take as much time as you need," the General replied. Thankfully, he seemed to realize that they all needed a bit of breathing room. He rose from his seat and went to return to his office without looking back. Sam had always appreciated that about her superior officer. He was terse, to the point and efficient, but not coldly so.
Once only the three of them remained, the two older occupants returning their gaze to the girl. Sam could see her father studying Kylee, trying to pick out any of the traits he recognized; family traits. She found herself doing the same, picking up the a couple of things that reminded Sam of herself, her father and her mother. There were a couple of other features that Sam didn't recognize and she wondered, yet again, who Kylee's father had been.
She rubbed her arms, realizing that her arm hairs were standing on end and wondered if that was due to Kylee's electrical discharge.
Then her father cleared his throat.
Jacob cleared his throat, which seemed to cause Kylee to eye both of them suspiciously for a moment before the same lost and confused but analytical look appeared on her face, as though she was trying to think of a way out of this. Jacob wanted to laugh. Their family never had been the best at personal talk. Fortunately, Selmak was in tune with Jacob in this. Family, even as distant as this, was important. He should at least extend a hand to her.
Kylee continued to look between them for several seconds before she lowered her gaze to her crossed arms.
"That... went smoother than I expected," she admitted. Jacob nodded in agreement. The girl obviously felt trapped, but seemed to appreciate their efforts.
"So," Kylee said before he could speak up, "there's a couple of elephants in the room we should probably take a look at."
"That's one way of putting it," Sam echoed the same glib tone as the girl. Jacob could definitely see the resemblance.
"One of em being that more likely than not I'm stuck here, barring a miracle. Yeah?" Her expression fell again and Jacob felt his heart reaching out to the girl. "I mean, it's not that difficult to read between the lines."
"We won't give up hope," his daughter said firmly. "In the meantime, I'd like to discuss with you the results of a test Dr. Fraser conducted while you were unconscious yesterday." Jacob started, meeting eyes with Sam briefly before continuing.
"You had a DNA match with my daughter," he gestured to the woman in question. Sam nodded, smiling, even though Jacob could tell she was nervous. It was the way she folded her hands and looked up at the girl to gauge her reaction. Jacob kept an eye on the girl out of the corner of his eye.
Kylee's eyes widened as she seemed to put a few pieces together of a puzzle she had going on in her head.
"I…" She looked uncertain, as though even while she had figured something out, she didn't necessarily know what to do with the answer.
"That's weird." She finally said, reaching up to her chin and looking thoughtful yet confused. "I mean I'm not that surprised, really. The resemblance is uncanny, but my mom isn't in the military, she's just… y'know. Normal. A little ahead of the curve, maybe, but aside from being my mom… like, I dunno. Normal, boring, average… Not even named Samantha… You're more like a cosmic twin sister of hers than anything else."
"Cosmic twin sister, huh? Pretty accurate way of putting it. " Sam replied. There had been a tug of her lips when Kylee had described her mother as 'ahead of the curb.', but she looked as though she was conceding the point. Jacob wasn't sure if it was because it put distance between her and the girl's mother or if if it was just logically sound.
"According to Multiverse theory, there is an ever growing number of parallel realities running concurrent with our own. Obviously there are some alternate timelines that have dramatically different results to historical events, just like the Goa'uld invasion of Earth for example. It didn't go well for a lot of other realities. We're one of the few realities in which we survived," Sam explained, but then looked to Kylee. "Her's must just be different in other ways."
Kylee raised her eyebrows, glancing to Jacob who shrugged. That was up to her to confirm or comment on.
"Well, I don't know that we have a stargate, but that seems like a big deal so I guess if the multiverse is infinite then there are just as many universes where one exists as where it doesn't. Same goes for the conditions that allowed for super powers to happen. There's probably some version where both happened." Kylee said, thought trailing off as though she didn't want to admit that there was a possibility that in some universe, Sam really was her mother.
Kylee's response made Jacob grin at Sam, given that it echoed her statement so succinctly.
Sam pressed her lips together, clearly amused - maybe even a little impressed - at the statement.
"Be that as it may," Jacob started, hoping that the young lady would be receptive to what he was about to say."If nothing else, if you do end up staying here for the foreseeable future, we'd like to do what we can to make you feel at home." He said, as gently as a seasoned veteran could.
"You mean as family?" Kylee clearly somewhat surprised at the offer, the puzzlement on her face told Jacob that much. She hadn't expected that.
"If that's what you want." Jacob said, offering a soft smile.
Carter's lips thinned, but she nodded just slightly. That apprehensive look returned to her face as her eyes met his.
There was long pause before Kylee spoke.
"I...don't really know." Kylee admitted, looking guilty as she said it.
"But they say that blood is thicker than water. And if you were in my situation, my family wouldn't turn you away." Possibly after the complicated notion of alternate universes were discussed. "Maybe that's just one constant in the multiverse."
Sam lowered her eyes, the corners of her mouth still tugged upwards into a wry impressed smile.
"You seem to know a lot about quantum theory," she said.
"I know what a quark is," Kylee replied in an almost self deprecating tone which reminded Jacob somewhat of Jack O'Neill. "You see in the future we have this thing called science fiction. And y'know, Youtube."
"It's a start." Sam granted her that much.
"Youtube?" Jacob asked, curiously.
"Oh are you serious? They don't have that yet?" The young girl asked in disbelief.
"Um, no, not yet. Hopefully you won't have to wait that long," Sam said, unhelpfully.
"Any chance you can try sending me a couple years into the future?" Kylee didn't miss a beat on that one, looking flustered but otherwise her mood had shifted into something a bit more amicable.
Jacob just gave Sam a knowing smile, there was definitely a bit of her in this girl which meant whoever Ky's mother had turned out to be, she really wasn't so different from Sam.
Sam gave a small smile in return but turned her focus back to Ky.
"I think you'll fit in here just fine, Kylee. And despite whatever happened before you came here, you're here now. You're safe, and, at the very least, we'll be here for you. I can promise you that," Sam said, offering her own olive branch to the girl.
Ky dipped her head, nodding and cracking a soft smile at Sam's willingness to help her. She usually wasn't this shy but the circumstances ended up making it hard not feel her cheeks flush.
"Yeah. Um. Thanks, you guys. I appreciate that," she said, leaning back in the chair, just starting to really relax. Her eyes turned towards the windows overlooking the gateroom again, curiously.
"Don't mention it," Sam replied, said following her gaze, and gesturing towards it as she stood. Kylee took her lead, followed by Jacob.
She looked down upon the gate, brows raising as she took it in. Sure, it looked cool and all, but like it could transport someone to another world? No. "How does it work? Is it magnetic?"
"It's basically a giant super conducter," Sam explained.
"That must be where all the rumbling comes from," he girl muttered, pressing her hands against the glass briefly as she tried to get a better look.
"You can feel it working from five floors up?" Sam asked with disbelief.
"I think so. That must be it. I didn't know what it was until I was sitting in this room." Sitting only a hundred feet from it. It wasn't even turned on.
"How do your powers work?" Sam asked almost automatically.
"Uh..." Kylee hesitated, looking to her as she searched for the right way to explain. it.
"I absorb kinetic energy and convert it into electricity," She finally said, glancing around the room, her eyes settling on a pot of coffee. Electricity jumped off her body and her form blurred and disappeared before returning to where she started in the seconds later with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Oh. That's..." Sam, somewhat wary of the electrical crackles that soon dissipated off the girl's form. Jacob however simple smiled.
"Remarkable," he said, finishing the thought. Fearlessly, he walked over to Kylee and put a hand on her shoulder as they looked on over the stargate.
"I guess I speak for all of us then, when I say, welcome to Stargate Command." Kylee set the coffee down, crossing her arms as he gave the shoulder a squeeze as the trio looked down upon the stargate and all of it's wonder.