Chapter 5 - Toast

Jennifer stepped back in shock. Her mouth gaped open before she regained control over her jaw. "You... you're me. And you're pointing a gun at me. Why?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"You can't fool me, Ashkelon."

"Huh?"

"What exactly is going on here?" Rodney demanded. "Put the gun down, 'Jen', or 'Lieutenant' or whoever you are."

"I don't think so," Jen replied. She turned her attention back to Jennifer. "What are you planning here, Ashkelon? You were trying to destroy my universe, and sabotaging Doctor Rod's attempts to stop you. Well, that ends now."

"I don't know what you're talking about! I'm Doctor Jennifer Keller. Who's Ashkelon?" Jennifer wondered.

Jen looked confused. "You're a doctor?"

"Medical. Chief medical officer of... you-know-where. You're a lieutenant?"

"Wait, she's CMO in this reality? Then why is she at this meeting?" Rod asked.

"I invited her," Rodney stated. "Why did you think she was here?"

"I thought she must be a bodyguard, undercover," Rod explained.

"This is all a big misunderstanding," Rodney began. "I'm sure we can straighten it out if we explain ourselves. First, who is this Ashkelon?"

Rod shot Jen a worried look. "She's another version of Jennifer Keller, who invaded our reality several months ago."

"Okay, so why call her Ashkelon?" Rodney asked.

"She had... snake problems."

"Oh," Rodney said softly.

Jennifer blanched. "You mean she was a... that's terrible!"

Jen just nodded. "She impersonated me, and... caused me a lot of pain. We killed her before she could get away, but... I'm sure there are others, in other realities. I don't know whether you are, or not... but I don't want to take any chances!"

"Lieutenant! None of this is necessary! They're all on our side, and they'll shut down the bridge as soon as we return to our home reality," Rod reassured her. "The programming's nearly finished. Come on!"

Jen shook her head. "No. I can't leave a potential threat un-dealt with," she declared.

Realising her time was up, Jennifer whirled into action, forcing the gun to the ground and pushing Jen away to keep her away from the weapon. Jen immediately struck back. Several blows later, Jennifer decided that Jen too must have had sparring lessons with Ronon.

"Lieutenant, let her go!" Rod demanded.

"She... attacked... me!" Jen grunted between blows.

"You were about to shoot her!" Rodney protested."

"What on Earth - or Earths - is going on?" demanded the thoroughly confused Kramer.

"Break it up, ladies!" Malcolm shouted, to no avail. The noise was making it hard to concentrate on reconfiguring the system for two concurrent time-space bridges.

"Niel is never gonna believe this," Bill Nye muttered. "But I think I prefer the first one."

"Stop fighting, Jen, she was just defending herself," Rod tried. "We've got to get out of here so they can close the bridge."

"I've got... two and a half... minutes," came Jen's answer amid lunges at her double.

The McKays looked at each other in sudden horror. "You put the C4 on a timer!" they simultaneously realised.

"Motion sensors too," Jen huffed as she ducked a high kick from Jennifer. "You can't... disarm. I have the... remote."

She'd barely gotten the words out when Rodney threw himself into the fight. Rod looked on helplessly, unsure of who to help. The others in the room weren't going to go near the fight, since there was a loaded gun lying nearby and they still didn't follow what was happening. "We've got to get the remote from her! To disarm the explosives on the bridge generator," Rodney explained helpfully as he struggled. For a moment he thought they had her subdued, but then she shook herself loose and vanished in a flash of white light.

"What was that?" Bill Nye exclaimed. Others in the room repeated the sentiment.

"She's returned to her reality," Rodney explained. "Jennifer, are you alright?"

"I'm a bit banged up," Jennifer replied, sounding a bit winded. "Thanks Rodney, I couldn't hold her off much longer. Why'd she leave? I thought she wanted to..."

"Yes. But she was more concerned about preventing us from stopping the... the C4! We can't disarm it! And if we don't shut down the bridge, it'll most likely take out the whole facility with it!"

"Maybe I can find a way to disarm..." Rod began to offer.

Rodney shook his head. "Nonononononono, you've got to get out of here so Malcolm can shut down the bridge. You need to get back to your honeymoon with... who did you marry?"

"Laura Cadman."

"What?! You married Lieutanant Cadman?"

"No, she's a doctor. Chief medical officer, actually. And she tap dances."

"The one here is a demolitions expert... but still with the tap dancing. How did you two get together?"

"Guys, we've got less than a minute until..." Jennifer tried to remind them, but they didn't notice.

"It started when I tried to push her out of the way of a culling beam and instead I ended up trapped in her head, thanks to Zelenka."

"Really? That's so unfair! I had Cadman stuck in my body!"

"Hey! McKays! I'm ready to open the second bridge!" Malcolm called.

"Oh, right. Has anyone seen my..."

Jennifer dropped a tiny cylindrical device into Rod's hand. "Here, 'Jen' dropped it."

"Thanks. Here's hoping that this never happens again." He pressed the button on the beacon and vanished in a brilliant white flash.

"Right, now as soon as someone checks my math, we can..."

"What do you think I've been doing! We've got less than twenty seconds before the bomb goes off. Just do it!" Nye loudly encouraged.

Malcolm initialised the startup sequence. "It's drawing power for the second bridge. It's gaining strength. First bridge is looking strained. Second bridge is starting to form. The power draw is enormous! If the explosion happens now..."

With a violent flash, the powersupply overloaded. "Yes!" Malcolm cheered. "Both bridges have completely collapsed. The power supply is toast, but the rest of the equipment..."

A small explosion rocked the facility.

"...is toast too," Malcolm finished sadly.

"We'd be toast too if you hadn't kept working without me," Rodney told him. "Well done."

"Actually, I didn't think I could do it, but I had the feeling Bill would slap me if I stopped working," Malcolm admitted.

"What makes you think that?" Nye protested.

Rodney just shook his head at the pair. "Never mind, lets get out of here. It's warm outside, remember?"

"Best idea you've had all day," Jennifer kidded.

"First orgininal idea," Nye added.

"That's only because Rod thought of everything else I thought of!" Rodney argued. "Technically I thought of those ideas twice!"

"Rodney. Humble," Jennifer reminded him.

"Oh, right. Let's get out of here."