Tuesday, May 5
Reality A001

Samantha gazed at the steadily burning sample of ore. She'd started it on Monday morning, and the flame hadn't even consumed half the mass of the ten gram lump. She noted the time and the weight of it, the temperature, and the level of fumes. This was an incredible find.

The sound of a throat being cleared made her turn. Seeing General Hammond, she put her clipboard down and saluted. He nodded and she dropped the salute. "Sir, can I help you?"

"Actually, I just wanted to congratulate you. You got a great deal of personal information out of Dr. Jackson last evening. I may be able to make use of some of it."

Samantha stared at him, then recovered herself. "Glad to hear it, sir," she lied. She'd never been any good at lying, but some buried gift was awakening or something , because Hammond seemed to buy everything she said.

"You're doing very well, lieutenant." She smiled as nausea churned in her gut. "There is a promotion list coming out next week. I think you might want to look at it."

She managed to broaden her smile. "Thank you, sir."

"I'm proud of you, young lady, and your father would be, too." With that parting shot, he left her alone. Her father would be appalled by her behavior . . . she thought. He'd never known about the stargate program, never known about the Goa'uld.

She shook her head and got back to work. What ifs would get her nowhere.

When evening finally came, she set her work aside and went to see Daniel. They had a pleasant evening and by mutual consent discussed nothing whatsoever of a personal nature. She left him calm and as happy as he could be under the circumstances. Of course that was the surface. Who knew what might be roiling underneath? She headed on home and did her tai chi to try to calm herself. Hammond's approbation had hit her hard. She didn't want it, but she couldn't avoid it.

Wednesday, May 5
Reality L583

Jack walked into Carter's lab and sat down. She didn't even notice his entrance, she was so wrapped up in what she was doing. It seemed to consist of a lot of soldering and a few muttered curse words. He picked up a squarish object and started fiddling with it while he waited for Carter to notice him.

A month today. He'd been gone a month today. Jack grimaced, feeling utterly helpless. The Daniel in the VIP suite was starting to try and walk today. He'd been summarily kicked out by both Daniel and Dr. Fraiser for being too much of a fussbudget. So he'd come here, to see how Carter was coming along. She continued to work for about twenty minutes, then sat back and wiped her forehead. Only then did she notice him.

Her eyes widened. "Sir, is there some problem?"

"No, I just haven't seen you since Saturday and thought I'd drop by." He looked over the stuff on the table at the thing she was working on. "How's it coming?"

"It's . . ." She shrugged. "I don't have all the materials required by the specs, which makes it hard to know if it will work."

"No one expects miracles, Carter," he said.

"Maybe not, sir," she replied. "But Daniel needs us, and –" A loud, shrill whistle sounded and she broke off. Jack turned towards it and saw that the mirror was activated.

"Did you do that?" he asked.

"No," she said, hurrying around so that she could look into the mirror. "It's Maybourne," she said.

"This soon?" Jack shook his head. "That can't be good news."

Carter was gesturing for Maybourne to come on through, and a moment later he was in the room with them.

"I can't stay long," he said as Carter went to the phone to call Hammond.

"How long?"

"Five minutes, ten at the most."

"Okay, start talking."

"Hammond just put through a request to get the mirror back."

Jack's fist clenched and he couldn't find words to speak.

"Why?" Carter asked. "I thought you said they'd decided to keep him."

"They have," Maybourne said. "But they've decided they need another hold on him. Your Daniel is looking for his Sha're, isn't he? She's not dead?"

"Not so far as we know," Jack said. "What the –"

"Hammond plans to go through the mirror to some reality we haven't stolen from yet, and grab a Sha're to use to control Dr. Jackson." He pursed his lips. "It would work, wouldn't it, no matter where she was from?"

"You could grab some girl from the street and threaten to hurt her to control Daniel," Jack said. "Or man, for that matter."

"Sir!" Carter exclaimed, looking appalled, and Jack abruptly realized that he was handing the man information that could be detrimental to Daniel.

"Don't worry, I still haven't seen your wayward archeologist. No one's seen him but his keepers, Lt. Carter and O'Neill."

The way he said it made Carter and O'Neill separate from the keepers, a fact which rang oddly in Jack's ears. "What, don't you consider them to be his keepers?"

Maybourne shook his head. "Samantha's trying to get him out, and O'Neill . . . well, he's . . ." The other man grimaced. "He's gaining some hint of sanity back, and I get the feeling it's going very hard. And Hammond's started using Jackson against him."

"How so?" Jack asked, feeling anger start to surge. How could that bastard let Hammond use his captive against him? Didn't he have any self-control?"

"I don't know a lot of details, this is all filtered through Lt. Carter, but it sounds like there's been a fundamental shift in the man's personality. He's asked Carter to help him keep from hurting him. He's never acknowledged that there was a problem before, so this is a big improvement."

"You'll have to forgive me for not giving a damn," Jack growled. "I want my Daniel back here, right now. In fact, yesterday would be better."

"I wish I could provide that, but I've lost the mirror officially now, so Hammond doesn't have access to grab another hostage. It's going to make everything more difficult."

"Damn you, Maybourne, difficult or –"

"O'Neill!" Hammond's voice was tense and angry, and had the effect of a choke chain. Jack stopped sharply, and only then realized that he had been stalking forward, looming over Maybourne. To his credit, he didn't look intimidated in the least. "What's the news?" the general asked

"Our Hammond has sent for the mirror so he can take a hostage to help control Dr. Jackson," Maybourne said. "He found out that Sha're of Abydos is a potent figure in your Daniel's life, so he plans to find one and use her as a means of applying pressure."

"I see," Hammond said in measured tones. "What does that mean for us?"

"It means that I've had to officially 'lose' the mirror, which is going to make visits like this more difficult, and the whole situation much more complicated. There is another thing to think about, though. If Hammond is looking for a hostage to hold against your Dr. Jackson, he's not likely to kill him."

"If he's using him as hostage to O'Neill, he's not likely to kill him," Carter said. "That's not the point. The point is that our Daniel needs to be here, the Daniel we've got needs to go home, and all the other Daniels need to go to their homes. You do realize that there are five other realities where there are groups of us looking for ways to get their Daniels back? With that mirror where it is, you're looking at a heap of trouble unless you find a way to get this resolved soon."

"No one's come through yet."

"It's only a matter of time," Carter said. "I'm already halfway to making a new controller. How far might someone who has their own controller be after . . . how long has it been since you took the first Daniel?"

"About six months," Maybourne said.

"Then you're due for a visit, I'd guess," Carter said.

Maybourne grimaced. "That had occurred to me, believe it or not. It's one of the reasons I've tried to gain control of the mirror. I want to set things right so that doesn't happen."

"Well you're taking your goddamned time about it," Jack said angrily.

"I'm trying," Maybourne said, glaring. "You have no idea what it's like over there."

Carter put a hand on Jack's arm, and he held back his own emotions with an effort. She stepped forward. "How is Daniel?" she asked urgently.

Maybourne's expression softened. "Your counterpart says that he's very upset," he said. "The situation isn't a pleasant one. Hammond has set things up so that he can easily cut Dr. Jackson off from any human contact. So far, he's been kept even more isolated than he was to begin with, and it's already telling on him, she says." He shook his head. "It's . . . I don't know. I'm working on a way to get this dealt with quickly. With Hammond raising the stakes, we can't afford for it to drag on much longer."

"No, we can't," General Hammond said. "When can we expect another contact?"

"Next week, Monday I hope." The mirror came on suddenly and Maybourne turned towards it. "I have to go," he said. "I'm sorry. I will come back, as soon as I can."

He reached out and touched the mirror, vanishing instantly to appear within the frame. Then the image winked out.

"How are you progressing, captain, really?" Hammond asked after a moment.

Carter glowered at the thing she'd been working on. "Not nearly as well as I led him to think, but I will get it. Not today, probably, but before the next time we see him, I hope."

"Good," Hammond said. "Keep up the good work, Carter." With that he left, and Jack sat back down heavily in the chair he'd risen from on Maybourne's arrival.

"Sir, are you okay?"

"It's a month today, Carter," he said. "Something's got to give."

She nodded and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll come up with something, sir, I promise you that," she said, then returned to work.

Reality A001

When the announcement of an unscheduled gate activation sounded through the base, Samantha got up from her lab bench and hurried to the control room. She reached it as Hammond did, just in time to see the kawoosh. He glanced at her and nodded approval at her presence. She tried not to flinch, but Harriman gave her an odd look. Hammond, predictably, noticed nothing.

The iris swirled closed, and they waited tensely for a code to come through. Samantha wanted Jack to come back, but she also thought it could be better if he stayed away awhile. Hammond's influence was pernicious.

A moment later, Harriman said, "SG-1's signal, sir."

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered.

Harriman did and she watched as Jack came through with Kowalski and the others in his wake. Both Jack and Kowalski looked absolutely furious. She followed Hammond down to the gateroom, wondering what had happened. With the way the two of them had been since the last mission, she didn't think it likely that their anger stemmed from the same source. Or if it did, they were undoubtedly on opposite sides of the issue.

Jack made straight for Hammond at an angry stride. "They weren't rebelling, sir. They were on strike, and they had damned good reasons!" he said, coming to a halt in front of the general. Kowalski was shaking his head, but he held his peace.

"I beg your pardon, colonel?" Hammond said. "I don't think I understand you. How is going on strike different from rebellion?"

"Barnes led us to believe that they were a danger to his team, that they were threatening their lives." Samantha listened with a sinking heart. She admired the sentiment, and was glad that she didn't have to decide how to react to a Jack who had done something terrible to innocent people, but this wasn't a good thing either. There was something profoundly wrong with the world when doing the right thing was a bad idea. Jack shook his head. "It's a load of horseshit. They just don't want to go back in the mine till there's better conditions down there."

Hammond's voice remained calm and measured. "O'Neill, you are aware of how urgently we need naquadah?"

"Yes, sir, of course, but –"

"But what? Go back there and get those miners working again."

"I'll be glad to," Jack said in an eminently reasonable tone. Samantha winced. She knew what was coming. Some sarcastic remark or other, and it wouldn't go down well with Hammond. He raised his hand and pushed his cap back slightly. "Get me a couple of engineers, some steel, and some equipment."

There was a silence that hung heavy in the air. After a moment, Hammond spoke, again in that calm voice that was more frightening than shouts. "SG-18 has engineers, O'Neill," Hammond said.

"Obviously they're incompetent boobs, then, because those mines need shoring up, badly."

"I see." Hammond turned to one of the SFs. "Please take Colonel O'Neill into custody."

"Sir?" the young sergeant said uncertainly.

"Cuff him. Now." They obeyed, looking utterly perplexed. She half expected Jack to fight it, but though he looked daggers at Hammond, he submitted. Once he was restrained between two SFs, Hammond turned back to Kowalski. "Major, I'm putting you in charge of this mission. Go back and see to it that those miners get to work."

Kowalski's scowl broke into a broad grin. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." He turned to the others and started talking.

Jack shook his head. "This is crazy. What those people need is help, not someone offering to shoot them." Kowalski threw a smirk over his shoulder at the colonel, then returned to his plotting. Samantha remained a silent witness to the events.

Hammond shook his head. "You're not the one who decides what they need, Colonel O'Neill. Peters, Newman, take him to my office." He waited, watching, while they took the colonel away between them, then went to the phone. "Major Coburn, I'll need you in about twenty minutes." There was a pause. "Yes, I'll meet you there."

Samantha stiffened. Coburn? No, not . . . she shook her head wordlessly.

Hammond turned and saw her. "Carter, you're dismissed," he said. "You don't need to see this."

She had no choice. Disobeying would only make matters worse. She left and returned to her office, trying not to imagine what was going to happen.