Traveling Daughter
Chapter One
Based upon Stargate: SG-1
According to my computer, I started this story three and a half years ago. I am proud to say it is finally finished. You'll be able to read it in it's entirety over the next week or two.
I have installed a clock so you can have an idea about the passage of time. Classic hours : minutes setup. Not necessary, but I found it helpful during the writing process, so maybe you'll find it helpful during the reading process.
- . - - - . - Time in Reality: 00:00
Season Ten - Post "Uninvited", Pre "Road Not Taken"
"No, of course I'm excited." Pause. "It's just . . . There's a lot on my plate right now." Pause, laugh. "No, you don't need to send Cam to the Gamma Site."
Samantha Carter smiled to herself as she listened to the person on the other end of the line. "It's just gonna be you and me and a lake with no fish," her tone turned soft. "You're bringing the whipped cream right?" Pause. "Yes, I remember about that one board on the dock that squeaks. I also remember that Lay-Z-Boy that you love so much." She released a chuckled as he released a longing groan before asking her another question.
"Yeah, I told them I was visiting my brother, but I don't think Teal'c or Vala believed me."
With a flash and a fizzle of light, someone appeared - from literally no where - in the center of her lab. She shrieked. "I'm gonna have to call you back." Pause. "No, I'm fine, but I have to call you back." She hung up the phone.
"Mom?" the someone asked.
"Mom?" Sam repeated. She couldn't decide on what to be more shocked about, the fact that someone almost magically appeared in her lab, or the fact that that person called her 'Mom.'
She was wearing Air Force blue BDUs, though they seemed a little different in style than the ones Sam was wearing. One shoulder had an SGC patch on it, the other said SG6. It was no member of SG6 she recognized. The nametape above her right breast pocket said "Carter" and she wore a the silver train tracks of a Captain on her collar.
The someone, a woman maybe ten years younger than herself, touched her own chest, "Mom, it's me Cassie."
"Where did you come from?"
"By the look of you, 'when' is probably the better question," Cassie said.
"Okay, when? And who are you?"
"I came from 2016, which is - looking at you - the future," her tone turned chipper as she regarded Sam carefully. "You look great, by the way."
Sam just stared. You look great? Cassie had said. "What?" She really couldn't form any other words. Sam had no idea what was going on, but her visitor obviously had a clue.
"I'm Cassandra Carter, your daughter."
Sam blinked. "My daughter?" Then it hit her, this Cassie did look familiar. Sam did know her, but as Cassandra Fraiser. "Oh my God, Cassie."
Cassie smiled, probably glad to be recognized.
Sam shook her head, understanding. Cassie's smile faded. "I was the one who adopted you, not Janet . . ."
"Janet? Janet Fraiser?"
Sam nodded. "You didn't just come from the future, you came from an alternate reality, one in which I adopted you instead of Janet." She paused, thinking. "How did you get here?"
She gave a chagrinned smile. "That's a funny story. See," she held out her wrist and revealed what appeared to be a modified Sodan cloaking device, "I was working on a project to interface the SCDs with Arthur's Mantle and . . . there was an incident."
"What kind of incident?"
Cassie smiled, "Now you sound like my mom."
"Cassie," she said, realizing that she had again used her mom tone, usually reserved for Jack, Cam, Vala, or a combination of the three.
"Okay, well, I was trying to make a personal cloaking device, similar to the Sodan's," she held out her wrist, "but that didn't irradiate the wearer. So, I was running experiments with Arthur's Mantle. I don't know exactly what happened. I was in my lab when I heard an unscheduled off-world activation. The lights surged, I was called to the 'gateroom, but before I could move, there was a flash and . . . Hello."
"Well, there was probably a power surge in the 'gate system that traveled through the facility and through the Mantle, if you had to connected to the main grid."
Cassie nodded. "Yeah, in retrospect, that probably wasn't the greatest idea."
Sam nodded slowly. "Yeah, probably not."
There was a moment of silence. "How do I get home?"
Sam watched her for a second, thinking. She had no idea.
- . - Time in Reality: 00:30
Cassie stood next to her mother, who wasn't really her mother. They were waiting in the briefing room for the rest of SG1, Carolyn Lam, and the General. They had come directly from "Mom's" lab. General Landry showed up first, finally worming himself away from the geologist from SG-12.
He stared at her a moment before turning to Mom. "Colonel?"
"Sir, if you don't mind, I'd like to wait for everyone else so we only have to explain this once."
He nodded. "Alright." He took the seat at the end of the table and continued to regard her carefully, no doubt seeing the SG6 patch on her shoulder. She shook her head. "You haven't seen me in about ten years. But we'll explain when everyone else gets here."
The others trickled in after a few minutes. They all were staring at her, like they didn't recognize her. Of course, they didn't. She recognized them, so it was more than a little strange.
When everyone was settled, Mom glanced to General Landry for the nod, which he gave. "This," she held her hand out, "is Cassandra Carter. She appeared in my lab earlier today. Because of an accident involving a Sodan Cloaking Device, Arthur's Mantle and - we think - a 'gate overload, she made a jump from her reality to ours."
No one said anything.
"In her reality, she's my daughter," Mom paused. Several people looked as if they were going to say something, but didn't. "In this reality, she's Cassandra Fraiser."
It then clicked for everyone. It seemed they had all recognized her but didn't know from what or where, like that one actor who you're sure you've seen in something else but just can't put your finger on it.
"I'm sorry, who?" Vala asked.
"Almost twenty years ago, ten from your perspective, the Goa'uld Nirrti was performing experiments on many of her worlds. She was trying to create a hak'taur. She destroyed my entire planet and all the people on it. I survived. SG1 rescued me. Where I come from, Mom adopted me. Here, I guess, Doctor Fraiser adopted me."
"Janet Fraiser was one of my predecessors," Doctor Lam explained. "She was killed in action three years ago."
There was a moment of silence in the room, those who remembered her felt the loss.
"What do we do now?" Cam asked.
"We try to get me home," Cassie said.
- . - Time in Reality: 25:26
Cassie stood next to her mother in her mother's lab. She had arrived in that reality the day before and they had made little progress. Sure, they were pretty sure they figured out what had initiated the first jump. But, that didn't mean they knew how to make it happen again.
She did like spending time with her mom in this capacity. In this reality, she and her mom were friends, sisters almost. That was how she acted, as if she was interacting with her Cassie. Now that they were much closer in age, they related with incredible ease.
Not to mention they worked well together, almost certainly because Cassie learned most of what she knew from Mom.
"Why don't we just try another power surge?" Cassie suggested.
Mom looked up. "Because I'm not sure where that will send you, assuming it sends you anywhere at all."
"The truth is, Mom, I'm getting antsy. I've been here a while and I'm worried about entropic cascade."
Mom sighed. "Yeah, me too. It's not a pretty sight, and I'd rather you didn't have to go through it."
"I say we go for it."
Mom was silent for a minute, thinking. "Let's wait. We don't know if you're going to experience it. Not only did you jump realities, but time as well. Your quantum signature may have changed. I honestly don't know."
"Yeah, well, in ten years we're still just as clueless about this as you are." Cassie considered her mother's concern. "You're right, let's wait. But as soon as it happens, I want to try."
Mom nodded. "Alright."
"Good morning, ladies," Colonel Mitchell said walking into the lab.
Cassie glanced up, past Mom, to the door and Colonel Mitchell before turning back to her work. "Oh hey."
"Woah!" Mitchell said.
Again, she looked up. "What?" she and Mom said together.
He walked into the lab. "You didn't see that. You both looked up at the same time, said the same thing, and looked down. Then you both looked up at the same time, again." Settling on the other side of the lab table, he looked at the both of them. "You sure you're not related?"
"Oh, ha ha," Cassie said. She glanced at Mom, realizing they both wore the exact same expression.
It was not lost on Mitchell. "Lunch?" he changed the subject.
"How do you know we haven't eaten already?" Mom asked.
"What time is it?" he asked. "Don't cheat," he pointed his finger at her.
"1100."
"Ha!" he pointed accusingly. "It's 1330."
"You said 'good morning' when you came in," Cassie said.
"That was a test to see if either of you know what time it was. Come on," he waved them over while heading to the door. "Lunch."
Mom leaned over to her. "He doesn't get this excited about lunch unless they have roast beef."
"That's because it's delicious, come on."
Laughing, she followed Mom and Colonel Mitchell out.
- . - Time in Reality: 32:56
Cassie headed towards Mom's lab. Mom had gone home for the night. Cassie couldn't fall asleep, so she decided to look at their problem some more. When she got there, she heard Mom's voice. She thought she had gone home for the night.
Mom was talking to someone. Standing outside Mom's lab, she listened. Cassie didn't hear a second voice, so concluded Mom was on the phone. She knew shouldn't be eavesdropping on her mother's phone conversations, but . . . Sam Carter wasn't her mom here.
"Why are you still working? You had a few days off, you should've taken them," Mom said.
Cassie wondered who she was talking to.
"I know. I wanted to have this vacation too, but this thing with Cassie came up."
Now she felt bad, Mom didn't tell her that she interrupted her leave time.
The tone in Mom's voice changed, it became softer, silkier. "How about this. When we figure out how to get Cassie home, you and I can go up to the cabin. No ifs, ands, or buts."
Cabin?! Was Mom on the phone with Jack?
"Really? You don't think I can get out of here at the drop of a hat. What about you? If you deviate from your schedule for a sip of water, Lieutenant Stevens is all over you." Mom laughed. "Oh, you definitely need an assistant or nothing would ever get done."
Cassie decided to enter the room before someone came down the corridor and saw her eavesdropping. "Mom, what are you doing here so late?" she asked, pretending not to have heard any of that conversation.
Mom was sitting in the rolly-chair, leaning back comfortably with her feet up on a table. She snapped upright, dropping her feet. "We can talk about it later." Her tone changed, it was a little more professional, and perhaps a bit embarrassed. "Yeah," she said after a pause, "Cassie's here. We're going to get to work." She tried to suppress a smile, obviously from something Jack said. "I'll call you tomorrow." She hung up the phone and greeted at Cassie with a smile, "Evening."
Cassie leaned on the lab table, eyes wide with interest. "Who was that?"
"Oh, that? Nobody." She rifled through a few things on the table and then turned to her laptop, trying to disguise the blush creeping onto her face.
"Was it Jack?"
For a split second, Cassie thought Mom would deny it, but she didn't. Well, almost didn't. "Okay, yes, it was the General."
Cassie shook her head. "Uh uh. You don't go on vacation with the General."
Mom tried not to look guilty.
"Are you and Jack a thing?"
She sighed. "Well, yeah."
Cassie smiled. "Really? That's great. Weird, but great."
"Weird? Why is it weird?" Mom asked, leaning toward her.
"Because he's not my dad."
The statement caught Mom off guard. She looked a little scared for a minute. Cassie was sure it was the word "dad" that gave Mom thoughts of marriage and children.
"Who is your dad?" she finally asked.
"I don't have one," Cassie said. "I mean, you and Teal'c have been together for a little over five years now, but he's not really my dad."
"Teal'c? Really? What's that like?"
Cassie was about to answer, but a sharp pain she could feel in every joint, muscle and bone stopped her. For a few seconds she felt like she was being torn in two, or three, or four. Her knees almost buckled, and she gripped the table to stay upright. When she was fully aware of her surroundings again, Mom was standing next to her, arm around her and propping her up.
"I know what that was," Mom said.
Cassie took a deep breath, her entire body ached. She felt like he had just been hit by a bus. "Let's try the power surge."
Mom nodded. "Yeah."
- . - Time in Reality: 33:43
Cassie stood in an isolation room surrounded by the equipment needed to cause a power surge like one caused by the 'gate without actually overloading the 'gate. She had already said her goodbyes, but looked up and waved at her mother and friends anyway.
They waved and smiled back.
"I'm ready," she finally said.
Her mom punched a few controls and a humming sound filled the room. The lights flickered, flashed, then settled. She looked around. Nothing. She hadn't shifted realities.
"It didn't work," Colonel Mitchell said.
Her mom frowned. "No, it didn't."
"Should we try it again?" he asked.
Cassie shook her head. "I don't want to risk it just yet. I don't want to blow out the SCD. If I lose that, I really will be screwed."
"Well, Cass," Colonel Mitchell said, "you're not in such a great-"
His words were drown out as every joint in her body lit afire and started to pull away from each other. As soon as it started, it was over. Cassie was on her knees, Mom and Colonel Mitchell were at her sides, gripping her shoulders.
"Cassie," Mom said.
She shook her head and allowed them to help her to her feet. "We've gotta find a way to get me out of here."
- . - Time in Reality: 35:48
They were sitting in the commissary, half empty trays in front of them, the food long cold. Colonel Mitchell had convinced them to have a lunch meeting, even though it wasn't lunch time. Cassie and Mom, realizing that hadn't eaten in a while, agreed.
Cassie and Mom were having a lively discussion with two computers between them. Mitchell was napping one table over.
"I just don't understand why another power surge didn't do anything," Cassie admitted.
"I know. We checked the device and nothing shorted out, melted . . ."
"Oooh!" Cassie made a realization. "We checked ONE device!"
"Arthur's Mantle?"
"Yeah, we have no idea what condition that's in, and that's what was hooked up to the power grid anyway."
"So you want to interface our Mantle with your SCD and then give it another surge?"
"It's as good a theory as any."
"Cam," Mom said. He didn't move. "Cam." She threw a straw at him, he still didn't move. "Cam!" She slapped him across the back of the head.
He jumped. "Ow. What'd you do that for?"
"You were sleeping on the job."
"Hey, my job is very stressful."
"Your job is to follow us around."
Colonel Mitchell opened his mouth to reply but there was a blinding flash of light.
- . - - - . - Time in Reality: 36:00