I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you people who are reading this crazy story and many thanks to the people who have left reviews! :) I've pretty much caught up to what I'd written ahead of time, so updates from here on out will be slower, but not by very much. This story has practically been writing itself; the only problem I've had is that there are too many options as to where this story could go and I've had trouble deciding which would be the most fun direction to go while still being as true as I can to the SG-1 characters.

Thank you again for reading!

Okay. Enough of that. The story.

Chapter 9: Stellar Cartography

Starbase 83 looked like an enormous blue mushroom in space. Captain Picard had said he would have to be in conference with other captains and Starfleet admirals while they were there to discuss the Borg, and that was just fine with Sam. The sooner they could determine a course of action, the sooner they could set about clearing the scourge from the galaxy.

This galaxy. There were always other galaxies, other universes, with evil to face. And she questioned whether her time was better spent helping this universe with their problems rather than trying to get back to her own. After all, her own world was in constant danger, too. Perhaps more immediate danger.

But the Borg. Right now, the only thing she could concentrate on was finding a way to get rid of them.

It didn't help that she had hit a dead-end with the Enterprise's sensor logs. Wesley had done his best to clean them up, but there didn't appear to be a lot to see even with that. The wormhole had been clearly incoming to the planet from apparently nowhere. At least somewhere beyond the Enterprise's unfortunately limited range at the time. Their rotten luck would have it that the Enterprise would be malfunctioning at just the same time as they were coming in, wouldn't it?

She looked at the sensor logs again and felt the old frustration growing again. All this technology surrounding her, and she couldn't see it. It wasn't helping. She told herself stubbornly that it was just because she didn't understand it yet. As soon as she could find her way around it blindfolded, like she could with the systems at Stargate Command back home, then she would have the answer in no time. It just happened that way.

The science labs at Starbase 83 were much like the Enterprise's, only larger and with a few more pieces of equipment. If Data were not busy talking to the admirals and such with Captain Picard, Sam would have liked to pick his positronic brain about it… and she wasn't about to go poking around the sleek gray equipment without at least some guidance. She'd had more the one computer blow up in her face that way.

"Major Carter."

Sam smiled when she heard Wesley's voice, even though she had learned that he was a little annoying. At least he was always respectful, never failing to use her rank instead of her name as she always insisted. "Sam is just fine, Acting Ensign Crusher."

Wesley grinned. "Sorry. Sam. I'm just used to using people's rank to refer to them. Wes is fine for me, too."

"Wes," Sam said. "Have you worked in a lab like this before?" She knew he was young, but he had surprised her before. He was generally considered the wunderkind of the Enterprise and the only human younger than age twenty-five that Captain Picard could tolerate.

"No, I haven't," he said, looking around at it. "I did used to live on a Starbase with my mom, but I was way too young to have bothered with anything like this. Hey, Sam?" he added quickly so she couldn't ask any more questions. She looked at him and nodded for him to continue. "I was thinking about your wormhole."

"Me, too," she agreed with a smile.

"Well, I was thinking that we could start looking at our starcharts and you could match planets that you are familiar with from yours so that we could start seeing what might have been in the way of your wormhole that might have caused this."

Sam nodded slowly. "That sounds like a good idea."

"I'll show you Starbase 83's astrometrics lab," Wesley offered and waved her to follow him. They walked together down the starbase's wide blue-and-white hallways. This was, Sam thought, not what a center of science should look like, in her opinion. Science was a messy business, at least where she came from. Maybe she was just used to the concrete walls of her lab in Cheyenne Mountain.

"Wes, aren't you concerned about the Borg?" Sam asked.

Wesley sighed and nodded. "Yes. But there's nothing I can do about them. I can help you find a way to get home, though. Are you?"

Sam wasn't really expecting the question and so just shrugged. "I guess. I'm used to being presented with a problem, solving it, and moving on to the next one. Some problems take longer than others, but I… I feel like the Borg problem is more important than our getting home."

"Even though this isn't your universe?" Wesley asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Well, yeah," Sam answered. "I've gone on missions to other quantum realities before, so this is no different. Not really. There was a Sam here, too, a long time ago. We are essentially the same so… I guess, a little, this is my reality, too. And if it wasn't before, it definitely is now. Who knows how long we'll have to be here."

"I guess," Wesley agreed with a sigh. "But you probably have people who miss you there, don't you?'

Sam nodded, but she wasn't very sure. Not that she didn't have friends and family, but that she wasn't sure how much time would have passed before they got back. If ever. If they never got back, then she knew she would have been missed. But if they did get back, she swore to herself right now that, as far as it was up to her, she would never touch time-travel again. Figuring out what happened was only half the battle at this point. The other half was reversing it. But, if Q's word was as good as he insisted that it was (and Sam couldn't help but feeling that it wasn't), they would also probably need a gate.

"Here it is," Wesley said, walking into the next door that lined the hallway. He seemed to know his way around the starbase pretty well, probably because all the starbases would have been laid out the same way. Sam figured if there was anything that needed to be mass-produced, it was such labor- and materials-heavy projects like starbases.

The astrometrics lab was… beautiful, in a word. Especially for a lab. The walls were dark and the far wall was actually a bowed viewscreen like on the Enterprise bridge. Consoles divided the rest of the room into quarters. Wesley went over to one of the consoles and tapped on it.

"What planet should we look for first?" he asked, pulling the star map across the view screen until they were looking at Earth orbiting its sun.

Sam studied the map for a moment and realized that it would be easiest to pick one of the closest planets to Earth. "A planet in my universe that has a Stargate on it isn't very far from Earth. Maybe a few systems away. It should be… in this area…"

Wesley took a closer look at the systems that Sam had indicated with a broad sweep of her hand across the map and then reported, "None of these are a class M planet, though."

"Class M?" Sam asked.

"A planet suitable for humanoid life," Wesley explained. "You know, oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere. Fairly extensive and diverse plant and animal life."

"Oh, it wouldn't have that," Sam answered. "Is there a class of planet that… people can live on but not… I mean, I don't think anyone would pick to live there, you know?"

"Like a class L planet?" Wesley asked.

"Sure." Sam shrugged and watched, even though she didn't really know what a class L planet entailed.

Wesley looked at the planets again and said, "There are three. This one is covered with mountains and sparse vegetation, but is really cold. This one is too hot and all covered in sand. Very high in carbon dioxide, comparatively. I don't think anything could grow here if you tried. Probably has something to do with it being in a binary system. The last one is also mostly desert and rocks." He paused and looked at Sam.

"I think that second one might be it," Sam said. "Could I see it?"

Wesley showed her the planet in relation to the other planets around it and Sam nodded. "That's it. That's Abydos."

"Abydos," Wesley repeated, smiling. "That's a lot nicer name than Vedran VI."

Sam had never thought about it. "I guess it is. So no one lives there?"

"No," Wesley answered.

"Of course, they don't," Sam agreed with a nod. "And why should they? There were no Goa'uld to take them there. There probably wouldn't even have been a Stargate there… the Goa'uld might have put it there for all we know." She sighed and looked at Abydos—Vedran VI. It was a dead and deserted planet. But she still had to feel a little connection to it even though no one was there… ever had been there.

"Now I guess we can look for P3X-797," she said, and she and Wesley went about looking for the half-light, half-dark planet.

Sam didn't know if this exercise would help her figure out what happened to bring them here… but, deep down, Sam knew that there was no point to all of this. Maybe she was supposed to be here, she thought. Maybe she could help these people fight their new enemies, avoid some of the pain and suffering that Sam knew was in the future for them no matter what happened.

A small voice in the back of her head kept trying to tell her, pleading with her, Don't give up. Don't give up?

On what? Sam questioned the little voice, studying the map. There's nothing here! Everything is the same and these instruments are so accurate that, if I haven't found it by now, I probably never will…

"Wes?"

"Yes, Maj—Sam?"

"I don't see any difference between your map of the galaxy and ours. Ours are, of course, more complete up here," she motioned to the top half of the map where the Federation's propulsion systems kept them from exploring too far and too quickly. "But other than that… I don't see anything."

"Nothing…? Wesley asked sadly, tapping a few buttons slowly that sent the map of the galaxy spinning.

"No…" Sam sighed.

"But… there's got to be something," Wesley argued. "We have to find it, or you'll never get home."

Sam nodded and then shrugged. "Maybe… maybe you're right." Wesley sighed, and Sam added, looking straight at him, "But that might not be such a bad thing."