Thank you to all for your reviews and patience (lordheaven, your persistence astounds and amazes me, so thank you very much for continuing to read)! Sorry for the length on this one. But better something than nothing?

Lorca: You know, I have no idea why Borg can't/don't adapt to bullets (even holographic bullets? I don't get that at all… they are essentially energy weapons, right?)… It does seem to be that, in Star Trek, the shields starships are equipped with have virtually no defense against projectile weapons, only energy weapons. I agree about the Replicators, though, seeing as the Goa'uld can deflect bullets with those shields they have… I suppose I'm more inclined to assume the Borg can't adapt simply because no one else in their universe seems to have a defense against projectile weapons, either, so it's not knowledge they can assimilate? xD I'm obviously grasping at straws here, but it worked for Picard, so I guess it works for me.

Darthjohn: Them Vulcans. Always messing up everything…

doctor chocolate thunder: I don't know if the Q are "afraid" of angering them, but I doubt the Q are afraid of the Borg, either, and Q told Q Junior to not provoke them. They may just know (since most Q don't seem to approve of Q's meddling in general) that the Borg (and Founders, for my purposes) are extremely powerful in their own arena and can change the course of the future if they are put somewhere they shouldn't be.

Chapter 17 : Artificial

"A wormhole?" Jack repeated. That was as promising as anything. Of course, not every wormhole was like the other. For example, there were those natural ones that tended to break down and mess stuff up and sometimes got in the way of everything else while it was at it. Or maybe those were black holes. Possibly magnets. That was the answer to everything.

"An artificial wormhole," Sam went on.

Jack almost laughed. He hadn't seen her this excited since she'd figured out that it was only by a stroke of luck that this entire universe wasn't snuffed out of existence by some idiotic Vulcans. Jack still wasn't one-hundred percent sure what was so exciting about that… Except Sam had said something about being able to reverse what happened to them as long as they could find an artificial wormhole to use it on.

"Bingo!" Jack exulted. "We're going home!"

Daniel smiled and looked down at his crossed arms. He didn't say anything. Hated hoping even now? This universe, even Jack had to admit, wasn't so bad. There was plenty to do and they had all managed to keep busy even with the Borg threat not as threatening these days. And if they could get even someone like Daniel grinning like a giddy idiot even though he was still sullen about not being able to go wherever he pleased looking for dig-sites—

Things like newly-discovered artificial wormholes could do that.

"Well," Sam said with a slow nod. "Maybe. Maybe. But I will get a chance to look because the new station commander on Deep Space Nine, the station guarding the wormhole… well, he's invited me to come and see it."

"It's Sisko," Daniel put in.

"Oh! That guy." Jack nodded knowingly. "Love that guy. Great hair." Daniel smiled again. It was rather common knowledge that Jack thought he might look more commanding without it. Still, the man clung to his head of hair like Jack clung to his—the few that weren't gray, anyway.

"Our ship leaves tomorrow morning, so I'd get packing if I were you," Sam put in.

"Done!" Jack agreed. Replicators, he wanted to say. Not, of course, the ones from their universe. Replicators in this universe? Awesome. Now with the possibility of going home, Jack wondered how to tuck one in his jacket and bring it with him.

"Jack, this place isn't like the Enterprise. It's not like Utopia Planetia," Sam said. "It's a space station orbiting Bajor and, if you guys have kept up with current events at all—"

"It was occupied by the Cardassians," Daniel interrupted. "The horror stories coming out of that place sometimes make Apophis look like a saint. When the Bajorans finally forced them out, they did what any good occupier would do and… trashed the place. Made it as difficult for them as they possibly could."

"Yeah," Jack muttered. "Yeah, I got that memo. We spent a few weeks on the Cardassian border, remember? Bajor is that… that backwoods bumpkin planet." He frowned and Daniel didn't seem too pleased with that, either. "I can come up with… something else to call it."

"Yeah," Daniel agreed with a terse nod. "You should work on that."

Daniel departed, Jack guessed, to pack his own stuff, which left him and Sam alone. Sam was about to leave, but he called her back. "Sam." She turned and he waved her on over closer. He wasn't sure what he was worried about, who he was concerned would be listening. These were, after all, his quarters, and Daniel probably had just as much worry on this subject as he did. As they all did. "Teal'c can't have a lot of time," he pointed out.

"I expect he'll turn up very soon," Sam whispered back hopefully. "With Bajor free and the discovery of the wormhole…" She paused, and Jack could tell she was thinking the same thing he was. It was a possibility neither of them wanted to voice, but it was impossible to ignore now. "If Teal'c is alive, I think we'll find him soon."

"You don't think it's already too late?" Jack wondered.

Of course, he thought it was too late already, but the fact that some glowy-eyed alien hadn't contacted the Federation with a list of demands including, but not limited to, love an adoration as a god… Well, Jack had known that Teal'c wouldn't let things get that far. He would kill the symbiote—and, therefore, himself—before he let some baby Goa'uld loose in this galaxy to cause who knew what havoc.

Sam shrugged in answer. "I don't know; it could be." She looked away for a moment and then put on a smile, obviously fake though it was. "But I have to believe that it isn't."