They sat in companionable silence while Ellie munched away on a sandwich and chips, Sam enjoying her blue jello brought specially from home.
She thought back to what Janet said; or rather, didn't say. All of them, the whole group…gone…
How does that fit into this… What will happen with these two timelines when all is said and done?
Her gears started turning, working out all the possibilities.
No entropic cascade failure… But what kind of other fallout would there be... Must be centralized to Colorado Springs… Maybe just to SGC…
Thoughts ran their course; working out bits and pieces to a problem she knew wasn't completely defined yet. But the gears slowed as she realized Ellie was humming quietly to herself.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star…
"Huh…my mom used to sing that to me."
Ellie looked up, seemingly surprised at the humming. She gave a little smile.
"Mine too."
The silence resumed as Ellie went back to her meal and Sam went back to her thoughts. She continued running through possible scenarios, putting the more thought-out ones to the side to compare. But as she mused, the song kept interrupting.
Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you for your tiny spark…
Her head popped up, looking curiously around her. The more she tried to avoid it, the more clearly the memory came to her.
He could not see which way to go, if you did not twinkle so…
Sam again looked around the quiet, empty commissary, finally coming to a stop at Ellie. The girl seemed to sense the stare and looked up from her plate.
"What?"
Sam just stared.
"General…?"
Blink. Blink.
"Sam…?"
"It was you." She didn't know why she said it. Didn't know how she'd come to the conclusion she came to. But, somehow, she was sure.
Grace was your choice, Sam. You were rather insistent, just felt it suited her…
The memory continued to sharpen. I'm Grace… But, that's not what she said. Sam had asked her name, the concussion making her more and more tired and confused. But she hadn't said I'm Grace…
She'd just said her name – Ellie Grace.
Ellie looked at her quizzically.
"It was me…where?"
"On the Prometheus."
And then it was Ellie's turned to be shocked.
"On the… The gas cloud…?" When Sam just nodded, Ellie continued, "I…I thought…I thought I dreamed that…"
"You and me both!" Sam laughed. "I know how I got there. But…"
"I was bored." She tossed the chip she was holding back on her plate. "Sitting in that bubble day after day. Almost six months. Doing nothing but tinkering on things and working with the Asgard. I thought I'd figured a way out of the bubble. But it kinda…backfired. Still don't know what I did…" She paused, looking up at Sam sheepishly, like she was gonna get scolded. "I had to slow down time within the field to get out of it. But, I guess…I went too far."
"You actually managed to reverse time within a time dilation field?" Sam asked astounded.
"Don't ask me how! I honestly can't figure out what I did. And believe me…I've tried! It was a…fluke…"
"And you just happened to end up on the Prometheus?"
"That's the easy part. The time dilation field was contained to an Asgard ship – parked in that gas cloud. Camouflage, if you will. Just happened to be parked…well…right where the Prometheus stalled…"
Sam nearly laughed out loud at the odd combination of the complex technology and the simple matter of "right place, right time".
"Good thing we stalled. Otherwise you would've ended up just floating…" They looked at each other in the sudden uncomfortable silence, until Sam snickered at another bit of memory fluttered in. "You said I was boring."
"I'd actually heard that explanation of how a bubble worked before. I think I was two." Ellie laughed. "I really just wanted to –"
"Play. I know."
Play. Play!
Interesting how something can change so much with one little extra piece of information.
The memory of that trip on Prometheus had always stuck with Sam. But now…
"Can I ask you something?"
Sam looked up at the quiet question.
"Sure."
"How come you go by Carter instead of O'Neill?"
"Guessing that's not the same on your side?" Sam smiled. "Well, because there's already been a General O'Neill in charge of this command. And, I guess, I didn't really want to compete with that."
Ellie just laughed, before falling back to pensive thought.
"Guess we should head back, see what Daniel's got figured out," Sam said quietly. The atmosphere seemed to have chilled, the amusement fading suddenly.
"Sure…" Ellie responded reluctantly.
And as they got up from the table and moved out the door, Sam couldn't help but think she was missing something.
"Ah ha!"
Back in Daniel's office, a whirlwind of translation was apparently nearing its finale.
"Daniel…care to share?" Jack queried from behind Daniel's desk, feet propped up on the desk, chin to chest. He had been on the verge of drifting off, when Daniel shouted.
"I…I think I've got it! There were some parts that seemed almost like a mix of Ancient and English. Must be from her attempt to translate for herself…" He considered it might have been easier if Ellie had stuck around, but then realized he wouldn't have had as much fun. "…It's some sort of internal mix – a result of working with both languages. And then there were even some Asgard characters in there." He laughed. "That almost got me, but I recognized the sentence structure, and the context of course. Overall, it seems like a mixture of what she's been told and what she's seen. It's –"
"Daniel!" Jack grumbled as he threw his feet of the desk to the floor. "What does it say?"
"Huh? Oh…um…maybe we should wait for Sam… Oh!" He paused as Sam walked into the office. "Perfect timing!"
"Hey. Miss anything?" Sam asked as she walked over to join Jack, sitting on the desk.
"Just Daniel getting excited over mixed languages. Nothing new."
"Jack! Do you realize what this is? It's a glimpse into that girl's mind! As unique as it is – the ability to mix these languages and still be completely understandable. It's…it's incredible!"
Jack was surely about to tell Daniel exactly what he thought was incredible when Sam cut in.
"What have we got?" she said, returning Daniel's grateful smile.
"Right. Well…it looks like when the Asgard said they'd run out of options, they really did think they had. This," he continued, motioning to the board, "was their final last-ditch effort. Of course, they were fairly certain they would fail, which is why they came to us and gave us all their knowledge."
"And blew themselves up," added Mitchell from a stool across the room from Daniel.
"Blew themselves up?" Martouf asked, stunned.
"Themselves and their whole planet," Mitchell nodded.
"Not exactly." Everyone looked questioningly at Daniel. "It just looked that way."
"It looked pretty blown-up…"
"Well I suppose that was the point. But it was a diversion. Of sorts. The Asgard had been searching everywhere to find something that would help them fix their cloning problem, at the same time they were finding more info on the Unknown."
"Nothing like multi-tasking as your species dies out," Sam quipped.
"It seems like a lot; but this is the Asgard we're talking about. In the end, it looks like they found the answer to their problem while searching for the Unknown. They managed to go forward in time –"
"They went to the future?" Jack asked suspiciously.
"Yeah…yes. That surprises you?" Jack just shrugged, so Daniel continued. "So they went forward and found Ellie. It appeared evident to them right off the bat that she was what they needed. Only problem was, the Unknown were out to get rid of Jack's…well…progeny." He glanced over his shoulder at his friend before continuing. "Back to current time – now they had to figure out how to a. survive long enough for Ellie to grow up and help them, and 2. make sure the Unknown didn't get rid of her before she was even born. Easiest way to do that was to go back –"
"Back in time?!"
"Jack." Daniel gave him a look and Jack just shrugged again. "Going back would save them on time, but they still had to insure the Unknown didn't catch up with them. In order to do that, they came up with a way to split the timeline." He glared at Jack to prevent any comment. "If they could just affect a decision, they could create a timeline where they could work out their issues without the Unknown finding them. At least, not immediately.
"The explosion was to power the mechanism they used to literally punch themselves into a formerly non-existent past timeline. Just load up the entire population's worth of consciences, leaving a select few intact in bodies to run the ship, and well…boom. It apparently worked. They went back, you guys had Ellie, they took her and put her in the time dilation field, aging her like they would their clones. They then used her altered DNA to create new and improved clones."
"And everybody lived happily ever after," Jack mumbled.
"Well…no. Forcing the timeline into existence seems to be a temporary action. The timelines are starting to collapse back together. They started a couple years ago. Janet and Martouf coming through with the rest of the multiple SG-1 teams looks like a coincidence. The wormhole through the black hole was combined with the collapsing timelines."
"That was just before Ellie was born," Janet said.
"Yeah…it looks like it started collapsing right from the start. But, small at first; getting worse as time went on. That was the first sign that it was getting bad. Ellie coming through now, with you and Martouf following…well…I think we're hitting the end of the run, so to speak."
"End of the run?" Sam asked. "If the timelines continue to collapse in on each other, there's no telling what could happen." She thought of all her possible scenarios, coupled with the new information. Still too many possibilities. "Factions of either, or both, could cancel out the other. Or we could have serious ECF issues, depending on the depth of differences between the lines…" She drifted off as theories continued to crop up.
"Let's not dwell, shall we. Just jump straight to the worst case scenario," Jack suggested.
"End of both timelines. Complete annihilation."
"Thanks Carter…thanks… Alright Daniel," Jack said as he walked over to peer at the board, "what do we do?"
"Um…I don't know."
"What?"
"Well…that's it. That's all that's there."
"Um…okay…you sure?"
"Positive."
Jack turned back to look at the room. He peered at all the faces looking back at him, finally coming to Sam.
As he searched those blue eyes for some sign she knew what to do, that nagging voice in the back of his head spoke up.
Diversion… What's a diversion? He thought back to when they'd first made their way into Daniel's office, the look on Ellie's face. She'd mumbled something, vaguely Ancienty. No chance of a translation without Daniel…
No sooner had he had the thought, the words flowed into this head. He still heard Ancient, but now he could remember what the words were…
…Only way… Have to do it… Have to leave…again…
"Carter…where's Ellie?"
"Hmm?" Sam looked around the room, suddenly surprised. "She…we left together…she was right behind me… She should be here… Jack?!"
But he was already out the door. He wasn't sure how he knew where to go, wasn't even sure he was right, but he headed to the gateroom anyway.
He made it inside just as the door slammed shut behind him and the first alarm sounded.
"Unscheduled off world activation!"
She was standing at the bottom of the ramp, watching as each chevron lit up and locked, watching as the swirl of energy burst forth from the gate and then settled into the oh-so familiar puddle of blue. As it settled, she made her way up the ramp.
"Ellie! Stop." Jack rushed up to meet her, halting her with a hand on her arm. He turned her to look at him, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. "You don't have to do this."
"I do." And then she did meet his look. "You know I do. It's the only way it'll stop."
"No. Carter'll think of something. She's amazing with last-minute saves." Now it was his turn to avoid the gaze. The look in her eyes was too much.
Fear. Concern. Pleading…
"Jack…"
Dad…
"You don't have to do it." He made himself look at her.
"I do. You said it yourself. A fluke." She laughed a sad little laugh. "I'm the one odd piece. I go back, everything fits together as it should."
He stared her down, knowing she was leaving a part out.
Even I know what's gonna happen.
It was the one thing no one had seemed willing to mention, mostly for the sake of their newly-recovered old friends. If the timelines were to stop collapsing, it wouldn't stop the one that wasn't supposed to exist from disappearing all together.
There was no telling what would happen to those still there. Or those here already.
If this is the proper timeline…
He didn't want to think it, but the thought was there.
They don't belong…
Damn it! Yes they do! All of em! Janet…Ellie…I'll even take Marty the Tok'ra…
He looked back to Ellie, determined to say just that; to convince her to let them help and figure out another way.
"You…you don't know what you're going back too…" was all he managed.
She gave him that sad smile again.
"I think I do…" She reached down to take his hand, wrapping it in hers. "It's okay. Think of it this way…You can't miss someone that's never existed…" She dropped his hand and made her way to the gate.
"Ellie…wait!" He took a step towards her. She paused to turn back to him; but, for the life of him, he couldn't think of anything to say.
"Bye Jack."
And with that, she disappeared in a shimmer of blue.
No bright light.
No brilliant spectacle.
No life-altering display.
No noise other than a small plop.
Life carried on.
SG-3 came barreling through the gate, apparently ahead of schedule and attempting to avoid running over the former general inexplicably standing on the ramp.
As Jack watched them walk by, a rush of memories flooded his thoughts.
First steps.
First words.
First laugh.
Fishing on the dock.
The day she disappeared.
The day she came back.
He turned to look up to the control room and found Sam standing there, looking down at him through tear-soaked eyes.
And he could only think of one word.
"Liar."