A/N: Sorry, this one is in typical Stargate fashion: heavy on tech, light on romance.

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Take 18: Just trust the genius

Category for this take: Sci-Fi / Humor

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"This is great."

"I told ya!"

"I can't believe we didn't do this years ago."

"Yes, well, let's not dwell."

"Didn't that tape say there were no fish in your pond?"

"Close enough."

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"Carter, I've been doing some research about time travel."

"You have been doing research? Let me guess, Back the Future."

"One, two, and three. Plus the Star Trek Time Travel DVD set. Walter recommended Twelve Monkeys, but I'm not sure if that is a real movie. It all started with the Simpsons Tree House of Horror V episode."

"Those are all fiction, Sir."

"I know, so I looked at that temporal mechanics book in your lab. It was a little heavy on the math."

"It had to be. Most of that book is theory."

"Exactly. That's my problem. Everything is fiction or theory."

"Sir, why were you researching time travel?"

"I figured since we do that every so often, I should understand it better. As we're the only people who have actually travelled backwards in time, I thought maybe you could help me out."

"Ok. I'll try. Where do you want me to start?"

"I know it is really, really bad if you travel in time and mess with the timeline. Things like paradoxes can occur."

"Yes. For example, with the grandfather paradox, if you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your father was born, you would never exist to kill your grandfather."

"Ok. But is still possible to do things like pass Hammond notes and pass along messages through Cassie."

"Right. In both circumstances there was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone told someone what to do to ensure something they know is supposed to happen, still happens."

"So we know Cassie is going to live a long time and the gateroom is going to be mostly abandoned at that time."

"I guess so. I have tried not to dwell on that. We really don't what else happened. Cassie could have been one of the last hundred people on Earth. Earth might have built or acquired a new Stargate, leaving the old one at the SGC. Maybe the SGC was converted to a museum that was undergoing renovation. We don't know."

"Well thanks, Carter, for bursting the bubble of invincibility I've been carrying for the last few years."

"Ha. Ha. Glad I could help, Sir."

"What about the Aschen? Why would we send back a note in time to prevent us from meeting the Aschen when we obviously had to meet them to know to send the note?"

"We still could send that note back in time in a few years. I was hoping we could use sensors on one of the X-304s and a subspace transmitter to let us use a solar flare to send back the note."

"You were planning, huh?"

"I wrote up a plan for General Hammond after we really met the Aschen."

"I need to get Walter to tell me about these things. That's not my big concern, though."

"What are you worried about, Sir?"

"That team on the tape."

"What about them?"

"Every time we actually travelled in time, we were protected by self-fulfilling thingies."

"Self-fulfilling prophecies."

"Right. However, does that mean we have to self-fulfill ourselves and go back into the past to create the tape?"

"Ummm…"

"Carter?"

"Oops."

"Oops?"

"I was hoping nobody would notice that, Sir."

"You were hoping…"

"Yes. I do that sometimes."

"I see…no I don't see."

"Let's say the timeline changed. Then suppose we went back in time to try to fix it. If we did fix it, then we would never exist to know the timeline had changed, which means we would never go back in time to fix it."

"Huh?"

"See if the timeline changed, we already created a paradox. If we tried to fix it, we would only be creating a different paradox. So why take the risk?"

"But doesn't universe implode if there is a paradox?"

"It hasn't happened yet, so I think we are in the clear."

"Are you suggesting we count our blessings, take our ZPM, and run?

"I suppose I am, Sir."

"I can get on board with that plan. One more thing, Carter."

"Sir?"

"How often do you do this thing where you hope nobody notices?"

"Do you really want me to answer that, Sir?"

"No. You're the genius. I trust you."