Disclaimer in chapter 1

12

Colonel Jackson stood at the end of the conference table, fiddling with a powerpoint program that suddenly appeared on the screen behind him. His team was assembled, casting glances at one another trying to see if anyone knew what the impromptu meeting was about.

"We're just waiting for the General," Daniel told them, hoping to settle his team down a bit. Looking around the table, Daniel couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. Initially he'd had his doubts about the group General George Hammond had put together. Charlie Kawalsky was an excellent soldier, but he screwed around far more than he was serious. Not that it was a bad thing-he often diffused tense situations before they got out of hand-but he also had a tendency to egg Louis Ferretti on as well. Daniel suspected Ferretti wouldn't be nearly so cocky if Kawalsky didn't get him going.

Initially, it had been the three of them. The Army wanted their best on a front-line contact team, and SG-1 was that team. Special Forces trained, the three men had several successful covert missions under their belts, and knew how to handle themselves in unusual situations.

Unusual was the order of the day at Area 51. From the time the Stargate and it's controlling device had inadvertently been discovered in the sands outside Saqqara, the Army had taken control and placed the ring into it's repository for the alien and the bizarre.

It didn't take the so-called experts long to figure out the symbols on the ring matched those of the second device, leading to the conclusion the two worked in concert. But it had taken Egyptologist Catherine Langford to realize the symbols were more than just pictographs. It turned out to be an obscure dialect that had taken months to decipher. Once they could "read" what they were now calling the "Stargate," and the tablet of cartouches they'd also unearthed, a trial run had been conducted. The newly formed SG-1 went through to another planet, laying the groundwork for the Stargate Coalition. It was a multi-branch military effort at Groom Lake, under the oversight of the Army.

When the SGC realized there were Humans on many of the planets, Xenobiologist Janet Fraiser was added to Daniel's team. While not technically aliens, the Humans had developed on extra-terrestrial worlds. Someone who could understood the biological differences between the people of Earth and people who had evolved off-world was deemed a necessary addition.

Initially, Daniel had opposed Janet's appointment to SG-1. It wasn't because she was a woman-he'd worked with several women throughout his career-it was her unfamiliarity with field. Her test scores were exemplary, but simulations weren't live action. However, it hadn't taken Janet long to reverse his opinion, and now she was on an equal footing with the rest of her team mates.

Daniel's musings were interrupted by the arrival of the general. "I apologize for the delay, everyone. Vice-President Kinsey can be a bit demanding." A titter of laughter circled the room at their leader's understatement. The general cleared his throat. "Proceed, Colonel."

"Thank you, General. In your folders is a copy of the reports from the incident on November fifth, 2003. If you recall, that was the day there was an extremely powerful electro-magnetic pulse that knocked out the power connectors on the 'gate as well as all electrical devices within the 'gateroom." Daniel saw heads bobbing around the table.

"This footage," he said, pointing to the frozen image on the screen behind him, "Was taken that same day by a security camera located outside the 'gateroom." Daniel pushed "play," starting the clip. SG-1 watched in silence as minutes of empty hallway scrolled across the screen.

"I assume there's a point to this?" the general asked.

"Yes, sir. It's almost. . . . There!" he said, slowing the image down. Frames clicked by second-by-second showing a woman emerging from the 'gateroom, glancing up at the camera, then running down the hallway.

Janet sat up straighter. "That's impossible! Other than an occasional security sweep, no one had been near the 'gateroom for weeks!"

"And you need a security card to enter," Kawalsky added. "There's no record of anyone having entered the 'gateroom on the day's log."

Ferretti was paging through the reports in front of him. "Looks like the last time someone accessed the door was the day before." He glanced up at his team mates. "Could someone have been hiding from a day or two before?"

"I don't know how," Janet said. "Other than the DHD, the 'gate and the ramp, there's nothing else in the room. There's no place someone could hide. If there was someone there, even a guard who was half asleep would have seen them."

"Colonel, run the clip again," the general instructed. Daniel played it once more, this time in slow motion, stopping on the frame where the woman looked up at the camera.

"Sir, I believe the woman in the picture is. . ."

"Louise?" The general gasped. "But how. . . .? Colonel Jackson! How in the hell did you get footage of my dead wife?"

XXXXXX

General Jacob Carter sat staring at the image frozen on the projection screen. It wasn't possible! He'd held his wife as she'd died in his arms! He knew she was dead! A victim of the same accident that had taken the lives of his two children.

Jacob had spent months in and out of hospitals and psych wards following the greatest tragedy of his life. Even his extremely colorful military career had paled in comparison. When he'd finally been cleared to return to duty, Jacob was a changed man. With nothing and no one to live for, he allowed the Army to erase him from public record, placing his death among his family's. Jacob Carter's continued existence was known only to the upper echelon of the military.

Despite taking every suicide mission offered, Jacob had been unable to join his family in death. Men with more to live for than himself perished while he somehow managed to survive. But when he was offered the position of leading the SGC from his retiring friend George Hammond, he found something to live for. His daughter Samantha had been obsessed with going into space. She would never achieve her goal, but maybe if he was involved with the Stargate Program, someone else's child could make it to the stars. His dedication to the program had turned his life around.

"Um, sir?" Daniel said, gazing at his team mates for support. "The woman in the footage isn't your wife. I think she's your. . .daughter, Samantha."

Rubbing his forehead, trying to dispel the sudden tension headache, Jacob wearily reported, "My daughter died in a car accident twenty-some years ago. I was there. There was no doubt."

"It could be your daughter," Daniel persisted, "But not your daughter from . . .here."

"Colonel?"

"Do you remember the mission to P3R-233?" Before Jacob could answer, Daniel rushed on. "It was the planet with the quantum mirror that sent me to a parallel universe."

"Yeah, and he's always telling me not to touch stuff," Kawalsky quipped in an aside to Ferretti.

"Gentlemen," Jacob reprimanded, switching his gaze back to Daniel. "I do remember that mission. It's still rather controversial, and I don't see what that has to do with. . ."

"Forgive me, General, but it has everything to do with this incident. In that reality, that woman," he said, turning around to point at the screen, "Samantha Carter, was instrumental in saving their world. They were battling the Replicators as we are, which is how I knew what they were when we first encountered them. I witnessed them attacking the SGC of that universe."

Before Jacob could interject, Daniel was leaning forward, hands flat on the conference table. "She built a weapon, some kind of disrupter that dissolved the cohesion of the blocks. It stopped the invasion of the Replicators in their world."

"Their world," Jacob reminded him. "It doesn't mean the same thing is going to happen here. Isn't that what you told me, Colonel? That the definition of an alternate universe was they chose one path and we another?"

Daniel closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath. "Yes, that's one interpretation," Daniel rushed on. "But the similarities out-weigh the differences. There were more things like our world than not. Don't you see? The big difference in their reality was they had Dr. Samantha Carter, and as you've pointed out, we don't."

"We do now," Ferretti said, looking at no one in particular.

Jacob watched as Jackson paced at the end of the table. "Sir, I know you're frustrated by the lack of concern Washington seems to have over the Replicator situation. Their answer to the coming threat was to simply shut down the Stargate. You know as well a I do sticking our heads in the sand isn't going to help us when the Replicators come. And they will be coming. Not tomorrow, perhaps, but long before we're ready. Even if we can find this needle in a haystack," he said, nodding towards the stilled image of Samantha Carter on the screen.

Jacob was silent as he processed Daniel's argument. Jackson was right about one thing. He was so goddamn tired of all the red-tape and roadblocks the Joint Chiefs had thrown into the SGC's path. Spearheaded by the most uncooperative asshole he'd had the displeasure of having to work with. He'd never known a time when Kinsey hadn't abused his power and this was no exception.

All the heads of SG-1 were turned in his direction, waiting for him to say something. He understood his choice. He could follow his orders, wait for instruction from his superiors, or he could do what was necessary to save the planet. Finding a solution to the menace bearing down on them. Whether or not this facsimile of his daughter was the answer, he didn't know, but he had to give his people the chance to find out.

Jacob gathered his papers and stood. "Do what you need to find her."