A/N—Okay, hopefully the science doesn't seem totally contrived, but Damnit, Jim! I'm a baker not an astrophysicist!

Disclaimer in chapter 1

26

Daniel was securing the last of the clips on his vest when he looked up to see Sam in the doorway of the locker room.

"I want to come with you," she said. "You need my help with the Replicators."

"Yes, we do," Daniel admitted, slipping on fingerless gloves. "Which is why you're staying here."

"Daniel. . .I mean Colonel, you need my help out there. I've got more experience with the Replicators than anyone on your team, I've been. . ."

"Sam, you're preaching to the choir, here. I want you out there with us as well, but you've been expressly excluded from this mission."

Sam crossed her arms over her chest. "By whom?"

"Kinsey," he growled. "He gave us permission to use the 'gate for recon under the proviso you would remain on the base. Apparently he still sees you as a threat."

"He keeps this up, I will be," she mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

Daniel squelched a grin. "Take a number, Major. He's never been popular here." He finished checking his gear, then looked up, meeting her gaze. "The best way you can help us is to come up with something we can use against the Replicators. The resources of this entire base are at your disposal. Just see that you keep that guy of yours in check."

Sam clasped her hands behind her back, standing straighter. "Yes, sir." She didn't move off as he expected. "Was there something else?"

Looking a bit sheepish, Sam asked, "Would it be all right if I saw you off?"

Daniel smiled at her. "Miss seeing the Stargate in action?"

She colored slightly. "Yes, sir. Would it be okay if Jack. . . .?"

Grabbing his pack, Daniel was losing patience. "Sure! Why not? Anyone else you'd like to invite? Maybe your lab assistants?" Sam just shook her head. "Good. We leave in five."

XXXXXX

Sam and Jack were in the 'gate room a full minute before the arrival of SG-1. Looking over at her, he asked, "You sure it's okay with everyone that I'm here for this?"

"Daniel said it was fine. Just stand back and don't say anything and he'll probably forget we're here." Almost on cue, the blast door to the hallway slid back and the majority of SG-1 entered the room. Ferretti and Kawalsky were checking their weapons and supply of ammo, while Janet slid on her pack, looking around for Daniel. Sam couldn't help smiling at the thought that no matter what universe she was in, Daniel always ended up being the last one to arrive.

Daniel rushed into the 'gate room, instantly taking charge. "Last minute instructions from the general," he told his team. "Ready?" Everyone nodded and the colonel looked over at Sam. "Major Carter? Would you care to do the honors?" he asked, gesturing towards the DHD.

Sam realized it was Daniel's way of apologizing for his earlier surly behavior, and she gladly accepted it. Pulling Jack with her, she took her place behind the DHD. "Do you have the address for Hala?"

Janet pulled a folded sheet of paper from her vest pocket, handing it to Sam.

"Those symbols? That tells you where to send them?" Jack asked.

Sam nodded and started pushing the gyphs carved on the device. She looked up at Jack. "Want to push the last one?" Jack's eyes were already large with wonder and she smiled at his awe. "The one that looks kind of like an 'A' with the circle on top," she said, letting him find it on the inner circle. He depressed it, then she pushed the center orange globe. "Watch this," she said, waiting for the wormhole to surge out of the 'gate.

"Holy shit!" he cried, unconsciously moving backwards.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she grinned at his reaction, remembering her first sight of the Stargate. Daniel called for his team to move out as Jack watched, disbelieving as the event horizon swallowed SG-1 member by member.

Stopping just shy of entering the 'gate, Daniel turned to look back at them. "Hold down the fort."

Sam gave him a reassuring smile. "Will do." She couldn't resist a send off from her own universe: "Good luck and Godspeed, SG-1."

XXXXXX

Sam was bent over her work bench, disrupter parts spread all over the table. If she could understand how the parts interacted, maybe she could make something on a larger scale, as the other Samantha had done. Too bad Daniel hadn't been able to bring back any notes from the other universe.

Looking up, she could see Jack was bored with the meticulous disassembly, and wished he'd stop fiddling with each new part laid on the table. She couldn't exactly send him off to go find something else to do when he hadn't been authorized to move around the base. Like it or not, she was his babysitter and that in itself could be a full time job.

"Major Carter?" Bill asked. "Do you think you could take a look at this?" He had the circular object opened up, to reveal, well, nothing, Sam decided. It was hollow. There was some type of circuitry in four areas, equidistant from each other, but no wires connecting anything.

"I was expecting something a little more. . .complicated," Bill confessed.

Sam touched the interior of the ring. "It feels like glass," she noted.

"It's definitely metal," Bill affirmed. "Do you suppose this is just a component of something else? That it needs another piece or pieces?"

"Maybe." Sam looked over at Jack who'd stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

Chloe stepped over to the group and observed, "Kind of reminds me of the Large Hadron Collider. Only on a smaller scale." Bill and Sam stared at her, and she shifted nervously. "I had a tour a few weeks ago," she explained, still unsettled by their scrutiny.

"A mini-Large Hadron Collider!" Bill exclaimed. "That could be it!"

Jack leaned over Sam's shoulder. "Mini-Large? Isn't that an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp?"

"Shhh," Sam slapped the hand he was reaching towards the object. Redirecting her attention to Bill, she said, "You know, it really could be. A particle accelerator works on the theory that when atoms are smashed at near light speed, incredible amounts of energy are released. What if that's what this is? A way the Ancients used sub-atomic energy to power their technology?"

Bill was catching her enthusiasm. "The Hadron Collider is nearly seventeen miles long. This has to be immensely powerful to have been miniaturized to this size. Frankly, it's hard to believe."

"From what I've observed, it takes that kind of energy to power most Ancient constructs. I don't know that it would be enough for a ship, but maybe a small vessel like a one or two seat space vehicle," she speculated.

"Or a weapon," Chloe added. The three scientists stood around the table, nodding, each lost in their own theories.

"Maybe it works on the chair," Jack supplied. Three sets of eyes landed their gazes on him. "What? It was just a thought."

Sam felt a thrill race through her. She'd never been able to explain it to herself, much less anyone else, but it was almost like a premonition. How something felt to her just before a theory proved to be correct. Like when she'd come up with the idea for the particle accelerator that led to Colonel O'Neill's eventual rescue from Eudora. In fact, the principles were similar, she realized.

"Come on," she said, taking his hand, pulling him along behind her. The chair had been moved to an adjacent room to make it easier to study, and Sam needed Jack's input. Standing in front of the chair, she directed him to look for any place the object might interface.

"I'm guessing you'll have better luck than me, since I can't turn it on." Still, Sam crawled along the floor, moving her hands over the base, concentrating on the section that had illuminated with Jack's thoughts. He, in turn was looking at the chair itself. While lights lit up here and there, there still wasn't any indication of where a power source would attach.

Sam stood, huffing out a frustrated sigh. "It shouldn't be this difficult to find. Everything else about their technology seems to be based on simplicity. User-friendly. Well, for those of you who have the gene," she grinned at him.

Jack climbed into the chair, closing his eyes "What are you doing?" she questioned.

"Asking where the battery compartment is," he replied. Sam thought he was trying to be funny, until a panel on the backside of the chair slid aside, and a circular housing rose out of the compartment. At her astonished look, he shrugged. "You said it should be easy."

"I didn't expect it would be that easy," she said. Jack stepped down out of the chair and came around to look at what he'd opened.

"It looks like your mini-doughnut will fit in there. Should we try it?"

Sam was just as anxious as he was to test their theories, but she interjected some caution. "First we have to reassemble it and see if we can figure out how it works in conjunction with the chair. It could take some time. Meanwhile, I need to get the disrupter put back together."

"I thought you wanted to see what makes it tick so you could apply it to a more wide-spread device."

Sam was impressed he'd been paying attention. Jack definitely had more patience with "doohickies" than the Colonel did. "I think I have what I need. Plus, if the Replicators show up, I don't want our one defense spread all over my work table."

"Maybe I can give you a hand? I was trying to watch as you took it apart." Again, Sam found herself blinking in disbelief. The thought O'Neill would volunteer such a service would have been unheard of in her universe.

"Uh, yeah," she answered dumbly. "That would be great."

XXXXXX

SG-1 was overdue. Sam glanced at the clock, which seemed eternally locked in place. She and Jack had put the disrupter together, and tested it. Satisfied it was in working order, they turned their attention to the collider. It needed to be reassembled, but Bill was dragging his feet, claiming he wanted to study the design in greater detail. Sam was losing her patience.

"Bill, you can study it later. Right now we need to know if it'll function as a power source."

"How are we going to know if it'll work if we don't know how it works," he argued. "It wasn't working earlier."

"We don't know that. It might be that it too needs the gene to activate. Jack hasn't tried touching it."

"Because you wouldn't let me," Jack mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear.

Sam ignored his comment and tried to keep the exasperation from her voice. "So let's get it put back together and see if Jack can make it run."

Clearly, Bill didn't like being told what to do, but she could also see he had no idea what the Replicators were capable of. She knew he'd seen the recording of Reese-everyone had so they knew what they were up against-but the footage showed only the most elementary stages of Replicator development. They hadn't seen how the hive mentality of the mechanical bugs pushed them to incorporate higher technologies to further their evolution.

At that, Sam realized they had to protect the Ancient tech at all costs. Even now the Replicators had probably advanced so far beyond Earth-based science, it would be of no use to them. However, if they assimilated Ancient devices, they truly would have no way of stopping them.

"Bill, we don't have time to argue about this. We have to be ready, and we can't allow any of this," she gestured around the lab, "To fall to the Replicators. SG-1 is late which can't be a good sign. Time's up. I think the invasion is on it's way."

Jack looked at her, shocked at her pronouncement. "Really? All ready?"

"Jack, they've had over a year to modify themselves and believe me, they can upgrade that fast. I'm sure it wasn't Daniel's intent to alert them by going to Hala, but if the Replicators encountered SG-1, their presence would have been like poking a stick into a hornet's nest."

At that moment, the alert of, "Offworld activation!" echoed throughout the base, sirens wailing. Jack's panicked gaze met hers and she did her best to reassure him.

"Stay here in the lab; it'll be the safest place in the complex." Sam picked up the disrupter, heading for the door when she turned back to see Jack frozen in the middle of the room. It was totally against her training, but she returned to him, kissing him soundly. Running her hand along his cheek and jaw, she kissed him again, quickly this time. "I love you," she whispered, then turned to go, but he caught her hand, pulling her into a fierce hug.

"I love you too."

She squeezed him back, then pushed away. "I have to go."

"Sam! Be careful. . . ."

She nodded. "Bill! Get that damn thing put back together!" And she was out the door.