Thanks so much for all your reviews last chapter! I absolutely LOVE getting them. Please keep it up! You guys are awesome.

Sorry for the long chapter here...there was a lot of explaining to do in a short period of time.

SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL EPISODE OF STARGATE SG-1

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The briefing room was quiet that afternoon, everyone's eyes on the strange girl sitting next to Sam at the table. Now that the effects from the stasis pod had mostly worn off, it was astonishing how much the girl looked like Sam, and seeing the two side by side was almost eerie.

Jack didn't mean to stare, but he just couldn't help it. He wasn't sure he wanted to believe the girl's story, but every time she looked up at him, he couldn't help the twinge of pride he felt from the idea of Jade being his daughter.

Our daughter.

He suddenly realized that everyone was looking at him, and he turned to General Hammond and blinked.

"What?"

"I asked if you were listening, Colonel, but I think the answer to that question is obvious."

Jack shifted uncomfortably, gesturing to the girl sitting across from him.

"Sorry, General. It's kind of hard to concentrate with Mini-Carter over here staring at me."

"Please stop calling me that," the girl protested with a frown. "Don't pretend you don't know my name."

Jack frowned back, opening his mouth to make a retort when Sam cleared her throat.

"Jade," she began, giving Jack a scolding look. "We need to know what you're doing here, and how you got the deactivation code for our iris."

Jade looked surprised by the question. "Well, obviously, you gave it to me."

"Obviously," Jack repeated with a sarcastic smile.

The girl rolled her eyes and went on. "You can be as skeptical as you want. Dr. Frasier's tests will come back, and then you'll see. As for what I'm doing here, it's a little complicated."

Jack leaned back and linked his fingers together behind his head, and General Hammond gestured for her to continue, so Jade leaned forward over the table.

"Okay. I'll try to sum up. Where I come from, things have gone a little bad for our planet. There's this race of aliens that we came in contact with, called the Solaris, and they're unlike any we've run across before. The only thing we've got that seems to be a match for their technology is our Asgard weapons that we've refitted our fleet of ships with…" Jack raised his eyebrows at this, sharing a surprised look with Carter. "…but unfortunately, we haven't been successful in fully reproducing their technology. Without their help, the most we could do was keep the hostile aliens back, taking out the first wave of ships that they sent to our galaxy. We knew that we wouldn't be able to hold off another attack, and we started trying to come up with alternative solutions. That's where I came in."

"Wait," Jack interjected. "You said 'without their help'. Why won't they help us out? Did we do something to offend their little gray butts? 'Cause last I checked-"

He paused, confused by the saddened expression on Jade's face.

"What?"

She sighed and looked down at her hands. "Actually, Dad, where I come from, the Asgard no longer exist."

Ignoring the title she had thrown at him, Jack tried to process this bit of information as Daniel sat up straight in his chair.

"What do you mean?"

The girl shifted uncomfortably in her seat, looking up at the concerned faces around the table.

"You haven't learned this yet, but the Asgard have a very serious problem. What do you know about how they reproduce?"

Grimacing, Jack replied, "Uh…if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not think about it."

Sam gave Jack a reproving look, and she answered, "It hasn't really come up. Why do you ask?"

Jack noticed with interest that Jade tended to focus mostly on him when she spoke, and she raised her wide blue eyes to meet his before she turned to look at Sam.

"Well, basically they're all clones. They essentially download their consciousness into a new body when the old one is no longer usable. In theory, that would make them immortal, but the way they've used this cloning process over the years has started to degrade the Asgard genome."

"Well, that makes sense," Daniel commented. "A copy of a copy of a copy…after a while, they would start to become unstable."

"Exactly."

Jack frowned, not liking where this was going.

"So…what? You're saying they just copy themselves to death?"

Jade chewed a little on her bottom lip, reminding Jack of the many times he'd seen Carter make the same face. He shifted his gaze to Sam, and she met his eyes and smiled slightly, obviously reading his mind.

"Not exactly," the girl finally said. "See, their last attempt to try and fix the problem resulted in this horrible disease, and instead of letting themselves die slowly…well, they destroyed their entire planet."

Jack sat back in surprise. "They what?"

The General spoke up from the other end of the table. "You're saying that the Asgard will eventually commit mass suicide?"

Jade stared down at her hands. "Yes. They gave us their computer core, containing their most sophisticated technology and the sum of all of their knowledge, and then they made sure that no one could get access to anything else." She looked up at Sam with a painful expression. "It was so hard on you…" She gestured to the others around the table. "…on all of you actually. It was an incredible loss."

Daniel spoke up from his seat next to Jack. "So, you're here to prevent the destruction of the Asgard."

This was a pleasant thought, and Jack looked over at Jade expectantly.

"Yes," she answered firmly. "I am."

"How do you plan to do that exactly?" Daniel asked, pushing his glasses up and squinting curiously at her.

She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "As I said, it's complicated."

Jack gave her a wide smile. "Oh, we live for complicated."

Sam flashed a grin his way from across the table, and Jack felt a familiar sense of warmth run through him. He could sense his thoughts starting to drift into dangerous territory, and he struggled to return his concentration to the girl across the table as she began her explanation.

"Three weeks from today, if Mom and I did the math right…" Carter's eyebrows shot up at this, and Jack noticed Daniel trying to hide a grin behind his linked fingers. "…there's going to be a battle fought between the Asgard and the Replicators. It's not a particularly significant battle, except that during the fighting, they lose a small research station set up on one of their occupied planets." Jade pulled her feet up into her chair, folding them beneath her as she leaned forward restlessly. "The Asgard scientist who was working there lost all of his research on the life-extension project, and instead of beginning again, he decided to redirect his efforts to military research. What he didn't realize was that he was on the verge of discovering something vital to solving their cloning problem."

Daniel shook his head and held up his hand. "Wait, how do you know all of this?"

Jade looked annoyed and frowned at Daniel. "I told you, they gave us their computer core with all of their knowledge, their entire history. Our scientists have been working for years, coordinating with scientists from other races, trying to find a solution to the Asgard's problem." Daniel still looked skeptical, but he settled back into his chair and gestured for the girl to continue.

"Three years before I was sent here, they figured out the solution. Or, really, they figured out that the Asgard had figured out the solution. That one scientist whose research was destroyed was months away from finding the cure, the cure that their other scientists developed later, but without the flaw that caused their destruction."

Jack blinked a few times, trying hard to follow where all this was going. Thankfully, Sam jumped in to give him a hand.

"So, if we can prevent this research station from being destroyed, we can give the Asgard a chance to save themselves."

"And," Daniel added. "Hopefully in the future, save us."

Jack still wasn't satisfied.

"Hold on. You said they figured this out three years ago? Why didn't they send somebody back already?"

After he'd said the words out loud, he frowned and rested his chin in his hand, wondering if time travel actually worked the way he thought it did.

"Well…" Jade looked uneasy, and she began drawing imaginary shapes on the tabletop with her finger. "As you might imagine, the government has found it necessary to make very strict laws about time travel. Namely, that it's not allowed." She glanced up at General Hammond, who was listening carefully from his seat at the head of the table. "See, they've kept it a secret that methods of time travel have been discovered, just like they've kept the stargate program a secret."

Jack felt his head spinning a bit, trying to keep up with which of Jade's references were of the future, and which were of the present.

"It's become kind of a political mess," the girl continued. "My parents have been fighting for three years to get permission to send a message back that could save the Asgard, but even after the threat of the Solaris, the government still felt that it was too great a risk. They were afraid of causing irreversible damage to our timeline, so my parents were denied access to the technology."

Sam shared a look with Jack and mumbled sarcastically, "There's a surprise."

"So," Daniel asked slowly. "How did you get here?"

Jade smiled sheepishly. "My Dad…and Teal'c actually, they…um…they broke into…well, let's just say they borrowed the technology needed to send me back to this time."

She looked nervously back at the General, waiting for his response. His mouth twitched thoughtfully before he spoke.

"Miss O'Neill," he began, and Jack cringed, noticing that Sam looked equally uncomfortable at hearing the name. "This is all very fascinating, but the fact is, we have no means of verifying your story. Surely, you don't expect us to simply take you at your word."

She sighed and dropped her chin into her hand. "No, I don't."

It wasn't until he saw Daniel's amused expression that Jack realized that he and Jade were in identical positions, and he sat up quickly, slipping his hands underneath the table.

"Look," Jade said, frustration creeping into her voice. "I realize you have your doubts, but I need you to trust me. I was sent here by my parents to save this planet. I swear to you, that's the truth."

General Hammond sat up straight and folded his hands in front of him. "Well, Dr. Frasier should get her test results back by tomorrow morning. If that part of your story checks out, it'll be a start. In the meantime, I hope you understand that you'll have to stay here on the base."

Jade nodded, looking relieved. "Yes. Thank you, sir. I understand."

Jack rubbed his face with his hands, hoping they were about to be dismissed. He suddenly felt exhausted, and he glanced at his watch, surprised to see that they had only been sitting in the briefing room for twenty minutes. It felt like hours.

"Colonel, will you please escort this young woman to her quarters?"

Jack raised his head and shifted his glance from General Hammond to the girl across from him.

"Uh…me, sir?"

Jade grinned and stood from her chair, and Sam gave Jack a look of pity. He tried to send her a telepathic message, hoping she'd ask to come along. Based on the look she was giving him, he found it extremely unlikely.

"Dismissed," the General said, pushing away from the table and heading back to his office.

On her way to the door, Jade spun on her heel and held up one finger.

"Oh, General, I almost forgot!"

Hammond turned around and raised his eyebrows.

"In two weeks, you are going to have a two-hour window where you can contact Supreme Commander Thor and explain the situation to him." She swallowed nervously and added, "I hope you've made up your mind about me by then. Once that window is closed, it'll be too late to do anything that can ever save this planet."