Season 5 Episode 10 - 2001

Episode summary: SG-1 meet the Aschen, who want to trade gate addresses for some extremely tempting advanced technology. Jack, Sam, and Ambassador Joseph Faxon proceed with the negotiations, but Daniel and Teal'c find evidence that the Aschen have a history of sterilising populations and reducing once heavily populated areas to deserted farmland. Jack tries to warn the President, but is stopped by Senator Kinsey. It is left to Sam and Joe Faxon to confront the Aschen directly. The Aschen try to launch a bioweapon through the gate to the SGC. Faxon sacrifices himself so that Sam can escape through the gate and warn the SGC. She falls through the gate at speed and warns them to close the iris, just before the weapon comes through.

"So … dislocated shoulder, huh?" Jack asked as he sauntered over to Sam's infirmary bed.

"Yes sir." She smiled ruefully.

"Has Doc Fraiser got you on the good meds?" He teased.

"I should be so lucky." She muttered darkly. "No, I have to be sharp for the debriefing later."

"Yeah, Kinsey's out for blood." Jack said, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking on his heels. "Mine, mostly."

"That doesn't even make sense, you didn't really do anything this time." Sam argued. "Daniel found the evidence about the vaccine causing infertility, and I confronted the Aschen. All you did was try and fail to warn the President."

"Since when did Kinsey ever need a logical reason to hate my guts?"

"I guess." She almost shrugged, and winced at the spark of pain. "Has there been any talk of a rescue mission?"

"For the Ambassador?" Jack asked.

She nodded. "He could still be alive."

Jack winced and looked at the floor. "Hammond says it's too risky. I happen to agree."

"Sir, he knowingly risked his life to ensure I could escape in time to warn the SGC about the bomb. What happened to not leaving people behind?"

"Easy, Carter." Jack barked. She flinched and looked at her hands unhappily. "I don't like it either, but the fact of the matter is that even if we did successfully get an SAR team through the gate, the Aschen would see us coming immediately. We don't even know how to find the harvester he was on when you left, let alone where they will have taken him after that or if he's even still alive. I'm sorry, but he's on his own."

"Yes sir." She said softly, not meeting his eye.

Jack pulled up a chair at her bedside.

"At least now we know why there wasn't any Aschen technology in 2034." He said after a moment, clearly trying to change the subject.

"What would we have done if Daniel hadn't found that newspaper?" She asked.

"We would have sent him back to keep 'digging' until he found something." Jack said. "We knew there had to be something, otherwise 2034 would have looked a little different."

"Something a little more like the future from where that note came." Sam said.

"Yeah, how does that work?" Jack said, looking confused. "That future 'us' sent a note back in time and in so doing, changed the timeline so they – we – now don't need to send a note … but we came back in time from 2034 and we need to do the exact opposite?"

"Something like that." Sam said. "The difference is what they were doing was creating an alternate timeline. The timeline they came from still exists, but they made us branch off into an alternate future. What we're doing, which is arguably a little more difficult, is trying to ensure we don't branch off. We need this timeline intact."

Jack squinted at her. "I almost understood that."

"Time travel paradoxes are the worst." Sam sympathised.

"Do you think they had a 'Beth and Jake' in their damaged Aschen-riddled timeline?" He wondered.

"Probably not. Especially given that the Aschen miracle drug apparently causes infertility." Sam said.

"Right."

There was an awkward pause.

"It's been a while since we've talked about this." Jack commented.

"You mean about 2034?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Jack looked at her askance. "How weird was it when Faxon asked you out in the gate room in front of me and Hammond?"

"He was just being friendly."

"He was flirting. A lot."

"I turned him down." Sam said defensively.

Jack frowned. "Would you have, though? If you didn't know about …" He wiggled his fingers between the two of them to indicate their mutual foreknowledge of their future matrimony and parenthood.

"I honestly don't know how I can possibly know for sure. It's been six months since we went to 2034, a lot can change in that amount of time. Every decision we make – every decision we've made in the last six months – has been influenced by what we saw in the future."

Jack went quiet then and studied his hands. "You could have said yes, you know."

Sam's eyebrows rose. "What?"

"To Faxon. You could have said yes to the date."

"I don't understand, are you trying to give me permission?" She wasn't sure if she was insulted or if she thought it was sweet of him. She was leaning towards insulted.

Jack rolled his eyes impatiently. "I'm just saying we could be fighting this war for a long time. There's no reason you can't have a social life in the meantime."

Sam glared at him. "I know." She said through gritted teeth.

"Look, Carter, I'm not trying to piss you off. This is an incredibly weird situation, knowing what we know so far in advance, and I just don't want you to feel beholden to me or anything …"

"Sir, seriously, you're just digging yourself a deeper hole. We don't need to talk about this."

He looked at her for a long moment.

"I know what you're trying to say." She said eventually with a sigh. "And I appreciate the sentiment."

"Even if the delivery needs some work?" He joked. She almost rolled her eyes at him. "So we're ok?" He checked.

"Yes, sir. We're ok."

"Good." He blew out a breath, and slapped his hands to the top of his thighs. "I'll leave you in peace then."

He stood to leave and turned away, but she stopped him with a very softly spoken word. "Jack?"

He turned to look at her in surprise at her use of his first name.

"Just so you know … I'm not planning on doing any dating." She said.

He smiled softly.

"Me neither."